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Topics - RedWarlock

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41
D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / High-DC Locks and Challenges..
« on: April 02, 2012, 01:27:24 AM »
This wasn't on-topic for the original thread, but I had to ask it:

Pick the lock: The system heavily nudges you towards this one because it's a locked door, you're supposed to interact with the lock right? No, that's a trap. Since good locks are cheap, the locks on anything important will be well out of reach of your lockpicking abilities. Since it's an iron door it's clearly blocking something important. This is a means of wasting skill points on a skill that does nothing and that's all.
Couldn't you just take 20, and not worry about making a lot of noise of wacking the door down?

Correct me if I'm off in this, but if the lock's DC is above what a character should be able to reach with the Open Lock skill, maybe that's when the DM shouldn't use it as a challenge the party is expected to bypass? I'm not saying don't use it, but don't have it be an expected path of forward plot-advancement for the party, instead as an alternate option or bonus side-path. It's exactly the same logic as putting a well-over-CR monster in a dungeon asleep (like the sleeping dragon), a challenge the party can bypass/ignore if not necessary to the plot, but one that they can choose to fight if they think they can deal with it. (They might be wrong, and so need to get away, but the option should be there.)

(To be honest, this is one of those things that makes Knock into a BS spell that should be removed or weakened. It makes people spoiled, and makes a whole skill worthless. That's not to say Open Lock should still be a unique skill, but having that spell available makes any skill-use directly involved with locks into a waste of time.)

42
Game Design / Examples of GMless systems?
« on: March 30, 2012, 01:55:03 AM »
I'm still working on my own RPG, and it recently came to me that I'm getting kind of tired of being the perpetual GM, and especially in a story-focused group game (in a modern setting) there's a lot of potential to be tapped in drawing out the creative concepts from all the players, not just one person's crafted story. (In part, this is emblematic of the 'My Chicago' concept from the Dresden Files RPG. I'd like to se it taken further, though.)

I was hoping you guys would have examples of various GMless systems, and not just a list (since there are lists to be found easily via searches), but also your opinions about the implementations, including their success and failures. I'd curious to find out what kind of range the concept has, since it seems very much like new territory in gaming.

My own thoughts tend toward dice-based randomized simulationist methods, using rolled tables for effects, and dice-based AI for NPCs. Alternately, my other train of thought is to break the game into competing empires, with each player taking a strategy-game-style control of a portion of the game world, basically turning any one player into a GM based on what topic, faction, or challenge they face. (I've got a few other vague concepts, but I'm curious to see what already exists.)

So, how about it?

43
Or, to put it bluntly, if 95% of the classes/feats/etc are shit, maybe it's a sign that that top 5% should be fixed or removed from the game, not that the rest is just clutter to be wholly ignored?

I know this runs counter to the general COer's mode of thinking, but I see a lot of this going around, where the majority of options are ignored, play-concepts are trashed, and full chapters of the core book and even whole supplements are regarded as trash by particular individuals. I know not everybody does it, but this kind of thinking, to me, is just hard to grasp. Options are meant to be used. If one available option out of 10 negates the usefulness of 9 others, to me, that's a sign that the one option is out of bounds and overpowered, not that the rest are useless.

Maybe this is more of a designer/tinkerer's mindset, but I don't believe the game mechanics are not a puzzle to be figured out, or they shouldn't be, at least. An obvious solution surrounded by trap options is not a choice at all. This is why feat taxes are a bad thing, either roll the feat into the base functionality, or consider that maybe the 'obvious' choice isn't working as intended, and alter the feat to bring it back into line.

The actual thought that made me think of this was someone commenting on the 'feat tax' of Adaptive Style for swordsages. At first, I was going to specifically post something asking "Am I the only person in the world who considered that use of adaptive style to be at fault?" If someone used that in my game, I would specify that in my reading of it, it lets you shuffle, but it doesn't let you refresh everything, you re-pick maneuvers readied but the same amount of maneuvers need to be expended before as after, minus the one refreshed. You get choice-of for which is or isn't, but still not the whole set. Does that make the entire rest of the class worthless? I don't think so.

The same goes for underpowered options, but the point of comparison shouldn't necessarily be the highest-powered material. It's like trying to build a tier 1 fighter, it doesn't work because the two are mutually exclusive definitions. Instead, the answer is to pull down the highest options into a more average level of strength, and pull up the weakest options to match. Obviously, not every option can be entirely equal without gutting the concept (IE, many people's view of 4e), but if this was a point spread graph, the outliers on either side of the bulk should be the ones to cut or alter, not the core center.

And before it comes up, I like 4e. I agree it cut out a lot of good potential the system had for the sake of balance, but I see too many people holding up the severed head of 4e as an example of balance and class-concept equality as a 'bad thing'. 4e was just ONE attempt to balance the game, and obviously not the right one, since it stripped away a lot of variability in character structure which people found distasteful, but that doesn't mean that attempting to balance the classes and their options is automatically a bad thing, it just means we have a reference for some major pitfalls to avoid. I've heard too many times someone say 'we can't do this, it'll turn it into 4e!' and I'm getting sick of it.

