CharlieRock's page

Congratulations! =)

Fenrat wrote:

Good point Takasi ..... and as far as the 1 in 20 issue .... my players NEVER seem to roll ones .... they are just lucky I guess ... we use the same dice and I see their rolls ... ones just rarely seem to happen to us.

However, you point about "1 in 20 .. with 4 players and 5 rounds" doesn't account for the fact that all those rolls were NOT for sudden death effects ....

We are at the climax moment of a mod. The evil cleric of this-and-such is opening a portal to the Abyss to let big nasty into Greyhawk.

Our only hope is to get him to drop a relic he using for the ceremony.

We cannot get to him but we can shoot it out of his hand.

My Order of the Bow Initiate is up to the task.

I activate my talisman of true strike (thank you Gran March regional mod!) I call on a boon from the ghost we freed in a previous mod.

My total to hit modifier is now +52.

As I roll the die someone (maybe it was me) says just don't roll a 1.

Yep - it came up a 1.

All hell breaks loose - literally.

Would you still remember this game as well if the failure wasn't so drastic?

Oh, boy! Forgot about this thread. Um, lesse my last PK was ...
Name: Clif
Race: Goliath
Class: Barbarian
Level: 12
Last seen: Burning to death from a maximised flame strike.

Name: Pietre
Race: Dwarf
Class: Cleric
Level: 11
Last seen: Burning up from a maximised flame strike

Both of these characters took part in the module Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor. They died on level four in the evil Cult of Destruction's alter room battling their high priest in the second to last round of battle. The last round seeing the fighter score a critical hit and the paladin smite evil which combined to drop the high priest to -38 hp.

I won't be converting to 4th edition D&D.
I like GameMastery stuff and to a lesser extant Planet Stories. If Paizo converts their product to D&D4 then I wouldn't buy that specific stuff. Most of GameMastery is systemless (flip-mats) so that sort of stuff I would continue to get.
If Paizo keeps making 3.x modules like J2 Guardians of Dragonfall (just picked this up last week) then I expect to keep picking those up. Especially for higher level adventures as most publishers are rather light on that end of the scale.

I have no probelm with making things up on the fly or the DM just shooting from the hip for the sake of a cool fast-paced story.....

But arent these guys supposed to be playtesting the new game's mechanics?

Why? Their customers will do it for free. Just like for D&D3.

The Bard could do inspire courage then stop (it will linger for 5 rounds without feats) and then do inspire greatness if he wants. I don't have the books in front of me but I think the problem on any benefit that would overlap they are both morale bonuses which would mean they don't stack.

Well, I made the same assumption. But recently it has been pointed out to me that inspire greatness is a competence bonus, while inspire courage is a morale bonus. They could stack.

How many bard songs can a character take advantage of? Can one bard play inspire courage (morale bonus) and inspire greatness (competence) in one encounter?

Emotional maturity isn't necessarily a factor of age.

I didn't mean that it did. An old gamer could be atually younger then a young gamer. And a young gamer could have sat at the same table with Gygax and Arneson when they made D&D if he still has a hang-up about supposed setbacks while gaming. That's just what I call them.

It's a generalisation in terms. Young needs to grow up, old already has. Physical age may be an indicator, and it may not.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that if you had an item (like, an Ioun stone) that raised a mental stat high enough you could cast spells (and prepare them) at that stats raised potential. Ioun stone boosts Cha to 16, can cast sixth level spells.
I was wondering if that applied to more temporary (er, less permanent?) boosts like ES or OW. And if it did then should a spontaneous caster be allowed to fill slots higher then they can cast, and not cast them until they are buffed (or find an ioun stone that does the same thing).
I can't even find where I read the part about the magic item benefits and spell slots now. (or, maybe it applied to feats ??)

