Ouch - I'm fully aware that you guys have gotten a bit of a raw rub with the dice in this opening gambit and will be taking the paucity of healing and lack of retreat option available into account...
Ouch - I'm fully aware that you guys have gotten a bit of a raw rub with the dice in this opening gambit and will be taking the paucity of healing and lack of retreat option available into account...
I've played in plenty of published adventures that assume the presence of a positive energy channeler, and are brutally hard without one (playing an evil cleric or druid as sole healer, for instance, meaning that you may spend entire levels, representing months of gameplay, unable to prep a spell that doesn't start with 'cure' and end with 'wounds'), but this AP should really be built around the assumption of evil clerics and limited healing (particularly when the initial encounters start with a bunch of unarmed and unarmored people, who won't even be able to use the Treat Deadly Wound option of the Heal skill, and damage is going to come fast and furious!)...
I think it's a flaw in the system that an evil cleric (or druid) stuck in the role of sole healer in a group is pretty much expressly forbidden from ever actually preparing a druid spell, or any spell that doesn't start with 'cure' and end with 'wounds,' while a good cleric can prepare all sorts of cool spells, and transmute them into cures if needed *and* has the ability to channel positive energy as well, making them, *without preparing a single cure spell,* two to three times better at this vital party role than a druid or evil cleric who has prepped all his (non-domain) spells as cures and essentially relegated himself to the role of dedicated healbot, and is, by the vagaries of the system, not allowed to stretch out of that role, the way a good cleric is, through the nature of spontaneous cures and channel positive energy.
It's very much roller-skating uphill, and I think Pat Pulling is to blame. :)
Meh, thins will get easier once we get into the meat of thigns and gettign access to cure wands is more feasible.
IF we focus more on damage prevention rather than damage absorbtion (difficult to do now I will admit) and make healing somethign that happens out of combat except in emergencies we should be okay.
I definitely see your point Set, and I think that in this particular case, things are alot easier if you can take out the two guards without the signal horn going off. That would have put you well equipped and with an ogre meatshield to go off down the stairs. But in this case the signal horn meant that one of the big bads for the prison came knocking when you're still dressed in rags.
Channel positive does irk me to a point, as it is incredibly efficient 'free' healing for Good clerics. I know that I got a little frustrated playing a non-Life Oracle as main healer for the same reason as you. All his spells end up being held in reserve for cures and the inefficiency of full party healing with CLWs vs channels is huge.
One thing that I've thought of is perhaps allowing a targeted channel negative to be turned into a casting of infernal healing on a single recipient. It's still out of combat healing, but would allow for a bit of pressure to be taken off the spell slots.
But yes, as Shendalyn says - once free from the prison things will get a bit more manageable.
I definitely see your point Set, and I think that in this particular case, things are alot easier if you can take out the two guards without the signal horn going off.
That would have been ideal, but it seemed like Mi'Dre would have to have succeeded about twenty rolls for that to happen, so, statistically (assuming 1 is always a failure), I don't think that would have been possible.
I do have to look up Infernal Healing. It's never really been an option before, so I didn't even look at it, but for a Cleric of Asmodeus in an all-evil campaign, it's pretty much a no-brainer!
Infernal Healing also looks like a decent spell to Extend, for 20 healing over 2 minutes.
Ninjaed by the DM, but yes our life just got that much harder when the second guard escaped to bring back reinforcements. Luckly we manage to free Grumblejack.
As soon as we deal with those guys lets take the time to put some armor on and pick up some decent swords, daggers FTL.
These hits from the guards have all been fairly significant damage as well. Albrecth went down in one shot, and that was the last of the healing. We do have what I'm guessing is a Potion of Cure Light on the scarf, but that's it at this point.
Mi'Dre does have something of an advantage since he's effectively got the same AC as a normal Rogue of the same stats wearing Leather Armor, but he still is down 5 points again (and would be on 2 if Albina hadn't used her other cure on him)
I am a big lover of infernal healing style spells as they take the randomness out of downtime healing. A suitably flavorful wand of it will be wending your way once you get to your rendezvous.
