JDinkum's page

I would love to increase the in character RPing through combats.

First, get some chalk. Then draw your battlegrid, to scale, on a basketball court. Don't forget the tiger.

Again ... all else being equal. Basically now you could walk 14.4 miles/day along I-70 through the Rocky Mountains (Barren, Stone, Military Road, Low Mountains for path-of-least-resistance) rather than 24 miles across flat, open ground.

The steeper climb up Trail-Ridge Road on foot would get you 9.6 miles/day.

Climbing overland up and down and up and down the deep mountains (Steep Mountains, Broken Surface, Thin Forest or Minor Obstructions, Trackless) slows you down to a mere 2.7 miles/day.

Hmmm...I think any sort of path should give you a plus, relative to open "barren" ground. Hiking on almost any trail is easier than open ground, unless it's a hardpacked desert playa. Even the uneveness of rock is harder on the feet than a roadway. I think walking I 70 would be as easy as an open plain. Maybe the Ground Cover section should only apply under the Trackless part, with greater penalties?

And then elevation is tough, because you usually don't climb straight up a mountain, but switchback, so your effective distance might only be a few miles, but your feet have covered a lot more.

4, I’ve had issues with the lack of usefulness of the shield. It seems like people take it simply for the one or two point increase to AC but then ignore it. I’m working on a way to make a shield more of an active defense. My main idea is that a character could take a feat which will allow them to sacrifice the shield bonus to AC and instead make a Shield Block roll against their opponent’s attack roll. If they roll equal to or higher then their opponent’s attack roll then their shield takes the damage instead. This is where the shield hardness and hit points table comes in handy, as well as the option for making different kinds of shields. The mechanic for the roll would look just like an attack roll; BAB+Str+Feats+Masterwork or Magic=Total Shield Block Bonus.

Interesting...

Our house rule is called "Take it on the Buckler" though it can be used with any shield.

If an attack roll succeeds, but succeeds by an amount equal to or less than the shield's bonus to AC, the character can opt to "take it on the buckler". Meaning the shield takes the damage (using its hardness and hp (but always takes a minimum of 1 hp damage). If the shields hp are exceeded it is destroyed.

I suppose you could apply this as an option to any attack that succeeds. And add that if the damage was greater than the shield's hp, the excess is applied to the PC.

"The orc's rusty axe shatters the wooden shield and only bites into your shoulder rather than shearing it off."

This example is meta-gaming at its core. Just because I know that a fall won't kill me, doesn't mean my PC would. If I ever have a player do this, they'll either suffer the above penalties (more or less depending on the situation) or just land on their neck and die regardless of HP, no save. This is nothing more than a DM meta-gaming a meta-gamer, sounds fair to me.

Eh. Not a big deal for me.

I see it as the equivalent as looking off a big cliff and saying to myself, "I could jump off this and get hurt, or get really really hurt, but I don't think I'll die." Which, thank god, I've never experienced without already having a rope tied around me.

As others have stated, the hp system is perhaps the least believable (*cough* realistic) system in the game, this is just a play on that.

They're okay losing xd6 hp, next time I'll make the cliff even higher!

Meta Gamer – A player who uses rules knowledge or OOC (Out of Character) knowledge to try to drive game play situations.

That's a pretty good definition, but most of your examples aren't metagaming. They simply players not following what you want them to do.

I'd like to put a Q&A together for common and not so common DM annoyances do to meta gaming, rules lawyers, and just messed up players. Try to keep the posts in a consistent format for ease of use. Basically if you have a player problem, post what they are trying to pull off and us learned GMs will try to post a appropriate answer. If you have a common issue and answer post it as:

You post offering help, but maybe you need to be open to accepting help.

I believe a DM should follow the first rule of Improv: Don't deny. A player tells me what they are doing, not the result. I let them attempt to do it.

Joe player: "I XXX to YYY for ZZZ.”
Joe DM Says “Dude, your not there! You’re inside getting drunk!”

I don't understand this.

Joe Player: “Hey, I saw this wheel of cheese in Waterdeep for 2 gold a wheel, its only 2 silver up here in Icewind Dale! I’m going to buy 100 and put it in my bag of holding and go to Waterdeep.
Joe DM: “So, you want to retire the character and have him become a merchant. Ok, re-roll and make an ADVENTURER.”

Who's metagaming here? Not the PC. The PC is using information he knows from buying cheese in two different locales to try to make a profit. Play on.

