Round 8 ~ The Jelly Makes Itself Known
Continued From Round 7 ~ A New Guest
Summary
With the appearance of the jelly, most of the rats scatter. One of them attacks and hits Engelhart. The jelly rolls over a rat and then forms a pseudopod with which it strikes Lothar, scoring a critical hit, stunning, and wounding him. Rob hits the jelly. Pandred dispatches a rat.
Original Page
The DM: The rats win initiative against the jelly and proceed to scatter. One doesn't move, but watches the jelly. All except for two, next to Engelhart. One tries to press past the cleric and succeeds; it attacks Pandred, rolling an 8 and missing.
The other attacks the cleric and hits with an 18, causing 1 damage.
Meanwhile, the jelly simply rolls over the stunned rat, sucking it up into its body. It flows unexpectedly quickly towards Lothar, and as it does, it forms a pseudopod with the front of its body like a lifted club, swinging at the ranger. And it rolls a natural 20. Some days the dice are good to me.
It causes 3d4 damage on such a hit; Lothar takes 16 damage, the blow breaking the skin across the bone of Lothar's knee. The ranger falls back into 1111.
That is my action. The players can move now.
Following the player's actions, here are the positions.
And the gain in experience:
Mikael: That would kill me.
I throw my dagger at the jelly (2 AP)
Attack roll: 4 (+1 for point blank, so 5)
Damage: 1
I cast a cantrip, Hairy, on the rat in 1109, which is 2 AP.
I draw another dart (0 AP) and move to 1311
Engelhart: Oh crap.
I'd very much like to drop these harmless rodents for this threat (even as I know one is nibbling on my heel), but I'm engaged and killing is the fast track to getting free.
Attack roll: 4.
With the remainder of the AP, I'll step into Valda's spot, if she'll yield the space.
Rob: I strike at the jelly
attack: 16+0 = 16
damage: 2
Mikael: I miscounted, I wasn't in point blank range. I doubt it made a difference, though.
The DM: It did miss, Mikael. In future, please note that a cantrip is an attack; and your mage can only attack 1 time per round, whether with a weapon or a cantrip. Not with both.
The DM: I'll let Lothar decide on Valda's giving ground, Engelhart.
Rob, that hits. The jelly is big, and the body of it is rippling; there is a chance you'll get incidental damage next round, but for now you do cause 2 damage.
Mikael: Will do, sorry. My 16 DEX gives me +1 to hit with missile attacks, right?
Rob: question: if I wanted to move and cast a spell, would that take 2 rounds (1 round, spending 2AP to disengage, 1 round to cast the spell)?
Lothar: Valda drops down into hex 1011, glad to give the jelly another target. She also swings her shortsword at the jelly.
Attack: 6
Damage: 6
Lothar is now wounded, yes? Also, ow. Also, is it getting bigger, or leaving a trail?
The DM: Correct, Mikael, +1 to hit.
The rule on spellcasting, briefly (see Spellcasting) is that you must cast the spell first, concentrating throughout the casting time; during this casting time, you can only move 1 hex per round, which is done neither before or after casting, but WHILE casting. This is the only action that can be taken while casting, a slow movement in one direction.
After casting, the spell is then discharged, in some round after casting. Some spells, before discharging, must be concentrated upon until the discharge occurs; during which time, the spell can be spoiled if the concentration is destroyed. Most spells can be cast, then held for quite a long time (as a rule of thumb, three times the caster's wisdom or intelligence in rounds), before discharged. Some spells, once cast, do not require concentration, making it easier to hold the spell. Some spells create an object that carries the effect of the spell, so the object can be held or even, in some cases, passed to other persons.
That, plus the wiki, should clear it up.
Mikael: Just to be clear: I can move 1 hex (1 AP), cast a cantrip (2 AP), discharge it (1 AP), then nothing else?
The DM: Hm, one more detail. You're actually in combat, so ...
You could walk away with your next round and cast; you'd be risking the creature actually attacking you, or moving adjacent to you and hitting you with incidental damage, but you COULD do it. Note that between casting and discharging, there's always a chance of an enemy getting a fair chance to break your spell, if it is able.
That's intentional. I have found that as casters rise, they continue to be very powerful, but this does limit their power and retain the fighter's importance on the battlefield.
The DM: Lothar, you are wounded.
This appears to be its full size now, completely emerged from a crack in the floor.
The DM: Mikael, cantrips are not spells.
The total time it requires to make a cantrip happen is the time given on the cantrip's description, casting and discharging. The issue with casting a cantrip and using a weapon isn't that you don't have enough time, it is that 1 attack requires a lot of attention and doing things like moving, pulling items from your body, shouting at others and such don't require as much.
1 attack per round serves to limit how powerful characters can ever be. You can always use extra time to shout instructions to your party, insult enemies, grab things, help others if possible, etc.
The DM: Waiting on Embla.
Pandred will dispatch the rat, killing it, then dig out a healing salve from his self, for Lothar's use next round.
Mikael: I'll work to keep this all in mind, thanks.
The DM: Imagine also that a combat round is 12 seconds long, their move and your move; so that you're spending half that 12 seconds avoiding and observing your enemy.
The DM: By my count, I believe that Mikael still has 2 move, once moving into 1311; and I believe that Rob has either 2 or 3 AP left, depending on his total encumbrance. Either of you want to use those?
Rob: I only have 3AP. By my count 2 have been used for attacking, so there's only 1 remaining, which isn't enough to move out from the melee, right?
The DM: Normally, it wouldn't be. But you're not being directly engaged; the qualities of monsters will sometimes add a little nuance in favor of the system. The creature is non-intelligent, so it isn't actively attempting to prevent you from leaving the hex, like an intelligent creature might. So in this case, you're free to retreat a hex if you wish.
The DM: That's more than half an hour waiting for Embla. I'm going to have her retreat to 1113, so we can continue.
Rob: Then I retreat to hex 1013
Mikael: I waste my 2 AP. I don't want to further retreat.
The DM: The post above is updated; I will take into account the change in Rob's position with the next map, on the next post. Working on that now.
The DM: Put up the wrong xp table. Fixed now.
The DM: The next post is up. And we're more or less done for today. Go ahead and post comments; I'm going to pick this up tomorrow.
Continued on Round 9 ~ Valda Takes the Heat
