wrawce's page

A little over 3 sessions at 5 hrs. each. Call it 16 hours. They had several false starts where they walked out, saw the thistle maze, went back to town and rented a boat, went out and saw the cliffs, went back to town and decided to chance the thistle maze. Never encountered the Bunyip but the bridge trap was extremely effective in slowing them down.

Given that you do not have a healer though, assuming you don't want to chance to a class with healing, fighter AC is a better option.

In combat healing will be low (especially at higher levels) but make sure you are stocked on wands of Cure Light Wounds for the Ranger and UMD Sorcerer to use out of combat. A cleric cohort at some point would be a big help as well.

At the Seven's Sawmill, the party casts spider climb and fly and gets on top the sawmill and enters through the rookery. It takes them 3 rounds to open the trapdoor and the top level enemies are waiting and prepared. When they come into the top level of the mill, I describe the scene and note the 1 foot of sawdust on the floor. I note later in the battle that the sawdust is being stirred up and causing a cloud of dust. As more enemies arrive, the alchemist decides he can get 6 of them in a single bomb and so throws the explosive item. That sets off a fuel/air chain reaction that kills everyone enemy in the room, severely damaged the mill, and almost killed the alchemist that started the explosion (-12 hp w/13 con).

After the Sandpoint I actually ran the group through the beginner box set adventure. I just increases the amount of monsters (besides blackfang).

Oh, I like that. My group took a huge interest in ridding the area of the goblin threat. After they finished at Foxglove manor, they took to clearing the swamps of the Licktoad tribe. I used some information from the "WE BE GOBLINS" adventure and then added some extra monsters from B1-B4.

Our flag was an eye with a hurricane for the iris. Our first ship's name was the Blighted Eye.

That sounds good. I saw Drow War at Half-Price Books once and thought that would be a fun adventure to play.

So many dumb movies its tough to remember them all. Here's a short list of some of the worst:

Mars Attacks
Cabin Boy
Cannibal Women in the Avacado Jungle of Death
Cutthroat Island
Spy Kids trilogy

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There's a big difference between short-run happy and game-design happy. I'm sure it's great having another bonus that you can add to your characters, but from my perspective, as someone who's DMed for a long time, I'm worried about the game balance issues that these modifiers will cause. I also think that there are other ways to encourage iconic class choices, like racial ability design and revising the classes to encourage players to take all 20 levels.

-Steve

After playing and DM'ing for over 25 years, I don't find the +1 skill point or +1 HP to be game breaking. In my mind, it certainly balances with the goal of reinforcing iconic race/class combo's. I agree there may be other ways to do it, though the current ability design doesn't. My initial comment was directed more toward those that want to remove the favored class concept entirely. I have seen many great ideas on these boards (and keep a list of the ones I really like in case they don't make the final version I can house-rule them in). Eliminating favored classes is not a great idea. The final version may be called something different, but it should accomplish the goal of promoting iconic race/class combo's.

Scott

So we shouldn't try to find someway that makes a larger group of people happy? I don't think that we should be saying that other people should just deal with things they don't like this early in the playtest.

I agree. I believe the majority is happy with favored classes in some shape or form. I happen like the beta version. Others like different versions. Not everyone will be happy with the final form of favored classes. Removing favored classes completely will be the surest way of upsetting the vast numbers of us who like them and disconnecting the races from their stereotypical / iconic class combos of the past, which I happen to like.

Scott

I like the favored class mechanic because I like iconic race / class combos and think those choices should be rewarded. Also, without the favored class, some iconic combo's become poor choices. I'm thinking specifically about the Dwarf. The dwarf stats favor barbarian more than fighter (due to higher con dependance and speed increase) and druid more than cleric (charisma penalty harsh for the cleric). However, both of those classes (barbarian and druid) really are not the lawful, religious dwarves that I like in DnD. Instead, the dwarf becomes a wild, tree-hugger and that is just wrong.

If others don't like the favored class system, house-rule it out. But I ask that the rule be left in for the rest of us. For those that say leave it out and if we want it just house-rule it in, my exprerience shows that it is easier to house-rule out than house-rule in.

Scott

It's an easy fix for fighters. Allow their armor specialization to work for both armor and shields. That way they get the shield bonus, reduced armor check, etc. I realize it doesn't help clerics or paladins, but its a start.

Just what exactly can the rogue sneak attack now? I know it will probably be spelled out in Beta if I just wait a couple more weeks but I'm tired of not knowing if certain creatures are on the expanded sneak attack list. Specifically skeletons, zombies and other corporeal undead are in question. I read the blurb in Alpha but that just added more confusion and hinted at an extended list. It gave some general examples but it left me (and my DM I think) confused.

Any help?

To me, the biggest problem with high level play has been that the group is not necessary anymore. The game becomes a bunch of individuals and group dynamic is lost. Leadership especially makes this problem worse. I realize that this is a player issue more than a mechanic issue but the feeling of comraderie and teamwork that is necessary at low levels and fun in the mid levels is lost at high levels.

The sword-and-boarder needs some loving and that's for sure. Maybe the fighter's Armor Training feature could be expanded to include shields as well as armor. To get the desired effect, either bucklers would have to be excluded from this bonus or the Improved Buckler Defense feat from Complete Warrior would have to be disallowed. Otherwise, it would just increase the AC of TWF'ers and two-handers with that feat.

I like the -2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Cha. However, instead of favored Rogue / Bard, the scores allow for a Rogue / Sorcerer. I don't think anyone has Sorc as a favored class yet. Also, for the Halfling Paladin players among us, Cha fits better with the Alpha-3 description of Paladin.