Khan of the Steppes (Signup/info/OOC/stuff) (Full Again)

Ramsus wrote:Oh, and if you want an actual reason for why I don't leave others to themselves, it's because we're a party, not a group of solo characters and I think a minor amount of listening to someone else's opinion in exchange for getting good advice and ending up having more fun is worth any horribly agonizing soul wrenching pain involved.

Could it be at all possible to have inter-party suggestions without the soul wrenching pain? Just curious.

Also, how come the only ones who haven't been critiqued by Ramsus so far in this thread are me and Kal? What makes us so special, again out of curiosity?

I actually talked to ramsus on my character sheet. Granted, he didn't critique me, but I figured he'd look it over and would have some revisions.

I don't recall Gray Pen having a combat build for me to comment on and I glanced over Kal's build and didn't see anything obviously that could be improved. I will probably go over it in finer detail in a while and make commentary.

Here, I'll post it again:

Grey Pen wrote:I will (hopefully) have a Google Docs version up within 24 hours.

Until then, here's a text version of my Caprine Shaman!

Meet Cau'rha!:

I would also like to help with the creative work around Caprine culture; I raise dairy goats for a living, and feel unusually creative regarding them right now...

I for one value Ramsus' opinion and hope that he continues to point things out to me. I am aware that sometimes the tone of what we post here might sometimes be construed in not-so-great a light, but I don't believe Ramsus is being antagonistic on purpose. We are just probably reading it wrong.

Ramsus wrote:Anemone Gracehoof

You need to choose 500 gold worth of equipment.

Also: Where do you find the Deep Focus utility talent?

Grey Pen wrote:I will (hopefully) have a Google Docs version up within 24 hours.

Until then, here's a text version of my Caprine Shaman!

Meet Cau'rha!:

I would also like to help with the creative work around Caprine culture; I raise dairy goats for a living, and feel unusually creative regarding them right now...

I thought the Flaw could be picked as one of the utility talents that you start with, not an extra bonus one. Otherwise it seems fine, besides needing 500 gold worth of equipment.

If it is a bonus one, I am not going to pick one. I don't need it.

Deep Focus is a Flaw. Oh right, I should make sure it's ok with the GM that I took a couple of custom combat talents theMatthew made (guaranteed to be balanced or your money back). That'd be Grenade and Flashbang.

1: I don't think Ramsus tries to be antagonistic, but when he suggests things he's forceful about them. Which is sort of like the rest of the internet.
2: Deep Focus is technically a Flaw, under Z2's suggestions. There's not really a drawback for it though, just sort of specific.
3: Curunir suggested that we could take a free flaw if chose. Although I could be reading it wrong and we actually need to take a flaw as a talent before taking a free flaw.

Curunir wrote:Because I like GreyPen's Flaws idea, you may use the Flaws in that thread instead of utility traits, and may also take one additional flaw beyond your trait limit (a la Derp Quest) although you are not required to.

I'm perfectly happy to get advice. I did solicit suggestions, after all, so it wouldn't make sense for me to complain. Plus, the combat talents system is a little overwhelming at first glance.

Ramsus wrote:Ok, can we at least agree that Waschbaer should have Book Smarts take I Meant To Do That instead of Gather Energy? Taking Critfisher without IMTDT requires a very good reason not to be a bad call (especially when you start considering combat traits).

I'm glad you mentioned this. I completely missed IMTDT when I was first looking through the combat talents because I failed to notice that it's an immediate that gives +1 pip. When combined with Critfisher (or any combat talent that rolls d8s, d10s, or d12s), it's always useful. At 1/6 to 5/8 pip per turn, it's not likely to be quite as good a return as Gather Energy (which gives a steady 1/2 pip per turn), but it also doesn't have to replace Gather Energy.

If anything, I'm more tempted to replace Open Options with it. The main reason I brought in Open Options in the first place was because I wanted to be able to delay combat decisions wherever possible (another reason for Gather Energy), so it's not actually useful if it can be predicted ahead of time what to bring into a fight. Alternately, I could always replace Royal Command, though I do like that power. Any thoughts?


P.S. On a completely unrelated note, I'll be flavorify-ing some of these things soon and updating background info. With Instant-Party, this Changeling clearly knows how to cook. Just don't ask why all the food comes in yellow-green jelly form. Reconstituted emotion might taste great, but it's not pretty to watch it being made.

