KahlessNestor
Adventurer
Ugh. Someone tell them to just stop. Extra Life is going to get plenty of money without any of these shenanigans.
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Mike Mearls is polling about how much you'd pay for him to make you an AL legal custom subclass
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Just for my benefit.... are some of you upset because of the potential unbalancing of AL or some custom content to be accessed by the favored few?
In my opinion, if you are upset due to unbalancing, then that ship has sailed off a while ago.... AL as it is currently is HUGELY unbalanced.
Let me cite some examples:
1. The Deck of Many Things - Not sure how this got into AL but this is making the rounds in my area giving away uncarted legendary items and attribute increases up to 24 - Unverifiable
2. The Maze Engine - Roll the right number on a table and get a attribute up to 24 - Unverifiable
3. Storm Kings Thunder Rolled Treasure Tables - Table I which houses most if not all legendary items described in the DMG - Unverifiable
4. Introduction of powerful artifacts into AL via the books in Tier 2 - Hazirawn for the most part and now the The Forgotten One Staff
If you are more upset of the beginnings of elitist community, then you have more of a point. I personally started in 4E but I have heard numerous stories / rumors of players in Living Greyhawk and Living City who were triad members or close friends of triad members that had one of kind stuff. So much to the point that it divided the community of haves and have nots.
Does the community really want to start that kind of stuff up again?
In my opinion, if you are upset due to unbalancing, then that ship has sailed off a while ago.... AL as it is currently is HUGELY unbalanced.
Let me cite some examples:
1. The Deck of Many Things - Not sure how this got into AL but this is making the rounds in my area giving away uncarted legendary items and attribute increases up to 24 - Unverifiable
2. The Maze Engine - Roll the right number on a table and get a attribute up to 24 - Unverifiable
3. Storm Kings Thunder Rolled Treasure Tables - Table I which houses most if not all legendary items described in the DMG - Unverifiable
4. Introduction of powerful artifacts into AL via the books in Tier 2 - Hazirawn for the most part and now the The Forgotten One Staff
If you are more upset of the beginnings of elitist community, then you have more of a point. I personally started in 4E but I have heard numerous stories / rumors of players in Living Greyhawk and Living City who were triad members or close friends of triad members that had one of kind stuff. So much to the point that it divided the community of haves and have nots.
Does the community really want to start that kind of stuff up again?
jimtillman
Explorer
i said i'd pay 20 bucks 
cause why not its for charity but there is no way i could rationalize paying 250+ its funny though a few people might do 250 but a lot of people would shell up 20 bucks
cause why not its for charity but there is no way i could rationalize paying 250+ its funny though a few people might do 250 but a lot of people would shell up 20 bucks
KahlessNestor
Adventurer
How about both? We haven't done many hardcovers in my local AL, so I haven't seen the ones you mention. But at least we know about those. And everyone theoretically can get them. But when some guy comes back with a scrawled reroll boon on his character sheet from Jeremy Crawford, how do I know that's legit? At least I can say "no" to it (but now I'm a bad DM). And now we have pay to win schemes like this.
My point to the first item is that AL is already out of control. Normally, when I occasionally DM, I am usually DMing the higher tiers. In the last 3 months, I have had characters with the following:
1. 2 Stats at 22 with 5 feats... mostly from pulling cards from a Deck of Many Things.
2. A character handing out to other players the following items: Staff of the Magi to a Wizard, and a Holy Avenger to another Paladin at the table... Mind you these were items not attuned to the character... majority of the items were acquired in Storm Kings Thunder
3. A non Barbarian character with almost having resistances to all elements except cold... mainly from Wishes attained from another book source
What Mike Mearls is doing in my opinion is just piling more inbalance that is already existing....at some point, it really doesn't matter
Now given all that, my games that I DM go pretty much according to how I plan it out. The party always feels that they are challenged no matter what kind of stuff they bring. How do I know this? By the look in their eyes when they realize that their super character might get killed, disintegrated, imprisoned, captured etc... depending on what the adventure entails.
My personal opinion is that if everything is available to all the players then I am good.... flavor certs aside, I believe everyone wants to play a game that they feel is on an even playing field and giving a lucky few a mechanical advantage no matter how small and for what reason is the wrong direction if you are trying to grow the game to have a wider audience and become more main stream.
Cascade
First Post
well there ya go...it's just crap.
