Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, Other TTRPGs

[Totenkindly]

Well, I got the low-down on the Psionic lich-making ritual:

Clarifications on the ritual and DCs

Order of things
1 Prepare the phylactery (Spellcraft DC 5 + Manifester Level)
2 Attune stone without losing control (Will* DC 10 + INT + Highest Level Power)
3 Remove Heart (CON DC 10**)
4 Enjoy Lichdom (you may now place the phylactery in your chest)

* This is a Mind-Affecting, Telepathy, and Necromancy effect (add applicable bonuses)
** This is the check for dying, removing your heart drops you to -(CON/2) HP, except the magic of the ritual keeps you conscious for one action

Your soul is in your body until you die (during step 3); immediately after which it is transferred to the attuned stone (this is what you prevent it from doing too early in step 2)

Your body effectively dies during step 3. It would decompose at the normal rate pending any effort taken to prevent it. Such effort may include the following: embalming (Craft Alchemy); further enchantment (Spellcraft); medical attention (Heal), as supplemented with negative energy (Knowledge: Religion); or psionic manipulation of matter (Knowledge: Psionics)as directed by raw will (Autohypnosis); or any combination of these methods. The DCs for the methods vary from 10 to double the time to decay, to 20 extend by factor of 10, to 30 to stop at a partially fleshy state (tends to look like an unwrapped mummy), to 50 to remain nearly lifelike; each method applied makes the others easier by 1/5th the margin of success. With no effort, the result is a rotting corpse in a few days, a messy skeleton in a week, and a clean set of bones in 2 weeks. Any spell that heals undead can extend the process to a maximum of double the normal rate, any spell that preserves a corpse or repairs it can be used to reset to the point in time as specified.

As for sacrificing people to make the checks easier, yes you can (I’ll be generous and give you a bonus equal to log2(total HD) with a possible extra of unto 5 (max previous bonus) if the sacrifices are willing).

My Will save is currently only a +11 and the DC is 21. Eeek.

Also, I have no CON bonus, so a DC 10 CON check is iffy.
(However, my autohypnosis is 9 and Resist Dying DC15 check sounds makeable -- if I can swap that in.)

So as it stands, I won't fail the Spellcraft, but I only have a 28% chance of making both the Will save and the CON check. Not good.

I do have a few options in there. If I sacrifice 32 HD of followers (I currently have 48 + my thrall, the latter of which I have no intention of killing -- I'm not a monster!), who would be "willing," I could get a +10 on a save. I could also just capture and kill innocent victims. (Hmmm. Again, so EVIL. Am I "B-B-B-Bad to the Beak" or not?)

I can also retrain one of my psionic powers to Fortify, which I could use to get me a +7 on saves for 11PPs, lasting 11 minutes. That might be my best bet. It increases my chances to 90% x 85% = 77% or so. And if I can use my Autohypnosis: Resist Dying, I can improve that + I get my 1d6 Mythic bonus once a day.

Also, if I can get followers who can cast something on me that would allow me to reroll a save once a day... yeah.

it looks like our Barb player will have to quit due to getting a new job with hours on game night. I made a joke to the GM about, "Hey, I bet that barbarian that's about to disappear is good for 12HD." Isn't he a team player?

...anyway, the worse part is how to preserve my body to the best possible outcome. I think I can pull off the DC 30 eventually, but that DC 50 might just not be attainable.

Yeah, some gamers can prove those ugly gamer stereotypes painfully true. I'm not exactly a social virtuoso myself, so I have sympathy for gamers who use the hobby as a social safe haven, but the older I get the less patience I have for dealing with more extreme examples. Specifically the ones who can't or won't improve themselves. The next time I join or form a group -- hopefully sooner rather than later! -- I'm going to do my best to screen this kind of gamer.

Yeah, it's kind of a pasttime that everyone playing needs to enjoy; if you're not enjoying it for some reason, it makes sense to change what you can or be part of a group you can enjoy.

 

[Passacaglia]

So I'm DMing my first Roll20 adventure tomorrow night! I'm excited but feeling somewhat anxious about it.

Any tips for Roll20 gaming that you can share, [MENTION=7]Jennifer[/MENTION]?

 

[Totenkindly]

So I'm DMing my first Roll20 adventure tomorrow night! I'm excited but feeling somewhat anxious about it.

Any tips for Roll20 gaming that you can share, Jennifer?

I haven't GM'ed anything on Roll20, but random tidbits:

1. you can control the map to only be exposed (maybe even for each individual player?), as they move around; everything they haven't seen yet can remain black.

2. You can input character sheets for each person into the system and connect them to dice rolls. I don't really understand that, just stating it's possible.

3. Even without the sheets, macros are really useful for dice rolls. For each of my characters i have about 8-10 icons set up at screen bottom, for various kinds of rolls. (Single attack / full attacks / ranged attack / social skills / knowledge skills / saving throws / etc.) Basically, clicking the button will do all the rolls in that category for you... even if you just need one. But it's easier than doing them by hand. You just take the roll you need. You just need to factor in any circumstantial bonuses. I can give you some macro code if you need it, based on what I already have.

4. You can use the voice/video in the system. We actually turn that off and use Skype in its place.

5. You can have everyone send you an icon ahead of time and you can set up each icon so that the user can control theirs (and just theirs).

6. there's also some way to set up the initiative so that when everyone rolls initiative, it sends it to a central tracker (a small table) where you can order it.

