Ch.22
Tonight, I’m finally gonna kill that ass hole of a half-ogre.
I hadn’t gone back since my first night here. I was stronger, faster, and tougher by an ENORMOUS margin than I was back then... and I can’t stand having him there without beating him ANY LONGER!
It's been kind of like a splinter, in the back of my mind, poking away at me.
Why now, though?
Mostly, it was because I kind of had to.
When I’d finally cleared the Skraven village, the next area led to a big, underground temple to some god of darkness, corruption, and very obviously Evil. The guards on the stairs were Large sized undead with magical, large sized halberds. That meant they had a 20’ Reach, meaning they could hit someone 20’ away from them! The normal range is up to 5’ away. Reach is a MASSIVE advantage for a melee fighter!
They were 8th level creatures, too, in massive suits of enchanted plate mail... and the entire ground around the temple was Unhallowed and Desecrated.
8th lvl. Ogre Skeleton Champion
Unhallow cast on the ground in an area gives Good-aligned people penalties, and Evil-aligned things bonuses at the same time! It grants even LARGER bonuses for undead! Desecrate was a lower-level version of Unhallow, and gave even more, STACKING bonuses to the undead, and negatives to me!
Essentially, what that all meant was that they could hit me and hurt me more easily and it was harder for me to hit or hurt them! Their high levels, enchanted gear, and the combination buff/debuff from the temple’s Unhallowed, Desecrated Grounds made things pretty damned tough!
/donotlike!
I had managed to use a pretty basic, old-school RPG tactic called kiting to kill the first two sets of the five pairs of guards on the steps leading up to the temple without much trouble. By using Energy Spark, and then recharging it with Pneumatic Empowerment, it was scray and damned dangerous, but doable with a little luck. They certainly couldn’t catch me, so it was just a matter of time and patience before I wore them down with my electron particle beams.
When I aggroed the third set, though, the fourth and fifth sets ALSO aggroed... and all four of them were Clerical spell casters! Even worse, it seemed they were capable of using 3rd Circle Divine spells, too.
They immediately started buffing and healing the two undead ogres from the third group. Suddenly, the two of them, and their weapons, were a size category larger, from Large to Huge, and their reach was now 30’ instead of 20’! Their halberds were now Baned vs. Humans, and Unholy.
Bane was an especially nasty effect. It gives +2 to hit and damage versus whatever they bane works against, and +2d6 damage. Unholy does +2d6 damage versus Good!
Halberds also have an x3 crit multiplier, just like battle axes do. They might not be able to one-shot me with a crit, but it would sure be closer than I wanted to risk!
Yeah, I’m not ashamed to say that I simply ran away. That was just way too danged much for me to handle right now. That many spellcasters together like that is a major pain. Whoever designed that encounter couldn’t have screwed me any harder if he’d looked over my character sheet and said, ‘Yup. Let’s screw THIS guy, in particular!’
Really, if I’m being honest, those undead temple guards would screw over most parties. There’s a reason that tanks in the front and healers in the back are a staple of most MMOs! It’s a strategy that’s strong as Hell!
Reach is a really big counter to someone who’s primarily a melee character. Unhallowed Ground is a brutal counter to anyone Good-aligned, just like Hallowed Ground is to Evil... Between their Magical Armor and the giant undead’s normal toughness, they’re probably taking between 12 and 15 points of damage off of each of my melee attacks that land, and those buffs are probably making it worse.
Adding in not one but FOUR evil clerics, which means four of the best healers AND the best buffers in L&L, would screw over practically anyone, solo. It would screw over most groups, too!
That’s gotta be meant as a group encounter? Maybe even a group dungeon? I mean, that’s gotta be a Challenge Rating 9 or 10 encounter, right? At least!
Challenge Rating was the average level of the group the encounter was intended to challenge. An enemy’s Challenge Rating was based off of the type of critter that it was and modified by its character levels or special abilities.
Well-equipped and organized groups were generally expected to be able to handle an encounter up to two Challenge Ratings, or CRs, higher than their Character Level if they were smart and prepared. Three CRs was going to be a fight that had a better than even chance of defeating a group.
Four CRs higher than the players was starting to get into the category of downright mean.
In other words, me trying to fight them right now would be really dumb. Blatantly dumb. I needed to have good equipment and be MUCH higher level before I tried to solo them. If I could get three to five really awesome allies, I’d consider trying to fight them at 6th level, maybe 5th if my allies were truly awesome.
Solo, I’d probably need to be 8th or even 9th level to have a good shot at beating the six undead together... maybe? Being able to buy Feats and Masteries changed things up a lot.
Anyway, that big pile of desecrated undead bullshit meant it was time to go back and see what was behind door number one.
What was the worst thing that could happen? Dying here wasn’t permanent, after all!
It sure did still hurt, though.
Not that I was ever going to die on purpose, either. Take it from someone with experience in the field... dying sucks!
Going the opposite direction through the Skraven and the spider rooms changed the encounters a little, but not in any significant way, to be honest.
