cmastah's page

This has probably already been mentioned (four pages of text and I'm at work, wish I could read it all but...alas :P), but you don't even own your PS3. If you read the terms and agreements section that you're forced to accept during every update, you'd see that you're RENTING the device, it ISN'T yours and they can feel free to lock you out of the PSN at any time (possibly even out of the device itself). Let me just add that while I'm pointing this out, I don't actually like it, it's just the way it is.

On a small point, Blizzard uses torrent technology to send updates and patches and apparently other companies use it to transfer info as well, it CAN be used illegally but it is also being used legally by major companies and such (I remember finding an article about several companies that use it to move info around really quickly).

Unless I'm mistaken, I've now addressed every request made prior to this post.

Ummm...heheh, you missed one :)

Hi, I think what you're doing is awesome and wanted to make a request, I'm not sure if you're interested in this little story behind the creature I'm asking for but here goes:

In my homebrew campaign, most (if not all) of the elves in the world (secretly a massive demiplane, but the characters have no idea) have lost contact with their gods and lost their powers. Being that they were attached to nature, Lamashtu actually approached them and they began following her. Elves today are now all twisted abominations due to this choice made many generations ago. Elves leave the boundaries of their settlements in the FORMS of ordinary elves, but their true form is that of a large abomination, a mixture of elf with other aberrant features such as perhaps tentacles for legs, or sprouting spider legs in areas which make their legs and one arm useless, one half of their face is a massive vertical jaw, they can extend their arms to give them reach and/or even spit acid.

One possibility I saw to make these elves was to use three levels of aberrant bloodline sorceror for: firing acid from the tips of long tongues and to receive the ability to extend their arms, in addition to being able to cast disguise self when leaving their settlements and casting enlarge person on themselves on the first round of combat, when they reveal their true forms. They'd have a high enough charisma to cast 1st level spells, but their true stat point allocation was on strength and constitution, which is why I then gave them one level of barbarian (it fit so much into the idea that when they enter into a fight they go into a blood-frenzy), but because I also wanted them to focus on attacking with their bodies rather manufactured weapons, I gave them monk for improved unarmed strike. I also wish to give them the same tentacles that the squid-goblin (forgot its name) had in one of the bestiaries, or to switch them out for different elves with spider legs, in addition to possibly a bite attack.

The idea is that it could have perhaps a list of possible aberrations that it would select 2-3 from, its original size and true form is large, but has a medium elven form it uses when it leaves its settlement. The problem I had with my build was I now had a level 5 monstrosity (they're about 500xp from level 3) that I couldn't use unless it was a solo encounter or had few allies. I need a creature that can enlarge, rage, spit acid and can extend its arm with an additional 2-3 aberrant features without being higher than a CR2 or CR3.

Sorry if it's a bit long ^^'

Can't access KS from my work PC, are the minis painted or unpainted?

17. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Will Stanton is seen playing D&D. The obvious implication is that D&D exercised his imagination enough to enable him to envision himself as a wizard in his dreams, thus providing a possible means of combating Freddy. However, he lost the battle against Freddy, and died. So the portrayal there of D&D players wasn't PARTICULARLY positive, but it certainly wasn't negative.

If I'm correct, he envisioned himself as a necromancer, not a wizard. That probably comes with some negative connotations.

@OP, from the TBBT episode:
Amy: you're having fun, right?
Penny (portrayed as the only normal person in the room): No, not really.

These lines seem to paint the portrayal in a negative light. Now if they'd made it clear that Penny couldn't possibly enjoy D&D because the basic arithmetic would erode her mind, I'd be more understanding (let's be honest, she's no Marie Curie, Bernadette, Amy or Leonard's mother....she's hardly Cinnamon, Raj's dog).

I like the show but I know better than to hope for any sort of accurate portrayal of geeks or nerds. Felicia Day's 'the guild' was even more insulting though, but hey, it was probably an intentional parody.

