Nameless's page

Yes, I also really like this system. It manages to keep the feel of raging really well and doesn't have the per day limitation that always felt a bit off to me. I liked the reworking of the powers as well. I really like that there's less bookkeeping than the Rage Points iteration.

As for concerns, with 40+ rounds of rage at 20th level, it would be expected that a Barbarian is always raging at this point. I've never seen a Barbarian played at that level, but should he be able to rage all the time? This is not a complaint, I just want the input of how this might change the game at high levels for people who have played at these levels.

Also, have you given up on the Rage HP being Temporary hp? I really liked this idea. Particularly since it stops Barbarians from dropping dead if they ever reach 0 hp.

I was a door-to-door knife salesman. Interestingly enough, all my customers were rather friendly! :)

I was subscribing to Dungeon Magazine. WotC cancelled Dungeon & Dragon mags, and besides a press release, had nothing to say but "cool stuff is coming soon", which ended up being 4E. At the same time Paizo also announced the cancellation of their magazines, but they said "hey, here's this awesome stuff that will replace the magazines, and we already have some interesting write-ups on our daily blog, etc."

I preferred the second approach and still do. Thanks Paizo!

I think some people are mis-reading the intent of this feat.

You don't gain any more attacks than a TWFer normally would. The only benefit is that after making your normal primary hand attacks with your primary weapon, your weapons swap hands, and you then make your remaining secondary hand attacks also using your primary weapon. You don't gain any additional attacks.

The line that seems to be confusing people is "after making ALL your attacks with your primary hand" refers only to all you normal primary hand attacks, NOT all your total attacks.

I'm not saying I like it - why is it necessary to swap weapons to make those secondary attacks, when it would seem more efficient to make all these attacks with your primary hand?

No, you don't gain more attacks than a TWF does, but you do gain more attacks than single-weapon fighter does. Why does this feat allow you to make 7 attacks with a single weapon per round? Think about it, in a round you have 6 seconds of time. This is enough time for a 20th level fighter to attack 4 times with his weapon. If you take this feat, how do you explain your fighter's ability to attack 7 times in a round with only one weapon?

And if you have enough time to attack four times, swap hands, and then attack 3 times, then it follows that you would have enough time to attack 7 times without swapping hands.

I can see where the idea was going, but this breaks verisimilitude in my mind.

Yes, that's the way I read it as well. Defensive only.

PS. Anybody know how to activate Umlaut's with BBCode?

Also, not really a curse but "Du hast Schwein gehabt!" is a good one for the game table.

I don't think you have to activate them, you just have to find the ASCII code for them, as they're normal characters.

ü! Ü!

That's Alt+0252 and Alt+0220 respectively.

Yeah, especially when it is something lame and totally made up like "a hurricane in Texas". Pshaw. ;)

Hurricane in Texas? That's crazy talk.

I did hear about some guy named Ike going there for some reason. It was in the headlines on the paper today. I think.

Nameless wrote:

seekerofshadowlight wrote:

Your post count goes up by 200 in less then a week.

My post count kinda started to level off once school started, but it sure shot up this summer!

Also, if you're posting in this thread, chances are...

Nameless:

** spoiler omitted **

Tarren:

Your post count goes up by 200 in less then a week.

My post count kinda started to level off once school started, but it sure shot up this summer!

Also, if you're posting in this thread, chances are...

Nameless wrote:

OK, I got all of that except for Teufel. Is that hell?

Yes, literally "devil," but meaning more like "hell."

"Zum Teufel!" ("Go to the devil") is basically "be damned!"

Now, if I could speak any German at all any more except for counting and cussing, I'd be all set.

Neat! I gotta get my German on. It's my roots, after all. Even though I know no living family members who speak German, I'm only 2 generations off from a full-blooded German.

Plus I want to go visit the country some day. See the sights, have some of those giant beers, etc.

Also if tintinabulation is word, can we have Rin-tintinabulation?

Nameless wrote:

Okay, I'll bite. Does it mean crappy car?

More or less. Literally, it's "$h!t-car," with the implication being that's what the car is like, or that's what your mood in thinking about it is like, or both -- but used as a prefix in this fashion, it's like "damn car" in English. German is great for cussing because just about any two words can be combined to make a legitimate new word. So, if I can't remember where I parked: "Gott in Himmel! Wo in der Teufel ist mein ScheiBauto?!"

