D&D

[ralphmelton]

I felt good about yesterday's D&D session.

The players decided to press on until they were really desperate, in hopes of rescuing the girl right away.

It turned out that the module had provided some rooms that were full of dormant cockroaches, which did a nice job of making the players nervous while letting them get through without too much actual trouble (though with some strong hints from me, which is okay).

They were suitably creeped out by the discovery of the dead occupants of the house, too.

The players showed very good tactics in the final climactic battle:
- They used their true strike scrolls to good effect.
- They closed the door to keep out the other cockroaches, which was a big win. (Which was designed to be a good idea available to them.)
- Flame Blade turned out to be darn cool for the druid, and allowed her to do some serious butt-kicking.

Even so, things got exciting at times--the fighter was down to 2 hit points of his original 31, and Liandra's wolf was disabled. But they were very aware that the fight could have gone much worse for them.

All this was really what I wanted. It was good for them to be able to get through to the end without having to stop to rest, but to be worried about whether they'd be able to make it through intact.

And everyone was amused when, after Prolix the gnome finished cutting the halfling girl free, she ignored him and ran to put her arms around Kyle the halfling, saying "my hero!"

I believe this was a solid B+/A- gaming session. Not necessarily a perfect session, but a very satisfactory one. I would be more than pleased if all our sessions were this good.

Comments

[cellio]

I really enjoyed the game too.

I am amused by the fact that Kyle is developing a "why walk when I can tumble" attitude, and that Turok thinks he can learn this trick too. :-)

Entering that room and closing the door behind us created, literally, a do-or-die situation. While in theory we could have maybe gotten some people out through a window, in practice I think there were too many opponents. So I'm glad we roled reasonably well. :-)

I'm still getting used to the familiar thing -- which I suppose makes sense in both game terms (she's had him for about a week) and real terms (I've never played one before). I *should* have loaded Hrolf up with a Shocking Grasp before we entered the room. As it turned out using magic missile instead was probably the wiser move, but the shocking grasp could have been delivered a round earlier (maybe two) than the MM (because I was busy with an enhanced crossbow bolt), which could have made a difference. On the other hand, Hrolf has the fewest hit points in the party almost by half (Liandra's wolf being next), so it would have been pretty easy for him to get smooshed and the rest of the party probably wouldn't have cared about healing him. And I lack that ability myself until we can buy (or make) some healing potions.

Oh, in case you're wondering, yes I made a conscious choice in getting a familiar type that is under the weight limit for Mage Hand. The day could come when I have to air-lift an unconscious Hrolf out of a fight.

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

Whee, some more rules-lawyering, in case you didn't get enough on the last round. (Aren't you glad I'm not in your game? You should all feel sorry for Mike... :) )
Technically you can't cast Mage Hand on your familiar unless he's actually dead, at which point he becomes an object (in specific, a corpse) and so is legally targetable. He's still a creature while alive, and Mage Hand can't target creatures.Getting DM dispensation to get around this should be not difficult. :)

[cellio]

Hmm. I thought that an unconscious creature (thus incapable of objecting) would be a valid target. I see that this was not a valid assumption, but perhaps our benevolent GM will permit it if the situation ever comes up (which I hope it doesn't).

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

I suppose this is Ralph's cue to laugh evilly and say "It doesn't matter, because you're all DOOMED! Bwahahahahaaa!!"

[mrpeck.livejournal.com]

You should talk to Dani about Rope Trick, Explosive Runes, and illusion spells.

[cellio]

I believe that True Strike is restricted to yourself, though I'm not certain. (Not my spell. I had a scroll.)

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

GAAAHHHH!!!!!

Stop responding so quickly! That post was only up for 30 seconds, max, before I deleted it beacuse you had alread responded to the one I had posted a minute earlier with near-identical content!

[cellio]

Hey, once the email gets sent, how am I supposed to know that more is coming? If I'd known about the second post I wouldn't have responded to the first. :-)

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

Ha! :)

You are correct, True Strike can't be cast on others. I suppose that the "invisible sorceror stands behind the fighter giving him +20 on attacks" strategy has been thought of already and deemed broken.

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

Liandra would heal Hrolf. He's a member of the party too...

[cellio]

Yes, I wasn't clear enough. I know that Liandra would heal him (assuming spells, of course). I think she and Larissa are the only ones who would pour a healing potion into him, and are probably the only two who would risk their lives to rescue him if he was swatted in combat and landed out of reach. I could be wrong, of course, especially about Turok; that sort of rescue seems (from what I've seen) to be out of character for Kyle and Prolix (especially Prolix). I'm not trying to diss them; I just have the feeling that they treat animals very differently from people. (I think Kyle would rescue Slade, but that's because you three go back longer.)

[mrpeck.livejournal.com]

I'm a little concerned that, as a group, we are not concerned enough about the welfare of other party members. Turok had nine of those larvae attached to him and we basically let them eat into him for a few rounds before helping him even though he was already into single digit hit points. I understand that Turok himself didn't act very concerned about them but it is generally in our favor to keep other party members standing whenever possible even if that character doesn't realize it. The other example of this would be the time we were fighting the evil cleric. Three of us had fallen in the sphere of darkness and no one was coming in to help. I would like to see keeping the other party members standing and stabilizing them if they fall become a higher priority in our group. I don't think that characters need to die before we learn this lesson.

[cellio]

Yes, I agree. We need to pay more attention to people's status, and we need to act more quickly. That said, people like Turok need to speak up.

I did make a judgement call during the larvae thing that I thought was the right call, but might have been wrong. I had a choice of swatting some larvae or attempting to daze the queen. If the queen got her next action, she would spew *another* 2-16 larvae, which I thought would almost certainly kill someone (Turok if he was the target, possibly you or Liandra or Slade regardless). So I went for the daze, even though she did get a saving throw. Fortunately, it worked and the next round we were able to clear out the larvae. It was too damn close, though.

In general I have tried to limit my discussion of those sorts of decisions, because in game time they happen in 2-3 seconds. Maybe that's wrong?