Can a spellcaster memorize their spell slots for levels higher then they can cast?
Like,
...if I was a sorceror with 15CHA and my XP level gave me a slot in the 6level spell. Could I then fill that slot and use ,say ,Eagle's Splendor later on down the line and cast my sixth level spell (since the CHA would be over 16 then)?
...a Druid with 15WIS taking a 6level slot and planning on using Owl's Wisdom (basically same question, but I'm wondering for Divine casters as well)?

WotC wrote:

because the lack of tactical and strategic options for fighters, rogues, and many other characters had become a glaring weakness in the game.

Now they lost me... Fighters and Rogues lacked tactical and strategic options? I am thinking they meant that they lacked options that stole the spotlight.

Even that is a bit off the mark.

An Old Gamer doesn't spaz out on the rest of us when he or she loses (a character).
A New Gamer will act like a brat when they lose (a character).

Eventually in a gamers career they are going to have a in-game setback. Old Gamers can deal themselves. New Gamers want me to deal with it ("It's the DM's job to keep PCs alive."). I don't game with New Gamers.

So to just play 4E it will cost you just $30 rather than $100.

Unless your the DM/Players' Punching Bag. Then the ecstasy of playing forty orcs that get diced up in three rounds week after week can be yours for only $$$ (amount subject to increase monthly).

If you aren't totally set on changling take a look at the whisper gnome for max power gaming-ness.

Fizz

Yes, I'd agree.

Reserve feats are okay.
I've built some bad guys using them. One for each of the four classical elements for these Derro Spell Lords. Hurricane Breath (fun), fiery burst, some frost blast thingy, and a sticky floors/slow ya down one. This was reserve feats introduction and they didn't seem overpowered (a bit on the weak side unless used with some planning).
Then the players started using them. Dimensional jaunt (IIRC), and a few others (one that grants like a darkvision).
Make sure the players really understand these feats. We play with one guy that has a Forget button on his bottom and whenever he sits on it we have to tell him that Fiery Burst is not a ranged touch attack.

Anyone tried it? Is it any good? What other games does it borrow mechanics from (or can be brought into it)?

Does it crit? If it does, off with his head!

Well, that's what I don't get. Is it any auto-threat?

So what exactly happens if you whack someone with a vorpal weapon while under the effects of True Strike?

CharlieRock wrote:

Does anyone know where I can look for to see any post-market errata for MegaTraveller, specifically the ship creation section? I'd heard there was some floating around out there somewhere. And I'm hoping it is somewhere on the internet.

Sorry, I missed this. It's on the Traveller Downport site(traveller.downport.com). Click the MT link in the title bar, and there's a PDF of official errata from books 1-3 available.

Thanks, that site looks really neat!

I'm busy statting up an evil cleric and came upon a spell that would be fun for a DM to throw at this build or any build with lots of attacks.

The spell is Mark of Doom (PHII p. 119) No save and every discrete hostile act causes the victim of the spell to take 1d6 points of damage. With the number of attacks an attack-o-matic has the player could be doing a lot of damage to herself every round.

LMAO! Pure DM-Evilness! >:)

I'm starting to think Peter Adkinson makes his fortune ripping off other companies and then playing some kind of legal shell-game. Back in the 90s he got sued by Palladium and placed ownership of M:tG with another company (so Palladium supposedly couldn't hurt the emerging CCG). Now, he rips off Lucas and hides behind bankruptcy.

Terry Dyer wrote:

And on the Hero system I've never gotten it to stick with anybody and haven't really felt the need to try. I just don't like the system as much as many do.

It takes some getting used to, but once you've played a few times, the most difficult part of the game is character generation.

Much the same with GURPS. Once you've gotten the gist of character creation (takes me only ten minutes nowadays) it is a breeze to play.

Aces and Eights is a fantastic book. I have yet to play the game, but I picked it up at Gencon purely by looking at it. The book itself is gorgeous, and its totally worth the price simply to sit on my shelf.

That aside, its a really great looking game. From what I have read, combat is quick and deadly (as it should be in the wild west). Because of this they make most other events into mini-games. Instead of skill rolls like d20, everything has some sort of little game to figure out the results, this includes playing cards, to panning for gold. It's also very true to the wild west, and would give an excellent game to those interested in the genre.

