I'm probably fine and this is just an allergy thing, but there's a chance I'm coming down sick and posts will be slow.
Let's hope so : )
"Yeah, don't worry, we'll bot you if needed..." *whistles innocently*
...now where's that loot table I used for those instances again...
I return! o vo Muwahahahahaha!
Welcome back : )
Like a bad penny :)
Welcome back.
Hmm. Anyone know of any place that sells/rents rust monsters nearby? I'm sure we could point one at this trap and it would be non-functional really quick ^^
Well, we do know a Wizard...
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[dice=Sense GM Motive/Get a hunch on situation]1d20+5
And now we've stumbled upon one of the few limits on my curiosity. :)
More seriously, my semester officially starts in a couple of days, so I might post at odd times for the next little bit while I get used to a new schedule, but I'm hoping to be able to keep up.
Damn Lu's not really on top of her paying attention game!
Coincidentally, neither am I. I'm having a bit of a fever so if this is something we have to solve by being clever (instead of hitting it with swords!) I'm afraid I won't be so helpful. Though I'm confident you all can manage : )
Yay for discussion...do we feel up to the task?
I know I'm mostly spent, some of us are hurt to start with, and we're low on healing.
Before I rush forward into full attack range with only a wall to provide some cover(unless the thing drags me into the building) I'd like a reality check regarding our capability to take this thing down(on the premise that it scores a lucky hit or two and takes me out of the fight round 1)- any opinions between 'semper fi!' and 'patience is a virtue'?
Lu has a pair of healing scrolls if it comes to that.
But seeing as it looks quite like a bear some of the common anti-bear tactics should apply. Try to not give it full-attacks is probably the easiest one to implement - if only for the first round.
Though this fight probably won't be very easy. On the other hand, running from an frenzied fast bear-thing wouldn't be much better .P
I guess it depends on how aggressive the thing is and how fast it moves. If it's quick and happy to chase us, breaking formation and trying to bring it down as soon as we can while ducking and weaving around cover might be our best bet.
How are we feeling about ranged combat? Chaïa's not brilliant at it, but she has a decent Dex, or we could try making setting things on fire our go-to strategy and apply more alchemist's fire and maybe magic.
I don't mind running away, but Chaïa's oracle curse does slow her down, and if the monster is inclined to pursue, she'd rather go down fighting if it looks like it will catch up.
Well, I can chuck cards from a distance - and I can do my hexes at range, of course. XD
@Ranged combat - uhhhhh harsh language?
But no Lu have some daggers and an alchemist's fire for throwing so that's at least something.
I don't mind running away, but Chaïa's oracle curse does slow her down, and if the monster is inclined to pursue, she'd rather go down fighting if it looks like it will catch up.
It would have to squeeze to get out, which gives you an additional head start.
Good thinking about the mid-squeeze thing!
Lu is going to try and blind it with her shiny sword (Dazzling Blade) when she gets the chance, maybe that'll also help keep us safe from its clawy claws.
Went ahead and claimed the Cure Light Wounds!
Also - I'm also thinking that we might want to rest up here in the wildness instead of returning to the town. Just so we aren't entirely out of resources if we happened upon some trouble ... : )
Hello, everyone. This is just a quick note to the effect that I might be a bit quiet for the next few days, since I've got a major exam coming up on Monday. I'll try to check in for a break (and sanity's sake!), but feel free to bot Chaïa to move things along.
Hello, everyone. This is just a quick note to the effect that I might be a bit quiet for the next few days, since I've got a major exam coming up on Monday. I'll try to check in for a break (and sanity's sake!), but feel free to bot Chaïa to move things along.
I'll decide her actions by rolling randomly.
Good luck! And I hope you don't need it : )
Simply go with the WWLJD - decision process for botting?
What would Leeroy Jenkins do?
WWED, thank you. ;) (Emirikol the Chaotic, another character from before my time, but I think I might still have a script for his eponymous Fist (sort of an aggressive rod of wonder) somewhere on my computer from the old WotC website.)
Anyway, back to falcon-headed crocodiles, birdie-glyphics, and other fun stuff from the Eighth Book of Moses and such. I have a messed-up job, but someone's got to do it. :) I might check in again over the weekend, otherwise definitely on Monday after my exam.
Anyway, back to falcon-headed crocodiles, birdie-glyphics, and other fun stuff from the Eighth Book of Moses and such. I have a messed-up job, but someone's got to do it. :) I might check in again over the weekend, otherwise definitely on Monday after my exam.