You can read the forums on roll20 if necessary to find out how to do some of this.

 

[Totenkindly]

Waiting for word back from the GM, but Sumiko finished her soulstone in game time a few weeks back and we just leveled again. The GM and I had discussed only making this change after she leveled again, so any "new abilities" she seemed to show would just seem to be part of the leveling rather than becoming a lich behind closed doors. I made all the rolls I needed to make that he had presented me with via e-mail.

1. Prepare the phylactery (Spellcraft DC5 + ML12) = DC 17
Result: 20 (roll) + 26 (Spellcraft) = 46
Sumiko works with great dedication in the privacy of her shrine, after hours, shaping and oiling and polishing and smoothing the deep orange stone that will hold her essence. When she finally finishes, gazing in its vibrant depths, she finds it in complete honesty one of the greatest works she will ever complete (as it should be), and she actually allows herself a small unadulterated twitter of pleasure.


2. Attune stone (Will DC10 + INT 7 + Highest power 4) = DC 21
Result: 12 (roll) + Will (17) + 4 (Conceal Thoughts bonus) = 33
Sumiko Psychus, her Grand Precipience, walks to the center of the main circle of her shrine. The doors are barred, with guards, so that none might interrupt; and she is surrounded by her minions, humming and chanting as they lend their psychic energy to hers. The air is filled with the aroma of beautiful incense, her body covered with ornate tattoos of brilliant color. Sumiko sits meditating upon the deep sparkling gem in her hands, sending her mind plunging into its core, filling the space, knowing every swirl, filling it with her essence bit by bit. More and more of her might is focused upon it, but her clarity does not waver, the faith and mental acuity of her followers buttresses her. There are fleeting glimpses of her mortal life and what this loss might mean, but slowly those thoughts trickle away. The power crescendos within the stone, minute by minute, hour after hour, until finally even the echoes have no space to move within the gem as she fills it with every ounce of her being.


3. Remove Heart (CON DC10 or Resist Dying DC15) = DC15
Result: 10 (roll) + 20 (Autohypnosis) = 30
The moment is at hand, the silk over her chest reverently drawn back. At the peak of clarity, the high moment when all the wills of her followers are in sync with hers and she is both in body and gem at once, the metallic claws flash. Her breast is rent asunder. The pain should be unbearable as she tears her own heart from her body, but it doesn't hurt -- the flash of fire feels like liberation, not loss. Without faltering, she deftly slips the gem into her chest. It is finished. The moment has passed. She still thrives. She is Sumiko Psychus, Her Grand Precipience, the Unfettered, and she will exist forever.

So there we go. My first "evil" character is now also officially undead. She is also a Tier 2 mythic creature. I happened to ask the GM, "So she's mythic, AND she's a lich... so can I use the mythic lich template instead?" I'm figuring he'll say no, so I asked more as a joke... I loaded it up in Hero Lab for kicks and it's just insanely crazy -- mythic tier level for mythic lich is CR/2 (which for her is 7). It's just insane. She'd get an SR of 31 or something crazy, plus anything that strikes her would have to save (DC 28) against permanent paralyzation, plus a few more stats boosts (with her HPs breaking 200), and that's not everything. IOW, she'd be kind of untouchable.

The only thing that would make her palatable in a campaign is that she actually doesn't have many aggressive powers -- pretty much she's just a skill/knowledge wonk who can't be confined against her will. Her major offensive weapons currently are just the umbral dragon soulgem and the two shadow demon gems (that she uses primarily for Greater Teleport -- she can bamf anywhere within the plane at will, although she can't take her thrall with her).

I never did finish her journal, although we now can't play for three weeks, so I might go back and write up some journal entries for her over the course of the campaign, more as a role-playing exercise. It's something she would do. (Of course it would be in an arcane language that no one except someone with exceptional intelligence could read.) I figured it would be cool for the GM to have, in case he wants to run a similar campaign later or something set centuries later in the world... he could incorporate it into the game, as she has a dark book of soul magic that another mentalist wrote centuries ago...

 

[Vorthos]

Waiting for word back from the GM, but Sumiko finished her soulstone in game time a few weeks back and we just leveled again. The GM and I had discussed only making this change after she leveled again, so any "new abilities" she seemed to show would just seem to be part of the leveling rather than becoming a lich behind closed doors. I made all the rolls I needed to make that he had presented me with via e-mail.

1. Prepare the phylactery (Spellcraft DC5 + ML12) = DC 17
Result: 20 (roll) + 26 (Spellcraft) = 46
Sumiko works with great dedication in the privacy of her shrine, after hours, shaping and oiling and polishing and smoothing the deep orange stone that will hold her essence. When she finally finishes, gazing in its vibrant depths, she finds it in complete honesty one of the greatest works she will ever complete (as it should be), and she actually allows herself a small unadulterated twitter of pleasure.


2. Attune stone (Will DC10 + INT 7 + Highest power 4) = DC 21
Result: 12 (roll) + Will (17) + 4 (Conceal Thoughts bonus) = 33
Sumiko Psychus, her Grand Precipience, walks to the center of the main circle of her shrine. The doors are barred, with guards, so that none might interrupt; and she is surrounded by her minions, humming and chanting as they lend their psychic energy to hers. The air is filled with the aroma of beautiful incense, her body covered with ornate tattoos of brilliant color. Sumiko sits meditating upon the deep sparkling gem in her hands, sending her mind plunging into its core, filling the space, knowing every swirl, filling it with her essence bit by bit. More and more of her might is focused upon it, but her clarity does not waver, the faith and mental acuity of her followers buttresses her. There are fleeting glimpses of her mortal life and what this loss might mean, but slowly those thoughts trickle away. The power crescendos within the stone, minute by minute, hour after hour, until finally even the echoes have no space to move within the gem as she fills it with every ounce of her being.


