Laithoron's page

I've already made up my mind not to buy any more of the half-dozen plus WotC 3.5E books that I had on my shopping list for at/after Dragon*Con. I've already purchased 29 hardbound WotC books since going from 3rd Ed to 3.5 and I see no reason to effectively waste several hundred dollars on new ones when they going to make me trade up to what is effectively a new operating system — one without an upgrade discount.

With that said, the next campaign that I had wanted to run (I've been DMing Red Hand of Doom since Nov 2006) was Savage Tide. My players and I have all been itching to do something on the high seas and from what I've seen in Dragon and Dungeon magazines, I think that would be the best choice. (I’ll admit, reading the conclusion in the final issue of Dungeon put me in a happy place.)

Being as my group is painfully slow (the party has just entered the Ghostlord's lair after all this time) July of 2008 sounds about right for the start of a new campaign. I don't expect RHoD will take THAT long to conclude but it would be nice to run a homebrewed adventure or two after finishing off Tiamat.

As for the 3-month release period, I figure the two months between when the 4E PHB and the 4E MM come out will give my players enough time to get their characters created while I retool ST for 4E and update my Excel character/party database and Word character templates to the new edition.

So how long will it be until the STAP comes out in a single volume? Also Paizo, if You release a PDF version of STAP, is there any chance of making the proper names (particularly for political/geographical features) customizable? (I noticed that 0oneGames has a certain degree of customization available in their PDFs.) After the dozens of hours of scratching names and Photoshopping maps in RHoD to fit it into my campaign world, I wouldn't hesitate to pay a premium if it would save me all that time.

Something else to think about:

In terms of product insurance, has Paizo considered offering 4E update supplements for their flagship 3.5 products? What better way to take advantage of the dearth of official adventures when any new system launches than to be able to step up as the premier outlet for premade adventure content by reincarnating the excellent work You’ve already authored. From the few replies here so far it doesn't look like I'd be the only buyer...

Uugh, first Dragon and Dungeon and now another new edition already?! Had this thread not made me go check the WotC site and see the headline there bigger than Tiamat I'd have thought this all rumor-mongering. Well at least now I know I shouldn't bother wasting money buying that copy of Stormwrack I was looking at... or the Spell Compendium, Magic Item Compedium, Complete Champion, Leather-bound Core Rulebooks or the Rules Compendium.

*sigh*

And just when my custom damage system and 3.5 party automation database was nearing completion. At least when Microsoft releases a new version of Office it can still open files from the prior versions and has a "Save As" function that can export to the old ones. Too bad D&D is not cross-compatible... >:|

Can we at least hope that the text of the new 4E books will be run thru a spell-checker then read-thru by an English teacher before they are printed? It would also be nice if ALL BOOKS would actually have INDEXES this time around too.

FORMAT D20: /X

Random minis huh? Personally I prefer to roll my dice behind the DM screen, not in front of a cash register. I guess I'll just stick with Reaper Minis then except for D&D branded ones that I can clearly see what they are (and aren't jacked up in price due to engineered rarity).

Thanks for the heads-up! :)

The colossal red dragon is an icon, so the is no randomness associated with pulling one.

What do You mean randomness? I was talking about buying D&D miniatures (or not so *mini*atures) to represent specific monsters. Are You guys talking about HeroClix or a collectible card game instead?

*confused*

Personally I find manga/comic books, MP3 players and people texting on their cell phones to be a bigger headache. How I found myself DMing for a group 12 years younger than me I'm still not certain. *laughs* Perhaps it was to right the wrongs of their prior DM who claimed to have legitimately leveled up a level 88 pantheon-killer character.

But I digress...

For quite a while, I was bringing my tablet PC to use when DMing. I was tracking Wound/Vitality points in Excel and had an offline mirror of d20srd.org on there. At the time, I thought it was pretty handy until I suddenly found myself without it. For the next week, I decided to do more prep work than normal and to make up an Excel spreadsheet to hold monster stats and an MM4-style monster template in Word. After printing out one of the sheets I'd made, I realized something funny:

A 600 DPI printer has far higher resolution than a 72DPI computer screen!

