Not sure if I'm going more motherly than brotherly with Graah!?
Whichever it is, I think it's working out well so far.
It is amusing me!
Probably should have asked earlier, but is everyone familiar with the mass combat rules?
Considering Illa took charge, she'll be considered the general, at least for this first fight.
We'll begin with the tactics phase, where she can select a tactic for the garrison and make a roll for the ranged phase of army combat. After that she can select a strategy and make a roll for the melee phase (I'll post the Army's stats, assuming you survive long enough to find out what they are.)
Everyone else can tell me what you want to do during the combat. While generally a single character can't have an effect on mass combat, the small army and tight quarters mean you could have an outsized effect.
Well, i can shoot arrows, but i'm not especially good at it.
I can cause fear in the people who climb the ladders, causing them to hesitate/hold up the climbing of the ladder long enough for the guys with the halberds to push them back.
I can make people have to make will saves before they can attack me, so that could hold things up awhile if the fighting gets to close quarters.
I'd also like to take stock of supplies, but i imagine now isnt the best time for that.
Probably should have asked earlier, but is everyone familiar with the mass combat rules?
Nope, but I'm a quick learner...
I've never read the mass combat rules, so I'll have to look them over. My initial idea was to have Graah! flying above, first taking on any airborne foes, and secondly picking off targets of opportunity: warleaders/officers, hitting siege engines/towers with fire arrows, that sort of thing. Theoretically, he could actually have a significant effect on the results of mass combat if operating in this manner, but I'll have to see if it fits within the mass combat rules.
My strategy, at this point, is simple.
First, use the siege engines to pound the Orcs as soon as they get in range. We have them for a reason, and without counter-siege, I see little reason to hold them back at this point. ;)
Once the siege has released, use archers as soon as the Orcs are within their reach. The more Orcs we can cut down before they reach the wall, the better.
If the Orcs get siege ladders up, break and push them loose from the wall. Pour down boiling tar and such once the Orcs have a decent huddle at the base of the wall; take out as many as possible.
If any manage to get up on top of the wall? Hack, slash and clobber...
Sounds good. The siege engines are actually already factored into the army's stats and you're not familiar enough with the garrison to use any tactics it knows at this point.
If you want to make the ranged combat check (a d20, which will be modified by the army's Offensive Modifier -- +6), please go ahead.
Then you need to pick one of five strategies for when they close to melee: Defensive, Cautious, Standard, Aggressive or Reckless (these will affect your army's OM and its Defense Value). Due to the chaos in the army at the moment, you'll need to make a Morale check (1d20
+ commander’s Cha modifier + ranks in Profession (soldier) divided by 5) to change it from the standard strategy the soldier's adopt out of habit/training.
Once you've picked the strategy, you can make a melee combat check, which again is a d20 modified by the army's Offensive Modifier.
(I may modify some of these based on what everyone else is doing, of course.)
Honestly, i think Galvrin's best asset to the party would be trying to investigate deeper into what happened to the officers.
Ranged combat check: .
I'm going to go with... aggressive.
It suits Illa's character, and the idea is to grind the Orcs down before they can get to the wall and put the wind up them so they'll hesitate to try it again.
Morale check: ...
Bother. :-\ Well, maybe my rousing speech will help turn it around.
Melee combat roll: .
o_o; I may have a problem, here, unless I am allowed to reassign some skill ranks into Profession (soldier)...
Ouch. Figures dice bot finally wakes up for me. On the bright side, if you had gotten them to attack aggressively, you'd have been wiped out and the adventure would've ended sooner rather than later. :o
The Mass Combat rules are new to me. Dyalg has Profession (soldier) +7. However character wise, he wouldn’t usurp Illa’s authority since she was the first to assert herself and they’re friends. Plus, I like your speeches! Also, from his Background, Dyalg led a small company of warriors for a time; ended in disaster. Despite being trained to lead, he is reluctant to take up command.
From reading the mass combat rules, the Profession (soldier) is most useful during a Morale check. The Morale bonus of Profession (soldier) is divided by 5...so it’d only be a +1 for Dyalg. More important is the Cha modifier in Morale checks. Dyalg has a +3. So if commanding, Dyalg’s roll would be 1d20+4 against a DC 15.
Another consideration is the Leadership feat which gives a +3 bonus to a commander’s leadership score. Illa’s leadership score is 7 (lvl +CHA mod). Dyalg’s is 13 (lvl +CHA +3) — which means Dyalg would know 1 more boon than Illa and provide a greater bonus to certain boons.
Just some thoughts...once the orcs are fought back we can IC discuss the leadership situation.
Well, as Dyalg and Illa are friends, he can offer her his expertise, right? ^^ Might be worth a bonus. *chuckles*
Yeah Dyalg sounds like an invaluable advisor at a minimum.
Still here but I'm not going to post for the sake of it as I'm not sure what value I van add at this stage.
Likewise.
Thanks for letting me know. I appreciate that so I'm not waiting on you before posting myself.
GM - I'm aware we are splitting up and not sure if this works for you or not. Are you OK for us all to do our own thing or should we try to keep together?
I don't mind if you split up, just keep in mind that you can't react to things where you aren't. : )
Corvus and Graah, I just wanted to make sure it's clear that you won't really be able to hurt the enemy army on your own, since there are simply too many of them. Per the mass combat rules, you'd count as a CR 1 Army at most (a Fine army of two seventh-level characters, to be specific), and would probably be wiped out by the larger CR 6 Orc Horde, since they've got arrows if you close to shooting range.
