The Black Bard's page

Really? Your childhood memories have lasted this long unsullied?

I feel ripped off.

I have seen rule 34 on Flight of the Navigator (don't ask, please, if you don't ask, I don't have to remember).

And lets just say I (and probably a lot of other people) got pranked quite well by a, ahem, video of the grown-up sort where at the moment of the big finish it suddenly cut to the fluffy dragon from Neverending Story groaning loudly in releif or some such. Shattered the mood like ice-cubes under a sledgehammer.

They still working on He-Man and Thundercats? Be interesting to see what Hollywood does to Cheetara, considering how not tame she was back in the tame old 80's.

What babe?

The babe with the power...

What power?

The power of voodoo...

Now that I have your attention, anyone know of any 3.0/3.5 material on voodoo? A quick search of the Dragon Magazine index and the messageboard archives turned up nothing.

Anyone know where to point me?

As my Age of Worms game advances, and more PCs die, a few have taken to reincarnation to restore their characters.

I've given a bit of thought to the ideas behind it, and I feel that regional tables makes a bit of sense. It strikes me as odd that a reincarnation performed in a desert could produce a swamp dweller like a lizardman, or one performed in the underdark produces non-drow elves.

I've also wanted to expand the "other" result a bit, but I suppose I shouldn't be too generous with what the PCs can get. Perhaps I should say that I want to expand the definition of the other result. It already states in the spell description what types of creatures can and can not be reincarnated. I think there should be similar guidelines for the possible forms as well. It strikes me that outsiders, undead, and constructs should be absolutely off the list. Aberrations should be 99% off, barring the few exceptional cases that seem to fit into the natural ecology in their own perverse way. Dragons and magical beasts should be extremely rare. Fey and elementals should actually be rather common on the "other" list. Giants and monstrous humanoids shouldn't be too much of a stretch either.

Personally, I think animals should go back on the list, but thats the RP side of me, not the game balance side.

I think that there should be a "if you do not have sufficent hit dice to exchange to pay for the ECL of the creature, reroll" note. More generous DMs may extend that too "if a creature would require you to exchange levels to pay for its ecl, you can choose to reroll".

Anyhow, to wrap this up before I get to building some tables of my own, since my players are in the Free City of Greyhawk, what sort of creatures should be on a regional table for that area?

I lived way out in nowhere once and I had an RCMP who pulled me over and ticketed me 3 times. Then I learned my lesson and got a radar detector.

He wasn't a dick though. He was a f*!~ing comedian about the whole thing.

Kinda like the guy who kept pulling me over for not wearing a seatbelt. Never ticketed me, but his moustache twitched with glee when he started threatening to staple the seatbelt to my chest. Was good times, I miss that guy.

Ain't it bizzare who you miss from your adolesence/youth/teenage/college years? I had a best freind as a kid, hardly spare him a thought now. But I miss the senior citizen couple that lived across the street, even though all I ever did was mow their lawn a few times. There are girls from my college years who I slept with and I don't even remember their names, but I miss the weed-baked stoner who commented that goblins should smell like popcorn and bongwater.

Wow, I'm having a really wierd and powerful nostalgia moment.

I've always found that improved grapple + large creature + touch attacks = easily grappled PCs, often with monsters they don't even get XP for anymore. One ogre minion can often grapple the party fighter, even at level 10. A pair of orc rogues can then sneak attack the crap out of the grappled fighter, likely hitting him much easier.

Thats my personal favorite "wake up, they aren't just throwing rocks at you" move.

I really only have one small thing to add to this discussion, and its more of a caution than a brilliant bit of trapsmithing:

Good for goose, good for gander.

Before you implement this, you need to decide if you are comfortable with taking 20 on stealth. Because the PCs could do it too. Or more dastardly villians could. An assasin who hides himself in the PCs bedroom could take 20 to hide himself if he has a few minutes. The PCs could set up ambushes that many "decently perceptive" monsters will fall into. A canny fighter with decent dexterity could still get high teens, if not into the 20s with his stealth check, even in full plate. If the PCs are smart and put the worst hiders at the "back end" of the kill-box, with the rogues and monks out at the front, you might find a lot of ambushes coming your way from your PCs, and that they will be quite effective.

Personally, while I allow for taking 20 on stealth, I have a caveat: it requires another person to "spot" for you. You can't be fully sure of how well you are hidden, it takes another person telling you to pull your toes in or cover the ring on your finger to get that maximum possible result. I would technically require this for any opposed roll that someone was interested in taking 20 on.

Just something to consider.

I always rebuild "boss" monsters to take into account the splatbooks I let my players have access to. As a result, their recent encounter with the Doppleganger boss in Hall of Harsh Reflection was quite impressive, and a PC died. A +19/+15 full attack for 1d12+11 while toting an AC of 30 while raging sure made them take notice.

Dragotha is no fool, and he knows the PCs aren't by this point (either that, or they are just ridiculously lucky to survive this far). He should have the casting capability for a quickened dispel magic, possibly even a greater dispel. Toss that out right before the deathwind (or memorize it twice and use one in the first round to get them panicking, then the next and deathwind in round two), and the odds of destroying at least one of these uppity heroes should rise dramatically. Also, if he doesn't have arcane sight running, he should. His intelligence and spellcraft should be high enough to basically understand what magic (spells and items) the PCs has as he sees them.

He's the undead dragon. He technically predates dracoliches. He should not be a pansy. He should not be anything less than the hardest fight they ever have. Kyuss should almost be a releif after him.

I don't know about intent, the SRD entry on breath weapon is that it is just "something the creature expells from its mouth rather than casting a spell". In the cases of any creature larger than, well, large, the "user's" head is something that could exist in any of the squares it takes up. Technically, a huge bipedal creature (half-dragon storm giant) has its head in the middle square of the 9 it takes up, and thus its breath weapon theoretically would pass through its other squares.

