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 Recent Posts
Mothman, it's a fair assumption that it'll get scrapped or so altered that it will not resemble the original enough to tie it in with the older canon. Something I was reminded of over on EN World was the fact that the game designers for 4E have been specifically instructed to create this new system without worrying about "sacred cows" or in this context, traditional D&D. In fact, it seems they have been encouraged to completely disregard them in an effort to create their "better" game. Yet the whole "the game remains the same" repeated over and over is so bafflingly contradictory to everything they're doing. ??????????????????? Edit: Oops! I was going to just shut up and work. :?
Occam, I've never been able or even desirous to argue with sense. You do make a lot of it. My earlier reply to you may have been a bit more snarky than intended. Consider me chilled. I may be remembering the ushering in of 3rd Edition with rose-colored glasses. I guess the surpise back then was a welcome one whereas this one was already tainted by what a resounding majority consider WotC's betrayal of the gaming world by ending the print run of Dungeon and Dragon magazines. Add to that the fact that many, if not most, of the gaming world (I have no facts to back that up, only what I've seen and read) were mainly satisfied with the current edition of the game and would have gladly shelled out for an official errata book (ironically, we're actually getting one, but it seems like a wasted investment at this point), rather than a whole new rules system. I still hold to my opinion about WotC's blundering and semi-retarded attempts at PR and selling this new version to us. They've screwed up so badly that everything from here on out needs to be top flight stuff or the gaming community will only get surlier and dig in their heels with regard to their personal commitment as to how they will respond to WotC's new products. The fact that a guy like me can use the new SRD that'll come out with the new rules system does make me a little less hostile since it means I can still write for the new rules set and not have to fork out a bunch of money. However, my own gaming preference is going to be very hard to sway away from the current rules. Given the quality of products that WotC has been producing over the past year (or should I say lack of quality), it doesn't give me much confidence that 4E will suddenly be vastly better. Edit: Now that I've had my say, I'm going to shut the hell up and focus on writing stuff for the current edition of the game.
Sebastian, I've been following a whole load of WotC statements over on ENWorld for several months. If I wasn't feeling so extremely lazy right now, I'd probably post links, but... meh, not feeling that impassioned about it at the moment. Occam already got the head of steam I had going :| What seems glaringly obvious to me is that WotC has made one fumble after the other and is overcompensating right now by combing through the messageboards to see what people are saying and giving some vague promises of making good on what they think we want. The designers seem to be doubling as PR reps and are just horrible at it. They should not be allowed to talk to other living beings outside of the WotC game design studio. ::long sigh:: I do hope Occam is right and that WotC finally gets their feet under them and starts paying closer attention to selling 4E, because as of right now, a lot of us aren't buying.
Define, the "surprise" announcement of 3E, Occam. If you define it by Wizards denying and outright lying about it for about a year and then finally revealing it, well then, yes, I guess it's the same thing and you're right and my point of view is completely invalid. :? I don't remember it that way, though, and my memory is still pretty good. But if you feel like WotC has been completely up front with you with the annoucedment of 4E and you like their marketing strategies and customer relations tactics, then good for you. You're exactly the type of gamer they're targeting.
Just want to post what really bothers me about the eminent arrival of D&D 4th edition. When 3rd edition was announced, there was an overall readiness and excitement about it. It was well documented in Dragon magazine and adds put up in FLGS's all over the country. Everyone knew it was coming and there was a lot of preparation and help to get people into it. You had all kinds of conversion articles for moving your existing characters and campaign into the new rules set. There were articles that explained how bits and pieces of the new game system worked like feats, a look at new class abilities, new monsters, etc. 4th edition? Nothing but denials and outright lies about it all the way up until the announcement a week and a half ago. And then, let's look at the timing. Not 3 months ago, WotC gutpunches the gaming world by announcing the discontinuation of our hobby's two most cherished magazines - Dragon and Dungeon - and converting them to a digital subscription. No discounts offered to existing subscribers, no benefit for years and years of loyalty, and about a month or two following that big announcement of really crappy vaporware. So, flash forward after that big announcement, WotC goes and announces that, yes, there is going to be 4th edition and it's going to hit stores May of 2008. Talk about a double whammy! Unlike the long lead in to 3rd edition, we get a surprise announcement and some horrible YouTube videos to usher in the big news. That's what really bothers me. I feel insulted by WotC. We gamers were shown a great deal of respect with 3rd edition's arrival, but it feels like we've been shown none at all with 4th. We're just expected to accept it and change or become outdated fossils if we don't. The whole thing hits guys like me even harder. A freelance writer like me, whether he intends to actually play 4th edition or not, has to purchase the new books to keep current on the rules if he expects to continue writing for the current version of the game. OR... I find a 3rd party publisher that plans to stick with v.3.5 and continue writing myself into yesterday's news. It's very frustrating. :( Well, I suppose in my position, I should just keep my mouth shut, but I've always found that hard to do ;) Ah, well.
