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Poison Mushroom posted:I really, really shouldn't do this... Once people are desperate, you could mandate that participation in the group requires rotating DMing.
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Jan 24, 2015 19:57
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Well, it'd be nice to not have to be Forever DM.
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Jan 24, 2015 20:00
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Well, I don't have much virtual daivve experience, but I'm a really fast learner. I'm also down for roll20. I've never DMd before, but if the group is good and it's a rotating DM thing, I'm down.
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Jan 24, 2015 20:04
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I might be interested in something like that, I haven't played DnD in like 2 years at this point, poo poo sucks. Has Roll20's backend improved at all? I last used it two years ago for Gau's PvP tournament thing and it was terrible, tokens barely had any information you could put on them (no defense entries, really?), and making Macros was awful.
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Jan 24, 2015 20:25
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Pretty sure Roll20 hasn't changed too much, but I'm not 100% sure. I have a friend who might be interested, pending details.
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Jan 24, 2015 20:27
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Lord Justice posted:I might be interested in something like that, I haven't played DnD in like 2 years at this point, poo poo sucks. Has Roll20's backend improved at all? I last used it two years ago for Gau's PvP tournament thing and it was terrible, tokens barely had any information you could put on them (no defense entries, really?), and making Macros was awful.
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Jan 24, 2015 20:40
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Poison Mushroom posted:I'm pretty good at making Roll20 do what I want it to do, I'd just have to remember some of the little bits. Well, I'll have a look at it. If Roll20 is any better and If you want, I can help out as a sort co-DM (I referred to myself as "Sheet Master" back in the day), with data entry grunt work in terms of getting characters up and running on the system.
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Jan 24, 2015 20:50
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Anyone who wants in (I've already got one who contacted me), hit me up on Skype, we'll figure out scheduling. My Skype is poisonmushroomerin.
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Jan 24, 2015 21:28
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As long as I'm here and we're talking essentials: I've never really liked how the simplified essential classes worked, but I also haven't TRIED them. If I did, I'd probably do a tiefling fire elementalist or a slayer charger. I know chargers are good with the right items, automatically, but do fire elementalists keep up in the long run?
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Jan 24, 2015 21:50
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Tiefling ones do mostly because Tiefling Fire support is pretty nutty as to some extent is RBA support. Elementalists are sold but unexceptional. Slayers are pretty solid but mostly because the Fighter has insane native striker support and the slayer can borrow. Looking at things like Rain of Blows, Trip Up, Bash and Pummel, and Kensei, Dreadnought, Draeven Marauder, etc etc. Half-Orc Slayer/Avenger with Draeven Marauder and a Rending Axe (plus Trip Up and Rain of Blows, Impaling Spear, Deadly Axe, weapon focus, etc etc etc, followed by Invincible Vanguard at Epic)is my poison on that score.
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Jan 24, 2015 21:54
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thespaceinvader posted:Half-Orc Slayer/Avenger with Draeven Marauder and a Rending Axe (plus Trip Up and Rain of Blows, Impaling Spear, Deadly Axe, weapon focus, etc etc etc, followed by Invincible Vanguard at Epic)is my poison on that score. Can you show me that? I've never really messed with avengers either, and I wouldn't mind a starting point.
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Jan 24, 2015 22:01
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Air Elementalists can also do fine if you go into Lyrandar Wind Rider for even more damage, plus control thanks to Mark of Storm. Even Water Elementalists are solid because most of their damage comes in the form of cold, which is really well-supported. Earth is the weakest because there's not a whole lot of energy damage support for acid, though it's probably not vampire bad when it comes to being a striker because you can still poach from the sorcerer's own good array of feats and utility powers. Slayers are great because they sit at the intersection of fighter powers, MBA boosters, charge boosters, and axe/spear support if you go gouge. Hexblades don't have the same level of access to sweet powers that a slayer does, but can be solid enough, especially if you go fey, shadow or star to take advantage of radiant, frost, arcane, light blade or heavy blade options.
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Jan 24, 2015 22:04
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quote:====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ====== Imagine it's a half-orc, obv, though Thri Kreen also works. Feats from there go Improved Initiative (retrain to Superior at Epic), Deadly Axe, the half-orc silly crit feat at Epic, Martial Resurgence, Epic Resurgence, etc. Invincible Vanguard ED is solid for the character. Obviously pick up other elements of the charge kit if you can. Bash and Pummel could instead be Trip Up, either works, similarly Rain of Blows might be replaceable with one of those two powers, those three are the trifecta of good striker encounter powers you can easily pick up, and which is best depends on the rest of your party - Rain of Blows is dramatically improved by a Warlord who gives damage bonuses on APs, Trip Up is made worse by a Bravelord because you don't get your full nova potential. If you're allowed to do LFR-style retraining, swap your Paragon Path for the expanded crit range feat when you get there and take something better, probably Dreadnought. It's not a tough thing to build, really. Nor to play. Ideally, if you realy want something to die you start your turn In play it's pretty straightforward - you get two to three rounds per encounter of double rolls, critting on 19-20, when you crit you get a no-action MBA in addition o your crit dice. These can (in theory) be recursive because they're no actions, though I usually don't bother (because the thing will be dead anyway). If you really want $Thing to die, you start your turn within 2 squares of it, Single Out, Oath of Enmity, Charge, trigger Boots, make Rain of Blows into a charge, charge for 3x2[W], AP, shift 2, charge again, Trip Up (or stay still and Bash and Pummel). This ought to result in you critting at least once if not twice, for a total of 6 or 7 attacks on the same creature, with your slayer damage bonus. Past 16th ideally charge groups so those free actions MBAs also happen. Will It Blend?! (yes) e:tables thespaceinvader fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Jan 24, 2015 |
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Jan 24, 2015 22:18
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Gharbad the Weak posted:How do you guys find good games to join these days? All the places I know to look are either doing play-by-post, 5e or pathfinder. In a cruel twist of fate, I got them started on it, and I'd quite like to play something else every now and again.
