PsychoticWarrior's page

That seems strange. Characters don't start with a fate point (when you say fate point is this like the Warhammer RPG's version of them, a d20 thing or something you made up yourself?). I started using Action Points in my AoW game and the players really seem to like them.

Should I be concerned that my 13th level party had a really hard time taking out the devils sent to get the Rod of Seven Parts fragment? I can't see any of them getting to the point where they could dish out 200+ damage in a round. Of course most of them make pretty sub-optimal (combat wise ) characters imo.

I don’t need to justify my comments to you; but I will say a bit more anyway. Why? Cause you don’t understand; and I don’t think you ever will.

Do I hate Dungeon Magazine? No, or I would not buy it any longer. Do I think that I am not getting what I paid for? No, or I would not buy...

You, sir, are a petty ass.

White Plume Mountain is not very good. But I love Tomb of Horrors.

Heh. Switch those two around and you've got my opinion. Course S3 beat them all ;-)

That was the whole deal. My biggest issue was that he called in NPCs (which his character did indeed have the RIGHT to do) to do the high-action, intense part of the game, leaving the entire party utterly out of the scene. I was trying to coerce him into handling it himself, but he seemed convinced that this was the best course of action and there was no reason to deny it so I let it go with the threat that taking the operation out of his control literally meant just that... anything that happened would be OUT OF HIS CONTROL. Maybe I'm getting soft since I let them off easy...

This is why I like D&D - there is an automatic penalty for calling in outside help - no experience points for you!

I really can't imagine any player not wanting to actually, you know, play the game. Why does this guy even bother with a character if they never do any of the exciting stuff? If i was playing I wouldn't have gone along with this as a DM I never would have let a player have access to this kind of 'free ride'.

As someone who always hated Draconians and the demons of Tiamat (abilshi?) I found I really liked the Spawn of Tiamat in MM4. They have also got my players very worried....

Yeah, I just don't want to see a Giant Gorilla in any of the adventures. A tribe of awaken Apes I can live with.

Yeah - let's keep it to more normal monsters like 2 headed baboon demons with tentacle arms!

I say - speak for yourself! I would much rather get a 'Kong Moment' in Savage Tide than a tribe of awakened apes.

Try this converter

Stefan

Hey - thanks for that link! I always wanted one of those - my parents always ask me what the temp is "in English".

Sitting at about 32C with the humidex here in southern Ontario. Actual air temp is only 27C - those 5 extra degree of humidity really suck! I think I could stand 32C without humidity but I hate that sticky oppressive feeling it creates.

Funny the article in Dragon actually made me want to go out and buy some Three Dragon Ante cards! Arrgh - I'm such a nerd!

For the record I use an alternate die rolling system to generate ability scores. Each score starts at 8 and you roll 7 or more d6's recording the result of each roll. You then assign them as you like but the entirity of a roll must be added to a score and no score can be above 18 before racial modifiers. Each diel may only be used once.

Wow. I couldn't disagree with the title of this thread more even if it involved baby eating and squashed kittens. MM4 is the first MM that I have paid full price for (well $42 Can at my FLGS minus 10%). All of the others I bought in second hand shops (except MM2 which I never found there and have zero desire to own). MM4, for me, was excellent value for the money and I see me using this as often as the MM1.

PS. Is there some way to...

Of course not! Psychotic Warrior is my real name too!

BTW quoting you it says 'Kang' but on the thread it says Jeff Stinson - weird.

Darn you and your edits anyway!

From the MMIV the Joystealer. A pack of them is about EL16 and they drain CHA. Once your CHA hits zero you also lose all emotions including emotion based abilites such as rage.

Just one the reasons I love this book! :-)

I generally stick to the ultra powerful races like Humans and Dwarves ;-)

Seriously in my games it is very, very rare that any player comes to me with an "out there" race/class combo. Dark Elves, sure but I've never even had a person want to play a Tiefling! My players seem most content with the PHB races and a few extra ones from the Scarred Lands books.

Dirty Jack Kidd
You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr!

Yar!

Aubrey the Malformed wrote:

And what, exactly, is the SPIRIT of the game? Answer quickly - this troll bites!

Mutual enjoyment of the game.

A munchkin takes advantage of the rules to remove any challenges, sidelining other players (and the DM) in the process. If everyone is enjoying the game, who cares?

Down, troll! :P

***BZZZT***

Sorry that doesn't corrospond to the uses observed here at paizo! You may pick up your conselation prize of a year's supply of left handed socks at the door. Thank you for playing! ;-)

Seriously Aubery's is about the best defination I've seen - that it is a derogatory term used to belittle other, usually younger, gamers. It's use is best discarded.

