Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

1000th reply! Cookie, please.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

You're right, and if I can get Archmage one level sooner... I'm not sure what you mean by retroactively putting skill ranks in Knowledge (Arcana).

By the way, douglas, it's creepy reading that post and thinking "hey, that's exactly what I thought I'd do..." And 300 XP is what, 1/3 of a random encounter?

Jack Smith: ahh, I understand now. Thanks for the enlightenment http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Psychic Reformation allows reassignment of skill points as well as feats. So, at the same time as you're swapping out feats, you could, for example, move the 6 skill points you spent on Move Silently to Knowledge (Arcana). You could also take them away from your 8 points in Gather Information (both it and Move Silently are cross class, in case you're wondering why I'm saying 6 and 8 instead of 3 and 4), or one of your Knowledge skills.
There's not much room for flexibility in this if you want to both satisfy the Archmage prereqs asap and get bonuses to SR penetration, so it's not really surprising that we'd come up with the same set of swaps. 300 XP is indeed very close to 1/3 of a "typical" encounter at our level, though if you want to swap out all three feats it'll take 600 XP. One CR 14 monster's worth of XP divided among 5 party members gives 840 XP for 14th level characters.

Edit: Here's a working link to a Psychic Reformation power description, since Jack's doesn't work.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Psychic Reformation is a psionic thingy though... I'm totally blank on the rules concerning this, but how would I cast it? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Limited Wish can duplicate spells and psionic powers.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

So, under transparency, a Power is a spell, for most practical purposes; Psychic Reformation is Psion/Wilder 4, so even if it qualifies as Prohibited, it's still fair game for Limited Wish.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Bloody clever that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Also provides an in-game way of retrofitting most characters for little optimization problems ... but at a cost that won't usually be paid frivolously.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Too bad it's wish which can restore my form, not limited wish.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Maybe if you're good, in a few levels... actually, though, I think I like you as a wolf better http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Ring of wishing is all I need. Or a luck blade, that works too.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

It'd be funny if we got a ring of wishing and someone else used it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

And then I attack them, savagly. I do have more hit die, after all.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

'Gee, I wish Kibin were a fish'.

- Kibin expires.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Bah. Without me you would have perished at that magical fire trap.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Not nessasarily. It's the TPK principle. Most GM's don't want a TPK - That ruins everybodies fun, tends to derail the campain and some people might leave.

Therefore, the challenges faced by a party are generally tailored to the party - This means that lack of a rogue means traps are downgraded.

Of course, if we've got a pure Gamist GM, all that reasoning is pretty much worthless.

It's like that 'How many random encounters do you get?'

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

That went way over my head.. TPK?

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Total Party Kill. Happens when the DM misjudges an encounter or the PC's get really unlucky and the entire party dies.

On the subject of number of random encounters, see this comic.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Nice comic... now can we trust it to hold now that the GM has read it?

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

The Order Of The Stick? Read it regularly, ever since ... I think I picked it up when Narf first posted his comic thread.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Here's a whole line of reasoning which gets us to what we're facing. I have no idea if that's what Jack thought; it's merely an intelectual excercise.

Right. Now, the campaign started with a ghost and a paladin. The ghosts' strength is fighting anything corpereal, with a minor weakness against things with high Will saves and grapple modifiers. My character is a paladin - Best against evil creatures.

Now, a GM can always make evil NPC's, but it's easier just to use pre-made monsters. Since paladins are champions of spiritual good, the naturally opposed monsters are undead and demons.

Then we picked up a rogue - Ashtons' character. Undead are generally immune to critical hits, so even a low-level undead would still leave 1/3 of the party pretty much innefective. (Which would change if Ashton picks up an anti-evil weapon - Natural attacks can be enchanted). However, the current situation leaves demons as a good moderate challenge to the group.

Then, enter one mage - And one cleric. See where I'm going? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Of course, we probably will face other threats - But this is merely an intellectual example of how to calculate a 'Standard threat type'. It's also not the only possible style of GM'ing - Some GM's perfer a mix of encounters, some of which the party is unprepared for, by nature of class.

The purist Gamist GM, to explain, simply puts threats and plots down, and leaves it completly up to the players to avoid TPK. If the party accidently walks into the dragons' lair while the dragon is there, it's entirely up to them to avoid being toasted.

