No worries man, we're only level 1. We'll learn from this encounter (next time we won't assume they're squatters) and adapt accordingly. Shitty rolls will be shitty rolls - if one of us two had passed the save it would've been a completely different (and probably way easier) fight.
Yeah, and since I'm only at -1 and stabilized a heal check (after combat) can probably at least get me conscious and able to move.
Sorry Harbug. For once I'm not playing a divine caster, or I'd have got your back.
Also, did I miss something? How did the enemy manage to avoid that magic missile? Was he able to get off a shield spell, or was it just spell resistance?.
He didn't. Mayhaps my description was confusing. The man just didn't want to take it in the face.
The man just didn't want to take it in the face.
"Wussy." Harbug mumbles from unconsciousness.
Aha, thought I winged 'im. :) Carry on.
I'm stupid. I just remembered that I'm not one of the core races I usually play... And I'm not (technically) unconscious: Ferocity says I'm still up and kicking... So several questions arise:
1) Can I choose to go unconscious?
2) If I cannot choose to go unconscious, do I need to roll a bluff check to "play" dead (if I want to do so)?
3) For purposes of this fight, am I unconscious (because I declared as much)?
4) If I'm not unconscious, should I roll bluff/whatever to "play" dead going forward (if i want to) and/or can I get up and chop him dead? [sarcasm]I'll be fine! I've got from -1 to -14 before I die![/sarcasm]
I'm reading through the glossary to figure out how this works for orcs specifically; so far the relevant pieces seem to be:
Dying
Disabled
Stable
So my read is: dying=negative HP, make a stabilization check each round to stop bleeding out (this refers to unconsciousness, but does not seem to require it).
Disabled=no longer bleeding out, staggered, and strenuous acts will make me start bleeding again--refers to stable which is why I think I still get stabilization checks while conscious and negative.
Stable=not bleeding out; if you don't get your HP above 0 or have someone doing heal checks on you, then make another stabilization check once an hour or bleed 1 HP.
I'd say down for the last round, but can act as normal (ferocity) this round. I'm not all-knowing, so I missed it too. Surprise attack! Don't forget your staggered and other ferocity conditions.
Tialara--I just looked at your carrying capacity when I saw you had 20ft move speed... please, please ask Harbug to carry something for you! =p
She dropped her pack outside to free up carrying capacity. But, by all means share the loads
Actually, she picked it back up before heading in.
I'm mildly confused; it appears from the latest map that Shabbezz and Tialara are both bleeding out, but I only see Shabbezz taking 6 (5/11)...
(Realized my mistake on Tialara--was looking at AC not HP.)
This doesn't mean they're hunky-dory, but they're not on death's door (and unable to act) quite yet unless I've missed something somewhere.
My bad on shabbezz.
Eventually the rogue and I will wake up to save the day. Or at least save what's left to save xD
Nothing more fearsome in combat than two blind meleers limited to no actions each round.... we'll wrap this up no problem :P
Ah, now I see where the confusion lays. I forgot to give a legend for the token states. The bloody drops just mean that someone has taken a significant amount of damage, leaving them below 1/3 of their full hit points. I didn't actually think that Tialara was down , since when I made my post, her header still read 9/9 HP. Her action took her from 0 to -1, and I'll update the state next map refresh.
From now on, if I add a new state, I'll spell it out for you.
I do not envy your role as DM ;)
I don't envy your role as possible fuel for the slave trade :)
Hobgoblins know the lash of the whip all too well.
This is what I get for not preparing healing spells.
Well, I can't find anything that says you can, nor anything that says you can't take AoO's while disabled/staggered. I wrote a short "treatise" on the issue (and thereby necro'd a thread about it from 2011). Summary of what I wrote:
AoO's don't have an action type (that is, they are not "standard"/"free"/"immediate"/"swift" actions, so they are not covered by the rules for disabled/staggered characters. However, in the case of disabled characters (@0 or negative and stabilized), they're clearly strenuous and would make you start bleeding. I'm going to make the attack in the PBP, and ask you to rule (here or there) whether:
1) this prevents me from taking a standard action on my turn this round (I would argue it has no effect and so I can take a standard and keep right on bleeding!) and
2) whether I take an additional point of bleed damage for doing strenuous stuff; I already took one point this round when I healed Shabbezz as a standard action (and failed to stabilize anyway). (I want the answer to be "no damage," but if I were GMing, I'd probably say "you can take the AoO but it's gonna make you bleed more Mr. Ferocious Orc.")
=) Really enjoying this BTW--it's definitely tense, even as a PBP!
F**K YEAH POTENTIAL CRIT!
My ruling would have to be #2. It is essentially a free action that is strenuous. So, by the definition of staggered, you would get to make the attack and then wince as you abdominal wound tears open some mor and your attention turns to trying to hold your intestines back in place.
Ha, it seems we won this war of attrition!
Sure. A win. If that's what you have to tell yourself ;-)
I'll give it until tonight for someone to post something else before you and Angelica come to your senses.
Sure. A win. If that's what you have to tell yourself ;-)
I'll give it until tonight for someone to post something else before you and Angelica come to your senses.
What's with these dice..
Has Harbug already hit himself with a healing hex today?
Yep, that was his first action.
I think Shabbezz is at 9--I hit her with a Healing Hex for 4 here when she was at 5. (She said in the following post: "Well I intended to move from L8 to L5, but since I haven't been moved on the map, I guess we can play it as if I just dropped prone within reach next to Harbug at L8." and then cast Acid Splash from there).
