All Humans Must Die! Tarek's summer 2012 game

[bionicgroin]

Yeah, I noticed the issue with the power attacks as well after looking through feats, even with natural invisibility to catch enemies flatfooted rage pretty much is only able to counteract the -4 str being a pixie gives. Even if buying the power attack I can only optimistically do +12 damage with something like a spiked chain assuming I get lucky and net an 18 on a roll...

I'm a bit leery about playing a pally as that somehow seems to be what I always end up playing in the past.

Also remind me again how buying off LAs work. Do I start off as less than level 4 or simply just start off as a level 4 with everyone but just take longer to catch up due to needing to pay off the xp?

If you're using a monster class progression then you don't need to worry about LA since it's accounted for it in the progression. So you'd gain character levels, but no monster HD for a a few levels. Because it's a gestalt game you don't have to worry about those null HD since you'll still be getting character advancement from the other half of your gestalt.  It's a pretty sweet deal. I think to make things simple everyone should just use a monster progression and forget about all that LA stuff.

Or am I misinterpreting the rules. It seems to work out in my head alright.

[GoatBoy]

He might have been talking about the LA buyoff rules which reduce the XP penalty you'd take from having a level adjustment. But in a gestalt game, I believe that LA has no effect. Maybe it could in certain situations, but it's probably not worth the hassle in a gestalt game.

Sorry, I feel like you asked a basic question and I went and complicated everything with my opt-fu.

[bionicgroin]

Oh there's nothing wrong with your explanation of LA buyoff. It's good to know.

[bionicgroin]

Hey I wonder if you guys have any advice for this:

Adam wants to play a golem wizard (using a modified version of the flesh golem from savage species). No real int modifiers. He'll have 4 feats to work with and he want's be a crowd control wizard and if he had to focus on a school it would be conjuration. We were thinking metamagic school focus from complete mage and sculpt spell for area spells like clouds, fogs, webs and stuff. What do you guys think? Fair or broken? What sort of feats or prestige classes would be good?

[GoatBoy]

It could either be horribly powerful or horribly weak. Keep in mind that spell resistance applies to spells you cast on yourself, unless you lower your resistance, which takes a standard action.

Abjurant Champion (Complete Mage) is considered one of the best "fighter-mage" prestige classes. If you want to focus on pure spellcasting, then good prestige classes are:

Master Specialist (Complete Mage)
Incantatrix (Forgotten Realms - Player's Guide to Faerun)
Fatespinner (first 4 levels)(Complete Arcane)
Geometer (Complete Arcane)
Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil (Complete Arcane)
Mage of the Arcane Order (Complete Arcane)
Anima Mage (Tome of Magic)
Sacred Exorcist (Complete Divine)
Divine Oracle (Complete Divine).

Some of these have steep skill requirements which would cause a problem, though.

[captaincommunism]

given how crazy this game is shaping up to be, I'd say MMSF is probably not toooooo bad. sculpt spell is totally okay, imo. as for prestige classes, i'm unsure.
spell-wise, web can be pretty annoying at low levels, from personal experience, but otherwise lookin' good.

[captaincommunism]

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=391551 -- may modify a few things, but for now, this is looking like the final-ish build.

[killer_floss]

So sitting down to brainstorm a few wild ideas to work around that -4 strength that pixies get I came across grappling. Is there a way to work around the size difference for damage and grappling? I just find it extremely amusing to be that annoying fairy hovering around annoying people until they try to swat me.

Then the beatdown ensues.

Alternatively I think I might go with the swashbuckler idea Tarek suggested.

[GoatBoy]

So sitting down to brainstorm a few wild ideas to work around that -4 strength that pixies get I came across grappling. Is there a way to work around the size difference for damage and grappling? I just find it extremely amusing to be that annoying fairy hovering around annoying people until they try to swat me.

Then the beatdown ensues.

Alternatively I think I might go with the swashbuckler idea Tarek suggested.

