It's precisely as expensive as buying them, actually.

Without the option of haggling.

We can.... haggle?

Can I thievery as well?

Sadly I think there's been all of one shop trip since I instituted this.

Pickpocketing has always been an option, just nobody could ever be arsed for some reason.

I don't mind trying out those options... I believe the dude I'm masquerading as HAS done a spot of pickpocketing in the past...

Just so long as a really poor roll doesn't result in Cal getting thrown in prison or something. Because like, Cal has NEVER succeeded on a thievery check EVER...

Acer, buddy, let's make out like Bandits! You do the stealing, I do the distracting and the aid another check! Skills and I can do the bartering. Heck, take 10 on our bluff scores is probably enough to beat any passive insight score :D

We've always been able to haggle, it's just that Bob never did because he couldn't understand anyone alive and nobody else ever really bought anything that expensive worth haggling over. It's only recently that anyone's had the kind of cash needed to consider buying magic stuff.

@Pang: But you just said pickpocketing was always an option ;____; (Presumably it's opposed against perception amirite)

Prison would be getting off easy. Shopkeep could just chop off your hand or if he's feeling nice just a finger or two.

It's not as though he's going to pickpocket anything out of a shop, anyway. Everything's behind the counter since even +1 weapons cost more than a commoner makes in a year.

The trick is to wait until the shopkeeper goes home for the night then pickpocket him, seeing as how his basic items require you to kill three dragons to afford on average, chances are he's packing serious cheddar.

I can't wait to use my new pickpocketing results tables

LET'S TRY IT NOW


.... a pencil.

Anyway in regards to the damage question I figure I'll just give the monsters custom damage dice. d5s, d7s, d10s, d13s, d15s, d26s

Not having to rely on physical dice makes so many interesting experiments possible. We'll see if this ends up being a little more balanced.

Scratch that, I'm just going to try Skill's original idea to just increment each die up to the next tier (ergo, no more d4s ever)

GORDOK RUMMAGES AROUND IN AN ANAL CAVITY WHERE ALL PRECIOUS THINGS ARE STORED

"What did I get?!" =D

.... sheet music :(

Actually I could expand this table quite a bit, there are tables full of fish and livestock and books and oh my goodness!

oh shit there are tables for how corrupt the judge is when you get arrested!

This seems appropriate. :)

Would you not be able to tell whether someone had a book, some fish or a pencil in their pocket before you picked it?

A normal person would be able to tell, yes

But you must keep in mind who we're dealing with

For example Gordok routinely stores 70+ pounds of gear inside of a magical pocket inside his bear guts

pulling a trout out of some guy's ass wouldn't even phase him

It would be a delicious meal that's what.

I am certainly not going to waste my time so you can be MORE annoying, no.

Yeah, if the Bard update comes about now then yeah, I'll delay my ability choices until then. Thanks for that.

Zoop. http://www.saxypunch.com/missile/383_CA_Bard.pdf

Looking at it I don't think there's anything to interest you, but eh

Not entirely true, but unfortunately nothing for this specific level and the retrain to Improved Majestic is more important. The old choices stand.

Thanks, though.

This was quite sparse on the Heroic tier. Boo hiss...

I guess you can consider Staggering Note in lieu of War Song Strike next level. Gotta have a handy Thunder Power so you can use that sword daily. :)

That free melee attack and especially the at-will push by two squares sure sounds useful if Pang continues to build dungeons with bottomless pits.

______

Pang, it doesn't seem like the January 19 update included the new ranger powers in Dragon 383. Will you still allow me to take them? (Planning to retrain Split the Tree to Guardian Arrow).

If yes, then please make it so. Feat selection for my munchkining pleasure for later :33:

Suppose so. Just bear in mind a lot of these powers and feats change somewhat between the time an article appears and the "final" version that appears in the Builder, so if something ends up being nerfed you'll just have to live with it.

Fair enough, though is it possible for you to delay any nerfs until the next level up? The power has a certain flavor that "Split the Tree", a supercharged version of Two-Fanged Strike (which in turn is a better Twin Strike) doesn't have. :)

Just so I can better appreciate the risk, can you think of any Dragon article power that was nerfed?

Will the decrease to enemy HP still be 33% (2/3), or will you be changing this aspect as well?

I can't give you any concrete examples, really, because the broken versions disappeared entirely once the fixed versions were released. Sometimes things just disappear entirely; two Warlord feats from Dragon #381 vanished entirely between the article appearing and the complete issue being compiled. So if Guardian Arrow disappears entirely, obviously you can retrain that. Otherwise any nerfs will be introduced basically whenever I happen to notice them.

2/3 seems to be working pretty well so far, they have enough time to get in some hurt without entering that grindy stage where you're obviously going to kill them but it will take another 2 rounds. It's an ongoing process and we'll see if it still works when I'm not bloodying you guys with every single hit but for now I'll leave it alone.

Very well, I'll take the risk.

Final decision. Retrain Level 1 Daily from Split the Tree to Guardian Arrow.
I'm delaying the feat selection.

(Doing this because I'm still expecting another battle with Murkelmor, after an extended rest, before we finally get back to civilization).