dungeons and dragons (D&D) anyone?

Hmmm...not much got accomplished and somebody lost a body part. It sounds like one of your typical game sessions then.

The ninja ass kicking nuns are something interesting at least. Do they wear the classic nun outfit while they go into battle or are they just nuns in a technical sense?

alright so, taking suggestions on turning a willing PC into a vampire.

what benefits should i give her, and what flaws or downsides?



how should i adjust her character? shes an elf fighter.

squallumz said:

alright so, taking suggestions on turning a willing PC into a vampire.

what benefits should i give her, and what flaws or downsides?



how should i adjust her character? shes an elf fighter.

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I believe you should have the vampire class/template in one of the monster manuals. Google it. I'd just give her the first level of vampire. After that she follows the same rules as any other character does while multi classing.

http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/Vampire_(3.5e_Class)

No clue how 4e handles it though.

Petra said:

I believe you should have the vampire class/template in one of the monster manuals. Google it. I'd just give her the first level of vampire. After that she follows the same rules as any other character does while multi classing.

http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/Vampire_(3.5e_Class)

No clue how 4e handles it though.

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thanks. also found some 4e info. not sure if its homebrew, but it opens it wide open. http://www.dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Vampire_(4e_Race) and powers: http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Vampire_Powers_(4e_Power_List)

i wonder how the party's gonna take it when it gets revealed. i know her bf will want to kill her but the odds of him actually doing it are slim. she's his sex supply, after all.

I don't know about 4th edition, but I don't think letting somebody go strait to being a vampire could ever be a balanced thing if they are anything like any other edition of D&D. Either they will have enormous advantages over everybody else due to not only the general undead immunities they will have, but also all the rest of the vampires abilities or they will have extreme disadvantages. It's also one of those things where the powers are even more powerful when used like the PCs use them, which is all the time. Monsters only need to use their powers every once in a while when they fight the players(from a game balance standpoint, not a game world standpoint.) For example being able to attempt to dominate people basically at will is extremely powerful for a monster, but game breaking from a setting structure for all but near epic PCs to have. Being able to level drain most enemies they come across will likewise be extremely powerful, and could break encounter balance with monsters that would be difficult to hurt any other way. The game wasn't built around PC having the kind of regeneration that vampires have either or easily being able to get any damage reduction they have. Just being able to go into gaseous form is powerful also. Also remember they would be very hard to permanently kill. (Unless they fall of a bridge going over a river or something and then they are pretty much dead.)

Then depending on circumstances vampires also have enormous disadvantages also. The biggest of those being never able to go out in the daylight again, but also other pretty hindering things. Among them is unless they had some weird non-conventional way of getting vampirism they will automatically be a supernaturally dominated slave to the vampire that created them. What do you do if the player's character wants to create more vampires itself. They could have an endless supply of minions you have to give them that could get out of hand. They will have to lug their coffin around wherever they go unless they never operate in any place other than one local area. That seems will be a pain to constantly get done. Also while they are very hard to kill if for some reason one of their weaknesses can be exploited they can be turned useless fast. I don't know how you play vampires in your setting but in a lot of them they are at their heart evil undead creatures that have an insatiable huger for sentient creatures blood that causes them to kill people. That could be a very hard roadblock of a player to overcome if they roleplay them right, especially in a game where they have to work together.

Unfortunately, unless things are really different in that edition vampires are one of the hardest things to let players be and keep the game in control because they have a wide suite of both very powerful abilities and weaknesses that just aren't worked into how the game was constructed for PCs normally. Most monsters don’t work well as PC choices for game balance reasons but vampires are among the very worst. I don't know if there is something for it you could look at, but in some supplements they have things that let people slowly build up as a monster race over time. For example the person that wanted to be a vampire wouldn't just get to be a full on vampire at the start. Depending on the level they were they might get a few of the minor abilities and weaknesses and then as they gain in power they would get more and instead of advancing as a monster they might get PC levels instead interspaced with monster levels. In essence they would be a multi-class character with monster levels instead of another normal PC class levels. If I was going to do it, it would be something along those lines. I don’t know if they have anything out there for vampires though.

D-rock said:

I don't know about 4th edition, but I don't think letting somebody go strait to being a vampire could ever be a balanced thing if they are anything like any other edition of D&D. Either they will have enormous advantages over everybody else due to not only the general undead immunities they will have, but also all the rest of the vampires abilities or they will have extreme disadvantages. It's also one of those things where the powers are even more powerful when used like the PCs use them, which is all the time. Monsters only need to use their powers every once in a while when they fight the players(from a game balance standpoint, not a game world standpoint.) For example being able to attempt to dominate people basically at will is extremely powerful for a monster, but game breaking from a setting structure for all but near epic PCs to have. Being able to level drain most enemies they come across will likewise be extremely powerful, and could break encounter balance with monsters that would be difficult to hurt any other way. The game wasn't built around PC having the kind of regeneration that vampires have either or easily being able to get any damage reduction they have. Just being able to go into gaseous form is powerful also. Also remember they would be very hard to permanently kill. (Unless they fall of a bridge going over a river or something and then they are pretty much dead.)

