Crimson Avenger's page

i don't have my phb II handy, but doesn't penetrating shot specifically say you only get your precision damage against the first creature??

something like 27 months at every other weekend. by the time we finished, some of the party were at 20th level. once in a while they like to dig out their characters and do some high level gaming....like killing their favorite love to hate demi gods

i would think that you could make a great variety of themed items from dragon bits and pieces. first, figure out what that particular dragons strengths are, and then make an item with a similar bent. i.e. if red dragons are known for their quick minds, and penchant for twisting words, then a bit of tongue or blood would be a useful component in a potion of glibness. of course, obviously fire retardannt cloaks or armor is always helpful, but remember that the fire immunity (or elec, or acid, ad naseum) is a trait of the dragon, and not it's skin. the only thing that limits you is your imagination.

B.A. Music Education

My players stop me from using the d12 whenever possible...just too darn much damage inflicted, not to mention HP's

My goup always complained about the shear number of HP's on my monsters, and one time I was in a hurry, so I just used 75% on max HP's on the monsters. When they complained, I picked up 10d12 and said, well his HP's could have been...

the dice came up three shy of max.

They voted right then and there that I could only use 75% for all of my creatures from that point on.

My dragons and barbarians haven't been the same since.

'Course, that just seems to apply to every hit die I use. You should see my roll fireballs...totally can't roll above average damage to save my life!!!!!

We've replaced the 100 gp Identify component with a 100 gp focus to keep bookwork down.

Also, my GM likes to roll opposed percentile checks for availability of items in town. If he questions that an item has high availability, you get a d10 showdown of the battle mat. Low roll wins.

This actually came up in my group about four weeks ago. I believe we found the rules in the DMG. There are a couple of other considerations like line of effect and such that were really surprising. Just a quick example: line of effect is blocked at the water surface for any spell requiring an attack roll. Which means you can't cast acid arrow from surface to underwater or vice versa, but magic missle still works fine. I'd give you page # and references, but don't have my books here.

My point being that it depends on the player. One of my guys plays elves like dwarves and vice versa. He makes gruff, industrious elves, and flighty tree huggin' dwarves. Screws with your head after awhile.

Personaly, I think the reason we all hate elves is because they are French.

No, really, think about it...

They talk in a flowing lyrical language....
like the French.

They have a superiority complex.....
like the French

....and their women don't shave

Dwarves tend to be German
Gnomes tend to be Scots
And Halflings tend to be Irish

Soooooo... in retrospect, Elves would be cooler if they were Spaniards

Ooh, ooh, or Norwegian.

oh yeah baby, Scandanavian Elves would rock.

In the end, the world would be a better place if we all took ourselves a little less seriously

Like FH

Actually, the five foot step makes sense in a weird sort of way. Take for instance a shrew, a human, and an elephant.

The shrew lives in a world where everything moves in slow motion. Excellerated heart rate and metabolism mean this little critter is moving at full speed all the time. Its reactions are so fast that it can zip around and dodge, but if it were to move more than 5 ft we would have ample time to react and step on it (AoO). The elephant lives in a world where everything moves faster than it. It moves so ponderously compared to us that if it did more than shuffle a coupla feet we would have ample time to smack at it. It all works on the same premice of having a beter (worse) AC due to size.

As for enlargement, the spell specificly states that speed doesn't change. I would caution against raising the speed of creatures if you increase their size, as your party will suffer from the nasty they can't run away from. (Everything moves faster than the dwarf!)

So just give that huge creature an appropriately sized spiked chain, and let the 30 foot radius carnage begin. buwahahahaha

Our pleasure!

Darnnit, everytime I go to Lilith's site I feel less useful as a member of society. Is there anything you don't do??

The warlock in my party is 5th level now, and we haven't seen a real problem yet, and that's in a geshtalt campaign. Sure he has psionic shot and the feats to get it back, but the fact is he doesn't.

The extra damgae from PS only comes into play once or twice an encounter, if that.

His AC isn't so high that he can't be targeted by missle fire, and if you're EldBlastin me, damn it, I'm gonna fire back.

