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Zereth posted:Yes. See, he's a doctor! This is perfectly sufficient to keep you from being knocked out when hit with a weaponized starship shield, right? Clearly he turns into an impenetrable force field when doused with warm water.
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Feb 28, 2013 05:23
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PeterWeller posted:Clearly he turns into an impenetrable force field when doused with warm water. It's that it didn't except himself from it. I'm sure there's tons of other weird-rear end poo poo in the Ani-Mayhem rules/card interactions but that would require understanding how the game worked, which I believe nobody on earth has accomplished. Explicitly including the people who made it in the first place.
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Feb 28, 2013 05:43
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I mainly just recall that the initial set of rules was literally unplayable, which puts it into "worst" for me, even though it was probably more fun for me that the Star Trek CCG; the rules do not function to create a coherent game. Later they issued rules at at least made it into a game somebody other than the designers could play. There was also an insane amount of errata for a game its size. I wish I could remember enough to go into details worthy of Murphy's Rules, maybe if I'm feeling super-bored at some point I'll dig out my cards and have a look.
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Feb 28, 2013 06:22
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Zereth posted:Yes. See, he's a doctor! This is perfectly sufficient to keep you from being knocked out when hit with a weaponized starship shield, right? That seems consistent with his characterization and abilities, as well as the tone of the show and comic. edit: I recall Inquest or some magazine like that publishing rules to allow you to play Magic using Ani-mayhem cards in place of summons, and my friends and I played that way for one summer. Wasn't as fun as Kangaroo Court rules, but was more fun than actual game, which if I remember right played similar to the Star Wars CCG with fewer pages of errata to memorize. Toph Bei Fong fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Feb 28, 2013 |
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Feb 28, 2013 06:56
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Back to the D&D 3.X and its offspring, we have How To Get By (With A Little Help From Your Furry Friends). So, there's a long-established story tradition of braving the odds with an animal at your side whose courage and devotion are the stuff of legends. Be it atop a noble steed or alongside a noble dog, D&D 3e has lots of ways for you to get in touch with your wild side. The druid would be the poster child for this sort of thing, as this flower child comes with its own animal companion starting from level 1. As the druid grows in levels, the animal companion gains strength, toughness, and the ability to dodge area attacks, or the druid can upgrade from a starting companion such as a wolf to a larger companion such as a bear, elephant, or even a T-Rex. A starting druid can choose from the following creatures: badger, camel, dire rat, dog, riding dog, eagle, hawk, horse, owl, pony, snake, or wolf (in addition to octopi, porpoises or sharks for aquatic campaigns). Upon looking at this list, many players might think "hmm... many of these creatures are either mounts or small animals. The most obvious choice for a druid would be to harness the killing power of the predator who has been a source of countless stories, the noble wolf." They'd be wrong.  About this wrong, in fact Enter the riding dog, designed to be used as a mount by smaller races such as halflings and gnomes.  Cry Havoc SRD posted:This category includes working breeds such as collies, huskies, and St. Bernards. Compared to a wolf, the riding dog is slower, but flat-out stronger and has a better AC owing to its better natural armor (basically, a thicker hide/coat), and if trained for war not only can it copy the wolf's trip gimmick, but can also wear armor. Throw even some basic barding on this thing and it's got the same AC as someone with full plate and shield, plus added mobility, tracking skills, and the ability to knock dudes on their asses. And it will only get better with spells.  Pictured: A terrifying tank Of course, as you level you might be tempted to replace your dog buddy with something bigger, like maybe a small bear. That's nice, but if you really want to mix things up, you don't want bears... ...you want dinosaurs  You have no idea how much you want this one Meet the Fleshraker Dinosaur from the Monster Manual III. Unlike previous monster manuals, the dinosaurs from the MM3 weren't concerned with anything like "actually existed", freeing them to create what is pretty much a Jurassic Park raptor from hell. While most animals only have one to three attacks (bite, maybe two claw attacks), the fleshraker starts with four, and can add in another claw when it makes a pounce attack. And boy, do these guys like making pounce attacks. Not only does pounce eliminate that annoying trade-off between "make all your attacks" and "move a significant distance" by allowing it to move and make all attacks at the same time, but if it hits something its size or smaller, it can trip its foe (without being tripped in return if it fails) and then grab it in a grapple, so you have raptor come flying across the battlefield (traveling up to 100 feet in a charge attack), knock you to the ground, then sit on you and continually shred your face. It is also poisonous. We are not done here. As a druid, you are a spellcaster, with a host of your own spells. Maybe you want to give it thicker skin, maybe you want to make it ten feet tall, maybe you want to enchant its attacks. Or maybe... Serpent Kingdoms posted:Venomfire Maybe you want its claws to drip acid, having three of its six attacks per round each do more damage than a fireball, and you want this ability to last all day. We are not done here. See, the druid has this ability called "wild shape" which allows it to assume the form of an animal, starting with small or medium ones. So not only can you have a pet dinosaur blender that spews acid, but you can be one too! And still cast your spells in the process if you have Natural Spell as a feat (there's a word for druids without natural spell. That word is "fool"). One of the starting features of animal companions is the ability to share spells, so any spell that a druid casts upon himself/herself also gets cast upon the animal companion as long as it remains within 5 feet of the druid once the spell has been cast. In theory this means that you have to carefully maneuver yourself so you and your animal companion remain side-by-side in the heat of battle. In practice, this just means that one of you rides on top of the other, since D&D allows you to use anything as a mount so long as it's larger than you are. So you can be a gorilla riding a bear while carrying a lance to take advantage of your massive strength (and the lance's double damage when used in a mounted charge). Or a bear riding a larger bear. Or a gorilla or a bear riding a dinosaur. Or anything, really.  