The Storytelling GM is the other extreme. If the party accidently runs into a dragons' lair at first level, it's because it's plot-related, and they won't get toasted unless they do something like try to steal treasure. And if it's actually not plot related, but an accident of where the party choose to go, it'll be plot related rather quickly.

There's more to it than that; for one thing, most GM's (Me, for example), seem to fall somewhere in the middle. And those aren't the only style of GM'ing.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Shush! Stop giving away the plot before I'm done spinning it yet!

Actually, though, the main reason for Jason's build is a bail-out character; regardless of how bad it gets, he's only perma-gone by DM fiat (Core, it'd take an evil cleric of two levels below twice his ECL to get rid of him for good... and that's likely going to be able to take out the entire party by itself anyway, as it would be level 26 at this point; could also be done with certain save-or-effectively-die Sor/Wiz spells at just a little over the level the party is currently at). At present, he's past his peak level range - about the only ability he has that couldn't be duplicated by a fairly straightforward Sorceror 14 build with an eye towards those abilities would be the Rejuvination, and such a sorceror would have many spells at his disposal (with a higher caster level, and higher level spells) than Jason has available, as well as better saves all around.

Of course, if I accidentally TPK the party, Jason will come back on his own, and perhaps be able to rectify the situation to a degree.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Yay roleplaying tomorrow. Anyway, any chance I could try DMing a campaign? Don't have one yet, but suggestions would be nice, for when we do finish this campaign.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

My biggest suggestion would be figure out what you want to run:

What power level do you prefer playing? Minimum, low, mid, mid-high, high, or epic?
(Translates to character levels: Starting Level (start at 1), Low-level (2-5), Mid level (6-10), Mid-high (10-15), high (16-20), or Epic (21+))
Do you like variant rules (e.g., Unearthed Arcana stuff - Gestalt characters, variant classes, generic classes, et cetera)
Do you like bizzare player races (e.g., Ghosts, Half-Celestials, Half-Dragons, Half-Fiends, et cetera)?
Do you like lots of wealth (high or low magic, basically)?
Do you want to play the good guy or the bad guy (As the DM, you play the villian - if you want to be the good guy, run an Evil campaign; bad guy, run a Good campaign)
How much complexity do you like? (also influences starting level - it's much more complex to create a 15th level character or monster than a 5th level character or monster)
How confident are you in your ability to track things? There's usually much less to track for a CR 1-5 critter than there is for a CR 15-20 critter.

Answer such questions as the above, and then figure out your campaign. The DM must enjoy the game as well, otherwise, what's the point?

Edit:
As an example, the currently ECL 14 campaing I'm running started at ECL 11... because I wanted to try out a character concept (Jason). If you have a character concept you would like to examine, a villian of a campaign or a support/bailout character with the party can accomplish it when you are the GM.

After this campaing, I'm considering a 10th-12th gestalt scenario where we try to take down the Terrasque; Cheese strongly encouraged; one sample cheese build: Wiz/Half-Elf Paragon 3, Wiz/Human Paragon 3, Wiz/Fighter 1, Wiz/Loremaster 3; casts as a Wiz 16. One more gestalt level, and he could cast as a Wiz/18 (could also be done with Sorceror, equally easily; could also drop a Half-Elf paragon level, swap for a Paladin level, swish the Fighter level around to be contingent to the swapped level and swap it for Paladin - with two Paladin levels, gain Cha to saves).

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Or a psiblade/pyrokinesis. Ooo, flaming mind blades. Probally level 1, with quick level advancment. Variant, maybe, if it's balanced enough. Weird player races, sure why not, just expect to get odd glances. Lots of wealth, maybe average. I want my PCs to be good : ) And for complexity, I'm a subscriber of the KISS method, but a little complexity in the plot can't hurt.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

All right, you've got your basic campaign level.

Now, roll 3d10, and consult the following lists:

1:Damsel
2:Prince
3:Pauper
4:King
5:Princess
6:Quenn
7:Baroness
8:Dragon
9:Druid
10:Wizard

1:Kills
2:Eats
3:Kidnaps
4:Rescues
5:Inconvinences
6:Subverts
7:Controls
8:Replaces
9:Unleashes
10:Marries

1:Damsel
2:Prince
3:Pauper
4:King
5:Princess
6:Quenn
7:Baroness
8:Dragon
9:Druid
10:Wizard

Then make a plot out of the three selected words (or fill in your own list; that works too); these are seeds; for example:
2,9,9:

Prince Unleashes Druid

Then spin a situation off it:

Let's see... how could a prince unleash a druid? Perhaps...

