Tome-series hack and slash

Stories about games that you run and/or have played in.

Moderator: Moderators

User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Tome-series hack and slash

Post by Maxus »

I'm trying to get my gaming buddies more used to Tome-style stuff. To that end, I'm going to try to run a campaign so they can experiment with it. Well, if you call it a proper campaign.

It's nothing complicated--just fighting their way through unending hordes of warriors, with monsters as more points of interest. If you've ever played any of the Lord of the Rings video games (Like the Two Towers or Return of the King), this is going to be pretty similar--a small group of elite warriors wading through piles of enemies to get to the boss monster(s), and then moving onto the next area, where they do it again.

I'm thinking of saying they should play one of Full-BAB Tome classes (Monk, Fighter, Barbarian, Samurai, with the Kantian Paladin added in there). Healing will be helped out by the copious magic items found along the way (which, yes, there's actually a plot reason for, insomuch as I have a plot).

It looks like party size will be three people, unless I add in a cohort or something. Starting at level 3 and continuing for as long as it continues to be fun for them, or until we hit level 20, whichever comes first

Anything pitfalls I should be aware of beforehand?
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!
User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Maxus »

I might as well use this topic for something...

Anyway, I'm plotting out villains and bosses for this campaign. I'll try to mix it up--monsters, PC classes, groups, and so on. Right now, though, I'm trying to stat out a fiendish Thri-keen for future reference.

I won't bore you with the character background, but the bug's part fiend, and the vast majority of his levels are in True Outsider. He's got a few Fiendish feats (Wings of Evil, most notably).

Stats aren't a problem. He's only got an extra +2. I figure he starts off with 2 Thri-keen HD and takes a miss on the psi-like abilities.

The real problem is figuring out how to handle Multiweapon Fighting under Tome rules. I could just take TWF and change the relevant words, but, eesh, he's going to be in quite the position to make AoO's if I do that.

Any suggestions?
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!
User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Maxus »

Caught up with one of my players and introduced him to Tome stuff. He's interested--apparently, he's been wanting to play as a quarter-staff wielding Fighter, and quite likes the RoW fighter.

The game has also changed to be more of a war game. Groovy.

Update: Player wants to play an equipment-heavy, quarterstaff-wielding TWF'ing fighter. He'd like to put skills in Craft so he could make siege weapons to use. He also like the Legendary Wrangler skill feats. I'm thinking of whipping of a K (Architecture and Engineering) skill feat as can be applied to, i.e., knocking buildings and walls over.
Last edited by Maxus on Sun Jun 29, 2008 9:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
CatharzGodfoot
King
Posts: 5668
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: North Carolina

Post by CatharzGodfoot »

Multiweapon fighting in the Tome series should give extra attacks with each limb at no penalty, but no special stuff. It's a monster feat, so it should be nice and simple.

You could, however, give the bug both TWFing and MWFing. Two or three extra weapon attacks ain't bad.



Here's an Act Boss I'm using:

Yuan Ti Conduit 4 (CR 5) <- serpent person, not normal Yuan Ti
S 14, D 13, C 13, I 16, W 12, Ch 17
Initiative: +4.
HP: 28 (6d8). AC: 16. Saves: 2/3/6.
Melee: +6 bite 1d6 +2 or +6 glaive 1d10 +3 & +1 bite 1d6 +1.
Spell-like abilities (DC 16): Detect Thoughts at will, Desecrate & Hypnotism 4/day, Poison & Suggestion 3/day, Bestow Curse & Modify Memory 1/day.
Spheres: Venom, Violation.
Feats: Constricting Fiend, Danger Sense, Heighten spell-like ability, Harmless form.
Skills: Concentration +10, Deception +13, Persuasion +10, Knowledge (arcana, architecture, religion, the planes, history) +8, Legerdemain (escape) & Hide +6.
Equipment: ring of deceit, ring of protection, stone of alarm, keys to treasure chests & library, 1 ring (73 gp), 15 gp.

Ring of deceit gives a bonus to the Deception (Bluff + Disguise) skill. Ring of protection gives a deflection bonus.
The law in its majestic equality forbids the rich as well as the poor from stealing bread, begging and sleeping under bridges.
-Anatole France

Mount Flamethrower on rear
Drive in reverse
Win Game.

