Pen and Paper D&D

[Morat20]

Our mages solved the targeting problem by always aiming near me.  Fortunately I had good saves, and she often fried herself, too, but optimal targeting never slowed us down...

That was the focus of an OOTS comic. Aim at the paladin with the monk evasion skill.

We had a wizard once that (I think there was some home-brew in there, since 3.5 doesn't support exactly what he did) was nasty with on-the-fly shaped spells and energy substituted spells, but that did bog the game down.

More the shaping than anything else, until the GM just made or bought some shaped cutouts and would dump them on the mat.

[Polysorbate80]

Not necessarily home-brew; there's prestige classes & feats that do everything but give you a hand-job while reducing your opponents to component atoms.  I know the Archmage prestige class gets some ability to shape, but I think it's limited to making unaffected exclusion zones in a spell's area; I think there's metamagic for turning one shape into another as well.

[Lantyssa]

Evasion?  Ha!  This was a 2nd edition game.  Half damage at best, though I did get a frostbrand at some point which provided a bit of protection.

[Sheepherder]

I'm going to reiterate this point, just because: hexes are massively superior to a square grid when you need to handle distances.

Also, I can't find whatever it was that made me think that shaman spirits were considered the source of the attack.

[Ingmar]

But massively inferior for drawing dungeons on!

[Sheepherder]

That's what they want you to believe.  Open your eyes brother, and see the truth!

[Fordel]

Can you buy hex paper?

[MahrinSkel]

Yes.  You can also use offset-square grids, which tends to be easier for drawing dungeons/castles (you just have to decide if a half-square can still be occupied).

--Dave

[Lantyssa]

Hexes forever!  Dungeons get a little odd, but are workable.  Overland and in open areas it's far superior.

[Morat20]

Not necessarily home-brew; there's prestige classes & feats that do everything but give you a hand-job while reducing your opponents to component atoms.  I know the Archmage prestige class gets some ability to shape, but I think it's limited to making unaffected exclusion zones in a spell's area; I think there's metamagic for turning one shape into another as well.

He was some weird-ass sorcerer hybrid with a severely limited (even for sorcerer's) spell selection, but gained metamagic feats and a lot of flexibility on the +spell level stuff in return. He also had a somewhat reduced spell-per-day as well -- closer to a wizard than a sorcerer.

Basically the guy had exactly ONE spell per spell level, period. That's all he could ever learn. So at level 20, the guy would know 9 spells. The thing was he could apply metamagic on the fly to them without as much of a penalty.

It seemed to balance out in play, or he never figured out how to massively exploit it, since he seemed to get knocked around about the same as us and do about the normal sort of ass-kicking as a sorcerer his level. It was a fun concept, and the guy played it as being a hedge-mage of some sort that had an 'instinctive understanding' of magic, so he was more about flexibility and clever application.

His third level spell was STILL fireball, however. :) I can't say for sure, but i'd bet his first level one was magic missile. :)

[Sky]

Hexes forever!

SHE'S A WITCH!

BUUUURN HEEEER!

[Polysorbate80]

Not necessarily home-brew; there's prestige classes & feats that do everything but give you a hand-job while reducing your opponents to component atoms.  I know the Archmage prestige class gets some ability to shape, but I think it's limited to making unaffected exclusion zones in a spell's area; I think there's metamagic for turning one shape into another as well.

He was some weird-ass sorcerer hybrid with a severely limited (even for sorcerer's) spell selection, but gained metamagic feats and a lot of flexibility on the +spell level stuff in return. He also had a somewhat reduced spell-per-day as well -- closer to a wizard than a sorcerer.

Basically the guy had exactly ONE spell per spell level, period. That's all he could ever learn. So at level 20, the guy would know 9 spells. The thing was he could apply metamagic on the fly to them without as much of a penalty.

It seemed to balance out in play, or he never figured out how to massively exploit it, since he seemed to get knocked around about the same as us and do about the normal sort of ass-kicking as a sorcerer his level. It was a fun concept, and the guy played it as being a hedge-mage of some sort that had an 'instinctive understanding' of magic, so he was more about flexibility and clever application.

His third level spell was STILL fireball, however. :) I can't say for sure, but i'd bet his first level one was magic missile. :)

More like a warlock than a sorceror then...interesting.

[Morat20]

More like a warlock than a sorceror then...interesting.

It was, actually. We were encouraged to try out unusual (at least for us) characters. Our regular cleric went with a Yoda-like Drunken Master of some small race I can't remember, although he was still pretty much into peace, harmony, and healing until he got plastered.

I went as a Priest of Thoth (only one in the land -- we handwaved a distant land of Egyptians I had been forcibly kidnapped from) and started a church (IE: Took leadership!) and modeled the character after Daniel Jackson from SG-1 -- desert robes and getting lost in strange books or ancient ruins -- very much about knowledge and understanding. Quite a change from my normal dex-monkeys.

Plus, I got to use creepy magic, strange rituals, that sort of thing. Mostly just flavor stuff rather than anything binding, but it was fun to be basically viewed with skepticism, alarm, or outright hostility by clerics from every religion under the sun. Worshipped the wrong God, and was gaining followers....

