That's a sacrifice you'll just have to make.
Anybody else notice the side walls were wet but the front wall and door look "just like the ones in the cellar", or, dry?
I should just go to bed. Up far too late tonight for no reason at all.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Well, this fat old man has 2 appointments to get caught tonight.
I hope you manage to have even more happiness and joy than the children I'll be teasing.
Have a great time Rabalar! And a Merry Christmas to all!
And Happy Festivus! (for those of us old enough to have heard of that one!)
I'm enjoying Christmas with my grandson. (and his parents....) And enjoyed a Zoom call with my granddaughter!
I and the family will be traveling out of the country on Friday. I will have internet access at my location but I might not be able to post on Friday as the flight is long.
Was able to enjoy Christmas with my family at our house. My wife's parents live with us in an in-law suite we buil for them. They spend most of their time now at their lake house but it was nice to spend Christmas with them and my brother-in-law and his fiance.
Called my aunt and talked to her and did a zoom call with some of my Marine Corps buddies and their families. We usually do a fishing or hunting trip with our boys around New Years' but with COVID that doesn't appear to be happening so, I am taking my two boys deep sea fishing and getting a little vacation in with the family.
We are starting to talk about getting another campaign started up sometime in the spring. I think we are going to do a Forgotten Realms campaign if we do move forward.
Hope everyone has a great New Years!!!
Jack
Enjoy the time with your family ALLENDM.
And Happy New Year everyone.
I love Grond.
Better let him know that sooner rather than later - I don’t think he will be around for much longer.
Such a positive outlook, too!
Always!
Happy New Year all!
Grond will pull through we just need a little faith, aka a little Peran lol!
A couple of quick notes. This is important for everyone... Don't forget your Hero Points...If you have not used them don't sit on them (just throwing that out there).
Also, if you read the Cavern Stair Notes you get this bonus:
Higher Ground: Characters fighting on steep stairs gain a +1 bonus on melee attacks made against opponents below them.
For Grond specifically, this will affect what you intend on doing:
I made this post reply to Ferona when she acted and utilized her mage hand spell but note this portion in bold:
"Ferona finishes her spell and just in front of Grond he can see some sort of magical force move through the caltrops but it doesn't appear to do anything to them but smear their image a bit and then they reform. Ferona doesn't feel any resistance as she sweeps her hand through the items...as if they are not there."
This will probably change your movement you attempted as I pointed out that Grond sees this :)
This specific encounter is one of the toughest from an encounter CR perspective due to the restrictive movement (tunnel/stairs) and the prepared force you face.
Didn't help that the Gnoll got a natural 20...I didn't see that one coming...
I made this post reply to Ferona when she acted and utilized her mage hand spell but note this portion in bold:
"Ferona finishes her spell and just in front of Grond he can see some sort of magical force move through the caltrops but it doesn't appear to do anything to them but smear their image a bit and then they reform. Ferona doesn't feel any resistance as she sweeps her hand through the items...as if they are not there."
This will probably change your movement you attempted as I pointed out that Grond sees this :)
ALLENDM, since there was no reference to a Will Save in the first instance Grond noticed the metallic shine, nor when Ferona acted, I assumed I was not entitled one, or that perhaps you had already rolled for him.
In any case I think I'd prefer to stick with my actions as they are (not a fan of too much retcon) - I did read over the Hero Points, but was focused on looking for ways to avoid that critical and the nasty penalties for being wounded. They 'might' have helped in closing the gap to the gnoll downstairs, but with my rolls I doubt it anyway.
This specific encounter is one of the toughest from an encounter CR perspective due to the restrictive movement (tunnel/stairs) and the prepared force you face.
No scouting + being in the front lines is usually not easy, we all know that. Game on!
P.S. But I will say after this encounter it feels ranged characters seem to have a relevant advantage over melee ones with your house rules, since they are 'usually' not as subject to damage as melees/tanks, and thus less penalties. I am not wrong, am I?
I don't think you're wrong, no.
But he also offers up more protection for the melee guys (DR from the shield?). Whether those balance out is a debatable point I have no interest in arguing.
This encounter, with restricted space, poor lighting, hard corners (real or undetected illusion), and a prepared enemy isn't going to work out well for ranged attacks at all. Once we get past the line of sight from the stairs, unless the tunnel goes straight (why should it?) I'm going to lose the ability to do anything without closing first.
