Rift's page

One got pissed because he didn't let me finish an encounter description and reaped the rewards. 'I shoot' Dead kid. The others forgot.

Bah, ungrateful bunch! They never get me anything nice, they never take me out to dinner(Mac doesn't count) and all they do is whine.

In videogames I do it every now and then because I get bored with the 'scenery'. Having to look at a guy's arse gets boring after a 100 hours or so.

In P&P, I usualy don't. Unless the rest of the party(including the DM) is really good at roleplaying and can keep everything serious. Big reason why I banned my PC's from playing any gender but their own. They tried, failed(numerous times) and eventualy you(as a DM) get sick of it. Playing a female char is fine with me if you're male but don't make a screwup that goes along these lines everytime you speak; 'He sho...I mean SHE should..'

Wow that was freaky. As in, no way in hell I'm letting that fly in my campaign.

If you are not absolutely sure about things then don't. Don't have my books with me here so I can't check how powerful it is but I'd say rather don't then risk ruining your first campaign.

That and I have some bad experience with a DM gifting a Grey Render to one of our party. After he ate the rogue AND the next seven encounters alive, we got rid of him.

Well we just did a battle between the two.

And it turns out that the balor gets raped. Horribly. Mainly the damage reduction and the regeneration is what makes the pit fiend the stronger.

So yeah, there you have it.(Balor never stood a chance)

Sent that email to you, Aramil.

Onto the point, I’m not looking to thin my guard numbers. If anything I’m looking for more. The 4x6 hour shifts were set up to avoid the -2 bonus on spot/listens checks guards suffer after more then 6 hours of standing guard on a particular spot.(source: Stronghold Builder Guide)

I’m going to see if I can borrow a scanner off someone (my own broke) and upload the schematics and you’ll see that 40 soldiers per shift will put the entire keep in a situation where are there are simply not enough sets of eyes to keep every approach and public area safe.

We’ve found two possible income sources so far, one being the temple(training of acolytes for the temple of Pelor will net me coin in return) and the other being the fact that the keep is exactly one days worth of travel outside the nearest port town and situated on the only trade route. I think tolling them and putting a few guard patrols on the road won’t hurt. Safer roads for the merchants, better trade for the town, more income for me and more importantly, a good excuse to patrol my roads.

So the general opinion is; change it so both spells work, or neither works.

Just a quick note before I indulge myself in another expensive dinner party: The budget is 1.129.000,- gold pieces. I've spent around 560.000 so far on the keep, that'll probably go up a bit but as far as I'm aware I have around half a million gold pieces to spend on military staff, which apart from having to guard my Keep also have to secure the surrounding countryside.

Working together with my DM on finding a good income source. But I like the advice so far, gives me a frame to work with. Oh and merry christmass, before I forget again.

Currently we are knee-deep in a high-level campaign that has been running since summer vacation and as always with my more permanent characters my fingers are itching. Itching to build my cleric that stronghold and do all the designing myself, down to laying the last brick and organising the entire defensive features into perfection. Now I’ve done this before but only for a much smaller stronghold. This was a small keep with a garrison of 30 men and that doesn’t allow for much deviating, money was also a problem since we weren’t the wealthiest of adventurers.

But with the keep I’m designing now that has changed, the party consists of lvl 17’s(or equivalent) and we’ve got more money to spend. Plans for the keep and such are 99% complete, there’s just one snitch.

My military force needs to be up to scratch. I can’t do with just hiring guards(war1) and a captain(fig3) and just expect the place to keep standing with all the enemies we’ve made. I calculated that I needed around 160 soldiers at the least to keep the place safe(4x6 hour shift), not counting corporals, sergeants, lieutenants, etc. But at this point it blanks out, how do I organize an effective military force? I’ve looked at the last chapter of Heroes of Battle but quite frankly; I’m lost, what kind of level should my regular soldier have, how many sergeants, and what level.

Any help would be appreciated.

Firestorm! Gotten so bad I've resorted to buying scrolls every time we go out. I know its not really a low level spell but still, talk about overused.

