Defense of Brookside

Game Master caster4life

Ouch! Kelian's almost certainly going to be down by the end of this round unless something big changes.

Um... is it time for the better part of valor? If we wait too long to run and we can't pull this out there is a very real chance people will permanently die. On the plus side if we don't die I'll have reincarnate available. Now where to get 1000gp worth of oils....

1. He's not the same guy as last time.

2. Yes they had a little time to buff. I did forget to have the other rangers cast their resist fire spell though...
3. Why would he glow? Certainly detect magic would allow you to identify ongoing buffs.

1.: Not THE same, but I guessed similar :) At least he has one heck of an CMD.

1. Different stat block but they are both higher level than you. Not optimized by yours truly, though. Which makes a big difference...

2. I'm not sure how you would know whether or not they use all their buffs upon hearing trouble. You heard some muttering from the orcs while you waited...

3. Do you have detect magic active right now or are you considering detecting magic on these orcs after (and if) you defeat them?

I concur. We need to flee. This is why I really REALLY didn't want to fight them at their stupid barricade -- it lets their archers target us with impunity while it funnels our melee types at them basically one at a time.

Túrion is at death's door, and it may already be too late to save Kelian. He has a 11 hp, and the melee orcs have a +10 to damage, so a single hit with minimum damage will put him at zero hp. They're going to get an opportunity to full attack before he has an opportunity to act again; that's at least six attack rolls, possibly more, not counting archers. Chances of them missing all those attacks: approximately nil.

1.: Aye, figured that much.
2.: Not sure regarding all buffs, more considering checking for minute/level buffs. If they use those, it may pay off to wait them in a defensive position next time. Either they come for us before they run out, or we gain an advantage by buffing up with delay, then coming after them.
3.: Not now. We did run a detect magic scan with the previous orc group. I am just specifically mentioning it now, that in case we would win, we'd scan for buffs as soon as reasonable.

It's such a shame too because the orcs in general must be hurting after the blast.

I think our best bet for saving Kelian will be if Kazador can get to him and then dimension door back, I can try to cover our retreat, and Turion's pits should be able to help too. We actually have a lot to use retreating, so we might be ok immediately, but long term this is going to have some bad consequences I think.

Here's a list of stuff I've go and can thing of for a retreat.

I've got:
Obscuring Mist
Spike Growth
Nauseating Trail

I believe Turion has:
Spiked Pit
Grease

Ironically if they chase after us because we've been "routed" the may find we're not so defenseless after all.

Kazador already acted this round. Only Brolin is left before they go. And Kelian is in prime melee range for them.
I did what I can to try and get him to Kazador for next round.

Sorry I moved out of your range, Mel, but I think right now I would be a liability rather than a help, as my spells need open area to target them - better if you can act freely and not worry about me :)

Makes sense Turion, I was expecting Kazador would have to grab Kelian's unconscious body the way he did to save me on the ship. I think you're choices were great.

If he is alive I’ll teleport him out next round.

It’s too bad though...with the explosion we might have had a chance.

Well, heck, Túrion. I could've hasted myself and gotten a second shot in if I'd known you were just going to walk away. :-Þ

Thanks for sending Nelly after Kelian, though.

I figured even with the low wall, chances are I'll get arrowed again.
As said, apologies for semi-wasting your turn, but I assumed having one more person to drag would only make things harder on everybody :)

Yes, I've put Kelian in quite a pickle, haven't I?

But I don't really see what else he could have done. He's a melee guy. His options were A) get into melee, B) stand still and get shot, or C) retreat and abandon his allies to the orcs' tender mercies. Getting into melee felt like the only thing that suited the character.

I think the problem was that we failed the first plan, then went in anyway. The keg was a great opener, but they still knew to expect something and were on edge.
Unlike the first orcs, who stormed towards us trying to close the distance, those stoically held their position, readying actions to attack whoever got close. In other words: The first set acted by instinct, those acted disciplined.

