[QUOTE=No Party Hats;49039509]It's too early for this shit
[editline]3rd November 2015[/editline]
I've kidnapped corpsec and malnourished them in my magical lodge's prison and havent even gotten a point :'([/QUOTE]
That's because I'm not telling you guys if people know shit about you unless it comes into play
Which, because you've never tried to convince people of anything, nor directly seen yourselves on the news, means there's no way of really telling unless you're actively searching for shit on yourselves
That totally means we've got a shitload of kill teams on us already.
[QUOTE=SiberysTranq;49040809]That's because I'm not telling you guys if people know shit about you unless it comes into play
Which, because you've never tried to convince people of anything, nor directly seen yourselves on the news, means there's no way of really telling unless you're actively searching for shit on yourselves[/QUOTE]
If they're not doing that they're not doing too great a job of trying to hide :v:
Remember, kids: You can be worse than Hitler in Shadowrun as long as there's no survivors.
[QUOTE=croguy;49040876]Remember, kids: You can be worse than Hitler in Shadowrun as long as there's no survivors.[/QUOTE]
Don't forget security footage, astral signatures and forensics.
[QUOTE=Rents;49041004]Don't forget security footage, astral signatures and forensics.[/QUOTE]
Oh god I like to think I'm pretty careful on runs but I never thought Ghost witnesses would be a thing
thanks for the heads up omae
[QUOTE=RearAdmiral;49041101]Oh god I like to think I'm pretty careful on runs but I never thought Ghost witnesses would be a thing
thanks for the heads up omae[/QUOTE]
Nah, astral signatures are only an issue for anyone who's been slinging spells usually. Unless you're a vampire, or cyberzombie. Watcher spirits can potentially be an issue, but they're not very good at keeping an eye on mundane people and technological stuff is basically invisible to them.
[QUOTE=Rents;49041137]Nah, astral signatures are only an issue for anyone who's been slinging spells usually. Unless you're a vampire, or cyberzombie. Watcher spirits can potentially be an issue, but they're not very good at keeping an eye on mundane people and technological stuff is basically invisible to them.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, astral signatures are the wiz-kid's problem, not yours. However, Watchers (And spirits, and astrally projecting or percieving mages, and most awakened critters) can spot you if they're around. Anything living has an astral aura, and they're very easy to spot, all sparkly and shit. You can even see them through walls. That said, unless they've memorized the astral aura of everyone who might be in the area, they can't really identify you as an intruder this way.
You also have to worry about material links. Anything that came from your body can be used to fuck you magically. That includes anything from a strand of hair to sweat, blood and nail clippings.
And optimally, your wiz-kid should set up wards in your house and/or your base of operations.
[QUOTE=Rents;49038855]Since when? I've been in a couple of games where the the only evidence the team left were other people's blood stains and missing persons.[/QUOTE]
I think it was more that it was the first time working with the rest of the team, and they would probably have let her live.
[QUOTE=Rents;49041137]Nah, astral signatures are only an issue for anyone who's been slinging spells usually. Unless you're a vampire, or cyberzombie. Watcher spirits can potentially be an issue, but they're not very good at keeping an eye on mundane people and technological stuff is basically invisible to them.[/QUOTE]
thankfully they've got me and bjork onboard the team, aka two mages who give zero shits about how many spells they sling
though we've gotten a hell of a lot better at checking for these things, not much can be done when I've got the astral beacon trait :v:
Made some custom monster tokens and a reusable dry erase grid. The monster tokens are just black glass aquarium stones, with painted on numbers and letters in a few different colors. The cloudy ones just haven't finished drying yet. The grid was made out of a piece of posterboard and a poster frame with a plastic cover to make it erasable. If I have any grids I want to save (like a particular cave or building or summat that the players return to often as a hideout, etcetera) then I can just draw those on a separate piece of posterboard and slip them under the dry erase sheet. Pretty dang handy, I think! I'm impressed at my middle school level craftiness.
