Lurking for a while again.
Doh. Just realized that Slashing Grace, which used to allow using a Buckler in the other hand, has been erratta'd to say:
"You do not gain this benefit while fighting with two weapons or using flurry of blows, or any time another hand is otherwise occupied."
Zoli of course spent money to retrain from Dervish Dance specifically so that she could use the buckler that Baern made for her. :-/
Let me know what you want to do.
Technically a buckler is strapped to the arm, that wouldn't constitute as occupied would it?
@Zoli: I think that we're playing this game with the grandfather clause. Thron told me to keep using the old, delicious version of Divine Protection rather than the new, meh version.
Otherwise, I would have to cough up like 7,500 gp for the newly repriced Mask of Stony Demeanor. Granted, I don't think Thron has ruled on that one either.
I'll allow it. If it becomes an issue, I'll readdress it.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Technically a buckler is strapped to the arm, that wouldn't constitute as occupied would it?
The European martial artist in my has to say, no they aren't. They are gripped in the hand with a center boss.
A small shield strapped to your arm would be a targe or something like that. The vast majority of historical shields were center grip, everything from the Romans to the Normans. It was only in the 11th century that we started seeing strapped shields in Europe. Then by the late 13th century they'd largely been eliminated for knights and replaced by plate armor and longswords (which require two hands to properly use IRL). Footmen still used shields, and bucklers were popular with civilians for a long time after that though. But the heyday of shield based combat was all center grip shields.
Now you know.
Pathfinder, like many a version of D&D, never really trucks with 'historical accuracy'. A buckler in Pathfinder is different.
This small metal shield is worn strapped to your forearm. You can use a bow or crossbow without penalty while carrying it. You can also use your shield arm to wield a weapon (whether you are using an off-hand weapon or using your off hand to help wield a two-handed weapon), but you take a –1 penalty on attack rolls while doing so. This penalty stacks with those that may apply for fighting with your off hand and for fighting with two weapons. In any case, if you use a weapon in your off hand, you lose the buckler's AC bonus until your next turn. You can cast a spell with somatic components using your shield arm, but you lose the buckler's AC bonus until your next turn. You can't make a shield bash with a buckler.
So rule-wise, the buckler remains viable with slashing grace as it is neither in the hand, nor is it being used in two-weapon fighting.
Bah. Whatever...silly rules.
Lurkin
Jelani, congrats on making round 3! I look forward to seeing your next submission!!
Done with workin',
Donned my jerkin,
Munchin' on gerkins,
Anyone lurkin'?
I am lurking with Crusty and Stalwart now as I work on monster.
Can't sleep, lurking for a bit.
Lurkin'
So...what's the game plan folkity folks?
Tzefira: you were supposed to be working for Justice Ironbriar in aiding the hunt for these cultists, but were hired by the Mayor. With nobody else really to report to, and given the Justice's direct involvement, you are certain the mayor would want to know. But, it is already quite late, and it is likely he has retired for the evening.
Rest of you: obviously, most of you are all quite hurt. What are your plans? Spend a day (or a few) recovering naturally? Make some donations to a temple for some healing? Go headlong to this next tower without a care in the world, wounds be damned?
Just need to know so I can move things along properly.
I say that we rest and resupply before going on to the next tower. I can heal everyone over the course of a couple of days.
Posted a proposal for how to be ready to go in the AM.
BTW, Setsuna, I totally want to get to RP why the heck you started talking in Thassilonian all of a sudden...but felt like it would be opening too many threads at once with one post. Lets be sure not to drop it though!
I'm in the heat of RPG SS right now. I don't want to do anything until I'm at full health though.
Lurkin.
I've got three more nights of work in this stretch. I will be moving us along Thursday. So somebody please have me a definitive (this is what we are doing) post by then so I don't have to make assumptions from the conversation.
Time of the day is just about 3 PM in case it is of consequence to your plans.
Some OOC thoughts, exploring one line of attack. Happy to consider other lines of attack as well.
* Zoli is happy to fly up there on the back of Olympus (and maybe accompanied by "Bill Owl'Riley")?
. . . - To minimize the chance of being spotted on the way, Thron what has the weather been like? Is there a foggy time of day? Or is there (consistent or intermittent)
. . . - If not, night might be the ideal time to scout.
. . . - To make that work though, Zoli would need to be able to see in the dark. Tzefira, would you be open to learning darkvision? Zoli would happily pay to have you learn it, if you'd be up for it and have room for another 2nd level spell.
. . . - Assuming a night approach, we'd want to minimize the time spent within 60' of a window (assuming guards with 60' nightvision). Thron, how possible is that? e.g. if we approach from way above and then fly straight down?
* If she gets to the top, she can hang a rope, climb down, and peek in some windows.
* If things get bad, she has Feather Fall so can fall 60' without harm. If the tower is > 60' tall...then the fall would be harmful. Thron, how tall *is* it?