Anything Of course, since the animal companion is a separate character from your druid, it can take its own actions, make its own checks and generally act under your direction, granting you two turns for one player (or more if you start spamming summons as well). Given that high level animal companions can be regular murder machines when combined with a druid's spell support, it's not much of an exaggeration to say that a druid comes with a free fighter, especially at lower levels where a fighter's contributions as damage dealer and meatwall are the most highly valued. The Ranger also gets an animal companion, but unlike druid, the 3e ranger's animal companion progresses like a druid whose level is equal to half the ranger's level. So a 20th level druid is bringing a 20th level animal, but a 20th level ranger is only bring a 10th level animal to a 20th level fight, plopping it squarely in the "liability" category. "Liability" is a pretty accurate term for many animals in D&D, since if you were a fighter who wanted to ride into battle atop a horse, it might serve you well enough for the first few levels, but twenty HP and 20-odd AC after armor won't exactly hold down the fort in the mid-levels, and will be knocked into the dust with a sneeze at higher levels. True, you can upgrade to more impressive mounts, but those ones suffer from the same static defenses, and people can shoot them out from under you, destroying thousands of gp worth of investment that you aren't getting back, forcing you into an expensive treadmill if you want to keep your knightly cred. Or you can be a paladin. At level 5, the paladin gets a special mount in the form of a horse, pony, riding dog or shark (for aquatic campaigns). Like the druid's animal companion, the mount gains offensive and defensive abilities as the paladin levels, becoming stronger and capable of surviving the higher level environments, making the paladin capable of remaining mounted and functioning even against the most challenging foes. You can even dismiss it and resummon it to keep it out of danger and let it heal up. But why settle for acceptable? Dungeon Master's Guide, p. 204 posted:A paladin of 6th level or higher can use a celestial heavy warhorse, dire wolf, hippogriff, large monstrous spider, large shark, unicorn, celestial warpony, dire bat, dire badger, dire weasel or giant lizard as a mount. Much like with the druid, a higher level paladin can use a better mount by taking a slight penalty to the paladin's effective level when determining the mount's bonus abilities. This is usually a spectacularly good deal. A level 6 paladin can ride around on a unicorn, which is a horse except stronger, tougher, faster, more nimble, possessing an enchanted weapon, thicker hide, the ability to heal wounds and poisons, the ability to also detect evil faster than a paladin, a bucket of immunities to things like poisons and mind control along with a permanent magic circle against evil effect which means the paladin and everyone within 10 feet has better saves and AC against evil creatures (most of the things a paladin fights are evil) in addition to being immune to mind control. We are not done here. The paladin's mount abilities take that unicorn and make it tougher still, giving it a thicker hide, stronger body, the ability to share saves and spells as well as take half damage from area attacks on a failed save, and no damage on a successful one. We are not done here. A unicorn can wear barding to further increase its AC from a respectable 22 to something like 26 or more (28 against evil characters thanks to magic circle). If you can't afford barding, mage armor will suffice, as will the paladin's own golden barding spell, which is like mage armor except it's for horses and scales with caster level (eventually matching plate armor). Slather on spells like barkskin or magic vestment and your unicorn's AC climbs into the 30s. We are not done here. A 6th level paladin can either spend a feat or take a level in Planar Paladin, sacrificing a use of Remove Disease to change your mount into a celestial version. A 6th level paladins' mount will have DR 5/magic, and there are not a whole lot of monsters a 6th level paladin will face that have access to magic weapons. We are not done here. Paladin mounts have a minimum of 6 intelligence, above the 3 necessary to be barely sapient and qualify for normal character options. A unicorn has 10 intelligence, making it as smart as the average human (and perfectly capable of talking). A 6th level paladin's unicorn mount will have three feats thanks to its boosted hit dice, and with rules for retraining you can tag out some of its lousier starting feats like Skill Focus (Survival) in exchange for something more interesting. Like stuff from Tome of Battle: the Book of Nine Swords. Two feats can dip into the Devoted Spirit school of fighting, letting you pick up the Iron Guard's Glare stance. While in this stance, enemies within your unicorn's reach take a -4 penalty to attacks against anything that isn't the unicorn (the stance itself is the predecessor to 4e's marking system). So your enemy can either attack you or your allies (and likely miss) or go for your mighty steed. At this point, with 30 AC, 60+ HP, healing abilities, and DR 5/magic, it's not so much a mount as it is a sparkling Robocop who eats personal weaponry for breakfast while you sit atop of it and smite evil with your lance.  