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Post by galadon on Aug 19, 2007 7:53:14 GMT -5
There is something to be said about working security at night. "Lots of reading time."
There is a good thing about having tons of time to read. Where to put people in a game setting. Example, I had a power gamer that needed to be shown GMs don't need to cheat to defeat you.
I let him have what ever he wanted, and he took a bunch of magic things. Went through a gaming session defeating everyone and everything, and pissing off the other players. I told him if he survived the next gaming session he could keep everything.
He was happy coming in next session all smiles and other players thought I lost it and went mad. To start the session they traveled through a forest and stopped at a place I like as a GM. Its fun.
Myth Drannor. The main thing about this place is areas of Magic dead zones. What happens to a player that walks in a magic dead zone and relies totally on magic and is challenge to a sword fight with some one who doesn't rely on magic.
I don't know if the power gamer ever learned anything after his little rant how I cheated. I guess he never bothered to read about magic dead zones. He left the others returned to their previous thoughts of me, Nucking futs instead of mad.
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Post by Kaber on Aug 19, 2007 12:41:38 GMT -5
Hahaha, I'm about to send PAHWG into a magic dead zone. It spans a 30 mile radius. The first 10 miles causes magic surges. The next 10 miles will make spells nonfunctional, in the the third 10 miles all magic items, spells and such will cease to function. Only supernatural abilities, some magical innate abilities and such will function. Innate abilities have a 30% chance of failure. This includes SR. Damage Reduction is not effected.
The Dead Zone was cause by another nasty device. A Spell Battery or Spell Battery Engine. These devices once activated draw magic from the nearest source.
In the case of a spell Battery engine, it remains dormant until a spell is cast. Then the device is activated.
The device is usually in the form of a pendulum or wheel. Once activated the wheel begins to slowly turn, drawing more magic in a set area of effect.( Figure a device is 5' then the area is 15. It grows exponentially from there. I.e at 15' (a small windmill?) the area would be 225') The more magic it draws the faster the wheel spins, the faster the wheel spins the more magic it draws at one time. So at first it takes from an already present spell, then a ring or wand, once per round. At full speed it will take from several rings, wands, rods and such in a round. Taking magic from an artifact will cause it to spin,swing or what not so fast that it will explode, dealing shrapnel damage + number of spell levels absorbed or charges in an area = to it its drawing range.
Only a wand of negation, morjdenkins disjunction or similar can stop a spell battery engine once activated. The engine continues for a duration = to the duration of the spell effects it absorbs.
You could use the engine to drive some pretty awesome stuff.
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Post by galadon on Aug 19, 2007 13:29:44 GMT -5
A wild surge is always fun, unless your the caster.
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Post by grond on Oct 8, 2007 15:34:48 GMT -5
Kaber, shouldn't the 5 foot wheel have a 25 foot drawing radius? I've been considering applying this to an area in my world, as long as it wouldn't be copyright infringement.
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Post by Kaber on Oct 9, 2007 15:07:26 GMT -5
Hmm, you may be right. I had to come up with the mechanics on the spur of the moment. The initial idea came from a book I read long ago. I can't remember if it was forgoten realms spell fire series or another book altogether. It didn't go into any detail really and so I took the initial idea and expounded upon it. I don't beleive it is copyrighted per se.
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Post by grond on Oct 21, 2007 18:45:50 GMT -5
Here's one that may already have been said, but definitely bears repeating. Pay attention to every last detail of the environments you create, if you don't then you can be damn sure at least one of your players will. Even the direction a door opens in a dungeon matters, especially when you were sure it doesn't.
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Post by grond on Jul 3, 2009 10:33:08 GMT -5
It's almost been 2 years here, lets drag this one out of the grave.
My new personal favorite element as a DM is terrain. More than just terrain, but things like stairs and platforms, as well as rock outcrops and steep hills. These sorts of features allow me as a DM, and a few others I have gamed under, to create challenging situations that are difficult for the players to work their way through, without being situations like fighting an Iron golem 5 levels too early, without any way in the party to overcome it's DR.
8 kobald warriors (lvl 2) with bows, mild poison arrows (something that does dex damage), and higher ground, such as a ledge or balcony, is a CR 6 (or less) encounter on paper. It could prove challenging to clear even for an 9th level party of 4, if they are unprepared, while giving the party the opportunity to practice interesting tactics that don't come up fighting some of the more overtly challenging individual monsters. At the same time a Roper (CR 12) on level ground (or any ground for that matter) could prove fatal. 2 different degrees of challenging, one could be difficult, the other is nearly suicidal. Each has its place, but the challenges that require the party to put their back into it and work should be much more frequent than the ones that require them to be lucky, or just plain unbalanced. That was my 2 cents.
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Post by Rincewind on Jul 4, 2009 18:20:49 GMT -5
*sigh* I'm not going to hear the last of these Ropers, am I?
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Post by grond on Jul 4, 2009 18:28:56 GMT -5
I thought they were awesome, but then I was playing the character built and treasured perfectly to deal with them, and I rolled like a champ. Besides, it isn't like ropers are as bad as purple worms and gulvorgs ;D
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