Board 8 > Anagram's D&D Game - Topic 2

(+) Yeah! (+)

shadosneko posted...
Yeah, sorry, but I think I'll be droppin out.

I've got a bit too much on my table to spend time on this.

Alright. Sorry to hrear it, but I understand

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Started: July 6, 2005

Alright guys. Anyone who wants, meet in AnagramDND at 3:00 PST (our normal time) tomorrow.

Omega, you still need to have the short RP session with me to get you caught up.

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Guys, sorry, sorry, but I can't make Tuesday, something just came up. I'm really sorry about this.

I can still make Thursday, though, if you guys want to do that instead.

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Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig.
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Awwwww :(

But ah well, that sounds fine.

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Sburbopolis, Homestuck RPG: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/60981373

Thursday and Friday? Guess that's fine too.

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"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick

OK, so I'm kind of at an impasse, guys. I've been unable to decide on what dailies to give Valerian post-switch, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. Currently, Val has Boiling Cloud and Swift Panther Rage. The idea between the two is to give him the ability to charge all day erryday, plus use Savage Growl to its full extent by tanking up on defenses enough that attacks will miss outright, plus tack on damage with Boiling Cloud. The issue here is, Boiling Cloud requires marking to deal that autodamage, and it's just 3 damage a turn, hardly anything noteworthy beyond popping minions like they're Pringles. So I've been looking at other options, thinking. Here's the choices at my disposal, as I see it:

-Take Form of the Relentless Panther (level 1 Warden daily, the one Val's used so far), plus Rage of the Crimson Hurricane. His defenses stay stuck at their current values except for Reflex, and he still has to mark his target, but he does stupidly huge damage if he catches enemies with his newfound AoE trick (Thundering Howl), as it works once per target hit and Thundering Howl can hit a bunch, plus it triggers twice if I hit with Wildblood Frenzy, and he can chargespam all day. Oh, and he has a +1 bonus to attack rolls as a consolation prize
-Take Form of the Fearsome Ram and Rage of the Crimson Hurricane. This is the full-offense option, making Valerian hyper accurate on a charge (something like four points over his base attack roll. Yeah, really), letting him push people around, and dealing extra damage not contingent on marking. Downside is my defenses ain't that good besides the Bloodiron bonus.
-Stick with my current setup. It's mostly defensively oriented (I give everybody a +2 bonus to defenses for hugging me, so if I do go with this it's a good idea to stick with Val, bee tee dubs), so it wins more by attrition than anything else. Granted, having 27 AC is really good at this level and it will keep improving as I get real armor.
-Special option: Currently my Warden power is Call Faerie Guardian, which gives me easy marking (to go with Boiling Cloud). If it would be more useful, I could instead take Nature's Abundance or Fey Congress, which create Cover and Concealment in a Close Burst 3 and Burst 1, respectively. The issue about them is that the former munches up a Standard Action to start up (but that IS a lot of cover for us that doesn't work for the enemy), while the latter eats up minor actions. The other downside is that I love the fluff of Call Faerie Guardian, but I might be able to live with the loss. As a note, Nature's Abundance stacks with Boiling Cloud, which kicks our defenses up by a whopping +4 if I put both down.

So, any ideas, gentlemen? I kinda wanna take what will work best with the group, but I'm not sure what that is, as all choices have pros and cons.

EDIT: I should clarify why I'm worrying about this: Valerian's OTHER utility power is Savage Growl. That baby grants me a bonus 1d8 damage for a couple turns, plus it marks. The downside is that it makes the target deal 1d8 damage to ME, too. SInce that's a losing tradeoff but the damage bonus is sweet, I need high defenses. The question is just how high, since I can't count on Vance marking people to take the heat off me.

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Sburbopolis, Homestuck RPG: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/60981373

Honestly I thought being crazy with melee damage with our resident warlord in the group was p. badass already. If you went more defensive though at the very least the warlord's options are a bit better with Vance's fist now dealing a solid d10 of damage with his fighter hit bonuses going on.

But yeah, the charging bonus sounds pretty awesome, I'm a fan of charging at stuff though lol

also bump

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Accel ACE
Totally still relevant, totally not just a lurker. Totally.

Thinking about I, there's definitely good reasons to go witht he double-offense plus Nature's Abundance option. Val moves way too much for him to be able to make good use of Boiling Cloud's hijinks to protect the team, and he needs what bonuses he can get to keep up. Things will work better that way I think. Time to make some changes!

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Sburbopolis, Homestuck RPG: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/60981373

After seeing all of this crazy nonsense, Jean decides to return to Master Rael and become a female servant. Broder, the owlbear, is left in care of Euri, making sure to protect her, and possibly help find wild ingredients for russian dragonborn dishes.

