While capture would be grand, Cindy's goal is elimination. She sees this as the safer alternative and does not believe our enemy will surrender anyway. So we gotta take them down. If she gets one with a sleep hex and the fight is still going on she will coup de grace to prevent them from waking up or being awakened by an ally. But she would not kill a helpless opponent outside of combat.
That said, she is not convinced that they would stay incarcerated long if they were taken into custody. A group of rogues with connections? Who knows who all might be helping them?
Sun Tsu says never to fight a battle you do not have to win. So attacking at all goes against that advise. Knowing where they are and gaining surprise is too good to pass up I think. So Cindy votes that we hit them. But how do we minimize the risk to ourselves while maximizing our chances to take at least one or two out?
Totally out of character, but part of our goal is to acquire some of their resources. While they can rob most everyone in the town, we are sworn to protect the merchants. So our ability to gain resources is more limited than theirs. So if we take down one of theirs we need to leave with the body, or at least with the loot from the body. If we go in, fight, knock down half of them, and leave without killing any of them or taking some of their resources we have squandered our advantage.
@Cindy (and others to, though Cindy looks to be doing the overall planning on this one). If there are any scrolls/potions you want to pick up you can still do so before everyone arrives at the inn as I've posted - but I'll need that list before tomorrow night.
Well played, Cindy Lu.
Garion updated his spell list.
Wow- Things are progressing faster than I had thought they would. Many meetings today - just back to my computer.
Ok - Here is my wish list for buffing scrolls and potions.
Scrolls of Detect Secret Doors, Invisibility, and See Invisibility, and Alter Self
Potion of Protection from Evil and Bear's Endurance
I think we get a discount, but even with the discount, that is about all I can afford.
Potions are available.
All but the invisibility scroll are available for immediate purchase.
5% discount does apply to these.
Since we are getting a chance to go back in time a bit here I will claim to have purchased a potion of Invisibility and one of the Bear's Endurance potions before walking into the inn.
BTW Cindy, are you in your normal disguise as a human girl with a pink ribbon? Or coming as your normal half-orc self at present?
Always disguised as a human girl outside. Red or pink ribbon or bow. She tries to look different every day.
Aria, give your familiar max HP as well, giving it 40 HP rather than average of 17.
Just a FYI, been pretty busy at work lately, with some expected overtime coming up - which may slow down my posting somewhat. For this group I will still try to make a post in the morning, a post after work (or just before I leave work), and a post before I head to bed - so as to keep the combat moving - but I may end up not being able to quite stick to that in the coming weeks.
Then I will be out of town from June 8-15. I may be able to post some, but probably very limited.
If our barbarian and rogue can get out of the Inn that would be great. I recommend the window to the North of the cloud. Cloud will last for 5 rounds and if they are in it they are nauseated (move action only) and can only see 5' through it.
They are too strong in the inn with the locals helping them. Too easy for them to buff. Our archers are out here as is Area. Time to grab their archer I say. That should make them come out and play. Thoughts?
Vados, next time someone tries to run away from you trip them with your aoo. :)
@Cindy, regarding the summoner moving through 'rough terrain' were you referring to double movement cost due to poor visibility? I never even knew that poor visibility hampered movement till I looked into it today trying to figure out why you questioned his movement rate.
Having him redeclare his movement.
Yes. Even an Obscuring Mist slows you to half speed. Annoying I know. :) I am hoping this helps our barbarian get out of there.
Going to adjudicate that he can take a DC 10 acro check to get full movement speed still (similar to being blinded which allows full movement and is certainly a worse condition than poor visibility). Failing by 5 or more means he trips and falls prone (not as bad as blinded in which failing the acro check at all results in prone).
OK. Totally your call. Maybe he will not have an 18 Dex and will have less than a 75% chance of making that roll. Synth summoners are 50-60 point characters you know so he could have an 18 dex. :P
OK. Totally your call. Maybe he will not have an 18 Dex and will have less than a 75% chance of making that roll. Synth summoners are 50-60 point characters you know so he could have an 18 dex. :P
Ha. Only 31 pt effectively on this one.
Vayga-focus on the summoner. Let's kill that jerk while he is nauseated!
Vayga-focus on the summoner. Let's kill that jerk while he is nauseated!
I didn't realize there were 4 real enemies in the inn. Vayga-you probably should have withdrawn like the witch said. I stayed to CYA. We may need to bolt next rd if we are still alive. Our only hope is the nausea.
Vayga-focus on the summoner. Let's kill that jerk while he is nauseated!I didn't realize there were 4 real enemies in the inn. Vayga-you probably should have withdrawn like the witch said. I stayed to CYA. We may need to bolt next rd if we are still alive. Our only hope is the nausea.
Not looking too good atm. Getting out the window doesn't look to hopeful either.
