Banatine's page

Well, I only just started running ROTR recently, and all but one member of my group are totally new to tabletop roleplaying, but the few standout moments of silliness so far would be:

1. The party enter Eryliums chamber and she's already invisible, and the barbarian looks around the room and immediately decides to dive into the Runewell...

2. The party come to the rickety bridge. the rogue decides that she should go first, alone, to check it is safe. The party agree. Then the paladin says "wait, i'll come too, just in case." Fair enough, but just two of us. And then they just all walked onto the bridge at the same time...

It broke, they all held on except the Shaman, who hit the water and ended up at 0 hp. the rogue jumped to pull her out of the sea, to get pounced on by the bunyip. Then the other two decide to try and climb down the cliff to help, before realising that neither of them have climb... so they ended up down there much quicker than they expected.

Finally, the Druid Feather Falls down, saves their asses with a Flame Blade critical, and they drag their sorry selves back to Sandpoint. The goblins were laughing so hard that several of them rolled off the edge of the cliff themselves! At least it was a good excuse for the goblins to not be worried about them coming back XD

3. Beating the snot out of Orik in Thistletop, letting him live, then healing him and paying him 200G to help them out in stopping Nualia. They get to her room, he gets 2 max damage crits with his sword and shield bash (not how he's supposed to fight i know, but i was trying to weaken him a bit since the party was big enough already) and basically killed her in one round. They then went back to Sandpoint and carried on with their business, and it wasnt until 2 hours had passed that suddenly one of them went "Wait, where's Orik?"

I like it, but then it is clearly based on the 3.5 version of dragonborn (a.k.a. the GOOD version) and they were my all time favourite race.

Nothing about it screams OP, but i would say that part of the Draconic flight trait should be reworded, since increasing your maneuverability gives you a +4 bonus to Fly checks anyway, plus any creature with a fly speed always treats Fly as a class skill. So it COULD just say:

"Draconic Flight: Increase your Maneuverability by one step."

Coz honestly, having a +1 trait bonus on top of the +4 isn't needed :)

I would have thought that this was perfectly simple.

The table shows you what enhancement bonus the sword has at any given level. It isn't written like Divine Bond or Arcane Pool because you have no option in the matter. It is an enhancement bonus, and nothing else. It's not detailed because no detail is required beyond that fact.

It never mentions the enhancement bonus before that because until you hit level 3, <insert event here> which 'awakens' the blades latent powers hasn't happened. Maybe it required a small siphoning of the magus' personal energy. Maybe you were the only person who could pull it from the anti-magic stone it was trapped in. Or whatever other plot-based explanation you feel is sufficient to explain why the rules work as they do.

Steve, I see absolutely no difference in your character charging me for a magic weapon, and my character charging you for a heal spell. None. Zip. Nada.

I see a massive differance.

Your cleric has infinite spells. You can always get them back, no matter what happens.

A fighter can always swing his sword again.

The barbarian can always rage again.

The crafter, however, cannot always craft again because crafting requires using the ONLY, truly, finite resource that the game ever gives you: gold.

plus, once again, you have missed something important.

"Oh, except that when we adventure, I'll be making 15% more off of our loot than the rest of you. However, in return i will make you any magical equipment you like for 50% less than the magic shops sell for."

See, you keep looking at the one thing you don't like, and ignoring the MASSIVE return you get for it.

If we aren't playing 'Dungeons and Accountants', why are you getting so bent out of shape about the wizard getting his +10%, bacause i think YOU ignoring that you are actually getting +40% at the same time is terribly obtuse. See, at any table i played at, YOU would be the one who was booted from the group for being such a shameless munchkin.

If the wizard wasn't crafting for you, you would be paying full price for everything, why so you refuse to see that no matter what happens, you are getting a superior deal?

Once again, i'm gonna make a call for peace.

When this thread began, it was an honest and sensible discussion about the ethics of charging other PCs for crafting their magic items.

NOW, however, it has devolved into a farcical show of manhood-measuring, and any hope of reaching any meaningful concensus is long gone.

So, everyone, let's stop this pointless war, because anyone in here who still thinks they can change anyone else's mind is kidding themselves. Let's all move along, there is nothing more to see!

5.wizzard

Wizzards are only broken if you allow them to take Run, Leadership, Improved Familiar, and Weapon Specialization (Brick in a Sock)!

Trust me, you don't want that kind of sillyness anywhere near your carefully made world!

I find it amusing that you are using Ockham's Razor as the basis for all of those assumptions, and yet you have ignored the simplest solution of all of them; "the rules do not say that you CAN enchant Black Blades further, so you cannot."

Assumptions for this statement:

1) The black blade is a class feature, and an object that does not follow the standard conventions of any other magic item of a similar classification. therefore you cannot apply standard assumptions based on other conventions.

2) It is not a standard magic item, because no other standard magic item has a mutable level of power based on the level of it's wielder, and thus cannot be enchanted by standard means.

3) It is not a standard intellegent item, as it does not follow the standard ego progression chart, so any normal rules regarding ego modification cannot be applied.

4) The game is a permissive ruleset. It tells you what you CAN do, not what you CANNOT. The rules do not say that fighters can use spells, so they cannot. the rules do not say that humans have 100 arms, so they do not. the rules do not say that you can do anything when you are dead, so you cannot. The rules don't tell you that Black Blades can be enchanced, so they cannot.

Conclusions

The Black Blade shares most traits in common with minor artifacts (Powerful, but not unique. Possesses non-standard powers. Beyond mortal methods of creation. Can only be destroyed by specific means. Can never be purchased. Controlled by the DM.) There are no rules in place for further enchanting Artifacts, and thus it cannot be enchanted beyond it's stated abilities.

See? i have used a lot less assumptions (only 4, as oppodes to your 12), and come to a much simpler solution. Therefore, by Ockham's Razor, my answer is most valid.

I think there is one big thing we are missing in this debate; what is the Black Blades price? In order to add enchantments to something, you need to know it's base price, and the 'cost' of the black blades abilities is not stated anywhere. therefor, you might as well be asking if you can further enchant the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords...

Beyond the fact that it's natural enhancement combined with Arcane Pool means that you would be wasting resources, and that it normally refuses to work at all for anyone other than you...

Also think about this. You are probably NOT the first user of this black blade. It has probably reached the pinnacle of it's power, and indeed lost it all as well, several times before you ever touched it or knew of its existence. 9 times out of 10, they won't even tell you what they want to do!

I doubt it would even allow you to try to change it's magical properties, and in the time it would take you to complete the enchantment, it could force an AWFUL lot of ego contests to make you stop...

"This is my weapon. It weighs 150 pounds, and it uses custom magically enchanted bullets. It costs 400,000 gold peices to fire this weapon... for 12 seconds. People think they can outsmart me... maybe, maybe. I've yet to meet anyone who can outsmart a bullet!"