From: Anagram | #041 KanzarisKelshen posted... From: Anagram | #038 Also, on a more personal-to-my-character note, there isn't much loot at our level to interest a wizard. To be fair, this goes for everybody - I don't get any interesting loot until level 5, either, when my artifact finally awakens and I can start rocking worlds.
Well you guys could at least look forward to magic weapons (or in your case armor, since you get hit so much), but I'm... yeah. I know it's part of the class, it's just a little annoying that I have nothing to spend money on except scrolls (which are super expensive at this level). I kind of wish Tommy Wiseau hadn't fallen into the ocean so we could have looted him.
Actually, I can't! decent armor costs even more than a magic weapon, like two or three times. You can buy a wand for 750 gold, I need to wait until I have like 2700 to get decent armor.
From: Anagram | #038 Also, on a more personal-to-my-character note, there isn't much loot at our level to interest a wizard.
To be fair, this goes for everybody - I don't get any interesting loot until level 5, either, when my artifact finally awakens and I can start rocking worlds.
I wonder if there's a different day that'd work better - the one time I got to see Brona take the spotlight (when he chatted with Tera), it was a really refreshing change of pace and some very good dialogue. I'd love to se emore of that.
From: Paratroopa1 | #386 I like introspective Karkat.
After the initial shock, I'm really warming up to this chill (relatively speaking), thoughtful Karkat. His charisma shines even when he's playing against type.
This list's order is basically an order of how effective, as characters, I think the NPCs are - that is, how strong a response they evoke from me, and how well the response fits with what they're supposed to be. Queen is basically the cutoff point after which the characters don't really achieve a sufficient response, either because I don't much care about them or because they fail at their role. I can explain it in further detail if you'd like. If multiple characters are on the same line, that means I more or less consider them equally good at their respective story roles. This is not a tier list based on how much I like them from Valerian's position (Learrette would be ranked super low if that were the case for instance), but rather how compelling they are, as characters. Thus, some villains rank highly, while others kind of rot in a low position.
From: Accel ACE | #082 T'horon's feats aren't as easy, I'm really not sure where to go with him like I am Vance, since I've played fighters more than swordmages.
Double Aegis is a pretty great feat to use. Then I'd use Arcane Admixture, which is the go-to for Arcane Classes. Admix an at-will you think you'll use a lot and load up on double elemental feats (for instance, Admixed Frigid Blade can benefit from Wintertouched and Lasting Frost and also apply Psychic Lock, so it deals damage, gives you CA, and plops down an attack penalty on top of it all).
From: Sceptilesolarbeam | #071 But I don't know if we want to offset the collars... Well, Teracor is probably controllable judging from my conversation with her, but Ath is a total wild card.
Quentyn just needs to get his Social Link up to max and she will be, totally.
Sums up my thoughts on the matter. When I mentioned Social Links, I wasn't actually thinking it'd be so direct! :P
As for who to train...my thoughts are that Miss R. is the best choice. It fits, honestly, she's fought a lot since we first met her. Only makes sense for her to have leveled up.
Also, shouldn't Atharathes and Teracor have a listed level of '0/16 Warlord' and '0/15 Blackguard'?
It's both a complaint and a point of interest, to me. On the one hand, it really sucks that our heroes really are stuck fighting an unbeatable foe. When I had Valerian say that it really didn't matter what Rael could do and if he knew, the first thought that crossed my mind, as a player, is 'he probably has the whole Twilight permanently divined - he knows where we are and we stand out as a point of nondetection, so he just doesn't care about us yet', which is a really, really depressing and lame thought because it means we literally can't win unless Rael screws up. If we get the Vengatol and it doesn't have enough juice to start playing with some fundamental forces (or if Burson escapes with it), we're completely screwed. I have a plan set already if the Vengatol is as primally powerful as it sounds like it is, but otherwise we're completely in the dark.
On the other hand, there's something to be said about fighting a nigh-unbeatable foe. It gives the story a very Black Company or Myth kind of feel, where the good guys mostly eke out minor victories as darkness wins and wins, until a brilliant gambit wins the day for the forces of good. And when (not if) we beat Rael, our victory will be absolutely sweet because we will have defeated an effectively unbeatable foe. Personally, I feel that unless we have something that lets us proactively fight Rael and start screwing with him directly, I'd rather stick to sidequesting and accruing power, character development, and more evil misfits for the ship. Our crew is already so interesting that I could spend a whole session just chatting with them and having minor adventures, and each PC has his own minor goals that have been calling for attention for a while and we haven't been able to tackle (Valerian seriously wants to return home, it's just that we've had literally no time to rest so far). We don't need an epic plot that is totally out of our league when we can have a super engrossing plot that is smaller and more character-focused.
