Author Topic: Bard unknowingly carrying Holy Avenger, film at 11.  (Read 2291 times)

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bearchucks

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Bard unknowingly carrying Holy Avenger, film at 11.
« on: September 25, 2010, 02:34:40 AM »
Yeah.  That same game where my bard just used Fascinate to engineer a public confession...we're in Cormyr now.  Found out that the sword of Torm my bard was given as a gift for restoring a temple to a priestess of Torm...was a Holy Avenger, a historic blade made after the whole destruction-of-banes-avatar thing.

Also have a very good chance to become a Harper Agent.

Before finding this out, the plan was to take my 7th level 12/12/13/14/12/16 wimpy clever and trickstery bard and fill out skills and go all nuts with the Inspire Courage and bard stuff.

Done a bit of poking around, found Initiate of Milil, Devoted Performer, need a sum on harmonious knight (or a tip to find a way around winzip)...I need advice, though.

We've got an elf swashbuckler using a glaive (cringe, but hey she's playing it as something different) a rogue that's more backstabby than versatility, a dervish ->tempest type, and my cohort a 1/4 rainbow warmage.

Also...this is the nicest thing we're likely to get.  Ever.  I'm still in MASTERWORK armor.  The best weapon other than this that we have is a +1 Adamantine Dagger...and that's because my Rainbow warmage had it thrown into her.

So...advice, help, suggestions...I'm moderately able to toggle my 6th level feat (currently Dragonsong) because if I'm retraining towards lawful for paladin...might as well retrain that too.

I thought I was doing all right with bard 20 gunning for crazy inspire courage with dragonfire inspiration.  Turns out...things just got iiiiinteresting.
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Gavinfoxx

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Re: Bard unknowingly carrying Holy Avenger, film at 11.
« Reply #1 on: September 25, 2010, 05:44:48 AM »
Ask the DM, flat out, why he is running Forgotten Realms as a low magic item setting?  Also ask him if he realized that the CR system took wealth by level into account, ie, characters having appropriate bonuses.  Ask him if he has seen any of the "characters get bonuses instead of magic item" systems, and if any of those would work better for the campaign he is running.  And then see if he has a satisfactory answer to those questions?  Then ask if he is strongly against player characters crafting things themselves?

Then retire your character and create a 'lots of spell access' Cloistered Cleric of Mystra that focuses on crafting magical items, and make stuff that is useful for the party?
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CantripN

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Re: Bard unknowingly carrying Holy Avenger, film at 11.
« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2010, 09:06:16 AM »
I say retrain to Divine Bard and take 4 levels of Paladin for CHA to Saves and Turn Undead. Maybe 5 levels for some other cool stuff. Use DMM: Persistent on your Bard spells.

Hardly optimal, but should be fun.

Example:
Bard 5 / Paladin 2 / Bard +1 / Cloistered Cleric 1 / Bard +1 / Sublime Chord 1 / Mystic Theurge 9

Ends up with:
Sublime Chord 10 (CL 30) - 9th level Arcane (Sor/Wiz/Bard)
Bard 16 (CL 20) - 6th level Bard (Divine)
Some Persistent Spells
CHA to Saves
Holy Avenger
With no Gear whatsoever except a Masterwork Instrument - Inspire Courage +3, +1 for Inspirational Boost, x2 for Words of Creation.

Any of those spells can be made Divine or Arcane, with a few feat options.

Feats:
Human - Southern Magician
1st - Extend Spell => Melodic Casting at 9th
3rd - Persistent Spell
6th - Words of Creation
8B - Song of the Heart
9B - Extra Turning
9B - Extend Spell
9B - Knowledge Devotion
9th - DMM: Persistent Spell
12th - Versatile Spellcaster
15th - Disguise Spell
18th - Practiced Spellcaster (Bard)
« Last Edit: September 25, 2010, 09:39:38 AM by CantripN »
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PhaedrusXY

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Re: Bard unknowingly carrying Holy Avenger, film at 11.
« Reply #3 on: September 25, 2010, 09:43:17 AM »
Just sink ranks into Use Magic Device so you can activate the weapon's abilities. You'll be a better paladin than a real one. ;)
[spoiler]
A couple of water benders, a dike, a flaming arrow, and a few barrels of blasting jelly?

Sounds like the makings of a gay porn film.
...thanks
[/spoiler]

bearchucks

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Re: Bard unknowingly carrying Holy Avenger, film at 11.
« Reply #4 on: September 25, 2010, 09:53:12 AM »
I do have full points in UMD (+13 effective bonus) and Improvisation (+ 1/2 level to any one skill check, attack, etc. four different times).  So, before every battle...

