Joshua Randall's page

I'm excited, too. 'Nuff said.

Well that's true. Those were good, but that was very early on in Wizard's adventure-building career in 3rd edition. I don't enjoy the adventures they put out nowadays. They're all big dungeon crawls just so they can show off their fancypants Delve Format.

Dude, Forge of Fury is nothing but dungeoncrawl. It just happens to be a freakin' awesome dungeon.

In fact, most of the Top Whatever lists of favorite adventures are dungeoncrawls.

Saying that the "nowadays" WotC adventures are somehow inferior because "they're all big dungeon crawls" is just silly.

Oh, my. Chris West, you've outdone yourself with Lands of Mystery.

You realize, of course, that I'm going to have to start a new campaign just to use your map? It's simply outstanding.

Maybe it'll explain why there's a keep on the borderlands.

I think the real mystery there is why no on in the Keep has a name. It's freaky. It's like they're not really people, just mindless automata who only react to what the PCs do and have no independent lives of their own.

Ummm...Robert E. Howard. Please.

Already lots of REH stuff in print; cf. this Amazon.com listing.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet, so I'll add...

Prince of Darkness

... which is another fine John Carpenter horror flick. It works on an intellectual horror level (like HPL), has some uber-creepy scenes (including the final one), and there's something about Carpenter's music in this movie that just gets under my skin and makes it crawl.

Despite being a dragon, he is a coward at heart. He desperately wants to find a particular lost cache of Ancient Lore (or just Ancient Loot), but he's too scared to look for it himself.

He hopes that he can convince the adventurers to do his work for him... and if they die (adventuring is such a dirty, dangerous busienss) -- well, that's regretable, but better them than him.

Alternatively, invert this idea. He is a noble champion of good, but he's on the run and in disguise to avoid being assassinated by evil foes (including but not limited to other dragons). In dragon form, he may even take an active, adventuring role; but in human form, he plays the part of a foppish aristocrat.

It's the D&D version of Zorro. :)

I'd just like to state that Gleemax is a terrible name.

It sounds like some kind of pornographic sex enhancement product.

*threadromancy*

Amazingly, there doesn't seem to be an easily available _paperback_ version of "The Face in the Frost" (Bellairs) in print.

I realize it's not exactly pulp adventure fantasy, but it's a seminal work. Today's gamers need to read this!

I think that once the iconics get their half-page explanation, some notes on feat/skill selection would be helpful both to new and veteran players. And such notes would also soothe the power gamers -- let them know that, yes, Martial Weapon Prof (scimitar) isn't optimized but there is a _reason_ for it.

(Although if Sarenrae is so into swordplay, why doesn't she grant the War domain which gives free Wpn Prof + Focus? Hmm.)

My parents got me a geode when I was a kid, and I used that thing to recreate the final scene of The Dark Crystal like, every day, for months on end. It was sweet.

Dorky, but sweet.

Someone mentioned ghoul touch... I think it's a good spell. It's far better than hold person, because it doesn't allow multiple saves to break free, and it lasts a minimum of 3 rounds. That should be ample time to coup de grace the paralyzed victim.

There's the whole pesky "touch" aspect of the spell, but that's what spectral hand (or Reach Spell) is for.

I would add

6) Assuming that there is only one right way to play and enjoy the game.

When I finally got it through my thick skull that there are many different ways to enjoy the game, and that part of the DM's job is to cater to different types of players -- I became a lot better (and happier) as a DM.

A swallowed creature is considered to be grappled, while the creature that did the swallowing is not."

D'oh!

*shoots self in head*

I think if they were considered grappled the rules would say so.

So no grapple checks necessary to draw a weapon or get somatic components.

I do think that a spellcaster should have to make a Concentration check to get any spells off, given that he is taking continous damage (and possibly also facing "vigorous motion" while the monster moves around or the stomach contracts).

Stay tuned in #150 for the conclusion of the series and my Maps of Mystery "masterpiece".

At last, the 3-D holographic map we've been craving! :-P

If at all possible, can we also get an index of Maps of Mystery?

Just a listing of the map title and issue number would be great -- from the map's title one can usually tell what terrain it features.

I love using those maps but half the time I can't find the darn things.

ToH is quite possibly the most boring AD&D/D&D adventure ever made.

On the other hand, I rather enjoyed the follow-up (Return to ToH) - it had things like a plot, interesting locations, cool monsters, half-decent art, that sort of thing.

Agreed. It's a sweet mega-adventure.

It's not designed to be survived. It's designed to screw you.

