Tony Ranger's page

Whaaaa? Then we should change the name of the monk too, right?

It's a BLOODY NINJA!

If we changed the name, someone who saw it for the first time would inevitably just say after reading it,

"So it's a Ninja then."

Every noun in the English lexicon has a geoethnic origin.

Many would say the word thug originated in England, but we know better. Even if you do, most don't think of it's original origin much when we hear it. It's just a question of time.

Just stop attaching the ethnic identity to the name and accept it for it's awesomeness.
And that's really just the beauty of English, it's ability to gobble up and adopt other language's words with gluttonous vigor.

In a hundred years no one will care about it's origin, but we'll still be playing awesome RPGs like Pathfinder.

I found that I was short on Arcane Pool points with my magus. Although I was not playing the magus from a player's point of view... I'm hoping there will be an Extra Arcane Pool feat included. All in all I like the class from the brief time that I used it and it certainly piqued my interest in playing it as a player rather than GM. (maybe an orc isn't the best race for a magus?)

I had the same situation with my Magus (4th level Tiefling, 2nd Darkness).

I believe a Magus Arcana "Extra Arcane Pool" is probably coming, but this will use one of the Arcana slots and therefore already uses a character resource.
Since the class really relies on this ability for a lot of it's... well, abilities, I think it needs more than the current amoutn given for the 3rd playtest as the current amount IMO made a difference in that his (my character's) combat effectiveness over the course of a night's of adventuring dropped to sub-standard levels once he ran out, and he ran out relatively quick even though I thought I was being conservative.
This ability is a cornerstone of the class and though I LOVE the current rendition of the class itself, I think it deserves a little more love in that department.

If he were to have more Arcane Pool points, a fair possibility would be to give him points equal to 1/2 his Magus class level + DOUBLE his INT modifier.
This way he'd have a good start at low levels which would balance out in mid-levels and additions to his INT wouldn't get the point levels out of hand at later levels.
One point per level is too much IMO.

Lastly, don't take away heavy armor.
When I turn 13th level I be bonkin' heads to get me some Mithral Full Plate of Speed! :)

Cheers

My understanding (again) is that you wouldn't need spell combat to make those full attacks with the spell strike chill touch.

I'll use an example from play:

Thomas casts chill touch as part of a spell combat action, five foot steps up and full attacks at level 8 with haste active.

He makes 3 attacks as his full attack, two at his best bonus (due to haste) and one iterative attack. All the attacks suffer a -2 penalty due to spell combat. Chill Touch has 8 'charges' and he is using spell strike to hit with spell and weapon. If all three of his attacks connect then he will use up three charges and the foe will make three fortitude saves for strength damage.

Next round he doesn't want to cast (since he would lose the chill touch spell) so he simply full attacks again with spell strike. This time he doesn't take any penalties since spell strike doesn't give him any. If all three attacks hit again he's down 3 more charges.

On the third round he declares he's going to use spell combat again but he decides to make his attacks first (as to finish using up the chill touch spell) all of which again take the -2 penalty for spell combat. Lets say only 2 of his attacks hit this time -- this finishes using up his chill touch spell, and the foe falls. After he is done making his attacks he casts scorching ray at an enemy in the distance. He rolls his two attack rolls (without the -2 penalty which only affects melee attacks made as part of the spell combat full attack) and deals the damage from his scorching ray spell.

Yeah... that actually makes sense.

Wait... have I been doing sneak attack damage wrong this whole time?

I thought the sneak attack damage could only be applied to a single attack per round...

Alakast is a +1 bane vs. evil outsiders quarterstaff, so it deals an extra 2d6 of damage and it's a +3 weapon against Nabthatoron... BUT NABTHATORON HAS DR 10/good... and Alakast is not good!!!!
WHAT DO YOU THINK???

Nanmaniac

We have our own house rules whereas the 1st level cleric spell bless can be cast on weapons to make them good. (basically the same as the paladin spell bless weapon) Of course if you're lucky enough to have a paladin in the party and you're at the DEMON-skar, then he'd probably be smart to pray for this one.

Great idea Shadow master! Thanks, and thanks Dungeon as well. Way to give back to the people!

Cheers

My group's most memerable one was "against the giants", a hack'n slash embassador if there ever was one. Personally, I'd love to see Expedition to the Barrier Peaks redone. Including new pics of the weird devices and weapons in the adventure so one of us can shoot themselves in the head like we did the first time, LOL. And of course, the froghemoth's mother has to be in the new one. And while we're at it, how about hiring Otis to do all the artwork for this one?