(If a mod feels this is better suited to a different forum, feel free to move it, but I think this is mostly targeted at 3e players and their mindset in general.)

44
I'm trying to ramp up my By-The-Book Eberron Campaign (house rules at link). So far we've had a character-making session and two play sessions. The first was basically night #2 of the character making, resolving some lingering problems with making those characters, with a quick RP-leading-to-combat encounter for three characters. The second was minus the tank of the prior trio, so more of a follow-up RP-heavy session, placing the two characters more firmly in the world, eventually leading to a light combat followed by more RP. (They wound up converting one of the emerald claw thugs they fought into joining the crew of the airship which they had just joined!)

I've been helping them with their builds, since while I don't want to hit high-end tier-1 broken-ness, I also don't want them to fall off the lower end of mechanical ineptitude. I know almost every bit of mechanical material out there, the existence of it, at least, but it doesn't always add up into the strong combos. I was hoping you guys could recommend some strong mechanical options and/or good RP/flavor abilities, since these guys so far have been pretty RP heavy in their chosen play.

Tonight was supposed to be session #3, but three out of four players (one who'd been out-of-town/otherwise-occupied for the first three sessions and hasn't even made a character yet) cancelled tonight, meaning the 'game' was left to myself and my buddy who I see on a daily basis anyway. He started laying out a Weapon of Legacy for himself.

So, just to run down who/what we have:

My buddy is playing a half-elf (valenar) cleric serving the Spirits of the Past. He's mainly built himself around the double-scimitar proficiency the Revered Ancestor domain grants him proficiency with, going for two-weapon fighting and such. He's also looking at making that double scimitar into a weapon of legacy, mostly focusing on making it plussed on both ends and keen, plus minor stuff like enhancing his cha and maybe some flavor abilities. I'm not worried about him breaking the game for playing a tier-1 class, he's mostly building the character as a secondary fighter with healing capacity, which seems fairly on-target for party needs. (The WoL doesn't bother me, especially after we found that the legacy rituals grant the legacy feats as bonus feats, something I'd mis-interpreted before, so he's not going to be feat-starved for wanting to do it.)

The other character with the most development has been a half-elf dragonfire adept. (clinging breath is the main feat I know of, but I've also ruled metabreaths from draconomicon are provisionally legal) He's styled himself as a member of House Lyrandar, with the stated player-aim of going for Heir of Syberis. I'm more concerned about why else he's looking at the HoS class, especially considering it means he's depriving himself of a lot of the more favorable flavor and mechanical options for a dragonmarked heir. (it comes in so late! mid-teens?) So far, the only reason he's stated to want to go for it is the Breath of Syberis feat. All that work just for an extra 2d6 on the breath weapon seems like a lot of work for little reward. I need to talk to him about his motivations and expectations, but are there any other options that would be good ideas for him?

My third player I had little to worry about, he's playing a Warforged Crusader. Not as much to say, since he only got to play in one short session. (feats were adamantine body and extra granted maneuver) Still, any input would be appreciated.

My fourth player, I have no idea what he'll build. He might go prepared or full arcanist, or perhaps a roguelike. What would be a good recommendation for such a 4th man? Especially one in this party, where any three of the four could have to skip a week. (My buddy works weekends every 6th week, the warforged's player is married with kids and is only making it every other week, and the last guy is in the Army Reserves and has to do his weekend-a-month in training. Makes it hard to know who's going to be here on any given session.)

What I really need is more new players... Our extended network of known gamers is getting painfully thin-stretched.

I have been trying to look for material for them, we've searched every bloody book on my shelf with no clear good finds, but considering much of their choices were late-produced material, there's not as much support. (Most of the invocation-user-built prestige classes are specifically warlock and don't reflect the DFA properly. Same goes for the Crusader. And the Cleric doesn't want to do a super-optimized CoDzilla.) I've looked online, but my limited history of handbooks and how to find them hasn't really helped here. I'd appreciate any on-target suggestions anyone is willing to offer.

45
Mostly this is spawned off all the 5e talk that's been flying, but it makes me wonder in general. Why are they considered something vital for casters in D&D? Why is their absence in 4e considered such a travesty?

I can understand the idea of having other options than damage be able to defeat an enemy, but must it be a one-try effect for it to be considered viable? (I don't care for rocket-tag damage-wise either, as it happens. Keep that in mind, my end-goal would see rocket tag in all forms eliminated where possible, it's just not fun.) It's the same argument for the Destruction of Undead (Complete Divine pg. 87) alternate option for Tun Undead, it basically acts like a single-button ability which is either useless (unlikely with optimization) or auto-wins the encounter with no assistance or contribution from other members of the team.

