Sunday D&D Interest Check

[Veryslightlymad]

I honestly don't give a fuck about alignment.

[AndrewRogue]

Talkative, so I'm just shooting shit here. Don't mind me.

On Alignment: Setting aside the fact that 5% of DnD players even ever used alignment correctly and that the Law and Chaos axis were just this side of completely useless for most of DnD's lifespan (objective law and objective chaos are a lot more generally nitpicky than objective good and objective evil to probably about 99% of players, not to mention they blended into each other much easier than the Good/Evil axis did) anyway... I had absolutely no issue with the shift. That and I vaguely disagree with that being the actual insinuation. It has always kinda been gestured towards in DnD that LG = Top of Good and CE = Bottom of Evil.

Frankly, all alignment really ever mattered for was "Do I take extra damage from Smite Evil: Y/N?" and the occasional issue of being annoyed because a multiclass sounds cool, but you can't do it via RAW.

Otherwise though, see Shale. >_> Just felt like grumbling.

On Multiclassing: Generally speaking, I've found the multiclassing to be, overall, pretty decent. True multiclassing can be a bit rough, but is improving fairly steadily with the XXXX Power supplements and the Paragon Multiclassing feats. It also helps that, really, the power swap feats carry a decent amount of weight by themselves. It is a heavy load, but some powers carry really well between classes, and snagging 6 or so of 'em can be great fun. I will admit I have hit walls in concepts without what I'd consider excessive fluff mutation, but it looks like Hybrid Classing will generally fill in those gaps for the insane and dedicated individuals who opt to use it.

On Item Dailies: ...erm... my rulebook is not here right now (work and all) but I want to say that that isn't right? Looking at the FAQ for 4th Edition seems to support what I generally recall the rules being (the daily only counts against itself, the total number you can use per day is limited by another factor) but I haven't actually read the rules on Magic Items in a while so I may well just be blowing smoke.

On Character Concepts: I have about a million things I feel like playing. How will I decide? ;_;

[Ultradude]

Quick question for those more knowledgeable on character building - how much work would a good pure spear user be?

[AndrewRogue]

Not too hard, from what I recall.

Polearms are generally solid and have good support. I haven't screwed with the build options much, but I'll look into it.

[Ultradude]

Cool. I had the books in .pdf, but I need to bother to refind them so I can plan things out.

[Excal]

If you're going with a fighter, not much since the Fighter has its powers built so that you can actually pick a weapon type and specialize in it.  In fact, spears are one of the types that get a lot of support for this.  Otherwise, just pick a melee class and you'll be just as well off with a spear as you would be with any other weapon, just with the spears quirks instead of some other weapon's quirks.

As for magical items, they do not deny you from using your daily powers, ever.  How magic items work is, you have one magic item use per day.  You add 1/day uses each time you go up a tier (a tier being 10 levels) so that you eventually reach 3/day.  This counter effects only your ability to use magic items.  And, as I recall, though I am not certain about this, you regain one spent use after every second battle in a day.  Very much like how you gain Action Points.

I'd talk about alignments, but I once ran a game where someone played a Chaotic Purple character.  Which should be a really good indicator of how much I care about 'em outside very general roleplay guidelines and the smites.

[Veryslightlymad]

Polearms are really good for a class if their powers have a lot of the qualifier

"Melee Weapon" as opposed to "Melee 1"

If you have a pole-arm, and you use an ability that has the Melee Weapon qualifier, then the ability can actually be used at pole-arm distance, meaning you can nail a dude with special attacks when they're a square away. A spear user is a decent choice of build.

EDIT
Oh, yeah, Dude! Get on IRC at some point and hit me up. I'd like to know a bit on when you can play, and so forth.

[Shale]

I'd talk about alignments, but I once ran a game where someone played a Chaotic Purple character.  Which should be a really good indicator of how much I care about 'em outside very general roleplay guidelines and the smites.

Now that's just ridiculous. How can a fruit be an alignment?

[Excal]

Simple.  They are neutral, for fruits care not for good or evil.

[Veryslightlymad]

I always liked "Bastard Jackass" as an alignment, but that might just be me.

[Grefter]

Simple.  They are neutral, for fruits care not for good or evil.

