Yurgan Durduum's page

That'll be fine, if you want to do that. Sorry it took so long for me to respond, by the way - I spent a few days in the hospital.

I'm sorry for my absence; I had stopped checking daily for updates to my question. I believe Yurgan's now up to date, and I'll get caught up on things as soon as possible.

They're not dead yet?

The dwarf spins around the corner, low to the ground as to avoid drawing his opponents. He quickly recites some arcane syllables, finishes his casting by spitting on the hobgoblin's boot, and reaches out with sparking fingers to deliver his attack.

Move Action to I9
Cast Spell Shocking Grasp, Targeting Hobgoblin in H9

I just wanted to be sure, has the round rolled over?

Yeah, I'm never quite clear when a new round's begun either; there's too many things going on at once to keep track.

You can still summon the bison if you want, it just wouldn't appear until your turn next round. But if you want to go with the lightning bolt, then the minotaur will fall this round. I won't even bother with making the save, because it will kill it even if it saved.

In this case a summon next turn won't have much effect; the rest of the fighting on this floor's too crowded for it to do much besides get in the way after the minotaur's down. I'll stick with lightning bolt.

It acts immediately after the 1 round casting time is complete. It doesn't act before the casting is even finished!

I can't believe I missed that; this isn't shaping up to be my best week, that's for sure. First job issues jobs, now more trouble completing a single turn of play than I've ever had. And it's only Wednesday ...

Let's see if I can't shake this funk I'm in:

Move Action to Square J7
Cast Spell, Lightning Bolt (Reflex half DC 17)

Yurgan breaks from the growing conflict centered on the stairs, unfurling a sheet of parchment as he turns toward the minotaur. As he recites the words on the scroll geometric designs begin etching themselves in the air next to the creature, growing until they solidify into the form of a bison. The summoned animal snorts once before sighting his foe and thrusting its horns toward the beast

Move Action to Square K6
Cast Spell from Scroll, Summon Monster III

You can't take a 5-foot step and a move action to move somewhere ... However, I don't see any reason why you couldn't cast a touch spell in conjunction with a "charge" action.

You're right, of course. The perils of posting late at night I'm afraid.

I considered such but a charge is a full-round action that doesn't allow for a spell to be cast, only a single melee attack. I'll need to come up with something else, but it'll have to wait until the morning; my mind's so frazzled tonight that it took me about an hour to compose the previous post.

Getting too crowded to move; the hobs are yours!

Yurgan turns from the battle at the stairs and sprints next to the towering form of the minotaur. Careful not to open himself to the monster's attack, the dwarf makes several quick arcane gestures before delivering a shock to the beast.

5-foot Step to K7
Move Action to M4
Cast Spell, Shocking Grasp

Yurgan Durduum wrote:

Yurgan sheathes his wand and takes a 5-foot step to square L8.

You can't actually take a 5-foot step to L8. There's a wall there, and the doors into that room are in M9 and M-N7 (double door). The doors are open, so you can reach that space in a regular move, but you won't have line of sight or line of effect on any of the combat right now.

My bad, I've been having difficulty discerning between walls and pattern on the ground. I'm guessing that's a wall between the entrance hall and the room with the stairs as well, so Yurgan will move to J8 instead.

Trusting the others to be capable of finishing the three hobgoblins, Yurgan stows his wand and turns to face whatever is coming down the stairs. Quickly passing his hands through several arcane gestures, silver-blue flames begin to sporadically dance across the dwarf's body, illuminating otherwise invisible runes wherever they touch.

Yurgan sheathes his wand and takes a 5-foot step to square L8. He casts mage armor, increasing his AC to 21 (touch 17, flat-footed 19). The flames and runes are simply a byproduct of the Spell Thematics feat, and have no impact on how the spell itself functions.

Okay, I think Hans is the only one who hasn't declared a position on the map, so I went ahead and put him down next to Yurgan. Let me know if you object to that placing, Hans.

But what if I object? ;P

Okay, what I need everybody to do before I resolve this round of combat is take a look at the updated battlemap I posted a couple posts above, and tell me which hobgoblin(s) your attack(s) went against this round.

Targeting K5, J5 if the hobgoblin should fall before my attack.

The dwarf acknowledges Benedetto's comment with a grunt.

And it's a lucky thing for them, too. Though if they're needin' our help with this lot, I doubt they'll be much help to us.

Yurgan draws a slender wand constructed of stone and metal from his belt and sends several bolts of light streaking toward the hobgoblins.

Yurgan takes up a position at K9 and attacks the nearest hobgoblin standing with his wand of magic missile.

• Magic Missile (CL 5th): 3d4+3 = 5,4,3 = 12 (force)

"Not exactly what I expected ..."

Absently pulling a twig from his beard and tossing it aside, the dwarf adjusts his spell component pouch and begins marching toward the manor's front entrance.

Yurgan's still not moved passed the humiliation he received at the claws of the draconic bridge guardian, and is in a fairly foul mood. The fact that he's been forced to look for help in defeating the creature only makes things worse; he's not paying much attention as he closes with the door, intent on pounding on the thing and making this little side trip as short as possible. He'll use a double-move to reach the entrance, but he's not going to notice the combat until the beginning of the next round as a result.

• Initiative: 1d20+2 = 21

I think I have enough of my character done to get started; I hope to get his appearance and personality written up by the conclusion of the weekend.

I do have a question regarding the regional feat. Though born in Janderhoff, the feats available from Varisia don't make much sense for a dwarven mage smith. Sometimes a part of a region stands separate from its neighbors in customs and all that. Anyway, I did some digging and was thinking Spell Thematics might be a good substitute (Player's Guide to Faerun 44). That said, if you have something different in mind that would be great as well.