SR's - Great Southern Isles (PbP) (Inactive)
Game Master stormraven

Sure thing! And I'll handwave away those XP too...

FWIW - you are 3/4 of the way to the next level.

I think i read somewhere that's when you're supposed to gestalt... I'll just go update my character sheet, then. :D

Jayse, I don't think that is what Justin had in mind with rule #11, he he.

Sheesh! I'm looking through my core books and I just DON'T see that gestalt thing anywhere... must be a 3PP optional rule. :p

Oh, I'm pretty sure it's somewhere in the back. Just take my word for it.

And Ushari, wasn't the 11th rule that 'you don't talk about fight club'?

Gee, I thought Fight Club only had like three rules, maybe I should actually watch it, he he.

Gents, I apologize for my slow posting over the last several days. Work has been a bear. I was hoping today would be a kick-back day but alas it has not worked out that way. I will be able to post more after today.

No worries man, work has been busy here has well, so I definitely feel where you are coming from.

No worries. That's the beauty of PbP.

It's been pretty busy here today also, so trust me, I feel your pain...

I've updated the Miir flat-map with approximate positions of some of the locations mentioned.

Links, or it didn't happen! ;D

Links, or it didn't happen! ;D

Better?

Links, or it didn't happen! ;D

I think I hear the sound of a DM-guided rock falling...

Sorry for the lack of replies, but I'm trying to get Rumble caught-up to the point where you guys can resume contributing. Summarizing 2500 posts in the space of 3 is a bit of a challenge.

No worries.

Hey remember when you asked for magic item wishlist, I think an item to grant low light and/or darkvision would be nice, he he.

Correct me if I'm wrong but...

As I understand it, low-light vision will not allow Fin or Strae to see in a dark cave. They will be able to see twice as far in each of the light categories provided by the torches you carry, though... so they can scout a certain amount ahead of the main group but bends in the passage, etc. will effectively chop down on the range they can roam.

In terms of order - you want Fin as scout and presumably Straehan in second position to keep an eye on her. What about Jayse and Ushari? Do you just want me to place you guys in reasonable positions?

Yeah you are correct SR. I assume they are counting on using any existing light sources in the cave complex. Keep in mind darkvision allows you to see things in black and white, but it is limited in you cannot read books, for instance.

If the caves are completely dark, then we can adjust out scouting strategy to account for that.

The scouting order seems fine, Jayse and Ushari can be side by side, and we can change it as the case may be.

Darkvision makes no such statement about being unable to read. Essentially it is just like normal vision only greyscale like an old B&W movie. Being as most printed material is B&W, there is no good reason why reading would be impossible. I'm pretty sure you are thinking of a holdover from an earlier version of the game predating 3.5 and Pathfinder.

Well since the only folks with darkvision are the goblins - who are not fans of literature - I think we are pretty safe for the moment. ;)

FWIW - I left the ground in the cavern maps as green just to make it easier to see. Please imagine a proper cave environment.

Curse my groganrd status, he he. :P

Could be worse. You could have claimed it was heat vision like what the Predator has. ;)

Bah! Let's mix genres... the visual 'pie slice' in front of you is FLIR - Forward Looking InfraRed, the two flanks are Active Sonar, and the rear is Passive Sonar.

I figured I'd clarify some stuff here since it could generate discussion that doesn't need to take up the main thread.

The Goblins were, in fact, standing around the fire and tending meat on a spit, chatting, and whatnot. They weren't sitting. So I should have clarified what they were doing.

I guess I misunderstood exactly how you were intending to accomplish the idea - that is a risk of having a character who uses dioramas instead of the Common tongue. :p The point I took away was bring the Goblins into the passage and hammer as many as possible with burning hands.

Since Straehan couldn't hit all of the obvious opponents with one blast where they stood initially and his move base is slower than the goblins, he figured luring them closer was the best way to catch them all and cover his own ass.

Going behind the DM screen about how I do things... I choose actions, based on likely outcomes, before I roll the dice to keep things fair. Straehan has +4 on init and the Goblins +6. They were likely to beat his init and it was the assumption I based Strae's action on.

Had they actually beat his initiative... In the surprise round (assuming he could have snuck up on them before that) he would have fired his burning hands, hitting three of them. When Round 1 began, the goblins would have gone first - in which case, Straehan was likely to be swarmed and cut down or had his retreat effectively blocked... If that happened none of the goblins would be in the passageway, effectively screwing the pooch on the plan.

So the safest way to ensure he could hit them with his spell, minimize the amount of attacks he would take, protect his ass if the worse happened, and ensure the baddies could be lured into the passageway was to do as I did.

Jayse can grab and pull Straehan from his current position and dump him in the empty square as 2 actions. I don't think they need to share a square - based on extrapolation of the grappling rules and I can't recall there are any rules about grabbing objects requiring sharing the same square.

Mike is correct that grabbing objects does draw an AoO - but it would be an AoO on Jayse not the object itself. Since Jayse is not in range of the goblin, there can be no AoO on him. However, it seems reasonable that the goblin could strike at the 'moving' gnome. If Jayse wants to fire his ready action after Fin (who will kill the goblin with that crit) then there will be no risk of any AoO.

Ah ok. Guess I should have asked what their posture was first.

Originally I thought to have Fin fire a shot to get their attention and act as a shield for Straehan to fire around, but I figured that would be too complicated to explain and a lot tricker to adjudicate (not to mention seeing a tall elf instead of a short gnome might have caused all the goblins to stand back and pepper them with arrows instead of charging).

On a different topic, did you get that last email I sent about how I figured out how to link to map versions properly?