I HIGHLY recommend it.

I would also highly recommend Aces & Eights. It's a ton of fun.

Magic Jar- It doesn't hold any peanut butter, man! What a rip!

Also, get your wizard buddy to take Bloodstar (Libris Mortis). Anyone designated by the caster takes CON damage as well. With as many hits as the Attack-o-matic is looking to dish out an opponent could likely die from CON damage in just a few rounds. The save is Fort based (and try to find that many monsters weak against that). But, as many times as they will be required to save, the chances of rolling low gets higher.

I suppose our different experiences with this might come from a number of factors. I'm using a lot of books and I think their has been something of a power creep in the monsters with each release so the ACs from later books might average a little higher then the monster manual. I'll often swap feats out so that might raise my ACs a little. CR 12 and above creatures start having various spell powers and are often spell casters - when thats the case they can raise the ACs. If you take a lower level creature and add class levels to it to make it a CR 12 creature you'll probably get higher ACs though lower overall HD,

In any case I suspect if your in a game where something like an attack-o-matic PC is in play your probably going to be needing to hit in the AC 30-35 range unless your DM is not at all pro-active. This is an optimized build for a combat heavy game. I'd expect the DM to be keeping an eye on the monsters in such a game. One of the best ways of limiting this build is to push monster ACs up somewhat, and usually thats not really that tough...

You can bump up a lot of monster ACs, sure. But the bottom line is that +12 is the highest BAB your going to get in a level 12 game. You can take a trained weapon and bump that BAB to +13 (again, for that one weapon). But that's it. You go no higher on a BAB. And most options to improve the attack modifier are available to the Attack-o-matic as well as anyone else. So while a higher AC may pose a problem to the Attack-o-matic, it will prove to be just as much if not more so to everyone else.

MrsCharlie tells me how much I can spend on RPGs. =/

Awaken Construct. It is supposed to allow constructs to roll up INT, WIS, and CHA and go on about their awakened existence. Except is allows spell resistance. Meaning golems are immune to it. And the description specifies humanoid, non-animate object type constructs. That leaves ... humonculos? Nope. Shield Guardian? Yeah. A ninth level spell that effects just one thing out of the entire monster manual. Serious dumbness.

Well so long as you tumbled more then 5' prior to using the spring attack and tumbled more then 5' afterward it all seems perfectly legit to me.

Its ,um ... at least 5' feet before and after. Not more then. =)

Has anyone seen the new edition of Traveler? I am considering a switch to Sci-fi for a while and all my old Traveler stuff is nowhere to be found.

Just the GURPS version.

If the player does combat expertise to get +4 to AC their more likely to miss with their counter hits, +12 is pretty crappy against CR 12 bad guys whose ACs tend to be in the 30-35 range.

First off, your main hand attack with just the DEX bonus is going to be +15 (and we're assuming this level 12 fighter has not found any magical weapons with this.)

And what bad guys are you talking about? Out of the entire monster manual the highest AC for a CR12 is the Leonal and the Kolyarut (though you may actually have a harder time hitting the displacer beast pack lord). And theirs is only AC27!
Why did I even waste my time looking? I know good and well your numbers were way off. I knew because I've actually played a level 12 game and very few were the ACs in the 30s.
Have you played a level 12 game?