Pretty much this If that's a bit too bullshit for your taste, you can always go for something a bit more reasonable. Take a hippogriff, griffon, giant owl, giant eagle, or pegasus as your mount at level 6, 7 or 8 and you will have all-day flight at a time when even the wizard struggles to stay aloft more than half an hour each day. Pegasi in particular are not only flying, but the fastest on land or in the air compared to the other flying mounts (at 120 ft fly speed, 60 foot ground speed, it's 20% faster than its next competitor, the hippogriff), and you can always take improved flight as one of your mount's feats to upgrade from average maneuverability to good maneuverability, granting your mount Vertical Take-Off and Landing capabilities along with the ability to hover. If you share the Fire Emblem fear of archers, the Magic Item Compendium has an armor crystal that can be mounted into a shield to grant an improved AC against ranged attacks and the ability to Deflect Arrows (assuming you don't want to spend money on getting a shield that does it anyways) so your falcoknight dreams can continue unhindered. Your pegasus doesn't even have to be proficient in the shield if you can't afford it, since nonproficiency just gives a penalty to attack rolls, and it's not as though you need your mobility platform to bite someone to death. Now, those who are fond of things such as "reason" may think "well, My Little Murderpony is nice and all, but there's no way you're fitting a horse into a dungeon." Those people forget that D&D is many things, but very few of them ever make sense. Any creature in the game is capable of squeezing to pass through a space that's at least half its size. A horse, as a creature occupy a 10 foot by 10 foot square (as of 3.5e) can thus squeeze into any 5 foot by 5 foot square, traveling at half speed and taking a -4 penalty to attacks and AC. Even with those penalties, your unicorn terminator is at still as tough and as fast as your average fighter, if not better. They can't fit through small-sized spaces, but then again most player characters are unlikely to chase kobolds into tunnels. "Well," others may think, "that's corridors covered, but good luck getting your horse across elevation changes." Guess what? Rules As Written, there's nothing that prevents your horse from making Climb checks. Lack of gripping appendages is not a factor. Stairs, cliff faces, you can even climb a rope- in fact, the unicorn's high Strength means that it's probably better climbing a rope than the wizard is (and a better jumper too. In fact, thanks to high strength and speed, an elephant in D&D is a better jumper than a cat, even though in real life elephants are too big to jump and risk serious injury just by falling over). If your DM is still some sort of house-ruling tyrant, you can always solve your elevation problem via spell, item or even just dismissing your mount and summoning it back later. All this is assuming you're not riding on a VTOL pegasus who can just fly up wherever you need to go.  If only someone had read the PHB, this never would have happened. Paizo, in their attempts to reign in some of 3e's nonsense, attempted to standardize the druid's animal companions so that they received bonuses at a more reasonable rate. While druids can no longer roll around with acid-dripping raptor chainsaws, at least they can start with a T-Rex at level one (albeit a small one). Most of the flying animal companions become large enough for human riders at level 7 (though halflings and gnomes can fly at level 1 if they're light enough). Rangers draw from the druid's list of companions as well (albeit at a penalty to their effective level), and so does just about any other class with a special mount or companion such as a cavalier, samurai, beastmaster barbarian or paladin. For the paladin, their divine bond is a little weirdly worded, since it says "this mount is usually a heavy horse (for a Medium paladin) or a pony (for a Small paladin), although more exotic mounts, such as a boar, camel, or dog are also suitable." The wording seems to suggest that they want you to use things that are actually usable as mounts, though given that paladins function as druids of their level, it's arguable that the rules let the paladin ride bears, wolves, gorillas or dinosaurs into battle. Though if your GM insists on being a stickler, the paladin's divine bond can be formed with their weapons instead, allowing them to enhance their chosen weapon with a variety of neat powers for several minutes up to several times per day, something that's probably going to be useful in any combat situation. Of course, since this thread is about ridiculously exploitable rules, this system is not foolproof. While the druid (and by extension the paladin, ranger, cavalier, samurai and a few other variants) have been reigned in by the new system, not all classes use it. Meet the antipaladin.  Blood for the blood god, skulls for the skull threads The antipaladin is much like the regular paladin, except negative. While the paladins smites evil, heals wounds and afflictions with a touch and defends against fear, the antipaladin smites good, inflicts wounds and afflictions with a touch and penalizes saves against fear. The paladin has Divine Bond, and the antipaladin has Fiendish Boon and while Fiendish Boon works similarly on weapons, it does something completely different when it comes to companions. The paladin's companion uses the druid rules for animal companions, but the antipaladin's companion is a permanent summon monster. While the antipaladin can still access some fiendish versions of animals that the paladin can use, the antipaladin doesn't have the same size cap that prevents animal companions from growing bigger than Large, so you can roll around with full-sized rocs and T-Rexes. While novel, the greatest advantage of using summon monster is that it grants the antipaladin access to evil outsiders, and those fiends have something that animal companions will never have- spell-like abilities. Behold the succubus.  