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Some bad news guys, I have 2 upcoming stretches where I won't be able to post.
Thursday August 9th-Monday August 13. I'll be out of the country for a wedding. I'm not sure what my phone access will be, so I can't guarantee I'll be able to post.
Wednesday August 15-Sunday August 19. I'll be at GENCON! You guys really ought to come with me one of these years (and I don't grant hall passes to Mike, Rich, and Tony who have previously.) It's a freaking awesome 4 days. Smart planning and the entire trip runs you less than $500. During that time I'll try to post, but I'll be pretty much playing D&D nonstop for 4 days straight. I will do my best to post a summary of events somehwere at the completion of each day. I don't expect it to be wild like the year Reagh got me drunk at a private party for R.A. Salvatore and I hit on his daughter something fierce, but I do expect it to be freaking awesome.
So really that's one stretch. :) The 9th to the 19th/20th of August.
Enjoy Gencon. Once the kids are a little older, I'm hoping to make it a yearly pilgrimage.
I am hoping against hope to make next year my Next Year; my main goal is to get Chip to attend. I think another attempt at a Very Large Group would be pretty damned sweeeeeeeet.
I think my next society character will be a dual-wielding pick fighter. Lots of chances for crits!!
...a dual-wielding pick fighter. Lots of chances for crits!!
less than you might think :(
oh, I hold no illusions, bro. My falchion-wielding barbarian just picked up Improved Crit: Falchion, and in his first session with the feat, total crits: ZERO. I mean, on a 15-20 threaten? NONE?!?!
Bunch of munchkins, the lot of you.
shucher noise, you
I call them like I see them. And you're the Mayor of Munchkin City.
ppffftt no way, Hose B. I ususally make mechanically effective characters, but Mayor?? Thanks for the back-handed compliment, but . . .
Unholy crap! This paladin is kicking our butts with his channeling evil energy.
Yeah, it's really brutal. Thankfully he put the holy symbol away. To metagame a little, he's probably out of uses. But He's Evil so it's hard to say. Is he an Anti-Paladin? Is he a Cleric now? Who knows.
But yes, that is brutal. Evil sucks.
Whips rock.
Whips rock.
Si, se bueno. Muchas gracias.
I need a couple of feats to bump it up some more. But if things line up, I'm going to try a disarm this combat.
Looks like Sandor got dis-armed this combat. Maybe dis-legged too.
no more like melting out of the unscathed armor some things good steel doesn't protect against
Looks like Sandor got dis-armed this combat. Maybe dis-legged too.
Yeah, Im only a hp or two from the same fate. I should probably drink a potion this round but I hate not attacking.
No one ever killed an anti-paladin by worrying about his own skin. The best defense is a vigorous offense - or as Patton said, "“Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.”
Keep going! He's almost down.
I've got one more potential healing spell and I can channel in a pinch but that will help him too unless I can get far enough away.
Or if someone can get me a flank...
That's all I ever hear Rogues say... GIMME A FLANK!! I need a FLANK!!
Flank (anatomy), part of the abdomen Flank steak, a cut of beef
Part of the external anatomy of a horse
Flank speed, a nautical term
Flank opening, a chess opening
A term in Australian rules football
Flanking, a sound path in architectural acoustics
Flanking region, a region of DNA in directionality
Adam- I'm really sorry. That was reactive. I logged on early and I was still shaking out the sleep while I was watching my kids and was still a little cranky. I just checked in now, hoping that no one had seen the post yet and then... Well yeah, you and Chris saw the post.
You were doing a thing, and I should have waited to see where that was going.
We should talk about taking prisoners, which is a huge peeve of mine in D&D. But I should have opened that dialogue before I just went and ganked the dude.
Sorry.
no worries - I was actually angling for more XP / loot by finding out who sent him, who he answered to etc. My thought was to splatter his brains if he started casting or once he gave up the goods.
No hard feelings me to you, but Odric is still a bit peeved. lol
Well with this loot I WTB Better Will Saves :D
and Odric and Gaius need to hug it out
Gaius charges for hugs.
Chris Sandor needs a D10+4 HP roll. Sandor just hit Lvl 2 I will be joining Grym in the land of Ranger hood. Now lets just hope that this is like the video games where when you level, your damage goes away and your at max HP :D
Interesting, the heavily armored dwarven ranger.
It turns out we are all on Super-mega-fast advancement. Now we're all level 7.
fighter/ranger? huh. What's your plans for this character (presumin gyou have plans, of course!)
Mike is the Mayor of Munchkin City, so any and all exploitation of rules needs to be approved by him. :)
You, sir, are clearly in violation of the Creating a Character that Is Not Optomized act. I mean, cleric/rogue?? That's clearly an artsy-fartsy role playing maneuver!! Waht is WITH you???
Actually I really don't have a plan for him. After the first encounter at all the worlds meats, I thought about taking Cleric to add some healing for the party, but Gaius handled that.
This is my first time playing pathfinder, and I really want to see what the Archtype-Armor Master is about, and seeing how much of a damage soaker aka tank I can be.
