François Buisson's page

You did VERY well. Good for him. Might teach both the player and the character a lesson. With great power comes great responsibility and all that jazz.

Reminds me of the campaing were playing right now. One of the paladins (there are 2) is a Holy Hunter, cocky, impulsive, agressive, headstrong and narcissitic to a fault. Shoot first, ask questions later. Repeatedly he shot while the others were trying to negotiate, because he did'nt like the idea of bargaining with evil aligned people or creatures. Or would draw attention to himself because "stealth is dishonorable" and endanger the whole group.

His latest antic? While negotiating with a Sahuagin priestess for repossession and eventual destruction of an evil artifact her order is tasked with guarding, she mentioned the fact that we slaughtered a bunch of her guards, and she would require a life in return. The rogue proposes to sacrifice part of our crew left on the surface (we all gasp in horror), the priestess refuses, saying they are innocent, and the paladin yells "THEN TAKE ME YOU HEATHENS" and goes to shoot. We manage to stop him, but the GM calls the dreaded "Ok, roll for initiative". We called it off at that point, on account of it being too late for a big fight.

Did I mention that we are underwater, surrounded by about 20 sahuagin guards, 1 captain and 3 priestesses? Oh, and 3 of us are ranged, me playing a gunslinger. The GM strongly proposed we roll up new characters, "just in case".

Seriously, I can't stand paladins and their damn codes, that and "impulsive" characters, this kind of character trait is always only an excuse to stir trouble. Could'nt the damn code be more "You seek to avoid confrontation whenever possible and must always act sensibly and calmly?"

Or at least a penalty to perception, now that move silently and stealth have been combined? This of course, if the silenced stealther is smart enough to stay at a distance where an opponent won't be affected by the spell and notice something is wrong.

There will never be an absolute deffintion of alignments, and I believe this is the whole point of it. However, I can point you to this article:

All About Alignment

It is well written, extremely detailed, and should answer most of your questions if you decide you share this point of view. This is generally the one I use, and refer my players there when they have alignment questions, unless I want to use the concept differently of course. But then they are informed so.

Also, keep in mind that Detect Alignment only catches auras, as had by Paladins, Clerics, creatures with an alignment subtype or beings 4th level and above. Commoners will not register on a detect spell, which gives you some ambiguity right there.

Ainslan wrote:

I see a lot of people promoting the oracle's "RP" reasons. I call it vanity. The group is fighting dangerous ennemies, buffing the groups survival is in everybody's interest. Any character saying the contrary is NOT roleplaying, they are being petty. In our groups we always outfit the frontliners first, and the commonly have double or tripple the wealth value of the others. Why? Because we want to live, and if the frontliners die, the rest will soon follow. If she wants the damn sword, the oracle damn better be using it. Magical treasures are not meant for fluff or vanity, they're meant for survival. Fluff does not need gear, it is self-sufficient.

Again we're only seeing one viewpoint here, we also see one player who's carrying what looks like the bulk of the group treasure with weapons he admits to not using.

Yes I understand outfitting the frontliner is a priority, but this isn't WOW, there is no tanking, and other characters need consideration as well.

Also the at least one of the primary uses of the sun blade the aoe attack vs undead requires no weapon proficiency at all. Having someone other than the main melee be using their action to activate that function is sound tactical sense.

And above all, what I see here is petty argument about loot possibly inspired by prolonged character history. That's the real problem here, not who should be "best" at using one particular piece of swag.

Granted this is not WoW. But party roles are still applicable. In a game I was DMing, the group outfitted the dwarf fighter first (and i mean HEAVILY invested in him). At some point, against the dungeon boss, most of the group failed a fear save, and started running in chaos. It should've been the groups end, but the "tank" made his save and single-handedly held (and severely weakened) the boss and it's two minions for FOURTHEEN rounds, just about enough time for the fear to run it's course and the others to come back. Just then did he fall, but then his allies could finish the ennemies. This was truly epic. Our groups philosophy is generally to give items to the member who will most help the group with it, and it works wonders.

I see a lot of people promoting the oracle's "RP" reasons. I call it vanity. The group is fighting dangerous ennemies, buffing the groups survival is in everybody's interest. Any character saying the contrary is NOT roleplaying, they are being petty. In our groups we always outfit the frontliners first, and the commonly have double or tripple the wealth value of the others. Why? Because we want to live, and if the frontliners die, the rest will soon follow. If she wants the damn sword, the oracle damn better be using it. Magical treasures are not meant for fluff or vanity, they're meant for survival. Fluff does not need gear, it is self-sufficient.

As for the tips:

1. When you get to Andre of Astora, the burly blacksmith near the church, be sure to buy a repair box. This will allow to repair your weapons and armor yourself at bonfires. A broken weapon is bad enough in Undead Burg, but in Blightown, or the middle of the Tomb of Giants you will scream to all hell if you can't repair.

2. Do play online. Tips are extremely usefull. Invasions might be frustrating if you're not Way of the White, but are a great source of Souls/Humanity if you get good at PvP. Also, the NPC invasions might net you some cool items, and you'll waste the chance to experience them if you kill the boss of the area without having experienced them.

However, be wary of people who think it's clever to leave tips like "Try attacking" before an important NPC or "Try jumping" before a ledge.

3. Iron Flesh is a Pyromancy spell that is sold by Laurentius of the Great Swamp, the first Pyromancy trainer. You will find him stuck in a barrel somewhere close to the beggining of The Depths. To save him, DO NOT attack the barrels. Roll into them instead. Currently Iron Flesh raises your defense and poise to absurd levels, making you able you able to wistand the heaviest blows without flinching (i.e allows you to 2-hand your big weapon and assault the ennemy, practically ignoring it's blows). However it prevents rolling and makes you move VERY slowly. This spell will soon be nerfed.

