[DnD] Let's Cast Magic Missile!

Wouldn't "Are we being ambushed?" be a passive skill check, and as such not something you need to roll for yourself, but rather something Pang rolls?

Otherwise you'd want to be making that roll every time you moved location just in case and if you wanted to actively check to see if you're being ambushed, you wouldn't make a skill roll, you'd go and pop your head round the corner and have a look. It's not like searching for treasure or traps where your character has a basic level of searching skills and observational powers that determine whether you succeed, you're rolling on the general awareness which as I always understood it is something that goes on in the background, rather than acting like some kind of focused spider sense (lol). Having an elf in the party grants a bonus to everyone's passive perception, but doesn't help them specifically search for shit, they're two completely different things aren't they?

I could be wrong here, I just always thought that stuff like that was down to the DM, not open to specific requests, otherwise you'd spend twenty minutes rolling dice before every conversation just in case.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Ah, that clarifies things somewhat. I remember an old DM when we used to play Rifts would roll dice in private a lot. Makes you fucking paranoid after a while.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Blimey, it's taken those snakes four days to get round the corner. They must be massive for you to have heard them coming from that distance and by the time Pang gets his computer back it'll have been nine. Biggest. Snakes. Ever.

How ya doing, buddy?

Zerg, Zerg, Zerg. Will you never learn that the game is infinitely more fun with an unbalanced party? All this roles nonsense is the ties that bind you, slip your bonds and embrace the joy of being silly for the sake of it. Even better than a party of "Controller" classes, is a party of wizards with no elemental or status effect powers, or a party of Fighters with low hp and not wearing armour.

I sugest you jog on your idea for people to give you a race and class and just create five gnome monks more or less at random, make up some crap about a pilgrimage gone wrong and dump them at the entrance to a cavern leading to the shrine that just happens to be rammed with monsters. Quicker to set up and probably funnier in the long run.

And if you don't get five people who've never played to sign up for that, I'll take a slot. If you insist on playing "properly", I'll take a fifth slot if you don't get five non-players, as a gnome monk but don't give me any healing powers.

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

Oh ok, sorry. I thought you were auditioning for one of each type. I still think you'd be better off pre-rolling though if you want a quick game and a group of gnome monks would be funny. How about Orc wizards? A group of pacifist scholars who are mistaken for a raiding party by a local militia and have to fight their way to safety? Rather than have a fixed number of fights, you could do it battle arena style, with each fight harder than the last to see which group can survive the longest. That way you might get to throw in some really tough monsters. Have each group of bad guys carry a health potion for each player and one random magic item to boost the team each round but also start adding things that cause poison or other annoying status effects.

I reckon that'd be good fun anyway and saves on you needing to characterise the monsters or come up with any sort of story.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Depending on how many interested people you get, you might want to reduce the party size, ramp up the difficulty and make it a competition, see who's party of two or three can survive the longest. Pre-publish the set lists so people can judge whether to take a couple of fighters to breeze through the early rounds but struggle against later things you might need magic to kill or take a couple of warlocks to beat the higher round but risk getting killed early on. Teams of two would certainly lead to some interesting tactical choices, although would limit the participants if one team proved successful and hard to kill.

Just some thoughts of course.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I'm pretty sure Pang won't care at all and it's not like the queue moves that fast. Provided you can knock out posts slightly quicker than Acer you should be fine.

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

I'm gutted that I found this too late for the last adventure.



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

Until the reinforcements from the south arrive...

How ya doing, buddy?

That's supposed to be a minotaur in your avatar? I thought it was a badly drawn Triceratops. or something.

How ya doing, buddy?

Did Garr manage to land a single blow during that fight in the end? If not, surely there's an achievement for that?

FELIPE NO

8,960 surely? As if a fantasy setting like DnD would use New World crazy person measurements.

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

I didn't bother checking my post, sorry. I glanced at it and assumed you meant 4 lots of 2,240 pounds, and picked the wrong option, i.e. a proper ton, or 20 hundredweight.

Learn to read (And count) Shin.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Zerg, did you really think assuming the guise of the priest who just dissolved into a pile of tentacley goo after being corrupted and slaughtering the village was a good way to make friends and influence people?

How ya doing, buddy?

Unless she was watching the fight through the window of course, in which case she just saw a bunch of dudes murder the gibbering remains of the townfolk before the minotaur who'd been hiding miles from the action suddenly turned into the priest and came to rape her.

I don't think any amount of dice rolling is going to get you out of this one, you should probably just tie her up and take her along as a meat-shield.

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

So is Zerg hoping to recreate some scenes from the Wicker Man or what?

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

Do you not think she's maybe just drunk? And that there are more relevant things in the house than the larder to be searching for?

I still reckon you should use her as a meat shield.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Yeah, our party got a lot less righteous once the cleric and paladin copped it, Gabe was forever burying people and praying and shit.

I think having a mix of moral standards in a group makes for a more fun game. It's nice that the current lot have a religious type, a kleptomaniac innards-fetishist, a sex offender and a zoned out weirdo, all set off nicely by the no nonsense cynic in the corner who just lets them all get on with being weird while he trys really hard not to hit anything in fights, it's a good team dynamic. All I'd add would be an arsonist really.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I was thinking more along the lines of the next player in being a firesoul genasi and setting fire to literally everything and shouting FLAME ON a lot.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Pangalin

Oh also! New houserule, wanna encourage ritual use a little bit: instead of spending components on ritual casting, you can pay a ritual's component cost by expending a healing surge. Save a little money, take a little risk.

Obviously this offer doesn't apply to matters where it would be massively unbalancing, like Enchant Weapon or any other ritual with a sliding cost.

Man, I'd have been Wizard's Curtaining up the joint like nobodies business with that rule in place.

Do you read Darth and Droids, Zerg? The last one's moral was that you can't expect a dramatic saving by the cavalry unless you tell the cavalry where you are...

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

Surely putting an ever-burning torch in your pack would result in an unfortunate pack fire?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Worst. Sneaking through a crowd. Ever.

I approve of more skill challenges though, if only to completely negate all the time Zerg spends worrying about how to maximise his (and everyone else's) character's combat stats.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Zerg, the fatal flaw in your maths party is the unspecified modifiers Pang said he'd apply to the rolls. Insane villagers might be incredibly susceptible to feats of thievery but almost immune to bluffing for all you know.

Also, I'm amazed none of you suggested some Shaun of the Dead style zombie impersonation.

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

Why do you need to get off the horse anyway? Surely you can mince about miles away from the actual fight just as well mounted as you can on foot?

Also, do near-empty placeholder posts on his behalf from Skills count to stop Acer breaching the tardy post rule, coz he's on at least five strikes by now and the rest of us aren't getting any younger.

Most amazing jew boots

If he bumps out Acer, there's nothing to say a replacement couldn't swing through a window and save your collective arses during the fight. I'm sure Pang wouldn't be so cruel as to kill your horse in a way that wasn't particularly amusing and in front of your face. I'd question how likely your wagon is to be intact when you get out of there though.

I was speaking idiomatically.