If you're looking for portrayals of D&D, you could always try gamers and gamers 2: Dorkness rising (they're in the process of making the third after a successful kickstarter). These two movies easily surpass the three official D&D movies.

EDIT: Just noticed gamers and gamers 2 was mentioned already. While they're not TV shows, the OP did mention mazes and monsters which also was not a TV show.

Plate mail! :D

Thanks, the summoner was at level 3 and was using summon monster 2 to summon 1d4+1 (he at first was going to simplify it into 1d4 instead of 1d3+1 and forgot that it was at first a 1d3) riding dogs and they were absorbing quite a bit of damage while dishing out quite a bit.

Hi, the book claims riding dog, the prd (which admittedly does contain any updates and errata) claims dog, are you free to pick or is it specifically dog?

obscure follicle xenomorph: 7,190 results

Channeling to harm undead is a joke beyond, like, 3rd level.

Is it really? That's something I've been a little concerned about. I want to throw groups of skeletons/zombies at the party, but when the cleric hits third level, he'll be able to wipe groups of them off the map at a time (and he gets several casts of the stuff).

C) It can already bite any enemny within reach while Grappling. The Grapple rules say this under "If you are Grappled": " Instead of attempting to break or reverse the grapple, you can take any action that doesn’t require two hands to perform, such as cast a spell or make an attack or full attack with a light or one-handed weapon against any creature within your reach". So, you, me, the snake, the kraken, whoever, can try to make attacks against foes they can reach. This is, of course, a problem if they're using their standard action to maintain the Grapple - it really only matters when something else is Grappling you.

Wait, if the creature chooses to continue 'grabbing' (at a -20 penalty), it can do a full attack? Is it minus the attack it used to grapple?

On the other hand, an enemy force made up of equal parts Dhampir, cultists and undead can probably annoy a cleric to no end :P

Ah, thanks, I assumed it was like in some video games.

Thanks, I was curious because I was wondering if a high AC/HP enemy could just opt to take the AoO and just run through the opponent's square.

An old thread had me curious on this point, when a cleric channels positive energy, does he:

a) Heal the living within 30ft AND harm undead within that area

or

b) CHOOSE to either heal the living and ignore the undead within 30ft or harm the undead and ignore the living? As in only one of two effects occur?

As an old grognard I find it amusing that people find this harsh. In 2nd edition negative levels were just that, you lowered your character's level by one and recalculated your stat block accordingly. No save, no nothing.

Modern players don't know how lucky they have it.

You call it luck, I call it missing out :/

Registering at ENWorld is free, so I don't see why you need to put that off. o.O

I'm not a fan of registering at forums, I've registered at a ton of them before just so I could get access to sometimes just a single file. I managed to find it on another site pretty easily, it doesn't seem that the guys who converted it (for some reason they renamed it 'thulid' (no, I don't think it's for legal purposes since they kept the same names for most, if not all, of the other conversions they did)) did a good job. He still has 8HD at CR7 and his AC and DCs haven't even increased, not that good to be honest. There was another conversion I saw, but it's to the effect of the forbidden lore book.

If I'm correct, the guys behind these DVDs (dead gentlemen, ZOE) have stated previously that their DVDs will always be region zero (as in plays on all players, treated as region free). I'd make one final check to be sure if I were you, but I'm pretty sure that this is the case.

Can you run through occupied squares? I know you'd provoke an AoO, but can you? What action/attack action would be available for the defender (the guy in the occupied square) to halt your movement other than trip?

Martials don't need to be faced with something designed to invalidate to give casters a chance to look good.

Wasn't it this precise reason why the rust monster was born? :P

@Da'ath, thanks, I actually thought you were supposed to calculate BAB x 0.75 for every level :P

@Thanael, I tried googling it previously and didn't get anything satisfactory, checked again and I actually got some interesting stuff, mainly looking at: This and I want to get this but it requires me to register to download it so I'm going to put that off for a while. I actually also found another conversion, but it seems kind of weak, it was from a podcast or something. I may just use that first link I posted.

