>>214260
It all comes down to whether or not you want to be up close and personal with your enemies, or if you'd rather engage them from a distance.

>>214260
Balanced. Become a master gish, use your magical abilities more for magical enhancements and tricks than blasting. Flying or easily climbing walls, stealth, combat booster spells, detecting hidden enemies and treasures, that sort of thing. Use your physical prowess when it's time to tear people apart, and your magical prowess to do things that being strong, fast, and tough can't do for you.

Balance
Fire seems to be your element. Work on your fire resistance, flame breath, and fire evocation skills. Earth or water magic would be a great backup.

Rynh 2010/07/31(Sat)17:34 No. 214332 ID: 8c0848
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Fire is my element. I was forgot to mention it, but I definitely have an affinity to fire. Earth and Air are neutral and water is opposed, so it's as equally hard for me to use water as it is easy for me to use fire. It's balanced out or something.

Balance. You're in a mercenary troop, any weakness you can cherrypick a friend to cover.

>>214332
Let's go fire/air then. Your body is more suited to dodging than blocking. Air is movement and finesse. Earth is stability and force. Air magic is only a backup for when fire doesn't work. You might be able to use air magic to supplement your dragon form's ability to fly. Probably required for flight.

>>214332
Is that a set thing, because you're part red dragon? Because it would be cool if you were equally good at each. On the other hand, having one element be best for pure damage isn't a bad thing either. I'm guessing lightning doesn't factor into this at all?

Try to breathe ice or some other element, just to see if you can.

Rynh 2010/07/31(Sat)18:07 No. 214339 ID: 8c0848
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I balance my magical and physical training. In addition to elemental energy bolts I can now cast magic that boosts my strength and speed and create magical armor as well as minor healing.

I also work on increasing my strength and agility, acrobatics and all that. I'm not going to be flipping around or anything, but I can move and dodge much better now.

The point is, I've worked everything as well as I can and I'm ready and able to kick ass.

>>214339
...Whoa. You look badass.

AWESOME!

...You bang Jehral yet?

Let's go to the mission select screen as see what's available.

You should get a spear or lance, with a shortsword for a sidearm, you look like a right proper lancer now.

>>214341
Yes, lets all focus on what really matters.

¬_¬

Good work!

Now that that's out of the way, it's time to leave the merc life behind, settle down, and start a family with Jehral.

You'll make a great trophy wife :3c

Rynh 2010/07/31(Sat)18:59 No. 214359 ID: 8c0848
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Spears are good and I'll keep some short blades ready for up close.

I've got better things to do than worry about Jehral. I like him and all, but I need to work on things like harnessing the raw forces of nature to blast the shit out of things. Ka-shoom! Haha!

... perfect. let us kick everyone's ass all the time.

Was your teacher the tough looking guy from a while ago? Who watched your arm wrestling match? He's probably the expert fighting teacher instead of the balance teacher but who knows. Our real Stallone might as well have been made of magic.

I hope we see him again one day. Hell, he's probably a bro of your father's because that would be a wonderful weird totally-not-coincidence inducted by the narrative. Oh well, there's about as much chance as that happening as a sandwich being close by. one-million-to-one to be exact.

>>214359
Works for me.

And you know Rynh... as nice as all that power is, you'll always need someone to watch your back. Go find out what the furball has been doing with all this time. Hopefully he hasn't blown his share of the gems on ale and whores.

And then go find Thodren and give him a frozen wedgie.

>>214352

You mean Jehral makes a great trophy husband.

>>214360
>let us kick everyone's ass all the time.
This

>>214359

Oh damn, be sure not to do that to his member next time you're giving him a stroke.

Okay, so you're full-on gish. Depending on whether or not you're primarily offensive or defensive we might need a tank and a healer. I hope Jehral went full skillmonkey. If he can't pick a lock or disarm a trap we need to find someone else.

>>214359
Girl, you look badass enough that you can win the war all by yourself. Just bring along a shortsword and a shield as well. And don't forget a helmet, you don't want to lose an eye or something to a stray arrow that could have been deflected by a helmet.

Other than that lets get on with the asskicking. And make sure your company gets increased wages because they have magical assistance with them.

