DM_Delmoth: FWIW, Mara has taken 18 damage from 3 hits: 2 zombie arrows and a Doppeldrek claw.
DM_Delmoth: FWIW, Mara has taken 18 damage from 3 hits: 2 zombie arrows and a Doppeldrek claw.
Thanks for correcting me. I'm mostly tracking damage on the map for my information. That way I can surreptitiously avoid killing PCs.
Update coming in 5 hours or so about to start driving again.
Mara has a healing hex for Rowan, but he'll need to come upstairs to her.
I imagine that the cover of the railing would mean that Theo wouldn't provoke an AoO by standing up or casting a spell.
Correct
So... there is a ritual that Dervak would really like to have successfully cast on him.
It's got a high Heal DC; Mara would be best at that.
It's got a high Planes DC; Theophilus would be best at that.
It might be a few levels until we have a good enough chance to risk it. There are various spells, items, and feats that can help further. The basic casting-stat booster items would work. Heroism at CL6 or higher would work (Mara gets that spell at 6th).
I would request that Mara and Theophilus look towards getting those skills high enough to someday help Dervak.At level 6, they might have 6 ranks +3 class skill +5 stat (with a stat-boosting item) = +14. Not great vs DC 28. But then they would have +2 from caster level, +1 to +3 from secondary 'casters' (PCs and NPCs), +2 from Heroism, that's +19 to +21. Maybe there's a Ley Line around? Tears to Wine can give a +2 to the check.
I would like to get it done sooner rather than later, but I don't want to fail. Probably should be patient.
It's also possible this is not the only occult ritual we will encounter in this AP.
I'm thinking that 7th lvl might be the ideal time to cast this. Both Mara and Theo get access to Threefold Aspect at that level; the crone aspect grants a +4 enhancement bonus to both intelligence and wisdom (won't stack with headbands).
When we level up to 6th, I'll need to know if Theo is going to maximize his Knowledge Planes ranks for the ritual. Mara could do those skill checks herself, but it would require pouring all her skill points into Heal and Knowledge Planes over two levels, and taking the Knowledge of the Ages revelation (not my first choice, but doable).
When I initially rolled those dice I forgot to include misfortune, if I didn't need to roll those dice the crit would have fallen on Ellery very likely killing the him.
As far as Know planes goes, it will be useful down the line too for other things. So maxing it out will not be a waste.
Do we know if Ellery is capable of crying out if something bad happens to him? I don't think any one of us can see him right now (looks like it's a spiral staircase).
That's my job...lol.
Apologies; on my phone. How many opponents on staircase; and would Theo have line of effect to all of them (45' range)?
To expand on this, Ellery is on the bottom stair of a spiral staircase, fighting an enemy on the 1st floor. So you'd have to go almost all the way down the staircase to get line of effect.
For reference, there is one zombie archer that Theo hasn't targeted with his Misfortune hex yet.
Rowan want to swap positions so I can heal up some and you can get shocked for a bit?
Oh no, I just posted and didn’t see this!
Also, I missed horribly and should’ve grappled the zombie instead.
Correction, I used fortune, re-rolled, and critter with a handaxe.
Thanks!
This post made me think Theo was using the wand of CLW that we bought. I'm pretty sure we paid for it.
We definitely got a CLW wand. See the discussion around here.
If we do have one, Theo will gladly make use of it...lol.
I even helpfully put it on Theo sheet on the treasure tracking. Theo can you take a look in the treasure tracking and make sure you sync with whats on your page? Also have a glance at the party's sheet in case you wanted to claim anything? Link should be above my avatar pic.
I don't want spoil anything but next book will be pretty intensive inventory management so if there is anything I can do to help smooth some of these wrinkles let me know.
Sorry missed the question about using the wand and spellcraft. This would normally be a part of identifying the item. A pet peeve of mine is when someone misses a spellcraft and then I have to track the item. Usually I say if you have max spellcraft ranks and detect magic all magic items will automatically be identified, unless they're cursed or its important that the party not identify an item.
This party has skill point issues however and no one has max spellcraft. I started out holding back identification but it annoyed me so you'll always id items, unless their cursed or its plot important for it to be difficult. If an item is cursed you'll still have a chance to find out however.
This does cheapen the effectiveness of spellcraft, but if no one invests in it you'll be disadvantaged severely in other ways which I won't get into, because spoilers.
Also curious if anyone else but Mara saw through my ruse.
Where are we at with spell durations? Mara cast Bless just before she teleported Dervak onto the walls, and Fly just before that; they may have run out (5 minute duration each).
Edit: Barkskin and Magic Circle against Evil are also running (50 min durations).
I count 18 rounds of in combat actions so make it an even 20 since bless was cast, so two minutes...
Just to clarify: despite the fluff description about making a shortcut for Rowan to step through, Mara is teleporting him using her standard action; he has his full set of actions to use on his turn.
If the attack misses by 5 or less, one of your figments is destroyed by the near miss.
So making lots of weak attacks is good for taking out mirror images.
OOC, it seemed something was up because you called an end to combat when the caster downstairs was still up and Ellery wasn't doing well.
IC, Dervak had no idea.
Also, in the one round that healing took place, I think Dervak would have stepped back into the tower, expecting that he would be next - although that healing didn't happen yet (Mara used the wand on herself first).
So he would have been in position to take an AOO on the SLA, unless it was used defensively. Because he has Uncanny Dodge, he is never flat-footed and can make AOOs even before he acts in a combat.
