Surprise Round Reactions, Round 1
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 surprise round
OOC: Dodge point on whoever attacks me first-- if I need to specify, how about bowman #4?
They should be concentrating on the wagon, not on the half-orc. What the young captain failed to understand, Pensive knows intuitively-- the witch matters not in the least. She was not the threat-- the alchemist and his potions were. Without them, she would have no weapons at all.
Was Garyth so bound to obedience to his superiors that he could not see that?
And yet, how was he any different? Heeling to Garyth's commands, as if he were one of his soldiers. Pensive's throat tightens as he sees the halfling woman's signal. Obedience. He rises, draws back the bowstring already nocked, and lets loose the arrow that will seal the battle.
He does not even raise an eyebrow as he misses. He expected it almost-- the shaft was released with only half his heart. Still, it was uncanny how quickly the half-orc had moved away; it would be difficult to flank this creature.
Committed now, come sand or shadow. He doesn't see the alchemist yet, so he draws at the half-orc again.
From: Jake
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 surprise round
Osred continues running toward the action.
From: Mark
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 surprise round
OOC: Where was Melani? Didn't she take a shot? She is not on the initiave list either.
Mark
From: Scott
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 surprise round
Slash overlooked her.
;-)
From: Mark
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 surprise round
IC: Melani see's the guardsman shoot at the brute and thinks to herself, why is he doing that?
She takes aim at one of the bowmen and releases her arrow.
OOC: Melani is going to try and thin down the ranks of the guards.
Mark
From: Ty
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 surprise round
Oops! Retcon...
[Initiative bowman1, bowman3, Pensive, Melani, Tichenor, Pikeman2, Pikeman1, Garyth, swordsman3, Brute, Vinchy, swordsman1, swordsman2, bowman3, Osred, alchemist, Rennik, bowman4, Robert, Munch, swordsman4, Pickle]
Melani also takes a long shot at the fast moving brute [Attack 20 vs AC19, hit; Damage 1(-1) = 1] but she is at a long range for her small weapon, and though her aim is true, the lighter halfling arrow just bounces off the half orc's thick chainmail.
From: Mark
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 surprise round
Melani watches her arrow bounce off the armor of the brute and curses to herself.
She looks at one of the bowmen and decides that he is a better target. She says a quick prayer to the spirit of her brother's bow and let fly at one of the bowmen(bowman #1)
OOC: Ty, does the fact that her bow is +1 mean that her arrows do 1D4+1 damage?
Mark
From: Ty
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 surprise round
I don't believe so.
I think +1 bows are to hit only. I think you need plussed ammunition to do extra damage.
However, in an odd quirk of the rules, it wouldn't matter on that shot. The half orc has damage reduction -/1, which means that he takes 1 point less damage from any hit, with the minimum damage being zero. Melani rolled a 1. So, if it was 1, she does 1 point of damage. If it was 2, she still does one point of damage. :)
But I'll double check the bow thing for your next shot.
From: Tom
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 surprise round A magic bow lends both to-hit and damage bonuses to its ammo. However, enhancement (i.e. purely numerical) bonuses on both ammo and bow do not stack.
In other words, a normal arrow fired from a +1 bow is +1 to hit and +1 to damage. A +1 arrow fired from a +1 bow is +1 to hit and damage (which is a change in 3.5; in 3E, it would have been +2 to both.) A +2 arrow fired from a +1 bow is +2 to hit and damage. A +1 flaming arrow fired from a +3 bow is +3 to hit and damage, and has the flaming property.
Tom
From: Ty
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 surprise round
Well, there you go, Mark.
It's +1 to hit and damage, though, as I said earlier, it doesn't matter on that last shot.
From: Mark
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 surprise round
Not a problem. But it would be possible for her, with out the +1 of the bow, to do 0 damage? She would not know that of course, but she still thinks that the big guy is more for the humans than her.
Mark
From: Ty
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 surprise round
She actually can't do zero damage.
That was a typo on my part. If she does one point, then his damage reduction still leaves it at one. So, for her, she does 1 at 1, 1 at 2, 2 at 3, and so on. She would max out at 4 damage on the brute. Especially since she is incapable of flanking him [improved uncanny dodge]. If she can flank someone, of course, her damage goes up dramatically.
So, yeah, I agree. The brute is probably out of her class.
From: Mike
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 surprise round
Garyth can't help but be impressed at how fast the half-orc moved. Even surrounded and caught completely by surprise, he was still able to avoid being wounded. Of course, Garyth's respect for such an astonishing warrior doesn't change the fact that the brute is charging straight toward him.
Out of the corner of his eye, Garyth sees Melani shift targets. It's a good idea. If they can pick off a few of the lesser enemies before they close to hand-to-hand range, it might even things up a bit. I just hope Osred gets here with his magic before the brute does, he thinks to himself as he draws back his bowstring, aiming for one of the bowmen.
OOC: Full attack, first arrow to the closest bowman (I think that'd be bowman #1). If he's still alive after the first shot, the second will stay on that target, otherwise Garyth will switch and shoot at bowman #2. Dodge point on the half-orc.