>>party select screen
then
>>mission select screen

Great, you look badass. Head over to whatever hub is available to get a job and get it. If Jehral is available, see what he can do. If you think you can accomplish what needs to be done with just him, great. Otherwise, go party hunting.

Awesome. Are we all set to go take over the world now?

Rynh 2010/08/01(Sun)15:21 No. 214619 ID: 8c0848
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I'll see what there is to do, then choose who goes with me. That way I know who I need for what.

Now let's check the job board.

Slay a chimera terrorizing a farming town. 4000¤ Great. I love poison breathing lion-scorpions.

Hunt goblin raiders in the northern desert. 3500¤ Back into the desert again. I feel gritty already.

Sweep temple ruins for traps in front of explorer team. 5500¤ Poison darts tickle...

Kill 30 rats in the city sewers. 100¤ This one's a joke, right?

Trade caravan escort. 2500¤ Gnolls, orcs, trolls and bandits unlikely? Right.

Destroy Enacian War Golem currently under construction. 25,000¤ The pay is awesome. Why do I doubt I'd live to spend it?

That's it for now.

>>214619
Destroying the Enacian war golem would probably be the best choice for getting a better idea of what's going on to the north, but you're probably right in that you wouldn't survive it. Maybe help out that farming town first, then beat up those raiders? Getting a better feel for how powerful you are both physically and magically would probably be very useful.

>>214619
Go for the golem. With pay like that you can get a team together to go after it, making survival alot more likely. And you're way to awesome for failure. You will make it through fine and the golem will be destroyed. Or possibly bound to serve you instead. Either way it will be taken out of comission.

>>214619
The scorpion sounds like a good job for you and Jehral, since he can track it and you can actually kick its ass.

>>214620
My only worry about not doing the war golem thing is if we end up having to later fend off the final product It wouldn't do to go alone or just with Jehral, but if we invite a couple of out merc friends we might just have a chance. Rynh, if you can put together a competent party I suggest you go for it. If only to save yourself more trouble for little to no profit later.

GOLEM.

Chimera.

>>214619
Temple Ruins.

>>214619
sweeping for traps sounds like a good job for Jehral. Just how much more agile did you get from your training?

well if the golem is a sabotage mission maybe its doable... but otherwise if you cant get a lot of manpower you probably cant do it.

Whom can we choose to come with us? We would need a good bunch of heavy hitters/meatshields and some skillmonkeys to be able to take on a heavily fortified factory.
Still: Golem it is!

Let's see... The Chimera is a good solid choice of job. You go with some buddies, you kill it, you get paid a solid amount.

The Golem job pays a lot, though. It would not be as straightforward. You likely couldn't take out all the security with anything short of a full army, and at that point you'd be splitting the money so much that it wouldn't be worth the time, much less the danger. This leaves stealth as our best option, which means just you and Jehral, so far as I know. With your shape-changing, you've got a significant advantage here. I think you're likely to be able to get to the golem relatively simply. Then you need some way of destroying it. That should be prepared before we try anything. I recommend explosives. After destroying it, we need to be able to get out. That's something we should plan before we go in, but we can't plan for it until we case the joint.

Also, this is liable to piss the Enacians off pretty badly, so to avoid incurring bounty hunters, we should not appear in our natural form any time while on the job.

With these measures, I'd say that the golem slaying is well worth it.

>>214619
Go for the chimera. It sounds like the most balanced job out of the lot.

Golem!

>>214619
I'd have to vote for the temple ruins

Something tells me that golem job isn't going anywhere soon. If you do a smaller job first you could afford more manpower and equipment for the golem one.

Actually, this plan is double-effective, because by the time you finish another job this one could quite possibly become worth -more-. Chances are with a price like that more mercs will run up and try to do it, dying horribly raising the price. Let's face it, whoever you try to hire will want you to flash the cash immediately with a job this dangerous. You probably can't afford to try it.

Let's go for the chimera one - It's straightforward, manageable and worth a lot.

You have an approximately a one-in-a-million chance against the golem. Do it.

Go for the chimera!

Go for the Golem. Bring Jehral. He's sneaky. He can help you sneak in, you two can destroy it, bring back a vital component as proof, and live like kings for a month.

>>214619
Let's go stomp the multiple chimera heads.

