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DM Nagging: It's pretty much my job

Started by Anastasia, April 12, 2018, 12:35:58 PM

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Anastasia

#585
Weekly analysis time. I'm going to do the quicker ones first this time, since the longer ones involve combat analysis.  Those always eat up more words, especially first time ones that really get into how someone's performing.

Tryll

A strong week. Dana had a call out coming, I was going to crank up her behavior until someone called her on it. She had shit going on, it was addressed and life goes on. Beyond that it felt like a good establishing week. It got into Dana's mind off and on, as well as extended establishing conversation for Miranda. Good stuff overall, I enjoyed it and feel it's setting up a strong arc in Langersun. By the way, making a custom power that's a quicker, more reliable divination would make a lot of sense for Tryll.

Alyssa

More setup, but I feel you've made an alliance and begun to get things moving. All plans start from the ground floor and you're finally getting on the elevator on up. Jarem's new but has potential, plus you have a decent array of regents to interact with. The problem of keeping your guild in one piece along with the looming question of what Shar's game is works well. It's a slow start but frankly you need one and I'm happy with how it's going. Next week should be both fun and instructive on how Alyssa does in combat situations.

Moore

Okay, first of all, I really enjoy Grias being Grias. It's a nice bit of homefront life, you know? That being said, I think Moore's doing well enough. Cresiel's firmly established himself now, the way he kept going as the Eye of Shar blasted him outside of the temple set a strong mark, one he followed up against on the actual Blackball Eye of Shar. He has that fanatical unbendingness to him, that will that tells you that his mindset isn't human. Xandra not as strong an impression, but that was okay, Cresiel was making his mark then and there.

As far as combat goes, the Eye of Shar was a terrible matchup for you. 300ish damage per hit is horrifying for any part, and you lacked the easy tricks to take care of it. It would have been far worse with Xandra, either a TPK or a fighting retreat from it. Fortunately you managed to hold it off and finish Duran. Still, credit's due for pulling it off, that was a hard fight. A bit of worse luck at any point in that fight and you would've been in a far stickier wicket. Well done.

As a side note, finding out that WoC usage was a sidequest for later. You stumbled on it early, so congratulations on that. The trick is figuring out the other two, but you're ahead of the game there.

The rest of the fights weren't bad, even Rumbling Slide's interrupts were managed well. The team's solid right now. Cresiel's offense and healing, Xandra's attack magic and Moore's boosting and healing. It covers the bases well, now you just need a support element or two and you'll be alright.

Jarem over in Alyssa's node makes me half wish I went full knight with Cresiel, as the shield route with it is exceptional. Alas. The Shield Defense epic feat is really wonderful combined with Shield Barrier and Shield Evasion, making your shield a huge part of you, granting miss chance, regular and touch AC and evasion. That'll be Jarem's gimmick and it should be more than productive.

Seira

Character wise, this week was mostly some solid redevelopment and feeling out how Seira feels in combat, as well as interacting with Jessica and Elegy. They haven't had a lot of time to shine but they've produced well enough. I liked some of the banter with Lixer as well as Seira catching the tiny text right off. I was hoping you and Alicia would, as you're in a position more likely to than a typical mortal. The reactions to it are solid enough, too.

For both you and Alicia, let me repeat what I said on IRC: You two have over preformed here. There's a reason it's rare for anyone to come in and push in Hell's shit directly, the fact that you're doing as well as you are as DvR1s is exceptional. So bear in mind that anything I say mechanically should be understood to be through a lens of y'all being intentionally outmatched. Okay? Okay.

Mechanically, Seira feels very strong and competent. Maybe a smidge too much so, I'm not sure yet and it's hard to get a grasp on things. It's too early to say unless something comes out and punches me like HOLY SHIT 4-5K MELEE FULL ATTACK. If you are, barring something that's just flat mechanically busted, I'm inclined to balance it out with node rewards to others to help instead.

Mirror's Mimicry may get banned for upkeep reasons if nothing else. It's a DM side hassle on top of DvR possibly busting it super hard. I made this spell a loooong time ago and never used it since, and it may be one of those things that wasn't well reasoned in retrospect. We'll see how it goes. (Really, between that, time stop and the avatar, your action output was silly today.) This is fair warning about the spell for everyone.

Finally, the avatar's neat to have around, no doubt. However, and this is an OOC request, not a rule or an IC thing, I'd prefer bringing one along to bolster you to be a rare thing at best. It nearly doubles your output right now, resources and the DM effort to manage the character. They're more meant to be used for other things than a combat shadow - there's nothing in the rules that say they can't be, if I'm being totally honest, it's just something I'd rather avoid. If it turns into every day is bring an avatar to the adventure day, I'll do a rule because that's getting into gameplay I simply don't want. They're really meant to be ways to delegate, ways to adventure on the Prime and ways to help manage your divine holdings, not a copy a PC for doubled fire power.