Case in point:

I took a blackscale lizardfolk from MM III and I doubled it's HD to advance it to Huge. I gave it a spiked chain so it had a 30 ft reach, and no class levels. All in all about a CR 8. he thought to be cute by flying up and EB'ing from ubove, until the lizardfolk pulled out a javelin and hit him for over half his HP's. A warlock jumps for cover anytime you deal damage to them. We won't even discuss what the nasty did to the rogue who tried to sneak within 30 ft for a sneak attack. ***spiked-chain*** One hit, and the rogue went from full Hp to -7. Backed the party right up into missile range. And this thing kept hitting them with javelins. And much fun was had by the GM. God Bless web, it's the only thing that kept the dwarf alive.

The astral reavers are about the most convincing Gith in the marketplace right now. I got a couple of packs of them when I was running the Incursion campaign

I've found that the 100 gp component usually gives the party headaches. What I did was turn it into a focus, and taht way the material component isn't consumed by the spell.

This is what I miss about growing up in a town of 400 people! Everyone helping out and pitching in in a crisis. And overnight from Lisa ta boot! Makes you all warm and fuzzy inside.

Wasn't there something like this in the realms in 3.0??

I believe (and this is off the cuff) that there was a sword in teh magic of Faerun that granted a +5 insight bonus to attack, and true strike was the spell needed. What the price was, or even if the whole thing wasn't a dream, I don't know

At home in Rockford Illinois, we have some subdivisions that have houses around 2,500 sq ft starting at 175,00, and I believe that comes on a quarter acre...or maybe an eigth.

If you get back to my ancestral home in Burt, Iowa...Mom and Dad bought the house we all grew up in for 37,000 dollars just a few years ago, and that included the four and a half acres and the out-buildings too. the house is about 1,200 sq ft with a full but unfinished basement.

Congrats on the new house. When I farmed in LuVerne, a huge ten room house was part of my pay (four bed room/ 1 1/2 bath). The master bedroom on the first floor instantly became the gaming room.

Frankly, I was just happy someone knew who Goodkind was. Sometimes I feel a little lonely with the kinds of fantasy I've read, because the majority of it isn't cannon.

Not to mention I'd like to get ahold of the stats for some of his creatures. Who doesn't want to throw a Gar or a Mirswith at their party from time to time.

If I gotta choose...

halfling rogue of the OL/FT/DD variety. I'm insatiably curious about how things work, and love to take stuff....apart (think kender with a tinker habit)

for neat appeal...a Dark Sun Thri-kreen psi-warrior/monk

for pur power....the advanced adventurer from the egology of..

the coppers of my giving in the number of two

I was wondering when someone was going to mention Machieveli.

What about Terry Goodkind for some fast paced fantasy

or Stephen R. Donaldson for a good ironic campaign

Dark Sun was one of the first campaigns ouside of college I was ever in. My friend Matt Gm'd, and he loved that world. I still smile whenever I think of Thri-kreen PC's.

All Hail, Evil Bard.

Lets face it, a bard is a natural party enhancer, and even evil characters have frien...henchmen to do the fighting for them. We had a homebrew prestige class for bbn/brd called a skald that was pretty cool. And I know it's not core, but the Book of Ultimate Prstige Classes (?) from Sword and Sorcery (I think) had a skald that could wake the dead. (calling on the ancestors in a limited Aragorn kind of way)

cents that are in my possesion in the number of two

Anyways, I like the D&D alignments. Its very satisfying to fight the good fight, right epic wrongs, rescue the damsel, ect. I do get frustrated by players that want a paladin, and then play Lawful Stupid.

Back in the day (as my bones creak)....

Anyone remember the Paladin handbook from 2e. That had a wonderful chapter on what a paladin could and couldn't get away with and still retain his status.

Wow, I didn't say anything about the Palladium system, just it's alignments. Hit a nerve there.

Part of the problem with characters and alignment is the words LAWFUL and CH@0tI(. It conjures up to many preconcieved notions. People hear chaotic and immediately think RANDOM. they here lawful and think BOY SCOUT. Maybe we should ust rename the alignments to better fit how peple play them, then there wouldn't be so much confusion.

My humble attempt at reclassifying alignments

GOOD:

(LG) Stupid Good- follows all laws regardless of the consequences or the good/ evil ramifications for themselves. Gives selflessly to every cause that helps someone else.

(NG)Normal- tries to get by without bringing the authorities down on their heads. Will help out his fellow man as long as he doesn' have to stick his own neck out to far.

(CG) Random Good w/ Evil tendencies- Goes out of his way to break every rule just to say, "Hey, I'm Chaotic!" Doesn't care about the consequences/ ramifications of his actions as long as he feels he may have done the right thing.

