Rexx's page

This order has been in "Pending" status for three business weeks now which is a new one for me compared to past orders with your company. In the past, I can usually see which items are in stock and which ones are holding things up. Generally three weeks of "limbo" would drive your typical customer away considering the abundance of other online outlets that have a much quicker turnaround. Some clarification to the status of this order would be appreciated.

~~~Rodney in CA

The Age of Worms is around the corner and the goal is to stop this from happening and preserve the current Age of....? What do the majority of sages call the current Age for Greyhawk? When did this Age start? What was the Age before that?

I'm taking the Titan's House portion of the Coenoby in The Champion's Belt and making it pretty clear it was an ancient settlement destroyed by some sort of cataclysmic event. The priest of Pelor and paladin of Sehanine Moonbow have visions of the ancient settlement being destroyed (in a rather cheesy rip off of Sara Conner's visions of doom from T2...but it works) and I'd like to link this event somehow to the end of one Age, perhaps the Age that the Flan nations imploded. These visions then can become the parallels to the visions of what may happen to Greyhawk if the Apostle is loosed on the populace.

I know there's something out there on the Ages but my search checks keep failing. Can anyone provide some insight, please?

The embedded link colour for the text is too subtle a colour difference from the standard black text colour. A lot of new users would have trouble telling the difference between this and this and realizing the significance of the slight colour difference. If the font colour was cyan or magenta it would be clearer that an embedded link is in the text.

I want to confirm that the spell reciprocal gyre spell from the Spell Compendium targeted on a adversary that has imbibed five "buff" potions before combat would be subject to 5d12 damage as potions are a "targeted spell effect" and not "magic from an item"? Is this a correct interpretation or am I off?

I was surprised not to find an existing thread on this subject already in the archives. So I may as well throw these observations out to those who will be playing this adventure in the future.

The following is from a player from another game that ran Arcane Auriga for me during the first round of the Champion's Games:

Auriga errata

1) The additional 1d6 for Rennida's frost damage is not listed
2) The +2 Reflex she gets from her familiar is not listed.
3) The whole non-stacking of magical ammuntion with the magical bow limitation in 3.5 makes the Arcane Archer PC useless. If this limitation is in place, I would recommend no level in Arcane Archer, and rather just take another level in fighter for the extra feat.

Tactics
- Rennida's familiar is probably not with her. This would take away the Alertness feat, but would still allow her the + 2 to Reflex.
- Screw the memorization of Jump, Melf's and Ray of Enfeeblement. Useless in this situation. She should have memorized some more buff-type spells. There should also be some way to negate the armour failure rate for the pre-game buffs...maybe she doffs her breastplate, casts, and then the 3 other elves help her don her breastplate.
- Assuming they have made pacts with the other teams to go after the PCs first (which is probably going to be the case from a real-world perspective, as all the players are going to want to take on the PCs rather than the other NPC groups just for the sake of "ha-ha...I almost killed your character...") Their first round, all four elves should spend their entire action getting as far away as possible from each other, using a full run action. This way, it spreads out the PCs and makes them burn their high-lvl area effect spells on killing just a single NPC. The way I played it was just stupid, especially considering the area-effect spells I knew were coming. I think I was just putting too much confidence in the scroll actually working.....
- Once spread out as far as practicable, the elves should just take a full attack every round, plinking away.

For Badland's Revenge, Joren's spead should be 50-ft as his barbarian movement is already at 40-ft and the potion of longstrider gives him another 10-ft of movement.

If anyone has noticed further stat block errors in the rest of the scenario, would you please add to this thread. Thanks!

No matter what edition of the game I've played, when it has come to using Area of Effect spells, the centre of the effect's location invariably becomes a committee decision amongst the players. It's only human nature that you want to help your comrades in getting the most "bang" for the spell with the minimal threat to "friendlies" on the board. Lately this "AoE by Committee" process has gotten out of hand in my game and I realize it's time for me to become a "hard-ass" DM about it again.

Back in 1E/2E I used to dock XP but I think there's better potential with the 3.xE mechanics to give a player an opportunity to call on the "committee" but at a cost.

The spellcaster is the sole person to declare the location of an Area of Effect spell. Once they've designated the Area of Effect, they cannot change it without making a Spellcraft check with a DC of 15 plus spell level. The DC has the following modifiers to reflect fatigue/fog of war: +5 if spellcaster is at 51-75% of their maximum hit points; +10 if the spellcaster is at 11-50% of their maximum hit points; +20 if the spell caster's hit points are 10% or less. If another player blurts out suggestions before the Area of Effect is first designated, the spellcaster must make the Spellcraft check regardless of where they finally declare the Area of Affect.