There are so many jokes you could make, but that would only serve to distract from the horror that is yet to come One of the oddities about 3e and its offspring is the fact that all creatures now have ability scores that govern their stats- The thing that makes it absolutely ridiculous is that ability scores are assigned based on how well they fit the monster concept. The succubus is a demon of seduction, and is supposed to be ridiculously attractive, thus it has a Charisma score of 27. Aside from it being used by nerds as a sort of indicator of hotness, it gives the succubus a rather substantial boost to social skills. Oh, and it also determines the difficulty class of it spell-like abilities. There are maybe twenty or so creatures who have a higher charisma than the succubus, and about two thirds of those are boss monsters such as archfiends. The standard succubus has the same Charisma as the balor, the most powerful demon in the game that isn't a demon lord. The succubus is a CR 7 monster with a CR 14 Save-Or-Lose spell in the form of Charm Monster, which the succubus can use at-will all day, every day. Charm Monster affects drat near anything with a pulse, and makes friends for almost two weeks per casting. Charmed monsters are friendly, not suicidal, but the succubus also has a ridiculous Bluff modifier, making it easy enough to con your target into doing a lot of things it wouldn't normally do. The succubus also has a once-per-day dominate person, which does make the target do incredibly stupid things for the next week or two (albeit with a chance to save), assuming the target is a humanoid. The succubus has at-will suggestion, which isn't as directly controlling as dominating someone, but does allow for some interesting functions assuming you can creatively phrase them. Suggestion is language-dependent, but the succubus has 100 ft telepathy and the ability to speak, understand, read and write all languages thanks to a permanent tongues. The succubus also has at-will detect thoughts and the ability to shapechange into any humanoid creature. We are not done yet. The succubus has an at-will greater teleport and ethereal jaunt, which allow the succubus to travel all over the planet as well as onto another plane where they're invisible and can move through walls. Succubi can only transport themselves plus 50 pounds of gear, but that's not actually a limitation- a Bag of Holding Type III weighs 35 pounds and holds 1000 pounds of stuff, while a portable hole weighs almost nothing and is limited only by volume. It's not fast enough to be valid for "scry and fry" attacks, but by piling your party into extra-dimensional storage, you can be on the other side of the world within thirty seconds and you can do that all day. If you're worried about breathing, just buy the right magic item for the trip. We are not done yet. Succubi are summoned with Summon Monster VI, which shows up at level 11 for an antipaladin. At level 11, the antipaladin's companion gains the advanced template, which boosts all ability scores by 4, pushing the succubus from 27 Charisma to 31. The succubus is human-shaped enough to have no trouble using magic items, such a headband of charisma that boosts the succubus' charisma even further, to a 35 or even 37, boosting the DCs by four to five each. With retraining rules, a succubus could swap out lackluster combat feats for Spell Focus (enchantment) and Greater Spell Focus (enchantment), pushing save-or-lose DCs up by another two. Charm Monster could have have a DC of 28 or so, giving it an at-will ability with a DC found on CR 22 monsters. Even a 20th level sorcerer who focuses on enchantment spells will have a difficult time exceeding that DC without using higher level spell slots, and that sorcerer will run out of slots eventually. This is the sidekick to an 11th level character. And this is before the target has been hit with anything to reduce its saving throw, such as making the target shaken, sickened, or cursed via intimidation or the antipaladin's touch, or maybe something like... PFSRD posted:Aura of Despair (Su) PFSRD posted:Aura of Depravity (Su) We are not done yet. Pathfinder succubi also have a new ability compared to 3e- the ability to once per day bestow a gift upon a willing humanoid target. This grants a +2 profane bonus to one ability score, and grants the succubus the ability to telepathically communicate with the target across any distance (and possibly even planar boundaries). No one may be the recipient of more than one succubus gift, but the succubi can give a gift to one person a day forever. If your allies already tolerate your demon-summoning antipaladin antics, they probably won't say no to a free +2 to their best ability score that stacks with any other bonus from items and the like. Furthermore, since talking is a free action, the succubus basically becomes an unlimited range wireless network, able to relay communications between any gifted party members without anyone else being the wiser. Furthermore, the succubus can use suggestion through the link, and while the rules seem to intend for it to be the succubus making suggestions on the target of the gift, it can also be read as allowing the succubus to use suggestion on enemies the target is fighting even while the succubus is lying on a beach on the other side of the world. The succubus is a glass cannon of a companion with a massively powerful save-or-lose at-will ability, and a host of utility powers that make the companion an excellent source of espionage, social skills, information gathering, shopping, communication and transportation. The problem is that while the advanced template and buying gear helps, the succubus doesn't have much to boost saves or HP at higher levels, though you can partly compensate by hanging back, flying out of reach or teleporting/ghosting out of danger. Higher level summons may be tougher, but they don't have the ridiculous Charm Cannon that comes from the massive Charisma of the succubus (though figure out what you can do when you've got a glabrezu who can grant a wish once a month to a mortal humanoid i.e. you). At higher levels the companion will gain spell resistance based on the level of the antipaladin, which can help, and maybe you can see if your GM will let you add levels/hit dice to your succubus instead of upgrading to higher level beatsticks. Even if you can't, you still have a super-charged companion who can raise an army, coordinate an assault, ferry you across the world, bypass many barriers, do your shopping, schmooze with your targets, communicate and translate with any creature, and mind control almost any beatstick you come across. Even for enemies immune to mind-affecting spells, you can still hit them with an army of minions who weren't when you're not just serving as a utility transport. Maybe that's a fair trade for the ability to have a vorpal sword for an hour a day?
