Fighter/Wizard blind playtest

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Maxus
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Fighter/Wizard blind playtest

Post by Maxus »

So I got into an argument about playtesting with a friend. He took exception to the F&K solo playtest, especially with knowing what was coming

Being reasonable people, we eventually decided to do a 3.5 playtest for the Fighter and the Wizard, at level 10.

We set some rules. I have to come up with 10 fights/challenges. I've looked at Frank's level 10 challenges, and I'm going to use the Young Blue Dragon, the Bebelith, the Fire Giant, and the Evil Necromancer.

Then I'm thinking to do 4 mixed groups, and two skill-based challenges.

Problem is, I've never built a Necromancer before. Anyone have any suggestions for a 10th level Gray Elf Necromancer's spells and items? Pretty much the entirety of the splatbooks are allowed.

I guess for fairness, I should ask for "Solid, but not broken".
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

--The horror of Mario

Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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CatharzGodfoot
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Post by CatharzGodfoot »

You could have some fun with an Uttercold necro on a zombie gold wyrmling. Fear is a good spell. Throw in a cold wall of fire or two for your enemies to run through in a panic (and to heal yourself). A small horde of exploding zombies can't hurt (the necromancer) either. If you can boost your DCs enough, blindness is a lot of fun, especially when coupled with fear.

I'd say that constitutes a decent challenge.

[Edit] If you have the slots (or scrolls, or wand), a few walls of force can really liven up the scene. [/Edit]

Feats are something like this:
1 Tomb-tainted soul [Libris Mortis]
3 Sudden Widen [Complete Arcane]
5 Energy substitution (Cold) [Complete Arcane]
6 Lord of the uttercold [Complete Arcane]
9 Sudden Maximize [Complete Arcane] or the zombie feat
10 Craft wand or the exploding zombie feat
Last edited by CatharzGodfoot on Fri Oct 10, 2008 2:46 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Judging__Eagle
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Post by Judging__Eagle »

Look at Franks spells that fucking kill people, and spells that win the game.

A wizard with no skills, no feats, no purchased equipment and only stats laid down is able to still make a good showing with just stuff like Web and Deep Slumber.

Seriously, the wizard`s only feat selection at level 6 was `leadership`to get a lvl 4 cleric cohort.
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K
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Post by K »

Do a search for "Necromancer's Handbook."
It's a buildbook for WotC-only rules that we wrote, but it lacks the last year or so of WotC material.
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Maxus
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Post by Maxus »

Well, held the first challenge, and part of the second.

Observations:
Ye gods, I'm outclassed. I've seen a lot more of the Fighter, who's a trip specialist, AC 29, Touch AC 19, +11 on Will Saves, +20 on attack rolls, can't be tripped, 80 HP. At level 10. I'm going to look at his build after this is over.

For the wizard, all you need to know is that he has a one-use magic item that gives Shapechange. And he turns into a Chyrotynn (or however you spell it), one of those adamantine birds that gets two full rounds of actions a turn. He then informed me that this would be his wizard's opening move. I'm sorely tempted to throw a Lobotomy on Kokin'ear Jr.

Colossal Animated Gazebo
The Fighter revealed himself to be wielding two shields and, I later found out, a trip/daze specialist. I went with this one for the gag value. It had him overmatched until he ran and got a potion of fly and landed on top of it. We settled at one and a half wins out of three.

The Wizard revealed his Trick, and I just had to go, "Okay, you win all three."
Four Kytons
Actually didn't even get through one Fighter run on these. I had to basically learn Kyton combat as I went. Individually, he can kick the ass of any one of them, but all four of them together can flank and charge and Aid Another on Dancing Chains. Between the lot of them (and DR 5/He Doesn't Have It), they're managing to whittle down his HP, but he may be able to drop all of them before they get all 80 HP. Without any aid, they can hit him on a rolled 19. Also, he occasionally fails Unnerving gaze (he fails on a 3 or less), which can take a chunk off his attack rolls. He said the Wizard would likely have trouble.
But, still, Shapechange abuse? Yeow. And this guy believes Tome stuff isn't balanced and loathes it with every bit of his DnD experience.
Last edited by Maxus on Thu Oct 16, 2008 10:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

--The horror of Mario

Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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Judging__Eagle
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Post by Judging__Eagle »

When you're done, ask him how well the "averagely played" fighter would do on those challenges.

Then ask him to make an "averagely played" RoW fighter.

He'll probably be pleasantly surprised at how much easier it is to make compared to the feat chicanery that you need to make a decent 3.5 fighter.
The Gaming Den; where Mathematics are rigorously applied to Mythology.

While everyone's Philosophy is not in accord, that doesn't mean we're not on board.
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