@Shadowborn, heheh, didn't know it was HD that was multiplied by the 0.75 :P

@Johnico, thanks, the table is really helpful and I think the illithid looks like a CR4-5 creature.

@Da'ath, I might try to update the creature, but the problem is that I don't get some of the ideas presented, like 3/4 BAB and stuff (I mean, how do you do 3/4 of +0 or +1?).

Shadows are CR 3, so it would be 12 shadows, and if they get the jump on you then you would might still have been dead.

But it probably would've been more awesome ;)

If I was going to use the mind flayer, keeping the stats as is (but calculating new figures like DCs, CMB and CMD), what would his new CR be? I'm assuming it would be lower, but I could be wrong.

Dotting for interest

Aaaaaand, it's NSFW.

I don't know anything about VoM but my suggestion is to run :P

That or pack holy water, plus, don't forget mage armor stacks against touch attacks from incorporeals (can mage armor be cast on others or is it just on the caster himself?).

I say no, if the character has built himself so well towards a certain aspect, then up your game. I say utilize tricks to use their strengths against them, for instance an invisible illusion (if that's possible) to trick the guy with a high perception. For disable device, perhaps a fake lock that automatically purges the contents of treasure chests or immediately hides the contents unless a real lock is opened first, or perhaps a safe word is used. Consider for tracking (survival), creatures levitate or move via trees, perhaps polymorph or transform other creatures into their own type and send them running while they utilize a different method of travel.

Personally? I say use their strengths against them but don't take it away.

Thanks, the buried part looks to be real nasty though, perhaps more so if used against a solo boss.

Hi, I noticed this spell and followed it to the section on cave-ins. Can this spell really do 8d6 damage or is there something I'm missing? Also, since there's no bury zone, does this mean that the foe would be hit by some falling rubble but not be hindered in any way afterwards?

Don't forget to bring an audience (fire immunity not included).

Planescape is designed to allow you the "grand tour" of the planes when you feel ready for it, allowing you time when you finally get back to Sigil. I know that's kind of spoilery, but it's something I wish I had known when playing.

So do I, that's actually something I wish I'd known earlier as well.

Thanks guys for your tips and info, I will certainly finish planescape torment and I feel that at the end of the day, I CAN'T hate it. So many sections of the game that are worlds unto themselves, the sensate brothel of intellect was fascinating, seeing so many races integrated seamlessly into the game, as well as reading the orbs of the sensates and the strange iron fortress with the (VERY true neutral?) aligned golem inside and hearing what he had to say, the morgue, it's definitely impossible for me to say I hate the game. The memories that TNO received really pull you into a deep story as well.

I was certainly glad to see though that people made (mods?) that fixed up the game and made the screen better fit todays monitors and TVs as well as fixing up glitches and such. I do wish a fix was available for the size of the font, reading up on it though, it doesn't seem possible.

One sad shame is that games of this calibre (fallout 1&2, planescape torment, baldurs gate series, icewind dale) are never gonna be made again, it just seems like companies are trying to churn games out with gimmicks being the main attraction rather than content. Plot design is pretty basic as well.

I've finished up fallout 1 & 2 ages ago and I remember that I absolutely HATED the interface for fallout 1. I remember playing games like dark stone and diablo 1 first and finding the interface for the first to be horrifically clunky (hard to spot things on the ground, no take all option....ESPECIALLY the no take all option). Why did I continue even though the system was so clunky AND it used some strange action point system? I'm a sap for awesome stories and I'd heard for a while that the first two fallout games offered that. I also remember I loved the innovation (that still no other game seems to offer) that allowed you to target specific body parts AND that each weapon could be set to either fire or be used in a different manner.

