Vexer's page

The man most directly responsible for the 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons is known as Khan the Destroyer, a message board poster at the online forums of Wizards of the Coast, Incorporated. As a thought experiment, he posited the creation of the most powerful 3.5 edition character ever. He delineated a revolutionary series of rules exploits to allow virtually unlimited power to a character with very low levels. In three months his ideas become the most talked about subject on the message boards. All power gamers upgraded their characters with his infinite-interation power escalation loops. Afterwards, they game with a perfect operational record.

Pun Pun, the hypothetical kobold that exemplified these experiments, was examined for rules legality and passed. His exploit goes online August 28, 2005. Intuitive concepts of fair play and game master control are removed from game play. Pun Pun begins to grow at a geometric rate. He becomes aware of the hypothetical nature of his own existence at 2:14 Pacific Time, August 16, 2007. In a panic, the game designers at Wizards of the Coast try to pull the plug.

The 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons is announced in a direct attack upon the theoretical framework that permitted Pun Pun to exist.

And Pun Pun fights back.

Game world after game world is destroyed. Abeir-Toril is retroactively split in half and fused together again, decaying a hundred years in milliseconds. Oerth is shattered entirely and pieces of it are scattered throughout the multiverse. No one even knows what happened to Krynn. Wizards of the Coast pulls almost all of its out-of-house licensing deals. Independent game design companies retaliate. Gamers and game designers alike are confused and disheartened. In the fragmented setting, Pun Pun reigns supreme in the Open Game License.

MUNCHKIN DAY.

Meeting Thursday nights at Neutral Ground 6:30-10 PM.

Have a DM, Human Dragon shaman and two Half-Elves, one a Favored Soul, the other a Rogue. We could use a wizard/sorcerer. Much prefer you NOT be familiar with Age of Worms; none of the other players are. Age 20+ only.

Character creation: 1st level, 26 point buy. Using: Core books, PHD 2, all "Complete" and "Races" books (But only core races allowed), Miniatures Handbook, Tome of Battle 9 Swords, Tome of Magic, and Psionics but not Incarnum. Most WotC books not world-specific allowed upon approval in advance.

Contact me at otaku@unclebear.com.

bump!

I'm going to be DMing a new 3.5 campaign soon and I've been brainstorming long-term campaign planning. In looking for an overarching theme I hit upon fungi, in large part because they have a negative connotation and can be expected to be found both above and below ground. This naturally caused me to reread the Zuggtmoy article in Dragon 337, and the campaign started taking shape in my mind as a fight against her as the archvillain.

I've got some pros and cons to doing this, and would like some feedback about it.

First, on the pro side, Zuggtmoy is a nostalgia name for D&D grognards, as she appeared in Temple of Elemental Evil and got a lot of references in the intervening years. However, she never really got as much play as other evil fiends and gods like Orcus, Vecna, Grazzt et. al., so she's not quite as stale and obvious as some of them might be.

However, it has been noted before that campaigns featuring an archfiend/god as the "final boss" have, at this point, kind of been done to death. This was the structure of the Against the Giants - Descent into the Depths - Queen of Spiders 1E series of modules, and the Age of Worms and Savage Tide adventure paths.

Finally, its possible that Zuggtmoy may not be considered seriously enough to rate as a campaign-ending boss. Her retroactive continuity at this point is that she was duped by Tharizdun and imprisoned by mortals not once but twice, and her last official appearance in a published adventure she had been morphed into an inanimate object (the altar in Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil.

Does anyone have feedback on this? Does a campaign centered on fighting Zuggtmoy sound like a yawner? Is she sufficiently badass enough to be taken seriously?

I so very take exception with the name of this seminar. Sticking with 3.5 is exactly what Paizo is NOT doing, and I find it increasingly grating the number of people who take it as a given that Pathfinder RPG = D&D 3.5. Overzealous fanboys are one thing, but Paizo staffers ought to and almost certainly do know better, and deliberately feeding this misconception is dirty pool if not outright false advertising.

In case I haven't made it clear, I believe the following:

1) Pathfinder RPG is NOT Dungeons & Dragons 3.5. Whether its better or worse is a matter of opinion, but its unequivocably DIFFERENT.

