Grigory Reinhold |
I'm trying to give others a chance to chime in since I've been posting first a lot. Also waiting to find out what the Copperhills have to say in regards to my desire to use their building to stake out Rimblesnuffin's shop tonight.
Eudonius Lynch |
Hey guys, I got some vacation time at work so tomorrow I will be starting a backpacking trip here in South America. I dont belive I will have much internet access for the next 10 days. Fell free to npc Eudonius if needed. See you guys soon.
I was thinking in staying with the main ambush group or inside the store if part of us stay there. Place me wherever you guys think will be the most appropriate.
Nazard |
Welcome to our first combat. Combat in a PBP game can be a real pain to run, so here are some things I do to help move things along.
Please put your combat action posts under a spoiler with the round number as a heading, as in...
It helps keep it clear to me which of your posts are your actual combat actions, and which are dialogue or questions. It is not necessary to post in order, but I will resolve things in order, and if somebody else's actions before you invalidate your action, I'll ask you for something else. If it's something simple as in the person before you takes down one baddie you're fighting, but there's another equal baddie next to him, I'll just reassign your attack to that baddie. It's pretty rare that I need to stop things and ask for a new action.
Once you've engaged the enemy (and know who and or what it is), I'll be posting the enemies' hit points, saves, and AC. Please don't meta-game with this information (I trust that that won't really be a problem with this group, though). That information is there so that you can narrate the resolution of your own actions. If your sword swing misses by 1, you can describe how the villain just manages to duck underneath just as well as I can, and you can add your own PCs' reactions to it as well. If the person before you does enough damage to bring down one baddie, you can therefore assume it's down and make your own post accordingly.
The map has a co-ordinate grid. Please specify those co-ordinates when making a move and attacking an enemy.
To keep combat from taking months of real time, I'm a bit stricter about imposing the once per day posting rule (which I have obviously not been enforcing at all, even with myself).
When you cast a spell or otherwise grant yourself or somebody else some sort of condition, please note it's duration and the round you created it in the beginning of your post like this:
Bless (all allies) Duration: 10 rounds, cast round 2
or
Grappled (me and goblin 2)
Or something like that that hits all the high points. I've tried using count downs, but all it takes is forgetting to update the counter once, and then it becomes a real pain to go back and figure out if that spell is still going.
That's all I can think of for now, but if other stuff comes up, I'll post it here. PBP combat has the downside of being very slow, but the advantage of allowing some serious tactical considerations for those who like the wargame side of Pathfinder. Hopefully, it will be enjoyable for all.
Nazard |
Grigory Reinhold |
Can I jump down from the roof and try to land on whoever/whatever is standing below rather than climbing down the rope? I'll post two potential actions as spoilers (one jump, one climb) and Nazard can indicate which one I'm actually doing.
Grigory Reinhold |
Can I hold my action and have it kick in if the bad guy(s) do something to trigger it?
Specifically: I'm going to stay hidden and quiet on the roof and wait for everyone else to move closer before I do anything, but if the baddies spot me, I'll climb down, do the "Stop in the name of the law!" thing and then, if needed, take a nonlethal shot with my blunt arrow (-4 to hit).
I don't want to go charging into combat without reinforcements and reveal my presence, but I don't want to stay put on the roof if I'm already spotted or being attacked.
Grigory Reinhold |
Regarding the battle map... Am I correct in assuming the different shades of gray indicate the level of darkness/light? Is it dim light east of Rimblesnuffins and darkness to the south?
Grigory Reinhold |
Someone should probably hang back to watch the front door of Rimblesnuffin's in case anyone comes out that way.
Also it's dark behind the building, so a torch would be helpful for anyone not blessed with darkvision. If I had been thinking about it getting dark I would have swapped rooftop posts with Dublaine.
Nazard |
I don't mind letting you know that I don't do combats in boxes (square empty rooms). I love the tactical war game aspect of Pathfinder almost as much as the RP side, and these combats will be lethal if the group doesn't work together and employ tactics.
The first group that ran this encounter had terrible tactics. One character went up on the cafe's roof, but refused to tell the party where he was and wouldn't give away his position when the team went looking for him. Another PC (squishy bard with no combat skills) decided to keep watch on the back stoop itself, again without telling anyone where she was.
Oh, and nobody bothered to tell Rimblesnuffin that the villain was collapsing buildings, or that they would be staking the place out, so the gnome was upstairs asleep in his bed when the building started to go.
Suffice it to say, things did not go as well as they could have.
Dublaine |
Ok in that case Grigory feel free to chip in with direction, as Nazard has already said, and as tend to be the case in many games, without specific direction we'll all end up doing what we think is best. Tactics requires someone call out the where and wherefores, and we get on with it. I'm happy for someone else to do it, but Dublaine is not a leader and so I don't want to play him that way.
I've moved up as far as I think I want to, without being cut off from the party, my worry about going further is that I end up fending for myself or trying to avoid a collapsing building, whilst the rest of you fend for yourselves. So I'll come back to regroup and see what we want to do.
Grigory Reinhold |
I'm on the NE corner of Rimblesnuffin's so no need to worry about fending for yourself. Unfortunately I can't see much of anything because there's no light back there.
Eudonius is set since he's got darkvision, the rest of us will need some artificial light. If the baddies still don't know I'm on the roof, I'd like to keep it that way as long as I can. It might be wise if someone (Lady Trace, Krojun or Dublaine) can get a torch or lantern lit quickly so we're not fighting blind in the alley or area behind Rimblesnuffin's.
We've already made a few tactical blunders, but I don't think they're too severe to overcome. We certainly won't forget about the majority of our group's lack of darkvision in the future when planning our actions.
