Post/Author/DateTime	Post
rockondon 12-27-06, 05:39 PM	Stuff that I generally have on my chars - caltrops - phials of oil (I have a strip of cloth tucked in with the stopper to be lit for a molotov cocktail) - potion of protection from evil - potion of cure light wounds - a slashing weapon that is also cold iron or silvered - a bludgeoning weapon that is also cold iron or silvered - characters using bows have cold iron arrows and silvered arrows - a rope and grapple that is 100ft long (I'm sick of 50ft ropes and 60ft pits) - torches that have sharpened ends (stake...for vampires) - I considered a tanglefoot bag. Is it worth it? - tindertwigs - holy water - strong alcohol of some kind - an adamantine bludgeoning weapon if I can afford one - potion/scroll of remove disease if I can afford it - potion/scroll of remove curse if I can afford it I'm always on the lookout for useful gear that I haven't thought of. What do you guys use? --Don
UMiskatonic 12-27-06, 06:16 PM	Man, I'll carry almost everything I can get away with. That includes mundane items like: Cold Weather gear shovel Tanglefoot bag (yes, it is) Alchemical items all three damage types all three special materials And more, from the category of 'cheaper than a raise dead' potion of lesser restoration potion of fly potion of water breathing or elixir of swimming potion of see invisibility oil of magic weapon oil of bless weapon potion of protection from evil
Arvagor 12-27-06, 08:19 PM	Tanglefoot bags (you can never have enough) Smokesticks (great for blocking an enemy mage's line-of-sight) Sunrods Flasks of acid Alchemist’s fire Vials of antitoxin Flasks of holy water Tindertwigs (not often useful, but I always keep a few) Thunderstone (also don't use them very often, but 20% chance to miscast spells with V components can't hurt) Flash pellets (Complete Adventurer; I know, requires access, but blinding for a round can be a lifesaver too, esp. if none of your mages have glitterdust) Bolt cutters (A&EG) Universal solvent (for when somebody in your party gets hit with a tanglefoot bag) Quiver of Ehlonna to carry all those weapons Heward's handy haversack to carry everything else Can you tell my main PC is comfortable in his role as a support combatant? ;) Being a high Dex rogue also means that most of the items above that have ranged touch attacks will successfully hit.
budleiser 12-27-06, 09:37 PM	1,657,129 Tanglefoot Bags(+500,000 camels to carry tanglefoot bags) Scroll of command undead Potion of prot evil Sap Pot cure light wounds
Shieldhart91 12-28-06, 04:05 AM	Being the paranoid squire that my character is: Wand of Cure Light Wounds Wand of Enlarge Person x8-12 Potions of Cure Light Wounds Holy Symbol Alchemist's Fire Acid Flask Holy Water Sunrod Tindertwigs
gomeztoo 12-28-06, 04:52 AM	I'm amazed nobody mentioned the crowbar yet. Aside form that, my main carries the virtual PHB equipment table. Including climbing gear (pitons, hammer, etc), rope, soap (in various colors and tastes), grappling hook, shovel, crayons, chalk, all of the alchemicals, and a potted plant. She also has varios (exotic) weapons, and some odd stuff such as feather token (tree/whip), honeyleather tent, dwarfblind, etc. My waste druid only carries desert survival guaer: desert outfit, filter mask, sunglases, a parasol, and a evil looking trident. My rogue goes ligthweight and only carries equipment for his profession (mw lockpicks, caltrops, etc). No crowbar since those are for ' amateurs'.
paigeoliver 12-28-06, 08:56 AM	I am not going to list my complete equipment list here, but here are some things that different characters of mine own. A bag with one holy symbol of every good and neutral deity in the campaign, all of them marked of course. I keep this on a pack animal for weight reasons. Donkeys and mules. They are invaluable. I usually own enough for the entire party to ride, or they will simply be hitched up to a cart or carriage. My characters usually think it is absolutely rediculous that wealthy 7th and 8th level characters can't afford a horse and just walk HUNDREDS of MILES from one location to another. Can't afford a horse? Fine then, ride this mule, we aren't going to travel at walking speed when people may be tracking us on horseback. A small sized gnomish hooked hammer. They are in case any captured NPCs get lippy with him, then he will toss them a weapon to give them a fighting chance. Of course your average bad guy will be either minus 4 or minus 8 to hit with it, but that isn't MY fault. The trained hireling from the player's handbook. He carries around a banner for one character. Honestly this guy has been a hindrance more than anything else, but he is a roleplaying thing. I usually try to own a secondary magic weapon (usually one ranged and one melee) and 5 healing potions. 5 healing potions will allow ANYONE in the party to revive everyone else if they all get knocked negative. The character who takes around the hireling usually carries 7, the extra two being for the hireling and his favorite donkey. A RANGED WEAPON. Every character regardless of class or specialty should have a ranged weapon. You know you are going to EVENTUALLY be caught in a silence field with archers shooting at you, or some similar situation. I DON'T tend to carry around the toolkit of silver, cold iron, bludgeon, pierce, slash, etc, but that is because I tend towards characters who are really focused on one type of weapon and will often do more damage with the WRONG weapon than they would with the right one. But it is also because I am one of those people who refuses to carry around 12 weapons because it is simply impossible.
