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Dec 5, 2004 23:53:05 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Dec 5, 2004 23:53:05 GMT -5
Bad news: Al is dead. Even if we do get him raised from the dead, his adventuring days may be over. He'll be the first to be raised with the new -1 to Con penalty. Also, Winthrop was level drained down to being Dell's apprentice. (Just kidding.)
Good news: Despite fighting a specter, which drains two levels per attack, no one lost any experience.
Things for next time: 1. As embarassing as it is for our paladin, I think that he'd be most effective in combat if he just crouched on the ground like a dwarf and let me fire my bow over his head. Even if that's not effective, it might make the evil clerics laugh so hard they'll let their guards down. 2. Our bastard sword guys need to get shields. The slight increase to damage from 2-handed wielding does not offset the increase to AC.
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Dec 6, 2004 8:42:15 GMT -5
Post by Dell on Dec 6, 2004 8:42:15 GMT -5
Frank is happy to take a shield, but the paladin will not use a shield with a huge Nerullite symbol on it. He just won't. Also, I've solved the Al problem... I mean, we need to find a high level priest, to raise Al from the dead. Well, we're in a temple! There's got to be a priest around here somewhere that can do that, right?
And the Specter battle was another demonstration of Dell's courage and bravery. The specter came up behind the party, where Dell, Winthrop, and the orcs were. Winthrop ran, leaving Dell to deal with the creature by himself... so Dell cleverly lured the creature away from the group, distracting it by feeding it orcs. This gave the party time to finish off the puny ghouls, do a little healing, and get a good tactical position set up. (He tried to feed it horses, but horses apparently don't have souls to consume.)
Then he tried to sneak up behind it, but thanks to the extensive prep time they had the party was able to sword and magic missile it to death.
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liato
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R.I.P.
Dec 6, 2004 9:23:56 GMT -5
Post by liato on Dec 6, 2004 9:23:56 GMT -5
Let's hope there's not a priest that can raise Al from the dead considering that the spell is reversable.
I don't think the paladin needs to crouch, I think Raven needs to sit on his shoulders so he can see over everyone to shoot at the priests.
If we get out alive and we get back in time to revive Al maybe we can convince him to at least stay in the hall and take care of the grounds/guard it.
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Dec 6, 2004 9:47:25 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Dec 6, 2004 9:47:25 GMT -5
Something tells me that Al won't want to be our new gardener/housekeeper. I think we can find some plain shields in the mercenary camp, since they had a lot of weapons lying around. Also, if Liato is tired of dying in combat, he can grab one of those big tower shields with a slit on the side and stand in front of me.
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R.I.P.
Dec 6, 2004 10:32:54 GMT -5
Post by Dell on Dec 6, 2004 10:32:54 GMT -5
If there is a 9th level priest in here, then we're all dead anyway. Why? Because he can cast Insect Plague.
Is someone going to go lead our horses and stuff in here? I mean, there's a stable and everything... it only makes sense.
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R.I.P.
Dec 6, 2004 14:48:04 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Dec 6, 2004 14:48:04 GMT -5
I'm not doing anything other than patrolling, since I'm invisible. However, someone will go get the horses, and I'll cover them. Did all of the other horses run away after Dell let them out of the stable?
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Dec 6, 2004 16:10:01 GMT -5
Post by Dell on Dec 6, 2004 16:10:01 GMT -5
There were only two horses left in the merc's stables, and they're probably waiting around outside somewhere. But we have plenty of horses already.
Let's talk about tactics: we'll need to have some good plans for when we encounter the enemy clerics. Here's what I recommend:
For the clerics: 1st level spells don't really matter too much, as they generally get converted to healing. But Sanctuary is fairly useful, and can be cast on other people. Protection from evil might be good too, just so everyone doesn't have to crowd around the paladin. Remove Fear might be useful, but it's not likely.
2nd level spells: Hold is always good, but against a horde of spellcasters, I vote for Silence. The spell Dust Devil intrigues me, but I doubt the terrain will be suited for its most powerful effects. And at least one person ought to have slow poison, just in case.
