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Ronwayne posted:Another thing I realized, we got our ancoms, ancaps, and right-authoritarians. I'd guess the authors just decided that "Communism is a failed ideology!", ignoring the huge reams of soviet and post-soviet bloc science fiction and aesthetics that would be perfect for cyberpunking it up and the existance of China and the Great Firewall (Which is cyber-dystopia now). Oh, and they also ignored the whole contribution of Yuri Gagarin to space flight, and all the crazy soviet space program stuff that should, by rights, show up, because they're still using Soyuz tech for orbital deliveries to this very day. Seatox fucked around with this message at 10:46 on Aug 4, 2019 |
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Aug 4, 2019 10:34
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Uh. So, you level up in Invisible Sun by grinding repeatable quests. Like an MMORPG. And yet they gave 4th edition so much poo poo for it's mechanics.
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Aug 5, 2019 23:55
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kommy5 posted:Did... did he just assign EXP rewards for impregnating someone..? 1 Acumen. They don't even have to be a romantic partner or spouse!  That's for the romance arc! 
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Aug 6, 2019 00:14
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Does a panel van count as a site for the Building Arc? Because you could farm Acumen by re-detailing it over and over with panel art of your trashy wizard deeds.
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Aug 6, 2019 00:33
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KirbyKhan posted:As wizard GM I declare it against the spirit of the rules to paint over your Legendary Panel Van. You must journey back to the Yard of Junk and Build a NEW GRANDER WIZARD VAN. Also you can't do unless you Aid A Friend for Wizard Larry. He told me in advance about his Fall From Grace Magickal Meth Addiction. Behold, we have also
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Aug 6, 2019 00:48
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Oh dear. Have a look at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/moonlounge. Is this a publication gimmick of the author, or deeply untreated mental illness? I'm leaning heavily towards "Why can't it be both?"
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Aug 17, 2019 05:35
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juggalo baby coffin posted:we see the results of gene editing all the time, it's called cancer Or any virus. Look at me, I've biohacked my nasal passage to spew infective mucus! Glory to the influenza!
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Aug 19, 2019 14:11
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Poking around an nWoD Demon's secrets, because Demons are so very reasonable when you start shredding their Cover. And Demons are iirc immune to the Poochie aura.
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Aug 21, 2019 18:28
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In a sick, twisted way, Beasts really are a true cross-gameline splat. As in, every other supernatural has a drat good reason to form a compact to erase them utterly from the World of Darkness.
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Aug 22, 2019 02:29
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Dawgstar posted:Splat by Splat A Beast who does Beast Things will ping a nearby Mage's Mage Sight, and Mages are addicted to unraveling mysteries - and there's a lot of Mage factions who would look on beasts with severe antipathy once they grasped exactly what a Beast does. Even the Seers would be dubious about letting a bunch of uncontrolled mutant goetia run around freely making GBS threads up the Exarchs' property. That's not even getting into the type of beast who feeds on "Humbling the Proud", aka attacking Mages (and probably getting whacked by the Mage + their cabal).
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Aug 22, 2019 04:51
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Ratoslov posted:And if you're a Demon who doesn't already have a fallback Cover, you have made some Very Bad Simulacrum Of Life Decisions. Not completly. If you soul-pact a supernatural and then claim them as a cover, you only get the mortal bits, not their gribbly powers. (Sidebar of page 117 of DtD Revised). Assuming that Beasts have enough of a soul to be pact-able. Edit: And yeah, you need to do exploit trickery to sell the whole show. But you can't just pact a mage and get access to Supernal magic. Editedit: I kind of have vague memories of "Beasts can't make pacts with Demons" from somewhere, but I don't own a copy of Beast, and DtD existed before Beast, so yeah. Seatox fucked around with this message at 09:12 on Aug 22, 2019 |
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Aug 22, 2019 08:53
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EP should just outright steal the good "horrible nanotech apocalypse" bits from the Charles Stross novel Singularity Sky. The TITANS seem really boring and uninspired compared to the Carnival and Fringe. (The Carnival even has an actual motivation for all it's weird poo poo!)
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Aug 24, 2019 03:19
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So, what about more fun and different forms of consciousness? That's one of the really irritating things about a lot of transhumanist stuff, as opposed to neat xenobiology sci-fi - the human part. We're obsessed with I, me, the thing behind the eyes. What sort of mind could form in the dances of a beehive? Would it have a complex enough moral framework or perspective to torture bassilisk cultists in the simulation spaces of the Great Comb for eternity (For only those who left out sugar water for the bees will be spared)
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Aug 26, 2019 00:52
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For all it's terrible faults, at least the 3rd edition Epic Level Handbook gave the Epic Rogue 1d6 more Sneak Attack damage every 2 levels. Honestly, the whole thing is probably worth a F&F take, but the stupid numbersmash and oh god so many stupid nickle and dime bonus feats makes me hesitant to even open the drat book again. And that's not even getting into the  worthy Epic Spell seed construction thing.