I made this post reply to Ferona when she acted and utilized her mage hand spell but note this portion in bold:
"Ferona finishes her spell and just in front of Grond he can see some sort of magical force move through the caltrops but it doesn't appear to do anything to them but smear their image a bit and then they reform. Ferona doesn't feel any resistance as she sweeps her hand through the items...as if they are not there."
This will probably change your movement you attempted as I pointed out that Grond sees this :)
ALLENDM, since there was no reference to a Will Save in the first instance Grond noticed the metallic shine, nor when Ferona acted, I assumed I was not entitled one, or that perhaps you had already rolled for him.
In any case I think I'd prefer to stick with my actions as they are (not a fan of too much retcon) - I did read over the Hero Points, but was focused on looking for ways to avoid that critical and the nasty penalties for being wounded. They 'might' have helped in closing the gap to the gnoll downstairs, but with my rolls I doubt it anyway.
This specific encounter is one of the toughest from an encounter CR perspective due to the restrictive movement (tunnel/stairs) and the prepared force you face.No scouting + being in the front lines is usually not easy, we all know that. Game on!
P.S. But I will say after this encounter it feels ranged characters seem to have a relevant advantage over melee ones with your house rules, since they are 'usually' not as subject to damage as melees/tanks, and thus less penalties. I am not wrong, am I?
You had not interacted with the illusion as you had not studied it (carefully) or interacted with it. Now what I did do was point out that something was metallic on the stairs in front of you. Ferona being next up responded by using MAGE HAND to interact with it. So you didn't warrant a WILL save until you did something with them (interaction) or saw something to led you to believe it was a deception. Now, when Ferona utilized her MAGE HAND the act of it disturbed the illusion which is a simple FIGMENT that is static ((Trifling Image - 0level)). My statement of what Grond saw after Ferona acted pointed out to you that the caltrops were in fact an illusion and because it was clear it was I didn't see a need to require you to roll because of your interaction with illusions from above (1st floor) and the fact that Ferona wisely used the MAGE HAND and it ruined the deception. :)
((One side note - The box, coins, and bags are also a Trifling Image. They were placed to slow you down if there were any party members interest in "Treasure"...If any of you had interacted with them the same thing would have occurred when you did as they are simple static figments (like the spider on the wall that didn't move). My point is I try to give clues and hints you can learn from. ))
Grond would have seen the MAGE HAND interact with the TRIFLING IMAGE caltrops as they are right in front of you all over the stairs and Ferona's use of the MAGE HAND quickly points out the deception of them.
Wound Thresholds will have a bigger impact on front line characters because they are much more apt to receive damage and larger chunks of it. This is why I use DR for shields, Healing Salves, the 0lvl spell Cure Minor Wounds, and at 3rd level Clerics get Graceful Healing/Diabolic Infliction. So I do have some firewalls set up to help mitigate the larger impact damage does to PC's. The latter being an important one for the use of potions and healing magic (essentially clerics can MAXIMIZE curative magic as long as they spend the additional time and effort to do so. But the Wound Threshold impacts every player...range players (be it martial or magical) almost always take the least amount of damage as they are behind the front liners :)
@Jack - not being much of a player of spellcasters, and Naia not really understanding magic, none of your clues alert me to anything. It’s just more smoke and mirrors lumped into “don’t believe anything you see”.
@Jack - why don’t ranged attacks get a bonus for higher ground on the stairs? Or are you just adding melee attacks on steep stairs against foes also on the stairs to the bonuses of higher ground (which I assume gives a bonus to ranged attacks)?
But none of the foes are on the stairs anyway, right?
The game engine bonus for higher ground is tied to melee. <shrug>
Or at least it used to be. I freely admit I haven't dug into the bowels of differences between 3.5 and Pathfinder 1.
@Jack - not being much of a player of spellcasters, and Naia not really understanding magic, none of your clues alert me to anything. It’s just more smoke and mirrors lumped into “don’t believe anything you see”.
@Jack - why don’t ranged attacks get a bonus for higher ground on the stairs? Or are you just adding melee attacks on steep stairs against foes also on the stairs to the bonuses of higher ground (which I assume gives a bonus to ranged attacks)?
