PsychoticWarrior's page

I hope you're only considering this if you're qualified. Most home-schooled kids I've worked with (5 of 7) are considerably behind academically. So many parents feel that they're the best to teach their own kids. How well can the average parent (or better than average) teach Chemistry or Shakespeare or Calculous or Psychology? How many are trained in early childhood development and psychology?

I mean, I'm a considerably well educated guy; I could teach my kids literature and anything in the humanities and I am trained in education but I wouldn't pretend to teach economics or biology or analytical geometry, etc., etc.

Callous Jack wrote:

Shawshank Redemption.

All that man-rape kind of makes the movie a downer.

As for the OPs original question - I have so many of these kinds of 'drop everything' movies it would be impossible to list them all. A few (unusual) standouts that I don't own on DVD are...

Roadhouse
Point Break
Jason and the Argonauts (original obviously)
Adventures in Babysitting (I was in love with Elizabeth Shue back in 1987)
Ladyhawke

...lots more. I love movies and will drop most anything to watch a favourite.

Sebastian wrote:

PulpCruciFiction wrote:

Back to the Future.

Damn.

Damn. Damn.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

I'm confused. What do you have against such a great movie?

/end nerd mode

:-D

I am playing a cleric in a newbie GM's game.
I came up with a great combo using the divine meta-magic feat and the sudden maximize feat. Mind you there is no lvl adjustment for SUDDEN anything because it's once per day; well divine metamagic says you can use your turns to get your feats lvl adjustment +1.
According to my math my cleric can now maximize his spells 8 times a day(3+1 for cha+4 extra turning)
The question is Would you let a player get away with something like this in YOUR game. The 3.5 rules state it's perfectly legal but it does break the spirit of +3 lvl adjustment for maximised spells.
I as a player think anything that lets me max my lower lvl cures is something to be used but I can see how it can be abused as well.

The GS dice are by FAR the best dice I have ever owned. You really gotta roll em on your palm before you let em fly, though -- they don't really 'roll' as much as 'plop' once they leave your hand. It's a strange sensation at first, and takes a little getting used to, because you get a lot of non-rolls at first.

Heh, I half-figured you were just joking around; I half was as well. I fully admit that GameScience does make some very nice dice and they seem to roll really well.

I've actually been meaning to pick up a set since I saw a demo from the owner on Youtube. He makes a convincing case against other dice manufacturers.

PsychoticWarrior wrote:

Bah - cheap dice are for posers.

They're also for folks who don't have ten bucks to spend on a set of dice.

If I could buy GameScience dice for three bucks a set I would, but I'm not paying eight or ten bucks for dice, regardless of how nice they might be (and I won't lie, GameScience dice ARE nice).

So don't be hatin' on us folks who like our dice cheap. :p

I'll still say that GS gives the most random rolls I have ever seen.

Bah - cheap dice are for posers.

Gamescience is the only true way!

Seriously - I bought sets of GS dice for my D&D groups and everyone loves them. Now we actually see the guy who could never seem to roll a 20 to save his life actually get them on occasion! 'Luck' is bad dice. Game with Science!

snip the crazy

Never did get into this series, but I do recall seeing ads for it in Amazing Heroes. Good to know it has such a good reputation, is there a trade for it?

I loved this series when it was running and was disappointed when it was canceled (although it had gone downhill somewhat near the end). It was a bit of an emotional roller-coaster though as you learned to not get too attached to any of the early characters (like I did to Blackthorn) as their only fate was to die.

You don't get any save against damage done by weapons in 3E. I don't have my books in front of me but I would examine weapon damage rules for more clarity and any 'taking damage' entry in the index.

I do have to admit it isn't a bad idea though. For a DC I would use the attack roll used to hit the target.

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/20204229/?pg=last

From flip of the overcouncil of Athas.org concerning the problems at athas.org

I'm aware of them, and I'm working to fix

Longer story is that I've been suffering from a slowly dying hard drive, and I think it's decided to stop taking it's time. I've been working to pull the data and configs off the drive and onto a new system. Hopefully, it'll all be done with by the end of the weekend.

That was more a gratuitous tip of the hat to our hosts. I figured it was a little dubious announcing other vendors on the Paizo message boards, so I should at least acknowledge that Paizo too sells minis. I love Paizo, but agree that for some reason, their singles are crazy over priced. Still, I've bought a few from them when I couldn't find them elsewhere.

Why, Paizo of course. Here's their page.

And if Paizo doesn't happen to have what you're looking for, I sometimes pick up a few from Auggie's. Never had any bad experiences with him.

