[OOC] Return to the Rusty Rat

[Lugar]

wow! You are right! I forgot about haste, cool. What the text says is that the lower of (speed+30, speed x 2). In Lugar's case, 20x2. In Giant's case, 40+30. In Merri's case, those are equivalent (30x2 = 30+30).
Fun fact: dwarves can even tumble in heavy armor since the skill says "You can’t use this skill if your speed has been reduced by armor, excess equipment, or loot." And while dwarves also have medium and heavy load their speed is not reduced! (other penalties for load like max dex bonus and encumbrance penalty, still apply unless I'm mistaken)
Let's wait for Shanna's idea about Silent Image and I'll resolve your turns simultaneously.

That's what I thought about Lugar's speed but reading comprehension has never been my strong point : I didn't know that about Dwarves and tumble, maybe I should invest in some full plate, a tower shield, and a bag of holding to carry it all... If only Lugar knew a dwarf that wore full plate and died "accidently" he could acquire some armor for free. : @Torin...

[DM Surranó]

It's only their movement. Armor check penalty still applies. (I was wondering whether arcane failure applies to spell-like abilities... but since they don't have somatic components...)

[Torin]

wow! You are right! I forgot about haste, cool. What the text says is that the lower of (speed+30, speed x 2). In Lugar's case, 20x2. In Giant's case, 40+30. In Merri's case, those are equivalent (30x2 = 30+30).
Fun fact: dwarves can even tumble in heavy armor since the skill says "You can’t use this skill if your speed has been reduced by armor, excess equipment, or loot." And while dwarves also have medium and heavy load their speed is not reduced! (other penalties for load like max dex bonus and encumbrance penalty, still apply unless I'm mistaken)
Let's wait for Shanna's idea about Silent Image and I'll resolve your turns simultaneously.

That's what I thought about Lugar's speed but reading comprehension has never been my strong point : I didn't know that about Dwarves and tumble, maybe I should invest in some full plate, a tower shield, and a bag of holding to carry it all... If only Lugar knew a dwarf that wore full plate and died "accidently" he could acquire some armor for free. : @Torin...

Yes but first you must clean it .

[DM Surranó]

About grappling with multiple attacks, it's a big mess and I couldn't find any source within easy reach that would explain the situation so some questions:
- Can a mantis initiate multiple grapple checks in a round (while grappling)? I ruled: yes but not as replacements to a (sub)set of natural attacks (claw/claw/bite-5). Rather, it's "unarmed attack" since its bab is +6/+1, i.e. second grapple with -5.
EDIT: this is somewhat supported by official faq, here: http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x.../20050322a
- Can a mantis improved-grab with two claws? I ruled: yes, and if both succeed then the victim is pinned instead. (alternative is resolving first claw attack then ... then what?)
Your opinions are welcome!

[Torin]

"Fatigued
A fatigued character can neither run nor charge and takes a -2 penalty to Strength and Dexterity. Doing anything that would normally cause fatigue causes the fatigued character to become exhausted. After 8 hours of complete rest, fatigued characters are no longer fatigued."

So your abilities stay the same you just get a penalty. You could able to use your feats, ...

[Torin]

"Silent Image:
Duration: Concentration
You can move the image within the limits of the size of the effect."

IMHO the caster could move the barrels with the victims, so they couldn't able touch it with their heads but they could touch it with their hands, ...

[DM Surranó]

"Fatigued: you ... cannot charge."
So... Torin could not charge this round and the mantis is 7hp up?

Until further clarification, I consider ability penalty as a factor that decreases your effective ability score. The only difference I can see is what's written specifically for ability damage, i.e. that penalty automatically go away with the effect that caused it while damage does not.
In this sense, you can fall to the ground, helpless and paralysed, if your str/dex scores are 2 or less without the penalty.
I guess that the following sentence in Touch of Idiocy also supports this assumption:
"This penalty can’t reduce any of these scores below 1. "
Reading between the lines, "This penalty does reduce these scores as long as they are greater than 1."
And if ToI can reduce the scores themselves then any ability penalty does the same.