Your best bet would be the Clever Wrestling feat from Complete Warrior. Either that or take ranks in Escape Artist.

[bionicgroin]

Clever wrestling and/or escape artist are good things to have even if you're not going with a grappling build. If you're a melee fighter you don't want to be stuck in a terminal grapple that you can't escape from. Alternatively you could take flyby attack to you can avoid even getting hit at all. If you're going the swashbuckler daring outlaw (complete scoundrel) route then you'll need 2d6 of sneak attack (5 ToB swordsage, 3 rogue or 3 sneak attack fighter variant --> http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#fighter  ). If you go the sneak attack route then I'll allow double sneak attacks using two-weapon fighting for player characters.

[bionicgroin]

Cool, so we can start playing next week starting friday the 11th at 6:30 in the rotunda. I'll try to post the maps sometime this weekend.

Introduction:

"The human city of Arsenburg is a terrible place. It is a claustrophobic eviltropolis filled with humans who not only hate monsters, but hate each other as well. Smog fills the air and hides the sun. The streets are filled with steam machines that trample and crush bystanders beneath the heels of iron giants and horseless carriages. Disease crawls out of the coughing throats of the dirty and poor. The sky was once blue instead of grey and seeing the heavens filled mortal man with dreams. Now the Steam Mind decides man's future and not their dreams and hearts.
"Below Arsenburg is this city of monsters, New Monsterra. Kind and loving monsters like us have to see our larva, pups and children grow up with no knowledge of their homeworld. In these stinking sewers the last gasps of Monsterra's people go unheard. Don't let us die here, like this. We will take back the human world, secure a future for ourselves and put the naked apes back into cages like they belong."

The kobold removed his pipe from his mouth and straightened his robe. His name was Scrowl and he spent most of his time in his makeshift wizard's tower that overlooked most of New Monsterra. Although he wasn't active with either the Draconic Orders nor the Undead Legion, two of New Monsterra's major political institutions, he voluntarily kept a watchful eye over the city in order to maintain peace and harmony among the monsters.
The old kobold carried himself with a confidence that was rare among his kind. Most kobolds, goblinoids, or small and weak creatures were abused and predated on by stronger monsters like ogres or dragons. Without human farms and dinosaur grazing areas the monsters of New Monsterra were forced to eat each other or survive on molds and algae farmed from sewage.  

Gangs of werewolves roamed the street looking for someone to goad into a fight. A pack of them marched down the street in a battle trance and readied for a frenzied hunt. They saw Scrowl and turned the corner to avoid him.

"The Killers are the dominant werewolf gang and they battle primarily with The Freaks, a notorious vampire gang," said Scrowl, "They have their own hangouts and run various elements of the black market. Their ability to hide among the humans allow them to penetrate into Arsenburg's black market.  Some Arsenburg pubs and brothels are said to be totally run by New Monsterra werewolves or vampires. Likewise fey who could vanish or hide their form are successful as spies or agents to the above-world."

Scrowl gestured to a wooden post covered in public notices, wanted posters, and work ads.

"For those who aren't engaged in politics or streetfighting there is work available. Mindflayers, rakshashas, and vampires who need human flesh, blood and brains, or others who simply had a taste for it, pay well for humans captured from above. Monsters only leave the city at night, it was forbidden for a monster to go above ground unless hidden by magic or darkness. Elite parties of monsters are sent to the surface to steal humans, or are assigned to patrol the sewers on the lookout for human adventures looking to discover the monster city. Keeping New Monsterra hidden from human eyes is of the greatest importance. "

Scrowl carried on down the road. He turned back with a final warning,

"If discovered by humans a monster can only expect imprisonment and cruelty. Rumors say there is a facility in the city where captured monsters are taken away and vivisected. You'd be wise to avoid such a fate."

He placed his pipe back into his dry mouth with the head of the pipe upside-down, a local symbol of unity among high-ranking undead. The undead smoked empty pipes. They couldn't taste tobacco, but they could remember it. Scrowl continued with his daily walk and faded back into invisibility.