3rd level spells: If we expect spellcasters, dispel magic. Maybe remove paralysis, if you're only concerned about the hold spell or more ghouls, but dispel magic is more flexible - if more risky. Prayer is nice, but probably not worth the slot.
Wizard spell lineup is easy - Web and stinking cloud for crowd control, Strength for fighter boosting, and of course, fireball and magic missile for damage. I recommend Winthrop take a taunt spell, too, but how likely is that, really?
Druid spells: who cares?
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Dec 6, 2004 16:25:04 GMT -5
Post by Mr. Trommer on Dec 6, 2004 16:25:04 GMT -5
From recent experience I have found that magic missile has an effect just like a taunt spell. Abeit more draining than I would like.
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Dec 6, 2004 16:47:53 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Dec 6, 2004 16:47:53 GMT -5
I think we should have a new company regulation that the next time Dell has Taunt memorized he should be forced to cast it.
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Dec 6, 2004 20:54:39 GMT -5
Post by Dell on Dec 6, 2004 20:54:39 GMT -5
Taunt is best used against archers and spellcasters. At my level, it would only work well against 8 levels/hit dice of creatures. Now, it doesn't work against undead, which is actually in our favor - the priests will no doubt be behind the undead, so when I cast it, they'll have to try to get through the undead to reach me. But if they're third level priests, that means my taunt spell would only affect two of them, instead of the three that Winthrop could affect.
Now, the reason I expect third level priests is this:
The priests we've already encountered were third level. They cast Hold, but not Prayer - and if they had access to Prayer, they would have used it to buff all the mercenaries. The other temple had nine priests and one fighter... four 1st level, four at 2 or 3, and the leader, who was in the 3 to 5 range.
Now in this temple, the weakest enemies we've encountered (aside from the undead) were third level. So if the numbers are the same as the last temple, there's going to be two more third level, four dudes higher than that, and one guy in charge that's going to be... oh, at least fifth, probably 7th. And that's assuming they don't have more priests than the other temple. Hell, they may even have a wizard around somewhere... which would suck a lot.
If he's 9th, as I mentioned before, we're all dead, so let's just hope that's not the case. (Which reminds me - one big flaw in our "huddle around the Paladin" plan is that if someone throws a spell on the paladin, like Flame Strike, or Fireball, or whatever - our entire front line gets whacked. Just something to think about.)
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Dec 7, 2004 0:29:42 GMT -5
Post by Dell on Dec 7, 2004 0:29:42 GMT -5
Oh yeah, I almost forgot - we need a couple of "find traps" spells memorised. We've been here so long, I think they've had time to hire a contractor to build them new traps.
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liato
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Dec 7, 2004 9:51:09 GMT -5
Post by liato on Dec 7, 2004 9:51:09 GMT -5
Speaking of flame strikes and fireballs...
Here are some possible spell combinations I have been thinking of.
Fairie Fire and Darkness. Depending on the size of the room for the darkness to cover if we have fairie fire on then we can see the priests and they can't see us. This might also work with obscurement which will cover an enormous area if we have less than 50' ceilings. Can undead see in pitch black?
Invisibily and summon insects. If Dell casts invisibility on me then I can sneak up on the high priest and get a summon insect spell off. It lasts 5 rounds which might be enough time to kill off all the minions.
Invisibility and silence 15' radius. We can cast these two spells on someone and then that person can just do their best to stand next to the priests. We could alternately cast sanctuary on them so they can't get attacked.
As far as fireball and flamestrike go, I have protection from fire which makes me personally immune to all fire and gives me around a 50 hp shield with no duration. I'm casting it on myself before I go to bed. If I cast it on someone else it gives them +4 to save and they take 50% damage and lasts for 50 minutes.
What are we going to do about hold person? They could potentially paralyze all of us in one round.
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Dec 7, 2004 11:26:52 GMT -5
Post by Dell on Dec 7, 2004 11:26:52 GMT -5
We only have one person that can cast fairy fire, and one person that can cast darkness. (Which reminds me - we'll need people to cast light to counter their darkness.) Zombies and skeletons, at least, don't really care about the dark from previous experience.