[t]http://i.imgur.com/jT6BTz0.jpg[/t]
Gonna have to remake the sixes or nines on the tokens though. Didn't realize until I was done that I forgot to put a mark to indicate which was which.
[editline]3rd November 2015[/editline]
I need to get some bigger ones for large sized monsters. Dunno why I didn't think of that while I was out today.
[editline]3rd November 2015[/editline]
Busy boy I've been, though!
I picked up a big table from the Goodwill megacenter for $10, got six folding chairs on Craigslist for $15, a big red area rug off Craigslist for $8, and cleaned the heck out of my basement. Dusted out all the cobwebs, swept, mopped, scrubbed, etc. Brought down a few extra lights, a big space heater, and some stringlights for decoration and burlap curtains for decoration. So we're playing dungeons and dragons on beat-up secondhand furniture in a basement, but at least it's clean, decent, and didn't break the bank! And besides, aren't you [I]supposed[/I] to play D&D on beat up furniture in a basement? All I need now is a hard copy of the DMG and Player Handbook and I'll be good to go. Anybody wanna maybe volunteer to buy them for me, maybe?? They [B]are[/B] pretty expensive after all and I've already been workin real hard !
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;49029533](his country is so poor as to afford only one bridge, it is dismantled and taken around whenever the King wishes to travel)[/QUOTE]
I like this idea and I'm stealing it for my next campaign.
[QUOTE=Moustacheman;49044982]I like this idea and I'm stealing it for my next campaign.[/QUOTE]
Go ahead, everything in that country has already been stolen at some point.
So got a Sustain Minor question for DND 4th edition:
Assassin Utility Black Flame Form
[img]http://i.imgur.com/3PAPUGA.jpg[/img]
The form lasts until you make an attack roll or until the end of your next turn.
Sustain Minor: The form persists until the end of your next turn.
Does sustain minor override the previous condition of it ending when you make an attack?
It looks like the initial use of the Form ends if you make an attack, but once you sustain it, it no longer ends upon making an attack.
So on your Turn, you can Shroud something, Move, Attack, and then activate the Form, Next Turn, you can sustain the Form, Attack, and still be in the Form if I understand correctly.
[QUOTE=darkgodmaste;49046144]So got a Sustain Minor question for DND 4th edition:
Assassin Utility Black Flame Form
[img]http://i.imgur.com/3PAPUGA.jpg[/img]
The form lasts until you make an attack roll or until the end of your next turn.
Sustain Minor: The form persists until the end of your next turn.
Does sustain minor override the previous condition of it ending when you make an attack?
It looks like the initial use of the Form ends if you make an attack, but once you sustain it, it no longer ends upon making an attack.
So on your Turn, you can Shroud something, Move, Attack, and then activate the Form, Next Turn, you can sustain the Form, Attack, and still be in the Form if I understand correctly.[/QUOTE]
The sustain minor looks like a generic rule applied to many abilities.
In such cases, the more specific rule always wins out.
In this case, that's it ending if you make an attack, the sustain just lets it last longer if you don't make an attack.
[QUOTE=darkgodmaste;49046144]So got a Sustain Minor question for DND 4th edition:
Assassin Utility Black Flame Form
[img]http://i.imgur.com/3PAPUGA.jpg[/img]
The form lasts until you make an attack roll or until the end of your next turn.
Sustain Minor: The form persists until the end of your next turn.
Does sustain minor override the previous condition of it ending when you make an attack?
It looks like the initial use of the Form ends if you make an attack, but once you sustain it, it no longer ends upon making an attack.
So on your Turn, you can Shroud something, Move, Attack, and then activate the Form, Next Turn, you can sustain the Form, Attack, and still be in the Form if I understand correctly.[/QUOTE]
Nope, it ends immediately when you attack, you can't sustain it after you attack because it's already ended.
Alright the rules overlap and one doesn't replace another, that makes sense.
[editline]4th November 2015[/editline]
Alright, we are going start a new campaign this Sunday.
DND 4th Edition Forgotten Realms Setting, modified a bit by the DM.
I've been the DM for the last year and a little bit out of touch with making player characters so I would like some feedback.
