Strategy thread

[Argennian]

Thought we could discuss our new SOP going forward, with Till as the advanced scout and an injured Eyman being transported on 1 of the 3 DAMs.

First concern I have is Till's ability to be able to contact the party if he walks into something nasty or has an attempted ambush thrown at him. Depending on how far ahead he is, we could potentially not hear a cry for help or whistle, especially if the winds kick up or it's raining. The reverse could also be true for the party being waylaid from the rear and Till being too far ahead to hear/know.

Yosef has a signal whistle that he could lend to Till, if he doesn't have one. Does anyone else carry one? It would be great if we have at least 2 of them. Maybe we could make a couple of signal arrows? Perhaps we should also modify distance apart to compensate for bad weather conditions.

I like migellito's (I mean Jeloon's! ) idea of maintaining single file with some spacing, especially for the reasons mentioned. I would hate to have some hill giants throwing boulders at us while we're all bunched up, as well as any kind of incoming missile fire. The more spread out we are, the harder we'll be to contain and ambush or attack as a party. As long as we're (the party proper) all close enough to come to each other's aid within a melee round, that should be workable.

Btw, are we sticking with the same watch rotation as well, with one or two others filling in to cover Eyman's slot? Just curious here.

Thoughts?

[migellito]

Till has a signal whistle of his own, so that should work out just right. If one of us is going to be on a watch by themselves, it should probably be the fourth watch, and it should be the most alert of us (which is probably Till or Yosef.) It would probably work if Van just took Eyman's place.

If it's possible to mimic some sort of bird sound with the whistle, that might be good, even though there aren't any birds around the pass normally (iirc.) I wouldn't suggest Till get more than about 100 yards ahead of the party, as a general rule of thumb.

[Alethan]

Yep, Till has a whistle. He also has a bell and some thin twine. I suggest we set up a warning bell alarm at least on the north side of the trail when we stop at night. If anything, that should give us a little warning if/when something comes from that direction.

Till is fine with only staying 100 or so yards ahead of the rest of the group.

[Argennian]

Oh, I like the bell & twine thing. Dungeoneering tricks on the trail, very nice! Who needs a Wyvern Watch anyways?

It all looks good then and unless ToniXX has any objections/options, we're GtG

Edit: out to 150 yds (shortbow) for Yosef & 210 yds for Jeloon (she does have a longbow, I believe) would also put Till within bow range for cover fire if he needs it!

[Argennian]

Just as a point of order, Yosef could back up Till on any potentially dangerous recons, but wouldn't be able to move quietly in his chain. Yosef obviously stays primarily with the main party, covering the food and supplies, but could back Till up if he needed another set of eyes or some extra firepower.

I had originally thought to buy a set of leathers but never followed through and figured that with the Bracers of Armour and a timely-cast Shield spell, it could be done. If the occassion arises, maybe Yosef could switch his chainmail for the leathers of one of our hirelings? Just a thought. Strategy, you know!

[Alethan]

That's something to consider, Argennian. It might come in handy to have a backup. But I'd have concerns about the chain mail bit, too. It would definitely be a hindrance, both in movement speed and in noise generated.

I was going to suggest Till could remove his studded leather armour and Yosef could wear that while Till wore the bracers, but then I remembered Till was a halfling and probably wearing halfling-sized armour. So it wouldn't fit even an elf very well.

For now, Till is fine with scouting ahead on his own. It's what he was designed to do, right down to the elven boots.

[Argennian]

Giant Abatement Strategy Session:

Just thought we could discuss/list our options OOC here. I just love this thread! (and have my laptop so I can type like the bionic man compared to me phone! )

1. Try to sneak by him (might not be possible)

2. Take him out (a doable solution but Till's point about him calling out and raising an alarm if there are more than one, or anything else nearby, is a real and prudent concern!)

3. Have Till sneak past for a further/farther reconnoiter (definitely doable; but Yosef would feel better if at least one or a couple party members sneak up closer to provide fire support, if needed)

4. Have Yosef try and cast a Charm Person spell on him (Yosef is willing to give it a go, but it would require he get very close to cast it)

5. other??

Whadaya'll think?