The problem is, we don't know when or where we'll encounter the bad guys. But if we're using standard tactics, the first round of combat will only allow them to target one or two people. Ideally, we bust into the temple, they cast some holds and would possibly freeze Raven and the Paladin (the door opening team). The rest of us would cast a Silence on Frank and have him charge the spellcasters. Then fireball for damage, turn the undead... silence, web, and stinking cloud should help us control the battlefield, and the one thing that's screwed us time and time again is bad positioning.
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liato
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R.I.P.
Dec 7, 2004 13:05:18 GMT -5
Post by liato on Dec 7, 2004 13:05:18 GMT -5
So do you want me to cast protection from fire on Frank? Then he can wack away without worrying too much about fireballs.
It's level 3 so it would cost me a summon insects but I think I'll be lucky to get off more than one of those.
Do we expect to be fighting people or undead?
Do you think heat metal is worth it?
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Dec 7, 2004 14:28:31 GMT -5
Post by Dell on Dec 7, 2004 14:28:31 GMT -5
Oh, there's always going to be undead.
I still like the idea of Obscurement, but only for certain specific situations. It'd be excellent if we're running away, for example, so you should probably momorise one of those. Other than that, I really can't say - you don't really get to cast many spells before you get knocked down, paralysed, or whatever. But now that you're one of the higher level characters, you can stand up on the front lines like a stud.
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Dec 8, 2004 9:07:23 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Dec 8, 2004 9:07:23 GMT -5
The priest we carried around, tied up, was definitely 5th level.
My plan was for Raven to spread his arrows around, to force the priests to make channeling rolls. By the way, what are the rules for channeling, I can't find them in our house rules section?
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Dec 8, 2004 10:06:04 GMT -5
Post by Dell on Dec 8, 2004 10:06:04 GMT -5
Channelling is a 4d6 roll against the average of your casting attribute (Int for wizards, Wis for clerics) and your constitution. Assuming that most of the evil clerics will have Wis in the 16-18 range (being clerics) and Con in the 12-16 range, they should have a 20-30 percent chance of failure.
Still, if you shoot one guy three times, and kill him, he's got a 100% chance of not casting anything ever again inthat combat. So my advice - no spreading around!
The plan to deal with large numbers of casters is to use silence, stinking cloud, web and fireball. Note that they'll probably be using silence and darkness to do the same thing.
With this battle, there shouldn't be any "charging in" - we'll need to draw them out slowly. If they haven't retreated already, then they're not going to - so we can afford to take it slow. There's bound to be undead protecting the clerics - when we find them, back off and wait for the undead to come at us - because the undead are stupid.
Turning might not be a good idea, also - the evil priests can just un-turn them right away, and the idea is to kill all the undead so when we engage the priests, they don't hold our fighters and have them eaten alive by ghouls or whatever. Also, we need to be sneaky. If they get the drop on us, we're screwed. All the priests we've seen are human, so they'll need light, too - we just have to find them before they see us.
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Dec 8, 2004 10:13:17 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Dec 8, 2004 10:13:17 GMT -5
Since surprise likely isn't going to be possible, should we have Garvin start Chanting while we walk? All of those extra bonuses are very helpful.
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liato
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Dec 8, 2004 11:27:16 GMT -5
Post by liato on Dec 8, 2004 11:27:16 GMT -5
Drawing things out never seems to work. They tend to opt for staying and setting up defenses. In this case it is probably staying and summoning a demon. My guess is that there is some number of hours that dana has written down. If we don't get to the priests by that time then we're going to be facing a big baddie.
I expect that there will be at least a level 7 priest here. Possiblly a level 9 priest. We've already fought a level 7 priest before (the shark priest) and this stuff is nastier.
I think Raven's idea of using the Arrow shields is a good one. The paladin and whoever is chanting should hold the arrow shields. If they can't see Raven then they can't hold person him. Winthrop could look through the second arrow shield to cast his spells.
Frank can be on one flank and Huxley on the other.
Do clerics have any AoE spells other than flame strike? (The AoE on that is pretty small, 1/2" radius, but if we're all hudled around the paladin it will get us all.)
