General RPG DiscussionDiscussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.
__________________ Everything about RPGs is subjective, so everything I say about them is I my opinion and not hard facts
Having a backstory is good. Using this backstory in game is better. And for that you need background skills.
4E, the game where you play HSMFOS
Heroic
Only good, or at least unaligned adventurers are supported and no monster you can fight is good aligned.
Super-
The PCs become masters in any skill automatically and it is impossible for them to be bad at a mundane task
Mutants
Compared to NPCs of the same strength, PCs poses a ungodly amount of HP and can withstand huge mountains of punishment. That or they can spontaneously regenerate wounds.
From Outer Space
Yet despite no matter how powerful the PCs become, they can never do anything special what the "natives" (=NPCs) can do like animating a skeleton.
Oh my... Imagine an evil society which utilized slave labor with liches. Thanks to the bargain-basement rituals, the liches aren't as powerful as the real deal, but they're just as long-lasting, durable and sentient. Slaves who don't even have the option of dying... PCs could be tasked with storming the vault where the slaves' phylacteries are stored and destroying them...
WIZARDS I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU DO IT BUT MAN I CANNOT THINK OF EVEN A SINGLE COMPLAINT SUCH AS THE IDEA OF AN UNWILLING LICH BEING BIZARRO AT BEST OR THAT THIS INEVITABLY JUST BOILS DOWN DO "DRAGON SKELETON." MAN I HOPE WE GET ANOTHER SENTENCE OF FLUFF IN THE ACTUAL BOOK, THEN WE COULD ALMOST MAKE A PARAGRAPH!
PS: No harsh feelings Wizards. This post isn't directed at you, per say.
__________________ Psionics are too sci-fi, not like the traditional method of spell casting that has existed only in D&D, involves research, laboratory work, and formulas, and was cribbed directly from a series of science fiction novels. I mean, come on, calling forth the power to alter the world from your own center of will? That's not magical in the slightest! Not at all like my wizard's spell "Telepathy!"
Last edited by ProfessorCirno; 7th November 2008 at 12:08 PM..
Reason: OMG YOU'RE SO RIGHT HOW COULD I POST MY OPINION?!
I like the idea, and I can imagine the look on my players faces as they come face to face with a dracolich with its controller and it starts behaving oddly in combat. I would most likey give the Dracolich Mongel a save every round, if it succeeds it wrests partial control for the round and puts itself in danger, "accidentally" catched itsallies in its breath weapon and otherwise fighting substandardly, croaking out the phrase "kill me, please kill me, stop the pain".
And then as the dragon "dies" the party hears the sound of several ghostly dragon voices saying "thank you"
I love it. I could see the dragon giving the party hints on it's weaknesses in languages its master doesn't speak.
Dragon: (in Dwarven) Aim for the tail.
Master: What did you say?
Dragon: (in Common) Something so horrible it can't be translated. (in Far Speak) The tail, paladin! Smite it good.
I don't bother... but 4E fluff it's still dull... who's the responsible?
Deliberate design intention methinks...but i don't know why. Maybe they think readers have short attention spans and just want the bare basics to fight something?
Deliberate design intention methinks...but i don't know why. Maybe they think readers have short attention spans and just want the bare basics to fight something?
Maybe they trust gamers to invent their own details on top of what they give us? Maybe they want to encourage DM's to make the game their own, by giving them the bare bones of a monster (with description that I find tantalising and full of ideas, but YMMV) and letting them run with it?
I apologise if this sounds snarky, but I am getting quite fed up of seeing people take time to post to a thread just to say "This sucks", effectively. I fully appreciate that 4e isn't to everyone's taste, but if you didn't like something, can you at least be a bit more precise about what you didn't like, and how you'd make it better?
__________________ DM of Adventure Path Story Hour (now in Thunderspire Labyrinth!): Ryam Plays Dice - updated 8th June 09 (campaign on indefinite hiatus).
Player in Swordlands Story Hour: Interview with a Fey - updated 15th June 09. News just in - this campaign may be restarting in the near future! Watch this space!
I also have the singular honour of being Rouseketeer #20.
Maybe they trust gamers to invent their own details on top of what they give us? Maybe they want to encourage DM's to make the game their own, by giving them the bare bones of a monster (with description that I find tantalising and full of ideas, but YMMV) and letting them run with it?
I apologise if this sounds snarky, but I am getting quite fed up of seeing people take time to post to a thread just to say "This sucks", effectively. I fully appreciate that 4e isn't to everyone's taste, but if you didn't like something, can you at least be a bit more precise about what you didn't like, and how you'd make it better?