You're the one talking about rolling characters. Ugh.

Joe Player: “I Detect traps on this 5’ square… I take 1 step, I Detect traps on this 5’ square…ect”
Joe DM: “You pull out your thieves tools and pull out the pressure rod, drag the rod…..” This explanation should be long drawn out and boring. Indicating that this level of paranoia would drive even the most devout rogue insane.

I think this has been discussed enough on this thread.

I do draw out my explanation a little when a player takes 20, mostly though just on the rogue who's terrible at opening locks and then only a little to make a point.

Joe Player: I cast Grease over there, next round I light the grease on fire burning them all.”

Joe DM: “Grease may be flammable but it is beyond the scale of this spell. Mayhaps it’s not literally grease, just a grease like substance.”

Again with the DM metagame response. How about:

DM: "Okay. As you stick the tindertwig on the slippery area of the floor, your defenses are lowered and the Kobold takes a swing. You feel the bite of his spear (take 3 hp damage). Depsite your best efforts the slippery area does not light. The Kobold jabs you again and hits you in your shoulder (take 4 hp damage). What do you want to do now?"

Joe Player: “I pull wand and cast mage shield because the DM just rolled...

This is the metagaming I have a problem with. I would ask them to give me an in-game reason why they're casting a spell if they said this out loud, but it's usually not a problem because I also fake roll all night long. Mostly because I like rolling.

Joe Player: “Hey guys, come over here and roll spot because I failed mine”

Joe DM: There are many rolls the DM can make for the player. The player simply doesn’t know when they make or fail some rolls. Spot, Listen, Appraise, Search (Find trap). One of my favorite responses to Find Traps is “You don’t THINK you find any traps”

Borderline. I've considered taking the die rolls away from the players but discarded it. Die rolling is fun. I don't buy that a PC would know he failed to see something, but I don't think this affects the game very much. After all if there's no time penalty (approaching monsters) who cares? He could be taking 20 anyway.

"You don't find any traps" is no different than "You don't think you find any traps" in my games.

This response also works for:
Joe Player: “I rolled a 3 on my appraise, I’m not going to sell this till someone else appraises it for me.”

Again, I hate to take die rolls away from the players. Let 'em find someone else to appraise if they want. The value may or may not change depending on my mood. It might even go down with a higher appraise, regardless of the value I had assigned to it before the PC found it. But I won't SAY that to the players.

Joe Player: “The rogue sees treasure? I go over there.”
Joe DM: “Really? The rogue told you he sees treasure? You have cast Mind Vision on him? You have no clue he sees treasure, put your mini back next to the spike trap, roll reflex.”

Well, I'm sure your players love you.

Make them roll play. They have to Spot the rogue. Roll a Sense Motive. If no go, the PC will have to give me a good motivation for wanting to move over there.

Joe Player: “I wanna stick my XXX in the YYY to ZZZ”

DM: "Ok. Roll a reflex save." I do that whether there's something in the YYY or not.

What else am I missing?

Don't deny.

What are the meta- implications of removing XP penalties for multiclassing? Would everyone take a level of Rogue at 1st for the skills then Fighter at 2nd for the feat and then moves on?

Anyone houserule multiclassing differently than RAW?

Evil campaign?

Orcs.

Warforged Goblin wrote:

Does it crit? If it does, off with his head!

Well, that's what I don't get. Is it any auto-threat?

True Strike isn't an auto threat. It just ("just") adds a +20 to hit. Still need to roll in threat range to threat a crit.

Why not eliminate the ability for any spell to remove fatigue and exhaustion? Or to do so for spellcasters? Or spellcasters who've become fatigued or exhausted through spell use?

Raptor's Sight reduces range penalties to -1 instead of -2 if you have 5 or more ranks in Spot and Swiftwing arrows only incure half normal range penalties.

Both do the same thing, reduce the range penalty in half. So you end up with a range penalty of -.5 and in the tradition of rounding non-integers down, you've got a range penalty of -1.

This is kind of off-topic, but has anyone else thought that you should be able to have vermin as familiars?

I have. My DM and I worked out an agreement on a new 5th level Druid that had a spider familiar. She was a specialized summoner and I forget the details, but I gave up a spell slot or two to allow the Tiny spider enlarge to Large or from Large back to Tiny on command so many times per day.

Never thought of riding it.

Thanks guys I will take all the considerations into account. I had already decided to start the adventure at a bar (what adventures don't start there) but I like the idea of retreiving an bottomless keg!

