|
Post by reefwood on Feb 18, 2011 16:55:59 GMT -5
Devils & Dragons This session will take place on Day 54 and provides the PCs with 1 day of personal leave that can be spent in any way: research, travel, combat, etc. PCs can begin play at 12am or 6am (whichever the players prefer) and must be ready to return to duty in 24 hours (including rest). You may begin the session rested, or start by resting, or rest somewhere in the middle, or finish by resting. PCs may use any of their own personal resources (i.e. rewards, spoils, undead) but nothing that belongs to the army (i.e. no soldiers, vehicles, etc). PCs do not receive income for this day. APs can be earned by overcoming challenges, and these can be used to level up, but they do not count for rewards or promotions. NimariusIt looks like the main goal here is to call extraplanar creatures to the material plane in order to kill them and animate their corpses into skeletons. The spells that will be used are planar ally in conjunction with magic circle against evil as a trap to hold it. A creature called this way can still make ranged or magic attacks, and it can attempt to break free of the trap by 1) pitting its SR against your caster level check, 2) dimensional travel, or 3) a Charisma check. It can try each of these methods 1/day, and it would seem that each method requires a standard action. The creatures that have been listed as possible candidates so far are the Nightmare, Barbed Devil, and Bone Devil. Keep in mind that all these creatures will be able to escape the trap via dimensional travel, so they could easily escape unless you kill them before they are able to act. Not that a powerful, evil creature would automatically flee. Quite the opposite probably. But if things get bad, it has a very easy out. Casting dimensional anchor on the creature or trap would make this go a lot easier. Nim does not know this spell, but he could use his rewards to get a scroll or wand with it. Finally, I will need to know where you want to do this. Right now the squad is in Verdas, and the Nemedoran camp still surrounds the city. If you want to call creature from inside the city, that requires no travel time. If you want to walk outside the city, it's 2 miles to the outer wall and 1 mile more to get past the camp. If you don't want to do this in the city or right next to the camp, you will have to travel further. Walking time will simply depend on the slowest walker in your group. Or if you want to teleport somewhere, Nim can bring along up to 4 Medium creatures (1 Large counts as 2 Medium)... but if the goal is to gain more creatures, it may be better to just bring Sahme (so the rest of the spots for the return trip are open for new creatures) or to do this somewhere you can reach on foot. Probably the quickest way that I can see for Nim to accomplish all this is to rest for 2 hrs, prep spells for 1 hr, and then make the magic happen in the city. Of course, you can do it however you wish... and you may not want to risk a devil getting loose in the city Wherever you decide to go, please let me know ahead of time, so I can be ready to deal with that locale. And finally, I believe Nim has 21 HD of undead (5 half-elves x1, 5 horses x2, 3 boars x2) out of a total of 48 HD that he can control via animate dead. SahmeI haven't received any ideas from Rabbit, which is totally fine. so I am going to present one of my own. I'm not ready to divulge all the details yet, but this would require traveling to a faraway place that Nim has not been. Therefore, he would need to use the scrying spell (which will succeed) to observe a person at this place, and through that, be able to see the place in order to teleport there with a familiarity of "viewed once" (76% chance of being on target), and you would have to teleport back as well. Or Sahme could use his rewards to obtain 2 scrolls of teleport, and he has been to this place before, so he would not need to scry. However, the one thing I need to look into is if it matters who made the scroll because the person using the scroll must have the requisite ability score to cast the spell, so if a Wizard made the scroll, that would be Int 15 for a 5th-level spell, and Sahme only has Int 12. But a Sorcerer making the scroll would need Cha 15 instead, and Sahme has that. The price difference for a 5th-level scroll is minor for Wizard vs Sorcerer, but I will look into this because it would be good to know if the creator sets the requisite ability score, or if that is simply based on the person using the scroll (i.e. Wiz users use Int for all arcane scrolls, and Bard/Sor use Cha for all arcane scrolls). I am pretty sure that Nim now has four 5th-level slots that can be used for teleport. Plus, he can cast any one spell slot through his arcane bond item, and he can use 6th-level slots for it too, but I imagine he will want to devote those to planar binding.
|
|
|
Post by michael on Feb 19, 2011 18:37:16 GMT -5
Brion is also going to study that tome in the morning of Day 54, and was hoping to get a little bit of help from Nim before he did. Since Nimareous only needs 2 hours of sleep, perhaps he could use Read Magic and Identify to look over the book while Brion is asleep? What I'd like to know is what kind of traps the book is likely to have on it, and what precautions I might be able to take against them. Ideally, he'd be able to identify exactly what spells have been placed on the text.
