DM Nagging: It's pretty much my job

[Anastasia]

Note that I accidentally edited the post I quoted the first time. I've done my best to reconstruct it but if something's odd that's why. Sorry, just clicked the wrong button and didn't realize.

Yeah, even though we've been chasing the seeds some nice things were accomplished as well, including Bytopia. I'm actually pretty happy it was a collaboration with Alicia, since it feels like a continuation of the duties we accepted in B1.

Pretty much. It's a nice ribbon on top of that storyline.

The Cauldron's not letting go of Astral that easily, but given that people I didn't want to fight kept opposing the expansion of my interests there we can preserve what sphere of influence we had and expand in Bytopia! Also, fuck Shar, I just knew she'd try something there and good thing I moved over so quickly. Once Garl recovers it'd be another thing, but for now it's nice to have his back.

Politics are politics, and no one really wants an apocalyptic war over a transitive plane. Moreso in a situation that may get certain unpleasant actors to hold their noses and grudgingly cooperate or at least not hinder each other in the prosecution of a power struggle there. For what it's worth, Queen may run into the same problem as her situation expands, but it's still new and just starting to come to light so that's more of a future concern. It's honestly not really about Seira, Amaryl or the Cauldron per se.

Also yes, Shar is Shar which translates into being Shar.

Curious how our expansion will go, myself! Still need to come up with nice names for everything, so if anyone has an idea it's a good time for it. Sanzha doesn't lack for names, at least. Donald's not allowed to name any landmarks, though.

Don't you want more names like the Amaryl Ranges? I mean, he did such a good job at naming those huge tracts of lan- okay okay, I see your point.

This will be discussed early in the next arc for sure. Once things are more together I need to sit down with you and hammer something out about this.

Mechanics-wise, I'm finally going to do something I've been intending to for ages and dedicate roles to my avatars. A rogue, a paladin, a cleric and any other emulations. I don't know how often the opportunity will come to go incognito on Prime and have fun, but Marie's escapades suggest it happens a lot more often than I feared. So maybe a cute dual-wielding favored soul will make an appearance, or a traveling bard that stabs enemies with a fiddle's bow!

It'd be nice to see more of this with Sanzha, and for Kascha and Ranbar.

Sure, feel free to adjust avatars within the rules and settings there. I'd like to do the same thing with NPCs but the realities of time will likely limit me at least partially. We'll see how it goes.

I need a few avatars of my own to do DM work.

[Anastasia]

Kascha's up to code now. Yay.

[Anastasia]

Elle reaches level 36.

- Wizards 36 and Dragon Disciple 26.
- Maximum hit points per hit die for a total of 25 and a grand total of 901.
- +1 BAB for a total of 26.
- +1 spell resistance.
- School mastery's bonus damage rises by 1 to 36.
- +1 CL for SLAs.
- Gains 36 level wizard spellcasting. She'll go with two Starbeams and one Silverfrost Mist as new spells.
- No change to saves.
- +1 Intelligence.
- Elle's short 6 skills. Her new skills are Diplomacy, Perception, Profession(Shopkeeper), Craft(Flying Shops), Sense Motive and finally Intimidate.
- Audible: Epic Skill Focus(Spellcraft)(36) and Armor Skin(DD26). The build chart had a feat she already had and it hadn't been corrected, so she takes that instead.
- Spoiler block updated.

[Anastasia]

Elle's divine tab is done. Almost there.

[Corwin]

Seira named the Amaryl mountain range so as you can see Donald isn't needed for it.

Incidentally, how about cleaning up my thread? There are a bunch of posts for 'old' versions of the chars and such.

[Anastasia]

Already did one and will do the rest when I'm done.

[Anastasia]

Sorry for the delay, the internet went down last night.

Donald reaches level 36.

