Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nonlethal Force" data-source="post: 3111579" data-attributes="member: 35788">Not a problem.  I just wanted to be honest up front before you got a massive character idea.Well, also remember that I do allow for retraining as per the PHB II ... and for an online game (because they move slowrer than table top games) I usually am open to people making 1 drastic change at their first level-up if the chatacter didn't pan out the way they expected.  Granted, after that first level-up I figure your character should've come together enough that they have taken a certain direction.  [By drastic I mean exchanging 1 level of this class for a level of that.  Not rewritting the whole character!]Yeah!  I like questions.Naw.  Go ahead.  I'm assuming with a Drakontos character that if need be we can use the dragon father to be the one to have taught the language.  Of course, your character should speak common and Draconic ... but those are pretty much assumed anyway.  If you can briefly justify why the character learned them in the background I'm cool with it.  [Besides, in a one person adventure the other languages become fairly important and you can rely on others to speak it.  Although, I suppose you could buy the services of a linguist.]Yeah, I am aware of that.  Not altogether different from the rule that says if you take one level of fighter you can wear heavy armor even if its one level out of twenty.  If that's all you are worried about, I won't consider that abuse.  There are a few reasons for this:1. I'm more interested in a good story than perfect mechanics.  A difference of 1 or 2 in the AC number shouldn't make or break a good story.  As a DM, I can make creatures that can hit you at a given CR regardless of your AC if I feel like the smack needs to be laid down.  But knowing you, I'm not worried about it.  You'll enjoy the game regardless of what it says under your AC block.2. That one level can be quite costly in terms of power early on.  A spellcaster would really benefit from a level of fighter (or another full armor class) because of the increased AC and the hit points.  But that's a level of spells they can't cast and if they want to make up for it as far as caster level goes they need to burn a feat on practised spellcaster, then.  Sure, I think the benefits still outweigh to downsides, but if in this case if you are going sorcerer it makes the delay in spells even more drastic as far as power is concerned.3. Being a solo game, I have the ultiamte ability to negate the class defense if it becomes a problem: A rogue with great Hide skill, average to poor UMD skill, and a simple wand with Ray of Frost and about 4 charges left on it.  I realize the class defense as written counts against touch attacks, but a good rogue should be able to hit with a wand from hiding.  But as I have said before, I'm not worried about power in this game.  I know you're a good gamer and as such are going to autmatically optimize - I try too!  But I'd expect nothing less.4.  As a solo game, your character may need to be a bit better than normal - especially in the beginning.  So no big deal if your character is a bit more powerful.5.  Finally, I am a believer in the fact that any ruling that seems to at first benefit the players ultimately benefits the DM.  I'll give you an example.  My Hit Point ruling seems generous at 75%.  But that's also the rule I use to generate my enemies.  So, while the party gets the benefit - how many more monsters will they be facing who are also getting the benefit?  Same with this class defense bonus.  Sure, monsters from the MM won't be getting any benefit from this.  But a classed humanoid opponent that I have to build up from level 1 will. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  And you better believe that as a DM I'll be building them to challenge the character.  [Hopefully not too tough, but challenging.]  The BBEG and his minions would likely know just as much the value of a single level of fighter or the like if the character is aware of it.6.  I'm not allowing the sidebar that suggests allowing armor bonused (like fortification, etc) on other equipment.  Thus, it is a total choice.  If you want any of the armor bonus you'll have to wear armor.  If you want the class defense without worrying about armor you'll have to forgo any visions of getting the armor special magical qualities, too.  Not only that, but I've found that you typically can have a higher AC by 1 if you go with armor once magical armor becomes an option.Anyway ... there you go.  Probably said more than I needed to when I could have simply summed it up like this:  I won't look down at you at all if you take a single level of any class that gets the highest column just because it makes sense to do so.  If that isn't your main class, you're going to take a bit of a hit in power most likely.  And as the DM, I'm sure I can compensate and still make the game challenging for you.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

Verification