I'll also second www.MiniatureMarket.com fast shipping and great customer service.

(At least Goodman Games had an early presence of mind to do their 4E Dungeon Crawl Classics modules under the OGL, and not the GSL).

PsychoticWarrior wrote:

Assuming you use miniatures grab some red hair elastics (small rubber bands) throw one on the mini when it is bloodied (PCs too). Remove if it gets some healing. Simple and really effective on the combat map to see who is in trouble and who is doing just fine! You can also use different colours to represent different effects (black for stunned, blue for dazed, green for marked etc). If you do not use minis I recommend index cards for initiative order (the PCs and monsters stacked up in order on initiative rolls) and then you can write notes on who is bloodied, stunned, immobilized etc.

What a great idea! Thanks! As a dad with 3 little girls, I'm constantly finding these things all over the place anyway.

By level 15 or so, enemies that 'Batman' needs a 20 to hit, his Nomad friend can hit on a 2. 'Batman' has some interesting out of combat utility and skills, but a combination of multiple weak BAB classes, evenly distributed ability scores, and lack of combat feats and items... means his attack bonus is simply terrible in combat. There are just too many 'hidden bad choices' that he...

One other mechanic that still needs extra work, as a DM, is tracking all the conditions. The one I dislike the most is bloodied.

I haven't played D&D without minis ever (and I've been playing since 1981) so I obviously use the first example. I do also use index cards for initiative order but have slowly been trying to get used to the paizo combat pad I bought years ago.

I take it from the comments that there's no Greyhawk connection. Sad really.

As far as the good/bad ratio of the delve format I have found it to be a boon myself. It was the rare adventure I would run straight out of the box from the old Dungeon mags (even Aps like Age of Worms were heavily modified) so having small set pieces I can mix & match is an excellent fit for me. Not everyone's taste of course but for those who write their own adventures and just want some help in setting up the combats & skill challenges this format works.

I don't think their plotless nature really hurt them but Ravenloft - which drips plot and atmosphere is also very much one of the classics.

Don't get me wrong - I loved I6 back in the day and ran it 4 times for different groups over the years but the plot was never its strong point.

David Fryer wrote:

Wow, all the greats are dying these days.

They're making room for the new greats. I nominate Sarah Palin.

Mairkurion {tm} wrote:

In recent years, I've been really unhappy with EN World, but is it me, or has it become more friendly to 3.5 and Pathfinder holdouts in the last couple of months?

It has actually. The Pathfinder forums are nice and they really feel like they could take off and provide a wealth of information for those interested. There isn't a ton of posting going on in that section but there is a respectable amount and it appears to be growing. The News page is nicely organized between 3.5 and 4e as well. I find all of this very promising. I think now that we have both games out, things have cooled down a bit. Despite my sarcastic comment, the General Discussion is much calmer than it was even a few months ago.

Erik's column looks like it will be great and informative. I can't wait to read future installments. That alone would convince to check out ENWorld more often.

Hm...I just went to EnWorld to dig up a thread there where folks discussed why they like EnWorld more than the Paizo Forums. However, as I was trying to navigate the pages (since I couldn't search), it froze up on me.

Guess everything you said was true.

It sucks about how slow old ENWorld is - it seems to be a victim of its own success - so many people go there the servers it is on simply can't handle it. There's next to no money being made by the owner (Morrus) and he seems to be constantly on the edge of not being able to pay the server fees each month. Lots of interesting conversations happen there when you can get on.

I would personally avoid bringing ability damage into 4e, since there is no current mechanic for it. It probably wouldn't be too hard to work with, but I would use something like -2 to attack rolls.

@ Pop n' Fresh - ongoing damage is definitely the way I handle 'bleed' it is just a different word for the same thing imo. I thought I would add in the ability to stop it another way though beyond just 'save ends' to give the PCs more options. It might be too much though.

We did try out the CHD last night and 3 valid crits were made (6 crits in total were scored but 3 of them were on Zombies). One allowed the PC in question to Dominate the Elite Deathlock Wight (that was cool), a second just resulted in lots of damage (triple) and the other resulted in the PC being vulnerable to crits on a 19-20 for a round. The extra damage was enjoyable for the PCs and did help speed up the combat (always a plus imo).

Just remember: we live in an age of reprints.

I collected the first three Essential Spider-Man volumes. I read them all in their entirety to my little girl, and she loved them so much, she just asked me to start the series over again.

I haven't read any CURRENT issues of any Marvel title in years and years. And from what you're saying in this thread (and others on this site), I'm glad I haven't. Sue Richards was unfaithful?!? I don't even want to know!

