More Blah Blah Blah

Right now I’m just doing a blog entry for the sake of doing one.

I’m ready to get back to gaming.

I’m really missing those 6 hours on Friday nights more with every passing week.

But the babies aren’t quite ready for it. They are still very needy, and oh so grumpy in the evening.

The signs are showing that it’s getting better. They’re no longer little lumps of screams, more like interactive lumps that scream with an occasional smile. In another month they’ll be ready for college, or at least be able to be out of your arms for a few moments while you do something simple (like eat a hot meal).

When the New Year hits, my wife will be going back to work part time, and I’ll get my Friday evening D&D back. That doesn’t sound like a fair trade when I put it like that, but I’ll be doing solo duty taking care of the babies for an evening or two a week, and most of the day Saturday. That evens things out quite a bit.

By then the babies will be much more interactive and easier to entertain, but it can still be very stressful. They can go from content and happy to nuclear meltdown in a matter of moments. How my wife handles it as well as she does is beyond me.

It’s not like it’s all bad, check out my wife’s blog to see the positive side of having babies. I’m a guy, so I’m not allowed to be positive.

News on the 4E side appears to be increasing a bit.

There seemed to be an information blackout for awhile, but if there was one it ended this week. I’m guessing it has something to do with their release of that races and classes book for $20.

Ballsy move there WotC – making us pay $20 for what is effectively a 96-page advertisement for 4E. But geeks being geeks, we will probably shell out the money for it.

Dragonborn (dragon-men, but not Dragonlance draconians) are going to be a new PC race in the PHB it seems. And I’m happy to say that dragonborn will be the first 4E race I’ll disown. Another blow strikes to the remaining positive opinion of 4E I have.

I was expecting them to make orcs a PC race, considering how prevalent and varied they can be. I honestly thought half-orcs were out and orcs were in.

Maybe there’s a pattern here. Every D&D edition with an even number is going to suck (2E, 4E).

Yeah, I’m beating a dead horse, and I don’t hate the entirety of 4E. But the new bad ideas seem to be outnumbering the good ones.

What’s really going to suck is if we decide that 4E sucks and don’t play it (or stop playing it) then that puts us in a bind when trying to find new players, because the chance is pretty high that they’ll be playing 4E – unless at least half of D&D players think 4E blows.

If 4E does blow that much, I’ll probably just take the good bits of 4E and toss them into 3.5 to help fix the problems that game has.

Then we’ll have 3.75E, 4E without the fluffed up crap.

I also read a little something about the paladin’s 4E smiting. At first level they get to do their normal smiting, and then give a bonus to the AC of an ally for a round.

While most people might see that as a good thing, I see it as yet another little thing to add to the growing list of “things to remember” during a combat.

So while you’re remembering your AC bonus, don’t forget any bonuses you might be getting from Bless, Prayer, Haste, Protection from Evil, your magic armor, your magic weapon, that mysterious necklace around your neck, the Stoneskin cast on you a minute ago, and your Ring of Protection +3.

As of right now I’m creating a -5 to +5 scale.
Assuming I remember, each blog entry I will list my current feelings on 4E.
0 = “eh”
+5 = “Gotta havit now!”
-5 = “Mary, Bring me my hunting rifle please. It’s time to hunt some WotC’s!”

4E crunch (mechanics)
1
The promises are still holding up my hope, but the revealed bits are dragging it down.

4E fluff
-4
Dragonborn, Forgotten Realms rewrite, anime powers, and so on = not my D&D.

Man, it’s a good thing I’m not running a game tonight.
TPK city.

A Little More Information

Sorry for the delay between postings; the babies demanded tributes and sacrifices of sleep.

We didn’t play the week I had the chance. No one had the time or opportunity. I figure the group may start playing again without me soon though.

I was able to make it to Worldwide D&D Game Day at Yottaquest, as was Dale. We had fun.

I played the D&D mini-module, which was alright. If anything, playing with the group of people we were paired with reminded us why we interview players prior to letting them join our group. Half the players at our table were the poster-children for the stereotype of ADHD D&D gamers.

But the highlight of the whole day was not playing D&D; it was playing game after game of Red Dragon Inn. It’s a game best described as Munchkin after the dungeon.

You’re a group of 4 adventurers (fighter, priest, rogue, and a wizard with a crazed bunny familiar named Pooky) at an inn resting and drinking after a hard day in the dungeon. You each start with 10 gold, 0 alcohol, and 20 fortitude. You use a bunch of hilariously captioned and titled cards to gamble, drink, and so on to be the last one out of inn. If you run out of gold, the inn kicks you out for being a deadbeat. If your alcohol and fortitude meet then you’re wasted and your friends steal your gold – getting you kicked out of the inn.

