- Joined
- Sep 7, 2019
Go go murderhobo rangers
tbh not a bad way to go about it. "Fuck you, you had your chance to NOT fuck shit up. Tell it to your deity of choice, asshole."
Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)
- Thread starter Surtur
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tbh not a bad way to go about it. "Fuck you, you had your chance to NOT fuck shit up. Tell it to your deity of choice, asshole."
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2018
Yeah, I can't resent them TOO much. I mean, I'd do the same in their shoes.
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
Of course, if the players are genre-savvy, there's nothing saying the villain can't be as well.
The players attacked the BBEG just as he's starting his monologue? Good. That was all according to plan. While they were charging in to get that cheap shot into the 5HP clone on the dais, the real BBEG was casting his opening nuke unnoposed from another angle.
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2014
I have the best/worst idea of all for a BBEG. One who uses Implosion or Destruction every round until your party dies.
I have experience with this given in an evil game I play in, we got a Deathmaster who busts it out on occasion. Can't be cute as a murderhobo if your fight only lasts as long as the party's alive, since a properly kitted asshole can murk one of them a round by spamming that.
I have experience with this given in an evil game I play in, we got a Deathmaster who busts it out on occasion. Can't be cute as a murderhobo if your fight only lasts as long as the party's alive, since a properly kitted asshole can murk one of them a round by spamming that.
Zemporer
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
For those who play virtually, what's your platform of choice? I'm planning on running a game of "Song of the Sixgun" (a rules light spaghetti western homage RPG) with some friends and I'm trying to decide on how to present it.
Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds are on my radar, but I can't decide if one is better than the other. Are there other alternatives? I would like to present maps and clues/pictures, but want to settle on a platform before digging in and learning it.
Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds are on my radar, but I can't decide if one is better than the other. Are there other alternatives? I would like to present maps and clues/pictures, but want to settle on a platform before digging in and learning it.
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2020
Impossible DnD is a fair and balanced game with no broken mechanics, especially not when magic is involved.
Non-dedicated platforms can work too if you're not picky. You can run a game out of discord or the like if you're already familiar with them.
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2014
I mean, if you want a disgusting melee beast you can always do what my character did. Equip a falchion, go Warblade for maneuvers and the Blood in the Water stance (+1 to damage and to hit on each crit) and the ability to confirm crits with a bigger bonus, then get improved critical, then go Disciple of Dispater, and then crit on a roll of 9. For maximum bullshit, include stupidly high dex to bolster the AC, then get a mythril magic chainshirt, dastanas from Dragon Magazine to basically be like you're in full plate, and then as a massive fuck you, make the falchion enchanted with the following:
Slow, which hits the target with a slow on a crit (you gonna get it more often than not)
Prismatic, which now means on a crit, you douche the target with the effects of a prismatic spray.
Razor-Sharp, adds +1 damage a hit, only costs 1k in gold.
Unholy, which means fuck you good guy
Warning, meaning you will never be flatfooted, eat shit dickbag thief.
Blindsense; obscuring mist and darkness ain't gonna save you.
My character is described as "The most obnoxious one to fight" in that game, but the Deathmaster is described as "The most dangerous one to fight" since his usual schtick is to minion spam as an image and implode or destruction you.
Bumblino
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2020
That's dangerous, you can fall into the rock falls everyone dies category easily and I doubt anyone's having fun if it becomes a teleports behind you-fest.
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
If you have a party that's invested in being ruthless and efficient, they'll be fine with the challenge.
Having a TPK isn't a problem. The problem is having a TPK that feels un-earned or that the players think they had no escape from. That's why it's caled "rocks-fall-everybody-dies": no one has the chance to react in those situations. But letting the BBEG (who is by definition at a disadvantage in terms of numbers and usually also in terms of resources) get the first hit in with some creative positioning and tactics is a good way to even the playing field.
Speaking of numbers, that's a lesson my GM had to learn the hard way: never let the players recover their resources before they reach the BBEG (we were usually either on a time limit, or the BBEG would send minions to harrass us and wear us down so we couldn't just rest). Designing an encounter that is challenging to a fresh party is very tricky, because if the threat is just a little too strong you get a TPK the players simply couldn't avoid. The balance for a challenging encounter, particularly for D&D, requires the party to have already spent some resources. Spells, ammo, tactical dice, hit points... because then if the players are careful with managing their resources they can get a leg up on the final fight. At the very least it gives the Wizard something to think about. "Do I use this nuke now, or do I hold it for the boss?"
