OOC I

[thirdkingdom]

@TK: Could you clarify one more thing about scribing spells: Am I understanding the rules correctly that it would take half the normal time to scribe a spell than it would to just study it from a spellbook without scribing it? If so, would it take only 4 hours to scribe a first level spell? I'm not sure about Ventriloquism or Rainbow Attack, but I believe Drudsa was scribing Shield (using the inks and materials that Lanny gave him), so would 4 hours be enough for him to scribe/learn the Shield spell? And does the learning happen automatically after the scribing is complete, or does one still have to roll for the chance to learn the spell (as with traditional study)? Thanks in advance!

Scribing a spell is learning the spell. If an arcane caster (i.e. elf or magic-user) wants to learn a spell he has to copy it into his spellbook. You cannot learn a spell simply by studying a scroll or someone elses spellbook. It must be copied into your spellbook. Therefore, I am using the phrases "learn a spell" and "scribe a spell" interchangeably. And at this point, 8 hours is the minimum time you guys can spend and have a chance to learn the spell. I am not understanding your last question. Once a spell is scribed into your spellbook it means you have learned the spell.

[frobozz]

TK, I think what is confusing me is this line from OOC page 26:

Spells from scrolls may be scribed into spellbooks, automatically (and at half the time needed to learn the spell) but the magic stored in the scroll is lost after the fact.

I think I am apparently unclear on what "half the time needed" and "automatically" mean in this context.

[sulldawga]

@Thirdkingdom: did Quinthos accept the further offering of the Scale Mail?

@sulldawga: do you want the mail for Selene, in case Quinthos won't accept it?

@TK again: in case nobody wants the mail, may we assume that Meagnor donated it to the Church? And about the "Displacer Beast" bow, I've marked it as magical, but you didn't detail it as such so I should have assumed that its non-magical, right?

Quinthos didn't want the mail. And the bow is non-magical.

If Quinthos didn't want the mail, Marodin will gladly accept it and give it to Semele. He will also give her his old shield.

He'll then spend another 145 gp, 5 sp to equip her with:

• Warhammer
  Sling
  Backpack
  Pellets (x60)
  Dried Rations
  Waterskin
  Tinder Box
  Oil Flask (x5)
  Hammer, Small
  Iron Spikes (x5)
  Riding Horse
  Saddle & Tack

Marching order - I'd suggest placing Semele right next to Drudsa on Row 3. That is the row that offers the most protection.

This works for me. With 2 HP, I would prefer she avoid melee for a while.

[sulldawga]

TK - a couple of questions about Semele.

Did you add her Con bonus to her original HP roll?
Do you care if I choose her Skills and Orisons?
Can I assume she already has a Holy Symbol or should I buy her one?

[thirdkingdom]

TK - a couple of questions about Semele.

Did you add her Con bonus to her original HP roll?
Do you care if I choose her Skills and Orisons?
Can I assume she already has a Holy Symbol or should I buy her one?

Yes, her Con bonus was applied to her hp roll. No, go ahead and choose skills and Orisons. She already has a holy symbol.

[frobozz]

@tk: is it possible for someone to put an object on the ground, put the sword in the scabbard (or maybe just put the sword on the ground too), take and load the bow and fire in the same round (maybe singing a song in the middle )

Even though we can switch weapons and still attack in the same round, I always try to RP it out a little bit. For example, if I've been using my bow and I'm right about to engage someone in melee, I will just drop my bow, assuming that I wouldn't have the time to carefully place it back onto my person. Little things like that give a more realistic feel to the battle.

@everybody: Meagnor is carrying his sword to be ready for surprise attacks from behind, would you want him to carry the bow instead? So he would be able to fire in enemies that face the party from the front?

It just depends how you want to play him. Lanny will primarily be a bowman at the front of the party. Having a bowman at the rear of the party would be useful too, especially if an enemy is approaching from behind at a distance. Of course, with the sword and shield you can always switch weapons whenever you are ready to engage in melee.

[thirdkingdom]

frobozz is correct. I am much more inclined to allow weapon switching if the statement is something like "Garg thorws his shortbow to the side and draws his sword" as opposed to "Garg carefully stows his bow over his shoulder and draws his sword."

[rremedio]

That's what I've thought. Had to ask because the last time I played the DM ruled a round to load the arrows and depending on the item that needed to be dropped it would take two rounds before being able to attack.

It just depends how you want to play him. Lanny will primarily be a bowman at the front of the party. Having a bowman at the rear of the party would be useful too, especially if an enemy is approaching from behind at a distance. Of course, with the sword and shield you can always switch weapons whenever you are ready to engage in melee.

Meagnor prefers to use the bow in most cases, and usually carries it in his hands, but in this case he thought it would be better to have the sword ready. But because of the tight corridor-room-corridor layout of the dungeon, he will probably switch to the bow again and watch enemies coming from behind, specially in the long corridors.

[thirdkingdom]

I know it's been a while since combat, so I'm just going to remind folks we're going for a 24-hour turnaround.

I'm going to rule that the Molotov cocktail thing requires more prep than had been indicated. However, throwing a flask so it splashes oil than tossing on a torch is totally legit.