***********************************************

MONSTER PARTY LINEUP (so far)

(let me know if I got any details wrong. These are just my first impressions of the characters.)

Sollus Argentum is a half-dragon holy warrior and a protector of the Bahamut Draconic Order. The Bahamut dragons fight for unity among the monsters and retain the highest rank in monster society. They are good and honorable and the other monster groups trust and work well with the Bahamut dragons. Their sister order of the Tiamat dragons spite them at every turn and will side with anyone who opposes the Bahamut followers. The followers of Tiamat relish destruction and deceit. They are feared by all but the Bahamut dragons.

Blob is a gelatinous cube that lived among monks and learned their secrets of unarmed fighting. After consuming all the monks knowledge and bodies he moved between settlements leaving a trail of missing people and passionate elf babes yearning for more of his acidic, gelatinous embrace. Finding himself in New Monsterra beneath the human world he takes his fighting knowledge to the streets where there's plenty a man to fight, plenty a woman to engulf, and lots of strange materials to dissolve.

R66-Y is a mobile mechanical device with limb-like extensions for manipulating objects. It has attachable tools capable of emulating magical effects with great precision. It moves with quadrupedal motion or attachable treads. It deploys a clockwork hawk aerial unit for reconnaissance and scouting. Little is know about when and where it was built, nor for what function it was intended.


There are two more mysterious figures on the horizon...

What does the future hold? Only our imaginations can give us a glimpse of the road ahead.
    

[bionicgroin]

MAPS



ARSENBURG

The circle with the X is a common entry point into Arsenburg city from New Monsterra. There is a secluded sewer access that is known to be relatively safe at night time. The Trashere area is mostly filled with criminals and poor people, so abductions in this area is relatively easy and won't provoke adventurer parties looking to rescue people.
To the north and northwest of Trashere is the Bumton area. East Bumton is relatively poor and filled with good victims. West Bumton and Longshoreman's itch are filled with working class people who can afford to hire adventurers. The Smogbox is the factory district. It has goods worth looting, but the warehouses and factories will usually be defended to some extent.
Taxford is the region's political hub. Many of the city's notaries, schools, and political institutions are found in Taxford. The people there are comfortably middle class and can easily afford search parties for lost loved ones. Wealthington is where the city's rich and elite live. They taste the best, but capturing humans from Wealthington is difficult and has many consequences. 



NEW MONSTERRA

Urban Center and Sprawl: A disorganized shanty town built around the city's core. Lower creatures like goblinoids, kobolds, shaguins, vermin and other weak and generally stupid creatures squat in this region stealing and begging for whatever they can. The town center comprises of powerful spellcasting monster towers and temples. The magic users conjure food and goods and the sprawl acquires them slowly through a trickle down economy. 

Pool: The pool is a flooded area of sewer. The water is relatively clean (still very dirty) and connects to a network of underwater channels and pipes. The Shallowfrig sea can be accessed through these pipes and aquatic monsters can visit the Arsenburg docks through this path. The pool also leads to a secret chamber where the Krog monsters live. The Krog monsters are a mated pair of giant amphibious reptile monsters that look similar to spinosauruses. They're semi-intelligent live quietly beneath New Monsterra.

Dragon Caves: More powerful monsters like dragons are given their own caves away from the city. Access to these caves are usually guarded by followers or half-dragon guardian castes.

Towers: Liches and other powerful spellcasters opt to live in towers that overlook the city. Some of them scry or observe the city through telescopes and the more lawful among them will act as policing force to prevent powerful monsters from destroying the city and threatening their towers.

[bionicgroin]

Great job on session 1 everyone. That was dynamite. Here's some of the aftermath in prose form.



