Hoo-dang, I completely forgot about that! No auto-climb, you are correct. also: DC40? Yikes! I needed to have taken Spider Step and Cloud Step.
heh, guess that changes things a bit, huh? ^_^
If ever Vega get's the opportunity to purchase magic items in the future, he may need to switch out his Boots of Elvenkind for some Boots of the Cat (minimum damage from falling damage, always lands on feet - which I assume means not going prone)...
*deletes the rough draft of his original post and works on a new one*
On another note: I find the image of someone who is able to jump high enough to always take damage and fall prone every time he lands somewhat hilarious! :D
Vega is almost at that point (it would happen half the time with a casting of Jump... which he has). ^_^
If you were only jumping I wouldn't make you take falling damage. Like jumping as a full round action. But jumping as a move in order to make an aerial attack is a little different. As for the DC 40, yeah, this stuff's slippery. That's the DC in the book too, not some madness I cooked up. I guess Baba Yaga really didn't want people climbing her waterfall.
Ice climbers everywhere are crying a little on the inside.
*shakes fist*
Guess instead of jumping, climbing, or even casting Jump for an epic jump next round, I'll be doing another Evolution Surge for flight. It's safer in the long run, though I think I'll go with wings this time instead of supernatural flight, just for the fun of it. Maybe use the Lesser version as well, to save my higher level spell slots for later...maybe. Though in order to reliably get up and in it's grill by the end of this round (which I really want to do) I think I'll have to run and jump into flying up at it, thanks to that whole half-speed while ascending thing.
I can just see her perched on a her pestle, waving her mortar and saying, "Get offa my waterfall, you damned kids!"
:D
What's your take on using bluff to attempt to hide a verbal or somatic component?
Deceive someone looks like it would apply, it increases a spell from a standard action to a round (or round and a half) but in some circumstances that may be useful.
Then there's sleight of hand for the somatic component, as a standard action increasing the time to cast.
I know the feats silent and still would not change the time to cast the spell, and generally don't allow a check to know a spell was cast.
This is kinda in the middle.
Verbal (V)
A verbal component is a spoken incantation. To provide a verbal component, you must be able to speak in a strong voice. A silence spell or a gag spoils the incantation (and thus the spell). a spellcaster who has been deafened has a 20% chance of spoiling any spell with a verbal component that he tries to cast.
I'd say using sleight of hand to hide somatic components of spells is fine, but you can't use bluff to cover casting a spell that's got a verbal component. It's pretty hard to bluff past chanting an incantation in a loud voice. I'm generally fine with you guys describing your spellcasting as finger snapping or whatever, but in reality you are chanting loudly for a few seconds while making hand gestures most of the time.
Best use of a Hero Point ever. :)
I've had a couple conversations about how people equate strong with loud.
Anyone that is a parent understands how you can strongly whisper a sentence of death and dismemberment to a misbehaving child.
The somatic component is "a measured and precise motion." I had one GM state that meant obvious and easily visible arm waving.
I suggested the GM consider what he had to do to type that note, or to make a phone call. Both require measured and precise motions.
Unless you expect the other person to understand "afh'oihf a[9hj iohea Hoi hf[0haOEFA O HH."
Well since I'm the one interpreting that sentence for this game, my interpretation stands. To me strong voice means if not loudly, then very clearly and audibly.
If you want to be able to cast spells undetected, invest in the feats that are there for that purpose (still spell/silent spell). I'm not interested in quibbling over it.
no offense intended, just making conversation and presenting a viewpoint.
Most often I've seen where the motion and volume is largely ignored.
Like when casters are invisible.
Or in the dungeon buffing the party right outside the door that has a party of monsters on the other side.
It only seems to come up when a player specifically comments that they are trying to add some discretion to their casting.
*casts Hide Plans from DM*
@Poppy: Would you mind casting Haste on the archons? For my next turn, I would like to move them to a place where the dragon's breath weapon isn't going to kill them all in one shot. They can certainly scatter themselves, but they would only get one shot. If I move them, then they get all their shots. With Haste, that poor dragon is going to be faced with a barrage of eighteen shots.
