The Unseen Servant forums

Hi,
Because only Grothnak, Ingrid, Pelias and Telkis can see the three fiends, I pulled this from the IC thread:

ravenn4544 wrote:Mouser from the back “I bet those robes would burn nicely...”

But it's so funny, I didn't want to lose it. So I'll safely file it here.

I am pretty sure he was talking about Bo's robes.

Unless I totally missed something........again.

OGRE MAGE wrote:I am pretty sure he was talking about Bo's robes.

I think Mouser meant the robes of the three fiends.
Raven?

haha - the fiends

Don't give him any other ideas....

Ok. So I'll leave that post here in the OOC thread.

Oh, sorry!!!

It was right after I mentioned Bo's swooshing robes, so I guess I misunderstood.

Hey Inferno - a question about the hold person spell. It takes 5 segments, yet the enemies beat us by only 1 on initiative. I didn't see a house rule changing the mechanics, so should the held party members have gotten an attack or did the spellcaster use some other, non-magical method to hold us? Thanks.

Hi Ale,

Yes, I've been using a modified combat system here from the beginning (and in my other game too).

Basically, the Initiative roll only determines which side goes first.
The winning side takes all their actions and results.
Then the losing side takes all their actions and results.
The way to interrupt an enemy caster is to win initiative.

I used to have it all explained in the house rules, and then I erased it on 11/16/16 (you can see the timestamp) because I began to think it was close enough to BtB that it didn't warrant the onerous explanation I had there. Clearly I was mistaken about that. I'll re-insert it later this week. I apologize for the confusion.

AleBelly wrote:Hey Inferno - a question about the hold person spell. It takes 5 segments, yet the enemies beat us by only 1 on initiative. I didn't see a house rule changing the mechanics, so should the held party members have gotten an attack or did the spellcaster use some other, non-magical method to hold us? Thanks.

I've never like applying casting time when not also applying weapon speed in combat. Why penalize the caster's initiative and not the non-casters.

That's an interesting point. BtB, weapon vs. caster timing depends on the number of segments it takes to cast a spell and the weapon speed factor. If you ignore the latter but not the former, you penalize spell casters.

Hm.

DadsAngry wrote:

AleBelly wrote:Hey Inferno - a question about the hold person spell. It takes 5 segments, yet the enemies beat us by only 1 on initiative. I didn't see a house rule changing the mechanics, so should the held party members have gotten an attack or did the spellcaster use some other, non-magical method to hold us? Thanks.

I've never like applying casting time when not also applying weapon speed in combat. Why penalize the caster's initiative and not the non-casters.

I see your point, but I think it's an apples and oranges comparison. In general, more powerful spells require more segments to cast. This gives opponents a better chance of disrupting them. I like that balance. Under these rules there's really no difference between a spell that takes a round and a spell that takes a segment to cast. In my experience these issues just come down to personal taste anyhow and I don't think there's a perfect answer.

I'm not trying to change the rules, BTW. And I'm not being critical. I think DMs should run games the way they like. I just wanted to make sure nothing was overlooked.

Someday I want to play a game where weapon speed factors and space requirements are used. It might be fun to have a reason to diversify weapon choices, or at least to have a fighter reach for a dagger in close combat instead of a sword.

Zhym wrote:Someday I want to play a game where weapon speed factors and space requirements are used.

Follow Zahra for space requirements.

Weapon speed factors would be fun to play, and a pain to DM.

Thanks, Ale.

AleBelly wrote:Under these rules there's really no difference between a spell that takes a round and a spell that takes a segment to cast.

The long version of the house rule explains that the casting time segments get counted down within the winning side's turn.
So, in this round, Hold Person was begun early on and didn't take effect until after the monsters completed melee combat.
If C2 had cast the one segment spell, Command, on Pelias, commanding him to sleep, it would have taken effect before the monsters began melee, and Pelias would have been automatically hit three times by C1. So sometimes there is a difference.

Also, when the casting time is a full round, I have it take effect at the end of the full round.

I told you the original explanation was onerous.

Inferno wrote:Weapon speed factors would be fun to play, and a pain to DM.

I wonder if they would be more or less of a pain in PbP than in tabletop games. I had a tabletop DM who used a simplified weapon speed system: when you rolled initiative (d10, because this was 2e), you added your weapon speed to the result to get your action order. That wouldn't make things too much harder if a DM already used individual initiative (which most DMs on here don't do).

Sounds like V&V: 1d10 + your Agility.

What I've been doing is using Dex to determine the order of melee on a side. So Telkis always goes before Grothnak, for example.

You might be right. I suppose I could subtract weapon speed from Dex. (or maybe Dex - weapon speed + level?) As long as PCs didn't switch their weapons too often, it shouldn't be too hard.

But, except when there's a tie in Initiative, this would just determine who strikes first among the party's melee fighters.

Raven, fyi: you have the option of a second Opportunity Attack*... one per creature passing you.

wolfpack wrote:Brevos will use his attack from up above on the priest that is still hanging around. do I need to also roll another attack?

We'll use the original roll. That covers this round's action.

But you also have the option of an Opportunity Attack* on both C1 and C3. If you wish to, you may roll to attack each of them.

Finally, I'll need to know what Brevos' action is for the coming round, including any rolls that go with that action.

I hope that's clear. Thanks.


(*whenever an opponent moves past you, you get a free attack on them)

Happy Valentines Day.

ChubbyPixie wrote:Hit Points per level: [1d10] = 2 <--HP Loss.
Whew! Not too bad. I mean, apart from losing a whole level.

Nice rolling!
Hmmm. A second level fighter, with no hit point bonuses from Constitution, with 26 hit points.
Part of me likes that. I will have to ponder on this.

Hey guys,

I'll wait to update until tomorrow morning, to give Scott a chance to post for Ingrid.