Selena came up, pretty much, with what I did and that's what I'm trying in the next combat. Note what I identify below is my next concept to TRY, I'll confirm or deny this as the way I'll run battle once I get to try it out.
I'll ask for a max number of rolls that your character might need to make for a round: Initative (first round only) and then generally 2 rolls (one standard hit roll one for attack of opportunity). As you guys go up in level and get more attacks we'll need more rolls. I will use the rolls in order per round but any unused rolls will be thrown out at the end of the round. Please include attack and damage rolls. Along with your rolls feel free to include your "flourish" and tactics.
I may also sometimes post the "to hit" roll (i.e. the number you need to hit the opponents). This way if you roll and see a hit and want to illuminate your own turn (you see a natural 20 on your roll and you think you're in a position to slice the guy down the middle or ignite a fireball down his throat), feel free to write your own part of the combat if you'd like, or I'll do it for you as the round proceeds.
Finally, I like the idea of "standard actions". If you are not a "tactician" and/or would like to allow combat to flow past you, you can denote whatever standard action you'd like to take at the beginning of the combat and I will do anything you'd like to, up to and including roll for you if you'd like, but you'll have to let me know the round before if you want control back again or want to do something other than your standard actions. In this way (muiltiple rolls per round and use of "standard actions") we can likely keep combat flowing while still allowing everyone to take part that wants to.
Please note, once a combat has been started I'd like to ask everyone to "keep up" with the group on it. I don't so much care about lagging actions on the story part, but a single player lagging on a combat can bring the action to it's knees. I think, once a combat starts, I will expect responses within 24 hours from everyone. Any response that doesn't come in within 24 hours of the open of combat will be "standard actioned" till a response does come in. As you guys play your characters more I will be able to be more accurate with general actions during combat for your character when you are away. In any regard I'd like at least a "I do my usual" response to a start of combat so I know you're still breathing out there. :)
More info as I get into a second combat shortly and try out this new system idea.
I should also note my rules on critical strikes and critical failures:
Critical Strikes
----------------------
* On a Natural 20 on the d20 die roll you produce a critical strike. This strike DOES NOT need to be confirmed.
* If your weapon has a larger crit range than a 20 (say 18-20), you will need to confirm the crit with a second D20 roll. A "hit" on the second roll will confirm the crit and allow standard crit damage to apply based upon your weapon (general rules).
So for critical strikes, natural 20 = always crit, any other number within the crit range of your particular weapon = confirm the crit with a second roll. Any weapon that ONLY crits on a natural 20 does not need to confirm any of it's crits.
PLEASE note next to or after your linked rolls that you have a critical hit and/or threat roll. Particularly for weapons with a larger threat range than a natural 20 I may forget/not look for your crits.
Critical Misses
--------------------
I never did like the critical miss rolls. Natural 1's are generally more a chance to good naturally laugh at ourselves than a fear factor. Where the combat rolls "match up" (like in the last battle where Player1 rolled a natural 1 and the round after NPC1 rolled a hit and a max damage strike) I will usually call the next hit a matter of being off balance from a very badly timed previous strike. Generally, a critical miss will not cause the party many problems...I will CERTAINLY not be having you guys cutting off your own hands and feet like AD&D Second ed. did. There ARE exceptions, however. Firing a projectile weapon into a crowd of your friends and critically missing MAY very well cause a hit to one of your compatriots. That doesn't mean "don't use ranged weapons in melee combat" it means "be careful where you're aiming".
In certain situations a critical failure may cause a bit more stress; like weapon breakage or other factors, particularly during epic struggles. No combat will be lost on a single bad natural 1 though. I am not interested in having the hunter's arrow mistakenly fire into the back of the party warrior or priest thus killing them and causing the bad guys to win the day. That's not to say that can't happen, but it certainly WON'T be because of a single bad roll.
We're going to play a little loose with natural 20s and natural 1's to "flavor up" the campaign.
Fine by me...
I DM by those rules myself generally. One of my other fun rules is that if an npc is felled by a natural 20 critical strike, any companions have to make a morale check or attempt to flee... :). The same rule could apply for the PCs though, except they become shaken instead of try to flee (made of sturdier stuff, apparently).
