OOC A Tide of Discussion: the d20 ToF OOC thread

I believe I have Wall of Stone prepped, I have to double check.


EDIT: Yep I do. I can do 50ft of stone that is 2 1/2 inches thick. I can make it thicker by using less space. Since its a 5th Lvl Spell, I don't think I can use Widen Spell or any of the metamagic feats to strengthen it. Only way I can strengthen it is spend an AP to reprep it and put up another layer.

I can plug the breach and buy us a round or two more time but that's it.

I can also shape it to give us port holes (whatever they are called) for archers, but that would weaken it a bit.

 

Okay - I don't think we'd need the full 50 feet, because we want the army to still try to get in via the gate, we just want to make sure that they can't just run us over and trample us into the floor with sheer numbers. If you narrow the gateway gap to about 10 feet max, that gives enough room for at least two front-liners to hold it without the gap being so big they'll get run over.

 

Are you saying it's time to CHOKE SOME POINTS?!



I like this plan.

 

And if Evelios can really scare the pants off them with that superpowered vocals he's got going on, that combined with frostbite and tanglefoot bags may mean they tiptoe up instead of charging.

Or not, because these are fanatic Tiamatist hobgoblins, but it's nice to dream.

 

Couple of items to mention...

(1) Ktala, the area you're looking at is pretty much the left side of the maps from the previous battle -- i.e. the barbican, that set of double gates on the left side of the map. Both gates have been smashed, courtesy of the dragon, but the walls themselves are still intact. You'll note the outer gate is covered by a rooftop. Let's look at the map again...



Obviously a bit has changed since I took this picture Remember you can click on it to fullsize it.

X11 to Y15 is basically the inner gate. That area is open to the sky, and its doors have been blasted down.

The outer gate is an arch beneath a covered walkway. It runs under grid references X5 to Z8, though you can't see it on the map because it's under cover. The arch is twenty feet high, with the wall obviously topping out at 30 feet high. Hopefully that helps with the planning...Cass, I'll be putting William at about Z9, fifteen feet off the ground. That okay?

(2) Mitth: I might as well mention it, but you can also use APs to boost your caster level by 2 for a given spell. This has some significance for Wall of Stone because its length is determined by your caster level, and as you rightly point out you can double the thickness by halving the length of the wall. In terms of metamagic feat emulation, don't forget there's the Sudden Metamagic line of feats as well from Complete Arcane -- Sudden Widen and whatnot, though I haven't checked to see if you have the prereqs for any of them.

Probably recasting using an AP is going to wind up marginally better anyway, but the second Wall you create won't increase the thickness of the first as such; it'll be a separate object with separate hitpoints.

 

Holding the court with Wall of Stone on the main gate to funnel the enemy in sounds like a good idea, because we can still fall back to the smaller area and plug the hole with Skadi if necessary (or plug the hole in the wall of stone). Since Skadi is large, has 10 ft reach and can air walk, she can technically hover 5 or 10 feet off the ground and you can form a second line underneath her, which she can 5 ft step to open or close as needed.

Can you move Fire Shield and Haste to the bottom of the queue? Since their duration is measured in a finite number of rounds compared to several minutes for the Enlarge and a day for the Persist, it's better to get the most rounds out of them possible rather than leave the meter running. I don't expect it to matter that much either way since he's capable of recasting them, but it's a habit of mine.

Also, people still have Zanaek's DR 3/evil when he heals them, since it lasts for 1 minute/level of the spell (5 minutes for Mass CLW, 3 for healing spirit).

 

Saint: Yeah, that spot seems okay to me.

Light: Good point. Yeah, shift Fire Shield and Haste to the end.

William's actions in new order:

- Cast Enlarge Person on Skadi
- Cast Greater Invisibility on Corrath, Persisted via AP, and recall it via other AP
- Cast Greater Invisibility on self, Persisted via AP
- Cast Haste on party, Extended via rod
- Cast Mass Fire Shield on party

 

Skadi is going to throw down Divine Protection on the party, possibly catching some of the NPCs in the area as they head out. She's going to follow it up with Mass Shield of Faith with an AP to boost the CL to 12 for the extra bonus before casting Bull's Strength on herself. If there are still NPCs in the area, a few of them can benefit from the Shield of Faith spell, though it's only 1 target/caster level and the party has first dibs.

 

And while the cavalry is passing through, a use of Sacred Healing from Zanaek would be enough to not only top us off, but heal each of the NPCs within 60 feet of him, including their mounts. 18 extra hp goes far NPCs.

 

An entire IC post just to quote Grant Kirkhope?

Yep.