NEUTRAL:

(LN)Lawful Stupid- follows the minutia of every rule just so he can say, "Hey, I'm Lawful"

(NN) Truly Paralized- worrys that any action he may take could gbe construed as having overtones of Good/ Evil or Law/ Chaos, and in the end is unable to act.

(CN) Chaotic Stupid Evil- (my personal fav)does completely random acts such as attaking party members after combat because they feel that to do otherwise would make them less chaotic.

EVIL:

(LE) Lawyer- self explanatory

(NE) Polotician- self explanatory

(CE) Stupid Evil- baby eating naughty just to be able to say, "Hey, I'm baby eating naughty!" Incapable of becoming a force to be reckoned with because he feels the deep seated need to attack every good creature that crosses it's path. This invariably leads to a run in with adventurers made up of the Stupid Good, Normal, and Random Good w/ Evil tendencies (a kindred spirit), who feel it is there duty to put such a rabid animal down.

I hope this clears up some of the confusion

A good game mechanic system is the Palladium universe. It does away completely with N cahracters under the assumption that you are either in it for yourself, or in it for someone else. You get fantastic alignments like Scrupulous, Unprincipled, Aberrant, and Diabolic.

Aberrant is def my favorite. The character that will do evil or cruel things if the situation warrants it, but has a super strong personal code of conduct. Might tortue you if he feels its neccesary, but won't tortue you unless he thinks its neccesary.

I've toyed with the idea of using the palladium alignments in a D&D campaign.

show tunes and great literature. just goes to prove that gamers are the SINGLE most ecclectic group on the planet.

Back in college when I was first introduced to message boards (we called em chat rooms), the person getting me logged on said i needed a screen name. ("What's a screen name?")

Crimson Avenger was the first random thing to pop into my head, ad when people online would ask me about my screen name and what it meant, I used to go into a lon monologue about truth, justice, and a +5 vorpal surfboard.

Also random, as I've never seen a surfboard in person.

And it just stuck (in my head)

Woe, modular storage units built to look like corrupted oak. and all this time I've been using cinder blocks and 2 x 12's

There is never too much D&D

my therapist says i can live my fantasy any way i want

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Just a three weeks ago at church one of the hymns was "Lift High the Cross". One of the lines in it is "Each newborn servant of the Crucified bears on the brow the seal of Him who died." When I sung 'the crucified bears' I thought "...hmmm, I bet Stephen Colbert would be all for crucifying bears" and started laughing. Got in trouble with the wife for that one.

My favorite hymn is about a bear named Gladly. Gleadly the cross eyed bear

I too ahve a problem with dice vanishing from the table, but they don't reappear is shubbery, they reappear in mid air right before they ricochet off my head.

Players can be vindictives!

Now this is why I read the boards!!!! I belong to a non-denominational Unitarian branch of Banjo. We accept all kinds of belief in banjo...

....except the Presbetyrians

I don't have near the collection that I used to. I moved last april, and I moved to a smaller place. A friend was trying to get into D&D so I let him have everything that wasn't 3.5 (with a few exceptions). He got a very impressive collection of 1st and 2nd edition hardcovers, soft covers, box sets, you name it. I got most of my stuff in estate sales and closeout stores. As for the minis...I don't do the d&d tabletop wargames, but we use minis on the battlemat to help with combat.

(secretly, I'm with Lilith, I get wrapped up in the painting of the cool mini's, and I happen to have a complete 3,000 pt Liazrdman warhammer army including two Stegadons!)

oh god, my ribs hurt. I haven't laughed that hard since i took my first look at the ecology of the adventurer.

"I hope you cast Protection from Skillet"

Instant Classic

I too go for theme dice. I had a Thri-kreen once who named his weapon Fire and Ice, and then had it enchanted accordingly. I bought two complete sets of red and blue dice so I could roll everything at once and let god sort them out later.

psssstt...you'll have to go visit my previous post to figure out why.

Oh happy day!!

This weekend I was checking out the other 9,847 channels on TV that I never watch, and came across JETIX (sp) on one of the Disney stations. I just happened to come across D&D the cartoon, and I had Marian watch it with me. Now we can share some of the smae first memories of gaming together!!

Sweet shirts, makes me wish I had brought disposable cash to work today.

(All bow before the plastic gods!)