But yeah. Natural 1s and 20s are opportunities to add flavor and flair to the battle, not terrorize the players. :P
Works for me
Sounds good!
I just found something in the PF Beta... It was in a sidebar, so I didn't see it before.
Favored Classes
Each race has two favored classes, representing its natural
affinity for a specific set of skills and abilities. Whenever you
take a level in your race’s favored class, you receive either +1 hit
point or +1 skill point. Humans and half-elves frequently get
this bonus, unless they multiclass. You do not gain this bonus
for taking levels in a prestige class, regardless of its theme.
Also, I was reviewing my character sheet and I noticed I didn't apply my weapon finesse feat to my CMB attacks. I couldn't really find the rules for CMB attacks in the book, but I'm assuming that my weapon finesse feat would apply to those.
I've also updated my character sheet listing Sorcerer as my favored class.
Another quick question.
Do we start with standard starting hitpoints, or one of the other options?
I just found something in the PF Beta... It was in a sidebar, so I didn't see it before.
Favored Classes
Each race has two favored classes, representing its natural
affinity for a specific set of skills and abilities. Whenever you
take a level in your race’s favored class, you receive either +1 hit
point or +1 skill point. Humans and half-elves frequently get
this bonus, unless they multiclass. You do not gain this bonus
for taking levels in a prestige class, regardless of its theme.** spoiler omitted **
There's a seperate feat that applies Dex to combat maneuvers.
There's a seperate feat that applies Dex to combat maneuvers.I just found something in the PF Beta... It was in a sidebar, so I didn't see it before.
Favored Classes
Each race has two favored classes, representing its natural
affinity for a specific set of skills and abilities. Whenever you
take a level in your race’s favored class, you receive either +1 hit
point or +1 skill point. Humans and half-elves frequently get
this bonus, unless they multiclass. You do not gain this bonus
for taking levels in a prestige class, regardless of its theme.** spoiler omitted **
Oh okay... I'll change the sheet back then. :P
Oh okay... I'll change the sheet back then. :PThere's a seperate feat that applies Dex to combat maneuvers.I just found something in the PF Beta... It was in a sidebar, so I didn't see it before.
Favored Classes
Each race has two favored classes, representing its natural
affinity for a specific set of skills and abilities. Whenever you
take a level in your race’s favored class, you receive either +1 hit
point or +1 skill point. Humans and half-elves frequently get
this bonus, unless they multiclass. You do not gain this bonus
for taking levels in a prestige class, regardless of its theme.** spoiler omitted **
HEH, trust me I want it too.
HEH, trust me I want it too.Oh okay... I'll change the sheet back then. :PThere's a seperate feat that applies Dex to combat maneuvers.I just found something in the PF Beta... It was in a sidebar, so I didn't see it before.
Favored Classes
Each race has two favored classes, representing its natural
affinity for a specific set of skills and abilities. Whenever you
take a level in your race’s favored class, you receive either +1 hit
point or +1 skill point. Humans and half-elves frequently get
this bonus, unless they multiclass. You do not gain this bonus
for taking levels in a prestige class, regardless of its theme.** spoiler omitted **
I was just curious because it says Weapon Finesse applies to natural weapons. I wanted to know if there was a difference between natural weapons and unarmed attacks (which I think are resolved with CMB).
First, as to the rules for the CMB:
Was the first thread I came across talking about the CMB, it's:
* CMB = Base attack bonus + Strength modifier +special size modifer
There is no mention of Agi but there IS a mention of special feats. I got confused on this except when I took a look at "Agile Maneuvers" (second feat down on the list) -
Agile Maneuvers (Combat)
Your learned to use your quickness in place of brute force
when performing combat maneuvers.
Benefit: You add your Dexterity bonus to your base attack
bonus and size bonus when determining your combat
maneuver bonus (see the Combat chapter) instead of your
Strength bonus.
Normal: You add your Strength bonus to your base attack
bonus and size bonus when determining your combat
maneuver bonus.
Thus, it would seem that being able to use your AGI bonus on weapon attacks (Weapon Finesse) is different than using your AGI bonus on Combat Maneuvers (Agile Maneuvers).