I would suggest Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain. A great series of books for a young'un. I remember reading them myself when I was a kid. "Munchings and crunchings!"
Real Brain, it's kind of a shame that you seem to have become some kind of scapegoat. I thought your original post was very well thought out (if a bit lengthy). You make some great points. About all we have is history and a vague outline for the future to go on. I thought it was interesting that you brought up how eager everyone was to jump in to 3rd edition. I know that there were a lot of people that were not so thrilled, but from my neck of the woods there was a generally overall feeling of readiness for a new edition to fix all of the broken elements of the game so you didn't have to adopt several pages of house rules in order to make your game work. 3rd edition was brilliant in that sense. Eventually, it was obvious that all the fixes weren't quite all fixed and v.3.5 came out. I was one of those that didn't want to buy a bunch of new books, but I did and never regretted it. I personnaly don't see anything broken about v.3.5 that can't be errata'd instead of scrapping it and starting up a whole new edition. People will buy into it because they want a current up to date game. They want to have the newest thing. That's just the way it is, unfortunately. If it turns out to be the best thing ever created, then Hooray! I just don't know what to think right now other than that I won't be making any quick move to buy a bunch of shiny, new books until I've gotten all the money's worth out of the books that are presently sitting on my bookshelf, of which I've invested a considerable amount of money. Again, I thought your post was great. It's too bad you've taken so much flak for it.
Yes, it's a mistake. I believe Brainiac has the correct stats here from earlier in the thread:
Great module. Wish I could start running it right now, but I'm doing the GameMastery modules first, which are just stellar. If you haven't picked up one of them, do yourself a favor and pick one, ANY ONE. You won't regret it.
Folks, we're all very peeved at one big crappy announcement after another coming out of WotC. I won't say whether I will never play 4.0 or not. What I CAN tell you is this: I have hundreds of dollars invested in v.3.5 and have no plans of abandoning all of that material that I spent a lot of mine and my wife's hard-earned dough on until I feel like I've fully gotten my money's worth. That could take years... What will most likely happen is that one of my players (who doesn't have a DM's investment of material to consider) will purchase the v.4.0 books as they hit the bookshelves, he or she will bring them to the game, me and my players will thumb through them, we'll talk about the changes, and I may even invite the player to run his/her own v.4.0 game in my home on an alternate day from when I run my own v.3.5 game. However, I reiterate, I will not switch over from the game that I run until I've received my money's worth for all of the products I already purchased. I did the same thing when v.3.0 came out and had the good fortune of watching a fellow gamer run his game and even learned it when it still had a lot of errata coming out to correct the all too prevalent mistakes. By the time I was ready to run my own v.3.0 game, I had all the corrections, a player's knowledge of the game, and a ready-made group to play the game. It had probably been out for a year by that time. I had all of the Core Rule books by that time and even a few supplements and adventures to run. In the meantime I had been able to run the v.2.0 material I had purchased and felt like I had gotten the bang from my bucks that I hoped for. My suggestion is that you, my fellow gamers, take the same approach. If it turns out the 4th edition looks cool, switch over. But do it in your own time, when you're ready, and after getting your money out of the products you have already invested in.
Count me not in the non-miniatures-using club. I used them as much as I could afford from the very start (1981). Mind you, the collection I had back then was of necessity very small, but if I could save a bit of money to get more, I did. Yeah, there were times when we just used a coin, a die, or even a Monopoly token for miniatures, but at heart my groups always enjoyed (and still do) that part of the game. Now, before we get off of the tangent I'm indulging in, I'm not supporting that stupid teaser video with the guy narrating it in a retarded quasi-French accent. And the guys playing the game that couldn't grasp the rules for Grappling was just irksome. I mean it's a bit complex, but a couple times using the rules, and you should have it down. Total 'tards!
Got to give Black Baron props for his superior character build. If I had thought of getting a potion of enlarge potion, we could have had quite the fight. Of course, the first time you disarmed me I would have been screwed since I didn't have your foresight to bring a spare. Great arena fighter, man. Good job!