Ewwww..... love. Just yuck. =P

Like I said before, keep in mind combat traits. Like... haha, I Meant to Do That. Stacking with... I Meant to Do That (the combat talent). And the new version of King of Fools after that! "I don't even want nat 8's anymore, I want nat 1's" is what you end up saying. Cuz jeez 2 pips, 50% chance of 2 temp HP, and a special activates?

Btw, while I'm at it, did you have something in specific in mind about Channel Energy/Royal Command? Because On My Mark is pretty good for that style of thing too (and depending on how high cost the rest of our builds end up, it might be a bit more helpful). (I'd almost recommend replacing Royal Command with On My Mark and keeping Channel Energy around too but, any way it goes, they're all good moves.)

I forgot about items, thanks for reminding me. I also didn't pick out a special.... gotta think about that.

Edit: After a lot of thought, I went with Buccaneer Blaze (second place was Be Prepared).
Also, lol. There are only two items we can buy for 500 gold and since we can just re-sell things when we level to get our money back to get other stuff.... not point in me not buying the Ring of Resilience for now.

Cau'rha's combat build looks pretty good (now that I've found it, lol).

As for Zane's, well I've always personally found Friendly Encouragement a bit on the weak side and that you could be doing better things with your time (I'd suggest another +PiP move, something on the +3 to +4 range like Dark Bargain which works pretty well with your choice of Special and Cau'rha's build.)

Also, if anyone finds they have a move they end up not loving, I suggest Support Me! so that Sleipnir can combo with that.

Ramsus wrote:Deep Focus is a Flaw. Oh right, I should make sure it's ok with the GM that I took a couple of custom combat talents theMatthew made (guaranteed to be balanced or your money back). That'd be Grenade and Flashbang.

Those look fine to me

Ramsus wrote:Also, lol. There are only two items we can buy for 500 gold and since we can just re-sell things when we level to get our money back to get other stuff.... not point in me not buying the Ring of Resilience for now.

Yep I should have noticed that... sorry for the lack of options there. But there will be time for decisions when you get more money later.

Quietkal wrote:3: Curunir suggested that we could take a free flaw if chose. Although I could be reading it wrong and we actually need to take a flaw as a talent before taking a free flaw.

Yes, I was implying that you can take a free flaw. And that you can take extra ones, instead of a talent. Sorry if my phrasing was confusing (and I also noticed I was using terminology incorrectly, mixing the terms "trait" and "talent". No one seemed confused by that, but I think I fixed that anyways.)


I have decided that, since the 8-point racial creation is an upcoming change that I was not yet aware of as a newcomer, and it creates more options for the players (options good!) players can use 8-point races now, instead of waiting for an indefinite point in the future as I previously stated. I just want to make sure everyone is on the same page though in terms of character creation.

Hurray! Updated to reflect changes.

Ok finished her description and bio and gave some more flavor to stuff.

Ramsus wrote:Cau'rha's combat build looks pretty good (now that I've found it, lol).

Whoo! First try!

Ramsus wrote:As for Zane's, well I've always personally found Friendly Encouragement a bit on the weak side and that you could be doing better things with your time (I'd suggest another +PiP move, something on the +3 to +4 range like Dark Bargain which works pretty well with your choice of Special and Cau'rha's build.)

Not necessarily; multiple Dark Bargains floating around would likely either throw the combo off, or leave Zane feeling a bit unloved (or both) because I'm using Gather Energy to use my Dark Bargain and Mind Over Matter on the same turn, and therefore circumvent the (save ends) effects.

For PiP builders, I'd suggest Sanctity Of Faith. It's a plus 3 move, and the occasional additional HP is always nice.

Ramsus wrote:Also, if anyone finds they have a move they end up not loving, I suggest Support Me! so that Sleipnir can combo with that.

This is sound advice.

Ramsus wrote:Like I said before, keep in mind combat traits. Like... haha, I Meant to Do That. Stacking with... I Meant to Do That (the combat talent). And the new version of King of Fools after that! "I don't even want nat 8's anymore, I want nat 1's" is what you end up saying. Cuz jeez 2 pips, 50% chance of 2 temp HP, and a special activates?