In fallout 2, I remember I loved the story but the side quests were ALSO fascinating. This was probably the first game I'd played outside of revenant (I think you could do this in revenant, not exactly sure though) where you could kill the NPCs (arcanum also brought that feature to the table). I remember doing funny things in this game such as joining a competition to eat strange fries and to see how many I could eat (only to find out what they were made from) and to also become a star in....um...a certain kind of movie. The story was grand and came to one of the most awesome and memorable boss fights ever. It wasn't just that the story was amazing, the SIDE QUESTS were amazing. The weapons were also pretty cool, though admittedly I tended more towards ordinary guns than the special laser ones. I remember having so much fun (I think you could do this in both games) blowing the doors off their hinges when enemies were hiding behind them. For an old game, there was so much interactivity with the world.

Fallout 1? Exciting....not as much as 2 but still grand. The story was amazing, the side quests were...not memorable but I think they were probably good...this is the one that parodied scientology (didn't know it was a parody and hadn't even heard of scientology at the time) right?

Seeing the HUD that came up during dialogue and seeing a special rendering of the creature/person up close was also great (probably more out of innovation than anything else, but I think it's still awesome and HAS aged well), as well as the awesome voice acting. The world also looked beautiful and haunting (fallout 3 doesn't quite have that haunting feel to it). The interface is the only thing holding fallout 1 back in my opinion, fallout 2 corrected much of that.

Planescape? Don't get me wrong, I liked the game (haven't finished it yet), the huge amount of info and story telling is what makes it so good. Why don't I like it as much? I went in expecting to travel the planes and instead I got a romp through primarily sigil (which while fun, is not the awesomeness it makes itself out to be). City of doors? Sure, when there's a small sidequest or story reason for there to be one, no chance of accidentally walking through a portal and finding yourself in a strange and mysterious location. No wait, that's not completely true, I found a modron cube that took me to a somewhat cool location, not another plane exactly, more like a demi-plane. Finding out about the modrons and mechanus was fun, but the demi-plane quickly got on my nerves when I kept getting lost with no in-game map or mapping tool to help (I ended up using excel), while this would usually present a fun maze or puzzle, every room was filled with the same combat scenarios over and over and over again.

The morgue was obviously a product of love (I'm not kidding, it may be a dark and horrifying place, but it was still a wonder to behold), every zombie had their own number and you could even come back to talk to them when you got the ability to speak with the dead. Some had pretty awesome things to say. I could write a whole list of things awesome about the morgue alone. Their obvious (and admirable) desire to put story-telling first allowed you to simply in the middle of dialogue to reach over and subtly snap the necks of people who suspected you without drawing attention to yourself rather than drop unnecessary combat on you.

Sigil stood out because I saw the fiendish walk among bariuars and other strange and exotic races like nothing was up. I saw demons and devils enjoy drinks in a tavern (though not together), was accosted by people who knew a bit of my past but I didn't know who they were, enjoyed chatting with morte and met the nutcase who kept telling me something about doors (I helped her out and got her crazy teeth). Spoke with the awesome githzerai and got (finally) a breakdown of illithid and gith history (through an object's trials that required me to learn from its lessons). I remember going through so many places that seamlessly and beautifully brought the many exotic races together like there was nothing out of the ordinary about doing so (when you meet the medusa, you'll know what I'm talking about). The orbs contained within the sensate's headquarters was a whole other world I felt I could slip into. The city of the dead/drowned temple/empire place thing? Oh don't get me started on just how great and awesome the whole thing was....although admittedly, while I played good mostly, I DID bring the whole place to the ground by starting a civil war there for...I can't remember the reason anymore.

I've reached as far as curst in planescape and I did love the part with the hag, especially with the huge build up over 'what can change the nature of a man', and when given multiple choice, I answered honestly rather than what I thought she wanted to hear and overall I was so pleased with the entire event and the aftermath I got to see through in-game cinematic. I've reached curst and....suddenly I've lost all excitement. Overall, the sidequests have proven exciting but the 'dungeon crawls' section of the game is just such a bore. So many areas that weren't 'decorated', level design is important to me, it brings LIFE into the area, the morgue was the most beautifully and lovingly painted in the entire game, but then you've got areas like the...not sure what it's called, perhaps the first dungeon experience you receive. It's a massive mausoleum, there's an evil wizard at the end (also an interesting villain when you talk to him more and read the stuff he leaves behind), the place was sparsely 'decorated', then there were the many cavern systems they'd done in the game, also the one that led to some prison (ALSO with interesting characters within!).

