Pathfinder

[egreir]

I was looking forward to my dwarf paladin too 😭😭

[Celerity]

I just finished a 19-session Stars Without Number campaign last night. The host didn't really have much of a story as it was just meant as a filler between DnD campaigns. It is a decent system...basically right between DnD and Traveller. It has hit points, levels, and classes like DnD, but the skill structure and gameplay is like Traveller. It always feels really weird when you finish a campaign though. It wasn't anything special, but it still kept me from sleeping soundly last night!

Traveller is a semi-hard sci-fi tabletop RPG. It is a really old one, dating back to the 70s and with a lot of versions since then. It plays a lot like episodes of Firefly (it was the inspiration for Firefly, actually). Really, really fun character generation system. Star Traders: Frontiers is a similar computer game.

I am running a Traveller campaign that meets every two weeks for a few hours. Having my daughter run around during the session always adds a little excitement! We are going to be having session 11 soon. At the beginning of each session, I read a recap of what we did last time. You probably won't understand most of the references and it is just written quickly as a refresher, so sorry for mistakes. These events took about 3 hours of real play time for session 10:
 

Quote

After spontaneously learning new abilities and finally gaining an understanding of the mechanics behind efficient jump travel, you opted to buy unrefined fuel in order to actually make use of your on-ship fuel refinery. On Al Tasra, you learned that the robot would take both time and money to repair and subsequently lost interest in getting it working again. Instead, you sold your intel for some 50k credits and then bought a cat. Unfortunately, you failed to secure a goldfish on the black market. Feline in tow, you completed refueling and learned that the Cardinal had passed through Al Tasra, so you jumped to the Battersea system, the next expected stop. Stopping shortly at a space station to refuel, you came into contact with the colony of Battersea A VIII, a very isolated and notably lonely peoples. Learning of the interesting interchange of fluids between Battersea A VII and one of its satellite worlds, you were given a lead to find the lost hauler, some coordinates on the treacherous satellite. Without so much as a landing at the needy colony, you headed directly to the satellite: a large icy, lifeless world.

Suffering a treacherous descent to the surface, you had no time to scan and make a snap judgment to land on a flat plateau, near a steep precipice. Moments thereafter, you learned you should have landed at the bottom of the cliff and decided to take the air raft down to investigate. After some planning, First Out, Jayden and Mikeas took the three vacc suits with First Out getting Checker's dirty one. The Cardinal was quickly spotted encased several dozen meters into the cliff wall. Using your ship's scanners, you surmised that a misjump occurred. Hatching a plan to dig it out, you quickly escalated up the tier of digging implements, first considering a shovel, working your way up to your ship engines and finally settling on something designed to dig quickly, a kind of mole vehicle. Luckily, you were able to use your patron's, Fabio Ulrich, letter of credit to secure use of such a vehicle. You finally visited the colony on the morning of day 151 and transported it back to the satellite, Battersea A VIII-2, and proceeded to dig.

Jayden operated the mole well, avoiding a deluge of semi-frozen water and bore a hole through the solid ice to the airlock of the Cardinal. Mikeas had it open shortly and the three went inside. They noticed a couple more vacc suits in the airlock and after completing a vacc-suit shuffle game, managed to get the rest of the party to the airlock as well.

The inside of the Cardinal was found to be dirty. The upper level had been converted from staterooms to additional cargo space and the cargo was untouched. The crew quarters were found to be in a state of disarray and clutter, but there were no signs of fighting. The bridge was unmanned and the ship logs revealed a long, deteriorating situation, having been stuck in hyperspace for years as a consequence of a strange misjump, later judged to be caused by a spike Minmay effect and subsequent Cascade. Their food supplies running low, the last log mentioned heading down to the lower cargo bay.

Following the crew to the lower level, you were stopped by a locked access bay door. After failing to hack your way in, a lucky punch on the keypad saw the door open. Inside was the dedicated cargo bay, the containers in good shape. At the far end of the bay, a partition has been raised. After attempting some roundabout ways of examining the contents of the smaller section through a locked door, you opted to simply remove the door itself, permanently breaking it in the process. Inside you found signs of a struggle as well as several cyroberths. Four had been opened and you presumed two of the mutant bodies, heads smashed in, were two of the previous occupants. Knowing that the crew numbered four and only two bodies were found, you surmised that the last two bodies would be found elsewhere. You opted not to open the tampered cyroberths, feeling that you accomplished your objective of securing the ship.

Finally, you went back to the main cargo bay then off to the side to engineering. Inside, you found a grisly scene of blood stains and a pair of hooves. Investigating the scene, Cortana was ambushed by what you would later learn to be a starving "Limbasa"-type mutant. The mutant, slowed by extreme hunger, was not able to capitalize on the ambush and was eventually shot and stabbed to pieces, with only Cortana taking moderate wounds in the process.