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Sep 2, 2019 04:01
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"Wise Master, what happened to the Beasts?" "Oh, some clever Mastigos ascended to Archmagedom, and they got erased in the reality shift. No beasts in OUR timeline, just tiny echos in the Supernal of a concept now tied to the phrase 'And nothing of value was lost'"
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Sep 2, 2019 04:06
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Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition Epic Level Handbook: NUMBER GO UP Right. 3rd Edition D&D is (in)famous for a lot of things, some of them good, but so many of them terrible. The Epic Level Handbook is pretty drat stupid. I will now quote the Introduction paragraph of this book, which will set the tone for the entire book. we represent the lollpop guild posted:"The rules in the Dungeons and Dragons(r) core rulebooks are not enough for you. Your game promises more than what the rules can contain. Your plots run deeper and your imagination burns stronger. Twenty levels of power are too few, character options are too limited, and the monsters are too weak. Until now. Welcome to the next level of power." Chapter One: Charcacter, Skills & Feats The chapter text starts off namedropping. so epic posted:"Baba Yaga. Conan the Babarian. Cu Chulainn. Elminster of Shadowdale. Elric of Melnibone. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Gandalf. Gilgamesh. Hiwatha. Odysseus. These are names of power. Names of glory. Epic names. These heroes are examples of epic characters." Right. There is a no-prize for pointing out which of these characters are not like the others, which of these characters don't belong. There is an additional no-prize for pointing out that Elminster is entierly a D&D construction. It goes on about how about how awesome and mighty Epic Characters are blah blah blah for a paragraph, before getting down to the actually important bit, which is that, per standard 3rd-ed rules, once you hit level 20, the tables run out and normal character progression ends. It then posits either letting people just farm XP until they get enough for level 21 (referring to um table 1-2, it's 210,000 XP), or maybe kinda make them do a quest or something, referring us to Chapter 3 (The Running an Epic Game chapter) for more details. Then the real Math begins. Once a character is level 21, they are counted as an Epic Character. You don't get your usual class based saves, but instead every 2 levels you get a +1 epic bonus to all your saves. Your Base Attack Bonus doesn't go up, but instead you get a special +1 every odd level (So you get +0 to saves and +1 to attacks at level 21, +1 and +1 at level 22, +1 and +2 at level 23, +2 and +2 at level 24, and so on ad-infinitum). So, you don't get more attacks per round or other fightery stuff - as the helpful sidebar points out, having a billion attacks per round would slow the game right down. There is a monster that shows up in Chapter 5 that can make 10 attacks per round against a single target, and has 100 base attacks. Numbers get bigger, hooray. Epic Characters still get ability increases every 4 levels, Class Skills and Cross Class Skills still have the same old caps, and you get a non-class specific feat slot every 3 levels. Same old, same old D20. Then the tables hell begins, because each PHB class AND a bunch of formerly 10 level prestige classes from the DMG gets it's own Epic Progression blurb. Essentially, it boils down to "and we extrapolated a bunch of things from the core tables in the PHB". Everyone gets their hit-dice and skillpoints per level, a bunch of DCs go up with level, stuff that a class usually got every X levels still happens, bonus feats show up every few levels with their usual list of trap options. Fighters get the biggest number of Bonus Feats, the biggest table of [st]trap options[/st]Bonus Feats, and the words "bonus feat" start to become meaningless. Monks get shafted because their unarmed Ki attack damage boost formula stopped at level 16 to make room for their lovely capstone powers in the base game, naturally. They have the option of spending a bonus feat to fix that! They get one bonus feat per 5 levels, the lowest rate of all the core Epic Classes. Their unarmored movement speed keeps going up (they will never be as fast as a teleporting wizard), and they get a very slowly increasing boost to their Wisdom Armor Class Bonus. Naturally, Spellcasters get their caster level increase. They don't, however, get more spell slots without spending Feats on them. The way the Improved Spell Capacity feat that allows this to happen works permits gross metamagic abuse. All hail the Supreme Casters. Partial casters (Paladins'n'rangers) are naturally pretty much out of the game when it comes to spell-slinging due to this (And their sane, limited spell lists). Full casters who spend the right feat also get access to Horrible Bullshit DM-May-I Epic Spell Development. In theory, a partial caster could use it, but they can't swing the Numberwang of the appropriate Class Skill hard enough to make the stupid DC tests. Assassins, Arcane Archers, Blackguards, Loremasters, Dwarven Defenders and Shadowdancers get progression extrapolations, the words 'Bonus Feat' start to become even more meaningless, then they drop the 3rd edition Psionic Handbook Psion and Psychic Warrior on us! They get the same sort of spellcater/partial caster treatment, and I can't remember enough of the 3rd Ed's Psionics Handbook to make judgement otherwise. There's a nice table of Wealth Per Level for if you're completly loving insane and want to make a character above 20th level to start with. Then it's off to the EPIC PRESTIEGE CLASSES Epic Pristiege Classes Essentially, prestige classes where one of the qualifying thing is "be EPIC LEVEL". The Agent Retriever requires Alignment: Any lawful. It requires 24 ranks of Gather Information. Bards (the class most likely to have this) are supposed to be ANY NONLAWFUL. The class description says "rangers, bards and rogues most commonly take this epic prestige class", a famously Lawful Aligned bunch of people. If a character can twist themselves around the stupid alignment requirement to satisfy this, it gives access to a supernatural ability to research a person or item and thus get a continual "discern location" spell against them, which is nice. They also get a huge +10 bonus to the track skill every 5 levels, and daily uses of Plane Shift/Ethereal Jaunt. The Cosmic Descryer is not actually a scryer or diviner, but a summon spammer and plane traveler. Nice easy access requirements for a Cleric, not actually good for Wizards because it requires Gate and Planar Ally, not Planar Binding. It gives Hitdice bonuses on allowable summons, obtains "naturalization" for planes visited that protects from being Banished etc by the natives of that plane, can extend a Gate spell to last all day, and finally can turn on "Cosmic Connection" for a minute per class level, letting them Dimension Door at will and burn 5 hitpoints for any number of +1s on their caster level, or a bunch of different rolls. The Divine Emissary is Paladin 2.0. The most notable bonuses are access to one of their god's domains ala cleric, a Greater Planar Ally ability, and a once a day +20 bonus to an attack using their god's favored weapon. The Epic Infiltrator is another rogueish class, yet the alignment restriction is "any nonchaotic". They get cover identities that can fool divinations re: alignment, but still get hit by Protection from Evil, Holy Smite and their alignment opposites. They get more skills for the skill-monkey, a minor scrying power, and Read Thoughts and Mind Blank as n/per day. The Guardian Paramount is a rogue/X multiclass jobbie for bodyguarding, and can share their Uncanny Dodge with someone, set up an effect to take damage in place of someone (and convert the damage to subdual damage), force dice rerolls with their Adjust Probability power, and finally True Resurrect anyone they've used their powers on once a day every 6 levels. The High Proselytizer is a firebrand talky cleric, who gets a sanctuary effect while preaching along with mind controlling people who follow the same god/alignment (Well, it acts like Charm Person, which is pretty mind controlly). As they stack up more levels in the prestige class they add to it with laying on hands to heal diseases/poisons, ability to explode people not mind controlled in various ways. The Legendary Dreadnaught is fighter 2.0. It is also The Juggernaut of X-men fame. It's two gimmick powers are Unstoppable and Unmovable. Unstoppable has the neat quality of letting the Dreadnaught break Walls of Force by punching them (when usually you need a disintigrate spell). Standard fighter dullness otherwise. The Perfect Wight is the true Rogue 2.0, no alignment nonsense, can turn invisible, can use telekinesis to pick locks, can turn incorporeal or into a shadow. The Union Sentinel is a loving cop for extraplanar capitalists (the Arcanes) who show up in the "example epic level setting" later in the book. They get Imprisonment, Dimensional Anchor and Forcecage as class powers, as well as a thing that lets them seal off a Gate or portal by standing next to it. And that's the Epic Class war. Next up, skills, feats and more tables of skills and feats and feats and skills... Edit: and i notice i spelt prestige wrong twice. I will let this stand, because word has lost all meaning to me, much like bonus and feat. Seatox fucked around with this message at 06:33 on Sep 2, 2019 |
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Sep 2, 2019 06:21
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Dave Brookshaw posted:“Implies?” The Old Man and the Beast would be a very, very short story. It would, at least, have a happy ending (unlike all the other stories involving the Old Man).
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Sep 2, 2019 06:39
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Jerik posted:I actually ran a 3E campaign where the PCs reached epic levels and I used this book... but that was only because the campaign went so long (the PCs started at first level), and even then it only barely got into the epic levels; the PCs were in the low 20s when the campaign ended. The end of the campaign did come a bit quicker than I'd originally intended due to the death of a player, but even if that hadn't happened it probably wouldn't have gone on for much longer; it was basically wrapping up at that point anyway. The Prismasaurus is an adorable rainbow powered dinosaur and worth saving.
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Sep 2, 2019 07:31
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mllaneza posted:I didn't mean NOW, I still have Zine Fest RPGs to get through ! I've typed up a summary of the epic skill uses. The next part is the Feats, however, and that is eroding my willpower and sanity. Table 1-36: Epic Feats covers four pages, and that itself is a summary of the feats. There are, if I count right, 152 feats.
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Sep 2, 2019 08:54
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Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition Epic Level Handbook: NUMBER GO UP Here we go, the worst bit of any D20 product, the Skills and First off, for no good reason I can determine, they decided to put the Epic Leadership Feat, and their fancy Epic Level Cohort and Follower table ahead of all the skills and other feats. It is largely a forgettable extrapolation of the core DMG leadership table, except that it's Leadership and therefore can break lots of stuff if your DM lets you get away with it (Such as, say, getting the Leadership value high enough via stacking Charisma on your Sorcerer to take a Cohort spellcaster one level below yours). Then it's time for Epic Skills. Epic Skills Epic Skills just the regular old 3rd edition skills (Roll d20 + skill modifier vs Difficulty Class), except they came up with a bunch of high DC uses for skills. Since Epic Characters have the usual Level+3 cap on skills, some of these example DCs require insanely stupidly high character levels and feat trickery to be used, and their use is often meaningless outside of insane niche situations, or completly stupid broken if you can make the Big Number (See diplomacy/perform/animal handling). For perspective on the BIG NUMBERS WOO, in the Dungeon Master's Guide the highest example DC given is 43 for tracking a week old goblin track covered in fresh snow, which a 20th level ranger with maximum Wilderness Lore, Track, and fully stacked Favored Enemy Goblin bonuses has a 50% chance of succeeding (So a total of +33 on their D20 roll). useless crafting To start with, Alchemy still niche or useless, because alchemy items themselves are crap compared to real magic items - you can increase the DC of an alchemy check by 10 to speed up manufacture. Quick identification means making a D50 alchemy check to instantly identify potions or other substances without needing a lab or money. And finally, adding increments of 20 to the base alchemy check for making an item can increase the damage/saving throw of alchemy items. Craft has the same "increase DC for faster construction" as alchemy. It's Craft, this is silly munchkin land, and making actual Magic Items is Spellcaster only, all legendary craftsmen are actually multiclass wizards or something. All an Epic Crafting skill will really give you is lots of Masterwork stuff for magic item creation (or breaking what passes for an economy in D&D land if you're playing stupid number games). 