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Messages - KicktheCAN

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1
General D&D Discussion / Re: And Then There's the 8.5% For the Church of Bane's Public Works Fund
« on: March 23, 2013, 08:14:40 PM »
In my latest campaign the PCs are part of a VC-funded startup so they have to pay back their initial loan. I find that players either enjoy trying to cheat the system or just hate it.

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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: Indexes Project
« on: March 20, 2013, 02:31:34 PM »
It is just a normal MySQL database. I can export it to CSV or Excel or whatever format you want. The data has some html formatting in it and I had to reformat a couple of things (namely, I reformatted all of the variant character classes into ACFs).

To clarify, the database includes all feats, ACFs, spells, items, weapons, and armor from all 3.5 issues of Dragon Magazine as well as some assorted stuff from various books and web-enhancements. I have the prestige classes laid out in a document file but I haven't gotten around to setting up a table for that. I also have some of the monsters from Dragon Magazine but haven't gotten around to finishing that up.

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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: Indexes Project
« on: March 19, 2013, 08:50:38 PM »
If you want, I have everything from Dragon #309 to Dragon #359 in a database.

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Min/Max 3.x / Charisma to Everything
« on: February 23, 2013, 08:48:35 PM »
I wanted to see how many times I could get charisma to various stats in 20 levels and still get decent Charisma based casting. I don't intend to play this in an actual campaign but it might see a run in an Arena game.

Unseelie fey, loredrake dragon-wrought, white dragonspawn Kobold (undergoing the greater Draconic Right)

Favored Enemy Paladin of Freedom 2 / Battle Dancer 1 / Stalwart Battle Sorcerer 4 / Abjurant Champion 2 / Witch Hunter 1 / Sacred Exorcist 1 / Abjurant Champion 3-5 / Heartfire Fanner 4 / Sacred Exorcist 2-3

Flaws: Shaky, Murky-Eyed
Feats: Combat Casting, Beauty's Bounty, Dragon-wrought, Track, Draconic Reservoir, Force of Personality, Divine Shield, Snowflake Wardance, Divine Might
Equipment:  Slippers of Battledancing, Mithral Buckler, X Nightsticks, Cloak of Charisma +6

+16 BAB and 9th level spells. CHA to all saves twice, CHA to will (in place of WIS), CHA to AC when unarmored, CHA to shield AC by spending turn attempts, CHA to attack, CHA to melee attack by spending bardic music, CHA to damage, CHA to damage by spending turn attempts for 1 turn, CHA to hit points at 1st level (retroactive increases).

Any suggestions or anything I overlooked?

5
Board Business / Re: Moderator Criticism Thread
« on: February 11, 2013, 09:09:49 PM »
Quote from: veekie on November 19, 2012, 11:35:30 AM
I'm just never really inactive~
A fistful of posts every day somehow adds up.
Haven't you heard of moderation?

6
Other RPGs / Re: What's the problem with GURPS?
« on: March 21, 2012, 08:49:35 PM »
The problems with lethality can be alleviated by simply focusing a little bit more on your hit points and wearing some good armor.

I just started GMing a GURPS supers campaign and the players put almost all of their points into advantages (as GURPS newbs are wont to do). I insisted that people focus more on their Hit Points but people still had 14 to 20 hit points. So I ran their characters through a little mock combat before starting the campaign. They have all rethought their point allocation.

7
D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: Why are the exact problems people have with Pathfinder?
« on: March 20, 2012, 02:18:53 PM »
Quote from: StreamOfTheSky on March 20, 2012, 01:38:18 PM
Step Up does shit nothing to casters.  The concentration DCs to cast defensively are still as easy as in 3E (slightly higher, but the bonus you have is also higher) and you get the "concentration skill" for free w/o needing to blow ranks.  What Step Up does do is fuck up reach weapon users and archers something fierce.  They don't get a "concentration check" to attack adjacent or not provoke for shooting, respectively.

And casters benefit from more feats, too.  Especially since PF added so many good ones for them.  Fadier listed a bunch.  There's also Dazing/Bouncing/Selective/Reach spell, Spell Perfection, and more.
Except that any caster-killer worth their salt is going to take Mage Slayer.

I recognize and in fact mentioned that casters get buffs. However, casters only have so much higher they can go while non-casters have plenty of headroom to expand into. Pathfinder definitely adds some caster things you should probably ban but so did 3.5.

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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: Why are the exact problems people have with Pathfinder?
« on: March 20, 2012, 01:33:34 PM »
Quote from: Basket Burner on March 20, 2012, 12:42:41 PM
At which point instead of massively buffed casters and massively nerfed non casters you have massively buffed casters and unchanged non casters. That's better, but it's still not good. It certainly isn't closing the gap, else you wouldn't have the caster buffs.
You seem to be completely ignoring the many great options Pathfinder gives to non-casters. Off the top of my head, the Step Up feat gives martial characters a huge advantage against casters and they printed a lot of great options for the monk. They buffed casters as well but they just go from being able to do everything to being able to do everything. Non-casters get a proportionally higher buff (again, discounting all the nerfs) since they started out lower to begin with.

The increase in feats is a great example of this. Feats are a nice bonus for casters, letting them qualify for prestiges and power up their spells. Feats are the bread-and-butter of non-casters, defining what they are capable of doing. When you increase the number of feats characters get you power up casters a little bit without significantly altering their amount of options but you give non-casters 25% more options than they previously had. You also lessen the pain of the feat chains so common of non-caster feats (if you aren't already houseruling away those requirements).

