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

[beowuuf]

@money: Ameena will be on E4, Falkor can stand on D2-4 and still attack. Unless Westian stands directly opposite him, you don't get a flanking bonus on our attack rolls.

Sneak attack is extra damage you sometimes get it you are a thief in this situation, so you won't get that.

I'm afraid your low strength also means you get a penalty on your attack and damage rolls. While your attack might not do the greatest damage, that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it if you want to start multi-classing.

Ok, time for that work-y thing!

[beowuuf]

@ian only quickly done the maths, but your attack seems good. However not sure why you'd want to five foot step first before doing it. At the moment Ameena and yourself will provide flanking to each other for an attack bonus.

The torch's fire damage is built in to the weapon and not something you roll separately. If the mummy can't put itself out next round, or can't get our of the square, then your second fire damage roll will be applied.

Gah, now I'm later - bye!

[oh_brother]

Well, hopefully Westian can start doing some proper praying rather than "smite the evil undead bastard" waffle, and fix Haynuus up again .

No can do, no runes. Only level 0 spells (max 1 hp).

If Haynuus has moved to D3 Westian moves to E2. If Haynuus has not moved Westian moves to D3. Trying to stand somewhere that will make it difficult for the mummy to move out of the flames.

I rolled a 4 + 3 = 7 for my melee attack. Damn, missed the shitty mummy!

[Ameena]

Yes, I did fail to mention which square I was on, but since I mentioned I was behind the mummy (which is facing Haynuus) and somewhere in my OOC ramblings (at the bottom of the IC post I think) that I was flanking it, I thought it was a fairly easy deduction to make as to which square I was in. Umm...well since I'm in this thread I don't have the map on-screen right now, but yeah, I'm currently standing in the square directly south of the mummy (erm, well, assuming north is up on this map ). And probably about to get smished, but at least the little murafu will go down in a good cause, even if the actions were for nothing .
And where is our uber almighty Cleric of Smiting, or is he all just loud shouty prayers and noble intentions?

[beowuuf]

The burned tiles of the dungeon are paved with noble intentions and smited clerics

Hmm, I think I could iupdate at lunchtime. See how everything goes! I think you are going to have a good round people. But not a comnbat ending round I'm afraid!

[oh_brother]

I'm guessing we don't get attacks of opportunity on the mummy?

[ian_scho]

Ugh choices:
1. Hop around and swing at the thing with the torch. Just a normal one handed hit from F4. The most important here is to make contact with the fire. Haynuus would really to either drop the rope or hold it in his left hand.
2. Throw the torch in it's face (Nahhh).
3. Do the most insane action and scoop up the burning pile of crap on the floor and give the mommy a big hug! My favourite action to be honest.
4. Hmmm grapple the thing into the fire.

Suggestions?!

[beowuuf]

@OB: Sorry, no AoO from a five foot step! The poor mummy needed to drop and roll right away!

@ian: Grapple lets you try to stop him moving whiles others do something, and try to stop him attacking. It also means he won't be able to attack with the falchion, having to resort to a single fist. You can try to move with a grapple, but you would be in the square you move him to.

A bullrush lets you push someone. I forget what penalties you take - if it is AoO or hit roll. Will look it up later if no one else looks first.

Your mouth holding rope antics have been fine so far, more importantly the two handed damage bonus increase from power attack is separate from using power attack with any one handed or two handed weapon to deal more damage. I believe. Again, have to look it up later at home.

[ian_scho]

Will post an update tonight then. Poor Westian deserves a nice sit down soon with a cup of cocoa.

[beowuuf]

Obviously, I was just clarifying the rules, I'm not stepping on the toes of teammates to suggest the best course of action!

Alot of actions such as aid another, grappling, or flanking sort of rely on you guys co-ordinating or taking advantage of each other's actions.

[beowuuf]

Ok, so my brain is weird. I remmebered an additional quirk of power attack was getting 2x strength bonus not just 1 1/2 x strength bonus when attacking two handed. Weird. Anyway, so ignore what I was saying there!

Yeah, grapple and bullrushing both provoke an attack of opportunity from your opponent. You could take another blow, but you lose 1hp per action (and are reduced to only having one action)

[oh_brother]

I am guessing from the damage rolls the mummy is horribly, horribly strong. Might be tough to push him around. But a grapple with an arm full of flaming bandages might be possible if Haynuus can stand the heat. While we are being crazy Westian could light the bandages on F2 and jump into the mix (is lighting them a swift action beo?). If that is not possible he could just swing with his club again.

So I don't know to be honest. It looks like the next person to be hit is dying (though they could be stabilised with bandages by Falkor Nightingale ). So we could all take one more swing and hope he just drops dead. Or we could do the firey stuff. Or could we just use our clubs or whatever to push the flaming pile on top of the mummy?

[beowuuf]

Grapple and bullrush both rely on strength. Certainly the mummy has felt very, very strong to Haynuus and Westian as when they've been hacked, but but not insanely so.