Problems arise if we read the section on magic, specifically resolving area of effect spells, too literally. Most of the SRD is the PHB, and is written from the point of view of a PC. In the area section on magic, it cites that cones and lines start from a "corner of your square". A literally interpretation of this is that a collosal dragon can still only fire its breath weapon from one of the four corners of its collosal square. Clearly, this is not the intent.

I prefer to use common sense. A breath weapon comes directly from your mouth. Can you spit on yourself? Of course you can. If you could breath fire and not be harmed by it, and a swarm of ants crawled out of the ground to swarm up your legs, wouldn't you breath on your own legs to kill them? Wouldn't you grab the little adventurer poking you with a sword to hold him still, then roast him alive since your hand won't be harmed?

I can see that it may be hard to cast burning hands through my own square, since the description is that a wave of flame jets out from my fingertips. But again, if I'm getting munched by a swarm of army ants, I may take my chances with my own fire and brush it over my legs.

Dragons are not flamethrowers. Dragons are people with very long flexible arms holding flamethrowers. Can you light yourself on fire with a flamethrower? Yes, yes you can.

A wizard can technically cast a lightnight bolt through himself. Suprises the crap out of the enemy too (although hopefully you have protection from electricity up). A breath weapon extends from the corner of any square making up the creature's space (usually the outside edges, but it could be an inner corner on a bigger creature). It then extends in the direction aimed until it reaches its limits or is stopped by solid barriers (which some can destroy and continue on through).

If it so chooses, the breathing creature can include itself in the area, and as such deals with all the consequences. Dragonborn have to make saves because they are not immune to their own breath. Most true dragons (but not all) are immune to the damage their breath deals, and so can "ignore" the reflex save. Secondary effects like entangling breath, or the non-damage of metallic dragon gasses could be dangerous for the breathing dragon (I've had a metallic be taken out of the sky when a quick thinking sorceror used gust of wind to blow his breath back at him).

Since Dragotha is undead, and as such heals from negative energy, then yes, his death wind can heal him, and he's a retard for not using it in exactly that manner. Technically, even if he just rears up and holds his claws in front of his mouth, catching just the tips, he still gets the full benefits of "being exposed" to it.

The closest aproximates that I can think of are along these lines: Wizards can wear armor, no penulty,Druids can wear any armor without losing abilities, Clerics can spontaniously cast all Cleric and Domains spells, Monks add there Wisdom bonus to their full plate & Tower Shield, Paladins can act however they want without any risk to losing class features, and things of that nature.

Well, if were talking about magic items or prestige classes that let you "break your limitations"....

Wizard: twilight mithril armor.
Druid: Dragonscale full plate.
Cleric: There are some feats you can take to add other spells to your "spontaneous cast" list, specifically summon monster or inflict spells, for the good cleric.
Monk: I know there is a feat or PRC that allows you to use either light armor. Or just take a 2 level dip into Swordsage. From there, mithril breastplate.
Paladin: Grey Guard from Complete Scoundrel.

To me, one of the driving forces of the human nature, and by proxy a driving force of PCs in the game, is overcoming limitations. It makes sense to me that there exist ways to do so.

I believe it because I have seen it. I've seen it way to much, and it is not fun for anyone but the Rogue(s). Rogue is way to easy to Min/Max and PowerGame. It is not something the Barbarian, Fighter, or Paladin did wrong, it is the fact that there is not much they can do that a Rogue can't also do, and usually better. Sneak Attack is that good. It barely qualifies as a circumstancial, because what is needed is very easy to get. (Proficiency with a big weapon, Power Attack, Leap Attack, Charge on the first round destroys most things, or dang near close to it, before anyone else can even act. Toss in Cleave, maybe a Longspear, or a few other feats and the Rogue takes down not only the boss, but mocks the Fighter by saying he could finish the cleave and drop him.)

I do agree that anything should be able to be critted. That makes sense to me. That helps everyone out more rather than one single class, because even the Sorcerer out of spells can drop someone with a lucky crossbow shot. However, I'm on the opposite side of what should be able to be sneak attacked. In my opinion, I see no reason that Oozes and Constructs shouldn't be able to be sneak attacked. I can see a Rogue sneaking up behind a warforged and shoving their dagger in and it gets stuck in some gears and there is a big grinding noise and steam and than a loud clank and a lot of shaking. Or they stab and Ooze and it pops like a jellyfish. Undead though, no.

Why would anyone bother making undead to guard tombs from thieves, when the thieves will probably destroy the mummies (for example) before they even crawl out of the sarcafigi? Zombies are now useless, because the party just takes their tea while the rogue goes around "Taking 2" to sneak up and get rid of all the guards to the evil Necromancers cave.

Wait, your example rogue is taking a blatantly Barbarian feat tree? I suppose that can express the power of sneak attack, but I swear, the rogue who did that tactic in my game better kill the critter on round one, cause if not he dies on round two. Even with high dex, light armor and mid-range hit die only give you so much to your survivability. A rogue may be a nightmare for a spellcaster, but a giant should pound him into dirt without backup.

I do admit, I have seen the two weapon rogue get into a flank and destroy things. There are 3 counters for that which I have seen work well and fairly.

1. Turn give precision damage the same limitation on the off-hand as strength. So the rogue with 6d6 sneak attack gets his 6 with his main hand, and 3 with any off hand attacks.

2. Allow enemies to "focus" on the rogue, provoking an attack of opportunity from all other enemies, but eliminating the flanking bonuses each round.

