Lessons learned from last Saturday's D&D game.

[BiggusGeekus]

I get annoyed by players who think their PCs can just die and they can roll up new ones. That's why I think there should be some kind of pain factor in d20. Make the PCs feel pain and have it affect their abilities. I know there are a lot of house rules for that, but wonder if anyone can recommend some...

Stab them in the eye with a fork?

Another way is to reward longevity. One of the many reasons I use a 25 point buy character generation system is so that I can feel free to give the PCs power ups as time goes on. Make them eligible for certain feats that would otherwise be broken such as:


Hero of Somesmalltown

You have saved the people of Somesmalltown from the wicked orcs! Huzzah!
Benefit You gain a +2 hero bonus to your armor class


.... or you could just give the guy a +1 bonus without offering the feat at all.

The idea is that if the character dies, the player still restarts at the same level as everyone else, but since the character is new, he doesn't get the special stuff.

 

[fanboy2000]

Some things I learned, and somethings my players should have learned:

1. If it's rusting metal, send in the monk
2. If walking through the door made your companion disappear, it's probably a bad idea to walk through it yourself.
3. If the dragon is rusting metal with his breath weapon don't send in the monk, run.
4. If you meet a hobgoblin after 10th level, it's probably not a low CR creature. This is especially true if he looks well equipped.
5. The player who dosen't roleplay, powergame, metagame, or any of that other stuff will get the most instant kils.
6. Hero points make the easy and intermediate encounters easier, but they make the hard encounters memorable.
7. Multiple low-cr creatues make a better (ie, more memorable) encounter than one high-cr creatures equaling the same EL.

 

[Jeph]

Part Deux

We played again this week. Lessons learned this time:

• Selling a cursed ring that makes you want to eat people to a necromancer? Sure, they'd pay more for it!
• If a character is dropped to -9 HP from full in one round, it's time to evacuate them.
• "Evacuating" should not involve teleporting them to another continent, if it means leaving another character behind to face a skeletal dragon. Alone. (notice a pattern?)
• NEVER enter into a situation without preparing first.

That last one may need some explaining. See, recently, we've discovered Scry/Buff/Teleport. Whenever we use it, we annihilate things, utterly, in the surprise round. We've taken up to spending all of our time in warded areas to make sure that others don't use this tactic against us. Whenever we go into combat vs. a BBEG without buffing first, we get owned.

The session opened up with an S/B/T utter victory. It ended with us planning a scry-teleport-teleport raid to recover a corpse for Resurrection because we decided that we could take on an undead dragon without prepping first. In fact, our original plan was to stick together and teleport out as a group if the dragon so much as twitched, but we got cocky after an initial Flame Strike and empowered Magic Missile...

And I now realize that, had I delayed my action, we would have all gotten out.

Damn me, but we've been getting our schooling the hard way.
--Jeff

 

[pogre]

I get annoyed by players who think their PCs can just die and they can roll up new ones. That's why I think there should be some kind of pain factor in d20. Make the PCs feel pain and have it affect their abilities. I know there are a lot of house rules for that, but wonder if anyone can recommend some...

My solution is similar to BiggusGeekus - I use Character Advantage Cards. These are little boosts that I give the PCs for every level they gain. You can check them out over on my web site.

 

[shilsen]

Damn me, but we've been getting our schooling the hard way.
--Jeff

See, this is why I maintain that PCs/players always learn much more from negative experiences than positive ones. Maybe I should switch to giving PCs XP only for fights where they have their rear ends handed to them.

 

[Jeph]

See, this is why I maintain that PCs/players always learn much more from negative experiences than positive ones. Maybe I should switch to giving PCs XP only for fights where they have their rear ends handed to them.

Hey, winning's cool too.

And that dragon is going down. We should be able to get about 120 points of damage in before he can act, when we face him next.

--Jeff

 

[D+1]

As the adage goes: You just need to run away faster than the slowest character.

As it was so aptly phrased by one player in my campaign when two PC's were facing each other down: "I can run faster scared than you can angry."

 

[Rystil Arden]

Some things my PCs should have learned:

1) Baleful polymorph is called "baleful" for a reason. Don't cast it on yourself and go scouting without telling anyone.
2) Don't steal the party's stockpile of not-currently-worn magic items and give them to a thief, not even an epic thief who promises to steal all of the souls from Bel, Lord of the First.
3a) Don't charge into the dragon's trap-filled cave, even if you are a powerful wizard.
3b) When the dragon kills you, don't do the same thing again.
3c) When the dragon now soultraps you to prevent a third fiasco, do not have your cohort get Bel, Lord of the First, to sign a document trading your soul for an artifact axe, even if you think that this will make the document look more authentic.
4) Do not combine your soul with a powerful creature and expect to result with your psyche unscathed
5) Do not climb down a 300-ft cliff with a 50-ft rope
6) If the machine informs you that a Super Fusion blast self-destruct is on the way, don't pull more levers.
7) Don't disguise yourself as a gnome in a city where there are no gnomes; it makes you even more obvious
8) Don't summon evil outsiders unless you expect to become evil, especially not in sacred groves where elven souls transmigrate
9) If you see a powerful artifact that holds the energy of the forest and sits on top of a ziggurat, it is probably not a good idea to disturb it. If a modified 30 strength check doesn't budge it, you probably shouldn't go into Rage and Frenzy and try again
10) If you have successfully infiltrated the highly-warded palace, you should probably not activate a minor artifact right in the middle of the place before tracking down the necromancer-queen, even if it gives you +4 to AC.
11) If you're having problems making a caster-level check to activate an artifact that channels energy to the gods, the correct solution is not to enlist the aid of the god-hating NPC archmage.
12) If you're in a forest full of fiendish-dire animals, don't cast Pyrotechnics to let the party know where you are
13) When visiting a city wherein magic and knowledge are the only things valued, do not insult the Sage of Magic
14) Do not sell magic items you found in the ancient ruins to the evil empire against which you are fighting, even if they offer you a better price. If you do, don't use the money you gain to hire the thief from part (2) again.

Yes, my PCs did all of these things, and I'll post more if I can think of them.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I learned that, despite the DM saying he doesn't want a high-powered game, he really expects us all to be immune to crits and sneak attack. Oh, and negative levels, too.

And that it's a good idea to go around Fire Shielded and Ring of Bladesed at all times. Even when I'm coming back from the privy.

Brad

 

[megamania]

Last Saturday-

We learned what 10D6 fire and divine damage does to a gnome turning into an undead creature.

We learned that warforged can burn to death also.

We learned that even a halfling rogue knows when he is outmatched when seeing this happen.

We learned beer, chili and foods ediable ten years from now are a bad mix "Someone OPEN that window!"

The week before-

We learned 6 year olds will say "Kill the M*********ERs" if said with great enthusasium by other adults whom forgot he was there.

We already knew mom did not approve of said child hanging out with us during gaming but now has proof.