The only problem is that with the fighter class you end up with very few skills, hence the reason I dropped my first level feat for additional skill points, and invested traits to be an armorsmith.
If I did have a plan for him, it was to take 1 level of Ranger for the added skill points to be more effective outside of the "combat" arena. So is it a bit munchkinish? Yes it is, but only to the point of dipping into another "martial" class and adding a few out of combat abilities like track, and skills like perception, knowledges local, and dungeoneering so I don't have to sit there with my thumbs up my arse till a combat rolls around.
If I am offending anyone, please let me know.
I refuse to tell you that you're offending me. Jerk. :-)
I respect your desire ot have outside-of=combat stuff to do. I feel the pain; I've got a straight fighter (I'm not referring to sexual orientation, but he *is* a flaming hetero too) whose only real useful out-of-combat skill is intimidate.
but I embrace the specialization. Being weaker in some things, I think, allows yout ob e stronger in others. but, to each his own, really.
(and I started taking Use magic Device to fill the role of healer if it was necessary--but it looks like it might not. Heh.)
I dont get all the munchkin references.
Mike, I still think a wand of CMWs or something would be sweet.
I dont get all the munchkin references.
Go to the Munchkin website
Munchkin is the manifestation of extreme min/max-ing of RPG guys. Finding 50 arcane and forgotten rules to allow your level 2 guy to visit mass annihilation of everything he comes into contact with via some weird class/feat/magic item combination.
There is no place for plot or role-playing in a Munckin's D&D game.
I'm pretty sure you played this game before, didn't you?
Phil, I shoudl show you my build for Tor some time. While I would not brand it "munchkin" myself, everyone else sitting on the player side of the table has (and I have not specifically heard Chris do so, so I left him out, and I'm not asking him right now becaus I'm not sure I want to know!)
regardless, he is one badass fighter. In a nutshell, I used the Dervish prestige class (main power allows you to move and use a full attack) with a reach weapon, and the Improved Trip feat. I also used a modified feat which allowed me to build my weapon the way I wanted to (to be fair, Tony had the exact same rules/feat!!!) so it was . . . a varrrry nice weapon.
Tor wasn't munchkin (as much as that pains me to say!). You roleplayed the hell out of tor and had reasons for everything. You earned it.
But you did find very exploitable mechanics. Indeed, Mike, you have a gift for it. We checked your math on more than one occasion and we never found you wrong.
That being said... Dervish PrC with a Guisarme? I think Chris threw you a bone with that one. :)
I loathed that Ancestral Relic feat. But I'm glad I got the chance to try it.
I dont get all the munchkin references.
Mike, I still think a wand of CMWs or something would be sweet.
I wouldn't kick it out of bed, but no Divine spell should be available in a wand. That's just my style and opinion, though. And purchasing should be right out.
I refuse to tell you that you're offending me. Jerk. :-)
I respect your desire ot have outside-of=combat stuff to do. I feel the pain; I've got a straight fighter (I'm not referring to sexual orientation, but he *is* a flaming hetero too) whose only real useful out-of-combat skill is intimidate.
but I embrace the specialization. Being weaker in some things, I think, allows yout ob e stronger in others. but, to each his own, really.
(and I started taking Use magic Device to fill the role of healer if it was necessary--but it looks like it might not. Heh.)
The skills are really the weakest part of the 3.5 OGL and games based on it. The pressure to feel, "useful out of combat", based on a die roll is nothing short of a sin in RPG design. I've often wondered if a campaign/game can be structured to elleviate or elminate that, but I think it runs counter to the system and that's always a huge hurdle for a DM to overcome.
On skills: I agree with you, T, at least to a certain extent. I think *social* skills, particularly Bluff and Diplomacy, are a little wonky. The more mechanical stuff (stealth, sleight of hand, climb, perception) I'm pretty OK with. Depending on a die roll to talk your way out of a situation . . . yeah, I don't like that. On the other hand, if my character is better at that kind of stuff than I am, how else do you handle it?
On divine spells in wands: I understand your point. But on the other hand, your style/opinion practically mandates a divine caster in the group. Taht's not necessarily a bad thing, but SOMEone's got to do it.
On Tor: I thank ye, sir, for the compliments. :-) I *am* proud of the thought and work that went into that character! Suffering through levels 1-8 was well worth how much of a death-dealer he grew into!
I do take issue, though, with discounting the guisarme as a viable Dervish weapon. True, the class was designed for a dual-wield scimitar. But I'd found an awesome pole-arm kata on youtube that looked pretty much exactly like I envisioned Tor doing his thing. As long as it's a slashing weapon, I could see *almost* any weapon as viable for the class ability of the Dervish Dance.
Ahh, the min/maxing is munchkinish. Till I found out this was to be an urban campaign I had plans for a horsemounted warrior that would be ridiculously badazz in battle as long he was on horseback. And kinda suck while on foot.
On skills: I agree with you, T, at least to a certain extent. I think *social* skills, particularly Bluff and Diplomacy, are a little wonky. The more mechanical stuff (stealth, sleight of hand, climb, perception) I'm pretty OK with. Depending on a die roll to talk your way out of a situation . . . yeah, I don't like that. On the other hand, if my character is better at that kind of stuff than I am, how else do you handle it?
