[DnD] D&D Discussion & Enlistment (Save Ends)

This is Gamingforce D&D, a play-by-post campaign running continuously since June 2008 with no downtimes longer than a week.

The party is currently at Level 7. The current adventure is Tomb of Horrors, a brutal exercise in beating the players down until their spirits are broken.

As characters die or retire, new characters will be needed to fill the party. Characters must leave the active party after two consecutive adventures, and are not eligible to participate in the next two after that. Otherwise you may be selected at random to join the party at any time, so be ready!

As always, keep all out-of-character chatter or questions in this thread.

For the edification of active players, the current house rules are as follows:

1. If it's your turn in combat or the game otherwise requires your input to proceed, post within 48 hours. Failure to do so will result in your turn being forfeited while the DM frog-marches your character toward doom. Three such failures will result in your PC being summarily executed in a pointedly comical fashion.
   
2. If you expect to be away for a few days, let us know so that someone can cover for you. If you expect to be away for a long time (a month or more), your PC will be retired peacefully.
   
3. For the sake of game speed, implied consent is used in the event of powers which move your allies. If you think they should move, they move; there is no need to wait for their approval.
   
4. Skill Challenges use the unofficial Obsidian system, making them both faster and more flexible. Don't expect to always use your best skills.
   
5. Instead of spending ritual components, you may pay for a ritual by expending a healing surge. This rule does not apply to Creation rituals.
   
6. In addition, casting time of all rituals is reduced to one full combat turn.
   
7. You may make a Bluff check vs. shopkeepers in order to seek more favorable prices when buying and selling.
   
8. You may use as many Daily Item Powers in a day as you'd like.
   
9. You may use as many Action Points during an encounter as you'd like.
   
10. You may move diagonally through corners.
    
11. Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidate may be used as minor actions rather than standard.
    
12. If you fall off a cliff, you fall. No saving throws to catch yourself. This rule also applies to enemies.
    
13. If you die, you die. Nobody gets raised from the dead.
    
14. Mundane ammunition for ranged weapons is effectively infinite, don't bother buying any.
    
15. Small characters may wield two-handed weapons, and may wield versatile weapons with one hand.
    
16. Dark Sun races (Thri-Kreen, Mul) are not currently in the Builder, but you may use them.
    
17. In addition to the official races, you may play a Modron, a Corgi or a Skaven.

If you need any help with rules questions, character building, or anything else related to the game, just ask! I am here to make your orc dork experience as painless as possible.

The following PCs are currently active:

Gra-Fa-Zut, Genasi Swordmage. Portrayed by wvlfpvp.

Samwise Shadowspade, Halfling Rogue. Portrayed by Denicalis.

Beefi Kertanz, Minotaur Barbarian. Portrayed by Shin.

Uxig "Slim" Uxigson, Kobold Barbarian/Runepriest/Warlord. Portrayed by CetteHamsterLa.

Garold Fangus, Longtooth Shifter Seeker. Portrayed by Animechanic.

The party currently has the following Drama Cards at their disposal: Think Fast

, Hide In Plain Sight

, On My Terms

, Now You Fucked Up

, Mow Down

.


The following PCs are currently pursuing less-interesting adventures offscreen:

Puyet, Half-Orc Warlord. Portrayed by Zephyrin.

Glenn McCormick, Eladrin Rogue. Portrayed by Hawkeye.

The following PCs have died or retired:

Fescue Totengeld, Human Rogue. Portrayed by Zephyrin.

Brigid Conmara, Halfling Cleric of Melora. Portrayed by a lurker.

Argumentus of Hamfist, Human Fighter. Portrayed by Bradylama.

Gabriel Sledgehammer, Dwarven Paladin of Kord. Portrayed by Denicalis.

Scary Bob, Elven Wizard. Portrayed by Shin, with 33 kills.

Motsognir the Subgenius, Dwarven Warlord. Portrayed by knkwzrd.

Delic Swagger, Human Fighter. Portrayed by LeHah.

Gordok of Zark, Halfling Warlock/Druid/Bard. Portrayed by AcerBandit.

Glockenspiel McSteelchest, Warforged Bard. Portrayed by Colonel Skills.

Gheth McGarnigal, Dragonborn Cleric of Avandra. Portrayed by Skexis.

Garrmondo Alkatraz, Human Fighter. Portrayed by Garr.

Cal Amah, Changeling Ranger. Portrayed by Zergrinch.

The following players are currently in the Random Good Times Selection Party Pool!