The end.

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http://backloggery.com/shados
http://last.fm/user/ShadosNeko

And they all lived happily ever after.

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"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick

shadosneko posted...
After seeing all of this crazy nonsense, Jean decides to return to Master Rael and become a female servant. Broder, the owlbear, is left in care of Euri, making sure to protect her, and possibly help find wild ingredients for russian dragonborn dishes.

The end.

I had actually already thought of a way to write Jean out of the plot without... uh... that.

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Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig.
Started: July 6, 2005

Could someone look at this? Mostly at my to hit roll? Pretty sure I've botched somethin' somewhere.

...Didn't ditch the SoP because I don't think you can swap out startin' items, yeah?

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=355605

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If Heimerdinger is so smart, how come he hasn't built himself a purpose? - Renekton Bot

From: IhatethisCPU | #362
Could someone look at this? Mostly at my to hit roll? Pretty sure I've botched somethin' somewhere.

...Didn't ditch the SoP because I don't think you can swap out startin' items, yeah?

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=355605

You forgot the expertise. 4 + 3 + 3 + 2 = 12.

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Sburbopolis, Homestuck RPG: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/60981373

Thank ya kindly. Was a little worried that the to-hit mod was low after last week's debacle. >_>'

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If Heimerdinger is so smart, how come he hasn't built himself a purpose? - Renekton Bot

The warhammer's accuracy should be +10, which is probably why it felt so low. But yeah, things look good.

PS: Dragonfear should be + 3/+6+/+9 though, if Anagram is amenable to it. +2/+4/+6 doesn't scale up properly against current monsters.

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Sburbopolis, Homestuck RPG: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/60981373

KanzarisKelshen posted...
The warhammer's accuracy should be +10, which is probably why it felt so low. But yeah, things look good.

PS: Dragonfear should be + 3/+6+/+9 though, if Anagram is amenable to it. +2/+4/+6 doesn't scale up properly against current monsters.

What's the reason it should be higher instead of lower?

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From: Anagram | #361
I had actually already thought of a way to write Jean out of the plot without... uh... that.

My entry is canon, unless you were planning to actually use Jean as an NPC.

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http://backloggery.com/shados
http://last.fm/user/ShadosNeko

shadosneko posted...
From: Anagram | #361
I had actually already thought of a way to write Jean out of the plot without... uh... that.
My entry is canon, unless you were planning to actually use Jean as an NPC.

As you wish, it's canon now. It's easy enough to make it work.

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From: Anagram | #366
KanzarisKelshen posted...
The warhammer's accuracy should be +10, which is probably why it felt so low. But yeah, things look good.

PS: Dragonfear should be + 3/+6+/+9 though, if Anagram is amenable to it. +2/+4/+6 doesn't scale up properly against current monsters.

What's the reason it should be higher instead of lower?

Expertise. Racial powers don't benefit from it, so it's very necessary to make them scale 3/6/9.

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Sburbopolis, Homestuck RPG: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/60981373

Incidentally, CPU, when you need to hit remember to use your Level 5 Housewife ability. It's a +1 to an attack roll.

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Sburbopolis, Homestuck RPG: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/60981373

As it becomes canon, that means Euri gets to do what she wills with Broder.

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http://backloggery.com/shados
http://last.fm/user/ShadosNeko

Isn't dragonfear a minor action and besides that, free abilities don't need to be on the same scale as "paid for" abilities, there's no need to houserule a scaling up.

Edit: Yeah, wow. Looking dragonfear over again, there's absolutely no reason to give it a buff. An ally friendly burst 5 that hits every enemy in the burst, as a minor action... to apply -2 to their attack rolls and force them to grant combat advantage? That's as good an effect as some encounter powers that use a standard action!


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Accel ACE
Totally still relevant, totally not just a lurker. Totally.

Yeah, uh, that sounds really good, Kanz is dumb.

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"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick

I suppose we could say Broder becomes Euri's mount, as CPU's put a non-horse mount on his wishlist and it works well enough.

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From: Accel ACE | #372
Isn't dragonfear a minor action and besides that, free abilities don't need to be on the same scale as "paid for" abilities, there's no need to houserule a scaling up.

Edit: Yeah, wow. Looking dragonfear over again, there's absolutely no reason to give it a buff. An ally friendly burst 5 that hits every enemy in the burst, as a minor action... to apply -2 to their attack rolls and force them to grant combat advantage? That's as good an effect as some encounter powers that use a standard action!

