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Rahdjan
2007-04-15, 05:48 PM
Today my party devised a tacticly sound plan to rid an area of ogres and it worked. It pretty much went according to plan. That's never happened before, to me at least.

martyboy74
2007-04-15, 05:52 PM
http://www.markdrew.co.uk/UserFiles/Image/spam.jpg

the_tick_rules
2007-04-15, 06:47 PM
too late, i'm alarmed.

Inyssius Tor
2007-04-15, 06:58 PM
So... tell us how it went. :smallsigh:

Also: edit your topic title. It useless.

EDIT: Exactly like that, yes. :smallsmile:

Rahdjan
2007-04-15, 07:25 PM
Our group consisted of 3 third level PCs. Orc Duskblade (me), Half Elven Rogue and an Elven Cleric. The ogres (6 in total), we're holed up in a cave and their filth was polluting the local stream. We were tasked with getting rid of them. We killed one of them while he was out hunting on our way to the cave. This was the only one that caught us by surprise. He nearly dropped me with one crit. After that, we were able to lure them out pretty much one at a time to kill. Using hit and run tactics and terrain manipulation we killed 3 more of them. When we finaly ventured into the cave, we were able to use a choke point so we only had to fight the last two 1 at a time. Went pretty well considering the encounter was planned with four PCs in mind, but 1 guy didn't show.

JaronK
2007-04-16, 07:36 AM
My example: We had a DM who would always cause our plans to fail, no matter what, gaurenteed. Any plan he heard, he would make sure couldn't work for arbitrary and often absolutely silly reasons... and then a DMPC type would show up to save us. Said DMPC had a rifle with unlimited shots that seemed to be able to kill anything in one hit.

Anyway, we got fed up as a group and made a plan outside of his hearing while on a break. Basically, our job was to stop a group of Thayan merchants from setting up shop in this particular town. After several failed plans (such as setting their ships on fire... the fire department responded in two rounds and put out the fire), we were all sitting in our room in the inn, alone, and plotted to switch sides, since the Thayans seemed to have us at every turn and have incredible resources at their disposal. We plotted that we'd use a hat of disguise to look like another group of merchants, set up a meeting, and sell out.

Now, unbeknown to the DM, we had a different plan that we'd set up on break...

The guy who had hired us suddenly appeared in the hotel room, and told us not to do it. We got very angry at him, since he wouldn't use his amazing super spying and teleporting abilities against the enemies, and chased him out.

Anyway, we set up the meet, and sit down with the two heads of the Thayan merchants, plus two gaurds. Suddenly, we spring into action. Instead of negociating, our cleric fires off Silence, keeping the two Thayan merchants (both 10th level casters... we're about level 5) unable to shout for help or cast anything. I chuck out an animal from a Bag of Tricks... a bear suddenly lands on the head merchant. Due to some fancy talking, we'd already gotten all of our weapons out and ready without the DM or the NPCs noticing a thing, and we all charged at once. The casters were grappled and mauled while in a silence field without being able to do anything, and the two low level gaurds were easily dispatched. One round of invisibility potions later and we walked out, ordering the bear to attack the gaurds outside as a distraction.

Result: it looked like their leaders had just been eaten by a crazed bear that disappeared when killed, with no evidence leading back to us or anyone else.

Wheee!

JaronK

Tor the Fallen
2007-04-16, 07:39 AM
My example: We had a DM who would always cause our plans to fail, no matter what, gaurenteed. Any plan he heard, he would make sure couldn't work for arbitrary and often absolutely silly reasons... and then a DMPC type would show up to save us. Said DMPC had a rifle with unlimited shots that seemed to be able to kill anything in one hit.

Anyway, we got fed up as a group and made a plan outside of his hearing while on a break. Basically, our job was to stop a group of Thayan merchants from setting up shop in this particular town. After several failed plans (such as setting their ships on fire... the fire department responded in two rounds and put out the fire), we were all sitting in our room in the inn, alone, and plotted to switch sides, since the Thayans seemed to have us at every turn and have incredible resources at their disposal. We plotted that we'd use a hat of disguise to look like another group of merchants, set up a meeting, and sell out.

Now, unbeknown to the DM, we had a different plan that we'd set up on break...

The guy who had hired us suddenly appeared in the hotel room, and told us not to do it. We got very angry at him, since he wouldn't use his amazing super spying and teleporting abilities against the enemies, and chased him out.

Anyway, we set up the meet, and sit down with the two heads of the Thayan merchants, plus two gaurds. Suddenly, we spring into action. Instead of negociating, our cleric fires off Silence, keeping the two Thayan merchants (both 10th level casters... we're about level 5) unable to shout for help or cast anything. I chuck out an animal from a Bag of Tricks... a bear suddenly lands on the head merchant. Due to some fancy talking, we'd already gotten all of our weapons out and ready without the DM or the NPCs noticing a thing, and we all charged at once. The casters were grappled and mauled while in a silence field without being able to do anything, and the two low level gaurds were easily dispatched. One round of invisibility potions later and we walked out, ordering the bear to attack the gaurds outside as a distraction.

Result: it looked like their leaders had just been eaten by a crazed bear that disappeared when killed, with no evidence leading back to us or anyone else.

Wheee!

JaronK

Very nice! Kudos!

Caledonian
2007-04-16, 07:44 AM
Was the meeting with you only known to the people involved?

Because if they were killed while keeping an appointment with you... I'd say that's a little suspicious-looking.

Ethdred
2007-04-16, 07:55 AM
I with Napoleon on this one - no battle plan ever survived contact with the enemy. Or in my group's case - no battle plan ever survived contact with the players. We always seem to think of something 'better' for our character to do at the last minute!