I thought this was a Tunnels & Trolls thread. =(

Attack-o-matic vA.1
Fighter (minDEX=17,minINT=13)
Feats
1: Dodge, Weapon Finesse
2: Combat Reflexes
3: Deft Opportunist
4: Two Weapon Fighting
6: Improved 2Weapon Fighting, Combat Expertise
8: Dual Strike (vA.2 Karmic Strike)
9: Double Hit
10: Improved Trip
12: Robilar's Gambit, 2Weapon Defense (vA.2 Dual Strike)
BAB:+12/+7/+2 or +10/+10/+5/+5/+0 (no modifiers from stats shown)
Activate Karmic Strike(vA.2) or Robilar's Gambit(vA.1) for -4AC and those wonderful AoO
Declare -4BAB from Combat Expertise during attack (+4AC)
Move/charge and strike twice, or full attack
When opponent makes melee attack (or hits w/v.A.2), AoO at +4 making up for Expertise's -4
Off-hand AoO (light flail) is a trip attempt

Attack-o-matic vB.1 is the same, except we lucked out and rolled high on STR as well (13+).
Replace Weapon Finesse(lvl1) with Combat Expertise(lvl6). Replace Combat Expertise with Oversized 2Weapon Fighting and use a Flail off-handed instead of light flail.

Favored Armors: Ring Mail, Chain Shirt, Studded Leather, Bucklers (lvls. < 12)
Favored Allies: Bards (especially ones with Ironskin Chant), and Dragon Shamans (Vigor or Toughness Auras, please )
These are the armors that will allow the most possible AoOs (4+). These allies also grant DR or Fast Healing. Either of those will take the sting out of getting hit by negating the damage or healing it asap.

P.S. Strongly suggested finding a Keen edged or Holy weapon (or both). Human Fighters are suggested to take up Improved Critical Hits or Monkey Grip.

Personally I've never allowed karmic strike.

Robilar's Gambit is ok though, by 12th-level, I'm fine with the fighter doing stuff like that. After all, look at what the wizard is doing!

Good point.

Thank you, all! =D
Hunterofthedusk, I did have it houseruled otherwise. I don't now and it doesn't pop up that often. That's why I couldn't find where it was said so.

What I mean is; can you grapple as an attack of opportunity without improved grapple. Trip? Sunder? I know you can houserule it. But I want to see where it actually says one way or the other.
I'm looking at it like an AoO can trigeer an AoO. I know I read somewhere that it was stated as being this (or that). But now I can't find it. I think it said AoOs can possibly provoke an AoO in which case the last AoO is settled before the first one is.

MrsCharlie loves her Spell Compendium.
I know it has the sin and virtue domains that Dragon magazine came out with a bit back (Lust, Greed, Gluttony, Humility, etc. as domains).

Where does it actually say if an attack of opportunity does or does not provoke an attack of opportunity (such as using grapple for your attack of opportunity without the improved grapple feat).

EileenProphetofIstus wrote:

...How is it that one lets something like 4th edition suck the life out of something I use to enjoy so much...So tell me, how does WOTC and 4th edition suck the life out of my enjoyment when I would stick with 3.5 anyway? Anyone else feeling this way?

Because every time you visit these messageboards, there's someone wittering "You will convert to 4th Edition, you know you will, I know better than you what you will do.....Join me...join me....I am your father...look inside...you know it to be true....".

Could that be the reason?

<fans Eileen with a copy of Village of Hommlet>

It gets a lot worse at RPG.Net. Over there it's like "You must be stupid if you don't like 4e. How can you not like a game that's not out yet."

How indeed?

And ya know, ain't nobody that's not into D&D is even going to care. It's like watching two Star Trek fans getting all pist off at each other arguing over who was better, CPT. Kirk or CPT. Picard. (well for me, because I'm not really into Star Trek)
So we're going on beating up on the only people that can tell the difference between D&D3.x and 4.x.

I would say hello Dominate Person. I would then unleash them on the party in turn.

Then again I would also laugh at a player that wanted to use a D&D miniatures game feat in a D&D RPG.

Karmic Strike is in the Complete Warrior. And miniatures Handbook has an RPG section, so it's not just for the miniatures game. ;confused;

So tell me, how does WOTC and 4th edition suck the life out of my enjoyment when I would stick with 3.5 anyway? Anyone else feeling this way?

Not really , Eileen. My D&D3.x team is all hard core over their d20 and are not budging. Even for D&D4.

