DM Nagging: It's pretty much my job

[Corwin]

I kinda want to focus on Swift Hunter here. If it provides absolutely nothing, how does it enhance her build? The three things I noted (AC with skirmish, damage with skirmish, favored enemy progression) is all it does, no? I know it's gestalt, but it's not like she's actually advancing a ranger//scout build and can cheat. 10 levels of ranger and 21 of scout are together below her level of 36. In fact, her build is simple enough that she wouldn't even take both at the same levelup. Looking towards the future, she's advancing Dragonbreath Archer and Sorcerer, so neither of them are even growing while her level is. And even if you were at the most conservative and said that instead of adding the largest of the two would get picked, it would still benefit her because favored enemy progression based on 21 levels is better than 10 levels.

[Anastasia]

Swift Hunter allows her to apply skirmish damage to any enemy that's a favored enemy, even if they'd normally be immune. Immunity piercing's well worth a non epic feat. This is particularly useful against undead as well as certain evil outsiders. The level stacking may not apply here, but the other benefits of the feat do.

I wouldn't bother with the feat if it did nothing unless it was an irritating prerequisite. That happens every so often, but in this case the feat still has value for her.

[Anastasia]

Question: Iddy and Neph, you two seem to have had difficulty being on time lately. Is this something that may be helped if we consider adjusting game hours, if possible? I understand schedules change, so let me know if this is a thing.

[Nephrite]

No, I've just been forgetful and lost track of time the last few days.

If you wanted to change things to be earlier, that's fine with me, but 9-11 still works fine as far as I'm concerned.

[Anastasia]

No, I mean for morning session, not evening session. You two just happen to be the ones who have been late.

[Nephrite]

Oh, no, that's just work being work.

[Anastasia]

Fair enough, just thought I'd ask.

[Anastasia]

Okay, got some announcements.

1. I'm going to look into y'all running more NPCs in combat. The flat truth is that right now and with the health I'm in, combat is by far the biggest effort. It's also the biggest stumbling block so spreading those out simply makes my DMing a lot easier. All of you, do you have any NPCs you particularly want to run in combat?

2. Creative work is still on pause, I'm hoping my mid November appointment with the neurologist gets things moving but it won't be fast.

3. Should this not help or my condition get worse, I may have to pause this game. I really don't want to, I'd like to be back to full oomph and running this much harder than I have been, but I'm not there no matter how much I want to be. I'm going to do what I can to avoid this.

[Nephrite]

I can continue to run Jetina and Xandra. If you want me to take over for Cresiel and Kaja too, I don't mind - I just need a cheat sheet of what they can do, but we can spend time working through that if you'd like.

[Anastasia]

I can continue to run Jetina and Xandra. If you want me to take over for Cresiel and Kaja too, I don't mind - I just need a cheat sheet of what they can do, but we can spend time working through that if you'd like.

Lemme think about that and get back to you on specifies of how far I want this to go.

Cresiel's easy to run, I'll probably keep him, though.

[Ebiris]

I can run any of the Sylica group if needed, but it's hard work for me too - epic characters have a lot of stuff to worry about and I have enough trouble keeping just Alicia and Marie straight. So I'd probably bring along less NPCs and so it'd be fair in that case to adjust the balance of encounters so the smaller group doesn't get any more challenged than the larger group would've been.

Like right now a typical excursion is Alicia and two NPCs (or Alicia and Marie and one NPC) so we'd probably see more of just Alicia and one other person going out. Either that or I just bring Marie everywhere with one other person who I run so it remains a three person group.

[Anastasia]

I can run any of the Sylica group if needed, but it's hard work for me too - epic characters have a lot of stuff to worry about and I have enough trouble keeping just Alicia and Marie straight. So I'd probably bring along less NPCs and so it'd be fair in that case to adjust the balance of encounters so the smaller group doesn't get any more challenged than the larger group would've been.

Like right now a typical excursion is Alicia and two NPCs (or Alicia and Marie and one NPC) so we'd probably see more of just Alicia and one other person going out. Either that or I just bring Marie everywhere with one other person who I run so it remains a three person group.

Alicia + Marie + 1 NPC probably works simplest and best.

Of them I can run Antenora, I did her build from the ground up and it's seared into my mind. I'll keep her and write up more on the others.

[Anastasia]

Kaja

Okay, Kaja really only has one purpose: melee things. Any other options run in a distant second, so doing melee should always be his primary focus. Particularly full attacks whenever possible, though he lacks a full attack on move option except for dervish dance. Kaja tends to save his better tricks for when he needs them, rather than to further crush weaker opponents. He's most content in battle when his blades tear apart his enemy, and that doesn't necessarily need advanced tricks and tactics.

Attack: Gem+72 (1d6+53 plus +2 hit/damage vs evil plus 2d6 holy plus 2d6 axiomatic plus 4d6 crit 15-20 x4)

Very straightforward. It's three cases of add on damage and one condition hit/damage multiplier. He gets an extra +2 to attack and damage rolls vs evil. This stacks with everything so remember to apply it. Additionally, Kaja can modify his melee attacks in the following ways:

Power Attack: You know the drill here. -1 attack for +1 damage, up to his BAB, which is currently 36. He mostly uses this when he knows he won't miss an enemy or is supremely boosted up thanks to Moore.
Combat Expertise: A lesser option of up to -5 attack rolls for +5 AC. He's not had to use it much, but he can spent extra to hit on this if it's free.
Dervish Dance: This allows a condition full attack while you move. This is complicated enough that I suggest you carefully read the class ability, as well as the epic progression for it and the feats for it he has. Additionally he gains a +13 bonus to attack and damage rolls while in a dervish dance. This is powerful, but the limitation of only being able to use it when you can move freely is a concern. Kaja doesn't fear AoOs much, but he is aware of them and doesn't take bad ones blindly, unless he needs to go full offense.
A Thousand Cuts: As insane as it reads. Kaja has little reason to need to use this, so he keeps it as a trump card in case of full on emergency. Keep it, know it, use it in a serious pinch.