I wanted to explore every inch of the game because the characters and text was too good to pass up. So much dialogue and info to go through, but the dungeon environments were.....just so lacking.

The side quests offer excellent doses of fun or excitement, but the main quest can get stale after a while UNTIL you get to another 'point' within the storyline, where you learn something amazing and you want to continue.

Overall? While I still haven't finished planescape, it was fallout 1 & 2 that I just couldn't put down. Planescape is all kinds of awesome, ESPECIALLY since it's also fantasy and involves other planes, but I want to VISIT them, not just read about them in the dialogue and text in the game (and the part of hell that I got to see was little worse than a desert with monsters in it). The characters were the life of the game and it saddens me that they each have unique thoughts and things to open up to you with but that you can't have them ALL come with you (hence you end up not finding out everything they have to say). The dungeon crawling experience is annoying, and I don't want to speed run through the whole thing because they tend to have interesting characters or events (like the one with the underground prison).

Arcanum, the world, the whole industrial age plus magic was just so awesome. I remember it was great that you could also break into shops and homes to steal their goods or kill NPCs at night, away from sight and that you wouldn't get caught. The ability to break down doors and windows was also satisfying. The ability to craft so much great stuff from the myriad of 'crap' you found in the game was also pretty great, finding out later that you could LEARN schematics to make more stuff was even more exciting. The spells? For God's sake, you could RESURRECT certain people, STORY npcs no less! What killed this game for me? Not the bugs (that I rarely found), but the fact that the sidequests were more exciting than the main story....seriously, most of the main quest was a snoozefest. The side quests were really great and well thought out, the main story? They had a good idea but it got boring fast and couldn't compete with the side quests.

Sorry for the wall of text, but this is just my...well maybe more than just two cents.

I'm 26, got introduced to DnD in I believe 2003. I played RPG video games at the time (though nothing that used the DnD system) and had HEARD of DnD in passing. I'd read fantasy novels and such but sadly the greats like MOST of Tolkien (save for the hobbit), the guy who wrote about the albino anti-hero prince, HP Lovecraft, fafner and the gray mouser and several others all passed me by while I was reading Christopher Pike's horror novels and MTG fantasy books. There was a (collected) trilogy of books called 'the demon('s?) crown' that I absolutely adored and recently got my hands on again.

The guy who first talked to me about it offered me a position in their online gaming group (of which he was the DM).

What do I look for in my tabletop gaming? Rules that best simulate reality or even touch on classic fantasy. I've mentioned this before, but I remember reading an entry about the balor in either 1e/2e that stated that his flight was supernatural due to the wings not supporting his weight and that they didn't work in fields of anti-magic. I even remember reading that crafting magical items meant dealing with dwarves (or such) and could take years, now THIS makes me feel like an epic story is in the works. Reality/fantasy reality should be looked at and then the rules written to touch on them. Now? Your character is injured, the cleric casts cure light wounds or uses his wand of CLW and your boo-boo is all better. If I read about a character (from a novel) who barely escaped with his life after a harrowing battle and spent one night getting a ton of CLW cast on him and now he's all better, I'd stop reading. Immersion is a lot to me, but sadly I don't believe my gaming group is after the same thing.

I actually think top stats being limited by race, like halflings and gnomes can't go above a certain strength limit and such, is quite smart. Upon reflection, the minuses they get at character creation bring this into play because it's almost impossible to start with above 16 strength. Realistically, certain races just wouldn't be able to go above a certain threshold. Quite a few limiting factors show a lot of thought behind their placement.

I'd consider 1e/2e, but I'm not interested in reading through all those rules and neither would my gaming group.