OK, I got all of that except for Teufel. Is that hell?

(Sorry for turning this thread into German class!)

"Electricity," because I live in Houston and Ike just came through.

Normally, "Scheissauto" would take the cake (if there are any German speakers out there).

Okay, I'll bite. Does it mean crappy car?

I'd buy it.

If anything the feat should enable a Single wielding weaponist to swap his weapon from one hand to the other. That's fine. Goes with the Princess Bride tactic.

Ok, but why does swapping your weapon hand allow you more attacks?

Hmm... I actually liked the feat. The first thing that I thought when I saw it was that it makes the duelist character have something nifty that they can do. And I'd be lying if I said that I didn't think of The Princess Bride and the whole situation of, "Why are you smiling?" "Because I know something you don't!" "What's that?" "I am not left-handed!" *swap blade mid-attack*

However, I can understand the problem that's being expressed with being able to do it all the time. I'd honestly be kinda sad to see this feat go, but perhaps making it work separately of TWF would bring it more in balance? This way it doesn't become a feat choice for Rangers trying to minimize their costs, but instead becomes another fighting style type feat?

I think your vision here might best be present by another feat, or perhaps changing Weapon Swap so that you switch weapons in mid-attack and then get to make a Bluff check to feint as a free action. In fact, this would be cool.

The problem with Weapon Swap to me was this potential for seven attacks per round, which goes against the combat system model set up by the game.

Your point is well-taken, although the example does feed into the stereotypes I'd mentioned (TWF = rogue/scout trick, still sub-optimal for a single-classed fighter).

It's even worse since it's more costly for Fighters to become TWF than Rogues, who need the Dex anyway. A fighter with 19 Dex to gain Greater TWF is not as common since the same Fighter would be better off with higher Strength instead.

Tarren - just search for Razz and you will find plenty of them.

At least he hasn't been posting for over two months now. If it helps in any way, I don't want any 4E people to leave. It's unfortunate that some people can't deal with other peole enjoying 4E, but that's not a reason to condemn all the Paizo boards. No matter where you go, you're going to find undesireables. That's life. Some people are jerks, but we have to deal with that ourselves, don't we?

EDIT: I don't mean this post to undermine your position in any way. It sucks, and I'm sorry you guys have to deal with this.

I really like the +1d6 per weapon training idea. I'm just wondering now how much it would help two-weapon fighters. I know two-weapon fighters already have the deck stacked against them, but if they hit with all their attacks, then they're getting a buttload of d6s in precision damage.

This isn't necessarily bad, but it's something we should take a look at. After implementing this rule, would everone want to be a TWF?

I also really dislike this feat. I don't ever want to use a feat/power/skill that I can't explain without resorting to using "game-talk".

How could one swap one weapon to another hand and still have time to do the three extra attacks? If this were possible, I'd start wondering why Fighters can't just make 7 attacks per round, because they clearly have enough time to do so.

I like the goal of helping Two-Weapon Fighters by reducing their weapon costs, but there must be a better, more "fluff-friendly" way of implementing this.

Maybe a feat that allows you to apply all other feat bonuses specific to one weapon type to your off-hand weapon regardless of its own type? So if you have a bunch of feats enhancing your skill with a longsword, you get to apply those to your off-hand shortsword as well. Perhaps give it a pre-requisite of Improved Two-Weapon Fighting?

Is it any more strange than a wizard charming a lizardfolk or a locathah or a mermaid, though?

Maybe. In any case, charm person's a weird spell anyway. Limiting it to humanoids is kinda weird since non-humanoid societies don't really have a use for it as much...

Yeah, I can't say that changing the way charm works would bother me much at all, but it's still an element of the rules that's been around for a long time. After all, changing Charm Person to just a general Charm wouldn't be too difficult. Then you could just change Charm Monster to Greater Charm, or just remove it altogether and allow Heighten Spell to pick up the slack.

It's also always been a pet peeve of mine that Charm Person works on Humanoids but not Monstrous Humanoids, which is just strange, as sometimes the difference between them are minimal. Why is it possible to charm a lizardfolk but not a kuo-toa? They don't seem that different from each other. So in this sense a change would be welcome.

I gotta admit that having a Giant type always struck me as strange, they do feel more like a subtype. Either change would be cool, it's just that the D&D rule system has so many references that changing one little thing has a crazy domino effect.

Hey, our culture is built on moving dirt to find things.