I could see effects which are presently presented as SoD broken down into segments. The 4e version made them deal damage like everyone else, making all contributions towards the death of an enemy equal because they all had the same end-goal, getting it to 0HP. Alternately, we have the occasional suggestion of a condition track, where an effect weakens the target, hindering them as a threat, and, after repeat applications, leading to their destruction in a non-damage manner. However, this has been labelled a 'death spiral', which also seems to be a Bad Thing (TM).

So, to reiterate, what's the point? Why are these effects needed? I'd really like to know, because as it is, they seem to be way more trouble and headache than I could ever see them being worth.

46
I've been using the two top links to help speed up my browsing, and among other things, there have been a couple posts I now regret having gotten involved in, which I should really stop reading because certain peoples' opinions drive me up the wall, and I don't want to get banned for accidentally posting frustrated jokes which are misinterpreted as threats of violence. (Unfortunately, not an exaggeration, I posted such in a thread on GitP and got a warning.) Better to remove it from my active posts and aid my self-control.

There's also the newbie agreement post, which is put back on the active unread replies every time we get a new member. Since EVERYONE needs to post in that one, everyone is subscribed to it.

47
D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / What makes a good character sheet?
« on: February 26, 2012, 02:14:40 PM »
What makes a good (printed, handwritten) character sheet? Are there particulars you prefer to see, like rules reminders? Are there things you had having to slog through when making/building a character and the right sheet feature helps fix that?

I'm working up an Illustrator-built version of my previous standard character sheet (which was built in OpenOffice's version of Excel and exported to PDF), and I figured as long as I'm upgrading it, I'm going to fix the various problems I had with the original. (among other things, the equipment sheet's money spot and the front sheet's current-HP spot wind up on the same place on the page when printed double-sided. Writing and erasing in that spot after a while tends to wear through the page.)

Here's the original sheet: http://redbladestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Generic-Character-Sheet.pdf

I'm planning on pretty much just duplicating the other sheets, plus minor tweaks and fixes. The skills sheet is already done (preliminarily, I might tweak later), here:
http://redbladestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Eberron-Character-Sheet-skills.pdf

And just to show, here was my work-in-progress sheet which I was using for my major-rework 3.5-merged-with-4e system (note the damage types and the condensed skill list). This one was also Illustrator, but there's other stuff I'd do differently now.
http://redbladestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Character-Sheet_pg1.pdf

So, any thoughts/opinions/complaints?

48
Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / Alternate TWF concept/fix
« on: February 16, 2012, 12:53:19 AM »
I've been thinking about TWF as a concept, various opinions on its efficiency or deficiencies, and the damage problems it has. (I've also seen a lot of these TWF fixes floating around, and while I don't tend to jump on bandwagons, they all seem a bit off from what I think TWF should be.)

This isn't really a full-level fix (I still don't have an idea for Improved/Greater TWF) but it's the start of one. It also operates independently of any other concepts I'm working on, though I'm keeping them in mind.

Base Rules (no feat):

When fighting with two weapons, you can choose to take a -4 to the attack roll with your main hand (-6 if the off-hand weapon isn't light) in order to add your off-hand weapon to the damage with your main hand as bonus damage dice, and deal damage as if using a two-handed weapon (normally 1 1/2 times Strength). Attacks are made with the main-hand weapons' attack roll, dealing damage with both weapons' damage types. Critical hits are scored with the main hand as usual, and the full damage bonus from Strength is multiplied according to the main-hand weapon's critical multiplier. Special properties only apply from the main-hand weapon. (if the off-hand weapon is better for some reason, like a special material or better crit range, you can swap hands on the weapons, leading with the off-hand weapon but probably taking the -6 for the 'off-hand' weapon being non-light)

You can also choose to use only one weapon at a time, taking no penalties but gaining no bonus damage or increased handedness from the other weapon. You can still make single attacks with either weapon at no penalty, including during a full-attack action.

Two-Weapon Fighting [General]
Prerequisite
Dex 15.

Benefit
Whenever you would be able to make a single attack, you can take a -2 penalty to your attack (-4 if the off-hand weapon isn't light) in order to make two attack rolls, one for each weapon; a primary attack with your main-hand weapon, and a second attack roll using your off-hand weapon. Both attacks add all the same situational penalties and bonuses to each attack roll. This also applies to full-attack sequences, allowing you to make a separate attack roll, one for each weapon, for each of your iterative attacks available, taking the penalty to all attacks in the sequence.

Alternately, you can still make a combined strike using both weapons, removing the -4 penalty to the attack roll for the single attack. If the off-hand weapon isn't light, this is only reduced to a -2 penalty.

Two-Weapon Defense [General]
Prerequisites
Dex 15, Two-Weapon Fighting.

Benefit
When wielding a double weapon or any sort of off-hand weapon, you gain a shield bonus to your AC equal to 1 + the off-hand weapon's enhancement bonus. (As a matching modification to this, a Defending weapon's enhancement bonus would be doubled when shifted into the Defending AC bonus as an off-hand weapon.)

So, thoughts?

49
(This is cloned/updated from a post on GitP, which seems to mostly been devolved into a discussion/argument on metamagic reducers. I thought I should get a different set of opinions on the general assemblage.)

