Pay off your debt with a little Quest

[Chaser617]

Well, now we know who the hitpoint-sink is

Aka the fighter

Aka 'The Meat Shield'

[EdBecerra]

my question is where was the bouncer in all this...

...keeping a safe distance from all the fireworks?

but that has got to be one shoddy fire safety code if a fire spread on it's own accross many buildings including the important ones!

Bear in mind (now there's a pun!) that this used to happen all the time. London was rather famous for burning down, so much so that the King eventually REQUIRED at least one brick wall between the point of contact where two buildings touched each other. This is where we got the term 'firewall', y'know.

And Tokyo? *snerks* There's a reason anime fans call it "Matchstick City, Japan"... until after WW2 and modern building codes, the place would burn down every 20 to 40 years, damn near regular as clockwork.

Also, if no one else has noticed, the comic for the 14th seems to have vanished. When I click the "<" link, the page comes up, but the .jpeg of the strip isn't there, replaced with a large blank white square.

[Kerry Skydancer]

Also, if no one else has noticed, the comic for the 14th seems to have vanished. When I click the "<" link, the page comes up, but the .jpeg of the strip isn't there, replaced with a large blank white square.

I had some trouble with it; half the time it's there and the other half it's hiding. Possibly a browser issue, it's happened before.

[Selden]

Well, now we know who the hitpoint-sink is

Aka the fighter

Aka 'The Meat Shield'

I don't know... Rico looks more like the poorly-defended barbarian with Axe of Berserk Strength (more highly enchanted than is strictly possible, but with a lower effective enchantment level because parts of it are only active during a rage, doncha know) type to me.
All fat jokes aside, Ben might be a good meat shield. He might be the party cleric, too (check out his mace on Dec. 8th). But since he's also the guard being sent out to make sure the criminals don't run off on their sentencing, he's not what you'd call highly motivated to lay down his life or hypothetical healing magic for the good of the party.
Of the other characters, Charlie's tinker gnome and Gus' gully dwarf might be fighters, but they certainly wouldn't be counted on to take hits. Penny, who seems to be a tiny or diminutive fey instead of just a small one, couldn't even stop somebody from standing next to her and hitting whoever's behind her. Lucy may be a beast in melee, but she's still relying on wizard's robes and d4 hit dice; she's got the size to be a meat tower shield, but all the durability of a cardboard buckler. Maggie's leather armor isn't going to be much protection (unless it's the +3 Invulnerable leather that dear old daddy's second sylvan wife wore), which means her hit points would get worn down almost as fast as Rico's. There's always Merry, who seems to be wearing real armor... one heavy meat shield doesn't usually keep the enemy away from the back ranks, but she could stand in the middle with the barbarians at either side and the less effective damage sinks standing by to flank.

Yeah, I know. I overanalyze everything.

[Werekitty]

I was about to ask how they were going to keep the motley crew from running off... Unless the town's got themselves a wizard that can put a geis upon them.

And a medevil style RP has a schoolhouse? If I recall, correctly, in medevil times there was only two ways for anyone to get themselves edjumacated.

1. Born into the gentry.

2. Join a religous order, or become clergy.

[LoneWolf23k]

I was about to ask how they were going to keep the motley crew from running off... Unless the town's got themselves a wizard that can put a geis upon them.

And a medevil style RP has a schoolhouse? If I recall, correctly, in medevil times there was only two ways for anyone to get themselves edjumacated.

1. Born into the gentry.

2. Join a religous order, or become clergy.

Well, do note that this is FANTASY, not medieval simulation.

[Werekitty]

I was about to ask how they were going to keep the motley crew from running off... Unless the town's got themselves a wizard that can put a geis upon them.

And a medieval style RP has a schoolhouse? If I recall, correctly, in medieval times there was only two ways for anyone to get themselves edjumacated.

1. Born into the gentry.

2. Join a religious order, or become clergy.

Well, do note that this is FANTASY, not medieval simulation.

Good point.

So... Do you think that there's a Town Wizard available to put a geis on our merry band to keep them from running off, or are they going to depend on Ben to herd them in the right direction.

IF that's the case, poor poor Ben. He'd have about as much success in this effort, as he would attempting to herd unevolved domesticated felines.

[The JAM]

[...unWARP!]

Good evening.

Either that, or into the Happy Valley Of Soft Fuzzy Pink Things......That Are Nice!

(Kudos to anyone who gets that reference)

No one?


Eek! The Cat


I saw that episode in Spanish, though. I had a feeling that phrase above sounded familiar.


