The Gaming Den Glossary

[Lago_AM3P]

Out of RNG: A condition esp. in d20 where bonuses accrue in such a specialized fashion that people who haven't specialized in the bonus eventually 'lose' the ability. No matter what they randomly roll they will always fail at the task. This is a massive failure of game design when this applies to a generic task everyone is supposed to have some degree of competence at.

Example: At the beginning of the game pretty much anyone can make a decent move silently and hide check against pretty much anything. But at higher levels characters that don't have these at class skills won't be able to beat spot checks. Therefore if your character reaches a certain level investing in this skill cross-class will be an utter waste.

Difference Engine: Abusing level loss and regain for an optimal result. Obvious use is for rerolling your hp or getting rid of feats that aren't keeping up. More fun methods include stripping yourself of levels that you don't want for levels you DO want by retroactively meeting prerequisites.

Less Obvious example: You are a Wizard 3 / Cleric 3 / Mystic Theurge 4. You want to improve your spellcasting. So you find a creature capable of inflicting permanent level loss and lose two levels in wizard and cleric each. Then you find someone capable of restoring those lost levels, only you pick Mystic Theurge this go around. You are a Wizard 1 / Cleric 1 / Mystic Theurge 8 now and your power has jumped noticably.

The Word relies on the Difference Engine so heavily that it's his own category of cheese.

[Lago_AM3P]

Teleport Ambush: An ambush that relies on abusing the duration of short-lived effects and/or using actions that are expected to be used in combat to make yourself stronger in a safe zone. This is typically (and dramatically) used in conjunction with the teleport spell. When a team invariably uses divination to determine when a foe is weak/unprepared to schedule an attack or just find out where they are it's called Scry and Die.

A teleport ambush is next to impossible to defend against due to a central tenant of game theory; that is, a defender is at a disadvantage against an unknown attacker because they have to defend against possible every line of attack. An attacker only has to pick one. A credible defense, usually with the symbol line of spells, can be constructed but the majority of creatures are helpless against one.

Sword-based Character: A character that does not have sufficient spellcasting to overcome encounters. In the PHB/DMG this is every (N)PC class but the bard, cleric, druid, sorceror, and wizard.

Sword-based Characters, with the notable exception of the rogue and Frenzied Berserker have a reputation for quickly becoming irrelevant in the later levels of 3rd Edition.

The Frank Cheat: A method of arcane spellcasting replenishment that takes advantage of the discrepancy in use (which is given in days) and replenishment (which is given in hours). Generally it involves a way to load up on two sets of spells per 24 hours or even three if the wizard/sorceror uses buffs for the first session and goes adventuring late at night.

The Frank Cheat is widely hated for its perceived breakage of the 'uses per day' encounter system D&D is supposed to be balanced on. Unfortunately, it's only readily usable at a point in time when Teleport Ambushes come into play which doesn't care if you're using The Frank Cheat or the system D&D thinks that it's using.

[Voss]

So this is random, if interesting. What prompted it?

And the difference engine doesn't work for your example. Between the Complete Warrior p16 thing where you lose access to special abilities and class features if you no longer meet the prereqs and the General Errata entry for Restoration; which was changed to actually make sense- you only get back levels (in the specific classes) you actually lost. You can't swap out the restored levels for something completely different.

It may have worked at one point, but it doesn't now.

The artificer can still play with his crafting pool this way, however.


I wouldn't say the Rogue is a sword-based character. He's a UMD based character (particularly at high levels) which is why he doesn't suck complete ass.

[MrWaeseL]

Those three terms really needed an additional post to come to their own. Lord knows I wouldn't read what the Teleport Ambush was about if it was lumped in the same post with the Difference Engine.

[ckafrica]

Please tell me that the difference engine and the frank cheat are cute little loop-holes in the rules that are entertaining to point out rather than tactics people actually considering using.

[Fuzzy_logic]

I have personally used the Frank Cheat many, many times.

[CalibronXXX]

Why exactly wouldn't you use TFC, if it didn't otherwise inconvenience you?