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Dec 8, 2004 12:22:02 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Dec 8, 2004 12:22:02 GMT -5
No self-respecting paladin will hold a tower shield to protect me. Garvin could do it while chanting. Maybe Winthrop's ork could be convinced to hold a shield to protect him.
I was thinking that spreading my arrows around makes sense because channeling checks aren't based on the damage delivered. I can do 2-7 damage from 30' to 70', but 6-16 up to 30'. I was just wondering if I should stay with the group and shoot, or run up and likely get mobbed.
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Dec 8, 2004 12:33:32 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Dec 8, 2004 12:33:32 GMT -5
Turning strikes me as very important. Every time one of our clerics turns undead, it makes one of their clerics turn them back. Our clerics are support troops, while theirs are the main attackers. Our four undead-turners can spend their time turning the ghouls/wights/ghasts and their priests can spend their time turning them back. In the meantime, those priests will be fireballed, shot with arrows, and hacked with a broadsword.
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Dec 8, 2004 13:22:40 GMT -5
Post by Dell on Dec 8, 2004 13:22:40 GMT -5
Insect Swarm and Darkness are area effect.
Tossing a few lightstones in front of us worked pretty well before - the real key is to not get bumrushed, ambushed, or fireballed by stuff that's out of our field of vision.
And did I mention the clerics need to have that detect traps spell memorized?
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Dec 8, 2004 13:34:18 GMT -5
Post by Mr. Trommer on Dec 8, 2004 13:34:18 GMT -5
With my AC I probably should hid...I mean stand behind one of the tower shields. Sounds like a good idea.
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Dec 8, 2004 13:41:34 GMT -5
Post by Dell on Dec 8, 2004 13:41:34 GMT -5
Wise, very wise. Your orc buddy can hold it in front of you.
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Dec 8, 2004 13:52:55 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Dec 8, 2004 13:52:55 GMT -5
Are we going to go through the big doors we wizard locked? What do we think are in there?
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liato
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Dec 8, 2004 14:15:05 GMT -5
Post by liato on Dec 8, 2004 14:15:05 GMT -5
Do you think they might have a mage here, too?
Where next is a good question.
Are we opening the doors to that building or are we going to see what's in the next room.
I usually like to get a sense of the layout before I start opening doors.
Do we have a knock spell?
Insect swarm has a 1 turn casting time I believe. I can also counter the spell with obfuscate. The radius on darkness is only 2" so it really depends on the size of the room we're fighting in as to how effective that will be. I'm going to color code the targets with fairie fire. Spell casters will be one color and undead/fighter types will be a different color. that way we can tell them apart in the dark. Does darkness affect turning?
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Dec 8, 2004 14:16:36 GMT -5
Post by Dell on Dec 8, 2004 14:16:36 GMT -5
We never wizard locked those big doors - we wizard locked the portcullis instead.
I imagine it's some sort of large crypt - the ghouls and zombies and whatever probably live in there. Or maybe there's other kinds of undead in there - who knows. You want to go there first?
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Dec 8, 2004 14:27:23 GMT -5
Post by Dell on Dec 8, 2004 14:27:23 GMT -5
A mage is certainly within the realm of possibility. It would be nice to know for sure what we're dealing with, but since you morons killed our only captive we just have to go on guesswork.
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liato
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Dec 8, 2004 14:48:01 GMT -5
Post by liato on Dec 8, 2004 14:48:01 GMT -5
As I remember it you were too busy running away to know what happened to the cleric. Turns out his head was poorly attached and fell off.
There are two main ways to explore. Figure out the whole layout and then open the doors or open the doors as you come to them.
The nice thing about figuring out the whole layout is you get a better sense of what you are up against. The downside is stuff can jump out from behind you.
My vote would be to check out what's in that next open area.
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Dec 8, 2004 15:18:01 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Dec 8, 2004 15:18:01 GMT -5
A mage is certainly within the realm of possibility. It would be nice to know for sure what we're dealing with, but since you morons killed our only captive we just have to go on guesswork. Lloyd doesn't mind speaking with corpses. Additionally, if we hadn't executed him, the spectre could have flown to him and drained hit points from him. That would have been bad.
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