A Balancing Act

[Solo]

And assuming I control the Avorals, I shall have them Empowered Magic Missile the Wraiths before Gen goes. Both attack Wraith 3

(4d4)[13]*1.5+4 = 23

(4d4)[10]*1.5+4 = 19

[Worira]

Saves for unholy blight:
(d20+17)[34]
(d20+17)[31]
Save for con drain:
(d20)[1]
save for cone of cold:
(d20+13)[22]
Everything else was mind affecting, I believe.

Gragthor will 5-foot step towards the nightcrawler and full attack on his turn, power attacking for 5 points of BAB.


Attack 1:
(d20+33)[38]
Miss chance, blinking:
(d100)[57]
darkness:
(d100)[2]
Attack 2:
(d20+28)[35]
blinking:
(d100)[22]
darkness:
(d100)[25]
Attack 3:
(d20+23)[27]
blinking:
(d100)[67]
darkness:
(d100)[8]
attack 4:
(d20+18)[32]
blinking:
(d100)[71]
darkness:
(d100)[51]

39 damage per hit, 24 through DR.

[lord_khaine]

you forgot my spell resistance of 30, to speed things up ill roll the caster checks for the monsters.

vs 1st unholy blight. (1d20+21)[32]
vs 2st unholy blight. (1d20+21)[28]
vs hold monster (1d20+25)[27]

will saves
vs 1st unholy blight (1d20+21)[26]
vs 1st unholy blight (1d20+21)[22]
vs 1st hold monster (1d20+23)[43]

[lord_khaine]

heh thnx gods for spell resistance

but anyway, i do hope talic has a somewhat idea of the actions, for it seems people are acting out of turn, i think it would be a lot easyer to keep track of if we mention iniative count and turn number when we post our actions.

having lost somewhat count of the turns ill call the one where the nightwalkers appeared 1.

Turn 1. initiative count 9

tumble to 10.33 (auto success)
Bloddy hell, of course those stupid potions expires at the worst possible time.

kick the nightwalker on the ankle (1d20+25)[41]
for 13 points of damage after DR.

concealment (1d100)[75]
concealment reroll (1d100)[82]

[Rachel Lorelei]

Is... is it my turn now? I'm so confused.

Also, if Ozy goes into a Prismatic Sphere, I can't heal him.

[lord_khaine]

well here in what i now call turn 1 the monsters have attacked, Ozymandias have used some spells, gragtor has continued smashing at the wraiths and i have made a brave attack against the unguardet rear of my opponent.

and yes, inside that funky sphere Ozymandias is save from just about anything, including healing spells.

dam these guys are quite a bit harder, Hey! can i get a flanking partner over here?

[Rachel Lorelei]

I guess it's Gen's turn, then!

Gen 5'-steps back and down, and cast Time Stop: (1d4+1)[2]. Autosuccess casting defensively.

[Rachel Lorelei]

Ohboy!

Gen casts Miracle, emulating Sunbeam, on the first round, and moves to 13 side by 32 up. On the second round, the cleric delays *just* long enough for the Time Stop to end... basically lowering initiative, but not enough to let the monsters go... and then moves to 10 side by 28 up, and fires the Sunbeam at the Nightwalker and Nightcrawler he has in a line.

Ref save DC: 30 (as Miracle) to avoid blinding and to halve the damage.
Damage: (20d6)[1][2][4][6][4][6][5][6][4][6][2][5][5][5][6][5][2][4][3][2](83)

It's up to the DM whether or not the creatures are destroyed on a failed save. Sunbeam destroys any undead specifically harmed by bright light, and Night[x]es all have "Aversion to Daylight"--they're harmed by it, they just don't take damage. It could be read either way.
Actually, it should probably qualify as "creature to whom sunlight is harmful or unnatural", in which case it takes double damage. Anyway, DM's call; unclearly written spell.

[lord_khaine]

you forgot their spell resistence, but this should make the combat a short affair, assuming you survive long enough to fire off a second beam.

[Rachel Lorelei]

Aw, stupid spell resistance.

Nightwalker: (1d20+20)[28]
Nightcrawler: (1d20+20)[27]

Edit: dammit!

[Solo]

I think a Mass Heal would have been better.

