D&D 5E (2014) The City of Is'Merith

[Matthan]

That was such a beautiful round, you guys. I genuinely cheered when I read Mina and Isaac's posts and realized that we might actually take that guy out. We got gnome hurtling, crack shots, and decapitations. D&D may not get any better than this.

Assuming Isaac takes his out, Mina or Shen takes out Al's, and I believe my attack should kill Shen's, we're good to retreat, right? Do we want to try and move to a mobile battle and drag them after us as we pick them off from range? They seem intelligent, but rage filled and blood thirsty. I don't know if they'll retreat.

 

[Macv12]

I'd be very surprised if they did. They're kind of bath-salts crazy, though reference was made to them maybe getting bored of fighting and starting to just eat each other instead. So, new plan: leave lots of goblin bodies behind.

 

[Matthan]

In process of leveling up and I realized that I have questions about Arcane Trickster. Does that archetype use a spellbook? Nothing in their write-up mentions one. Also, due to their low number of known spells are they always considered prepared? There is nothing their write-up that mentions a formula to calculate prepared slots.

I get one spell of any school choice at 3rd level. I'm torn between shield and find familiar. Find Familiar opens up the Help action and lets Alejandro have fun talking to more animals, but I'm not sure if it isn't cheesy. Thoughts?

 

[Matthan]

Okay, I did some more reading online and the consensus seems to be that since it isn't spelled out that they need a spellbook or prepare spells as a wizard, they just have them memorized. A little vestige of Vancian casting that tripped me up in my head, I guess.

I did some more reading on using familiars. My reading is apparently hotly debated and I don't care to drag the game down with that. So, in short, sorry for wasting everyone's time. That'll teach me to post in a rush.

 

[Macv12]

As I see it, Shield lets you stop something from happening, while Find Familiar lets you do a bunch of stuff that you couldn't before. I'd go with the latter, myself. What did you find "hotly debated?" I don't see any reason why the familiar couldn't Help with things.

 

[Matthan]

Here is a five page thread of folks arguing over the interpretation. By my reading, a familiar by the fact that it has its own initiative can take any action except attack in combat on pg. 192-193 of the PHB. That includes the Help action which would give an ally advantage on the next attack (advantage would trigger sneak attack for me). The owl familiar actually has an ability called Flyby that allows it to move past enemies without triggering OAs so it could fly down, use the help action on an enemy to grant advantage to the next attack, and fly away in the same turn.

That is a potentially potent combo. The help action can also be used to grant advantage on skill checks (for the owl, that would certainly include Perception checks, but maybe not others). Genuinely, I don't know if that combo is too cheesy. Plus, I'm not sure if the addition of the familiar would step on Alejandro's space as the guy who talks to animals. In my head, I pictured the familiar talking trash about me to Alejandro (since I can't understand its spoken language) while telepathically telling me only nice things as a fun running gag. Now I'm torn again.

Though in reading over the Help action in regards to skill checks, it did make me realize that there is no reason for any of us to make any thieves' tool checks without advantage again. I think we have 3 folks proficient (Mina, Alejandro, and Daedarai). As long as another person is there to help, that nets advantage on the roll.

 

[Matthan]

I reread Find Familiar again and even if Sezarious nixes the in combat usage there is still plenty of cool stuff to do with a familiar. I can even change its form with further castings (costs 10gp, but still) to make it fit the mission. Going with Find Familiar. Thank you for making me reconsider. We need to get the game moving so I can't change my mind again.

 

[Macv12]

For what it's worth, planting a familiar next to enemies is a fast way to lose it, and even an owl isn't immune to enemies readying attacks. I'd consider it potent but not game-breaking. Since the familiar can't attack, there's virtually no reason other than the Help action that it would need a turn in combat. But yeah, I took an owl familiar on my cleric once in 4e (with a feat) and didn't invoke it in combat once, still a great way to spice up a scene and fun to think about ways to use it creatively to solve problems.

 

[pathfinderq1]

Do we have a final accounting (and identification?) for all of our recent loot?

 

[Matthan]

We have an accounting of the items from the first battle, but not of the coins. We don't have an accounting of the second (Sezarious mentioned that Alejandro grabbed the good bits off the magical goblin). A little ways up in the thread I put up my thoughts for distributing the loot we've gathered so far and how to value it.