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Feb 28, 2013 07:02
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No one would play an anti-paladin with how goofy they look, though. GURPS 3rd edition For fighting in total darkness, the penalty to hit is a whopping -10 to hit. For fighting on fire, it's only a -6. Therefore, its better to set yourself on fire to light up the area rather than fight in total darkness. 4th edition fixed this by having a character on fire make fear checks; but if you're unfazable...
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Feb 28, 2013 07:43
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TalonDemonKing posted:No one would play an anti-paladin with how goofy they look, though. If you don't know fear, maybe you really would light yourself on fire to help attack. Left 4 Dead had an exploit where a zombie player would light himself on fire before grabbing a human, to damage that player with claws and with fire.
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Feb 28, 2013 07:53
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LightWarden posted:Maybe that's a fair trade for the ability to have a vorpal sword for an hour a day? ... is it bad that I actually want to do the antipaladin thing in a real game? Pathfinder is awful but that sounds too amazing to not try.
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Feb 28, 2013 07:56
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I don't think it's a bad idea depending on the game, but the big problem is that first you have to be an antipaladin, who has the same problems of class-locked morality as the paladin, except with an even more ridiculous code. Assuming you've got a group, you've then got to hit level 11. The Way of the Wicked campaign is one of the few evil campaigns that goes from 1 to 20, and while it allows antipaladins it suggests they be Lawful Evil and deal with devils, which may prohibit your access to the succubi summon unless you work something out with your GM (4e switched succubi over to the devil side of the fence because it figured they were well-suited there). The erinyes just doesn't cut it (though any fiend with an at-will greater teleport can be used as a party taxi once you get portable holes). The other way to get a permanent summon monster is to be a level 20 Conjurer wizard, but that's kind of a trick in and of itself that only works for a very short time. While it doesn't have the advanced template and special defenses like the antipaladin's companion, the Conjurer can summon multiple monsters and doesn't have any penalties for losing them (but at the same time, it's harder to trust that the succubus is on your side, and you can't use their gifts as well).
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Feb 28, 2013 08:44
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3.5 was never good with Evil characters. Just look at Fiendish Codex! It contains pretty much all the best Cleric domains ever. Fury is especially good but Seduction gives your Cleric unfuckwithable board control all over the place.
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Feb 28, 2013 09:59
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LightWarden posted:I don't think it's a bad idea depending on the game, but the big problem is that first you have to be an antipaladin, who has the same problems of class-locked morality as the paladin, except with an even more ridiculous code. Pathfinder SRD posted:An antipaladin must be of chaotic evil alignment and loses all class features except proficiencies if he willingly and altruistically commits good acts. This does not mean that an antipaladin cannot take actions someone else might qualify as good, only that such actions must always be in service of his own dark ends. An antipaladin’s code requires that he place his own interests and desires above all else, as well as impose tyranny, take advantage whenever possible, and punish the good and just, provided such actions don’t interfere with his goals.
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Feb 28, 2013 11:34
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Jedit posted:Back to card games, here's an old favourite of mine from Doomtown, the Deadlands CCG. There was also the Scalpin' card, which required a dude to killed (aced, in Doomtown terms) in combat. You could then copy an ability off that dead dude onto one of your guys. There was nothing saying you could only scalp enemies, and nothing saying you had to be the winner to do your scalping- so if your dude was Harrowed, he could start a fight, get his rear end kicked, then scalp himself and gain a copy of his own ability. One of the pieces of equipment available in the game was a Maze Runner, a kind of steampunk steam-powered dual-paddle wheel boat thing. It could boot to move you to a Strike, which were mines and out of town, in a broken maze of flooded canyons. Super. Then they printed The Lode, a Strike that was in town and revealed to be hidden underneath a mansion. This meant you could sail your boat down mainstreet, park it under a building, and then eat someone's bicycle before scalping yourself.
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Feb 28, 2013 12:09
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TalonDemonKing posted:4th edition fixed this by having a character on fire make fear checks; but if you're unfazable... If you've got matches, there's no point in setting yourself on fire with them versus just striking a match. If all you have is flint and steel, you need something to keep a small flame going long enough to set fire to your clothes, and then getting your clothes to ignite is tough since they're either flame-retardant (modern clothing) or caked in sweat and mud (premodern clothing). If your intent is to use a spell, you need to stop - you're probably using GURPS Magic, which is never a good idea because that entire subsystem is terrible. 
