Officers Academy (character creation)

[reefwood]

Re: Spoils

Nov 9, 2010 22:52:56 GMT -5 michael said:

The rangers don't have longspears? They must have run out of wealth or carrying capacity for a Light Load... or I just forgot or didn't think it important for archers

Anyway, yes, there are enough MW Ranseurs to do this. I made a note in the most recent Chapter 10 thread as a reminder and be sure to adjust load if needed.

It looks like the ranseur would put the rangers into their medium load, so I'm going to forgo that.

Okay. I updated the spoils section in the Chapter 10 thread to note who took what.

Another important thing I just noticed about load is that a Medium load reduces Max Dex to +3, so it would lower the AC of anyone with a Dex mod of +4 or higher, and Heavy load has a Max Dex of +1.

Nov 9, 2010 22:52:56 GMT -5 michael said:

This works. Just be sure to check the Load for the warsteeds because 40 lbs of barding might push them into Medium. If so, that might be an easy way to decide which ones don't get the barding...or soldiers could drop items.

Brion is the heaviest in the group at 330.4 lbs with all his gear. With the barding and saddle, that brings the horse's current load to 400.4, and its max for a light load is 459.

I modified my character post one more time to put in the +1 breastplates that used to be worn by my fighters. I put them in my locker, which is marked in blue.

Dang... those warsteeds sure are super strong. I guess increased load or speed reduction will probably only ever be a problem if they wear Medium Barding or carry two people.

EDIT: Also, there have been several changes to Brion's reward package, so can you make a new post listing everything that was obtained from it, and which grunts received what.

[reefwood]

Re: Brion Shaw - spoils

There have been several changes to Brion's reward package, so can you make a new post recapping the entire package? Also, please list which grunts received which items from Brion.

---

Nov 9, 2010 22:52:56 GMT -5 michael said:

I modified my character post one more time to put in the +1 breastplates that used to be worn by my fighters. I put them in my locker, which is marked in blue.

Can you label these +1 breastplates as belonging to the Fighters? If/when the grunts are reassigned, they will leave with all their original equipment (even if it has been altered) in addition to any equipment you want them to keep.

EDIT: What will PFC Fighter #1 and PFC Vargas do with their glaives now that they have mw ranseurs? They can hold onto them, discard them, or place them in an equipment locker with the main army.

EDIT #2: Other options would be to leave items at the Nemedoran embassy in New Briar or at the Dragon Dock. You can really leave items anywhere, but they are most secure with the main army. For example, if relations with New Briar soured or the Dragon Dock fell into enemy hands, any items left at these places could be lost.

[michael]

There have been several changes to Brion's reward package, so can you make a new post recapping the entire package? Also, please list which grunts received which items from Brion.

Standard Combat (CL 10)
* Magic enhancements to weapons, armors, shields (9,000 gp)
* Nonmagical weapons, armors, shields, ammunition, goods (4,000 gp)
* Additional magic items (6,000 gp)
* +1,000 gp increase to any one limit (1,000 gp)
Total = 20,000 gp

Masterwork Fullplate (1650g), 7 Masterwork Studded Leather Barding (1750g), 1 Warsteed (600g) [nonmagical equipment line - 4000g]
+3 bonus to Full Plate (9000g) [magic enhancement line - 9,000g]
+2 Headband of Wisdom (4000g), +1 Amulet of Natural Armor (2000g) 40 Onyx Gems [Magic Items line, +1000 limit increase - 7000g]

Private Vargas - +2 Full Plate (Brion's old equipment)
Fighter 1 - +1 Full Plate (Brion's old equipment)
Bodyguard - +1 Breastplate (Brion's loot)

What will PFC Fighter #1 and PFC Vargas do with their glaives now that they have mw ranseurs? They can hold onto them, discard them, or place them in an equipment locker with the main army.

They'll leave them with the main army. Any of my things that aren't on my person are also with the main army.

Can you label these +1 breastplates as belonging to the Fighters? If/when the grunts are reassigned, they will leave with all their original equipment (even if it has been altered) in addition to any equipment you want them to keep.

Done.

[reefwood]

Sahme Sweetwater - Level 10

In case you missed it, you can go ahead and level up Sahme. Once that is done, I'll PM you the Lvl 10 reward package options.

