Another Immortals Handbook thread

[Upper_Krust]

Hey UK,

Hi Rhuarc mate!

most of the time I follow the thread in silence but now I've found something to contribute

I appreciate all constructive comments.

The dark picture of the Akalich is quite fine but I would prefer to see him with a more "shadowy", flowing body. At the moment he has a more or less quadratic face and a very straight body form.

There are six illustrations I am not totally happy with: the Akalich, the Cherubim, the Seraphim, the Grigori, Kabiri and the Neutronium Golem.

However even if I was to redo those pictures there is no guarantee that I would get the results I wanted. So I think its probably best if I just say enough is enough.

As regards the Akalich, I agree with you. The version I drew actually had far more detail on it than you can see, my intention was that you would be able to see some of the finer points. But technically the Akalich should be jet black. So I was really in two minds about that creature from the start and I have ended with an illustration that is neither one thing nor the other. Those monsters which are universally black are actually far more tricky to draw well than you might think. The pose and background become ultra-important and I am still finding my way back to 'match fitness' with regards the art as a whole.

Just my opinion, hope you get the book finished ASAP and keep up the great work

Thanks, I hope to get the cover finished either today or tomorrow. Then I should only need 24 hours to wrap everything up.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey Farealmer dude!

"holds 5 magic rings to the sky"
EARTH!
FIRE!
WIND!
WATER!
HEART!
GO UPPER KRUST!

Hyper-logic higher brain functions activated, Mecha-King-Krust unleashed!

I need your help, there is a debate at the dicefreaks boards about whether or not your nuclear blast stats are accurate i need you to go tell them what's what.

I shall kill him in an instant.

It's here

nonbelievers

It may take a while to get to it (page 12-13)

Done and dusted.

Remember
The power is yours!

...Omnipotence even.

 

[Pssthpok]

My current idea is that perhaps you shouldn't gain any skill points after 20th-level/20 Hit Dice. Supernatural effects (from using skills) would kick in at DC 50 with perhaps each leap of +10 representing an extra spell level. But this is just brainstorming at this stage.

BTW, what do you mean by the bolded passage?

 

[Knight Otu]

BTW, what do you mean by the bolded passage?

I suppose it means DC 50 is equivalent to a 0 level spell,
60 -> 1st
70 -> 2nd
80 -> 3rd
etc

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey guys!

I suppose it means DC 50 is equivalent to a 0 level spell,
60 -> 1st
70 -> 2nd
80 -> 3rd
etc

...what he said. Thanks Knight Otu mate.

 

[Sledge]

Removing skill points at epic levels will truly suck. I would much prefer putting some penalties based on size to physical skills.

 

[Eversius]

Removing skill points at epic levels will truly suck. I would much prefer putting some penalties based on size to physical skills.

You could just use the penalties that are in place for hide checks and the like, unless it would make sense that having a larger size would help the subject in a physical skill.

 

[Fieari]

Here's another design principle I was just thinking about. At low levels, the bonuses you get to a die roll have a much smaler influence effect on your abilities than at high levels, at which point you may as well just stop rolling, since a varience of only 20 won't get you anywhere.

But at bonuses of a mere, say, 20, rolling the d20 can potentially DOUBLE your bonus in terms of what you actually get. If your skill at Balance is 20, you can hit a DC 40 with a really lucky roll. At higher bonuses, the impact of the roll is less, and less, and less, and less.

My thought is that what if every time your bonus increases by 20, you double your d20 roll (or perhaps roll an additional d20). Start doing this when in the epic levels, so when your bonus to something is 40, that would be the first time you double, and then 60 would be triple, 80 would be quadruple, etc.

This obviously has big effects on what you can do, but consider the Encounter Level chart. As you go up in levels, the range of foes you should be able to handle goes up as well. At the moment, that involves the fact that sometimes, you have to 100% avoid certain attacks in order to be effective (because they ALWAYS work on you), or you are denied certain effects because they're 100% ineffective. But with this system, I suspect that there would be more variety amongst the foes that the EL chart say you should be able to fight.

Thoughts?

 

[Cheiromancer]

My thought is that what if every time your bonus increases by 20, you double your d20 roll (or perhaps roll an additional d20). Start doing this when in the epic levels, so when your bonus to something is 40, that would be the first time you double, and then 60 would be triple, 80 would be quadruple, etc.

Adding an extra d20 would add, on average 10.5 to your rolls. I could see that at certain intervals you would subtract 10, say, from your bonus and add another d20, but it would involve a rather "lumpy" progression.

Say you introduce it at epic levels. A fighter with a +20 BAB and +10 in various modifiers (strength, weapon focus, etc) hits AC 31 on anything but a 1. He has a very small chance of hitting AC 50. Suppose he loses 10 points of bonuses and gets to roll 2d20 instead of 1d20. Now he misses AC 31 a lot more often, but has a better chance of hitting AC 50.

(He misses AC 31 if 2d20 comes up 2-10; which is 45 chances out of 400, or 11%, vs 5% previously. He hits AC 50 if 2d20 comes up 30 or higher, which is 66/400, or 15%, vs 5% previously.)

This kind of discontinuity is a little hard to justify; why does his chance of hitting AC 31 go down?

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey guys!

Regarding the whole d20 escalation idea. I am against it to be honest. Personally I believe greater ability should bring with it less chance of failure/success (depending on the power of the ability).

So the idea that chance should always be as relative at epic levels as it is at low levels is anathema to the very idea of skill in the first place.