True Strike

Yup, I totally agree, it was just the way the spell was expiring on the attack as though it had just worked that threw me. That and the fact that the stupid creature was casting spells beyond their range and they weren't working. :yawn:

Anyways, good news: Tim was right, get the monster to cast it first round of combat and (assuming he lives until second round of combat) the party get a nice surprise.

 

Update on True Strike - buffing by dialogue THEN initiating combat (a la the Ruined Tower fight) WILL give the critter its True Strike bonus on its first attack.

There's always a workaround... unmissable ray, anyone?

Since I won't be needing that particular critter to have Point Blank Shot, I tihnk I might give it improved initiative :evil_laug

 

These are all valid comments. But the dialogue in question involves the players taunting the monsters rather than just initiating combat, and it IS possible for PCs to cast True Strike then jump into combat.

I would suggest (though someone may go back and read what Liv wrote and prove me wrong) that the dialogue buffs are there precisely because the PCs buff themselves to all get-out before entering a combat scenario, while the poor stupid CRPG monsters can't even position themselves or anything. There are endless exploits the players can use (eg enter room, flank monsters, then initaite dlg): this one is something the players can do (it works some of the time, as attested above) that the monsters, in this case, are going to do back to them.

If they don't like it, they can go straight to combat or seek a diplomatic alternative. Its not a given that it will happen.

 

I agree, Kal, but thats the thing: I've gotta work with what I've got. If it means occasionally using the PCs own exploits back on them (in certain circumstances, with the option of avoiding it) to get a challenging encounter, then that is what I will do. I mean, I am using True Strike as a pre-cursor to the casting of a 1st level ray, not Disintegrate

Also, 'punishing' the players for RPing is what a good DM does. In this case, the trigger will be a completely ill-advised attempt at intimidating (not taunting, sorry, I described it wrong). Whereas atm you only get the social skills if you know they are going to work (other than a few encounters of Liv's), in KotB there are already several situations where you can get them but not be guaranteed to succeed (ie there are different outcomes if u have a hi or low score - there are succeed outcomes and failure outcomes) and a few like this one where you shouldn't be trying them, but have the option to anyway. I mean nothing is stopping a pnp player saying, "I try an intimidate check on the King" but there should be consequences if it fails. I am trying to introduce those consequences.

 

Apologies if you guys already know this, but I discovered while doing the Sammy thing that there are options for trickery with the social skill checks as they exist.

(Trying not to be spoilerish . . .) A casually placed <= X in the skill check code checks to see that the skill is below X and makes it fail if it is, but still happily displays normally in-game like it's sure to succeed. Maybe this is standard code, but I can't ever recall getting the little bluff (or whichever) smiley next to a dialogue response and then failing the check. Until now.