The biggest difference was against the five Skraven around the campfire. Qi Cloak let me sneak up on them and start the fight with a Surprise round of combat, which, as you might expect, was devastating.
It turned what had already become an easy fight into a practical joke when the rat mutate was dead before any of them even knew what was happening. He was their powerhouse, their heavy hitter. With him dead before the fight even got started, the other Skraven couldn’t put up much of a fight, really.
The spiders were basically at about the same level of difficulty, to be honest. They still gave me records, though, so it wasn’t a waste of time.
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The next area was still the one with the Hearthflame, and it was still a safe area.
I exited the safe area headed towards the fort with the Ghoulish Crossbowmen with Qi Cloak and Qi Sprint active and essentially making me both blazing fast AND invisible until the end of my next turn! I easily made it to the wall of the ghoul outpost with none of the Ghoul Crossbowmen having a clue this time. From there, ordinary Stealth and Climbing were all I needed to get up the wall and take down the three ghoul archers there.
Effortlessly Parkouring up a wall like this will probably never get old, and if it eventually will, it sure hasn’t yet! I noted with fierce joy.
The first two never even saw me coming.
I managed to kill them before the third one turned and saw me. It managed to cry out before I put a fist through its chest, blasting it to apart with pure physical force, my Qi and Pneuma more than strong enough to overcome its innate undead resistance to physical damage!
I had concealment from the wall and used it to hide from the ghouls in the courtyard, just waiting for the half-ogre to step out. The big undead werewolf had managed to get a sneak attack in before, but my Perception check was only a +13 last time I was here...
Now it was +22. I’d be both surprised and pissed if it could hide from me now.
Sure enough, it couldn’t. I swapped from Iron Palm Stance to the Air-attuned Elemental Embrace. I'd started the fight using the physical Stance earlier because those electrical discharges are LOUD. While Iron Palm did a bit less damage, the fact that it was much quieter felt important enough for me to use it under these circumstances.
I’m gonna have the element of surprise on my side this time around! Let’s see how YOU like it, Mr. Ghastly Werewolf!
Two supercharged bolts of Pneumatic lightning snapped out from my right hand pointing at the undead half-ogre like a finger gun and smacking into the completely unaware half-ogre. 8d6+16 lightning damage was a nice opening salvo for our little fight.
The ogre howled in pain and retreated before beginning its Lycanthropic transformation while ordering the other ghouls to attack me with a howl and a glare in my direction.
Sorry Mr. Half-Ogre, I’m not giving you the chance to transform! I thought with almost maniacal glee! I was completely unprepared the first time around... I have a plan this time!
It probably thought that being eighty feet away from me, at the far side of the courtyard, was far enough away for the three or four seconds it needed to change.
It couldn’t have been more wrong. My charge distance, that is, the amount of distance I could travel and still get in an attack, was over a hundred feet right now, further if I used a point of Qi on Qi Sprint!
A charge would let me cover that distance easily, so that’s what I did. As my swift action, I activated Bronze Knuckle. Until the start of my next turn, I’d ignore all DR and do +2d6 with my unarmed attacks.
I raced forward then leapt into a flying kick to cover the final twenty-five feet or so, slamming my heel into its chest with my full strength and power behind it! Even with the fact that it massed over four times what I do, the massive force behind the kick smashed it backwards!
Caught in the middle of transforming into its were-form, it couldn’t even try to counterattack or even evade, really!
Its transformation finally finished, but now it was badly hurt. It lashed out at me with its axe, missing by quite a bit. My AC was 9 or 10 points higher now than it was the first time we fought, after all!
“No lucky one hit kills this time, you freak!” I spit out at the half-ogre while grinning.
It showed its lack of appreciation for my comment with a howl of rage! When I used my Aikido-like Defensive Throw to turn its missed attack into a hip toss and it got smashed face-first into the ground, it didn’t appreciate that, either!
I went for my Vicious Stomp and somehow, I managed to miss!? I should have learned the last time the thing was a lot more agile than it looked, but that apparently hadn’t sunk in yet, because it managed to roll to its feet... well, more like it catapulted itself to its feet with what its strength probably was!
I just shook my head in amazement, then leapt forward smashing it with a Flurry of Blows, even spending a point of Qi to get a third attack in!
The first two strikes landed, but the third missed. Does this guy have a Counter ability that lets him dodge an attack? He must! How many hit points does this mook have? The two lightning bolts, the flying kick, the damage from Great Throw when I tripped him, plus these two attacks – that gotta be getting over a hundred points of damage!
Sadly, the force of the two blows knocked it tumbling away from me. I say sadly because the distance allowed it to roll to its feet without provoking another attack of opportunity, a definite miscalculation on my part. I need to get used to the repercussions of all my recent changes and power-ups, I guess?
The half-ogre howled as he swung his axe at me again, proving that I wasn’t the only one who didn’t learn quickly. He missed, again, and I used the opportunity to throw him again using Redirection!
It smashed forcefully into the ground, taking Great Throw’s damage and this time my Vicious Stomp landed, crushing its skull as the final note on the symphony of destruction I’d just played out for this thing!
