Wulf's Collected Story Hour -- FINAL UPDATE 12/25

[Plane Sailing]

As Dimension Door, Teleport, and plane shift all use the same mechanic to cross space quickly, it makes little sense to have the results of that shift affect in-place spells differently.

Sorry, I should have been more comprehensive in my answer. This tends to be "stream of consciousness" stuff since it is an issue I'm thinking about at the moment, rather than rules that I've sat down and thought through carefully.

Basically, the above spells all work using the same mechanic in the standard Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms cosmology, but in different cosmologies there may be way-different explanations for how they work.

As you might guess from my online name, I'm heavily into different cosmologies from any of the standard ones (and Manual of the Planes is just such a stupendous resource for designing brand new cosmologies ).

My final thoughts on the B-S-T issue are not set in concrete, useful stuff has come up on the discussion thread I started for it and I don't need to have a solid explanation yet. It is quite possible that I'll concentrate on tackling the "scry" part of the equation rather than the "teleport" part.

Cheers

 

[FlimFlam]

Assuming that the PC cleric didn't "ready to cast dimensional anchor on the evil wizard as soon as I see him",

Considering you can't "Ready" if you aren't in combat, this wouldn't work.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Considering you can't "Ready" if you aren't in combat, this wouldn't work.

Bah. That's an artifact of the initiative rules.

Are you suggesting that the evil cleric will say to himself, "Well, I'd like to prepare to cast this spell, but I am not in combat yet so it's impossible."

By your interpretation bandits could never set an ambush, guards could never cover prisoners with crossbows, etc.


Wulf

 

[Plane Sailing]

In that particular scenario I certainly wouldn't allow someone to ready a targetted spell prior to the teleport... too many variables in location etc.

Readying a personal spell, or a spell targetted on a friend (or a general area) I could see happening, but not one targetted on someone else.

Just personal though.

 

[(contact)]

It sounds like a delay action to me. Generally, I allow the ready action only on specific things-- when that wizard starts casting, the first orc to walk through that door, etc.

Saying "I scan the room with my dimensional anchor prepped, and cast it at the first wizard that appears," would be a little too broad for the ready action.

 

[Nail]

This tends to be "stream of consciousness" stuff

That makes two of us. I'd include Wulf too, ...just not sure "stream" would be th' right adjective. Given his frequency of updates, maybe "trickle" would fit better. >:^>

It is quite possible that I'll concentrate on tackling the "scry" part of the equation rather than the "teleport" part.

Barring KidC disagreeing with me too, I'd say go with a "delay" feature with travel spells (maybe d6 rounds?), a strict interp. of how the scry spell works, and end with some new anti-scry spells.

Or not. <shrug>

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Saying "I scan the room with my dimensional anchor prepped, and cast it at the first wizard that appears," would be a little too broad for the ready action.

I probably agree with that, but targeting the first person to appear would be ok.


Wulf

 

[coyote6]

Recall the context:

The person casting the anchor is one of the attackers teleporting in to slaughter some poor innocent villain (or PC; either way), and the innocent villain/PC is planning to avoid the Scry-Teleport attack by bravely teleporting away.

As the target in this play, he's going to be in on the Partial Action surprise round fun, so he just uses that action -- which he gets before Villain Wizard gets to do anything -- to Ready an action to nail the first guy starting a teleport spell. An improvised kind of counterspell, using similar mechanics -- Spellcraft check; yup, tall-pointy-hat-longbeard is casting teleport; nail him with a dimensional anchor spell. No save, just a ranged touch attack; so barring SR, it's "stick around for the beat down" city, baby.

I think that ought to be specific enough readying conditions.

Even if it's not, well, the Scry-Teleport team has a decent chance of knowing something about the target(s), so they'll likely know who needs an anchor, and can just skip the Ready/Delay runaround, and just ZAP the guy.

 

[Taren Seeker]

Yeah, it's not exactly readying out of init, which I do try to avoid as well.

It's all about when you rule combat to begin.

So you scry the BBEG. Someone there notices the scrying sensor. You roll init immediately for everyone cause the ambush has been blown. If the teleporter goes early, you can still get in there and drop the dim anchor as long as the person casting it either delays to right after the teleporter or readies for when he gets teleported. This also means that if the BBEG or his pet mage go early they can either port out or they can ready their own nastiness for when you jump in.

If the BBEG doesn't see the scry sensor (which should be rare in HL adventures as usually someone will make that DC), you all teleport in, get a surprise round (partial actions) and then roll init and proceed normally. This makes it easy to fire off the dim anchor. However, I would also say that since the teleporter is the one initiating the ambush they have already used their partial surprise action so you'd better have 2 mages available if you want a dim anchor as well.

Oh, and, um, great story hour Wulf. Looking foward to seeing the campaign finale. A quick question though, how often did you guys level in your campaign, and how long did it take to go from 1st to 16th session wise? I know you had some long gaps when Dinkeldog was shirking his duties, but without those gaps how long was your campaign?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

A quick question though, how often did you guys level in your campaign, and how long did it take to go from 1st to 16th session wise? I know you had some long gaps when Dinkeldog was shirking his duties, but without those gaps how long was your campaign?

We level up once every 13.33 encounters. Dinkeldog runs a tight ship, 100% by the book.

Except of course for that whole blindsight thing.


Wulf