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

Is this a little harsh? Or will such a table rule curtail the in-combat decisions by "committee" that slows the pace of combat more than necessary?

The first round of the Games have been resolved and my PCs were victorious — to the point of being cold blooded murderers.

Agreements had been reached with Badlands Revenge and the Saphire Squad to not deliver death blows. Neverless, the PCs unleashed all sorts of spell power on the other teams, massive sneak damage, and killer tactics to the point only one adversary could surrender. All others were reduced below -10 on their "death blows". They were like titans playing with kittens and not realizing their strength.

Granted, I set up Arcane Auriga to be treasonous in the eyes of the elven paladin, so I have no heartburn with their demise.

The fact that the NG cleric of Pelor was unleashing flame strikes on the agreed "allies" to deadly affect does give me some heartburn though. I've read through the Pelor article in Dragon 246 wondering if the cleric had stepped over the boundary of "good sportsmanship" but the whole concept of the blood sport we call "gladitorial combat" is pretty grey to begin with.

I wonder where I need to go with this in regards to the PC party and specifically the Pelorian cleric and the paladin. Have they broken their sacred vows by using deadly force in a "sporting" event like the Champion's Games? A cleric of Pelor, known for his help to the needy of the Free City, known for his charity, turns into a killing machine on the arena floor. How will the Pelorian faithful react to this demonstration?

Opinions, similar anecdotes, suggestions are welcome. The aftermath of the first round will be explored during tomorrow's (April 10th) game and I like to have a firm "judgement" in mind. Thank you in advance, my fellow Paizo.com peers.

Spatially, isn't Lyzandred's domicile relatively close to Maure Castle? Considering Lyzandred's interest in potent magical items and keeping them out the hands of "fools", has the lich had any interaction with the Maure Castle?

If this is already explained in the adventures, I apologize for being a dodder head and not reading first then asking questions. The beauty of message boards is you can ask questions first then read later. ::wink::

"As an aside, why hasn't something so "core" as the catoblepas seen print yet?"

It has ... look in the Monster Manual II.

And I agree, that Trampier illustration (like most of his) rocked.

Third Edition D&D has both simplified and complicated the mechanics of the D&D game when the metagame is considered over time. The progress in conceptualizing combat from various “to hit” charts in the DMG, to THAC0, to BAB is wonderful. Moving from simple ability checks, to non-weapon proficiencies, to the skill point system is probably my favourite. Where 3.xE fell short for me, though, is in the realm of Experience Points. Perhaps being a child of 1E and calculating each monsters’ XP based on how many hit points they had has me accustomed to doing detailed XP; 3.xE XP is too simple for my taste.

The simple nature of 3.xE XP is a thing of beauty when the new DM is considered. Taking the CR of critters, looking the XP value up on Table 2-6 in the DMG, and dividing this value by the number of PCs is all there is to do. All the PCs will have the same XP total, adjusted by the slight ad hoc XP adjustments a DM may like to do.

Each PC having the same XP total is where my sensibilities become chafed. I’m sure most players/Dungeon Masters have experienced the Third Wheel problem in their games: a player that doesn’t roleplay, tends to follow the group consensus, and rarely originates any ideas of their own to aid the game. The Third Wheel generally just enjoys listening to the story as it develops and feels their die rolls in combat are enough to add to the story. Having a Third Wheel is not a bad thing at all; they get into the action as much as the next player. Still, their role is more “reactive” than “proactive”. A Third Wheel will feel some resentment towards them (in my experience; granted, some groups are much more communal and hold no resentment towards players of this sort) primarily when XP is cranked.

“Rexx, it bugs me that Rebeneaux directed the fight against the catoblepas, did most of the spell damage, told Diosturm what to do, figured out how to get into Baltron’s Beacon, yet my XP earned was exactly what He/She earned with Diosturm.”

Thus, a long time ago I began to develop an XP system that awards each player according to their proactive and reactive involvement in the game. This system was very similar to the XP awards system of 2E.

Difonix.com (aka Rexx’s) XP System for 3.x D&D
The key to this system is a 3x5 card that each player is given at the start of the game. They date the card and place their character name in the top left corner. It is the player’s responsibility to track what their character does during the game on this card. In effect, the player creates a game log for their PC. They will write down the skill checks they’ve made successfully, any ideas they came up with during the game, heroic actions they did, critical hit damage, spells cast in an effective manner, and the like.

Here’s an example of a player’s XP card.

