I'm down for that. I wasn't having much luck with Dwarfy anyway.
Let's worship Mara again. She seems like a fun goddess.
For feats, Skill Focus: Diplomacy and Alluring. There we go, an alluring kobold paladin. Made her female, which will hopefully give us more chances to allure.
Ezzan I gets pretty lucky with some early magic items, but is eventually strangled by a shadow ooze. Nasty creatures, shadow oozes. They have a vampiric touch and blink away after being hurt.
Ezzan II gets more appropriate starting opponents. She is able to quell a rainbow sprite and a bogwart. This pleases Mara greatly. She gets some magical items and later identifies them. The best of the bunch is a +3 whip.
Ezzan II advances to level 4. Hooray diplomacy?
Let's play Incursion
Moderators: Bob the Hamster, marionline, SDHawk
Ezzan reached level 5 and then got on a death streak. Mara being the nice goddess that she is would've kept resurrecting Ezzan until Ezzan ran out of XP, but I could see where that one was going.
Let's try a straightforward bruiser. Ladies and gentleslimes, Ront the Unconquered, the orc barbarian. True neutral. Feats: Power Attack (+1 damage for each point your attack roll beats the defense roll, to a maximum of your Str modifier) and Cleave (bonus attack when you kill an enemy, as in D&D). Barbarians get a decent number of skill points, actually! Seems better than paladins, anyway.
Barbarians have the opportunity to worship Khasrach from the beginning of the game. It's good to have a god, so this is a nice bonus.
For perks, I got a +2 helm of telepathy and a +2 wand of the hellstorm. The helm is fantastic and the wand is pretty darn strong.
Nevertheless, Ront I quickly dies to a dwarf monk.
Intimidate and Diplomacy are two sides of the same coin. Whereas you make Mara happy by solving fights with diplomacy, Khasrach really loves it if you frighten your opponents into a ceasefire. They're still hostile in this case, and I'm not sure how evil it is to hunt them down afterward. Ront II advances to level 3 through bullying and takes the feat Expertise (as seen earlier).
Let's try a straightforward bruiser. Ladies and gentleslimes, Ront the Unconquered, the orc barbarian. True neutral. Feats: Power Attack (+1 damage for each point your attack roll beats the defense roll, to a maximum of your Str modifier) and Cleave (bonus attack when you kill an enemy, as in D&D). Barbarians get a decent number of skill points, actually! Seems better than paladins, anyway.
Barbarians have the opportunity to worship Khasrach from the beginning of the game. It's good to have a god, so this is a nice bonus.
For perks, I got a +2 helm of telepathy and a +2 wand of the hellstorm. The helm is fantastic and the wand is pretty darn strong.
Nevertheless, Ront I quickly dies to a dwarf monk.
Intimidate and Diplomacy are two sides of the same coin. Whereas you make Mara happy by solving fights with diplomacy, Khasrach really loves it if you frighten your opponents into a ceasefire. They're still hostile in this case, and I'm not sure how evil it is to hunt them down afterward. Ront II advances to level 3 through bullying and takes the feat Expertise (as seen earlier).
Ront IV is the one who finally makes it to level 5. He is finally defeated by a medium earth elemental, who was tough enough to take him down twice -- once in standard combat, then the second time after Ront asked Khasrach to intervene. Khasrach healed Ront once, but he (she?) would not do it again.
Let's try a gnome mage. I am terrible with mages.
Only one stat set has acceptable Con and Int scores, so I take it. It comes with wild talents Inertial Barrier and Mind Lock, which sound cool.
Like D&D wizards, Incursion mages have to choose a specialty school. I'll take arcana, which also gives bonuses to divination, illusion, and weavecraft. Weavecraft is pretty much conjuration. Arcana is mostly miscellaneous spells. The advantage of being an arcanist is you don't get penalized on any schools.
Mages have a lot of available feats, of which they'll only ever learn a few. We'll take Guildmage (+3 to Metamagic and Spellcraft skills and an extra 1st-level spell) and Augment Summoning (summons gain +4 Str/Con and extra HP). For skills, we'll pump Concentration and put a point each into the Knowledge skills.
And thus is born Gerbo Stumbleduck, which is a fantastic name. Gerbo learns Monster Summoning I, Mage Armor, Floating Disc, Shield, Shocking Grasp, and Chromatic Orb. As a gnome, Gerbo knows Ventriloquism, and for some reason, he knows Phase Door and Magic Missile.
Oh, yes, those perk talents? Inertial Barrier gives a large amount of damage reduction and Mind Lock essentially paralyzes a dude. They both cost 2 fatigue, though. Definitely worth it for Inertial Barrier. Gerbo is also immune to slowing, paralysis, and entangling. Nice, dude. Nice.
Not surprisingly, despite all these toys, Gerbo I dies quickly.
Let's try a gnome mage. I am terrible with mages.
Only one stat set has acceptable Con and Int scores, so I take it. It comes with wild talents Inertial Barrier and Mind Lock, which sound cool.
Like D&D wizards, Incursion mages have to choose a specialty school. I'll take arcana, which also gives bonuses to divination, illusion, and weavecraft. Weavecraft is pretty much conjuration. Arcana is mostly miscellaneous spells. The advantage of being an arcanist is you don't get penalized on any schools.
Mages have a lot of available feats, of which they'll only ever learn a few. We'll take Guildmage (+3 to Metamagic and Spellcraft skills and an extra 1st-level spell) and Augment Summoning (summons gain +4 Str/Con and extra HP). For skills, we'll pump Concentration and put a point each into the Knowledge skills.
And thus is born Gerbo Stumbleduck, which is a fantastic name. Gerbo learns Monster Summoning I, Mage Armor, Floating Disc, Shield, Shocking Grasp, and Chromatic Orb. As a gnome, Gerbo knows Ventriloquism, and for some reason, he knows Phase Door and Magic Missile.
Oh, yes, those perk talents? Inertial Barrier gives a large amount of damage reduction and Mind Lock essentially paralyzes a dude. They both cost 2 fatigue, though. Definitely worth it for Inertial Barrier. Gerbo is also immune to slowing, paralysis, and entangling. Nice, dude. Nice.
Not surprisingly, despite all these toys, Gerbo I dies quickly.
I remember now why I'm terrible with mages: they have the resilience of wet paper and no real means of dealing damage until they hit level 3.
It is hard to get a mage to level 3.
I just finished Gerbo IV, who got hit for his entire life total inside of two rounds. Granted, I should have gone in there with Inertial Barrier and half a dozen summoned monsters, but still! A single critical hit could finish off my dude!
Maybe I'm better off choosing a different caster class.
It is hard to get a mage to level 3.
I just finished Gerbo IV, who got hit for his entire life total inside of two rounds. Granted, I should have gone in there with Inertial Barrier and half a dozen summoned monsters, but still! A single critical hit could finish off my dude!
Maybe I'm better off choosing a different caster class.
I remember now why I'm terrible with mages: they have the resilience of wet paper and no real means of dealing damage until they hit level 3.
It is hard to get a mage to level 3.
I just finished Gerbo IV, who got hit for his entire life total inside of two rounds. Granted, I should have gone in there with Inertial Barrier and half a dozen summoned monsters, but still! A single critical hit could finish off my dude!
Maybe I'm better off choosing a different caster class.
It is hard to get a mage to level 3.
I just finished Gerbo IV, who got hit for his entire life total inside of two rounds. Granted, I should have gone in there with Inertial Barrier and half a dozen summoned monsters, but still! A single critical hit could finish off my dude!
Maybe I'm better off choosing a different caster class.