Renewal came. I reached out to Tremble as I blinked and made sure I still had a face and not a caved-in shell.
"Ouch!" he said for me.
"They're using Teamwork Feats." I shook my head. "Improved and Superior Aid Another, Improved Flanking. Each attack was an aid attempt, and gave it a +4 bonus. +4 to hit when flanking. An extra +20 to hit, it couldn't miss." I sighed despite myself.
Uncanny Dodge came with Scout/4, but their MAB and flanking level were obviously way above mine, so no help there.
"This is one mean Curse," Tremble murmured.
"It figured that out, so we can expect a lot more of that proliferating. It might not be able to mess with default templates of creatures much, but with the extra Olympian Hit Dice, it can pop the Feats in with no problem."
"Oww…" he said again. "So, this just got harder, even without changing what we fight?"
"Yes." I sat up, and creaked my neck, began to do my stretches.
"How do we fight?"
"Well, I was intentionally stupid. I wanted to see all their fighting styles and if going outside evolved anything. Obviously, it did." Actually, getting a good stretching involved a lot of twisting now. I had Escape Artist Ranks and a 25 Dex. I was naturally as limber as the finest human contortionist ever, which was just awesome on the face of it. Being able to casually rest my buns on the back of my head and do my toenails was a nice perk of being superhumanly flexible and coordinated. Polish up the black things to keep that razor edge and all…
"Go back along the side of the house?" he piped up immediately.
"It was too late for that. The topiaries could animate the shrubs there, like they did the grass and hedgerows. I should have been hacking them down as I killed the ants. Going back would have resulted in a major pile-on, and that walnut tree could have reached most of the length of the house to hit us."
"Yeah, what a monster." We had carved some pretty huge gouges in it, but with iron-hard bark four inches thick, it just didn't care. I could hew through a foot of wood with a normal swing, and twice that with a One Strike, but when you're a dozen feet across, you just laugh. "Wasn't expecting the exploding walnuts, either," he added.
The nuts were the size of softballs, hit like shotputs, and exploded when they hit you… and it threw dozens at a time in an AoE effect. DR took care of some of it, but man, that was one wicked walnut tree! The explosions weren't even magical, either. It must have loaded them with a wad of C4 or something...
"Other then being outsized, outnumbered, outmaneuvered, and overpowered, I think we did pretty well," I extemporized.
"Me, too!" he agreed, without missing a beat.
"The Curse probably thinks it's found a new trick, so its going to be using them in the room situations, especially with the annis hags and the bogeymen. I am going to be doing a lot more running around than before."
"Awwww. I was enjoying tanking them and slaughtering them while their claws crashed on me uselessly."
"Yeah, we're going to be focusing even more on fast kills. The Curse is trying to template us out of range of two-hit kills, but is having problems keeping up with Profound Artisan."
"That IS a seriously over-powered ability," Tremble agreed.
"Weaponizing Skills is pretty monstrous. I am so happy I took Profound Artisan from a mere +synergy damage Feat to Sage of Swords." Eff them Dragon Warriors and their +15d6 combo moves. At range. While walking on air. As an AoE.
"So, you gonna start taking them Advanced and Combo classes?" he wondered.
"I have been. But the benefits are hard to see, because I'm not a Ten, I don't have Gear, and I'm mono-weapon focused right now, with no Crafting. The +2 bonuses to Skills for Favored Terrain and FE: Stalker/Hunter aren't really all that noticeable, you see…"
"Oh, you took your Ranger Levels?"
"All two of them." I could tell he was making adjustments to our ersatz Stat list of me. "All the Favored Enemy stuff was subsumed by Courtier of Death. I wasn't able to just pick something and get the benefit… except for one thing."
"Oh?"
"Human." I could feel Tremble momentarily blink. "Yeah."
"I suppose that's better then having to kill fifty people…" my Sword mused. "What about Skill Points? Lots, right? Tracking, hunting, all the good stuff."
"Nope. Advanced Classes only modify the main class. No Skill Points. They usually have Class abilities that modify skills, but it's up to you to acquire the points to put into them."
"….wow?"
"There's a reason people take the Expert Class, you see.
"Likewise, no weapon profs, armor profs. If you don't have them going in… well, usually you can't get in."
"But… you described Rangers as this massively multi-talented class for solo play, and that's pretty much what you are in, right?"
"Oh, that's the magical Ranger class." Tremble was silenced. "Seriously, they get ranger spells, automatic animal companion, free favored enemy advances, favored terrains, bonus Feats in ranger weapon styles, and other class abilities related to wilderness movement and living.