PS: As for a complaint of my own, the only thing that I really don't like is the fourth-wall breakingness and obvious referencing. It's funny if limited to comic relief characters and the occasional joke, but when I see Rael make a quip directly at us just as he's slouching in his throne and monologuing, it breaks my immersion, which is really bad when the story is generally very engrossing otherwise. I'd cut down drastically on the mention of classes, levels and such, and just use in-world terms. It makes the world feel more alive, instead of being a setpiece for our antics.
PPS: On the plus side, the thing I really DO like is how the world has adapted to our actions so much - Valerian started the game by saving Raita, and through persistence and kindness made her turn a new leaf. He spoke to Tevaline and slowly started to cut through that aloof shell. He refused to let someone die on his watch and I got a chance to jab Tevaline out of killing herself instead of getting cutscene'd into a death. It's very cool stuff, and I love it.
PPPS: I'll get character rankings up later today. Additionally, I'll see if I can get logs of our conversations up for easy perusal.
-T'horon spent his time talking and being confused by Teracor's philosophy. -Kirie kept annoying Aluxial, and sewing sweet new duds for her proteges. -Amy spoke with Aluxial and decided to arrange for a meeting and set course for the Vengatol island. -Valerian spoke with Tevaline and managed to get to her much more quickly this time. Afterwards he spoke with Vance and came up with the idea to ask Aluxial about ways to turn a doll back to normal...which would require Aluxial's tome. -Vance and Kirie met, while Valerian called for a meeting. Amy revealed what she had learned from Rael, and the course was set for the island.
Whoops, I was thinking of Lifesinger, though Heartwarded is actually also rather boss. Lifesinger is in Arcane Power, and Heartwarder in Forgotten Realms Player's Guide.
From: IhatethisCPU | #026 So, after spending the past hour looking at Paragon paths. (Just doing the Hybrid Paragon thing, since most Paragon paths seem a little dull, incidentally.) Finally got around to finding what we put Tevalin/e in.
Either this: Or this:
Really rather depends on what you guys decide. <_<'
Don't paragon hybridize, BTW, it's a total gimp. I'd take Heartwarder if you want a PP that works, to reflect Kirie's blessing of Irune.
-Burson departed after receiving some information about something called Vengatol from Aluxial. He's definitely up to no good. -Aluxial ended up as a hair dec of Kirie, after her tube was soundproofed. -We disembarked and went on a shopping spree. Miss R. went shopping too. -We discovered that Miss R. had been kidnapped by Wilden bandits. They were easily dispatched... -But the Huntsman, their boss, revealed herself. She threatened to kill Miss R., but Amy's fortunate intervention saved the day. -After a fierce battle, we defeated the Huntsman. She threatened to blow herself up, but thanks to a spectacularly fortunate Natural 20, Valerian hit her with a haymaker, stopping her from killing herself. She was captured, and a new cage was bought for her. -Lots of talking happened. Brona and Teracor discussed the nature of the latter's philosophy... -T'horon and Adelie played with Forget... -Quentyn expanded his harem by chatting up Dubs and Atharathes... -Kirie was faced with the difficult conundrum of finding a way to entertain the two ex-jailkeepers she had taken under her wing... -Amy worked with Rogdar on some ship designs and began to torture Learrette with the full intention of breaking her mind... -...And Valerian spoke a great deal with the captured Huntsman, whose name was Tevalin (Or Tevaline), and engaged in a session of psychotherapy. They exchanged questions until Valerian's perseverance and refusal to grow angry made Tevaline quit the conversation. -Everybody gained 1000 XP.
What a cool session. All due to the final RPing, really - it made the whole thing (besides the hilariously awesome combat rolls, like T'horon surprising Tevaline, Valerian going super Goku, and Brona critting Val into unconsciousness with the finishing blow) truly great. I think I might try to make logs specifically detailing each conversation, if you guys want to see them. They'll add coherency to the whole thing, probably, and show how cool the stuff that went down really was.
And here's the SRD for the very, very first version of the current FATE edition, if you want to see what it's about as explained by its authors. It's a bit primitive (and I highly recommend using one of the later versions in its stead), but it's good for understanding the basics behind the system: http://www.faterpg.com/dl/sotc-srd.html
From: Bokonon_Lives | #014 I've never heard of FATE, but we do experiment with other play systems. We did a single session of Call of Cthulhu (but it was extraordinarily low on horror and danger). We're gonna give CoC another, longer run at some point. And I know one of the players wants to run one of these Superhero systems, which sounds incredibly fun (similar to Toon or something).