If it makes you feel better, you may have triggered the Explosive Runes spell, depending on if casting Sunbeam on Explosive runes counts as an attempt to dispel/erase them.

[Rachel Lorelei]

Mass Heal would've been one attempt; I've got five sunbeams left. It also wouldn't have gotten you, since you Prismatic Sphered up.

[Talic]

I knew after that, I'd have a lot to adjudicate. Spoilering everything to make it more convenient and broken up for reading. Important information for everyone is in the Mind Blank section and Initiative section. Other areas are encouraged reading for anyone, but important for people who brought up the point. Will begin going over actions shortly.

Mind Blank

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Good catch on the mind blank. However, Unholy Blight has no mind affecting portion. It's just Evocation[Evil]. Saves still need to be made for that.

Magic Circle

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The spell by its nature is dismissable. The FAQ recommends a broad interpretation of "Ongoing control". Since the Nightcrawler has the ability to choose whether or not you can move each round, it qualifies as ongoing control.

Spell Turning

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Spell turning only affects spells that have you as a target. AoE isn't affected. I'm not sure also, how it reacts with Spell like abilities, which I'll research. However, as none of the above spells targeted you, Spell Turning won't come into play this round anyway.

If you'd like to rechoose the Spell turning from the second Time stop, you're welcome to (will be resolving abilities in initiative order)

Initiative:

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The nightshades have been delaying to get everything in position and have a solid hard attack. Currently, every enemy creature is acting After Solo, and before Gen.

This puts the initiative count at:
Torc
Gragthor
Solo
All Opfor Creatures
Gen

Avorals:

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Avorals are not listed in the initiative count. By my math, even if they pass every single save for the cone and unholy blight, they're still plastered to a floor somewhere, taking more than their 66 hp of damage.

EDIT: Didn't factor Cold resistance in. I'll make Avoral saves. Even one save means death, as 3 passes still result in 57 damage.

Sunbeam

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By my examination of Sunbeam, These are certainly creatures that sunlight is unnatural to, seeing as they all take penalties for natural sunlight (-4 attacks and checks for Nightshades (both varieties involved), and complete powerlessness for wraiths. If you thought sunbeam was unclear, now I've gotta define powerlessness, and what it means for the wraiths. Here I'll say it means: Attacks cause no harm to enemy creatures, Special Attacks and Special Qualities, with the exception of traits (undead and incorporeal), do not function. Movement is unaffected.

Now I've gotta decide if a -4 penalty qualifies as "direct harm". Further, I have to decide if Removal of abilities and attacks qualifies. As SR failed this round anyway, I'll continue to ponder whether a direct penalty to defenses (penalty to saving throws) qualifies as harmful. I welcome opinions in the related thread.

Explosive runes

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Sunbeam only damages creatures. It has no dispelling/erasing effects otherwise. Thus, no effect on Explosive Runes.

Mass Heal:

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Gen goes before Solo gets his next action. Mass heal would have landed had she chosen to cast it

Actions may be revised for the next several hours, based on information in the initiative section. Gen will need to modify her 2nd round's action, as it is not possible to act prior to the enemies that round, and her action will be after the Time Stop anyway. All actions after the OpFor's attack are able to be modified until the morning (7am, US Central Time, which is my location. I'd list y'alls, but I don't know it) Current actions are to: Gen, then Torc, then Gragthor, then Solo, then OpFor.

[Talic]

Avoral saves:

Avoral North of Solo:
Will DC18: (1d20+8)[13]
Will DC18: (1d20+8)[25]
Reflex DC19: (1d20+11)[13]

Avoral to Solo's side.
Will DC18: (1d20+8)[27]
Will DC18: (1d20+8)[14]
Reflex DC19: (1d20+11)[18]

Edit: Both are dead.

[Rachel Lorelei]

So Gen goes before Solo can do his Time Stop/Prismatic Sphere shenanigans? In that case, screw using both Time Stop and Sunbeam, I'll use Mass Heal instead, targeting that it hits Solo as well the Nightwalker, Nightcrawler, and both Wraiths, all of which are no more than 30' apart. I can't catch the last Nightwalker, too.

So, SR checks for Mass Heal:
(1d20+20)[30] Nightwalker.
(1d20+20)[34] Nightcrawler.
200 points healed/of damage, reducing the undead to no less than 1. Will DC 30 halves the damage.