Face a dozen baddies in a spread out formation? Firestorm! Need to flush a hundred or so orcs out of the bushes without burning the forest down in one go? Firestorm! Think someone is sneaking up on you? Firestorm! Need to burn a figure into your front lawn? Firestorm! *cackle*

That reminds me, I need to get a few more scrolls...

Well, this one revolves around me actually.(Yes I'm self-centered, thank you)

Before we start every new campaign, we sit down, write up a draft background and create our char's, have fun rolling the dice and seeing what kind of bonds we can forge already, etc.
Now such a session starts with all of us sitting at the table, the DM at the head of the table asking; "What does everyone want to play?"

All the heads turn towards me at this point. "I'm not playing a cleric." Buy potions, you cheap monkeys!

In that light, a friendly game of D&D prior to every diplomatic meeting?

Dungeons and Dragons; Promoting World Peace, one dead dragon at a time.

Your support is, as always, most appriciated

Trust me, there's a whole bunch of us around in Europe that support Israel. Wish my goverment would take a bit of a more pro-active stance but alas, we're traders and diplomats first, warmongers second.

And if I ever hop around that general area of the world I'll be sure to contact you for a game of D&D. ;)

Wow, and here's Europe with an extreme mild winter, haven't seen it freeze here in the Netherlands and I still haven't had to pull out the heavy duty winter clothing.

Good luck folks, looks like you'll be needing it.

You have to remember that you don't make a spot check to actually 'see' anything. Your eyes detect anything that reflects light(IE, just about everything).

You make a spot check to recognise something as being out of the ordinary, the half-orc does have darkvision but if he thinks the rogue is part of the wall, or just a shadow then that’s the end of the story. Just because you see something doesn't mean you always recognise it, I for one have been known for staring at what I thought was a squirrel that turned out to be three sticks with brown leaves in a strange jumble. Go figure...

So my two copper on the subject is that darkvision negates the penalties that you receive when making spot checks in darkness.(its also black and white, and I for one find it easier to detect things in full colour)

Werehamster.

Quoted from the Eberron Campaign Setting, page 138:

"The royal families that trace their roots to the original kings and nobles of the Five Nations, as well as those granted lands and titles in more times, add an ir’ in front of their surname."

And:

"In a practise that predates Galifar and was introduced after the War of the Mark, those born of the blood of the dragonmarked houses add a d’ to their surnames."

Doesn't say what it means, just what people use it, probably to set them out from the common folk.

Funnily enough, this turned out to be a issue at our LARP organisation.(yes geek alert, I larp :P)

Turned out that after a quick rule-check that suddenly all our mages and priests had to drop whatever they were holding to cast a spell. Since Game Control received a boatload of emails full of complaints it was changed to temporarily freeing up one hand or just using the staff or weapon as an extra way to channel the spell.

I'd rule the same thing with D&D. Besides, this is just one of those non-issue’s in the game, you shouldn’t go into this too deep and just play.

Thank you corrupted bookmarks!(and here was me thinking the Paizo site was down...)

Anyways. I'm going to have to thank everyone for their advice and insight provided so far on the subject. The drider could have been an overpowering encounter, I agree, but considering the situation and knowing my PC's they should have been able to cope with it, they didn't due to some stupid mistakes. S+~~ happens and they know now I'm not going to hold a hand over their head every time.

That said, I've started them on a new adventure with new char's and so far they've been enjoying themselves. I took the liberty of discussing the TPK with them and pointed out a few mistakes that they had made. General opinion is that they botched and that things like this happen, all in all it was a TPK but my PC's did commend me on letting them go out fighting for something their character cared for. Since their new party is in the same general area they'll hear about what happened to their previous group. Considering they coordinated the defence of (and subsequent retreat from) Greyendal when the captain was struck by a sniper they'll be hailed as heroes. Dead heroes. But heroes none the less.

And I'll say it again, thanks for the advice(positive and negative) and next time, no more driders. Oh wait, they're level 7 now, yes, driders, lots of them. :)

Oh the PC's had a boatload of advantages. Scout was carrying bracers of dex +2 which he had carefully snatched from a ogre. The mage and the scout were also wearing cloaks of resistance and the mage had access to two scrolls of web and one scroll of fireball, both of which he refused to use.

