OOC III

[OGRE MAGE]

Guys, a couple of general strategy questions...

What should our general strategy be for attacking the kobolds? I certainly don't want us to go in and find we're trapped with 100 of them.

Who has arrows, slings, etc that need to go in front to give us safer fire power?
Do we go in, hit a few and hope to run home for healing each day and return?
Are we just scouting and replying back to the baroness?

I figure we should have this somewhat agreed upon before going in...I assume that is what the PCs are whispering to each other now as they wait on Ciar to return.

Good thinking!

I agree that we need a better strategy than to crawl in and start hacking. The Kobolds have some manner of leadership (A) so, that makes me think that they will be somewhat organized.

If we simply kick in the door and start hacking, we might be doomed. (possibly what is happening to Ciar right now?)

Sparrow has a bow and can help with ranged attacks.

I'm more concerned about the room we will have to maneuver around and fight once we are within the tight tunnels.

[dmw71]

Kassal will cast Phantasmal force, of 10 armed troops in mail armour holding halberds, and 10 others with leather armour on and bows trained upon the entrance, all with helms on so only their eyes can be seen, lined in two formations

Okay, a few notes on this:

1. As I'm not as well versed in illusions, I had to look up the details of the spell again: "This spell creates the illusion of any object, creature, or force, as long as it is within the boundaries of the spell's area of effect."
   
   All of the above are listed as being singular, not plural.
2. Once the illusion(s) is cast, I will need to know the exact placement of the illusionary creature on the map.

I went back and realized that I did allow two illusions the first time the spell was cast (Fulp and Festus), but I probably missed the singularity in the spell description at the time. I'm thinking I might be willing to allow one creation per caster level, but I don't think creating a small army of 20 men is going to be possible with a simple, 1st-level spell.

Can you please revise your post to reflect the above?

[Storm11]

Kassal will cast Phantasmal force, of 10 armed troops in mail armour holding halberds, and 10 others with leather armour on and bows trained upon the entrance, all with helms on so only their eyes can be seen, lined in two formations

Okay, a few notes on this:

1. As I'm not as well versed in illusions, I had to look up the details of the spell again: "This spell creates the illusion of any object, creature, or force, as long as it is within the boundaries of the spell's area of effect."
   
   All of the above are listed as being singular, not plural.
2. Once the illusion(s) is cast, I will need to know the exact placement of the illusionary creature on the map.

I went back and realized that I did allow two illusions the first time the spell was cast (Fulp and Festus), but I probably missed the singularity in the spell description at the time. I'm thinking I might be willing to allow one creation per caster level, but I don't think creating a small army of 20 men is going to be possible with a simple, 1st-level spell.

Can you please revise your post to reflect the above?

i found this under the adjudicating illusions section on page 259 of the second edition PHB. Whilst ten of each 0 HD warriors probably is over the top for a second level illusionist, I think having just one creature isn't that fair if am honest. I rarely use the pure force spells for just this reason but I have no decent spells at the moment so am kind forced to use it. This passage seems to indicate that more than one creature was envisioned to be allowed by the writers at least.

The caster must maintain a show of realism at all times when conducting an illusion (if a squad of low-level fighters is created, the caster dictates their hits, misses, damage inflicted, apparent wounds, and so forth; the DM decides whether the bounds of believability have been exceeded).

I am cool if you wanna run it as only one, there is no point falling out over games rules and it's your game I totally respect that. Am having a great time and dont want to put that in danger so will happily go with whatever you want.

[dmw71]

i found this under the adjudicating illusions section on page 259 of the second edition PHB.

I don't own the books and am using purpleworm.org/rules, so I don't know the page number to quote from, but the following is coming from the 'Adjudicating Illusions' heading, under the 'Monster Special Attacks' section:

Option: Extend the spell level control to monsters--the caster can create monsters only if the total monster Hit Dice are equal to or less than the caster's level (an 8th-level caster could convincingly do one hill giant, two ogres, or four 2nd-level fighters).

That, actually, is right in line with what I'm thinking. So, if you want to bumbling 0th level fighers to appear, they will count as 0.5 HD for calculation purposes. So, a 1st-level Illusionist could control two of them; a 2nd-level Illusionist could control four, etc...

Regardless, I will still need to know the exact placement of however many illusions Kassal creates before I can continue (so you need to be mindful of available spaces on the map).

The caster must maintain a show of realism at all times when conducting an illusion (if a squad of low-level fighters is created, the caster dictates their hits, misses, damage inflicted, apparent wounds, and so forth; the DM decides whether the bounds of believability have been exceeded).

I'm glad you understand this as well, and you should keep this in mind when determining placement. If you are going to spread multiple illusions out into different areas (e.g. opposite sides of the combat area), it will be more difficult for Kassal to maintain this constant watch over these spread out illusions.

[Storm11]

i got mine from the PDF doc that you can download for free for the second edition PHB. It's under adjudicating illusions.

4 of the archers at 126, 111, 96, 81

[dmw71]

4 of the archers at 126, 111, 96, 81

I missed this, and have been monitoring the actual action thread waiting for an update.

It's Friday, so I'll update the game either later tonight or this weekend.

[dmw71]

No update today. Sorry.

[dmw71]

Sorry for the delay, but things have been insanely busy for me the last few days (and probably will be for a couple more). I will try to keep up, but there may be another delay.

[saalaria]

Sorry all been very busy since getting back. Will try to get caught up and active again by the weekend

[Alethan]

The goal was to try and draw several kobolds into the well room, not engage the first one in the hallway.

[Storm11]

Once one sees you aren't alone there is no way it will encourage its fellows to attack, especially taller members of the group. That was why we were to remain hidden.

[AleBelly]

One of us is holding a light source, so I hardly think we would have surprised the kobolds…

Oh, I missed the line where the torches were to be covered, but I didn't see that action anywhere and without the light I don't see how Sylvan would have known a kobold was turning the corner 30' away.

[OGRE MAGE]

Oops! I should have read this before I posted.

I thought we were supposed to be sneaking in as well.

At least there is only 4 of them (so far) if our stealth plan is foiled.

[Alethan]

One of us is holding a light source, so I hardly think we would have surprised the kobolds…

Oh, I missed the line where the torches were to be covered, but I didn't see that action anywhere and without the light I don't see how Sylvan would have known a kobold was turning the corner 30' away.

It wasn't an action. It was a spoken plan.

Doesn't matter now.

[dmw71]

No update tonight. Sorry.

[onlyme]

I think you have the action thread locked...

Fulp was going to give an eloquent answer to her question that would have resulted in offers of gold and jewels galore. But, oh well...

[Alethan]

I think you have the action thread locked...

Fulp was going to give an eloquent answer to her question that would have resulted in offers of gold and jewels galore. But, oh well...

I unlocked it.

[OGRE MAGE]

It still shows that it's locked for me.

[Alethan]

It still shows that it's locked for me.

Oops. It was late and my horizontal tracking skills were bad. I unlocked the wrong thread.

Corrected now.

[dmw71]

I think you have the action thread locked...

My fault, guys. I'll need to remember to make sure, when re-using older threads, that they aren't locked when I update them.

Thanks, Ethan, for unlocking it for me.