Us vs. the Goblins, Round 2

The polls being completed, the results are as follows:

Albrecht:  draws handaxe and throws it, drawing back one hex.
Brønn:  casts bless, drawing back one hex.

Cailaith:  casts magic missile, drawing back one hex.
Darien:  runs to the right, along the wall, seeking the darkness.
Englund:  plays pipes to produce martial music.

Depicting both the party's move and that of the goblins, without shadows but retaining the limitation of what the torch reveals, we have the following image:
 

The details are numbered 1 to 7:

1. Albrecht moves 4; he draws his hand axe (1 move) and throws (2 moves). Albrecht has a -2 to hit due to the distance (8 hexes). If the goblins were not running towards him when he throws, I would make it an additional -2, but we have to assume they are breaking out of the darkness from Albrecht’s perspective. The fighter rolls a 16, or an adjusted 14, hitting AC 6. The goblins are carrying shields only, so they are AC 6 (explain humanoid armor rules). He causes 4 damage; the goblin has 3 and dies, falling back into the darkness. Albrecht earns 30 x.p. (but he does not add it to his character at this time – he has to survive the fight first). Albrecht steps back one hex (one move).


2. Brønn also has a movement of 4. All spells require verbal and somatic components (never material), but Bronn can continue to hold his mace as he casts bless. The spell requires all of Bronn’s movement except one point. He uses it to move one hex, into the hex that Cailaith exits.

3. Cailaith has a movement of 5, but as she is casting a spell (magic missile), her movement is reduced to exactly the same as Bronn’s. She continues to cast as she moves back one hex, into the hex that Darien exits.

4. Darien moves 4, and uses all his movement to reach the destination hex indicated. This is his only action this round.

5. Englund moves 4, but in order to play martial music he must spend one round with no movement at all, preparing himself to play. This is what he does this round.

That covers the party's moves.  The goblins have only two actions.  As they move, the spellcasters are still casting their spells.  This gives the goblins a chance to break their spells, which they would have a go at if I were giving them any missile weapons. I’ve decided these goblins have none – though even a fist-sized stone would do in a pinch. But we’ll assume the goblins have no stones either, and move forward.


As I said previously, the goblins are running, so they are moving at double speed (six hexes).

6. Here’s where it gets tricky. Both Goblin 1 and Goblin 4 see the thief, Darien, break from the others and run along the wall. It takes Goblin 1 a move of four to get to the hex marked with a blue spot. It takes Goblin 4 a move of five to get to the same spot. Goblin 1 has time to swing with a weapon (it has 2 movement points left) but Goblin 4 is too late. However …

Both Goblin 1 and Goblin 4 elect to grapple. They have a better chance to hit, since the only have to hit AC 10, minus the target’s dexterity. Moreover, as long as no action is taken in a round except grappling and movement, the two are considered to be the same action. Both goblins drop their weapons to avoid a -2 penalty “to hit;” Darien’s defending AC is 7 against grappling; the goblins are charging and they get a +2 on the “to hit” die.

Goblin 1 rolls a 19, modified to a 21, which easily hits AC 7. Goblin 4 rolls a modified 12 (10+2), which also hits AC 7. (I don’t use the 1 minus 1 column; my goblins are 1 hit dice creatures with 1d6 hp per HD).

So, Darien is hit twice. Each hit does 1-4 damage. The goblin’s light weight would reduce this to 1-3, but their claws compensate for the reduced weight, so the damage remains 1d4. Together the goblins do 4 points of damage. However …

Because Darien is against a wall, when the goblins hit him, he hits the wall. The wall isn’t considered to have claws, so the damage is only that of the goblin’s weight, or 1d3. Darien hits the wall twice, at the goblins hit him in succession, so he takes 2d3 of damage: a total of 4. Darien has 9 hit points, so he is reduced to 1 … but he is now considered to be stunned. To stun him would require one quarter of his hit points to be exchanged for damage – or anything more than 2 (2 damage would be 22% of his hit points and he would not be stunned). This means that before Darien can take any action at all, the goblins must be given the opportunity to act again. As well, Darien is now considered to be grappled and held, since the grappling attempt resulted in his being stunned. In order to use his weapon, Darien will have to break the grip of both goblins. He would have to do this by grappling in return, and hopefully causing enough damage this way to free himself. For the present, however, Darien misses a turn. (But he does gain 160 x.p., if he lives to collect it).

7.  The rest of the goblins can do nothing except to rush forward.
 
The new, updated battle map is presented below, with shadows:
 

Pertinent facts:

Both the cleric and mage have cast spells, but to discharge them requires this round.  Each could hold the spells over and discharge them next round, but I don't think that's worth considering.  I can't imagine anyone doing it who wanted to live.

In discharging the spell, Brønn and Cailaith can only move 5', or one hex.  Brønn, however, is technically already blessed (without needing to discharge the spell), so if he does not want to bless anyone else, he can at this point move normally.  But if he wants to give the benefits of the spell to anyone else, he has to spend a round doing that.

Englund can move at half speed while playing the pipes, but cannot fight at the same time.

Cailaith does not have line of sight to attack the Goblins on Darien, unless she moves.

Only one character sheet requires an update: Darien.

Additional information about the characters and battle can be found here.  A sexier map of the first round can be found here.

I will be putting up the new polls as soon as possible; they should be in place by 11 a.m. Pacific.  Feel free to ask any questions.