Alesia_BH

Arcadia, Moon-Godlike Wizard: Undying Heritage Part 1 With most of the party at level 6, Arcadia and her crew felt ready to take on the vessels of Heritage Hill. I'll cover the Undying Heritage Quest in two parts and then follow with a stand alone post on Missing Sentries. Note that despite our heavy use of spells, we did not leave the area to rest or proffer additional camping equipment. In the opening skeleton fight, we shrugged off an opening Minoletta's barrage and then closed without significant injury. Here we see the party taking its standard buffs while the skeletons, enjoying a terrain advantage, unload their Minoletta's. The wood beetles took the brunt of the damage, but Alena was hurt, too. The wizards flank west to neutralize the enemy wizards as Cassia fires up a Consecrated Ground in defense of Alena. The enemy wizards are down now. Alena is healthy and safe. The priests and warriors finish the remaining frontliners while Arcadia takes care of the last archer. After completing the opening fight, we camped, taking accuracy bonus v vessel all around. We replenished our camping supplies with the near by freebie. The minor encounters and the Valtas estate battles were fought with per rest abilities, supplemented with Prayer Against Infirmity. Pallegina required a Potion of Infuse with Vital Essence by the end. In the final fight before the tower battles, we tossed a few spells. We didn't need them, but we had some to spare. We used Curse of Blackened Sight and Concelhault's Corrosive Siphon. We rested before engaging the area's focal battle at the base of the tower, taking advantage of the freebie camping supplies near the Valtas estate. We fought the tower battle at the top of the ramp. Our recently acquired adra beetle was positioned over the ramp, facilitating use of its lightning spells. Note that we worked Armor fo Faith back into the mix this time, since our enemies took some time to close, granting us the luxury of time. Adra beetle gets the party started. Now its a full-out air war. The vessels can't win. Cassia refreshes our Inspiring Radiance as we prepare to finish. In to the tower we go! Best, A.

Arcadia, Moon-Godlike Wizard: The Final Act The battle with Lumdala at the conclusion of The Final Act was our most challenging fight in some time. That isn't saying much, though seeing as how was haven't suffered a knockout or taken a non-trivial injury since the Temple of Eothas. There were no knockouts here, and very little red, in the end, but Cassia was disabled briefly and she did take some damage. Standard opening (I'll skip the rundown since I assume everyone knows how this works by now). That was followed by Curse of Blackened Sight, to aid our front liners, and an Interdiction from Cassia, resulting in a psychic backlash that left her stunned. Alena carries on without her partner, landing an Iconic Projection. The wizards get ready to add Chill Fog + Fireball. Cassia is back. We're at full strength again. Lumdala falls, but Cassia has taken an arrow with Deep Wounds. Rough fight for her, comparatively speaking. Alena tosses Cassia a Holy Radiance as Arcadia and Alikae end it with a second Chill Fog + Fireball salvo. Best, A.

Arcadia, Moon-Godlike Wizard: Assassin Ambush Shortly after completing The Man Who Waits, Arcadia and her team were ambushed by assassins. Twice. I'll just post on one of these fights, since they were very similar. There were no injuries to speak of in either, but one was sloppy. I'll post the sloppy one. The first ambush was slightly inelegant, since I had wasted time positioning the wizards and then lost my rhythm with them. Fortunately, the priests bailed us out, allowing us to prevail without incident. Here we see the opening. The problem here is that neither Arcadia nor Alikae are in position to apply their AoE damage spells to the bulk of our enemies and getting them in position would put them uncomfortably close to our foes. Our solution was to fire up Llengrath's to supplement our veils, but that took time. Finally, the wizards get in the game. Their characteristic coordination is nowhere to be seen, however: Alikae's Slicken, for example, was wasted due to needless delay. Thankfully, the priest are already making progress with their projections. By the time the wizards have gotten it together, executing Binding Web + Noxious Burst, soon to be followed by Chill Fog + Fireball, the priest have already effectively won the fight with their projections. The priests end it while our wizards look on in shame. Just one of those days, I guess. Best, A.

Arcadia, Moon-Godlike Wizard: The Man Who Waits I don't usually do The Man Who Waits early on story grounds, but since we intend to use both Ravenwing and Blaidh Golan in this run, I couldn't resist. This went smoothly, unsurprisingly. Our first move was to duck into Uscgrim's cell. Then, we got to work, leading with our standard opening: Cassia, Inspiring Radiance; Alena, Circle of Protection; Arcadia, Arcane Veil->Eldritch Aim; Alikae, Arcane Veil->Eldritch Aim. That was followed by Interdiction + Dire Blessing from the priests and Slicken + Chill Fog from the wizards. Next: Alikae, Fireball; Cassia, Iconic Projection; Alena, Iconic Projection; Arcadia, Arcane Assault (Arcadia's book is still light on AoE stuff, in the interest of nudging her towards melee) And that's all it took! Slight damage to Eder and Pallegina due to Infestation of Maggots and Deep Wounds. No injuries aside from that. Arcadia, who will be taking Weapon Focus: Noble, took Ravenwing. Alikae, who is a roguish, outdoorsy drifter, took Blaidh Golan. More updates soon. Best, A.

