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

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TalonofAnathrax said:
People, is Melisandre available for that fight or not? The text seems to say yes, but the "Order of battle" spoiler in the penultimate update says no.

Yes, I'm writing up a plan. IIRC Melisandre is stealthy, right? So her and the Mighty Mind Dragon will be our first bet to incapacitate, capture or kill that Efreet mage. Once it's done, they use a Sending stone to tell the others to attack (Vee and Rina do AoE, otherwise it'll start as just a normal ship battle). Meanwhile the Herald, the Erinye, Yrten and Siduri stay ready to act against whatever bullshit or Hero units the enemy will inevitably whip out.

Sending Melisandre and a Dragon in to do an assassination is less crazy than it sounds. Melisandre is a stupidly powerful spellcaster with amazing action economy, and IIRC her shadow abilities are good for infiltration AND her PrC and shadowcaster class are both very good at using raw skill points to sneak around (the whole "turn into a shadow, then roll Hide at +bullshit and simply never enter the line of sight of anyone with True Seeing active" approach to infiltration).

Thoughts?
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I'm up for cutting our losses and ganking the crews of the ship's we already have, but if you want to go for an attack, I agree Melisandre would be the best option to assassinate the mage. The Mighty Mind Dragon could easily accompany her in it's Pseudodragon form. Rina and Vee could provide some buffs to the pair, too.
 
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Crake said:
I can agree with that, in theory, under certain circumstances.

But mistake me not, did @DragonParadox not just say that Efreeti (and this is typical of many officers we have encountered) is currently too busy trying to cover his own ass?
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You guys do not have much insight into the commander's thought processes but according to Melisandre's divination the reason he only hs one mage with the decree spell available is because he does not wish to spread that knowledge around before the battle. It's probably a combination between efreeti politics and operational security.
 
DragonParadox said:
You guys do not have much insight into the commander's thought processes but according to Melisandre's divination the reason he only hs one mage with the decree spell available is because he does not wish to spread that knowledge around before the battle. It's probably a combination between efreeti politics and operational security.
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That's what I said. :???:

Oh, apologies. Is not Efreeti politics basically formalized "cover your own ass"?
 
[X] Plan "the best battle tactic is murder"
-[X] Have Vee cast Find the Path on Melisandre, Protection from Spells on both of them, and the following buffs.
-[X] Melisandre and the Mighty Mind Dragon sneak in and try to kill or capture the mage. Mind Dragon uses Telepathic Bond SLA to stay in contact with the Herald, and ensures that the attack goes off with the best possible timing.
-[X] If they managed the kill without creating an immediate uproar, the corsairs will attack first while the Enthralled & Geased ships will pretend to be chasing them to pin them against the other Efreet. If they are currently fighting their way out of the ship, simply order a fast attack.
-[X] In either case, while Rine and Vee provide AoE, have our main PC-level fighters (Herald, Amrelath, Siduri and Yrten) stay in reserve against whatever gambit the Efreet heroes will attempt.

Goldfish's plan is solid, but IMO this could work! C&C welcome, I'm too tired to think properly and will be going to sleep soon-ish.
 
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[X] TalonofAnathrax

i honestly just want to tie this up for now and deal as much damage as possible, also loot.
 
TalonofAnathrax said:
[X] Plan "the best battle tactic is murder"
-[X] Have Vee cast Find the Path on Melisandre, and Protection from Spells on both of them.
-[X] Melisandre and the Mighty Mind Dragon sneak in and try to kill or capture the mage.
-[X] Once it is done, use Sending to tell the others to start the attack. If they managed the kill without creating an immediate uproar, the corsairs will attack first while the Enthralled & Geased ships will pretend to be chasing them to pin them against the other Efreet. If they are currently fighting their way out of the ship, simply order a fast attack.
-[X] In either case, while Rine and Vee provide AoE, have our main PC-level fighters (Herald, Amrelath, Siduri and Yrten) stay in reserve against whatever gambit the Efreet heroes will attempt.

Goldfish's plan is solid, but IMO this could work! C&C welcome, I'm too tired to think properly and will be going to sleep soon-ish.
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Don't forget to have Vee spend at least a minute before the attack Summoning a Swarm of Orglash Elementals to swarm the ships simultaneously.

Also, here are spells Vee and Rina should cast on Melisandre and the Mind Dragon, along with other people where applicable.

Vee:
Level 1: Conviction, Moment of Greatness
Level 2: Tyche's Touch, Barkskin
Level 3: Greater Magic Fang(Mind Dragon), Mass Resist Energy (Acid, Fire, Electricity, Sonic)
Level 4: Freedom of Movement (Melisandre only, assuming the Mind Dragon buffs herself)
Level 5: True Seeing (both, unless Mel casts it on herself)

Rina:
Level 1: Snowsight (she has scrolls of this, too)
Level 2: Snow Walk
Level 3: Mass Aid, Mass Entropic Shield, Mass Resist Energy (Cold)
Level 4: Mass Shield of Faith
Level 5: Life Bubble
 
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Goldfish said:
Don't forget to have Vee spend at least a minute before the attack Summoning a Swarm of Orglash Elementals to swarm the ships simultaneously.
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How will she know when the attack will start? The signal is "Melisandre's assassination works out" and you can't predict exactly how long that will take.

