Mounds and Magic

[liato]

I think that's a great marching order. The only problem is that right now we don't have Al or any animals.

Yes, having an AC of 0 is really nasty. And we do deal more damage now. We could take on a horde of level one creatures because they need 20s to hit. But as soon as a monster gets around 3HD they don't need 20s to hit any more. Even if they need something really high like 16 that would mean we are 1/4 as effective in front line combat. Plus at 3HD the creature is likely going to survive one hit from us, even if it is a fighter with 18/00 Str or shot at point blank range by raven.

I'm not talking about lich-dragons here. I'm talking about fighting 3HD creatures.

And remember, the hits to us are cumulative. Even if we can easily win a battle against 10 3HD creatures could we win 4 battles in a row? That's why rarely make it all the way through the dungeons.

Yes, liato is a healer, but not in the same way a cleric is. Druids are secondary healers. I have half as many instant heal spells as a cleric.

[Dell]

Given careful use of our existing resources, we should be fine. The goodberries essentially count as a cure light for each of us (since you can only benefit from 8 in a day) and you still have spell slots open for regular cure lights.

A lot depends on the terrain we find ourselves in. If the 10 3HD creatures are all in a pile, one fireball can take them out. If they charge the party and enter melee with all of us, then we don't do so well. Tactics make a big difference. When we use our spells to control the flow of battle, we do very well. That's our major edge.

[Ginger]

Fireballs, webs and stinking clouds can do a lot to make enemies fight us on our terms. We can funnel them into our melee fighters to keep them at a distance so Raven can finish them off with arrows.

[liato]

Yes, in theory, we can funnel people into our melee fighters. The only problem is that we are short on melee fighters. We need one more actual fighter and a dedicated cleric.

[Dell]

liato said:

Yes, in theory, we can funnel people into our melee fighters. The only problem is that we are short on melee fighters. We need one more actual fighter and a dedicated cleric.

Do you mean long term, or for next week? Long term, if we get Al back, a big animal, and a hired/loaned cleric, we should be okay.

[Ginger]

For the short term, it's not inconceivable that the mound will be too small for longbows to be used. They're 6 foot bows, and don't do well in short tunnels. If that's the case, than Raven will be the second melee fighter. Isn't the wolf coming also? He makes 3, and the lion can make 4.

[liato]

If Al comes back we probably don't need any more fighters.

I don't want to walk aroudn with a 10 person party anymore anyway. Although we sort of have to. This is kind of a realistic campaign so if we decide to assault big fortresses we need to have lots of troops.

[Ginger]

Well, if we assault the stockade in the Dreadwood, we'll probably want to have a few low-level fighters hired. Hopefully Liato can fulfill our regular healing needs, and we'll get other healers on a contract basis when we can convince temples that our regular operations are actually crusades towards which they should contribute.

[Mr. Trommer]

I'm sure that by the time we get back to the dreadwood our druid will be mighty enough to warp wood and be able to destroy the stockard. That sounds a woodsy thing he coud do. Right?

[liato]

Liato can't fulfill the regular healing needs.

At level 6 I have 5 Cure light wounds spells per day and 2 cure serious wounds if I'm wearing the amulet.

A level 5 priest has 12 Cure light wounds spells per day if he converts all 2nd and 3rd level spells.

Plus it only takes 15 minutes for a cleric to memorize CLW instead of 30 min for a druid.

Goodberries help suppliment this but they are on a 24 hour timer which is an issue for dungeon crawling.

The big issue is that most of my best spells are level 2. That means if I take CLW I lose spells like heat metal, obscurement, and charm.

Because we don't have a cleric I have been memorizing 3 CLW spells in my level 2 spot. That's worse than a level 2 cleric.

We definitely need some healing assistance. Not to mention the fact that it'd be nice to have a cleric around for undead duties.

[Dell]

Don't worry about the stockade. Your leader has plans for that little bundle of sticks.