"Path of Honor," *touches head*
"Path of Honor," *touches chest*
UMD checks to emulate alignment and class...

oh.  And about the low magic items?  He's said flat-out he doesn't quite have the chops to handle lots of magic items.  He -has- come up with a modestly reasonable trade, though; for every GP we burn on luxury items we gain 1 XP.  Not a great deal, but it -has- gotten us over the obnoxious points where we've only got a tiny bit of XP to go.

UMD seems like the best trick that needs the least adjustment.  =P
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jameswilliamogle

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Re: Bard unknowingly carrying Holy Avenger, film at 11.
« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2010, 11:07:36 AM »
Just sink ranks into Use Magic Device so you can activate the weapon's abilities. You'll be a better paladin than a real one. ;)
Word!  Convince your DM that you can use UMD to emulate being a Paladin, or that activating that sword's full potential is the same as "emulating a class ability".  And go nuts.

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Re: Bard unknowingly carrying Holy Avenger, film at 11.
« Reply #6 on: September 25, 2010, 11:09:52 AM »
He -has- come up with a modestly reasonable trade, though; for every GP we burn on luxury items we gain 1 XP.  Not a great deal, but it -has- gotten us over the obnoxious points where we've only got a tiny bit of XP to go.

That just makes you have to fight higher CR creatures for less XP gain!  Thats even worse! 

Unbeliever

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Re: Bard unknowingly carrying Holy Avenger, film at 11.
« Reply #7 on: September 25, 2010, 12:55:51 PM »
+1 on UMD, and it even fits well especially if you play your character as lawful good anyway, or some other ultra-goody goody type like a Harper Agent.

If your Cha is good enough, a dip into Paladin won't be bad.  I'd usually say that such a dip is mitigated w/ a Vest of Legends, but it doesn't sound like that's an option.  With a lack of saving throw boosting items, Divine Grace might even be worth it.

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Re: Bard unknowingly carrying Holy Avenger, film at 11.
« Reply #8 on: September 25, 2010, 01:21:12 PM »
My work
The tier system in a nutshell:
[spoiler]Tier 6: A cartographer.
Tier 5: An expert cartographer or a decent marksman.
Tier 4: An expert marksman.
Tier 3: An expert marksman, cartographer and chef who can tie strong knots and is trained in hostage negotiation or a marksman so good he can shoot down every bullet fired by a minigun while armed with a rusted single-shot pistol that veers to the left.
Tier 2: Someone with teleportation, mind control, time manipulation, intangibility, the ability to turn into an exact duplicate of anything, or the ability to see into the future with perfect accuracy.
Tier 1: Someone with teleportation, mind control, time manipulation, intangibility, the ability to turn into an exact duplicate of anything and the ability to see into the future with perfect accuracy.[/spoiler]

emaNsdrawkcaB

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Re: Bard unknowingly carrying Holy Avenger, film at 11.
« Reply #9 on: September 25, 2010, 02:19:16 PM »
One of my favorite Bard spells:

[spoiler]Sirine's Grace
Evocation
Level: Brd 4, Drd 5
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

Sirine's grace infuses you with the otherworldly grace and fey magic of the sirines that dwell along the shores of the Lost Coast. As this spell is cast, these energies suffuse your body and enhance your physical characteristics, granting you a +4 enhancement bonus to Charisma and Dexterity.

For the duration of this spell, you gain a deflection bonus equal to your Charisma modifier to your Armor Class and a +8 bonus on Perform checks. You also gain a supernatural touch attack that you can invoke once per round as a free action. Anyone hit by your touch attack takes 1d4 points of temporary Intelligence damage (or 2d4 points on a critical hit). Alternatively, you can use this touch attack to restore 1d6 points of temporary Intelligence damage caused by this spell or by a sirine?s touch.

Material Component: A lock of hair, freely given to you by a living sirine.

From a Web Enhancement.[/spoiler]

Saeomon

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Re: Bard unknowingly carrying Holy Avenger, film at 11.
« Reply #10 on: September 25, 2010, 02:24:16 PM »
Use paladin of freedom.

Or Divine Bard and then PRESTIGE Paladin of Freedom.

