[Age of Worms] Rules/Options in Play

[satori01]

Ninjas (Complete Adventurer) are either not powerful enough by a wide margin or require a completely different approach than the one used in my campaign. I have yet to be impressed by the powers of the 5th-level binder (Tome of Magic) from my campaign. His kewl abilities rarely come into play.

--Erik

Wasnt the Ninja in your Campaign chronically plagued by bad rolls?
I seem to remember one of your editorials saying on the very session that the Ninja was sorta rolling well, he died...and everyone figured enough is enough. Would have been interesting to see a mid level Ninja say in the Mind Flayer/Greater Doppelganger house where the supposed agility and jumping abilities of the class can come into play. Frankly when Sudden Strike is your schtick.....AOW is really going to suck for you in the end game. See Invis and Undead are just going to ruin your day, and super jumps are not that cool when flying becomes common.

 

[Jack of Shadows]

Wasnt the Ninja in your Campaign chronically plagued by bad rolls?
I seem to remember one of your editorials saying on the very session that the Ninja was sorta rolling well, he died...and everyone figured enough is enough. Would have been interesting to see a mid level Ninja say in the Mind Flayer/Greater Doppelganger house where the supposed agility and jumping abilities of the class can come into play. Frankly when Sudden Strike is your schtick.....AOW is really going to suck for you in the end game. See Invis and Undead are just going to ruin your day, and super jumps are not that cool when flying becomes common.

We had a Kobold Ninja in our four party group for the first adventure. We'd all be dead with out him. Admittedly we used all the kobold rules from WotC's web enhancement so with Max ranks he had a Hide skill of +16 at 1st level. He also had the highest AC in the party and he wasn't wearing armor. Now admittedly he probably would have been just as good as a rogue but the Ninja stuff was just cool.

I do think that a quick fix for the Ninja would be to give them Sneak Attack over their Sudden Strike. Something we missed while playing him is that the Ghost Step invisibility lasts the entire round regardless of whether the ninja attacks or not. We assumed it was like the invisibility spell. Much more useful when used correctly.

Jack.

 

[chaotix42]

My group is running with pretty much every WotC 3.5 book available for use, as well as 3rd party books such as Hyperconscious, and tons of monster books such as Book of Fiends, Advanced Bestiary, Book of Templates, and many others. Dragon & Dungeon magazine are heavily integrated into my games. Chosen material has to be approved before it as allowed in-game, but I can be rather flexible.

Beyond material allowed, the game is gestalt and uses the bonus feat every level alternate rule, instead of once at 1st & every 3rd. The characters have lots of power, but we play in Eberron where the release of a god (Kyuss) is epic Prophecy in motion, and the characters are akin to Prophecy incarnate moving in opposition of tremendous evil. They're a bit like superheros to Eberron's normal populace, and Kyuss & his agents are the super villains.

I am about to ban the spell "close wounds," from the Spell Compendium, from my campaigns forever. The immediate action casting time forces the DM to "rewind," which is an absolutely deplorable design development in my opinion. It nearly happened again tonight, and it would have taken all of the narrative momentum out of an otherwise excellent encounter.

On the contrary, my group loves to utility of the spell, and the healer//paladin of freedom in my game has saved the knight//fighter from too many close calls to count. Do you dislike immediate actions in general? I've never had much of a problem adjusting my descriptions to fit them in. "As the knight falls, a glare from the healer channels waves of positive energy into her, propping the valiant heroine up even as she tumbles beneath her foe's attacks. White energy limns her, steadying her knees and filling her lungs with a soothing second wind."

I'm sure you have no trouble with dramatic narration, so does it kill the suspense or something? Make combat less tense, or keep you from bumping off a weak character because the cleric nearby can pump out an immediate healing spell? I can see how it would throw a wrench in a few plans...

 

[Beckett]

I am about to ban the spell "close wounds," from the Spell Compendium, from my campaigns forever. The immediate action casting time forces the DM to "rewind," which is an absolutely deplorable design development in my opinion. It nearly happened again tonight, and it would have taken all of the narrative momentum out of an otherwise excellent encounter.

Oh god yes. I'm begining to loath the spell, even when I'm a player. It can really throw off the pacing, and it makes me think back to a Rules thread on when you can do immediate actions- are they interupts in the middle of actions, or between? Going have to take a look at that spell.

Erik's post also reminds me that I've got a few more pre-approved books with Tome of Magic (untouched so far) and the Miniatures Handbook (a gestalt Favored Soul/Healer is the prime source of party healing and buffs). Anything else (including ALL prestige classes, even from sources I'd mentioned) has to be run by me, but I'm pretty open- feats from Dragon or thrid party sources will probably get okayed, but I want a chance to look at the thing first.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I have yet to be impressed by the powers of the 5th-level binder (Tome of Magic) from my campaign. His kewl abilities rarely come into play.

--Erik

Same here. It lacks true versatility (even compared to vancian casters), and the incarnate/totemist thoroughly trumps it. Too many of the special abilities are tied up in getting weapon/armor proficiencies - since really all the guy does is fight, he should have these from the beginning. I moved most of its 5 round abilities to d4 rounds, and its still not that great.

 

[Festivus]

PHB2, Spell Compendium, XPH.

Bear in mind that since I allowed the players to use these books, I rewrote some of the encounters to include them as well.

 

[DarkSoldier]

Do not allow unrestricted access to the Spell Compendium. When your clerics gain 6th-level spells, they will take bolt of glory, which does (CL)d12 to evil outsiders and undead, as opposed to the spell when it originally appeared in Book of Exalted Deeds, where it only did (CL)d8 to evil outsiders and undead, and wasn't even on the cleric list, just exalted arcanist and Glory domain.

 

[Menexenus]

For those who have started the Adventure Path, or completed it, what rules and options other than the Core Rules / SRD (or perhaps even modifications to the Core Rules / SRD) did you or your DM use?

None. My group has always played plain vanilla D&D, and we're quite happy with it. If someone was dying to try out a particular PrC outside of the Core Books, I'd have to OK it first, but so far, no one has asked to.

 

[Torpedo]

My Age of Worms campaign takes place in the World of Greyhawk and uses the D&D 3.5 rules. In addition to the 3 core rulebooks, I've allowed the players to use any of the following resources from my personal library:

Player's Hanbook II
Spell Compendium
Expanded Psionics Hanbook
Complete Adventurer
Complete Arcane
Complete Divine
Complete Warrior
Tome of Magic
Heroes of Battle
Heroes of Horror
Dragon Magazine Issues 309-current issue
Frostburn
Sandstorm
Stormwrack
Manual of the Planes
Libris Mortis
Lords of Madness
Draconomicon
Weapons of Legacy
Living Greyhawk Gazetteer
Greyhawk Player's Guide (2nd Edition)
Greyhawk The Adventure Begins (2nd Edition)

Other books would require special permission (e.g. Book of Vile Darkness). I do not own (yet) the Tome of Battle or the Races of ... Books. If I add them to my library or a player can consistently bring one to the gaming session I'll likely allow them.

I've yet to experience any problems. Two party members have died, a Human Fighter and a Human Warmage. The current party consists of a Human Fighter, Human Cleric of St. Cuthbert, Human Rogue / Fighter, Elan Psion (Kineticist), and a Human Wizard. Even with all those options available to the group, the four classic characters were chosen.