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

I get that, but I'm inquiring about being in the actual space.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Oh. Yeah, you can occupy the space without a problem since she's well above you. It'll be a little goofy to present on the map but it's workable.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I guess packrat, Soluzar, Araes, lurker, and Maris ought to get their characters ready.

How ya doing, buddy?

Oh my God, so awesome. <3

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

It's not like the Whip can do that every turn, Zerg. The fight is still salvageable, assuming most folks do better on their climb checks than you did.

That being said, it might not be a terrible idea for EVERYONE on the waitlist to start working on a character, since in the event of a TPK we'll move directly to the guild system I mentioned. (I'll send out PMs to everyone on the list if the need becomes imminent, since I know very few of them actually watch the threads.)

I was speaking idiomatically.

No, that's the worst attack you got. But I do believe a TPK is still likely, climb checks notwithstanding. Barring a run of bad luck dice for you, and a run of good luck dice for us, the discrepancy is too much (they hit us on low rolls - with a huge amount of static damage, while we need high rolls to hit them).

Though, I AM starting to get tired of just poking arrows at everything that moves. Though I wish I'd get the chance to finish Cal's story, I'm also looking forward to toying around with leader/controller powers six months from now...

P.S. What goodies did Essentials bring for Archer Rangers? I'm guessing no Quarry Damage every turn, huh?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I don't think there are any Essentials changes for Rangers yet, it's just the classic Fighter/Cleric/Mage/Thief quartet so far. Ranger stuff's coming in Forgotten Kingdoms in November, maybe they'll finally remember to add a multiclass feat for animal-companion rangers.

FELIPE NO

Yes. Because what the ranger class needed was to be MORE broken.

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

Pang, what are the rules regarding doing things in the water? Can Glenn do anything he could normally do, with the exceptions of the slowed movement and having to roll to not drown?

Most amazing jew boots

So far as I can tell, yes. There are a handful of rules for UNDERwater combat but apparently as long as you keep your head above water things proceed largely as normal.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Pang, did you remember the 5 ongoing damage to the Whip? I don't see a save attempt on that post anywhere.

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

Yeah, I subtracted the 5 HP but forgot to roll the save. Done (save failed FWIW).

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

I bet after all this talk of TPKs the fight ends with nobody dead. We've only had one player killed by monsters the whole time we've been playing.

Most amazing jew boots

True, however the current party has no healers (unless Puyet can heal people, i don't know). We've still got our work cut out for us if we want to make it through this alive.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I'm still betting on zero casualties.

Most amazing jew boots

Puyet can heal people, but just twice.

My talk of TPKs aside (I've always underestimated on how resilient PCs can be, especially for the Arena), it's still very swingy. A run of excellent rolls on our side and terrible rolls on their side (those 2 fours are a start) can still turn this around. Still, assuming everyone rolls averages, Pang would win. The marauder has been standing around doing nothing, and yet nigh everyone has been bloodied

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

After those shit rolls I'm inclined to favor Shin's perspective, especially since wvlf at least has decided to start busting dailies. Still, it's the first fight of the adventure.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Okay so now that the party's primary meatshield is dead and their highest-damage striker has done nothing useful for the third turn in a row* it might be a good time to start discussing exactly how party selection will work for this guild business.

Just in case, you know. It's still winnable. Technically. With a bit of luck.

Now, I originally suggested just letting you hash out the PCs for a given adventure amongst yourselves, but this approach has several problems:

1. It would take fucking forever.
2. It would be biased against players who weren't paying close attention.
3. It would be biased against players who are disliked for one reason or another.

A good way around problems #2 & #3 is to just put up a list of all "standing by" characters on the wiki or something, WITHOUT the names of their players attached and with a little personality/history blurb for each one or something. Obviously the characters from players who are currently ineligible due to hitting their adventure limit would be greyed out (I've decided to go with a 2-adventure limit rather than 5 since even for the shortest adventures that's a solid 4 months of active duty and usually much longer). Then I (with my privileged knowledge of who is who) would just PM the relevant player after their PC is selected. This all kind of depends on everyone being honest, of course. Yeah.

A good way around problem #1 is to compartmentalize the selections. Each person leaving active duty (whether just taking a break or on forcible leave) would just pick their character's replacement, eliminating a lot of inter-party squabbling. If a given player wants to switch to another of his/her OWN characters at any time during their active period I see no real reason to deny that. If halfway into your first adventure it turns out that Minotaur Bard wasn't as fun as you thought it would be, just swap him out with your magical guild summoning ring doodads that I'm going to give you. Easy-peasy.

None of this is totally set in stone of course; suggestions?

And also, again, if you've got like a rough PC idea or even a complete character waiting to go PM me with it so I can start building the roster for the uh... guild yet to be named. Even if we end up not needing said roster right away it's good to get this squared away early.

