DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games LMP: Lost Mines of Phandelver OOC thread

W T F <g>

All,
Just an FYI, now that we have all of the players assembled (I still need to review Dugan's sheet but it's been supplied), we'll be moving forward. Don't expect a lengthy discussion about your mission. This bar scene is not part of the published adventure and was devised to let you introduce your characters to each other. The adventure, as written, starts with you on the road. We'll get there by Sunday at the latest.

Excellent. Onwards!

Folks. I'm going to a baseball game tomorrow night and then Zeim's going to try and TPK our party Saturday in our FTF game. If we're absent, that's the excuse.

Just a general question I have for this adventure I didn't want to put in the main topic.

What is the current year, and is it spring, summer, fall, or winter?

It's a great question and there's no clear answer anywhere. The closest I've found is that it's 5-10 years after the Spellplague. I've posted something in the WOTC forums to see if someone can answer.

I have the impression that they are being intentionally vague so that they have more leeway in writing mods than if they were 'tied' to a particular 'date' for everything.

I think you are right. Best I can guess it's sometime after 1485DR.

For the sake of gameplay it's spring.

Here's the answer to my query:

Cool, thank you.

A bit more about surprise. This is something that I wasn't comfortable with when I ran this encounter for my FTF pals the first time. It really confused me. So I took it to GenCon and got my questions answered.

You can handle surprise two ways:
1) a group check
2) individual checks.

I've decided to do individual checks. One goblin might give himself away by stepping on a twig but his friends remain hidden.

If the party is surprised PC's don't get to act in the first round. In the N-Party, everyone is surprised except for Jaliera who with a passive wisdom (perception) of 14 can act on the goblins she sees. The goblins will all get to go. The others can't.

I chose to go with the group check, so we can see how both methods work. No one beats the Goblins stealth check score so they have surprise. All the Goblins get to act in Round 1 and no pcs can act. We then go to normal Initiative rounds.

Eek, thank goodness for the con bonus. Nearly killed the Dragonborn in one shot.

With the way that ambush happened, all I could see Ryssa being able to do was defend herself in that first round at least. If something happens which would bring a serious wound to her attention - even if it was the Dragonborn - she would try to help him.

Ex, the Goblins got a 'surprise' round from their 'ambush'. That was what the damage was so far. Now we are in regular initiative order, so you get a regular round of actions ... move, attack, cast a spell, etc.

Surprise, as I said before, was confusing to me at first. The way that the PHB explains it, if you are surprised, you lose your entire turn during that surprise round. Then you pick up round 2 exactly how initiative states it should be.

Chandan, Karok and Davroar edited their initiatives into their initial posts, 12, 3 and 4 respectively. Do you want us to post our actions in order or concurrently?

Now I do, after the goblins went.

BTW, if anyone wishes to use a "non-lethal" attack (knock unconscious rather than kill) you must specify that in your action. Note that only melee attacks can choose to be non-lethal by the players. Spells and missile attacks cannot choose non-lethal damage. So in the Z-Combat thread only Bern and Ryssa can choose to do so this turn.

Neptune is correct in his "attack w/advantage" comment. I neglected to do so, but I am not going back so we'll press on. Also, if you attack someone who is hidden (which may occur as it is a Goblin ability), and you fail your active Perception check to find him, you attack with disadvantage, which means you roll 2d20 instead of 1d20 and you take the lower of the two rolls.

One item we missed during the surprise round was that since the Goblins were hidden in moderate foliage they were lightly obscured, which should have resulted in the Party having Disadvantage on their Passive Perception checks, which would have translated into a -5 to the Party's PP.

Can you give me an idea of distance to either goblins or Kallista and if Karok could get there in a round considering he has to get out of the wagon.

P.S. You'd have thought all those barrels would have given him excellent cover especially from someone shooting from the front

And once again, I'll state how much I hate this dice roller That's an amazing number of 19's and 20's

Actually, the ambush is even worse than that Zeim. The partial cover for the goblins would probably mean -2 to hit for the party too. I ignored that.

Nivek, I factored in cover for you. That's pretty much why I wiped out the first set of rolls. The crit was on Karok <weg>.

You would need to climb out of the wagon which would be almost a move in itself, but I'll let you get down and move to the closest goblin for an attack.

Nep - That is =almost= exactly how surprise worked in the past. The only difference is that the surprise round is now a complete round instead of a single action.

And, also in the interest of moving on, we will ignore the fact that =two= of our party mentioned that they would be off the road, moving ahead/behind the wagon looking for ambushes <weg>

Mike,
We could do it in the interest of moving on, or I could site the fact that you were traveling at "normal" pace (click on this link) because you had a deadline. Normal pace does NOT allow for active perception and slows travel.

Neptune,
When do I have to declare that Bolts of Inspiration action (War domain ability). Can I hit something and if doesn't drop then I can use it. So say in case I drop the Goblin with the first hit, then I wouldn't have done the second attack

Hmmmm .... looking at your reference, under 'effect' for 'Normal' I see, well, 'Normal'. That seemed to imply no 'penalties' (especially since it shows a -5 to perception for 'Fast'. Of course, I could be over generalizing the 'effects' of 'Normal' <shrug>