30 rogue levels and you can replicate a first level wizard Appraise lets the appraiser effectivly Detect Magic (as the spell) on an item they're appraising, DC50. Balance allows increasingly ludicrous places you can walk across, up to DC120 for walking on a cloud without casting a single spell. Decipher Script replicates Read Magic. All those skill ranks, and a 1st level wizard has you beat with a cantrip. Bluff lets you replicate the Suggestion spell for a mere +50 DC, which seems to pop up in every stupid Character Optimisation discussion ever. It also lets you fake your alignment and surface thoughts vs magical spying at DC70 and 100. Read lips has "pronounce unfamiliar language" at +20 DC. It claims this is useful for parroting it back to someone who actually understands the language, but Comprehend Languages is a spell. Search gives Detect Magic at DC60. Spellcraft acts like Identify the spell at DC50, then total identification at DC70. Sense Motive gives mind-reading at various DCs. Use Rope replicates Animate Rope, at DC80. Heal has two useless abilities (to give a Full Rest's worth of HP back in on hour, and then a full week's rest in on hour), because Clerics and the Heal spell exist. Disguise just ups the amount of height/weight variation you can fake with your disguise to 50% at a higher penalty than the one in the PHB. Alter Self is a 2nd level spell that does this already, and the drat skill description notes this. Cool tricks that are probably normal prestige class powers somewhere Epic Climb gives you Spiderman wall, then ceiling crawling powers at DC70 and 100. Disable Device lets you rush disarming a trap. At +100 DC, it's a free action. Escape Artist allows a rogue who can beat DC80 to turn into an octopus and fit through a 2-square-inch gap. At DC120, they can squeeze through a Wall of Force. A theme you will note is apparantly someone really loved the idea of Walls of Force as Epic Level architecture, because it pops up everywhere in this book. Forgery at +50DC allows the forger to just... know what a document is supposed to be, without needint to have ever seen it. Intuit Direction gives you super-navigation powers at various DCs. Listen and Spot give various illusion and invisibility piercing DCs. Easiest one is DC20 for noticing an invisible creature bumbling around, which is not exactly epic difficulty. Pickpocket has entries for being the best sleight-of-hand-conjurer, at the usual inflated difficulties. Gather Information lets the inquirer avoid suspicion at a hefty penalty. Ride gives DC40 for standing on the saddle and fighting at no penalty, DC50 for directing the mount as a free action, and DC60 for hanging off side of the horse and casting spells like some kind of Mongolian Horse Wizard. Swim for swimming up a waterfall at DC80. Tumble decreases fall damage, up until perfect no-fall-damage at DC100. Wilderness Lore is all about negating environmental damage and perfect tracking at DC60. Making Animal Empathy, Diplomacy, and Perform extend their influencing tables to include the "Fanatic" step, allowing a stupidly skilled (Beat a DC80 check at friendly, DC170 if they're hostile) animal handler, diplomat or performer to brainwash subjects (such that they gain +2 str and con, +1 will save, but lose -1 AC when fighting for you because they love you so much). The fanatic definition is listed under Perform as "Will give life to serve you" "Fight to the death against overwhelming odds, throw self in front of onrushing dragon". Handle Animal adds magical beasts, vermin and then Other to the table, though at DC30+critter's hitdice, you're not going to be training anything personally combat useful. There's also the faster-training-for-higher-DC tradeoffs similar to craft/alchemy. wizard supreme Epic Concentration allows you to cast somatic spells (the ones with waving around) while grappled. This is pointless because any epic spellcaster worth their staff is going to have certain feats, magic items and/or spells that take care of that problem anyway. Scry gives a bunch of high DCs for scry vs scry actions - learning who's scrying, scrying them back... and if you do either of those things an opposed Scry check to break the scrying. Why that requires ludicrious DCs instead of being baseline wizbiz is just one of those D20 things. The great crime of split stealth skills Hide just lets you extend the hiding to another creature at a penalty. Intimidate, Move Silently, Jump, Use Magic Device and the Knowledges don't get any special tricks, apart from having bignum (which matters for certain knowledges when we get to EPIC SPELLS). Weird psion stuff And the two skills from the psionics handbook are ... Autohypnosis and Stabilize Self which are a grab-bag of things about resisting poison and mind control. Why this is all pointless because wizards and clerics exist So, with all these additions your Epic Level 40 Super-rogue can replicate a first level wizard, of which your friend the Epic Leadership Sorcerer has like, 40 on the payroll. If you're a really really good Monk you can eventually play Sun Wukong by hopping around on clouds with your class Balance skill, something that a spellcaster or a silver dragon, or a niche prestige class from a splatbook, could do about 50 levels before you. They do emphasize that all these skill tricks are non-magical. But the discussion of Antimagic fields and dumb game design and advice is for Chapter 3 of this steaming heap of bullshit. Next up, I go over the 19 pages of 152 feats while my eyes glaze over.
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Sep 4, 2019 01:33
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unseenlibrarian posted:Move silently and hide in shadows were separate things as far back as the first appearance of thieves in Greyhawk, I think, so it's more that "Why do this" is a later addition. D20 just pretty much took the Thief Special Abilities from basic and AD&D and plonked them into the skill system, neglecting to notice that no other class really needs skills to function (Because they're powered by rules fiat in the case of spellcasters, or attacks-per-round and the rest of the combat system for the fighter classes).
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Sep 4, 2019 01:51
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Zereth posted:On the flip side, I believe if you allow custom magic item creation you can get very large bonuses to skills fairly early, letting you hit some of these ridiculous DCs without even being epic level. Oh, very much so. Every goofy 3rd-edition character optimization thread ever seemed fixated on the idea of stacking magic items then using Perform brainwashing to, I dunno, kill Elminster or whatever. Or using Leadership to have your cohort be Pun-pun the munchkin-god kobold, or other silly things.