-Josh Kablack

User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Maxus »

It's surprisingly easy to plot out bosses, because I crackle off ideas all the time. So far, I have...


-3 clerics of varying levels.

-Henda, a level 6 Fiendish Brute of whom I've quite proud. And they'll also run into more senior members of the Mardessi clan of Baatezu halfbreeds--Kyrdin the Succubus (grandmother of Henda and Belg), Henda's older cousin Belg, and Marduluk, the aforementioned Thri-Keen.

-A wizard with a definite thing for constructs

-A level 10 Knight of some appropriately evil order.

-A Deathknight/Swordwraith Paragon with the Elemental Aura (Fire) feat. Meaning he spits fireballs and turns into Ghost Rider.

-The first couple of guys are going to be Warriors with some support. Easy enough to get the players into the spirit of things.

-I'm thinking about a blind fighter for a high-level boss.

-An enslaved genie who need not necessarily be killed.

Among others. They shouldn't want for variety.

And I can just imagine the profound moment of squernt they'll experience when they encounter Belg.
Last edited by Maxus on Mon Jun 30, 2008 4:28 am, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Maxus »

Well, let's see...

My players are playing a

--Barbarian TWF'ing blood-soaked charger (looks like the character'll be a F&K Hobgoblin, too). She's really, really into the character--then again, if she's playing something, she usually is in love with the concept. We toyed with the idea of having a plot event where he dies, gets buried, and then claws his way out of the ground as a Revenant, but decided to nix it. Basically, she sees this guy as having profound anger issues, but being the icy Kills-you-stone-dead kind of anger rather than, "Bites through the rim of his shield and runs into the crowd screaming bloody murder."

--Siegemaking Fighter who fights with a quarterstaff. The player's excited about the Forge Lore ability, and wants to take Unorthodox Fighter and some craft skills. Holy shit. I just realize that Koumei and her feats are 2-for-2 for catching the eyes of my characters. I'm thinking about declaring that every few ranks, he gets to pick up a new area of Craft.

--Dungeonomicon Monk. No idea. Need to talk to him. Some playtesting suggests that a DungeMonk (or, as they call it, MegaMonk), can easily get a touch AC of 23. Which is nice at level 3. It further suggests that Two-Weapon Fighting is niiiiiice for Monk.
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!
User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Maxus »

Update: Looking ahead at who the party's going to be fighting, I'm interested in someone.

I know he's level 16 or 17. I know he's a Swordwraith. And I know he's got 5 levels of Death Knight with the Bone and Fire spheres reversed, and I know he has the Elemental Aura feat. I could give him one or two levels of Swordwraith Paragon, but I haven't a clue as to what to make his first class be. So I'm looking at 10 or 11 levels of a Full BAB class suited for a guy in heavy armor.

A motif with Telen is his fall from grace, so I'm thinking about giving him an evil-ized Blackguard version of Iaimeki's Kantian Paladin, and he's carried over and inverted the majority of his Paladin class features by taking a Corrupted/Fallen feat.

As a side note, when the fighting really starts and he turns on the Elemental Aura, his skin's going to flash into fire and he's going to be at the center of a whole blaze.

Ghost Rider, eat your heart out.
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!
User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Maxus »

Update: Looking ahead at who the party's going to be fighting, I'm interested in someone.

I know he's level 16 or 17. I know he's a Swordwraith. And I know he's got 5 levels of Death Knight with the Bone and Fire spheres reversed, and I know he has the Elemental Aura feat. I could give him one or two levels of Swordwraith Paragon, but I haven't a clue as to what to make his first class be. So I'm looking at 10 or 11 levels of a Full BAB class suited for a guy in heavy armor.

A motif with Telen is his fall from grace, so I'm thinking about giving him an evil-ized Blackguard version of Iaimeki's Kantian Paladin, and he's carried over and inverted the majority of his Paladin class features by taking a Corrupted/Fallen feat. Any suggestions for changes? I'm thinking trading out the healing spells for necromancy and something else for mind-affecting would be nice.

