This group is quickly staring to remind me of the Legends of Tomorrow.
Well, "fantasy superheroes" is one of the big the themes of the game. :)
This Partial Recovery thing isn't a hard house rule. I use it when it seems appropriate, based on the surroundings and circumstances the characters are in.
The goal of it is to allow for a "comic-book-ish" recovery, where the damage taken serves the plot as needed.
Right now, I want people to recover enough that the next encounter will be fun for everyone, but not long enough that the NPCs aren't back to full strength.
Eythil
You're aware there's a good chance that you are being watched by the orcs.
If you split the group, you might be ambushed by them, or something like that.
I'm fine with the idea of trying to capture wolves, as long as you are willing to take the risk.
It is a danger, but Eythil is willing to take the risk as long as he has help.
I admit to being a little confused about how the partial recovery works for prepared spellcasters - If I pick spell slots, do I still need to wait for dawn and pray to recover spells? How about wizards and whatnot, do they still need to study? Is this just not an option for prepared casters?
Admittedly, I'm just picking Channel Energy anyway, but it might be a good idea to know for the future.
And how does taking vigorous action like spellcasting and combat after 6 hours affect the 8hr requirement to regain spells. Are we reset so we now have to rest a full 8 hours with just moderate activity before regaining fully?
And how does taking vigorous action like spellcasting and combat after 6 hours affect the 8hr requirement to regain spells. Are we reset so we now have to rest a full 8 hours with just moderate activity before regaining fully?
Vigorous action essentially resets the clock, as normal.
Prepared casters get back one slot. They can spend the usual 15 minutes per open slot to memorize something. Yes, it's not as good for prepared casters. There has to be some drawback for them considering they're generally the best casting classes in the game.
Prepared casters get back one slot. They can spend the usual 15 minutes per open slot to memorize something.
Cool. Just clarifying.
As for the resetting, does this from the Magic rules apply normally? "If his rest is interrupted, each interruption adds 1 hour to the total amount of time he has to rest in order to clear his mind, and he must have at least 1 hour of uninterrupted rest immediately prior to preparing his spells."
And also, "If a wizard has cast spells recently, the drain on his resources reduces his capacity to prepare new spells. When he prepares spells for the coming day, all the spells he has cast within the last 8 hours count against his daily limit."
Essentially we're kinda back to the days of prepared casters always needing a weapon since spells will be in short supply after the first encounter of the day.
Essentially we're kinda back to the days of prepared casters always needing a weapon since spells will be in short supply after the first encounter of the day.
As it should be! At least for a few levels.
Prepared casters get back one slot. They can spend the usual 15 minutes per open slot to memorize something.Cool. Just clarifying.
As for the resetting, does this from the Magic rules apply normally? "If his rest is interrupted, each interruption adds 1 hour to the total amount of time he has to rest in order to clear his mind, and he must have at least 1 hour of uninterrupted rest immediately prior to preparing his spells."
And also, "If a wizard has cast spells recently, the drain on his resources reduces his capacity to prepare new spells. When he prepares spells for the coming day, all the spells he has cast within the last 8 hours count against his daily limit."
I'm not going to futz with it too much. 8 hours of uninterrupted rest to regain spells and abilities. That's it.
Getting interrupted resets the timer, but there may be a partial recovery thing at my discretion.
Righto. Just so long as we know we're messing with it.
On second thought, I like the "add an extra hour" rule. That means time spent resting before being interrupted isn't just lost.
So, after this encounter, another three hours will have casters fully recovered. That works great.
That sounds good. It eliminates the spell caster being the embodiment of the 30 minute adventuring day.
Nice. Casters should remain aware about the second part, though, where spells you cast during the interruption period will remain lost when rest is completed.
Eythil, I need a final yes or no on this finding wolves plan. I also need to know who's going.
Yes, Kenna and Talas are the two he requires. Kenna for her trap's and also the fact that she's a ranger and Talas since he's handy in a fight and can speak a version of Orc for communication. Also both the others have very solid perception scores, which is something Eythil lacks.
Alright. I'm going to handle this just with rolls. I'll take care of it so we can move on quick. Don't want to sidetrack the game with a third of the party on a side quest.
Fair enough.
Alright, rolls made. 2 wolves trapped. What's the rest of your plan?
Okay, half way there. Two options now come to mind:
1.) Eythil's plan: Knock out the two trapped wolves, the Rogues working together ought to do this fairly quickly. Eythil will use a Deathwatch spell to make sure we don't go too far overboard.
