Chapter 16: Q&A / Discussion

[Dave W.]

Adamant abilities:
Aura Effects: You know these... Allies within 10' gain:

• Can't be charmed or frightened
• +3 on saves (includes Death Saves btw)

In melee with the hammer lit and using Divine Smite with a 3rd level slot he could do two attacks each generating 1d8+4 (Bludgening: the hammer alone) +2d6 (fire: Syndra) + up to 4d8 (radiant: Smite) damage. That's 11-56 hp per hit.

He's got 2 possible reactions (only 1 reaction per turn still):

• Give disadvantage to an enemy attacking an ally adjacent to Addy
• Sentinel: If someone tries to move past him he (always; even if they're using disengage) gets an attack and if it hits the enemy's speed drops to 0.

Healing, he can cast Cure Wounds and always preps it. He can also lay on hands for up to 45 hp. The lay on hands can also remove exhaustion, poison, or disease at 5 points per.

Channel Divinity, two options:

• Sacred Weapon (+CHA bonus to hit for my weapon) which I don't think I've ever used.
• Turn Unholy: Turn fiends and undead like a cleric

He's got minor Spell casting, currently as high as 3rd level. There are a couple of spells he uses but more often he uses the slots to do Divine Smite. More on that later.

Probably his biggest weakness is there is little he can do at range. A few spells like Command or Dispel Magic, but nothing directly attacking. It wouldn't be his strong suit anyway (DEX 10).

[He does have some Stones of Confusion he could throw; actually they probably should go to someone who could make better use of them.]

I wouldn't mind some discussion about spell casting. I do like to use slots for Divine Smiting, so Addy's never going to be the big caster but I would listen to advice. Spells I like: I'm a big fan of Bless, but I can only do 5 people at most (3rd level slot). I like Command for its flexibility. Dispel Magic. Cure Wounds, obv.

[Brian]

Sept 7, 2018 10:49:43 GMT -4 Jeff said:

Brian, I can't recall: is Melethos going about his day in full armor (and climbing the crow's nest like this as well)?

Sorry, I forgot to specify this. No, given the dangers of falling into the water, he won't wear his armor during the day.

[Ken]

Sept 7, 2018 13:13:47 GMT -4 Dave W. said:

[He does have some Stones of Confusion he could throw; actually they probably should go to someone who could make better use of them.]

You can have Adamant hand them back to Belarin, Dave. There was a decent reason for the switch at the time, but I've forgotten. ;-)

[Dave W.]

Sept 7, 2018 14:07:57 GMT -4 Ken said:

Sept 7, 2018 13:13:47 GMT -4 Dave W. said:

[He does have some Stones of Confusion he could throw; actually they probably should go to someone who could make better use of them.]

You can have Adamant hand them back to Belarin, Dave. There was a decent reason for the switch at the time, but I've forgotten. ;-)

When Adamant betrayed the group to go find the bones of the undead ghostly elf under the lighthouse where we freed the Sphinx. He absolutely will return them.

[Brian]

Sept 19, 2018 19:05:53 GMT -4 Joe said:

Streko gasps. "I'm there!! I see her. I see an elf woman. So beautiful, yet terrible to behold. Her face is tattooed and the design is skull-like. She appears as if she is dead, so gaunt, so little flesh on her. She stands at the back of a boat. It is skimming near the coastline, with a great jungle on her right side. The elf seems as if she is in repose. She wears two rings. She is beautiful. I see no mask. What should I look for?"

Joe, Streko is a level 10 cleric. He's powerful. He's been around the block more than a few times. Take the lead on this, have some fun, and tell the other characters what Streko sees.

[Joe]

Just because he is a level 10 cleric, doesn't mean he always knows what he's doing. If Mel had never used a spell like this before, would Brian, who DOES know how to use it, act as if Mel knew it? This is the first time Streko has ever tried a spell even remotely close to this. He's leaning on Ken for assistance here. Is this wrong?

[Jeff]

Sept 20, 2018 20:41:32 GMT -4 Joe said:

Sept 20, 2018 13:03:38 GMT -4 Ken said:

"Distinguishing landmarks," says Belarin, "something that Kurra or Brack might recognize if you described it to them. Listen, too -- you might hear names or destinations."

"It is daylight, so yes, let me see if there are any landmarks. She is alone. Did I mention the rings? Let me see if I can look closer at those as well. Shall I describe the tattoo? Let me look all around. I need not fear, as I am not really here...there. Let me see. I am at the rear of the boat. Is there anything about the boat itself that stands out? So many things...so little time...must focus."

Please give me actions, though, not just dialogue to those not scrying.