Zacatepongolas!

Until next time, remember:

I

AM

THE

J.A.M. (a.k.a. Numbuh i: "Just because I'm imaginary doesn't mean I don't exist")

Good evening.

[WARP!!!]

[Roberto the Dane]

Calbeck was clean-shaven when he spoke to the first group. Now he has stubble. He must have spent a long night fighting the fire. I doubt he is inclined to take "no" for an answer.

Roberto the Dane

[Squeaky Bunny]

I was about to ask how they were going to keep the motley crew from running off... Unless the town's got themselves a wizard that can put a geis upon them.

And a medevil style RP has a schoolhouse? If I recall, correctly, in medevil times there was only two ways for anyone to get themselves edjumacated.

1. Born into the gentry.

2. Join a religous order, or become clergy.

Could it be an Elementary school for alchemists.

[Calbeck]

Calbeck was clean-shaven when he spoke to the first group. Now he has stubble. He must have spent a long night fighting the fire. I doubt he is inclined to take "no" for an answer.

Roberto the Dane

Yeah, NORMALLY I wouldn't be caught dead dressing down a bunch of fresh cannon fod...er, Heroes of the Realm...without my morning shave and a fresh tunic (as seen in Interview #1). Hell, I didn't even have time to break out the Old Spice for Int. #2.

[EdBecerra]

I was about to ask how they were going to keep the motley crew from running off... Unless the town's got themselves a wizard that can put a geis upon them.

And a medevil style RP has a schoolhouse? If I recall, correctly, in medevil times there was only two ways for anyone to get themselves edjumacated.

1. Born into the gentry.

2. Join a religous order, or become clergy.

Unless, of course, you've got a religion whose god insists that his/her priests go out among the people and teach the masses at least the most basic of skills, the three R's.

That's happened a few times before in history.

[Hasivel]

I don't know... Rico looks more like the poorly-defended barbarian with Axe of Berserk Strength (more highly enchanted than is strictly possible, but with a lower effective enchantment level because parts of it are only active during a rage, doncha know) type to me.
All fat jokes aside, Ben might be a good meat shield. He might be the party cleric, too (check out his mace on Dec. 8th). But since he's also the guard being sent out to make sure the criminals don't run off on their sentencing, he's not what you'd call highly motivated to lay down his life or hypothetical healing magic for the good of the party.
Of the other characters, Charlie's tinker gnome and Gus' gully dwarf might be fighters, but they certainly wouldn't be counted on to take hits. Penny, who seems to be a tiny or diminutive fey instead of just a small one, couldn't even stop somebody from standing next to her and hitting whoever's behind her. Lucy may be a beast in melee, but she's still relying on wizard's robes and d4 hit dice; she's got the size to be a meat tower shield, but all the durability of a cardboard buckler. Maggie's leather armor isn't going to be much protection (unless it's the +3 Invulnerable leather that dear old daddy's second sylvan wife wore), which means her hit points would get worn down almost as fast as Rico's. There's always Merry, who seems to be wearing real armor... one heavy meat shield doesn't usually keep the enemy away from the back ranks, but she could stand in the middle with the barbarians at either side and the less effective damage sinks standing by to flank.

Yeah, I know. I overanalyze everything.

Yeah, I overanalyze too. I'm of the opinion that Penny's meant to be the meat-shield.

A Pixie is hideously fast (Which adds +3 to Armor Class for their +6 Dex), and the small size adds more to Armor class. Plus a Pixie has the Dodge feat naturally which adds still more. A pixie out of the box can often have a higher armor class than a human in plate mail.

And of course when you actually do hit them, you discover they have damage reduction so aside from the rare cold iron weapon only a critical will usually do anything at all to them. That skeleton's going to be surprised when it's hand breaks before it manages to actually harm her.

And a Pixie can turn invisible at will even while beating on you, which makes them even harder to hit.

Add in that she's packing a vorpal scythe (Thank god she doesn't have a light vorpal weapon or she'd get to add that massive Dex bonus to attack rolls too) which has a chance of killing anything with every attack. It's like taking on a malevolent hummingbird armed with a lightsaber.

[Selden]

Of course, when characters like pixies are allowed there's usually a lot of Deus Ex DMing to keep them from doing exactly what Penny is trying to do. The active skeleton could have a hand of polymorphous material so it can be an effective guard against anything from werecat rogues to constructs and from celestial devas to Glabrezu. Just don't ask me how that'd work.