Question: how high is the ceiling?

[Solo]

Alas, confusion :p


I shall modify my Time Stop actions accordingly.

Round 1: Wall of Force along the (12,40) vertically up to
point (12, 33).

Round 2: Wall of Force, from (12,33) to (0,33)

If I am not mistaken, this will cause the Walls to form next to, but not in, various creatures, trapping a Nightwalker.

Round 3: Walk next to Torc and cast Ethereal Jaunt on myself.

[Talic]

Room is 30 feet tall.

Order of actions, processed at or near 7 hours from now.

Gen - Mass Heal, targets listed above. Action amended and locked in.
Torc - Tumble and attack a nightwalker. Action able to be amended.
Grag - Attack actions on Nightwalker. Action able to be amended.
Solo - Time stop, Spells. Action amended based on current setup, able to be amended in response to player actions prior to his turn.
Monsters - Directed by Zero, posted by me, next action unknown.

[Rachel Lorelei]

You should make the wall of force not quite to the ceiling, so that I can, say, shoot or cast spells over it.

[Talic]

You should make the wall of force not quite to the ceiling, so that I can, say, shoot or cast spells over it.

Bear in mind, if you can drop spells over it, so can they. Also, bear in mind, LoE is a straight line path from you to the enemy. If the wall is close enough to the ceiling that you can't see at least a portion of the creature (1 square foot of unblocked space, per the SRD on LoE), then you don't have Line of Effect. Of course, a possible solution to this is flight, or leaving the hole at the BOTTOM of the wall (as walls of force can be anchored in space).

[Rachel Lorelei]

I can Air Walk, so I could rise to the ceiling and shoot over the wall. Yes, they could throw spells over it, but in a more limited manner.

I guess we could just divide them, but it might be faster to hit them with an AoE and kill them (since Mass Heal does 200 or 100 damage to them).

Speaking of which, could you make their saves for Mass Heal? How badly damaged do they seem?

[lord_khaine]

if one of the nightwalkers seems to fail its save, then i will attack that one instead.

[Talic]

Wraith 2: DC 30 (1d20+14)[17]
Wraith 3: DC 30 (1d20+14)[27]
Walker : DC 30 (1d20+19)[35]
Crawler : DC 30 (1d20+23)[38]

Saves vs Mass Heal. Success means 100 damage. Failure means 200.

I'll bet they'd give their left something or other for the scarred lands spell that makes creatures immune to healing.

EDIT: All wraiths above ground are at 1 hp.

EDIT: Assuming placement is correct, these figures will take effect when I update actions.

[lord_khaine]

in that case i will just keep the previous statet action and kick the walker.

Quickly Ozymandias, magic missile at the darkness while it is woundet!

[Talic]

After reviewing all actions, prior to posting any further action, I need, from Gen, the following:

2 Will saves vs Unholy Blight. It is not mind-affecting, thus mind blank offers no protection against it. It's an Evocation [Evil], with no Mind-influencing portion.


Also, followup rolls needed by me: Gragthor's Con drain: (1D8)[7]

Mind Blank does offer full protection against the Mass Hold monster will save, however.

Play will continue once I have the required rolls.

[Rachel Lorelei]

Oh hey, Will saves vs. Unholy Blight: [roll0], [roll1].

Also, I'm totally lost re: the initiative order.

Will saves vs. Unholy Blight have already been made.

[Talic]

Sorry about that. There's a lot of text up there, and only half of it's actually valid. Plus, I had been up for a while without sleep. Time to jump on some update action. A full PC round of action... Now.

• Gen's Mass heal rips through the ranks of enemies and allies alike, hitting every visible creature in the room except for walker 2. Walker 1 and Crawler each take 100 hp damage, and wraiths 2 and 3 get reduced to 1 hp. Freakin' DC 30.
• Torc lays a well-aimed attack down against Walker 1. 13 damage.
• Gragthor swings madly against the nightcrawler, but the darkness and his own shifting form rob him of the two solid hits that he would have landed.
• Solo begins to boogie again. Time stop occurs. Walls come up, cordoning off the east quarter of the room. Solo becomes ethereal, per the ethereal jaunt spell (list duration remaining next action, this is round one), and moves to near Torc.

