I disagree slightly, from a char op pov your friend made a terrible prc choice, but there are some times a full progression caster can take a spell level hit and move onto sorc oracle progression if the gain is enough. Just for example a blaster caster taking a sorc dip or a wizard going into a prc with a strong class ability early in the progression.
Taking a level of ranger would be strong at lower levels but if you hit book 4 and you take on some of the level 11 encounters without staples such as heal you will still be able to suceed but your fighter may not live to regret your ranger dip.
From a gm perspective i run a light game up to level 3, like the troll encounter was brutal but well balanced and you are really not going to enjoy the storm, but when you get a solid number of hp and combat options the challenge will increase. I don't think i've run you a true cake walk encounter yet but the ones you have seen are tame compared to even the bandit camp never mind some of the set pieces later in this book or others.
I would always encourage a player to make what they enjoy but i would also advise a player to think 3 levels ahead and ask themselves, in this case, "do i want dispel magic, cure serious wounds and prayer or a higher survival and stealth score?" I think the answer depends on the player, the game and their companions but i also know the answer i would choose myself.
Considered that sorcerer dip myself. :) At least it enhances casting.
I've seen too many folks suffer not having haste when the challenge assumed they would. Restoration is another good one to think about. Party gets attacked by a Wight or 3 (CR 3 solo) and gains some negative levels. You need that restoration to fix those negative levels before they become permanent. There is probably an arcane and divine example at each progressive level where you might wish you had access to some spell.
I agree with many of the points, especially about the long term trouble caused by casters not going for top casting power, but I've not seen many PbP games go all that long. It could easily be next winter before we see the end of Part I, the whole set could take many years, doing even one Part per year is quick going by these boards. So the dip for good skills now vs better casting later seems not so bad. Long term you're right.
Spell recharge, can us divine types ask for a change of prayer time in special cases? If we wait till dawn and spend an hour praying, the storm will be long underway before we are ready to even leave.
Spell selection, I don't see all my defaults as that useful but picking others that are good is open to question. Endure Elements looks good, even CLW to save on casting time isn't so bad, I really like Shield of Faith but not sure if it so good for this battle. Bless is almost always good, I'll leave that as the Domain spell but have 3 1st level slots to fill. After the final round of discussion I'll choose IF we wait til morning, otherwise I'll have to go with what I have. Note since I'm now second level I can prepare more spells than before, if I have the chance.
I have no issue with you travelling to the camp then praying before the fight while someone does some scouting or people wait. The time does not need to be exact or clerics would all need water clocks.
So i can narrate this bit away, your plan is to head back to camp, rest up amd set off before first light. Have Todd guide you to the camp and then set on them as the sun rises, using the storm to cover your approach?
I think you have it right. We should hit them in the pre-dawn just before first light. And we should be ready to change out plans with the changing weather. Maybe Anza can be securing a place for us to weather the storm. Do the bandits have any kind of permanent shelter?
According to the descriptions you have heard the bandis are well provisioned but sleep in the open, they have a pile of tents and gear under one of the tree watch points but there are no tents pitched in their camp.
What are you planning to do with your mounts and do you all have cold weather gear, i suspect this storm may throw you a little so your preperation is important. This is probably going to be your most dangerous encounter so far but handled well should make for a memorable challenge.
Part of what we traded for with the gear from the initial bandit fight was cold weather gear for everyone, so we have that at least. I believe cold weather gear gives a plus for that fort save too, yes?
Cold weather gear means you make the save once every 60 min insted of 10 min and provides a +5 bonus to the save, we'll be having a save when you set off, a save when you arrive, a pre combat save depending on scouting, a post combat save, and a save on the way back. You can removed the damage and fatigue by warming yourself back up.
Anyone with survival can also make a dc 15 check to gain a +2 bonus while moving at half speed and provide that bonus to one extra person for each additional 1 they pass by, the bnus is +4 if they remain in one place.
I made 1 save... thats just for the night correct?
When do I have to make a survival save?
You may want to lay it all out how this skill challenge is going to work.
Just out of curiousity - do we still have Vael and Sergei?
Sergei has gone, Vael is huddled up in a tent for now. Don't think the player will be returning but the character seems not to like the rugged frontier. Amza can look after him.
You make the survival test before the fort save to gain a bonus, so when you make your next save after an hour you make a survival check first then add the modifier if you pass. If you are still in camp Anza's bonus still apllies, you only get one survival check bonus.
Should we recriut for an arcanist again?
