Grum, the basilisk was only 5' away from you. You could 5' step and full attack, if you wanted.
No problem. I was hoping you would kill it on the iterative and not have to make a second save (Fort +8 on a DC 15 save-or-die is not great) but as it happened you passed the save.
Just waiting on Amkarang's AOOs so I can figure out what to do on my turn.
Here is the relevant quote on trip and weapon bonuses.
Disarm, sunder, and trip are normally the only kinds of combat maneuvers in which you’re actually using a weapon (natural weapons and unarmed strikes are considered weapons for this purpose) to perform the maneuver, and therefore the weapon’s bonuses (enhancement bonuses, feats such as Weapon Focus, fighter weapon training, and so on) apply to the roll...
There is a special exception to the above rules. If you’re using a weapon with the trip special feature, and you’re attempting a drag or reposition combat maneuver (Advanced Player’s Guide 321–322), you may apply the weapon’s bonuses to the roll because trip weapons are also suitable for dragging and repositioning (this also means we don’t have to add “drag” and “reposition” weapon properties to existing weapons).
I imagine this will come up again. Having a reach weapon with the Trip feature in the front rank is a major advantage.
I was not aware of that. Okay, going forward, that's how we'll play it. Sorry.
Thanks.
The other thing is that Trip takes the place of an attack - it is not a standard action.
So Amkarang could trip her with his first attack (as he did) and then get the off-hand and the iterative against her prone (before the Aid Another comes into play), and then the AOO as she tries to stand.
It is quite possible he kills her before her turn.
We have been taking a lot of damage (having fairly poor AC for 6th-level fighters) and so anything we can do to mitigate that is valuable.
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For AC, my rule of thumb is Level+15 at a minimum to be in the front lines, and Level+20 to be considered tanky
So 21 to stand up front, 26 to be ‘safe.’ So, indeed, we are on the squishy end. But a big part of that is all of us need AC items. It has led to us all being under-geared. For example, at lvl6 an average PC will have 16k gold.
Grum’s Equipment
* +1 Plate (2650)
* Boots of Springing (5500)
* +1 Falchion (2d4 damage, 18-20 crit, x2) (2375)
* Longsword (1d8 damage, 19-20 crit, x2) (15)
* Longbow +2 mod with 20 arrows (1d8 damage, 20 crit, x2) (275)
* Fighter's Kit (This kit includes a backpack, a bedroll, a belt pouch, a flint and steel, an iron pot, a mess kit, rope, soap, torches (10), trail rations (5 days), and a waterskin.) (9)
* 1587 gold
That translates to a ring of protection and cloak of resistance. Which I believe comes down to the module (a) being low-loot as we are always on the run and (b) an all-fighter group needing to split the fighter gear.
Overall, it’s not a big deal, and we’re doing fine. But we are certainly on the lower end, and I’m glad that you are being tactical because of it.
My rule of thumb is that 15+level is "barely adequate," 20+level is "good" and 25+level is "great." Generally a melee brute will have around 2*CR as their attack bonus (giants fit this pretty closely).
My PFS Ftr6 has around a 31-ish AC most of the time, and +10-+12 to all saves. He does this not with a ton of gear, but teamwork feats and Fighter's Tactics. Teamwork feats are really good. He has Shield Wall, Shake it Off, Lastwall Phalanx, and Scion of the Lost Empire. If Auspicious Birth (Conjunction) existed when I created him, he'd have that too.
In this group, I think everybody other than Benedict has spent just about all of their feats on offense. Which is not unreasonable, as archery and TWF are feat-intensive styles, and Grum loses feats from both his archetype and his VMC (and William loses feats from his archetype, while Aerel loses them from VMC). Maybe in a few more levels other PCs will be free to take teamwork feats or Unhindering Shield or other defensive options.
These hobgoblins are good at making "kill them before they can hit you" not easy to achieve. Combined arms tactics, good use of cover, new foes coming in waves - this is a really challenging fight.
As to our gear, as much as I want to retrain out the Craft Wondrous Item feat (and the Additional Traits feat that I took to get Spellcraft), I will hang onto it and try to make some use of it when we have some downtime and money to spend.