I staggered back from it, temporarily out of breath and a little frustrated. That was... hell, that was almost too easy, dammit! Still scary as Hell, though! It probably can’t one-shot me anymore, but every time it swung its axe, my life flashed before my eyes! I thought as my former nemesis died less than a minute after I’d engaged the first ghoul crossbowman.
I had been completely unprepared, and FIRST LEVEL, the last time I’d fought the ghastly half-ogre werewolf, but I’d since fixed both of those things.
My victory here felt like ample proof of that!
Of course, the last time it had surprised me and gotten lucky with that crit. This time, the tables were reversed!
Finishing off the other ghouls in the redoubt took about two minutes, most of which was spent tracking them down. Without the added threat of the half-ogre Elite, the lesser ghouls went down quickly and easily.
I wasn’t terribly surprised to find that I’d completely overlooked a Hearthflame off to one side of the courtyard. I promptly bonded to it and in an excellent mood, decided to finally level up!
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The menu came up and I chose level up, only to get a message I hadn’t expected.
You currently have two Classes marked as Primary.
From 4th level onwards, you may only have a single Primary Combat Class. Your other Class will be designated as a Secondary Class.
Secondary Classes can never be a higher level than your Primary Class's level/2 + 1. Thus, your Primary Class will have to be 6th level before you are able to advance your Secondary Classes to 4th.
Advanced Classes also follow this formula. You may not have more than 1 Advanced Class at a time, though after an Advanced Class reaches its maximum Advancement level, usually at 3rd, 5th, or 10th level, you may advance a new Advanced Class.
Do you wish to advance Monk, Disciple, or neither at this time?
The implications of this blew my mind. I could have more than two classes? Sure, there had been hints of that earlier, but this was the System itself coming out and stating it! Yeah, the lower-level classes were going to be far weaker, but lots of classes had strong low-level skills that would let me do a lot... and Advanced Classes, or Prestige Classes as they were called in older versions of L&L, were often hybrid classes, anyway!
So, what if I could only take three levels of a class like Rogue for now? I could probably find an Advanced Class that let me gain rogue abilities AND Combat Art related stuff!
I sighed as I closed the interface by choosing neither, for now. I had really screwed up. Sure, Monk combat combined with a Disciple’s pseudo-magical kung fu powers made for a terrifying combo, but taking Magical Blockage was going to end up really hurting me, here.
Have my Power Gamer powers truly failed me? Alas, alas?! I groaned to myself a bit mockingly but also genuinely disappointed.
The fact that I could have taken a pair of classes like Wizard and Cleric up to 6th level as Secondary classes, then grabbed the prestige class, Mystic Theurge, and been able to cast as a 12th level caster in BOTH classes before I hit 11th level in my main class. Being able to cast 6th Circle spells as both a Wizard and a Cleric as a 10th Primary melee class was just... insane? Absurd? I have no words!
Even if they limited the level of spells you could cast to what you’d be able to do as your Primary class’s level, or something like that, it was still incredibly, ridiculously strong!
The part that really sucked about how this worked was that I’d need to wait until my Primary was at 6th to reach 4th level as a Disciple and start making my own magic items! Of course, I could make Disciple my Primary Class, but there were at least two Advanced Classes, also known as Prestige Classes, that I knew of off the top of my head that would help me with my Combat Arts as much as I wanted!
There were no Advanced Classes that improved a Monk’s Qi skills in the same way, though.
Shit. I totally outsmarted myself, dammit! Wait! I can’t do magic, but maybe I can still do Psionics? If it was an option, it would be amazing... but I wasn’t sure if it was even possible.
Psionics had a long tradition as a part of Legends & Labyrinths, going back to the very first Advanced version, and had been a part of every version since. Psionic energy had a totally different power source than magic was. Flaws were specific in what they affected, after all!
I rushed to check and see if the Psionic classes were available, but a quick search of the database told me that they were not.
Crap! That woulda been awesome! My hopes crushed in an instant!
No... that can’t be right, can it? I know that I remember seeing the psionic Combat Art, Drowsing Demiurge, was one of the options...
A quick check showed that Drowsing Demiurge, a Combat Art that had psionic ability usage as a requirement was indeed available for purchase, but that I didn’t qualify to purchase it due to not having a Power Pool, the term for a Psionic Energy reserve.
Wait... there’s actually a Pneuma Feat having to do with Psionics, isn’t there? A quick search showed him that there was. It was called Pneumatic Awakening.
Pneumatic Awakening – when initiating maneuvers that can be augmented with psionic Power Pool points, you may instead spend Pneuma. In addition, you gain a Power Pool Reserve of 1 point, and qualify for Psionic Feats, metapsionic Feats, psionic item creation Feats, and may gain psionic focus.
I purchased it immediately, and almost fell on my ass! I felt a pinch, not in my brain, but in my MIND... and the difference between the two was suddenly obvious to me!
That was followed by the surge of a new type of energy within my body and my Mind.