The Eye of Anubis: OOC Thread

[lostboy]

Nathan, may I say nice work on the slicing and dicing of senor ghoul lord, although Im now wondering exactly what that blade was the Lorelei gave Charles...

Feedback (longer tyhan I first anticipated......)
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Overall this was fun and a real refreshing change, however I dont know about anyone else but I was getting a tad bored by the end of it. Which is suprising as this seems to be the ideal style of combat for Khalil, what with a large map and loads of lowish hp enemys, its a dervishes dream.

However after the sixth consecutive round of moving seven squares and hitting things Id run out of interesting descriptions for Khalils movements, and frankly if Nathan hadnt had the cojones to go and do one, we'd probabley still be there next week killing corpses. Ive just learnt that prolonged combats where nothing much changes at the front line are really, really dull. It's like playing Street Fighter II back in the day, it was fun for 30 mins but couldnt sustian the interest over long periods.

Having said that the cannon's were a very nice touch, although I suppsoe we were fortunate that Zombies suck at aiming, also good were the concerns over the camels stampedeing. I was very disapointed with the ghouls though. When they first arrived Khalil nearly had a brown trousers moment, but as they turned out to be less deadly than the zombies, it wasnt a big deal. If you do something similar again NT you need to ramp up the threat level for your second wave dudes.

But hey, we hadnt had a chance at this kind of combat before and it was a good experience, although I think I might have got dice rolling out of my system for a while (I'd hate to see your inbox NT!). IF you do something simlar again, I think we need to have more terrain type stuff going on, making a bit more thoughtful rather than gung-ho (afterall you always remember the bits in movies when they do something clever with whats available to them, rather than remembering the bloke hitting the other guy with a sword), although of course that requires more time and thought and probabley on this sclaew is unworkable.

Finally I'd just liek to say three things from a fighters point of view:

1. Andre's Dark Knowledge rocks, the extra damage makes a lot of difference to the effectiveness of tank guys.

2. Rock please, please, please have Lia keep haste ready at all times. Had we had that we'd have been a hell of a lot more effective. I would say this is the number one buff Id take. (Of course should anyone know a magic itme that replicates it I'll be at Kuzans shop quickler than a herd of zombie chewed camels.)

In the words of Gordon Ramsey, feedback...Done!

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

As an observer, I say kudos. I've rarely seen combat where distance and range mattered that much before. I don't think I've actually ever seen foes outside of the reach of short range spells before, and certainly not outside the range of a barbarian's full run. Rules like enhanced speed and range increments don't get much exercise, and it's nice to see them trotted out every now and then.

[Kaitou Kage]

(Of course should anyone know a magic itme that replicates it I'll be at Kuzans shop quickler than a herd of zombie chewed camels.)

Boots of Speed, which I can make now. On the other hand, they have a market price of 12,000 gp by themselves. I seem to remember similar things from the Magic Item Compendium but I'd have to look to see exactly what's there.

If you wanted to scrap some other stuff, we might be able to talk to the DM about disenchanting magic items to gain gp worth of enchanting materials for use in future magic creation. That's up to him, though.

[Kaitou Kage]

Addendum:

As far as Haste goes, I can take a different spell that accomplishes a similar effect if you would rather have Lia do more fireballs.

Righteous Wrath of the Faithful gives you an extra attack (works like haste but doesn't stack with haste) and a +3 morale bonus to attack and damage rolls. It's much more offensively-oriented than Haste, but the offensive benefits are worth noting.

It is a 5th level spell, which means it will probably replace my Quickened blesses in my spell list (but it doesn't stack with bless anyway, so that may be irrelevant). But on the other hand, if Lia and Grimmric are still willing, I can start imbuing the bat with some buffing spells again. Rock, please let me know on this so I can know whether I should plan for this idea or not.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

There's also the belt of battle in the MiC. Not exactly haste, but it gives you extra actions, which is very nice. (3 charges per day, 1 charge for an extra move, 2 charges for an extra std action, 3 charges for an extra full attack. (and a random +2 to Init.)) I believe it costs 12kgp.

[Kaitou Kage]

That is the thing I was trying to think of Thank you!

[Nathan of the FoS]

Battle feedback--the good: Never let it be said that PC feedback is not taken into account. After asking for a battle in which a) we had a number of weak opponents and b) Charles could show off his stuff, within a week we had exactly that. At first I was a bit flummoxed by what Charles could do in this one, since 3 charges on deathstrike bracers don't go very far vs. a cast of thousands (and it would be pretty un-fun to get flanking at the cost of being surrounded). But then I looked at the map and realized--y'know, with invisibility and haste and a reckless disregard for his own skin, Charles could get up there in time to put some major hurt on the ghoul lord. And thus the plan was born, with the timely assistance of Andre (greater invisibility, hooray!) and Prof. Pelletier. And Kejser. I knew there was a reason I spent 500 gp for a horse in my starting equipment.

Elsewhere on the battlefield--we're really, really lucky there wasn't more rending going on, that would have put us in a world of hurt. Andre's Dark Knowledge has to get the prize for "most value added" in terms of damage; having a HUGE party makes it even more useful than it is in and of itself. All the fighters always want haste, of course, and for a party as big as ours it's a wildly powerful spell, but even without it Lia's mass damage abilities were really important. So were Kuzan's, come to that. (If we were ever to have another fight like this one I might recommend holding off on area-effect spells until the fighters can do some shaping the battlefield to maximize the enemies we can get at one blow, especially for Arc of Lightning, but that's a minor point.)