Then build sleds out of rope and the two cloaks that Eythil has. Thinking about it, Eythil probably would have brought along 2 of the hide armors that the Orcs had on them to use with this plan. Then we begin to drag the Wolves back to the fort area. Eythil will take one by himself, and the other two will likely have to work together to bring the second wolf back. Then we tie them back up and hold them until the Orcs make their move.
If necessary, convincing Teral to use Channels to wake them up should they not recover in time.
2.) Blue option, Requirements- Animal Empathy/Handle animal +Food: Kenna now uses her Animal Empathy skill to try and win the Wolves over, perhaps utilizing whatever food rations are left over to help bring them back to the group.
Both plans are fraught with potential to go wrong at any point, but the potential payoff is worth the risk. At least in Eythil's mind.
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My only worry is that as a low level party we don't have THAT much healing to go around spending it on hostile animals to bring them back from a KO. We're hoping here that the orcs don't return early-- but if we spend resources accordingly, and find ourselves low on heals if they come back before we think they will... IDK. If we heal the wolves to the bare minimum needed to be conscious, then they'll fall in the first round of combat, presumably-- getting hit with an area fire effect or similar.
I suggest we try Kenna's animal empathy first-- if it doesn't work, we're only out some food, and starving to death here is not, I think, our primary concern. If it fails to work, then we can go with plan B. As an alternative to sleds (thick jungle terrain doesn't seem to me to be the most amenable to a sled, but then again, I've never tried it!), what about one person with rope in the front, and another with rope in the back, keeping the ropes pulled taut enough that the wolf has to walk with us, essentially, but doesn't have enough slack to get at either wolf-wrangler? Obvious drawbacks: we have two wolves to deal with, and it might mean opposed STR checks vs the wolves.
Otherwise, maybe the whole "lashed to pole using rope and cloaks", a la this? Might be an easier way to transport than a sled. Definitely they should be muzzled regardless of transport method; Talas can bind the mouth of one with his scarf, I imagine.
I suggest once we actually get them back to base (if we manage it) that we tie them with the other end of the rope up at tree-fort level so that we can cut the rope when hostilities begin, and let the wolves loose at ground level without our needing to be down there with them.
My only worry is that as a low level party we don't have THAT much healing to go around spending it on hostile animals to bring them back from a KO.
^ This. I'm only a 1st-level Cleric over here.
Yeah, sorry about making options, but not voting in on what to do. Talas's idea for tying the wolves up to long branches so they can't easily get at us is certainly a better idea than my original plan.
I would of course prefer the less risky option with Kenna using Wild empathy to be tried first.
Failing that, Talas's plan. Then my original plan if nothing else works.
DM, I want to try tying Kenna's winter blanket and some ropes into a net to see if we can bag a wolf that way; I'm hoping the bigger surface area will make it easier than trying a muzzle. What kind of roll do you want? I've got craft(trap), handle animal, and could always throw a CMB.
Sure, roll craft trap. See if you can make a giant wolf bag.
So should we just keep rolling to see if we can wrangle them before they break out or something else happens?
It's going to require some serious trickery to get these things back to the camp alive, and without killing you.
They're 900 pound wolves. Even if you manage to subdue them, dragging them back is going to be a feat.
I'd like to move forward as soon as possible, so i'm going to give you the reins.
Right now they are full on Hostile toward you. The Wild Empathy DC is 25 (which is beyond Kenna's ability). So they aren't going to come quietly.
I'll let you make the rolls and write the scene so we can move on. Good luck.
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....900 pounds? Oof, okay. I wasn't envisioning that big.
Okay, I say we worry about only one of them. That's going to be more than enough of a challenge for us. I say we knock them both out (we can used ranged to do this if actually being in melee with it will be a risk), leave the one to wake up on its own (or die, not really relevant to us either way), and drag/carry the other (trussed) back with us. What I envision would use two long poles, in sort of a Y-formation, with the wolf trussed right-side-paws to one pole, left-side paws to the other. Talas takes a pole end, Kenna takes a pole end, and Eythil has two pole ends as the strongest in our group. (We shoulda brought the dwarf!!!)
Our STRs are 10, 13, 14, but with the weight distribution we might still have a chance of hauling one wolf. I mean, dragging is theoretically 5x your max load, buuuut, again, we're in a really thick jungle. I'd say that's a pretty heavy circumstantial argument against trying to drag. Dragging seems like it would be slower.
If we can't lift the wolf like that, then my personal vote is just to scrap it and double-time back to camp, working on defenses we can do back at the location itself that don't require hostile animal transport. It wasn't a bad idea, but in the future we'll know to do a bit more planning.
I'm open to other ideas, of course, but let's decide one way or another so we're not holding it up.
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Large creature. x8 standard meduim-size weight. 900 pounds might actually be on the lighter side of an estimate.
