Buddha's New D&D Thread is Groovy, Man.

[Darth Wagtaros]

RIFTS' settings were pretty cool.  But ya, some of those classes were ridiculous.  I never DM'd for a game, but it probably made coming up with decent encounters kind of difficult if you had a mix of classes running the gammit from simple soldier to war mage. 

[ulmont]

RIFTS' settings were pretty cool.  But ya, some of those classes were ridiculous.  I never DM'd for a game, but it probably made coming up with decent encounters kind of difficult if you had a mix of classes running the gammit from simple soldier to war mage.

It wasn't that bad.  The key was to have all PCs on the same side of the MDC/SDC divide (and from supplements written within a couple of years of each other).

[BuddhaRhubarb]

I'm really broke. Thinking of selling my 4.0 books. They are Mint, hardly used. Rolled a few characters, looked up a few things in the DM.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I'm really broke. Thinking of selling my 4.0 books. They are Mint, hardly used. Rolled a few characters, looked up a few things in the DM.

What books do you have?

[BuddhaRhubarb]

DM guide, Player's, Monster Manual, and a DM screen I bought separately.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

I think when my current D&D character gets to fifth, I'm going to start adding odd levels of Sorcerer. to help buff up the incidental damage and debuffing she does of the bad guys.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Dual classing seems kind of a waste doesn't it?  You have to burn a a few feats to really get anything out of it.

[Neil]

Depends, really.  It rarely hurts to add a level of fighter to a character.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

Dual classing seems kind of a waste doesn't it?  You have to burn a a few feats to really get anything out of it.

It's difficult to do well. But I play with a lot of players who excel at multiclass... I'm picking things up, watching them.

It definitely never hurts to have fighter as one of the classes, extra feats? Sign me up. I have a few extra feats (and a D10) as a Hexblade though, I'm going for the Magickal Tank build.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

In a couple of weeks I'm going to be playing a one off (one night game) of an Epic level D&D game (3.5) with the guys my longtime game that ended last year played. Some kinda home brew "Elder Evil" campaign is all I know. We will have a choice of DM pre-generated Epic characters. I'll likely end up the immortal tank. :p

I've never played an Epic scenario (as a player, and not as a DM since 2nd ed ca: 1984) Anyone have any tips on Epic gameplay?

[Josquius]

I've just had a look at a 4th edition book and its rather 'WTF', a lot of stuff not making sense there- I totally missed 3rd edition of course.
It seems everyone is just using 3.5 still though?

[BuddhaRhubarb]

I've just had a look at a 4th edition book and its rather 'WTF', a lot of stuff not making sense there- I totally missed 3rd edition of course.
It seems everyone is just using 3.5 still though?

all the hardcore gamers I know are sticking with 3.0 or 3.5... They spent a ton of money on the books, which are cheaper in used stores now too. and a ;oath to give up playing a system they enjoy to play one that is so much different in 4.0 ... Waste of money getting the 4.0 books for me. it seems. oh well.

I enjoy 3.5 quite a bit and like that there is so much material to draw on.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

Ok not really an AAR... but we played the Epic game last night... the setting was that old Ptolus that we are familiar with, but after the "Night Of Dissolution" happens and Chaos rules the land (so to speak, as it wouldn't be very chaotic to actually "rule" would it)

This was the thing My old group had just stopped when we stopped that campaign. Interestingly of the 4 players last night two were from that game, Me "Reg" and "Breklore" (the wizard) & two guys from the new game that DM is running - the same campaign but after our test run, a smoother ride? We basically were tossed in as some Epic Levl warriors who have been caught up and banded together by all the chaos.

I played Themis - a Titan (Storm Giantess) 20th level caster of spell like abililties to do with Lightning & the weather, some healing, which I did not do. We had an Angel for that. Armless many times martyred, Angel who did all our ggod works, untill ummm well I'll get to that.

