I am back trying to get caught up on everything. Anything that deserves my immediate review/response?

Bruenor - LOL!

Dellas - The group is quickly finishing up the turtle quest, and then all going to head west to deal with the twin issues of:

1. Finding a werebear to help Volsh

2. Aiding Volsh and Haazheel in guiding a priestess of Wee Jas to a burial cave for a ritual

It was thought, perhaps, to split the party to make this more efficient.  Sir Aberlayne was pondering staying home to get a jump on the job of finding the skeleton-construct, but only if Dellas would be in good, protective company.

That is hilarious!

@DM - Farian said that she and Ser Aberlayne are interchangeable so could stay to work on the skeleton thing. Or are they both thinking that? :)

If they both stayed in town, then we'd be down to 6 people, so probably shouldn't split up too much?

If Farian wants to stay in town, then Sir Aberlayne can go with the group, with Averdante staying (possibly) to craft things.  So that leaves 7 people.  Hopefully finding the werebear may be more a mission of tact and persuasion rather than hacking and slashing.  Hopefully.  Guarding and guiding the priestess may possibly involve a little combat if things are lingering around the burial cave that don't respond to a cleric's turning attempts.

I think Dellas would interested more in the werebear side. And volsh is protective right?

I think that Volsh is doing the escort mission. He and Haazheel picked that mission up, as I recall. Narthian won't discourage company, but he will suggest that it isn't likely to be dangerous.

Hm. I wonder what the logic is behind Eagle's Splendor NOT being on the druid's spell lists? I mean, Handle Animals is charisma based. I guess that I never realized that Cat's Grace isn't on the cleric's list either. It seems rather arbitrary. I learned the 3.5 rules from playing the Temple of Elemental Evil CRPG and I'm pretty sure that my clerics could cast Cat's Grace. ... Now I need to find the disks and see if I can load the game to find out. Very odd. :/

BTW... not intended as a plea to change the spell lists. I'm genuinely curious why the divine casters have a limited selection of buff spells. And the missing ones appear to be the spells that would enhance the class's typical dump stat(s). Very curious indeed.

:)

I'm not certain about that either, other than they didn't want clerics to have too much fun.  Or perhaps that the origins of clerics in the game had them as heavily-armored mace-wielding priests (for which Dex would be a dump stat) or that druids were a bunch of smelly, hide-wearing hermits (so they heck with Cha).  I think they'd be great additions to their spell lists, because I don't see any major potential problems.  A cleric of a god of trickery or athletics would likely use cat's grace, and a druid who wanted to really commune with nature or be a good animal handler (via the Handle Animal skill) would like eagle's splendor.

I'm guessing the reason is mostly historical and perhaps because they wanted to limit spell lists.

--

On a vaguely related note, I once had some fun playing around with the concept of holy water for different religions in D&D.  My group was playing a Forgotten Realms game in 3.5, which has a very extensive pantheon.  As we were dealing with the four major elemental deities in that campaign, I thought to myself that the god of elemental fire probably is not lending his holy power to blessing water, his opposing element.  Hence the "holy water" of the Church of Kossuth was actually blessed alchemist's fire.  The holy water of a goddess of air was perfumed, blessed air.  The god of earth had a special kind of blessed dust.  Many other gods might use water, because it's fairly ubiquitous and cleansing, but it was fun to work out some others!

Ooo! I like that Holy Water idea. *makes slight of hand check* :)

And I agree, those are the most likely reasons. I've noticed that in 5e they combined all of the buffs into one spell. So I guess they realized the ... mistake? Unfairness? Silliness? One of those is probably the right word.

That is a great idea for the elemental powers. Not sure it really applies more broadly in the FR pantheon, but it could with some effort make some interesting differences!

The distribution of those spells is interesting! I think the spells they get are to really emphasize the core focuses/archetype themes of the classes.

• Druid's get access to four of the stat-boosting spells (Str, Dex, Con, Wis).
   - Hearty, earthy, and wise they need all the physical boosts and the wisdom as well.
  
