Err... A couple of questions.
Why did Mus'ad remove his armor? Due to armor check penalty, I assume?
Also, what is injury damage and strain damage? Lethal and nonlethal respectively?
Hmm... Did I just answer my own questions? Yes? :-)
Armor check yes.
Strain and injury refers to the HP variant rules we are using in this game. :)
Link to the full rules is on the Campaign Info tab. You don't have to read it all if you don't want to, just the "Short Version" of the first page.
Let me know if you have any questions.
So, combat damage is healed automatically after combat unless it is caused by 1) a critical hit, 2) a failed save, or 3) a "final blow"? The other normal hits in combat get healed after taking a little break after the fight? Interesting.
You need a definite "break" between combats to heal the strain but yes, that is the gist of it.
There is a full explanation of the rationale included in the long version. I think it will be good. Frees up caster's spells, cuts down on the need for wands of CLW and the like, and keeps the party moving longer (ie no 15 minute adventuring day).
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"Strain" damage is treated as near-misses, minor bruises, wear and tear to armour & weapons, parries, leaping aside from a blow, etc.
Imagine a duel where one person is clearly losing but hasn't yet been hurt. His morale is wavering, his arm is tiring and he doesn't have much left.
That's when the "final blow" comes in.
Its more akin to how the Star Wars RPG ran HP, where they were treated as an abstraction (and encouraged to be described as the kind of things I listed above) until the final hit.
Ah, even more interesting then! Should provide for some interesting descriptions.
Hi all. I am heading to Costa Rica for a week and will have little access to the internet, except for a few minutes a day, so my posting may be very light or spotty from Saturday to Saturday.
Feel free to post for me as needed.
First of all, she is of average Int and Wis. Since when did average become useless? You might have a case if her scores were 6 or less, or if she was trying something terrifically complex or particularly ingenious... and even that would be a stretch for me to quash a good player's idea.
And Secondly, the game already puts mechanical benefits and penalties related to stats, and frankly I don't see the need to compound that by penalizing players with further restrictions. (Or rewards)
If I'm going to play a 10 Int character the same way as an 18 Int character, what's the point? Might as well just play me with combat stats. Where's the fun in that?
Where's the fun in that?
My concern remains that you aren't going to be having any fun. :(
Meh, dungeon crawls in general are very binary. You make the Perception check, or you don't. You disable the device, or you set it off. You make the Knowledge roll, or you don't. There's not a great deal of interactivity; it's all dice, very mechanical.
By definition, it only gets interesting when the skill monkeys screw up. ;)
I am going to be having surgery tomorrow. If all goes as expected, it will be an outpatient procedure and I'll be home by evening, but I will have been under general anesthetic and thus most likely be in no condition to post until sometime Thursday or Friday.
Mark and/or AK can run Pherenike if she's needed in the meantime. Her sole focus is protecting the Professor, although she'll aid someone else if he instructs her to.
Get better soon!
I am back, sorry for the post with the wrong avatar...wasn't easy to post from a kindle and for some reason it is pulling the wrong avatar first in this campaign.
Going away with my family over the weekend, but should be able to follow the game and post via my phone.
D'oh! I just realized that since I've been using Combat Expertise with Myron for the last couple of combats, mainly since there's no downside because I switched over to the Threatening Defender trait.
But I don't GET Combat Expertise until I grab my second level of Lore Warden. So until then, Myron is AC 18 (unless he manages to snag some better protective gear).
Good point. Of course, at first level, pretty much everyone's a crit from death at any given time. Pherenike at full hp could just barely take one and survive, if it maxed out the damage dice.
Kheled reaches into himself, calling upon his innate spell powers to summon forth a spell of curing. He then walks over cautiously to Myron and touches him, releasing the spell.
Perfect. Now leave him at -1 until Pherenike is unconscious or has moved out of the square. That way we don't have to deal with the question of what happens when two conscious creatures are suddenly sharing the same threatened square and who has to move and whether they provoke for being shunted out. ;P
Yep, just making sure he doesn't bleed out. Kheled is going to buff you again next round if you don't kill it before his turn...