Dragonbreath has an infinitely better effect. You can hurl it turn after turn with the appropriate feat, and you can't tell me this...

INSPIRING BREATH
Prerequisite: Dragonborn, warlord
Benefit: When you hit an enemy using your dragon breath racial power, your allies gain a +5 bonus to damage rolls against that enemy until the end of your next turn.

...Isn't better than a debuff to attack rolls that is never, ever hitting. Remember, we're facing enemies with higher levels than us AND heightened defenses on top because they're solos.

EDIT: Furthermore, Dragonbreath got updated to be +3/+6/+9 itself. I don't think I need to say more really.

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Sburbopolis, Homestuck RPG: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/60981373

Your argument involves burning feats to make the ability better, that's silly. Powers don't need to be goldtext optimized good to be great powers, y'know.

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Accel ACE
Totally still relevant, totally not just a lurker. Totally.

So you can either have an awesome, vastly more party friendly debuff, or you can put a massive feat investment to get mileage out of your racial. Not seeing the upside here.

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"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick

Don't forget at some point in time we're probably going to wind up fighting more than just one solo. While we have seen a fair share of them, a balanced encounter involves lots of enemies. A burst 5 that targets every single enemy in the burst (even if it isn't accurate) is still attacking EVERY SINGLE TARGET in the burst. As a minor action. Base dragonbreath got a buff because base dragonbreath was really, really crappy without feat investment that was better spent someplace else.

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Accel ACE
Totally still relevant, totally not just a lurker. Totally.

Also, dragonfear opens up a fear-based prestige class that strikes me as quite scary, considering how debilitating status effects tend to be.

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"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick

...I. I don't even know. I'm trying to picture Euri on an owlbear in my mind now, and it's just boggling.

I can take the mount off my wishlist now, though. Thank ya kindly.

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If Heimerdinger is so smart, how come he hasn't built himself a purpose? - Renekton Bot

If we're using the owlbear as a mount we can houserule it as another mount just fluffed into an owlbear if needed. A few good mounts around our level...

Dire Boar, Rage Drake, Rhinoceros

Don't forget you have to feed them like anybody else in the group and they're large or bigger creatures which require more food than medium creatures (not that we've seemed to worry about food yet)

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Accel ACE
Totally still relevant, totally not just a lurker. Totally.

From: Sceptilesolarbeam | #379
Also, dragonfear opens up a fear-based prestige class that strikes me as quite scary, considering how debilitating status effects tend to be.

Except Fear is vastly resisted. No seriously, something like 30% of the monsters either have boosts to Fear or simply laugh at it.

From: Sceptilesolarbeam | #377
So you can either have an awesome, vastly more party friendly debuff, or you can put a massive feat investment to get mileage out of your racial. Not seeing the upside here.

It's a -2 to attack rolls, Scep. It's gross overkill, not awesome. You have to remember the party.

From: Accel ACE | #376
Your argument involves burning feats to make the ability better, that's silly. Powers don't need to be goldtext optimized good to be great powers, y'know.

Not saying they have to be, but I think arguing Dragonfear is better when a single feat gives Dragonbreath a massive partywide buff to damage that stacks with all other buffs (on a party with people who attack repeatedly), vis granting an attack penalty when we have someone who slaps down a -5 penalty on a whim is kinda odd. Dragonfear also doesn't get better - what you see is what you get. Dragonbreath has a toolbox of strong feats at its disposal. A single one makes it insane. The others turn it into something broken.

EDIT: I'd say that using the fey beast rules would be a better idea, actually. The fey beast scales, unlike a mount. That is, incidentally, the big issue of mounts, so fixing it is a good idea.

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Sburbopolis, Homestuck RPG: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/60981373

Don't forget you have to feed them like anybody else in the group and they're large or bigger creatures which require more food than medium creatures (not that we've seemed to worry about food yet)

No, don't you see, we just acquire all our sustenance via osmosis.

It's a -2 to attack rolls, Scep. It's gross overkill, not awesome. You have to remember the party.

... And a +5 to damage isn't overkill? I'm pretty sure we have a sizeable number of damage boosting powers in the party too, certainly more than attack debuffs.

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"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick

I think you're vastly under rating feats here, Kanz. Feats can be spent on inherent bonuses that apply to more than just one encounter power. Not to mention the fact warlord has a tremendous amount of powerful feats in the first place.

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Accel ACE
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From: Sceptilesolarbeam | #383
Don't forget you have to feed them like anybody else in the group and they're large or bigger creatures which require more food than medium creatures (not that we've seemed to worry about food yet)

No, don't you see, we just acquire all our sustenance via osmosis.

