Guymelef is uses 25 point buy and craft much of his equipment with his starting funds. As such, he will be pitted against CR 11 creatures rather than CR 10 creatures. Ideally, he should win half the fights while losing the other half, since he has no party to back him up. Each round will start all combatants completely fresh and at opposite sides of the arena by the entrances (120' distant). Assume that spells whose durations measured in hours are already cast.
Guymelef VS a Cloud Giant
ROUND 1
Guymelef wins initiative with 9 VS the CG's 5.
"Guy" casts greater invisibility and moves towards the north pillar closest to him.
CG draws out a boulder as it moves forward its full speed and hurls it at Guy's last known position to no effect.
ROUND 2
Guy casts fly and finishes moving behind the pillar for total cover. He uses his precast unseen servant spell to create false footprints in the sand.
CG succeeds on a Perception check to hear Guy casting (32) and throws another boulder in that direction. Since Guy has already moved (flying so as to not leave foot prints) the attack misses. However, the CG also notices the direction of the footprints (made prior to Guy casting fly) and incorrectly surmises Guy's new location at the Southeast pillar. The CG again moves forward his speed (now having clear line of effect to Guy). Hearing casting from one direction and seeing foot prints in another, the CG is confused.
ROUND 3
Guy, the CG now behind and below him, moves to the West side of the pillar and casts heroism. He also enchants his longsword with the flaming, keen, and shock properties.
CG once again hears Guy's casting and, ignoring the magical footprints, pulls out another boulder and hurls it at the Northeast Pillar. He hits (20) and deals 29 damage, 21 of which get past the hardness of the marble pillar (879 hp remaining). Seeing that the pillar isn't going to give anytime soon, he moves around it hoping to find Guy but fails (21 Perception).
ROUND 4
Guy charges CG and attacks with a spellstriked, intensified shocking grasp. He scores a critical hit, dealing 28 damage, plus an additional 34 damage from the intensified shocking grasp.
Feeling as though he had been gutted by a lightning bolt (106 hp remaining), the CG half panicked, drops his weapon, reaches into Guy's space and attempts to grapple him. He succeeds (34 CMB total, 90 miss chance roll).
ROUND 5
Suddenly finding himself in dire straights, and knowing he will never escape the giant's fierce grip, Guy instead lashes out with a fury of attacks. He activates his boots of haste, uses arcane accuracy and power attack. He hits (31), hits (31), and misses (24) for 20, 25, and 0 damage, respectively.
The CG, now at 61 HP, confidently tries to secure his hold with a pin and succeeds (50).
ROUND 6
Guy attempts to break free, but fails (CMB check 28).
CG attempts to break Guy's spine by dealing damage in the grapple. He readily succeeds (CMB check 45), dealing 18 damage to Guy.
ROUND 7
Guy, now at 74 HP, attempts to break free again, but fails (1, automatic miss). He curses the CG in its own tongue.
CG continues to squeeze the hapless Guy (43) for another 22 damage. CG laughs heartily.
ROUND 8
At 52 HP and having no other options, Guy again tries to escape, but fails (33).
CG's grip grows tighter (34) and deals 23 damage. Guy is now down to 29 HP.
Guy can only be freed if he rolls a natural 20, or if the giant rolls a natural 1 to maintain. Fast Forwarding.
ROUND 9
Guy: rolls 18
CG: rolls 7 (deals 19 damage leaving guy with 10 HP)
ROUND 10
Guy performs a stunning reversal (natural 20) and escapes the giant's hold by getting one arm free and reaching up to rip out some of CG's nose hairs. While CG releases him to grab his nose in eye-watering pain, Guy flies 60 feet into the air. Unfortunately, his invisibility ends.
CG, absolutely furious, pulls out another boulder and hurls it at Guy. He hits (30) and knocks Guys out of the sky with 24 damage, exactly what is needed to kill him instantly. Giant turns to the crows and misquotes, "That's how you kill a big bird with one stone!"
***
Tomorrow, Guy will fight another CR 11 creature from the Bestiary. Come back then!
Guymelef VS an Elder Earth Elemental
ROUND 1
Earth elemental (EE) wins initiative with 12 VS Guy's 4.
EE runs forward, putting him just outside melee range of Guy.
Guy casts fly and moves 30 feet straight up into the air to avoid EE's reach and powerful grapple capabilities.
ROUND 2
EE submerges himself into the earth to wait out Guy's fly spell.
Guy casts heroism and moves an additional 30 feet into the air.
ROUND 3
EE remains submerged
Guy draws out his bow and enchants it with flaming, frost, and shock.
ROUND X+4
(Fast forward several minutes)
Guy's fly spell and bow enchantment runs out and he floats gently to the ground. He is still benefiting from heroism, however.
Sensing his opponent's footfall EE's delayed action goes off and he emerges within reach of Guy. Like a mountainous wave of rock, EE rises and collapses upon Guy (47 to grapple). Guy gets an AOO, but misses (nat 1).
Round X+5
Guy (now going first due to EE's delayed actions) attempts to escape (he would cast a spell, but he has no hope of succeeding on the concentration check). With luck, he might get a natural 20 in escaping, however. He fails (31).
EE attempts to bury Guy alive by moving the grapple underground, but fails (natural 1). Guy breaks free as a result.
ROUND X+6
Having been briefly buried under 60,000 lb. of solid rock and miraculously finding himself not turned into jam, Guy thrusts his fist upwards through the earth and finds open air. He activates his boots of speed, enchants his longsword with flaming, frost, and shock; and uses Spell Combat and Power Attack while casting fire shield on the defensive.