I did get a free copy of a trade paperback of 6 issues of Uncanny XMen (444-449) and thought it was very good. No sex to speak of (beyond the cheesecake outfit Marvel Girl (Rachel Grey) was wearing) and the violence was acceptable. One person was killed in the 6 issue span - a young mutant who couldn't control his power and his emotional state made it so it went out of control. Although it wasn't shown it is implied and assumed Wolverine had to kill the mutant. There is also as scene where one of the XMen (Sage) is 'killed' by being shot in the head. It turns out it was Wolverine using Nightcrawler's old 'image inducer'. Again nothing is shown but I could see that upsetting a younger reader.

Rather than use "Piercing" "Blunt" etc. I would suggest altering the cards to the power source: "Martial", "Arcane", etc. and give it appropriate fluff. 4E does away with the blunt, pierce, etc distinction, and while it's not hard to pair them up, it would be better design to switch to power source. The problem is new power sources...each card doesn't have to have all power sources. Split it up any way you want...perhaps even a critical deck for each source!

With 4E, I would avoid making each critical effect better than the standard Max damage. Most cards should be roughly equivalent, but with cool "fluff" or tweaks to make it different...like "roll damage as normal for a hit and you can push the target 2 squares and is knocked prone" or some such.

As a first approximation, 50% of the deck should be roughly "equal" to RAW crits, 25% of the deck can be slightly better (add push, slide, pull, prone, daze, etc), 12% of the deck should be clearly better (add 1[w] or 1d8 if not a weapon power and push, pull, prone, daze, etc), 7% should be much better (Stunned, immobilized, helpless, etc with added damage), and the last 6% should be over the top coolness: Insta-death, or something that effectively takes the creature out of the fight (not death, but for instance, deal damage as normal for a crit, the target is knocked unconscious (save ends)...which means a coup-de-grace can pretty much finish it.)

Critical Hit Deck 4E Rules

Normal Damage = Normal 4E critical damage rules
Double Damage = as above + 1[W] or 1extra die of the die used for the power (i.e Magic Missle adds +1d4).
Triple Damage = as normal critical plus 2[w] or 2 extra dice of the die used for the power (ie Magic Missle adds +2d4)

Bleed = ability or hp loss each round save ends. A Heal check (DC 20) may be attempted to stop the bleed. If subject to a power that allows the spending of a healing surge the PC may forgo the hp healing and stop the bleed damage instead. This applies to Second Wind as well.

Variable Round durations are instead changed to ‘save ends’.
Beneficial effects last until the end of your next turn.
Fatigued or Exhausted = Weakened
Nauseated, Stunned = Stunned
Confused, Dazed, Sickened or Staggered = Dazed
Non-Lethal Damage & all extra attacks = basic melee attack against indicated foe(s).
Ability Damage = can only be healed by an attending person who makes a DC 15 heal check and spends at least 1 hour tending the person per 24 hour period. This heals 1 point per ability per day. The attending person may take a -5 penalty to the Heal check to double the healing rate.
Poison = Disease (randomly rolled but no higher than level 9)
Entangled = Restrained
Dazzled = Blinded
Charmed = Dominated
Flat-Footed = grants combat advantage
“Maximum Effect” (spell effect) = extra damage die and it and all other extra damage dice are at maximum value.
“Decapitation” – target allowed a save to prevent. Creatures that wouldn’t be killed by the loss of their head (constructs, some undead etc) still take the extra damage.
“Elemental Call” = summons one elemental of a level equal to or lower than the spell used. It has hp equal to the caster’s level.
“Hypnotic Link” = Dominated until the start of your next turn.
“Dispelling Aura” = until the end of your next turn the target has an aura 1 in which no magical devices or spells will function.
“Olfactory Overload” – target is dazed (save ends)

Has anyone gone about converting the Critical hit Deck to the 4E ruleset? i figured the easiest part would be any double or triple damage means an extra die of whatever weapon/implement you are using for the attack (ie a Magic Missile would do max damage + 1d4, a longsword max +1d8) with high crit weapons getting that (as normal) plus 2 draws from the deck and choose one.

What has me a little daunted are the effects that come with many of the cards. I figured anything that has a variable duration (1d4 rds etc) lasts until a successful save. Fortunately a lot of the other effects (blind, deafened etc) are the same. Some things, like stun, are pretty powerful in 4E so i think they would be changed to dazed or somesuch. Any thoughts? I always loved the 'swingyness' of the deck and used it a lot during the 3E era.

