Layander's page

Why would a chronicle sheet list a masterwork naginata? I understand a magical naginata is not on the always available list, but isn't a magical item and it's in ultimate combat. That looks like it is in the always available list? Am I wrong?

Check out the Roleplaying Guild Guide, page 18.

Thanks to both of you. I didn't think to check faction retirement for my answer. I was reading prestige awards a hundred times.

I still wish they would do some kind of free update to the book that makes it more viable and understandable, and removes the typo from the fame purchases section.

A lot of the Society Field Guide has become obsolete, but I wanted to know about the PP rewards under the society resources section of the book. I was hoping someone knew if that was still in play or not, as well as the faction specific PP rewards. If the faction specific rewards are in effect, what current factions can get what rewards?

Why has this book not been updated for faction rewards, it is still listed as a core book that you have to have access to, tell me I can use it for something?

Or if you did care about real world chemistry the ingredients are actually very easy to find.

1. Sulfur
2. saltpeter
3. Charcoal

Probably lead for bullets.

I wanted to get opinions about something that I see as a barrier between me and newer editions of the game. Every new edition and expansion moves farther from a gritty dungeon delve game to more flashy action. I am not here to make an edition war so I will be specific. I want to be able to use things like pathfinder or 4th edition but when I try I hit speed bumps and I wanted your input.

1. Environmental hazards trivialized, light? In basic, and first it's a real concern torches weight a pound each, light a small space, burn out quickly and mages on lower levels will usually not wet their 1 spell pick on a light spell. 3.5 pathfinder introduce sunrods, tiny, light, cheap, bright and last for hours, lights no longer a problem. 4th mages can cast light forever. Literally.
Non combat traps? 3.5 is moderately susceptible to traps but I find they are oddly leveled, a pit trap that is 20 feet deep that you can avoid outright and only affects one character seems to be roughly the same challenge rating as 4 orcs. but even if my players hit a trap the reduced random encounters, and increased spell casting makes it easy to recover with out running out of resources.
4th has a larger problem, even if I put a trap that does 30 damage to the group on level 1 they will simply spend five minutes healing, and depending on who their healer is may only use 1 healing surge for it. Getting hit, ignoring it heroically.
Random encounters are removed or weakened or removed entirely allowing players to rest up every fight always being at 100 percent and the less you need to worry about food and water, and light the more you can just take your time and never feel that sense of danger.

The last 2 issues I want to bring up are character power and style.

Power. Gritty characters struggle to survive, more than just in combat, but the more modern the system the more the system is on the players side, helping them survive all encounters with almost no risk. I can explainhow it's stacked that way if I need to but it would take a while.

Style. Gritty characters rely on swords and skill, not a thousand flashy powers. Some times flashy powers are good, but not in my gritty Conan/lord of the rings/Dragonlance/grey hawk settings.

Ideas? No rude answer or fighting. I want honest help, I like certain features of newer editions, character customization and game support being 2 big ones. I appreciate your time on this. Thank you.

Tomb Guardian wrote:

There you go with that common sense thing again! ;)

I agree. Reliable fire arms makes perfect sense considering there's a country that sits on the ruins of a massive starship and countries use enslaved djinn to build cities for them.

I'd like to point out that wizards and sorcerers are relatively rare. Armies employ battlemages to aid them in battle but they don't have a 100 man casting unit marching alongside a 100 man archer unit.

They don't really need 100 man casting units..

In fact, let me put it this way:

If there is one druid that hates your army, your entire war is over. one druid. A single druid could cripple an entire army, which isn't even going into what he could do against a castle or a kingdom.

The very existence of level 4 druids means armies don't happen. In fact, they could stop the concept of wars if they want to.

Does your army travel? So does the druid, except he does it in the form of a natural animal and you don't know it's him, it could just be another deer. Except this deer can cast entangle and, now, your entire supply line is stopped and bogged down. You try to go hunting, but the druid has already sent all the animals away. The wagons need to be set out and fixed constantly due to pitfalls and small pits that litter the ground. All through the night a cold, steady wind blows, extinguishing all your lights. When you try to sleep, sudden loud sounds and sudden flashes of light wake you up, preventing you from getting any rest.

Those were level 1 spells.

Warp Wood has destroyed your caravan, and you can only carry so many supplies. You try to scavange for food and berries? Defoliate. So now you're hungry and an army marches on it's stomach. Every night swarms of bats and insects attack and plague you and the other soldiers, so now you're tired and hungry. The path is gone - what was once hardened rock and dirt has become mud. As you trudge through it, you and others are chosen at random, and suddenly your metal...

A 4th level druid? Seriously? Entangle stops a 40ft square out of a platoon of 1000 men you stoped 30 people for 4 minutes? that sure did end that war.

Sudden loud sounds and flashes of light? Are you sure that a whole night watch would never spot that one druid?

So you sneak up within 35 feet of my caravan, cast warp wood, on only 1 of the wagons, only one wheel, which we replace in 5 minutes and get away scott free never being seen even though your within 35 feet? I hope that you have 2 invisibility potions.

I see that alot of the "casters are over powered" junk I hear on here is just people who do not read the way the spells actually work.

I know that early fire arms had HUGE reliability problems, and i can't imagine that having to leave an open hole between the air and the pan is going to be good when some pyro happy mage drops in a fireball.

I'd have to wonder how magic would affect battlefield tactics. Would it be like ww1 where you have people entrenched and afraid to move, or would you simply have the ww1 solution to that problem.. wave after wave of bodies being thrown at the opposition until the wizards run out of spells?

I wonder why you assume entire units of mages on the battle field. Based on what we see from the origional DMG a town of 2000 people would have one mage of level 2+1d4 so lets go high on this, level 6, then there would be 2 level 4 4 level 2 and 8 level 1.

Unless I am doing my math wrong that looks like 3 mages able to cast fire ball and only a couple of times each, compound that with, why would every mage in the town including the shopkeeper join every army that wants to march out of that town.

I do not think that is a table top rpg thing, My group never use such titles and would not appreciate anyone else doing it either.
One is a cleric who is not a healer, buffer or even a tank he is a large man with a big mace who uses what ever spells he feels are good for the situation.
Another is a wizard with a sword, bow, chain armor and max ranks in hide and move silently.
Yet another is a bard with a sword and shield with no ranks in hide or move silently.

None of these people fall into categories you named before. Not even remotely, this is a group game and even in combat its not about falling into roles its about being able to work together as a team, listing roles not only restrains role playing but also constrains what they can do in combat. Those limitations are unnecessary.