It's really a horrible adventure, but people like it in the same way that fraternity pledges like being hazed.

"Too much treasure for their level" is (somewhat) a self-correcting problem: PCs are over-equipped, making them tougher than normal; PCs face monsters of CR >> APL; PCs gain a lot of XP and level up such that the gear they own is now appropriate for their level.

See this column on the Wizards site for more along this line.

Of course, this only works if they don't keep getting more and more gear as they fight those CR >> APL monsters.

So, you've got to hit them with high-CR monsters that (1) don't have much loot and (2) are actually able to challenge the PCs.

One solution to (2) that I haven't seen proposed is to buff up your monsters just as much as the PCs buff themselves. Let one of the monsters be a sorcerer or favored soul (with Eschew Materials, natch) who buffs the monsters will all the hastes and shields of faith just like the PCs use.

Also, layer on the templates. I'm rather fond of the paragon template (from Unearthed Arcana, also available in the SRD) which grants some ridiculous bonuses to attack.

Finally, if you can audit your PCs to the extent that you know what their ACs and attack bonuses are (when they're fully buffed), you can select appropriate monsters accordingly.

For example, if PC Fighter #1 has AC 40 and attack +20, then you want a monster with (approx.) attack +30 and AC 30 -- that way they are hitting each other abuot 50% of the time. Or you can scale it up and give the monster attack +34 and AC 36: now the monster hits the PC on a 6 or better (75% of time) but the PC only hits the monster on a 16 or better (25% of time).

You're the DM: you control the game. Don't make it impossible for the players, but don't make it too easy either.

"A slam attack by a delver leaves a patch of slime .... An opponent’s armor and clothing dissolve and become useless immediately unless the wearer succeeds on a DC 22 Reflex save. Weapons that strike a delver also dissolve immediately unless the wielder succeeds on a DC 22 Reflex save."

Yuck. That's almost as bad as the rust monster's effect. At least there's a save, but your players are going to hate you when they start losing armor and weapons to the delver's slime.

I'd probably make the slime deal a certain amount of damage to the armor or weapon, rather than destroy it outright, with Ref 1/2 DC 22.

You guys who don't like Draconomicon are nuts.

OK, I guess that's not really in the spirit of good messageboard etiquette; I shouldn't just bash people I don't agree with. I should make a reasoned argument as to why I disagree.

Draconomicon is one of the coolest 3.x books WotC has created. It's got great art, a large amount of "Ecology of the Dragon"-type detail, solid (if basic) advice on running dragons and on PCs confronting them. It's got some feats and spells and items, and you may not like them, but they are all useful for making dragons more uber if that's your thing.

It's got some PrCs, some of which fulfill iconic roles (Dragonrider, Dragonhunter) and some of which are just cool (Platinum Knight of Bahamut). It's got so much detail that every time I read the book, it makes me want to run an entire campaign centered around dragons.

Finally, and perhaps most usefully, Draconomicon features fully statted dragons of every color and every age category. With personalities. That's a treasure trove right there.

Over the years various monsters have been in and out of vogue, some multiple times.

* drow
* dragons
* githyanki
* demons
* devils
* giants
* undead

It seems to be just the nature of the game.

I figure if I play the game long enough, eventually some other monsters that I particularly like will be in vogue. And then I will CACKLE MANIACALLY and make my players fight that kind of monster (and its spawn, half-versions, etc.) over and over.

I think we are just going around in circles here, so I'll make one final point and then stop.

Unless you are planning a TPK, every dragon that fights your players' PCs is going to die. If not on the first encounter, then on a subsequent one.

Thus, as a DM, I'm not extremely upset if my dragon only gets off a single big breath weapon or a single full-round attack. I'd like the dragon to be optimized enough to present a credible threat to the PCs; but in the end, I'm secretly rooting for the PCs to win.

I was hoping for this:

Q: "What kind of giants will be in the RotR adventure path?"
A: "All of them."

:-)

The transparent boxes that dice come in make great invisibility markers for PCs -- they will fit over a standard miniature (for Medium creatures). Then the other players just have to pretend they don't know where the invisible PC is.

You can also use those dice boxes to indicate flying creatures by putting the mini on top of the box... as long as they stay at about a 10-ft. elevation. :-)

hp 216; (22 HD); regeneration 5; DR 10/magic

If you change that to

HD 22; hp 216
...DR 10/magic; Regeneration 5

(The ellipses are to simulate spacing/indent.)

then I'll be with you 100%. I want whitspace to the right of the hp! :)Stuff like DR, Regen, Fast Healing can go underneath.