We will start out on the main island of an archipelago, on this island is the main city of the region.
Our goal is to gain influence in this main city, for example by taking over or gaining influence in the council.
The area is know for it's piracy, thievery and trade and so is the city, the pirate/thieves guild ask for protection money from the merchant creating friction and there are all sorts of guild squabbles/drama.
I have got my character figured out, where he came from, what he wants and where he is going.
Short version, he is already living in the town when the rest of the party comes, he is a shady figure working the back streets and special deals using stealth to gather information for his boss and taking care of people exposing his boss.
But I'm still a bit stuck on making my character.
I want to try out the assassin and picked the Drow race since it should be suitable for the class.
[b]Question 1[/b]
Does Shade Form allow you to pass through barriers as the flavor text describes it?
How would this translate into combat and outside of combat?
[img]http://i.imgur.com/2SAnFnQ.jpg[/img]
[b]Question 2[/b]
Which would be a better choice, Shade Form or Black Flame Form
Shade Form
[img]http://i.imgur.com/PLqe4hH.jpg[/img]
Black Flame Form
[img]http://i.imgur.com/3PAPUGA.jpg[/img]
[b]Question 3[/b]
Which feats should I go for the first couple levels?
[b]Question 4[/b]
Which Drow power should I take?
Cloud of Darkness might be good to escape or hide, might also hinder my allies.
Darkfire allows combat advantage, but so does flanking and a shroud feat.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/qTuAiC8.jpg[/img]
Thanks for all the help.
Well, it straight up says that you can use it to go through stuff, so it certainly should. Although I'm sure some magical barriers can still block insubstantial people.
And I would definitely go for Shade Form.
Since Black Flame Form ends immediately once you attack, it's only really useful for two things: Getting close to enemies, and getting away from them.
Running and hiding is just as good for getting away in most situations, especially when you can go right through walls. And for getting close, as an Assassin, which I assume get all kinds of sneak attack stuff, stealthing up on enemies seems a much better choice the vast majority of the time.
And going through walls is just generally a super useful ability.
Darkfire seems pretty useless when flanking gives most of the same benefit, and negating invisibility/concealment probably isn't very useful when you still have to hit them with the Darkfire first, so I'd personally go for Cloud of Darkness. I can see at least a few situations where it would be hella useful, especially when retreating. Plus, that way you won't be dependent on increasing your mental attributes just for a small racial ability, assuming Assassins don't need especially high mental abilities.
Don't know much about 4th edition feats though, sorry.
Yeah, walking through walls would be pretty kickass.
Darkfire seems good in theory since it has both a direct (combat advantage) and utility (revealing hidden enemies) effect, especially if you are playing a class with sneak attack since it means you can get it to trigger even against an enemy you aren't flanking (I don't know if assassins get sneak attack). I don't know enough about 4e in play to tell you which one is better in practice, though.
Came up with a basic campaign idea for our first few game nights. What do you think?
Old man approaches group and offers a huge reward if they help recover artifacts/heirlooms of a famous ancestor that were lost to time. He wants them to reclaim his family legacy, big sad story about losing everything after such-and-such tragedy scattered everything dear to his name to the winds, etc. He knows the location of the first artifact only, and points you to a small village in the distant countryside.
You arrive, find a suspicious little village wherein nobody wants to cooperate, get in the middle of a minor conflict between a pair of thieves and a small band of highwaymen, and have the opportunity to uncover some critical info and gain a temporary ally or two to help with the inevitable bossfight. You discover the location of the artifact and break into the hidden cellar of the town hall to discover a large round shield with an unbreakable mirror that shoes reflections of other places in it. Around it are the sacrificed remains of various critters, including a person or two. Town had been been praying to it for visions of the future.
You try to take the shield, and an inky shapeless monster grows from it, apparently fueled by the blood sacrifices. Queue bossfight. When you win, the mirror shows you visions of the other artifacts, a helmet, a spear, and a caped breastplate: each appears to have some unique magical property. Follow the clues, get involved in more hijinks, find each item corrupted somehow, slay the evil thing empowered by it, and eventually bring them all back to the fellow who sent you for them for your reward.