Also I should mention that if the party does wipe here than Zeph, Hawkeye and wvlf will still be under their 2-adventure consecutive limit and will be eligible straightaway for the next run (with a new PC, of course). An adventure that prematurely ends less than a third of the way through hardly counts.

"Freeport Allied Guild of Sellswords"? Too subtle?

Garr you said you'd probably be taking a break after this one anyway so I decided Garrmondo was the best choice for making an example out of. Nothin' personal bro

*Zerg don't edit your posts to try to make me look silly it's not nice

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Changing characters in the middle of a fight, or even just an adventure, though, sounds kinda silly.

I'm not sure the whole thing makes much sense. Are we just randomly picking people? Might as well. Past the first adventure, everybody is going to know what characters belong to whom. And on top of that, nobody is going to want to keep the character they're building a secret.

In all fairness, it is probably going to come down to letting us decide for each adventure, then big daddy stepping in and saying "LET YOUR BROTHER PLAY THE GAME TOO JESUS CHRIST I NEED A DRINK! YOU FUCKERS ARE GOING TO GIVE ME A HERNIA!"

I am currently too lazy to think of something that works, however.

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

All of this is awesome except for

Originally Posted by Pangalin

If a given player wants to switch to another of
his/her OWN characters at any time during their active period I see no real reason to deny that. If halfway into your first adventure it turns out that Minotaur Bard wasn't as fun as you thought it would be, just swap him out with your magical guild summoning ring doodads that I'm going to give you. Easy-peasy.

Yeah, no. Having contingency plan characters for when shit gets out of your current build's comfort zone cheapens the challenge, ruins improvisation and creativity, and will virtually guarantee player success.

It will also result in a certain Singaporean shitslinger making 35 base characters all min-maxed for certain situations and then warping them in as needed. Fuck that. Pick something and stick with it and go with the flow or shit is going to get real bunk real quick.

Edit: And yeah, just tell people who the characters belong to. You'll find out quick enough anyway, and if people don't get chosen for some reason, maybe the person behind the character can learn why that is. WHO KNOWS.

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

The guild system is great for participation and refreshing the party members every now and then. Though, I'm quite curious as to how Pang intends to balance the encounters. Since it's basically a mix-and-match now, you're bound to have people at different levels, and some with more stuff than others.

I didn't edit my posts to make you look silly. I edit my posts because I'm indecisive and haven't decided anything yet!

How ya doing, buddy?

Oh, and my character does nothing useful because you give me a status ailment EVERY ROUND fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I don't think you're the highest damage striker he means though.

I act useful, Deni and Skills tell me off for being so serious. I act useless, Pang criticizes me.

Though, I'd argue Glenn is a better striker than Cal. Sneak attack though situational far outpaces quarry damage now, and there's usually no problem gaining combat advantage for rogues.

FELIPE NO

Edit that post again and I'll see to it you lose the ability to do so forever.

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

Originally Posted by Zergrinch

Since it's basically a mix-and-match now, you're bound to have people at different levels, and some with more stuff than others.

Well, as it is some people have more stuff than others since by default new characters enter the game with 3 items, kit, and cash and that's it. I don't see a huge problem in incremental gains in wealth as a reward for endurance. Any character who officially retired but ends up coming back somehow is going to get their shit culled back down to newbie levels, though. Fair's fair.

Different levels isn't going to happen, everyone is assumed to have roughly the same XP totals at all times, active or inactive. It might be cute to split the XP for each encounter 20 ways to justify this but I think we can handwave and just assume everyone else is keeping busy offscreen, killing rats in somebody's basement or something.

Originally Posted by Agent Di Gun Him

Having contingency plan characters for when shit gets out of your current build's comfort zone cheapens the challenge, ruins improvisation and creativity, and will virtually guarantee player success.

Yeah, I was thinking in terms of UGH THIS IS LAME WHY DID I PICK THIS rather than OH HO A DEMON LET ME GO GET MY LEVEL 22 DEMON HUNTER HE HAS +300 VS. DEMONS but you've got a point and that shit probably would happen. Scratch that idea then.

I still want to find some way of not turning this shit into a popularity contest though, while I'm sure some of you have legitimate reasons for your grievances that's no excuse to poison the game with them. If I can get over my deep, bitter hatred of LeHah long enough to let him play I would hope the rest of you can forgive Zerg someday for his Zerg Sperg. Plus Dope asked to be added to the queue the other day, and... well. I'm just trying to keep things fair, you know? I don't know if there's actually a way to do that without sticking to the "NOW WAIT FOR THREE YEARS" system and god knows I don't want to do that either.

Shit it would be nice if I didn't have to devise a SYSTEM TO ENSURE FAIRNESS and I could just say "be mature, faggots" but HERE WE ARE PEOPLE

Jam it back in, in the dark.