[Finglas]

Bregalad the elf

Thirdkingdom, is it reasonable for us to know approximately how many rats can attack us, if we hold our ground in the hallway? I am think that it might be better to hold ground and limit the number of their attacks (and let the fire do its work), rather than push into the room and possibly be swarmed.

I am hoping to get a response before I post IC. Thanks!

[Finglas]

Bregalad the elf

Ah, nevermind. It sounds like Marodin and Thordin are holding their ground in the hallway.

Lanny, don't push into the room. Stay back and keep any rats from sneaking through and reaching the lightly armed members.

[thirdkingdom]

Yes, it is reasonable to assume that holding a line at the hallway would open oneself up to fewer attacks than being out in the open. Only ten or so rats might be able to attack at a time; however, of course, only two people will be able to hold the front line. Nothing will prevent those in back of them, however, from lobbing vials of oil over the front row.

[thirdkingdom]

Hey guys, crazy day. I'm going to try and get round two posted in the morning.

[frobozz]

@TK: A general game question: Are there ways for PCs to either reduce or eliminate the chance of being surprised in an encounter? For example, with the rats, we kind of knew to expect them because of the note, and we were somewhat prepared for them (although we did not know their sizes, numbers, etc.). In that instance, I would think that the chance of us being surprised would be reduced (maybe 1 on 1d6 instead of 1-2). Or, let's say that one of our thieves had silently scouted ahead and saw the rats, and then reported the details back to the PCs. In that instance, I would think that the chance of us being surprised would be eliminated. If you agree with that, then it might make some sense for us to use our thieves more in that role in similar situations (since those in plate mail armor cannot reasonably be expected to move silently). However, it wouldn't be worth risking them getting caught unless it somehow gave us an advantage in terms of game mechanics (namely, eliminating the chance of us being surprised).

Much of our success in combat thus far has been due to being able to strike first, and the "surprise factor" can be a big part of that (although admittedly, getting really good initiative rolls does not hurt either...)

Anyway, do you have any general thoughts on this subject?

[thirdkingdom]

Yes, there are certainly ways of reducing the chance you are surprised. However, outside of post detailing preparations for oil flasks, no one mentioned sneaking forward to observe or even that anyone was specifically listening for noise outside the room. I even specifically tried to indicate in my original post that you guys stopped far enough back from the entrance to the room to allow such actions, but no one posted otherwise.

[thirdkingdom]

To clarify, simply knowing or suspecting a threat is present does not negate the chance of surprise. It might reduce it, and preparations you take might increase the chance of surprising an opponent -- as when you guys laid an ambush for the troglodytes or Elwyn's men. I will always attempt to interpret the results of a roll in a way that makes sense; the rats may be light-sensative from living in the dark and spotted the torchlight, or if you guys had lost surprise -- even aware of the threat -- it might have been because the rats were hiding in their nesting and burst forth at the last moment, or because you were so overcome with revulsion you could not immediately act.

You guys also got pretty lucky with the number of rats rolled; there could have been 22 of the little guys, but I only rolled 14.

[frobozz]

Cool - thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I know we didn't do too much to reduce our chances of being surprised in this particular instance, but it is helpful to know your take on surprise in general, for future planning and strategizing purposes.

[frobozz]

While we're on the suject, let me ask a directly related question: Are there also actions that PCs can take to gain bonuses to their individual initiative roll?

For example: One of Lanny's standard tactics is to cast Magic Missile in advance of making himself known to an enemy, keeping the missile by his side, ready to fire on command. The main reason Lanny does this, in terms of game mechanics anyway, is to try to get a small bonus to his initiative roll (maybe +1 or +2) with the hope of scoring a higher initiative roll than any enemy spellcasters (seeing as how he would not need to take any time to actually cast the spell, as it has already been cast). The downside of Lanny doing this, of course, is that the spell might be wasted if there are no spellcasters to target... but, in my opinion, it is still worth doing it IF it gives Lanny at least a small bonus to his initiative roll (not including, of course, the normal bonus to his initiative roll for high dexterity).

This might be applicable to other spellcasters in the group as well, as there are many spells that can be cast in advance, with the actual spell effect just waiting to "triggered on command" by the spellcaster.

[thirdkingdom]

Frobozz, let me answer your question more fully when I get home am off my phone. The short answer is no, and in the meanwhile I'm going to refer you to page 132 of the Dark Dungeons rulebook.

[thirdkingdom]

Okay, according to page 132 these are the following modifiers to initiative:

►A player who declared a statement of
intent before the monsters did gets
+1.
►A player who waited to see what the
monsters were doing before declaring
a statement of intent gets a –1.
►Halflings get +1.
►All characters add their Dexterity
Initiative Modifier to the initiative
roll.
►Some spells (e.g. Statue) give bonuses
or penalties to the initiative roll.
►Some monsters get a bonus or penalty
to their initiative roll.

I may not have made it clear, but unless you specifically state your character will wait to find out what an opponent does I have been applying the +1 (from the first point) to everyone's initiative. Now, frobozz, I am not going to give such an action you discussed an initiative bonus for a couple of reasons, the first being that I am aiming for a fairly simple game. The second is that I feel like it gives even more of an advantage to spellcasters, if they can get the drop on others that easily. However, if you cast a spell in advance there will, of course, be now chance the spell is ruined while being cast.