And this brings us to the monster mash, or what's left of it. Walker 2's MUCH delayed summons come in, bringing 2 more Dread wraiths. Wraith 5 appears in 16/17, 32/33. Wraith 6 appears at 19/20, 36/37.

This represents all monster summon abilities. Crawler got 1d3+1, each nightwalker got 1d2. Total was 3, 1, and 2. Arriving within 1d10 rounds of activation.

Walls of force block LoE for emanation effects, some desecration mitigated.

Wraith 2 and 3 no longer receiving bonus HP, killed by removal of HP boost.

The unearthly rasp echoes again... Destroy the vanguard caster....

Monsters:

• Wraith 4 moves up from floor, at 14/15, 39/40. Having lost sight of primary target, it continues up. Regardless of the result of the Attack of Opportunity Rachel may roll, it attacks Gen. (1d20+18)[21]
• Wraith 5 Moves down to 17/18, 36/37, and attacks Gen. (1d20+18)[23]
  Wraith 6 repositions south to 19/20, 37/38, and attacks Gen. (1d20+18)[33]
• Walker 2 uses a Greater Dispelling, Targeted, on Gen. It follows up with its gaze attack (will DC 24 or be paralyzed for (1d8)[8] rounds), and a Quickened Unholy Blight on Gen. Same DC, (5d8)[22] damage, (1d4)[2] rounds sickened. (Will DC 18 to halve damage and negate sickness, hold off on saves from here out until effects of dispelling are clear).
• Crawler burrows,and erupts beneath Gen, reappearing as the ground beneath his feet get torn asunder. Creature in 18/19/20, 38/39/40. As it breaks the surface, it lets loose a Quickened Cone of Cold, targeting Gen only (upward blast). Its standard action is a bite attack. (15d6)[50], Reflex DC 19 for half - cone. Attack (1d20+29)[35] for 35 damage on a hit. Concealment chance (1d100)[74]. If successful, grapple check (1d20+45)[53].
• Walker 1 Activates invisibility, and swears foully, telepathically.

Yes, Gen is being targeted. She was left in the open, effectively alone, and surrounded, immediately after dealing more than 5x the damage of the rest of the party combined. Probably more than double the damage of the rest of the party for the entire encounter.

Not sure how many spell effects you have on you, or magic items, but list em and roll em, and I'll follow up with a straight down the line dispel check, top to bottom, for each spell effect and item. Dispelled items will be suppressed for 1d4 rounds, unless they're one shot items.

[Talic]

Updated Map, for you.

It seemed to keep things in order last time.

I'll need information posted in last message, and then I'll give everyone until tomorrow morning to get party actions straight.

Any rulings issues, I'll make allowances for and delay proceedings as necessary until it gets sorted out.

[lord_khaine]

Yes, Gen is being targeted. She was left in the open, effectively alone, and surrounded, immediately after dealing more than 5x the damage of the rest of the party combined. Probably more than double the damage of the rest of the party for the entire encounter.

well we did just learn that standing to close means that all of us will get nuked at the same time.

also there isnt much that any of us could have done to keep the crawler from going anywhere, since it can allmost reappear where it wants.

hmm, if Mccleric is still standing after this then i think i will try to tumble over and Dimension door him him to safety.

[Rachel Lorelei]

Solo, why go ethereal? You can't, you know, affect the creatures on the material plane that way, and killing some of these things would be pretty damn useful.

Khaine, I'm going to Time Stop anyway, to heal and buff, so no need to bother Dim-Dooring me out of there.

-Gen's AC is 35, touch AC a paltry 18, without the Ring of Protection. I seem to have somehow neglected to purchase any Natural Armor bonus to AC. Too late now, I guess, but that's pretty silly of me.

-The Wraiths all hit. This is going to suck. Fort save 1: (1d20+16)[27]
2: (1d20+16)[25] 3: (1d20+16)[23]
For any of those that are <25, the following CON drain is inflicted: Wraith 1: (1d8)[6] Wraith 2: (1d8)[2] Wraith 3: (1d8)[3]
--Gen takes 3 points of CON drain, losing 40 maximum HP (ouch).
On top of that, the actual damage: Dread Wraith damage (2d6=4, 2d6=7, 2d6=12) - 23 points.