3. Remove Heart (CON DC10 or Resist Dying DC15) = DC15
Result: 10 (roll) + 20 (Autohypnosis) = 30
The moment is at hand, the silk over her chest reverently drawn back. At the peak of clarity, the high moment when all the wills of her followers are in sync with hers and she is both in body and gem at once, the metallic claws flash. Her breast is rent asunder. The pain should be unbearable as she tears her own heart from her body, but it doesn't hurt -- the flash of fire feels like liberation, not loss. Without faltering, she deftly slips the gem into her chest. It is finished. The moment has passed. She still thrives. She is Sumiko Psychus, Her Grand Precipience, the Unfettered, and she will exist forever.

So there we go. My first "evil" character is now also officially undead. She is also a Tier 2 mythic creature. I happened to ask the GM, "So she's mythic, AND she's a lich... so can I use the mythic lich template instead?" I'm figuring he'll say no, so I asked more as a joke... I loaded it up in Hero Lab for kicks and it's just insanely crazy -- mythic tier level for mythic lich is CR/2 (which for her is 7). It's just insane. She'd get an SR of 31 or something crazy, plus anything that strikes her would have to save (DC 28) against permanent paralyzation, plus a few more stats boosts (with her HPs breaking 200), and that's not everything. IOW, she'd be kind of untouchable.

The only thing that would make her palatable in a campaign is that she actually doesn't have many aggressive powers -- pretty much she's just a skill/knowledge wonk who can't be confined against her will. Her major offensive weapons currently are just the umbral dragon soulgem and the two shadow demon gems (that she uses primarily for Greater Teleport -- she can bamf anywhere within the plane at will, although she can't take her thrall with her).

I never did finish her journal, although we now can't play for three weeks, so I might go back and write up some journal entries for her over the course of the campaign, more as a role-playing exercise. It's something she would do. (Of course it would be in an arcane language that no one except someone with exceptional intelligence could read.) I figured it would be cool for the GM to have, in case he wants to run a similar campaign later or something set centuries later in the world... he could incorporate it into the game, as she has a dark book of soul magic that another mentalist wrote centuries ago...

That's awesome. And an excellent idea too. Should be rather fun to roll-play! It's a shame that you can't try it out for a while, but I like the idea nonetheless.


I was GMing a one-shot dungeon crawler once with a bunch of noobs to expose them to how the game works and how fun it can be. The player dynamic was hilarious. The players all got right into their roles and it was so fun to watch. We were playing with a house rule that when rolling a D20 in pretty much any situation, a natural 20 is an instant success, and a natural 1 is instant failure in the worst possible way for the situation. Our party was engaged with a bunch of velociraptors (essentially modified crocodiles), and our elvish ranger wanted to try and do an acrobatic manoever to try and shoot one that he knew was behind a column, but couldn't see. He rolled a 1 on his check, missed horribly, and accidentally hit our cleric, killing her. Fortunately he could reroll a miss as an encounter power, so it didn't actually take effect, but it was certainly memorable. Later, at the final boss (a modified deathjump spider), our halfling bard was about to get eaten by the spider, so he tried to reason with it using diplomacy. The spider didn't know any languages, so it was impossible, but I let him try. He rolled a natural 20, so he inexplicably (and hilariously) managed to convince the spider to join the party. It ended the boss fight in the best way possible.

Has anybody had that one player that accidentally triggered almost every trap?

 

[Totenkindly]

That's awesome. And an excellent idea too. Should be rather fun to roll-play! It's a shame that you can't try it out for a while, but I like the idea nonetheless.

The best part is that no one knows but me and the GM. I haven't even hinted it to other players, because I don't want people to "meta-game" it (which they sometimes have done). I have a strong psionic disguise and a Misdirection effect going, etc., so in everyone else's view, I am Neutral and not Undead, and they expect me to have psionic/magic auras on me because that's my character. I will keep rolling for even the stuff I'm invulnerable to now as a lich and play it as straight as I can (as I'm not "stupid/crazy evil," I'm "pragmatic evil," fluctuating between Neutral and Neutral Evil in alignment, so no one will really suspect).

I wonder how long I can keep things going before someone discovers my 'secret.' If not, we'll have a good laugh after the campaign is over. I suspect I am not the only player with secrets.

I was GMing a one-shot dungeon crawler once with a bunch of noobs to expose them to how the game works and how fun it can be. The player dynamic was hilarious. The players all got right into their roles and it was so fun to watch. We were playing with a house rule that when rolling a D20 in pretty much any situation, a natural 20 is an instant success, and a natural 1 is instant failure in the worst possible way for the situation.

heh, that's awesome... and effective.