Next session, I found running combat to be a world easier. I was no longer forgetting the special abilities of half the monsters because now I could see the full stats of EVERY creature all at once. Before, I had to either mess around with a magnifying tool or click on hyperlinks I'd placed in my spreadsheets and scroll thru the SRD entries one at a time (which I'd simply not do since it was time-consuming). Also,the printed charts I made for damage-tracking were faster to use than writing with the tablet's stylus OR typing into Excel.

Like a lot of people, I'd fallen into the mindset that using technology is always a better solution. In many cases, and even in my case, that still held true. However, it was far more efficient to use it for doing all the prep-work rather than on-the-fly.

Now mind You, using the laptop to reference the PDF versions of rulebooks IS very handy and does save the hassle of lugging 40 pounds of books around. I'll also freely admit that as soon as I can afford it, I intend to do the Photoshop-to-ceiling-mounted-projector trick. But again, it's a question of what is invasive to the game or what disrupts Your rhythm.

To be frank, just like with creative writing, sometimes the technology gets in the way. Being as I'm a tech by day, interacting with a computer tends to yank me out of the creative, story-telling mode of DMing and put me into a more analytical mindset. I'm sure this isn't a problem for everyone but how often have some of us found that we really don't want to see red and green underlines while pouring out our thoughts?

Want to know what's really distracting?

It's not so much when the pixie warmage's player brings her laptop and starts looking at pics of her boyfriend. It's when that self-same buxom 19 year old show up to game wearing Daisy Dukes and a tank top. Not that I would ever complain mind You... ;)

Why is the Huge Red Dragon Dragon mini $100 when the Colossal Red Dragon mini is under $70? I was thinking about picking one up but for that price it would actually be worth my time painting a pewter one myself. :-\

Exactly how big are these "giant" metal d20s? Are they of the same size as the 16mm Dwarven Metal d20s or...?

Captain Avatar of the Yamato/Argo.

If I had, in RealLife™, all the abilities and powers of my favorite D&D character (who ascended to godhood) then that would cover wealth, power *and* immortality. :)

Wait, how is someone supposed to know if they want to buy one of GW's products if they can't even see a picture of what it looks like on the vendor's website. Am I missing something here?

REINFORCEMENTS
One thing that generally bugs me when playing in other people's games or (worse still) computer RPGs is that enemies seldom seem to have decent backup. Seriously, how many of You had an "oh sh**" moment when the Crazy 88 arrived during Kill Bill part 1? A fight that is on a single front with warriors up front and casters at the rear will become a lot more dangerous when enemy reinforcements flood in behind the party or if the party is surrounded and cut off from "tactical highground".

BAIT & SWITCH
If the party is so big that they are on a rampage, then use the momentum to trip them up. If they like to charge headlong after retreating "bait" have them run into a room full of proverbial "Storm Troopers". (If Lucas can do a rewrite of a given scene then so can You!)

DIVIDE & CONQUER
Whether a trap dumps or teleports half the party (or even the main heavy-hitter) into a different area or two equal threats force the party to divide into two taskforces, this is a time-honored classic in storytelling. Granted some DMs might not be as good at this as others, but if You can tell an engaging enough story (even in combat) then the players who are "watching" will stay interested. This is particularly true if they have an emotional attachment to the other group or if the success/failure of each group is tied to that of the other. Again, Star Wars has many good examples of this technique.

SEATING ARRANGEMENTS
If You split up the party, then change the seating around so that (if You can't keep their interest) the folks who are not in the active scene can raid the fridge, take smoke/bathroom breaks or hit the computer at the same time. Also, I've found that it helps to have the biggest side-conversation-starter sitting NEXT to me rather than at the opposite end of the table. That way, You don't have the players turning their heads in the wrong direction (i.e. away from YOU). If they are that well-liked and sociable, You might also task them as an assistant DM. If all else fails, it's also easier to kick someone in the shin when they aren't 6 feet away. ;)

The problems with the EB negating the usefulness of AC and the fact that the warlock can use their EB all day long hasn't been an issue in my campaign.

I've been experimenting with using Armor as Damage Reduction and resolving ALL attacks as touch attacks against the target's Defense Bonus. So far it's worked rather well for all classes at low to mid levels, not sure about high yet.

In addition, I'm using the Recharge Magic rules from Unearthed Arcana. Thus, casters now get to lay about with their magic all day too, they just can't cast their high-level spells in back-to-back rounds.

