JollyDoc's Age of Worms (Updated 11/30, Epilogue!)

[gfunk]

Sweet update JD. This was a quickie 5 hr gaming session.

As it struck, the psion felt all of his strength leave him, and he collapsed to the ground, unable to even support his own body weight. Faust knew exactly what had befallen him, but he was helpless to do anything about it. Fortunately, he did not need to use his hands or speak words to kill. His mind was still fully functional. A ray of fire lanced out from the center of his brow to strike the blue dragon. Then Faust did something truly amazing. Concentrating, he peered a few moments into the future, enabling him to anticipate Vermirox’s next move. In so doing, he was able to strike preemptively, bombing the wyrm with a second ball of volcanic fire. They didn’t call him Holocaust for nothing.

Vermirox: Casts Ray of Enfeeblement for 8 pts of Str dmg, knocking Faust to 0 (helpless)

Faust: As long as mind is intact can manifest psionics

1. Maximized, Augmented, Overchanneled Energy Ray, Fire = 128 pts

2. Anticipatory Strike = Acts again in the same round

3. Maximized, Augmented Energy Ray, Fire = 104 hp

Total dmg from "helpless" Psion = 232 hp

Vermirox: "Biznitch you later, skater!"




But this one hurt . . .

. . . but the goliath took the full brunt of the attack. As he jittered and shivered from the jolt, his skin began to scorch, and most of his clothing, magical and mundane, as well as his rings and headgear erupted into flames, or simply melted into slag. As the storm passed, the smoking giant sank to his knees.

Nat 1 on Reflex Save means that your items save or be destroyed. Mak pretty much lost everything (~140K gp worth of items all told). Ouch.

Fortunately, we found a solution of sorts to this problem.

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

Definate Ouch by Faust. And Ika has the worst luck regarding magical items with his characters ever I haven't seen the magazine yet, but curiously-is a 1st level Necromantic spell the worst the badguys can pull off to a party that's 18th level? I know it may have been devestating in this particular use but it seems a bit tame, even if a dragon of the appropriate CR doesn't have the same amount of Sorc levels as someone of an equal level.

Edit-Also, I'm curious as to why didn't Faust just DD his way out of the fall like he did last time? Being paralyzed doesn't seem to hurt psions too much.

 

[gfunk]

Edit-Also, I'm curious as to why didn't Faust just DD his way out of the fall like he did last time? Being paralyzed doesn't seem to hurt psions too much.

Mainly b/c it was tactically unwise to teleport into the middle of a raging melee. Besides, I wasn't sure if Vermirox would come back and I wasn't sure of the positions of the two remaining dragons (they moved around quite a bit). I didn't want to end up at the receiving end of a Breath Weapon when I was helpless or (even worse) set myself up for a possible coup-de-grace.

Paralyzation really means nothing to psions except for the standard risks of CDG and the inability to make Reflex saves. In fact being dazed is far worse, including the inability to take immediate actions. I hate Blasphemy with a white-hot rage.

 

[Hammerhead]

Nat 1 on Reflex Save means that your items save or be destroyed. Mak pretty much lost everything (~140K gp worth of items all told). Ouch.

Fortunately, we found a solution of sorts to this problem.

I'm afraid that at least according to the RAW, most of Big Mak's equipment would have survived.

Unless the descriptive text for the spell specifies otherwise, all items carried or worn by a creature are assumed to survive a magical attack. If a creature rolls a natural 1 on its saving throw against the effect, however, an exposed item is harmed (if the attack can harm objects). Refer to Table: Items Affected by Magical Attacks. Determine which four objects carried or worn by the creature are most likely to be affected and roll randomly among them. The randomly determined item must make a saving throw against the attack form and take whatever damage the attack deal.

 

[Joachim]

Hammerhead is right. PHB, page 177, bottom of first column, "Items Surviving After a Saving Throw". 1 item, rolled randomly out of 4, is affected, and this is really good for Mak because 3 of the first 4 might not have been destroyed due to electricity only doing half damage before hardness is applied, most of Mak's stuff is adamantine and has big hitpoints. According to the table, the items to be affected first would be the following:

1) Shield (Magic Shielded Gauntlet...hardness at least 12, hitpoints at least 30 assuming a +1)
2) Armor (Adamantine Breastplate...hardness at least 22, hitpoints at least 43 assuming a +1)
3) Helmet, Hat, or Headband (don't know if Mak has one)
4) Item in hand (in this case, a weapon) (Adamantine Large Bastard Sword...hardness at least 22, hitpoints at least 37 assuming a +1)
5) Magic Cloak (Cloak of Cha +6...pretty much fragged if affected)
6) Stowed or sheathed weapon
and so on....

Magic jewely (amulets, rings, etc.) are way down on the list (9th), so according to RAW Mak's ring of FoM would never have been affected.. IMHO, I think that it would be appropriate to go back and adjust the encounter accordingly. It had no real effect on the outcome of the battle, but has a far more ranging effect for Mak in the campaign to come.

Great catch, Hammerhead. There are still a lot of things that we take for granted that they never changed over from 3.0, and probably once a month we have a collective revelation while flipping through the PHB or DMG.

 

[Ika_Greybeard]

That was when I pouted I rolled for everything Headband was toast +6wisdom. Belt toast +6 Charisma, Ioun stone +1 ac toast, Ring FOM toast, and Amulet of Nat armor +3 toast all I had to make was a 10 or better Dice was not on my side.

Yea I know not good with Items just need to make me a vow of poverty monk so JD cannot pick on me

 

[gfunk]

Yea I know not good with Items just need to make me a vow of poverty monk so JD cannot pick on me

Then we'll probably run into a vampire who dominates you and forces you to buy some beef jerky at the local inn. Bye-bye Vow of Poverty . . .

BTW, I'm not sure it all items saving on a Natural "1" is a house-rule or not. I'm inclined to think that it was.

 

[JollyDoc]

Then we'll probably run into a vampire who dominates you and forces you to buy some beef jerky at the local inn. Bye-bye Vow of Poverty . . .

BTW, I'm not sure it all items saving on a Natural "1" is a house-rule or not. I'm inclined to think that it was.

Not a house rule. Like Rich said, I think our interpretation carried over from 3.0...so, ultimately lucky, and less expensive, for Mak. Damn you Hammerhead! I would have gotten away with it if not for you meddling kids!

 

[Ika_Greybeard]

And a Thank You goes out to the meddling Kids

 

[Joachim]

Not a house rule. Like Rich said, I think our interpretation carried over from 3.0...so, ultimately lucky, and less expensive, for Mak. Damn you Hammerhead! I would have gotten away with it if not for you meddling kids!

IIRC (and I think that I am), the items saving on a natural '1' was a DMG 3.0 variant rule from that we adopted for that campaign. It never came into play in the Shackled City campaign, so we never looked it up. I guess when they went to 3.5 they removed the variant rule, and made a firm rule that a natural '1' means that you have to make a save for 1 item. Now that I am thinking about it, I did notice this when 3.5 came out and mused, "Hmm...that's interesting." And then I promptly forgot about it.

I spent about an hour this morning dredging through the PHB and DMG trying to find where they stowed it. You would think that it would be under damaging an item, or under item saving throws (it is mentioned but not expounded under this section), or even in the beginning section of the Magic Items chapter. No...its actually tucked away in the Spells and Magic section of the PHB, and there is no reference in any index. And this is why books suck compared to Internet.