Hmm. Lighting the rags will need to be a standard action to ensure they actually light I'm afraid (timing wise). I would only relegate it to a swift action if your remaining actions were move-like actions (say retrieving a club or taking something from a pack)

As it stands, the mummy is still within the rope's range - shamee Ameena dropped it! Not that I am giving any hints as a DM, but Haynuus still has his end, if someone moved to the other side of the mummy you could try a safer version of grappling using the rope to pull him back to the fire. Unless you can loop it around the creature, he could attempt to simply force it to slip over him by ducking, or by dropping during his turn. While he hasn't seemed as lumbering as you'd like, he also hasn't seemed supernaturally agile either.

Remember that many non-combat actions also provoke attacks of opportunity if you are in its reach!

Anyway, if I can try to get the map up before I get phoned, then you lot can debate intelligently using it!

[beowuuf]

Picking up the rags would certainly get Haynuus burned, and he might catch fire. However, he could then attempt a throw to he next square, or as said he could then try the grapple knowing he himself was the burning square.

Seems a little fatal to me though with reduced hp. But I'm advising nothing as the DM, you guys are already surprising and delighting me, so I don't want to quash great ideas with rules and logic

[beowuuf]

Ok, finally calculated the mummy's remining hit points, and that wheezing sound is pretty obvious to your characters. And the burning looks really bad. Its looking in a really bad way folks!

[money]

I've posted, and aleady had my first BSOD with win 7 - thought i'd get through at least a week or two!!! off to football now, but will check on everyone else later.

[beowuuf]

Wow, how are you supposed to have parties to show it off if it crashes on you when you've barely used it? Madness!

[Ameena]

I've read the updates but I won't post just yet. just wanted to check some things...
First, what's this level check thing you keep mentioning? I think I asked about it before, several pages back, but if you answered then I can't remember what you said .
Second, are we allowed to take one step backward from enemies in this version? In 4th edition if you're in a threatened square you're allowed to take a single-square step backward and not provoke an AoO because you're still facing the enemy and therefore still have your guard up or whatever. Dong so counts as a move action so you can't take any more steps in that round (but can still use other actions...so you could single-step backward and then shoot, for example). I want to check this before I try any moving around, because otherwise I might trigger an AoO or somethign and get smished.
What else...erm...I'm guessing attempting to gnaw the the bandages wouldn't work/be allowed? Actually, I dunno if Ameena would want to do that - they'd probably taste disgusting. But then again, with two companions now injured, that might not bother her so much. If she puts the knife away, could an IC attempt to gnaw the bandages be mechanically rolled as a Bite attack?
There was probably something else I was gonna ask but I've forgotten it for now.
There's probably a potion fo Mummy-B-Gone sitting in the bottom of one of these sarcophagi, you know guys .

[ian_scho]

The main reason for the most common BSOD for XP was a faulty driver by a third party gfx card manufacturer, if I recall correctly.

Hmm, still not sure what to do. The rope idea looked really promising in a kind of Indiana Jones finale type thing but I can't get my head around how to tie the thing up. I wreckon if I just hit the thing again, this time not ignoring Ameena's aid (sorry!), it might be sufficient to finish it off.

[beowuuf]

Level check: I don't think it's explicitly referenced anywhere, Instead of using an attribute or skill to roll against, you use your level (or sometimes half your level) as the basic of a roll. Good for experience checks.

Edit: Actually, places like intimidate and spell casting mention them. It is your class level

Anyway, so that's all, instead of making a skill check on a specific skill, you are checking on the experience you have in your class, or life experience/skill, etc. I thought it a better decider of whether you would spot the lack of sneak attack to mummies, as I was undecided if it was a good RP point for Ameena to find it herself or a little too cruel.

Yeah, the 'five foot step' is the 4th edition 'shift' and can be made without an AoO being given. Hence why the mummy isn't taking four attack rolls! And yes, you can only make five foot steps if you have made no other moves in that round. Note you can do something called a withdraw in 3rd edition. Basically, if you do nothing else but move, you can be considered to have defended yourself for the first square only when you moved away. I don't recall it being in 4th edition, they might have decided it made it too easy to move out of combat with no penalty.

Your gnawing would indeed be a bite attack, which is anunarmed attack, so would provoke an AoO from the mummy first. And little teeth will probably have the same effect as a sharp knife I'm afraid. That's one tough set of bandages on that guy!

If by 'mummy-be-gone' you mean 'FUL bomb' then how did you guess? Heh, seriously while it might have been tempting, I try to maintain some sort of reality, and that solution would be a little bit too cute. Instead, I gave you NOTHING except a torch you guys surprised me with your burning rags solution. I think it, and not rushing into combat right away, and taunting the mummy with club throws, will ensure this isn't a TPK.

Maybe...

