D&D beginners' game - OOC

[Savannah]

This thread is going to be shared by both groups. Feel free to chat and ask rules questions. However, it would probably be best to talk strategy in your respective IC threads, so that you don’t give anything away to the other group.

Current IC thread. Old IC thread here.
Strawberries: Priya
Priya Ammon became a ranger to help the family business, and then became an adventurer because she was sick and tired of the family business, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. She is a good person, if a bit on the silent side.

Dada: Telim Daysong
Telim Daysong is a good cleric of Pelor. He believes that its better to prevent a wound from being inflicted instead of merely healing it, and this proactive stance has led him to become an adventurer instead of staying in a temple. He is very talented at fighting the undead.

Devmaar: Chariam
Chariam is a Halfling who worked for a clandestine government organisation until a 'regime change' led to the entire operation being declared criminals. He fled the country and became an adventurer to make a living.

Janus: Jairus Soland
Jairus Soland is a human paladin of Heironeous. He takes a somewhat more restrained interpretation of the paladin code, rather than the "smite first, ask questions later" approach of others, causing others to label him as either misguided, divinely inspired, or a complete heretic.
He is a generally quiet man, but also dependable and chivalrous.

Binks: Marlon Salas
Marlon was just a normal kid until he discovered his magical talents. Apprenticed to a older wizard, who forced him to work long hours before he could receive training as soon as Marlon was freed from his apprenticeship he set out to become an adventurer and do good in the world with his new-found abilities.

Ranger Mattos: Kelsan
Kelsan is an elven ranger that protected his village from enemies. That is, until there wasn't a village anymore: it was overrun by orcs. Since then, Kelsan has been working to hunt down orcs with a vengence, and trying to discover if any of the other members of his village escaped.

[Janus]

You probably don't want us peeking at each other's IC threads either, huh?

[Savannah]

That'd be great, thanks!

EDIT: now that I think about it, if you are curious how the other group does stuff, I can let you know here when both groups are finished with a given adventure and you can read what the other team did.

[Janus]

That'd be awesome, thanks!

[Ranger Mattos]

And the first natural 20 of group B's game goes to...*drum roll*

Binks! Lets all give him a hand! *clap clap clap*

[Turk Mannion]

Question: Do we know each other when the adventure starts?

[Savannah]

I'm assuming that everyone has been in the town for a while (probably lives there; I don't remember anyone's backstory ruling that out) and so you all know each other on sight, although not necessarily very well.

I believe that Binks gets the first natural twenty for both groups, actually. *applause*

And while we're on the subject of firsts, Kumosabe wins 'first to make the DM laugh' ("KARA! WE'VE GOT CANDY!!"). Of all the approaches possible, that was not one I was expecting...

[Binks]

I think the roller was just trying to make amends for my attribute rolls :P.

[Ranger Mattos]

I just wanted to know, how far are you planning to go with this game? Level 5? 6? 4?

[Savannah]

I'll go as far as everyone wants to go. I'm working on another advanture to follow this one, and it leads into another scenario...

[Ranger Mattos]

Janus, you didn't need to make a Use Rope check. I just had to because I needed to see if the rope would stay.

[Janus]

Thanks for letting me know.

[Strawberries]

Hey, everybody, I'm just letting you know that I'll be on a business trip for the next couple of days (Sunday evening-Tuesday), and I will be unable to post. If my character is needed for something, I'm ok with Savannah taking control of it when I'm gone. I wouldn't want to slow you down. See you all on Wednesday!

[Janus]

Savannah, is there any problem with my character clipping his lantern to his belt, so that he can keep it out while using his sword and shield?

[Savannah]

I guess it could work, but if you take damage there is a chance that your lantern will be damaged as well and spill burning oil on you.

[Dada]

Slightly related question. Would dropping a lantern risk breaking, if dropped as a free action? If yes, then I assume it can be put down safely as a move action?

[Savannah]

I'm going to say yes to both points. (My characters usually upgrade to everburning torches as soon as they can, to avoid this exact situation!)

[Dada]

Everburning torches are immune to "falling damage" from being dropped because they are magic items, right? Just making sure I understand your post correctly.

[Savannah]

Everburning torches are magic items that burn continually without producing heat. You can throw own on the ground and it will not go out or set anything around it on fire, unlike a lantern or normal torch.

[Dada]

A question and some verifications:

Group A only, I guess. Savannah should be able to tell if this contains spoilers or not:

Spoiler

Shouldn't Jess have been able to take the attack he readied on his turn?

Verifying i understand the rules correctly:
The cave is difficult terrain, which means I can move at half my armored speed. That should be ten feet or two squares. Also, we are unable to take five-foot steps. Correct?

Bless and Inspire Courage does not stack, right?

[Turk Mannion]

Good catch, Dada, you beat me to the punch.

[Dada]

I'm useful!

[Dada]

Can we take five-foot steps in the cave, or is it not possible because it costs double move?

[Savannah]

You can still take 5' steps in the cave. The only times you can't take a 5' step is if you are completely immobilized, have a speed of 5', or are moving that round (other than the 5' step, of course). Or not.

EDIT: Hmm, just went and reread the 5' step rules AFTER posting (never a good idea; you'd think I'd have learned this by now ), and it does say that you can't take 5' steps in difficult terrain, like a cave floor.

[Dada]

Aww, why did you have to look it up

[Dada]

*Cheers as Jorkan makes mincemeat of the monster*

Edit: *Cheers at Priya too!*

[Savannah]

Congrats to both groups for surviving their first battle! (Now remind me never to set it up again so that I'm running the same battle simultaneously for both groups.)

[Strawberries]

YAY!

Why? Was it too confusing to DM?

[Savannah]

Mostly because I didn't have a good way to keep track of where everyone was and I was always afraid that I would call on someone from the wrong group or mis-remember which group had killed which centipede. So, yeah, too confusing. (But I did it without any major mishaps!)

[Turk Mannion]

I think it worked out fine and the grid with labels is the perfect tool.