Aw, I thought it was built on Rock & Roll. Shucks.

*kicks a can down the street*

This reminds of a strange NPC we met in an adventure once. I believe it was Greymalkin Academy, where there was this Monk who was the custodian of the school, who didn't know anything about the school, rarely spoke, and followed us around attacking people using his mop as a quarterstaff.

I hope never to see that character again.

He was pretty good with that mop, though...

Moosehead, baby! (Both the beer and the hockey team)

I doubt we'll be messing with the creature types much at all. We may well do a little adjusting (making derro into humanoids or fey; making ropers into aberrations) but where possible, we'll be resisting the temptation to shift around monsters to different types if possible.

As for eliminating monster types; the only thing I could see happening here is that we MIGHT make Giants a subtype of humanoid. Giant and Humanoid are already pretty much the exact same, but separated only by size, and Humanoid already has a tradition of having a lot of subtypes, after all. Making giants into a subtype of monstrous humanoid is tempting too.

I think Monstrous Humanoid (giant) would be better than just Humanoid, as it would change the way spells like Charm Person and Daze work. It'd be strange if 1st-level Wizards could now potentially charm giants to help them out.

Not that it's a calamitous change, but it's something to think about.

This played on MTV in the 80s, right?

Charlene

If the Utahraptor makes it through to the final cut, then the Dromiceiomimus better make it as well!

Personally, sometimes I wonder "Why would anyone choose to live in Korvosa/Riddleport/etc. if they had a choice?"

I always saw Korvosa as a place where they "keep the trains running on time." I don't know if you've ever read Stephen King's The Stand, but there's a society built up in that novel that is lead by great evil (sorta like Asmodeus' influence on Korvosa), and yet people living there are happy: there's no unemployment, people get to feel like they're contributing to something greater than themselves, and although they fear their "overlord", they know he'll protect them because he needs them as much as they need him.

There are some people in the world who need things to be organized, who need structure and certainty. I think this is what Korvosa offers more than most other cities, being militaristic and rigid as it is. In fact, this reliance on organization is what, in my campaign, will cause the city to go to hell so fast. A city that relies on its structure to get by seems like it would crumble all the quicker when that structure is removed.

As for the darkness in Paizo APs, I personally enjoy the darkness of RotRL, and I didn't find CotCT to be all too dark, except maybe Chapter 5. That said, I'd still be interested in a more "heroic" AP sometime soon. I think with its Arabian influences, I'm hoping the Legacy of Fire AP is pretty "heroic," as it would fit really well with the setting.

Post post-modernism.

Unfortunately, Paizo does not publish their Adventure Paths under the 4th Edition ruleset, which means they generally would stay under level 20 (which is the highest level in D&D 3.5 and the upcoming Pathfinder RPG). However, by looking around the boards here, you'll find many wonderful conversions of Paizo products into 4th Edition. I'm sure you'll be able to find some great resources in there.

And, with a little bit of extra effort, I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to extend one of Paizo's APs to 30 levels in 4E. You'd just have to be a little creative, but I'm sure it can be done without too much work.

Either way, best of luck running those APs! I've yet to run a single one yet, though they do all look fantastic! Enjoy!

Just want to throw in my vote for Oni over Ogre Mage. The Ogre Mage has always bothered me because outside of the 3E art, it didn't seem to have any relation to Ogres.

I've always assumed the 2E Ogre Mage looked like an Oni-type creature, but I could be completely wrong, as I base this entirely on Baldur's Gate, and how Ogre Mages in that game look like Oni.

Either way, may as well have the real name of the creature there.

Nuthin'. But it's near the hometown of Alan Thicke!

EDIT: Not that we're known for this, but we did have a NORAD base back during the Cold War, I believe. It's long-gone now. Sometimes, however, the military come by to do winter survival training.

I was in my Grade 11 Accounting class at the time. This was about 3 hours after the first plane hit. The school was trying to keep it quiet as long as possible. It seemed odd at the time, but I found out a few years later that one teacher on the staff had a relative working at the WTC so everyone was avoiding the subject for him. After lunch, everyone knew, and rumours and exaggeration became widespread. That was the first day I'd ever watched the news with anything more than a cursory interest. Thankfully, the teacher's relative was one of the lucky ones.