I doubt the difference engine would see actual play beyond a spellcaster juggling their exp a bit to keep up with the party when doing a lot of item creation.

[Lago_AM3P]

Those three terms really needed an additional post to come to their own. Lord knows I wouldn't read what the Teleport Ambush was about if it was lumped in the same post with the Difference Engine.

I was soliticing for more input. Feel free to add your own.

(Unfairly nasty comment removed.)

[Neeek]

You might want to explain what RNG actually stands for in the description. Otherwise people might think it means range.

[Koumei]

That's a good idea. I'm not entirely sure myself.

[CalibronXXX]

Personally it took me a while to connect RNG with random number generator instead of range when the term started picking up in popularity around here.

Also you might want to change it from Out of RNG to Out of RNG/Off the RNG. Out of RNG is catchy and a little punny(pseudo pun not intended), but I more often see it used as off the RNG.

[JonSetanta]

The "Frank Cheat" is also a common video game tactic. In Neverwinter, there was a bug fix to prevent that kind of thing.
It's also called "common sense".
This is the first time I've seen a claim on the strategy, ever.

[technomancer]

I could be range, in this case, your target number it outside of the range you can possibly hit. So that does fit, even if it really means Random Number Generator. Although, I would give an example of a specialist not being able to fail, as well as a non-specialist not being able to succeed. For some reason, some of people seem to think non-specialists not being able to succeed is okay, whereas very few people feel that specialist should always succeed without fail.

[JonSetanta]

On second thought, that came off as a little rude; I meant that the term "Frank Cheat" is vague and its name should instead imply what that common and obvious strategy does.

[Koumei]

Ah, I thought it might be Random Number Generator. Or Range of Numbers Generated. I knew what the term "pushed off the RNG" meant, just not the actual acronym.

I personally feel that it's better a specialist always succeed than a non-specialist always fail. But my experience with White Wolf taught me to hate failure of any kind (within my area of expertise) and to push as hard as I can for the numbers to give me a "cannot fail" scenario.

White Wolf does that to you.

However, in a world with opposed rolls and all that, if one person can auto-succeed, that means another can auto-fail simply by dint of being the person on the other side of the opposed roll.

[Neeek]

1192169827[/unixtime]]On second thought, that came off as a little rude; I meant that the term "Frank Cheat" is vague and its name should instead imply what that common and obvious strategy does.

Yes, well, the people who named it that are asshats, and didn't take into consideration that calling it the Frank Cheat was offensive, non-descriptive, and also not cheating.

[Koumei]

Wild guess: retards on the WotC boards?

[Leress]

1192175372[/unixtime]]Wild guess: retards on the WotC boards?

You earn a gold star.

[JonSetanta]

Neeek: Ah, understood.

One gripe I have about Teleport Ambush being a cheat is that the sample of spells availible to characters lower than the required levels to prepare for, counter, or Teleport as well is really, sadly limited.
A good fix would be to provide long duration area-effect Dimensional Anchor spell(s) at very low spell levels. This way it can be put into a wand, or set as a permanent item/enchantment commonly and cheaply, rendering such a deadly tactic less than optimal.
Another fix would be to alter the range or targeting capability of Teleport to something less accurate, or do similar with Scry (since recon is a huge factor in this accuracy.)
But I digress, this isn't about fixes, it's cheats for rules as-is. Still...

[Username17]

Difference Engine is more generally any time you can lose and regain something and profit. Whether you are regaining uses, spending and respending points in an advantageous fashion, purchasing more expensive stuff now that you meet higher prereqs or whatever. Tying it specifically to level loss is unnecessary. While the FAQ writers keep revising the level loss mechanics to operate differently, the Difference Engine concept still remains. Hell, right now you don't even need to lose levels to Difference Engine - any multiclass character can max out all skills simply by repeatedly retraining skills from out-of-class to in-class (regardless of how the points were originally spent).

