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1stGear posted:Any rough estimates on how long it takes to run Dark Deeds in Last Hope? I'm going to be running it for two friends new to the system on Friday, but it seems short and I'm wondering if I should have more stuff prepped in case they blow through it. I ran the adventure with 3 players and it took about 3 hours. With two people, I reckon it will go by even faster.
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Jul 19, 2017 17:04
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Serf posted:I ran the adventure with 3 players and it took about 3 hours. With two people, I reckon it will go by even faster. Alright, cool. I'll have some backup plans just in case.
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Jul 19, 2017 19:32
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1stGear posted:Any rough estimates on how long it takes to run Dark Deeds in Last Hope? I'm going to be running it for two friends new to the system on Friday, but it seems short and I'm wondering if I should have more stuff prepped in case they blow through it. It took my group about 3 hours, due to explaining mechanics as I go. I had five players.
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Jul 20, 2017 15:57
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I dunno if anyone's talked about this before, but I found a way to get to a Strength of 20. First you start off with the Jotun Ancestry (Glorious Death). Your stats are Strength 13, Agility 9, Intellect 8, Will 10. Decrease one of the latter three (Intellect would be my choice) by 1 and raise Strength by 1 for a starting score of 14. At 1st Level you raise Strength to 15, and same for 3rd level in an Expert Path to 16. For 7th level Master Path pick Transmuter and you know have a respectable 17. Repeat the process at 10th level, where the Transmuter increases every score by 1 and your Strength is 18. But that's not all. The 7th level Transmuter ability Optimization allows you to reduce a score by 2 and increase another by 2 per rest. I don't know if there are similar means for other scores, but from what I can tell the Jotun has the largest starting score in any of the four. I also Ran Dark Deeds in last Hope many moons ago, save with 2 players running 2 PCs each. It was a fun romp, even if the Roll20 RNG was cursed that day. We liked a lot of the mechanics as well as the world-lore (half our party were clockworks I believe).
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Jul 21, 2017 00:29
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Goblins can do Agility 19 through much the same process, and Humans 18 on any attribute they want. Though, Strength is the worse attribute to do this on, even if it can get the highest, as Agility at least can be used for Defense (Humans and Goblins can get an easy 23 with Arcane Armor).
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Jul 21, 2017 00:48
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I got into an extended conversation with one of my players about how he basically devised a (mechanically sound, as far as I can tell) method to exploit time magic to create an army of himself from different points in history. I told him he would be allowed to do it maybe once before the sheer paradox of it farted him out of existence. Had to give him props for creativity though.
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Jul 21, 2017 16:54
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Conspiratiorist posted:Goblins can do Agility 19 through much the same process, and Humans 18 on any attribute they want. Though, Strength is the worse attribute to do this on, even if it can get the highest, as Agility at least can be used for Defense (Humans and Goblins can get an easy 23 with Arcane Armor). Arcane Armor grants a +2 armor and you can't be wearing existing armor with it. That would ordinarily be a 21, not 23, with a 19 Agility. Where's the bonus +2 coming from? An Abjurer can grant up to a +6 Defense with a level 5 Protection spell, which is a net +3 Defense compared to the Transmuter method but lasts for only a minute. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Jul 21, 2017 |
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Jul 21, 2017 20:16
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Soft Leather clothing is AGI+1 Defense, stacks with Arcane Armor just fine. Large Shield is +2 to Size 1, Small Shield is +1. 12 Agility +1 Novice 1 +1 Expert 3 +1 Master 7 = 15 +2 Transmuter 7 (optimization) +1 Transmuter 10 = 18 +1 Soft Leather +2 Arcane Armor +2 Large Shield = 23 Goblins get +1 Agility compared to Humans but can't use Large Shields, so they get 23 as well. Conspiratiorist fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Jul 21, 2017 |
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Jul 21, 2017 20:29
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FunkMonkey posted:I got into an extended conversation with one of my players about how he basically devised a (mechanically sound, as far as I can tell) method to exploit time magic to create an army of himself from different points in history. I told him he would be allowed to do it maybe once before the sheer paradox of it farted him out of existence. Had to give him props for creativity though. That seems like the very definition of 'Thing you get to pull exactly off once at the capstone of the campaign to save the world at a dramatic moment.'
