Test campaign

buji · Post by **buji** » March 24th, 2007, 9:19 am

heres another question-

are we gonna have a party leader?

he/she would make some of the decisions like, which way to turn in a dungeon or sumthing like that. the small decisions that arent worth waiting a day for the whole party to put in their input. otherwise going through a short dungeon will literally take months.

Jaegar · Post by **Jaegar** » March 24th, 2007, 9:24 am

That's a really good idea. My group likes to play chaotic and/or evil characters so half the time I have to DM each character separately. I guess we'll pick a party leader right before we start though.

buji · Post by **buji** » March 24th, 2007, 9:27 am

lol-that must be difficult to DM. How do make suer they dont kill each other? lol

im neutral good, (should add that to my sheet) and i think blank will proly be either lawful evil or neutral evil, knowing him. you should ask him about some of his past chars...

i dont know about anyone else, although it would help IF THEY POSTED. lol

Jaegar · Post by **Jaegar** » March 24th, 2007, 9:30 am

Make sure they don't kill each other? ummmm, they only did that once, and that was when we added a neutral good cleric to a party with a half-fiend sorcerer. lol...

Anyway, I gotta go to work now, so I won't be here to respond instantly anymore XD

buji · Post by **buji** » March 25th, 2007, 5:09 pm

ive got an idea so far about how the party is gonna turn out

tarquin has an elf sorcerer
ghal has the rnager/rogue halfling
hadvi has an elf wizard
falco may join with a dwarven fighter
either me or blank will proly have a cleric
im taking cleric, cuz we need a healer, and rangers suck in 3.5 xD
i dont what blanks doin, proly monk or bard

all in all a pretty strong group-lots of magic, and a few good fighters

Jaegar · Post by **Jaegar** » March 25th, 2007, 6:19 pm

...and rangers suck in 3.5 xD

uhh, you mean 3.0 right O.O
3.5 ranger=3.0 ranger+ skills and special abilities

all in all a pretty strong group-lots of magic, and a few good fighters

yeah, looks good =D
I'll make sure to add more enemies for you >:D. The first party to play this campaign was only two characters.

I look forward to seeing your characters and beginning the campaign ;D

buji · Post by **buji** » March 25th, 2007, 6:45 pm

the best strength of the ranger was two weapon fighting without having to be human and/or lvl a half dozen times.without that, hes just a fighter that is good in nature. might as well multi class fighter druid. if that works...

anyway-im a cleric now, and im pretty sure blank is goin monk. someone has to be able to heal. fear me!!!

Jaegar · Post by **Jaegar** » March 25th, 2007, 7:11 pm

Rangers still get combat style, it's just that they don't get it at level 1. Here's how it goes

Two weapon style
2nd Two weapon fighting
6th Improved Two weapon Fighting
11th Greater Two Weapon Fighting

Archery style
2nd Rapidshot
6th Manyshot (wasn't in 3.0)
11th Improved Precise Shot

In addition to that, they get a ton of other nifty stuff
1st 1st favored enemy, Track, Wild Empathy
2nd Combat Style (the stuff above)
3rd Endurance
4th Animal companion
5th 2nd favored enemy
6th Improved Combat Style (more of the stuff above)
7th Woodland stride
8th Swift Tracker
9th Evasion
10th 3rd favored enemy
11th Combat Style Mastery (the last bit of the stuff above)
13th Camouflage
15th 4th favored enemy
17th Hide in plain sight
20th 5th favored enemy

In short, 3.0 ranger was easily the worst class aside from NPC classes. Now the ranger is just as powerful as any other PC class. A few other classes were significantly improved/streamlined, but none as much as the ranger.

buji · Post by **buji** » March 25th, 2007, 8:19 pm

sure rangers are great in 3.5-after you lvl them up so much you want a new char.lol

ranger in 3.0 is one of the best classes. most useless was barbarian. and i cant see any good argument against that. ranger could fight very well, as well as track and all the other woodland stuff.

buji · Post by **buji** » March 25th, 2007, 8:20 pm

sure rangers are great in 3.5-after you lvl them up so much you want a new char.lol

ranger in 3.0 is one of the best classes. most useless was barbarian. and i cant see any good argument against that. ranger could fight very well, as well as track and all the other woodland stuff.

Jaegar · Post by **Jaegar** » March 25th, 2007, 8:41 pm

WTH O.o? What can the 3.0 ranger do that the 3.5 can't?