As for Brion's personal quest, I now have 2 castings of Wind Walk, which allows me to fly at 600ft/rd as a vapor, so I'm going to use that for transport to and from Longtree.
|
|
|
Post by reefwood on Feb 20, 2011 13:35:00 GMT -5
Re: Brion - Day 54 planning Brion is also going to study that tome in the morning of Day 54, and was hoping to get a little bit of help from Nim before he did. Since Nimareous only needs 2 hours of sleep, perhaps he could use Read Magic and Identify to look over the book while Brion is asleep? What I'd like to know is what kind of traps the book is likely to have on it, and what precautions I might be able to take against them. Ideally, he'd be able to identify exactly what spells have been placed on the text. As for Brion's personal quest, I now have 2 castings of Wind Walk, which allows me to fly at 600ft/rd as a vapor, so I'm going to use that for transport to and from Longtree. A few misc bits of info... - the book does not glow magic, but there is a spell that can make magic items appear non-magic and vice versa - there are magic traps that trigger when a book is opened, and the arcane tome has been opened - there are magic traps that trigger when text is read, but no one has been able to actually read the arcane tome yet - about half of the writing in the arcane tome glowed with read magic, but from what has been observed thus far, it is not because the writing holds any actual magic but because the writing can be used to conjure magic (like a spell written in a spellbook, or even if a spell was written on a rock...these items are not magic but have magic writing in/on them) Also, the wild walk spell looks amazing! It's no teleport but lasts 1 hr/level!! And it'll totally get you and your brother to Longtree lickity split.
|
|
|
Post by icnivad on Feb 20, 2011 14:43:58 GMT -5
I will be using the special diagram in conjunction with the magic circle. "A successful diagram allows you to cast a dimensional anchor spell on the magic circle during the round before casting any summoning spell. The anchor holds any called creatures in the magic circle for 24 hours per caster level. A creature cannot use its spell resistance against a magic circle prepared with a diagram, and none of its abilities or attacks can cross the diagram" I assume that a creature can not be summoned across the line, too, correct? Also, I assume that in order to summon a new creature, I have to remove the dimensional anchor. Do I have to recast the magic circle as well? Or can I reuse that for multiple bindings?
I've also purchases a dimensional anchor scroll with my rewards and will need to spend the time to learn it. I noticed there were four days of "time off" before this mission. Could I use that time to scribe scrolls into my spellbook?
And the two creatures I am currently interested in calling are Erinyes Devils and Nightmares. The Nightmares have a fly speed of 90, and the Devils are medium humanoids which can ride them, so I think they would make a potent combination. I can cast Planar Binding up to four times in a day, so I could summon up to 4 creatures. A question for Michael as the commanding officer: Do you think it would be more beneficial to the team for me to do 4 nightmares, and let others(Brion, Sahme, our grunts) ride them? Or should I do 2 nightmares and 2 of the demon? A downside of players riding nightmares, is that they are undead minions of Nim's, and can only be controlled by Nim himself, so a rider could not control the mount in battle. They might be better off for overland travel, and outside of battle we could probably get by with two riders per mount. I'm trying to get my minions up to speed so we can travel more quickly. Another route we could go is the Phantom Steed spell, which I can cast on others. I currently have 5 non-necro spells I can cast at that level. I'd like to keep two reserved for Haste, but then I could use 3 for phantom steed, which after summoning my own, I could create steeds for 2 others. How many grunts does everyone have? Do Brion and Sahme still have 3 each?