I played that game at least 8 times throughout the day. Had it been in stock at the store, I’d have probably bought it.

As for our group, we’ve actually had a bit of interest in members wanting to join us. I’ve had to tell several people that we’ll be starting up again probably in the New Year and I’ll give them a shout if we have openings then.

We’re not quite sure who will even be in the group at that point. Some people may not have the time or ability to consistently play by then, so some spots might be open.

Or will they? We’ve kind of discussed that we’d rather have 6 consistent and solid players (five plus a DM) than more players with some kind of irregular in their showing up because the game goes that much quicker at times and everyone gets a bit more time for their own agenda in the game.

I think an optimal group size for our play style is 6 total people, and pretty much everyone else in the group agrees that it’s more manageable and fun that way. Five players and a DM should be enough people to cover the basics of the standard adventuring party and allow one wild card, while not being too many people around to create an unmanageable game.

As for Rappan Athuk, I keep doing a small but steady amount of work on it. I’m almost to the point where I should start reading the module again.

I want to add more things here and there, but I don’t want to go overboard with it. Too much information can both back you into a corner when the players crash into your plans or it can overload the DM to the point where he is scrambling through his notes trying to find that elusive single sentence that will allow him to properly respond to the PC’s question.

I’m more or less done with the village that will be the party’s base of operations, and I have the first adventure mostly ready (the one that preps them for things to come and gets them to level 3).

Plenty of NPC’s are quite fleshed out, and several just enough to get by on to allow me a little extra fun.

Several important shops and shop owners are designed enough to give the place a living feeling once the PC’s arrive.

A map of the village I need to work on, but I’ll take care of that after I reread parts of the module.

Now back to the topic of character creation, which I keep giving out info in a piecemeal manner. I’ll probably have to do “Character Creation Redux” post before the game starts.

I think this is the last little bit of information needed until we actually start playing.

For stats, I like how I did it in my last campaign which incorporated a little luck with a standard array. I kind of want to keep that, but gestalt PC’s tend to need some higher stats. But I don’t want to go too high. And adding random numbers opens up some issues of “should the DM watch to prevent cheating?”

So I’m going to go with the option of 2 arrays, or a point-buy to make it easier for players to make up PC’s for fun when they have some free time to kill. I’ve done that before for fun.

Option #1 – Array 18, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8
Option #1 is setup for gestalt PC’s whose classes need similar stats (35 points).

Option #2 – Array 16, 16, 14, 14, 11, 10
Option #2 is setup for gestalt PC’s whose classes are dissimilar and need a more balanced set of stats (35 points also).

Option #3 – 32 point-buy
Option #3 is for those difficult players who hate to be confined and just have to go their own way.

“I want to roll dice!”
Sorry, not this campaign.

As for character religions, unlike last time where I just had clerics pick 2 domains, I’ll be going the opposite and more traditional direction. Pick one of the deities from the PHB. If there’s a deity outside of that list you’d like, just ask. Chances are I’ll allow it unless it’s a screwy one or you want Orcus as your deity.

Now with increasing combat speed, I really thought I had it right during my last campaign. But it simply didn’t work out as I had hoped. I took some heat from couple of the players for being pushy and not doing the same thing with the monsters (which isn’t the same thing), while a couple other ones did their best to keep their actions quick and were ready the moment it was their action.

But in the end, it just didn’t work the way I wanted it to. So I’ve had to rethink the whole idea.

My solution is simple, bribery – on a small scale.

No, I’m not going to give money to the players.

Back when I had some of the big final fights, I gave a couple of the PC’s some cards that they could use that represented something outside of the direct conflict interacting within the conflict, like some archers shooting from another vantage point or a wizard tossing in a fireball.

I’m bringing that idea back, but not as big as wizard’s fireball or anything; just some cards that allow minor changes to the game.

Or, if you’ve been reading a lot of Knights of the Dinner Table, you can call them coupons.

Examples:
Reroll a 50/50 roll against an incorporeal creature.
+1 AC vs. a single attack, use just before the attack roll.
Usable only in a town, get 100gp and a potion of Cure Light Wounds.
Your speed is +10’ for one move action.
Treat a natural 1 on a crit confirmation roll as a confirmed crit.
Use on your turn; your AC is +4 until your next turn but all critical hits are confirmed.
Reroll a natural 1 for a hit point roll.
Reroll a climb or jump skill check, before results are determined.

And there are plenty more cards.
If a player doesn’t like a card he has, that’s ok, he can turn it in and redraw at the beginning of the next session.