Interestingly, I couldn’t trip with my offhand. My meteor hammer only has the trip quality when it’s in reach mode, not when I’m two-handing it.
@Amkarang, are you sure about that? The description of the weapon doesn't say that. Was there a FAQ?
Huh, seems you’re right. Guess I misread that initially.
My plan is to get a Channel from Aubrin to get us all close to full, then make for the tower next round.
Regrouping around William because I didn't want to draw Aubrin too far from the forge. And it allows William to get a full attack this round and get some cover.
Hopefully once we are in the tower, the dragon will have more incentive to stay there and prepare for a fight rather than fly into the courtyard and kill refugees out of spite. The Ironfang are taking slaves, and if they kill us the refugees will probably fold.
@Aerel, we know that Izbariak is the dragon (from the patrol we ambushed) and the messenger told to alert it went into the tower. So it's a reasonable conclusion.
If you want to hold our ground here we can do that. But there are no good options.
If the dragon takes the fight to us in the courtyard, only two of us are really effective, and it can take full advantage of its mobility to strafe us. Barring a very bad Reflex save by the dragon against a tanglefoot bag, I think that's a TPK.
By going into the tower (where its hoard is) we entice it to stay inside and fight us there.
I am also very concerned for our militia but we did bring them along to hold ground we had taken. The forge is cleared.
William does not have any enemies adjacent to full-attack him, and can double move or run to catch up next round. Again, hopefully we can deal with this group quickly and have a few rounds before reinforcements arrive.
@Benedict, just me worrying, don't sweat it. I also, not having a map at that point, had lost the scale of the courtyard. I was thinking it was even farther from east to west.
I debated telling the militia to loot the bodies we've left behind, but I don't want them to get caught in the open even less than I want me caught in the open.
Aerel, I had you do a run to get as close to the end of the bridge as possible. The straight line requirement was the limiting factor.
Would love to have hold portal available to lock the door behind us!
Saves so far against this damn spell are 1, 7, 7.
And I need a 10+, so 55% chance.
Don’t forget the 4 I needed to aid you - and failed. Your luck on this spell is rubbing off! ;-)
@Grum, I think Sir Kingston can still do scouting with 100' range, which would get up the stairs.
If he is no longer scouting, then you might select a different evolution for him in the future (like Basic Magic).
Mechanically, even if he is only giving you +2 Will saves (which stacks with Iron Will) and also Alertness, that's a pretty good deal for one feat. But I don't think scouting is entirely unusable. Anyway, your call.
Yes, 100' is still a good distance for interior scouting. It's just not suitable for long-distance ranging. And going up a level in a tower means Sir Kingston isn't much at risk of going beyond the 100'.
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Very true...but I think that on next level up I’ll be switching his focus to be protective. At lvl7 it can have 2 points of evolution.
Resistance gives Cold Resist 10, and shared evolution let’s Sir Kingston give it to Grum. And combined with Grum’s archetype, it means at lvl7 he will have Fire and Cold Resist 10, enough to never take damage from extreme weather. I figure that when he hits 13, he will choose resistance again, giving him resistance to acid as well. So he will then have Fire Resist 20, Cold and Acid 15.
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As for scouting, I’ll get a post up for it now.
William got the Minor Ring of Energy Resistance from the cache (Aerel told him to take it).
We did get moved along to this fight pretty quickly, which is good, but I hope anyone who still had damage would have healed up with potions.
In the future I think Amkarang is best in front with his reach weapon and Combat Reflexes for AOOs in case the enemy beats us on initiative.
I switched you and Amkarang.
And I'll let you retroactively heal with wands or potions (since there's no real reason you wouldn't have, especially going to fight a dragon)
William got the Minor Ring of Energy Resistance from the cache (Aerel told him to take it).
We did get moved along to this fight pretty quickly, which is good, but I hope anyone who still had damage would have healed up with potions.
In the future I think Amkarang is best in front with his reach weapon and Combat Reflexes for AOOs in case the enemy beats us on initiative.
