With my axe power, it notes specifically that the push is "in any direction", so I would expect without that denotation it would just be straight forward.

PULL, PUSH, AND SLIDE
✦ Pull: When you pull a creature, each square you
move it must bring it nearer to you.
✦ Push: When you push a creature, each square you
move it must place it farther away from you.
✦ Slide: When you slide a creature, there’s no restric-
tion on the direction you can move it.


http://www.saxypunch.com/missile/pushmepullyu.png

Ergo, while you're standing on P5 and the zombie's on O6, you could push it to N5, N6, or N7 — but you could not push it to O5 as its distance from you would remain static.

Soggy's axe power isn't a Push but a Slide, which suffers no such restriction on movement direction.

Aside from flanking, what other stuff increase the odds of hitting an enemy?

Just curious, since thus far, accuracy has never been a strong point of the party ever since they escaped the dungeon of doom...

That's kind of a wide-open question.

- Improving the stat relevant to your attack (STR for most fighters, INT for most wizards, etc)

- Getting better-quality weapons/implements

- Attacking lower defenses — AC is usually the highest, followed by Fortitude, Reflex, then Will. Of course, not every class has the opportunity to do this.

- And of course a shitload of powers, particularly from Leader classes, buff up the to-hit bonus

Flanking is just a subset of combat advantage, an entire array of situations that grant the same +2 situational bonus.

The following situations give an attacker combat advantage against a defender.
When a defender is . . .
Balancing (page 180)
Blinded (page 277)
Climbing (page 182)
Dazed (page 277)
Flanked by the attacker (page 285)
Helpless (page 277)
Prone (melee attacks only) (page 277)
Restrained (page 277)
Running (page 291)
Squeezing (page 292)
Stunned (page 277)
Surprised (page 277)
Unable to see the attacker (page 281)
Unaware of you (page 188)
Unconscious (page 277)

It's worth noting, though, that combat advantage doesn't stack with itself; you don't get +4 just because the enemy is blind and prone.

So essentially we're relying on Pang either handing out more decent gear or attacking us with enemies that don't have defensive stats of 20+ across the board.

We did try to be all strategic this time round but that fell apart somewhat when Gabe went over the cliff and everyone started making single-digit hit rolls. There was a period in the first dungeon where we were hitting criticals every other shot so it's swings and roundabouts really.

Hmm, doesn't seem there's much controllable choice, huh, since the number one determinant of accuracy is the enemy's AC points (Pang's goodwill) and the number two being the actual rolls themselves (random).

Combat advantage situations can be strategized with (eg ganging up on an enemy from multiple directions). So I guess that, and building up the right character skills and allocating points to relevant stats can boost your chances a bit...

There goes my plan of building this super accurate archer who can hit everything he shoots at :(

Yeah, a game featuring dice is kinda random. I would not have guessed this myself, but I have learned this through

http://quiteajolt.com/gff/science5ic7lc.gif

You lot killed three enemies in the first three rounds, the fight's gone pretty damn well considering some incidents in the past.

The problem, if there is one, is in the averages. The Horde's newest recruits, Garrmondo and Delic, both run +12 to hit on most of their attacks. On average, an attack with no advantages attached to it should hit about 50% of the time (roll an 11 or better). Therefore, to provide an "average" challenge to these characters I need enemies with ACs around 22-25.

The older members of the Horde (Bob/Soggy), by contrast, have only a +7 to hit on most attacks. A "fair" challenge for them would put most ACs at 18 or so (Bob usually attacks Fort or Ref which makes his life a little easier, but that's neither here nor there) — but this then makes Garrmondo and Delic supermen who successfully hit 75% of the time or more.

So there's a significant gap there and it's one that I do intend to address mostly by throwing loot at Bob and Soggy until they catch up/die.

Either that or have lots of enemies with a high AC and lower reflex, fortitude and will scores, which you pretty much have been anyway. Doesn't help Soggy much but the only time Bob is ever going to attack against AC is if he's punching someone and that doesn't happen often.

Well Soggy does have the advantage of his Commander's Strike which conveniently replaces his attack bonus with someone else's whenever it suits him

If only he'd use it now and then, eh?

Of course, you could also help by not throwing enemies who are strong against ice and necrotic damage against a guy whose two encounter powers give out ice and necrotic damage. :(

Bloody undead, where's some Goblins when you need them?

I could also help by throwing enemies who are weak against fire damage against a guy with a fire-powered At Will.

I could do that.

I hadn't considered balance issues (ie the DM's viewpoint). I guess it's kind of useless to try to maximize hit bonuses, since Pang will feel obliged to elevate the enemy's AC/Reflex/what have you to prevent "supermen" from emerging :p

That's the difference between rpgs on paper and rpgs on computers. The computer doesn't realise when you're trying to achieve a certain optimal build and also isn't necessarily vindictive enough to move to counter it.

Literally the only certain thing determining the accuracy of the players in DnD is the mood of the DM.

All I'm attempting to direct is the average accuracy; making sure that in a situation with no modifiers rolling a 4 is bad and rolling a 16 is good. I don't think that's quite as Big-Brotherish as you seem to be implying. You're all quite capable of piling on enough situational bonuses to make my number-crunching very much a background element if you actually co-operate with each other.

I do promise never to attack you with enemies more than 4 levels above your own, so if anybody manages to twink themselves out to the point where +4 levels isn't a threat to them then more power to them.

(A computer also doesn't let you smash down walls with your axe usually)

Exactly. To damn Pang for which monsters come out is to damn him for allowing a fully armed and armored dwarf to hop up a ladder as gracefully as you please.

And anyway, in computer games the fights are over quickly so it's easy enough to grind. That's part of the challenge. In pen and paper the fights are structured entirely differently; fewer and more epic fights make sense.

I had actually forgotten about this after Brady left, but I suppose these newfangled plus-twelvers deserve a go.

I wasn't criticising at all, I think Pang's fights have just the right level of challenge to them.

... I don't know if map directions are different in England, but when we've got a map index over here, it always reads VERTICAL-HORIZONTAL. Since this is a map and not a mathmatical grid.

Of course, the American way IS always best.

It doesn't really matter whether I say N27 or 27N since either way everyone will understand which square I mean, so I'll do it Shin's way for a while for kicks.

Either that or I'll replace both the letters and numbers with random WebDings symbols.

One of those.

We read map coordinates the same way as mathematical grid coordinates. Surely to do otherwise is simply inviting confusion?

Then again, you did decide at some point in history that smallest to largest was far too obvious and sensible a way to write down dates so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that your map reading is similarly cack-handed.

Oh here we go, next you'll be talking shit about our units of measurement.

You know why a foot has 12 inches in it instead of a nice, round 10?

Because fuck you

Oh well, at least you're forced to use "Letter / Number" in your Excel spreadsheets, Shin :D