I'm looking at putting together a full-range (3-20+) campaign for my players, so they get the full extent of standard D&D, and so they can successfully chalk up a 'we hit lvl 20' game to their gaming history. This is an arranged trade-off in prep for a game I want to run after, which will be 3.5-based, but heavily modified to incorporate elements of 4e into the base concept and rebuild the structure of the game (and the multiclassing system) to be more functional. (Most of my players have played in a very heavily modified game which is leaving a bad taste mechanics-wise, so I can understand their annoyance at any sort of modded games right now. This game should cleanse their palate, so to speak.)

It's going to be Eberron setting, with the players as part of a larger airship crew operating as free agents (the captain-owner of the ship will be an NPC, unless the players wind up changing that..) but the game will generally be sandbox, with some plotlines and recurring arcs thrown in over the course of the campaign. Each character will be given a special magic item, an at-will sending stone with a 1/day word of recall. These stones are paired with a matching one located in a communications room back on the ship; the word of recall also brings them back here. This lets me pull characters out when their player is unable to make it the next week, a recurring problem in our games as a whole.

I want to keep it 99% by-the-book, as I've said, but I also want to make sure I cut out the major game-breakers, and tweak a few things (mainly some overpriced LA/ECL ratings) to keep more flavorful options open, without going all-out. (Eberron is a little more favorable towards monster PCs flavor-wise, but the regular LA/ECLs are less than friendly. Tweaking them down and allowing LA reduction should help.

So I want to get some feedback on my options from you guys, from a char-op standpoint (especially the LA/ECL tweaks), but also to let me know any major problems (over-powered or severely under-powered) that I've missed.

Just as a general provision, when I refer to content, I'm referring almost exclusively to generic core (no FR/etc) or Eberron-specific material. Anything else is on a case-by-case, and I'm going to be watching for the major stuff which jump tiers and break games. Hopefully the provisions set below will keep from getting into the *broken* stuff, without having to chop it specifically.

  • All base classes are allowed.
    • Alternate class features, racial substitutions, and other such variants must be DM approved, but are often permitted.
    • The Complete Divine Destruction of Undead (pg. 87) is the standard for all turning effects. Ask the DM about specific interactions.
    • A few classes are discouraged but not forbidden, with suggested alternatives:
      • Fighter: Warblade.
      • Monk: Unarmed Swordsage variant, focusing on Setting Sun.
      • Ninja: Swordsage, focusing on Shadow Hand.
      • Paladin: Crusader.
    • Talk to the DM when creating a character. He knows just about every major mechanical option and can make suggestions to fit what you want to do.
  • All base races allowed from core and generic material, plus Eberron-specific races.
    • No subraces by default. (Drow are considered a distinct race, not a subrace. All other elves are just the PHB Elf.) Specific exceptions on DM's consent, with better reasoning than 'just because', and may involve plot complications.
  • Prestige classes are by DM's approval. (Mostly a formality, but I reserve the right to disallow any material I feel is inappropriate.)
  • Spells, Feats, and Items from WotC-published books are allowed, but specific items or spells may be harder to locate.
    • Dragon magazine and online supplementary content is allowed only with DM approval.
  • No flaws.
  • Level Adjustment buy-off is allowed and encouraged.
  • Bloodlines are allowed (but can't be bought off, Bloodline Levels are not the same as Level Adjustment).
  • Latest errata is used in all cases, including unpublished edits from the original author (including the Mouseferatu Shadowcaster and Complete Psionic errata).
  • Later sources of items, feats, and spells are preferred, but earlier versions can be requested.
  • Characters start at 3rd level, with wealth appropriate to their level.
    • If a character dies, or you want to retire an existing character (or just have them step back out of the plot for a while), any new character is created at the party's average level, rounded down, including the level of the character who just left.
  • Metamagic is limited to levels you are capable of casting. Spell-level reduction items/feats/etc are limited to levels you would be able to cast otherwise. You cannot exceed your highest spell level with any one spell, before applying reduction.
  • XP gain will be faster than usual, most likely doubled until past 10th level.

Minor Tweaks
(Any specific elements mentioned here are changed as described. Anything unmentioned is by the book/errata.)
  • Player's Handbook
    • Half-Elf: Bonus feat (as human)
    • Half-Orc: +2 Str, -2 Int. +2 racial bonus to Intimidate.
  • Monster Manual
    • Aasimar: Humanoid (human, planetouched). +2 Wis, +2 Cha, -2 Con. Favored Class: Favored Soul. LA +0.
    • Bugbear: No racial hit dice. LA +1.
    • Centaur: 2 racial hit dice. LA +2 (ECL 4).
    • Gnoll: No racial hit dice. LA +1.
    • Hobgoblin: +2 Dex, +2 Con, -2 Wis. LA +0.
    • Lizardfolk: No racial hit dice. LA +1.
    • Ogre: 2 racial hit dice. LA +2 (ECL 4).
    • Orc: +4 Str, -2 Int, -2 Cha. +4 racial bonus to Intimidate.
    • Satyr: No racial hit dice. Pipes supernatural ability is removed. LA +2.
    • Tiefling: Humanoid (human, planetouched). Favored class: Warlock. LA +0.
  • Expanded Psionics Handbook
    • Blue: LA +0.
  • Player's Handbook II
    • Arcane Thesis: This reduction effect cannot reduce any individual metamagic adjustment below +0. (If any metamagics are overcosted, I might tweak them down, but that is not the job of this feat to repair.)

