Out Of Character

[doctorx]

The templars were ever a militant lot and the DD Templar tends to reflect that... so perhaps what is needed here is to leave Josiane's increasingly ill-fitting "Templar-hood" behind her, as an ill-fitting boot is cast from a growing foot, and have her "join" a more fitting class?

One option might be for her to switch to the "classic" DD cleric. Another option might be to introduce something new and bespoke.
The former option would be more straightforward of course, and the matter of Jehan's sword would be manageable, as you'll soon see when I post the revised house rules. The sword would be a non-class weapon for a cleric, but Josiane-as-cleric could still swing it (albeit reluctantly!).

Or otherwise we can devise something else that you're more happy with between us. What do you think?

Many thanks for this, ways. I'll need to have a read of the DD cleric and familiarise myself with it to see how it differs from OD&D. She's shown a strong emotional attachment to her foster-father's sword and is going to want to keep using it, certainly.

I like the idea that she's going through some big, potentially traumatic transformation. The whole Saint thing is definitely going to be difficult for her, and Step-Daddy wanted her to be a knight, but her White Lady appears to be whispering something else...

I think we may have a rather troubled young lady on our hands for a bit... Gonna be fun to play!

[waysoftheearth]

I'll need to have a read of the DD cleric and familiarise myself with it to see how it differs from OD&D.

The DD cleric is virtually identical to the OD&D cleric.

It differs only in some of the micro-level detail.
E.g., a few of the numbers in the various tables are slightly different for legal reasons, and I'm also about to alter the turn undead table, slightly, for the same reason.
The DD cleric has, from memory, a few additional spells (six spells of each spell level), and gets a couple of them one level earlier (as per the SRD, upon which DD is legally based).

[mgtremaine]

Plans for War:

So if are plan was to try and fight a war of attrition against the Goblin army we should make sure are equipment allows us to set the right kind of ambushes and such. So here are some ideas...

1) Archers - Besides Ulric ability to take out several enemies at once we need and string missile attack. I think the high dex crowd should make sure they have a good range attack. Wen, Desmond, Olaf, Torben, Armando would be an effective set of Archers. While still allowing plenty of muscle in the front ranks with Dieter, Dorgan, Gustave, Josiane and 2nd row support from Highbough, Beringer.... But there is no shooting into melee as we know.

2) Ditches, Spears, and Oil - The best thing we can do is pick our battle fields. If we can draw patrols in we can have make shift defensive lines, hidden pits, spear walls, oil pools, whatever we can dream up and deploy.. Obviously we do not want to go toe to toe with 40 - 50 enemies at once.

3) More crowd control magic? Not sure if the spell lists are going to get updated but if they do not it might be a good idea for Ulric to teach Highbough and Wen "Sleep". That might help with crowd control if cast at distance into a large group.

Those are my two thoughts thus far. I'll pick up bow when I go shopping.

I think the first thing that needs to be decided is to we go pick off patrols or do do we try to get into Ket?

[sully]

I would posit that we do not want to get into any sort of battle with any group that outnumbers us. Goblins are relatively easy at this point, with the number of Heroes we have, but the Worgs are tough opponents. The giants, I will leave to Dieter.

I don't know that we need to be sneaking into town without a clear-cut objective in mind. We can remotely scry the town for intelligence on what the enemy is doing, once Ulric figures out how to change the channels on that crystal ball.

I would suggest that finding the Boar, if he lives, and his retinue of knights would be our first objective. We need soldiers of our own.

Alternatively, we might ask the Elves if they know of any hidden caches of weapons and armor we can seek out. I know I'd feel better with a couple more "+1"'s on my equipment list. At the very least, we could do with some more coin. I didn't expect to hit 4th level with less than 10 gp to my name (not to mention barefoot and starving but that's another matter entirely. I've got some choice words for the travel agent who told me the Hinterlands was the place to make my fortune!)

[ehiker133]

I agree with Sully. We need to upgrade our weapons, especially since several things we've bumped into in the last year (month "in game") have required magical weapons to hit.

Desmond is going to hold on to Rufus' lockpick set and make a class switch. He'll probably convert Rufus' leather armour to be more useful (he can't use any of his thieving skills when in chain) and wear that from now on, but he should be able to keep his shield handy and set it down when he needs to skulk about or pick a lock. Likewise, he should be able to use a bow for greater range (though he'll hold on to his sling because stones are aplenty and arrows can run out) per the dual-class guidelines.

Don't think he ever had quite the same impact in fights as Olaf or Dieter or The Gustave or Dorgan, so I don't think he will be missed on the front line, which I'll be less apt to send him to with the lighter armour. But since he seems to be a pro at setting off traps, I thought maybe having some ability to better detect them beforehand might be useful...

[mushgnome]

Highbough intends to demand that the Elves supply us with weapons, armor, supplies, offensive spell scrolls, mounts (he is hoping that for something that can fly, like a Hippogriff), etc. as well as a sizable number of troops, at least as an escort to get us back to Ket (if that is what we decide to do). Personally I would vote to gather as much info as we can, use our scrying abilities, and then if it seems prudent, return to Ket for some urban guerilla warfare (as opposed to fighting an army on the open field of battle). The DM has given us some nice resources, such as hidden tunnels under the manse, a slumbering dark-dwarf, a golem-making factory, etc. if we are smart enough to figure out how to use them to our advantage.

ps Highbough doesn't arch. Bow & arrow is a new-fangled invention as far as he's concerned; watching him try to hit a target is like watching grandma try to set the time on the VCR...

[mgtremaine]

Go Dorgan! As much as I'd love to get some +1 items I wonder how likely it is? How many are in play right now? The Axe, the Spear if Ire. is that it? Pretty slim. If I could find a suit of magic armor I could cast spells in it which would be a nice thing. As it is I'll pick long duration spells and cast them at rest periods or in camp, then suit up and be a fighter.

[sully]

Go Dorgan! As much as I'd love to get some +1 items I wonder how likely it is? How many are in play right now? The Axe, the Spear if Ire. is that it? Pretty slim. If I could find a suit of magic armor I could cast spells in it which would be a nice thing. As it is I'll pick long duration spells and cast them at rest periods or in camp, then suit up and be a fighter.

Not sure which axe you're talking about.

Mads Cold Iron Axe isn't magical but it did appear to harm lycanthropes when other normal weapons didn't.

[ehiker133]

He will also mention, now that his memory is warming up, the undead they encountered in Grumolg's warehouse, when Dorgan first made Josiane's acquaintance.

And since he's on the subject of the undead, he'll talk about the dug-up corpses that he and Josiane found evidence of, and the unsleeping dead that took a slice of Olaf's life-force.

Oh, THAT's right! It was when we went into a cemetery when we were in the city. I was having the hardest time trying to remember where we were when Olaf got hit by the... whatever that was... and got level drained.

So, speaking of underground tunnels into the city... wasn't Rufus the only one who knew about them? Or who was able to get out of one, in any case. Maybe it is something we can figure out if we know the landscape around the town? We should remember where we picked Rufus up, and can start looking in that area for obvious spots. He did say it was sewer systems, so... maybe looking for obvious "greener" areas in hillsides under the city where it would be better fertilized (ew)?

[mushgnome]

I bet Wen's "summon friendly mice" spell could be used to find an entrance to the sewers.

However... Highbough would much rather sail over the city walls on his majestic new hippogriff, lobbing Force Choke spells at the goblin leaders, than crawl in through the sewers...