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Sep 4, 2019 02:05
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Night10194 posted:I think my favorite part of 3e is how absolutely anything meaningful is accomplished through magic. Anything and everything. It's the special-casing that really makes it reek. Stuff like Exalted, or World Tree, Werewolf, Mage, whatever - supernatural poo poo exists, is a fundamental part of the game, and every player character does magic because their magic is their physics, and the systems reflect that. Warhams, getting spells off is the same basic system as any other skill and a wizard can gently caress it up just like the 3rd tier fighter can botch an attack roll. 3rd edition, only nerds and godbotherers may play with their special subsystem, which can just do everything everyone else does, but better, and then they finally get Wish or Miracle and welp. Who needs Hide, when you have invisibility? Who needs a fighter when you have Call Planar Ally?
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Sep 4, 2019 02:18
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Terrible Opinions posted:It was baffling how many 3.5 players have such an issue with static bonuses just being from expert craftsmanship instead of magical enchantment. Like somehow saying that a +5 sword can be made by amazing but non-magical smiths made me a horrible rollplayer of a DM and not a true roleplayer. Oh yeah. An EPIC SMITH Professional with +100000 craft (weaponsmith) will still only turn out Masterwork Longswords, unless they multiclass into i dunno, artificer or something. No Craft Magic Weapons and Armor? No cool poo poo allowed. Yet they claim in the intro text to the ELHB that this is supposed to be modeling great heroes of myth and legend. Like Elminster.
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Sep 4, 2019 02:23
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Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition Epic Level Handbook: NUMBER GO UP Feats  Feats, little slots that you fill in as your character levels up. Options! So many options. As the book says "The epic character is largely defined by his selection of epic feats". This is actually true, because Epic Class progression is mostly an endless string of bonus feats taken from your class's bonus feat list every X levels. This explains why there are 152 feats, 4 pages of "Table 1-36 Epic Feats" and 21 pages of actual rules, versus 37 Feats, 1 page of Feat table and 7 pages of rules in the Player's Handbook. You have options. As befitting 3rd edition D&D Feat Options, there is an enormous number of "+X bonus to a thing" entries. There's also some lovely trap options. And there's also metamagic bullshit. The feat list is alphabetized in the book, I've tried to sort them into vague class categories because otherwise it's just a big long list of dull text. And it's rules heavy D20 jargon, full of Special Meaning Words and assumptions that you know what a Blessed Holy Weapon is. LEADERSHIP Epic Leadership - unlocks the epic leadership table as per the last post. Legendary Commander - 10x multiplier to your number of followers. One prerequisite is that you have to own a kingdom. EPIC PLUSSES Great Charisma, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Strength, Wisdom - spend a feat, get a +1 to a stat Epic Fortitude, Epic Reflexes, Epic Will. +4 to fort/ref/wil save. Epic Reptution, +4 to bluff, diplomacy, gather information, intimiate, perform - IT'S A TRAP Epic Prowess - spend a feat, get a +1 to all attack rolls, wizard gets a nickle, fighter gets a dime. At least the fighter has lots of Bonus Feat slots to spend on this nonsense? Epic Skill Focus - have 20 ranks in a skill, spend a feat, get +10 on skill checks with said skill. Who needs Reputation to make diplomatic mindslaves? Epic Endurance - +10 bonus to extended running, swimming, etc checks. Epic Speed - +30ft movement speed, doesn't stack with anything and you have to be in medium or lighter armor. DEFENSIVE STUFF This stuff reeks of Trap Option. Epic Toughness - +20 hitpoints, you can take it multiple times! Armor Skin - YOu get +2 natural armor, but naturally it doesn't stack with magic-granted natural armor. Damage Reduction - requires 21 con, gives you 3 points of DR every time you buy it, but doesn't stack with magic items (it does stack with class features though). Energy Resistance - 10 resistance to an energy damage type, but it doesn't stack with anything. Extended Life Span - you don't die of old age as quickly. Because people would track that sort of thing. Fast Healing - gives you fast healing 3 (so you heal 3 hp/round), doesn't stack with magic fast healig, you can take the feat multiple times for more fast healing. Perfect Health - immunity to nonmagic diseases and DC25 poisons. SPECIES STUFF Improved Darkvision, Low-light vision - double range on innate vision abilities. Improved Spell Resistance - +2 spell resistance if you have innate spell resistance. ROGUE STUFF Dexterous Will, Fortitude - Substitude a reflex save for a will or fort save once a round. Probably decent. Epic Dodge - if you're activly dodging a target you automatically take no damage from an attack that hits you from said target once a round. Improved Sneak Attack - another +1d6 on your backstabs, feat can be stacked multiple times. Improved Death Attack - +2 to save vs Assassin murder. Lingering Damage - your sneak attack damage repeats on it's victim in the next round as well. That's pretty drat nasty. Self-concealment - you get a 10% miss chance for attacks against you, and you can stack the feat 5 times (to 50%) Sneak Attakck of Opportunity - Attacks of Opportunity are also Sneak Attacks. Trap Sense - you don't need to search for traps, you just autosearch for them if you get within 5ft of one. BARD STUFF Deafening Song - You can inflict Deafness by doing your bard song/poem/freestyle rap thing. Group Inspiration - increases the target cap for bard songs. Hindering Song - you can force spellcasters to make concentration checks to cast while you do your bard thing. Inspire Excellence - Bardsong at your friends for a +4 competence bonus to an ability score. Probably stacks with most other ability score bonuses. Lasting Inspiration - 10x duration to your bardsong's effects after you stop barding. Music of the Gods - you can bard at things normally immune to mind effects. Ranged Inspiration - double ranged bardsongs. Rapid Inspiration - bardsongs only take a standard action (instead of the normal full round) Reactive Countersong - you can ready the bard countersong (like a readied counterspell) FIGHTING MANS Poor bastards that they are, Paladin, Fighters, Barbarians