No offense, Linah; it's just this AP leaves an abysmal impression of Sarenrae on any character not already familiar with her organized church. Maybe if we ever run across a temple of hers that's not a charnel house overrun by evil and sealed off from the outside world for their own protection. ;)
:D It's hard being a dreamer :)
Hiya. Next week I shall be away on holidays, for the next two weeks. I shall be taking my trusty laptop with me, but posts will likely be sporadic. Reliable posts shall return come the 17th March.
DMPC Zeladiel if needed- his actions are pretty clear- Hide up the back of the party, rapid shoot arrows and toss enough spells to irritate the big bad, then have it leap on him and take him out in 1 round. :-)
Sorry guys this weeks meetings went all the way into the weekend. 6pm sunday here and still going. I'm on very early flight back from Dubai tomorrow morning but need a decent stretch of time to prepare for the next heavy combat section. Sorry for the delay I will update substantively as soon as I can.
OK guys finally back on board more or less. Looks like our client may well win the billion dollar deal so hopefully part of my sanity not expended for nothing. Time to battle some undead.
LOL- which was really inappropriate in the quiet area of the state library. :-D
He he.
Did the map and started the combat post yesterday although I got distracted and wasn't able to post. Original results were 3 natural 20s and a confirmed grab on Grall so diceroller rather kinder today.
From my discussion thread yesterday:
going to be offline a lot in the next week. Will try posting every 2 days, but can't promise anything. Thanks. :-)
No harm in giving him 24 hours to see if it's one of the days he gets to check in, though.
Sorry but I'm completely cracking up at the thought of Grall writhing on his knees and Linah yelling "Don't bite them!!.
Thanks for stepping in. You rolled just like I would have. :-)
Next round I'll go for Scorching Ray if I'm not around.
Many thanks.
Sorry but I'm completely cracking up at the thought of Grall writhing on his knees and Linah yelling "Don't bite them!!.
Yeah the funny thing was it has been so long since the last combat that I forgot my bite on the original post but came back about 40 minutes later and added...if only my memory was a little worse! :]
[quote=]
Didn't spot (acting)... Did you sneak that in an edit? If not i'm going to blame my illness ;).
No sneakiness but no harm no foul.
Thinking about this one and now not so sure I didn't sorry. Just didnt want you to blame your mental state.
Thanks again. Next round shoot an arrow at the one I scorched for Magic Marksman bonus. Regular posting will resume Sunday, though I think being in Australia I'm most suited to going just before the baddies as opposed to just after so timely posting may still be an issue. :-)
"Especially when you keep shouting," Nuveril mutters.
The caps is so ugly but I'm totally committted to it now.
I may have finally got Nuveril's vision right the first time.
I note that she will get low light in one more level and then I will flub it again.
Initiative: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26
Talomyr, you realize this whole "roll your own initiative" thing is an evil DM ploy to get our good d20 rolls out of us before the combat begins, right? He's not suckering me in this time.
Yeah, I'm not falling for that trick :)
Sorry for the delay guys. Bit of a pre-Easter crush at work and I will totally confess that the new Bioshock distracted me last night. Will try and have this up in the evening my time.
Initiative: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26Talomyr, you realize this whole "roll your own initiative" thing is an evil DM ploy to get our good d20 rolls out of us before the combat begins, right? He's not suckering me in this time.
Bah. Thieving halflings stealing my 20s.
I don't know how much I will be able to post during the easter holiday, so as a general rule of thumb: DM Linah if she's holding up the game.
Grall will be camping with the family Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon so posting will not occur from noon EST to Sunday dinner. Thanks!
You sure all these swarms are natural and not summoned? 'Cause protection from evil and all. :P
Pfft. Trust me.
20' radius centred on the centre of Grall just misses Arasmes (and Khalid).
Linah, however... :-)
Haha I didn't even look at the map :P. Although technically you target an intersection on Grall's square, not his square itself.
You sure all these swarms are natural and not summoned? 'Cause protection from evil and all. :P
I did think about it. Pretty sure their good to go though :)
As oppose to magicking them into existence the vampire "calls them forth" (via supernatural ability) from creatures that are terrestrially available. So in essence I'm interpreting it that evil vamp powers call the individual perfectly natural creatures and form them into the swarm.
Sorry!
Haha I didn't even look at the map :P. Although technically you target an intersection on Grall's square, not his square itself.
Checked the 20' radius template too. And Grall, being large, provides an intersection inside 4 squares and takes up the first 5' radius. I'm watching out for my team :-D
As oppose to magicking them into existence the vampire "calls them forth" (via supernatural ability) from creatures that are terrestrially available.
Dude, spoilers!
:p
For crying out loud... I may have to give up magic after that.
Anyways- back in 48 hours.
Hopefully you're saving the 5s and 6s for the vampires' fireball.
lol, that was epically bad...
