Feedback- Toss a bone~

[Dracos]

Just a place to separate it from casual discussion and 'where we go next'.  :P  I suppose where we go next could work too but this seems the more overwhelming topic :)

[Anastasia]

Player feedback:

Kam: You've done okay lately. I feel like you're falling back into the easy habits of Gourash and other barbarian types you've played before, so I've wanted to challenge you.  The curse isn't meant to hobble you but to challenge you on an RP front, but hopefully you'll get it fixed soon. Nice stand up fight with the elemental; you were really at risk after that opening crit. Suggestions? I don't think your AC is salvageable, barbarians generally can't do shit about that.  The rage penalty to AC is too counter-productive, so I'd focus on gobs of HP, improving that DR and maybe some sort of miss chance.  Try and keep your AC mildly competitive and focus on SMASH.

Adail: You've been coming into your own the past few sessions. You're starting to get a good rhythm with the rest of the party and especially Kamvakua. You've not had any luck with magical items: The armor was intentionally a bit of a funny joke item and the rest tend to miss. Granted, when you're a tiny mouse that fights unarmed and unarmored, most gear that's dropped isn't going to be any use.  Paradoxically you need the least gear of any of us so it's not a big deal. Just keep it up until you get more and more casting, your build will only improve with time. I did like how you dealt with the arrow demon, luck of the dice aside.

Oh yeah, and damage. Obviously you need damage. <_<

Mari: You've been consistent throughout the game: The wild girl who's along for fun as long as it's not too deadly. I do notice you seem a bit softer on Nikkolai this session, is the OOC chat rubbing off? Um...past all that, HP HP HP HP. You need gallons of HP and you need it now. That amulet of temp HP has paid for itself over and over for you, at least. Main thing I think you need is a dex booster. More AC and more to hit at once solves a lot of your problems.

Knight: Feeling a bit Starry with things, eh? Your build continues to be heavy and generally productive, though I feel like between weapon drops and cards you've gotten the lion's share of the loot lately. Am I the only one that thinks this? Being a medium sized humanoid who is willing to use every sort of weapon in the game does likely skew this. Um, I don't have a lot to say about you otherwise, you know what you're doing.

Nikkolai: Nice to see you again! The RP's fine, I don't have a lot to say here; I feel my comments are best geared to more productive matters. I feel your main problem is contributing in combat, somewhat aggravated by system woes. I'm surprised you didn't consider a Wall of Smoke to pin down the archer or some such, though haste is always a good opening move for this party.  You need to level up, I'm going to go into all of this with you when we do.

[VySaika]

Re: Kam Suggestions - Was going to suggest the idea of something to give him a miss chance if he wants more defense, myself. Definately think that's the way to go over trying to buff BARBARIAN ARMOR CLASS.

Re: Adail Loot - Basically, yes. I'm a monk/cleric, I don't need gear most times. The armor will be something nifty to trade at some point I'm sure. Some better magic gloves, or maybe a magic gi would be cool eventually, but really nobody is going to DROP anything for Adail to use. He's tiny and very specialized in what he can use, anything for him is going to need to be either custom ordered or offered specifically for him as a reward, not randomly found. As for damage, two more levels and my damage problems fix themselves. Sacred Flames is just that stupidly good when you have a high wis. Everyone is probably tired of hearing that by now, but it's really the truth. I knew when I made him that Adail's damage would be lollerskates until Sacred Flames.

Though as a random thought, letting my unarmed attacks count as Good for the purposes of bypassing DR would be sweet. This actually gives me an idea that I'll poke you in PM about, Ko~

Re: Mari - Yeah, Mari and Adail both want that dex booster pretty bad. She gets dibs though, needs the AC more and she can do more with the extra accuracy then I can. TWF rogue damage is sick and disgusting when it can be set up properly.

Re: Knight Loot - IMO, Knight is basically a pure fighter and thus as a rule will need the most loot. Fighters live and die by thier equipment, moreso then any other class. Without it, they've got basically de nada. So yeah, no issues there from me. 

