|
Lugubrious posted:
This is how we are running our 4th edition campaign - the DM doesn't give out XP, we just level up when the story dictates. This way we can go off on random tangents or miss planned encounters, and the DM doesn't have to worry about us getting too much exp, or worrying about infinate spawning skeleton traps  It works really well.
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2009 19:16
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 23, 2024 09:48 |
|
|
Lugubrious posted:Of course you could also lie and just say "hooray you magically have just enough experience to level up" I wanted to do XP this way but the supernerds in my group (most all of them) objected and now I send out a post-game wrapup with exact XP count because they really wanted me to.  So now I'm stuck trying to figure out how to give them the 800 XP I need for them to all level. CDOR Gemini posted:Anyway, to answer your question, it said to give experience for each one, and you could easily tweak it so that there are way more minions there if you want them to get more experience. More minions in this particular fight might just kill them, especially since they'd need 24 additional minions at this point to level up. I might start dropping more minions into regular encounters before they get to this point, though. Amusingly, though, on the topic of farming that fight, 3 of the people who play in the game I'm DMing are also in the game I play in, one of whom is the DM of that game. Last session we were fighting a large amount of creatures and a black pudding. It took us entirely too long to realize that attacking the pudding with weapons caused it to spawn more minions, plus the other things it was fighting with kept throwing things at it harmlessly to force it to spawn minions at us. By the time the fight was over, we'd gotten 3400xp purely off Black Pudding minions. We didn't farm it INTENTIONALLY, but I know the DM didn't mean for us to get quite that much XP from that fight. Thanks both of you for the advice!
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2009 21:31
|
|
|
Annakie posted:I wanted to do XP this way but the supernerds in my group (most all of them) objected and now I send out a post-game wrapup with exact XP count because they really wanted me to. Bullshit them then. Get as close as you can then roll it up/down to 800. I'm kind of OCD like that and plan a level out ahead of time, so I like to have the entire level planned precisely to level up at the exact XP they need.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2009 21:37
|
|
|
Joudas posted:First off I would need an in-game rationalization to explain away "Levels" and "experience points" and all that poo poo first, before it would bother me that I don't have an in-game rationalization for why all of the players are the same level at the same time, always. Thanks for the unnecessarily hostile response, cheers dude! Fortunately there were numerous other people who wrote sane replies to the question I was actually asking instead of trying to restart the argument I was explicitly not interested in. Don't worry, I believe you, you're way cooler than me.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2009 21:50
|
|
|
Ulta posted:Just to tie this to GMing, what do you guys think is the "best" setting? Tendrils answer: DARK SUN! quote:
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2009 23:56
|
|
|
 OK, you see those spaceships? Good. Now they're not powered by rockets, they're powered by space hamsters on exercise wheels in the bowels of the ship, who are generating magical energy used for thrust. And the reason they look like spiders is because they're helmed by intergalactic slavers with the bodies of spiders and the heads of moray eels. Also, Elminster has a summer home here. Also, tinker gnomes.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 00:07
|
|
|
Ulta posted:Just to tie this to GMing, what do you guys think is the "best" setting?  There is only one correct answer to this question: The Iron Kingdoms. It's the most internally consistent and awesome setting ever created. The two core setting books are each 400-page monstrosities of awesome. The rules content in the Player's Guide is 3.5 (yuck) but 4e is honestly a perfect fit for the feel and the stuff going on in the Iron Kingdoms.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 00:29
|
|
|
Mikan posted:There is only one correct answer to this question: The Iron Kingdoms.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 00:30
|
|
|
Thri-Kreen ain't got poo poo on the Trollbloods  
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 00:32
|
|
|
Question: Can I change a Rod into a Wand? The Warlock in my party wants a wand, but I have planned on giving him a lvl 2 Rod Of Dark Reward. Could I just make it a Wand of Dark Reward without horribly unbalancing the game in some unforeseen fashion?
