terms

[Bozwevial]

"IP Proofing" ?  I've seen this term thrown around, mostly in terms of saying it can't be done, but I don't know what it means..

IP stands for iterative probability. The idea is that even if a given encounter only has a 5% chance of killing somebody, that chance stacks over time. A 95% survival rate is fine for one encounter, but if you have 13 of those encounters, then mathematically there's only a 51.3% chance that there are no deaths. Since that statistic also assumes that every encounter is the same difficulty (and the DMG most certainly does not), it could very well be much worse.

IP proofing itself involves reducing the chance that randomness will kill you and making sure your failure rate is as low as possible. Typically that entails picking up immunities to common effects, boosting saves, getting rerolls to reduce the chance of natural 1s screwing you, more foolproof defenses against full attacks like Mirror Image/Blink/Abrupt Jaunt, etcetera.

[littha]

What does the term 'Respect' mean under people's avatars? My profile summary doesn't explain it.

It means I am jealous that you got 2 respect in 24 posts while I have 1 in more than 1000

[darqueseid]

What does the term 'Respect' mean under people's avatars? My profile summary doesn't explain it.

It means I am jealous that you got 2 respect in 24 posts while I have 1 in more than 1000

I had seen others respect higher than they are now including yours; I think I had some too at some point.   I think it got reset somewhere along the way.

I should make my sig:
"I get no respect!"

[Agita]

What does the term 'Respect' mean under people's avatars? My profile summary doesn't explain it.

It means I am jealous that you got 2 respect in 24 posts while I have 1 in more than 1000

I had seen others respect higher than they are now including yours; I think I had some too at some point.   I think it got reset somewhere along the way.

I should make my sig:
"I get no respect!"

It got reset when we changed to the current post-based system, yes.

[whitetyger009]

factotum?

is this a class or a prestige class?  what book do i find it in?

[Agita]

factotum?

is this a class or a prestige class?  what book do i find it in?

Base class, found in Dungeonscape, pages 14ff.

[kitep]

What does the term 'Respect' mean under people's avatars? My profile summary doesn't explain it.

If you look at a post, above it and to the right, you'll see a little arrow.  Clicking on the arrow means you like the post -- and it will turn green if it's not green already.  It also gives the poster +1 respect.

Last I heard, there's no way to tell who gave you respect for what, other than tracking down all your posts, and even then you don't know who gave it.  So some people will mention if they give you respect so you know what for.

[rot42]

"IP Proofing" ?  I've seen this term thrown around, mostly in terms of saying it can't be done, but I don't know what it means..

"Iterative Probability Proofing". The idea is that with enough rolls, you are going to roll three natural ones in a row or otherwise be subject to the whim of bursty probability at some point between first and twentieth levels. And then you die. Dying sucks, so make sure you (a) have the ability to reroll critical rolls and (b) have the ability to avoid making critical rolls in the first place.

Put another way: a 95% chance of getting something right looks like a pretty safe bet. If you make that bet fourteen times, you have only about a 49% chance of succeeding on every roll. With more rolls, the chances of failure approach one.

edit: bah, sorry Bozwevial, I fail at reading comprehension. The answer at the top of this page is perfectly satisfactory.