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

[beowuuf]

Evil Westian doens't have any of your possessions, just a facimile of your armour - so AC18. So you actually beat him

Also note, evil Westian is currenty 'alone' again, and was intimidated when he was last time. RP wise, if you were to win again, I might make him a little less cocky when dealing with you without 'Haynuus'. And also note, I might let you (as a fullround action) combine your 0 level prayers into one large pentition (the ones you have left) with a 'turning'. It might be an idea.... I wouldn't be opposed to it ... You'd get a +1 turning bonus for each prayer you used up, providing you scored say a DC15 knowldge religeon success with the prayer first.

Just a thought

[oh_brother]

Ah, I need to update the post. I roll damage for AoO, 1d3 non-lethal?

Anyway I rolled a grapple check this round, although the rolls were pretty bad! Maybe next round I will do a different turning action.

[beowuuf]

You can't AoO with an unarmed strike (you have no reach) so it would have to be with the sword. I'll doubke check that later, but I'm sure it is a normal AoO. Non-lethal would be at -4 to the attack roll, so you'd miss

And I'm always glad for you guys to win with your own ideas instead of my suggestions...after all, it's your fault of it goes wrong when its your stuff

[oh_brother]

Okay, I better stop altering posts until I am sure what is going on. I thought that because I was using a holy symbol you were not going to let me use my sword (you said something about me getting -4 for being unarmed). So that is why I thought that it would be non-lethal damage on Westian.

If the grapple does work I will inflict non-lethal damage on Haynuus...whew, I am getting confused!

[oh_brother]

Edit: just re-read your post - if the option on Haynuus is doing non-lethal damage or just grabbing then I will just grab him. If the option is doing lethal or non-lethal damage, I will do non-lethal.

[beowuuf]

Ah, I see the confusion there.

The double is trying to disarm your holy symbol. So because it isn't a weapon, and easy to grab, you get a -4 to keep hold of it when using the opposed rolls in the disarm. However, your double was attacking unarmed, so he got a -4 too. Hence you guys were just rolling completely normal opposed attack rolls effectively.

However, before all that, he provokes an attack of opportunity coming that close to grab your symbol. So you can still use a sword to deliver a completely serparate attack. If it succeeds (which it would if it was a lethal attack) and deals damage (lethal or non is fine by me, but attempting non-lethal will miss in this case) then you stop the disarm attempt before it gets to oppsoing rolls.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/specia ... htm#disarm

It is a little confusing, sorry! Basically, if anyone (you included) tries anything cool, more often your enemy gets a completely separate attack of opportunity to stop the attempt dead.

Good news, in the case of your grapple attempt, Haynuus is totally unarmed AND grappling, both of which mean he does not threaten you, so can't make AoOs.

[oh_brother]

Okay, now I have got it! Westian would have used a sword if he had one, giving both of us lethal damage. I rolled a 6 + 2 = 8...ouch, the one time I wanted a low roll!

I will re-edit the post, just to change the reference of punching him with a reference to stabbing him!

[ian_scho]

The most important thing here is that he didn't disarm you or steal your cross symbol... Your character might need it when he returns to the fold in proving that he found one of the people he is looking for!?

[Ameena]

Is Westian's holy symbol in the shape of a cross? He's not a Christian, you know .
What does Westian's holy symbol look like?

[ian_scho]

lol, well spotted.

[beowuuf]

I've got it in my head its a moon shape...don't recall why, so I'm probably wrong

[Ameena]

And what's it made of? I'm picturing it as golden for some reason but it could just be some unimpressive-looking thing made of carven wood that's not painted or anything. I suppose it depends on the tenets of Westian's chosen religion...

[oh_brother]

You are right, I should have described it when I got it, but things just got so hectic!

I am semi basing the High Lord on the D&D elven god of the same name, so the symbol is a crescent moon. It probably should be made of wood or something natural, but in my head Westian's order was slightly removed from nature. Maybe giving it lip service, but actually living in fancy buildings. So a gold symbol would fit in nicely.

[Ameena]

Ahh, Larethian already exists in the DnD universe? I'll have to look him up...

[beowuuf]

He poked out the great orc's eye, so he did

And cool, glad my moon thing was based on research and memory not just making things up!

[Ameena]

Hehe, isn't it nice when that happens?
Meanwhile, that fight is so confusing, lol...I'm rather glad I'm not involved in it . AoOs and grapples and self-damage and stuff all over the place .