3. Show reasonable bad guy intelligence. In a world where high level casters are living artilery, bad guys look for the heroes wearing robes or holding holy symbols. Likewise, in a world where high level assasins kill you mid-step, you also look for the sneaky guys with two weapons. Whether its a rogue, or a ranger, who cares, as long as he isn't putting those swords in your kidneys. Kill them hard and fast. Unfortunately, with the exception of the Goad feat (which I give all fighters for free at level 3, there is no way for a fighter to hold a monster's attention short of doing higher damage than anyone else (which rarely happens). As such, intelligent monsters will prioritize other targets, and less intelligent monsters will be one step behind them as they react instinctively to the bad man who hurt them the most.

Regarding the sneak attack, I respectfully disagree with you regarding oozes. By the rules, you are right about warforged. They only have partial fortification, so you can sneak attack them. An ooze has no vital organs, no important parts at all. Its not a giant amoeba with a visible nucleus, its a giant blob of protoplasm/muck/algae/snot thats heaving towards you like the rolls on an overweight man.

I am of the camp that crit/sneak attack should stay together, and what can be affected by one can be affected by the other. Keeps it simple for new players, makes sense 99% of the time. But I view crits as being skill just as much as being luck. Improved critical is not a "luck bonus", its training.

I know that I can pop off a kneecap on a skeleton, might slow it down, reduce its combat effectiveness a little. Or I can slide a blade between the two bones of the arm and twist. Classically, taking a zombies head off will stop them in their tracks. Zombies and Skeletons should have heavy fortification, hard to sneak attack, but possible. Ghouls still digest meat with their innards, still see with eyes, still even think with brains, still move with muscles. They are very close to a "still living" unliving creature. Light fortification seems good to me. Vampires need their heads to stay on, and need their hearts to keep beating, and those are the two main target points most combatants are trained to aim for. But most fighters know to go for the "softener" blow to the stomach before going for a "kill shot". Imagine their suprise at the moderate fortification!

Homogenous constructs like golems shouldn't be crit/sneak attacked, but clockwork ones are fair game.

Just my 2cp.

.....

Awesome. The amount of upgrades since my previous post has this officially at the top of my favorites list!

Viva 3.5!

This is useful! I personally do a lot of slapping class levels (often barbarian, but sometimes others) onto monsters! Thank you for a great contribution to the community!

Of course, it doesnt do everything, and its flexibility isn't as robust as we could hope, but I'm not saying that as a degrading remark. This program is actually surprisingly flexible, once you realize how it works!

A goldmine, sir, a goldmine! Thank you for spending the time to bring this to life!

So the NPC at the tavern says "The Forest of Fangs is infested with wolves, who roam in great packs. The worst of these packs are led by the Sons of Deathfang, terrible beasts the size of ponies. And worst of all is the rumor that their sire, Deathfang, is not actually dead, but somehow lives on beyond what a wolf should, a great beast who's age has brought it cunning and strength beyond that of any wolf, with jaws that can snap apart the very trees. If you venture into the forest, my friends, do not stay long."

I'm going to go...."dang, sounds like some nasty wolves in there. Doesn't sound like dire wolves, just really nasty wolves."

The Sons of Deathfang could be dire wolves, or they could be advanced wolves, possibly with barbarian levels.

Deathfang could be an extrememly advanced wolf, possibly with barbarian levels, or even the Monster of Legend template.

I like advancing critters, especially for the "special" ones that inhabit the forgotten and feared corners of the world. Many a player of mind recalls "X" the Bullette, a fearsome beast with levels of barbarian who bore a great scar on its head that gave it its name. Ravenous, the landshark had one weakness: a sweet tooth. Travelers familiar with the region always brought with them a few pints of honey to purchase their safe passage with.

Still reading it, but I must say, I am pleased by his Playing With Fire Negative Energy material, because its basically what I've rolled with for a long time. Same with a lot of his resultant undead material.

I see this as a gold mine for house-rules I already had but was too lazy to type up.

Toolbox or Ultimate Toolbox + Tables from the DMG + Solo Dungeon Generation Tables from the Dragon Compendium = Totally random table based adventure design.

I've used stuff like that for Fallout style games where the PCs are crawling out of a bunker of sorts, discovering the brave new world around them, pioneers of discovery in a world unfamiliar.

A lot of stuff better than I could have said.

Agreed.

Human Paladin W Charisma 16 base + Tower Shield Proficiency + Shield Specialization + Shield Ward + Divine Shield = At level 4, your touch AC with only a tower shield is 15, 18 with Divine Shield. Assuming decent Ring of Protection, Dexterity, and Charisma Boosts, you could be looking at Touch AC 21 at level 4.

Currently have a Dragonborn Paladin/Platinum Knight who's breaching Touch AC 26 at level 7. I expect his level 20 Touch AC to be around 35.

Ditto to you Blake. Well Said.

Lead Lining = Expensive, but also blocks divinations! Bonus!

Iron bars = cheaper, and almost as effective!

Its true that at a certain point, it becomes railroading, or domination, but challenging players by frustrating their plans is perfectly fine in my book.

Consider this: in any game world where A: people other than the PCs can hit high level (17+) and B: the tarrasque exists, this means that nobody has figured out the whole "Wish it dead" bit. To everyone in that world, the tarrasque is just unkillable, and the PC wizard who says "wish it dead" is given the same look as Gallileo or Columbus: ignorant at best, crazy at worst.

I haven't yet gotten to see the program, but regarding Template Type Change conflicts, perhaps a tag could be added that informs the user of a possible conflict, such as the aformentioned half-fiend morgh?

Although, to be fair, if the DM can't justify the creatures existance, thats the DMs fault. Morghs are ususally humans who did great evil: this one is a half-fiend human who's depravity was legendary even by abyssal standards, and so a morgh he became.