Now my bitching being said, I think Seira's working mechanically and working well. She feels like she's equipped with what she needs to do. I'm not worried about her performing at all, so things should be fine on that front.

Alicia

Okay, I admit it. I really got invested in you battle outside of Avernus since it's an amazing set piece. Nothing against what Seira's doing, but facing down a Hellish army is hard to top. I thought you handled it well and straddled the right line with your trash talk, provoking without being silly or out of game theme (Donald has that problem sometimes). Only downside is Latha - I'm playing her fairly blandly right at the moment, before flinging sun, because I have so much going on. I feel like she needs downtime to really reinvest in her character. This is very much a hindsight 20/20 thing, so it should fix herself after this adventure.

Also Donald was hilarious all week, half the time being great and half the time being wince worthy. That's really where I am for him, so I'm glad he's hit the ground running.

Anyway, mechanically? You feel solid enough. I mean, it's Alicia, her build works. Swording + magic + high saves. It's a classic combo that rarely under performs, so you're doing fine there. Quick cast only amps it, as does arcane channeling. We discussed the full attack damage this week, we'll see how that goes from here. I think the real problem is arcane channeling, that may be what I address if I need to, not sure how. We'll see how everything unloads post adventure and work from there.

Alter size is proving its worth already, it's a neat ability that gives you all sorts of options. I just have to resist the urge to cackle, 'Make my Alicia grow!'. Also keeping it limited to Colossal mechanically is a good idea, rather than trying mechanically represent the size further. Otherwise the ability would be a mechanical headache, so I think it's in the right place.

Overall you feel about right, so you should be fine going ahead.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Yuthirin

I have a bunch of custom powers in progress. On my hard drive. Of my computer that does not work.
What if they're not stars at all? What if the night sky is full of titanic far-off lidless eyes, staring in all directions across eternity?

Anastasia

Quote from: Yuthirin on May 18, 2018, 11:25:33 PM
I have a bunch of custom powers in progress. On my hard drive. Of my computer that does not work.

* Anastasia pats.

Hang in there, tortle. I can't wait to see 'em. Any previews of what you're brewing up that you wanna share?
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Yuthirin

True Celestial Conduit should terrify you
What if they're not stars at all? What if the night sky is full of titanic far-off lidless eyes, staring in all directions across eternity?

Anastasia

Quote from: Yuthirin on May 18, 2018, 11:30:13 PM
True Celestial Conduit should terrify you

* Anastasia whimpers in terror.

Should be interesting to see.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Nephrite

The Eye of Shar unfortunately got lucky twice against Moore, which is really annoying, but thankfully I invested in enough hit points for him that he could survive A Hit, which is all he needed to ever do.

I have contingencies in place for these things!

I also like the homefront slice of life style of things, since it's interesting that even when you're taking care of epic-level things you still sit around and eat icecream at home.

As for Cresiel, I think the problem with going full knight with him is it's like... okay, but then you lose all the cool Hellreaver stuff. I get what you mean, but Knight's problem is and always will be how to keep things from just walking away from you.


Yuthirin

Quote from: Anastasia on May 18, 2018, 11:32:57 PM
Quote from: Yuthirin on May 18, 2018, 11:30:13 PM
True Celestial Conduit should terrify you

* Anastasia whimpers in terror.

Should be interesting to see.
ive got some old notes saved as messages to myself. I'll see what I can do this weekend
What if they're not stars at all? What if the night sky is full of titanic far-off lidless eyes, staring in all directions across eternity?

Iron Dragoon

Quote from: Anastasia on May 18, 2018, 11:22:57 PM
Weekly analysis time. I'm going to do the quicker ones first this time, since the longer ones involve combat analysis.  Those always eat up more words, especially first time ones that really get into how someone's performing.

Alyssa

More setup, but I feel you've made an alliance and begun to get things moving. All plans start from the ground floor and you're finally getting on the elevator on up. Jarem's new but has potential, plus you have a decent array of regents to interact with. The problem of keeping your guild in one piece along with the looming question of what Shar's game is works well. It's a slow start but frankly you need one and I'm happy with how it's going. Next week should be both fun and instructive on how Alyssa does in combat situations.

Yes, the slow build is a thing. I'll admit I'm sort of floundering on how to prioritize things, though. I'd like to get some more detailed info on the Regents; overview type stuff like their specialties and general opinions on things, so I can have an idea of how to approach things with them.

I'm not sure what to do with Jarem and his people, really. It's kinda weird since they're just like... There... and I don't really have anyone to interact with other than just Jarem, and it's just been talking so far. I like the development that's happening, but I haven't really accomplished anything. I wanna start work on improving the Order, but that's kind of resource dependent, and I'm honestly not sure where the Order stands in that regard. Like, how many research groups do I have? What are they working on? What's my budget? I don't have a line on any of that.