Also, the Bard Mage found these items in the swamp a while back (Ch. 8):

Spoils
+1 mithral longsword* (3,315 gp, 2 lb)
+1 mithral heavy shield (+3 AC, -0 ACP, 5% ASF; 2,170 gp, 7.5 lb)
*mithral counts as silver for overcoming damage reduction

Is anyone in the squad using these?

[reefwood]

Re: Nimarious Steerhelm - spell detection

Nov 7, 2010 23:08:24 GMT -5 icnivad said:

Also, question for you Reefwood: We went over this a bit at the end of the last game, but I couldn't remember fully the answer and wanted to pose it for three specific spells: Does a person feel anything if you cast charm, dominate, or detect thoghts on them? Fail or succeed? I understand that they might see you casting it and recognize the spell, but if that wasn't a problem(like a still, silent spell) do they have any other internal knowledge that something is happening? If you dominate them but don't give any orders for the duration of the spell, do they know they were dominated? If you charm them, do they know they were charmed?

This is the only text I can find Core Rulebook that addresses who knows what when a spell is cast:

Succeeding on a Saving Throw: A creature that successfully saves against a spell that has no obvious physical effects feels a hostile force or a tingle, but cannot deduce the exact nature of the attack. Likewise, if a creature's saving throw succeeds against a targeted spell, you sense that the spell has failed. You do not sense when creatures succeed on saves against effect and area spells.

A creature that succeeds on a saving throw knows that something happened, even if there is no obvious effect. This seems to be the case regardless of the type of spell.

A caster that casts a targeted spell knows if the spell fails. The wording is a little lacking in the sense that there might be various reasons why a spell fails. Does the caster actually know that the creature succeeded on a saving throw, or does the caster only know that the spell has failed for some reason. I am inclined to say the latter because it does not say that the caster knows when a saving throw succeeds...instead, it says that the caster knows that the spell has failed, and precedes this statement with an example of an obvious reason for it to fail. For example, if you cast dominate person on a monster disguised as a person, the spell will fail but not because of a successful saving throw...so I'd say you know the spell failed but not the reason.

Additionally, the caster does not know when saves are made against effect or area spells. Now bringing all this back to the specific spells in question...

Charm person, dominate person, and detect thoughts can all require a saving throw at some point, and whenever a saving throw succeeds, the creature feels a hostile force or tingle. There doesn't seem to be any exact info on what a creature feels when a saving throw fails, so I would say the creature feels nothing except for what is mentioned in the spell description. This is what I think will happen when creatures fail against these spells:

Charm person - This turns someone into your friend. If they fail on a saving throw, they feel no hostile force and don't know that anything has happened to them. However, I'm not sure what to do if the target recognizes the spell with a Spellcraft check. Will need to think a bit more on this. Although, ways to help avoid recognition would be to target non-spellcasters, cast it at a distance (+1 DC per 10 ft), use the Silent and/or Still Spell metamagic feats.

Dominate person - If they fail on a saving throw, they feel no hostile force, and if they don't recognize the spell, they won't know what happened. If they recognize the spell and can determine it was cast on them (which will probably be obvious if they can see the caster), they have a chance of knowing they have been dominated. Regardless of spell recognition, they will know that something else is controlling them as soon as they are given an order. Additionally, if they do succeed on a later saving throw to resist control, they will feel the hostile force or tingle at that time. But if they don't recognize the spell and are not given an order, it seems that they would continue to act normally and without suspicion.

Detect thoughts - Unless they recognize the spell or can detect magic, they won't know what is happening during the 1st or 2nd round. In the 3rd round, those who succeed on a Will save will feel a hostile force, but those who fail will continue to not notice anything. On the flipside, since this is an area spell, the caster will not know if the spell fails against anyone in the area. It might be obvious in some cases, like if there are no thoughts coming from someone visible in the area, but the caster would not know if there is some other reason for the lack of thoughts (i.e. no Int score).

[Rabbit]

Nov 16, 2010 12:36:23 GMT -5 reefwood said:

Sahme Sweetwater - Level 10

In case you missed it, you can go ahead and level up Sahme. Once that is done, I'll PM you the Lvl 10 reward package options.

