Gaming 'n' Stuff
I haven't talked much about gaming lately; part of the reason is because we haven't been able to do much gaming lately, but there's more than that going on. The truth of the matter is that the whole 4E thing and particularly the murder of Dragon and Dungeon put me into a real funk about gaming, particularly fantasy gaming. Plus, I just haven't had the time necessary to put any prep work into running a session; I've been making an effort to crank on my art and not only stay ahead with SJ but also clear out my backlog of other projects. (Speaking of which, today is "AC conbook day"!)
Fortunately, sirfox ran his "Furry D&D" last night, which I always enjoy because I get to play Arshan, my 9' tall room-clearing lion barbarian. Unfortunately, due to his "kick open the door" policy, he spent last night being the first one to find anything painful in the dungeon.
Arshan: "Say, what's in this pool?"
The Dungeon: "A huge monster that attacks you."
Arshan: "D'Oh!"
Arshan: "What happens if I jump over to this little island?"
The Dungeon: "You get electrocuted, and then a monster attacks you."
Arshan: "D'Oh!!!"
I was also controlling camstone's fox rogue "Watt," who aside from attempting to nick some ceremonial wine and a few handfuls of silver spent most of the adventure providing moral support. Most of the monsters had DR, and Watt has no magical weapon, so unless he flanked for the sneak attack (which, being a squishy lil' rogue he wasn't inclined to do), he couldn't hurt them.
The problem with this game from a mechanical standpoint, is the same problem I had with jamesbarrett's fighter/barbarian Dragor -- anything tough enough to hurt the fighter, tears the rest of the group to shreds -- only magnified. camstone's, jamesbarrett's, lythandra's, and hantamouse's characters are all size small, which means their weapons do d3's and d4s of damage and their movement is lowered. I, on the other hand, am playing a size large barbarian, which means my weapon does 2d6 plus 1d6 fire bonus, and my movement is 50 feet. So I have to be very careful in any fight that Arshan doesn't steal the show. It helps that I suck at rolling dice, so Arshan misses a lot, but even so, some of the encounters we've gone up against, Arshan could almost as easily have done solo.
The main balancing factors for Arshan are his relatively low AC, and his cruddy Reflex save. If Arshan tanked up in full plate, he'd still have a cruddy Reflex save, but he'd be a virtual juggernaut. Which is fun conceptually, but in practice wouldn't make for a great game 'cause he'd just roll over all the monsters and everybody else would wonder why they bothered to come.
Arshan did get to level-up at the end of the session, making him BBN 4, FTR 2, +1 LA, and giving him 70 hit points at EL 7. I thought about giving him Improved Toughness, which would have given him +6 hit points and an additional +1 hp per level from here on, but E-Tools choked on it* and it seemed like overkill anyway. So now I'm vacillating between Great Cleave or Lightning Reflexes, but leaning towards Lightning Reflexes -- which would give him a Ref save of a whole +3!
-The Gneech
*The program is rapidly falling apart without the help of Code Monkey Publishing, sigh!
Arshan of the Desert
CR 7, CN Large Furry (Feline (large)) Bbn4/Ftr2
Init +1 Spd 50
Senses Low-light Vision (Ex) Listen +7, Scent +4, Spot +5
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AC 18 (FF 18, Touch 11)
hp 70 (HD 4d12+2d10+18)
Saves: Fort +11, Ref +3, Will +5
Trap Sense +1;
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Atk +9/+4 base melee, +6/+1 base ranged; Grapple +14; Face 10'x10';
+9 Melee (Bite 1d8+4/crit 20/x2) and +4 Melee (Claw 1d4+2/crit 20/x2)
+10/+5 Melee (+1 Battleaxe 2d6+5+1d6/crit 20/x3)
+6/+1 Ranged (Longbow, composite ( +1 Str Bonus) 2d6+1/crit 20/x3)
Barbarian Features: Rage (2x/day), Fast Movement, Illiteracy, Uncanny Dodge, Trap Sense +1;
Fighter Features: Bonus Feat (2), Proficiency: Tower Shield;
---------------------------------------------
Abilities: STR 18, DEX 12, CON 17, INT 11, WIS 14, CHA 13
Feats: Armor Proficiency: heavy, Armor Proficiency: light, Armor Proficiency: medium, Cleave, Exotic Weapon Proficiency: bastard sword, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Shield Proficiency, Simple Weapon Proficiency, Tower Shield Proficiency.
Skills: Balance +4, Climb +6, Diplomacy -3, Escape Artist -1, Hide -5, Intimidate +10, Jump +18, Listen +7, Move Silently +0, Scent +4, Spot +5, Survival +7, Swim +0, Tumble +2.
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Weapons: +1 Battleaxe: Flaming; Arrows (20); Dagger; Longbow, composite ( +1 Str Bonus).
Armor: Chain shirt, Masterwork. Shields: +1 Shield, heavy steel: Arrow Catching. (Arcane Spell Failure 35%).