I also see a difference between unarmed attacks (or attacks with natural weapons and which apply to Weapon Finesse) and combat maneuvers, which aren't actually attacks so much as tactics. There's a difference between slamming your fist into someone's face and trying to grapple with them to keep them occupied.
In the case of weapon finesse you're not slamming your fist into someone's face all that hard, but you're doing it much more often and more blows are landing because the guy can't block all the hits you're giving him...the effect (more blows hitting vs harder blows hitting) is approximately the same. Using a rapier to poke 5 holes in a guy's arm instead of cutting his arm off accomplishes about the same thing but relies upon quickness instead of strength.
In the case of Agile Maneuvers it's entirely different. How do you pin a guy to the floor using speed? It's different from simply "doing it faster" or "doing it more accurately", and thus it makes sense to be a different skill.
I think Lasciel probably answered this one already but I wanted to make it clear.
Go ahead and update your char sheet to include the +1 skill point in whatever you want, I think any of the 3 you listed, including the first choice, would work perfectly for your history.
Okay, thanks for clearing that up. The more I think about it, the more I realize that natural attacks (tooth, claw, etc) are quite different from unarmed attacks. One represents a natural weapon (intended as a weapon). Unarmed attacks are attempts to use hands and feet in ways which makes them weapons, which is not what they are designed for.
So, sorry about all the confusion. I just keep coming across new rules in the beta.
The new method of combat we're doing feels much more natural. Melee classes will definately want to be involved with the blow-by-blow. Our initial combat, when I rolled all 5 attacks and then sat back and waited until the attacks were expired, felt very flat. I felt WAY too uninvolved as a melee player. There are just too many decisions to be made during combat.
Also, for the curious, the campaign is starting out with an interesting story line that promises some intriguing developments. I look forward to everyone else getting involved.
I haven't been posting here much because I talk with the DM IRL... thought I'd stop in and say hey.
Hey. :)
Dirk
The new method of combat does, in fact, take longer (current combat against 4 opponents has been going for 2 days) but I think this will work out MUCH more to everyone's satisfaction, particularly for those times where the combat is important and there to give some action to the combatants.
I may run a few of the more minor combats in the first method (which had it's own benefits) if we're moving along with the story and I feel it's too much a break to spend a day or two on something somewhat inconsequential.
Quick campaign update: We will be unlikely to start tomorrow morning. This combat is taking slightly longer than I thought and I have the 'wrap up' to get through before I can kick off the official storyline.
That said, I won't be leaving you all out in the cold. Hopefully by tonight/tomorrow I will have an area map for both Norwold and Kethlenica up for your viewing enjoyment. At this point I think we have all of the characters created and accounted for. Be looking for a first post sometime in the Tuesday timeframe. Sorry about the extended session here, you'll all enjoy reading it (hopefully) as soon as you all get to the point where the information happening is old (not yet!).
Not to much longer here.
Hey, as long as it's interesting, readable, and enjoyable, I think I'd be willing to wage a battle for up to 3 days. lol... :)
So here's a question for you guys who've played or read more than just this campaign.
Combat battle descriptions, particularly at the upper levels. For level 1 through about 3 describing a combat and a hit/miss is fairly simple. Hits actually hit and damage is significant.
However at the upper level of play when you have 30, 40, 50 or more HP on a character and someone swings a 1d8 mace, even if they happen to get a critical hit and do 20 points of damage, that's not even half of a character's hit points.
How do you describe this?
In real life combat (having done my fair share of fencing and play sword fighting) a hit is a hit and a miss is a miss. If I swing and I miss, I miss. If I hit you I'm going to do damage and a significant amount of it. A strong guy with a good sword catching you on the arm with a cross cut is going to sever arteries and potentially cut it off.
This causes description problems because there's a VERY large suspension of disbelief that needs to happen when you do 20 points of damage to a guy and he still comes right back at you. It works in a tabletop campaign because you know how this all works and everyone accepts that combat can't be "kill or be killed" because it wouldn't make the game Epic. But from a story perspective, I either have to downplay the hit, making a natural crit alot less epic and less meaningful or I end up describing what would turn out to be multiple fatal wounds and everyone has to ask "why the hell is this guy still standing?" You get into the Monty Python black knight scenario where a guy gets a leg cut off and says "It's only a flesh wound!"
