In-game problem solving

[vorindi]

So, through a series of questionable decisions, two of the PCs of the Skype-game (moderately house-ruled D&D 3.5) have managed to get themselves captured by the enemy. Well, the people we're pretty sure are the enemy. Well, people we're pretty sure are the people we're pretty sure are the enemy.

They're elves, all right, and they were attacking

Comments

[kadharonon]

See, THIS is why we need characters who are primarily diplomats!

[3rdragon]

We're in a Zone of Truth, silly! No lying.

[kadharonon]

You don't need to lie, silly! Just... tell them the truth. Diplomatically.

It's a circle of truth, not a circle of clarity.

[3rdragon]

Just because we sometimes choose to hit stuff rather than talk to it doesn't mean that we're bad at talking. Emgeri has a +5 on Social Dissembling. Ath has a +8.

[astaraelweeper]

What sort of elves? Does Ath have the ability to cast Light yet? Because if they're dark elves, that might help a bit when you try to make your escape.

In this rather precarious situation, it seems to me that taking turns resting and guarding is the best available option, because whatever chances you get later, you'd rather face them with more HP, more healing abilities, etc.

Also, what's up? How high is the ceiling? And are there any walls inside the circle that the thief could attempt to climb? And can the thief examine the circle to see if it's a trap and could be disarmed?

Another possibility: have you tested the flames to see if there's a limit to how many objects they can hit at once, going in different directions? The marbles could be handy there. (If nothing else, their rolling around could leave a clue behind you.)

Rough that neither character has come into spellcasting yet (unless 3.5 is really different from earlier versions, which I know much better). And that you don't have even a levitation potion.

[vorindi]

They appear to just be normal elves, some wizards, some unidentified guard-types. I like the trap-check idea, and rolling marbles at the circle is under consideration--we got zapped by the circle for no apparent reason earlier and are wary of provoking it, though.

Yeah, no spell-casting. Ath had a whole bunch of wands at the start of this adventure (he has a lot of points in UMD), but the people who captured us took most of them away.

[astaraelweeper]

Which is why it's better to have inherent magic than to rely on devices, at least most of the time. (Though having both is optimal, obviously.) That and powerful devices tend to have backlash. Then again, I almost always play clerics, occasionally magic-users and/or interesting combos involving one or both of those. Though it's been a couple of years, sigh.

I have NWN2 on my computer (and the original NWN, but I've finished that, while I still have a good 1/3 of NWN2 left to go), but daren't put in the disk until grad school apps are done. Not as good, in many ways, as playing tabletop, but it's been even longer since I've done that. I miss it, but I just don't have time.

[vorindi]

True. I just don't like the bookkeeping necessary to play a full-caster . . . so I don't. (Our party is actually severely lacking in magic, since the only actual magic-user we have is a cleric/bard, being played by the least experienced gamer in the group. It makes things interesting, sometimes.)

[animangel]

This sounds like a situation where beguiling with the truth may be the best option. Buy yourself some time (and therefore HP) and try to see if you can figure out anything more about the enemy while confusing the enemy as much as possible about yourselves.

Still, rough. Have fun with this, and hope the GM is merciful.

[vorindi]

We're hoping . . . I don't even know what we're hoping. But the GM seems to think it's not hopeless for us, so maybe she's being merciful?