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Jan 24, 2015 23:05
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Elementalists work because they can gain a very important bit of Sorcerer support in paragon; either a triple tap Encounter through Demonskin Adept, or, if you take almost literally any other paragon path, probably the most accidentally strong low level power in the game by Reserve Maneuver-ing into Flame Spiral.
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Jan 25, 2015 00:45
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My Lovely Horse posted:The group I DM for doesn't want to switch from 4E at all. Partly it's because it's the only system we can sort-of agree on, partly it's because a good portion of them lead busy lives and are absolutely dead set against learning a new system. "If you want me to keep running this for you, I get to run short-run games every now and again, and I get to pick the system. Learn and play in good faith, and I will happily keep coming back to the game you most want me to run." (or something similar) People who never GM don't realize how much work it is. Even if you enjoy what comes with the role, it's more effort than a player puts in, and I think that merits special consideration from the group.
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Jan 25, 2015 01:19
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thespaceinvader posted:The Mage features are generally held to be a pretty even trade for the Wizard ones as long as you pick a good build of Mage. Warpriests are a partially missed opportunity. What a Warpriest should be is a build. "You take fluffy combination X, Y, and Z that are subpar in character creation and you get bonus B. Or people not taking the combo can choose freely."
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Jan 25, 2015 02:54
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Which is basically what they are, looked at in the wider context. They're a set of specific powersets Clerics can take which offer a set of specific bonuses for taking them, but which are mostly open to all the other clerics as well. I find it helpful to see them that way, actually, now that you've mentioned it.
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Jan 25, 2015 08:51
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Has anyone modded the Zeitgeist character themes and items into the offline character builder?
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Jan 25, 2015 18:42
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Mordiceius posted:Has anyone modded the Zeitgeist character themes and items into the offline character builder? I believe it's already in there.
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Jan 25, 2015 21:43
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It's incomplete, sadly.
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Jan 25, 2015 22:06
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Mordiceius posted:Has anyone modded the Zeitgeist character themes and items into the offline character builder?
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Jan 25, 2015 23:49
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dwarf74 posted:I have the basics. I think there might be a link to it somewhere. It's incomplete though. Yeah the link I found was this one: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B7OGfow6IchSTHpwN1RvRTZ0bWs&usp=drive_web#list
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Jan 26, 2015 01:12
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I'd really really love to start a zeitgeist campaign, but my only really proactive player left, and it's all I can do to encourage my players not to just sit around twiddling their thumbs unless they are in active physical danger, or I put up a "Plot is Over Here" sign, let alone getting them all to read an actual roleplaying book or invest in any setting whatsoever.
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Jan 26, 2015 02:10
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Prison Warden posted:I'd really really love to start a zeitgeist campaign, but my only really proactive player left, and it's all I can do to encourage my players not to just sit around twiddling their thumbs unless they are in active physical danger, or I put up a "Plot is Over Here" sign, let alone getting them all to read an actual roleplaying book or invest in any setting whatsoever. I'm kind of lucky. All of my players are getting excited for two reasons: 1 - It's their first actual foray into D&D. They all talk about "Oh yeah, I played it for a little bit in middle school, 10 years ago." or whatever, but for all intents and purposes they're coming in fresh. 2 - They're all Type-A grad school students. They're all students in my wife's grad school and they're all like insane overachievers. I gave them the Zeitgeist player handbook (which is like 75 page PDF) and within a few days, I'm pretty sure they all had read most of it. My instructions were "Hey, just read the first 3-4 pages to get a feel for the setting and world." And they come back saying "Oh yeah, my character guarded trains in this nation and this nation and he's always avoided the politics in X, Y, and Z." It's like gently caress. They're more prepared for this than me. EDIT: Speaking of Zeitgeist, one of the things I really like is how they adapt 4e skill challenges. In my previous group, I always hated doing skill challenges because they just felt clunky and it would usually just end up with 2-3 players just doing all the rolls. One of the first event in the first Zeitgeist adventure is a skill challenge, but the way they do it is to say that the players only have one hour to accomplish the task and each time a player rolls, it's like they spend a half hour doing that activity. So its a way to only allow players to roll twice each without making it seem arbitrary. Furthermore, the skill challenge has about 4 degrees of success based on how well they roll which feels better than pass/fail. Mordiceius fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Jan 26, 2015 |
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Jan 26, 2015 02:49
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I'm having a great time in a Zeitgeist campaign, and I'd join another one just to play around with guns as a ranger.