TBH, the pixie warmage is (ironically) a much larger threat to the enemies than our warlock. In full out war, the pixie is our invisible "Mobile Weapons Platform" capable of either obliterating or breaking up enemy formations. On the flip side, the warlock serves more like a commando infiltrating and taking out specific threats, running interference or acting as a harrier.

IMO it just requires a different party composition/mindset than the traditional Warrior/Priest/Mage/Rogue arrangement.

Game altering changes aside, unless they have selected the abilities that extend the range of the EB, it's base range is only 60' I believe. If the party is attacked at range in an area with no cover, the melee types will be comfortable charging while the mages can start provide coverfire and bombardment with long-range spells. The warlock OTOH will have to take time to close the gap. Against an enemy that has archers capable of seeing invisible targets the warlock will be an easier target since they won't be as distant as the true casters.

Ah, so the legend of Biggius Macimus has spread to all corners of the realm!

[The] Meatwad gets the honeys G, er? Jade. ;D

And because I'm a single guy, a cute curly-haired 18-year-old girl in a bikini (or three of the same) would be cool too, espeially if ther was a lot of excitement and jumping about. ;)

GGG

Jolly good idea old bean! I'm hereby ammending my list to also include:

* Christina Ricci (gothic/moody settings and just to look at)
* Jennifer Love Hewitt (any lady who does cosplay for the opening of Star Wars would surely be up for some gaming)
* Monica Bellucci (no qualifiers needed)
* My 2nd favorite female D&D character, Alis (beautiful, charismatic, elvish and a high-level Bard to boot)

Fritz Lieber, J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert E. Howard would all make for excellent DMs I think.

I'd leave the rich campaign setting and epic adventures to Tolkien.

Roguish, urban and somewhat comical adventures would be right up Lieber's alley.

For visceral, 1-on-1 sessions, Howard would be able to deliver on the horror and severed body parts.

I'd also like to clone myself and play in my own campaign just to be able to better critique the job I'm doing as a DM. ;)

I once had an NPC who was immune to fire and he slept in a bed that was kept magically and permanently ablaze. Aside from fending off touch attacks while he slumbered it was all quite useless but off the scale on the neatometer.

That NPC didn't happen to accompanied by a levitating box of king-sized french-fries and a talking milkshake did they? ;-)

Man... The last time I had to DM the whole new-group-formation scenario, I'd been mulling over "how it should go" in my head for a few days before I realized I had an adventure to script for them.

In other words...

SHORT ANSWER: I winged it.

LONG ANSWER:
Night of the 1st gaming session (I'd guided them thru character creation over the phone and Internet), about 1-hour before everyone arrives I realize that I've been so concerned with setting up the adventure and getting my new apartment ready for guests that I totally neglected the set-up. No worries, there was still Chinese food to eat and the fact that everyone was using chop-sticks *except* for the one Asian player would buy me some time right?

Yeah... right.

So there I am, grabbing my white board and pulling my ottoman up to the head of the coffee table without a solid plan and resolving myself to winging yet another D&D session on 3 hours of rest. For the record...

PLAYER CHARACTERS:
* Verandil: Wood Elf Ranger (brother of...)
* Fanya: Wood Elf Druid (player is the GF of Verandil's player)
* Lissi: Pixie Warmage (player is the GF of...)
* D'relln: Drow Rogue (secretly working for the BBEG who gave him a ring that masks his alignment as True Neutral and makes him look like "Celek" the High Elf, only myself and the player knew that he was a spy)
Skifell: Viking Bear-Totem Barbarian (part of the longship crew of the same player's high-level Viking Warlord [separate campaign])
* Andúne: Winged Elf Cleric (squire of one of the main NPCs, would have been played by my ex-GF but her new BF wasn't keen on her being around me, kept the character on as an NPC)

NOTES:
** All players were given the same 6,000 starting XP and starting gold (adjusted up/down by a multiplier based on average starting gold by class) to create whatever their hearts desired.

*** Two days prior to starting the campaign, I ran a 1-on-1 with D'relln to lay the groundwork for his employment by the enemy as a spy. The entirely of the threat our party would later be deputized to handle had been setup by the BBEG in order to gain a valuable spy inside Wildethar's government in the capital city of Tol Ilmarond.