Maris

Shin

knkwzrd

CetteHamsterLa

Colonel Skills

AcerBandit

Skexis

Rychord

Dopefish

a lurker

Animechanic

The following players are on probation pending a renewed confirmation of interest.

orion_mk3

packrat

Soluzar

Araes

Helloween

The following players are currently in the kiddie pool and are awaiting or experiencing basic training.

Tritoch

Strange|Gnome

Turbo

Philia

Dark Nation

coeccias

Stop Sign

Shorty

RESOURCES

Zergrinch has helpfully compiled a chart of the panoply of status icons you'll see during battle.

Character Building

With 36 races and 25 classes available, you can cobble together nearly any ridiculous idea. For the most part all you need to make a character is the official Character Builder. The free version lets you build characters up to level 3. If you need access to the full version, just ask — someone can point you to a solution.

Can't think of a name for your PC? Use this Name Generator for thousands of embarrassing monikers.

Since the Character Builder is Windows-only, I also provide these handbooks for your perusal. These files are hidden from guests.

This content has been hidden by the poster

Sorry, you are not authorized to view this hidden content. The conditions are: 5 posts

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Here's a more updated list of icons

.

I'm not very sure what "Cursed" and "Diseased" do. Probably not as debilitating as "Dazed" or "Stunned", so contemplating a switch...

Say, whatever happened to that bard who was eaten up by a grue?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

God, why won't you fuckers die so I can play again?

How ya doing, buddy?

Skills is doing a very poor job at killing Cal.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Yeah, now that you mention it.

Jesus, this place is full of faggots and canadians.

Damn.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Denicalis

God, why won't you fuckers die so I can play again?

^^^^^

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by ;749705

I'm not very sure what "Cursed" and "Diseased" do.

Acer curses people all the time, it probably belongs under "Marks".

Speaking of Acer, I get to invoke Rule 1 already! Strike 2.

FELIPE NO

For the probably three people who might be vaguely interested, I've finished totting up all the retired characters' kills. Totals are:

Bob - 33
Soggy - 26
Argumentus - 25
Gabe - 24
Fescue - 8
Brigid - 7
Delic - 3

Details are in the attached spreadsheet. Bob's kills look high but he slaughtered his way through a ton of minions, 16 in fact. He did land the killing blow on both the Dragon and Von Versteckt though. Gabe killed 2 minions, Soggy 5 which means Argumentus holds the record for most "proper" bad guys killed with 25, Gabe has 22, Soggy 21, Bob 17, Fescue 8, Brigid 7 and finally Delic 3.

Most amazing jew boots

So Pang, I know Cal's not built for it (Beast Mastery class feature) nor is Denny considered a "Companion", but will you allow me to utilize the "Raise Beast Companion

" ritual for him, if I pay the component cost?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

We don't raise the dead in this campaign, boss.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Pangalin

We don't raise the dead in this campaign, boss.

I'm so going to rustle me some Lamid horses from the dead village folk

Also if I move back one or two steps, presumably going up the stairs and gaining a line of effect that's not blocked by grates, can I shoot the towering Hulk without the partial cover penalty, presumably working both ways?

Visual Aid:


This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

In retrospect, I probably should have added up the number of times people got knocked unconcious while I was going through the threads, in the interests of nerd-stattery. I might do it anyway, seeing as how I've basiaclly re-read the whole lot and would just be skim-reading looking for the occasional PKO (Plus I can pretty much remember when they happened).

Also, Pang you really need to be throwing more diseased bad guys at the party. Last time anyone caught a disease was Argumentus catching coffin rot or something in HoH. The time before that was everyone except Bob contracting filth fever in the fight with the rats, right at the start of DoD, unless I'm forgetting something from the last couple of quests. There's not been many enemies who kill people just by standing next to them lately either...

How ya doing, buddy?

The mob I was going to have them fight if they failed the skill challenge had a damaging aura, but they just barely squeezed out of that. The problem with diseases is that only a few enemy categories really carry them: wild animals, lycanthropes and undead mostly. I think I can work one into the next fight maybe, we'll see.

If you do decide to tally up knockdowns, also take a note of who did the revivals in each case (both of these are things I should have been tracking really).

Originally Posted by Zerg

]Also if I move back one or two steps, presumably going up the stairs and gaining a line of effect that's not blocked by grates, can I shoot the towering Hulk without the partial cover penalty, presumably working both ways?

Why certainly. Maybe you could go all the way outside, and try to fire arrows in an arc over the theater walls.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Pangalin

Why certainly. Maybe you could go all the way outside, and try to fire arrows in an arc over the theater walls.