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Jul 21, 2017 20:31
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I don't have a rule book in front of me, but the heavy leather clothes don't count as armor? You sure?
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Jul 21, 2017 20:34
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Jack B Nimble posted:I don't have a rule book in front of me, but the heavy leather clothes don't count as armor? You sure? They fall under "clothing," so no. Hard leather is the first thing to count.
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Jul 21, 2017 20:42
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If my party ran away from the adventure then I probably just wouldn't give them the level for it. I wouldn't send them to their death or poo poo on them or anything, but being a zero dramatically means you get a zero mechanically. I would just run them another opportunity to do something interesting.
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Jul 21, 2017 22:53
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A friend of mine wanted a suggestion for a good fantasy game "D&D but better". Hopefully SotDL will have another new group of players soon. 
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Jul 22, 2017 16:59
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Lord_Hambrose posted:A friend of mine wanted a suggestion for a good fantasy game "D&D but better". Hopefully SotDL will have another new group of players soon. Hell yeah! Also, The Freeport Companion is out now and I have some thoughts on it. The new ancestries, Serpent Person and Undine, are both pretty cool and flavorful. The former severely discourages you from gaining Corruption, as that's a quick way to end up losing your character. The Undines are good at water, which is handy in the pirate setting, and they have a sick movement ability that lets them run around the battlefield without fear of free attacks. Overall the new ancestries fit really well with Freeport and while I could see the Undine being used in other settings, the Serpent Person has a very specific flavor and trait to it that is very specific to Freeport. The Paths have a lot of cool stuff in them. The Celebrant is a very unique Path that revolves around getting some light magic power and mostly is about getting drunk. This is one of the more interesting Paths in that it offers you a choice between Air, Storm or Water as traditions, which is a neat concept that I hope they expand on more. While drunk you are impaired but also take half damage from all sources and later on you deal more damage while drunk and can turn your banes into boons. The Courtier is a social combat Path who is good at charming people and get special benefits for being part of the nobility. The Drowned One is another Path that offers a selection of traditions for magic (Destruction, Storm and Water in this case), lets you operate really well in water, has a tidal mechanic where you roll and get benefits depending on whether it is low tide or high tide, and eventually heals double damage while submerged in water. The Mariner is all about sailing and fighting better while on the sea. Basically if you want to play a crusty sea dog, that's the Path for you. Monster Hunter does what it says it does and has some powerful anti-monster powers like immunity to the frightening trait and extra damage against monsters and the ability to pretty much take half damage once per round at the cost of a triggered action. Musketeer is the pistol-and-sword Path of the game and their gimmick is disarming enemies, even allowing you to catch the items you take from them and letting you insult your enemies into submission. The Mystic Navigator occupies an obvious position on a sailing ship and allows you to cruse around the seas at a blistering pace. Pit Fighter is the red deck of Paths, letting you take more damage in order to do more damage, and you can gently caress up your enemies while burning them down pretty quickly. Sea Captain gives you the ability to help your allies just by being close to them and just makes your boats better. Survivor is the last of the bunch and is a weird monkish Path that doesn't wear armor, does better unarmed damage, can't be instantly killed and fights better when at high amounts of damage. The new Paths are a big draw, as each of them is cool and flavorful and can totally be used in any setting. They add a lot of value to the book in the sense that they cover some areas that were previously unexplored, and introduce some neat new concepts that I think will be expanded upon later, There's some new magic in the book, which include cool spells that let you do things like: transform a ship in a bottle into an actual ship, find useful things, conjure up a compass, compel