The topless girl to the left of that first seen was just beginning to lift her blindfold when Kass's sword sliced broadly across her body, rending and burning and soundbursting; she flew across the carpet between the pews with an ungainly sprawl, out cold.<br/><br/>Kass in her movement would blindsee a third woman in thigh-slit robes, of a lighter but more-pocketed cut and somewhat more like those of the man in the sparring room, yet more feminine. She appeared to be paralyzed, standing a quarter-circle away from the first robed woman they'd seen.<br/><br/>Another quarter-circle around the dais, the spellcasting syllables of yet another woman echoed in the gloom, which Kass would be able to piece together as a rare divine spell known only to those who worshipped deities of darkness such as Shar. The caster moved into blindsight range, seeming to beeline for the place the invisible Kass had dropped the girl, drawing a circular chakram blade into a sure grip as she did so.<br/><br/>Aria heard and flapped closer, and as soon as she saw the woman, flung hammers at her head. One struck and spun her about; a second cracked against the crown of her head and sent her sprawling to the floor with a caved-in skull. The hovering tiefling begin flinging star-shaped shuriken from both hands into the throats of the three of the paralyzed girls, with outward crescent motions of her hands, and her fingers poised somewhat artificially on the relatively unfamiliar (but small and quick to draw and thus handy) Eastern projectiles.<br/><br/><br/>btw I like your paralyis/Hold etc. effects...speeds things up a lot to reduce the number of chars who can take a turn!<br/><br/>huh, pretty clear, I must've followed the links from SRD fatigue to exhaustion and then forgot where I started. Well that's good news; saves a Lesser Res charge and is a pretty mild penalty (basically -1 initiative, AC and reflex) in any case.<br/><br/>Also re: rounds and turns, generally speaking I find 'the system' pretty well designed, and what makes sense in-character is borne out by the mechanics (a character can ambush - aka surprise - by being undetected until an attack, and multiple characters can if they all do and then sync their attacks.) The main reason mechanics usually come up is b/c of implied simultaneity (everyone's moving in parallel, but writing is necessarily serial and turn-based, and rounds are what keep everyone on the same tempo). If you ever find a case where you feel that you're having to "metagame" (what seems to make sense intuitively somehow is disfavored by the rules, or conversely there seems to be an exploit), aka the rules seem unrealistic, you should point it out.<br/><br/>Kass hits for 36, and girl is knocked unconscious.<br/><br/>Kass also, by moving, sees a robed woman to her southwest, who also appears paralyzed.<br/><br/>(Note: in general there may be cases where a PC sees 'new stuff' midmove. B/c of BPB this sort of thing often gets paved over - if you're ever concerned about it, you can always post part of a turn and then get 'feedback' on anything new your PC sees. But I think it's very rare you'd actually miss opportunities b/c of this sort of thing.)<br/><br/>Unseen woman to northwest: spellcasts; Kass and Aria hear; Kass recognizes (Spellcraft) as Armor of Darkness (below). Woman then moves into blindsight range (to 10' west of ring of girls.)<br/><br/><br/>Aria: 5' northwest, begin full attack w/ hammers at spellcaster<br/><br/>mod 30/... (19 bab 10 dex 1 weapon 2 blink/invis -2 twf)<br/>blink Result: 51, 80, 60, 39, 15, 92,<br/>1 atk nat20 threat 32+14-2*, crit 10+6+63<br/>2 atk 25+7 dmg 12+62 slain<br/>one mw hammer left; continue w/ shuriken at south paralyzed girl (she has more shuriken than crystal'ed hammers and figures paralyzed half-naked girls are probably easy to hit); shuriken mods 23/...(19 bab 10 dex --4 nonproficiency -2 twf)<br/>(side note: there's a +4 attack bonus for attacking a helpless char - I w ould think it would subsume rather than stack with the +2 bonus for being invisible, since if a character can't move it hardly seems to matter if they can see you, although I'm not sure if that's said anywhere. I'm not stacking them; the attack mods given before are prior to the +4 bonus. And of course the paralyzed targets have effective Dexes of 0.)<br/>south girl:<br/>3 atk 13-2*+2 dmg 3+64 slain<br/>ne girl:<br/>4 atk 8-4*+12 dmg 3+69 slain<br/>n girl:<br/>oh1 blink miss<br/>oh2 atk 18-6*+13 dmg 3+66 slain<br/><br/>* range increments<br/><br/>x = dropped foes<br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: courier;"><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>                                     . . . . .<br/>                                   . . . . . . .<br/>                               . . . . x . . . . .<br/>                           . . . . p*. . . x . . . .<br/>                         . . . . . . . . . . . . . .<br/>                       . . . x . p*. . x . . x . . . . . . . . . .|<br/>                       . . . . . . . . . A . . . . . . . . . . . .|<br/>                     . . . . . . . x . . . x. . . . . . . . . . .|<br/>                     . . . . . . K . . x . . . . . . . . . . . . .|<br/>                       . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .| <br/>                       . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .|___|_ _|___ <br/>                       . . P*. . . . . . . . . . . x . . . . . . ./. . . . . .|<br/>                         . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ./. . . . . . .|<br/>                               . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ./. . . . . . . .|<br/>                                 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .|<br/>                                   . . . . . . . . . . . .=. . . . . . . . ./<br/>                                   . . . . . . . . . . ./. . . . . . . . ./<br/>                                     . . . . . . . . ./. . . . . . . . ./<br/>                           ___ _ _ _________ _ _ ___/. . . . . . . . ./              <br/>                          /. . . . . . . . . . . . .\. . . . . . . ./<br/>                        =. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ./<br/>                      =. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .=. . . ./<br/>                    /. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\. ./<br/>                  X. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .X<br/>                    \. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ./<br/>                      ---- - ---------   --------- - -----<br/></span><br/><br/><br/>ARMOR OF DARKNESS<br/>Abjuration [Darkness]<br/>Level: Darkness 4<br/>Components: V, S, DF<br/>Casting Time: 1 standard action<br/>Range: Touch<br/>Target: Creature touched<br/>Duration: 10 minutes/level<br/>Saving Throw: Will negates<br/>(harmless)<br/>Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)<br/>The spell envelops the creature in a shroud<br/>of flickering shadows.<br/>The shroud grants the subject a +4<br/>deflection bonus to Armor Class plus<br/>an additional +1 for every three caster<br/>levels above 7th (for a total of +5 at 10th<br/>level, +6 at 13th, +7 at 16th, to a maximum<br/>of +8 at 19th level). The subject<br/>can see through the armor as if it did<br/>not exist and is also afforded darkvision<br/>out to 60 feet. The subject gains a +2<br/>saving throw bonus against any holy,<br/>good, or light spells or effects.<br/>Undead creatures that are subjects<br/>of armor of darkness also gain +4 turn<br/>resistance.<br/><br/>