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awesome reply to my (Tandriniel) post
That is a fantastic reply, Cevah, thanks a lot for your very competent and insightful answer.
Thanks all, I am thinking that different premium services would be purchasable in a fantasy environment, like VIP transportation, high value/urgent cargo, and perhaps communication.
The lack of fly skill is a really good point, thanks, and a smart way to balance Fly, also for mindless undead, I guess. Would it be possible for an animated object, in this case the flying ship, to wear a magic item? If so, would it be possible for the animated object to benefit from a skill enhancing item? (+20 Fly skill item, for example).
Our system is as follows: 1250 words equals 20% of a level. The DM scores the text, and every time the DM feels something (smiles, is carried away, thinks that something is cool etc) he makes a count. We call these "wow"s. A picture counts as a "wow". Each wow gives 3% accumulative XP bonus. A perfect text (use spell-control, re-read and fix) gives 5 "wows", subject to DM discretion. Minimum is 470 words (7.5% with no "wow"s).
A session typically leads to between 1.000 and 2.000 words (sometimes more) pr player. That means a sum of something between 2.000 and 10.000 words... Everyone are allowed to recollect the event from the session, the stories are always a good read, even the basic moves are the same. Players typically add dialogue: they are allowed to freely create dialogue between the characters, without the consent of the other players. Of course this has to be done with a tad of tact. Players are also rewarded for writing extensive background stories, as well as anything that they can dream up that relates to the fictional universe we are co-creating.
The stories a quite free, we call them recaps, because a simple recap of the events in a session is sufficient. But the players have full creative freedom, and sometimes tell the story from the perspective of the monsters. A wonderful example was an orc raiding party that the players encountered in a session, where one of the players decided that his recap would tell the story of these valiant warriors whom where tracking and hunting down the heroes. Suddenly the orcs had names and motivations, intentions, ideology or morale, and the encounter in retrospect was about much more than some level 2-3 characters killing another group of orcs. This leads to co-creation. The DM shares the power to create with the players, and the players are rewarded both with game-mechanics and with the empowerment this brings.
Some years ago, we started having a parallel in character storytelling online, off-session. We found that this was greatly enhancing for the immersion and fun for our pen & paper sessions, so we tried in different ways to enhance this. It would appear that after a lot of trial and error, we found a method that works for us, and I would like to share it with players and DMs for your inspiration. We are running a campaign loosely set in the Golarion setting (we are new to Golarion, so we are learning about it as we move forth). The campaign has Slow Progression, and our sessions are typically only 3-5 hours (we are all in our 40ies). This means that the kill-XP is very slow. How the players gain a lot of XP is by writing in-character stories, recaps, "pre-caps", prequels, background, etc. This then becomes "rpg-xp", which falls within the domain of the DM to dish out. This gives a subjective perception of fast progression, there is typically generated more than 50% of a level combining these two main XP-sources. We have developed a basic scoring system, I will describe it later. The result is that the characters are a lot more like a character from a movie or book to us (of course we are amateurs and the quality corresponds to that). We are thickening the narrative layer on top of the pen & paper mechanics, and our immersion in the game increases a lot.
stick each of your index fingers in your nostrils. Say: "Not every fight should be taken head on", with your fingers up your nose. This is the international sign for TPK-hint (actually any very strong hint that should not be ignored), and has been used with success for decades in my group. If the players ignore it, TPK. They should learn it quite fast...
I think it sounds fun what your DM did to you. You might end as the BBEG, but not necesarily with a fatal outcome for you. I think the blood drinking saves are a hint, that your DM wants to tell the story of a character that struggles against evil in him, not only outside him. You could consider that your character is having deep thoughts about his morality because of this, and a result of the inner struggle is that your character wants to change towards good (maybe neutral good even), having realized how close he walks with evil, and not liking it, and that his CN alignment will make it very dificult to stay focused enough to avoid turning evil. And you might need to explore bufs and items to save better, maybe reroll, as well as search for alternatives to feed with fatal outcome for an intelligent being. Enjoy the development, very few people get to play something that extrarodinary... :-)
Hi, I am debating with a player whether Break Enchantment works against a vampire's Dominate effect. Here are some links:
Dominate Person, Spell:
Break Enchantment, Spell:
Description of Supernatural Ability:
I argue that it doesn't, since Vampire's Dominate is a Supernatural ability. He argues that it does, since Dominate works like Dominate person, and since Break Enchantment can break spells level 5 and lower even if they are not normally dispellable by Dispell Magic. I have asked him to give his argument in this thread, to ensure accuracy. What is RAW on this topic? Your help is apreciated.
Minis improve atmosphere in our games, probably because we are old farts with no imagination. I once build a fortress on a plateau on our dining table (wife was not impressed, kids loved it, but was of course banned away). The party advanced from the kitchen sink, doing long range recconoisance (spelling). It was great, all sorts of tactical elements where at play, also because they waited until nighttime to attack in complete darkness (most had no darkvision. The defending orcs did not have the same problem, but really could not believe that the party holding on to each other as blind mice was a real threat). A narrow ramp with dificult terraib modifier was the obvious entrance point, and of course was chosen for the slow-poke hand heldinng party stumbling up to the main gate. And of course music (Enya from the 80'ies). It was a blast, hillarious, fumbling, and of course the players won in the end :-).
7 is no big deal. -2 on charisma based rolls in a d20 game equals 10% less chance to be successfull than the average joe. This means 10% less chance of picking up the girl in the bar, or getting a raise, compared to the average person. Don't drama it, 7 is fine.
Avg on 1d8 is 4,5, on 2d6 is 7. So it is an avg bonus of 2,5 to damage that stacks with enhancement bonuses and other bonuses. The spell has a range of 'you', = 'personal'. That means that it is not possible to make a potion out of this. So the OP has a case with a player who wants to have access to a range:personal spell, reduce action economy from 1 action to continous, and increase damage more that for example Weapon Specialization does. Easy in my book: no. Hell no. Not at that cost. Only thing RAI low cost in my opinion is wand + UMD check DC 20 as a standard action, as suggested earlier in the thread. To get the action economy and loose UMD check I would rule like this: A comparable item is greater bracers of archery, which gives +1 to hit, + 2 damage, but is less valuable thab gravity bow because it is a competence bonus, that is a bonus which could have stacking conflicts. So, I would make the ruling like this: 25.000 price, it HAS to be bracers location. example: Tandriniels bracers of superior archery: gr. Bracers of archery + gravity bow. Price:
Still a possibility at high levels, and really cool.
Well, in game terms, Time Stop does not stop time. It makes the casters time move at a different pace than the rest, for a few rounds. This means that the time is still moving forward outside the perspective of the caster, but very slow relatively. There are no bubbles in the game. There are planes and demi-planes, which can have different time speeds. As far as I know, all plane shifts are atomic, meaning you are either on one or the other. If you are going to create a custom effect, you need to define what is the nature of the time stop. If you are inside, and look out, is it like millions of years passes in a second? Or are you just immortal, experiencing same time speed. If the first one is the case, it would easily be impossible to penetrate the bubble. As your hand tries to penetrate the bubble from the outside, time slows down, and therefore the speed of the atoms on your fingertips becomes almost zero, and they stop, relative to the outside world. It would feel completely impenetrable, and it would take millions of years to enter. If trying to leave the bubble, the molecules on your fingertips would speed up to incredibly high speed, relative to inside, and the inertia would rip them from your hand, effectively desintegrating you as you push your hand through. Hence the need for a barrier, and an instant and indivisible mode of transport.
Cheapy, stop what you are doing and write us that bard guide. Awesome thread. Really. |