Galdar's page

Currently reading William King's Gotrek & Felix saga, just finishing up with Daemonslayer (book 3) before moving onto Dragonslayer. Thoroughly enjoying myself, and recommending the series to everyone I know. If you're a fan of fast-paced, gritty action and adventure across a masterfully painted backdrop of the world of Warhammer, then I suggest you pick up this series.

Also, for the times when I don't have long enough to properly settle into G&F, I'm working my way through Tales of the Old World, a collection of Warhammer short stories by various authors. Less than halfway through, and so far the overall quality of the collection is pretty darned good. I'm hoping the trend continues. Could do with more orcs, though...

And, How To Fossilise Your Hamster (and other amazing experiments for the armchair scientist) is also causing me some joy. Finally, science I can understand, and in some cases actually use (just waiting now to find out of plastic milk can be used as a cheap modelling material). A really fascinating read anyway, and highly recommended to just about everyone.

On my 'coming soon...' list are;

Gotrek & Felix; The Second Omnibus by William King
The Bloodbowl Omnibus by Matt Forbeck
(Dragonlance) Heroes Volumes 1-4
(Dragonlance) Villains Volume 4
(Dragonlance) Preludes Volumes 1+2
(Dragonlance) Preludes 2 Volumes 2+3
The Complete Chronicles of Conan by Robert E. Howard
The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe
The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorne saga by Tad Williams
The Damned series by David Gemmel
The Drenai series by David Gemmel

Note to self: Must buy less books for a while.

Posted this already in the obituaries thread as a side note, but what the hey, it can go here too.

PC: ??? Varlance (first name escapes me atm) - Skarn Cleric of Wee Jas
Adventure: Here There Be Monsters

I had been unconsciously picking on the cleric for the whole session, and when I realised it, I had whacked him down (via bar-lgura harem in the Shrine to Demogorgan) to -9 hp. He failed to stabalise and lay dead on the cavern floor. The warlock was standing next to him, happened to be holding a wand of CLW, AND was acting on the same initiative. He asked if he could 'jump start' the cleric with the wand, so I stuck a high DC on the Use Magic Device check to balance it off a little and told him to go for it. By some miracle he made the check and the cleric was 0 hp and stabalised. It was a sort of apology for beating on the guy incessantly for the last four hours.

Also, the cleric again, back in The Bullywug Gambit, when the PC's first witness the effects of a Savage Tide. They were tromping through the jungle and were attacked by the savage monkeys. For some reason, the cleric (slowest of the party) and the scout had gotten ahead of the fighter and the warlock and the monkeys ambushed them. The scout managed to keep her attackers at bay while the others caught up, but the cleric was less lucky. Miserably unable to hit the damn monkey, it set about crawling all over him and hitting him with every attack it made. The cleric, wearing full plate at the time, was at a loss to understand how the damn thing kept hitting him, until we decided it had managed to crawl inside his armour somehow (and the cleric's phobia of monkeys was born). Anyway, this monkey turned out to be practically invincible, beating the cleric in a three-round grappling contest, until the fighter caught up and helped to pin the thing down while the warlock levelled an eldritch blast at its skull and blew a hole in it. The cleric was down to about 2 or 3 hp by this time...

I miss that monkey.

(Can't find my notes at the moment, so character names are what I can remember, some are first names, some last names).

Party:

Freddy ??? - Human Fighter (TWF tree)
??? Varlance - Skarn Cleric of Wee Jas
Kirchoff ??? - Human Warlock
Laneya - Halfling Scout

PC: Kirchoff - Human Warlock 8
Adventure: Here There Be Monsters
Location of Death: Shrine to Demogorgon
Catalyst: A bad day for the character and the player.

After almost losing the cleric to Olangru's Harem (technically a death, but I twisted a house rule a little out of guilt for having been picking on the cleric for the whole session without realising it), and then a near-TPK at the hands of the fiendish baboon mob (I LOVE grapple), the party find the secret room and open it up.

