I'm not sure if how I'm ruling searing the necks shut is correct (killing a head with fire also immediately cauterising it). It seems to go a little too well, but on the other hand, wasting an action to sear each neck-hole shut seems a bit too much. Oh well.
Well, got nothing but bad news yesterday, not unexpected, just sad.
My 95.5 year old grandmother is probably not making it to 96. Her memory is also shot to hell, but the doctors say 6 months is likely it.
My 17 year old cat is also dying rapidly. She's lost mobility since last week, and we don't really think she's going to even make it to the end of December.
Sucks bad Trscroggs. Hold on and don't worry about us here if you need time to do anything.
I'm sorry Cherry. I second Kvit, if you need time, you should take it. Mental health is important.
I made it back to Spain, but unfortunately, my traveling hasn't quite finished. I still have another 24+ hour stint of flying to get me back to California. That will happen around next Tuesday the 5th of December.
And as another heads-up, I'll be doing some more such traveling around Christmas and again at the end of January.
Cherry, my condolences on your upcoming loses.
Sad to hear, Cherry Berry. As everyone said, take care of yourself. Real life is more important than play by post. Take some time off if you need it.
With the hydras on the run, Kvit takes a few steps forward while Sneakers hands him one of the remaining beads from the necklace of fireballs!
According to this post by the GM I thought these guys were immune to area damage and that a fireball would only help to cauterize wounds. But as we're automatically cauterizing all wounds, it seems to me that this fireball will have no effect at all on the hydras.
I'll just copy-paste the relevant text:
A hydra ordinarily has five heads. A creature can attempt to sever one of the hydra’s heads by specifically targeting it and dealing damage equal to the head’s Hit Points. A head that is not completely severed returns to full Hit Points at the end of any creature’s turn. A hydra can regrow a severed head using Hydra Regeneration. A creature can prevent this regrowth by dealing acid or fire damage to the stump, cauterizing it. Single-target acid or fire effects need to be targeted at a specific stump, but effects that deal splash damage or affect areas covering the hydra’s whole space cauterize all stumps if they deal acid or fire damage. If the attack that severs a head deals any acid or fire damage, the stump is cauterized instantly. If all five heads are cauterized, the hydra dies.
A Fireball needs to cover a hydra completely to target all heads (a head could be sticking out of the radius, I imagine). The way Kvit has drawn the fireball template right now, both hydras are completely in the fireball radius.
EDIT: Whelp, I was wrong. It cauterises stumps, but heads are still immune to area damage. I guess to prevent it from dying to a single fireball:
HP 15 ((head), head regrowth); Immunities area damage; Weaknesses slashing 5
Kvit, you can redo your turn. A Fireball will do nothing, and you'd know that.
Also, rereading that text confirms that severing a head with fire damage also seals is completely, so there's my question answered. Yay for reading.
Right, okay. I misread the information then. I was thinking it would be effective as long as the entire creature was in the AOE.
I was looking to use my new Double Slice feat and noticed that You add any precision damage only once, to the attack of your choice. Does that mean that if both my attacks generate Sneak Attack damage that only one of them will apply? Sure looks that way. Still a pretty good feat, though maybe not as good as I thought.
Another thing about Double Slice is that Both Strikes must have the same target. Since each hydra head is presumably a target, then both strikes would need to be made against a single head. Given that so far it's taken only one Strike to kill a head with Sneak Attack, the odds are that the second strike of the Double Slice will be wasted against an already severed head.
Decisions, decisions.
Hmm, that is interesting. Though I guess adding sneak attack twice at full bonus is too good to be true.
Shoot! I just remembered that Kka has the Gang Up feat which states that: Any enemy is flat-footed against your melee attacks due to flanking as long as the enemy is within both your reach and your ally’s.
Not that it would have mattered, but Kka should have had flanking on the hydra on her last post for flat-footed and Sneak Attack damage. That is a perfect feat for a situation like this.
Working on Kvit's upcoming Remaster changes.
Skill Changes: None?
Skill Feats: No Changes. Though "Schooled In Secrets" was buffed and looks more appealing for Kvit. We have run into a few cult-like groups so far.
Languages:
Proficiency Changes: Now trained in all simple weapons, no effective change for Kvit
Arcane Thesis: Staff Nexus - No changes
Equipment: No changes
Class Feats: No changes to existing choices. Might retrain 6th level class feat from Split Slot to the new 4th level class feat Spell Protection Array:
"You inscribe a circle of arcane runes that dampen enemies’ magic. You create a glowing magic circle in a 5-foot burst within 30 feet. Creatures in the circle gain a +1 status bonus to saving throws against magic. The circle lasts until the end of your next turn, and you can Sustain it, to a maximum duration of 1 minute."
