Another class I'd like to try: The Inquisitor

This was a class I was really excited for when the Advanced Players Guide was first announced. I was a bit disappointed by its implementation at first but it has really grown on me as as I try out different builds and see what works and what doesn't. You can look at the class as a combination Rogue/Cleric but much better than that would suggest.

For a combat focused game there are only two Inquisitor builds that work well. The melee option is to focus on a two-handed weapon. This build is pretty easy since it really only depends on one feat: Power Attack. A great addition to this build is the use of Cornugan Smash which will give you a free Intimidate (which you get a big class bonus towards) every time you Power Attack (which is almost always). Shaken is a great debuff.
Inquisitors can lay down a lot of damage in melee combat.

While Inquisitors do really well in a melee role there effectiveness decreases at higher levels. They don't have great AC, no DR, and no other way to avoid damage. Once they get Heal, things will get easier again but they still don't make great Tanks.

The archery role is my preferred role for Inquisitors. Teamwork feats are pretty useless in this regard but can be traded away with Archetypes. Archery is pretty feat intensive and this is an area where Inquisitors suffer having to use almost all of their feats towards the Archery tree. Being Human with their bonus feat really comes in handy. Inquisitors get tons of bonus damage through Divine Favor/Power, Judgements, and Bane. Archery is all about getting a ton of attacks. Put the two together and that is a scary combination. From the back the Inquisitor can also use her spells to support they rest of the group when not launching volleys of death

Here's an example of my current favourite archery build at level 15. He can also do pretty well as a trap finder. The spell breaker Archetype is great since it trades out the useless Teamwork feats for better saves against spells. For a game that goes to 20 be aware that the capstone gives you immunity to a school of magic. This can be very bad if you are suddenly immune to healing, teleportation, or many buff spells. The best first school to pick is probably Necromancy since I don't think it has any utility or buff spells. I was saddened to see that Divine Power/Favor is an evocation spell. For Domains I prefer Liberation or Travel. Both are very strong but I prefer Liberation slightly since few things are worse than getting grappled as an archer.


Male Human Inquisitor (Spellbreaker) of Desna 15
NG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +17; Senses Perception +25
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 30, touch 21, flat-footed 22 (+9 armor, +8 Dex, +3 deflection)
hp 108 (15d8+30)
Fort +16, Ref +17, Will +20; +3 vs. enchantment spells, +4 vs. evocation spells, +1 vs. transmutation spells, +2 vs. necromancy spells
Defensive Abilities freedom's call, stalwart
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Ranged +3 composite longbow +21/+16/+11 (1d8+12/×3)
Special Attacks exploit weakness, bane
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 15th; concentration +14)
   At will—detect alignment
   15 rounds/day—discern lies
Inquisitor (Spellbreaker) Spells Known (CL 15th; concentration +22):
5th (4/day)—break enchantment (DC 22), flame strike (DC 22), litany of vengeance, true seeing
4th (5/day)—death ward, divine power, freedom of movement, greater invisibility, litany of escape, named bullet, restoration
3rd (7/day)—burst of speed, dimensional anchor, dispel magic, heroism, hunter's eye, litany of righteousness, magic circle against evil, protection from energy
2nd (7/day)—delay poison, honeyed tongue, invisibility, lesser restoration, remove paralysis, resist energy, see invisibility, silence (DC 19), tongues
1st (7/day)—cure light wounds, divine favor, expeditious retreat, hide from undead (DC 18), litany of sloth, protection from evil, shield of faith, true strike, wrath
0 (at will)—create water, detect magic, detect poison, guidance, light, read magic
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 14, Dex 27, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 24, Cha 8
Base Atk +11; CMB +13; CMD 34
Feats Clustered Shots, Deadly Aim, Great Fortitude, Manyshot, Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Toughness
Traits reactionary, vagabond child (urban)
Skills Bluff +3, Climb +5, Disable Device +26, Fly +8, Heal +11, Intimidate +6, Knowledge (arcana) +15, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +4, Knowledge (nature) +4, Knowledge (planes) +15, Knowledge (religion) +4, Perception +25, Ride +11, Sense Motive +32, Stealth +25, Swim +5
Languages Common, Varisian
SQ defense against magic, defense against magic, defense against magic, defense against magic, domains (liberation), foil casting, liberation, judgement 5/day), strong-willed, teamwork feat, track
Other Gear celestial armor, +3 composite longbow, belt of incredible dexterity +6, bracers of archery, greater, cloak of resistance +4, handy haversack, headband of inspired wisdom +6, ring of protection +3, 5,800 gp
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Clustered Shots Total damage from full-round ranged attacks before applying DR
Deadly Aim -3/+6 Trade a penalty to ranged attacks for a bonus to ranged damage.
Defense Against Magic +1 (Transmutation) (Ex) At 3rd level, a spellbreaker picks a single wizard school. She gains a +1 bonus on saving throws against arcane spells of that school. Every four levels beyond 3rd, the spellbreaker picks a new school and gains this bonus against arcane spells of tha
Defense Against Magic +2 (Necromancy) (Ex) At 3rd level, a spellbreaker picks a single wizard school. She gains a +1 bonus on saving throws against arcane spells of that school. Every four levels beyond 3rd, the spellbreaker picks a new school and gains this bonus against arcane spells of tha
Defense Against Magic +3 (Enchantment) (Ex) At 3rd level, a spellbreaker picks a single wizard school. She gains a +1 bonus on saving throws against arcane spells of that school. Every four levels beyond 3rd, the spellbreaker picks a new school and gains this bonus against arcane spells of tha
Defense Against Magic +4 (Evocation) (Ex) At 3rd level, a spellbreaker picks a single wizard school. She gains a +1 bonus on saving throws against arcane spells of that school. Every four levels beyond 3rd, the spellbreaker picks a new school and gains this bonus against arcane spells of tha
Detect Alignment (At will) (Sp) Detect chaos, evil, good, or law at will.
Discern Lies (15 rounds/day) (Sp) Discern Lies at will
Exploit Weakness (Ex) With a crit, ignore DR, suppress Regen, and take advantage of vulnerability.
Foil Casting (Su) At 3rd level, when an opponent tries to cast an arcane spell within a spellbreaker's threatened area, the DC for that caster to cast defensively increases by 2. This increase stacks with the effects of the Disruptive feat (see page 112 of the Core
Freedom's Call (15 rounds/day) (Su) 30'r aura suppresses many conditions.
Greater Bane (+2 / 4d6) (15 rounds/day) (Su) Make the weapon you are holding a bane weapon.
Inquisitor (Spellbreaker) Domain (Liberation) Granted Powers: You are a spirit of freedom and a staunch foe against all who would enslave and oppress.
Liberation (15 rounds/day) (Su) Act as if you had freedom of movement for 15 rounds/day.
Manyshot You can shoot two arrows as the first attack of a full attack action.
Point-Blank Shot +1 to attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at up to 30 feet.
Precise Shot You don't get -4 to hit when shooting or throwing into melee.
Rapid Shot You get an extra attack with ranged weapons. Each attack is at -2.
Second Judgement (5/day) (Su) Variable bonuses increase as the combat continues.
Stalwart (Ex) If you succeed at a Fort or Will save for reduced effect, you take none instead.
Strong-Willed (Ex) At 1st level, a spellbreaker is able to stand strong against magical effects that seek to control, compel, or persuade her. The spellbreaker rolls twice and takes the best result when making a Will saving throw against a mind-affecting effect. This a
Teamwork Feat (change 7/day) Swap your most recent Teamwork feat for another
Track +7 Add the listed bonus to survival checks made to track.

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Fairy Tail

Fairy Tail is a manga that has been adapted into an anime series from Japan. I stumbled onto the series while looking for character pictures for some of my Pathfinder character concepts and I thought one was so cool I looked into it further.

It didn't take too much detective work to figure out this is Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail. I've enjoy Anime in the past so I thought I'd look this one up and see if it was any good. I found a source with English subtitles and have started through the first season. I think there are in the middle of season 5 but I could be wrong (around 175 episodes so far).

Fairy Tail is based in a world where magic is somewhat common and wizards band together in guilds. Magic is much more varied than D&D style magic and it seems like there are almost as many styles as there are wizards. These are not all scholarly wizards that just stand around and cast magic, they set themselves on fire and punch things, summon magic weapons, and many act more like magic monks or Magi than the stereotypical wizard. Tech level is a bit harder to pin down. Maybe 19th century with trains, magic propelled cars but no gunpowder.

 Fairy Tail is one of the guilds and is famous for being a bit out of control. The main character Lucy is introduced in the first episode as on her way to Era where the guild hall is located so she can ask to join. The most famous member of the guild is the wizard who acts as the waitress in the guild hall and who poses in the world's equivalent of a swimsuit magazine. Like almost all of the female characters in the cartoon she is very... top heavy.

