Unless you really want to kill the party! :)
So it seems a little unclear to me how wind wall should interact with bullets. the rule specifies arrows and bolts, but the spell was written before firearms were introduced to the game. my thought is to treat it as "other projectiles" and have a 30% miss chance, but that seems odd to me. I imagine intense wind would make it very difficult to hit with a musket as well.
Maybe the sound of the gun going off scatters the birds for a couple rounds?
Technically, as written, the 30% chance applies to thrown weapons and sling bullets - I don't think putting musket balls in the same category is too bad.
I would understand if you judge they fall for balance reasons between bows and firearms.
As it reads it would seem slings, darts or shurikens only have a 30% chance failure too and they existed already by when the spell was worded.
wow, that was a really rough round. raven swarms are stupid, apparently. with the way you have been smashing through the encounters in this tower so far I thought this one was going to be rather easy for you. sometimes the dice just don't go your way
for wind wall, I think it makes sense to group musket balls with sling bullets and thrown weapons, so I will continue to do that. though with the gunslinger blind it isn't going to matter as much in this combat, apparently
If its a swarm of tiny creatures it's not immune to weapon damage and has to provoke an aoo to enter and attack an enemy. If that matters at all
Otherwise things aren't look good
I'm also hopeful that a cure light wounds spell will restore everyone's sight, since otherwise I agree with Ashling. We might all have our eyes pecked out by the end of this fight.
But I think your cold aura should do 1.5x damage against the swarm, so that's probably our best bet at this point.
To be honest, I thought the blindness from a raven swarm was temporary - otherwise a foe that's highly damage resistant, auto-hits and has long term blindness is...well.. very, very nasty.
And, yes, the cold aura is probably our best weapon.
it does provoke, and I gave AoOs to the two of you when it went on to your space. Samuel has a ranged weapon out so didn't get one, and when blinded you won't get them either.
Perhaps Callix has left on holidays? I guess we are waiting for her only. As she is blind, I would suggest using detect magic to pin-point where the caster magical objects are or attempting to use a CLW to heal her eyes wounds as previously suggested by Letitia.
Apologies - I'm not, but I didn't see a new post on gameplay. Heading over there now.
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sorry for the delay all, this weekend was a long one, and i will not have much time today to post either. should have the next round posted first thing tomorrow if i don't get it done today
I just noticed we recently made our first year of campaign. Those are good news as not all campaigns make it this far at all.
Congrats to everyone and special thanks to GM Red for the daily consistent fun :D
Yes, congrats on one year in this campaign! It is impressive how long we have been going on this one, and with only 2 substitutions on the player side.
the other "table" is a little behind you guys in progress, we were just having a discussion about this. they found themselves in Waldsby exactly one year after the first post. which made the statue even more interesting since the two statues were seen exactly a year apart.
Let the Boss Fight begin!!
Yay! This is going to be painful! xD
At least Samuel succeeded on his first save!
Is it not only double move for the two squares I tumble through? That's why I went *through* the elemental and not around or between.
I certainly wouldn't have wasted an opportunity to have a standard action and actually do something.
you have to move at half speed in order to use acrobatics. not just during those squares, but for your whole action I believe. it's not just using double movement for those squares, making the check Halves your speed. so for that last turn I had you move through the group of enemies and make a throwing axe attack instead of a melee one. you could go at full speed with a higher DC if that is your preference, then I will retcon what i can.
same thing for you Ashling on this round. you don't have the movement to go from where you are standing now to Radosek if you are going to use acrobatics. you would have to take some AoOs to get that far. please be sure to move your pawn to where you want to be.
And for Samuel, are you moving before shooting? shooting from that square will provoke from the elementals and the atomie who is sharing your square.
sorry y'all. lots going on in this combat...
Wow. I've been doing that wrong for nearly 20 years -- always treated or as double cost for the tumble hexes - as if it was difficult terrain.
That entry, Acrobatics, is one of the worst written in the book. They merged many 3.5 skills and the text is not clear enough.
If it serves to appease you, that part on the half-speed is so unclear I have also seen being played with both interpretations along the years.
Then, there is this FAQ on how Acrobatics works and there it suggests you only move at half speed along the threatened squares. It is more clear, but they could have added an example... :P
She must move at half speed while threatened by these foes and can choose which to check against first.
