I was just relocated to Missouri by my employer. We're getting settled in, and I'd like to know if there are any RPG groups in this area. OD&D to 4E? Anything?
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So I decided to buy and read the 4th edition rules while recovering from my surgery – try to take my mind off of it for a bit. Narcotics and the 4e rule set may not be a good mix, but I thought it was working up until I started looking at the rules for making NPCs on page 187 of the DMG, then looking at the NPCs shown in Chap 11 for Fallcrest – Armos on page 204 and Kelson on page 205 in particular. What happened to their daily and utility powers? I’m just certain that page 187 is saying that they should have one of each, but their stat block doesn’t have one. Is there another key rule concerning stating out NPCs that I’m missing? That and I don’t see how a human is getting the halfling Second Chance ability . . . Any help would be appreciated. I’m probably just missing something simple (like the ability of several soldier monsters to Mark someone – I kept wondering what that meant as I read the Monster Manual and finally realized it was a condition explained in the Player’s Handbook).
Does anyone know of a good set of map tiles that I could use to set up random tactical maps for outdoor encounters in forest / hills / etc.? The Gamemastery map packs look great for buildings in towns and specific sites in the outdoors and such, but not for pure outdoors encounters with nothing but the terrain itself to work with. I’d like a set of 6” to 9” square tiles with various layouts of trees, bushes, rocks, etc. (along with some extra tiles with paths and streams that can be subbed in as needed) that I could lay out to make a large battlefield – maybe 36” square - since outdoor encounters can take place over so much more area than a dungeon one. Does anyone know of any map packs that can do that? Thanks for the help!
Has anyone else ever wanted to have a BBEG pronounce a horrible dying curse upon the PCs? I’d want it to only work on occasion (just because an opponent curses you as he dies doesn’t guarantee anything will come of it), be a free action, not count as a spell slot (anyone can attempt to pronounce a dying curse) and something that scales in magnitude with the BBEG’s power – no one is too worked up by the dying curse of a 1st level Warrior, but no one wants to receive one from a 14th level Wizard / Lich. I can’t think of a good mechanic for it in the core rules and I’m wondering if anyone knows of anything out there that would work. Something beyond the spell curse – something that requires more than a successful casting of remove curse to get rid of. Thanks!
OK, I’m about to start a single player campaign. The player wants her character to be a bard, and has come up with a good back-story for it. But when I look at a 1st level Bard, 28 point-buy, I can’t help but wonder if it would be able to survive an encounter with a single rat. I mean, its going to be an urban campaign without that much combat, but still, it is just me, or is the Bard a really weak class? As I look at it, there are several things that bother me about the Bard class, and I wanted to have your opinion on them. 1) The Bard doesn’t seem very musical – there are not many abilities, and after first level, they seem weak for the level at which they are gained (except Inspire Greatness at 9th level, which seems far stronger than Inspire Heroics at 15th level). I mean, Inspire Courage +2 at 8th level? That bonus is nice, but nothing special, by 8th level. Since music is the main thing a Bard is supposed to be good at, it seems like there isn’t much there. 2) The Bard doesn’t have enough skill points – the character the player has in mind grew up as a Gypsy. She wants to take ranks in Perform (Sing), Perform (Dance) and Perform (Percussion – finger cymbals and such). That’s great, except that without a high Intelligence score, that’s half her skill points right there! 3) The Bard, a jack-of-all-trades, is strangely focused in their magic – only a maximum of 5 spells known per level, choosing primarily from enchantment and illusion. It just seems like, magically, the Bard cannot diversify at all, which seems counter-concept. I’m not complaining about the spell list as much as the number of spells a Bard can learn from it. 4) The Bard, a wandering lone minstrel, seems unable to properly defend herself. Without the feats of a fighter or the sneak attack / evasion / uncanny dodge of a rogue, the Bard is barely better than a wizard in combat unless she uses her spells to enhance herself – which wouldn’t be so bad if this didn’t force you to spend half your precious 5 spells known slots on combat enhancers instead of the player’s character concept. Am I simply not seeing the potential in this class? I’m not trying to munchkin the Bard – I just don’t want to kill off a pretty cool character concept the player developed with a weak encounter that any other character class could have sailed past without trouble. Again, I’m not planning on that much combat, but I could see a 3rd level bard being killed by a pair of street thugs (CR ½ each, EL 1, if I remember right). And even if she lives, she better not get into any trouble for the rest of the day! What’s funny is I once created a Rogue / Sorcerer combo – the character couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, but he was always pretending he was a Bard – used his Bluff and Perform (String) for all it was worth. For every 2 Rogue levels, I took 3 Sorcerer levels. I can’t help but think that this character was far more effective, in almost any given situation, than a Bard of the same level would be. That isn’t the debate I want to start, but just that the issue is open makes me think that there is a serious problem with the Bard. Go easy on me please, its my first post. |