Now about these drow ninjas.....are they female drow ninja babes?

At last count, I think there were 22 of us at Paizo, but Dungeon itself is run by 3.5 people - Jacobs (Editor in Chief), Jeremy Walker (Assistant Editor), and myself (Assistant Editor). The 0.5 is Erik, since as publisher he's still got plenty of sway with the magazine, even if he's not doing the day-to-day editing. I don't think there'll be a new Managing Editor any time soon - with a staff this small, titles are kind of funny - Dragon has 2 Associate Editors but no Assistant Editors, and Dungeon has the opposite. We all do a little bit of everything, so at the end of the day, what matters is that the magazine gets out.

I am stunned that only 3 1/2 people work on Dungeon. That seems like a ludicriously low number to put out a mag of such high quality.

Anyway sorry to see Erik leave but excited to see James' promotion!

Joining the pile-up: power gaming is exactly as good or bad as your group chooses. Power gaming is bad if only one player is doing it-- and continues in such a way as to steal the spotlight/ thwart the other player's fun.

On the other hand, not-power-gaming in a group who mutually agrees that the fun of D&D is in the challenges-- the part of the game that so much of the game text is focussed on-- is also wrong. If everyone's playing the game to the limit, but you nerf yourself-- you're not playing the same game as everyone else. There is wriggle room...

Really, if you enjoy what you're doing, and everyone else does too, then you're in good shape. As everyone above chimed in-- roleplaying is quite divorced from powergaming; you can have both, you can have neither. (Though if you get neither, I don't know why you're wasting your time on it...)

Very well said. I, as a dedicated power gamer, help out my fellow players as much as I can (but only when asked - it would seem rude in the extreme to butt in on someone else's character design). For example at the character building session of the game I just joined one of my fellow players was having the hardest time coming up with 2 good feats. He was playing a Warmage and seemed stuck in the "need big attack rolls" of the fighter/rogues he usually plays. I gave him a few suggestions based on what he was telling me were his biggest concerns with the character. This prompted other players to ask my advice on other aspects of their characters (one fellow even went on to use almost the exact build I recommended!).

Power gamers should always use their powerz for good, not being a d**k. ;-)

I saw that!

FH (walking the beat)

:-D

That stuff cracks me up!

Anyway I've been a gamer of tabletop and computer games for 20+ years (had a VIC-20 when I was 13!) and I have always "power gamed" (and by most people's definition that means I'm a "munchkin" as well). Does this mean I've missed the point of RPGs? Does my loathing of the World of Darkness game system/setting mean I'm the inferior role player? Does liking to play Neverwinter Nights with 40th level characters detract from the RP aspects of table top games? I can't say i see the connection really.

One of the few 'X' adventures I don't have. I too would lvoe to see a pdf version.

Vic, this isn't directed at Paizo at all and likely isn't even something you could comment on (IE: don't feel the need to get defensive).

I've noticed GW has gotten awful touchy about images of their products - I can accept (if not exactly understand) them asking a "small-press" model-making company to stop using their "Space Goth" ships in pics showing how the company's products can be used. I can accept (if not exactly understand) them asking a company to stop using pics that show their figs as a scale reference against the company's vehicles.

But I gotta say it seems kinda WEIRD TO ME to ask a company to remove pics of their products when that site is actively SELLING THOSE PRODUCTS!

Hm...maybe I should have done this on the "rant thread."

I ceased to be amazed at anything GW does since about 1997. Curiously thats about when i stopped buying their products too....

As I have said elsehwere, I dislike them.

While the Knight especially, and the others in general, are well designed and may be fun, they just seem entirely unnneccessary.

The Duskblade is basically a bladesinger. The beguiler is nearly a bard/encghanter. And so on. They are just not needed. They are overspecialized, and could have been made out of regular classes, skills, feats and PrCs.

Err so they are well designed and fun to play (and I'm actually talking from experience here) - what more does a class need to be? Given the overwhelming positive reception the PHB 2 got with my jaded and cheapskate players (5 have actually bought the thing for one it was the first RPG book he had purchased since the 3.5 PHB - and he DMs!) I have to say the classes weren't unnecessary.

Ok the Knight was (I have to give you that - all i can say its a good thing he gets the ability to function at negative HP 'cause he will be spending a lot of time there) but the other 3 were gold to me. About the only complaint I have is the odd place they put the Duskblade & Beguilers spell lists - after the NPC example? Huh?

No need to be sad - all you have to do is break out of the "I have to have this latest material to run my game" mentality.

I've run Greyhawk for 25 years off of the 1st Ed. Gazeteer, the 2nd Ed. 'From the Ashes' box set and a 2nd Ed. supplement that I can't even recall the name of.