crowds to part, pull off a ninja smokebomb, create some new types of undead, summon shrieking eels, and turn a gold piece into a little golden bug that can seek out other golden things for you. There's a bunch of new equipment with some typical pirate stuff like cutlasses and gaffs. There's things like a weapon modification that lets you hollow out the haft/stock of your weapon and fill it with alcohol/potion/oils. There's a grenade launcher pistol and a diving suit. There's rules for boats and naval combat that are, like in Godless, kinda needlessly complicated in an old 3.5 way, but they work just fine if you really want comprehensive sailing rules. A smattering of magic items and relics rounds out the first half of the book. The next third-ish of the book is devoted to Freeport NPCs, with a short description and a lot of statblocks. This is the reason why I can't wholeheartedly endorse the book. There are pages and pages of NPC information that make up a good deal of the book and honestly don't seem like that great of content. If you need statblocks they're fine, and if you're using the city of Freeport they could come in handy, but they occupy way too much of the book for my taste. The final third of the book is a Novice-level adventure that is actually really good and gives players a taste of the naval combat and sailing rules. It's also pretty expansive and seems like it has some fun encounters, so I like it. Overall if you didn't back the Freeport Companion I would say that its worth picking up, as half the book is universally useful and the other half is of variable use. The adventure is completely good, and the NPC section can be useful to you, like I mentioned, but if you're not planning on running a game in Freeport or don't need a bunch of statblocks, this might be something you want to consider before buying.
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Jul 23, 2017 17:17
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I love the idea of pirate/naval adventures but it doesn't really fit with my campaign. Maybe in the future. It sounds like there's a lot of really solid content, thanks for the review.
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Jul 27, 2017 05:34
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I don't really know much about Freeport but I like the idea of pirate/naval adventures. Are the Freeport adventures that got published along with the companion pretty good?
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Aug 2, 2017 03:01
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I can't speak for the SOTDL conversion, but the Death/Madness/Terror in Freeport cycle was one of the very first third-party adventures ever written for D&D 3rd Edition. They're a mix of investigative scenes leading into combat encounters, and one of their defining features is a Lovecraftian bent to the story, as the antagonists are cultists of the Yellow Sign.
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Aug 2, 2017 03:11
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So Last Friday should have been the time that my gaming group switches to another campaign run by our main GM. I expected him to run for perhaps a year or so, then I'd get a chance to run SotDL. I was surprised but eager when, the day of the game, he announced he wasn't quite ready to run another campaign and asked for voulnteers - so instead of waiting a year to run my game I'm already one session in. I want to post a summary of the current adventure so far and get some help with the rest of it, but I need time to write it in an efficient and organized way so I don't fill half a forum page with ramblings, but I wanted to get some quick help with something. In the level 0 adventure I gave or will give (it's ongoing, my game sessions are short) each character one interesting item related to their background. One person got a magic knife. Now, the players understand that the session was run by the seat of the pants and we hand waived a lot of rules as tentative, to be cleaned up before the next game. Well, here we are. The knife, last game, had 1 bane on attacks until it deals a killing blow in combat, at which point it gets a boon for the rest of the day. But now I'm thinking I need to tone this down a bit? I think I'm going to change it to have the boon wear off after that fight; but I'd be open to suggestions.
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Aug 5, 2017 17:37
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Could you tie the knife to a profession of his and have a non-combat effect? Example: if he has a medical profession then use this result (p.208) "You make challenge rolls with 1 boon to avoid becoming diseased or recover from disease. You take half damage from disease." Creates some potential rp opportunities.
