On 4/1/2024 at 11:07 PM, tom_gore said:I hear ya about the tanking part. Let's give it a few more chances. Should also get better when I get myself a better shield that can take more punishment before crumbling.
I think in order to maximize the effectiveness of Rok's actions, I'd say he will only use Retributive Strike as a reaction if one of the conditions below are true. Otherwise he will just Shield Block.
1. He has not Raised his Shield (obviously)
2. There is no enemy in range to Strike with the retributive strike.
3. There is no chance he will get hit himself (i.e. last attacking enemy for the round or no one who can reach him)Last part of course might be a bit tricky since it's not obvious sometimes who can reach Rok or not. Here the reactive gameplay vs. PbP becomes problematic since this would in tabletop gameplay be a player decision time, but in order to keep things flowing you cannot obviously stop the game everytime to ask me if I want to take the reaction.
Generally, if your shield is not raised, I wait until I have made all of my rolls before determining which attack benefits from Retributive Strike. Most of the time this means I use it to help the character that would lose the highest percentage of his hp that turn. The only exception to this might be a decision to take advantage of the free strike the reaction can grant (so, if Rok can hit the creature who did minor damage to Zum but the creature that did lots of damage to Mic is not in range, I would put some more thought into it before deciding which attack to affect).
If your shield is raised, I lean toward saving whoever would be hurt the worst. However, the squishiness of the shield has been disappointing, and I do take that into consideration as well. To me, the ease with which basic shields become broken is the biggest disappointment in the "must Raise a Shield to Shield Block mechanic." The Remaster has added runes for shields to help some, but it still feels like a sword-and-board character needs to either carry multiple shields or invest heavily in Crafting.
There is a level 4 Sturdy Shield that is Hardness 8 with 64 hp (BT 32), but it costs 100 gp. With the Remaster, there is a 75 gp level 4 rune that can be added to a steel shield and will turn it into a Sturdy Shield stat wise. Unfortunately, level 4 loot is not very common at level 2.
QuoteNote that Rok's location on the map is assuming the morlock north of him cannot slip past him into the hallway around the corner (and through Rok's space). Don't know if you can cut solid corners in PF2 or not, but I assume you can't.
Your assumption is correct, passing through a stone corner is not possible. You have bottlenecked the second morlock that was waiting around the corner.