Druids are scary. They're very good at applying hard to resist, party wide, DoT effects. Druid fights must be handled with care. Serg is running with a druid PC and Enuhal had a player created NPC druid along for the ride. Druids are fairly well represented in the challenge, I'd say. If they've seemed underutilized, that's probably because I, personally, haven't used one yet. The only reason for that is that I find Hirvias kind of creepy in a Jan Jansen sort of way. I probably will run a druid relatively soon, though- possibly in my next run. Best, A.

Arcadia, Moon-Godlike Wizard: Party Status Update! My intention from now on is to do party status reports within every update, like Serg does. But since I hadn't gotten in the habit of taking the screenies I need to do that, the last few posts were missing party info. To redress that, I've composed a stand alone party status update post, with pictures and commentary. Below you'll find our skills, talents, and abilities along with character records and inventories. If you have any questions on the inventories, just ask. Our crew appears below in marching order. First, a few notes: 1) many of the item choices -particularly armor and head gear- were made to match portraits and or backgrounds; 2) we've suffered only one knockout so far (Eder to oozes early, in the Temple of Eothas); 3) the vast majority of our damage has come from Arcadia and Alikae; 4) with the exception of Pallegina and Eder -who spend most of their time standing around, waiting to defend the casters- all of our characters have excellent damage done to damage taken ratios- especially the wizards; 5) I'm pleased with our progress so far, despite the fact that our inventories are bare. Best, A. Eder, Fighter- (lvl 5): Stealth:0; Athletic:7; Lore:4; Mechanics:0; Survival:4; Abilities: Knock Down, Confident Aim, Disciplined Barrage; Talents: Weapon and Shield Style, Weapon Focus: Adventurer Character Record and Inventory https://imgur.com/sWyXDTH https://imgur.com/w2sodWW Pallegina, Paladin- (lvl 5): Stealth:0; Athletic:7; Lore:4; Mechanics:0, Survival:4;; Abilities: Zealous Focus, Flames of Devotion, Liberating Exhortation; Talents: Weapon and Shield Style, Weapon Focus: Knight Character Record and Inventory https://imgur.com/2ueHgiy https://imgur.com/UWMeYlg Arcadia, Wizard (lvl 5): Stealth:0; Athletic:2; Lore:8; Mechanics:0; Survival:4; Talents: Arcane Veil, Hardened Veil Level 1 - Concehault's Parasitic Staff, Chill Fog, Spirit Shield, Eldritch Aim; Level 2 - Curse of Blackened Sight, Infuse With Vital Essence, Merciless Gaze, Bewildering Spectacle; Level 3 - Llengrath’s Displaced Image; Deleterious Alacrity of Motion; Concelhault’s Draining Touch; Expose Vulnerabilities Character Record and Inventory https://imgur.com/XlkOqJT https://imgur.com/GNBaLlC Alikae, Wizard (lvl 5): Stealth:1; Athletic:0; Lore:2; Mechanics:8; Survival:2; Talents: Arcane Veil; Hardened Veil Level 1 - Fan of Flames, Slicken, Eldritch Aim, Minoletta's Minor Missiles; Level 2 - Binding Web, Concelhault's Corrosive Siphon, Combusting Wounds, Mirror Image; Level 3 - Fireball, Expose Vulnerabilities, Kalokoth’s Minor Blights; Llengrath’s Displaced Image Character Record and Inventory https://imgur.com/JYee3Fm https://imgur.com/Hrwgv57 Alena, Priest of Wael (lvl 5): Stealth:0; Athletic:2; Lore:8; Mechanics:0; Survival:4; Talents: Interdiction, Inspiring Radiance Character Record and Inventory https://imgur.com/ErSStSD https://imgur.com/BzNLqni Cassia, Priest of Eothas (lvl 5): Stealth:3; Athletic:1; Lore:7; Mechanics:0; Survival:4; Talents: Interdiction, Inspiring Radiance Character Record and Inventory https://imgur.com/KY2X7xg https://imgur.com/mK16n1K

Great post, Enuhal! I love that you did Raedric pre-Caed Nua (although I don't think I could ever bring myself to side with him) Best, A.