Anything else you guys think I've missed?

50
Gaming Advice / What's the acronym TO mean?
« on: February 07, 2012, 05:48:51 AM »
I've seen it thrown around a bit here and there, but it's next to impossible to search a definition for, given that it's a common word as well.

What does it mean when people are saying TO?

51
Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / Unique Mechanics across Power Sources
« on: January 25, 2012, 02:41:29 AM »
So I'm 'brewing up my home-setting. I'm going to be polling my players on this too, but I thought I might get some unaffiliated opinions to shape my proposals. I'm tweaking up 3.5e, throwing in some 4e concepts, and generally screwing around with everything to suit my goals of balance in the mechanics, and put D&D as a concept where I'd like to see it. (think of it as 'my 5e')

The main part is I'm using the Vancian-to-Psionic conversion to use spell points for the basic Arcane and Divine classes. (I'm also as a broad approach going to include ToB-style multiclassing rules, characters gaining half  of all non-caster-type levels to caster level. This combines with the psi conversion for augmentable caster-level and bonus spell points, but not maximum spell-level known.)

I'm also dropping the core Wizard (& Sorcerer) in favor of splitting the Arcane caster into Beguiler (possibly renamed Witch), Warmage, Dread Necromancer (dropping the dread), and the similar-style Wizard class. I need to do a lot more cross-comparisons, but I think it's workable, though I think I'll be restoring a couple of the removed spells from the Psi conversion. (I was going through the list of the tweak-wiz's spells, and there's too many in there that are just gone with no condensation or explanation.) I'm also thinking of throwing a few of the lost Divination spells into the Necromancer, since they fit thematically (Necromancy originally being a type of divination which spoke to the dead). Anything else that is gone or doesn't fall under the reduced caster lists might become a 4e-style ritual.

I had a few ideas for spell tweaks for the common do-it-all spells. Knock becomes a caster-level driven Open Lock check, rather than an I-win vs locks (with maybe a counterpart ritual one that does the job but takes time, akin to 4e). Disintegrate and other SoD spells will be changing. I got the idea for Disintegrate itself to become an active DoT spell, more like Call Lightning. Cast it once, sustain it each round passively or use it to deal significant amounts of damage/pain to one target by spending actions.

The Psi conversion makes it harder to do my other change I was considering, splitting off Primal casters (druid, spirit shaman, ranger). I've still got to look over the spells and revised concepts, but Divine casters will use a distinct type of spell point (perhaps Mana Point vs Faith Point). I debated mixing it up a bit by making the arcanists use spell points versus the divines using slots, which would be an easier conversion and split, but part of my reasoning for using spell points in the first place were the convenient condensation of Cure spells, one of my favorite aspects.

Another idea that struck me was to do a slot-based scaling conversion of the psi concepts, half-converting them back into slots so that spontaneous use of a slot of a higher level to cast the lower-level spell triggered off the higher-level effects of augmentation. That feels like needless nitpicking tho.

My current inclination is to make the primal classes divine/something hybrids. I'm also establishing Eldritch as a distinct powersource, using my own modded Invoking Bard from a ways back, and a tweaked-up Warlock. (Maybe the DragonFire Adept too.) Eldritch magic would be more raw, uncontrolled, representing the fixed, unagumentable numbers coming out of the invocations. Using the PH2 Shapeshift Druid as a base, I could turn the Druid into a hybrid Divine/Eldritch class, with the wild-shape forms as at-will invocations.

(The other major possibility is, if I can re-distill the Druid and Shaman out of the Divine conglomeration in the Psi-conversion's Cleric, I could call the Primal spells Invocations to equal Divine Prayers, use the points conversions, and rebuild the Warlock to use Pacts that resemble Incarnum soulmelds. That does still leave the invoker Bard up a creek.. I've got a lot of mechanics I could repurpose, but I'm running out of terminology...)

I'm also going to be integrating maneuvers into the core combat classes, and I'm killing the Fighter as its own class. Instead, I'll have the full-BAB Rogue (with Thief and Swashbuckler-theming subclasses) for an urban fighter, the Knight (with mounted Cavalier and divine Paladin subclasses) for a heavy fighter, the Ranger (with Scout and animal-companion Hunter subclasses), with stuff like one or (choice of) two full maneuver sets granted with choices. So Thieves get Shadow Hand, Paladins get some spells and Devoted Spirit, and TWF rangers get Tiger Claw while Archery rangers get Falling Star. Just as an idea framework.