Still, it is confusing for me if losing Dex to AC and being knocked prone if damaged while using the skill, it only applies to Balance (which I interpret) or to the whole skill as it suggests the way it is worded.
I think we have all posted. Is there any more clarification needed from us GM Red?
As levels go up so does combat complexity. Specially with a mixed group that probably comes from different experiences and table interpretations. I think we should be good as long as we keep good communication going like for now :)
It is a bit complicated to recall different interpretations for each table we play, but it should be ok as long as we are all lenient on falling to remember and do not keep any grudge for attachment to a specific rule interpretation.
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sorry, I will hopefully get a full GM post up today. i am helping to run a workshop at work this week and it is killing my time to post. sorry guys!
that took a long time to write... eesh. boss fights with this many moving pieces are hard to write. please let me know if anything looks incorrect on this one.
2 enemies down, 4 to go!
I'm happy to keep fighting, but I don't think you counted the elemental's damage to me. I'm unfortunately at -3 and bleeding.
Thanks a lot for the effort GM Red!
I think all is good except the bleeding on Radosek should force him to roll concentration for being under continuous damage to wave his spell. Great spell there Letitia!
ah, good catches both of you! sorry Letitia, but thank you for calling out something that is bad for you.
and yeah, lipstitch is a crazy spell. I haven't seen that one before but wow that is debilitating! I remembered the extra 20% failure chance from the spell, but not the concentration check to even try.
to keep the game thread clean, I'll roll it here:
Sorry, just to go back to round 1 for a moment - since the retcon had Callix throw her axe after her tumble back in round 1 - did it miss?
sorry, my bad. I just went back to look at that. I could have sworn i wrote in that you threw the axe and missed, but apparently i only did that in my head...
the 17 you rolled to hit misses Radosek in round 1
I just noticed something. I had moved to a different place on the map in order to cast my spell without taking an AoO. However, I moved myself back to where I was since I thought Samuel had changed his action. But since he still provoked, I could have still moved (and evidently did, since I got my spell off against Radosek). So I would have been in a different spot and hopefully not in the line of electrical death.
Thoughts?
were you not able to cast the spell from the point where you are shown on the map now? I just assumed you were standing in that point and once the elemental focused on Samuel you fired off your spell. if you had moved, the elemental would be in a different spot (or likely would have swung at Ashling instead of Letitia.
now people have moved from their locations from that round, which would have been done differently if there was an elemental in the way.
depending op how much you all are ok with redoing your current round actions if they are affected, I have 2 options for you. I'll leave it up to a vote and I'll give you until tomorrow at noon central time to cast a vote.
Option 1 is that we leave everythign as is. Letitia cast her spell from the location she is standing on the map, then was hit by an elemental and dropped to -3 by lightning. current round actions are unaffected (but I don't think either Callix or Ashling pawns are in the spots described by their actions. don't move your pawns yet, but if this option is chosen please verify where you want your two pawns to be standing.)
Option 2 is that Letitia waited until the way was clear and walked along the black line drawn on the map. she was out of the way when the lightning struck, but the other 2 were hit as written. the elemental did not attack letitia, but instead struck and hit Ashling. Ashling takes 6 physical damage and 0 cold damage, bringing her to -5 hp.
that is the easiest fix I could think of to address retconning Letitia's movement. you all will need to choose which PC is down...
I do believe Letitia's intentions were really Option 2, but PbP format is a different beast than tabletop and we have to be way more open to misinterpretations and letting the GM crystallize things into his view or combats are to become a back and forth interminable discussion. I am good with either option.
Thus, I abstain.
Yeesh. I hate to see someone else go down because of my retcon.
We're all in dire straits right now. Could I end it with a hex? Could we suffer a tpk whichever way we choose? All I know is, my gut says maybe.
Might I suggest that the elemental followed me and struck me but I get missed by the lightning? That way, I'm up at 7 to with a icicle in my face, but then Ashling is up, too?
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as long as people are cool with things being in a position that wouldn't actually have worked 100%, I would be ok with that solution since things are looking pretty rough otherwise. for the elemental to be fighting Letitia to the side of the room, there would have been an opportunity for Ashling to take an AoO on it as it chased Letitia, and the elemental would have been possibly hit by the lightning. it would also be in a place where it could make an AoO as Ashling moves this round. if we just ingnore both of those AoOs and have the lightning bolt go off right before the elemental moves, I could see that working.