The show starts slow as it introduces characters and key concepts to the show like the various types of magic. Lucy uses celestial magic which is basically summoning. She carries around a bunch of keys that act as summoning foci. She has made a contract which each of her summoned creatures about how often they can be summoned and what actions they will perform. At this point in the show they are all some what limited in their effectiveness but already you can see that Lucy is learning to turn some of these limitations as assets.

The next character introduced is Natsu. Natsu specializes in Fire magic and was raised by a Fire Dragon. Natsu isn't the smartest person around, gets terrible motion sickness, and thinks the answer to just about every problem is brute force. His powers are so strong it often works.

Happy is a talking cat that follows Natsu around and likes to pester Lucy. He has limited shape changing magic and provides a lot of the show's comic relief. He really likes fish and saying "Aye". Like Natsu, he's not all that bright but often has a non conventional solution to a problem the characters are facing.

Gray is an ice wizard that does fights with Natsu constantly. Quieter than Natsu, he likes to think things through before rushing into action although he will still quickly slip into a rage if someone (Natsu) stars pushing his buttons. His magic seems to be better balanced between offense and defense. He has a habit of unconsciously taking off his clothes.

The last to join their team is Erza. Her magic is called Requipping magic. She has stored in an extra-dimensional pocket a number of magic weapons and armor that grant her different powers depending on  which is equipped. She is famous for being able to switch more often and faster than anyone else. Ezra is the strongest woman in Fairy Tail and is one one of 4 members of the guild who is allowed to take on S Class (for Super hard) quests for the job board. Erza is very serious and just about everyone is very afraid of her temper. Natsu challenges her to a duel and she defeats him with a single punch.

Fairy Tail is lots of fun and fairly light hearted most of the time with lots of Japanese zaniness. There is lots of violence but no blood or gore in the cartoon. There is some minor PG-13 language and the show is a bit too sexy for my 8 year old to watch. An example is that Lucy's summons Taurus always compliments her on her cleavage. The characters are well done and seem to grow as the storyline progresses and you start to see friendship and respect growing between them. The villains are interesting that there is a wide variety of secondary characters that I'm sure will grow as the series continues.

If you like Anime, I would check it out.

Optimization Theory

I don't always make it clear why I like some classes and dislike others. I figured if I wrote my Optimization theory and the standards around it more posts will make more sense. Clarity is good.

When I say Optimization I don't mean flat out Min/maxing. Sure a wizard can pump his Intelligence to the point where everything pretty much auto fails saves vs his spells but he'll have no hit points, poor saves, and go last every round. In other words he'll be dead shortly and its hard to be effective when you are dead.

A well optimized character can do his or her job well and has few if any weaknesses. IMHO all characters should have at least a 12 Constitution because everyone from time to time is going to get hit and make fortitude saves.

Lets start with defenses. In general all characters should have save bonuses in all three categories equal or exceeding their character level. If one has to be sub-par Reflex is the least likely to end your characters life. Keeping this up to level 20 is very tough for many classes since often Wisdom or Dex are dump stats. I don't recommend every dumping Wisdom unless you have at least 2 levels of Paladin and a big Charisma score. Dumping Dex is still a bad idea in most situations but a 10-12 is usually ok as long as you have healing available and extra movement options (though I'm not sure how you'd avoid Dazing spells).

Armor Class is a bit odd. It works great for the first 5 levels or so and then begins to loose its effectiveness. The general rule with AC is for it to be your level +20. That will keep all but the bosses from hitting you 95% of the time. It is harder to boost Touch AC but it comes in very handy in those situations where you are fighting nasty things with touch attacks (like undead) or ranged touch attacks (like wizards). AC is really only useful for those classes that like to get up close and personal with the bad guys but all classes should have some sort of defense on standby.

For the melee types a miss chance is often better than high AC. Mirror Image or Displacement are great as is the Duelist's Parry or the pre-nerf Crane Wing deflection. Considering how difficult to get and pricey Damage Reduction is, I imagine that must work pretty well too but I'm never played a character that's put it to good use.

Offense is a tough one. If you are playing published adventures like an Adventure path, they tend to be based around non optimized characters and players that use team work and understand the game. Well optimized offensive characters tend to kill things pretty quickly and eventually the DM is going to start compensating by adjusting the monsters or at least boosting hp. In some ways its an arms race that really isn't worth taking part in. The party needs to be able to have high "To Hit" bonuses when required, have the ability to target Touch AC and some area effect damage for those god awful swarms. Really, damage dealing types should be able to kill any equal CR critter in about three rounds or less assuming full attacks. Of course extra fire power is always good if you can call on it when you need it.

Roles: There are several roles that characters can fill and any well optimized character should excel at his or her roll and be able to assist in other areas.

Meat Shield: Someone has to get between the squishies and the monsters. There are lots of ways to do this. Any character with good melee defenses as listed above or you can use disposable tanks like summoned monsters. The only real requirement is that it has to be threatening enough to keep your opponents attention. The tin can fighter that does 3 points of damage will be ignored but the gargantuan lake octopus that is grappling everything will not.

The Face: This one depends on how much roleplaying is actually being done. If you play with a group where entire sessions go by with no blood being spilt I have you have some ranks in one of the social skills or your GM gives good bonuses for good roleplaying. Otherwise, social skills can be very helpful but are usually not essential with the possible exception of Diplomacy. That skill is so versatile at least someone in the party should be at least reasonably good at it.

The Brain: While this often falls to the wizard, as long as all of the key Knowledge skills for identifying monsters are covered (Arcane, Planes, Religion) the rest are just a bonus. In a party without a high Intelligence class, each PC could take one skill and you'd have your bases covered. The other knowledge skills are useful and flavorful but really how often in a campaign is Engineering going to be useful?

The Buffer: All magic classes get buffs and these can act as a massive force multiplier. A party that is entering battle with Good Hope, Barkskin, Haste and Inspire Courage is going to be massively more effective than a party without.

The Debuffer: This role is not as effective as the buffer since here you often have to defeat saving throws for the debuffs to stick. The Witch class is probably the best debuffer and can set up any BBEG for what is almost an autofail saving throw with a round or two of prep. I would also put characters that specialise in Save or suck spells here as well since its all about taking opponents out of the battle.

Support: Problem solving. Having the right skills is a good help at low levels but quickly gets surpassed by magic. Flying, Stone Shape, Teleport, Gaseous Form, Disintegrate, Clairvoyance, Divination are all great ways to solve problems. Trap finding falls into this category as well but unlike earlier editions of the game its not as essential as it used to be. If you can be an effective trap finder while still able to focus on your primary role then go for it. Your party will thank you.

Healing: You don't need a good healer but life is much safer with one around. As long as you carry around crates of Cure Light Wounds wands and someone can use them to patch up injuries after combat you will probably be ok. Until Heal comes along healing during combat is not really your best move in most cases but its very helpful to have the standard Remove Poison, Disease, Curses, Restoration spells available, although potions and scrolls will again fill the gap. Heal is a big game changer in Pathfinder since its likely the first time you can heal damage faster than it is being delivered.

Damage dealer: almost everyone should be able to contribute here. Again its good to have a variety of damage dealing types. A few heavy hitter melee types, an archer, and a caster with a few blasty spells on standby.

Lastly don't spend all of your money on a handful of really nice items since you'll often do better but spreading the money around over a variety of magic item slots.  One should have a Bag of Holding or even better - a Handy Haversack to store your collection of potions and scrolls within. After you've been hit with a blind effect its great to reach into your Handy Haversack and automatically get the right potion.

So that is my take on optimization in Pathfinder. It's more art than science. There isn't only one way to do it right but there are many ways to do it wrong since Pathfinder is full of terrible (or at least non optimized) options.

Way of the Wicked 16

Boss Fight.

Setting up boss fights is always tough. Too strong and you TPK the party, too weak and the boss gets rolled easily. The PCs were ready to fight Ara Mathra. I upgraded him from a Movadic Angel to a Planetar. He was able to scry on the party and new all of their tactics and how they had buffed. He was also buffed and was ready to go. I had what I thought was a great strategy.

It started out pretty well. The melee combatants were foiled by Anti-Life Shell, the archer cleric was rolling like mad and inflicting tons of damage. It took two tries but the wizard was able to bring down the Shell and most of his other buffs after a lucky caster level check. The PCs were hurting him but he was able to heal most of it back. I quickly realized that if I kept playing defense I had no chance so the angel cast Holy Word only to have it interupted. The second attempt was successful but I made a huge tactical blunder by not moving after the spell went off and blinded the entire party. The melees swung blindly made a couple lucky hits and that was the end of Ara Mathra.

