Reckonings: The Overlook

[DeepShadow of FoS]

No problemo, Cortez! We've all had our bouts with real life. I'll see what I can cook up by way of a cut scene in the mean time.

[Nathan of the FoS]

Character sheet goodness! Time to put up the ol' sheet again, Balin!

When Balin is without magic items he has Will save +15, Fort save +19, which actually seems rather low, all things considered. As a 25th level character he would get +2 to saves from his epic levels, so that means he's got +13 and +17 from his stats and levels.

If he were Paladin 15/Prestige Class 5 (I forget the name) then he would have +13/+6/+6 F/R/W from classes, which might not be exact but should be in the ballpark. With Wisdom and Charisma we can get a +7 pretty easily, although it's surprising that he doesn't have better stats, especially with the Saint template...it's even more surprising that Constitution and Charisma only give him a +4. Am I missing something?

EDIT: Aha! So the Cha bonus was missing. That explains all. It's a bit surprising to me that Balin has only an 18-19 Constitution, but a 24-25 Wisdom is certainly appropriately epic. And if he would tie with a 3, that means his Cha bonus must be +6? So a 22-23 Cha. How'm I doin', Gurthoron?

[Nathan of the FoS]

Hooray! We meet at last!

So, I admit I hammed it up for Cortez' first view of Peregrine, but that's the effect Peregrine has on people (for in-game reasons which have yet to be revealed, but let's just say it can't be that often that Cortez meets people with a Charisma higher than his own!). Feel free to respond in kind, Cap'n.

[MatthiasStormcrow]

Damn, we do need to bust the character sheets back out then. Peregrine's Charisma is higher than 25! Aha!

It's ok though, a momentous meeting definitely warrants it. Not so much the Captain's style, though, he tends much more towards understatement.

edit: Just to seriously make like difficult for Balin and/or Peter van Riese, I will point out that suppressing the magic on Gloves of Storing doesn't mean the items are inaccessible - it means that whatever's in the gloves automatically pops out, and can't be put back in while the gloves are suppressed. So if that's where Balin was keeping his sword and shield, uh...Peter might not want to get that close.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

What!? Aw crap...okay, then this is all going to get interesting...only in a different direction thatn originally planned....

You mind giving me a quote, Cortez? IIRC the description of Dispel Magic specifically said that bags of holding are inaccessible, not turned inside out. Where does it say differently for the gloves?

Oh, and while we're correcting each other's little slips, I'll remind you that Cortez has a ball of binding bands or whatnot--he sold the Bane for one of them, remember?

[Nathan of the FoS]

What!? Aw crap...okay, then this is all going to get interesting...only in a different direction thatn originally planned....

You mind giving me a quote, Cortez? IIRC the description of Dispel Magic specifically said that bags of holding are inaccessible, not turned inside out. Where does it say differently for the gloves?

Oh, and while we're correcting each other's little slips, I'll remind you that Cortez has a ball of binding bands or whatnot--he sold the Bane for one of them, remember?

True, but the gloves of storing don't hide the stored item in an extradimensional space; they make it tiny and attach it somehow to the glove. So there's no opening to close, and dispelling the magic reverses the reduction and the attachment.

I though Cortez hadn't actually closed the sale on the Bane yet--did he?

[MatthiasStormcrow]

Yeah, the gloves apparently work differently from bags of holding. Anyways, from the SRD:

The item is held in stasis and shrunk down so small within the palm of the glove that it cannot be seen. Spell durations are not suppressed, but continue to expire. If an effect is suppressed or dispelled, the stored item appears instantly.

And the way I remembered it (but, honestly, I could completely misremebering) was that Kinketsu was showing off what Ciera could buy a ship with, and Cortez chose one of the iron bands, but that the transaction hadn't been completed yet (I feel like it was done via long-distance communication somehow). You wouldn't happen to be able to easily find the post(s) for that, would you?

In any case, Ciera should still have at least two of them (she had three IIRC) and she's also got the guy who needs the binding.

edit: Aha, found it. After reading about 12 pages of old threads on MSD's board, it turns out it's right at the beginning of the Umberlee's Belly thread here. D'oh! And yeah, while it was agreed to sell Ciera the Bane for one of the bands of binding and sell the other three to Peregrine, the transaction was never actually done, because Ciera was elsewhere at the time, and only just now finally got back.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Particularly since it makes sense - if it were just, "Well now that you're epic, things just happen to always go wrong instead of how things used to just always happen to go right when you were lower level, so a random demon happened by while you were sleeping" then I might object, but when it's obvious and logical, I don't see a problem with it.

