[DnD] D&D Boot Camp - Discussion Thread

Hey Hawkeye, isn't that Skirmisher DEAD?

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You mean the Skirmisher Daituk's standing on top of? Yeah, he's pretty dead. None of the other guys are yet, though.

FELIPE NO

I'll be making my post soon, but I want to make sure I get the dice-rolls right and no-one is on AIM atm to ask.

As an alternative, would you (DM or a fellow adventurer) be willing to give me a quick primer on dice rolls? Can't improve without learning the basics after all!

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Unless your looking to do something besides using one of your powers or simply attacking, it's pretty simple really.

When you decide to make an attack, roll a d20 to know if the attack hits. If it hits, roll the damage dice for the attack. In your case, this will usually be 1d10, except for your thundering roar and cacophonous shout, which will use 2d6 and 2d10 respectively. Your energy strobe also requires you to roll 1d6 to determine the damage type.

To know if an attack hits, refer to the monster's defenses (AC, Reflex, Will or fortitude) in the post Hawkeye made at the beginning of the encounter. Roll 1d20, and then add your bonuses and compare the total to the monster's defense against that particular attack. If your using the Obsidian portal page Hawk made for your powers, the beginning of the yellow highlight for a given power tells you the bonuses to apply and the monster defense targeted by the attack. If your total is higher than the monster's defense score, you hit. Roll the damage dice (the second part of the yellow highlight), and that gives you the damage. If an attack allows you to hit multiple enemies, repeat this procedure for each one, unless the attack specifies that secondary targets take a fixed amount of damage, for example your stone fist flurry of blows attack.


So basically,

1d20 for hit
damage dice for damage if the attack hits (if not, you don't need to roll this)


Hope this helps!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

2 Dice Rolls Wing

Lets say use Crane's wing as an example. In the Yellow it says +4 vs fortitude. So you roll a 20 and add +4 to the result. Then you take that number and compare it to the enemies fortitude defense. If the attack is equal or better then it's a hit and you roll damage.

In this case that would be 1d10+4. And then if the attack hit since you're a monk you can use flurry of blows which is an additional automatic 3 damage to to any adjacent enemy. Since you're a stone fist monk that's 5 damage for the flurry if the target was someone you didn't hit with the actual attack that round.

So it would go like this 5+4=9 to hit so compare that against the enemy fortitude. And if that was a hit then it would be 1+4=5 as the damage and then you can flurry at whoever.

Do you have what kind of powers are what down yet as far as encounter, at-wills and dailies go?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

The other two look to have this covered in terms of rolling attacks, and Cette touched on this, but you should also be using Stone Fist Flurry of Blows any time you hit an enemy. It's a free action, and lets you dish out an extra 3 damage after your attack to any enemy in melee range (this will be incredibly handy for taking out minions). Every little bit counts, so.

How ya doing, buddy?

And that's where the more tactical side of things comes in. As you know that you can dish out a small amount of damage to anyone extra you're standing next to if you hit your main target, as Hawkeye said you can kill minions as an afterthought if you position yourself so you're standing next to a couple of them or a minion and a "proper" bad guy.

Most attacks do something in addition to just doing some damage and it's these added effects that are the important bit generally when picking what attack you're going to use. Once you've got a handle on what all of your attacks do you can start trying to coordinate effects with your team mates. Like if you have a particularly hard-hitting attack, save it till just after someone uses a power that makes the bad guys easier to hit so you're less likely to miss and waste it.

That said, there's a lot to be said for just doing what seems right at the time, or just the plain funniest option.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

One of the terminologies that confused me early on was, what does these 1dwhatever mean. And when do you use what. So let's take a look at good ol' 1d20.

The "20" after "d" means how many possible numbers are on that die. "1" means how many of these 20-sided dice you are supposed to throw. So if you're supposed to roll 1d20, you simply throw a single 20-sided die.

Whenever you attack some monster, or whenever Hawkeye tells you to roll a check of any kind, you will use 1d20. It is therefore the most common die roll you will make. There are other dice sizes you may be called on to throw, depending on the situation. These are d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12.

When you attack a monster, you make two dice rolls. The first roll is called an attack roll. You will roll a 1d20 against a specified monster defense, applying any bonuses or penalties to it. This roll determines whether you hit or miss. If you hit, you make a second roll called a damage roll. This roll determines the amount of damage you do.

