Eickler's page

My players, after five years, have only managed to get into one TPK (and that was a Paizo module where they split the party). Anytime I've written the endless wave of enemies scenario they find someway to circumvent it. The most notable was when they had to fight an endless spawn of kobolds in a cave system. The alchemist and fighter used various knowledge checks to figure out how to start a cave-in, and cut off one of the major kobold reinforcement lines. They marched through every part of that encounter. In regards to retreating from a difficult fight, the party came across a hydra as a random encounter and the oracle hypnotized it so they could get by. I rewarded them full experience and they carried on.

It really depends on the players and the DM. I don't advise constantly designing unwinnable fights. I use them sparingly to create dramatic tension for the story (the kobold encounter was designed to introduce them to a powerful boss for later in the campaign). In conjunction, I constantly remind them that they don't need to kill everything to win the encounter and sometimes, retreating and regrouping is an option. When my players hit situations like this, they tend to at least make an attempt to sabotage the enemy that forced them to retreat.

We're fighting our way through a Drow stronghold. The Drow have enslaved several elves and using diabolist rituals to summon a powerful entity. We make our way to the armory and, in traditional adventurer fashion, start looting it. While we're sifting through gear and potions, a patrol comes by and notices us. The patrol leader asks rhetorically why we're looting heir armory. My human sorcerer, the party leader, shouts back, "Because you're dicks!" The GM looks up at me from across the table and asks, "Did you just call them dicks?" I affirmed y characters retort and everyone starts rolling initiative as the party starts laughing.

For the longest time I've had this idea of playing a druid for the sole reason of having a gorilla animal companion. I would then give the gorilla weapon and armor feats until, ultimately, he would be wearing full plate mail and wielding a halberd, while the druid just stayed in the back and buffed the party. I find it so hilarious because it is just incredibly antithetical to the standard druid archetype in addition to how terrifying it would be to be the tiny goblin who's last images were of a armor clad gorilla power attacking into him.

I'll use mini's for PCs and notable NPCs for combat, but any enemies I have tend to just be mini-d6's using numbers and colors to denote specific enemies. My favorite mini stand-in thus far was using a tape measure for a huge-sized monster.

I find it just makes it easier for me to play or run a game when I can see the battlefield. I've played in games without mini's before and they're enjoyable. I just prefer to have the visual aide.

To the initial question, I usually tend to get a mini that best represents the character I've built. It's hard to get an exact fit, but for me, the mini is just a close approximation, the actual appearance is all in my head. I have a few figs that I liked enough I built characters around them, but on the whole I prefer to think of ideas for fun characters and build from there.

golem101 wrote:

I don't think that's the case, as

** spoiler omitted **

I just removed them from my own maps and drew a hard wall there. I stared at it for sometime and, finding nothing within the module that explained it, deemed it unneeded and a potential to confuse the players and bog the game down.

I like this rethinking of how the arcanist is intended to work. Can't wait to see what you guys come up with.