Just though I'd clarify that this is what I meant. I used the term "tough luck," which to me is different from "bad" luck.

Good luck = your PC happens to look and sound like an influential noble, or perhaps the captain of the guard.

Bad luck = your PC happens to look exactly like a known fugitive.

Tough luck is somewhere in between. It's just the inability to cut a lucky break. Think of it as all the villains I play have read the, "tips from the evil overlord" emails that keep circulating. When Draga has you in his clutches, don't expect him to gloat and tell you all his plans before he kills you.

[Nathan of the FoS]

Now it's my turn for real-life adventures; I'm going on vacation and won't have regular e-access until September 5th (although I'll be around occasionally in th e meantime).

BTW, Harrin and the Keeper both really annoy me; I don't know why. When we split up the opponents, I figure Shadross has dibs on Harrin, but the Keeper is mine.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

This discussion out on the water is fascinating, but time-sucking. Anyone in favor of speeding it up a little? We all know so much but have been kept apart as characters, so we're all pretending not to know what we know as players. I propose that each of us post an OOC post on the thread listing the things we're going to bring the others up to speed on and the things that we're going to hold back. For example:

Ciera shares:

The death of the Sea Witch

The Gypsies' fight with Draga

Ciera leaves out:

The Sea Witch's last words

Then people can ask questions based upon what we've already read as players, as if it had been brought up in conversation. I'll declare an appropriate passage of time for all this needless exposition, and get us caught up with the rest of the storyline. What do you think?

[Fuzzball]

If that's what you'd like to do then okay.

Invictus won't share anything in front of Peregrine. Later in the night, if the man leaves he'll report to Cortez reguarding what he's been up to...all of it...every grisly detail... Ciera can listen in if she likes.

If directly asked about what Tessius left behind he'll give an accounting of it, but someone will actually have to ask.

[MatthiasStormcrow]

I suppose we can, though it might be nice to wait until after September 5th when Nathan's back before we kick-start the plot moving forwards.

Cortez will tell everyone about the addictive properties of pepperweed, so they all know, he'll discuss Captain Harrin, and he'll introduce Angus, Toby and Arbrund as necessary, but he's not going to mention Arbrund's affliction in front of Peregrine (he'll tell Ciera at some point when the Inquisitor isn't present) and he's probably not going to volunteer much other information. Of course if anyone asks him a direct question, he'll answer. (So if Peregrine says, "So, about this Arbrund chap, lycanthrope, eh?" he will get an honest answer from Cortez, but otherwise Cortez'll keep quiet.)

[Nathan of the FoS]

Well, I can see where you're going with this, DS, but it makes it a bit hard on me...Peregrine is, by nature, extremely close-mouthed about..well, almost everything. He'll certainly tell Cortez and Ciera about the prince (whose name I forget) coming to the Rogue's Wake with the Pteryons, because that's "their business". He'll also tell them what happened to Princess Sambril, which will probably lead into a discussion of what happened aboard the Liberte. Peregrine's description of events will be minimal; the actual slaying of the undead is not really worthy of note, he's still too jangled about the Vecna revelation to discuss it (especially not with people he's never met before!), and he won't take the others into his confidence about the Raiment of Clarity until he has a much better idea of what kind of interest Ciera and Invictus (and through him Tessius) will take in the book before he brings it up. He will mention the Keeper and his expectation that the Keeper will return in un-life, and that he needs to go back to the Liberte to watch over those he left there.

[Gurthoron]

Finally got my reply up. Sorry about the wait DS, I was having a combination of computer troubles and constant rechecking of the rules. I think I got something workable up, completely according to the rules of the situation.

In reply to an earlier question concerning Balin's stats, you were spot on with my CON score, but off slightly with CHA and WIS. Of course your calculations will go to crap when my items come back.

As a side, DS, were you remembering my double-strength magic circle against evil in your calculations for AC and saves? Just checking since I forgot it until I transferred my character online. My apologies for making such an obnoxious character DS.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Don't apologize at all, that's what this experiment is all about! We need few min-maxed characters to really push the envelope. Pardon the nitpick, but I see the math on this last post a little differently; the end result is the same, but I'm trying to get acquainted with Balin's math so I can kill challenge him.

Note that taking up the sword is a move action that provokes an AoO, which will rob you of three more levels before you swing it. Taking two, you'd have 48 on a smite, but you got drained, so now have only a 42. Add the -4 for the net and the water and you're at a 38--still quite adequate. Damage is 1D8 + 2D6+2D8 (holy + fiendsmite)+ 16 (you're STR is still down) + 38 (-12 for the six negative levels, doubled). Finally, the total is halved because Balin is underwater.