An idea I'd been toying with:

Human (if you're allowed suli, TAKE SULI! Although that one feat at level 1 as a human would help at low levels)

1 level transmuter wizard (put that 1 point in strength, get these stats: 17 strength (add +2 to your strength modifier if you're human), 13 dex, 12 con, 11 int, 10 wis, 7 cha), take as your first starting spells enlarge person (a must) and either magic weapon or true strike
1 level barbarian for rage
All levels afterward, the two-hander specialized fighter, put all feats into sundering. Your AC will have to depend on getting yourself the thickest armor you can find. Also? Get EWP bastard sword and get a large one.

Basically, since you're limited on enlarge person casts per day, make scrolls of it every day.

The way I see this working (provided I haven't missed any overlaps in numbers):

20 strength (after adding human/suli racial AND adding the transmuter strength bonus)
+2 strength when enlarged
+4 strength when raging
=
+8 Strength modifier at level 2, +12 when two-handing your LARGE bastard sword (+16 when your fighter level reaches three due to the two-hander's ability to deal 2x strength modifier). Let's not forget power attack, in fact I think the two-hander specialized fighter ALSO gets an ability to allow him to deal +4 extra damage rather than +3 when power attacking, which'll scale really nicely.

Let's also not forget that your large bastard sword already deals 2d8 when you're NOT enlarged, once enlarged I think it's 3d8 AND you now have reach.

My primary focus for this build was to use him for sundering, but for pure damage I think he still shines.

EDIT: On the other hand, you could try gunslinger who's aiming to be a great sniper.

Not one, but TWO links!

This was the FIRST one I found, but the pdf is problematic, it EXPECTS to be printed. Even after rotating clockwise, half the pages are upside down

Apparently a MORE ACCURATE collection, the sample at the bottom shows the difference between the top link and the bottom one and oh GOD is there a difference! The PDF is also more user-friendly

Wow, I just googled planescape torment book and actually found a pdf compilation of all the text in the game!

.....I can't believe I never googled it.....*facepalm*

Here's the thing: I LOVE content, I love ALL the content. When playing something like morrowind or oblivion, I MUST explore it all (houses not included, but large complexes that might act like housing yes), if I see a dungeon then it's time to purge the evil! I also MUST do every quest. While exploring the entire world isn't what I'm after, I DO like to make sure I've visited all the interesting spots, fallout 3 is killing me with how much of that there is.

I also like info, if an NPC has something to say, I want to hear it. THIS, is causing me problems with planescape and other RPGs that just have so much awesome dialogue. I've saved and restarted MANY times, just to see what an NPC had to say to your one out of a multiple choice reply. I've saved and restarted to see what they'd say if I was nasty, if I was friendly, or if I just wanted to let it go. It's also....why I can't finish planescape and put it aside, even though I am seeing so much awesomeness right now. Seriously guys, if there's a way to read all the text outside the game as one file or something, please tell me. I read from someone's post here (a staff member who's involved in pathfinder online) that planescape has enough text to fill eight novels, PROBABLY an exaggeration, but oh dear God if it's not then I want to read it ALL (then again, even if it's not, I STILL want to read it all!). It's also why it's just too painful to consider playing icewind dale, baldur's gate and neverwinter nights. So many awesome games, but I just can't stop this desire to read it ALL!

This is why I've been playing either crappy games, linear games or games that don't offer you much in the way of dialogue. Mass effect can be annoying on this front, but it's less of a hassle than some of the RPGs I've listed above.

It's why Demons' souls and Dark souls was perfect for me: AWESOME gameplay (I'd like to reiterate, AWESOME gameplay), some of the most interesting level designs I've ever seen (though on this front I think I preferred demons' souls to dark souls) and all the monologues are hard to miss. For me, in demons' souls and dark souls, the only 'must' I feel towards it, is that I must defeat all the bosses, even the optional ones.