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 00:38
|
|
|
RagnarokAngel posted:Bullshit them then. Get as close as you can then roll it up/down to 800. Pretty much. If you need to get them another 800 XP and you're worried that a few extra minions might wipe them, then just throw a non-combat obstacle their way. Keep in mind, XP isn't for "crushing skulls", it's for overcoming obstacles. That could be something like killing kobolds, or it can be for surviving an avalanche. Just throw a skill challenge their way (if you're worried about stretching their resources, make it an easy one) and say it's worth 800 XP. It can be anything really. A blizzard strikes that night while they're camping, and all they have to do is try to keep warm (fatigue them if they fail). Going along the side of a mountain, they hear a rumbling and look up to see a mudslide coming right at them. They come across a huge river they have to find a way to ford with their wagon (hah, it might even be fun to do this on the battle map as some kind of elaborate Oregon Trail joke). Granted, they're all kind of a distraction, but if your players are picky about exact XP this gives you a way to give them arbitrary amounts of extra XP without them whining.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 01:52
|
|
|
even worse username posted:Don't worry, I believe you, you're way cooler than me. You're finally starting to make sense.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 01:58
|
|
|
Joudas posted:You're finally starting to make sense. Will you shut the gently caress up with this little goon slap fight?
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 02:41
|
|
|
Super Waffle posted:Question: Can I change a Rod into a Wand? The Warlock in my party wants a wand, but I have planned on giving him a lvl 2 Rod Of Dark Reward. Could I just make it a Wand of Dark Reward without horribly unbalancing the game in some unforeseen fashion? Well it depends. There's no mechanical difference between a wand and a rod for a warlock. If your warlock simply wants a wand because that's what he was using and has implement expertise in then you might as well give him the 'Wand of Dark Reward.' However if he prefers the fact that wands and rods are different things entirely (ie. wands hold a spell that is used as a daily item power) then he probably just wants a wand that has a cool encounter/utility spell on it. Really, if you are planning on running a long term campaign you should simply get a wish list, as the DMG suggests, from each player and more or less give them what they want with perhaps the occasional oddity.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 02:42
|
|
|
RagnarokAngel posted:Will you shut the gently caress up with this little goon slap fight? Your mother!
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 04:12
|
|
|
Maybe I am just saying it because it's new. But "The Day After Ragnarok" is pretty incredible.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 05:07
|
|
|
Ulta posted:Just to tie this to GMing, what do you guys think is the "best" setting? For sci-fi, I really like Traveller. You can run it as either more like space opera or hard SF (I tend to prefer the latter, largely because there's just not that many RPGs that do hard SF well). One of the basic conceits is that interstellar travel is still fairly slow (weeks or months) and expensive, and there's no FTL communication other than carrying messages by ship, so the whole thing has a kind of "age of sail" vibe to it -- there's HUGE amounts to explore, and since it takes a while to travel and for news to get around, the focus doesn't have to be on planet-hopping every couple of sessions (plus there's a lot else cool about the setting, the way it mixes mercantile, military, and political elements). For fantasy settings, I'm a big fan of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay -- it's gritty, deadly and relatively low magic, but there's plenty of room for epic heroism in holding back the forces of Chaos. It also has the advantage of a bunch of nicely detailed sourcebooks detailing the world.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 06:12
|
|
|
Megaman's Jockstrap posted:Maybe I am just saying it because it's new. But "The Day After Ragnarok" is pretty incredible. I think they are also working on a HERO version of it. But yeah, it sounds pretty amazing.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 06:14
|
|
|
Ulta posted:It's a sourcebook for a goblin ship that shows up at the colony, basically a giant townsized hobbled together massive hulk held together by luck and goblin shaman magic, plus other stuff. I have given my share of the ransom, and hope it gets enough. Lightspeed Fuzion. It's a kitchen sink sort of setting that gives you a lot of options for how to run a game, and the Fuzion rules fit the setting pretty well.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 14:22
|
|
|
DeclaredYuppie posted:I really loved the setting as well. I'm pretty sure Clockwork Joe mentioned it somewhere, but they're doing another ransom for the second part of the setting. I think they're at ~70% of the ransom reached. If you liked the primer, it might be worth chipping in for the next installment... Posting to say that this is an awesome business model.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 16:12
|
|
|
Thanks for all the advice you guys, its helped a lot  Another question for you. How would I handle a "Trap Room", say the room before the Treasure Room. Can I do an encounter with nothing but traps? Do I roll initiative for each trap that has an initiative? What if they're all triggered traps?