From the point of view of enemy tactics, they might have done better to wait until we were closer so we would be more surrounded and have a harder time fighting out. (We might also have been able to take on the ghoul lord more effectively, which would have made it easier, oddly.) It was definitely interesting, as Gonzoron said, to have to think about range and so forth--first time I've ever had to look at the Medium range spells (100+10 per level) and say, "Nope, that ain't gonna reach." So that was a really interesting wrinkle. The cannon turned out to be not much of a factor, which realistically is actually pretty accurate. It's hard to make an effective artillery barrage with just three cannon.

I thought it was great, myself, but I would think so.


I really want to know what the third victory condition was, by the way.

[Kaitou Kage]

My Feedback Post:

It was alternatingly frustrating and fun. On the one hand, I wondered if it would ever end. And we had a ghoul lord all the way at the other end and no really effective way to get to him until Charles snuck on by. Plus, it was long -- or at least it felt longer than most combats. I can totally sympathize with Khalil's frustration in trying to devise new ways to write what's basically the exact same action. I've been there many times when I'm casting my 20th healing spell for the Book.

On the other hand, I got to use a lot of abilities that I don't normally get to use and that was fun! Plus, everyone really got a chance to go all-out here since the enemies were relatively weak, even if they were numerous. It can be extremely therapeutic to lay down some smack in liberal amounts on lesser beings once in a while Dragon breath is exciting and exhaling bolts of lightning is an incredibly euphoric sensation.

It was also a good challenge tactically. Made us look much further ahead than most battles we've been through do.

All told, I really enjoyed it overall. I'm relieved to know this sort of combat won't happen again for a long time since I don't think it would be fun having to do something like this constantly. However, it was a total blast to whip out all those abilities I've always had but never put to use much.

Also, I know Andre had the Dark Knowledge, but I give MVP to Charles for being ballsy enough to go up there and stab Mr. Ghoul Dood through the gullet and make it hurt.

[The Whistler]

I'm with a lot of the previous posts; this is the sort of thing that I really wanted to see happen (*immense* set piece battle, all the NPCs chipping in, a metric hojillion bad guys, etc.), and now that it's happened--while it was a good time all around--I'd be just as happy not seeing anything quite like it for another couple books.

Part of the difficulty for me was logistics: with so many baddies on the field at once, and with my lunch-break posts usually coming late in the rotation (my fault), it was hard to keep track of which out of my seventeen possible targets was alive at any given point. On that topic, "death updates" would be a cool thing in general to institute for future multi-enemy fights (though probably a prohibitively annoying thing to do in this one); in a tabletop game we'd know right when one of us kills an enemy and would adjust strategy accordingly, so a quick post after we've downed something significant but not battle-ending would achieve the same effect here. I could see how that'd be a hassle when there're too many bad guys on the field, but it could be helpful in moderation.

Aside from that, and Otto's hit-or-miss rolls, I had a grand old time. Charles, incidentally, is full of win. I actually thought that this was a battle we were *supposed* to flee from so that we could come back later for a Stupendous Earth-Shattering Finale, so when our friendly neighborhood rogue immolated the ghoul lord in one hit, I had this wonderful "Holy crap we broke the game" moment. Good times.

[NeoTiamat]

Addendum:

As far as Haste goes, I can take a different spell that accomplishes a similar effect if you would rather have Lia do more fireballs.

Righteous Wrath of the Faithful gives you an extra attack (works like haste but doesn't stack with haste) and a +3 morale bonus to attack and damage rolls. It's much more offensively-oriented than Haste, but the offensive benefits are worth noting.

It is a 5th level spell, which means it will probably replace my Quickened blesses in my spell list (but it doesn't stack with bless anyway, so that may be irrelevant). But on the other hand, if Lia and Grimmric are still willing, I can start imbuing the bat with some buffing spells again. Rock, please let me know on this so I can know whether I should plan for this idea or not.

One note, however, is that Righteous Wrath of the Faithful doesn't grant the speed boost of Haste. It grants only an extra attack and a +3 to damage and attacks. 'Only'...

[lostboy]

Which is exactly why as a Dervish, haste rocks! Move 70ft and have four attacks in one round....

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Camel-eating bats, huh ...? Yyyyeah, I'm not going to suggest Grimmric fly up to parley with these guys, they sound unhealthy.

[Kaitou Kage]

Hey, Rock, I have been meaning to ask.

Would Lia and Grimmric still consent to being imbued with cleric spells? I've been considering this more since I have more spell options now.

If not, no offense taken in light of recent events Grimmric is just the best option because he's intelligent enough to cast the spells, is (usually) always there, and can take actions on his own.

[NeoTiamat]

Quick Note:

Anyone who wants to learn more about the Giant Bats can send me Knowledge: Nature or Knowledge: Religion checks.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Hey, Rock, I have been meaning to ask.

Would Lia and Grimmric still consent to being imbued with cleric spells? I've been considering this more since I have more spell options now.

If not, no offense taken in light of recent events Grimmric is just the best option because he's intelligent enough to cast the spells, is (usually) always there, and can take actions on his own.

No problem. Just ask Lia once she's awake, and we can get the ball rolling. Other than multiclassing with the ultimate goal of Mystic Theurge-ship, this is probably the closest I can get to cleric spells anymore without being their target! ^^ Heh ...