Reylance 12-28-06, 10:04 AM	There are several weapons I carry standard at character creation. A spiked gauntlet, a weapon you will have ready to use when in a grapple. A club, a free bludgeoning weapon for those skeletons A sickle, a slashing weapon anyone can use. Shortly after creation, I will pick up a silver and a cold iron version of my character's main weapon. When I get adamantine access, I will normally get a bludgeoning weapon made of adamantine, for clay golems. I will typically make my first magic weapon the silver one, since vampires are too common. At low levels, I make sure to have potions of cure light wounds and protection from evil, and oils of magic weapon and bless weapon. I now realize I should carry oil of shillelagh for when I need a magic bludgeoning weapon. Characters who can use scrolls pick up a variety of useful scrolls, but any PC who gets access will buy scrolls of align weapon or restoration.
Britt 12-28-06, 10:24 AM	A bag with one holy symbol of every good and neutral deity in the campaign, all of them marked of course. I keep this on a pack animal for weight reasons. How much does this cost?
LGMoses 12-28-06, 10:29 AM	ha ha. I had a warlock in the Cabal of Shadows who pulled that holy symbol trick. I made him into a NE travelling priest of the Silver Flame. I had the holy symbol and the vestments and everything. The fun part was bluffing people about it and just laying on the BS like throwing drops of oil on my party mates and telling them they were blessed.
gomeztoo 12-28-06, 10:35 AM	A bag with one holy symbol of every good and neutral deity in the campaign, all of them marked of course. I keep this on a pack animal for weight reasons. Ow, Holy symbols: my main collects those too... (generally from bodies of enemies but she also buys them whenever she meets a cleric of a faith she hasn't encountered before). I know several other PCs that do this. My char actually wears them (all of them, at once). I'm sure she'll be arrrested within .5 seconds if she ever sets foot in the Pale... As to hirelings, Nesalia also walks around with three body guards, which were sicked on her by her mate. I never got stats or whatever, but they seem to be 1st lvl hexblades, and I gave them alignments and names. Given thats she is lvl 9, their function is only ceremonial (and she generally looses them during the plot hook anyway). In a few cases I forgot about them halfway the scenario, so I guess that they did adventure with her and visited such interesting places such as Acheron... several times :P
nobodez 12-28-06, 10:40 AM	I never carry more than 50 ft. of rope because of the fact that even if I had enough ranks in Use Rope, the max you can throw a grappling hook is 50 ft.
LGMoses 12-28-06, 10:47 AM	as much crap as I can carry. I remember. The first mod I played in was Blood on Bright Sands. The person running it had been telling us about how it was a desert mod and we needed to come prepared. Well, I bought a TON of crap. A mule, and about half of the stuff in the phb mundane equipment guide. A big iron pot I filled with waterskins full of water. Lots of crazy stuff. I even brought firewood but he never asked wehre we were getting our firewood and I forgot during the adventure.
gomeztoo 12-28-06, 10:53 AM	You probably felt as silly as my taking Heat Endurance... (though once I get improved Heat Endurance it'll still be worth it)
Arvagor 12-28-06, 11:25 AM	A bag with one holy symbol of every good and neutral deity in the campaign, all of them marked of course. I keep this on a pack animal for weight reasons. How much does this cost? By my count, there are 131 Good or Neutral deities in the LG Deities document, and since a wooden holy symbol works just as well against vampires as a silver one, that means 131 gp -- technically speaking, based on the PHB equipment chart, there's no need for a pack animal, since wooden holy symbols have no weight. ;) Of course, for 10 gp, a small steel mirror is just as effective on vamps as the holy symbol, so I always carry the mirror -- holy symbols just get you in trouble with the local authorities, and since most PCs can't bluff their way out of a paper sack (mine included), I opt for the "no holy symbol since I don't worship any of your stinkin' gods" route...
Dr.Cornelius 01-01-07, 06:04 AM	Surprised no one mentioned Manacles. Very useful for restraining NPCs.
budleiser 01-01-07, 09:13 AM	Surprised no one mentioned Manacles. Very useful for restraining NPCs. Rope is more versatile.