As for the healing... on this mission, Liato should put all of his 2nd level slots into heals, since he can't switch on the fly like regular clerics can. One thing in our favor is that Liato heals for at least 6 points, and the berries are a guaranteed thing. We should definitely get some clerical support on our trip back to the temple, though.

[Ginger]

If all of Liato's second level spells are heals, that give everyone a cure light wounds for 6-8, 8 berries, and a bind wounds for 1-3. That's a decent amount of healing for what seems like a small job. Since Dell will likely avoid being injured, that gives someone else a cure light wounds.

[Mr. Trommer]

I seem to remember that there was a nifty staff of healing back at the Nerullite Temple. I t might be available on the way back.

[Ginger]

If you were the Church of Pelor, and you thought that your guys were dead and/or dying, would you scry for them yourself? Would you scry for the powerful artifacts that they were carying? I'd hate to have some Patriarch think "I wonder what happend to their +4 armor?" and find out that we were wearing it.

[Dead Greyhawk]

ArrowGuy said:

If you were the Church of Pelor, and you thought that your guys were dead and/or dying, would you scry for them yourself? Would you scry for the powerful artifacts that they were carying? I'd hate to have some Patriarch think "I wonder what happend to their +4 armor?" and find out that we were wearing it.

A very good point.

About the pearl that gives you wisdom, it requires the wearer to wear it for a month before you get the wisdom point, and then you lose the wisdom point if you take it off, resetting the timer. Sort of a pain in the keister. So, Liato would gain a point of wisdom one month from the point that he started to wear it, and would lose the point of wisdom if Raven took it back for any amount of time.

[Ginger]

Dead said:

A very good point.

About the pearl that gives you wisdom, it requires the wearer to wear it for a month before you get the wisdom point, and then you lose the wisdom point if you take it off, resetting the timer. Sort of a pain in the keister. So, Liato would gain a point of wisdom one month from the point that he started to wear it, and would lose the point of wisdom if Raven took it back for any amount of time.

And it will take him a month to learn 4th level spells. What nice symmetry.

[Mr. Trommer]

If it is the Church of Pellor that is scrying us then we might have a significant PR problem. They may assume that we abondoned their people and left them to their fate. I can forsee some major problems for us if that is the case.

[Ginger]

Winthrop said:

If it is the Church of Pellor that is scrying us then we might have a significant PR problem. They may assume that we abondoned their people and left them to their fate. I can forsee some major problems for us if that is the case.

Hopefully that will be solved when we give them their 4000 GP for our tithe.

[Dell]

People, relax. Let your leader worry about the business side of things. You just take care of the ass kicking, and Dell will handle the rest.

The Pelorites are not a problem. Our PR is not a problem. Frank and Garvin leaving is not a problem. Having an evil wizard teleport in and kill us all - that's a problem. Being eaten by some underground dwelling mound building thing? That's also a problem. Have some perspective here, guys.

[Ginger]

That's true. As long as we're alive, we can always killl more things and get more loot. We can always find a new town if the people in one town don't like us. Maybe we can kill the toughest fighter in the Joten's and take his cave. We can make use of his banners.

[Mr. Trommer]

We should visit just to see if there is truth in his advertising. If there isn't then we can take all its stuff. We are definately all about stuff.

[Ginger]

We might want to have someone augur "Is it very bad for us to go into the cave?" when we're walking by. Unless we get a clear "No" from which ever god we ask, I think we should avoid it.

[Dell]

I've already decided that we're going into the cave. The signs are clearly a bluff. But we should be careful not to attack until we know what lives there - it might just be a hermit's cave, or something innocent. We wouldn't want to kill someone that wasn't actually being hostile towards us. That makes us no better than those we seek to defeat.

[Mr. Trommer]

If I remember correctly we are going to try and find the wandering druid we met while looking for our house on the way back. Maybe the druid would be willing to help Liato find his cave bear or wolverine while getting trained.