Then depending on circumstances vampires also have enormous disadvantages also. The biggest of those being never able to go out in the daylight again, but also other pretty hindering things. Among them is unless they had some weird non-conventional way of getting vampirism they will automatically be a supernaturally dominated slave to the vampire that created them. What do you do if the player's character wants to create more vampires itself. They could have an endless supply of minions you have to give them that could get out of hand. They will have to lug their coffin around wherever they go unless they never operate in any place other than one local area. That seems will be a pain to constantly get done. Also while they are very hard to kill if for some reason one of their weaknesses can be exploited they can be turned useless fast. I don't know how you play vampires in your setting but in a lot of them they are at their heart evil undead creatures that have an insatiable huger for sentient creatures blood that causes them to kill people. That could be a very hard roadblock of a player to overcome if they roleplay them right, especially in a game where they have to work together.

Unfortunately, unless things are really different in that edition vampires are one of the hardest things to let players be and keep the game in control because they have a wide suite of both very powerful abilities and weaknesses that just aren't worked into how the game was constructed for PCs normally. Most monsters don’t work well as PC choices for game balance reasons but vampires are among the very worst. I don't know if there is something for it you could look at, but in some supplements they have things that let people slowly build up as a monster race over time. For example the person that wanted to be a vampire wouldn't just get to be a full on vampire at the start. Depending on the level they were they might get a few of the minor abilities and weaknesses and then as they gain in power they would get more and instead of advancing as a monster they might get PC levels instead interspaced with monster levels. In essence they would be a multi-class character with monster levels instead of another normal PC class levels. If I was going to do it, it would be something along those lines. I don’t know if they have anything out there for vampires though.

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yeah, there's going to be very light additions to powers mixed with an equal number of negative effects to balance it all out. still working on what all though.

finally heard her preview of her character background. she was a very good girl and left it wide open. she knows shes of two "species" so to speak. what the other one is, she's not sure. so elf and something, per her background. as for the other PCS, no one suspects a thing. of course, since shes walked into the lands of barovia, she's been feeling the vampire awaken, but no one knows this. yet.

So it appears that Reaper is finally getting ready to start shipping the miniatures from their kickstarter last year soon. It's a little late, but it will be nice to start getting them.

If anybody here paints their own miniatures how long do those small bottles of paint last? Am I going to go through an entire bottle paining one big miniature or will it last through dozens of small ones? Good miniature paints don't seem to be cheep. (Or any good paints for that matter, which is why nearly all my artwork I have ever done is in black in and white) I was just wondering how much of a ball park figure it would set me back to pain everything in the basic vampire level they send out, and how much paint I would really need.

I'm planing on using a mixture of flow improvers and slow dry additives to thin it out a lot so that I can work different shades up in layers so maybe that will help the amount of paint last longer plus let me give the miniatures it more detail.

Well, I managed to get one of the PCs last night.

I think I may have to send this to the player: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jrralls/rpgs-are-evil-dark-dungeons-the-movie

Petra said:

Well, I managed to get one of the PCs last night.

I think I may have to send this to the player: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jrralls/rpgs-are-evil-dark-dungeons-the-movie

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Hmmm...sadly, I could see this as actually having better quality, acting, and production values than any official D&D movie ever created. :1orglaugh

I also noticed this part:

"That DM's are vile temptresses that are out to corrupt their players to the forces of evil."

Okay, lets admit it, that one might be is true. Or at least if they aren't out to corrupt their players to the forces of evil they enjoy seeing their players suffer.

so, whats your guys' rules for when i player is gonna be absent?

our newest addition had let me know before committing to the group and weekly game that he was going out of state to see family for 2 weeks, hence missing 2 games. those weeks are coming up soon.

he already had suggested i just playing his character as the DM. i think that would be fine as i already know his character pretty well having played with him a few times before this in my first group.


what do you guys do?

In vampire, for the most part, the character "went hunting" if a player can't show up. Sometimes I find it as a perfect way to introduce something from their background (they went hunting and met up with a contact or something), put in a plot hook the player can't really avoid, etc.

IF the players are in the middle of something where the missing player's character is vital, then I'll run the character.

One standing rule is I won't ever punish a player for missing the game (aside from the fact they're not awarded any XP, even if I play their character). Though I have had them set the missing player's character up for nasty surprises.

squallumz said:

so, whats your guys' rules for when i player is gonna be absent?

our newest addition had let me know before committing to the group and weekly game that he was going out of state to see family for 2 weeks, hence missing 2 games. those weeks are coming up soon.

he already had suggested i just playing his character as the DM. i think that would be fine as i already know his character pretty well having played with him a few times before this in my first group.


what do you guys do?

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It can be a tricky situation. For me it depends on how well I know the player and the others at the table. If at all reasonable I would find a in the plot rational for them to be missing for that session, although that can create problems also if you have encounters balanced for a certain amount and variety of people and then have to change everything to fit the party you have. I don't deny them XP though for missing a session. For me it's just too much hassle to figure out and keep track of when players have differing amounts, and it's just easier. If something happens and missing sessions becomes a chronic problem for a player then I would either expel that person from the group or try to make it where a certain spot in the group could potentially be a revolving character spot for whomever wanted to show up that night and got first dibs on it.