I can only point things out without making them too obvious...up to you as to how you interpret them.
On Higher Ground is an ATTACK Modifier for PF rules...not sure why they decided it was only for Melee but that is how the rule is written.
But none of the foes are on the stairs anyway, right?
They are on the stairs. It is a long flight of stairs with landings at several points... Now your characters don't know this except for Grond who has Darkvision and Rabalar who has improved dim-light vision.
Jack
Ok, thanks for heads-up, clarifications.
I set up the Carvern for Editor rights for all of you. Forgot to do that :)
I made this post reply to Ferona when she acted and utilized her mage hand spell but note this portion in bold:
"Ferona finishes her spell and just in front of Grond he can see some sort of magical force move through the caltrops but it doesn't appear to do anything to them but smear their image a bit and then they reform. Ferona doesn't feel any resistance as she sweeps her hand through the items...as if they are not there."
This will probably change your movement you attempted as I pointed out that Grond sees this :)
ALLENDM, since there was no reference to a Will Save in the first instance Grond noticed the metallic shine, nor when Ferona acted, I assumed I was not entitled one, or that perhaps you had already rolled for him.
In any case I think I'd prefer to stick with my actions as they are (not a fan of too much retcon) - I did read over the Hero Points, but was focused on looking for ways to avoid that critical and the nasty penalties for being wounded. They 'might' have helped in closing the gap to the gnoll downstairs, but with my rolls I doubt it anyway.
This specific encounter is one of the toughest from an encounter CR perspective due to the restrictive movement (tunnel/stairs) and the prepared force you face.No scouting + being in the front lines is usually not easy, we all know that. Game on!
P.S. But I will say after this encounter it feels ranged characters seem to have a relevant advantage over melee ones with your house rules, since they are 'usually' not as subject to damage as melees/tanks, and thus less penalties. I am not wrong, am I?
One note about offsetting the WOUND THRESHOLDS negative modifiers. It is worth martial to invest in the Endurance Feat. By taking it it also offers a reduction in the negative modifier by 1.
Endurance
Harsh conditions or long exertions do not easily tire you. You brush off the effects of the wounds you receive with greater ease.
Benefit(s): You reduce the penalty from being grazed, wounded, or critical by 1 (to –0, –1, and –2, respectively).
In addition, you gain a +4 bonus on the following checks and saves: Swim checks to resist nonlethal damage from exhaustion, Constitution checks to continue running, Constitution checks to avoid nonlethal damage from a forced march, Constitution checks to hold your breath, Constitution checks to avoid nonlethal damage from starvation or thirst, Fortitude saves to avoid nonlethal damage from hot or cold environments, and Fortitude saves to resist damage from suffocation.
You can sleep in light or medium armor without becoming fatigued.
Reduce Sleep Deprivation track by one.
Normal: A character without this feat who sleeps in medium or heavier armor is fatigued the next day. The character who loses hit points follow the Wound Threshold Track normally. The character who is sleep deprived follows the Sleep Deprivation track normally.
Not sure about your alternate HP rules, but, core rules, when current HP is equal to or less than the amount of n ok nlethal.damage currently being suffered, you pass out.
That's why Grond asked, and why I thought my arrow could be such a big deal for Grond at the moment.
Yep, that was what raised the question Rabalar.
And Grond does have Endurance, I will keep that in mind in the future. Thank you ALLENDM.
Not sure about your alternate HP rules, but, core rules, when current HP is equal to or less than the amount of n ok nlethal.damage currently being suffered, you pass out.
That's why Grond asked, and why I thought my arrow could be such a big deal for Grond at the moment.
(((((WoundThreshold))))
Healthy (above 3/4 of total hp)Grazed (below 3/4 and above 1/2 total hp) -1 ATK/AC/Sav/Skil/Abil/Caster Level
Wounded (below 1/2 and above 1/4 total hp) -2 ATK/AC/Sav/Skill/Abil/Caster Level
Critical (below 1/4 total hp) -3 ATK/AC/Sav/Skill/Abil/Caster Level
Disabled (CON 11 and below = disabled at 0 hp, CON 12 and above disabled at 0 + con mod)
Staggered (nonlethal damage equals the remaining HP + CON BONUS. Con11 and below = remaining HP, Con12 and above = remaining HP + CON BONUS)
Yep, that was what raised the question Rabalar.