Lo and behold, he turns out to be evil too. Not only does he reveal that there is no reward, he informs you that he is going to be killing you. Tough break. With all the items in his possession, he draws on their corrupted energy and turns into The Big Evil Boss, with all the abilities of the minibosses you had to kill to collect the items. Kill him, get the treasure, and revel in beating the campaign.
[QUOTE=Glent;49047091]Darkfire seems good in theory since it has both a direct (combat advantage) and utility (revealing hidden enemies) effect, especially if you are playing a class with sneak attack since it means you can get it to trigger even against an enemy you aren't flanking (I don't know if assassins get sneak attack). I don't know enough about 4e in play to tell you which one is better in practice, though.[/QUOTE]
Assassins don't have a sneak attack, so I don't really see an incentive to sneak aside from combat advantage.
[QUOTE=darkgodmaste;49047357]Assassins don't have a sneak attack, so I don't really see an incentive to sneak aside from combat advantage.[/QUOTE]
Huh, that's pretty strange for a class named Assassin
I guess if you're not completely amazing at stealth in general either, Black Flame Form might be better in combat. Although walking through walls still has absolutely amazing utility.
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;49047232]Came up with a basic campaign idea for our first few game nights. What do you think?
Old man approaches group and offers a huge reward if they help recover artifacts/heirlooms of a famous ancestor that were lost to time. He wants them to reclaim his family legacy, big sad story about losing everything after such-and-such tragedy scattered everything dear to his name to the winds, etc. He knows the location of the first artifact only, and points you to a small village in the distant countryside.
You arrive, find a suspicious little village wherein nobody wants to cooperate, get in the middle of a minor conflict between a pair of thieves and a small band of highwaymen, and have the opportunity to uncover some critical info and gain a temporary ally or two to help with the inevitable bossfight. You discover the location of the artifact and break into the hidden cellar of the town hall to discover a large round shield with an unbreakable mirror that shoes reflections of other places in it. Around it are the sacrificed remains of various critters, including a person or two. Town had been been praying to it for visions of the future.
You try to take the shield, and an inky shapeless monster grows from it, apparently fueled by the blood sacrifices. Queue bossfight. When you win, the mirror shows you visions of the other artifacts, a helmet, a spear, and a caped breastplate: each appears to have some unique magical property. Follow the clues, get involved in more hijinks, find each item corrupted somehow, slay the evil thing empowered by it, and eventually bring them all back to the fellow who sent you for them for your reward.
Lo and behold, he turns out to be evil too. Not only does he reveal that there is no reward, he informs you that he is going to be killing you. Tough break. With all the items in his possession, he draws on their corrupted energy and turns into The Big Evil Boss, with all the abilities of the minibosses you had to kill to collect the items. Kill him, get the treasure, and revel in beating the campaign.[/QUOTE]
i saw the last paragraph coming before i finished reading the first one, alls good if your players roll with it though
[QUOTE=darkgodmaste;49047357]Assassins don't have a sneak attack, so I don't really see an incentive to sneak aside from combat advantage.[/QUOTE]
Do assassins have any other abilities that key off advantage? If not, then cloud of darkness is probably fine, since advantage is just +2 to attack rolls if I remember correctly and there is a ton of ways to get it. I personally like having ways to stop enemies from hiding or going invisible in RPGs, but Cloud of Darkness probably has more general usefulness if you don't need advantage for anything in particular. I still don't know anything about 4e in practice though so this is all guesswork from me.
[QUOTE=Glent;49047516]i saw the last paragraph coming before i finished reading the first one, alls good if your players roll with it though
Do assassins have any other abilities that key off advantage? If not, then cloud of darkness is probably fine, since advantage is just +2 to attack rolls if I remember correctly and there is a ton of ways to get it. I personally like having ways to stop enemies from hiding or going invisible in RPGs, but Cloud of Darkness probably has more general usefulness if you don't need advantage for anything in particular. I still don't know anything about 4e in practice though so this is all guesswork from me.[/QUOTE]
Plus, Darkfire still requires an attack roll, so if they're already invisible, which is almost always the case, it's not that useful. And you can only use it once per encounter, so no do-overs, and it's single target to boot. Pretty limited utility, if you ask me.
