Since we are dwarves fighting giants, darkness would be fantastic. Gage knows what I'm talking about from when we stormed a giant keep in darkness spells in another game. Do any of us have some darkness spells?
*shrug* it'll only help if we attack at night anyway. bright->normal light doesn't help at all. I suppose with deeper darkness we could carry something that takes bright light and turns it into dim, but then we'd also risk blinding ourselves after we get inside xD
Then again, a darkness spell might help turn normal to dim or dim to dark after we penetrate the fortress...
Right. We might need multiple options. Also, we could launch a small strike at night if we so choose, though that may lose the benefit of the mass combat distraction.
No Darkness, sorry, though I have Silence - useful for infiltration.
I had, by default, several Darkness and Deeper Darkness-Spells prepared, but so far, everything we did battle against had Darkvision. For the Dragon Battle, I had exchanged them for Resist Energy/Protection from Energy.
So it never got used. I will definitely adjust the spells again for any combat we expect here.
And one day is plenty for an army that does not sleep, cannot be flanked, has no fear of critical hits or sneak attacks, does not breathe, ...
don't forget that the fire giant ruler might have the keys or something xD
valid point, but going out on a limb here and guessing that a locked door won't stop us if we want to get in somewhere. :)
hopefully we'll chase the fire giant back to his fortress and be in position because of that :3
alternatively, we "scout ahead" for the main army and then... end up in the fortress >:3
Given that we are an all dwarf party, I'd like to share something I've come up with. It's making use of the archetype "Dwarven Scholar."
It's a bard archetype that trades Inspire Courage for the ability to give a combat feat you know to everyone in the party, with the only condition being that you have the feat.
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Lvls 1-3: Weapon Master Fighter
Lvl 4: Brawler for Martial Flexibility
Lvls 5-11+ Dwarven Scholar Bard
Lvls 12-20: Eldritch Knight Prestige Class (Ends up with 18 BaB and lvl 6 arcane spells that go off of Wisdom. Not bad!)
This gives him Weapon Training and Martial Flexibility. That makes the Dwarven Scholar capable of taking advanced weapons training once per day. And with that, he can take item mastery feats without having to meet the item prerequisites.
So, at lvl 5, this dwarf could give his entire party the ability to cast dimension door, see invisible enemies, fly, cast lessor restoration, healing spells, telekinesis...even fly!
And when not using that? Well, once he can give 2 feats at the same time, he could give Dwarven Hatred Style and Dwarven Seething to the entire party. If anyone in the party is hit by an enemy, then that dwarf gets +2 Hit +2 Damage +4 Dodge AC against that opponent for so long as the Dwarven Scholar sings.
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I *think* that the build checks out. And I had to share it, because it's a build that only works for a dwarven bard in a party of all dwarves. Something that is beyond rare...except in parties like this one.
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Hi Everyone,
Tomorrow I'm having a catheterization on my left side tomorrow, so I won't be on the boards that day. But I hope to be back on during the weekend. Thanks all.
Hope all goes well Thurgrom!
Thank you, Oxnard.
Same! Wishing you the best.
if there's any question on any knowledge check, remember Gage has a nat 10 for either 24 or 25 on the subject, even while threatened or distracted :D
Loremaster Gage, the loremaster, at your service :D
Just to make it clear, Kragg doesn't really have a problem with summoning devils or demons. To him, it's not all that different from summoning an elemental. He generally doesn't like it because of the danger involved. Why summon a force of evil when there are other options?
Not sure where other PCs stand on this issue...
@Kragg: Don't mix them up...Devils are LAWFUL evil, they are usually very reliable if your contract is properly made. Often, they won't even try to screw you over legalistic formalities(unlike Djinns) - in the long run, they win. Short-term gains are often not worth betraying allies.
The CHAOTIC ones are demons. They'll find ways to do what you want, then screw you over as well. Just because they can.
That said, Dvalin considers them much the same as angels or agathions - out-of-plane meddlers with some limited interest in the material world - that can be useful tools, but are generally not to be trusted. Good or evil doesn't really play into that.
So his views are rather "plane natives" vs "outsiders" - elementals are simply most tolerable due to being True Neutral - giving any Agenda of theirs the fewest friction points with the 'natives'.
Gage: Encouraging good hope? That would be pretty boss.
Do we have a "Kill the Dragon" button? Because killing a CR22 dragon the old way seems kinda tough job...
we'll need a lot of summoned monsters. Rubius has elementals as well as a tablet, everyone bug Gage has non fire elemental options... Gage... well... he can inspire courage...loool
Gage: Encouraging good hope? That would be pretty boss.
Not quite. I'll get that next level, I believe. Also it applies to a creature per level, so I would just give it to everyone for ... 10-20 minutes xD
@Thurgrom: you have Encouraging Heroism for a +3 morale boost to saves/attacks/skill checks, but not damage or ability checks
Also, it sounds like Rubius wants one of the 3 castings I'm passing out. I almost want to give one to Tawny, but if the cat is worth a Heroism, then Rubius can give it out himself :P
Remember- there’s always the option to back out, regroup, possibly fight some more of the other battles before trying to rush the final boss- possibly with more levels.
Lol. Noice.
Definitely like that plan.
But it feels like it's too late to go fight on a different front, isn't that so?