On the good news, Nelly does not have "Greater Drag" so Kelian will not provoke :)
And if he does go down, his effective CMD should be quite low...here's hoping the Orcs hold their line, rather than storm forward. If we can sound a temporary retreat to the watchtower, with everybody alive, that counts as a draw :)

@GM: The drag should be 4 higher, for the melee attack bonus versus prone that is applicable to CMB - so 32.

Um... is it time for the better part of valor? If we wait too long to run and we can't pull this out there is a very real chance people will permanently die. On the plus side if we don't die I'll have reincarnate available. Now where to get 1000gp worth of oils....

Whether or not we decide to cut and run, I think Muse should close to melee range. I'll channel the guardian for AC, fight defensively, and give us time to either get everyone out (if that's what we're doing) or swap out our frontline for fresh hitpoint pools, heal the old ones, and swap back in, if that's what we're doing.

Just to correct the previous statement: Wrong, of course, the -4 is an AC penalty for being prone, not a +4 on the attack roll of the attacker. So please disregard that statement.

So what should I do? Can’t reach combat. Shall I teleport us out after we attack? If so the squishy backline should retreat first

You could reach, diagonally, or I could recall Nelly(even after a bite).
But I guess let the others decide. While I was pretty helpful in the previous fight, the rubble in this one prohibits pits, I am out of second-level spells -
I can swap out Dispel for Haste, for next round(I will do, anyway...even if we retreat, a burst of speed is helpful), but I'm afraid I can contribute little right now.

I'm not really sure. I can cover the area in fog beginning the retreat, but it seems a waste given the amount of damage we've already done. Kelian's still on his feet and can heal himself a bit at least.

My thought is this (and people are free to object) I'll keep my turn till the end of this round. Everyone attacks as best they can and we see if we can down enough orcs to make this a fairish fight. If we do well we keep attacking, if not I drop the fog and we retreat the next round. The archers shouldn't be able to do much if they can't see, Kazador can grab any fallen commrads and teleport them out if the melee orcs pound us too hard.

Huh. They rolled terribly for once. How nice!

Let's see; status check.

Hit points:

Mel is wounded but not terribly at 35/52 (67% remaining).
Kazador - is untouched.
Brolin - is untouched.
Fyrtor - has a couple of scratches at 52/54 (96%).
Túrion - is severely wounded at 7/37 (19% remaining).
Kelian is severely wounded at 11/55 (20% remaining).
Algric - is untouched.
Nelly - is untouched.

Túrion is out of the line of fire. As long as he can stay that way he's probably okay, but poking his head out is courting death.

Kelian was lucky to survive this turn and cannot stay where he is.

I'm kinda tempted to push our luck. Kelian has enough motion to get into the north tunnel (next to Fyrtor) and could do so as a withdraw action. I believe he'd avoid any AoOs doing that -- the withdraw would negate AoOs incurred by leaving his current square, and he has a clear path that doesn't pass through any other threatened squares. So he could swift action Lay on Hands and get clear for a round, allowing Kazador to move up and attack. Kazador has very good AC, a pile of hit points, and is untouched.

So our two most seriously wounded are either clear or can get so without incurring further harm.

The archers are our biggest problem, especially the lieutenant, who is apparently making 3 attacks per turn without benefit of Haste. I really wish we had Fog Cloud instead of Obscuring Mist. Being able to drop that on their heads would make our lives a ton easier. I'd also like to hit them with a maximized empowered CL 10 fireball while we're at it.

GM! I have rules questions about the Lion's Shield that Kelian's using. It says:

This +2 heavy steel shield is fashioned to appear to be a roaring lion’s head. Three times per day as a free action, the lion’s head can be commanded to attack (independently of the shield wearer), biting with the wielder’s base attack bonus (including multiple attacks, if the wielder has them) and dealing 2d6 points of damage. This attack is in addition to any actions performed by the wielder.