As a side note, when the fighting really starts and he turns on the Elemental Aura, his skin's going to flash into fire dancing around his skeleton and he's going to be at the center of 25-foot-wide blaze of fire.

Ghost Rider, eat your heart out.
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!
User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Maxus »

I foresee some difficulties ahead.

The Fighter is a crafty type who makes a lot of his own stuff. I seriously had to flat-out-tell the player that Rome indeed could have a masterwork quarterstaff he'd made his very own self without making a craft roll on it.

As of this posting, I'm actually involved in the playtest. So far, Rome has...

-Gotten himself concealment via a smokestick.

-Entangled one NPC with a net.

-Scratched the other with a shuriken, and just now did 6 nonlethal to him by using a rope as a bola.

Update: This guy rolls hit/miss chances like he gives blowjobs to the God of Dice.

Update: On the other hand, I roll damage in much the same way. Rome lost, mostly because he spent too much time trying to throw tanglefoot bags around. Also, his AC is a little light, so the +2's the soldiers got fro charging and flanking really made a difference. On the other hand, the fact that this guy carries around a lot of status-afflicting stuff will come in handy when he's with a team. He hopes to get a shortbow and then be able to contribute some damage with that 18 Dex.
Last edited by Maxus on Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

More junk

Post by Maxus »

Okay, so I'm plotting out a major NPC. Actually, he's a Meteor Ninja with a Sphere of Deception.

Deception
Special: Gain +3 on Bluff and Disguise checks.

1 Silent Image
3 Minor Image
5 Major Image
7 Hallucinatory Terrain
9 Persistent Image
11 Programmed Image
13 Mislead
15 Project Image
17 Shifting Paths (Spell Compendium spell)
19 Cast any of the previous as a swift action. If this sphere is taken again, the durations are lengthened as if by the Persisant metamagic. If taken the third time, no illusionary spell is effective against you, period.
Last edited by Maxus on Sat Aug 02, 2008 2:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Maxus »

Finally caught up with my third player. He hemmed and hawwed a little bit, but admitted that even though the feats had popped his eyes out at first, that he think they're a good start on making the non-casting classes, as he jokingly put it, "h4x'.

He also went ahead and chose Paladin, and said his feats will be Elusive Target, Expert Tactician, and Phalanx Fighter.

So, yes, we now have healing. I have a problem, though; I'm not sure how I can gracefully handle changing out the Paladin Special Mount, or even what it should be at each level. A quick trawl through the SRD indicates that Giant Owls and Giant Eagles are the right CR, but does anyone have any suggestions/solutions for this? I don't want to just go, "You're level 6. Argulor the Eagle leaves you, and the next day something with a CR higher comes up and says, 'Ride me!' "

Also, when is it appropriate for him to get a new mount?
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!
User avatar
angelfromanotherpin
Overlord
Posts: 9745
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Maxus wrote:I'm not sure how I can gracefully handle changing out the Paladin Special Mount, or even what it should be at each level. A quick trawl through the SRD indicates that Giant Owls and Giant Eagles are the right CR, but does anyone have any suggestions/solutions for this? I don't want to just go, "You're level 6. Argulor the Eagle leaves you, and the next day something with a CR higher comes up and says, 'Ride me!' "
Have his mount be (flavor-wise) a spirit that grows with him and metamorphoses to keep up with him as he levels. Like a Digimon, but for riding.
Also, when is it appropriate for him to get a new mount?
Are you using the Kantian Paladin? That one specifies that the mount scales every level. If you mean a different mount, that's really up to the situation and the setting.
User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Maxus »

angelfromanotherpin wrote:
Maxus wrote:I'm not sure how I can gracefully handle changing out the Paladin Special Mount, or even what it should be at each level. A quick trawl through the SRD indicates that Giant Owls and Giant Eagles are the right CR, but does anyone have any suggestions/solutions for this? I don't want to just go, "You're level 6. Argulor the Eagle leaves you, and the next day something with a CR higher comes up and says, 'Ride me!' "
Have his mount be (flavor-wise) a spirit that grows with him and metamorphoses to keep up with him as he levels. Like a Digimon, but for riding.
Also, when is it appropriate for him to get a new mount?
Are you using the Kantian Paladin? That one specifies that the mount scales every level. If you mean a different mount, that's really up to the situation and the setting.
To the second. Yeah, I'm using the Kantian Paladin. Or, rather, he is.

