Post/Author/DateTime	Post
XArchangelX 10-20-04, 11:30 AM	Had a good session last night, but a few frustrating moments. This is the first campaign I have ever played in, and I am having some trouble understanding how things happen. I am playing a human Fighter, and I just got to level 2. At the beginning of the previous session, I spent most of my wealth on a medium warhorse. About halfway through this session, I leave the horse alone at the side of a lake for an hour, and a hill giant eats the damn thing. Ok, maybe that needs a little more background. Myself and the other party member were asked to come look into the mysterious disappearence of this ladies husband out on the lake while fishing. I asked specifically if this was a violent nieghborhood where this sort of thing happens regularly, and she said no, they were pretty peaceful. We get there, and I am nearly killed in one round by a giant turtle/gator, we run into a Sea Naga who is protecting a Nixie village, 2 Sirens who run with an ogre, dwarf and a halfling, and a Hill Giant runs off with my horse. I think I know what happened to the husband. :mad: Is it normal that when you leave your mounts alone, there is a 10% chance they will be there when you get back? How on earth does anyone keep a ride? I asked my DM about prestige classes, as I was looking through Complete Divine and Complete Warrior, and he said he didn't like the classes in Complete Warrior because they are too powerful. How can a PC be too powerful? It doesn't make sense to me. Anytime a PC gets more powerful, all the DM has to do is add some hit die, increase the numbers or feats or skills on his bad guys, and he is good to go. It really should be impossible for a character to be too powerful.
Board_Rider 10-20-04, 11:39 AM	Never heard of a 10% chance of losing your mount....huh. Sounds like your DM has control issues. If I got it right YOU aren't really allowed to look for "too powerful" classes, but HE can put you against a hill giant, giant turtle, ogre and sea nagas at 1st/2nd level!!! That sounds a bit disconcerting. How big is your party? Tell the "wife" about her husband...he's gone..and hotfoot it outta there.
fatal error 10-20-04, 12:27 PM	Wow, that's pretty horrible. BTW I think he means a 90% chance of LOSING it, 10% chance of keeping it.
monkeywrench 10-20-04, 01:01 PM	I own complete warrior. None of the PrCs in there are overly powerful. And whatever than 90% chance of losing your mount mess was, it's total crap. Your DM, to put it plainly, sucks.
Phrennzy 10-20-04, 01:28 PM	Next time just ride the horse to the dungeon, then kill it yourself, claiming it is more humane than letting it be eaten. How much time passed between these encounters? What a DM means (IMO) by "too powerful" is "unbalanced compared to other classes". I feel the same way, which is why I stick with Core PHB classes.
XArchangelX 10-20-04, 01:36 PM	Yeah, I was given a 10% chance that the horse would still be there when I went to get it. It was gone, I went to follow the tracks and found the encampment of the Hill Giant. At this point I was alone, as the Cleric had been sent into the city to get some help. I was *deeply upset* about the horse being dead, and I really didn't know anything about Hill Giants, character wise or here in real life, so I decided to pick a fight. I shot an arrow from behind it, missed, and moved in closer. Then the DM explained what the Hill Giant would do to me, so I backed off and ran back to town. Arrrgh. Anyway, the Sea Naga was suffering from a magically lowered INT when we ran into her, and we decided to help her out because she was protecting the one Nixie village that was friendly with the nearby humans. She then told us about the Sirens who had done this, but I honestly don't know anything about these creatures alignment or power. The Sirens were sending little fish people to mess with the Nixies, and we set up a meeting with the Sirens to palaver and come to some peaceful agreement (the cleric is weird about making peace). That's when we noticed the Ogre, dwarf and halfling. We didn't have to fight any of the real bad guys, which is good because there was me, and the Cleric of the Peacemaker, and that's it. Two of us. Usually there is only three, but the third couldn't make it to this session. But he's a druid, so his Summon Ally rounds things out. I like the DM, its just these occasional quirks, combined with not really knowing how things work in DnD just yet, get me frustrated real easy. We also got some good items this session, a bastard sword, a masterwork bow, stuff like that. I would leave if it wasn't any fun, I just need to vent once in a while.
XArchangelX 10-20-04, 01:54 PM	Next time just ride the horse to the dungeon, then kill it yourself, claiming it is more humane than letting it be eaten. Yeah, if I had thought about it, I might have done that. We were approaching some nixies, who we talked to for a few minutes then they decided we could help their Sea Naga and came up and touched us and we started choking as if we couldn't breathe. We were dragged into the water, and I figured my horse would be fine for a little while and went off with the Nixies. Oops. How much time passed between these encounters? Between leaving the horse and coming back, about an hour and half. Between the Naga and the Sirens, about five hours. All in a day's work.