I, ummm... didn't want to hurt Grall. Yeah. Not hurting Grall. :-)
Didn't Arasmes already Ready an attack?
So what does one do when one has no way to deal with swarms? Frankly, I've never been in a group that had any capability to deal with a swarm; the DM just had to fiat it away. I can't figure out how exactly you're supposed to hurt them except by happening to have certain spells prepared.
EDIT:
Oh yeah, "half again as much damage." I thought that said half as much, too.
Not all swarms are immune to physical damage- it depends on the size of the constituent creatures. Larger critter swarms take like half damage from weapons I believe. That said, there does seem to be an assumption that every party carries, if not alchemists fire, then at least a few burning torches.
12 points for fireball is amazingly bad. At the other extreme, one of my first characters ever was a Magic User who was consistently abused and made fun of until he hit 5th level. I cast my first ever fireball and did 29 damage- four 6's and a 5. The magic user got a whole bunch more respect after that. :-)
As I seem to recall from a cockroach swarm AK and I met in a dungeon under Kaer Maga, swarms being damaged by torches isn't actually RAW: either removed since 3.5 or just a common house rule, I don't remember which.
Then you have all the people in the rules forums who derisively state that any party imbecilic enough not to carry multiple acid flasks and alchemist's fires everywhere they go deserves to TPK. :P
Swarms are one of those foes that are low-CR but inevitably terrify me, largely because my RL group never runs spell casters nor carries splash weapons. All we can do is die or run away. Stirges, too, although that's because our dice inexplicably go cold when one shows up. I don't think we've ever defeated a stirge. We've TPKed, fled, and just managed to survive until they drank all the blood they wanted and then flew away fat and bloated, but we've never ever won.
Ah, stirges. :-)
There is a story of a former gaming group that were accosted by stirges.
"Don't they like, drain you?"
"Of what?"
"Levels?"
"LEVELS!! Fireball ground zero!"*
*Not my mage. :-)
Seriously, do you know how humiliating it is to be TPKed by a flock of stirges? :P
On the other side of the screen (and to combine my phobias into one big hybrid spider-clown), I once placed an item that needed retrieving in a cave full of nesting stirges, using a stirge swarm statblock from a 3PP. Overconfident PC strides in: "Bah, I'm a 10th-level paladin. All I have to do is get there and back; I can handle this." Humbled and pale PC staggers out, itemless: "I don't feel so good...."
Should have said plus 50 percent sorry. I'm in Abu Dhabi for a meeting tomorrow but hopefully won't be too late in posting.
Didn't Arasmes already Ready an attack?
So what does one do when one has no way to deal with swarms? Frankly, I've never been in a group that had any capability to deal with a swarm; the DM just had to fiat it away. I can't figure out how exactly you're supposed to hurt them except by happening to have certain spells prepared.
EDIT:
Oh yeah, "half again as much damage." I thought that said half as much, too.
I accept your not exactly optimised for swarm fighting but to be honest kind of ok with that occasionally. I'm also Ok with you occassionally having to run away from things although that hasn't happened as yet :)
I'll admit I did quickly scan your equipment lists to see if anyone had alchemist's fire, noted you didn't and went with it anyway :)
Hey guys sorry for the slowdown. That is just me clearing work for a holiday for the next seven days, to the Maldives. So a week pause sorry and then fully back into it.
I have a deadline for the 29th and i'm 4000 words and a couple dozen references short so you won't hear from me until then. I will have another nasty deadline on the 3rd of May but i'l attempt to squeeze some posts in on the 30th. Sorry for the slowness on my part. Bot me as necessary.
Sorry for the greater than expected delay guys.
Hope everyone is keen to continue.
James Jacobs can't even get the swarm rules right. :P
Definately seems wrong with the ray comment.
The flaming sword seems like a bit of a grey area like the torch. Strictly speaking they are single target attacks and perhaps don't work RAW but that seems contrary to common sense to some. I'd probably give you the benefit of the doubt if it was relevant.
Sorry for the greater than expected delay guys.
Hope everyone is keen to continue.
Glad to see you back Dan, was beginning to worry but understand life happens!
Reporting for duty. Wand at the ready. I intend to play some more with the swarm rules :-)
Glad to see you back, Dan; I was getting worried.
Back to solo combat between Zeladiel and the swarms while everyone else just stands around and bleeds. ;P
You must be thinking of Zeladiel the Sorceror. Zeladiel the Wizard doesn't have another fireball without using his precious arcane bond. :-)
You must be thinking of Zeladiel the Sorceror. Zeladiel the Wizard doesn't have another fireball without using his precious arcane bond. :-)
Need to start scribing some scrolls... :]
Well at least some haste scrolls anyways. We do have party funds...
Hi all. Got my final exams this week so expect radio silence from me until the weekend.