I have to admit I was a bit disappointed that I made such a dumb mistake but I don't think it really changed the outcome too much. Five level 12 PCs versus one CR17 angel should be a tough fight but with 5 actions for every one the Angel can make it is a really tough situation. Action economy wins the day.

With the Vale now fully under their control, the PC sat back for the remaining two months and relaxed, crafted some new magic items and enjoyed life as evil dreadlords.

With the coming of spring, the PCs marched their army to Daveryn where they were to assist Sakkarot Fire Axe is the taking of this city. The PCs arrive only to find that the city has already fallen. Fire-Axe takes the PCs into his confidence as tells them his secret: that he is supposed to throw the fight against the Army of Asmodeans. Of course the more pressing confirm is how he is expected to beat the 30 000 strong rmy of the Mitrans that King Markardian has assembled and is even now marching north with. Of course the PCs have no idea at this point.

Fire-Axe does request some assistance from the PCs. When he took the city, the Duke managed to escape. He would really appreciate it if the PCs could locate him and capture him alive. In the meantime they are welcome to loot whatever they can find in the city.

Through the use of divination magic they were able to track the duke to a section of the city but magical means failed to pinpoint the exact dukes location. They searched door to door but failed to turn him up. They did suppress a contingent of guards that were protecting a roadway. The PCs tried to lure him out with a ruse but it failed.

Next session we'll see if the PCs managed to locate the Duke and perhaps explore/loot the city.

The Scarred Witch Doctor

The Scarred Witch Doctor (SWD) is an archetype for the Witch class. What is most interesting about this archetype and unique to Pathfinder is that it uses Constitution as its casting stat.

Why does this matter? Casters have a few weak points but the biggest tends to be their Fortitude save. In our current campaign, the PC wizard suspected an enemy wizard was present, picked him out hiding invisibly, and cast Polymorph Other. The wizard rolled ok but it wasn't enough and he turned into a sheep (someone plays too much WoW). With one stroke the battle swung towards the PCs and the sheeped wizard's companions no longer stood a chance. Smart casters (and wizards should be nothing but) will always target what should be the lowest saving throw. Getting petrified, polymorphed, poisoned, etc is not much fun as a player.

So a SWD has little reason to put points into Str, Int or Cha. Bump Dex up to 14 to boost your Reflex save from awful to merely crappy and help you aim your ray spells. Put Wis up to 14 so your Will save is decent, and then focus everything else into Con. You are boosting your hitpoints (you will have tons), your Fort save, the number of bonus spells you get, and your spell DCs. Score!

Since you really only have to focus on Con you can really go all out. Other arcane casters have to put points in non essential stats like Cha or Int but you can focus on the three stats that boost your saving throws.

For an extra boost of awesomeness take a single level of Urban Barbarian with a focus on Con. A couple feats dedicated to Extra Rage and you can rage most battles. I am pretty sure since Urban Barbarian allows you to use mental skills while raging that includes casting. You can easily get your Hex and spell DCs almost to 30 by level 15 which means few things will be able to resist your power.

Now I admit the Witch spell list is not the best. It loses a lot of the wizards versatility but does borrow a few tricks from druids and clerics (Heal!). Most of this is made up for by Hexes. I played a Witch in the Kingmaker campaign and I was both grossly overpowered and nearly useless depending on what type of enemy we were facing. The Sleep hex is nasty and trivialized many encounters especially when it follows an Evil Eye/Misfortune combo. The Witch really is King/Queen of the debuffs. With an insane number of bonus spells from crazy high constitution and a carefully chosen patron I think the Witch can replace the Wizard in many parties.

Knowing that we are likely going to be playing the Mythic campaign Wrath of Righteous in the next year, I've been adding Mythic to my character builds to see how they behave. Most builds do quite well from a mythic power-up but not all (my Smartest Orc in the Universe didn't gain much). Like most arcane casters the SWD becomes even more awesome driving up spell and hex DCs into the stratosphere. Only BBEGs have any chance to make the saving throw.

Here's a semi finished level 15 SWD

Scarred WitchDoctor
Half-Orc Barbarian (Urban Barbarian) 1/Witch (Scarred Witch Doctor) 14
NG Medium humanoid (human, orc)
Init +9; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +10
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 15, touch 15, flat-footed 10 (+5 Dex)
hp 259 (1d12+14d6+194)
Fort +24, Ref +17, Will +22; +2 vs. effects that cause pain or have the [pain] descriptor
Defensive Abilities scarshield
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Special Attacks hexes (cackle, evil eye, flight, fortune, ice tomb, misfortune, slumber), rage (31 rounds/day)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 15th; concentration +15)
   At will—feather fall (self only) (DC 11)
   14 minutes/day—fly (self only)
   1/day—levitate (self only)
Witch (Scarred Witch Doctor) Spells Prepared (CL 15th; concentration +27):
7th—
6th—
5th—
4th—
3rd—
2nd—
1st—mage armor
0 (at will)—detect magic, light, putrefy food and drink (DC 22), read magic
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 10, Dex 20, Con 35, Int 10, Wis 20, Cha 10
Base Atk +8; CMB +8; CMD 23
Feats Extra Rage, Extra Rage, Extra Rage, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Raging Vitality, Spell Penetration
Traits magical knack
Skills Heal +7, Intimidate +4, Perception +10, Spellcraft +18, Swim +4, Use Magic Device +18; Racial Modifiers +2 Intimidate
Languages Common, Orc
SQ controlled rage, controlled rage: constitution, controlled rage: dexterity, crowd control, fetish mask, hex scar, orc blood, patron spells (time), weapon familiarity, tireless rage
Other Gear belt of physical might (dex & con +6), cloak of resistance +5, headband of inspired wisdom +6, 89,000 gp
--------------------
Special Abilities
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Cackle (Su) As a move action, extend the duration of other hexes by 1 rd.
Controlled Rage (Ex) May gain lesser bonus split as desired, but without normal drawbacks.
Crowd Control (Ex) If 2+ foes adjacent, +1 to hit & AC. Unslowed by crowds & bonus to intimidate.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Evil Eye -4 (15 round(s)) (DC 29) (Su) Foe in 30 ft takes penalty to your choice of AC, attacks, saves, ability or skill checks (Will part).
Fetish Mask (Su) +2 to Heal, Intimidate & save vs pain while wearing the mask. Can enchant the mask
Fortune (2 round(s)) (Su) Ally in 30 ft can roll 2d20 for an attack, save, ability, or skill check (and take higher) once/rd.
Hex Scar You must scar your flesh for every hex you learn.
Ice Tomb (DC 29) (Su) A storm of ice and freezing wind envelops the creature, which takes 3d8 points of cold damage (Fortitude half). If the target fails its save, it is paralyzed and unconscious but does not need to eat or breathe while the ice lasts. The ice has 20 hit
Magical Knack (Witch [Scarred Witch Doctor]) +2 CL for a specific class, to a max of your HD.
Misfortune (2 rds) (DC 29) (Su) Foe in 30 ft must take the lower of 2d20 for rolls (Will neg).
Orc Blood Half-orcs count as both humans and orcs for any effect related to race.
Rage (31 rounds/day) (Ex) -2 Str, -2 Con, +2 to Will saves, -2 to AC when enraged.
Raging Vitality +2 CON while raging, Rage does not end if you become unconscious.
Scarshield +7 (14 minutes/day) (Su) +1/2 level to AC for a number of minutes per day equal to your level.
Slumber (14 rds) (DC 29) (Su) Foe in 30 ft falls asleep for duration, or until damaged or roused by ally (Will neg).

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The Ulimate Combat Rogue: The Slayer

The playtest version of the Slayer came out late last year and the final version is coming this summer. The Slayer is supposed to be a hybrid class of a Ranger and a Rogue and borrows many of the best features from both.

Now I will do my best from going into why I don't like the Rogue class but many, many people like the idea of a rogue so if there was another class out there that do the same sorts of things but only better then the world will be a happier place for all.

Few classes can do melee combat well. In later levels there are lots of heavy hitters and a good melee combatant needs some way to take (or avoid) the hits. There is no perfect solution but as long as you have your basses covered in at least one area you should be ok.

The first is AC. Have a high enough armor class and you are almost unhittable. The PC Sergent Fenton in my current campaign is a good example of this. Most sessions go by without him getting hit at all. Even his touch AC is really good.

The second is DR. It doesn't matter if you get hit with every swing if they have to subtract 10 or 15 points of damage from each blow.

The third is avoidance. There are a few options here. You can use Mirror Image, Displacement, if available pre-nerf Crane Wing, or Duelist's Parry.

