I am the tall one

Quorf is armed with a sling and his handaxe/farget shield.  He is likely shorter at 4'10".

Salinus is definitely tall, being Laan and all.

I'm 6'3" and Erlini.

I don't know what a Laan is :)

So I think the right order is likely as follows for single file:
Quorf
Jangor
Ayami
Salinus
Suladriel

For wider corridors we can go as follows:
Quorf - Jangor
Ayami - Salinus
Suladriel

I will be a brief cushion in the back to keep Ayami and Salinus "safe" but I emphasize brief as I'm a bit fragile myself :)

Well, at 6' 2", Suladriel is just a bit taller than Salinus. This is definitely the tall part of the party. We should go in the middle of the "boat", not on the edges. =)

My only concern for height was for missile weapons.  Jango is well over 6' tall, towering over the 2nd tallest member.  I would not want to see arrows or other missiles flying into the combat zone leaving me between saud missile and its target.

Since we're comparing heights: Ayami is 5'5" (which is also in her profile). I don't think that matters, but I wanted to say something as well. ;-)

Jangor is 6' 7". He's the tallest so far. =)

In reply to Salinus (msg # 190):

Lol

Then you may need to duck :) Kidding :)

You are also the strongest melee fighter and meat shield, so we want you in front of us, hopefully I'll be able to shoot around you :)

That was the intention of making this character to be the meat shield.  Normally I like to play thieves leaning towards assassin.

I think I need to go over everyone's list of langauges. Some of you have only one listed and I know that ain't right.

Yeah, I would be one of the ones who hasn't finished taking all their languages. However, Salinus would have picked cultural languages around him, like Emer, or *dwarven* or *elven*. Murlogi is far too specific and there would not have been enough exposure to it.

Might also be worth pointing out a few things that are common knowledge about Murlogi. They have a penchant for mechanical devices, especially implements of torture. They're very sensitive to sunlight -- mainly coming out at night to hunt for food. This includes human (or elven) flesh.

Murlogi are not a potentially sympathetic race. You might run into a solitary exception at some point, but that would be a very noteworthy case.

Should we clarify that I haven’t actually loosed an arrow but that I have declared that as my action (not a snap action)?

Drawing the arrow back triggered the hostilities, so you haven't fired yet.

Oh! So this is inaccurate, then?

Yep. I don't allow combat actions outside of a tactical environment. Even if you've prepped an ambush and are starting things off, there's still the odd chance that one of the targets could notice something quickly enough to react.

Oh, and to clarify: Each phase has a distinct action. You can't wait until the deliberate phase to fire, and still be able to draw your next arrow this round. Likewise, if you want to move during the normal phase, something like spell preparation has to be done on a separate phase.

Consider each phase to be good for a single action. Movement, making an attack, preparing a weapon, spellcasting, each is a separate action. Technically, if you're fast enough at reloading, you could fire a bow in the snap phase, grab an arrow as a normal action, and fire again in the deliberate phase. You'd be taking some hefty penalties to do so, but it's possible.

Oh, there's a single exception to this sort of multi-attack thing -- spellcasting. Instantaneous spells only take 10% of your activity to cast, but the rules explicitly state that you can't cast more than one spell per round.

So next round can I draw the arrow as my snap action?

I will update my IC post to reflect reality.

Yep, that's right. Note that if you have the ability to reload faster, you could technically fire your bow as a snap action, grab another arrow at the normal phase, then fire again as a deliberate action. Both shots would have penalties, most likely, but it's possible.

Ok. I have updated the list of actions I originally posted to consider the nature of a single action per turn stage.

Correct me if I am wrong there.

Also, what is the normal activity cost for reloading an arrow on a bow?

For a short bow, 50%. This means you can only fire twice (like I described above) if you have a talent that specifically reduces this, like Sul has.

Reloading is something that can carry over between rounds. You could fire with a full 60% activity, then spend the other 40% preparing another arrow. On the next round, you'd only need to use 10% as a snap action to finish readying another shot.

Did you get a bow from somewhere? I don't see one on your sheet.

Ah, I see what I did. I am also playing HARP, where reload times are in the 200% to 300%. I am confusing the two, so the question was in my mind, but it was misplaced.

Here in RM, rounds are 10 seconds. In HARP, they are 2 seconds. So, things take a lot longer to get done: movement is far less, attacks are swift, and with the right talents and skills, shooting a bow can be just as deadly and fast. However, spells can go very fast in HARP, although I am comparing it to RM, where it will take several rounds of prep to get a spell off.

This is true, combat in HARP is a totally different pace. And spellcasting is a totally different animal -- it'll take you several levels before you can reliably throw out a low-level spell with no prep time.

The good news is, if you meet certain conditions you don't have to make a skill check to cast a spell -- there's a whopping 2% chance for a non-attack spell to fail regardless, but you don't risk failing just by rolling a middling result. For Essence casting, these are your conditions:

• The spell is not higher level than you
• It's an Essence spell that isn't from another base list
• It's not cast as a snap action (unless it's instantaneous)
• You haven't used more than 25% of your Power Points
• You've prepared the spell long enough — 2 rounds if the spell's level is within 2 of yours, or 1 round if it's within 5 levels
• You have a hand free
• You're speaking the spell's key words in at least a whisper
• You're not wearing armor or a helmet
• You're carrying less than ~50 pounds of living organic material (so no carrying people)
• You're carrying less than ~10 pounds on nonliving organic material
• You're carrying less than ~5 pounds of inorganic material

Essence-users in RM are assumed to be traveling really light. It's like the classic "D&D mage not wearing armor" trope, but taken seriously. They explain that too much stuff on your person interferes with your ability to manipulate the world's energies, and inorganic stuff like metal and stone really tamp it down.