Game Scheduling

[littleangryman]

Need diredtions to Dai's house plz.

[Sajuuk]

call if directions are unclear

route 4
R on Library avenue
R on Kirkwood Highway
L on Polly Drummond Hill Road
R before shopping center
L at intersection with Skyline sign
L after 3 speed bumps
1st Right
1st Right
Last house on left

[Mr_Praetorian]

Yeah... Gonna' need a ride.

[Sajuuk]

isnt scott getting you?

[littleangryman]

Yes

[littleangryman]

Okay: Tomorrow. What's happening?

[Zanaikin]

nothing I guess
marty doesnt have time, eric isnt available, and I have to figure out what to do with this battle...

because you won't survive the next boss on the original plan with only half the party remaining.

let's just say I did not expect you guys to take this high casualty from the orc warchanter.

the two sides:
you guys:
one lvl14 PC
four lvl13 PC
two lvl12 cohorts
*not to mention coming in with buffs from outside sources with a CL equal to the opponent's dispel ability*

vs.

six lvl10 berserkers
two lvl10 sorcerers (who were deadeye clan orcs denied of their monstrous thralls)
one lvl16 warchanter (who couldn't fight to full potential because he has to maintain his chant for the army)
a bunch of lvl2 hobgoblin infantry (who were incinerated in large groups by fireballs)

being frank, this was the one boss in the battle I thought you guys would have had the EASIEST time with.

*Shrug*

[Zanaikin]

so yes, scott, & judson, now that you get an idea of how crazy my game goes, I'm going to need to know if you intend to stay (and in Judson's case, make a new char).

also, a few hindsight tips for you guys, hopefully it'll help you play better in the future:

1. I told you guys in battle you need to flat-foot him and I was quite serious, he has 5 dex AC, 2 insight AC, and 16 dodge AC from combat expertise all the way, and all without uncanny dodge (as my description went, you weren't even hitting his armor or anything, he was just dodging your attacks. Yes DM descriptions help a lot on determining whether you need touch or flat-foot attacks to try get around a high AC opponent). Thus a flat-footing attack (such as from using invisibility) would give you a +25 bonus (-23 denied to his AC, +2 for being invisible) on attacking him, not to mention help you evade attacks in the meantime. You DO have 2 arcane casters and 4 rings of invisibility. Sure they'd know where you are due to your mounts, but you'll still get a high miss chance and deny them of major AC.

Since arcane casters can't wear heavy armor, most AC they have (if they have high AC) would have to be dex/dodge based AC, so you need to work on flat-footing them. Of course invisibility doesn't always work, those with lots of ranks should get bluff and use feinting for situations like this (possibly even use action points to emulate Improved Feint).

--Marty & Dave have more experience than rest of you on this, they faced Kilar who had the exact same combat style (bard + combat expertise maxed while using bardic songs).

2. It's basic knowledge that heavy-casting chars can't make a grapple worth crap, that also goes for this guy. Not to mention since he's combat expertise'd all the way up he also can't do AoOs very well (thus reducing the chance of him hitting you with an AoO to foil your grapple attempt). This guy actually have very good BAB so he'll do better than most conventional casters, but still nowhere as good as a real melee fighter. Not to mention once you grapple him, he's treated as flat-footed against everyone else's attacks.

3. Berserkers excel at melee so I was quite surprised when Squall, Judson, and Dave charged into the center of the enemy formation to attack the war-chanter right away. Because this puts you in the exact center of all those berserkers (who outnumber you and can outdamage and outlast you). I understand the urgency of the situation but that wasn't the best decisions you guys made.

4. Before the dispels hit all of your were buffed with Elemental resistance 30 to each of the five major elements. So how bad can a two draconic sorcerers hurt you? Not really that much at a range of 100ft (at beginning of fight) since most good-range spells are elemental evocation spells. Scott really didn't need to use his first two actions killing the sorcerers first.

btw unlike what Marty thinks, this guy does not have a huge item-wise bonus to perform to keep you guys from casting. Aside from Sirine's Grace spell, the only sources of his perform mod is Cha/ranks/skill-focus (which was a requirement for his PrCs). Of course this is still extremely high, but that's why I toned it down a bit with the song not working fully in first round of engagement.


the lesson is:
not everything in D&D is about getting high stats and making good rolls
tactics and trying to figure out your opponent's weaknesses is quite important

[Sajuuk]

We might as well get a head start scheduling the next meet. I'll post the practice schedule for me when I get it. But here is the game schedule for the rest of the season, so those days are pretty much out.

Sat JAN 6 Philadelphia Biblical 3:00 PM (maybe after the game)
Wed JAN 10 @ Cazenovia 8:00 PM (no chance)
Sat JAN 13 @ Penn St.-Berks 3:00 PM (no chance)
Sat JAN 20 @ Bard 7:00 PM (no chance)
Sun JAN 21 @ Keystone 5:00 PM (no chance)
Tue JAN 23 Baptist Bible 5:00 PM (maybe after the game)
Thu JAN 25 @ Keuka 8:00 PM (no chance)
Sat JAN 27 Chestnut Hill 3:00 PM (maybe after the game)
Wed JAN 31 Cazenovia 8:00 PM (maybe after the game)
Sat FEB 3 @ Villa Julie 3:00 PM (no chance)
Tue FEB 6 Keystone 8:00 PM (maybe after the game)
Sat FEB 10 SUNY Purchase 3:00 PM (maybe after the game)
Tue FEB 13 @ Baptist Bible 8:00 PM (no chance)
Sat FEB 17 Bard 3:00 PM (maybe after the game)

[littleangryman]

Yeah, I'll stick around. Have to figure out how to play broken somehow. May as well learn from the master.

My primary problem is not mechanical but thematic. Practically every backup character I've come up with thus far would fall victim to the "S.O.S. Rule" the second he sets foot in Misalin. Though I could alter the one...

[Zanaikin]

eh, Misalin's S.O.S rule (which doesn't really exist, Marty's just paranoid and loves to make excuses) doesn't apply as much to core races anyways.

one of the things you don't know, and Marty doesn't really gather information much on characters to find out:
Lord Kovis, the present commander of the Misalin cavalry, is the descendant of a Norinth mage from the war a hundred years ago, who managed to survive the great war but didn't go back to his home country. He's a warlock with a slightly tainted magic bloodline (thus radiating a faint aura-of-evil like Kati), and thus that fact itself caused him a lot of problems with his profession in the Misalin Guard. For much of his early military career his comrades showed a lack of respect and trust towards him and used him as a scapegoat. But after years of showing uncanny devotion and outstanding performance his superiors began to recognize that he's a much better person than most people judge him as.

What I'm saying is it's hard for a character of an archtype deemed evil to fit in, but Misalinian paladins don't Smite-on-Sight unless you're obviously making yourself an enemy of the state. However, they will treat you quite badly, and possibly coming up with reasons to arrest you and put you away from the public (which does happen if they catch you using necromancy, which is taboo'd by the church & thus against the law). But one could expect that from any society not conformed to living together with another species, particular one that has a tendency to wage war on them.

[Zanaikin]

[Sajuuk]

[Mr_Praetorian]

[Sajuuk]