The vorpal scythe is, to me, a real minor improvement on a normal one. It doesn't do squat unless you manage to roll a natural 20 (which always seems to happen way less often than one in twenty rolls), and Penny could easily waste one of the few times it does activate on something that doesn't care. Like the skeleton that's attacking her right now, for instance. The skeleton that has damage resistance of 5/bludgeoning, while Penny is stuck with a 1d6 piercing or slashing weapon and -4 on whatever strength was rolled for her character. Since it's also inherently immune to the x4 damage of a critical hit, neither of them are capable of seriously injuring the other-unless the skeleton has been improved, in which case Penny is toast. At best she'll be carried to somebody intelligent enough to decide on if she should be killed or just tossed into a cage.

[StrangeWulf13]

Probably the cage again. Which she'll be just thrilled to see I'll bet.

And Hasivel, welcome to the asylum, er, forums. Couple rules to know:

1. Never feed Solidus.
2. Never feed Solidus.
3. Please leave your sanity at the door. You won't be needing it.
4. Never feed Solidus.
5. If you start a controversial topic, expect to receive equal or greater flaming than what you bring to it. And don't forget the s'mores for those of us on the sidelines.
666. NEVER FEED SOLIDUS. EVER.

I think that covers it. Enjoy your stay!

You'll be here for a while...

[Hasivel]

Of course, when characters like pixies are allowed there's usually a lot of Deus Ex DMing to keep them from doing exactly what Penny is trying to do. The active skeleton could have a hand of polymorphous material so it can be an effective guard against anything from werecat rogues to constructs and from celestial devas to Glabrezu. Just don't ask me how that'd work.

The vorpal scythe is, to me, a real minor improvement on a normal one. It doesn't do squat unless you manage to roll a natural 20 (which always seems to happen way less often than one in twenty rolls), and Penny could easily waste one of the few times it does activate on something that doesn't care. Like the skeleton that's attacking her right now, for instance. The skeleton that has damage resistance of 5/bludgeoning, while Penny is stuck with a 1d6 piercing or slashing weapon and -4 on whatever strength was rolled for her character. Since it's also inherently immune to the x4 damage of a critical hit, neither of them are capable of seriously injuring the other-unless the skeleton has been improved, in which case Penny is toast. At best she'll be carried to somebody intelligent enough to decide on if she should be killed or just tossed into a cage.

I'll agree with you, having a weapon be Vorpal is usually a waste of time. IME it's main value is psychological, nobody likes to be near the guy using a potential one-hit-one-kill weapon, and thus it's ideal for the meat shield when she also happens to be super-fast because everybody is going to be trying to get around her rather than close and risk it's instagib. Thus my assumption that Penny's probably the meat-wall of the party.

Scythes are, ironically, the ideal weapon for a Paladin due to their huge crit rate, since Paladins gain an early spell that makes every hit a Critical automatically against anything evil.

Most likely you're right and Ben has toned down Pixies, otherwise I can't imagine why Penny wouldn't have gone invisible on the way down the chimney.

[Selden]

The Paladin spell Bless Weapon is a bit less useful than you remember, more's the pity for paladins using scythes, battleaxes and the like. It takes the threatened critical you got by rolling within the weapon's crit range and says you don't need to roll again to confirm it. So you do still have to roll the nat 20 for a critical... it's just that you don't need to beat that human fighter's AC of 18 on a confirmation roll.

It's quite possible that Ben didn't do any homeruling for the pixies, and Penny was just too overconfident to bother (or didn't even remember she could do it). If she is the small fey listed in the SRD, she'd make a fair meat shield. However, she certainly looks at least a size category smaller than 'the boys'... no bigger than Ben's head, and not much more than a handful for a skeleton. If she is tiny or diminutive, she doesn't have the reach to threaten anything but the square she's in; as I mentioned earlier, somebody who can be zipping around right in front of your mage without threatening the squares to its left and right isn't a very effect shield. Still, she could always hover between Rico and Maggie...

Any thoughts on the other members of the group? I always enjoy a good argument/discussion about in-depth details, even when I can barely guess what's going on.

[Hasivel]

The Paladin spell Bless Weapon is a bit less useful than you remember, more's the pity for paladins using scythes, battleaxes and the like. It takes the threatened critical you got by rolling within the weapon's crit range and says you don't need to roll again to confirm it. So you do still have to roll the nat 20 for a critical... it's just that you don't need to beat that human fighter's AC of 18 on a confirmation roll.