Our party was engaged with a bunch of velociraptors (essentially modified crocodiles), and our elvish ranger wanted to try and do an acrobatic manoever to try and shoot one that he knew was behind a column, but couldn't see. He rolled a 1 on his check, missed horribly, and accidentally hit our cleric, killing her. Fortunately he could reroll a miss as an encounter power, so it didn't actually take effect, but it was certainly memorable. Later, at the final boss (a modified deathjump spider), our halfling bard was about to get eaten by the spider, so he tried to reason with it using diplomacy. The spider didn't know any languages, so it was impossible, but I let him try. He rolled a natural 20, so he inexplicably (and hilariously) managed to convince the spider to join the party. It ended the boss fight in the best way possible.

That's definitely hilarious! How long did the boss stay with the group? Or did it remain as an NPC resource in later adventures? I love that stuff.

Has anybody had that one player that accidentally triggered almost every trap?

oh gawd, I guess I didn't post my story on THIS forum. (Same character -- my tengu cryptic/thrallherd and the party ninja carefully worked our way through the hypertrapped room... and after we reached the center and were pondering what to do with the focus crystal there, the ratfolk cleric who has a crush on my character ran past us to do something heroic. It was Horrible.)

Full story (for the bored):

The antechamber walls were made of stone, but the doors to the foci room were made of adamantine and warded against everything imaginable (teleport, magic, psionics, undead, etc.). Despite the difficulties, Bobby and Sumiko managed to unlock the door and remove some traps, although a chain lightning went off.

When the door was opened, bad air poured out of the sealed chamber; between Air Bubble spells, poison immunity, and Clover changing into a whirlwind and venting the room as much as possible (bad air out, good air in), we were able to make the air in the antechamber breathable again.
　
Bobby observed that the entire floor was trapped with spikes and the ceiling trapped with deadfalls. As a cray ninja elf, he could walk on the floor without setting things off, while Sumiko pursued the road not taken and walked on the walls instead [STILL checking for traps -- dwarves, yeeesh!]. Together the two slowly mapped out the room while sharing the knowledge through the Collective. Along with the realization every square inch of floor was trapped, they both also ran across more "Davy Jones' locker" teleport circles as well as small trays of mushrooms -- no doubt the source of the fungal air contamination from before. IOW, the entire room ended up being double- and triple-trapped.

In the room's center was another chamber. After removing the traps on THOSE doorways and noting more teleport traps protecting the yet-unseen center of that room (as well as the entire ceiling being trapped with fire), Sumiko floated a mirror over so they could peak around the corner without going further inside. In the room's center was a giant 20' tall crystal -- the foci. The air crackled with psionic energy.

While Bobby and Sumiko were discussing leaving before something bad happened, Shnitzel decided to impress his bird lady by Airwalking in, squeezing past Bobby and Sumiko, and heading right for the crystal. His True Sight revealed pits covered by illusory floor (40' deep with spikes at the bottom, though no corpses or treasure). But as soon as he got close to the crystal, he triggered a huge blast of chain lightning that almost fried him to death and did damage to Bobby and Sumiko and others outside the chamber as it leaped around. Shnitzel healed himself and went to leave, triggering the same trap again.

About this time, the door started to swing shut. Carnage got his hands on it, but it was too strong for him to hold open despite his efforts. The doors clicked shut, trapping inside the only two people who could open locks, along with the most impulsive person in the party, and cutting all three of them out of the Collective and breaking Sumiko's communication with The Eye of Psychus due to all the wards.

Seeing the door was locked, both Bobby and Sumiko figured there would be a way from inside to open it (as per common sense + the other dwarf city we've explored). They searched for secret doors along all the walls, while still taking care to not set off more traps. Shnitzel on the other hand tried to Stone Shape his way through the wall near the original door and failed twice... and since the spells had verbal components, he ended up inhaling some of the remaining spores. (Sumiko put an Air Bubble on him, to protect him, but too late...) The ratfolk cleric began to hallucinate wildly.

Sumiko and Bobby managed to find and untrap (fire rune) a particularly nasty secret door in the room's back. This revealed a small chamber with yet more teleport traps... and a wall of six levers. Once Sumiko entered this area, she realized she could hear her followers again, hence she was outside of the warded area. While Bobby explored the room, she teleported back to the antechamber and untrapped/unlocked the front door from the outside, allowing egress from the room for Bobby and Shnitzel.

Trying to leave but still hallucinating, Shnitzel lost his balance and fell, triggering the floor spike trap and impaling himself. Attempts by Clover as an air elemental to grapple him and drag him out failed as Shnitzel thought he was being attacked by a monster, so he cast a Flame Strike that not only did damage to anyone nearby but also ignited the remaining spores in the air, creating an explosion that literally blew the roof off the chamber.

Seeing daylight above, Shnitzel ran up towards the ceiling. Bobby, worried about his friend, Vanished and leaped up to grab him -- but the cleric still had True Sight and could see him, so the two ended up failing their grapples and fell back on the ground, with Bobby underneath (right on the spikes). Sumiko cast Inevitable Strike on herself. Shnitzel got away again and started running. Raleigh was shouting, "Just let him go." Bobby pulled out a poisoned dagger and stuck the cleric with it, doing damage + knocking him out. Simultaneously, Sumiko grabbed the ratfolk telekinetically (64 to hit + a confirmed crit) and jerked him literally through the stone wall into the 'safe' antechamber, where Carnage tied him up before he could cause more damage.

Clover went to work to "fix" the chamber. Meanwhile, we also wanted to reset the traps and lock the doors. So Sumiko teleported back to the small room with the levers and, without much recourse, telekinetically started pulling them one by one. [I have the order written down elsewhere.] Most of them reset or (de)activated the various traps. One shut any open doors. One lever did nothing.

