Moira is decidedly not good at Athletics with a -1 modifier to her roll.  Acrobatics is her bread-and-butter.

And yeah, the Athletics check is after the climbing line is mounted successfully, as scaling a 70-foot tall tower via vertical rope climb is pretty rough no matter what.  Like DM said, all our finagling at the moment is just working to lower the base DC as much as we can.  Ideally we get our best climber/strongest person to the top, have them anchor themselves to something solid, and then they Assist the next person climbing by helping to haul them up in order to grant them Advantage.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Presumably it would be Claire and Zaiya up first, for the sake of making the climb successfully and to give Zaiya time to figure out the abjuration wards while U'lin and Moira follow.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:24, Thu 07 Jan 2021.

Or good person climbs, then pulls up the next person in a rope lift (who holds onto rope2 to help guiding, and to provide something to hold onto)

Oh yes, and Guidance, Guidance, rah-rah-rah!

Just because...


Also - climber's kit already grants advantage, and we are using it to help.
The fastening to the Beetle was more for flavour and fun :)

And Guidance.

---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-Tsrn0U4hQ
"And that's what you get..."

I try to make it a point to make every skill relevant. If you're gonna climb towers as a 8 strength wizard, you get what you dumped for :P



It does not.

https://roll20.net/compendium/...mber's%20kit#content



However I would say this does grant Advantage as part of a Help action since you guys are also launching multiple ropes- however someone needs to be safely on the roof first.

Fastening to the Beetle will lower the climb DC to 12, but will prevent the blanket crew from working as the beetle is literally blocking the way. So party choice of the safety net or a lower climb DC.

I'd personally prefer a safety net to negate fall damage on a proper save, rather than lowering the DC by 1 and risking taking a bunch of damage on a bad roll, myself.

So...how do you want to approach it? Who is going up first?

Does Zaiya want to take a look at stuff on the ground floor herself? Or are we moving straight to launching the hooks from the Beetle?

Zaiya sees what she can when we arrive, in case that changes plans.
'pult up the hooks and knotted ropes.  Secure to Beetle.
Use climbing kit, U'lin Guidance Claire.

Claire climbs, ready to slide back down if she judges we need alternate plan.
If seems safe, she pulls up/helps Zaiya climb, with kit and Guidance, to start working on ward bypassing.
Then Moira, kit/guidance, in case they need manual defeating of locks, or her skill in breaking magical trap/connections.  (also leaves U'lin alone, but best able to survive solo until party returns).
Then U'lin joins if room (kit/guidance).

---

  How about a safety net set up beneath the aerie entry?  Attach to opposite side houses, etc?
Surely nets and bolts would be accessible from the armoury?

I could go up first! Also, agreed on the safety net and U'lin's battle plan.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:34, Fri 08 Jan 2021.

Yeah, I think Claire is best to go first for the STR score.  Goodness knows Moira and Zaiya with their noodle arms are going to need all the help they can get!

No nearby side houses. No one wants to be near the moody wizard.

Nets and bolts are available.

Either the Beetle is parked below the aerie entrance, letting you secure the other end of the rope, or a team is there with blankets as a safety net. You aren't saying anything that convinces me that you can squeeze both.

No the safety net team is not going to tap dance on top of the Beetle, as hilarious as that image is.

You are welcome to try and attach things directly to the side of the tower itself :)

---

Zaiya will need to tell me what she's examining and any spells she's casting before I can tell her what she observes and if any checks are required
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:18, Fri 08 Jan 2021.

Yeah, my vote goes to having some folk with a blanket safety net on hand.  Better to have two rolls than one.

Also, DM - is Acrobatics applicable for the climbing check at all?  Or is it exclusively Athletics?
This message was last edited by the player at 06:21, Fri 08 Jan 2021.

Hmmm...I want to say no, but looking around there's some argument about climbing via technique instead of strength.

I'd say Moira can attempt an Acrobatics (Strength) check- using her skill in acrobatics, but since this is primarily an exercise that requires grip and upper-body strength it remains a Strength check.

Well, there's always climbing via Performance check.  :3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3OqiX0Y9no

But yeah, I agree with you.  It'd be one thing if there was more terrain to work with, but this really is just a vertical climb and Moira is carrying a fair deal of gear with her, so a straight-forward STR-based check gets no complaints from me.  Being able to apply my Acrobatics skill instead of Athletics nets me a +5 to the roll, so that's very generous in the end.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:33, Fri 08 Jan 2021.

Yea for future reference if Moira was gonna try to do the ninja warrior thing to parkour up the side of an alleyway I would allow a regular acrobatics check (dc may be higher though since that shit is hard)

Also performers and the like are crazy fit I highly doubt they dumped strength. I know someone who pole dances as a hobby and their grip/arm strength is insane. Even if they are pretty light some of the moves involve supporting 50kg of human body perpendicular to the floor with just your arms.

Agreed on that point; a lot of people point to something like ballet as being an example of high DEX while ignoring that ballet dancers have crazy leg and core strength.  It's really more a shortcoming of a game system trying to simplify things into easily modular mechanics not quite meshing with how reality actually works.

Strictly speaking, Moira isn't weak - she has a 8/-1 STR score and a carrying capacity of 120 lbs, which means she's only just slightly below the game's mechanical average.  And since D&D's mechanical average is a Human Commoner with 10/+0 straight down the board, it actually makes sense that a person half the size and a fraction of the weight of your average adult Human wouldn't quite have the same muscle power.  But when the question comes down to raw mechanics and math, the -1 modifier and lack of Proficiency Bonus makes a big difference.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:16, Fri 08 Jan 2021.

Yeah, I'm just thinking, and work's been a bit hectic the past few days (Though the run as a whole has been fine).  I'll try to get something off before I head to my next shift.

No problem. The party may need Zaiya in the loop soon, since a wizards tower is kind of her wheelhouse. Hope your schedule gets better :)

While that's happening, does anyone want to take a look around the tower themselves?

I already had Moira taking a look around the circuit of it in prior narration, so there's no harm in tossing an observation skill check onto that.  What would work best, DM?  Perception or Investigation?

I only rolled a 10, so it's either:
Perception: 14
Investigation: 10

I would think U'lin would be on overwatch near the entrance, not searching out.
I'll yield that to Moira.

@GM I've posted my Athletics check as an edit to my post, sorry for not mentioning it earlier!

Also "This thread is nearing the 1,000 post limit.  Please request your GM creates a new thread."

Wow you people yap a lot don't you. *silently ignores how a good third of the posts are theirs*

Lets go with Perception. In the interests of keeping things moving, I will just resolve Claires thing first and allow some rollback if Zaiya's stuff changes the party's decisions.

EDIT: Lets just keep using this till we hit 980 or something.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:42, Sat 09 Jan 2021.

Worst case scenario, tuesday is my last night working here.  But hopefully I shouldn't need that long to add something.

:< Hope things are going okay Zaiya

Stay strong folks. Between Covid and politics, things are rough out there, but I wish everyone the best in these trying times.

Realised I forgot to mention that the DC for attempting to disable the ground floor glyphs is 17 (or a dispel magic).

Figured it might affect how the party wants to approach.