DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games HHE: The Haunted Helm OOC: Geese

I think Neal said early on that your recoveries are for the entire adventure, not for just one day.

<gak>

Hmm, so the Shadow walk isn't low risk is it? It involves an attack, which against a dragon is unlikely to work anyway. Guess I will have to get creative.

Aye. It seems the authors were struggling for a more accurate term to for 'Daily' powers.

'Daily' doesn't literally mean every 24 hours, or after every night's sleep. What 'Daily' means is after every 'Full Heal-up', a Full Heal-Up being a day of rest and relaxation, usually in an inn, or at a stronghold, but sometimes in the wilderness if camping or on expedition.

Most adventures are one day affairs, according to 13th Age, thus they use the term 'Daily'.

Zeim, Nep. This also applies to Lay on Hands and other powers described as 'per day'. Zoltan could definitely have used Lay on Hands last night, but since there's no benefit in retconning, we'll keep it as is. In-continuity the party would have been exhausted by the time they reached the cave from the time beyond time, so it's not out of character that Zoltan might've held off until morning. If you particularly want to retcon, let me know, it's no probs. There isn't any advantage in it that I can think of though.

Pandemonium. Since you took Shadow Walk feat as an Incremental Advance, if you fail on your attack, you can still act, move/attack as normal, so it is pretty low risk. Of course, if you failed Shadow Walk and decided to attack normally, it'd still be affected by the -4 in the first round.

I have to say, I am really excited about the final fight. I don't know if you guys are going to survive it! On paper at least, it looks hardcore.

Well ... from a 'strategy' perspective, the sooner folks get 'healed up' the better ... in case there is 'trouble' in the night or what ever. But since nothing happened ... I don't see a big problem either way ... unless I missed something <g>

Don't we have healing potions that might have augmented the heal ups? Still not quite sure how they work with recoveries and such.

And a technical question. We are climbing up to the cave above, where the dragon has it lair. The chimney effect with the felt covered walls etc... Obviously setting the walls alight would make that area really hot. But it isn't big enough to draw the dragon down into it and set it off is it?

If we use the burning wall idea, we need to keep the dragon in the lair, which might be difficult.

Yeah, that's my take on it too, Mike.

Pandemonium. Healing potions are interesting, mechanically. They still use one of your recoveries, but they give an extra kick to your recovery dice.

D, for example, rolls 1d8+1 for his recovery dice, but with a bog standard healing potion, gets +1d8 extra.

Zeim asked whether Lay on Hands uses Zoltan's recovery dice, since it spends one of his recoveries. It doesn't alas. The recipient still heals as normal, with their own dice, but it's the paladin's recovery that's spent. Still, it allows Seyja to avoid the -1 to attack and defence, and this is really where Lay on Hands comes in, um, handy.

Regarding the mine and the old shale. The miners were worried about the oil shame being ignited. It would burn rather well, sort of like a giant fireplace. Fresh air would get sucked in from the mine entrance at the bottom, into the combustion chamber, with heat and smoke rising out through the chimney/mine shaft, via the dragon's cavern.

Heat and smoke sufficient to drive a dragon out of its lair would likely be sufficient to kill you too though.

I'm not sure it's useful, but hey, it's good to know that if we need a little more spectacle, we can set the whole place on fire!

FWIW, I would also be surprised if the little bit of 'fuel' we have would be enough to make a fire big enough to do what we would need <g>

Neal, I get it about the healing. Makes sense.

New question, from the last encounter, when we did do some damage, can we determine the dragon's weakness? In other words, which defense AC, PD or MD is weaker?

BTW, just to be clear tactically, Jex is going to start singing the Song of Heroes just as the battle is about to start unless we are confident that there's zero chance of surprise on it. If that's the case, he starts singing it ASAP, before the battle begins.

Yep, and that's a good point about bard songs. Generally, there's no benefit to waiting to use them. Singing uses a quick action each turn, so the bard still has a move and standard action left per turn. In this way, it doesn't interfere with the bard's other actions.

That allows the bard to fight, cast spells, all that other fun stuff, while singing. Similar to the cleric's Heal spell actually. In 13th Age neither the bard or the cleric have to stand there like prize turnips buffing and healing the party. They can do that and still take scalps.

I posted the stats for the maimed blizzard dragon in the Canon thread. Here's a summary.

HP: 120; AC 20, PD 18, MD 18, Init +8; Staggered

Its vulnerability is fire. Fire-based attacks crit on a natural 18-20, instead of natural 20.

An interesting note from the 13th Age writers, they think it's better to give players stats on monsters.

This allows them to make proper decisions, rather than gambling on unknown quantities. It also prevents wasting of limited PC resources.

So, frex, if someone wanted to use a daily cold spell on the white dragon (Yeah OK, not a great example!), you should tell them the dragon's resistant to cold (though not immune).

I think that's fine, but I'd like players to explain how their characters know such things. Not necessarily a skill check (unless it's some really obscure/unusual creature), but some explanation. Otherwise it starts to look like the PCs are carrying around a pocket Monster Manual, and you miss out on a good opportunity to develop character.

