Mindflayer Themed Campaign (Recruiting Closed!)

[Thramzorean]

That primer was fun.

The fascinating bit to me was the lack of positive emotions... (excluding arguably curiousity)

Guess having an effective team around you would lead to a lessening of the sense of danger. Which is not a terrible thing...

Other than that, I supose there's a balancing of personal advancement against obeying the will of the EB (elder brain). Figure one blocker to really 'disruptive' behaviour is that the EB can pick through our brains pretty easily if it decides to?

I'd imagine it would be pretty difficult to lie to when you came to report back in... i.e. no don't give me a verbal report, I'll just rip what I want out of your brain directly

 

[Thramzorean]

Mindlink seems like a good plan - will check my XPH and see if it could be slotted in somewhere...

Just a quick note on that: it's very tempting with psionics to select a whole bunch of really good combat specific buff powers, but the bottom line is that it's often/usually very difficult even with schism to get them all in place and you need a good balance/game plan with what you're doing. Even if we have a lot of combat encounters that we have prior knowledge of and can buff in advance as mind flayers we're actually quite low level in terms of manifesting level vs. some of the 0 LA opponents we might meet and will be particularly vulnerable to Dispell. You can burn a heap of power points and then have everything wiped...

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Just a quick note on that: it's very tempting with psionics to select a whole bunch of really good buff powers, but the bottom line is that it's often/usually very difficult even with schism to get them all in place and you need a good balance/game plan with what you're doing. Even if we have a lot of encounters that we have prior knowledge of and can buff in advance as mind flayers we're actually quite low level in terms of manifesting level vs. some of the 0 LA opponents we might meet and will be particularly vulnerable to Dispell. You can burn a heap of power points and then have everything wiped...

A very fine point there!

Was more looking for a selection of situational buffs, mixed with some 'nasty' powers - 'cos I figured that's what mindflayers do! By 'nasty' I mean stuff that strikes me as having unpleasant visual effects/just plain wrong/etc.

Wasn't intending to rack the full suite on for any particular combat - just one or two that seem most useful at the time...

Either which way, I'll sit down and look over it all again, see what I can change - initial draft was a touch hurried.

 

[Wrahn]

Do not underestimate Schisms effect in combat, while it is true that it is quite limited in it's effect in combat with psionics (being six levels lower really limits what abilities it can use and how powerful an effect you can manifest, not useless by a long shot, but still limited). However you can use any purely mental action, like spell like abilities, like Mind Blast, all without provoking attacks of opportunity.

 

[Lord_Raven88]

Any comments on the group from the rest of the team in terms of complimentary abilities, powers and items? I was hoping we might have Mindlink as the power somewhere in the mix as the telepathy range may not cover scouting distances.

This is going to be a first for me in terms of a completely evil monstrous party, I presume the ultra high lawfulness of the mind flayers means that it shouldn't be too much of an issue in terms of back stabbing each other over 2 copper pieces. Everyone's obliged to put the task first and see other mind flayers get back alive to eventually join the elder brain sort of thing... now where did I put that brain canister

I agree, this is one reason my an all MF campaign is possible, due to the enforced uber-lawfulness of the EB.

Also bare in mind two prime goals of the average MF

• Domination of the Multiverse
• Merge with the EB upon death[/lis]
  1) The only hope of eventual domination is to work together towards this common goal, back stabbing your fellow MF is wasteful to say the least, and an impediment to this goal.
  2) MF's want to merge with the EB upon the death of their body, as they believe that their memories thoughts and personality survive absorption. Thus immortality is a guarantee and a award for being faithful.
  
  Also Mind Flayers see themselves as being superior to all other races, also practically all other races hate MF's.
  
  So it's probably a point of pride that MF's as a race don't fight against each other and that crime would be almost nonexistant. Also by killing each other you're doing a favour for the enemies of Mind Flayer kind.
  
  As such lets assume that the EB's enforce a strict law of non-violence amongst all Mind Flayers, with the exception being those who turn their backs on the Mind Flayer community. i.e. Alhoons, Sorcerers and rebels.
  
  

  I promise not to backstab the party... unless I have something substantial to gain.
  
  Though seriously, you should read the primer Lord Raven provided, Mind Flayers aren't exactly the nicest people in the world, but I don't see any problem as long as we are useful to one another.

  Obviously as a PC you can do as you please. But you won't be able to hide your acts from the EB!
  
  

  Other than that, I supose there's a balancing of personal advancement against obeying the will of the EB (elder brain). Figure one blocker to really 'disruptive' behaviour is that the EB can pick through our brains pretty easily if it decides to?

