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There was some discussion about retreating, and thought we should look over our options here.

Korothane is in favor of staying, at least a little longer. Two have been made visible (Korothane can pinpoint them within 30 feet, his faerie fire lasts 5 minutes, and he has another such memorized plus two scrolls). Rupert has 2 more glitterdusts. He'd favor bunkering into the north room, healing Soot and Rognar while we have a little breathing room (between Rognar, Findor, and Muscle's potion we should have Rognar back to full/near full in one round; one cure moderate should help Soot significantly).

The regular stalkers have about +10 to hit, and the leader has +14. Right now Findor and Soot both have AC 24. That means they need a 14 or 10 to hit each time. What can we do to improve these odds?

First, if we can force them into a constrained space (e.g., a doorway), they'll have -4 to hit and AC from squeezing. With their 10 foot reach, that may be tough.

I believe Findor has a prayer spell memorized, which would give them -1 to hit and damage. He has a shield of faith, but may have already cast it. If not, or if Rognar has that, it could boost the AC of Rognar or Soot to 26! Looks like Findor also has a spiritual weapon he could use on one. And if we get another glitterdust off on one in melee, the blindness penalty is pretty severe.

What we need to try to do is take these guys on one at a time, ideally by blinding it with glitterdust then pounding on it from two or three of us. Then we heal any wounds and go after another.

For example, take the one that's spring attacking. What if we had someone ready an action to slam the door shut when it came inside? We'd cut off its retreat and hammer it before it could flee in another direction. It would help if we had readied actions like glitterdust, charging, etc.

They are using better tactics this time, but are in separate parts of the complex, and may have a bit of trouble coordinating their efforts. Also, we could try infuriating one or more...maybe Guy could use his Auran and a Diplomacy or Bluff check or the like to get one to come after us, maybe lure it into the north room and hit it from all sides. That might be tricky, since they don't seem to be idiots, but we might be able to do something along these lines.

We could have guy secure the east door while Rognar/Soot are healed, and the others set up, then the next time the outdoor one pops in, we seal it in and have our way with it!

As for the one upstairs, I suspect it may try to outflank us by going outside and heading to the north door. The people in the north room should be aware of that, and either spike the door leading outside shut, or head back into the central hall with the stairs and shut the nearer door.


Retreating is of course an option. I still think we can handle these, but if the majority disagrees (or some insist on leaving no matter what the group decides), at the very least we need to take a round first to heal wounds, since Rognar is bad enough off that one more blow might finish him.

We'd also have to decide on how to take this on later. Other than simply coming back as higher-level PCs, I don't see how tactically we can do much that's different. Invisible stalkers have pretty good Spot/Listen abilities, so sending someone in invisible seems pointless. They do like to lurk in those outer towers, but I suspect if we corner one there it'll just flee to the main building and alert the others.

What do you guys think?

I'm not aware of any in-air combat penalties. There is a higher ground bonus for attacking from above, which actually favors aerial melee attack.

Having a PC airborne is mainly useful to chase down and kill a badly wounded critter that's fleeing; I would strongly advise against "taking the fight to the enemy" if only one PC can fly, unless it's a mopping up exercise.

Korothane does have an advantage outside in that his call lightning is stronger; however, these stalkers are very nimble, so I'm thinking I may use the other spell to summon something instead. A dire wolf would be a good choice, particularly if we face them inside. A pack of regular wolves is also a possibility. Outside, I could summon a giant eagle or a couple hippogriffs, though again we'd want to avoid splitting up our forces.

The risk of summoning is it only lasts 5 rounds, and takes 1 round to cast, so I'd want to cast it when an enemy is just engaging us, and I don't need to worry about faerie fire. One nice bit: I have the Augment Summoning feat, so my summoned critters get +4 to Str and Con, and I'm finally reaching the point where summoning creatures becomes worthwhile in battle.

Another nice thing: a summoned critter gives the stalkers an additional foe to worry about, and if they attack the summoned critter, that's attacks not being directed at a PC.

It'll be a while until 6th level, so no rush. I'll give it some thought.

There's a LOT of feats that are tempting for Korothane, but I'll probably go with the Joe Standard Druid Level 6 feat: Natural Spell. That'd let me cast spells while wild shaped, and it's nearly an essential feat to have for a druid.

As for the stalkers, I didn't do much damage to the one to the west (currently outside); probably about 7 damage in total. Stalkers have great Reflex saves, unfortunately. The weakest is probably the eastern one; I believe Findor hit it with his spear, and we did enough damage to drive it off. IIRC Rognar also did significant damage to the one upstairs, but it seems to have more hit dice, so I'd just as soon leave it alone for now.

So if we're gonna hunt them down, I vote for the East one. Head for the SE tower, then close/spike doors after us to keep 'em off our backs. A bottleneck works in our favor.

EDIT: Desty, it may not be fancy, but have you considered Dodge? Your AC isn't the best, so even a +1 bonus could make a difference. It also sets you up for Mobility/Spring Attack, which are both useful feats for a highly mobile character like a monk.

Heh, I also may be delayed since I'm leaving work late and have to stop by the store on my way home to purchase three (3) items. Hopefully I'll be there by quarter past six.