Something like "well if the monster is using cold, it would seem likely to have some sort of resistance to it or end up hurting itself, as it were"?

Yeah, or anything in-character really.

Also, remember that Blood & Lightning advises the PCs are levelled up before the final fight, without a Full Heal-Up. This contradicts the rules in the same book. It does make sense to level up during a rest period in-continuity, because then the game session doesn't grind to a halt at a random point.

However, I think the writers wanted players to experience a bit of 2nd level play in the beginners adventure, and they'll certainly need the extra welly to tackle the climactic encounter.

Disrupting the session isn't a problem in a message game, but we'll still find a nice story moment to level up.

Are all Tindarien's spells available to him?

Huh, good point, we haven't done recharge rolls from the previous battle yet!

So Gyspy, Tindarien needs to roll for his Lightning Fork (16+). Still has use of other spells.

Neptune, Jex needs to roll for his Song of Heroes (11+). Doesn't have use of Befuddle, but still has Chaos Bolt and Soundburst.

Exeter, Seyja needs to roll for her Barbaric Rage (16+). She also adds +3 to recharge Barbaric Rage.

We have some time, so you guys can roll 1d20 in the Geese dice roller to the left. Also note that Jex has a Symbol of Gathered Power that will allow him to recharge his Soundburst or Tindarien's Feather Fall after battle.

Zoltan has also used Lay on Hands to heal Jex and Seyja. Where does that leave us?

D HP: 24/28; Rec: 4/8; AC 14, PD 15, MD 11; Init +9, Weakened
J HP: 27/32; Rec: 2/8; AC 14, PD 12, MD 11; Init +4*2
S HP: 42/43; Rec: 0/8; AC 15, PD 15, MD 11; Init +3*2
T HP: 24/24; Rec: 3/8; AC 11, PD 12, MD 14; Init +3
W HP: 38/44; Rec: 4/9; AC 16, PD 14, MD 11; Init +3*2
Z HP: 32/40; Rec: 3/8; AC 21, PD 13, MD 14; Init +2
Al HP: 21/27; AC 17, PD 14, MD 12; Init +3
Be HP: 32/32; AC 18, PD 14, MD 14; Init +6

Not sure of any mods, but Seyja rolled for barbaric rage:

1d20 = 14

Jex song of heroes
Neptune rolled 1d20 and got 14

Those are both recharged then, ready for the next battle.

Tindarien got an 11

Neal - Any reason for Zoltan not to use one of his recoveries on himself now to get to max hps?

I don't think so. Since we're out of combat, you can effectively use recoveries with no disruption, so if you did want to top off your hp, now would be a good time to do it.

Make it so.....

Aye aye, cap'n!

D HP: 24/28; Rec: 4/8; AC 14, PD 15, MD 11; Init +9, Weakened
J HP: 27/32; Rec: 1/8; AC 14, PD 12, MD 11; Init +4*2
S HP: 42/43; Rec: 0/8; AC 15, PD 15, MD 11; Init +3*2
T HP: 24/24; Rec: 3/8; AC 11, PD 12, MD 14; Init +3
W HP: 38/44; Rec: 4/9; AC 16, PD 14, MD 11; Init +3*2
Z HP: 40/40; Rec: 3/8; AC 21, PD 13, MD 14; Init +2
Al HP: 21/27; AC 17, PD 14, MD 12; Init +3
Be HP: 32/32; AC 18, PD 14, MD 14; Init +6

That Strong Recovery feat works wonders, I can see why a lot of 13th Age players consider it de rigueur. Looking at the options available per level up, I think most classes, at some point, would want to pick it up.

Fortunately Strong Recovery doesn't define the in-continuity nature of the feat. A PC could have any number of character building reasons for it.

Update: Jex kindly refused Zoltan's Lay on Hands and used his own recovery during quick rest phase.

So Gypsy, Tindarien didn't recharge his Lightning Fork. So you'll be short of your big burst damage dealer in the next damage.

Traps. It looks like D is stepping up to deal with this one, although now's the perfect chance to highlight a difference between 13th Age and D&D. Since skills are tied to Backgrounds in 13th Age, it's not only rogues who can thievery skills. Tindarien, for example, Relic Hunter +5 must have encountered devious dungeon traps before. All it'd take is an in-continuity explanation and if the group's happy, roll with it.

But let's put D on the spot. Pandemonium, give me a 1d20 roll, you can add Thief +5 or Master Villain +5. Be aware that master villains don't have a great track record for their trap-making skills! You can also add +4 for Dex, for a total of +9 and +1 for level and a total of +10 overall. You will have to entertain us with a post though. I've given you some cues to get you started.

If anyone thinks they can assist, do chip in.

Edit: Skill checks are ability score mod + level + Background skill + 1d20.

Hopefully that entertains.

It did indeed, Pandemonium! And that's a fine result on the roll, even before we add in any assistance. I reckon you've avoided being turned into ground drow and alerting the dragon.