There was also a human female Rogue in a very Catwoman inspired catsuit, an armored Mage (THE Iron Mage, in fact), and a large Copper Dragon, who never really lived up to his potential.

So yeah I chose the tank. I need to get less predictable. Our first task was one of the riddle things, as we were each separately halfway transported to the Necropolis where Catgirl was infiltrating some Nuns who'd been sent out to be sacrificed by Helmut Itzelstein, the fiery Cleric who'd been corrupted by a relic and done a Saruman on the city, as he sat upon his new Red Dragon Mount commanding his 7 or so Paladins.

None of us were very good with the riddles (mine turned out to be one of my "Holy Word" spells.) and by the time we'd gotten into the fray most of the Nuns were already cut open.

It was a long night.

Eventually we were all there but the angel, who it turned out hadn't even tried to continue the "transport" due to a mix-up between the DM and the player. :d'oh: anyhoo we took out Itzelstein (well I did ,with some chain lightning) & co, but not before we could see three large creatures materializing slowly like we had into the Necroplis, a Taurean type (but bigger - great!) a Beholder/Lich (yeah that's right We peed a little too) and third but not last a "Fiendish" Tyrannosaurus Rex. Yipes... can you say bag of hitpoints?

Well as it turns out my 3 attacks with my +5 Holy Broadsword can do quite a bit of damage. To say the least. The Beholder gave us the most trouble, but some clever use of a "slow" breath weapon (weirdest breath weapon ever?) We dubbed it Copper Dragon Garlic Breath of Doom) we got it also, just as we started facing wave after wave of increasingly annoying undead crawling from graves and warrens... DM speak for move along, follow the clues already.

The wizard used his Improved (I think it was, whatever the best one is) Arcane Sight to find the teleportal we needed (one way of course) to get to the Spire above the city where whatever strings left to be pulled in Ptolus were being yanked from.

We found ourselves however high up that spire was (miles?) on an ebon adamantine (is it just me or has wolverine seeped into D&D too) catwalk between two of the Towers in the pire. A door on the tower to our left seemed to be guarded by a sleeping (or likely in "stasis" said the Mage) by a Balrog. We tip toed to the other unguarded door (gary Gygax would be proud) and open the gargoyle handed doorknobbed door (1 human sized person type door) it seems like more ebon metal...

but the Mage using True Sight sees that it is an illusion, we have to save, several times as the door opens and spells and weapons waft over us.... We had been saved apparently without our knowing by the Angel and his aura of whatever that made us immune to compulsion.... we would have been driven mad, and slipped alignment down to eveil, if we hadn't noticed something weird.

anyway turned out the was a giant sandwormy nightmarey- gargantuan worm of whayever kind casting curse and other evils at us, it summoned two Wights who tried but failed to get out the door to drain our levels. The Angel Then took a gambit on using his Dispel Evil touch attack on the worm, if it worked all bad guys gone for the minute.  (some other attacks did go back and forth here and great amounts of HP were lost on both sides) However If it failed he could get chomped swallowed, dead by Worm.

And.....

That's what happened, and Despite actually outgunning the worm and the wights, we were hoeped in this totally evil place without the Angel, who it had been hinted in the back story as having to be crucial to winning the game. We stopped playing because it was way late.

We already are planning to try again... but we the players want to do our own 20th level characters to the table and see what happens. The DM has improved his DM-ing quite a bit in the year since we played that game, I think. It all went smoothly, and the battles were huge and interesting.

I'm thinking a 20th Level Warlock, with a real "Debuff" angle to the feat tree. Someone who kicks ass just being in the room.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Fighters really have no teeth.  I tire of being there to soak up damage.  But if I switched there would be no one to be a human shield.  The angst of a D&D player knows no bounds.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

I've got my Warlock done except equip. I'll post the stats once I get the equip done. I'm thinking of making a 20th level Hexblade  or Beguiler (Defeats SR every time at 20th) as a wife and partner for my Warlock. I enjoy playing 2 characters, or one and a cohort.