@Ysildae - Moving will bring the zombie with you as it is climbing on you at the moment. Akula will not get an AOO.
Awesome! I think the child should be a -18 before the wall smash because of the holy water splash damage.
If the child explodes, I want to use my resolve for resolute.
Resolute: Whenever the samurai is required to make a Fortitude or Will save, he can spend one use of his resolve as an immediate action to roll twice and take the better result. He must decide to use this ability before he rolls the saving throw.
Since defeating the target of my challenge restores my resolve.
@Akula: What is your blessing? Your character sheet probably has it, but I worry I'm blind.
I dont have one. I traded it for my Divine Fighting Style
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Cool. Speaking of your divine fighting style, I think you might not be using it properly.
"If you use Combat Expertise while wielding a greatsword, you must apply the AC benefits to all allies, if any, within your reach instead of yourself. When at least one ally is within your reach and you are using the Combat Expertise feat, you do not suffer the penalty to melee attacks rolls on the first attack you make each turn. You still suffer the penalty on any additional attacks, including attacks of opportunity. Valthyra will grant Combat Expertise for the purposes of this feat to any disciple if the disciple does not meet the prerequisites for Combat Expertise (Int 13)."
You have been applying this penalty on your first and only attack. This might have changed the outcome of some of these rounds.
How long are we stunned for? Is it one round?
Oh, you're right! Thank you.
So it's basically Furious Focus for Combat Expertise. Neat.
The situation seems to me that if the haunt isn't neutralized this turn it will knock out me and perhaps Akula on its next action.
It has stunned me and Maria this turn. We cannot act or move in any fashion. Haunts are only harmed by positive energy and this one likely has between 13-22 HP.
Since Akula healed Maria she likely won't get knocked out but she also cannot act. The only way to avoid a tpk here is to neutralize the haunt asap, any actions that aren't directed towards that end seem . . . unwise to me.
But these kinds of battles are learning experiences. We might all die, but it will be a good story.
I'll be fine. I really doubt it can do enough damage to drop me.
You are at 4 HP. You just need to fail your save get stunned once and it gets ugly.
@GM: In the other campaign undead can drop Life Essences, since they too are mortal, in the sense that they can be destroyed. Is that still the same for this campaign?
You are at 4 HP. You just need to fail your save get stunned once and it gets ugly.
I have Diehard, a good fort save, and I can heal myself while stunned. Even if things go as badly as they could, it will take this thing at least 4 rounds to kill me.
Diehard is cool and you definitely have a respectable Fortitude save, but stunned forbids all actions, right? I'm guessing all includes swift and immediate actions under the set of all? Or is this a misreading?
Well, hopefully we can figure out how to deal with this before we get completely hosed.
Hmm. Not sure. I guess swift actions are actions, so I might not be able to heal myself like I thought.
Hopefully I won't fail a save vs. stun in the first place.
How long are we stunned for? Is it one round?
1 round. I've marked on the initiative counter the round you'll next act.
Cool. Speaking of your divine fighting style, I think you might not be using it properly.
"If you use Combat Expertise while wielding a greatsword, you must apply the AC benefits to all allies, if any, within your reach instead of yourself. When at least one ally is within your reach and you are using the Combat Expertise feat, you do not suffer the penalty to melee attacks rolls on the first attack you make each turn. You still suffer the penalty on any additional attacks, including attacks of opportunity. Valthyra will grant Combat Expertise for the purposes of this feat to any disciple if the disciple does not meet the prerequisites for Combat Expertise (Int 13)."
You have been applying this penalty on your first and only attack. This might have changed the outcome of some of these rounds.
I've looked back. None of your rolls would have hit with the -1 gone.
@GM: In the other campaign undead can drop Life Essences, since they too are mortal, in the sense that they can be destroyed. Is that still the same for this campaign?
Depends on the source of their creation. In this case, the zombies were created when their soul, aka their life essence, was sucked out by the vortex inside the tower.
Hmm. Not sure. I guess swift actions are actions, so I might not be able to heal myself like I thought.
Hopefully I won't fail a save vs. stun in the first place.
Correct, if stunned you take no actions. No standard, move, swift, immediate, nada, nothing, zilch.
Akula’s Cure spell really should have been an attack! Here’s to praying that Toraim’s spell will suffice...
I'm glad you agree with me about priorities, Toraim! I have a bandolier of 8 flasks of holy water if you need to borrow some to finish the fight
Noted!
I don’t know what I was thinking when I bought only 2 flasks!
Save us Toraim Highhammer, you are our only hope!
