Feedback time. I'm aware it is a little bit early for this, but I feel we're getting a good rhythm down. Please answer the questions with honesty. If at all possible, have these done by Monday night so I'm not clubbing people into this around gametime Tuesday.
1. How do you feel your character has turned out the past level from a mechanical standpoint? Do you feel you're pulling your load? Why or why not? If not, what do you think you can do to improve?
2. Likewise, how do you feel your character has turned out from an RP standpoint? Do you feel that your character is working? Why or why not? If not, what do you think you can do to improve?
3. How do you get along with the other players? Good points, bad points, hangups, irritations, praise?
4. Where do you see your character going? How do you see that enabling them to get where you want them to go, both mechanically and RP-wise? Do you feel you can reach this as it stands now?
5. What adventures and situations have you enjoyed so far? What ones have you not? Why?
6. What could I do to get more of the good and less of the bad? Why?
7. What could other players do to get less of the bad and more of the good? Why?
8. What could you do to get more good and less bad? Why?
9. How's the tone of the game? Too dark? Too light?
10. How has my DMing been? Good? Bad? Consistent? Inconsistent? Why? Give examples if possible.
11. How do you feel I've handled everything, both IC and OOC-wise? Have I been pushing for gaming too hard? Not enough? Has there been any friction you'd like to air out?
12. Is there anything you'd like me to stop doing as a DM?
13. How have my rulings been? Are they reasonable and fair? Do you feel I'm staying reasonably impartial?
14. How has my encounter design been? Are the fights doing it for you?
15. How's my dungeon/area design been? Tips for improvement?
16. How are my various NPCs doing? Are they entertaining you? Are they pulling weight without hogging the screen?
17. Anything else you'd like to add?
Yes, I recycled these from an old Balmuria 1 feedback topic. They're good questions so why not? Don't hurt me. Uguu.
1) My AC is shit despite having decent full plate armor, but I have faith in it working out eventually. I think I have the means to handle most of anything, although it would be nice to round myself out a bit more from a mechanical perspective. Get an AC or stat-boosting item or the armor-swapping gauntlet, that sort of thing.
2) I have fun with playing Jaela and I don't think anyone hates her personality? If so, I'd call it a success.
4) Mechanically... in the short term, I'd need a few items to compensate for a few of my weak spots. In the longer term, I'll strive to become the sort of mage Raquel is! But that's well into epic. RP-wise, since a vampire is seducing me I'd probably need to make a stop at Arvandor sooner or later?
5) I noticed that how fights end or how situations resolve often affects my enjoyment of the whole thing. If a fight ends while I'm expecting more of a challenge and was casting Heal or some buff like Heroism/Righteous Might and the like, it sours things. Enjoyment-wise, that's easy! Anything with either a focus on you or that allows you to shine, of course. It hardly even needs to come at the expense of others as long as everyone gets a chance to be important and show off their specialty.
6) Related to 5, I don't have a clear answer, but maybe there could be a clearer indication of danger/remaining enemy fighting capacity/that sort of thing? If our characters are these hardcore fighters they'd probably be able to estimate, and then I won't feel like a n00b that runs away from victory.
8) Time-wise, I could expand my cheatsheet collection to account for various stuff (like my nonstandard weapons, since I do carry them), but I think I'm decent enough by now to actually do the prep quickly while I'm waiting for my turn.
9) It hasn't really gone long enough for me to make that call, honestly.
11) Let's game more!
12) The nicks during gaming time, if you can. It just bothers me by breaking through any created mood. I can't be serious about a situation when a GM is Ko-LaggyUGUUHarder.
14) I think I talked to you recently about what would make fights better for me. Along with what I posted here, it should be all?
16) Largely yes! It would be perfect if they didn't air their fetishes with every other line ('Hit me!', 'Men have cooties!', etc). I think it would make them more sympathetic, instead of making me wince whenever Adrian and Elrisa bicker over which gender is better.
17) Number 11.
1: Pretty well. I was worried about my low hp, but having god-tier defences has made that a non-issue. My spellcasting is mostly irrelevant, and my damage - while poor compared to everyone else's full attacks - is sufficiently respectable, especially since I don't need to worry about positioning for a full attack. Plus everyone's extra hasted attacks basically comes from me anyway!
2: Afina's a little bit inconsistent but that's by design. She's a placid and quiet fairy who happens to have developed a vicious streak a mile wide. For the most part she puts across the image I'm looking for, with the proviso that I give her more lines than her quiet nature should allow for simply so I'm contributing and pushing things forward.
3: I don't like to criticise, and there's certainly nothing personal in this, but here goes. Ithea is often fairly quiet during sessions - thankfully it's not in the same league as Glenn was in Glaring Fate, but it's noticable compared to the other three. There's a certain apathetic 'I'll do whatever' vibe and I think Merc could stand to push forward more of an agenda from his character.
4: She's a superfast fairy that kills dudes. She will get faster and kill more dudes. More seriously I want to have her open up more and get invested in training our forces/building awesome weapons for them - she's solid at the front line, but I hope her potential at the logistics end will prove useful for our crusade. Finding more fey - whether generic or Gloaming Wood survivors is also cool (Elrisa and her buddies don't really count since they're elves with fey traits).
5: My favourite moment in the whole game was butchering a bunch of devils in a bar. Most of our adventures since then have been tangential to our overall goal - overcoming trials and tests to get stuff that we can use later on for actually killing devils. Don't get me wrong, it's been fun, but I want to fight dudes I can hate. Although I guess I hate Elysium for ganking my fey powers? Need to find a way to fix that...
6: Honestly, just keep doing what you're doing. You've been at this DMing business long enough to have a good handle on it.
7: Well, I guess you ask redundant questions. See number 3?
8: Hell I dunno. I tend to try my best after all, so I guess I'll see if anyone has any stuff they want me to fix or change.
9: We've been tooling around the heavens mostly, so it's hard to tell what things are really like.
10-13: These are all basically the same question (along with 6). The gaming push seems about right. I'll echo Cor's complaint about DMing under Ko-LaggyisSailorOrgasmo or whatever. Again, you've been DMing a while, you're good at it. If I hate a ruling I'll say so, and I haven't done that lately... You do sometimes brush off criticism brought up in chat with 'I'm not in the mood' or 'Let's talk about it later' which is pretty disheartening to see when it happens.
14: Yes. You're getting better about varying things up (the four treants each with different techniques is a good example) so we're not facing five guys that are interchangable, the fights have by and large been well paced and executed.
15: 'You follow the tunnel for 30 minutes' is pretty sad. I get that it takes time to go places and it paces out encounters to wear down our low duration abilities, but it makes locations feel really spaced out and empty. Even a description of some cool scenery we pass on the way or something, rather than just walking through a bland hallway or tunnel for two miles.
16: I like them. Adrian's a bit of a complainer, but he's a solid presence in battle - despite keeling over from bad luck a few times he hits hard and reliably. Annalise is brilliant since she's unique and interesting and scary and possibly on our side. She could threaten to overshadow us, but her abilities are mainly single-target so it's rare for her to end encounters by herself (I think just the first one and that was obviously an abject demonstration of her power). Haven't seen Elrisa fight for real yet but she's nice without being constant flowers and happiness so we can have entertaining friction, particularly with our male friends. Dana is crazy and has a death wish so we probably won't see her for long. She doesn't seem to be all that great in a fight, either since her damage is so poor. Girl needs some strength boosts.
17: All opinions above subject to change at the slightest moment based on my moods and whimsy.
A lot of questions I'd just have said "See #x" so I didn't bother including them, unless I had other stuff to add.
1. How do you feel your character has turned out the past level from a mechanical standpoint? Do you feel you're pulling your load? Why or why not? If not, what do you think you can do to improve?
I'm mostly satisfied, honestly. The one thing that really bugs me isn't really something mechanical so much as random number generating hate as even when I don't power attack or power attack for only 2-5 points, I'll miss 60-70% of the time.
Hatbot seems determined to piss me off, even if he was surprisingly cool with me last session (he pissed Yuth off instead).
There's a couple of various things I can do to try and improve that besides relying on magical items at least, thought Hatbot will probably just give me even lower rolls. =/
I'm also a little bummed that sneak attack has been so utterly situational for me and the situation has conspired to be that I can't use it most of the time. A lot of fights seem to have stuff that dies in one shot so no flanking, has improved uncanny dodge, immunity to SA, or something else that prevents it. Outside of the evasion and skill points, rogue side feels a bit weak to me as a result.
I'm at least going to want to talk to Adrian about his habit of charging at new stuff when he's last on init, even though other stuff is still alive and being engaged already, it utterly bugs me that he does that when he could get a flanking bonus without losing his +2 atk bonus, get to apply SA (in those situations where it can apply anyhow), not take an AC penalty -and- if he flanks with ME, I get sneak attack the next round too or alternatively with some of those high AC monsters, lower their AC for the others. If I can't do that, at the very least I'd get a much needed +2 to attack to counter evil hatebotting.
It's not like he needs to charge for speed bonus either, with the haste bonus from Afina, we almost always have enough movement to manuever as we'd wish...
2. Likewise, how do you feel your character has turned out from an RP standpoint? Do you feel that your character is working? Why or why not? If not, what do you think you can do to improve?
Character hasn't -quite- gone as I envisioned, but close enough, and I'm mostly okay with Ithea. I have fun playing her anyway though the character feels a bit too lonesome.
Eb pointed out that I'm a little quiet, that's part of the reason, I don't really have anyone I feel comfortable bantering with besides Adrian. The other PCs are mostly just 'friends' purely by situation/common interest regarding Lifasa too.
Ithea respects the three of them, but outside of that respect...she doesn't really know how to react to Afina for the most part though she does kind of like the pixie, Willim is too dumb for meaningful conversation, and she finds Jaela a little obnoxious as well as a little creepy for her thing with Annalise. Oddly, Ithea also has more respect for Jaela than the other two, at least as a warrior, mostly because she seems to generally do some of the most impressive/memorable things in a fight and just being so in the middle of all the action.
Adrian, she has a like/hate relationship with, she does see him as a friend by this point, much more than the PCs, even if initially she found him the most obnoxious, which is a maybe a bit ironic as she's a lot like him, personality-wise. She actually agrees with most of his onscreen complaints, but unless he's specifically asking for my opinion, I don't feel a need to vocally agree. Anyway, by this point, she actually likes chatting with him, though she'll still react negatively to his cat jokes.
She doesn't particularly like Annalise or Dana, and she's kinda ambivalent to Elrisa. She admires what Elrisa does, but really just finds her stance on men/armor to be annoying and wishes she'd shut up about it, then maybe they could be friends, though can't think of a polite way of saying just that.
Mostly, I kind of want more varied NPCs to pop up, which I know we'll get with recruits as time passes, and seeing if Ithea latches onto any of them as friends and develop her personality onscreen instead of internalized like the stuff above.
3. How do you get along with the other players? Good points, bad points, hangups, irritations, praise?
I get a little weirded out by the fact that the half-celestial and npc aasimars are both the dirtiest mouthed individuals, but I mostly just joke with Yuth about that, rather than actually having a serious problem with it.
Outside of that, nothing I feel like commenting on. I guess #2 covered that a bit too, even if that was more from an RP sense than player-side.
4. Where do you see your character going? How do you see that enabling them to get where you want them to go, both mechanically and RP-wise? Do you feel you can reach this as it stands now?
RP-wise, I dunno where I want to go with the character, I'm still getting a feel for Ithea and what I want out of her. Again, see #2.
I do want to have that chat with Adrian regarding that flanking thing in-game though (preferably either when one of Annalise's scenes pop up so I can go in another room, or just some side session).
Mechanically, I want to ditch rogue next level, though I'm still not sure what I want to go into. No PrC has really grabbed my attention (or the prereqs just don't agree with me). I'm kind of pondering factotum, though not that attached either.
5. What adventures and situations have you enjoyed so far? What ones have you not? Why?
I like fighting stuff we can hate too, though I've been enjoying most of the trials too. I'm not a fan of the high AC opponents though, particularly due to my poor luck with hatbot with attacks. That the two guys we fought with high AC also had improved uncanny dodge so I couldn't reduce their AC with that ability I have made those fights worse for me.
I'm also really not a fan of Annalise's heart-to-heart moments or duels. We can't really do much during duels, bantering about it just seems kind of crass in some cases or boring in others, and ditto for the vamp's scenes with Jaela/Afina. It's fine when there's other stuff we can do, but when we have to wait on it, it's a little boring, and it really doesn't help with staying immersed (that also leads to those detached player moments, obviously).
I'd note that as Corwin really wants more gaming and Yuth/I aren't on during mondays/wednesdays, I dunno, can't you hold those things off to those days for mini/side-sessions? Duels aren't a big deal, we've had all of two (Elrisa and Dana), but Annalise really seems to be a time chewer, and it's boring.
I'd point out that last time, I actually tried to split the party because I saw some of that coming, when Annalise/Jaela wanted to do stuff and I took the opportunity to say that since they're doing that and the Helm guy was mentioned already, I wanted to grab Willim and Adrian for that, but that was a no go since Adrian himself quickly nixed it and I didn't want to argue over it. Thankfully that time it didn't take long, but we've had some long ones.
9. How's the tone of the game? Too dark? Too light?
I enjoy it so far. It feels balanced enough, but we haven't really done too much yet or fought anything particularly evil outside of those devils first session, so hard to really judge the game yet. This still feels like the opening act.
16. How are my various NPCs doing? Are they entertaining you? Are they pulling weight without hogging the screen?
I've commented on Annalise and scene hogging and a bit on how Ithea feels about them in #2 RP-wise.
I generally like 'em, even Annalise, she's interesting because of what she is, but good lord the night talks do absolutely everything right when it comes to making me want to alt-tab.
Mental note for next time: Ask you guys to quote the questions so I don't have to keep switching tabs. Gah.
Quote from: Corwin on October 08, 2011, 07:08:39 AM
1) My AC is shit despite having decent full plate armor, but I have faith in it working out eventually. I think I have the means to handle most of anything, although it would be nice to round myself out a bit more from a mechanical perspective. Get an AC or stat-boosting item or the armor-swapping gauntlet, that sort of thing.
As far as your AC goes, Arcane Duelist will fix this eventually. Between that and your magic your AC is going to be fine eventually. As an aside, I'd try to avoid full attacks and emply magic/hit and run tactics until you have better AC or defenses. Your AC right now is critically low, just asking someone to maim you on a heavy FA. Otherwise you're fine and have a fair bit of potential.
Quote4) Mechanically... in the short term, I'd need a few items to compensate for a few of my weak spots. In the longer term, I'll strive to become the sort of mage Raquel is! But that's well into epic. RP-wise, since a vampire is seducing me I'd probably need to make a stop at Arvandor sooner or later?
What sort of mage is Raquel? I'm curious as to what you mean there.
Quote5) I noticed that how fights end or how situations resolve often affects my enjoyment of the whole thing. If a fight ends while I'm expecting more of a challenge and was casting Heal or some buff like Heroism/Righteous Might and the like, it sours things.
I do try and challenge you guys, but sometimes a fight wraps up quickly. Hmm, why does it bother you, precisely? What bothers you about it?
QuoteEnjoyment-wise, that's easy! Anything with either a focus on you or that allows you to shine, of course. It hardly even needs to come at the expense of others as long as everyone gets a chance to be important and show off their specialty.
Naturally. I try and give you guys chances to do so - even if it's just using a high strength score to bash open some ice or a spot check to notice a trap. This doesn't always work, of course, but I try.
Quote6) Related to 5, I don't have a clear answer, but maybe there could be a clearer indication of danger/remaining enemy fighting capacity/that sort of thing? If our characters are these hardcore fighters they'd probably be able to estimate, and then I won't feel like a n00b that runs away from victory.
I have been skimping on information a little more than I like in combat descriptions. I've noticed this, though the last two fights weren't good ones for it anyway. The chaos creature didn't bleed or possess an anatomy you could easily comprehend, while the next battle was you guys chopping down a small horde of low level berserker lycanthropes.
Quote8) Time-wise, I could expand my cheatsheet collection to account for various stuff (like my nonstandard weapons, since I do carry them), but I think I'm decent enough by now to actually do the prep quickly while I'm waiting for my turn.
By all means. Anything that speeds up replies and actions in combat is good.
Quote11) Let's game more!
I have Mondays pegged to do miscellaneous one/two PC things since most of you are around that day and occasionally on Wednesdays as well. Sundays are completely out until February. Having a full fourth day isn't realistic anytime soon, at least until Merc's semester is over if not longer.
Quote16) Largely yes! It would be perfect if they didn't air their fetishes with every other line ('Hit me!', 'Men have cooties!', etc). I think it would make them more sympathetic, instead of making me wince whenever Adrian and Elrisa bicker over which gender is better.
Hey, I wouldn't use the phrase fetish to describe it! I know what you mean, though. I've been aiming to start with one or two defining characteristics for each NPC and expand from there. It's worked well for Adrian, he's had the camera time to pull it off. This does lead to hitting the easy button, especially in combat when I'm managing a bunch of other things anyway.
Quote from: Ebiris on October 08, 2011, 04:16:55 PM
1: Pretty well. I was worried about my low hp, but having god-tier defences has made that a non-issue. My spellcasting is mostly irrelevant, and my damage - while poor compared to everyone else's full attacks - is sufficiently respectable, especially since I don't need to worry about positioning for a full attack. Plus everyone's extra hasted attacks basically comes from me anyway!
Yeah, agreed. Your defenses are fine, the only thing you need is a few occasional damage bumps. You should be good for awhile. Your build is the most complete overall, I think.
Quote3: I don't like to criticise, and there's certainly nothing personal in this, but here goes. Ithea is often fairly quiet during sessions - thankfully it's not in the same league as Glenn was in Glaring Fate, but it's noticable compared to the other three. There's a certain apathetic 'I'll do whatever' vibe and I think Merc could stand to push forward more of an agenda from his character.
Yeah. I try and encourage Merc with Adrian needling Ithea and it works fine. Ithea does tend to be quiet when that isn't happening, I suspect it comes down to Merc being a slower typer again. I'm not going to belabor this point, we've been there before. Generally when a PC isn't doing much I try and give them something to draw them back in.
Quote4: She's a superfast fairy that kills dudes. She will get faster and kill more dudes. More seriously I want to have her open up more and get invested in training our forces/building awesome weapons for them - she's solid at the front line, but I hope her potential at the logistics end will prove useful for our crusade. Finding more fey - whether generic or Gloaming Wood survivors is also cool (Elrisa and her buddies don't really count since they're elves with fey traits).
Yeah. Adrian had Willim considering some trolls and I'm pretty sure Jaela has some plans for various celestials. Building an army in your image and training them up is a good goal. How do you see yourself reaching that goal in more detail?
Quote5: My favourite moment in the whole game was butchering a bunch of devils in a bar. Most of our adventures since then have been tangential to our overall goal - overcoming trials and tests to get stuff that we can use later on for actually killing devils. Don't get me wrong, it's been fun, but I want to fight dudes I can hate. Although I guess I hate Elysium for ganking my fey powers? Need to find a way to fix that...
I knew you guys probably wouldn't fight devils too much at first, nor did I want to saturate you with them. You're going to have plenty of chances to beat down devils and other true enemies, don't worry. Oh yes, yes you will.
Quote6: Honestly, just keep doing what you're doing. You've been at this DMing business long enough to have a good handle on it.
Yeah, but it never hurts to ask. I bug you guys about various things and I don't always get anything out of it. That's fine and I expect that. Sometimes I do get useful things out of it and it's worth the trouble, so I keep on doing it.