To the first, I just desked my head. So, so obvious...
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!
User avatar
Judging__Eagle
Prince
Posts: 4671
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Lake Ontario is in my backyard; Canada

Post by Judging__Eagle »

Just advance the mount with HD to keep it's CR in line with the PC. Or let it gain templates to slow down it's HD progression, so Celestial, then improve that the half-celestial (more stats, and abilities), eventually both, maybe half-dragon (seriously, just give it any way to increase it's CR; size increases, templates, more HD). If you're giving out templates, be willing to ignore application restrictions if it makes the mount work for the PC.

This could mean that giving the mount as much as 3 HD per level can happen to animals or magical beasts. The mount attracting more attention and damage in a fight means that the Pally won't die as easily.

This also gives me an idea for a Pally character.

One that rides Animated Objects. Eventually with the winged template.

A giant winged (axiomatic) clockwork creature.
Last edited by Judging__Eagle on Thu Jul 03, 2008 5:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Maxus »

Judging__Eagle wrote:Just advance the mount with HD to keep it's CR in line with the PC. Or let it gain templates to slow down it's HD progression, so Celestial, then improve that the half-celestial (more stats, and abilities), eventually both, maybe half-dragon (seriously, just give it any way to increase it's CR; size increases, templates, more HD). If you're giving out templates, be willing to ignore application restrictions if it makes the mount work for the PC.

This could mean that giving the mount as much as 3 HD per level can happen to animals or magical beasts. The mount attracting more attention and damage in a fight means that the Pally won't die as easily.

This also gives me an idea for a Pally character.

One that rides Animated Objects. Eventually with the winged template.

A giant winged (axiomatic) clockwork creature.
Thanks, JE.

I'll talk to the player about it and see what we cook up.
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!
User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Maxus »

Update:

Well, one of my players is being tough to get hold of. He doesn't keep regular hours. Like, at all.

But the status is:

1) Characters are:
  • -Hobgoblin Barbarian with Blood-Soaked Charger feat and something like 49 HP at level 3 (bastard rolled a 12 and 9 for HP when I offered the player the chance to beat average HP). He'll be cool, and I can think of story uses for his abilities. We should be playtesting him soon to see what he can handle, but I'm confident that he'll be doing well.

    -Light-armor-wearing, alchemy-slinging Fighter, who the player has intended as a tactician/crafter/status-inflicter, and not much of a guy for direct combat. Still, his love for tanglefoot bags and the Legendary Wrangler feat will make things a lot easier for the other two.

    I need to spend more time getting the player--and myself--used to Combat Focus and Problem Solver, as well as the slew of actions he'll be getting.

    I also need to persuade the player to take another magic item (I'm using Book of Gears item rules and letting them pick two each) and possibly grab a bow of some kind (He's got 18 Dex). I know he's got maxed Tumble, so I may end up giving him a Mithral Suit as treasure early on. He certainly needs the AC (Last I heard, it was 18 or 19).

    I'll have to do some more thinking to give him challenges he can overcome (he's got Craft (Weapons, Armor, and Alchemy, and I don't quite have the heart to tell them that he could seriously fold those into one skill and free up other stuff, like Bluff). Given the character background (attended school at a university town, very educated), I'm thinking about giving him some familiarity with magic and the like.

    I'm also a little worried about making things enjoyable for the player. Ah, well, I'll just ask him how I'm doing and how I could improve.

    -Kantian Paladin who has, I recall, Expert Tactician, Elusive Target, and something like Phalanx fighter. With heavy armor and a kite shield, he has solid AC for his level and will synergize very, very well with the Barbarian. I can also see direct story uses for the Paladin abilities, which is very cool.

    Still need to sort out the cohort, but I've discovered the SRD on the D&D Wiki has a means by which you can quickly search through creatures by CR (The site's a lot better than I initially gave it credit for...) and that's letting me get up a list of options for him for every couple of levels.
2) I have the starting area/beginning plotted out, and even drew a map and explained the geography/notable countries to the players.