Arcane School: Now "Curriculum"
Old - Arcane School of Illusion
New - Curriculum of The Boundary
Cantrips: Telekinetic Hand (Mage Hand). Since he already had Telekinetic Hand before, he is adding Deep Breath
1st Rank: Phantasmal Minion (Unseen Servant), Summon Undead (Animate Undead)
2nd rank spells, he needs to pick a spell from the curriculum to utilize the curriculum spellslot. Swapping Invisibility for See the Unseen (See Invisibility).
3rd rank spells, he needs to pick a spell from the curriculum to utilize the curriculum spellslot. I don't want to lose any of the ones I have learned already so want to use the Learn a Spell activity to learn Bind Undead
Remastered New Spellbook:
Cantrips:
1st Rank:
2nd Rank:
3rd Rank:
4th Rank:
Just a note, over the course of Kvit's career, he has learned 1x cantrip (telekinetic projectile), 1x 1st rank spell (interposing earth), and 1x 3rd rank spell (safe passage). They are accounted for above.
Please keep the old languages. Abomination Vaults is pre-remaster and keeping the languages the same is easier than me juggling old and new languages. Otherwise, looks good!
Easy enough!
Pretty sure nothing actually changes for me, but once we hit 7th and I update my sheet, I'll let you know for sure.
Thank you for your patience with me lately.
I'm not leaving, I just want to thank everyone your patience.
This fall/winter has not been good for my family.
My dad pass away in January, which makes this holiday season the first without him.
In November Grandma got sick with double pneumonia, and just barely survived. Even then, the doctors don't really think she has much longer.
My 17 year old cat was also showing the signs of age, and on Wednesday we were forced to put her down.
All of this (and other family drama) has caused some serious depression in my and zapped my motivation to post.
Ouch, that must be draining for you indeed. Take it easy, and you have my sympathies.
I hope things turn around for you. Sounds like a rough year for sure.
Perhaps this would be a good time for everyone to place their icons appropriately. Once Kka opened the doors with the keys, I presume that Lough and Fuìn would have led the way as usual, with Kka behind them, and Kvit/Cherry on either side of her. I've placed Kka where she should be.
The worm-like creature with the slate would thus presumably be addressing Lough rather than Kka.
I believe the default has been for Kka to unlock/check a door, and then Lough and/or Fuin opens it, so it should probably be Lough/Fuin/Kka/Cherry/Kvit, would be my guess.
Also OOC I know what that thing is and I wish I didn't. XD
For a creature moving through a space that's half its width, typically I've seen it just treated as difficult terrain.
That's basically it! Except it's well aware of us, so it won't be much of an ambush
I think the idea is to play along with the worm to get information about this level, so you're not walking around blind.
What you do with the worm after it gives you that information, however, is still up in the air. :P
Ooof, what a miserable holiday.
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It's almost over! Though I understand the other stuff might not be.
My wife found a good post to share.
I would like to wish everyone an uneventful new year
May we live in very uninteresting times
May you experience very precedented events
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I echo Kvit's wife's comments. I wish everyone a boring and uneventful life.
More optimistically, I hope everyone has the company they want, the peace of mind they need, and the happiness they deserve.
Honestly the list of unprecedented events that are worse than my precedented ones seems to be shrinking at an alarming pace.
Regardless, I am back now. Holiday craziness blended seamlessly into my fiancee getting an absolutely brutal bout of influenza. Things are finally calming down a bit.
Out of curiosity, do any of you do resolutions?
No resolutions, I don't do those. Don't have anything that drastically needs changing.
I hope your fiancee recovers soon!
No, I don't really do resolutions either. Like Lough, I do them when they need to be, not on a specific calendar day.
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No reason, just curious. They're made out to be such a staple of NYE and yet I've met very few people who actually do New Years resolutions.
I don't really do them either, anymore. I've found it's not a particularly effective way to motivate me. I'd made it my New Years resolution to quit smoking probably half a dozen times and it never stuck. Then one day, about a month before my birthday six years ago, I said "screw it" and slapped on a patch. For whatever reason, that worked when six or more resolutions hadn't. Been quit for almost 7 years now. XD
Amazing and great for you!
