OOC

[Rodriguez]

I want to play Ludwig on the Crab Hunt so he gets some more XP under his belt.
Is that possible?

[Todd Spengo]

Crab Battle Tactics?

Zaid is going to move in a bit and start with arrows.

He can then close further or not, depending on what everyone else is doing.

[Rodriguez]

Not very gentleman like but effective...

[drpete]

Nice

For the record, these have the monocle in the other eye.

[granger44]

Aim for the monocle!

Lucius is also going to start raining arrows on the crabs and unless they close on him, he'll probably stay at range.

[drpete]

So far, most if the crabs are intent on the fish, and not caring much about you, but they are actually quite dangerous, as Minos its finding out the hard way...

[Rodriguez]

And they are fast!

[drpete]

They are actually just moving at 60 ft/turn, so they aren't "zippy". They walked up to the camp from the beach. They do have two big claw attacks/round, though!

[Rodriguez]

Thats still twice as fast as Ludwig without his horse!

[The-Dungeon-Shaker]

F**king crabs on steroids, that shouldn't be allowed.

Next time we'll know better .
http://www.wikihow.com/Catch-a-Blue-Claw-Crab

[Rodriguez]

Oh, we couldn't even react to their retreat?
How close was the fire to the water?

[drpete]

The beach was 40 feet wide, and the crabs, unengaged, can run 60 feet per round, so when their Morale broke (on death of one of their number), they just made for the water.

If they were engaged, I figure it would have been harder for them to get away, and announcing retreats and such would be more of a thing... doesn't sound right?

[Rodriguez]

Ah ok, it felt like the crabs had to walk for 3 or 4 rounds before they reached the fire.

If the crabs won initiative on the retreat round it doesnt make a difference if they announced it or not. What would have been different if they were engaged in melee?

[drpete]

Hrmmm... The crabs came out of the water about 30 feet back from the fire, a total of 50 feet away. They walked, at 20 feet/round, so it took them 3 rounds to get there. On their initiative, they ran 60 feet, to the water, which is only 40 feet from the fire.

If there is an opponent within 5 feet, they would have to declare that they were doing "defensive movement" to alert you that they were retreating. In this case, they would have done a "fighting withdrawl", and moved only 10 feet per round. They would only have been able to attack if people followed them, on the opponent's initiative. If they weren't followed, they'd be able to move faster the next round, without declaring defensive movement. Alternatively, they could have been fully routed, and opponents would have a bonus on attacks of they beat them in initiative. It's the close proximity to an opponent that triggers all that stuff... Opponents being shot at aren't constrained from seeking cover.

[Rodriguez]

Ok makes sense. My mistake

[drpete]

Lol, it's cool. I was worried I'd screwed it up, so I double checked. I think we're just used to melee combat and its rhythms more than missiles, and I haven't given you battle maps or anything.

Mechanically, I rolled for where they came out, about 10 yards from the beach, and their attitude (indifferent), and they broke Morale when one died. You guys didn't roll that well on attacks, but they have very thick armor. I tried to distinguish between total misses and ones where the armor protected them in the description. Missile combat, with range penalties, is very swingy, and not very Legolas, unfortunately.

[Rodriguez]

Minos is at 23/25 due to Heraclides' laying on hands for 8 HP. Strategy wise, healing spells Will be much more valuable as ways to revive the downed... We don't have a medic in the group).

On average Lay on Hands heals more then any of his spells so its not to be underestimated! How will you handle Lay on Hands concerning the Mortal Wounds table?

[drpete]

Minos is at 23/25 due to Heraclides' laying on hands for 8 HP. Strategy wise, healing spells Will be much more valuable as ways to revive the downed... We don't have a medic in the group).

On average Lay on Hands heals more then any of his spells so its not to be underestimated! How will you handle Lay on Hands concerning the Mortal Wounds table?

For healing magic on the mortally wounded, it will heal HP, up to a max of 1 HP and will provide a bonus to the mortal wounds roll. For spells, it provides a bonus of the spell level. For lay on hands, it provides a bonus of caster level. Lay on hands provides the best chance for "look, he's not dead, yet" on the mortal wounds table, and the best healing the party has got when they are standing, but it is a once per day ability.

Generally speaking, you guys will probably want to save the healing magic for emergencies or for the end of the day to prevent blowing it right before someone takes a hit that puts them down.

[granger44]

Almost took a level of the Healing proficiency, but I decided that Riding made more sense.

[drpete]

Yeah, it's one of those skills that is usually really helpful but people don't always want to take. The mortal wounds table makes losing all our most your HP survivable, but we'll have to see how it plays out with limited healing. On that note, how do you guys feel about the new character rule I put up? Too harsh?

On an unrelated note, sorry about my slow rate of posting the last couple of days. As we come up to the holiday, I've been a little swamped and haven't had time to do much GM work. I should be able to update soon.