Upper Krust, where are you? [Immortal's Handbook]

[Upper_Krust]

Re: Bizjorn in the Hizouse!!!!

Sup, Krust-Dawg?

Big up BD!

Anyway, allow me to ask you more annoying questions.

Shoot from the hip.

If I recall goodly ( ), In olden times some gods could "lift nearly anything (at DM's Discretion) and bend or crush anything they laid their hands on." Could this or anything similar work at all now? I can't find a way. But I'm not very good with game mechanics anyway.

I have a way to add things like this in the IH. But generally you should seperate the pseudo-reality of the game from hyperbole.

Atlas may be strong - but hes not THAT strong, of course someone always is THAT strong.

Also, couldja tell me where you might place the following beings in your ranking system?

Buri
Audhulma
Ymir
Surtur
Erebus
Eros
Gaia
Uranus

Buri a DR20 Greater God
Audhumla probably an aspect of Aditi (Protodeity)
Erebus and Eros could be Overdeities (linked with the seven sins; virtues)
Surtur an Elder God
Gaia probably an aspect of Aditi
Uranus an Elder God

Without doubt Gaia is the most difficult of all beings to assign power to.

Thanx a bunch.

Anytime mate!

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi Anubis mate!

Ah, I see. Nope, you did not make that clear initially. In that case, Quasi-deities would indeed be 24/+4. I understand now. Still works perfectly for deities.

I would be content to assign the 20/+4 to the Solar.

The way I see it, if a DM is throwing such creatures at a party with so few levels that they don't have proper weaponry, then there is something wrong. As far as I've seen, damage reduction rarely, if ever, effects the entire party, but rather usually effects only non-fighter types unless they all invest in Sure Striking, which is always a wise idea. Damage reduction isn't as much a limiter as it seems. It's there mainly because some creatures with higher damage reduction have very few hit points, and low level parties could take such creatures out easily at a far lower level. The Balor with just over 100 hit points is a perfect example of this.

If, however, the lack of sufficient magical items is the result of player stupidity, such as if they upgrade everything else first and still don't invest in Sure Striking, then those PCs deserve to die for their ignorance.

All of this, of course, only applies to normal campaigns. In low-magic campaigns, things with damage reduction will be 2-3 CR higher than in the core rules, because the game is not meant to be played low-magic. In those cases, all such circumstances are the DM's fault for not going by the normal rules of the game.

It is IMPOSSIBLE to make a system that works in ALL situations. We must only consider a normal game for it to work.

If we push the perennial sure striking solution to the side I think one of the problems with 3rd Ed. is the intrinsic reliance upon magic items.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi Anubis mate!

Honestly, anything up to damage reduction of X/+5 should only be considered ECL +1/2. This is one of the things I was talking about before. You see, non-Epic things are usually within that range, and applying specific ECL modifiers based on damage reduction up to that level throws pretty much everything off in the non-Epic range.

What I would do is make it ECL +1/2 for anything up to X/+5, but then make a modifier for anything over that. Perhaps, starting with damage reduction of X/+6, any five points of damage reduction over 30 give ECL +1/2, and each rank of damage reduction of +6 or more gives an ECL of +1/2 as well. In other words:

In this way, non-Epic damage reduction gets one value while Epic damage reduction gets a different value. How does that sound?

I'm not sure I agree with the idea of splitting the value of Damage Reduction. I'll have to give that some scrutiny.

 

[Bjorn Doneerson]

Big ups to your momma!!!!

So, Is Aditi one of these:Entropy
Fate
Matter
Spirit
Thought
Time
? And if so which one? Do others have other names? Thanx again.

 

[ranix65]

Please excuse my extreme ignorance, but what is the Immortal's Handbook, a guide to playing Highlander-style characters in D&D?

 

[Anubis]

I'm not sure I agree with the idea of splitting the value of Damage Reduction. I'll have to give that some scrutiny.

I understand. I myself have tried to figure out whether or not it would be the right thing to do. When you get into increments besides 5/+1, it starts to get messy. Problem is, 50/+6 is not worth anywhere near as much as 250/+6, ya' know? On the other hand, increments of 5/+X make very little difference the higher up you go in power so . . . Hmmm . . .

Maybe . . .

Keep everything up to X/+5 the same, but after that . . . Perhaps make it ECL +1/2 per damage reduction "plus" increase, but for the actual points of damage reduction, make it ECL +1/2 for each full 50% (or 100%?) increase over 5 points per "plus".

In other words:

 X/+5 = ECL +0.5

30/+6 = ECL +1
45/+6 = ECL +1.5
60/+6 = ECL +2

35/+7 = ECL +1.5
52/+7 = ECL +2
70/+7 = ECL +2.5

40/+8 = ECL +2
60/+8 = ECL +2.5
80/+8 = ECL +3

How's that? This way, the points still make a difference seperate from the "plus", but much more slowly, putting much less impact on the ECL.

On thing that I've figured out is that a "simple" system to handle ECL is a fantasy. I'll be casting meteor swarm in real life before a simple ECL system can be created. Time to give up on making it "simple", and work more on making it "accurate", ya?

 

[Upper_Krust]

Re: Big ups to your momma!!!!

Hello mate!

So, Is Aditi one of these:

Entropy
Fate
Matter
Spirit
Thought
Time
? And if so which one?

Fate...which is also Life and Nature.

Do others have other names? Thanx again.

Yes.

Entropy = Death (called Byss or Tamas)
Fate = Life (Aditi or Kundalini)
Matter = Evil (Aratron or Cognaster)
Spirit = Good (Shekina or Iliaster)
Thought = Chaos (Asat or another name that escapes me at the moment)
Time = Law (Zurvan or Janus)

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi there ranix65!

Please excuse my extreme ignorance, but what is the Immortal's Handbook, a guide to playing Highlander-style characters in D&D?

Not quite.

Its actually a guide for roleplaying Immortal campaigns. It outlines how characters gain worship and how this worship translates into divinity.

Aside from the basic rules it covers a multitude of new divine powers; divinity above greater power; scores of artifacts and how to create them; the magic of the gods; godly portfolios; monsters to challenge the gods; divine realms and how to shape reality; outlining immortal pantheons; ideas and advice for running such a campaign; divine adventures and everything in between

 

[ranix65]

Awesome, where's it gonna be available and when's it gonna be done?

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi Anubis mate!

I understand. I myself have tried to figure out whether or not it would be the right thing to do. When you get into increments besides 5/+1, it starts to get messy. Problem is, 50/+6 is not worth anywhere near as much as 250/+6, ya' know?

On the contrary though, so few things without +6 weapons could bypass 50/+6 anyway as to make upgrading to 250/+6 nearly irrelevant.

On the other hand, increments of 5/+X make very little difference the higher up you go in power so . . . Hmmm . . .

3rd. Ed has an over-reliance on magic items whatever way you look at it.

Maybe . . .

Keep everything up to X/+5 the same, but after that . . . Perhaps make it ECL +1/2 per damage reduction "plus" increase, but for the actual points of damage reduction, make it ECL +1/2 for each full 50% (or 100%?) increase over 5 points per "plus".

In other words:

How's that? This way, the points still make a difference seperate from the "plus", but much more slowly, putting much less impact on the ECL.

Perhaps lessening the constant modifier is the answer (thinking out loud here) rather than complicating the issue.

On thing that I've figured out is that a "simple" system to handle ECL is a fantasy. I'll be casting meteor swarm in real life before a simple ECL system can be created. Time to give up on making it "simple", and work more on making it "accurate", ya?

...except that I don't give up.