[Adventure] Trouble in Moonwatch (Judge:TwoHeadsBarking)

[CaBaNa]

Pok takes into account the danger listening to Lanharath's advice may bring, and weighs his trust of Lanharath's judgement as he had just moments before with Valahad. Everyone stop saying my name!

The diminutive gnome made his decision instantaneously, with the finesse of a dancer Pok jump-kicked the tree, lifting himself ever higher before escaping it's branches. Small arms spread mid-air, as the floating gnome's robes glittered against the moonlight. Then in the space he had once occupied there was only black, as his barrel roll topped out, and his grayscale elven cloak blended with the night.

Pok thought as he watched the lip of the pit disappear from view, and the rubble begin approaching his head, *I'll ask Roswyn to help me with the new spell, she's always been good at the verbal component.* Tucking his arms and legs in, increasing his speed, and churning his body end over end, the gnomes face became visible again. Lunar tears exploded into glistening glare from shimmering robes as Pok threw his arms and legs wide again, slowing instantly before landing with a feint woosh.

His wand was forward and he was already casting, timing himself to cast after Lanharath's plan commenced.




[sblock=OOC]

Move to H12 (Acrobatics 25 crit that )

Standard readied action, trigger; Lan resolves his turn
Phantom Bolt on nearest enemy 26 vs will for 16 psychic damage, and slide 1 pending the situation. (Max damage naturally rolled )



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[KarinsDad]

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The general rules consensus for Ready is that you have to pick "an intended" target, not a "conditional on the resolution of the triggering action" target for your Readied Action.

There is a difference between picking "a triggering target" (one intended target) and one of many depending on which ones are left standing.

So basically, you need to declare the specific foe when you declare the ready action.

The other aspect is technically, you should say "trigger: Lan attacks the tentacles" and not "trigger: Lan resolves his turn" since the first is an action and the second is a metagaming concept. You ready on actions, not game mechanics. This is a nit, but I point it out because it makes it easier to adjudicate in more complex situations. For example with a trigger of when Lan attacks; if Lan attacks and then stands up, he would attack, you would attack, and then he stands up. Otherwise, you would need to make the trigger when Lan stands up (in order to go after Lan's turn completely) and if he does not stand up, your Readied Action is lost.

But as a general rule, one cannot ready for the end of someone's turn, when a saving throw is made (although there are exceptions), when damage is rolled, etc.

Personally, I think you should blow off the Readied Action and just attack the Tentacles and then move. That way, you are guaranteed to get an attack in and you don't get OAed by the Tentacles if you Phantom Bolt it with it next to you (and you increase the chance of it dying).
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[Kalidrev]

[sblock=Readying Actions]

When you ready an action, you prepare to react to a creature’s action or an event. Readying an action is a way of saying, “As soon as x happens, I’ll do y.” For instance, you could say, “As soon as the troll walks out from behind the corner, I’ll use my pinning strike and interrupt its movement” or something like, “If the goblin attacks, I’ll react with a crushing blow.”

READY AN ACTION: STANDARD ACTION

Choose Action to Ready: Choose the specific action you are readying (what attack you plan to use, for example) as well as your intended target. You can ready a standard action, a move action, or a minor action. Whichever action you choose, the act of readying it is a standard action.

Choose Trigger: Choose the action that will trigger your readied action. When that action occurs, you can use your readied action. If the trigger doesn’t occur or you choose to ignore it, you can’t use your readied action, and you take your next turn as normal.

Immediate Reaction: A readied action is an immediate reaction. It takes place after your enemy completes the action that triggers it.

Interrupting an Enemy: If you want to use a readied action to attack before an enemy attacks, you should ready your action in response to the enemy’s movement. That way your attack will be triggered by a portion of the enemy’s move, and you will interrupt it and attack first. If you ready an action to be triggered by an enemy attack, your readied action will occur as a reaction to that attack, so you’ll attack after the enemy.
Note that an enemy might use a power that lets it move and then attack. If you readied an action to attack in response to that enemy’s movement, your readied action interrupts the movement, and you can attack before the enemy does.

Reset Initiative: After you resolve your readied action, move your place in the initiative order to directly before the creature or the event that triggered your readied action.

