Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zuche" data-source="post: 5747847" data-attributes="member: 6682151">I'd have thought a strategy of hiding below decks was suicide, since that leaves the tentacles only one target: the ship. I can't find hit points for a caravel, but 350, midway between a longship and a greatship, seemed fair. If you feel that might not be sporting, have the tentacles go for break checks (or attacks) against sections of the hull, letting them earn limited access to the players.I'd still just opt to sink the ship. There's still value in hiding below decks for a round or two, which seems more than fair to me.I checked the Silence ritual, and I don't see how it would apply. I don't consider a rowboat to be either a room nor an area. That takes care of Hand of Fate, as all that ritual casting is going to draw attention.I was also very, very stingy on the subject of remaining hidden after performing a coup de grace. It would certainly go undetected by the pirates in the middle room, but offing one knave without alerting the other one in the room long enough to sound an alarm demanded extra effort. I quickly identified three ways players could achieve them, one of which pointed out other means of achieving the same goal. Several other options have since suggested themselves to me, so I feel completely guilt free about what happened to my first band of heroes.They got off to a good start, with a berserker and cleric sneaking into one room and a warden and wizard sneaking into the other. I made things harder by pointing out that any attempt to communicate with words could alert the sleepers as well, but the players rose to that challenge beautifully.It was splitting the party between two rooms that got them in trouble. I missed on every single attack in the first round, letting the warden and wizard get off to a nice start in their room. The berserker was also faring pretty well in that first round, even managing to land a hit against the first mate, forcing her to retreat (a gamble that paid off) to let her captain take her place in the next round. Yes, they were filling pretty confident -- right up until the captain charged in against their berserker and landed a critical hit with combat advantage. The cleric was able to make it nearly impossible to hit him in the next round, but healing was not as effective as he'd hoped it would be. Between them, they spent two daily powers and an action point to bloody her (bad attack rolls did not help), and then the cleric backed away to go check out other chests. This is where it all started to go really wrong. The berserker was eventually overwhelmed by the captain, first mate (I used my best June Foray impressions for them, but couldn't draw the players into the slightest bit of interaction), one pirate, and three knaves, while the warden wandered away from the pirates he'd been pushing around the moment the horn was blown, attempting to get to the other chests. The wizard opened the one in their room, finding 2000 gold, then retreated to the rowboat, where he figured he'd be safe in the corner of the map.Captain Bloodbath and pirate crossbows soon showed him how wrong he was. Meanwhile, their companions were out checking the last two chests. With one round to spare, they discovered that the one they wanted was with the barbarian they'd left to die.I'm seriously considering playing the Baron with Boris Badenov's voice.</blockquote>

Verification