Orcwart's page

Long time D&D fan and PF convert looking to get back into playing after a break of a couple of years. Local RPG group which runs PF is always oversubscribed so thought I'd give this a go.

I'm 41 but young at heart and (I think) I'm easy going. I've DM'd for most of my gaming life (since the the Red Box days), but due to work and family taking up all the brain space I have, I now want to just concentrate on only one character and be a player.

The type of campaigns I enjoy include heavy character development, deep plots and lots of intrigue. I am definitely not into min/maxing or pointless hack 'n' slash.

So please, if you think I might fit into your group, drop me a line.

:)

Do multiple Ray of Enfeeblement effects stack?

In the spell description, the penalty to Strength is unnamed, which should mean it stacks, but in the Magic chapter of the PHB it gives Ray of Enfeeblement as an example of when a spell effect doesn't stack (don't have page number as I'm at work).

Which is correct?

Discuss...

I've seen a few threads debating which of the 3 APs is the best, so how about this...

If you had to build a campign out of 12 adventures from the 36 of the APs, which would they be? You can alter CR if you want more flexibility with the order they are played.

The rules say a disarm is in place of a melee attack. SO if you have 3 attack per round, can you make three disarm attempts?

I understand that with a readied action, you carry out you action in response to an enemy. e.g. If you ready an action to shoot a spellcaster as soon as he prepares to cast a spell.

However, what if you ready to shoot or hit the first person to come in a room? Sounds simple but let me explain.

You declare that you ready your action to attack the first person to enter the room. So let's say an orc enters the room as part of his move action and you shoot him. What happens to the orc's standard action? And how is this resolved in subsequent rounds? You have attacked halfway through it's turn but it should still get the rest it's turn right? But how does that work?

What happened in my game was that a PC opened a door (move action) so that he could immediately step back after (another move action). However, a bugbear had readied to hit the first thing that opened the door. So does he attack in the middle of the PC's turn???

Help?????

Just reading up on AoW and am coming across this in the description of Diamond Lake but I can't find any background. Anyone know where it is?

How do the PCs get to the top floor? I can't see anything on the map!

Has anyone tried the Knight/Dwarven Defender build? I was thinking that this would be an excellent way making the best of both classes. What effect has it had on your game?

Okay, a PC missus with his melee touch attack and the spell remain undischarged. Can it be used in the event of an AoO? I can't think why not.

I'm currently having my house renovated and as I try to pass the time with mindless builders and plumbers I thought, "Wouldn't it be great if I could get people who played D&D, then I could pass the time with decent conversations about gaming."

So I wondered, how many players are out there with a professional trade like carpentry or electrician or builder etc? And is anyone needing work doing? It would be a great way of linking up.

I've been on these boards for a while now and am constantly amazed at how popular D&D appears to be amongst those in the military. It's just not an image I had conjured up in my head i.e. marines playing D&D - I find it hard to visualise.

I don't know why? I mean, servicemen are of course human, right? It's just that for what is supposed to be a geeky game, so many hard-ass marines play it. So I've got a few questions.

1) What do servicemen find so attractive about D&D?

2) What service are you in?

3) Is D&D's popularity in the military confined to US forces?

Thanks.

Just a quick question:

If a dwarf has the Monkey Grip feat and wields a Large Greataxe, does he have a 10' reach?

1. Are the effects of multiple Tanglefoot bags cumulative?

2. Is a pinned creature helpless and therefore subject to a coup de grace?

Anyone know where this might be available from? Especially as a download?

Thanks

Hi, people.

I was just wondering if anyone can offer feedback on the SCAP newsletters I have submitted to www.therpgenius.com, namely the Cauldron Echo. I'm looking to give it some more depth and your views will be appreciated.

Thanks.

As one Brit to another, this may appeal more to our humour than others here, although that may indeed highlight my own misunderstandings.

I was reading aloud the NPC descriptions in Sea Wyvern’s Wake with a couple of friends. However, when I read the first few words of Urol Furol’s, the room just erupted in cacophonic laughter. Cheers, mate. :D

I have just been reading the third part of the STAP and came across something that flabbergasted me – Sasserine will not figure further in the adventure path adventures.

