In that case Wabbit will take a nice long nap late afternoon :)
Now want stats for a Drop Bear and Drop Pig
How close are we would you say? I'm thinking I'll lowball the pouch so it spills open and toss my dagger at him if I'm close enough to sneak attack.
I'm thinking within 10 feet.
I'm going to call the lowballed pouch as a ranged feint. Initiative will be rolled afterwards, and hopefully you come out ahead before he gets to act.
Wouldn't I get a surprise round?
This guy is on high alert. There's no way he can be surprised now.
If you feint him, then he's flat footed no matter how the initiative falls. If you draw your weapon instead, then he'll only be flat footed if you win initiative.
I'm not sure what to do
I think your best option is to toss the bag of coins as a feint, which would be a bluff check. Then I'll roll initiative. Between you, Furnok, and Bacon, this guy may very well die before he gets a turn.
Cleo is ready with her hold person spell as well.
I think I got it. I'm gonna fake drop the purse, squat to pick it up while palming my hidden dagger then throw it.
I think it's important to own up to one's mistakes, I can go invisible at will for a couple of rounds D'oh.
Yeah I think vanish is 5 rounds max, just off the top of my head. I've got a wizard who used it to get allies out of a sticky situation.
It is. Which for a rogue is STILL amazing.
Woot! Glad he failed that save.
That is an awesome spell.
I didn't realize how good a spell that is to stop someone from screaming bloody murder as they're being murdered bloodily.
That was nice.
Not sure what skill to use. Want to make sure Janis understands the trap so he knows not to go here's johnny on any doors
I was after a DC20 to fully understand the trap, but with your 19, I decided it was close enough to determine that you wouldn't set it off by unlocking the door or opening it. I felt like missing the DC by 1 and just telling you that you didn't find anything was kind of lacking.
To understand the function of the trap, I usually give upon discovery of the trap with perception. I think knowledge Engineering or craft (traps) are good options as well, but I know that that doesn't help you. Engineering isn't even on the rogue class skill list, which I find kind of sad. Engineering gets a bad rep. Personally, I think of disable device as just the physical taking apart or neutralizing of the trap itself, but that's not quite how Pathfinder goes about it.
I actually have a lot of thoughts around how to go about traps, but it changes a fair bit, so I don't run it or enforce it.
- Separating the discovery of the trap and understanding the nature of the trap
- Allowing for a descriptive explanation of how to disarm the trap (which may not even require disable device)
- A completely different way of what happens when a trap is triggered (basically, everyone hears a click, and they've got one opportunity to do something that might help or hinder them, like dropping to the floor or raising a shield or start running back. These might help them against the trap, or may put them in even more danger.)
- Traps triggering other traps and situations, which require the party to make split second decisions
I've never put these ideas into a game and actually ran it. I did run a one-shot where a group of mid-level adventurers delved into a heavily trapped kobold lair, and I realized that trap making was my calling.
That, was for figuring out what the door trap was...
Oh!
Nice.
Oh, very good. Opening attack as a crit!
Perhaps. Assuming a nineteen hits, and with that damage output it might be an opening kill to boot. We shall see.
Hey, would you guys be interested in critiquing tactics for a boss fight? I don't want to start describing them in case I annoy you by giving our GM ideas. I think it would be an interesting but perhaps too challenging an encounter.
Critiquing tactics? Our GM is full of ideas already so I don't think there is any worry about giving him new ones :) so no annoyance from me.
I'm not currently open to receiving criticism regarding boss fight tactics. Perhaps in the future I'll return to this and ask for it.
No, I mean for an adventure I'm writing. A story about a superhero in training with the power of being a black dragon.
I've been awash in ideas. But as a player I kind of don't want to inflame your imagination
One of the cardinal rules of D&D, don't give the DM more ideas to kill you with.
Oh, that's different.
Well my piece of advice is to really consider the viewpoint of the boss.
If there's a chance for diplomacy, the boss may let the characters in for talking. This requires that the characters possess something that the boss would be willing to negotiate for.
If not, then are they perceived as a threat? If so, then the best way to deal with them is to obliterate them as soon as possible. Playing with one's food should only happen if the target is not a threat. Buffs are best before combat, but not great during combat.