However, Level #2 made the crystal in the center maze grow so bright that the room lit up; Sumiko got a bad feeling and immediately put that lever back. Checking with the king later, she discovered it was the "Self-Destruct" lever [Kronk, why do we even HAVE that lever???], which in 1d4 rounds would blow the crystal sky-high in a 10-mile radius in an unsurvivable earth-shattering kaboom + likely set off the other two crystals. [Note: When we talked to the catfolk later, we discovered that their city had started to plummet over the 5-6 seconds that Sumiko had that lever pulled, since its energy was being rechanneled.]

It's like reading old Fineous Fingers / What's New, or I guess the newer Order of the Stick / Knights of the Dinner Table / and all those other fun cartoons.

 

[Vorthos]

The best part is that no one knows but me and the GM. I haven't even hinted it to other players, because I don't want people to "meta-game" it (which they sometimes have done). I have a strong psionic disguise and a Misdirection effect going, etc., so in everyone else's view, I am Neutral and not Undead, and they expect me to have psionic/magic auras on me because that's my character. I will keep rolling for even the stuff I'm invulnerable to now as a lich and play it as straight as I can (as I'm not "stupid/crazy evil," I'm "pragmatic evil," fluctuating between Neutral and Neutral Evil in alignment, so no one will really suspect).

I wonder how long I can keep things going before someone discovers my 'secret.' If not, we'll have a good laugh after the campaign is over. I suspect I am not the only player with secrets.

That sounds amazing! That's a really good idea. Roleplaying that sounds like it would be so fun. My best idea in terms of roleplay was for a warforged bard that wants to make money hire a necromancer so that he can resurrect his old enemies so he can slay them again. But that's got nothing on your idea!

That's definitely hilarious! How long did the boss stay with the group? Or did it remain as an NPC resource in later adventures? I love that stuff.

The plan is to have it remain with the party in a new campaign I'm planning. It should be really awesome.

As for your story, I loved it. That sounds like it was a fun game. Infighting among the party is often quite interesting (even if it's because of hallucinations).

 

[Totenkindly]

Well, it's official: Sumiko is a lich, and the GM and I figured out that she could make the DC 50 so she looks pretty lifelike (even though she could use her magical disguise to look like a rotting lich, I suppose, if she wants the full impact).

Better yet, I made the joke about whether I could be a "mythic lich" (Since I'm mythic and I'm a lich), and his only response was, "... not yet." You mean that's even on the table?! This campaign is going to get all kinds of crazy if he'll allow that, since it means all the other players will have some pretty hefty boosts in their own way.

Then again, we're trying to stop a dead god from coming back, after the other gods killed him because he was such a jerk. So maybe this'll be my first ever "high level" campaign.

That sounds amazing! That's a really good idea. Roleplaying that sounds like it would be so fun. My best idea in terms of roleplay was for a warforged bard that wants to make money hire a necromancer so that he can resurrect his old enemies so he can slay them again. But that's got nothing on your idea!

That actually sounds pretty cool. I like it when people come up with ideas that are off the beaten trope, as if the character (gasp) were actually real people behaving in real ways but just in a fantasy environment.

The plan is to have it remain with the party in a new campaign I'm planning. It should be really awesome.

As for your story, I loved it. That sounds like it was a fun game. Infighting among the party is often quite interesting (even if it's because of hallucinations).

I don't think I told you who my thrall was: Carnage Grimgrin, a gnome dread who acts as my bodyguard. His teeth are all filed into points, and he uses Fear in Flesh and Strength of my Enemies to basically become this little terrifying clawed/toothed badass tearing things apart with his hands after he Fears them in some way. (His personality is kind of a very nasty version of Bronn off GoT.)

 

[Totenkindly]

D&D statistics as explained through tomatoes:

Strength is being able to crush a tomato
Dexterity is being able to juggle a tomato
Constitution is being able to eat a bad tomato
Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit
Wisdom is knowing not to put a tomato in your fruit salad
Charisma is being able to sell people a tomato-based fruit salad.

Bonus:
Comeliness is being able to recognize when you're a hot tomato.

 

[Totenkindly]

Sumiko had her first real test of being a lich tonight, to see what she could do.

We had just finished a fight in the jungle and were arriving back on deck of our airship to decide what to do next, when we saw a dragon winging its way towards us across the forest.

The airship could not outrun it, so the group started debating what to do as it approached. Everyone had air step (Fly perfect 10') on, so at least you could move through the air / hang in the air. Sumiko simply shrugged, then started flying toward the dragon. She got tired of moving slowly, so after buffing her saves + setting up Acid Resistance 30 (she guessed that might be what it would breathe), she greater teleported to a short distance in front of it and asked it to stop, in Draconic. It flew right up to her, literally in her face, then stopped and hovered there. It was a greenish amphibious dragon, the size (in general) of a large elephant, although much longer. The rest of the group was back on the boat going "oh shit" and frantically casting buff after buff on themselves while Sumiko delayed it.

She used her Empathic powers to make it friendly enough to speak to, but that being the case, the conversation still wasn't going that well, and she finally said something that it chose to take as an insult, so it breathed acid right in her face. She made her save for half-damage, and as it turned out her Acid Resist (barely) soaked the rest so she wasn't even hurt. Back on the boat, everyone just saw a huge stream of acid erupt, then a hazy cloud of acid hovering in the air blocking Sumiko and the dragon from view. (The acid cloud typically causes continual damage while you are in it, but her Acid Resist would easily soak the residue from that.)

