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Actually, the most common use of slow in the games I've played in and run is to lock down Artillery monsters to keep them from getting the space they need to avoid be strikered to death. It's not as powerful as immobilization, but can often be applied at range easily (immobilize can readily be applied by a character with a decent shot at successful grabs - often preferrable for a defender to do against some of the more wiggly monsters like kobolds or gobbos).
The DDI Compendium will contain the definitions of the keywords introduced in Martial Power, although the Character Builder won't. I got the Martial Powers book, and adore it. It brings the Animal Companion Ranger build into full effect, and presents a lot of good options for all builds of the martial classes. I'm already using a couple of the Warlord powers in my current game. There's not a lot of material in the book a DM would need unless you're trying to build an NPC that uses some of the powers or options in the book. For the most part, it's aimed very solidly at players.
I'd actually suggest something of a compromise. Allow them to have 2nd encounter powers they can swap out - but they can only swap out the encounter powers once per day, when they also swap out their daily and/or utility powers. This gives them some flexibility, but cuts down both on the book keeping between encounters, and the retooling to deal with specific encounters rather than an adventure area.
In regards to the published adventures that I've run, most of my comments are already echo'd again. Space constraints, having to try and meet the expectations of a very broad audience and so forth. But to address the point of TPK's being a bad thing: I think it depends a huge amount on your players and your playstyle. If you're running a deep Roleplay style game, with the players encouraged to develop deep backgrounds, a robust group of NPCs with complex interactions and a deep investment, then a TPK is a terrible thing to inflict without incredible story reason and a lot of lead up. On the other hand, if you're playing a pure slashfest, or a very lighthearted comedy game, then the sting of a TPK is fairly light, and won't usually result in the end of the world. Dungeon of the week campaigns versus those with an overarching story are also much more forgiving, and oneshots even more so. In fact, in those cases, sometimes a TPK is an awsome thing in those situations. Not so much in an adventure path, or similar situation. So I guess my response boils down to: It depends.
I think, frankly, there's one exception: Dave Noonan's a much better DM than I, or most of my friends are in some key ways. He really gets into being the monsters, acts and emotes and does the silly voices. It's astounding how few DM's in my experience do that, and I'd greatly enjoy playing in one of his games. I'm not saying he's unique, or that other DM's don't, but it's clear he puts a great deal of effort into it. That said, most of his players did seem a lot like folks I know and have seen at my table and at get together's over the years.
I'm curious if my post in the GSL thread is what kicked this off, or it was caused by some of the undertone in the various threads. Still - here here! Honestly, I feel bad for the designers, as I said in the above mentioned thread. They set out to design a game they believed would be fun, approachable, and faithful to D&D. Now, they may not have the same take on the game that you do, but they clearly love the game. Unfortunately, they have to deal with Marketing, Legal and Hasbro. Still - even if you hate the GSL, or think the changes are dumb, recognize that these people (much like the fine folks at Paizo) love this game, want it to succeed, and probably gave up huge chunks of their personal lives to get it done. They just have to answer to bosses who aren't quite as awsome. Which I suspect a lot of us are quite familiar with.
For myself, I'm actually feeling distinct sorrow and pity for the R&D team and the designers themselves. I suspect part of the reason for the delay is because they threw a massive internal hissy-fit over these terms, and what those terms would do to both their pool of potnetial future hirable talent, and to people they consider friends and collegues in the industry. It's almost a certain thing that much of the source of this document probably comes from the dark corporate masters at Hasbro, with possibly some input from WoTC's management. The sense I get from the people who actually MADE the game is that they were designing something they thought people would like, would enjoy, and want to play. Frankly, I can't imagine doing a design job where that WASN'T how you approached it. For all the problems people have with the 4th edition, it's clear to me at least that for the actual writers and developers it was a labor of love. And it's very arguable that this GSL is going to damage what they were trying to do, as well as possibly strain some very old friendships and business relationships. Shades of Ms. Williams indeed.
I actually refused to order from Amazon. Not because I dislike the company, or shopping online: It's just that everyone I know, both RL and online was buying from Amazon due to the deep discount, and I saw this coming. So on release day I called my FLGS, walked in, and picked from the couple hundred books they had in stock. They were doing a pretty brisk turnaround, too. It didn't hurt that I only got the PHB this go around - I'll pick up the DMG and MM later, once I've fully absorbed the PHB.
I can see bringing back monstrous humanoids - but not Aberrations. Aberrations are meant to be those things that make the mortal mind go 'ababaguh, Failed San Check'. Their biology is alien, inhuman and often incomprehensible. I don't really see a good reason to be able to turn into one outside of certain PrC's (and possibly the Aberrant sorcerer bloodline).