[ian_scho]

Makes it interesting to me. Rather than the see-who-drops-first thing I'm used to, you have to worry about some fiend wrestling your own weapon off you!

[Ameena]

Or some friend stabbing you in the gut from the other side of the room .

[beowuuf]

My personal favourite!

[beowuuf]

Edit: He has "Fortitude: +5, +9 for hot/cold environmental damage and suffocation" - doesn't help does it?

'Fraid not, only at times of going through hot/cold environments (like desert, passage on fire, frozen wasteland, etc) where you'd make a fortitude or take damage/fort save for less damage. Similarly, if you ever start drowning or being anable to breath from fumes, this would help too.

[beowuuf]

Ok, in D&D 4th edition, there's a little thing called 'bloodied', which is essentially the official term for the state when a character or critter is down to half their hit points. You can imagine it as the first time a blow has really 'told', since everything up to then has probably been minimised by the character still being fresh in the fight.

Would you guys want me to actually call mechanical attention to creatures when they reach certain milestones (like half their hitpoints, or one quarter), or are you happy enough to stick to the mystery for now, where I give narrative clues but otherwise combat is an uncertain thing?

Or even, would you guys just like me to be more mechanical with this and even state hit points explicitly?

I only ask because I realise how dispiriting it might be to not see what effect you are having. And much as I enjoy your suffering, I realise I might not be able to keep inflicting it on you voluntarily if you feel like giving up at any point

[ian_scho]

The bloodied thing I'm used to now because of the podcasts I listen to... The real hitpoints value would be nice as well though

I think it'd be horrible to not have at least some kind of visual clue though! What a nice DM you are

[beowuuf]

I keep a running total for myself, so it's onyl a case of not hiding it when I convert form the paintshop pro version to the jpg I post. Which, by the way, now looks hideous on my bigger monitor All artifacts and urgh

It's also hard to RP the wounds to hp, because really until the last blow, you are really just losing stamina and taking lots of little blows because you couldn't quite avaoid an attack


Anyway, will go with the group consensus on this. Obviously, I've used the method I prefer as a DM. Cause I'm not you players not knowing what's going on

[Ameena]

The link to the latest map isn't working - maybe that server is just down for now or something. Or maybe the link is spelt wrong and I didn't check that when I clicked on it. I'll try again tomorrow.
As for the visual damage thing...I'd prefer not to get a direct read-out of hitpoints, I think - it might spoil it slightly if all you need to do to check damage is look at a number on the screen. I would prefer to stick to narrative description to state damage. Well, I know I'm not even involved in this fight or anything...but, you know, I'm still reading it and everything, as I'm sure you've noticed . But I thought I'd say what I think anyway. Because, umm...well, you know, just because my character has buggered off doesn't mean I'm not playing any more. I mean, Ameena might be dead. Or she may have escaped. Even if she's not around any more (for whatever reason), who's to say I don't have another character I've rolled up and who is en route to join you guys right now?

[oh_brother]

I would prefer either a narrative or a NWN-style vague description (something like barely injured/injured/badly wounded/almost dead).

[beowuuf]

Ok, so currently that's 2-1 against revealing mechanical details. I might just surramise the 'ok guys, x looks wounded, y seems to be getting exhausted' in the OOC or at the end of the IC just to bring home where your enemies are at. Unless LB or money have any strong feelings.

Also, I can just PM Ian with all the info, then you will need to work out if he's metagaming sudden changes of strategy. And then I laugh, as I would feed him the wrong info.

[oh_brother]

Very happy about the change in rolls for grapple...I thought I had wasted a 20 on a fairly simple touch attack!

[beowuuf]

Glad the rules could be used to benefit you instead of bludgeon you

Right, I don't think money actually posted yesterday, but due to the weekend posting totally missed it. Hope he's ok and so forth. Will hang back update until either tomorrow or later this evening to get his input.

Likewise, I hope it's house moving or weird internet that's keeping LB occupied right now.


Looking forwards, are being busy over the easter weekend or freer? I'll be bouncing around as normal, but I'm going to guess a reduced posting ability from some of you after Thursday...

[ian_scho]

I should be okay either way. We have thur and fri off here but I start to get a bit shakey if I don't use the internet for 24 hours....

[beowuuf]

Sweet

I see monet checked int earlier this morning, so will leave updating until he gets a chance - in this case, it could be pivottal...and otherwise you guys are two members down!

In the meantime, just anticipate exactly hopw badly Haynuus is about to wound Seeroc, and exactly how madly the scoprion is about to would Haynuus by proxy!