[OOC] If Thoughts Could Kill

[Hammerhead]

Great, now our wonderful Cleric is doing more useless stuff, casting a Summon 4. It is unlikely to even go off, unless Tarkus thinks he can make two more concentration checks against Fireballs, given its Full Round Casting time. Further, whatever it summons will be ineffective, and be torn to pieces in a round against further Bad Guys, especially the Dread Girallon. Third, I will be dead. Let's keep a count of the damage I have taken:

Fire Trap -15
Psi-Killer Pounds on Me -42
Psi-Killer Pounds on Me -39
Tarkus heals me +20
Tarkus heals me +8
Ellyn fireballs me -26
Ellyn fireballs me -8

That is a total of -102 hit points, folks. While Raging, I have 116 hit points. That leaves me with 14 hit points left-1 hit from a Girallon (more than 1 and I am dead) or 1 Fireball.

I will be able to kill the Girallon if I survive its AoO. However, we haven't seen the dwarf, the gnome, and the other wizard yet. Dwarf could easily hack me up with his axes if he got the chance, and 1 Magic Missile spell will drop me. I say we call it a day; we at least got their Psi-Killer.

 

[Keia]

I think the fireballs came from the sides. Hopefully, the creature will be gone and you can head straight for either of the alcoves or to Ellyn, or for more healing.

KEia

 

[Hammerhead]

Lysander, Darian, Tuskar, and Verra are all stunned, for at least 3 rounds. So only Zelestine, Bellus, William, Tarkus, and Groknar are still able to act.

Groknar is severely hurt. Zelestine is an unknown. Without a flanker, Bellus is somewhat useless. Meanwhile, the Illithids can continue their blasting, this time on the front line fighters, who have weaker Will saves (except Groknar). The bad guys are apparently Improved Invisible, Ellyn has Mirror Image and God knows what else, and that Dwarf is still around. We might be able to drop a few of them. But we WILL lose, unless you think the group truly can survive a Rending Girallon, a high level wizard with mirror image and other buffs running, two mind flayers who can continue mind blasting, OR eat the stunned character's brains, OR charm characters with weak Will saves like William, a dwarven fighter, and two more wizards.

I don't think so. We will be dead before the Mind Blasts wear off.

 

[Victim]

Darian has See Invis up, so they probably aren't Imp. Invis. I think they're using Illusionary Walls as cover from which to launch attack. Didn't I say that attacking they're stronghold wasn't the best idea?

IIRC, to balance psionic combat, they changed psionic creatures' attack and defense mode to 3/day or something. Either way, 3 blasts each should be enough.

Summon 4 really only has utility monsters, the lesser summons aren't that useful either. Creatures that are useful in combat for purposes beyond mere harassment don't come until after Summon 5 or Summon 6. Evil guys get the Girallon with the level 5 spell, and a Celestial Dire Bear is pretty sweet for Summon 6.

 

[GruTheWanderer]

Ok, Verra, you are right about not being stunned by the mind blast. With mental barrier you made the save.

In this regard, Lysander should not be stunned either. Lambent10 has not returned in more than a week. If anyone has suggestions for his character, post them here. I will allow him to make up several rounds of casting (buff) and participate starting now.

So only Tuskaar and Darian were blasted in the first round.

Clarification: the fireballs came from inside the next room from the right and left of the door. No one has been inside the room yet, so you can't see who's there. There is no one inside the alcoves (visible or invisible). Neither did the fireballs come from Ellyn.

The mind blasts don't have a line of sight limitation (that I have found). I have never thought about it before, so I decided they could operate through walls. If someone has seen errata or Sage Advice to the contrary, let me know (I'll change it for next time).

There's still time to change your actions (24 hours).

 

[Victim]

From the SRD:

Line of Effect: A line of effect is a straight, unblocked path that indicates what a spell can affect. A line of effect is canceled by a solid barrier. It's like line of sight for ranged weapons, except it's not blocked by fog, darkness, and other factors that limit normal sight.

The character must have a clear line of effect to any target that the character casts a spell on or to any space in which the character wishes to create an effect. The character must have a clear line of effect to the point of origin of any spell the character casts. For bursts, cones, cylinders, and emanating spells, the spell only affects areas, creatures, or objects to which it has line of effect from its origin (a burst's point, a cone's starting point, a cylinder's circle, or an emanating spell's point of origin).

An otherwise solid barrier with a hole of at least 1 square foot through it does not block a spell's line of effect.

Such an opening makes a 5-foot length of wall no longer considered a barrier for purposes of a spell's line of effect (though the rest of the wall farther from the hole can still block the spell).

Emphasis mine. I think that it might be impossible to shoot through walls. Arrows enchanted with Brilliant Energy combined with a Ring of X-Ray vision are the best way to shoot through obstructions.

 

[Hammerhead]

Also, just to emphasize my pathetic rules knowledge, ordinary missile weapons cannot be enchanted with the Brilliant Energy ability. However, you can throw BE weapons through walls, or use the 7th level spell Brilliant Energy found in MoF.

 

[Victim]

Missile weapons can't be enchanted with Brilliant Energy, but I think arrows can. Or you could enchant a weapon with Brilliant Energy, Throwing and Returning.

 

[Jemal]

OK, Brilliant Energy :
Anything but Bows, Crossbows, and Slings can be enchanted with this.

The Problem is it doesn't turn the ENTIRE thing into energy, so only part of it would go through the wall..
An arrow only has the arrowhead transformed, axes and swords have the blade, etc.
The only thing I could think of that WOULD be able to go entirely through walls would be Brilliant Energy Darts.

Perfect Sniper:
Ring of X-ray vision, +5 Brilliant Energy Darts of Returning, mucho ranged feats, Halfling Rogue.
Oh, and something to hide behind thats aprox 1 foot thick.
Only problem: The X-ray Ring. It has a vision range of 20', and can only be used for 100 rounds before you start taking Con damage.

 

[GruTheWanderer]

Emphasis mine. I think that it might be impossible to shoot through walls. Arrows enchanted with Brilliant Energy combined with a Ring of X-Ray vision are the best way to shoot through obstructions.

So here's my thinking with mind blasts going through walls. Detect magic and other mental sensors can operate through walls of less than a certain thickness (one foot of stone, three feet of wood). It seemed reasonable that non-targetted mental attacks could operate similarly.

On the other hand, mind blast is a spell-like ability. Hmm. I'll rule in your favor this time. No sense in making EL 13 encounter more difficult. Darian and Tuskaar are not stunned. Verra did not need to use a psionic defense.