  Indeed
  

  I'd imagine it would be pretty difficult to lie to when you came to report back in... i.e. no don't give me a verbal report, I'll just rip what I want out of your brain directly

  Mind Flayers scorn verbal communication as only being fit for lesser primitive races.
  
  

  Either which way, I'll sit down and look over it all again, see what I can change - initial draft was a touch hurried.

  Let me know if you make changes as I'm in the process of evaluating everyones characters at the moment.

 

[Thramzorean]

Do not underestimate Schisms effect in combat, while it is true that it is quite limited in it's effect in combat with psionics (being six levels lower really limits what abilities it can use and how powerful an effect you can manifest, not useless by a long shot, but still limited). However you can use any purely mental action, like spell like abilities, like Mind Blast, all without provoking attacks of opportunity.

Yep, and that's sort of part and parcel as to what I was referring to above. Usually your schismed mind is too busy with other things to spend time buffing. 3 or 4 rounds buffing in the background and the fights already over in the meantime...

Astute move on hero4hire's part there with the craft arms and armor feat. Our items are a critical part of our ECL as in terms of 'effective' character level.

I hope we get through to the next level reasonably quickly, a few feat choices and ideas that will be a lot clearer actually seeing us in action. BTW Lord_Raven88 what is our starting xps?

 

[Voidrazor]

LR - I tweaked Laevictus' equipment slightly, removed Keen quality from its rapier and put in Vicious instead.

I also wanted to talk about party roles and tactics a bit. Laevictus will probably be the party scout. In combat it will usually attempt a hit and run death attack, use Dominate from a distance, or Telekinetic Thrust several hundred pounds of lead shotputs (I'll backstab him with my ballista ). I plan to either attack then move to hide or make concentration checks to suppress visible power effects. I also plan to use Synchronicity and Anticipatory Strike to try to reduce or eliminate enemy opportunities to attack back.

 

[Thramzorean]

LR - I tweaked Laevictus' equipment slightly, removed Keen quality from its rapier and put in Vicious instead.

I also wanted to talk about party roles and tactics a bit. Laevictus will probably be the party scout. In combat it will usually attempt a hit and run death attack, use Dominate from a distance, or Telekinetic Thrust several hundred pounds of lead shotputs (I'll backstab him with my ballista ). I plan to either attack then move to hide or make concentration checks to suppress visible power effects. I also plan to use Synchronicity and Anticipatory Strike to try to reduce or eliminate enemy opportunities to attack back.

We'll need to coordinate that with the runehounds' senses - 500 ft of blind sight . Have yet to think of a good name here... but it will be too valuable to have out at point which Laevictus is much better equiped for. Mindlinked with you in front say less than 400' should be good coverage protecting your back as well from anything you might have missed. If really heavy combat starts the runehound will have to retreat. I need to be able to make it invisible actually... here doggy, lap this up

For Tak's part its probably not going to be the front line fighter. I think Thule and Aclaum will be more the standard tanks with Tak and Kelderen filling the other niches/being more mobile strike powers. We need to think of some good things to do with Kelderen's metaconcert...

 

[Voidrazor]

Nice! I was worried that Laevictus didn't have access to perma-blindsight. The runehound's 500ft should ensure that we will pretty much always get to fully buff before encounters.

Have to admit, I've never really understood how Metaconcert works. Can all the participants act more or less normally? Or does just the mental entity act?

 

[Thramzorean]

Nice! I was worried that Laevictus didn't have access to perma-blindsight. The runehound's 500ft should ensure that we will pretty much always get to fully buff before encounters.

Have to admit, I've never really understood how Metaconcert works. Can all the participants act more or less normally? Or does just the mental entity act?

I've always assumed only the entity can act, as directed by the conductor: the conductor getting access to the power point pool, the pooled powers and the bonus on his/her DC, the base ML and DC being set by the conductor. But it's a knotty power with issues when you look at it in depth. That's one point that could be stated more clearly. Another is the actual manifester level of the entity and the primary attribute DC used - again I've always assumed the conductor's as being the logical route but there's nothing said about the manifester level and you could assume you get no primary attribute DC, only the entity bonus from participant numbers (but that seems one very sticky point, you could end up with a lower DC than the manifester in many applications and very high ones in groups like ours). I tried to make a PrC once based on this and it was not easy. But good for us with Schisms, then we can run up some really tough DC save or die powers like Fuse Flesh while still operating as individuals. With Laevictus being conductor (34 int ouch!) not having schism itself then we're bad news in a metaconcert. Another point with it is that by the RAW we could when schismed actually count as 2 individuals in the total pool if we put in all the partitioned minds. The is reasonable, the second schism is a completely separate entity in itself by the power descriptor. And we're bad news again. Some thorny points for our dear DM to work through..

Might get back to WotC Cust Serv on this. Always meant to.