It really shattered a lot of the faith I'd had in people. I was a kid at the time, I still had all these idealistic views. I couldn't believe that this kind of attack could happen. And to top it off, on the bus to school the next day, I heard a comment that shook me even more for some reason. The two people sitting behind me on the bus were actually complaining about the fact that they didn't get to watch their favourite shows the previous night because the news was playing on every channel.

Thankfully, the way Americans and the World banded together during was heartening for those of us who were observers too. Even though there are some horrible things that can happen in the world, there will always be those who want to help and heal.

Interestingly enough, today one of my professors in the Teacher Education program I'm in told us about his first day teaching. It was seven years ago today, and he was teaching a World Religions class. He told us that was the most intense day of teaching he's ever had.

I've mentioned this before, and it's been mentioned on the boards a couple of times, but I think Paladins definitely need to either be able to combine uses of Lay on Hands or be able to heal more in one shot, since 4hp is not nearly enough to make a difference when you're in the middle of combat.

Also, a few more uses of Smite Evil would help, since I feel one/two uses per day at low levels is not nearly enough. Perhaps a feat called Extra Smiting or something along those lines that adds an extra use or two per day? Or make smiting a little more significant, like having it deal double your level in damage, or maybe +1d6 damage per two Paladin levels.

Sadly, I didn't get a chance to use Improved Bull Rush before Chuol died. So I didn't get a chance to test out the CMB rules as I'd hoped.

Aside from that, however, the rules seemed to work pretty well. And I'll say this about the new Lay on Hands: at least it's a great for healing outside of combat. I never felt like I needed to channel energy to provide more healing, Lay on Hands was enough, usually.

That's a really nice sketch! I am going to use that, I think...

Thanks!

OK, so I have class now until 5PM, but as soon as I get home I'll post something up. I don't want to rush it because it seems like a pretty vital point in the storyline. Other than that, though, I'm ready to go.

Nameless,

I'm still waiting to see what direction the two Kerrigan's Keep PbPs go so I can fit you in there. In the meantime, Baas is without a player at the moment. Could you help out by (temporarily) NPCing him?

Tarren

Sure, I can do that, no problem. I'll just look back through his post history to get an idea of what the character is like. I should post something in the game thread soon.

As for Kerrigan's Keep, I'm, of course, still in. I think this thread would be the best place to keep me up to date, since I check it with some frequency.

EDIT: I just wanted to note that I have read River Into Darkness since Chuol died, but I'm pretty good at keeping character knowledge and player knowledge separate. I just wanted to let you know to make sure I'm not "cheating". ;)

I just want to put it out there that I thought the set piece was great. It was what I was looking for: a short adventure that could be easily inserted into the main campaign. I also really like that it allowed a lot of freedom for the DM to place/interpret it in whatever way he wants. I'm looking forward to the second one!

But I'd happily put up with the snow to live in Canada... except that beer is $8 a pint at the Firkin. You've got to be kidding me.

But our beer is so good! We've got plenty of great local pubs, too. I've yet to see a city in Canada that didn't have at least one great pub somewhere.

Join us!

Kirth Gersen wrote:

Tarren Dei wrote:

Yep. I'm in Ottawa.

Thought about moving there, until I realized it was colder than Moscow. That's insane.

You should have seen the snow last year! My son and I played WWII in the trenches formed by the snowplows. ;-)

The giant pile of snow collected by the city last winter did not melt until mid-July.

Get well soon, Josh. Hopefully you'll be up and around in no time.

Not a Final Fantasy fan, eh? There's always Fallout 3. Or Fable 2. And let's not forget Bioware's own Dragon Age and their mysterious "NEW NEXT GEN GAME" that's been sitting on their site for a couple of years now (still hoping it's Jade Empire 2!).

I was a Final Fantasy fan, but for some reason I've lost a lot of interest in JRPGs in the past few years. I picked up Final Fantasy XII recently, and I appreciate that it's a good game, but I'm not having as much fun with it as I had with FFIX or FFX, for example. So I don't think FFXIII will top Mass Effect for me.

You're right about Fallout 3, though, it does look fantastic. I downloaded some gameplay vids on XBox Live this morning and it's looking better than I could have hoped. The amount of detail going into that game seems mind-boggling.

As for Fable 2 and Dragon Age, they do look interesting, but they're on my wait-and-see list.

Also, perhaps I was speaking with a bit too much hyperbole when I made that comment above! It's certainly the best next-gen RPG out now, and could still be the best at the end of this generation, but there are some possible candidates coming out soon. I will revise and say that it'll certainly be the top 5 RPGs in this generation.