And Lastly, would Brion be willing to give a turn undead burst to destroy my existing skeletons(and zombie)? One burst will probably kill everything I have. Reefwood: I know the zombie(and ghoul) will break control if attacked, but will the skeletons? I didn't see anything about that in the animate dead spell. If the skeletons will not fight back or anything, can we handle this outside of the session since Brion won't be at the next session?
|
|
|
Post by icnivad on Feb 20, 2011 14:52:07 GMT -5
It looks like if we use phantom steed for the primary characters, four skeleton nightmares could carry all of our grunts, and would give us a speed of 90. I'm not sure but I assume skeletons can hustle, too, since they have no constitution score and don't tire. Nimarious: Phantom Steed Brion: Phantom Steed Sahme: Phantom Steed Brion Grunt 1: Skel Nightmare 1 Brion Grunt 2: Skel Nightmare 1 Brion Grunt 3: Skel Nightmare 2 Sahme Grunt 1: Skel Nightmare 2 Sahme Grunt 2: Skel Nightmare 3 Sahme Grunt 3: Skel Nightmare 3 Bodyguard: Skel Nightmare 4 Ghoul: ? (maybe leave him behind if we are on a mission that needs us to travel quickly.)
|
|
|
Post by michael on Feb 20, 2011 17:23:57 GMT -5
I lost one grunt, and Sahme lost 2, so with my grunts on horse #1, and Samhe's grunt and bodyguard on #2, we have transport for everyone but the ghoul with just 2 horses. I'd recommend 3 nightmares and one Erinyes. I'd also recommend that Sahme's remaining grunt be kept out of the fighting entirely. Without a cleric there, he might not last long should a Devil turn it's attention toward him. Plus, devils usually have DR, so he'd be pretty useless anyway. However, these are just Brion's recommendations, not orders. This is Nim's battle to run as he sees fit.
And Brion is fine using a burst to get rid of your existing skeletons.
|
|
|
Post by reefwood on Feb 20, 2011 23:44:00 GMT -5
Re: Nimarius - calling monsters and destroying skeletons I will be using the special diagram in conjunction with the magic circle. "A successful diagram allows you to cast a dimensional anchor spell on the magic circle during the round before casting any summoning spell. The anchor holds any called creatures in the magic circle for 24 hours per caster level. A creature cannot use its spell resistance against a magic circle prepared with a diagram, and none of its abilities or attacks can cross the diagram" I assume that a creature can not be summoned across the line, too, correct? Also, I assume that in order to summon a new creature, I have to remove the dimensional anchor. Do I have to recast the magic circle as well? Or can I reuse that for multiple bindings? 1) I am going to assume that nothing the "called creature" does can cross the line, so it cannot summon across the line. It can summon a monster inside the circle, but since this "summoned monster" is essentially an "ability" of the "called creature", the summoned monster cannot cross the line either. 2) I am going to say one trap per calling, especially since planar binding has to begin cast in the round right after magic circle, so if you cast a second one later, or even wait too long to cast the first one, it cannot link to the magic circle and will simply fail. Feel free to do some research to see if the rules or some other official ruling says differently, but after reading it over again, I'm pretty sure one casting is the limit. Also, it looks like this will be the order of things: 1. Make the magic circle diagram (10 minutes) 2. Cast magic circle (1 standard action) 3. Cast dimensional anchor (1 standard action) 4. Cast planar binding (10 minutes) 5. Called creature gets Will save 6. If Will save fails...the creature is called. 7. Roll initiative! 8. Called creature can use a standard action to make a Cha check to break free. The wording and order laid out in magic circle seems to be a little off because it says that you have to cast planar binding in the round after magic circle, and the diagram lets you cast dimensional anchor during the round before casting a summoning spell. Essentially, planar binding has to come right after magic circle, and dimensional anchor is in between, so that is like 3 spells in 2 rounds, which is usually impossible, and planar binding isn't even a summoning spell (it's a calling spell)... but this must be an oversight of some sort. Anyway, doing the 3 spells in 3 rounds as outlined above seems to be the way to handle it. And the magic trap is pretty fragile, so something like the air elemental whirlwind coming from the outside could easily destroy it and release the called creature inside. Not that I think you are going to have an air elemental floating around while doing this, but that is just an example of how easy it can be broken from the outside. I've also purchases a dimensional anchor scroll with my rewards and will need to spend the time to learn it. I noticed there were four days of "time off" before this mission. Could I use that time to scribe scrolls into my spellbook? 