Quietus
2009-05-20, 05:39 AM
So, after the game last night, where my DM had mentioned that our characters (currently involved in a big war, recently pushed back the invading army's front lines, now pushing deeper into their territory) may be tasked with the work of invading and overtaking what amounts to a watchtower, which are generally highly guarded. Our highest level members are level 8, and some of our lowest are 5 or 6.
The regulars include : Zetris (Elven Druid8, my character), Rose (Human Sorcerer8, has unique powers), Pierce (Human Barbarian8, has unique powers), and Dalia (Halfling Cleric7, DMPC healbot). Others who show up on a fairly regular basis include a generic Fighter of some sort, a Wizard who I've aimed to a mix of blast-for-fun and buff/debuff (haste, ray of enfeeblement, slow, web, grease), and a Cleric5 who is looking at picking up Druid levels (Zetris will have her first student!) and Theurging Druid and Cleric (DM has already allowed it), becoming basically a mana battery.
The tower (we assaulted one already, as a significantly different party, at level 3 - it was tough, but we managed to do it, barely. We diplomacized the final boss into not fighting us) is fairly basic. Three floors, top floor is open-air arrow-firing zone. Second floor is combination sleeping quarters and murder hole/arrow slit area - crossbowmen can fire at anyone approaching the outside area of the tower, and murder holes allow oil to be poured onto unwelcome visitors, then lit on fire.
First floor is four rooms; First is the entrance hallway, big wooden entrance gate on one side, portcullis on the other. Murder holes mean flaming oil drops on you, while slots in the wall allow for much spear-like stabbing. If you get through here, you enter the inner area, where you can find stairs leading to the second floor, a lever to open/close the portcullis leading to and from the last room, and two doors. These doors lead to armories, basically, where the guards can access the arrow slits that let spears stab at you in the first room. Essentially, assuming normal entrance into the building and following the map, you'd go Murder hole zone->"inner courtyard"->stairs->second floor(boss fight).
Now comes the changeup. The DM mentioned on the ride home the possibility of sending each of us at a tower individually, since we're much more powerful than we were five levels ago. Those below level 8 would assault one, while those who have made it to 8 each get their own. The rest of the ten-thousand-man army would march forward to the next tower they can reach.
Important stats for my druid : Level 8, 11 str/16 dex/10 con/16 int/22 wis/14 cha, using the old "con bonus for new HP" wild shape rules. Zetris has researched a couple semi-new spells, and sunk 90% of her wealth into this, and into restoring the swamp area she called home. The two spells are Druidic Mark (like Arcane Mark, but a self-sustaining plant instead of an.. arcane.. marking, 0-level spell), and Flame Bow (as Flame Blade, but as with a longbow, 2-level spell). My DM won't let me use Flame Blade/Bow in animal form unless my animal form has hands that would allow it, but animal forms can spit Produce Flames at things.
Magic item wise, I have a Clasp'ed +1 studded leather, and may be able to borrow a use of a Karma Bead for +4 CL (CL 12!) as I break off from the army. 10 minutes ought to do the trick.
So, my best bet for assaulting the tower solo... I see three, maybe four options that jump out at me. In all cases, I intend to let them know I'm there beforehand, informing them that anyone who lays down weapons and leaves of their own accord will be unharmed, while anyone else will be lucky if their death is swift - and I will follow through with this. Considering our last major fight was with the army currently controlling this tower, they spent an hour summoning an aspect of Hextor, and our group defeated it with rounds left in Pierce's Rage, and my character did the vast majority of the damage (dropping a tower on it kinda helped), I suspect Zetris' name is likely to be known among them. Rumors of our group's success have had a little over a week to spread.
Option one : The frontal assault. Big speech, then turn into a tiger (no dinosaurs unfortunately, haven't met them in-game), or other Large, pouncy, melee-worthy form. Possibly a soldier crodlu (big, angry dinosaur-like reptile ostrich, way cooler than it sounds. Foot speed 90 feet+, five attacks, and lots of strength). Walk up to the wall, slash it with my claws (natural spell + stone shape = instant door plus intimidation factor of "Did that woman really turn into a tiger, then slash through our wall?"). Proceed to maul anything that doesn't drop their weapons and run. This would be pre-buffed with all three physical +4 boosts, barkskin, and either Resist Energy (fire) or Spider Climb. Because it's so much cooler if the Tiger is on the ceiling. And has a fireball in its mouth.
Option two : Druidic Siege. Wall of Air will block all their crossbow bolts. Air walk will let me "fly". And Flame Bow will ignore Wall of Air, doing 1d8+5 fire damage on touch attacks, with an attack bonus of +9, unbuffed. I'll have to roll their dex mod to hit. Either use Stone Shape to prevent retreat (Door becomes wall, ta-da!), or let them retreat, then fall back to option one.