Greetings, I know I recently posted an issue about a similar order, and Corey kindly fixed the issue, but I'm not seeing my Pathfinder advantage in the pricing of the new order. If it's just waiting for the shipment to happen for it to be applied, cool, but I thought I should bring this to your attention, since it's also no longer showing up in the shopping cart, which it used to, and I'm wondering if the fix might have somehow broken my advantage? -Sean
I'm seeing Pathfinder 8 holding to ship with Pathfinder 9, and I've chosen 'Hold items to ship with Pathfinder, but ship Pathfinder ASAP'. I have NO other items listed in my sidecart waiting for delivery, although I DO have a Chronicles and companion subscription. Could someone check on this please (at least so I can get my PDF).
There's actually a feat in the Alpha called 'Agile Maneuvers' that lets you substitute Dexterity for Strength for the CMB. This actually makes sense to me becuase it takes more ability, skill and practice to do these things via finesse rather than through brute force, hence requiring a feat.
I agree that skill synergies can go (my players never remember them anyhow). I disagree about the simplified math - I honestly think that they're fine the way they are. Dividing by two isn't actually that much more difficult than what you've proposed. My primary concern is that with the rate of picking up new skills, even with Cross Class skills a lot of the more skill focused characters will end up feeling very similar unless they take some of the skill boosting feats. This is increased by the folding of some of the redundant skills into each other - don't get me wrong, I houseruled Listen and Spot into Perception, and Hide + Move Silent into Stealth a long time ago, but this resulted in some skill glut on the part of min-maxers who don't take Craft/Profession because 'there's no game benefit'.
Speaking as someone who has ADD (The Non-Hyperactive Form of Attention Deficit Disorder) and has to take daily medication for it... Yeah, I'm offended. Actually, no. I'm disappointed, and a little sad. I'm 33. I've been gaming for 23 years now, and I've played everything from the Boxed sets, 1st edition and on. And now a disorder I've had to fight with for my entire life is being used by someone on a message board to try and imply that people like me don't have any dedication or ability to handle a complex system. I'm really rather disapointed.
Well, since I can't get my email to respond or load anymore, and since I can't dial out at work: I've updated the payment info on my subscriptions to a new card that should work and authorize correctly. I'd also like to request that the GameMastery modules be removed from my subscription. They're great modules, but I'm not getting enough use from them for the expense. -Sean Achterman
Right. That was a massive and long read, but that's what I get for sleeping. I don't have the time or inclination to go into great detail about what I think, but I'm going to touch on what I plan to do, and what I see a lot of people probably doing. I'll be getting the 4.0 core books, largely just to see what it's all about and find out if I like the system. Chances are if Paizo switches to the system, I'll stick with Paizo, since they'll make sure I enjoy the system. That could be next year, or the year after - if/when Paizo switches, I'll stick with. At the same time, if Paizo decides to remain wholly 3.5 (and even more so if they develop and publish their own core rule books), I'm going to maintain my subscription. I and my players aren't really picky about version so much that the game is -fun-. I'll always be able to pull out an adventure and run it. I think that if Paizo does stick with 3.X, that you -should- publish core rules for it. I'd buy it, and I would probably need those books if I have a new player. In truth, I'm much more interested in what Paizo's doing than in what WoTC is doing. That doesn't mean I think WoTC's bad, or evil, and I don't hate them. But the material I get from them compared to what I get from Paizo just doesn't compare. So to sum up: Paizo 4 Life.
It's important to remember that the forgotten Realms have well over 20+ YEARS of development time worked into them. Getting into the realms now means having to absorb a lot of that, leading to the 'front loaded' problem, but for people who've been playing in the realms for a long time, it's less of an issue. Give the Paizo guys some time - Golarion'll get there.
Interestingly, my players did something similar. Only, instead of making her walk the plank, they marooned her. Stuck her on an island in the middle of nowhere, left her with some food, and then sailed on. She's effectively out of the story for good. There's not many ways off that island for her that don't involve either pirates or the Scarlet Brotherhood, and neither is likely to just let her be. Her day is done - it's time for Vanthus and the Crimson Fleet to rise up.
I haven't rechecked the math for her, but keep in mind that since she's at the end of the adventure, you're probably looking at four 8th level characters (or higher if you've thrown in some side adventures).
I think there's one major factor you're overlooking - the Swords of Sin are -not- the runelord's personal weapons (they all have their polearms for that). The swords were given out to champions for the purpose of gladitorial combat to settle disputes, so it makes sense that the swords are significantly less powerful than they might otherwise be.
See, that concern about the final deadline and agressive schedule is my biggest reservation. I'm already working full time (and probably fuller time around the holidays) and going to school. I know I -can- do that word output if I were able to focus on it, but... I'd rather wait for the next open call, when I have more time in terms of free time than try and crunch for this one and blow the deadline. Blown deadlines are -bad-.