"Mawp," he says. "Mawp. Maaawp."
Perfect reference!
Had to look it up, but yeah, that's a good one. I've watched Bob's Burgers, and I can't watch Archer without seeing Bob. His voice doesn't fit Archer, IMHO.
I saw Archer first, so I had to get used to it the other way around. Personally I think H. John Benjamin is great in pretty much every role he voices.
On a personal note, my posting may get spotty over the next month or so. I'm dealing with a lot IRL and it's probably going to impact my ability to post. I will do my best to keep up but if I don't post for a day or two feel free to bot me as needed to keep things moving.
She looks over at Kvit. "I don't suppose you haave another one of those Haste spells ready, do you?"
This is an interesting thing. In real-life play, you don't know when players are in initiative. Waiting for other people to act for a buff would be weird, but here you can see initiative order. I don't mind if people do so, but I'd like to discuss it with the group what you think about this situation. Because I think in a normal combat, Kka wouldn't have waited for the Haste spell if she risks the worm acting before her.
She looks over at Kvit. "I don't suppose you haave another one of those Haste spells ready, do you?"This is an interesting thing. In real-life play, you don't know when players are in initiative. Waiting for other people to act for a buff would be weird, but here you can see initiative order. I don't mind if people do so, but I'd like to discuss it with the group what you think about this situation. Because I think in a normal combat, Kka wouldn't have waited for the Haste spell if she risks the worm acting before her.
Interesting. I've never played a game where the initiative order was hidden or not supposedly known to the players/characters. I've seen many instances of when the initiative order was used to good tactical effect in an encounter, so this is all news to me.
Generally speaking, if there is a possibility of another PC buffing my PC, then I will usually put a Delay action at the start of my turn stating that I wait until after the turns of the buffing PCs before taking my turn. In the case of when I wouldn't know the initiative order, I'd Delay with instructions that look something like "I Delay until after the turns of allies A, B and C, but not if it means skipping over the turns of enemies X, Y or Z."
The result is the same in either case.
Well, I mean, the first round of combat is always a surprise. After that round, everyone knows roughly when they are. There's a reason why GMs usually keep initiative hidden.
In the end, it doesn't matter much, but I just wanted to address this, as it could potentially lead to metagaming. I'm fine either way, I just want to know everyone's on the same page.
In live play or PbP I've not seen secret initiative. Though I have seen inserting mobs with secret initiative.
I can see the concern about metagaming, though I would also add that as we grow as a team, it seems we'd have some general tactics, like Kka suggested, they'd wait as long as feasible to see if their teammates would react in time.
I agree if it becomes an issue we should look at it again. Though I don't see it being game breaking unless we come up with something crazy
Okay, in that case I'm imagining things. I agree that you've started to rely on teamwork, so waiting for Kvit to act isn't too odd. It just seemed a little too convenient here.
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I've seen it both ways: transparent initiative and secret initiative.
I think both are fine, and am generally okay with the early rounds of combat being a little more fraught with the unknown. I'm also okay with using the Delay action strategically based on the in-game character's reading of timing and placement (what we out-game players call "initiative").
I think developing a little SOP couldn't hurt in either case. But a single level up (new feat, spell, equipment trick) can shake things up a bit, so, if we keep that in mind we should be good.
=)
You added Guidance twice, I think, but it didn't matter for crit/hit.
Kka gets the first +1 from the +1 Potency Rune on her shortswords. The first attack (but not the second) had an extra +1 for the Guidance.
I had half-written a long-ass post about this but I think I was overthinking it (I'm really good at that). Instead, I'll just sum up by saying that you're not imagining things, you just interpreted the situation differently and that's actually an important aspect of a great game, but also an important aspect to work out between the group. I don't personally have an issue with how tactics worked out in round 1 but if you do, I'm also good with coming up with some basic ground rules for round 1 stuff!
A heads up: I'm going to be traveling from Spain to New Jersey tomorrow so probably will not be able to post for the next 24+ hours or so.
You added Guidance twice, I think, but it didn't matter for crit/hit.Kka gets the first +1 from the +1 Potency Rune on her shortswords. The first attack (but not the second) had an extra +1 for the Guidance.
Ah, don't know why I didn't notice until now, but I saw a lot of +1s in a row and got confused. You're just literally adding all the bonuses separately. +14 is your innate bonus, and +1 from the magic weapon. Personally I would've just said +15, but I appreciate you spelling things out.