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My Quest for Death
From yesterday's session.
My quest for death continues in the Thursday night game, but last night I really thought I was going to make it - die, that is.
But I won't bore you with all the details. Suffice it to say that we were breaking through a barricade and door, knowing that enemies (specifically, giant ants) were almost certainly waiting inside. The fighter smashed the door, and I, carrying a rock with a silence spell on it, was going to rush in on a killing spree as soon as the door went down.
It didn't go well. The fighter took out the door and the adjacent wall, but when I stepped in, I triggered an electrical glyph. It only hurt a bit, but it killed a bunch of giant fire-ants that were clustered around the door. Unfortunately, those fire-ants explode when they die, doing fireball-like damage.
I survived, of course; barbarians have a LOT of hit points. But I was pretty badly damaged. So rather than wait for the cleric to heal me, I ran ahead.
I got nailed by some acid-spitting ants, which did a lot more damage. Death was starting to look a lot more likely. But I saw a human mage at the extreme range of my Darkvision spell. So I charged towards him.
On the way the acid-spitting ants spat again. They actually rolled remarkably low damage, but when they were done, I had 22 hit points left. One more volley was almost certain to kill me.
At this point there was a rule argument which I didn't understand. Well, to be honest I could have understood it, but the damned D&D system is so totally illogical that I simply didn't want to bother. It tells you something about the system if the players and DM frequently chant "It's a resolution system, not a simulation system!".
Anyway, the upshot was that the DM yielded (which was unusual). My character was left half-way through his action in the round. I was told that I could continue my charge to the mage, but that I'd have to state under what conditions my charge would be "triggered". It seemed clear that they were expecting me to screw up; if I said the wrong thing, the mage would kill me while I stood there. And at that point virtually anything could - and would - kill me.
I thought about it.
"I can't say 'I'll attack if he does anything', right?"
"Right."
"How about 'I'll attack if he moves at all?"
"No. He's moving all the time, at least a little. That would be like saying you attack if he breathes. It has to be something that you can see, and that's more than just moving."
"Okay."
I thought some more.
"I'll charge if he seems to be casting a spell...or attacking me in any way...or trying to escape."
The DM looked at me.
"I screwed up, didn't I?" I said. He made no reply for a minute, and then he said,
"Actually, I can't think of any way that he can do anything without triggering you...you covered it all. So it looks like you said the right thing. You see his hands start to gesture and his mouth is moving."
I couldn't hear the mage because I was carrying a silence spell on me, one with a radius of about twenty feet. I was twenty-five feet away from him.
"I charge".
"You get one attack. How much Power Attack are you using?"
"What the hell - the maximum. Might as well go for the gusto."
"Go ahead, roll it."
"Roll a 20!" someone shouted.
And I did, to my amazement! A critical, and backed it up. Then I had to roll 4d6. The results were 5, 6, 6, and 3 - well above average. The total damage was 62 points, and the the mage was chopped into two equal halves (vertically, if you were wondering). The rest of the party caught up to me, and healed me a bit. Then the fighter grabbed one half of the mage, I grabbed the other half, and the cleric teleported the whole group of us out of there. We ended up finding a ring of protection on one of the dead mage's hands, and I got it - which is good, because the barbarian badly needs a better AC. For as long as he survives, that is.
All in all, it was quite a battle. And as I said in the middle of it, if my barbarian had to die, that was the way to go.
But I have to admit...during that combat for about fifteen minutes, I found a blank character sheet and started looking up the rules for generating a monk. I was pretty sure the barbarian was a goner.
Maybe next time. Between you and me, I don't really want my barbarian character to die...but clearly the group won't be happy with a cowardly barbarian. So it's Hobson's Choice.
So it goes.
My quest for death continues in the Thursday night game, but last night I really thought I was going to make it - die, that is.
But I won't bore you with all the details. Suffice it to say that we were breaking through a barricade and door, knowing that enemies (specifically, giant ants) were almost certainly waiting inside. The fighter smashed the door, and I, carrying a rock with a silence spell on it, was going to rush in on a killing spree as soon as the door went down.
It didn't go well. The fighter took out the door and the adjacent wall, but when I stepped in, I triggered an electrical glyph. It only hurt a bit, but it killed a bunch of giant fire-ants that were clustered around the door. Unfortunately, those fire-ants explode when they die, doing fireball-like damage.
I survived, of course; barbarians have a LOT of hit points. But I was pretty badly damaged. So rather than wait for the cleric to heal me, I ran ahead.
I got nailed by some acid-spitting ants, which did a lot more damage. Death was starting to look a lot more likely. But I saw a human mage at the extreme range of my Darkvision spell. So I charged towards him.
On the way the acid-spitting ants spat again. They actually rolled remarkably low damage, but when they were done, I had 22 hit points left. One more volley was almost certain to kill me.
At this point there was a rule argument which I didn't understand. Well, to be honest I could have understood it, but the damned D&D system is so totally illogical that I simply didn't want to bother. It tells you something about the system if the players and DM frequently chant "It's a resolution system, not a simulation system!".
Anyway, the upshot was that the DM yielded (which was unusual). My character was left half-way through his action in the round. I was told that I could continue my charge to the mage, but that I'd have to state under what conditions my charge would be "triggered". It seemed clear that they were expecting me to screw up; if I said the wrong thing, the mage would kill me while I stood there. And at that point virtually anything could - and would - kill me.
I thought about it.
"I can't say 'I'll attack if he does anything', right?"
"Right."
"How about 'I'll attack if he moves at all?"
"No. He's moving all the time, at least a little. That would be like saying you attack if he breathes. It has to be something that you can see, and that's more than just moving."
"Okay."
I thought some more.
"I'll charge if he seems to be casting a spell...or attacking me in any way...or trying to escape."
The DM looked at me.
"I screwed up, didn't I?" I said. He made no reply for a minute, and then he said,
"Actually, I can't think of any way that he can do anything without triggering you...you covered it all. So it looks like you said the right thing. You see his hands start to gesture and his mouth is moving."
I couldn't hear the mage because I was carrying a silence spell on me, one with a radius of about twenty feet. I was twenty-five feet away from him.
"I charge".
"You get one attack. How much Power Attack are you using?"
"What the hell - the maximum. Might as well go for the gusto."
"Go ahead, roll it."
"Roll a 20!" someone shouted.
And I did, to my amazement! A critical, and backed it up. Then I had to roll 4d6. The results were 5, 6, 6, and 3 - well above average. The total damage was 62 points, and the the mage was chopped into two equal halves (vertically, if you were wondering). The rest of the party caught up to me, and healed me a bit. Then the fighter grabbed one half of the mage, I grabbed the other half, and the cleric teleported the whole group of us out of there. We ended up finding a ring of protection on one of the dead mage's hands, and I got it - which is good, because the barbarian badly needs a better AC. For as long as he survives, that is.
All in all, it was quite a battle. And as I said in the middle of it, if my barbarian had to die, that was the way to go.
But I have to admit...during that combat for about fifteen minutes, I found a blank character sheet and started looking up the rules for generating a monk. I was pretty sure the barbarian was a goner.
Maybe next time. Between you and me, I don't really want my barbarian character to die...but clearly the group won't be happy with a cowardly barbarian. So it's Hobson's Choice.
So it goes.