#309, the githyanki Incursion issue, featuring James Wyatt's brilliant article on that topic, with enough meaty goodness to power an entire campaign from 1st to Epic level.

Other solid articles in that issue include Ecology of the Hobgoblin, New Martial Art Styles, and A Brief History of War.

There is a ranged sunder feat in Complete Warrior.

Good job on making the DMG2 format even better.

However, one thing I have never liked about the new stat block format is the hit points line, which looks like this:

hp 11 (3d6)

hp 14 (2d6 plus 1d10)

My dislike of this format is twofold: (1) the numerical hp are separated from the white space, and (2) it's difficult to tell total HD at a glance (particularly in cases like the second one).

When I make my own stat blocks, they look like this:

HD 3; hp 11

HD 3; hp 14

Now I can see the HD at a glance -- in case someone casts sleep or fear on the monsters, or if I just need to reference its HD for any reason. I also have that lovely, lovely white space to the right of the hp, so I can mark off damage.

If you really want to know the exact HD breakdown, you could do something like:

HD 3 (3d6); hp 11

HD 3 (2d6 plus 1d10); hp 14

My problem with the feat [Quicken Breath Weapon] is it does not really add anything to the dragons breath weapon....

No, but it does allow for some potentially nasty combos such as:

* with a grappled PC in your mouth, use quickened breath (no save! b/c grappled) + deal bite damage
* when in melee range, make a full attack + use quickened breath
* when in breath weapon range, use quickened breath then withdraw action (minimizes AOOs from the PCs), or use quickened breath then cast dimension door (assuming high enough CL)

= = = = =

I looked at the list of Draconomicon feats on the Wizards list here and found some more that would be good for pumping up your dragon:

* Devastating Critical -- potentially kill someone with a crit
* Dire Charge -- full attack as part of a charge --> this is just brutal if the players don't expect it
* Metabreath Feats
-- Clinging
-- Enlarge
-- Extend Spreading Breath (convert your breath weapon into a spread effect that can be used at range)
-- Heighten
-- Lingering (becomes a cloud that lingers)
-- Maximize
-- Quicken
-- Recover
-- Shape (make the area of your breath weapon a cone or a line)
-- Split
-- Tempest (make your breath weapon strike with the force of a windstorm) --> great cinematic potential with this one, especially if the PCs foolishly stand near the edge of a cliff... say in someplace known for cliffs like, I dunno, the Rift Canyon....
* Large and In Charge -- prevent opponents from closing inside your reach --> a must for all big creatures that plan to melee
* Rend --> if you're going to melee, this helps maximize the damage you deal

So again, if you don't mind cheese, your dragon could use something like a clinging, enlarged, extended spreading, heightened, lingering, maximized, tempest breath. And so what if it will take 1d4+15 rounds to recover (or whatever)? The dragon is a one-shot monster, at least for the purposes of Kings of the Rift.

= = = = =

The other aspect we haven't even touched on is magic items. Dragons can use most of the items that PCs could use, including ones that are somewhat nonintuitive like robes and cloaks. So take all the gold that would be in a dragon's lair and convert it into items. The possibilities are endless, here.

One solution to the dragon's crappy flight maneuverability is for the dragon to cast fly on itself. Yes, it slows down to 60', but now it's got perfect maneuverability.

And then there are other spells to increase flight speed -- haste being the obvious choice. I think there is also a feat or two that lets you fly faster; those would be decent choices for a high-CR dragon whether or not it's using fly.

Also, Flyby Attack is pretty much a must. The dragon can use it to make a drive-by breath weapon attack -- it allows a standard action, not just a melee attack action.

Regarding the metabreath feats, I disagree that Quicken Breath is useless. In fact, if you don't mind cheese, Quicken Breath can be combined with other metabreath feats + spells to give the dragon an obscenely powerful one-shot attack. As you don't expect the lesser dragons to last more than a couple rounds of combat, there is no reason not to do this... except that it's cheesy and annoying to the players, of course.

So something like a quickened, empowered, clinging breath weapon modified via spells to use an alternate energy type. And that's just a very basic combination; I'm sure there are better (more min/max'd) ways to go.

I disagree with you there. Find the Path will be the first thing the party does [...] If characters have a surefire means to reach the desitnation they seek, they will likely use it first, not as a last resort.

And at 11th+ level, this is fine.