Compared to that, Kaja's ranged attacks are anemic. He has a weak breath weapon, his racial half dragon one. This hardly moves the scales and is only useful in extremely rare situations. Unless he absolutely needs to damage or hinder someone, he's inclined to full move to position if he can't melee on a turn, or use an SLA or alter reality to further enhance himself.

Spell-wise, all Kaja has is his divine SLAs and alter reality. Notable ones are time stop (self evident usefulness), valiant fury (non enhancement stat bonuses) and rhino's rush (charge doubler). He has a few other useful ones but those are the gems.

For defenses, Kaja has good AC and relies on that plus divine dodge to avoid harm. His saves are weak so he's leery of things that target them.

Why don't you give the sheet a scan, keep this in mind and see what questions you have from here, Moore?

[Nephrite]

Got it. I'll familiarize myself with Dervish Dance and go from there.

[Anastasia]

Latha

Unlike Kaja, Latha's a cleric at heart. She can fight and has some tricks tied to that, but fundamentally she's all about the magic and sun magic in particular. She approaches battles from that perspective. She can and will deal with things with either mace and shield or greatsword, but is most comfortable when clerical magic wins the day. Most of her abilities are along those lines.

First and foremost is Latha's aura. It's 7d6+7 damage on her turn to all evil enemies within 30ft. I suggest you simply roll it at the start of her turn and let the damage falls where it may, it's easiest to manage that way.

Attack: Glorious Duty+56 (1d8+19 plus 3d6 holy and 1 negative level (6d6 and 2 negative levels on crit)) or Clarenyre Reborn+59 (7d6+28 plus vision of heaven (DC 70) 19-20 x2)

Latha's two melee options. Glorious Duty allows her to use the Aegis of the Tarrasque and Clarenyre does not, which is something she keeps in mind with her calculus. She's inclined to stick to mace + shield and save Clarenyre for heavy melee or when it's unique abilities can win a fight cleanly. That and she has stun with a mace, which is a DC 45 fort or be taken out of the fight. Note that she can stun undead, which are normally immune to this.

She can also modify her melee attacks in a few ways.

Power Attack: 1-1 for Glorious Duty and 1-2 for Clarenyre. She's more inclined to use PA with Clarenyre as a result, since when she's using that, she's going all in on melee.
Sun Devotion: Character level + 7 + 10 bonus damage against undead. That's +53 damage per hit, which makes it an excellent way to add extra pain to the undead. Note that due to her fiendburn feat, this also applies to evil outsiders.

Latha's ranged options are her spells, so we'll move along to those.

Without a doubt, Latha's big ability is her spells. It's divine casting, so she's full spontaneous here. Nonetheless she sticks to sun spells for a few reasons.

Vivacious Power: At 9th level, any spell you cast from the sun domain may have vivacious spell applied spontaneously, with no increase to the spell level or casting time. This applies to any spell from the sun domain, no matter if you cast them as a domain spell, a normal cleric spell or another type of spell. - In other words, she automatically gets vivacious spell on her spells from the sun domain. This is huge and obviously should always be factored in.
Sunweaver: At the peak of your mastery of sunlight, you gain the ability to weave sunlight into your magic. Three times per day, you may declare a spell a sunweave spell. A sunweave spell can't be a spell that has the darkness descriptor. A sunweave spell gains the light descriptor. A sunweave spell may spontaneously have vivacious spell applied to it, as if it was a spell from the sun domain. Finally, the spell deals extra damage to undead equal to the additional damage from sun devotion, including the benefits of greater sun devotion. - In other words, 3/day she can make a spell automatically vivacious as well as do an extra +53 damage to undead. This is her big gun, preferably used on the highest level sun domain spell she can fling out.

Latha casts as a 36th level cleric (caster level 37th for spells with the good or lawful descriptor, or for conjuration (creation) spells, divinations or conjuration (healing) spells; +1 bonus to caster level checks) with access to the Good, Glory, Law, Sun and Zeal domains. The save DCs are 27 + spell level. Her metamagic options are Consecrate Spell (+1), Energize Spell (+1), Empower Spell (+1), Vivacious Spell (+1) and Maximize Spell (+1). Any spell Latha casts on a living ally heals 1d12 damage and cures 1 point of ability damage to all six ability scores. All spells Latha casts have the good descriptor. Latha may prepare spells from the sun domain as cleric spells. Spells from the sun domain may have vivacious spell spontaneously applied to them. 3/day Latha may declare a spell a sunweave spell, which adds the light descriptor, adds the bonus damage from sun devotion and allows vivacious spell to be spontaneously applied.

Her summary for spells is fairly comprehensive and a good place to start. She has ample metamagic options to choose from when she casts spontaneously, as well as a few other benefits. Note that she can prepare spells from the sun domain as cleric spells, which combos wonderfully with the above tricks of Sunweaver and Vivacious Power.

Latha's inclined to either smite undead/fiends with her spells or heal, with a tendency towards healing unless another strong healer is present. While she does cast spontaneously, she tends to stick closely to her sample spell list. This is partly because it covers what she's good at and partly due to her nature. She's perfectly able to change it up when the situation demands, but when not she tends to stick to what works.

Conversely, Latha's defenses are solid without being exemplary. She trusts them to keep her safe, she's more inclined to heal or attack than to boost her defenses. In particular anything her Aegis blocks she tries to take advantage of, such as most breath weapons.

Let me know what you think and any questions after reading Latha's sheet. These are the salient details, and while she has a few other pieces, they're less important after her rebuild (channel energy).