Oh, so it's an open-air amphitheater? Awesome. I might just try that, because I'm pretty sure Skills will revive Gordok and there's a chance Gordok will do silly stuff due to inattention =(

In before Pang gets all quoting "line of sight" and "superior cover"

____

If I'm not mistaken (and I possibly may be since I wasn't paying too much attention prior to Secret Cow Level), Gordok probably holds the record for unconsciousness. He got kayoed by Rundarr before Skills did a time paradox, and twice in the Gnasc/Framarth fight, the second time was initially fatal before Skills finagled another time paradox. Fourth time I know of is this battle. Next to that, I'd say Garrmondo, he swooned a couple of times in the Gnasc fight if I recall correctly.

I'm also quite curious about damage output (ie who has inflicted the most damage in HP terms) Kills is one thing - who inflicted the prior damage is far more important - like my Rundarr kill for example. Of course, you won't be able to answer that question for some of Acer's fart-arbalesters-trolls-and-duergar-off-a-precipice kills. Any healing done should probably count as "damage inflicted" - keeping allies alive is just as important as sapping HP...

This is certainly very nitpicky so I won't be surprised if you don't do this, Shin

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Yeah, if you think I'm going through and adding up every single damage roll made you can basically fuck off.

Damage dealt is nothing, it's all about the kills. Have you never played an FPS online? There aren't exactly many that give much credit for your total assists stat, although that would be one that pissed off acheivement slags and loner sniper-whores no end I imagine.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Zerg

Oh, so it's an open-air amphitheater?

This is the only kind of amphitheater there is.

"Who did the most damage" is kind of pointless to track, since, by design, it's always going to be the strikers, followed by defenders, leaders, then controllers. It might be interesting to track lifetime damage and healing for everyone, but that's a little bit too much to expect for fffff I'll get to it at some point.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I'll bet real money that Gordok the... ummm... hybrid.... leader and controller far out-damages any striker or defender so far Definitely the next role I'd like to play would be a leader, probably warlord. Let's see if it's possible to build a lazy warlord who attacks nothing, and instead just tells people what to hit all the time...

Originally Posted by Shin

Damage dealt is nothing, it's all about the kills. Have you never played an FPS online? There aren't exactly many that give much credit for your total assists stat, although that would be one that pissed off acheivement slags and loner sniper-whores no end I imagine.

Ah, but this is a collaborative game, in which a team of strikers would likely lose to a balanced team with healing and support.

Though, you are right with the measurement difficulty (I kept thinking about Basketball, where they do track things like these). Given the difficulty of gauging the value of support in number terms - for example, Glock and Gordy's positioning ability give tactical advantage and may prevent damage (i.e. enemy AoO); Gordy's ability to make enemies prone or dazed severely limits their damage output; Gheth's ability to bestow combat advantage can turn misses into hits. I guess there is no way to quantify that contribution

Most amazing jew boots

Gordok's a hybrid striker/controller who splashed into leader for no immediately obvious reason. He probably does more damage than a pure druid would do, but even then Warlocks probably have the lowest raw damage output of any Striker.

His total damage dealt over a lifetime might be higher than Cal's, but that'd be purely due to longevity. On a pure average-damage-per-round basis, I'd take that bet of yours any day.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Ah, but there is a huge difference. My nova round got 60 damage and 1 kill - and that's with a crit and use of consumables. His nova round during Gnasc/Framarth reached ... I donno ... 120? Campaign record I'd say.

And possibly even overshadowed by the amount of HP he took off the table during the Helga/Gorg encounter. 2x Duergar Guards and 2x Arbalesters. Guards alone is like 58x2 = 116, never mind the arbalesters.

Third most massive damage inflicted in a single round? Possibly by Bob. With his spiky defenses of the Hargath Inn.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

You know, it's rather odd that I haven't thought of it before, but does healing draw AoO because it's ranged?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Gordok is no stranger to massive damage of his person, and he'd be proud that steps toward his doom spelled any suffering and anguish to Cal or his property. I approve, Pang. Would prop again. =)

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Skexis

You know, it's rather odd that I haven't thought of it before, but does healing draw AoO because it's ranged?

Both Healing Word and Majestic Word are close bursts despite only targeting one thing at a time, probably for this exact reason.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Did anyone keep up the wiki entries after Shin and I bought it, or did that die out?

FELIPE NO

I don't think anybody updated the campaign history since Hargast, so it's lain dormant for quite a while longer than that.

Plus last I heard GFWiki was bugging out and essentially not working right at all.

Additional Spam:
As an example of what a well-oiled machine this game is, there's a PBP game on SA also running Thunderspire Labyrith... since August 2008.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Pangalin

I don't think anybody updated the campaign history since Hargast, so it's lain dormant for quite a while longer than that.

Plus last I heard GFWiki was bugging out and essentially not working right at all.

Jam it back in, in the dark.