From the notes on this card I calculate the PC’s XP earned for that particular session.

There are four key elements to the XP earned in any given session. They are: Roleplaying (RPing), Summation (Σ), Encounter Level (EL), and Combat. Sometimes there will be a fifth element, Story.

Roleplaying (RPing) XP Awards: This is the XP that is earned when the PC’s player is present at the game. The base XP per session is 50 XP per PC level. Thus a 1st level PC gets 50 XP while a 8th level PC would earn 400 XP base. I modify this total by how well the player roleplays their character during the session. This has ranged from -50 XP to +250 XP beyond the base. This is totally subjective to the DM. If the player is absent and the PC falls into an NPC mode (in the hands of the DM or another player), it will earn no RPing XP for that game.

Summation (Σ): This is the XP that is earned from all the various skills checks, saving throws, ideas spawned, heroic actions committed, funny moments, etc. I note the XP earned as a +# and then add up all the results. This result can range from 0 to 1000+ XP depending on what the PC did for that game. Typical values I assign:
[u]General Skill Check Success (not keyed to the PC’s class)[/u]: +5, +7, or +10 per check. Examples would be Spot or Listen checks, Diplomacy checks for the untrained user, Search checks for loot.
[u]Class-related Skill Check Success (a skill that lets the PC’s class “shine”)[/u]: +12, +15, +20 per check. Hide and Move Silent checks are typical, as are Knowledge (something) checks. The idea is to reward the PC “trained” to do the skill because of their class.
[u]Class Ability[/u]: +15, +20, +25 per significant use. By significant, I mean the use of the Class Feature {those things with (Ex) and (Su) next to them} that moves the game forward in a positive manner. So Track for a Ranger, Bardic music abilities, Slow Fall for Monks, and the like. If the Class Feature directly aids in Combat, there’s no additional XP earned as Combat XP is more than enough.
[u]Spells Cast[/u]: +25 XP per spell level, +15 for 0-level spells. This only applies to Spells cast that move the game forward in a positive way. Casting detect secret doors just for the heck of it without any real suspicions of a secret door being present, earns no additional XP for the spellcaster. Using detect magic to look for something dropped in the mud is a good use of the spell and worth the 15 XP it garners. Clerical healing spells can be dicey to adjudicate; I generally award XP only if the healing spell allows the party to continue the adventure without resting.
[u]Saving Throws Made[/u]: +25 per successful save.

Encounter Level (EL): EL XP is my way of doing Group XP. For every encounter during a session, take the EL level and cross index it against the average party level on Table 2-6 of the DMG. Take 25% of this value and that’s the XP value for that particular encounter. Add up all the EL XP for the session and divide by the number of PCs. That is the EL XP each PC gets. For example, a party of four 2nd level PCs defeats an EL 2 trap, EL 3 critter encounter, and negotiate past an EL 1 adversary. One-fourth of the EL 2 is 150 XP, the EL 3 is 112, and the EL 1 is 75. All said and done, each PC would earn 84 XP for the session. The purpose of the EL XP is to give PCs some credit for being around while the rogue disarmed a trap, the cleric turned the undead, or the bard sweet-talked the party past the City Watch.

Combat: The other key element of XP is the combat details. By the standard 3.xE rules, it’s about the primary way to gain XP and tends to lead to erratic behaviour from PCs trying to scratch up 30 XP to gain a level. For my system the DM tracks the damage done to adversaries by each player. This is probably the most tedious element of the Difonix XP system. Really, it’s not that bad. Table 2-6 from the DMG is used to determine each adversary’s XP value. Take the appropriate value based on the party’s average level, and halve that value. So a CR 3 critter to a 3rd level party is normally worth 900 XP; it’s now worth 450 XP.

Here’s an example of the DM’s combat notes.

With these notes, I can determine how much damage each PC did to an adversary and then give that PC a proportional amount of the adversary’s XP value. For example looking at the sheet, the lurking strangler in the Lair of the Architect has 11 hp. I placed a slash through the “11”, noted a “2” below it with “Spade” written in between. This means nine points of damage was done by the PC “Spade”, aka Gerzin. The “2” has an “X” through it and “Graum” written beneath it. That means the PC Graum finished the bugger off. Thus Spade earns 9/11 (81.8%) of the XP value of the lurking strangler and Graum gets 2/11 (18.2%) of the XP value. The strangler is a CR 2 critter and is worth 300 XP (normally 600 XP, remember, halve the XP value). Thus “Spade” earns 245 XP and Graum earns 54 XP. Add up all the combat XP for all the critters in this manner and you have all the Combat XP for that session.

