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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Scarbonac" data-source="post: 925145" data-attributes="member: 9129">Sweet Paps of Ishtar, how this thread has grown!I think that ''realism'' only counts when the PCs are donning armor.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> And so when Skippy the Boy Sorcerer came swooping down out of the nighttime sky, apparently directly into the ducal palace like there are no such things as doors, they all recognized him in time to not kill him? Gosh, that was lucky for him, I suppose.  Ah, so he was just frozen in place, like the inhabitants of a bad old dungeon or a videogame, awaiting the presence of a PC to activate him? Oh, right, he was ''in a meeting''.Even though they had ''standing orders'' from the Duke to do so? How very odd. So, they were under ''standing orders'' from their liege lord to admit the party at all times, but they weren't going to let Skippy in until he made a couple of skill checks?  12 seconds, regardless of how carefully and lovingly you've counted each and every one of them, is hardly any time for role-playing out a scene,  let alone for people to identify persons, process information and decide on a course of action outside of a direct combat scene, where those sorts of split-second decisions habitually have to be made.Sounds scary; I have had guns stuck in my face too, and a bit worse, so I can empathize. It just struck me as odd that you'd have chosen Mugabe to reference, as he's an admittedly minor infamous person...but I digress...<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />No, actually; 1) I suspected that the rules weren't being applied evenly, based on your descriptions of the action,2) I thought that my grasp of the rules was better than it apparently is (but that could go for most everyone in this thread; see quite a bit further below), 3) I wanted to see what you thought were reasonable distances to cover in the stated period of time by the means used plus any of the other specifics that would influence the situation (though probably not to the obviously hyperbolic extent that I posted), to compare them to what I found in the PHB and DMG.4) at the same time,  I wanted to lighten the mood a trifle (isn't that what  the <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> is for? Otherwise, I'm swearing off the retarded smiley use in future posts).  But I don't know that; how could I possibly? Dash it all, Sir, you have seen through my brilliantly fiendish plot. Shall I await Scotland Yard, call for my Seconds, or merely do away with myself in a suitably-refined and gentlemanly fashion with my trusty old service revolver?I have to admit that I have been depending largely on the ''smell test'' here, and I'm picking up strong indications of well-ripened Limberger and end-of-the-year gym-socks. Everything  strikes me as having happened waywayway too fast -- nigh-instantaneous recognition/threat-assessment, little or no discussion or RP, near-perfect precision on the part of the vampires in their enthralling/herding activities (except for a stray lightning bolt), and so forth...Further, when people are startled bolt-awake in the middle of the night, they generally aren't going to get their bearings immediately and rush off into the night in their undies to confront Dire Eeee-vile unless they're being overrun...idiots in bad movies do this sort of thing, but we watch those movies to see those people turned into gory messes of screaming confetti by Jason & Freddie (at least I do); we generally don't play our games so that the BBEG can turn our PCs into gory messes of screaming confetti.  That the DM expects them to strikes me as plain odd; also, wouldn't it take a goodly amount of time for them to have grabbed chain shirts, magic cloaks, et cetera, from wherever and put them on, plus cast spells on themselves and  saddle up the griffin...?...all of which you seemed to think were viable alternatives to just letting them put on their armor and get to the battle in time?Having Super-Duke fly in to save the day-err, night was one of the worst things that you could have done, IMNSHO; are the NPCs the focus of the game? Or is it the fun? Almost half the group being left out the battle (partly their own fault, I might be convinced to concede) sounds like the antithesis of ''fun'', but that might just be me.I could see Lightning Bolt making a  ''horrible explosion'', but this is the first mention of Lightning Bolt  in this thread; Mass Suggestion, Mind Fog, Wall of Fire (which is what I was referencing in my ''fire-wielding'' comment. You musta missed that in your stab at cleverness) and Wall of Stone, but no Lightning Bolt.Amazing how the vampires had this all so carefully-planned, perfectly-timed and well-thought out, but then they somehow managed to blow it by tipping off their enemies with a stray  lightning bolt. Oopsie.   Other than the isolated and easily-missed use of the descriptor ''evil'' in your first post (which was essentially buried under a mass of information in that and the subsequent flurry of messages), the first mention that the Duke might not be a good guy is when we hear from you that he was reneging on a deal that he'd made with the PCs. Even so, what he did do didn't sound particularly evil. Not ''nice'', definitely, but not really evil, either.''Vichy'', eh? Not too bad.BTW,  the Paladin was OK with the Duke's assassination?I frequently come off  (even to myself) as brusque & occasionally alternatingly flip and stiff  in my manner of expression. *shrug* I don't have any particular personal beef with you and your  posse, but I'd also say that it looks to me like you've been pretty short with several persons posting in this thread who has had the base temerity to disagree with you. The cads. The bounders. How dare they not give you the apparent unconditional acceptance that you deserve. Da noive of some people.Of course, it may once again be a case of  the inherent flatness of Internet communications leading to misperceptions of the tone in a post on a message-board.Wouldn't be the first time, won't be the last, either.Already been covered by D'karr, Chief. That musta slipped by you. Nice try, though. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />  I don't recall asserting that I'm particularly intellectually-superior to anyone; that would be immodest. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Since  you apparently didn't correctly understand how elves still have to trance for four hours a day, which is functionally equivalent to sleep, and how sorcerers, like wizards, still need 8 hours of rest  (so, trance plus four hours of rest, basically, for Super-Vichy) plus a brief period of concentraton in order to regain spell slots, I wouldn't talk much, ya dig?Remember?That's a bit more basic than the effects of haste spells on fly spells. I'd be willing to call it even if you do, however.I suppose that you could say that he'd gotten his rest earlier,  but anything that you come up with after the fact to CYA would basically be you blowing sunshine and butterflies, and not originally part of your carefully-crafted binary scenario.I don't think that I did that badly with the haste business, having had 4 hours of sleep out of 60 (at the time of my last posts). Had I managed to get a suitable amount of rest over the last several days, I might have sussed that one out in time to not look like such a colossal dumbass. It could happen. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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