It also seems (assuming some archons are still around by the time Gror gets to act) that casting Litany of Righteousness has gotten quite appealing again...despite the fact that it doesn't apply to his own damage. It's still a Swift action that will double the damage of Ophelia's summons. With that said, perhaps you should have your summons (possibly including Sapphira, assuming she agrees) wait for Gror to cast it first?
(I *think* that if Sapphira attacks before he casts it this round she'll just get the benefit of it on her attacks next round...but Jelani let me know if you read it differently.)
Based on my counting, she can't use her breath weapon now. It's only been two rounds, and she has to wait three. Granted, she could always toss a Fireball or something.
As for Litany of Righteousness, that would only work on one of them. However, it would probably be very useful if that guy gets some good shots. I say go for it. Certainly can't hurt.
no offense intended, just making conversation and presenting a viewpoint.
Most often I've seen where the motion and volume is largely ignored.
Like when casters are invisible.
Or in the dungeon buffing the party right outside the door that has a party of monsters on the other side.
It only seems to come up when a player specifically comments that they are trying to add some discretion to their casting.
I try to always describe invisible casters as chanting, and give perception checks to locate them. Buffing outside a door the party can back up a bit, and doors provide a penalty to anyone trying to hear through them. In my mind it's the same as hearing "the deatails of a conversation" basically. So DC 0 perception+distance and other modifiers.
I know a lot of DMs do run as you describe, and I'm generally flexible on descriptions due to the rule of cool, but I try to be consistent with it.
Based on my counting, she can't use her breath weapon now. It's only been two rounds, and she has to wait three. Granted, she could always toss a Fireball or something.
As for Litany of Righteousness, that would only work on one of them. However, it would probably be very useful if that guy gets some good shots. I say go for it. Certainly can't hurt.
Yeah, she can't actually use it yet. I was just being a weirdo in the gameplay thread. Is Poppy the only one with haste on her summoner spell list or something?
As for Litany of Righteousness, that would only work on one of them. However, it would probably be very useful if that guy gets some good shots. I say go for it. Certainly can't hurt.
I'm pretty sure you're mistaken.
Calling down a litany of anathema, you make an evil more susceptible to the attacks of good creatures. If the target is evil, it takes double damage from attacks made by creatures with a good aura
BTW, I'll be offline for the next 36 hours or so. See you again on Sunday.
Oh, I thought you cast it on a good outsider. My bad.
Rnd 4 questions!
Q1: I assume that reflex save was actually a concentration check to avoid AoO's from casting?
Q2: Is it still shaken, or has it recovered? Obviously I'm hoping Vega beat it's intimidate DC by 10+ so that the condition lasts for three rounds, making this the last round of it being shaken. If it's already back to full confidence though (and I can tell that it is), I may have to hope I hit at least once during my upcoming Flurry of Blows, and use my Dim Mak Stunning Fist as the attack immediately after the one that hits normally.
Note: Those on the inside planning to attack may wish to wait for someone on the outside (the tie-fighters-erm, I mean, Archon army... ^_^) to blast a hole in the ice so we can get that Inspire Courage bonus once again.
It auto succeeds on the concentration check so I didn't roll it, the reflex save was for Dori's grease. It's still shaken.
Cool. I'll try to post once I get home from work tomorrow (later today, technically) ... (hoping for a hole to appear in that Wall of Ice by then for that sweet sweet plus two).
Only need one small breech for sound to get through. ^_^
I'll probably go later than everyone else again. I am going to wait to see what everyone else does to the dragon and/or the wall. If Gror uses Litany of Righteousness, Poppy uses Haste, Vega smashes the ice, and the like would all drastically affect my plans.
well, based on the wall having 63 HP (per section), it probably has a break DC of 36. Vega is not beside it (so no flurry on the wall), and only has a Strength score of 17 (no hope to hit that break DC). He also does not have any of the dimensional dervish feats, so DDing ends my turn.
Sorry, but Vega will not be able to smash that wall this round. Unless something comes up, my plan is still to 7-hit flurry and try and stun the dragon (gawds I hope I can stun it. I'll only miss (on the stun attempt) on a 1, but it also saves on a 4+... 15% chance to Stun it... unless another enervation can hit it first).