Quote9: We've been tooling around the heavens mostly, so it's hard to tell what things are really like.
Yeah, this. I'd like to see you guys get more of a variety of planes. The Heavens are nice, but there's more to do out there than that.
Quote10-13: These are all basically the same question (along with 6). The gaming push seems about right. I'll echo Cor's complaint about DMing under Ko-LaggyisSailorOrgasmo or whatever. Again, you've been DMing a while, you're good at it. If I hate a ruling I'll say so, and I haven't done that lately... You do sometimes brush off criticism brought up in chat with 'I'm not in the mood' or 'Let's talk about it later' which is pretty disheartening to see when it happens.
Well, I'm not going to argue about a point when I'm in a foul mood. It really doesn't do any good. When I put something off otherwise, it's usually because we're in session and I don't want to stop things over a potential rules debate. It's not worth it.
Quote14: Yes. You're getting better about varying things up (the four treants each with different techniques is a good example) so we're not facing five guys that are interchangable, the fights have by and large been well paced and executed.
Good. I do figure you'll get some more regimented battles with Baator. Not to say that devilfights will be boring, but Baator's general nature often makes soldiers similar to one another. So I'm making sure to mix up most of the other fights in case this sets in with them later. Also using various mob rules for groups of similar enemies has helped, rather than making them discrete opponents.
Quote15: 'You follow the tunnel for 30 minutes' is pretty sad. I get that it takes time to go places and it paces out encounters to wear down our low duration abilities, but it makes locations feel really spaced out and empty. Even a description of some cool scenery we pass on the way or something, rather than just walking through a bland hallway or tunnel for two miles.
Frankly, I'm not really sympathetic to the durations complaint. The world around you isn't built so that you can reach all the interesting parts in the 10 minutes your best spells are up. Hell, with manmade fortresses and defenses, I'd consider good design to arrange it so that it takes awhile for invaders to get anywhere.
As for the other part, I can do that. I don't get too into that since it ends up being a time sink and slowing things down even more.
Quote16: I like them. Adrian's a bit of a complainer, but he's a solid presence in battle - despite keeling over from bad luck a few times he hits hard and reliably. Annalise is brilliant since she's unique and interesting and scary and possibly on our side. She could threaten to overshadow us, but her abilities are mainly single-target so it's rare for her to end encounters by herself (I think just the first one and that was obviously an abject demonstration of her power). Haven't seen Elrisa fight for real yet but she's nice without being constant flowers and happiness so we can have entertaining friction, particularly with our male friends. Dana is crazy and has a death wish so we probably won't see her for long. She doesn't seem to be all that great in a fight, either since her damage is so poor. Girl needs some strength boosts.
Adrian: Agreed. Besides a run of bad luck around Elysium he's been useful. He's not the most charismatic person, hell, he has 6 charisma without his cloak. So he does complain and do annoying things sometimes. He's not a people person.
Annalise: Yes.
Dana: Dana reminds me a lot of Demedais. She's excellent in her niche but she has even less defense than he did. That's impressive as hell, let me tell you. Crit fishing helps this but it's unreliable. She may just dip favored soul or cleric and use turnings and a few spells to shore up her offense, haven't really decided yet.
-I haven't decided 100% on the Arcane Duelist, but yeah, it's about the only thing that would bring my ac up to speed. As for hit and run tactics, I figure I'm gonna get hit anyway so by relying on retaliation and heals I can just make it work for me and outlast my enemies. That does carry the risk of looking lame if I retreat from a nearly-vanquished opponent for a recharge. Why don't I like it? Because it's the opposite of cool. When that fight is remembered, what will remain more in the conscious? That I gave as good as I got, or that I had to retreat while someone else took the initiative and won the actual fight?
-Raquel is the best mage! Quicken spell, all the damn time! (And empower, and maximize....)
-I look forward to seeing more aspects of our allies!
QuoteI'm mostly satisfied, honestly. The one thing that really bugs me isn't really something mechanical so much as random number generating hate as even when I don't power attack or power attack for only 2-5 points, I'll miss 60-70% of the time. Hatbot seems determined to piss me off, even if he was surprisingly cool with me last session (he pissed Yuth off instead). There's a couple of various things I can do to try and improve that besides relying on magical items at least, thought Hatbot will probably just give me even lower rolls. =/
Yeah, you've had a bad spell of luck. That's not helped you at all, but your basic build is competent. Don't let bad luck get to you, just keep on going. Eventually things do average out.
QuoteI'm also a little bummed that sneak attack has been so utterly situational for me and the situation has conspired to be that I can't use it most of the time. A lot of fights seem to have stuff that dies in one shot so no flanking, has improved uncanny dodge, immunity to SA, or something else that prevents it. Outside of the evasion and skill points, rogue side feels a bit weak to me as a result.
I've had this problem with Adrian as well. You guys can dish out high damage and aren't terribly specified out towards flanking, so sneak attack is hard to set up short of attacking before the enemy is ready. I don't think there's been much crit immunity around but there has been a fair bit of uncanny dodge. Penetrating Strike at least gets you half SA if you can flank, but single targets tend to go down quickly. Opportunist can help, and if you get enough crits to make it worthwhile, grab Telling Blow. I do think evasion has done you a lot of good, so that's worth it from your rogue side.
QuoteI'm at least going to want to talk to Adrian about his habit of charging at new stuff when he's last on init, even though other stuff is still alive and being engaged already, it utterly bugs me that he does that when he could get a flanking bonus without losing his +2 atk bonus, get to apply SA (in those situations where it can apply anyhow), not take an AC penalty -and- if he flanks with ME, I get sneak attack the next round too or alternatively with some of those high AC monsters, lower their AC for the others. If I can't do that, at the very least I'd get a much needed +2 to attack to counter evil hatebotting.
Generally Adrian does that so you don't leave an enemy alone to flank the party in turn. If two or three of you have one monster tied up, you generally can deal with him and Adrian can hold the fortress down with another. That's his take on tactics as far as that goes - he'd rather not get counter-flanked. That's why he went after that one wolf in yesterday's session, for example.
QuoteCharacter hasn't -quite- gone as I envisioned, but close enough, and I'm mostly okay with Ithea. I have fun playing her anyway though the character feels a bit too lonesome. Eb pointed out that I'm a little quiet, that's part of the reason, I don't really have anyone I feel comfortable bantering with besides Adrian. The other PCs are mostly just 'friends' purely by situation/common interest regarding Lifasa too.
Ithea respects the three of them, but outside of that respect...she doesn't really know how to react to Afina for the most part though she does kind of like the pixie, Willim is too dumb for meaningful conversation, and she finds Jaela a little obnoxious as well as a little creepy for her thing with Annalise. Oddly, Ithea also has more respect for Jaela than the other two, at least as a warrior, mostly because she seems to generally do some of the most impressive/memorable things in a fight and just being so in the middle of all the action.
I generally agree with that; I tend to use Adrian or someone else as connections to help work around this. More on this later.
QuoteAdrian, she has a like/hate relationship with, she does see him as a friend by this point, much more than the PCs, even if initially she found him the most obnoxious, which is a maybe a bit ironic as she's a lot like him, personality-wise. She actually agrees with most of his onscreen complaints, but unless he's specifically asking for my opinion, I don't feel a need to vocally agree. Anyway, by this point, she actually likes chatting with him, though she'll still react negatively to his cat jokes.
Yeah, I've been using him as a hook to get you interacting more. It's worked and I think you two have a good dynamic. Helps draw you in better, y'know?
QuoteI get a little weirded out by the fact that the half-celestial and npc aasimars are both the dirtiest mouthed individuals, but I mostly just joke with Yuth about that, rather than actually having a serious problem with it.
I find it hilarious. I can't speak for Jaela, but Dana is LN. By aasimar standards she's an odd duck even before you take everything else into account.
QuoteMechanically, I want to ditch rogue next level, though I'm still not sure what I want to go into. No PrC has really grabbed my attention (or the prereqs just don't agree with me). I'm kind of pondering factotum, though not that attached either.
Factotum is good for a three of four level dip if you have a good intelligence score. Yours is 18 and without any boosters on it, so yeah, you could do that. I can look at PrCs and make suggestions if you want.
QuoteI like fighting stuff we can hate too, though I've been enjoying most of the trials too. I'm not a fan of the high AC opponents though, particularly due to my poor luck with hatbot with attacks. That the two guys we fought with high AC also had improved uncanny dodge so I couldn't reduce their AC with that ability I have made those fights worse for me.
Yeah, they matched up poorly to you. Most enemies who fight you alone need massive defenses or gobs and gobs of hit points to be anything more than a speed bump, so I'm working on it.
QuoteI'm also really not a fan of Annalise's heart-to-heart moments or duels. We can't really do much during duels, bantering about it just seems kind of crass in some cases or boring in others, and ditto for the vamp's scenes with Jaela/Afina. It's fine when there's other stuff we can do, but when we have to wait on it, it's a little boring, and it really doesn't help with staying immersed (that also leads to those detached player moments, obviously).
Yeah, I actually agree as far as Annalise goes. A few bits of that was unavoidable, but I'm trying to avoid doing it except when other things are going on. I don't really want to have three of you sit around for an hour while another person does something. It's not really that good an idea. It's fine occasionally; on that note, Dana was a mediocre choice for that sort of situation. Her high AC and low damage made any duel against her drag out.
QuoteI'd note that as Corwin really wants more gaming and Yuth/I aren't on during mondays/wednesdays, I dunno, can't you hold those things off to those days for mini/side-sessions? Duels aren't a big deal, we've had all of two (Elrisa and Dana), but Annalise really seems to be a time chewer, and it's boring.
Yep, that's my plan.
Finally no quote for this one since I accidentally deleted it, but you're right. Finding Aurora was the opening act, now the story has just begun in earnest.
Quote from: Corwin on October 08, 2011, 07:57:11 PM
-I haven't decided 100% on the Arcane Duelist, but yeah, it's about the only thing that would bring my ac up to speed. As for hit and run tactics, I figure I'm gonna get hit anyway so by relying on retaliation and heals I can just make it work for me and outlast my enemies. That does carry the risk of looking lame if I retreat from a nearly-vanquished opponent for a recharge. Why don't I like it? Because it's the opposite of cool. When that fight is remembered, what will remain more in the conscious? That I gave as good as I got, or that I had to retreat while someone else took the initiative and won the actual fight?
True, true. There's nothing wrong with being cautious, though. It's better to be there to remember that battle than to have eaten a lucky crit that finishes you off when your own attacks didn't hit home. Jaela isn't one for caution much, though.
Quote-Raquel is the best mage! Quicken spell, all the damn time! (And empower, and maximize....)
Lots of powerful magic, okay.
Quote-I look forward to seeing more aspects of our allies!
Aren't we all?
-CG here. It's refreshing to be a bit crass here and there for a change. Although I do wonder why people expect angels to have some sort of Vow of Niceness. Next they'll expect them to have a Vow of Chastity too or something silly like that (because come on, half-celestials/aasimars).
-The thing is, I'm cautious even in situations where my char would know better (and risk keeping on fighting). When I realize that after the fact, it sours things up some, you know? Losing to a lucky crit is understandable, especially if the glory of victory was also there for the taking. But it's more like I'm losing to myself. I'm talking about those times when I keep on overestimating our opponents and looking lame as a result, whereas the battle ends with a whimper and not a bang.
-Typical Raquel:
http://www.watchanimeon.com/scrapped-princess-episode-1/ Starting about 11 minutes in
http://www.watchanimeon.com/scrapped-princess-episode-5/ Give or take 16.5 minutes in
QuoteI've had this problem with Adrian as well. You guys can dish out high damage and aren't terribly specified out towards flanking, so sneak attack is hard to set up short of attacking before the enemy is ready.
That's actually the only times I've dealt sneak attack damage, when I won init and on first strike against something without uncanny dodge.
QuoteGenerally Adrian does that so you don't leave an enemy alone to flank the party in turn. If two or three of you have one monster tied up, you generally can deal with him and Adrian can hold the fortress down with another. That's his take on tactics as far as that goes - he'd rather not get counter-flanked. That's why he went after that one wolf in yesterday's session, for example.
I can understand that, I guess.
QuoteFactotum is good for a three of four level dip if you have a good intelligence score. Yours is 18 and without any boosters on it, so yeah, you could do that. I can look at PrCs and make suggestions if you want.
I was figuring 3 levels if anything.
And suggestions would be great, definitely.
I was considering arcane duelist, gives an excuse to know Elrisa better, but the feat prereqs are horrible for me.
QuoteAlthough I do wonder why people expect angels to have some sort of Vow of Niceness. Next they'll expect them to have a Vow of Chastity too or something silly like that (because come on, half-celestials/aasimars).
It's not so much that I expect a vow of niceness, honestly, I certainly don't think an angel has to be sugar-sweet niceness incarnate, they can be agents of vengeance/retribution or hardasses or whatever, and insults/cuss words aren't something that they just shouldn't do either. The degree/level/maturity of the cussing does feel a bit weird to me though, but I don't mind it that much and if you/Dune enjoy it, I'm not gonna say anything more on it.
Quote from: Corwin on October 08, 2011, 08:28:18 PM
-CG here. It's refreshing to be a bit crass here and there for a change. Although I do wonder why people expect angels to have some sort of Vow of Niceness. Next they'll expect them to have a Vow of Chastity too or something silly like that (because come on, half-celestials/aasimars).
Most people think nice=Good. This isn't strictly true, though kindness, compassion and mercy are certainly aspects of Good. In this case, profanity has a certain shock value and it is multiplied by your half-celestial heritage. When you think of a half celestial, do you think of a foul mouthed warrior who may be in the starting stages of a relationship with a vampire? That said, most full celestials wouldn't have a mouth like yours. What they'd call profanity isn't something you'd even register as a profanity, due to the frame of reference being so removed from your own. Latha did this a few times in Balmuria 1, dunno if you ever caught her at it. Remember, they speak Celestial as a native language. Celestial has near-endless capacity to describe love, justice, salvation, hope, endurance and all those other concepts that can be related to Good. A profanity in Celestial is going to be far different than a profanity in Common or a mortal tongue.
Granted, a celestial that hangs around mortals and speaks their language can pick up on those habits easily enough. It's not natural for them, since they think in a language that lacks the same structure and references as mortal tongues. Antenora was better at profanity than Latha when it came up; she thought in Infernal for quite some time Now if you want a language to swear in, Infernal's a good bet. Anything that isn't related to lawful evil has negative connotations, and there are myriad ways to denigrate, destroy, insult and generally disrespect anything that doesn't fit into that worldview. Infernal by its definition needs to have these structures and words, the mindset behind lawful evil demands it. This is on a wavelength most mortals can understand far better than unfiltered Good.
Incidentally, this is why I give epic level fiends get Dark Speech as a bonus feat and likewise celestials with Words of Creation. At the point they are at, the language they use is so symbolic and powerful that expanding into that realm is natural. The language and words of an archangel are so fortified and focused on the concepts of Good that the words themselves are holy. A fiend's words are so far removed from any concepts of righteousness and filled with the darkest concepts that the Dark Speech comes as second nature to them. They think in such ways that it is inevitable, fully polarized to an alignment concept that their words follow.
That was a random digression, wasn't it? I'll keep it in the reply since I think it's interesting.
Quote-The thing is, I'm cautious even in situations where my char would know better (and risk keeping on fighting). When I realize that after the fact, it sours things up some, you know? Losing to a lucky crit is understandable, especially if the glory of victory was also there for the taking. But it's more like I'm losing to myself. I'm talking about those times when I keep on overestimating our opponents and looking lame as a result, whereas the battle ends with a whimper and not a bang.
I think you're over-analyzing here. I get what you mean here, but I don't think that makes you a loser. It means your character is wise enough to cut down on their risk.
Quote from: Merc on October 08, 2011, 09:45:19 PMThat's actually the only times I've dealt sneak attack damage, when I won init and on first strike against something without uncanny dodge.
Likewise. I think he got it on the arcanaloth, maybe? I'd have to check logs. His rogue side has underperformed along the same line as yours.
QuoteI can understand that, I guess.
Feel free to talk to him about it, though. By all means. Improving strategy always helps.
QuoteI was figuring 3 levels if anything.
And suggestions would be great, definitely.
I was considering arcane duelist, gives an excuse to know Elrisa better, but the feat prereqs are horrible for me.
Arcane Duelist has two feat reqs for you, as you already have the needed weapon proficiencies. You'd want to dip fighter 2, I'd reckon.
Three levels of Factotum is pretty solid, you could go up to as much as 5 levels if you wanted. Any more than that and I wouldn't call it a dip, as it is 5 levels is stretching the definition.
Recommendations? Okay.
Fighter: The old bonus feat routine. It's not bad if you want to buff your attacks up or grab a few feats. It's the easy dip if unexciting.
Psychic Warrior: Fighter with some added psionic ability. The medium BAB progression is covered by the full BAB Duskblade. A two level dip is fighter+1 for you, any more and you get a slower feat progression.
Warlock: If you cherry-pick a few invocations this could be a decent dip. I'd check some handbooks for tips here if you're interested.
Psychic Rogue: Sneak attack+manifesting. Same idea as Psychic Warrior as above.
Paragnostic Apostle: You can qualify for it as is. None of the abilities are earthshattering, but a dip can be good if any of them strike your fancy.
Occult Slayer: You qualify for it and it is a solid enough PrC. There are flavor problems with it, but that applies to almost anyone who takes it. 3.5 and magic, y'know? The abilities are generally solid.
Tactical Soldier: You'd need to take two feats, but the first level ability makes flanking easier.
Divine Champion: You have some minor qualification issues in revering a deity and weapon focus is a concern. It's an okay 5 level class with decent powers, could be good filler if you want to go in that direction.
Gatecrasher: You qualify with ease. It gives you various planar-related powers, could be useful in this particular game.
QuoteArcane Duelist has two feat reqs for you, as you already have the needed weapon proficiencies. You'd want to dip fighter 2, I'd reckon.
I'd probably be willing to retrain improved initiative or the versatile spellcaster feat and grab the second feat when we hit 15 so I don't need to dip fighter, but I just don't really like either feat. Dodge's not that bad I suppose, it'd give me a little better survivability, but Mobility...how often am I really going to provoke an AoO with my reach?
QuoteRecommendations? Okay.
Fighter That's pretty much an "if nothing else pops up", yeah.
Psychic Warrior/Rogue I don't know much about psionics, don't really care to learn either. It'd take too much time to figure things out I think, even if PW is strictly better than normal warrior in gestalt.
Paragnostic Apostle/Divine Champion I mostly want to avoid anything with a divine flavor, to be honest.
Warlock/Occult Slayer Neither really feel right. Warlock's power source seems like a bad fit all things considered too.
Tactical Soldier I'd considered this one, actually. It's not too bad I suppose, and the feats aren't painful either.
Gatecrasher Nothing about this one really grabs me, don't have much else to say.
Quote from: Anastasia on October 07, 2011, 07:59:07 PM
1. How do you feel your character has turned out the past level from a mechanical standpoint? Do you feel you're pulling your load? Why or why not? If not, what do you think you can do to improve?
Sometimes I feel like I'm not doing enough damage, but I guess since I built Willim into a tanking role, I should expect that. He's more of a damage-soaker and disabler with Trip & Grapple. I think I really just need to keep boosting my survivability. Well, maybe a little damage increase would be good.