Cheers

Hey Tony,

I also love your cartoon. The first time I saw it was with the frog in the Lich's skull and the halfling zombies.
After that there was no hope for me.
Great work,

Cheers

Yes, very cool. Thanks for the story. Will wait for the next one.

Cheers

Yes! thanks again for that J.J. (I always wanted to say that)
Undead - great. Though worms? Are we going to be seeing some earthworm swarms here or what?
I remember mention of undead and dragons last I read in the adventure path 2 thread...

Cheers

Holy Moses!

You guys are all complaining about nothing! I live in TAIWAN, and do you know what I pay per issue?
$10.36 US!
Do you hear me complain about it? Hell no!
ALL WOTC products outside the three core books are OPTIONAL. You don't have to buy them, even if you loved them in the past and now don't like the way they're doing things or if you think there's too much material for the DM or whatever.
You can play the game with just those three books.
Nobody uses all the content in the magazine, just as nobody can agree on what should be in each issue, or if we should all eat beef or not, or whatever!
I buy it because I like to use some and just read the rest, daydreaming about how I could use it to annihilate the players...
I DO like the new columns and campaign workbook in Dungeon, especially the "Starting a new Campaign" series. I just "started a new campaign" with some of my ESL students here in Taiwan and the information is great, especially since I had to teach four players the rules since none of them had ever even heard about it before.
And yes Paul, it is more expensive. Do you know why? Because if they didn't raise the price there wouldn't be a dungeon anymore.
The trouble that Dungeon had was that it WAS broken.
I believe ployhedron was originally added because it seemed like it would be a great deal for the readers. We were given polyhedron, a huge source of extra material for d20 for a very small addition to the original price.
But, it was just one of those (decent) ideas that didn't catch on.
Now, we have a monthly three adventure-per-issue mag with some good reading as well.
The only thing I'd have to DEFINITELY agree on is to bring back the Reaction, Detection, Aura, Etc section. That is just the kind of reason as to why we buy Dungeon, and not write our own adventures. To save our free time, (which we don't have much of) so we can keep our jobs and get payed, and let the professionals (who DO get payed for it) do it. It's probably the most innovative idea I've seen in the magazine for a long time.
Anyway, I pay $10.36 per issue, and I still buy it. Did you get that?

Cheers

I can't believe no one's mentioned the best class of all... the CLERIC of course!

The cleric is a great opportunity for some challenging role playing (which I make my players remember before they pick this class). It's really something when you get a player who tries to figure his area of worship into all his characters decisions, and that's the way a real cleric should be played. And, let's face it, no other character has a better chance of making it on their own than the cleric.
In many ways, I think they are almost too powerful compared to other classes.
Great armor selection, good BAB, excellent all purpose attack/defence/utility spells, and some great special abilities as well.
One of my favorite combinations I've played is the fighter/cleric, which can be done in many ways...

The Dwarf: Daewar Trollcleaver a fighter/cleric of Clangeddin Silverbeard, one of my favorites, a classic dour, heavy drinking dwarf who always looked at everything as a battle that needed to be won (even the laundry).

The elf: Zan'zan'arana-zan (Zan for short) -love those over the top drow names... a fighter/cleric who was one of the few drow male clerics of elistree (sp?). He wore light armor but fought using two blades and was quite a sneaky little guy.

The Human: Aden Thundershield, a new fighter/cleric of St. Cuthbert, a former cauldron town guard and a former drunk, who crossed the wrong nobleman in town. He found his faith after landing in the gutter. I play him as a sort of cross between Judge Dredd and the stereo-typical wild-west lawman.
Don't cross the LAW boy, or the LAW will cross you!

Hope this also gives you some ideas.