From: Mark
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 surprise round
OOC: I just can't help thinking that if everyone had aimed at the guardsmen, there might be one or two less than we have now. Oh well, who wants to live forever. :)
Mark
From: Ty
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 round 1
[Initiative bowman1, bowman3, Pensive, Melani, Tichenor, Pikeman2, Pikeman1, Garyth, swordsman3, Brute, Vincy, swordsman1, swordsman2, bowman2, Osred, alchemist, Rennik, bowman4, Robert, Munch, swordsman4, Pickle]
OODM: I have Rennik's action, so I am going to write up round one before the weekend.
IDM:
The first bowman, seeing five opponents suddenly pop out of the bushes no more than thirty yards away, takes it surprisingly well. He calmly and quickly snatches his bow up from the ground beside him, and even manages to draw and fire at the first target he sees, the halfling Melani. [Attack 20 vs AC 20, hit; Damage 2]. The arrow passes through the little scouts light armor, but barely grazes her side.
At the back of the bowl, the third bowman is looking up at the three archers on the ridge above him. He has to dig around a bit more to find his bow, and is only able to pick it up and draw an arrow, but is unable to find a good target in time to shoot.
Pensive, seeing the brute still up after the barrage fired at him, and unable to see the alchemist in his wagon, fires a second time at the half orc's back. [Attack 24 vs DC 19, hit; Damage 3(-1) = 2] This time his arrow hits, but it is hard to see if it did any real damage or not.
Melani, having been struck by an arrow, grits her teeth and shifts her aim to the archer that hit her. [Attack 14 vs AC17, miss] Her shot, possibly thrown off by her wound, goes wide left and bounces into the camp behind her target.
Tichenor grows and moves like he wants to run down into the camp and start biting people, but a quick word from Rennik holds him back.
The two pikemen grab up their weapons and begin moving toward the lower party.
Garyth takes a deep breath, then looses two arrows at the first bowman [Attacks 15, 13, miss, miss]. The range is a bit long for him, and now the pikemen are a moving distraction. Both his arrows miss.
One of the swordsmen grabs up his weapon and charges off after the pikemen.
The half orc snatches his huge weapon off the side of the wagon and lumbers into a run of surprising swiftness, quickly passing the swordsman and both pikemen. He will be able to charge into the ranks of the lower group next round.
Corporal Vincy, seeing the massive brute racing towards him, fires off his crossbow in a panic [Attack 21 vs AC19, hit; Damage 5 (-1) =4]. His shot is dead on, and the bolt slams into the running orc's side. He doesn't even pause, and the bolt falls to the ground. The armor must have kept it from penetrating deeply.
The two swordsmen by the wagon begin running up the northern edge of the bowl, trying to get to the top to stop the three archers there. However, their progress is slowed by the steep slope, and they don't get far.
The second bowman is also able to get off a shot, this time at Munch. [Attack 24 vs AC19, hit; Damage 1] The shot doesn't even seem to hit the guardsman, though Garyth hears him yelp, so it must have grazed him.
Osred continues running as fast as he can, and though he does not get far enough to see into the bowl itself, he does see the back of the half orc as the barbarian rushes out into the flat to engage Garyth's group. Osred thinks he may be in range to use his hold prayer.
Looking down at the struggling swordsmen, Rennik sees the alchemist pop his head out of the wagon and toss something small and shiny to the remaining swordsman. He thinks he hears the man say, "Here, take this!" Pensive is right, someone is going to have to take that alchemist out, if he is handing out party favors to the rest of the crew. But seeing the massive half orc charging at his friends reminds him of the more immediate threat. If that beast can get his double axe into melee range, he can turn the tide of this fight very fast. Rennik lines him up in his borrowed bow, and fires off three shots as fast as he can [Full attack, rapid shot feat used; Attacks 19, 11, 20, hit, miss, hit; Damage 5 (-1), 6 (-1) = 9]. Two hit the half orc's broad back, and seem to inflict some damage, though it is difficult to tell how much at this distance. But as fast as he is moving, he will be an even harder shot next time, as the range is quickly growing.
The last bowman is quicker than his partner, and is able to line up and fire a shot up the slope at his closest target, Robert. [Attack natural 1, miss] In his haste to shoot, however, he slips and fires his arrow into the side of the hill, several feet below Robert's position.
Robert decides that he doesn't like being someone's target, and returns fire at the bowman below him. [Attack 22 vs AC17, hit; Damage 8] His bolt hits the bowman high on one shoulder, and almost makes him drop his weapon.
Munch, seeing that not everyone is firing at the brute now, decides to take a shot at the bowman who fired at him. [Attack 24 vs AC17, hit; Damage 4] The bolt strikes his opponent in the lower thigh, and the bowman drops to one knee for a second with the impact.
The last swordsman decides to join the brute in attacking the lower group, and charges off after him waving his sword.
Pickle, having seen his friend Munch get shot by one of the bowman, decides to shoot that bowman as well. [Attack 16 vs AC 17, miss] His bolt hits the ground near the bowman's foot.
[Map with new positions sent.]