Arcadia, Moon-Godlike Wizard: Raedric Hold We did Raedric Hold early this run for one simple reason: we needed the money. The attentive reader will have noticed that we've been using a lot of consumables, notably Scrolls of Defense. Factoring in food and lodging, most of our fights have been break-even endeavors. We've upgraded some equipment, but many of our items are still unenchanted. Further, progress on Caed Nua has lagged: we've only built Brighthollow and the Main Keep. Raedric Hold -done the bloody way- offered financial salvation while also giving us a chance to do a nominal good. And so we did it. We entered the hold by climbing the vines. Since most of our party members are casters, with few to no points in Athletics, over half of the party ended up fatigued. Fortunately, we still had the exact number of rests that we needed, even setting aside the freebie from Nedmar. In the early fights we used our pre-encounter abilities only. Due to our low innate accuracies, per-encounter ability fights are relatively difficult for us. That said, having two Inspiring Radiances and two Interdictions typically gives us just enough buff/debuff power to tilt the balance of power in our favor. We took very virtually no damage in these fights. What damage we did take came from Divine Marks. Pallegina was hit by one soon after we entered the Sanctuary. After that unpleasant experience we made a point of interrupting priests , allowing us to make it to the chapel without further incident. We were free to use our spells in the chapel battle. Our opening here was Cassia, Circle of Protection; Alena, Inspiring Radiance; Arcadia, Arcane Veil->Eldritch Aim; Alikae, Arcane Veil->Eldritch Aim. Pallegina and Eder held position in the doorway. We skipped the beetles to clear the way for party unfriendly AoE spells. Eder took a Divine Mark, losing some health. That was countered with a Potion of Infuse with Vital Essence. We moved to phase two of our battle plan: Chill Fog + Slicken, followed by AoE damage Time to work some L3s in. Cassia, Dire Blessing; Alena, Pillar of Faith; Alikae, Fireball Finishing with some melee. After collecting the camping gear in the dungeon, we rested. We used per-encounter abilities + Prayer Against Infirmity + Armor of Faith against the vessels. To Osyra. Eder, Wood Beetles; Cassia, Circle of Protection; Alena, Inspiring Radiance; Arcadia, Arcane Veil->Eldritch Aim; Alikae, Arcane Veil->Eldritch Aim After confirming that the beetles were occupying Osrya and her skeleton mage, we focused on the front-liners. Curse of Blackened Sight and Combusting Wounds from Arcadia and Alikae. Iconic Projections from the priests. We had been webbed, but since we had no intention of moving, we chose not to spend an action on remedying that. Osrya's timing was perfect. She finished the beetle in her vicinity just as we had finished the front liners. There's nothing to stop us form unloading on her now. Slicken + Chill Fog->Fireball. Arcadia takes clean-up duty Time for Raedric. I was slightly nervous about this, believe it or not. I've yet to fight Raedric at L5. And while I had every reason to believe it would be a trivial fight, I had some pangs of doubt. We went resource heavy, as a consequence. That was wasteful, I suppose, but it led to a satisfying, injury free fight. Our opening was Eder, Wood Beetles; Pallegina, Scroll of Protection; Cassia, Circle of Protection; Alena, Scroll of Valor; Arcadia, Arcane Veil; Alikae, Arcane Veil (the Scroll of Valor allowed us to skip Eldritch Aim). Cassia finishes up our defensive buffs with Amor of Faith. Alena adds a Dire Blessing. Alikae and Arcadia go Chill Fog + Slicken. Pallegina and Eder wait alongside the beetles, ready to protect the casters. There's a lot of armor on the field, so Alikae drops an Expose Vulnerabilities before we unleash our damage spells. The priests add Interdiction and then start firing off their Iconic Projections. This has become a slaughter. The backline is dead, save an archer. Raedric is dead. Our wizards focus on the front line, starting with Curse of Blackened Sight and Combusting Wounds. The priests keep pumping Iconic Projections. Iconic Projections and a few melee taps end the front liners sooner than expected. Alikae finishes it with Forgiveness. We made one mistake here: Pallegina stepped in Arcadia's Chill Fog which, unbeknownst to me was still active under the Fireball scorch marks. We'll watch out for that in upcoming fights Best, A.

What are you up to these days, Semiticgod?

