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Messages - Nick

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1
Astral driftmetal is basically a type of steel that incorporeal creatures interact with as if they weren't incorporeal. Basically, you can think of it as something enchanted with ghost touch or a set of armor that is simultaneously present on the ethereal plane and the material plane.

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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: Magic-Psionics Transparency
« on: February 09, 2015, 10:02:22 PM »
I always liked the idea of "Psionics-magic translucency," where they're sorta similar but not really.

Essentially, checks to overcome resistance of the opposite type roll twice and take the higher roll, due to it sorta kinda working to resist the wrong kind but not really,

Dispel Psionics works on magic effects if the Manifester rolls higher on a Manifester level check against 10+ level of the spell used to make the effect + caster's key ability mod, and vice versa

Psionics can work in AMFs, but 50% chance it simply fails, and vice versa

Detect Psionics can detect sources of magic, but it never goes past the information gained from round 1 for detecting magic, and vice versa

Or, just roll 50% automatic failure or success if the types collide, if that's easier. Obviously feats and skill checks remain completely opaque and different.

My DM pulled this on us in our most recent campaign, and it worked quite well. It didn't exactly help keep everything balanced, per say, but it did make the world feel a lot more alive.

3
Okay so I had the idea for a character, an unbodied, using armor made from astral driftmetal (planar handbook) to adventure around. For those of you not familiar with astral driftmetal, it's basically an expensive material that puts ghost touch on heavy Armor's or breastplate. This idea ended up creating a lot of questions and other ideas that created more questions.

1.) Can an unbodied effectively wear armor made out of astral driftmetal (given its proficient with it...)? I mean, they're "unbodied".... Do they fit properly?

2.) If it wore spiked gauntlets with the ghost touch ability, would an attack with them deal 1d6+1d4 damage? (Unbodied have a 1d6 natural attack that's an incorporeal touch attack) on a hit exceeding the target's regular AC?

2a.) If it doesn't stack, could I wear normal gauntlets that come from the armor set, then take Improved Unarmed Strike and Superior Unarmed Strike, and then have the two stack to 2d6?

2b.) Would Superior Unarmed Strike be necessary to do that in the first place if the concept would work anyway?

2c.) Would it be mechanically balanced to let unarmed/gauntlet damage stack with the unbodied's touch attack damage since an unbodied doesn't have a strength score (and therefore no bonus on damage rolls)?

3.) If an unbodied in a suit of astral driftmetal tried to pick something up, would it have to use telekinetic force to do so since it doesn't have a strength score?

3a.) With that noted, would that mean an unbodied has to constantly "force" its way around in a suit of astral driftmetal?

4.) I've been thinking that, for all intents and purposes of the unbodied in the suit of astral driftmetal trying to carry objects and making strength-related skill checks or strength ability checks, that it would have an effective strength score of 10, or maybe 12 since the hardness of a set of astral driftmetal armor is 12. Is that acceptable and/or feasible?

4
Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / Re: Encounters/day based on Raging
« on: December 18, 2014, 08:39:28 AM »
All right, thank you for your input.

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Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / Encounters/day based on Raging
« on: December 15, 2014, 09:40:49 PM »
This is a variant rule that is mostly to help dungeon/game masters coordinate about how many encounters on average there should be per day.

The barbarian's Rage class feature has a set of uses/day that doesn't work like most systems of number/time interval. While the barbarian of a higher level can rage, say, 3 times per day, he can only rage once per encounter as per RAW. I found that very interesting, and came up with two questions:

1.) Would it be okay for there to be too many encounters for a barbarian to be able to rage in per day? A barbarian that can't rage or is being "strategic" with rage uses is just stupid- if you're a barbarian, you probably don't want to be that strategic in anything.

2.) What if there were fewer encounters per day than there were uses of rage? Would the barbarian then feel let down upon gaining a level when all he got was another use of rage that he doesn't need?

So then I came up with a theory in which you should try to shoot for X number of encounters per day, where X is the number of rages a barbarian whose barbarian level equals the party level. With this in mind, it becomes more feasible for DMs to figure out how much is too much or not much for the party to handle (whether they use that knowledge to not overburden the party or to tire them out on purpose).