Dr.Cornelius 01-01-07, 04:46 PM	No doubt Rope is useful, but it is no substitute for Manacles. First of all, binding a person's hands is non-trivial. At best the DM may force you to make a skill check, at worst the escape-artist or strength DC to defeat the rope should be significantly easier than iron manacles. Second, I would be sceptical of using rope while grappling a resisting subject. This is at least a two man operation - one to pin and the second to tie. On the other hand applying Manacles in a grapple is a one man job. There is a good reason that Manacles exist - rope will substitute in a pinch, but why take the chance over 15gp and 2lbs?
clannagh 01-01-07, 05:19 PM	Of course, for 10 gp, a small steel mirror is just as effective on vamps as the holy symbol, so I always carry the mirror -- holy symbols just get you in trouble with the local authorities, and since most PCs can't bluff their way out of a paper sack (mine included), I opt for the "no holy symbol since I don't worship any of your stinkin' gods" route... The mirror is also handy for that "peep around the corner without risking a crossbow bolt to the head" thing. I usually note on an AR "holy wafers" for vampires as well. A ladder in the bag of holding doubles as a handy source of stakes, emergency firewood and club/quarterstaff to shillelagh as well as being useful as ... a ladder. By the way tanglefoot bags take a quantum increase in usefulness if you have someone that can cast silence on them :)
clannagh 01-01-07, 05:22 PM	Of course, for 10 gp, a small steel mirror is just as effective on vamps as the holy symbol, so I always carry the mirror -- holy symbols just get you in trouble with the local authorities, and since most PCs can't bluff their way out of a paper sack (mine included), I opt for the "no holy symbol since I don't worship any of your stinkin' gods" route... The mirror is also handy for that "peep around the corner without risking a crossbow bolt to the head" thing. I usually note on an AR "holy wafers" for vampires as well. A ladder in the bag of holding doubles as a handy source of stakes, emergency firewood and club/quarterstaff to shillelagh as well as being useful as ... a ladder. By the way tanglefoot bags take a quantum increase in usefulness if you have someone that can cast silence on them :) I always pack Climbing kits and healing kits .. cheapest +2 circ bonus to a skill you will ever get.
Dr.Cornelius 01-01-07, 06:41 PM	tanglefoot bags take a quantum increase in usefulness if you have someone that can cast silence on them :) Now I am starting to see why some players think LG mods are too easy. This one tactic in a reasonably well-prepared party is enough to shut down (or at least seriously inconvenience) an opposing spellcaster. Average Player: That last module was really tough - we barely survived the EL+5 Wizard and his minions. The Optimizer: Really? It was a walkover for our party. Average Player: How? The Optimizer: Well we had a Marshall along with Motivate Dex, so we won initiative and went before the evil Wizard. Our Cleric cast Silence on the Beastmaster's Tanglefoot Bag and the Beastmaster on Dire Bat flew over the Wizard and proceeded to tangle him in Silence. After that it was a mop-up. Average Player: Guess I am not spending enough time on the optimization boards. Mod Author: How am I supposed to design a Mod that will challenge a fully optimized ubër-party and not TPK a typical party?
UMiskatonic 01-01-07, 07:05 PM	Well, authors should apply at least some reasonableness to important NPCs. Give them extra spell components, a back-up weapon, etc. Actually, a lot of the same things that you see here, should also work for intelligent NPCs. Ultimately, though, it's not all the job of the author. A big part of it is the judge. Trust them to do their job, which is to apply judgement.
clannagh 01-01-07, 07:14 PM	Well, authors should apply at least some reasonableness to important NPCs. Give them extra spell components, a back-up weapon, etc. Actually, a lot of the same things that you see here, should also work for intelligent NPCs. Ultimately, though, it's not all the job of the author. A big part of it is the judge. Trust them to do their job, which is to apply judgement. agreed ... the job of the judge is to arranging things so the party ALMOST dies a good mod is one that gives the GM the flexibility to bring characters down close to zero or even in the negatives while still giving the party a reasonable chance to pull it off without outright death of course this means the same mod in the hands of a viscious GM who hides behind claims that "I just played it precisely as written" can usually TPK all but optimal parties playing down .. eventually people avoid those GM's
Dr.Cornelius 01-01-07, 07:27 PM	Ultimately, though, it's not all the job of the author. A big part of it is the judge. Trust them to do their job, which is to apply judgement. I am amazed at this statement. There appears to be significant regional difference in judging style. I am relatively new to LG, but out here in The Pale (N. California) my experience from playing and speaking with judges is that Pale judges are expected to be robots who play the module precisely as written, and exactly the same for every party. It is my understanding that LG mods are essentially like World of Warcraft instances - the difficulty level is fixed regardless of party composition or competence and judges have little or no discretion to modify the challenge or lethality.