Question: grabbing vial from another character’s bandolier = move action or standard action?
Because it is on the outside of my clothes and not in my pack, I'm guessing it is a move action.
@GM: "Death’s End: Dwarves with this racial trait gain a +2 bonus to AC against undead and a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities cast by undead. This replaces defensive training and hatred."
Would the save bonus here help against the haunt?
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@Ysildaë, a Haunt is not an undead but somewhere between a hazaard and an undead. I would likely not have given him the +2 save as the effect was not an undead/necromancy type effect. Either way, its moot now.
Out of curiosity, I ran the dice rolls before posting...
If Toraim missed the throw (and btw, it had 18 HP which is exactly the damage he caused), the next round would have looked like this.
Disabled, Toraim could have grabbed another flask but not yet thrown it. Akula could have stepped up and used a fervor but would have needed a 5 (only 33% chance) to disable it. If she failed to roll enough damage, the next round would have been:
Next round since everyone is unconscious or stunned:
Then if her second fervor didn't disable it (she's rolled 4 or less total between the two rolls):
And then Akula gets her third and final Fervor, which should get the 5 HP needed unless she rolled 3 consecutive "1's"... at that point both Maria and Toraim would have a couple of chances to stabilize since Akula can't heal any more...
So, net result is it was highly likely that Ysildaë dies, and that either Maria or Toraim would have died...
Close call!
It's a good thing I am on vacation and can only post occasionally!
I think this is a good time for the priests to talk to the haunt. In my oog experience, haunts are easiest to convince to let go of their trauma after they have been neutralized. Maybe commiserate about her and her daughter's death and offer them last rites and burial?
Will do after we’ve figured out what’s behind the trap door!
That was incredibly terrifying. Maria cant do jack vs haunts rip
maybe if we'd rolled better knowledge checks there would have been a less... horrifically risky way of doing this.
It was terrifying. It was horrific.
In part, I think that is the point. We aren't in a game where we will be "big G-damn heroes" all the time. In many important ways, our world has ended. Those of us who remain alive have no idea whether the world will continue: every day it seems more and more life-less. As things are now, there is an end to the food supply in Talanor. Hastened by the influx of refugees. We are living on borrowed time.
Furthermore, we are in the midst of an undead uprising. A large percentage of the people killed during the Shaping spontaneously arose as the undead. It was a traumatic event. I doubt this haunt will be the worst of it. There are things far fouler and more dangerous yet to face.
First point: The campaign is post-apocalyptic. I think all of us should think about that and internalize it in our characters. Knowing all that we know, how would this affect our characters?
Going further, we need to be slightly better with our threat assessment. Optimally, Toriam and Akula would have focused their attacks on the haunt from the very beginning. Their access to positive energy is key. Maria and Ysildaë have the the martial skills to take down a zombie, by themselves (in fact in this case, they did). Although I welcome Akula's DTF bonuses (they are awesome), what almost killed us all was the damage every round and the stuns. (which Maria with her +1 had a 50% chance to be stunned every round!)
Second point: We should focus our attacks on the things we are uniquely suited for in the order that they pose the most danger going forwards. This fight was a learning experience for everybody; we should learn from it.
Finally, we could be better prepared. While Ysildaë and Maria currently have no anti-haunt abilities, we can both throw holy water. If Ysildaë hadn't had a zombie crawling on her, her best use of actions would have been tossing holy water too. Maria is better suited than the rest of us to procure alchemical solutions for our low level heroes to deal with these kinds of threats. For example, in the most recent AP, there are two alchemical items that could be of use.
CONSECRATED SALTS PRICE 300 GP
WEIGHT 1/2 lb.
The powdered salts in this stoppered glass sphere contains
reagents blessed by a cleric or another divine authority. You can
throw a sphere of consecrated salts as a splash weapon with
a range increment of 10 feet. Consecrated salts deal damage
to evil outsiders, haunts, and undead as if they were a flask
of holy water. Additionally, if a haunt or rejuvenating undead
such as a ghost is reduced to 0 hp within 1 minute of being
damaged by consecrated salts, its reset time (in the case of
a haunt) or rejuvenation is delayed by 1 day. This delay can
also be achieved by sprinkling consecrated salts on the earthly
remains of a ghost or the affected area of a haunt. Crafting this
item requires a successful DC 30 Craft (alchemy) check.
BONE BURN PRICE 25 GP
WEIGHT 1 lb.
