Yeah indeed! She should have gone to Yulya! If she drags the troll further east I'm mad. And what's with the wasps? Is the troll a wasp magnet or what?  Summon them as far NW as possible along the edge of the map! We gotta find the beastmaster!

Summer has come
It's unbelievably hot but the 30-35°C are still harmless against 40-45°C in Spain!
Sitting outside and gazing at the stars with host, I saw 2 small and one big shooting stars this evening! A few fireflies too but less than last year. Maybe ecause it's so dry.

Orcas-tier
Remember, total destruction may be fun for the moment but is followed by an eternity of boredom.
Accept the way of the Winged Creature and preserve fun by keeping your players alive

I was thinking of throwing a stink bomb at the Troll to keep him from sniffing us out, but that's exactly what we want for the moment. Keep walking in our trap!

Btw, if there's no snow under the trees, does the area still count as difficult terrain?

Haa, Kashtan had to give away the big secret. So I might as well tell you everything.
I would have fallen off my chair laughing if Joy had made the troll attack us - only to see it getting maimed in one turn.
Frankly I dunno if it works and you'll probably nerf something after that but yeah, I have 3 attacks but deal 4x damage with Flurry of Blows + Hand of Harm combined for 1 Ki point.
The big gamble is Cat who will put everything in Heavy with her Greatsword. But she needs advantage for that so I flank the Troll and attack from behind.
Ashley will summon Nixie and have her attack. I'm afraid she can't summon her early because that boom would ruin the surprise (or can it work as distraction?) In any case that's not a problem. We have Surprise so even if her first attack is weak, she'll shine in the next round.
The real game-changer is Yulya. She will attack as soon as she notices that the troll is injured and will use her Ring of Quick Casting to cast 2x Toll The Dead and amplify it with her Goblin Staff. That's 2D12+6 necrotic damage. While Cat, Nixie and me have advantage, I think this won't apply to Yulya. Does she have inspiration? That would be a good time to use it.

Well, that's my glorious plan. If the Troll survives the surprise, rinse and repeat. We can uphold that for 3 rounds and only be stronger when Ashley rallies Nixie. Cat needs to take the first hit from the troll and survive. I gain 2D6 hp each round from her Path of the World Tree so I should be good. I think we're a great team with Emboldening Bond and Path of the World Tree combined.

Continued plan - if we manage to down the troll we catch the beastmaster as hostage, then retreat for the night into the Cat igloo some place away. I have one more surprise but it will remain one until it's time.

For now the crucial steps is luring the Troll to where Cat is and where the crossbowman can't shoot us during combat.
And that Ashley summons wasps as distraction and to find the beastmaster. We gotta make sure he doesn't make a run for it.

Alice moves West until she emerges under the canopy of a tree, she emerges among sap, spider webs and thick layers of needles in the nearest conifer, she does her best to mask her scent.

Disgusted by the spiderwebs and debris, Alice looks around to see if she can spot the monster (she hasn't seen yet).
Bah, at least this should mask my scent, I smell like pine now!


Confirming Cat's position, Alice digs a tunnel 10 ft W and hides there.


[existing tunnel system in blue]

I'm not trying to be difficult but Deflect Attacks does not work according to your draft!

Deflect Attack: if no target is specified, once per turn, a melee hit will be partially stopped and if any damage remains, redirected to another creature of my choosing within range of the strike or 5ft whichever is greater or a ranged hit again partially stopped and any remaining damage redirected to the next closest hostile creature along with the actual munition. as a reaction, for free unless you use your reaction for something else during your previous turn. It acts somewhat like parry but without requiring you to use an action to set it up. I want this to be default automatic for any first strike you receive without ki point cost unless you've already used your reaction or another action that used a ki point that turn. Up to the number of ki points you have total per short rest, (So it's not cheese but it helps. Again you will not lose ki points for this)
Benefits: does not cost any points, will make you much harder to hit and potentially dangerous to hit, potentially funny results.
The attack has to have hit, has to be physical damage as described, and critical hits are included. Unless you want it to trigger only for critical hits or that and any hit that would down you. That's your choice because they will still be limited.

Vanilla states that I have to reduce the attack to zero damage with 1D10+DEX+LV to be able to redirect it. Imagine the Troll shoots me with his ballista. I reduce the damage by the minimum of 1D10=1+6=7 and redirect the ballista arrow at the crossbowman, having him take the remaining damage. That makes no sense. I shouldn't be able to redirect an attack too big for me to handle. You could scale that up. A giant throws a large boulder at me. I reduce the damage by 7 and deflect it 60ft, crushing a group of enemy wizards. That's insane. Therefore the Vanilla rules of having to reduce damage by zero to be able to deflect it make sense. The damage type (like poisoned arrow) of the attack stays the same while damage of the deflected attack is 2x Martial Arts die + Dex = 2D6+3. I'm willing to nerf it to the point that it can't be stronger than the initial attack's damage potential. So a rock thrown at me with 1D4 damage can't be deflected to cause another enemy 2D6+3=15 damage but only up to a max of 4.

I still don't get your Ki point thing. Are you saying I can only use the entire mechanism 3x per short rest? That's the number of Ki points I have. That's not feasible compared to having it once each turn. We can limit the deflection upon damage reduction to zero to 3x per short rest, but the damage reduction itself should be once per turn. Also I'd still have to be able to decide beforehand whether I want to deflect or not. It makes sense to save it in an easy encounter and enable it only in difficult situation where a deflection on another enemy matters. Otherwise I'll burn through my deflections too fast and have none when I need them. I understand you wanna keep things simple but we also wanna have some fun.

My proposal:
Damage reduction according to Vanilla rules.
Once per turn at your discretion. Reduction 1D10+DEX+LV.
If the damage is reduced to zero, deflect to target of your choice 3x per short rest UNLESS I say beforehand I wanna save that for later.
Is that feasible?

Btw, if you want to make the game a bit more entertaining, I came across this.
https://blackcitadelrpg.com/mishaps-with-wizards-spellbook/

It could lead to hilarious unexpected consequences for Ashley's summons from the book (how can she even read that?) and generally new abilities we have never used before like Yulya's spells, Toll the Dead, Cat's Path of the World Tree abilities or my Hand of Healing/Harm the first time they are used. There's no reason we should be bale to execute them perfectly immediately after we magically gained these abilities But I guess it especially applies regarding new spells copied or learned.

You know I'm always for introducing more randomness and epic fails.

Alice burrows 15 ft W until she hits the trunk of the tree. She uses Phagocytis on herself to remove any scent and then carefully looks out of the snow to see what's going on while staying hidden. She hasn't seen the Troll yet - or any Troll ever.