[OOC Discussion] A Call for Lovers (DM: jbear Judge??)

[jbear]

True, only one of you can use it per turn, but you each have separate turns, and thus can each make use of it on your turns.

EDIT: I see that it's too late now, but just a good FYI for next time.

Also, I already cleared it with jbear that the aura is assumed to be 'always on'.

@Son of Meepo - It works like this - "Each time you hit an enemy with a basic attack, one of your allies in the aura gains a +2 power bonus to his or her next attack roll before the end of your next turn."

It doesn't specify how or when this must be determined, so use it if you need it.

I am waiting to act until Daeja has acted this round.

Re: Aura: I believe that Sabynha activated her aura when the mist descended upon the group and you were making your way to the town. As long as you make mention of that moment of tension where you believe you are in danger then I don't think it is necessary to reactivate it wasting a minor action during combat. It's just not on when you sleep, so if you are woken suddenly, say a night ambush (as I gave in original example) then Sabynha would have to wake and activate it, it wouldn't be automatically on.

As Nemesis mentioned that she did so, it's already on.

Re: Floating Bonus: I think it makes it a little too powerful to apply these floating bonuses as needed after a roll. It's something I might allow in a table game, because i like PCs to hit and kill things quickly, rather than have combats drag on. I don't think it is the original intention of the power for the bonus to apply after the attack roll. I believe the intention is for one of you allies to choose to use it, and then make an attack roll with the bonus included.

I'll summon our judge [MENTION=57255]Lord Sessadore[/MENTION] and see what his view is. If he's okay with it, I'm okay with it, with the caveat that they are not used retroactively from here on out. The player that chooses to apply them does so at the moment of their post. I much prefer you hit things more often than not. But let's see what the official view is from our judge

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

Ok, gotcha. I misunderstood or misremembered the details about our discussion of the Skald's Aura. Obviously I will try to remember to activate it if the tension seems to be building.

As far as the granting of bonuses is concerned, I'll play it any way our Judge decides, naturally, but if it is decided that it has to be determined beforehand, we (players) should come up with some conventions for its use, i.e. prioritize who gets it by default and under what circumstances that would change.

 

[Neil1889]

True, only one of you can use it per turn, but you each have separate turns, and thus can each make use of it on your turns.

EDIT: I see that it's too late now, but just a good FYI for next time.

Re: Aura: I believe that Sabynha activated her aura when the mist descended upon the group and you were making your way to the town. As long as you make mention of that moment of tension where you believe you are in danger then I don't think it is necessary to reactivate it wasting a minor action during combat. It's just not on when you sleep, so if you are woken suddenly, say a night ambush (as I gave in original example) then Sabynha would have to wake and activate it, it wouldn't be automatically on.

Ah, right, I missed that in the search. Ne'er mind; after the rough handling we've both had in this last turn, I'm sure we'll need the other usage.

 

[jbear]

As combat closes on the first combat encounter and still no word from [MENTION=90924]LordGraz'zt[/MENTION] I fear that we are down to 4 players.

So I'm going to advertise for a 5th player. If you know anyone who might want to sign up please let me know. I will PM Lord Graz'zt and ask what his situation is. If he does rejoin the adventure after finding a replacement, no worries, the group will be back up to 6.

 

[jbear]

[MENTION=98255]Nemesis Destiny[/MENTION] I've had a bit of a closer look at how the skald's aura works, as skalds are fairly new and I'm not as off the top of my head savvy on the mechanics related to them.

So after a good look I think it is a good idea that we go through the elements that have emerged so far in the game and make sure we are all on the same page with how it works. Hopefully this will be to the benefit of your allies who may not know all the ins and outs of how the power works (I didn't!).

The first thing I notice is that you can't use the aura twice in a turn. So you're right that as each player gets their own turn they can pop off two shots in the same round, it just has to be two different people doing the popping, each on their respective turns. Got it.

Second, anyone can do the activation (which is pretty darn cool). You can either activate it from anywhere within 5 of Sabynha for yourself, or for someone else if you are next to them (As Wat just did for Zuri circumventing a potentially lethal situation with Sabynha still restrained very nicely). The limitation being that Sabynha can't activate it for you from a distance. This is a very cool variation of the healing mechanic IMO. Also makes it harder for the DM to justify that the monsters gang up on the leader! Especially as it's not so easy for them to actually figure out where that source of healing is coming from!