-A targeted dispel does NOT hit items! It doesn't hit spells on items, like Magic Vestment/Magic Weapon, either. That means that the spells on Gen are Air Walk and Mind Blank. Both are cast at CL 20, meaning the nightwalker has to hit DC 31.
Air Walk: (1d20+20)[40]
Mind Blank: (1d20+20)[40]
--Holy freaking crap, wtf. Fine, they're both gone. I hope you're happy. :P

-Unless specified otherwise, (Su) abilities are a standard action. Gen certainly isn't actively meeting the Nightwalker's eyes. The Nightwalker can't use Fear Gaze, it already dispelled. If you'd rather it use the gaze, I'll take that.

-Will save vs. Unholy Blight, success on Not-A-One: (1d20)[11] to halve damage and negate sickness.
--Success; 11 damage, no sickness.

-Ref save vs. Cone of Cold: (1d20+14)[30]
--Success; 25 cold damage.

-The bite unfortunately hits (spot on), unless Gen has cover because the Crawler was attacking out of the ground. Gen's Ring of Freedom of Movement means that grappling is impossible.
--35 Bite damage.

Total damage: 3 points of CON drain, meaning HP goes down by 40, and then 94 total damage. Ouch. Gen is now at 8/112.

[Talic]

Solo, why go ethereal? You can't, you know, affect the creatures on the material plane that way, and killing some of these things would be pretty damn useful.

Khaine, I'm going to Time Stop anyway, to heal and buff, so no need to bother Dim-Dooring me out of there.

-Gen's AC is 35, touch AC a paltry 18, without the Ring of Protection. I seem to have somehow neglected to purchase any Natural Armor bonus to AC. Too late now, I guess, but that's pretty silly of me.

-The Wraiths all hit. This is going to suck. Fort save 1: [roll0]
2: [roll1] 3: [roll2]
For any of those that are <25, the following CON drain is inflicted: Wraith 1: [roll3] Wraith 2: [roll4] Wraith 3: [roll5]
--Gen takes 3 points of CON drain, losing 40 maximum HP (ouch).
On top of that, the actual damage: Dread Wraith damage (2d6=4, 2d6=7, 2d6=12) - 23 points.

-A targeted dispel does NOT hit items! It doesn't hit spells on items, like Magic Vestment/Magic Weapon, either. That means that the spells on Gen are Air Walk and Mind Blank. Both are cast at CL 20, meaning the nightwalker has to hit DC 31.
Air Walk: [roll6]
Mind Blank: [roll7]
--Holy freaking crap, wtf. Fine, they're both gone. I hope you're happy. :P

-Unless specified otherwise, (Su) abilities are a standard action. Gen certainly isn't actively meeting the Nightwalker's eyes. The Nightwalker can't use Fear Gaze, it already dispelled. If you'd rather it use the gaze, I'll take that.

-Will save vs. Unholy Blight, success on Not-A-One: [roll8] to halve damage and negate sickness.
--Success; 11 damage, no sickness.

-Ref save vs. Cone of Cold: [roll9]
--Success; 25 cold damage.

-The bite unfortunately hits (spot on), unless Gen has cover because the Crawler was attacking out of the ground. Gen's Ring of Freedom of Movement means that grappling is impossible.
--35 Bite damage.

Total damage: 3 points of CON drain, meaning HP goes down by 40, and then 94 total damage. Ouch. Gen is now at 8/112.

Good catch on items and such. Correct.
Listing of Nightwalker's attack pattern for round 1 shows the following, which led me to believe that the gaze was not a standard action. On second look, the action doesn't specifically say it used. Fear was really a throw-on, like the quickened spells that these beasties have. It's removed.

Round 1: Move to within 30 feet to make use of gaze attack and strike with confusion or hold monster, coupled with a quickened unholy blight.

I actively rule character knowledge on both sides of the equation. First go, the Hold monster was dropped, without mind blank knowledge. When everyone laughed that effect off, the critters got the interaction roll (+31 spellcraft mod), and ID'd the effect. Thus, before any other similar abilities, a Disp. Magic was used. Nightcrawler didn't know about your freedom of movement. It does now. It just doesn't know the SOURCE of that movement yet.