and Rangers (And their usual prestige classes) get a long list of nickle-and-dime powers. They'd be EPIC if it was just them. Monks could probably use some of this stuff, if they had the feat room for them. Bane of Enemies - ranger racism makes any weapon they have a bane weapon against their favored enemy Blinding Speed - 25 dex to qualify, but it gets you 5 rounds/day of Haste split up however you like. Bulwark of Defense - Dwarven Defenders class power boost. +4s and +6s to stuff. Chaotic Rage - barbarian ALIGN WEAPON WITH CHAOS TO SMASH ... for 2d6 extra damage against lawful critters as per a Chaos weapon, and it doesn't stack with a Chaos weapon. Garbage. Combat Archery - you can shoot a bow without getting hit by attacks of opportunity. Death of Enemies - ranger racism forces a save or die for any favored enemy they crit against. Devastating Critical - as Death of Enemies, but for favored weapon against everyone. Dire Charge - FULL ATTACK WHILE CHARGING  Distant Shot - If you can see it, you can shoot it with no range modifiers. Epic Weapon Focus - it's yet another +2 bonus to your favorite weapon type Epic Weapon Specialization - +4 damage to your favorite weapon Holy Strike - Chaos Weapon but for paladins, and doesn't stack with Holy weapons, like, say, the Holy Avenger. Double garbage. Improved Aura of Courage/Despair - +8 on saves vs fear if paladin, -4 on victim saves if blackguard. Improved Combat Reflexes - you get infinite Attacks of Opportunity in a round, but only once per target. Improved Favored Enemy - +1 to the standard list of ranger racism rolls and damage. Improved Manyshot - shoot as many arrows as you have Base Attacks Incite Rage - when you rage, your allies can rage too (unless they don't want to). Instant Reload - you fire a specific class of crossbow as fast as a bow. Legendary Wrestler - +10 to using grapple. Mobile Defense - Dwarven Defender can shuffle around 5ft at a time while doing their stance thing. Mighty Rage - barbarian gets +8 str/con, +4 will saves while angry. That you cannot buy this feat multiple times makes you even more angry, but you don't get bonuses for that either. Overwhelming Critical - more damage on critical hits with your favorite weapon type. Penetrate Damage Reduction - all your attacks count as having +2 enhancement for overcoming damage reduction. Ruinous Rage - raging barbarian ignores object hardness when hitting things, also doubles strength when doing the "break object" action. Pretty good if you need to smash out of an adamantine box or something. Spellcasting Harrier - if you threaten a caster in melee, they take 1/2 your level on concentration checks to cast defensivly. Storm of Throws - You can throw a light weapon at everyone within 30 feet. Swarm of Arrows - Shoot everyone within 30ft in a single full-round action. Terrifying rage - intimidate people who see you raging Thundering Rage - your weapon is a Thundering weapon (does sonic damage and deafens) while you rage. Two-weapon rend - damage bonus if you hit with two weapons Uncanny Accuracy - you ignore cover when shooting Unholy Strike - blackguard Holy Strike. Widen Aura of Courage/Despair - bigger paladin/blackguard auras. TWO ARMS BAD, FOUR ARMS GOOD Multiweapon Rend - an epic feat for weird things with more than two arms (we will meet them later), for doing more damage when they hit with more than one weapon. Perfect Multiweapon Fighting - drive everyone insane with dice rolls because you can make a full attack of full attacks with your multiple arms. OBLIGATORY MONK HATE Monks get the least Bonus Feats at epic level. D&D hates monks. Improved Ki Strike - +1 enhancement bonus to your unarmed fist attacks per feat slot. Keen Strike - monk punches crit on 19-20 instead of 20. Exceptional Deflection - You can deflect any ranged attack like the PHB Deflect Arrows power (including ranged touch attacks, like various wizard beams). Reflect Arrow - deflected ranged attacks are reflected back at their sender. Righteous Strike - Like Chaotic Rage and Holy Strike, your fists count as +2d6 lawful weapons vs chaotic creatures. Probably more useful for a monk than the other two. Improved Stunning Fist - +2 to the DC of your monk stunning fist attack per feat slot. Infinite Deflection - you can deflect an infinite number of ranged attacks, instead of just one per round. Shattering Strike - use concentration skill instead of strength when doing the "break object" move. Vorpal Strike - your unarmed attacks are vorpal (decapitates a target on a natural 20). MOVEMENT THINGS For when you're not under a continual flight effect. Legendary Climber - you can climb at the same speed you move normally without penalty. Legendary Leaper - your jumps are not restricted by height (just your Jump skill rank). Legendary Tracker - you can track ANYTHING. Even if they're flying. Legendary Rider - You can ride any kind of mount, bareback, with no penalty, and you never have to make Ride skill checks in battle to control your mount. KNEEL BEFORE There's so much spellcaster bullshit, and remember, this is 3rd edition, where an unsaved disintegrate is an instant kill, Haste breaks the action economy and Harm drops a target to 1d4 hp on a failed save. Improved Spell Capacity - each time you buy it, you get a spell slot one level higher than the highest level slot you already have. So, buy it twice and you unlock a 10th and 11th level spell slot. There are no 10th and 11th level spells, but you can use those slots to stack Metamagic Feats, so eventually you're slinging Maximized Heightened Empowered lightning bolts around (If you're a sucker). It also lets you use your high ability scores for even MORE bonus spell slots of that size. Enhance Spell - In a surprising display of sanity, 3rd edition damage spells have a cap on the number of dice-per-level rolled for damage that increases by level of spell (So Fireball and Lightning Bolt cap out at 10d6, Cone of Cold does 15d6). This metamagic adds 10 to that cap by adding 4 to the level of the slot needed to hold that spell. Kind of a trap in 3rd edition, save or die is king. Intensify Spell - Super maximize-empower metamagic, but instead of it being 1.5x more numbers on a spell per normal empower, it's 2x. And it specifically disallows combining it with other dice-trick metamagic, so no Enhancing. And it takes up a slot 7 levels higher. It's probably a trap option to use with attack spells, because Save or Die. Improved Heighten Spell - Heighten Spell without that pesky 9th level limit. Take that 15th level spell slot, shove a disintegrate in and laugh as nobody can make the save against it. Improved Metamagic - You know how Metamagic is limited by increasing the