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Author Topic: Tactics and trolls  (Read 2465 times)

Kyle Aaron

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Tactics and trolls
« on: July 15, 2014, 07:12:38 PM »
Some observations on (still) playing the way I've always played, and a stupid story, the sort you don't get just from optimising your character.

Stats shmats

I'm playing 2e because that's what the DM wanted, so we had some ridiculous system where we chose class and then rolled, I chose fighter and so had to roll 7d6 drop lowest for strength, 6d6 for con, 4d6 for charisma, that sort of thing.

I ended up with
Str 12, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 6, Wis 17, Cha 18

The DM suggested I swap some numbers around. I'm old school - you play what you roll. So we have Fabio, the Most Beautiful Fighter in the Cosmos.


more muscular than he really is, but
if you were having a portrait done, how would you have it drawn?


He's charismatic with common sense but no academic knowledge, not that strong (the party's gnome illusionist with str 13 can beat him in an arm wrestle) but deft.

If you're really strong and tough then you're the warrior out there hewing and slaying, if you're cunning and charismatic then you're a leader. Fabio started with 4 men-at-arms, "Fabio and his Fingers, together we make fist!" Along the way 3 men-at-arms have died, one was slain early on, another was eaten by a bullette so we couldn't do anything, another was slain by trolls and Fabio paid for her to be resurrected so she became a henchman. Another man-at-arms became a henchman early on. Fabio's now level 5 and the henchman are level 3. Another 2 are still level 0, including Boche who was an original man-at-arms, he's never been knocked to 0HP and never failed a saving throw, bit of a lucky bastard but there you go. All are clad in plate mail with tower shields.

In combat if we're at range we open up with shortbows, so that's 10 attacks in the first round. On the approach of the enemy we drop bows and take up shields and form a shield wall (house rule, +1 to AC for each one on your side, so +2 in the middle and +1 on the flanks, lose your Dex bonus though - so great for men-at-arms, less great for high-Dex fighters). Each of the Fingers carries 2 holy water and 4 flasks of oil. A common tactic in dungeons is putting oil in a line in front of us, forming a shield wall across the 10ft corridor with 3 guys, the enemy approaches, they're about to enter melee and we light 'em up. If a warrior in the front rank falls, one of the 2 behind step up.

Rest of the party stands behind and supports as appropriate.

With 10 attacks in the first round, plate mail and tower shield (AC 1) and a shield wall (AC -1 for guys in the middle, AC 0 for guys on the flanks), most foes are dealt with fairly quickly, and we're not hurt too badly. It's different if we're surprised, but we try not to be surprised too often.

We came across a room with 7 sleeping trolls. Quietly rolled open flasks of oil in there. "Wake up!" Web spell. Light 'em up. Shield wall in entrance, survivors stagger out burning and screaming and are cut down. Tough fight, but result was 7 dead trolls, no dead party members.

In a game I DMed, the players came to a room with sarcophagi and mummies in them. One came out and they slew it after much trouble. The others they pinned the lids down by sitting on them, and the wizard got a rock drill to put a couple of holes in the lid, poured oil in and lit it up. What were his stats? His level? It didn't matter - this was something they could have done at first level.

Use your wits, work as a team and have a plan, and then your stats don't matter too much. People focus on stats because they think of their character as an individual, rather than as a member of a team with a plan.

Now, this stuff doesn't help you if you meet a wizard with charm person or the like. But that's another story.

Trollhead tavern

We came to a room of trolls drinking and fighting, two were just heads nailed to walls, their mates taunting them. We slew them, took the still-alive heads and cauterised the neck stumps to stop them regenerating. The DM wasn't sure if that would work, I said if not we'd just make iron boxes with spikes inside so that the troll grows back, is stabbed to death, grows back, is stabbed, etc, eternally. Since that was horrible the DM agreed the cauterising would work.

We went into Greyhawk and talked to a tavern-keeper, it's now the Troll's Head Tavern. Young men come there and have a few drinks, then make bets. You know that game where you put your hand on the table and stab the blade between each of the fingers increasingly fast? Or even better, your mate does it to your hand? Well, they do the same but with the troll heads, trying not to get bitten. And the trolls are always angry and snarling being taunted by all and sundry.

Trollhead Tavern, down through Viscera Lane past the corner where Big Rosie always hangs out. It's not the sort of tavern you'd take a fair maiden while courting her. But the ale is cheap and every night has a brawl, and the umberhulk pie is excellent.

