Tiers Excerpt (merged)

[hamishspence]

GM steering subtly

"I tire of this curse" that is a most excellent concept, worth pinching. It general if the players cannot listen to very strong hints, tough luck for them.

P: i listen at the door
DM: ok, but..
P: No buts! I listen at the door. What do I hear?
DM: You hear the ogre chieftain saying "Look at stupid thief! Stupid thief is listening at open door!" You also hear the sound of a greataxe sweeping toward your neck. Briefly.

 

[Verys Arkon]

Well, that could be "Dex modifier" as in (Dex score/2 - 5) , or as in (Dex score/2 - 5) + (level/2). It remains unclear.

This quote from the Paladin Smite article http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drdd/20071128 seems to indicate that 1/2 level is added to damage (but perhaps only from powers?). Emphasis added.

Renewing Smite
Paladin 13
Encounter • Healing, Weapon
Standard Action
Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Charisma vs. AC
Hit: 2x[W] + Cha damage and ally within 5 heals 10 + your Wisdom modifier damage.

You'll no doubt see the pattern between these two smites. They mix a fair portion of damage (scaled up by level, but not necessarily the amount of dice) while giving an ally a much needed boost of hit points at the most opportune moments. Selfish paladins (typically those who serve more self-centered gods or just the occasional egoist who venerates Pelor) can even heal themselves with the strike, as you're considered your own ally unless the effect of a power states otherwise.

The only way damage could "scale up, but not necessarily the amount of dice" is to add 1/2 level, as far as I can see.

 

[HeinorNY]

The only way damage could "scale up, but not necessarily the amount of dice" is to add 1/2 level, as far as I can see.

What about this:

Torturous Strike
Rogue Attack 1
If you twist the blade in the wound just so, you can make your enemy howl in pain.

Encounter [ ] Martial, Weapon
Standard Action
Melee weapon
Requirement: You must be wielding a light blade.
Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Dexterity modifier damage.

 

[Mirtek]

Don't hinge yourself up on a single spell. There are more, and murder mysteries are also not the only type of mystery (or even "plot"). You can often find ways to utilize or negate this spells to good effect, but it requires work and planning,

So it sucks to be a murderer. Either you're clever or you get caught quickly.

Just the way D&D worlds, with their anti-easy-plot-magic, work: 99% success rate in catching murderers and the 1% are the clever guys the PCs have to deal with

 

[jaldaen]

I wonder if "at will" powers are tied specifically to your choice of initial class, paragon path, and epic destiny... so you would not have to include them on the powers by class level table. Adding an extra column that only increases number at 11th and 21st levels might be a bit wasteful layout wise.

So in short there might be one or two "at-will" powers gained from a PCs paragon path and epic destiny. Or mybe just its paragon path... Should be interesting to see if the rules work out this way.

 

[FadedC]

Don't hinge yourself up on a single spell. There are more, and murder mysteries are also not the only type of mystery (or even "plot"). You can often find ways to utilize or negate this spells to good effect, but it requires work and planning, and sometimes this work just doesn't feel justified, or is possible to do. It can also throw off people that enjoy more or less free-form adventuring, based on only a few lines filled with ideas, the rest in their head - without taking into account every spell into account while the story unravels mid-game, this can come to an unexpected, sudden end...

Other then raise type spells there aren't really that many other spells that really wreck a murder mystery. Most divinations give clues rather then answers and detect evil has a million ways to play around....my favorite of which was just to make sure plenty fo random people who weren't villains were evil. The only other spoiler that really comes to mind is using commune to ask a simple yes or no question on weither each suspect was the killer or not.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

Just to throw in another table... here's the info from that article, merged a bit. It looks like you get one thing every level (after first level), including ability score adjustments but NOT including feats.

1 2 at-will, 1 encounter, 1 daily
2 utility
3 encounter
4 ability score
5 daily
6 utility
7 encounter
8 ability score
9 daily
10 utility
11 encounter (paragon)
12 utility (paragon)
13 encounter
14 ability score
15 daily (replacement)
16 utility
17 encounter (replacement)
18 ability score?
19 daily (replacement)
20 daily (paragon)
21 ability score?
22 utility
23 encounter (replacement)
24 ability score?
25 daily (replacement)
26 utility (epic)
27 encounter (replacement)
28 ability score?
29 daily (replacement)
30 ability score?

As for feats... we know you get one at level 1 and level 11, so I'm guessing it's one feat at every even-numbered level, plus one at the first level of each tier (1, 11, 21).

And retraining is "in," which in this case seems to mean that each level you can retrain one feat, and at each of the "(replacement)" levels you can retrain a power. It would also seem you can never retrain utility powers.

 

[Henry]

"I tire of this curse" that is a most excellent concept, worth pinching. It general if the players cannot listen to very strong hints, tough luck for them.

P: i listen at the door
DM: ok, but..
P: No buts! I listen at the door. What do I hear?
DM: You hear the ogre chieftain saying "Look at stupid thief! Stupid thief is listening at open door!" You also hear the sound of a greataxe sweeping toward your neck. Briefly.

You know, ear seekers are the generally accepted way to handle this sort of thing.

 

[Verys Arkon]

What about this:

Torturous Strike
Rogue Attack 1
If you twist the blade in the wound just so, you can make your enemy howl in pain.

Encounter [ ] Martial, Weapon
Standard Action
Melee weapon
Requirement: You must be wielding a light blade.
Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Dexterity modifier damage.

Here is another quote from the same Paladin Smite article (emphasis added).

In binding smite you can see an example of how the effect of a smite goes up with level, while the numbers in their base form seem similar when not taking into account the accuracy and damage boosts that merely gaining levels (and having better weapons) affords. It just gets … well, better. Heck, it's epic, after all, so it has to be good, and you don't have to have 4th Edition books in front of you to realize line of effect denial is good. When you're fighting balor, ancient blue dragons, and sorrowsworn, it had better be good -- those critters don't fool around!

I think given all the text written, as opposed to a stat block, demonstrates that damage goes up with level. It is mentioned in two places, and is pretty clear. Does it apply to 'basic attacks'? I don't know.

 

[WyzardWhately]

Other then raise type spells there aren't really that many other spells that really wreck a murder mystery. Most divinations give clues rather then answers and detect evil has a million ways to play around....my favorite of which was just to make sure plenty fo random people who weren't villains were evil. The only other spoiler that really comes to mind is using commune to ask a simple yes or no question on weither each suspect was the killer or not.

I know I potentially have a different reading of how to run alignment than most people do, but...well, I wouldn't consider the average Murder She Wrote perp to be a good candidate for Detect Evil.

That said, the idea of Angela Lansbury as some kind of Paladin/Master Inquisitor is delightful.