Feedback time!

[Anastasia]

This one's not going to be long. I'm aiming to ask focused questions.

1. How effective do you feel your character is? Is your build working how you want it to?

2. I've been experimenting with non-standard advancement. For instance, right now you're gaining cold res as you fight cold-themed monsters. What do you all think?

3. Anything you'd like to bring up? I'm getting day to day feedback which helps a lot. But in case you want to go in detail about something, by all means do so here.

[Ebiris]

Yep, I hit stuff hard and can take a beating. Wild shaping isn't as much a focus because the base form and axe are still competitive, but it adds versatility.

I really like the gaining of bonuses from fighting appropriate enemies. Feels like earning battle scars and making what we do have more of an effect. Like if we're stuck in a snowstorm later we can laugh and say "This is nothing compared to the time we..." and have it mean something because that former action having a mechanical effect to help in dealing with similar future problems.

[Anastasia]

Yep, I hit stuff hard and can take a beating. Wild shaping isn't as much a focus because the base form and axe are still competitive, but it adds versatility.

That's going to change over the next couple levels, I reckon. Considering you're running pure warrior otherwise, the versatility seems like a good payoff.

I really like the gaining of bonuses from fighting appropriate enemies. Feels like earning battle scars and making what we do have more of an effect. Like if we're stuck in a snowstorm later we can laugh and say "This is nothing compared to the time we..." and have it mean something because that former action having a mechanical effect to help in dealing with similar future problems.

So do I. I like the sense of immediate growth it provides as well as tinting the power as I see fit. The fey eyes were a big power-up if developed and possibly a key to many more, but the downsides were glaringly obvious. Conversely, things like cold res for enduring cold attacks, a bonus for evading enough attacks (keep at it, Gildas/Feather) or a bonus at enduring debilitating injuries(Porridge) are all nice. It's also helping me keep magic items a bit thinner on the ground.

[Nephrite]

1. Gildas does a lot less damage than either Feather or Porridge, but he isn't really supposed to out damage them at all, so I'm okay with that. Being the utility has been pretty great.

2. I like it. I have no complaints.

3. I am curious where we might've ended up if we hadn't formed the farm brigade. Also if you had any plans for Myann if we'd more or less dumped her with Lady Valisha.

[Anastasia]

1. Gildas does a lot less damage than either Feather or Porridge, but he isn't really supposed to out damage them at all, so I'm okay with that. Being the utility has been pretty great.

Yeah, I try to play into that when I can. The dragon-croc's escape being cut off was pretty nice, for example. Y'all seem partial to interacting with the terrain so I'm playing that up. Things like blocking off the dragon-croc's escape, Porridge kicking things down holes and Myann collapsing that bridge.

3. I am curious where we might've ended up if we hadn't formed the farm brigade. Also if you had any plans for Myann if we'd more or less dumped her with Lady Valisha.

Your random encounter against those brigands was originally going to be down the road. If you passed up the farm, you'd run into them in more neutral circumstances. The gist of it is that you'd have a chance to go on a mission with them. There likely would have been some conflict and that would have been the focus of the affair.

Leaving Myann with the fey would have ended up with Myann becoming a full fey. Odds are you wouldn't have seen her again unless you chose to look her up. It wouldn't have been pretty, but she wouldn't have any malice towards all of you.  At that point, she'd have accepted what she is and left the old Myann behind. Hopefully you would have entertained her.

No comments beyond those, most plot points get used eventually or the material's recycled into others.

[Corwin]

Aside from some miscalculation when planning the build, it's working as expected. Skirmish is really horrible when used against a single target that you can charge.

Getting thematic stuff is nice. It would be amusing to be better at dodging after dodging a lot.

Jumping across stretches of nothingness to slam into some dude or beast with a sword and zap them never stops being fun.

[Anastasia]

Apologies for missing this, I blame football.

Aside from some miscalculation when planning the build, it's working as expected. Skirmish is really horrible when used against a single target that you can charge.

Do you mean it's good or bad there? It's sort of unclear.

Getting thematic stuff is nice. It would be amusing to be better at dodging after dodging a lot.

Yeah, you saw that happen this week. Y'all (besides Gildas) are light on AC so I want a few boosts in the cards.

Jumping across stretches of nothingness to slam into some dude or beast with a sword and zap them never stops being fun.

I'm trying to design areas to incorporate that a good deal of the time. Generally, if the bad guys aren't the sole focus (such as the first time against the white wolves), I try and put things in a position for potential hijinks. It helps liven up battles.

[Anastasia]

I'll answer these from my own perspective, adapting the questions as needed.

1. How effective do you feel your character is? Is your build working how you want it to?

NPCwise, they've worked as expected. None of the design work is terribly difficult after running Balmuria. The only one that's mattered much statwise is Myann, who has done about as I wanted her to.

Monsterwise, it's worked alright. I'm mostly using basic (read as: fighter and warrior) for non-humanoid gestalts and adding boost or three playing on racial abilities. I don't have to turn the optimization up with this game, so I can mostly make it up as I go along. This is about the prime time for half-dragon minions to shine, by the way. The breath weapon is powerful but not terribly deadly and the template balances low hit dice reasonably well.