FATE is a system that is all about telling a story, basically. A very key mechanic of it is, surprisingly enough, Fate Points - you can use them to reroll a roll you don't like, or apply a big bonus to your roll, *after* knowing if you failed or not. The interesting thing about Fate Points is that, to get them, you need to make your plot more interesting. For instance, if you get captured by guards (without a chance to get away, in other words it just happens), or beaten soundly by the big bad, you get Fate Point which you can use to even up the score down the line. There's one more way to get Fate Points, though - Aspects. Aspects are little one-sentence descriptions of your character, depicting a facet of his personality. For instance, Link from Legend of Zelda would have the Hero of Time Aspect, which can be used positively (to gain a bonus to his rolls or reroll as above, or to state a fact about a scene), or negatively (to cause some time shenanigans to happen, or to make the decision of helping someone in need when he's really pressed for time). You'd think you wouldn't want to trigger an Aspect negatively, but the opposite is in fact the case - you constantly look for reasons to trigger them, because not only do you get the almighty Fate Points out of the deal, but they make the story more fun. I highly recommend giving it a try, it seems to me that your group is just not the D&D type and would fare much better with a system that isn't as lethal and, honestly, sorta unfun as 3.5.
From: Bokonon_Lives | #008 Eh, they're good people... Most come from a theater or improv background. They just are historically bad at D&D, and this campaign was specifically designed to be the first one we played together that wasn't all "hand-holding".
The DM is my good friend, he's brilliant and experienced as player and DM. I'm almost as good, though I'm not as charismatic and have normally been too shy to DM well. I play good characters though, and he and I typically alternate with each other who is party leader when we play campaigns.
Two of the others were a little green before we started playing together a a group a handful of campaigns ago. They're better now but not perfect. They have good moments.
The other two are girlfriends of other members of our group. One is honestly learning. The other just doesn't seem to care.
Whatever the case...... Worst party.
This sounds like a group more suited to FATE than D&D. Have you considered pitching a more narrativist system?
Does T'horon even make two attacks within a single turn ever? I don't think he can...
PS: Unrelated, but our ritualists should take a long hard look at the Comrade's Succor and Fantastic Recuperation rituals, from Dragon 380 and EPG respectively. I just chanced upon them and damn they're good.
-After the Castor fiasco, the group received a message, inviting them back to Joe's Arena. -Upon returning, Valerian spotted Burson. In the meantime, Amy did some sleuthing, and discovered that no message had been sent. -Burson claimed to have great news for the group: He had uncovered Aluxial's location! -Meanwhile, Amy borrowed Valerian's Commstones and finally established communication with her Ioun stone, a tiny remnant of the goddess of magic. -Burson told the assembled party about his plan to free Aluxial. Reluctantly, they agreed to help. -Arriving at the prison that held the now-depowered Original Mage, the group hunted down the jailkeepers of the prison and ruthlessly killed them, with the exception of two. Amy gets special credit for this, having killed two of them with surprise gunshots. -Additionally, the group freed hundreds of prisoners, the scum of the Twilight, put by Rael in this prison to contain them. -Finding Aluxial, the group met her warden: Sonya, post Good Girl Training. A fierce battle ensued, and Sonya was defeated, surrendering. -Knowing the risks of taking a deranged teleporter with dozens of guns onto the ship, the group argued long and hard about what to do with her. In the end, it was decided that she had to be executed, as there was no way to keep her down and she was too much of a threat to leave alone. Amy tried to shoot her, but Brona beat her to the punch with a dagger through the heart. Valerian took her shotgun. -Before departing, the group looked at the freed prisoners. They begged to come with them. Quentyn recovered Atharathes, a girl he had previously flirted with. Valerian had been partial to leaving the prisoners behind, freed but stranded and depowered, but in a final scan, one woman caught his eye. Her name was Teracor, and in her past, she'd been a Blackguard, devoted entirely to the concept of evil. Intrigued by the strength of her convictions, Valerian took her back to the ship. -Post-game, Valerian briefed Raita about Sonya's death. She seemed at peace with her end, until the subject of the place Rael's minions go to after death was broached. She proceeded to flee, leaving Val wondering about the reasons behind her distress, and if he hadn't doomed Shursh and Eren to a horrible fate ten years ago.