* For Olympus to carry Zoli (or anyone) he needs to stay to a light load (43lbs for his 12 STR). Zoli+her bare minimum gear fits that *exactly*...but that means leaving behind her thieve's tools and silk rope, which doesn't make sense here. Instead, Riley, would you be up for memorizing Ant Haul for the day? That brings Olympus' max light load up to a very comfortable 129 lbs.
...On a completely unrelated note, Zoli's eyes lit up when she saw Tzefira cast Windy Escape. She's thinking of retraining one of her two Bard spells to it. Thron any issues with that (assuming I spend the 120 GP and the 2 days)? And could I have done so over the past two days? Tzefira, you willing to teach your secret Slyph spell to a mischievous halfling?
1) Weather has been ok the past few days, getting a bit chilly but sunny.
2) There is an image of the tower in my previous post in gameplay, but there are no windows per se. Just some open areas way down the tower, as well as one up at the top.
3) As I said in my post, it is over 180' tall.
4) Yes, per the Retraining rules.
Thanks! Having reread Thron's description of the tower and the opening near the top (as well as rumors of a snake lady slinking through the night sky!!) I'm wavering...
...I could see having one or a few folks fly up to look in the hole--knowing they may need to fly away again very quickly, rather than face this flying snake lady alone.
...On the other hand, I'm not sure how much we'll gain from peeking in that window. Either way I suspect we should prep to break in and climb the stairs.
Speaking of which, we know the stairs are so treacherous that the building has been condemned. How can we get around that? I'm assuming that no matter what we see on our scouting mission, we're not getting the whole party into the tower through a hole 180' off the ground.
We can and should have ropes to help us ascend. I know Tzefira can fly up (or at least levitate) and that Riley can shift into a form with a climb or fly speed. Zoli is great at acrobatics (+14), but when it comes to actual climbing, she's only got a +4.
Anyway, thoughts?
Also, acquiring potions of invisibility will involve at least a few hours shopping in the city. And if you are wanting to do so more quickly...you'll need to split up. That's just some RP aside information, but wanted to let you know it would be feasible. But...it would also only be for a limited time from when you drank them, obviously.
Two day warning on update (roughly). Still plan to do so on Thursday.
Rather than spending months of real time slogging through this dungeon, I'd rather skip to the final boss if possible.
This tower is under the Irespan, we could rappel down the side of it, and onto the tower. Or spider climb our way under the bottom of the bridge and drop down.
Or hire a summoner to dimension door us one by one to the window.
Or we could observe the tower and wait for the snake lady to leave, then go in the window (with one of the above methods), then ambush her when she returns.
Will be updating today...though I still don't see an agreed upon plan...
Gonna take me a post work nap, and update when I wake up.
Anyone around to chat / strategize on roll20?
Not until this evening.
Slept waaaaaay in today. I will update this either tonight or tomorrow. Either way...planning time grows short.
Jelani, I like that you're thinking of creative ways to approach this. Let's explore more:
Going up while Xanesha is out, and setting up an ambush If we can make this happen, that sounds awesome. Maybe we plan to nap during the day and then set up a watch before dusk, going into action if we see her leave. The main question would be: how long do we wait, if we don't see her?
I'll suggest either (a) we wait until an hour before sunrise and then go in even if she hasn't left yet, or (b) we wait for X days before going in anyway.
My vote would be wait either just this one night or maybe two.
Dropping in from above I talked with Thron about this on chat. Per Thron it’s “just a few feet” from the underside of the Irespan to the top of the tower. We’d want ropes + spiderclimb active to keep us from falling.
My thoughts on how to do this:
- Buy a scroll of communal spiderclimb for 375 GP (or pay to have Tzefira learn either spiderclimb or communal spiderclimb, if she prefers)
- Cast it on Eugeni, Setsuna, and Mory who will climb side-by-side.
- Riley casts ant haul on Olympus, who Zoli will ride. (beforehand we buy an exotic saddle for said bird).
- Riley then shifts to bird form and flies up.
- Tzefira levitates beside the three climbers, ready to cast Feather Fall on them if something goes really wrong (e.g. flying attackers catching us at a disadvantage while we're halfway up, or a section of the tower that we're holding onto falling off).
The other Q is who watches from where? I’m guessing it might be hard to see her from 180’ away in the dark, even for folks with darkvision, so scouts on the ground might miss her leaving. Also, even if they saw it, it might take so long to get up to the Irespire that she’d be back already.
Riley, what do you think about a bird or bat watching from 60’ from the hole, from a perch above the tower on the Irespan? Then the rest of us could be on top of the Irespan, waiting for word and not too far off to minimize the chance that we get caught halfway down when Xanesha returns. (I’m figuring that bird/bat could be you, or Olympus, but maybe you have other options too up your druidic sleeves.)