Faster for quicker turnaround, a lot less hassle than sneaking into dangerous territory, and generally safer/more prosperous.

Chimera, with our luck we are going to arrive at the Golem just as it activates anyway so might as well have the cash to buy some proper gear by then.

OH MAN GO FOR THE RATS! AWESOME!

>>214619
Go for the Chimera.
The war Golem thing sounds like a group effort. A big group. While at the same time that little farm town might not last long enough to pay up if it isn't dealt with soon.

Golem

I'm going to vote for Chimera just so we don't die to the Golem holy shit

>>214619

Gotta remember that these payoffs will be split. The Chimera will need at least three or four people. Temple ruins, could be done with just you and Jehral, and if so would offer the best reward for you personally.

Aside the golem one, of course, but you'll probably need more serious magic mojo than you have right now for that one.

On second thought, it might be worth finding out a little more about the golem thing, in case there's something that'd make it suicidal, instead of just dangerous, for you and jehral.

>Sweep temple ruins for traps in front of explorer team. 5500¤
Despite sounding like a premise for a bondage fanfic, this is probably your next best bet, since the pay is great and you can probably magic most of it from afar.

>>214683
Traps are not generally designed to be detectable from afar.

If where going to end up being involved with the war up north at some point in the future. It wouldn’t hurt to take out the supper weapon that’s under development by a potential enemy. Who might decide to use it on us later on. Go for the golem.

Go for the Golem. I mean how hard can it be? It's still under construction isn't it?

>>214641
APPROXIMATELY one in a million, or EXACTLY one in a million? This is an extremely important distinction.

Go beat up GolemBoss either way, though.

>>214739
the golem may not be done, but they still have a lot of power. see >>209891

Well shit. We can go blow up the Gundam Golem while it's still being built but we're underpowered, or wait until we're stronger. Any by then the Golem will be complete and we'd be back to being hideously outmatched again.

instead of destroying it, why not take out the commander and use it ourself? if destruction is required then order it to self destruct after you are done.

Rynh 2010/08/02(Mon)08:15 No. 214819 ID: 8c0848
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I guess the chimera is a good place to start, but I'll probably want some help.
Tackling giant, magical beasts on your own rarely ends well from what I've heard. It says Chimera on the notice, but the description sounds more like a Manticore, which is still technically a chimera, but they should learn the difference.

So, what kind of help should I get for killing your average human-faced lion with a scorpion tail the size of an elephant? There's a couple hundred mercs here to choose from, so I'd better just pick the general type of help I need.

The reward is also going to be split up between us, the more people the easier it is, but the payout starts to get crappy too. If I pick people well suited to fighting this thing, it should go well with just a few of us.

Getting stung by that thing will be BAD NEWS for anyone. Get someone that's good at dodging attacks, or has armor that would easily deflect such a strike.

Being in close combat with it is going to be rather dangerous even then. We're going to want at least two ranged fighters. You count. You can blast it from a distance.

You can fill in a role of distracting it or blasting it. So we need two more people, either both ranged, or one ranged and one quick, well-armored fighter.

Going into head-on close combat sounds just like a stupid move. Have you got someone with a powerful long-range attack like a gnoll or minotaur archer with a massive longbow? Also there's no need to be fair so a devious magician or some trap and poison expert with experience in rigging the battlefield would be handy. Then you can engage the chimera from afar and catch it in a trap or disabling spell of some sorts if it tries to rush you.

You will be the magical fire support and last resort defense with your spear. Is it possible to shapeshift to something that is highly resistant to poisons? That would give you a huge edge.

You'll want one person at least who can keep its attention. Everyone else should be suited to blasting the fuck out of it with something from a range, be it arrows or spells. Maybe a healer to keep the tank up and running.

You need another fighter and a healer and You'll probably be fine.

>>214819
Get your bull-buddy. Hopefully he won't be sore about the sparring match after all this time. Plus he's in that size range to chimeras where he's too small to be taken seriously, but big enough to be considered a good meal.

>>214819
Technically you're DPS. You'll want someone who can keep the beast on them, while being able to take a few hits and keep on trucking. And you'll want one, maybe two people who can provide medical aid for those who have been wounded. The rest should be people who can just pewpewpew the thing to death.