Quote2. Likewise, how do you feel your character has turned out from an RP standpoint? Do you feel that your character is working? Why or why not? If not, what do you think you can do to improve?
I love playing Willim. Willim is the most fun I've had in a long time. I really enjoy the reactions I get from the others, especially when I frustrate or freak out someone. I'm looking forward to our first forray onto the Prime Material.
Quote3. How do you get along with the other players? Good points, bad points, hangups, irritations, praise?
I think we as players get along just fine. I'm still relearning all the rules that I never used, so I occasionally (daily) make a mistake or two. I feel stupid. :D
Quote4. Where do you see your character going? How do you see that enabling them to get where you want them to go, both mechanically and RP-wise? Do you feel you can reach this as it stands now?
I see Willim becoming an unstoppable force as we go on. His survivability is going to go up hugely as he levels, and I'm really looking forward to that. I don't think he'll ever be a king, or rule the world, or even teach primary school, but as long as he's tough and strong, I'm sure he'll get by.
Quote5. What adventures and situations have you enjoyed so far? What ones have you not? Why?
Initial devil beatdown was cool. I REALLY enjoyed our first encounter with Elrisa. Playing dumb is a lot of fun. I look forward to cock-blocking Adrian some more.
Quote6. What could I do to get more of the good and less of the bad? Why?
Gear drops, even if they're trivial. It gives us (me at least) a sense of accomplishment after a fight. Even if they drop a bag of silver or a big ass tooth or something. I was kind of hoping to get a couple of the teeth from that dragon's head, and was a bit disappointed that it all crumbled into dust. The broom was a nice touch, though. I kind of miss the trophies we had from Bal2 a little.
Quote7. What could other players do to get less of the bad and more of the good? Why?
Well, Jaela swears a lot, and that's surprising to me as she's half-celestial, but she mentioned something about being fallen or something(I think?) so it's not really an issue. My only real issue is with Dana. Slopping about "cunt" isn't something I was ever comfortable with. Swearing is fun, but...wow.
Quote8. What could you do to get more good and less bad? Why?
More loots, less c*nts.
Quote9. How's the tone of the game? Too dark? Too light?
I'm happy with either way, and it's been kind of neutral so far. Fairly smooth, too. If you do decide to go dark, you may want to drop us a hint or two.
Quote10. How has my DMing been? Good? Bad? Consistent? Inconsistent? Why? Give examples if possible.
You do fine, sir.
Quote11. How do you feel I've handled everything, both IC and OOC-wise? Have I been pushing for gaming too hard? Not enough? Has there been any friction you'd like to air out?
I could actually do with an hour or so more each day. I've got the time.
Quote12. Is there anything you'd like me to stop doing as a DM?
See previous complaints.
Quote13. How have my rulings been? Are they reasonable and fair? Do you feel I'm staying reasonably impartial?
I've got no problems with current rulings.
Quote14. How has my encounter design been? Are the fights doing it for you?
The ice encounter was GREAT! WILLIM SMASH!
Quote15. How's my dungeon/area design been? Tips for improvement?
Pretty good so far. You're the DM. Give me skeletons to smash or spiders to befriend. >_>
Quote16. How are my various NPCs doing? Are they entertaining you? Are they pulling weight without hogging the screen?
Adrian is amusing. Dana is a little creepy. Annalise is more than a little creepy, although her attempts to fix Willim's brain are highly amusing.
Quote17. Anything else you'd like to add?
Toast!
Quote from: Yuthirin on October 10, 2011, 03:01:13 AMSometimes I feel like I'm not doing enough damage, but I guess since I built Willim into a tanking role, I should expect that. He's more of a damage-soaker and disabler with Trip & Grapple. I think I really just need to keep boosting my survivability. Well, maybe a little damage increase would be good.
That and your CMB, yes.
QuoteI love playing Willim. Willim is the most fun I've had in a long time. I really enjoy the reactions I get from the others, especially when I frustrate or freak out someone. I'm looking forward to our first forray onto the Prime Material.
He's fun to play against, at least for me. Annalise trying to teach him how to speak better got me to crack up several times.
QuoteGear drops, even if they're trivial. It gives us (me at least) a sense of accomplishment after a fight. Even if they drop a bag of silver or a big ass tooth or something. I was kind of hoping to get a couple of the teeth from that dragon's head, and was a bit disappointed that it all crumbled into dust. The broom was a nice touch, though. I kind of miss the trophies we had from Bal2 a little.
There's been more than a few no-drop battles. These happen occasionally but I'm not a huge fan of them. So yeah, agreed.
QuoteWell, Jaela swears a lot, and that's surprising to me as she's half-celestial, but she mentioned something about being fallen or something(I think?) so it's not really an issue. My only real issue is with Dana. Slopping about "cunt" isn't something I was ever comfortable with. Swearing is fun, but...wow.
Welllll. I wouldn't use cunt in real life either, but at the same time Dana would. I wouldn't maim and murder for evil, but the devil I'm RPing as the DM would. So I usually don't think about it like that, I just do what's appropriate for the character in question to do. I try not to openly make you guys uncomfortable, but at the same time I try and be true to the characters in question. It's usually a balancing act between these things, taking various things into account.
QuoteI could actually do with an hour or so more each day. I've got the time.
I can try and run longer if you guys like. This wouldn't be an everyday thing since sometimes I have things to do around that time - years of stopping at that time for work or personal things sets up habits - but I can do it sometimes.
I wrote these answers at the same time as the questions, so some of these answers may end up repeating what I've already said. I did it this way to get my honest, off the to of my head thoughts before replies might change what I'd have to say.
Quote from: Anastasia on October 07, 2011, 07:52:58 PM1. How do you feel your character has turned out the past level from a mechanical standpoint? Do you feel you're pulling your load? Why or why not? If not, what do you think you can do to improve?
I'll refer to the noteworthy NPCs for this. Adrian's turned out well enough mechanically. While he doesn't exploit his sneak attack damage as much as he should, he likes crippling strike and he's pumping out solid damage. His low AC is going to get him into more trouble soon enough. He wants to pick up Telling Blow as soon as possible with the way he keeps nailing crits. Annalise is doing exactly how I expected, you can take that as you will. It's not hard to be effective when you're a spellcaster 6 levels above the party average. It's too early to say on Elrisa, she hasn't seen much combat. Naliel...well, I sort of expected she might die. It's not like I put a lantern archon in a mid-high level group and expected it to survive easily. It's a risk of the job for her. Dana I think performs well within her niche, which is all I'm asking for from her.
Quote2. Likewise, how do you feel your character has turned out from an RP standpoint? Do you feel that your character is working? Why or why not? If not, what do you think you can do to improve?
Again, noteworthy NPCs.
Adrian has been interesting for me to play. He's no great charismatic leader - he has a natural six charisma without his cloak - but a guy trying to avenge and push back a nightmare. This is on purpose. I didn't want to give you guys a leader to rally around. I want you guys to be the leaders and I made that clear from the get-go. That said, he's not afraid to open his mouth, even if sometimes he puts his foot into it. He also doesn't hide his opinions all that well, at least as far as certain things go. Hi Elrisa! Anyway, I tend to think of him as a mid level lieutenant who was thrust into a more prominent role. He's a hero, but he's not a Hero, y'know?
Yes, he's a little bit creepy on purpose. How can you say you're wearing your mother's soul around your neck and not be creepy? Well, it's not easy and he's not interested in dressing it up. It is what it is, and he has far more important things to get done. After all, no one made a catgirl joke today!
Annalise I'll refrain from comment on.
With Elrisa, I'm surprised you guys like her so much. I know she has a high charisma and acts like it, but at the same time she says some fairly nasty things. I guess it's easy to accept that when she's pretty and talking about people you may not like, eh? Anyway, she's not evil or anything, but she definitely has her biases. I'm trying not to make her too one-note about it, but she's not had a lot of screentime yet and what time there played to her biases.
Elena's a lot of fun and fairly transparent so far. Gah, that's a horrible pun. I'm sorry. Anyway, I feel that you can really see through her, you know? With all the grim faces and serious people, I figured someone more carefree would be a fine contrast. As an aside, I have a sketched out build for her but she's low on the priority list. It wasn't possible for her to fight you with the Celestial Key, and she can't leave Aurora. So doing that statblock up is low priority.
Quote3. How do you get along with the other players? Good points, bad points, hangups, irritations, praise?
I think I'm getting along with each of you well.
Quote4. Where do you see your character going? How do you see that enabling them to get where you want them to go, both mechanically and RP-wise? Do you feel you can reach this as it stands now?
Let me answer this on purely mechanical grounds. I'd rather not go into RP-wise for various DM reasons.
Adrian: He'll be fine. His basic build is good and Planar Champion gives him some nice tricks as well as versatility. He'll want to pick up a ranged option at some point; I think he has UMD so a good wand could be a possibility. He does have a weak breath weapon thanks to Dragonfire Adept, but 1d6 isn't scaring anything. Besides that, I'm debating what he should do once he finishes off Planar Champion. He'll have 4 levels to kill; running fighter is boring but getting greater weapon focus and eventually greater weapon specialization could be worthwhile. This lets him grab epic weapon focus and epic weapon specialization eventually. Barring that, I'm not really sure. Maybe scout for skirmish or dragon devotee if I want to make him more dragon. I'm not really sure.
Annalise: Probably Vampire//Sorcerer for the forseeable future, assuming I don't have a trick up my sleeve. She's done with Unseen Seer, going past level 5 isn't worthwhile for her.
Elrisa: She's staying in swashbuckler forever on one side. On the other she'll finish up Arcane Duelist and then have 4 levels until epic. No idea what she'll do with them! More fighter or more sorcerer are both valid options, as is another PrC. This may change if and when she sees combat. Her build works fine on paper, but you never know how things will turn out.
Misalea: Ranger/Bard, maybe a PrC at some point if she gains levels. She doesn't look likely to see a lot of direct combat right now.
Dana: Run the table on knight and finish up dwarven defender. She'll probably go to fighter again until she can do epic dwarven defender. It's still too early to call on her, but that's the loose plans I have drawn up. Jaela said something about getting her turning so she can recharge protection devotion. A favored soul dip could do that, I suppose, or she could get more exotic about it. Turning does make a lot of sense for her, but it's too late in the game for her to get a worthwhile progression of it. She faces some of the same problems as Demedais.
Quote5. What adventures and situations have you enjoyed so far? What ones have you not? Why?
I've enjoyed almost everything. There's been a couple of terse days or middling scenes, but by and large things have been good. None come immediately to mind, which is a good sign they're fairly minor problems.
Quote6. What could I do to get more of the good and less of the bad? Why?
Mmmm. I can't really answer this for myself, so let me give each of you some advice in the same vein.
Eb: I think Afina could use just a touch more flavor. It's a consequence of her basic personality, I feel like she pushes people away and keeps her feelings inside. She's the most interesting when something gets her talking.
Cor: Actually, I don't have a lot to say. I feel like I'm getting along better with you than I did in Balmuria 2. Yay.
Merc: Just try and emote a little more and say a little more. I know you're a slow typer and we've had this conversation before, so I won't belabor this one. It's nice when Ithea shows some banter or argues with Adrian.
Yuth: Keep learning 3.5. You've gotten a lot better, but you still have holes. You're patching them, like with full attack and combat maneuvers, so keep on doing that. I like Willim as the tall, dark and stupid type that he is. It brings a certain comic relief to the table. You probably should rage more often in combat, though. It's a free action, don't be afraid to pop one if you need to. Hell, if you find yourself needing more rages per day, take extra rage. On the other hand, there may be RP concerns here and it's an RP based choice not to rage all that often.
Quote7. What could other players do to get less of the bad and more of the good? Why?
Pass, see above.
Quote8. What could you do to get more good and less bad? Why?
Me? Less away time when possible. It's often unavoidable due to the dog needing to go out or my stomach going sour. Anyway, my approach to building NPCs this game has been one or two salient points of interest and slowly building from there. With the way you're collecting people, I'm afraid they'll become one note wonders. I want to work on building characters around you that aren't just gimmicks to be trotted out whenever you need them.
Quote9. How's the tone of the game? Too dark? Too light?
It's about right. It's not terribly dark nor is it lighthearted. It's just where it should be for this sort of game.
Quote10. How has my DMing been? Good? Bad? Consistent? Inconsistent? Why? Give examples if possible.
I think I'm doing okay enough. I'm trying to make battle interesting, especially since there's been a lot so far. I knew this was going to happen so I've tried to make various encounters interesting and varied. I'd like to use less one big enemy and nothing else sort of battles, unless that one enemy is a duel or really damned interesting to fight. I feel the arcanaloth and the chaos creature qualified for that, not sure about any others. Galariel went okay but not great - by the way, he was basically using Souther's style from Fist of the North Star, throwing golden phoenixes and the like around from atop the peak of a mountain(pyramid).
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXQ91-06nzA&feature=player_detailpage#t=258s if you're curious)
I hope to see more RP soon enough, once Aurora gets better established and stocked with people. I knew the start would be feeling people out, then it went right to Ysgard, soooo.
Quote11. How do you feel I've handled everything, both IC and OOC-wise? Have I been pushing for gaming too hard? Not enough? Has there been any friction you'd like to air out?
I can't really answer this one, can I? Well, there is one worthwhile point. I'm trying to encourage a little more gaming. If nothing else, some odds and ends character scenes on Mondays, since most of us are here sans Merc. I tried this past week and it never really materialized and this coming Monday isn't going to have anything like that since you're in the middle of a fight.
Quote12. Is there anything you'd like me to stop doing as a DM?
Pass.
Quote13. How have my rulings been? Are they reasonable and fair? Do you feel I'm staying reasonably impartial?
I generally try to rule for a balanced game and to respect the spirit of the rules. I'm not perfectly impartial, as I do take into account each character's build and relative strengths in certain cases. This is unavoidable in 3.5, as what's fair on one build could be broken on another. I do try and be fair and keep you guys as balanced as possible.
Quote14. How has my encounter design been? Are the fights doing it for you?
No comment here, but I've tried to keep the encounters interesting.
Quote15. How's my dungeon/area design been? Tips for improvement?
There's not been a real dungeon until now, but I've tried to make each area feel indicative of its traits. This isn't a group for leisurely planar introspection and spiritual exploration like Balmuria 1, so I try and stick to more concrete examples. I think the Astral sells itself easily, as using it to travel makes an obvious, immediate impression. Elysium did alright, it was on one of the more quiet, rustic layers. Ysgard is doing a good job for itself so far. The Deep Ethereal did rather well for itself too, I think.
Quote16. How are my various NPCs doing? Are they entertaining you? Are they pulling weight without hogging the screen?
I'll reverse this and give you guys mechanical advice instead since I've covered most other elements about you guys, and you guys are supposed to hog the screen. You're the PCs.
Eb: You're in pretty good shape. You're playing a strong combination of classes and you know what you're doing. You fall a bit behind on damage when everyone else starts full attacking or Adrian crits, but everything else works. Maybe pick up a direct damage spell if you run into someone with insane AC. You could take something to snatch Mettle if you really wanted to, but it's rather excessive.
Cor: Boost your AC. You're going to take Arcane Duelist eventually which will fix the problem. That'll put you in average AC for awhile and help patch that hole.
Yuth: If you're investing more in combat maneuvers, boost your CMD! The easiest way to do this is by increasing your size and strength score. This is easier said than done, though you've been looking at various PrCs along those lines.
Merc: Maybe invest in a bloodline for some extra spells? I know Duskblades are rather limited and this would get you some variety. Dragon Compendium has an assortment of these if that interests you.
17. Anything else you'd like to add?
Nah.
Quote from: AnastasiaBuilding an army in your image and training them up is a good goal. How do you see yourself reaching that goal in more detail?
Afina has ancient fey secrets she can teach people for when it comes to going really fast and killing people! More concretely she's an assassin by trade (even if it hasn't come up explicitly since she's been taking part in stand up fights with the rest of the party ever since we started) so she can get our own assassin corps off the ground.
I took craft (weapons) so I could add to our cause beyond simple killing as well. Excalibur was made by fairies, and Afina can make awesome weapons, too! (well, except for lacking the craft magic arms and armour feat. I'll take it if it's needed but I'd prefer if we could RP around that a bit especially since I've made the investment in skill points) Other than swords, siege/defensive weapons are a possibility. If we can spontaneously generate portals anywhere within Aurora's vicinity then this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKZZEPoVb4c) becomes a possibility.
I'm thinking of establishing a style of my own via cannibalizing all the ones I'm exposed to. Should be fun, if I don't die horribly in the process. But if I make it, I'm renaming the Gambit after me. >_>
Oh God, you're taking Robliar's Gambit? Are you sure Dana isn't rubbing off on you?
Ko: Don't pretty much all bloodlines require you to be a sorceror or have a familiar?
Quote from: AnastasiaWith Elrisa, I'm surprised you guys like her so much. I know she has a high charisma and acts like it, but at the same time she says some fairly nasty things. I guess it's easy to accept that when she's pretty and talking about people you may not like, eh? Anyway, she's not evil or anything, but she definitely has her biases. I'm trying not to make her too one-note about it, but she's not had a lot of screentime yet and what time there played to her biases.
Elena's a lot of fun and fairly transparent so far. Gah, that's a horrible pun. I'm sorry. Anyway, I feel that you can really see through her, you know? With all the grim faces and serious people, I figured someone more carefree would be a fine contrast. As an aside, I have a sketched out build for her but she's low on the priority list. It wasn't possible for her to fight you with the Celestial Key, and she can't leave Aurora. So doing that statblock up is low priority.
It's worth noting that Afina's way more racist and prejudiced than Elrisa (although she doesn't have any gender hangups at least). Elrisa has a pretty reasonable dislike for humans and dwarves given who wiped out her country/people. Afina hates anyone who's not a hardcore isolationist fey (and she even hates some of them!) - circumstances have forced her to ignore her prejudices in favour of gathering forces to retake Lifasa, but that makes everyone equal in her eyes. She'll take an elder vampire and a hagspawn on her team because as far as she's concerned they're both terrible but at least have the potential to be useful, and right now that's all that matters to her. Intellectually she has some awareness that her old mindset probably wasn't correct given the end result, but it's still there.
Also forgot to mention Elena when talking about NPCs. She's awesome! I feel bad for wrecking her eternal duty and then forcing her to work for us, but I'm glad she's willing to look past all that herself and lend a hand.
I like Elrisa because she's easy to anger. I am highly amused by this.
It gives a new meaning to the term "trolling!"
Quote from: Merc on October 10, 2011, 11:36:31 PM
Ko: Don't pretty much all bloodlines require you to be a sorceror or have a familiar?
The ones in Dragon Compendium simply require you to be able to cast arcane spells without preparation. Duskblade qualifies for that.
Quote from: Ebiris on October 12, 2011, 05:55:58 PMIt's worth noting that Afina's way more racist and prejudiced than Elrisa (although she doesn't have any gender hangups at least). Elrisa has a pretty reasonable dislike for humans and dwarves given who wiped out her country/people. Afina hates anyone who's not a hardcore isolationist fey (and she even hates some of them!) - circumstances have forced her to ignore her prejudices in favour of gathering forces to retake Lifasa, but that makes everyone equal in her eyes. She'll take an elder vampire and a hagspawn on her team because as far as she's concerned they're both terrible but at least have the potential to be useful, and right now that's all that matters to her. Intellectually she has some awareness that her old mindset probably wasn't correct given the end result, but it's still there.
That helps frame her point of view rather well. I'd semi-forgotten that in everything else.