Sidenote: Extra Rage feats
(click to show/hide)

So that's basically the gist of the idea. What's your guys's take on this? I'm posting this specifically because I'm not sure if I should go and make decisions based on this or not.

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Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / Re: A simple fix to the samurai
« on: December 15, 2014, 02:41:16 PM »
When I said "quick fix to the samurai," I meant that if someone looked at this option and presented it to a anti-Homebrew biased DM, the Player would be able to tell him what the fix is under five minutes, and the DM would be okay with it. I don't even consider this a Homebrew class, but a variant rule. My goal with this is not to create a new class or to fix fluff. Just a fix to a class that you don't really have to think about or study to think it's playable and balanced. Think of it like fast food vs Olive Garden. Fast food gets the job done, and quickly, but it's not as good of a quality as the expensive Italian restaurant.

I have to admit that it's gotten a little out of hand already.


And to YouLostMe's point on the rule of brew, I did do a search on the site for samurai fixes to make sure this hasn't already been done. Speaking of which, this is the first I've ever heard of the Zhentarim fighter.

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Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / Re: A simple fix to the samurai
« on: December 11, 2014, 10:42:59 AM »
That's a great idea.

Literally change the two swords as one to the rangers combat style, but instead of armor inhibition, it's a weapon one. (Of course, archery style would use a bow and not a blade)

8
Keeping maneuvers and stances separate is a good idea.  It helps keep things organized. 


It seems like it should stick at one per level that they have stances, but maybe 2 at first?  I can't think of another level where a discipline had more than one stance there. 

9
This is so good that I would even consider losing 2 levels of a fullcasting class for it. Which is to say, it's probably too good.


Good point.  That's why I was thinking it might be better to start out at a +3 Level Adjustment, but I was hesitant to, since the Half-Dragon template is a +3 level adjustment, and that gives you a flight speed if you're large, a breath weapon, an energy immunity, increases the natural armor by +4, grants a bite and claw attack, increases the HD of racial levels by one size, and gives +6 strength, +2 con, +2 int, +2 cha.  I decided that the base for the Monster of Legend wasn't as good as that, since the benefits from the half-dragon can be used in places outside of combat, where the monster of legend one only offers combat capability (except for the stat bonuses to the mental abilities).  Also, the natural armor of the half-dragon increases it by 4, whereas the monster of legend gives a +5 natural armor bonus, which wouldn't stack where the half-dragon's version would.


But I do see your point, and will change it to a +3 or a +4.  Which do you think is better?

10
Okay, so the level adjustment is +7 for the monster of legend.  I was so crushed when I found that it wasn't +2 anymore.  I put that template on everything because of that super low level adjustment. *sigh*


Then I had an idea.  Basically, you start off with a +2 (or +3) LA template.  This template gives +10 strength, +6 dexterity, +10 constitution, +4 intelligence, +4 wisdom, and +6 charisma (as it did in the SRD).  In addition, you also receive Improved Initiative and Multiattack (if you have natural weapons) as bonus feats, a +3 racial bonus to all saving throws, a minimum racial HD size of d8, and a +5 natural armor bonus to Armor Class.  Any natural weapons increase to that same default damage table (that's what I think the monster of legend template was supposed to do, but it was worded as if you just magically grew claws, super fangs, slam...parts?, and gore capability).  The base creature becomes an Outsider, but it does not gain darkvision out to 60 ft., nor does it gain racial levels as an outsider does.  It is only treated as an outsider when determining if a spell, power, or another effect can affect the base creature or not.  A ranger with Favored Enemy of Outsider with the native subtype or any alignment subtype, for example, would treat the base creature as such an outsider.  However, the alignment descriptor chosen must be the same as the base creature's alignment on that axis (for example, a ranger favoring chaotic outsiders would target a chaotic good, evil, or neutral monster of legend, but not a lawful good, evil, or neutral monster of legend, even though the monster of legend doesn't necessarily have such descriptors).  A monster of legend is also considered to be an outsider for determining possibilities for bringing it back to life after death.