Arcadia, Moon-Godlike Wizards: Shades and Forest Lurkers On our way to Raedric Hold we received word that shades and forest lurkers were attacking the stronghold. That sounded strange to me because it doesn't even seem like they'd hangout together. It's like hearing that Ted Nugent and Sarah Silverman are TPing the front lawn. No. I'm pretty sure that's not happening. Anyhoo, to the fight. With most of our party members at L5, we're now seeking ways to work L3s into our game plan. We don't have it down quite yet. Nonetheless, we prevailed without significant injury once again, despite facing some seriously annoying enemies. Standard opening: Pallegina, Scroll of Defense; Eder, Wood Beetles; Arcadia, Arcane Veil->Eldritch Aim; Alikae, Arcane Veil->Eldritch Aim; Cassia, Armor of Faith; Alena, Holy Radiance. Pausing briefly to see how the battlefield developed, we decided to skip Slicken this time and have Alikae immediately tap L3 with Fireball. Arcadia, meanwhile, is tossing Chill Fogs. The priests go Interdiction and Circle of Protection. Alena adds on a Dire Blessing while Cassia moves on to Iconic Projection. The wizards turn their attention to the enemy front line, casting Combusting Wounds and Curse of Blackened Sight. The priests are both tossing Iconic Projections now. Arcadia, who has an enemy at her side, fires up a Llengrath's and prepares to go into tank mode. Eder, making limited progress with his flail, attempts to activate Sunbeam via the Sun-Touched Mail of Hyan Rath. Steady, everyone. We're getting there! Stick to the game plan! The shade gives up on attacking Arcadia and goes for Alena. By this point, I had realized that Eder was frozen by a glitch, which is why his Sunbeam was taking forever. He resumes melee under Disciplined Barrage and scores his first kill. Alena smokes her assailant with a Divine Mark. Just the lurkers left now. Eder races to assist Pallegina; Arcadia goes Curse of Blackened Sight->melee; Alikae flanks east to unload Fans of Flame; the priests go Interdiction + Barbs of Condemnation Arcadia ends it (with an assist from Alikae). Best, A.

Glad to have you back, Enuhal! Best, A.

Arcadia, Moon-Godlike Wizard: Minor Quests in and Around Defiance Bay After collecting our beetle shells, we took on two more minor quest out of Defiance Bay: The Parable of Wael and Built to Last. Both of these fights went reasonably well. First, The Parable of Wael. The Parable of Wael fight was slightly inelegant simply because the battle ended before we could ramp up into stages three and four of our battle plan. That led to a few wasted spells. It also meant that Arcadia never got a chance to transition into melee mode. Bummer. We won without significant injury once again, though, so I suppose it's all good. Here we see the opening. Eder, Wood Beetles; Pallegina Scroll of Defense; Arcadia, Arcane Veil->Eldritch Aim; Alikae, Arcane Veil->Eldritch Aim; Alena, Insiping Radiance->Interdiction; Cassia, Armor of Faith In round two, Pallegina engages with Flames of Devotion. Eder holds position astride the beetles to intercept line breakers. Alikae goes Slicken while Arcadia casts Chill Fog. The priests start pulsing Iconic Projections. The enemy is pretty much screwed now. They're dazed; they're blind; they're on their butts; and their butts are cold. Plus, they're getting pounded with Iconic Projections. Alikae isn't sure that Iben is getting enough Chill Fog so she targets her with a Minoletta's. We don't want to see any spells out of Iben. We're ready to transition to phase three of the battle plan now. The problems is that there's very few people left to kill. Those Divine Marks? One of them was wasted? That Combusting Wounds: Pointless- everybody is dead or dying. And Arcadia never got to use her staff either. Whoah there, Alena! Chill! They're totally dead already! Right. Onto Built to Last. But first: Danna's beau. We just used per encounter abilities here: Holy Radiance + Interdiction + Arcane Assault. Naturally, we used weapons, too. Once again, no real injuries here. Built to Last was fun because we got to see what happens when someone breaks the line. An enemy rogue used Escape to leap over the beetles and threaten our casters. Here's the problem with that. Thanks to their Arcane Veils and illusions, Alikae and Arcadia are as tough to kill as the tanks. And if you get near the priests, that means you're in range for double Divine Marks, meaning you'll be taking a couple hundred HP of damage very soon. Here's the opening. Note the rogue up in Alena's grill. Double Divine Marks incoming. Pallegina observes, ready to intervene, but the priests have got this. Smoked! We're in party friendly mode this time, on account of Vianna. That means no Slicken and Chill Fog from the wizards. Instead, they go Curse of Blackened Sight + Combusting Wounds in round 2. Our enemies are dazed and blind and they're burning. Here come the Arcane Assaults and Iconic Projections. The wizards refresh their veils and prepare for the finish. It's a race now. Arcadia can't reach her target because Alikae took it out with a Minoletta's. Eder and Pallegina fight over the last kill, deploying Knockdown and Flame of Devotion respectively. But Arcadia sneaks in and gets the last knock. Soon, I'll set aside a post to discuss party status. Ciao for now! Best, A.

