the Kyri Chronicles - last updated 22 Oct

[Plane Sailing]

That's pretty much why I didn't want to go for it.

Actually, it is one of the things that would be a little more appealing - since the characters reached mid levels no fight has lasted more than about 6 melee rounds... Back at 3rd level a fight could last 10-15 rounds easily.

It would seem more heroic to me if the big, high-level fights were a little more "knock down, drag out" affairs. Also to remove the amount of magic band-aids needed!

I know that it is moving away from straight D&D, but the old "suck up the hp damage" has to be (for me) the most irritating and non-fantasy element of the game

If I wanted parrying I'd play Runequest.
Now there's a thought......

Now you're talking

I'm looking forward to getting the Eberron campaign setting once it arrives in the UK, and I might think about doing a conversion of it to the RQ2 rules we all know and love, in the same way that I did a Dark Sun conversion some years ago.

Cheers

 

[robberbaron]

You'll need to remind me of your parrying rules. I seem to remember something about using the next round's attacks to parry, but might be thinking about something entirely different.

Don't promise anything, but I'll at least give them another consideration.

 

[sumi]

The reason no fight lasts more than 6 rounds is the fact the fighters have +18 to hit everything and then do 20+ damage when they do. If the creatures and villains have massively high AC and saving throws then the fight will last longer. This is no different from any AD&D1 or 2.

However, just think of the last fight - creature demands, we refuse, it hits Anne Marie for 72hp in a single hit. Holy Words the rest of the party who become deaf and blind. Anne Marie hands over what it wants. End of story. Unfortunately that is the nature of fights at 7th plus. The fun is overcoming the odds and doing something that little bit different.

 

[Darklone]

You can always have fights for 20 rounds, just bring in more enemies

D&D monsters do have an ugly tendency to dish out several hundred points of damage without any problem.

I still hope my newbies will enjoy playing level 10-15 for half a year and then let me show them the light of low level gaming again

 

[robberbaron]

And the previous fight:
Glabrezu grapples me then Power Word:Stuns me and holds me in a Wall of Fire, then he grabs the cleric and holds her in the WoF.
Then he Power Word:Stuns the barbarian (DM boo-boo, but didn't really change the course of events).
All this after Anne-Marie runs off with full trousers from his Fear ability.

Don't think we even got to hit him.

 

[Plane Sailing]

The reason no fight lasts more than 6 rounds is the fact the fighters have +18 to hit everything and then do 20+ damage when they do. If the creatures and villains have massively high AC and saving throws then the fight will last longer.

I think this highlights one of the design decisions of D&D that seems (in retrospect) to be a bit of an error - the fact that ability to hit increases more rapidly than the ability to avoid being hit. I remember designers saying that they decided to do it this way, but I don't remember anyone saying *why* for metagame purposes, they made it so.

Essentially it makes for more fragile PCs (and monsters) at higher levels, and I'm not sure that I understand why that is a -good- thing.

Cheers

 

[Graywolf-ELM]

Are you still writing for this story hour? I'm curious if I should keep it on my list or not.

GW

 

[Plane Sailing]

Hi Graywolf, I'm sorry that I've not been writing for a long time but almost all my evenings for the last couple of months have been taken up with prep for a holiday for a few dozen people that I was helping to run.

All I've got to do there now is set up the post-holiday website and I'll be back in business - I promise!

Coming up:

Looking for Daros in Bridlerest unveils huge problems - political assassinations, storming their own temple at midnight, gradually unravelling the masters behind the masters (and who is behind them?)

A proposition to uncover the hidden history of a missing prince from a century earlier, and the possible ramifications for the largest kingdom in the Southlands.

Deaths of central characters

Raiding a dragons lair for a magical dwarven mirror

Moving towards a final showdown with the fiendish Daros....

I'll try to get writing before the end of the week. Thanks for sticking with me!

Cheers

 

[Darklone]

Deaths of central characters...

Hehehehehe. Yeah, that's what we're used to here

 

[Graywolf-ELM]

Thanks for the note. I'll keep this one on my list then.

GW