Now, the player was having a bad day, as was the character. The scout had also been having some issues with her trapfinding/disabling. As Laneya approached the two chests carefully, the rest of the party standing out in the throne room, Kirchoff had a bout of impatience and strode into the room.

"We don't have time for this!" he declares, levelling a finger loaded with an eldritch blast at one of the chests.

I asked the player whether he was seriously about to 'zot' the chest. He confirmed that this was so, so I told him to choose right or left.

Yeah...he chose left. And failed his reflex save. The difference between the scout's reflex save and the warlock's was enough that the scout effectively used the warlock as a human shield to avoid the resulting fireball.

Needless to say, Warlock hit points aren't enough to take fireball damage.

On a side note, there were technically two character deaths by this point. I had been unconsciously picking on the cleric for the whole session, and when I realised it, I had whacked him down (via bar-lgura harem) to -9 hp. He failed to stabalise and lay dead on the cavern floor. The warlock was standing next to him, happened to be holding a wand of CLW, AND was acting on the same initiative. He asked if he could 'jump start' the cleric with the wand, so I stuck a high DC on the Use Magic Device check to balance it off a little and told him to go for it. By some miracle he made the check and the cleric was 0 hp and stabalised. It was a sort of apology for beating on the guy incessantly for the last four hours.

What I find most interesting in the discussions of what books to allow is that most of the time the issues described by folks seem to come down to (in my mind at least) issues with the DM or issues with players... not really issues with the rules themselves or additions from the books.

Sean Mahoney

I tend to agree. In the same sense that "No adventure ever survives its first encounter with the players", we can say that "No rules ever survive their interpretations".

Woah...ok, I SO didn't come here to start a fight.

Perhaps I should clarify a little (as I often make these posts while tired or distracted, or both.)

At the time of my original post, we were looking like having four or five players for this game. As of today, it's looking more like three. So, I'm going to have to prepare for the fact that I may well have to take on a more front line combat role. NOT the party tank, but at least a capable fighter (imagine the fighter tied up battling three orcs, while two more try and sneak up on the wizard...I'll be the wizard's bard-yguard whilst still aiding the fighter from afar).

Whether this comes about or not, I'm only looking into The Options That Are AVAILABLE for Bards. So, if I want to be focused on the spells and skills and social bits of being a bard, then I have an idea of What's Available for me to go about it. Similarly, if I want to have a decent support fighter who can kick out some useful buffs on the fly, then I have an idea how to go in that direction as well.

I will agree that I have been the party tank for too long. The last four years has seen me with combined AC/Attack bonuses higher than the boss monster's hit points. That's the reason I want to step back and do something else. I am fully intending to be the party spokesperson and social butterfly that a bard should be, because that's what I'm playing the class specifically to do. However, regardless of how many people we end up with, my character conception is that she's a bit of a tough cookie and can look after herself. Again, NOT the party tank, but someone...versatile.

"Oh look, he wizard's flanked again"
"Never fear *tumble, flip, flank, stab* I shall rescue the wizard!"

"Oh crap, the dragon's going to eat us!"
"You know, dragon, you're the most impressive of your race I've ever seen. We were just so surprised by your awsomeness we thought you were going to eat us, but now I see you merely wanted to show us how utterly fabulous you are."

And so on... (for the record, I realise even the LG dragon would eat us if I actually said that, but you get the idea.)

I think the party is likely to consist of (bard, obviously), a paladin (or cleric) and a tank fighter. The DM is sensible (and nice) enough to adjust the encounters slightly to fit our needs (so, not too many traps we can't get around, for example).

My very vague understanding of the bard is that, at it's core, it's a jack-of-all-trades class. To make it a specialist in anything you have to devote time and effort in taking it down a particular 'path'. Yes, the same can be said of the fighter, but at its core, the fighter is always the combat-guy, it's what he does and he does it well. The bard, OTOH, can do a lot of things, and be inspiring at the same time, but he's only really 'good' at something he takes the time to develop over all else. For example, he can fight and cast spells, but to be really good at one he has to let the other be sub-par.