I suppose there's a flow chart of if/then statements that could be made.
Agreed but I'm more talking about the tactics the boss uses to make the fight more than I hit you/you hit me. The boss is a young black dragon, adventurers have been summoned to check out his territory. He's been raised by servants of his mother (a tribe of kobold) after she was slain.
He moved into this swamp recently and has been busy fortifying it. His den borders waist high water that he can swim through and hide in. It's got a thick layer of peat that he can stealthily scratch up and thin so that adventurers might fall into the watery depths and drown.
He keeps underwater as much as possible striking from stealth with his teeth or breath. He might have a level or two of rogue.
In addition to that his den is in a copse of trees with disguised paths for his kobold servants. He has some magic users and archers who stay in the trees to support him and some troops that can engage from melee if he wants to escape to live another day or just keep the party busy.
That already sounds pretty good. You've got hazardous terrain, useful minions, tactical combat.
If we're going by the book, then black dragons aren't the smartest, but they are pretty wise. They don't have sense motive, so they're not great at predicting what their opponents are going to do. One thing that sticks out to me is their Handle Animal skill. You may want to consider including trained animals, perhaps venomous/constricting snakes?
I personally run (true) dragons quite differently, but that's a different topic.
Okay, so for options beyond a slugfest of who dies from damage first.
- Get rid of healer's spells before combat. Use traps, poisons, diseases, disposable minions. It has to be threatening enough that spells have to be used. This will give your dragon an edge for the inevitable slug fest. The party has healing, the dragon does not. That's a huge imbalance.
- Poisons that deal ability damage. Works well on traps and arrows. Doesn't have to be CON, but if you're going for a mental stat, you're going to have to be careful who you're targeting. Fighters don't care if they take CHA damage.
- Diseases with fairly quick onsets. Depending on how drawn out travel is, you can use diseases on various monsters/environments to your advantage. Diseases seem to hit multiple ability scores, which make them more versatile.
- Combat maneuvers. Your dragon can breathe underwater, the PCs can't. This could be very useful for grappling PCs and dragging them to their watery grave. Bonus points if you can get the wizard/bard/cleric.
- Environmental changes. I'm not entirely sure how you would go about this in your situation, but things like trees falling, swamp flooding, fast winds, sinkholes, and other things that the PCs can't hit could make it more entertaining. A word of caution is that if you're getting really tactical, you're going to need a really good map. Doesn't need to be fancy, but does need to be detailed, and if the environment changes, will need to be routinely updated.
Hmm. First, I'd love to hear how you run dragons. And they are in a copse of trees so falling ones can be arranged. I had some plans for a tree trap but I hadn't considered implementing it in the boss area.
I also plan on having areas of poisonous gas in the swamp and diseases and a random weather chart. I also am considering having the dragon harass them at night. Using it's breath to mess up gear and tents, there's also going to be a Lizardfolk mid boss and the dragon will supply his acid to his minions instead of standard acid flasks.
This is going to be treacherous. Very fitting of a black dragon.
Very treacherous, and there will be a lot of moving parts for you to administer. Poisonous gas is a good idea. You might want to consider clouds of poisonous or just nauseating gas that rolls across the swamps. Mist is also a good idea. Be careful if you're using your dragon for harass. If the dragon enters the battlefield, there is a chance the PCs will immobilize, multi-crit, and kill it. I've played in games with the DM's invisible wall of force that cannot be penetrated or teleported through in order to protect the dragon for a later fight. It's one of the worst feelings.
I tone the following guidelines down for pre-written Adventure Paths, because otherwise it gets OP quickly. Here's what I do for True Dragons.
- I think that true dragons are the most powerful non-outsiders that walk on the material plane. They are the ultimate creature of power. They are very strong, extremely intelligent, and brimming with magic. If it were a sci-fi game, I would say that dragons are the only creatures capable of keeping up with a sentient AI, though they would function differently. I want the PCs to encounter a dragon and go "wow! A dragon! This is serious!" rather than "oh hey, a dragon. I've killed a few of those."