I've fully converted to d20 3.5 on the absolute minimum cost necessary to keep the game running at a practical level and built the rest from scratch.

Considering the way that game documentation and books have gone to a philosophy of, 'make up new rules and keep putting out more books that will get gobbled up by the munchkins', I rarely consider buying anything outside of core rules...

It's not that publishers don't deserve to thrive, I just get annoyed at the overkill spoiling the essence of the game - just like the way times have affected everything else in the world, I suppose.

Yes, it's sad and true, but you don't have to become part the system - if you're willing to sit on the top of the mountain with me and shake our collective heads at the hardcore munchkins who just have to 'pwn' everything :-P

M

So how do you make things better? Is this just the rose-coloured glasses/angry man 'Things were better when..." arguement? Really since the so-called munchkins (and I'd loved to see an actual definion of that word remain the same over 3 people lol) are buying why shouldn't WotC (any company) cater to them? By your own admission you don't buy much. How can any company cater to you? I realize that a messageboard is all about griping (well not all this ain't ENWorld afterall) but I'd love to see some actual discussion on what companies should be producing rather than labels being flung around and the deadend "Everything was better in the old days" stuff.

I guess I'll be the lone prophet for Scarred Lands then. Right from the start the setting grabbed me - I loved the imagrey of massive titans of destruction rampaging throughout the world only to be brought down by their own offspring. And its not like the Titans even cared about or noticed the destruction and ruin they'd bring their creations (the Titans created almost all of the races populating the world) for them it was a diversion of amusement.

Some of the later books tried to reverse some of the really cool things (Faithful & Forsaken should be ignored imo) but their Player's Guides series was excellent reading. The setting really lacked a deluxe Campaign Setting book however (like the Forgotten Realms one) and that, I feel, is what doomed the line.

My friend is starting a game of D&D this Saturday and just called to ask me if I've ever played Shackled City! Even though I have a few of the Dungeon magazines I've never actually read it so I told him no. That means our group is going to be going through it! Yeehaw! I'm really excited about this. Now I have to leave this forum never to return least I be tempted into spoliers ;-)

Write in for Scarred Lands. I've been hooked onit since the Creature Collection I came out. And it has the best book about gods in the whole 3E era (Divine & Defeated).

If I have to pick one of the three talked about 'round here I'll say Greyhawk since I'm joining a game that is set there although I have vitually no GH materials (anyone know a good place to get a GH 'primer' cheap?)

I would like to see articles dealing with

New Invocations
New Feats
New Prestige Classes

I would like to also see a article that deals with using pre complete Divine Spells, Prestige classes etc for warlock. While the class details what classes it can qualifiy for, I think that limits the class way too much.

I would heartily second such a motion. Even with the current rash of 'Warlock hat' out there I would love to see new invocations, feats etc for this class.

Hey there all,

Unfortunately, prices do rise over time. The first issue of Dragon that I have in my collection is issue #77. That issue cost $3.00, is 84 pages long, is mostly black and white, and has roughly 28 pages of ads. Accounting for inflation, that same issue would cost around $6.00 today, meaning that you paid about 10.7 cents per page of content.

Today, you pay $8.00 for 100 pages, with only about 20-25 pages of ads, meaning you pay about 10.6 cents per page of content for a full color magazine. So.. while I am not happy that we had to raise the price, it has not gotten totally out of control with the past. Unfortunately we do not have the ad counts or print runs to offer the insanely low prices of the major magazines like Time and Newsweek.

In the end it is a question of worth. I hope that we are worth that extra dollar.

Jason Bulmahn
Managing Editor of Dragon

I hadn't read an issue of Dragon in over 4 years until issue 338 (the one with the Wizard's Staves rules) and was blown away by theincrease in quality and utility. Of course it took me another 8 months to subscribe but I'm here now! (Along with Dungeon too). Just keep doing what your are doing and things will keep on keeping on.

Don't really like Rust Monsters. I don't think I've ever used one but I did use a Rust Dragon recently to good effect.

In my own campaign, I've done away with gnomes.

Never liked 'em, never had a player want to be one, no need for them.

Dragonlance and subsequently Spelljammer convinced me that doing away with gnomes was the right decision for my campaign.

I am interested in your ideas and wish to subscribe to your newsletter ;-)

Gnomes always bugged me. About the only thing I ever read abotu them I liked was the ancient Dragon article detailling the other gods of the gnomish pantheon (reprinted in Best of Dragon Volume 3) otherwise I don't use 'em. One small PC race is enough (and Halflings look like Hobbits dammit!).