[Ratman_tf]

Can you buy hex paper?

The biggest change to DND (IMO) is the internet and printers. A google search for "hex paper" and a printer and you're good to go.

Not so much the DDI system, which is clownshoes.

[Sheepherder]

Yes.  You can also use offset-square grids, which tends to be easier for drawing dungeons/castles (you just have to decide if a half-square can still be occupied).

--Dave

Math-wise offset squares are identical to a hex grid.

Hexes forever!  Dungeons get a little odd, but are workable.  Overland and in open areas it's far superior.

Hexes make for good natural caves.  Just tell your players the rock has 60° cleavage angles.

No Sky, once is enough.

[Soln]

can anyone recommend a good site for RPG's like Boardgamegeek?  RPG.net isn't that robust.  Looking for more lists, recommendations, etc.

[Sheepherder]

DM: "I want to saw off the ranger's legs and use her as a sex toy, is there rules for that?"

 

[Fordel]

Technically, legs are not actually required to walk in 4e. 

[Sheepherder]

Or to equip footwear.

I just don't know why the hell you'd do that, then hand-wave it away with a ritual right after.

[Fordel]

He isn't DMing a game, he's writing fan fiction for himself.


It's not hard to explain really.

[Ratman_tf]

DM: "I want to saw off the ranger's legs and use her as a sex toy, is there rules for that?"

 

Too railroady.

[Sheepherder]

He isn't DMing a game, he's writing fan fiction for himself.

But why render it moot then?

I'd totally take the opportunity to screw with the players a little if their character was pretty much at an end because they were being retarded.  I'd blind a melee combatant just so I could give him blindsight later.  Or maiming a character just to give them warforged limb(s).  Or inflicting the character with undeath or lycanthropy.  Or being impersonated/dominated by a doppleganger, dryad, devil, demon, ghost, mind flayer, aboleth, shadow, oni, hag, impersonator mimic, lamia, raavasta, or rakshasa and subsequently the same character just randomly "reappearing" without explanation.

[Ghambit]

can anyone recommend a good site for RPG's like Boardgamegeek?  RPG.net isn't that robust.  Looking for more lists, recommendations, etc.

Rpggeek?

[Soln]

thank you /shamed

[Fordel]

He isn't DMing a game, he's writing fan fiction for himself.

But why render it moot then?

You're asking me to make logical sense of someones fan fiction! 

[Sheepherder]

Should we get WUA in here then?

I'm sort of curious, do you know any good reasons why there are only small/medium races?  The official word is apparently "balance", but going from medium to large is only worth on average .5 damage to |W|, and there are feats at level one that do more than that.

[Ingmar]

Should we get WUA in here then?

I'm sort of curious, do you know any good reasons why there are only small/medium races?  The official word is apparently "balance", but going from medium to large is only worth on average .5 damage to |W|, and there are feats at level one that do more than that.

Reach.

[Fordel]

Large creatures are a the 2x2 mini as well, no? That fucks with the balance of bursts and shit on top of reach issues.

[Ingmar]

Large creatures are a the 2x2 mini as well, no? That fucks with the balance of bursts and shit on top of reach issues.

Yep. There's also a bit of carryover from 3e/3.5e where being large was an automatic +4 strength, so there weren't many large PC races lying around in the "need to convert this pile" when 4e started, really.

[Morat20]

Large creatures are a the 2x2 mini as well, no? That fucks with the balance of bursts and shit on top of reach issues.

Yep. There's also a bit of carryover from 3e/3.5e where being large was an automatic +4 strength, so there weren't many large PC races lying around in the "need to convert this pile" when 4e started, really.

Out of curiousity, does 4E have something like the ECL system? I ran a few games where we started at level 4 or 5 mostly to open up ECL classes. (That and with experienced players, I tend to find level 5ish being a fun starting point in general, at least in 3 and 3.5).

[Ingmar]

No, nothing like that in 4e. There's no such thing as racial hit dice anymore either.

[Morat20]

No, nothing like that in 4e. There's no such thing as racial hit dice anymore either.

That kinda sucks. You can have a lot of fun playing with a group that includes things like half-giants, pixies, centaurs and the like.  ECL was pretty cludgy, but it worked well enough.

[Ingmar]

There are all kinds of wacky races still, the idea is that they're just all balanced - so a drow vs. an elf isn't a situation where the drow is just a billion times better, necessitating an ECL adjustment. Race writeups are entirely separate from monster writeups, monsters are just built individually rather than taking a race and adding class levels or whatever. It works out well in practice.

[Sheepherder]

Reach.

Large creatures can be reach 1.

Large creatures are a the 2x2 mini as well, no? That fucks with the balance of bursts and shit on top of reach issues.

I don't see why that would be an issue either.  Sure, if you had a close burst 1 with no target cap you can crunch 12 creatures rather than the usual 8. (There aren't any melee reach close bursts, are there?)  But realistically that's not going to happen unless some of them are minions, and you know what?  Fuck em', minions are there to be crunched.

Also, the reciprocal is possible too.  Getting flanked by 8 trolls would fucking suck.

[RhyssaFireheart]

My DM asked everyone to bring him copies of our character sheets to our game tonight.  Should I be worried?