The World of Avlis

As background, recently three characters were standing at roughly the same distance from a pale master when he used the undead arm attack to freeze another character.

My combat window showed "Character strikes with undead arm," and the character directly next to me said he received the same message. But for the third character, she said that no message appeared, and she was closer to what happened than we were.

So, the first question is, what does an observing character need to "see" the attack (have it appear in the combat window)?

And if for whatever reason, a character doesn't see the message in the combat window, what sort of check is it that a character would need to recognise the visual surge of negative energy we see?

Hope that all makes sense.

Were some of you partied with the person attacked? Sometimes that gives you more information than you can get by watching.

I was partied with the character beside me, but not with either the attacker or the attacked.

Good questions, to which I'm not sure what the answers are. The attack does require a touch attack roll. I'd guess that anyone around can at least see the touch, and then if someone is paralyzed right after, it's not a big leap for them to assume the touch caused it. I'm not sure what else would be seen, though, and that could matter particularly when the touch attack fails to paralyze (do we just see someone try to touch someone else? or do we see more than that, which could indicate some sort of attack?).

//am I the only one who read this as "undead Arn" and wondered about the newly weds?

ba1rd71 wrote://am I the only one who read this as "undead Arn" and wondered about the newly weds?

No, I read that too.

Yup, in Bizarro Avlis, the Dark Queen Moira wields zombie Arn as a club.


As for this other thing.. being there, my interpretation was that the character who didn't see it, didn't "see" it ICly because their back was turned to the incident.

Tigg wrote:Yup, in Bizarro Avlis, the Dark Queen Moira wields zombie Arn as a club.


As for this other thing.. being there, my interpretation was that the character who didn't see it, didn't "see" it ICly because their back was turned to the incident.

Ya, she and I have been talking about it in PM's. Icly, I didn't notice that she had her back turned, and oocly, she didn't spot the message in her combat window.

Would a mage - or in fact anyone - be able to feel the release of negative energy from this? So even though Icly their back is turned, they might recognise that energy was released somehow?

Im just trying to figure how to rp this, since its not a spell.

Not sure about 'feeling the release of energy', I think Team sanction would likely be needed on that one. As for oocly, I'm pretty sure it would appear in the window, as close as she was. Perhaps the engine recognized in that instance that her back was turned, some things do depend on line of sight. More likely though she just missed it. You could always try and dig up some palemaster (pun intended) and test it.

If not seeing the actual touch, the aftereffects might be fairly easy to recognize. The look and effects of it are pretty distinctive. So.. maybe spellcraft or lore? Or, if one is familiar with it, surely it would be easy to know what had happened.

Tigg wrote:As for oocly, I'm pretty sure it would appear in the window, as close as she was. Perhaps the engine recognized in that instance that her back was turned, some things do depend on line of sight. More likely though she just missed it.

Sorry, I wasn't very clear, she checked later and the message had appeared in her combat window, she just didn't spot it at the time.