Since the Slayer (like the Rogue and Ranger) can't really achieve any of these three objective ( a dex based sword and board Ranger might be able to pull off AC), they are best suited for ranged combat.

So how good are Slayers at range combat? Let's look at their derivative classes to get a starting point. The rogue is pretty bad. Sure she can can do some serious damage when she has surprise but once she's seen those 1d6+5 arrows are a joke. The ranger does much better. In fact, I would argue its the rangers most effective style. In Pathfinder archers are crazy powerful since they can just stand at the back and launch volley after volley of death. It is a bit boring to play but hugely effective.

The good news here is that the Slayer is perhaps an even better archer than a Ranger. The Slayer will get sneak attack on each arrow during surprise but remains very effective even without it. The ranger gets a few spells that can help out but in any case they are quite comparable.

In a campaign where all you face are Drow, the Ranger is much better since your favored enemy is obvious. Any other time the slayer is really good since you just spend a standard/move/swift action studying your foes and you instantly get a bonus equal to half of the rangers (Favored Target). No limits per day, no limits on enemy type.

What else makes the Slayer awesome? You still get to throw lots of sneak attack dice. Not as many as a rogue but its still good. The better part is that you don't do trivial damage without it.

You get slayer talents, which are like Rogue talents but better. You get to cherry pick most of the best talents form the Rogue and Ninja list and get a few awesome ones of your own. You can pick Trapfinding making you the ultimate combat rogue. You can take Ranger Weapon Styles as talents. You can get Evasion as a Talent. You get full BAB so you can hit things. Favored Target really makes sure you hit things. You still get a decent number of skills and you should have decent hit points.

What sucks about the Slayer? They still have crappy saves with no easy way to fix that. They still get beat hard in melee combat but do have a few more hit points so its not quite as bad as a Rogue.

Overall I really like the Slayer class (not crazy about the name). It is a great Rogue replacement that is effective in combat without trying too hard. Bards still make better skill monkeys but not everyone likes classes with spells. Just tell your adventuring buddies that you are a rogue, do rogue stuff but be awesome at combat as a Slayer.

Let's hope the final version of the class doesn't get nerfed.

Way of the Wicket 15

So in this play session the PCs fully explored the Cathedral. They poked at the wall of fire and decided it was best to leave it alone for now as they could not find a way past it. They search the rooms on the main floor but really only found a couple things of interest. The first was in the Ghaele's room they fount last time. It was a letter from Brigit of the Bijidine warning that there were Asdomeans at work.

The second item was the Grand-Abbot's journal. It basically said that Ara Mathra had called up a wall of divine flame that was impassable to all but a saint. He just had to wait out the bad guys until help arrives and then he can relight the two other flames that the PCs have extinguished. Meanwhile the Grand-Abbot was going to pray to Mitra for an army of ghosts to cleanse the Vale of evil (kinda like LotR).

Our villains wandered into the lower level of the Cathedral to find that most of the rooms were filled with old bones - former priests of the order. Disturbing them drew the attention of three ghost paladins. The cleric came up with a clever way of rendering the ghosts impotent while the rest of the party killed them.

Aside from the ghost fights most of the basement was solving puzzles and exploring. The could hear chanting going on but could not determine the source. They slaughtered a few acolytes that were waiting in a room and soon discovered a series of trials. The PCs managed to blunder through most of them and not get killed and eventually tracked down the Grand-Abbot who it turns out was responsible for the chanting.

He was knocked out and was then forced to drink a Philter of Love. The PCs managed to figure out most of the riddle and were able to access the Mitrans super vault, recovering part of an evil artifact sword, a Vampire Chalice, and a Mirror holding two bone devils plus lots of loot. They also discovered the remains of Saint Maccarius.

It was a good session for loot uncovering not one, but two well stocked vaults. With the cathedral almost fully pacified, the only tasks remaining are to lower the wall of divine fire and then defeat Ara Mathra.

Barring really poor rolling on my part, the second task is not going to be easy.

The Beast: Anatomy of a Barbarian

Some time ago the Beast was my PC for the Serpent's Skull adventure path. He was a stupid, stinky killing machine so they party kept him around. After all when you are an adventurer having an effective killer on your side is always a benefit.

Alas, in one encounter with a Hag he failed two consecutive will saves and was slain. He was replaced with my attempt at a combat rogue (who proved to be disappointing from a combat perspective) and I've never played "the Beast" again. He only made it to level 3 so I never really got a good fell for the build and I'd love to give it another try.

He joined an NPC adventuring party that went against the PCs in Book 2 of Way of the Wicked. He traded blow for blow with Gorbatch the Bloodrager but apparently Displacement is greater than a few points of Damage Resistance since Gorbatch proved to be the winner of that contest.

The build is constantly being tweaked as I look at adding in new things or subbing out stuff I'm no longer crazy about. The original Beast was very Min/Maxed with two big dump stats and I didn't really like that. Playing as a Human with Dual Talent means that I could boost Str and Con and not dump Int and Cha into the ground. The new version was slightly less effective in combat but a bit more well rounded PC which seemed a fair trade.

The basics of the Beast are: Invulnerable Rager archetype - grants DR = half your level and a bit of Fire or Cold resistance. The beast Totem line of Rage powers for Pounce and a natural armor bonus. Superstition for crazy high saving throws, Witch Hunter for bonus damage and and Spell Sunder because depending how you read it, you can suppress any spell effect. Reckless Abandon to counter act your Power attack penalties. Oh course the cherry on the cake is the Come and Get Me rage power you can take at level 12.

The latest thing that I've been looking at are the two Stalwart feats. The best way to cover the Feat prerequisites is to take one level of the Unbreakable Fighter archetype. The Stalwart feats change your Dodge bonus when fighting defensively or using Combat Expertise into DR that stacks with regular barbarian DR. Their seem to be two ways to go about doing this.

The first is Combat Expertise. It has the major downside or giving you an ugly penalty to attack which gets bigger as you level even though you maxed out your DR at 10 with Improved Stalwart. Combat Expertise has a prerequisite of an Int score of 13+ - which would normally be a dump stat.

Option two is fighting defensively.  Getting a big enough dodge bonus to make this worth while means maxing out acrobatics and finding some other source like the pre-nerf Crane style feats. Pre-nerf Crane style is pure awesome sauce but comes with some complications. It has some steep feat prerequisites on a build that is already pretty tight on feats. So of course the best way to get around this to take two levels of Monk (Master of Many Styles archetype). What? We have conflicting alignment problems? Well I guess that's not going to work.

So there you go. You can go with the less optimal Combat expertise, try to find some way to get the 5 extra feats required to get Crane style (this might be viable in a Mythic game), or do some weird shenanigans to get levels in both Monk and Barbarian. Even this isn't ideal though since that's three non Barbarian levels which is a noticeable delay on the nice Rage powers. That and Crane Style limits you to a one handed weapon (although it can still be gripped with two hands on your turn).

So is Stalwart worth all of the effort? Is stacking DR 10/- really worth the trouble? At this point I'm still on the fence. DR 20/- at level 20 would be pretty great and the barbarian isn't really hurting in the "To Hit" so I'm inclined to say "yes", I'd just like a cleaner way to pull it off.

A few other things are worthy of special mention. In a game where you can really customize your gear there are two weapon enhancements that are no-brainers for a barbarian. Furious is the first. For the cost of +1 it adds +2 to your weapon when you are raging (which is pretty much always). Courageous is the second. This one is a bit more complicated. It adds half of the enhancement bonus of your weapon to ALL of your current Morale bonuses. Wait a minute, you say. The barbarian has tons of morale bonuses. The Strength and Constitution bonuses are both Morale. Will save bonus? Morale. The Superstition bonus is Morale. Got Heroism? Morale. Good Hope is a Morale bonus too. A Courageous Furious +5 weapon adds +3 to all of the bonuses. That's a lot!

The Beast is a walking mass of melee destruction. Easy to hit but with high DR and a metric crapton of HP it doesn't matter so much although you may need a cleric on standby to clean up after any really long battles. Expect to get left behind when the wizard does an emergency evacuation due to you resisting the spell because of superstition. The Beast will have to be strategic about turning off Rage.

The Druid: My thoughts

I don't think I have ever seen anyone at our gaming table play a druid. I kinda remember a druid way back in 3.5's Age of Worms but we have not had any since the switch to Pathfinder.

I can think of several reasons this may be the case. The first one is pretty straight forward. Most game session we have 4-6 players present and its a struggle to keep everyone's turn moving as quickly as possible. Any class rolling lots of dice, having many variable modifiers to rolls, and/or pets just seems to take forever. Its fairly common to hear the old question: "Did I get skipped?" and most of the time the answer is no and we just haven't made it back around yet. A straight up caster druid turn should move along pretty quickly but other druid builds break lots of the guidelines. You have lots of different wildshape bonuses and buffs to consider, you have to move around your summoned monsters as well as your animal companion. Nobody likes a turn hog.

