OOC Discussion and Table Talk III

[Zhym]

BTW, to give you an idea how close the battle is, there was a decent chance that Hallagad could have killed the monster this round. His damage bonus vs. evil with his holy sword is +18, he attacks twice per round, and he has a THAC0 of 6. Unfortunately, he lost initiative, and the monster attacks twice for 4d10 of damage per attack. The two damage rolls were ridiculously high: 35 and 34.

That might be better narratively, if the party wins: I kind of would have hated for an NPC to strike the killing blow and save the day. On the other hand, an NPC sealing the win is better than a loss.

[ravenn4544]

4d10 - twice - is quite a punch!

[Zhym]

Well, it's 4d10 only once per punch, but yes—that's a heck of a hit.

[Norjax]

Norjax has said elsewhere that he won't be playing any games on the forums here for a while.

My apologizes, I forgot about Rool. Playing is less demanding than running a game, so I can continue here.

[Zhym]

Glad to hear it, Norjax. And it's easy to forget a PC who only sees action every month...or two.

[Zhym]

BTW, I've sort of lost track of Arex and Rool. Cwreando hasn't posted an action for Arex since April 12, so I should probably have NPCed him this round. I think Rool's been waiting on a chance for the Risdac elevator to give him a lift—is that about right?

[Scott308]

I went back and saw that Rool was waiting for a lift, so I posted accordingly. I don't think we'll get the creature to come out of there- remember, it was casting spells at us before we took the fight to him. If people want to give that a shot, we can try, but we do have one character up there with it that may love to have someone else up there to help out. And the creature is actually stronger because Risdac turned him into a gargoyle, so those stone fists might not have done as much damage had I not decided we needed more XP and upped the challenge level of this combat. Also, I shall refer to the gargoyle as Roberto Duran. I don't know if anyone else follows boxing, but Duran was a boxer years ago, who had the nickname "Hands of Stone." That's the first thing that popped into my head when I heard it punches for so much damage- with literal hands of stone!

[Norjax]

I think Rool's been waiting on a chance for the Risdac elevator to give him a lift—is that about right?

I went back and saw that Rool was waiting for a lift, so I posted accordingly.

Yes, but with new considerations.

[dmw71]

Zhym, just checking on the status of this game since it's been officially a month since anyone has posted in it.

Normally, I would just archive it, but I wanted to give you a chance to retain it if you still have (current) plans for it.

[Zhym]

Thanks for the nudge. Has it been a month already?

Sorry to post a question instead of an update, but about this:

Rool Diov, Crime Boss

After witnessing Xale’s lifeless body discharged out of the hole at Risdac’s feet, Rool decides he won’t risk resurrection at this time. He removes the Ring of Invisibility and replaces it with his Ring of Protection.

“Risdac,” the Master Thief commands. “Lift me to the ceiling and I will try to find a hidden door or hatch into the room above.”

OOC: Rool searches for secret doors in the ceiling and upper edges of the walls to the ceiling. Searching for traps on any he finds.

There's a big trap door in the ceiling of the lower room that leads to the upper room. Is Rool looking for a different way to get into the upper room, other than the lift through the trap door that Risdac has offered?

[Norjax]

Is Rool looking for a different way to get into the upper room, other than the lift through the trap door that Risdac has offered?

Yes

[Urson]

Glad we got that thing!

[Rex]

It was very close for sure.

[Zhym]

Knowing that he is surrounded by evil (this being hell, after all), Hallagad focuses his ability to detect evil upon the cracked ruby and the spiked plate mail. He holds out hope that these artifacts gave the frail creature its incredible power, and that these artifacts are not of evil origin.

The paladin will take either of those items that are not evil and clamber up to the next chamber with the rest of the group.

So, now I've got to figure out whether most items have alignment. And I think the answer is no. Intelligent swords have alignments, and maybe some artifacts and relics do (e.g., the One Ring would radiate...something, maybe). A Holy (or Unholy) sword might. But most magic items aren't good or evil, even if whoever crafted them was strongly good or evil and had plans for good or evil use of the item.

Checking the spell description again, I see that it will show "an evilly cursed object." Huh. I had always thought that being evil and being cursed were two separate things.

Here's what Gary had to say (DMG, p. 60):

In like fashion, powerful magic items which have some purpose as respects alignment will radiate evil or good - unless they are aligned with neutrality, which is neither, of course. Most other magic items will most certainly not, even though their effect might be for evil or good. Likewise, items which are not magical but which have powerful effects will probably not give any evil or good aura. Poison is a prime example. It is perfectly neutral and has no aura whatsoever. Unholy water will emanate evil, lust as holy water will radiate good. Places sanctified to some deity of evil or good will certainly give off an appropriate aura.

Thus, a trap, for example, is neutral and gives no evil or good reading. If the same trap leads victims to the lair of Juiblex, for instance, there will be an aura of evil about it; while if it brings victims into the realm of Bahamut, it will send out an aura of good. Using these guidelines, you should hove little difficulty in adjudicating the attempts of characters empowered to detect evil or good to do so.

Well. Okay, then.

[AleBelly]

I figured this would be a sticky issue, but Hallagad gonna Hallagad! Perhaps this debate tells me what I need to know anyway

[Zhym]

Today on "Hints from Your Friend, the DM": A ring of regeneration can bring its wearer back from the dead (unless all living tissue is totally destroyed).

Do with that information what you will.

[ravenn4544]

That is super helpful . Put the ring on Tanner .

If we are resting here i have one CSW and one Heal spell left to help us. I was also thinking that if we do recover spells the mages may want to consider keeping things like fly, or teleport, or dimension door ready as we've seen that we have to fight in unusual conditions (from different heights, from the water, etc) and likely to need something like that again.

other tactics to consider now that we just had our assess kicked?

[Rex]

Xale is fine putting the ring on Tanner.

[Urson]

I never knew that.

[ravenn4544]

Another option to consider is polymorph self/other . There is some danger in this one, but it's a dangerous place . Advantage could be that we could change someone into a dragon and help fight something stronger maybe, or some other creative way to deal out death and judgement.