For an increased level adjustment, you can choose one or more of the following abilities.  For each ability you choose, the level adjustment increases by 0+1 for each ability you've already chosen, including the one you just chose (if you choose two abilities, it would be 0+1(1)=1, and then 0+1(2)=2, and 2+1=3, for a total enhancement of +3).  You cannot choose more than four abilities:  Breath Weapon*, Frightful Presence, Poison*, Raging Blood*, spellcasting ability of a 5th level cleric with no bonus domain spells and access to Protection and War and Strength domains (no special abilities from any of these domains, but I think it wouldn't be too much for the monster of legend to treat the deity's favored weapon as a simple weapon.....it's a little unconventional, but I think it doesn't trip up anything).

*This counts as a natural weapon, and would be affected by the Greater Damage ability (see below), but only the first time it is chosen.

1 ability chosen from this list: +1 LA
2 abilities chosen from this list: +3 LA
3 abilities chosen from this list: +6 LA
4 abilities chosen from this list: +10 LA

For another increase the level adjustment as described below, you can choose two or more of the following abilities.  : Damage Reduction 10/+1 (this ability may be chosen twice to change it to 10/+2, four times to change it to 10/+3, or eight times to 10/+4), Enhanced Attributes (increase all DCs of attacks, abilities, spells, powers, etc., by 4.  This may be chosen more than once, but the bonus only increases by 2 each time it's chosen after the first time), Fast Healing 5, Greater Damage (this ability may be chosen more than once and applies to all natural weapons), partial action as if from a continuous haste effect (can be chosen twice to create an actual continuous haste effect), immune to two of the following (can be chosen more than once) [acid, electricity, fear, poison, polymorphing, mind-affecting effects] or only one of those and able to see in any type of darkness (including magical darkness) out to 60ft., Reflective hide (as written for a spell turning effect), Regrow limbs, Spell Resistance equal to 10+1/2 effective character level, Power Resistance equal to 10+1/2 ECL.


1 ability chosen: +0.5 (not possible, but essentially it would make the player character lose one level of a character class as if it were a +1 level adjustment, but at the same time not gain experience or earn treasure as if it were a +1 level adjustment.  This is rather silly and is not to be done ever.  Just pick another ability.)
2 abilities chosen: +1
3 abilities chosen: +2
4 abilities chosen: +4
5 abilities chosen: +6
6 abilities chosen: +9
You cannot choose more than six abilities.

If the level adjustment reaches 6, the racial bonus to saving throws increases by 1 to a +4 racial bonus.
For every 3 more level adjustment increases, the racial bonus to saving throws increases by 1.
If the level adjustment is equal to or greater than 8, the monster of legend cannot be a Player Character.

So basically, if you choose one ability from the first set of abilities and 2 from the second set, it becomes a +4 (or +5) level adjustment template.

Now I don't think this is the final version of this.  I mean, this is a forum site, so hopefully I'll get some responses with suggestions and whatnot  :flutter

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Gaming Advice / Re: Thoughts on a Literal Approach to Railroading
« on: December 06, 2014, 10:19:27 PM »
Ah, okay.  I think in the one on "paleowiki" as you call it says you have to be lawful, which is what made me confused about it the whole time.  I mean, we want the mad scientist, man XD!  But yeah on dnd-wiki it says any alignment so I don't have a problem with it.  The flavor is kind of nice actually.

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Gaming Advice / Re: Thoughts on a Literal Approach to Railroading
« on: December 06, 2014, 08:37:36 PM »
Yup! Now, I do have to ask a few things, and it's a coincidence (that may have been very likely anyway) to have met you!


Why was the HD size a d8?  To me it felt more like a d6'er, but I can see what the idea would be for a d8 with the whole "body-experimentation-super-health" stuff that's hinted on in stuff like "Youthful Body".


Why the code of ethics?

13
Rough idea for school making:

Choose whether the school will be melee, ranged, or natural weapons or based on grapples. Or any of the above two categories. If you go this route (say you choose melee and ranged), choose which is the dominant factor in the schools teaching as 2/3rds of the maneuvers will be used with that choice. I.e. if you get 6 level 5 maneuvers, an d melee is the dominant teaching style, then 4 of those maneuvers will be melee and 2 ranged.