Now, on my 'other' Game Night we play Castles & Crusades. Mostly. This is basically the same group minus three players. So I guess it's really those three guys who are hard-core for d20.

Hi, Charlie. A correction: Improved Two Weapon Fighting also requires a BAB of +6, so you won't be able to get that second weapon involved in an AoO till the next feat at 8th Level.

Hmm, I did not notice that second line of prereqs. Your right.

Well, regardless by level 12 I can have Robilar's Gambit andimproved trip and make up to ten trip attepmts as my AoO. Using light flail as your off-hand weapon (instead of short sword) you can make weapon-trips instead of unaemd-trips. (Now, you won't ever make that many trips no matter what). And you need not be successful in your attack to get tripped by the AoO.

Here's what I mean about archers: all of your feats shut down against an archer from outside your range. (By the way, the buckler of arrow deflection doesn't work if you're using your off-hand weapon. Even if you're using the shield, it has a chance to deflect one attack.)

You can use an off-hand with the buckler at -1 to-hit. You don't get your AC bonus from the buckler. So you have to decide it situationally if you want to use the buckler or the off-hand attack. But, really, it's my experience that ranged combat is far less prominent in a campaign then melee.

Here's what I mean about an opponent with damage reduction: If your fighter were doing 30 points of damage in one blow, against a critter with DR 10, twenty points would get through. If it takes you four attacks of 7 or 8 points each, that DR keeps the critter completely safe.

(And you're right: a couple of +1 holy keen weapons will certainly be helpful. You might consider getting them up to +4 holy keen sonic burst; those would work even better.)

What I meant was a keen or holy. Sure you can say that it gets broken with holy keen weapons. But that's like saying the Hackmaster +12 is broken. It is, and that wasn't what I meant. You said what about DR, and I said holy or keen weapons. We're both basically what if'ing it at this point.

To make this fighter's trick effective, you have to the allow him to get hit, often, so you want his AC to be low. (Which is why I'm not too worried about the fighter's lack of shield or lack of heavy armor (to keep the AC Dex bonus). Against critters that you really don't want to hit your character, you're in a quandry.

Edit: Your right. But then why would anyone take Robilar's Gambit (enemies get +4 to-hit AND damage) when Karmic Strike does more (works against touch attacks as well) for less (only a -4 to AC).

If you can imagine a level 12 fighter with the Attack-o-matic build. Making improved trips (and the follow-up attack) as AoOs.
You can possibly make 5 regular full attacks, 5 AoOs (+5 Dex), 5 off-hand AoOs (double-hit) with trip (light flail), 5 follow-up attacks (from improved trip). A possible 20 attacks in one round. (you'd have to stack the events to see this).

Which doesn't do much if the opponent only hits once a round.

Which doesn't work at all if the character is flat-footed.
Which doesn't work well if the opponent out-reaches the character.
Which doesn't work at all against archers, or opponents with spring attack, or grapplers, or particularly opponents with improved trip or improved disarm.
Which doesn't do much against opponents with a high armor class, concealment, or especially damage reduction.
Which doesn't get much better as the character rises in level.

It works just as well if the opponent only hits once a round. Your still getting an extra two attacks (and two more chances to roll a 19 or 20). Your DPR is still heavily tilted in your favor vs monster DPR.

If your flat-footed it still works because you have combat reflexes.
It works only slightly less effective against spring attack (the attack itself is what is provoking an AoO so it is still out-DPRing spring attackers).
Archers? +1 buckler of arrow deflection (yes, I'm cherry-picking equipment. You think players don't?)
Improved trip? Improved Disarm? The Attack-o-matic is actually only one feat away (available to human fighters at 6) from assuming that tactic as well. How about two disarm checks as an AoO from Karmic Strike? And Karmic works off of touch attacks (grapple as well), so it better be successful or it'll hurt you for trying. (this just comes down to luck in the end)
High Armor Class? What does work against that? Better odds of hitting. Weapon Finesse (now +5 to-hit instead of STR's +3). Available at level 8 for the Attack-o-matic.
Damage Reduction? Holy weapon, seriously adds to the DPR for over half the monster manual population.
You gotta think like a munchkin to see what options they have. (or, just be one LoL)

I'm not saying the character is inneffective. I'm saying that a character who is particularly good against a narrow range of opponents (medium-sized dragons, hydrae, gorrillons, and monks) isn't broken.