Regardless we don’t command the forces here, we’re something of an independent unit. So if the army retreats, we have to go with it, right?
Encouraging heroism would definitely be awesome for myself or Tawny. I can cast heroism on the other either way.
Yeah I would guess we have to go with the army. A couple levels would make a BIG difference for trying to fight a CR 22.
Attacks at +6,+6,+7,+7,+8,+8,+9,+9,+10,+10,+10+,10: 12d6 ⇒ (4, 2, 2, 1, 3, 4, 1, 6, 1, 4, 6, 1) = 35
Dam at +2 on each die that hits: 12d6 ⇒ (6, 6, 2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 4, 1, 3, 6, 6) = 42
Maybe you'd get better results if you didn't roll 12d6 for both attack AND damage? ;)
Haha. Yeah I noticed and fixed that. I'll check and make sure the edit went through.
Edit: It went through but still looks weird because I made the fix at the bottom of my rolls to avoid reordering other dice rolls.
So- to represent the aid from the rest of the dwarf army around you, I'm giving you guys an ability that works somewhat like 5th Ed Legendary actions-
Basically, you get one of these effects at the start of each round, but you can't use the same one two rounds in a row:
Hail of Arrows: A hail of arrows aimed at your foes add +1d8 to each characters first successful attack of the round (does not include summons/companions).
Shield Wall: Dwarves swarm around, using their shields to interdict attacks; gain +2 to AC and reflex saves for the round (does include summons/companions).
Melee Support: Dwarves position to attack in melee! All melee attacks are considered to be flanking with a fellow Gold Peak dwarf (does include summons/companions).
Get Him!: You designate a specific target of your fellow dwarves' attacks, dealing 5d8+10 damage to it.
Not sure how you guys want to decide which to use each round- probably easiest is to have whoever posts first each round call it out.
I vote for either Hail of Arrows or Melee Support.
Keep in mind- you switch it each round, so no reason to not try them all out along the way.
I vote hail of arrows as thematically it is how you start the fight. Followed by melee support as the dwarves charge. Then shield wall as they dig in. Then arrows as they do an orderly movement away, only for them to charge again. Save Get Him! For major threats.
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Sound advice, Kragg, as always.
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Aye, but we should also look at the potential benefit.
We are 6 characters, so hail of arrows is at MOST 6d8 of damage, if every one of us does a successfull attack(rather than, say, cast a spell or something).
+2 AC together with our Combat Training could make a difference.
Flanking, on the other hand, I'm not so sure - it is only of benefit to our melee guys and those could try and move into flanks themselves.
I think the most 'powerful' action is "Get Him" for a unconditional 5d8+10 damage.
One could probably also think of that as "Focus Fire!" for a Hail of Arrows aimed at a single target.
So mechanically, I would probably start with "Get Him(Focus Fire)", and alternate that with Shield Wall.
(Aiming the Get Him at probably Casters or supporters, or using it to try and finish off wounded Targets).
Thematically, that would be a volley of Fire aimed at a target followed by fierce defense as the next volley is prepared - Total War Warhammer Dwarven Style, hold the line with sturdy frontliners, while the backline deals heavy damage.
Dvalin marches forward with his allies, touching his Aszite armor with one hand as he does so. Suddenly, a deep darkness fills a large area around him, just out to the range of his abilities to see in the Dark.
So are the dwarves within the deeper darkness unable to see?
Nope, it's only supernaturally dark if it was dim light to begin with, in which case I could use normal Darkness instead.
Otherwise it's just perfectly dark, but Darkvision works normally, so Dwarves would be able to see, Giants not.
Thanks for the clarification.
I was about to say alternating shield wall and get him would be my choice as well. Props to Dvalin for that and the darkness.
The nat 1 auto-miss rule is really plaguing me this battle. For example, the lantern archons hit touch ac 13 on a nat 1 thanks to loads of buffs. Hill giants normally have touch ac 8 but the archon still misses. :'(
Have 'em all pass out Aid for temp HP then ;P
They did before the battle! Everyone, roll your d8+3 temp hp!
I mentioned this but didn't roll yet.
The spellcasters are really doing us all a lot of favors. BoF, deeper darkness, inspire courage, etc. It's all fantastic. We're really shredding these CR 7 grunts. Now I'm wondering when the boss comes... Hopefully he's not as immune to arrows as the descriptive text suggested...
Hoping that he is just DR/magic, so the mundane arrows don’t get through.
Honestly, I suspect a permanencied version of Fickle Winds...
Yikes. Hopefully not. The descriptive text sounded like he was getting hit but not injured...
“Just making sure, because I missed it - you guys are including the giant hatred racial trait, right?”
<shifty eyes>
I...I am now.
OH YEAH, it isn't jus +4 dodge to AC. noice.
These guys count as giants, right? so we all get +1 atk/dmg from that?
+2/+2 against hill giants! Thanks, Dvalin. All the way since level 3, that's the first time it came up. I didn't worry about it bc I thought it was just +1 to hit but wow... *Evil chuckles*
Heheh....and hey, look, it's not Fickle Winds, just a Prismatic Sphere. :)
Probably a specially researched version that remains mobile and centered on him :P
If so then I hope you guys know how to deal with it. All Kragg can do is try to hit it in close combat. And I don't think that would turn out very well.