The book of Moses is probably more fun than Black Slaveowners: Free Black Slave Masters in South Carolina, 1790-1860. The content should be interesting, but he writes in such a redundant way that it feels like each chapter is a standalone paper he poorly edited into a book. Whole paragraphs are essentially, "black enslavers worked in this industry and here's a list of their names." I don't think he ever published anything academic again, which is a shame because it's thirty years old and still the standard text. I know nothing about the guy, but I suspect he wrote his dissertation, got it published, and left academia.
I’ve come across an author like that before, along with an acrimonious exchange in various review sections. Abrasive folks, academics. I know they say “iron sharpens iron, scholars, the scholar,” but that does seem a tad aggressive.
Anyway, whew! The translation component wasn’t too terrible, I don’t think, but I’m not very good at commentary, at least in terms of more or less arbitrary ten-line selections from texts that run to a few thousand, occasionally in gibberish. Fingers crossed, and we’ll see what news I get in a week or so. But I should be back to posting more regularly, in the meantime!
Feel free to solicit my opinion on a selection of text if you want to. o wo/ Things like that interest me, and I might be able to spark an idea for your commentary or something.
Oh random thought partially inspired by your books - maybe the grave needs to be hallowed?
We buried him in a grave someone just desecrated so maybe it is just that? Could be worth it to simply sprinkle some holy water over it and see :P
Also - Watching Gods?
That's a phrase I don't recognize... Simply the gods are watching or referring to something more specific?
Maybe the Triad or Helm in particular but ... Maybe something else. Thoughts?
I'm not familiar enough with the setting to have any idea what that might refer to. XD;
Feel free to solicit my opinion on a selection of text if you want to. o wo/ Things like that interest me, and I might be able to spark an idea for your commentary or something.
I'd love to hear - er, see it. :) I collect ever-expanding reading lists. In practical terms, though, I think it's mostly getting over the "deer in the headlights" effect: "OK, this is what I think is going on in this passage, where exactly does it fit in the source text, can I connect it to what most interests me without neglecting a close reading of the particular excerpt, and OH DEAR GODDESS, how many minutes do I have left to come up with a brilliant answer to this question before I need to move on?!!" I need to speed up my brain and fingertips.
Also - Watching Gods?
That's a phrase I don't recognize... Simply the gods are watching or referring to something more specific?
Maybe the Triad or Helm in particular but ... Maybe something else. Thoughts?
The Watching Gods is a generic term to call the attention of any and every concerned deity. It's roughly equivalent to "God as my witness, I did not debauch that sexy, sexy sheep."
Noted :P
A propos of nothing – well, a heads-up about stuff that was delaying my posting a while ago – I just got the news from my department that I got through the major exam I was worried about with a clear pass, so that’s one less thing to worry about. Whew! Now to worry about next steps and a bunch of other projects, but it’s a weight off my mind.
Oh congratulations : )
What if that God was Zeus? Wouldn't he have wanted a turn with the sheep, too?
I mean, mostly it was him dressing up, but...
I am back, too.
I am a little under the weather and will not be updating tonight. Should be back tomorrow.
Blerp. I think I need to go sacrifice some gingerbread animals to the dice gods or something - they sure don't like me (or Chaïa :P) right now!
Yeah, unlucky across the board. I mean, check my damage rolls on that previous round :P
4d8 came out as 1,1,2,3 - with a little more luck I'd think that thing could be dead by now :P
Blerp. I think I need to go sacrifice some gingerbread animals to the dice gods or something - they sure don't like me (or Chaïa :P) right now!
If an elf sticks her head in a sack often enough, eventually someone's going to roll her into the thing and toss it in the lake full of empty suits of armor with swords. Just like Grandpa always used to say.
Indeed that he used to say. Right ...
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Woho! Finally a hit :P
Now if we were to continue our wild speculation I'd say these things have 5d10 hp (+3 damage makes Str 16, attacks are natural and not manufactured, so it needs +5 from BaB).
That would put it at 20 + 5.5*5 hp or 47.5. Or 50 since rounding is boring :P
Which means we are preeeeeety close! Edit2: With the Riposte I think we'll see some results! If I'm right : )
Or I could be way off and there's some DR hidden somewhere.
Edit: This seems pretty close-ish to what we are facing.
Obviously our annoying tin-cans doesn't have pumpkin heads (that we know of!) but they don't seem to cause (magical :P) fear either!
TL:DR Constructs man ...
@Lu:
I was thinking DR/Hardness because the construct line seems harsh.
They use actual weapons. Twice. So if two-weapon Fighting applies, even with Weapon Focus, that would be one more +1 to attack bonus. But then, they also do the same damage with off-hand, so maybe something else is going on there.
Either way, that would be a confined area with 100 HP worth of 4 attacks each round only offering 2 Targets. Seems deadly to a non-gestalted party rolling or using average for HP, unless we missed something. Two creatures is CR+2.