Goods: Coin: gp (1722).
Magic: Amulet of Natural Armor +1; Bag of Holding, type II; Helm of Comprehend Languages and Read Magic.
Fortunately, sirfox ran his "Furry D&D" last night, which I always enjoy because I get to play Arshan, my 9' tall room-clearing lion barbarian. Unfortunately, due to his "kick open the door" policy, he spent last night being the first one to find anything painful in the dungeon.
Arshan: "Say, what's in this pool?"
The Dungeon: "A huge monster that attacks you."
Arshan: "D'Oh!"
Arshan: "What happens if I jump over to this little island?"
The Dungeon: "You get electrocuted, and then a monster attacks you."
Arshan: "D'Oh!!!"
I was also controlling camstone's fox rogue "Watt," who aside from attempting to nick some ceremonial wine and a few handfuls of silver spent most of the adventure providing moral support. Most of the monsters had DR, and Watt has no magical weapon, so unless he flanked for the sneak attack (which, being a squishy lil' rogue he wasn't inclined to do), he couldn't hurt them.
The problem with this game from a mechanical standpoint, is the same problem I had with jamesbarrett's fighter/barbarian Dragor -- anything tough enough to hurt the fighter, tears the rest of the group to shreds -- only magnified. camstone's, jamesbarrett's, lythandra's, and hantamouse's characters are all size small, which means their weapons do d3's and d4s of damage and their movement is lowered. I, on the other hand, am playing a size large barbarian, which means my weapon does 2d6 plus 1d6 fire bonus, and my movement is 50 feet. So I have to be very careful in any fight that Arshan doesn't steal the show. It helps that I suck at rolling dice, so Arshan misses a lot, but even so, some of the encounters we've gone up against, Arshan could almost as easily have done solo.
The main balancing factors for Arshan are his relatively low AC, and his cruddy Reflex save. If Arshan tanked up in full plate, he'd still have a cruddy Reflex save, but he'd be a virtual juggernaut. Which is fun conceptually, but in practice wouldn't make for a great game 'cause he'd just roll over all the monsters and everybody else would wonder why they bothered to come.
Arshan did get to level-up at the end of the session, making him BBN 4, FTR 2, +1 LA, and giving him 70 hit points at EL 7. I thought about giving him Improved Toughness, which would have given him +6 hit points and an additional +1 hp per level from here on, but E-Tools choked on it* and it seemed like overkill anyway. So now I'm vacillating between Great Cleave or Lightning Reflexes, but leaning towards Lightning Reflexes -- which would give him a Ref save of a whole +3!
-The Gneech
*The program is rapidly falling apart without the help of Code Monkey Publishing, sigh!
Arshan of the Desert
CR 7, CN Large Furry (Feline (large)) Bbn4/Ftr2
Init +1 Spd 50
Senses Low-light Vision (Ex) Listen +7, Scent +4, Spot +5
---------------------------------------------
AC 18 (FF 18, Touch 11)
hp 70 (HD 4d12+2d10+18)
Saves: Fort +11, Ref +3, Will +5
Trap Sense +1;
---------------------------------------------
Atk +9/+4 base melee, +6/+1 base ranged; Grapple +14; Face 10'x10';
+9 Melee (Bite 1d8+4/crit 20/x2) and +4 Melee (Claw 1d4+2/crit 20/x2)
+10/+5 Melee (+1 Battleaxe 2d6+5+1d6/crit 20/x3)
+6/+1 Ranged (Longbow, composite ( +1 Str Bonus) 2d6+1/crit 20/x3)
Barbarian Features: Rage (2x/day), Fast Movement, Illiteracy, Uncanny Dodge, Trap Sense +1;
Fighter Features: Bonus Feat (2), Proficiency: Tower Shield;
---------------------------------------------
Abilities: STR 18, DEX 12, CON 17, INT 11, WIS 14, CHA 13
Feats: Armor Proficiency: heavy, Armor Proficiency: light, Armor Proficiency: medium, Cleave, Exotic Weapon Proficiency: bastard sword, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Shield Proficiency, Simple Weapon Proficiency, Tower Shield Proficiency.
Skills: Balance +4, Climb +6, Diplomacy -3, Escape Artist -1, Hide -5, Intimidate +10, Jump +18, Listen +7, Move Silently +0, Scent +4, Spot +5, Survival +7, Swim +0, Tumble +2.
---------------------------------------------
Weapons: +1 Battleaxe: Flaming; Arrows (20); Dagger; Longbow, composite ( +1 Str Bonus).
Armor: Chain shirt, Masterwork. Shields: +1 Shield, heavy steel: Arrow Catching. (Arcane Spell Failure 35%).
Goods: Coin: gp (1722).
Magic: Amulet of Natural Armor +1; Bag of Holding, type II; Helm of Comprehend Languages and Read Magic.