Arcadia will spend some of her time in melee and some of her time at range. Alikae, a prior PC and successful Hard NRer, turned NPC, wore Blaidh Golan, which I think is an excellent choice for a melee mage. It's hide so the recovery penalty is minimal. At the same time, it offers excellent bonuses for a melee character- especially one with a relatively low Fort score. When I select gear for characters stylistic cohesion is a significant concern. I don't focus on maximizing the power of my character builds. Instead, I strive to be tactically proficient enough to allow me to pilot RP plausible, stylistically cohesive characters safely through the adventure. Stylistically, the obvious choice for Arcadia, a Moon-Godlike, is the Starlit Garb. She'll wear that. Our Priest of Wael, Alena, will get the Rainment of Wael's Eyes. Thanks for covering this, Serg! I contemplated writing something similar. And Arctur, I'm super-glad that you'll be joining us! Looking forward to your run! Thanks! I feel I'm making progress, at least. I'd say that I've made the transition from novice to intermediate. I still have a lot to learn, though! Huh? Now I'm wondering what type of parties you go to? Best, A.

Promise me you'll use it in a job interview. I mean, you can two-step to cover it up after the fact, but you have to work it in there. "I don't know who else you've interviewed for this position, but I can promise you this: I will out work them and outbeetle them every day of the week" "I'm sorry: What did you just say?" "I said...I said that I'm a hard worker. And that my skin is thick. Like chitin. And whatever you need -even if you need someone to roll dung- I'll be on it"

Thanks! Any chance you'll join us? I found it on Fandom. I don't recall what search led me to it. I find most of my character portraits here: http://char-portraits.tumblr.com When I'm ready to start a new game, I scan the feed until I find something that interests me. I then decide what the character's class, attributes, tactical style, and background should be based on the portrait. It's a semi-random character generation method, essentially. Scanning the feed for a about a minute a moment ago, I found 6 candidates: Ranger Rogue (Arya Stark) Rogue or Chanter Fighter or Paladin Cipher Fighter or Barbarian It's a great resource. Best, A. Btw, the last two will probably become characters in the not-too-distant

Arcadia, Moon-Godlike Wizard: Od Nua Level 1 Beetle shells! Yeah, we're here for the beetle shells. We'll cover this quickly so I can catch up and start playing again. The first spider group was killed with Chill Fogs while Eder and Pallegina stood in a doorway. The beetles were killed with per encounter abilities. Eder and Pallegina lost some health here. But, yeah, we got our beetle shells, so that won't be a problem going forward. We rested before taking on the looters. This was fun. We opened with beetles to divide their front line. Eder and Pallegina intercepted the two looters who made it pass the beetles. Armor of Faith and Inspiring Radiance from the priests; the wizards are waiting to see how the battle field develops before deploying their spells. Ok. Let's get to work. Arcadia buffs in preparation for a backline assault; Alikae gets to work on the front liners with Combusting Wounds->Concelhault's Corrosive Siphon. The priests toss some debuffs, Divine Terror and Interdiction. Arcadia is ready for her backline assault now. She takes a moment to thin out line two before proceeding to the archers. The archers are dead, the last fronliner's days are numbered, thanks to an incoming Divine Mark We converge on the remaining mid-liner for the finish. Finally, the spider queen. Beetles first. Eder takes position behind the beetles to intercept any line breakers. Pallegina positions east to intercept any who might come around. Arcadia starts her buffing while awaiting the incoming foes. Slicken + Chill Fog + Iconic Projection decimates the little spiders and holds off the spider queen's assault. Pallegina prepares to intercept the flanker, supported by Minoletta's from Alikae. The stage is set for a showdown: Spider Queen v Arcadia. The party holds back and watches. Let's do this! (Note Arcadia's buffs. Note, too, that Zealous Endurance and Inspiring Radiance are suppressed: Eldritch Aim at +15 is the only acc buff here) Victory. And beetle shells! Best, A.