Sunderstone, I've seen much more idiotic responses. Dig up the thread where a school teacher from Canada complained that Dungeon was using words that were too big for him... like tureen and marsipan (sp?), and lobbied the dumbing down of D&D. A number of posts on that thread and many others are more deserving of that kind of label, IMO. Edit: For the record, I'm not agreeing that there was anything idiotic about what was said, just pointing out a more deserving target.
If it were me (unofficial advice here), I would probably eliminate the low powered goblins and replace them all with goblin rangers and more goblin rangers on goblin rat dogs. You could also put some low-powered magic items in the hands of some of the warchanters, like, say, a couple necklaces of fireballs type I or II. You can get away with just adding more numbers to some of the other encounters in Thistletop and the Catacombs of Wrath. Increase the DCs and damage outputs of traps. As far as the main classed villains, you'll probably need to add a couple character levels and more gear.
Sorry for the vagueness, Chris. Because I, too, hate that kind of thing, I'll elaborate as best I can without calling down the Paizonian wrath of Dr. Jacobs. In Pathfinder #5, the Old Light serves as a marker for one of the two initial adventure hooks. The PCs will be returning to the Catacombs of Wrath (a la The Whispering Cairn from Age of Worms), so it's best to leave things geographically how they are to save yourself a lot of time making changes to get things all lined up right.
There's not actually a light burning in the ruins, by the way. There shouldn't be, in any event. If there's anything in Pathfinder 1 that says there's a light burning in there, I'd appreciate it being pointed out, of course! :) Sorry, James. My bad. I think I mistook something I read in the early manuscript. No lights burning. Check. It's official. Nothing to see hear. Move along.
As an aside, unless Garash and Nilgaar are coup de graced, it would be kinda cool to play them again as a new Team Evil bent on revenge in a grudge match at a later date, perhaps at little higher level. Could be fun. :) Fake Healer, thanks for running the match. You did a great job! TDewitt, thanks for the cool arena map with icons. Nice touch.
From what I know of the Old Light (much being what you already know plus knowing how the rest of the adventures go), you shouldn't have a problem with allowing them to explore a bit of the interior. But it is most definitely a ruin. As such there's stuff inside that is simply impassable. The fact that there is some kind of magical flame burning within it is cool, but in the end just an interesting phenomenon. I assume James Jacobs can and probably will interject a bit more, but that's my take on it.
Well, as far as I know, there's no reason you couldn't move the Catacomb of Wrath under the Old Light. Hell, it would make more sense to be there (since the Runelord of Wrath built There is a very good reason NOT to do this. Yes, it will kinda mess some geographical stuff up in later adventures. You'll have to wait to see what I'm talking about.
Thanks for making it more accessible for where we are on the page, but it needs to be updated. Heinrich and Jathali are both dead and should be off the board, and the locations of most of the PCs are about two rounds old.
Not broken. It's a great spell for its level. As far as making a powerful opponent unable to take actions for x rounds, most likely lower level opponents won't beat on the guy for enough damage to kill him anyway. He still gets his armor bonus and most other bonuses as well, though he takes a -4 penalty to his AC and attack rolls, but the dude should have a high enough AC and hit points that a low level group will simply not hit the guy enough times or deal enough damage to kill him before the spell expires. BTW, I've seen PCs knocked prone that just wailed away on their opponents on their backs and kicked the holy crap out of them without ever standing back up until after the fight. The arguments against the spell are pretty weak to me. Sounds nitpicky and you would have to throw out about half the spells in the book by the logic being used. THL is one of the spells that works less times than it succeeds. If your players get lucky with it, bravo for them for using the spells exactly as it was intended and pulling out a cool and hilarious victory that they can brag about with their friends. That's what the game is all about, man.
Hard to give you really good advice here other than from the sources I own. Much of the ones you cited, Blope, I don't have. If you use an oversized weapon with the Monkey Grip feat (CW), that bumps you up a new weapon size category. Also, as mentioned before me, using the weapon two-handed allows you to deal 1 1/2 times your Strength mod. If you take power attack with a decent Strength score and chance of hitting your opponent, you'll deal double the amount you put into Power Attack. Edit: looks like Kosivo beat me to the suggestion, though the method of getting there is different. I like the enlarge part of that suggestion. If you could use a form of Smite, that'd be another good one. Not sure, but there may a source book out there that allows a cleric to use it.
Fakey said that the doors would close after two rounds. Since we're on the first round, you should have time do whatever it is you're going to do assuming you enter the arena on your next turn. Remember the arena doors close at the end of round 2 and anyone caught behind the doors may be considered out of the battle. FH, just trying to help and keep things moving.
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