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A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

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Thoughts on this arc:

1) Whewboy, Sandor went toe to toe with Companion-tier PCs. Moreover, he stood before a god who's flame is conceptual "OH GOD WHY" and didn't give up. Then he puts down Connington who had done the most harm to us in the entire fight by taking away two of our biggest assets, action economy and our senses. Give him some more Companion level gear and he is more than ready to join the big leagues, especially considering I'm pretty sure he's due for a level.

2) Richard with the BIG PLAYS this fight. He tied up Ashara Dayne, bonafied Zilla-type if not flat-out Clericzilla. She really could have ruined someone else's day, but in addition to that, he stood up to her completely, a Cleric in the presence of her Goddess buffed to the gills and equally geared on top of that without giving an inch of ground. Then distracted Tiamat at least once by nearly putting the kibosh of Aegon.
2.1) Given the current vote, it's come to my attention that Richard is kind of the Anti-Mage of the party. He is more than capable of blending his way through HP bags, but up against something with a mountain of HP and stupidly monstrous strength modifier and BAB, and two fist-fulls of attacks available, and he's kind of in a bad way. I'm not sure if there's really a solution for that, his AC is already sky high. Contingency Heal might be the way to go, but that can always be countered as demonstrated in this fight.
2.2) I think the above is just a demonstration of limitations a martial-type PC has during these high CR boss fights. By that point they are completely outshone at their sole focus by the Big Bad in every way possible. He has plenty to bring to the table under normal circumstances. He might come back around again and bring more to the table for these types of hectic encounters once he gains more Mythic abilities. Some of the ones I saw on that list were pretty crazy good.

3) Dany's "Catch!" was great, though surprisingly she is not stealing the whole show this fight... I can't even say that Viserys has the spotlight, though depending on the outcome of next update he might just get his chance.
3.1) On the other hand she has taunted Tiamat a bunch this encounter. Oh man she really wants to rub it in her five faces.

4) Overall, I think the craziness of Rocket Tag battles have come full circle. This fight has lasted five rounds, six next update. And throughout it all, cancellation of all sorts of crazy scary spells going on. Surprisingly, even with all the Spell-turning being thrown around, everyone has gotten a chance to strut their stuff, on both sides. Viserys even got to pull his Pimped Out version of Shadow of the Doom! Usually there's some reason or another for why we can't just nuke the shit out of everyone, but we literally petrified or incinerated a whole cult of people. NGL, I was hoping Connington would fail his save, if only so I could laugh at his stupid statue face after all was said and done.

5) Viserys last update: "*chuckle* I'm in danger."
 
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@Crake the maneuvers and stances help a lot with overcoming the size, STR and natural attacks gap.

Tho Oathkeeper is honestly enough to make up for all but the worst melee blenders.

Ser Richard has a lot of good shit built-in, even if he is the Anti Mage guy.
 
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TotallyNotEvil said:
@Crake the maneuvers and stances help a lot with overcoming the size, STR and natural attacks gap.

Tho Oathkeeper is honestly enough to make up for all but the worst melee blenders.

Ser Richard has a lot of good shit built-in, even if he is the Anti Mage guy.
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I especially like Time Stands Still. What's better than Two Full Attacks?

Belt of Battle into THREE Full Attacks!

That's 2.5 sword strikes per second. :V

I don't see most things surviving that, and you're right that Oathkeepers special abilities makes so many attacks hurt even more, especially, as mentioned, against opponents with supernatural abilities or spells.
 
...we are still planning to make Sandor a Praetorian once we finish the project, yes?

He'll definitely hit Companion-level quality once he is one.


Even not reading the chapters, it is kinda refreshing to see everyone enjoying this ark, y'all were expecting a curbstomp on our side, or some other saltfest-worthy reason.
 
egoo said:
Even not reading the chapters, it is kinda refreshing to see everyone enjoying this ark, y'all were expecting a curbstomp on our side, or some other saltfest-worthy reason.
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I'm ecstatic, really.

The joy of finding something, someone that's capable of testing our limits. The struggle of reaching victory. The excitement of prolonged brawl of swords, divine blessings, and magic makes my blood singing.

I don't care if anyone died. I don't care if Aegon died. I don't care if Richard died. I don't care if we died.

All I care is that on this fight, there will be blood; there will be carnage; there will be slaughter!!!

KHORNE CARES NOT FROM WHENCE THE BLOOD FLOWS, ONLY THAT IT FLOWS!!!
 