Accounting the stain and slain mutant as the final two cyroberth bodies, you considered your mission complete and quickly left the unfortunate cargo hauler Cardinal, returning to space. Back in orbit, the crew remained split on whether to sell the previously recovered HKX-7237 serum from the Fischer system or use it. Furthermore, there is still the matter of the damaged robot. Lastly, you have yet to be paid for completing the Cardinal mission, desperately needing the money. It is now the morning of day 153, your course immediately aimless, but your sights are still set on reaching the Vectis system to see through the Inner-Outer House summit regarding the Jyandi Incident.

This campaign has required sooooo much work. I wrote an assistant program to help me run and design it. Lots of things to do before and after each session. I needed like a year of prep before even starting to run it. That said, it has been very, very rewarding in forcing me to design grand-scale things and find solutions to a host of smaller 'problems' such as working out a progression system. Also, the work is mostly optional and for myself. It is entirely possible to essentially improv the sessions with little prep. I just use it as a big creative outlet these days.

[Venom]

They suck mate!

[Magick]

[egreir]

Ignorance is bliss?

[egreir]

Finally got to sit down and play and make a character.  Got some really good stat rolls ended with 17str 17cha, 17con, 17 dex lol, beginners luck I suppose! Learned a lot on how the game actually plays out.

[Venom]

I've never played a board game, but from the fun everyting is taling about I think it should be quite interesting  Probably soon....

[egreir]

It's alright so far, a little weird trying to RP in person and shit, but im sure its something yuo grow into

[Fool_Hardy]

Haha. Brings back memories of a certain friend rolling a girl and his nephew hitting on him. 😝

[egreir]

Roll initiative might be my favorite saying now 

[egreir]

5e guys....opinion on oathbreaker paladins? Looks like I can't be told no in adventurer's league since it's an official thing.  Looking at running a fallen aasimar paladin, polearm master.  Was a paragon of law and order until he was found guilty of a crime he didn't commit, his faith in society and the justice system/government has been completely shattered.

[Magick]

Not sure why you lead with "can't be told no" but alright.

The only thing I can really say about the Oathbreaker is that unless you and your party has multiple undead through control/animate undead and/or there's a warlock in your party, your Aura of Hate could end up working against you more than helping.  Especially if you're running something like Curse of Strahd where nearly everything you're fighting is undead.

[egreir]

7 minutes ago, Magick said:

Not sure why you lead with "can't be told no" but alright.

The only thing I can really say about the Oathbreaker is that unless you and your party has multiple undead through control/animate undead and/or there's a warlock in your party, your Aura of Hate could end up working against you more than helping.  Especially if you're running something like Curse of Strahd where nearly everything you're fighting is undead.

I just meant like the DM can't tell me no, because of how the Adventurer's League is ran, so I don't have to worry about that.

[egreir]

16 minutes ago, Magick said:

Not sure why you lead with "can't be told no" but alright.

The only thing I can really say about the Oathbreaker is that unless you and your party has multiple undead through control/animate undead and/or there's a warlock in your party, your Aura of Hate could end up working against you more than helping.  Especially if you're running something like Curse of Strahd where nearly everything you're fighting is undead.

Also, I plan to try and counter this a bit by wielding a halberd to attack with reach, keeping enemies AT 10ft and not WITHIN 10ft.  This is on top of being able to control an undead target to , summon a steed to use a (squishy) tank, and then later be able to make my own undead to do my bidding.

[Rygothran]

Just from those last three posts I realize I am so out of touch with D&D 5th edition. Blargh

[Fool_Hardy]

not buying the books.

Not doing it.

Buy books on Saturday, 6th edition releases Sunday.

Not doing it.

[Magick]

1 hour ago, egreir said:

Also, I plan to try and counter this a bit by wielding a halberd to attack with reach, keeping enemies AT 10ft and not WITHIN 10ft.

Won't really work.  Doesn't matter if they're 6' or 10'.  A 10' reach means you're hitting those up to two squares away.  Your aura is two squares.  In terms of the game, especially if you're using minis, they're occupying the "same distance".  In short, if you can't hit them, they won't be affected.  If the campaign lasts to level 18, it won't matter as your aura then extends to 30'.

1 hour ago, egreir said:

This is on top of being able to control an undead target to , summon a steed to use a (squishy) tank, and then later be able to make my own undead to do my bidding.

Palis in 5e lost the ability to summon mounts.  The closest you're coming there is buying a mount and making sure you're good with animal handling.

