OOC discussion

[Surreal]

No problem. Just be careful not to make things too complicated, especially considering this is our first battle. The more details there are, the slower it becomes (in my experience, because PbP doesn't allow for the rapid back&forth over small details which are present much moreso in battle than in rp). In one of my other PbPs, every time a big battle came up it practically killed the game's momentum because there were too many details to look after and each round took nearly a week to resolve as everybody was getting their actions in and manipulating the map.

[Brainpiercing]

That's very good advice, but unfortunately following it requires a bit of preparation. But I'm getting there.

[Brainpiercing]

I'm getting there, even with the little time that I have. I hope to post the first post for the battle this evening.

[Surreal]

Urgh... big map is confusing. I had to read that over several times just to get a sense of where everyone was and what direction they came from.  So let me see if I got this all right...

a) all the baddies came in from the north, moved past the northern defense tower, and most continued southwards towards the stone fortress
b) the baddies near the middle of the map: is group #1 and are moderately-to-heavily damaged
c) the baddies near the northern guard tower: is group #2 and is only lightly damaged
d) there's a stack of armanite archers waiting by the stone barricade
e) the archers and group #2 are conveniently moving in and pinching us from both sides even though we're invisible
f) my conservative estimate calculates this to be about a CR 15 encounter (17 if you count group #1), with an approximate party level of 11

Questions:
1) do the archers and group #2 see us? (since we're invisible)
2) are there any other "good guys"? (perhaps from the southern or eastern guard towers?)

As for my intended actions, my first thought is to head towards the archers and hit them with Crushing Despair. I think they're just close enough that I can get the front line of them within the AoE. How about Agnak?

[Brainpiercing]

The encounter level is pretty high. Likely as not you won't have to deal with the group in the middle, though, since they will be deal with from the fort. I didn't say anything about the demons seeing anyone. But it's good that you reminded me that you're all invisible .
You'll have support fire from the tower, there will be a cavalry troop from the fort and there are two further infantry squads in town, as well as the Gryphon Riders. Also, remember that the soldiers with you aren't all Lvl 1 warriors. They are Lundeth's best squad, with the exception of the airborne cavalry. They are, for dramatic reasons, still all lower level than you two, but they aren't weak at all, and buffing them with Enlarge/Bull Strength just makes them that much stronger. You've got five people in that group that get that humongous 25ft reach, remember. Agnak is just the only one with about 37Str. at the moment.

So really, when I think things through, those demons are pretty fucked, as soon as you get them within reach. Ever thought of the awesome power of two or more overlapping Iron Guard Glares with huge reach?

I also forgot to write about the spells that were being cast, I'll put that in here, but add it in the thread as well:
Everybody gets Protection from Evil, Bless and Haste, Agnak gets Align Weapon (good), cast by the Lieutenant. You'll probably be exposed to Inspire Courage for at least one Round to grant +3 to attack and damage IF I can find out whether War Drums really do extend the range of the IC to everyone who can hear them. Where do I find those? Even google didn't help me so far.

[Smudgy]

I think we'll be able to handle it. It's a lot, but we have support too. Our superior reaches will play out well.

I'm not sure exactly what the Armanites are, some sort of demon centaurs with bows? But I think I can handle that group fine with maybe one or two other soldiers.

Tactics
My plan is to charge forward so they're within reach, a full power attack one to death(hopefully). Oh, and they're flat-footed I believe. That stony barricade will work just fine for dungeoncrashing, so I'll just use my full attack to smush 'em into it next round.

Considering they have bows, If they try to fire at anyone other than me, they take a -4, which they are aware of. They also take an AoO if they fire them, at which point a crush (some of) them. If they charge, the provoke several AoO, and the damage I do is doubled from my Steadfast Boots, and THEN I crush them into the wall.

Of course, I don't have enough AoO to cover them all, so I can't handle them alone unfortunately...

If things start to go badly on the other side, I'll fly over and start bull rushing them into the ground.


That sound good?

[edit]

Hmm....was rereading about posting combat stuff, saw this...

Example combat posts:[spoiler]
[ROUND 1] [Initiative rolls: Oddjob the Fighter: 10, Goblin: 14]
[Goblin's Turn]
The goblin cackled and spat as it approached warily [move from B15 to B18] and seemed to size up its opponent. [Aura opposed check: Goblin 8, Oddjob 10] It seemed unsure of itself, but it was, after all, defending its home. It's attack came as a sudden lunge with a curved and jagged scimitar.[1d6+2] [Attack roll: 16+4AB=20 vs. AC 18; Damage roll: 6 slashing]
[Oddjob's Turn]
Oddjob saw the little goblin approach, even though he himself towered over it. He readied his greatsword for the goblin's attack, but when the attack came, it passed straight by his sword and stuck an ugly gash in his side. Enraged and angered by the damage, Oddjob swung his blade in a wild diagonal slash at the goblin's body [Power attack 4, Roll 12+9=21 vs AC 15; Damage 19 slashing] followed by a reverse slash at the goblin's legs [Roll 4+4=8 vs AC 15] which unfortunately fell short of its mark.[/spoiler]

So are we having control over the demons to some degree, or something else? Also, I have no access to those armanite demons, where ever they're from.  I don't know there pluses to hit and AC, so I couldn't make a post like the example one.

