Allence's Last Hope

Game Master sarpadian

According to the Alchemy class feature alchemists can copy wizard spells, but wizards can't copy alchemist formulae. Otherwise i'd happily trade.

What potions can you you make that could potentially benefit me? You can copy spells regardless, but in character I would want a 2 useful potions for one spell copied.

Vocal Alteration, Disguise Self, Shield, Cure Light Wounds and from spells from your book I could also make Endure Elements, Comprehend Languages and Expeditious Retreat.

I suppose Enlarge person is less useful to a wizard. I do need ingredients first though for which I currently don't have the funds.

Shield, Cure Light, Comprehend Lang, and Expeditious Retreat would be the most useful in potion form I think. They are ones I would usually make scrolls of, other then cure light. I will lend you my spell book when we make camp for the night and you can promise me six potions for later.

I am thinking 2 shield, 2 cure light, 1 comp lang, and 1 exped retreat. Would be a useful spread.

After we hit this next town I will make a few scrolls of Endure elements and you can make a few potions of it and we can assist the party that way. We will have to think of some form of barter or payment for it though otherwise we will end up using a bunch of our personal money to help out.

I would suggest that if/when y'all sell loot, split the money six ways (instead of five), with the sixth share being a communal fund that things like scrolls/potions come out of.

I'm trying to figure out a way to make the game move faster. Instead of waiting for the entire party to weigh in before moving things along, I think I will start going with majority rule: once three party members vote for a particular action (like stopping to camp, for instance), it happens. Suggestions and/or objections?

I would suggest if two days have elapsed and at least one person has put down an option, move the story on. Two days is more then enough for most people to view the post and post their own comment if necessary. In my experience if someone hasn't posted by then it is because their only input is 'I agree' or something similar.

I would suggest if two days have elapsed and at least one person has put down an option, move the story on. Two days is more then enough for most people to view the post and post their own comment if necessary. In my experience if someone hasn't posted by then it is because their only input is 'I agree' or something similar.

Yup. For the most part when I don't post it is because I read everything and nothing occurred to me that seems worth posting. I have been trying lately to do more of those "filler" posts though, since I know people wait on them.

Sound good to me.

Rations marked again.

Here in a couple days I'll be on vacation for a week. I'm thinking I might still try to check in at least every other day, but if you don't hear from me for more than a day go ahead and bot me as needed.

Paizo.com was giving me grief today.

I'll try to edit the Cloak into my stat-line before too long. My other combat stats are also incorrect since Chantif is currently unarmored.

I thought characters aren't dead until they reach negative Constitution score? Does that only apply to PCs?

-Posted with Wayfinder

No problem on the stats. Yes, you're right that characters--even NPCs--don't die until they reach their negative Con score. I'll plead guilty to injudicious use of terminology in replying to Drexel's question :).

Alright, updated my stat-line. Have I recovered any more HP? I forgot if we have slept again since I last asked.

Nope.

Pondering a multi-class to Druid for better access to Cure Light Wounds.

Recovering 1 HP from sleep.

I'm down with whatever for character combos, but being one of the squishy characters I am always more for not getting hit then for healing damage after the fact

I agree. Chantif will be pretty good at protecting you when it comes time for that, actually. I'm just thinking of how it takes us so long to heal in our downtime. It has been several days since we last fought anything and Chantif is still 1HP away from full health.

I'm looking at quite a few different classes and archetypes. Some fit my character better than others. I don't really want to give up any BAB and I'm not fond of being behind on Ranger/Witchguard features, but if we ever hit more than two fights in a row we'll be in a very bad way without some way to recover HP quickly in between.

I'm looking at
Shaman
Spellbreaker Inquisitor
Sacred Huntsmaster Inquisitor
Inquisitor
Druid
Feral Shifter Druid

Also the Cleric and Warpriest, but those two don't really fit Chantif I don't think.

Well, given Rhona's backstory, I've been considering multiclassing into Paladin at some point. She'd need to achieve something, plot-wise, before doing that. Still, if it happens, we'll have a little extra healing power.

Oh, ye of little faith. Don't stress out too much over it. It didn't make too much sense for New Allence to have healing items, given how far they are from the frontier, but the farther out you go, the more likely you are to find them.

If you log into Roll20, you should see a map of the area around the hovel. My Roll20-fu is not up to the task of making it self-explanatory, so here are some explanations. (BTW, if anybody knows how to make bigger maps than 120 ft. x 120 ft., let me know; it would come in handy.) Chantif's observation point is off the west edge of the map 900-ish ft. From the party's current location to Chantif's observation point, there is no chance of the gnolls at the hovel detecting the party (I will neither confirm nor deny the presence of other threats, however ;).) Once you pass the observation point, though, you're within theoretical detection range and will need to make Stealth checks. Fortunately, the terrain (off the road, obviously) is conducive to this. North of the road, it is untamed grassland (which provides concealment and, therefore, the ability to make Stealth checks) until you reach the stone wall at the west edge of the map. South of the road, the grassland extends onto the map. The vegetation in the fields is too sparse to provide concealment, so you can't make Stealth checks there. The stone walls that border grassland are 6' tall and thus provide cover; the stone walls along the road, between the field and the hovel, as well as the south and west walls of the livestock pen, are 3' tall and provide partial cover. Also, all the stone walls are contiguous; the picture I chose has whitespace on the end of it that I couldn't figure out how to get rid of. The gates are marked with little black squares. The hovel is pretty much in shambles; I couldn't find a picture of ruins that I liked. If there are any other questions, just ask.