Grigory Reinhold |
Also, one of our group members without darkvision should stay in the street just in case one of the bad guys tries to slip out the front door of Rimblesnuffin's shop while the rest of us are preoccupied fighting the other.
Nazard |
I assume the lamp would be lit by an oil reservoir, unless somebody could make a good argument why the city would be able to afford continual flame lanterns. I think theft would be a legitimate concern.
Sorry for the slowdown. I hope to get some time in front of the map later tonight to update things.
Eudonius Lynch |
Also, one of our group members without darkvision should stay in the street just in case one of the bad guys tries to slip out the front door of Rimblesnuffin's shop while the rest of us are preoccupied fighting the other.
While I think this is a good idea in principle I would strongly advise against it. There is some metegaming in my reason to do. The summoner is one of the strongest classes in pathfinder. If this guy is powerfull enough to bring down buildings I think we will need every able hand to fight him. Also it would be boring for any of us to stay out of the main fight of this case and chances are that is what is going to happen to anyone who stays guarding the front.
Still on the metagame... I am assuming we have traveled enough together to know what everyone is carrying around on their persons so I check the character sheets, Krojun has a bull's eye lantern. He could lighten it and be there in two rounds or less.
Grigory Reinhold |
I figured if the summoner is behind the building, we can just yell for whoever is watching the front to come help... I just didn't want to have all of us occupied with the snake and let the summoner escape with the artifact.
I have tindertwigs and a candle and that's it as far as lighting... Yes, I'm an idiot.
Is the building still shaking or have we distracted the demolition crew into coming after us instead of bringing down the building?
Merck |
Correct me if I am wrong DM Nazard but Dublaine I belive drawing something is a move action, if your base attack bonus is +1 or greater you can draw a weapon as part of your movement. Light your lantern would be a standart action. You could do both in the same round and still give a 5 foot step. Whoever act after you will have some light available already.
Grigory Reinhold |
I'll be heading to a meeting for the next few hours...
If my turn comes up feel free to expedite things:
I want to climb/slide down the remaining 15 feet of rope, or just drop to the ground if I can do so without taking damage.
If Eudonius is free from the snake and I can actually see things, I'll draw my scimitar and attack the snake... If he's still being constricted I'll try to help him break free of the grapple.
Sorry, kind of rusty on combat and combat maneuvers so I'll leave the grappling rolls to Nazard.
Grigory Reinhold |
If I'm hanging from the rope by one arm and gripping the rope 15 feet from the ground, my feet would be about 10 feet off the ground?
Assuming 10 feet for the sake of easy calculations, am I correct that I can elect to "jump" down with a DC15 Acrobatics check to avoid the 1d6 nonlethal damage associated with "jumping" down 10 feet?
Nazard |
If I'm hanging from the rope by one arm and gripping the rope 15 feet from the ground, my feet would be about 10 feet off the ground?
Assuming 10 feet for the sake of easy calculations, am I correct that I can elect to "jump" down with a DC15 Acrobatics check to avoid the 1d6 nonlethal damage associated with "jumping" down 10 feet?
Yes, that is completely correct.
As for Dublaine and the lantern, getting the lantern out is a move action, lighting it a standard, and taking a five foot step is free. He can't combine the lantern grabbing with a move, as he doesn't have a +1 attack bonus, and the lantern is not a weapon.
Grigory Reinhold |
It might be metagaming, but my suggestion to Dublaine is to light the lantern. Once it's lit, I'll be able to see and since dropping to the ground is a free action I should be able to help Eudonius escape its grapple (not 100% on the mechanics there... just straight 1d20 to aid his escape roll by +2?) or draw my scimitar on the move and attack the snake (with some sort of penalty for attacking it while it has Eudonius grappled, I'm sure).
And lest we forget, Lady Trace still has to act in this round before we get to Dublaine's action.
Eudonius Lynch |
I am with Grigory on this, I think we can accomplish more as a group if Dublaine light the lantern this round insted of attacking. Also, DM Nazard, I ended my movement at A11, if the snaked jumped on me shouldn t it be there too? Thats not behind the corner, its right in front of Dublaine and Lady Trace.
Grigory Reinhold |
Metagaming... Snake doesn't move until after I do next round, meaning it won't inflict any more damage to Eudonius until at least one of us gets a chance to attack it or help him get free. Also, without light, most of the party will be taking penalties to hit on their attacks.
Grigory Reinhold |
Just for future reference, and this is just my opinion...
Nazard isn't necessarily "on our side" in this game. He runs the game and tells us what's going on, but when it comes to decision-making and strategy, we're on our own. I think the comment he made about Dublaine abandoning Eudonius again was a storytelling device, not an attempt to direct Dublaine to attack during that round.
Nazard |
Agreed. I was just prompting you with a reminder of the previous time Eudonius was in danger, should Dublaine wish to incorporate it into his narrative. Unlike a face to face game, where this would probably still all be the first session (or second at the most), half a year of real time has come and gone since the incident with the collapsing wall.
On the other hand, I do tend to keep the kid gloves on for at least the first encounter...hence Grigory's Reflex save to catch himself falling, which worked out really well from a narrative point of view anyway.
Grigory Reinhold |
I'll wait for updated maps if they're coming before I post.
As for my action this round... I assume the DC10 climb check uses up my move action for the round? If so, I'll likely take my chances and risk a little nonlethal damage by jumping down to preserve my move action.
Nazard |
Dublaine, grapples in Pathfinder, especially against opponents dedicated to grappling like this eidolon, are really hard to escape, but unlike third edition, the grapplers no longer share the same space, so there's no problem attacking one or the other. Taking it down is the best way, according to the rules, to get the grapple released.