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Aug 5, 2017 17:45
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Jack B Nimble posted:So Last Friday should have been the time that my gaming group switches to another campaign run by our main GM. I expected him to run for perhaps a year or so, then I'd get a chance to run SotDL. I was surprised but eager when, the day of the game, he announced he wasn't quite ready to run another campaign and asked for voulnteers - so instead of waiting a year to run my game I'm already one session in. If anything this seems underpowered to me. The trigger is: deal a killing blow and the benefit is 1 boon to attacks with the knife. A knife deals 1d3 damage, so its not exactly amazing. I would just give it a flat 1 boon to attack rolls since its magic and doesn't deal all that much damage. Cinnamon Bear posted:I don't really know much about Freeport but I like the idea of pirate/naval adventures. Are the Freeport adventures that got published along with the companion pretty good? In my opinion the Freeport campaign is superior to Tales. Not only are the main mystery/interactions more interesting, the combats are far more reasonable and balanced than what is in Tales. I think that time and experience has let Rob tune the encounters better and you're much less likely to get a TPK. Do be forewarned that there is no level-0 adventure. So if that's your thing, you'll have to come up with one of your own. __________________________________________ Also, Thursday August 10th I'll be running the Expert-level adventure Feast of the Father at 7:00 PM EST. If you want to play, you can sign up here. I'm looking for 4-6 players. You can check here for the (admittedly scant) information about the adventure. Also if you want to talk about the game or just about Shadow of the Demon Lord, drop by the Discord!
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Aug 5, 2017 22:31
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So many of the advanced classes give you magical traditions, but a magician can pick any tradition when leveling? I was going to limit my player to choices they were able find in game (while of course allowing them to seek our whatever, I just want some in game basis for it) but I'm curious about the mechanics/rules as written. Even though some classes are based around a certain tradition, that's not meant to be the only way to gain those traditions? There's nothing that's "off limits" when making your magician picks?
Jack B Nimble fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Aug 5, 2017 |
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Aug 5, 2017 22:47
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Jack B Nimble posted:So many of the advanced classes give you magical traditions, but a magician can pick any tradition when leveling? I was going to limit my player to choices they were able find in game (while of course allowing them to seek our whatever, I just want some in game basis for it) but I'm curious about the mechanics/rules as written. Even though some classes are based around a certain tradition, that's not meant to be the only way to gain those traditions? There's nothing that's "off limits" when making your magician picks? Magician can pick anything, even the 'religious' ones like Healing. It's the tradeoff for not being any good at non-spell things at all. Like, warrior gets a boon to all attacks, rogue gets a boon to one thing per turn, level 2 priest can use a triggered action to one thing per turn, but magician doesn't have any of that so outside of spells they're as effective as a level 0 character.
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Aug 6, 2017 00:11
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Jack B Nimble posted:So many of the advanced classes give you magical traditions, but a magician can pick any tradition when leveling? I was going to limit my player to choices they were able find in game (while of course allowing them to seek our whatever, I just want some in game basis for it) but I'm curious about the mechanics/rules as written. Even though some classes are based around a certain tradition, that's not meant to be the only way to gain those traditions? There's nothing that's "off limits" when making your magician picks? The sort of implication is that you will work with your player to introduce elements that pertain to their next desired tradition pick during the adventures so it doesn't come out of nowhere. Basically ask them what they want to take next and work that into the adventure/campaign to bring it up when the time comes. Also there is sort of this assumption that in some campaigns lots of time will pass between adventures which could be used to discover a new tradition.
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Aug 6, 2017 01:41
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Jack B Nimble posted:So many of the advanced classes give you magical traditions, but a magician can pick any tradition when leveling? I was going to limit my player to choices they were able find in game (while of course allowing them to seek our whatever, I just want some in game basis for it) but I'm curious about the mechanics/rules as written. Even though some classes are based around a certain tradition, that's not meant to be the only way to gain those traditions? There's nothing that's "off limits" when making your magician picks? Nope, nothing. Same for Rogues and their 'Magic' Roguery Talent. And for every path that doesn't explicitly force you to learn or pick a spell from a specific tradition, of which are many. Going a step further even, the Wizard Expert Path can cast spells of traditions they haven't even learned, by choosing them for their Grimoire. Conspiratiorist fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Aug 6, 2017 |
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Aug 6, 2017 07:27
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Conspiratiorist posted:This includes unique spells that aren't part of any tradition, like the Spellbinder's "Spellbound Weapon". But they're the one exception in having this capability. Woah, wait, are you sure? That's not the conclusion I drew when I read the Wizard class, but maybe I need to go re-read it.