I'm open to suggestions on this, especially anything you've found that's worked in the past. I have tried considering what having 90 hit points actually represents. I suspect it represents less "hardiness" than expertise. I wonder if describing near misses or better combat positioning as "hits" would work. Even if you swing and smack his shield his arm starts to tingle making him less effective at getting his shield up for the next blow. The guy swings and misses and your next "hit" maneuvers you inside his thrusting range. Thus at some point the guy's got 80 of 90 hp taken off and your hits actually start falling when they do damage, or you have a better position in the combat and his attacks become less effective.
I don't know. I have a bit before we're going to get to that point, but if at level 5 my descriptions start becoming death by a thousand paper cuts, combat's going to become pretty boring pretty quickly.
As a martial artist, I can tell you that training can definitely turn a fatal blow into one that simply hurts or stuns.
A highlevel character is quite skilled at combat and adept at avoiding injury.
While a character my not be fast enough to dodge a mace to the head, his training allows him to twist with it, taking the blow on the jaw and rolling to absorb most of the devastating effects of the blow.
I personally have a few scars from swordfights (yeah we get kinda crazy when we spar), but a narrow line along the arm, is a severed hand for someone slower.
Hit Points can represent an ability to roll with/decrease damage (Fighter), to soak ridiculous amounts of harm that would kill most people (Barbarian), or dodge, move, evade and deflect turning killing blows into bruises (Monk, Rogue)
I think that to differnt classes HP means different things. The 300hp Barbarian looks like Conan, while the 300hp Fighter moves like Obi-Wan
Yep... glancing blows, stunning blows, painful blows. the True d20 system (which doesn't have hitpoints) actually has a pretty good way of describing combat.
In higher levels, a small amount of hitpoint damage won't do much, but if its a tendon slice or some other well-aimed critical or feat use, it can cause pain or rather serious combat penalties for those that are struck.
I imagine that's what we would want to do to high hp characters and monsters anyway, is use special feats and techniques to immobilize, disarm, or otherwise interfere with their combat ability.
Hmm, so it becomes easier to describe certain blows. :)
The Prelude is COMPLETE! :)
I have a small amount of work to accomplish prior to the first turn, a scene to set, and a small bit more story to write before we can be off to the races with the first part of Rise of a Regent.
I would like to remind everyone that the spoilers up to this point are NOT YET open to the public, the information in them is NOT a known at the start of the campaign by any of your characters (other than, obviously, Dirk)
You can expect the first turn to be posted sometime before Wednesday evening though exactly when it will come up I can't tell you. I'd like it if everyone could please have a first round accounted for by late Thursday Morning so I can make sure we have all of you paying attention and checking in on the thread and we'll move the action on from there.
Again, any rules discussions or questions you all might have please use THIS thread to post them, not the campaign thread...I'd like to use that thread to stay on topic. If you need to figure out what to do in the game or have a "tabletop chat" with the other players (i.e. "Ok, it's nighttime guys, what are we doing") please use the ooc tag in the PBP forum. If you'd like to make comments ("Isn't this an AWESOME campaign? Illydth is THE MAN!") or hold discussions about how to better the campaign and it's contents, please do that here.
Thanks for hanging in there guys, we'll see you in the next day or two in the PBP thread.
Yay!!!!
I'm very excited. This is my very first Pathfinder Character...! It feels awesome!
*Ahem* Okay, back to being normal.
It's on!
Yay!!!!
I'm very excited. This is my very first Pathfinder Character...! It feels awesome!
*Ahem* Okay, back to being normal.
Im so excited for you, Selena! I love this game...
Last minute preparations are underway. Selena and Thanatos, you have e-mail looking for spell spreadsheets, my apologies if you've already sent these as I seem to have lost or misplaced them...they're not on my master USB key either so I'm not sure what the heck I did with them.
Other than that I'm working on getting my act together and some entry text up this afternoon/evening.
Oh sigh....
More paperwork. :P Let's see if I can get this spreadsheet file to open properly... :)
Oh sigh....