GAHHHHHH!!! I don't want to spend the $50 right now on Mass Effect. Please stop praising this game before I go buy it!

It's still $50? Bummer! Games this good should be price-dropped quickly!

Also, you should go buy it anyway! It's one of the best RPGs we'll see this generation, I think.

Nameless and AinvarG,

Both of you had expressed interest in getting into another PbP. I might have some spaces opening up in some stuff around Kerrigan's Keep. Both of my rogues have disappeared and, depending on how things go, one or two third level rogues may find themselves useful. I haven't talked to the players yet as I want to gauge your interest first.

I'm in the market for a PbP, so I'd love to join Kerrigan's Keep. Is this one a Beta Playtest, or just standard 3.5? And you're looking specifically for Rogues? (I haven't played a Rogue in a while, so this could be neat)

It seems to me that Wizards and Sorcerers would have an unnecessarily hard time landing their touch spells if this were the case. I can't say I see a major problem with Touch AC as it is. I feel it already scales up well enough with rings of protection and Dex bonus increases, plus many other benefits.

Why do you want it changed?

It was a really fun game with an entertaining (if somewhat predictable) storyline. What really made the game for me was the decisions you could make in dialog and some of the repercussions of said decisions. I'm glad I played Renegade my first way through because it really allowed me to see how the developers did not pull any punches in what you could/couldn't do.

The best parts I felt were the combat system, the dialogue trees, and the movie "feel". As I mentioned, the storyline was also pretty good, but at some points I really got the feeling that this was originally supposed to be a KotOR storyline, as there are some similarities between the two. The whole aliens vs. humans story was pretty good and well-done, though.

The worst parts: elevators (especially the one on the Normandy, oh God, give me those hours back!), the cluttered inventory, and the random sidequests that took place in one of three pre-generated areas.

Overall, a really great game. I didn't feel it was one of BioWare's best, but it certainly was more entertaining than Neverwinter Nights and expansions.

But to be fair, saying it's not BioWare's best is hardly a huge insult, considering the company has made at least three of the best video games ever made.

It's great how these things work out sometimes.

Happy Birthday!

Enjoy the Beta-ey goodness!

This is such a great thread...

I'm having a hard time choosing between two important films for me, so I'll list them both.

The first was Clerks. As many others, I first saw this film during my first year of university, and it really gave me a new perspective on my own future. It helped me understand that above all else, the only way to get what I want in life is to strive for it and to accept the responsability for my actions. It helped change me from a whiner to someone who worked for what he wanted. And seeing it during the tumultuous period of first year was really the perfect time.

It is also unbelievably funny. That's another thing going for it.

The second film was The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (that's right, more Wes Anderson love). I saw this movie just before a really trying time in my life, and the message that I got helped me through the hardest of times: don't worry about the opportunities you missed, but take the time to make the best of your relationships in the present while you still can.

Life Aquatic didn't just change my way of looking at life, it also irrevocably changed my taste in music. This is the film that brought on my love of Bowie's music, and really expanded my horizons when it came to all things musical, really. Much like The Royal Tenenbaums (which I saw later) opened me up to the greatness of Lou Reed.

It's interesting that both of the films that had a significant impact on my life are comedies. Just goes to show my love of laughter, I guess.

Actually, I found more than a few RPers in my program and made some new gaming friends. Also, the courses and content inspired me more as a DM and a player than anything I've ever done, both in terms of method and creativity.

I can definitely see gaming and teaching going hand-in-hand. It seems like many of the skills required to be a DM and a teacher overlap. Stuff like classroom management and keeping your group in the game are probably very related, plus there's all the improvisation involved, catering to each player's expectations/styles.

By the end of the year, I'm hoping to be a significantly better DM.

(And a teacher.)

Not a teacher yet, but I had my Orientation today! It was pretty exciting, I have to say. Strangely enough, even though I played a marathon D&D session the night before (ending at 3AM), I wasn't tired at all, and had a great day!

Classes start tomorrow, and the only thing that I'm sad about going into this program is the time it will take away from RPGing.

Sorry, Nameless. I for sure would have you join if a spot becomes available. I wanted to be fair and balance reserved slots with first-come basis.

I would expect nothing less! :)

I am hoping to start by next Saturday, so if there are missing characters by then you will be considered, along with Otto.

Excellent! I'll keep an eye out.