His attacks are 13, 21, and 20 (all misses). At least he got his fire shield up (concentration 25).
EE attempts to pummel Guy with house-sized pseudopods or solid stone while using Power Attack. 32 (hit) and 40 (hit) for 31 and 27 damage, respectively. EE takes 13 and 14 damage from Guy's fire shield.
ROUND X+7
Guy, down to 34 HP, defensively casts greater invisibility (39), full attacks EE without Power Attack and arcane accuracy. 35 (hit), 29 (hit) 19 (miss) for 9 and 6 damage before 5-ft. stepping to the right.
EE is not fooled by Guy's invisibility due to tremorsense and pummels Guy's new location with power attack. The first attack misses due to concealment (9, 71), but the second hits easily (40) for 33 damage. EE takes 30 damage (15, 15) from Guy's fire shield.
ROUND X+8
EE: 96 HP
Guy: 1 HP
Guy, in a final act of desperation, uses spell combat and power attack along with intensified shocking grasp and arcane accuracy. The attacks hit (23), hit (nat 20), miss (20), and hit (35 touch) for 7, 3, 0, and 37 damage respectively. He begins to pray that the gods receive him well in the afterlife.
EE again targets Guy's square with power attack. A pair of 44s for a total of 59 damage seal Guy's fate.
EE wins the fight with 68 HP remaining (after having taken another 16 and 12 from Guy's fire shield).
***
Obviously, fighting monsters bigger than he is, is not Guy's forte. Come back for next week's showings where Guy will be individually facing humanoid members of the GMG's NPC Gallery, a bounty hunter (ranger 12) and a cult leader (cleric 10/rogue 2)!
Place your bets now.
HINDSIGHT REVIEW
Just realized that in round 4 of the Cloud Giant fight, Guy should have received an AoO for the giant trying to grapple him.
Rolling for him in hindsight, he got a 4, for a total of 22 (4 roll, 12 attack bonus, 2 charge, 2 heroism, 2 invisibility) against the giant's flat-footed AC (24), which still misses. So, in hindsight anyways, nothing changes.
In the same fight, he could have used Arcane Accuracy in Round 5 (and should have considering how dire the situation was). Had he done so, his attacks would have looked like...
He hits (36), hits (36), and hits again (29) for 20, 25, and 24 damage, respectively.
The giant still would have won with 37 HP remaining.
I also misspelled "crowd" as "crows" in the last line of the first post. *rolls eyes* That's what I get for doing early AM playtests.
So, basically we are noticing that grappling is a winning tactic for huge and larger opponents against single medium humanoid PC's. ^^
wait so guy stays out of reach with fly for the earth elemental but didnt use that tactic for the previous could giant?
how did the cloud giant grapple something so much smaller than him who was invisible?
speaking three dimensionally, knowing around about where he is from listening, doesnt help, s guy only takes up the space of a 5 foot sqaure, hes not at ground level he could be anywhere in the general area. on square back, two squares up etc etc.
if it was so easy to hear casting for the giant, wouldnt a 10th lvl character have figured that one out by now and had something along the lines of ventriloquism to go along with his unseen servant?
what about having a silent spell or two in spell slots for just such an occasion?
methinks guy would have done better NOT using invisibility and just use fly to stay out of reach and hit him with ranged spells?
The earth elemental doesn't have ranged attacks, the cloud giant does. All the giant has to do is wait for him to cast and throw a rock. If there's line of sight, the magus is toast.
Otherwise, the giant can wait until all the defensive spells lapse, too.
With earthglide, the elemental can choose not to be range attacked. Not a good situation for our friend the magus, who should have readied an action to move away as soon as it surfaced, and hope he could keep ahead of it.
===Aelryinth
The earth elemental doesn't have ranged attacks, the cloud giant does. All the giant has to do is wait for him to cast and throw a rock. If there's line of sight, the magus is toast.
Otherwise, the giant can wait until all the defensive spells lapse, too.
With earthglide, the elemental can choose not to be range attacked. Not a good situation for our friend the magus, who should have readied an action to move away as soon as it surfaced, and hope he could keep ahead of it.
===Aelryinth
ummm unlimited throwing rocks?
the pillars should have prevented line of sight, im not sure how high the ceiling was in the could giant fight either
On a quick side note Ravingdork your an Escaflowne fan I take it?
Except for the ending. It was so lackluster! :/
On a quick side note Ravingdork your an Escaflowne fan I take it?Except for the ending. It was so lackluster! :/
Whyyyy had Hitomi to return to Earth, she should have just stayed with Van!
That was my first experience with the typical Japanese romance "WTF?" ending. :p
Ahem, we return you now to your normally scheduled playtest. ^^
Place your bets now.
Your guy has a lot of money, and 25 point buy. My money is on him, plus I have seen some of those NPC's, and I am not impressed. I think using an AP NPC would be better, just don't say which AP it is from to avoid spoilers or put the AP name in spoilers.
Could he have used arcane pool to spontaneously cast dimension door to escape the grapple?
Might have helped escape the grapples.
The required concentration check DCs would have been pretty much impossible to beat.
On a quick side note Ravingdork your an Escaflowne fan I take it?Except for the ending. It was so lackluster! :/Whyyyy had Hitomi to return to Earth, she should have just stayed with Van!
That was my first experience with the typical Japanese romance "WTF?" ending. :p
Ahem, we return you now to your normally scheduled playtest. ^^
And here I thought i was the only one that noticed the name...
(and I agree, the ending was lame, but then, too many anime have bad endings... Im looking at you evangelion)