DM Nagging: It's pretty much my job

[Yuthirin]

I need to keep up man. So much going on

[Anastasia]

That there is.

[Ebiris]

Back to Marie after a lengthy break.

Dropped her size back down to medium since the increase is optional and doesn't really fit her.

Added in the new dream ray and sword of light progressions.

Gaze, she needs a gaze. Ghaele get frightening gaze, which is okay. Firre get a gaze that sets stuff on fire, that's more interesting. The tulani gaze only kills 5hd mooks so giving something that scales up well isn't really a fair trade though. Actually the ghaele one also kills 5hd mooks and adds fear for stuff above that, which makes it strictly better. Huh. Fuck it, just go with a frightening gaze. Cha based DC, evil creatures are panicked for 2d10 rounds. Done.

Skills now. She gets... 19 to max. That's quite a lot! She gets a bunch of stuff then.

Adding in gear. Alicia doesn't really have any relevant trophies she can use so Marie just uses her own old stuff, it changes size to fit! She'll take to wearing her starlight gown full time now until she gets something better for enhancement stat bonuses, though her old bow will just go into storage.

If team Sylica ever actually earns any money she'll want to buy a spellcraft booster for sure.

Name: Marielle
Class: Outsider 31//Sorcerer 6/Abjurant Champion 5/Force Missile Mage 5/Argent Savant 5/Incantrix 10
Deity: Mystra (maybe Alicia)
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Race: Tulani eladrin
Gender: Female
Age: 42
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 108lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Purple

Stats

Medium Outsider (Good, Chaotic, Eladrin)
HP: 322
Initiative: +6
Speed: 40, fly 90 (perfect)
AC: 66 (+25 natural, +9 dex, +22 armour)
Base attack/CMB/CMD: +31/+36/55
Attack: Sword of light +42 (1d8+13 +2d6 holy, ignores armour/shield bonuses, 19-20/x2) or dream ray +40 ranged touch (2d4 charisma damage)
Full attack: Sword of light +42/+37/+32/+27 (1d8+13 +2d6 holy, ignores armour/shield bonuses, 19-20/x2)
Space/Reach: 5/5
Special Attacks: Dream ray, gaze (DC 34 will negates), spell-like abilities, sword of light, spells, arcane boost, extra missile (2), still missile, energy missile, overpowering missile, force specialization, unbind force, cooperative metamagic (10/day), metamagic effect (10/day), metamagic spell trigger, seize concentration, snatch spell
Special Qualities: Energy resistance 10 (acid, cold), energy immunity (electricity), status immunuty (petrification), alternate form, bardic music, damage reduction 20/epic, cold iron, and evil, protective aura, spell resistance 43, tongues, spell shield, abjurant armour, extended abjuration, swift abjuration, martial arcanist, swift shield, force armour, enduring force, ablate force, focused studies (necromancy banned), instant metamagic, improved metamagic
Saves: Fort: +29 (+4 vs poison), Ref: +29, Will: +30 (with superior resistance precast)
Abilities: STR 20, DEX 28, CON 22, INT 24, WIS 24, CHA 35
Skills: Acrobatics +43, bluff +46, diplomacy +46, disguise +46, fly +48, intimidate +46, knowledge (arcana) +41, knowledge (dungeoneering) +41, knowledge (engineering) +41, knowledge (nature) +41, knowledge (planes) +41, knowledge (religion) +41, perception +41, perform (sing) +46, profession (seneschal) +41, sense motive +41, spellcraft +41, stealth +43, use magic device +46
Feats: Eschew materials(B), combat casting, iron will, fell drain(B), spell penetration, arcane thesis (magic missile), rapid metamagic, repeat spell, blade of force, twin spell(B), quicken spell(B), entangling spell(B), enlarge spell(B)
Epic feats: Epic spell capacity, spell stowaway (time stop), improved metamagic, improved metamagic
Languages: Common, celestial, draconic, infernal, abyssal, sylvan, gnomish, elven, aquan, tongues

Spell Like Abilities

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Concentration +43

Innate CL 31 (+33 for SR, +10 sacred bonus to CL checks when using break enchantment/greater dispel magic against enchantment spells), DC 22 + spell level
At will: Empowered chain lightning, mass charm monster, cure serious wounds, dancing lights, detect thoughts, greater dispel magic, divine favour, haste, greater invisibility, major image, righteous smite, greater teleport (self + 50lbs only), telekinesis, wall of force.
1/day: Heal, meteor swarm, time stop
Self only, always on: Blessed sight, discern lies, see invisibility

Sorcerer Spells

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Concentration +43
CL 31 (+32 for force spells, +33 for SR, +38 for magic missile) (force spells gain +4 to DC to be dispelled), DC 22 + spell level