Is there a rule that limits the number of summoned creatures a spellcaster can control?
For normal casters no (e.g., not summoners).
2 should be nauseated, meaning only move actions. You likely sealed your fate when you chose to attack instead of withdraw. If the window was currently open you could withdraw out of it on your next turn. But two guys are gonna try to hit you before you go again. If the synth comes un-nauseated its over. Shiv was trying to save you but attacking the one guy who has the best AC and the guy who was no threat to you was not the best deal. Better to have opened the window.
I am torn. I really don't want to play everyone's character, but this is PVP and this other team is better optimized than our team to start with. They are also using better tactics. My only request was that we focus fire. The DM made that very hard when we were so spread out when this started. In the end that is what is causing most of our problems. We really are outclassed AND we lost much of the advantage of surprise.
If you ask me to I can bring down the cloud early. I would do it to save people but we will likely regret it in the long run.
Remind me to ask you, Cindy, to help me better optimize my character if we survive this. We may have to run away and live to fight another day, though I hate suggesting it.
I'm also not sure that I can message anyone in the inn, since I have to have line of sight, per RAW, but maybe the DM is allowing us a bit of leeway. If not, we can go to communicating in Undine.
I will have the air elemental smash through the window next turn, to help others avoid damage.
Line of sight should be only when casting (I think).
Good idea on the elemental. Also have your familiar attack the elf if it can. Focus fire on the elf first, all things being equal.
LoS is only required during casting. After that the message spell can move around corners etc, so long as the path isn't physically blocked by something solid.
The DM made that very hard when we were so spread out when this started.
In my defense, the decision to attack was not made by me. I presented a scenario only.
I want to give some perspective to this fight if I can.
In terms of wounds inflicted you have done more damage. They've taken 71 damage among their various characters. You've taken 29 - and have a numbers advantage. Two of their characters are currently disabled for at least 2 more rounds each - not to mention the help you have.
Which isn't to say everything is going easy for your group, but its not going easy for them either - they are stressing about this fight as well.
When it is my turn I will withdraw from the gnome. Going through Shiv and the air elemental with a normal move I can get to L31. Even better, if I can manage to roll an 8 or higher (before modifiers) I can run all the way through the fog and end on O37. The risk being if I roll a 3 or lower I'll trip. Also, when I get there I will NOT have a weapon. I think it's worth the risk. What do you think?
Cindy, if I ask "pretty please" would you let me borrow your magic axe?
Glad they are stressing too. :) I am having fun for sure. Please do not think otherwise Ascension. Part of that fun is assessing odds. Things are not going badly for us, but they could have gone sooo much better. lol
And they have allies too. Someone is shooting at Cindy though a window somewhere.
Absolutely Vayga, my axe is yours if we can get together. Was hoping you would ask. :) Oh, and I think this is important, after the monk went you should no longer be stunned, correct?
I'll need another map update before I take my turn, which might be a while I know.
Correct. The stun is over at this point.
I've been stressing some over the nitty gritty rules of which I've messed up a couple of things and over the couple of weird situations that have come up. (Which by the way, I do appreciate the rules savvy players on both sides pointing out things I forget or overlook).
Just to reiterate (ooc) our plan so that everyone is on the same page. I believe (and this is what I think Cindy believes too), we need to focus all our power on one. The poison cloud was a good way to disperse the crowd, now we just need focused firepower. No offense intended toward anyone, and I hope I don't come across as mean or snooty (sometimes that happens for some reason and people don't get the tone behind what I'm typing)... Its killed at least one PBP when I typed something light and humorous and other people thought I meant something totally different, or thought I had attitude or something.
Thoughts on future PvP combats.
Because of the very back and forth style of the combat with interwoven initiatives and AoO's these combats are definitely running much slower than a normal combat in the play-by-post format.
First question then, does anyone mind the slowness or would you like to see the pace a little bit faster? Note that for myself I'm indifferent to the pace - for me the game runs at whatever pace the players post at (and I have time to keep up with if they post multiple times per day).
If you want to see it faster I have a couple of ideas on this.
First: Players are paired in groups of 3 for initiative on each side.
So for example, if the six people in your group roll a 20, 15, 10, 8, 6, 4 for initiatives then I average two initiative scores each.
So the players who rolled 20, 15, and 10 get an average init of 15 – and all 3 players move on the 15 initiative. Likewise the players who rolled 8, 6, and 4 get an average of 6, all acting on init 6. This will still leave potential between back and forth between groups, but will reduce it to a maximum of 2 alteration sets per round instead of a potential maximum of 6 per round.
