[4e] Ca-anas Revisited [5/5 - Full]

[Mamoru Shigehito]

Ah alright, well if he dies I can always try something else. blaugh
Besides that I'm just experimenting and trying to just go with the flow for the class  

[Rain Yupa]

As just the type of person I am, I prefer non-Strikers. I've ALWAYS preferred a support role, in one fashion or another. Defenders keep people safe, Controllers control the flow of battle and keep minions from ganging up, and Leaders buff or debuff.

I've never really played a Warden. I just haven't really had a big draw for them for some reason. Which sucks, because I have a character in mind I want to play. I usually end up playing Defenders a lot for some reasons, almost always Fighters.

One of these days, I'll just take Fighter off of the list when I roll.

But yeah, despite the fact that I say I prefer non-Strikers, the random roll I made gave me a very hard-hitting defender, so I decided to embrace it. How I'm playing Morrag is to deal as much damage as possible, so ultimately, I'm playing him as a Striker. Goliaths are very hard-hitting, and that's what the roll gave me, so I decided to instead embrace it for a change. Normally, I try to mix things up a bit, but this time I'm going balls to the wall.

So, like I said, starting with a character this high, they might not flow as strongly as it does in your head, which is why I mentioned retraining. This would apply to me too - however, I'm embracing the damage focus, for good or for ill. So I probably won't retrain, because of how much I'm dedicating to this cause. I want to see how it plays out.  

[Lord of the Vine]

Rain Yupa

As just the type of person I am, I prefer non-Strikers. I've ALWAYS preferred a support role, in one fashion or another. Defenders keep people safe, Controllers control the flow of battle and keep minions from ganging up, and Leaders buff or debuff.

I've never really played a Warden. I just haven't really had a big draw for them for some reason. Which sucks, because I have a character in mind I want to play. I usually end up playing Defenders a lot for some reasons, almost always Fighters.

One of these days, I'll just take Fighter off of the list when I roll.

But yeah, despite the fact that I say I prefer non-Strikers, the random roll I made gave me a very hard-hitting defender, so I decided to embrace it. How I'm playing Morrag is to deal as much damage as possible, so ultimately, I'm playing him as a Striker. Goliaths are very hard-hitting, and that's what the roll gave me, so I decided to instead embrace it for a change. Normally, I try to mix things up a bit, but this time I'm going balls to the wall.

So, like I said, starting with a character this high, they might not flow as strongly as it does in your head, which is why I mentioned retraining. This would apply to me too - however, I'm embracing the damage focus, for good or for ill. So I probably won't retrain, because of how much I'm dedicating to this cause. I want to see how it plays out.

That's fair. I just need to figure out how I want to work encounters. I want to be able to give a good challenge while at the same time throwing something at you guys that could feasibly kill.  

[Rain Yupa]

My philosophy concerning that is three-fold:

1.) Use weaker encounters when working with a new party, and slowly build up until you know the difficulty threshold that they can handle.

2.) Try different things, seeing what they have difficulty with and what they simply roll over.

3.) Never, EVER count out your players - they are more resourceful than you give them credit for.  

[Mamoru Shigehito]

He has a very good point with that and for an example I had a group of my friends in a town overrun with an two skeleton armies with their necromancer masters at war with each other... They some how managed to kill the two skeleton greater basilisks that I had guarding inside and outside of a tower, which I might add that they were only 5. Although it this was in a dnd 3.5 campaign......

As for the defender its kind of why I had him take more healing abilities for himself and others, but kept his strength/con higher.  

[Lord of the Vine]

Rain Yupa

My philosophy concerning that is three-fold:

1.) Use weaker encounters when working with a new party, and slowly build up until you know the difficulty threshold that they can handle.

2.) Try different things, seeing what they have difficulty with and what they simply roll over.

3.) Never, EVER count out your players - they are more resourceful than you give them credit for.

I understand that much, just more what particular creature types should I toss to you guys. Makes the difference between choosing a brute or a soldier.  

[Rain Yupa]

Also, as a DM, I roll my dice IRL rather than with the dice roller, because of... well, if you ever get a chance and you have time, go look at Arc's Keep on the Shadowfell. Look at the last battle, starting at about... oh, maybe here. Here instead if you want to see how we got so bad off for the start of that "final" fight, including why I was dead.

