Happy Birthday then, Tasha. It sounds like you had a great time (apart from driving out of London).
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday Tasha :)
Tasha, if you'd like to make a post, you've heard all the noises and singing.
Thank you, guys! Post will be coming up soon. And that thing with the wrists is a nasty revelation... Ugh...
Couple of points!
First of all, I'm sorry for casually asking for the dagger, but Tasha specialises in small weapons, and the dagger is at the very least useable in water. So are your claws (and bite, but...), but not the mace!
Second, regarding the grate. If one
squeezes, they can pass through a square for a creature of one size category smaller. Not sure if Aster's squeeze was just the place was snug, or the water rat, being small, was already squeezing, which means the shaft is Tiny. If Aster wasn't squeezing, then Tasha would be able to fit, but I'm not so sure about the poor mermaid.
So what I'm doing here is a small homebrew change.
The shaft allows small creatures to pass through without making any checks. If a medium creature wants to get through, they must make an escape artist check. If they fail, I will ask them to remove some items from their person so that they fit.
I didn't think about if a medium creature failed their check, but didn't have anything to get rid of... apart from a few pounds. How embarrassing.
No worries at all about the dagger. It's not like the mace is her favorite mace EVER and you turned it down... it isn't looking its best though.
:)
@Aster, that dagger's been rolling nothing but 4's, so I'm pretty sure it's turning to be my favourite dagger ever, too!
The best idea for Tasha right now is to be grappled, so she does full damage! Mathfinder rules strike again!
Usually when you are underwater and make your swim check you can use piercing weapons normally. Is that a homebrew rule?
Nope it's core. You suffer a -2 to hit, and deal half damage with piercing weapons if you don't have firm footing. In order to have firm footing, you either have to be weighted down with gear/armour, or have a swim speed.
Hey, not sure if my brain is working at the moment, due to excessive being around hundreds of nine year olds all day, since the hallway is flooded can Aster drop the octopus above tentacle lady. Taking advantage of Z instead of just X and Y.
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The dagger can be a "You're getting out of a water logged prison" present Tasha! But only if we get out of here alive :(
Normally people get total cover if they're submerged underwater and are being attacked from land. I've decided to give them partial concealment as a nerf. This will go into effect starting now.
Shouldve clarified, Mermaid inspiration bonus, not attacking the mermaid!
Small mistakes have large consequences!
Don't you dare hurt our mermaid! :D
Enjoy work Fox!
It was good! I just wished that I had an extra half hourish to crank out more posts for dnd. I don't have time during work to do any updates, even on my lunch.
So Aquatic Adventures sez that the the water surface transition counts as total cover, so I don’t think I can spell target stuff unless I am also underwater. Of course if these constructs are immune to magic even glitterdust will do nothing.
Right. Earlier on I mentioned that I'm nerfing that rule and replacing the total cover with partial concealment.
Constructs are immune to a lot of magic-induced effects, but not glitterdust. They're immune to mind stuff and poison stuff.
Ouch. I hardly knew me.
Glitterdust doesn't care about constructs - it's literally creating glitter to throw at things, so it doesn't allow for Spell Resistance. Meaning constructs aren't immune to it.
I rolled my attacks already, but I think the reasonable thing for me to do now is withdraw, and let them come out of the fog of things.
Are the constructs immune to the miss chance of the ink? Squids and other ink-spawning creatures aren't immune to their own ink, unless they have something in their stat block that says otherwise (like lifesense, or tremorsense, or something.)
Their stat block says that they can see through the ink without penalty
Immunity to magic isn't consistent to all constructs. You'll find that property in golems, but not all constructs.
Feel free to redo your action, Tasha.
Those bastards! How dare they not screw themselves up. Also, you mentioned that, and I read it, before promptly forgetting about it.
I think I'm in the first space in the inky blot, so I can't actually retreat now, since that leaves the mermaid exposed. PROTECT! I'll take my rolls from last time, then, and hope they're nasty, but go squish quick.
Alright Tasha. I love how much you guys care about the mermaid.
In the near future (hopefully today, we'll see), I'll update the homebrew rules doc to include a bunch of underwater changes. Creatures without swim speeds will get a bit of a buff overall. Almost all of these changes I've already implemented (such as the cover vs concealment thing).
She's purty. :)
I don't understand... She's a mermaid!! Isn't that enough?! :D
I updated the homebrew document for the things I wrote earlier today. After work, my brain has been terribly fried. I can't think very straight. Let me know what you think of what I put up there.
There's a few things that I haven't written, including:
- The bends (mostly the same as the 3pp rule, but aquatic creatures have ways of ignoring/reducing the penalties)
- Water as a cold environment
- Eating/drinking while underwater (even with water breathing)
- Deep water pressure
I'm just going to leave this here :P
I'm genuinely concerned for your survival.
Yep, Aster is out of spells. Just a wand now, and a broken mace :(
But Great Hit Tasha! Maybe possibly...
I think our chances are very slim - there is just too much stuff stacked against us and our capabilities.