For that matter, just using Green Ronin's advanced bestiary allows this, because they have Morgh itself as a template there. With that it really does go Human+Half-Fiend+Morgh

But yeah, maybe a "Warning: Template Overlap Error" or such. Just to let us know, so we can brace for rules lawyers. But allowing the program to make them regardless is awesome!

If lawful mooks flank, chaotic mooks pig-pile. Even low CR critters can still grapple fairly well, if they are high strength and large. Try a group of CR 3 Ogres as minions for your CR 8-10 bad guy. Those Ogres have grapple mods of what, 12-14? Thats competitive against a level 8-10 PC. Five or six of those guys trying to hold down the fighter is a great tactic, and the description of being under nearly four tons of stinky, sweaty ogre is priceless.

Just go with the Pathfinder tag of "the cleric may leave himself out of the effect." Solves the problem, no game balance issues.

Unable to access it, but if it does what I think it can do, you may have just become my favorite person of 2009.

I guess what I mean is that why can't the Rogue take an undead Bane weapon?

True, but a rogues primary damage tool is sneak attack (and crits, due to the fact what can be sneak attacked can be crit as well). A barbarian is fully effective against undead, because his damage tool is rage. A paladin is fully effective, because smite works on evil creatures, undead or not. Fireball is equally effective, and if fireball is resisted, lightning bolt. The rogue's ability is both inneffective against undead, the primary foe, and he doesnt have the variety of ability of a spellcaster to get around that.

Or (do what everyone else has to do to overcome their short commings) and multiclass.

You both play a very different game from mine, and espouse a very different strategy. I have no way to respond to this statement, as it is too far from my own perspectives to relate to or even truly understand.

Secondly, there are a lot of adventures designed for either well rounded parties or Rogues in paticular, so it is not like no one else has to go through adventures at a disadvantage.

Are you referring to the whole AoW path, or to all of the Dungeon Magazine adventures? If you are referring to adventures in the Path like Prince of Redhand, my personal experience is that bards and paladins dominate them due to having the social skills and the charisma to back them. The skill points of a rogue are prodigious, but a rogue also has a huge amount of skills to choose from. A trap/stealth rogue often does not have the skill points to spare on social skills. Again, personal experience, your mileage may vary.

The way I see it, and this is a very Rogue exclusive issue in most of my experience, is if you are going to play in a high arcane game, do you house rule that Clerics now get fireball, web, and whatnot? Do you give Clerics, Fighters, and Wizards x3 skills for a game of intrigue?

In a high arcane game, rogues can max Use Magic Deice. Clerics can choose the Magic domain. In an intrigue game, people can choose to have higher mental stats to boost their successes and ranks in social skills. They can, by the core rules, make choices that can enhance their ability to do what is expected of them in the game. Against undead, a 3.5 rogue using core material does NOT have any choices or options available to him to enhance his ability to do what is expected of him. Unless the rogue is not expected to get into combat, which is a valid character concept choice, but not neccessarily one I would make, or expect the player in question to make.

Undead and Constructs being immune to sneak attack was designed specifically to balance the class and to give other classes circumstancial strengths.

Actually, thats not 100% true. Its also a holdover from previous editions, and part of the early attempts of making a balanced game that was not needlessly complex yet still could hold to realism more often than not. Conversely, it is part of game balance, in a balanced game. A game that features undead as the primary opponents, as opposed to an equal dispensation of the creature types, is not a balanced game. Not a bad game, but not balanced, and that needs to be recognized and adjusted for.

If the player can't find something to do in an undead heavy game, that's the players fault not the DM or the Adventure.

True, but let me expound upon that. "If the player hasn't tried to find something to do in an undead heavy game, thats the player's fault, not the DM or the Adventure. If the player has honestly tried to find something to do and can't, thats the DM's fault, not the Adventure, because ultimately, the DM is the one running the game for the players, and is responsible for their ability to have fun. They are responsible for excercising that ability."

My apologies, I'm in a bit of a confrontational mood. Dealing with a newborn baby is taking its toll on my stress levels. I shall attempt to maintain a suitable level of politeness in my posts, but my apologies if some unintentional vitrol escapes. I have nothing against you, Beckett, and I don't want my posts to come across like I do. Just trying to participate in the discussion.

That or allow/throw in some of the Magic Item Compendium goodies that can give you the ability to sneak attack undead. I beleive there are some gloves with times/day usage, and a truedeath weapon crystal. Theres a thread currently running about the crystals, and the pros and cons.

To be fair, if a campaign called the Mechanus Wars featured a lot of constructs, would you be inclined to play a wizard or sorceror, especially if there was no access to Spell Compendium or Eberron setting material? Especially when most of the enemies after level 10 are golems with magic immunity? Barring the Spell Compendium, thats a lot of Melfs Acid Arrow being tossed about at level 10+.

On a similar note, what about a player who wanted to play a lightning/electricity based sorceror in Savage Tide. Demons are immune to electricity, which makes many of the most important encounters problematic for a valid PC concept. Allowing the PC access to spells like Sound Lance (as a sort of "thunder" effect) or magnetic spells (the few that there are) gives them options they would not normally have.

This is just me, I prefer to encourage players to play classes, rather than discourage them. Age of Worms is discouraging to anyone with Sneak Attack, Mind Effects/Illusions, Stunning, or Ability Damage effects, due to the high prevalence of undead. It is, vice versa, rewarding to heavy hitters, positive energy manipulators, and evokers/transmuters.

I don't think PCs need to be supermen (until after level 15, in which case they already are regardless, relative to the normal people), but they should be able to operate effectively in the Adventure Path assuming they gear themselves accordingly. If the barbarian can put Undead Bane on his +2 greatsword, I don't see why the rogue can't put a Lesser Truedeath Crystal on his +1 keen rapier.

