KC's Age of Worms

Game Master Kobold Catgirl

Yep... it's all fun and games until you look up and see the sword of Damocles hanging over your head in the shape of a mortarboard.

I ran a 4th edition version of ToH a couple years back. I especially liked the trap that teleports all your gear away.

Heh, I dealt with something similar in a Swords and Wizardry game, but we managed to get the stuff back by slingshotting our cleric through a portal so he could grab a golem-controlling crown right before dying.

The party discovered that only carred/worn items were teleported away. Items tossed through the trapped area were not teleported away but landed on the other side safely. As a result, rather than disarm the trap (they had a good rogue), they decided it was best for the party to strip naked and walk through the trapped corridor. They were that kind of party.

Whew. That post took a while to write, for some reason.

For the record, Spiny can see the question mark creatures, but he's not telling.

So, is the terrain we're in right now still considered difficult terrain & cramped?

Because that will limit what I can do for this turn, as I don't plan to stop in a square that a teammate occupies and thus giving us both the squeezed condition.

To split hairs: Cramped, no. Difficult terrain, yes.

EDIT: However, I will consider movement downstairs to "cancel out" the difficult terrain.

My shield spell lasts for 4 minutes, and I cast it before we entered the caves. How many minutes would you say have passed since then, KC?

I'm just trying to determine whether I need to renew the casting or not.

EDIT: Alright on the movement, then!

I've counted it at around 13 rounds, given that the howler chamber seemed to be pretty soon after the door.

Gark's got about the right of it.

So I have about 27 rounds left on my shield. Alright then! Thanks! :)

EDIT: Incidentally, I think I'll wait until the front-liners have acted before I post my actions.

I've learned my lesson about procrastination.

Do it often, because it always turns out well in the end? =)

It'll be a good idea for one of the front-liners to give Farrukh flanking vs. the eyeless one so he can get his Sneak Attack damage.

That's going to be tough with the difficult terrain.

Cuetzpalli is usually on around this time.

Not sure where Ebon is.

Not sure where Eben is either.

He said he is usually pretty nocturnal so hopefully he will be on soon! It's still only 11 pm there or something.

Well....I'm going to update three of my games. Then I'm logging on to GW2 until work probably. That's about 3.5 hours from now.

Also, RE:Saving Throws, please roll for me. It literally makes no difference who does it. Randomness and all.

Also, since I'm so used to most DMs rolling for me in PBP I forget to do it 90% of the time until three posts later.

Speaking of which, I forgot Spiny's save.

1d20 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10

Want to spend an AP on that, or brave the Howler's Curse?

(It won't affect anything for a while, either way.)

Ebon, if it wasn't for your much appreciated Heroism. I'd be shaking my head at you right now.

Curse I guess. Since it would cost me 2 AP, and presumable the curse can be removed at some point.

If I got Spiny awakened at some point, could I trade in a level or two of his Animal Companion advancement for a level of Barbarian, so he would have a 40' speed?

Inb4 homicidal rage and Spiny kills one of us.

Hope it's Cuetz. =)

Wouldn't taking Fleet twice be a lot easier.

Also, I thought awakened animals are explicitly never allowed to be animal companions.

Well, at least Tanith will have something to wrestle. :)

True.

Good thing you didn't spend the AP . . .

I'll have to pick this up in the morning.

Aw, Mr. Shiny gets his own avatar! If he weren't just a nonsentient cluster of lights, he'd be pleased as punch.

I wonder... if I were to take a 5-foot step forward, would I be able to catch the wolf-hyena things in a color spray without hitting Tanith or anyone else?

Nope. You'd hit Farrukh, I believe.

So, I am pretty stuck on what feat to take next level. Does anyone have a preference between these?

Combat Expertise: Gets me going towards Greater Feint which, since I'm maxing out Bluff anyways, could be an effective debuff on the few enemies that actually have a decent touch AC. And for the short term the dodge bonus option is nice. Cons are that we have a lot of front-liners already and only one person with sneak attack.
Selective Channelling: Improves my ranged healing capabilities and good if I ever take Liberating Channel, but not very useful at all in your average combat.
Improved Channel: One of very few things that will improve that superlow save DC. Ability Focus (Channel) is also an option I think.
Extra Channel: Only good if I keep putting feats into channel.
Alignment Channel (evil, obviously): Outsiders don't get turn resistance and tend to have lower Will saves; KC has also indicated to me that Turn Undead could work on them. The downside is that we are not likely to face a ton of outsiders.
Item Creation feats: Scribe Scroll could be nice? Craft Magic Arms and Armor and Craft Wondrous Item would also be good. My concern is that my main "trick" (channeling) is going to be fairly irrelevant fairly soon, and I should probably start working on replacing it.

