Works been killing me, so you haven't missed much. Finally resolving the latest Cuthebert armageddon.
Looks like Glimmil has 2 hero points. He'll stand his ground and hope for the best, then. :)
Don’t try to calculate the CR of this encounter. It will make your head hurt.
So, uhm, outside of the cheat-cheatery of the cloak, what do we think the CR was?
And we won thanks to Initiative and HeroPoints...that was the key.
And luck. Lots of luck.
Are we level 14 yet? Just kidding.
5 - break enchantment, lesser planar binding, sending
6 - chain lightning, contingency, flesh to stone*, stone to flesh*
7 - greater teleport*, limited wish, sequester, simulacrum, statue.
Dyrant will add Stone to Flesh, Flesh to Stone, and Greater Teleport to his archon.
Spellcraft vs. DC 15+6
Spellcraft vs. DC 15+6
Spellcraft vs. DC 15+7
Ring of Protection +2
Hat of Charisma +2
ring of mindshielding
600 gp of diamond dust
small statue of the lady (focus for contingency, 1500 gp)
+1 Studded leather
+1 light shield
+1 dwarven waraxe
belt of giant strength +2
leather half mask set with a black diamond (1,000)
Masterwork full plate
+2 dwarven urgrosh
1000 gp in gems
Masterwork full plate
+2 dwarven urgrosh
1000 gp in gems
+2 breastplate
+1 large steel shield
+1 morningstar
periapt of wisdom +2
belt of strength +2
potion of alter self
holy symbol of Erythnul
+1 full plate with armor spikes
heavy steel shield with symbol of Nerull
+1 unholy heavy mace
wand of cure mod (9 charges)
potion of bull’s strength
Bracers of armor +2
headband of intellect +2
potion of invisibility
Amulet of natural armor +2
ring of counterspells (feeblemind)
ring of protection +2
red gem-studded robe (1500 gp)
wand of fireball (5th, 22 charges)
3 potions of cure mod
scroll of phantasmal killer
+2 chain shirt
+1 greatsword
amulet of natural armor +2
composite (+5) non-magical longbow
+1 shadow studded leather armor
+1 whip
wand of silence (6 charges)
sword sheath with poison reservoir (empty)
--------------------------------
Dyrant wants:
wand of magic missile (7th level, 30 charges)
scroll: greater dispel magic (12th level)
scroll: stone to flesh
scroll: prismatic spray
scroll of raise dead
potion of haste
Dr. Toffitt took:
belt of dexterity +6
Anybody want anything (or anything that Dyrant claimed)?
Glimmil will grab the amulet of natural armor +2 (and put his +1 into the sell pile).
I'm also good with keeping the wand of cure moderate wounds, as well as the potions.
Finneas would like:
Hat of Charisma +2
Amulet of natural armor +2
composite (+5) non-magical longbow <-masterwork?
composite (+5) non-magical longbow <-masterwork?
Yes
The timeline has become a bit muddled, but most of this is happening the night of the fire or the next morning. I'll allow for a rest period for the casters, but I'm not sure if Atol will proceed with a 24-hour casting after the recent posts.
Hrm. So we know about the attack on the temple BEFORE we pick spells or AFTER? If after, then Atol is casting while the party is at the church arguing. If before, then I'll do a different slate of spells and I wouldn't have done the break enchantments - I'd have waited on those until later.
It seems to me that we learn of the attack on the church after breakfast, so Atol is started the long spell and the party needs to determine if they go get him or not.
My sense was that we transmogrified people during breakfast, and learned of the attack then. Perhaps Atol prepped spells but could have chosen whether or not to continue when it became clear that our Kordite allies might be under attack. So at least able to convert Hallow to a cure spell?
The only thing Atol does before breakfast is pray, and breakfast must be completed before we get the bonuses so he wouldn't have stopped half way through to wander about.
So my question remains the same, did we know of the attack before or after spell prep in the morning? I still think it was after so Atol has started the cast while the rest of the party went to check on the church. He can always abandon it, but the spell is gone in that case (though hopefully not the 5kgp).
I'm not sure that waiting a day is bad. Might as well bury Finn's dead and confirm it was Vhal who did this.
I'm just not convinced that our characters would respond that way. A child has been kidnapped in preparation for a human sacrifice that could take place this very day, and which will destroy Cauldron. That's the information that Toffitt has in his mind, at least.
It feels like metagaming to pretend that there's no urgency, especially with the strong leads we have on Vhalantru and the hints we've had that the Carceri ritual could happen at any time.
About to head out of town from tomorrow morning through Sunday night.
Glimmil is ready to go at any time, but can easily be held back a day if the rest of the Cauldron Five deem it necessary.
Since I contributed to this muddled mess, let me try to clean it up.