[Brainpiercing]

That was a post that was designed to cover two posts, one by the DM, one by a player. So I'll be posting all the demons. I'm not really going to bother with all the quasits. They are mostly there for color.

I also think the Armanites are not something you need to worry about, since they are actually positioned quite badly (for themselves, tactically for their side they are not so bad). Worry about the Vrocks and the Hezrou. Their SLAs could be dangerous.

[Smudgy]

Ok, that's pretty much what I thought, just checking.

So the armanites aren't as large a threat? Ok, I just didn't know how powerful they were. I'll focus on the other group then. Hmmmm, new tactics...

[Surreal]

With haste, I have a movement of 70 which isn't enough to reach the demons this round. I can however get close enough to the armanites and get most of them with Crushing Despair DC 20 (I haven't bothered to measure out a 30' cone, but guesstimating it looks like it gets most of them).

So do we want to tackle to the demons or armanites first? If we split up, only the group who stays with me remains invisible. BP says not to worry about the archers, but a stack of 10 archers getting full attacks makes me feel iffy as statistics are on their side.

We can reach the armanites in one round, and assuming Agnak has his ridiculous dungeoncrashing kicking in, I would estimate that would be taken out in 3 rounds. If we chase the demons, it will take at least two rounds to reach them (although we can stay invisible, assuming the demons don't have see invisibility or true seeing).

I also just realized that since I haven't transformed, I'm not armed. Can we just assume that I'm carrying around a walking stick/club? Or as BP mentioned earlier, I'll probably just grab something off the field. I wasn't expecting such a big group of monsters (you call that scouting party?!?), otherwise I probably would have transformed already. Don't want to scare Agnak though

[Brainpiercing]

Ok, let me rephrase: Archery is the weakest attack form of the armanites. And they ARE definitely very dangerous if you let them switch to lances and charge. That much should be common knowledge to anyone who has ever seen a lance (i.e. anyone who is proficient with them). Since IIRC both of you are poor on knowledge skills I wouldn't go too heavily into the monster specific tactics.

I wouldn't mind if you guys could update your sheets with the active buffs. Surreal, any info on those war drums? Where do I find them? In any case, the Inspire Courage will come on this round at the earliest, so it's not active yet.
And concerning your weapon, sure, you can have a quarterstaff or a club or greatclub. And likely as not you would have gotten an Align Weapon, too, if you were making motions to use it in the tower, maybe even a Magic Weapon, at your discretion. There was enough time to buff up.

And Smudgy, your sheet still has errors. Your IL is 5, not 6, for both, although that likely as not won't matter, and you have the stances swapped for Warblade and Crusader.

[Smudgy]

Sheet's fixed, I read the Initiator Level section wrong, my bad.

I think it'd be best the entire group just wiped out the armanites. They may not be a threat now, but we don't want a cavalry charge up our ass when we've turned to face the Hezrou battle, that's common knowledge.

I'm aware all demons have SLAs, and they'll probably hurt, but I can't think of any way to get around them, whether we face the Hezrou group first or second. Best to get the armanites out of the way before the main fight.

[Surreal]

Ok, I think I added all the buffs into my sheet. All my spreadsheets are on my other computer, so I won't be able to finalize until tomorrow, but I think they're for the most part accurate right now. Gah, I wish my sheet had a button(s) that would let me turn buffs on and off.

I believe Maglu'glath should be knowledgeable enough in battle tactics (just in terms of character fluff, but he has moderate skills too) to recognize the armanites as potentially dangerous chargers. He might not necessarily know what they are, but anything similar to centaurs and carrying lances should be a bit of a giveaway.

I wasn't able to find any info on magical war drums. As far as I can tell, war drums are simply mundane instruments, but so chosen because they are loud and can be heard on the battlefield (them and bagpipes). Inspire Courage simply requires that your allies hear the bard, and drums will do that.

I think I'll just pick up a greatclub then. Would the align weapon override my natural ability which makes weapons evil aligned?

[Brainpiercing]

Ok, thanks about the drums. I'll be adding the drumming to the next post then.

About spreadsheets: You do realize that in Excel you can ADD "if" conditions? That means you can enter stuff like: "=10+if(A5="x";2;0)" and if you put an "x" in A5 that'll add 2 to your value. I do ALL my D&D spreadsheets like that. I don't normally roll real dice at all anymore, I just use the spreadsheets. I just don't have a general one, unfortunately, although I guess I could send you one of mine, and you could adapt it, it's moderately self-explanatory.

[Surreal]

Oh sure, send it. I'm relatively handy with excel; I've just never bothered to make a character sheet with it.