When you link directly to the image (instead of to the page), we actually have to navigate the site if we want to look at prior rounds. The link to the page lets us view the file history. Also, any links from earlier rounds will always show the current round if you link directly to the image.

In case that email got lost in the interweb, here's now I've started doing it along with the shortkeys script I use...

MAP: Dunwaar Streets, (Round 0)

The first URL is the link to the page itself which always displays the current version. The second URL is where the round-specific URL gets pasted. (The instructions below detail how to generate that URL.)

Oops! Was just testing the reply button on my prior post to ensure the script is high enough up to be visible so you can copy it. Looks like it is!

BTW, if we're all readied and Ben and I are in agreement about getting Straehan out of harms way, I'd say you should be good to go ahead and resolve Fin's and Jayse's actions. Fin hacks and shouts, Jayse recovers Strae once the chance for an AoO on the gnome has been removed.

You could have Fin motion that she's going to swing to indicate to Jayse he should give her a sec to clear the way for him.

:)

No worries. I did get your email on the work-around. Do you often check the previous round? I haven't used your solution because I'm generally more concerned with this round find the 'instant blowup' version kind of nice. If you guys find my 'single pic' version is more of a pain than an easy reference, I'll switch methods.

I do it moreso as DM than as a player, but I still check prior versions quite a bit to note how enemies are faring over time, etc. Bad memory or iterative thinking, I'll let you be the judge. ;D

At any rate, the historical view is one of the reasons I started using the wiki for map uploads instead of a traditional upload system (like flickr or my wordpress site).

Even if the dual-link format is too much of a hassle, if you could just link to the page instead, I'd much prefer that. One additional click to open the blow-up version takes only a second or two. Having to visit the site, navigate down two categories and then click on the right battle takes me a good bit longer... and that's for someone who uses it all the time. I doubt Ben or Eric access it as frequently, so I could see it taking them a good bit longer. :)

I'm fine with Jayse using his readied just after Fin to avoid the AoO on Strae, since the point of the move is to save Strae some damage.

Well that could have gone better...and worse, he he.

Ushari will see about getting Straehan functional again. BTW Straehan does have that potion Isolde provided him correct? Where does he have it stashed?

EDIT: Ok updated Ushari profile with the potions carried.

So... did I scare you guys off with my "why didn't the goblin fire?" scenario? :)

I'm just having a crazy week. It is strange, though. Thinking through a response.

Ah! No worries then, take your time.

My excuse is that I have no idea what's going on yet. It is rather curious however. Makes me wonder if he goblin was expecting someone else to show up. i.e. Could it be that he's saving his shot for a bigger threat?

Well, that never stops me from doing something, he he. I suspect he is bait, trying to draw us out for the shaman to drop an incapacitating/killing spell on us.

Another possibility, though unlikely, is the goblin is an illusion.

DM-gotta-know Questions - what is your intent towards the goblin? Are you willing to strike and abide by a deal or are you just trying to get info and then intend to kill the little bugger?

I guess it depends on the little bugger. Jayse is happy to see them dead since they attacked us earlier without provocation (on the beach), but perspectives can change...

I'm actually expecting deception on his part.

So long as it doesn't attack her friends, Fin will refrain from attacking. She doesn't think being in a strange cave without waves to dive into or palms to duck behind bodes well in a tactical sense. While we may have been able to fight thus far, she's fairly certain there's still more than enough goblins about to spell disaster. So if talking can get the job done, more power to the folks who know how to use words.

Besides, this was supposed to be a fact-finding trip. If the goblins were such pushovers that 4 people could take them out, they wouldn't be such a problem.

Darn...well even though she does not trust the goblin one iota, she will not attack him, unless he betrays them. She is just too nice that way, he he.

Pucker up, Buttercup...

You gents are kissing distance from 2nd level. Hell, you could be updating your characters by Sunday... those characters still alive, I mean.

Aww, be nice to Eric, he's starting to get that glow about him...

It's candle-light or possibly indigestion.

...oooor probably both! Dammit Eric, quit eating those!

But they taste SOOOooooo good!!

I knew we shouldn't have bought scented candles... >.>

Gonna post this in here rather than cluttering up the RP thread...

Re: Fighting defensively...

Yeah, it does say "that same round", although it makes no sense to me why it would expire before the character's next turn.

Since I'm curious as to that design choice, I've started a topic about it in the rules forum.

Part of the reason it seems silly to me is that I could have simply delayed my initiative until I was at the top of the next round, and declared the same exact action. I would have still acted after the skeletons' last actions and before their next... yet suddenly I get an extra bonus?

I know you're not the one who wrote the rule, so I'm not faulting you. I'm just a bit irked that 2-rounds in a row I purposefully gimped my attack when there was no way it could have possibly yielded any benefit. Given Fin's rolls and the AC I suspect these skeletons have, it's probably a moot point but...

Anyway, I'll be curious if a dev can offer up a convincing explanation on why the current implementation makes a damn bit of sense. If not, expect that I'll be adding a new house rule over in Rumble so that this functions the same as damn near everything else. ;)

I gotta agree with Fon on this one. I've always understood it to be that the bonus lasts until the beginning of the characters next turn. Otherwise you invite a whole slew of strange initiative based scenarios that don't make much sense. Whereas if you decide to begin fighting defensively, it should continue until you have a chance to decide to do otherwise.... which can't happen until you can act again -at the beginning of your next turn.

Just my thoughts. Now back to watching my son squirm and fuss at 5.30 in the morning... awesome.

P.S. - Stormy, what app are you using. The one I have is out-dated and full of typos and whatnot.