OOC A Tide of Discussion: the d20 ToF OOC thread

Well, assuming Summon Monster V, because Zanaek is Lawful Good, his choices on creatures are either a single Hound Archon, Celestial Brown Bear, Celestial Giant Stag Beetle, or Celestial Griffon -- or 1d3 of anything he could summon under SM IV (Lantern Archons, Celestial Giant Owl, Celestial Giant Eagle, or Celestial Lion) or 1d4+1 of any of the creatures available under SM III (Celestial Black Bear, Hippogriff, Bison, Dire Badger), II, or I. II or I are skipped because they're, well, squishy.

 

Summon Monster IV operates at much the same rules (either a single creature available on the IV list, or 1d3 of a creature on the III list, and so on.)

 

Please, please, for the love of the Triad, summon a celestial giant stag beetle.

 

hmmm

There is no guarantee that our assassin will take shots at the monsters, unless they happen to threaten him/her directly. And to have creatures suddenly showing up in the middle of town, might send the guards, who are already in a near state of panic, into utter chaos, and they will all take off.

And we need them for the gate. Unless you can warn them somehow.

Also.. the person nailing the shots is most likely a professional. And that is a good reason to think that the arrows/bolts might be poisoned.

Is Skadi still giant sized? (Just curious)

Saint..if Ariel circles around..from another direction than the one the party would most likely take if they were on foot..how high up could she be, max ..to see anything...like where this sniper is shooting from?




Livi...LOVE your tag.

 

Yes, from memory Skadi is still giant-sized.

As to how close Ariel would have to be: that's a bit tough to answer. In essence, Perception (Spot, specifically) checks are hampered by distance: -1 to every 10 feet of distance out from the target. So the closer you are, the better. Maeghen is already in the area, and her Perception checks are, frankly, better than Ariel's: +16 vs. your +8, so you'd probably have to get in closer than her to have a decent chance of getting a bead on where the sniper's shooting from. On the other hand, I think one more shot would be enough to at least pinpoint the building the sniper is operating from. How you pinpoint it -- by spreading yourselves across buildings, or putting someone intentionally in the line of fire -- is a matter for you.

I might note you do have at least one way of warning the troops in the square. He's the guy who sometimes wears a kilt in battle, plays an annoying set of bagpipes, and has this spell called Resounding Voice which allows him to be clearly heard up to half a mile away.

 

He is currently doing his buffing song, but I can totally have him stop if we want to warn them with the most obvious method of letting the sniper know we're onto it possible.

 

Send Maeghen in closer, she doesn't show up as much as Ariel. Lil falcon vs six-foot-tall avariel with giant white wings... Unless Ariel wants to repeat the experience from the demon dream where she got shot down by drow, 'cos I think that's likely if she tries...

 

As disappointed as I am in any plan that doesn't involve celestial giant insects, sending Maeghen in to spy some more seems like the most logical thing to do.

 

Hmmm... I think I'll have Ariel bow out from repeating THAT experience, thank ye!!

**Wonders if true strike spell works with archery as well...** hmmm....

And GODS NO... we dont need the man in plaid shouting to the rooftops!
... at least not yet, anyways...

But we can be moving towards the area, while Maeghen is looking. Flying or otherwise...

 

...anyway.

 

SAINT!!!!

LOL!

... anyways...

If we come up southwest of that area of the square..like maybe from the graveyard area, we might be able to sneak up on the sniper..since they are busy taking out various guards and the like..

 

If you're talking about scouts, I'm pretty sure Corrath has Improved Invisibility and Air Walk presently on her along with one of the best stealth scores in the party. Maz also has a good stealth score and Air Walk, and William still has castings of Invisibility. Might want to have Skadi cast Blind Sight on Corrath if that's what you're doing. Could also cast regular Invisibility on Maeghen (and maybe Evelios), since it will last for 10 minutes or until she attacks (which probably isn't happening).

I would not recommend that Evelios stop singing, it's far to important to the rest of the army. He can just hang back for a bit if necessary.

 

Well, I might mention nothing seems to have taken a shot at Maeghen yet; and she's ahead of the party, closer to the square. You could call her back and cast invisibility on her, but on the other hand the longer you wait the more disorder there is in the square and the more targets that sniper's likely to pick off while you bring up scouts. Good as a sniper is, he'd have to be damn good to hit a moving, diminutive target in the dark and have some reason to knock a random fowl out of the air rather than pick off more targets. On the other hand...well.

Assuming nobody makes any vehement objection, I'll assume the party's course is to have Maeghen move in, wait for another shot, and try and pinpoint the building from then. At least one person in Brindol, possibly with children, is likely to lose their life with that approach; on the other hand, it's probably the best of a set of crappy options unless you guys have something else really cool to bust out right now.

 

How far away is the party from the perimeter of the buildings?

 

Can't we summon anything humanoid to draw fire? Or, if the sniper needs something to fire at, I volunteer Skadi.

 

(1) Dunno how far the party is from the perimeter of buildings exactly; I know everyone slowed up to let Maeghen get ahead and scout out the situation. Say 250 feet from the perimeter of the buildings for the party, 100 feet for Maeghen.

(2) About the most humanoid thing to draw fire I can think of that the party could summon would probably be the Hound Archon Zanaek can summon either with SM V or with his specific Summon Hound Archon spell. Hound Archons are champions of good, lower level angels no less, with Detect Evil as an at-will ability. I suppose it's possible such a creature would be a target for an evil sniper, since given enough time the Archon could in theory find the sniper by his aura.

 

Then ill summon it with the specific spell and spend an AP to retain that spell. I swear the Archon is probably thinking "Not again"


-----------
MOTTI: Thou shalt not 'tempt to frighten us with words so like a man of magic, Vader. Nay, thy sorc'rer's act is tir'd and overdone. The sad religion thou dost cling to hath no pow'r to conjure up the stolen plans. Nor dost thou have a third-eye's sight to make--

 

William Shakespear's Star Wars...just sayin'.

 

So, which version of the polymorph rules are we using?

 

Shapeshifting replaces polymorph IIRC.

 

I thought it replaced Wild Shape, not Polymorph. Though it didn't seem to do that either since I think we had a druid in the other ToF game.

 

Eh, whichever you think works best...

 

Well, at first I was thinking that we could turn Evelios into a whale for the 120 ft blindsight, which would also allow him to continue singing, but then I remembered that Polymorph only provides Special Attacks, not Special Qualities. I was also thinking that we could turn Ragnar into a treant, since it's human-shaped enough that he can still use weapons and armor, plus as a plant he'd be immune to a bunch of attack options, making him a good distraction.

 

...


I am pretty sure the struck-dumb silence in thread is people visualising Evelios as a whale. In a really good way, of course!

Also, NEW HOUSERULE: IF ANYONE SAYS "I AM GROOT" WHILE POLYMORPHED INTO A TREANT THEY LOSE A LEVEL.

All seriousness, it's looking kind of quiet in here, so I'll leave it about another 12 hours and go with Mitth's idea unless someone wants to take up on either of these really cool thoughts. If nothing else the Hound Archon'll understand it's all in a good cause.