*wahahhhahaa*

[beowuuf]

@ian

Gimme two second, i can draw some diagrams. Seriously

[Ameena]

Hrmm, what's "TPK"? Total Player Kill?
And I didn't specifically mean a Ful Bomb, no - that didn't even occur to me . I was literally referring to the only-just-made-up potion called Mummy-B-Gone .
One thing I'd been thinking of...if Ameena decides to step away and start making attention-seeking noises and stuff (basically, doing hte murafu equivalent of jumping up and down yelling "Come and get me, you great big ugly bandage-covered bastard!"), what skill would that roll under? Looking at my skill list, it doesn't look like that would fit into anything I've got, but maybe there's a Taunt skill that I just don't have or something. That is, presuming I would need to roll something to see if the mummy turned round and noticed me. And then hopefully would get clobbered on the head by someone else .
I'm still not posting till I have a clear outline of potential actions I can take .

[beowuuf]

So yeah, if you are holding one end, and someone runs around the back of the mummy, then you have a lever with which to try and yank it sideways. Issues: If it is fast enough, the mummy could duck and let the rope slip

If it is caught (because it can't duck, or wasn't fast enough) then you can cross infront of each other. Crossing over in this way now ensures you have one loop. It's enough to be able to pull it if the other person keeps it taut. It's like a two person grapple, although if either person lets the rope go loose, or is pulled closer, then the rope loosens and the mummy could try to quickly step out.

Anyway, that's how to visualise it. It's trick, especially how the set up actually if for you lot just now, but isn't as far fetches as I originally thought it might be. Certainly good for one attempt, although there are places where the wheels can come off.


Again, you DM is just here to point out the possible mechanics implementation of your actions, not endorse or reject You may well be right, at this point in time, the rope is just a cool idea you can say you had and tried, but bashing the mummy's smouldering brains out os a better move

[beowuuf]

Yep, TPK = total party kill. Depending on the DM, either the best or worst thing that can happen!

And oh, if by 'mummy-be-gone' you meant a potion called that, no there isn't one of those. It's a spray

Taunting would depending on why you were doing it. If its to try and distract from something happening, that would be a Bluff. If you were trying to do it to get seriously considered the most evil thing in the room and scare them (and co-incidentally distract from someone sneaking around) then intimidate would be the skill. It's almost interchangeable given the main effect wanted, so I'd leave it to the player to roll whichever one they thought best, and alter their RP accordingly I do think it comes more under bluff though. I'm just pointing out Haynuus could also succeed for different reasons with a different roll!

[ian_scho]

Ohh, I didn't know that you could move through the mummy's zone of control like that. It's only when you go out of that 8 square area that he gets a free hit then.

[ian_scho]

Thanks for the diagrams btw!

[beowuuf]

Sorry, I should have clarified, that was assuming you did all that in a round. Usually a creature and player only gets one attack of opportunity per round. So assuming the first movement in the second diagram triggered the AoO, then both characters would be able to make further movements. If this was spread over a few rounds, you are right there would be another AoO generated.

Edit: Oops, and I realised I didn't finish writing the first paragraph and mention the AoO that Westian would receive in that intiial move. Sorry, it was suppose to be AoO and rope slipping were the two issues with the first part!

So yeah, there would have been a price for moving. Heh, I like the term zone of control The 3rd edition term is 'threatening'


Edit: And btw, nice description on your movements, you managed to avoid the AoO from the mummy nicely. actually, nice post full stop. I like the mental image of sometone taking five minutes to slowly explaining the spelling of 'lasso' to Haynuus, similar to the guards scene in the holt grail. That and tehticles.

[beowuuf]

Ok, since the update managed to happen at lunchtime today, I guess I forgot I'd updated already today!

So yeah, OB and Ameena can take their time figuring out a good tactical move, or if the move is posted in the morning I might be able to post at lunchtime again.

I think things are going to come to a close in the next few rounds, but surprises on both sides can happen...

[Ameena]

The idea of the taunty thing would have been to try and draw the mummy away from Haynuus and Westian, since they're both hurt, but they've both sort of moved around now so that won't really work. And I suppose Haynuus is leaving a wonderful blood trail all over the floor for people to slip up in...typical orcish type, can run around even with half their guts spilling out .
That must be a big pile of rags...either that or they're made of special long-burny stuff. hey, they could be wrapped around a stick or something to make new torches . Or break up one of those long pole things from upstairs and wrap rags around one end of each piece to make a bunch of torches . Although the original torch from the starting room seems to have some weird uber-flame in it so maybe it's still good for a while yet .
Meanwhile, I think the good old murafu ideals are gonna be what fuels Ameena for the rest of this battle now...

[beowuuf]

Nice post.

As to the pile of rags, I know this seems like a long fight, the broken structure of the combat round kinda helps that feeling, and I think we all sort of stretch the length of sentences and how actions stack, but remember each combat round is 6 seconds long. All your darting around and throwing clubs and moving around hasn't been that long in game time. From the first time Westian and Haynuus threw a club, it's been less than a minute!

So outside it seems like this long drawn out chess match, but read it back again later remembering that all this is instantaneous movement. Every search is a glance, every blow and throw is a desperate act, and every movement is a lunge or staggering rush around the hall!

If ever a ruling on using up a standard/movement action seems odd, that short timespan is why. Vice versa, never underestimate the power of adrenaline to let you do things faster than would seem normal. The standard movement rate in combat isn't a walking pace, for example!