Just wanted to mention that I'll be rebuilding Grai. Almost one-shotting a normal enemy without a crit is too much. Either I'll rework her Slayer build and remove all that charge stuff and whatever else I can or go Hunter like Surrealistik suggested, but I need to look into it more so I'm not just shifting the overpoweredness to another aspect of the character. I don't want to change Grai's personality/background, so that makes things a bit more difficult, since I can't really see her enjoying ranged combat...
I appreciate the team spirit going on with this group, eager to make the experience fun for all! I'm going ask you to hold off on making any changes just yet. This adventure is modified from a higher level module and it is (painfully) obvious that I swung too low. Give me an encounter or two to try and find a better match for this group. Of course, if you are unhappy with your character, please feel free to change her. Your enjoyment of the game and your character is the point of this whole thing.
I'm kind of in the same boat Ridai, I feel my characters offensive powers are a bit too much right now haha. If not for Waffle's statement, I'd suggest against remaking until I'm able to figure out what to do with Ember too; at least this way the party's pretty similarly tilted towards damage.
My main concern is that regardless of your attempts to achieve an equilibrium of challenge Waffle, some characters are going to feel left out/hard done by. In fact, the harder you make the encounters, the more they're going to be boned, since while the others may be able to deal with the more difficult combats, they'll be even less able to cope/contribute.
I don't think the issue is a problem of encounter difficulty (which can be increased as necessary) so much as it is one of intraparty power disparities.
The problem is not so much that the encounter was too easy, but other players are too strong/powerful compared to other players.
Certain players will always have advantages in some situations. True, Malikar will rarely hit as hard as Grai. Barases will rarely affect as many Emberlyn. Teamwork requires varied skills and strengths. But this is not new information. What I'd like to do is try to change the conditions of the combat, not just make it "harder" (ie. more armor, more hit points, hit harder). If there were archers spread out in the trees, if the forest were combustible (your horses might be spooking from a suddenly flaming man in front of them), if there was a second wave, if it were a mixed bag rather than all the same flavor....
If you feel that your character is going to vastly upset the balance of the game to the detriment of all, thank you for your empathy, of course you may change your character. I would not hinder such generosity towards others. But, again, I ask for patience. Let me see if I can create situations where other players may shine. I do not claim to have the answers to all problems, but let me try. I appreciate that I have found a group that values the team effort.
To be honest, it's not Malikar's job to hit nearly as hard as Grai, since the former is a defender and the latter is a one-trick-pony striker. Still, you have not seen Grai crit, use an AP and/or get buffed by Garithak, so her damage output hasn't even peaked yet. And next level, she will get access to Rain of Blows, which will drastically increase her nova potential even more.
I'm going to remove Grai's Vanguard weapon, Bestial armor and Horned Helm, replacing the former two with standard magic +1 items. Weapon Focus will have to go, too, which will get replaced with Thirst for Battle (+3 ini, +1 HS). Spear Expertise gets replaced with Master at Arms.
It's not much, but hopefully that will make Grai's damage output a little more sane until I figure out what to do with her. Barbarian and Berserker are the only other fitting classes, but the former really wouldn't make things better and the latter is more a defender than a striker and I don't want to intrude on Malikar's territory. Might have to write a new character in the worst case.
To be honest, it's not Malikar's job to hit nearly as hard as Grai, since the former is a defender and the latter is a one-trick-pony striker. Still, you have not seen Grai crit, use an AP and/or get buffed by Garithak, so her damage output hasn't even peaked yet. And next level, she will get access to Rain of Blows, which will drastically increase her nova potential even more.
I'm going to remove Grai's Vanguard weapon, Bestial armor and Horned Helm, replacing the former two with standard magic +1 items. Weapon Focus will have to go, too, which will get replaced with Thirst for Battle (+3 ini, +1 HS). Spear Expertise gets replaced with Master at Arms.
It's not much, but hopefully that will make Grai's damage output a little more sane until I figure out what to do with her. Barbarian and Berserker are the only other fitting classes, but the former really wouldn't make things better and the latter is more a defender than a striker and I don't want to intrude on Malikar's territory. Might have to write a new character in the worst case.
