Sagiro's Story Hour: The FINAL Adventures of Abernathy's Company (FINISHED 7/3/14)

[Enkhidu]

You know, I'm standing right here.

[sblock=Pointy-headed character musing]Dranko has a weird role in the party. He fills the role of both damage sponge and striker, with more hit points than anyone else (a combination of good rolling and a 2nd-edition-legacy high con) and an impressive damage output against a single foe. On those occasions that I can manage a hasted sneak attack, Dranko will get five attacks doing something like 1d3+1d6 holy +10 + 6d6 sneak attack (reroll any 1s). That's about 14 pts of damage per attack with no sneak attack, or 40 points with sneak attack. The real weakness here is three-fold; he can only attack one foe at a time, he often needs to move and attack (squandering a full attack), and it's surprisingly difficult to manage consistent sneak attacks. The result is that foes often start strong until Dranko and Flicker can maneuver into position.

[/sblock]

[sblock]In our last high level game, we were somewhat melee oriented, so we had enough role specialization in melee that we didn't run into that type of "single point of failure." But, on those occasions when our primary striker (our two-weapon using rogue/ranger/hunter could dish out damage similar to Dranko) was out for some reason, my character (a woodsy marshal type of character that was the primary damage and attack sponge) would feel the pinch.[/sblock]

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

And for anyone who wishes to be utterly appalled, last summer I totalled up all the list of the "excess loot" that no one had claimed but that we hadn't gotten around to actually selling. It's.. err.. disturbing, in that the purchase value is 1.1 million gp. To wit:

[sblock]

1 shield of spell turning +4
1 heavy mace - strength drainer (1d6 str on crit)
1 bracers of armor +6
2 ring of deflection +4
1 large shield +5
1 breastplate +5
1 cloak of resistance +4
1 large shield +4
1 belt of strength +4
1 breastplate +1
2 belt of strength +4
1 shield +3, +5 vs human melee attacks
6 large shield +3
3 ring of deflection +2
6 longsword +2
5 amulet of health +2
3 periapt of wisdom +2
6 belt of strength +2
6 plate armor +2
6 dagger +1
1 ring of darkvision
1 headband of ferocity
1 belt of metamagic harmony
1 blue & green rolling marbles
1 ring of random energy protection
1 potion of cure serious wounds
1 wand - knock - 12 charges
1 wand - hidden lodge - 17 charges
1 wand - indomitability - 1 charge
1 scroll - dispel magic (10th), greater dispel magic (17th)
1 scroll - harm, mass inflict moderate wounds, ethereal jaunt (11th lvl)
1 plate mail of the brewing storm
1 gems 244,000
1 stuff 35,400
1 stuff 190,000
1 misc. magical stuff 45,000

[/sblock]

What I find most striking about this is the large number of mid-grade items just sitting around. There are some high-grade items (the +5 large shield, the +5 breastplate) but it's easy to see how those end up in a weird "we don't want to sell this, because it's really good and we might want to use it, but nobody actually wants to use it" category. In my experience, it often takes a while to reach the conclusion that those should be sold (unless they're sold in a handwaivey way right away).

But it's the 6 large shields +3, and the 6 plate armors +2, and the like that really get me. You could make some midlevel adventuring party or elite group of knights very happy with that stuff, and it's not like the Company is the only heroic group of adventurers in the world.

(I totally understand why it happens, I just can't help imagining the group of midlevel adventurers suffering a TPK because their armor classes weren't a couple of points higher. Plus, they likely have +1 equipment that they might have passed down to starting adventurers. Okay, now I've convinced myself that you guys caused a cascade of good adventurer deaths by holding onto that stuff. For shame. )

 

[Siuis]

Siuis, I know how you feel - Morningstar and Greywolf's players have just become proud parents, so the game is on hold for a bit. I miss it!

I'm sorry to hear that, PC. Expecially as you're an Administrator; You cannot but read this every now and then, relive the glory days of Dranko failing a save or eating a cursed jade pearl (Priceless move, Cranchus ya ol' fart!) and lamenting your hiatus.

And on the loot. . .

Well. Only word I can think of is... Agog. I am agog. 1.1 million?! and give to you freely and legally by the DM? I've only ever seen that level of cash by abusing liquid pain, distill joy and masochism on an accelerated time demiplane. And that wasn't until over 20th level... Talk Aravis, Kibi and GRey Wolf into making a spell that lets you dissolve another magic item, use it's magic essence, and more cheaply enchant a different item. I mean, yeah, you could give it away to other adventurers, but that's not the Dranko thing to do.

 

[The_Warlock]

... into making a spell that lets you dissolve another magic item, use it's magic essence, and more cheaply enchant a different item.

I give you, The Rope of Transference (because despite my stinginess, in my 13 year campaign, they got a LOT of magic they outgrew, or were beyond when they got it):

The Rope of Transference (Constant Item, Min Research 2 Weeks, DC 40)

Lesser:
Transfer Magic Arms and Armor: Allows Transfer of All Magical Properties of ONE magical weapon or armor of like kind – weapon to weapon, armor to armor, shield to shield, to an unenchanted masterwork item. Takes 10 minutes per “plus”/1000gp value transferred, draws 50% of the normal crafting XP from the user of the rope, and completely devastates the originating magic item. The slagged material can never be used in magic item creation.

