Friendship is Dragons
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Page 554 - Seventh Sense
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That happened to me plenty of times in my game. My player was always at the back of the line because she was a cleric and the rest of the party didn't want her to get hurt in battle. Yet, I was also the one who always fell into the hidden doors, down the pit trap, or trip and fell into a rear ambush. The rest of the team couldn't just magic their way to me, and had to take time from hacking and slashing to save me. :D
Well, at least they tried to keep you out of harm's way. My party had a weird concept of "being there for the squishy cleric". Besides leaving her unprotected, once they left her right in the way of a barbarian specialized in charging that was 4 levels above ours... Because they wanted the attack bonus from flaking. 1-hit kill... Luckily, the DM showed mercy and allowed my character to live.
The following campaign, I made another cleric, only this time a bit beefier, and by backstory I made him always try to protect the bard (who was a bit of a wild card). The DM wasn't so lenient this time, and soon the rest of the party (all melee combatants) learned (were kinda forced) to follow wherever the bard wanted to go.
The following campaign, I made another cleric, only this time a bit beefier, and by backstory I made him always try to protect the bard (who was a bit of a wild card). The DM wasn't so lenient this time, and soon the rest of the party (all melee combatants) learned (were kinda forced) to follow wherever the bard wanted to go.
Yeah, whenever a party I'm in is getting into marching order I usually try and persuade the squishier members to be in the middle of the group to help protect them from back attacks.
We've yet to BE back attacked, but it never hurts to be careful.
We've yet to BE back attacked, but it never hurts to be careful.
I was in a party that was attacked from behind by a stone golem! How this walking avalanche of a creature snuck up on us I'll never know. It pasted the party wizard in the surprise round. The cleric died next when he tried to lightning bolt it without realizing the bolt would bounce off. Killed himself with that shot, ha!
Ironically, since my cleric had the highest AC in the party for the longest time, he was stuck in the front which, given he is also the only healer in the group, makes things slightly complicated. But we've yet to be screwed over by the arrangement so yea, it works.
I am surprised that I'm one of the only players in a given group who will think to Leave A Message for the rest of the party when I split off. 'Cause I've had my share of wandering off on my own into dangerous territory, yet I've never died out there. Heck, I usually don't get into that much trouble and the party always finds me because I left them directions. :3
But yea, there's usually no need to leave a message since we always tell each other we're going in such and such a direction/place and that usually keeps the BS down to a manageable level. That and we tend to split off in groups of two or more.
Fluttershy (Maybe?)- She has been hold up in her house all night long, been visited by Luna and Twilight once so far (which went "good"), and probably knows Rainbow enough to go and let her know when it's too late to go scaring other ponies, and leave them to their fun.
Rarity (I said character, not player)- She would either get tired of being cooped up all night and go for a stroll, or would want to get away from the noise and festival, and go mope somewhere a little more quite, and eventually hear some violence in the distance (and who doesn't go near that?)
It's worth investing in communications equipment for the party so you don't have to metagame in times like these. iirc, D&D 3.5 had a ring of Message that served a similar role, so fantasy settings aren't exempt.
Being able to call for backup when you accidentally sneak into the enemy stronghold while scouting is a literal lifesaver.
Being able to call for backup when you accidentally sneak into the enemy stronghold while scouting is a literal lifesaver.
This is one problem in the group I recently started to play with: they love to slit a party. And GM loves to split a party too. I'm having hard time to get used to it. (Note: when I'm GMing myself, I don't like party splitting, so I'm very afraid to GM in this group).
Is AJ mocking RD in this strip? A bit metagaming isn't that bad, if it improves gaming experience. For example: "In character I don't know that she is in trouble, but it's perfectly in character for me to worry about a friend, so I better check up on her." I only oppose to metagaming when it reach ridiculous levels, like "Out of character I know another player's secret, so I'm going to act like I know, even if there is no way to know it in character."
Is AJ mocking RD in this strip? A bit metagaming isn't that bad, if it improves gaming experience. For example: "In character I don't know that she is in trouble, but it's perfectly in character for me to worry about a friend, so I better check up on her." I only oppose to metagaming when it reach ridiculous levels, like "Out of character I know another player's secret, so I'm going to act like I know, even if there is no way to know it in character."
As someone who got an Alchemist's AC up to 52, I don't have any trouble believing a rogue can out AC a barbarian's attack. Especially an elite guild member rogue or otherwise a rogue a few levels higher with sneaky tricks. In pathfinder, there are dozens of ways to make one's AC frustratingly high.
They're playing 4e, though. NPC AC is set by role instead of by trying to reverse engineer what AC they would have based on their stats if they were a PC.
You mean "metagaming". "Metgaming" is more like http://metool.8m.com/3d/shot3.jpg or http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/361/1/e/mugen020_by_oilusionista-d8bfidx.png .
Usually when we run into situations like this where the party's split and it would be very convenient for one half to join the other half, we ask the GM, "So where are we now?" and most of the time the GM will roll some dice and if it's a really good roll, wow, what a coincidence, you were right there and happen upon the scene... if it's a success but not spectacular, we show up in a few rounds (or he'll roll to see how many rounds it takes before we arrive), if it's just barely a failure, we show up a few rounds later, if it's a critical failure, nope, absolutely no way we get there in time. And this seems to be a thing because I've seen three GM's in my gaming group do it. Gotta dance that fine line between metagaming and a good story, right?
Still betting on it (The Mastermind) being Celestia. However much of a stretch that may be. XD
"I don't know! Let's go look for her."
"I, um, I saw her wrestling with a stallion. They were grunting and screaming."
"Oh, nevermind. Let's give her some privacy."
RD: I hate you guys.
...
"Cause I think she stole my wallet."
(edit: Now everyone is going to be wondering what I'm talking about. Yay.)
So we're outside of a cave in which there are many reported werewolves that are attacking travelers around a nearby town. I figure, hey, I'll go scout. I've got a really good stealth check, fairly high speed check, and the best defensive abilities in the group.
I'm a little bit of a power gamer at times, and we have some new people in the group. So I happen to have probably the strongest character by a large margin. GM is well aware of this, and has been having lots of fun with making bosses for the future, and the other players don't really know this because my character is a bit secretive and I didn't share most of what I was capable of.
So I apply some deodorizing agent to make myself undetectable to scent. It's werewolves afterall. I roll REALLY well on my stealth check, so I'm basically breezing through most of this dungeon scouting it out. Meanwhile outside, the rest of the party starts arguing about wanting to go in to make sure I don't get trapped inside alone by the werewolves, you know sending the twelve-year old girl into a den of werewolves is dangerous and all that. Since they had no idea my character was literally just walking past dozens of enslaved kobolds thanks to having a method of perma-concealment.
So rather than have them spoil my stealthy scouting run, I actually ask them NOT to come help scout. [One of the druids, we had two, was convinced that if he wildshaped into something, they wouldn't think twice about an animal with an unfamiliar scent.]
I tend not to allow outside of character reactions to rejoin a party. when it does happen however, because lets face it, players will justify anything somehow, I generally set an arbitrary number of rounds before they actually arrive. So it creates a different kind of battle where it is about surviving more than winning.
Personally, I tend to be lenient about it when it can be finagled, since the alternative is players being left out of the action more often than not. But when I want to raise the stakes, I reserve the right to say, "No, you don't magically show up in time. This is happening now."