The motivation of this foray is not to hurt the army per se... but to get the chance to inflict a psychological wound, or at least a psychological victory for our side; ideally both.
Graah! has keen eyes and the ability to fly (and shoot from) outside regular arrow range. A longbow has a maximum range of 1100 ft, or about 366 yards. If they fly in at 1300 ft or so, the enemy arrows should have no way of reaching them, while Graah! uses special Flight arrows that allow him to shoot at up to 1300 ft. (While shooting at the full 10 range increments is usually pretty problematic, Graah! is pretty confident of his abilities, and their own arrows will have the aid of gravity on their side.) While there are no rules I'm aware of that factor elevation into the equation when considering range increments, shooting straight down has to be a heck of a lot easier than shooting straight up. No matter how far up you are, the arrows are going to hit the ground.
As before, Graah!'s main goal will be to find a warleader or shaman that he can identify. He'll circle the camp a few times looking from multiple angles, trying to spot someone with a headdress, or ceremonial colours, or just wearing finer armour than everyone else. Once he's picked a target, he will get into position and fire on them, hoping to score a surprise kill, or at least an embarrassing injury.
My hope in regard to mass combat would be that this type of injury would provide our side with a morale bonus for having tweaked the sleeping bear's nose, and give them a minus due to having their leaders injured, even with their superior numbers and being surrounded by a thousand guards!
Make sense? Doable?
there was a rule in 3.5 giving someone at a higher elevation +1 for hitting an enemy. dunno if that got ported into pathfinder or not. +1 isn't much anyway when you take -10 for full range.
Little bit of craziness going on at work -- presses aren't working, which is a problem in the newspaper business -- so my schedule's a little bit in flux. Updates may be sporadic for the next few days.
Good luck!
Just to say that after today (my time) my posting will be sporadic for the next three days. Saturday and Sunday are always my slowest days – I tend to post mostly in the evenings.
Monday is my wife’s birthday, so expect zero posts and then I’m full steam ahead again from Tuesday morning. Thanks for your patience.
Congratulations to your good lady wife! ^^
Congratulations to your good lady wife! ^^
Thanks
"ugly long legs" ?!?!
charisma is my highest stat! hahaha
i hope my intimidates and pissing off the guard are not too disruptive, just playing the character how i think he would be. if it is disruptive, let me know and i will scale it back a bit.
Not disruptive, just remember the target treats you as unfriendly after the effects wear off. You're not making friends with this guard (which is fine, you don't have to, as long as you're aware of that).
yeah, not much i can do other than shoot arrows during combat unless we actually get in close combat with orcs.
What's the range on your fear-powers?
mostly touch at the moment, plus a 10ft aura. later i can get some ranged ones. one power (that costs PP) that is a 30ft radius centered on me, and one that costs PP that is medium range (but only stuns a single target)
Plus wouldn't it affect your allies too? Or am I misreading?
Aura of Fear (Su): At 3rd level, a dread radiates a palpably daunting aura that causes all enemies within 10 feet to take a –4 penalty on saving throws against fear effects. Creatures that are normally immune to fear lose that immunity while within 10 feet of a dread with this ability. This ability functions only while the dread remains conscious, not if she is unconscious or dead.
Ah. Thanks. Missed that, Galvrin. So if you can get a fear effect going, that could help. : ) Might indeed come up more in non-mass combat play, though.
Yeah. as i level i will try to keep an eye out for more useful mass combat abilities. i just figured at least at some point there will be close combat with the orcs, and i thought it would be cool to scare them out.
alternatively, i can sneak really well so i could harass the orc troops on the fringe of their camp.
Don't worry, there'll be plenty of regular combat ... assuming you survive long enough to get there. : )
You're telling me. I was afraid after those first two rolls you were going to lose in the early mass combat portion of the mod and not even get to the other stuff! : )
straw + oil/pitch + fire could be useful, although not sure how much of those resources we have or how much we would be willing to part with for a short-lived bonus to defense...
I have a work-related formal dinner event to attend tomorrow night, coupled with a project that I have been working on whose culmination is tomorrow morning. As such, my posts may be sparing for the next 48 hours. "Bot" me as needed, although I don't anticipate that being necessary.
Sorry, guys, work's a bit busy for the next week or so leading into Thanksgiving (so to Dec. 1). Will try to post daily still, but if I miss a day or two, please don't think I've forgotten you/disappeared.
Sorry, guys, work's a bit busy for the next week or so leading into Thanksgiving (so to Dec. 1). Will try to post daily still, but if I miss a day or two, please don't think I've forgotten you/disappeared.
Thanks for letting us know.
We'll be here.
no problem!
Anyone speak Auran? ^^;
OK, guys, we seem to have slowed down a lot, so I just want to take everyone's temperature. I realize it's toward the holidays and my old posting may be sparse through the rest of the week, but I'd like us to get back to daily posting next week.
I am still here. I can post daily. I have been getting busy at work, so there are times where i am off of the boards for 12-16 hours, but for the most part it usually isnt that long.
I've been checking in daily but we're at a point where I'm being reactive rather than proactive, so it's been difficult to post without anythign to play off.