Man, an all goliath party could be awesome. Way more awesome than all dwarf, which would be unspeakably lame.
Words can not describe how wrong you are. Dwarfs are awesome.
I think it's dwarves, but I have to agree. Despite the absolute proliferation of them to the point of mockery in fantasy literature there's something about a stout, ale-coholic, gruff dwarf that really works. Maybe it's their "salt-of-the-earthedness" or their good humor without being overly jovial (looking at you, halflings), but Dwarves are awesome. That's why my elf cleric worships Moradin.
And mechanically their stats are well-suited to a variety of classes, so an all-dwarf group could have a pretty optimized battlemind, shaman, artificer, invoker, and barbarian.
Themindtaker on
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TurksonNear the mountains of ColoradoRegistered Userregular
edited September 2010
Let's not forget Second Wind as a minor. Or Dwarven Weapon Training. Or that new feat in Essentials Dwarf or whatever that gives you another Second Wind per encounter...
I'm bringing back my Dwarf Fighter. My DM may try to kill me.
Man, an all goliath party could be awesome. Way more awesome than all dwarf, which would be unspeakably lame.
Words can not describe how wrong you are. Dwarfs are awesome.
I think it's dwarves, but I have to agree. Despite the absolute proliferation of them to the point of mockery in fantasy literature there's something about a stout, ale-coholic, gruff dwarf that really works. Maybe it's their "salt-of-the-earthedness" or their good humor without being overly jovial (looking at you, halflings), but Dwarves are awesome. That's why my elf cleric worships Moradin.
And mechanically their stats are well-suited to a variety of classes, so an all-dwarf group could have a pretty optimized battlemind, shaman, artificer, invoker, and barbarian.
No. Dwarf, Dwarfs, Dwarfish. There is something elven and weak about using "dwarvish".
I just dropped from my Sunday evening tabletop D&D game. Since the DM of my alternating Monday night game moved to New York, I am now without live D&D playing except for Aegeri's Friday night maptools game, which is on short term hiatus at the moment.
On the plus side, more time to play through my xbox and PC backlog. Negative side; no rolling dices!
But seriously, two books for everything that's in one book (PHB)? No thank you.
Do you know what confuses me about this attitude? The two books are each about half the price of the one book. I don't understand finding quantity somehow offensive.
Difference in purchasing philosophy, maybe? *shrug*.
My thought is this: it is a tempting twenty dollar purchase (which I did make), because of the cheap price. However, it's only got four races and a few builds; giving me both, jacking the price up to thirty-five, you've still got me.
But really, you're arguing this with the guy that only owns six D&D books: the PHB / DMG / MM, PHB2, and Dark Sun & Essentials. So...
ravensmuse on
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KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
Man, an all goliath party could be awesome. Way more awesome than all dwarf, which would be unspeakably lame.
Words can not describe how wrong you are. Dwarfs are awesome.
I think it's dwarves, but I have to agree. Despite the absolute proliferation of them to the point of mockery in fantasy literature there's something about a stout, ale-coholic, gruff dwarf that really works. Maybe it's their "salt-of-the-earthedness" or their good humor without being overly jovial (looking at you, halflings), but Dwarves are awesome. That's why my elf cleric worships Moradin.
And mechanically their stats are well-suited to a variety of classes, so an all-dwarf group could have a pretty optimized battlemind, shaman, artificer, invoker, and barbarian.
No. Dwarf, Dwarfs, Dwarfish. There is something elven and weak about using "dwarvish".
I'm pretty sure it's all just spelled "Loser".
Mostly because "Wishing they could be as awesome as Half-Orcs" is a little to long to fit on one line in the feat section.
Man, an all goliath party could be awesome. Way more awesome than all dwarf, which would be unspeakably lame.
Words can not describe how wrong you are. Dwarfs are awesome.
I think it's dwarves, but I have to agree. Despite the absolute proliferation of them to the point of mockery in fantasy literature there's something about a stout, ale-coholic, gruff dwarf that really works. Maybe it's their "salt-of-the-earthedness" or their good humor without being overly jovial (looking at you, halflings), but Dwarves are awesome. That's why my elf cleric worships Moradin.