- Duskblade 36 and Prismatic Dragon 2.
- Maximum hit points per hit die for a total of 24 hit points and a grand total of 890 hit points.
- +1 BAB for a total of 36.
- +1 spell resistance.
- Spell power rises by 1 to +9.
- 36th level duskblade spellcasting. His new spell is Visage of the Tarrasque.
- No change to saves.
- +1 strength.
- Donald's 8 skills short. 6 of those go into Knowledge(All). The other two are Perception and Appraise, since dragon.
- Audible because the build chart's out of date with Donald's divine adjustments: Pulverize(36) and Multiaction(D36)

Spoiler block and divine tab shortly.

[Anastasia]

Donald's tab and block are done. One more.

[Nephrite]

Moore

It has to be said that the start of this arc was a high point for Moore. He'd accomplished his game long goal and was in position to strengthen his node further. This has largely come through this arc - a possible delayed result in Elysium aside - and I feel he's done well for himself. A strong and now fully functional node is well worth praise and I'll discuss that more below. Besides that, this feels like the arc to where the beginning of something more was founded. In particular Hope's Landing has been established earlier and now has a chance to come into its own.

What strikes me as I type this as how it doesn't feel like something new, but only a continuation of what Moore's done for some time. So this can really been seen as the realization of the node's efforts thus far, which feels properly organic. How they'll all treat divinity is an open question and one that will be explored in the coming arc. Still, I feel like the biggest step has been taken and the rest should sort itself out in the days to come.

Beyond that, what comes to me is that the node has a certain resilience. Some of it's Jetina of course, since she provides the ability to recover from almost anything. More of it is attitude. Cresiel survived captivity by Lixer, Moore's survived a lot, Kaja survived a long recovery from injury and Sylvie's come back from something unthinkable. It feels like to me that the node's seen a lot and won't give up easily. Something about that translates to them directly, from Cresiel's relentless attitude to Sylvie's hard won fearlessness.

Mechanically speaking, it's Moore doing Moore things so everyone can excel. Kaja alone covers melee but Sylvie and Cresiel are both excellent there as well. Xandra covers offensive magic while Sylvie chips in, Jetina manages healing but most everyone can heal and finally Sylvie can do stealth if needed. Really, Moore makes everyone so much better at things that it blows certain people way over the top. Kaja's the most obvious offender here, but Sylvie gains a ton too. It's hard to do wrong in this node because of it, and that is by far Moore's greatest mechanical strength.

While his node obviously doesn't have the roots of things that started back in B1, I'm glad to see the ripple effect of things he did back in B3 come to fruition here. I think you're also right about the "resiliency" of the group, something that helps bind all of them together under Moore's banner of hopefulness.

It will be very exciting to see how things continue to develop for them in game, as I think there are a lot of ways things can be brought together, even if they're theoretically very dissimilar values that get presented.

[Anastasia]

Ranbar reaches level 36.

- Cloistered Cleric 36 and Perfectus 26.
- Maximum hit points per hit die for a total of 21 hit points and a grand total of 746 hit points.
- No change to BAB.
- +1 spell resistance.
- +1 lore.
- 36th level cleric casting. This is purely a placeholder since I intend to redo her spells a bit later since she needs barrage spell again. I'll do it once I refreshed from levels, so it's a todo. Don't want to shortchange her because she's at the end of the line.
- No change to saves.
- Skills go up as normal.
- Audible: Epic Toughness(36) as her feat. She's going to get tweaks once she gets DvR1 anyway, so I'll save it for then. She's in a weird spot but I knew that going in.
- Spoiler block updated.

It's done.

It's done.

Whew. Whimper.

[Nephrite]

I think just being basic may be the best idea. I looked over the Courage domain and none of that fits either.

Epic Inspire Courage [Epic]
Prequisite: Inspire Courage +4
Benefit: Your inspire courage can now be used as a swift action, and now causes those who are affected by it to be immune to charm and fear effects.

I'm still not 100% sold that this is "good enough" as an epic feat, but it feels like it's at least something to consider.

How do you feel about this?