QuoteAlso forgot to mention Elena when talking about NPCs. She's awesome! I feel bad for wrecking her eternal duty and then forcing her to work for us, but I'm glad she's willing to look past all that herself and lend a hand.
I do enjoy her, yes, and I get the impression you guys do as well. She's a victim of circumstance, but all of you are too.
Feedback time. With many questions there's going to be some redundancy. If a question is purely redundant for you, say so and skip it.
I'll answer these later from the position of the DM. Don't want to influence answers ahead of time.
People
PCs
1. How do you feel your character is working out? Any areas that are particularly good or problematic?
2. How do you feel about the other PCs?
NPCs.
3. I strive to provide interesting NPCs, especially since this game is based around recruiting and building an army. How am I doing at that?
4. Who are your favorite 3 NPCs? If you haven't covered this already, why?
5. Who are your 3 least favorite NPCs? If you haven't covered this already, why?
Bad Guys
6. How do you feel Baator has been presented, as far as your primary antagonists go?
7. How do you feel evil in general is portrayed? I've been pulling few punches with them.
8. How do you feel about any other opposition you have?
Places
Planes
9. How do you feel the Heavens are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
10. How do you feel the Hells are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
11. How do you feel the other Outer Planes are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
12. How do you feel the Inner Planes and misc (Astral, ect) are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
Areas
13. What areas have you visited and liked, or thought were fun and memorable? Why?
14. What do you think of Aurora? I try and show it off whenever I can, but it's usually just a homebase that you rarely walk around in to merely see the sights.
15. What do you think of Brightwater? It's the closest thing the group has to a town and you visit it fairly often.
Things
Treasure
16. How's loot going for you? Am I giving you interesting items?
17. How about the raw quantity of GP? With Aurora+NPCs+Expenses there's always going to be a need for more, and this was design to have some money crunch elements to it. Afina's crafting has taken a considerable load off this burden, but it still exists.
18. I've dropped...3-5 artifacts in game, I believe? What do you think about them?
Meta
19. How am I DMing?
20. How's the tone of the game for you?
21. How's combat going? I strive to keep combat both dangerous and interesting whenever possible.
22. Now that you have some idea (but not all) of what's going on and some hints of why Lifasa fell, what do you think? Right now, it looks like the devils are using some form of fate to empower events and its your task to give fate a kick in the 'nads.
23. Who do you consider your biggest enemy in game?
Misc
24. This is purely meta, but I'm curious. Would your PC ever consider negotiating with Hell or a devil faction?
25. Do you think you can save Lifasa? IC and OOC.
26. Throughout the Planes, it can be said everyone has an agenda and a cause to promote. How much of a sense of that do you get?
27. Is 27 the sexiest badger-slaad on Lifasa?
Seriously 27: There's a lot of mysteries in the game world, from small to huge. What do you identify as mysteries, and what do you think the answers are? Assuming you have a guess as to what the answer is, anyway.
Quote from: Dune1. How do you feel your character is working out? Any areas that are particularly good or problematic?
I'm happy with Ithea, and I'm more comfortable in her shoes than the last round of feedback. Yes, I still fade into the background occassionally, but overall I do feel I'm a lot more active with Ithea. I do like interacting with all the varied NPCs too.
I know that's one of the things I really commented on last time, when we'd only gotten up to Dana then, and I've gotten opportunities to chat with a ton of the characters since then, including getting to know better the characters I didn't much like at the last round of feedback. There's still a lot of NPCs I've not interacted too much with though, particularly the pixie group, hopefully I will later on. I'd also like to interact a bit more with the soldiers/people rather than just the currently named NPCs. At the very least, making the catfolk contingent feel more of a presence for Ithea to be responsible for.
Mechanically, I'm also happy with my character. The sneak attack annoyance became a non-issue by rebuilding as a combat rogue, she has her niche/style, I actually don't feel dice-hate as much (whether it's simply better dice luck or change in perception because I'm playing Ithea better and her build is more balanced now), and I like where she's at power-wise, I certainly don't feel like I'm lagging or overshooting anybody.
*laughs* As a random note, I aged her from 18 to 19 somewhere between level 16 and 17. So she's the same age as Jaela now.
Quote2. How do you feel about the other PCs?
I'm fine with all the players and I'm okay with the other characters, though I'm not particularly attached to any of them. Willim's the only one Ithea could say she was close to, she only just met Muirfinn and she's not just not close to Afina or Jaela. Heck... Ithea actually kinda dislikes Jaela at that.
The two work well in combat, and there's a lot of respect as far as fighting goes, but their personalities just really feel like they clash and whenever they do interact, I tend to feel Jaela is often snippy/condescending or just ignoring her. That's fine, of all the PCs, Jaela is the one I'm almost never paired with for split-up scenes anyway. Kascha getting cursed and trying to rez Elrisa one last time, I think are about it, and I didn't even really do anything in those besides tag along so there was no sniping. Lack of interaction means I don't get annoyed often, and when I do, never for long.
More interaction between the two could change things for better despite that, I actually like a lot of the NPCs I used to dislike because of that extra interaction...then again, I somehow doubt it would. The only common ground between the two is the storyline, and even there Jaela has ideas that Ithea disagrees with fundamentally. The two just seem to mutually rub each other the wrong way, and nothing's gonna be done about that as long as they're still able to work well together in a fight, likely. And all things aside? The two would still try their hardest to save the other from death even at their own expense, I think.
Afina, there's really no particular reason I'm not close to her, I just never got attached to her, though I have no dislike for her either. Ithea seems to get along just fine with her and the few scenes they get together, Afina and her do actually chat and interact usually. Even in scenes where Ithea fades a bit, Afina always feels like she's paying attention to everyone, and when Ithea says something, she'll comment back, so I don't immediately feel like fading away again. Afina's pretty much the most mature of the group (though that might change with Muirfinn joining, hard to tell still) too, and the character with closest philosophy to Ithea so there's never any real friction there. Even if there's no friendly attachment, Ithea still holds her in really high regard, both in combat and out of it. She might have served as a good sounding board for Ithea on the split-session stuff, I did immediately think 'talk to Afina' when Kascha died, but it's likely Sylvie will be used there in the future instead, given their budding friendship.
Nothing to say on Muirfinn given he's so new.
Overall, Afina and Jaela are a lot more take-charge than Ithea, just due to them typing out more lines, though since I don't see either as a friend, I don't really interact much with either outside of the bigger scenes, and even then I tend to stick with Yuth and the NPCs for chatting, while letting the two hammer out plot-relevant stuff faster, only occassionally interjecting a thought about whatever they're discussing. Ithea'll just takes the lead if the other two aren't around to do so.
Quote3. I strive to provide interesting NPCs, especially since this game is based around recruiting and building an army. How am I doing at that?
*thumbs up?*
I said it above, but I feel that Ithea develops most as a character from interacting with NPCs, not from interacting with other PCs.
That said, I really would like to see the nameless soldiers/rank-and-file have more presence. It gives Aurora more life when we see them do stuff, sure we have giants playing gulah, poker tournaments and other stuff...that all occurs with the named NPCs, but there's a charm to seeing stuff involving characters like Carly outside of those story objectives, or that lycanthrope that picked a fight with Elrisa and got knocked on his ass, etc.
Of course, given all the stuff there is to do, not exactly sure
when you'd get to detail them out more either...
Quote4. Who are your favorite 3 NPCs? If you haven't covered this already, why?
I'll list four, since the last three are roughly around the same rank: Sylvie, Adrian, Annalise and Dana. Bonus points in that I actively disliked all of the last three at first.
When I was creating Ithea, I kind of made her background parallel Sylvie's to some degree, with the difference being that Sylvie did live up to her hype but realized she wasn't happy with it while Ithea saw that she didn't live up to it and struggling afterwards because of it, not to mention that Ithea's focus was always more combat-oriented in the first place. It was fun to actually interact with Sylvie once we picked her up, and then have a chat over those points of similarities/differences and bonding there. Still a pretty new relationship, so who knows where it'll go, but I like Sylvie so far, more than in Balmuria 2, although I think Ithea'd be fairly disappointed/angry if she ever mentions dumping her kid and they'll probably argue there. Family's important to Ithea, and she doesn't even have any living relatives left, knowing Sylvie has them and doesn't want to be around would be...a revelation about her new friend.
Adrian, I really disliked at first because of his ego, but he pulled back on it after getting a tree dropped on him (he deserved it!) even if he's still petty with the kitty jokes. Like she told Sylvie, right now Ithea considers him on the same scale as someone would consider an annoying younger brother. Familial-type love? He's really the one she's closest to, even if she's more comfortable with Sylvie.
Annalise's introduction really soured Ithea initially on the vampire, she didn't like almost being manipulated/controlled into freeing her, and just the fact that she's an undead monstrosity (if a beautiful one) did her no favors, but Ithea's still warmed up to the vamp a lot since then. She likes Annalise's personality, she's very self-assured and coy, and the fact that she hasn't betrayed them yet and actually has helped Ithea on a fair bit of things means she's grown on the catgirl. Like a fungus. Still don't trust her entirely, but there's at least enough trust there to interact with her and ask her out for help with visiting some other plane, as well as I don't feel quite as bad about defending/justifying her presence anymore. Ithea'll never admit to kind of liking her, of course. It sets a bad precedent (Not sure to what, but I'm sure it does). She does wish Jaela the best of luck with truly redeeming her, it's at least one project where she's really behind the celestial pirate, even if only in the privacy of her own mind.
Dana...is Dana. She's another fungus-like growth. Seeing her deal with the aftermath of Willim's death helps flesh her out more, and even if she's still a dirty-mouthed skank, Ithea does consider her a close friend now. And she gets -such- a kick out of Dana being an honest to goodness princess too.
Quote5. Who are your 3 least favorite NPCs? If you haven't covered this already, why?
I don't really have any NPC I dislike enough to put into a 'least favorite' category. I've not interacted enough with some of them that I'm just generally neutral over them, and the ones I interact heavily with, I do like, even the ones that I initially would have put in this category.
Quote6. How do you feel Baator has been presented, as far as your primary antagonists go?
7. How do you feel evil in general is portrayed? I've been pulling few punches with them.
8. How do you feel about any other opposition you have?
Hell is hellish. Evil is evil. This is all 'duh!' stuff, but I really can't put it into better words... I mean, I've enjoyed myself and I think the portrayal is fitting. What's more there to say? I do hope we can keep our enemies to just dragons and devils and keep other factions from really feeling that we've made enemies out of them. We do have triad problems, but as long as we don't go knocking at their door, it seems a non-issue. There's also still the gith to deal with and we're waiting on the fallout of Adrian's group dealing with mechanus, so we'll see.
Quote9. How do you feel the Heavens are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
11. How do you feel the other Outer Planes are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
12. How do you feel the Inner Planes and misc (Astral, ect) are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
More planar facts, please! Details about the places we specifically visit are fine though, I liked Marambor, dealing with Brightwater, Lady Chen's palace, the abyss, etc. They're atmospheric enough to interact with. Just more details about the planes themselves. They're all unique, how do they affect us? We only usually get a little fluff line when we teleport, but the lack of planar details means they don't really stick with us unless you continually reinforce that fluff, which you don't always.
Quote14. What do you think of Aurora? I try and show it off whenever I can, but it's usually just a homebase that you rarely walk around in to merely see the sights.
I like how it's shaping up into a city-state, makes me think of Balmuria's origin as an old abandoned fortress that started expanding into something more, which is a nice meta tie to the world of the last two games. Other than that, see question 3.
Quote16. How's loot going for you? Am I giving you interesting items?
I'd like to see more funny stuff like the jade pendant, the stuffed dog, etc. Sure, we usually sell it, but it's still fun to read about them when we pick them up and I always laugh when I see something like that. I also like the personalized items like the duskblade orb and such as well, obviously.
The shop stuff for Aurora is also neat, usually because of laughs, but there's stuff I might consider buying when I get my cash reserve up more.
Quote17. How about the raw quantity of GP? With Aurora+NPCs+Expenses there's always going to be a need for more, and this was design to have some money crunch elements to it. Afina's crafting has taken a considerable load off this burden, but it still exists.
It's good? I don't really have much to add here. The 51 days of money crunching was mind numbing though, I don't want to do that again, and definitely not during game-time.
Quote18. I've dropped...3-5 artifacts in game, I believe? What do you think about them?
They're nice and varied in power levels/effects, so they're neat!
21 is pretty unique. I'm curious what shape it'd take for Ithea, but at the same time, I really, really, really don't want to carry it either. Ithea's made a lot of bad calls to get to where she's at after what happened with Lifasa that I don't think she particularly would want to relive and really think about.
My ranger-in-a-cloak gets a lot of love, it's done wonders for me and I didn't even initially want it. Unseen bracers are a little boring, but the +5ft reach is still an essential part of my character now. Sucks that I have to take 'em off whenever I want to deal with people (or UMD stuff) though.
Other artifacts...I know we've gotten 'em, but I haven't really kept track of them and how they're used, outside of passing on them since I've gotten two, so no comment on 'em.
Quote19. How am I DMing?
20. How's the tone of the game for you?
I'm having fun usually. I like the tone as well, there's a lot of dark elements like in Balmuria 2, but this time they work well with our setting/plotline, and I feel like we're going places and doing things that actually matter when we fight against the forces of evil, instead of just trying to survive even as we get whittled down one by one. Which is funny given our characters in Balmuria 3 actually have the more impossible fight ahead of them.
We also have a lot of breather scenes which is nice for the occassional change of pace, though as I've said, I wasn't really fond of the love quest, even if I was keeping myself involved with it. Interacting with Willim for that was what kept it semi-interesting. And now he's dead. :(
Quote21. How's combat going? I strive to keep combat both dangerous and interesting whenever possible.
I like the fights, there's been a lot of dangerous fights that we've gotten dice lucky with, and some not so lucky with, but they're generally fun, even with the occassional frustration at hatbot (well, more occassional -now- anyway, frequent was a better word last time around). There's a few stinker fights here and there, but we've all commented on those guys before already, so I doubt we need to comment on them again.
The sundering devils are bitches and I will murder the crap out of any future orthons as fast as possible.
Quote22. Now that you have some idea (but not all) of what's going on and some hints of why Lifasa fell, what do you think? Right now, it looks like the devils are using some form of fate to empower events and its your task to give fate a kick in the 'nads.
While I know you dislike TTGL, it's a suitable enough response that covers that question:
"Row! Row! Fight the power!"Quote23. Who do you consider your biggest enemy in game?
The devils in general, the complacency of 'Good' in honoring agreements or doling out punishment, and how they deal (or don't, rather) with loopholes, and fate/prophecy. There's no specific face to be considered the biggest enemy, although Bel, Abigor and the nine traitors all have huge targets on them from our corner. There's a reason the crusade will likely go on even after Lifasa gets freed, even if all eleven characters mentioned die.
Quote24. This is purely meta, but I'm curious. Would your PC ever consider negotiating with Hell or a devil faction?
Devils? No, never. Ithea is going to continue to oppose fully the idea of doing anything other than murdering them. Someone that works with devils (ie, the red crescent banner guys for example), possibly. A devil itself, no.
She's perfectly willing to deal with other evil or problematic character, even recruiting them like Annalise/Baleruk, especially if they appear willing to add their power to ours. Doing questionable acts for the sake of Lifasa/Aurora...well, she's not hard to convince/get her to justify such notions to herself. That said, she won't budge on devils, outside of maybe a devil who's already been proven to have redeemed and wishes to help them fight his still corrupted kin.
...Maybe.
Ithea's mostly just not willing to see resources spent on them, even if they're not her own resources. Those erinyes are going to have an accident sooner or later if Jaela ever lets them out for a redemption program. They'd have to project an aura of pure goodness or something more ridiculous to get a pass from Ithea.
Quote25. Do you think you can save Lifasa? IC and OOC.
Yes and yes. Not any time soon, but it'll happen. The most damning thing for me (in respects to the game anyway) would be getting a job over in real-life, in which case I won't be able to help save it anymore.
Quote26. Throughout the Planes, it can be said everyone has an agenda and a cause to promote. How much of a sense of that do you get?
*slams fist on desk* Our agenda and cause is better than theirs, and if they don't like it, they can suck it! Next question!
Quote27. Is 27 the sexiest badger-slaad on Lifasa?
If he's hanging out in Lifasa, staying outside of the devils' reach, I wanna know how he's sneaking over!
If you meant Aurora, then he's its only badger-slaad, so I guess he is the sexiest, just by default? =p
QuoteSeriously 27: There's a lot of mysteries in the game world, from small to huge. What do you identify as mysteries, and what do you think the answers are? Assuming you have a guess as to what the answer is, anyway.
Anything 27 says/writes is a mystery. I've commented by PM on my thoughts on some of his crap since you tend to ask. Just a lot of the plot stuff regarding Lifasa and devil prophecies/fate is another mystery.
Quote from: Merc on March 03, 2012, 03:42:49 PMI'm happy with Ithea, and I'm more comfortable in her shoes than the last round of feedback. Yes, I still fade into the background occassionally, but overall I do feel I'm a lot more active with Ithea. I do like interacting with all the varied NPCs too.
Agreed here. I feel Ithea's firmed up lately, in particular with Sylvie. More on that later, I'm sure.
QuoteI know that's one of the things I really commented on last time, when we'd only gotten up to Dana then, and I've gotten opportunities to chat with a ton of the characters since then, including getting to know better the characters I didn't much like at the last round of feedback. There's still a lot of NPCs I've not interacted too much with though, particularly the pixie group, hopefully I will later on. I'd also like to interact a bit more with the soldiers/people rather than just the currently named NPCs. At the very least, making the catfolk contingent feel more of a presence for Ithea to be responsible for.
Yes, there's enough people around that knowing everyone really well is likely unrealistic. I try and get people around, as well as have various interactions for everyone. You do touch on one point that I'm unsatisfied with - the common soldiers don't get a lot of character. To a degree I expected this, as I have a lot of masks to wear without worrying about the common soldiers. On the other hand, they don't do a lot, either, and they add a lot of flavor. Especially with you and the catfolk, since you have a reason to be invested with them.
QuoteMechanically, I'm also happy with my character. The sneak attack annoyance became a non-issue by rebuilding as a combat rogue, she has her niche/style, I actually don't feel dice-hate as much (whether it's simply better dice luck or change in perception because I'm playing Ithea better and her build is more balanced now), and I like where she's at power-wise, I certainly don't feel like I'm lagging or overshooting anybody.
I think it's more that you're happy with your build now. I haven't noticed a serious upswing in your dicebot luck, but your setup appeals to you a lot more now. Plus sneak attack is a headache. A nice headache if you don't mind dealing with it, but it is a headache. Getting rid of that probably did do you a whole lot of good.
Quote*laughs* As a random note, I aged her from 18 to 19 somewhere between level 16 and 17. So she's the same age as Jaela now.
Truly, we are lead by babes in the wood.
QuoteI'm fine with all the players and I'm okay with the other characters, though I'm not particularly attached to any of them. Willim's the only one Ithea could say she was close to, she only just met Muirfinn and she's not just not close to Afina or Jaela. Heck... Ithea actually kinda dislikes Jaela at that. The two work well in combat, and there's a lot of respect as far as fighting goes, but their personalities just really feel like they clash and whenever they do interact, I tend to feel Jaela is often snippy/condescending or just ignoring her. That's fine, of all the PCs, Jaela is the one I'm almost never paired with for split-up scenes anyway.