0: (6) Prestigitation, detect magic, mage hand, message, open/close, electric jolt(SpC), amanuensis(SpC), sonic snap(SpC), detect poison
1: (9) Magic missile, unseen servant, sandalphon's unerring projectile, nerveskitter(SpC), true strike
2: (8) Ethereal chamber(SpC), shatter, seeking ray(PHB2), glitterdust, ray of stupidity(SpC)
3: (8) Repelling shield(SpC), nondetection, sleet storm, chain missile(SpC)
4: (8) Assay spell resistance(SpC), ray deflection(SpC), orb of force(SpC), nondetection
5: (8) Interposing hand, telepathy block(BoED), shard storm(SpC), greater electric vengeance(PHB2)
6: (7) Superior resistance, disintegrate, ray of light(SpC)
7: (7) Ethereal jaunt, project image, greater arcane sight
8: (7) Irresistible dance, superior invisibility(SpC), mind blank
9: (7) Crushing hand, maw of chaos(SpC), planar perinarch
10: (7) Jaela's teleport block, true meteor swarm, bibliotheca arcana
11: (7) Epic mage armour, superb dispelling, queen's displeasure
12: (5) Sandalphon's amazing barrage, beauty triumphant, sensual blessing

Special Traits

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Familiar toughness (Ex): Hit points equal 80% of master's rather than 50%.
Change shape (Su): Marie can take the form of any small or medium humanoid.
Alternate form (Su): Can shift between humanoid and globe forms, can only fly and use dream ray in globe form, is also incorporeal in globe form. Can only cast spells and use gaze attack in humanoid form.
Dream ray (Su): 300 ft range, does 2d4 charisma damage. Mind affecting.
Gaze (Su): 60 foot, evil creatures are panicked, will negates.
Sword of Light (Su): +6 brilliant energy holy longsword.
Protective Aura (Su): 20ft radius double strength magic circle against evil and lesser globe of invulnerability.

Bardic Music

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Can use or maintain any one ability per round as a free action.

Inspire courage +5
Countersong
Fascinate
Inspire competence
Mass suggestion
Inspire greatness
Song of freedom
Inspire heroics

Inventory

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Neck
Amulet of Natural Armour +5

Hands
Gloves of Dexterity +6

Torso
Gown of Starlight: +6 enhancement bonus to Charisma

Rings
Ring of Greater Plane Shift

Thunderstrike: tiny Longbow +1, Shock, Screaming
3 Silvered Banishing Arrows +1
3 Cold Iron Banishing Arrows +1
Bracers of Time: Prevent rapid aging effects
Anti Despair ward
Bracers of Celestial Protection: Grants a Protective Aura as angels possess.
Ring of Invisibility

Misc

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HP rolls: 8, 7, 3, 4, 6, 3, 2, 3, 8, 5, 7, 5, 3, 1, 4, 3, 2, 4, 3, 8, 7, 2, 7, 1, 5, 2, 7, 5, 2, 5, 4

[Anastasia]

Class: Outsider 31//Sorcerer 6/Abjurant Champion 5/Force Missile Mage 5/Argent Savant 5/Incantrix 10

Honestly, I'm going to allow Incantatrix purely on a trial basis for this case, ala letting Simmer having War Mage. We'll see how it balances.

Deity: Mystra (maybe Alicia)

Technically, she's Alicia's now, Mystra did a handoff. How that reconciles on Marie's end is up to her. It's not like she has to stop praying to Mystra, Alicia's essentially one of Mystra's pantheon.

Age: 42

I recall she's older than that, isn't she?

gaze (DC 34 will negates)

DC should be 37. 10 + 15 + 12 = 37.

[Ebiris]

DC corrected. Marie's kinda figuring that out herself where she stands with prayers and stuff.

And yeah, Marie was only like 20 or so when she showed up in B1. She's young for an outsider.

[Anastasia]

Okay, that should work then.

[Anastasia]

Iddy, quote me where we were at on map stuff? I need to finish that.

[Iron Dragoon]

Iddy, quote me where we were at on map stuff? I need to finish that.

http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,104100.msg1118315.html#msg1118315

[Iron Dragoon]

Something like having mages at the order set up in spell circles, with a leader of the circle connected to whoever (let's call them a spotter for simplicity's sake). The circle leader lets the spotter know when they're ready to cast the spell and the spotter opens a portal for them to fire the spell through. Spotter then closes the portal and moves to find a new target or new angle.

Things like that. Since spell circles can, with enough people, dramatically increase the CL and DCs of spells that would otherwise simply bounce off of higher level creatures, it can be super useful. Same with buffs. If there's a minute/level spell, like say, Dolorous Blow, then with enough people I can make it last hours and hours, or having a group of mages casting a Dispel and maxing out the CL, so it's more of a pinning down the mechanics of it before I really sit down and come up with ideas.