Whatever floats your boat...
Enjoy being the bad guy.
I'd argue that you're exaggerating to help make your point. Case in point:
I'll agree that Hazirawn wasn't handled well, but at least part of that problem is that Hazirawn was written before the rules for intelligent magic items were even finalized -- the big problem with Hazirawn isn't so much that it's over-powered (though it is powerful), but that it doesn't follow the existing rules for intelligent magic items and thus AL DMs have difficulty figuring out how to adjudicate its use.
This has gotten a lot better with time -- for example, nobody got to take Blackrazor out of White Plume Mountain in AL. Many other powerful artifact-level items have similarly been legislated away by the AL admins and rightly so.
Things like the Maze Engine and the Deck of Many Things are still problematic, because those who are inclined to do so are still going to cheat to exploit them, but in these cases, I'm OK with the idea that, if their cheating is obvious, the DM has the authority to deny the cheater the benefit of his cheating at the table.
That's what makes this such a different kettle of fish -- it's a completely legal AL cert which we've been instructed by the admins cannot be challenged at the table, and it's been handed out by fiat by the guy in charge of the game. I'd be willing to give the 'but it's for sick kids' argument a bit more weight if these things were being done under the aegis of WotC's Extra Life effort, but they aren't -- they're not listed on WotC's Extra Life page at all (which as of the time of this writing only has $190 raised out of a $10K goal).
Mearls's 'pay me to get a custom thing for AL' is being hosted on his personal Extra Life page. So he's not even doing it in his capacity as head of D&D or chief muckty-muck of AL -- he's using his power over AL to advance his personal agenda. Even if it's for a good cause, it's still wrong, and it's causing others to do the same thing.
The genie is now officially out of the bottle, and it's making me seriously think about the kind of organization I've been giving my time and energy to, for free, for nearly three years. If the people at the very top of the organization can exploit the community to meet their own agendas, why should I keep being the sap who tries to convince everyone to play by the rules?
--
Pauper
Pauper,
By writing of the Hazirawn example... you are making my point. Hazirawn was the tip of the iceberg and set the precedent of what was to come. What you say about Blackrazor et al is true but I would argue that it is an anomaly, an outlier.
If the admin were serious about organized play balance and an even playing field, they would have addressed those other things that I already pointed out.
I can argue the notion that those other things are far, far worse for the campaign than the denial of 3 or 4 items.
That is why this isn't a "different kettle of fish"... it is the same old stuff just in a different package
To be honest, Pauper you have always amused me because ever since 4E you posts have almost always defended the Admin in whatever they did. You are what they call a Kool-Aid drinker.
It is equally amusing to me that of all the things that have transpired, this is what has shaken your belief and confidence in the powers that be.
By writing of the Hazirawn example... you are making my point. Hazirawn was the tip of the iceberg and set the precedent of what was to come. What you say about Blackrazor et al is true but I would argue that it is an anomaly, an outlier.
If the admin were serious about organized play balance and an even playing field, they would have addressed those other things that I already pointed out.
I can argue the notion that those other things are far, far worse for the campaign than the denial of 3 or 4 items.
That is why this isn't a "different kettle of fish"... it is the same old stuff just in a different package
To be honest, Pauper you have always amused me because ever since 4E you posts have almost always defended the Admin in whatever they did. You are what they call a Kool-Aid drinker.
It is equally amusing to me that of all the things that have transpired, this is what has shaken your belief and confidence in the powers that be.
And another thing.....
Even if something is highly improbable, does not make it impossible to do.
In the world they call Organized Play, as a DM are you going to take that 10 to 15 minutes and perhaps longer to argue the validity of a player's character?
That is just wasted time in a 4 hour slot and a disservice to the other players at the table
Calling something or someone cheating when it can not be verified either way is irresponsible and kills the golden rule of just having fun at the table.
Even if something is highly improbable, does not make it impossible to do.
In the world they call Organized Play, as a DM are you going to take that 10 to 15 minutes and perhaps longer to argue the validity of a player's character?
That is just wasted time in a 4 hour slot and a disservice to the other players at the table
Calling something or someone cheating when it can not be verified either way is irresponsible and kills the golden rule of just having fun at the table.
MichaelSomething
Legend
Why do we assume that the custom subclass will be OP? It could end up being under powered or just plain weird.
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