OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.(Edited2)

[Alneyan]

Jack Simth said:
Sure, a level-10 character can probably take out that crock without breaking a sweat [...]

Mind Thrust! Such a nice power for taking care of these problems, along with a slice of good fortune. Does Stis' ever-growing forehead increase her Charisma?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Uh, the XP scale is set in the books, and crocs are worth less the higher up the scale you get. This is compensated for by increasingly difficult monsters. It makes sense to me. Once you've killed ten crocs, the eleventh one is going to be almost routine.

I was asking about the 50 XP/one plot point reward for doing something interesting or achieving a goal or contributing in non-normal ways.

[Jack Simth]

Oh, yeah - synergy, I keep forgetting.

Points for plot puzzles probably should scale, as one's ability to solve a plot puzzle depends on the player(s) much more than the character, while the benifit of EXP goes down as a character's level goes up. Also, it encourages players to try the puzzles - if the fights keep giving more EXP (as the fights keep getting more challenging to keep pace with character advancement) but the puzzles give out a fairly constant EXP rate, someone who values character advancement over plot advancement is encouraged to get in as many fights as is surviveable, and ignore the plot. Whereas, if a plot puzzle stays roughly in line with the benifits from a fight, the choice of which to persue becomes a matter of taste more than function.

Then again, I've never seen the D&D exp scaling tables, so there could easily be a few flaws in my reasoning.

[Jack Simth]

Alneyan said:
Mind Thrust! Such a nice power for taking care of these problems, along with a slice of good fortune.

I hope she doesn't run into any undead before you diversify her abilities; mind thrust only works on things with a reasonably normal mind - all undead are immune:

Undead Psionic Creatures
A psionic undead creature, although rare, is a force to be reckoned with.

Because undead are immune to mind-affecting effects (including charms and compulsions), they are particularly threatening to other psionic creatures and characters (especially telepaths). Psionic undead creatures can use mind-affecting powers on the living, even though they themselves are immune to such attacks. However, an undead creature may have the psionic subtype if it meets the criteria described above, and thus be vulnerable to non-mindaffecting powers or effects that specifically affect psionic creatures.

Intelligent constructs and plants with psionic powers or psi-like abilities also share this advantage.

Energy Ray is probably a good choice for the next power on your list....

Alneyan said:
Does Stis' ever-growing forehead increase her Charisma?

Not unless she spends her (what was it, every third level?) stat increase on Charisma (which is reccomended - don't want to be disabled in one hit by a stat-damaging critter).

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Every fourth level. At that rate, it might be best to instead get stat-increasing items, especially since the points are normally best spent on the characters main stat. As for the D&D XP table, XP gain lowers at and after fourth level for lower level creatures. Higher XP is nearly always given out for higher level XP creatures, save when the creature is to powerfull.

In other notes, Fred Saberhagens 'The Frankenstein Papers' is good. The book does for frankensteins 'monster' what 'The Dracula Tapes' (Which, I am convinced, is a very bad pun) does for Dracula. That is< presents the other side of the story>

And now it seems that once more holding down the shift key for to long has messed up XP> I have disaabled the problem> As to what the problem is< look at the lowercase options on those lesser and greator signs on your keyboard> However< I do not think that it will interfere with typing up a plot XP table> Actually< it does> !@#$%^&*()>

[Alneyan]

I think her next offensive power will be Swarm of Crystals, though that would be only available on level 3. This spells deal 1d4 damage per level, and it cannot be resisted by anything, unlike Mind Thrust. This spell has the annoying inconvenient of being cone-shaped however, so you and Brian had better watch your backs if Stis start using this spell.

The problem with Ray attacks is that they require a ranged touch roll, which is not exactly something Stis is able to do well (if her -17 penalty to attack rolls apply here). I do not think there is another offensive power at level 1 without an additional roll, so I guess we will have to wait. Until then, hone your Turn Undead skill.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

You know, I do not think a ray attack would work with gauntlets anyway. I mean, the ray departs from your finger. The first thing it would encounter, and thus discharge upon, would be the gauntlet. At best, and most probably, it would simply be blocked. Taking of gauntlets would be a standard action, I would think.

But I don't want to be an annoying GM. Although the idea is amusing...

* Now, how can I reasonably include undead? j/k

[Jack Simth]

Druids can't Turn Undead. That's a Cleric/Paladin only thing. Choice of class for Jacob was a form of comprimise - needed immidiate access to both healing abilities (which Druids have, unlike Wizards and Sorcerors) and Detect Magic (which Druids also have, unlike Priests). Downside, Druids don't have Turn Undead. However, Cure spells tend to have the opposite effect on the undead, and Druids do have some of those available.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Oh, right. Story XP table. 1-5, based on normal XP awards. Traps can have XP awards too...

Code:

---

Level | XP

1     | 50

2     | 100

3     | 150

4     | 200

5     | 250

---

It appears that the XP for CL vs. CR awards goes up by 300 XP if they are equal.

[Jack Simth]

Oh, that's fairly simple - Animate Dead is an (Neutral/Evil)Cleric 3, Death Domain 3 (class level 5), Sorceror/Wizard 4 spell (Class level 7 for Wizards, 8 for Sorcerors), useful for creating cheap gaurds for an area. It's possible that the bandits have a few keeping watch so they don't need to worry about it - after all, zombies and skeletons don't require pay, food, or time off (they aren't unionized, bandits are).