More interaction between the two could change things for better despite that, I actually like a lot of the NPCs I used to dislike because of that extra interaction...then again, I somehow doubt it would. The only common ground between the two is the storyline, and even there Jaela has ideas that Ithea disagrees with fundamentally. The two just seem to mutually rub each other the wrong way, and nothing's gonna be done about that as long as they're still able to work well together in a fight, likely. And all things aside? The two would still try their hardest to save the other from death even at their own expense, I think.
Afina, there's really no particular reason I'm not close to her, I just never got attached to her, though I have no dislike for her either. Ithea seems to get along just fine with her and the few scenes they get together, Afina and her do actually chat and interact usually. Even in scenes where Ithea fades a bit, Afina always feels like she's paying attention to everyone, and when Ithea says something, she'll comment back, so I don't immediately feel like fading away again. Afina's pretty much the most mature of the group (though that might change with Muirfinn joining, hard to tell still) too, and the character with closest philosophy to Ithea so there's never any real friction there. Even if there's no friendly attachment, Ithea still holds her in really high regard, both in combat and out of it. She might have served as a good sounding board for Ithea on the split-session stuff, I did immediately think 'talk to Afina' when Kascha died, but it's likely Sylvie will be used there in the future instead, given their budding friendship.
Nothing to say on Muirfinn given he's so new.
Overall, Afina and Jaela are a lot more take-charge than Ithea, just due to them typing out more lines, though since I don't see either as a friend, I don't really interact much with either outside of the bigger scenes, and even then I tend to stick with Yuth and the NPCs for chatting, while letting the two hammer out plot-relevant stuff faster, only occasionally interjecting a thought about whatever they're discussing. Ithea'll just takes the lead if the other two aren't around to do so.
That's about how I see it with Ithea, yes. Afina's character type isn't conducive to making close friends and Muirfinn's new. I'm not surprised about Jaela - if nothing else the 21 argument felt like it solidified that impression you have of her to me. As far as the split thing, I've noticed it and it's starting to OOC annoy me. Lately it's mostly been Ithea+Muirfinn or Afina+Jaela doing things, just the way it's worked out. Want to try and correct that.
Quote*thumbs up?*
I said it above, but I feel that Ithea develops most as a character from interacting with NPCs, not from interacting with other PCs.
I've noticed this as well. I've been pondering this over and I think the answer is a simple but twofold one. First of all, none of you quite naturally sync together. Afina's too independent and understated, Jaela clashes with people easily and Muirfinn's new. Why work with harder things when you can deal with other characters instead? NPCs are often easier to develop against - less PC ego/focus and more reactive to what PCs do in general, I think.
QuoteThat said, I really would like to see the nameless soldiers/rank-and-file have more presence. It gives Aurora more life when we see them do stuff, sure we have giants playing gulah, poker tournaments and other stuff...that all occurs with the named NPCs, but there's a charm to seeing stuff involving characters like Carly outside of those story objectives, or that lycanthrope that picked a fight with Elrisa and got knocked on his ass, etc.
Of course, given all the stuff there is to do, not exactly sure when you'd get to detail them out more either...
Agreed. I squeeze it in when I can, but there's a lot going on already.
QuoteI'll list four, since the last three are roughly around the same rank: Sylvie, Adrian, Annalise and Dana. Bonus points in that I actively disliked all of the last three at first.
Coooooooool.
QuoteWhen I was creating Ithea, I kind of made her background parallel Sylvie's to some degree, with the difference being that Sylvie did live up to her hype but realized she wasn't happy with it while Ithea saw that she didn't live up to it and struggling afterwards because of it, not to mention that Ithea's focus was always more combat-oriented in the first place. It was fun to actually interact with Sylvie once we picked her up, and then have a chat over those points of similarities/differences and bonding there. Still a pretty new relationship, so who knows where it'll go, but I like Sylvie so far, more than in Balmuria 2, although I think Ithea'd be fairly disappointed/angry if she ever mentions dumping her kid and they'll probably argue there. Family's important to Ithea, and she doesn't even have any living relatives left, knowing Sylvie has them and doesn't want to be around would be...a revelation about her new friend.
Yeah. I hadn't really pinned any of that when porting Sylvie over to Balmuria 3. I didn't think Sylvie and Ithea would hit it off at all, if anything, I found myself fishing with her early on since she got off to a bad (and entirely unplanned) start with Jaela. I didn't realize the similarities until they talked, and then it clicked hard. Sylvie got it at the same time, and she found what she was looking for really hard at exactly that moment - a friend. I liked how they clicked and how natural it felt.
Though yes, there's plenty of room to criticize Sylvie for bad choices. For all her potential and natural ability, she's made some downright shitty choices in her life. For all her intelligence, her coping mechanisms fucking suck. She's a terrible mom at least in part because of that, ran off to the Planes on a foolish quest for understanding that turned dark and is now throwing herself into vengeance that isn't even her own to make.
QuoteAdrian, I really disliked at first because of his ego, but he pulled back on it after getting a tree dropped on him (he deserved it!) even if he's still petty with the kitty jokes. Like she told Sylvie, right now Ithea considers him on the same scale as someone would consider an annoying younger brother. Familial-type love? He's really the one she's closest to, even if she's more comfortable with Sylvie.
I toyed briefly with Adrian having a crush on Ithea, but it never really felt right. After you said all that, I realized that Adrian really does love annoying Ithea, just like a friend or brother. He doesn't express it the best - honestly with a base cha of 6, I've been running with the interpretation that he has a socialization disorder, maybe something mild on the autism spectrum. He's capable of improving and I've seen some of his growth as him trying to improve his socialization. I ran with it enough that I felt justified putting his level 16 stat point into charisma.
QuoteAnnalise's introduction really soured Ithea initially on the vampire, she didn't like almost being manipulated/controlled into freeing her, and just the fact that she's an undead monstrosity (if a beautiful one) did her no favors, but Ithea's still warmed up to the vamp a lot since then. She likes Annalise's personality, she's very self-assured and coy, and the fact that she hasn't betrayed them yet and actually has helped Ithea on a fair bit of things means she's grown on the catgirl. Like a fungus. Still don't trust her entirely, but there's at least enough trust there to interact with her and ask her out for help with visiting some other plane, as well as I don't feel quite as bad about defending/justifying her presence anymore. Ithea'll never admit to kind of liking her, of course. It sets a bad precedent (Not sure to what, but I'm sure it does). She does wish Jaela the best of luck with truly redeeming her, it's at least one project where she's really behind the celestial pirate, even if only in the privacy of her own mind.
I'd make a fungal infection joke here, but I think Cor would literally kill me. Not gonna say much else here, that's standard policy with her.
QuoteDana...is Dana. She's another fungus-like growth. Seeing her deal with the aftermath of Willim's death helps flesh her out more, and even if she's still a dirty-mouthed skank, Ithea does consider her a close friend now. And she gets -such- a kick out of Dana being an honest to goodness princess too.
I had a lot of fun seeing her deal with the aftermath. She's coping in a way that's distinctly her and I really feel it adds to her charm. Also yes, I get a huge kick out of her being a princess too. It's a such a simple and overused thing, but Dana pushes it so far that it's funny again because it's so absurdly against type. It even goes past the typical rebellious princess thing.
QuoteHell is hellish. Evil is evil. This is all 'duh!' stuff, but I really can't put it into better words... I mean, I've enjoyed myself and I think the portrayal is fitting. What's more there to say? I do hope we can keep our enemies to just dragons and devils and keep other factions from really feeling that we've made enemies out of them. We do have triad problems, but as long as we don't go knocking at their door, it seems a non-issue. There's also still the gith to deal with and we're waiting on the fallout of Adrian's group dealing with mechanus, so we'll see.
Yes. Hopefully you guys are more aware that your actions get attention and cause consequences in the game world. What Bahamut and Tiamat did was a dick move, but it was also a direct reaction to what you did and what you stuck to doing.
QuoteMore planar facts, please! Details about the places we specifically visit are fine though, I liked Marambor, dealing with Brightwater, Lady Chen's palace, the abyss, etc. They're atmospheric enough to interact with. Just more details about the planes themselves. They're all unique, how do they affect us? We only usually get a little fluff line when we teleport, but the lack of planar details means they don't really stick with us unless you continually reinforce that fluff, which you don't always.
Agreed. I've been a bit lazy with it lately. I think I got burned out on it arguing with Cor over 209. Gonna be working on that to reinforce it better going ahead.
QuoteI like how it's shaping up into a city-state, makes me think of Balmuria's origin as an old abandoned fortress that started expanding into something more, which is a nice meta tie to the world of the last two games. Other than that, see question 3.
Heh, that is a nice bit of continuity, isn't it? That thought hadn't even crossed my mind.
QuoteI'd like to see more funny stuff like the jade pendant, the stuffed dog, etc. Sure, we usually sell it, but it's still fun to read about them when we pick them up and I always laugh when I see something like that. I also like the personalized items like the duskblade orb and such as well, obviously.
The shop stuff for Aurora is also neat, usually because of laughs, but there's stuff I might consider buying when I get my cash reserve up more.
Yes to both, and I've been using the shops in Aurora to fit in more quirky stuff. The things that Filbrez sells are unique to him or really rare/unusual, the books are one of a kind and net you some information (as posted when you and Sylvie read some of them) that ranges from interesting to useful to random. The alchemical solutions that are for sale are unique, too. If you like the shops, use 'em some.
I don't like dropping personalized items too often. It's a bit unbelievable if you always find something personally designed for you, and it reduces the wonder and magic for when you are so lucky as to. So appreciate then when they do happen! As for the first point, agreed. Quirky items come up from time to time. The last batch was in the gelugon's possessions - if nothing else, the items there were meant to be different. Having that little bit of uniqueness or occasional history to an item is fun.
QuoteIt's good? I don't really have much to add here. The 51 days of money crunching was mind numbing though, I don't want to do that again, and definitely not during game-time.
Fair 'nough.
QuoteThey're nice and varied in power levels/effects, so they're neat!
21 is pretty unique. I'm curious what shape it'd take for Ithea, but at the same time, I really, really, really don't want to carry it either. Ithea's made a lot of bad calls to get to where she's at after what happened with Lifasa that I don't think she particularly would want to relive and really think about.
Fair enough. 21 is a blessing and a curse, useful and utterly alien and a whole bunch of other contrasting good/bad things. I don't blame anyone who wants to avoid it. Hell, Sylvie wanted to get rid of it until Jaela pissed her off enough to embrace it more. The fact that it's getting those reactions shows that it's working as designed.
QuoteMy ranger-in-a-cloak gets a lot of love, it's done wonders for me and I didn't even initially want it. Unseen bracers are a little boring, but the +5ft reach is still an essential part of my character now. Sucks that I have to take 'em off whenever I want to deal with people (or UMD stuff) though.
The ranger cloak is a whole lot of fun. I made that when designing some new epic magical items, just putting things through the paces and seeing what I could do with the system as revised. Tweaking it into an artifact gift sort of thing worked out quite well.
QuoteI'm having fun usually. I like the tone as well, there's a lot of dark elements like in Balmuria 2, but this time they work well with our setting/plotline, and I feel like we're going places and doing things that actually matter when we fight against the forces of evil, instead of just trying to survive even as we get whittled down one by one. Which is funny given our characters in Balmuria 3 actually have the more impossible fight ahead of them.
Yeah, this is what I was aiming for. There's darkness inherent in the premise and Hell tries to break you in body, mind and soul. They don't hold anything back - ask Ilsenine. At the same time, I want you guys fighting against it instead of bowing your heads and succumbing. You guys have a hard fight ahead, but as long as you hold onto hope and Aurora, you have a chance.
QuoteWe also have a lot of breather scenes which is nice for the occassional change of pace, though as I've said, I wasn't really fond of the love quest, even if I was keeping myself involved with it. Interacting with Willim for that was what kept it semi-interesting. And now he's dead. :(
At this point that entire quest is an awkward hanging appendix. It was an it was an interesting idea to try and mix things up, but it's really gone nowhere and struggled doing so.
QuoteI like the fights, there's been a lot of dangerous fights that we've gotten dice lucky with, and some not so lucky with, but they're generally fun, even with the occassional frustration at hatbot (well, more occassional -now- anyway, frequent was a better word last time around). There's a few stinker fights here and there, but we've all commented on those guys before already, so I doubt we need to comment on them again.
The sundering devils are bitches and I will murder the crap out of any future orthons as fast as possible.
Yeah, I'm always trying different styles of fights or trying to add something to it. Sometimes it's subtle or not even noticed, sometimes it's obvious, but you always gotta try. Sundering is a distinctly unpleasant move, and one that I'm glad got attention. It's a nasty trick.
QuoteWhile I know you dislike TTGL, it's a suitable enough response that covers that question: "Row! Row! Fight the power!"
Heh. No, that's about what I want to hear. On the other hand, if you think screaming loud enough with hot blood will win by itself, you'll find yourself making multiple posts to the Cemetary. Hell is a horrible opponent and there are creatures on the Planes who have lived so long that there are no numbers to express how old they are. Things that breathe power and only the wisest or most foolish know of, things that no mortal should ever have to confront. It's best to remember that, too. Gathgorian was an unpleasant reminder that there are things far stronger than you out there.
QuoteThe devils in general, the complacency of 'Good' in honoring agreements or doling out punishment, and how they deal (or don't, rather) with loopholes, and fate/prophecy. There's no specific face to be considered the biggest enemy, although Bel, Abigor and the nine traitors all have huge targets on them from our corner. There's a reason the crusade will likely go on even after Lifasa gets freed, even if all eleven characters mentioned die.
Fair 'nough.
QuoteDevils? No, never. Ithea is going to continue to oppose fully the idea of doing anything other than murdering them. Someone that works with devils (ie, the red crescent banner guys for example), possibly. A devil itself, no.
She's perfectly willing to deal with other evil or problematic character, even recruiting them like Annalise/Baleruk, especially if they appear willing to add their power to ours. Doing questionable acts for the sake of Lifasa/Aurora...well, she's not hard to convince/get her to justify such notions to herself. That said, she won't budge on devils, outside of maybe a devil who's already been proven to have redeemed and wishes to help them fight his still corrupted kin.
...Maybe.
Ithea's mostly just not willing to see resources spent on them, even if they're not her own resources. Those erinyes are going to have an accident sooner or later if Jaela ever lets them out for a redemption program. They'd have to project an aura of pure goodness or something more ridiculous to get a pass from Ithea.
Interesting. Noted.
QuoteYes and yes. Not any time soon, but it'll happen. The most damning thing for me (in respects to the game anyway) would be getting a job over in real-life, in which case I won't be able to help save it anymore.
Fair enough. If I ever win the lottery, I'll send you some cash to tide you over. <_<
Quote*slams fist on desk* Our agenda and cause is better than theirs, and if they don't like it, they can suck it! Next question!
Ahahahahahhahaha.
QuoteIf he's hanging out in Lifasa, staying outside of the devils' reach, I wanna know how he's sneaking over!
If you meant Aurora, then he's its only badger-slaad, so I guess he is the sexiest, just by default? =p
DOH!
QuoteAnything 27 says/writes is a mystery. I've commented by PM on my thoughts on some of his crap since you tend to ask. Just a lot of the plot stuff regarding Lifasa and devil prophecies/fate is another mystery.
Yes. Again, feel free to try investigate the mysteries. Knowledge is power and all of that. You never found the diabolical prophecy involving the Child of Lifasa before killing it, but knowing what was written there would have been supremely useful.
Quote from: Anastasia on March 03, 2012, 04:59:13 PMI think it's more that you're happy with your build now. I haven't noticed a serious upswing in your dicebot luck, but your setup appeals to you a lot more now. Plus sneak attack is a headache. A nice headache if you don't mind dealing with it, but it is a headache. Getting rid of that probably did do you a whole lot of good.
I do think dice luck has improved actually, even if I still bitch out Hatbot about the same. But how the build is set-up also does help. Even if I miss big time on full attacks, someone else hitting means an extra opportunity for me, so I don't feel like I've wasted a round when that happens. I like being able to act multiple times in a round, it makes me feel more involved and like I really am contributing.
QuoteThat's about how I see it with Ithea, yes. Afina's character type isn't conducive to making close friends and Muirfinn's new. I'm not surprised about Jaela - if nothing else the 21 argument felt like it solidified that impression you have of her to me. As far as the split thing, I've noticed it and it's starting to OOC annoy me. Lately it's mostly been Ithea+Muirfinn or Afina+Jaela doing things, just the way it's worked out. Want to try and correct that.
QuoteI've noticed this as well. I've been pondering this over and I think the answer is a simple but twofold one. First of all, none of you quite naturally sync together. Afina's too independent and understated, Jaela clashes with people easily and Muirfinn's new. Why work with harder things when you can deal with other characters instead? NPCs are often easier to develop against - less PC ego/focus and more reactive to what PCs do in general, I think.
Corwin and I had a PM discussion earlier. He was making sure OOC I didn't have a problem with Jaela (I don't, she annoys me sometimes, but it's in-game clashes, and Ithea is just as rude back sometimes), and we just talked a bit more regarding my commentary and how the two can interact/etc.
Ithea probably will continue to not go out of her way to include Jaela in side-stuff because of how she feels, but we'll probably be mixing up a bit more in the future still. I'll probably be going with Jaela on a trip to Fire soon.
They're still really likely to keep on clashing, even if OOC we have a better understanding of the other's IC mentality.
QuoteI toyed briefly with Adrian having a crush on Ithea, but it never really felt right. After you said all that, I realized that Adrian really does love annoying Ithea, just like a friend or brother. He doesn't express it the best - honestly with a base cha of 6, I've been running with the interpretation that he has a socialization disorder, maybe something mild on the autism spectrum. He's capable of improving and I've seen some of his growth as him trying to improve his socialization. I ran with it enough that I felt justified putting his level 16 stat point into charisma.
Ithea would have been really weirded out if he'd crushed on her.
QuoteYes. Hopefully you guys are more aware that your actions get attention and cause consequences in the game world. What Bahamut and Tiamat did was a dick move, but it was also a direct reaction to what you did and what you stuck to doing.
I was always aware there were attention/consequences to what we did, and I've generally tried not to piss anybody off too badly or trying to keep things from getting worse, particularly with the githyanki (which we still have to resolve past the ambassador and deal with the queen) and mechanus.
That said, I don't actually think what Bahamut/Tiamat did was really a dick move, we honestly did deserve shit for what we did. Going along with Baleruk was stupid, but it was fun and IC we felt we had reason to do it so we did, and hell, we pretty much went and lectured -gods- over why we thought they were being stupid. So yeah, we deserved that shit.
But...
Kascha didn't. The fact that Bahamut cursed her, hell, the fact that it was he, the lawful good deity, who pulled that shit...well, he fucked up there. If Bahamut wanted us to regret our actions or see it as a punishment, he failed spectacularly. That was the real dick move, and why nobody really regrets saying 'Fuck you, Bahamut/Tiamat!'.
QuoteHeh, that is a nice bit of continuity, isn't it? That thought hadn't even crossed my mind.
Always figured that was on purpose.
QuoteIf you like the shops, use 'em some.
I will! When I have more money... I said that already! =p
QuoteI don't like dropping personalized items too often. It's a bit unbelievable if you always find something personally designed for you, and it reduces the wonder and magic for when you are so lucky as to. So appreciate then when they do happen!
That's fine and makes sense, wasn't really asking for more actually, just saying it is cool to get. Arandalhaz's loot really is the only time we've had personalized loot anyway, though I don't think Afina's really gotten anything personalized for her ever. It's probably hard to personalize for pixie assassins though, outside of fey-nip!
