IC: Dichotomy's Age of Worms Redux, Part V

[TiCaudata]

Erdolliel pauses at the sensation and looks back to the rest of the group. After seeing Eskard take to the air, she moves cautiously forward again, trying to stay within striking distance of Eskard. [sblock=oc]So I put together a great big plan in a post yesterday, but had EN eat it alive and refuse to let me retrieve it. Luckily, O3 is apparently on track with what I was thinking.

Erdolliel will stay hidden and keep exploring cautiously by searching (+14) each square before stepping on the timber silently (+13). She'll continue this way to the 'island' due West of the first timber. There she will wait within reach of Eskard for 3 rounds while readied to attack anything that attacks her or Eskard. +8 1d8+3 SA +4d6.

If nothing attacks, and she doesn't see anything new, she will continue to the 'island' in the NW corner of the room, searching and stepping as she goes as well. All searches can be the normal search that takes a full round action. Here she will wait 3 rounds again while readied before moving along the northern line towards the darkened area.[/sblock]

 

[worthley]

Seeing the others prepare for battle, Bazrim pulls a wand from it's case and readys himself for the worst.
[sblock=ooc]wand of mm[/sblock]

 

[Dichotomy]

[sblock=OOC]It would be REALLY COOL if en world would tell us, beforehand, that they are not going to let me post. I do not have the numbers I rolled anymore, but I will recreate as best as I can.[/sblock]
Eskard joins Erdolliel as the elf moves west on the plank.

Suddenly, both half-orc and elf realize, too late, that some... things... are moving toward them, fast. Erdolliel is subjected to a violent shove from the northeast and slightly below her. The others see the elf literally lifted off the plank by some invisible force, and she then plummets into the water below, thankfully not striking any of the many weapons in the water.

Eskard feels the force of a smack, and the others see the warrior recoil from the unseen strike.

Who or whatever the attackers are, they are still unseen.
[sblock=worthley]Bazrim knows that creatures called invisible stalkers, extraplanar air elementals, can fly and have innate invisibility. It cannot be dispelled or affected by invisibility purge. But there may be other ways...[/sblock]

[sblock=OOC]I made spot/listen rolls and determined that there would be no surprise round. The baddies still won initiative.

1: charge & bull rush R; no AoO b/c flat-fotted; STR checks was 1 vs 7 or 8, which was a success; R is knocked off the plank, falls, and is subjected to 2 "attacks" from weapons in the water, both missed
2: charges S, hits, 12 damage

Baddies are still unseen, though Eskard (for the moment) has them pinpointed in squares next to him.

And, after thinking about this quite a bit, I'm going to decide that Bazrim DID draw his wand. But I'm also thoroughly convinced there was metagaming here, as Bazrim did not see "the others prepare for battle." I'm just calling it as I see it. Let's not see it again.

Erdolliel is next. Time to review the swimming rules.

Status & Init
1:
2:
Erdolliel: in the water (which is calm)
Eskard: 12 damage
Kushnak:
Bazrim:
Nethezar:[/sblock]

 

[o3caudata]

Taken aback, Eskard instantly lashes out at his unseen attacker.

[sblock=oc]
Rage. Attack the square that attacked me. PA 3 +12 /+7 2d6+17 5' step toward R. 45 deg down and 'west' 6 rnd left
[/sblock]

"Eskard. Bring her back to us. NOW."

[sblock=oc]Kushnak moves 10' N and readies to attack a thing if he either gets hit(in which case he'll attack the square?), or can see one. [/sblock]

 

[TiCaudata]

Erdolliel tries to make it to solid ground. "Dwarf! Make yourself useful![sblock=oc]Swim (+2) South and get onto the platform again. Not sure what it takes to get up again, but I can swim up to 20' as a full round action and 10' as a move action, so that should allow me to get to the same square as the platform with one move action.[/sblock]

 

[worthley]

Bazrim fires his wand at the spot where Eskard just attacked. "Keep vocal about where you are attacked from."
[sblock=ooc]MM Eskard's attacker square 4d4+4[/sblock]

 

[Dichotomy]

[sblock=OOC]Magic Missle

In all seriousness, I truly believe they should hire people with law degrees to write the rules. Whoever they have now sucks at it.

I believe "even if the target [...] has less than [...] total concealment" implies (but does not explicitly say) that if the target DOES have total concealment, MM doesn't work.

Examples:
Person standing behind a tree: Partial cover; MM works.
Person standing on the other side of a 10' tall brick wall, but is really loud so you can pinpoint him: total cover; MM not work
Person standing in thin fog: partial concealment; MM works
Person far away in thick fog (but loud, again): total concealment; MM not work

I believe this is the conclusion compelled by the rules. Does this make sense? Am I just wrong? Thoughts?

P.S. What the HELL is with the boards deciding that MM means Monster Manual? Do you all see it, too?[/sblock]

 

[o3caudata]

[sblock=oc]This is actually a problem with MM(no, not the monster manual). It doesn't follow the general rules of the way spells work, being that it's an 'instant hit' and blah blah.

I think if there is any doubt in the interpretation you can roll back to the more general rule about targeting. You ALWAYS need to be able to see a target to target them. MM has a target. And this is expressly different than the behavior of say, RoE, which uses the rules of effect for rays.

The additional text of MM is simply there to ensure that it's understood that you CAN target things with concealment without a miss chance(which is more or less unnecessary because you don't make an attack roll anyway).

And the point about total cover is unnecessary, since you CAN'T make attacks against things with total cover.

Like this post, MM is too verbose for it's own good. MM automatically hits, barring SR, anyone you can target with it.

Done.[/sblock]

 

[worthley]

[sblock=ooc]I am completely ok with the spell not working. I was thinking that it worked if I could see the square the target is in, and I can do that, and in Kurt's examples I could not. I'll just roll with it so we don't spend two weeks talking about the rules, and how they are unclear. Also, MM should mean Magic Missle, not Monster Manual as people on here generally use the SRD (Super Ray of Death?) instead of the books[/sblock]
Bazrim, frustrated with the failure in preperation of his wand, he fires rays of flame from his hand at the spot the attacker is known to be in.
[sblock=another ooc]cast Scorching Ray +6 ranged touch, 8d6 damage[/sblock]

 

[TiCaudata]

[sblock=oc]yeah, I'm all for not being able to target things you can't see too. I think that has been just about the only downside to MM since 2nd ed days, not sure though, I suppose I could go pull out the books and look... [/sblock]