3) Nothing proactive can be done by the PCs during Time Off anymore...usually. What can be done is having items upgraded by the army and natural healing since that happens automatically. Special circumstances that come up and must be handled during Time Off will be done on a case-by-case basis. The post for Time Off in the Code of Conduct thread outlines this more thoroughly. And the two creatures I am currently interested in calling are Erinyes Devils and Nightmares. The Nightmares have a fly speed of 90, and the Devils are medium humanoids which can ride them, so I think they would make a potent combination. I can cast Planar Binding up to four times in a day, so I could summon up to 4 creatures. A question for Michael as the commanding officer: Do you think it would be more beneficial to the team for me to do 4 nightmares, and let others(Brion, Sahme, our grunts) ride them? Or should I do 2 nightmares and 2 of the demon? A downside of players riding nightmares, is that they are undead minions of Nim's, and can only be controlled by Nim himself, so a rider could not control the mount in battle. They might be better off for overland travel, and outside of battle we could probably get by with two riders per mount. I'm trying to get my minions up to speed so we can travel more quickly. Another route we could go is the Phantom Steed spell, which I can cast on others. I currently have 5 non-necro spells I can cast at that level. I'd like to keep two reserved for Haste, but then I could use 3 for phantom steed, which after summoning my own, I could create steeds for 2 others. How many grunts does everyone have? Do Brion and Sahme still have 3 each? 4) The Nightmares have 6 HD, so I believe Nim can call 2 of them with a single casting of planar binding (12 HD). 5) The Nightmares are strong, but 2 riders will probably slow them down with a medium or heavy load. Also, there used to be a limit on flying with a load in 3.5... but that seems to have been removed in Pathfinder, so they will go slower but should still be able to fly. And Lastly, would Brion be willing to give a turn undead burst to destroy my existing skeletons(and zombie)? One burst will probably kill everything I have. Reefwood: I know the zombie(and ghoul) will break control if attacked, but will the skeletons? I didn't see anything about that in the animate dead spell. If the skeletons will not fight back or anything, can we handle this outside of the session since Brion won't be at the next session? 6) The skeletons created and still controlled with animate dead will not break free of this spell if attacked. The command undead spells will be broken, but the other spell will keep them under control. 7) Even though Michael won't be here, I am fine with letting Brion use a channel energy burst to destroy the skeletons this time. I don't think any would be able to survive even if they make their Will saves to halve damage. But normally, creatures must be destroyed during a session and by the players at the table. 8) When you want to get rid of the zombie crab, that must be done at the table and by the players there, but the army can watch your zombie crab for this one day of personal leave. Re: Brion - grunts I'd recommend 3 nightmares and one Erinyes. I'd also recommend that Sahme's remaining grunt be kept out of the fighting entirely. Without a cleric there, he might not last long should a Devil turn it's attention toward him. Plus, devils usually have DR, so he'd be pretty useless anyway. However, these are just Brion's recommendations, not orders. This is Nim's battle to run as he sees fit. Grunts do not receive personal leave, so they will not be on the side quest.
|
|
|
Post by Rabbit on Feb 21, 2011 11:56:50 GMT -5
SahmeI haven't received any ideas from Rabbit, which is totally fine. so I am going to present one of my own. Yeah, I am fine with this. I was not able to think up a specific objective, but anything that can propel his (and his Clans) prestige, honor, and power are things that would interest him.
|
|
|
Post by icnivad on Feb 21, 2011 14:34:20 GMT -5
Sounds good, so: 1. Make the magic circle diagram (10 minutes) [Take a 10= 37= automatic success.] 2. Cast magic circle (1 standard action) 3. Cast dimensional anchor (1 standard action) 4. Cast planar binding (10 minutes) 5. Called creature gets Will save [vs DC 23(10+int:7+spell:6)] 6. If Will save fails...the creature is called. 7. Roll initiative! 8. Called creature can use a standard action to make a Cha check to break free. [vs DC 23(15+1/2level:6+cha:2)] [vs DC 28(15+1/2level:6+cha:2+spec diag:5)] 9. Start attacking.
I added some DCs above to make sure I have them correct. Nightmares have a will save of +3, so they can resist the summon if they roll a 1 (5%), since I can call two of them per casting, even if we lose one, we should still get plenty. They have a charisma of 12(+1), so they have no chance of succeeding the charisma save once called. Since they can't attack back in any way and have no way of breaking the bond, they shouldn't be too hard to kill.
Erinyes are a little more tricky. They have a will of +7, which gives them a 25% chance of resisting the spell to begin with. They also have a 21 charisma, which gives them a +5 to the charisma check for a 15% chance to break free. That's a little risky, so we need to be prepared to kill them quickly. They are pretty powerful: Have a +15 to attack, can fly, cast fear, can summon 2 bearded devils and teleport at will. They are immune to fire and poison, and resist acid and cold. Also they have DR 5/good.