This leads into the next difficulty with druids. Some classes are simpler to play than others. With a little bit of guidance any newb can make and play effectively a fighter. Rogues and Monks take a great deal of system mastery to make a decent character but are pretty easy to play. Primary casters just have to know their spell list inside and out. The druid is so complicated. They have 9 levels of spells they need to know and understand their application. They have Wildshape and need to know what options are available (and there are so many). They can convert spells into Summon Nature's Ally. What creatures are on those lists and what are their strengths and weaknesses? And lastly they may have an animal companion that they have to know and understand. That is a lot of class features that are very complicated! Not even the summoner has so many options.

As I've been playing around with different character builds to throw at the evil PCs in Way of the Wicked, I have come to see the power of the druid. I already have an Inquisitor, Barbarian, Cleric PC that I'd love to play, I have now added Druid to the list. Wildshape is just so awesome. Scout the enemy stronghold as a cat. Sit on a branch as a bird and blast your enemies with lightning. Become a Lake Octopus with 8 attacks and 20' reach. Earthglide as an Earth elemental. So many options!

Way of the Wicked 14

With two flames remaining, the PCs sailed down the river towards the cathedral and the gardens. A long dock jutted out from a feast hall guarded by a number of heavily armoured Archons. The PCs dimension doored in behind them and made short work of them.

The feast hall was abandoned. It looked like it had been emptied quickly so the villains spread and searched for any valuables. Unfortunately for them it still held one resident who had not let for the battle but was waiting here to extract revenge. Lea the Huntress clung to the ceiling and opened the battle with her mighty roar. This had the effect of doing a bit of sonic damage as well as blinding and deafening Gorbatch the Bloodrager and Sergeant the Halfling.

She then dropped down on top of the wizard, claws flying and much blood being spilt. The elven cleric rescued his wizard companion by teleporting him out of her grapple before she could finish him off. She continued to wreak havoc but she was severely out numbered and the odds eventually caught up with her. She tried to Heal herself  but was prevented form doing so by the halfling and she rejoined her kind in the Happy Hunting grounds.

Next up was the maze. The PCs quickly deduced that they were in some sort of pocket plane or dimension as the ambient temperature changed and the sky overhead was different. The PCs knew they were going to have to answer some riddles to escape the maze and were rather concerned but then they complained that they were too easy. Some people! Anyway, a fight was had against some Blink Dogs and then it came down to putting the riddle answers together and getting through the maze.

Flush with success, they kept their eyes closed a little too long and got pummelled by the guardians at the centre of the maze. The guardians of the second flame was the head ascetic and an oracle of Mitra. The Monk beat on the party while the Oracle, protected by a heightened Sanctuary, buffed and healed the monk.  Cleverly realizing that Oracles tend to have crap reflex saves, the wizard created a pit beneath her and she fell in. The monk went down shortly after. The bloodrager and anti-paladin jumped into the pit after the oracle and they beat on each other for a bit until she was prevented from healing herself and she died as well.

The second flame was extinguished and the 9th Knot exited the maze towards the cathedral. Climbing the steps to the cathedral they were set upon by 3 angels that looked like floating flaming swords. The party got nuked  by three Holy Smites, blinding people yet again. The wizard teleported almost everyone to the top of the stairs where the angels were dealt with without too many further problems.

The party entered the cathedral and did battle with more armoured archons guarding the entrance. The battle was eventually joined by a Ghaele in energy form that zipped around blasting people and trying to stay out of reach. I made a few strategic errors here and the villains managed to take her down.

Out of Cure Blindness potions and cure sticks, the party has decided to retreat and pick up more supplies before venturing further into the cathedral. They know that the far end of the cathedral is blocked by a wall of divine flame that no being, mortal or otherwise, may cross. Everyone is leveling up to 12 before they return and press onwards into the cathedral in 2 weeks time.

Lots of fighting this session with lots of good outsiders. I expect much of the same for next session where we should be able to wrap up Book 3 - tears of the Blessed.

Way of the Wicked 13

And after a month long break we are back.

We jumped right into the action quickly as the bugbear horde streamed through the wall and deployed into battle formations. The Mitrans brought up their forces as quickly as the could to stop the invasion. In an attempt to slow down the the bugbear advance, the Mitran cavalry advanced a head of the main force, the middle forming a "V" shape to mow down the opposition. The 9th Knot met the center and with the use of a Fireball killed most of the advancing horses making their riders much less effective.

The sacrifice of the horsemen gave the archers time to get into position as well as the main force of infantry to advance. The PCs took the first bridge but quickly found their position under fire from the archers. The wizard Dimension Doored the party in behind the archers and the slaughter was swift. With Archery command dead the remaining archers withdrew into the main body.

The bugbears continue to hack their way through the Mitran infantry until an ancient Dwarven call went up and a Dwarven Thane, their priestess and several nobles began to turn back the horde single handedly. Again the 9th Know DDoored into the fray and dispatched the annoying Dwarves.

With only a few moments to catch their breath further trouble was spotted on their left flank. Acolytes of the Serene Order were pressing them hard and so the 9th Knot rushed over to provide assistance. The monks proved to be trouble for the Asmodean archer cleric as they kept deflecting the arrows. They had no such defense against the Bloodrager and he cut them down with his few remaining rounds of BloodRage.

Only the final bridge - SaintsBridge lay now between the force of Bugbears and the town of Sanctum. The bugbears continued to cut down the remaining forces of the Mitrans and advanced upon the bridge. The initial wave was cut down by the bridges defenders - two shield archons. The bugbears backed away allowing the villains to do their thing. The 9th Knot opened with a Dismissal and took out one of the Archons at the start of the fight. The remaining shield archon proved to be quite tough. The PCs had largely exhausted their resources by this point since they had first cleared the watchtower and then acted as the tip of the spear for the advancing bugbear horde. The bridge was now clear and only a single figure guarded the far end of the bridge.

The Mitran commander had watched the 9th Knot advance, and was ready for them. He buffed himself and met the party head on. Fully buffed, the commander was a towering giant of Justice. His glowing glaive hacked and hewed through the villains until they were finally forced to retreat back to the bugbear horde. They consumed what little healing resources they had remaining, and Sergent the halfling was hellbent on vengeance and approached alone the Mitran commander. By this point most of commanders buffs had faded and the two of them slugged it out with the halfling the eventual victor.

A day of slaughter followed and once the battle rage had subsided the villains took stock of what remainined. The bugbear forces had suffered about 50% losses but there were no enemy combatant survivors. About 2000 civilians had been captured, and a good deal of treasure had been looted. At a council meeting the 9th Knot instructed the Headtakers (Tribe of Bugbears) to begin torturing the survivors to discover what could be learned. With that completed all survivors would have their heads removed and stacked in the middle of town - a gory message for the Mitrans to find come spring.

They learned a few things. There really is a phoenix on top of the mountain. The three flames can be found on top of the mountain, in the middle of the garden (Labyrinth), and in the cathedral. Some bugbear went down the river towards the cathedral looking for loot and never came back.

With a weeks rest the villains decided to go after the Mountain of the Phoenix first. The wizard was able to scry the area but all attempts to teleport in failed. Attempts to fly up to the top of the mountain failed as well. The third day had them scale the mountain the old fashion way. It was a long but not an overly difficult climb.

They first reached a temple that was guarded by a flaming woman. Since the 9th Know was expecting a phoenix they were well warded against fire and many of her attacks had little effect. She hacked up a few of the PCs but was force to jump into one of the large flames in the temple and retreat. The party did not waste much time rushing up the stairs to the top of the mountain were the sacred flame waited.

The flaming woman was waiting for them at the top almost fully healed. She stepped into the flames as it healed her while she battle the PCs. Things were complicated for the 9th as a screech echoed across the mountain as the Phoenix took flight. While the Fighter and the Bloodrager tried to cut down the Peri faster than she could heal, the Phoenix began doing flyby attacks against the remaining PCs. The wizard cleverly stopped the first pass with a Wall of Force but was grabbed on its second pass and dumped in the lake.

In the meantime, the Bloodrager managed to score a critical hit and dispatch the Peri. The halfling spotted another path down the far side of the mountain and ran to investigate. He found the Phoenix's nest and threaten the Phoenix's egg. In return for its egg the Phoenix promised to leave the valley and to never return. It apologized to Ara Mathra as it flew away after revealing to the 9th how to extinguish the sacred flame.

They put out the flame and ended a game night that stretched long into overtime but one in which I think everyone had a good time - even those players whose PCs that I had pretty much killed.

