SirUrza |
Soo I'm seriously considering a combat pad. I like the Paizo one, but I saw one at Icon two weeks ago a pure dry erase version. Now I could just make one on my own and laminate it.. but I want to see what's out there. The GameMastery pad has got my attention.. Pathfinder advantage you know. ;)
Also, I've been thinking about spell templates. You know the steel wire template to trace effected areas. The "problem" is the gamemastery ones are a bit pricey for something I don't think I'm always going to use/need since we don't always play with maps. Any suggests for alternatives (besides creating my own)?
sanwah68 |
Sorry, both mine ideas are creating your own. I have done it using fencing wire and a pair of pliers (not that difficult, but can be a bit hard on the hands). The other is just getting some overhead transperancies and placing them on a battlemap, tracing the shape eg 20 foot blast effect, then cutting it out with a pair of scissors.
Brian Carpenter |
I can't speak to the spell templates as I haven't purchased them. The wire outline does look like a nice feature though. Currently, we use ones that were printed on transparencies, so they still don't sit flat unless you move every mini and put them back where they were.
However, I will strongly recommend the Gamemastery Combat Pad. I purchased mine back in December and have used it in every game since. It's central and easy to keep track of, with the ability to quickly add new combatants anywhere in the initiative count. This is one of the best gaming purchases I made as a DM.
KnightErrantJR |
Yeah, I'll vote for the usefulness of both the combat pad and the spell templates, as I have both. Its much more useful to throw out the right template than counting out squares and trying to figure if this or that one on the "jagged edge" counts as part of a cone, for example.
The combat pad has been great. I used to put all of the initiatives, hp, and AC of the bad guys on index cards and cycle through them in order to keep combat running smoothly, but if the PCs fought someone I wasn't planning for, it slowed things down to organize the fight.
The combat pad has really cut down on my prep time, as I only need to write out the names, put them in order, and track of the hp on the board since its erasable.
SirUrza |
Yeah I was thinking about overhead transparencies myself. As for miniatures... well that's kinda simple.. get the printable kind. Print out the grid on the transparency then take a razor knife and cut out boxes so figurines go right over the figures. :)
Archade |
Soo I'm seriously considering a combat pad. I like the Paizo one, but I saw one at Icon two weeks ago a pure dry erase version. Now I could just make one on my own and laminate it.. but I want to see what's out there. The GameMastery pad has got my attention.. Pathfinder advantage you know. ;)
I really like the combat pad, but before it existed, I made my own and laminated it, and it does the trick for me and my group.
http://www.dmtools.org/resources.php?nav=refsheets
sanwah68 |
A refinement on the fencing wire concept, I have just discovered heat shrink tubing from my local electronics store and will use it to cover and join the wire, maybe not quite as pretty as the steel squire stuff, but pretty close. The tubing comes in different colours and is reasonably cheap (about $1 Australian (90 cents US)) for a metre.