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SuperKlaus posted:"Perforce?" Yeah.
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Mar 12, 2023 04:18
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Here is the Quinton statblock which I posted earlier. It has a fair number of powerful at wills and is also a 20th level Cleric. That it is somewhat squishy, and its spell DCs are not particularly high are basically its only flaws as an enemy.MonsterEnvy posted:CR 14 Edit: The Order would have a tough time with this thing unless Roy can get within 5 feet of it. (Which would not be easy.) MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Mar 13, 2023 |
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Mar 13, 2023 01:06
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Full 20th level Cleric spellcasting on a CR14. CR was so worthless.
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Mar 13, 2023 01:19
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wdarkk posted:Full 20th level Cleric spellcasting on a CR14. CR was so worthless. I mean it sounds insane but technically CR is based on a party of 4. Hypothetically, a single level 20 cleric shouldn't be a fair fight against four level 20 adventurers. You have to calculate the encounter level! Surely it'll be a fair fight then. The EL for four CR14 creatures is 18. 
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Mar 13, 2023 02:05
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wdarkk posted:Full 20th level Cleric spellcasting on a CR14. CR was so worthless. Here's the thing. A gearless, minionless heroic statblock 20th level cleric would lose against a twelfth level PC party pretty handily, because of action economy. Save or die spells can make some of them dead before that happens, but that's true of a lot of level appropriate challenges. This is why a DM needs to bend their combat challenges towards "interesting" rather than balanced.
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Mar 13, 2023 02:25
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Of course 3.5 CR is intended for 4-6 at level encounter per adventuring day so it’s still rather low.
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Mar 13, 2023 16:18
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CR is a mess in 3.5e. It really is just people eyeballing stuff - if there's any consistent formula at all, it's based on how much HP the monster has. Its abilities aren't accounted for even slightly. The example I always go to is the CR 1 ghoul, which gets three attacks per round, and on a hit, each attack makes the target save at Fortitude DC 12 against 1d4+1 rounds of paralysis. It's an overtuned menace against low level parties and can easily eat them up, but making people roll a bunch of Fortitude saves until they fail is still incredibly good almost no matter what level the PCs are, so throwing ghouls into an encounter doesn't manifest as a linear CR increase but as a nightmare sandtrap that makes every other monster harder. And apart from anything else, "your character can't do anything for the next three rounds" is almost always deeply not fun for players. 3.5e monster design is generally completely awful in this and other ways!
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Mar 13, 2023 18:38
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Android Blues posted:The example I always go to is the CR 1 ghoul, which gets three attacks per round, and on a hit, each attack makes the target save at Fortitude DC 12 against 1d4+1 rounds of paralysis. It's an overtuned menace against low level parties and can easily eat them up, but making people roll a bunch of Fortitude saves until they fail is still incredibly good almost no matter what level the PCs are, so throwing ghouls into an encounter doesn't manifest as a linear CR increase but as a nightmare sandtrap that makes every other monster harder. And apart from anything else, "your character can't do anything for the next three rounds" is almost always deeply not fun for players.
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Mar 13, 2023 18:40
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Rogue AI Goddess posted:All the more reason to be an elf. That and the infravision.
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Mar 14, 2023 02:11
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 https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1278.html
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Mar 27, 2023 15:14
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New strip - https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1278.html
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Mar 27, 2023 15:15
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Dry crumbly assbone, indeed.
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Mar 27, 2023 15:19
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I remember an old MUD I worked on used a system called "tattoos" to allow you to invisibly mark players in an indelible way. It was mainly used for flags for things like tracking quest progression.
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Mar 27, 2023 15:20
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Strip title is A+.