Now all should go well, provided nobody ever has the bright idea of taking the heads down from the wall...

You don't get this kind of tactics, silliness and fun with systems that insist on optimal character builds. Roll 'em up, take what you get, use your wits to make the best of it. Don't take it too seriously. Bring snacks.
« Last Edit: July 15, 2014, 07:14:41 PM by Kyle Aaron »
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Spinachcat

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« Reply #1 on: July 16, 2014, 12:46:39 AM »
All hail Fabio!

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« Reply #2 on: July 16, 2014, 01:20:36 AM »
Fabio. Ha! That is good. :)
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Scott Anderson

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« Reply #3 on: July 16, 2014, 02:54:29 AM »
Awesome and hilarious. This is the kind of stuff that will leave those players who have only played in the modern way baffled and amazed.

Who the heck carries a rock drill on them into a dungeon?! Good show!
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Kyle Aaron

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« Reply #4 on: July 16, 2014, 03:01:51 AM »
The rock drill was in case of locks, the player of the thief wasn't super-regular in attendance.

The wizard sat on the sarcophagus lid as it shook and twisted, the mummy trying to get out. The player made the drilling movement, wide-eyed and cackling with evil glee. "Ahahaharrr! yargh! Ahahaahar!"
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« Reply #5 on: July 16, 2014, 05:21:36 AM »
Saved for laughs.
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Simlasa

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« Reply #6 on: July 16, 2014, 05:59:05 AM »
Way more fun than micromanaging the chargen to get some boring 'capable' PC.

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« Reply #7 on: July 16, 2014, 06:09:11 AM »
Quote from: Sommerjon;769482
Saved for laughs.


I c wut u did dere. Derp
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Kyle Aaron

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« Reply #8 on: July 16, 2014, 06:45:56 AM »
Quote from: Simlasa;769491
Way more fun than micromanaging the chargen to get some boring 'capable' PC.

When you minimax the GM just nerfs your best abilities anyway. "You have invisibility? HAHA! You meet the goblins who can see invisible! You're superfast? You meet the tribe of Superfast Orcs! Bwahaha!"

You have to come up with something the GM can't nerf. Cunning plans you come up with on the spot require too much obvious fudging for the GM to stop you. And cunning plans are more fun than simply figuring out how to get +10 to damage at 1st level.
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« Reply #9 on: July 16, 2014, 08:44:51 AM »
Considering I haven't regularly seen your posts in ages, I can't tell whether this is parody of the Optimization-Is-For-Swine crowd or not.
 

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« Reply #10 on: July 16, 2014, 08:51:59 AM »
I would rather see characters like your Fabio than a boring old 18 strength fighter.

If the gm is any good, that 18 charisma is far, far, FAR more valuable than an 18 Strength.

The 6 Int would add a lot of fun as well.

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« Reply #11 on: July 16, 2014, 10:44:47 AM »
Had a guy play Fabio-as-an-Elf in my GURPS campaigns.  This was '95 or so.  He even took cutouts from a Fabio exercise VHS and pasted them to his character sheet.
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« Reply #12 on: July 16, 2014, 10:57:13 AM »
Thanks for the laugh Kyle! You're the best when it comes to "let me tell you about my character."

Honest question to dungeoners who regularly use oil flasks: doesn't it get old/trite at some point?

Scott Anderson

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« Reply #13 on: July 16, 2014, 11:38:58 AM »
Constiution and charisma are the god stats in classic D. Everything else is nice but not critical.

In terms of using the same tactics repeatedly: every lock has a key that fits. It would be stupid to try the flaming wall of death against everything just as it would be stupid to cast the same spell repeatedly.

I should hope that fabio did his best to avoid trouble and swing a sword when necessary. Otherwise his henchmen would quickly sour on him even with the 18 charisma.
« Last Edit: July 16, 2014, 11:42:00 AM by Scott Anderson »
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« Reply #14 on: July 16, 2014, 11:53:27 AM »
Quote from: boulet;769569
Honest question to dungeoners who regularly use oil flasks: doesn't it get old/trite at some point?


Nope, never.  Its all fun and games until someone rolls a 1 while throwing/you fall in a pit trap with 11 flasks written on your character sheet and go the rest of the night low on hit points and soaked in flammable oil/your molotov cocktail hireling corps fails their morale check/the goblins start copying your tactics, etc.