Gibbs's page

I could be swayed to playing on my Mac versus Windows.

I say remove capstones all together, if its based on reaching "level" 20 of a class. It might as well just be an additonal ability. My take of a capstone was a reward for being dedicated at one class from beginning to end.

An analogy would be the classes are organizations and if you multi-class (Cleric/Paladin) you are splitting your loyalty between multiple organizations. If you are working at Paladin, you aren't putting any effort in Cleric, so you are, indirectly, hurting the Cleric "organization". A capstone would be a gift given after reaching the highest level of the organization, if you spent your entire time benefitting the Cleric path.

Taken another way, let's say the absolute minimum time it takes to reach maximum level for any class is 2.5 years. The capstone is given as a reward to anyone who reaches that level in 2.5 years. Not 2.8 nor 2.5 + 3 days.

This whole thing about fixing mistakes can be a big can of worms, unless everything is set in stone from day 1. The moment anything is changed, no matter how small, someone will complain that they would not have chosen that path had they known. Treating it as a mistake, even though they may have benefited from it "pre-nerf" for several months. The same people will want the ability to constantly change ("reroll") based on the "flavor" of the month.

In summary, the capstone is a bonus not a privilege. It should be given to only a few dedicated individuals.

Gibbs

Gibbs wrote:

How so? I started reading this thread a week from when it started and haven't quite finished it yet. But, if this is how things are going to be worked out, it makes little sense to me. Casting cure wounds on anyone can only be construed as good. If said healer witnessed the actual crime, then not so much, but evil?

You are thinking too much from a role-play perspective. If healing evil players isn't a criminal act than many evil players will have an escort of good-aligned healers and buffers while they terrorize blues.

Sometimes game mechanics have to trump role-play for the sake of preventing abuse. Besides, a criminal flag doesn't mean you are evil.

Are you implying than that ALL evil aligned characters are criminals? Also it seems that all criminals are flagged in some way to indicate that they are criminals? So, if I perform a criminal act in Town A and travel halfway across the world to Town B, I'm still considered a criminal in Town B? And anyone that may help me is AUTOmatically flagged as a criminal? Your example isn't very helpful, since the escort of good-aligned healers would be assisting the evil players in doing the crime. That is entirely different than healing a thief that happens to be running from the law.

Scenario:
Angry man walks into a bar and punches another man in the face. After a short fight, angry man stops fighting and tries to leave the bar. Is he flagged as a criminal? If so, its okay for anyone to just KILL the man without any repercussions?

Full details of above:
Angry man was robbed and his wife cruelly beaten a month prior by the man he attacked. It took him a month to have the courage to confront the man, but as he was fighting realized killing the man wasn't right, he decided to leave and have the man arrested for his crimes.

I'm not sure if "casting cure wounds on a thief who is on the run" IS evil. What if you're a healer of one of those groups that believes it is their duty to heal ANYONE in need? I think that would make you lawful good. Mechanically it would make you a criminal though.

It's complicated!

How so? I started reading this thread a week from when it started and haven't quite finished it yet. But, if this is how things are going to be worked out, it makes little sense to me. Casting cure wounds on anyone can only be construed as good. If said healer witnessed the actual crime, then not so much, but evil? Never.

Since when is compassion ever a crime. What if said thief, is stealing to keep several poor families alive during severe hardships and this "thief on the run" was just fired from the only job he could find, due to no fault of his own. Unless that "thief" is carrying a big sign "Evil Thief here on the run!", how do I know casting "cure wounds" on this person is an evil act? The answer, I hope, is you don't. And as an action, it should never be an evil act. But, based on your own alignment, may have different shifts?

In the case of an evil character, the shifts should be very small, unless you are casting on a "good" character, where the shift would be more significant. In my opinion, most evil healers wouldn't be casting "cure wounds" on anyone that needed them, unless there were some personal benefit to doing so. But, I digress.

Oh, what if you were actual a good healer in an evil area and the "thief on the run" was a chaotic good thief? Does that make you a criminal or evil?

Back to finishing this interesting discussion.