OOC Thread

Remember, to get the full effect of your Polearm Master feat you should specify that you attack from 10' away and that you then back up another 5'. Your halberd has a reach of 10', so you have to be that close to attack. Since you are not next to a creature, you can back up 5' without taking an opportunity attack. That way, when the creature enters your 10' reach, you can use a reaction to take an opportunity attack.

EDIT:

Nice! I see you edited to add that you attack from 10' out. Now just take a step back so you can get that reaction!

Regarding enemies like tentacles, would an attack of opportunity be provoked during one of their attacks? Because their position isn't really changing, but I assume I can still react to their motion of reach?

Thanks for the notice! I forget that I can move after an attack if I don't use up the entire speed. Ill edit to step back 5 ft.

That's a good question. Is a creature considered to be entering your reach if it has a longer reach than you? In other words, if a creature has a reach of 10', I don't think there's a question that the creature must enter your reach. But if it has a reach of 15'? I would probably rule that it does not enter your reach, unless the tentacles themselves have separate HP and AC. Not knowing what the creature is, I couldn't say for sure in this scenario. I have a feeling we're about to find out, though!

In regards to a tentacle-type reach attack entering your space triggering your polearm master feat, I'd say no if it goes for an ally, but I'll give it to you if they attack YOU specifically, because that would look cool :)

How much damage can Pageflap do with burning hands without hurting his allies?

Sitting at a table with a battle mat, that's an easy question to answer. On PbP and with theater of the mind, you typically will just say something along the lines of, "I want to cast Burning Hands, hitting as many enemies as I can without hitting my allies." The DM will let you know what you can hit (or if it's even possible). Burning Hands is wasted against a single enemy, so if you can only hit one, you're better off using a cantrip against a single target.

Good question, Jacketch. Let's say you can hit up to 4 things on either side if you can get there. So, either you can burning hands the two tentacles attacking the back ranks OR you can burning hands any 4 enemies attacking the front ranks (choose any combination of 4 from the 2 tentacles and 4 grubs, eg: 4 grubs, or 2 tentacles and 2 grubs, or 1 tentacle and 3 grubs).

At the moment you won't be able to get to the front ranks because you are grappled by a tentacle and therefore can't move.

For the record, you can burning hands through the party if you wish, and I'd let you hit all 6 creatures in the front rank if you do. But you're also going to hit the front and middle ranks as well (4 characters), which is totally not worth it. If in the future you guys pick up, say, rings of fire immunity or something, it would be a legit strategy.

Thanks for the OOC comments in the game thread, McDunno. You are correct on all accounts. Serves me right for posting between classes :)

So I can only hit 4 characters then, or do you mean I can't without hurting my allies because I'm held in place? I'm assuming I can hit two tentacles and two grubs without hitting anyone else from what I'm hearing.

Sorry if I'm not being clear.

Currently you are being held in place (grappled) and cannot reach the front rank with burning hands (unless you burn your allies)

If that changes, you can move forward and can safely hit 4 enemies in the front rank without hurting your allies. If you want to hit more than 4, you'll hit your allies.

I offered to let you hit all 6 bad guys if you also got the first and middle ranks, but it was mostly just an example. Roasting your party to get an extra 2 targets is not a good idea currently.

So right now Burning Hands would only be able to attack the tentacle grappling me without hitting any allies then?

Also I can either attack or try to escape, not both?

Until you break the grapple (using your action to roll an acrobatics check), you won't be able to use Burning Hands without hitting a bunch of your allies. You can still attack if you don't want to break the grapple. You could target a slug or the tentacle creature with firebolt or magic missile or you could target the tentacle with shocking grasp or your dagger.

Correct. Each one uses your action, so it's one or the other.

Okay, the first part was what I wanted to know. Sorry if it took me a while to get it, I'm a little tired right now

No sweat. Learning's the name of the game here!

McDunno's got it right, Jacketch!

I have to admit, I am not doing the best job in this particular encounter of making things clear. It's report card time, and I've been up to 1am every night finishing up my marks for the past 5 days! I wanted to get a map or some kind of visual aid drawn up to make things more clear but it just didn't happen this time. Things need to be crystal clear for all games, but especially for a beginner's game :) But hey, we're doing our best!

This might not work well with beginners, but in another game, we did a one-off with 20th-level characters. When it became impossible to keep track of what was going on in combat, the DM set up a map in Roll 20. We still described all our actions and rolled in GP, but we used Roll 20 for the battle mat and for players to be able to move their characters around. I don't know that it's necessary for the combats we've had so far (and I'm sure you don't have time to set up the field in another game system), but it might be something to keep in mind for later.

I think theater of the mind works okay here, despite some confusion over the workings of an area of effect spell. And, for the most part, it's worked out well in other, higher level games I've played. It's just that when trying to visualize combat with a 20th level character who could turn invisible, had 120' movement (with an upper potential of 360' in a round), and who could move around without taking opportunity attacks, it became impossible to theater of the mind that! Especially when your last turn in combat was 24 hours ago!

For our purposes, I think even a quick graphic done in Microsoft Paint would be sufficient.

Ramen has been on for awhile, so I'm going to 'bot' Raishe's actions. In general, if a player isn't around for 24 hours in the middle of a combat, I usually conduct their turn, but I have that character play a minor role. It is usually not fun for all the players at the table if a character controlled by the DM saves the day. I'd rather the present players have the spotlight. Also, it is not fun for the player to come back and have all their spell slots or consumables used up by the DM and to have few to no options left to play with.

Generally, I'll have that character play defensively, use the help action or dodge action only. So, while Raishe does have a particularly useful cantrip that does AoE damage, I won't use it. However, since Raishe is a Life Cleric and the party is taking damage, I will use one of his spell slots to heal whoever needs it the most (Barendd currently). Anyone playing a Life Cleric probably intended to do healing, and it doesn't steal the spotlight away from present players.

The other grubs will be able to run back and attack, but had you killed them, they wouldn't had done AoE damage upon their death, so the golf swing was a good tactic. There are 2 tentacles left, and the mass is bleeding violet bioluminescent slime, which is the only source of light in the tunnel right now.