============

So with only the brief blurbs about each character's backgrounds, I toss back a glass of plum wine and start story-telling:

Verandil, a young recruit in Wildethar's ranger corps, is on leave visiting his less militant sister's grove when he hears trouble. He rushes thru the forest just in time to see his temperamental sister shredding some hapless pirates by the stump of what was once a rather lovely Oak overlooking an inlet of the sea that leads to the elven capital of Wildethar.

Out at sea, his eyes can make out a rather unusual looking ship (stylized to look like a bird of prey) that has seen some rather heavy battle damage to its masts and rigging. One intelligence check later, it dawns on him that the pirates must have hewn the great tree as lumber to rebuild their main mast and effect repairs.

As the last of the land-bound pirates falls beneath Fanya's fury (little sister is bigger and meaner than her older brother), Fanya takes off after the limping ship yelling for Verandil to follow. Elf and ranger though he is, the Verandil is a ranger, not a marine and still a recruit at that. Taking on an entire ship full of pirates to avenge a tree that has already been slain is just folly.

As the druid dives into the surf, she calls out, "But that was a *Living* Oak, even though it can't grow anymore it's still alive AND it's the home of my friend Trilea the dryad!"

With an oath to his patron deity, Lady Corollairë the Valier, Verandil takes off after his sister and a short while later, they are both captive aboard Cair Tuithoron (The Swallow-tailed Raptor, see http://forums.worldsunknown.com/index.php?topic=93 for history, crew and illustration.)

* * * * *

Meanwhile, in the Port of Jehiril...

Skifell's Viking Prince (the same player's high-level character) has just concluded a diplomatic council involving the elves of Tol Ilmarond, the humans of Aramol, and the minotaur pirate lord who had secretly allied himself with the elves. Also in attendance are some of the remaining pirate high-captains and the flamboyant and buxom privateer "Admiral Wardove" (secretly employed by Tol Ilmarond to prey upon the pirate fleets). Having settled on a profitable new alliance with Aramol and Wildethar, he is eager to cut his crew's trading mission short and send envoys home to his king.

Young Skifell then gets selected to arrange a quick barter for their lumber and furs while other members of the crew prepare their prince's longship for the open seas.

Now while Skifell is a stalwart (and at times cunning) fighter, his powers of appraisal and diplomacy are somewhat limited. So then, while asking around in a tavern frequented by stevedores, D'relln/Celek spots an opportunity waiting to happen and volunteers his services as a negotiator.

A short time later, they have not only acquired enough liquid gold (booze & liquor) to pay for their goods 3 times over but with the extra currency, a new buyer presents itself. Some pirates of a nationality neither has seen before hint that they have some special merchandise they need to unload — the kind that would be well-suited to a departing vessel (i.e. slaves).

The pair boards a rather odd-looking vessel (The Swallowtail) to find a captive male wood elf below deck and a female wood elf in the captain's chambers. Also in the captain's chambers is a 1' tall pixie trapped inside a large glass bottle who has ripped a miniature tricorn hat in two and looks none-too-pleased at her current situation.

Though the pirates admit the "elf boy" is kind of scrawny, they note that his curvy sister is both attractive and fiery, sure to make a good woman for a discerning chieftain. The pixie is not for sale. As they are talking, the dryad whose tree was taken pokes her head thru the decking momentarily before ducking back out of sight.

At this point, Celek recognizes that not only is this a stolen elvish vessel but recalls that his mysterious employer mentioned the "marks" would be arriving by sea. The elven rogue takes the Viking aside and the two form a plan to "buy" the slaves to get them safely off the ship to call for backup in order to claim whatever bounty must surely exist on such a unique stolen vessel.

Skifell and 'Celek' ask for a moment alone with the elf girl "to make sure the goods aren't damaged" and start elaborating their plan to the druidess just in time to keep from getting knocked in the back of the head by the disgruntled and disoriented dryad. The druid relates how they were captured while Lissi the Pixie explains how the pirates tricked her into going on an adventure with them only to find herself trapped in a magic jar that they'd "agitate" several times a day to milk her for enough pixie dust to turn the whole crew invisible for their heist of The Swallowtail.