QuoteThey don't hold anything back - ask Ilsenine.
Don't have to, we already know it was ewww.
QuoteOn the other hand, if you think screaming loud enough with hot blood will win by itself, you'll find yourself making multiple posts to the Cemetary.
Well, to be fair, the TTGL guys made multiple posts there too (tv series anyway, not as much the movies), hot blood just made 'em persevere through their difficulties!
We know better than to charge into Hell expecting a win right now too, while that group would charge right in.
QuoteFair enough. If I ever win the lottery, I'll send you some cash to tide you over. <_<
*laughs* I'm fine money-wise for the time being, but thanks for the sentiment. I too will send you cash if I ever win the lotto. =p
Quote from: Merc on March 03, 2012, 08:19:20 PMI do think dice luck has improved actually, even if I still bitch out Hatbot about the same. But how the build is set-up also does help. Even if I miss big time on full attacks, someone else hitting means an extra opportunity for me, so I don't feel like I've wasted a round when that happens. I like being able to act multiple times in a round, it makes me feel more involved and like I really am contributing.
That's true. It feels like CR+Opportunist+Savvy Rogue is a good combo for you. It hasn't really slowed down combat either, which I'm grateful for.
QuoteCorwin and I had a PM discussion earlier. He was making sure OOC I didn't have a problem with Jaela (I don't, she annoys me sometimes, but it's in-game clashes, and Ithea is just as rude back sometimes), and we just talked a bit more regarding my commentary and how the two can interact/etc.
Ithea probably will continue to not go out of her way to include Jaela in side-stuff because of how she feels, but we'll probably be mixing up a bit more in the future still. I'll probably be going with Jaela on a trip to Fire soon.
They're still really likely to keep on clashing, even if OOC we have a better understanding of the other's IC mentality.
Anything interesting come of it? Yes, I'm being nosy.
QuoteIthea would have been really weirded out if he'd crushed on her.
Yeah, likewise. Misalea further scotched that.
QuoteI was always aware there were attention/consequences to what we did, and I've generally tried not to piss anybody off too badly or trying to keep things from getting worse, particularly with the githyanki (which we still have to resolve past the ambassador and deal with the queen) and mechanus.
Yes. You guys are in a position of command and authority - lots of eyes are on you, both in Aurora and outside of it.
QuoteThat said, I don't actually think what Bahamut/Tiamat did was really a dick move, we honestly did deserve shit for what we did. Going along with Baleruk was stupid, but it was fun and IC we felt we had reason to do it so we did, and hell, we pretty much went and lectured -gods- over why we thought they were being stupid. So yeah, we deserved that shit.
Agreed.
QuoteBut...
Kascha didn't. The fact that Bahamut cursed her, hell, the fact that it was he, the lawful good deity, who pulled that shit...well, he fucked up there. If Bahamut wanted us to regret our actions or see it as a punishment, he failed spectacularly. That was the real dick move, and why nobody really regrets saying 'Fuck you, Bahamut/Tiamat!'.
Also agreed. Lawful Good doesn't mean lawful nice, and the Gods aren't perfect. Powerful, incredibly wise and able to alter reality, but not perfect. OOC I agree that Kascha didn't deserve this. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, faced with a deity going all Old Testament on mortals. No comment beyond that, why Bahamut did what he did is an open question.
QuoteAlways figured that was on purpose.
Not really. I do a lot of things on purpose - down to obscure things with double meanings and numerology - but coincidences do still happen. I never made the distinct connection of the two, though subconsciously it makes sense. I was nostalgic for Balmuria 1 when I came up with this game (still am), so some aspects of it leaking in make sense.
QuoteI will! When I have more money... I said that already! =p
Get more money!
QuoteThat's fine and makes sense, wasn't really asking for more actually, just saying it is cool to get. Arandalhaz's loot really is the only time we've had personalized loot anyway, though I don't think Afina's really gotten anything personalized for her ever. It's probably hard to personalize for pixie assassins though, outside of fey-nip!
The staff of nature sword (or whatever it was) was designed for Afina, but she didn't bite. Oh well. That happens sometimes. Honestly, Afina's build is largely self sufficient and her crafting adventures allow her to make what she needs. With her AC and to hit, I don't think she needs anything else pre-epic anyway. The only thing she'll really want is to get Rapid Blitz at some point or another, but she's still more than contributing so I wouldn't even put it as a priority.
QuoteFair enough. If I ever win the lottery, I'll send you some cash to tide you over. <_<*laughs* I'm fine money-wise for the time being, but thanks for the sentiment. I too will send you cash if I ever win the lotto. =p
Please. Stupid job market.
Quote1. How do you feel your character is working out? Any areas that are particularly good or problematic?
Mechanically, I get hurt a lot. If I have the cash for it soon, I will try to take care of it as much as I can. The flavor of Arcane Duelist just doesn't work right for me. It's all about enhancing a specific weapon, while I prefer to swap them as I go. And to qualify for perform I need to take monk/battle dancer, which makes it more worthwhile to go without armor, too, despite me liking the concept. I think I'll stay a proud full plate wearing paladin. So +AC, and some way of miss chance.
RP-wise, being one of the leaders is nice and so is having respect and reliable allies. Friends would be nicer, or people who support you in some meaningful way, but you can't have everything.
Quote2. How do you feel about the other PCs?
Players or characters?
Quote3. I strive to provide interesting NPCs, especially since this game is based around recruiting and building an army. How am I doing at that?
I'll go with Merc on this one. Feel free to reintroduce Mann (http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/mannconomy_update.jpg) as a 'named' character? We could conceivably have a roster of the 'B team' who aren't 'officers' but are above the common troops to provide some connection to said troops.
Quote4. Who are your favorite 3 NPCs? If you haven't covered this already, why?
I like Annalise, Kascha, Adrian and Baleruk. Candy looks likeable so far. They are unique, interesting, entertaining.
Quote5. Who are your 3 least favorite NPCs? If you haven't covered this already, why?
Sylvie for being a bitch every time I see her despite offering her my hand in friendship and inviting her over to the Aurora to find her place. The Master for being a dick, as the first thing he does upon appearing is go beat up our allies for the lulz (we beat up the giants too, but at least we had rocks thrown on our heads and our castle to cause a misunderstanding).
Quote
6. How do you feel Baator has been presented, as far as your primary antagonists go?
7. How do you feel evil in general is portrayed? I've been pulling few punches with them.
8. How do you feel about any other opposition you have?
I figure we went over this stuff already before, so no need to rehash it.
Quote
9. How do you feel the Heavens are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
10. How do you feel the Hells are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
11. How do you feel the other Outer Planes are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
12. How do you feel the Inner Planes and misc (Astral, ect) are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
I like the elemental planes the most. They feel like they have their own character without trying too hard. The heavens are generally nice, and Astral is nice mechanically in a fight. for the rest of it, like the previous answer, I think we covered is sufficiently up to date.
Quote
13. What areas have you visited and liked, or thought were fun and memorable? Why?
14. What do you think of Aurora? I try and show it off whenever I can, but it's usually just a homebase that you rarely walk around in to merely see the sights.
15. What do you think of Brightwater? It's the closest thing the group has to a town and you visit it fairly often.
Any place I go to and have a chance to talk to people or explore a bit is memorable. Places I go to in order to kill things are less so, since my goals and mental state are different on those expeditions.
I like the Aurora well enough. You often feel rushed when you run Aurora-based scenes, so I wonder if you enjoy those, and I try not to force you to run them. I like Brightwater, it's a nice place. I would like to see more of the divine realms there, but it's a bit lonely on my own.
Quote16. How's loot going for you? Am I giving you interesting items?
When you give us loot from some cache (like that collected by Medi or a dragon), it's interesting. By its nature, loot taken as spoils of war is often less so. There are exceptions to this as well, like the ring I got to reforge.
Quote17. How about the raw quantity of GP? With Aurora+NPCs+Expenses there's always going to be a need for more, and this was design to have some money crunch elements to it. Afina's crafting has taken a considerable load off this burden, but it still exists.
To be honest, I think I have less to work with than in previous games. Also, while I appreciate Eb's help so very much with this, don't forget that you doubled the prices on MIC stuff. That pretty much evens out. Anyway, it's been a while since I had some free cash and I recently had to resort to selling one of my items again to finance Mirima's sword, followed by going into slight debt to Afina to afford another quest-relevant item.
Quote18. I've dropped...3-5 artifacts in game, I believe? What do you think about them?
Val'Finnegan is underwhelming as an artifact, frankly. I also felt vaguely insulted when I was told that it's really a cool artifact, honest, but I'm just too low level to make it respond. Yeeeeah. Anyway, it's a serviceable +5 holy weapon and it has a cool history, but Gae Bolg is cheap and usually better suited for combat. I've been avoiding it this quest out of concern for Candy, since I have a long duration fiend-burning aura spell on it.
Still kinda upset that the first cool artifact we came across blew up in my face along with my face, even after all the time. I guess I expected to come across something cool eventually but after half a year+ it never really happened. 21 seems a cool artifact that people who are not us get to use. The ranger cloak is neat, and I was somewhat tempted by it originally but like I said I like my full plate build conceptually and it doesn't really work with it. The books of religion/heresy could probably seem like an artifact, but I think I would view them more like permanent buffs (the same way the deep ethereal dragon, the demon god baby and the Ysgard bonuses were). Merc's evil bracers seem to be working out for him, but their nature was really not really compatible with Jaela, however well they fit mechanically.
Not losing hope on the cool artifact front, and trying to keep a positive outlook! It's not like Afina got any fun artifacts to play with, either, and I can't complain since we do get the occasional buff.
Quote
19. How am I DMing?
20. How's the tone of the game for you?
I'm playing and asking if we can play more, aren't I? I think that speaks for itself.
Quote21. How's combat going? I strive to keep combat both dangerous and interesting whenever possible.
I find it discouraging that a single attack dismembered me, without so much as a save or a chance to avoid it. It doesn't tell me that combat is dangerous. It tells me 'mechanically raise your AC'. But that aside I find combat fun when I get to participate. I dislike not participating in combat. I think you know our abilities by now, and it would be kinda neat if lopsided encounters that cater to our specialty were the exception and not the rule. To reflect on the last one, if the wraiths attacked my side of the barrier the instant Afina started killing the evil elf, I think we both would have felt fulfilled. I have the anti-ghost weapons and Turning and area attacks, while Afina has getting into locked room setups and assassination as part of her resume. Instead, it was one fight where I was useless and watched her be cool, and one fight where I killed ghosts by the dozens (shh, forget Candy was there) and she had to resort to picking off a couple here and there.
To reiterate, I like combat I participate in. Since I get to participate in most combat (for scenes where I'm there), I like most combat in B3.
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22. Now that you have some idea (but not all) of what's going on and some hints of why Lifasa fell, what do you think? Right now, it looks like the devils are using some form of fate to empower events and its your task to give fate a kick in the 'nads.
23. Who do you consider your biggest enemy in game?
I would prefer not to go into such strictly IC matters in this out of the game way.
Quote24. This is purely meta, but I'm curious. Would your PC ever consider negotiating with Hell or a devil faction?
No, for the reason that I don't think it will be fun. IC-wise, I also have IC reasons not to do it.
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25. Do you think you can save Lifasa? IC and OOC.
26. Throughout the Planes, it can be said everyone has an agenda and a cause to promote. How much of a sense of that do you get?
I don't think anything has really changed from the last time we discussed this.
27. Why haven't the devils so much as tried to assassinate me once? It's so insulting!
Quote from: Corwin on March 04, 2012, 01:16:36 PMMechanically, I get hurt a lot. If I have the cash for it soon, I will try to take care of it as much as I can. The flavor of Arcane Duelist just doesn't work right for me. It's all about enhancing a specific weapon, while I prefer to swap them as I go. And to qualify for perform I need to take monk/battle dancer, which makes it more worthwhile to go without armor, too, despite me liking the concept. I think I'll stay a proud full plate wearing paladin. So +AC, and some way of miss chance.
You do. Using Robilar's Gambit is a factor too and really just asking to get smacked a lot. With your AC+that, it's surprising that you haven't died yet.
QuotePlayers or characters?
PCs. Players if needed.
QuoteI'll go with Merc on this one. Feel free to reintroduce Mann (http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/mannconomy_update.jpg) as a 'named' character? We could conceivably have a roster of the 'B team' who aren't 'officers' but are above the common troops to provide some connection to said troops.
That's a thought. Toying around with things like that right now, really.
QuoteI like Annalise, Kascha, Adrian and Baleruk. Candy looks likeable so far. They are unique, interesting, entertaining.
What about them do you like in particular? Mostly Adrian, since I didn't figure you liked him that much. Glad to hear that multiple ones are working for you, though.
QuoteSylvie for being a bitch every time I see her despite offering her my hand in friendship and inviting her over to the Aurora to find her place.
I find that ironic but perhaps not so surprising when I consider Annalise and 21. I read that rooftop scene again real quick, and it all starts with calling Annalise on bullshitting and things go massively downhill. Can't say I blame you, though I don't blame Sylvie much either.
QuoteThe Master for being a dick, as the first thing he does upon appearing is go beat up our allies for the lulz (we beat up the giants too, but at least we had rocks thrown on our heads and our castle to cause a misunderstanding).
Really? For all you go on about things being 'manly', one would think someone going in, showing off a bit and starting to train people on how to be stronger would appeal.
QuoteAny place I go to and have a chance to talk to people or explore a bit is memorable. Places I go to in order to kill things are less so, since my goals and mental state are different on those expeditions.
Fair 'nough.
QuoteI like the Aurora well enough. You often feel rushed when you run Aurora-based scenes, so I wonder if you enjoy those, and I try not to force you to run them. I like Brightwater, it's a nice place. I would like to see more of the divine realms there, but it's a bit lonely on my own.
I like them quite a lot. I'm often rushing them 'cause it's only one PC and oftentimes that one PC may be holding other people up. I tend to slot Aurora scenes in whenever I have a chance, so this happens. Not all the time, but enough to where I do notice it.
QuoteWhen you give us loot from some cache (like that collected by Medi or a dragon), it's interesting. By its nature, loot taken as spoils of war is often less so. There are exceptions to this as well, like the ring I got to reforge.
Why is war booty less interesting, precisely? I would assume it is at least in part because a lot of it is evil or unsuitable to be used.
QuoteTo be honest, I think I have less to work with than in previous games. Also, while I appreciate Eb's help so very much with this, don't forget that you doubled the prices on MIC stuff. That pretty much evens out. Anyway, it's been a while since I had some free cash and I recently had to resort to selling one of my items again to finance Mirima's sword, followed by going into slight debt to Afina to afford another quest-relevant item.
MIC stuff has been doubled since Balmuria 1. <_<
You are about due for some free cash, though. Ithea cleaned up recently, but you're due. What do you want to purchase coming up?
QuoteVal'Finnegan is underwhelming as an artifact, frankly. I also felt vaguely insulted when I was told that it's really a cool artifact, honest, but I'm just too low level to make it respond. Yeeeeah.
Eh, that just means you have room to grow into it.
QuoteStill kinda upset that the first cool artifact we came across blew up in my face along with my face, even after all the time. I guess I expected to come across something cool eventually but after half a year+ it never really happened. 21 seems a cool artifact that people who are not us get to use. The ranger cloak is neat, and I was somewhat tempted by it originally but like I said I like my full plate build conceptually and it doesn't really work with it. The books of religion/heresy could probably seem like an artifact, but I think I would view them more like permanent buffs (the same way the deep ethereal dragon, the demon god baby and the Ysgard bonuses were). Merc's evil bracers seem to be working out for him, but their nature was really not really compatible with Jaela, however well they fit mechanically.
Not losing hope on the cool artifact front, and trying to keep a positive outlook! It's not like Afina got any fun artifacts to play with, either, and I can't complain since we do get the occasional buff.
So you haven't come across anything cool, but in the next sentence you say 21 is cool? Okaaaay. I'm not sure what to say here, since you say there's nothing cool, then you describe 21 as cool and the cloak as neat. Not really sure what to say here because of that. Do you mean something cool that -you've- gotten?
QuoteI find it discouraging that a single attack dismembered me, without so much as a save or a chance to avoid it. It doesn't tell me that combat is dangerous. It tells me 'mechanically raise your AC'.
If getting limbs hacked off doesn't tell you combat can be dangerous, I really don't know what to say.
Quote from: Anastasia on March 04, 2012, 01:52:16 PM
You do. Using Robilar's Gambit is a factor too and really just asking to get smacked a lot. With your AC+that, it's surprising that you haven't died yet.
My AC is 25. -4 with Gambit. I think if you take any enemy from the past two RL months and compare their attack against my AC, it wouldn't matter much whether I use it or not where it comes to being hit. The boost in damage against me isn't huge, and if I can down an enemy before it can finish unloading its full attack on me with my AoOs I save myself the damage from said full attack.
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PCs. Players if needed.
Nothing to say on Muirfin, having not even met him. Ithea comes across as too aloof during moments that feel like they should be more serious.
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QuoteI like Annalise, Kascha, Adrian and Baleruk. Candy looks likeable so far. They are unique, interesting, entertaining.
What about them do you like in particular? Mostly Adrian, since I didn't figure you liked him that much. Glad to hear that multiple ones are working for you, though.
I just do. They aren't acting like they're doing us a favor by being there. I'm not sure why you'd think that I don't like Adrian. I just don't think he's very effective in a fight, but I have to admire his tenacity.
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QuoteSylvie for being a bitch every time I see her despite offering her my hand in friendship and inviting her over to the Aurora to find her place.
I find that ironic but perhaps not so surprising when I consider Annalise and 21. I read that rooftop scene again real quick, and it all starts with calling Annalise on bullshitting and things go massively downhill. Can't say I blame you, though I don't blame Sylvie much either.
You really like her and it shows.
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QuoteThe Master for being a dick, as the first thing he does upon appearing is go beat up our allies for the lulz (we beat up the giants too, but at least we had rocks thrown on our heads and our castle to cause a misunderstanding).
Really? For all you go on about things being 'manly', one would think someone going in, showing off a bit and starting to train people on how to be stronger would appeal.
Please don't confuse OOC jokes about manliness with how I think people should behave in a civilized society. I remember that the giants were depressed after their senseless beatdown and you said their morale would have dropped if Yuth didn't talk to them and gave them that hammer. That just spells bullying, and I don't like it.
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QuoteWhen you give us loot from some cache (like that collected by Medi or a dragon), it's interesting. By its nature, loot taken as spoils of war is often less so. There are exceptions to this as well, like the ring I got to reforge.
Why is war booty less interesting, precisely? I would assume it is at least in part because a lot of it is evil or unsuitable to be used.
You misunderstand my intent. A dragon's hoard can realistically have funny treatises, art, curious and the like. If we kill a dozen cornugons, they have armor, weapons and medals. This is what I mean.
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QuoteTo be honest, I think I have less to work with than in previous games. Also, while I appreciate Eb's help so very much with this, don't forget that you doubled the prices on MIC stuff. That pretty much evens out. Anyway, it's been a while since I had some free cash and I recently had to resort to selling one of my items again to finance Mirima's sword, followed by going into slight debt to Afina to afford another quest-relevant item.
MIC stuff has been doubled since Balmuria 1. <_<
You are about due for some free cash, though. Ithea cleaned up recently, but you're due. What do you want to purchase coming up?
Mmm, maybe you mean starting with B2? I know my boots cost the MIC amount, and so did all of my MIC gear from B1. I think so did Eb's, but I'm not 100% sure on it.