Must have been the ring. I was thinking potions. Well, we don't want to group up!
The reference to rubble we can hide behind - is that the 'walls' that seem to be running vertically from the south side of the curve?
It's pretty much everywhere there's green (except for the pool of water). The map doesn't go into that much detail, but you can find cover just about everywhere.
I switched you and Amkarang.
And I'll let you retroactively heal with wands or potions (since there's no real reason you wouldn't have, especially going to fight a dragon)
Grum, we have so many healing potions that you can easily have started this fight at full. Still in bad shape now but not quite so dire.
XP Totals
9,600 -- Ibzairiak
3,200 -- Jang
2,400 -- lizards
2,400 -- bodyguards
1,600 -- dire weasels
3,200 -- Parthuk, troll oracle
4,800 -- Prisoner rescue
800 -- Salokut, hobgoblin war priest
2,400 -- Salokut's guards
2,400 -- Eygara, hobgoblin captain
1,600 -- Eygara's soldiers
1,600 -- Marrowcrack, barghest
1,600 -- basilisk
3,600 -- Ironwing squad hobgoblins
1,200 -- Collapsing bridge trap
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+1 shock bastard sword
+1 light crossbow
belt of incredible dexterity +2
potion of hide from animals
two potions of fly
wand of fireball (16 charges)
wand of summon monster II (22 charges)
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Anyone mind if I put my +1 falchion into the loot pile and take the +1 shocking Bastard sword? 2d4+1d4+16 (22) would become 1d8+1d4+1d6+16 (25). If I get deliquescent gloves and frost enchantment, I can do all 4 elements in one hit.
Also I could hold onto the wands due to my UMD
Bastard sword is a 1d10 weapon.
And all 4 elements? Yikes! Then you yell for a sonic attack, right?
I can use the wand of fireball without having to UMD it as it is on the bloodrager list. I'd say if there is a weapon you want, take it.
Thundering weapon quality, if I'm not mistaken.
Unfortunately, Thundering only does its sonic damage on a crit.
As to XP, it looks like we end up 40 XP short of 7th level. Possibly anything we might have missed along the way in plot XP rewards?
I'll check, but there's still a couple nuggets of xp to be had in the fort.
If there is no little 200-XP reward that we missed, then I would say we explore until we hit one more encounter, rest and level up, then finish clearing the fort.
Maybe start with the spaces adjacent to the forge.
Benedict would like the Amulet of Natural Armor +2 if possible.
Level 7:
HP: +7 (new total 53)
BAB: +1
Saves: None
Class: Armor Training - taking Advanced Armor Training (Adaptable Training -Disguise)
Feat: Steadfast Personality
Skills (7): Bluff, Diplomacy, Sense Motive, Perception, Linguistics, Spellcraft (2)
Skills from reallocating 2 Disguise skill points through Advanced Armor Training: Spellcraft, Knowledge (Local)
In any downtime we may have, Benedict would like to do some retraining. He can train with Grum or Amkarang to switch out his Cosmopolitan feat for Power Attack.
He also plans to do some crafting. Assuming we can find buyers, the loot just from Fort Trevalay comes out to 7,448 for each of us. And that is with not selling the Lidless Charm Bracelet or the dragon figurine, both of which I think might be useful. We have to figure out what to sell, and if we can sell it all, but crafting a Banner of the Ancient Kings is definitely within reach now.
The other item I'd like to craft, and maybe some of you would want to chip in, is a Manual of War. Could be useful to switch around feats if we knew what we were going up against that day, or if we just wanted to try out different things and see how they worked.
I have no qualms about Benedict claiming the amulet of natural armor +2. The front line is my armor and my shield. I'm like a mage that way.
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Very cool banner, and go for the amulet. :)
At some point I’d like to retrain a feat as well. Would go for shield focus, so at lvl9 can use a buckler while two-handing the bastard sword. Figure with so many people needing AC items, it makes sense to take all of the bonuses available so that we can all stay around the same-ish range.
