Serious Bizzle's page

Alkenstar is something of a Swiss equivalent, although their neutrality is somewhat bought with technological superiority (gunpowder and clockwork! Very swiss)

Dotting for reference

good stuff man!

Balance yeah well, still it's time to create stats for a bear companion who becomes big (doesn't matter if at 4th or 7th) - I mean, just for the fluff you could take the wolfs stats but tripping is not quite the way of the bear. Also one could take the Big Cat but then again, Dex 17 is not how I imagine a game bear (real world bears are quite dextrous tough)

For a bear, size is important since I imagine them as grapplers but again, Big Cats get to do that, so it's not that big of a balance issue
Same for Boars, Boar riding dwarves are just cool but oh well, Boars only become medium

Also, a Stag/Moose companion would be stylish (in one game our DM allowed our paladin to have a stag mount with the stats of a horse but the gore attack a stag should possess would add to the fluff)

FYI, the first module of Kingmaker introduces the Elk as an optional animal companion. So there ya go.

He gets up to Large too, woot riding Elk!

I'm afraid my LGS has essentially lost me as a consistent customer. Although I may still occasionally purchase gaming supplies (dice, map packs etc...), their prices just can't compete with Amazon.

On top of that, the store recently underwent something of a revolution in philosophy. Before, I could come in on any day and find the usual crowd, a few people playing warhammer, a table full of Magic players, even a group playing some version of D&D at the back table. But then, the owner, in a ill-advised attempt to consolidate his revenue streams and encourage people to purchase more instead of just hanging around (a legitimate concern) has organized all the various forms of gaming into a very strict and limited schedule. i.e. If it is not Wednesday night, which is the D&D encounters night, then you are not using the gaming tables for playing D&D. If it is not Sunday afternoon, then you are not playing Warhammer fantasy there.

While I understand his frustration at the typical LGS loitering, I'm of the opinion that the first function of the store is helping to foster that local gaming community. I myself loved hanging out there a couple of times a week, and while I couldn't always buy something, I usually tried to at least pick up a pack of magic cards or a pack of dice or something. Plus, my constant presence allowed me to browse a lot, and led to me deciding to purchase things, even if I had to save up a week for it and come back.

tldr; My lgs has lost all sense of community. It's basically a ghost shop 80% of the time now and it makes me sad...

In my case, being more generous with stats has helped my perpetually nooby players be more creative and versatile with what they do with their characters. Kinda helps me carrot on a stickem into roleplaying more interesting interactions and character concepts.

In the games I run, I always go with 4d6, drop low, roll 7 times keep the high 6. It usually results in one or two +0s, if you're unlucky you end up with a -1. But you can usually get enough stats to handle being mad, and maybe even you can do something weird and versatile with a character.

And that's fine with me. Personally, I like to focus on the mechanics of my character as another area I can define him better. I'm the guy who takes a lot of silly +1 flavor options instead of the agreed upon "optimized result". As long as the basic function of the class performs well (poor monk, so ill defined) then I use the other mechanical options available to me to build my character in numbers as well as words.

So my group and I gel well and we play our game. Works for us. Although, I'm meeting two new players to revive my group (which has experienced some attrition) so my philosophies may have to change if I get some toolish power gamers, or someone who expects more challenge.

Hmmm, my group may have made me a little lazy as a DM...