DM themed play-by-post D&D game : OOC thread

[beowuuf]

I take it Ian you are still a little busy right now? A shame, Haynuus is about to take centre stage (along with Ameena).

Oh, and money gave me a quick 'hello'. So he is not gone, just busy too. He's hoping to be able to rejoin, so that's cool!

And meanwhile, Raixel is also busy, but has managed to keep Petal alive and active in the offshoot game. Still seem to be on track for uniting you guys at the start of September!

[ian_scho]

Going to be a busy week. I'll pop something in the IC thread now!

[beowuuf]

Not a problem, I'll try to keep things light *whistles innocently and sneaks Westian into the water and drowns him while Haynuus is distracted*

[beowuuf]

WOOHOO! MONEY'S BACK!

[Ameena]

Oooh, I wonder if that means Falkor will be back too, then .

[beowuuf]

I'm enjoying this splitting the party up thing so much I think I'm gunna do my best to shatter you all into individual threads

And I think I've said it before, but anyone else really enjoying Haynuus's conversion? The circlet thing really touched me Though partially because the storyteller in me spotted there could be a tragedy in the making there... Good thing this is an RPG where you guys control your character's fates!

I'm looking forward to trying to break Westian's faith now *hehe*

[Ameena]

Lol...I like Haynuus as a character anyway - some of the things he says are just great, plus the little narrative asides and made-up orcish words and stuff . Anyway, I was thinking that +12 Int seems like a rather insane bonus, so unless that's a typo surely he has some kind of uber-brain now. I've been wondering what it'll be like, he and Ameena travelling together, without the others - in a way, they're they two most "primitive" characters, living as they do closer to nature and more generally worried about surviving rather than living, while people like Westian and Aurek probably live in some big stone fortress (or whatever) somewhere, concerned with the rules and regulations of their order, spending their time negotiating complicated tomes and the intricacies of diplomacy, with little to no worry about where their next meal is coming from.
So what's the betting that Haynuus and Ameena come across some kind of complex puzzle involving alphabetical formulae, whilst Westy and Aurek find a locked door that needs either bashing down or someone to sneak past its guard and pick the lock or something .

[beowuuf]

No, he doesn't get +12 int, anyone who wears the crown gets a base intelligence of 12, just like anyone who wears the ring gets a base dexterity of 18. I thought it a better way to do the bonuses than a raw addition. If it's just a raw additiona, metagame wise them you could just bump up the best person's stat to insane levels, when really the crown can't tell you more than a smart person could know, and the ring makes the person fast if they weren't already fast, not add a flat boost.

In a way, it replicates the DM mechanic where you get less bang for boost potions, etc (though items were always small incremental increases of course).

And yeah, at the moment Ameena ahd Haynuus are the most non-violent in attitude, and with the complimentary strength/dodging skill set. Although, of course, actually the most capable of dealing huge damage too. So we shall see what happens.. probably undead :p

[Ameena]

Ahh, you mean it puts his Int to 12...okay that makes more sense, lol. It was only about 8 before or something, wasn't it? I can't remember what everyone else's in, but I'm guessing Westy or Falkor has the best, them being the casters, and all .
With regard to Ameena and Haynuus, I wasn't thinking so much of their attitudes toward violence, but more in terms of their knowledge and perspective on the world - a lot of stuff the more "civilised" races take for granted, they won't even consider or know about. LIke, I dunno, buying and selling - Ameena would have no clue how a shop works, and in the society (such as it may be ) that Haynuus comes from it's probably less a matter of "How much do you want for that?" as "How much do you want to keep those legs of yours? Okay, then give me your stuff." . Thoughts that would come easily to those who live in towns of well-built houses might not even occur to those who live in mud huts or beneath the roots of a tree, or whatever .

[raixel]

WOO! Petal just retributive striked (struck?) the corbum pillar right in Chaos' face woo woo!

[beowuuf]

It was a most glorious and unexpected move!

Reply post is up

[ian_scho]

lol, not sure if Haynuus would recognise what a 'corbum pillar' looks like even if he ate his lunch at the bottom of one

[Ameena]

Likewise Ameena - see what I mean about us two being the more "primitive" types?

