Generally I think Trossach would want to help. However, I don't think the elves want the help, unless they really need it. I'd be inclined to watch for "a round" and then reevaluate.

So far we have one vote for leaving (Ochit), one for fighting (Raynard) and one for getting some popcorn and watching (Trossach). What say the rest of you?

Klik's character sheet has him being respectful as far as being a doctor, but he doesn't 'respect' someone unless they are a proven warrior... That being said.

'saving the elves' is an affront to their warrior spirit. They should be able to handle it, or flee, regroup, or fail and let the sands claim them. we're on a time limit and this is an advantage to move forward at least putting one group behind us.

I'll post in game these thoughts (as well as backposting for the conversation about templar training) when I have time this is rushed at work.

Preservers:

Maybe make it almost like a Channel divinity ability. but not bound to Clerics... this is just a ... theorycraft..

*Preservation*
The spellcaster calls upon their inner reserves to invigorate the ground around them, stemming off defiled ground and returning life to once barren lands.

As a bonus action, this ability will raise the status of land around the caster by one level. Defiled will become neutral, Neutral will become verdant etc. This field of preservation will grow at a radius of 5ft / three caster levels to reflect their growing reserves as they get stronger.

The spellcaster is able to affect his/her spell with this ability as though it were a metamagic. Affecting the ground and gaining it's equivalent bonus while casting a spell.


A spell caster may use this ability once / spell casting ability modifier / short/long rest. (for Klik for example it would be 3 with a 16 wisdom)

Gotta say that a "warrior spirit" that says "I would rather die than accept help or retreat" has always seemed like a really stupid spirit to me. And short lived. That said, it might be their idea of things.

But Trossach could be convinced to move on. However he would want to watch just long enough to get some information on these "zombies" - it seems likely that we will see them or their like again. If they can't be hurt by arrows, what can they be hurt by? How quickly do you "become a zombie?" This doesn't mean sticking around long. But a little information could go a long way towards knowing where to plant his maul when next we seem these guys.

@KaelynrnrnI thought about that, about having a thing that would allow you to replenish the earth but then I figured why wouldn't it be easily fixed then? Why wouldn't a group of spell casters just dedicate their lives to spending their slots to fix the land. I figured that would be too easy.. So perhaps I'll allow land to be made into neutral after much effort but to make it luscious land, you'd have to plant a garden and expend a lot of effort to make it viable enough for spell slots.

After all, it's a lot easier to destroy than to fix something right? Defiling should have a lot of benefit in the short term but preservers go in this for the long run.

What if Anyone spellcaster or not could permanently expend their Hit die to raise the status of a 5ft area etc?

meaning.. no regaining hp on short rests etc... meaning for most people... a tangible cost to restoring a small piece of the world with their own life energy..

Sorta a belief that everything's connected etc.

meaning if Klik wanted to turn a 5ft piece of defiled land into lush verdant land... it would cost him BOTH of his hit die (healing surges in some other editions) Meaning come short rest he has no 'natural healing'. This preservation lasts until a long rest where you can choose how many hit die to regain / ending/ shortening the radius preserved to enforce the land of the dark suns ever vile encroachment.

This would fight the 'it's so easy to make permanent happy places' but allows for maybe sects of druids or what not that do permanently devote part of their lives (literally) to maintaining some small piece of beauty and life in the world.

at 5ft / hit dice.. that means a max level character could only do a 100 ft radius and in most game worlds 20th level anythings are very rare let alone.. good aligned and with the motives to do such a thing.

but it allows for interesting RP options, or a group of say.. I dunno.. 6 adventurers to maybe weigh the odds and with a inspired prayer or somesuch pour their 'essence' into the earth and try and salvage a temporary reprieve.

just thoughts.

That'd be really interesting...

Okay. I think i'll compromise with what you've got and what I'm thinking...

Thanks for the idea

I'll have something solid within the next week or two. I'm running a couple of games so it'll be a while before I get to it.

a few hours to respond to each other. I'm a bit unclear as to what you guys as a group want to do but it seems like you guys wish to aid them?

I feel like Doc will be played out as very level headed, rational, and poignant. Almost.. 'spock' like in a manner. He's not above helping the elves provided more good than risk comes of it. perhaps we can save them then dissuade them from continuing, and pick up a few extra survival days or supplies from them as they head on back, aware of their ill equipped nature for this task.

As for morrigu.. he's not above playing to her racial stereotype to get her to perhaps assist the group, nor is he above calling himself 'lesser' for the sake of unity. words mean little to the Kreen.

Ochit sees no reason to help the elves. But he will go along with the group. Probably move slower than those eager to help.

I don't think we have actually picked a course of action. So I don't know what to post.

However, I would like to suggest a middle road. Of course, this is what I suggested earlier, so take it however you will. We could watch for a minute. This would let us know
1. Info on the bad guys
2. Do fallen elves join the bad guy and make a really nasty pack of somethings behind us?
3. Do the elves need help?
4. Are we capable of helping successfully?
5. Still have time to slip away if we want.
6. This gives us time to pick which path we want.

I'll post along these lines so something is up, but I don't think it is fair to assume this is really the plan. We need some agreement.

i'll have a post up today or tmr. Sorry for the late post but i wasn't sure what you guys wanted to do as a whole

Is there any advice on handling the game? It's too slow right? I'm just wondering how do I make it faster without taking control of your characters

The game is not too slow. Post games tend to take longer. It can take years to play out a couple months of game time in some cases.

I agree with Keeper, the game is not too slow, once a week is pretty much the standard for pbp games like this. That said, if you feel the pacing is off then as DM you are more than free to up the pace on your updates to get the game where you feel it should be, and sometimes (just a little) taking control is required on the part of the DM in a game like this.

Looks like we are going with a short pause to watch the action. Maybe give us 2 combat rounds of details on how the fight is going and then we can make our decision.

Maybe it's because I used to post 2-3 times a week dependent on player pace (I had no life outside RDINN when I was a MOD here many years ago lol), and because my other games are now live, it does feel like it's a bit slow to me. That comes with play by post to be fair,(but real life delays and such draw out the 1 post / week to 1 post / 2+weeks etc and it sets the start of a new game off to a crawl) but I agree with some of the statements made by the others, and sometimes, 'taking the reigns' with creative licencing to move things along is well within the DM's capable hands.

Given the scenario presented to us and the information posted in game by those thus far, I'd interpret it thus:

The party spends the next minute gauging the battle from the benefit of their height and distance, and X Y or Z happens.. In the same post, given that only Morrigu was adamantly opposed to helping, two seemed to want to help, and Ochit and Doc while tentative had agreed to help if the others did, depending on X Y Z that happened, move the pace along into either joining the fray, or ignoring it and moving on to the next leg of the journey.

What play by post allows that playing live does not is the advantage of backposting and interactions beyond the immediate breadth of the post at hand.

Just my 2 cents. Please don't take them negatively because they are meant to be constructive and not in any way imply I'm not enjoying this game because I am!