Tora no Senaka - The Back of the Tiger (Inactive)

Game Master Dreaming Warforged

Izumi took the new trail, but was not at the beast lair, so it's hard for him to say. I posted his recollection. Feel free to embellish.

So Izumi does have a general idea of where he was attacked? I am guessing that it was basically right where we are standing right now.

Not really. Izumi probably took the New trail, not knowing enough about the marsh.

Izumi SHATTERS the door. :D

How many goblins are there?

Six!

Combat is never simple. PbP helps in some ways, but makes it harder in other. For example, players and DMs have more time to think and can look up rules more easily. On the other hand, we can have to wait quite a long time.

I will split the round into as little subgroups as possible. Within a group, you don't have to post in order of initiative. That will speed things up.

Sometimes, I'll roll myself the initiative. I might also roll saves or AoO for you to speed things up. I hope it's ok. Let me know if you have suggestions.

If you cast a spell of do something that warrants a response (like an AoO, feel free to roll a d20 for the other side. I'll add the bonuses. This will also allow to speed things up.

I hope you are fine with those guidelines. Fell free to comment and make suggestions. I haven't run so many of those yet.

The maps are done in Inkscape, using the mat from YeOldeMapmaker as a base. At one point, I'll take the time to add a letter and number for every square. In the meantime, you can use A.5 or AB to identify a square falling between letters.

Best of luck with the goblins!

Those rules sound awesomely convenient Celestial. We should draft up a bullet point form though, and put it maybe in the campaign info, so we have a reference for what we should and shouldn't do in combat?

Also I believe the bear spirit scored a critical threat.

Drawing a weapon and strapping on a shield are both move actions in the RAW; quick draw would allow a weapon to be pulled as a free action (though I guess that wouldn't apply to a shield- would one be able to move and strap on a shield at the same time?). So if Izumi and Pavel want to be switch hitters, Quick Draw may be a bit more efficient.

Effectively, Izumi is just trying to be prepared. Dropping a held item is a free action, and (though it is not RAW), I believe putting away 2 weapons would be the same action as 1 weapon (though this could be debated very easily). In effect, what I was going to do with Izumi this round would be put away his melee weapons (1 move action?). At the start of the next round, he would draw his bow (move action) and fire it (standard). I can definitely understand the thinking in making each weapon a move action to put away (as this is RAW), so I will leave it up to Celestial to say if we are going pure RAW, or if some variance is allowed.

Shields technically count as weapons (they are martial weapons, and are listed in the weapon section as well as the armour section), so if Izumi were to have Quick Draw, he could effectively switch weapons as a free action (dropping the bow, pulling out the sword and shield would all be free actions). Though dropped weapons would require a move action to pick up, Quick Draw or no.

They shall feel our fury indeed.

Indeed. So you know, goblins 2 and 4 are dead.

Also, remember guys that if you are within 60ft of me and can see me, you get +2 morale bonus vs. fear effects, and a +1 extra bonus on attack rolls on a charge. (this is an effect of my banner, in case that wasn't immediately apparent.)

That Escape Route feat is a pretty nice, Izumi. Very useful for tactical movement using you as a set point. Pavel can either move out of the room or move in farther allowing Raith to move into position.
Right now we're all considered to have the feat. So even Pavel allows movement through his squares with no AoOs provoked.

I haven't played with a cavalier in any campaign. Interesting to see excellent tactical use of a cavalier ability. That Tactician is a more powerful ability than I thought it would be.

Hopefully we live long enough to see more of the cavalier. I want to see how the class plays.

When Celestial said he liked interesting tactical situations, I HAD to play a cavalier. Still not sure about my two-weapon fighting choice with my low-dex... but we shall see.

That will be a challenge. I played a cavalier for and I noticed quite soon, that getting your dex-dependant ride skill up quickly is very important.

That will be a challenge. I played a cavalier for and I noticed quite soon, that getting your dex-dependant ride skill up quickly is very important.

Indeed, instead of buffing strength I may straight buff my dex and use the eastern full plate (which is +8 but +2 max dex). I've delayed the need for ride until level 5 (standard bearer archetype switched the places of banner and mount in the progression).

Edit: I also just noticed that TWF fighting prerequesite is 15, instead of 13 as I had previously thought... am I thinking of 3.5? *facepalm*

Beg the DM for a concession and see if he will let you rebalance Str and Dex and take the expertise feat?

Also Celestial, could you give me a step-by-step on how you create those beautiful markers? I'd like to make similar things for my group.

