Gorth

Warhammer 40k Squats are back! No, I'm not going to collect a Squat army. I have piles of unpainted miniatures, lots of them still in blister packs or shrink wrapped boxes. Collateral damage from constantly moving interstate/internationally. I sort of get along well with the local Games Workshop staff and the local manager gave me one of the new Squat miniatures to try out. I said yes, with the caveat that I haven't actually painted a single miniature for more than a decade. Shopped for some paint, dusted off my old brushes and settled on an orange colour scheme. Because why not? I can now check something off list. I've never in my 30+ years of playing Rogue Trader/Warhammer/WH40k etc. painted anything orange. Not even a Dwarf Slayer (and I do have a box with Gotrek and Felix). GW did change the name though, they are no longer called 'Squats', but 'Leage of Votann', because that is apparently a much cooler name for Squats (aka Dwarves in space). My first real paint job in 10+ years 😁

I was a bit lazy and after disabling the two closest traps, had Ember mass dimension door my party to the rear (to disable the rear traps), then spam chain lightning like there was no tomorrow. With elemental affinity: electricity, she's surprisingly effective at overcoming resistances. That was meta gaming a bit, because I knew I needed to hit enemies in there with various lightning to overcome regeneration (which wiped me for good in my first visit). Stormlord's Resolve was definitely an unexpected bonus. I had resigned myself to just spam lightning bolt as spontaneous spells with Ember and maybe use a few lightning wands on other party members. You hear me Seelah's horse? There is something for you to learn how to use!... (as well as elemental resistance electricity, stone skins etc.) Edit: As for successfully casting polymorph on him... omg 😂

When I first read the title (before clicking the link), I had mental image of a giant trebuchet launching a cow into space... I need to lay off the Monty Python videos

You don't say 😝 I was scratching my head at some point when Finnean just kept passing through enemies. Gave my barbarian a spare weapon for the rest of the fight. He may not be super proficient in longsword (I think it was either a +1 or +2 that I for some reason was lugging around in my inventory to sell later). I seriously thought Finnean was going through some kind of existential crisis when he no longer connected with the physical world 😂 It only took seven tries to get playful darkness down. Used Guarded Hearth, Smites, Bonds, Banes, Mark of Justice, Aru's bond ability, Death Wards, a few summons (my pet demon that Ember summons from her belt is just brilliant) and a handful pillars summoned by Sosiel. I think most of the attempts were trying to figure out how to kite the enemy to the pillars (without getting my party killed in the process). That harpy Galfrey is still keeping the door closed though, so now I'm in a place called The Nexus. I'm probably going to hell for this... Edit: Also, the Trickster Spellbook is growing in hilariousness. I didn't try to cast Hallucinogenic Cloud or Bears Grace on him (nor Fish missiles etc. as I think his resistance would make it an exercise in futility), but I did cast Glorious Beard on Seelah and Almost Greater Invisibility on myself as well as Summon Monster Zero. Maybe I should have cast the beard spell on Sosiel instead. He could use a bit of facial hair Edit2: For the experienced Tricksters out there, which tricks makes most sense? I currently give him Athletics because he already has a very high athletic skill point level, so leveraging that seemed like the logical thing to do for a barbarian, but would it have been more beneficial to pick another skill to focus on?

Split off from previous thread...

More Pathfinder adventures this way

I know this was a reply to IC, but I did notice how the otherwise neutral workers got all upset when Sosiel used his aoe heal. While I didn't think much about it at the time, I'll check out pillar of light as a weapon against playful darkness. I hope I won't need to rest too many times down here, because corruption levels have already surpassed '1' 😨 Bastard queen shut the door and threw the key away after shoving me through the doorway. Of course i completely missed the point, that he (playful darkness) may be optional at this point. That would just be so atypical to my current experience with the game (so far) 😂 The game does bring back memories of BG and BG2. Sort of what I imagine a modern remake of those oldies would look like. Also memories of the sheer amount of time sunk into it 😖 I still keep Finnean as my barbarians weapon (greatsword) and I noticed he has "grown" stat wise. I don't know if that is level dependent or story progress dependent as I find out more and more about Finnean's background before he became all sharp and edgy.