A few minutes later and the dryad has freed Verandil, and is making a distraction by running around (and thru) the ship naked to distract the pirate crew. All the while, the burly Viking finds a classic way to liberate the pixie that involved a strength check, a 2-handed warhammer and a metric ton of pixie-sized Aspirin. Even as the entire military police force of Jehiril is marching on the docks and sealing the port upon spotting The Swallowtail, there was about to be a heroic showdown against the pirates when Skifell the Viking ended the battle before it could start. With a single blow (and back-to-back natural 20s) he knocked out the pirate captain with the flat of his great axe just as the commander of the city's garrison leapt aboard.

Thus, everyone got a nice reward, the pirates wound up dead or in jail, the elves got their prototype warship back and the BBEG got a spy inside Jehiril's new government. For the following morning, when all of the characters arrived at the civil courthouse to collect their rewards, word had already arrived of a rather unique threat by an organization though once defeated. With the city's garrison committed to protecting the city against further demonic incursions (supplied by the BBEG), the commander needed a group of adventurers to handle the job and offered them positions as deputies of the constabulary.

Although I've abridged the events greatly, the formation of the party took the entire gaming session. By quitting time though, the players were all well-entertained and quite happy with such a unique and exciting campaign hook. As one commented, "I didn't know where it was going to go next!" To which I just grinned and replied, "Yeah, neither did I..." ;-)

Moral of the Story: Sometimes a little procrastination, a little wine and a supportive audience are all that's needed for a good story to present itself. :)

As a quick peek in my photo gallery might reveal, my race would certainly be "High Elf":
http://forums.worldsunknown.com/index.php?topic=72.0

Going further than that however, in terms of Tolkien's works, the nearest comparison I can draw would be to say that I'm 1/2 Vanyar and 1/2 Noldor.

As for class progression, there's a short answer and a long answer. ;-)

SHORT ANSWER: Multi-class Ranger/Divine Prestige Bard

LONG ANSWER:
Several months back, I spent quite a long while (weeks really) plotting out how I would have turned out had I been born into my own Middle Earth-like campaign setting. The result was that I would actually follow the following gestalt advancement upto 20th level:

Gestalt Class: 1-5 Wilderness Rogue; 6+ Prestige Divine Bard
Standard Class: 1-6,8,12 Shaman (see Oriental Adventures); 7,9-11,13-20 Ranger

After 20th, Gestalt advancement would end and my "alter ego's" continued advancement would be in a single prestige class that expands divine spellcasting and bardic music with truename magic. (This was prior to Tome of Magic coming out so I used the Words of Creation from the Book of Exhalted Deeds as a starting point.) His focus at that point would lay in using epic spellcasting to carve out his own other worldly kingdom in much the same way that Lothlorien was formed...

—Laithoron, aka Michael

These forums are sadly lacking in many features I'm afraid. It would also be nice to have a viewable memberlist and the ability to send PMs (private messages) to other people. I'm assuming that Paizo didn't program this forum software (so I don't think this should hurt anyone's feelings) but these are the most feature-lacking forums I've ever used. Compared to the Simple Machines messageboards (www.simplemachines.org) I use on my own site, I almost feel like my freedom of expression is being infringed upon.

No signatures is all well and good, but at least let our user profiles be visible so that others can contact us or check out our websites, etc. :(

Some acquaintances mentioned I should post here in the Gamers' Connection and other ares because they do also and wanted to stay-in-touch. Yet without refreshing the site every single day, how will I ever know if they've found me when they can't click on my (invisible) profile to find my site, send me a PM or even reply to a thread hoping I'll get an e-mail notification?

Granted, the foremost reason I come to Paizo is to *buy stuff* (that and the WotC boards are *too* huge for my liking) but better community support would also be welcome. Please excuse the short sig, there's someone I want to find me...

—Laithoron, aka Michael
     www.WorldsUnknown.com

In the groups that I've run or played in, I have always had the firm belief that heroes are set apart from normal members of society by either the gods or by fate: Conan, Achilles, Glorfindel, Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser... As a player, I *choose* to play a heroic character. As a DM, I run games for heroes and the true BBEGs are the epitome of what it means to be a villain. One of the trademarks of my games has always been that the players can use nigh well whatever sort of character they want but that the bad guys are also similarly advanced.

I specifically encourage (and will gladly *help*) the players to create characters who are the stuff of legends. A player who just sits there feeling sorry for themselves and their underpowered PC isn't having fun and might even be more of a liability than an asset to the rest of the party. However, this is not to say that the only stats that matter are the ones pertaining to combat.