Previous night - House Rhiavadi burned to ground. Glimmil checks on Skie.
This morning - Break enchantment spell. Notes read over. Atol starts on hallow spell.
Noonish - Finneas goes to temple.
Proceed from there, but the intended mood was one of haste. If that isn't evident, it's likely my fault and the muddled timeline.
Fair enough. Game on.
About to head out of town from tomorrow morning through Sunday night.
Glimmil is ready to go at any time, but can easily be held back a day if the rest of the Cauldron Five deem it necessary.
Okay. I'll probably DMPC through the first part of House Vhalantru.
I'm back! Catching up now.
Cool. Was just about to post for you.
@ Finneas. Which cloak do you have? Minor or Major? The major one requires a standard to activate and only lasts 15 rounds per day.
CLOAK OF DISPLACEMENT, MAJOR
Aura moderate illusion; CL 7th
Slot shoulders; Price 50,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.
DESCRIPTION
This item appears to be a normal cloak, but on command its magical properties distort and warp light waves. This displacement works just like the displacement spell and lasts for a total of 15 rounds per day, which the wearer can divide up as she sees fit.
CONSTRUCTION
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, Extend Spell, displacement; Cost 25,000 gp
CLOAK OF DISPLACEMENT, MINOR
Aura faint illusion; CL 3rd
Slot shoulders; Price 24,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.
DESCRIPTION
This item appears to be a normal cloak, but when worn by a character, its magical properties distort and warp light waves. This displacement works similar to the blur spell, granting a 20% miss chance on attacks against the wearer. It functions continually.
CONSTRUCTION
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, blur; Cost 12,000 gp
Major. Hmmm, no post that I activated it, so I'm back to taking a bunch of hits I think. Didn't realize it was a standard to activate or I'd have done that before starting the fight. Ah well, lesson learned, HP soon to be burned.
Yeah. The rounds per day and standard to activate is important. You can either have activated before opening the door (so number of rounds +1) or you can not have used it so far.
I know I'm whining, but I do think that game mechanic is lame, especially for rounds per day items. Makes items feel clunky, not fun. On the other hand, house ruling it otherwise seems potentially unbalancing. *Shakes fist at game designers*
I'm ok with burning rounds +1 but leave it to GM ruling on how "fair" that will be. Don't want to take advantage and I did forget to activate it so either ruling isn't going to bother me overmuch.
I know I'm whining, but I do think that game mechanic is lame, especially for rounds per day items. Makes items feel clunky, not fun. On the other hand, house ruling it otherwise seems potentially unbalancing. *Shakes fist at game designers*
I disagree. The magic items are like casting a spell, frequently by a person who couldn't have cast that spell in the first place.
I know I'm whining, but I do think that game mechanic is lame, especially for rounds per day items. Makes items feel clunky, not fun. On the other hand, house ruling it otherwise seems potentially unbalancing. *Shakes fist at game designers*I disagree. The magic items are like casting a spell, frequently by a person who couldn't have cast that spell in the first place.
Tis a matter of taste. I find it clunky.
I think it's balanced that it takes a standard, otherwise it's superior to a spell.
That said, at a tabletop game, it's a bit more fluid that you'd activate it before diving headfirst into a dragon's lair vs sometimes when a GM may advance a scene to keep a PbP moving.
I keep meaning to do a better job "pre-buffing" with Glimmil, especially now that he has spells that will last over an hour each, but still haven't had a chance to call that out in a while.
Not that we need the help given how we trounce things. :)
If anyone is curious, I used the double axe fury barbarians from the NPC Codex to save me converting the book's CR 9 half-orc fighters.
Also, I'm in Las Vegas for a work conference through Wednesday so things might slow down a bit.
And for all you NFL fans. BRONCOS!!!
And for all you NFL fans. BRONCOS!!!
That was a freakin' good game. I bet you enjoyed it.
Wow. That was fun to watch.
And for all you NFL fans. BRONCOS!!!That was a freakin' good game. I bet you enjoyed it.
Wow. That was fun to watch.
That's football, right?
Hero points and save or die spells
Hero points - In an attempt to bring back some balance, I'm going to remove the options to use "Act Out of Turn" and "Extra Action" for hero points. This leaves several options including "Cheat death", but the extra actions have been too unbalancing.
Save or die spells - You might have noticed, but I started using the save or die spells a combat or two ago. Without rebuilding the bad guys, it's now frequently the only effective spells/abilities they have. Also, at this level the party tends to have saves high enough to make them ineffective. Even then, there is breath of life and hero points to balance things out. That being said, I'd appreciate it if you still avoided the use of them on a solo big bad guy. If you want to disintegrate/freeze/hold/etc a minion, lackey, or 2nd in command, go for it.
Duly noted. And understood.
Gaining a new respect/annoyance for crippling strike. 12 points of strength damage in a single round. Impressive.
