(OOC) Scourge of Daggerford (Full)

[Kobold Stew]

Possibly it was a presumptive, but the tone I read in "where would we be going" suggested that Tommi (and I) was wrong even for suggesting it.

I was trying to articulate our intentions that had existed at the start of the combat. It's okay if that now changes.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

.I may have overestimated how useful Sir Darfin would be in that encounter. I think it was a combination of bad rolls (from both Escella and Darfin) and Neurotic not wanting to make an NPC overshadow the PCs (which is fair, I'd have done the same) that made the encounter last so long. I hope it wasn't too much of a grind. I liked the main thrust of its design (and it has a few things to say story-wise about the organization of the orcs), but I admit that it probably went on a bit long.

 

[Neurotic]

On my part, Darfin could've taken the ogre AND the bear by himself with fire shield and stoneskin. But the guards would probably die and he would spend most of his high level spells on that. I limited the battlefield as I could without becoming the center of attention. And if more than 1 firebolt landed it would make a big difference (2d10 average is 11 damage and I missed I think 4 of those )

 

[gargoyleking]

Yeah, one aspect of 5e is that high level characters aren't as rediculously accurate as they would be in earlier editions.

 

[jmucchiello]

The die roller hated Escella. I was disappointed that the darkness didn't slow them down more. But even with advantage, she didn't do much damage to them while in the darkness. Other than the one big hit six rounds into the combat, she was rather sad. She was similarly ineffective at the back entrance. So she has a theme.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

The die roller hated Escella. I was disappointed that the darkness didn't slow them down more. But even with advantage, she didn't do much damage to them while in the darkness. Other than the one big hit six rounds into the combat, she was rather sad. She was similarly ineffective at the back entrance. So she has a theme.

I understand how you feel about the darkness. I would have been more generous with it, but for 2 things: 1) They are orcs. I don't feel like darkness bothers orcs much, even if it makes it so they can't see when they usually can. I mean, I followed the rules for the spell with them, but I didn't add anything extra to it, bumbling-about. 2) As soon as the fight started, they left the overhang (kind of like a cave, a bit) to come out to fight. They purposely occupied the space as a good place to ambush the road, so I don't think it would be hard to leave, nor would they be unfamiliar with the ways down to the road (most of which weren't in the darkness anyway).

That spells kind of weird, because RAW, it's actually totally useless (does nothing at all as far as I can tell - you get advantage against them because they can't see you, but you get disadvantage because you can't see them, they'd also get advantage attacking you because you can't see them, but disadvantage attacking because they can't see. Basically, everything it does cancels each-other out. So essentially, the DM ALWAYS has to come up with some way to make it work using their judgement. It's tricky to balance between "throwing the whole encounter into chaos" and "everyone effected just walks out of it"

I think if you look back you'd see that it took awhile for the orcs to get organized enough to get out of it. I didn't have them run out right away. Not all of them, at least.

 

[gargoyleking]

Yeah, sadly regular darkmess doesn't do much good unless you can find a way to keep them in the area or confuse their sense of direction. Mord had some good luck with it, but that's mainly because his darkness spells eat things, and the last time he used it, somebody threw up a wall of force to keep the bad guys guessing.

Though don't forget that Warlocks do have a way to see even in magical darkness. Which I think is better for them to just cast it around themselves, or where they intend to go so they can mess with things that can't see them even though they can see just fine.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yeah, sadly regular darkmess doesn't do much good unless you can find a way to keep them in the area or confuse their sense of direction. Mord had some good luck with it, but that's mainly because his darkness spells eat things, and the last time he used it, somebody threw up a wall of force to keep the bad guys guessing.

Though don't forget that Warlocks do have a way to see even in magical darkness. Which I think is better for them to just cast it around themselves, or where they intend to go so they can mess with things that can't see them even though they can see just fine.

Yes, that warlock ability "fixes" the spell relative to the warlock, but still doesn't help everyone else (or like you say, keep them from just leaving the darkness.

As an aside, that munchy darkness is terrifying to imagine. I always feel very sorry for the monsters inside it.

 

[MetaVoid]

I survived the heroics - one more hit would be fatal. I actually counted on the lord to shoot it down, the ballista was good save

Now, if someone would be so kind to shout "we need the survivors" since Vairar is apt to just kill it.

 

[gargoyleking]

LOL Dandin would do that, but is kind of preoccupied.

Speaking of which... Fitz, what's it take for a halfling bard to get a grizzly for an animal companion?