Right you are. Updated my sheet accordingly.
DM Bigrin--What's your call on casting spells with alignment descriptors? (i.e. [evil]/[good]/[chaotic]/[lawful]?) Do any/all of them tend to move your character toward that alignment just by casting the spell, or do you prefer the consequentialist argument (i.e.: it's not about the spell's descriptor, it's about what you do with it)?
Examples:
Casting Infernal Healing [evil] to save a good person/ally's life
vs.
Casting Summon Monster I [good] (by virtue of summoning a celestial template eagle) and then having it destroy an orphanage or something
(Mostly: can I use Infernal Healing on myself/allies without a likely alignment change; this mostly will affect what scrolls I want to buy: Infernal Healing vs. Cure Light Wounds.)
I tend to fall into the Kim Harrison or Jim Butcher camp when it comes to spells with alignments. Their source does indeed rub off on you, tainting you with their influence. Someone who casts certain evil spells over and over would possibly be seen as darker, more evil for others looking at their auras or spell sources, but their internal alignment would not shift. Likewise, a cleric who summons celestial monsters to do evil things might not be seen as evil under a detect alignment, but eventually their internal alignment would shift.
In your case, I would think that the spell's components and effect would definitely ring out as evil, and overuse would definitely taint your soul. Specifically, the spell says that the target detects as evil, which is a soul(aura) effect, and a deep one. Being neutral to start with, you don't have far to slide, even with relatively minor nudges.
That said, I normally allow a Celestial Healing variant that uses angel blood or holy water, has the good descriptor replacing all uses of the word evil. Magnimar is a big enough place that you could find a place that had a version of that spell.
I tend to fall into the Kim Harrison or Jim Butcher camp when it comes to spells with alignments. Their source does indeed rub off on you, tainting you with their influence. Someone who casts certain evil spells over and over would possibly be seen as darker, more evil for others looking at their auras or spell sources, but their internal alignment would not shift. Likewise, a cleric who summons celestial monsters to do evil things might not be seen as evil under a detect alignment, but eventually their internal alignment would shift.
In your case, I would think that the spell's components and effect would definitely ring out as evil, and overuse would definitely taint your soul. Specifically, the spell says that the target detects as evil, which is a soul(aura) effect, and a deep one. Being neutral to start with, you don't have far to slide, even with relatively minor nudges.
That said, I normally allow a Celestial Healing variant that uses angel blood or holy water, has the good descriptor replacing all uses of the word evil. Magnimar is a big enough place that you could find a place that had a version of that spell.
+1 =)
Everyone alright? Activity seems to have slowed to a crawl both here and a few other places online. Figured it might be due to that big storm that's set to hit the east coast of the States.
Well I'm still breathing here.
I am just waiting on everyone to decide what to do once you've rested up.
Can we work under the assumption that I was able to purchase scrolls before we arrived at the Underbridge? (It won't change spells memorized, but will make a difference in the long run).
Whoever was writing down the loot before it is split, please note that Harbug has spent 11g of his share.
Yup. Purchases can be made on the way. That's kind of factored into the time it takes to get there.
Has anyone else been reading the other group's (Group A) adventure thread? It's kind of interesting to see how another group handles the same situations, with the same GM.
I stumbled on it when I saw an (x new) and was ,"oh, hey new ones". Then noticed after that it was the other group and just continued to see where they were. They do A LOT more back and forth little discussion than we do (not that we don't do plenty ourselves), and they didn't get walloped by color spray as bad as we did either. Interestingly enough, they started a week before us, but we caught up to and passed them in the story by the time we got to Zograthy (so it isn't spoiler-y, as they are behind us.)
If it's one thing I have learned by watching them with the same DM, it's that DM Bigrin wasn't kidding when he said it's up to us to act. They miss stuff we didn't because we were a little more proactive on taking actions and using skills.
I hope my reading theirs isn't an issue for you DM? If so, just let me know.
Not an issue at all, as long as it doesn't affect your gameplay. And, if they start to get ahead of you guys (somehow), if you can't read their story without meta-gaming yours, then I'd ask you to stop reading.
This 2-group adventure is really an experiment of mine. And you have hit the main aspect of it - given (mostly) the same information and the same DM, how do different groups react? And am I flexible enough to try and keep the story flowing, even when it goes wildly apart from the scripted adventure?
There are more, but those are the ones that first stuck out to me. I'll say this though. Both groups are well-set to move forward.
BTW you guys might be happy to know I just finished the first map of the next area.
I try not to go into TOO much detail with regards to tactics and approaching situations. After all, my guy is only level 1. But it is fun to hear you relate as to how we're doing compared to the other group. If anything, we are very light on pure front-line power. But once we do get some of the spell combo's rolling .. AND scout properly .. we got a lot of power.
Can't wait to see some of those awesome Menhir powers come into play :)
It's going to be fun trying to give them fun descriptions, that's for sure.
I'm going to play again tonight, so I won't post till 2-3 am or tomorrow morning!
Anybody home?
Still here. just waiting to what happens next.
Ditto. Just waiting to move on as well.
I'll be traveling to Sweden tomorrow. Since I haven't seen my gf in a few months I probably won't post tomorrow, but I'll do my best to pop by!
No worries. Enjoy Sweden. If we need to move on, I just will, you can catch up when you get back. have a good trip.
On a somewhat related note, next weekend I am traveling to Canada on business and won't be back until late Tuesday (Dec 18) night.