EDIT: oh yeah, I forgot to mention the spellcasting. Yeah, the ranger still has spells

EDIT again: do de do... It took a half hour, but I got Dungeon Crafter II working, so we'll have maps. At least once I make them...
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EDIT agaaaain because I'm too polite to double post XP: I hope we get a few more characters ready in time. The more the merrier

Oh well, I suppose you guys'll have a little more time. I'll post the intro tomorrow. I may or may not have a map ready by then (gotta re-create it from scratch because I lost the original map).

Also, I feel like defending the barbarian class for some odd reason that I'm not aware of. btw, I don't have any 3.0 books here, so if I get a minor detail wrong... oh well

Barbarians the same base attack, proficiencies, and fortitude save as rangers. The only difference in the basic stats is that the ranger has a better reflex save and the barbarian has more hp (which we can say cancels out).

As far as special abilites goes, the barbarian is easily better. Fast movement is a great bonus from the start, who wants to be slow? Barbarian rage is also a very powerful tool in combat, It gives an advantage comparable to the ranger's combat style. In addition to that, barbarians get miscellaneous features like damage reduction and uncanny dodge. Do you have any idea how much improved uncanny dodge owns? All the ranger gets is the puny favored enemy bonus and a few minor spells. What's a ranger gonna do? shoot the barbarian a few times while he's charging? We can even give him the benefit of the doubt and let it be a half-orc barbarian and give him a favored enemy bonus. Whoop-do-do 3 arrows hit for 3d8+30 damage total. He has over 170 health

Gonna try to cast a spell? Oh, wait, the ranger had no offensive spells in 3.0 >.<. Now the raging barbarian power attacks you with his keen greataxe that deals 1d12+25 damage per hit (and that's very conservative. Potion of true strike+power attack=priceless... or 50 gp. whichever XD). Let's hope he doesn't crit

In 3.5 a ranger stands a better chance due to better spell selection, better stealth skills, and overall more class features.

Yes, a ranger is better than a barbarian outside of combat, but only marginally. All they can do better than a barbarian really is track stuff and hunt favored enemies, and how often do you need to do something other than track one of 4-5 creature types?

Don't bother to say that rangers are better at urban campaigns either. Last campaign I played, the ranger botched the roleplaying while we were ordering at a tavern, ended up with only wine and liquor to drink, got drunk, then attempted to chug hot tea that someone offered to him to help the drunkenness (in that order). (yes that part was pretty much gratuitous. Still shot down a possible argument though XD)
___________________________________________________

EDIT one last time: Now I feel like picking apart your

after you lvl them up so much you want a new char.lol

comment

What's that supposed to mean? You wanna stay low-level and do nothing more interesting than exterminate a goblinoid settlement or two and hunt young dragons or something? The real fun just starts around level 10. That's when you start getting the really interesting class abilities and qualifying for just about any prestige class you try for.

You know that second campaign setting I mentioned? I made it with that idea in mind. It's a campaign setting where you can get to level 30 and still have a good 5% or so of the world's NPCs that are more powerful than you. (

High levels are just plain fun. Who wants to run around with wimpy abilities and equipment? I enjoy having enough resources and exp to say stuff like "I have my summoned shadow companion move to flank so all 5 of my hits will be sneak attacks." or "I escape the wizard's telekinesis spell by activating my cape of the montblanc and teleporting to safety on a rooftop out of sight."

I've played my halfling rogue from level 1 to level 14 (and a half XD). I still enjoy playing him a lot. I halfway don't expect to get there, but I've planned out his level and feat progression all the way to level 35 XD

As that character, captured dragon wyrmlings, drawn from a deck of many things (with no ill effect! ^_^), gone on a quest from Yondalla for the privilege of re-creating myself, stolen a gem larger than I am from a magical bank safe, double-crossed my employer because they weren't paying me enough then made over 10x my original pay, and gone treasure hunting on another plane. (just to name my favorites) And I'm nowhere near the end of my "to-do" list ;D.

I don't know how a you could level a character up "so much you want a new char." If that happens, you have problems other than picking a bad class (maybe something involving a life, or a lack thereof?)

And just because I'm still curious...

WTH O.o? What can the 3.0 ranger do that the 3.5 can't?

seriously, I wanna know

Jaegar · Post by **Jaegar** » March 30th, 2007, 9:49 pm

mmkay, here we go...