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Jan 26, 2015 03:13
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Mordiceius posted:Yeah the link I found was this one: Mordiceius posted:I'm kind of lucky. All of my players are getting excited for two reasons: dwarf74 fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Jan 26, 2015 |
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Jan 26, 2015 03:15
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Let's talk Natural 1s. Do you ever do anything special when your players roll natural 1s? Do you just leave it as "you miss, badly" or do you take it further?
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Jan 26, 2015 08:41
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Mordiceius posted:Let's talk Natural 1s. Do you ever do anything special when your players roll natural 1s? Do you just leave it as "you miss, badly" or do you take it further? It's just an automiss unless the system specifically tells you that something else lovely happens.
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Jan 26, 2015 08:42
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Mordiceius posted:Let's talk Natural 1s. Do you ever do anything special when your players roll natural 1s? Do you just leave it as "you miss, badly" or do you take it further? I actually remove natural 1s automissing, because gently caress that. Adding an extra effect onto automatically missing is pretty lovely.
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Jan 26, 2015 08:45
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I just make it plain misses. Having your dudes bump their heads or whatever 5% of the time is too clownshoes
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Jan 26, 2015 08:51
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I don't know, I was trying to think of a way to make natural 1s more fun. My players are newbies, so I figured I wouldn't add this mechanic until later, but I was trying to figure out a way to salvage a natural 1. I think it would be neat to come out with a second chance trigger that happens on natural 1. Basically a "victory from the jaws of defeat" in spirit ability.
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Jan 26, 2015 08:59
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Mordiceius posted:I don't know, I was trying to think of a way to make natural 1s more fun. My players are newbies, so I figured I wouldn't add this mechanic until later, but I was trying to figure out a way to salvage a natural 1. Give 'em a free reroll for later or some poo poo.
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Jan 26, 2015 09:05
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A natural 1 happens in 5% of cases. If you want to turn those 5% into a success, give them a +1 bonus to attack rolls. Now they hit 5% more often, problem solved.
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Jan 26, 2015 09:09
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Dark Sun's Defiling and Reckless Breakage rule do something like this, if I'm remembering correctly. Reckless breakage in particular salvaged a lovely unfun rule (5% of the time your weapon breaks on a swing because there's no good crafting material in DS) to a sort of okay one (5% of the time when you auto-miss you can either take the miss, or swing for the fences and get a re-roll, shattering your stone axe either way.)
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Jan 26, 2015 09:37
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Mordiceius posted:Let's talk Natural 1s. Do you ever do anything special when your players roll natural 1s? Do you just leave it as "you miss, badly" or do you take it further? Ask them if they want to reroll. If they don't it's a miss. If they do and they still miss they fumble badly or break their weapon. Their choice whether to take the risk. (i.e. rules stolen from Dark Sun).
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Jan 26, 2015 13:41
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My Lovely Horse posted:A natural 1 happens in 5% of cases. If you want to turn those 5% into a success, give them a +1 bonus to attack rolls. Now they hit 5% more often, problem solved. U no maths gud, rite? +1 to hit doesn't mean they hit 5% more often. If they already hit on a 2, it does nothing. If they only hit on a 20 it doubles their chance to hit. Etc. Don't make natural 1s any worse than they already are, to be honest. If anything, take them out entirely, it feels really weird sometimes when you get enough bonuses stacked up that you could be hitting on a natural -10, to be able to miss 1/20 rolls. Especially on things like coups de grace. Weapon breakage is not a good idea in 4e, unless you're specifically expecting it. DS manages by planning around the idea and making weapons easily replaceable, but breaking your magic weapon is really bad (using inherent bonuses fixes that) and even breaking your mundane weapon means that some to all of your character just... fails to work any more. Expertise, weapon focus, a whole bunch of path and class features and other feats... It's a bad idea. 1s automatically miss, they get to describe what happens to make them automiss.
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Jan 26, 2015 18:27
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Mordiceius posted:I don't know, I was trying to think of a way to make natural 1s more fun. When the stakes are high (especially on a skill rather than a combat check), ask them what the worst thing is that could happen. If they roll a 1, it happens. Maybe they even still succeed on the check if it's one that their bonus would allow them to do, but that terrible, hilarious thing also happens.
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Jan 26, 2015 18:39
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thespaceinvader posted:even breaking your mundane weapon means that some to all of your character just... fails to work any more. Expertise, weapon focus, a whole bunch of path and class features and other feats... It's a bad idea. The experience completely soured the Hunter player on the entire system forever, because most of his character sheet just straight up wouldn't work without a ranged weapon. On the other hand my brawler fighter was just fine. 
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Jan 26, 2015 19:06
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I had one DM who was intent on making 1's "Interesting". You roll a 1, oops, you hit your buddy. Oh you rolled a 1, oops, you knocked yourself off balance with a wild swing, now you are prone, and other such nonsense. Automissing is more than enough of a penalty for rolling a 1.
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Jan 26, 2015 19:13
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