clannagh 01-01-07, 10:20 PM	I am amazed at this statement. There appears to be significant regional difference in judging style. I am relatively new to LG, but out here in The Pale (N. California) my experience from playing and speaking with judges is that Pale judges are expected to be robots who play the module precisely as written, and exactly the same for every party. It is my understanding that LG mods are essentially like World of Warcraft instances - the difficulty level is fixed regardless of party composition or competence and judges have little or no discretion to modify the challenge or lethality. Do expect significant differences in judging style. Clearly the rules are the rules and the monsters in an encounter are set and cannot be varied, as are any specific tactics written into the mod. Within those constraints there are a lot of variables that allow a GM to make an encounter softer or more challenging to match the party in question. Something as simple as placing the mage in the open or in cover can change the difficulty of an encounter substantially. In theory LG mods should be written to challenge a well balanced full party who average at the maximum level to play a mod at a given APL. That virtually guarantees the same mod will TPK a random collection of 4 players who turn up at a games day and can barely muster the minimum level when they count the dogs and horses. With exceptions (like IUZ metaregionals which tend to be linear very strict and highly dangerous) there is usually a lot of leeway to tailor a mod to challenge the party without changing the specific written encounters or fudging any rules/rolls.
rockondon 01-02-07, 04:57 AM	But it is also because I am one of those people who refuses to carry around 12 weapons because it is simply impossible. its called the quiver of ehlonna but I refer to it as "my golf bag" ;) Another random item I carry is a bag of flour. I've used it to highlight the trapped sections of a hallway (in case we forget it on the way back) but more often against invisible opponents. A good ol 0-level create water spell usually tells me where mr.invisible's footprints are, a handful of flour does the rest. Potions of see invisible are for rookies ;)
Shieldhart91 01-02-07, 05:18 AM	Paige isn't kidding. I ran a few tables for him proceeding Winter Twilight: never again will I look at a donkey the same way. He's also given me the inspiration my buy a cart, pack animals, and hireling to carry around my Battle Standard of Ferrond...once I obtain the 40k GP to afford it ;) I won't be buying that until Year 9, methinks. Mundane banner of Furyondy for now, I suppose. To the aforementioned bag of flour: are there any rules on this? Airborne flour does ignite. I found that out after a heart-warming explosion in a flour factory...my Monk hasn't gotten rid of the scars to this day. To the previous statement (WHICH DOES INVOLVE PAIGE OLIVER AND HIS MERRY BAND OF MISFITS! as well as AJ SCHMIDT AND HIS ZOO!), it's all on who you're fighting and how you're doing it. I've had two mods derailed this weekend whilst running them. One involved a party of nothing but Level 2 characters destroying an APL 4 Steve Yee module, the other...was Paige just doing his thing- which I applaud him on. You all made Furyondy seem like slackers, haha.
solbergb 01-02-07, 08:23 PM	I am amazed at this statement. There appears to be significant regional difference in judging style. I am relatively new to LG, but out here in The Pale (N. California) my experience from playing and speaking with judges is that Pale judges are expected to be robots who play the module precisely as written, and exactly the same for every party. Who the heck are you talking to? I sure don't feel that way and I don't *think* many in the main judge pool in the Pale we use for conventions feels that way. There are a couple, but I've been putting my own spin on anything left out in a mod and correcting anything illegal in a mod since I started judging in late 2003 and all I hear locally is that I'm a pretty good judge. Certainly they keep wanting me to judge at conventions. It's impossible to run a mod identical for each party anyway. Parties and players have different capabilites and those intersect with the challenges differently. Part of the fun of judging is seeing how different the mod plays with different PC's. What you can not change: Statblocks (unless illegal, then modified only enough to make them legal), number of monsters, number of traps, trigger conditions for plot events, DC's for skill checks (unless impossible by the rules like a climb check of 35) and you are expected to remain true to the overall vision of the story, plotline, NPC personalities, tactics and environment as presented in the story. There is some provision for ignoring typographical errors, such as CR1 fighters with 102 hitpoints instead of 12. You're not supposed to add plot elements that advance the plot in ways that bypass the expected approach (such as adding another NPC that knows the answer to the riddle after the PC's kill the first one...they're instead expected to speak with dead, raise dead or something similar, or simply fail) What you can change/add: Anything in the above not actually filled in by the author, although trying to remain true to the spirit of the module. This can mean adding personality to a sketched out NPC, adding names to people referered to as "barkeeper", mapping out terrain details for a fight, developing tactics for NPC's that you feel reflect their knowledge of PC's and their intelligence (in absense of module tactics OR in response to module tactics being tried and failing). You are also expected to fill in plot elements when PC's go off the rails or do something weird. It is perfectly all right for the PC's to follow the beaurocrat home and dominate him and learn the secret pass-signs that way instead of rifling his desk while he is gone and finding the scrap of paper where he wrote them down. But doing so requires the Judge to decide when the guy goes home, how far away he lives, whether there is any security there and etc etc. What you are EXPECTED to change: Paraphrase boxtext instead of reading it blindly, especially to fit the party. Adapt the combat setups to the party actual capabilities. The bears may TRY to sneak up on the party in an open plain, but whether they SUCCEED depends on terrain, lighting and their actual hide/move silent statbocks vs the party enhanced senses and spot/listen checks, and whether they've got something like an aerial scout prying eyes, or similar other stuff the author didn't anticipate.