They don't have the Fear or Gaze, but they do have 3 higher AC and a higher crit range using weapons, so could be the same CR easily. That means a CR 6 encounter for a APL of 2.
At +4 over APL, thats 'beyond epic' :)
So I suppose I hoped for them to be less sturdy(with fewer HP), and getting the to-hit from Weapon Finesse(they seem to have high Dex from the AC) rather than strenght. Something like +5 Dex, +3 from BAB for 20+5.5*3 or ~36 HP, and thus having high burst potential(with the increased crit chance) but going down reasonably fast, for a CR of 3, going up to 5 for 2 creatures, and being APL+3 or a epic encounter as boss fight, effectively.
TL:DR Weapon-Finesse FTW to have lower HD?
Those two points though is mostly based on my player experience (certainly not Lu's. Toughest construct she has ever faced before is that darn threshold back home that always stubs her toe!) and could of course be waaay wrong this time. But it seems like the simplest explanation : )
Though you are right that we do know their Dex (probably! Looking at the Touch AC). Longswords though aren't usually finessable and double non-light weapons are -4 to hit so that route might mean they have even more HD! (Though then they'll probably have enough HD to grab Double Slice too)
Anyhow!
The CR seems about right - this is probably the boss encounter for this dungeon and we had time to buff and stuff.
Now I'm also thinking that there might be a more clever way to deal with these then simply bashing them. However ... Not sure what yet and we don't have much time IC to act on that :P
But since they weren't hostile to start with (and probably not particularly clever) cheesing them was probably on the table...
Either way, the point was that if they count as inherent/natural for them, then they would become finessable AFAIK(at least in earlier variants it was that natural weapons always counted as light weapons).
So, yeah...thats what I was expecting, but their sturdyness kind of broke my theory if there's not something else relevant.
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On a somewhat related note - I wonder what would happen if we made an effigy of say Chaïa out of an sack of say glue and threw it at the armours?
Hoping for them simply stabbing it and getting stuck ... :P
If they are really mindless and only attack if something crossed the defined threeshold, there would have been lots of fun options.
Hehe, like simply bull rush one of them closer without stepping there. Just like, push it in, then watch the second one stepping closer and watch them slice each other to pieces :P
Or, say, using a rope to tie them up while they are docile, then only step in after they are a nice, tightly tied up package.
Or take their blades from them before making them angry.
I had this crazy idea that maybe they're air elementals pretending to be empty suits of armour that they're actually wearing.
In retrospect, I should have used my school power to try shifting beyond the little monsters, which might have left me standing long enough to get a bless off or something. *Makes notes for next time.*
On the topic of live testing maybe we should go for the old-school classic of a bag filled with live chickens or something?
Possibly the less messy version Summon (Minor) Monster maybe?
We could probably scramble together enough money for a few scrolls (or a Wand!) of Mount even.
Very useful to check for traps and stuff like this :P
Na, I'm all for custom Spell Creation.
A sort of low-level 'Project Image' that is a short-lived, shadow-based vessel for Chaia that lets her act reckless(but does not provide a spell origin point)...her 1 hit-point alter ego's dying left and right as she projects her consciousness into their suicidal forms rushing to their demise. I'm thinking a timed buff that lets her project at-will with each projection reducing the time remaining(so it's not completely free to waste them) :)
As far as interaction goes, basically unseen servant, only a visible ChibiShadowChaia instead.
Na, I'm all for custom Spell Creation.
A sort of low-level 'Project Image' that is a short-lived, shadow-based vessel for Chaia that lets her act reckless(but does not provide a spell origin point)...her 1 hit-point alter ego's dying left and right as she projects her consciousness into their suicidal forms rushing to their demise. I'm thinking a timed buff that lets her project at-will with each projection reducing the time remaining(so it's not completely free to waste them) :)
As far as interaction goes, basically unseen servant, only a visible ChibiShadowChaia instead.
If you still have questions after the fight, I'm happy to field them. If I'm pulling what comes off as cheesy bullshit or otherwise too much, I'd want to know. :)
But here's a little meta meta in advance:
1) I do tweak fights, not always consistently against or in favor of the party.
2) I usually play rougher when the party has advance warning, the fight is avoidable, and/or can be easily disengaged from.
3) These are a custom monster which I have further tweaked. I sometimes also use canned stats for something else, but re-skin it. Sometimes I do both, but this is in the first category. I don't always worry about getting the math and rules perfect when I do this, because I don't work for WotC or Paizo.
4) If I do realize I've made a horrible mistake, I sometimes make invisible adjustments on the fly. A horrible mistake being something like "there is no way the party can do damage here and running is not a realistic option" or other TPK scenarios.
This is basically all normal GM stuff and probably old news, but speculation is fun and informed speculation is funner, right? :)