4. Can can only be part of one covenant at a time. Joining a new one will break your old covenant, and in some case make the NPC that proposed the previous covenant to you angry at you. To prevent this, always leave a covenant by talking to Oswald of Carim. You will find this NPC in the tower of the Undead Church. I think he appears right after you ring the bell. Also, if you make an NPC angry you can come to see this guy and pay him to get your sins pardoned (and be friends again with the NPCs). Breaking a covenant with him is free. Being pardonned costs [Your level*2000] in Souls. Better safe than sorry.

5. At some point you'll meet a cat. She is VERY sensitive, so I suggest you agree with what she says (she's a real diva and hates being told NO). If you make her angry or are not satisfied with what she offered you, refer to #4.

5. If a boss has a tail, try to chop it.

6. Upgrade, upgrade, upgrade! This will make a world of difference to you.

7. Some unassuming items become very good if upgraded. A good exemple of this is the Hollow Soldier Shield, which is one of the best shield in the game at +10 (for now, it's going to be nerfed soon).

8. Stability is very important on a shield, as it allows you to lose less stamina by blocking blows (and as such block more/harder blows). Good contenters for this are: All greatshields, the Hollow Shield when upgraded (past +5 or so), the Balder shield when unupgraded (past +5 I believe Hollow is better).

9. In the Church you can unlock an elevator/shortcut back to Firelink. When you get there, play around with the elevator. There is a few secrets to be found. Open you eyes, and practice your jumping.

10. Do not be afraid to die, especially if it's by trying stuff. There are amzing things to be discovered this way. Also, try to stay away from the Wiki, as it abounds with spoilers and you might end up feeling like you finished the game without having played it halfway. We already said a lot, but nothing too spoilerish. And we'll be glad to continue helping you.

Incidently, what was your starting class?

The trait was so good that it became a "must take" a very good sign that it was far from balance with the other traits. It was a standard part of any munchkin weapon user's toolbox. The only downside about this revision was that it wasn't the way the trait was released originally.

Ok, let me review. It went from a trait that gave you a free MW Weapon (Rich parents gives you easily 3, and you can sell back the weapons afterwards when they are no more needed), a +1 bonus to hit all the time, and proficiency with the weapon.

Granted, that rocks. The trait gave you a weapon that defined you, and gave you good reason to spend ridiculous amounts of money enchanting it (by selling found loot for half its value or less and then paying full price for the enchant, plus the waiting time).

Then, you could lose the weapon, have it stolen, broken, shattered, confiscated, etc, and completely lose that trait forever.

Not only can you still easily lose your trait bonus forever, but that bonus is now only either a proficiency with a lame weapon most classes meant for combat can already use anyways (except for those poor Inquisitors), a +1 bonus to hit on AoOs or a +2 on combat manoeuvers made with weapons (and both are useless on most ennemies after level 6 since they are all large or bigger anyways).

Now, this traits is only worth considering (barely) for Inquisitors, reach fighters with combat reflexes and maneuver monks. For any other class, and any other situation, it is utter crap.

Alternatively I can get a freakin' +2 to initiative that applies all the time, stacks with everything and that nothing can ever remove.

Or a trait that could also permanently buff one of your saves (preferably your weakest save) by +1, (and with the relatively slow scaling of saves and saves DC's a +1 is a pretty relevant bonus).

Or a new class skill (preferably one of those nifty super useful skill you could really use like Diplomacy, UMD, or relevant knowledge skill (that's equivalent to a +4 bonus by the way, BETTER than skill focus, wich is a feat, and that you can still take anyways).

Now, you have a choice of a permanent bonus to something that comes in play quite often, or a an extremely situational bonus (and temporary unless you pay good money to upgrade the weapon) that you can lose in a flash for ever.

I don't know, but in the groups where I played, heirloom weapon would appear as a trait only rarely (generally taken by an Inquisitor as a get-out-of-suck card, or by the fighter to play around with an exotic weapon). But it seems every character and their mother was [i] bullied often as a child, but never quite developped an offensive response[i], is a Warrior of Old, or have Elven Reflexes. Oh, and most tried to take two of those, before I rolled eyes at them saying "Silly player, same typed bonuses do not stack".

That trait was nerfed into oblivion and is now drastically inferior to pretty much all other traits. It was already not a "trait so good everybody must take it", now nobody in their right mind would even look at it twice.

Due to some magical force from another dimension, have them all switch bodies . . . and I don't mean just switch PCs. Mix up the character sheets and hand them out randomly, and tell them they each need to roleplay their character in another character's body.

Or have eac member of the party inflicted with different combinations of blindess/deafness/invisibility.

Of jump them forward in time to D20 Modern.

Or just turn them into pixies. Or smurfs.

How is your avatar a smurf? Can you import outside pictures, or is this one in the avatar picture list? In both case, I did'nt see the option... O_o

*EDIT* Ooooohh.... Neat.

Here's an idea. Are they in a dungeon? Have them come accross a very ominous looking door. Large double stone or metal doors, heavily decorated, possibly locked or guarded. They'll probably think it's the treasury or a boss room (most probably the latest, double doors and all) and prepare accordingly, buffing to the max. When they actually get through... the room turns out to be a food reserve, stocked full of magically preserved fish.

Hey, at least they got free food out of the deal!

Have 4th Edition version of their characters ready for them, and tell them that you are switching the campaign to 4th.

See how many get up and want to leave.

<ROFL>

We have a winner!