Also, the Bard Mage found these items in the swamp a while back (Ch. 8):

Spoils
+1 mithral longsword* (3,315 gp, 2 lb)
+1 mithral heavy shield (+3 AC, -0 ACP, 5% ASF; 2,170 gp, 7.5 lb)
*mithral counts as silver for overcoming damage reduction

Is anyone in the squad using these?

I will get my character updated and check out if anyone is using these items.

I also saw where michael was gettin gsome gear for the grunt with items taken from the Dragon Docks. Was that just for his characters?

(Sorry, but I have not had a lot of time for the forums lately, thus my limited posting)

[michael]

Nov 16, 2010 12:36:23 GMT -5 reefwood said:

Sahme Sweetwater - Level 10

In case you missed it, you can go ahead and level up Sahme. Once that is done, I'll PM you the Lvl 10 reward package options.

Also, the Bard Mage found these items in the swamp a while back (Ch. 8):

Spoils
+1 mithral longsword* (3,315 gp, 2 lb)
+1 mithral heavy shield (+3 AC, -0 ACP, 5% ASF; 2,170 gp, 7.5 lb)
*mithral counts as silver for overcoming damage reduction

Is anyone in the squad using these?

If the items are unused, Bodyguard should get the mithral shield, since he's the one that would benefit most from it. As for the longsword, it should probably go to either Vargas or Boho. We should wait to see what (if anything) Boho gets after Sahme does his rewards package before we decide.

[michael]

I also saw where michael was gettin gsome gear for the grunt with items taken from the Dragon Docks. Was that just for his characters?

Here are the items I gave out.

Private Vargas - +2 Full Plate (Brion's old equipment)
Fighter 1 - +1 Full Plate (Brion's old equipment)
Bodyguard - +1 Breastplate (Brion's loot)

I just gave items to my grunts and to Bodyguard. Nothing to your grunts, I'm afraid.

[reefwood]

Re: Sahme Sweetwater - Level 10 & Ch. 10 Spoils

Nov 16, 2010 17:20:22 GMT -5 Rabbit said:

Nov 16, 2010 12:36:23 GMT -5 reefwood said:

Sahme Sweetwater - Level 10

In case you missed it, you can go ahead and level up Sahme. Once that is done, I'll PM you the Lvl 10 reward package options.

Also, the Bard Mage found these items in the swamp a while back (Ch. 8):

Is anyone in the squad using these?

I will get my character updated and check out if anyone is using these items.

I also saw where michael was gettin gsome gear for the grunt with items taken from the Dragon Docks. Was that just for his characters?

(Sorry, but I have not had a lot of time for the forums lately, thus my limited posting)

No worries on being busy. I just wanted to make sure that you didn't miss the memo to level up.

Brion gave some of his old equipment to grunts (but not yours), obtained barding for the heavy warsteeds (but not doled out yet or enough for all of them), and gave masterwork ransuers to his Fighters out of the Dragon Dock spoils.

The leftover Dragon Dock spoils have been updated in the Chapter 10 thread and Sahme is welcome to take some for his grunts too. Fighter Boho was at the edge of Light Load, if not already over, so taking the heavier mw ransuer to replace the glaive will probably put him into Medium Load and slow his speed/increase armor check penalty unless he dumps equipment. The Bard Mage and Ranger Paulson don't even have reach weapons but are also at the edge of Light Load.

[reefwood]

Re: Nimarious Steerhelm - spell detection

I just learned of additional ways to determine spells that have been cast. These are in the Knowledge skills section, but I never noticed them before:

Identify a spell effect that is in place (Arcana) 20 + spell level
I'd say you have to see or feel or somehow sense an effect from the spell.

Identify a spell that just targeted you (Arcana) 25 + spell level
I'd say you can roll this if you fail the save and are hit with a noticeable effect OR if you make the save and feel the hostile force.

Identify the spells cast using a specific material component (Arcana) 20
I'd say you have to see the spell being cast to see the specific material component, and the "+1 DC per 10 ft" modifier should apply because it would be harder to identify an item from far away.