Btw, while I'm at it, did you have something in specific in mind about Channel Energy/Royal Command? Because On My Mark is pretty good for that style of thing too (and depending on how high cost the rest of our builds end up, it might be a bit more helpful). (I'd almost recommend replacing Royal Command with On My Mark and keeping Channel Energy around too but, any way it goes, they're all good moves.)

Well, that's what I get for not paying attention to the traits section! Unless I'm mistaken, they do stack. Still, with an expected choice for Critfisher being 2d8, the expected number of times to trigger that is only 1/4 per round.

Here's the general list of things I had in mind for this. I wanted flexibility and the ability to respond to a variety of circumstances.

Spoiler:

Repeat these as necessary. Once Open Options is used, Critfisher & Gather Energy could be combined for 3.5 pips per turn. Replacing Open Options with IMTDT increases the pip gain by 1/4 per turn (in some cases) and provides about 1/2 THP per turn. One of the nice things about Open Options, however, is that it provides at least one full round to decide whether to use Channel Mind, Second Sunrise, or Royal Command. Hmm... maybe Blood Drain is a better choice for replacement. Dropping it leaves this character dangerously open to attack when alone, but I might just decide that's a weakness of the character. Only fights well with allies. Biggest current weakness is probably save-ends effects.

Oh, gather energy is 'next' turn.
So turn 1: GE
Turn 2: Standard Standard.
the way you have it, it looks like Turn X: GE->Standard->Standard.

LoganAura wrote:Oh, gather energy is 'next' turn.
So turn 1: GE
Turn 2: Standard Standard.
the way you have it, it looks like Turn X: GE->Standard->Standard.

Actually, it says X Turn, meaning that the combos listed take X amount of turns, as opposed to doing the combo on Turn X...

Oh. Whoops :/// ( Read that as "Turn 1, turn 2, turn 3..." not "1 turn combo, 2 turn combo" Sorry.

Waschbaer wrote:Hmm... maybe Blood Drain is a better choice for replacement. Dropping it leaves this character dangerously open to attack when alone, but I might just decide that's a weakness of the character. Only fights well with allies. Biggest current weakness is probably save-ends effects.

If you're using Channel Mind, then I can cover those with Mind Over Matter or Curse Eater; I may or may not have both at any given time, but I can be sure to have at least one.

And I wouldn't worry too much about separation of the party. That NEVER happens in these games 0.0

Hmm. For the extra racial trait, what you guys think I should take.
I'm personally partial to Zebras having Untraceable (2), but I can't see it being useful unless you're a rogue, which Zane definitely isn't.
There's also Scent Tracker (2), which could be useful if we need to find somepony. But given the animal magnetism Zane could probably just call a coyote and ask nicely. And offer some food or something.
Additionally, I could take Call Out (1) and Mimicry (1), but that's just more calling to animals and Zane already gets 4 of those per day.
[edit]Swapped Friendly Encouragement out with Sanctity of Faith taking its place.
Additionally I went ahead and bought the Amulet of Protection.

Well, one of the issues with Gather Energy is that you can get Dazed and be totally screwed. So any plan that calls for repeating GE over and over can get screwed with very very easily.

Generally with Critfisher and IMTDT you'd be throwing around the 5 dice because... yeah. You can almost count on gaining an extra pip and sometimes you'll get more and it means more specials go off.

Edit: If we need to find someone, Anemone is a tracker.

Ramsus wrote:Well, one of the issues with Gather Energy is that you can get Dazed and be totally screwed. So any plan that calls for repeating GE over and over can get screwed with very very easily.

Uummm... I fail to see how? Dazed says you can take a Standard OR a Minor action, instead of both, and can't take free actions or interrupts/reactions.

Gather Energy says you can take 2 standard actions; pure and simple. Dazed-ness shouldn't affect it at all.

Off-note: Blind Rage is a Free Attack that gives the user a (save ends) effect. Hmmmm....

GE gives you an additional standard, but Dazed makes it so you can take only a standard or a minor on your turn (you also suffer vulnerability 2). Dazed would be the more recent effect, and would override GE (but you should probably check with someone who knows what they're talking about).
On a different note, got the bonus racials for Zane worked out with help from Ramsus. Weather crafting and Freaky Knowledge(Wind Manipulation, Botany) won out over taking a negative on flight checks.