[Ranger Hal]

Week 2 Thursday

No workout planned for today. I missed morning candle, but was proud of the fact that I still did evening candle and teeth, even though I'm not getting a short rest.

 

Needle Blight 3: 7 hp

Short Rests: 9

Week 2: 83 xp

[Artemis Prime]

6 hours ago, Ranger Hal said:

was proud of the fact that I still did evening candle and teeth, even though I'm not getting a short rest.

This is a downside to my challenge format that I've found: once I've missed a goal, no reason not to keep making bad decisions. For example, if I'm on my phone at 9:45pm I've already taken the psychic damage, so no reason not to keep scrolling until midnight. Which obviously is faulty thinking, but so it goes. Excellent job remembering that the challenge mechanics are there to serve real life habits, not vice versa.

[TimovieMan]

8 minutes ago, Artemis Prime said:

This is a downside to my challenge format that I've found: once I've missed a goal, no reason not to keep making bad decisions. For example, if I'm on my phone at 9:45pm I've already taken the psychic damage, so no reason not to keep scrolling until midnight. 

I'm prone to this as well. "Oh, that'll be a red mark on my log. OK, all bets are off then." ?

Kinda like "Oh, I have a flat tire. OK, might as well slash the others now too..." ?‍♂️

[Ranger Hal]

Week 2 Friday

Went bouldering (+3 xp) and did one new V3 (+2 xp). I also did a bunch of new easier routes and tried a couple of V4s. Those were hard. On one, I couldn't even start the route. I think I need to watch some people do them, but the gym was pretty quiet (not too unusual for a Friday night) so there weren't that many people to watch and they weren't climbing the specific routes I was interested in, at least not while I was watching. The quiet was kind of nice. It has been pretty busy this week. I guess summer is over and everyone is back in the gym. Also did candles and teeth for a short rest.

 

Needle Blight 3: 7 hp

Short Rests: 10

Week 2: 88 xp

[Snarkyfishguts]

 

7 hours ago, Ranger Hal said:

I guess summer is over and everyone is back in the gym

Fall is so good for outdoorsy things though…. Sigh….

 

I am enjoying hearing about the bouldering! I had to look it up and I learned a lot! i’m very impressed. Not that you need me to be, but I am!

[Ranger Hal]

14 minutes ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

Fall is so good for outdoorsy things though…. Sigh….

Yes, but sunset is getting earlier, so there's not as much daylight after work. The gym has plenty of light until 10pm. I do suspect the reason it was so quiet last night was because people were planning on doing outdoor adventures today. The weather was really nice.

 

17 minutes ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

I am enjoying hearing about the bouldering! I had to look it up and I learned a lot! i’m very impressed. Not that you need me to be, but I am!

I'm glad you're enjoying hearing about bouldering! I has been very helpful for getting me to do some exercise on weekdays as I have been struggling more than usual to do outdoor exercise on weeknights for the last year or so.

[Snarkyfishguts]

13 hours ago, Ranger Hal said:

Yes, but sunset is getting earlier, so there's not as much daylight after work.

I laughed at myself because I really didnt even think of this!

[Ranger Hal]

Week 2 Saturday

Got my weekend hike in (+10 xp, +5 xp for favored terrain, +7 xp for distance in favored terrain). More than an hour, so that's one melee attack and a second attack using a bonus action. First strike hits (23 to hit, 4 points of damage). Second strike also hits (13 to hit, 6 points of damage) which will finish off the Needle Blight (+50 xp). Also got my short rest.

 

Week 2 Sunday

I got up too late to get morning candle done before church, so I won't get a short rest today. I tried a new recipe for oatmeal breakfast cookies. It seemed pretty good, at least on the first day (I'm sure the bacon and cheese helped quite a bit). If the cookies are still okay over the next few days, I'll try modifying the recipe in hopes of making an acceptable version without the bacon and cheese.

 

Needle Blight 3: 0 hp

Short Rests: 11

Week 2: 160 xp

 

As the Needle Blight rushed in close, Hal got her shortswords up and two thrusts quickly finished it off. She pulled some travel cakes out of her pack. Best to eat now before she encountered more Needle Blights.

[Artemis Prime]

14 hours ago, Ranger Hal said:

As the Needle Blight rushed in close, Hal got her shortswords up and two thrusts quickly finished it off. She pulled some travel cakes out of her pack. Best to eat now before she encountered more Needle Blights.

This made me chuckle. Very hobbit-y of you.

[Ranger Hal]

Week 3 Plan

My initial thought was workouts on M, T, W, and Weekend, so I'm going to stick with that plan.

 

Week 3 Monday

I didn't get the plan written down before Monday was over, but I'm going to stick to my original plan, even though I didn't get Monday's workout in. I ended up socializing at the gym instead of doing cardio. Every other week, there's a greater chance of this happening, so I knew this was a possibility and almost decided to adjust the plan, but I'm going to stick with it and that means the next Needle Blight gets to attack me. I have been destroying a lot of them, so I suppose it's only fair that one gets a chance to hit me back. (As I write this before rolling the dice, I'm a bit nervous because the Needle Blight's ranged attack can knock me unconscious if it is near the max. Yay for squishy Level 1. Take a chance, roll the dice, I guess!)

