The Ultimate Conflict (Of Gods and Royalty) OOC

[hpboy111]

Here's that Acrobatics check: (1d20+49)[61]

[Maugan Ra]

And that's my next round of actions posted up. Engage the army actually becomes exceptionally useful when the enemy are gathering in one place, so I take back my previous comments about never likely to use it.

For a random bit of meta-analysis, and assuming Realms goes for my suggestion of just taking 10 on the attack rolls rather than needing to roll literally dozens of dice, let's see how many individuals I could theoretically attack in that one Great Cleave.

Math:

Spoiler

With the lunge feat, I can hit targets up to 10ft away. Assuming a square grid is in use, because why not, that puts twenty squares within range of the attack. Let's assume ten of those are occupied by an enemy, since I don't think this lot are likely disciplined enough to form a coherent shield wall or the like. And as I read it, even with hundreds more arriving every turn, there's unlikely to be enough to literally fill the sky standing shoulder to shoulder. This is not taking three-dimensional space into account, by the way.

Now, since Gidae hit an enemy with a 62 and missed with a 48, let's peg the AC at 55 or so, just for the sake of argument. When Erika takes ten on an attack, she effectively rolls 71 at the moment. For every ten foot of movement she takes between Cleave attacks, thanks to Engage the Army, she takes a cumulitive -1 penalty on her attacks. Assuming the above spacing is accurate, after hitting all ten targets within reach, she needs to move at least 20ft to reach a position where entirely new targets are in reach, and thus takes a -2 for every ten enemies she kills (and dealing an average of 300 damage per hit, I'd say assuming a kill is a reasonable idea. Unless dragonfire bonus damage is added in before critical multipliers, in which case it's about 480). That means I can make fifteen moves, and thus 150 attacks, before I start missing our hypothetical bad guys.

Saw mills have nothing on an Unmatched Dervish, it seems. Because taking 10 against an enemy that I assume is in the middle of the range of possible armour classes, and occupying only half the available space in the sky, Erika is hitting and probably slaying over a hundred medium sized bad guys in the space of three seconds.

If I'm misreading the situation and there aren't actually a great many trying to block off the Lady's incoming ship (Or if someone else takes them out before my turn in the initiative order comes up) then Erika will instead redirect to the monsters coming through one of the cracks. Where the narrow available entrance way means they are much more tightly packed than I might otherwise expect.

[hpboy111]

Wow... Just wow...

[AmberVael]

Ouch. No save to avoid that secondary effect? And it's a penalty, not drain or damage? That's really harsh.

In any case, that not only blasts her saves, and drops the DCs of everything she throws at them, but drops her armor class absurdly as well.

I think she's gonna just fall back and play a bit more defensive here.

Any chance of knowing how quickly that effect will wear off? Could I make a knowledge check or something? They're outsiders, so many The Planes?
Knowledge (The Planes): (1d20+39)[51]

[hpboy111]

Damage roll didn't go through for some reason.

(3d8+75)[95] + (20d6)[70]

[Toska Moriarty]

I'm just going to have Sebastian hold back any action until the re-action step. Assuming Daniel and Fang don't kill the one that Daniels on, that's where I'm headed. Anything more shows up nearby, I may go there instead. Otherwise, I'm dedicating atleast an hour a day to trying to find a logical reason to try to get onto that ship. I'll figure it out eventually.

[Maugan Ra]

I'm sorry, I know it's terribly immature of me, but Daniel is hammering his fist into the creature's backside?

[Realms of Chaos]

Maugan Ra: The way these things are built, it's doubtful that they even have backsides.

Vael: You are unsure of how long it will last.

OOC: Oh bloody hell. I swear that I didn't see the infinite-engage-the-army-combo coming until I looked and saw it straight in the face. That is straight-up horrifying.

[hpboy111]

Originally Posted by Maugan Ra

I'm sorry, I know it's terribly immature of me, but Daniel is hammering his fist into the creature's backside?

Yes Maugan, yes he is...

[Maugan Ra]

Originally Posted by Realms of Chaos

OOC: Oh bloody hell. I swear that I didn't see the infinite-engage-the-army-combo coming until I looked and saw it straight in the face. That is straight-up horrifying.

Well, as I understand it at least part of the purpose of this game is to play test your epic prestige classes and see how they fair when operating together, as opposed to in isolation. So, hey, there's one broken thing we've discovered

(Seriously, though, ouch. As I read it, that basically means a Dervish with that buff can hit an infinite number of targets, dealing full damage to them all, so long as every target is within 40ft (in my case) of the next one. Except I'm not quite sure how to go about correcting that without fundamentally altering the abilities of both classes...)

[AmberVael]

Well, is the penalty a magical effect in any way? (She'd be able to tell via Paragon Visionary). Or at least, can she tell what precisely it is doing?

