
VargrBoartusk |

Okay.. be prepared for a long one.
So Next week is when we buckle down and suit up This is the thread I'm starting to both remind myself what in particular i want to report on and to give a brief overview of how things are going to go down. First off lets do some quick world info. I'm kinda ripping off the cartoon pirates of dark water The land masses on this world are small and scattered out in a series of small continents and islands with the largest being the size of Australia. The main foes will be first humanoids and a smattering of undead. This will be followed by a series of Fiends mostly consisting of Devils. Why devils ? Well they have one of the best CR spreads if you have the range of books a good magic to muscle ratio and can be customized enough to probe a parties strengths and weaknesses. Now I'll give you a party breakdown and some points on why I'm glad to have them and what I hope to do with them. You'll also understand why its the playtest from hell and I'll give you each characters twink rating <A simple 1 to ten based on the players cheese and the characters min-maxedness>
All are starting at level six since playtesting at level one is lame and first level adventures are ruining the ecology of the kobold with their genocidal ways.. No one gets the lame hippy-esque level one bonus HP. They were all rolled with dice in front of me the DM with our groups usual D&D method which is roll 5d6 drop the two lowest and re roll ones or roll 4d6 drop the lowest re roll ones and twos. If you roll more then three sixes in one roll Each six beyond the third adds 1 to the stat <IE 4 6's is a 19 not an 18> What can I say.. My group thinks that PCs should be the worlds badass heros. Oddly enough I don't think anyone has above 17 before racial mods. For HP after level one you can choose to gamble and roll or take a flat out 75% of your HD + con mod as usual. Were using standard starting cash spend it however you want. The +1 hp or skill point per favored class rule.
1) A half Orc monk. With Him I'm hoping to play test new ideas I have for the CMB since we tried it in the Alpha and all across the board hated loathed and detested it. He practices a strange style of Orc-fu that mixes head buts, kicks.. And a great axe. Were also using a variant rule where the monks stunning fists per day are added into and use his ki pool. Allowing the 'pick a weapon to become a monk weapon' feat is being debated. TwR 6 though this could drasticly rise or fall.
2) A gnome cleric with positive energy and the animal <I think> and storm domains. In out campaign we have swapped Storm and Air's level one powers since we figured storm deserved the lightning power and air the wind one. With her I'm looking forward to testing the new turning stuff since we never got to in the alpha. TwR 4 The player is so much of a 'real roleplayer' she could play a gestalt character and not be twinky
3)A human rogue with a 3rd party prestige class that basically makes him a Tomas Crown/The Saint type charismatic burglar as well as gives him luck powers and bonuses for following his chosen theme In this case he is.. The Obsidian Mantis. He's a way to test splat book compatibility and to see how much the core classes now outshine the prestige classes. TwR 5 and as the PRC levels raise i exspect it to drop.. Though it might go up since I have a feeling this guy's gonna make mountain dew come out my nose a few times.
4) A human Arcane bloodline sorcerer to blast spells like the day is long. He's gonna test the raw combat spells. TwR 6 This is more from they player then the character thus will probably rise.. He's tricksy like a hobbitses
5) A human Fighter/Ranger going Bowman style He's testing a few things..
Ranged combat some of the new feats and see if ranged combat can hold its own with all the new melee feats. If it goes well and long enough he's also gonna help test to see if multiclassers are balanced to singles since they dont get a nifty capstone power TwR 5 He's not as tricked out as he could be yet but in a few levels I'm sure my balls are gonna hurt.
6) A human Abyssal blood line Sorcerer/Fighter or Barbarian to test out if one can still pimp out the True strike. With the staggering number of feats that now work as you making just one attack or fewer attacks per round we believe that this way of doing things will be more borderline effed up then ever. He's also gonna help with the multi class thing. TwR 8 for the PC 3 for the player.. He's a great guy and a bit of a goof ball so I know he wont bust my butt with this thing nearly enough
7) A Not human <Dwarf> Pure barbarian chick. Shes gonna do a bunch of stuff. One she's the biggest non gamer in the group <And kinda blonde to boot> so we get to see if the 'New Rage is to hard to keep track of' argument has and base in reality or if some people just need to take a grade school math class. Also we get to try and balance out the rage point costs since as it we like the rage points idea but the barbarian now takes up the spell casters role of 1 encounter wonder rather quickly. TwR 4 As I said she's the least prone to geekery amongst us
8) Finally we have the stereotype.. A halfling pickpocket/second storyman who's going to spend almost all of his rogue tricks without taking a single combat feat if he can. This is to see if non fighter rogues still have a place in the game. TwR 5 Non combat or not Halfling + sneak attack + ranged weapon = less fun to deal with than sac tapping with a tac hammer
We also *might* have a gnome druid with a dire badger named Francis for a minio.. i mean animal companion but the player might not make it and if he does my utter hatred of that god damn cartoon might make me tac-nuke him and his furry friend so hard even is soul atoms cant reincorperate.
I would like to point out No one has taken profession Sailor or swim yet <though three characters still need skills>
I'm interested in feedback if you got it because even if I disagree I'm always interested in other peoples ideas and opinions
Violence Out <Peace out is for hippies>
The Tusker