 

I did do some climbing. A little less than I would have liked, but I did get a good 5.11- route in and also a 5.10+ that was harder than the 5.11-. I also did a little bouldering (+3 xp) and tried a few harder routes that I didn't get very far on. There was one route that didn't have a grade and we couldn't get further than the starting position, but it was still fun to try. I'm super curious about the grade on that one. I suspect if I knew what it was, I might not have even tried, but the mystery made it interesting. No short rest as I missed morning candle to get to work for a meeting. I need to get up earlier on Mondays if I'm going to get that done.

 

Hal started moving further north through the trees. She must be getting near the center of the forest. Distracted by this thought, she didn't notice the Needle Blight, not moving, about 20 feet off her path. It noticed her, though, and shot a volley of piercing needles in her direction. The needles showered around her (21 to hit) and she felt the needles piercing through her armor (6 damage) as she turned to face this new enemy.

 

Ranger Hal: 5 hp

Needle Blight 4: 18 hp

Short Rests: 11

Week 3: 3 xp

 

Also, in total Ranger fashion, I'm having thoughts about multiclassing, at Level 1, into a class for which I don't have the stats. I think it would be a cool story, probably not particularly effective as a DnD character, and I need to do some more thinking about this. Could be interesting, but maybe I need to wait a bit. More research is required.

[Artemis Prime]

12 minutes ago, Ranger Hal said:

Take a chance, roll the dice, I guess!)

 

13 minutes ago, Ranger Hal said:

Also, in total Ranger fashion, I'm having thoughts about multiclassing, at Level 1, into a class for which I don't have the stats. I think it would be a cool story, probably not particularly effective as a DnD character, and I need to do some more thinking about this. Could be interesting, but maybe I need to wait a bit. More research is required.

My totally unsolicited advice is to not worry about the mechanics, and put the story on the backburner for a moment. Chart out what some of your high level goals are, then see how they map onto various classes. If there's a multi-class that fits and gets you excited, go for it! But make sure your goals shape your challenge character, not so much the other way around.

[Heidi]

On 9/22/2024 at 9:02 PM, Ranger Hal said:

As the Needle Blight rushed in close, Hal got her shortswords up and two thrusts quickly finished it off. She pulled some travel cakes out of her pack. Best to eat now before she encountered more Needle Blights.

Wisdom!

46 minutes ago, Ranger Hal said:

More research is required.

More Wisdom!

 

[Ranger Hal]

34 minutes ago, Artemis Prime said:

My totally unsolicited advice is to not worry about the mechanics, and put the story on the backburner for a moment. Chart out what some of your high level goals are, then see how they map onto various classes. If there's a multi-class that fits and gets you excited, go for it! But make sure your goals shape your challenge character, not so much the other way around.

Thanks, I think this advice will be helpful. There are a few things that have been in my mind lately. I really like the way your Cleric is using cantrips, but Ranger doesn't have them and only gets a couple of spells. I think I'd like to do something with spells when I get them next level, but I haven't figured out the mechanics of that yet. Completely separate from that, I have some plans and ideas around memorizing music (I've already started one song) that I'd like to incorporate into my challenges to get more consistency and this morning it occurred to me that Bard might fit with that and would also give me access to cantrips to play with. On a mechanical level, having a fairly low charisma bard doesn't seem like the best idea if I was planning to use spells against enemies a lot, but I don't think that will be as much of an issue here as it would in an actual DnD game. It's a new shiny idea, so of course I'm all excited about it, but I definitely need to think and plan more and see where I end up and I really like your advice to look at high level goals.

[Heidi]

2 minutes ago, Ranger Hal said:

I have some plans and ideas around memorizing music (I've already started one song) that I'd like to incorporate into my challenges to get more consistency and this morning it occurred to me that Bard might fit with that and would also give me access to cantrips to play with.

Whoa, this sounds like a great character.

[Artemis Prime]

23 minutes ago, Ranger Hal said:

Thanks, I think this advice will be helpful. There are a few things that have been in my mind lately. I really like the way your Cleric is using cantrips, but Ranger doesn't have them and only gets a couple of spells. I think I'd like to do something with spells when I get them next level, but I haven't figured out the mechanics of that yet. Completely separate from that, I have some plans and ideas around memorizing music (I've already started one song) that I'd like to incorporate into my challenges to get more consistency and this morning it occurred to me that Bard might fit with that and would also give me access to cantrips to play with. On a mechanical level, having a fairly low charisma bard doesn't seem like the best idea if I was planning to use spells against enemies a lot, but I don't think that will be as much of an issue here as it would in an actual DnD game. It's a new shiny idea, so of course I'm all excited about it, but I definitely need to think and plan more and see where I end up and I really like your advice to look at high level goals.