To do this, I give any non hatchling or juvenile dragon an intelligence of at least 20, and usually bring up their wisdom and charisma as well. I also give them class abilities depending on their personality and life history. This works kind of like a Gestalt character, where I'm not giving them full levels (which would increase their BAB and HD), but rather giving them the class features of a class of their HD. So a sneaky Young Adult Black Dragon would have some of the class features of a 12th level rogue, including sneak attack, evasion, and better reflex saves. Sorcerous or wizardly dragons would have a full complement of spells. Occasionally I give them more abilities than their HD would suggest, and it's at that point that I give them proper levels.
- Dragons have free will, and therefore individuals may have different alignments than what their scales normally determine. I try to have a very good reason for doing this, because I'm not a fan of defying player expectations solely for the purpose of defying player expectations.
- The dragon has at least one very major task/quest/priority, and other dragons conspire against it. This helps keep dragons in their heavily fortified lairs and use subtle schemes rather than go all out on rampages, but it all depends on the circumstances. The tasks could simply be to survive and gather more power, or it could be to stop an invading force that threatens the balance of the cosmos.
- Dragons who use magic understand the principles of magic in a way that all "inferior" races cannot even comprehend. They can effortlessly weave multiple spells together, utilize all sorts of metamagic, cast spells like they were mere cantrips, and utilize mythic spells. In addition, the distinctions between Arcane, Divine, Primal, and Psychic are much more loose to dragons. To them, magic is magic, and it can be converted into many, many different forms.
- I am also a fan of multi-scale or mottled dragons. I tend to have those ones be less powerful overall, but quite versatile.
- We don't really look at Elves and Dwarves in pathfinder as a dying race. I try to show that dragons are very much on the decline, and they will eventually leave a gaping hole to be filled by other powerful races, hopefully without the intention of destroying Golarion itself.
Yes, well this game won't have much of an over arching plot. Town asks for help,their lizaedfolk trading partners haven't come by in a bit and they need that food.
Go to Lizaedfolk, find z village under attack by a mixture of the dragons forces which includes members of that tribe. Mid boss might make an appearance here. Eventually they go into the swamp, depending on what happens at the village they may or may not know about the dragon.
If the dragon dies oh well, mid boss and bunch of pissed off loyal minions attack at night.
I'll have to recalculate CR based on most of the party being unarmored and drained of resources. (Which is part if why the dragon harasses them at night. Plus it can move unhindered through swampy terrain to discourage the party from following.
Things like quicksand are helpful to that too if they camp near a patch.
Second floor of the Gull is finally up. Slide 2
Can somebody tell me how we split up the 20,000 coin, I've finally got new glasses and can see well enough to fix my sheet
Lol! We're destined to have characters at opposition once again, aren't we, DJ? :)
I added 1095gp on July 25th to Cleo's character sheet. She used most of it to buy a bow for Aggah.
Found the place she mentioned how much she owed you, which is off her character sheet now so didn't have it on hand.
2250 so combine that with 1095 we get 3345 each. But don't forget to add the additional 2250 to your character so Janis got 5595gp.
Monetarily I should have let Cleo die :)
From 8/1
"If the group approves the split of 33k....33/5=6.6k each"
Thank you Wabbit.
Thanks wabbit. And I found that cash Cleo. Not sure what that 1095 is though.
Bump guys
I lost a post, sorry sir. The stairs lead up. So the question I have to the group is keep exploring or get the kids out of here since we have them all and that is why we were here.
The stairs lead up to a closed door
However, the stairs on the first floor that head down did have an open door.
So TWO choices!! Let's explore, we are not down much. Up first?
lets go UP! Once we've cleared that I'd like to bring the children to a safe place. Which brings up an important point. I do not remember if the Sarenite priest is capable of handling all these orphans. Funding it is not a problem. We can sell the Creepers loot and cover the cost. But can he and his wife handle this number?
After upstairs is handled and the kids are taken care of the evercurious Wabbit would like to explore downstairs.
Furnok is upstairs waiting for people and having a smoke.
Furnok is having Deja Vu
Welcome back, Andreste. Let me know if you have any questions