And mechanically their stats are well-suited to a variety of classes, so an all-dwarf group could have a pretty optimized battlemind, shaman, artificer, invoker, and barbarian.
No. Dwarf, Dwarfs, Dwarfish. There is something elven and weak about using "dwarvish".
Dwarves are a fantasy race.
Dwarfs are people with some form of Dwarfism. Ie. Verne Troyer, Wee Man from Jackass, etc.
Dwarves came from Tolkien, who more-or-less invented the word so that people would realize Bilbo is traveling with a race of people from Norse Mythology, and not thirteen midgets. :P
Man, an all goliath party could be awesome. Way more awesome than all dwarf, which would be unspeakably lame.
Words can not describe how wrong you are. Dwarfs are awesome.
I think it's dwarves, but I have to agree. Despite the absolute proliferation of them to the point of mockery in fantasy literature there's something about a stout, ale-coholic, gruff dwarf that really works. Maybe it's their "salt-of-the-earthedness" or their good humor without being overly jovial (looking at you, halflings), but Dwarves are awesome. That's why my elf cleric worships Moradin.
And mechanically their stats are well-suited to a variety of classes, so an all-dwarf group could have a pretty optimized battlemind, shaman, artificer, invoker, and barbarian.
No. Dwarf, Dwarfs, Dwarfish. There is something elven and weak about using "dwarvish".
Resolute Stamina
Prerequisite: Constitution 15
Benefit: You can use your second wind twice per encounter
The feat is actually available to any race, assuming you have Con 15. I looked at the article and a lot of the feats aren't restricted to Dwarfs only.
My Warden needs this feat.
My Warden has Constitution 13.
My Warden is a Stormheart.
What was I thinking?
I can't wait till that particular feat gets added to the compendium. The next time my players level, all I'll hear is "Leaders? We don't need leaders. We have this feat and a healing potion. We're good to go!"
I just dropped from my Sunday evening tabletop D&D game. Since the DM of my alternating Monday night game moved to New York, I am now without live D&D playing except for Aegeri's Friday night maptools game, which is on short term hiatus at the moment.
On the plus side, more time to play through my xbox and PC backlog. Negative side; no rolling dices!
If you're free Thursday nights, I got one last slot for my Eberron game.
Man, an all goliath party could be awesome. Way more awesome than all dwarf, which would be unspeakably lame.
Words can not describe how wrong you are. Dwarfs are awesome.
I think it's dwarves, but I have to agree. Despite the absolute proliferation of them to the point of mockery in fantasy literature there's something about a stout, ale-coholic, gruff dwarf that really works. Maybe it's their "salt-of-the-earthedness" or their good humor without being overly jovial (looking at you, halflings), but Dwarves are awesome. That's why my elf cleric worships Moradin.
And mechanically their stats are well-suited to a variety of classes, so an all-dwarf group could have a pretty optimized battlemind, shaman, artificer, invoker, and barbarian.
No. Dwarf, Dwarfs, Dwarfish. There is something elven and weak about using "dwarvish".
Dwarves are a fantasy race.
Dwarfs are people with some form of Dwarfism. Ie. Verne Troyer, Wee Man from Jackass, etc.
Dwarves came from Tolkien, who more-or-less invented the word so that people would realize Bilbo is traveling with a race of people from Norse Mythology, and not thirteen midgets. :P
According to Tolkein, dwarrows or dwerrows is the plural of dwarf. As in the dwarf name for Moria, "Dwarrowdelf". "Dwarves" was a common form of bad grammar in his book.
Learn to nerd properly. :P
Also, OZ's original point about Goliaths stands. Larger. Smashier. Related to Giants. Empirically Superior.
Man, I've got over 7,000 words written up on my setting, not counting three pages in my note pad and a bunch of feats and a race writeup I haven't put in and I still have plenty more to put fleshing out to do, and plenty of information that's DM-only.
I'd better manage to find a group for this thing. :P
--
I want to see a party composed of goliaths with a dwarf leader.