But the UMD option that others have suggested is probably most optimal.

jojolagger

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Re: Bard unknowingly carrying Holy Avenger, film at 11.
« Reply #11 on: September 25, 2010, 02:45:24 PM »
for every GP we burn on luxury items we gain 1 XP.  Not a great deal, but it -has- gotten us over the obnoxious points where we've only got a tiny bit of XP to go.
That is the most broken deal ever. Assuming average WBL you can buy your way from level 13 right to level 20!
With average WBL now, even if you have just enough xp to be level 7, you could buy yourself two more levels, and still have 4000 gp of WBL left.
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CantripN

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Re: Bard unknowingly carrying Holy Avenger, film at 11.
« Reply #12 on: September 25, 2010, 02:48:49 PM »
for every GP we burn on luxury items we gain 1 XP.  Not a great deal, but it -has- gotten us over the obnoxious points where we've only got a tiny bit of XP to go.
That is the most broken deal ever. Assuming average WBL you can buy your way from level 13 right to level 20!
With average WBL now, even if you have just enough xp to be level 7, you could buy yourself two more levels, and still have 4000 gp of WBL left.


And face even worse challenged, with no loot whatsoever. It's not like his DM is sending encounters planned for a party of level 5 at them. If he does, it might be fine, but otherwise, it's a method for kicking yourself in the balls.
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bearchucks

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Re: Bard unknowingly carrying Holy Avenger, film at 11.
« Reply #13 on: September 25, 2010, 07:53:22 PM »
Now you guys start to understand why I've been doing a couple of mildly shady things to counter this.

A while back we robbed this muckety-muck of Freeport's home.  Before any of this happened I kinda appointed myself party treasurer...seeing as I'm the only one who's any good with math.  (Said muckety-muck died by other hands and we ended up winning that campaign arc so no consequences coming later).  He was never terribly clear about the exact amount we managed to squeeze out of it.  So our current gold (if you program) is NaN.  Not a Number.  "We've got enough."  For just about anything.

I do have a ring of nondetection, an immovable rod, I bought a Badge of Valor with our indeterminate amount of gold...so I'm doing just fine.  I'm not sure about Harper Agent the class...kinda trades out most of my Bard advancement for some situational save bonuses.  Ick.  But Harper Agent the social rank?  I'm definitely angling that way; I played for the Steel Princess-Regent and her mom and some boy king.  (Dice were on fire, no Perform was below 30).  Oh, and we delivered a unicorn from freeport to some cormyr game preserve.

Okay...about gear: he IS pulling stuff out of books for encounters, so if we go up levels we do get ahead.  (I've been puzzling over the math of just doing CRAFTING for a bit, if that's viable.)  I'll admit there are some rough patches but this bard that I originally brought to the game as a "I'm not trying to outshine the entire party and slaughter everything and be a CoDzilla" has kinda ended up making everybody in the party shine a lot.

Oh, other notes: I have Jack of All Trades and Bardic Knack (Couldn't pass it up; trade bardic knowledge for all knowledges, and oh by the way gain other skills?).

Hmm...how best to crank my UMD given a feat that I can change, being a bard...

oh.  I totally forgot about the party's cleric, who has Craft Wondrous Item.  This is the primary useful feature of the character (and possibly the player, who doesn't get enough sleep or something because he is ALWAYS detrimentally detached from reality to the point of thinking that my con-artist-type-bard was an assassin).  So crafting gimmicky stuff that gives me UMD bonuses would be totally in.   =P
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Re: Bard unknowingly carrying Holy Avenger, film at 11.
« Reply #14 on: September 25, 2010, 10:03:02 PM »
Obviously you should follow this plan.  It is the best plan.

  • 1) Find out what sporting events are popular in your universe.
  • 2) Hire enough hill giants to fill half the stadium
  • 3) Equip your group of fans with some appropriately sized vuvuzelas to show their team spirit.

Normally impossible, but you have tons of cash and craft wondrous item.  You can do it; I believe in you.
« Last Edit: September 25, 2010, 10:17:44 PM by The_Mad_Linguist »
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PhaedrusXY

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Re: Bard unknowingly carrying Holy Avenger, film at 11.
« Reply #15 on: September 25, 2010, 11:42:01 PM »
Obviously you should follow this plan.  It is the best plan.

  • 1) Find out what sporting events are popular in your universe.
  • 2) Hire enough hill giants to fill half the stadium
  • 3) Equip your group of fans with some appropriately sized vuvuzelas to show their team spirit.

Normally impossible, but you have tons of cash and craft wondrous item.  You can do it; I believe in you.
Dude... I started laughing and almost woke up my sleeping son over that one...
[spoiler]
A couple of water benders, a dike, a flaming arrow, and a few barrels of blasting jelly?

Sounds like the makings of a gay porn film.
...thanks
[/spoiler]