The wise men of the great library are back from collecting data and getting drunk off their asses at the Hanging Man tavern. They have now completed the adventurer's census of Daunton.
Humans rule! But this is mostly tradition. A lot of people play humans no matter what. I know I was playing mostly humans in AD&D when there was no good mechanical reasons to do it, considering I have never played in a campaign when level limits were an issue.
I also notice that about 17% of the race are MM races and half of these are bugbears and minotaurs. It likely has something to do with the dubious oversized weapon madness. Just saying...
Okay, so, people... STOP MAKING STRIKERS!
Ahem. No, seriously, just consider when crafting a new character that if it is a striker, it's not likely to wow anyone. If scarcity creatres value, then a striker is the least valuable commodity, right now.
Defenders are on target while leaders and controllers are in short supply.
Builds (and entire classes!) that are still at 0% or very low should be seen as opportunities to make a PCs that will stand out.
If you really want to make another 1h fighter, TW rangers or artful dodgers, fine, but you may run into your clone, one of these days!
Last edited by Mal Malenkirk; 5th July 2009 at 02:15 AM..
How did you collect the data? Or, to be more specific, what was the criteria for who got counted? I don't think there are that many active minotaurs/bugbears (I can think of three total: Hrav, Vaunea, and, er, I'm sure there's another bugbear rogue). And I know there are a couple barbarians about.
Hey, who's the assault swordmage? I didn't know we had one of those.
Well, I would imagine he used the Official Approved Characters list. Seems the natural choice (and it's what I used when I took an accounting of levels/classes/races recently).
However, yes, there are a number of characters waiting for approval, or just recently approved. I know there's a third sorcerer, and dimsdale has a barbarian. I think with shamans and druids, we just need to wait a bit. I know I've heard rumors or a druid or two being cooked up, but people might be taking their time since there's a big load of characters due to finish adventures and not enough new adventures for them to go on (which would mean that 2nd characters will have to wait anyways).
I think it would be interesting to go through all of the active adventures and the tavern and take a census of all the currently active characters, though that would be a fair bit more work.
Lastly: TwoHeads, shame on you! The other bugbear rogue is Heinrich, in Ring of the Feylord with Haruka. Not sure if we can count him as active, though.
Lastly: TwoHeads, shame on you! The other bugbear rogue is Heinrich, in Ring of the Feylord with Haruka. Not sure if we can count him as active, though.
Who?
Ha, no, kidding. I wasn't counting Heinrich. I was thinking of Grim, who's actually a ranger.
Wow that's awesome thanks for the census, bet that was alot of work.
Maybe a little over two hours, most of it coming from the bad idea I had to also recense the differents build, because just doing the races or the class was a snap. The builds on the other hand required me to open all the wiki page of all the PCs (except those kind enough to put it in the title). That took a while.
If you think that's a lot of work, you can start a petition to convince judges to give me DM credit for it!
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How did you collect the data? Or, to be more specific, what was the criteria for who got counted? I don't think there are that many active minotaurs/bugbears (I can think of three total: Hrav, Vaunea, and, er, I'm sure there's another bugbear rogue). And I know there are a couple barbarians about.
Official approved character list, excluding the retired characters.
Yeah, I know of at least 2 barbarians on the way but they weren't on the list yet.
Considering the minotaurs and bugbears, what can I say; they may not all be active but they are still just 2 shy of bing 10% of the total population.
Thanks for putting that together, Mal! Very interesting. I'm curious as to how PC level plays into all that data, but don't go running to figure that on my account.
Two responses from me regarding my current and potential characters:
1) Yes, I love Hrav's large rapier. But that's not the main reason I picked bugbear. I really wanted to play a brutal rogue, and at the time, that was the only Str/Dex race out there (since joined by half-orcs). Plus, I love the Bacartan "monster pirate" theme.
2) I'm strongly considering a warforged guardian druid for my second character. Not influenced by this at all, of course not... That'd be the first druid and help up the controller count.
__________________ Gary Hoggatt - www.garyh.net "Such heroic nonsense..."
Yeah, it seems a little odd, warforged are not a natural thematic fit for primal classes in my opinion, but I guess their bonuses work out pretty well. They are great for warden and barbarian, okay for druid and shaman. Goliath has the same stat bonuses and seem like a more natural fit. Not that there's anything wrong with primal warforged... people like to play against type too, I suppose.
When I ever get to make a second character it will be a druid. Most likely human though, so I won't be helping balance out the race mix.