Turning the nightmares into bloody skeletons will cost 12 onyx gems apiece. Turning the Erinyes will cost 19 gems.
Casting 1: 2 nightmares. Casting 2: 2 nightmares. Casting 3: 1 Erinyes. casting 4: 1 Erinyes.
This gives us 2 nightmares for the grunts, and 2 nightmare/Erinyes combinations. It will cost 84 gems and will take me close to my HD limit (42/48).
Since I have 76 25gp gems+1 100gp gem, If I use my rewards package to purchase 4 gems and the dimensional anchor spell, I should have 3500 gp left. Can I use my income pool to give my headband a +1 cha, then the rewards to increase it to +2? This would help with the charisma save.
EDIT: I just realized that the special diagram gives me a +5 to the charisma save, increasing the DC to 28, which should be higher than either the Erinyes or the Nightmare can roll. Since natural 20s don't help on saves, we should be safe once they are called. Ignore the above.
|
|
|
Post by icnivad on Feb 21, 2011 15:06:29 GMT -5
Timeline: previous day: leave 4 level 4 spell slots open. 12:00 Learn Dimensional Anchor: 5 hrs. 5 am memorize dimensional anchor in 4 open spell slots. 6 am Binding 1: ~25 minutes (2 nightmares) Binding 2: ~25 minutes (2 nightmares) Wand of Desicrate(in order to double animate dead hd max) Animate Dead 1: 1 rnd: animate 4 bloody nightmare skeletons Binding 3: ~25 minutes (1 Erinyes) Binding 4: ~25 minutes (1 Erinyes) Animate Dead 2: 1 rnd: animate 2 bloody erinyes skeletons. 7 am After which I should be done for the day. The bindings end up using 4 level 6 spells, and 8 level 4(5 L4+3L5), and leaves me with one level 5 left. Although, since I haven't slept yet, with 6 hours of downtime, 2 of sleep, and an hr of studying, I should be able to rememorize my spells for whatever Rabbit wants to do. which should leave us ready to go at 4 PM. And I can memorize as many teleports as Sahme needs. Otherwise we could leave at 7 am with one teleport and all of my level 4-6 slots used.
|
|
|
Post by icnivad on Feb 21, 2011 15:07:53 GMT -5
actually, with only 2 castings of animate dead, I could have 3 Level 5 slots open. Or I could just cast animate dead 4 times and not have to use my wand of desicrate.
|
|
|
Post by reefwood on Feb 22, 2011 2:09:19 GMT -5
Re: NimariusSounds good, so: 1. Make the magic circle diagram (10 minutes) [Take a 10= 37= automatic success.] 2. Cast magic circle (1 standard action) 3. Cast dimensional anchor (1 standard action) 4. Cast planar binding (10 minutes) 5. Called creature gets Will save [vs DC 23(10+int:7+spell:6)] 6. If Will save fails...the creature is called. 7. Roll initiative! 8. Called creature can use a standard action to make a Cha check to break free. [vs DC 23(15+1/2level:6+cha:2)] [vs DC 28(15+1/2level:6+cha:2+spec diag:5)] 9. Start attacking. EDIT: I just realized that the special diagram gives me a +5 to the charisma save, increasing the DC to 28, which should be higher than either the Erinyes or the Nightmare can roll. Since natural 20s don't help on saves, we should be safe once they are called. Ignore the above. The DCs for the Will save and Charisma check look good. Although, a natural 20 does automatically succeed on a saving throw (see below) , but I'm not sure if it would on the Charisma check. I'll try to find out. EDIT: Ability checks, much like skill checks, do not automatically succeed or fail on a natural 20 or 1, so it looks like the Nightmares and Erinyes cannot succeed on the Charisma check.
