The Gaming Den

For the 3.x game I'm going to be running, I'm going to adjust monster hit points to be more in line with the PCs. They're going to get a ((d8 + CON mod) * CR. For small battles, I will roll HPs, but if more than a score of monsters show up, I'm going to use high average.

In keeping with the idea that as levels get higher, the range of abilities available to players becomes greater, the next exercise is going to involved coming up with some basic tactical choices players can make in the first four tiers of the game. But also, what everyone is capable of doing if they...

Personally, I love doing that kinda stuff. When I actually get to do that, I stop feeling like a useless tool on a hamster wheel and more like a winner... Most of the time, though, Game Masters find ways to nerf that, or just tell me not to do that. Then I get sad again. As a Game Master, I don't mi...

As we go, we can fill this out.

What this is is a collection of tables. Each table represents a two-tactic combo that makes up the focus of a basic class, all under the same theme. Each table is a different theme.

I think using the 3.x Wizard's spell slot progression as a basis for the number of abilities known is a good idea. I don't think I'll allow awesome stats to enable more abilities. Any other power accumulation scheme just doesn't do what I want, though the 3.x sorcerer's spells know comes close. Thin...

So, as the concept is now, not only do numbers and effects get bigger as characters levels up, but different tactics become available and lower level tactics become easier to deal with. We can fiddle with definitions and expand to high levels, but the basic is there. For the next part, some referenc...

You wouldn't. AMFs shut down magic stuff, of which all high-level things are. It would only leave mundane crap at the bottom levels working, like Alchemist's fire, swords, bacon and diplomacy (sans diplomancy).

OK, scraping the Roles. Actually thinking about made me realize that those were actually a combination of tactics, theme and power source; classes already built. Also, you guys pointed it out. Good. Anyway, that brings up the next list. Power Sources. It's rather important for players to decide wher...

I imagine Enable Tactics are something like Mounted Combat, where a Horse/Griffon/Dragon/Sentient Comet enables a Knight to use his Lance Charge or Mounted Moon Lance Dive, and stuff. Other characters could also have Enable abilities, like two Monks needing to work together to use Flower Peacock Ann...

Hmmm... Role: Warrior: Uses strength and/or magical power to overcome enemies (forges magic equipment, uses special tricks/foils). Fights enemies in a direct fashion. Arcanist: Cast spells to control environment via elementals, transmutation and enchantment. Fights enemies by controlling their envir...

If you make it so that Power Sources are also divorced from combat roll and skin, then you can create even more classes. There's now 28 classes in your list, erik. Adding in the prime elemental planes alone inflates the number of classes to 196. (Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Negative, Positive, Shadow)...

Ted the Flayer wrote:

Koumei wrote:
The bebilith is wearing heels, a micro skirt, lipstick and eyeliner. It has +1 on Disguise and Bluff checks, so chances are people aren't going to fall for it.

I've hit worse...

Nothing a paper bag over the head doesn't solve. :V

Three Tiers is too little. This cowardly first level hobbit hobo is on a totally different power tier than the armoured knights but few levels above him. The skulker has to snoop around and gank the unsuspecting, while the knight can hack through a pack of schmucks in ten seconds. Not cleave, hack. ...

I request a version of Pun-Pun your DM wouldn't stab you for trying to play.

Toning down higher end shenanigans? No. That's a terrible thing to do. Fixing broken rules, like Polymorph, Simulacrums, Wishing for a Ring of Divinely Quickened Wishes, Assistant Nanobots, Contingency Cascades, and Gate Bombing is fine (I'm iffy on the last two), but removing the epic power scheme ...

I once saw a condition called Checked in 3.x. I can not recall ever causing or getting that status condition.

erik wrote:I meant that even without explicit battle maps and 5' squares, I still like using miniatures just to give very general positional information, and anything can be a mini. I sometimes use Starburst candies for enemies and people eat what they kill.

Brilliant.

• Combat Turn/Battle Length (mercifully short) I agree that having short battle turns is good. Every action should be resolvable in a couple of minutes tops, but ideally hovering around 30 seconds. However, I have to say that action resolution has to be more than simple and fast. If you're players ...

One thing I do like from the drooling madness that is Mearls and Monte, it's that it is paramount to get the feel of the game you are designing down early. When you figure out what type of game you're going to offer to people, you can derive the crunch required to support it. Tweedledumb and Tweedle...

As a thought exercise, I decided to try and implement 5th Fedition's attempt to give players complexity options. The idea behind this is that if you want to play a fighter, you can either be simple like the 1e fighter, or be complex like the 3e Wizard, but in both cases you'd be just as powerful. Th...

I really like what was done in After Sundown for negotiations. Guidelines under Getting What You Need provide a basis for rendering different characters being good at different parts of the social game. So Mister Sagely Wizard is good at navigating the books and bureaucracy, since the Mage's Guild i...

Early 3e game, I played a level 10 fighter specializing in scythe wielding, because what's better than a death bringer than one that looks like death. Went up against a hobgoblin spear thrower riding a red dragon. My fighter was eaten in the first round, digested, eliminated and forgotten. The party...

Damn...

I think we're missing a very big opportunity here. An opportunity to pleasantly surprise your players. Do this: Hide the upper levels of the game from your players. Don't tell them that there's Mecha and Space Mecha and reincarnated Magical Girls. Don't write down GAR as the counter to Despair. Call...

We need to split Stealth back into Hide and Move Silently, as well as perception into Listen and Spot. I know it strains those skill point based classes, but it's for a very important reason. Take for instance becoming Invisible (+20 bonus to Hide?). This makes it so that if you suck at sneaking, yo...