Talk:DivInc Session Log

From Shadowfell Geographic Society

What happened with the rock-climbing? Why is it silly? BrianSniffen 21:36, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Vlad tried to climb some rocks to get in a flanking position. He failed the DC 15 (badly) and thus ended up prone. The DM makes no value judgements on whether it was a worthwhile risk or not. :) --Kurgan 00:16, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Are penalties for trying (beyond the wasted action) usually part of skill rolls? If so, yes, skills in combat are a terrible idea. For example, if failed Bluff checks can lead to Vlad granting the monster Combat Advantage, he should rarely try it. This goes double for opposed rolls. BrianSniffen 02:02, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Not a general rule for skill use in combat, no. A specific rule for the result of failing a Climb check by 5 or more. See PHB 182. --Kurgan 03:37, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

I did see p182. You only fall prone if you take damage from the fall. You take 1d10 damage per ten feet you fall, and you fall from your starting location. He was on the ground---so he can't have fallen prone. Even if he was doing this from midway (say, ten feet) up, he's Trained in Acrobatics, and so can make an Acrobatics check (d20+10) and subtract half that from the damage he'd take. BrianSniffen 03:10, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

You're right, sorry. I skimmed the rules too quickly when in the middle of combat, apparently, and didn't see the "unless you take no damage" clause. I was aware of the Acrobatics option, but wasn't applying any damage anyway to a fall of less than 10 feet. The bullet lists with bold text aren't quite as useful as they might seem at first. So rock climbing is actually less silly than we thought. The only penalty for failure is not getting to the top. --Kurgan 07:41, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

What sucks about cover and concealment, and how do we make the Kobolds suck it? BrianSniffen 21:36, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

The bushes on the road-ambush map which granted cover+concealment (and were difficult terrain) were somewhat weird, and constrained movement a lot. And the total -4 definitely drops the hit percentage a lot for 1st-Levels. That being said, they had the same effect on the Kobolds, and they had more shifts to be denied by the difficult terrain. Again, no value judgements here. --Kurgan 00:16, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

What? Of course you make value judgments. You'll be playing the monster tactics. This is like refusing to talk about the pregnant-missionary strategy after AoE3. Does your distinguished status as DM persist between sessions? BrianSniffen 02:02, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

What value judgement would you like me to make? Interesting terrain has interesting effects. Sometimes it can be used effectively, sometimes not. I tried to use the terrain for the Kobolds, the players tried to use it for the PCs. Andy was the one expressing an opinion that he apparently thought it hurt the PCs more than the Kobolds. I didn't see many PCs going out of their way to step into trees. They'd have to say why not. Certainly, Shiftiness gives the Kobolds somewhat more options in movement, but that's true regardless of the terrain, and as I pointed out, those extra shifts could not be into bushes. --Kurgan 03:37, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

In some sense, the kobolds got the woods first (well, second, after Char, who they surrounded), and the woods weren't that deep. The easy value judgement - which you made with your tactics, and with the second encounter - is that woods provide a lot of tactical defensive advantage. In fact, maybe too much, but that's unclear (but it is also why Char is standing inside a waterfall during the current encounter, and not out and about somewhere; the -5 for total concealment is quite valuable). --Andy 15:53, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

In the second encounter, part one, cover and concealment where more on the party's side, than on the kobold side. Of course, that phase actually had kobold minions, so the couple of Area effects were sufficient to open the combat up. --Andy 15:53, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

In a random note, I realized I misplayed Eyebite; invisibility ends at the *start* of the turn, unlike every single other power I have. --Andy 15:53, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Really, the answer to the riddle ought to have been, "The Lamentations of the Kin of my Enemies" --Andy 13:21, 29 October 2008 (UTC)