Re: Nik - Yay, you're back~

[Anastasia]

Though as a random thought, letting my unarmed attacks count as Good for the purposes of bypassing DR would be sweet. This actually gives me an idea that I'll poke you in PM about, Ko~

Don't you have the good subtype? That qualifies automatically for it.

[VySaika]

Though as a random thought, letting my unarmed attacks count as Good for the purposes of bypassing DR would be sweet. This actually gives me an idea that I'll poke you in PM about, Ko~

Don't you have the good subtype? That qualifies automatically for it.

Oh, it does? Did not know that. Awesome~

[Dracos]

Player feedback:

Kam: You've done okay lately. I feel like you're falling back into the easy habits of Gourash and other barbarian types you've played before, so I've wanted to challenge you.  The curse isn't meant to hobble you but to challenge you on an RP front, but hopefully you'll get it fixed soon. Nice stand up fight with the elemental; you were really at risk after that opening crit. Suggestions? I don't think your AC is salvageable, barbarians generally can't do shit about that.  The rage penalty to AC is too counter-productive, so I'd focus on gobs of HP, improving that DR and maybe some sort of miss chance.  Try and keep your AC mildly competitive and focus on SMASH.

Heh, that's alright with challenging :P  Sometimes it sticks well, sometimes it doesn't.  We had our clash a bit on Kikula, though I appreciated a bone in the clash of Noble Barbarian lifestyle versus absorbing city living.  I am enjoying when there are language toss outs lately as I'm more and more getting to leverage the constant study of languages (I would like to play that up), though if nikkolai returns I may start losing out there by simple skill point limits.  While I can be whiny *ding*, I overall have not minded the curse being there.  It's neat, and while a disad, its a toy in the RP field, much like knight's new arm.  It's something to play with and add flavor to my writing at points which I tried to play a bit with once I woke up yesterday.  Will kam be happy to see it gone?  Sure.  But as long as I'm not getting overwhelmed, I certainly aren't having a huge problem with it there.  And ye can quote that next time I whine about it :P

Combat wise, I am very pleased at more flanking and cooperative play being an option.  I am still a bit disappointed at having good cause to rage so often, as I've always wanted it sort of as a turbo mode on an already powerful character, rather than my go to 'how I fight'.  Why do I do it so often given that?  Well, if a giant is on the playing field, I'm going to do it instantly, start of combat, no questions asked.  Kam is well aware of what a large difference in size and strength means and he's not going to sit around and see who gets their head cut off.  If the combat starts with 1 or more of the party in serious trouble, then the same will happen.  Not many that haven't fit this type, but when that happens I've tried to refrain.  Without rage, I'm still above average fighter with a fair number of tricks, solid hp, and a good ac.  Relative to the party, Knight, as predicted, has solidly caught up in effectiveness.  Which is fine :P  Let's both have fun being awesome.

Build wise, I suppose I was still going toward ac.  In terms of neat changes in view, I have the super cool area debuff intimidate coming next level, next planned feat is going to be chaotic rage which will make my rage even stronger, and there's some damage resistances coming along soon as well.  Maybe AC isn't the wisest to go for though and I'm pretty happy just making it so that its a 50-80 percent hit chance in rage versus a 95 percent as I think the difference is fairly important.  I've been pretty aggressively avoiding buffing power for lots of reasons (including the request not to buff power).  It's funny to recommend 'focus on smash' when that's the go to barbarian build style and what I avoided in favor of variety and technique for the most part.  No power attack or leap power attack or berzerker style stuff really in the build, just taking a solid core power level and fleshing out variety.

Where I am though, the rest of the build for a while is set in stone (There's no decisions for the next 2 levels really) or from items, which have been hard to discuss this game.  So far, from the beginning of Kam joining to now, he only has 3 different items on his sheet: The shield, the potion of fly, and the improved ring of protection.  At the current rate of acquiring different things, its hard to ponder much 'where I would take it with the one item drop I'm likely to pick up over the next tenish sessions'.  Should I not focus on more AC items?  probably, I think boosting saving throws/Charisma is generally wiser short term and what I put on my sheet for ideas.  Should I move more into globs of hp with a con booster?  Probably, it's not at all a bad direction.  Should I hunt down a stronger spear to improve accuracy and more neat effects on it?  Yeah, I would totally like an opportunity at some point to quest for that or more likely do a favor for an awesome cool planar smith to have them build it and would be very sad if I just bought it instead of quested for it.  Would a miss chance or crit hit nuller type effect be welcomed?  Sure, it would be super cool in lots of ways.  I'd love trying that stuff out and it'd be neat and different and all that.  It's also usually restricted for higher power campaigns with lots of loot though.    Damage reduction, while a neat suggestion, is only boosted by levels or feats, neither of which I can simply acquire and with my next feat being RAGE HARDER AND MORE OFTEN it'd be six levels away minimum (and rage harder really does beat an additional DR 1 or DR2 I think).

