Narratively, it would make sense for Malak, Tarquin and crew to be 20th level. They are former evil PCs who completed their adventure line.

Also, Sera I wouldn't necessarily say that the OotS is underoptimized. They certainly aren't mechanically optimized but they are quite good at fulfilling the narrative requirements to proceed in the campaign. Especially since the Sapphire City arc and the aftermath of that where they realized that they were having problems with such things. The main thing about optimization is that it isn't about how hard you can crush the campaign but about being able to make the campaign as functional as possible and the OotS does a good job at this.

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A teenage girl is just a teenage boy who can get laid.
-GTO

We're not just doing this for money; we're doing this for a shitload of money!

The Order is well-built but not to the level of what Char Op did on a routine basis. Then again, few sane DMs will allow a lot of the tricks Char Op came up with.

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Created by Instant Sunrise.

I tend to be a minimalist- if a character's performance can be explained adequately as 15th or 18th level, I see no reason to assume they must be 20th level.

Tarquin's party may have 'graduated' from adventuring at 20th level. Then again, he explicitly decided to quit doing things the hard way after trying and failing to take over the continent the hard way. One could argue that his party 'quit' their adventuring days a little early and decided to retire to the good life.

Hard to say; my response is to shrug and say "they're 18th-20th level."

Just how is she aiming by sound alone?

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Let him land on any Lyran world to taste firsthand the wrath of peace loving people thwarted by the myopic greed of a few miserly old farts- Katrina Steiner

Haley? Looks like. You can see a couple of arrows go zooming past Nale as well so her hit percentage has gone down. She's just many shotting to get any hits she can in.

Improved Precise Shot would allow her to ignore all but total concealment, which smoke doesn't provide IIRC.
Even if she doesn't have that she only has a 50% miss chance - severe, but it still means that half her shots hit - better than wasting actions by not doing anything.

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SoS:NBA GALE Force 上智大学に少し奴隷
"Destiny and fate are for those too weak to forge their own futures. Where we are 'supposed' to be is irrelevent." - Sir Nitram
"The world owes you nothing but painful lessons" - CaptainChewbacca
"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one." - Wilhelm Stekel
"In 1969 it was easier to send a man to the Moon than to have the public accept a homosexual" - Broomstick

Even if she just twangs arrows into the cloud, she can potentially hit Tarquin, Nale, Dritz, or Kilkil, vs the possibility of hitting Durkon (who is probably fighting defensively given he's in the thick of the enemy) or Belkar (who is short). And with the amount of braying Nale's doing it's probably not hard for her to zero in on him.

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JADAFETWA

50% seems consistent with what we've seen. 4 arrows, two hits. Looks like the arrows are buffed somehow, the heads are glowing, any ideas?

Uh, yeah, she has an Icy Burst Bow, which she acquired back in the Thieves Guild Arc.

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SoS:NBA GALE Force 上智大学に少し奴隷
"Destiny and fate are for those too weak to forge their own futures. Where we are 'supposed' to be is irrelevent." - Sir Nitram
"The world owes you nothing but painful lessons" - CaptainChewbacca
"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one." - Wilhelm Stekel
"In 1969 it was easier to send a man to the Moon than to have the public accept a homosexual" - Broomstick

Oh yeah. Please Disregard.

861 is up

Also some news. All reprinted books are now availbe to order at oodookook

Seems an odd place for a sudden betrayal.

I don't know that it's so much betrayal as it is looking out for his own interests. Betrayal would be if he did something to hamper the Linear Guild. This is just running off (possibly to do things more important to his cause) at a convenient time.

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Created by Instant Sunrise.

Something that occurs to me. They are near a gate...Vaarsuvius is separated from the party...and the imp is working for the fiends that Vaarsuvius loaned his soul to.

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"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." - John Rogers

Unbalanced- in all the best ways.

That sounds disturbingly like the sort of joke my old group would make. Along with the UA reference.

Pity, it was nice to see the Order winning for a change.

I do know if I'd count that as a win. I mean forcing a retreat probably nets them XP but its not the decisive end to the conflict the order were hoping for.

Does look like Killick was paralysed by the holy though.

Had that been Thog and not Pops, the Order would have walked all over them. Thog may still have been a problem, as deafness might not have bothered him as much. Then again, Thog might be afraid of the dark and when the sound stopped he might have started running blindly for safety (setting off more traps).

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agentfisherSDnet: You're as brilliant as you are beautiful.
Librium Arcana, Where Gamers Play!
"We're cooler than an iced frappicino -- On the Planet Hoth!"

What saved the Linear Guild was that they had a spare tactician to use when Nale was incapacitated.

Thog would presumably have been deafened and unable to follow Nale's orders. As a pure melee fighter who can't see or hear, and who has no capacity for independent thought, he'd be pretty useless. Durkon could have easily kept him pinned down in defensive fighting (I doubt Thog is better at fighting than Tarquin), or just let him blunder into a pit and taken out the Guild's wizard.

But Roy knew that Tarquin wasn't Thog. So saying the plan would have worked if it had been Thog isn't exactly a great point in his favour.

Well they did force the Linear Guild into retreat with at least one of the members MIA, one fully out of action, and one separated from the rest of the group. Not an outright victory but still very much a victory for Roy on this one.

Now if they can just get back in touch with V......and V gets V's act together.

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Hapan Battle Dragons Rule!
When you want peace prepare for war! --Confusious
That was disapointing ..Should we show this Federation how to build a ship so we may have worthy foes? Typhonis 1
The Prince of The Writer's Guild|HAB Spacewolf Tank General| God Bless America!

New strip up! "Looking for Regroup"

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"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." - John Rogers

Put this way: it would have totally shut down a level-equivalent party. And it would have worked on Tarquin if Tarquin wasn't (1) a tactical genius, and (2) familiar with all these subtle little weird things like punfighting and drow sign language.

So it was a good plan, it just wasn't a great plan, and it probably couldn't have been much better without more resources to work with.

Going by the later strip, it wouldn't surprise me if that went far better than Roy expected and he was actually planning to have Elan cover them with an illusion while they broke off. They know Tarquin is the most dangers person in the party right now, even if they don't know who he is, so hit and run attacks trying to whittle down his support until they can isolate him and take him down is a pretty reasonable course of action.

Of course Roy could also really be keeping Elan out of the way. One never knows with him.

Roy's working short-handed, he's too good a tactician to leave a party member totally out of the action if he can think of anything useful for Elan to do. Like an illusion.

Also, if they've inferred that Tarquin is a fighter, illusions would tend to target his Will save, which may be one of the few gaps in his defenses.* It would make sense to use illusions against him, or at least to hold someone in reserve who can cast spells that require a Will Save.

*OOC, we can be pretty sure Tarquin has high Wisdom and items that make him resistant to mind-affecting spells, he's that kind of guy. But Roy wouldn't know that, or at least couldn't rely on it. It'd be worth gambling on.