I want to purchase an animated shield to take care of my ac and boost my gauntlets with the stuff I mentioned to you before. And I really should try to convert my stat boosters into a belt of +6.
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QuoteVal'Finnegan is underwhelming as an artifact, frankly. I also felt vaguely insulted when I was told that it's really a cool artifact, honest, but I'm just too low level to make it respond. Yeeeeah.
Eh, that just means you have room to grow into it.
QuoteStill kinda upset that the first cool artifact we came across blew up in my face along with my face, even after all the time. I guess I expected to come across something cool eventually but after half a year+ it never really happened. 21 seems a cool artifact that people who are not us get to use. The ranger cloak is neat, and I was somewhat tempted by it originally but like I said I like my full plate build conceptually and it doesn't really work with it. The books of religion/heresy could probably seem like an artifact, but I think I would view them more like permanent buffs (the same way the deep ethereal dragon, the demon god baby and the Ysgard bonuses were). Merc's evil bracers seem to be working out for him, but their nature was really not really compatible with Jaela, however well they fit mechanically.
Not losing hope on the cool artifact front, and trying to keep a positive outlook! It's not like Afina got any fun artifacts to play with, either, and I can't complain since we do get the occasional buff.
So you haven't come across anything cool, but in the next sentence you say 21 is cool? Okaaaay. I'm not sure what to say here, since you say there's nothing cool, then you describe 21 as cool and the cloak as neat. Not really sure what to say here because of that. Do you mean something cool that -you've- gotten?
I think you are missing important context here. First of all, yes, since you were asking us all what _we_ think about the artifacts, I took it to mean as applies to me first of all, and then covered the rest as objectively as I could.
Thus, Val'Finnegan is something I can ask Afina to make (and will likely remain so until lvl21). But Merc's bracers or cape, to contrast, are truly unique. He has that uniqueness and that utility _right now_, which makes Val'Finnegan pale in comparison. Basically, I don't get the same sense of coolness here. If it's just not enough to hear coming from me, Merc, how would you feel if your bracers gave you, say, a +2 untyped to damage on all melee attacks, but you knew that in ~5-7 levels they might do something truly awesome? Like say extend your reach?
So yes, again, in case it wasn't clear. I do pretty much hope to find an artifact that is cool to me and that I can have. I don't want to do it at the expense of other players, of course, but I figure there will be plenty to go around eventually. 21 is a ship that sailed, so are those rings. But their existence gives me hope that more cool stuff could be out there, fitting thematically for me and all.
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QuoteI find it discouraging that a single attack dismembered me, without so much as a save or a chance to avoid it. It doesn't tell me that combat is dangerous. It tells me 'mechanically raise your AC'.
If getting limbs hacked off doesn't tell you combat can be dangerous, I really don't know what to say.
[/quote]
Really, the result of a lost limb on an attack that hits doesn't say 'combat is dangerous'. It says 'combat with Jaela's AC is dangerous. combat with Afina's AC is pretty safe'. But I already know my AC is shit and that I can die easily through it.
QuoteYou do. Using Robilar's Gambit is a factor too and really just asking to get smacked a lot. With your AC+that, it's surprising that you haven't died yet.
This is what you said at the top of the response. With or without disabling special attacks, combat is dangerous for me and we both know it. But it's not dangerous due to said special attacks. This was the point I was trying to make.
QuoteBut Merc's bracers or cape, to contrast, are truly unique. He has that uniqueness and that utility _right now_, which makes Val'Finnegan pale in comparison. Basically, I don't get the same sense of coolness here. If it's just not enough to hear coming from me, Merc, how would you feel if your bracers gave you, say, a +2 untyped to damage on all melee attacks, but you knew that in ~5-7 levels they might do something truly awesome? Like say extend your reach?
If it's useful now and gets more useful -and- unique, that's kind of cool, honestly, and I like that sort of thing. I don't think it's lame for items to get cooler in the future and my not having that particular unique utility right now. Evolving items are actually kinda awesome.
But!
I also have a few more options with bracers than you do with a weapon, so I do actually agree with your point about Val'finnegan.
For me, I can add other enchantments to my artifacts through the +1.5x cost multiplier, while waiting for the reach pay-off if we go by your example, and I have more options on effects I can add to boot. There's no pre-epic/epic split line rule on gear, it's purely an armor/weapons rule.
So for you, the problem is that you can't add more enchantments because you'd probably make it an illegal pre-epic weapon, and the fact that it's already something that Afina could make for you is what makes it boring. Not to mention that with GMW, you'd be better off with +1 weapons that have a lot of abilities to make them unique... And oh look, that's what your collection of other spears are.
So yeah, I do agree that in your particular situation, it's a little lame. Your artifact is a Magikarp.
Quote from: Corwin on March 04, 2012, 02:27:36 PMMy AC is 25. -4 with Gambit. I think if you take any enemy from the past two RL months and compare their attack against my AC, it wouldn't matter much whether I use it or not where it comes to being hit. The boost in damage against me isn't huge, and if I can down an enemy before it can finish unloading its full attack on me with my AoOs I save myself the damage from said full attack.
Fair strategy there.
QuoteI just do. They aren't acting like they're doing us a favor by being there. I'm not sure why you'd think that I don't like Adrian. I just don't think he's very effective in a fight, but I have to admire his tenacity.
I think he's reasonably effective at his role - fighting and direct damage. He's also tenacious, yes. He's not ever going to be a dominating force in battle, but he's gonna give it his all.
QuoteYou really like her and it shows.
I put her in the middle of the pack at best; I personally don't like her much under 21. That said, how is that in any way relevant to what I said?
QuoteMmm, maybe you mean starting with B2? I know my boots cost the MIC amount, and so did all of my MIC gear from B1. I think so did Eb's, but I'm not 100% sure on it.
They were generally raised.
QuoteI want to purchase an animated shield to take care of my ac and boost my gauntlets with the stuff I mentioned to you before. And I really should try to convert my stat boosters into a belt of +6.
Agreed about the belt. I'm aiming for that for NPCs when possible, to just get the stat boosting stuff squared away. Shield doesn't surprise me - any particular set up at all?
Quote1. How do you feel your character is working out? Any areas that are particularly good or problematic?
In terms of pure combat effectiveness, Afina remains solidly consistent if rarely overwhelming, so nothing much has changed. As multi-action becomes more and more a factor both on the part of other PCs and enemies, I'm starting to miss having 3.0 haste. Innervated Speed makes up for it slightly on the defensive front, but on the offensive front she's lagging. The contribution she makes through crafting to our whole team really can't be overstated, though, since our effective wealth is more than doubled in terms of what we can afford.
Quote2. How do you feel about the other PCs?
Jaela's pretty good offensively but she gets hit enough for Dana to feel jealous. If she gets the time to buff up properly she can be pretty awesome. Ithea's getting a lot of milage out of opportunist, which is a big help, and tossing in quick cast enervations and the like similarly plays a big part when they land. Muirfinn's some guy that just showed up and Afina hasn't even met.
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3. I strive to provide interesting NPCs, especially since this game is based around recruiting and building an army. How am I doing at that?
4. Who are your favorite 3 NPCs? If you haven't covered this already, why?
5. Who are your 3 least favorite NPCs? If you haven't covered this already, why?
Yeah, you're good with NPCs but I'll echo comments about the general army being pretty faceless. I guess we need to get morale up to 100 for more of them to unlock special scenes?
Favourite NPCs... Annalise, Baleruk, and Elena. Annalise because she has the complexity of being an evil monstrosity against all that lives that nonetheless is one of our most solidly dependable allies. Shades of grey are interesting, and her baiting of Hanna is amusing. Baleruk hits a similar note to Annalise since he's an abomination himself, but in many ways he reminds me of a big loud yet harmless dog, always shouting and puffing himself up but he knows he's got nothing without us... it's kinda sad and cute all at once. Elena I just really like because she's cute and often comic relief.
Least favourite? Of the Aurora crew I guess just the Master, and only because he never does anything so he might as well not exist. Broadening our scope, I'll have to list Naliel, since she's a nasty little snitch, and... nope, I'm out, can't think of any others.
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6. How do you feel Baator has been presented, as far as your primary antagonists go?
7. How do you feel evil in general is portrayed? I've been pulling few punches with them.
8. How do you feel about any other opposition you have?
They're evil. They're oh so terribly evil and overwhelming and powerful and splendid and smart and beyond all limits. It gets pretty old, really, and I blame dicefreaks for laying on the whole perfection of hell shit so thickly, since I know that's a big inspiration for you.
Don't get me wrong, fighting powerful and smart enemies is fun, but we're already up against a realm of infinity dudes, it's even worse when it's got infinity dudes all tougher than we are. Instead of taking it as a compliment when we say our victories seem petty and pointless, please instead try to alleviate it instead.
Our other opposition I guess would be dragons? They haven't done much of anything since we got Baleruk, really.
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9. How do you feel the Heavens are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
10. How do you feel the Hells are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
11. How do you feel the other Outer Planes are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
12. How do you feel the Inner Planes and misc (Astral, ect) are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
Arborea's been good for us, and when we've visited it does tend to show off the weirdness in some places like with the star princess and star giant Jaela dealt with which was neat. Elysium's been a non-entity aside from picking up Galariel there, and Celestia's caused problems. It will be neat to visit Celestia though, since Alicia loved the place but Afina's going to be looking at it through an entirely different lens.
Hades was about what I expected, Limbo I think feels pretty lame - basically like the Astral or Air planes except with a gimmick for being able to make stuff out of nothing. Where's the crazy elemental confluences, the insane geography? It's just a big empty expanse of nothing. we've only visited one layer of the Abyss, technically two, but since there were no demons at all to be found it didn't really feel Abyssal over any generic evil place,
I do like the elemental planes, but again like Limbo I feel like not enough is made of their geography/weather. Particularly with Water, since not only have we had no crazy currents or things like that, but there hasn't been any need for swim checks even. Afina turned into a water elemental and Canderella presumably had her own method, but for Jaela to be breezing about through the water in full plate as easily as in air seems egrarious.
edit: Okay there was some of that today.
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13. What areas have you visited and liked, or thought were fun and memorable? Why?
14. What do you think of Aurora? I try and show it off whenever I can, but it's usually just a homebase that you rarely walk around in to merely see the sights.
15. What do you think of Brightwater? It's the closest thing the group has to a town and you visit it fairly often.
I liked the Hades fortress, for all that it was a horrid place, just for having interesting but not hilariously unbreachable defences, and the whole 'fortress under a frozen waterfall' image was neat.
Aurora feels really disconnected. I guess because it's huge it's unavoidable, but with everything being portalled then it may as well be hundreds of seperate demiplanes that never touch each other - there's no real concept of the whole.
Brightwater's just a place with lots of shops?
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16. How's loot going for you? Am I giving you interesting items?
17. How about the raw quantity of GP? With Aurora+NPCs+Expenses there's always going to be a need for more, and this was design to have some money crunch elements to it. Afina's crafting has taken a considerable load off this burden, but it still exists.
18. I've dropped...3-5 artifacts in game, I believe? What do you think about them?
Me specifically? Nope, not a one. Even that nature staff/sword was a longsword which Afina isn't proficient with and can't use weapon finesse/slippers of battledancing with. About the best I've had were some ingredients I used to make a potential cool sword, but until we run into a powerful aberration that's just a potential (and it's a medium scimitar since I made it for NPCs rather than Afina).
Gp level's been fine.
I haven't paid much attention to artifacts as none have mattered a whit for Afina. I guess 21's our 'I win' button against devils we won't be able to fight without gaining another 15 or so levels, so that's nice? I'd rather it wasn't necessary, but so it goes.
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19. How am I DMing?
20. How's the tone of the game for you?
21. How's combat going? I strive to keep combat both dangerous and interesting whenever possible.
You're a good DM. There's very little to complain about, but I think that's probably the cause of why when there is a complaint you don't take criticism well. It's not personal! Any criticism is only ever meant in the interest of making the game more fun for everyone, so please don't get down about it.
The tone is pretty bleak, we're still on the run from hell and even rescuing Ilsenine and killing the child of Lifasa hasn't really rocked the status quo.
Combat's been good. Even when Gathgarion showed up to wreck our shit in the latter battle it was an interesting obstacle, kinda like those forced scrolling levels in platformers where if you touch the back of the screen you die. (yes I can see situations where having our opponents be overwhelmingly powerful makes for interesting set pieces)
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22. Now that you have some idea (but not all) of what's going on and some hints of why Lifasa fell, what do you think? Right now, it looks like the devils are using some form of fate to empower events and its your task to give fate a kick in the 'nads.
23. Who do you consider your biggest enemy in game?
I hate Fate/Destiny/Prophecies. I hate them in every game I've ever played in and this will never change. It's nice to flip them the bird in this one, but I still hate that they exist and are given weight regardless.
Our biggest enemy is ourselves. Woah. But really, we've made a few enemies that weren't strictly necessary (though I wouldn't change those actions), and it's very easy to get disheartened and give up with all we're up against - or get lazy in a seemingly easy battle and open ourselves to being sucker punched.
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24. This is purely meta, but I'm curious. Would your PC ever consider negotiating with Hell or a devil faction?
25. Do you think you can save Lifasa? IC and OOC.
26. Throughout the Planes, it can be said everyone has an agenda and a cause to promote. How much of a sense of that do you get?
No. Afina is a tiny little ball of supernova hot hatred for all things devil. They can't be reasoned with, or bargained with, or shown mercy, or redeemed. There is nothing of value amongst them.
Sure we can save Lifasa. It'll be a burnt out shell of a world where the survivors will spend years burying the dead, and the water will never be safe to drink, and the piles of devil corpses will cast shadows over even the tallest mountain peaks. But that's better than the devils having it.
Oh yeah, other people have agendas. Which makes them all dicks because their stupid agendas gave hell free reign to conquer our world. Fuck them and their agendas.
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27. Is 27 the sexiest badger-slaad on Lifasa?
Seriously 27: There's a lot of mysteries in the game world, from small to huge. What do you identify as mysteries, and what do you think the answers are? Assuming you have a guess as to what the answer is, anyway.
Winner by default.
Is Tannin working for devils because his slaad-maid mom is being held hostage? Is the Lady of Pain really a dozen squirrels with a ring of levitation and a cloak of disguise? Is 27 really an extradimensional fingertip of some squamous far realm non euclidean life form pursuing its own ineffable agenda? Is Pelor secretly evil? How many of our recruits are secret devil double-agents waiting for the command to strike? Will Venger distract Tiamat long enough for us to steal the Eye of Asmodeus from her hoard? Will Shar consume all of reality and render our struggles moot? Is Daa-vid still sealed on Sylvie's prime just waiting to be freed and given the right recruitment pitch?
Quote from: Anastasia on March 01, 2012, 02:00:00 AM
Feedback time.
Yays.
Quote1. How do you feel your character is working out? Any areas that are particularly good or problematic?
Pretty embarrassed about letting Kascha and Tom die. Yeah, that was my fault. I'll be better. Other than that, I think it's too early to tell with Muirfinn. I miss Willim.
Quote2. How do you feel about the other PCs?
Reeeeh.
Quote3. I strive to provide interesting NPCs, especially since this game is based around recruiting and building an army. How am I doing at that?
The NPCs are amusing and fun. I find Dana hilarious and I hate Annalise. Both of those are good signs that they're good NPCs. I really like hating Annalise.
Quote4. Who are your favorite 3 NPCs? If you haven't covered this already, why?
Annalise, Dana, & the Master. Followed by Elena, the Jarl, and Elrisa. The characters are rich and each has their own set of emotions, be they oily-nice evil, stoic aceticism, or brash, life-loving warrior. And so many others!
Quote5. Who are your 3 least favorite NPCs? If you haven't covered this already, why?
Annalise, because she's so much fun to dislike. That's all!
Quote6. How do you feel Baator has been presented, as far as your primary antagonists go?
Terrifyingly, deviously evil. Definitely not the crazed, mindless evil-horrors of the Abyss.
Quote7. How do you feel evil in general is portrayed? I've been pulling few punches with them.
PLEASE CONTINUE PULLING PUNCHES BECAUSE IF YOU GO ALL-OUT I THINK WE'RE ALL FUCKED.
Quote8. How do you feel about any other opposition you have?
See below. Also: Mechanus can suck it.
Quote9. How do you feel the Heavens are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
Well, to be honest, I was really surprised at the way you portrayed Bahamut as a rigid adherent to law, but still willing to ally with his most hated enemy over a prismatic dragon. I've not seen him that way. It's nice that Morniel is around to try to help soften the blow and I know he's advancing Try's interests by being there, but really. Bahamut, I am disappoint. He should have known what we were doing right away when it came to Baleruk, and I would think he could quickly realize that we were capable of making Baleruk's plans come to fruition. Instead of opposing us and allying with Tiamat, he should have sent us an emissary right away and made his counter offer. I think that, given the choice, we would have taken the deal if it was appropriately sweetened. Allying with an evil god who spends the majority of her time in the Nine Hells was a fatal mistake, in my opinion. We could have made slaying Baelruk a priority and both sides of the agreement would have been able to benefit from this. I'm really disappointed that it didn't work out this way. Hopefully the situation can be salvaged, but I don't see our party or anyone on the Aurora agreeing to work with Bahamut so long as he is willing to ally with what essentially are the forces of Hell. Remember that the greatest of evils are not committed by devils or demons, but by saints!
Quote10. How do you feel the Hells are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
They are sufficiently manipulative and dastardly for evil.
Quote11. How do you feel the other Outer Planes are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
They've been fun so far!
Quote12. How do you feel the Inner Planes and misc (Astral, ect) are shown? Are they working for you? Why or why not?
Same as above! The only elemental plane we haven't been to is Water, I think, unless Afina and Jaela are there now?
Quote13. What areas have you visited and liked, or thought were fun and memorable? Why?
I thought the Abyss was freaking awesome. I didn't want to leave. It could have used more demons on top of the Resident Evil/Silent Hill feel that was going on there.
Quote14. What do you think of Aurora? I try and show it off whenever I can, but it's usually just a homebase that you rarely walk around in to merely see the sights.
I'm positive that the Aurora will come into its own as more than a simple home base once Hell starts throwing its weight against us.
Quote15. What do you think of Brightwater? It's the closest thing the group has to a town and you visit it fairly often.
I love Brightwater. With the addition of the Mercane, it's really become that place where you can get just about anything. I like that we've been recruiting awesome shopkeepers from them too.
Quote16. How's loot going for you? Am I giving you interesting items?
It was going great for Willim. We'll see with Muirfinn, there's not a whole not of fantastic Druid gear with Shapeshift in the mix.
Quote17. How about the raw quantity of GP? With Aurora+NPCs+Expenses there's always going to be a need for more, and this was design to have some money crunch elements to it. Afina's crafting has taken a considerable load off this burden, but it still exists.
There's always going to be the desire for more and more money. It will grow into crazy proportions once we get into Epic, too.
Quote18. I've dropped...3-5 artifacts in game, I believe? What do you think about them?
Artifacts are cool, man. Nothing like untyped bonuses. They really add a customized feel to the game.
Quote19. How am I DMing?
Great!
Quote20. How's the tone of the game for you?
Pretty good!
Quote21. How's combat going? I strive to keep combat both dangerous and interesting whenever possible.
Mmmmmm combat.
Quote22. Now that you have some idea (but not all) of what's going on and some hints of why Lifasa fell, what do you think? Right now, it looks like the devils are using some form of fate to empower events and its your task to give fate a kick in the 'nads.