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 16:21
|
|
|
Super Waffle posted:Thanks for all the advice you guys, its helped a lot I actually am considering throwing in the crushing ceiling trap in one of my games soon. Not as instant death, per say, but make it a skill challenge ((Haven't decided if death is the punishment for failure yet. . . Collapsing floor perhaps?)) Thought was primary skills would be Athletics, Endurance, Thievery. . . I'd like to figure out another one or two so no one is left out, but that's the basics. Make it as easy or difficult as you like.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 16:25
|
|
|
Super Waffle posted:Another question for you. How would I handle a "Trap Room", say the room before the Treasure Room. Can I do an encounter with nothing but traps? Do I roll initiative for each trap that has an initiative? What if they're all triggered traps? It's slightly more difficult to run trap encounters, but yes it's very doable. If you have access to Dungeon magazine I'd suggest looking at The Sand King's Daughter in Dungeon 160. It's an epic level dungeon but about half of the rooms are nothing except trap encounters and it will give you a really good idea about how traps work as an encounter. Also starting on page 85 of the DMG you'll get a whole bunch of sample traps as well as lots of explanations of traps. The run down is that traps come in a couple different varieties like monsters. Sometimes they do roll initiative depending on the function of the trap depending on if they repeat every "round" or not. You can make traps elite by improving their damage/DCs. Also, every trap should have multiple countermeasures. In 4e it's almost never the case that thievery is the only option to disable the trap and other skills should always be included that can either disable the trap or help someone else disable the trap. For instance, a dungeoneering check to discover something will give someone a +2 to help disarm it. Athletics is a common skill to help jump over most obstacles or pressure plates so make sure you know how far players would have to jump. Finally make sure that if it makes sense to give the trap defense (usually really low) and hp in case they decide they want to beat on it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 16:54
|
|
|
lighttigersoul posted:I actually am considering throwing in the crushing ceiling trap in one of my games soon. Not as instant death, per say, but make it a skill challenge ((Haven't decided if death is the punishment for failure yet. . . Collapsing floor perhaps?)) Maybe go with the old "illusory trap" cop out. If they fail, are "crushed" by the ceiling only to discover it's illusory. The damage to their psyches is intense enough to knock off a few healing surges though. This also allows you to incorporate other skills into the challenge, like Arcana to give you clues to its illusory nature. I know that illusions are the DnD equivalent of holodeck episodes in Star Trek, but they work so eh.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 17:32
|
|
|
ripped0ff posted:Maybe go with the old "illusory trap" cop out. If they fail, are "crushed" by the ceiling only to discover it's illusory. The damage to their psyches is intense enough to knock off a few healing surges though. This also allows you to incorporate other skills into the challenge, like Arcana to give you clues to its illusory nature. But I like Holodeck episodes! But seriously, good idea for keeping the idea alive without ruining the game. And you can always keep the treasure room locked if they fail, so none of this 'arcana, I know it's fake, okay guys, no worries about the ceiling!'. Of course, I'm gonna say, if you pull this stunt once, and want to use the crushing ceiling again later, you better find a way to make it a threat, just in case.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 17:56
|
|
|
I am using the new monster builder to create a "final boss" for my players Paragon levels. It is a party of 4 and I plan on having this showdown happen when they are level 20. Here is the stat block I have so far, is it too much? Too little? I don't have a lot of experience with high level creatures and this fight is a long long way away, but I was just looking for some feedback.  Click here for the full 440x746 image.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 20:05
|
|
|
Fitz posted:Here is the stat block I have so far, is it too much? Too little? I don't have a lot of experience with high level creatures and this fight is a long long way away, but I was just looking for some feedback. And 2, really, Wizards? You can't build a drat "Monster Builder" program that lets us use your silly "dice side" images for recharging?