While you'll eventually be able to animate undead (and control undead your CR or lower), it'll be awkward at best you riding a zombie.  Unless you meant you're going to use them as off-tanks, in which case yes.  That's good.  Provided you find undead to command and you don't try to command more than one at a time and keeping in mind that you only get one Channel Divinity per long or short rest.

[egreir]

5 minutes ago, Magick said:

Won't really work.  Doesn't matter if they're 6' or 10'.  A 10' reach means you're hitting those up to two squares away.  Your aura is two squares.  In terms of the game, especially if you're using minis, they're occupying the "same distance".  In short, if you can't hit them, they won't be affected.  If the campaign lasts to level 18, it won't matter as your aura then extends to 30'.

Palis in 5e lost the ability to summon mounts.  The closest you're coming there is buying a mount and making sure you're good with animal handling.

While you'll eventually be able to animate undead (and control undead your CR or lower), it'll be awkward at best you riding a zombie.  Unless you meant you're going to use them as off-tanks, in which case yes.  That's good.  Provided you find undead to command and you don't try to command more than one at a time and keeping in mind that you only get one Channel Divinity per long or short rest.

Paladins still have Find Steed in 5e, and didn't know that's how range/reach worked, poop!

[egreir]

7 minutes ago, Magick said:

Won't really work.  Doesn't matter if they're 6' or 10'.  A 10' reach means you're hitting those up to two squares away.  Your aura is two squares.  In terms of the game, especially if you're using minis, they're occupying the "same distance".  In short, if you can't hit them, they won't be affected.  If the campaign lasts to level 18, it won't matter as your aura then extends to 30'.

Palis in 5e lost the ability to summon mounts.  The closest you're coming there is buying a mount and making sure you're good with animal handling.

While you'll eventually be able to animate undead (and control undead your CR or lower), it'll be awkward at best you riding a zombie.  Unless you meant you're going to use them as off-tanks, in which case yes.  That's good.  Provided you find undead to command and you don't try to command more than one at a time and keeping in mind that you only get one Channel Divinity per long or short rest.

Also, are you familiar with AL? Your character lasts as long as you want it to last, provided you don't die. Your character follows you from the campaign you play in Orlando, FL to the campaign you sit down at in New York. 

[Magick]

7 minutes ago, egreir said:

Paladins still have Find Steed in 5e ...

As a straight class feature, they lost it going into 5e.  It's not automatic.  They have Find Steed, but as a 2nd level spell.  If you want to burn one of your spells known on it, by all means, go for it.  Spells known is half Pali level plus CHA mod, rounded down.  At 5th level and 14 CHA, that's 4 spells.
You'll summon a CR 1/4 or lower creature (warhorse, a pony, a camel, an elk, or a mastiff.).  The warhorse has an AC of 11 and 19 HP as an example.  DM depending, you may be casting the spell often.

At 13th level (8 spells known at 14 CHA), you can get the 4th level spell Find Greater Steed.  You can choose from griffon, a pegasus, a peryton, a dire wolf, a rhinoceros, or a saber-toothed tiger, CR 1 or 2 creatures.

While I understand the intention, using it as a tank isn't really feasible given the levels you get them at.  A squishy tank that takes a few attacks ... I suppose, though you would be a lot better off looking at the Mounted Combatant feat to use this with.

 

5 minutes ago, egreir said:

Also, are you familiar with AL? Your character lasts as long as you want it to last, provided you don't die. Your character follows you from the campaign you play in Orlando, FL to the campaign you sit down at in New York. 

Not intimately, but D&D has had things like that for a long time now and I've done similar with 2e and 3.x.  Higher level campaigns aren't common but possible, sure.  It's usually easier to have the same group run from Level "n" to 20.

Still means that it would be ultimately moot when you reach L18.  Doesn't matter how you get there or who you get there with.

[Grim_Reefer]

I rolled two crits on a troll with my champion fighter.

[Magick]

That sounds unimpressive, though. 

You had two attacks that round, one of which crit. You then used your second wind which gave you two more attacks that round. Again, one of which crit. So you had effectively 6 attacks worth of damage that round. Damn near taking it out yourself. 

[Magick]

[egreir]

Just got told I have to rework my character tonight lol  the first DM didn't know the rules of Adventurer's League I guess and let me roll my stats.  18STR/18CHA/14DEX on my paladin has been nice...so long, farewell!

[Magick]

1 hour ago, egreir said:

Just got told I have to rework my character tonight lol  the first DM didn't know the rules of Adventurer's League I guess and let me roll my stats.  18STR/18CHA/14DEX on my paladin has been nice...so long, farewell!

Rework?  Why?

I'm finding point buy for 5e is good enough.  I mean, unlike previous editions, your stats cap at 20.  Guess that frees up ability score improvements (ASI) to buy feats, but some feats give stats so ...