I'm editing the plan to link to your post and saying "follow this buffing scheme".
 
Can anyone think of a low level spell, that permanently generate stone? I'm thinking the easiest way to make my ship salvagers, is to have them swim into sunken ships, and begin filling them with pumice, but wall of stone is a 5th circle spell, so that's a little much for a non-combat creature.

Alternatively, any spell that generate fire resistant material also work, then we just have the salvager, make hollow containers and fill them with air, until the ship is light enough to float.
 
TalonofAnathrax said:
How will she know when the attack will start? The signal is "Melisandre's assassination works out" and you can't predict exactly how long that will take.

I'm editing the plan to link to your post and saying "follow this buffing scheme".
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Mind Dragons have Telepathic Bond as a 1/Day SLA. No need for Sending, they should be in real time communication.
 
Okay finally settled on a choice for my salvagers spell, although if anyone can think of a better solution, I'm of course open to suggestions.

The salvager should have plant growth, and it should carry seeds of fire resistant brown algae, these are the algae with air bladders, then it just keep using plant growth, until the ship is so filled with the algae, that it's lighter than oil.
 
tarrangar said:
Okay finally settled on a choice for my salvagers spell, although if anyone can think of a better solution, I'm of course open to suggestions.

The salvager should have plant growth, and it should carry seeds of fire resistant brown algae, these are the algae with air bladders, then it just keep using plant growth, until the ship is so filled with the algae, that it's lighter than oil.
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When and where is this supposed to be used again? The sea of boiling oil in the Elemental Plane of Fire?

I don't think that's feasible at all, dude. The sea basically bottomless, so unless a ship that sinks receives immediate intervention it will soon sink too deep to ever be found without high level Divination magic. At that point, you might as well just Plane Shift/Teleport to the ship's location, assuming you have the magic necessary to survive the conditions, and retrieve it manually. Trying to engineer a species of plant which can grow under those conditions is possible, I'm sure, but it would require a dedicated research action for relatively little gain versus other retrieval methods.
 
Goldfish said:
When and where is this supposed to be used again? The sea of boiling oil in the Elemental Plane of Fire?

I don't think that's feasible at all, dude. The sea basically bottomless, so unless a ship that sinks receives immediate intervention it will soon sink too deep to ever be found without high level Divination magic. At that point, you might as well just Plane Shift/Teleport to the ship's location, assuming you have the magic necessary to survive the conditions, and retrieve it manually. Trying to engineer a species of plant which can grow under those conditions is possible, I'm sure, but it would require a dedicated research action for relatively little gain versus other retrieval methods.
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The idea is these salvagers swim beneath our naval battles, if they spot a sinking ship, they enter it, and begin to grow Brown Algae, until it's so filled with Brown Algae that it gets lighter than oil, at which point it begin to float upwards instead of sinking, the ships being adamantine plated, will even in their broken state protect their innards from most things, at least enough that most of the time, the Brown Algae will be able to grow safely.
 
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Adhoc vote count started by egoo on Mar 11, 2020 at 7:26 PM, finished with 52 posts and 12 votes.
  • [X] Although the Efreeti fleet is a tempting target, Melisandre's plan has been discovered and complete failure all too likely. We will instead order our subverted ships and Corsair allies to withdraw.
    -[X] Once the fleet has reached a suitable location, Melisandre will then begin issuing orders to her Commanded Efreeti that will make it as easy as possible for our people and Salamander corsairs to capture the crews of those ships.
    --[X] The Corsairs might be disappointed to miss out on a greater share of treasure, but an easy fight for generous pay and little danger should be acceptable, and the Efreeti will still be losing access to nine powerful and expensive vessels.
    [X] Plan "the best battle tactic is murder"
    -[X] Have Vee cast Find the Path on Melisandre, Protection from Spells on both of them, and the following buffs.
    -[X] Melisandre and the Mighty Mind Dragon sneak in and try to kill or capture the mage. Mind Dragon uses Telepathic Bond SLA to stay in contact with the Herald, and ensures that the attack goes off with the best possible timing.
    -[X] If they managed the kill without creating an immediate uproar, the corsairs will attack first while the Enthralled & Geased ships will pretend to be chasing them to pin them against the other Efreet. If they are currently fighting their way out of the ship, simply order a fast attack.
    -[X] In either case, while Rine and Vee provide AoE, have our main PC-level fighters (Herald, Amrelath, Siduri and Yrten) stay in reserve against whatever gambit the Efreet heroes will attempt.
    [X] What Goldfish just said
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