Spell Compendium has a few "buggy" spells in it, but you probably already know about them. Make Spell Compendium spells the "reward" for good players. Clerics who actually roleplay their faith may receive "special blessings" that allow them to prep SC spells. Wizards might find scrolls to learn, or if they make nice with other wizards, to trade.

PHB 2 doesn't really have any issues.

As for the Complete's, aside from things like hexblade, samurai, and swashbuckler being weak base classes, the only things you need to watch out for are Radiant Servant of Pelor and the Entropomancer prestige classes.

RSoP because its an undead heavy game, and the cleric who goes into it becomes a living weapon against them, and a high powered one. Its like showing up to a barbecue with a flamethrower: a little bit awesome, a little bit overkill.

Entropomancer is the big investment, big payoff class, as at the very end of the campaign, the PCs will get access to a Sphere of Anhillation, and the extra benifits of being an Entropomancer (especially immunity to Spheres!) makes that character suddenly a walking NUKE. Not kidding. Especially if they do a small dip into some arcane casting to use the Talisman of the Sphere that is found fairly early on (the discovery of which might spark interest in the class, actually).

Beyond that, not too much problems to be had with your material. Assuming a party of four, and a 30-32 point buy, you should have PCs who will have some closs shaves but (assuming decent teamwork and cooperation) will ultimately make their way to the end of the campaign, and to victory.

The Black Bard wrote:

Actually, in the cited example, your PC is

Short Version:
Knowledge Geography: Knows where stuff is.
Profession Navigator: Knows how to get there, GIVEN A MAP.

Emphasis added. Interesting, of course, and I got this mechanic for resolving navigation of ships from the STAP. SO, having profession navigator would imply knowledge of navigation by sun, dead reckoning, stars, etc. But there is some overlap with Survival then, which is what you use to avoid getting lost. You'd allow both checks, profession navigator AND survival?

Assuming the Navigation check was failed so badly as to put them on a potential miscourse, and thus invoke the "prevent getting lost" aspect of survival, yes, I would allow it. That specific survival check use has a very undefined occurance rate, specifically, "when the situation calls for it". Charting a course to a location so badly that you have failed by more than five definitely means you have a chance to get lost, as opposed to just arrive several miles off from your location but realize your mistake and correct it. You could easily put yourself deeper out to sea, or arrive on an entirely wrong landmass. You could easily "become lost" so the survival check I would allow after perhaps a small portion of the journey (10% or so) to realize that something is wrong.

Actually, in the cited example, your PC is actually quite right. Knowledge Geography is just that, knowledge of geography. If you threw a map of the world down in front of a max rank Geography expert, you could name almost any tiny little town and he could point it out in moments, often without looking at the map.

Take him outside and tell him to take you across the ocean to the coastal city of Blahblah, and he will give you a look and say "Do I look like a navigator?"

Meanwhile, the navigator can plot a course around currents, dead calms, hidden reefs, and otherwise pick out the fastest, safest course to get you there. If you ask him "Can you take me to Blahblah on the other side of the ocean?" he may reply "I don't know where this Blahblah is, but you give me a decent map, and I can get you there."

Most people who ply the trade of navigation would have enough ranks of geography to get a nice synergy bonus, and so they don't have to ask their clients where the destination is. But the two skills are actually separate enough that the distinction between them is warranted. Synergy bonuses would come from a cohesive knowledge of the geography of an area allowing for better planning of a course. "Between here and Blahblah is the Whatchamicallit, which could slow us down a lot, better to head east and avoid it entirely."

Consider this: When someone gives you their address, can you drive straight to their house from where you are, regardless of where that is? Then you are a good navigator. Me, I need to look up a Yahoo Map line from my location to the address to get anywhere.

Short Version:
Knowledge Geography: Knows where stuff is.
Profession Navigator: Knows how to get there.

First thing you have to decide is relevant to your World Versimilitude: Can dragons "age" faster than "normal"? Specifically, can a dragon gain its racial HD at a faster rate than what is indicated by the Age Category and Years chart? You have to decide if yes or no. If you need a justification for "yes", you might say "adventuring" dragons are sleeping less, being far more active, and putting their minds in real situations and scenarios rather than just mentally fabricating them while they lounge about the lair. Due to this higher rate of activity, and thus, food intake, they grow faster. Maybe there is a cultural/religious reason why most dragons "take it slow". Maybe not.

Now then, if you decided they can gain racial HD faster than normal, here is your options: Less work or more work.

Personally, I would use the Savage Species style breakdowns for dragons that were given in a pair of Dragon Magazines (cant recall which off the top of my head by number, but the metallics are in the one with a dhite dragon on a black background on the cover, the chromatics in one with a dragonslayer about to huck a spear at a red dragon).

Otherwise, you will need to make the breakdowns yourself. Consider the rate at which the dragon gains natural armor, breath weapon improvements, and ability score improvements at each age category (and spells, DR, SR, and fear aura, down the line). Spread them out decently well over a few levels, and make a note of when the actual Level Adjustment goes up, if it does.

Now, if you decided your dragons don't gain racial HD any faster, or you don't have those Dragon Magazines and don't want to do all that work, you could just have a dragon advance in PC levels. Depending on what books you have access to, this can give the dragon a wide variety of choices. WARNING: very easy for a PC classed dragon cohort to outshine his "boss" and by proxy, other party members.

You may also want to consider, if you run cohorts in things like adventure paths and such, where the gear is pregenerated for a certain party size, that you can often forego the level adjustment and have the dragon cohort go "au naturale". The extra 3-4 hit dice offset the lack of gear, and it makes for much less bookkeeping and scene stealing, especially at higher levels. I would mention that this is something I wouldn't do with a dragon with PC levels, as the varying levels of Multiple Ability Dependancy could make some versions overpowered, or others quite weak. Gearless cohorts work best with creatures who can stay in a competitive racial HD advancement, like dragons, outsiders, etc.