We're doing a pretty good job of it. I'll bet that taking out the Child sent them all into convulsions.
Quote23. Who do you consider your biggest enemy in game?
Asmodeus. It's only a matter of time.
Quote24. This is purely meta, but I'm curious. Would your PC ever consider negotiating with Hell or a devil faction?
I won't say it's not possible, but there's much more likelihood of negotiating with 'loths or even demons.
Quote25. Do you think you can save Lifasa? IC and OOC.
Absolutely.
Quote26. Throughout the Planes, it can be said everyone has an agenda and a cause to promote. How much of a sense of that do you get?
Man, it's everywhere. Every divine emissary is an attempt to influence us one way or another.
Quote27. Is 27 the sexiest badger-slaad on Lifasa?
Clearly you have not used Google-Fu enough. (http://us-p.vclart.net/vcl/Artists/NuDog/Nu-4-Badger.jpg) Also, he's not on Lifasa. DUDE.
QuoteSeriously 27: There's a lot of mysteries in the game world, from small to huge. What do you identify as mysteries, and what do you think the answers are? Assuming you have a guess as to what the answer is, anyway.
Quote from: Anastasia on March 04, 2012, 03:33:41 PM
I put her in the middle of the pack at best; I personally don't like her much under 21. That said, how is that in any way relevant to what I said?
Just that I think you would be biased to any arguments about her and try to see her from a positive side. I think she's the only NPC who had other NPCs worry about her within a day of arrival, to the point of approaching a PC and asking her to help Sylvie feel better. When will Tepen arrange for a hug for me? :(
Quote
Agreed about the belt. I'm aiming for that for NPCs when possible, to just get the stat boosting stuff squared away. Shield doesn't surprise me - any particular set up at all?
I actually have a very simple plan for AC boosting. Animated Heavy Metal Shield +1/Magic Vestment gives me +6 to AC. Making my gauntlets of weapon/armor summoning into doubling as Defending +1 Gauntlets/Greater Magic Weapon will give me +4 to AC and to Touch AC, and keep me always armed in case I don't have a spear equipped for some reason or someone gets past my guard. Then, there is the +1 equivalent Ghost Ward armor+shield enhancement that allows the +X enhancement bonus of the armor/shield to apply to Touch AC, so at a fairly low cost I could add +8 more to my Touch AC. I think this will put me at 35 AC (not worrying over Touch AC right now, it's still a lost cause as far as I'm concerned at this time). That's in the range of Ithea and Muirfin, especially if we calc in the hit from Gambit.
As an aside, Hanna and Elena are fun as well. Hanna is like a cool big sis, especially of the kind where you sometimes feel like you're the more mature one. Elena is amusing, and I hope we can be better friends!
Quote from: Ebiris on March 04, 2012, 04:38:14 PMIn terms of pure combat effectiveness, Afina remains solidly consistent if rarely overwhelming, so nothing much has changed. As multi-action becomes more and more a factor both on the part of other PCs and enemies, I'm starting to miss having 3.0 haste. Innervated Speed makes up for it slightly on the defensive front, but on the offensive front she's lagging. The contribution she makes through crafting to our whole team really can't be overstated, though, since our effective wealth is more than doubled in terms of what we can afford.
Yes. Crafting really can't be overstated and rippled through the party in so many ways. I figure spells will help make up for that, as well as a third mobile strike at some point - have you considered a dip into fighter (yes, yes, I can see the eyeroll across the ocean) once you qualify to grab it? Another attack will help shore up your offense.
QuoteJaela's pretty good offensively but she gets hit enough for Dana to feel jealous. If she gets the time to buff up properly she can be pretty awesome. Ithea's getting a lot of milage out of opportunist, which is a big help, and tossing in quick cast enervations and the like similarly plays a big part when they land. Muirfinn's some guy that just showed up and Afina hasn't even met.
Yes. We really need to get all 4 PCs together to fix the 'new guy' thing with Muirfinn.
QuoteYeah, you're good with NPCs but I'll echo comments about the general army being pretty faceless. I guess we need to get morale up to 100 for more of them to unlock special scenes?
Generally, yes.
QuoteFavourite NPCs... Annalise, Baleruk, and Elena. Annalise because she has the complexity of being an evil monstrosity against all that lives that nonetheless is one of our most solidly dependable allies. Shades of grey are interesting, and her baiting of Hanna is amusing. Baleruk hits a similar note to Annalise since he's an abomination himself, but in many ways he reminds me of a big loud yet harmless dog, always shouting and puffing himself up but he knows he's got nothing without us... it's kinda sad and cute all at once. Elena I just really like because she's cute and often comic relief.
I have to agree about Hanna. I just love the way the two bait and bounce off each other. It explains Annalise and Jaela - hate and love aren't really all that far apart, being intense, consuming emotions. Something about Annalise resonates within both of them, but manifests in different but similar ways. Whenever they're together I just let them bounce off each other - nice image there by the way - and hilarity ensues. I feel a bit bad for Jaela, but at the same time her exasperated reactions really make it work, too.
Baleruk is at least partially bark, yeah. The whole paranoid ranting thing and avoiding conflict with the party hints towards that.
Elena's fun to do random things with and get laughs. Sometimes that's really needed.
QuoteLeast favourite? Of the Aurora crew I guess just the Master, and only because he never does anything so he might as well not exist. Broadening our scope, I'll have to list Naliel, since she's a nasty little snitch, and... nope, I'm out, can't think of any others.
He did contribute a new PrC and is working with the troops. You're right in that he's reserved and not really a leader by charisma type, nor a go-getter. He's more interested in biding his time and waiting for a real fight.
QuoteThey're evil. They're oh so terribly evil and overwhelming and powerful and splendid and smart and beyond all limits. It gets pretty old, really, and I blame dicefreaks for laying on the whole perfection of hell shit so thickly, since I know that's a big inspiration for you. Don't get me wrong, fighting powerful and smart enemies is fun, but we're already up against a realm of infinity dudes, it's even worse when it's got infinity dudes all tougher than we are. Instead of taking it as a compliment when we say our victories seem petty and pointless, please instead try to alleviate it instead.
This begs a multi-fold response, so I'll do it part by part.
First of all, I agree that this happens. It should happen with any Outer Plane. There are going to be things out there that can smear a level 20 party like finger paint. That's just the nature of the planes versus the material realms.
Second of all, that's Hell's most basic propaganda line. Hell constantly tries to intimidate in everything it does. They always present strength, always try to be or appear in control. There's an aspect of this that's important to understand - even with the powerful cornugons, guarding Ilsenine was only one aspect of that. If someone did successfully attack the Bloodletting Peak, they'd almost certainly feel they were outmatched by the Blood War hardened forces there. Hell is constantly assaulting you in body and morale, chipping away at the one thing that can lead to Hell being overthrown - hope.
Hell plans everything or close enough to it, including how they want foes to perceive it. I'd find it worth mentioning that despite all this, you also get glimpses of Hell being anything but monolithic and invincible. Abigor has a plot to overthrow him, the True King of Hell is subverting devils against the Serpent Throne, that resistance still exists on Lifasa. Despite all the chest-beating Hell indulges in, it doesn't change the truth of things. By the same token, despite trying to manipulate destiny, Hell is still defied.
Third of all, I don't entirely agree your victories are petty or pointless. You've ruined a diabolical prophecy to enslave all of Lifasa forever, rallied fragments of Lifasa and secured support, and recovered an ancient, powerful fortress to serve as your moving base of operations. Hell wants you to think that what you're doing is futile. They want your victories to seem petty, small and utterly irrelevant.
QuoteOur other opposition I guess would be dragons? They haven't done much of anything since we got Baleruk, really.
Lucky for you guys.
QuoteArborea's been good for us, and when we've visited it does tend to show off the weirdness in some places like with the star princess and star giant Jaela dealt with which was neat. Elysium's been a non-entity aside from picking up Galariel there, and Celestia's caused problems. It will be neat to visit Celestia though, since Alicia loved the place but Afina's going to be looking at it through an entirely different lens.
Yeah, Celestia was a solid ally in Balmuria 1 and now the opposite has happened. The frame of reference is much different now, which is nice for variety.
QuoteHades was about what I expected, Limbo I think feels pretty lame - basically like the Astral or Air planes except with a gimmick for being able to make stuff out of nothing. Where's the crazy elemental confluences, the insane geography? It's just a big empty expanse of nothing. we've only visited one layer of the Abyss, technically two, but since there were no demons at all to be found it didn't really feel Abyssal over any generic evil place.
Limbo showed a lot more of that when Jaela+Annalise+Hanna visited and met the Operator. Your first trip was relatively blessed and Ithea being an Anarch helped shield you from the worst of it. No comments on the rest - I agree and there's various reasons on those, so I don't have much to add.
QuoteYou're a good DM. There's very little to complain about, but I think that's probably the cause of why when there is a complaint you don't take criticism well. It's not personal! Any criticism is only ever meant in the interest of making the game more fun for everyone, so please don't get down about it.
I don't take criticism personally. I do argue about it sometimes or when I don't agree, but I do listen and it ain't personal. It's not that, it's more of a naturally argumentative style of making a point, I suppose. Cor in particular has a real knack for drawing that out of me.
QuoteThe tone is pretty bleak, we're still on the run from hell and even rescuing Ilsenine and killing the child of Lifasa hasn't really rocked the status quo. Combat's been good. Even when Gathgarion showed up to wreck our shit in the latter battle it was an interesting obstacle, kinda like those forced scrolling levels in platformers where if you touch the back of the screen you die. (yes I can see situations where having our opponents be overwhelmingly powerful makes for interesting set pieces)
Yeah, I was hoping it would be seen like that. That chase scene was a whole lot of fun from start to end and a nice change of pace.
QuoteI hate Fate/Destiny/Prophecies. I hate them in every game I've ever played in and this will never change. It's nice to flip them the bird in this one, but I still hate that they exist and are given weight regardless.
Yeah, that's why I conjured up a scenario where the point was to give fate the middle finger. The basic theory for fate that I run with is that it isn't solid. It's why divination magic about the future is cloudy at best.
QuoteOur biggest enemy is ourselves. Woah. But really, we've made a few enemies that weren't strictly necessary (though I wouldn't change those actions), and it's very easy to get disheartened and give up with all we're up against - or get lazy in a seemingly easy battle and open ourselves to being sucker punched.
Now I feel like you switched to surfer dude voice. >_<
Anyway, yeah, that's why the opening pitch had the line about being willing to take it all, get up and give 'em hell in return. I just like to restate that every so often.
QuoteSure we can save Lifasa. It'll be a burnt out shell of a world where the survivors will spend years burying the dead, and the water will never be safe to drink, and the piles of devil corpses will cast shadows over even the tallest mountain peaks. But that's better than the devils having it.
Let's say you get Lifasa back like that. What then? I figure a fey would have something to say about that in particular.
QuoteIs Tannin working for devils because his slaad-maid mom is being held hostage? Is the Lady of Pain really a dozen squirrels with a ring of levitation and a cloak of disguise? Is 27 really an extradimensional fingertip of some squamous far realm non euclidean life form pursuing its own ineffable agenda? Is Pelor secretly evil? How many of our recruits are secret devil double-agents waiting for the command to strike? Will Venger distract Tiamat long enough for us to steal the Eye of Asmodeus from her hoard? Will Shar consume all of reality and render our struggles moot? Is Daa-vid still sealed on Sylvie's prime just waiting to be freed and given the right recruitment pitch?
I was hoping for a more serious answer there, in all honesty. Finding out what you guys think are the current mysteries is enlightening.
Quote from: Yuthirin on March 04, 2012, 04:51:49 PMPretty embarrassed about letting Kascha and Tom die. Yeah, that was my fault. I'll be better. Other than that, I think it's too early to tell with Muirfinn. I miss Willim.
Poor Willim.
QuoteThe NPCs are amusing and fun. I find Dana hilarious and I hate Annalise. Both of those are good signs that they're good NPCs. I really like hating Annalise.
Good, good. I like that you like to hate Annalise instead of just flat hating her. That's encouraging.
QuoteAnnalise, Dana, & the Master. Followed by Elena, the Jarl, and Elrisa. The characters are rich and each has their own set of emotions, be they oily-nice evil, stoic aceticism, or brash, life-loving warrior. And so many others!
Poor Elrisa.
Honestly, I thought I didn't think everyone would like Annalise so much. Go figure. That one I didn't see coming at all. I mean, I figured Cor would, but not everyone else to that degree.
QuoteTerrifyingly, deviously evil. Definitely not the crazed, mindless evil-horrors of the Abyss.
Good. I'm trying on that front - even if you're not inclined to use it or meddle, finding out about diabolical politics or seeing the devils use coherent strategy helps reinforce that.
QuotePLEASE CONTINUE PULLING PUNCHES BECAUSE IF YOU GO ALL-OUT I THINK WE'RE ALL FUCKED.
'Pulling few punches' means I haven't been pulling punches, generally. Generally most encounters you fight against the devils are CR 21 minimum and you're surviving. The Fallen ambush was CR 25, just for reference. Now CR's a flawed system with plenty of pitfalls, but it gives you a reference to how I'm pitching enemies against you. You're facing low epic battles and hanging in there, and even triumphing.
Then again, there are things like Gathgorian who is likely CR 35+. So there are nastier things yet out there.
QuoteWell, to be honest, I was really surprised at the way you portrayed Bahamut as a rigid adherent to law, but still willing to ally with his most hated enemy over a prismatic dragon. I've not seen him that way.
Yeah, it's an unusual situation for him. If you can get Bahamut and Tiamat to cooperate, something's gone way off the beaten path. Bahamut's also of Law and the father of all dragons, which bestows other responsibilities on him, just as being the mother of all dragons and of Law bestows responsibilities onto Tiamat as well. One can obviously infer that the entire Prismatic Dragon thing was unusual.
QuoteIt's nice that Morniel is around to try to help soften the blow and I know he's advancing Try's interests by being there, but really. Bahamut, I am disappoint. He should have known what we were doing right away when it came to Baleruk, and I would think he could quickly realize that we were capable of making Baleruk's plans come to fruition. Instead of opposing us and allying with Tiamat, he should have sent us an emissary right away and made his counter offer. I think that, given the choice, we would have taken the deal if it was appropriately sweetened.
He did have a servant try to make nice with you guys and offered quite a bit. You guys didn't bite at all.
QuoteI thought the Abyss was freaking awesome. I didn't want to leave. It could have used more demons on top of the Resident Evil/Silent Hill feel that was going on there.
I'm of two minds about that Abyss trip. On one hand I'm not happy that it got mixed reviews, and in that aspect consider it a failure. On the other hand, I do like the horror I experimented there as well as a lot of the stylistic touches like that. In any case, I felt it was good to mix up the Abyss and provide something that emphasizes the chaotic in chaotic evil.
QuoteI love Brightwater. With the addition of the Mercane, it's really become that place where you can get just about anything. I like that we've been recruiting awesome shopkeepers from them too.
Coool. I sort of like it as your town to visit for things and like displaying the local flavor there. The pot seller today comes to mind - just had fun with him.
QuoteIt was going great for Willim. We'll see with Muirfinn, there's not a whole not of fantastic Druid gear with Shapeshift in the mix.
Fair warning, I'm still relatively new to druids so bear with me as I get a grasp on them more. I'm planning some things but it takes time and work.
QuoteThere's always going to be the desire for more and more money. It will grow into crazy proportions once we get into Epic, too.
I figure.
Speaking of, I need to revise the epic crafting feats, don't I? Let me do that after replying here. I keep putting it off.
QuoteWe're doing a pretty good job of it. I'll bet that taking out the Child sent them all into convulsions.
Morniel said he suspects as much, and it's a reasonable supposition to assume so, if the Child was supposed to be invincible.
QuoteI won't say it's not possible, but there's much more likelihood of negotiating with 'loths or even demons.
Duly noted.
QuoteMan, it's everywhere. Every divine emissary is an attempt to influence us one way or another.
Yeah, the Planes are about competing ethos, moralities, forces and ideals. Everyone's wants to see their particular one win.
Quote from: Corwin on March 04, 2012, 05:38:17 PMJust that I think you would be biased to any arguments about her and try to see her from a positive side. I think she's the only NPC who had other NPCs worry about her within a day of arrival, to the point of approaching a PC and asking her to help Sylvie feel better. When will Tepen arrange for a hug for me? :(
You're also loud, brash and rarely show a vulnerable side is seldom seen. Honestly, Jaela is that and has an established support system that's known of. In Sylvie's case, you had a troubled genius come in who caught Tepen's eye. He related to that for his own reasons and took steps. He doesn't relate as much to a paladin-angel that's notoriously headstrong. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Sylvie deserves it more than you. What I'm saying is that your public images are different and you get different reactions because of it.
Most of the other NPCs who you recruit have their shit together and aren't in a position where people need to show them concern or would pick up on it. The only other one that comes to mind is Ilsenine - and there's huge, obvious reasons as to why people should show her support and interest.
QuoteI actually have a very simple plan for AC boosting. Animated Heavy Metal Shield +1/Magic Vestment gives me +6 to AC. Making my gauntlets of weapon/armor summoning into doubling as Defending +1 Gauntlets/Greater Magic Weapon will give me +4 to AC and to Touch AC, and keep me always armed in case I don't have a spear equipped for some reason or someone gets past my guard. Then, there is the +1 equivalent Ghost Ward armor+shield enhancement that allows the +X enhancement bonus of the armor/shield to apply to Touch AC, so at a fairly low cost I could add +8 more to my Touch AC. I think this will put me at 35 AC (not worrying over Touch AC right now, it's still a lost cause as far as I'm concerned at this time). That's in the range of Ithea and Muirfin, especially if we calc in the hit from Gambit.
I don't allow the gauntlets as a free source of defending AC unless you're actively using them to fight with. I feel that's genuinely abusive of the intent of the ability. There's no real sacrifice - you're not losing any real to hit since you're not using them to attack with, but instead the weapon you're holding. I deepsixed this for Alicia back in Balmuria 1 and I'd make the same ruling here.
QuoteHe did have a servant try to make nice with you guys and offered quite a bit. You guys didn't bite at all.
He was just very obnoxious holier-than-thou, honestly? He sucked with diplomacy and made a crappy first impression.
Quote from: Merc on March 04, 2012, 08:02:08 PM
QuoteHe did have a servant try to make nice with you guys and offered quite a bit. You guys didn't bite at all.
He was just very obnoxious holier-than-thou, honestly? He sucked with diplomacy and made a crappy first impression.
Oh, he was. But there was a good faith offer made. I don't dispute that, only that there wasn't any sort of offer made.
To be fair, Yuth's original point was....
QuoteInstead of opposing us and allying with Tiamat, he should have sent us an emissary right away and made his counter offer. I think that, given the choice, we would have taken the deal if it was appropriately sweetened.
There's a difference between doing it properly and as some last ditch resort because they failed at what they were really trying.
Quote from: Anastasia on March 04, 2012, 07:02:46 PM
He did have a servant try to make nice with you guys and offered quite a bit. You guys didn't bite at all.
Honestly, he was far too late. He should have come to us before going to Tiamat. We're badass adventurers, dammit. We're
going places. Instead, he practicallty tried to bully us into accepting his terms. Sadface.
Also, what Corwin said.
Quote from: Corwin on March 04, 2012, 05:38:17 PM
a hug for me?
I'd be afraid to hug you because I might get a spear to the junk. o-o