Crake said:
2) Richard with the BIG PLAYS this fight. He tied up Ashara Dayne, bonafied Zilla-type if not flat-out Clericzilla. She really could have ruined someone else's day, but in addition to that, he stood up to her completely, a Cleric in the presence of her Goddess buffed to the gills and equally geared on top of that without giving an inch of ground. Then distracted Tiamat at least once by nearly putting the kibosh of Aegon.
2.1) Given the current vote, it's come to my attention that Richard is kind of the Anti-Mage of the party. He is more than capable of blending his way through HP bags, but up against something with a mountain of HP and stupidly monstrous strength modifier and BAB, and two fist-fulls of attacks available, and he's kind of in a bad way. I'm not sure if there's really a solution for that, his AC is already sky high. Contingency Heal might be the way to go, but that can always be countered as demonstrated in this fight.
2.2) I think the above is just a demonstration of limitations a martial-type PC has during these high CR boss fights. By that point they are completely outshone at their sole focus by the Big Bad in every way possible. He has plenty to bring to the table under normal circumstances. He might come back around again and bring more to the table for these types of hectic encounters once he gains more Mythic abilities. Some of the ones I saw on that list were pretty crazy good.
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If one or more of the Avatar's heads make's an attack on Viserys or Richard, prompting him to respond in kind, his attack line will look something like this with all of the various buffs included:
  • Sudden Block's Retaliatory Attack: +48 [7d6 + 33; 17-20/x2]; plus 1 Constitution damage and ignores All Damage Reduction.
  • Full Attack: +48/+48/+43/+38/+33 [7d6 + 33; 17-20/x2]; plus 1 Constitution damage and ignores Epic Damage Reduction.
  • Avalanche of Blades via Belt of Battle: +48/+48/+44/+40/+36 [7d6 + 33; 17-20/x2]; plus 1 Constitution damage and ignores Epic Damage Reduction.
Eleven attacks, with at least nine of them being all but certain to land against the AC of even a Great Wyrm Red Dragon (no clue what the Avatar's AC is, but the comparison is probably fairly close). If all hits landed, that would inflict an average of 632.5 damage (-57.5 per miss), not counting Critical Hits (with a threat range of 17-20, there would likely be at least a couple) or the HP loss inflicted due to a pile of Constitution damage.

It wouldn't be out of the question for one of the Avatar's heads to explode into a slurry of chopped up Dragon bits.

BTW, you didn't mention Teana. She has more than held her own in this fight, including Shadow Turtling Ashara. Like Sandor, she's a good three or four levels behind everyone else in this fight, and it wasn't very long ago that she had no interest in any kind of adventuring or taking risks to life or limb. We've done a good job of weaning her on lesser threats, slowly ramping up the risk and reward until now, she's here fighting side by side with us against high tier enemy PCs and the Avatar of a pissed of Dragon God. A level up for her definitely shouldn't be out of the question.
 
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Huh, the tally doesn't like my coloring this time, it seems.
Adhoc vote count started by Goldfish on Feb 13, 2020 at 4:45 AM, finished with 116 posts and 23 votes.
  • [X] Plan "Hang in there..."
    -[X] The death or capture of Aegon becomes the new priority target for Teams Malarys, Vee, and the assorted members of other teams (Harbinger, Erinyes, Mind Dragons, etc.). Vee hits him with Dimensional Lock and anyone who can use Dimensional Anchor tries to hit him with that as well.
    -[X] Lya uses Harmonic Chorus on Viserys, raising his caster level and spell DCs by +2.
    -[X] Teana uses Alter Fortune to assist Viserys, if necessary, then uses her Shadow Illusions augmented by Solid Shadows to defend the group to the best of her ability (duplicated Wall of Force, Wall of Stone, Wall of Scales, etc., whatever is most appropriate).
    -[X] Dany uses Divine Defiance to Counterspell the next spell Tiamat casts then acts in whatever support capacity is most appropriate (Reached Heal, Dreamcast Wall of Scales, countering an attempt to Command Dragons via Turning, etc.) to help the group.
    -[X] Richard and Sandor continue to ward their charges as previously decided.
    -[X] Viserys casts Assay Spell Resistance, then uses Pronouncement of Fate against the Avatar via Miracle while canceling his Moment of Greatness buff to double the effects of Lya's Harmonic Chorus (caster level 24, or 38 to overcome SR [rolling twice and taking the higher result], Will save DC 37 for partial effect). He then expends one Mythic Power and his Amazing Initiative ability along with his Belt of Battle to use Wild Arcana to raise a 24th level Wall of Suppression between the Avatar and our group, shaping the 48 resulting 5-foot cubes as necessary to protect everyone. He uses his Ring of Spell-Battle to Counterspell before this, if necessary.
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You know, I expected a lot more AoEs from Tiamat. We've seen the fivefold breath of Tiamat, but where are the nuke spells? Or will she just use breath every round?
 