NOTE, the risk of doing this is that we are in a pretty awkward position if foes catch us as we're lowering to the opening from the Irespan. Worst case, someone could end up falling 240', likely to their death. I think we only want to do this if we think we can all stay together, with Tzefira nearby to cast Feather Fall (or some other form of protection).
Scaling the tower Per Thron, probably more precarious than dropping from above. I thought it might be worth considering but seems there’s too big a
Dimension Door I think this is both more expensive and more likely to cause us to arrive 1 at a time (thus putting the first arrivals at extra danger).
Flying up Tzefira, I just now noticed you'd mentioned this option too: seems like you'd cast Fly on Eugeni, Mory, and Setsuna (using up all of your 3rd level spells for the day) and then you could levitate up, Riley would fly up in bird form, and Zoli would ride Olympus.
Comparing that to the Irespan plan...the advantage is it gets us to the window much quicker, once we see that Xanesha is gone, and it keeps us from getting caught in an awkward place. The disadvantage is that it uses up all three of your 3rd level spells for the day, right before entering a presumably deadly encounter.
I could see reasonable arguments for either Fly or Irespan being less risky. I lean slightly toward the Irespan plan so that Tzefira has more tricks left available once we get up there...but I could easily be persuaded otherwise.
What do yall think?
Also, I'm going to leave Roll20 open for a while and listen for chimes there so if you are around come by and post something. I'll reply if I'm able. Let's finalize a plan!!
Can't talk on Roll20, but I agree with Jelani about just skipping to the end of the dungeon rather than slogging our way up the stairs.
I say we drop from above via Spider Climb. It sounds like it would be fastest and most practical.
Super busy with end of contract, job applications and job interviews at the moment. Happy to go with the consensus on a plan.
All right, change of plans! Had a bit of a party on Roll20 this evening, and we've had quite the development. Long story short, I'm low on spells, but we've found ourselves a bit of a potential ally.
So check out the gameplay thread (and the shenanigans on Roll20 if you're interested how it >really< played out).
Ok: so what is the official plan, now?
What has been purchased, who paid for it, and what time of day are you going in? Currently it is now 6 PM ish.
I'd like to have picked up a couple tanglefoot bags before finally heading out.
But otherwise, I'm in favor of starting at the ground floor and working our way up, especially if we don't wait for spells to replenish.
Quick ooc post
I think we do a ground assault now. We couldn't do there aerial one sleeping a night...and what're do we still with Scarecrow then? Also, it's clear that we're being followed. Given that the "drop from above" plan could be turned around on us, with a flying foe ambushing us while we're trying to set up an ambush of our own.
My vote is to go in on the ground, right now.
Merr...ok. But we should send scarecrow first and follow him, not leave him at the door.
WOW that last OOC post from me is chock full of autocomplete nonsense. I guess the gist came through though.
Looking at this staircase I have no idea if it's the right call...but I still think I'll take a f*&ked up staircase over a potential ambush at 180' off the ground on the top of a rickety tower.
I guess Thron can tell us after the encounter is over if we made a good call or not... ;-)
Lurkinatin' all the peasants.
For the next month (and perhaps beyond) I'll be backpacking around SE Asia with only my wife's laptop to access the Interweb. She don't give up her laptop without a struggle, so posting might be intermittent during this period. I'll try and keep posting as often as I can, but if you find me holding things up, then feel free to DMPC. Just don't kill me.
I have something really important to take care of tomorrow morning, so I won't be posting for another day. Thanks for understanding.
Getting called in to work tonight, so now am starting a 9 shift stretch of nights. I can OOC tell you this: for the duration of the stair climb, the only threat now is the dangerous nature of the stairs (solved by spacing out), and traversing the gaps. Please work on resolving the stair climb in the next day or two so I can move us along.
DC 15 climb check to span the 20' gap with rope, DC 20 without.
DC 10 climb check to span the 10' gap with rope, DC 15 without.
So I fell?
Tzefira helping via levitation provides a +5 bonus as well. So assuming that: no, u didn't.
Tzefira also prepared feather fall just in case other people in the group fall (she has her own version of it as a personal effect).
I'm going to be busy until Friday night. This week turned out to be rather hectic for me.
Lurkin' on Roll20. Someone come help me stay awake!
Lurkin' as I update.
Hey gang, I'm sorry to say Thron's father is in the hospital. It's possible he'll be offline (or at least sparse in posting) for some time, as he figures out how bad it is.
In the meantime, lets send our thoughts and prayers to him and his family.
Please bear with me for a while. As gyr said (very much appreciated), my dad is currently in the hospital, 8 hours away, having a heart attack. I am going to be driving down there tomorrow, and don't know how long I'll be out of commission. Until further notice, consider this game on pause (though feel free to complete this rounds actions). If you see me active elsewhere, do not be offended, but it is far easier (and perhaps a necessary distraction) for me to get a player post up than it is to do a DM post.