[FireSpawn]

At some point in the game you're going to run into an Earth Elemental! 
BE SPOILED!

I'm going to assume that there was good natured sarcasm in that, and laugh.
Besides, you know that I meant twists and surprises in the gameplay.

[Alex Heartnet]

In an effort to fix a bug, I had to revert to an earlier save where I haven’t sold my crossbows or accepted the grove sidequest.  No big deal, no significant loss in progress.





Trouble!





Not sure what a ‘Lacedon’ is, but it dies quickly.







The party arrives, ready to try out their new weapons.  Instead, a skeleton get to try out its new weapon on Rodd.





Rodd gets so upset by this that he decides to steal Elladan’s turn.







Not content with just stealing Elladan’s turn, Rodd decides to steal Lyndus’ turn as well!  I was hoping to fix this bug by reverting to an earlier save, but no luck.





Man down!  Man down!





The party is made to fight their way through all the skeletons while Lessiah tries to reach Rodd.











So, I found the OTHER other dwarven weapon.  Slab, you want to use this in place of your axe?





I am really starting to hate crossbows.





RODD.  NOT your turn!





See.  This is what happens when you take your turn out of order.  The entire party gets in trouble, and the mages can’t even cast their spells properly.

[Rodo]

What do you mean it's not my turn??

CHAAAARRRRGEEE!

[LordMelvin]

Thog look at all combat reports. Thog still not see any lines say "Thog hits something"

Thog find peace with Thog uselessness. Thog sing song about not doing anything.

[SpardaSon21]

And I get shot by a crossbow and fall into shock from blood loss again!  DM, what the heck is with these encounters and why the heck is Rodo's character getting all the turns?

[Alex Heartnet]

So a skeleton has one of those infamous reach weapons.





Fortunately, it dies the same as the rest.





Dwarven barbarians tend to have ridiculous HP.  Slab just shrugs off a hit that would of crippled any other party member.





Thog manages a hit while Lessiah saves Elladan.





Whew.  I hope that was all the skellies…







Nope.  If that was it for skellies, it would be too easy now, would it.





Rodd shoves the halfling aside so he can charge into the fray.  He fails to notice the hammer that barely misses his head.





Huhwha?  Monsters making monsters out of other monsters?!





The party is forced to switch between weapons in order to fend off both skeletons and zombies.







The last skeleton.





Thog is taken down by the last skeleton.







On the plus side, ding.  Finally.





The big thing that level 2 brings to the party is the increased HP that will hopefully make everyone less fragile.  But aside from the usual increase in HP/attack bonus/saving throws/skill points, this is a ‘dead level’ for much of the party.





At character creation I neglected to give Thog the necessary skill points in Perform for some of his class features.  That has been fixed.







Bardic spellcasting is limited compared to clerics and wizards.  Note the number of spells they get per day and general lack of direct damage spells.





The extra HP from leveling is enough to revive Thog.





The mages in the party learn new spells and get more spells per day.  Many (but not all!) spells have their duration or power increased by leveling (although usually with a cap)





Fighters get a bonus feat every even level, plus an additional bonus feat at level 1 (although they must be directly related to physical combat – feats such as Iron Will, Skill Focus, and Extend Spell cannot be taken as a fighter bonus feat).  Both Lyndus and Elladan are able to grab Cleave, which will be of great value, especially at this early stage in the game.  Cleave allows for an additional attack after striking a killing blow against an enemy, and is a prerequisite for a few other melee feats.

Slab, being a barbarian, will have to wait until level 3 to get cleave.  (He gets lots of nice class features to make up for it, stuff that cannot easily be mimicked through feats.)  Every class enjoys the additional feats gained every third level, which can be any feat that they meet the requirements for and is not class specific.  Fighters get to take these general feats on top of the numerous bonus feats that they get as their main class feature.





Thog feels much more useful now!

[Rodo]

I feel Heroineus is granting me more power....

YES, UNLIMITED POWAAAAAA!!! *swoosh*

*notices Thog hopping around happily*

[SpardaSon21]

Elladan:
Re-deadified undead?  Check.  More hitpoints?  Check.  The ability to do chaining strikes with my greatsword?  Priceless.

[Spoon]

General feedback:
I would suggest using less pictures per update and more actual writing.
Reading pictures isn't ideal, and we don't really need a picture for *everything* that happens.