Cleric Archer The etymology is simply an early 3rd edition proof of how a Cleric with Divine Power and greater magci weapon could in all ways outshine an Arcane Archer at any level. But more generally, a Cleric Arher is any character who uses magic (or any optional abilities) to duplicate and surpass a character with some kind of physical combat skill (or any constant abilities). More generally still, a Cleric Archer is someone who gets up in the morning and buffs herself into out-competing another character in their supposed field of primary specialization.

-Username17

[Lago_AM3P]

You might want to explain what RNG actually stands for in the description. Otherwise people might think it means range.

All right, I'll change it when I get back.

The "Frank Cheat" is also a common video game tactic. In Neverwinter, there was a bug fix to prevent that kind of thing.
It's also called "common sense".

On second thought, that came off as a little rude; I meant that the term "Frank Cheat" is vague and its name should instead imply what that common and obvious strategy does.

The Frank Cheat got its name from here. I am thus not going to change it. The irony of the Frank Cheat is that it's actually more fair than the other methods, which end up rewarding teleport ambushers, screwing wizards out of spells entirely, and screwing clerics solely due to their flavor text.

For some reason, some of people seem to think non-specialists not being able to succeed is okay,

Then these people should never ever be able to complain about min-maxxing.

Although, I would give an example of a specialist not being able to fail, as well as a non-specialist not being able to succeed.

Well, okay.

Take the diplomacy skill for example. It's opposition skill is sense motive, which is noticably harder to raise than diplomacy; there are fewer stat boost items for it, fewer synergy bonuses, and it's more likely to be a cross-class skill than diplomacy.

It doesn't take very long for a diplomancer to accrue a skill check so high that people are unable to oppose his bomb-ass diplomacy check and everyone else is unable to resist.

However, in a world with opposed rolls and all that, if one person can auto-succeed, that means another can auto-fail simply by dint of being the person on the other side of the opposed roll.

I don't mind the fact that some people are always able to autosucceed on some tasks. The Lone Ranger should never have to make Ride checks for activities short of trying to jump onto a speeding locomotive and Spiderman should always be able to jump at least a story in the air.

The problem comes from the fact that some abilities are balanced on the fact that ANYONE in the level-appropriate range can generically oppose them to varying degrees of competence, such as diplomacy. I don't think anyone has a problem with a 10th level cleric diplomatizing Steve the crap-covered farmer's family and friends with no chance of failure but people DO have a problem with cleric always succeeding on checks against his teammates.

[ckafrica]

Difference engine is not really a concern as my group avoids level drain for the headache and annoyance it brings. TFC and teleport ambush are cheesy and with all cheese if a player brings it up the DM usually throws it back at him in spades so I would tend to avoid both. Our DMs tend to make sure that they aren't out cheesing the players, but every time we try something too cute and cite chapter and verse on it, it comes back to bite us in the ass

[RandomCasualty]

OTher stuff I'd add:

Rocket Launcher Tag
SAME system
InifiniJuggle (or whatever that one is)

[Jacob_Orlove]

I think people usually call it Tekken Juggling, or just juggling.

I don't see what the big deal is with the "Frank Cheat". If you cast spells, then sure, you can have Mage Armor as a class feature at high levels. Does anyone actually care?

[RandomCasualty]

1192204051[/unixtime]]
I don't see what the big deal is with the "Frank Cheat". If you cast spells, then sure, you can have Mage Armor as a class feature at high levels. Does anyone actually care?

Well, honestly my biggest problem with it is the book keeping issue. I don't like spells with durations longer than it takes you to reprepare them, because then you've got all kinds of annoying things to keep track of.

Personally I just change 1 hour/level durations into "when you next prepare spells". So if you want you can have mage armor all day long with your slot, and I don't really care. I just don't want to have to worry that the duration of your mage armor happens to be 8 hours lower than the duration of anything else. It's just a lot simpler when you can just say everything remains until you use the slot again.

I remember the days when I was juggling around with extended greater magic weapons and persistent Frank cheat spells and 1 day/level contingencies and all that other garbage.

I don't even want to do that useless accounting of when the spell expires and how every other day you have to recast the GMW and every 12 days you have to recast the contingency... It just makes my head explode.