She looks startled by Gwaelur but recovers, “I have great hopes of being of some small help on the mission.”
I wish I’d said that!
Well, we could, or I could load Strength or Enlarge Person. Either of those might make one of our fighters (with his new sword, probably Theogrim) more than a match for a H-K.
Ghân: “It’s great of you to offer the party this choice. Perhaps the Warriors amongst us should say if they will benefit from a Strength spell (=d8 extra points of Strength).”
And if you yourself will not be Invisible, then make sure you have a Shield, less the Hunter-Killer live up to his name…
If you enlarge me, I can swing that sword one-handed with no penalty, I believe.
Well, I do have Shield, which stops some arrows. But I mostly plan to hide when we see H-Ks.
Renee, "We have many travel days ahead. You can cast the invisibility early in the trip. Just remember what happened to Bilbo in the Battle of the Five Armies. If you cannot find me after a battle, please remember to drop the spell after a time. "
Interesting. So if you use enlarge on him, I can use my two handed Dwarven axe.
Dwarven Axe +4/+7 SF 6 +1/+2 Requires two hands to use. Great penetrations however.
If I got strength added would I be able to use the Dwarven axe with a lesser speed penalty or even swing it one handed allowing me to use my shield as well?
Brin: [aside to Ghan]You know this means no belching, farting, nor swearing for the rest of the trip.[/aside]
Do you mean the [COLOR=Blue]Shield improves your Armour Class? It doesn’t stop any arrows (unlike Protection from Normal Missiles, which alas you need to be 5th level to cast.)[/COLOR]
I realise Hunter-Killers are a big threat to Magic Users. 
But where are you going to hide in Ered Lithui? (And how does that help the party?)
It helps the party by me not dying. If I’m flat in the sagebrush, I can’t be shot very easily. To be honest, these Hunter-Killers scare the robes off of me. The orcs and goblins last time mostly didn’t have range, and those that did were rather weak. The Shield has, I think, a 50% chance of blocking arrows.
In this mission, I’m going to try to cast spells on our own party members, open with a Sleep or two, and then hide. I only have three spells right now, plus cantrips, and I’m still closer to level 3 than 4. Me using cantrips sounds like a bigger threat than it’s worth. Theogrim points out that he’s at a big advantage if he’s enlarged, so that might be the best thing for me to do.
It’s also possible that I could try to spend the majority of this mission Invisible myself, and the more I think about that the better it sounds. I’d lose the chance to help out with Sleep, but I could still Enlarge Theogrim, Thoroncir, or Gwaelur. I’ll check over my 1st level spell options and think about it.
Renee, “I think Deor’s musings so much wisdom.”
Please see the notes on enlarge in the setup thread, there are some problems.
I think **Deor ** is nervous and wants to do the best the can without getting into Line of Sight of anything too big.
Given that we know there are H/Ks out there, how about we deal with them as and when we find them, instead of worrying about them now.
By all means, let’s prepare, but let us not get so worked up that we can think of nothing else.
I hope and expect our DM won’t want the whole party killed off in only its second adventure. We’ll be prepared without being paranoid, I trust.
I like being paranoid. It’s comforting
Well that all sounds fair enough - Ghân was nervous you were going to panic, but you’ve clearly thought about it.
One thing that occurs to me is to pass you a load of Goodberries each day. You’re still learning how to use my Herbal Cures, but anyone can stick Goodberries on injured characters (max 8 in each combat on the same person).
Maybe Brin would lend you his pouch to preserve the berries…
If invisible, I’d have a solid chance to get medium-close and be able to get a quick cure to any fighter who drops back a little. Also, I can load a couple of Enlarges in 1st level slots and Strength as a 2nd level, giving me a lot of room to strengthen our melee fighters.
Shield gives you a variable AC depending on the attack form - AC3 vs arrows, and you will get any Dex bonus and magical protections you have[sup]1[/sup] on top of that. Basically 7 places better versus missiles. Also note you can easily cast it on the first round of combat - it’s a very quick spell - and it will typically see you right through to the end.
If [color=blue]Enlarge looks like too much of a mixed blessing, what with equipment not fitting and all that, you could try its reversed form as an attack spell. Extremely short range, but if an enemy fails his save he’s suddenly 60% smaller! Note that you have to prepare it reversed.
[sup]1[/sup] That is, any that grant plusses rather than a base AC. It’s no benefit if you happen to have something that gives you, say, AC5 by itself.[/color]
If you want, Thoroncir could go armorless and be the designated dude for Enlarge spells whenever we go into battle.
Last I checked, Sleep has a 50% chance of dropping these Hunter Killers outright. Just like an Ogre. I think I would still load a sleep spell.