Main FAQ Update 12/22/05

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[Username17]

Looks like Andy started reading the Nifty archives.

There are some errors and turn-arounds in it of course. Andy claims that only Area Dispel can be placed into Unhallow, but then he immediately admits that it is then targetted against any valid target every time they enter the area (Australia! America! Australia! America...) - which is a flat contraction.

He gets all wishy washy about the word "day", but at least has the balls to admit that it isn't defined at all. That was very mature.

He lays down some ground rules that would allow a person to actually resolve the amount of damage that half-dragon ice element hezrou take from things. It's still too compliated to actually do, but at least it can be done now. That was nice.

He takes a U-turn on stacking hit points from the same source. I honestly have no fvcking idea what the hell he's talking about here.

-Username17

[Fwib]

...and the shape-changing madness from last time is still in there.

[edit] As far as the seeming-contradiction of the dispell magic in hallow/unhallow rulings, I would just have valid targets entering the unhallow affected by an area-dispell that only hit them, or possibly rule that area-dispell is crazy and it should be targetted dispell.... good thing I don't GM much.

What is wrong with the resistance/vulnerability ruling apart from the ludicrously long-hand arithmetic?

[Username17]

What is wrong with the resistance/vulnerability ruling apart from the ludicrously long-hand arithmetic?

Nothing. That's a completely viable reading and ruling on the subject. And it's actually something that needed clarification. It's implausible to expect people to actually do that sort of thing at the table, but it is a valid reading of what the rules say and able to be applied consistently without argument.

Oddly enough, when it comes to the raw mechanical interpretation of the rules as written, Andy is pretty solid. He's actually a much better Sage than Skip ever was. Mostly because he rarely tries to pretend that the rules say something that they don;t say in order to keep things from being "too powerful" or whatever. I severely doubt that Andy is ever going to hand down a Monks and Torches ruling, that's not how he rolls.

Andy's problem is that he doesn't seem to want input on the things he is actually writing when he's writing them. So he produces Polymorph Fiascos instead. What we really should have done is let Skip and Monte write all the books, and have Andy write the FAQs. Put people where there talents and peculiarities aren't a problem instead of where they are.

-Username17

[Fwib]

What is implausible about getting fireballed(or whatever), making your save roll (halving the damage number rolled if necessary), then subtracting your fire resistance and then multiplying the remaining damage by 1.5 for your vulnerability?

Or am I missing something?

[edit] spelling and clarity

[Crissa]

1135813599[/unixtime]]What is implausible about getting fireballed(or whatever), making your save roll (halving the damage number rolled if necessary), then subtracting your fire resistance and then multiplying the remaining damage by 1.5 for your vulnerability?

Or am I missing something?

It's implausible that the average player will be able or willing to do the math.

-Crissa

[Fwib]

1136194021[/unixtime]]

1135813599[/unixtime]]What is implausible about getting fireballed(or whatever), making your save roll (halving the damage number rolled if necessary), then subtracting your fire resistance and then multiplying the remaining damage by 1.5 for your vulnerability?

Or am I missing something?

It's implausible that the average player will be able or willing to do the math.

-Crissa

It's only division by 2, subtraction and adding!
If the player really can't deal with that, then it's clearly the DM's job. [edit] and the other players, they collectively allowed/invited the non-math one to play.

[edit]and comparison, can't forget checking if one number is bigger than another.

[Josh_Kablack]

It's division, subtraction and addition done in the correct order and DM verification that the order and arithmatic is correct done entirely by verbal communication IN THE MIDDLE OF A COMBAT ROUND.

Call up one of your math-loving buddies on the phone sometime and say "Hey man, what's half of thirty seven minus ten times one and a half?" Just like that. If he asks for clarification on order of operations, rephrase it as "Okay then, what's open paranthesees open paranthesees thrity seven divided by two close paranthesees minus ten close paranthesees times one and a half.

See how long it takes him to give you the correct answer and how many times you need to repeat and/or further clarify the question - That should give you what you're missing.

[RandomCasualty]

Honestly I don't see how the math is all that much worse than adding up a high level characters attack or damage bonuses. Heck, just applying the stuff for righteous might involves more calculations.

Lets see, for damage, you've got to scale up your weapon size by one, increase damage by +2 or +3, depending on if you're using a two handed weapon or not.

For AC, your base AC increases by +4 due to the enhancement bonus, assuming it doesn't have stacking issues, it also goes down due to the size increase however. Your touch AC on the other hand strictly goes down based on size increase.

Your melee attack bonus increases by +1, your ranged attack bonus decreases by 1. Assuming your size change is a 1 point modifier.

Then, your hit points increase by your level, and your fort saves get a +1 bonus.

Compared to all that math in the midst of a battle, the energy resistances calculations seem easy.

[User3]

Ya, but you only have to apply the changes from buff spells once, and you can have them pre-determined.

With the energy damage you need to make a new calculation every time any character gets hit by the effect.

That said, I really don't care. If you want a simple system just use Frank's. Soak + Resistance. Multiple levels of confusion is just how D&D operates. At least they're giving an order of operations.

[Crissa]

While I can always call up Frank or Sammi and have them rattle the numbers off the top of their head, or have the computer do it...

...The basic point is that many players find adding two numbers difficult. Honestly, I often have trouble remembering all the changes to just simple damage (does cheap shot add when?) etc.

This is just another three layers of complexity on top of remembering all the modifiers.

-Crissa

Of course, this means a good time for new electronic D&D dice!

[RandomCasualty]

1136247063[/unixtime]]Ya, but you only have to apply the changes from buff spells once, and you can have them pre-determined.

Not nearly that simple though. Since you're usually using mutliple buffs.

So you walk in with your divine favor, divine power and righteous might combo on.

Now suddenly your divine power and divine favor get dispelled in the midst of combat? Now you've got to go through all sorts of calculations. Or what if you're using a poylmorph effect and righteous might, or just divine favor and enlarge person? There are lots of crazy combos that come up.

And besides I'm reall not seeing why the resistance paradigm is so bad anyway. How often are things going to have fire vulnerability anyway?

Most of the time you're just rolling your save (possibly halving damage) then subtracting resistance. I don't see the big deal. The game is already oversaturated by math, I don't know why this is any better or worse than adding 10 separate modifiers to figure out your AC.

[erik]

I write down my buffed stats on a scrap sheet of paper during game, and then can just refer to it as needed. That's a lot easier than doing it on the fly repeatedly.

[The_Matthew]

Yeah, I just made notes about what each buff was doing whenever my characters had any buffs on them at all. Though it was admittedly tiresome when I had to note the effects of every buff from 1st to 6th level in the corner of my character sheet...

[User3]

Funny note.

Andy has written on his website how he suddenly realized his last Polymorph ruling was batshit nuts.

Bye-bye templates!

However, we still have human feat stupidity (and advanced versions of monsters was just plain reasonable).