It's early evening, and you're all sitting at a table in the small town of Bendigo in an inn/tavern called the Red Mule. Some of you have been traveling together for a while, some of you are just having a drink with fellow travelers.
The tavern is somewhat empty, most of the customers seem to have stayed at home due to the bone-chilling drizzle outside. Several other tables hold groups of people, and there are a few locals at what seems to be their customary place at the bar. For the most part, the tavern is quiet as people eat their meals or talk about their day.
You've just finished your meal and are about to start swapping stories over a few mugs of drink, when the door bursts open. Everyone in the room looks over to see as pale faced man with a frightened expression hurriedly shuffles over to the bar. Most people seem to dismiss him after a glance and return to what they were doing, but something about him draws your attention
He begins speaking in hushed tones, but he's so excited you can hear anyway.

Old man Farwell got killed! There are orcs in his keep and I saw his body with my own eyes.

That's nonsense.

one of the men next to him says.

The Bear claw tribe left months ago, remember? They decided we were too tough around here and moved on.

But I saw it! I don't care if the Bear Claw tribe moved, there were orcs...

And what are we gonna do about it? Orcs've never mustered the strength to bother us here in town, and you know he don't have a living relative in the world. I reckon everyone outside our little town's forgot all about him. What would it matter if orcs killed 'im and took that ugly house of his?

But...

You can see the urgency begin to leave the man's face. He resignedly sits on a stool and begins to order a drink...

Notes: You like the way I did the dialog? I noticed that there are a ton of avatars in the modify profile section so I swiped a few URLs and used them here. If you like it, I'll try to keep it up. If you don't I won't bother though.

Also, somebody had better bite this rather obvious and juicy plot hook. Since I have the time to tell a somewhat decent story (I have to type a bunch of stuff out anyway) I'm not just gonna throw you in front of a dungeon and say "go at it"

Finally, if you want to be represented on the maps with something other than a bland, generic mark, give me a 20x20 bitmap image that you want to be your "character token" of sorts. If you want part of it to be transparent, use pink-- the same as a guild emblem for RO.

=O holy crap that's over a page of typing XD

buji · Post by **buji** » March 31st, 2007, 11:13 am

I'll call over the guy that busted in to our table.
"Talk to me about Old Man Farwell. Did you know him well? You seem to be very concerned about his death, despite him obviously having no one in the world."

NOTE: I like the way you did the dialogue- makes it more interesting and kinda easier to understand whos talking.

NOTE: Forgive me for taking the initiative here- i just happen to be the first lucky guy on to see wats happening.

Tarquin · Post by **Tarquin** » March 31st, 2007, 12:16 pm

I said to him :
I seem to recall his name, I don't remember where or what he did. But, his name seems vaguely familiar...did he achieve something great? Please tell us all you know about him..

NOTE : Really is the first time I make up the story too..and yes, the way you did the dialogue is really great!

Jaegar · Post by **Jaegar** » March 31st, 2007, 4:39 pm

The man is startled as you call to him. He hesitates for a moment, then walks over and takes a seat. Now that he's closer you can see that he's a well built man nearing old age.
He quietly listens as Rhonal asks his questions, then slowly replies...

Well, I suppose I should tell it how it happened to begin with...

My name's Nathaniel Batherson (just call me Nate), and I'm the local butcher. I was delivering Sir Farwell's usual cuts of meat to him and looking forward to spending the evening with him talking about old times-- he always invites me to stay instead of walk home when it's raining you see.

As I got close to his place I started hearing voices. I got a bad feeling, but I went ahead anyway. When I reached the door I could hear people inside the hall, it sounded like a tavern on a busy night in there. I knocked and opened the door, and the place was full o' orcs! They all stopped an' looked at me. It scared me senseless! I dropped the sack of beef and took off running straight away, ran clear off the path. I tripped over somethin' in the forest and as I started to get up, I looked back and saw that it was poor old Farwell's body! I got up and ran all the way back to town...

About this time Dracoth says
"I seem to recall his name, I don't remember where or what he did. But, his name seems vaguely familiar...did he achieve something great? Please tell us all you know about him.."

I wouldn't say he ever achieved anything great, but you might have heard of him as Lucas Christian Farwell. He use to be a duke till he lost favor with the monarchy many years ago. Farwell lost his authority and prestige, but he never did much about it. After he lost his status he just settled down and became another neighbor.

When he was a Duke, he never went and started wars or insulted visiting nobles. Nobody really cared about him except the folks around here. He was a good man, and we all appreciated him, but that was a looong time ago... Some of the young folk don't remember him, and he never had much influence outside this region. I just wish he'd had a better way to go than to be thrown out of his home by a bunch of mangy orcs...

NOTES: Great initiative bujin =D it's exactly what I was looking for. btw Tarquin, you should answer phones for a psychic hotline or something XD. That was almost perfect. I didn't really expect you guys to hear that bit of back story. looking good so far ^_^