My apologies. I thought due to the fact that I rolled a 20 I could describe the fact that he actually connected, but I just saw that I was still within the window to edit it, so I changed it a bit :)
Now lets see if Nisfeollyn will give us a "combat lecture" about our grand foe ;)
I'm hoping it comes in the past tense. ;)
Twenties are a special case, but even then in some cases (deflect arrows, for example) even a 20 might not hit.
You never know when I might decide to get uppity and pull out a giant scorpion with monk levels.
Deflect arrows and such are a good point :)
Shudders at the thought of a master of many styles Giant Scorpion combining a few stances ;)
Is there a scorpion style? There should be a scorpion style. I might have to homebrew something...
Who am I kidding, Scorpion style is what you get when a MoMS mixes Snake and Snapping Turtle. :)
Lol. That's an excellent translation, isn't it?
Now that we have that established... is the scorpion wearing a gui or black belt or anything? :(
Nope. It's sort of grey green.
Just out of curiosity, are you counting the -2 to attack rolls from the scorpion having the grappled condition himself? It's relevant because if not counted than the claw attack barely misses, otherwise it hit and it would make my actions in combat different, due to then being grappled :)
You know, you are correct. I didn't apply that penalty. It missed you with the claw.
Wait! weren't the Nauseated and Sickened conditions happening concurrently? And if not doesn't Nauseated trump Sickened so that's the one we would have experienced first? If not we're all still useless, because nauseated can't do anything but a single move action per round.
On a side note, Tongues Curse is a b!*%& when you're the main source of party information.
heh
Just checking - the mephit can see me even though I am invisible? If so, then Hal is seeing it fighting only air, as I am pretty sure he can not see me...
My bad - I cant see you. Shoulda remembered
Facepalm. This is what I get for writing an update while trying to cook dinner.
So, I meant to write Dorian, not Torgan, and then, when updating the map later, I just moved the Mephit next to Torgan.
Sheesh.
Map updated. Everyone please pretend I wrote Dorian in my round update instead of Torgan. (sorry Dorian, you're kinda the whipping boy this fight. Everyone gets their turn in the barrel. Best to get it out of the way early, I suppose.)
As for the Nauseated condition, it's a property of the Stinking Cloud spell. If you fail the save you are Nauseated while you are in the cloud and for 1d4+1 rounds afterward.
The Sickened condition was caused by a separate effect and is tracked separately. Mostly it just serves to make it more likely that you'll fail the save against the cloud (it's a pretty nasty ability combination for a low-level creature).
Does that clear things up?
As usual, game updates will be unpredictable over the weekend. I'll try to get some posting in later today.
Cool.
I cant help feeling like we've stalled, still, loving what we've played so far.
Things always slow down after the intro. We're still going strong and we only lost one person to attrition. Honestly, based on how I've seen things go in other games, I call that a big success.
:)
Sorry, I did not realize you are waiting for me.
Lyla, that is mighty funny. Too bad I cannot even reply meaningfully as I have no idea what you are saying...
Might be a good idea to put the weight of the items (where applicable) in the loot sheet.
So we know whether we can carry it and how encumbered we will be.
But currently I'm thinking of leaving the heavy objects till we are ready to return to the entrance.
Yah, until we can buy/find a magical means of reducing our encumbrance (efficient quiver, bag of holding, etc), Bladud can't carry much more and maintain a light load... which I'd VERY MUCH like to do.
Yup, either somebody's going to have to learn Aklo, I avoid combat until the last possible moment or it waits till a few levels on when I'm able to speak a second language in combat.
Fun.
With those sling bullets I picked up I am also close to medium load. For carrying items on the way back to base camp I do have Ant haul if I still have spells left for the day :)
@Lyla, tongues curse can be a pain when not having someone who knows the language, but also causes for some funny interactions (Played one myself in another game)
Especially when you're the knowledge skill specialist
With those sling bullets I picked up I am also close to medium load. For carrying items on the way back to base camp I do have Ant haul if I still have spells left for the day :)
How will a medium/heavy load impact your ability to perform your role in the group? Bladud's the team's scout, so he needs to minimize his ACP when possible. Would it drop your combat mobility if you were medium-loaded? What other penalties would you be looking at?
With those sling bullets I picked up I am also close to medium load. For carrying items on the way back to base camp I do have Ant haul if I still have spells left for the day :)
@Lyla, tongues curse can be a pain when not having someone who knows the language, but also causes for some funny interactions (Played one myself in another game)
Caderyrn, you're wearing breastplate! You're already taking all of the penalties for medium load. You don't get any new penalties until your load exceeds your armor encumbrance. In your case, you would get new penalties when you hit heavy load.