While I was supposed to run a game at my FLGS (LA Mood's Comics in downtown London) I couldn't get out of work. It worked out OK though as a back up DM jumped in to run a game and it was a good thing - 2nd highest turn out yet for a WWD&D Day (only one higher was PHB 2) with 6 tables of 5-6 people each. The store reported excellent sales that day as well. Lots of youngin's too as well as the 'old guard'. I love these things and was pretty upset I had to work - next time I'm booking it 4 months in advance ( 4 weeks apparently isn't enough where I work).

I found it sad that some people on ENWorld didn't go or were 'annoyed' at the cooperative nature of the adventure building exercise - apparently that was the big hit here!

I've found most of these little cartoons funny myself. This one is no exception.

One of the things I like about these 4e books is that, as a player, it's very clear which books I should buy, and which I should not.

I buy the PHBs and the Power series. I haven't picked up the Adventurer's Vault 2, because the only thing I would use out of it would be the items, which are available on DDI.

In contrast, it seems like in 3.5, every book had player information. The environment books, the monster type books (Libris Mortis, Lords of Madness, etc), Heroes of whatever - if I missed one, I could be sure I was missing a prestige class, or a spell, or whatever else.

Hey - I guess I do agree with Allen somewhat!

In my opinion, the Core books, particularly the main ones like the PH and DMG should focus on Rule Mechanics almost exclusively. Without solid rules mechanics, you don't have a game. You can be a fine GM or a lousy one, but you need to have the game defined by rules that are clear & understandable, as to what can and cannot be done during the game, or you as a DM are a glorified storyteller, and little else.

Furthermore, Wizards of the Coast has been printing this type of "how to DM a game and a campaign world" filler for years. And that's precisely what it is, FILLER. Much of the content on "how to GM" slated for the 4th edition DMG II, is undoubtedly very similar to what was printed in the 3.5 edition DMG II. Do we really need to buy the same suggestions again in a new edition? The mechanics have changed between editions, the principles of DM'ing the game have not.

I'll much rather have a book that contains a whole lot of rules, so that I don't have to buy a dozen other supplemental books, in an effort to piece the together the rules system of the game. If WoTC wants to put out a separate book on "how to GM" then that's their perogative. Just kindly don't waste my time and money on the same stuff I've been reading from them ever since 2nd edition. Keep the "core books" for rules mechanics only.

Maybe it's just me but cannibalism while not a sin is morally repugnant, only barbarous or evil gods could overlook one of their priests eating a creature that could and might worship them.
The gods presented in 4e are very civilized (even the god of nature) and would strip a cleric of their powers if they engaged in cannibalism.

I also think you are looking at this character through a very modern viewpoint. People in the 18th century used to inhale and/or consume the powdered remains of mummies from Egypt for heaven's sake! It makes for an interesting discussion however as I have encountered this before (a character that consumes the flesh of her fallen foes) and the player truly played the PC in question as a chaotic good person who felt it was her right and duty to honour her enemies by consuming their flesh.

Ah but you're talking "effectiveness" and not design. Both the PHB 2 and the MM2 show how WOTC have learned how to build "better" classes (no V-shaped ones, no ones there as boring as say the ranger -"twinstrike all the time" and the actual range of effect - big difference in effectiveness between an infrnalock and an archer ranger - not so much between sorceror and barbarian) - In short the PHB 2 classes seem cooler.

Similarly, the MM2 monsters especially the solos and minions show what WOTC has learned and they refined it. It's subtle things like ensuring that solos transform at the bloodied level to give the fight another twist to keep it interesting and minions who at later levels still provide more of a threat.

As for WOTC's release schedule, it actually isn't more than 3.0 or 3.5 early years. What I think makes it more noticeable is that there all HARDCOVERS whereas most of th stuff WOTC released in the early 3.0 years were softcover.

joela wrote:

The release date on the DMII is on the 19th. How'd you snag an early copy?

The release date is today, the World Wide game day is the 19th

After being a DM on and off for the past 25 years, I have no need nor interest in a book that devotes entire chapters to: telling me how to DM. If I haven't got it by now, I'm never gonna get it.

I think this sort of material should be available on-line, rather than cluttering up chapters in what is supposed to be a 'core book.' But then again, they're all 'core books' now...

I can delay my groups trip to the Isle of Dread until April - no problem! ;-)

Glad someone is making these finally - I can't believe the only way to get this out of WotC is through an RPGA promo. This would be their #1 seller imo if released under their Dungeon Tiles line.