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Aug 6, 2017 13:57
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Jack B Nimble posted:Woah, wait, are you sure? That's not the conclusion I drew when I read the Wizard class, but maybe I need to go re-read it. It says you "choose three spells from any tradition", so I'd lean towards it only working with the listed traditions and not with any path-specific spells. I could see it both ways though.
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Aug 6, 2017 14:04
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Jimmeeee posted:It says you "choose three spells from any tradition", so I'd lean towards it only working with the listed traditions and not with any path-specific spells. I could see it both ways though. It's anything from the traditions listed in the magic section. You can't take path-specific spells and abilities unless you have that path, because they're not tied to a tradition. Not that you can't house rule wizard that way, but I'm completely certain that isn't what was intended. Buck Wildman fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Aug 6, 2017 |
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Aug 6, 2017 16:18
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Jack B Nimble posted:Woah, wait, are you sure? That's not the conclusion I drew when I read the Wizard class, but maybe I need to go re-read it. No, my bad, misremembered.
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Aug 6, 2017 22:24
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Yeah, I checked in the Google+ community and it looks like Rob has said that RAW you can't use Grimoire to take a spell that isn't part of a tradition, but he also said that if it makes for a better game go for it.
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Aug 7, 2017 10:47
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Did they take down the SRD or is that just having hosting issues?
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Aug 7, 2017 23:17
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Gay Horney posted:Did they take down the SRD or is that just having hosting issues? It's possible that 'SRD' was both totally unofficial and without Schwalb's blessing and was taken down. Which is sad but understandable.
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Aug 8, 2017 00:01
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bewilderment posted:It's possible that 'SRD' was both totally unofficial and without Schwalb's blessing and was taken down. Which is sad but understandable. Rob hasn't commented yet, but one of the moderators on the G+ community has said this is the case. I'll remove my link from the OP.
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Aug 8, 2017 00:13
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Serf posted:Rob hasn't commented yet, but one of the moderators on the G+ community has said this is the case. I'll remove my link from the OP. It's both a bummer and totally understandable. I've bought every reference cited on the SRD and thought that page was ridiculously handy in terms of compiling information, but I also thought that getting my players to buy the books when they had access to that page would be a complete non-starter. I do wish there were an official resource that would make choosing paths a little bit easier than flipping through eight books.
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Aug 8, 2017 00:20
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Gay Horney posted:Did they take down the SRD or is that just having hosting issues? I thought it was legit.
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Aug 8, 2017 00:51
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Memnaelar posted:It's both a bummer and totally understandable. I've bought every reference cited on the SRD and thought that page was ridiculously handy in terms of compiling information, but I also thought that getting my players to buy the books when they had access to that page would be a complete non-starter. There's the Big List of Paths though it doesn't do much except put them all in one place.
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Aug 8, 2017 09:31
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Was the SRD site by the same people who did the 13th Age and Dungeon World SRD sites? Because I know those had a history of bad code and tended to trip Chrome's malware sniffers.
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Aug 8, 2017 15:23
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Wait, that wasn't an official resource? Yeah, they reprinted a lot of text straight from the books. As much as it pains me, that probably should have been taken down.
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Aug 8, 2017 15:37
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There's a Caecras supplement? Was that a backer exclusive, or is this upcoming?
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Aug 8, 2017 16:45
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FunkMonkey posted:There's a Caecras supplement? Was that a backer exclusive, or is this upcoming? Rob occasionally throws in information from upcoming supplements. Caecras is coming at some point soon.
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Aug 8, 2017 16:49
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Serf posted:Rob occasionally throws in information from upcoming supplements. Caecras is coming at some point soon. Neat. I'm personally hoping he puts something out for the Patchwork Lands sometime in the future.
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Aug 8, 2017 17:06
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