Agreeing that a tank is desirable. The bull guy would be alright if he's available, but if you have an actual list of people and their abilities that are willing to go I'd say show us so we can make a good decision.

Jehral for sure. I've got a plan and we need him. Then one meatshield with some good thick armor.

Party = Rynh, Jehral, Meatshield

I really think Rynh should leave Jehral behind on this one. He's cute, but that's not going to cut it against some giant beast. Better give him a farewell kiss and a promise to get drunk together once you return with the job money.

Well besides Jehral... yeah I think most people have the basic idea here. Some big beefy warrior, along with some sort of 'healer'; preferably one who can handle both wounds and poison.

If you're worried about having to split the moneys too many ways.....healers a higher priority then the meat shield I think. Our hero isn't exactly fragile! But to kill the thing and die of poison... yeah not pleasant.

>>214819
Well you need a quick nervous little bastard to be point man. Then it's probably good to have one or two that can hit what they aim at with a bow or a crossbow. Then an additional two or three to act as meatshields with good armour and heavy weapons.

It's a bonus if they have experiance fighting magical crap. If the job goes well and the team gets along decently then you can probably keep them together and tackle something harder with a bigger reward.

Number one priority: ask around, and fond those with experience dealing with Chimera/Manticore.


Also: how sentient/sapient are Manticore? Wild beast acting on instinct/self aware but non-lingual/intelligent but amoral/intelligent but willfully malevolent?

that stinger is probably going to go through armor.

>>214819
You're hunting down a beast, so someone who can track and trap may prove essential. Jehral is a good bet for that, but we don't want him to go toe to toe with it. If we bring him we'll need to stay back and take pot shots at it. We'll also need someone who isn't going to get taken out to carry something to cure poisoning after the battle, might as well give those to him too.

Besides that we'll need a bruiser to deal some damage, Thodren might do but he's a also big target. Not terribly slow but someone faster and maybe better armed and armored would be better. How about your gnoll friend from before?

>>214819
Come to think of it, is chimera a term for a specific kind of monster, or does it refer to any sort of creature that is formed from a bunch of different creatures? Find out more at the village I guess.

Rynh 2010/08/02(Mon)17:23 No. 214907 ID: 8c0848
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There's Thodren for a meatwall. He's pretty huge.
Shera is a catfolk, she's big on running around and throwing things. Kind of like Jehral with bigger tits...
Stark, he's an archer. He shoots arrows from a bow. I don't know what else to say here.
Kryssa, shoots bolts from a crossbow. Yeah...
Gustav is a mage. He's better at magic than me, but I could break him with my bare hands. It all balances out.
Jehral, tiny target with throwing daggers. He flips out and stabs things.
Dagnyr. He's a gnoll, so he likes stabbing and biting things.

So we all know some first-aid. I can heal minor things. Gustav can probably heal more things. It's probably best to avoid being horribly wounded in the first place.

Okay, this job pays 4000¤, so who do I want to bring along?

Dagnyr only. He cuts and you stab with lightning and use your magic to counter any weird supernatural effects. Split the money 50/50, or 60/40 if one of you unquestionably saves the other one's ass. (Thus encouraging him to actually save your ass if it needs saving)

Dagnyr only. Let Jehral be on his own for a bit so he can grow jealous and bitter.

>>214907
Find out if Gustav can cure horrible poisoning. If he can, bring him. If he can't, bring someone who can. It would be a total bitch to kill it only to have one or more of your team die from the aftereffects.

Bring Thodren, Kryssa, Gustav (or someone else who can cure poison), and Jehral. At 800 each, that pay isn't too shabby. Jehral as bait/lure, Kryssa and Gustav as ranged support, then you, Jehral, and Thodren beat the shit out of it together in melee and have Gustav patch up anyone injured if something goes horribly wrong.

You could probably drop Thodren, Jehral, and/or Kryssa from this plan if you think you're badass and want a bigger slice of the pay. You really just need two solid fighters to melee it and a capable nukemage, but a third fighter, additional ranged support, and a competent healer could save your bacon if things start going south.

Definitely bring Kryssa and Gustav. Maybe Thodren or Dagnyr as backup.

I just don't see what Jehrals or Sheras throwing daggers could do against something the size of an elephant...