I'm planning on blatantly yoinking this for my Age of Worms game, as I recall some points, especially towards endgame, where magic items worth tens of thousands become dust gathering paper-weights because the world has to be saved tomorrow, not after a week of selling magic items and then comissioning/hunting down new ones.

I'm going to try this as my personal modifier on it, critiques/comments are welcome:

Anvil is dwarven in origin, rather than infernal. Or maybe infernal dwarves! Oooooh! Definitely of artifact status, see later on for artifact hijinks.

Two checks must be made, one to "load" power from a destroyed item, another to "install" previously loaded power. Check DC is 10+Caster Level of item. First Check is a Craft Check related to the item being destroyed (usually weaponsmithing, armorsmithing, etc, but more on that later). Failure of check means item is destroyed and the energy is wasted. Failure by 5 causes a discharge of 1d6 raw magic damage per caster level of item, no save, radius 5' per caster level of item.

Second check is a Spellcraft check to put the powers into the new item, same DC. Same consequences for failure or catastrophic failure.

Items besides weapons and armor can be transfered with the anvil, but doing so is much more risky, both in the short and long term (see below).

Every time the anvil is used, a percentile roll is made (each check counts as a use, so two rolls per item). The base percentile chance is the caster level of the item being used. Assuming the dwarven origin idea, +10 if the check maker is chaotic or an elf (these would stack). For the hellish version, perhaps good or celestial.
-5 if the user is a dwarf or lawful. -5 if the user posesses the appropriate item creation feat, -2 if he posesses an unrelated item creation feat, these would stack as well. -2 for having 5 ranks in the appropriate craft skill, additional -2 for having 15 ranks. Same with spellcraft. +10 if you are attempting a power swap to or from a non-arms and armor source (this stacks, so +20 for trying to forge +2 gloves of dex into +2 boots of dex).

So, assuming a caster level 15 item, and a human wizard 15 with maxed spellcraft but only 4 ranks of blacksmithing, and Craft Wondrous item, the percentile chance is (15-4(spellcraft)-2(unrelated craft)) = 9.

Rolling below the number causes a mishap, which could be anything really, but I'm planning to draw from the 2nd edition Wild Magic tables, the Rod of Wonder tables, the Cursed Magic Item section (Mostly this, love cursed items), and the always unpleasant but often seen artifact shennanigan of "teleport away, ha ha ha".

Comments?

I am probably going to see a similar effect as my Age of Worms game trundles on. The drow psion/wizard is twiddling about with barely 20hp at level 6, while the Half-Orc Half-Troll Barbarian is stomping around with over 80. Meanwhile, the dragonborn paladin trying to be a tank has only 45, while the gnoll rogue has 40. Even the cloistered cleric human has 35.

The rogue has a decent attack bonus, but can't seem to roll well to save his life. The barbarian seems insane due to high strength and power attacking often, coupled with several streaks of excellent rolls. The paladin feels the hit to damage that his defensive specialization caused, but the auto-confirm of bless weapon has assisted in mitigating that.

Still, the paladin and barbarian took on a creature that was 4CRs higher than them, just the two of them (a distraction for the rest of the party to exploit). The barbarian went down fast, but the high AC of the paladin gave him time to get a lucky Paizo Crit Deck draw via Bless Weapon. The effect was a bleed that ultimately brought down the big bad. Ultimately, everyone at the table seems happy, but from previous experiences, I'm watching for the inevitable shift.

Regarding the OP: To me, its realistic. A warrior type who specializes in cutting up monsters will get very good at it, especially when he breaks the "realistic human" limit of level 10, and even more so when breaking the "superhuman" point of level 15 (rough approximations). So good in fact that compared even to his allies, he seems ridiculously overpowered in that arena.

The mage should be able to level battlefields. The fighter should be near impossible to kill, and what doesn't kill him should be enough to mutilate anyone else. The rogue should be nearly undetectable except to the keenest of senses, and the cleric has his god on call waiting. Its really just the same stuff as at level 1, just x20. If they don't work together, some of them will die. An enemy mage will shatter the fighter's mind unless the party mage interferes. An enemy fighter will carve up the mage unless the party fighter interferes. Etc etc. Problem cases occur when one character can reasonably do everything by himself, all day long. That is what causes the death of teamwork, and of fun, in my opinion.

I go now to sit in a lonely bar, drinking a beer in silent mourning for my old freind Teamwork. He was a good buddy in RPGs. He will be missed.

I'm planning on figuring out the "bouyancy" ratio's of the different HD relative to level adjustment, to see if there is a way to A: recalculate some of the level adjustment issues in the current LA rules, B: further fine tune my own personal LA rules, and C: see if its possible to take certain creatures with excessive racial HD and cut them down to single HD with an appropriately modified level adjustment.

Yep, fey and construct are on the bottom of the list, and outsider and dragon are at the top. The problem I have to deal with is that there is also the effect of the type as well as the type's HD. Fey get crap, but constructs have a slew of perks. Same with undead and elementals. But humanoids, animals, and monstrous humanoids are entirely dependant upon the specific creature for perks. Dragons get a few perks, and outsiders almost get a negative for the issues of raising them from the dead.

Ending stream of thought post now.

My english degree capstone was a fully detailed english course based entirely around a fusion of playing D&D and a daily writing journal. Whenever possible, make your schoolwork work for you!

To expand on the previous post, most racial HD have an implicit "Level Adjustment Buoyancy". Fey HD are pathetic; a fey with more than 3 racial hit die should have some nice abilities/ability scores and a low level adjustment. Conversely, dragon HD are incredible, and are almost equivalent to a PC level, and as such any "extra" abilities will cost you much level adjustment.