Now it’s not that I think this is terrible. What I think is that I am astounded at the amount of work that went into the Sasserine backdrop and online PDF, when the city figures for such a short time in the campaign. This just highlights the dedication and love of the subject matter and it is entirely for our benefit. Yes, we pay for it via our subscriptions, but personally I think it goes above and beyond when the setting goes beyond its immediate purpose. It shows understanding of what we want in our campaigns - not just a bare basic cityscape with a few NPCs dotted around.

Therefore, I wanted to extend a genuine, and I hope non-sycophantic thank you to the Paizo crowd. I’d love for this dedication to continue, purely for my own selfish benefit but I suppose I should count the other subscribers in too. Seriously though, it’s going to help flesh out my SCAP campaign and will obviously be there for when I start the STAP, so thanks again.

I can't believe this are so readily advertised. What action would you take against the offending player?

http://www.rpgshop.com/product_info.php?products_id=8132

Does power attack get applied to each damage roll when critting? Sneak attack doesn't, why should power attack?

Just trying to while away the hours at work and I forgot my SCAP hardcover. Can anyone tell me what race Kristoff Jurgenson of the Pelor temple is?

My colleagues at work are wanting to do a panto when the Christmas season hits. However, they are intrigued with my hobby and want to include D&D as the main theme.

So I now turn to you, my esteemed colleagues: How on earth do we do this???

If a player wants to interrupt a spell caster casting a spell, they can do him damage so that he has to make a concentration check.

My question is .... what damage counts?

Is it all damage done to him during the round up to his initiative? eg

Warrior 1 moves on initiative 20 and hits him for 4
Warrior 2 moves on initiative 19 and hits him for 8
Wizard on initiative 17 has to make a concentration check taking 12 points of damage into account.

Or is it only damage done by readying an action to strike him if he casts?

Warrior 1 moves on initiative 20 and hits him for 4
Warrior 2 moves on initiative 19 and Readies an action to attack the wizard if he casts a spell.
Wizard on initiative 17 starts to cast.
Warrior 2's readied action is triggered and he hits him for 8
Wizard has to make a concentration check taking 8 points of damage into account.

I have run combats the second way for years and recently took part in game where a player argued they had always done it the first way.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Do skill synergies stack? If not, where does it say they don't; or where does it say they do?

I'm particularly interested in Diplomacy, which offers a +2 if you have 5 ranks in Bluff, Sense Motive or Knowledge (nobility and royalty). What if you have 5 ranks in all? I read it as a flat +2 but do people read it differently?

Hands up if you browse this forum at work, when you should be working?

As for me, it's the only place I have the time to, which is strange in itself...

If anyone's looking for one, try this: http://www.bastardgreyhawk.isonfire.com/Index.cfm?mz=1&mU=URLREDIRECT

I'm foreshadowing some stuff for my SCAP campaign and one of the things I'm doing is introducing a character from Sasserine. However, I need to know where he got the information to join up with the party. I want it to be a tavern or inn but I also want my SCAP to merge with the Sasserine backdrop when it comes out. Therefore, can I be given a preview by way of a name of such an establishment in Sasserine? I need it before my next game, which I believe is before I'll get my copy of 139.

Thanks.

I'm less than two weeks away from probably the best D&D weekend of my life - out under the stars over a weekend with 7 pals!

Thing is, I've never been camping before. We've got a massive 8-man tent and each of us will have a folding chair and we'll even have a folding table. Light will be provided by flashlights and of course we'll have food.

But I want to call on the chasm-like depths of knowledge on these boards to ask: Is there anything I should bring that I may have overlooked?

TBH, I don't doubt there will be a 4E at some point. What I find confusing is the constant release of books supporting 3.5E that continue to be churned out every month. Surely people are going to stop buying these if there's talk of a 4E?

There have been a few extras that have found their way into the game, such a Swift and Immediate Actions; will these become core? How do you decide what the core characters will be when there have been so many others in the numerous supplements? How can we be satisfied with the core feats when we may have been using many others? This is all assuming 4E is similar to 3.5E.

However, I'm opening up this thread to ask: What will 4E be like?