Local Prince of the realm decides he wants to boost the farmland under his control, so he can support a larger army to either conquer his neighbors or keep from being conquered himself. To do this, he cuts/burns down an ancient forest bordering the lands he controls.

This forest "just happened" to be held sacred by some powerful (read: 1 to 3 levels above the party) Druid or other who takes offense, and takes revenge (packs of wolves attacking the villagers trying to plant crops, locust swarms eating established crops, that kind of thing; doesn't matter that the Druid doesn't have the right spells on his list to cause it directly - perhaps he trains wild wolves to attack, rather than summoning them (although he may do that, too), breeds the locusts by planting the right kind of plants and carefully placing grasshoppers in them at strategic locations, et cetera - DM artistic license, here).

The Prince, seeing his country getting severely hurt, calls out for help.

This is where the party comes in, to react as they may. Of course, at first, they only hear the prince's side (he's the one that called them... but you could reverse that) that something is eating away at the locals (wolf packs, locust swarms, that kind of thing) with no particular reason as to why now. If they dig, well and good; if they unthinkingly run and slay, well and good; can run with it either way, really.

Simple example, but you get the idea; if you take the time to make longer lists, you can use larger die - d12's, d20's, even d100's

Note that this is just a simple technique for a creative aid - it's for when you are running a little short of ideas - and that if you have a plot you want, go for it.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

There's a good chance I won't be able to make tommorrows'.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

You can get some really wierd combinations if you just roll the dice and take whatever comes up with those lists.

As an aside, I'd kind of like to keep going with my existing character. It's much more fun IMO to keep developing the same character for a long period of time than to frequently start over with new characters.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

They are seeds, nothing more; the fun comes when you then spin that into a plot:

Damsel A stubles on a book that lists a ritual to gain immortality (actually, vampirism....) and, not caring about others, decides to try it; what's the life of one random virgin (Damsel B) compared to an eternity of youthful beauty and power?

It is, of course, up to the party to intervene before she completes her nefarious plans (assuming a good party; for an evil party, they need to find, capture, and deliver the appropriet girl....)

Some other fun ones:
Prince
Replaces
Princess

Dragon
Marries
King

Narf: Well, I've missed my share of sessions too. I suppose Derrel can be called off for a day of prayer or some such.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Actually, I would expect the evil party's mission to depend entirely on how much Damsel A was willing to offer to hire them compared to how much Damsel B and/or people and organizations opposed to Damsel A were willing to pay. Of course, with an evil party there's always the possibility of trying to swindle both sides...

I can just imagine the party taking a down payment from Damsel A, cornering Damsel B, taking whatever she's willing to give them, coming back to kidnap her anyway, returning to Damsel A's hideout, killing her, stealing her ritual books, and performing the ritual themselves. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Hehe, I finally got around to reading the log of last session... not used to people roleplaying characters concerned with appearance? I like to give my people a bit of personality... I'm still trying to figure out what another good trait for her would be - probably a total fear of anything affecting her mental abilities.

And I shall use V's excuse... studying the universe makes one a little physically weak. Protect me, big muscular paladin in shining armour http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

GM - nice playing of Kaylin there, it's exactly what I'd have done

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Wizard Adventuring Survival 101: Buy, make, find, or steal the best, toughest suit of armor you can find... and put it on the biggest toughest fighter you can find and stick him between you and all danger.

Paraphrased from somewhere I don't remember.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Bwawahahahahaha http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Yeah... by the way, for the sake of roleplaying, I'd like Kaylin to get a dagger for general use - cutting food, etc. Daamge there would be 1d4-1, with a -4 to attack rolls, correct? Mithril would be in keeping with elven racial preferences, at least in my mind.

A bit expensive though... now I have to decide whether it's better to roleplay or make a powerful character, but at 802 GP, it's not an awfully high price... 'course, I'd have to find somewhere to get a masterwork weapon.

In the spells thing, I'm thinking I should acquire Mind Fog and Prying Eyes for the sake of searching... and almost certainly Enervation.. just imagine.... 2d4 negative levels per round... that'd learn 'em to try to make saving throws... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

1d4-1 damage, yes, but wizards are proficient with daggers so no penalty on the attack rolls. Also, OpenRPG will automatically apply the strength penalty to damage, so just enter it as 1d4.