1/2 Orcs are 'meh' to me - I allow them as a choice but have no hatred or love of them. I don't make changes to the race as written though. 1/2 elves hold a special place in the campaign world I run (Scarred Lands) being the product of the (sterile) High Elves' plan to repopulate their culture with 1/2 breed offspring from kidnapped (!) humans. That said I think they are one of the worst, mechanically, races out there and give them the extra skill points OR feat the humans enjoy (player's choice).

I want to thank everyone for the comments and opinions on the situation I presented. One thing I forgot was that the other PC with the greatsword actually had reach and was a direct threat to the dragon (much more so than PC1 - it was a Monkey Gripped Large greatsword - 3d6+6 damage!). The dragon was doing reasonably well and was just trying to drop as many melee PCs as possible before taking out the very ineffectual archer PC. In the end I decided to do the 'retcon' (it was at the very end of the combat - the dragon was killed by the cleric with her Flame/Frost longsword on the next initiative action so even if the greatsword PC went down it had no effect on the battle's outcome). The character is one all of the players really like, myself inculded. He had been through a lot too so it would have kind of sucked to have him killed then. Later maybe but right now there are at least 2 plot threads I want to follow up with this PC so the 'retcon', small and unobstrusive as it was (imo), is going to stand.

Thanks again for all the advice and opinions!

So last night, playing until 1am, I made a mistake (as DM) that resulted in a character's death. I'd like opinons on the situation: (5 PCs fighting a Rust Dragon, one PC down at this point)

PC 1 starts the round with 11HP and is hit by 2 claws and a bite. PC 1 takes 13 points of damage from the 2 claws (6 & 7 respectively) and is reduced to -2. The bite did 12 more points of damage bringing him to -14.

Would not the Rust Dragon, being the smart cookie that it is, have directed its bite attack at the heavily armoured foe with the greatsword standing 10' away? Would you (as I did) have the dragon then hit an already disabled target with it's bite. I have always ruled that people are able to change their targets with the first target drops from a hit. Should, would you, retcon this to say the character lives? Comments please!

What the hell happened?

There better be an increase in pages per issue from here on in. (I'm thinking as thick as them ladies' magazine like Vogue.)

At least the Canadian price is reasonable now (or did that rise too?). Time to buy an extra year of Dragon methinks.

BTW, welcome to the boards! You will find that the people here are extremely helpful and a great bunch to bounce ideas off of. Just don't spell ROGUE as ROUGE, some around here make it their mission to correct core-class misspelling;)

FH

Thanks. I find the atomosphere here very refreshing after some of the other boards I've been to. I still spell Rogue "Thief" ;-)

On that note I want to thank everyone for their suggestions. It has helped a lot and hopefully I'll be able to tell of some good things after the game on Sunday.

I think it would be really cool, however, if Sean, Sarah and any one of the contributing artists could get together and devise an artfully done Savage Tide-themed character sheet and make it available for download. I'm thinking of something along the lines of something like the sheets that Tony DiTerlizzi did for sale when third edition was released -- something that covers the basics but also incorporates artwork appropriate to the theme of the AP.

It would have to be really, really, really cool to make me give up the sheet I've been using for 3 years now (Madirshman's) but i can't say I'd be opposed to it. I am, however, much more of a 4-page guy myself.

While I wouldn't mine these as NPCs I can't see any of my players using them as their PC. Part of the fun of a new game is the thrill of making a new character, imo.

I use the Madirshman's Scarred Lands sheet off of www.rpgsheets.com. I've used it for about 3 years now and it is a clean, easy to read sheet with lots of room for notes, character history/description and equipment.

The 2 problem players need to leave. They don't enjoy the game and are ruining it for those who do. Ditch them nicely and post for some replacement players.

Dig out the infection and cauterize the wound or your whole group will succumb to the infection. 1 good player lost to 2 bad players is an absolute waste.

my 2
FH

The sad thing is that these two were my two best players once upon a time. I'd really like to find out what has changed so much in the past year.

While I would recommend talking to the group to try and rectify the issues, people ultimately revert to type - and some people are naturally annoying and selfish. So if the discussions don't really help (and don't be surprised if they don't) you will need to expel one or other (or both) of the difficult players. It is clearly ruining your enjoyment, and I doubt your wife likes being shouted at either, and I suspect there are others suffering in silence. Life is too short to deal with stuff like this - if they have issues, send them to a psychiatist or something, you are a just DM.

I fear that this may be the ultimate problem. I've also noticed that, outside of the game, we don't get together for movies and the like much anymore. Maybe I am the problem. I really don't know at this point but I've scheduled a game for this Sunday (I cancelled our last one just because the thought of it was making me queasy) so I can at least try to come to some kind of middle ground.