Option three : Twelve hours of torture. The Spike Stones spell is... brutal. With the Karma Bead, I can affect 12 20-foot squares at medium range. This is more than enough to cover an entire floor. Two, if I Stone Shape a nice big hole in the floor between them so I keep line of sight. Spike Stones = 1d8 damage to anything that moves per 5' they move. Essentially, for twelve hours, anything inside the building is frozen in place, or takes a reverse cure light. I then use Air Walk (six inches off the ground, can't touch this!) to lion-pounce... or Flame Bow to pick off targets.. or perhaps, if I'm feeling particularly vindictive, some way to force them to move, because the spell is triggered on movement, not "walking".
Part of me is really fond of Option Three. I can combine this with Option Two, casting Air Walk (ten feet in the air), Stone Shape (Up to 22 cubic feet; Plenty of room for a 4x5 foot door that spreads among two floors), Spike Stones to cover both floors, then pick off targets at my leisure. Keep Wind Wall in memory for if they start picking up crossbows, and kill those targets first.
My spell column is : 6/6/5/4/3, and this would require one level 2 spell, one level 3 spell, and two level 4 spells, with Wind Wall (another level 3) in memory. This means I could go with Option Three, have Two ready with Flame Bow in hand, Wind Wall prepared, and if all goes poorly, have the rest of my level 2 spells prepared to zilla up and melee brute the place. All of this would leave me with two level three spells and one level four. And all of my orisons/firsts.. which would probably include a Produce Flame (share with my pet snake for 2x the fireballs), a cure light for emergencies, and an entangle for the lulz. Because it's not bad enough to halve the speed of everything in a building and make it impossible for them to walk.. I need to halve it again and force reflex saves every minute for the next 8-12 minutes versus entanglement.
My animal companion, Orm, is a 54-HP medium viper, with poison DC 18 (1d6 con/1d6 con), 20 if I Bear's Endurance us. Attack bonus +8 unbuffed (+13 if I GMF us both for +3 bite attacks and hit him with Cat's Grace). And in this world, poison is deadly - second save comes one ROUND after infection, rather than one minute. His actual damage output is low, and my DM loves rolling high on poison saves; my poison has come into play twice in three levels. It's about time for karma to turn around and stop biting ME in the ass, methinks.
So, as a point of curiosity - what's the general consensus on this plan? Does it sound decent? Anything to add? Keep in mind that aside from the lowest-power stuff in the Completes, we're nearly core-only.
The regulars include : Zetris (Elven Druid8, my character), Rose (Human Sorcerer8, has unique powers), Pierce (Human Barbarian8, has unique powers), and Dalia (Halfling Cleric7, DMPC healbot). Others who show up on a fairly regular basis include a generic Fighter of some sort, a Wizard who I've aimed to a mix of blast-for-fun and buff/debuff (haste, ray of enfeeblement, slow, web, grease), and a Cleric5 who is looking at picking up Druid levels (Zetris will have her first student!) and Theurging Druid and Cleric (DM has already allowed it), becoming basically a mana battery.
The tower (we assaulted one already, as a significantly different party, at level 3 - it was tough, but we managed to do it, barely. We diplomacized the final boss into not fighting us) is fairly basic. Three floors, top floor is open-air arrow-firing zone. Second floor is combination sleeping quarters and murder hole/arrow slit area - crossbowmen can fire at anyone approaching the outside area of the tower, and murder holes allow oil to be poured onto unwelcome visitors, then lit on fire.
First floor is four rooms; First is the entrance hallway, big wooden entrance gate on one side, portcullis on the other. Murder holes mean flaming oil drops on you, while slots in the wall allow for much spear-like stabbing. If you get through here, you enter the inner area, where you can find stairs leading to the second floor, a lever to open/close the portcullis leading to and from the last room, and two doors. These doors lead to armories, basically, where the guards can access the arrow slits that let spears stab at you in the first room. Essentially, assuming normal entrance into the building and following the map, you'd go Murder hole zone->"inner courtyard"->stairs->second floor(boss fight).
Now comes the changeup. The DM mentioned on the ride home the possibility of sending each of us at a tower individually, since we're much more powerful than we were five levels ago. Those below level 8 would assault one, while those who have made it to 8 each get their own. The rest of the ten-thousand-man army would march forward to the next tower they can reach.