This really annoyed the dragon. It got to go first and did a full attack on her and despite her amazing AC he still hit her with everything -- claw claw wing wing bite, and then grabbed her easily as part of the multiple hits. But she's a lich, with damage resistance 15 vs everything except bludgeoning epic-level weapons, and all the dragon's attacks were slashing/piercing. She was also immune to both the poison in the attack + the bleed damage it should have caused. One of the attacks happened to do 19 damage, so in the end after that terrifying assault (breath weapon + full attack by a decent-sized dragon + poison + bleed), she took a total of 4 HPs. (She has 145 HPs.)

Since she was being held, she reached out and did a Vanishing Strike -- a negative-energy touch attack for 8 points of damage + paralysis, but the dragon made its save and wasn't paralyzed, and as part of the power, she teleported 30' behind the dragon while turning invisible.

The dragon chose to turn invisible as well and moved out of range.

Back on the ship the party couldn't see anything except the cloud. The cleric cast True Seeing and they realized the invisible dragon was coming right for the ship. The druid managed to get a faerie fire on it, so now its shape was visible to everyone. Sumiko teleported back to the ship/dragon while the Soulknife (?) went out to meet the dragon and did an amazing burst strike for 120 damage. The assassin fired arrows. The cleric kept buffing. Sumiko wielded her Umbral Wyrm soulstone, casting Destruction on the dragon but it made its save and didn't take that much damage.

The dragon (which had mythic power) doubled its breath weapon range and added some other damage to it, hitting everyone. The party was hurt pretty badly. Hilarious, while Sumiko took some minor damage from the acid this time, the dragon had added negative energy damage to its mythic breath weapon, and this actually healed Sumiko back to full (as she is undead). But the poor airship took on a massive hole, was being eaten by acid, and began to go down....

The druid cast an amazing buff spell, which reduced enemy rolls/saves and increased party rolls/saves by a significant amount. Before the dragon could breathe again, Sumiko wielded the stone, and this time with all the debuffing, the dragon failed its save, took 290 pts of damage, and died.

So... there you go. Sumiko the lich briefly tanked a fairly large dragon and came out at full health. She also normally isn't able to wield the stone that effectively, but it's a dragon soul in the stone, and it WANTS to destroy other dragons it thinks encroach on its territory, so Sumiko could use the stone more effectively in that particular fight.

The airship eventually crashed -- total ruin -- although some of the cargo, the engine, some weapons, and most of the crew was saved.

It was still kind of hilarious. I wonder what that poor dragon was thinking when he tried to bring his game on and totally failed to even really hurt her. In fact, in that first-round face to face, she did more damage to it (a minor 8 pts) than it did to her (4pts).

 

[á´…eparted]

For those who have played multiple D&D games before, I'm curious on a sense of scale.

My character (and almost everyone else) is almost at level 5. We've been playing since early Feburary. Total hours of play probably totaling around 130 hours.

How fast/slow is this progression compared to normal?

 

[Totenkindly]

Hmm. Five levels = 26 hours per level?
Which for 3-4 hour play sessions means around 7 sessions per level?

That's probably average leaning towards slow and/or just plain slow simply because you started at level 1 and usually the leveling is quicker there.

(My current campaign, we started about a year ago at level 6 and are now level 13, and play generally once a week, with a missed week here and there, for 3-4 hours.)

Of course, other things factor in:
1. Do you enjoy the roleplay/story? [i.e., do levels impact the story that much? Do you notice you're low-level?]
2. How much swag/gear have you gotten? [to compensate for low static class abilities]
3. Do you often feel hindered / incapable of handling the adventure?

The books offer a few different speeds of advancement anyway (low/average/high), speed can be tailored to suit party need. On my Roll20 games, we were leveling every two sessions while starting at level 1. That is fast IMO. But if you are enjoying your campaign, feel capable, and have some items in your possession that add some versatility to play (since your class abilities aren't diversifying quickly), then it still sounds like it could be fun.

 

[Passacaglia]

Has anybody had that one player that accidentally triggered almost every trap?

That's usually me. I just get tired of "Do we want to just bypass this potential trap?", "If not, how do we cleverly avoid all possible fallout?", "Who opened the last door?", "Who has the most HP and the highest defenses?", "Whose turn is it to take one for the team?" that I end up saying "Fuck it, I open the door! What happens?"

Which I guess makes it only sorta accidental.

So there we go. My first "evil" character is now also officially undead.

Nice! Your post made me want to crack open my 2e MM, and compare Sumiko's attitude with the lich description...

Although the lich has no interest in good or evil as we understand it, the creature will do whatever it must to further its own causes. Since it feels that the living are of little importance, the lich is often viewed as evil by those who encounter it. In rare cases, liches of a most unusual nature can be found which are of any alignment.

If I recall, Sumiko thinks she's a good person, which isn't quite the same as 'no interest in good or evil as we understand it,' but the 'whatever must be done' bit does sound like her. And there are probably a few people who consider her evil after encountering her, no?

(This is the kind of thing I was researching when I stumbled upon TypeC!)