Merck - I put Black Jack at 0 HP? - so you still have a move action, or can take a standard and drop down unconscious.
I am a big lover of infernal healing style spells as they take the randomness out of downtime healing. A suitably flavorful wand of it will be wending your way once you get to your rendezvous.
Awesome. As you can guess from my dice rolls, I'm a huge fan of anything that eliminates randomness. :)
Probably an appropriate juncture to do a cross-post to my DM'ed PbPs about an interruption to my posting schedule that is imminent.
My wife is about 37 weeks pregnant, which basically means that the bun is fully cooked and ready to pop at any time. This means that at some point in the next 1 day to 4 weeks I will suddenly and without notice disappear completely from the interwebs. I can't say when or for how long, but it will probably knock me out for up to a week or so before my wife and I get back on our feet and I'm of somewhat sound and untired enough mind to jump back online.
So if I do vanish, please don't fret as I shall return :) I would just ask for some patience for a while as we adjust to the new baby floating around. I'll get ourselves sorted at home first, then recommence with the DM'ing once we're all squared away and back in some sort of a new-born 'sequence' again.
Hahahahaha. You think you'll have ONE week of being tired? ;) Congratulations though, I have a nine month old daughter myself who thankfully sleeps soundly. Apologies for disappearing myself, I had a family emergency to deal with that is now on the mend.
Intimidate or Bluff is a more appropriate skill here...
I though about the intimidate skill but a first lvl character only have so many skill points lol... Talking his way out of trouble is not a foreign concept to Jack Grieves. I did not use the bluff skill because my character is not lying or trying to deceive. If the guard dont play nice he may die but if he do it the blackguard will try to help him survive.
You essentially put a sword to his throat and threatened harm if he didn't comply => Intimidation.
If you'd wanted to try the diplomacy angle then you would have needed to approach more neutrally and without any overt threats. Something like "Look, we just want to be out of here and on our way. You tell us what we need to know and we'll be out of here quicker" or the like.
Mi'Dre would be a bit obscene with a chain shirt (21 AC), and he doesn't really want it slowing him down either, so he's happy with what Asmodeus gave him for now.
More than that Mi'Dre - you'll need custom made armor to suit your devilish figure. Plus all of the suits of armor thus far are medium sized and would not fit you.
You'll get armor in time, just not in Branderscar.
Have a brief period of quiet at home with our 3 year old while my wife's sister is on duty at the hospital.
Our wee one was born in the early hours this morning and both mum and bub are resting up and doing fine. Unfortunately a C-sect so recovery will be a bit longer, but have family in town to help out which will make it alot easier as we run shifts at hospital helping out.
Obviously will still be a few days before brain is rested enough and have adequate time to make sense of anything, but wanted to let y'all know that the delivery went fine.
Wife and Bub continue to do well and all things considered should hopefully be back in our own home as of tomorrow. Will see how the home-life settles out before committing to a specific time for wading back online so will keep you posted on when that occurs and we'll start this wee beastie back up.
Back home with wife and baby boy and things continue to go well. You might have noticed that I've stepped back into the PbPs that I play in; and if things continue to go well I'll be back DMing in the next couple of days.
Just want to make sure that when I do re-start that I'm able to commit wholehearted and get things rolling with the quality and focus that I'd like.
So if I can test your patience for just a mite longer that would be much appreciated.
As promised we are go for launch! Game thread is active once more. Lets plough through the rest of the jail and we'll get on to more interesting pursuits :)
For what it's worth this will probably be the penultimate encounter of the prison. I'm just as keen as you guys to get out of here and on to the meatier part of the AP :)
you saw that post then :p yeah sorry, didn't realize they were seperate damage rolls because of the crit (and the fact they both rolled exactly the same), so had to edit.
Set
Merck