Yeah. Wait and see if it also walks in goose step. Then it's not a duck but a nationalist "patriot"!

Wait.... are you saying that: (bear in mind, I'm only in act IV, so I've no idea what happens in act V)

I don't know if it was intended as misdirection, but the "reveal" happens in Act III (you get some hints though when going through her childhood home) iirc.

😂 Warning, (big) spoiler ahead:

Made it past the last boss of those augmented enemies. 100 face? Something to that effect. A pain, taking several tries, but it felt somehow more manageable than the big circular room with the three demons. Specced Aru back to 14 levels of ranger. Bought some of my old gear back from vendors to give to my mounts 😊 Then that old relic, whatshername Galfrey decided to show up and tell me to get my butt in gear into the abyss, which I sort of did. Well, part The Midnight Fane and part The Abyss. The fun stopped at a guy with a bad sense of dark humour. Playful Darkness I think his name is. Tried it twice before calling it a night a sleep on it. Ember can spam Death Wards (which seems to increase my chances a bit) and summons seems to be the best to keep him occupied. I'll work a bit on a better approach when getting back to the game tonight.

@Keyrock if you ever decide to give Guild Wars 2 a try, give me a shout. Combat is (sans rebalancing) the same now as in 2012. BIS gear is the same as it was in 2012. The base game is free and you can complete the original story without ever touching the in game cash shop. If you’re dying to get something in said shop, you can trade in game gold for cash shop currency (and vice versa) 😎

I knew I had saved those 42 potions of Blur for a reason! 😁

Aww... empty search result? Took me a moment to understand the cookie questions (and confirm I was 20+ years old 😂 )

@Gromnir regarding horse mortality, It's something of my own doing I suspect. I keep forgetting that mounts can use potions for starters. They (the mounts) have some very old hand me downs protection gear, because I forget they can use it after having given them something initially. I've sold better gear to vendors by far, because I keep forgetting to check the mounts inventory 😖 The way I (mis)use Seelah is probably also a contributing factor. While she is low on the Initiative pecking order, the over the top mobility of her horse (daredevil) means she'll regularly be the first and only one on the front line, unless enemies spawn on top of my party. The other mounts are similarly targets when Regill, Sosiel and my barbarian gets close to enemies, their mounts gets similarly targeted. Seelah (and her horse) just seems to spend more time in engagement range with enemies. I should probably tell her to take a deep breath and cast a few more buffs before running off doing heroic stuff. I'm sure Iomedae (the goddess, not the similar named horse, or maybe both) will understand. I cant remember if I even gave snapshot to Aru. I'll have to check (the warrior levels was mostly just piling as many feats on longbow focus, rapid shot, better crits, etc. as possible, but I can probably get most of those from the ranger line anyway, if necessary see if any of her mythic levels can spare a few additional combat feats) 🤔 Edit: It's just hard to resist with Seelah, she has all that speed at her disposal (makes 'vroom! vroom!' noises 😝) Edit2: I'll spare the world the bad puns about Seelah's mount having too many horse powers

I think I actually gave her improved initiative, but not the mythic improved initiative. I.e. too halfhearted and a waste of a feat. Either do it fully or don't do it at all (/Yoda) Once back in Drezen, I'll probably return her to all ranger again. No, she's never going to survive in a melee and it is part of the challenge to stop enemies from shouldering their way through the front liners to get to her (and Ember), as they seem to be priority targets after Seelah's horse 😂 I haven't read everything in detail yet, but I'll go back over the last handful posts in this thread as I saw a lot of tips for Seelah when skimming through it fast (because I was lazy, lying in my bed and reading on my tiny little phone screen) 👍 Edit: Speaking of Drezen, almost made my way through those Tesla cultists. Defeated what I think is another mini boss and looted some gear that looks like the fantasy version of a gauss blaster. Since I had already given Ember elemental affinity for fire and electricity, she can now spam a lot of chain lightning and other electron heavy ordinance against villains, ignoring their resistances. Iirc, it only works for spontaneous casters, so she can either keep it or hand it over to Camellia I suppose, but the latter is not currently in my party.