3) I have an idea as to the overarching plot, even to level 20 (if the game lasts that long), but I'm not going to lay it all down in stone just yet. Rather, I'll be working a bit ahead of the players.

4) I'm planning on slowly breaking them in on the idea that they shouldn't worry about the wealth-by-level guidelines, and I'm wondering how I should break it to the Fighter that he won't be using gold and XP to forge the magic weapons he wants (the player really has a liking for the Forge Lore ability), it'll just cost him time. If nothing else, I have a plot/setting reason for the party to occasionally enter whole warehouses full of minor magical items (with the occasional more powerful item) and magical reagents, and he can just loot those for his item creation needs.

5) Can anyone tell me where the Command rules are found? If I'm going to make this a proper war game, I suppose I need to learn about that so I can occasionally give the party people to order around.
Last edited by Maxus on Sun Jul 06, 2008 4:44 pm, 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!
User avatar
CatharzGodfoot
King
Posts: 5668
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: North Carolina

Post by CatharzGodfoot »

Some of the Command rules are in the PDF under Combat->The Mass Combat Mini-Game. Others might be in Tome of Battle.


Your crafter might be interested in Combat Looting. Being able to sheath items as a free action is pretty useful when you have about a billion items to swap about.
Last edited by CatharzGodfoot on Sun Jul 06, 2008 5:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Maxus »

CatharzGodfoot wrote:Some of the Command rules are in the PDF under Combat->The Mass Combat Mini-Game. Others might be in Tome of Battle.


Your crafter might be interested in Combat Looting. Being able to sheath items as a free action is pretty useful when you have about a billion items to swap about.
He will get that suggestion or, failing that, TM, for sure.

Seriously, he has about Str 12 and takes the weight of his equipment with the Fighter Pack Mule ability.


And I've mentioned that he might want to grab a scaling Str item as one of his two minor magic items to help out his melee combat, but he seems to have declined much in the way of magic, saying he'd take a cloak of resistance. And I don't want to press him and figure his character can just get some loot thrown at him.
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!
User avatar
Judging__Eagle
Prince
Posts: 4671
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Lake Ontario is in my backyard; Canada

Post by Judging__Eagle »

To get the players to throw out the Wealth By Level guidelines make sure you do the following:

1. Make sure that gear that is worth 15,001+ gp is not for sale, ever. The Players will soon learn the limitations are on gear. Minor items should be worth up to a max of 15,000 gp, so they're availible to PCs and most minion NPCs.

2. Use NPCs with magic items, since they scale, and can't be traded in for upgrades, your characters and players won't care that they found twenty magic swords (unless they have minions that they could give them to).

3. Have the PCs raid/loot a monster's lair/ treasure hoard.

When the Players ignore the ten million gold and instead look at the magic staff (where there are no mages or spell casters) and the magical bow (when none of the PCs uses a bow) with great interest , you know that you're on to a good footing.
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.
User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Maxus »

Judging__Eagle wrote:To get the players to throw out the Wealth By Level guidelines make sure you do the following:

1. Make sure that gear that is worth 15,001+ gp is not for sale, ever. The Players will soon learn the limitations are on gear. Minor items should be worth up to a max of 15,000 gp, so they're availible to PCs and most minion NPCs.

2. Use NPCs with magic items, since they scale, and can't be traded in for upgrades, your characters and players won't care that they found twenty magic swords (unless they have minions that they could give them to).

3. Have the PCs raid/loot a monster's lair/ treasure hoard.

When the Players ignore the ten million gold and instead look at the magic staff (where there are no mages or spell casters) and the magical bow (when none of the PCs uses a bow) with great interest , you know that you're on to a good footing.
Heh...#1 and 2 are evil, and #3 is actually part of the plot.

Team Evil is stockpiling magic items to be drained, and send the biggest-ticket items to Home Base first and actually have an organized supply/transport system worked out. Once they get past a certain point, the PCs will be finding warehouses of more magic items than they'll be able to carry, and they'll be forced to decide what to do. Of course, going through the stuff and picking out the best remaining is always an option, and it helps that the enemies believe in organization and labels.
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!
User avatar
Judging__Eagle
Prince
Posts: 4671
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Lake Ontario is in my backyard; Canada

Post by Judging__Eagle »

Nah, they're not evil.