The rules of the supernatural snow storm you have found yourself in...
Leaden Snowstorm: Leaden snow appears to be normal snow, but is far heavier. Objects beneath leaden snow take 1d6 points of damage per inch of snowfall. Creatures beneath leaden snow take 1d6 points of nonlethal damage per minute. If a creature falls unconscious beneath leaden show, it takes 1d6 points of lethal damage (DC 15 Constitution check negates) each minute thereafter until freed or dead.
The combined effects of precipitation and wind reduce visibility by three quarters, imposing a -8 penalty on Spot, Search, and Listen checks. Leaden snowstorms make ranged weapon attacks impossible, even those using siege weapons.
Snowstorms automatically extinguish candles, torches, and similar unprotected flames. They cause protected flames, such as those of lanterns, to dance wildly and have a 50% chance to extinguish these lights.
Snow storms normally last for 2d4-1 hours.
Thats pretty bad ass... but I haven't seen its like before either so that makes it fun.
Its threatening but also relatively survivable as long as your on the ball, puts your whole fight on a timer as well which i think makes the whole more tense. I don't think it will kill anyone but it might cause Maksim some stress.
What percent of each flake is metal? Is this a Dwarf's wet dream? :)
There has to be something that can be done with this "material".
ewwwwww
It melts to funny smelling water in your hands, theres actually no metal in the snow its just a property of the wild magic that affects the weather. Welcome to faerie country.
If you are worried about a tpk by the way its not to late to make some hurried shelter and call off the attack on the bandit camp. I have rolled 4 mins worth of damage however its up to you how you spend those minutes, i think Egans choice of take the bandit camp and steal their shelters is a good plan though dispite the fact it relies on Maksims channels. You also do not know entirely what this has done to the bandits yet either.
If you want my honest assessment of your chances i'd say theres a 50/50 chance one of you will be incapacitated but a very low chance of actual death, remember that you fall unconcious when your lethal amd non lethal damage totals your hp so the chances of bleeding out are very low. As long as one of you lives long enough to win the fight and drag the rest into cover you will survive quite easily.
Post interrupted by board failure. Ego's point about the double duty effect" of various "cures" is why I was holding off, but Maksim does not have selective channels. Choices, choices where are the good choices? Any choice can work or fail, depending on the luck we have, the fear of a tpk is not unreasonable, some bad luck and we go down.
I'd use it if you don't have selective, theres no point undoing the effects of the storm on the bandits and curing damage you deal as well. Might as well go in fresh and hope to get it done fast.
At the end of 5 minutes we are still down 7. You need to use at least one more channel before we hit the camp. I agree with Ego that if you do not have Selective maybe use both, depending on the roll.
Game effects of snow in combat. The snow combined with the wind make ranged attacks impossible, the snow on the ground means movement costs are doubled. Charging is prevented and running requires a dc 10 acrobatics check to avoid falling prone, since movement costs are doubled 5ft steps are impossible. Everyone past 30ft away has concealment, if you have stealth you could use that to your advantage. Within 10 ft of the fire the ground is clear enough that the movement restrictions do not apply, the fire is medium sized and takes up its entire square.
In ten rounds everyone takes more non lethal damage, at the end of the fight you'll have some time to sort yourselves out but if you are not safely ensconcelled by a fire you will be forced to make more fortitude saves. Outside of combat i'll roll snow damage when i judge a minute of conversation or action has taken place, i'll have a light hand on that though since we are pbping, at a tt game i'd have an egg timer :-P
Given the sentry is unconscious is this really the surprise round? Given the distance from camp atm and the concealment from the snow, they will have to pull out huge perception numbers as we are crossing the river without us needing to resort to stealth rolls (which will slow us down to 15 feet of movement on a single and 30 ft of movement on a double move)
Slower than that, as per above movement costs are double in this weather, we would be dead before we got to them; stealth is a pointless trap in this situation, it's charge or die time; skills are useless it's all brawn now.
This river is more of a tributary rather than a might river, at seven feet wide and 3 deep it is wade able but not in this weather. It could be jumped with good acrobatics.
The green stuff is tree top level so does not double your move twice, meaning 10ft a square. Remember you can move at x4 speed with an acrobatics check if you run.
I'm having some issues with the site showing posts i have read as new posts, i'll try to keep up to date but if i miss anything poke me in the discussion thread. Just waiting on maksims movemet, i know i put you a long way out but the bandits may spot you coming in if they can roll above a 5 with all the minuses. When you get spotted we'll roll initiative.