In situations where it's not plausible within the plot to have a character suddenly go missing or they will play a key element in the upcoming session, and the missing player doesn't mind, then I would either (in descending order of preference):

1. Let the rest of the players decide collectively what that character does and control them by a quick vote, unless the missing player has a chosen designate player he wants to control his character.
2. Let a single other player play the character of the missing player.
3. Play that character myself.

If I can help it I, as the DM, would rather not control a player's character like that. It can cause conflicts of interest, and make it harder to play the character how he normally would because I would feel that I would have to be either very generic in what I did with that character or very conservative and careful or both even if that's not what I think that player would have done. It doesn't help at all that I know what going to come up for them and what challenges they face before the players do either.

Part of the problem is that if everything goes fine then maybe nothing ever because an issue with it for that session, but lets say the character of the missing player gets killed, loses an item the missing player really liked and went to a lot of trouble to get, or something else really bad happens to that character. It's one thing for that to happen to one’s own character, but it can cause the people that were substituting to feel real bad about it. It might cause friction for the player that was missing to have that happen when he wasn't there, even if the people or person controlling his character really did do they best they could and tried to make the decisions the missing player would have. For it to happen there needs to be a lot of trust and understanding between everybody. In a lot of close groups in can work well enough though.

That's also why I especially dislike doing it as the DM. For example, if there is a nasty trap up ahead, and I know the character of the missing player would often go first into it then it creates a problem when I don't want to screw up somebody's character for them or worse yet make it seem like I purposely lead the missing player's character into it for other than role playing reasons. That's where the conflict of interest can come in.

There is also another option, even if in world their absence wouldn't be able to be easily explained, especially if the character isn't vital in the upcoming session. That is to have all the players just use extreme suspension of disbelief for the convenience of working around a missing player, and just have everybody in the game including all NPCs fail to acknowledge the absence whatsoever of that character for that session. That character just pops out for that session and pops back in to be with everybody else when he returns. It's not even as much as they are pretending he's not there as it is for all purposes for that session as he doesn't exist until his player returns. It's definitely not the most realistic in world solution, but sometimes it can be the most practical real life one if people are willing to buy it for the sake of simplicity and not wanting to do potential damage to character.

well, the PCs faced off against their quarry tonight and our player that will be missing a couple of weeks decided on throwing himself down a ravine type thing while hanging onto the bad guy. so down down down they went where no one could see the bottom. what happened to them? no one knows!

of course, ill let the dude live, but it was a good way to have him take leave, we had decided. so, ill have him wash up down river prolly after a couple of in-game days.

squallumz said:

well, the PCs faced off against their quarry tonight and our player that will be missing a couple of weeks decided on throwing himself down a ravine type thing while hanging onto the bad guy. so down down down they went where no one could see the bottom. what happened to them? no one knows!

of course, ill let the dude live, but it was a good way to have him take leave, we had decided. so, ill have him wash up down river prolly after a couple of in-game days.

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So sort of like with Gandalf when he fell off the bridge...except you know, he won't die.

...and the situation you came up with is actually a lot more plausible than and old guy with almost no magic beating a balor...urr I mean balrog afterwards with a sword. :1orglaugh

D-rock said:

So sort of like with Gandalf when he fell off the bridge...except you know, he won't die.

...and the situation you came up with is actually a lot more plausible than and old guy with almost no magic beating a balor...urr I mean balrog afterwards with a sword. :1orglaugh

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gandalf! youre right! how did i miss that!

I'm having my miniatures sent out to me today, so I should get them sometime next week. Hopefully they will get to international backers soon.

I just want my 13 inch cthulhu statue....the rest I don't care as much about. LOL

And in other news, Aeryn Walker shall be making a guest appearance at my game next week. ;-)

Petra said:

I just want my 13 inch cthulhu statue....the rest I don't care as much about. LOL

And in other news, Aeryn Walker shall be making a guest appearance at my game next week. ;-)

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(grumble, grumble, sigh) Petra has all the luck. I suppose being the headmistress of her cult does should have some benefits though.

Is it going to be a standard table top affair or is it going to be more of a LARP thing? If it's the latter I could see some of the scenarios that are acted out getting...interesting. Do make sure she's aware of the "make Anders life miserable rule" though.

Does this also mean I'm now the only one that frequently posts in this section that won't have had an OCSM appearing in their game. :1orgluagh

I’ve heard they are waiting to ship out international orders until USPS can send out a truck to them to load up. Apparently their local post office can’t handle that many orders going out at once so they are sending a large container to them they can load at the Reaper site. Also if you don't care about those other miniatures that much I can freely take them off your hands for you so your not burdened with them. There is still time for you to tell them to ship them to my house...just saying. :tongue:

My miniatures arrived today. (happy dance) Maybe if I have the time I will take a picture of them and put laid out and put it up.

After looking at the dragons I'm kind of debating weather to paint them after all.