[B.A.D.D] Red Discussion

[Intrope]

The reds should have a bolthole to withdraw to, if things go poorly. This should be a room with the only entrance through a lavafall; while I'm sure they can get through it, I doubt they can just walk through, so this will force them to burn more magic.

For amusement value: have Ghelban strapped to a large rotissere like device, that dips him in the lava every so often. Won't hurt him, but would likely make freeing him tougher (and prevent him from sleeping at that).

Never underestimate the power of making people waste time on side issues instead of dealing out damage. Deeper Darkness (Clr3) should definitely be in a Dragon's arsenal--it doesn't hurt them, but it cancels the party's ability to see (unless they have an item that sheds daylight continuously). Combine this with Snatch and dunk tactics and Maze spells to seriously divide the Party's abilities.

 

[Zad]

Ok, I'm one of the players. Here I am, look at me. wheeeeee.

(Well the fight's over so we've been given clearance to read the thread. nyaah.)

First off - you are all evil bastards and I'm glad that I didn't have to deal with most of the twisted crap you people came up with. :rollin

That said, some things jump out.

Scrying: I hear a lot of scrying mentioned but you gotta remember that if you scry someone, there's a chance they notice. The party mage has a good scry score - he surely will notice someone scrying us, and we'll get appropriately paranoid. In metagame terms, while there's scrying going on, it's not a card that gets overplayed. Having the bad guys constantly scrying us and vice versa would just end up making us take precautions and make things icky.

A dismissal is ok, but really negates the point of playing - if I get dismissed/banished, I'm out of the game for the rest of the adventure. Not a lot of fun there.

As for Ashardalon, I think if he'd have showed up, we'd have gone into full retreat. We know little about him save that he's extremely powerful, and we would probably have just got outta town.

The Mord's Disjunction was on the chains, but we had a good way around whatever the chains held - anti-magic field. We had one ready just to facilitate the escape. Clever of us I thought. Blame the cleric.

The grappling iron golems was pretty wild. I'm kinda surprised those didn't show up, but honestly our driver was speed speed speed. We didn't waste any time exploring or meandering around the Durance Vile - we got in, made a bee-line for what we wanted, and got out. We had a hunch just looking at the landscape where we'd find Gelban, but Find the Path confirmed it.

Personally I thought the entire run came out really well. The door guards were totally fierce, and we did seriously consider turning back. And I really believe that one of the things that let us succeed was that we didn't waste any time once it started. Allowing the dragons to rally any kind of defense was high in our mind and we moved to minimize that.

In character, I was pretty scared of this one. We were on the edge and I knew it. I'm just glad we pulled it off, though at a cost. Of course what we really want to see now is the political fall out in the council now that Gelban is back

 

[LGodamus]

I dont see how anti magic field would have any effect at all on Mords disjunction.......just through a balance standpoint it should have no effect considering the level difference.

 

[Argent Silvermage]

You are all evil bastards and may never speak or type to my GM again! Getting Bolo killed like that was not nice. Not nice at all.

 

[WizarDru]

I dont see how anti magic field would have any effect at all on Mords disjunction.......just through a balance standpoint it should have no effect considering the level difference.

Level doesn't even enter into it, honestly. A dispel magic cast by even a low level caster has a significant chance to defeat a more powerful spell, and a greater dispelling even more so, particularly when used by a high-level caster. Normally, both are area effects, one as a burst, the other for a set duration. Normally, the two would be unable to interact, except for casting after the AMF was active. In this case, the chains were enchanted to affect anything that specifically touched them, making them a continuous effec that could be suppresed. I mean, we're discussing a 8th-level spell defeating, temporarily, a 9th level spell. Not exactly shaking the pillars of heaven.