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Feb 28, 2013 12:10
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Crosscontaminant posted:You might also reasonably ask by what means the character is creating fire. Does GURPS have rules for spontaneous human combustion?
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Feb 28, 2013 12:16
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Crosscontaminant posted:You might also reasonably ask by what means the character is creating fire. It's been a while and I don't know where my books are, but I would be surprised if the size and intensity of the light source doesn't factor into things. A single match just doesn't have the impact as self-immolation! quote:If your intent is to use a spell, you need to stop - you're probably using GURPS Magic, which is never a good idea because that entire subsystem is terrible. Maybe you're setting yourself on fire because you're in a game using GURPS Magic?
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Feb 28, 2013 12:25
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Vorpal Cat posted:Does GURPS have rules for spontaneous human combustion? Not in the Basic Set. Spontaneous Human Combustion is listed here as a -30-point disadvantage, though as the name suggests it's not intended to be taken seriously. The ability to catch fire at will would be an Alternate Form which grants the Body of Fire template, but that wouldn't give a -6 penalty.
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Feb 28, 2013 12:26
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Ah yes, Murphy's Rules. They're less fun without the original cartoons. Some of those were screamingly funny. There have been two compilation books over the years, which I heartily recommend - get the newer one, it includes the full text of the old one. My personal favourite is "ALL ABOARD!" - a rail game where as many cattle as you wish can be shipped on flatbed train cars. Cue art of cows frantically clinging to a train moving at speed.Bieeardo posted:Didn't the Star Trek CCG also have some cards that referenced ones in expansions that never actually got printed? I remember a friend saying something like that, maybe about the Tox Utat and ways of disposing of it. I remember him bitching about more Klingon ships having holodecks than Federation ones, while there were many more Federation holograms too, which always struck me as funny. That bloody card. The Trek TNG CCG (there was a seperate CCG for the original series) spent so much time harping on about the Tox Utat. It was in all the rulebook examples, mentioned in handfuls of card texts.. ...and it was ultra-rare, almost as rare as the Enterprise. And the card itself was only an artefact/item, you had to then play other cards to do stuff with it! Yes, that stuff was cool (like sending stars supernova), but by then you'd spent the GDP of Argentina on booster packs just putting the deck together. Imagine a M:TG combo of death from the depths of 1998, only sanctioned by the rules and scattered across a block's rares like a demented RPG quest arc. loving Tox Utat. Alien Rope Burn posted:And I recall there being some ridiculously powerful one-episode neutral ship that, since there's no casting costs, everybody used religiously. Husnock Ship. Not as powerful as some of the really rare Federation ships, but easy to find. That said, the rule requiring the Federation to never fire first was a nice bit of flavour until the Alternate Universe expansion made it trivial to bypass. As for a submission to the actual thread... My favourite utterly batshit (but vaguely logical) rule comes from the GURPS Traveller: Starships sourcebook. This is an excellent space opera book with all kinds of fun ship deckplans in it. It also has a design system, in which we find the following under "antimatter engines": quote:"In the event of a total failure of antimatter containment, all PCs and other crew/passengers aboard the ship and with an [x] radius immediately take 2.6x10^26 + 8D10 damage. I only vaguely recall the exact damage number, but it is definitely expressed in scientific notation.
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Feb 28, 2013 16:24
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"Maybe the GM will roll low on those d10's"
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Feb 28, 2013 17:26
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I have now looked up the relevant paragraph and must regretfully change the figure. It was not 2.6x10^26 + 8D10. The 8D10 is actually from Babylon 5 Wars (Earthforce Forever!) The actual damage figure for failure of antimatter containment is 6d6 x 25 million. Per gram.
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Feb 28, 2013 17:31
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Lottery of Babylon posted:Probably because it forces everyone to buy three copies of it for each of their decks and waste 3/40 of their deck slots on it or be punished. And in terms of gameplay it just gives random players bonuses for drawing it (almost nothing can search it, and there's no resource system so there's never a reason not to play it). And doesn't add anything positive to the game to make up for that.\ Technically, you only ever needed on Pot of Greed, at least in the US. It was on the Limited list in the very first rule books.
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Feb 28, 2013 18:20
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The other reason that lead to the ban was that later cards allowed you to draw two while paying a cost of some sort. Like Pot of Duality, which you draw three cards, pick one and shuffle the others back in the deck. Later on tonight I'll post a fun stabby combo.
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Feb 28, 2013 18:40
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Speaking of overkill, the Serenity RPG included this rule for if you got exposed to vacuum, e.g. dumped out of an airlock: pick up every die at the table and roll 'em. That was the damage you took. The obvious idea is that you were gonna get killed the hell out of, and there was no getting around it. ...except that space isn't that deadly. If you exhale as thoroughly as you can manage, you can survive about half a minute or so, and have roughly ten seconds--a full round action!--of consciousness before you drop out entirely, and being a wily space cowboy you or your wacky buddies can clearly manage it in that time. You're going to feel like absolute poo poo upon return and you probably won't come back unscathed, but it's not an instant POP.
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Feb 28, 2013 18:55
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Light Warden - I just wanted to note I've really enjoyed your writeups in this thread. Well written and hilarious.