• Cleric get four (Str, Con, Wis, Cha)
   - Strong, hearty, wise, but "civilized" and proselytizers for their gods
  
• Bards get three (Dex, Int, Cha)
   - Dextrous fingers, quick wit, and a shining smile and performance ;)
  
• Paladin gets three (Str, Wis, Cha)
   - Strength guided by the wisdom of their gods and diplomatic shining warriors
  
• Ranger gets three (Dex, Con, Wis)
   - Quick and hearty fighters who are wise to the ways of the wilds.
  
• Sor/Wiz among all the classes are the only ones that get all six.
   - Err... they're the masters of all magic, so all of them! ^.^

In all the games I've been in, no player ever has cast a stat-boosting spell. (Maybe not quite, one player once may have done a CHA before a negotiation.)

With a limited number of spells per day, a wizard would be unlikely to memorize one. With a limited number of spells to choose from, a sorcerer would be unlikely to choose one.

A wizard might, given downtime, choose to (if having such a spell in her/his book) scribe a scroll, but PCs seldom if ever scribe scrolls. The XP loss is a huge deterrent unless the GM awards an XP gain plus a bit more when the scroll is read. I've never known that to happen.

There is a loophole which allows 0-level scrolls for no cost.

In reply to Haazheel Thorn (msg # 893):

Tabletop groups I've been in cast the stat-boosting spells a lot until we get items that do it.

Wizard PC's I play are almost always scribing scrolls all over the place XP be darned. I like being able to pull a scroll of any spell in my spellbook out at a moments notice. Makes memorizing spells for the day seem like less pressure.

Ditto. Like Volsh, the boost usually goes on a scroll until the caster gets the Craft Misc feat. At level 3, a +2 change to the ability modifier makes a difference. ... Sometimes at level 10 too.

I often give my clerics the Scribe Scroll feat at Level 1 (especially if human - using the extra human feat allotment). Being able to spontaneously cast helps, but a pocket full of scrolls allows the mission to go on without heading back to base for rest.

The XP cost isn't that much of a liability. It doesn't start to show up in slower leveling until around level 7-8. And even then, one more encounter clears that right up.

Farian, since you didn't specifically approach Dante, I didn't address the skeleton hunt. Also, you seem to be posting more often than I am able to be right now, so I didn't want to slow you down. :)

I go back to work late next week, so will be able to check in closer to daily again. Not guaranteeing posting time to increase quite yet; the first month of school is a killer for me, and I'm still scrambling to finish my move -- and then sort how to find my way around my new habitat. Lots of new patterns to establish before things will flow easily again!

No problem. I can post slower - make sure you have a chance to post first from time to time - if you're interested in the 'skeleton' hunt. But I'm also cool starting on my own and looking for reinforcements later if necessary.

If you're game, I'm up for it. :)

Are we waiting on anyone or just a DM time constraint?

Just like to make sure we're not waiting on someone that doesn't know we're waiting on them.

No, sorry, work waffles from "nothing" to "running around like a chicken with its head cut off" and it being the end of the month, we're in the "chicken" phase of it.  But on Sunday I'm off work until Aug 10th (with GenCon Indy in the middle of it!) so if I don't update tonight, I will on Sunday.

Okay, updated Dante's post to go with Farian. Did not have a fully functional brain a few days ago, after spending nearly the entire day outside in the heat (~107, and disgustingly humid). The exhaustion of that sucked creativity right out of my head.

This morning, it was easy enough to alter my post. :)

You guys are so paranoid!

So now we're down to: Bruenor, Dellas, Haazheel, Narthian, Sir Aberlayne & me going out?

OOC: Looks like we should do both things as one group?

But are we paranoid enough? :D

Your concerns are far overblown ;P

If we take the back roads for the escort, it should reduce the chances of an encounter. Once we get to the werebear rendezvous, we can split again. I'm of the thought that Narthian ought to go alone, or with only 1 or 2 others, to visit Paddington.

Hey guys, I am leaving for GenCon tomorrow and am not certain I'll be able to post again until the 5th! I may pop in if I have the time, but no guarantees.

Man, have fun!!