Of course, I could have gotten it all completely bass-ackwards, as I sometimes do.

Combat keeps being highlighted all the way through this thread, and I know why. Combat is a HUGE part of the game and everyone wants to be good at it. The exceptions are the heavy spellcasters (sorcerers, wizards, warlocks, etc) who can remove themselves relatively easily from harms way while they blast off a few destructive spells. But that's kind of the point of a heavy spellcaster; them d4's ain't gonna stand for a lot of abuse, so get out the way and abuse everyone else's HD. As far as I know, bards are more a utility spellcaster, so their job is buffing, distracting, immobilizing, etc. If I'm not completely misguided (possible), they also get Use Magic Device, so they can convince scrolls (or whatever) that they know what they're doing, and get off a selection of the spells that make the wizard go "Muahahahahaaaaa!".

On a personal note, I quite like multiclassing/prestige classes. I never go overboard, and I don't always do it, but sometimes it's good to be able to do. There's no need to have as much class as background, but sometimes the most effective way to get at what you really want your character to be is to multiclass a little. I personally think that class/class/prestige is starting to extract the wee-wee, and any more than that is a needless waste of time, but class/class or class/prestige is perfectly acceptable and can enhance a character in just the right ways. Of course, that's something that has the potential to start more arguments, so moving swiftly on...

Yet again, I'm not looking to be the main combatant, or spellcaster, or sneaky trapfinder, or anything like that, and player numbers are likely to fluctuate a little before we get to The Big Day. What I'm doing now is looking at the options so, when The Big Day comes and everyone gets to the table and says, "I'm a fighter", and then people have to start re-thinking, I can just go get another drink from the bar because I know their discussion and change of characters is not going to affect my class choice.

I'll be focusing on being a bard...casting, performing, being the charismatic party leader, and all that happy jollity, BUT I'm also curious as to how to get a relatively effective combat character in a few easy steps for when all those other skills are voided. Even if all I do is hold the monsters off while the damage machine makes his way over to help out.

Quite honestly, any discussion with bards at the core is useful to me, because I like to find out what experiences others have had with them and how they think they worked out, so I can understand the capabilities of the class better. I mean, I can choose a fighter build easily enough, as I've said, because I've read the relevant material and had the experience. I'm now looking for the right material to check out and other people's experiences to help me do the same for something I know little about. Honestly, I don't think I've ever been in a party that contained a bard. Apart from back in 2nd Ed, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.

In conclusion, I talk FAR too much, and ALL suggestions/opinions are welcome, as far as I'm concerned.

I think you two, Vurai and GeraintElberion, should kiss and make up ;)

Oh, as a not-really-relevent aside, the spellcards, or something similar, are something I really do need, and not just for my bard. I'll need them for speeding up my DMing as well (too many times I've brought the game to a complete halt because I can't figure out what I'm supposed to do. Flipping through the PHB EVERY time is SO frustrating and makes me feel like a moron). However, I did notice the free downloadable blank cards. That'd be enough for my needs. I have a real serious mental block with spells. It's like the equivalent of dyslexia.

My 2p worth.

First off, let me wish you as much heart-stopping action, jumping-around-singing joy and truly hilarious death in your run-through of the AoWAP as we had in ours.

Our trip through the AoW AP was a fairly dodgy balancing act. Human paladin/freedom variant, half-dragon warmage, shifter druid/moonspeaker, human ninja (brief stint as a bugbear), minotaur barbarian/reaping mauler and, last couple of issues, tiefling warlock.

Worth noting is that we lost the players of both the paladin and the warmage before fighting Ilthane and before Prince Zeech's party.

It's been a bit of a rollercoaster, particularly for the poor DM, who had never run a game before (and who will never let us get that fruity with our characters again), but all of us being experienced players helped smooth over the rough parts pretty well.

