Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[GhastlyGhost]

Outside the Twilight 2000 series. Any other good example of role playing games with modern warfare setting involving PMCs? Think escape from Tarkov or Grey Zome Warfare in TTRPG or tabletop war gaming form. Reading about the African PMCs operating in Haiti being ripped off by the Biden administration and getting called white supremacist racists by western journalists for not putting up with the Haitian cannibal culture makes me want to set up a campaign set in cannibal ruled modern day Haiti.

Not quite in the TTRPG camp, but you could look into skirmish games. Osprey published a game called Zona Alfa that's effectively a Stalker wargame.

 

[Snekposter]

• Eclipse Phase (ditto, though its a weaker system than Traveler)

The developers are giga-fags beyond the usual though, and boy does it show in the writing department, and 2e is 100% geared around what are basically a series of one-shots. 1e is far more difficult to manage your character sheet, but also much better suited to long-term campaigns that don't have much interplanetary travel.

 

[Adamska]

The executioner example also just depends whether you're a consequentialist or a deontologist. I don't remember which view D&D takes of it since I don't play D&D much.

Another thing with paladins is that back when oaths used to be more restrictive in earlier editions, some players would take it to really dumb levels and behave in ways that ruined the fun for other people because of their interpretation of their oath. It's the whole "lawful stupid" trope, and it was essentially a souped up version of the classic "it's what my character would do" people who don't understand that making characters which cannot coexist with the others at all is a bad idea except this time it's backed up by gameplay mechanics. I haven't heard of this sort of stuff happening much with more recent editions, but the history of those sorts of horror stories definitely fuels some spite.

You can also cause some balance issues with warlock multiclassing, particularly hexblade, and some DMs might not know how to deal with that and as such they'll try to hit the paladin in their oath instead. This is more a symptom of warlock as a whole being too front loaded in 5e which itself is largely down to how Eldritch Blast scales with character level and how hexblade curse barely scales at all. A warlock 1 sorcerer X is almost an objectively better warlock than any other type, with only taking 1-2 more levels for stuff like agonizing blast really being in question. Add in that very few games play at super high level (to the point they didn't even bother with a 5e epic supplement) and that a lot of the high level class features you may miss out on are underwhelming anyways and multiclass abuse can really catch an unprepared DM off guard, and one of the classic combos involves paladin.

Some of that was due to how a paladin's rules of associations were described. Paladins are supposed to not ever knowingly work with an evil character. It is actually in the 3.5 code of conduct rules. Another aspect of this is a character that consistently offends their moral code as well. This aspect is usually the source of conflict, especially when you factor in the oaths, because parties almost always have a chaotic character who will do things to bend or break the laws, which comes in conflict with respecting legitimate authority.

Neutral characters can also be at fault too, since evil acts can be done by them, which comes into conflict with aiding others, since a Paladin is not to aid someone who uses it to commit an evil act. A strict interpretation could be as simple as fronting money for the party, which in that scenario can violate oath because the rogue uses it to buy poison or something.

Personally, I tend to prefer having Paladins fulfil their oaths based on their god's attitude and purview. I also very much am okay with not having a Paladin fall if they work with an evil character, since one aspect I usually use for this case is redemption. I think a Paladin is not in violation if they seek to have an evil character seek it.

However yes, you do have to know when to bring one to a party. Also maybe actually talk about this before starting the campaign or making said character in case.

Also the thing is I actually don't hear that much about lawful stupid paladins. Honestly, CN barbarians who try and cause havoc, and dickass thieves are a fuckload more common tbh.

 

[Sargon's wife's son]

Wizards are extremely powerful in D&D from 3e onward, to the point of being potentially game breaking if not moderated by the DM or the player. It can be extremely hard to challenge a well prepared wizard, and attacking their spell book is one of the few ways to consistently screw with them. The noted ability of modern wizards to break games and render most other classes ineffective just by virtue of being able to do everything they can, better, has made them the target of many DMs.