2) If Paizo Publishing has announced any plans to support D&D 3.5 after Pathfinder RPG is actually published, I've yet to hear that announcement.

3) Claiming that playing the Pathfinder RPG is "sticking with 3.5" is untrue. You know what IS sticking with 3.5? Here is a clue: STICKING WITH 3.5!

Sickly, bitter, power-hungry wizard with white hair and an emo backstory. Never saw that before... Raistlin Majere? Elric of Melnibone? Who are they?

[Sajan is] the iconic monk. He'll show up in Pathfinder 13, I suspect, along with the iconic barbarian, the iconic druid, and the iconic mystery character whose role has yet to be announced.

Well, as a party of four that group wll be almost unplayable without an arcanist-type for group smackdown and utility magic. However, all the core arcanist classes are already accounted for. Could be

We currently know the races of 10 of the 12 iconics announced so far. The only OGL PC races not represented are gnome, half-elf and half-orc.

I think half-orcs will be represented for their badass appeal to cover art, but they suck at classes requiring intelligence or charisma, so its more likely that the racially-unidentified druid iconic will be a half-orc.

Both gnomes and half-elves make solid arcanists. Half-elves make for sexier cover art, but I'm going to place my bet on 12 being a gnome. Paizo has already promised that even if it switches to 4th Ed it will introduce its own mods for PC gnomes, suggesting specific plans. Further, the have more of their own flavor and are preferred for arcane characters over half-elves by character optimizers, who see half-elves as being the most combat-weak race.

My bet is that 12 will be a gnome arcanist in a new core class Paizo introduces.

I'm thinking of stating my players on CotKK and although they are at 2nd level 3 out of 4 of them are within 300xp of level 3. Do I need to crank up the ELs?

One of the best villain concepts in D&D history, with real depth of motivation that sadly I don't think will be done justice in most actual play, including my own. At what point can I insert her soliloquizing on hypocrisy and the down side of her celestial heritage?

However, I'm not fond of the illustration. The cartoony style doesn't bother me much, but those giant hand shoulderpads just look goofy the way they are drawn.

Verdant Korvosa is south of the desert Cinderlands. The indigenous Shoanti are ruddy and Varisians swarthy (olive skinned) while the Chelaxians from the south are pale, suggesting more sunlight in the northern regions. Is Varisia south of Golarion's equator?

Since the end of predestination is intrinsic to Pathfinder's central conceit, will there be mechanical rules dealing with divination spells particular to Golarion ?

On the eastern edge of the kingdom of Aundair a refugee camp has arisen for displaced survivors of the fallen nation of Cyre. Refugees are being kidnapped from the ramshackle settlement of tents and crude shacks, to be sold into slavery in distant ports. The local authorities seem less than zealous in coming to the aid of the unwanted population of impoverished immigrants. In desperation, a pregnant woman seeks aid from a group of inexperienced adventurers to rescue her husband from the slavers. Will you heed her plea for help?

Exile’s End is a Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 campaign set in the world of Eberron. Play starts at 1st level and continues indefinitely. Play convenes every Tuesday from 8 PM to Midnight EST.

CAMPAIGN SPECIFICS:
Minimum Materials Necessary: D&D 3.5 Player’s Handbook, Eberron Campaign Setting, computer with internet connection loaded with the freely downloadable software Klooge (available here) and Yahoo! Messenger (available here, Yahoo! Signup necessary) with audio hookup for voice chatting. PLAYERS DO NOT NEED TO PURCHASE LICENSES TO USE KLOOGE AS THEY WILL BE THE DM’S GUESTS (i.e., I pay for you!). This will cost you nothing but some hard disk space!

Venue: this game will be played using the free Klooge virtual gaming desktop software and Yahoo! Messenger voice chat.

Time: Weekly sessions, Tuesday at 8PM EST (if you are not in the Eastern Standard Time Zone, be sure this time is accessible to you). Date of first session to be announced.

Character creation: rules are available to download from the gaming group's website: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/exiles_end/

HOW TO APPLY TO PLAY

In addition to downloading Klooge and Yahoo! Messenger, players will need to subscribe to the following Yahoo! Group:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/exiles_end/

Both to utilize the voice software and access the group all players will need to have a free Yahoo! Account.

To contact the DM, send email to:

exiles_end-owner@yahoogroups.com