Magic beast is about baseline, not good, not bad. So getting to go up to large size is kind of like the wizard getting access to a new tier of spells after a few levels. Its paid for with the HD you already took.

Chaotic doesn't mean stupid.

Never said it did, but it can often mean lazy. Allways putting forth the maximum effort is a hallmark of order. Path of least resistance is a common branch of chaos.

I meant to give your taunts only a moments thought. Of course make them relative to the intelligence of the demon in particular, hezrou are smarter than dretch after all. But impusle control is hardly a trait demons can claim to have, so what comes out of their lips should be spur of the moment, implusive, and often has no thought behind it.

I play most of my "combat demons" (because the succubus/devil/4th edition thing is one of the few things I actually agree with regarding 4th fluff) as rabid beasts that can speak. Or John Romero zombies that can speak. Cunning, vicious, determined, implacable, amoral, and capable of actually conversing with you just enough to make you realize its going to enjoy doing to you what it just did to your freind.

Consider this: the average dragon, of any size or age, has a dexterity of 10, the human average. Which means they should basically be as capable of fine motor control as the average human.

Why? Because size has modifiers for dexterity, and dragons get impressive racial bonuses to dexterity as they grow larger. Because a collosal dragon, taking a huge size penalty to its dexterity, still has a dex of 10.

You could look at it as part of base attack. With a base attack of 30+, you are pretty accurate when you want to put your claws somewhere. If you could disarm an impertinent halfling of a dagger and leave him unharmed, im pretty sure you can flip a page in a book or pick up a coin.

If devils are "illegitimate sons", then demons are "richards". Go for cheap shots, a smidge of randomness, and anything that will piss them off. A demon is chaotic evil made flesh, and that includes rage. Its part of their thought process to be angry, and want everyone around them angry as well.

Break weapons, fight dishonorably, use teleport for the first 5 rounds of combat just to keep the party running about like fools (and they know it).

Arrange corpses in amusing manners, spit on enemies (I have them spend a move action horking it up, and then use a touch attack roll. No damage, but wow it makes the palladin mad when a couple of dretch hork slimy brown mucus into his visor).

Taunt, and don't be clever. Call them stupid, and when they call you stupid back, say they're even more stupid than you. Throw childish tantrums, knock over trees/walls/buildings. Throw stuff, the more disgusting/annoying the better. Feces, innards, beehives, if your throwing a rock or a weapon, your doing it wrong.

Steal their stuff and do terrible things to it, then give it back. Take their backpacks, remove contents, wait until just before dawn, summon dretches, have them get in the backpacks, return backpacks, watch and laugh. Leave half of what you stole up ahead of them; leave the other half behind them. Swap their drinking water for monkey blood. Chew on their weapons. Have dretches cast stinking cloud in their sleeping bags.

Unfortunately, the "cost" of playing a DK is levelling professions, no two ways around it. Mining can be "power leveled" by smelting bought ore, and is relatively easy to level on its own, thanks to the speed of the Deathcharger. Herbalism has no smelt equivalent, so it takes a bit longer. Skinning provides a nice crit bonus now, but is one of the worst to level, because it means going and killing very low level creatures for some time (hint, kill creatures with worthwhile drops or chances of drops, like Dragonhawks outside Silvermoon if you are Horde, they drop Small Eggs which can be sold for a lot during Holidays for cooking). If you have the cash, you could forgo a gathering skill entirely, but that can be annoying at best.

Enchanting is fairly easy to level, just spend about 5 gold on the AH, then solo a few instances DEing the drops (Deadmines, Wailing Caverns, etc). Should get you up to speed in no time.

Blacksmithing may be profitable now, as they patched up the 1-300 recipies for competitiveness. Engineering and Jewelcrafting are tedious, but have some great personal only recipies (The level 70 goggles stay competitive to almost level 78).

Assuming you complete the DK starting quests (which I beleive you have to, or you can't interact/go into citites) you will be 58. Just go to outlands from there.

Remember, while leveling cooking, the bear flank recipies from Fellwood will get you past the 275-300 hump. Many forget that.

I play D&D, WoW, and I played some D&D Online. All with mostly the same people. The memories that are recalled fondly the most come from the two D&D ones. (Playing a Warforged in DDO and running into your first rust monster is priceless). Not many "remember when" moments from WoW (except for maybe my rogue buddy making amazing use of his dash over water glyph in a Serpentshrine Cavern Lurker Below fight.)

I did get a burn out a few years back (coincidentally enough, one that ended a Savage Tide game midway through). But that was because we had a gaming buddy room with us for a summer. Some people you can hang out with, but you just can't live with them. He's faded from the group, most likely due to the distance I kept after that summer, which is entirely my fault. But I got burnt out on him, and found it hard to resume the game because of it (he was a great player, and it was hard to envision the game without him).

Grab some new people, or even just play at a new location. Switch things up a little, and it all comes back.

Hiding is part of a move action, not a move in and of itself. However, if your moving faster than half speed you take a penalty. So the way it happens is:

PCs go into a large room from the hallway adjacent to it. Combat begins with room occupants. Rogue shoots an opponent with lower initiative, gains sneak attack because opponent is flat footed. Enemies counter, rogue takes some damage and decides he doesn't like being in the thick of things. Rogue backs out of room through the door they came in and steps into the hallway, then steps to the side to break line of sight with the enemy (Move at half speed, gain total cover, hide check at no penalty as part of half-speed move). On his next turn, he pops out with a five foot step and takes a shot at an enemy in the room. If the enemy's spot check doesn't beat his hide check, the enemy get sneak attacked (assuming distance conditions and the like are favorable).

Shot on the Run is the primary feat for ranged sneak attackers, as it allows them to move from cover, shoot, and then move back into cover.