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Feb 28, 2013 19:53
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Another good one in this vein comes from NATO Tank Commander, a 1970s hexgrid armour game. There are photos on BoardGameGeek if anyone wishes to verify, and it was in the original Murphy's book: "To simulate the use of strategic nuclear weapons on the battlefield, simply soak the map in lighter fluid and apply a flame."
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Feb 28, 2013 20:06
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EVIR Gibson posted:So to give this thread a Magic break, I want to bring up my favorite mini-game Malifaux. Bonus Malifaux oddness-
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Feb 28, 2013 21:02
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Loxbourne posted:Another good one in this vein comes from NATO Tank Commander, a 1970s hexgrid armour game. There are photos on BoardGameGeek if anyone wishes to verify, and it was in the original Murphy's book: It's just called "NATO", and to save you the bother of looking, here's the rule: 
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Feb 28, 2013 21:10
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ForkBanger posted:Bonus Malifaux oddness- I'll never understand the whole "spirits have to climb" bit. I mean, since when did spirits have to... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbj-Ihy3ncQ Oh, right. Doesn't help that the lion's share of Spirits are based off of japanese mythology (not complaining. I like the change from "Yet another zombie faction"). Other fun Malifaux weirdness: [*]You can bring the dead back to life with Sonia's Violition of Magic spell. Hell, you can bring the zombie chihuahua back as a human with the spell. [*]You can turn the dead into wooden puppets with Colette's Mannequin Replacement trigger. [*]Speaking spirits, Kirai can summon Ikiryo (specifically stated to be her own soul) and then turn into a spirit herself. So you have two ghost Kirais running around the battlefield.
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Feb 28, 2013 21:23
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Part of the problem with 3E was that you had several different ways your abilities and costs could scale, and depending on which sort you got access to (linear, quadratic, or beyond) you were better or worse off. Applying multipliers to abilities (Power Attack) or mitigating factors to costs (the Artificer) never hurt of course. So one example of this was the Hulking Hurler.  Left unstated: ECL 18 before you can even enter by this route. You had to be at least Large size to enter (not hard with Enlarge Person + Permanency), but this prestige class from Complete Warrior allowed you to Throw Anything. Really. Tossing a weapon did its usual damage (not great), while tossing anything else (assuming you could lift it) did damage based on its weight. CW also has a helpful chart in the back of the book which goes up to "201 lb. - 400 lb." for 5d6 damage. Doesn't sound so bad, does it? Well, it's possible to go beyond the chart: quote:For every additional 200 pounds of an object's weight beyond 400 pounds, it deals an additional 1d6 points of damage if used as an improvised weapon. Strength: 16 Base + 2 (levels) + 2 (Enlarge) + 2 (Item) = 22 Medium load: 346 lb. But wait - Ali-Oop is Large size, granting him a x2 multiplier to carrying capacity - thus his load is 692 lb. So Ali-Oop, any time he tosses this collection of whatever, deals 6d6 damage (plus modifiers) to his target. That may not sound so rough, but we've only tossed minimal buffs on Ali-Oop. Suppose we tossed Polymorph on him and turned him into a Bladerager Troll?  Uncontrollable bleeding? What uncontrollable bleeding? See, this particular monster (Large, Monstrous Humanoid, 6 HD -> valid Polymorph target) has 28 Strength, and thus when modified by Enlarge Person and an item Ali-Oop's effective Strength is 32. Thus his medium load is 2773 lb., bringing his Giant  Rock damage up to 16d6.Keep in mind that this is only 8th level and without major shenanigans. The problem just gets worse as Ali-Oop gains levels due to the fact that carrying capacity scales exponentially with Strength, so even five more points (not hard in the next four levels) to Strength more than doubles his weapon damage. Suppose he polymorphed to a war troll and had an item granting +6 to Strength...bringing him up to 39 Strength total. That means his medium load is 7466 lb., granting him 40d6 in Giant Rock damage.So how'd I get introduced to this? Years ago, I remember seeing a line in someone's signature on the Malhavoc boards: Dok posted:Damage: 49748. Plus 4 fire.
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Feb 28, 2013 21:27
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Ooh, I've remembered a new fun bit of weirdness. One of the changes to D&D 3.5 from 3.0 was the addition of this line: *may only be summoned in aquatic environments. It was added to the Summon Monster/Nature's Ally series of spells, which let you summon stuff. Aquatic creatures were included, but in 3.0 nothing stopped you summoning a shark on land. It was fairly useless, without a land speed, the creature could barely move so things would just walk around Jaws. But you could also summon a whale. With a ton of HP, size and weight, the downside being it's a whale, what's it gonna do, eat krill at you? But 'summon whale' came a whole lot earlier than any wall-summoning spells, and you didn't have to specify whale until you actually cast the spell. The summon spell was basically 'Wall of Fish'.
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Feb 28, 2013 21:47
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Elfface posted:But 'summon whale' came a whole lot earlier than any wall-summoning spells, and you didn't have to specify whale until you actually cast the spell. The summon spell was basically 'Wall of Fish'. Wait so Qui-Gon in Darths and Droids was actually using a legitimate tactic all this time?