I've just been reading the STAP overload thread and couldn't help getting jealous of those that will be able to get to GenCon. I would love the opportunity to put faces to names and enjoy many a word about the three APs with authors and players alike. However, it just doesn't look like it's going to happen. But why not?

Surely the UK is D&D's second biggest market but I'm not aware of any effort being made by Paizo or WOTC to run similar events here. Is it because they're not successful? Surely not! Is it because it's expensive to get here? More likely, but that can't be cited for too long before fans of the game and magazines start to feel ignored.

So I suppose I'm asking: are you intending to do anything about it? And if not, why not?

I was browsing through a back issue of Dungeon and saw an ad for this. Is it any good?

Which book did these first appear? Do they really change anything?

**Bump**

I love 3.x D&D. When I first opened the PHB in August 2000 and saw things like Fortitude and Reflex saves I was confused but it quickly made sense. How can you save vs Magic Wands to avoid a pit? That’s stupid – Reflex made sense.

I looked at character development in much the same way. Instead of characters being practically the same every time you built one, they could now be customised with feats and skills, making it possible to have diversity within a character class.

Then of course there was combat. It was the answer to all my prayers. It took away all the ambiguity that the previous editions hadn’t. Where once the DM may have ruled that you can’t reach someone or you can’t squeeze past, now you could have it all laid out before you, reinforced by the feats and skills you chose earlier. This was superb! Or so I thought…

I talked with a friend last week that wanted to start up a roleplaying group at work. However, to my surprise he was going to play Vampire rather than his beloved D&D. When I asked him why, he cited props as the problem. Because of the need for a battlemat and miniatures for D&D combat it would just be too cumbersome and a little bewildering to new players. I could only nod my head in agreement.

Now some may argue that you don’t need miniatures to play 3.x D&D but I’m not convinced. Many feats and skills chosen in character development are crucial to movement within combat and may not be used to their potential without a battlemat. So does this make D&D a less portable game than it used to be? You can’t just whip out a few books and start playing like in the good old days without experiencing problems, can you? For instance, try creating a character sheet on a blank sheet of paper; it’s not as easy as it used to be.

Couple this with the recent posts about statblock errors; now I’m not naïve enough to think that printing errors never occurred in older publications, but it was much easier to build a character and just start playing back then wasn’t it?

And remember combat? It was still exciting – heck, possibly even more imaginative, as the DM decided who you could reach and couldn’t – and you had to use your mind’s eye rather than the battlemat so inversely it seemed more real. Also, it didn’t take soooo long at high levels. These days I am reluctant to enter into high level combat because I don’t think I’m going to be finished by the time I’ve got to get home.

So I guess I’m just saying that I love the new system but am beginning to see the holes and wonder if the old one was better in many respects. What do you lot think? Did it leave more to the imagination? Did the fact that character builds were so similar make you more creative with you character development instead of relying on your feat/skill choices to do that for you? Wasn’t it easier to just play a game of D&D back then?

Discuss…

Is there a reason why this does not create complete darkness and is there a spell that does?

Just a quick question about submitting work for your magazine, albeit a bit mercenary. Are you able to disclose how much you pay for work you publish? What's the going rate for adventures or any additional features you do? It would be nice to know before trying to break into this competative market.

Also, are you able to clarify current timescales from submission to decision to publication?

Thank you.

Orcwart

A lot of talk (type?) has ensued on these boards about the possibility of Paizo obtaining the Greyhawk licence if it was offered for tender. Also, there are obviously a lot of fans of Greyhawk that visit these boards and support this possibility. I was wondering if there is any truth to this and if so, what are the barriers?

I was also wondering if fans of the campaign setting could get involved somehow. Perhaps we can lend weight in some areas, be it opinions and suggestions in the right locales/forums or even financially if you are looking for joint investors and there are fans with spare cash.

Any thoughts on this?

Okay, so we’ve seen all the elf lovers and haters out there giving they’re views. But one thing is sure; Elves, be they drow or other, are far more supported by products than Dwarves.

My question is why? What’s wrong with Dwarves? Surely there is a lot of potential to expand the Dwarven universe if it’s been left alone all this time. Is it time we saw a decent Dwarf product that pays homage to this great race?

