Tiers Excerpt (merged)

[Stormtalon]

The crap in the backroom is generally superficially magical or cursed. The Golden Hairpin of illusionary Youth, The Jade Mace of Exotic Pleasuring

That last one -- wouldn't work so well in the campaigns I run (well, at least not with my group). There's always one character who'd enjoy that item far, far too much.

 

[Spatula]

I'm running an Eberron cop game set in Sharn. The cops are 6th level. They win.

It was okay when it was just stopping petty crimes, or small groups of thugs. But then I decided to have them go up against an organization who is tough and has a lot of resources: Daask, the monstrous crime syndicate, run by an ogre mage, with gnoll, medusa, harpy, and minotaur henchmen. I came up with a series of crimes they'd commit, working toward a secret goal so that I could get this nice "investigate for a while, then finally put the pieces together and crack the case" feel.

Instead, after Daask commits one crime, the cops used locate creature (lesser dragonmark of finding) and rode around in a cab until they found a gnoll. They bumrushed the guy, took him captive, and cast suggestion on him:

"Answer all our questions fully and truthfully."

Gnoll fails his save. They find out where a few of the hide-outs of Daask are, who the next up the totem pole is, where he likes to go, and what his powers are. They also get a sense of what Daask is up to, but the gnoll only knows so much.

All gnolls in Sharn are Daask flunkies? That seems like a huge coincidence, especially since one of the Dragonmark Houses uses them as mercenaries. Anyway, I don't think the city guard would fare very well down in the cramped tunnels of the Cogs, even if they knew where Daask's headquarters were. And how do they stop an invisible, gaseous ogre mage mastermind from escaping? At best they can only set the organization back some by killing their muscle, taking heavy losses in the process.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

But here's the problem. The players ask me, "Why hasn't Daask already been disposed of?"

This is a great question. Luckily, you are playing Eberron and the answer is built into the setting: 6th level characters are elite.

Very few people in Sharn have access to the same kind of power and resources that 6th level characters have, and even fewer would be willing to risk those power and resources on a crime syndicate. I would bet that almost no one in the Sharn police force has the kind of skill that they have. Subverting an organization with suggestion and disguise self and so forth, is the excpetion, not the rule. And as others have said, just having the information isn't enough to simply solve the problem; you have to actually solve it. How many police units of 1st-3rd level warriors would it take to bring down a crime syndicate chock full of ogres, gnolls and minotaurs? The answer is a lot. And it's not as if Daask is the only gig in town; plenty of other crime happening that needs to be policed. The justice system is about resource management after all.

Or you could do what I would do; let the PCs attempt to take down the whole organization. They could very well succeed. Only now instead of one consolidated monster gang, you've got several running around the city. Gang wars. Could you imagine a bunch of minotaurs duking it out with a pack of gnolls in the streets? It'd be chaos. So congratulations, you've destroyed Daask and just made things a helluva lot worse for Sharn!

 

[Stalker0]

One thing also to consider with damage is while the amount may not directly increase, at higher levels you will be doing more damaging powers more frequently.

For example, a 1st level character might have 1 encounter power that deals 2[W] + ability mod.

At 10th level, you may have 3 powers that do 2[W] + ability mod. So even though the encounter powers don't do any more damage than the 1st level one did (except when including magic weapons and the fact your ability scores may have increased) you have more of them, so overall you are doing more damage per encounter.

 

[lukelightning]

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

Are you kidding? She's a nefarius evil mastermind. All of those murders were secretly orchestrated by her. How else would she "just happen" to be the area of a murder week after week.

 

[Dragonblade]

Are you kidding? She's a nefarius evil mastermind. All of those murders were secretly orchestrated by her. How else would she "just happen" to be the area of a murder week after week.

Hmm, now that you mention it, that is rather suspicious....

 

[Alraiis]

OK. But keep in mind that the Paladin Smites article is 3 months older than the Rogue article.
Things might have changed.

"Dexterity modifier damage" seems pretty clear and straightforward to me.

"Dexterity modifier damage" is clear and straightforward only if it means what it used to in 3.5. Looking at stat blocks, however, seems to suggest very strongly that the modifier itself scales with level, which means the damage does as well.

For instance, the Malebranche's Wisdom is listed as "19 (+15)". A base score of 19 gives a base modifier of +4 (just like in 3.x). Then half its level (22/2 = 11) is added for a total of +15. So a 22nd level rogue with a Dex of 19 would have that same +15 modifier; whereas a 1st level rogue with a Dex of 19 would only have a +4. Thus, damage scales with level to the extent that abilitity score modifiers increase with level. This would fit with the vague information in the Paladin article, without contradicting the specific language in the rogue article.

 

[robertliguori]

Oh, good god, yes. Please sir, may I have some more? Hmmm, alternately:

"Think ye that this will grant all which you desire? It may not end as ye wish. I could tell ye the tale of a young woman many years ago who acted as ye. A woman who found herself tied by fate to the object of her murderous greed and bound to its wishes. I ask ye, then -- would ye take her place? If ye would then swing true -- I tire of this curse."

Fighter: "Sorc, detect magic on her, if you please."
Sorceror: "Uh, yeah. Magic. Strong magic. Necromancy. Hey..."
Fighter: "OK, so tell us about this curse thing. What happens if someone jumps off a cliff, kills you on the way down, and then dies on impact? Does the curse die with him?"
DM: "...Uhh..."
Gypsy: "Why, would ye know the details of the evil that vexes me? Has pity at my plight stayed your hands?"
Fighter: "Oh, no, we're still going to kill you on general principle. But we've found that we can reap great rewards from helping people achieve certain difficult and complicated ends."
Gypsy: "Do these ends include not dying?"
Fighter: "Those ends we don't help with, as a matter of fact."
Gypsy: "Then listen well, that I may have the satisfaction of seeing the object of my ruin laid low, even as I take my own last breath."
Fighter: "That's the spirit!"
Gypsy: "Yes. Go north for three days, to the Barrow of the Forgotten Dooms-"
Fighter: "Sorcy, take notes."

*Later, in the domain of the Raven Queen*
Ghost of Fighter: "So, in retrospect, we should stop taking quests from people after we tell them we're going to kill them."
Sorceror: "Yeah. Let's go with that."

 

[Revinor]

Looking at stat blocks, however, seems to suggest very strongly that the modifier itself scales with level, which means the damage does as well.

It is certainly not true for monster. They get half level to ability checks, but not to damage caused by attacks. We know that PCs and monsters are using different rules - but certain basics like 1/2 lvl mods to attack/defenses, hp progression etc are still quite similar, so I doubt that there will be so basic difference here. Look at pit fiend melee damage and decide if you want your wizard to deal same damage with dagger swing on 20th level.

 

[HeinorNY]

"Dexterity modifier damage" is clear and straightforward only if it means what it used to in 3.5. Looking at stat blocks, however, seems to suggest very strongly that the modifier itself scales with level, which means the damage does as well.

For instance, the Malebranche's Wisdom is listed as "19 (+15)". A base score of 19 gives a base modifier of +4 (just like in 3.x). Then half its level (22/2 = 11) is added for a total of +15. So a 22nd level rogue with a Dex of 19 would have that same +15 modifier; whereas a 1st level rogue with a Dex of 19 would only have a +4. Thus, damage scales with level to the extent that abilitity score modifiers increase with level. This would fit with the vague information in the Paladin article, without contradicting the specific language in the rogue article.

That's a possibility.
All we need to be sure is a high level sample character.