Besides, the drider was down to ONE(!) hitpoint, one more attack from the rogue, or that fireball scroll and the thing would've gone down.

As it stands now, I'm feeling content with it, the stories posted here helped and I'm already setting them off on a new mission(same homebrew) this saturday.

PS: No evilgasms. Its a messy affair at the table.

Many thanks for the response all, I’ll try to give a bit more details on the situation.

- My players are so-so about their death, they’re…feeling bad that I killed their PC’s and it came as a bit of a shock I guess. I never managed to get a full TPK before in my three years of DM’ing.

- The players died because they acted stupid. Or two of them did. One being the wizard who spent three full rounds trying to destroy a section of web that was not entangling his friends, it was just part of the drider’s lair, the drider being in his back, levitating in the air, throwing magic missiles. For some reason he wasted three rounds on that and when asked he told me that ‘it was important’. He cannot have gotten this situation wrong, I use miniatures and maps and give clear instructions on what is what.

Second being the rogue who, having taken a slight nap just before the battle, took his time checking his bow and arrived eight rounds later into the combat when the entire party was effectively down and out.

- I provide many ways for my party to handle an encounter, they could’ve set a trap(the drider would’ve been back) or they could have used the drow cloaks they found to scare and intimidate the thing(the party saw this effect before on another drider two sessions before) hell they could’ve asked the sergeant standing 5 feet from them, to send some of his men along.(26 lvl 2 fig, with two lvl 3 clr)

No, nothing perverse here folks, just a moral dilemma that’s chewing me up on the inside.

A week ago during our weekly Saturday afternoon session I managed to, completely wipe the entire party. A full TPK, my first one in two years of DM'ing. I lost some PC's here and there, but nothing like this before.

I can give a quick situation sketch;

The PC's are currently in the border town of Greyendal, facing off a full regiment of Alvarian regulars. The town, population 400, numbered around 50 defenders, the players themselves were the last ones inside the gates alongside a group of highly experienced grunts(26 in number). Facing off against a superior force, outnumbered 20 to 1, with reinforcements from Greyendall a good 3 days away they decided to retreat into an old dwarven tunnel under the keep they had discovered during the siege.(and dealt with the drow sappers that were using it to tunnel under the town) Having evacuated the population to the tunnels with enough food and water they located an old dwarven water basin that stretched for several miles in every direction.

Unknown to them, a drider was busy picking off the townsfolk, dragging them back to its lair and using the underside of the walkways along the basin for cover. The PC's found out, rallied the town watch to be on the lookout and went after it.

Now the point is, I used all the abilities the drider has, including its levitate, silent image, darkness and web to corner the players. And while they are all lvl 4, they still got their rear-ends handed to them by the drider. Once the darkness wore off and the fighter and the scout were stuck in the web the drider finished the wizard, chewed on the scout after that, dealt with the fighter(who dropped it to 1 hp) and then slammed the fighter down with a critical hit. I had already fudged an encounter with the drow sappers in the same tunnel and not wanting to repeat that(I did not want to give my players the feeling of 'we won't die whatever happens') and putting myself in the driders shoes, I decided that the players were a threat best not left alive and coup-de-graced them.

Now my question to you, since this is eating me up, did I do right in this? The players made(especially the wizard) some stupid mistakes and I could not stand to fudge the dice any longer. A single drider CR7 against a lvl4 party should be a challenge, but not overpowering at all provided the players act on it.

Party consisted of:
-lvl 4 elven wizard.
-lvl 4 elven scout.
-lvl 4 dwarf fighter.
-lvl 4 human rogue.

Lets have a quick look-see...

My 'own' group which I DM.

- 19 male: 6 fighter/1 warmage protector, human.
- 19 male: 7 fighter, elf.
- 19 male: 7 warmage, dwarf.
- 19 male: still undecided.

DM: 18 male(me, 12th of december 19).

The Planes group I play with.