Sometimes the dice will just simply poochscrew the party - bad rolls for the players, or good rolls for the monsters. Or both.

By hiding one's dice rolls as a DM, you can tip the favor towards the PCs, making a critical not a critical, or a near-miss a near-hit. One of my tricks is that if the party is doing poorly, I start rolling 2d20 per attack, keeping the lower of two dice. Don't turn ALL hits into misses or else it will be obvious that you're pitying us, but a little less accuracy on the monster's parts in a subtle fashion might be just the edge the players need.

Then again, my dice rolls, as a player OR a DM, usually suck, so there's very little for me to hide. If you go through the battles above, you will see what I mean.  

[Rain Yupa]

Dion Necurat

I understand that much, just more what particular creature types should I toss to you guys. Makes the difference between choosing a brute or a soldier.

Oh. NM my last post then. I'd get rid of it, but I'll leave them in case anyone wants to watch my keister get handed to me sweatdrop

I've never really favored picking my monsters by classification. I've always chose them by what would be thematically appropriate. The only thing a Brute, Soldier, etc would mean to me, is how I run them in battle.  

[Lord of the Vine]

Rain Yupa

Dion Necurat

I understand that much, just more what particular creature types should I toss to you guys. Makes the difference between choosing a brute or a soldier.

Oh. NM my last post then. I'd get rid of it, but I'll leave them in case anyone wants to watch my keister get handed to me sweatdrop

I've never really favored picking my monsters by classification. I've always chose them by what would be thematically appropriate. The only thing a Brute, Soldier, etc would mean to me, is how I run them in battle.

True, but when it comes to me building encounters, I typically try to have a splash of each creature subtype.  

[Rain Yupa]

Dion Necurat

Rain Yupa

Dion Necurat

I understand that much, just more what particular creature types should I toss to you guys. Makes the difference between choosing a brute or a soldier.

Oh. NM my last post then. I'd get rid of it, but I'll leave them in case anyone wants to watch my keister get handed to me sweatdrop

I've never really favored picking my monsters by classification. I've always chose them by what would be thematically appropriate. The only thing a Brute, Soldier, etc would mean to me, is how I run them in battle.

True, but when it comes to me building encounters, I typically try to have a splash of each creature subtype.

So it sounds like an adventure in trial & error to me! biggrin

Also, reflecting on the party build (2 defenders, 2 leaders, 1 controller), I don't think I regret Morrag's build, if I'm the one who plays. I'm somewhat looking forward to being a murder-monkey.

Though, as stated earlier in the thread, I'd prefer a reserve spot. If anyone else wants to join (and play a Striker, I think!), I'd be more than happy to step aside.  

[Mamoru Shigehito]

Well with the characters I've seen it shall make things interesting  

[Lord of the Vine]

Rain Yupa

Dion Necurat

Rain Yupa

Dion Necurat

I understand that much, just more what particular creature types should I toss to you guys. Makes the difference between choosing a brute or a soldier.

Oh. NM my last post then. I'd get rid of it, but I'll leave them in case anyone wants to watch my keister get handed to me sweatdrop

I've never really favored picking my monsters by classification. I've always chose them by what would be thematically appropriate. The only thing a Brute, Soldier, etc would mean to me, is how I run them in battle.

True, but when it comes to me building encounters, I typically try to have a splash of each creature subtype.

So it sounds like an adventure in trial & error to me! biggrin

Also, reflecting on the party build (2 defenders, 2 leaders, 1 controller), I don't think I regret Morrag's build, if I'm the one who plays. I'm somewhat looking forward to being a murder-monkey.

Though, as stated earlier in the thread, I'd prefer a reserve spot. If anyone else wants to join (and play a Striker, I think!), I'd be more than happy to step aside.

Nah, its a good party build; at the very least, I'll be able to run more Infinite Minion Machines and work with some terrain-based conditions.  

[Tanimeso]

yeeeeeeeeees, good good. Now it is only a matter of time till I TAKE OVER THE WORLD.  

[WhimsicalXellos]

We're gonna be burning through healing surges like it's going out of style. eek  

[Lord of the Vine]

WhimsicalXellos

We're gonna be burning through healing surges like it's going out of style. eek

You might, depending on how I design encounters. Nothing that will get you killed, I hope, but there may be a few non-combat encounters where I take surges.