VargrBoartusk |

Okay so the first two games have more or less been done and the party has mostly solidified. All at level 6 and standard gear
Char 1
Half-Orc Monk. Mostly built to take advantage of its mobility bounce it take a few ninja kicks bounce out. Does well enough but as allways with monks best VS wizards or multiple small dudes.
Char 2
Gnome cleric of Jim Bob.. Finder of stuff and getter of jobs. <Damn you Robin Williams>. We switched the Level 1 powers of the air and storm domains.. Why does the storm have a wind ability and the air a lighting one ? WTF ? Storm and Animal domains. The new cleric healing ability is in a word.. Retarded.. Three frickin games and she's used spells rather then channel energy 1 frickin time. Other then that she's mostly a standard buff cleric tossing out small enemy penalties and small party bonuses.
Char 3
The human rogue is.. Words fail me twf backstabbing kukri's of doom. Let the flanking and surprise round buggery abound and since you can backstab anything up to and including your mom now.. Its like putting kittens through a sausage grinder.
Char 4
The human Arcane Sorcerer. Oh god.. The magic missiles.. they burn and so does the fire ball.. Actually.. Combat blasters are more or less the same as they ever were. mooks fry by the dozens and big guys loose a chunk of heath too.. and with a ranger two rogues and a monk in the party.. Area effect spells into melee combat ? Pashaw.. They party likes to tumble about. Oh.. and never never nver give any party with an imagination and a sense of humor unlimited prestidigitation and other sillyable cantrips
Char 5
Elf Fighter. Mostly an archer but a decent backup melee combatant.. Archers hurt me in the no no place of the pants but that's not any different then its always been. Low con + bow = who needs HP
Char 6
Elf ranger and her pet crocodile. !st time gamer and still getting used to it but the rules are clearly presented enough most of the time that she's having little trouble. When she went to the costume party as a crocodile and dressed her animal companion in robin hood style clothes.. I couldn't help but giggle. Once more.. I hate arrows.
Char 7
The Human fighter sorcerer. True strike + fighter standard action feats.. Well.. This ones already bordering on obscene and only going to get worse as time goes by.. His only real debate is weather or not to take enough Sorcerer levels for the i cant believe its not fighter Transformation.. Soon however the Prc's will be ready and he can take levels of the caster melee combo for feats and full spells and BAB Oh well.. At least while transformed he cast cast true strike.
Char 8
The dwarf barbarian Smashes lots well enough.. Forgets to use rage a lot
often crits with random bits of scenery then utterly fails with the greataxe.
Char 9
Halfling rogue. 'Yes Josh we can treat juggling balls as subdual shuriken.. No Josh they dont all get the backstab dice when you throw three at once.. Yes Josh if you enchant them with frost and juggle them with it on youll hurt yourself.' 'nuff said
Char 10
A human fighter ranger.. God damn archer.. Who's probably going to make something new now as we have enough ranged
First game had 1 2 7 8 9 10 Intro game little dice rolling mostly BG stuff
second game had 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 VS 50 cr 1 Devil mooks No contest Total PC domination. There was also some skill and targeting practice so I could get a feel for how things went. Costume ball RP was kinda fun.
Third game had 2 3 5 6 9 10 vs CR 12 black dragon.. They took it down before it could use its second breath weapon i rolled a 4 on that one
bless + doom + bane + flanking rogues = guh.
Archers rolling well +rapid shot = guh
Dwarf barbarian nat 20ing with an improvised 2handed thrown weapon for max damage = hehe