Hell, we see the same thing with WOTC. I consider the PHB 2 classes superior to the PHB 1 classes and the same thing goes for the Monster Manual.

Love it! I'm already eagerly awaiting the next installment. Love the visual style and the main character is interesting (vow to never kill? For a D&D character? Yikes!).

Good job!

What gods are you using? The gods in 4e would never condone eating the flesh of sentient creatures. Your character would have to be evil and follow an evil god for you to still have clerical powers.
You might be better off with a shaman, they have some healing abilities but are much more flexible in the morals department.

Here's my take on a healing/shielding cleric. I decided to go with greatspear just because I am partial to spears. If I were to change his feat and take a regular spear I would take the Battle Healer feat (every time you use Healing Word on an ally you heal hp equal to Str bonus). As is he's a +7 with all his attacks and they all are weapon melee.

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Torinn, level 1
Dragonborn, Cleric
Build: Shielding Cleric
Dragon Breath Key Ability: Dragon Breath Strength
Dragon Breath Damage Type: Dragon Breath Acid

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 18, Con 13, Dex 10, Int 9, Wis 16, Cha 12.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 16, Con 13, Dex 10, Int 9, Wis 16, Cha 10.

AC: 16 Fort: 14 Reflex: 10 Will: 15
HP: 25 Surges: 8 Surge Value: 7

TRAINED SKILLS
Religion +4, Diplomacy +6, History +6, Heal +8

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics -1, Arcana -1, Bluff +1, Dungeoneering +3, Endurance, Insight +3, Intimidate +3, Nature +3, Perception +3, Stealth -1, Streetwise +1, Thievery -1, Athletics +3

FEATS
Cleric: Ritual Caster
Level 1: Weapon Proficiency (Greatspear)

POWERS
Channel Divinity: Healer's Mercy
Cleric at-will 1: Righteous Brand
Cleric at-will 1: Invigorating Assault
Cleric encounter 1: Healing Strike
Cleric daily 1: Avenging Flame

ITEMS
Ritual Book, Adventurer's Kit, Chainmail, Greatspear, Javelin (2), Holy Symbol
RITUALS
Gentle Repose
====== Copy to Clipboard and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ======

Eladrin are very much near the top of my list. The other one at the top of my list, Draconians. I hate the very concept.

I don't get the gnome hate though, I love gnomes.

The two are diametrically opposed. Matter & anti-matter. Oil and water. Science and religion.

All I can say about Jordan's WoT books is

It's a pretty good trilogy!

And the dude who's claiming to know everything about Jordan after 3 pages? No one believes it so stop posting it.

I'll be running two games of Pathfinder. Someone has to show those poor folks how things should be done...

Has anyone else gotten the module for this? It is...different. It is a do-it-yourself thing where each group designs the adventure based on certain parameters provided by the module. Then you can switch your creation with another groups and play through it. Unusual but should be interesting.

Oh God, Firefly! Why did you have to die so young!?

But I agree - Firefly was great and I would have loved 4-5 more seasons of it.

A lot of the shows I'm seeing listed though had really good runs.

ST:TNG - 7 seasons & 4 movies
Babylon 5 - 5 seasons & 4 movies
Angel - 5 seasons
Buffy - 7 seasons
X-Files - 9(!) seasons

To name just a few. I can't really miss something unless I didn't get enough of it in the first place. Firefly is about the only show I can think of that i wanted a lot more of but then again I don't watch much TV these days.

If magic items everywhere isn't your thing, take a look at the new excerpt from the DMG2 - Adventures and Rewards. It outlines alternative rewards, which are essentially ways of providing the PCs with thematic boons that last five levels without throwing magic items their way. Examples include a deity granting you power, receiving power from accomplishing some heroic or legendary deed, or undergoing intense training under a grandmaster.

The Karate Kid is my favourite `coming of age`movie of all time. I`ve watched it dozens of times and just love it.

All the gnome hatred! Honestly, I can't explain why it is that I play them a good 50% of the time, but I do...

Abbasax wrote:

Elves. By Zuul, I hate elves. In a 12 year run of D&D I had less then ten players make characters that weren't elves (with the occasional half-elf).

Perhaps then I should refer you to my friendly travel agent. It's this place called Talislanta.. You might remember our advertising slogan of yore..

NO ELVES!!

I'm surprised no one has said dragonborn. I'm still not sold on them as a PC race.

Draconians I don't have a problem with because they fit into the overall structure of the Dragonlance world. They are decided villains/monsters. However, even a draconian as a PC still kind of irks me.