My questions are as follows:

1. Do we know the shield has this ability, and how to activate it? Túrion identified it after the last fight.

2. When calculating the shield's attack bonus, it uses Kelian's BAB. Does it add anything else? His STR bonus? Its enhancement bonus? Or is it just straight BAB with no other bonuses?

3. Is the shield's attack, technically, a bite attack? Would it suffer the -5 attack penalty for making an attack with a natural weapon while Kelian is wielding a manufactured weapon? I'm inclined to think not, as that would nerf the hell out of this item, but thought I should check.

Assuming the answers are Yes to 1, "straight BAB" to 2, and "No" to 3, then Kelian could:

1. Activate the shield as a free action, allowing it to make 2 attacks (at +6 and +1) against the orc right in front of him, who is apparently at death's door.

2. Swift action lay on hands on himself.

3. Withdraw to the north corridor as a full round action.

If the orc standing in front of him goes down, then that would make it possible for Kazador to walk 20 feet forward and attack the archer lieutenant, standing in the space currently occupied by the orc directly in front of Kelian. It would be dangerous for Kazador, as he would be flanked in at least one direction (north/south), and probably diagonally shortly after that.

However, it would get him into melee with three archers, who would then be forced to either provoke AoOs by firing in melee range of Kazador (who I believe has Combat Reflexes), or else stop shooting their bows and switch to melee weapons. The lieutenant might theoretically have Point-Blank Master, allowing him to fire in melee without AoOs, but I'm willing to bet the other archers don't. And unless they have Quick Draw, drawing a melee weapon would eat a move action in their next round, reducing them to a single attack that round.

Meanwhile the rest of us focus fire on the melee orcs -- specifically the one in front of Brolin and the one in front of Nelly. If we can take those down, then we'll have broken the flanks on Kazador.

That assumes that the front orc goes down from the shield's attacks. If he doesn't, well, Kazador moves up and we all start working on taking out the melee types so we can get to the archers.

Thoughts? And rules answers from the GM, hopefully.

Also, GM, I know we've been spending ages on tactical discussion in the Discussion thread, which slows actual gameplay down significantly. However, I am unrepentant. You've brought this on yourself. If you're going to throw multiple CR 13 fights at us in a single day at this level, then there is very little room for tactical error. Consequently we will discuss and worry over every tiny detail, and you'll just have to put up with it.

No combat reflexes but I like the plan! Kazador is unharmed and would like to wade into melee

Keep in mind the ramp is difficult terrain, if Kazador moves up to the lieutenant I don't think he'll have a standard action left to attack.

This is far from an excessive discussion of tactics, imo. Also, Kazador Gravr is an exceptionally high CR quest compared to others.

Answers are 1. Yes 2. Str+Bab+enhancement I believe. The statblock it was on gives it a very good to hit bonus. 3. No penalty there. It's like a separate minion.

Okay then, it sounds like:

- The shield is better than I thought

- The difficult terrain of the ramp sounds like it would force Kazador to double-move to get into position, so he wouldn't get to attack immediately.

- Kazador likes the plan

- Fyrtor would rather not give up the damage we've accomplished so far, so that sounds like a yes

If possible I'd like to hear from Brolin and Túrion before we definitely proceed, but if one or both of those think we should do it, then I'll post Kelian and Mel's actions to proceed.

It sounds like a plan to me! Muse does has combat reflexes (he plans to go for bodyguard at level nine, so he has something useful to do when not channeling a damage-oriented spirit), a half-decent score in acrobatics, and enough AC he wasn’t hit on a 19; if we’re committing to this fight perhaps he should tumble past the orcs and get all up in those archers’ grills? He could even make disarm attempts with his attacks of opportunity, since his AC is so high right now.

All right, I guess it's happening then. Here we go!

Folks, I forgot one of my class features. (wasn't the first time, won't be the last.) The one in question is Seance Aura, the text of which reads:

At 2nd level, a spirit dancer’s weaving forms create an aura that grants his current seance boon to all allies within 30 feet. When he grants a seance boon that requires a decision, each ally makes the appropriate decision the first time that ally receives that spirit’s aura each day. That decision remains in effect if the ally is affected by that spirit’s aura again later that day.