...I honestly can't think of how Vega could hope to break a hole in the wall of ice this round. Even with Elemental Fist doing fire damage, because I'd have to move to it first, only 1 attack doing (3d6x1.5)+2d8+8 will only get about half way through (if I roll well).
Is anyone in a good position to punch a hole in the wall?
EDIT: unless, that wall is within a flying 5' step, then I could flurry it and (most likely) break through. My first punch or two would be against the Dragon as I can target it's touch AC for one attack that has to be a stunning attempt, then 5' to the wall and break it with the rest of the flurry... not quite what I had in mind for when Vega finally got within reach of the dragon, but it may be possible... though I'm not going to commit to that just yet. One: I'm at work and not going to post in game for a few hours still. Two: want to see if anyone else can make a hole first. ^_^
Another enervation or something of the sort that can lower it's saves even more prior to Vega going would be all sorts of awesome.
Online briefly. Gror is adjacent to the wall. mechanically, if he can do 63± slashing damage I assume that means we now have a 5'hole. Music will surely get through, and perhaps some lasers as well.
Considering how badly wounded the dragon is, it would probably be pointless to try to break down the wall. It's got one leg off, its shoulder ripped open like an orange that a three year old was eating and got bored, and it's covered in cauterized lazer holes and celestial greatsword slashes. It's totally obvious from a brief visual inspection that a couple (one?) more solid blow will finish it.
(posting while working)
I'd like to follow that up with a point on making better use of our medium length buffs as well. 1 minute per level spells (meaning, 12 minute durations) can easily last a good number of combats, thus I'd like to see us make effective use of that fact. Why waste a handful of spells each combat when you can make that handful last many?
...you're really making me want to post Vega's actions post haste simply for the prospect of getting the killing blow (er, knockout, in Vega's case). All that verbal build up and intimidation needs to lead somewhere, right?
*wonders when work will end, thus giving me time to focus on an action post*
(yes, my end of day is uncertain, but I do know it will not go past midnight at least)
It's 10 AM for me, I'm off to run my RL game for the majority of the day. When I get home later I hope to see someone has defeated her.
I'm gonna go ahead and tell you rather vaguely that she has less than 40 HP left, to leave a little bit of suspense, but also to allow for appropriate carnage descriptions for those that attack the dragon.
As a follow up to the resource management discussion, my opinion is that you guys are burning WAY too many resources in each fight. You could have spanked the giants without using a single buff, and you've defeated the CR 16 dragon with ridiculous homebrew template in 3.x rounds. All I've done to you damage wise is hit a couple summoned creatures, Gror once and some damage to Poppy because she rolled badly on her save.
This is the second combat of what is a module-length dungeon. You can only regain spells once every 24 hours. It's not a competition to see how many short combats you can have, it's an endurance climb to the top of a very evil, very tall, very challenging mountain. I guess I'm speaking from behind the DM screen, but I just don't want a TPK later because it's the tenth fight and you've already rested once and penetrated deep into the Veil (by blowing all your resources making the fights easy) and now you can't rest anymore and are screwed. That probably means quite a few rounds of the non melee people doing nothing other than hiding while Vega the invincible and Gror the living avatar of destruction finish fights without wasting spells.
Ding dong, the dragon's dead.
As for conserving resources, if somebody can smash the wall down, we can have Sapphira scout ahead and then I can send the archons and Lily over into the next room if she sees anything. I still have about two minutes left with these guys.
Jeez! I turn around to do some work, and this happens!? *shock*
(well, not really shocked. ^_^ )
*watches as the dragon falls to the ground before him*
I can give a couple of haste spells. That's my only group buff though. I also have a few battlefield control spells.
Nice work bringing it down. Jelani, thanks for the feedback on overspending our resources. I can see that. In this case in particular, I felt completely underclassed at first and don't think I caught the moment when we'd actually turned the tables on it. After round one I thought that we might have to burn a whole lot more than we did.
I don't want to tell you guys how to play, I just felt a slight warning to not be scared to let things drag on a bit was in order. Like I said above, if only to save your hides later.