- 21-23 male: fighter 14, drow.
- 19 male: rogue(9)/lasher(5), thiefling.
- 22-24 male: warlock(15), half-fiend.
- 21 female: druid 16, elf/woodling.
- 18 male(me): cleric 6/radiant servant of pelor 10, human.
- 25 male: wizard 12, half-vampire.

DM: 25 male, mindscrewer 5/sadistic genius 2.

Wings of flying. For those PC's that just want that extra bit of drama while flying.

I can only say that monkey grip does not increase the damage dice, it only allows you to use larger weapons in your main hand. I don't have my Complete Warrior with me here currently so I can't quote but it should be on page 100-103 somewhere.

Pick a weapon, we'll duel.

5-10 working days. :(

I need to entertain myself...

Hm, would be handy if a few 'real' roleplayers(AKA tabletop) gave their 2 coppers about the game. I'm very much looking forward to buying the game but the more positive things, the better...(soon as bol.com lets me use my iDEAL payment)

That and someone relating how the goodies in the limited edition are. :)

But enough sidetracking...no PDF manual on the DVD somewhere?

Well...my group cancelled! And I warned those yellow belly bastards(same two players cancelled last week also) that I would incur some harsh penalties on their behinds should this happen again since they seem to be avoiding the end of the siege they gotten themselves into. Person that comes up with the most OC/IC correct penalty gets a cookie from me…

Mind you, I don't like being told 25 minutes before I leave home that they 'suddenly' have to go visit their dead grandma.(or whatever excuse) Spent the rest of the day eating chocolate, moping and drawing out a keep for my PC in another campaign.

*grumble*

30-ish.

Can't check right now because my DM snatches our char sheets from right under our noses the minute we stop playing, afraid we might lose it or something.

But my AC usually goes a bit higher with full defensive fighting and combat expertise. Mind you I'm only using full plate, two shields and my dex, nothing else yet.

I think we house-ruled that. Since you are using two shields, and you are using them to defend yourself. Somewhat similar to using two weapons and(logicly) having two weapons to attack with.

This cuts damage mind you, it creates a tank, first and foremost.

Actually!

I'm currently playing a lvl 11 fighter that has two heavy steel shields(stilleto shields from the Arms and Equipment guide), both with enchanted shield spikes and the improved shield bash feat. Works quite well I must say. It costs a bit, your opponents will laugh at you for the first turn. After that you've usually knocked his teeth out.

Thankfully, I live in a Europe, and in one of the most liberal minded countries the world has ever seen; the Netherlands. I have not ONCE, gotten a comment beyond; "Oh you play D&D, that dice-rolling game, right? With elves and stuff?"

Never have I seen organized religion rally against us, my grandmother is a devout catholic and agrees with this. Even the archbishop has stated that 'the church is not in the habit of banning harmless games'. That and it seems that extremist Muslims and imams pose a bigger problem...

PS: Mind you, having a prime minister that looks like Harry Potter, signs HP books in parliament for kids and generally enjoys it is a good sign for us. ;)

Try taking it up with your DM? I mean, he is the 'referee' of the game and if he says that his players have got to come up with some sort of written background, a picture, then his players haven't got much choice if they want to play.(This works for my party)

If they make it clear they're not up for this sort of thing, then maybe you could try finding another party to play with?

Go with peaceknots! Have the guards check that everyone that carries a weapon ties it with a knot that doesn't allow quick access. Have bows and crossbows unstrung and ensure that every now and then a guard patrol jumps a surprise visit on your PC's to check on their knots.

I mean, its easy enough for your PC's to overcome if they really want to, but on the other hand it does restrict them in some way.

As for spellcasters...well, remember the saying; "There's always a bigger fish!". If a player starts casting fireballs in the middle of the square, have the War Wizards(Spellsword Regiment in my campaign), or whoever would benefit from taking down rogue spellcasters go after them, put bounties on their head and let them know that this sort of behaviour will be punished even worse then a fighter taking down four or five commoners with his blade. It might be a bit harsh but my players know that if they break the law, the law will try to break them.

Looks good, downloading now.

Your site is currently heart-tearing slow now(2kb a second) ...but in two hours or so it should be done. Don't know if thats because of the traffic or not.