Nov 16, 2010 16:48:11 GMT -5 reefwood said:

Re: Nimarious Steerhelm - spell detection

Nov 7, 2010 23:08:24 GMT -5 icnivad said:

Also, question for you Reefwood: We went over this a bit at the end of the last game, but I couldn't remember fully the answer and wanted to pose it for three specific spells: Does a person feel anything if you cast charm, dominate, or detect thoghts on them? Fail or succeed? I understand that they might see you casting it and recognize the spell, but if that wasn't a problem(like a still, silent spell) do they have any other internal knowledge that something is happening? If you dominate them but don't give any orders for the duration of the spell, do they know they were dominated? If you charm them, do they know they were charmed?

This is the only text I can find Core Rulebook that addresses who knows what when a spell is cast:

Succeeding on a Saving Throw: A creature that successfully saves against a spell that has no obvious physical effects feels a hostile force or a tingle, but cannot deduce the exact nature of the attack. Likewise, if a creature's saving throw succeeds against a targeted spell, you sense that the spell has failed. You do not sense when creatures succeed on saves against effect and area spells.

A creature that succeeds on a saving throw knows that something happened, even if there is no obvious effect. This seems to be the case regardless of the type of spell.

A caster that casts a targeted spell knows if the spell fails. The wording is a little lacking in the sense that there might be various reasons why a spell fails. Does the caster actually know that the creature succeeded on a saving throw, or does the caster only know that the spell has failed for some reason. I am inclined to say the latter because it does not say that the caster knows when a saving throw succeeds...instead, it says that the caster knows that the spell has failed, and precedes this statement with an example of an obvious reason for it to fail. For example, if you cast dominate person on a monster disguised as a person, the spell will fail but not because of a successful saving throw...so I'd say you know the spell failed but not the reason.

Additionally, the caster does not know when saves are made against effect or area spells. Now bringing all this back to the specific spells in question...

Charm person, dominate person, and detect thoughts can all require a saving throw at some point, and whenever a saving throw succeeds, the creature feels a hostile force or tingle. There doesn't seem to be any exact info on what a creature feels when a saving throw fails, so I would say the creature feels nothing except for what is mentioned in the spell description. This is what I think will happen when creatures fail against these spells:

Charm person - This turns someone into your friend. If they fail on a saving throw, they feel no hostile force and don't know that anything has happened to them. However, I'm not sure what to do if the target recognizes the spell with a Spellcraft check. Will need to think a bit more on this. Although, ways to help avoid recognition would be to target non-spellcasters, cast it at a distance (+1 DC per 10 ft), use the Silent and/or Still Spell metamagic feats.

Dominate person - If they fail on a saving throw, they feel no hostile force, and if they don't recognize the spell, they won't know what happened. If they recognize the spell and can determine it was cast on them (which will probably be obvious if they can see the caster), they have a chance of knowing they have been dominated. Regardless of spell recognition, they will know that something else is controlling them as soon as they are given an order. Additionally, if they do succeed on a later saving throw to resist control, they will feel the hostile force or tingle at that time. But if they don't recognize the spell and are not given an order, it seems that they would continue to act normally and without suspicion.

Detect thoughts - Unless they recognize the spell or can detect magic, they won't know what is happening during the 1st or 2nd round. In the 3rd round, those who succeed on a Will save will feel a hostile force, but those who fail will continue to not notice anything. On the flipside, since this is an area spell, the caster will not know if the spell fails against anyone in the area. It might be obvious in some cases, like if there are no thoughts coming from someone visible in the area, but the caster would not know if there is some other reason for the lack of thoughts (i.e. no Int score).

[reefwood]

Re: Brion Shaw - Equipment Redistribution

Nov 13, 2010 19:17:28 GMT -5 michael said:

There have been several changes to Brion's reward package, so can you make a new post recapping the entire package? Also, please list which grunts received which items from Brion.

Masterwork Fullplate (1650g), 7 Masterwork Studded Leather Barding (1750g), 1 Warsteed (600g) [nonmagical equipment line - 4000g]
+3 bonus to Full Plate (9000g) [magic enhancement line - 9,000g]
+2 Headband of Wisdom (4000g), +1 Amulet of Natural Armor (2000g) 40 Onyx Gems [Magic Items line, +1000 limit increase - 7000g]

Private Vargas - +2 Full Plate (Brion's old equipment)
Fighter 1 - +1 Full Plate (Brion's old equipment)
Bodyguard - +1 Breastplate (Brion's loot)


They'll leave them with the main army. Any of my things that aren't on my person are also with the main army.