I'd love more loot in general, though you've spoken that that isn't where you want to take the campaign flavor and I understand (if don't agree :)).  It's funny that I agree Rat's gotten a lot more loot/neat things lately, given rat largely sees them as 'just stuff' (and I don't dismiss, but cheer knight looking over neat toys and other things that add flavor to the game) while I largely see them as toys that expand the realm of things you get to do, show off, etc in the game world.  A wand of cure light wounds is more than just healing, it's also a prop that lets Adail get to do something neat every battle.

Personally?  I'd love to see more wild noncombaty-powerful loot involved too.  It would've been neat if someone during our ogremoch bit had dropped ogremoch unholy symbols, or religious tracts.  Want a cool item idea?  A book of local powers!  A book of language learning that cuts the skill point cost in half!  A musteval party symbol that can turn the party into musteval for an hour!  Some enemy's decorative headress!  How about local tour books?  Someone's stack of steel ingots :P  Mari's "I'm a drow" necklace still solidly holds the coolest drop in the game without competition.  The book that breathed fire was another neat one.  I'd cheer on whenever you look at a pile of loot that is "Magic bow, Magic sword, two magic rings" if it was asked "Could one thing that was neat and flavorful and said these were people rather than mobs be added here?" :P  Ah, I'm unreasonably demanding, apologies.

mmm, I'll yammer narrative wise later, thoughts flee me.

Adail: You've been coming into your own the past few sessions. You're starting to get a good rhythm with the rest of the party and especially Kamvakua. You've not had any luck with magical items: The armor was intentionally a bit of a funny joke item and the rest tend to miss. Granted, when you're a tiny mouse that fights unarmed and unarmored, most gear that's dropped isn't going to be any use.  Paradoxically you need the least gear of any of us so it's not a big deal. Just keep it up until you get more and more casting, your build will only improve with time. I did like how you dealt with the arrow demon, luck of the dice aside.

Oh yeah, and damage. Obviously you need damage. <_<

Adail really really could use more damage dealing, but yeah, largely seems like he is having fun :)

Mari: You've been consistent throughout the game: The wild girl who's along for fun as long as it's not too deadly. I do notice you seem a bit softer on Nikkolai this session, is the OOC chat rubbing off? Um...past all that, HP HP HP HP. You need gallons of HP and you need it now. That amulet of temp HP has paid for itself over and over for you, at least. Main thing I think you need is a dex booster. More AC and more to hit at once solves a lot of your problems.

Frankly, even if a con booster came along, I'd feel obligated to hand it to mari  and encourage her not to get flattened.  Mari though is fun to play with.  Ideally really something to allow her to use tumble through easily so that she can get on the other side of creatures as lacking improved movement or particularly safe movement limits her ability to dare risks and get close without an easy picking setup.

Knight: Feeling a bit Starry with things, eh? Your build continues to be heavy and generally productive, though I feel like between weapon drops and cards you've gotten the lion's share of the loot lately. Am I the only one that thinks this? Being a medium sized humanoid who is willing to use every sort of weapon in the game does likely skew this. Um, I don't have a lot to say about you otherwise, you know what you're doing.