ARSENBURG GAZETTE

FIRE CLAIMS DISGUSTING PRISON IN TRASHERE

A prison in Trashere was in flames last night when a fire mysteriously broke out in the lower levels of the building. 147 were counted to be dead including 68 prisoners and one guard whose bodies were not recovered and assumed to be burned to ash. Efforts to extinguish the fire were hindered by accumulations of grease on the lower level of the prison where the fire originated. The grease, claims an expert, was from the melting bodies of those who died in the fire. The remaining bodies that were recovered were said to have been dead for weeks, claims pathologist Dr. B. Persikov and last living relative to the famed Dr. Arthur Persikov whose work was integral to the building of the Steam Mind facility. Both brothers were prone to fanciful ideas nested in fantasy such as the ridiculous concepts of plate tectonics and magical "germs" that jump between hosts. Experts say that Dr. B. Persikov's claims regarding the bodies recovered from the fire were the products of a fertile imagination.
"Good riddance," says the prison's chief warden. "The fire does what our legal system should be doing, not putting a roof over the heads of these criminals." Science claims that the criminal body type predisposes people to a life of recidivism and that groups such as cretins, half-breeds, and boys raised by women alone are prone to extreme criminality. Efforts to do away with these groups through methods other than accidental fires are under way.


WOMAN TURNS INTO BLOB!  

A group of local sailors claimed they saw a woman enter a pub that they were patronizing, turn into a gelatinous cube, and promptly exit the pub. Ghost hunters have been called to the scene and using an instrument called a psychokinetiscope they have concluded that the pub is a center for paranormal activity.
"OI, I bet this has something to do with that Steam Mind they're building," said one of the local sailors when questioned about the event. "No good can come of that if all it does is change women into blobs. It should work the other way around. OI futbol!"


The roar of a bulette roused Goob the bugbear from his papers as he sat in a make-shift reading chair that he built. He put down the human newspaper that found it's way into the sewers and went out to the back of his shack to feed Sharky.
The landshark bounded playfully as his master approached with a severed human arm in tow. Goob tossed the arm to the beast and went back inside.
The city had given Goob a whole human corpse when they discovered the role of his latest engineering feat in the recent raid to the above world. A maintenance robot and one of the half-dragon guardians from the dragon caves approached him with a job and he was happy to help. In the end the chute system he built not only saved time, but let the raiding party make a hasty escape from the burning prison.
He sat back down in his chair and glanced at the Arsenburg Gazette one more time. For months he's been reading their daily newspapers and never could he understand any of the human headlines, but today, for the very first time, he knew.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


The Scrags' (a hobgoblin gang) home turf. Midnight.

Hobgoblins filled the alleys with their fighting, spitting and gambling. They amassed two nights ago for a rumble and wound up tearing the place to shit. Not even that curmudgeon Scrowl showed his face. Shit was so cash. They had been drinking all night and through the day. Finally they were starting to pass out. Most drank to fuel their aggression, some drank to have a good time. But Woundfucker, the leader of the Scrags, drank to drown his rage and sorrow. That ... half-dragon ... Sollus - he killed dozens of Woundfucker's close friends. Tonight Woundfucker drinks for them.

The hobgoblins punched, and spit and fucked while Woundfucker sat on his throne with his cheek on his fist. He barked and stood up.
"What hobgoblin fears death!?" he roared.
"No hobgoblin fears death!" were the drunken chants that were returned.
"Let's drink to all the good hobgoblins that fear no one. Let's drink to the death of that dragon pig Sollus. Let's drink to revenge! Let's drink to death!"
Each call to drink was punctatuted by the cheers of his gang members and they echoed his cry to drink to death.

That night 24 hobgoblins died of alcohol poisoning.  

[killer_floss]

Calvin, I am picking up Nymph's Kiss feat so if you want to we could combine backstories.

Sure, hopefully it's not too late to do so.
...This character may be an exercise in utter insanity. I like it

[bionicgroin]

Everyone got more XP than than last time, but I miscalculated how much XP I was supposed to give and I accidentally gave too much. Overall everyone should now be at 10 400 XP, so just enough to be at level 5. (Calvin, that means your guy can starts at 10 400 XP, too.)

[Gaming]

Summer 2013:

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