Does that make sense?

[Toot]

"Silent Image:
Duration: Concentration
You can move the image within the limits of the size of the effect."

IMHO the caster could move the barrels with the victims, so they couldn't able touch it with their heads but they could touch it with their hands, ...

I completely agree.  I feel that one of the reasons why the duration is concentration is so the caster can actively make adjustments to the illusion to make it seem more real to the targets.

OOC - direct interaction means automatic success but I noticed this only after I rolled the saves... successful ones. Funny or not, these insects are clumsy but wise.

As I mentioned in the in game thread, I had a discussion in PM with DM Surrano about when Portho's cast a silent image.  In the PM I explained how the 1st level silent image is a "Figment' and therefore it has no substance.  The spell essentially just creates super realistic, visual only, hologram that don't hold up to touch.  Since they have no substance if Toot touched it he would immediately know it wasn't real.  I was told at the time by DM Surrano that he treats illusion spells like the rules treated them in 2nd edition.  Meaning if you fail your save you completely believe the illusion.  So even though Toot touched the wall of roots there was a chance that Toot could be tricked to believe the wall of roots were real, despite having a Wisdom of 24.  At the time I didn't attempt to debate any further because even though I disagreed with his interpretation of how illusions work in 3e I figured that it's his game and if that's the way he wanted Silent Image to work, then so be it.   

So I have to ask, which rule are we using?  The 3e rules where direct interaction means automatic success, like I was trying to explain in my PM about Portho's Silent Image?  Or is it by the 2e rules because of personal preference?

[DM Surranó]

I will crosscheck the early conversation but I like the "believe" part providing a false feedforward to the tactile sensors. Conveninently, I can do so because the successful saves prevent this question from aborting the flow of things.
Behind the scenes, recently I've been trying to embrace the "flow with the story, ruling whatever makes sense" way instead of heavy rules-debates.

About the barrels being able to move with the heads; I guess the heads have to move for that, and Shanna has to react on that, fast enough, and precisely enough, but (funny as it sounds) she has to see through her own illusion in the first place to be able to do so (shouldn't be that hard but still there's a chance for failure). That said, I guess these insects don't bite like mammals, hurling their heads forward. Rather, they use their mandibles in place... or something like that. But truth be told, I never thought about whether moving the objects could be done while it's not your round or not. What do you all think? Should it be immediate like speech, as part of concentration?

[Torin]

Everything is moving we just use the turn based system as a modelling,  IMHO the caster concentration is enough to keep his barrels in place.

I found a long thread about ability damage / drain and penalty in PF. I linked the offical answers about them:

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2kqm0?Abilit...d-Drain#30

AvalonXQ wrote:
1a) A 12th-level wizard with a 16 Intelligence takes a 3 point Intelligence penalty from Touch of Idiocy. What is the highest level spell he can cast, sixth or third?
Third.

AvalonXQ wrote:
1b) A 12th-level wizard with a 16 Intelligence takes 3 points of Intelligence damage. What is the highest level spell he can cast, sixth or third?
Sixth.

AvalonXQ wrote:
1c) A 12th-level wizard with a 16 Intelligence takes 3 points of Intelligence drain. What is the highest level spell he can cast, sixth or third?
Third.

AvalonXQ wrote:
2a) A fighter with 13 strength and the Power Attack feat takes a 3 point Strength penalty from Ray of Enfeeblement. Can he Power Attack?
Yes.

AvalonXQ wrote:
2b) A fighter with 13 strength and the Power Attack feat takes 3 points of Strength Damage. Can he Power Attack?
Yes.

AvalonXQ wrote:
2c) A fighter with 13 strength and the Power Attack feat takes 3 points of Strength Drain. Can he Power Attack?
No.