The Gaming Den

Wow, you really are a dick.

Seriously, this is an unprecedentedly massive and multifaceted exercise in dickery.

It'll take a couple weeks at least for me to recover my respect for you.

Well, aren't D&D fights way more complicated and dynamic than MMO ones? I'm pretty sure team monster ought to be able to have enough tactical depth to force players to adjust on the fly.[br][br]Suppose you are an Enchanter. [br][br]When you break into the Hall of the Goblin King, You see a bunch...

But the chain wouldn't go through the same everytime.[br][br]Against imps, you don't debuff -- just go straight to hellfire. Again Brutes, you MUST ebuff to have a decent chance to hitting.[br][br]Against zombies, you use the movemenet debuff to slow em down, then use the ranged attacks as your stap...

Is there actualy any need for the options to change? Can't we just write abilities so that tactics naturally change?[br][br]The following tend to get used early:[br][br]--ranged attacks[br]-- area attacks[br]-- buffs[br]-- summons[br]--dots[br][br]The following tend to get used late:[br][br]--heals[...

Character Review: the Rogue[br][br]Basics: Superb[br]Advanced: Mediocre[br]Strategic Complexity: Moderate[br][br]THE BASICS[br][br]Vanish: This is a really good tactic. YOU WILL TAKE IT, AND YOU WILL LIKE IT. Actually, gaining secrecy off it is surpriisngly hard early on, but whatever. It keeps you ...

Maybe I should followup the Priest Discussion with some other Class Reviews[br][br]The Scholar[br][br]Basic Powers: Solid[br]Advanced Powers: Awesome[br]Strategic Complexity: Moderate[br]Overall: Awesomesauce[br][br]THE BASICS[br][br]Thoroughness: This isn't as good as eavesdrop, but you still take ...

Re: half-orcs

the best solution I've found is to rename them "orcs" and make them a pureblooded PC race. the Monster manual orcs are ubalanced crap that can fuck right off.

Yeah, I love abusing Vanish + Zombies. It can actually get pretty ridiculous -- the best was when we had a rogue with vanish and Blessing of Wisdom in a square with double zombies. Good times! [br][br]The Knight,if you have one, can survive the Necromancer's attention for a long time. And moving bac...

I love how many subtle flavor points come out the the rules. For example, the power now/ power later curve actually is balanced in the context of this sort of game-- so, for instance, Priests and Scholars get far more benefit from their advanced powers than Rogues and Knights (IME, of course)[br][br...

Can we have corrupt hippo-men as a monster of Yama?

Umm... his Strength already *is* 7[br][br]And I've always played that you have to deliberately attack him to destroy a blight. Forsome reason, I min-interpreted the phrase "sucessful attack." [br][br]I kind of like that rule. Admittedly, it does make killing the necromancer essentially imp...

I always figured monsters and armies just spawned at power sites. Monsters tend to hang around there and soak up power, but if you raise an army from a site, you can send them out into the world, can't you?

My understanding is that, unlike every other mechanic in the game, the necromancers pursues a hero if he *exceeds* their secrecy.

The Scholar is indeed awesome, although his effectiveness is highly variable. Research Materials is incredibly powerful, and advanced, and getting it early makes a huge difference. The Auto-evade one is also really nice. [br][br]Still, substituting the rogue works almost as well for most lineups and...

8d6 a round would be plenty to carry her wait in this crowd, especially if she's making touch attacks. [br][br]She has Color Spray, Minor Image, Ray of Enfeeblement, Detect Thoughts, Blindness, and whatever she picks for level 5. Of course, Color Spray is reaching the limits of its usefulness, plus ...

Frank's fixes wor; so well, in fact, that the underperformers are the exact opposite of the usual suspects. [br][br]This guy has consistently contributed, though not super-effectively. there's nothing wrong with the build, the player's just inexperienced. The party just hit level 5 though, and hopef...

Reports from the front:[br][br]We started with a session of massive npc interaction, shopping, planning, etc. They were ooking for a wrecked airship, only ot find hier ship crashed as well. [br][br]I attackd them with a few dozen skeletons, including some troll skeletons and led by a pair of Janni. ...

Alternately, from the perspective of heroes (and kings would be heroes in this model) grunts may no longer actually be *characters* at all.[br][br]They may be equipment and special abilities. [br][br]For instance, even if grunts can't hurt heroes, they can still influence the battles between heroes....

Frank, you mean something like this:[br][br] 1203589302[/unixtime]][br][br]Low beats mid beats high beats low[br][br]In this version, the most efficient tactic is to overwhelm someone with superior numbers and almost equal quality. [br][br]So you send demons after the heroes, and elite priests after...

Actually, armies can still be relevant even with invulnerability as long as youn have a fair distribution of levels in the game. [br][br]Yeah, no number of level 1 soldiers can win against the level 10 archmage, but the level 10 archmage CAN be taken down by a strike team of several level 7 assassin...

I generaly gave each unique monster an initiative, and each unique type of monster.[br][br]So, for instance, I'll have one initiative for orc axemen, one for orc archers, one for the orc monk, one for the orc monk, one for the orc summoner (and his summoned cohort), one for the pair of ghouls and on...

I notice we've been mostly sticking to Magic basic lands. is this intentional? and, if so, why do the plains-dwellers all have wings?

Maybe (order, community) should go with mountains and (discovery, artifice) should go with plains?

I like burned/scarred wings, or wing-shaped birthmarks on their backs.

Or, feathery arms that the wings evolved out of.

If we must have nonfunctional wings, though, make them big and powerful enough to strike or block with.

Oh, if you summon a dire bat, it can locate invisible enemies...

So, they're really really conscientious types who do whatever they're assigned scrupulously. They ALSO enjoyed tormenting the damned. Now they've ben promoted to social workers, and while they take to it naturally, they conscientiously go through the motions, like eternally frustrated bureaucrats.[b...