No, you're not, and while I teased knight a lot on this after last session, playing tug with an item I don't even want, I'm rather glad to see at least some neat toys crossing the parties hands.  Her build is seriously strong and flexible with tricks to avoid AoO, damage multipliers on closing, extremely high speed, fly, power attack, large weapns now, etc.  She was solidly outdamaging me last session even in rage mode, which was a little bit of a surprise, but fine as we're both playing twinked builds (The Lance Knight and the TripMonkey Barbarian)

Nikkolai: Nice to see you again! The RP's fine, I don't have a lot to say here; I feel my comments are best geared to more productive matters. I feel your main problem is contributing in combat, somewhat aggravated by system woes. I'm surprised you didn't consider a Wall of Smoke to pin down the archer or some such, though haste is always a good opening move for this party.  You need to level up, I'm going to go into all of this with you when we do.

wb nikki :)  Good to see you again :)

[Carthrat]

I can't be held responsible for loot. Y'alls know I don't mind giving away stuff. To whoever has the most need, right? If the windsword can be converted into two shortswords I'd be fine with that, f'example.

Not much to say. As long as we continue to get into brawls all the time, Knight and Kam will remain spotlight dominant, if that bothers anyone. (any and all of my ability to keep up with Kam presently comes from Bell, and Bell is very squishy at present.)

Adail and Mari are like team stealth/backstab, and I am nothing if not constantly on the lookout for ways to exploit that. Doesn't seem to come up much though.

[Dracos]

I don't blame ye at all Rat :)  No responsibility there.  Teasing, yes, responsibility? No.

Bell being less squishy wouldn't hurt, though isn't bell's real defense your Ride skill? Really, you should spruce out your ride more.  Have you considered jet engines?  Maybe spoilers?

Adail actually really can't do much as a team backstab.  Stealth, sure, but really one of the rest of us need to be there for Mari's flanking backstabbery to really come alive.  Kam works well since he gets doubled flank bonuses, but really all it takes is someone with the ability to threaten a square.  Really, the nicest buff that could ever possibly be handed to Adail is a way to threaten a single five foot square.  All of a sudden he'd be able to act as a multiplier for setting up flanks with his supreme ability to move about.  Much like Nikkolai's haste, it would allow him to indirectly be responsible for way more damage than he could ever pull off by himself and suddenly open up a world of tactics that are currently closed off despite his mobility and high ac.

[VySaika]

Yeah, if I got something like that, my usual action would be "Move to somewhere Mari can flank from, THEN throw a Magic Missile". And sure, let any enemies around take as many AoOs as they want for me doing that, Adail generally doesn't give a crap~

[Dracos]

Heck, flanks are welcome everywhere.  Even nikki I think.  The more characters that build around achieving and benefiting from flanks the more powerful they get though.

[VySaika]

Sure, but nobody else has "damage suddenly goes from sub-adail to wtfhax" just due to the addition of a flank, like Mari does. Rogues are always the most important ones to set up flanks for.

Though I'll contest that flanks are welcome for Nikki. If he's flanking then it means he's in melee which means something has gone terribly wrong. <_<

[Carthrat]

see gate. Nikki needs to not run into harm's way more. Only Mari and Kam really superbenefit from flanks.

Bell's defense is iffy, since his saves blow and against SPAM ATTACK he basically dies.

Adail has CLERIC SPELLS. Like Silence. And Hold Person. And he can punch people to stop them moving. He's more dangerous than y'think. Pity enlarge person doesn't work on him though.

[Dracos]

I solidly respect the cleric/monk overlap.  He did, just get those last level though, so I hadn't noticed them yet.

I think even you do.  You have a high to hit, enough to be funneling a fair amount of it into power attack.  His flank with you basically turns into +2 damage on each hit.  I thought that with the lance you'd be getting the 2x power attack mod rather than the 1x but I suppose you are using it in one hand (and have enough damage mods anyway^^).  Not in the league of Mari's +SNEAK ATTACKx4, but it's a solid ability to transform the benefit of flanking (+2 to hit) to an ability to accomplish more.

BUt Nikkolai the Brave runs into melee... :P  Ah, sorry anyhow last session for encouraging that.

[VySaika]

Silence I intend to get some use out of. Hold Person...I dunno, strikes me as massively useless in a planar game. So very little of what we deal with is effected by "person" spells.

[Anastasia]

Indeed. It's possible you'll swing by the Prime at this point, since Nikkolai's talking about lichbitch exterminations, but that's not enough to really matter.