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Mar 27, 2023 15:20
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Huh, so having a trapfinding rogue on your team actually harms your chances of ever finding the gate. That's really clever. In order to find the gate, you need to either not have a trapfinding rogue, or make an incredibly convoluted leap in logic without the benefit of clues from its creator. The shell game isn't the dungeon complex, it's Backstage -- acting as a huge honeypot for any dungeon delving team with a rogue. Makes you wonder how many times Backstage has been breached. Kinda inconvenient right now, though, since Team Evil both lacks a trapfinding rogue and is powerful enough to kill/bypass the primary deterrent.
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Mar 27, 2023 15:25
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Gwyneth Palpate posted:Huh, so having a trapfinding rogue on your team actually harms your chances of ever finding the gate. That's really clever. In order to find the gate, you need to either not have a trapfinding rogue, or make an incredibly convoluted leap in logic without the benefit of clues from its creator. The shell game isn't the dungeon complex, it's Backstage -- acting as a huge honeypot for any dungeon delving team with a rogue. Makes you wonder how many times Backstage has been breached. Well, her solution to that was to leave the dungeon to delay Team Evil and go round up all her friends for one last save-the-world hurrah. Except they all got deaded first.
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Mar 27, 2023 15:27
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Honestly I gotta give props to Rich for coming up with this type of dungeon and planning out its weaknesses and strengths like this. I don't think I've seen a trap/obstacle designed like this before, very original (?).
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Mar 27, 2023 15:40
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Gwyneth Palpate posted:Huh, so having a trapfinding rogue on your team actually harms your chances of ever finding the gate. That's really clever. In order to find the gate, you need to either not have a trapfinding rogue, or make an incredibly convoluted leap in logic without the benefit of clues from its creator. The shell game isn't the dungeon complex, it's Backstage -- acting as a huge honeypot for any dungeon delving team with a rogue. Makes you wonder how many times Backstage has been breached. Hell, even if you don't blunder your way into backstage, noticing and disabling any one of the traps at the end of the dungeons also screws you over, arguably even more so. Cattail Prophet fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Mar 27, 2023 |
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Mar 27, 2023 15:58
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"Your butt. The traps put them in your butt."
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Mar 27, 2023 16:55
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I wonder if by "tattoo" the trap includes "scrimshaw" because Xykon has no butt.
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Mar 27, 2023 17:44
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SuperKlaus posted:I wonder if by "tattoo" the trap includes "scrimshaw" because Xykon has no butt. The true conclusion of Xykon's character arc: Not having a butt comes back to bite him in it.
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Mar 27, 2023 18:24
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Can Xykon even get the magical pinpoint-sized tattoos in the first place, since he's a fleshless skeleton with a nonexistent rear end? edit: why am I not surprised that I'm not the first one to think of this
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Mar 27, 2023 18:42
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Considering that it's a portal that opens and not a personal teleportation effect, you probably only need one person there with the requisite rear end tattoos to open the portal. Everyone else can just clowncar through.
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Mar 27, 2023 18:56
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The Order of the Scribble had a thing for butts. #845
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Mar 27, 2023 18:59
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nimby posted:The Order of the Scribble had a thing for butts. That better not be relevant.
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Mar 27, 2023 19:01
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nimby posted:The true rift really was between Girard's buttcheeks.  jesus christ "Between Girard's buttcheeks" divination joke did come back.
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Mar 27, 2023 19:11
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cant they just go run in while the bad guys are in a dungeon and disable a couple traps to stop them from getting a couple of the butthole tattooes and thus never teleport to the real dungeon?
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Mar 27, 2023 19:36
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jsoh posted:cant they just go run in while the bad guys are in a dungeon and disable a couple traps to stop them from getting a couple of the butthole tattooes and thus never teleport to the real dungeon? They would have to reach the end of one, while the antagonists are currently blazing through them, disarm the tattoo trap, and then escape back out before they arrive. The process of which would exhaust resources/spells they need to fight the bad guys. Considering that the dungeons kept Team Evil busy for a good chunk of the day each prior to the arrival of the outsider, I doubt it's a risk Roy wants to take. Plus who knows what Xykon will do if they search all the dungeons and don't find the rift?