spell slot level? This lowers the amount that all your metamagics raise it by. By one level every time you take the feat. I'm not sure how this interacts with Heightening. Epic Spell Focus - +6 to the save DC of whatever spell school you pick. Like Transmutation. Or Necromancy. Disintegrate and Finger of Death HARDER. Fortunate that you can't stack it, only pick a different school each time you pick it. Epic Spell Penetration - +6 to the caster level check to overcome Spell Resistance. A must have. Familiar Spell - Your familiar can use now use a single 8th level spell you know once a day. Why is your Automatic Silent, Still, QUICKEN Spell - for each time you pick one of these feats, your next 3 levels of spells automatically get that metamagic applied. You can buy this multiple times, so it stacks. Buying automatic quicken spell 3 times lets you cast any of your 9th level spells that qualify (that is, they take no more than a round to cast) as quickened spells. At least you only get one quickened spell a round and you can only quicken spells that take less than a round, but that's a pair of back-to-back Meteor Swarms, or two Wishes. Without needing Improved Spell Capacity to fit the metamagic on them. And automatic Silent and Still spells? Grapple rules can go in the trash where they belong, for the WIZARD WILL NOT BE BOUND! (what an rear end in a top hat). Multispell - Remember how I said "at least you only get one quickened spell a round?". Every time you take this Feat, you get ANOTHER QUICKENED SPELL A ROUND. Improved Combat Casting - you don't get attacks of opportunity against you for casting in melee, making every Epic Rogue cry into their drink at all the free Sneak Attacks they will never get on you. Ignore Material Components - Uh. Never need material components again. I think this also includes the expensive ones. That's the sound of the Cleric chain-casting True Resurrection. Permanent Emanation - permanently have an emanation spell running. A quick flip through the PHB shows those are all divination stuff like Detect Magic/Detect Good, etc. Spell Knowledge - mostly for Sorcerers and Bards, you get two more spells known. Spell Opportunity - you can use touch spells as an attack of opportunity Spell Stowaway - you pick a spell, and if someone else uses that spell, you get the spell applied to you. Spontaneous Spell - you can convert prepared spells into one specific spell (like a cleric and cure spells, but for any caster). Epic Spellcasting - Unlock access to  EPIC SPELLS. Non-fullcasters need not apply. All of Chapter 2 is devoted to this subsystem, because of course it is.MAGIC ITEM CONSTRUCTION AND MANIPULATION Augmented Alchemy - Lets you make your alchemical item AoEs and DCs higher by making the alchemy check to make them harder. Wait, didn't we already have that in the skill? Who edited this crap? Well, at least this is obviously a Trap Option. Additional Magic Item Space - Lets you wear more than the Regulation Amount Of Magic Items. One more of a specific class every time you take this feat, so 3 magic rings, or spend 4 feat slots to be able to wear 5 magic belts like some kind of Tetsuya Nomura character art. Craft Epic Magic Arms and Armor, Epic Rod, Epic Staff, Epic Wondrous Item, Epic Ring - Lets you craft +6 or higher items and all the shiny toys in Chapter 4, breaking the normal +5 limit. Efficient Item Creation - Useful if you're holding strictly to craft time limits for magic items, because this is EPIC LEVEL where magic items can cost 1,000,000gp to make, and it normally takes a day per 1000 gold. This ups the rate to a day per 10000gp. Master Wand/Staff - you can spend a spell slot to power a wand/staff without spending a charge from the item. This would be a useful trick... for a spellcaster 20 levels ago. DRUID: AS POLYMORPH SELF Beast, Dragon, Magical Beast, Plant, Vermin, Improved Elemental, Gargantuan, Colossal, Diminutive, Fine Wild Shape - Each of these feats adds a new option to Druid Wildshaping, which is a fuzzy mess at the best of times in 3rd edition (since it acts like Polymorph Self/Other, which is also a huge mess in 3rd edition). There's probably some really cheesy stuff you can get access to if you've memorized all the Monster Manuals and splatbooks. Beast Companion hangs off Beast Wild shape (Beast being a slightly smarter animal by 3rd edition's typing system), letting you take a Beast instead of an Animal as a sidekick. CLERICAL ERRORS Improved Alignment-Based Casting - your good/bad/law/chaos (pick the one you have the domain for) spells are +3 caster level. Doesn't stack with the +1 from having the domain. Negative Energy Burst - inflict negative levels on the living by doing the evil cleric rebuke undead. Planar Turning - turn undead, but for Outsiders (angels, demons, etc). Positive Energy Aura - makes weak automatic turn undead checks against everything without needing to spend a turn undead. Spectral Strike - negate the automatic 50% miss chance that incorporeal creatures have. Requirements are low enough a Paladin could use this too. Spontaneous Domain Access - you can convert prepared spells into domain spells, like the cleric cure conversion power. Undead Mastery - command 10x your level hit-dice in undead. Zone of Animation - use rebuke/command undead to make zombies or skeletons from corpses. And that's all the Epic feats, but they helpfully reprinted a bunch of other non-epic Feats that are used as prerequisites from other sources - I think they're mostly from the 3rd edition Forgotten Realms sourcebook. Next up: EPIC SPELLS oh boy
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Sep 4, 2019 07:41
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Deptfordx posted:Wait. So if a wizard has taken the first feat and say Multispell 3 times, he can cast 4 times a round. Yes. The action economy of Epic Level Handbook 3rd edition D&D is even more stupidly broken in the favor of spellcasters than base 3rd edition and Haste. Fighting Mans are fairly rigidly bound to the Full Attack action to actually hurt things (At least you can get a feat to let you Charge and Full Attack?), while a wizard can just Save Or Die 3 things in a round, then teleport off for their 8 hour rest period once they're tapped out. If you've ever played Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark to the end, you were actually playing a heavily nerfed and sanity-checked version of the Epic Level rules. There was no Improved Spell Capacity, the "Epic Spellcasting" spells were individual Feats to learn each one, there was no Multispell, and no extra Metamagics beyond the 3 different Automatic Metamagic feats. Spellcasters were still Easy Mode, just not as blatantly.
