Chapter 12: Q&A / Discussions

[Jeff]

Okay, good questions.

Yes, Kal could do this, but...

He can essentially "give" Tangat the ability to deliver Burning Grasp. Because he's a dog, I'd even allow him to squeeze through the space between that sarcophagus (the one that's sort of in the way between him and the web) and the wall in order to reach the closest web zombie on the same turn.

But, a few problems:

(1) This would mean Tangat would leave a clear path between Rinti and a zombie.

(2) Kal really doesn't know the situation up there. Tangat has a telepathic link to Kal but the information is limited to Tangat's awareness. He knows there is a cluster of zombies in that vicinity but wouldn't have been paying attention to the webbing because he followed Rinti when Rinti tried to move towards the exit.

(3) Circumstances and positioning will change a little bit before Kal's turn. Not all of the zombies are stuck in the web (but most are).

I can post what happens next (I've already got it ready) but I can't update the map later so it wouldn't correspond yet.

[Jeff]

Oh, and zombies are no more vulnerable to fire than any living or dead humanoid body.

[Darren]

Okay, but Kal could deliver Burning Grasp to Tangat and then Tangat could decide which zombie would be best to deliver that to, right?

[Jeff]

Yup.

[Dave W.]

Nov 5, 2014 6:58:54 GMT -4 Jeff said:

Nov 4, 2014 16:43:45 GMT -4 Dave W. said:

Not to contradict, but the two wights were described as: Adamant chose to switch to attacking wight 4 because the others went defensive and Rarun was still fighting. Addy had initially swung at w3 (Crav).

Right, but in this last round round he attacked #4.

I was trying to say that... but I did it badly, on round 1 Addy attacked W3 and wiffed. On Round 2, Addy noticed W3 went all defensive so he switched to attack W4. Now on round 3, he kills W4 (okay wishful thinking maybe)...

[Jeff]

Here's a Shorak question. He's got Uncanny Dodge: When an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack roll, you can use your reaction to halve the attack's damage against you.

This is crazy awesome, but it also normally relies on the player saying when it should apply. Using it means giving up your reaction, which keeps you from making opportunity attacks (or other things). An easy sacrifice, if it means taking half as much damage from a single attack.

Dave, do you want me to make a favorable judgement call on when Shorak would use this? Or, if you prefer, we could try to apply it after an attack hits (but that takes a bit longer to work out here, of course).

[Dave B.]

Nov 6, 2014 11:42:47 GMT -4 Jeff said:

Here's a Shorak question. He's got Uncanny Dodge: When an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack roll, you can use your reaction to halve the attack's damage against you.

This is crazy awesome, but it also normally relies on the player saying when it should apply. Using it means giving up your reaction, which keeps you from making opportunity attacks (or other things). An easy sacrifice, if it means taking half as much damage from a single attack.

Dave, do you want me to make a favorable judgement call on when Shorak would use this? Or, if you prefer, we could try to apply it after an attack hits (but that takes a bit longer to work out here, of course).

Being the survivor that Shorak is, he would probably choose to use Uncanny Dodge more often than not. Certainly if he drops to half HPs or less. So, yes, favorable judgement on your part would be very welcome.

[Jeff]

Most of the time, I think it would just apply to the first time in any given round that Shorak is attacked and hit.

[Dave B.]

That make sense. If there are multiple attacks vs. Shorak, they are most likely simultaneous anyway, making it virtually impossible to use uncanny dodge against more than one of those attacks.

[Jeff]

Darren. This is where your modifier comes from. For all spell attacks. It's the same for each one. When a spell description says you make her attack roll, it's 1d20 + this:

[Darren]

Okay. I wasn't sure if this was Kal's attack roll or Tangat's.

[Jeff]

Just scroll down. Tangat's stats (including his attack roll modifier) are at the bottom.

[Darren]

Updated. I used +4 for the modifier....?

[Jeff]

Nov 6, 2014 12:10:10 GMT -4 Darren said:

Kal will use his action to grant Tangat the ability to deliver Burning Touch on whichever zombie he thinks is most appropriate, but probably the one immediately in front of him.

Burning Touch attack (1d20+4=13)

I assume it was +4? I was basing it off of Tangat's bite attack modifier...