UMiskatonic 01-02-07, 10:57 PM	One of your jobs is also to make sure the experience is fun. But back to the toolkit, the best idea I've seen recently is a suit of splint mail. It's great for 'protecting' captives, while simultaneously imposing spell failure, removing the ability to flurry, tumble, evade, use TWF, or use druidic abilities, and you slow them down to a 20' movement rate too.
Arvagor 01-02-07, 11:24 PM	But back to the toolkit, the best idea I've seen recently is a suit of splint mail. It's great for 'protecting' captives, while simultaneously imposing spell failure, removing the ability to flurry, tumble, evade, use TWF, or use druidic abilities, and you slow them down to a 20' movement rate too.Two things, both of which I've previously seen DMs rule... 1) Unless an individual is cooperating ( i.e., the individual is not resisting, or not helping at all, such as when unconscious), the armor is never going to be worn in the correct matter. As such, I've seen the DMs provide circumstance modifiers in the individual's favor (less of an ACP, lower spell failure chance, etc.) to reflect that the armor is not "properly" worn. 2) In a similar vein, I've seen a DM rule that if a druid is forced into wearing the armor -- e.g., forced into it while unconscious -- then he has not violated his druidic oaths, and can still use his abilities (although the one DM did apply the ASF chance when the druid tried to use spells or (Su) abilities).
Dr.Cornelius 01-03-07, 12:11 AM	solbergb - Your points are well taken - I fully agree that LG judges have plenty of discretion in running role playing encounters and investigative mods. DM's can allow parties to stray reasonably far from the intended plotline or railroad them into line. Either way the judge makes a huge difference and it is a pleasure to play with a lively, engaged judge who enjoys taking the players on an interesting adventure. Skilled judges make all the difference. The point I was trying to make is in reference to the following part of your post: What you can not change: Statblocks, number of monsters, number of traps... This is the crux of the issue. In my experience most combat encounters are laughably easy for average parties (i.e. - at least as good as the iconics) playing at APL. But some encounters are clearly designed to seriously challenge or even take down cohesive, smart, highly-optimized parties. These encounters are a welcome challenge to well-prepared, optimized and balanced parties. But with no meaningful DM discretion one man's engaging challenge becomes a pointless, frustrating TPK against a random assortment of below average characters one might reasonably expect to be seated with at a convention. Your post seems to emphasize the investigative and role playing aspects of LG, and that is clearly the interest of many of the players. You find no problem in DMs adjusting these aspects of the game to provide an appropriate challenge and rewarding role playing experience for the entire table. But an equally valid subset of players is primarily interested in combat and tactical challenges. In this case, LG expects the encounters to be run with little or no regard to optimized vs "role playing" builds, party makeup, age, experience and/or competence of the players. It seems like LG combat is too much like the mechanical encounters found in World of Warcraft. And it is too bad really, since a little leeway would make for a much more rewarding experience, both for the combat optimizers and the role players.
Dr.Cornelius 01-03-07, 12:19 AM	But back to the toolkit, the best idea I've seen recently is a suit of splint mail. It's great for 'protecting' captives, while simultaneously imposing spell failure, removing the ability to flurry, tumble, evade, use TWF, or use druidic abilities, and you slow them down to a 20' movement rate too.How exactly is splint mail more effective than a simple set of manacles and leg irons at 1/10 the cost and encumbrance?
clannagh 01-03-07, 12:31 AM	How exactly is splint mail more effective than a simple set of manacles and leg irons at 1/10 the cost and encumbrance? - you can cast arcane spells without failure in manacles and leg irons - you can wildshape while wearing manacles and leg irons - escape artist or a simple strength test can get you out of manacles and leg irons a lot faster than the 4 minutes or whatever it takes to remove heavy armor - manacles and leg irons do not effect abilities that require light or no armor such as ranger monk swashbuckler barbarian etc etc
Dr.Cornelius 01-03-07, 04:36 AM	Well I guess we will have to agree to disagree. Call it table variance, but where I come from manacles, leg irons, ball gags, gimp hoods, etc. are specifically designed for control, while splint mail is meant to be worn and moved about in. To your points: - As to casting spells with somatic components while a character's hands are manacled behind his back: if the character somehow has the material component at hand or has eschew or no material requirement, and the DM allows slight, restrained hand movements to function (have a friendly spellcaster test the DM), then all you have to do is force the victim's hand into a fist and tie it with a bit of cloth. Then stuff a rag in his pie hole and secure with another cloth. That will shut down about 99% of spellcasters. - True, manacles don't stop wildshape, but metal armor is not kryptonite to Druilds either. I don't buy the argument that being forced into metal armor breaks the Druid's vow any more than tying a silver moon around a Barbarian's neck makes him a Pholtan. - If you are concerned about the DC, then pop for masterwork restraints. DC 28 strength check is nothing to sneeze at without magical STR enhancement and I suppose if a bad guy has invested enough skill points and feats to routinely beat a DC 30 Escape Artist check he deserves to slither free. If I were truly concerned about either, I would slap on my backups for redundancy and do some rope work to increase the DC. Maybe have a caster drop a Glyph or Silence other spell just for grins. Suffice it to say that once fully restrained it is very, very difficult for even a crafty opponent to escape a properly executed full-on restraint system without significant prior preparation. - I am not sure what exactly you expect the Ranger, Swashbuckler, Barbarbarian, et al to do when fully restrained. Anyway, your mileage will vary depending on DM's interpretation of the rules, and RWE with bondage gear.