I don't think there's anything wrong with getting more than vanilla +1 magic weapons, just so long as they don't result in two shotting mobs.
I don't think there's anything wrong with getting more than vanilla +1 magic weapons, just so long as they don't result in two shotting mobs.
I'm staying away from all kinds of extra attacks and damage bonuses wholesale. Grai can still two-shot monsters once she uses her encounter powers and her average damage is still 21 without any additional powers. Like always, I have no idea where good or bad start and end in terms of character strength, except when something is blatantly overpowered or useless. I'd rather not risk anything.
I'll still need to figure out what to do with the vast amounts of excess money Grai suddenly has, now that her old equipment and Vela's earrings have gone poof.
Thanks for the kill, Ridai! I assume when it comes to calming the horse the character needs to be adjacent to it to do so? What kind of action would that be considered?
EDIT: And oh yeah, I think I might redo Emberlyn to be a hard controller / enchanter instead of a blaster if that works for you Waffle. I think to do so I'll pretty much have to recreate her from the ground up and pick a different race, but I would just flavor it so that nothing really changed with the character in game if that's fine (the racial stuff just being flavor, the different power selection just being written as things the wizard already knows).
I was actually planning to write the character as having a little bit too much fun burning things, which was one of the reasons she'd been sent to an academy to study in the first place. I think the in game shift to other spells would be a conscious realization of this, and an effort on her part to stay in control.
Last edited by Paperscrap : 03-15-2012 at 06:36 AM.
I think I have a first draft of what I'll be going for in terms of build/items:
Spoiler
Feats:
Lv 1 - Weapon Proficiency (gouge)
Lv 2 - Spear Expertise
Lv 4 - Mark of Storm
I think I have my build sorted out now, for the time being.
Lv 6 item - Iron Armbands of Power
Lv 5 item - +1 lightning gouge
Lv 4 item - +1 Badge of the Berserker
Bought items (2,340gp)
Lv 1 (360gp) - +1 hide Armor (saving for +2 Marauder's)
Lv 2 (520gp) - Boots of Adept Charging
Lv 2 (520gp) - Eberron Shard of Lightning
50gp - Potion of Healing
30gp - Debt to Garithak
Money left: 860gp
Since I can think a bit more clearly than yesterday, I'll gow with the wait and see attitude Waffle asked for. I removed the charge dice adders, added some positioning to Grai's charges.
I originally planned to get Rain of Blows (Fighter Lv 3 encounter power) via Martial Cross-Training next level and Surprising Charge on Lv 8, giving me a 3 attack encounter power and +1[W] on charges against CA granting targets, but I'll let Waffle have the last word and/or let all of you vote on what I should get or something to ensure Grai's damage output doesn't simply explode.
As her last action showed, Grai can still more or less nuke enemies, but maybe it'll be bearable without the +1d8+1d6 on charges. If not, well, cuts are going to be made.
Thoughts?
edit: Damn it, forgot that Grai needs to be broke and in debt to keep the scene at the magic item shop intact.
Oh heck guys, sorry! Yeah, I've been really busy lately but I didn't actually realize that the game was being held up on my part. This is my first PbP so I'm used to people just going on without knowing knowledge check results and such!
Waffle, did my search turn up anything? I've got some specific questions if it matters:
Any signs of additional corpses? Body parts?
Any visible tracks from the caravan/wagons? If so from what direction(s)?
Do any of the corpses look familiar at all?
Besides the wilted/rotted vegetables that imply the caravan has been here at least a few days, are there any additional indications of how long it's been here?
Retconned the following speech given the information received:
"Call it a hunch, but I figure it's related. We've got a stopped up caravan here, been still for awhile now; most veggies start to rot in a couple of days, so it's been here at least about that long. Personally I figure odds are good we're actually lookin' at about two weeks between the temperature and shade, which is about consistent with the time the troubles started."
Other than that, there wasn't anything of value learned (no other bodies/body parts found/no one recognized).
RSS Feeds: 
Re: [4E] Harken Unto Harken [OOC]
