When Hook Horrors Attack!

[MerricB]

Role playing a medic is boring! Sitting back and beefing up the party agian boring, almost an NPC role. However very effective just not fun...Unless you get off on role playing "ok Its my initiative, I run up to the fighter and heal him." None of my players like it.

That's one reason why I have Leadership and a Wizard Cohort - so I have some offensive power. (The other reason is because I'm the only player who plays effective spellcasters - every other player who plays a spellcaster quickly ends up with a dead spellcaster!)

Here's a question to all of those who play Melee Clerics (or see them in action) - do they spend the first two rounds of each combat casting "Divine Favour" then "Righteous Might"? Or just one of those spells? Or do they have another trick to make them more effective in melee?

Cheers!

 

[Piratecat]

I think my DM misread the adventure, btw, for he interpreted the entire cavern system to have six of these chambers! (I think it should be 33 hook horrors over 6 chambers...)

Interestingly, I made the exact same mistake in a recent session. I originally intended there to be thirty+ fly-fiends throughout an entire complex. Misreading my notes, I put that many of them in the first room. . .

where, conveniently enough, every single one of them was taken out of action in the first round by a holy word. It was wonderful to watch.

Greatly amused, I then allocated out the remaining "correct" number throughout the complex, and no harm was done since they used the same resources for twenty that they would have for six.

 

[MerricB]

It's interesting how much satisfaction I get from the DM telling the fighter "well you take 40 points of damage that round", and then I cast one spell (cure serious wounds) and can say, well (3d8+10)x1.5+6, you get back 40 points...

One of the reasons I was interested in playing this character is because of those who have said, "The Radiant Servant of Pelor is overpowered!" However, certainly with my cleric, I'm just a glorified healing machine. (albeit with strong diplomatic skills). If you don't take the healing route, the Radiant Servant is a cleric with a d6 hit die.

(Oh, I have been _very_ effective against undead...)

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

Interestingly, I made the exact same mistake in a recent session. I originally intended there to be thirty+ fly-fiends throughout an entire complex. Misreading my notes, I put that many of them in the first room. . .

where, conveniently enough, every single one of them was taken out of action in the first round by a holy word. It was wonderful to watch.

Greatly amused, I then allocated out the remaining "correct" number throughout the complex, and no harm was done since they used the same resources for twenty that they would have for six.

Yes. I've just blundered myself with a Dungeon Magazine adventure - I swapped around two room descriptions, and it really didn't make much sense to put the rooms where I did. Oh well... having the fiendish treant chasing the party was fun.

Cheers!

 

[Numion]

Here's a question to all of those who play Melee Clerics (or see them in action) - do they spend the first two rounds of each combat casting "Divine Favour" then "Righteous Might"? Or just one of those spells? Or do they have another trick to make them more effective in melee?

I usually only spend one round, namely the surprise round, for buffing. I usually only cast Divine Favor, and thats it. When I get to next level (9th) I'll persistant that spell, and maybe spend a round casting Divine Power for the extra attack, or righteous might for some greater smack.

Spending two rounds buffing spells that only last rounds (which means 1 fight) might not be the best tactical decision, since fights tend to last only a couple of rounds. But if you cast that one spell on the surprise round, you only miss out 1 attack.

Usually healing during combat isn't as useful as spending the round on offence. Often the enemies can heal out more damage than I can heal, so it's better to cause them 40 pts of damage than to cure 25 from your own.

 

[MerricB]

Usually healing during combat isn't as useful as spending the round on offence. Often the enemies can heal out more damage than I can heal, so it's better to cause them 40 pts of damage than to cure 25 from your own.

Normally that'd be true - but a Radiant Servant with Augment Healing is a force to be reckoned with.

Cheers!

 

[azmodean]

If I may be allowed a bit of rule-lawyerismness here, it says you need your hands free to climb, but doesn't say anything about just clinging onto the surface without moving.

As I can think of plenty of examples where you needs all four limbs to move, but can use your hands as you wish if you don't move (like for climbing in a tree), I have no problems with people using that tactic.

It does seem that the description of the climb skill:

You need both hands free to climb, but you may cling to a wall with one hand while you cast a spell or take some other action that requires only one hand. While climbing, you can't move to avoid a blow, so you lose your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any). You also can't use a shield while climbing

leaves the master thrower in the clear, along with spellcasters, but archers lose out.

 

[Evilhalfling]

I usually only spend one round, namely the surprise round, for buffing. I usually only cast Divine Favor, and thats it. When I get to next level (9th) I'll persistant that spell,

the peristant spell in CArc is +6 levels meta magic, as it is certainly better than +4
but this was the only spell I ever quickened so the feat I took might as well have been:
quicken divine favor, once a day. I thought about quickend Bless, but never actually memorized it. (in a party of 6 with a 2 weapon fighter and an archer that +1 adds up fast.)