D&D Guru:Answers to your D&D Questions, and general D&D Chat

[twilightwyrm]

GreatLemur

twilightwyrm

Dude, at the point that they are wearing monk's belts, the DM is clearly having them break the 4th wall in anticipation. I know Monk's Belts don't have an alignment classification, but unless they are having a steady stream of them coming in from their raids, why are cultists of a chaotic evil entity mass producing items intended for lawful ascetics? I mean what the hell?

I wouldn't make the assumption that a magic item has a certainly background or place in the world based on its name. Used by a non-Monk, the monk's belt just increases your unarmored AC and unarmed damage, which is a pretty logical gift for a dragon to give a bunch of primitive followers.

See, I take issue with this definition of "logical". Yes, in terms of the statistical effect that might be the case, but calling it "logical" based upon its statistical effect is heading into entering a state of butting up against the 4th wall quite hard, one typically reserved for stat minded players. it completely ignores matters of perception, trial and error, and context in favor of mechanical advantage.

@Suffering Planet-
I suppose you kind of have a point here, but I didn't really receive any indication that this particular DM was going out of his way to make these things context appropriate. The way this is being described, and really we only have that guy's word to go on in this case, it was more the DM abusing mechanical benefit at the expense of credibility.

[twilightwyrm]

Quick question that's really been bugging me: What would the LA be on skeleton that keeps its own mental and physical ability scores (albeit w/o a Con), keeps improved initiative as a bonus feat, and gains light sensitivity. Because it strikes me that it might be more than +1, as certain other people I know would seem to think.

[GreatLemur]

twilightwyrm

See, I take issue with this definition of "logical". Yes, in terms of the statistical effect that might be the case, but calling it "logical" based upon its statistical effect is heading into entering a state of butting up against the 4th wall quite hard, one typically reserved for stat minded players. it completely ignores matters of perception, trial and error, and context in favor of mechanical advantage.

It's a question of interpretation as to what the magic item in question actually is, in an in-fiction sense. If you prefer to interpret in a way that makes it less rather than more logical, I don't know what I can tell you.

[Dr Grordbort]

twilightwyrm

Quick question that's really been bugging me: What would the LA be on skeleton that keeps its own mental and physical ability scores (albeit w/o a Con), keeps improved initiative as a bonus feat, and gains light sensitivity. Because it strikes me that it might be more than +1, as certain other people I know would seem to think.

I think I'd be inclined to say "Not suitable as a player character." It would get too subjective and complicated beyond that point.

[twilightwyrm]

Dr Grordbort

twilightwyrm

Quick question that's really been bugging me: What would the LA be on skeleton that keeps its own mental and physical ability scores (albeit w/o a Con), keeps improved initiative as a bonus feat, and gains light sensitivity. Because it strikes me that it might be more than +1, as certain other people I know would seem to think.

I think I'd be inclined to say "Not suitable as a player character." It would get too subjective and complicated beyond that point.

Thanks for your advice here, I can't say this honestly surprises me.

[Seph Baelzara]

In honest thoughts of a Skeleton template as a PC? My answer is that all templates pre-Pathfinder that don't have a LA are not meant for PCs for a reason, and should thusly never be touched by, with very few exceptions, anyone but the DM.

There's just too many variables on a Skeleton to give it a solid LA.

[Kadaj5]

3.5 question.

Does an incorporeal touch deal extra damage on a successful critical hit without feats/abilities/class features/etc.? I have a feeling it doesn't.

[Dr Grordbort]

If you're just talking about HP damage, then I don't see why it wouldn't. Scorching Ray can crit without feats or anything.

Edit: After some quick research, it actually looks like anything that deals ability damage, hit point damage, or gives negative levels has a doubled effect on a crit unless otherwise noted.

[epiclevelwarrior]

Seph Baelzera

all templates pre-Pathfinder that don't have a LA are not meant for PCs for a reason, and should thusly never be touched by, with very few exceptions, anyone but the DM.

So Dragonborn of Bahamut was included in Races of the Dragon, why?

[Seph Baelzara]

In all seriousness, that's one of the exceptions

[FyoraSilverwolf]

So, I'm getting stuck a lot with my campaign. (3.5) It's my first time DMing, and I have a simple premise that I have pretty well established. [Which is, find ingredients for a magical cake required to heal an Ancient Red Dragon, who is Lawful Evil instead of Chaotic Evil, (Mainly because I don't play Chaotic well) but the players/characters don't know that.]

I don't really have a specific question, I just need people to talk to, now and other times. Would this be an appropriate place for that?

[Right now, I'm trying to convince myself to work on a dungeon for the session tonight (which starts immediately after I get out of class at 9pm. I have to leave for said class in an hour.)] Come to think of it, any suggestions for speeding up dungeon creation process without relying entirely on the WOTC dungeon generator? [I have found it lackluster since I started generating my own random dungeons.] My group will be playing via MapTool and not in person, so that's another kink in possible plans.

I have already decided they won't be finding the ingredient they're looking for in this dungeon (i.e. they won't be finding it this session) because I'm going to pull a "the princess is in another castle" at the end. xd Especially since this is the first ingredient they will be looking for, and they'll be looking in a place where the NPC will say he got some before, but it has been many years since that. They will find indications that there was once some there, but it will not be there. [They're going to be looking for a White Pudding, they will find fine white dust in the bottom-most room. And then I hope to have a second dungeon for them to go back up through.]

Last session, they got through 20 rooms, but one of the characters had one of the Vow abilities that gave him a calming aura, thus allowing them to avoid combat frequently, as well as convince a Hobgoblin to guide them around, thus avoiding some rooms entirely. [It was a goblin/hobgoblin "stronghold."] There was a player conflict as a result of this ability, so the player with the pacifist character decided to make a new character, [which just seemed to anger the conflicting player even more (long story)] so they will probably be having a lot more combat than they did, and so I'm not sure what to expect them to get through.

Sorry for the wall of text. sweatdrop

[They're also level 3-4, depending on whether or not they did buy-off for their level adjustment (half of the 4 did) They're really powerful, so even last time I had to give them CR 4 stuff, so this time I'm doing CR 4-5.]

[Zalin_heartache1]

So I am making an Adventure for my Players to run (D&D 4ed) and I want to do a mystery type adventure where the players enter a village where someone was brutally murdered a couple of years ago and the murder was blamed on the wrong person and because of that the entire village has been cursed to live in Darkness until the true murderer is discovered. As such the village is now plagued by creatures of the Night (Vampires, Werewolves and the like). My question is: I need help coming up with ideas for some of the NPC's like the person who placed the curse, the actual murderer and what his/her motives for the murder where/are? Plus I guess I want to make sure this is even a good idea for an adventure (i am still kind of new to the DMing/making adventures thing)

[ThePhantomSquee]

That sounds like a reasonably cool idea. Probably the first thing you'll want to know, aside from who the real murderer is, is who was murdered. That can give a lot of clue as to who might have been involved, etc.

[Fan_Boy]

twilightwyrm

Quick question that's really been bugging me: What would the LA be on skeleton that keeps its own mental and physical ability scores (albeit w/o a Con), keeps improved initiative as a bonus feat, and gains light sensitivity. Because it strikes me that it might be more than +1, as certain other people I know would seem to think.

There was a Bone Creature template in the Book of Vile Darkness as far as I can recall (been a while since I've looked at it) that fits your idea to a tee (other than the light sensitivity thing). Give me a second to try and find it ...

Bone Creature though it omits the +1 LA and the evil alignment.