[Nephrite]

Celestia's Inspiration
Enchantment/Transmutation (Compulsion) [Good, Mind-Affecting, Sonic]
Brd 11
Components: V
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: 200 ft
Targets: All allies within 200ft
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

When you cast this spell, you channel the barest fragment of the inspiration one can find within Mount Celestia into yourself and your allies. Anyone affected by this spell is treated as being affected by Haste and Freedom of Movement, and they also gain a +7 insight bonus to attack and weapon damage rolls. Their weapons also count as Good for the purposes of overcoming Damage Reduction.

Reposting. I am certain that you could make this a Cleric spell too without a lot of trouble. Maybe 12? Maybe Pal 10 too? Unsure.

[Anastasia]

I think just being basic may be the best idea. I looked over the Courage domain and none of that fits either.

Epic Inspire Courage [Epic]
Prequisite: Inspire Courage +4
Benefit: Your inspire courage can now be used as a swift action, and now causes those who are affected by it to be immune to charm and fear effects.

I'm still not 100% sold that this is "good enough" as an epic feat, but it feels like it's at least something to consider.

How do you feel about this?

How does that affect your general outlay of bardic music, Moore?

[Anastasia]

Celestia's Inspiration
Enchantment/Transmutation (Compulsion) [Good, Mind-Affecting, Sonic]
Brd 11
Components: V
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: 200 ft
Targets: All allies within 200ft
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

When you cast this spell, you channel the barest fragment of the inspiration one can find within Mount Celestia into yourself and your allies. Anyone affected by this spell is treated as being affected by Haste and Freedom of Movement, and they also gain a +7 insight bonus to attack and weapon damage rolls. Their weapons also count as Good for the purposes of overcoming Damage Reduction.

Reposting. I am certain that you could make this a Cleric spell too without a lot of trouble. Maybe 12? Maybe Pal 10 too? Unsure.

It's a bit of a combo platter but we'll see how it goes, sure.

Lemme try it as purely a bard spell first, see how far it goes.

[Anastasia]

Moore

It has to be said that the start of this arc was a high point for Moore. He'd accomplished his game long goal and was in position to strengthen his node further. This has largely come through this arc - a possible delayed result in Elysium aside - and I feel he's done well for himself. A strong and now fully functional node is well worth praise and I'll discuss that more below. Besides that, this feels like the arc to where the beginning of something more was founded. In particular Hope's Landing has been established earlier and now has a chance to come into its own.

What strikes me as I type this as how it doesn't feel like something new, but only a continuation of what Moore's done for some time. So this can really been seen as the realization of the node's efforts thus far, which feels properly organic. How they'll all treat divinity is an open question and one that will be explored in the coming arc. Still, I feel like the biggest step has been taken and the rest should sort itself out in the days to come.

Beyond that, what comes to me is that the node has a certain resilience. Some of it's Jetina of course, since she provides the ability to recover from almost anything. More of it is attitude. Cresiel survived captivity by Lixer, Moore's survived a lot, Kaja survived a long recovery from injury and Sylvie's come back from something unthinkable. It feels like to me that the node's seen a lot and won't give up easily. Something about that translates to them directly, from Cresiel's relentless attitude to Sylvie's hard won fearlessness.

Mechanically speaking, it's Moore doing Moore things so everyone can excel. Kaja alone covers melee but Sylvie and Cresiel are both excellent there as well. Xandra covers offensive magic while Sylvie chips in, Jetina manages healing but most everyone can heal and finally Sylvie can do stealth if needed. Really, Moore makes everyone so much better at things that it blows certain people way over the top. Kaja's the most obvious offender here, but Sylvie gains a ton too. It's hard to do wrong in this node because of it, and that is by far Moore's greatest mechanical strength.

While his node obviously doesn't have the roots of things that started back in B1, I'm glad to see the ripple effect of things he did back in B3 come to fruition here. I think you're also right about the "resiliency" of the group, something that helps bind all of them together under Moore's banner of hopefulness.

It will be very exciting to see how things continue to develop for them in game, as I think there are a lot of ways things can be brought together, even if they're theoretically very dissimilar values that get presented.

Sounds about right. In particular the various payoffs like that are quite nice.