More paperwork. :P Let's see if I can get this spreadsheet file to open properly... :)
Well I sent a regular list... after waiting 25 minutes for the spreadsheet to open. :P
AND THEY'RE OFF!
First turn posted, we're going to take this one somewhat slow, I'll give everyone till Thursday Noon to get their first turn posted up and start into this. If, of course, everyone has posted before then we'll move forward.
It's going to take us a couple turns to get you all together but don't force it yourselves...the story will accomplish it's goal.
Again, welcome to Rise of a Regent.
Quickly touching base with everyone on the procedure and methodology.
Is the format working for everyone? Do I need to be breaking the posts apart into separate posts for each player or is the combined format working ok for readability?
I guess I'm trying not to have a 20K post thread going, it's going to be a long enough campaign as is.
Also, we're posting pretty hard and heavy right now, and I've got no problems with this, but if anyone's feeling pressed to get responses back please let me know and I can slow down a bit.
I like the way you're doing things. No need to change anything.
steve
I like the way its going now.
Its interesting being able to read whats going on with everyone else, even if my character isn't yet interacting with them. :P
Enjoying it so far keep up the good work.
I agree, works for me. I'll have plenty of time this weekend so I'll be checking frequently. Looking forward to getting the group together and lopping off some orc heads.
Generally, I don't give away plot ahead of time but just so you all don't get bored: There's a quick event or two setup for "tonight" that will involve a couple of you that leads into a major event in the morning...by morning the group should be together and off to the races on the first major plot line of Rise of a Regent. Were also probably fairly close to me opening up the prior spoilers to everyone though we'll see how that goes.
Glad you all are having fun with this. :)
*WHEW* That's A LOT of story to go through.
First, I'd like to apologize for "manhandling" your characters up to this point. I realize there's been not a whole lot of chances to "play" your characters and a lot of me running my mouth...or my typing skills...or whatever.
I really wanted to get the party together and get off on the real adventure. As many of you will read if you can get through my hundreds of pages (ok, it only FEELS like hundreds) there were a HOST of role play opportunities in text to this point that all of you could have probably come to enjoy. That said, we could also have spent MONTHS on getting the party together and I felt it was probably better for all involved if we could get together than to spend the time getting everyone together.
Because there were several story elements I wanted to get out and in your hands, I took the liberty as the GM of telling the story to this point instead of playing the story.
I assure all of you who are concerned by this fact that this will be a rare occurrence in the campaign and I don't intend to make a habit of this. While I won't promise I won't be editorializing more in the future, I can promise you that the rest of the campaign provides you the opportunity to play your character instead of reading about what I am having them do. Again, if you're concerned please don't be. Preludes are always the hardest if you don't use some contrived method of party integration. ("You all show up at this bar in this town...you all happen to be sitting at the same table and when the guy walks up to you and says "Go on this adventure because I ask you to" you all agree to go and go with each other because...well...you're all bored!)
The prelude is past, the adventure begins. Thanks everyone for your time and patience.
Regarding the content in the PBP Thread there's now A LOT of it, and A LOT to read to catch up to current. Not everyone has 24/7 to do this so I'd like to take the weekend to allow everyone to catch up and get acquainted with the story to date. Lets start up on Monday (or before as you guys get time over the weekend) with introductions to each other and conversations before the events begin. While I tried not to bring you guys together in a contrived format, do keep in mind that this will be your party for the rest of the adventure. So, unless you really don't feel it should work this way, try to end on a positive note with each other.
Lastly, please take this time to read back over your histories and get them fresh in your minds.
If you have any questions about the events, I would be happy to address them. I'll be checking both threads between now and Monday.
Perception in D&D and Rise of a Regent
---------------------------------------
Perception is what I tend to call a "cop out" ability. "Huh, I'm not sure what to do right now, lets see if I notice something...perception check!"
In a lot of ways, I feel perception is a "make up" ability for not paying attention to a story. There's some good uses for it, don't get me wrong, and in situations where I call for a perception check I generally have one or more things for the players to find that may or may not be worth looking at. That said, I really don't like the "Oh look you made the roll, here's the linchpin to the plot!" type checks. These are game destroying in many ways because I tend to see players rely more upon their character's "perception" ability than their own. Admittedly, a character with a 20 wisdom and +10 on their perception is really hard to role play if you're confused in a story and/or a normal person without a crystal ball.