As for handing out the cards, that should be pretty simple.

When a player pulls of some amazing tricks through excellent role-playing, or getting incredibly lucky with dice rolls at the right time, they’ll get a card.

When a player shows up on time and is “present” the whole night (not on the phone, sleeping, etc.), they’ll get a card.

If the DM shows up late, everyone who’s already there gets a card.

And finally, at the end of the night, each player who did his best to keep the game going smoothly and quickly will get a card.

The DM may throw some in as a “karma reward” when certain goals or missions are completed.

The DM may give some to monsters to help counterbalance the PC’s powers rather than give the PC’s an XP hit. Those cards will not be part of the treasure though.

I expect to hand out a lot of the cards early on, and then less and less as the levels go up and the game starts to drag a bit.

But by then 4E will be out and we’ll forget all about Rappan Athuk.

Gestalt Power

For Rappan Athuk I have both limited and opened up the allowable classes to quite a large number of potential choice combinations.

I’ve limited them in that they only have 10 classes to choose from. I’ve looked at all of the other base classes from the “Complete” and other books, and I think I’m sticking with the ones I’ve selected already.

But looking at all the potential combinations of those 10 classes gives you 42 different combinations, 45 had there not been alignment issues with the barbarian vs. the knight, monk, and paladin.

More so, I’m allowing class options (from the PHB2, Unearthed Arcana, etc. with DM approval) that could potentially give you 400 different combinations. Now some of those options would be utterly worthless, but it’s an option none-the-less. In the end you’ll have around 100 gestalt class combinations to choose from that won’t suck.

To judge how well classes work together you have to look at their abilities and determine if the combination is worth the effort.
Mixing two similar classes means that your skill points won’t be incredibly diluted, but you saves will probably be the same as well.
Mixing two dissimilar classes means you’ll have good saves, but too few skill points to spread everywhere..

Barbarian – Excellent hit points and big potential for dealing damage. Works well with any class that can get into melee combat. They have decent skill points as well.
Favored Soul – Good armor options and a vast array of spells to choose from give this class enough modularity to make it a viable companion to any other class.
Fighter – The feats and BAB are probably the only reasons this class would be chosen for a gestalt class.
Knight – Excellent hit points and can hang with the best in melee, plus its abilities give this class some good endurance in melee. Good when coupled with another melee class, but its role-playing restrictions make several other classes worthless when combined with it.
Monk – Average hit points, saves, and BAB; no armor and lawfully-aligned only. If you can work around those issues and exploit its special abilities then you might have a kick ass class. Otherwise just skip the monk and pick something more suitable for you.
Ranger – Plenty of options give this class a versatility that allows it to be coupled with just about any other class.
Rogue – A lot of skill points helps offset the worst issues with gestalt PC’s – not enough skills to go around. Sneak attack gives several other classes a good extra bit of damage that can’t be ignored.
Scout – A combination of the rogue and ranger makes this class a good non-gestalt class, but pretty iffy when put into a gestalt situation. I’m not sure I’d even use a scout unless combined with a rogue or ranger.
Sorcerer – A large list of spells to use from make this class almost as versatile as the favored soul, but the spellcasting in armor penalty hurts when combining with other classes. Spells can be used to offset the armor problem, but it only goes so far. But if you can stay out of melee, then you’re probably free to wreak havoc on the battlefield.

Combinations I like:
Favored Soul + Monk = The ultimate in heals on wheels. No armor + speed bonuses leave very little on the battlefield you can’t reach in a single move. When you’re not needed for healing you can easily cast buff spells or use your special abilities to aid your party.

Favored Soul + Sorcerer = It means you never run out of spells.
Round 1: Buff or nuke?
Round 2: Buff or nuke?
Round 3: Out of spells yet? Not even close? Ok, buff or nuke?

Barbarian + Rogue = Ouch! Take 2d6 (greatsword) + 12 (raging strength of 22 +50% for two-handing) + 8 (Power Attack) + 2d6 (sneak attack) for an average of 34 points of damage in a single hit at level 4. Your AC isn’t all that great, so just make sure you kill it before it kills you.

Fighter + Knight = The ultimate in tin can technology. A lot of hit points and a ridiculous armor class (augmented by AC giving fighter feats) makes this guy the reverse of the barbarian/rogue; less damage but more staying power.

Now you modify them with various class options that exist in a few of the books.
Here is a rough list of class options and my current opinion on whether I’d allow it in this game:

Battle Sorcerer – A sorcerer gives up some spells per day to gain some combat skills. This one gets a big no because this is a gestalt game. If you want a fighting sorcerer, pick a sorcerer and a fighting class.