I need to figure out buffs I can get get from them, also. What spell ranges are we looking at and how many spells can I concievably get from them? What are the actual break downs of their numbers?

Locking down an effective selection of spells for Alyssa is proving to be weird, now that I've had to revise her spells a couple times. I have to have things that buff defenses and also weapons, but her weapon selection isn't fantastic yet.

Lifedrinker is her best weapon, but it's easily negated since it's only a +1, and if anything is immune to negative levels, it's basically moot.

The other weapons haven't seen action yet (soon to be fixed), but Desiccating, while seeming good on the surface is only +1d4. 

Magebane will be a solid hit I think, though I'm quesitoning Shattermantle. The fact that it expires at the beginning of my next turn means that I won't be able to take advantage of it, though anyone who goes after me will. It's a toss up.

Corrosive will be solid, I think, at +1d6 damage. I think I might need to change up some of my enchantments, though I'm not sure what would be a good combo. I'm thinking I'm probably going to have to take the Improved Critical Feat somehow, but then I sorta get locked into a single weapon type. I recall seeing stuff about applying any weapon feat to all weapons, but I don't recall how to do it. I think it was Aptitude Enchantment? Kaorti resin is a thing, but that also requires specific Exotic Weapon Proficiency.

The spells that impact weapons are something I'm having to dig through. Sonic Weapon is a solid use of a low level slot for 1d6. Frost Weapon is something I've considered, another +1d6, but I'm unsure on relying on Cold damage. Brilliant Blade is a thing, but that's just for hitting purposes and not damage. Dolorous Blow is a solid choice, which I'm thinking will likely make a regular showing. Enlarge Weapon is a thing, too. I'm not really sure past that, though. Mostr of the other enchantments rely on a Fort save, which suuuuuuuccccks.

The only built-in fixes for this I see are going to Factotum and using Cunning Breach and Cunning Strike. Both are hard choices to rely on because of the low number of Inspiration I have, which means I need to get an Inspiring/Inspirational Surge Weapon. Both of those aren't great fixes as they are only +2 points or function off of a crit. They help, but they're not a reliable staple.

I think I need to get some Wands/Rods/Staffs to expand a bit, but that's money dependent.
This is not the greatest post in the world, no... this is just a tribute.

Iron Dragoon

On a different note, how do Epic Spells listed on the SRD work? Like, if I wanted to take Greater Spell Resistance? Since we're starting at level 30, do I just get it in my spellbook? Are there any restricted Epic Spells from the SRD?
This is not the greatest post in the world, no... this is just a tribute.

Corwin

Bringing the SeirAvatar was a conscious choice. It obviously doubles my ability, letting me punch above my weight. Also, I wasn't certain whether I'd be able to flank properly in this situation, so that ensured I could bring my best powers to bear. Finally, I wanted to go all out at gamestart and see how I match against everything. Still undecided on that one, since Seira is pulling off neat stuff but not really on the level of the others, even with that effectively doubled power.

Once I get an idea of what's needed to achieve my goals, I'm not going to send myself and my avatar off together unless it's important for me to go all out again. Incidentally, the Zariel plot would have been one such moment anyway, even if we didn't open with it.

I'd be sad to see Mirror's Mimicry go. You can talk all you want about how we're intentionally outmatched, but if I can't even drown these superpowered assholes with numbers I'm left with very unsatisfying prospects. Space to grow, sure. Growing enough to casually bridge a +50 numerical gap that apparently exists between DvR1 and DvR5? And without even being able to choose items to fill in the gap? I really can't get past that. Also I kinda like how I can use a bunch of actions to chat on divine twitter mid-battle and other stuff with them, but that's just flavor.

A weak area I've discovered for Seira is the counterspelling business. I didn't consider how much of Jaela and Surru's competence came from a booster item, there. And of course even elite mooks facing me have higher CL than me  :(

The combat demo seems to have oversold me on the effectiveness of my spells against enemies. I've expended far more on the gate guards than against a nessian, and only whittled them down some. Not sure what it means for my magical lineup yet, but I do have melee to fall back on. Having the indoors fighting areas be too small for my dragon form was also a miscalculation I really should've seen ahead of time. Luckily, the Miracle SLA is tiding me over until alter reality goes from limited wish to wish, supplying some extra versatility like with delayed blast fireballs.