This flask of volatile chemicals contains traces of graveyard
dirt and a few drops of blood from a righteous creature. You
can throw a bone burn flask as a splash weapon with a range
increment of 10 feet. Against non-undead creatures, a bone
burn flask functions as a normal flask of acid. Against undead
creatures, the bone burn flask deals double damage. On the
round following a direct hit, a skeletal undead damaged by a
bone burn flask takes 1d6 additional points of damage (Reflex
DC 15 negates). Crafting this item requires a successful DC 20
Craft (alchemy) check.
@GM: Is it possible to create an alchemical version of this single use magical item: haunt siphon? It would let Maria be a ghostbuster. :-p
Third Point: We need to augment our abilities with anti-haunt, anti-undead tech as we move forward clearing the city. That way each of us can always be meaningfully contributing.
I fully intend to have Maria create some anti-undead alchemical stuff in the near future, though the most readily avalible and useful round-for-round tool is holy water, which is outside the realms of alchemy. Maria'a best use for undead encounters is gonna be knowledge checks, if I can manage to actually roll well. I'm pretty sure the only class that beats the investigator on knowledge checks is the lore oracle.
Also, idk how we should handle Maria's inspiration. She can use 2 of it to add a d6 to a save before it takes effect, but that seems to clash with the format of play by post. I wanna avoid tedium but I also wanna make use of my class abilities as well as I can; looks like we're going to need to.
And if our more divine inclined friends can supply us with holy water, a bit of alchemy and tinkering (see if I can make use of that knowledge engineering modifier) we can equip ourselves to better handle haunts and less corporeal undead.
Plus holy water sprayers, even if rudimentary and mundane items, sound fun.
And yeah, Maria isnt equipped to frontline bc of the low fort save, but atm its not like there really was a line, mostly bc of how the haunt worked.
Edit: also, I realize that my hest use of my daily alchemy is to not prepare it at the start of the day, since it only takes a minute. Helps with utility since at least at this level I'm not so combat-oriented. And then I can heal myself if need be :/
And it seems the later item is rather good, but the salts should really ne reserved to haunts and with the divine casters we already have we can get away with making less expensive or otherwise more useful items.
The salts are definitely a niche item, but Bone Burn is pretty clutch and cheap. It would allow us to take those exploding zombies down at range quickly if everybody had some.
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@Ysildae - Alchemically created haunt siphons? No. But I would allow a casting bond to be imbued with some essence to gain this power. A repose, death or necromancy could all potentially give such a power.
@Maria - If you want to give me an SOP on when to use your Inspiration for a save, feel free. It just needs to be basic and not too overly complex. If you said, "If A happens, or B happens... or Z happens, then..." then I'll say No. If it is, "If Maria has more than 1 Inspiration, she'll always use one for a bonus to Fort saves." I can work with that.
So are your characters all more used to this type of thing than Maria? I suppose that would make sense. Interesting to think about our different reactions to all this, especially since we easily could have died.
I think Maria's reactions feel real and appropriate. Ysildaë is has feelings about what just happened and her strange dream, but given her upbringing she doesn't feel that it is process these feelings around mostly strangers. But one of the reasons she left so quickly to bury this family is because of that.
Akula has been a soldier-priest for a while now. This is her first time dealing with a haunt, but her no-nonsense, get-the-job-done attitude is mostly a matter of conditioning. She'll grieve and process things when the task is done. Until then, focusing on the job is part of how she ignores the fear and pain.
Sorry for the delay. Busy at work yesterday and today.
Oh my GOD I am rolling horribly
I swear Maria is supposed to be smart
Heh. Well, Akula is supposed to be an impressive warrior, and I think I've hit once this whole game. You're in good company. :)
We are all level 2, I doubt we will be impressive anytime soon. :-p
I'll never be impressive if I cant roll over 5 on a knowledge check
I HAVE +7 +1d6 ON KNOWLEDGE CHECKS AAAAAAAAAA
Vermin repellent gives rules for swarms, but not larger-sized vermin. Would it be possible to make a large quantity or concentrated form of this to repel a giant spider?
I'll allow a concentrated version with a alchemy craft DC of 25. Once applied it lasts for 1 hour any vermin within 5' of you must make a DC15 Fort save or be sickened for 1d4 rounds.
I like that Toraim's version of Artificer's Touch is "kick it"
Would Maria be able to move over those boxes with some kind of check or something?
And would dropping the torch in the swarm as a dirty trick maneuver to blind them be a thing I could do? I don't think swarms are immune to blind or anything, and it seems (?) like you're allowed to use the dirty trick combat maneuver on them.