"Now, the no-spell Rangers… well, you don't see me Summoning up a critter to make my Animal Companion. I actually have to train them up, not 'Poof! You are perfect Kombat Kompanion Kitten, Komrad Dire Tiger! Fight vit me!'" I made clawing motions in front of me. "As for the Feats, well, they're a dumbed-down assortment of what Melees get, so guess what?"
"You already had them."
"I got the Karma back for them, however!"
"So, you got two Ranger Levels for FE: Human and a Favored Terrain?"
"Favored Terrain, Urban." I gestured at our misty home. "Because, required to have experienced the terrain. Couldn't even take the second advance."
"No spells, no Feats… wow, that's a whole lot of nothing. Um, same with the Warden, I suppose?"
"Rangers are Melee, Wardens are Archers. Rangers do tend to rove or be suborned to Druidic orders, and Wardens do tend to be attached to areas and serve under civilized lords as agents of the crown and land. Other then that, not a lot of difference. It's basically because Skill-intense Scouts tend to be products of civilized peoples, and warrior-types can come from anywhere."
"Ugh. But there's so many Advanced Classes…"
"Most of them are used to shore up the weakness of a Secondary Class. Warden, for instance, will advance your RAB, but not your MAB. +4 to your RAB will certainly get you to +10 if you have Archer at Six and reach Ten in another class. There'll be a couple extra Archer Feats for you, which is nice, but if you don't have the chance to practice ranged combat…"
"You won't notice and they'll be redundant." I made a gesture of agreement. "Is there any that do give a bonus?"
"Well, Warsmith would, if I was a hammer wielder. If you wield a hammer, you can add your smithing Ranks to your damage with it. Briggs took that all the way to Sage of the Hammer, grabbing every hammer-using Skill and building on it for some horrific damage boosts. Mastersmith, Sculptor, Miner, Lumberman, Carpenter… I think he got to +80 damage or something just taking Warsmith, melding it to Skills, and running with it, much like I did with Profound Artisan.
"As for the rest… most of the Classes simply refine specific skills or skill sets, or offer a very distinct benefit derived from two complementary classes, or let you take a Secondary Skill effect to Ten. There are almost none that have direct combat effects.
"Warsmith has a nice thing where you can apply Naming Karma to both a Weapon and an Armor item that you made and bonded at the same time. I'm not wearing armor, and I don't have a shield."
"Ah."
"Oh, and its crafting bonus only applies if wielding a hammer."
Tremble humphed. "So, to a huge extent… out-of-combat bonuses, or bringing up combat bonuses we can't use because of lack of gear or options?"
"That's about it. I mean, some of Alchemist combos would be awesome."
"Except her Alchemist lab tends to explode when that potion golem-thing starts tossing out concentrated alchemical fire and lightning at us..."
"Amazing how hard it is to stuff a full lab into a Hilt Chamber, especially when you aren't allowed to grab the comps you need or the processing equipment due to explode-go-boom.
"Also, many Advanced Classes are designed for Primos, not Forsaken, requiring active instead of passive Ki pools and Essence retention. They essentially provide no bonuses at all. Can't be a Kensai expending a ki point to max my weapon damage now, can I?"
"Surely there is something…?"
"Oh, I took two levels in the Monk/Soulshaper Vajra class. Surely you felt my Soulshaper Level increase to Six, and my Essence go up by two. Those extra two points of Energy Resistance and all, and +2 to Philosophy and Meditation checks.
"Oh, and Soulmark, the Melee/Soulshaper, gives me a Crafting Reserve towards making an intelligent weapon."
Tremble did a really good sigh for having no lungs. "Wow, all those Classes, and almost nothing actually useful?"
"Enlightened Master lets me add my Ki Rank to a number of Skills equal to Wisdom bonus, rank being how advanced your IUS is. So…+3, because of SUS. It'll top out at +5 at Ten. It advances Ki level, so a mighty+1 ki to the pool, too.
"Combat-wise? Taking Assassin gets me a death attack, but its success rate is going to be 25% or less, and requires attacking from surprise after observation of the target. Champion requires an audience. Swashbuckler and Gallant give me nothing. Myrmidon requires soldiers. Master requires Students. Artillerist requires siege weapons. Blah blah blah. Alchemy and Artificer mixes require labs and tools. Minstrel mixes generally require audiences and other people. Archers require effective ranged combat.
"So, nope. I'll be tremendously and broadly diversified once I get out of here, but the situations have to be right.