[migellito]

I'm thinking cascade 3 of those options.
Try to sneak past.. if he notices us, try the charm person.. if it fails, try to kill him. This doesn't address him calling for help, however.

[Alethan]

Charm person isn't going to work.

What about this:

First, we should try to find out if there is anything to be concerned about past this one giant. It wouldn't do us any good to sneak past the one only to find ourselves between him and a camp of more hill giants.

What about this: Till sneaks back to the alcove and hunkers down there until morning to see if that one giant stays there or if he gets up and another takes his place or what. Maybe he takes a bathroom break every few hours.

If, at some point, the giant leaves the area, Till can try to sneak past to see what lies beyond the bend.

If it is clear (i.e. there ends up being a canyon off-shoot where the rest of the giant camp is), then he can come back and let everyone know.

At that point, we can do something like this:
The next night, Till sneaks up to the alcove again and hangs out on the back side of it (along the canyon wall before the alcove). The rest of the party as slowly and as quietly as they can (cut up one of the blankets and muffle the DAMs' hooves by tying them to the feet) makes their way, hugging the far left wall as closely as they can. Separate everyone by about 15 yards or so.

If the giant starts stirring, Till can either a) attempt a backstab (3X damage!) real quick and then clear the area before ranged attacks or b) signal an alarm and then clear the area before ranged attacks. If we do ranged attacks, and stay far enough apart from each other, then he can only attempt to attack one of us at a time.

Well... that's a thought, anyway.

[migellito]

If he's a guard on a regular schedule, we might be able to use timing to entirely avoid the whole situation. If he disappears into a cave or something after his shift, then another one comes out, we might be able to follow him from a distance until he goes into the cave (or whatever,) then hurry past before the next one came out.

[Argennian]

Charm person isn't going to work.

Yeah, I went and figured that out and came back to strike that as an option and restrategize. Sorry, gang! That's what I get for not playing an arcane caster enough!

I like Till's idea of a further, stealthy reconnoiter, in order to properly gauge what's really going on. Just concerned about him stumbling into something and becoming trapped between a rock and hard place.

Of course, Yosef has waay too much respect for Till and his abilities to make this an issue!

[ToniXX]

I think Alethan has the best plan. I can't think of anything else we can do. I like the idea of muffling the DAMs hooves as well, along with making sure all items on the DAMs are securely packed. We wouldn't want two pots banging together at the wrong time!

But all in all, we need a little more info about what lies beyond the giant and his watch schedule (if there is one).

[ToniXX]

If we do find that we are forced to take him out, what if we create a diversion such as fire an arrow or throw a stone in a direction that will make him walk away from us (before he sees us, of course). Then, we attack from behind. Do the OSRIC rules have any combat rules for attacking from behind? Any bonuses that we'd get???

But, the more I think about this, the less I like it... hmmmm

[rredmond]

OOC: Watch rotation works fine. Also, remind me of the mechanics for clerics to learn new spells. IIRC, I'm stuck with what I've got.

There is no specifics on this, but I've always been of the mind that it takes no effort to "forget" spells, wipe them from your memory, then you'd have to relearn as normal - 15mins/level of each spell being memorizes/prayed for.

As for back attacks, in OSRIC you still get the lovely +4 to hit bonus. Up to y'all whether it's worth it or not.

[ToniXX]

Thanks for the info, Ron.

I've looked at my spell options and don't see much that may help us. The only possibility (of the spells that I can learn) are command and speak with animals.

The former may work well, but what to command the beast? Also, I must utter the command in a language that he knows. I do know orcish so that may work.

The speak with animals spell may not work at all with the hill giant.

Ideas or input?

[migellito]

As far as a command goes, I guess I would suggest telling him to "sleep."

[Alethan]

I thought the Silence 15' Radius spell might be useful, either casting it on him so he hears nothing or casting it on one of us so we could quietly walk past him, hugging the far wall.

But I'm concerned about the duration. I think it is only one round per level, so that would only give us four rounds to make that distance and I'm not sure it is possible.

[ToniXX]

Good idea. It's two rounds per level.