Lastly, the issue of pre-activation. The power actually specifies that it only lasts for an encounter. Which equates to about 5 minutes in 4e outside of an encounter. So how about we say the aura can't be kept on all the time, but as long as you are not surprised, and know you are heading into battle, or think that you will be within the next 5 minutes you just need to mention that you activate it and it will be already on when combat hits.

Is that all good?

 

[Lord Sessadore]

Note that I probably know less about Skalds than the rest of you, since I've never had to look them up before, and I don't have time right now.

That said, what jbear said makes sense. The aura is an encounter power that lasts for the rest of the encounter, which is about 5 minutes, so that means you can't really keep it on all day. If you pop it randomly, it'll wear off after about 5 minutes, after which you need to take a short rest to regain the power. I'd say the best thing to do would be to pop it just before you enter combat if you have any kind of a warning.

About the floating bonus, I'm pretty certain that with all bonuses you have to choose whether or not you're using it before you make the roll, unless it specifies otherwise. If jbear wants to let you guys use it retroactively I'm fine with that, though especially in PbP I think it would be better/cleaner to declare you're using it before you make your roll - retcons are messy.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

Got it. We are on the same page now.

As to the bonus, just to clarify - I don't have to specify who gets it, but whomever uses it must do so before their roll. Right?

This is not likely to come up with any of my other auras, as the other one I currently have adds to damage. I'd considered swapping the attack bonus one for a temp hp granting one, simply because it would be less confusing, but +2 on an ally's attack roll just seemed too good to pass up.

 

[Son of Meepo]

retcons are messy.

Agreed, but as someone who has played paragon level games via pbp, they quickly become a necessity.

From my own experience in a level 12 campaign, the DM would take the monsters' turns, the PCs would then post their immediate actions (and we all had multiple per encounter) and then the DM would have to retcon the monsters' actions based on our immediate actions... every single round.

 

[Lord Sessadore]

Yes, that is messy. :S

Though interesting ... I played an epic level campaign on here for a while, and we didn't seem to really have problems with that. Maybe just the character types we picked? I dunno.

I think Velmont's (I think it's Velmont) approach to immediate actions is the best - write up a set of criteria for them to trigger, in order of priority, and then the DM can use them for you when the situations come up.

 

[jbear]

Yeah, I like this option the best with immediate actions as well.

As retconning may at times be a necessary evil at times, perhaps we should avoiding unnecessary evil into the game. I think it will be cleaner if the player who is going to use the bonus declares they are going to use it before their attack roll.

There will still be some cases where it will be very useful i.e you are going to drop an encounter power or a daily power on an enemy and really don't want to miss or you are attacking a really high stat with a power eg. vs Fort etc etc. With Wat who has multiple attack powers (or anyone making a multi-target attack for that matter), I wouldn't mind if he declared "I'm going to use the bonus for one of my attacks" then roll and apply the bonus where it was needed.

At the moment we have 2 immediate Actions in the game. Both come from Rain. Infernal Wrath is straight damage so it's fine to apply retroactively. Even if it kills a creature, they will have already attacked so no worries. Retcon is very minor.

Aegis of Shielding reduces damage. It only marks one creature and it's pretty easy for me to apply dmg reduction as part of the monster round.

This will become more complicated as Rain levels up. I know as my main PC is a Hybrid Shielding Sword mage.

I know how Daeja's Riposte Strike works, that's easy. Sabynha can empower other PCs attacks with her daily power.

Are their other reaction powers I'm missing (not including White Lotus, that doesn't was an Immediate Action) in the group?

I'll make a list and add a section of reactions to the combat page.

Re: New Player I have invited [MENTION=6684473]CrimsonFlameWielder[/MENTION] to join out group with his lvl 1 monk. That would give the party a melee striker, which I think will be a decent replacement for Themes. I'll try and think of a way to write him into the adventure before you leave Crystalbrook.

I haven't heard back from LordGraz'zt about Kartuus.