Welcome to the Happy Duck Tavern!!

[Lavinia Batharoy]

Would Holy Smite be useful or just piss of the dragon?

[Azaraunt]

What we know about the dragon: Undead traits, AC 34+, Breath, Tar, and gaze attacks, SR 23+.

I wanted to offer that anyone adjacent to the wizard could choose to be in the force dome, or not. I am not sure if the map I am looking at represents everyone's current position or not but it looks like a number of folks "could" choose to be in the sphere. And Lavinia, likewise, if you do not want to be in the dome, that is fine. I did not mean to grab you if you do not want to be "grabbed".

[Ruul Spiritskin]

Ruul had planned on covering Lavinia.

If Azaraunt is going to make her invulnerable with his spell, he'll instead just move away.

[Azaraunt]

The wizard tries to protect all three of us. I am not sure if he can get you into the sphere since you are enlarged Ruul. LM's call.

[Ruul Spiritskin]

Whatever.

I'm okay with retconning and just saying that Ruul was actually following his own orders and spreading out.

It's horribly out of character to assume he'd leave Lavinia on her own but that's basically the only option I have.

[Azaraunt]

So, you expect me to protect myself and no one else? Why would you want me to do that?

[Ruul Spiritskin]

I agree it doesn't make any sense.

Nor does it make any sense for Ruul to bail on Lavinia.

[Lavinia Batharoy]

Can it give partial cover to Ruul at least as Az tries to cover all of us at the same time that Ruul covers Lavinia? I see everything happening at once and too quickly to decide which action to take.

[Azaraunt]

I like that. Or, as Ruul dives to cover Lavinia he is prone and so fits into the 10' diameter... ???

[Ruul Spiritskin]

I'm going to stick to my guns and do my thing even if it gets invalidated.

I can't come up with a way for one of us to not end up feeling terribly out of character.

[Elen Emerwen]

I think that more than one person could huddle around people to try to protect them. Let's not get into a game of "who's the more heroic and self-sacrificing" ;D

[Ruul Spiritskin]

Well the problem was one was largely a minimally effective RP instance of 'heroic and self-sacrificing'. The other was a spell that invalidated the first. =/

I'll just have to make sure I put us on opposite sides of the battlefield next time I setup a map. =P

[Elen Emerwen]

Also, the squeezing rules explicitly say that Ruul could squeeze himself into a 5x5x5 space. He will take a -4 to attack rolls and -4 to AC but it doesn't say anything about a reflex save penalty.

[Calendir Elberen]

Calendir is not actually heroic at all, he just does it because they stood by him, and in his head none of them deserve to go down because of that :D

Lavinia was actually staying back to zap him even as the dragon bore down on them so...

[Lavinia Batharoy]

So, can Az prestidigitate the shield clean?

[Ruul Spiritskin]

Worst-case scenarion, Ruul has a way to get us out safely but it has certain longer term repercussions...

Can Azaruant do 3 dimension doors?

[Macavity the black]

I'm back. 145 new messages in the IC thread. It may take me awhile to get up to speed.

cheers

[Lavinia Batharoy]

Perhaps grabbing some potions of 'freedom of movement' would be useful before we take on the dragon again? Or would that work for the dragon's tar?

Or if we have enough prep time, Lavinia can scribe a bunch of scrolls of it and then cast it on everyone before we go up against him next. It'd last 70 minutes per casting.

[Numair Nejem]

That could possibly work as well.

We should start a "tactics vs Malerix" list:
*Universal Solvent - Proven to work
*Salves of Slipperyness - might work, efficacy in question
*Smoked Goggles - help against Paralyzing Gaze, has downsides (miss chance)
*Freedom of Movement - would be awesome if it works.

[Ruul Spiritskin]

Protecting everyone with scrolls will be expensive.

Hopefully by the time we run into him again, Ruul will be high enough level to cast Freedom of Movement himself and help Lavinia with the spell burden.

[Lavinia Batharoy]

Well, the spell's description say that it will work against magical effects like web, so I don't see the tar being so much different. So I think that it should it work, but that sort of thing is always the DM's final call.

Lavinia could scribe the scrolls herself which will at least halve the cost. So while still expensive, it isn't as bad as it could be.

[Ruul Spiritskin]

At the very least, it couldn't hurt to have a few of those scrolls on hand.

[Numair Nejem]

This is one of those times where its great to have a party fund.

Preparing to fight a dragon is serious business, especially one as powerful as that.

One use items are wasted on most fights, but they are a godsend when you really need then. Also, cheers for levels. If we can fight him on our own spells alone, that would rock!

[Azaraunt]

Not sure potions go up to 4th level spells. Seems like they are restricted to 3rd. They would be more costly than scrolls anyway.

Add to your list Numair -

Dragon's AC is 35+ - Get some way to cast True Strike

Dragon's SR is 23+ - not sure there is any way to increase this short of the Spell Penetration feat - but we can prep spells with no SR if we know we are going up against the dragon.

At least we have learned some about our enemy. Imbukar will share what he learned as well. Everyone is welcome to read the spoiler exchange between him and the dragon.

And lastly, we would benefit from a protocol where we choose to engage or not as a group. RP aside, now that we have experienced the dragon, Azaraunt is willing to agree to not attack it again until the team is ready to do so as a group.

[Calendir Elberen]

'Fighting Malerix checklist':

Item 1. Control the ranger's happy trigger finger :D

[Lavinia Batharoy]

Uhm, yeah, group cues would be a good thing to discuss as a group later.

Can you get True Strike as an oil?

[Numair Nejem]

Unfortunately, no True Strike Potion, though we could make Scrolls.

From the Magic Item Creation Rules, "Spells with a range of personal cannot be made into potions."

---

I'm going to put a spot on my character sheet for this list, and add to it as we refine it.