Plot

There seems to be at least two different styles of adventure: Sandbox which tend to be exploratory wilderness or dungeon style adventures, and Plot driven which include Adventure paths. Most groups probably blend the two styles using more of one and less of the other depending on their preferences.

I think one of the main reason Kingmaker was such a hit was its focus on wilderness exploration which is a bit out of the norm for us. It did have something of a plot but it was so loose and almost outside of the action that if you were not watching for it you would have no idea it was there.

The more traditional Adventure Paths have much stronger and more integrated plots. Rise of the Runelords has probably one of the best as you see more and more cult like activity which moves the story throughout the campaign. And then there is Council of Thieves which I have both played and read through and I still can not explain the meta plot - it is just not very clear.

Part of the reason I do the post game session recap on the blog is so that my players can come back and keep the plot fresh in their minds. Who is this chick that keeps teleporting around and telling us what to do in the name of Cardinal Thorn? Who is Cardinal Thorn and why does he hate Mitrans so much? Is releasing this super plague really such a good idea and why does Asmodeus, a lawful evil deity, want to cause so much death? Who are the other Knots and what are they up to (why does it seem like we are doing most of the work?)

On one hand it is great for a GM. The players all understand that they are on a railroad and just follow the DMs clues (subtle or otherwise) unquestioningly. No one ever really asks the question "Why"? On the other hand its a bit disappointing for the DM. You try and present an interesting plot made with characters who are as three dimensional as possible and no one really pay much attention to it. Everyone just kicks down the door, kills the occupants and takes their stuff.

Anyway, I hope that as the campaign continues, the PCs will get to know some of the NPCs better and establish a bit of a relationship with them. I think the White Raven NPCs worked nicely. Introduced in Book 1, they return in Book2 and act as allies but there was definitly tension between the two groups. The PCs were genuinely pissed off when they were betrayed. Now I just have to get the PCs more familiar with the likes of Sakkarot Fire-Axe, Tiadorra, Barnabus Thrain, and Cardinal Thorn who are all key players in what is to come.

What good is a plot if no one knows what it is?

Way of the Wicked 12

The 9th Knot were instructed to travel Ghastenhall and deliver the Tears of Achlys to Barnabus Thrain, an Asmodean priest mascaraing as a Mitran, at the Library of Ghaster. After a month in Ghastenhall to recuperate they would gather the core of an army from Sakkarot Fire-axe and then wipe out the Vale of Valtaerna - the holiest site of Mitra.

The villains made their way by boat  to the great port of Ghastenhall on Cambrian Bay in the Heartlands. Finding Thrain was not so difficult. They talked briefly and then agreed to meet the following night. The Tears were handed over to Thrain (the 5th Knot) and in exchange he handed them a jewel that would enhance their Iron Circlets. He also arranged for a manor for them to use a base for the month that they would be in the city.

The villains spent the month upgrading equipment and working off a bit of steam after having been isolated in remote Farhold for most of the year. At the end of the month Tiadora appeared and provided the party a means of teleporting to Sakkarot Fire-Axe's current encampment.

Tiadora accompanied the party but oddly had the appearance of a white bugbear while walking through Sakkarot's encampment. Sakkarot greeted the 9th Knot warmly and invited them to his council chamber. The Fire-axe had taken Castle Westkirk and was using it as winter quarters before resuming the campaign in the spring. He reluctantly agree to hand over to the party 2 units of Bugbears that would compose the Core of the PC's army. Both Sakkarot and Tiadora both made suggestions where further allies might be found.

An Oni was recruited, the hidden Duergar city was located but the PCs failed to recruit them and they decided not to engage the Medusa. The bugbear forces began marching towards the Vale while the 9th Knot returned to Ghastenhall. it was there they were visited by a Contract Devil named Dessiter. He offered a bit of information and had an agreement that stipulated that in return for the use of 3 Nessian Hell Hounds, the party agree to either kill or drive from this plane of existence the angelic being that is running the show inside the Vale whose name I can't find right now. Since the PCs figured they were going to kill him anyway they all signed up.

The villains approached the vale under disguise and buffed with Undetectable Alignment. They made it past the wall that defends the valley and explored the Vale a little. It seemed to be a sleepy farming village with churches and shrines everywhere. There were no rowdy bars and even the inns were free. How boring. There were a few soldiers and priests about but overall the place seemed ripe for the pickings!

Dessiter had told them that their first concern was to take the valley with their army. After that they would have to snuff out the three flames to Mitra. The first the PCs spotted easily on a mountain top that was sticking out of the lake. The location of the other two is still unknown.

The PCs instructed the Bugbears to attack at 5am(dawn) - a curious move since the bugbears all have night vision and their human opponents do not. The PCs assaulted the guard tower before the bugbears were scheduled to arrive to ensure that the wall would provide no resistance. They landed on the roof and dispatched the Watchers. The gong was disabled to prevent any warnings from going out. Then the tower was cleared from top to bottom with the Clay Golem guardians in the tunnel the last to fall.

The bugbear army arrived and the entrance to the valley lay open.

As the bugbear army begins to pass through the wall, horns begin to sound from the town of Sanctum. Something or someone has spotted the approaching army and has called the valley's defenders to arms. A battle will be fought but it will take place on the open ground rather a siege of the wall. The defenders will be rushing into position and will have little to no defensive works nor defensive siege engines. The bugbears are not fresh having marched hundreds of miles but are still numerous and are bigger, stronger and meaner than their opponents. The battle will be epic!

Tinkerbell Half Marathon 2014

Ok, this post has nothing to do with gaming but I wanted to post this some where and this blog drew the short straw.

My wife signed my up for this race since she knew that if she didn't she would be going alone and she didn't want to go alone. The Tinkerbell Half Marathon is a Disney race held in Disneyland every January that is marketed towards women. Men are not allowed in the first corral and get no medals nor prizes. As a result of the 13000 participants this year only about 1500 were men. Note I wrote "participants" and not "racers" or "competitors". It is a timed race but the vast majority are not out there to break any records, in fact I would go so far to say the vast majority do not even run.

I have to say the race is very well organized. It starts at 5am but there were thousands already present when we arrived just after 4AM. The race is divided into 5 corrals. When you registered you were asked to submit a previous run time from another race. They used that time to place you in the appropriate corral. The faster you are the closer you start to the front. As I said earlier even though I can run a half marathon about 50 minutes faster than my wife she started in corral A and I was back in B. I'm not sure I understand the logic of not letting the men be in A. Someone told me that it was so that a woman would be the first to cross the finish line but if that is so they needed to give Corral A a bigger head start since even with an 8 minute lead over the men, a man was still the first to cross. One guy I talked to said that last year the men had to start in Corral C which was a nightmare since he spend the first half of the race trying to run around slow women running or worse walking in packs. He still finished 9th overall so I guess it wasn't that bad.

I think it is a result of different objectives. If it's a real race and I am being timed and I am going to go full speed and run the best race I can. My wife first goal was to get lots of good pictures with Disney characters; a decent finish time was secondary. They should put the people who actually intend to run at the front and let the rest follow behind.

There was good security at the starting line. I guess Boston scared organizers last year and I saw several sniffer dogs at the start and again at the end. Security also ensure everyone was in the correct corral. You could move back but not forward. I saw one guy get escorted back to B from A just before the race started. Did he really think he would not stand out in the group of all women?

Apparently slow people at the back in Corral E complain that they might not have enough time to get pictures and still have time to finish walking the course. My response is "Run bitches!" but I'm not the most empathetic of people.

As I said, Corral A left at 5am and then we slowly moved up to the starting line where they held us for 8 minutes. Then we were allowed to begin as they moved up the groups behind us which they staggered as well. The first part of the race consists of running around the north perimeter of Disneyland. The streets are closed to traffic and since I was at the front of the pack in Corral B it was a nice start. Some people passed me early on but I'd be seeing most of them again. Eventually on the far side of Disneyland we entered the park through an employee entrance, went through a tunnel and then found ourselves in Disney California Adventure which is to the south of Disneyland. By this point I was moving into the back of the mass of female runners from Corral A. Running through the park was kinda cool but at the same time a pain in the ass. There was lots to look at but the paths were fairly narrow and women would randomly start to walk, pull a 90' turn to get a picture with a Disney character, and worst of all were the water stations where all of the female runners would slow down and grab a drink (why?) without moving off to the side. I had a couple of near misses and actually clipped a rather svelte Buzz Lightyear whose stupid wings hit me in the face.

We also ran through the backend of the park. It was neat being in areas the public doesn't normally see like of some of the studios and offices but I have to admit I was focused more on my pace than anything else.