I did mention that they are the size of horses.
I also underestimated the size of the wolves; I don't think transporting them while they're conscious and hostile is our best bet. I agree, Talas, let's get them KO'd and drag one home.
It says in the statblock itself for the dire wolf that it's 800 pounds, but that might not be the case for Crazy Jungle dire wolves. *shrug*
In this forest, everything's a little nastier than usual.
Stablocks are just average verions
Okay, original plan it is. First things first, we don't want them murdering us, so let's make that net.
Success, improvised net created.
Snares continue to hold, barely in one case.
Critical success! One wolf bagged. Okay, now on to knocking the wolves out. Eythil has a long spear, but will use it as a long club to attack from reach. The wolves are tough and we actually want to use a mix of sub-dual and lethal damage here. Though not too much of the lethal part.
I'm just going to do a series of attack for all of us. Starting with the netted wolf.
Current Ac. 12
Okay, almost there, Eythil will continue to attack the first wolf.
He'll actually stop after the second attack.
Dire Wolf 1: 25 Non-lethal, 18 lethal damage.
So, the 2nd wolf does in fact escape after the 3rd round.
Okay, in a sense, we got very lucky there as the second wolf tears off into the woods after getting itself free.
The rest of the encounter now is us dragging the unconscious wolf back. Not fun but do-able.
Eythil plans to stay down with the Wolf and heal it, in case more Orcs show up and have it fight them.
This was not a very well thought out plan on his part. He is used to seeing the creatures of the Forest fight the Orcs and recalls how his tribe could make them fight for them. Having never been properly initiated by the Druids, he does not clearly understand how things like Wild Empathy or even handle animal really work. He expects things to work the way he wants... This could be a very rude wake up call for him.
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Eythil plans to stay down with the Wolf and heal it, in case more Orcs show up and have it fight them.
This was not a very well thought out plan on his part. He is used to seeing the creatures of the Forest fight the Orcs and recalls how his tribe could make them fight for them. Having never been properly initiated by the Druids, he does not clearly understand how things like Wild Empathy or even handle animal really work. He expects things to work the way he wants... This could be a very rude wake up call for him.
Wait, wait. He lives in the Forest of Dread and is used to things working the way he wants? That is one self-deluded dude.
I suspect one cannot live in this particular forest for very long without going mad in several capacities.
He's lucky they were just regular dire wolves. I did roll to see if they would have Templates.
^ This DM scares me. Where are the weak little goblins and kobolds? XD It's great.
^ This DM scares me. Where are the weak little goblins and kobolds? XD It's great.
Welcome to Arch.
We're the weak little kobolds and goblins.
I'm really enjoying this scene. Highly amusing.
This group is quickly staring to remind me of the Legends of Tomorrow.
Well we know who Eythil is lol
Heh. Very accurate.
With full cognizance of the fact that, ultimately, it IS the GM's world and the creatures thereof can do what the GM says they can do: it's a DC 80 Acrobatics check for anything to be able to pull off a 20-ft vertical jump. By any standard, that should be something only creatures using directly superhuman abilities can pull off.
I understand that, narratively, the Forest of Dread is meant to very much be a "no, things here are tougher than you're used to" and to an extent I'm fine with that, but.... is there going to be a line drawn for that at all? Like, if I'm going to have my character make a plan that assumes animals can't make DC 80 checks, and then they can do that because, well, they just can-- then that's going to damper my personal willingness to try creative plans in the future, probably.
With the Unchained rules it's only DC 40 if you have 20 ranks in Jump. Also as a quadrupedal large creature it has an 8 ft.vertical reach (treated as medium) requiring only a 12 ft jump.
DC for 12 ft jump is 48 I believe, or 24 using unchained rules. Not impossible, just unlikely.
And it was a pretty insane plan. Considering wolves have been known to gnaw their own leg off to get free of a steel trap, is rope really going to be a deterrent?
A dire wolf doesn't have 20 ranks in jump, though, as that would mean it's a 20 HD creature.
I'm not saying the plan was brilliant? I believe I specifically raised various questions and objections to it when it was proposed that went unanswered, and I also said we probably need to plan a little more carefully in the future. I also have no objections to the wolf chewing off its rope or anything else.
My point is only that if you make assumptions about a creature given the stats that we were given for it, and then it turns out to be wildly able to surpass what those stats indicate, that makes it a little hard to make good plans, in character.
In character you'd have to be a druid or a pretty skilled ranger to have even the faintest ideas of a wild animal's stats. More so from another plane, so there's an element of metagame in the planning process if it's based on that.
But yes you do have a point about the ranks.