Constructive Criticism is a way of the past. We don't want that anymore, it's too much work.
Thoughts of the Arch Chancellor - My weblog on EN World - containing game related material, like: house rules, design theories, reviews, play reports, adventure ideas
Secret Member of <Think we would just hide our secret with a spoiler tag, eh?>
Deliberate design intention methinks...but i don't know why. Maybe they think readers have short attention spans and just want the bare basics to fight something?
Just looking at the fluff in this preview, we know the following:
A Bonemongrel Dracolich is an unwilling undead created from the remains of several dragons.
They are compelled by the ritual that created them tom serve thier masters, and even though they hate thier existance the ritual prevents them from harming themselves, although it doesn't compell them to flee if they are in danger.
Thier phylactory is built into thier skeletal structure.
WHat moe do you really need? As shown above by Asmor and myself, this is more than enough fluff to create interesting encounters and even adventures.
Here is another idea that I have from reading this preview:
Bonemongrels are often used by the Cult of the Dragon as guardians. These bonemongrels are usualy created from the remains of dragons who refused the gift of lichdom, or failed or betrayed the cult in some way.
WIZARDS I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU DO IT BUT MAN I CANNOT THINK OF EVEN A SINGLE COMPLAINT SUCH AS THE IDEA OF AN UNWILLING LICH BEING BIZARRO AT BEST OR THAT THIS INEVITABLY JUST BOILS DOWN DO "DRAGON SKELETON." MAN I HOPE WE GET ANOTHER SENTENCE OF FLUFF IN THE ACTUAL BOOK, THEN WE COULD ALMOST MAKE A PARAGRAPH!
PS: No harsh feelings Wizards. This post isn't directed at you, per say.
No threadcrapping please.
__________________ Plane Sailing
(Enworld Admin)
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"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
WIZARDS I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU DO IT BUT MAN I CANNOT THINK OF EVEN A SINGLE COMPLAINT SUCH AS THE IDEA OF AN UNWILLING LICH BEING BIZARRO AT BEST OR THAT THIS INEVITABLY JUST BOILS DOWN DO "DRAGON SKELETON." MAN I HOPE WE GET ANOTHER SENTENCE OF FLUFF IN THE ACTUAL BOOK, THEN WE COULD ALMOST MAKE A PARAGRAPH!
PS: No harsh feelings Wizards. This post isn't directed at you, per say.
What's with all the screaming? Everything okay? Caps Lock broken? Do you feel unwell? Should we call a doctor, a therapist or a technician?
Thoughts of the Arch Chancellor - My weblog on EN World - containing game related material, like: house rules, design theories, reviews, play reports, adventure ideas
Secret Member of <Think we would just hide our secret with a spoiler tag, eh?>
It seems quite lame to me and hardly deserving of being associated with lichdom. It also seems really limited in that they are all large in size which I supose means that either dragons have been shrunk or that they are only made from small dragon bones. Why not just call them guardian dragon skeletons or something but even then I would expect them to come in other much larger sizes. As far as liches go lame seems to fit IMO. Maybe they would have been better as constructs. Maybe there is more to them that was unpublished in the preview otherwise two thumbs down on this "dracolich".
__________________ I play 4E, it's too bad we cannot discuss its flaws yet without flamewars and thread crapping.
Good golly, the negative reaction is amazing to me. This particular version comes in large sizes. That in no way means that other versions can't come in huge or gargantuan sizes. Much like there are orcs of varying levels statted out in the various monster sources (including Dungeon), this one just happens to be a large version. Why do people feel that these kinds of rules are so constricting? I just don't get it. I really don't get it.
It looks like an interesting monster, in that it is an unwilling slave. I can already envision several interesting RP opportunities in that (one of them escapes control and tries to enlist the PCs into helping to free its kin also - do the PCs help free likely evil creatures to weaken the evil empire that enslaves them - if they do, what do the lesser liches turn out to be? is just one idea).
I really like this dragon. Its not really a "dragon" to me, in a way... its more an undead critter, but its a good undead critter.
The only thing I would add would be rules for the phylactery. Maybe something like, "It takes Ritual X to create a Dracolich Mongrel, and costs Y. If you already have the phylactery, possibly because you salvaged it after a previous Dracolich Mongrel was destroyed, the cost is reduced by Z."
Or even just a general statement: "It is far easier to recreate a Dracolich Mongrel from a salvaged phylactery than it is to create one from scratch."
That would give some simple hooks for the monster- you might have to fight it more than once because your party didn't realize they had to destroy the phylactery, and it was salvaged and rebuilt.
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