Volunteers needed - beta testing next Temple+ release

The crossbowman was undoubtedly ready versus spell; which could equally apply to an adjacent melee combatant, but, is Shielded Casting which requires Combat Casting as a prerequisite, only affective against dumb AOOs?

 

The crossbowmen do use ready vs spell a lot but is not damage from the attack needed for a concentration check?

 

Shielded casting only protects you from AoOs. It allows you to avoid them without casting defensively.

Readying vs. spell requires sacrificing your action during your turn. The character is risking doing nothing for a chance to interrupt a spell. It's not really comparable to an attack of opportunity.

It's true that 0 damage or a miss should not require a concentration check, though. I'm pretty sure I've tested it, and it worked before. Are you sure you didn't have defensive casting still enabled? Sometimes the check that automatically avoids it doesn't kick in when I'd expect it to (like, the character doesn't look threatened, but the check thinks they are).

 

Thanks for taking the trouble to check - I will keep a close eye out the next time the situation arises.

 

Well, it might have also been broken by something that happened since I tried it out. I think I tested it out of idle curiosity like 2 or 3 months ago.

 

FIXED
1. I tested Whirlwind Attack with a reach weapon and it works exactly as it should = not able to hit enemies that are too close. Nice. A spiked Chain does not have a donut and this will not be the same with a SChain.

**2..Hedrak fight:

Getting Hedrak to call Iuz is very finicky. Even when a PC is close to Hedrak and Hedrak satisfies the conditions (almost dead) , 3 out of 4 times the fight stops and the Hedrak conversation is as before the fight. And this stop/start carries on until Hedrak is dead and Iuz is never called.

Then finally in a battle when Iuz was called (4th attempt) and he attacked for a number of rounds....Iuz then stopped the fight and stood around while St. Cuthbert was in close range to a PC. I had to go talk to St. Cuthbert to continue the fight. After that it continued normally.

Iirc this is not new, but I don't remember it taking so many retries to get Hedrak to properly call Iuz. And, Iirc it used to happen mostly if Iuz was out of visual range of a PC. Which was definitely not the case this time.

I will note that Hedrak was mostly surrounded by summons and undead each time, so perhaps this interferes with Hedrak communicating with the nearest PC. ie, navigating in the code to find the nearest correct object/character to speak to.

 

Spoiler: Overview

• Very strong party (8 members, 9th lvl) with strong fodder ( zombies + wolf =>mage armor+stat improvements from staff+shield of faith+mass resists+allegro, etc. This makes them quite durable fodder)
  
• Btw, this shows the power of Wave of Grief + Ironhorn cone combo (cast by 2 top left party) in the very first round. Most of the near enemies have been knocked down by Ironhorn.
  
• A number of enlarged polearms (to test the new reach weapon changes + stormlord and an enlarged Korbort hammer to test some Barbarian + charge feats)
• Eventually Hedrak will be mostly surrounded by fodder.

Most often with a weaker party I'll do similar to what you mentioned, ie. block near the entrance until the battle shifts in favor. Here there was less need.

I usually move most of the party away from Hedrak just before Iuz is called in order to limit Iuz's chances of killing a party character. Damage to Hedrak can be somewhat controlled.

Also, another thing that occurred to me is that reach weapons have a couple of influences: they allow initiating talking from reach distance as well as casting touch spells from reach distance. I wonder if this has an impact on initiating the Hedrak-Iuz conversation. 2 pcs have reach and the other is far away throwing javelins.

 

On a side note: I really do hope modders pick up and use Wave of Grief for their NPC's to challenge the PC's

 

I had the same problem with having to talk to St Cuthbert manually to get the fight to resume, even with a PC definitely in sight of Iuz (he was busy clobbering away at my Mirror Images). A bit odd, but not gamebreaking.

 

I was hopeful when I saw the bugbear race had returned in 3117, but I am afraid the above problem persists......

 

I'm going to need a savegame from just before he breaks the fight, because I can't reproduce this on my end.

 

Gobble gobble gobble! Fixed.

BTW was it you who originally made it? I don't remember...

 

Thanks, No I've only sent you the Swift Hunter feat (well the skirmish staking part) but I have decided it wasn't worth the hassle because unless you take it at Ranger6/Scout4 you end up wanting to waste your free Manyshot feat. Secondly, I think Ted might explode if someone introduced Greater Manyshot for PCs only.