I was thinking of setting up our "reception" 2k-3k feet away and luring them over that distance. Det and Umash would wait at probably the 1k-1.5k mark.

I'm working on a new map. Changing the size of the completed map put all the extra space on the wrong side.

I'm cool with this plan. Let's ambush the heck out of 'em!

Ambush sounds great to me. Let's kill something!

Looking forward to the new map so we can get a clearer picture of how we'll be implementing our plan.

The map will be up later today, hopefully. While you're waiting, you might as well start planning how you're going to get them to chase you. I'll go ahead and tell you, out of character, that it's not going to be as easy as letting them spot you, running, and expecting them to follow you.

I was figuring some arrows in their direction would be a start.

I'm still working on the map, but I've made the work-in-progress viewable. The area around the hovel and the road are pretty much done.

So who's the decoy going to be? Or, perhaps, should we send more than one? Two assailants would be pretty believable, I think.

Hmm, maximum range for a shortbow is 600 feet.

There are hostages and I am at 3 health essentially...

Heh, are you volunteering, Drexel?

So, how does this sound... Chantif takes a bunch of arrows and the caltrops and go and starts shooting at the Gnolls from a hill or something 450-600 feet away from the Gnolls. Once they start chasing he'll do a run/shoot/run/shoot routine until they get within, say, 150 feet. Then he'll just go to running. All the time he'll be running to Rhona, who should be able to start firing her own bow by the time they get to within about 450 feet or so (~1500 feet from the hovel, since Rhona will be waiting 2k feet away? closer?). When the Gnolls get to a point right in between Det and Umash hiding and Rhona standing, Det and Umash will spring out and start running after the Gnolls from behind.

Alternative plans could involve Drexel using Expeditious Retreat and shouting insults or something. >:D

Actually... that might be a good idea. Minus the insults part. Should Drexel go up and talk to them and see if he can figure out what the story is? Chantif could move up to his hill while Drexel ran up to them and talked to them. Then if Drexel gives two quick blows on his whistle and/or starts running back, Chantif opens fire.

I definitely like that first plan, but casting Expeditious Retreat on the decoy would definitely be a cool idea so that they don't get overrun. I'd be fairly hesitant to put Drexel that close to the gnolls, though.

Chantif didn't see any ranged weapons on the Gnolls. They just have axes and shields. He would probably be safe shouting at them from 100 feet away. 100 feet sounds like a lot, but I've taken a 100ft. tape measure outside and stretched it out before. It's definitely within speaking distance. He could stay 120 or probably even 180 feet away and safely figure out the situation.

Several points worth mentioning:
1) There isn't a hill; the area is grassy plains. (If the gnolls were lying down, I suppose they would be grassy gnolls.)
2) Expeditious Retreat is a personal range spell; Drexel is the only one who can benefit from it.
3) I didn't say that the gnolls didn't have any ranged weapons. Chantif didn't see any, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. It's up to each of you to determine whether or not your characters would jump to that conclusion or not, but I want to make it clear that it's an inference from what I said, not what I said.

I'm on that same page on each count, sarpadian. Well, I didn't know about the terrain. Chantif will be able to see the Gnolls from the plains, right?

Yep. I'm still working on the map (my Internet was down most of yesterday, and it's a really big map), but I've gotten the area around the hovel done, if you want to log into Roll20 and look.

I have expeditious retreat prepared, anything else useful would have to be cast from my free slot

The map is finally ready. I didn't realize what I was getting myself into when I decided to make a map this big. The next time y'all want to pull off a chase over several thousand feet, we'll do it without a map :P. I went ahead and put the party's tokens on the map, but where we last left off, the party was roughly 1000 ft. west of the map. The background that predominates on the map represents untamed grassland and will allow you to make Stealth checks. The mottled green-black background represents low places where rainwater has collected and then not evaporated.

Cool. That is one massive, massive, massive map. O_O

Been really busy with work. Should be able to look at the map this weekend.

How about everyone write their understanding of the current plan in a spoiler, then read everyone else's spoiler to see if we're all on the same page.

-Posted with Wayfinder

I looked at the map. I'm still pretty much ready to move forward with what I've described. I just want to make sure everyone else is on the same page and on board with it.

I like the plan, ambush sounds good. We're gonna have to fight them one way or another, and this is the best way to do it.

Yeah, I'm good with it.

Definitely works for me.

Sure, I will figure something out

I've put an X on the map at the point where Chantif was before he came back to the party. It's only 40 ft. south of the road, so you should be able to scroll south until the road is at the top of your screen and then scroll east until you see it. Where do y'all want to set up the ambush in relation to the X? It's at 1000 ft. from the nearest gnoll, so Chantif is obviously going to have to be at least 400 ft. east of it in order to be in bow range, but what about the rest of you? You can also choose to set up north of the road. In either event, you need to be in tall grass to have concealment (and thus be able to make Stealth checks) once you approach within 1000 ft. of the nearest gnoll. Tall grass is the kinda medium green terrain that makes up the majority of the map; the other shade of green (like where the gnolls are standing, for instance) is mowed grass; it isn't tall enough to provide concealment. As far as line of sight goes, only the northern and eastern walls of the area around the hovel (i.e. the walls that border wilderness instead of a field or the road) are tall enough to block line of sight completely, but the other stone walls do provide cover. As usual, feel free to ask questions if there's something you don't understand. Let's get this show on the road...or off the road, once you're within 1000 ft. ;).