Mainly I'm trying to figure out if the Queen has any chance at reversing it, which will greatly determine my next turn, so hopefully you can answer this before you come around to post again.

[Realms of Chaos]

Vael:The effect seems supernatural in nature, though it doesn't seem to be imitating any particular spells (though similar to a stacking touch of idiocy). It is providing a penalty to mental ability scores. It would seem that some of your mind has literally been extracted in the form of the string those creatures tore out (now likely falling to the earth along with their severed heads. To reiterate, though, short duration. I'm not so horrible that I'd force you to find them to end the effect.).

Maugan Ra: Whelp, I'm going to have to do something about that in the future. For now, however, it's an introductory battle to start off the campaign so a bit of degeneracy seems okay.

[AmberVael]

Hm. Would Break Enchantment apply then? It does seem to be a curse-like effect, especially if you're citing Touch of Idiocy. On one hand, the actual 'extraction' thing would seem to imply that it wouldn't work- on the other hand, short term penalties are more the province of a curse or enchantment type effect, and as Break Enchantment can undo even instantaneous stuff, it implies it has a more reversal effect anyway...

Also, assuming it did work, would it need to be used once or twice?

[Toska Moriarty]

Seeing as I've waited to the reaction step twice out of two rounds so far, I have no issue with falling to the end of initiative. Especially since I only had a 19.

EDIT: Also, if any of you are bored or feeling helpful, or both, feel free to check my math here and tell me how I'm doing. As I've said MANY times, I'm not used to epic, and despite being on the same plane of existence as Erika and The Queen, even my own numbers are boggling to me sometimes.

[Realms of Chaos]

Vael: Sorry for not checking back to answer your latest question (I basically conk out after a certain time of night and only just re-checked the threads). Sorry for robbing you of your action this round. Honestly wasn't my intention and I now know to check the OOC more frequently with questions like this hanging around (still getting the final bugs out of this system).


You can't be certain if break enchantment would work but you're free to try (and you could always put in a contingent order to use it again if it only heals half the first time and/or put different sets of actions depending on whether it succeeds or fails). Feel free to put in your action for the previous round along with your action for the next round and I'll edit it in (you'll essentially act at the end of this round and first in the next round).

Everyone: Though I was tempted to keep the fight going for another round or two, this wasn't made to be too huge of a battle this early in the game (more for me to get a sense of what you do and to help set the scene). With the amazingness of the mental imagery of that last round and the knowledge that subsequent rounds would consist of Erika being Erika on the ground instead of in mid-air, it seemed appropriate to me at the time to end the meat of the encounter when I did. With the amount of time going into each round (and knowing how much power you guys possess now ), I'll probably aim for briefer but more purposeful encounters heading into the future (and definitely not swarms of things).

I wanted to apologize for anyone who didn't get too much time to react (especially Metroid33, who I now owe an epic solo fight at some point in the future ). Reacting to feedback, I'll also make rare/no use of unavoidable debuffs in the future (as well as large groups of foes). If there's any other feedback that you guys have for me, I will accept it wholeheartedly. Always trying to improve, after all.

Encounter Aftermath:

• Everyone gains 6,000 xp
• Getting treasure (if any) is your prerogative
• There are still grounded monstrosities, moving around, though they are now fleeing for shadows rather than staying to fight (yes, including the gigantic ones, of which 13 remain. Anyone who wants to may continue killing them, though there's no additional XP reward for doing so.

[hpboy111]

@Vael, I was just thinking. Because of the Harvest Queen's evil disposition, Daniel will show you respect for being a deity, but not the level of respect you are necessarily deserving of. The reason I say this is because "Your Majesty", is the only way I can think of with which to address her when talking to her directly. However, I Daniel wouldn't want to refer to you as that. Is it alright if he just refers to you as "Harvest" when addressing you?

[AmberVael]

Well, I don't think debuffs are entirely bad, it's mostly that this one was large, broad and unavoidable. The Queen's charisma basically does everything for her, and if you hit her wisdom at the same time...
Like I said, that was -10 to her armor class right there. She was basically a sitting duck at that point. And then it effectively added on a +25% chance to avoid all of her major attack forms, and I had no known way to counter or resist it, and it stacked so it was all too likely that they'd keep piling it on if nothing was done.
I basically had to either find out if I could get around it, or just go completely defensive for a bit to avoid getting hit even more.


Evil? Oh you poor, misguided soul. The Queen cares deeply for her subjects, and provides for countless. Do you believe such ill of her because she presides over death? But she is not a taker of life- she but shepherds the dead to their rest, in which their dreams provide for the living.
Do you judge her for what she does to her enemies? She but shows them the light- is that not more merciful than cutting them down or locking them away for eternity?
Is it the the necromantic arts she wields? Be not afraid. It is as the sword, only an instrument to be used. So long as one uses it rightly, it is no worse than any other skill or blade.
Believe not the lies you hear. The Queen is magnanimous, and smiles upon her people.