Incenjucar on
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AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
edited September 2010
New thread. You'll notice the OP is now three posts, this is because I needed some breathing room and I will reorganize the whole OP for the next thread. I'm planning on making the first post of the OP player centric (describing essentials and other things, core books for players). The second part setting and campaign specific. Third part specific on useful resources for anyone playing 4E and the upcoming releases that wizards have. Basically trying to arrange things in a way that I can grow the OP without making it too cluttered.
I just dropped from my Sunday evening tabletop D&D game. Since the DM of my alternating Monday night game moved to New York, I am now without live D&D playing except for Aegeri's Friday night maptools game, which is on short term hiatus at the moment.
On the plus side, more time to play through my xbox and PC backlog. Negative side; no rolling dices!
If you're free Thursday nights, I got one last slot for my Eberron game.
I may have an open spot on Tuesday nights for a striker. Won't know until next week however.
SkyCaptain on
The RPG Bestiary - Dangerous foes and legendary monsters for D&D 4th Edition
On Saturday I am DMing my first self-written session.
I have a few questions though.
1. Our party is small, only three players, a defender, a controller, and a leader. They could really use a striker or two, so I was thinking of giving them a companion npc or two to help out.
But I know this group, they would hate having them just inserted into the adventure, so I was planning on having them be recruit-able during the first encounter of the night. The plan was to have the possible allies be slaves or maybe have an enchantment put on them by the "big baddie" of the night. Is this a bad idea? If they fail to pick up on the hints I'll pass out during the fight, they could end up killing their allies and I run the risk of making the other encounters too powerful.
2. Is there a tool to print out the enemies stat sheets? I am buying a DDI sub in the morning (woo payday!) and I haven't been able to find something of the sort. Would I be better off just writing it all out in my notes?
3. Every member of my group is a newbie to D&D, because of this the players all agreed to try new characters as often as possible so they can figure out what roles they each like and such.
As a result, they encouraged the chance of characters dying in epic battles of even having a TPK.
I was thinking of having the final fight end with the tower they will be in starting to sink into the ground.
Set it up as a sort of skill challenge to escape to the top of the ruined tower and jump off before they get stuck underground. Would that be too frustrating? Our controller character would be less than athletic, so wouldn't have much to add to the challenge.
I would normally not even consider a skill challenge that can end in TPK, but since we are playing it as a loosely connected series of one-shots, with a high turnover rate, I wanted to experiment with it.
4. Miniatures. Some of my players have a few that they use for their characters on the battle map, and I really like them. How is the miniature market? Should I hunt down and buy singles of the monsters I'll likely use? Or should I just start picking up those booster boxes and hope I get interesting stuff? Is there a website you guys commonly buy from?
On Saturday I am DMing my first self-written session.
I have a few questions though.
1. Our party is small, only three players, a defender, a controller, and a leader. They could really use a striker or two, so I was thinking of giving them a companion npc or two to help out.
But I know this group, they would hate having them just inserted into the adventure, so I was planning on having them be recruit-able during the first encounter of the night. The plan was to have the possible allies be slaves or maybe have an enchantment put on them by the "big baddie" of the night. Is this a bad idea? If they fail to pick up on the hints I'll pass out during the fight, they could end up killing their allies and I run the risk of making the other encounters too powerful.
2. Is there a tool to print out the enemies stat sheets? I am buying a DDI sub in the morning (woo payday!) and I haven't been able to find something of the sort. Would I be better off just writing it all out in my notes?
3. Every member of my group is a newbie to D&D, because of this the players all agreed to try new characters as often as possible so they can figure out what roles they each like and such.
As a result, they encouraged the chance of characters dying in epic battles of even having a TPK.
I was thinking of having the final fight end with the tower they will be in starting to sink into the ground.
Set it up as a sort of skill challenge to escape to the top of the ruined tower and jump off before they get stuck underground. Would that be too frustrating? Our controller character would be less than athletic, so wouldn't have much to add to the challenge.