I also make certain that there is a certain degree of verisimilitude to the character as a "virtual person". If skill and feat assignments over the course of a dozen levels results in a character who could only exist if he was grown in a government super-soldier project (one who has no other skills, hobbies or depth outside of slaughter) then a talking-to is generally in order. There is, after all, too much out-of-combat gameplay that takes place to allow the players to handicap their characters to the point where (when out-of-combat) they are then the bored, ineffectual lump. My plots are too involved for the players to be able to get away with over-emphasizing one area to the detriment of all other areas.

If the party easily blows thru rank after rank of goblinoids and undead, how do they know the BBEG isn't monitoring them all the while, taking notes on their tactics, dependencies and oversights? There are few bigger compliments that a DM can be paid than to see and hear his players talking about the nightmares they had about the arch villain and how much they genuinely *hate* that character for being able to thwart and manipulate theirs whether in combat or out. And for the players, so much sweeter is the success when the BBEG they have encountered time and again hasn't planned for a possible contingency and good finally prevails thru heroics and teamwork .

As a player then, it greatly irks me on those occasions when I'm the only player operating under the premise that their character is an actual hero. (And no, I'm not talking about Monty Python style joke campaigns either.) Generally, I favor characters that can operate as self-sufficient lone agents when needed but really thrive when they can help bridge the abilities of the other characters. Rangers, bards, mutli-classed rogues and even clerics are mainstays of my character creation process. Conversely, I can count on maybe one finger the number of times I've played a dedicated arcane spell-caster.

Back in 2nd Edition, I once had a single-classed Half-elven bard who was very skilled with a blade, very well-versed in the intricacies of social interactions and had a very versatile set of spells to increase her efficacy in all areas whether it be dungeoneering, combat, reconnaissance or persuasion. What she lacked for were the bulging biceps and bottomless pool of hit-points needed to be a frontal-assault, front-line warrior — that wasn't her purpose. Oddly enought then, rather far into the campaign, the DM allowed her to come into possession of a pair of Gauntlets of Ogre Power that granted 18/00 strength (~21 STR in 3rd Ed), perhaps as a way to counter...

One of the other players specifically set out to create a munchkin-character out of a human ranger. The fact that he actually named his character "Goku", of Dragonball Z fame, should not be over-looked. (Mind You, I had heard of neither DBZ nor Goku back then.) Long story short, he became extremely jealous that he wasn't able to single-handedly occupy the spotlight and could actually be outclassed in the right circumstances. Even so, my attractive and heroic female bard still thought he was cool, would talk him up to the enemy during face-offs and enjoyed both friendly contests with him (i.e. Who-Can-Kill-the-Most-Orcs-in-One-Turn™) and innovative uses of teamwork (bard, cast fly on Yourself then hoist me over the wall so that I can Goku-bomb the enemy commander).

Eventually though, he turned his nose up at any sort of teamwork and made his character become a borderline betrayer simply due to jealousy. The worst part though was when the other players (who didn't see their PCs as the heroes that Goku and the bard were) got turned off and tried labeling *me* as the munchkin even when I volunteered to let another player use the Gauntlet of Ogre Power. Why? They thought it would make the game go more smoothly if I just let Goku hog the adventure just as the player hogged the glory in Magic the Gathering, did the most shots at friends' birthday parties...

You get the idea.

In other words, it's important that even if everyone doesn't see eye-to-eye on what sort of game is to be played that they *at least* understand why the others are there and give due respect and consideration.

Anyway, I will agree with some of the others here, "Yes, this is truly a debate that's as old as the game itself." ;-)

/me relinquishes the soapbox

EDIT: (Where did the edit button go?)

Speaking of good company, something led me to peruse garenfest.com again and I had a happy discovery: the last day of Atlanta's ren faire is June 4th, *not* Memorial Day!

Which is to say, that's one last rally of costumed fellowship before the siege of summer sets in. If any of You live close enough, I hope to see You there on Saturday and Sunday. Otherwise, perhaps we'll meet up at DragonCon. :)

Thanks for the helpful replies everyone. It's nice to know that I'll be in good company when it comes to getting dressed-up. :)

A few favorite movies come to mind where the "party" of heroes is not necessarily balanced:

* Conan the Barbarian: Barbarian/Rogue, Fighter/Rogue & Rogue
* The 13th Warrior: Nothing but fighters, rangers and barbarians
* Excalibur: All fighters and paladins (Merlin is basically a "force of nature")

In all of these movies, outside assistance (from "NPCs") was needed at some point or another but only for clearing away very particular obstacles:

* Conan got raised by the wizard
* The oracle helped Buliwyf to understand what course of action to take
* Merlin neutralized Morgana and by negated their superior numbers with mist allowing for an even fight.