Perfect. Now leave him at -1 until Pherenike is unconscious or has moved out of the square. That way we don't have to deal with the question of what happens when two conscious creatures are suddenly sharing the same threatened square and who has to move and whether they provoke for being shunted out. ;P
I generally allow the two players to share the square until it is their turn, with the option of the one already prone voluntarily choosing to remain helpless if they desire. Standing protectively over a fallen comrade it a good way to bend the rules. :)
Just realized AK's already inspiring courage so that should be 4 damage from the arrow. I don't believe the +1 to hit will help Myron's roll.
EDIT:
Yeah, this is why I hate dungeons with 5-foot-corridors. IC, the smart tactic is to limit the number of things that can attack you at once; OOC, the guy up front and the DM get to play while everyone else sits around bored. You don't know the number of dungeon encounters I've been playing a caster and never even saw the enemy; just heard the sounds of battle around the corner. :P
If Myron 5-foot-steps back on his turn, Pherenike will on hers; that will still hold off the bugs while allowing 2 characters to melee the front one. Relegates everyone else to ranged attacks at an effective -8, though.
Or if the beetles drop Pherenike, the problem is solved, and both Myron and Mus'ad are in business. :)
It hasn't been all that bad so far considering. This is the first 5' wide corridor... and it is unfinished construction. :)
Myron acted in round 1 before Ahkenaten did. Technically so did Pherenike but it won't likely matter. A second hit is likely to drop it regardless.
I ended up using people's stated actions as round 1. We are currently resolving round 2.
Slowly but surely Aerathiel's projectiles of magically conjured acid eat away at the sand creature's body as another one of them connects with a soft hissing sound and a brief acrid smell.
Is the -4 due to ranged attack into melee or due to soft cover, just curious. Or does the -4 ranged attack into melee, assume soft cover? I guess I am asking do you ever take a -8 for ranged touch attack through soft cover against a foe engaged in melee?
-4 to attack for firing into melee; +4 to opponent's AC for soft cover. It's an effective -8, but one applies to the attack roll, the other to AC; iow, the player applies one, and the DM, the other.
I've PMed F Castor. I will bot or delay Aerathiel if he doesn't get a chance to post soon.
Do we have our first lurker? :)
Welcome Alapaca!
Been admiring for a few days, hope you don't mind :)
quick question:
could Myron Drumbarrel have used Acrobatics to move 5' without AoO even while prone? Or are the stairs/sand combo too difficult?
Hope you don't mind me poking my nose in and asking. :)
quick question:
could Myron Drumbarrel have used Acrobatics to move 5' without AoO even while prone? Or are the stairs/sand combo too difficult?
Hope you don't mind me poking my nose in and asking. :)
Don't mind at all.
Myron could indeed have used acrobatics, but the DC would be so high that I figured he'd have a better shot boosting his AC and taking the AoO. He may, however, consider taking the Rogue Crawl rogue talent at a later point.
You can use Acrobatics in this way while prone, but doing so requires a full-round action to move 5 feet, and the DC is increased by 5.
You could go through her and attack; then next round she could delay until your turn. If the beetle drops, you could withdraw and let her have a swing at the next one; if it doesn't, she could drop her falchion and attack through your square with her longspear at a -4.
But, yeah, the combination of a 5-foot-corridor with stairs blocking line of effect for ranged weaponry really makes this a sit-around-and-do-nothing-if-you're-not-the-melee-guy-up-front encounter.
Unless that winged beetle flies over our heads to get to the back lines. How high are the ceilings in here?
Could yeah - but he's hardly shown himself to be adept with the warhammer yet and Pherenike's been rather effective with the ol' falchion. He'll keep to the delaying... in case of flying beetle.
One of my players ask if any of the back characters could have say readied a crossbow or spell like acid blorb then used acrobatics to jump, and release bolt, or throw blorb at apex of jump with a penalty?
I thought this sounds okay but just wanted a second opinion?
Again thank you guys for being so nice to an outsider. :)
One of my players ask if any of the back characters could have say readied a crossbow or spell like acid blorb then used acrobatics to jump, and release bolt, or throw blorb at apex of jump with a penalty?