Son of Khoron 10-21-04, 08:44 PM	I asked specifically if this was a violent nieghborhood where this sort of thing happens regularly, and she said no, they were pretty peaceful. We get there, and I am nearly killed in one round by a giant turtle/gator, we run into a Sea Naga who is protecting a Nixie village, 2 Sirens who run with an ogre, dwarf and a halfling, and a Hill Giant runs off with my horse. I think I know what happened to the husband. You are level 2 and have faced 1 giant turtle/gator, 1 sea naga, 2 sirens, 1 ogre, 1 dwarf, 1 halfling, and 1 hill giant. Wow...what a session. With your life still intact, your party survived them. 3 things here come to mind: DM uses these higher-level creatures more like a deterrant against PCs doing crazy things like killing nixie villagers and they dont attack unless provoked. OR He just gets 'his rocks off' screwing and/or killing novice adventurers. OR Has no clue on CR versus party level scheme in the DM Guide. Is it normal that when you leave your mounts alone, there is a 10% chance they will be there when you get back? How on earth does anyone keep a ride? Hates equines, I guess, or his way of saying dont buy one. The percentage is DM's call. Dont buy another again. I asked my DM about prestige classes, as I was looking through Complete Divine and Complete Warrior, and he said he didn't like the classes in Complete Warrior because they are too powerful. How can a PC be too powerful? It doesn't make sense to me. Anytime a PC gets more powerful, all the DM has to do is add some hit die, increase the numbers or feats or skills on his bad guys, and he is good to go. It really should be impossible for a character to be too powerful. DM's call on what classes players can play, based on his storyline....or his/her ability to handle prestige classes. IMO, I allow players to play what they want. I can compensate the classes with other fearsome things that will challenge them (not kill them). The party I DM: wood elf ranger-deepwood sniper-peerless archer, aasimar cleric-dweomerkeeper-divine disciple, human rogue-ranger-assassin-telflammar shadowlord, human wizard-acolyte of the skin-archmage, human cleric-hierophant, earth genasi fighter-weapon master. They are very powerful and could level 'ordinary' towns if they wish. They dont, knowing full well what they face should they do so. Deities are present in my campaign at this power level.
Shard of Suzail 10-21-04, 09:47 PM	I can understand why some areas are bad places to leave horses. Griffens, giants and so on are a hazard yes, but so are general orcs and bandits who may stumble across the mounts when the party is in a dungeon. Really, a player should not be leaving his animal unattended when adventuring. Horses used as weapons of war should stay with the rider until the hostile situation is over. Horses used for transportation should stay with the rider until they are properly stabled. Riding off into the middle of nowhere, roping the horse to a tree and then going down a dungeon for a day or more is not really what they were designed for. As players of Dungeon Siege will recall, the pack mule went into the dungeon with the party and continued to serve its purpose there. Spells like "mount" and certain items are good ways to get around this risk. Otherwise, a wealthy knight would do well to invest in a squire and attendants, who will remain with the Warhorse while its master is away. It only costs a few silver or gold to hire a young lad to watch over a horse or wagon while the party is busy (though its best to hire someone whose family you know well, so the horse wont be sold unexpectedly). Retainers are a good thing when it comes to watching base camp, horses and stuff.
ROLAND IMIR 10-22-04, 04:33 PM	I'm not as much concerned about the horse as I am the monsters that these 1st and 2nd level characters are meeting. Mounts getting stolen or eaten in this case is just part of the game and as the previous post expressed it's never a good idea to leave a mount tied to a tree unattended; however at 1st level meeting monsters of such a high level is ridiculous. Its no wonder the guy is missing with monsters like that lurking about I'm surprised there's a town at all. Hill giants, Nagas and the like are way to powerful and it makes no sense whatsoever that they would be hanging around a tiny fishing town and people are surprised when a guy disappears. Your DM needs to think through things a little better.
devinmdp 10-22-04, 08:31 PM	Leaving horses untended in the wilderness on our own Earth is something that was generally avoided. Now take a D&D world and add hundreds of strange and powerful predators that never existed on Earth and, yeah, it is quite foolish to leave a horse unattended. Is 90% too much? Yep. Way too much unless you were gone for a long while. But next time you should hire a hireling to watch your horse(s). As far as the issue of forbidding too powerful PC classes, while it is true that the DM can simply ramp up the monsters to compensate, where does that leave the other players in your group? If you have some uber-PrC and the other players do not, then when the DM ratchets up the encounters to meet your power level, they will tend to be overmatched. Devin