[Brian]

Sept 20, 2018 20:38:32 GMT -4 Joe said:

Just because he is a level 10 cleric, doesn't mean he always knows what he's doing. If Mel had never used a spell like this before, would Brian, who DOES know how to use it, act as if Mel knew it? This is the first time Streko has ever tried a spell even remotely close to this. He's leaning on Ken for assistance here. Is this wrong?

I don't want to get into a drawn out discussion over this, but I will put one thought forward: when a magic user learns a spell, that person has studied it, has practiced it, understands what it can and cannot do. The person is already familiar with the spell. It's not a "oh wow, look what I can suddenly do" scenario. Streko or Kal or Belarin or Adamant--even Melethos with his Darkness spell--understands the spell before they can use it. Take Melethos's new class feature, Indomitable. He didn't suddenly develop the ability to reroll a save. He's been "practicing" for years on avoiding an attack, magical or otherwise. He's failed time and time again. It wasn't until he'd learned enough (reached 9th level) that he could succeed even minimally. With further practice (reaching levels 13 and 17), his chances at a save get better. My thinking with spells follows the same logic: a person over the years has practiced, failed, tried again, failed, kept trying, and finally succeeded. This person learned the spell and can cast it with some measure of confidence and understanding.

Now, that said, I see your point that Streko, having not used the spell before, would ask for help on the practical or strategic uses of scrying. That's absolutely valid, and I think was the thrust of your post. I missed it.

Finally, all I was trying to say was have some fun with it. Apparently that didn't come across in my post.

[Darren]

I would argue that, to some extent, that's not actually true with Kal (or many other sorcerers). Sorcerer magic is more about power that is inherit to the person, and is a lot more wild and uncontrolled. When Kal learns new powers, I have often played it as something that just sort of manifested itself nearly to his surprise. When he learned Fly I played it as him discovering it because he watched Starg do it and realized that he could make it work, too. The first time he used Animate Objects it was because he got so angry that he willed the things around him to come to life. Kal's not really into studying.

[Jeff]

I've never been 100% in agreement with your approach, Darren, but I'm also not here to take the wind out of your sails. you can play it how you want. No, of course sorceres don't book learn, but that doesn't mean the're not...practiced. And proficient. You don't just wake up one day with Spell Sniper as your feat. You've honed your magic. And Animate Objects might be a natural manifestation of his desires, but that spell is an extant thing that even wizards might learn. Arcane magic in Eberron is its own type of science—it's mostly reliable, quantified, and exploited on economic levels. But where a wizard is a graduate professor of magic who's put years of work to learn what he learns, a sorcerer is prodigy who's barely a student but has mastered magic through osmosis—but only in one or two subjects. But he still had to be around it, to absorb it, to digest it. And then to tamper with it.

Clerics and paladins are also studied. They studied religious scriptures to learn what powers their faith can unlock. Streko doesn't just wake up in the morning, prayer to Olladra, and find that she's rolled out a buffet of possibilities for him that day that he's never tried. Rather, he learned about Scrying as a possible spell long ago before he met Kal. He might have only recently become strong enough to access it, but he knows about it.

Also, Darren: Starg cast Fly once (I think) and used it on Melethos, but Melethos never ended up needing it. I don't think Kal learned Fly from him. And back on board the Merrow Down, Starg uses Telekinesis once or twice.

I do think you guys can and should own being 10th level. That's a bigger deal in Eberron than in, say, the Forgotten Realms, where super high-level Chosen and famous adventurer NPCs are a thing. The high level NPCs are the bigger villains or allies.

[Darren]

Well, whether Kal learned it from Starg or not, that was how I played it. Starg kept talking about how he could cast it on Melethos, and Kal kept thinking about the possibility of that and saying how he was pretty sure he could do it, and then he did it. So yes, I don't mean to imply that Kal doesn't need to actively learn things, but my point has always been that Kal's power is a manifestation of himself, and not of just studying it from a book. Like you say, it's more of a prodigy type thing where he hears about it and figures out how to do it, or he has a need for something and that need manifests into a power that he practices and learns to harness. I also think that with sorcerers there are sometimes those instances where they might find their own way of doing something that would cause the true practitioners to roll their eyes, but it works for them. It's all a bit more wild.

That's my interpretation, anyway.

[Ken]

I absolutely agree that we should own being 10th level. It's a huge deal. We're now powerful figures (damn, we've successfully invaded the stronghold of one of the most influential people on the continent!), and we shouldn't shy away from that. As a player, I've rarely had this opportunity, so Belarin will certainly embrace it.

[Darren]

Sept 21, 2018 11:21:19 GMT -4 Ken said:

I absolutely agree that we should own being 10th level. It's a huge deal. We're now powerful figures (damn, we've successfully invaded the stronghold of one of the most influential people on the continent!), and we shouldn't shy away from that. As a player, I've rarely had this opportunity, so Belarin will certainly embrace it.

