The Cunningly Disguised MMIV Preview

[Knight Otu]

Where's that rule?

Shockingly enough, in the description of the Jump skill.

Your Jump check is modified by your speed. If your speed is 30 feet then no modifier based on speed applies to the check. If your speed is less than 30 feet, you take a –6 penalty for every 10 feet of speed less than 30 feet. If your speed is greater than 30 feet, you gain a +4 bonus for every 10 feet beyond 30 feet.

 

[Staffan]

Dislike specified treasure

The specified treasure is just an example. If you read on a bit, you'll see that it says "Redspawn arcanisses have standard treasure for NPCs of their Challenge Rating" (under "Typical Treasure" near the end).

I like that they've added some details to the statblock (as compared to the ones I've seen in adventures) to make them more complete as monster writeups, such as advancement and, at the very end of the description, LA.

 

[Nellisir]

The specified treasure is just an example. If you read on a bit, you'll see that it says "Redspawn arcanisses have standard treasure for NPCs of their Challenge Rating" (under "Typical Treasure" near the end).

I like that they've added some details to the statblock (as compared to the ones I've seen in adventures) to make them more complete as monster writeups, such as advancement and, at the very end of the description, LA.

I'll admit that my complaint about the specified treasure was more knee-jerk, or perhaps just jerk, than anything. If they give example treasures for most creatures, I'll probably end up using that more often than not. Rolling up treasure is one area that could use some streamlining, IMO.

 

[Garnfellow]

Shockingly enough, in the description of the Jump skill.

That's interesting -- I never noticed that tidbit before. I assume this stacks with armor check penalties, so that scale mail would impose a total Jump modifier of -8? (-4 for armor check penalty, -4 for speed of 20 ft.)

 

[Knight Otu]

That's interesting -- I never noticed that tidbit before. I assume this stacks with armor check penalties, so that scale mail would impose a total Jump modifier of -8? (-4 for armor check penalty, -4 for speed of 20 ft.)

I do think so, yes. Though it would be -10 (the penalty for lower speed is -6 ). Rather hoses the slow races, such as halflings, too. I guess the only reason I'm aware of the rule is because I'm one of the character judges of Living Enworld.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Not necessarily true. Even assuming D&D gods do depend on worship to exist, they don't need to have been created by a particular set of worshippers. Tiamat, for example, could have been created by the worship of a primal race of dragons or dragonlike beings and, taking some of them as mates, could have created chromatic dragons. These chromatic dragons became her primary worshippers, but they weren't necessarily her first worshippers.

Yes, I agree. It is FR canon that gods require worshippers, but it seems to be GH canon that gods in that world don't. There are some gods with next to no worshippers and some mortals have ascended to deity status with magic rituals while having no worshippers.

 

[Shemeska]

Yes, I agree. It is FR canon that gods require worshippers, but it seems to be GH canon that gods in that world don't. There are some gods with next to no worshippers and some mortals have ascended to deity status with magic rituals while having no worshippers.

Not quite.

Without worship, even if they initially achieved divinity by a ritual or promotion to divine status through another deity, they'll wither away if they don't have worship or belief to sustain them. The astral is littered with the husks of deities dead by lack of worship, starved of the belief and souls to sustain them, just as often as there are godisles of deities killed by violent means.

Generally speaking, belief = power, and with the exception of overpowers or anything theoretically higher, gods require worship to sustain themselves indefinately or they slowly slip away into the twilight grave of the astral.

 

[Staffan]

That's really one of the things I like least about Planescape and FR - that gods need worship to sustain them. It means that you can't have the gods create a world, since they couldn't survive before the world existed without worshippers to sustain them.

No, I prefer to have gods being innately powerful. Worship should be more of a "luxury" to them - it should have its uses, but not be necessary.

 

[ThirdWizard]

The specified treasure is just an example. If you read on a bit, you'll see that it says "Redspawn arcanisses have standard treasure for NPCs of their Challenge Rating" (under "Typical Treasure" near the end).

Nope, the possessions are taken into consideration in the creature stats. Look at his AC stat, for example, +2 sheild, and in possession a +1 buckler. This is simple enough to change if I want to give him a different magical item than a buckler, but when you have to do this for every monster, I now have to put more effort into every encounter using monsters from this book. I can't just say "I think this giant should have a greatsword +2 and a ring of evasion." and add +2 hit/dmg and evasion.

Now I have to first remove the items he is already carrying (remember any armor check penalties if you take away magical or masterwork armor/shields!), adjust his stats downward, then go and add what I want him to have. So, that's not just a suggestion. It takes some recalculating or every Redspawn Arcaniss the PCs run into will, for some reason, the same thing.

 

[Ripzerai]

Now I have to first remove the items he is already carrying (remember any armor check penalties if you take away magical or masterwork armor/shields!), adjust his stats downward, then go and add what I want him to have. So, that's not just a suggestion. It takes some recalculating or every Redspawn Arcaniss the PCs run into will, for some reason, the same thing.

I prefer that, actually. It's easier to have the magic items already figured into the stats. It's a time-saver in cases where I don't want to bother figuring out what sorts of magic items it should have and figuring out what they would do.

If I want to change the items (and recalculate the stats accordingly) I can do that, just as if I want a monster to have a few more points of intelligence or strength, or a different number of hit dice, or any other variance from the assumed norm, I can do the recalculation involved in that.

Just as it's good that they give you a default average strength score instead of forcing you to roll each creature's strength randomly (with appropariate adjustments), it's good that they give you a default treasure. Those who want more variety have to do more work, true, but those who don't want more variety don't have to do any work at all. And that suits my laziness.