Boy, I don't know. There's alot to be said about the comic value of the charging character that does a face plant, and rolls to a stop.

my cents of two in number

Historicaly there were institutions that kept money/ were money lenders. the Tempalars is a good example. They took in coin and what not, and issued papers saying how muh credit you had access too. When you needed money or a loan, you just stopped into the next local Templar house, and adjustments were made to your bill of credit (there is a specific term for the paper but it escapes me at the moment). That system would be about as good as any.

If the papers were lost that would give someone access to your treasure (hmmmmn I see an adventure hook here somewhere...)

Or you can turn treasure into something else more protable ie: gems or bigger coin

Or you can turn you treasure into something less portable ie: land, houses, or even livestock.

my cents of two in number

Sorcerers!

Like I've said in other threads, I like doing one thing, and doing it better than everyone else. Sorcerers appeal to my two trick pony mentality.

Wow, my post makes me seem...well...boring! What I meant is that I play melee characters. I tend to enjoy two weapon fighters, but that tank with a two handed weapon is just as good. i try to do one thing, and do it better than anyone else. My current character is a half-giant that deals out an butt load of damage, but is set up to delay the baduns as long as possible. If able, he uses Expansion to block up a hole to force the baddies to bottleneck, thereby giving the arcane and archers time to set up and launch death from above. Don't get me wrong, he can chew through alot of mooks in his own right, but his primary perpose is as plunger.

Blood, blood, blood makes the grass grow!

I think it's more about the good times shared than it is any particular module. I'm a homebrew guy myself. when I was learning the game, I had homebrew GM's. Sure we ran a module once in a while, but never the biggies. We ran the one shots when the GM didn't have time.

That said, I've read most of the old modules. What I do is take maps out, and completely restock. Or take a monster out and use it in my latest dungeon, or take an idea and make it my own. My players are always reliving via the wayback machine.

Dude, you remember that time in Whitecliff, when Grimblade...

The nostalgia part is that we did it together, as a group, and with the modules, alot of other people had the same experiences as we did. Have I been in the tomb of Horrors? You bet! Did I lose alot of PC's to its ingeneous traps? You bet! And I've salvaged alot of those traps, and inflicted them on to the next generation of gamers at my table.

Oh the humanity!

I have had a fair share of accidental cheats in my game, but we all know who they are, and keep an eye on them. My favorite is asking them to explain their attack bonus. I mean, when you roll a 7 and tell me you hit an AC of 42, I want to know where yu got your +35 to attack from. A lot of it is just bad math skills.

I'm exceptionally good (and quick) with math, and for the most part we all roll on the battle mat, so the dice aren't to far away. I have yet to have a player that can add their fireball damage quicker than I can, and when they do come up with an erroneous number, I gently tell them that isn't what I got. 'Course that goes both ways. If they under count, or seem to come up with an oddly low attack or save, we refigure that too.

Out and out cheating though hasn't been a huge issue. I actually have a couple of players that constanly short themselves on everything. Unadded bonuses, forgetting the +1/2 STR on a two handed weapon, all kinds of stuff. And again, we know who the are and try to keep an eye on them.

Come to think of it, that's not a bad idea.

goliath or half giant swashbuckler with a giant sized spiked chain.

15 ft reach, a decent dex, good strength for one and a half damage, and wp finesse for free!

that first mage type that ray of enfeeblement'd your butt would be in for a rude surprise when your attack bonus doesn't fall through the floor!

We should all just start wielding spiked chains!

I personally have never had a problem with silence. Most of my players forget to take it, even more so with 3.5. Every one wants to play a spontaneous caster, ie: damaging spells. I agree with Bruke, if you're going to "rule zero" it, just make sure that you do it equally.

You make me wish I had my books at work!!

I haven't seen the battledancer class yet (correction: looked at it yet!), but I would have to say they don't stack if the have the same class feature name. IMHO.

If you want a real stinker, look at Invisible Blade (CAdv) and Duelist (DMG). Both add INT to AC. The catch? One adds an intelligence bonus to AC like a DEX bonus, the other adds INT bonus to DEXTERITY for determining your DEX bonus.

Of course there are all kinds of restrictions ie: no armor, must be weilding dagger, ect, but you can get a 20th level character up to 50+ AC butt ass naked as long as he provokes an AoO

Actually, what I'm remembering isn't a class, just a variant rule. I beleive Isaw it about the same time as I was presented with the 2e Skills and Powers. It was just for those who wanted a little more flavor, like their cleric having a 20% chance that he couldn't heal their wounds (Gods don't typically care for those that don't believe in them). It wasn't class specific.