>>214914
I figured that in order to fight it on our terms, we'd probably want someone fast to act as lure. They don't have to hurt it, just annoy it enough that it gets pulled into position for everyone else to get the ambush off. We could drop that from our plan and just slug it out straight up, but that's a bit more dangerous.

On the other hand, maybe I'm being silly in assuming that Jehral could/would be willing to act as lure in a plan that would involve him running away from a mutant scorpion-lion the size of an elephant. Or that he's fast enough to manage it. He just struck me as speedy and hard to hit, thus a good fit for the role.

Gustav I think for sure, especially if he can cure poisonings.

Jehral for fun and because this thing will need to be tracked first, plus he can probably get into its weak spots.

Gustaf, Thorden and Stark.

Stark is an archer, but my guess is that weak asses don't survive long in this business. He likely has some... 'special' arrows.

Sad about leaving out Jehral, but this ain't his deal.

>>214907
Thodren is a must, he can draw attention while we do shit. Other than that, I'd say maybe one of the archers. A well-aimed bolt from a high position is a pretty good asset.

Anyone else would just be splitting the paycheck unnecessarily.

>>214907
My idea is: You don't want to get close if you can help it so bring Stark and Kryssa, and Jehral. Jehral does the tracking and trapping as needed. You use thrown and reach weapons with magic to stun and control the monster at a distance while the others shoot it up.

All striker tactics, just be careful and it'll be a piece of cake. ...Poisonous cake perhaps, so bring antivenoms.

Jehral + mage. You are med range support/attacker. Can you polymorph Jehral into something poison resistant? E.g. a slime. Hey big bad chimera? Yeah I am a slime. Your posion doesn't do a thing. Also, your blows just stir up my slime. I can reform in no time.

Oh wait. Gelaninous cube. Fuuuuuuuucc.....

Bring Jehral. Much as I like the idea of him stewing in jealousy a small, hard to hit, fast target that whirls around doing damage is always the worst for the enemy to deal with, even if the enemy itself is fast. And manticore isn't built for fast turns and flippy freakery like the elf-bold.

For archers, see who can shoot blinding shots and take one.

Unless Thorden can muster better armor or Gustav can heal or heal poison they seem kind of superfluous on this kind of mission.

Same with Shera. I'd love to see her jiggling around in action, but she can't beat Jehral's tiny tininess.

Unless you know of her skills and she is better than Jehral, then by all means take her~

Bring Jehral and Stark, but not Rynh. Rynh can go kill some rats while Jehral hunts it down and Stark impales the thing with his longbow.

>Jehral with bigger tits
So we're ditching him for good, then.

Kryssa and Shera.

>>214907
Thodren and Jehral.
Jehral's small, so it will see him as less of a threat. Thodren gets its attention, Jehral sneak attacks its tail off, you keep it off balance and on fire.

Jehral and Shera

>>214908
couldn't that also encourage Dagnyr to let Rynh get into situations where she needs saving? Or even arranging one or two?

>>214907
Jehral for point man. He goes first and hopefully discovers enemies before they discover him. Stark and Kryssa for ranged back up. Thodren and Dagnyr for heavy duty melee stuff. You act as teamleader and do what needs to be done.

That won't give you a big payout on this job. But tell them that you're doing it as a starter to get the team to know how to work together before tackling more dangerous and well paying stuff.

I like the idea of Rynh, Jehral, and a meatshield (Thorden is perfect), but it only really works if Jehral is capable of shooting a bow, as daggers just isn't going to cut it.

I say we should keep the group to four max for at least a thousand each. As for who, dunno. At least bring Gustav, magic is always useful.

Thodren & Jehral for the Manticore.

Thodren, Jehral & Gustav for the Golem.

I'd say with a 3 man party you should try to kill those goblin raiders too once you finish off the Manticore. After that, pick up Gustav as well and head out for golem smashing. I wouldn't try the golem without the 4 of you.

That's still a lot of money split 4 ways.

Just Dagnyr if you can heal manticore poison, and Dagnyr and Gustav if you can't

Chapter End Rynh 2010/08/08(Sun)10:27 No. 216360 ID: 8c0848
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Alright. I've decided who I'll take with me. It's time to kick some freak ass. We'll show it it's not okay to be a bunch of things just mashed together for no reason!