TalonofAnathrax said:
You know, I expected a lot more AoEs from Tiamat. We've seen the fivefold breath of Tiamat, but where are the nuke spells? Or will she just use breath every round?
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Thankfully, she's used some of her actions for spellcasting which wasn't immediately combat applicable, including casting a Heal on Connington and Teleporting Aegon to a nearby Prismatic Drake.

An attempted Word of Chaos, which failed to affect Nirah because of ASF, an attempted Disintegrate which Teana Counterspelled, and the Breath of Doom (TM) which Dany blocked with a Wall of Mithral round out a round of actions.

It makes sense for the Avatar to not have a lot of AoE spells, IMO, since it can rely on its myriad breath weapons to provide all sorts of area damage. Ironically, despite the much greater danger from the Doom Breath, it's probably better for us that she used it rather than a large Cone-shaped breath weapon which would have been much more difficult to fully block, though it wouldn't have been nearly so resource intensive to do so.
 
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See, I was expecting less "Disintegrate" and more "Frostfell with all five Energy Admixture feats" type effects. Or simply several breath weapons each round, or something.
Not only is this the best way to make a boss really challenging, it's also thematic for Tiamat to have nukes galore.
 
TalonofAnathrax said:
See, I was expecting less "Disintegrate" and more "Frostfell with all five Energy Admixture feats" type effects. Or simply several breath weapons each round, or something.
Not only is this the best way to make a boss really challenging, it's also thematic for Tiamat to have nukes galore.
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It could be coming in the next round, though hopefully Viserys' boosted Pronouncement Of Fate mitigates that possibility.

Of course, with 48 5-foot Wall of Suppression cubes to arrange, Viserys should be able to build a nice AMF cube around the entire group. Fingers crossed.
 
TalonofAnathrax said:
See, I was expecting less "Disintegrate" and more "Frostfell with all five Energy Admixture feats" type effects. Or simply several breath weapons each round, or something.
Not only is this the best way to make a boss really challenging, it's also thematic for Tiamat to have nukes galore.
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She has been oddly careful, but I can only guess that even Tiamat can learn the joys of asset preservation after realizing that if she runs out of mortals to scam here it'll be basically it for her power projection. This means not carbonizing what useful pawns she still has, and even helping them to safety.
 
Late again, this arc seems to be cursed where my writing time is concerned.

Vote closed
Adhoc vote count started by Goldfish on Feb 13, 2020 at 4:45 AM, finished with 116 posts and 23 votes.
  • [X] Plan "Hang in there..."
    -[X] The death or capture of Aegon becomes the new priority target for Teams Malarys, Vee, and the assorted members of other teams (Harbinger, Erinyes, Mind Dragons, etc.). Vee hits him with Dimensional Lock and anyone who can use Dimensional Anchor tries to hit him with that as well.
    -[X] Lya uses Harmonic Chorus on Viserys, raising his caster level and spell DCs by +2.
    -[X] Teana uses Alter Fortune to assist Viserys, if necessary, then uses her Shadow Illusions augmented by Solid Shadows to defend the group to the best of her ability (duplicated Wall of Force, Wall of Stone, Wall of Scales, etc., whatever is most appropriate).
    -[X] Dany uses Divine Defiance to Counterspell the next spell Tiamat casts then acts in whatever support capacity is most appropriate (Reached Heal, Dreamcast Wall of Scales, countering an attempt to Command Dragons via Turning, etc.) to help the group.
    -[X] Richard and Sandor continue to ward their charges as previously decided.
    -[X] Viserys casts Assay Spell Resistance, then uses Pronouncement of Fate against the Avatar via Miracle while canceling his Moment of Greatness buff to double the effects of Lya's Harmonic Chorus (caster level 24, or 38 to overcome SR [rolling twice and taking the higher result], Will save DC 37 for partial effect). He then expends one Mythic Power and his Amazing Initiative ability along with his Belt of Battle to use Wild Arcana to raise a 24th level Wall of Suppression between the Avatar and our group, shaping the 48 resulting 5-foot cubes as necessary to protect everyone. He uses his Ring of Spell-Battle to Counterspell before this, if necessary.
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so i just wanna say this after looking over the imperial kobald. the emperor blessed is really funny to me and i don't know why
 
I have really enjoyed all this so far. Usually when we fight something we dog pile 1, maybe 2 people but this absolute clusterfuck of magic casting, casters, swords and dragon-avatars really does make the whole thing really fun. Especially the melee fighters utterly devastating people who don't expect it.
 
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