Oh yeah that's right. It's been too long since I've played DnD, usually I play Shadowrun instead and that takes up most of my memory. I recall making a mounted Paladin once who managed to do 16d4 damage to the big-bad in one hit with a scythe, using a combination of bless weapon and spirited charge for 62 damage, and the concept has stuck with me a long time.

Any thoughts on the other members of the group? I always enjoy a good argument/discussion about in-depth details, even when I can barely guess what's going on.

Not really, aside from wondering how tough the half-giant wizard is. If shey's got even half a regular giant's Con bonus the Wizard may well also be suited for meat shielding. Particularly if, like a regular hill giant, she's always proficient will all non-exotic weapons and shields, which could provide a nice AC and damage. d4+8 HP per level beats d10+3.

[Selden]

I know somebody who hypothesized a mounted barbarian... he never actually did it because he hated how it meant most of his feats were useless in dungeons, mountain treks, underworld exploration, etc, etc... but he was quite insistent that in a campaign set on plainlands, a barbarian who got up to Spirited Charge would be devastating. Assuming a level 12 human barbarian who rolled a 18 for strength and put all three stat points on it, you can strike up a rage for 25 strength and take a -3 attack with Power Attack to do (1d8+13)x3 damage with a lance. Average of 49-50, maximum of 60, and all assuming a completely unenchanted lance. Not bad, eh? Now just find a plainlands campaign so the three mounted combat feats aren't usually inapplicable. It's the same problem as the Ivory Tower intellectuals have... you spend hours working on a killer idea, only to be reminded that it only works in the theoretical world they're pondering it in.

Half-giant is, oddly enough, a race established in The Expanded Psionics Handbook. I don't have that, but I checked for half-giant racial features at wizards.com when Lucy said that's what she was. They've got +2 strength and constitution, -2 dexterity. I don't know anything other than their racial modifiers, so it's possible (albeit unlikely) that they get an HP bonus... but assuming they're not, the mage in question is blowing a level (+1 LA, no racial hit dice) and a point of AC for +1 health per level. Assuming the group is ECL 5, the minimum for a pixie without Irresistable Dance to be on par with everybody else, her bonus constitution modifier has given her all of 4 hp; a human wizard with 14 constitution could easily beat that with the level she didn't get.

[Squeaky Bunny]

I don't know... Rico looks more like the poorly-defended barbarian with Axe of Berserk Strength (more highly enchanted than is strictly possible, but with a lower effective enchantment level because parts of it are only active during a rage, doncha know) type to me.
All fat jokes aside, Ben might be a good meat shield. He might be the party cleric, too (check out his mace on Dec. 8th). But since he's also the guard being sent out to make sure the criminals don't run off on their sentencing, he's not what you'd call highly motivated to lay down his life or hypothetical healing magic for the good of the party.
Of the other characters, Charlie's tinker gnome and Gus' gully dwarf might be fighters, but they certainly wouldn't be counted on to take hits. Penny, who seems to be a tiny or diminutive fey instead of just a small one, couldn't even stop somebody from standing next to her and hitting whoever's behind her. Lucy may be a beast in melee, but she's still relying on wizard's robes and d4 hit dice; she's got the size to be a meat tower shield, but all the durability of a cardboard buckler. Maggie's leather armor isn't going to be much protection (unless it's the +3 Invulnerable leather that dear old daddy's second sylvan wife wore), which means her hit points would get worn down almost as fast as Rico's. There's always Merry, who seems to be wearing real armor... one heavy meat shield doesn't usually keep the enemy away from the back ranks, but she could stand in the middle with the barbarians at either side and the less effective damage sinks standing by to flank.

Yeah, I know. I overanalyze everything.

Yeah, I overanalyze too. I'm of the opinion that Penny's meant to be the meat-shield.

A Pixie is hideously fast (Which adds +3 to Armor Class for their +6 Dex), and the small size adds more to Armor class. Plus a Pixie has the Dodge feat naturally which adds still more. A pixie out of the box can often have a higher armor class than a human in plate mail.

And of course when you actually do hit them, you discover they have damage reduction so aside from the rare cold iron weapon only a critical will usually do anything at all to them. That skeleton's going to be surprised when it's hand breaks before it manages to actually harm her.

And a Pixie can turn invisible at will even while beating on you, which makes them even harder to hit.

Add in that she's packing a vorpal scythe (Thank god she doesn't have a light vorpal weapon or she'd get to add that massive Dex bonus to attack rolls too) which has a chance of killing anything with every attack. It's like taking on a malevolent hummingbird armed with a lightsaber.

There is one thing. Penny is a pixie but she may not know or remember all the abilities and quirks about her character.