I would normally not even consider a skill challenge that can end in TPK, but since we are playing it as a loosely connected series of one-shots, with a high turnover rate, I wanted to experiment with it.
4. Miniatures. Some of my players have a few that they use for their characters on the battle map, and I really like them. How is the miniature market? Should I hunt down and buy singles of the monsters I'll likely use? Or should I just start picking up those booster boxes and hope I get interesting stuff? Is there a website you guys commonly buy from?
1: I think you'd be much better off just scaling down the monsters. There'll still be plenty of damage output, just a little more AOE from the controller. Consider having more low-level monsters and minions. This will also challenge the defender at stopping them from getting to the controller. I think letting the PCs remain the stars and letting you focus on DMing is much more important than going for optimum party mix.
2: In the Adventure Tools Monster Builder (within the DDI stuff) you can print off monsters, or just copy & paste them into a document as images. I do this for all my adventures now, it's very easy.
3: Work out a way for the controller to contribute. For example, if the tower is sinking, perhaps magical explosions from stored magical power can rock it as they flee, and Arcana could be rolled to know when the blasts are coming. Or Intimidate could be used to spur the others on. Or Bluff - 'We're nearly there, just a little bit more!' With a little imagination a twist can be added to just about any situation to make less obvious skills useful. If you want some help tell us more detail and the skills and I'm sure me and the other old-timers will have some ideas.
As for the TPK I think you know the people and have to decide based on them, not on any idea of How To Pretend To Be Elves And Halflings. Sounds OK to me, though. If you're unsure, I had a similar situation recently and I just let people change characters a lot for the first 3 levels. That way they still feel their characters 'won' even if they never plan to play them again.
4: Miniatures I don't know about. We have a player with a stack of card-figures and we just use them.
Hey, this thread is likely going to get locked because the new thread is out (has been a while), but here's a link to the current discussion thread for you:
Posts
I think it's dwarves, but I have to agree. Despite the absolute proliferation of them to the point of mockery in fantasy literature there's something about a stout, ale-coholic, gruff dwarf that really works. Maybe it's their "salt-of-the-earthedness" or their good humor without being overly jovial (looking at you, halflings), but Dwarves are awesome. That's why my elf cleric worships Moradin.
And mechanically their stats are well-suited to a variety of classes, so an all-dwarf group could have a pretty optimized battlemind, shaman, artificer, invoker, and barbarian.
I'm bringing back my Dwarf Fighter. My DM may try to kill me.
Prerequisite: Constitution 15
Benefit: You can use your second wind twice per encounter
The feat is actually available to any race, assuming you have Con 15. I looked at the article and a lot of the feats aren't restricted to Dwarfs only.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
No. Dwarf, Dwarfs, Dwarfish. There is something elven and weak about using "dwarvish".
The Compendium is wrong, and you are wrong, and you should stop having bad-wrong-fun.
On the plus side, more time to play through my xbox and PC backlog. Negative side; no rolling dices!
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
Difference in purchasing philosophy, maybe? *shrug*.
My thought is this: it is a tempting twenty dollar purchase (which I did make), because of the cheap price. However, it's only got four races and a few builds; giving me both, jacking the price up to thirty-five, you've still got me.
But really, you're arguing this with the guy that only owns six D&D books: the PHB / DMG / MM, PHB2, and Dark Sun & Essentials. So...
My Warden needs this feat.
My Warden has Constitution 13.
My Warden is a Stormheart.
What was I thinking?
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
it's like... it's like... it's like you've never even posted here before! Who are you mysterious stranger, with your logic and your reasonable ways??
He's not just a healer. He also squishes skulls with his Mordenkrad and can off tank.
Mostly because "Wishing they could be as awesome as Half-Orcs" is a little to long to fit on one line in the feat section.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Off tank. That's when you shoot him in the back right?
Dwarves are a fantasy race.
Dwarfs are people with some form of Dwarfism. Ie. Verne Troyer, Wee Man from Jackass, etc.
Dwarves came from Tolkien, who more-or-less invented the word so that people would realize Bilbo is traveling with a race of people from Norse Mythology, and not thirteen midgets. :P
That's why you say "dwarven", not "dwarvish".