And Grond does have Endurance, I will keep that in mind in the future. Thank you ALLENDM.
Note that in your HP (ENDUR) that way I can note the benefit in combat encounters.
So right now you are -2 not -3...which helps :)
You also have your CON MOD until you pass out or get healed...which ever one comes first...which will probably be pass out at the rate you are going :)
Jack
Heh!
Oh yay. Forgot about the fact that Naia not only ran down the stairs but away from any available light. Yay.
I will have posts up for us tonight.
Jack
Sorry for the delay all. I got dragged into something for work and it just got to a point I can post.
Will have posts up for us tomorrow night.
Jack
Paizo lost their log in servers due to weather issues on their end. You will need to clear your cache and browsing data and then log back in.
Fun Stuff.
Jack
I sent them an email when the log ins failed. Got the usual "Sorry. We're working on it." Finally I noticed a few people were able to log and saw a "clear your cache" post in a discussion. Minor annoyance but it did work. Sure would've been nice if they'd sent out something to that effect when they fixed the problem!
Sorry. Done with my rant!
I sent them an email when the log ins failed. Got the usual "Sorry. We're working on it." Finally I noticed a few people were able to log and saw a "clear your cache" post in a discussion. Minor annoyance but it did work. Sure would've been nice if they'd sent out something to that effect when they fixed the problem!
Sorry. Done with my rant!
I agree... I sent an email as well. When I logged in at night and saw I was still no able to log in I tried it on PRIVATE MODE and it worked. So I cleared cache and data and it worked. There support team needs to be a better job of communicating issues. I have complained a few times about the lack of a active/active platform especially since it is in cloud for the most part it should never go down but the platform is not engineered very well and their support team is terrible about communicating.
Jack
Unfortunately ?? I do understand. I work with support people so I do know how hard it is to get good support with proper follow-up. Usually they seem to figure that if the problem is "fixed", that's enough....
Randy
I am a public face for an IT shop in a military medical facility. Most of what goes seriously wrong happens in the world.outside of our reach (but inside other military control).
When I provide a public notice that something is broken, part of my message is ALWAYS "you will probably see it works again hours before anyone thinks to tell us the problem has been resolved."
sorry...just figured out the 'clear cache' reset for accessing the site. I Will get my post up asap
I am a public face for an IT shop in a military medical facility. Most of what goes seriously wrong happens in the world.outside of our reach (but inside other military control).
When I provide a public notice that something is broken, part of my message is ALWAYS "you will probably see it works again hours before anyone thinks to tell us the problem has been resolved."
That is so for any network or application environment. It is rare that the owning org really knows an issue is green before the client does. And typically they will not call it green unless they verify it with clients. The external problems are always the toughest to deal with as clients don't want to hear about it...
I was a systems engineer and a cybersecurity engineer for Global Crossing and Level 3 a long time ago and fiber cuts, critical infra issues, power outages are always the boogeyman of those large scale networks and you try to mitigate it with passive and active failover as well as bidirectional routing but nothing is ever full proof. Same goes for application and services on a network.
I recall back in the early 2000's we had a major fiber cut that dropped all westbound fiber traffic going into Dallas. For those that don't know the vast majority of fiber ran in the US, Canada, and Central America (some South America) is ran along side railways. A cargo train derailment occurred just outside of Dallas on the west side and it took out a ROW POP (extender site for Fiber Equipment). We had to dispatch contractors as well as field engineers to first evaluate the damage and then get a new building, critical infra, and equipment in place and get the services back up. While dealing with NTSB and working through access to the accident site to boot. Unfortunately, a day later a construction team in uptown Dallas dropped a post hole digger 16 feet down at a new DART Rail site on 75 and cut every major service providers fibers on the east bound side...(the location was clearly marked).They cut fiber services for everything inside the DFW area for 24 hours. On top of that the digger stretched the fiber cables which means not only did they have to do splicing they had to replace 60 feet of fiber cable for almost every fiber bundle. Was not a fun three days :) It was then discovered that every major fiber cable for every provider going east/west across the country traversed that specific location. Murphy's Law in play :)
It is never easy to plan for things outside your control...but you get paid the big bucks to do it :)
When I was young we made a can telephone with cans and string. It wasn't very good.