I'm a big fan of keeping things very simple, and I know that's not how everyone likes it. But I think most of the skills can be thrown out and replaced with Ability Checks+Level or Ability Checks+1/2 Level. Everyone writes a character background (like we always do anyway) and you can attempt anything your character can reasonably do. A random roll on a table for a character background at creation if you dont' feel like coming up with one yourself. Under this setup, only Rogues, Bards and Rangers would have Skills (capital S as we know them now), and their classes would give them the abilitiy of making checks to do things that another class could not. For example, anyone can diable a door, but only a rogue could pick a lock. If a rogue wanted to customize abilities, he either distributes points, percentages or gets extra feats specifically to improve rogue skills.
On divine spells in wands: I understand your point. But on the other hand, your style/opinion practically mandates a divine caster in the group. Taht's not necessarily a bad thing, but SOMEone's got to do it.
Wands are arcane. A Rod or a Staff or enchanted Holy Symbol might distribute healing magic in the hands of a cleric. Or a book. A symbol of Divine Authority, basically. These items should never, ever, be for sale--the price of a healing artifact would be off the charts. There's no money too high to get an implement that heals wounds. Think about it in real terms. Wand throws magic missiles? That's a weapon. Amazing, but you can assign it a value. A Rod can heal the sick and dying? Bring them back from the brink of death? Creation is always harder than destruction. A fantasy world that I run as Dungeon Master will reflect that in the future. As to requiring a cleric... Meh. Bring one with you to make things easier or live by your wits. Gygax was famous for running single wizard charcters through Castle Greyhawk. Live (or die) by your wits. I think that makes for a more exciting and more interesting game.
I do take issue, though, with discounting the guisarme as a viable Dervish weapon.
Dervish is Arabian/Persian. I think the Guisarme, which is a slashing weapon only by the strictest sense of the word, doesn't fit the implied cultural template. Tor also wasn't wise or religious really. I know it's a fantasy world version, and the the real world only has the slightest of parallels, but to my thinking there was a specific hook to that template. You shouldn't take issue. It's just my opinion. :)
I dont know. Obviously in reality a magic healing wand would be priceless beyond compare. Think about a cleric or paladin being able to cure cancer or other diseases.
I think we have all played games where we have hauled our injured, dying, or even DEAD comrade back from the dungeon and to a local temple of healing clerics. For a hefty donation our buddy was cured. Its not that far fetched to buy a device that doles out some healing.
I don't have a problem with social skills. Skills in any game provide a way to portray the abilities of a character outside of the players' ability to do so. As much as a fighting skill or attack bonus allows us to be combat masters, social skills provide an outlet for players who want to play the savvy face-man but have little real life ability in that regard.
What I don't care for is the expectation from some players that great roleplaying should compensate for a poor skill, as they relate to the resolution of social skills. If you don't put any skill points into social skills, that represents something specific about your character. Just because you as a player and person are very outgoing and can act up a scene like nobodies business, that doesn't excuse you to ditch those social skills and put all your points into combat skills or whatnot, knowing that your inherent personal abilities can compensate. If your character has no Bluff skill, your character sucks at bluffing. Just because you just acting out the equivalent of Citizen Cane in your attempt to bluff your way past that guard shouldn't change the fact that your character is actually shitty at that attempt. I would argue that that was actually poor roleplaying.
I agree completely, Rich. The social skills also allow a player who isnt' good at that sort of interaction to create and play a character who is. They can live the fantasy for awhile.
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I agree with Rich.
Recently in a PFS game, I tried (and failed) to explain to Jim that, yes, a 10 HD Dire rhino is scary, but he's not as intimidating as the gnome with a +15 Intimidate check.
When I think of Tony's "Healing magic is x,y,z" it makes me want to play some Conan. Where wizard is an NPC class and immutable to PCs. I can have fun with it all.
Monte Cook's new RPG looks like it's pretty cool. Wands of Cure Light Wounds are some kind of super futuristic technology that no one who survived Armageddon remembers how to make....
I agree with Rich.
Thirded. Motion carried.
Recently in a PFS game, I tried (and failed) to explain to Jim that, yes, a 10 HD Dire rhino is scary, but he's not as intimidating as the gnome with a +15 Intimidate check.
I think it boils down to the difference between "scared" and "intimidated." Intimidating someone is to make them change their behavior based upon your presence (implication on "frightening," but it doesn't have to be), no? If you believe the gnome is capable of the threats he is carrying out, you'll be intimidated. The rhino you know will run you over, but he's not trying to *do* anyhting with that power.
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On a similar note, Sean Reynolds just favorited a post of mine on treasure in tabletop games.
Essentially, my issue is more in the realm of picking the perfect treasure for a character. This has led to the populous treating treasure like the Diablo III auction house. I miss the days where you had hard choices to make on treasure. Is the Longsword +1, Flametongue more useful than the bastard sword +2, +4 versus undead? That's a tough call. You dare not sell it.... what if you choose poorly?
The first person to refer to anything like Sigma DPR (average damage per round) is getting the boot.