Choose a key skill and 5 associated weapons (if you chose natural weapons then any natural weapon you have is an associated weapon, if you chose grapple then grapples and unarmed strikes are).

You then make 6 maneuvers of each level. Sound good as a starting point?


Yes, that would, in my opinion.  I think I'll make a continuing point to your excellent starting point: Let's not forget the all-important stances though!  Out of the six maneuvers at each level, one or two of the 1st level ones should be stances, along with one or two 3rd level maneuvers, and 5th level maneuvers.  One maneuver at 8th level is a stance, and only 1 maneuver total at 9th level.


In my opinion, on average, this is the number of how many maneuvers of each type there should be out of the six maneuver types at each level:


1 Boost
1 Counter
4 Strikes, or 2 to 3 strikes if there's a stance
1 or 2 stances if at the appropriate level


If there are times when the homebrewer doesn't want to follow that for a certain reason, then the homebrewer has enough reason (kind of a "once-you-know-all-the-rules-you-can-break-them" kind of deal, like when composing music or writing stories/arguments.

14
So, under the paradigm where there are only five schools of magic, do you adjust the number of banned schools for specialist and focused specialist wizards? If so do you just switch everbody to the diviner standard?


This is getting me thinking; I honestly don't know if it should be or not! I didn't think of it but...


With the MTG feel that was mentioned about it, it would make perfect sense to keep it at two, since each color had two enemies and two allies, bla bla bla....OR, perhaps ban 3 schools entirely to only learn two, such as red/blue equivalent schools, etc., or something.


On the other hand, if the wizard still wants to be versatile, then maybe limit it to just one school?

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Gaming Advice / Re: Thoughts on a Literal Approach to Railroading
« on: December 06, 2014, 08:17:13 PM »
Probably; I'll link it here for you to check. http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Biomancer_(3.5e_Class)


I honestly really like the class, because it's basically a druid that isn't (as) broken with more versatility (in my opinion, spells affecting aberrations are very needed, and it allows me to finally put mind flayers in there for them to fight).  I don't want to say "isn't broken" because I am yet to see it used in enough sessions.

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Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / Re: A simple fix to the samurai
« on: December 05, 2014, 08:19:44 AM »
I must admit I did not remember that. XD thanks for correcting me.

I actually am quite tempted to play as this now. Considering that everybody commenting so far hasn't said anything along the lines of negativity, I'd think most DMs would allow this, right?

I'll go and edit the initial post with the changes made.

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Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / Re: A simple fix to the samurai
« on: December 05, 2014, 06:21:00 AM »
Those are all pretty solid ideas! I especially like the intimidation duration. It gives this whole feel of potential to make an awesome aggressive scoundrel. I don't understand your second comment however. Are you talking about the fighting school feats?


And yeah, the only things missing in my opinion would be an ability to demoralize outside his threat range, and basically have a 5ft "range increment" on his intimidate checks, but with a -2 penalty per increment.

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Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / A simple fix to the samurai
« on: December 04, 2014, 10:44:08 PM »
Okay. The samurai class from complete warrior isn't exactly very good. I've wanted a fix to this class, but I don't want to make anyone read a bunch of new class abilities that have very long descriptions to keep the RAW as close to RAI as possible. No offense to those creative minds, but sometimes a simpler idea is more likely to be okayed by the DM, especially if he or she is busy with figuring out half a million other things that the DM needs to do when starting a campaign.

So here's my quick fix. This stuff is what I had before this thread started. After this spoiler, I have a more finalized version, with incorporated help and suggestions from Amechra and Raineh Daze.
(click to show/hide)

Here's what has been agreed on so far:

1.) Give the samurai good will saves, combine skill list with Aristocrat skill list, and increase skill points to 4+int modifier. This is effectively a gestalt samurai/aristocrat that doesn't treat other classes as being able to "only take one side" of the gestalt build.

2.) The samurai gains the following class features:

(click to show/hide)

A samurai also gains an extra use of Kiai Smite at third level.