Berserker Strength – Allows a barbarian to give up barbarian rage for a benefit similar to the rage but when you are at 5 times your barbarian levels in hit points. Right now I’m 50/50 on this one. This ability sounds like an early incarnation of 4E’s “bloodied” status bonuses, so maybe allowing it will give us a small glimpse of the future.

Charging Smite – A paladin gives up his special pokemount to deal extra damage to evil creatures when he charges them and smites them at the same time. Sounds simple enough to me, so I’ll allow it, heck I’ll probably require it.

Class ability shuffling option variants – Any class variant that gives up a class’s special abilities to gain the special abilities of another class is a no. An example is the rogue that gives up sneak attack to gain fighter bonus feats. I see no need to for that to be around in a gestalt game. If you want a rogue with fighter feats, take a rogue/fighter.

Counterattack – A fighter gives up his level 12 bonus feat to gain the ability to immediately attack someone who just attacked him (once per round), but only if he uses a full round action and makes only one attack. This one I’ll allow as a lot of the second and third attack swings tend to be wastes of time.

Decisive Strike – The monk gives up his Flurry of Blows option to make a single attack that deals double damage and increases the DC’s of his special attacks. This seems like a good trade off as Flurry of Blows just plain blows as monks can’t hit worth a damn.

Deity’s Favor – Allows a favored soul to give up his deity’s weapon focus bonus feat and gain the ability to give temporary hit points to spell recipients. This option looks simple, but I know it can add enough of a complication to the game that outweighs the gain. (“Oh wait, I forgot about my bonus hit points! I need to change my action.”) So this one is out.

Disruptive Attack – A rogue delays gaining his Uncanny Dodge until level 8 (and never gets the improved version) in order to give AC penalties to opponents for a round that he flanks or has caught flat-footed but doesn’t get to add sneak attack damage (and even works on opponents who are immune to sneak attack). This one sounds ok, and hopefully it won’t be complicated.

Distracting Attack – A ranger gives up his animal companion in order to give his allies a flanking bonus for a single attack. Not only am I allowing this, I am requiring it because I’ve banned animal companions and this is a good tradeoff.

Dungeon Specialist – A scout gives up some of his movement bonuses in order to gain other bonuses while climbing. I don’t see any real reason to take this, but if a players wants to make his PC suck, I’m all for allowing it and putting a target on that PC’s head.

Elusive Attack – A fighter gives up his level 6 bonus feat to gain an AC bonus when performing a single attack as a full-round action. That sounds simple and fair to me.

Fighting Styles: Monks get a variety of different class abilities depending on their fighting style choice. I won’t be allowing this one, as there are too many things that are different for no real gain and a big potential for time-wasting. I could be swayed on this one with a good argument from a player and a promise that it won’t slow the game down.

Metamagic Specialist – A sorcerer gives up his familiar in order to be able to cast metamagic spells without increasing the casting time for a limited number of times per day. Like the ranger’s Distracting Attack, this one is required as no familiars are in this game.

Overpowering Attack – A fighter gives up his level 16 bonus feat to allow him to take a full round action to make a single swing that does double damage. I will allow this one as by then a fighter has 4 attacks and usually only 2 of them hit. This option just saves time and could potentially be a devastating damage dealer.

Paladin class alignment variants: Paladins exist for the other 3 non-neutral alignments (Freedom for CG, Tyranny for LE, and Slaughter for CE) with different special abilities. I want to allow because I like the idea of the classes but feel it could be a mistake (see monk fighting styles). So I’m 50/50 on this one.

Ranger Variants – A ranger gives up some wilderness abilities to gain some for other terrains. This module won’t have those other terrains enough to warrant the need. So these options receive a no.

Totem Variants – Barbarians get a different list of special abilities depending on their choice in totem creature. I won’t be allowing this one, see monk Fighting Styles for why.

Wilderness Rogue – a rogue gives up some of his city-based skills to gain some wilderness-based ones. Since it’s mostly a skill shuffle, I don’t see why not to allow it.

I’m sure there are more variants and I’m sure the players will ask about or find them.

Plus I want make clear that the options and variants are meant to help a player design his PC to make it easier and faster to play, not to help a player make a broken PC.

I’m not telling the players that they absolutely can’t play a certain option or combination. But if they want it that bad, they have to ensure to me with 100% certainty that their PC will not slow down the game.

I’ve seen enough games where player A’s turn is 15 seconds long, while player B’s is 3 minutes. It’s simply unfair to player A to have to sit through 10 minutes of other people’s actions before he has the opportunity to roll a d20 and wait some more.