This also leaves out the idea of what to do IF I *do* want to include Psionics (or one of my players asks for it). Content wise, I think actually mirroring the 4e Psion's smaller focus, on telekinesis or telepathy effects, gives them a more unique role, which might just be cutting down the Psion into Telepath or Kineticist focus. I could re-write the powers entirely, maybe even borrowing in the 4e idea of at-will powers which can be augmented in strength. (If I didn't otherwise, I'd been considering doing a warlock-like soulknife rewrite that included this idea.)

(I'm also going to say, I'm not inclined to include the more esoteric classes, like binders, incarnum users, etc as separate flavors of magic. (mechanics are up for grabs, tho...) I'm generally trying to keep to more mainstream concepts, since I'm going to be tweaking a lot of the concepts to fit my setting as well, and I don't have conceptual room for *everything*.)

So, I know this is all an unholy mess (When have my posts not? They're very stream-of-consciousness..) but does anyone have any ideas on my thoughts, mechanics, and a way for me to keep the variety of mechanical functions, but assign them to the best system at hand?

52
Creations & Ephemera / Cityscape RPG
« on: December 27, 2011, 02:12:07 AM »
So, I'm working on my own RPG, based on my own urban-fantasy IP I call Nightmares in the Dark (http://www.nightmaresinthedark.com/).

The basics of the setting are that it's the modern world as we know, but with a hidden underworld of elves, dwarves, goblins, trolls, vampires, werewolves, demons, dragons, and more. Magic is a real force, with a good deal of pseudo-scientific background to explain it. Magic is driven by spirits in a parallel dimensional space, who live off the energies generated by thought and emotion, and are able to return some of that energy to our dimension, in the form of magical effects. We can communicate with them through altered states and rituals, and they can be bound to people or objects to perform magic on command. Your soul is another kind of spirit, and can be 'awakened' to learn how to perform magic as well, but it carries consequences, in the form of deviations, magical mutations which confer some of the nature of the magic you're trying to perform, often in the form of animal-like aspects. Stack these changes up over time in a magic-using community, and you wind up with the other magical races. Go too far with these changes, and you lose control of yourself to your instincts, and become a monster.

Mechanically and conceptually, I take influences from D&D 3.5e and 4e, d20 Modern (including Urban Arcana), the new World of Darkness (including specifically Werewolf, Changeling, and several of the core offbooks like Mirrors, Changing Breeds, and Second Sight), as well as the Dresden Files RPG. (I'll note similar concepts for reference from those.)

So my core mechanic is 3d6 with exploding 6s, used for attacks, defenses, skill checks, and so on. The other standard sizes of dice are used as well, mostly for damage and health expressions. XP is a high-value resource for character advancement, often granted one point at a time, but continuously throughout a given session rather than just at the end. XP can be spent on the fly to buy character traits, or 'burned' temporarily to provide boosts to current actions or extend your resources, and recovered on the next rest.

Six core stats for characters, tweaked from the d20 standard: Strength, Agility, Endurance, Intellect, Charisma, Resolve. (Presently I use the d20-style "10 as +0 average" modifier system, but aside from wanting a derived bonus from the score, I could set that +0 point anywhere. I could even invert the system and use the mod as the base and derive a 'score' for special uses.) Strength for melee and archery damage and movement/carry capacity. Agility for one component of all physical attack rolls (explained below), and the Dodge defense (one of my core three defense forms, see below). Endurance for health and the Tough defense. Intellect for skill points and damage with guns and spells. Charisma for all 'special' in-combat rolls (explained below), and Energy points, one of the major resources for getting things done. Resolve for the Initiative check (rolled every round), the Wealth rating, and the Will defense.

The system has five main bonuses granted by levels. (I use d20-style classes, referred to as Archetypes, with multiclassing encouraged. Each archetype is mainly one primary character concept, in a non-exclusive manner. I'll run them down below.)

The first two are the Combat and Special bonuses. The Combat bonus is used for all physical attacks (the Agil modifier is always added), but is tempered by the attack's related skill. Presently I have 4 such skills, with associated ability: Archery (Res), Brawling (End), Firearms (Res), & Weaponry (Str), though I'm still fiddling with which and what. To make a standard attack, use the lesser of either the Combat+Agl or Skill+mod. Likewise, when using some other skill in combat, generally you would use the Special+Cha or the skill+mod, whichever is lower, to make a base check. (Just about every skill has special actions you can do which don't use the standard basic skill check, changing things up. I'm still working out the specifics, with either every skill granting special utility powers/maneuvers on certain ranks, or those powers are cheaply purchasable once you have that rank prerequisite.)

The other three bonuses are defensive, Dodge, Tough, and Will. Conceptually similar to Fort/Ref/Will from d20/D&D, but more fundamental. Dodge is your overall avoidance check, akin to AC/touch-AC. Tough is checked for stability/footing and general hardiness checks (though not poisons), but mainly used as an intrinsic damage resistance (this damage is made less lethal, rather than eliminated). Will is fairly basic, mental resistance, but also used vs social effects. The big kicker of Will is twofold, one, that you have a secondary number called a Feral Instinct, which is added for external Will checks, but that you have to roll against in particular circumstances. Two, Will is used for resisting Deviations, and a too weakly-willed character will suffer for it.