Story XP: After a chapter of campaign has been completed, I tend to award a Story XP. It’s kinda like an Xmas Bonus in XP. This ranges from 100 to 1000+ XP depending on the level of the PCs and the scope of that particular chapter. After The Whispering Cairn scenario is completed, I intend to award 200 XP to each PC. I may give one PC a little more if their overall actions were critical for the party’s success.

Ad hoc: In a way, this whole system is a detailed “ad hoc” XP system. Even still, some things happen that falls outside of the standard realm of XP awards. A PC that keeps an in-character journal on the Difonix.com site gets some additional XP every session. A PC that keeps accurate logs of the party’s finances earns a little more. The PC that threw the net to entangle a critter so the rogue could finish it off would get some ad hoc XP based on the critter’s XP value. Often an adventure gives notes on Ad Hoc XP and this is where that comes to play.

Okay, time for some logic for all this tedium. Yes, it is tedious to a point. The details required appease my sense of balance to the game. PCs that are very proactive advance quicker than the Third Wheel PCs. In my mind, that’s how it should be. It’s a way of nudging those sedate players into greater acts of heroism outside of just rolling a d20 and occupying a chair at the table. Still, the system assures that that player still earns XP even if they aren’t getting a piece of the “action” in regards to combat and the like.

The player tracking their activities on a card is critical. If they are lax in their details, then they’ll be potentially shorting themselves some XP. So remind the player to “write that down” if you feel it’s appropriate. If the DM remembers a detail a PC forgot, go ahead and note it on the card and award XP. The cards also double as a campaign log of sorts and allows a DM to look back and remember details they may have forgotten.

Effectively I’m taking the XP value for a critter and splitting it up into quarters. One quarter goes towards EL XP that all PCs share from. Two quarters (a half) goes to the combat XP and is awarded to the PC that dealt the damage to the critter. The last quarter covers the RPing and Summation XP. I find that this system advances PCs a tad quicker at lower levels and slows things slightly at higher levels. Again, this appeases my 1E/2E-molded sensibilities.

If you’ve read this far: thank you. If this system doesn’t seem too intimidating and you want to give it a try, I encourage you to ask questions. At least, use the 3x5 card idea to track character actions and ideas. This was something I gleaned from the pages of Dragon many years ago… If you want more examples, I’d be happy to scan and post the links to visual aids.

If you’re satisfied with the standard 3.xE XP system, I commend you and your players! Keep at it and I hope the best for your games. If you’re looking for something different, cannibalize what you like from the Difonix XP system or use it wholesale. It’s Open Game Content. ::wink::

I have been running a Scarlet Brotherhood-based campaign set in Greyhawk year 591 CY. Using Sean Reynolds' "The Scarlet Brotherhood" sourcebook, I've been able to create a vision of the Shari that allows for great roleplaying without the hackneyed interpretations of an non-good society creeping into play.

The basic premise of the campaign is that six PCs from various segments of Shari society have been placed in a "cell" with a directing Asahar giving occasional instructions from his offices in Hesuel Ilshar. Their first task involved the cell tracking down information about "illegal breeding" in the township of Ris. Their investigations (eventually...) gathered enough clues to determine a former Assistant Director of the Bredthrall program was a member of the High Unity faction and was trying to use high level polymorphing magic to change elves into Sueloise-looking humans so they'd breed with Suel and produce offspring with half-elven benefits (namely low-light vision) but with outwardly Suel-appearances. In short, the players quickly became embroiled in the political backstabbing of Shar society. They've completed their mission and averaging 4th level.

What next?

This is where I could certainly use a nudge from the great pool of Greyhawk affecionados I've seen on the boards here at Paizo. The "heat" is on the cell and Asahar Ob-vuul wants to get them off the Tilvanot Pennisula. I'm aiming to send them to Hepmonaland. Does anyone have suggestions for appropriate adventures that have appeared in Dungeon? My DMing prep time is limited (partially because I've become sucked into the AoW campaign and am running a game of that too); a scenario that can be "cut and paste" would be ideal with minor adjustments for the LN/LE alignment of the cell. I vaguely remember seeing some yuan-ti themed adventures in the past 2-3 years. I have to make my storage trip targeted as I cannot haul the whole Dungeon collection home; issue numbers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Pssst Erik Mona: any chance of getting Sean to write a Scarlet Brotherhood-themed scenario?

I'll be in Massachusetts, specifically the Westwood area, for the Holidays. I'd love to run an NPC or fill in for a player for a local game if circumstances permit. Drop me a line at difonix@yahoo.com and we'll go from there. Or, drop me a PM via the website listed above.