Cheers

I agree with most of what you're saying GGG. It is a marriage, and it doesn't look like anyone wants a divorce. You can simply see how popular the AP is by comparing the number of posts on the AP thread to the number on the whole main dungeon thread itself.
Almost the same.
I've also seen many possibilities in my minds eye as far as turning the AP's I've read into one shots. We're all creative people here. If we weren't we wouldn't be playing.
I think we all appreciate the effort Dungeon has put into the first AP and now hearing and responding to our suggestions for the next installment.
I'd really like to see some more coolness like the sign of the smoking eye. It was really great because it didn't give the player too much power, but just enough to make it exciting, and it also did a great job of pulling that player further into the story. I'd just like to see something for each one of the players so they can all sample the fun.
I was thinking of maybe some lesser dragon templates for each one as the story progresses, over the course of four adventures for example, something like the fiendish or celestial template. Perhaps one of each of the good metallic dragons involved with the story, maybe if they were very high level patron type NPC's, could bestow some dragon like abilities magically onto the PC's. Say if each dragon had a favorite amongst the PC's. (which would also keep the party balanced better as well)
I also like the idea of shooting just past the Epic level for the PC's. I don't actually own the epic handbook, but it would be great to have an earth shaking adventure at the end of it!
Well, although GGG's got a good point on the required marriage to those 20 issues of Dungeon, It's plain to see that not doing an adventure path now would be a huge disappointment to so many of us.
And I'm also super busy during the week and don't have any time to make my own campaign world or write adventures. I've been using Dungeon for many years and will continue to do so as long as they keep on being creative, innovative, and constantly trying to make the magazine better.

Cheers

Thanks Rikkus,

I agree they do a pretty fine job, or else I wouldn't have bought so many of their issues over the years. And in retrospect, my post was of course partially fueled on the desire to have those stats that are not available to me.
But i think it's strange how the Farastu and Kelubar stats are in there, but there's nothing about the Shator...
Let me be clear though, I think it's great and I WANT dungeon to have material from other sourses, especially with all the info the players usually get their grubby hands on regarding the core MM.
I just think there's gotta be someone else out there who agrees that all non-core book material should be available either in the mag or as a web enhancement at the least (just check out my second to last post in the next AP thread and you'll see what I really feel about it.)

Cheers

Why not present it in Dungeon instead of a map of mystery?

Hey, I CAN'T buy all the books, I live in Taiwan, Ok?
And It's not a matter of the money, I've been playing for many years and spent over a thousand dollars on books and such, and will continue to spend money on the books I feel will be used well in our campaign. I remember reading an article from the Editor of Dungeon or Dragon (can't remember) about how many hundreds of books he has and how many great ideas he had to use them but never had the time to do it. Well, Ive been there too, and learnt that its important to control your spending, becasue the same thing happens to all of us.
If an adventure is presented in Dungeon, I believe all statistics not in the core books that are used in the adventure should be printed in the magazine, just like they did for the feats in the book of vile darkness, or the draconomicon stuff in foundation of flame.
This not only gives the reader a taste of what you can get in the books, it enables the author to present the adventure as it was meant to be.
The Demodands in the shackled city are great, they're definetly not demons, or devils, or something inbetween, and I don't think the readers (re:customers) of Dungeon should have to go out and buy books just to play an adventure in a magazine they just spent their money on in the first place.
If someone wants the Fiend Folio or whatever the book is, people will just go out and buy it. If they don't, they won't. Forcing the hand of the readers to support the material in the magazine by having to buy another book was one of the many factors that sounded the death knell of the old TSR inc.
I know this may seem like a rant to some of you, but it's an important issue to me, as I'm sure it's been discussed in the D&D offices before.
Though I would also like to see supplement material from other sources besides the core books present within Dungeon, it should be included in the magazine, just as the buyers of those books should not have to purchase Dungeon to complete their books.

Myself, I really enjoyed both the first two dark elf series as well as. though read MUCH later, the pool of radience series (though I only read the first two).
I think they were some of the first FR books to come out.
Though for high fantasy, no one comes close to Robert E. Howard.
if you're looking for some GREAT conan, pick up a copy of "The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian". It's the totally unedited, untouched (as in L. Sprague Decamp/Linda Carter) collection of Howard's stories presented in chronologicaly WRITTEN order, not per Conan's age. Also has the most complete history of the Hyborian age, firstsubmitted drafts, untitled synopsis's and other goodies.
The best and purest collection of Conan i've ever seen.

I believe the Adventure path series will turn out to be one of those things that people wondered what it was like BEFORE we had it.
I didn't see any prestige classes specific for the campaign so i'd definetly like to see that (maybe three or four, so every class could fit into one).
Also less monsters from D&D's supplements line of books. If you do use them, and it seems you might be using Libris mortis and/or the Draconomicon as the next one will have many undead and dragons, please print ALL the relevent material needed in the adventure, or make a web enhancement for each adventure.
We are supposting Dungeon in relevence to the fact that we're buying the magazine product so I don't think it's unfair to ask this.
As far as fitting into a campaign world (FR,EB) I'd like to see specific reference to which existing world groups best fit into the mold of the power groups in the adventure (as in, a bunch of dragon worshipers in the adventure become the cult of the dragon in FR, for example.
I think getting away from a site based adventue would also be a little fresh air for the second installment. Something where you must travel across the continent(s) to reach your goal (this especially needs to be supported by some info on where these can take place if you're playing in FR or EB)
Otherwise, I'm sure whatever you guys cook up for us, it will be, as usual, a great adventue.