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 21:14
|
|
|
tendrilsfor20 posted:Two things: Why does she have an aura 2 that makes her fire attacks better, and then her at-will power pushes targets out of that aura? Both are good points, but to the one I can answer, I wanted something to hassle the two or three melee fighters with to get out of flanking, would replacing it with a push 1+knockdown or perhaps slide 2 be better?
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 21:20
|
|
|
Fitz posted:I am using the new monster builder to create a "final boss" for my players Paragon levels. It is a party of 4 and I plan on having this showdown happen when they are level 20. You might want to have Flame Cage or Fey Step or possibly both recharge with an action point use. Otherwise you are probably going to run out of attacks and just be waiting on recharges. Also I don't see why pyrokinetic blast would be a recharge 6 given that it really isn't that powerful. I'd suggest making it recharge 3 or even a non-recharge, unless there is deadly terrain that is worth pushing PCs into. Edit: Push 1 with a knockdown at a lower recharge would be perfect.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 21:23
|
|
|
^^^^ the points about recharging are good I don't think there's anything wrong with pushing them out of the aura. You don't want players facing her in melee combat, so pushing them away is a good idea. The aura just means that it's gonna hurt more if they persist in getting in her face. The aura doesn't seem like the defining feature of the monster, just a neat bonus and a slight deterrent to getting too close. It looks pretty solid overall, a mix of melee, ranged and area attacks to keep the players guessing as to what happens next. My only complaint is that it might end up becoming a five on one slogfest; I'd suggest including some minions or awesome terrain features. Some difficult terrain to take advantage of Wild Step, flame geysers that fire randomly, etc
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 21:27
|
|
|
Yeah, it doesn't really feel like a Controller to me, mostly. Obviously that doesn't mean anything is wrong with the encounter, though. If you wanted, maybe reflavor the pyrokinetic blast to be something that would shift instead of push.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 21:41
|
|
|
Great suggestions guys, gives me a lot to think on. Right now I've only got a party of 4 level 3 players, Warlock, Warlord, Paladin and either a ranger or a wizard (he hasn't decided which he wants to play.) They aren't the most tactically minded group, but there are 17 levels in between now and then for them to pick things up. I'm intending the fight to actually end when she gets bloodied, so some minions might be perfect to spice things up. The basic gist of the plot here is that this Dragon Cult has been using the Red Witch to channel energy into to resurrect Tiamat (who died some 1000 years or so beforehand) but the Red Witch doesn't know that, she thinks that shes just gaining the power to become a goddess herself in Tiamat's stead. What the players don't know is that their weapons are artifacts made to channel the user's life essence and the essence collected over the course of their adventures (each one is themed around a chromatic dragon) into the Red essence (the witch.) Resulting in enough energy to bring back Tiamat. The OH poo poo moment happens when she hits bloodied and Tiamat is resurrected and then basically flies off because shes got better poo poo to do than play with the party. Then they go into Epic Tier with Tiamat as the BBEG.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 21:43
|
|
|
Fitz posted:What the players don't know is that their weapons are artifacts made to channel the user's life essence and the essence collected over the course of their adventures (each one is themed around a chromatic dragon) into the Red essence (the witch.) Resulting in enough energy to bring back Tiamat. The OH poo poo moment happens when she hits bloodied and Tiamat is resurrected and then basically flies off because shes got better poo poo to do than play with the party. Then they go into Epic Tier with Tiamat as the BBEG. This is really cool. Make sure you have an explanation for the PCs as to why they never noticed their weapons were feeding the big bad energy, and why each magic weapon they happened to find and use was the same way.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 23:11
|
|
|
The problem I see with this idea is that the players are going to trade their weapons in for something better pretty early in the campaign unless you somehow "level up" their weapons for them. Even then, they sill might get rid of them. You never know.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 23:35
|
|
|
Megaman's Jockstrap posted:The problem I see with this idea is that the players are going to trade their weapons in for something better pretty early in the campaign unless you somehow "level up" their weapons for them. Hmmm. . . That's a neat concept, actually. Instead of item drops, make points where their 'weapons' power up in a suitably visible and cool fashion. . . Very gamey, but still would be neat for that type of game.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 23:47
