Steave Rojerz |
If the GM allows Steave to reposition Anevia, there will be a place
Steave Rojerz |
Continuing meta game discussion. I think summon monster is a one round casting time. But what happened is alright. The summoner started casting while everyone milled inside. Then, immediately started casting afterward. The first beetle dropped in one round while he was casting. The second one arrived on the summoner's second Round before the players.
The question I have is why don't we see and hear the summoner cast? Unless he's using the Silent Spell feat with line of sight that we can't detect.
Cheers
Samnell |
Continuing meta game discussion. I think summon monster is a one round casting time. But what happened is alright. The summoner started casting while everyone milled inside. Then, immediately started casting afterward. The first beetle dropped in one round while he was casting. The second one arrived on the summoner's second Round before the players.
The question I have is why don't we see and hear the summoner cast? Unless he's using the Silent Spell feat with line of sight that we can't detect.
The full sequence is something like this:
0) I read the tactics section on the Bad Dude and it seemed like a fun little scene. So I opted to do it instead of figuring out my own approach.
1) Bad Dude cast an alarm spell outside the door this morning. He refreshes it a few times a day.
2) Anevia came up, calling out. The alarm spell was tripped about the same time.
3) Bad Dude claps his hands together, smiles, and casts invisibility. While this goes on, the party discusses things briefly outside. Because you were talking and he's on the far side of the building, with a door in between at the time, I handwaved the perception checks for it.
4) Party resolves to go in, has to unlock the door. (Bad Dude used a scroll of knock to get in and he's been holed up since.) Call that a round or two, since outside of combat I doubt everyone is doing the customary elaborate dance routines at full speed.
5) Meanwhile, Bad Dude begins casting his first summons. He uses silent spell with it.
6) Party comes in, Bad Dude is still casting.
7) Party mills around briefly, Bad Dude finishes casting and beetle appears. Yridhrennor's prescience trips. Combat begins with surprise.
8) During surprise, Bad Dude begins second silent summon monster. Yridhrennor splashes acid all over.
9) Round 1: Party kills first beetle. Had Bad Dude cast a regular summon monster, beetle #2 would have appeared in here.
10) Round 2: Second beetle appears at the top of the action.
It's possible I'm a hair off. I've very rarely done much with metamagic on spells that take longer than a standard action to cast. But I erred on the side of keeping the action going rather than have a weird lull or a stop-and-go fight. Also it was dramatically a little cooler to have the second beetle appear on the heels of the first and probably not significantly to the party's disadvantage since you're not having much trouble mowing through them.
Yridhrennor Arahaelon |
Yridhrennor doesn't have glitterdust T_T
Yridhrennor Arahaelon |
hey, i'm heading off island until Sunday for Thanksgiving. I'll have my phone so I can do posts, but they'll be spotty at best. Feel free to bot me until then.
Steave Rojerz |
The beetle's not dead? Abelard critted it. I thought we were out of combat.
I'll get a Gameplay post later this morning
Steave Rojerz |
Sorry, the morning flew.
Steave Rojerz |
@Theran. Ha ha ha. Sorry to play a kill-steal.
Cheers
Steave Rojerz |
GM, is the combat over?
Steave Rojerz |
So, fast forward to him waking up being tied up. Meanwhile, Anevia probably knows him, too.
Samnell |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Some thoughts on redemption
The redemption rules leave the decision of whether or not an NPC can go light side to me, but I think it's entirely reasonable for players to be able to Diplomacy (and maybe other skills) their way into creating such an intention. It's an obvious application of influencing others, after all. So here's some back of the envelope thinking.
Base DC to influence a hostile NPC is 25+Cha mod. Getting someone to reconsider their religious commitments is a pretty big ask, so I figure you'd probably have to make an NPC friendly or clue in to some pre-existing doubts. That's a step-by-step thing, with a check each day, but if you make some progress with the first one you'd know it and be able to act accordingly. I'll also use DC+Cha mod as the base DC for the following.
There are also degrees of evil involved. Let's say the system works as-is for an ordinary evil person. Maybe they're in a cult or something, but they're ordinary members. They didn't go to Evil Medical School.
Then you've got people who have gone a bit farther. Someone with a demonic obedience feat or the like, but not a full-blown divine spellcaster tuned in to the Abyss. That seems like it should be a +2 or +4 to the DC. There'd be a lesser, but stacking, adjustment for having some kind of class feature or whatever that swings the right way. Say an abyssal-blooded sorcerer. Half of the demonic obedience level penalty seems right. It doesn't make you evil...but it can help. :)
Actual divines worshiping evil gods, fiends, etc should be a +4. Since you have to work a little harder to worship an abyssal lord and company than an ordinary divinity, this stacks with the demonic obedience feat adjustment.
But worse likely case, you'd have something like an abyssal-blooded sorcerer/cleric of Pazuzu for +7 increase to the DC, possibly +10. Base DC would be in the low to mid-30s. Seems high, but we just had some +8 diplomacy mods flying around. Seems a little high, but there's lots of room for circumstance bonuses and aid another in here and this is the worst case scenario that isn't actually a fiend.
The rolls for Vagorg came to 27, which is respectable. His DC, which I eyeballed without any of the above modifiers because I hadn't thought of them yet, was 29.