Fighting Malerix

Obstacles
AC 35+
SR 23+
Dripping Tar (melee)
Suffocating Tar (breath)
Paralizing Gaze
Flight

Tactics
Have Ruul grapple Calendir before the fight starts.
Use ranged weapons
Spread out

Equipment
Scrolls of Freedom of Movement.
Scrolls of True Strike
Smoked Goggles
Salves of Slipperyness
Universal Solvent

[Azaraunt]

Don't forget Frightful Presence. I am wondering what I might summon to harasses Malerix. Likely not many creatures on the Summon Monser IV will bother it.

Did it ever land? Dragons usually fly pretty clumsily and being undead could have made that worse. Was it flying with wing power or some arcane ability?

Thinking about it, the best way to deal with that dragon is gonna be finding is phylactery and destrying it when the dragon is not around...

[Lavinia Batharoy]

What about a casting of Lesser Planar Ally? "By casting this spell, you request your deity to send you an outsider (of 6 HD or less) of the deity's choice."

You gotta bargain with them a bit for their service, but we might get something useful to help.

[Azaraunt]

I would get a devil... Already did that once. :)

[Lavinia Batharoy]

Well, the spell said it is the deity's choice. So it's up to Pharasma (ie LM) to decide what to send me. She is Neutral, so it could be anything.

[Elen Emerwen]

Wands of true strike are an excellent option, for Azaraunt or those with ranks in Use Magic Device. Spell resistance is harder -- we're already elves, so we have that bonus, there is a feat called Spell Penetration, there's the Piercing Spell metamagic feat, which we could get rods for, and there's Dweomer's Essence which Elen actually has a few of. All of these are untyped bonuses (except the elf one which is racial) and so would stack. We could get up to an effective +14 to overcome SR (+2 racial, +2 Spell Penetration, -5 to target's SR from piercing spell, and +5 from Dweomer's Essence). Would that be enough? Is it worth it at 500gp per casting (or 250 if Azaraunt takes Spell Penetration at level 9 and then crafts the essence as a wondrous item)? Good question.

[Azaraunt]

hmm. I did not know about Dweomer's Essence. Nice find. I'll have to craft a some of these when I get a few more gold pieces. Planning on Spell Penetration at 9th already. A lesser rod of Piercing Spell would be sweet too.

[Calendir Elberen]

Numair Nejem wrote:

Tactics
Have Ruul grapple Calendir before the fight starts.

Haha, that one made me laugh my pants off :D

No wait... Its Numair that lost his...

[Macavity the black]

LM

I love the pace and description of this game. I would really appreciate a brief of the combat situation when you post. Players are reacting to your knowledge post with free actions of talking but want to take action. Are we in initiative? How far are the bad guys, traveling at what speed? Personally, I'm not posting, because I don't have anything tactical to react to... and Macavity is a quiet cat.

cheers

PS Macavity saw that the leaders were 'glowing' last Thursday. That's where his question came from, even though he didn't notice that they were wearing gemstones.

[Lord Manticore]

I think that I covered most of the tactical situation in my last post that I sent out just a couple of minutes ago. Let me know if I should add more info to that.

[Macavity the black]

Lord Manticore wrote:

I think that I covered most of the tactical situation in my last post that I sent out just a couple of minutes ago. Let me know if I should add more info to that.

Thanks. Good. So we were waiting for Azeraunt action to get their attention?

[Lord Manticore]

yup.

[Macavity the black]

LM

Would you please edit your last post to include a map or at least some distance landmarks? I think you said we are 120 feet away. I'm very interested in how high they are. If they are more than 30 feet high, Macavity would need to ask for fly spells being thrown around.

cheers

[Ruul Spiritskin]

LM, I'm trying to chat with you within your document.

Specifically, can you sort the list by initiative count?

[Lord Manticore]

Macavity the black wrote:

LM

Would you please edit your last post to include a map or at least some distance landmarks? I think you said we are 120 feet away. I'm very interested in how high they are. If they are more than 30 feet high, Macavity would need to ask for fly spells being thrown around.

cheers

You are 120' away, and they are 20' off the ground. The party is just north of the trench line currently. Right now, you are in open country, with nothing else large enough to impede your movement, ground or otherwise.

[Lord Manticore]

Ruul Spiritskin wrote:

LM, I'm trying to chat with you within your document.

Specifically, can you sort the list by initiative count?

I've done as you asked.

[Lord Manticore]

I'm going to be busy for most of the day, although I can probably setup a post or two on my lunch break. I am posting the lead gargoyle actions now, and then I'll post on the rest of the gargoyles at lunch.

LM

[Macavity the black]

Can we get a summary of round 2 before starting round 3? While I'm OK without a map, I need two pieces of information to do Macavity's actions: how far are the gargoyles away from him and which ones are NOT engaged in melee. To minimize work, I very interested in targeting living leaders first and another schmuck if Macavity doesn't have to move.

cheers!

[Ruul Spiritskin]

We're waiting on LM resolving the last few PC actions for round 2 and doing the round 2 bad guy actions.

Both leaders should be alive as I think they haven't taken any other damage this round.

[Calendir Elberen]

I had thought Macavity's last shot had downed one of the Gargoyle leaders.

[Ruul Spiritskin]

He shot down shmuck gargoyle #2.

I'll try to get a map together tonight but I'm busy getting prepared for my own AP I'm starting soon.

[Calendir Elberen]

You going to DM it Ruul?

[Ruul Spiritskin]

Yup.

I believe it's going to be Rise of the Runelords.

[Lavinia Batharoy]

So far I've been in four of those that all shortly ended after the goblins raided the festival. One of these days I'll manage to get into one that will actually last. Unless of course I'm just a jinx for that AP...