From: EndOfDiscOne | #026 Even if he did read it, Storm Front is the worst book in the series
Naw, that's Fool Moon. But yeah, the first two books are by far the worst. From there, it keeps getting better and better. But really, that isn't what we're here for, we're here to laugh at all the inaccuracies in that review.
"He's tall; he carries a staff of wood that controls his wizard powers"
Good to know he didn't actually read the book. At all. I mean I've only read two books and there were at least half a dozen of his points that were flat out incorrect.
Also, thinking that the book isn't funny at all just shows he has an awful sense of humor.
Hell, he even says that Harry's family is dismissed. That's the point where you know he's talking out of his ass.
And on topic, Ghost Story is a book that I really think people should read twice. The first readthrough is kinda underwhelming, but it just...*feels* way better on the second read. Things start clicking a lot more, if you will. It's obviously not as good as Changes, but it's a book that needed to happen. In another forum, someone said something about Ghost Story that I think is very true: it's the Kill Bill Vol. 2 to Changes' Vol. 1. It's much less heavy on action and much more focused on plot, so it's a departure from the usual Dresden style.
From: DeepsPraw | #019 You don't need to experience something firsthand to know it's bad.
You don't have to drink a bottle of motor oil to know it's going to taste bad and kill you.
It baffles me how you think the facts are going to change if I personally read the book.
You don't need to read the best urban fantasy series to know it's bad, OK.
PS: If you haven't read it, you really, really shouldn't talk, because Harry Dresden is a really, really easy shoe-in for Top 10 Best Main Characters In Fiction. For real, go read the books. They're worth it. So, so worth it.
From: SovietOmega | #472 KanzarisKelshen posted... We're hired to find six adventurers with attitude to save the city of Twilight Falls. Many carefully choreographed fights follow. Gaudy and colorful uniforms are involved, too.
...Wait a second...
"Konamy. Learrette's escaped. Recruit a team of heroes with ball gags!"
This fits entirely too well and it frightens me.
(Vouching for a 'become the Power Rangers' main quest)
From: Peace___Frog | #262 I see where Realo's coming from, though - if you want to be going for more early tankiness than damage, then Manamune can set you back a bit, it's not exactly cheap and it takes a while to build up. But since it does take you such a long time to build a tear up, getting it earlier is usually better for your late-game, though it can hamper your immediate early game. Phage costs about as much as Tear + Long Sword, I think, and it adds more AD and HP and a slow. That being said, it can set your late game back and you won't be able to spam as much with your abilities.
The issue is that Phage is also worthless on Yorick beyond the raw stats. You might be a tanky dude, but you're still gonna get melted if you dive in to apply the slow. Good Yorick play consists of poking from as far as you can manage. The perfect Yorick build is four thirsters, a manamune, and boots because you won't be going into melee if you play your cards right, not for more than cleanup.
We're hired to find six adventurers with attitude to save the city of Twilight Falls. Many carefully choreographed fights follow. Gaudy and colorful uniforms are involved, too.
From: TheConductorSix | #259 As for yorick, he's my main as of late and is retardedly good up top because he beats most tops and most people don't see yorick often enough to know how to play him. Just don't be an idiot like that guy from Ehome who built Manamune. Goddess tear gives you no defense and builds into an item that isn't needed with the new mana masteries. Until mid game most of your damage will be from abilities and they do enough damage without anything other than attack damage quints and reds.
Chalice>phage>atmas>mallet>sheen or my personal build of chalice glacial shroud mallet sheen. The point is that chalice is something I consider core on yorick unless you're facing riven tryndamere. Or Irelia. F Irelia. She's stupid.
I see alot of people build Warmogs and it works but your job is to dive the enemy carry with ghouls and items making you very hard to kill. Mallet and your W let you stick to one person effortlessly.
The two biggest pieces of advice I could give to a new yorick player is to learn when to use the ult on yourself and when to use it on your carry, and to use Q ghouls when getting ganked. Don't be afraid to use Q; yes you'll take a hit but the speed up is great. If you see the jungled coming Q a minion and run.
Ignore this. Manamune is ultra super core on Yorick and is the only offensive item you should buy. Get it and save yourself a stupid amount of heartache.
Too early to make a call, IMO. The Orbs had memorable antagonists, but a poor resolution and limited player agency. The Pocket Universe, on the other hand, wrapped up in awesome fashion, and gave us a bunch of opportunities to get creative and expand our characters' persoanlities.
- you're leaving your homes. You're exploring your worlds, and finding the secrets and strange things they contain. You're moving Out.