The people who don't have overpowered martial classes by the level 10 just need to get good you can make Marshall classes just as good as Wizards also all you need to do to kill most Wizards just get within 5 feet of them and just keep beating them in the face with the sword

 

[Snekposter]

all you need to do to kill most Wizards just get within 5 feet of them

Easier said than done if they have Fireball, Lightning Bolt, or Haste prepared. A Wizard gets two 3rd level spell slots at level 5, and I hope you enjoy getting smacked in the face for an astounding 8d6 damage on a failed Dexterity save. 2nd level spells like Flaming Sphere, Blindness, and Darkness will all act as crowd control and if you get within 15 feet that's when they pull out a Burning Hands., Color Spray, or Expeditious Retreat, all three of which are 1st level spells. The amount of bullshit a single caster can pull even at low levels is ridiculous.

Meanwhile a 5th level Fighter gets... an extra attack, a single bonus from their Martial Archetype, an action surge, and they can recover 1d10+5 HP, the latter two needing them to take a breather after being used.

Naturally, Haste is a better action surge since it lasts a minute and boosts AC, doubles movement speed, and gives advantage on Dexterity saves on top of giving the Wizard an extra action. Yay for Fighters! Oh, and if you need some emergency HP as a Wizard, False Life has your back.

 

[40 Year Old Boomer]

Easier said than done if they have Fireball, Lightning Bolt, or Haste prepared. A Wizard gets two 3rd level spell slots at level 5, and I hope you enjoy getting smacked in the face for an astounding 8d6 damage on a failed Dexterity save. 2nd level spells like Flaming Sphere, Blindness, and Darkness will all act as crowd control and if you get within 15 feet that's when they pull out a Burning Hands., Color Spray, or Expeditious Retreat, all three of which are 1st level spells. The amount of bullshit a single caster can pull even at low levels is ridiculous.

Meanwhile a 5th level Fighter gets... an extra attack, a single bonus from their Martial Archetype, an action surge, and they can recover 1d10+5 HP, the latter two needing them to take a breather after being used.

Naturally, Haste is a better action surge since it lasts a minute and boosts AC, doubles movement speed, and gives advantage on Dexterity saves on top of giving the Wizard an extra action. Yay for Fighters! Oh, and if you need some emergency HP as a Wizard, False Life has your back.

Which is why mobility is an underrated feat combined with action surge. if you can swiftly close the gap, the wizard cannot cast a spell if you stuff a dirty rag in his mouth. Or better yet, force feed him a flask of alchemist's fire or a tanglefoot bag.

 

[Snekposter]

Which is why mobility is an underrated feat combined with action surge. if you can swiftly close the gap, the wizard cannot cast a spell if you stuff a dirty rag in his mouth. Or better yet, force feed him a flask of alchemist's fire or a tanglefoot bag.

Or you could go for the Archery fighting style, Sharpshooter, and get some throwing knives if you want to do things that way. The wizard cannot cast a spell if you disable his hand on account of the somatic element. Regardless, you need to specifically set up some sort of build designed to counter wizards whereas a wizard can wake up one day, get his spells in order, and then fuck up an entire party with a couple spells.

Also, if you're going with force feeding a wizard something, I'd go with poisoned milk, but only because that one Mel Gibson movie is serially underrated.

 

[40 Year Old Boomer]

Also, if you're going with force feeding a wizard something, I'd go with poisoned milk, but only because that one Mel Gibson movie is serially underrated.

It's a lot more difficult to use verbal components when your throat is literally on fire or filled with glue. This brings me to my next point: Subtle Spell is the best metamagic option.

 

[Sargon's wife's son]

Easier said than done if they have Fireball, Lightning Bolt, or Haste prepared. A Wizard gets two 3rd level spell slots at level 5, and I hope you enjoy getting smacked in the face for an astounding 8d6 damage on a failed Dexterity save. 2nd level spells like Flaming Sphere, Blindness, and Darkness will all act as crowd control and if you get within 15 feet that's when they pull out a Burning Hands., Color Spray, or Expeditious Retreat, all three of which are 1st level spells. The amount of bullshit a single caster can pull even at low levels is ridiculous.

Meanwhile a 5th level Fighter gets... an extra attack, a single bonus from their Martial Archetype, an action surge, and they can recover 1d10+5 HP, the latter two needing them to take a breather after being used.

Naturally, Haste is a better action surge since it lasts a minute and boosts AC, doubles movement speed, and gives advantage on Dexterity saves on top of giving the Wizard an extra action. Yay for Fighters! Oh, and if you need some emergency HP as a Wizard, False Life has your back.

