Clerics can't heal (NPCs)?

[Lizard]

I suspect it is either 2 or 4. They can either heal up to half HP, or have enough to be full... once.


Fitz

1+Con Bonus? (Minimum 1)

Based on role? (Soldiers more, skulkers less?)

Based on minion, normal, elite, solo?

I rather like the "currency" of healing surges. It's an interesting mechanic with a lot of uses, and a better way to represent "life force" than levels, always one of the clumsiest mechanics in D&D.

 

[Nytmare]

Would I be the only person who doesn't necessarily have a problem with schlub commoners and random guys off the street maybe not having the fortitude and wherewithal to pick themselves up and dust themselves off just because a PC tried healing them or yelled at them to get up and walk it off?

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I guess this is sorta not-what some are looking for, but I view it like this:

The Commander is a Commander because that is what he is at that moment in-time, the rest of the universe and thus the happenings in the universe cease to exist outside the bubble of the PCs knowledge/influence.

The same goes for abilities, the abilities he has are the abilities he shows to the PCs at the moment he exists in that universe of influence the PCs have. If he shows up later and I have decided he is now... A General, his new abilities are those he shows the PCs and thus at that time-period those are his only abilities in the universe.

Essentially the game-world is the PCs sphere of influence and the only thing that is true and right in that world, is what the PCs are currently interacting with and see.

 

[Lizard]

Essentially the game-world is the PCs sphere of influence and the only thing that is true and right in that world, is what the PCs are currently interacting with and see.

Which I guess works for most people, based on comments here, but it drives me nuts. I like to have at least a millennia of history before I even start thinking about designing the first adventure...

If the PCs foil the plans of a hobgoblin captain when they're level 6, when they run into him as a general at level 15, I want there to be a mechanical connection -- I want him to feel, in game stats, like the same character, just more uber. If he has a set of 'general' powers which don't connect/build off his 'captain' powers, that feels wrong to me. I may be the only one.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Well it is not that there isn't history or backstory to things. It is simply they are just bare-bones, they are not fleshed out till the PCs join the picture.

You would make the hob-goblin feel familiar by using dialogue, his mannerisms, etc. His mechanical abilities, sure he may know the same abilities he had before in his mind. But in practise he only used for that battle his current stat-blocks, since that is all the PCs saw so that is all that exists.

 

[Lizard]

Well it is not that there isn't history or backstory to things. It is simply they are just bare-bones, they are not fleshed out till the PCs join the picture.

You would make the hob-goblin feel familiar by using dialogue, his mannerisms, etc. His mechanical abilities, sure he may know the same abilities he had before in his mind. But in practise he only used for that battle his current stat-blocks, since that is all the PCs saw so that is all that exists.

If a tree falls in the forest, and there are no PCs around, neither the tree nor the forest exists, eh?

I suppose I can see how it feels in play. Not much to do about it until then.

 

[hong]

I wonder if the people who read Pride and Prejudice ever stay awake all night thinking about Elizabeth and Darcy because otherwise, THEY MIGHT DISAPPEAR.

 

[GnomeWorks]

If he has a set of 'general' powers which don't connect/build off his 'captain' powers, that feels wrong to me. I may be the only one.

You're not.

The players, and their characters, are not special. They are simply another group of people in the world, with the possibility of rising to great heights.

But the world should be alive around them. Things should happen that they have no connection to - that tavern they frequent burned down last week when they were out adventuring, or their local fence got caught and thrown in prison, or what-have-you. If you just focus on the adventurers and nothing around them, the world is two-dimensional; it has no substance.

The world should feel alive. It's more immersive and more interesting, that way. The games should rightly focus on the players, but that doesn't mean that there aren't things happening elsewhere.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

If a tree falls in the forest, and there are no PCs around, neither the tree nor the forest exists, eh?

I suppose I can see how it feels in play. Not much to do about it until then.

Yeah, I'll admit it is quite a change from what seems to be your style of play. But it can be just as indepth and interesting as a fully thought-out, whole-world is mapped day-by-day style campaign.

I am not sure how much an issue time is for you, but it also allows for easier to build campaigns, also easier for the PCs to deviate.

To take this time example farther, say you were ready for them to face the Hob-Goblin when he is a General but by deviating plot-wise they wind up meeting him sooner, well... Then to show progression, pull up a stat-block for a major and your good to go.

As for the tree, well you the DM decides if when the PC comes across the tree if it will have fallen down then or not. If it has, well it has, if it hasn't it hasn't, if it currently in the process of it does it.

When the PCs leave, it ceases to exist in any-three forms, but come back, it comes back to existence in the form you see fit.

 

[GnomeWorks]

I wonder if the people who read Pride and Prejudice ever stay awake all night thinking about Elizabeth and Darcy because otherwise, THEY MIGHT DISAPPEAR.

I wonder if the players in your games ever care about anything they encounter in a setting, hong. Because it's hard to care about paper cutouts.

Oh, right, that'd be thinking too hard about fantasy. Sorry, I forgot that you like vanilla.