Is this as effecient as taking a full attack two weapon fighting in a flanking position? Damage wise, no. Your getting at best 1 attack, while the melee character can get up to 7 if hasted. However, you have cover after your shots, and don't have to worry about terrain or other enemies. I've seen many fireballs avoided by the cover of hiding behind a tree while setting up for a sneak attack.

Hrmm, as an X-Men fan who's read/collected a lot of material, I was actually quite pleased with this movie. It fits in seamlessly with the movie-canon that has already been established, which was my big worry.

Deadpool is my second favorite marvel character, after Venom, so I was a bit leery of what was going to happen. Then again, Deadpool is less of a super-powered vigilante who hides his identity behind a mask and a code name, but a mentally fractured nut-bar with a ridiculous healing capacity, encyclopediac knowledge of pornographic knock-knock jokes, and a face that makes others beg him to wear a mask. The Wade Wilson aspect was perfect, both in attitude and staying true to his origional powers, because lets not forget that technically, origional Deadpool is a human, with no powers, besides amazing reflexes. Stryker never said a team of mutants, just a team of special people, with special privledges.

As for gestalt-Deadpool at the end, as a writer, I am willing to trust in the writing. Stryker mentioned that he had to find a host body that wouldn't be torn apart by the combined powers; I can easily beleive that the Deadpool which now exists after the credits has rolled may have burned out his other powers.

In the end, I was looking for a smart-alec, disfigured, healing factor grafted from Wolverine Deadpool/Wade Wilson, and thats exactly what I got.

Regarding the Admantium Bullet, it makes sense that it takes the bullet to get through his skull. The little known aspect of admantium poisoning reducing his healing factor may also have something to do with it. Ultimately, it simply seems illogical that if a bullet stirring up his grey matter can actually destroy his memories (which does make sense, the initial structure of your brain may be genetically encoded, but not the pathways you forge in it over time) then how come it hasn't happened before during all those wars and other conflicts? A bit of foreshadowing could have been nice, a scene where the two brothers are shown re-teaching each other who they are. On a bizzare side note, comic version Deadpool is known to actually have a psychic component to his regeneration, which is why he can actually "grow" back his memories, and why an evil psychic is able to "copy" his regeneration. Considering Deadpool's healing factor is actually Wolverine's, that creates a small hiccup if we assume the respective movie healing factors work the same way.

My only question at this point is: Why does the Sabertooth from X-Men 1 look so different and not seem to respond to Wolverine as he should based on their history? I will assume that in the next couple years, Sabertooth devolves further into his mutation, becoming even more feral, which would explain both questions.

Overall, an excellent addition to both the Marvel Movie Universe, the X-Men line in particular, and a good start to a summer of fun.

Yes, just to clarify, you can run around a corner (or anything else that gives you cover, yay fighters with tower shields!) and make a hide check. Depending on the opposed spot vrs hide, you are now hidden. The enemy still knows where you are, teleportation or invisibility nonwithstanding. But unless they make the opposed check, they can not see you, which is the state you are trying to acheive. Its much like blindsense vrs invisibility: the monster knows where you are, but can't actually see you.

Knowing where you are/seeing you = two different things.

The Black Bard wrote:

In my games, if an incoming attack has the "potential" to penetrate the material of the armor by doing enough damage to get through hardness, I describe the hit as an actual armor puncturing/crushing/rending hit. Ogres frequently dent breastplates, and charging minotaurs leave a lot of holes in armor.

I like this I think this a very good way to help in the description of combat...now I gotta start listing hardness on my armor sheets. :)

Just go with 5 for non-metal armors and wooden shields, 10 for metal armors and shields. Its quick and dirty, but its easy to remember, close enough to the actual numbers 90% of the time, and doesn't mean looking up something else with each attack roll. Bonus points if you can determine how the hit landed based on the combination of the actual die roll and the end result after attack bonus, relative to the various AC components on the defending side.

www.therpgenius.net

Its quite small, the poster map is four 11x8 in size, and really just gives you details of the stable and main tower. Its a shame the map wasn't included in the magazine at smaller size, for those who loose it or buy secondhand or PDF.

I beleive that using temporary enhancements like Magic Weapon is actually prohibited in the Augment Crystal description, but I could be wrong. If I am wrong, I will have to make a note in my MIC, because to me that feels a bit in violation of the spirit of the "minimum enchantment level" idea.

In my games, if an incoming attack has the "potential" to penetrate the material of the armor by doing enough damage to get through hardness, I describe the hit as an actual armor puncturing/crushing/rending hit. Ogres frequently dent breastplates, and charging minotaurs leave a lot of holes in armor.

4th level for a +1 weapon strikes me as spot on. DR over magic starts showing up at CR 2 (Grick) and 3 (Gargoyle). If you were expected to have magic weapons at those CRs, it would make the DR mostly meaningless. As it stands, you have enough "adventuring time" in those CR ranges to realize how nasty Damage Reduction is, then you go and spend a lot of your money on a weapon to get by it.

Hmmm, new full trailer is up, and I am excited very much!

New Transformer Trailer

No more information spin or other attempts at keeping the lid on it. Megatron is back, Devastator is massive, and Jetfire is a cranky old codger. I can't wait.

Although if a six inch tall person flew up to my face and whipped a good roundhouse into my temple with a two inch long hammer, I might actually notice that.

Tiny creatures will exploit their size and manuverability in their fighting styles, just the same as giant creatures will exploit their mass and power. A pixie may fly at a speed of 30, same as a medium humanoid walk speed, but when they put that same speed of 30 into every hit they make, much like sparrows or other small birds, those impacts could add up, especially as the tiny weapons slip through gaps in the armor.

Although, to be fair, it certainly makes a solid case for the Armor as DR variant from Unearthed Arcana.