One point I'm particularly happy about is disabling wounds. They add some flavor to combat on both sides, so long as they aren't overused. I do tend to vary the penalty up from time to time; namely, Porridge has had a few concussions but they've each had different penalties.

The downside is that herbalism isn't getting as much use as I wanted. This is somewhat on me for the healing spring and (snipped for spoiler reasons), because otherwise I thought there might be problems. But giving Myann CLW was essentially admitting that if I wanted to keep combat at anything but a slow pace, I'd need to upgrade your healing options some more. I'm settling into the fact that it'll have uses on occasion but won't be used -that- much. Some skills are still useful, mind, like the anti-toxin bonus.

2. I've been experimenting with non-standard advancement. For instance, right now you're gaining cold res as you fight cold-themed monsters. What do you all think?

I like it. There's a mild pain in the ass factor to the note-keeping involved, but it's nothing prohibitive. I should note that there's a degree of fiat involved, so trying to figure out a pattern may not be rewarding. This is primarily in factoring in earlier things, I estimated rather than re-reading all the game's combats.

3. Anything you'd like to bring up? I'm getting day to day feedback which helps a lot. But in case you want to go in detail about something, by all means do so here.

Feather: Are you planning to use scimitars more again or is this just experimenting?
Porridge: That reminds me, I need to talk to you about fey and Master of Many Forms. Expect a PM by the time you read this or tomorrow/Monday sometime.
Gildas: You've had rotten dice luck lately. Have you considered making an offering to Hatbot? I mean really.

The only other thing is that we're missing more sessions than I anticipated. I'm not too worried over it, since we have a format that allows for missing without it being a big deal. Still, I'm hoping to avoid or minimize misses the next few weeks. I want this (possible) dragon thing done with before Eb goes on vacation, if at all possible. No plan survives contact with PCs, but I'd sure like to try.

Oh, and do you all enjoy those random world-building snippets in the fluff topic? I haven't heard much in the way of comments about them.

[Nephrite]

I like reading them, I was just never sure if they were supposed to be completely removed from knowledge or something that actually passed by our characters at some point, besides the last one.

[Anastasia]

They're all meant to be OOC enjoyment for y'all. The framing of it and how I intro it is just a way to establish it and add a bit more flavor.

There's a whole lot going on with the world, and odds are you won't ever see most of it with how the game's focused. That's okay. This gives you a window to various things and lets me whet y'all's appetites in various ways.

[Corwin]

Do you mean it's good or bad there? It's sort of unclear.

Depends on one's perspective.  >_>

Feather: Are you planning to use scimitars more again or is this just experimenting?

Mmm. I don't know. I wanted to use them with TWF, but I don't actually qualify for TWF since my dex is shit and won't qualify until lvl9 at the earliest. I'm not even going to whine about that since I didn't qualify for CE either due to my int also being shit and you let me have it anyway to go Dervish. Also, you let me have a cool magic sword so a masterwork scimitar that also does less damage so there's no incentive for it unless the kobold scimitar is awesome. So who can say? It's a sort of loop, where I started using the sword as it was better, and then you gave our weapons bonuses (+1, verminbane) but they go to the weapon that was better in the first place and the lesser scimitars have no real shot to catch up unless I follow meta knowledge and try to kill things with them out of hope you'd power them up via GM fiat and that's lame.

[Ebiris]

Porridge has had a few concussions but they've each had different penalties.

Me no thunk so good no more.

fluff snippets

I like these. It's a fresh setting so worldbuilding can never go wrong, and generally you do them so they relate to something we've recently encountered so it helps provide that new perspective while it's fresh in mind.

[Anastasia]

Mmm. I don't know. I wanted to use them with TWF, but I don't actually qualify for TWF since my dex is shit and won't qualify until lvl9 at the earliest. I'm not even going to whine about that since I didn't qualify for CE either due to my int also being shit and you let me have it anyway to go Dervish. Also, you let me have a cool magic sword so a masterwork scimitar that also does less damage so there's no incentive for it unless the kobold scimitar is awesome. So who can say? It's a sort of loop, where I started using the sword as it was better, and then you gave our weapons bonuses (+1, verminbane) but they go to the weapon that was better in the first place and the lesser scimitars have no real shot to catch up unless I follow meta knowledge and try to kill things with them out of hope you'd power them up via GM fiat and that's lame.

I don't think it's meta knowledge to hope your weapons get stronger by use. It's happened once already, and also not to mention the bonuses y'all have gotten to other things.

But anyway, yeah, there's no easy answer. You'll probably see a nice scimitar sooner or later, but I don't always drop on the lines of what's preferred. We'll see how it goes.

[Anastasia]

I like these. It's a fresh setting so worldbuilding can never go wrong, and generally you do them so they relate to something we've recently encountered so it helps provide that new perspective while it's fresh in mind.

Pretty much. The snippets are either related to what you've dealt with in the past week or are related to a party member. I usually use Myann for that since there's a lot of easy design room to work with.

It's a fresh setting so I do enjoy the worldbuilding. On the other hand I miss a lot of what made Balmuria unique. One reason for the radical changes is to avoid hewing too close to all of that. So there's a nice synergy there.

[Corwin]

I agree that it's not, but I think it would be lame if we cut our way through the minions and then I tell everyone to hold on, I'm switching to inferior weapons against the boss in hopes of empowering them with his blood.  >_>