I absolutely LOVE the Swordmage who uses the Aegis of Shielding. In fact... in non-PbP games, I'm using 2 of them (two seperate games of course). One is a Dwarf with 20 Con (he's only 3rd level). Being able to stare into an enemies eyes and say "Don't waste you're time hitting my friends"... only to have the DM attack an ally anyways, and then completely negate his attack because the damage was less than 10 damage (yes... 5 con mod +5... truly an awesome defense!), not to mention the 40 HP (with toughness mind you) at 1st level was nice!
All of that asside... I just do NOT understand the Assault and Ensnarement builds.
Assault: Why in the world would I want the ability to do a basic attack against an enemy AFTER he hit and damaged my friends... It's not an immediate interupt, so it's not like you're preventing any damage from happening... you're just getting revenge after the fact (which might prevent further damage if you kill it, but still).
Ensnarement: Okay... teleporting an enemy to YOU is kinda cool, but it still doesn't prevent any damage before you do so. You don't even get a free attack against the bastage that you teleported to you. The combat advantage is a nice addition after the teleport, but that's just extra goodies for your strikers. It doesn't make you any better at keeping your allies alive.
Maybe I'm missing something here, but I think I'll stick with my Aegis of Shielding...
I absolutely LOVE the Swordmage who uses the Aegis of Shielding. In fact... in non-PbP games, I'm using 2 of them (two seperate games of course). One is a Dwarf with 20 Con (he's only 3rd level). Being able to stare into an enemies eyes and say "Don't waste you're time hitting my friends"... only to have the DM attack an ally anyways, and then completely negate his attack because the damage was less than 10 damage (yes... 5 con mod +5... truly an awesome defense!), not to mention the 40 HP (with toughness mind you) at 1st level was nice!
Yes, ditto. Although I tend to have my Swordmage run away from whoever's Aegised. So it's not "Attack me or attack them at -2 to hit and -8 damage", but instead "Come over here to attack me, drawing AoO's and having to traverse the wizard's zones/conjurations/stuff, or attack them at -2 to hit and -8 damage."
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Originally Posted by Kalidrev
All of that asside... I just do NOT understand the Assault and Ensnarement builds.
Assault: Why in the world would I want the ability to do a basic attack against an enemy AFTER he hit and damaged my friends... It's not an immediate interupt, so it's not like you're preventing any damage from happening... you're just getting revenge after the fact (which might prevent further damage if you kill it, but still).
Because it's cool. Teleporting around attacking guys is just cool. I think shoving -8 damage (or more) down an opponent's throat is also cool, but I can certainly understand the appeal.
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Originally Posted by Kalidrev
Ensnarement: Okay... teleporting an enemy to YOU is kinda cool, but it still doesn't prevent any damage before you do so. You don't even get a free attack against the bastage that you teleported to you. The combat advantage is a nice addition after the teleport, but that's just extra goodies for your strikers. It doesn't make you any better at keeping your allies alive.
Have you seen the feats that enhace Ensnarement? Ok, they get their attack, and then they're hosed. Slowed (later immobolized) and you get +5 damage against them.
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Originally Posted by Kalidrev
Maybe I'm missing something here, but I think I'll stick with my Aegis of Shielding...
I've only played a Shielding Swordmage, but I DMed for an Assault one. He used the Feytouched Warlock PP to get Slashing Wake (deal Int mod damage to all adjacent enemies when you teleport) and then chose all the teleporting powers he could. He wasn't as effect of tank as the fighter in the group, but he was able to pop around to behind the enemies' lines, kill minions with move actions, and harass the casters, and then either drag his marked target around with him, or teleport back to where he was needed the most.
I do prefer the Shielding to the other two (obviously), and I think it is the "stronger" choice. But popping back and forth or yanking guys around is fun.
Yes, ditto. Although I tend to have my Swordmage run away from whoever's Aegised. So it's not "Attack me or attack them at -2 to hit and -8 damage", but instead "Come over here to attack me, drawing AoO's and having to traverse the wizard's zones/conjurations/stuff, or attack them at -2 to hit and -8 damage."
That is an absolutely awesome tactic. If my group weren't always (for some odd reason) stuck in some rather narrow confines (picture a 5 by 5 area filled with enemies leaving just enough room for the 5 allies with say... 2 or 3 empty spaces...
Because of this, my dwarf has taken a few of the more interesting powers that allow him to teleport an enemy somewhere else juuuust as he's about to attack one of my buddies... and I get to place him where I want. Does it make me a complete A**H**** that I tend to place the badguy where he's flanking an enemy with another of my allies? I tend to think it makes me awesome ^_^.
So far, I think the shielding swordmage has been my favorite defending class, though Crag (in all his lvl 1 glory) is impressing the hell outta me with his resilience (too bad all his attacks have been missing *pout*)
The other bugbear rogue is Heinrich, in Ring of the Feylord with Haruka. 
Not sure if we can count him as active, though.
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