Close enough! Essentially, two rolls are happening: Tangat's attack and the zombie's save against Kal's spell DC regardless of whether Tangat hits or not.

It's also worth noting, as I'm sure you've already seen, that because Tangat as a familiar sprang from 3rd Edition rules, he's kind of a special case. He doesn't work fully like a familiar in 5E (meaning he's not just a spirit taking animal shape; instead he's an animal infused with magic that gives him intelligence and a bond with Kal). Only if he ever dies can he be revived as a 5E-style familiar.

In any case, the way I'ved worked it (under Tangat's section) is that you can use Kal's action to cast a touch spell, which then can come out of Tangat as long as he makes the attack to deliver it.

So in this case, the roll you made (right, +4) is for his bite attack. No need to roll for the spell attack, because according to the spell description, "The target must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw. Otherwise, the target takes 2d8 fire damage." Meaning I make the zombie's roll against the DC (Difficulty Class) set by Kal.

Which, on his sheet, is:

Spell Save DC:   14 (8 + your Charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus) 

[Darren]

Sweet.

This will be referred to as Kal's "Hot Dog" attack.

Too cheesy? We'll come up with something.

[Jeff]

You could also call it the Hell Hound maneuver.

[Dave W.]

No, I like the Hot Dog Attack!!

[Mike]

Nov 7, 2014 18:30:55 GMT -4 Jeff said:

Mike, can you remind me where that additional +1d4 is coming from in your attack rolls? I'm mind-blanking. It can't be from Adamant's Bless, since I believe he didn't case it. But offhand that's the only thing I can think of that does that. Just remind me! Regardless, those are both hits.

My fault. I thought Adamant had bless in effect, for some reason.

[Jeff]

He threw us off because he specifically mentioned Bless, but that he wasn't going to cast it.

No worries, no need to go back and edit anything. Zombies are always easy to hit.

[Jeff]

Nov 7, 2014 19:55:49 GMT -4 Ken said:

"As for you, harridan," he says, raising a finger at the wight who is somehow still standing after Syrdan's strike,

Confusion! Syrdan attacked a zombie (the one adjacent to him), not the female wight too far from him to reach (#6).

[Ken]

Whoops. Sorry about that. I've edited my post.

[Ken]

Jeff,

It's possible for Belarin to answer Adamant's question "out of turn," right?

[Jeff]

If it's a real quick reply, sure.

[Darren]

"In the meantime, is it time to be done with the wall of fire? It's done a marvelous job controlling the battle but perhaps we are in a new phase of the combat?"

A few things about that...first, we don't know what's still on the other side, so it's forcing them to come at us one at at time. In addition, remember that anyone ending their turn within 10' of the wall on our side takes damage from it, so as they come through, they will need to move quickly towards us or take damage. If we position ourselves right, it should be possible to prevent them from coming around the wall and getting into a spot where they won't take damage from it, so I think that until we have all of the rest of the undead cleared, it should stay up.



I'm a bit confused on the order right now. Adamant went, and then Jeff posted for the NPC's, and now Streko seems to have gone, but I thought next in the order was the wights/zombies and then Shorak?

[Jeff]

You don't need to justify leaving up the wall of fire. Right now the Wall of Fire and Adamant's positioning (once I update the map) means the zombies will have a hard time of getting by. Certainly feel free to justify as Kal.

The order is fine. Joe posted another action, I think, because I accidentally listed Streko again in my previous post (making him think he was up again). Next up are the undeads, which I'll tackled when I can repost the map.

[Dave W.]

Yeah, tell Adamant that he's an idiot. Well, I suppose Kal could be polite... But Adamant appears to be eager to mix it up an move on for some reason.

[Ken]

Jeff, you can move Belarin down to the last couple of stairs. Last round, he needed to move to get a better shot at the archer wight (and kick in Shadow Walk).

[Jeff]

D'oh! Sorry. Yup, I'll fix that when I can update the map again.

[Ken]

Jeff, what about my buddy hiding in the crypt? Can Belarin feel whether that wight is still under his control?

[Jeff]

Yup, he feels he has the some control, but he doesn't know for sure that another will can't trump it yet. He's still new at this.