Don't you people ever die?! A DMing thread

[Nikose Tyris]

IWBTG is I wanna be the Guy. It`s a game designed to piss you off.

[tacticslion]

Originally Posted by Nikose Tyris

IWBTG is I wanna be the Guy. It`s a game designed to piss you off.

Ah, yes. Thanks. Now I'm up to speed* (I'm aware of this game for realz, this time)! I just wasn't sure what the abbreviation meant.
...
Er, I mean, yes, excellent job! You've passed the test! Here, have this one, free, invisible, intangible, nonredeemable, false, but otherwise completely real internet cookie as your prize!

... ALSO, as a piece of Game Mastery advice, which is technically on topic, if you plan on running one campaign with four 'mini' campaigns in between important plot points, make sure your players are both aware of the breaks and are interested in continuing the "main" game after you finish the first mini-break. Yeah, I don't know that from experience*.

*Actually, I do.

[Nikose Tyris]

in D&D 3.5, the "Complete Divine" sourcebook has a variant on turning that deals pure damage.

If a creature has turn resistance it's supposed to let him ignore a certain amount of damage.

That's really really shitty. It weakens turn resistance a lot. a quick mod we did in our games, if a monster has turn resistance +4 then the cleric doing the turning deals 4 less dice of damage.

Much more balanced.

Also killing a lich in two turns because of a readied-action counterspell and a dick of a paladin sucks.


We had a huge intimidation factor going on and the characters walked it off. It was depressing.

[Nikose Tyris]

TDK: Turn resistance is usually a 4. So that's a horrible idea. <3 Since a paladin with improved turning would stomp it into the ground pretty much every time.

Edit: ...my post just time-traveled. It's 6:30 here, and it put my post before TDK's at like, 2:35. TDK's post says 2:54.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

[TDK]

Another idea. The turn resistance works like spell resistance, the thing with turn resistance makes a d20+turn resistance roll against the turn check. If the undead wins, no damage. If the turner wins, he does damage.

[tacticslion]

Welp! I now work from 7:30 to 4:30 every day except Saturdays and Sundays. I also drive two hours each way on each of those days (making my days actually 5:30AM-6:30PM). Since it's a teaching job, I also need to spend (at least) two hours each of those days working outside of my "official" hours. I also need to be in bed by 10, or else it's dangerous for me to drive, and I don't play that way. On Sundays I work at one church from 8 AM to 1 PM, and attend another from 5-6. Now, occasionally, I'll sneak onto a website or something (like this one), but I'm fairly booked.

So! My time, is obviously being cut short. Any suggestions on how to run a campaign (or two) with roughly two hours of free time per week day, one "free" day per week (not including household chores, of course), and between three to five hours on a Saturday?

* Alternate title: "Necro-fu and You, A Necromancer's Guide to Web-based Necromancy". I blame Thaddeus, myself. Mary's a necromancer and is still lawful good! Necromancers are cool! You can't control me forever!1!1!1!1! ... Also, sorry for the dead thread bump.

[walkertexasdruid]

As a DM, is ok to create your own monsters, magical items, major artifacts, ect., or should you just stick what is in the books?

[McTahr]

Originally Posted by walkertexasdruid

As a DM, is ok to create your own monsters, magical items, major artifacts, ect., or should you just stick what is in the books?

The problem with making your own homebrew stuff is that if you don't follow the trends and power creep of the regular items/monsters/whatever very closely, you can quite easily wind up with something either insidiously overpowered, or just plain not worth using (or too hard/too easy for the rewards for monsters). Don't be afraid to try homebrew stuff, but definitely do not half-ass it. They offer tables in the back of the Monster Manual in 4th Edition I believe for the different monster types, and from there you can generally get an idea of how strong the monster should be. They have a small guide under the magical implements for making implements for non-listed abilities, but I don't remember the specifics off-hand.

Generally, if I'm in a hurry, I take monsters that fit the rough idea of what I want my homebrew monster to do, and then manipulate powers/exploits and skills to match appropriately. (Example: I was running a little goofy Left 4 Dead cameo one-shot game for some friends, and modified Ghouls to have a leap attack, dropping the immobilizing effect they have.)

Anyway, DM story along the same vein, same game even:
I was running this game (The Left 4 Dead cameo game) and they reached the point of the Tank. They were on the second floor of a building, and it charged in through the front door of the bottom floor, and began punching through the floor at them whenever they made noise. (It was a little overpowered for them to take in a straight-up fight, so I designed a little bit of a trick to killing it more easily into the fight, and dropped hints as such.)

Basically, after the first hit, a painting wobbled on the wall from the shock, plonked onto the ground and bounced down the hole, tonking the Tank on the head. Within line of sight, already reported to all of the party, were various large, heavy objects. Full-size tubs, rows of lockers, large hardwood benches, etc.

The party proceeded to start simply ranged attack spamming the Tank whenever they could get line of sight and getting slammed around, while the cleric was actually walking downstairs, and the ranger tried to hang through one of the holes and shoot the tank while hanging by his knees. (He failed the arbitrary acrobatics check.)

Needless to say, I'm amazed they're alive.

(The psion eventually got the fighter to go along with operation "Bang on the heavy stuff" and win.)

[walkertexasdruid]

That was good advice. I will keep that in mind.

[Terisse]

Note: 3.5ed here.

The next time I feel the need to DM, my plans generally include extraplanar settings as long as the PCs are at least fifth level. I usually delay on introducing new planar settings until about level 10 to give them at least a fair chance of surviving outside of the material/ethereal planes. One of my personal favorite planes though, is Ysgard for plenty of reasons, and for one of the NPCs, the plan is to get down to the second layer, Muspelheim, and make it to the Luckmaker's Glyph(The NPC is a Fatemaker, prestige class in the Planar Handbook, supplement to the Manual of the Planes.)

The Fatemaker is AL CN, and though he does need help getting past the fire giants, he's too stubborn for his own good and usually refuses help. However, if he dies, the party will make some serious enemies.serious enemies, what with being a high ranking member of a material plane guild that effectively spans the damn world.

Now that the general plot is given, my issue is how to handle magic items to assist with planar travel/survival, generally for placement and availability. The Planar handbook has some minor magic items for that purpose, but some of them are far more expensive than most low-mid level characters have. Any hints or suggestions as to deal with those?

The plane is minor chaos-dominant and minor positive-dominant, and I want to prepare for anything (I've had undead party members before, and the occasional lawful character). That, and hints on how to fight/circumvent fire giants in tunnels so I don't have to improv too much.