Okay, whip up some mechanical examples - assumptions are fine here for this sake, don't worry about getting it perfect there - and let me see how they'd work.

So, have something like an item of gate or whatever set to open near a circle of say 10 mages. Those 10 mages are in a circle casting Disintegrate. For simplicity's sake, we'll say they're all minimum CL, 11. Now, by the RAW of Cooperative spell, the first additional mage in the circle gives +2 to the DC, and each following mage gives +1, so that's +10 to the DC and then +9 to the CL of the spell. So it'd be cast at CL 20, and then get +10 DC. The leader of the circle has planar telepathy with whoever on the other side. Once the spell is ready to go off, they open the gate and the mage's circle fires the spell through the gate to hit whatever target.

[Iron Dragoon]

Well like the one that turns you into a salt statue. Normally that's more or less a death effect spell and you don't allow those, so I was thinking of something more like turning a limb into salt (or whatever else). See if my DCs are reasonably reliable or not, and how balanced a spell like that is.

Sure. Whip up some spell ideas - bare bones are fine here for the sake of example - and test it out.

Since you said bare-bones was okay, I just C/P'd this and modified it for an example's sake.

Limb to Salt
Transmutation
Level: Dru 5, Wiz/Sorc 5
Components: V, S, M,
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Target: One creature
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude partial; see text
Spell Resistance: Yes

You call the essence of salt forth in the target, dealing 1d6 points of damage per two caster levels (maximum 10d6).
If the target takes more than half of its current hit points in damage from the spell, select a limb to target and the creature must make a Fortitude saving throw or that limb completely crystallizes.
The limb, but not its carried gear, turns into a inert statue. The creature's limb and gear is locked into position and cannot be used normally. If an arm holding a weapon is turned to salt, then the creature loses the ability to use that limb to attack, and thus loses the ability to use the weapon unless transferred to a different limb.
If a transformed limb resulting from this spell is broken or damaged, the subject has similar damage or deformities if ever returned to its original state.
The transformed limb takes on the consistency of rock salt (hardness 2, 5 hp per inch of thickness).
Limbs turned to salt this way are extremely susceptible to dissolution by water—if exposed to flooding or heavy rain, they take damage that is not reduced by hardness.
A constant blast of water (for example, a geyser from a decanter of endless water) deals 10 points of damage per minute.
A steady rain deals 1 point of damage per minute.
A stone to flesh spell affects salt as if it were stone, returning an affected creature to its original state.
Material Component: A lump of rock salt.

[Iron Dragoon]

How about their blood?

Sure. There's a Blood to Water spell that deals 2d6 Con damage by transmuting blood into water. (Oddly, it's necromancy rather than transmutation, despite using the word transmute in the spell description. Really that should be transmutation or a dual school spell if you really feel necromancy applies.) There's a ghostblood spell, about 18th level or so, in the spell collection that deals massive damage by transmuting a creature's blood to ghostly vapors.

You don't see a ton of damaging transmutations, but they do exist. Go check the Spell Compendium, I have that open and you can see some damaging transmutations in there.

Yeah, I'd like to see the Blood to Water Spell made into a Transmutation spell. Dual school is more fitting, but Necromancy is banned for me, so that wouldn't help much. It's also a Cleric spell, base. Would you be willing to make it a Wiz/Sorc spell, or would it stay Cleric? If so, I can cast that as Factotum, but only once a day since it's level 7, so that helps, but not like a ton.

[Iron Dragoon]

What about their weapons or armor? Can I make their armor cloth or their weapons into pillows? I'm basically looking for some sort of thematic structure to go from.

Sure, you could.

How would this work, mechanically, though? I see spells that target Natural Armor and has a fortitude save, but items don't have a fort save, so what would it target?

[Anastasia]

Weekly Roundup

DM Status: 6/10. Work continues to suck and RL is impacting me, but I'm managing it. Nothing the PCs are doing wrong, life's just rough right now. If anything, I felt hazy some days this week, like my DMing was coming from far away and I felt it had an impact on character work at times. In this sort of game you're always going to have some down days, days where you aren't your A game for whatever reason. Maybe I just had a bunch of those midweek?

If I'm feeling hazy Monday, I may take a day or two off to recharge. I have a lot of residual unhappiness with my performance this week. I feel like I can be better right now but I'm falling short.

Alicia

The resolution of the Calley situation was reasonably good. It was a moral dilemma with no easy right or wrong answer, though I personally think this one fits Alicia's beliefs and personality the best. Setup for the attack on Limbo had some amusing bits (Alicia's probably cracked me up), but was mostly slowed down due to mid-week DM interruptions. Upside, I feel that the beginning of the assault was good. Sure, the first encounter was scouts of no great power or chance against you, but it was a good chance for Marie to show off. Plus bickering with Malcanthet was quite amusing.

