Chapter 12: Q&A / Discussions

[Jeff]

May 13, 2015 15:59:12 GMT -4 Ken said:

Attack: 1d20+7. Damage: 1d10+3.

Ken, help me, I'm totally spacing out.

Spell attack rolls in 5E are strictly ability score modifier + proficiency bonus, aren't they? So wouldn't that be +6 for Belarin, not +7? Even using the pact dagger, which serves as his warlock's spell focus for purposes of bypassing most material components. It would be +7 if he was making a weapon attack with the pact dagger, because it's a +1 weapon.

Same deal with Kal using Skyfang.

Or am I totally missing something (I could be)?

[Ken]

So there's no +1 from using the +1 dagger as a focus for spell attacks? Huh. I don't recall encountering that 5e change, but I guess it's a +6 if that's the case. It just seems less important now for Belarin to "re-bond" with it if its primary fey-granted benefit is to aid him in a melee fight.

[Jeff]

If you mean as a special bonus beyond what other magic implements would give, correct, there isn't right now. Remember how powered down magic items are in 5E from the ridiculousness of 4E.

The bond with this particular pact dagger is certainly more plot-based than mechanics-based, though one does lead to the other: its additional powers are solely born out of Belarin's "progress" with his mission. At minimum, he knows it will become a +2 dagger when he reaches 10th level if he hasn't veered off course too much by then. But no other powers have bubbled to the surface yet.

[Ken]

Understood. And yeah, as a plot point, the dagger is clearly meaningful to Belarin in a way that extends beyond its stabbiness. So, +6. Got it. Thanks for explaining.

[Darren]

www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0677.html

Of wizards, sorcerrors, and warlocks....

[Ken]

Nice thought, Joe, although I think we'll have to wait until next round for Streko's mass healing, unfortunately. Let's hope we're still up!

[Jeff]

Right. This is the order (and as of this post, Belarin's turn is happening now):

20 - Kal
19 - heads
14 - dogs
12 - Shorak and Streko
8 - Belarin
7 - Condign

[Jeff]

May 12, 2015 15:46:49 GMT -4 Dave W. said:

Or is there another, more reliable dice roller out there. I love Invisible Castle when it's working but it seems to always be down now.

That's the sort of thing it would be awesome if one of my players could find for us all. I, alas, have no extra time to even look.

[Dave W.]

So far I've only found one I like... anyone familiar with Rolz.org? It lets me roll dice and add a comment. It logs the result and if you hit the little cube in front of the result you get a tab that lets you copy out the bbcode. The basic syntax is pretty easy. The one issue is that it's not private; I created a DarkEchelon dice room for us but anyone can go there and run dice. I'm not sure how big a deal that is.

Here's how it looks when cut/pate from the BBEdit format.

dlw32:2D20H1 +7 → 16( high 1 of 9; 9 = 9 ) +7#Adamant Test Attack with Advantage

This is how to do a 1d20+7 roll:
#d20+7

If you want to add a comment it's:
#d20+7 #comment

You can do multiple dice:
#2d8+3

If you have Advantage you can roll two d20 and take the higher with the "H1". Or Disadvantage with "L1":
#2d20H1 +7 #Adavantage
#2d20L1 +7 #Disadvantage

There's lots of other dice options (Wild Dice or Fudge). Here's a url, take a look and see what you think:
DarkEchelon at Rolz

[Dave W.]

Oh, and there's not really logins... they ask for a login/password and what room you want to go to. The password is not required and the login name only is useful for tagging who did the roll.

On the plus side it is up...

[Jeff]

Cool, Dave. I'll check it out later (when I'm caught up on three days of absence from work)! Thanks.

[Darren]

May 19, 2015 9:02:09 GMT -4 Jeff said:

Actually, Darren, they wouldn't. He blasted them back, but then their turn followed his. On their turn they simply moved back to him again and attacked. See above.

Right. My bad.

[Jeff]

May 21, 2015 10:41:00 GMT -4 Ken said:

Side whine: I miss the days when Belarin could call the shadows simply by walking. Would be handy now!

Ahh, yes. 4E was the D&D version of:



And it's that very spoiled-by-too-much-power-ness of 4E that I still resent!

[Darren]

Oh, I was so powerful back then. Alas, alack!