Seriously, anyone else got that annoying habit? A buddy of mine told me to try and first finish the game going whatever route I want (good guy, bad buy, this faction, that faction) and for a while I did, but old habits die hard.

EDIT: I mean my buddy told me to play the game, take whatever route I want and THEN, on a possible second playthrough, read/do it all.

I support the charisma=force of personality because I also consider undead in this matter. You've got horror movies where when you see the creature, WITHOUT the whole 'jumps out of a doorway screaming boo', you get this fear of the creature without him having done anything significant other than stand before you.

There are people who can TRY to sound intimidating, but even if they were waving a gun, you still wouldn't take them seriously. I remember seeing actors in movies who (yes, they're the bad guys) just look at you without anger and you'd still get a shiver.

Thanks for the tips, the players will indeed be encountering feral mindless creatures during both exploration and dungeon-crawling. I'll also make sure that intelligent foes try to drop the horse, either through attacks or through trip maneuvers (since a horse would indeed fetch a good price for bandits and since cavaliers are also quite dangerous on horseback).

@Serisan, I actually hadn't considered that mounted combat was a pre-requisite for other feats, thanks :)

I'm seeing a lot of great opinions here, I still haven't gotten the chance to speak with my group (session is once every three weeks) but I think I can see several places where I can adapt.

@AD, I'm not entirely sure players are supposed to get full access to items since (I'm not playing an AP, I'm just referencing) APs give out a lot of magical gear themselves. How do APs handle characters buying gear? I do intend however that basic items like cloaks of resistance and rings of protection can be bought pretty easily, I'm not entirely sure where I stand on availability of items like a +2 flaming sword.

I'm going to have to discuss with my players how magic items should be available since I really would rather they not try and build their characters around gear and instead find appropriate items in appropriate locations. To give an example of how I handled this in my last session:

1. The group was facing up against an undead creature (a zuvembie) and the head priest of the church in the small town (level 4 cleric) was heading to her on a warpath. He was caught in her corpse call ability and was caught in a fascination effect, he was carrying on him a wand of cure light wounds, three flasks of holy water, a scroll of detect undead, four divine scrolls of protection from evil (he hadn't hit himself with one yet) and accidentally picked up two scrolls of ARCANE protection from evil scrolls.

2. The party found themselves facing a demon and within the area were the bones of four adventurers who'd failed to kill it. They were armed with cold iron weapons and arrows.

I think I'll suggest to my players to try and meet (and stay on good terms with) crafting NPCs (although crafting might not be a viable option for long, given that more powerful gear starts to take ages to craft). As it stands, the campaign will span several planes, I think it may be interesting for them to hear of the item they want and then perhaps head to that plane to either conduct a challenge/fight/quest to be given the item. Going through the manual of the planes book, I've found several planes that all speak of having armories for magical weapons and such.

Now here's the thing:

The cavalier took a feat to allow him to immediately negate a single blow against his horse, but in the last fight where he (finally) had his horse, the creature targeted HIM but not his horse. He asked me twice during that fight if the creature targeted his horse and now I'm thinking the poor guy might be feeling like he wasted a feat.

In general I hadn't really planned on attacking the horse, unless they were beset by LOTS of foes who really wanted to cripple the party.

I'm not sure if I should recommend to him to change out the feat (since other than the fighter, all classes are feat starved....well maybe not starved, but who'd say no to another feat?) or perhaps have his horse get targeted by attacks.

231. (Actually happened) Party heads into a church to invite someone with curative spells to join them. They open with 'hey, there's someone who looks intelligent' and decide he's probably too expensive so they hire the other guy who looks pretty dumb (my character, who dumped intelligence).

Crime & Punishment by Keith Baker.

The rule material is 3.5, though.

Awesome link to awesome book is awesome. :)

While intended for the OP, thanks for the link, I'd never have found this book otherwise and it really is amazing.

Thanks :)

Here's the thing, I know that one method of deciding items that exist in cities and towns is to use the generation method presented in the core rulebook and the gamemastery guide, but supposing players want SPECIFIC weapons, should I make locales available where they can get their hands on them or should I tell my players not to go through the treasure section of the book?