The two main resource points are Health and Energy. You have the base amount granted at character creation, but each archetype level grants you one Health and Energy die, which are recuperative (sort of like healing surges in 4e), allowing you to recover naturally. (there are also natural and magical healing and energy sources. Natural ones, like Leader abilities, recharge your dice, while magical healing is an independent number, operating outside the level-dice system.)

Health has three forms, Vital, Lethal, and Blunt, and you get your Endurance score of each. (This is similar to the WoD's Aggravated/Lethal/Bashing types, or the D&D-style lethal/nonlethal split, with the -10 under 0 similar to the Vital/Aggravated set) The Tough defense above, and armor, reduces damage by one rating, so 5 lethal damage, if you've got a Tough of 3, is received as 2 lethal damage and 3 blunt. Excess damage of one kind rolls over into the next. (Blunt damage is more akin to Bludgeoning damage than Nonlethal, to make a d20 comparison.)

Energy loosely defined as not just physical energy, but also motivation and personal drive. You get points equal to your Charisma score, and it can be spent to boost actions, including boosting physical attacks and social actions. (it's akin to 4e psionics at-wills, you can always use the attack, but spending extra points strengthens the effect.) Magic can be powered by spending energy directly, or you can invoke emotions to generate Eos and Nyx energy, which are constructive and destructive, respectively, and spend more efficiently than straight Energy.

Not sure what the char limit on posts is here, going to post this then reserve a few replies for more info.

53
Min/Max 3.x / Experimental Half-Ogre Build
« on: December 18, 2011, 12:34:36 AM »
My regular game is on hiatus (only two players besides myself, and one who had family out of town, means my game goes on breaks quite often, esp. around holidays.. I really need more players...) so my remaining player and I decided to crack open the books and fiddle with high level 3.5 builds, since we rarely get up there.

We're both aiming for 20th level characters, but I've got this chart I made that breaks things down level and feat and such so that we could pick out a certain level, choose spells and tweak skills, and have viable characters at any point 1-20. We're using 32 point buy.

He's making a cleric/sorcerer mystic theurge (with DMM/persist). He's not much of an optimizer, and would love some tips in that regard. (I've given him a few, but I admit I'm not much of an optimizer myself, aside from knowing that the major combos exist. He's also looking over my shoulder right now.)

So, to compensate for what I'm seeing as a fairly easy build, I decided to play around mechanically, and see how busted I could go. (I prefer melee&monster builds to casters)

I've got a half-ogre who's reduced his LA back to 0 (We're focusing on building at 20th level, not the amount of XP it takes to get there), which I'm going to have (at level 9 when his LA clears) use a ritual to add the Half-Dragon template (color unspecified, but I have a flavor-love for Reds). Trading levels for the LA is no big deal, he can just re-earn them. The benefit of being dropped in level, though, is that it's just before the point where I could LA-reduce the half-dragon's +3 away entirely before hitting 20th level. A bit cheesy, I know, but it's mainly a thought experiment.

So, at the end of the progression, I'm going to have a 20 HD, LA 0 half-ogre half-dragon. Presently I've got a breaking point at 8th level where the template is added.

So, for what I've considered, I'm currently working out the details for him to take 3 levels in Warblade, then 2 levels in Swordsage, then 3 more warblade levels. He's taking Diverse Background to add Warblade as a favored class to keep the XP penalty off, though that's potentially droppable.

Mainly considering doing either a TWF tiger claw focus, or possibly a double weapon. Aside from that, and throwing in some draconic stuff like Dragon Breath from RotD, I'm pretty wide open.

So, aside from anything directly not cited above, any suggestions?

54
Game Design / What were the flaws of the d20 Modern Wealth rating/bonus?
« on: November 23, 2011, 06:22:59 AM »
And I don't just mean 'it existing'. (just to head off that little trolling before it happens. It's not constructive.)

I'm working on my own RPG, and I'm considering the merits of different wealth systems. A good portion of my mechanics are d20-like enough that I might wind up putting the rules out under the d20/d20M license, but I'm on the edge enough to where it might not be required. So one of the factors I'm considering is the Wealth rating, which I keep hearing horrible things about, but nobody's really done a critical breakdown. Since I'm writing up my own system from scratch, which has the option to enhance and expand upon mechanics in the d20 Modern system, and hopefully address the flaws, I was hoping to gather some input.

It's a modern setting, so abstract mechanics like bank accounts, credit cards, and mortgages are issues to (possibly) contend with.

So here's my thoughts so far:
  • Straight cash is problematic, but could be done, taking up a subsystem worth of feat-like options (sustained income, sudden windfall, starter inheritance, etc), and maybe a skill.
  • New World of Darkness has one or two scaleable merits for wealth, which operate like a simplified rating.