I'm thinking of restricting class choice to Fighter, Barbarian, Sorcerer, Ranger and Rogue and dropping the Small races, to 'simple' things up. Thought?

Otherwise, it would mean that a centaur could not take ranks in tumble, or

"Shun the unbeliever....SHUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNN!"

This was a corrolary question in another thread, but it never got answered. So...do movement penalties stack if they're not of the same "type?

Namely, does the 1/2 movement penalty of an entanglement (from a tanglefoot bag or a net say) stack with the 1/2 movement from getting stuck with a harpoon (which doesn't give a "type" for the penalty)?

I was going to jump in on the other "intro" thread, but I figured the issues are different. I've been playing in a regular group for about 5 or 6 years now. The group has dwindled from the original 7 to 4 and the main DM is leaving for a few months (in the middle of the STAP). I've run a few nights as a DM with a pre-built (Kingsholm) and am pretty comfy as a screen monkey.

I've got a set of non-gamer friends, rugby players to drink a truth potion, who used to tease me a bit when I told them what I was doing on a Saturday night, but that teasing has turned into genuine interest and there's 3 that want in.

I think I'll start it up in a few weeks, but I'm not sure where to begin. I've said I want a 4 session minimum commitment and at least 1 of the other 2.5 players is in too.

Any suggestions on a mini adventure that will hook a few guys with no experience in 4 sesssions? I figure the first night would be character build (organic, who doesn't love rolling dice?) and then a little fight to get the blood up, but I don't know where to really start or a story arc that will only last a few sessions (but with the possibility of more...).

Any ideas?

Any Spell that has an attack roll can do sneak attacks if it meets the requirements for it to be a sneak attack. But it always does HP Dmg.

...

Spells that require a to hit roll that do Stat Dmg do Negeative Energy HP Sneak Attack Dmg.

Can you tell me where to find this in the books?

Does a multiclass Rogue Wizard get sneak attack damage when hitting with a Wand of Shocking Grasp (assuming all prerequisites for sneak attack are met)?

Do entanglements stack? If a creature gets hit with a net and a tanglefoot bag (fails saving throw) does he suffer 2x the penalties (to attack and Dex) and move at 1/4 speed? Also if he gets hit with a net and a harpoon, does he move at 1/4 speed?

Thanks

Looks like the Ranger misread the description and convinced everyone else to misread it too!

One of our party members used Hunter's Mercy for the first time last night and the DM was not happy. The ranger, with his +4 composite longbow fired an arrow with a cold iron head at a jacked red cap in the cliffs near on Ft. Blackwell during the STAP. Even though he was using multishot and the red cap had cover, the ranger argued he had an automatic hit and crit threat.

The DM thought the spell was broken, the ranger (obviously) argued for it. It was the heat of battle of a long night, so the DM let it go though he said no to the multishot.

What do you guys think? If DMing would you allow this spell? If an archer ranger would you NOT take it?

Search + Spot = Rummage.
Hide + Move Silently = Stealth

We average the two scores, rounding down.

1) PCs using magic items when they don't know what they do is a door the DM should step through. Add some cursed items and that practice will end.

2) We have a house rule that you can take Identify as a skill. Can't use untrained, class skill for magic users. Can't remember the DC modifier but it's roughly = 10+ spell level + DM's choice, no retry.

I'm saying his IQ is around 70-75, based on my understanding of IQ distribution.

I like the idea of the Cleric still being able to sound out words, so he can still use scrolls, but not be able to understand much of what he reads. He's an excellent roleplayer so I think he'll take to this.

The party can't leave the Cleric, he's got an 18 Charisma and so they really really like him.

I've got a human cleric who has a 5 Intelligence

'nother question...

Do you think this PC should be literate? Supposedly as long as you're not a barbarian, right? But a 5 Int?

I've got a human cleric who has a 5 Intelligence and I'm not sure how many skill ranks he gets at first level and at each subsequent level. Does the human benefit of extra skill points get added on before or after giving the minimum of 4 at start and 1 at each levelling up?

Cleric gets (2+Int Mod)
At 1st level does he get
(2+ -3 ) x 4 = -4 + 4 for Humanity = 0 + 4 for minimum = 4
or
(2+ -3) x4 = -4, but really 4 minimum + 4 for Humanity = 8

And at each level up does he get 1 or 2?

Thanks,
JD