Dungarees Master's page

Dungarees Master wrote:

Here is a question you most likely get all the time, but how did you end up with such a cool career?

Luck, perseverance, and stubbornness.

I moved from California to Washington pretty much to be local to Wizards of the Coast, and eventually ended up working as a temp there. And eventually got hired permanently there, until I was laid off and then brought back as a temp and then eventually hired on at Paizo after about 5 attempts to get hired by WotC's R&D department and the magazine department while it was still there. I started submititng writing samples to TSR and Dungeon magazine at about 14 years old back in 1984 or thereabouts, got my first publication in Dungeon #12, and have been working at it ever since.

Cool!

Thanks for the reply:)

Here is a question you most likely get all the time, but how did you end up with such a cool career?

Yup thats it...damn I dont think anything is going to be able to make a stealth check on this guy....

I think the error made is that he is using the stat block and reading the +6 as something to add to his familiar rather than a total of racial bonus and stat bonus

I think 17 might be its max

No magical items or skill focus

Hi there,

I am just trying to figure out how this works out.

I have a character who has a bat as a familiar and it has a perception of 20 at level 6.

I am trying to figure out how it gets that high?

Can someone help me with the math here?

Here is the link to a bat animal stat block

"Bob, Dave, you know, D&D is a Game, and Games are supposed to be Fun. This goes for both the players AND the DM. Now it gets hard for me to have continuance if you two are constantly swapping out characters, and that means less Fun for me. OTOH, you guys seem to have fun experimenting with new concepts, etc. Let us come to a compromise. What sort of limitations do you think would be fair on bring in new PC's?"

In other words, sit down and talk to them like adults. Do not impose IC penalties.

The problem is not only the penalizing of them, its that the average wealth level for a party member in this AP is really low in comparison to other adventure paths, if they come in with 10,000 gold. Not only are the other players that dont want to change characters often penalized as they dont have that extra loot but the enemies who are also "loot-less" become bowling pins for these hyper optimizers.

Some of the top BBEG in this next part of the AP are like level 9 or 10s that only have a few +1 rings and maybe a +1 Dagger, for the most part everyone they are facing is as poorly equip as they are if not more so. At least they all have magic weapons, and most have at least one +2 stat boast item each.

The worst part of all is when I was first asked about him making a new character I said "sure, but you will show up naked" and he said that was fine, better than being a level back... but now he is complaining even after I offered him the average amount of loot everyone one else has.

And I am not trying to complain about my players, I just want to make sure I am fair to all of them equally, especially the newer players that dont know that this is a loot lite style of gameplay they are currently in.

I might indulge a player in this with the undertanding that it is not going to happen again (unless it was years later). I don't know if my attitude on the subject alone helps you though, so I will offer something else.

It has become policy over the years in all campaigns I run or play in to keep all characters the same level. With your situation I would revise that, and any new character that comes in because of player boredom is one level lower than the previous. Characters that die under "normal" circumstances are not penalized.

I did indulge his wishes the first time ( mainly cause he made a god awful crafting cleric for the first bit, and was a pain in the ass for the entire party), but now it is the second time that he desired a new character and I did ding him for it.

I did offer him either items or a level cost, but he rather have the items and now he is threatening to quit.

Which does phase me much, even though he is a good friend of mine, he just started a witch and the idea of having to deal with a full optimized witch and the "slumber coup de grace" combo makes me fearful for the integrity of the game.

One other issue is that they played 3.5 before this and it was a system that tended to be loot heavy (in my experience with it at least).

And after doing some research apparently we are running a very loot lite campaign. So that might be irking them a bit too!

Thanks for everyone's advice by the way!

I agree the first step is to talk to them honestly about your concerns.

Rebuilding the same character without cost like chaoseffect said is a good option if your players are actually bored with their builds rather than mostly interested in gear.

Your "party average wealth but you might not be able to find all the items you want" idea would also prevent these new characters from getting a wealth advantage.

Another idea might be to give continuous characters advantages through contacts that the new characters don't get. "Sorry, but The Reverend Roderik doesn't get the discount at the blacksmith's that Sir Loftyton gets because Roderik wasn't there when the party saved the blacksmith's son from goblins." Old characters have made an investment in the campaign and NPCs that new ones haven't, so it makes sense that this investment pays off (and replacement characters can't collect). This only works if you've got some NPC continuity, though. I don't know whether Serpent Skull would support it.

I like that idea of creating advantages for long running characters

Thank you!

I talked to the one player tonight and he agrees. This player has only switch up once in comparison to the other character that is on character 3 before level 7.

Thanks for all the help guys.

Do you think I am being too restrictive by making a GP cost to making a new character?

That is my biggest fear and the largest point of contention

Thanks for the Advice!

Ok here is the deal. I am running an adventure path (Serpent Skull) and I am playing with a very diverse group of players. I have my wife and 2 actor friends of mine who are all new to the game. They picked it up pretty fast and they are enjoying the game.

My problem comes from my other two players who have been playing quite a bit over the years (at least 3.5).
So the big problem is that they have asked to switch out their characters a few times and are asking me to kill off their old characters so that they can make new ones. So I do this for them, but at the same time this really put a hamper on the storyline and the overall experience in my opinion as we are not getting a chance to build party connections and really make a "group mentality" with character coming and going every 2 to 3 sessions.

I am getting really tired of the constant switching, and its kind of a pain trying to figure out how to weasel in a new character when the party literally in the middle of no where.

To limit this I have imposed a gold penalty about on par with the cost of raise dead to their new characters.

They seem frustrated with this, but I get the feeling it is because they want to optimize further with gear they have not been able to find or that they have come in contact with. If i just let it slide they are the type of PCs that will just run the table over on me so to speak and make the experience really dull for the other 3 players as the optimize the hell out of everything.

What are some suggestions I can use to make sure everyone comes out of this happy?

(My latest idea is to give the new characters gold in the value of what is party average, and they have to buy their gear as if they were in a town that was a size equal to our last town visited)