On the up side, we can always make new characters who are better swimmers!
Rexandi, I think in this case we could all be Johnny Weissmuller, and we would still be in a LOT of trouble.
Uh.
A question that should've been asked roughly 4 rounds ago, come to think of it.
GM, is there any way around the sentinels? Run past them, soak the AoO's and move onto dry, or even soggy, land, where the party came from? It's pretty hard to see if there's space under or above them on a 2D map, but if Aster and I squeeze past them, covering the mermaid, we'd be able to retreat and cover her escape, even if we take some damage in the process.
Another question, I don't know if you do this, GM - does either of the sentinels appear 'bloodied' or heavily wounded in some capacity? If not, I suggest we try and escape by squeezing past them. If at least one is, then we can focus our efforts at them and somehow win?
But that's moot if they're completely blocking the exit, though. At least we got flanking, I suppose.
RUNNING! Aster is good with that plan. She can rat out and has a decent DR at that point, can soak at least a couple of attacks for the rest of you. We could go through the shaft Bazzle and Rexi is in.
If you can get into touch range I can actually heal people! I have a bunch of cure moderates + healing hex + I'm specialized in cure moderate so it actually heals at +7 instead of +5!
I'm kinda tired of running to be honest, but guess that might be the best option :P
Well unless Fox lets us know something is close to dying, I say we at least try and get Tasha past the thing and into Rexi's healing hands and the mermaid if we can handle both in one round. Aster can go wererat and maybe we can start falling/pushing back toward the exit.
Or if we decide not run at that point, Ed and Tasha can tag out to get healed from that side, while Aster can serve in flanking tank mode.
I could do more to describe them when they're below half hp, aka bloodied. Normally I don't until they have like 10 or less hp and they're inches from death. This may dishearten you, but neither of the sentinels are bloodied.
What you guys are really struggling with is a high AC with fast healing, and mostly their poison (although Tasha's AC is quite low, making her vulnerable to attacks). The DR/bludgeoning does not help. These guys are meant to be extremely durable and win in a drawn out fight. I would say that your best tactical option is to flee and fight another day. You guys were already pretty battered before coming in here, and what I wanted to do was get you guys to rescue Tasha and then leave. Being prepared and obtaining gear that is specialized for combat underwater would help you immensely.
I don't think I can provide a 3d map, but I'll explore some better options for showing verticality. You can definitely try to swim past them. It would provoke, but you can definitely do it. You would be forced to move through their spaces though. The mermaid is currently benefiting from a Blurred Movement spell, which she could cast on you if you ask. Your escape routes are either: Through the vent where Rexandi and Bazzle are (low climb check + escape artist check to squeeze), or you could swim through the door where Tarnagius came through (I would thus call it a chase scene and would require swim checks). I think both Rexandi and Ederion learned that the sentinels are near useless above the water.
Well I see. If I remember right its not just Underwater combat that is at issue. Crossbows are good underwater if I remember correctly but the DR at question here is Bludgening. So if we came back with harpoons, tridents and other "underwater" weapons we aren't equipped for them.
I have been playing Skulls and Shackles for some time, and that is why I pointed out this was a Deathtrap - facing off against 'normal' enemies underwater (say... Sharks for example) is already VERY hard at mid levels, and this team we are encountering right here is a few notches above sharks.
Miraculously we clobbered down the tentacled one fast, or else this would be a straightforward TPK. Underwater fighting is a whole thing - for melee you need Freedom of Movement or similar effects, else you're in big trouble. And don't let me get started with underwater spellcasting ;)
Add to that (from what we know, there may be more):
- high AC,
- fast healing,
- DR,
- poison,
- ink/darkness,
- 4 attacks per round
- Tasha without her gear or weapons
And really, I don't think we ever stood the slightest chance = Death Trap :P
While freedom of movement is above our weight class, we might be able to get our hands on scrolls or something with free swim, which would go a long way to evening this fight.
We NEEDED to recue Tasha. Otherwise we'd have never had gone down here in the first place, but bygones.
Bazzle and Rexi should back out of the shaft and get out of here. Ed should do the same. Aster can draw an aoo after getting DR, and Tasha and the mermaid can hopefully slip past.
Plan?
For now, I believe Ederion is backed inside a room, in total darkness :D
Sorry for the mistake. I looked up everything else, but missed that part. Aster is going to feel pretty awful if she kills the mermaid.
Is the mermaid going to try and jump up to the grate, or should Ed and Aster try to get past the confusion again?
I metagamed a little to help keep her safe. She knows the next stage of the poison and is waiting to see if it'll happen.
Hmm it is conceivable that she could know that realistically...
eh, bards know bard stuff.
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I am making the best of first impressions.
Hey guys, quick update - I have an emergency trip to make over the weekend, and I'll be driving for most of it.
Sorry about that! I'll be once again fully available come Monday.
Hope all turns out alright, Tasha and drive safely!
Good luck, Tasha. See you Monday, and thanks for the heads up.
All the best Tasha!