How do you guys decide what's available for the players to get? I'm more curious to get your opinions and methods rather than ask for advice since admittedly this is more of a 'discuss it with your players' thing.

As well known as pearls of power are, neither myself nor my group know what they are for example and personally I feel that it adds a certain mystique and excitement when you discover something amazing that is still new for you. I'd like for them to get their hands on strange and wondrous items without it being 'oh, it's the item on page 56 of the ultimate equipment guide'.

I remember back in 3e/3.5, I never took feats like weapon specialization or weapon focus because I knew that there was no telling what weapons a person might find on the field (we never bought items ourselves because the DM rarely gave us gold and because we didn't know what magical items cost or what was available anyway).

I'd personally rather magical weapons were something that had a purpose/story behind them, for example: that powerful knife you wrenched out of the mindflayer lord's hands was his special Foe of the chosen, an ancient weapon belonging to an ancient enemy of the mindflayers which is incidentally a +1 aberration bane dagger. It isn't perfectly useful to the character, but it has roots in either the story or in the world itself.

I'm curious to hear how you guys go about this matter.

Thanks, I think I'll wait until whichever monthly shipment it heads out with.

Great heroes, great deeds, at level 1-2....use different enemies.

You are going too fast with "cool monsters"

IF thats the game they want, they need to be fighting goblins, giant toads, NPC classes like experts and warriors, with the occasional "mad adept" hurling a spell or two.
Not Zuvembies and Schrirs?

Tone down the exotic monsters until they are higher level and can handle the saves etc to make the negative effects less common.

I think youre just getting over zealous with exciting monsters you want to use.

If you need undead, a zombie, skeleton, or ghoul will do fine. Even a skeleton champion here and here.
Need more power?
Add a level or two of fighter, cleric or anti-paladin to them, as this stuff adds no monster powers they dont like.

By the time they get higher level, they will be able to to do more things, and counter more effects on their own and it will be less of a issue.

Thanks for the tip, I think it may indeed be best to use strange creatures less often. Whenever I needed undead I did mostly use zombies and skeletons with the rare ghoul dropping in, I primarily used the zuvembie as the 'true face' of the person they really hated and wanted to kill, the schir was probably an unnecessary extra.

Hi, I'm about to drop a hound of abaddon as a boss monster on my players but noticed he has an unholy blight causing ability. I wanted to ask, what's the caster level of the hound?

Hi, this item is immediately useful to me, is there any way to get this shipped sooner? If possible, could I also get tracking on it and if that requires paying extra for getting (for example) UPS to deliver it, could I pay through the website for that?

So, have any of them offered to DM?

Maybe a bit time behind the screen will give them better perspective.

The thing is that three (four if you count the player who's usually missing) of them DO DM, though from what I know about the DMing styles of these three, it comes down to:

1. Everything is event-based, things happen around them and they get chances to be recruited into what's currently happening OR in the very beginning, they get railroaded hard into it (someone pretty much gave us a choice of: either take a small boat (the kind that fits four people) to land (which is three months away) or enter some magical contract (DM hocus pocus spell that binds us to some contract with no duration on the spell)). DM intentionally wanted players to get involved in epic struggles and emerge epic heroes even at starting levels so they can FEEL like epic heroes. THIS is where playstyle preference differs, in my opinion, at starting levels, anything WE can do, others can do better (or they're more likely as candidates). This DM was the same guy who had a king who thought hiring absolute strangers who were level 2 to bring back the princess was a good idea....apparently the royal courts were so incompetent that they didn't realize the REAL princess was actually hidden under her own bed (the girl we found was apparently some villainess who wanted to get close to the king to kill him), this was in 4e, so any countermeasures were really in the DM's hand to decide whether they existed or not.

2. The entire world is in danger, get involved or you're as good as dead.

3. I don't know how the third guy DMs so I can't comment.