[beowuuf]

To answer the question of the OH sword (or whatever we're calling it). The blade actually 'disappears' when not being used, as in there isn't one. The blade composes itself on the hilt at the start of the fight - hence why you need to lose initiative the first round. Therefore, you can just tuck the hilt away whereever, and can't actually sheathe it (no blade).

Anyone less trustful of their DM might get scared that the blade doens't actually exist until you have to rely on it

[Ameena]

Use the Force, Haynuus!

[ian_scho]

.,..Just didn't want it going off in me trousers...

[beowuuf]

Don't get involved in a fight while it's still in your trousers then - you have the first round to react

[beowuuf]

"And besides his days are short because his legs don't carry him as far."

Best gnome joke this game

[beowuuf]

"Dolo Simtre is elven. It is the name of an elven paladin of Lilith, who became a cleric of the demoness Lolth

Not sure if you missed this Ameena, or if our murafu friend just didn't understand what a cleric is.

[beowuuf]

Sorry guys, was hoping to get the main update done too, but my brain is all tired! Will post it tomorrow morning!

[Ameena]

Ohh, I missed the "...who became a cleric..." part. I saw "...of Lolth", and the stuff before the cleric part, and had just focused on the paladin reference. So yeah, I was right then, lol.

[ian_scho]

I was a little confused as well. Still, he'll probably deserve to be put to the sword anyways...

[beowuuf]

I think only Westian had it explicitly explained before, though I also think Soorec at least mentioned the shift from one High Lord to the demoness.

Anyway, as Ameena spotted, the explosition wasn't for the players' benefit, and it certainly wasn';t for the character's benefit... it was an evil man trying to lay the groundwork for the priest to get deep into your heads. Although who knows how much the information might be useful later... after all, knowledge is power

Did he succeed before you guys spotted it? How much will resisting earlier affect any future attempts? We shall see...

[beowuuf]

Finally put the post up. The good knews is, no one is dead or unconscious. The bad news is, there is a 'yet' attached to that :p

[ian_scho]

Options Ameena:
* Haynuus could try throwing his earthy coloured potion at (the feet of?) Garax.
* We could run, with only one AoO between us.
* He could hit him. Ameena would need to do something clever, though.
* He could quaff his health potion THEN hit him, THEN Ameena could do something clever.
* Can't really grapple him, as Haynuus is almost guaranteed to get hit.
* Surrender is the last option.

I reckon Haynuus could survive one more attack. The second and it's all over.

Suggestions?

[beowuuf]

The health potion is good, in that it restores actual damage AND an equal amount of non-lethal damage. You might want to save it incase you take actual damage too though...then again, the man can do alot of damage a turn if he's lucky or focused...

You can probably retcon the fact that 22 poitns of that damage Haynuus took was power attack damage. So yeah, Haynuus is doomed getting struck like that more than probably once. However, if one of you can keep the guy focused (assumign missing Ameena isn't reason enough for him to stop swinging) you might be able to survive longer. Of course, you are right that one round's worth of focused attacks are very likely to do alot fo damage too, so unless Ameena can split the attacks up (or you can force him to start moving) there's also that worry.

For what it's worth, Ameena can reciprocate an aid another to boost Haynuus's AC for one attack (+2AC) and a full round defense gives a +4AC bonus too.

Oh, and under 3.5, without the correct feat, a person can only make one AoO per turn. So if Haynuus wants to grapple, he can sneak in if Ameen has provided a distaction enough that she generates an AoO against her. I think Ameena can take a basic attack.

Anyway, all that is - of course - metagame-y tactics. Always fun, but it's really down to the characters too. Even non-optimal combat options can draw narrative results that are benficial.