Second: 24 hour posting time limit. At the point when I indicate it is your turn to take an action you have 24 hours to post an action. (not counting time over the weekend – Saturday and Sunday). If you do not post in that time frame I could either make you auto-delay your actions (this could be bad as potentially if you are out for a couple of days you could completely miss your turn). Or I post actions on your behalf – I can almost guarantee you I won't make the choice you yourself would make, so this could also be bad for you. Of course if you expect to be out of town you can let me know and ask another player from your group to take actions for you during the interim, or give me instructions of what to do anticipating as best you can how the battle might play out while you are gone. e.g., cast a buff spell if our group is all close enough together, or cast disabling spells on enemies within 30', or what have you.
Just to reiterate (ooc) our plan so that everyone is on the same page. I believe (and this is what I think Cindy believes too), we need to focus all our power on one. The poison cloud was a good way to disperse the crowd, now we just need focused firepower. No offense intended toward anyone, and I hope I don't come across as mean or snooty (sometimes that happens for some reason and people don't get the tone behind what I'm typing)... Its killed at least one PBP when I typed something light and humorous and other people thought I meant something totally different, or thought I had attitude or something.
Internet medium can be hard for things like this. I've had to learn, and relearn, to step back if I find a post coming across as rude or obnoxious. It is almost always a misunderstanding on my part of their intent if I'm finding their post aggravating me.
I rather like the pace we have now. I think it's good. (I do think we may have to wait a little longer over Memorial Day weekend, as a number of people will be away from their interwebz). The pacing hasn't really been much of a problem for me, not as much of one as not knowing how to be most effective in this battle.
I am happy with the pace too. I recommend you roll initiatives and saves for people and not wait for them to do so. To me it does not matter who rolls saves. That could speed things up.
If I could make a suggestion... It might be easier not to retro everything when we realize that we've done something the rules weren't supposed to let us do, and possibly best to just handwave it through. If it gives one side an unfair advantage (or if the other side complains), etcetera, give the other side a temporary boon or bonus to compensate. (That's how I GM at home, usually works pretty well.)
This doesn't have to do with my using the other attack, btw. I just notice a lot of retroing. And in all honesty, I had already forgotten my previous attack. :P
It wouldn't let me post in the game thread. It kept giving me preview mode. Ideas?
Not a clue on that one Shiv.
You may need to bug the paizo staff if it continues to prevent you posting in the game play thread.
Not a clue on that one Shiv.
You may need to bug the paizo staff if it continues to prevent you posting in the game play thread.
Will do. Has no one seen this before?
happened to me once or twice but was intermittent and never lasted a full 24 hours.
Hey Aria, I hope you have some firepower left. I am getting low on tricks. I can be quite annoying with hexes but cannot do much more direct damage. Cat will be out for 4 more rounds of attacks.
Vados if you will not be in the cat's charge lane at the end of your turn it an pounce on the enemy IF he is still there.
I have not even begun to fight... Mostly letting Skyfire and summoned creatures have at. The avenging angel will glide down shortly, though if we can resolve it without me having to, I can infiltrate the group later if necessary.
I sure would love to take out one more of these guys before the guard shows up. Don't like it that another one just jumped out the window.
I think if we gang up on the one that was near the elf, we can take him out easily. (It's the closest one to the fiendish giant spider, and I don't speak infernal either.) Somehow, though the spell somehow lets the summoned creature know which ones are the enemies.
Is the spider on the board? I think the DM has the cat in the wrong space.
Oh, why may the spider infernal and not celestial? There is a greater chance these guys are evil than good. I think the celestial cat got a smite evil off on the elf.
Well, apparently the cat didn't have a high enough charisma.
And the reason I chose infernal is because I felt that if 'these guys' were evil, it would be less likely they would have good aligned or silver weapons.
And the spider will appear at the beginning of my next turn.
The cat is in the wrong spot on the map, it should be one space north per the whole M/N line confusion. I forgot to adjust it when catching up with everything.
Cat's charisma is too low to get a bonus to hit or to AC from Smite. It still got its +3 to damage against that one foe from the smite. I was less worried about the cat's survival than its ability to do enough damage to take the elf out. Otherwise he would have flanked and snuck attacked Vados again. Well that was my reasoning for making him celestial. I did gamble that the elf would be evil. I did not know it, but seemed to recall that evil was allowed for that team during recruitment.
In either case, the elf is down, so good job, all. Now on to our next vic... err, hostile combatant.
Sorry you missed your grapple Vayga. That guy being prone is a a great consolation prize though. +4 to hit him while he is prone and AOOs all around when he tries to stand, which will also be at +4 to hit. And if he tries to retrieve an item it will also provoke. He goes before me so I can't get you the axe before he will stand. You can choose to punch him if he stands, but that will provoke from him if you are unarmed.
I guess we all should consider backup melee weapons.
Vados, see if you can hit three time this round. :) Vayga is not armed so you can't get a flank with her but you can chose to 5' step out of the cat's charge lane. :) I am not sure if down or two the left is better overall.