Kilbourne's page

I would just like to point out that if the game were perfectly balanced, no one would be able to defeat anyone else. This game requires in-balance for there to be 'winners' and 'losers' -- generally of combat, but in other ways too.

The classic character archetypes are built around the idea that they can do one or two things much better than anyone else, and one thing that no-one else can do. Fighters can hit hard and big wear armor, rogues can sneak up on gods, disable traps and pickpocket kings in plain sight, clerics can heal and speak to the gods and forces of nature, wizards can cast spells and learn arcane secrets. With effort, resources, and time, it is possible for those characters to branch into the other archetypes, and be able to do those others things a little bit, but not overshadow the original.

Unfortunately, this is not true practically, because, well, magic is magical, and can do anything -- the game now is that it is stronger and more 'effective' than anything else. And games aren't just a series of hallways, traps and monsters; there are things in between that can be just as challenging and dangerous to the characters. So versatility is extremely important as well. (For a complete explication of what I'm talking about here, please visit the Class Tiers post here

What I'm trying to get around to is that this game is inherently unbalanced, and -- here's the point -- has to be unbalanced. Perfect balance is static, and has no room for growth. Chess, for example. Right now the problem that many people see, complain about, and a few try to alleviate (ToZ and Kirth, and Evil Lincoln, for example) is that magic isn't just specialized any more, but grandiose and all-powerful. This game (and most like it) are unbalanced. That is good. It also has the problem of having some characters specialized strengths be better than others. That's something we can work on as a community, rather than just, y'know, complaining about it.

EDIT: Hey, uh, yeah. I know that this actually has nothing to do with the TWF feat chain, etc. but I really wanted to have this said. We need to stop talking about balance as if it were some sort of golden nirvana of playability in the sky, and instead focus on making the characters specialized, versatile, and effective.

I've included Brutal Maneuvers as a feat in and of itself, requiring an Improved Maneuver feat.

BRUTAL MANEUVERS

Prerequisites: Improved Combat Maneuvers (any one of Forcing, Tricky, Weapon or Wrestling), BAB +11
Benefit: Once per turn, if during any melee attack you make against your foe, you beat their Combat Maneuver Defense, you may apply any single Combat Maneuver that you have the Improved version of. This applies whether or not you beat the AC of your opponent.
If you beat both your opponent’s AC and CMB, you apply both your normal attack and your maneuver, in any order you wish.
Normal: Combat maneuver checks are made in place of attacks.

8 - The village idiot, employed at this tavern, sweeps desolately in the corner. He grips a small doll tightly as he works.

9 - A table of women, housewives mostly, drink wines and laugh uproariously at the dirty jokes their share amongst themselves.

10 - A man and woman at the corner table are kissing furiously. Well-wrought scabbards lie unattended on the floor near their feet.

I'm playing a Chaotic Neutral character now; a fighting skald out of the Northlands. (Bard-Barbarian gestalt).

His clan was destroyed by a militant cult of druids while hunting elk, and the only survivors of the battle were Cailte (my character) and a Druid named Yriel (the druid in our party!). He swore a blood-oath to end her life, but now that it has been revealed that she lost her memory (yeah, Yriel's player is a terrible roleplayer, I know) Cailte has decided not to fight her... but the bloodoath must be fulfilled. If Yriel is ever in danger of dying, Cailte will not leave her side: he will be the one to land the final stroke, no matter what.

The reason he is CN rather than CG is that he is only with the group in order to be close to Yriel in order to kill her, and if she were not there he would have no part in whatever they were doing. In all likelihood, he would be out hunting druids.