I stumbled onto this system in one of my prior campaigns many years ago and it's a system I liked a lot when I was using it. In rise of a Regent, we're going to start with a basic perception check, modified by your character's abilities. This accounts for the ultra observant character who's player may not be observant, or the player knowing what's coming up while the character might not.
However, this is about where the "perception check" ends and your work begins. From the player perspective you can help yourselves with your perception checks by telling me what you're thinking or being more pointed about what you're trying to perceive. I'll give a few examples below to illustrate how you might help yourselves in some situations. When I ask for a perception check, feel free to respond with < dice roll = 15 >, "so I'm specifically looking at/for...", or "what do I think about...", or "hey, could this be..." kinds of statements or questions that give me an idea of what you're looking into. If you think your character might have a correlation to the situation or might have an insight about the story, give it to me, let me know what you're thinking and what you're guessing. This isn't to say that you might not be way off base, and if you are so far off base I may even penalize your perception roll...but at the end of the day you won't harm yourself much and the benefit to giving me a glimpse inside your head will far outweigh the detriments you might experience.
From a DM/Mechanics perspective I will be doing several things with perception. First and foremost, this is the ONE place where a natural one does not mean automatic failure...and a natural 20 doesn't always mean success. Your questions will have sway. In some cases I will automatically fail a perception roll EVEN in the case where the roll itself succeeds if I don't get correlating commentary showing that you have at least SOME grasp of the situation...or I guess better put, in some cases the ONLY way to succeed at a perception roll will be to indicate you already have a grasp that something is up.
As well, success and failure on perception checks doesn't necesairly mean black and white. When I ask for a perception check you will very rarely hear me come back to you and say "Your check succeeded you notice a secret door to your right." Instead on a success I may say "something about the wall on your right strikes you as odd" and on a failure you might get "a sound from down the hallway draws your attention in fear that something may be coming."
It's this last one I want to spend another sentence or two on as well. I reserve the right to throw in extra information or call for perception checks for inconsequential things. And, as in the example above, I also may at times give you information that LOOKS pertinent and may actually be helpful in failure conditions but that does not represent the REAL information you would have gotten on a success...such as the case of the secret door above. Perception does not necessairly mean you have the answers, only that you've seen or heard something that stands out. Does this mean perception checks are useless? No, and far from it, but it does mean that throwing out "I make a perception check what plot do I discover this time?" isn't going to get you very far. In general, I won't be telling you what score you need to discover a hidden plot item, I won't be telling you when you've discovered the item, and I won't be telling you what your bonuses or penalties are based upon your questions. That said I can tell you this. The more specific and more correct your questions and observations are to the situation at hand the more clarity and specificity you will get in the information coming back from your perception check. By and large the information in a "good" perception check will be generally right (though may be open to misinterpretation) while the information in a "bad" perception check may be either wrong or simply non-existent. Just keep in mind that when you have no idea what you're looking for, it's easy to find something.
In this way you the player get to keep engaged with the story and don't either miss an important plot point because you rolled bad or get a plot point you never saw coming and hadn't even thought about.
Perception Examples.
-----------------------
So lets say that you all are looking for the one eyed man who murdered the governors wife. You've tracked down a guy and are talking to him and I ask you to make me a perception check.
An example of how to make a "good" perception check to help yourself out. "My perception roll is a 10, I'm wondering if he has a glass eye?" This is a pointed look at what you're looking for. If there is something to find in the situation, I may give this a bonus of one to five points to the perception roll because you're hinting at looking at the guy's face.
"My perception roll is a 10, So do either of his eyes look like they're not moving or maybe moving of their own acord? If I'll toss my dagger up into the air and catch it and see if his eyes...both eyes...move to follow it." Ah, we're getting a bit deeper into a methodology to trap your suspect and I might decide to award 5 or 10 or more points to this perception check, especially if the methodology you decide to use or the examination you talk about would indeed provide you some information.