Zeno has a power called Energy Strobe, which says: +3 vs Reflex, 1d10+7 damage. This is shorthand for saying, this is an attack against Reflex. It has an attack (or to-hit) bonus of 3, and a damage bonus of 7. You use a 1d10 die to determine damage.

So when you attack something with Energy Strobe, you roll a 1d20, then you add your to-hit bonus (3) to that number. You will then add or subtract any situational bonuses or penalties which may apply (more on that if you ask). You compare the total against one of four enemy defenses: Armor Class (AC), Fortitude, Reflex, or Will. In the case of Energy Strobe, it targets Reflex.

Assuming your 1d20 resulted in 7, you add 3 to that. Assuming further that there are no extra modifiers, you compare your attack result (10) against the Reflex of your target. If the target's Reflex is 10, you hit. If it is more than 10, you miss. A quick way to determine hit or miss is to subtract your to-hit bonus of 3 from the enemy's will of 10. This means any attack roll that is 7 or higher will hit.

There are many ways you can role-play a miss. Maybe the attack simply bounced off your enemy's heavy duty armor (AC). Or maybe he dodged it thanks to his speed (Reflex). Or perhaps he was hit, but was so buffed up that it did no damage (Fortitude). Or maybe your psychic attack could not penetrate its mental defenses (Will).

When you hit, you roll for damage. The dice required is specified in the power you are using. In the case of Energy Strobe, you will roll a 1d10, and add your damage bonus (7) to the result. The total amount is the amount of base damage you did. If you roll a 5, then total damage inflicted is 12.

It is possible that the enemy is weak to (called vulnerable in official terminology), strong against (resist), or even immune to certain types of damage. If this is the case, the DM will inform you, right after you calculate the damage. There are also certain times when your damage is halved (rounded down). You will also be told if this happens.

In 5% of the time (1 out of 20), it is possible to get a "natural 20" from your attack roll. This is called a critical hit (crit for short), and will always hit your enemy (even if it has an absurdly high defense). In general*, if you make a critical hit, there is no need to roll for damage. You simply apply the max damage possible - this includes additional damage rolls for things like sneak attack (rogue), hunter's quarry (ranger), and shrouds (assassin). Some weapons are capable of dealing extra damage on a critical hit. So when you crit with that weapon, you roll for damage (it's not automatically maxed). In the case of Energy Strobe, a crit automatically inflicts 17 damage. Criticals are great, except when the enemy does it to you.

There are generally no penalties for rolling a "natural 1", or a critical miss. While there are some exceptions, they are quite rare and you should not worry about it. Your DM will tell you of any penalties before you make that 1d20 roll.

There may be other additional rolls you are called on to make, like the Rogue's Sneak Attack and Assassin's Shrouds. For Energy Strobe, you will make a 1d6 roll whenever your attack hits. It determines your attack's damage type, so it may affect your damage. For example, you hit an ice cube monster who has "resist 5 cold and vulnerable 5 fire", and your damage type roll was "1" (cold). Your total damage will be decreased by 5. But if your damage type roll was "2" (fire), then your total damage will be increased by 5.

* If the monster's defense is greater than [20 plus your attack roll bonus], you roll for damage as normal. BUT if you are facing such a monster, you better run, or at least have some good final words in mind.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Alright well I was finally able to post my next attack so hopefully I did things more correctly this time around. I just wish there was a more distinct way to quickly see the enemy monster's stats (AC/Will/Health/etc.,), but I suppose they were already posted and I just missed it somewhere

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Its on page two, typically Hawkeye would post them at the start of the encounter/battle before we all go into attack mode.

And yeah, my attack was a miss. I'd have to get a 18 or better on a hit die (1d20) to be able to hit them. :\ They're not called Dragonshields for nothing. You got him though, great job. And yeah, he doesn't post health (if they're bloodied (less than HALF of their hp) or dead specifically) until the end of the round (before Rychord's turn for instance).

FELIPE NO

It's on post #50.

That should be a hit since I believe that one is vs fortitude and he gets a +4 to hit plus his die roll so even against AC he'd end up with a 19 to hit.

Unless you're fighting enemies way above your level or your characters really badly built you shouldn't have to roll much higher than a 11 on average to hit most opponents. And those that do have a stupid high defensive stat usually have another one that's quite low to even things out.