I don't think I've played a normal fighter in the better part of six years also the wizard I play when anybody gets close to him just uses dimension door and goes halfway across the map
however the powered in the party can do about 2000 damage in one round but then again the party is at like level 27 at this point
remind character could do like 5000 damage but that bones to about half of the spell slots
energy ad mixture maximize spell try spell repeating spell if you really wanna be **** yourself use persistent spell

 

[Snekposter]

I don't think I've played a normal fighter in the better part of six years also the wizard I play when anybody gets close to him just uses dimension door and goes halfway across the map
however the powered in the party can do about 2000 damage in one round but then again the party is at like level 27 at this point
remind character could do like 5000 damage but that bones to about half of the spell slots
energy ad mixture maximize spell try spell repeating spell if you really wanna be **** yourself use persistent spell

English, motherfucker! Do you speak it?

 

[Battlefield2142EU]

Each time Bob World Builder makes a new video. He gives out more and more sex offender energy.

 

[Quintus]

Easier said than done if they have Fireball, Lightning Bolt, or Haste prepared. A Wizard gets two 3rd level spell slots at level 5, and I hope you enjoy getting smacked in the face for an astounding 8d6 damage on a failed Dexterity save. 2nd level spells like Flaming Sphere, Blindness, and Darkness will all act as crowd control and if you get within 15 feet that's when they pull out a Burning Hands., Color Spray, or Expeditious Retreat, all three of which are 1st level spells. The amount of bullshit a single caster can pull even at low levels is ridiculous.

Meanwhile a 5th level Fighter gets... an extra attack, a single bonus from their Martial Archetype, an action surge, and they can recover 1d10+5 HP, the latter two needing them to take a breather after being used.

Naturally, Haste is a better action surge since it lasts a minute and boosts AC, doubles movement speed, and gives advantage on Dexterity saves on top of giving the Wizard an extra action. Yay for Fighters! Oh, and if you need some emergency HP as a Wizard, False Life has your back.

Yeah it's seriously an uphill battle even if you make a character tailored to fight casters. You also completely missed all the CC options a full caster would have access to. Do you have a bad wisdom? Enjoy being paralyzed for up to a minute by a 2nd level spell. Get the drop on the caster? Do you have a bad charisma? Well, now you're incapacitated in another dimension for 10 rounds while they either run away or prepare to obliterate you.

Part of what makes martials good is their simplicity. But the lack of versatility isn't something they can really overcome without taking caster levels or using certain subclass.

 

[ZMOT]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=XmvLBpmi4eUEach time Bob World Builder makes a new video. He gives out more and more sex offender energy.

so, what are the news supposed to be?

 

[Snekposter]

You also completely missed all the CC options a full caster would have access to.

Oh, absolutely. I was just using the 5e Player's Handbook and looking up what seemed interesting from the name. I don't play casters at all so I legitimately had no idea casting classes got that fucking broken so quickly. Seeing that Fireball does 8d6 in a massive fucking sphere came as a total shock since I've never had a game get to 5th level. To think Monte Cook considered casters underpowered in 3.5e... He's like the reverse Todd Howard when it comes to mechanics.

I am deeply disappointed we only get Melf's Acid Arrow and not Milf's Acid Arrow, however.

 

[Henri Barbusse]

It's a lot more difficult to use verbal components when your throat is literally on fire or filled with glue. This brings me to my next point: Subtle Spell is the best metamagic option.

Ars Magica has the Voice range as the most convenient way of casting spells at range and it's a great mechanic because it comes up in play practically constantly in different ways. Whispering a spell is possible, but it slashes your range to 5 paces (I think Ars uses the Roman pace that is roughly 1.5m). Yelling a spell is possible and it gives you a range of 50 paces, but then everyone knows you're casting magic. Casting a spell to amplify any noise you make to increase your range? Possible. Silencing a wizard to cause them a lot of trouble? Possible. Using ventriloquism or Rego Imaginem spell to make your voice come from a completely different spot than where you are thus changing your range dramatically? Probably possible, but comes with a huge risk of lengthy argument about rules and Aristotelian physics. Taking Flexible Formulaic Magic, so that if someone silences you, you can change the spell to Sight range at will? An extremely good idea. (But real wizards go with Major Magical Focus.)

