LIES

(yeah, oops)

Does knocking something out give us XP or do we have to murder everything in sight to grow as people?

Yeah I sort of don't want to kill Iggy, just make him go home and be a family man.

Fuck the druegar though.

Roughly how much does it cost to hire henchmen? I definitely think we need some hired goons, if only to use as a human shield.

Additional Spam:
After we've relieved him of any sharp implements of course.

Kill, knock out, scare away, talk into surrendering, so long as they're "defeated" you earn the sweet sweet XPs.


Well, the thing about this: the hirelings would have to answer to somebody, and then that somebody is essentially getting more actions per turn than everyone else is.

Besides, the only reasonable response as a DM is to add more enemies to compensate for your hired goonsquad, and then we get into an ever-escalating arms race until both of us are fielding 100-man battalions and nobody wants that. I'm not rolling dice for the entire siege of Helm's Deep over here, so I'm not.

Plus there's the fact that EVEN LESS PEOPLE WOULD DIE. Turnover? Nonexistent.

I was thinking of retraining Bob's Gentle Repose ritual to something else next time we go up a level as it happens, to improve the chances of someone else ever getting to play but then, no offence to anyone else but I quite like our current party and retraining Bob's diplomacy training to perception training makes more sense from a roleplaying perspective (Since he can't understand anyone's dialects except other elves, diplomacy is somewhat wasted) and would make him a finding treasure master (Well, a bit better at it at any rate).

This is all assuming Bob makes it to the next level and the sweet, sweet constitution improvement that will come with it (It is extra stat points at level 4 right?).

Pang:

I've been wondering about how damage happens in this game for awhile, like how AC works and shit. For example, I hit Iggy for 4 damage. Does this mean I rolled a 1 and had +3 added to it? Or I rolled n and had +3 added, minus his AC, coming to 4 hp damage?

The attack and damage effects are two separate rolls.

Your attack roll decides whether or not you actually hit your opponent. It will be Pang rolling a d20, adding/subtracting any modifiers, and comparing it to the right defensive capability of your opponent. Also, rolling a 20 on the die might be a critical hit depending on what you are using.

If you hit, then you roll whatever your weapon damage die is, once again adding modifiers, and that's your damage. In the case of your mace, it's an 8 sided die, plus 3 for your strength.

Fucking knew Radiant Smite was going to be overkill. Damnit.

Ah well. Time to fuck me up some small thing. Either a magic small thing gets the axe or just scare it. Yeah. What's up?

Couldn't have done this anyway; you can only retrain feats, powers and skills. Not rituals.

Yeah, +1 to each of two stats, plus a new feat.


Hawkeye explained this pretty well, but I'll just go over the specific sequence of events as it happened. AC itself has no effect on damage, it just determines hit-or-miss.
___

So: you declare your intent to attack Iggy with Righteous Brand. You're wielding a mace, so you get +6 to hit, and Righteous Brand attacks against AC. Normally flanking with Motsognir would add +2 and bring it up to +8, but he was blind and therefore could not flank.

So I roll a d20 and add 6 to the result. The roll is 13. 13+6=19. I check the result of 19 against Iggy's AC (which is 18). Your attack is equal to or greater than his defense, so you hit.

Having determined that you hit, we move on to damage. The mace deals 1d8 damage. We add your 3-point Strength bonus to that, for 1d8+3. I roll 1d8, and the result is a 1. Adding 3 to that; 4. Then I tick 4 HP off of Iggy's stats box.

Had the roll been a 20 rather than a 13, it would have been a critical hit, which maximizes your damage roll; that is to say the d8 would automatically be considered to have rolled the full 8 and therefore dish out 11 damage.

Had the attack been against Fortitude, Reflex, or Will, the target numbers would have been different but the maths process would be largely the same.

DOES EVERYONE UNDERSTAND HOW ATTACKING WORKS NOW?

YES THANK YOU PROFESSOR MURPHY

Very well. Shape up this semester or it's back to remedial classes, young lady.

http://www.saxypunch.com/missile/0470292903.jpg

Does a pang confirm crits or does he just go with a 20 roll when he sees it and call it a day?

There is no crit-confirming in 4E. We left that shit behind with spell-like abilities and Profession checks. A 20 is always a crit unless it's a miss (if 20 + your attack bonus is still a miss, your DM is a bad person).

Shut up. I want my Plate +12.

One moar question. Suppose you roll a 20 for hit, but AC is greater. Does that mean an automatic critical hit, or does it miss? :)

Edit: Scratch that question. You guys made 4 posts while I wasn't looking ._.

So I can retrain my hammers proficiency for a heavy blades proficiency and still be able to pick another feat, right?

Theoretically, I suppose :(

So being big, dumb, and with low dexterity I don't have a lot of feats to choose from. Proficiency gets thrown around a lot in the Player's Manual but what does it mean, exactly?

Why would I want to be proficient in armors, for instance?

Well, weapon proficiency gives you a flat +2 (or for a few weapons, +3) bonus to hit. You can use a weapon without being proficient in it, you'll just be clumsier with it than someone who knows what they're doing. This problem doesn't come up often for fighters, of course.

Armor proficiency works similarly. You can wear armor you're nonproficient in, but you take -2 to your attack rolls and your Reflex defense.

So if you took Plate Armor Training, you could then wear Plate without being a clumsy motherfucker as a result.

Paladins rock a natural plate proficiency, don't they?

Indeed they do, so Paladins are the only (current) class that has no use for armor training.

Ah well, that makes sense I guess as I can have as many rituals as I want can't I whereas I can only have a certain number of normal spells of each type?

Also, does wearing armour innately stop you casting spells or could Bob theoretically train his way up to plate armour proficiency and wear it with no penalty (Not that he's strong enough but just theoretically)?