Arcadia, Moon-Godlike: Minor Quest in Defiance Bay After visiting the Temple of Woedica, Arcadia completed a few minor quests in Defiance Bay: Rogue Knight (peaceful), At All Costs, and His Old Self. I'll forgo coverage of Rogue Knight and jump right into At All Costs. Despite our low levels (4/3), I was confident heading into this encounter. Danna and her crew are a lot less threatening than they look. Further, Verzanno's Valian guards aren't entirely useless. It would be pretty hard to lose this fight. Here we see the opening. Eder, who had flanked east to defend Verzanno, has dropped some beetles. Kana has used a Scroll of Defense. The priests have gone Armor of Faith and Inspiring Radiance, respectively. Alikae went Arcane Veil->Eldritch Aim, while Arcadia prepared her melee buffs. We're ready to go on the offensive. Most of the party is focused on Danna, as Arcadia finishes her buffs: Divine Terror + Interdiction from the priests, melee engagement from Eder and Kana, and a gentle nudge toward death, via Minoletta's, from Alikae. Meanwhile, the beetles are nip, nip, nipping at Danna's heals and keeping Verzanno safe. If this is Danna's idea of an assassination plan, then it's amazing that she's lived this long: she's outnumbered, she's outgunned, and she's out-beetled. The only thing she has going for her is that hat. Is it fashion week in Defiance Bay? Danna is dead thanks to a crit via Merciless Gaze. We move onto the next target while Verzanno reloads Forgiveness. Entering clean-up phase now. Note that the priests are tossing Barbs of Condemnation rather than Divine Marks due to the longer range. We skipped Iconic Projection in this fight because I wasn't 100% sure how it would effect allied non-party combatants and I didn't want to risk turning the Valians hostile. Arcadia ends it. Following the battle, we released Kana and added Pallegina. On our way back to Copperlane, we were assaulted by Doemenel thugs. Mr. Innocent-Bystander has a valid question. He soon had his answer. Finally, HIs Old Self. We've positioned Eder and his Knockdowns near Nyrid. Pallegina is prepared to defend the party. The rest of the crew is to the south, in the corner, with the mages in the front. Combat begins. Eder, Knockdown (Nyrid); Pallegina, Scroll of Defense; Arcadia and Alikae, Arcane Veil->Eldritch Aim; Alena, Armor of Faith; Cassia, Holy Radiance. We're on the offensive now. Eder, Knockdown (Nyrid); Pallegina, Flames of Devotion; Alena, Iconic Projection; Cassia, Iconic Projection; Alikae, Combusting Wounds->Concelhault's Corrosive Siphon; Arcadia, Curse of Blackened Sight->Wizard Double Once again, Arcadia ends it with her staff. We had fewer spells available to us on the second floor, but we still had more than enough. Armor of Faith + Holy Radiance->Interdiction from the priests; Combusting Wounds->Concelhault's from Alikae; Chill Fog from Arcadia. Nest stop: Caed Nua. We need some beetle shells. Best, A.

Arcadia, Moon-Godlike Wizard: The Queen That Was Ok! Arcadia's updates have fallen a teensy-tiny bit behind her progress. In the interest of catching up, I'll upload four posts in quick succession: one covering The Queen That Was, another covering minor quest in Defiance Bay, and another covering L1 of the Endless Paths. Those posts will be followed by a stand alone post summarizing the party's current items and abilities. Let's get to it! As a central storyline quest, The Queen That Was is worthy of its own post, in my opinion. It is, however, a very brief quest. This won't take long. There are three encounters worth talking about: the oozes, the troll/sporeling crew, and the Leaden Key inner sanctum. We let Eder solo the oozes, assisted by the Marvelous Mr. Reny. We did this in the interest of preserving health, since we'd yet to visit Cartugo or harvest beetle shell for Potions of Infuse with Vital Essence. Against the troll/sporeling crew, we used the bridge as a choke point. Prayer Against Infirmity was added to our standard buffs. Most of the damage here was done by AoE spells cast by Arcadia and Alikae Finally, a note on the Leaden Key ceremony. As we all know, taking the peaceful route is the safest option here, especially if you do the quest early. But what should god-likes do, seeing as how they can't equip the Woedica hood? Simple. Take the Woedica hood and put it in your god-like PC's inventory. When you approach the door, you'll get an option to put it on. Take that option, and you'll be fine. Toodle-doodles! Best, A.

The size of the gap isn't a huge deal, but it is noticeable. Player created NPCs won't always be one level behind. Sometimes they're one level behind and at other times they're at the same level. The proportion of time spent 1 level behind, versus at the same level, is a function of the size of the gap. The larger the gap, the more time spent behind.

Yes. AoF works against elemental damage. It's a solid spell: it has a meaningful effect, the duration is moderately long, and the cost is cheap. It doesn't stack with consumables, but its DR value is superior to them (Ynefer: 3, Ale: 2, Beer: 1, ) Later in the adventure the temporal opportunity cost becomes significant, and so you'll see us using it less, but we'll still put it into play, time permitting I do switch armor on occasion, but not that often. At this point, the early game is easy enough for me that armor switching wouldn't be worth the effort. Later, when quality armors are available, the cost of maintaining a wardrobe becomes significant. If I were solo -or if I had an overabundance of resources- I'd switch more. When I do switch, it's usually for a bonus verses one affliction or another. (Note that the DR quotes for armor are a little confusing. You'll see a base DR number and then other numbers below associated with specific damage types. If there is no number below for a particular type, that doesn't mean that the armor offers no protection against that type: it means that the base number applies. So, hide armor, for example, isn't more protective against cold than leather armor. They're both 6s. The only advantage of hide versus leather against cold is the -5% recovery.) EDIT: I just noticed that Serg covered this already. Thanks, Serg! Right. That's why I recruit ASAP. Note, though, that if you are close to a level the gap can be smaller if you wait a little. EX: If you're at L2 and have 2750 XP, you're better off waiting. If you recruit as soon as you reach L3, 3000 XP, you'll recruit a character with 1000 XP for a gap of 2000. In contrast, if you recruit immediately the gap would be 2750: 2750 v 0. It wasn't literally a trap. We just tossed Slicken and some stationary AoE stuff (Web and Chill Fog) at a point that he couldn't avoid. Maerwald failed his save against Slicken. I think he failed against Web, too, but the animation is harder to see. The blights are immune to both prone and stuck, but they stayed there anyways- not sure why, possibly blindness I'm unfold of retraining. It seems like a bailout option for players who've made build mistakes. It rarely makes sense from an RP perspective. I will, on occasion, retrain NPCs to suit my needs. When I do that I do it reluctantly. I have not as of yet retrained a PC. I imagine it could be powerful, with the requisite game knowledge to leverage it. Best, A. Btw, apologies for the sparse, inelegant replies- I'm really tired now!

