[FR]Against the Storm

[dead_radish]

Thanee: I would note that Ubaar is basically a combination of all the bent and broken rules in DnD that make nasty nasty strength. He's based on one of the iconic Sultans of Smack.

So he is fairly gross, really. Many of the original characters were pretty nasty. Elone is a manipulation of all the possible mays to make nasty FR elven cleric archers...

 

[reapersaurus]

Thanks for noting my concerns, Matt (and everyone).

I had actually forgotten about Ubaar getting schooled at grappling by the vampire.

I did exagerrate when I described Ubaar as not losing ANY arm-wrestling match. But he's damn specialized in STR, and it's not every day that someone should be able to beat him. Realistically, I wouldn't expect many things in Storm;s army to be able to compete with him in that arena when he's fully buffed (I WOULD be very interested in their stat sheet, seriously). That doesn't mean he's the best - it's just one stat (STR), and it takes a lot more than just STR to accomplish anything great, which is why he's part of a team. In my playing of Ubaar, he works best when there are synergistic combinations of classes in the party, making up for the areas that he's not good in.
And similarly, with my observation about Rahja - Ubaar can compliment enchanting sorceresses pretty well, too.

And dead_radish - I actually tried to build Ubaar without all the brokenness that's possible. In my experience, too strong of characters can negatively impact a game, making it hard for the DM to compensate. I think Ubaar is at the upper edge of that level here, but manageable.
I'd have (tried to) pop on some Arms of Nyr and other stuff if I'd thought of it as a Smackdown. Actually, I think the only abusive thing I'm using is the Rage spell. But without it, he's not very legendarily-strong.
Everything else except the Mighty Contender PrC is 3.5E, no spell greater than 2nd level. And having analyzed the MC PrC quite a bit, I don't think it's broken or even bent.
If I'd wanted to break something, I'm sure a Polymorphed Form of Annis Hag would have provided much more bang for the buck than having to pay all the points I did to get Ubaar's STR where it is (23).

With Ravin, what I was remembering was it seemed somewhat arbitrary that he couldn't get out of there (Teleport), but you sure have my sympathy in trying to work around/with the Teleport spell, Matt.
If I was a DM, I'd ban all spells that conflict with my idea of heroic gaming (as Teleport does). It just makes too many difficult opportunities possible.
Speaking of which, why don't we just have Ravin Scry on Storm, than buff up and Teleport in to kill him? <-- HUGE wink

 

[Thanee]

Speaking of which, why don't we just have Ravin Scry on Storm, than buff up and Teleport in to kill him? <-- HUGE wink

Hehe. Our regular group has done this twice lately. One time the wizard (our wizard ) died before he had even acted (disintegrate). The other time the same wizard died after acting once (destruction) and we also lost the monk (who couldn't even be resurrected and has now been replaced by a druid).

Teleporting in after scrying is not always a good thing, even fully buffed!

Bye
Thanee

 

[reapersaurus]

OK, the main thread is in desperate need of more people than me, dead_radish and DM_Matt posting regularly.

Calim last posted ten days ago, I think, and shaff I don't know.
But I'm wondering, Matt, if we need some guidelines about how often the players should post.
I think if a player can't post in >5 days, than it must be pretty hard to rely on their character for story interaction.
And this gaming form is RELIANT on character interaction to propel the story forward.

I looked at the total # of posts in the "Newcomers Thread", and it seems like Calim and shaff posted quite a bit before it became the Main thread.
So what explains their lack of posting once we get a few together?
It's kinda baffling me how it seems that every time we get a main group together, we promptly lose a couple members and have to recruit more (in their own thread to bring them in), then once they join the main group, a couple players are lost.
It's a strange phenomenon.
Is it that people just want to play solo and duo adventures?
A group this large IS difficult to keep straight, but I'd hoped the Story Recaps by Matt would help...

Anybody got any idea how to keep a consistent, regular group of players together, and posting?

 

[DM_Matt]

Well, I hadn't posted this week much either. I was buried under an avalanche of work. Regarding shaff and Calim, I don;t think that their posting atterns are differnt in this thread than in the other games they play in. It seems that its just a matter of fluctuations in how often they come to enworld. IIRC, they are both from amongst the ranks of those "hyperactive newbies" that appeared in great numbers a few months ago, and later calmed down.

I think that once you guys get doing more things actively, it will get better again perhaps. Well, at least for Calim. Ravin has a weaker motivation and less specific things for him. I will try to come u p with a way to deal in the specifics of the demolithions.

 

[Calim]

hey DM_Matt could you email me I need to ask an offline question?

 

[Thanee]

Since Matt has his e-mail in the profile, why don't you just mail him directly?

Oh, and about your question in the RG, I think it was somewhere in this thread, that they updated to 3.5. This was before I joined, tho (Rahja was created as 3.5 already), but it seems mostly everyone has done so by now.

And Matt, I don't think you really have to wait for Mith to post before Rahja is coming back. It's not like he could intervene currently.

If we get to the point where Rahja is heading back, where she left the halfling, and he still hasn't posted by then, we can still wait for him to do so before she arrives, I guess!

Bye
Thanee

 

[dead_radish]

Mirth is out of contact right now in general, I know. But yeah, sometimes I do feel like I'm playing a solo game w/DM_Matt and Ubaar. I just reply to the thread whenever my mails come in, personally....

And regarding 3.5: Elone is not 3.5, for a couple reasons, the main being 1. I don't have 3.5 and 2. I don't care for a lot of 3.5 DM_Matt has updated her a bit, I think, by giving me a few changes to spells that would be beneficial, but overall, she shouldn't really change much at all, from what I've seen...

 

[Thanee]

Are you using 3.0 or 3.5 spells?

Because 3.5 made many spells you are using different.

Greater Magic Weapon doesn't stack with itself anymore (bow + arrows) and gives only +1 per 4 levels, Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace and Endurance give a flat +4 for only 1 min. per level, and so on.

I think the spells are the only noteworthy change for the cleric, tho.

Bye
Thanee

 

[reapersaurus]

But yeah, sometimes I do feel like I'm playing a solo game w/DM_Matt and Ubaar.

Yeah, you've been great in giving me something to work with - there's just only so much that we 2 can cover, you know?

We need more voices than just ours and the occasional NPC to push the story along.

I think we've nursed it for a pretty long time - we need more players posting.
How long till Thanee can get in the main thread?