|
|
|
lighttigersoul posted:Hmmm. . . That's a neat concept, actually. Instead of item drops, make points where their 'weapons' power up in a suitably visible and cool fashion. . . Very gamey, but still would be neat for that type of game. They might think something is off though if that happens. Might want to consider something they can carry on them that gives a very small buff, like a token or something that gives +1 to attack rolls once an encounter, or to defenses for a round once an encounter. This way it's not overpowered, but they feel the need to keep them on them, because they're not taking up any slots, so why not keep them? Say the tokens are channeling power through them.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2009 23:59
|
|
|
RagnarokAngel posted:They might think something is off though if that happens. Might want to consider something they can carry on them that gives a very small buff, like a token or something that gives +1 to attack rolls once an encounter, or to defenses for a round once an encounter. Oh, for the original concept, you're right, I meant just for a neat 'epic' 'chosen of the gods' type game, the swelling weapon power could be a very good way to keep the chosen weapon from changing every few weeks.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2009 00:01
|
|
|
RagnarokAngel posted:They might think something is off though if that happens. Might want to consider something they can carry on them that gives a very small buff, like a token or something that gives +1 to attack rolls once an encounter, or to defenses for a round once an encounter. Our DM did that in a campaign. It didn't go so well. She ruled that while one character held the Mystical Plot Symbols, their power increased to give an untyped damage bonus equal to the square of the number of items held. My character somehow acquired four of them, and when combined with his already substantial attack bonuses and other magic items, was doing 2d6+32 damage on a basic melee attack. The penalty for using them was a cumulative penalty to Will defence every time you took an extended rest. Unfortunately, Will was already my lowest save and no enemies seemed to be attacking it, so I just had a marvellous time roleplaying my character getting increasingly unhinged and corrupted until by the time he reached the final boss he out and asked if he could join the forces of evil, needing to be slapped out of it by the rest of the party.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2009 01:13
|
|
|
lighttigersoul posted:Hmmm. . . That's a neat concept, actually. Instead of item drops, make points where their 'weapons' power up in a suitably visible and cool fashion. . . Very gamey, but still would be neat for that type of game. There is rules for how to do this in the adventurers vault.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2009 12:50
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 23, 2024 09:48 |
|
|
Countblanc posted:This is really cool. Make sure you have an explanation for the PCs as to why they never noticed their weapons were feeding the big bad energy, and why each magic weapon they happened to find and use was the same way. The transference of power won't take place until this fight, once the witch gets bloodied, the energies will surge from their items into her. Basically the way I have it set to work is that the weapons store the life energy of the creatures they kill, as well as siphoning off the player's own life force, fueling the power of the weapons and increasing the weapons power over time. But since the players life energy is still with them technically, they won't notice they are being drained. I'm treating the weapons similar to artifacts, when they get to certain levels the item becomes a higher enchantment bonus version of the base magic weapon and then tacking on a few extra abilities. I have also tailored each item to the characters so its something that fits in with them thematically and will be something they grow attached to. As far as them keeping the magic item, I have a couple thoughts about that, where appropriate, I have had the items "bond" with the PC and if anyone else other than that PC touches it, they feel uncomfortable or even take some minor damage of the appropriate elemental type. For example, the warlord in my game has had his sword since he was in warlord school (or whatever) and in his character history he had put that it had some old Draconic runes etched into the blade that had been worn and marred over the years. As the sword has been growing in power, the runes have started to become cleared and anyone other than the warlord who touches the sword feels it as very very cold and uncomfortable to touch (his is the white dragon item.) Another thought would be similar to The One Ring, if they get rid of it, it will somehow find its way back. I figure it would be pretty interesting if someone sells their item, and then a few months down the line they get attacked by bandits wielding their former item.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2009 17:37
|
|