solbergb 01-03-07, 02:44 PM	[ In my experience most combat encounters are laughably easy for average parties (i.e. - at least as good as the iconics) playing at APL. But some encounters are clearly designed to seriously challenge or even take down cohesive, smart, highly-optimized parties. . Actually, having prepped about 100 modules with randomized iconic parties at all APL's at least 3 times per APL with 6 person, 5 person and 4 person parties I have some fairly accurate statistics on how LG encounters are balanced...those fights designed to challenge optomized parties? Much rarer than you think. When a strong party struggles it is usually one of these two things. 1. extreme bad luck - calculated risks all land the wrong way 2. bad choices by the PC's, either before or during the fight that turned a normally easy battle into something really really tough 3. Encounter scaling bit them The encounter is fine at every APL except the one they're playing, but at that APL the monsters are under-CR'd for some reason and that APL wasn't playtested (or the party got lucky during the playtest) I've seen about 6-8 encounters that were actually significantly harder than normal for the APL, and most of those were only at 1 or 2 APL's of the entire module. Not one was a conscious decision by the author to make things harder when I checked later. It was an oversight, or in once case a really badly written tactical paragraph+underestimating the effect of hardness at low APL's or (very common) the huge jump in power elementals get as they advence to huge size. Occasionally specific spells at specific APL's can be the problem. As a player I've seen what looked like several times that many but I'm pretty sure that had more to do with getting unlucky in APL scaling, making bad decisions, having extreme bad luck or an unusually weak party than any objective measure. I'd say maybe 20-30% of encounters are easier than normal, where even a weak party will dispose of them pretty easily. Most encounters are kind of like this: 1. With average luck, an average randomized iconic party will deal with it, burning some resources. 2. With bad luck or bad decisions, someone will be in danger of death or some disabling effect that will last the rest of the mod. Some % of the time someone will actually die. 3. Very occasionally a party will muster that just can't cope well with the encounter, even if they'd normally be considered balanced. As an exampe, a 6 person party all APL-2 APL-1 and APL+0 will have a harder time with getting a bunch of area saving throw effects or something like Evards than a 4 person party of APL+0, APL+1 and APL+2. The latter party will have better saves, more likely to be immune, have better ability to undo damage/effects and any individuals capable of fighting when it is over may be able to win the encounter on their own. The "more lethal" encounters just kind of shift things up one notch. In those, on average somebody will be in danger of death, and a significant % one person will die, and a very small % of the time it will all unravel and turn into a TPK if they don't disengage. The odds of #3 increase sharply because such encounters tend to remove the resilience of most parties. Bad decisions or bad luck will result in deaths rather than close calls. When I see these in playtests of draft modules, I raise flags and it usually gets toned down enough to make more normal encounters. I'm pretty good at this, and local authors tend to want my feedback if I've got time to give it. But I repeat. They're vanishingly rare, and mostly encountered in Core Specials and battle interactives, or modules with "warning labels". Aside from those categories (and most stuff in those are also of normal difficulty, actually) it's poorly tested encounter scaling that's usually to blame.
solbergb 01-03-07, 02:52 PM	Ah...and I'm sorry. There is no such thing as a "roleplaying build" There is only a build that is bad at adventuring, average at adventuring or good at adventuring. Roleplay is independent of build. If you want to rolepay somebody who sucks at his job, just be sure to tell the party that they're getting someone worse than Tordek or Jozan or whatever iconic would normally be doing your job. There are "face" builds, many of whom are subiconic in combat prowess. It's not something I entirely understand, since you can be a fantastic diplomat as an iconic bard or rogue, and a pretty good one as cleric, paladin or sorcerer...all of which are powerful contributors to the party as single class characters even with indifferent feat choices and uninspired spell selection. Some people seem to delight in building cripples though. Most characters are average (the iconics are way more effective than they're given credit for - the splatbooks don't make as much difference as people like to think). Even highly optomized builds are usually only about 20% more effective and usually have some glaring weaknesses, and even poorly designed builds are usually only 20% less effective - in the hands of a good player. A player can halve or double the effectiveness of a character in combat, independent of build. Unless the character is so fragile he drops before he can act. A certain minimum is required. The thing is...you don't get to play APL6 till you've played for at least a few months and more often something like 6 months. You don't get ot play APL10 until you've payed for 18-24 months. By then you should have some understanding of how to play your character. Truly inept players SHOULD be mostly a newbie/low level experience in LG. Actually the teamwork is so good at most LG tables, even with strangers, some individuals seem to achieve high levels without knowing basic stuff about how their character works. (eg, a L8 paladin that doesn't know detect evil takes 3 rounds to pinpoint. A L10 cleric that doesn't know how his domain powers work. A L12 halfling rogue who has absolutely no plan on how to contribute to the party vs opponents that can't be sneak attacked.). So inept players do happen, but usually not so many at one table at once to derail it.