It's a -2 to attack rolls, Scep. It's gross overkill, not awesome. You have to remember the party.

... And a +5 to damage isn't overkill? I'm pretty sure we have a sizeable number of damage boosting powers in the party too, certainly more than attack debuffs.

We actually don't. Currently the party has:

-Vance's mark.
-Valerian's Mark.
-Nature's Abundance.
-Savage Growl.
-Glowering Threat.

For damage buffs, we have:

-Inspire Belligerence
-Hammer and Anvil
-????

Again, I'm not saying Dragonfear is bad by any means. I just don't see a reason to kneejerk about giving it appropriate math instead of 'miss forever' math.


EDIT: Warlord's totally do Accel. I just think that that's one of the cases where buying a power feat is justified. After all, that's something like +35 to damage if we all use our powers that round. That's quite a bit. I'll concede that Dragonfear is better out of the box though. It's a tradeoff: do you want a good effect right now that you can't improve, or a weaker one that can become insane?

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Sburbopolis, Homestuck RPG: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/60981373

...Fey beast rules? <_<'

Anyway, let's go with refluffed Dire Boar. Seems the closest to an owlbear, of the given options.

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If Heimerdinger is so smart, how come he hasn't built himself a purpose? - Renekton Bot

Good effect right now in addition to the warlord spending their feats on stuff that makes them better still as the only person filling the healer niche honestly sounds better.

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Accel ACE
Totally still relevant, totally not just a lurker. Totally.

From: IhatethisCPU | #386
...Fey beast rules? <_<'

Anyway, let's go with refluffed Dire Boar. Seems the closest to an owlbear, of the given options.

Yeah, basically make the mount scale with you. Solves a ton of issues about it because mounts are classic cannon fodder as you level.

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Sburbopolis, Homestuck RPG: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/60981373

CPU, if an owlbear doesn't appeal to you, what does? I can make a lot work, I just need to know.

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Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig.
Started: July 6, 2005

Well, I finished a picture for Ephestral, whom I hope you guys remember as Rael's primary assistant. I'd meant to have it in the first session, but it obviously didn't happen.


And while I'm posting pictures, how about some FORESHADOWING for a character you haven't MET YET while CAPITALIZE things?


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Anagram art is best art

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Accel ACE
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Accel ACE posted...
Anagram art is best art

I've heard water might be wet.

Keep it a secret, though.

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An owlbear's fine. Just have a hard time picturing one with a saddle, let alone letting anyone ride it, along with how one'd work in combat. Just need to be sure of how Broder'll work in combat.

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If Heimerdinger is so smart, how come he hasn't built himself a purpose? - Renekton Bot

From: IhatethisCPU | #393
An owlbear's fine. Just have a hard time picturing one with a saddle, let alone letting anyone ride it, along with how one'd work in combat. Just need to be sure of how Broder'll work in combat.

If you've ever seen Emperor's New Groove, picture the way Kronk carried Izma. That's how it'd work I figure.

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Sburbopolis, Homestuck RPG: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/60981373

Looking forward to tonight's game.

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"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick

3:00 PST

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Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig.
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...Oh, right, had an idea for an reference to the 80's movie Red Dawn for my mount, but I do kinda need to stop make jokes to solely amuse myself. (...Wolverines, incidentally.)

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If Heimerdinger is so smart, how come he hasn't built himself a purpose? - Renekton Bot

IhatethisCPU posted...
...Oh, right, had an idea for an reference to the 80's movie Red Dawn for my mount, but I do kinda need to stop make jokes to solely amuse myself. (...Wolverines, incidentally.)

If you want a giant wolverine, I can make that work.

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No, no. Fine with the owlbear. We have it with us, it has a name, lets have it work for us (And it would've .been plural. Wolverines. Like waterskis, but on land, they're alive and they hate you. I have a lot of ideas like this. ...Normally I've the good sense to not mention them aloud, though. <_<')

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If Heimerdinger is so smart, how come he hasn't built himself a purpose? - Renekton Bot

- Valerian resurrected
- The party meets Burson, First Hand of Aluxial, renowned for being a wizard, but strangely, not a wizard. What could this mean???
- From Burson, the party learns Sonya plans to waste their time with distractionary Furies and Shursh on the elven island, and that the Furies are waging a war against the drow on the monster islands, whom the elves didn't mention because the elves hate the drow
- The party meets Gea, the gothic elven valley girl, whom they neglect to mention to that her parents and two of her sisters are dead
- The party crosses to the first monster island, where they meet Colonel Vea or whatever

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Started: July 6, 2005