Will wait for you to rule on this before I act.
FWIW, Mara was standing in the doorway next to Dervak. She has just stepped back to give him room to move into combat.
Okay then, Dervak was not inside the tower and didn't get an AOO. Will post my turn in a bit.
Thank you for the clarification, but I was still planning to use stunning fist. Hopefully it was enough to hit. Otherwise, I will choose between a ki flurry and a grapple next round.
Because Theo can make a hair attack, plus a normal Standard Action each round, it's more important to keep him conscious than Mara.
Swapping weapons allows her to threaten while holding the wand.
I disagree with your assessment that strangling hair lasts past concentration. The duration is concentration, up to 1 rd/level, not concentration + 1 rd/level. So it has two conditions where the spell ends either Theo stops concentrating on it or 5 rounds pass.
Looks like I misread the duration - my apologies.
No worries! I didn't see the range on the spell earlier.
If he has to spend a Standard to concentrate, then it is not written correctly.
Thinking duration line is incorrect; it is a 3rd level spell.
Ruling?
My ruling is that the duration line is as intended. And its my opinion that the spell would be too powerful otherwise.
The line: "Once you choose a target, your hair continues to attack that target independently of your own actions," is misleading but is not contradictory per say. You're not spending an action to grapple you're just concentrating on a spell and doing whatever with your move and swift actions. It might be possible for Theo to get the effect of Strangling Hair and Frostbite or other touch spells at the same time, but I don't know how. I would have covered that properly in my prior ruling if I had a sufficient knowledge of how the spell worked. Sorry, my bad.
I'm also of the opinion that the spell would still trigger the round that you stop concentrating on it. I think you can choose the order that things trigger, so you trigger the hair, then do something else with your actions. The target would cease being grappled once Theo fails to spend the requisite action to concentrate on the spell. I haven't researched that too much and could be wrong.
That said I'm willing to house rule the spell:
Strangling Hair
School transmutation; Level sorcerer/wizard 3, witch 3
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range personal
Target you
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw none
Your hair animates and extends to grapple an opponent. Once per round as a swift action you may make a grapple combat maneuver against one opponent. You use your caster level as his base attack bonus plus a bonus equal to your intelligence bonus (if witch or wizard) or charisma bonus (if a sorcerer). This grapple check does not provoke attacks of opportunity. The CMD of your hair, for the purposes of escaping the grapple is equal to 10 + its CMB. You do not need your hands free to conduct this grapple. It otherwise works like a normal grapple maneuver.
Thoughts: This allows the caster to grapple like a fighter for a short period of time but with a better action economy. He still needs to get up close and personal, but is free to do other things with his actions.
You can keep the spell as written or choose my house rule. In either case Theo can change choose to learn a different spell, memorize a different spell, and redo his last two actions.
Please continue combat. Theo will just Hex him.
Honestly, it's a bummer that Theophilus had so many elements of his build tailored to this. Rime Frostbite with Enforcer is still pretty great; in his original incarnation as a Cartomancer, the cards would have given him the ability to deliver that effect at range. So maybe a Lesser Rod of Reach Spell now?
But I totally understand that the way it's written it does say Concentration, which contradicts the "acts independently" part of the description, thought it would be very powerful otherwise. I think Delmoth's alternative version is fair.
And I think it's awesome that Theophilus is so willing to roll with the GM rulings. Having been on both sides of the screen, it's not easy to make these judgement calls, especially in PbP when you don't really know the other players. Kudos to you both.
Perhaps one could cast Frostbite first and hold the charge? Still, 2 rounds is quite a bit of set-up time.
The problem is that touch spells evaporate if you cast another spell, that's why when we were talking about it before I specified he'd have to cast Strangling Hair first then Frostbite.
Its always been my policy that you can re-build characters if you find you're unsatisfied with the way they're built.
The other thing I would consider doing is making the spell work like Theo wants, that is removing the concentration requirement if it was a 4th level spell. Its competing with Black Tentacles at that point so I'd say the duration would be bumped up to 1 min/level.
Thanks to everyone who gave me your thoughts on the time you worked for Count Lowls so far, still waiting on one or two you yet but its not an immediate concern. I may have some follow up questions later this week. Normally I'd do that sort of thing at work when I have some down time but since its the beginning of the month work's silly busy.
I think the Prehensile Hair hex might be Theo's best option for a hair attack. It has it's limitations, requiring a Standard Action to activate (apparently without an accompanying attack that turn). It's also debated whether you could get 1.5 Int modifier to damage if you're not wielding another weapon.
Prehensile Hair is IMHO the least poorly written hair option, for what that's worth.
I had a whitehair witch/ hexcrafter magus idea/build, but it is a bit OP...lol.
That's why I went this route.
I will just look for another offensive attack option.
Did some maint on treasure sheet to reflect charges used on wands and took off some used potions
I'll note that I moved the new wand of CLW to Mara's list, and added the +1 light mace, which was missing.
Players giving me good ideas again about what I should have done.
Do we keep attacking? Do we run? Break through the wall?
I’m not sure what to do, and I’m sitting on my last ki point, unless I stop to drink.
We could try to remove some of the masonry to gain access to whatever space beyond. I don't know how much time that would take; it might be better to leave it for now. Of course, the ghost will probably return, since he hasn't been properly laid to rest.
Opinions?
With Rowan's religion check he knows that it hasn't been laid to rest and will return in a few days.
I propose clearing the rest of the fort first, and then coming back afterwards.