Of the feats you've picked, I rather like Alignment Channel or the item crafting feats.

All of those are good though I’d move combat expertise further down the list for the reasons you mentioned.

Scribe scroll would be especially nice at this level.

I'll take Scribe Scroll at 5th and Alignment Channel at 7th, then.

So, I am pretty stuck on what feat to take next level. Does anyone have a preference between these?

Combat Expertise: Gets me going towards Greater Feint which, since I'm maxing out Bluff anyways, could be an effective debuff on the few enemies that actually have a decent touch AC. And for the short term the dodge bonus option is nice. Cons are that we have a lot of front-liners already and only one person with sneak attack.

It's not really an effective debuff, at least for the party, since they only lose their Dex to AC against YOU.

So my having Sneak Attack shouldn't factor into your considerations.

Selective Channelling: Improves my ranged healing capabilities and good if I ever take Liberating Channel, but not very useful at all in your average combat.

Disagree. VERY disagree.

It'll come up in every combat you need to Channel, since it's a rare thing we actually kill enemies rather than knocking them unconscious from HP damage.

And against hard to hit enemies who are still up, the healing from Channel is likely to help THEM more than us.

And to be honest, Alignment Channel can come in handy later, whereas item creation feats wouldn't be of practical use in the dungeon now.

Selective Channeling would help us a great deal later, letting us heal more effectively without letting the baddies get in on it.

It's not really an effective debuff, at least for the party, since they only lose their Dex to AC against YOU.

So my having Sneak Attack shouldn't factor into your considerations.

Whenever you use feint to cause an opponent to lose his Dexterity bonus, he loses that bonus until the beginning of your next turn, in addition to losing his Dexterity bonus against your next attack.

Disagree. VERY disagree.

It'll come up in every combat you need to Channel, since it's a rare thing we actually kill enemies rather than knocking them unconscious from HP damage.
And against hard to hit enemies who are still up, the healing from Channel is likely to help THEM more than us.

Good points. I've probably just seen too many "channel is useless at high levels" posts.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Greater Feint is meant to help your whole party, not just you on AoOs.

Eh. That's a very reasonable buff to it, but I don't think that's what it's MEANT to do.

Near as I can tell it works just fine (even if it is pretty s**~ty) as written. They lose Dex to AC against your one attack, plus any AoOs or Immediate actions you might make.

But if you buff it to be FF vs the whole party I CERTAINLY won't complain. =)

I would also say Selective Channeling, it seems like it's already happened a few times where Astraden's channeled as an emergency measure to heal someone, and brought back an enemy or two in the process.

I don't really understand the channeling is useless at high levels argument either. It's a way to heal the whole party at once, from range. Even if the amount isn't stellar, it's still free healing. Then you don't have to waste spell slots on it.

Well, it's pretty useless but an extra 15 HP is always nice.

At higher levels healing is less about keeping people topped off and more about keeping them in the fight.

5d6 may not seem like much when everyone is taking 50 damage a turn but sometimes it’s enough to keep people alive and/or standing an extra turn.

I'm in agreement that selective channel pays off in massively reduced annoyance down the line.

Yeah, channel's not the superpower it is at low levels, but it's still big. It's arguably much better than mass cure light wounds (depending on Selective Channel), giving you a way to keep your whole party up from a distance. Plus, you can use it and save your important healing slots.

It helps if you're fighting lots of undead or swarms or the like, though. Nice to be able to channel without bringing enemies back up.

I dunno if it's better than Mass CLW if you're healing focused (Healing Domain, Life Oracle, etc.) but for the average Cleric, yeah probably. It averages out to more healing usually by the time you can cast that and doesn't eat a spell slot.

I like my channel slots . . .

But yeah it's a good feat.

Slow night, isn't it?