- See above. Everything is open to you, and it's up to you to seize the treasures that are waiting for you, as well as defeating the threats that lurk in broken-down temples, ruined palaces and sandy dunes.
Or, to put it bluntly, a joke off of two classic Homestucks themes that fit the current situation. :P
From: blindhobo13 | #021 Personally sometimes I think I would rather have a character not be in the game at all than have them be DLC. It's cool when they decide to put a new character as a way of continuing to support the game long after its release but that's not always the case. It's more of a 'let's withdraw essential content' so people (especially serious tourney players) are more or less forced to buy them because they're such a huge part of the game.
It just messes with s*** and it's more convenient to just not include them at all (or preferably, include them at the beginning!).
From a personal selfish note I haven't cared much about character DLC these past games because it hasn't affected me as much as there really hasn't been a character I wanted/liked. But there are actually some DLC characters in SFxT that I actually want and if I end up getting the game, I hate thinking that I might end up buying them.
Hey hobo, do you know how development works? Because if not I think I can find a pretty neat explanation on this whole thing, think it was by Mike Z, the guy behind Skullgirls. Just so we're on the level here, Skullgirls is basically the wet dream of hardcore fightan fans, to boot, so if Mike Z does this, it might be because there's reasons for it beyond 'make load$ of ca$h money', since the game is going to sell to three people if that.
From: Anagram | #447 Accel ACE posted... People condemned 4e because it was different.
I'm condemning 5e because it's going back to the way D&D used to be.
Old D&D sucks. Ergo, 5e sucks.
But did every aspect of it suck? And it's my understanding that they're keeping the same basic 4E power system, so it's not like they're going back to "fighters get to use basic attacks every round" or something. I admit, though, I'm a little unclear on the Vancian spellcasting I've heard is returning.
They're not. A verbatim quote that is not out of context from the designers is 'I look back fondly to the 3.5 Fighter'. Yes, that Fighter, the one that only makes Basic Attacks all day erryday. I could also dig up some quotes from Rob Heinsoo on 4e that explains the stupid amounts of opposition he faced when making it. People, and by people I mean designers who are on this design team, wanted Wizards to be Just Better than those poor Martial idiots, and he had to fight long and hard to release a Wizard that he gauged was slightly weak to make sure it wouldn't break the game. For real, 5e has to prove itself before we cut it slack, not the other way around.
On a happier note, I'm curious about the Blade of Kings' appearance. I wonder if there'll be any chance to ask around in town about it next time we play (ideally before more adventuring since I need to swap some items)? I'm pretty sure not even Rael has the power to pull somebody from a different age and possibly dimension to somebody else's dreams and then materialize a blade like that. Mentalo might have those powers now, but this mystery is tantalizing.
Indeed. Hence why I have no plans to bring her out unless Valerian dies in a way resurrection cannot bring him back from. Val's conflict is too personal to just pass up. :P
From: Anagram | #438 KanzarisKelshen posted... I have a character I've been wanting to play since forever, but she doesn't even have stats yet. Not gonna bother with those unless Valerian bites it again.
What's she like? I like hearing other peoples' character ideas, gives me perspective for my own.
As for 5E, I know this is dumb, but I'm legitimately wondering if they're going to fix the beholder so its main eye's gimmick is antimagic again.
Mute, an acrobat, and a spellblade. A very cheery gal and quite a showoff.
From: HeroDelTiempo17 | #249 I don't know what all this "the characters don't use their powers to the extent that they could" nonsense is.
Dave and Rose just fully realized their powers and haven't gotten a chance to use them. Before that, Rose's power was just knowing things. Dave has his time travel but he couldn't use it to break the game because he'd be creating doomed timelines. Paradox space would have just broken him, and that kind of puts a damper on what is possible to do with time powers.
John used his powers to drill a hole in a planet that symbolizes the infinite potential of creation, in order to rip out a bomb meant to destroy their sessions that contained two literal universes. Jade had her powers for all of five minutes and managed to shrink down five planets and rip a hole in spacetime in order to transport them, her, and John through the multiverse. If those examples aren't considered breaking the game then I don't know what is.
Of the trolls, only Vriska, Terezi, and maybe Gamzee are in touch with their powers to any extent from what we've seen. Aradia's using hers for other purposes, and I guess you could also make a case for Sollux.
In any case I don't think we've seen the last of crazy bull**** powers.
I don't think you quite understand what 'the winning timeline is the Alpha' means when time travel is involved. It's a literal BS carte blanche.