Modern's system seems to be the best way (in my mind) to cover the broad concept. Using a high-value modifier (usually somewhere between 10 and 30), make a check against a purchase DC. Succeed and acquire item. The subtleties lie in how well you succeed or fail, a high fail or low success somehow impacting the bonus after the fact, either as a temporary penalty (blowing your weekly budget on a bazooka but still getting next week's paycheck) or a permanent loss (cashing in on savings or investments to be able to buy that silver sword).

My current mechanics stand at pretty much that. You start with your Resolve (read:Wisdom) score as your base Wealth rating. Items with a purchase DC equal to your wealth rating can be purchased without impact, capped at your Resolve bonus per week. Beyond that needs a check (probably at a penalty, maybe a -5), representing unwise spending in excess.

The check itself takes your rating on top of a standard roll. Success on a given purchase by (either 5 or 10) or more is good, no penalty. Results between 0 and that (5 or 10) limiter take a (let's say -5) penalty to your wealth rating for a week (maybe a pay-period). Failure means you're unable to find the item at good cost, but you could take a permanent hit to your rating if you're desperate enough (possibly only within a specific failure range, like 1 to 4 under, or perhaps you take a penalty equal to the difference between the check result and the DC). Retries equal a day's worth of shopping.

In the above, the 0 position could also move, depending on what's clearer. (maybe a close fail has the temp penalty, while an excessive (let's say 5 or more under) fail takes a penalty equal to the difference between result and DC, -5.) All pretty variable.

(I'll also say that everything I've written here is off-the-cuff, I haven't actually gone to examine in depth the Modern system in a number of years, I wanted to get a structured idea of my initial system before I start on comparisons. Now I'm gonna go dig out my book and do a comparison. If I have any major comments on my reading of it, check for a post below.)

So with this idea in mind, what are your thoughts on the failings of the d20 Modern wealth system?

55
General D&D Discussion / So, what's next for 4e?
« on: November 21, 2011, 08:08:32 AM »
Since we've got a lack of 4e threads, I figure I should start one.  :D

What kind of class would you like to see come out in a future book? The Heroes of the.. line seems to be a path of expansion lately. We seem to be getting a mix of new material and Essentials-style reflavorings for existing classes. Nice to see them expanding beyond core concepts, though the Wizard emphasis is getting a bit old.

Heroes of the Underdark? more than just drow, maybe some essentials stuff for psionics? More aberrant material?

Heroes of the Elemental Chaos? Elemental classes have been considered but (apparently) discarded, but maybe they'll see a resurgence? Maybe some demonbinders beyond the warlock, maybe something more akin to the demon-transformation classes like Acolyte of the Skin and the old Fiendish template?

I'd love to see partial classes, like the spellscarred and the dhampire, maybe exploring monsters? We've already been seeing themes expanding into that territory, I really want to see monsters getting playable. Large-size ogres (we just got our first Tiny race, a large one would be sweet!), or other more monsterish races. Even just touching on the standard monsterish options, things outside of the medium/small humanoid mold. (Centaurs? harpies/raptoran? demons?)

Anyone else got any ideas?

56
Introduce Yourself / Hey out there!
« on: November 20, 2011, 02:46:38 AM »
Hey guys, I found a link here from the Giant in the Playground forums. Been hanging out there for the last few months (mostly in their homebrew), and I've been looking for other new forums lately. I've been trying to get into the ENworld forums, but they seem a little too big with not enough divisions, material gets paged off pretty quick.

I used to hang out on the WotC 3e homebrew and eberron forums (eberron was, and is, my favorite published setting, in part because I've had opportunities at GenCon to hang out and chat with Keith Baker a few times.) My name on there was Leonidus.

I'm currently living in Pontiac, Michigan, and we are desperately in need of new gamer blood in our social circle! If you live anywhere near a doable-weekly drive to me, PLEASE let me know. I currently run a saturday game, currently with 2 guys running 2 characters each in a demo-ish 4e game, but we've also run 3.5, including my own mega-modded ruleset, and WoD.

I'm also writing my own RPG from the ground up, called the Cityscape RPG, based on my own major project, Nightmares in the Dark (http://www.nightmaresinthedark.com), an urban fantasy animated webseries I've been developing for years. The RPG is a bit of a side-project for me, taking in aspects from D&D 3.5e and 4e, d20 modern, World of Darkness, and even the Dresden Files RPG.

It's largely d20-derived, (I currently use the d20-style base-10/+0 score/mod system, though I'm not tied to it), but my key mechanic is 3d6x6 (however you want to write it, 3 d6's, with extra rolls on 6s). I'm about 50% sure it has to fall under the d20 system license, because of the overall similarities, but I use a direct XP-spending advancement. I don't want to go fully classless, but it's got the option to.

Looking forward to getting settled in here! I poked around a bit before I registered, looks like a good bunch of folks. (gah, that rolled off the tongue entirely too easily. Was DMing some country farmer-types tonight, settling into this very southern/mountain slang.)

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