Or it can all end with ganking the murafu

[Ameena]

Hrmm, tricky one...well, I'm not gonna bloody surrender so we can sod that . Ameena won't want to hurt him too badly, and certainly not kill him. Clonking him on the head to knock him out would be acceptable, though .
I'm wondering whether the butterfly thingy or the mini-air elemental might be of use here, though I've no idea how. Maybe as distractive techniques. I'll make an IC post and see what comes out - I don't know most of what I'm gonna write until I'm actually typing it. Ameena wouldn't have known that talking to Garax was a bad idea - I dunno how much she'll remember about any previous meetings that may have occurred with soldiers in the First Run, but as she doesn't remember the encounter with Drommal and the others she can't fall back on that either.
As far as fighting is concerned, I'm rather glad now that I took Improved Unarmed Strike - it means Ameena can attack, weaponless as she is, and not draw an AoO for doing so. She can also choose whether to inflict lethal or non-lethal damage. If he wasn't basically a big tank in plate armour, maybe running into his feet to try and trip him up would work, but mechanically that would probably be an opposed Strength test or something, so probably not too likely to succeed and more likely Ameena will get herself injured somehow.
I think I'll just go and post and seew what happens .

[beowuuf]

Ameena won't want to hurt him too badly, and certainly not kill him.

Don't think that's gunna be too much of a problem :p

Seriously, Haynuus and Ameena are the big non-spell damage dealers, and could take him down with luck if they had better protection and a better set up. Toe to toe and with Garax striking first, and Haynuus un-armoured... *face*

And lol, I wasn't really thinking Ameena would have any reason to make such an assumption. Just fun to see the logical outcome of player actions and decisions versus the world.

Yeah, trying to push someone over would be a bull rush. As an opposed strength check, there is some wiggle room to succeed, but it suffers from generating an AoO. You are right, Ameena can attack from the get-go, and unarmed strikes count for sneak attack (non-lethal) damage. You can't get sneak attack damage for lethal weapons dealing non-lethal damage, by the way.

[Ameena]

Well, as I'm not flanking, Sneak Attack won't matter...oooh actually, do v3.5 Rogues get the same thingy as in 4th, where they can BS in the first round...ahh no wait never mind - Garax has already acted so she wouldn't be able to anyway.
As for pushing him over, it wouldn't be so much of a pushing over as a throwing-herself-into-his-legs and making him topple forwards . It's easier to get someone to fall if o=you hit them in the back of the legs anyway (make their knees buckle), so if she's gonna try that it would be if she can get behind him.
My current suggestion for the course of the combat is that we try to disable him so that he can't do us any more harm (knock him out then tie him up, disarm him, knock him over and sit on him, that kind of thing ) rather than trying to spill icky human guts all over the floor, even though I know Ameena and Haynuus are well capable of the latter, especially if we can get into a flanking position .

[beowuuf]

Yes though, any time the person is denied their dex bonus to AC in 3.5 (so climbing, grappling, or flatfooted at the start of combat) a rogue can get sneak attack damage. So if he hadn't struck first, you would have been fine.

I let Haynuus still keep his ready action, because he was basically being passive. Ameena was being far too active for her to also ready any actions against Garax.

Disarm (like may combat options) is tricky. You generate an attack of opportunity to do it. The logic of your improved unarmed strike not helping here (and vice versa, improved disarm not helping for unarmed strikes) is because of what you are trying to accomplish. With improved unarmed strike you want to do damage without gettign hit - you don't care exactly where you are damaging, so you take what opportunity you can get to strike. With improved disarm, you are timing perfectly the chance to disarm without retaliation - but that will be at the expense of getting anywhere close to him to do any damage with an unarmed strike, say.

Attempting the disarm against a twoi handed weapon is trickier still - even if you managed to knock one hand, he gets a bonus since he still has another hand on it (+4 actually) while a light weapon (Like hands) makes it much harder to disarm someone (so you get -4). And also, size matters - Ameena being little (As you might guess) also gives him a bonus - +4.

Narratively, it might still be an interesting option to take, I'll certainly factor it in to the rolls and his reactions, but just warning you of the mechanical perils if you want to go that route mechanically.

On the other side, using the air elemental might produce some spectacular results you can take advantage of. Anyway, will let you decide if Ameena attempts the disarm or if she attempts a normal attack. Remember, making Garx attack you removes his AoO for the rest of the round - so Haynuus could do his things (Like his own disarm attempt or a grapple attempt) and get away with it. As I said, narratively, it's an interesting option to take, and funnily in that case mechanically you'd get backed up for doing it with a benefit