As you can see from above, KD seems to be right, though as a DM I would give a LOT more leeway than this. I would allow something along the lines of "I will use Phantom Bolt as a reaction to Lanharath's last attack". This way, you're still designating an action "Lan attacks", but being more specific to the time frame.

I don't see THAT as metagaming, because as humans, we time readied actions all the time. Picture this for instance:

You're in martial arts and you're sparring with a partner. You don't immediately jump every time your opponent fakes a punch or a kick. You wait until a certain trigger (an amount of movement or a type of movement) occurs before you throw out a block or counter-attack.

Ultimately, it's up to R1 (and the judges) to adjudicate this, NOT the players, however.

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[renau1g]

[sblock=Rules Interpretations]
As an FYI, I do appreciate any support on rules knowledge KD (of which yours is far superior to mine), but posting things in the game thread (and the tone of the posts) tends to come off as antagonistic. As Kal pointed out, the DM has a fair bit of leniancy with the rules and I'm definitely a lot more flexible than RAW (as evidenced by allowing Lan's semi-telepathic "perception"). I got the jist of what Pok was trying to do and I'm fine with it. General consesus' in the Rule Forums are great in helping a DM to provide a framework to adjudicate rules, but there's one rule that trumps them all Rule 0. I find that it's a lot easier to run a PbP formatted game (and improved enjoyment levels of myself and PC's) to be more open and generally read the rules to a broader level. PM's to me would be the way to point out any concerns you have with actions and resolutions. I will rule on grey-area actions based on my judgment of the situation, if the judges disagree with a ruling they will let me know. This kind of OOC posting has really slowed the game down as now people are forced to go back and re-jig actions that I have no issue with. Below is a list of things I expect from players. If this is too hard, or can't be done, I'm fine with anyone bowing out, although I'd hate to lose the great roleplaying to date, I can't have conflicts happening that are to the detriment of the majority of the players. I'm doing this out in the open so that way everyone's on the same page about things. Tension's are running high in the posts and it's pretty obvious that there's some conflicts so I'd like us to either work with them or take next steps.

1) Posting actions during within 48 hours - this is necessary for moving combat forward
2) Rule 0 is in effect - Urban Dictionary: rule 0 - now, I've been fairly lenient with my interpretations and I have no plans to change that. If someone wants to attempt a maneuver not specifically spelled out in the rules (or hell if I think something's a really interesting idea) I will determine things somewhat on the fly.
3) Allowing players to play their characters - no need to tell others how to play
4) Rules lawyering - no please, if you have an issue with my ruling on an action please PM me. If you see a post by another player asking for my opinion on an action, please allow me, the DM, to give it.
5) Check attitudes at the door - A lot of posts have taken things personally and that needs to stop or as I said before things will need to change.
6) OOC Posts - please reserve these posts for OOC game posts. If you have a message about being absent, non-game stuff, etc. please utilize the PM function. It keeps our thread cleaner and will allow us to focus on the play.

I suppose that's it. I would like to move forward and I need to know that everyone's on board with this. If not, I reserve no judgement if this group isn't a good fit for any of you. I would hate to see over 4 months of playing for naught, but I also would hate to see anyone not happy even more.
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[Velmont]

[SBLOCK=OOC]That's sounds fine with me... as long as I can keep my Mountain Dew, I'll be happy [/SBLOCK]

 

[renau1g]

[sblock=ooc]
As long as it's not that gods awful Code Red, that's fine
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[KarinsDad]

[sblock=OCC]
Ok by me as well.

Sorry I have been a source of contention. It is not my intent. I just do a double take every time someone posts something that appears to be outside of the rules of the game. I'll PM to renau1g those concerns if they come up from now on.

Totally my bad. Sorry guys.
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[Maidhc O Casain]

[sblock=OOC]Totally on board, bossman! (I'm a Coca-Cola and Coffee man myself).[/sblock]

 

[CaBaNa]

[sblock=OOC]

Bring on the fun r1!

P.s. Lanharath is cleared for take-off.

Also, separate reminder for r1, Pok doesn't provoke from ranged or area attacks.

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[renau1g]

[sblock=ooc]
Let's do it, go-go Lan.
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