Mithril... what's the point? Even in character, the only real reason to get a mithril dagger would be to show off the fact that you can afford such a thing. Going back to The Lord of the Rings, the origin of both the fictional metal and the "standard" version of High Elves in most fantasy literature today, I don't recall any mention of mithril weapons of any type, while a great deal was made about mithril armor, particularly chainmail. Out of character, the rules provide specific and very useful benefits for mithril armor, but do nothing but halve the weight for everything else.

Hmm, low saving throws + Greater Command: Halt! Or maybe Approach would work better. Muahahahaha!

For searching, we do have a rogue in the party, we could equip him with the ring of invisibility, and I could cast Wind Walk on him. Heck, it's an hour per level duration, I could cast it on the whole party when we get up in the morning. I could even use Extend Spell to make it last until four hours later the next day. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Meh, no windwalk for me. Hmmmm, maybe we could start a couple of hours earlier, since we don't have to wait for narf?

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Get a masterwork dagger with a Continual Flame spell on the blade - sheath it when you don't want light, carry it when you do; convince people it's a Flaming dagger the rest of the time.....

And server online.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Okay, we're waiting on you people now.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Hmm, now where in my mind did I assume mithril foo was an elven thing? The flaming dagger idea is cool http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

And there's the disadvantage I was looking for.. absent mindedness.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

So...How's it going?

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Server closed; two baddies killed (one CR 14, one CR 16); 2520 Xp each to Derrel, Jason, Elorin, and Kaylin; 1950 for Kibin.

1000 extra XP each for everyone for assorted traps and puzzles dealt with.

Loot hashed out in character; check log, hopefully attached.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Someday I'll deal with a trap by not triggering it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Until then, you may want to invest in a ring of feather falling to reduce the impact... or a scroll of feather falling, slip it into your spellbook, and keep a copy prepared at all times....

As for spell research....

Well, I already put the basic options for what Kibin's after in the discussion itself.... propose a spell, and I'll see about assigning a level.

I could also slip something vaugely plot-related in.... a Ring of Polymorph, Continuous, with a set form whenever worn, perhaps....

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Ring of Feather Falling sounds awesome... just the sort of thing I need for all these accursed pits.

For the new spell, I like the idea of 2,000 XP drain from the target each casting. As a sort of combination of Permanency and Polymorph would make sense to me... so it'd be something like:

Level 7:

36 hour ritual
Permanent duration (or until subject wishes to change back)
1,000 XP from the target (or 2,000 if wishes to gain abilities of new form)
Changes into any monster valid from Polymorph with up to 15HD (caster level HD)
5,000 gp MC cost (or 10,000 if wishes to gain abilities of new form)

Also, attached are the OpenRPG node and the charsheet for when (if) you want to NPC Kaylin.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

How about plot related thingie? Like some ritual the sorcerer does to get me back to normal for the ritual he wants to do. Maybe requiring a piece of the monster.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Well... I've already pretty much decided on the path he is going to use to get the memory he's after ... waiting for a day when everyone shows up to run it, however. I have it mostly scripted out, even (doing so will set a clock, however....).

A side plot, though ... hmm ... a different ring ... crafted for Evil's purposes ... but able to be turned towards Good's use ... yes....

He he he....

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Bah, I'll just let you deal with everything. I've learned not to try to mess with the plot/rules any.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

They aren't particularly expensive; only 2,200 gp.For not keeping the abilities, that works at 7th; to get the abilities though, you need to start from Shapechange (9th), rather than Polymorph Any Object (8th), and must apply a Permanency modifier to it first (+4), and a one change per casting modifier (-2), for a starting point of 11th; a 100,000 gp Focus, 10,000 gp Material Component, and 2,000 xp drain net a -3, down to 8th; a long ritual (48 hours) would give another -1, for 7th. Could also increase one of the requirements (xp, MC, or Focus cost) by an order of magnitude (x10; 1,000,000 gp focus, 100,000 gp Material Component, 20,000 xp (split however between caster and target), or 480 hours (Forced March rules to continue the casting - keep Elorin on hand for eliminating fatigue and exhastion.... and pick up two Rings of Sustenence - one for caster, one for target)) for an extra -1 to the spell level.

Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Can we just let the sorcerer do it for us?