Confusion Confusion [Archive] - Wizards Community

Confusion Confusion [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Sabrie
11-21-03, 08:36 AM In the first battle of our new epic campaign, the two PC's, a cleric/divine agent and a rogue/temple raider of olidammara/dungeon delver, came upon a possible ally facing off against five werewolves, six wolves, and five dire wolves. The temple raider (my character) won initiative and evaluated the condition of our potential friend. He didn't look to be in good shape, and neither of us could heal him in the first round (the distance and number of enemies between us and him was too great). I decided that my best course of action was to take as many of the enemies out of the equation as possible, and the only thing I had to effect more than one creature was a prepared Confusion spell.

With some precise placement (and the enemies' deplorable will saves), nine foes became confused. This slowed the battle down considerably (our DM was well prepared for the combat, had all stats/tactics ready). Having to roll every round for the actions of nine combatants took a long time. Since this is one of my most effective spells for combat against a large number of foes, I'm likely to be using it a lot. At the same time, the cleric, who is very fond of chaos, was highly impressed by the spell and plans to use it in the future. However, we want to be able to use it more quickly.

To make the spell take less time, we were thinking about rolling once for each confused creature, and having them take only that action for the duration of their confused status. If nothing else, we would be saved the monotony of a creature first fleeing at all possible speed, then trying to close with the caster in the next round, then fleeing, then closing (one very confused dire wolf actually did this throughout the combat, stopping for one round to babble incoherently).

What does everyone think?
Quinn the Dark
11-21-03, 08:56 AM i think its ok to roll only one time to see the effect of the confusion-spell, especially in epic games where the duration of such spells is enormous. and to wait about 5 minutes to see what happens to the affected creatures sucks.
i thought to make it this way by myself, though my rog/wiz/sha can't use this spell yet, but he got it on a scroll.

you have to decide wether ist better to have a faster combat or to have all possible random actions taking place. sometimes it could be useful if a enemy creature attacks one of his allies!
but on the other hand if you are lucky and roll that action at the first round and your dm makes this last for the total duration of that spell its really great! ;)

so both options have advantages & disadvantages.
CaoSlayer
11-21-03, 09:23 AM use the song of discord spell, you will get the best effect of the confusion spell (enemies killing each others).
Dalaeck
11-21-03, 09:33 AM An old wizard offers his advice...

The easiest way to run confusion is to roll a pack of dice for your pack of creatures. I don't know if you have a pile of d10s but it is very usefull if you have a large group.
The next thing you do is single out the 7-9s, these guys will attack the nearest creature (roll randomly) and then you don't need to worry about that creature and the creature it is attacking until one of them is disabled/dead.
Remember the last line: A confused creature who is attacked will automatically attack its attacker on the next turn .
This trumps "wander away" and "act normally" and the whole bit. And remember it is "attacked" and not "hit for damage" so even if the attacker misses the confused creature tries to attack it next turn.

After this is done single out the 1s, the "wander away" guys, and they do exactly that until the end of the spell per the description.
So the only guys you need to keep track of are the 2-6 guys and the 10 guys that are currently not being attacked. It shouldn't be that hard to run in fact. Just check for these guys on their iniative.

Hope this helps.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sabrie 11-21-03, 08:36 AM	In the first battle of our new epic campaign, the two PC's, a cleric/divine agent and a rogue/temple raider of olidammara/dungeon delver, came upon a possible ally facing off against five werewolves, six wolves, and five dire wolves. The temple raider (my character) won initiative and evaluated the condition of our potential friend. He didn't look to be in good shape, and neither of us could heal him in the first round (the distance and number of enemies between us and him was too great). I decided that my best course of action was to take as many of the enemies out of the equation as possible, and the only thing I had to effect more than one creature was a prepared Confusion spell. With some precise placement (and the enemies' deplorable will saves), nine foes became confused. This slowed the battle down considerably (our DM was well prepared for the combat, had all stats/tactics ready). Having to roll every round for the actions of nine combatants took a long time. Since this is one of my most effective spells for combat against a large number of foes, I'm likely to be using it a lot. At the same time, the cleric, who is very fond of chaos, was highly impressed by the spell and plans to use it in the future. However, we want to be able to use it more quickly. To make the spell take less time, we were thinking about rolling once for each confused creature, and having them take only that action for the duration of their confused status. If nothing else, we would be saved the monotony of a creature first fleeing at all possible speed, then trying to close with the caster in the next round, then fleeing, then closing (one very confused dire wolf actually did this throughout the combat, stopping for one round to babble incoherently). What does everyone think?
Quinn the Dark 11-21-03, 08:56 AM	i think its ok to roll only one time to see the effect of the confusion-spell, especially in epic games where the duration of such spells is enormous. and to wait about 5 minutes to see what happens to the affected creatures sucks. i thought to make it this way by myself, though my rog/wiz/sha can't use this spell yet, but he got it on a scroll. you have to decide wether ist better to have a faster combat or to have all possible random actions taking place. sometimes it could be useful if a enemy creature attacks one of his allies! but on the other hand if you are lucky and roll that action at the first round and your dm makes this last for the total duration of that spell its really great! ;) so both options have advantages & disadvantages.
CaoSlayer 11-21-03, 09:23 AM	use the song of discord spell, you will get the best effect of the confusion spell (enemies killing each others).
Dalaeck 11-21-03, 09:33 AM	An old wizard offers his advice... The easiest way to run confusion is to roll a pack of dice for your pack of creatures. I don't know if you have a pile of d10s but it is very usefull if you have a large group. The next thing you do is single out the 7-9s, these guys will attack the nearest creature (roll randomly) and then you don't need to worry about that creature and the creature it is attacking until one of them is disabled/dead. Remember the last line: A confused creature who is attacked will automatically attack its attacker on the next turn . This trumps "wander away" and "act normally" and the whole bit. And remember it is "attacked" and not "hit for damage" so even if the attacker misses the confused creature tries to attack it next turn. After this is done single out the 1s, the "wander away" guys, and they do exactly that until the end of the spell per the description. So the only guys you need to keep track of are the 2-6 guys and the 10 guys that are currently not being attacked. It shouldn't be that hard to run in fact. Just check for these guys on their iniative. Hope this helps.