[QUOTE=elowin;49047676]Plus, Darkfire still requires an attack roll, so if they're already invisible, which is almost always the case, it's not that useful. And you can only use it once per encounter, so no do-overs, and it's single target to boot. Pretty limited utility, if you ask me.[/QUOTE]
Yea that ability is admittedly quite a bit better in 5e, so that might be colouring my view of it. I guess if you have high perception it can be nice to allow your buddies to target the invisible enemy normally, but otherwise you pretty much have to guess where they are. Being once per encounter isn't bad though.
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;49047232]
Lo and behold, he turns out to be evil too. Not only does he reveal that there is no reward, he informs you that he is going to be killing you. Tough break. With all the items in his possession, he draws on their corrupted energy and turns into The Big Evil Boss, with all the abilities of the minibosses you had to kill to collect the items. Kill him, get the treasure, and revel in beating the campaign.[/QUOTE]
Players tend to be incredibly genre savvy about things like these, even if they don't have a lot of experience with RPGs. If you don't don't want them to see this coming, be prepared to work very, very hard not to make it obvious.
Also be fully prepared for them NOT to bring all / any of the items to him, because once they put two and two together there's no way they'll trust him with them.
[QUOTE=Joekirk;49048817]Players tend to be incredibly genre savvy about things like these, even if they don't have a lot of experience with RPGs. If you don't don't want them to see this coming, be prepared to work very, very hard not to make it obvious.
Also be fully prepared for them NOT to bring all / any of the items to him, because once they put two and two together there's no way they'll trust him with them.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the suggestion! I didn't really intend it as a mindfuck kind of thing. It's a pretty predictable outcome, but it's all in the fun of the fantasy genre. I'll come up with some alternate endings for what will happen if they don't willingly give him the stuff, just the same. As long as they get a tough fight at the end, everybody walks away happy. If they refuse to hand it over, I could have a powerful assassin or a group of mercenaries waiting in the wings to try to force them to make good on their promise. Could potentially even launch the campaign this way. If they don't trust him and refuse to take up the quest, he could drop the sob story and try to force them into it? Maybe with a hostage, or something?
And if they still won't bite, well, what's a guy to do?
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;49049470]Thanks for the suggestion! I didn't really intend it as a mindfuck kind of thing. It's a pretty predictable outcome, but it's all in the fun of the fantasy genre. I'll come up with some alternate endings for what will happen if they don't willingly give him the stuff, just the same. As long as they get a tough fight at the end, everybody walks away happy. If they refuse to hand it over, I could have a powerful assassin or a group of mercenaries waiting in the wings to try to force them to make good on their promise. Could potentially even launch the campaign this way. If they don't trust him and refuse to take up the quest, he could drop the sob story and try to force them into it? Maybe with a hostage, or something?
And if they still won't bite, well, what's a guy to do?[/QUOTE]
A curse or something could work. Like, if they don't bring him the macguffins in X amount of time they die, or turn into animals, or some other character ending outcome. Of course it'd be a safe assumption that they'd look into breaking the curse along the way somewhere. Another thing to think about; if the Big Bad has lackeys of equal or higher power than the players to force them into handing over the macguffins, why did he need them to do it? Why not just send his private army of thugs out to do the work in the first place?
[QUOTE=ElTacoLad;49049609]A curse or something could work. Like, if they don't bring him the macguffins in X amount of time they die, or turn into animals, or some other character ending outcome. Of course it'd be a safe assumption that they'd look into breaking the curse along the way somewhere. Another thing to think about; if the Big Bad has lackeys of equal or higher power than the players to force them into handing over the macguffins, why did he need them to do it? Why not just send his private army of thugs out to do the work in the first place?[/QUOTE]
Geas/quest is the best spell
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