[3.x]Call to Adventure: Secrets of the Fire Swamp

AcidBlades · Post by **AcidBlades** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 5:21 pm

Also translation error. What I meant to do was use Widen, not sculpt.

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 5:57 pm

I'm going to revise what I said so I say it telepathically instead.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 1:08 am

C'mon y'all, proactive gaming. Don't just have your characters sit around talking about doing stuff, do stuff.

CapnTthePirateG · Post by **CapnTthePirateG** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 2:55 am

But paranoia!

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 3:01 am

Fuck it, I'm just going to breath weapon the tree. It recharges in 2d4 rounds and isn't really useful in combat so it's not like we're losing anything. I don't even need to avoid hitting your skeleton, since it's immune to cold.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 5:37 am

(Is it possible to stop my action now? If it is I'll let rad do his thing first)

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 9:10 am

Sure, we'll let rad do his thing first.

Dominicius · Post by **Dominicius** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 10:15 am

So what happened is that we managed to dig up some sort of chest and then a bunch of tries suddenly rose up and started advancing upon us. I got that right?

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 10:46 am

Perhaps the trees are the protectors of a sealed can of evil (or good but evil seems more likely)? Er... anyone has knowledge skills? If the trees are sapient, someone with a decent CHA and/or Diplomacy could try to telepathically say something (through someone else if they don't have telepathy) along the lines of, "We don't know what's going on here, but we can put that back if you stop trying to step on us and tell us what it is."

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 1:12 pm

Dominicius wrote:Vian was far less inclined to do diplomacy with the ancient oaks. Drawing his blade a red flash moved across it, igniting the metal and making it blaze like a torch in his hands.

"Stop right there! Make another step and I will turn you into ash!" He shouted, but he did so in the tongue of his mother.

Attempting an intimidate check at a +5 bonus. Speaking in Sylvan.

You sure you don't want to wait and see if the diplomacy check worked? Or at least say you do this if diplomacy doesn't work?

Dominicius · Post by **Dominicius** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 1:21 pm

Don't see how one would interfere with the other.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 1:21 pm

Yeah, I'd wait to see how the good cop routine plays out before we try bad cop.

Also, would it be possible for my character to use the defense bonus rules? I know it's technically past character generation but we haven't entered any situations where it would play out yet. It just gives him one extra point of AC right now but if I survive to level 4 it basically means I don't have to keep on taking Monk levels to keep my AC up.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 3:18 pm

Darth Rabbitt wrote: Also, would it be possible for my character to use the defense bonus rules? I know it's technically past character generation but we haven't entered any situations where it would play out yet. It just gives him one extra point of AC right now but if I survive to level 4 it basically means I don't have to keep on taking Monk levels to keep my AC up.

Little late in the game for that, n'est-ce pas? And if it applies to your character, it'll apply to every character...and the monsters.

Dominicius · Post by **Dominicius** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 4:53 pm

Man. I had like 29 points of AC there. Was that a surprise attack or something?

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 5:05 pm

Ancient History wrote:
Darth Rabbitt wrote: Also, would it be possible for my character to use the defense bonus rules? I know it's technically past character generation but we haven't entered any situations where it would play out yet. It just gives him one extra point of AC right now but if I survive to level 4 it basically means I don't have to keep on taking Monk levels to keep my AC up.
Little late in the game for that, n'est-ce pas? And if it applies to your character, it'll apply to every character...and the monsters.

Good point. I'll drop it (unless anyone else has something to say on the matter).

Also holy shit. Didn't see that coming.

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 5:09 pm

At least he's not dead. Might be a good idea to heal him and we could probably use some fire damage now. Maybe Darth could fly him out of there? What does impaling count as? Grappling?

Could we get a map or something?

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 5:18 pm

radthemad4 wrote:At least he's not dead. Might be a good idea to heal him as we could probably use some fire damage. Maybe Darth could fly him out of there.

That's what I'm planning to do: pick him up, fly off, attempt to provide first aid to stabilize him (standard action, Heal +5 vs. DC 15) and set him down out of reach of the trees.

What type of action is picking up a helpless creature? And is Vian currently being grappled by the tree? That'd make it a lot harder to carry him off.

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 6:14 pm

Picking up an item is a move action that provokes AoOs (you've got reach, but I don't know if it has more), but if he's grappled, I dunno. Maybe you need to disarm the tree or something?

When I said heal, I meant actual HP so he can help out in the fight.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 7:00 pm

Oh. Can't be too much help to you there.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 7:09 pm

Dominicius wrote:Man. I had like 29 points of AC there. Was that a surprise attack or something?

Something like that; I'll give you the details after the encounter if you like.

radthemad4 wrote:Picking up an item is a move action that provokes AoOs (you've got reach, but I don't know if it has more), but if he's grappled, I dunno. Maybe you need to disarm the tree or something?

He's not being grappled (and, in fact, will probably be dropped perfunctorily the next time I post), and yeah, grabbing him would normally be a move action that would provoke an Attack of Opportunity, but if Darth wanted to zoom in, catch him as he drops, and fly out of threat range again, we can call that a Full Round Action which provokes an AoO.

radthemad4 wrote:Could we get a map or something?

Of the battleground or of the area?

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 7:19 pm

Darth Rabbitt wrote:Oh. Can't be too much help to you there.

That wasn't specifically addressed at you. Restoring 3 HP or more to him would not only put him out of immediate risk of dying, but also give us more firepower (heh) for the coming rounds. But yeah, I think Archimedes is probably the best man-dragon-bull for getting him away from the tree.

Ancient History wrote:
radthemad4 wrote:Could we get a map or something?
Of the battleground or of the area?

