In reply to Carmen Gorgon (msg # 946):

Understandable. I do have some berries left though, so that should take care of the immediate CON damage we'll be suffering. Slinging a bag of them to the other side for us to munch on might be a more efficient option.

Just hoping to focus down the kobold with the +3 i'm essentially giving Grumblejack, and laying down some curses for -2 to attack, AC and saves for our fearless heroes.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:11, Fri 23 Aug 2019.

Pfff I DO have a pound or so of berries in my storage space, but I'm not sure how to reliably GET them to you. Do you want me to try?

I honestly think that'd be better left for after the battle, but if you are planning on sending Eric across next, you could certainly place the berries in his hands, if you wanted to.

The issue is that it's a standard to open the damn space and a standard to teleport, unless I wanna spend my last two SP in the same turn XD

And that's the thing--guys, I can only teleport people this far two more times and then I'm OUT since it costs a SP and I have no way of getting new ones outside of a level-up. I'll send over Eric if ya'll want that, but after him I can only do one more long-range port.

(It also personally worries me that I only have two SP left, or one after Eric, because we don't know what will happen after this fight. I doubt we'd be safe enough to take a long rest, but I almost wanna say we should . . . . )

You'll get your long rest when you get to your destination; you're not so far off! :)

That said, not sending Eric around is technically a valid option - he has a crossbow so he can fight from the other shore, and perhaps more importantly, he doesn't have Darkvision and so might well not be able to contribute much to the fight, considering the battlefield.

Of course, you could ask Nothing to dismiss her darkness if Eric moved across, so that he could contribute, but are you sure that'd be more beneficial than keeping Farrah suffering from the "fight in the dark" penalties? Because that's a tactical call you would be making if this is the plan you went with.

In reply to Security Feature (msg # 952):

On the other hand, since Nothing dropped her shadows the previous round, could she give Eric darkvision in the current one before he gets sent over by Carmen? Initiative wise it should only require a Delayed Turn or two to have everything match up.

That would be Nothing's call to make; much like Carmen has the right to refuse anybody teleportation because it's her SP getting spent, Nothing has the right to decide how to use her limited resources. She could definitely do that this turn, since she hasn't acted yet, and if she does it, then Carmen could teleport Eric next turn (without need for anybody to delay anything), but the ability has limitations, and it's up to Nothing to decide if they're worth paying at this time.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:57, Fri 23 Aug 2019.

Oh certainly, that's why i'm suggesting it.

But yeah, even counting the dogs as out of the fight i'm still looking at this numerical superiority around me and Grumblejack and going "...Mmyeah, some more people here would be nice."

Especially if Grumblejack eats another crit from those crossbows like that.

Oh we're close? Great! Less worries for me.

Even if Eric doesn't get Darkvision, I'll probably still send him because some people are out of darkness (like the annoying crossbow user) and that'll help keep anyone from running AWAY as well. LAST thing we need is the enemies getting the bright idea of just running for it and getting reinforcements.

You've been trekking through this area for very nearly two hours. Don't misunderstand, a guard going for reinforcements would be bad, but not in the "they're going to immediately afterward ambush us" sense, more in the "they will know exactly where to look for us and what resources we have" sense.

Also, interesting fact about the crossbow wielding soldiers you might be forgetting: loading a crossbow is a move action (except for Elise, because Bolt Ace) that provokes attack of opportunity; firing one also provokes attack of opportunity if you're within melee range of the user. Just wanted to point that out.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:59, Fri 23 Aug 2019.

Oh I know, that's why I want Eric over there--having a melee guy next to a ranged character makes the ranged dude far more useless

Indeed - I was just pointing out that you already have a couple of melee character there (Grumblejack and Adrika), they're just not close enough to the mooks to threaten them right now.

Well, there will be another sphere of darkness up before Carmen gets to go again, which will impact her ability to teleport and Eric's ability to fight unless someone gives him Darkvision.

Just FYI
This message was last edited by the player at 22:09, Fri 23 Aug 2019.

Woah, once again this thread has been very busy - over a page of new posts since I last checked yesterday, lol. Anyway, if you want Nothing to do something, ask them, not me - this is the meta-gaming I was talking about. We could spend days plotting and scheming OOC but it means nothing for our characters unless we want them to suddenly act like they know exactly what that guy over there wants them to do even though no kind of communication was made in either direction that effect. Which would be weird ;).

Btw can I assume I'm behind some kind of cover (as I described myself doing such and it wasn't contested)? Like a tree or large rock or something? Just so I know I'm not gonna have to move to cover on my next turn :P.

Whhhaaaa you mean our characters DON'T have omniscient knowledge of the timeless players communications? XD

No I get whatcha mean Nothing, but we like to decide what to do in OOC before talking in-game (simply to keep the in-game thread from being clogged with arguments)

But ya, whose moving before Nothing and can ask them about the darkvision thing? Carmen isn't, and you can't talk outside your turn :/

Yeah, normally it's not much of a problem to discuss things in the IC threads, but we're in the middle of combat so we can't sit down for a lengthy strategic back and forth discussion. It'd distract from the flow of combat too, so we've moved it to the OOC for now.