I don't mean to be a pain in the butt, but I just came across a rule that will affect the grunts' new used equipment. Apparently, full plate is custom made for the specific wearer, so you can't automatically give it to someone else:

Full Plate: This metal suit includes gauntlets, heavy leather boots, a visored helmet, and a thick layer of padding that is worn underneath the armor. Each suit of full plate must be individually fitted to its owner by a master armorsmith, although a captured suit can be resized to fit a new owner at a cost of 200 to 800 (2d4 × 100) gold pieces.

I just made the rolls and it will cost 500 gp for Vargas and 600 gp for Fighter #1 to refit Brion's old armor. These amounts must come out of the "Nonmagical..." equipment line, but this will mean removing most of the barding OR some of the barding and the warsteed.

Normally, this will also require a certain amount of "creation/upgrade time" to refit the armor, but since this is a new element, and I don't know how it works yet, we won't worry about it this time, but I will figure out the time in case it comes up again later.

[icnivad]

Nimarious has a couple of new spells that will benefit the group. The first is Teleport, which has obvious uses. The second is Fabricate, which can be used to craft things from raw materials. It takes one round for most things (10 cu ft and under), and costs 1/3 the standard price. Anything requiring a high degree of skill requires a craft check. The only craft Nim has put points into is armorsmithing. So, the bottom line, is if you supply Nim with armor raw materials, he can craft the armor at 1/3 the price. I assume this also applies for refitting armor.

Both Teleport and Fabricate are Level 5, of which Nim can cast 4 a day. Gonna lay out what he's already doing each of the 5 days, and how much time/castings he has left

[icnivad]

Ok, Nim will be teleporting to the main army at the beginning of the first day, and ad the end of the fifth.

With 4 level 5 castings a day, this leaves 16 castings of Fabricate.
Nim is going to fabricate 3 suits of masterwork full plate.
If anyone else needs anything, just let me know (and you have to supply the raw material, which comes out of 'nonmagical gear')
We should assume I'll fail the casting about 20% of the time, which means about 13 successes. But I could fail miserably, or succeed every time. Just have to see how the roll plays out.

Michael, if you need me to teleport any other time, I could do that, too.
-T

[michael]

Nov 18, 2010 20:24:36 GMT -5 icnivad said:

Ok, Nim will be teleporting to the main army at the beginning of the first day, and ad the end of the fifth.

With 4 level 5 castings a day, this leaves 16 castings of Fabricate.
Nim is going to fabricate 3 suits of masterwork full plate.
If anyone else needs anything, just let me know (and you have to supply the raw material, which comes out of 'nonmagical gear')
We should assume I'll fail the casting about 20% of the time, which means about 13 successes. But I could fail miserably, or succeed every time. Just have to see how the roll plays out.

Michael, if you need me to teleport any other time, I could do that, too.
-T

You should fabricate the barding for the horses instead. The suits of Full Plate are already magically enhanced, and "magic items cannot be created or transmuted with the fabricate spell."

If I don't buy the barding, I have 1750g remaining. I'll have to spend 1100g to refit the Full Plates, but the remaining 650g gives us some cushioning for failed castings of Fabricate, and some extra items as well.

EDIT: I still have to spend 1/3 the cost of the barding for the materials, but does that mean 1/3 the base price, or 1/3 the masterwork price? I assume it would be the base price, and making it masterwork is why you need to make a craft check. That would mean I have to spend 300g to buy materials for 9 pieces of studded leather barding, leaving me with 350g. If I have to spend 1/3 of the masterwork price, it costs 83.33g per barding, so 9 of them is 750g. I would only be able to afford materials for 7 bardings, and it would cost 583.33g.

[reefwood]

Re: Crafting

Lots of good ideas here as well as some assumptions that are possibly incorrect. Don't have time to double check and answer everything or present numbers right now, but I will get to this topic later today.