I'm good with whatever. From a meta game stand point, I think Ashling has more heal spells at her disposal than Letitia, but that might be a moot point. I think it's all on Callix to kill Radosek either way, but again, I'm good with whatever.
ok, we're going to go ahead and go with the more retcon heavy option listed above that allows more PCs to be up and functional. So Letitia, go ahead and do your actions for this round and then I will move the enemies.
I updated the map to have everyone where i think they wanted to be, if it doesn't look right please tell me! and be sure to update your pawn positions as these more complex combats progress, it will make my life way easier!
it's not looking great, but you have the opportunity for a big round here to come back! two PCs down, 3 left standing but with a total HP of less than 20! it's going to be a close one!
Was hoping that with Ashling and Callix surrounding him, there'd be no spells without an AoO. Stupid spell trigger items.
Also: stupid birds, making me waste a fervor trying to heal my eyes instead of using a wand or spell.
Moved from Gameplay thread:
Remembered the request not to clutter the game thread with questions after I'd posted - deleted it there.
Yeah! Go go go! With his AC lowered it's time to finish the work! Let's go team, it is still doable! :)
Are you planning to disarm him from his wand Callix? He can still cast at the defensive. Although with the bleeding that would mean he has to pass two concentration rolls, and might become 4 ;)
(: popcorn mode on :)
Was debating trying to set up the flank and try the disarm - if he doesn't threaten, then no AoO. Sadly there's nobody to pick up the thing and poetic justice him with it.
That said, I'm low on hp and options, and another 2d6+3 might be the better call - he's in better shape than I am, but he's got to run out of HP at some point - though I'd not cry if I disarmed him and then we bashed him to bits while he tried to cast a spell.
Just keep thinking how much better this would be if I was level 4..
Can i move to the square beside the elemental? it looks weird with the corner also sharing the space so i'm curious
sorry, this map is really dumb. i was planning on having him move out from back there to have more room to move things around, but Callix got past the chaff real fast and kept him pinned in the worst possible room design!
space rulings:
the small corner opposite of Ashling is probably too full to fit in. there is a table and boxes covered the whole of the square. if you want to get there, I would have you make a acrobatics check to get past Radosek, then another one to make a vertical jump 4' to get on top of the table.
the space next to the elemental is fair game, as that doesn't take up the full square, but will count as difficult terrain to get around whatever that is in the square.
the blue circle in Callix's square is an icicle that stays there, granting cover for both Callix and Radosek if they try to interact from their current squares.
as far as weapons go, Radosek is holding the icicle wand and his other hand is empty. for more info:
something looks odd about that wand and the way he is holding it in front of himself. it looks rather sharp for a wand and his grip on it looks like the way someone would normally hold a dagger, not a wand
Also rolled a heal check just to try to get an idea of how injured Radosek looks. (Or should have have been another perception?)
for general checks like trying to see how hurt someone is I am usually pretty flexible on what checks I allow. either a heal check or a perception would help you determine how injured someone is. since the results you'll get won't be an exact science neither will the checks required to get it
these elementals are on fire! the last time i ran this encounter they all died really fast. I am surprised how much they have done to the party this time...
it's up to your gunslinger now! can he finish the fight with one good shot? Did Letitia make the right move in saving Samuel?
Did Radosek provoke attacks of opportunity by moving like he did?
Ashling is down and Callix stepped back to not be flanked... But looking at the map, I don't see how he could get there without going through a square Callix threatens unless he walked through that weird spot where the wall sticks out (which I thought was too small and not an actual square)
That said, also good: 1 Diagonal, 2 straight -- Callix can still reach him even at half speed.
Still, I'll wait to see what might happen and if I should roll an AoO before figuring out the rest of my action.
Are you sure? It looks like he would have had to move through a threatened square in order to get out of that alcove.
I mean, this witch is beefy. 42 hp and counting; we can't let him heal himself or this encounter is over. And that's assuming that the elementals quit fighting as soon as he's down. If they stay in combat, we're all dead unless the GM's dice finally quit rolling 18s.