Same problem here.
Yes, the boards are messed up right now, causing delays.
I've had a pretty busy morning amd it looks to be a busy afternoon so i'll have to update tonight when i get in. With that perception check result your basicly going to be on top of them before they notice you, so i'll reset the map and you can going for your quick victory.
Yea, what could go wrong? :)
You could fluff all your attack rolls, be beaten unconcious by the snow and left to freeze after the bandits loot your bodies.
But that almost never happens.
Jinx!
Not that I don't like our group at all (glad to have you guys) but are we going recruiting for a 5th later?
We've had I think 3 players drop out - two of them wizards. I think its always useful to have a 5th in case if RL issues etc we still have 4 players.
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I was planning to run this section and give vael some time to return then reopen recruitment for an arcane caster when you were heading back to town.
I love our current four as well, i don't think any of you will do the disappearing trick which happens too often, but i would like a fifth man to cover those times when people just can't post. One of my biggest regrets is not accepting maksim from the start, i think your all excellent players and posters but i think he would have been an asset in those early days like andrej and egan were early on and silva has proved to be since he joined.
Just while we're waiting for the timezones to cross i thought i'd try and liven up the chat. Silva romped that encounter, i was hoping for it to be a bit more tense but still it was fun.
When you make it through the storm what are you planning on doing and would you like to reopen recruitment for an arcanist or just another player or stay as a four?
I would like to add a PC. Smite is a good ability. I didn't expect her to drop first round. Egan's intimidate was pretty good too.
I could have hit the remaining bandits with Burning Hands that round for 3d4, save for half. Might have been more human to take them down than to let them freeze to death. lol.
In the end I have to say the storm worked in our favor, even if it cost us some horses.
Luck can control many things, we we fortunate it went well enough that it didn't make our deaths inevitable.
Refering to your high praise, DM_Ego, I'm flattered but at a loss as to how I earned it. I've barely started playing here and Maksim is still a bit of a stereotype, still trying to give him more personality.
We can always use another and a full arcanist could be really useful, but not essential. Go ahead and get another is my vote, maybe look at any entries to see if they have a reliable posting history, might be a good idea in choosing.
The horses are now no loss, really, given the nature of this attack, and it was an attack, though directed to whom I do not know. We cannot risk using horses from now on. I'm not sure what this means for Sparky. We'll need to change our exploration pattern too, march for some hours then build a full camp 3-4 hours before sunset. Those with Carrying Capacity to spare will need to carry tents enough for all. It will slow us down but, in the absence of any way of knowing that this kind of attack can never happen again, we need to plan for it. Season change doesn't matter, a hailstorm or other such things would be just as deadly.
Climate Change is REAL in the River Kingdoms
:)
Do keep in mind that its currently Spring and the weather will be improving. Next we will likely have flash floods though. :)
How much the weather improves is irrelevent, this was an ATTACK using weather, very different. Also major damage to the enviroment. Every large non-burrowing creature is dead, deer and suchlike, or should be to be consistant. And flash flood and hail is just as deadly. We shouldn't act like this never happened; there is an dangerous active power doing horrible things out in these lands, far more powerful than us. We know nothing about it or them, it's not paranoia when the ARE out to get you, or out to get someone or something and you're just the ant they stepped on incidentally.
Damn you religious types over think things.
I was just putting it down to (weird) shit happens...
Some wild animals will have survived the leaden snow as they will have taken shelter long before the situation worsened. However domesticated animals, such as horses, are forced into situations which they cannot survive by human masters. No doubt any husbandry will be set back by this situation unless they had large barns to prevent the cattle dying.
Now weather it is an attack or not depends on your point of view, i would recommend doing some in character research and discussion on the subject to try to see what the local woodsmen and sages say. While it could be considered an attack it could also be a naturally occuring magical weather formation due to the thinness of the barriers between the planes at this location which Egan knew about in the first few posts of the gameplay thread. Only time will tell.
The lraise by the way Maksim was for your patience as a player and your post count, if you had been in the initial selection we would have had one less recruitment drive.
I'll put up a post for another member tomorrow evening, do you want an arcanist or just anything available?
I would say not another divine. I lean towards arcane, but a good rogue or ranger would be welcome to me. Thoughts?
Everyone alright? I was expecting a few posts when i woke up this morning, are any of you suffering from the weather issues?
I've got a busy work day preparing for next months targets today, probably meetings and messing about but i'll try and check in later. I'll get the recruitment post updated this evening as well once i get home.