I was flicking through old copies of Dungeon and came across a double-sided player and monster matrix. Is this available or could this be available as a PDF?

Is it possible to make one? How would it work? Isn't it a bit silly?

Thoughts please.

This has probably been asked numerous times but how do you guys at dungeon create stat blocks for creatures in your games? I mean do you do it clerically or do you use a generato? If so which one and is it available to the masses?

Just a quick question. My players never take item creation feats but for some reason one of the players has broken the mould and decided to take Brew Potion.

What I'm not understanding is that the creation price seems to be the same as the market price. E.G. Potion of Owl's Wisdom would be 2 (spell level) x 3 (caster level) x 50gp = 300gp + 12xp. The DMG lists it's market value as 300gp and of course there is no xp cost.

Am I missing something?

I was wondering if the writers of this adventure path will take the opportunity to use a wider variety of ethnic characters.

Looking back over the last two APs, off the top of my head I can only remember the Taskerhills from the SCAP being the only non-white characters (apart from any drow!) which in itself was surprising considering the jungle locale.

Savage Tide (TBH I have little knowledge of it) suggests adventure on the high seas and everything piraty. So it stands to reason we can expect Pygmy monks, Native-American style fighters and even some people who hint at an oriental theme. Not the usual caucasian suspects.

So I suppose I'm asking if this is being considered. IMO It'll give the adventure path a much more worldly feel.

I was wondering if the writers of this adventure path will take the opportunity to use a wider variety of ethnic characters.

Looking back over the last two APs, off the top of my head I can only remember the Taskerhills from the SCAP being the only non-white characters (apart from any drow!) which in itself was surprising considering the jungle locale.

Savage Tide (TBH I have little knowledge of it) suggests adventure on the high seas and everything piraty. So it stands to reason we can expect Pygmy monks, Native-American style fighters and even some people who hint at an oriental theme. Not the usual caucasian suspects.

So I suppose I'm asking if this is being considered. IMO It'll give the adventure path a much more worldly feel.

In the SCAP, a wealth of information is given for the stats of the most recurring NPCs and how they will equipped at every level up to 20.

But how do you justify the improvement in level of NPCs? Why would an NPC's level change if all they do is sit in the temple or pick plants in their grove all day? In the SCAP especially, do you justify the fact that the PCs are running around killing all the bad guys and your NPCs are somehow keeping pace with them in level terms? Or do you leave the more static NPCs (Jenya for instance, who does not appear to adventure) at low level and just account for her political strength being due to her position?

Just started the SCAP yesterday and having a great time. I'm using the hardcover and it is all fitting together nicely.

However, just wanted to share with you that my players negotiated with the mimic looking after Starbrow and then, seeing that he was looking for gainful employment, suggested he get a job with Keygan Ghelve. A quick trip back to the surface was all it took and now Keygan and the Mimic have an understanding.

Anyone else have this?

I don't live there myself but an old school-friend of mine moved there from the U.K. 4 years ago. He hasn't played D&D since and doesn't know where to turn now that he has really got the shakes. I said I'd use this board for him to see what response I get. Anyone out there near to Calgary?

I note that you do not appear to run any competitions in your magazine. In a way I like that as it concentrates the material on the important stuff, like adventures etc.

However, I think it would be great if you offered your readers an opportunity to a) visit your offices to see how your magazine is put together and say hello to a few faces and 2) play a session of your AoW campaign with Erik at the helm and the usual suspects around the table. It would be really cool to see how seasoned "D&D Pros" play and DM.

Whaddaya think?

Is there an alternative rule that gives XP for item creation? It's bugged me that it costs XP to make things if, through research, your character is learning and making something and therefore gaining experience from the project.

I understand the gaming mechanic behind it; if it doesn't cost XP there will be loads of items. But has anyone thought of a rule that is more positive?

I would have posted this onto the WOTC site but I can't seem to get on at the moment.

Does anyone know if there will be a 3.5 re-print of the FR setting? I know details of the edits are in another sourcebook but for my money that's not good enough.

Anyone know anything?