PaulH 01-03-07, 06:29 PM	Hi Back on the thread of what my PC carries. Not a lot - prefers to travel light. Bit of spare food, spare clothes, soap, etc. But as a 'support' character, (Cleric Boccob 3 Warmage 4, [Magic & Trickery] going Mystic Theurge), I also carry: 2 x Pearls of Power (1st lvl) Bracers of Quickstrike (For party fighter) Cold Iron Fey Shortsword (gencon item - grants wpn finesse for this wpn, good for rogues) Wand Cure Light (14 charges left) Wand Lightning Bolt (5 charges) Scroll Invis 2 x Scroll Enlarge Person Currently saving for Tan Bag of Tricks Cheers Paul H
Mommy was an Orc 01-03-07, 06:41 PM	At low levels, I make sure to have potions of cure light wounds and protection from evil, and oils of magic weapon and bless weapon. I now realize I should carry oil of shillelagh for when I need a magic bludgeoning weapon. Characters who can use scrolls pick up a variety of useful scrolls, but any PC who gets access will buy scrolls of align weapon or restoration. One of the tricks I've found very effective is assume a lot of the time you'll have some sort of divine and/or arcane caster in the party. Pick up scrolls that you want them to cast on you. Sure, that arcane caster might not have the time to cast Enlarge Person, but for 25 gp, some arcane caster will eventually do it. You might not be carting around a Wand of CLW quite yet, but those scrolls of CLW are almost as good after combat. That's particularly true of the scrolls of CLW - a lot of time, you'll be slammed in a combat or two, and then you'll feel the need to drink that potion afterwards rather than burn out the rest of the Cleric's capability. This way, you can do it for half the cost. Etc...
Dr.Cornelius 01-03-07, 09:01 PM	solbergb - I moved the response to one of your points to a new thread. (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=765647)
Dr.Cornelius 01-03-07, 09:20 PM	Ah...and I'm sorry. There is no such thing as a "roleplaying build" There is only a build that is bad at adventuring, average at adventuring or good at adventuring. Roleplay is independent of build. What you say is true in theory, but in practice combat effectiveness is often negatively correlated with roleplaying choices. Often building an optimized character involves choices that people who are deeply into character background stories don't want to make: one level dips into front-loaded classes, multiple prestige classes, joining out-of-region metaorgs solely to access a key feat, item or PrC, using an optimized but unrealistic weapon (like a Spiked Chain), etc. No doubt that there are some truly outstanding players interested in storytelling, complex backgrounds, in-game roleplaying who are also skilled at building and playing effective tactical combat characters, but they are few and far between. All too often players mistake "roleplaying" for "absurdly incompetent" or "loud and obnoxious" or "annoying to other PCs" or "intentionally trying to screw up the encounter".
rockondon 01-05-07, 06:00 AM	another item I like to carry is a small bottle of perfume. The more flowery and feminine the better. When its my turn to take watch, heavy sleepers beware. Especially the dwarven and half-orc ones.
gomeztoo 01-05-07, 08:04 AM	Some of my characters have a setv of dresses (courtier or noble outfits) they carry around. Clover (fashion freak), my former spy char (for disguises), and even my druidess has one (her 'Poison Ivy' dress). They also ahve jewelry to go with it. Didn't think of perfume though, but a good idea. Is that in the PHB?
_m_ 01-07-07, 10:59 PM	it hasn't really come up very often, but my wiz carries on him (in a refrigerated bag of holding *grin*) a peice of every single creature he has ever killed. bbq griphon feather, vampye tooth, ogre eye, singed beholder skin, displacer fur, that sort of thing.
rockondon 01-07-07, 11:06 PM	I had a character that carried a phial of troll blood - the rest of the troll was burnt up - which made that phial a pretty nasty cocktail. "Is that blood....growing?"
