[OOC] Strange Maps

[delpinator]

Feel free to discuss anything ooc here and decide your marching order.

[LeDragon]

Hi everyone,
great to play with you!

[Mindsiege]

Hey y'all, I'm excited to play with this group!

I've noticed that the game thread is already up. Has anyone else issues with seeing the map? For me it's just an empty spoilerbutton.

[delpinator]

Yeah I need to fix that. I had an error in uploading it. I'll get it fixed tonight.

[Yoshimi]

Hi all. Looking forward to an interesting cast.

[Solitaire64]

Party On!

[delpinator]

Any plan on what we're doing? Marching order?

[secretID]

Hi all! Psyched about this group. Thanks for having me, delpinator.

I updated Arrogaio to reflect his recent item purchases, so he's now sword & board for a much higher AC, 20. He's a defensive specialist and he has a strong PP of 15, so I think he's the obvious choice for point. He also has an owl familiar, so more specifically for marching I suggest familiar, 50', Arrogaio. (Others may have familiars too; I haven't checked.)

Anyone opposed to the 48-hour rule? - in combat, 48 hours after an in-combat DM post, any player can post for a PC who hasn't been posted for yet?

delpinator, I'm not sure what you're looking for from us besides a marching order. The PCs have a map, so presumably we'll start following it...but I didn't see any indication of possible next steps, e.g. walking out of Westhaven versus chartering a boat. And Cha-kra knows more about the origin of the map...does he know anything that suggests a way to proceed? Did you want some of this IC, like the PCs IC pondering the map, maybe a skill roll?

[Mindsiege]

I made a brief overlook table to figure out a bit more strategic stuff.

Character	AC	HP	PP	PI	Movement	Special
Snap Kick	17	29/29	13	11	40'	Elven Boots (super sneak), Monk mobility, Drunken mobility during skirmish, Kenku Mimicry
Briggs Ravenpike	17/16	29/29	9	15	30'	Expertise (Stealth, Acrobatics), Rogue mobility
Rhazor Blackhand	15	33/33	18	20	30'	Expertise (Stealth, Acrobatics), Rogue mobility, Arcane Trickster Mage Hand, Observant, Disguise Self
Confor	15	34/34	14	10	30'	Expertise (Stealth), Imp familiar, Misty Visions illusions
Arrogaio Deveste	20/18	28/28	15	12	30'	Owl familiar, Heavy Armor Master
Cha-kra	17/15	19/19	12	13	30', 30' (climb)	Wanderer, Bladesong, Expeditious Retreat

So we have two familiars, a bunch of very capable stealth operators, Rhazor to notice a lot of things passively as observant, Arrogaio as a supreme tank, Confor with infinite illusions, and notably Cha-kra with no practical role to fill.

Actually, I'm excited to see him so outclassed by everyone who he's rolling with in this quest, because maybe that will teach him to lose his superiority complex.

About the marching order, how about:
Owl, Imp, Arrogaio, Rhazor, Briggs, Snap Kick, Confor, Cha-kra

Putting the worst member into the back can come with its own detriments but with this party constellation Cha-kra would be best put on longbow duty. But although this is my idea for our best marching order, it's not something Cha-kra would propose because he doesn't know how much better half the party is at scouting. Though he is the only one with a survival proficiency, he's not better at it than Arrogaio. I left the city features that most of the other characters have out of the table because I figured this will be a wilderness adventure. But if we do spend some time in the city we have a lot of city boys right here.

@secretID:
While Cha-kra knows the contents of the map, as a player I don't. On a very unrelated side note, how is the wizard hat flavoured to look? Is it that thing that was handed out from the swamp witch?

Big Logan's Hat
Wondrous item, common (requires attunement by a wizard)
This antiquated, cone-shaped hat has a wide brim with a radius that's a bit over 3 feet yet magically does not weigh the wearer down. While you are wearing it, you gain the following benefits:

• You can use the hat as a spellcasting focus for your wizard spells.
• You can try to cast a cantrip that you don't know. The cantrip must be on the Wizard spell list, and you must make a DC 10 Intelligence (Arcana) check. If the check succeeds, you cast the spell. If the check fails, so does the spell, and the action used to cast the spell is wasted. In either case, you can't use this property again until you finish a long rest.