Isolated Transfer: Allows the transfer of 1 magical property from a magical weapon or armor to a previously enchanted magical weapon or armor of like kind that is not fully enchanted. Takes 10 minutes per “plus”/1000gp value transferred, draws 75% of the normal crafting XP from the user of the rope, and completely devastates the originating magic item. The slagged material can never be used in magic item creation.
Need: Transference Feat, Min Caster Level 12, 90000gp Unlimited Use
(Costs for per week use, 4: 85000; 3: 80000; 2: 70000; 1: 60000)


Standard:
As Lesser, except Isolated Transfer instead drains from the source item a number of “plusses” equal to the transferred power +1. These drained plusses are lost randomly. If the source item retains at least a +1 enhancement bonus after the transfer it retains it’s basic magical nature. An item which cannot pay the “plus” cost, is devastated as per a Lesser Rope. Only one power may be transferred at a time, but so long as the source item remains magical, the rope may be used on it to transfer additional powers. Furthermore, the transfer costs twice the original power’s XP cost to craft from the user, and takes 30 minutes per plus transferred.
Need: Transference Feat, Min Caster Level 15, 125000gp Unlimited Use
(Costs for per week use, 4: 115000; 3: 105000; 2: 95000; 1: 90000)

Greater:
As Standard, except as follows: Isolated Transfer drains plusses equal to the transferred power, and costs 5 times the original crafting XP.
Wondrous Transfer: The rope may be used in a fashion similar to Transfer Magic Arms and Armor with wearable non-armor constant items (garments, rings, etc). This takes 30 minutes per 1000gp value of the originating item, and costs the original XP crafting cost if the target item is metaphysically/thaumaturgically related to the magic in question, or 10 times if it is not.
Need: Transference Feat, Min Caster Level 18, 275000gp Unlimited Use
(Costs for per week use, 4: 260000; 3: 245000; 2: 225000; 1: 200000)

Grand:
As Greater, but gains the ability of Wondrous Isolated Transfer, allowing transfer of 1 power to a previously enchanted non-armor wearable constant item, destroying the source item, taking 1 hour per 1000gp value of the source item, and costing XP equal to 5 times the original crafting XP for thaumaturgically related items, and 20 times for non-related items.
Need: Transference Feat, Min Caster Level 20, 400000gp Unlimited Use
(Costs for per week use, 4: 375000; 3: 325000; 2: 300000; 1: 275000)


They didn't use it as often as you might think, but the times they did use it made for some very excellent armor and weapons...

 

[Everett]

Bostock speaks into Grey Wolf's mind. Remind them that I am no more a “voice in your head” than they are voices in each others' heads when using telepathic bond.

Been a long time since Bostock said anything.

Or does he talk to Grey Wolf without it showing up in the Story Hour?

 

[Sagiro]

Been a long time since Bostock said anything.

Or does he talk to Grey Wolf without it showing up in the Story Hour?

Bostock does talk to Grey Wolf from time to time, but typically in throw-away contexts that don't make for good Story Hour content. I have learned that the only way I'm ever going to get this thing written is to leave out a bunch of the extraneous, not-story-advancing dialogue. I admit to being a bit arbitrary about what I include, but I promise I'm not omitting anything important.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I think I can understand how the party ended up with so much extra magic stuff: paranoia.

When I play a high-level PC, I'm always afraid that my PC is going to get disintegrated / dropped into molten lava (you die, no save) / otherwise completely destroyed... along with all my stuff.

True Resurrection brings your PC back just fine, but it doesn't bring back the PC's gear. So, keeping backups around is better than adventuring naked.

Hmm, naked adventuring...

 

[Siuis]

A random though occured to me, while remembering the stirges and the crystal tower thingy.

Couldn't Dranko make himself immue to fire and then use the Paroxysm of Fire on himself? I can't recall if if it leaves you helpless, but if not...

Few things would draw attention from a Big Bad like burping onto the enemy and lighting him on fire. Right up Dranko's alley.

 

[Cervante]

Delurking to say this is an excellent story of D&D and give it a bump.

Also, Sagiro, would you be opposed to me ste...erm borrowing some of your story for my own campaign I'm going to be running?

 

[Piratecat]

Few things would draw attention from a Big Bad like burping onto the enemy and lighting him on fire. Right up Dranko's alley.

True, although he's not entirely comfortable with the whole burning-hair-crackly-skin thing. I don't think paroxysms of fire has scaled well with level.

That was an example of a magic item that wasn't used as much as Sagiro had hoped. Because it only had a few charges and we couldn't identify what it did, I almost never used it. That was probably a disappointing decision on my part.

And Cervante, I think Sagiro would be completely flattered if you used his insidious rat-bastardy as an inspiration (or ripped it off wholesale.) Just remember to give your half-orc player a lot of loot.