On another note, I wanted to post this link. It's an OSRIC wiki. Now, as players we shouldn't be looking at the monster section, but some of the spells (the lists are actually lacking quite a bit) and other things are there. It makes for a quicker reference than the OSRIC PDF. I've been considering buying the printed version of the OSRIC rules, just to have it and to support the authors. But this wiki is pretty darn helpful as well. here's the link:

http://www.knka.org/osricwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

Use the search box on the left to find what you're looking for.

[Argennian]

Yeah, I decided to have Yosef memorize a Scare spell, basically because I was out of ideas on what he could try and bring to the table. From the spell description, it will only work on up to 6HD creatures, not an 8+HD Hill Giant. Perhaps it might still come in useful, just not sure how at present.

I think we might have to try something along the lines of an ambush, preferably with Till in position for a backstab attempt, unless there's a way for Bruard to use his spells to parley with or trick him in some way. Agreed that trying to sneak by with the silence spell on us, or even on him, is gonna be pretty difficult at best.

If we do have to take him down, we should stack the deck in our favor and try and hit him as hard as we can with ranged weapons before we have to engage him in melee hand to hand.

[Argennian]

Giant Abatement Strategy Session, Part II

Thought we could streamline our options here, going forward. Assuming the first order of business will be to capture a squirrel for Bruard to use his Speak with Animals spell on. Not sure how successful that will be but couldn't hurt for the party members to offer up some questions to be asked. Not trying to step on any cleric feet here, btw! As Ron hinted, we should keep these questions relatively simple and straightforward.

A. Questions for Mr. Squirrel:

1. How many giants live here?
2. (If more than one) How many and where are they? Do they live close by?
3. Are there any other large or dangerous creatures about?
4. Have you ever seen anyone like us or him (points at Yosef) with that giant?
5. Have you ever seen any animals with the giant?
6. Does the giant have any friends?

I know these are kind of generic but thought that everyone's input might produce some great questions / gather us some important intel.

B. Martial Tactics for Engagement :

Just thought again to brainstorm "aloud" on what we'd discussed previous in the OOC thread, in regards to tactics we should apply when we're ready to make our move.

1. Get Till to a hidden/covered position.
2. Advance the party forward as quickly and quietly as possible.
3. Spread out and not give the giant a single target.
4. Time our attacks so that we can concentrate our missile fire upon him when it all jumps off.

Relevant questions:

1. How close should we be when Bruard uses his spell?
- we'll need to be close enough so when he "asks" the squirrel to create a diversion/take an action on our part, that we'll either be in position or very close

2. Should we leave the DAMs and our teamsters back while we engage or try and move them up with us?
- I think it might be a good play to leave them in a fallback position, unless something the squirrel tells Bruard leads us to believe that we could sneak by stealthily. As Alethan suggested, perhaps cover their hooves with those pieces of blanket previous, just in case we have to move out quickly.

3. What other spells can Bruard and Yosef cast that will help?
- Yosef is planning on using his Shield spell (immediately after missile fire/prior to melee) and then his Magic Missile, preferably early, but could hold off until we engage him in melee (as there's no chance to hit a friendly with it!) I'm really second-guessing Yosef's Scare spell at this point. It only works on 6HD creatures and he'd have to be within 10' to cast it. I'm thinking that Mirror Image for possible intimidation and saftey factor for Yosef when moving into melee (of course that would make Yosef a "multiple target" there! ) Or mayhap a strategically-placed Strength spell on one of our party? Who could really benefit from that spell if/when we have to move into melee? Jeloon for melee or maybe Till for his backstab?
- Is Bruard planning on casting any pre-melee protective spells? Say a Bless or Protection from Evil? If not maybe 2 CLW would be better, just in case? Just curious!

4. Fallback tactics/plan (if it starts going bad):
- If he has to, Yosef can use the Wand of Fire. He can only do a Fireball or a Wall of Fire one time, but could do a Burning Hands or a Pyrotechnics spell twice. If it goes wrong, he's willing to use it!
- Perhaps we could set up a large trip wire or trap of some kind, falling back past it then springing it? Can Till use his class abilities to do something like this?
- Have a signal (say whistle twice or three times) that would be a signal for our hirelings to start leading the DAMs away back down the valley trail?

Any thoughts?