Blood of The Werewolf [Erekose 13 Judging][Concluded]

Patlin · Sep 22, 2006

Manzanita said:
OOC: Poor Rowan - didn't do much good this fight, eh? He'll have more to say about it when he wakes up. As for 4th level, Awesome!

He had a crucial, though unpleasant, role! It's called "damage sponge!" :lol:

Manzanita · Sep 22, 2006

OOC: OK. I'm asking for some advice here from you experienced gamers. I plan to take mostly fighter levels from here on out for Rowan, and I was wondering what you all thought of the various feat chains. Here's some I'm contemplating:
1. run, track, improved initiative, quick draw, endurance (generic useful progression)
2. combat reflexes, improved disarm (focus on guisarme)
3. dodge, mobility, spring attack (good for lightly armored fast fighter?)

Patlin · Sep 22, 2006

Manzanita said:
OOC: OK. I'm asking for some advice here from you experienced gamers. I plan to take mostly fighter levels from here on out for Rowan, and I was wondering what you all thought of the various feat chains. Here's some I'm contemplating:
1. run, track, improved initiative, quick draw, endurance (generic useful progression)
2. combat reflexes, improved disarm (focus on guisarme)
3. dodge, mobility, spring attack (good for lightly armored fast fighter?)

*Puts on his opinionated hat* (Ignore at will!)

Option 1 I'd strongly recomend against. Run is rarely usefull, Track is OK but hardly the best *especially* if you're planning to take fighter levels, which will likely cause survival to trail behind. Improved Initiative is good for anyone, but again not great. Quickdraw is a cute trick, but not great, and endurance is completely useless.

Option 2 contains Combat Reflexes, which is fantastic. I'm not a big fan of improved disarm, though, as critters with natural rather than manufactured weaponry are common foes. Think back on how many times you would have had a chance to disarm in this adventure, for example.

Option 3 I'm not a big fan of... I generally prefer to stand and fight, which makes all three of those of limited use.

You have power attack, I'd think you'd at the very least want to take cleave. Great cleave isn't all that great an addition, but an extra attack for felling a bad gu is always usefull.

If you want to go fighter, weapon focus and weapon specialization would make good choices, too.

I rarely play straightforward melee types, which might influence my perspective.

B4cchus · Sep 22, 2006

ooc: not much to do? the damage he took could have killed 2 other member of the party!

B4cchus · Sep 22, 2006

First off, your character doesn't seem to be bould as a "hardhitter" (power attack, cleave, greatsword, weapon focus, etc) so i wouldn't go down that road with things like cleave.

All those 'utility' feats (track, run, etc) are nice, but not great.

Quick draw is nice, to switch between polearm and nearby weapon. But then you could also take EWP spiked chain and spare yourself a weapon to carry. You still can improve later with combat reflexes, weapon focus, etc. But i'd still take combat reflexes first.

Weapon focus, specialisation is always a feat well spent. But you'll need another 3 levels fighter for specialisation. Also, wf with a reach weapon is tricky, since you don't use it against nearby opponents.

You already took improved trip, so it would be a waste of a feat to not build any further on that.
Combat reflexes is a great way to expand battlefield control (pick up AoO's and trip the lot. As they stand up.. another AoO and back down they go). I'd go with this one (but then, talbin already did

).

-edit:
the dodge, mobility, spring attack combo is very nice, but i'd say you would already had to go down that path by now... The first two feats are quite limited and it'll take quite some time before you get that third feat..

Patlin · Sep 22, 2006

ooc: With all this talk about Rowans advancement path, it seems he and Tor could easilly converge. Is Rowan in any danger of developing scales? :lol:

Patlin · Sep 22, 2006

Boog has expressed his concern that the other winter wolf may return. What precautions do you intend, if any?

El Jefe · Sep 22, 2006

Boog was of the opinion that the party should stay closer together, even it it put them at greater risk from Vanth getting loose. There were some things worse than being attacked by a werewolf, after all.

Like getting attacked by something that could eat a werewolf for breakfast.

Boog wondered if Vanth was coherent enough to interrogate, and thought he might have had something to do with attracting the other wolves.

He thought a fire might be a good idea, too. A big one.

Boddynock · Sep 23, 2006

OOC:

@Manzanita: I'm not much help in assessing the relative merits of the feat chains - not really enough experience playing fighters to know - but I'll ask the questions I ask of my players during character generation.

Who do you imagine Rowan to be? What sort of character is he? And from that understanding, what style of fighter do you imagine he would want to become?

Not much in the way of concrete help, I know, but sometimes this getting inside the head of the character can lead in unexpected directions.

@Everybody: And I freely admit that I'm also distracted in terms of Eusebius' own development. I had initially envisaged him as a monk, and I think that he, himself, has a yearning to follow that line ... but his god has laid a responsibility on him as a cleric, and it's pretty clear that this party would benefit from Improved Bandaid. I'm concerned that, at this rate (Rowan down to 1 HP and the big bad ugly due to reappear very soon ... and who knows what is waiting in the wings) we'll burn through E's wand of CLW in short order. Having said that, a 2nd level cleric only gains a single extra 1st level spell. So which would be better for the party - an improved fighter or an improved healer? Please note: Eusebius is highly lawful, and will choose what is best for the party, other things being mostly equal.

@Patlin: As to E's actions over the next few minutes, he will:

Check that Vanth is still securely held.
Use the wand to provide enough healing to Rowan to bring him up to around 20 HP.
Use the wand to heal Boog to around 20 HP.
Agree with Boog about building the fire, and suggest having ranged weapons at the ready while we stand guard.
Share around some flasks of oil (I think E has a couple) for use as missiles.

By the way, at least a couple of us should stand outside the light range of the fire, so that we can see into the surrounding darkness!

Manzanita · Sep 23, 2006

Rowan awakes confused, but quickly figures some things out. "Thank you Eusebius. I am more in your debt than ever. And well done Talbin and Juliana for wasting that wolf."

Unfortunately, Rowan has missed Boog's shinning moment & can't properly appreciate it in the retelling.

Rowan will pace about some. He eyes the boulder. He wonders if he could climb it and make it his archer's nest. Meanwhile, he'll help collect wood for a fire. "Good idea." he mumbles as he works. "I should have thought of that."

OOC: I created the boulder, but won't try to define it further.... As for feat selection - that's for your advice. I'll go with combat reflexes for now.