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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: Why are the exact problems people have with Pathfinder?
« on: March 20, 2012, 12:29:04 PM »
Pathfinder added a lot of great stuff but also nerfed an equal or greater amount of things. They gave characters more feats (a huge boon to non-casters) but then nerfed the feats themselves. They actually give more to martial characters (relative to 3.5) than they do to casters but they take away more as well. Core Pathfinder is actually pretty good, especially in comparison to core 3.5. Since core they have been constantly unbalancing things. Compare this to 3.5 which become more balanced over time.

My own rule is just to use all positive changes from Pathfinder (things that make a character better) and disregard all nerfs (use the better version of feats, etc.). This tends to close the gap between casters and noncasters a little more.

10
General D&D Discussion / Re: Rolling dice Vs point buy
« on: March 05, 2012, 12:58:23 PM »
The big thing for me is ability score prerequisites for feats. Rolling dice is all well and good until you can't qualify for combat expertise or psionic meditation and it completely destroys your build.

11
D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: What are the Origins and Merits of Racial Abilities?
« on: February 19, 2012, 11:28:36 PM »
Quote from: SorO_Lost on February 17, 2012, 08:32:51 PM
Quote from: KicktheCAN on February 17, 2012, 06:13:04 PM
You want a racial ability to get rid of? Favored class, any of them. If you want dwarves to be primarily fighters then just give them abilities that work well with the fighter class. All favored class does is further penalize players who are taking an already suboptimal choice.
You know Favored Class is a bonus type ability and not a penalty right?
Since we have established humans as the baseline, it is a penalty. Humans have "Favored Class: any." The racial favored classes are a restriction on which class can be a character's favorite class. As a dwarf, one's "Favored Class: Fighter" is a disadvantage as compared to other characters.

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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: What are the Origins and Merits of Racial Abilities?
« on: February 17, 2012, 06:13:04 PM »
You want a racial ability to get rid of? Favored class, any of them. If you want dwarves to be primarily fighters then just give them abilities that work well with the fighter class. All favored class does is further penalize players who are taking an already suboptimal choice.

13
D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: Vow of Poverty Bonus Feats
« on: January 06, 2012, 09:39:31 PM »
Quote from: RobbyPants on January 04, 2012, 10:02:15 PM
Quote from: Ithamar on January 04, 2012, 06:26:15 PM
Not really all that unclear.  The ability is titled "Bonus Exalted Feats" and if you look at the table on page 31 each and every instance is labled "Bonus Exalted Feat".  The text on page 30 simply does not use the word "exalted" every time, but it is used.  That was probably mainly to save space or to avoid sounding repetitive, redundant, and superfluous.  :)
With text trumping tables, you could probably put forth a fussy RAW argument to say that only the first one is [Exalted], but the intent is definitely clear. Although, honestly, with this being VoP, regular feats wouldn't break much of anything.
The text only trumps the table when the two conflict. In this case the table is clearly a clarification on the text.

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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: Good race-specific classes, variants, and feats?
« on: January 06, 2012, 09:32:03 PM »
Blade Bravo is great if you can get a wizard to shrink you a few sizes.

If you can somehow gain the ability to fly then Skypledged is a great Divine caster class.

15
D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: Monk Guide Confliction?
« on: January 06, 2012, 09:01:13 PM »
Quote from: LiL KiNG on January 02, 2012, 02:32:59 AM
Quote from: The_Mad_Linguist on January 02, 2012, 01:38:27 AM
Alternatively the Ordered Chaos Feat from FCI would work.

After looking at the Chaos Monk I'm not sure if I like their random number of strikes ability vs. normal flurry of blows - this Ordered Chaos Feat coming from a source book looks like a much better deal, not sure when reading the description if it'd work for class alignment restrictions but worth a shot to see how DM rules.  Thanks!
Chaos Monks actually get more attacks on average than a normal monk.

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Min/Max 3.x / Re: Least Optimizable PC Class
« on: November 10, 2011, 04:50:40 AM »
I would like to point my finger firmly in the direction of the Mountebank. None of it's abilities are worth pursuing. Most of its class features are tied to Mountebank level making multiclassing very unattractive.

17
D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: Breaking E6: Where are the holes?
« on: November 10, 2011, 04:20:21 AM »
Metamagic can be very dangerous in E6. The prime offenders are Easy Metamagic, Practical Metamagic, Arcane Thesis, and Divine Metamagic. They effectively allow you to cast spells higher than 4th-level. Fell Drain is particularly nasty (even without any of the aforementioned cheapeners); without any of them you can cast a Fell Draining Magic Missile to give three creatures a negative level as a standard action; with the reducers you can (with enough feats) cast an Invisible Sanctum Quickened Repeating Twinned Fell Draining Sonic Snap of Three Thunders for two negative levels and two more next round as a swift action (no save). This is admittedly an extreme example.

Any combination of two of Improved Sigil (Krau), Sanctum Spell, or Earth Spell with enough Extra Slots will net you ninth level spells.

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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: What to call "Exotic Weapons" except "Exotic?"
« on: November 10, 2011, 03:48:49 AM »
Most exotic weapons belong to a single culture or species. Cultural Weapons, Traditional Weapons, Regional Weapons, Heritage Weapons, Ethnic Weapons, Ancestral Weapons, and Customary Weapons all make sense in that light.

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Introduce Yourself / Obligatory Introduction Thread
« on: November 10, 2011, 03:40:31 AM »
Name on left.
Favorite Games: D&D/Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, Magic: The Gathering, etc.
Non-Gaming Hobbies: art, hiking, biking, electronics
Where I live: USA, various states in New England
Other Communities: I lurk just about everywhere.

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