Technically, I think that would require something like Spring Attack. One can't generally move, attack, and continue a move, even if the continuance of that move is falling back to the ground. Even Spring Attack specifies a melee attack and not a ranged one, and casting spells is still prohibited.
There's also the rule that you can't cast a spell while falling, unless the fall is greater than 500 feet or the spell is an immediate action. Even under those conditions, there's a Concentration check of 20 + spell level.
Thanks :)
Sorry to ask so many questions, but again thank you guys for being so nice to me.
Shot on the Run might work where Spring Attack wouldn't.
Ah, I was thinking there was a ranged version as well, but I didn't bother going looking for it. Still no spellcaster's version, though, afaik.
No, I don't think there is a spellcaster's version of Shot on the Run. Though if the DM were amenable to it, you could always simply spend the action to cast, then move and say the final word/trigger while moving.
Due to being stuck at the hospital until tomorrow my time, I will not be able to post before I get home. Please DMPC Aerathiel so as not to hold up the game.
Despite the name, acid splash is not a splash weapon or a spell that affects an area. It is, instead, a "spell or effect that targets a specific number of creatures" which makes swarms immune to it.
Not anymore they don't. 3e had this wording...
A lit torch swung as an improvised weapon deals 1d3 points of fire damage per hit.
...which Pathfinder removed. Pathfinder removed all the special vulnerabilities of swarms, like allowing flaming or frost weapons to do energy damage even when they can't successfully hit, leaving PCs without the right equipment with no way to defeat them, since every single way to effect them is explicitly stated in the RAW, with no room for creative thought.
This is why I hate the swarm mechanic, at any level. You either have the right equipment/spell to defeat it, or you don't. If you have what you need it becomes an exercise in tedium as whoever has fireball or alchemist's fire gets to act and everyone else just stands around. If you don't have the correct resources, you run away or die. It's not a roleplaying challenge or a tactical challenge; it's a shopping challenge.
It's an appallingly bad mechanic with the special vulnerabilities of 3x removed. Everyone I've seen defending it either has been houseruling it without knowing it (usually with one of the 3e special vulnerabilities that they don't realize no longer exist, but sometimes with creative thinking like "Throw a gallon of water on it, and it'll disperse!") or is a Society jerk who's all "What kind of adventurer doesn't have multiple alchemist's fire on them at all times? Your PC deserves to die, and maybe your next character won't be such a stupid newb."
Rant aside, in this case, a swarm is at least thematically appropriate, in a faux-Egyptian tomb. Loses points for being summoned, though. What's the point of summoning creatures into their natural habitat? It'd be cooler if they just spilled out of the walls when the door was forced open, like Indiana Jones.
Although, being summoned, there should be a duration to expire. Perhaps that's the 'out' for unprepared parties. If they run away long enough, the swarm pops back out of existence.
How does Myron plan to 'hold them off?' They have to make a Fort check to enter his square, but they can just go around him to a less repellent target. And the stairs are ten feet wide, so he can't block them.
I figured if I stand on the stairs and smell bad, they would retreat rather than squeeze around me, since they are unintelligent and unlikely to pursue fleeing enemies if there is something unpleaseant in the way. If that fails, we can fall back all the way to one of the 5 ft. passages. Obviously, my plan also involves them failing a lot of Fort saves. :-)
But they're summoned, not natural. They're required to attack; part of summon swarm reads...
If no living creatures are within its area, the swarm attacks or pursues the nearest creature as best it can.
It would be pretty chintzy if the DM ruled that because a PC's summoned creature was unintelligent, it wouldn't pursue a fleeing enemy but just mill about.
EDIT: I guess there's wiggle room there if Myron is "the nearest creature." By a strict reading of RAW, they'd be required to keep making Fort saves to attempt to attack him rather than going after a further-away creature.
Deleted a post in the game thread. For some reason, I thought Mus'ad was one of the characters in the swarm. Although I guess if he was, he might have made the roll to find the trap. :P
Heh - with only a +6 even that ain't guaranteed when the DCs are set to 20-25 ;)
Yeah... playing this tomb fairly close to as written in the AP. Will look at mixing things up in the future. Swarms are a pain at any level. :P