"My perception roll is a 10, however, in our last fight, which was only a day ago, the one eyed man got a cut on his right shoulder to my slash. Does his armor show either signs of damage/repair or replacement? I also noticed from your prior description that the guy is left handed...I'll toss a gold piece at him and ask if he's seen anything and see which hand he catches with. Also he was fighting me with a longsword, what weapon does this guy have?" In cases like this where you are bringing the full brunt of logic to bare on the situation and show you have a strong grasp of trying to solve this problem I may flat out ignore your roll and provide you complete success.
"My perception roll is a 10, however I noticed the last time we saw the guy that he was walking with a limp, do I see damage to either of this guy's legs?" However in this case the one-eyed man was faking it trying to throw you off the track and you, the player, walked into it. In a case like this I may penalize your roll by a couple of points but even then I might say "Something seems odd to you in that his left leg is showing no signs of damage at all but yet you think you might recognize the scratched buckle about halfway up the thigh."
On the other hand:
"My perception roll is 10. I'm looking at his hair, eyes, nose, teeth, lips, ears, hands, armor, legs, ..."
or
"My perception roll is 10, I'm looking closely at him what do I see."
You're either being too vague or throwing the kitchen sink at me and I neither of these cases is going to help you.
In other words,
you're using Perception as a story enhancer rather than a gaming crutch.
Sounds fair to me.
I like it. Allows for more involvement, and you're correct---all too often perception really just is a catch all when you aren't sure what else you should do.
Hmm.. lol.
For those of you who are looking at my character's actions and wondering "What in the heck is she doing?", sometimes I wonder the same thing. It's become quite obvious to me that this one has a rather skewed concept of reality. I think I said in another unrelated thread that this character was starting to feel more and more like Luna Lovegood (that Harry Potter character). It's a little odd to say the least, but I'm always intrigued by the ramifications of what she comes up with.
Looking up to see the stars at 5:00 PM, for example. Pure genius. Does that mean she thinks its nighttime, that she thinks she can see the stars, or that the mountain air is clear enough to see some astronomical phenomena. (lol) Either way, it's interesting. Then I get a particular lucid moment, and I realize my intelligence is supposed to be 12, not 16, and I have to dumb myself down again. :P
The difficult part is staying away from 4+ syllable words. Lol.
Hmm... well I guess we'll just wait and see what all is going on in the game.
I like the Luna similarity, always did like that chartacter. Besides with a whole gang of super serious soldiers and a certain Orc-serial-killing ranger, she's a perfect breath of fresh air.
Thank you, Lena likes you too. :)
I think she's far too wrapped up in the world of dreams, that may be her main "problem". But in a way, that's kind of intriguing. I wonder if the DM will allow me to become a Somnamancer (Dream Mage) from Arcana Evolved? It requires a campaign specific feat though, but I think it works well for Selena: Slippery Mind.
Slippery Mind
If you become the target of an enchantment and fail the saving throw, you can attempt the save again 1 round later. You only get one extra chance to succeed.
This could represent Selena's distorted interaction with the world at large; her mind moves in strange patterns.
Are these acceptable feat and prestige class?
Guess I haven't checked this side of the forums in a while, I just noticed the new posts.
Selena has been entertaining, she reminds me of a Harpell (R.A. Salvatore) - distracted and absent-minded at times, but usually pulling through in a pinch. I have to admit I was uncertain whether her strange behavior was intentional or not. Now that I know it is, I can stop laughing uncomfortably and have a good-natured chuckle at her antics.
I agree with Lash, Selena is a good change of pace.
I had a thought, and I was wondering what everyone else (including the DM) thought about this rule. Since we are supposedly going to be here for 10 levels (at least hopefully), I was wondering if the DM would consider letting everyone have a feat at every level (instead of at every odd level), with certain limitations if desired? For example, we wouldn't be able to choose combat feats on even levels (fighters and rogue talents excepted). I'm not sure if this inbalances the game too much. There are a lot of feats I would be interested in taking that help fill out this character concept (now that I finally have a good idea of where she's heading).