Having said that, in yesterday's session we actually (after only 9 levels) started working well as a unit with distinct roles. It won't last...

Diggorian
2007-04-16, 09:44 AM
Was the meeting with you only known to the people involved?

Because if they were killed while keeping an appointment with you... I'd say that's a little suspicious-looking.

The hat of disguise covered who they really were so it's a pretty tight alibi. The guy that hired hem could deduce what happened but it worked out in his favor. Their kind of DM might pressure this NPC to rat on them if he's suspected of being involved.

Still, I dislike this adversarial type DM -- it's like having a god constantly against you. So all the more praise for Jaron and his bunch for succeed against him. :smallamused:

RandomNPC
2007-04-16, 04:44 PM
i've got a player who has a plan but he doesn't know the dragon actually has a plan too. he may pull it off if he realizes soon enough that the dragon's hidden as a kobold, while a kobold is busy looking like a dragon.

Ravyn
2007-04-16, 04:59 PM
My plans work... they just have a tendency to explode on me.

Personal favorite was last night. I hadn't even meant it to happen; there'd just been a few of us gathered together for character development stuff. And then I ticked off one of the local NPCs, who'd been given this cursed collar-thing that couldn't be removed, by speaking a bit more harshly to her and the PC she followed around. And the collar went off, and she started trying to kill me. Now, fortunately I'd been watching her on both the physical and spirit levels, so I saw this effect manifesting as a serpent of smoke from the collar whispering in her ear. And managed to make it stop by smacking the serpent-thing one. This gave me ideas.

The plan was basically split into two parts. The other PC I asked to take the poor confused girl out of the room, comfort her a bit, boost up her confidence and help her resist its effects, and while he was at it find a couple of my friends and send them to the infirmary I was staying in because of a similar plan that (while it had succeeded) had blown up on me not long before. To the other two I explained the full plan, which hinged on one fact: NPC reacts to PC being threatened in any manner, and collar reacts to NPC reacting. Therefore, I was going to bait both of them into a fit until the collar-thing took advantage of it and manifested itself, one of my friends was going to grab the serpenty-thing, and then we were all going to reenact the Death of Caesar on it. So the poor non-conspirators walk in just in time to hear me going into a monumental tirade that quickly expanded to include them. No holds barred--this character has quite a tongue on her. And, as expected, the girl flipped out and the thing manifested itself. Destroying it was the easy part; keeping the NPC from doing the metaphysical equivalent of bleeding out was a bit harder. Though at least her stuff could be magically healed.

JaronK
2007-04-16, 05:21 PM
Was the meeting with you only known to the people involved?

Because if they were killed while keeping an appointment with you... I'd say that's a little suspicious-looking.

Since the meeting was done in the guise of a merchant who didn't exist, it didn't matter.

First impression was that a crazed bear had done it... which makes no sense. On further investigation they'd find out about the dwarf merchant who had a meeting with them, but if they checked that out, they'd find he didn't exist.

And that was about as far as the trail lead.

As it happened, it didn't matter. The DM was annoyed that we'd succeeded on the initial mission (make sure the Thayans don't set up shop in town), he changed the mission retroactively and said the Thayans had to not get hurt in the process either.

*shrug*

It was still fun.

JaronK

Assassinfox
2007-04-16, 05:26 PM
I think you need a new DM, Jaronk. :smalleek:

storybookknight
2007-04-16, 05:27 PM
Pff, get a new DM. Your current one sucks!

Seriously, though, kudos - though as a DM I would have had the casters use spellcraft and Dispel Magic on the Silence, or had the wizards have prepared at least one Silent Spell.

The Pink Ninja
2007-04-16, 05:37 PM
Since the meeting was done in the guise of a merchant who didn't exist, it didn't matter.

First impression was that a crazed bear had done it... which makes no sense. On further investigation they'd find out about the dwarf merchant who had a meeting with them, but if they checked that out, they'd find he didn't exist.

And that was about as far as the trail lead.

As it happened, it didn't matter. The DM was annoyed that we'd succeeded on the initial mission (make sure the Thayans don't set up shop in town), he changed the mission retroactively and said the Thayans had to not get hurt in the process either.

*shrug*

It was still fun.

JaronK

That DM sucks, sounds like a Munchkin.

Ditch that sucker :smallfurious:

Diggorian
2007-04-17, 04:12 AM
Pff, get a new DM. Your current one sucks!

Seriously, though, kudos - though as a DM I would have had the casters use spellcraft and Dispel Magic on the Silence, or had the wizards have prepared at least one Silent Spell.

Fully agree about the DM, move on. The game goes best when all rules apply to all players PC and NPC -- metagaming too. NPCs arent omniscient, at least not at 10th level.

The beauty of Jaron's tactic though is that they tricked the DM into believing they gave up. He couldnt see it coming, and therefore couldnt prep for it; the sucker seems to think his job is to undo the party's efforts. His retroactive mission edit (sore loser) further shows their inventiveness

The only defense against a surprise round Silence besides saving is leaving the area. A bear is a nice adhesive. :smallamused:

Tor the Fallen
2007-04-17, 04:18 AM
How do you direct a bear to attack in a magically silenced area?

Ethdred
2007-04-17, 05:31 AM
How do you direct a bear to attack in a magically silenced area?


Sign language - bears are great at it

daggaz
2007-04-17, 06:20 AM
How do you direct a bear to attack in a magically silenced area?
Dude, that bear had been stuffed up in a little bag for DAYS with nothing to eat.... he was really, really hungry. No direction required. =)

Also, you have one of the worst kinds of DM's ever. Make a new worst DM thread, and put that loser right there on the top of it. Also, find somebody else to DM, and have him come in as a player so he can see how it is really done, or else ditch that immature loser forever.