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I play with a guy named Jeff whose dwarven fighter is named "Jefsdorf."
I can't wait till that particular feat gets added to the compendium. The next time my players level, all I'll hear is "Leaders? We don't need leaders. We have this feat and a healing potion. We're good to go!"
:?
That's not a very dorfy name at all.
He needs a name like Mountainsharp Deathskull or Axegrin Oregrinder or Grungebringer MacHammerdeath.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
If you're free Thursday nights, I got one last slot for my Eberron game.
According to Tolkein, dwarrows or dwerrows is the plural of dwarf. As in the dwarf name for Moria, "Dwarrowdelf". "Dwarves" was a common form of bad grammar in his book.
Learn to nerd properly. :P
Also, OZ's original point about Goliaths stands. Larger. Smashier. Related to Giants. Empirically Superior.
I'd better manage to find a group for this thing. :P
--
I want to see a party composed of goliaths with a dwarf leader.
I may have an open spot on Tuesday nights for a striker. Won't know until next week however.
I have a few questions though.
1. Our party is small, only three players, a defender, a controller, and a leader. They could really use a striker or two, so I was thinking of giving them a companion npc or two to help out.
But I know this group, they would hate having them just inserted into the adventure, so I was planning on having them be recruit-able during the first encounter of the night. The plan was to have the possible allies be slaves or maybe have an enchantment put on them by the "big baddie" of the night. Is this a bad idea? If they fail to pick up on the hints I'll pass out during the fight, they could end up killing their allies and I run the risk of making the other encounters too powerful.
2. Is there a tool to print out the enemies stat sheets? I am buying a DDI sub in the morning (woo payday!) and I haven't been able to find something of the sort. Would I be better off just writing it all out in my notes?
3. Every member of my group is a newbie to D&D, because of this the players all agreed to try new characters as often as possible so they can figure out what roles they each like and such.
As a result, they encouraged the chance of characters dying in epic battles of even having a TPK.
I was thinking of having the final fight end with the tower they will be in starting to sink into the ground.
Set it up as a sort of skill challenge to escape to the top of the ruined tower and jump off before they get stuck underground. Would that be too frustrating? Our controller character would be less than athletic, so wouldn't have much to add to the challenge.
I would normally not even consider a skill challenge that can end in TPK, but since we are playing it as a loosely connected series of one-shots, with a high turnover rate, I wanted to experiment with it.
4. Miniatures. Some of my players have a few that they use for their characters on the battle map, and I really like them. How is the miniature market? Should I hunt down and buy singles of the monsters I'll likely use? Or should I just start picking up those booster boxes and hope I get interesting stuff? Is there a website you guys commonly buy from?
1: I think you'd be much better off just scaling down the monsters. There'll still be plenty of damage output, just a little more AOE from the controller. Consider having more low-level monsters and minions. This will also challenge the defender at stopping them from getting to the controller. I think letting the PCs remain the stars and letting you focus on DMing is much more important than going for optimum party mix.
2: In the Adventure Tools Monster Builder (within the DDI stuff) you can print off monsters, or just copy & paste them into a document as images. I do this for all my adventures now, it's very easy.
3: Work out a way for the controller to contribute. For example, if the tower is sinking, perhaps magical explosions from stored magical power can rock it as they flee, and Arcana could be rolled to know when the blasts are coming. Or Intimidate could be used to spur the others on. Or Bluff - 'We're nearly there, just a little bit more!' With a little imagination a twist can be added to just about any situation to make less obvious skills useful. If you want some help tell us more detail and the skills and I'm sure me and the other old-timers will have some ideas.
As for the TPK I think you know the people and have to decide based on them, not on any idea of How To Pretend To Be Elves And Halflings. Sounds OK to me, though. If you're unsure, I had a similar situation recently and I just let people change characters a lot for the first 3 levels. That way they still feel their characters 'won' even if they never plan to play them again.
4: Miniatures I don't know about. We have a player with a stack of card-figures and we just use them.
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=128714
post your question there.