Important stats for my druid : Level 8, 11 str/16 dex/10 con/16 int/22 wis/14 cha, using the old "con bonus for new HP" wild shape rules. Zetris has researched a couple semi-new spells, and sunk 90% of her wealth into this, and into restoring the swamp area she called home. The two spells are Druidic Mark (like Arcane Mark, but a self-sustaining plant instead of an.. arcane.. marking, 0-level spell), and Flame Bow (as Flame Blade, but as with a longbow, 2-level spell). My DM won't let me use Flame Blade/Bow in animal form unless my animal form has hands that would allow it, but animal forms can spit Produce Flames at things.
Magic item wise, I have a Clasp'ed +1 studded leather, and may be able to borrow a use of a Karma Bead for +4 CL (CL 12!) as I break off from the army. 10 minutes ought to do the trick.
So, my best bet for assaulting the tower solo... I see three, maybe four options that jump out at me. In all cases, I intend to let them know I'm there beforehand, informing them that anyone who lays down weapons and leaves of their own accord will be unharmed, while anyone else will be lucky if their death is swift - and I will follow through with this. Considering our last major fight was with the army currently controlling this tower, they spent an hour summoning an aspect of Hextor, and our group defeated it with rounds left in Pierce's Rage, and my character did the vast majority of the damage (dropping a tower on it kinda helped), I suspect Zetris' name is likely to be known among them. Rumors of our group's success have had a little over a week to spread.
Option one : The frontal assault. Big speech, then turn into a tiger (no dinosaurs unfortunately, haven't met them in-game), or other Large, pouncy, melee-worthy form. Possibly a soldier crodlu (big, angry dinosaur-like reptile ostrich, way cooler than it sounds. Foot speed 90 feet+, five attacks, and lots of strength). Walk up to the wall, slash it with my claws (natural spell + stone shape = instant door plus intimidation factor of "Did that woman really turn into a tiger, then slash through our wall?"). Proceed to maul anything that doesn't drop their weapons and run. This would be pre-buffed with all three physical +4 boosts, barkskin, and either Resist Energy (fire) or Spider Climb. Because it's so much cooler if the Tiger is on the ceiling. And has a fireball in its mouth.
Option two : Druidic Siege. Wall of Air will block all their crossbow bolts. Air walk will let me "fly". And Flame Bow will ignore Wall of Air, doing 1d8+5 fire damage on touch attacks, with an attack bonus of +9, unbuffed. I'll have to roll their dex mod to hit. Either use Stone Shape to prevent retreat (Door becomes wall, ta-da!), or let them retreat, then fall back to option one.
Option three : Twelve hours of torture. The Spike Stones spell is... brutal. With the Karma Bead, I can affect 12 20-foot squares at medium range. This is more than enough to cover an entire floor. Two, if I Stone Shape a nice big hole in the floor between them so I keep line of sight. Spike Stones = 1d8 damage to anything that moves per 5' they move. Essentially, for twelve hours, anything inside the building is frozen in place, or takes a reverse cure light. I then use Air Walk (six inches off the ground, can't touch this!) to lion-pounce... or Flame Bow to pick off targets.. or perhaps, if I'm feeling particularly vindictive, some way to force them to move, because the spell is triggered on movement, not "walking".
Part of me is really fond of Option Three. I can combine this with Option Two, casting Air Walk (ten feet in the air), Stone Shape (Up to 22 cubic feet; Plenty of room for a 4x5 foot door that spreads among two floors), Spike Stones to cover both floors, then pick off targets at my leisure. Keep Wind Wall in memory for if they start picking up crossbows, and kill those targets first.
My spell column is : 6/6/5/4/3, and this would require one level 2 spell, one level 3 spell, and two level 4 spells, with Wind Wall (another level 3) in memory. This means I could go with Option Three, have Two ready with Flame Bow in hand, Wind Wall prepared, and if all goes poorly, have the rest of my level 2 spells prepared to zilla up and melee brute the place. All of this would leave me with two level three spells and one level four. And all of my orisons/firsts.. which would probably include a Produce Flame (share with my pet snake for 2x the fireballs), a cure light for emergencies, and an entangle for the lulz. Because it's not bad enough to halve the speed of everything in a building and make it impossible for them to walk.. I need to halve it again and force reflex saves every minute for the next 8-12 minutes versus entanglement.
My animal companion, Orm, is a 54-HP medium viper, with poison DC 18 (1d6 con/1d6 con), 20 if I Bear's Endurance us. Attack bonus +8 unbuffed (+13 if I GMF us both for +3 bite attacks and hit him with Cat's Grace). And in this world, poison is deadly - second save comes one ROUND after infection, rather than one minute. His actual damage output is low, and my DM loves rolling high on poison saves; my poison has come into play twice in three levels. It's about time for karma to turn around and stop biting ME in the ass, methinks.
So, as a point of curiosity - what's the general consensus on this plan? Does it sound decent? Anything to add? Keep in mind that aside from the lowest-power stuff in the Completes, we're nearly core-only.