@Grum, I think the feats that are fixed by your archetype aren't tradeable without losing the archetype. "If the old feat is a bonus feat granted by a class feature, you must replace it with a feat that you could choose using that class feature." But you could also get a shield bonus to AC by taking Advanced Weapon Training (Defensive Weapon Training) at 9. Depending on how much of the loot we are able to sell, I may be able to craft you Gloves of Dueling already!
I would say that first we should finish clearing this fort, then move our refugees (while selling what we can to the Darklands trader), then decide if we want to go back and finish off Fort Ristin.
Then for crafting, my first priority is a Manual of War (4 days with accelerated crafting). Which everybody can use.
Then a Circlet of Persuasion, as it helps all of Benedict's Face skills by quite a bit (3 days with accelerated crafting). And Grum can wear it if there is a UMD check to make.
Then Gloves of Dueling for Grum (8 days). The time is adding up, and I imagine we want to get to Longshadow. I don't know how much downtime the AP expects us to have between books.
If William takes a crafting feat, he can work on some items for Amkarang and Aerel while I am doing these things. Maybe Craft Magic Arms & Armor?
Level 7:
HP: +9 (new total 53)
BAB: +1
Saves: None
Class: Arcane Armor Training - 20% reduction in Spell Failure
2nd Level Spell: I was thinking mirror image but am open to suggestions
Feat: I wasn't planning on any crafting feats but if you want I can take one to help the party with gear. Was going to go with more bow feats otherwise.
Skills (7): 2 Craft: Bows, Kn: Arcana, Dungeoneering, Religion, Perception, Spellcraft
@William, hopefully you don't end up in melee too much, which would make Mirror Image less of a necessity.
Maybe Resist Energy? You'd have CL7 for Resist 20 (whereas potions from Rhyna only give 10).
See Invisibility is always good and can't be acquired in potion form.
Protection from Arrows would help against rank-and-file enemies, though I expect we'll start seeing elite archers with magic bows.
We could probably get scrolls from the Darklands trader so you could get several spells known. Gust of Wind and Spider Climb are good utility spells to have but are not needed all that often.
I was considering Resist Energy. You may be right about getting scrolls. Third level spells will be a bit easier, fireball and haste. I want to add some ranged AOE but there isn't much worth it at 2nd level. Mirror image works against ranged threats as well.
I'm still undecided on a feat.
@William, I think Craft Arms & Armor would be good, but I could be quite wrong about that if we are unable to sell all the loot we got (or do not have time for crafting).
If not that, then I imagine you were thinking either Clustered Shots or Manyshot? Both good options.
Improved Initiative is also a good choice for archers.
I've a question for DM Stalwart, how much crafting time do you see us having? Is there going to be enough to make it worth spending a feat on it?
If it is worth it I will get craft arms and armor. I do however wonder if it would be better to wait till 9th level. I could do up to +3 enchantment bonus plus there are many more specific abilities at 8th and 9th caster level. The best I could come up with at 7th is +2 and holy, which might be nice on the bow.
There's... not a lot of crafting time, tbh. The next book (which will be starting very soon) is going to be intense and be running on a ticking clock. I'm not saying you can't spend time crafting, all I'm saying is that if you do, there will be other things you won't be doing.
That being said, I also don't mind running the, "8-hours adventuring, 8-hours crafting/researching, and 8-hours sleeping" breakdown of each day. Basically, assuming that there's hidden downtime in each day that you can devote to crafting. And while I'll definitely say you'll need a forge at some point for crafting metal arms/armor, you won't need it all the time. Non-forge hours could be taken up by, say, working on the non-metal components, inlaying designs and/or runes of power, and generally making sure it's a beautiful piece of work and not just something functional.
Bottom line, you might feel that the urgency of the next book precludes crafting, but if you decide to invest in the feat I can still let you work some crafting in if it doesn't take you too far out of the sense of urgency in the story.
I totally get it about the sense of urgency. I would not want to detract from that in any way. Hopefully I can get some crafting done before the ticking clock starts. If the AP assumes even a week or two between the events of this book and the next then I could get some key needs taken care of.
Otherwise I would only try to sneak in that hidden downtime here and there if it seemed that Benedict would not be compromising the mission by doing so.