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Sep 4, 2019 23:54
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wdarkk posted:Really it felt like spellcasters were heavily nerfed in that since everything was immune to save-or-dies or had just the most ridiculous saves and had too much hp to be blaster'd down. Honestly, it's been years since I ran a wizard through HoTU, but I do remember having more trouble with the fighting classes just getting buried under the huge swarms of trash that NWN liked throwing around, where a wizard could just drop a summon monster spell and then fireballs/ice storm/etc. There was also a bunch of really cheesy robes you could get with like, 15/+3 DR or something, so you could actually stand in melee with a few things, doubly so if you put up Stoneskin.
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Sep 5, 2019 00:17
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wdarkk posted:Yeah, nobody's doubting wizards' abilities to survive those games. It was just weirdly balanced, even by d20 standards it felt. Yeah, NWN1s balance was a weird mess, with stuff like arcane casters and druids getting a level 2 Panther as a familiar/animal companion (which had rogue levels, not animal levels!) as a choice at level 1, the Heal skill healing actually useful amounts of hit-points and completely curing poison and disease without resting by using a healing kit, the way treasure was just thrown into random containers (so you could open a barrel on a street corner and find cure light wounds potions, or spell scrolls, or 50 gold pieces), the whole Henchman thing - which I think was an artifact of their first campaign's design apeing bits of Diablo 2 instead of Baldur's Gate. They tried to make it more tabletop-alike for Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark, but it was still incredibly spotty. NWN2 was 3.5ed, and gave you a party, and was in many, many ways a better tabletop emulation (and slightly better balanced by D&D standards) - but just like NWN1, you need the expansion pack campaigns for an actually good story. It's a crying shame in my mind that we never got a proper Eberron videogame outside of Dungeons and Dragons Online, which was hamstrung by being set on Xendrik instead of one of the actually fleshed out bits of the setting (and then apparantly went to the Forgotten Realms for some inane reason, but that was long after I'd quit). Eberron deserved better.
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Sep 5, 2019 02:57
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Crazy unconventional and experimental weapons for exploiting supernatural critter banes is more a Hunter: The Vigil thing, with Task Force VALKYRIE and the Cheiron group. And any super-horrible gribbly CEO had better hope it's cover corporation is up to date on their taxes and/or congressional bribes, because goodness knows what horrible ancient spirits of taxation IRS agents have hanging around them.
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Sep 5, 2019 05:36
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The Lone Badger posted:Valkyrie does overengineered military-contractor stuff thst costs $23m per shot, Union does homebrewed made-it-in-my-workshop osha nightmares, and Cheiron does extremely ill-advised biotech. The Cheiron Group's researchers would just love to get their manipulator appendages on some of these samples, Mr. Zahakeryon , perhaps we could come to a mutually beneficial arrangement?
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Sep 5, 2019 05:49
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It is a bit weird that "other supernaturals" can flat out see right through the wolf-head-illusion-person thing without any kind of power struggle, if you're using Orocheiros in a non-woof game it kind of kills the standard "weird person covered in illusions hobnobbing with our bought and paid for politicians, find out who/what/why and do we have to kill it?" chronicle that Vamps and Mages would do, and right into the "poo poo it's a worse monster than we are, kill it!" phase that Werewoofs operate on by default. You'd think it'd at least require Auspex or Active Mage Sight to see what it really is, instead of just getting a free pass.
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Sep 5, 2019 07:42
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Alien Rope Burn posted:The thing all the Epic feats from the Epic Level Handbook really make me think is that so many of them are just... by 20th level, if you don't have a magic weapon with that ability already, you probably never needed or wanted it. Enhancement bonus to punches? Chaotic quality on a weapon? Some huge skill bonus to maximize? That's what geeps are for, not levels! Exactly. And once we get to the Magic Items chapter, your gut feeling that having a million gold pieces is better than a lovely feat that duplicates a single magic weapon quality will be vindicated. But first I need to stay focused enough to get through the Epic Spell chapter, which will probably end up being in the new thread.
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Sep 9, 2019 07:19
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