Arcadia, Moon-Godlike Wizard: Caed Nua Our challenge regulars seem to have Caed Nua figured out now. That's good news. Arcadia is here to spread the word. But first, a note on party management: Durance is history. I really wanted to keep him this time -really I did, honest ( )- but the secret circle of Eothasian priests insisted on assassinating him again and so Cassia (who you may recall from Ashoka's run) has returned. You may be wondering why we recruited Cassia so late. Well, I was leaning toward replacing Durance with Sagani. But I decide that I was enjoying having two priests again, so we added Cassia. Since we recruited her late, her XP lag is on the large side, but we'll work through that- no worries at all. To the fights! Or, in the case of the courtyard, the lack thereof. We stealthed by the shadows, following the wall. We then took on the unavoidable will'o'wisp before harvesting some primal flame from the flame blights. We added a lash to Yenwood. Into the hall. We secured our hidey-hole and then pulled the spirits. This time we made a point of using the shadow to block out the phantoms- not so much because we needed to, but as practice for an upcoming solo. Now that we have Inspiring Radiance, the priests open with Armor of Faith + Holy Radiance. Arcadia, who is the third member of the front line, took her Arcane Veil before going Eldritch Aim->Chill Fog. Alikae tossed Concelhault's + Arcane Assault. Kana ran At the Sight + Come, Come. Eder basically stood there looking tough. What ever damage Eder took was healed by Consecrated Ground. Well done, team! To Maerwald! The plan here was to exit the room, aggregate to buff, disperse to mitigate AoE damage risk, and lay stationary AoE stuff at the doorway. Here we are buffing. And here we are spread out, watching Maewald, stuck in an unavoidable trap, slowly dying. One mistake here: Eder was too close. He shouldn't have been within AA range. No need for that. By the time he broke free, his blights were mostly tapped and he was near dead. Good on Eder for scoring the payback kill. Onto to Defiance Bay! Best, A. Current Status: Arcadia, Wizard (lvl 4): Stealth:0; Athletic:1; Lore:7; Mechanics:1; Survival:4; Talents: Arcane Veil, Hardened Veill; Grimoire: Level 1 - Concehault's Parasitic Staff, Chill Fog, Spirit Shield, Eldritch Aim; Level 2 - Curse of Blackened Sight, Infuse With Vital Essence, Merciless Gaze Alikae, Wizard (lvl 4): Stealth:1; Athletic:0; Lore:2; Mechanics:7; Survival:1; Talents: Arcane Veil; Hardened Veill; Grimoire: Level 1 - Fan of Flames, Slicken, Eldritch Aim, Minoletta's Minor Missiles; Level 2 - Binding Web, Concelhault's Corrosive Siphon, Combusting Wounds Alena, Priest of Wael (lvl 4): Stealth:0; Athletic:1; Lore:6; Mechanics:0; Survival:4; Talents: Interdiction, Inspiring Radiance Eder, Fighter- (lvl 4): Stealth:2; Athletic:5; Lore:1; Mechanics:0; Survival:4; Talents: Rapid Recovery; Abilities: Knock Down, Fighting Spirit, Defender Kana, Chanter (lvl 4): Respecced, but I don't have deets available right now Cassia, Priest of Eothas (lvl 3): No deets: sorry!