 

[Passacaglia]

So I ran my adventure's third session last night, and it went very well despite all the stressing I did over it during the past couple of weeks. I had been stressing over rewriting a dungeon complex as a skill challenge.* I had had this platonic ideal of what I wanted the dungeon to play like, and kept trying make my design conform to that ideal. And when I couldn't, I got frustrated and defeatist, and ended up not actually finishing the rewrite until 20 minutes before the game started yesterday. Why do I do this?! This isn't the first time that a platonic ideal has frustrated a creative endeavor of mine. Back when I was taking art classes, I'd get preoccupied with executing the perfect piece in this same way, which results in frustration when I can't reach anything near perfection with my first try. Which part of typology explains this?

Anyhow, we had a great third session last night! After running the dungeon-as-skill-challenge, I asked my two present players for input and they both said it was fun and gave me a bit of constructive criticism. One plays Dungeon World, and suggested more fail-forward. So now it's a matter of practice makes perfect.

*The Skill Challenge is 4e's approach to non-combat encounters. I tried this approach a couple of times back in 2008, but quickly gave up on the idea. (Even 4e fans agree that the DMG's advice on running SCs is terrible due to it being 'new tech' at the time of publication.) Many 4e DMs didn't give up though, and got really good -- probably even better than the WotC guys -- at designing and running SCs. I got a lot of help from these DMs while rewriting.

 

[Totenkindly]

If I recall, Sumiko thinks she's a good person, which isn't quite the same as 'no interest in good or evil as we understand it,' but the 'whatever must be done' bit does sound like her. And there are probably a few people who consider her evil after encountering her, no? )

On cell and might add more later, but "good/evil" to her is little more than philosophical hodgepodge now, which is the only sense she would try to justify something as good. Her natural frame is "smart/dumb" or "competent/fail." So yes, she doesn't care much for good/evil except others keep bringing it up. Earlier in life, people told her she was "bad" and so she tried to justify how she was "good" ...but it no longer matters, as soon as she got distance and especially no longer being mortal.

She's actually become less edgy since becoming a lich; death becomes her. I think because she can't die, she feels safer, so she's less volatile. It's so ironic. Another in game character said last session, " you know, I heard awful things about you Sumiko, but you don't seem nearly as bad as they made you out to be." Lol! But I do think fear can drive aggression, and since she's less fearful, she's not as quick to flip out in a dangerous situation. But she has definitely taken more chances recently....like facing off with that dragon. And other things I'll relay.

EDIT: Greater Shadows attack

We got jumped by three of them at once. Sumiko dispelled the Deeper Darkness, which helped, but Greater Shadows do 2d4 STR damage or something when they hit or pass through you, and for them if you hit 0 STR, you die and come back as a shadow under their control. Sumiko's disguise is really good, and the shadow who came at her didn't recognize she was a lich -- until he hit her, and his special attacks did nothing to her, and his negative energy attack healed her to full. Surprise! But two members of our group actually died in that fight -- which almost never happens -- and we had to Raise them. Sumiko just laughed it off.

The Dead God

Oh, and we got to the bottom level of the centuries old temple dedicated to the dead god we are trying to thwart from returning. He is the god of Secrets. earlier in the temple, we found a chamber with statues of all the gods, and you could give offerings. The statue of the god there wore a mask so you couldn't see his face. Sumiko and one of the other gods (Grenth) aren't getting along, and so to screw over Grenth, she wrote down the location of the other lich's phylactery (who serves Grenth) and gave it as an offering to the dead god. ROFL.

Anyway, in this final temple room, surrounded by lots of bad traps and nastiness, there is another statue of the dead god... but his mask was on the floor. No one dared to look in his face, although Sumiko ALMOST did. Instead she went over and picked up the mask... and that's when the GM said, "And we'll end there, until next week... right where Sumiko picked up the artifact." Artifact?? Crap. That could be good or bad. All I remember are AD&D 1st and 2nd edition artifacts, like the Hand/Eye of Vecna and similar craziness.
But anyway, she's taking more chances nowadays; I hope it doesn't get her in trouble.

 

[Passacaglia]

For those who have played multiple D&D games before, I'm curious on a sense of scale.

My character (and almost everyone else) is almost at level 5. We've been playing since early Feburary. Total hours of play probably totaling around 130 hours.

How fast/slow is this progression compared to normal?

Hey, Hard is playing D&D! Woot!

I agree with Jennifer's assessment; you're in low third gear. 'How fast to level?' is one D&D's eternal questions. (And debates.) DMs -- particularly old school and 'story' DMs -- usually favor slow advancement, while players usually favor fast. And depending on which edition you're playing, advancement may start out fast and then peter out the higher level you get.

 

[á´…eparted]

Hey, Hard is playing D&D! Woot!

I agree with Jennifer's assessment; you're in low third gear. 'How fast to level?' is one D&D's eternal questions. (And debates.) DMs -- particularly old school and 'story' DMs -- usually favor slow advancement, while players usually favor fast. And depending on which edition you're playing, advancement may start out fast and then peter out the higher level you get.

We started advancing A LOT faster during out last session. Managed to clock over 4000xp for myself alone. It was due to two factors, the first being getting A LOT of stuff done, and our DM being stubborn/silly. Long story short, my character now has fireball as a spell (5E), and I blew up 30 super low enemies in one hit. So he brought them back as zombified enemies as a "joke revenge" and I did the exact same thing again. He did that a third time and I destroyed them all in 2 hits. It added up to A LOT of xp based on how he calculated it. It was hilarious. He says "they'll be back..." but is holding off for now, as he said the third wave would have easily killed us if they got in range.