It helped that we're used to using whatever books come to hand, with the universal rule; "Core is fine, anything else, ask the DM." To begin with, the DM just ran the first issue as printed and made a whole bunch of notes on any issues that cropped up and how to address them. From then on it really was just a matter of understanding what the characters could do and doing some pre-emptive tweaking to the encounters, with extra tweaks on the fly when things were looking a little too easy. Even extra secret-HP and a couple of extra prepared spells, or a potion and a fudged roll to get away and drink it can make just enough difference to an encounter without it being too challenging.

One of the things our DM did with every 'important' enemy was carefully check all the prepared spells and decide in advance whether they were likely to use them against our particular party. Anything he realistically could swap out for something else a little more useful, he generally did. Of course you have to make sure you do this convincingly enough so it doesn't look like cheating, but it's fairly easy to get away with if you don't overdo it.

I'm currently running the STAP for the same group, and we've got a similar party set-up in terms of fruity abilities (skirmish...oh lord, SKIRMISH *bangs head on table*), but I'm using similar tactics here again. I know a lot of people don't like the supplements, and my own personal view is that, so much of the core stuff is tweaked at every gaming table to fit our individual group's needs, I don't see why it's so hard to do with the supplemental stuff either. Of course, I can see both sides of the argument, and the introduction of a lot of this extra material can break a game if not managed properly. However, I use the rule that, if the players can use the supplements, so can I. Class levels for monsters, swapping out feats/abilities, sometimes classes/prestige classes...

One thing I will say is that we used the 4d6, disregard the lowest roll for our stats. Also, everyone rolled two stat lines and picked their favourite. (We did this for both the AoW and the ST.) This made for some fairly significant differences in characters to begin with (the minotaur, for example, gets a total +8 Str increase and +6 [I believe] Con increase over the course of 8 levels...couple that with 4 ability points, a Belt of Giant Strength, and a natural 18 to begin with and you're looking at a prodigious score.) What you tend to end up with is a couple of fairly average-stat characters, and a couple of heroic-stat characters. This can be unbalanced in itself.

We're starting the Rise of the Runelords after christmas and everyone has voted for a point-buy system this time around, just to keep things a little more balanced from the get-go. We'll still be using the supplements, but I think all our base classes/races are coming from the PHB, so the supplements are literally going to be supplemental, probably just with prestige classes (although there are normally only a couple of those per campaign) and a couple of feats taken from them.

We do also use the MIC, and have had no trouble with it as of yet. Some of the item sets can get a bit crazy, but if you don't like them you can always just say that they're unique pieces and will require some work to get. This has the added bonus of extra adventures incurred in getting hold of all the pieces from a set, only to discover that one or more of the items have been tainted or altered in some way and the only way to restore them to their former glory is to go on another adventure to find the crazy Red Wizard of Knowledge in the Desert of Death, but the Wizard has been spirited away to the Aquatic Undercity of Soggy Doom and you have to bla bla bla.

You know...something like that ;)

Anyway, that turned into a bit of a ramble, and I think everything I said had already been mentioned, so feel free to roll your eyes and scroll past.

I vaguely recall one of the AOW adventure paths had a titan in it. Can anyone tell me which dungeon this was in?

Thanks.

My notes tell me that it was the run-down keep on the southern beach of Tilagos Island (I think...illiterate barbarian scribblings), which was issue #132, I believe. A quick check tells me that issue #132 was The Library of Last Resort.

And the Titan would have been one hell of a lot easier to deal with had there not been a minotaur in the party...oops.

Thanks for all the replies, I'm finding them pretty damned useful so far.

I do have access to all the Complete... series, and the majority of the other supplements as well, so finding the right book shouldn't be a problem.

I have to say that the Spellcards look just about perfect for my purposes, so that's something I'll definitely be investing in. Special thanks to KaeYoss for pointing me at those ;)

Weapon Finesse is going to be pretty much a given, since I forsee Str being my dump stat (oh the horror!)...and Zurai's suggestions intrigue me. I shall have to find the books and learn more. The DM probably has them all anyway, compulsive-buyer that he is.

Mmmm...all comments very much appreciated. It's certainly given me something to think about. And I have just this second remembered the Shadowdancer prestige class, which I shall have to read up on.