Putting aside questions of morality, however, it would be useful to give her majesty a name as well. Cutting her title in half doesn't work so well- Queen works because it is as a title on its own, but harvest... not so much. It's a little too simple as well.
Though, that is her theme, and ample inspiration for her name. So, if you don't want to call her by her title, you can address her as Samhain.


Edit: I'll get a post up in the morning. Sorry for the delay- trying to figure out what to do, then finding out it might all be unnecessary due to army slaying craziness on top of feeling mildly sick made me less inclined to post something quick.

[Maugan Ra]

So, yay victory! And a mysterious message in the sky as well. How interesting. Why do these people never sign their names on such things?

[Realms of Chaos]

Originally Posted by Vael

Though, that is her theme, and ample inspiration for her name. So, if you don't want to call her by her title, you can address her as Samhain.

Sounds like a pretty good name. At long last, I have a mental image of what the Harvest Queen looks like as well.

Spoiler

[Toska Moriarty]

Originally Posted by Realms of Chaos

Vael:
I wanted to apologize for anyone who didn't get too much time to react (especially Metroid33, who I now owe an epic solo fight at some point in the future )

I Volunteer Myself!!

[AmberVael]

I had no idea that ghostbusters had used that as a name. But no, no pumpkin head for the Queen.

Anyway, in case people are unfamiliar with it, you should be thinking of this.


Blah, forgot to make break enchantment rolls. Just in case she does need to use it twice...
(1d20+31)[41]
(1d20+31)[51]

Since this is an Su ability, if Break Enchantment works against it, she should be checking against a DC equal to 11 + the HD of the creatures. Given how few HP they seemed to have, I don't imagine they have too many hit dice...

[hpboy111]

Thank you Vael. By refering to The Queen as "Your Majesty", he's making himself subserviant to something opposite one of his Alignment extremes. That is something that he will not do unless he deems it necessary. At least, not at the moment. There is a time for courtesy and politness, but right now they are comrades of a sort, equals. He will probably only call her "Your Majesty" if he's trying to soften her up for something. Otherwise, he'd be much more casual around her and the other members of the party.

[AmberVael]

Does he actually know she's evil? That's what I was trying to get at with my silly narrative. While my original plan was to have her be a bit more... obvious, for teaming up with you guys I've been trying to make her at least somewhat more subtle. She does try and put up a good face and isn't exactly the erratic murderer type anyway.

Not that I mind using her name or title as you wish either way, I just want to be clear on the evil thing. She does mind blank up at all times so I doubt any magic would reveal her alignment, and while Daniel's sense motive is good, the Queen's bluff is... well, decidedly better.

[hpboy111]

Hmm... fair point. Regardless of whether he knows that you are evil or not, I still feel that he would be more casual around you considering the fact that we are still comrades.

[Maugan Ra]

Historically, being casual and relaxed around powerful fae does not typically end well for the mortals

[Toska Moriarty]

Originally Posted by Vael

She does try and put up a good face and isn't exactly the erratic murderer type anyway.

[Sarcasm]Yeah, those kinds of people SUCK. [/Sarcasm]

[Realms of Chaos]

Originally Posted by Maugan Ra

Historically, being casual and relaxed around powerful fae does not typically end well for the mortals

Hey, that's only if you accept their food... or accept their drink... or dance with them... or accept their gifts... or follow them... or insult them... or fall in love around them... or refuse to when you should... or the fae in question is bored or... you know what? Watch yourself around powerful fae.

[Maugan Ra]

Because, you know, it's not like the entire group hasn't already accepted the Queen's hospitality in the form of staying in her city, after all.

...we're so doomed.

Anyway, so. Gates to a meeting place. I take it there's no huge and fancy portal things opening up in the air to give us a clue, then?

[Metroid33]

Originally Posted by Toska Moriarty

I Volunteer Myself!!

HELL NO. we already decide in our little back story that the last time we fought each other, WE COULDN'T FIND EACH OTHER. and now I'd never find you but you'd see me in an instant, I would die.

Spoiler

And i just realized that Sebastian is based off of Reaver in fable 2

RoC would you give me a hint as to whom this solo fight would be with, if it's Sebastian kill me now and let me make a new character, that won't have competition with Sebastian.

[Realms of Chaos]

It'll be an NPC. Don't worry about that type of madness.

Maugan Ra: Nope, no magical whirlygigs. Thankfully, D&D is a game with a multitude of ways to get information indirectly.