I just gave her another fighter level, so she's now the original ranger branch (something with espionage?) level 10 (favoured enemies being demons of might and magic). 4 levels of mutagen warrior. Mostly for the dex mutagen (at fighter level 3) and the bonus feats. It may not "win" any min/maxing prizes, but it works. For now at least 😎 Seelah still gives me a headache. She can cast some spells and she has good mobility on her horse. But she's yet to hit anything other than the proverbial training rats in a dungeon and she tends to get her horse killed underneath her (despite sharing towershield ac bonuses with her mount). She buffs and blesses while it lasts, but she ends up inevitably slugging along on foot. Maybe I should just keep the horse and dismiss Seelah? 🤔 I think in my next outing, I'll replace her with Greybor and see how that works for a while. I know he's slow, but at least it won't surprise me if he's the last to arrive at a fight. He does seem to dish out pain as well as he receives it. So many things to try out and test... but then, it took me years before I had had my fill of trying out all things BG2 (which was probably the last time I spent this kind of time on a single player game)

Welcome to The Twisted Rune 😂 Playing Pathfinder: Wrath of The Righteous. Clocking in at 150+ hours and it only feels like a week or two since I started (I know it was more than that, but it feels like) 😕

I could do worse... like quoting my own posts with amendments 😝 Forgot to mention Arueshalaes rangers bond is a very nice addition, adding a bit of bonus to some fights too. I forgot to check first of these particular demons were demons of magic (her favoured enemy), so I have no idea if it contributed to anything or not.

@Gromnir yeah, I forgot to turn off power attack on Seelah for sure. Did remember to disable rapid shot though. Seelah (or rather her poor horse) and Camellia in particular had the task of being part damage sponges and part dealing with the two succubuses (is that succumbi in plural?). Also to help keep up the coordinated manoeuvres I suppose (and Seelah had a banner giving bonus to attack rolls) and Camellia tried to help a bit with the spell casting while she lasted. Alas call lightning storm had no chance of overcoming reflex saves (did cause a bit of damage, but generally underwhelming). My barbarian, Aru and Ember doing most of the damage dealing (gave Ember a few metamagic feats, elemental affinity (to overcome resistance) for fire and electricity, normal and mythic spell penetrations and focus on evocation and enchantment (based on memory, may have gotten the odd detail wrong from what I intended to what I did). Also a few scrolls of sirocco in her belt. I still keep forgetting things like disabling power attack after a rest though 😳 The screenshot is just my victorious barbarian gloating over the corpses of dead enemies ✌️ I had already used cackling glee by this point though Edit: Generally trying to wean myself off making generalists and focus on if possible, one thing that each character should be good at (without sacrificing their entire background). I.e main character doing melee damage, Ember doing fire (and temporarily electricity based) spells, Aru I'm trying to make as deadly as possible with a longbow etc. and pick the feats consistently for that. Spare feats going into the teamwork feats (as opposed to my army of jacks of all trades that I started out with). Edit2: I also cheesed dimension door a bit, because enemies always seems to focus on Ember (to the point of suicidal idiocy) once Camellia and Seelah's horse are down... leading them on a merry chase for a while so Sosiel can heal and buff the team a bit. It's nice she can bring friends too when teleporting around 😁 Edit3: Women! Sometimes I really don't understand them... 😖 Arueshalae has unilaterally decided she belongs in jail and refuses to leave her cell?!?

Huff... puff... 😓 So far so good... 3 annoying demons and their 2 succubus handmaidens down (as were 2 of my own party members). Since this is the middle of the map, I have a suspicion of more fights and more camp sites for resting are needed before I get out 😝

Split off from old thread. Dammit... I missed the Brisbane Riverfire this year! 😖 I had been looking forward to it and completely sweat it out. It was a few weeks ago ...and the less martial fireworks display once the Airforce is done (some years, the Airforce was part of the fireworks too using chaffs and flares to create "glitter" in the night sky) Edit: From ages back when F-111's were still a thing

More military stuff this way...

But... but... the multiplayer NetHack I played at Uni worked just fine! I still remember when my '@' took on two 'h's and a 'g' at the same time. No lag whatsoever!