He also realized that he's scaling the xp based off a system he's used to with 3.5E and is going to think about it. Largely because he recognizes that we are leveling slow. We're gonna try to aim for leveling every 3 sessions or so based off an average amount of conflict/success.

Ultimately it doesn't matter, I am having tons of fun .

 

[Coriolis]

I agree with Jennifer's assessment; you're in low third gear. 'How fast to level?' is one D&D's eternal questions. (And debates.) DMs -- particularly old school and 'story' DMs -- usually favor slow advancement, while players usually favor fast. And depending on which edition you're playing, advancement may start out fast and then peter out the higher level you get.

I have played off and on for over 15 years now, and in all our campaigns, both DM and players have been quite satisfied with relatively slow leveling up. The timeline [MENTION=20829]Hard[/MENTION] mentioned is not atypical for us, but then we are relatively "old school" and focus very much on story. We play around a large table, sometimes with hex grids, models, and miniatures, and paper notes flying back and forth. We have always worked to avoid hack/slash campaigns in favor of problem solving, detective work, and character interaction. Our group has always enjoyed it that way.

 

[Totenkindly]

..Ultimately it doesn't matter, I am having tons of fun .

That's all that really matters. Some people get hung up on rules; i figured as long as everyone in a group is having fun and agrees on what is fair (in terms of gameplay), so that you can actually PLAY a game (since rules set the boundaries hopefully to balance everyone's play), then it doesn't matter whether you are playing a standard game or a homespun one.

We started advancing A LOT faster during out last session. Managed to clock over 4000xp for myself alone. It was due to two factors, the first being getting A LOT of stuff done, and our DM being stubborn/silly. Long story short, my character now has fireball as a spell (5E), and I blew up 30 super low enemies in one hit. So he brought them back as zombified enemies as a "joke revenge" and I did the exact same thing again. He did that a third time and I destroyed them all in 2 hits. It added up to A LOT of xp based on how he calculated it. It was hilarious. He says "they'll be back..." but is holding off for now, as he said the third wave would have easily killed us if they got in range.

Freaking wizards, they're such glass cannons.

When I was running my overpowered pathfinder Barb, who was capable of doing a pounce (full attack on a charge move), if she hit all four times (often she did), she could reasonably do about 130-160pts damage to the target. Great single target attacker. But the sorc held the all-time damage in one round record -- he got it when he did an AoE (Stoneshard?), he managed to wipe out a bunch of innocent bystander citizens who got caught in the AoE. I think it was around 250pts altogether, when you tallied all the people he killed... from one spell. And it honestly wasn't a high-powered spell - he just happened to catch a LOT of people within its area of effect, and unfortunately most of them didnt' survive it.

Actually, that reminds me -- when Sumiko channeled her Great Umbral Wyrm stone to cast Destruction, the dragon is CL29 and she did 290 pts of damage to the green dragon. Bwa ha ha. Anyway... at high levels, spells win hands-down. It just takes awhile to get that kind of power, and once you cast a spell, it's gone for the day. You only get so many slots.

But there is nothing like casting a 12d6 fireball and watching things run away on fire.

 

[á´…eparted]

That's all that really matters. Some people get hung up on rules; i figured as long as everyone in a group is having fun and agrees on what is fair (in terms of gameplay), so that you can actually PLAY a game (since rules set the boundaries hopefully to balance everyone's play), then it doesn't matter whether you are playing a standard game or a homespun one.



Freaking wizards, they're such glass cannons.

When I was running my overpowered pathfinder Barb, who was capable of doing a pounce (full attack on a charge move), if she hit all four times (often she did), she could reasonably do about 130-160pts damage to the target. Great single target attacker. But the sorc held the all-time damage in one round record -- he got it when he did an AoE (Stoneshard?), he managed to wipe out a bunch of innocent bystander citizens who got caught in the AoE. I think it was around 250pts altogether, when you tallied all the people he killed... from one spell. And it honestly wasn't a high-powered spell - he just happened to catch a LOT of people within its area of effect, and unfortunately most of them didnt' survive it.

Actually, that reminds me -- when Sumiko channeled her Great Umbral Wyrm stone to cast Destruction, the dragon is CL29 and she did 290 pts of damage to the green dragon. Bwa ha ha. Anyway... at high levels, spells win hands-down. It just takes awhile to get that kind of power, and once you cast a spell, it's gone for the day. You only get so many slots.

But there is nothing like casting a 12d6 fireball and watching things run away on fire.

I'm actually pretty laid back with how our DM uses the rules. I actually get most bent out of shape when he tries to do something that breaks physics. Half the time I can usually get him to listen to me. You'd think I'd get all anal when something is done wrong mechanically. I look at it from the prospective of fun though. So long as it's fun, fair, and not OP or UP then it's a-ok with me.

Yeah I am a sorceror. Currently my fireball is 8d6 (which is tons of fun to roll cause I have a bunch of 5mm tiny dice). Lots of the available higher levels spells have AoE which is what I will be aiming for. It fits my character anyway (as he has developed he really like mass destruction, and fire, despite being lawful). That is a shiiiitton of damage though. I assume that was done at higher levels. Spellcasting just makes the most sense in my mind, mechanically anyway with how to use them.