You'll have the possibility of reviewing your builds as you reach level 2.

I've learned to make my maps from Scipion del Ferro. I use Inkscape to make the circles et al. Just create the circle and the letter and group them. I get the battle map from Olde Mappmaker.

I think Garand needed to cast defensively in that situation- which is a concentration check DC 15 + double the spell level. A hefty check even for a 1st level spell, but you won't provoke an attack of opportunity. Combat Casting also helps with that.

Some bad rolls. Tough round.

Yeah... I'm in trouble if I get hit again, methinks.

I think Garand needed to cast defensively in that situation- which is a concentration check DC 15 + double the spell level.

That wouldn't have done anything, he was going for the AC bonus because he thought some goblins might be attacking him. I didn't even think about the AoO, because of the tactical feat thing. (Which I thought was going to prevent it anyway, having misread it.)

A hefty check even for a 1st level spell, but you won't provoke an attack of opportunity. Combat Casting also helps with that.

Yeah, I wasn't thinking about AoO prevention, just fighting defensively to up my AC, which may or may not be an option when casting a spell that doesn't have a to hit roll (despite touch spells like cure/inflict wounds requiring to hit rolls in some cases...). Weird corner case. If I'd been casting the same spell and trying to touch a skeleton with it, I could have fought defensively. But because I was touching a living PC, I didn't have that option...

The way the fighting defensively rules are worded makes me think that either fighting defensively is a standard action in and of itself where you get 1 attack, or you can do it as part of a full attack action.

I'm having a little trouble unwinding my hp, here. By my count, here's the damage I've taken:
1 hp nonlethal, 1 hp fire damage in round 1 (10 hp remaining)
7 hp damage in round 4 (3 hp remaining)
Healed for 5 hp in round 5 (8 hp remaining)
3 hp damage on round 6 (5 hp remaining)
4 hp damage on round 7 - that leaves me with 1 hp left; shouldn't I still be standing prior to Garand's next healing spell? Am I missing something?

My deepest apologies James. You're absolutely right.

Please post for the combat round. Sorry again!

No problem, DW, I fully expected to have missed something and I know how tough it can be to keep track of everything.

Cool. Pavel's still on his feet.

Things are quite busy atm. I won't be able to post regularly.

Take your time Celestial. RL always comes first.

Agreed! Just keep us informed as your situation changes.

Just a head's up: I'm traveling to the other end of the country between Thursday and Monday this coming week, so feel free to NPC Pavel if it becomes necessary.

Good to see you back, Dreaming.

I'm good when people need to take breaks. I'm expecting it quite a bit these last two months with the holidays and such. I know these are some busy periods for businesses and families, so time is short.

Please don't hesitate to give me feedback (positive and constructive) on the battle.

I thought the battle went smoothly given the number of rounds. The descriptions were good. It ran very efficiently. I liked the maps. Those were a great help. Color me impressed. I've done a couple of online campaigns and that was the smoothest and well-detailed battle I've been in for an online campaign.

I agree whole-heartedly with Raith on this one. I am actually adapting several of these techniques for use in my own legacy of fire game I'm currently running on these boards. Applaud to you good sir. I'm really looking forward to seeing this campaign unfold.

Great maps, and I very much prefer combat being stitched together at the end of the round like this, rather than attempting to have each player post in turn.

I agree, very well run.

I think you are doing quite well CB. The flow of battle has been quite well done.

Thanks!!!

On the same note, I am blessed with great players. Your descriptions were flowing and inspiring me to do the same.

In case it wasn't clear, Izumi's last line there should read "You're our resident [...]".

CB, Sorin is going to try and lash the tubes together and then light them with a cantrip. If you don't want it to work, please do not blow Sorin up.

If you want Sorin to make some rolls to have it work, please tell me.

That was a nasty firework. Between our bad rolls and Garand being out of healing, we might be in some trouble. That firework hit pretty hard. Now I have an angry goblin chieftan raining arrows down on me. We'll see how long I can last.Hopefully we survive.

Definitely feeling like a tough fight. I like the pacing. Feels like a combat team wading through a village.

We used up alll our good rolls on the reflex saves.

If those fireworks go up and kill my bear, someone's gonna owe me a new bear...

:)

Right now... only Raith is in danger of being hit I think, and that's if Sorin misses.

I put my AC as 19, but it should be 20 if I'm in Sorin's ward. (not sure if I am, since 2 steps diagonally for movement is 15 feet.)

I assume we're going to sell valuable items and collect the bounties and divide everything evenly for treasure with a gp value?