I'd really appreciate one of the battleground right now, though eventually both would be nice.

He's not being grappled (and, in fact, will probably be dropped perfunctorily the next time I post), and yeah, grabbing him would normally be a move action that would provoke an Attack of Opportunity, but if Darth wanted to zoom in, catch him as he drops, and fly out of threat range again, we can call that a Full Round Action which provokes an AoO.

Darth, wait a bit. There's a very small chance I can nauseate it (plants have good fort saves, but I'd sicken it even if it makes the save, unless it's somehow immune to one or both of those conditions) or maybe someone else can occupy it somehow.

So, can anyone make a knowledge check on this new tree? Also, did Clara remember anything about the other trees?

Dominicius · Post by **Dominicius** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 8:01 pm

I am fairly certain these things are mindless abominations of sorts. In any case, just to be sure, there are three of these things? Do they all seem like they belong to the same type of monster?

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 8:22 pm

Knowledge is still handy. For instance, if we find out that they're healed by fire and instantly destroyed on contact with cheese or something.

Kaelik's Errata wrote:Knowledge rules:

Yes, we know they suck. Here are some more explicit ones:

Knowledge identifies monsters. It also identifies unique character abilities that are not spells or SLAs (these are governed by spellcraft).

When identifying a monster, you must either see the monster, be interacting with one of it's special abilities, or you must have a good description of the monster, or some of it's special abilities.

The Base DC is 10 + the CR of the base monster. If you make the base DC, you gain knowledge of base monsters type and sub types, as well as name. For each point you exceed the Base DC you gain knowledge of additional features in this order:

1) Alignment
2) All Movement modes
3) Special attacks, Left to Right other than SLAs
4) Special qualities, Left to Right
5) Full attack routine
6) AC Line
7) SLAs, starting from at wills with highest spell level, moving towards lower levels, then repeating for fewer uses. Each point gives all SLAs at that spell level.
8) The combat section description of standard tactics.

If you exceed the DC by 20, you may look at the Monsters entry for the base monster.

If the monster has any templates, treat them separately from the base monster. First, add the CR increase from all the templates, then have the PC roll against a Base DC of 15+2XCR increase. Use the knowledge category of the the creatures final type if they templates would be different knowledge categories. If the Base DC is exceeded, then start giving PCs knowledge off the list for each point it is exceeded. If the Base DC is exceeded by 20, then provide all the template information.

No knowledge check grants knowledge of changed feat combinations.

When dealing with class abilities or PrCs, knowledge checks trigger when you see an ability used, interact with an ability, or have a description of an ability being used. The DC to know of an ability is 15+the minimum CR that a character could have that ability by. When you roll. If you identify and ability correctly, as belonging to members of a class or PrC, you are aware of any other abilities members of that PrC may have that are under your check result.

For example, Haggar the Glabrezu Phrenic Half Dragon with a level in Fiend of Possession.

There are many ways you might find out about him, for example, being possessed, or noticing someone else's possession, or hearing about him.

But if hypothetically you saw him, you could roll two knowledge checks.

The Base DC of each would be 23 for the Glabrezu, and DC 25 for Phrenic Half Dragon.

A result of of 37 for each check would result in knowing fourteen things about the Glabrezu:

1) Always Chaotic Evil
2) 40ft land only
3) Improved Grab
4) Summon Demon
5) Damage Reduction 10/good
6) 60ft Darkvision
7) Immunity to Elec and Poison
8) Resistances to Acid/Cold/Fire
9) SR 21
10) Telepathy 100ft
11) True Seeing
12) two Pincers, two claws, bite (numbers too)
13) -2 size, +19 natural
14) Reverse Gravity, Greater Teleport (at will)
15) Confusion, Unholy Blight, Chaos Hammer (at will)
16) Dispel Magic (at will)
17) Mirror Image (at will)

Then for the result on his templates 15 things:

1) 80ft fly speed, Average maneuverability
2) Breath weapon
3) Immunity to Sleep, Paralysis, and Dragon type.
4) Naturally Psionic
5) Power Resistance 10+HD.
6) +4 Natural Armor
7) Intellect Fortress 3/day
8) Empty Mind, Mind Thrust 3/day
9) Defensive Precognition 3/day
10) Psionic Dominate 1/day
11) Psychic Crush 1/day
12) Aversion, Psionic Blast 1/day
13) Body Adjustment, Brain Lock 1/day
14) Force Screen 1/day
15) That's it. Sorry.

Additionally, if he where to go ethereal in front of you, you would be able to make a knowledge check against a DC of 19 to figure out the etherealness came from a Fiend of Possession, and if you rolled at 25 or higher, you would know the entire Fiend of Possession class, and be aware of the possibility of the creature having those abilities.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 8:58 pm

Dominicus wrote:I am fairly certain these things are mindless abominations of sorts. In any case, just to be sure, there are three of these things? Do they all seem like they belong to the same type of monster?

The two mangroves that attacked first look to be simple ambulatory trees; the beastie that skewered Vian looked like a mangrove, but now it's all tooths-and-tentacles.

radthemad4 wrote:Also, did Clara remember anything about the other trees?

To Clara, walking trees sound a lot like treants...or at least a treant, as treants can cause other trees to move and attack...but Clara has never heard of a treant quite like the one that hit Vian. Then again, no one has ever come back from the Fire Swamp...

[/edit] If they are treants (or just plain animated trees), treants are vulnerable to fire. Of course, the stabbed-from-behind tactic suggests at least the tentacle-tree might have some Rogue class levels.

Dominicius · Post by **Dominicius** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 9:02 pm

I think there might be a chance that the two type of treant are hostile to each other. A slim hope but one but one that could be worth exploring.