Cheers

Thanks for the title of "Fortune Favors the Dead" in #80. That was a stand out adventure. I had a group of "mercenary" (re; evil) pirate humanoid PC's do that one (female half-deep dragon/drow socerer/rogue, human male cleric/rogue/assassin, male minotaur fighter, male half-orc rogue/fighter/swashbuckler, called themselves "The Deceptacons"). It was an incredible adventure, especially with the desert "shoot-out" style encounter and the Glass Sword of Navarrone(sp?. Definetely made for some great role-playing after as our half-orc swashbuckler, Black-Jacque Tabernac, found when using this +4 defending cutlass that would shatter if the wielder ever backed out of a fight after drawing the blade! (made him more heroic than he wanted to be, as his greed was so great, he didn't want to destroy the blade)
Also the same party went north and did a great adventure routing out some frost giants, and picking up a great evil dwarven co-hort we kicked around for awhile. I believe the Chraal in the new MMIII made it's first appearance there, though i can't remember the name of the adventure...
Also there was one we did right after against a frost giant family (the art was done by Tony D.) This was also a killer adventure in which I believe my PC's ended up kidnapping the frost giant's child and holding it for ransome... one of the best solutions I've ever seen for ending the raids and getting treasure... IF you're EVIL that is!!!

Bwaahahahahahaha....... cough,cough...

Hello fellow shackled ones!

I'm looking for info on the Demodands. I notice Wizards loves to make adventures where you have to own the accessory books to run things. After 12 issues you think they'd have the heart to make a web enhancement with all the demodand's on them, considering they appear so much and there were those great web enhancements for the first two adventures.
Anyway, that's what I'm looking for. The Demodands info.
Can anyone help out here? I would like to read not only the "bare bones stats" info but more on who the demodands are and what they're particular take on evil is.
We all know a lot about the devils and demons, but the demodands motives are not as clear. Plus I don't know squat about the shator.
How about the powers that be? Guys?

Open request to Dungeon's editors: Any chance you could help those of us who don't own fiend folio out here? I mean, It's not like we didn't spend a lot of money buying these many copies of dungeon, and i'd really hate to replace them with the standard hooligans of hell.
So anyone who agrees please forward this motion with emotion, and put your name at the bottom of this thread.
At ease!

(I mean, Cheers)

Look, it all depends on YOU, the DM! (not an acronym for dummy) Depending on your players, you have to be either more overt or more subtle. I have two separate groups in the the shackled city adventure, none of which have ever played D&D, and both have english as there second language.
The first group needed no hints, we're on the test of the smoking eye, and just from constantly hearing the name "cagewrights" they know there's something up with them. I just drop the name in a sinister way, at the right time, but give no details. The group has slowly been trying to find out more and more about the cagewrights on thier own.
The other group needed proding. I didn't mention the CW's at all until the third adventure then I had the striders tell the party about the CW's and that they need to be careful about crossing them. Then I had some dying boss (can't remember who) utter a curse in the name of the cagewrights.
Hopethis stuff helps.

.Ca? That's a Canadian address. What are you doing in Taiwan? I am here in St. John's, NL. I'll mail you the stats as soon as I can type them up. Have Fun!

You got another one looking... Thanks again

What kind of stats are you looking for? I have the mag and can give you what you want, it's just a over half a page long. If you want something specific, let me know.

Thanks! I guess i want everything! His stats plus his history if you're willing. You could just put it here or email me at seancoopa@yahoo.ca.

Cheers!

Hey! Now that's a better idea! C'mon Paizo!
I simply cannot get a copy of the magazine anywhere. I live in Taiwan!
Do it for the love of the game! I want to make warduke a cagewright!
Make an announcement about it! get people psyched up!

Please.

I've tried to get my hands on that copy of Dungeon with warduke but I'm finding it to be impossible! hey, and i've still got my old warduke action figure too.
Could someone PLEASE give me his stats!