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Feb 28, 2013 22:03
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Elfface posted:
Oh, it gets better than that. Part of the spell is "It appears where you designate and acts immediately, on your turn". It has a rather short range (25 ft +5 ft per caster level) but there's nothing saying it has to appear on the ground. Want to summon a whale 25 feet above your enemy's head? You can, and as it acts immediately, your opponent won't have time to get out from under it.
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Feb 28, 2013 22:39
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Summon Whale
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Randalor posted:Oh, it gets better than that. Part of the spell is "It appears where you designate and acts immediately, on your turn". It has a rather short range (25 ft +5 ft per caster level) but there's nothing saying it has to appear on the ground. Want to summon a whale 25 feet above your enemy's head? You can, and as it acts immediately, your opponent won't have time to get out from under it. Oh, it gets better. The Warhulk from the Miniatures Handbook also required you to be large, and instead of getting any BAB whatsoever, got +2 to Strength each level. This in normal circumstances had the result of getting +1 to attack and +1 to damage (or +3/2 with a two-handed weapon). However, with a hulking hurler, this instead meant exponential increases in damage. With 10 levels of warhulk, you get +20 to Str, and thus x16 to your carrying capacity. If you take the Natural Heavyweight feat from Planar Handbook, your carrying capacity doubles, and wearing a belt of wide earth from Magic Item Compendium doubles it again for only 8,000 gp. EDIT: The fastest way to get it done is with an anthropomorphic baleen whale from Savage Species. 3 racial HD with full BAB, +8 to Str, no LA, and no worries your size will be dispelled. If you go with anthropomorphic baleen whale 3/fighter 2/hulking hurler 2/warhulk 10/war mind 3, your Strength goes up to 15 (starting) + 8 (racial) + 6 (enhancement) + 5 (inherent) + 5 (levels), for a total Str of 39 unbuffed. With the belt and the Natural Heavyweight feat, this gives you a carrying capacity of 29,856 lb, giving you 152d6 + 14 damage with a normal rock. The levels of war mind give the ability to manifest expansion, which can raise your size by two categories and give you an additional +4 to Strength, and the Chain of Personal Superiority ability, which gives you a +2 insight bonus to Strength 3 times a day. The Practiced Manifester feat lets you get a manifester level of 7 with expansion with only three levels in war mind. Buffed, you come out to gargantuan size and Str 45, meaning you can lift 272,896 pounds and deal 1362d6 + 17 damage. That's 136 tons. And that's not even the start of what you can do with a hulking hurler. Zemyla fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Mar 1, 2013 |
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Feb 28, 2013 23:33
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Zemyla posted:Oh, it gets better. The Warhulk from the Miniatures Handbook also required you to be large, and instead of getting any BAB whatsoever, got +2 to Strength each level. This in normal circumstances had the result of getting +1 to attack and +1 to damage (or +3/2 with a two-handed weapon). However, with a hulking hurler, this instead meant exponential increases in damage. There's also the wording of Overburdened Heave, which states that the Hulking Hurler can throw a weapon up to two sizes larger than his size category or an item that weighs as much as his medium load. Note the Or, not And. And if you aren't using a rule from Draconomicon, the largest size category in the game is Gargantuan, things can still get bigger but they don't go up in size categories. If you get a DM that's drunk enough you can argue that as long as it's gargantuan you can throw it regardless of how much it weighs. At one point people were trying to stat out +5 flaming burst returning Gargantuan Spheres of Depeleted Uranium.
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Feb 28, 2013 23:49
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Zemyla posted:Actually, 3.0 did say conjurations did have to appear on surfaces capable of supporting them.
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Mar 1, 2013 00:07
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NGDBSS posted:Yeah, I recall running an arena character at ECL 50 gestalt (things got crazy and complicated) who had levels of Hulking Hurler on a lark, and I'm pretty sure that with my Strength score alone (300+) I could have done damage in the quadrillions. After a while it's all just a wall of numbers. As far as I'm aware the record for non-epic hulking hurler is 19,330,723,855,637,920,503,551,754d6+172 damage.
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Mar 1, 2013 03:35
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That would literally be throwing a planet as a weapon, right?
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Mar 1, 2013 03:39
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jigokuman posted:That would literally be throwing a planet as a weapon, right? That's throwing 3.8661448x10^27 pounds, or about twice the weight of Jupiter.
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Mar 1, 2013 04:04
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At what point do the rules for gravity catch up?
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Mar 1, 2013 17:55
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nimby posted:At what point do the rules for gravity catch up? Rules for what now? You're still on the ground, why would you take falling damage?
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Mar 1, 2013 19:51
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Echophonic posted:Rules for what now? You're still on the ground, why would you take falling damage? If you were standing on an Earth-like planet, an object the mass of Jupiter would be the local centre of gravity, not Earth. Does D&D model reality as an infinite plane with a steady downwards pull?
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Mar 1, 2013 19:55
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