Forum: Public Forum

Dear Players,

I like Stone Giants but I think I enjoy Juvenile Red Dragons even more. These are cool critters, high attack bonuses, pretty high damage on a full attack, and the odd True strike spell to spice up the game. They are also easy to play as their statistics do not make them powerful spellcasters, thus the main option is melee, which is pretty good thanks LV11to the amount of attacks they get: Martial PCs get their third attack at LV11 but a CR11 Dragon already has six!

Ongoing encounter.

Things are playing as planned so far. There was, and still is, a component of players' choice in the encounter. The party cannot possibly participate in all the fights, and it was to be expected that given the choice of fighting decently tough, but still generic, Stone Giants and having a go at the first Dragon of the adventure, the party would indeed aim at inconveniencing Longtooth (the name of the critter).
The use of the Fear spell was indeed a good option, but I must be fair to my monsters and rule it the same way as Longtooth's Aura of fear. As you know, I allow PCs who have failed their saving throws to stop, reassert themselves, then come back to the fray - for another chance at a saving throw - instead of having them stupidly lose a dozen rounds running away, thus missing the entire encounter. The rule of thumb is indeed that as soon as the object of the fear effect is no longer in line of sight, the PCs need not run anymore.
This rule should also be applied to my Stone Giant leader and a couple of his soldiers who fled on a failed saving throw. The counter is now at round 12 I think, and I have scripted events all the way to round 25 to throw at the party. This means that Teraktinus will be back in a few rounds, probably with the two Stone Giants who had pet Dire Bears. They ran earlier on, so they would be available to regroup with Teraktinus. At the first attempt to come back to the fight these three Stone Giants will require a saving throw if they see the Gnome. At round 17 (regular Stone Giants) and 19 (Teraktinus), the effect of the Fear spell would have worn off anyway.
Ironically the only way to have a rout before the end of the scripted events is for Teraktinus to blow his horn and sound the retreat if he is around to notice all the dead or fleeing Stone Giants or of course the demise of Longtooth who is also likely to fly away unless he believes he can finish off the party on a low HP total. Longtooth is presently hurt a bit but otherwise unwilling to give up the fight.

A few pointers on what you may have overlooked:

• The North Gate attack was a diversion at first but could indeed have turned into a raid to capture people.
• Saving the Scarnetti Manor would allow the party to befriend a powerful family. Even if the Scarnettis are not the friendliest of people around, they have power.
• The Tanner's Bridge and Two Knights Brewery attacks are aimed at gathering prisoners.
• The Mill Pond attack had the leader with a strike force of only two additional Stone Giants. Maybe it was more than what it seemed to be.
• Leaving Longtooth alone would lead to Sandpoint burning and a +2 morale bonus to attacks for the remaining Stone Giants beyond round 15.

Flurry of blows while grappling.

And it is now time for your GM (M.Sc.)(M.Phil.)(Ph.D.) to write another short Thesis, this time on the grapple rules and Flurry of blows.

Jason Bulmahn, the lead designer on Pathfinder RPG has stated that it is indeed possible for grappled Monks to use Flurry of blows on their opponents. Find his entry near the three quarter mark on this thread. Do a search for "Bulmahn" when on that page.

This also extends to anyone who is grappled but keeping with one hand free holding a light weapon. They can technically go for a full attack sequence even while grappled, however there is a -2 penalty on all attack rolls and combat manoeuvre check (except those made to grapple or escape a grapple).

Keeping that in mind, when grappled by a Dire Bear, the monster can roll to maintain the grapple at +5 bonus, then give only a single attack (one claw).
The grappler must spend a standard action to maintain the grapple, thus the grappler is limited to a single attack and not a potential full attack (for the grappled creature) with one light weapon, a flurry or blow, an unarmed attack, or a series of natural attacks if any are available.
Being the grappler remains a great advantage when the grappler has a Constrict or Swallow whole ability of course. If not, a grapple is therefore only devastating against spellcasters.

This adds to my utter, and newly found, dislike of the Pathfinder RPG system.
First they changed the Protection from ... spell so that they are no longer generic against mental compulsion, now the grappling effects have been toned down!

The game page has been updated.

Laurent,