The PCs get happy with the first few items they find, then they don't care, and will throw out or donate any excess items.

Which is actually cool and interesting.

The barbarian trading a magic ring or cloak for 'special favors' from the Hobgoblin King's daughter is now a possibility in the story.

Before, the Barb would bristle and maybe even attack the girl for suggesting that he parts with a minor magical trinket. Now, you get the option where he gets caught and has to prove that he's tough enough to marry into the family (by bringing back a ferocious beasts tongue or heart) or he'll have to leave the Hobgoblin Daiymo's territory forever.

Also, PCs will be willing to give up minor items over the course of an adventure (de-powering them in the adventure, but not permanently) in order to appease NPCs, bribe NPCs or to place on pedastels as replacements for items that need to be retrieved for a specific quest.

Ex: "We can't remove the Ancestral Crown of Zinge and not replace it with at least some sort of magical item the right size; the tasked guardian demons would go on a rampage if they didn't see anything on the statues head that wasn't the rough size and magical."

... some days I wish I got these ideas for my own campaigns, and that my own players would take more initiative.
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.
User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Maxus »

Update:

Well, I'm having to do some reworking.

One of my players is in financial trouble and that puts a twist in my chest, because he's an awesome guy--certainly one of the most literary people I've ever met. So he may not be able to make the game, but I don't give a damn about that because he may lose his house.

But given that he's in Oregon and I'm in Alabama and flat broke, there's not exactly much I can do to give any meaningful help.

Enough about that.

If things don't pan out for him and everyone's still up for the game (hell, if I'm still up for the game), I know someone else I can invite who should be pretty good. He's still pretty new at DnD, but he picks up things fast and we've got three experienced people to help him.

I broached the subject, told him it would be in AIM, and he mentioned that he might be able to do it, but he'd rather spend time with his girlfriend.

I was very complimented when he asked if she could join in, too, as he felt it'd be a good way to introduce her to the game (which she's been wanting to try out). After the clarification for each other ("How much does she know?" "She reads Order of the Stick, and I've explained some of it to her. Will the group be okay with having a 'girl' play?" "Giles, one of my other two players is female.") I'm cool with it.

So, yeah, it looks like the party size could increase to four people. He mentioned he was interested in Monk. I might encourage her to play Barbarian, on the basis that Barbarian is very easy to play effectively.

In other news, the hobgoblin player is rethinking her character. She can see him as either a Samurai or Barbarian, and both look pretty fun to her. The way she was talking though, sounds like she's leaning towards Samurai. I told her she could get a special deal on dai-katana crit properties for her Ancestral weapon.

Anyway, I'll see how things go.
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!
User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Maxus »

All right Denizens, answer me this:

The question has come up in character testing.

If a Samurai hits multiple enemies with a single Whirllwind, can he use Kiai once and nail the all the hit ones with a critical?
Last edited by Maxus on Fri Jul 11, 2008 12:32 am, edited 2 times in total.
Surgo
Duke
Posts: 1924
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Surgo »

No, Kiai! specifically states that it's a successful strike. Whirlwind might be one attack roll, but it's multiple strikes.
User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Maxus »

Thank you.

Well, it looks like the Samurai will be kicking ass. At this level, any mook he hits with Kiai dies, and he can drop someone with a decent hit. His only irritation is the habitually crappy rolls he gets when he tries to Cleave someone.

After some discussion, we went with a two-handed exotic weapon (2d6 slashing, x3) and we're just calling it a ram dao because the design is a little similar to one of the weapons found in Eternal Darkness (which is one of the more fun weapons in the game).

After some more discussion, she decided that Mental Weaponry would make thematically cool feat (and she noticed the extra damage from the Concentrate ranks. "Kiai! Bwa ha ha ha" were her words, I believe.

The Samurai carries around his family's broken sword, and refers to the weapon provided by the MW as the ghost of his family's sword, which he draws from its mortal remains when he wants to use it.

So, I have two players ready who're excited about their characters, and one who says he can get with me Monday.
Last edited by Maxus on Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:06 pm, 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!
Post Reply