Anyway, formal actions: Activating every boost for Inspire Courage I have, and using a Words of Creation Inspire Courage on the last possible round.

 

*squees excitedly*

Okay, that speech impressed me, ramzy.

Also, Blind Guardian!

 

Anyone want to specify grid positions, or do you need me to come up with a new map...?

 

I'd imagine Evelios is moving into some sort of reasonable not-frontline position relative to this wall plan, although I don't know where, exactly that would be.

 

I'd assume enlarged Skadi is on point near the gap in the wall, but not physically filling it, with Corrath and Ragnar off to either side. This way they can block the gap but the enemy can only come two at a time instead of four at a time if Skadi was physically in the gap, while allowing for Ragnar and Corrath to attack anyone who closes with Skadi. Maz is behind them so he can make with the shooting and tactics stuff. Then we can have Ariel above the gate so she can dive bomb whichever opponent is necessary, while William is floating invisibly outside some 15 to 20 feet off the ground (actually, if he floats 40 feet off the ground and fires the cone straight down, it still turns into a 40 foot burst at ground level given the area of the cone). Zanaek and Evelios are back in the gap back in XY 13 to block any stray runners while still being close enough for support. They're farther back in the gap for the same reason Skadi is, to limit the amount of attacks that can pressure them.

So, something like this, depending on which way the stone wall ends up being laid out:

w

-(a)-
rSc
m


]ze[

If anyone wants to summon some reinforcements before our guests arrive, now's the time to do it.

Oh, and I'd also like to have Skadi cast Blindsight on Corrath, since her damage gets shut down by any forms of concealment, and Blindsight sees through fog while True Seeing doesn't.

 

Sounds workable to me.

 

Question...

Does Ariel actually need to be flying, or can she be on the inner wall, bombing them?
Or would she lose major attack bonuses?

Just curious, as swooping down on them, and then moving back up, to set up next attack, seems like she would be a open target...unless she moves fast enough. Also the time it would take her to turn around and set up next attack.. Just curious.

*Why does suddenly the trench scene from star was suddenly pop into my head!!? *

 

I just remembered this while I was out at lunch - Saintheart do you need me to roll for intimidate, or did you want to handle that?

 

Bombing with what?

Charging is a standard action, so if you begin your turn with line of effect to your target, you can charge it as a standard action, then fly back up into the air as a move action, leaving you pretty safe. All you have to do is make sure you're on the army side of the wall. Sure, they can shoot at you, but between your AC boosts plus things like Haste, Divine Protection and Shield of Faith, it'll take something on the order of natural 20s for most of the minor enemies to hit you. Major enemies have better attacks but even they can still miss you, and even if they hit you, you have the third highest HP total in the party, and we have healers.

 

Ahh.. Ok. I'll stick with the flying then.
And I thought we were going to use the tanglefoot bags first. Pin them/ slow them down, and then take em out.

Or I can give some of the bags to the others to toss.


Saint..
Old eyes cant see map that well...
Does that mean there is roughly a ten-15 foot area between the two walls, that runs around the city? Or do gates and buildings block them. so there is only a small area we have to worry about?

Trying to get right, so I know how much of an area Ariel has to dive through, while avoiding things like walls and such...



Thanks!

 

I am here, just working out some things - I'll post as soon as I can, ideally in the morning.

 

Well, thing about tanglefoot bags is that they're single-target, not area effects. So you can only pin one target per bag. Given that most of our enemies are going to be common soldiers, the turn it takes to pin a single target can also be spent just killing that single target with an attack.

As far as location goes, hanging out on the western edge of the map seems like it'd be fine, because there shouldn't be too many enemies on our side of the wall if Skadi and the others can hold the line. The gap doesn't go around the city, it's just a sort of bubble area by the gates.

 

^^^

This. As I mentioned before, the area you're defending is a barbican, a sort of glorified gatehouse if you will. As you say, a 10-15 foot gap between the two gates which doesn't extend all the way around the city -- just between these two gates.

Ramza, don't worry about the Intimidate check, I've got that covered...

I'm still working on maps and calculations, guys, bear with me. Been horribly sick the last couple of days on top of work = NO GOOD.

EDIT: Although the toughest part is trying to map up when I don't know where that wall is going. Mitth, can you give me some grid references and whatnot..?

 

Im an old fart...I forget!

Ok. No worries then. Guess I'll hold the bags for now.
Works for me.

No worries.

*Hope you feel better Saint.*

 

What exactly am I closing up? The gate breach right? Where is the gate? I just want to make sure before I start giving Saint grid points to color up.

 

The inner gate breach, as I recall, apart from a gap of about 10 feet at one side which is where we're putting Skadi.