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General frustrations (and solutions) with 3E
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<blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 3880040" data-attributes="member: 22424"><p>Several of these things are the big frustrations with the game in general, and hopefully will be fixed in 4e. Things like narrowing the gap between what your character can and can't do, reducing the frustration of buffs and debuffs, and cleaning up flight are hopefully high on the designer's agendas.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, one thing I can help with:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>You probably find that your group use exactly the same buffs 90% of the time, right? Or maybe there are a couple of combinations you use, but there tend not to be many, yes?</p><p></p><p>So, I recommend setting up a standard 'buff package' or two, agreed between the players and the DM, listing who casts which spells, on whom, and in which order. You can then pre-calculate the effects, and just use the appropriate set of results when the time comes.</p><p></p><p>Additional savings can be had by the DM introducing a House Rule that Dispel Magic and similar debuffs will strip the 'buff package' in layers, always starting with the shortest-duration spells. That way, if your 'buff package' consists of five spells, you can pre-generate six sets of stats:</p><p></p><p>Basic Char</p><p>Basic Char +B1</p><p>Basic Char +B1 +B2</p><p>Basic Char +B1 +B2 +B3</p><p>Basic Char +B1 +B2 +B3 +B4</p><p>Basic Char +B1 +B2 +B3 +B4 +B5</p><p></p><p>If your character is then hit with a targetted Dispel Magic, the DM should roll five dispel checks, as normal. However, the order in which they are rolled is ignored - if any three succeed then you are dropped three steps down the track.</p><p></p><p>(Where this fails is if the spell effects have different caster levels, especially if some come from potions or scrolls. Here, I see several options:</p><p></p><p>1) Ignore this issue, and just use the highest (or average) caster level for all the spell effects</p><p>2) Instead of peeling back the buffs in order of shortest-duration, they get peeled back in order of lowest-caster-level. This isn't ideal, because the shortest-duration option handles also the case where the 'buff package' is gradually wearing off, which this adjustment fails to cover</p><p>3) Use the character level of the recipient as the caster level for the purpose of the dispel check</p><p>4) Calculate the caster level equal to that of the weakest effect, plus 1 per additonal effect (so, if a Wiz 5 contributes B1, a Clr 4 contributes B2, B3 and B4, and a potion at CL3 gives B5, then the caster level for the dispel checks would be 3 + 4 = 7))</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="delericho, post: 3880040, member: 22424"] Several of these things are the big frustrations with the game in general, and hopefully will be fixed in 4e. Things like narrowing the gap between what your character can and can't do, reducing the frustration of buffs and debuffs, and cleaning up flight are hopefully high on the designer's agendas. Anyway, one thing I can help with: You probably find that your group use exactly the same buffs 90% of the time, right? Or maybe there are a couple of combinations you use, but there tend not to be many, yes? So, I recommend setting up a standard 'buff package' or two, agreed between the players and the DM, listing who casts which spells, on whom, and in which order. You can then pre-calculate the effects, and just use the appropriate set of results when the time comes. Additional savings can be had by the DM introducing a House Rule that Dispel Magic and similar debuffs will strip the 'buff package' in layers, always starting with the shortest-duration spells. That way, if your 'buff package' consists of five spells, you can pre-generate six sets of stats: Basic Char Basic Char +B1 Basic Char +B1 +B2 Basic Char +B1 +B2 +B3 Basic Char +B1 +B2 +B3 +B4 Basic Char +B1 +B2 +B3 +B4 +B5 If your character is then hit with a targetted Dispel Magic, the DM should roll five dispel checks, as normal. However, the order in which they are rolled is ignored - if any three succeed then you are dropped three steps down the track. (Where this fails is if the spell effects have different caster levels, especially if some come from potions or scrolls. Here, I see several options: 1) Ignore this issue, and just use the highest (or average) caster level for all the spell effects 2) Instead of peeling back the buffs in order of shortest-duration, they get peeled back in order of lowest-caster-level. This isn't ideal, because the shortest-duration option handles also the case where the 'buff package' is gradually wearing off, which this adjustment fails to cover 3) Use the character level of the recipient as the caster level for the purpose of the dispel check 4) Calculate the caster level equal to that of the weakest effect, plus 1 per additonal effect (so, if a Wiz 5 contributes B1, a Clr 4 contributes B2, B3 and B4, and a potion at CL3 gives B5, then the caster level for the dispel checks would be 3 + 4 = 7)) [/QUOTE]
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