Finally around the 10km mark we passed out of the park into the dark streets of Anaheim. Ironically as I left the park I had also left behind the bulk of Corral A. It was so peaceful running down Walnut street I have to admit it was probably my favorite. My pace increased significantly and yet my heart rate went down. There was no more dodging and weaving on tight turns in the park it was just long straight roads, cool night air and the occasional light breeze. As I moved down West Broadway I caught up to a younger Asian fellow who congratulated me on my race. I wished the same to him and then he picked up his pace a bit and we pretty much ran together for the rest of the race.

There was a slight downhill slant to the last few km (or at least I convinced myself there was) so I kept picking up my pace. When my Garmin beeped 20km, I decided to go kick it up one last notch. I pulled ahead of my running buddy and did my best to sprint to the finish (although it turns out my sprint was not all that much faster than what I'd be doing previously). I kept going around these corners only to find that I wasn't there yet. I could hear the finish line in the distance and I knew I was close but it seemed it was always one turn away. Finally I passed two more females and there it was! I did hear the announcer call out my name and where I was from, but I was pretty much blind at this point and all I could see was the last corner and the finish line peaking out over the spectators.  I crossed at 1:31:41 chip time or 1:39:57 gun time which was fast enough to make me 26th or 28th overall depending on which standings you look at (the standings on the Tinkerbell site are broken up by sex and division which make it really hard to compare to the amalgamated list). I found my running buddy in the standings. He finished only a second behind me but technically finished ahead of me since he started a minute later.

There were lots of photographers in the finishing area so I got one done and then went to get my food and drink. The photos are ridiculously expensive. At the Calgary Half last year, marathon photo harassed me for months with increasingly betters deals to buy a picture. If I have any decent ones I'll hold off a while before I shell out my hard earned cash for a digital picture.

The finishing area is well set up. Lots of room and an obvious progression. Even later when it got busier I'm sure it would have not been too congested. The bag pick-up was sorted by last name which would have been good had I checked anything. I was eatting my banana as my wife texted me she was at the 16km mark. I wandered over to the finishing area knowing it would be at least 30 minutes before she showed up.

I am amazed at some of the costumes people run in. Tons of women put on a shiny skirt and many had fairy wings strapped to their back. Some guys dressed up as Tinkerbell as well. There was one guy dressed up as Minnie mouse holding a camera. Apparently he is super fast but must have stopped for lots of pictures or was taking it easy since I beat him by about 15 minutes. I saw guys dressed up as Jasmine from Aladdin, Captain Hook, and one guy running in a 3 piece suit with a name tag that said Walt. It's neat how many people really get into it. My wife finished with a 2:20:00 which is pretty good since she spent a total of 12 minutes doing pictures.

My favorite part of the race was definitely the second half. It was faster and more relaxed at the same time. Running through the park is cool and all but if you want to enjoy that part of the race why not just lollygag your way through the 10km race the day before which takes place solely in Disneyland. I just found running through a horde of slow moving sight seeing women stressful.

If you are wondering what the actual course looks like you can find the route HERE

Overall I really liked the race. It was very expensive however and I can't see myself doing it again anytime soon. I'm running the Princess Half marathon at Disney World next month so we'll see how the two events compare. It's another female oriented race so I'm sure many of my current complaints will apply. It may have gotten hopelessly crowded and congested later on but we didn't see any. Of course we had time to finish, return to our hotel room, finish packing, sit around with our feet up for a while and were down waiting for the shuttle to airport when the last walkers crossed the finish line.

Personally I was very happy with my run. I came in 19th once on a 10km race but there were only a total of
500 runners. This race had over 13,000. My 26th place finish would be more impressive if it was a more athletic event but I'm still pretty happy I knocked 5 minutes off my best time. I think some of it had to do with perfect running conditions: temperature about 10C, no sun, no wind, no hills and it is at sea level which makes a big difference (Calgary is at about 1100m elevation).

Way of the Wicked 11

This posting is late and will be a bit shorter than usual as a result.

So the villains were down to the final 3 days of the ritual. With their layered defenses in ruins they decided to pull their remaining resources (the alchemical golem and the Ceustodaemon) up to the Sanctum and abandon the lower levels.

Shortly after the midnight ritual a pack of 6 Hounds of Tindalos gated in and attacked the villains in an attempt to take over the ritual. They were dispatched without too many problems although the Ceustodaemon was killed in the battle.

Next up a raging barbarian came charging up the stair from the lower levels. He changed into a silver dragon and managed to paralyze most of the party with his breath weapon.Only the wizard and the bloodrager managed to either avoid the attack or make their save. I expected this encounter to be very difficult but the bloodrager killed the dragon in 2 full attacks (he was hasted by the wizard). The bloodrager took lots of damage but with perma-displacement when raging over half of the dragon attacks missed.

The last combat encounter was the "Sons of Balentyne" - relatives of the NPCs the 9th knot slaughtered back in the first book. They consisted a paladin, a cleric, a wizard, and a fighter/barbarian. I have to give my players credit on this encounter. When we first started this campaign I told them I was going to be ruthless and I wanted them to play smart, not just our normal kick down the door style. Well, they out played me on this one. The wizard entered the sanctum invisible and immediately set up what I thought was a safe zone where the party could finish buffing for the battle. A wall of force was put up protecting the NPCs and they began buffing to super human levels. Some of the PCs retreated around the corner to protect their final sacrifice for the ritual when the PC wizard decided to fly over the wall separating the two groups and polymorph the wizard. The wizard rolled poorly and "POOF" the fight was pretty much over before it even began. The rest of the PCs pick up on the strategy and either fly over the wall or have the alchemical golem toss them over.

The paladin when down fast to focus fire, and the cleric tried to keep the fighter/barbarian up. The evil PC cleric got a little too close to the battle and took a full round attack which left him unconscious. Once again the bloodrager ripped through the heroes and left them dead. He crit once for 114 points of damage which is pretty damn good for a 9th level character.

So will all of the forces of good dead the time of the final ritual arrived and Vetra Kali-Eats the Eyes was summoned. They played fairly smartly. Their first request was for Vetra Kali to kill no one for 24 hours. It sighed but agreed and consumed its first eye. The second request was for the Tears of Vetra kali. It was delighted that mortals wanted it and handed it over gladly. It then consumed its second eye. The third request was for it to return to its home plane. Vetra Kali was enraged and removed the magic that was holding the Horn together. It began to shake apart and the 9th knot teleported away leaving their alchemical golem behind. It took almost an hour for the Horn to finally come crashing down.

The 9th knot broke the seal and shortly Tiadorra arrived with their reward from Cardinal Thorn. They were given a letter and told to go Ghastenhall where they would receive their next mission in 30 days.

As so ends Book 2. It should be noted that the third request was only for Vetra Kali Eats-the-Eyes to return to its own plane. There was nothing in there about not returning....

We still had some time left in the evening so we played a round of Red Dragon Inn and then everyone went home.

Hero Kids - a second adventure

So, Warrior-Mommy, Healer Big-Sis and Hunter Little-Sis assembled once again last weekend for another adventure (Warlock-Auntie returned home). We played Curse of the Shadow Walkers, a longer and more difficult adventure featuring wolves, spiders and other menacing denizens of the night. This time around didn't run quite so smoothly. There is more role-playing and problem-solving in CotSW than Basement O'Rats and the fights are tougher and more numerous. The girls are still trying to wrap their brains around the freeform nature of rpgs in contrast to the strict rules of boardgames of which they are more familiar. Things got a bit tense at one point when the kids had to acquire some wolfsbane from a ravine infested with giant spiders. Everyone was hurt and three spiders remained. A tactical retreat was in order and I, as DM, subtly suggested to Warrior-Mommy that she should lead her charges in an orderly withdrawal. Hunter Little-Sis was fully onboard with the plan, but Healer Big-Sis wasn't having any of it. Neither I nor Mrs. Rognar was aware of it, but apparently Healer Big-Sis has a bit of the bloodlust. She was determined not to surrender even an inch of ground and could not be convinced otherwise. Hunter Little-Sis bugged out, but Warrior-Mommy stood her ground alongside her little berserker and immediately fell to the spiders (although she took one of the little beasties with her). Healer Big-Sis now stood alone against two spiders for a round as Hunter Little-Sis changed her mind and returned to the fray. It was then that the gods of the dice, perhaps moved by the sight of two wee lasses standing over the body of their wounded mom, smiled upon them. Healer Big-Sis blasted the arachnid horrors with her searing light spell, while Hunter Little-Sis lashed them with her magic hair and all the time, the girls dodged the deadly fangs. The battle was won, Warrior-Mommy was healed and the wolfsbane was acquired. Everyone stopped to catch their breath and prepare for the final confrontation.