|
Ah commo problems with radios in the Military and putting down wire used to be so much fun. Long before I was a mild mannered English professor that tortures college students I was in the military. I will say that lack of good ways of communication is the fastest way to grab the you are screwed express and ride it straight to stupid angry village
Ah.... The younger days in my military career. We had a group of reservists on base one summer. I wasn't one of the comm people, but I still ran 3-1/2 miles of slash wire for the exercise, along with just over 500 yards of video cable. Once they were done the reservists said they'd never had such good comms on an exercise before. 'Course 'd also issued their senior staff and officers hand held radios so they could "chat". Warned that the channel was open AND monitored so no names, and no discussions of classified information or personal matters. They broke the last part more than any other, but since names were (mostly) left out...
Just checking as I need to track my very limited spells. In the ooc part of my post I said that if I could see the enemy I would try to cast Grease in the stairs where he/they are standing. Of course if I couldn't see that far then I wouldn't cast it. ??
I will have posts up for us today. I am going to be hammered with work until probably end of March. I will try to get posts squeezed in each week as I can get them in.
Just be on the look out.
Jack
No worries Jack, as and when you can.
Hmmmmm ALLENDM, I am not quite undestanding why Grond is caught flat-footed in this situation.
We are in the middle of a fight, He turns the corner fully expecting to encounter at least an attacker in the corridor, and half expecting an attack.
Even if others are there with crossbows, I would say this does not qualify as a situation where he would be surprised and/or flat-footed? Regardless of his perception roll.
Hmmmmm ALLENDM, I am not quite undestanding why Grond is caught flat-footed in this situation.
We are in the middle of a fight, He turns the corner fully expecting to encounter at least an attacker in the corridor, and half expecting an attack.
Even if others are there with crossbows, I would say this does not qualify as a situation where he would be surprised and/or flat-footed? Regardless of his perception roll.
This specific set of encounters is a set of running encounters. The first encounter is the fight down the stairs. The Turn is the second one. I set up the encounter in a way that if the first (few) party members don't specifically call out they are being cautious as they round the corner there is a chance they are surprised due to the nature of the stairs, cavern, and lighting (which doesn't impact you).
When you posted your comment:
"Without a word, Grond pushed ahead stubbornly, past their fallen enemies, and around the corner."
""
It didn't imply caution...so this triggered a surprise for the next encounter. You even stated your focus was the specific smuggler.
If you would have implied in any way that you were going to move carefully or ready for reinforcement I would have not bothered with the surprise.
Because you are fighting a running battle this will be a series of encounters as you mop up one and move into another as you press.
Jack
You are the GM, and my actions would have remained the same regardless, but I completely disagree with your assessment on this one ALLENDM:
- I think my words and post are being taken too literally, to Grond's detriment. Nothing in my post implied lack of caution;
- These may be separate encounters, but they are not being ran as such. We are running them in round per round sequence for a long time now (regardless of the new initiatives). Round per round action itself implies moving carefully (I think it is in the actual description of a combat round, but I do not have time to check it now). I believe t should not require a particular statement;
- If Grond survives please assume henceforth he will always be moving with caution, until the next time he has a chance to lay down to sleep in a place he considers safe and friendly;
----------
Also I have a few additional questions:
- Grond's move is 30'. If the stairs are difficult terrain he should be able to move 3 squares with a move, and 6 squares with a double move. Correct? Doesn't that mean Grond should be at least 1 or 2 squares further ahead? Since he did not attack, can he continue moving?
- The guy running from us was between Grond and the Crossbow guys when they shot, was he not? Shouldn't Grond get cover bonus from that?
- I just realized you re-rolled initiatives? That seems strange as it may cause some to act twice before others do. Or am I looking at it wrong? Wouldn't it be more adequate to continue the rounds? For example, if we continued in rounds, Group 3 would act now. But if we change, Ferona loses her action, and Narciso, Rabalar and Soros will all act again before her. It is a bit funky... And even worse if we factor in the bad guys.
EDIT: Just to say it is not my intention to retcon Grond’s actions, or anything along those lines. He has accepted his role as can opener, in this horribly disadvantegeous situation we find ourselves in. Idea is only to understand the flow of things, and state my opinion about it.