People need to keep in mind that D&D changes as the PC levels go up. At low levels, the game can include significant travel challenges, and a lot of effort may be spent locating something and then getting there.

At mid/high levels, travel challenges become less and less relevant, and less and less effort needs to be spent to overcome them.

Savvy DMs will try to create plots that REQUIRE find the path or teleport or wind walk or Track/Survival checks with DCs in the 40s or etc. etc. etc. Let the players revel in their PCs' abilities!

I haven't actually done this, but it seems like giving a dragon a plethora of swift action spells would be good. As noted, the dragon really shouldn't be using targeted offensive spells (CL, saves too low vs. comparable party) and sometimes doesn't have enough time to buff.

Alternatively, the dragon can turn the PCs propensity for massive buffage against them: a dragon's flight speed will usually be much greater than any PCs', so it can appear, breathe or charge once, then run away while the PCs' buffs wear off. The party presumably only has so many copies of resist energy or protection from energy prepared, but the dragon has an unlimited supply of breath weapon and melee attacks.

The downside to this is if the party is better at hit-and-run than the dragon. One hopes that an intelligent dragon will figure this out and adjust accordingly.

Finally, for the best dragon optimization you need Draconomicon. Metabreath feats and the spells that transform a dragon's breath weapon (some of which are now in Spell Compendium) are outstanding.

The Sage's ruling doesn't make any sense to me. If the feat wanted to modify the base Sneak Attack rule, it would've said so. But that is not what the feat says.

So, I would allow the Sneak Attack damage twice; except I would look at is allowing Sneak Attack damage once and Telling Blow damage once.

Is it powerful? Yes. But so are a lot of the feats in PH2.

I have allowed (and read stories of other DM allowing) find the path to work with phrases like "the lair of the white dragon we just fought" or "the temple from which these Vecna cultists originate" or even "the nearest temple to Vecna".

It's more fun for the PCs when their magic works -- esp. when that magic requires them to be 11th level, which is getting up there. Also, as previously noted, at this stage the PCs just want to move the adventure along... so why would you want to stop them from doing that?

The tower would certainly have more fighters and monks (mooks) than listed above

This also gives you the opportunity to have additional mooks join the fights if the PCs are having too easy a time of it. It's very good design to have modular encounters that you can scale on the fly -- so if you need the encounter to be easier, maybe some of the mooks run away; and if you need it to be harder, maybe more mooks arrive, or officers/monsters join the fray.

I think you should allow for the possibility that the PCs *don't* fly up to the top of the tower and work their way down. Would the wizard really want to devote four of his 3rd-level spell slots to one spell?

Also, it's just good practice to be prepared for the PCs to do the opposite of what you expect them to do. :) So let's say they go in through the front door -- now what?

Well, to take a step back, suppose you give out information in advance that the Hextorites are preparing some evil ritual and that it will be on the roof and that it will take X rounds (minutes, whatever) to complete.

Now the choice is in the PCs' hands. Do they load up on flying magic and attack the roof? Or do they fight their way up through the ground level? If the latter, how long will it take? I would try to structure the combats so that, if the PCs don't dawdle and have reasonable combat success (i.e., not roll a ton of 1s), they can *just* make it to the top before the ritual concludes.

Then you still get the cinematic roof-fight with the added bonus that the PCs must try to disrupt the ritual while everyone is trying to kill them.

Do not underestimate the deadliness of wyvern poison: Fort save or Con damage, and then another Fort save to avoid more Con damage, is a death spiral.

I do like the cinematic idea of hobgoblin wyvern riders; just keep in mind the wyverns should primarily be mounts, not poisoners.

I like to keep dropping hints in the hopes that the players will eventually pick up on it.

Failing that, I'll use their ignorance and carelessness against them. >:-]

For example, if they defeat a BBEG but fail to search his base and find his Secret Plans (tm), I will have a later scene in which some other NPC *did* go and search the place and found the plans.

It could be a friendly NPC... or even better a rival group of adventurers... and then the PCs learn second-hand that someone else has acted on the info that they (the PCs) failed to discover.

when you cross that threshold from -9 to -10, you've entered an entirely new status (death), and the only way to reverse that would be through some form of ressurection magic. I wouldn't even have allowed the spell to work on the dervish.

Except that the Close Wounds spell specifically cites the example of a character being saved from death by going from -10 to (some less-negative number up to -1), "leaving him unconscious but stable".

(I'm quoting from memory, so this may not be exact.)

The intent of the spell is clear. And I think the rules support that intent.

I strongly believe that your hp cannot go below -10 for the purposes of adjudicating spells like Close Wounds.

