Episode 1

[note="DMJ"]As the knife passes inside Qiu's shield, he senses the movement just in time to defect it, causing it to slice under his arm, letting out a small trickle of blood into the water. Fighting down panic, Qiu resolves to handle his attackers intelligently, taking one out at a time until he can emerge victorious. Feeling the motions of the water and the close brushes against the alligator's snapping jaws, Qiu kicks hard against the goat, directing him into one of the attacking alligators. Hopefully the creature will latch onto the goat man and take him out of the fight.

Talius
BR5(pending, tentative)

Bird
Top of Round 6 (TR6)

The bird costumed man, faced against Ivor, looks briefly towards Kray and identifies the shooter that just sent an arrow that grazed under his arm. Seeking to put Ivor between him and Kray, the bird moves in to try to grapple Ivor and scratch him with his claws at close range.

Attack 1: Grapple Attempt
Attack 2: Claw strike attempt

(Note: Bird's intent is to get a hold on Ivor and turn him at an angle to get Cover from Kray's arrows while still keeping up the battle against Ivor. Result of Grapple attempt may affect targeting for Kray during BR6.)

Results:
Grapple Attempt: 23. Need to oppose this to resist Grapple position.
Claw: Natural 20. Critical hit. Additional die damage added. Total Damage 23.

Bird
TR6 (cont'd)Thrown away by Ivor, the bird man remains in the give and take of the melee. He knows that he is being targeted by an archer, but so does Ivor.
The ex-gladiator will make sure to manage positioning to ensure that Kray gets another clean shot.

No significant Movement taken.

[note="Xorthan"]
Phantom
TR14The Phantom again moves in for the kill, swinging his blades visciously.

Results:
Med Blade 1: Hit 16 Damage 13
Short Blade OH: Hit 18 Damage 3
Med Blade 2: Hit 22 Damage 11

Bottom of Round 6 Open for PC Action

[note="Xorthan"]Passive Observation Notice: The clearing of this fight is very small, only a 20' diameter space in the vegetation. Thorn is used to watching how people move and position themselves in the course of melee. After these two interchanges, he has noticed something about how the Phantom takes position and guards against Thorn's movements.

The phantom is taking definitive steps to keep Thorn from approaching the tree with the flesh mass. He will not so far allow any sort of flow to let Thorn circle and get repositioned behind him, even if it means pressing to an area of less clearing and more obstruction.

Not a natural way of duel movement Thorn thinks. Suspicion that the tree is something that Phantom is protective of.

[note="Constablebrew"]Anyway on to rolls...

Qiu
BR6

STR Athletics for Goat Unmasked.

Result: Grapple Maintained by Goat.

Despite Qui's effort to break free, the goat man maintains his strong hold around Qiu's waist.

Grappled Condition continues from 2 sources: Bear and Goat.

[note="DMJ"]Qiu is fighting fully submerged under murky swamp water, a totally alien environment to him for combat and effectively blinded. Maybe a similar disadvantage to the freaks, but I suspect they are comfortable/used to being submerged in addition to their freaky blindsense. And I hear your argument about feeling the position of grappeled opponents, but a lot of that comes from sensing their center of mass and leverage/positioning of their body and yours relatively.
I imagine much of that goes out the window when in the water.

ninja edit: Shove is recognized as the preferred way to end a grapple since it only costs an attack vs a whole action. Basically the grapple is forced to end because the grappler moves out of reach unwillingly. I think it is a fair trade - one attack to grapple, one attack to end a grapple.

[note="DMJ"]Well, Thorn's down to a single HP. We're bottom of round of round 14, now right?

How far away is the bulbous mass of flesh from the tree at this moment, and where is the Phantom between them? Could he strike at it by taking his movement first? Would it provoke an attack of opportunity from Phantom? If so could Thorn used his Lunging maneuver on the tree without provoking the attack of opportunity? Just trying to get a feel for my options here.

Oh, one last question about Commitment to Contract: if I take advantage on my Damage roll, and any of my now FOUR d6's is a 1 or a 2, I can still reroll those using Great Weapon Fighting, correct?

EDIT: Another question, sorry - am I right to presume that if I want to exercise my flexibility in proficiency (putting my AC to 17 and taking my Prof. bonus off my attacks), that needs to be communicated at the TOP of any given round?

Busy, but real quick: I think it's flexible so top or bottom. When we originally talked about it the idea was simply that it could be done on your turn, like movement.

[note="Xorthan"]Dang. 1 hp. Better rub some 2nd Wind on that.

Yes. Bottom Round 14. We may be up against a hard stop after this. In the danger that has now developed, we have to start considering that the smartest/safest thing to do is let things progress for everyone else. See if there is any chance for an intervention if one becomes pivotal. Seems like Thorn is on his own at the rate of things going with main crowd, but you never know. I guess we can see the results of whatever you are sending next and you can decide.

Flesh fungus is approx 15' away, through Phantom.

Movement first is fine, but we have to work with a more fluid vision that in real action the movements of everyone is more blended together than the stark segmentation of the game - so we would picture it that Phantom would shift as Thorn steps certain ways.

BUT...same realism could still be used to think of a usable solution when combined with the burn of that Maneuver on Lunge. Great idea - I'm always motivated to figure something out when anyone is willing to spend resources in order to get something a little creative and different. Everybody gives a little bit here and there in a fight. 5' is nothing. Say Thorn really rares back and charges straight in heavy. Reasonable that Phantom gives a step or 2 to get ready to brace and defend; he still thinks you are far enough away plus he is in between. HOWEVER Thorn is a MASTER of technique (Battle Master AND Martial Adept is no small investment into the idea of a highly trained expert that has all sorts of out of the ordinary tricks) - he shifts and Lunges PAST Phantom, over his shoulder or to his side low, fully extending body and the 2hander at full length, to go after the tree. I can see that for sure. No Opportunity Attack because Thorn is keeping his guard up all the while and is definitely not trying to run away.

Yes, Proficiency adjustment from Offense to Defense has to be locked with entire full rounds, announced first before all actions in that round (as in you could wait to see results of this BR14 Action set and then say it.). The reason I think is because opponent has already tried to hit at you with stats as they are (were for him).
EDIT: I'll hear arguments the other way. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think it works if you use it within the same working round (like Movement, and I think this is what Ez is talking about above). Think of this scenario: What if someone was cautious as they investigated a scary place, set their Proficiency adjustment on Defense, getting a +2 AC but accepting a little less chance to hit someone. Then a bad guy jumps out of the darkness, no Surprise, but bad guy wins initiative. He Attacks good guy with the adjusted AC. In the luck of it, Bad Guy misses by only 1 point. Round shifts to good guy. Good guy says "I use my Proficiency switch this round from Defense to Offense, like my Movement". All the sudden Good Guy gets an additional +2 to hit BUT his AC just went down all in the same instant? Now retroactively Bad Guy gets robbed of a would-have-been hit? Not fair. It just doesn't work unless it is locked to full rounds I don't think (although the announcement sort of comes during the previous round I guess). I think if not it could even, taken to extreme, be abused to a point of switching it back and forth every single round and thereby getting the chance of denying an opponent an extra few hits and always having the attack bonus (moving it either at the beginning of your series or the end, depending). Maybe I'm missing something though, so keep it coming if there is a better way of looking at it.


I say yes on rerolling all 1s, in every case, even if there could be multiple damage sets, and even multiple 1s in each damage set