Timeline: previous day: leave 4 level 4 spell slots open. 12:00 Learn Dimensional Anchor: 5 hrs. 5 am memorize dimensional anchor in 4 open spell slots. 6 am Binding 1: ~25 minutes (2 nightmares) Binding 2: ~25 minutes (2 nightmares) Wand of Desicrate(in order to double animate dead hd max) Animate Dead 1: 1 rnd: animate 4 bloody nightmare skeletons Binding 3: ~25 minutes (1 Erinyes) Binding 4: ~25 minutes (1 Erinyes) Animate Dead 2: 1 rnd: animate 2 bloody erinyes skeletons. 7 am After which I should be done for the day. The bindings end up using 4 level 6 spells, and 8 level 4(5 L4+3L5), and leaves me with one level 5 left. Although, since I haven't slept yet, with 6 hours of downtime, 2 of sleep, and an hr of studying, I should be able to rememorize my spells for whatever Rabbit wants to do. which should leave us ready to go at 4 PM. And I can memorize as many teleports as Sahme needs. Otherwise we could leave at 7 am with one teleport and all of my level 4-6 slots used. You cannot use any spell slots from the previous day. All daily resources during Time Off are assumed to be used up by day-to-day military needs. And 4 bindings will take about 1.5 hours. Also, I didn't do a good job of thinking through or explaining the rest options in the opening post of this thread. When I first posted the options in the OOC thread, I said, "You can start out fully rested or use the early hours to sleep" and should have left it at that because the other options probably aren't too good. You have 24 hours and need to be ready to resume duty at the end of it, so you need to rest at the end. Your best bet is to start out rested. That gives you the whole day and you can end with resting. But I wanted to leave the other options open, if by some chance, there was some benefit to them. You can start the day by resting, but this would result in a short day since you need to rest at the end too. And anyone who needs to rest for 8 hours won't be ready in 24 hours anyway: rest from 12am-8am, awake during day, earliest rest in 12 hrs at 8pm, and won't be fully rested by 12am. You can also start the day by not having rested and opt to rest later, but as per the Rest rules in the Code of Conduct thread, you will take penalties to mental ability scores until you rest, and if you stay up too long, you will pass out and need more rest than usual, so this probably isn't a good option either. You can even begin the day partially rested and use the first part to finish your rest, but again, I'm not sure how this would even be useful. Anyway, to be clearer... You can start the day rested. You can also start the day partially or not at all rested, but if you are not rested, you will begin tired. And either way, you must be rested by the end of the 24 hrs to resume duty.
It looks like if we use phantom steed for the primary characters, four skeleton nightmares could carry all of our grunts, and would give us a speed of 90. I'm not sure but I assume skeletons can hustle, too, since they have no constitution score and don't tire. I forgot to address this earlier...but yes, skeletons can hustle because they are able to take 2 move actions per round. Hustling for more than 1 hour causes nonlethal damage that also results in fatigue, but skeletons are not subject to nonlethal damage (and immune to fatigue). Therefore, they receive no ill effect from continuing to hustle past the first hour and can do so indefinitely.
|
|
|
Post by icnivad on Feb 22, 2011 15:36:42 GMT -5
so, I could start out rested, as my timeline lists, and memorize at 5 am, then sleep later in the day as outlined? Or can I not sleep later in the day because I have to sleep at night?
|
|
|
Post by reefwood on Feb 22, 2011 15:53:22 GMT -5
Re: Nimarius - rest & spell prep so, I could start out rested, as my timeline lists, and memorize at 5 am, then sleep later in the day as outlined? Or can I not sleep later in the day because I have to sleep at night? You can start out rested at midnight and prep spells at 5am. You can rest later in the day to heal naturally, but you cannot prep spells more than 1/day. That restriction still trumps all the rest in the world. The earliest you can rest is 12 hrs after the previous rest ended. If you are going to be ready to resume duty the following midnight, you have to go to sleep by 10pm, which means you have to wake up from your midday rest by 10am, which means you have to begin this rest at 8am, so... wake at midnight, prep spells at 5am, call monsters at 6am, rest at 8am and wake at 10am, do the rest of the side quest, rest again 12 hrs later at 10pm and wake at midnight. This would give you time to heal naturally after calling monsters, but you cannot prep spells a second time this day.
|
|
|
Post by icnivad on Feb 22, 2011 17:42:35 GMT -5
Ok. We can make this work. Nim will have 4 Level 5 spells available. Rabbit, what are you wanting to do with the afternoon? Should I memorize teleport? I can teleport with you and 3 medium creatures, or 1 medium and 1 large(which would probably make sense to bring an Erinyes and a Nightmare to bodyguard us).
|
|