On the other hand, Dvalin is a biscuit away from heavy load, which is why he replaced the 5 lb of sling bullets instead of just taking more.
cheers
@Bladud, it's mostly the speed penalty, although some of the benefits of having a agile breastplate would go away due to the encumbrance ACP. So it would hamper the ability to climb and jump, which is relevant in a dungeon crawl environment ;)
But as I stated, for the most part it would just drop me back to 30 ft movement in combat. And although not relevant in all cases, the extra 10 ft can make a difference. Like when I was climbing down the webbing. Speed was halved twice (regular climb & difficult terrain), so I was still capable of moving 10 ft per move action instead of 5.
And my mention of Ant haul mostly was in the case we need to haul back a lot of heavy stuff ;)
@Dvalin, check my Armor Mastery Revelation, I can move at normal speed in medium armor :)
Cool. Well, let's just coordinate to make the best of our combined encumbrance, then. When it comes time to decide who needs to take the hit, we'll make the call. Hopefully w're not there yet.
That's also why I advocated not taking heavy items with us unless really needed. Or are we going to hold a wine party ;)
Just for reference, I checked and all of our party are close to their next encumbrance step :)
We can always put some heavy, not often used items (like torches in our case) into a bag. Carry it around and when needed drop it at start of combat/other situation/... ;) It's what I've seen many encumbered characters do :)
Yep. I think that's the way to go. Bladud is kitted to do just hat with his backpack when necessary. So using one of his empty sacks to hold additional loot (and have it be easily droppable) is a good call.
Yup, either somebody's going to have to learn Aklo, I avoid combat until the last possible moment or it waits till a few levels on when I'm able to speak a second language in combat.
Fun.
Already planned on it. But the languages my summons speak had priority and only had 3 linguistics ranks to work with.
Good to see ya Dorian! welcome back.... we need you ;)
Especially when you're the knowledge skill specialist
Exactly :-)
I love that you guys are using the lens as a camera. I hadn't really considered that use, but it's hilarious.
As for the whisper cuffs, it wasn't specified. I think I'll allow either use. Just choose when you activate them if it's a message to one person, or if it's a conference call.
Lyla, can you repost that giberish to the other thread, please? (in italics?)
I love the way these scenes are playing out...
Btw, the gibberish is Azerbijani, figured it was obscure enough that it worked for something like Aklo. It was either that or Aramaic which is pretty creepy sounding.
Super busy day today, and probably tomorrow too. I'll try to get an update in tomorrow night.
Alright, first normal fight down for each group. I feel like things went pretty smoothly, mechanically speaking. Group 2 definitely had a more frustrating situation, but not nearly as dangerous as group 1's scorpion.
How'd things go from a player perspective?
It worked pretty well, seeing it after a second encounter where the whole team isn't rendered out of the fight by conditions would be a better gauge though.
I thought the combat went well. Things with grab abilities are a pain on most parties :)
Hilarious...
I'm not going to be able to get a real update in until late tonight or tomorrow morning. Sorry for the delay.
Late to the party for combat feedback. I think it went well. The scorpion was a tough nut, but the team ran simple, useful tactics against it and we all walked away... which is good.
I'm partially surprised it didn't try to skitter away when we started laying into it, but then again... there's a (small) chance that it would have been foolish enough to try to skitter away with Bladud still in its pincer. Which would have been overlay painful for both of us, but certainly complicated for Bladud. :(
It confirmed my dislike of the reduction in Power Attack's damage bonus (and kind of made me not sure I really wanted to make use of it), but I'm guessing that's not the feedback you're interested in. :D
Actually, that's fine. I want that kind of feedback.
The reason I reduced the bonus on power attack is because I've notice it's persistent and constant use in games I've been in. Any feat that is ubiquitous is, pretty much by definition, too good.
Pathfinder, at almost every level, feels a lot like a game of Rocket Tag where the folks who win initiative pretty much win period.
Two-handed melee characters are pretty much the only melee characters because they are so clearly better than the other options. Spellcasters are a different issue, but usually because of specific spells rather than one particular feat.
The only way I could think to lower the effectiveness of two-hand melee characters without a serious rewrite of the system was to nerf power attack. The goal of my house rules are to give melee characters more overall versatility without pushing them further up the power curve. Power Attack is arguably too good a feat. Strangely, it is also something that shouldn't require a feat to be able to do. Everyone who knows how to swing a sword knows how to swing harder. I felt that by giving it out for free and reducing it's effectiveness I could kill two birds with one stone. So far i feel like the change does what i want it to (which is extend fights by a round or two), but I'm happy to listen to critiques.
Lol. You may be right. I don't have to like it, though. ;P