[LordMelvin]

Thog feel stronger. Thog feel happy. Thog feel like singing!

Thog hits Skeleton!

Skeleton takes 7 points of bludgeoning damage

Skeleton dies!

Ohhhh, yeah, that's right. Who's badass now? Thog's badass now.

[Alex Heartnet]

After fighting through a few skeletons, the party runs into what looks like trouble.  I was under the impression that the Out of Depth monster here was an ogre.  But a hill giant is way worse then an ogre.  And to make matters even worse, the giant has a pet.







The giant is guarded enchanted equipment, which no doubt came from the nearby skeletal remnants.  Can’t see the exact enchantments without an identify spell, but that sure looks tempting…









It’s not worth the risk.  I am going to go around the giant and totally not trigger the encounter like a moron.





Well, crap.  At least we won the initiative roll, and most of our party gets to act before the monsters do.





The party doesn’t even have their preferred weapons equipped.  I foolishly spend half a turn doing so instead of bracing against a charge.  I also have the dwarf equip the heavy pick for the damage potential – the quadruple damage on a critical hit might be enough to give us a fighting chance.





Bardic music!  Didn’t look up what Inspire Confidence does, but I think it gives a +1 to attack roles for the entire party.





Little red music notes linger around the party as the bear approaches.





Ray of Enfeeblement and Charm Person or Animal would both be of great help here, but Lester can’t use either of them.





Good luck avoiding these attacks, guys.  Your starting armor is nearly worthless against the giant – you WILL get hit.







Some people prefer to hold Barbarian Rage in reserve for difficult encounters.  Only an idiot would not use their Rage for the day in an encounter like this.





Apply hammer to bear’s noggin.  Stare incongruently at the bear as the hammer bounces off the animal’s thick fur.  Get swatted around by said bear.





Good grief does this giant do a lot of damage.  Its strength score of 30 approaches Superman level of strength.  The 2d8 damage comes from the tree trunk that the giant is using as a weapon.







This must be what the skeletons felt like when the party was smashing them earlier.









Lester scores a critical hit with his crossbow, but it is too little, too late.









…

Fortunately, it was all just a dream.  You all meet at an inn!

[Scotty]

So, what's the status of the party after the "dream"?

[Rodo]

*Rodd sweats cold

Rough night, last night...

[SpardaSon21]

Elladan:
That dream was horrible.  I need a drink.  Bartender, an ale please!

[Alex Heartnet]

So, what's the status of the party after the "dream"?

I might opt for a 'new game plus' where I use console commands to modify my party at the beginning.  Stuff like starting out returning party members at level 2, giving the party 300 extra gold to buy starting equipment to represent the loot the party found so far, and removing inactive members from the party (looking at you, Axem).

Alternatively, I could do a playthrough of the game 'FTL' when the game is released to the public on Friday.  Or just take a break from Let's Plays...

[SpardaSon21]

OOC: Since this is most likely the closest I'll ever get to actually playing D&D with friends any time soon, I say New Game+.

*Elladan puts on sunglasses and a thick accent.  I'll be back.

[Alex Heartnet]

OOC: Since this is most likely the closest I'll ever get to actually playing D&D with friends any time soon, I say New Game+.

FTL can also have the same forum roleplaying vibe to it.  In fact, with a Star Trek-style ship that has up to 8 crewmembers and a dozen different systems to operate, you can nerd out quite easily.

[SpardaSon21]

Sounds fun.  I have an important question, though.  Would I get to be a space elf?

[Alex Heartnet]

Sounds fun.  I have an important question, though.  Would I get to be a space elf?

Races within FTL are standard generic Sci-Fi fare (along with pretty much the entire game).  You have a mixture of humans, humanoid aliens, and non-humanoid aliens, all of which you can recruit to your crew.  The more non-humanoid ones tend to be the ones with exotic capabilities such as telepathy.

Given the sprite-based graphics modding it in might be pretty easy, but I doubt there are any mods for a game that is currently in a closed beta and the modding tools aren't going to be in the initial release.

Once the modding tools are out though, it would probably be simple to just create a new race, make a sprite for it based on the human sprites, give that race a special ability (telepathy immediately comes to mind!), and just add that race as part of your starting crew.

[Scotty]

I would totally be up for an LP of that.  Dibs on the helm.

* Scotty is A1-supar pilot, as the X-COM LPs no doubt prove.