Kal will definitely have a problem with this.

[Jeff]

Sept 22, 2018 16:03:23 GMT -4 Joe said:

Sept 22, 2018 8:40:11 GMT -4 Jeff said:

Streko can't force the sensor to move closer to the central woman, but even from ten feet away he can see her pretty clearly. The tattoos evoke a stern and morbid countenance, but there's nothing about them that he finds familiar.

After a few minutes, he sees the woman turn and look behind her as if facing an approaching stranger. But Streko doesn't see anyone there.

"Umm...Belarin...can she see me? She's looking right at me. Can she know she is being watched?"

No, not qite right. She's not looking directly at Streko’s invisible "eye" sensor. She's turned around, opposite direction from him, facing someone in that direction (west?) that he can't see.

[Ken]

Yeah, as Ken, I figured that Joe had likely misconstrued that, but Belarin had to react to what Streko said. If Joe amends Streko's comment, I'll revise Belarin's response.

[Elvis]

Tactics discussion for Jeff...

What would happen if Kal casts Animate Object on a skeleton?

Also...

Can skeletons grapple?

[Jeff]

An animate skeleton would be considered a creature for purposes of spells, so Animate Object wouldn't work. Once they're just bones again, they're objects again.

Sure, skeletons could be commanded to grapple by Histra if she wanted to. They'd probably suck at it, but you never know what the dice will do!

[Elvis]

I'm thinking in terms of pro/cons over animate object vs animate dead

So if we had an inert (non-undead) skeleton and Kal cast animate object on it... would it have different traits than an undead skeleton that we could exploit?

For example...

If animate object is cast on a inert skeleton, turn undead wouldn't work on it. Neither would a higher undead (ie Krez) be able to take control.

[Jeff]

Ah, I see you're making some assumptions about skeletons. When they're undead, they're a unified whole, bones magically linked together in a parody of life.

Animate Object would treat individual bones as objects. And so you couldn't really animate a full skeleton's worth of bones with a single casting of the spell. That said, even Tiny objects with Animate Objects are pretty nasty assailants (+8 to hit, 1d4 + 4 damage) so like a skull or femur bone would be good for this, but I wouldn't even count the smaller bones as affected. However, there's little finesse with the animated objects. They'r best at straight attacks. Small or Tiny objects would suck at grappling worse than skeletons.

[Elvis]

Got it.

How many flying skulls can Kal make?

[Jeff]

I think....ten objects. Tiny or Small objects count as one object each.

Medium targets count as two objects.
Large targets count as four objects.
Huge targets count as eight objects.

[Elvis]

A flight of skulls could at minimum be mistaken as undead. It may be a good way to force any clerics on the other side to spend a channel to try and turn them...

Alternately... animate flasks of alchemists fire and make them hurl themselves against a foe. Or a ship.

[Ken]

Jeff, are the Lyrander ships actually moving toward us? It sounded from the description that they're well east of us and are continuing to move east.

[Jeff]

Correct. See my next post.

[Jeff]

Sept 27, 2018 11:54:19 GMT -4 Darren said:

Alone again in the room, Kal turns his attention back to Sem.

FYI, I'm seeing this as above deck. Sem generally is out and about and spends plenty of time above deck. And he was just speaking to Starg before this anyway.

[Darren]

Fair enough. Alone, in general, anyway. Alone-ish. As alone as the deck of a ship allows.

[Dave W.]

Mostly I use my spells for Smiting... I think I'll swap out Branding Smite for Aura of Vitality. The only thing is the one spell I like a lot is Bless and they're both concentration. but a ranged heal (only 2d6) seems like a nice thing to have. I wish I had an eldrich blast sort of ranged spell, range is still my weakness. I do keep Command and Compel Duel for their ranged effects...

If the food gets to be a problem, Streko and I can both create food and water for 15 people... we're not there right now.

[Brian]

Oct 9, 2018 5:14:29 GMT -4 Brian said:

Melethos, down from his watch in the crow's nest and standing with Kal and Captain Brack, notes Sem's tone when he speaks with Kal.

"Sem," he asks. "Are you all right? I am used to seeing you smiling and joking. You seem unusually...restrained."

Jeff, just making sure you saw this post. Sem never did respond.

[Jeff]

I’ll address it tomorrow. Time for my jet-lagged ass to collapse into hopefully utter darkness for a while.

[Dave W.]

I'm assuming the conspiracy that suspects Sem is only Kal, Belarin, and Melethos. I do not believe Adamant has any inkling of this theory yet. Correct? It's fine to exclude him... just need to know if he should be reacting to anything...