NPCs that have alignment types would be harder still, of course. Some NPCs will be just irredeemable regardless, but not all that many.
So what I'm thinking in the future is that you can make an initial offer with the various penalties and bonuses. Sometimes you just get someone at the right moment. Succeed then and the NPC is on the road to goodness. Fail then and you can give it a second try if you get the NPC around to Friendly. Maybe with a +1 or +2 bonus to the attempt for each attitude away from hostile. From there the published redemption rules would take over.
I think that's a workable skeleton, but I'm open to suggestions.
Abelard Lassmar |
I like that; I like it a lot. May I borrow/adapt it as necessary for my own campaigns?
The only thing I would add is a Hit Dice modifier: those who have been serving the cause of evil for longer (or who have grown powerful doing so) might be less likely to seek redemption; so influencing a 7th-level cleric would be considerably harder than a first-level cultist.
Samnell |
I like that; I like it a lot. May I borrow/adapt it as necessary for my own campaigns?
You may yoink away. :)
The only thing I would add is a Hit Dice modifier: those who have been serving the cause of evil for longer (or who have grown powerful doing so) might be less likely to seek redemption; so influencing a 7th-level cleric would be considerably harder than a first-level cultist.
That's a good idea. Otherwise you'll eventually outpace things. A low-30s DC is a long shot now, but wouldn't be when you've got 10 skill ranks and a good charisma, plus aid another Voltron.
Steave Rojerz |
I too like your rules. Don't forget to add Bluff and Sense Motive. Only obstinate evil villains would not try to fake redemption, right?
So did Abelard kill Vogorg yet?
Cheers
Samnell |
Thanks DM - I have to say I hope we can get some repentance soon! Executing people is pretty hardcore...
The dice can be heavy judgers of NPCs, but there will be more chances. They saw the best minds of their generation destroyed by the Worldwound, starving hysterical, naked, dragging themselves through the Kenabres streets at dawn looking for an angry paladin, angelblooded aasimar burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night. Hard to sell them on second chances now, I suppose.
Ok, so that was probably only funny to me. :) Suspect you could adjust most of part two (potentially NSFW) to fit by just swapping Deskari for Moloch. Part one is much more modern. Had I gone on further I'd have had to get pretty aggressive.
Samnell |
There may be a delay in posts. It seems the Windows 10 update (from Win10 to newer Win10) that kindly took six hours to install has reduced my primary machine to a brick of slowly melting ice. Takes as much as a minute to process a single keystroke. And with no indication on the task manager that I'm using more than a third of my hardware capacity.
This and my prodigious temper make for poor GMing.
Yridhrennor Arahaelon |
sorry for the absences, life has sucked ths week.
Abelard Lassmar |
There may be a delay in posts. It seems the Windows 10 update (from Win10 to newer Win10) that kindly took six hours to install has reduced my primary machine to a brick of slowly melting ice. Takes as much as a minute to process a single keystroke. And with no indication on the task manager that I'm using more than a third of my hardware capacity.
This and my prodigious temper make for poor GMing.
I think for Windows-related issues, you need Shakespeare to do justice to the extent of your despair: Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day; to the last syllable of recorded time...
Samnell |
I think for Windows-related issues, you need Shakespeare to do justice to the extent of your despair: Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day; to the last syllable of recorded time...
Were the firstlings of my heart the firstlings of my hands, I'd be short a computer. Could do with a bit more of the unprovoking than the provoking, really. Probably means I've equivocated, if not quite enough. But I feel much better now.
Steave Rojerz |
I installed the Windows 10, too. It lasted 4 days, before I uninstalled it. *Expletives* Microsoft !
Theran, Clan Silverlight |
Eh, Windows 10 went pretty quick and has been working well for me. Of course I use Classic Shell to beat down all the metro style interface and make it work like Windows 7.
Yridhrennor Arahaelon |
It works well for me too
Abelard Lassmar |
Huzzah!
LEVEL 3
+11 hit points
+1 BAB (+3 total)
+1 Reflex save
Aura of Courage
Divine Health
Mercy (Fatigued)
Revelation (Surprising Charge)
+1 1st level spell/day
+1 1st level spell known (Protection from Chaos)
5 skill points
Knowledge (planes)
Perception
Sense Motive
Diplomacy
Intimidate
Samnell |
Just to check, did we end up doing automatic bonus progression in addition to virtual gearing?
Just virtual gearing. Also Defender's Heart is a perfectly good place to reconfigure your armament should you so desire. There are lots of stockpiles you could draw from without hurting the garrison's ability to defend itself.
Steave Rojerz |
Where are the mechanics to virtual gearing?
Steave Rojerz |
Steave is leveled to 3
Weapon Focus (unarmed)
Perception
Diplomacy
Knowledge (nobility)
Sense Motive
Mercy = shaken
cheers
Samnell |
Where are the mechanics to virtual gearing?
It's in the camp- Oh, no it's not. Well, it is now. It's also here:
Instead of tracking individual treasures, barring plot-relevant items, we turn it all into a kind of transaction on paper where you have a gear allowance equal to your wealth by level. You can assign it how you like and reconfigure whenever you have reasonable access to shopping. We'd still track things like single-use and charged items, but much less accounting overall.
Steave Rojerz |
So, we should all purchase equipment to achieve a wealth of 3,000 gp?