Oh. Well 6 points I think. I don't think it multiplies on a crit...? Or does it...?
I only spent a little time researching. One posts logic was that it would like ray of enfeeblement since it's "damage." They try to argue that it's not "precision damage", but considering it's part of the precision damage I'd have to go with it doesn't double. Even so, 6 points of STR damage is nothing to laugh at.
Nope. Though less of an issue since his targets tend to go down within a round or two. :-p
Round 5 so I'll drop an idea before we're all incinerated by this bastard.
When fighting a beholder, if you're a magic wielding character, you'd ideally want to come over to where the beholder is zapping someone (i.e Glimmil and Cog) and ready an action for when the beholder drops its anti-magic field... thus you can hit it with spells while its zapping someone in the party with its own spell-like abilities.
Good plan. I would have, but I'm largely empty on this fight. I have a few things I can do to help someone if they become incapacitated, but I'm really struggling to find a way to be useful. :(
I'll try harder...
What happens when an antimagic field overlaps with another antimagic field? A huge explosion?!?
Recapping some offline discussions about antimagic field. There are of course varying opinions on the board, but here's how I'm going to play it for now.
- Spells like a fireball which start outside the antimagic field, but would naturally continue to a point on the side of the field work. The "pea-sized bead" would cease to exist as it hits the field, but then reappear on the other side. Likewise, a dragon's breath might start on one side of the field, be suppressed inside, but then work on the other side.
- Summoned creatures cease to exist once they enter the field, but will reappear once the field is removed from that area. However, they cannot get a running start and hope to reappear on the other side.
- This also means that the beholder can shoot his rays through his own antimagic field. It's unlikely to apply, but since the I read the antimagic cone as most cones ("Most cones are either bursts or emanations (see above), and thus won't go around corners.") the geometry could work out that the beholder could shoot through the field and reach someone on the other side.
- The stickier question is whether the spell blocks line of effect. Could Dyrant hex the beholder? It's not in it's own cone. I'm going to go with it doesn't for now. This seriously hurts the beholder, but also prevents the party (or other bad guys) from using an antimagic field in the future as a shield to hide behind.
Ultimately, I think I fall on the side of the argument that the field should block line of effect, but I don't think that is supported by the RAW and maybe not even by the RAI--that's just my opinion of how an antimagic field should work. There's an 84 post discussion on the topic with no responses from any developers or staff, which--in typical Paizo fashion--is marked "11 people marked this as FAQ candidate. Staff response: no reply required."
I was sort of thinking of it as a common sense ruling:
If there's something obviously traveling from one side of the field to the other, the field would block it. After all, what's propelling a fireball across that space besides magic?
If there's no obvious line of effect (say, evil eye, summoning a creature in a space 50' away), then it's more up for interpretation.
But I'm not that concerned one way or the other. I do really wish Paizo would focus more energy on supporting existing material... Would it kill them to hire a FAQ developer or two?
Apologies to GM_Chris and the group: I fear my quip about the concealment ruling came off as disrespectful, rather than the good natured snark I intended.
Most DMs I know would throw in the towel at about 11th or 12th level out of sheer frustration with all of the subsystems and power creep. I really appreciate your efforts to keep it moving and keep it fun!
Still here. Just a busy week and now a soccer weekend with the youngest boy and then to Yosemite for the wife's birthday. Back Monday night or Tuesday.
A somewhat provocative post I put together about the dreaded 'metagaming.'
Nicely done on the last battle all. It took some patience and creativity.
In regards to the charge by Glimmil, I mind them less at this point. They're not going to kill the biggest things in a single blow and the creatures should be smart enough to plan against allowing the charge. I won't make the same mistake next time. :-)
Nicely done on the last battle all. It took some patience and creativity.
In regards to the charge by Glimmil, I mind them less at this point. They're not going to kill the biggest things in a single blow and the creatures should be smart enough to plan against allowing the charge. I won't make the same mistake next time. :-)
+1
Thanks for that encounter...was just wondering what the point of the upward digging/disintigrating was.
Also, in your opinion, did the fog clouds help or hinder? Would it have been over quicker (one way or another) if they weren't there?
I think the fog hindered the beholder. It left it shooting blindly. I could have been more cheesy and let it scan to find someone and then leave the ray just next to them to reduce the miss chance to 20%.
The tactics were to disintegrate a tunnel for escape if things went bad. Of course, it's 150 to the next level, so that's a long time at 10' per round. After I started creating the escape shaft, it seemed like a safer placed then out in the open.
Also, without the fog, the beholder might not have retreated into the shaft where he was reduced to using the rays every other round.
Especially if he had Toffitt right there doing full attacks every round. I agree it was on balance a good move, although one that led to a chain of events which left most folks hindered.