You are forgetting the existence of Kiwi Fruit.

On Alignment, I honestly couldn't give a shit.  It was mostly useless and I really like how it generalises the whole "most of the population is Neutral" thing they have always said but had impossible to show because of how polarized everything is so that True Neutral was actually really difficult for people to understand.  That was supposed to be around where most of the population sits, ie most people really don't give THAT much of a fuck.  4E reflects this pretty well really.  It isn't that most people aren't good or evil tending it is just that they are not exceptional at it like the heroes/villains are.

[AndrewRogue]

Looks like Soppy and I are gonna Warlord this shit up. HOO-AH!

[Hunter Sopko]

Simple.  They are neutral, for fruits care not for good or evil.

You are forgetting the existence of Kiwi Fruit.

On Alignment, I honestly couldn't give a shit.  It was mostly useless and I really like how it generalises the whole "most of the population is Neutral" thing they have always said but had impossible to show because of how polarized everything is so that True Neutral was actually really difficult for people to understand.  That was supposed to be around where most of the population sits, ie most people really don't give THAT much of a fuck.  4E reflects this pretty well really.  It isn't that most people aren't good or evil tending it is just that they are not exceptional at it like the heroes/villains are.

Nerds mistake general guidelines for ironclad, eternally binding rules? Surely you jest.

[074]

On Multiclassing: Generally speaking, I've found the multiclassing to be, overall, pretty decent. True multiclassing can be a bit rough, but is improving fairly steadily with the XXXX Power supplements and the Paragon Multiclassing feats. It also helps that, really, the power swap feats carry a decent amount of weight by themselves. It is a heavy load, but some powers carry really well between classes, and snagging 6 or so of 'em can be great fun. I will admit I have hit walls in concepts without what I'd consider excessive fluff mutation, but it looks like Hybrid Classing will generally fill in those gaps for the insane and dedicated individuals who opt to use it.

Wrong!  THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS EXCESSIVE FLUFF MUTATION!


That aside, I'll admit that a lot of the attractive options to me involve a lot of high damage with sharp pointy objects.  While I have difficulty with making a decision (and hope to fucking god that if I EVER play a Tempest fighter again, I get the luxury of the GM not deciding to have every single enemy except two in a 7-enemy encounter attack me.  With stupid die luck and all of them having AP.)

[Veryslightlymad]

Starting setting is an Italy-shaped (but smaller) Polyarchy with a king of Elves, Dwarves, and Humans. These three lead by consensus. Population in this area is also heavily Halfling, which creates tension as Halflings have no royalty. Any other race you feel like playing is common enough to be allowed in the setting, don't sweat the details.

Players are suggested to find an image file, preferably a small one, that I can use to turn into a token that will represent you in whatever service we're using. No, I don't know yet which one will be the best. Nevertheless, even if I use MSPaint, I think it'd be less confusing for everyone if everyone had a piece that DEFINITELY was them.

[Mad Fnorder]

Think I could make a one-shot appearance sometime? I have a usual sunday game that is in between games, and may have off weeks.

[Veryslightlymad]

>Shrug<

Way too early to say anything about that.

[Strago]

Probably can't join as I'm in a D&D campaign that meets on Sundays for the most part, but I thought I'd put in that when/if (hopefully when, since D&D makes the world a better place) this campaign starts up I hope somebody posts some logs about how it goes. I'm interested both in how DLers take to it, and how 4e goes in general. 4e both fascinates and repulses me, and I want to know more about how people experience it in practice.

[Dark Holy Elf]

No interest in playing (one D&D game a week is enough for me) but just chiming in that 4e is good stuff.

[Excal]

Hmm, y'know, I think I'm technically running a DL campaign at present.  I'll see if anyone besides the token non-DL player wants to take up chronicle duties for those who are curious.

[Pyro]

I've made a character for this with VSM.

[AndrewRogue]

Fair warning. I'm not going to be around this Sunday. Going home to get a car.

[Magetastic]

On a somewhat unrelated note: Anybody know where I can download the Arcane, Martial, and Primal Powers books?

[Shale]

It's the Internet. Search for a torrent someplace and you'll find them.

[Luther Lansfeld]

I demand at least small reports on the D&D campaign!