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Mar 27, 2023 19:47
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Serini seems to be implying that her butt is enough to allow the entire Order inside, so presumably the same holds true for Team Evil.
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Mar 27, 2023 19:54
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Xykon is so eager to fight/kill something that I think he'll end up burning a bunch of spells before the final engagements of the day. This probably will end up mattering. The way Serini says "the portal to the final dungeon" suggests that even once the gauntlet has been fully traveled, there's still at least one more fight before reaching the Gate. Earlier in this thread I guessed the guardian of that final dungeon is the dragon in Sunny's drawings. Team Evil is powerful but are they powerful enough to contend with an epic-level dragon? This is possibly part of why Serini hasn't really acted with any urgency so far.
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Mar 27, 2023 20:07
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I have bad news about dragon folks...
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Mar 27, 2023 20:19
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Nenonen posted:I have bad news about dragon folks... V killed off the black dragons, there are other colors.
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Mar 27, 2023 20:24
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Cup Runneth Over posted:They would have to reach the end of one, while the antagonists are currently blazing through them, disarm the tattoo trap, and then escape back out before they arrive. Team Evil is going in order, just pick the one they're going to do last. If Team Evil does enter the last dungeon before they're done, have Serini buttdial the final dungeon and wait there until Team Evil leaves. EDIT: It's seven - eight minutes per dungeon. So yeah. Leave Blackwing outside to warn them if Xykon and crew approach, chew through the last dungeon - because Serini has done them all solo, it shouldn't be a problem for the whole team - and break it. quote:Plus who knows what Xykon will do if they search all the dungeons and don't find the rift? Keep trying things that wont work? sfwarlock fucked around with this message at 20:40 on Mar 27, 2023 |
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Mar 27, 2023 20:37
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sfwarlock posted:Team Evil is going in order, just pick the one they're going to do last. If Team Evil does enter the last dungeon before they're done, have Serini buttdial the final dungeon and wait there until Team Evil leaves. Drop meteors on everything until he finds the Gate probably Also all the Order really needs to do to get in is to have blackwing say when Team Evil has gone into a door, wait about a minute, then leave and have serini let them in by a different door e: to get there first and lay a trap
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Mar 27, 2023 20:50
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I feel like the hobbo lady could eventually recognize blackwing isnt behaving like a normal bird
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Mar 27, 2023 20:54
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The Chad Jihad posted:I feel like the hobbo lady could eventually recognize blackwing isnt behaving like a normal bird That hardly matters if he's behaving like a 'master of the subtle art of disguise'! Despite what Roy thinks.
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Mar 27, 2023 21:07
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Parahexavoctal posted:Can Xykon even get the magical pinpoint-sized tattoos in the first place, since he's a fleshless skeleton with a nonexistent rear end? I actually could see him noticing that he has something magical going on with his rear end when he enters each dungeon since he is a magical construct. I can also see him never mentioning it because he thinks it is unimportant, like maybe he picked up fleas from Oona's dog or something.
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Mar 27, 2023 21:10
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Couldn't they disable the magic portal tripwire of the dungeon Team Evil is currently exploring and trap them inside? That could buy time, at least.
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Mar 27, 2023 21:20
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Yak Shaves Dot Com posted:Couldn't they disable the magic portal tripwire of the dungeon Team Evil is currently exploring and trap them inside? That could buy time, at least. Xykon has Ghostform and Greater Teleport. Trapping them would burn two of his strong spell slots at the exchange of giving away most of the tricks behind the gauntlet.
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Mar 27, 2023 21:22
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Yak Shaves Dot Com posted:Couldn't they disable the magic portal tripwire of the dungeon Team Evil is currently exploring and trap them inside? That could buy time, at least. I feel like there has to be a reason why that wouldn't work. It would be too easy. Maybe it's something where if you give them a reason to suspect something is up, Xykon just starts destroying the dungeon with high level spells until he breaks the gate by accident or whatever.
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Mar 27, 2023 21:24
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