[secretID]

I forgot the imp! I think a great system is invisible imp first, catching any obvious dangers w/o triggering them. The owl, with much better Perc (18 PP b/c of ADV), could be about 20' behind. That said, Rhazor's PP is equally good. The owl is pleasantly expendable, of course.

Originally Posted by Mindsiege

On a very unrelated side note, how is the wizard hat flavoured to look? Is it that thing that was handed out from the swamp witch?

Yeah...it is that hat. I've been in denial about the visual because I can't decide whether it kills his whole vibe or makes it twice as good. He's kind of buffoonish, but I think his self-awareness does go at least skin deep. I can't see him putting that hat on, checking the mirror, and still confidently setting out to land his next sugar daddy/mommy.

[Mindsiege]

Originally Posted by secretID

I forgot the imp! I think a great system is invisible imp first, catching any obvious dangers w/o triggering them. The owl, with much better Perc (18 PP b/c of ADV), could be about 20' behind. That said, Rhazor's PP is equally good. The owl is pleasantly expendable, of course.

True, I should have remembered how the imp/owl setup works. We should probably use that invisibility to our advantage, if Confor is willing to put his imp first. Alternatively, we could let the owl do a circling scan of the area or we put it at the back of the order because it's the second-best perception we have (well equal, but Rhazor is a lot smarter) and the best in darkness.

Originally Posted by secretID

Yeah...it is that hat. I've been in denial about the visual because I can't decide whether it kills his whole vibe or makes it twice as good. He's kind of buffoonish, but I think his self-awareness does go at least skin deep. I can't see him putting that hat on, checking the mirror, and still confidently setting out to land his next sugar daddy/mommy.

If it helps, Cha-kra will neither ridicule the choice of wardrobe nor even comment. Maybe the utility of the hat is only meant for outside of the walls away from prying eyes. Though I guess Briggs would still see him wear it on this outing.

@edit:
For what it's worth, with Big Logan's Hat Arrogaio would definitely have all eyes on him, even without the need for his background feature.

[Solitaire64]

I have no objection to Mindseige’s proposed marching order for the PCs. But I think I’ll deploy the invisible imp on a case-by-case basis. Confor spoiled some of the fun in his previous outing by abusing the infinite illusion ability, so I want to avoid spoiling anything by abusing perpetual invisibility.

[delpinator]

Maps up!

[Mindsiege]

@Solitaire64:
Is it really abuse though if it's entirely intended by the feature? If the bad guys aren't ready, outplaying them is our job, right? Especially with the party that we have currently, we have a lot of options to really twist encounters into our favour. Confor seems like a master of covert ops and aside from him and Arrogaio everybody is specialized to have superior movement, agility and stealth (and Confor is stealthy too). With proper scouting, we can have the option to create ambushes via stealth, navigating the terrain unexpectedly, or employing Confor's infinite illusions (which in my opinion is even stronger than infinite invisibility). After thinking about it a little, we might want to do some advanced tactics where we use Arrogaio as bait and then use terrain advantages to strategically overwhelm any enemy encounters that we meet on our terms. All of that will come together situationally of course, but I think having the invisible imp would be something Confor has earned to use against our enemies through his character investment. Though I'm not sure what fun was spoiled on the last outing, improving our odds and taking away our enemies' advantages usually doesn't hamper my fun all too much.

@edit:
If successful scouting trivializes the adventure, it was probably not meant as a difficult adventure in the first place. I don't mind seeing Confor and his imp shine either way.

[Mindsiege]

Originally Posted by delpinator

Maps up!

All right, that map suggests to me that we should hit the taverns, port and libraries.

@delpinator:
Aside from the captions and symbols, do some of the maps contain geographical hints that we could use for the sake of determining a target for our expedition?