"Primary Classes are Primary for a reason. The Advanced and Combo Classes exist as niches or real specializations, all the good stuff is in the Primary Classes because that's where it's best being. It would be stupid to be required to take an Advanced Class to be awesome, right? You'd just make the Advanced Class your Primary Class instead."
"Oh. That… does make sense," he admitted reluctantly. "But basically, its just the Core Classes that have the true power?"
"Yep. The rest are just supplements. The NPC Classes are the same way… just supplements to the Core Classes. It's largely thought that the NPC Classes are what PC Classes came from after evolving for combat."
"Well…" he suddenly had a thought. "Aren't you missing one of the NPC Classes?"
"Commoner?" Even I had to curl my lip at that one.
"Noble!"
"Oh. No. Must be raised a Noble or conferred one to take Noble Levels. It's not a genetic thing. I don't recall someone dropping a noble title on me anywhere in here, did you?"
"Oh, no."
"I admit I could always use another four Skill Points, but if I'm a Noble, I'll probably be needing those just to deal with the social scene, legal crap, and managing a territory. Even the low nobility have obligations that come with the status, especially in wartime. And taxes, mustn't forget the taxes."
"So, we're more like stealing back taxes we haven't paid from all these giant nobles."
"Pretty much. Considering these are either reflections of those nobles or actual dream selves, we're stealing from their dreams. Which IS kind of funny!" It wasn't the first time I wondered if the people I was killing in these dreams weren't getting a good night's sleep because of it.
"So… when do you reach Seven?" Tremble asked.
"Couple of days. Deaths. Then, we get to work on getting all those Masteries to /4, and I can finally take Human/3."
"Oh, oh! What comes after that?"
"After that, what?" I asked patiently.
"Your Racial Levels! You said Humans max at Three, but shouldn't you get another Racial Level at Ten?"
"Strictly speaking, no. Humans stop at Three. Any Levels I take after that would be Evolutionary Levels, more like mutations then anything else. I'd either become more or less then Human, stepping out into new genetic territory. Most Powered do that by picking up a superior Bloodline of one type or another. By doing so, they can pass down the status of Powered to their kids, instead of having to skip a generation. Of course, their kids are no longer pureblood humans.
"The Powered who don't do that often end up marrying a non-Human, and passing down Powered status that way. Power plus bloodline usually ends up with noble families and houses, and very careful emphasis on the bloodline that keeps them Powered. Marrying outside the desires of those dominating the bloodline is seen as giving non-Powered a gift more valuable than gold. Those Houses also start a lot of conflicts with Primos, Powered who don't come from a Bloodline, and other Bloodlines.
"I expect the world outside is going to be interesting that way. We'll find out when we get there."
"How long do you think it will take?" Tremble asked softly. "We've been doing so much fighting, and it's only getting harder."
"Dunno. Don't know how time passes out there, how fast the Curse is getting older relative to us.
"However, we're only getting stronger as time passes, you and I. It's going to become more and more difficult for the Curse to hold us down without entirely changing the rules, and I don't think it can even do that, now. So, it'll all be endurance runs, and all we have to do is keep bulling through it.
"Plus, you have to admit that our lifestyle is extremely adrenaline-packed, in its own way."
"I confess that I won't know what to do when we don't have unending streams of stuff to kill. Actual down time… how will I keep busy?" Tremble was actually wondering at this point.
"That's a very good question, actually. I confess I haven't given much thought to it, I just assumed that you'd be standing guard for me as I worked. I know you don't get bored, but you're right. You're a sentient being who can think for yourself, figuring out what you can do in your downtime to build us up sounds important. Just being able to Cast and change cantrips daily is great.
"Now, let me get these Bracers enhanced for today, and then we can go over some tactical revisions to minimize the numbers of giants we are fighting and void this pissy advantage they've managed to latch onto."
---
I didn't make it outside again, as somehow all the intelligent foes I was fighting suddenly had team tactics to put wolves to shame. The sudden return to their previous chances of hitting meant I barely made it past the ballroom giants before I ran out of Health and was cut apart.
That was fine, I was able to See the Dance, and very soon I would be In the Dance, and doling out two base attacks when my MAB hit +7. The spike in attacks would be an increase in damage dealt out due to Giants getting dead, and swing the scale back.
My Soulbound Bracers would soon enough give me +11 Force Armor, just like the Shield effect from Tremble, and stacking. That would instantly neutralize two attacks worth of Improved Aid Another help, and swing the pendulum back even further in my direction.
The untouchable cockroach would be returning. It was just going to take time, after I melted down these bracelets and literally shaped them as they cooled on my forearms around my Philosopher's Might…