Michael Hoey's page

I just spent the weekend crash reading the 4e books -- without running a game yet -- I'm pretty excited about giving it a try. My 3.5 game was stuck in a rut with all my players gravitating to the same roles and way too much reliance on items. Combat at higher levels was getting unplayable.

I'm not sure they fixed all of the things I didnt like in 3.5 -- but they did seem to focus on all of my pet peeves. For example:

first level not being a one hit and down encounter
Rangers might be cool again
Thieves finally have something to do
low level MU's arnt waiting around and saving spells
Clerics arent there just to be the party medic
Grapple may even make sense ( need to try this to be sure )
No more fight - rest - fight - rest -- which as a DM, really annoyed me.
Rituals for spells no one wanted to memorize
Locked doors meaning something once the party mu has knock
lots of ways to hit things that arent just getting past AC -- at high level our thief could never hit a thing - now the thief will be a big damage dealer at any level ( and not just be the party chest opener )
Artifacts that you can use without screwing up your game
Lots more cool stuff -- people should give it a read before slamming it. This was clearly put together by people that love the game and want it to continue to grow.

I look for pathfinder to bring me great modules -- and opportunities for role play -- I look for the rule system to make it fun and make some sense. My best possible world would be for the next series of adventure paths to be 4e based -- I know that may be hard to make happen with the licensing model, but that is what will work well at my gaming table. My group ran through 2 of the adventure paths when they were in Dungeon and it was some of the funnest playing we did.

I have confidence in my players. They're all veterans. They're crafty. They have a strong knowledge of the rules. They're fair. And they're gonna get creamed by Zyrxog.

With his impossible-to-beat spell resistance, DC 23 mindblast, DC 19 suggestion ability, ability to planeshift, and strong balance of offensive and defensive spells, it just doesn't seem possible that my players (who will be 9th level at the time) are going to defeat him.

In this case, how did some of you who have already played this section of THoHR handle the scenario of a TPK?

I thought it would be tough as well, but my group had more trouble with the Octapins than the mind flayer or the stone brain.

They knew they were going against a mind flayer because he had appeared to taunt them before. They cast lots of will buffs and put up a Magic Circle against evil. This effectivly stopped the domination effects. After that they went in staggered formation so they didnt all get hit by an Area of effect spell, and filled him full of arrows.

dizzyk wrote:

but my players would be very frustrated to find out later on that the "Detect Evil" they cast at such-and-such point should have detected the Doppleganger, that the thing shouldn't have been affected by a such-and-such spell, etc.

As lame as it sounds, Dopps in 3.5 are neutral...first thing i looked up when I thought of the party paladin....

I saw that too, and ran it that way when the party detected evil at one point. Now that its over, I think it was wrong. In what way is a doppleganger thief who is infiltrating a party for the purpose of killing them, while serving a Mind Flayer who hangs out with drow - " Neutral " Any other thoughts on this, I am thinking I may have to mulligan an encounter to undo some damage.

Whats the policy on making available DM Genie files for Age of Worms.

I was about to start putting the third installment in DM Genie, which I think would be nice to share with the community, but I wouldnt want to upset anyone a Piazo on copyright issues.