A good week overall, though I'll be eager for you two to get to the Zariel plot assuming you capture Jade.

Moore

The fortress assault's been solid this week. The early stuff was stuff that makes IC sense - if you funnel anyone that arrives to a point, you naturally make it a strong point for when enemies attack. I do think this sort of thing flows better on IRC, when such things can be cleared quicker. I'm going to see if I can't find ways to speed this sort of thing up in the future, more on that later. Anyway, the army fight was meant to be a set piece, but Cresiel had the perfect counter for it. Finally, I liked the battle you're in now for a lot of reasons discussed elsewhere as well as just being fun.

A good week overall, though you're also on a bit of a sidequest right now. Everyone being on side quests is making me a bit antsy, I think.

Tryll

Debonah's amusing, but I really want more time with Tryll. See last week. Overall I feel it's solid time, but the slow pace is hobbling development. I feel like I rarely get a chance to get flowing with any of them, which is really too bad. Maybe this Sunday Yuth and I can get together. More on this if we do, fingers crossed.

Alyssa

The xag-ya swarm was wrapped up after they got chased up and now it's into the dungeon. Like last week, I really dig the way these three bounce off each other. It's great, it's fun and I enjoy it a ton. I don't want to be brief here since I'm enjoying it, but I feel like not a lot happened IC due to what you were doing. Next week should hopefully see this quest wrapped up and onto meatier things.

A good week overall, but definitely want to see some plot movement somewhere. I'm trying to keep at least one node directly on the plot ball.

Seira

Oolu's always fun to touch base with, even when he's getting into a bit of trouble. Perhaps especially then, but I digress. Anyway, Oberuth's second appearance was gratifying, especially because Seira immediately picked up on what was going on. It makes perfect sense but I was worried you all would never put the pieces together. I liked how they interacted as equals there, something that wasn't gone deeply into in B1 because it was end game. Even if you still tend to call him Oberuth, though I confess I've always found Hellman a bit of an awkward name. It's a real last name in real life, FYI. Oberuth isn't, but it always feels like it fits him more. Go figure.

Also, I always enjoy you and Zaaman Rul getting together. You two are very much kindred spirits about getting things done.

A good week overall, and hey, you had plot. Yaaaay.

Weekend todos: Whatever I catch, probably spell topic and some todo list, along with Iddy posts. We'll see.

[Corwin]

I've enjoyed touching base with people. I do want to advance things more, and I hope something does happen on that front. You'll notice me trying to get things going here and there in between catching up and getting status updates, but the answers tend to be 'check in with us later'.

So now I'm waiting on Marianne, waiting on Zaaman Rul, waiting on Sanzha and so on. No real leads on a Shar proxy on my end, either. I guess Yegola might end up facing one?

I do wonder whether I'm approaching my side of the investigation wrong. Alicia looking into Eblis lead to story options, whereas I've only learned a few tidbits and got some confirmations on things I thought before, but I don't feel I really have any options of my own to pursue. Marianne might lead somewhere, if and when she makes her choice. I might get more clues to the Calley ritual at some point, although there as well I don't really have anything actionable just yet. Outright Sending to Io or checking with the astral dragons about him might work, although in the case of the latter I doubt they'd know more than Ajan. Once I do that, however, I'm out of my investigative options, and I dislike putting all my hopes on a Sending.

So if I'm just not seeing something here, or if my plot is on a timer and I need to be patient, please let me know.

[Ebiris]

Alicia

The resolution of the Calley situation was reasonably good. It was a moral dilemma with no easy right or wrong answer, though I personally think this one fits Alicia's beliefs and personality the best. Setup for the attack on Limbo had some amusing bits (Alicia's probably cracked me up), but was mostly slowed down due to mid-week DM interruptions. Upside, I feel that the beginning of the assault was good. Sure, the first encounter was scouts of no great power or chance against you, but it was a good chance for Marie to show off. Plus bickering with Malcanthet was quite amusing.

A good week overall, though I'll be eager for you two to get to the Zariel plot assuming you capture Jade.

Marie's putting in a pretty good showing so far, even if it's against mooks. Still fun to play her as having stuff to show off now that she's on the same footing as everyone else. There were some amusing moments discussing Jessica's findings with Syala as well, yes. Alicia's kinda staid but she has a dry sense of humour and she's hardly innocent, while Syala's a Sharessian, so it leads to amusing reactions to succubus stuff.

I actually felt a bit bad when Malcanthet asked what we were doing and all I could really say was 'wrecking your stuff'. It just feels so rude, y'know? But as Alicia thought to herself IC, we're not here to make friends with demons. I'm sure there'll be reprisals, but Malcanthet's meant to be one of our main enemies, plus we're helping Sulia against Malcanthet's pal Demogorgon, so it all weaves together.