I'm working on a proposal for this, but I keep going in circles in my head. I admit, the idea of having to output around 22000 words before the end of the year is more than a little intimidating, but at the same time, this is something I've often dreamed of doing. Ah, well. Time to bite the bullet and get it done.
Most of the resource locations are found via interactions with the various objectives around the place. I know at least one can be uncovered via diplomacy with the Lizardmen, and I think another can be gotten through the Hermit, if you treat him right. I'd have to review the adventure again, but I seem to recall that resource locations are uncovered via 'loot' as well, maps and such.
I'm a C leadning towards A. Admittedly, a lot of that depends on my group's willingness to move to a new system, and how much of my 3.5 material I've used up. But I remember the swap from 2.0 to 3.0 with fondness, and I liked the 3.5 update. If I have to, I can keep a plotline from adventures, and rebuild them mechanically. Although it's a lot of work, I will have a few years worth of STAP and RotRL material to get through if my group drags its feet.
There won't be another cleric - they've made it clear that the iconics will be the core character classes. Which will make one of the parties pretty interesting, since they'll be lacking cleric or druid. So, the remaining classes are: Barbarian
Er. Hrm. Either I'm missing a base class, or there's only 11. Which means that there might be a reuse of an already intro'd iconic. ...That, or McArtor will sneak Ninjas in under James' nose.
Since I'm the one who started the initial threadjack: I'm exceptionally fond of the Orcus artwork for the MM cover, but I agree that the 'Tome' look of the Core Rule books is really neat. I don't think they really captured that feel with most of the supplemental books, instead falling back to the old portait covers (there's a couple of exceptions, like the Spell Compendium). That said, these actually remind me of the 1st and 2nd edition book covers, just with updated artists and artwork.
I will note that I said nothing about it as a cover for the book. I said that the drawing itself is a great depiction of Orcus.
A reminder: Dread Pirate is from Complete Adventurer, not Stormwrack. They're actually quite good for the AP, since a lot of their abilities remain useful even off a ship, and they don't have to pay for their ship either out of pocket. Provided you let the Sea Wyvern count for the ship Class requirement. Stormwrak's rules are really only majorly useful during Sea Wyvern's Wake, and possibly occasionally in Gaping Maw. If you don't have the book, it's easy to use what the magazine provides to do the job. I'd really only recommend the book if you want to majorly expand the sea voyage stuff.
A lot of it depends on how your party views the Ravens. My party is actually moderately fond of Kaskus and the sorceress after the events of the Bullywug gambit - particularly the party druid, who spent some time with Kaskus helping him bury his killed badger companion. On the other hand, the entire party thinks the Jade Raven's leader is a horse's behind, and the rogue worries them a great deal since he seems to be slipping. These seperate views of the Ravens actually enhances how they're starting to fall apart - admittedly, I'm only just reaching the end of the SWW, so we'll see how things go in Tides of Dread.
This is why each character has a spell box sorted by level. We also color code the cards by level. And you're talking about Veteran M:tG Players. Keeping track of a lot of cards is... well. Not much of a problem. Initial setup takes a while, but once they get it set up and set up a 'sideboard', it's usually pretty quick.
Well, for someone who needs to look stuff up, ten minutes is about right. My cleric and druid players are both sufficiently familiar with their spell lists by now that swapping out for Red Dragon actually only takes them about three minutes. Something to note: My players (and I) write up all spells a character can use on quick reference index cards. These cards have all the basic range and area of effect on them as well as what the spell does. More complex spells have page numbers on 'em. It makes shuffling in new spells pretty easy to do on the fly.
I'd say that depending on when he's doing this, even 10 minutes isn't okay. Certainly, if the other players are doing stuff to prepare for a big fight, 10 minutes is fine. If, however, everyone else is waiting, and it's not a good spot for a break, 2-3 minutes is about the max I'll allow. Part of this depends on player attention span. I know my fighter and rogue are likely to get distracted if the game stops moving, so I try and keep that from happening. Fortunately, my casters have pre-prepped lists for 'blast stuff', 'heal stuff' and 'town utility'. They can adjust quickly on the fly. I would strongly suggest having the cleric draw up a couple of standard lists. It should help. But also explain from an out of game perspective why what he's doing is a problem.
...A fellow Pacific Northwesterner? There's good skiing around there too. And hiking. It's a nice place, and a two hour car trip takes you from temperate rainforest to temperate desert. Very striking change, and you get to do the mountain thing as well.
If you're looking for deserts that are more temperate than the American southwest, you can look at eastern Oregon and Washington. East of the Cascade mountains, both states are deserts (since the rainfall tends to hit the mountains and not go over). It can get hot, but temperatures tend towards the 80's to 110's during the summer, and temperatures do drop well below freezing in winter, but not punishingly so. You get a lot of scrub trees, and because of the vulcanism that used to be in the area, some interesting hills and mountain formations. Basalt plains are also neat.
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