I was actually talking about the online character sheets. Most of them already auto-calculate a lot of stuff, but I wish they had tabs or buttons to turn spells/buffs/items on or off. I can almost envision a layering system whereby each buff affects certain portions of the sheet; it's doable in excel, but it'd be clunky and would have extensive (embedded) conditional statements all over the place.

p.s. can you answer the question about whether align weapon overrides my natural evil weapon alignment?

[Brainpiercing]

Sorry, forgot about the alignment question: IMHO weapon alignments should not affect each other at all. Your weapons are automatically evil and lawful, and with Align Weapons they will become good too. That MAY seem ridiculous, but I don't see any reason to handle it any other way.

I'll send you a spreadsheet sometime today. It's not actually a character sheet, mind you, it's a combat sheet, with only stats and no skills, but with a calculation for attack bonuses, damage, and a die roller including a very clunky mechanism for damage dice.

[Smudgy]

My action's up. Man I can't wait until I get to level 12. Pounce, Whirling Frenzy, Thicket of Blades, Leap Attack.

Mmmmm mmmmm...

Anyways, I'd be interested in seeing this combat spreadsheet too, considering I'll be calculating damage a lot, and doing math in my head hurts.

edit: Surreal, you don't mind me being where I am, do you? I could just be flying if that makes it easier.

[Surreal]

No shocktrooper? I would have gone for #6 or 7 and tripped the whole line leading up to the wall.

Positions seem fine. At least I'm still invisible. Agnak might be safer if he were flying, otherwise he'll be the most obvious target within charging range.

[Surreal]

D'oh, and I guess I'm not invisible anymore. I've played under different rules where crushing despair would be considered "indirect" and not violate invisibility, but I understand it's more likely to be interpreted as a hostile act. My fault for not asking first.

Ran out of frickin time and BOY am I in over my head.

Yeah... didn't I say don't make it complicated a week ago? That's a lot of elements on the field... something like 45 of them (that we can see; you said you have more stashed in the towers?). I would suggest just taking all the fluff text out, and even then it's still a ton of work for you. If this is what you consider a scouting sized enemy party, I'd hate to see what you consider a normal sized one 

[Smudgy]

No, my build was feat starved enough as it is. If I allowed to though I think I'm going to retrain Improved Flight to Shock Trooper though. I had been planning on hovering above people with this character more and crashing them into the ground, but that was like, 7 months ago, so, my mind's sorta changed. Shock Trooper does seem more appropriate now.

These are the feats I have now.
Power Attack
Improved Bull Rush
Knockback
Combat Reflexes
Improved Flight
(12th will be Leap Attack)

Brainpiercing, are you allowing retraining or no? I remember reading somewhere that if we never use the feat regularly or for anything of importance, we can switch it out at our next level or something.


If you want Brainpiercing, I can take on the fluff if you want to focus on the mechanics of the fight; now that finals are over time is free to use.

edit: Fluff-wise, we could say I've become to bulky for my frame to fly well, if in the fact that Agnak can barely touch his toes with his girth (or that's how I like to think of it ).

[Brainpiercing]

Ok, so it looks like I messed up a bit during the post this morning:

Agnak WAS hit by that near crit by the archer, but it wasn't confirmed. You charged so your AC is 21 in that round. I'll reroll the damage, somehow I though you had 21 base and 19 after charging.

I also have to say, after flaunting my mad excel skills I didn't actually use my spreadsheet thingies or it would have gone quicker (due to them being on my laptop, which is stashed at university, usually). It takes a few minutes to adjust the sheet to a new critter or character, but since I haver several of everyone I think it'll be worthwhile.  So NOW I've got the sheets and will use them.

And Surreal, the fluff text wasn't what made it difficult. It was jsut the frickin number of things I had to pay attention to. The fluff text is written quickly.

AND can anyone tell me what happens when you bull-rush someone into another person WITHOUT using the Domino Rush option from Shock-trooper? I seem to remember the bull-rush victim was automatically sent prone by entering another creature's square, but I don't seem to find that in the SRD, it only says that if the bull-rush is resisted and the pusher pushed back into an occupied square. It's not that the domino-rush option isn't available or good, it's just that it's not nearly as certain a trip as an absolutely certain trip.

Now, smudgy: I DO allow retraining, with the restrictions imposed on the fluff. Improved flight just improves your maneuverability, right? IMHO it's a pretty worthwhile feat if you want to fight from the air, and bullrushing into the ground is a pretty nice mechanic. Also, it's pretty simple to ask someone to cast Heroics on you for Shock Trooper, you might even take an SLA for it at some point if you have an empty level anyhwere (of course with some other bonuses). The problem with improved flight is that you are probably using it as soon as you fly at all. Which makes it pretty hard to retrain. Of course you can say he just got fat, but that would necessitate at least some load.
Now, if you REALLY want to retrain, I don't want to ruin your fun. But I would prefer if you thought about any of the other options.