Arcadia, Moon-Godlike Wizard: Anslog's Compass I'll just say it: I'm really enjoying this run. We're spamming vancian spells on helpless, low level mooks. I suppose that's a little unsporting. But I do need to practice my timing for tough fights and this is a great way to do it. So, yeah. I have an excuse. Let's talk about the fights. First, the xaurips. We had a good time with this. And as you can see in the screenshots, the xaurips thought they were going to have a good time, too. Look at them run: "Yippy-skippy! Speary-speary time!" But then: "Damn! What's this? We're stuck." "And now we're stuck and falling. And blind. And holy frack it's cold." Yeah. Not a fun day for the xaurips after all. Onto the sporelings. Standard opening. Followed by Chill Fog and Concehault's Corrosive Siphon. We dropped the ball a bit on that backline charger. Arcadia should have intercepted him, running her Hardened Veil. Instead, she re-applied blindness. True, I wasn't certain that that one had picked up blindness in the fog, but I should have checked rather than tossing a spell to hedge. That needless delay let him get to Alena. Fortunately, we had a contingency plan in place. Alena: Withdraw; Durance: Divine Mark; Kana: Reny's; Arcadia: Engage in melee Arcadia with the finish. Finally, the dank spores. My thanks to Semiticgod for reminding me that the Hermit Hat provides confusion immunity. We'll keep using that. Caed Nua is next. Best, A.

You're right, of course. But this is a style choice, I think. Semiticgod tends towards a semi-chaotic play style. I think he appreciates that more proactive defense would increase survivability. It just doesn't seem as fun to him right now as flashy damage. That's why he's gravitated to rogues and ciphers and has a dour assessment of priests. I'd love to see Semiticgod succeed on PotD. Soon. And I do think focusing on defense would get him there quicker. But I also think it's pretty cool that he's playing the game in ways that are completely different from everyone else (his posts are fun to read). I'm also confident that he'll figure something out if he keeps at it. If he's enjoying himself -and he doesn't mind filling the graveyard- then I'd just assume encourage him to keep being wild. This is all goofy fun, in the end. I vote for fewer meanderings into horrible, run ending death traps, like Searing Falls and that spider pit. But aside from that, I'm enjoying the ride- so long as he is, that is. Best, A.

Makes sense. (I'd think this would hinge, to a significant extent, on whether you are solo or in a party. If you're in a party, with a reliable means of applying afflictions, with little or no opportunity cost, you'd be better off with Annihilation, at least from a DPS perspective. If solo, and in need of means of applying afflictions, then on hit effects would be preferable.)

Arcadia, Moon-Godlike, Wizard: The Smith's Shipment On the way to Anslog's Compass, the party took a detour to assist Peregrund and recover Tuatanu's craters. I'll just cover Tuatanu's quest here. This was super fun. Our party, now at L3, is shaping up. First the trolls. After a standard opening (Armor of Faith, Blessing, Arcane Veils and Eldritch Aims), our cold, darkness, and confusion (lunacy) wizard, the Moon-Godlike Arcadia, collaborated with our fire and brimstone wizard, the Fire-Godlike Alikae, to set us up for the kill. Alikae: Slicken->Web; Arcadia: Chill Fog. Time to bring the pain. Alikae gets in position for Fan of Flames; Durance and Alena close for double Divine Marks on the backline infiltrator. Arcadia readies her staff. And go. (Note, Semitigod, that the 81 and the 67 came from the priests: by L3 the can start putting on the hurt) Arcadia finishes off the line breacher with her staff; the priests get ready to drop another Clean up now. Onto the bandits! Standard opening, with the addition of Wizard Double for Eder. We followed with Divine Terror + Curse of Blackened Sight + Consecrated Ground We're using party friendlies this time due to spacing. The priests notice that our foes are in a line so they go with Iconic Projections instead of Divine Marks. Arcadia's staff is on the way. Nice crit from Arcadia. That was quick... Race to the finish line. Best, A. Arcadia, Wizard (lvl 4): Stealth:0; Athletic:1; Lore:7; Mechanics:1; Survival:4; Talents: Arcane Vei, Hardened Veill; Grimoire: Level 1 - Concehault's Parasitic Staff, Chill Fog, Spirit Shield, Eldritch Aim; Level 2 - Curse of Blackened Sight, Infuse With Vital Essence, Merciless Gaze Alikae, Wizard (lvl 3): Stealth:1; Athletic:0; Lore:2; Mechanics:6; Survival:1; Talents: Arcane Veil; Grimoire: Level 1 - Fan of Flames, Slicken, Eldritch Aim, Minoletta's Minor Missiles; Level 2 - Binding Web Concelhault's Corrosive Siphon Alena, Priest of Wael (lvl 3): Stealth:0; Athletic:1; Lore:5; Mechanics:0; Survival:4; Talents: Interdiction Eder, Fighter- (lvl 3): Stealth:2; Athletic:5; Lore:1; Mechanics:0; Survival:2; Talents: Rapid Recovery; Abilities: Knock Down, Fighting Spirit, Defender Kana, Chanter (lvl 3): Still waiting... Durance, Priest of Magran (lvl 3): Why do I even bother?