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Grond0 wrote: »

...but v2.6 seems to have changed the behavior of grease considerably and Lothander was able to nip to the stairs before we could target him.

Grease was changed in 2.6 - but it appears to work essentially the same as it did before anyway. Which isn't particularly close to what's in the description.

How it actually works: as long as the overlay exists, everyone in it saves once per round. If a save succeeds, nothing happens. If a save fails, that creature is slowed to speed 1 for the full N+3 rounds. Saving in a future round does not remove the effect, and the slow effect will often persist well after the active spell on the ground expires.
If you're trying to slow down Lothander so you can kill him, you need to wait until he fails a save before talking. Without that failed save, he's at full speed and will get away.

There were two changes made in 2.6. First, the sound effect that played every round for everyone in the area (whether they saved or not) was removed. Second, a "remove effects by resource" effect was added. If you save, it's supposed to clear up any existing Grease effects now and let you move normally. In my testing, this does not appear to work.

jmerry wrote: »

Grond0 wrote: »

...but v2.6 seems to have changed the behavior of grease considerably and Lothander was able to nip to the stairs before we could target him.

Grease was changed in 2.6 - but it appears to work essentially the same as it did before anyway. Which isn't particularly close to what's in the description.

How it actually works: as long as the overlay exists, everyone in it saves once per round. If a save succeeds, nothing happens. If a save fails, that creature is slowed to speed 1 for the full N+3 rounds. Saving in a future round does not remove the effect, and the slow effect will often persist well after the active spell on the ground expires.
If you're trying to slow down Lothander so you can kill him, you need to wait until he fails a save before talking. Without that failed save, he's at full speed and will get away.

There were two changes made in 2.6. First, the sound effect that played every round for everyone in the area (whether they saved or not) was removed. Second, a "remove effects by resource" effect was added. If you save, it's supposed to clear up any existing Grease effects now and let you move normally. In my testing, this does not appear to work.

Saving is not what I'm referring to. Lothander was affected by grease and perceptibly slowed by it - but not remotely close to speed 1 as used to be the case. Using grease we also saw distinct differences in the speed impact on Gate70 and myself. I had a single player run the other day as well where Lothander was moving much faster than he should have done after being greased, so there's definitely a significant change in v2.6 as a whole (whether intended or not) and not just in MP.

Oops, a correction. The "remove effects" effect only happens if you fail the save; that's just housekeeping so you don't get multiple redundant copies of the effect on the same creature.

Also, I missed a third change: instead of a "set movement speed" effect, the spell now uses a speed modifier that my (not entirely up to date) version of NI doesn't understand (modifier type 5 "Unknown"). This seems to result in essentially the same speeds as before in most cases, but now boots of speed can double the slowed speed. A greased Lothander will now move twice as fast as an average greased person. Which is still considerably slower than a non-greased person.

Trio 38 (part 1 2 3)

Gate70 : Wirblefop, human male Beastmaster (plus LN fairy dragon familiar)
@Corey_Russell : Peel, human male Cavalier
@Grond0 : Talisman, dwarf male random - Priest of Talos
Plus a couple of interlopers who remained in the party

Session 3 started with a bang as Wirblefop found his screen minimised. Despite this brief setback he regained his poise and pretended nothing happened. Peel and Talisman were merrily dealing with the nearby guardians without any beastmaster assistance. We made our way around the city, introducing ourselves to friend and foe alike. Wirblefop thought the brawlers of undermountain went down quietly and then his screen minimised again. OK, Wirblefop worked out what was going on (press print screen and Onedrive interfered to try and grab the picture - cue exit of Onedrive while playing).

Ragefast and Ramazith both expired in short order, as did Jardak and his butler. Jardak for once melting under a fighter-heavy attack. We had a brief addition to our party dead when Talisman baulked himself against stairs and patrons - this allowed Desreta to give him a taste of ennui. Peel killed her, we hit a temple briefly and then returned for Vay-ya.

We ploughed on through the city quests and eventually took control of the Iron Throne HQ. Wirblefop kept himself to the west for once and used arrows of biting which he thought would be highly effective but ultimately Talisman's spells were better. We made our way through Candlekeep, Peel braving the traps, and while his companions played with spiders Wirblefop decided to melee and then shoot a pair of greater basilisks.
Coronation time. We burned through the greater doppelgangers by using buffed skeletons and several potions. The Thieves Maze looked a safe place for us. Peel cleared out a pair of skeleton warriors and just as Wirblefop decided we should cautiously check for any traps that our paladin missed - Talisman found one. Luckily for him he survived and didn't have the priest of Talos ignominy of perishing to lightning. Rahvin and his gang were taken apart but Wirblefop showed his lack of armour against decent archers - having to retreat. Peel did a double-take, thinking our leader was on 0hp before deciding it said 8hp. Sarevok dodged several arrows before finally getting dispelled and this allowed Semaj to occupy Peel for a while. As soon as an arrow plinked away Sarevok's haste the next arrow removed Semaj's buffs and down went the mage. Sarevok put up a brave battle for about 10 seconds before following his caster. We ended the session and Wirblefop took it upon himself to import everyone into Shadows of Amn. Peel had asked earlier what a Beastmaster should do since Wirblefop was mainly acting as an archer. He may be right, although Wirblefop gained a level (and first spell) after defeating Sarevok he lost it on import and requires a smidge more XP to regain it. The main benefit of a Beastmaster then is that the familiar disappeared on import without loss of constitution or hit points, and a new familiar added 10 more hit points.

Yes it's a dirty trick that Wirblefop played, and he may choose to drop the hit points before next time.

Here we are post import.