Discussion (out of character thread)

[scarik]

I surely will. But I want to format things and get them up before I have you start.

The fight begins either when you are in position or when the ogres spot you (unlikely but the dice gods are fickle!)

[tibbius]

Tactics

Barnaby will sling at the most dangerous-looking ogre until it falls down, then repeat ... until he runs out of stones ... then charge the most dangerous ogre with his sword ...

Round after the ambush, he will give his inspiring shout.

yes I realize it might have been helpful to post this before you started working through the fight ... if we survive to have another fight, I'll do better for that one

[scarik]

Tactics

Barnaby will sling at the most dangerous-looking ogre until it falls down, then repeat ... until he runs out of stones ... then charge the most dangerous ogre with his sword ...

Round after the ambush, he will give his inspiring shout.

yes I realize it might have been helpful to post this before you started working through the fight ... if we survive to have another fight, I'll do better for that one

No worries, just sat down to set things up. You'll get to change your mind round to round.

[Leitz]

Do we have a campain id for the dice roller?

[scarik]

Do we have a campain id for the dice roller?

Haven't figured out how to do any of that yet >.>

[Leitz]

Do we have a campain id for the dice roller?

Haven't figured out how to do any of that yet >.>

Big gold die, top right corner. It's a separate login, so you have to create an account. You can use the same username, though.
Once you login, the top will have options like "Roll the dice", "Characters", and "Campaigns". Click the latter, and then click "Create a new campaign."
It will give you a number, report that back here. We can then associate our characters to the campaign, and you can look at all rolls on one page.
There are probably other uses for it, but I don't use them. I just associate my characters with the campaigns they are in.

[scarik]

1039

Apparently I already did try to make one and forgot.

For actions I'll post the condition of the enemy at the end of the round. You'll know before they charge so you can keep shooting until then. In fact if you receive a charge you can either brace for it or shoot a ready weapon at them then melee normally.

Only your spear men get a bigger benefit from bracing than making a last second missile attack.

[Leitz]

Nice!

[tibbius]

I was calculating the odds last night (something that Barnaby, as a nobleman and artist, is not well-suited to do) ...

Out of our entire group, only Ji-Ho, Sing-Woo, Gurav, and Borav have better-than-even odds of surviving the first round of contact with an ogre. (They have quite good odds of killing an ogre and surviving). The rest of the party have negligible chance to kill an ogre one-to-one, and even teaming up on one, it is likely that more than one member of a three-person team will be killed.

[scarik]

I concur that the odds of everyone surviving are slim, and in a straight fight your party would absolutely be slaughtered.

But ogres have extremely bad morale while you have very good morale even before Inspire Allies (which improves morale and saves vs death) and you have two people with Cure Wounds.

It will be quite the story in any case.

Edit to add:
I forgot to add Ji Hos hits and Hodlars non damaging hit. I'll fix that.

[tibbius]

Further thought: to my mind, these odds suggest that your rules work to incentivize rational action. An ordinary person or several ordinary people should be terrified to go up against a single ogre, even if the ordinary people are decently armed. On the other hand, a heavily armed person should be more confident. That matrix you have is quite good.

[Leitz]

I agree. Ji-ho didn't go into the fight lightly at all, he figures a third of our people will be taken out. However, we couldn't continue forward, it was either get attacked on the move or leave our supplies. He's put himself as far forward as practical, and ensured that everyone knows the retreat plan if it's needed.

This is one of the reasons I wanted to play this type of character in Scarik's game; the planning and rational thought process is always respected. There's a decent chance Ji-ho himself won't survive, and that's okay. I got to stay true to character until the end.

scarik mentioned the potential hostages after I had already made my decision, it made this even more justifiable.

[scarik]

Further thought: to my mind, these odds suggest that your rules work to incentivize rational action. An ordinary person or several ordinary people should be terrified to go up against a single ogre, even if the ordinary people are decently armed. On the other hand, a heavily armed person should be more confident. That matrix you have is quite good.

I'm glad you like it and that my math is working as intended since I am a STEM teacher and I do algebra for hours every day.

Ogres are one of the critters I calibrated the rules with. My initial idea was to make a single Ogre a danger to a dozen militia but about even for a mounted knight. Two mounted lancers should feel pretty confident.

This is one of the reasons I wanted to play this type of character in Scarik's game; the planning and rational thought process is always respected. There's a decent chance Ji-ho himself won't survive, and that's okay. I got to stay true to character until the end.

Thanks, I do love digging into the weeds of the tactics used.

[scarik]

The dice gods have gifted you with an even melee for playing smart.

For the record Gurav will be offended if Ji-ho takes both attacks, but his followers will be grateful for anything that keeps their lord from actively trying to die. They will not be angry if you just let Gurav tank the full 4HD.

[Leitz]

Okay, let me make sure I have this right.

3 ogres, each at 4HD. Thus their unit attacks with 12 HD.

The dwarves engage fully, taking 5 of the 12.
The humans with Ji-ho each engage fully, taking 5 more of the 12.
Thus 2 left, and Ji-ho as captain can decide how they go, knowing that Gurev will take them if allowed.

A character can choose to not risk their own HD, correct? Ergo, they fight more cautiously. How does that affect rolls?

In these rules, a spear and a sword are mostly equal for to hit and damage, correct?

To keep things going I'll go ahead and roll for melee. We can adjust if needed. Ji-ho will split the extra 2 HD between himself and Gurev.

[scarik]

I have yet to find a satisfactory Fighting Defensively method. The main way I've handled saving the squishies is letting you force twice your HD to attack the heavies.

Swords and spears are often but not always equivalent and spears are over all better. Unless you are in a constricted space that is.

[Leitz]

What is the effect of Barnaby's "Inspire Allies" on Ji-ho and crew?

[scarik]

What is the effect of Barnaby's "Inspire Allies" on Ji-ho and crew?

I though I added the table for it. Seems I just made the header lol.

All channeling abilities require a roll (pair plus charisma in this case) to determine their results.

Inspire result (2d6+CHA)
All allies who can hear the bard benefit for as long as the bard concentrates on maintaining the effect.
<3 : No effect, the channeling fails.
3-5 : +1 to morale
6-8 : +1 to morale and saving throws
9-11 : +1 to morale, saving throws and skills
>11: +1 to morale, saving throws, skills and attacks

[Leitz]

Cool. It won't effect Ji-ho's hits this round, none of the misses were just one off. If he does roll 11+, that'll make this a lot easier!

[scarik]

I posted.

The results are in line with how I intended: mostly misses and then morale checks. The side that holds together then exploits the one that breaks. That's where the real damage is.

Cool. It won't effect Ji-ho's hits this round, none of the misses were just one off. If he does roll 11+, that'll make this a lot easier!

Alas, only a 7.