Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="FreeTheSlaves" data-source="post: 3904938" data-attributes="member: 9952">Sigh...I guess I'm going to have to recount the battle before we actually discuss the rules in question. The context is much more popular than I'd have thought. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" />Ok.The 'party' consists of:- 11th level human male Paladin, defensive build - 9th level human female Cleric (25pt buy cohort), undead destroying and counterspelling build- armoured Pegasus mount of the Paladin- 2 x warhorsesand- dead 11th level human male Cleric, offensive melee build- missing 11th level elven female Sorceress, blast-em and high mobility build(The player of the dead leader Cleric played the cohort Cleric, while the player of the Sorcereress was absent.)Background:The party has been locked in an ongoing battle with nearby vampires and has just suffered a defeat as a Dread Wraith killed the senior cleric. Having weighed up all their options, they decided their best choice was to avoid the vampires by braving the nearby woods. The vampires would almost certainly not go there. Their per-day spells are almost totally exhausted but they have many scrolls, albeit with holes in their repertoire. Combat:During the night the heroes hear nearby movement but decide that their safest bet is to hope to be not be found. They’re found. Combat begins with undead emerging from the darkness around the formerly hidden campsiteRd1 – incorporeal shadows surge forth suddenly to flank and strike the Cleric twice, draining her 12 str to 4.Rd1 – Paladin moves to impede further enemies and power attacks a Shadow but swings at vapors.Rd1 – Ghouls swarm forth but are impeded by tents, ropes, trees and the Paladin. Their attacks are of little consequence.Rd1 – Cleric cannot withdraw as the AoO may kill without being any better off. Cleric can cast ‘protection from evil’ to improve her AC by 10%, but would still face 2 flanking Shadows. Cleric 5’ adjusts to better ground and wipes out half the Ghouls and 1 shadow. It is impossible to get both Shadows within the cone of turning.Rd1 – The Pegasus does its attacks.Rd2 – Remaining Shadow hits and kills Cleric.Remainder – Paladin easily wins.Both dead characters were later resurrected and are convalescing, reequipping and recruiting. We will prevail. If we get a TPK, we’ll bring in our brother’s mother’s cousins to continue the good fight. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" />My point with the Shadows’ strength drain is that it is an attack that effectively converts the Cleric’s unbuffed AC from 22 to 9, and her HPs from 55 to 12 – without the ability to go into negatives. Even the Paladin only had an effective AC of 12 (when flatfooted) and 20 effective HPs. I’m certain a level 15 wizard could be taken out real easy if jumped by a handful of these guys.Excuse me but I thought going up levels made a character more durable, but defensively she was no better than if she was 1st level against this attack.</blockquote>

Verification