I do have to agree with Nothing a bit here - OOC planning is fine, but do not expect NPCs to be aware of it unless you specifically inform them IC, and do try and have your chracters not act like they've knowledge they couldn't possibly have obtained within the story; basically, do not abuse it, ok? :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:21, Sat 24 Aug 2019.

Gotcha!

Personally I think of like--tactics stuff--as being a case of 'our characters know this because they've fought before and we haven't' but I see where abuse can happen for sure.

Esxactly - we're in combat, so our characters have no time for discussion, which means we shouldn't be doing so either as players - if our characters have no time to react and swap tactics, why are we doing it here? It's the same reason I haven't read any od the world lore yet - my character doesn't know any of it (yet) so my knowing it as a player will be completely pointless at this time as I can't make use of any of said info. I have to learn with my character and makes notes as I go. Similarly, you will never see me post character thoughts/emotions (telepathy aside, obviously ;)) because again, that's stuff you would have no way of knowing. Especially on someone without a face who has no need of body language because they don't have eyes and comes from (and is/was part of) a place that is essentially a world-sized sentient entity...thingy :D.

Nothing did tell you something of how their abilities work back in the prison, although I can't remember how much specific detail I gave. I know I said the Darkvision doesn't last super long and that I had to touch Carmen in order to "implant" the ability into her to be triggered by me at the appropriate time. I don't recall what other info I may have given, however. I'm pretty sure I did also mention (however briefly) that if I make my darkness the harmful kind then it does so indiscriminately (and naturally forgot as a player, as evidenced by my post in here the other day ;)), but even if I did say that, the bloodthirsty, battle-hungry, revenge-seeking melée characters who heedlessly charged on in can probably be more or less expected to have forgotten such a thing that they were briefly told several hours ago and likely had no reason to stop and think about in the heat of this sudden battle :D.

Hmm, if we're doing the Fourth Edition way of combat (which is cool, though I'm still not sure about "make one attack roll and it goes against everyone" rather than the usual "roll for each target" thing), then I wonder what happens if I crit. I need to see if crits in Pathfinder are max damage, double damage, or some other cool kind of high-damage, but since I'm now making attack rolls on something that Pathfinder would normally require a save for instead, presumably that means I get to benefit from rolling a natural 20 if I can manage that some day :D.

Spells don't normally crit (some classes have abilities that can cause spells to crit, but it's a special ability, not the default), but in PF, rolling 1 on a save is always a fail (even if otherwise your bonus would have made it impossible for you to - this is a key difference between saves and attack rolls, which always fail on a 1, and skill or ability check, where you can pass them on a 1 if your bonus is high enough), and rolling 20 is an always successful save (even when otherwise you'd not be able to beat the spell's DC).

Things being so, I would say that all this means is that rolling a 20 means the spell will work even if the given target's save would have otherwise been unbeatable, and a 1 means your spell will fail even against the weakest of creatures. This means that even if the enemy seems very though, you might still be able to hit it if you're lucky enough! Don't forget it!

By the way, since your darkness spell would offer a save every turn, we'll instead have you roll a new attack roll for it whenever your turn comes up - it feels like that's a good enough compromise for it.

I'm with Carmen on this a bit, our characters know more about fighting that we do , or certainly than I do!

Either way, our IC post should reflect requests that we're thinking about OOC. Just like my post that detailed a request I talked OOC about with SF in PM's.

I also think it's more appropriate for us to discuss OOC tactics for the NPC's so we can help guide SF's actions for all the NPC's they have to work on/with.

As I said, I'm fine with you doing some planning OOC - so long as you don't abuse it, it will be fine. I don't think that's too hard a requirement to follow, is it? :)

Yeah, it's basically stuff we'd have been expected to discuss during the trip, given that there was a very real chance the trackers would catch up. Nothing had mentioned ICly that he could grant Darkvision to people, so his dropping of darkness areas would in my opinion be discussed as it's a very real tactical advantage given the number of people that already have Darkvision of our little party.

But yeah, as long as we don't delve into 'he only has 5 HP left, let's have Grumble attack someone else this turn' territory, we should be fine :P

I remember I mentioned I could give people Darkvision because I also mentioned that I could plonk down areas of darkness and wanted to know which characters had Darkvision - I've made notes OOC on those I've confirmed either way with regards to that feature, so I know I must've asked about that IC :).

Anyway...regarding crits versus fails...yeah, in my experience (ie DnD systems that aren't Pathfinder), a natural 20 always hits and a natural 1 always misses. If a natural 20 (plus attack bonus) would be enough to hit anyway (which at these levels is, like, always ;)) then it's a crit and you do...well, in Fourth Edition you maximise everything you would've rolled. In Fifth I've seen that you roll twice the dice but add the bonus once (eg if an attack would deal 2d6+4 damage, you instead deal 4d6+4). Pity I can't get to have crits on my magic stuff but I can see why I can't - just because we're tweaking the rules to make attacks more Fourth-Edition-style doesn't mean we get to change all of them to be that way :D.

And yes, I was gonna reroll the attack for my darkness at the end of my turn - that's when everyone already in it would save anyway under the regular rules. End of my turn or the first time they enter it during a round :).

Looks like I made the save against Nothing's darkness this round :3

Also, if it's like Serendipity, it'd be a Standard Action to throw it down and a Move action to concentrate on the effect. On my phone so I can't check and could therefore be wrong, but there's my two cents.