In otherwords, a party composed entirely of rangers, rogues and dread commandos could probably get along just fine in many an adventure. They would rely upon outside assistance to help provide cover, protection or intelligence from other sources perhaps.

One way in which I have made things like this work in my own campaigns is by associating the party with the military or law-enforcement of a city/nation-state. They don't necessarily need to be enlisted troops or officers so much as they need to be deputized.

Once affiliated with the government, the officer they report to assesses the party's abilities and using intel they have on the threat signs off allowing them to requisition particular equipment that is to be returned after the job is done. In addition, because they are now with the military, I can assign NPC specialists to the party that might fill any gaps.

From my perspective it's really not a big deal and the players never complain about getting access to free magic items even if only temporarily.

—Laithoron Aernelóth, aka Michael
     Prince of Loch Thallen
       Ambassador to the Atani
         www.worldsunknown.com

Just looked thru the character sheets I still have on my computer and tallied things up since 2nd Edition.

RACES:
Elves x8
Half-Elves x3
Humans x3
Gnomes x1
Pixies x1
Kender x1
1/2 Dragons x1
Minotaurs x1
Dwarves x0
1/2 Orcs disallowed

CLASSES:
Rangers x4
Fighters x3
Clerics x3
Rogues x3
Barbarians x3
Ninja x2
Bards x2
Monks x2
Mages x2
Druids x1
Paladins x1
Psionicists disallowed

Note that the campaigns I run have a great focus on the martial arts and the divine/angelic. Elves (Tolkien's not std D&D), Pixies and even some Half-Elves (think of Tolkien's Númenoreans) all have varying degrees of innate spell-like abilities. Coupled with recharge magic, the importance (and longevity) of caster-only classes is diminished making for a setting in which martial skill is highly valued and incorporates the synergy of swordplay, unarmed combat, divine faith, arcane abilities and even ancient technology.

With that said, one of the single most effective characters I've seen in some time has been a Pixie Warmage. Damage reduction, tiny size, improved invisibility and flight all rolled into what we termed The Mobile Weapons Platform. She was pretty handy with her lance and a bow whose arrows she would enchant with pixie dust from her wings (touch attack disperses the dust in a single 5' square).

—Laithoron Aernelóth, aka Michael
     Prince of Loch Thallen
       Ambassador to the Atani
         www.worldsunknown.com

Disclaimer: Long-time customer, 1st-time poster...

Greetings all,

Being that we are all gamers and/or Sci-Fantasy fans here, I was hoping to pick Your brains about something...

Even though I've played D&D for many years and visited ren faires for almost as long, I've never had the opportunity to attend any actual conventions. While at the GA Ren Faire this past weekend, I met a few "rennies" who were planning to attend Dragon*Con in Atlanta this year. Sadly, since the faire was ending and everyone had to go their separate ways I didn't have time to learn more about the Con. Since Dragon*Con lacks any forums more modern than UseNet groups *shudder* and my acquaintances mentioned they visited these forums, I thought I'd try here instead.

Since I've only visited ren faires so far, is it appropriate to wear a costume when attending Dragon*Con or is that sort of thing only done at the anime', Star Trek and Star Wars conventions? Honestly, I love opportunities to get dressed-up and as an elven prince, I have quite a large wardrobe to choose from. However, if I'd be the only guy there in "garb" (as we rennies call it) then that would be just a wee bit awkward. ;-)

BTW, if any of You attend either the Charlotte, Raleigh or Atlanta ren faires, I have some photo albums on my website's forums and would love to catch-up and share photos or stories with You:
http://forums.worldsunknown.com/index.php?board=62.0

Nai eruanna Ilúvataro maruvalyë,
(May it be that the grace of Ilúvatar comes to dwell with You,)

—Laithoron Aernelóth, aka Michael
     Prince of Loch Thallen
       Ambassador to the Atani
         www.worldsunknown.com