Thanks again!

Well hello, and all that.

My group are just finishing up with the AoW AP (much fun had by all, I'm pleased to announce) and we're looking at starting Pathfinder's Rise of the Runelords after christmas.

I usually play either the front-line BBN or FTR, or the Rogue. This is mostly because those classes don't have any magic to worry about other than their items. I have this sort of innate terror of the spells section of the PHB because I have a really hard time remembering how all the spells work. Anything to do with magic has to be explained to me over and over again, and I find it quite a headache, tbh. I've tried playing all the core classes (except bard and wizard) and have found that I just can't cope with characters who have lots of magic to use.

Anyway...wanting to do something a little different for this new game, I found myself looking at the bard: it's not magic-heavy, I've never played one before, and the more I think about it, the more I think I could have a really great time playing one.

I'm thinking of playing a female half-elf, who will probably be a bit mischievious and manipulative (although not in a malicious way). She's probably going to be the type who makes hilarious fun out of getting men out of their pants...so she can steal them and see what they've got that's of value. A real 'charmer', essentially.

Anyway...my problem is feats. I can outfit any fighter-type with ass-kicking feats without even referring to the manuals, because I use that character type all the time. But bards don't really strike me as being the type to benefit from that sort of feat choice. For the record, I'm thinking of having her *very* Dex-based, possibly with some two-weapon fighting and weapon finesse feats. I'm not intending to plan my character progression out level-for-level now, but I'd like to have an idea of what's available as good options for a bard. i don't really want her to be a 'ranged' combatant, because I get bored with ranged weapons...of course, she may have to take that role, but I'd like to do what I can to stop that from being a necessity.

And, now I think about it, are there any prestige classes that stick out in your mind as being good for bards? I'm going for 'interesting' as opposed to just powerful.

Of course, I have little-to-no control over my characters once they get into a game, so I could just see what she does and go with it...

Well, any insights (or amusing comments) appreciated.

PC Name: Garret Melinkovft - Level 12 Pladin of Kord (Freedom variant for that CG flavour)
Adventure: A Gathering of Winds
Location of Death: True Tomb
Catalyst: Forgetful player + Occulus demon
Long Description:

So our Paladin was being played by a newbie. Well, not quite. He'd had a short experience in a past game, and we'd run off-the-cuff combats for him to get to grips with the system, but in the end, he just forgot stuff.

For some reason, he had to remove his full plate armour. Can't remember if it was swimming or climbing, but he needed not to have that abysmal armour check penalty. Checks made, the party go barging around the place, looking for evil to wallop and loot to steal, when they come across the occulus demon. Just after he declares his intention to charge, the Paladin remembers he forgot to put his armour back on...

The minotaur is the first into combat, bellowing a battle cry and making one hell of a hole in the monstrosity. The Ninja slips into the ethereal plane and gets into position. The Paladin, as ever, is not far behind the minotaur, and charges in, swinging his greatsword with skill and lethal power. The Druid and the Warmage take up their positions at the back of the group, piling their best offensive spells on the horror.

The occulus demon attempts to hit the minotaur, but despite his best efforts [high d20 roll], it is unable to penetrate the minotaur's defense. Enraged, it turns on the human, and rains blow after blow on the Paladin's unprotected body. Despite the best efforts of his comrades, the Paladin's soft flesh is no protection against the power of the demon, and Garret falls...

The moral of this story? Wear the armour you spent all that hard-earned loot buying!

Actually, it turned out that that was the player's final session anyway. He got a new job that conflicted with our gaming time, so the death was conveniently placed.

Waaaaaay back at the beginning of the AP (I think it was at the Whispering Cairn), our group decided they needed some evidence that they'd killed someone/something...it's so far back I can't even remember exactly why we did it. All I know is, we took a severed head back to town as 'evidence'. Then we took another, and another, and another... This became a trend, and now all the heads (although now we only take them as trophies) are properly preserved and stored in, of all things, a bag of holding.

Consequentially, it took about 3 seconds to come up with our team name: The Head Collectors.