To My Dear Friend Discussion Thread

So, who will be the first character to seduce an NPC?

Punk's the bard and already said he's not playing that kind of bard.

Smart money's on Neo.

Good thinking. You may be right. We'll see.

My character is not the type to flirt or try to seduce someone. Nor is he actively looking for any relationship. And his Cha mod is only a 1. But my goal as a player is to get him to go full Nyl and bang The Red as soon as possible.

Is a standard longbow something we could have in our starting gear, or no?

This is mostly for new 13th age players, but the old-timers might learn some stuff, too.

Icons are strong.
The Red isn't just strong because she's level 13.
Icons get bonus abilities, resistance or immunity to status effects, things like that.
I also made a special ability or two for each icon.

For example, the Red. She actually has two. One's a secret. The other is an ability that triggers when she's staggered, dealing AoE DoT and giving her +AC/PD, but -MD.

Aimie is an exception. She not only has the Lord High Magus' special ability, she not only has several modified spells taken from all the spell classes, but she also has an extremely powerful BULLS***-tier ability. You might be able to guess some of how it works from her lore entry. If you don't find a way to neutralize it, you won't be able to beat her. It won't matter even if the party gets to level 10 and brings 5 icons. She is known as Deathless One for a reason.

Even the weakest icon, The Grand Oracle, would wipe the floor with the party. With or without her bodyguards.

There is a reason I'm warning you ahead of time about this.

I will also say there is one icon the party could defeat in the first few sessions, but only because of very special circumstances.

There is a 0% chance that the party won't pick a fight with an icon, I can just feel it.  And Aimie is not a 0% chance.  Therefore, as the worse-case scenario, it's 100%.

If I assume the worst will happen and prepare for it, it can't go horribly wrong.

Pancake was the TPK.

Some more house rule stuff.

Nat 20 doesn't guarantee success, at least not the way you plan, but it will always have some benefit. I guess that's not really a house rule so much as a negation of the usual house rule...

I'm borrowing a page from Gloomhaven's book and using loss of recoveries to represent extreme physical exertion. Digging out a cave-in, maybe, or prolonged exposure to heat/cold. Or effects like being drained by a vampire/succubus/incubus. Usually you'll at least get some kind of save to resist it.

I mentioned meaningful death, but explanation for new guys. Basically, if you manage to die to mooks, it's going to coma you instead of kill you. It's not going to be as limited as Schism where the rule being in effect's kind of rare. Basically think if they have a name you're in danger.

Also, campaign loss. If you retreat from a climactic fight, don't make it in time, have you take a full-heal early, etc., you'll get a campaign loss where someone opposed to the party gets some way to bite you in the butt. Possibly far down the line.