-Rognar-

Way of the Wicked 10

The party wasted little time in deciding to go after the White Raven for their betrayal in the last session. The party broke the seal which normally summons Tiadora but instead it was Cardinal Thorn himself who showed up. He was not pleased with the White Ravens betrayal. He always had doubts about Elise Zadaria as she is not an Asmodean but instead worships a deity of winter. Thorn released the seventh knot from his protection and tasked the PCs to destroy them. He even offered to provide assistance which they declined. Thorn gave them a decent reward for turning down the aid.

The plan was to split the White Ravens into two groups and defeat them separately. They did an excellent job playing on Zadaria's vanity and managed to get her to send Trik and Trak out to the Horn to take care of Sylvan monsters. The PCs caught her in a tight corner and finished her quickly before she could escape. Her bodyguard raged but failed to avenge her.

Trik and Trak upon arriving a tthe Horn and finding it nearly undefended went about scouting it hoping to find out what was happening at the horn to provide more intel to Zedaria. They bypassed the Boggards easily and managed to bypass most of the illusions and traps. Where they did run into trouble was against the two Daemons and the alchemical golem. They managed to slay one of the daemons but were themselves defeated. The White Ravens were no more.

The next few weeks were fairly quiet. One of the boggards asked for better weapons and food. The Abbess of Saint Cynthia-Celeste managed to send out of town asking for aid against the growing evil. A fair came to town and the villains managed to pick up a few more small magic items. A powerful merchant approached the Anti-paladin's organization and asked them to perform a few assassinations for her. Three succeeded and three failed but a handsome fee was still paid.

During week 23 the silver dragon came out of hiding and attacked the Baron Vandemir's manor. Unfortunately no one had any advanced warning of the attack nor was anyone on hand to witness what happened, only that the Baron and much of his house guard were slain.

The next week the party heard that a bunch of Knights of Alerian (Mitra's holy order) had come to Farholde. The villains went to investigate and ran smack into the knights now led by Sir Valin Darian, Farholde's current keep commander. The knights put up a fight but were no match for the villains. The knights were dragged back to the Horn and their bodies were given to the boggards as food. (I silently cringed.)

Returning to town they decided to ask around and find out if the their were any candidates suitable suitable for the final sacrifice handy (has to be a descendant of the Victor - Darian the first). It didn't take long to find out that the only suitable candidate was the current commander of the keep  - Sir Valin Darian, who the party had just fed to bogards only minutes before. With only 6 weeks to go they didn't have the time nor the resources to go strolling around Talingarde looking for another suitable sacrifice. The boggards had been pretty thorough eating the knights so aside from a few bits and pieces there wasn't enough left for a Raise Dead. As the PCs were trying to come up with a solution I was scrambling to come up with one as well.

Someone had the good idea of asking if the Knight had a love child. The Anti-paladin's Bard cohort made a sky high Gather Information check so I let them find one. Derailment averted.

A few more weeks passed with only a Gorgimera showing up to cause trouble. The PCs avoided it and eventually it left on its own.

With only 5 days to go a few complications arose. Upon completing the dawn ritual, Vetra Kali Eats-The-Eyes partially manifested, and managed to damage the artifact keeping him from this plane. The effort caused a massive Earthquake damaging the horn and weakening many of the Horns defenses.

Shortly after the midnight ritual as people were beginning to settle in (the villains has retreated to the Upper Sanctum and are going to make their final stand there), the green protective barrier dropped and an angelic being flew into the sanctum. The Bloodrager moved to protect the Alter since there was little else he could do. The angel hovered near the ceiling raining down lightning bolts and empowered Magic Missiles on the party. It wasn't until the Anti-paladin quaffed a potion of Fly that the angelic threat was removed. Having few ranged options is bad, Mmmkay.

On the afternoon of the next day a massive mud elemental scaled the side of the Horn and entered via the balcony. Not knowing what it was several party numbers were reluctant to engage (Brave Sir Robin the Anti-Paladin - although in his defense he is the eldest PC). The bloodrager rushed in and started smacking it. The Mud monster had good reach and decent DR but was quickly dispatched by the heavy hitters.

Three and half days remain until the ritual is complete...

Can the PCs hold on?

Stay tuned as we play the final part of Call Forth the Darkness this coming weekend.

Red Dragon Inn

There is another chapter of WotW coming but first I want to talk about a game that my wife picked up over the Christmas holidays (one of many). It's a card game that can be played with 2-4 players (more if you buy the expansions). The gist of the game is pretty straight forward. You are a group of adventurers that have returned from the dungeon laden with gold and you want to blow off some steam at the Inn. The objective is to be the last one standing. Each player has three resources to track: Gold, Fortitude, and Alcohol level. If you run out of gold you get tossed from the Inn by the bouncer, If your alcohol level meets or surpasses your fortitude you pass out drunk and the rest of the players split your Gold.

On your turn you get to play an action card of some kind. You can start a poker game and try to take the other player's gold, you can inflict damage on another player, or force them to take drink. Other players can play counters and often you get a good back and forth going.

Each player gets their own deck which are largely the same but different characters tend to be stronger in certain areas. Gog, the half-ogre barbarian, has lots of cards that allow him to inflict damage on the other players. Fleck the bard is good at cheating at cards. Dimli the Dwarf is hard to make drunk. There is a Red Dragon Inn 1, 2 and 3 and each game is self contained but you can use the character decks from any game with each other. There are also two separate expansion decks you can buy, Erin the Druid, and Mott's psychotic familiar Pooky the bunny (from RDI 1). The characters in Red Dragon Inn three have an extra mechanic that randomizes their effectiveness somewhat (Piety for the Paladin, Inventions for the Gnome, the Troll makes potions, and the Pixie has an animal companion).

I really love the game as it gives me a chance to talk in stupid voices (Gog being my favorite). It is easy to pick up as Rognar and his wife vanquished first myself and then my wife before having an epic drink off to eventually knock each other out at the same time.

So if you are looking for an easy social game to play that doesn't take too long (about 30 minutes per player) then this is a good one. The game is lighthearted and pretty funny especially if everyone gets into it. I recommend it!

This is a good Youtube video of a group playing Red Dragon Inn 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VGQZHW-Jhw

Hero Kids first try

On New Year's Day, I got the munchkins together with Mrs. Rognar and Mrs. Rognar's sister for a game of Hero Kids, a tabletop rpg for children ages 4 to 10 years. We had a good mix of characters, a Warrior-Mommy, Warlock-Auntie, Healer-Big-Sis and Hunter-Little-Sis. We played the Basement O'Rats intro adventure, a harrowing race against time to save a poor unfortunate lad named Roger from a bunch of giant rats who have kidnapped him and taken down into their underground den for later consumption.

Characters in Hero Kids have three stats, sword, bow and spell, which also represent strength, dexterity and intelligence respectively. Each character will have two dice in one of these stats indicating their attack ability. Most characters and monsters will have one or two dice in shield as well. In combat, the attacker rolls her dice in the appropriate attack stat and the defender will roll however many dice he has in shield. Only the highest numbered die in each roll is compared with ties going to the attacker. There are three levels of injury for characters and boss monsters, bruised, hurt and KO, meaning a character can take two hits before being knocked out. Characters also have special abilities, items and skills that allow for more options in play.

The game went pretty smoothly. Our youngest player is 5 years old and she had no problem grasping what was going on. She had the highest bow skill, which also meant she had the highest dexterity, making her the best character for throwing Mom's rope up when a climb was called for. She took this responsibility very seriously. The 7 year old was the healer, so she was always ready to rush in when one of her friends got bitten. It was a fun time for everyone.

Hero Kids is available at Drivethrurpg.com.

-Rognar-

Frozen made my daughters cry

As the father of two young girls, I am fully immersed in the world of Disney princesses. Go ahead. Test me. I know them all, from the classics like Snow White and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty to the uninitiated) to the modern heroines like Mulan and Merida. The latest to join the sorority are Elsa and Anna from Frozen, which we went to see today. I admit, I rather enjoyed it, except for the music which was annoyingly modern and not at all in keeping with the ambience of the film. However, my daughters, especially the younger, were not pleased. [Minor spoilers ahead] The usual themes of betrayal, estrangement, and tragically premature parental demise that we've come to expect from Disney animated features were present in full measure. There were sequences that were very intense and probably not appropriate for younger children. My two daughters are very close and the forced estrangement of the two princesses was particularly unsettling for them. The happy reunion at the end did little to alleviate their anxiety. Just a word of caution if you have sensitive children (especially girls).

One more thing, what's up with the new naming trend of one-word adjectives for Disney princess movies? First there was Rapunzel in Tangled, then Merida in Brave and now Anna/Elsa in Frozen. I think we could retroactively rename older pictures similarly. How about Snow White in Gullible or Cinderella in Oppressed?

-Rognar-