Probably worth noting that crane's wing also knocks the enemy back 1 square.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

A couple of things -

Philia - You can use a minor action to continue the effects of Shade Form, otherwise they will end. Since you only actually used a Standard that turn, there's no real reason not to do this at this point.

DN - I'm going with the assumption that you attacked the nearest enemy using Crane's Wings and then used the movement aspect of the power to jump next to the other one. this is completely unnecessary, and you would normally have had to roll to see how far you go. This is a problem since it could land you anywhere from where you want to go to three or four spaces farther (i think that's how it works anyway). I'll let Zeno do the jump thing this time, but since the baddie you attacked was pushed back you totally just could have walked there.

Addendum:

Stop Sign - the kobold you're trying to hit isn't at I29 anymore. Zeno's attack knocked it back to H30.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

K I wasn't sure when it says it'll end after the end of your next turn. I figured it'll fade once I do an attack or something. But yeah thanks for reminding me that I could do it after the attack once more.

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I'm ready to play my turn, but I'm not sure if Stop Sign's turn is done or not, since he doesn't seem to have adjusted for Hawk's remarks in his post. Hawk, should I go ahead and play it anyway, or do you prefer that I wait?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

If you're attacking the kobold next to you, you can probably go ahead - the other one might die if Truck's attack connects, so if you're intending to finish that one off you may want to wait for the results of whatever he does.

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Nah, I have other plans. I'll go ahead then.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Um Hawkeye, this is gonna sound dumb but why did you move me closer? My weapon/attack had reach across 3 spaces (+1 for proficiency)... only reason why I didn't move in closer was not to receive a counterattack.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I don't think proficiencies work like that, but weapon +2 is definitely three, not two. Oops. I'll move Thia back to where she was.

How ya doing, buddy?

Sorry everyone, it's crunch time with all the due dates i've been ignoring coming up on Monday and Tuesday, so i've been trying to undo a couple of months worth of procrastination in the span of less than a week. there is light at the end of the tunnel, but we'll see how things go

That said, Shorty: i'm going to let you change your turn, because as it stands you'd probably take at least three Attacks of Opportunity and that's just not cool.


I feel another LEARNING TIME coming on!


Attacks of Opportunity (generally referred to as AoO or AO or OA because it takes way to long to type out otherwise) happen when you expose yourself to the enemy in battle. In terms of what actually happens, this usually implies you turning your back or dropping your guard to cast a spell. In practice, there are a couple of things that trigger them.

The most common is movement. Any time you leave a square that an enemy can reach, you'll provoke an AoO. This means you can walk up to an enemy without worrying about getting whacked, but if you try to turn and run they're going to get a free shot at you. OAs happen before the movement that triggers them, so if an OA knocks you out, or knocks you prone, or inflicts any other effect that would prevent movement, then you're stuck.

The exception to this rule is if you Shift. Shifting is an alternate use of your move action which lets you avoid OAs in exchange for only being able to move one square. If you're wondering why the kobolds have been running circles around you guys, it's because they have a special ability which allows them to shift 1 square for a minor action. You aren't so fortunate.


The other trigger for an AO is if you try to use a power with the Ranged or Area keywords. In this case, Luciel's Lance of Faith is a Ranged power, so if she tries to use it from where she is, she's going to be attacked. Close burst and Close blast powers don't draw AOs.


That's AOs, in a nutshell. Feel free to change your turn, Shorty, and hopefully i'll have enough free time between now and next Friday to put up the next turn. If you're still having trouble with the dice, see above for like three posts explaining it (none of them mine ).

Also, with Christmas incoming, make sure you let us know if you're going to be away for a while (ex. visiting grandparents who think that the internet is evil). This applies to everyone, not just Shorty.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

uuuugggggghhhh sorry i'm dropping the ball so hard on this everyone, a couple more days and i'll have a life again

might try to move the game forward tomorrow if i can find some free time to myself it has been hard to find of late

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Its okay, Cataclysm just came out so I've been busy with that myself

There's nowhere I can't reach.

The next game post is up. Hopefully people are still paying attention after all this time.

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I knew I was gonna get AO but it was totally worth it though.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Well, that brings my count of misreading my powers up one more. Good thing Thia had gone to the exact right place for my misreading to not really matter.

I was speaking idiomatically.

You're allowed to misread powers, you guys are still learning. You don't want to know how many mistakes i've made and then mostly covered up. For every one you see, there's probably three or four that i made that didn't involve dice rolling.

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