Do the brush areas block sight or only impose disadvantage on attack rolls through them?

They only impose half cover (a target with half cover has a +2 bonus to AC and Dexterity saving throws).

@Verthel: Thunderwave affects a 15' cube - i.e., a 3x3 square. Where are you casting thunderwave? I.e., which squares are you affecting?

I suspect you intend to affect I11 to K13, to include B2 and B3 - is this right? I'd actually let you slide the effect a half square to the left to include the bear too, if you like.

For reference: Discussion of Area of Effect of Thunderwave
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:58, Fri 25 Nov 2016.

Yeah, that's my general idea. Although I can now see the issue- the "cube" thing is kind of confusing. I'm okay with not nailing the bear- as far as I can tell, it'd probably be better to calm it down, rather than try to fight it head on.

I gotta say, I find it kind of morbidly amusing that B3 was woken up by his buddy only to be immediately killed by a Thunderwave spell. "Hey guys, I'm up, what's g--OH GOD!"

Waiting in the lobby of Limbo: "I was on my way to deliver the goods to the orphanage, and the sick bear to the druid. Me and the other priests camped a few hours from town, because we didn't want to risk traveling at night after hearing about bandits in the area."

"While making dinner, the wizard bandits attacked out of nowhere - no provocation. I was magicked to sleep, and when brother Aaron woke me, I was knocked into our camp fire, burning to... well, you know."

---

I'm gonna wait to find out what B4 does before I post, because crit.

Bandit actions Round 4:
- B1 starts to attack Mayon but is instead hit by Bram for 4 slashing damage. B1 is dead.
- B4 attacks Morg with a spear - hit for 3 piercing damage. [Private to Morg: current hp=7]
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:23, Sat 26 Nov 2016.

@Mayon - I assume you're attacking B1? Make sure to list the target in the 'reason for roll' in the dice roller in future.

Gotcha, my bad. I'll edit that into my post now, spaced on it for some reason.

@Asano - B1 is going to be dead after his turn - if you like you can edit your post.

No worries - it's easy to miss these things ;)

Dang it, Mayon! We need some answers.

And by we, I mean myself.

Ok, I realized I misunderstood some of the discussion above re: posting enemy actions mid-round, and I deleted a couple of my responses. Sorry for my confusion on that.

For the rest of the combat I'll post enemy actions in OOC after everyone higher in init than the bandits has gone. If you're lower in init you're still welcome to post whenever, but you may want to edit your post after the bandits actions have been posted.

The bear is blessedly at the end of the init order anyway, so it shouldn't be an issue.

I'm going to think about ways to make this better/easier in future encounters - I've done it a few different ways in other games as a player so I have some ideas. My main concern is to be clear about the beginning and ending of a round; otherwise, I'm afraid we'll all get lost about which round each post is in. That makes tracking status effects, durations, etc. difficult.

Bramwell, you may want to edit your own action as Mayon acts before you, as well.

DM, may I use my roll of 18 for a medicine roll instead of persuasion?
This message was last edited by the player at 18:58, Sat 26 Nov 2016.

Actually no, Bram can't edit as he'd already acted when I posted the bandit actions. In fact he was the one that killed B1.



No, as a general rule you can't repurpose rolls.

Ok, how's this idea:

Goals for handling posts during combat - the rules should adjust to the play-by-post format in such a way that:
- The general feel of the D&D initiative system is retained
- Things aren't too complicated/confusing
- The rules don't create significant advantages/disadvantages to PCs above RAW

Proposal:
- Players can still post whenever they want, and are encouraged to include contingencies in case, for instance, the baddie you want to attack is killed by someone else with a higher init.
- I'll post once at the beginning of the encounter, with the round 1 initiative order. I'll also post actions for any monsters that happen to be at the top of the order in this post.
- For monsters lower in the order, I'll post their actions as soon as all/most PCs higher in the order have taken their turns. I'll be careful not to post this too early. Once I do this:
1) Anyone who's higher in the init order cannot alter their posts - they've already committed to their turn this round.
2) If anyone who's lower in the init order has already posted, they can optionally alter their post for the current round only.
- I'll post a round summary after everyone has posted. This will include actions for any monsters that happen to be at the bottom of the order. It will also include the init order for the next round, & the next round's top-of-the-order monster actions.

Tl;dr, I'll do what I've been doing but instead of posting just 1 round summary to the main thread I'll also post separate actions for monsters that are in the middle of the init order (to the main thread, not OOC).

This won't simulate a tabletop game exactly, since there's still the possibility that an ally with a higher init will kill the monster you're attacking. But, I don't think this is a super significant disadvantage, and remember there's six of you and the adventure is balanced for 4.

Thoughts? We can always try this, see how it goes, and change it later, and I can make exceptions for individual cases.

I like it: tiers posting to IC, allowing low init PC posts after enemy actions.

I prefer waiting for my tier before I post, to prevent multiple levels of if...then statements.

Sounds good to me, too. I haven't had much issue here since, well, top of initiative (looking at my stats that would've been another Nat 20, good lord DM) but I doubt that'll happen often. :P

This message was deleted by the player at 18:51, Tue 29 Nov 2016.

Is anyone else hoping the bear is mad at the bandits and won't attack us? Lol, yeah right. =P

Does anyone have Animal Handling? If so, that'd be quite handy right about now...

Knew I shoulda rolled a ranger or druid.  lol
This message was last edited by the player at 20:59, Tue 29 Nov 2016.

Well I can get an invocation for Speak With Animals...next level...

Not sure how much reasoning bears have, but we've left it alone, so maybe it'll just kinda go on its way? Fingers crossed, haha.

Boy I hope that works :P  Nobody attack it until we see whether it'd rather chow down than fight!
This message was last edited by the player at 21:14, Tue 29 Nov 2016.

Also, DM:  The post says the bear moved to H14, but the map shows it in H12.  It won't make a lot of difference when it decides to come maul Bram, but I was wondering which it was anyway :)