[Brian]

Yep, Condign's old Warlord abilities were pretty cool. Though his now-straight-fighter skills can still kick some butt.

[Jeff]

Whiners!

Monster ACs and hit points are all much lower now.

[Ken]

May 21, 2015 10:54:00 GMT -4 Jeff said:

Ahh, yes. 4E was the D&D version of:

I'll have you know that, back in the '80s, my Whine rating was Remarkable.

[Dave W.]

Not to be left out, I miss Adamant's Divine Challenge... marking someone and forcing them to deal with me was cool. Oh, and the one where he'd jump in and take the damage for someone who just got hit. Those things really felt like they fit his character.

But I'm not whining...

[Jeff]

May 21, 2015 10:41:00 GMT -4 Ken said:

Belarin is doing the Withdraw action to go around the "north" side of the tree, which should put him right on the other side of one of the dogs attacking Kal & Histra.

Ken, I'm unsure again about your movement. If Belarin uses his action to Disengage, he then moves his speed to go 30 feet, right? That wouldn't put him adjacent to any of the dogs you're saying. Going his full speed, he could get as far as the square due north of head #1, or the one right above that. But nowhere that close to the dogs.

How are you figuring it?

[Ken]

I don't have the PHB handy at work, but can't you move while disengaging? I know that you can't attack while withdrawing, but you're able to move out of the threatened area. Are you saying I'm not able to make two move actions as part of the withdrawal?

If I can't do that, Belarin will move toward Condign instead.

[Jeff]

DISENGAGE

If you take the Disengage action, your movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks for the rest of the turn.

That's it. No movement as part of that. Maybe you're thinking of an earlier iteration of this same mechanic? I remember one that let you move some, but then it only protected you from opp attacks for like the first few steps. Whereas this one takes your whole action but lets you benefit during the entirety of your move.

I always keep a link to the basic 5E rules in my signature.

[Ken]

But it SAYS "your movement" in the description. So, there's movement as part of the action. Right?

[Ken]

Never mind. I get it now. It think it's due to leftover thinking on my part regarding "standard actions" and "move actions," whereas in 5e there's just "actions," which are separate from movement. So Belarin COULD take Disengage as his action, which would leave him just his normal movement, and yeah, he wouldn't be anywhere near Kal. Okay, sorry, Jeff - got it.

[Darren]

May 21, 2015 12:17:16 GMT -4 Dave W. said:

Not to be left out, I miss Adamant's Divine Challenge... marking someone and forcing them to deal with me was cool. Oh, and the one where he'd jump in and take the damage for someone who just got hit. Those things really felt like they fit his character.

But I'm not whining...

Kal actually has that ability now (something like Divine Challenge), but I'm not about to use it!

[Jeff]

Whinefest 2015!

[Brian]

When a good whine goes bad, DE style.

[Jeff]

Brian, that video went over my head somehow.

Darren, to your earlier remark:

May 16, 2015 23:48:33 GMT -4 Darren said:

In addition, since the lightning bolt is crossing the tree, assuming it is flammable like a normal tree, the spell should cause it to ignite.

The spell specifies: "The lightning ignites flammable objects that are not being worn or carried."

So a creature isn't considered an object, and I might even say that a regular tree would also be a creature, not an object, but that said, I'd rule that any particularly brittle or flammable might still catch fire (such as a regular tree in a serious drought). This tree isn't one of them, in any case, because it's also very much a creature.

[Jeff]

May 21, 2015 15:59:24 GMT -4 Darren said:

Kal will use his 6 Sorcery points to create a 4th level spell slot.

Kal will then cast Wall of Fire.

Well played, Darren. And a good use of sorcery points (and the ring!). This one will take me a little while to put together (maybe in the morning?).

[Darren]

Fair enough about the tree. I put it there mostly as a reminder and a question, because I wasn't sure what effect it would have on tree.

And yeah, I've been hanging on to those sorcery points for a while now figuring that exactly this kind of situation would come up...

[Dave W.]

May 21, 2015 13:57:06 GMT -4 Darren said:

[Adamant's Divine Challenge]
Kal actually has that ability now (something like Divine Challenge), but I'm not about to use it!

Yeah, I have a spell, Compel Duel, that sort of emulates it but I used to be able to be able to do it just by being adjacent to the bad guy...

But no more whining... I do like 5e. And you guys all rock, players and GM!