Dead is defined in the SRD (Special Abilities & Conditions section) as "The character’s hit points are reduced to –10, his Constitution drops to 0, or he is killed outright by a spell or effect." (emphasis added)

Also, under Death Attacks (in the same section), we have the following: "In case it matters, a dead character, no matter how she died, has -10 hit points."

#100 Lich-Queen's Beloved is part of one of the greatest issues of Dungeon magazine ever. (In fact, it's my personal pick for the best issue of the 3rd-edition era.)

Not only do you get the referenced adventure -- in which the PCs journey to the githyanki stronghold-city on the Astral plane to confront Vlaakith herself -- you also get Polyhedron #159, in which the PCs can play as the githyanki and bring the smack-down to the Material plane.

Plus you get an update of issue #1's Flame in a new adventure (Old Embers Never Die), a Forgotten Realms adventure (Woe to Mistledale) by Skip Williams, and Beast of Burden, a sweet adventure that takes place on howdas mounted on the back of a really big monster.

For additional githyanki Incursion goodness, you'll want to pick up Dragon #309, which has James Wyatt's brilliant article on that topic.

ARE there any pre-3rd edition villains from Dungeon who deserve to be remembered today?

How 'bout ol' what's-his-name from "The Chasm Bridge"? -- the very first Dungeon adventure (when it was an insert in Dragon magazine).

I don't remember the character's name, but he was a wizard who had used stone shape, transmute rock-to-mud & reverse, and other spells to create a bridge spanning a high-traffic crossing in the Underdark. He had a group of ogre toll-collectors and was running a nice little racket.

What made the villain cool is that he wasn't the usual megolomaniacal psychopath... he was, in fact, crippled (lost one leg to a slicer beetle*) and abandoned by his party, so he set up the bridge to make a living.

* Slicer beetles were cool. Have they ever been updated to 3.x ?

There was a nice touch in the adventure that said if the PCs ever find a way to give the villain a new leg (i.e. via the "regenerate" spell, which was somewhat more useful in 1st/2nd edition than it is now), he would be extremely grateful to them. Even evil guys can show gratitude.

You could always just make charts for everything. Throw the dice away. Why roll dice?

Over the course of a campaign, there will be literally thousands of attacks rolls, saves, and skill checks. That is plenty of randomness.

Many people (like me) believe that stat and hp generation are too important to the game to be left to random chance. Many other people believe the opposite.

No one is arguing that we should remove randomness from all aspects of the game, and setting up that strawman is not getting you anywhere.

Whatever you do, don't circumvent the rules in some effort to be cool and mysterious. That is only going to lead to bad feelings.

Allow the DC 15 Sense Motive check.
Allow the re-save if she is ordered to do something strange (and not praying for spells definitely qualifies).

Frankly, I hate this sort of situation, because I loathe intra-party conflict. Nothing good ever comes of it. We're not playing Diplomacy (the board game, not the skill, heh) here where you expect everyone to backstab each other; we're playing D&D, where the PCs are expected to cooperate to overcome challenges.

Let the mind-flayer get some info out of the domination, but don't let him use the PC as an assassin, thief, or divisive influence. Perhaps the mind-flayer is so overconfident that he doesn't think he needs to do anything more than keep tabs on the PC. Perhaps his alien intelligence is up to something beyond our understanding. Perhaps he's just having a bad day and is too busy to pay attention and screws up. Whatever.

I would tell the player of the PC what happened, encourage her to "act strange while trying to act normal" (so the other PCs will have a legit reason to call for Sense Motive), and hope that the rest of the party figures it out and either restrain her, prot/evil her, or just kill the mind-flayer with extreme prejudice before it can use their friend against them.

Is the fact that if you lose Exalted status then you lose the feats a mechanical restriction though?

No, because your Exalted status is 100% up to the DM's interpretation.

If the DM wants you to lose Exalted status, you're going to lose it.

If the DM wants to look the other way while your Exalted character murders babies, you're going to stay Exalted.

One could argue that only a stupid or incompetent DM would do something like that, but that does not change the fact that Exalted = role-playing "restriction" = interpretation. Not game mechanic.

Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves (a d20 "race book" by BadAxe Games) has a runecaster PrC and runecarver feats.

With some judicious editing of flavor text, you could turn the Annointed Knight (PrC from Book of Exalted Deeds) into a rune-based class.

Well in my humble opinion, roleplaying restrictions do not balance out mechanical awesomeness.

Well said.