Bumblino
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2020
That's what I'm saying if everything becomes "actually it was a clone all along" or "you're actually standing in a volcano there was a teleporting trap there" you can see how undeserving it'd feel eventually, nothing to do with TPK. Like you can do foreshadowing or whatever giving hints that mitigate the damage but just asspulling a clone out of nowhere or a badboy that's immune to whatever the spells the party has for the sake of them blowing their load seems cheap. "According to plan" can be absolutely shitty if not done properly.
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
That's why you do it sparingly. The BBEG isn't meant to be a monster-of-the-week. If you use him too much the players aren't going to feel threatened by it, they'll just get frustrated.
Have the BBEG make a big entrance and escape once, early on, to establish that they're resourceful and well-prepared. Then have the party fight the BBEG's lieutenants and dismantle his plans. Once the players are heading for the final battle... then it really should be a final battle. Hopefully the players thought about ways to stop the BBEG from using the same trick they used the last time around.
Also, the tricks I gathered in my post a few posts back also work very well to make an encounter more than just a damage race. For example, multiple clones of the BBEG scattered across the arena give the players more targets to deal with. Or the black dragon dives into a pool of acid in order to reappear somewhere else and attack from ambush. Or the warlord calls upon a battalion of archers perched atop the walls surrounding the arena to force the players to take cover...
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2014
In other news, here's more Confessions:
It's actually kind of a DnD horror story for the DM of the group. He never played before this game, let alone DM one, and was mandated to do it for the book most likely. Top it off with antics like trying to keep the game just about shopping and cheesecake factory and I can understand his tone and feeling.
It's actually kind of a DnD horror story for the DM of the group. He never played before this game, let alone DM one, and was mandated to do it for the book most likely. Top it off with antics like trying to keep the game just about shopping and cheesecake factory and I can understand his tone and feeling.
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2019
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
If you have good internet I'd highly recommend Foundry if you're alright with dropping $50 for a one-time license. Good internet as in you'll be hosting the game server on your own computer if you don't want to set up a separate server. Files are hosted on your computer or server. Systems and modules (add-ons) are community created so you get a lot of variety and good QoL stuff (like creating lootable chests, creating "stairs" so that characters teleport between floors/maps, quick bars for macros, etc.). There's also support for creating your own homebrew systems as well. The only thing I don't really like is the chat, since you have to select a token to speak as that character, so I've had multiple instances of accidentally speaking as the wrong person as GM.
If you want to test it out, they have a demo server: https://demo.foundryvtt.com/join
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2018
Implosion's a clerical ninth level spell, destruction a clerical seventh. That's expensive. Implosion isn't a great spell vs parties anyways, as it (a) is totally negated with a successful Fort save or gaseous/incorporeal form, and (b) requires you to concentrate to sustain the spell -- and if you drop concentration, the spell ends. Better hope the rest of the party is occupied in some way while you're trying to turn your target inside out.
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2019
There are feats/skill tricks that let you hold a concentration spell and do other things IIRC. Think there's actually a low-level buff spell that lets you do it too.
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2014
You can get four rounds of implosion off if you prep it right before the slot dies. It bypasses constructs and anything immune to death effects.
How? It doesn't really repeat that well in Epic. If you can explain it to me I'd be cool with doing it, but at the moment I am probably just going to keep doing warblade.
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2019
Revolves around a lot of feat tax bullshit but Devastating Critical lets you turn every confirmed crit into a save-or-die with a likely DC in the mid-30s, 40s with the right buffs. There are some real beefy motherfuckers in epic play, but DC40+ stands a decent chance of murking non-crit-immunes. Warblade can actually synergize pretty well with this for a number of reasons, focus on Tiger Claw in particular. I think you MIGHT technically be able to apply things like Ability Focus to Dev Crit with RAW to boost the DC, but it's pointless to blow a feat on that when you can just pop something to buff STR as your STR modifier adds to Dev Crit's DC. Also, there's a Ranger ACF that I think allows you to crit things that are normally immune as long as they're a favored enemy.
Devastating Critical was originally in the 3.0 ELH but it apparently did carry over to 3.5. And I wasn't kidding about feat tax shit - Weapon Focus with desired weapon, Improved Critical with desired weapon, Overwhelming Critical with desired weapon, Cleave, Great Cleave, and STR 25 before buffs. With sufficient optimization you could probably get it well before you hit clvl30 in epic, but you're more or less locking yourself into one trick with the feats required. Could probably pull a lot of bullshit with Warblade, though. DC for Dev Crit is 10+1/2 clvl+STR modifier.
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2014
I actually have most of the feats for it, but I'll come short on it due to where it's said it will end. I still made a horseshit character who usually does slow and prismatic damage though.