I had a thought, and I was wondering what everyone else (including the DM) thought about this rule. Since we are supposedly going to be here for 10 levels (at least hopefully), I was wondering if the DM would consider letting everyone have a feat at every level (instead of at every odd level), with certain limitations if desired? For example, we wouldn't be able to choose combat feats on even levels (fighters and rogue talents excepted). I'm not sure if this inbalances the game too much. There are a lot of feats I would be interested in taking that help fill out this character concept (now that I finally have a good idea of where she's heading).
On second thought, I think that little request was a part and parcel of an unfortunate (but hopefully excusable and understandable) stint into powergaming mode where I wanted to make my character the best character she could possibly be. I think I can get by on the normal feat progression. :) Especially when I relimit myself to what makes sense again.
Happens to the best of us at some point, don't sweat it.
Just putting my dot back where it belongs. Sneaky thing going off and disappearing like that.
It's been a while since I've checked here.
I have no objections to good character play and things that make sense for a character NOT hindering your character development. I understand the concept where something that makes sense for a character to have can get in the way of things that make the character better.
For instance, you are playing a "dream mage" so to speak. I can certainly see where feat progression for a mage might cause you to make a choice between say a feat allowing for better dream interpretation (definitely in character) and say combat casting (which may make you a better all around character for the party itself).
There's alot of "metagame" stuff that D&D Players take into account, obviously no campaign is without it's challenges and being unable to meet those challenges makes you a drain on the party itself...ESPECIALLY when your other choices is something as campaign specific as say dream interpretation or something of that nature.
While I can say "trust your GM" to include your character and whatever abilities you select to include in the story, there's also the necessity that at times in a campaign the dice control your fate and being able to weight the dice in your favor is something all D&D players (at least those who survive) tend to do to at least SOME degree.
I am willing to discuss "additional" feats or skills you think belong on your character. Even a "double progression" of feats is not beyond my willingness to comprehend so long as I'm not seeing people abuse it. Here's what I'm going to suggest with this:
If, at a given level, you think your experiences and the situations you've faced would have "bettered" or "added" a skill or feat to your character I am always willing to listen to your presentation..."sell me on it" is where I stand.
I can almost guarantee that if you're talking about something combat effective or those feats/skills that are going to be dice rolling affecting I will pretty much say no unless you've got a REALLY good reason.
But for character development feats, things that might come into play but not always and things that better define your character, I'm willing to listen.
Actually, I've given up a little on the idea of the "dream mage", namely because I like the celestial sorcerer class features better. The feats I had in mind augment and strengthen the celestial sorcerer design elements, some of them perhaps a little too strongly.
For example, the Celestial Sorcerer Heritage feat-chain from PHBII.
I've pretty much given up on this because it would be too feat-intensive, and I'm trying to find a creative way to play the character concept without relying on too many feats. (That was the powergaming mode I was trapped in earlier.)
Arcane Disciple (Healing) - adds spells of the healing domain to my spell list. I would like to think there might be a way for me to research a spell that calls on positive energy to provide magical healing without taking this feat. It just feels like a Celestial sorceress might have more "divine-like" spells. Not enough to imbalance the game (hopefully), but just some to fill out the character concept. Of course, I can always roleplay that the spells I am casting are more "divine" in nature without being divine-oriented by the rules, but perhaps it is game breaking to allow an arcane caster a healing spell. :P
I am doing what I can to accept the natural limitations of the character class while playing what I almost consider a divine agent. (Hopefully not in a presumptuous way.)
The other feat I am considering right now is Blessed Mage from Arcana Evolved. It allows me to cast spells with the Good descriptor with increased effect (+1 Caster level I believe), and I can apply the Blessed template to my spells. (Beneficial spell with a range of touch can be cast at short range, but it requires a verbal component that is amplified by the nature of the template.) I will have to look up the wording of the feat, as I'm not sure I got everything correct in it.
Hey all, so I'm moving today, and after talking to the new cable company odds are my internet access will be spotty at best until next Saturday, the 7th.
GM please DMPC if any key actions combats etc occur.
See you guys soon.
Mucking with the new dice tag...
Modified post to see if dice re-roll.
Hey great... looks like you can edit your post and the roll result will stay the same even after modifying and reposting.
:)