I think a Ranger/Bard has great potential. I mean, any time they pass a landmark or mention a historic figure in LotR, Aragorn's singing a song about it. Of course, that may have more to do with him being a Warrior Poet King archetype, but he is first and foremost introduced to us as a Ranger, and he definitely dipped into a level or 2 of Bard as well.

[Ranger Hal]

2 hours ago, Heidi said:

Whoa, this sounds like a great character.

I'm really excited about the idea! We'll see how it plays out after I've had a chance to work through it a bit more.

 

2 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

I think a Ranger/Bard has great potential. I mean, any time they pass a landmark or mention a historic figure in LotR, Aragorn's singing a song about it. Of course, that may have more to do with him being a Warrior Poet King archetype, but he is first and foremost introduced to us as a Ranger, and he definitely dipped into a level or 2 of Bard as well.

Soooo, this character and her (so far) unwritten backstory may or may not be almost entirely based on the LOTR rangers...

[Artemis Prime]

2 minutes ago, Ranger Hal said:

Soooo, this character and her (so far) unwritten backstory may or may not be almost entirely based on the LOTR rangers...

Oooh, we talking Rangers of the North or Rangers of Ithilien? 

[Ranger Hal]

12 minutes ago, Artemis Prime said:

Oooh, we talking Rangers of the North or Rangers of Ithilien? 

It's in my forum profile under Character Details - Location

[Artemis Prime]

4 minutes ago, Ranger Hal said:

It's in my forum profile under Character Details - Location

In hindsight, I feel like the answer was obvious.

[Ranger Hal]

10 minutes ago, Artemis Prime said:

In hindsight, I feel like the answer was obvious.

It's kind of strange. I put that in when I joined the forums more than 4.5 years ago (over 3 years before I knew anything about how DnD works). And then didn't do anything with it or tell anyone what it meant. It was my little tribute to a story and world that I wanted to be part of back when I was a teen. But now I have this challenge and story that I never could have predicted.

 

It feels a bit like (Spoilers - Critical Role C2 E102)

Spoiler

when we find out that Keyleth's mom is alive and you realize that Matt set that up in the home game before Critical Role started streaming

or (Spoilers - Dresden Files: Skin Game)

Spoiler

when Butters becomes a Knight of the Cross and you realize that the setup for that was about 8 books previous

but maybe on a smaller scale. Like this challenge was always meant to happen? I mean, on some level, I planned for some of it to be connected, but other things just seemed to happen. I don't understand it, but it's really cool and I'm having a lot of fun with it and I can't wait to see where it goes!

 

My story isn't set in Middle Earth. DnD has too much magic for that. And I've found I prefer to work in a space where my character's actions can't "ruin" or "contaminate" an existing story. But it's fun to incorporate little pieces in where they fit.

[Artemis Prime]

16 minutes ago, Ranger Hal said:

It feels a bit like (Spoilers - Critical Role C2 E102)

That was such a great moment.

 

 

[Ranger Hal]

15 minutes ago, Artemis Prime said:

That was such a great moment.

It really was, and then the follow-up a couple episodes later when (C1 and C2 E107 Spoilers)

Spoiler

Vilya went home and Keyleth got a happy ending. Such a beautiful thing after the bittersweet ending of Campaign 1.

[Ranger Hal]

Week 3 Tuesday

Stairs workout (+10 xp) for a melee attack against this Needle Blight. 17 to hit and 9 damage (max damage on the die). I did candles and teeth, so that's a short rest and I rolled a hit die to regain 5 hit points.

 

Ranger Hal: 10 hp

Needle Blight 4: 9 hp

Short Rests: 12

Week 3: 13 xp

 

Pushing through the pain, Hal moved in close to strike the Needle Blight and drove a shortsword in, wounding it deeply. The Needle Blight pulled away, moving back out of reach in surprise.

[Ranger Hal]

Week 3 Wednesday

Gym cardio workout (+10 xp), so I get a ranged attack but it misses (9 to hit). I did some bouldering (+3 xp) and completed a new (sort of) V3 (+2 xp). It had a weird start and I'd skipped the first move or two previously, but this was the first time I did the whole thing properly. It was a good session and I made a little progress (as in one or two moves more than I could previously do) on a couple of difficult routes. Almost missed short rest by falling asleep, but woke up after an hour or two and finished candles and teeth.

 

Ranger Hal: 10 hp

Needle Blight 4: 9 hp

Short Rests: 13

Week 3: 28 xp

 

Hal fired an arrow, but the Blight was moving too quickly and the arrow went wide.

[Ranger Hal]

Week 3 Thursday

No workout scheduled, but I did do candles and teeth for a short rest.

 

Ranger Hal: 10 hp

Needle Blight 4: 9 hp

Short Rests: 14

Week 3: 28 xp