Also keep in mind that if worst comes to worst and someone bites it, if you can come up with 10,000 GP for the material component you've got someone who can cast resurrection working for you for the next 23 or so hours (Sapphira).
Dori, rather than relying on dimension door to get your sneak attack in, you might want to start rolling stealth more. You've essentially got hide in plain sight for free due to the fact that you constantly have concealment. It won't work on creatures with true seeing or blindsight but it should on everything else.
Would Raise Dead not work? Not only did Josiah give Poppy enough diamonds for four castings of that spell, but Sapphira has Raise Dead as a spell-like ability (no material components needed) that she can cast three times a day.
Also, Jelani, when I summon a creature with spells like Lily (who casts as a 7th level bard), do I have to go with the bestiary entry's list of spells or can I optimize it like I did with LC? I ask because there are some real stinkers that really don't hold well at this level.
By the way, what should we do with the remaining 15/16 rounds I have for Lily/the Lantern Archons?
Raise dead works, you just get negative levels. Resurrection has no penalties. For summon monster spells, it should be a standard creature of that type, so yeah please stick with the standard spells.
I say hold on to them. When fights last 3-4 rounds, 15 rounds is a fair amount of time. Besides, who knows when the next fight will erupt. I'm still keeping track of all my buffs by the round. Which still works with the out-of-combat 4 rounds of actions at a time as we move around.
12 minutes = 120 rounds.
2 hours = 1200 rounds.
Take away 4 rounds after each post when we're moving like that, or more/less if DM Jelani says otherwise.
That's my plan at least.
Actually, they both result in negative levels. Raise Dead induces two, while Resurrection gives one. I suppose it's a real pick your poison thing.
Alright. Just wanted to check. :)
Yes, let's keep moving. Perhaps the angels scout ahead while the rest of us do a brief survey of the room (for things of strategic import only, other loot can wait til our return trip). I like staying in round by round mode and see what's ahead.
Round by round it is. I will probably have Lily heal up LC for this round as Ophelia recommends that Sapphira scouts ahead.
I can try the stealth route, just takes longer and patience from others, otherwise I only get one crappy half damage hit in instead of 4-5 crappy half damage hits. :)
No. Lilend
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 7th)
3/day—darkness, hallucinatory terrain (DC 18), knock, light
1/day—charm person (DC 15), speak with animals, speak with plants
Spells Known (CL 7th)
3rd (2/day)—charm monster (DC 17), cure serious wounds
2nd (4/day)—hold person (DC 16), invisibility, sound burst (DC 16), suggestion
1st (5/day)—charm person (DC 15), cure light wounds, identify, sleep (DC 15)
0 (at will)—dancing lights, daze (DC 14), detect magic, lullaby (DC 14), mage hand, read magic (DC 16)
Cho also has reincarnate for those of you who are feeling adventurous when you die :>
OK, cool. That loot should easily pay back Sapphira the rest of her fee, eh? And also get us a downpayment toward a 2nd resurrection, should we need one. (ulp!)
In terms of what's next:
* Let's stash the loot as quickly as possible
* The secret passage down seems like the way to go. I like (ophelia's?) idea of sending sapphira (with her true seeing) & the lantern archons 50' ahead scouting, with us following behind.
Are we waiting on Vega's Vote? It sounds like Dori, Cho, and Gror have all weighed in for Down, with Ophelia initially suggesting Up.
No, we're waiting on everyone to give me several rounds of actions like I asked. So far I've got Poppy healing on one side of the wall, LC over there with her. Gror breaking the floor, (and then healing while he follows Sapphira assuming she goes somewhere). Then Ophelia has Lily healing LC when she has no way to reach him. Dori is picking up the loot and ready to roll by round 7. Still need actions from Cho and Vega (and Ophelia for the archons and herself). Unless you're leaving Poppy and LC upstairs for this scouting mission, someone needs to spend a round or two busting down the wall. Or is that the plan, for Sapphira and the Archons to go alone while the party stays up top?
Cho had used Elemental Body IV after the battle. I'll follow that up with a couple more.