I wonder whether I could use Gate in a similar way to B3 where we could summon Aurora dudes with it. Like, anyone at my Node? Anyone currently at the Cauldron? It would be an interesting way to summon help as needed.
<Steph> I might have made a terrible mistake

Corwin

A question that came up for me, btw. Does Arcane Spellsurge work on SLAs as well, or only on spells? It forces you to autoquicken spells, so you can't use standards for them anymore, but does that happen for SLAs too?
<Steph> I might have made a terrible mistake

Corwin

Iddy, buy Cauldron Steel! We have the best weapons! Made by a genuine gnome! For an extra +2, we'll throw in the best enchantment, too! It revolutionizes the energy damage field!
<Steph> I might have made a terrible mistake

Ebiris

Latha is very much a downside right now, her passivity and requirement to be told what to do/double check with Alicia every round is becoming aggravating. Feels like I've brought Rei Ayanami along for the ride. Hopefully she'll get her head together with some downtime character stuff, yeah. Donald is hitting his marks perfectly, for good and ill. Sulia feels kinda quiet, and this is her first actual combat outing so I feel she could be doing more to make a solid impression.

The big set piece battle was pretty great, wading through hordes of devils, catching Lixer's avatar in a trap and taking him out before he could do anything, felt satisfying. I remember in B3 when Muirfinn went to the Abyss with Antenora and they were just slaughtering demons by the bucketload and I was totally jealous, so it's nice to be getting into that vibe. Things stalled out pretty hard when I engaged Glasya unfortunately - before it felt like I was making a difference keeping Lixer occupied, steadily pushing in with the aim of attacking the fortress directly and ensuring Seira could do her business without much attention on her. Now Glasya's got us completely tangled up and Lixer hasn't been involving himself in our side of it so feels like the objective failed there.

The trash talk is good but you can see it sputter out a bit during the Glasya fight as well. Started out riding high on life and throwing down the gauntlet to Lixer as a real 'welcome to the big leagues' sort of thing, but that's been completely turned around now I'm up against someone who's been in the top tier a lot longer than Alicia. It feels like Glasya's just having fun fooling around while we're struggling to keep our heads above water, so the banter's having to walk a line of not sacrificing my pride and keeping Glasya engaged without either infuriating her so she goes wild on us or boring her so she just kills us without dragging it out.

About the only way I can see of killing Glasya now is coordinating a time-stop with my avatar then opening a gate next to Glasya so Avatarlicia can five foot step through and unload a fully buffed smite/moment of prescience/vivacious flux grasp full attack on her. Even then the avatar's got about minus five to hit on Alicia, and that's probably enough for her to end up missing short of twenties. Either way I don't really want to use that tactic because it'd open the door for it to be used against us, and Glasya has a lot more avatars.

So yeah, basically stalling now and hoping Seira does her part, but every turn I'm weaker than the last so can only hold out so long.

As far as mechanics go, we talked about it in chat and PM. I don't feel Alicia's terribly well optimised since I took a fairly straightforward build with the only dipping being those two fighter levels so I would have enough feats for the TWF chain, and Alicia's numbers are lagging behind Seira's in basically all aspects, but being able to kill anything she full attacks is what she was built for and so losing that would leave me with no interesting gimmicks to have fun with. And as we're already seeing, once she burns through her high level spell slots she can't really sustain that performance.

I mean I could drop the double-bladed sword again and then I'd have half the attacks and thus half the damage, and that'd still probably kill stuff pretty well - the potential damage number is impressive but also overkill and thus wasted anyway. But considering how many kung fu bears/dragons we've seen pumping out over a dozen attacks a round in previous games, it feels a bit harsh to be penalised when the TWF regime is already so costly in terms of feats and penalties to attack.

Anastasia

Quote from: Nephrite on May 18, 2018, 11:40:38 PM
The Eye of Shar unfortunately got lucky twice against Moore, which is really annoying, but thankfully I invested in enough hit points for him that he could survive A Hit, which is all he needed to ever do.

I have contingencies in place for these things!

Yeah, having enough hit points to make it through things like this is important, even if you build well enough that it shouldn't happen often. Glad to see you managed it, that Eye could drop the damage with a quickness. Incidentally it was gestalted with scout, which is where the extra 10d6 came from.

QuoteI also like the homefront slice of life style of things, since it's interesting that even when you're taking care of epic-level things you still sit around and eat icecream at home.

Those are the scenes that remind you it's people and not huge blocks of numbers, yes. They're very important.

QuoteAs for Cresiel, I think the problem with going full knight with him is it's like... okay, but then you lose all the cool Hellreaver stuff. I get what you mean, but Knight's problem is and always will be how to keep things from just walking away from you.

There's ways and means, but yeah. Jarem is going to use cleric magic and tripping to see to that.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Anastasia

Quote from: Yuthirin on May 18, 2018, 11:53:02 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on May 18, 2018, 11:32:57 PM
Quote from: Yuthirin on May 18, 2018, 11:30:13 PM
True Celestial Conduit should terrify you

* Anastasia whimpers in terror.

Should be interesting to see.
ive got some old notes saved as messages to myself. I'll see what I can do this weekend

Awesome. Don't feel like you have to do it if you're still on phone and it's a hassle, though. I can wait if you'd rather do it on a functioning PC.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?