Your defining as range of opponents is narrower then mine. I see it as effective against virtually anything that engages melee. Reach or not (it's not going to take me long to close the range. And I wouldn't be using a -4 to my AC until I could hit. So reach is only as effective as it is against any melee fighter who has yet to close range).

Yes, I think it should be possible. There is an argument that Tumble is a bit overpowered as a skill in regard to AoOs, though it is nothing I have a problem with. But I see little reason why a rogue with Spring Attack should not achieve what you describe. I think the DM is just annoyed that you avoided his AoOs.

Yeah, that happens with me. See my frustration about my own players in the Robilar's Gambit discussion.

A DM should tell the player (or allow a change afterwards) that a tactic is just not going to work. Especially if you've alloted all those skill points thinking that you were able to do this.
A player could discuss this beforehand with the DM. Telling us what tactic your pulling may seem like giving away the gameplan, but without DM support, there is no gameplan. Of course the DM is going to make certain encounters harder (and really, do you want to just have them hand you the game?). But, I'd rather my teammates asked me about their planned tactics better then surprising me with them (and honestly, the game lasts longer and runs smoother if the DM is in his happy place.)

It is possible, in case I didn't mention that earlier. Tumble applies to normal movement. Spring Attack counts as normal movement. But, I'm coming from a point of view of having already allowed this tactic and determined it is non-breaking for myself and my team's purposes. YMMV

Skeld wrote:

pres man wrote:

Or at worst a staggered square set up (each row is half a square shifted, this is like the hex set up but using squares).

This would be the worst idea ever. Can you even find graph paper that looks like that? You'd have to make your own and that would be a huge time sink.

-Skeld

There you go

Thank you, thank you very much.

As for houseruling it out, how do you know it won't be integral to several half-dozen abilities or spells? You may have benefits along the lines of "use this feat when moving diagonal out of AoO range" or something. Not that I'm saying one shouldn't try or if it would even be difficult. Just speculating.

pres man wrote:

Or at worst a staggered square set up (each row is half a square shifted, this is like the hex set up but using squares).

This would be the worst idea ever. Can you even find graph paper that looks like that? You'd have to make your own and that would be a huge time sink.

-Skeld

Only for one person. And then once word gets around (provided they put it on the internet) it will get downloaded into every other players harddrive. WotC could make a basic one for their DDI (more incentive for that monster).

Does anyone know where I can look for to see any post-market errata for MegaTraveller, specifically the ship creation section? I'd heard there was some floating around out there somewhere. And I'm hoping it is somewhere on the internet.

There is just way too many other RPGs for me to try and collect D&D4. As expensive as that one is I can get the complete lines of C&C or WEG d6 for the price of the core and preview books. Six months of (estimated cost) DDI would get me the basic set of GURPS4 which at the end of the year I would prefer hardbacks over memories of a computer screen.

Yes, it's possible. Keep in mind your terrain modifiers to tumble and halved movement (not too much a problem if you take a level of barbarian). Tumble is allowed as part of "normal movement" which includes spring attacked movement.
May I ask why you tumble away from an opponent? Spring Attack provokes no AoO from the opponent you are attacking.
P.S. Do check out Tumbling Feint (phb2), Acrobatic Strike (+4 to-hit if tumbled out of an AoO), Einhander/off-hand balance (+2 to tumble vs AoO if hitting with light weapon), Expert Tumbler (Dragon #322, move at normal speed while tumbling), and Giant Bane (complete warrior) if you really want to break something with tumble+sneak attack+spring attack combos.