3.) Instead of Iajutsu Master, the samurai gains Extended Intimidation.
(click to show/hide)

4.) replace the Two Swords as One class features with the Combat Style ranger class feature. Unlike the ranger, a samurai can wear heavier armor and carry a heavier load.

5.) A samurai does not gain Improved Initiative, but he does gain bonus feats at every fourth level. He may choose a general or fighter bonus feat he meets the prerequisites for, and has an effective fighter level equal to his base attack bonus, for the purpose of determining prerequisites for feats only. If he chooses Weapon Focus, or any feat which has Weapon focus as a prerequisite, he must choose the katana or the wakazashi. If he already has the feat in question for both weapons, he may choose another weapon. Melee Weapon Mastery is the exception to this, and it must be mastery with slashing weapons. The bonuses from melee weapon mastery still apply to all slashing weapons as normal. It is highly recommended the samurai consider the following feats:

(click to show/hide)

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Gaming Advice / Re: Thoughts on a Literal Approach to Railroading
« on: December 03, 2014, 09:46:24 PM »
Well he said he wanted to be a commoner....


I don't know if you meant story-wise or mechanics-wise, so I'll provide both answers.


Mechanics:
(click to show/hide)



Story:
(click to show/hide)


So far, it's actually been going quite smoothly, actually.  They're a party of true misfits, but they've been handling everything well, but not too well if you catch my drift.  It's bloody fantastic, and we're all curious how social encounters will play out.


And I had intended for the mountain itself to be full of the puddings, aka it was their home and someone decided to jam a nice hole through it, but your idea of puddings just being attracted to the tracks themselves is very interesting  :smirk  they honestly don't know about those puddings since they haven't tried to go back to the lands they left behind on the train.  In my opinion, if the players say "nah, screw this exploration and adventure stuff in the frontier, let's just hang in the mother nations and forget the colonies," that in my opinion would be like a middle finger to me.  I mean, it's a frontier/exploration campaign, and they decide to NOT go exploring?  Wat?  I'm more concerned about the whole "Outside the train, you see desert.  Lots of it."/providing nothing for them to do outside what they encounter on the tracks as they go to New Babylon.

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Gaming Advice / Thoughts on a Literal Approach to Railroading
« on: December 03, 2014, 08:45:35 PM »
Okay, so I'm running a kind of frontier-style campaign at the moment, and I think I may have just permanently railroaded the party on accident.


For reference, here is the party:


1.) Zull: A troll barbarian (ECL 10), is outrageously stupid
2.) Rick: A level 20 human commoner, he can Use Rope
3.) Dr. Carnage: A Yuan-Ti (ECL of 10) Biomancer, which is a homebrew class that's basically a Druid with aberration fluff, uses a version of gaseous form instead of wild shape, slowly gains ability to do more things in its "cell form"/gaseous form as he levels up
4.) Kaz: A Kobold Monk/Wizard/Enlightened Fist, an NPC


They all met on a train going to the "Frontier," and an elder black pudding halted the train while the train was going through a mountain tunnel, they killed it and were scared to death the whole time, etc., bla bla bla dungeon


Now they're still in a dungeon discovered after the train crashed into the pudding. 


Basically, they're trapped in this dungeon until they complete and solve it, start a key plot thing, etc. I made sure the kobold didn't learn any spells that could break the campaign, Dr. Carnage's dire bat test subject can't fly out for them, Zull is currently holding a switch open that continuously deals electric damage (trolls have regeneration) so he's stuck, and Rick can Use Rope.


The problem isn't exactly where they are now, but where they (hopefully) end up later.  I plan for them to be able to get the train going again to get to their destination, New Babylon, which is like the gateway to the frontier.  Right now, my plans kind of have the train ride to the town be a bit long.  The train is going to have to stop again since some of the tracks go through an area quarantined for an undead outbreak, and they're going to have to settle that issue out before they continue.


So basically I think I forced them into a situation where they can't do anything except literally follow the tracks, since the tunnel with the tracks going the other direction is now literally filled with black pudding. 


Is this railroading if I'm doing it through literal railroad tracks like I have here?

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