My seance boon is currently +3 AC. There's two ways that I can see that ability being read. The first is, that whenever an ally of mine is within 30 feet of me they get the boon. The second, is that all allies within 30 feet of me when I began the seance get the boon. If we're going by the second reading, we were all grouped up when I entered spirit dance. If we're going by the first reading, remember that bonus whenever you're in range.

Ah, forgotten class features. I played a warpriest of Milani once who got swallowed whole by a dire crocodile and died a horrible death because I forgot I could get Freedom of Movement as a swift action.

Also, +3 AC? For everyone? Yes please! That could really save our necks here.

Does that have a type? Or is it an untyped bonus that stacks with everything?

Untyped, I believe.

I just read your gameplay post. I mean, 10/10 for style, but wow, I figure that's going to take at least 4 Acrobatics checks, one for each occupied enemy square at a DC of 5+CMD for each opponent. Possibly harder, or costing more motion, because portions of it are difficult terrain.

And if you fail even one of them you stop moving. Potentially in the middle of the pack. Ballsy.

+3 AC is sweet.

Also, I'm totally up for keeping going. I just figured if I can't effectively contribute, there's no point staying in the line of fire :)

Auras generally grant to those who are in the aura while in the aura. So allies within 30 ft get +3 ac.

Yes the greataxe guys have +11 so a 19 was one short... The leader however...

Very nice posts guys :) GM, can we get an status update before Fyrtor takes his turn?

Looks like things are going well. Fyrtor will take his last turn and this turn. I think for now we keep pressing in the words of Rook :)

Ah yes. My bad Fyrtor. Missed you there. Go ahead and go twice.

GM you said the ramp was now 10ft wide, which side North or south of Kazador is there space for Fyrtor?

If we manage to level before our next sortie, the next chokepoint is so getting swamped with tentacles...

North of Kazador.

Dang, well I'm to the south for now.

Sorry Kazador, I'd just posted my bit when I saw Algric's call to fall back. I still have 31 hp so hopefully (fingers crossed) I won't be going down this turn. I'll fall back then. I can still attempt to parry, but if I do I won't be able to reposte. Still, maybe it's worth it in this case. I'll wait and see how everyone else's attacks go, if it looks bad I'll parry.

Hey, Fyrtor, did you mean to roll d12s for your to-hits?

I mean, the d20 and the d12 are so easy to confuse ... oh wait. :-Þ

All good. You should survive this round and then Algric can take your place with the +2 Viscious Axe. Unless you come out unscathed in which case he will keep on shooting.

Oh fudge. I'll reroll those in gameplay. Up to GM if we will substitute them or not.

Man, Kelian rolls way better than Mel.

Also, that Lion Shield is terrifying. I mean, it basically doubles the number of attacks you can make in a round. They don't get all the same bonuses, and you can only do it 3 times a day; but it doubles the number of attacks you can make. That is just stupid good.

That does look pretty good, so far. Lets hope the reinforcements take a little longer to arrive. By the way, if possible, Nelly very much wants to flank - since her natural attack does not provoke on the free trip, she gets full mileage out of "dirty fighting".(not that she's fighting particulary dirty, but it's a necessity for the combat maneuver feats...and she DOES instinctively try to bite at necks from behind, so...)

Busy day. Probably won't be able to update our big set piece battle until later today (eastern US time).

Ah, well, I guess we really should have run...

Yup.

Edit: Hey Fyrtor, you forgot that stabilization checks take a penalty equal to your current negative hit points. Which would put your saves at -10 and mean you only stabilize on a nat 20.

GM, looking at the orc lieutenant's rolls and I believe only 2 should have hit (though I could be wrong) Fyrtor's AC is currently 30 due to all the bonuses flying around.

So guys, um plan? IF I'm not dead I can bring Mel back via reincarnate soon we'll just have to keep a part of her body and get ahold of the necessary oils...