Aoibin 01-14-07, 10:22 PM	Hi all, I just wanted to chime in here with my own PC's outlook on gear. I believe in the standard pack with rations, tindertwigs, dagger, waterskin, bedroll, rope...etc. Then I started playing my favorite Dwarven crossbowman. I decide he was going to be more like a "soldier" than just a warrior, and looked at the options. Shortly thereafter, what my old gaming group lovingly called "The War Wagon" was introduced to the RPGA campaign. He bought a wagon. He added 2 light warhorses to draw it. He bought a block and tackle and put it on the wagon. He bought a rowboat and tied it to the side. He bought tower shields and affixed them to the sides with spaces in between to fire out of. He stocked it with 100 bolts;50 arrows; 5 each of the alchemical stuff; 300 feet of rope; grappling hook; climbing and healing kits; Water/ale (in casks); tent;crowbar; spare standard weapons... Pretty much most of the standard equipment over time. And a Mule - For dungeons. He took ranks in profession teamster. He can use it in a large number of mods. He rarely walks. The rest of the party can just ride if they don't have horses. He doesn't have to buy extra stuff when a mod says, you need to buy this anymore, and has all his stuff in any mod he can drive to. When he gets to the dungeon, he packs up what he needs. Sure, a DM could have it destroyed. I hope not, but it makse adventuring easier...and I'll never forget the look on my DM's face when we were attacked in the street and instead of grabbing my weapon, I rode the 3 guys (human/half orc fighter types) down with the wagon. It was priceless! (Using A&EG rules) Also, it provides all kinds of cover for party members. As for a couple standard things I do with him. On foot he carries 1 each alchem fire and acid. He carries 3 tanglefoot bags and 50 feet of knotted silk rope with a grapple. ( When necessary, he grabs a tanglefoot bag, hooks it to the end of the grapple and tries to grapple opponents, especially flying ones. - If it hits a flying opponent smaller than a flying mount, and it doesn't fall, then, he doesn't try to pull them down...He just starts climbing -Who wants an opposed roll anyway?- They usually don't fly far encumbered with a dwarf in heavy plate hanging on to the rope.:D ) He also buys clerical scrolls so the cleric doesn't have to use their resources to cast spells on him. (Cheaper than raise dead)They're cheaper than potions, though he always carries 3 CLW potions. I'm considering experimenting with a net tied around alchemists fire for a poor man's fireball (well its expensive...but...) Aoibin
_m_ 01-14-07, 10:31 PM	Hi all, I just wanted to chime in here with my own PC's outlook on gear. I believe in the standard pack with rations, tindertwigs, dagger, waterskin, bedroll, rope...etc. Then I started playing my favorite Dwarven crossbowman. I decide he was going to be more like a "soldier" than just a warrior, and looked at the options. Shortly thereafter, what my old gaming group lovingly called "The War Wagon" was introduced to the RPGA campaign. He bought a wagon. He added 2 light warhorses to draw it. He bought a block and tackle and put it on the wagon. He bought a rowboat and tied it to the side. He bought tower shields and affixed them to the sides with spaces in between to fire out of. He stocked it with 100 bolts;50 arrows; 5 each of the alchemical stuff; 300 feet of rope; grappling hook; climbing and healing kits; Water/ale (in casks); tent;crowbar; spare standard weapons... Pretty much most of the standard equipment over time. And a Mule - For dungeons. He took ranks in profession teamster. He can use it in a large number of mods. He rarely walks. The rest of the party can just ride if they don't have horses. He doesn't have to buy extra stuff when a mod says, you need to buy this anymore, and has all his stuff in any mod he can drive to. When he gets to the dungeon, he packs up what he needs. Sure, a DM could have it destroyed. I hope not, but it makse adventuring easier...and I'll never forget the look on my DM's face when we were attacked in the street and instead of grabbing my weapon, I rode the 3 guys (human/half orc fighter types) down with the wagon. It was priceless! (Using A&EG rules) Also, it provides all kinds of cover for party members. As for a couple standard things I do with him. On foot he carries 1 each alchem fire and acid. He carries 3 tanglefoot bags and 50 feet of knotted silk rope with a grapple. ( When necessary, he grabs a tanglefoot bag, hooks it to the end of the grapple and tries to grapple opponents, especially flying ones. - If it hits a flying opponent smaller than a flying mount, and it doesn't fall, then, he doesn't try to pull them down...He just starts climbing -Who wants an opposed roll anyway?- They usually don't fly far encumbered with a dwarf in heavy plate hanging on to the rope.:D ) He also buys clerical scrolls so the cleric doesn't have to use their resources to cast spells on him. (Cheaper than raise dead)They're cheaper than potions, though he always carries 3 CLW potions. I'm considering experimenting with a net tied around alchemists fire for a poor man's fireball (well its expensive...but...) Aoibin wow...! my wizard carries, like... a book... and a pouch of thingies... wow...
gomeztoo 01-15-07, 12:19 PM	I think you cannot ever go wrong with carrying most of the alchemicals, such as sunrods, tanglefoot bags, etc. My main also carries some stuff she bough just because she got the access for it, such as a focusing candle, dwarfblind, and a honeyleather tent. Why NOT bring it? You'll see there WILL be a situation where it proofs useful.