 

[Snekposter]

Ars Magica has the Voice range as the most convenient way of casting spells at range and it's a great mechanic because it comes up in play practically constantly in different ways. Whispering a spell is possible, but it slashes your range to 5 paces (I think Ars uses the Roman pace that is roughly 1.5m). Yelling a spell is possible and it gives you a range of 50 paces, but then everyone knows you're casting magic. Casting a spell to amplify any noise you make to increase your range? Possible. Silencing a wizard to cause them a lot of trouble? Possible. Using ventriloquism or Rego Imaginem spell to make your voice come from a completely different spot than where you are thus changing your range dramatically? Probably possible, but comes with a huge risk of lengthy argument about rules and Aristotelian physics. Taking Flexible Formulaic Magic, so that if someone silences you, you can change the spell to Sight range at will? An extremely good idea. (But real wizards go with Major Magical Focus.)

I thought you went with that thing that let you cast magic in St. Peter's Basilica with no penalty.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Oh, absolutely. I was just using the 5e Player's Handbook and looking up what seemed interesting from the name. I don't play casters at all so I legitimately had no idea casting classes got that fucking broken so quickly. Seeing that Fireball does 8d6 in a massive fucking sphere came as a total shock since I've never had a game get to 5th level. To think Monte Cook considered casters underpowered in 3.5e... He's like the reverse Todd Howard when it comes to mechanics.

Spellcasters used to be a bit less retarded in pre-3e because the amount of spells they could cast was very limited (no cantrips, so once they ran out of spell slots they'd have to resort to normal attacks) and they were so squishy they were unlikely to survive to high enough levels where the Big Boy spells were. By then, the fighter would have enough magical items piled up on him to make him basically immortal and the perfect tank for the spellcaster. But until that point, Wizards were often better served picking up utility spells.

And then, of course, 3e took that "weak early on, strong later on" philosophy and threw it out of the window.

 

[Henri Barbusse]

I thought you went with that thing that let you cast magic in St. Peter's Basilica with no penalty.

Holy Magic is way too much of a pain.

Saint Peter's Basilica is, IIRC, Dominion Aura 9, which is -27 to casting rolls and (more importantly) 9 extra botch dice. There's some other ways than picking Holy Magic to mitigate this such as:
1) massacre a shitload of innocents inside to shift the aura to Infernal which is only -1 to casting rolls per level.
2) take Cthonic or Dark Magic to align yourself with Infernal realm then massacre a shitload of innocents inside to shift the aura to Infernal which then helps your casting rolls.
3) take a Magical Focus to improve your casting score. You probably won't be able to mitigate the entire penalty, but it still should be enough to get through the Pope's divinely granted magic resistance.
4) take Flawless Magic to get automatic mastery on all your formulaic spells. Level 9 spell mastery is pretty stiff to attain even with Flawless magic, but it would completely negate the botch dice from Dominion Aura.
5) Prebuff outside the basilica and just shank the Pope while invisible and under twenty different layers of magical protection. Or buff a loyal warrior and have them do it.
6) Go at night, since that lowers Dominion aura by 1.

 

[IridiumDragon06]

Honestly, the real problem with wizards past level 10 is that if they play smart, it's just infeasible to get in combat with them, much less get into melee range. Unless you actually successfully stealth past guards and defenses, then the smart thing for the wizard to do is to just toss all of their gear into bags of holdings, set a fuse, teleport out, and drop their lair onto your head, then abuse scrying to track you and engage on their terms.

Pinning down a wizard that's able to use their abilities to the fullest and tactically retreat and re-engage is horrible. When they can go hundreds of miles away as an action, fill their lair with horrible Grimtooth traps, create entire decoy lairs, can seek out enemies of yours that you fought to a draw three adventurers ago with divination magic and built a remote alliance with Sending, then their own HP and AC are utter non-issues.

 

[Ghostse]

so, what are the news supposed to be?

I don't want AIDS so I didn't watch, but just going from the thumbnail I'm assuming the news is that he's found a bull that will not only fuck his ugly wife but will allow him to prep the negro dick.