My ongoing D&D campaign is over 18 months old now

[NewJeffCT]

Assuming my players survive the big encounter at the start of next session, they will be heading to 13th level. I gave them a cliffhanger ending last time around...an old man came crashing through the brush at them shouting, "No, you fools!" after the party dwarf unwisely disturbed a magical circle. Hot on his heels, crashing through the brush, was this:



The demon sneered and was poised to strike - and, that was how we ended last session.

The marilith already took out the party rogue, who was using his winged boots to get an aerial view of the area inside the magical circle. (a 375 pound flying log projected at him via telekinesis for 15d6 damage...ouch)

We've had some group turnover recently - the married couple is breaking up and the woman dropped out of the group. (they were together for 12 years, got married a year ago, and decided to call it quits after a year of marriage...) However, the one single guy in the group is getting more serious with his girlfriend (now co-habitating) and since she is a gamer, she is joining the group next time around. Would have been interesting to have two women in the group, but I think that may cause some sort of disruption in the Force, or is like crossing the streams in Ghostbusters.

[MrSlayer]

1. Wicked.

I'm currently writing an adventure for my son and his friends which will take them from 1st to about 10th level. It's quite epic. Which edition are you playing? I still have all my old 2nd edition books and campaign in Greyhawk. I don't like the newer editions very much.

[NewJeffCT]

7. 3.5E

That was the latest and greatest when we started. We stuck with it by unanimous agreement when 4E came out.

[LooseWilly]

31. 4E has come out?

I liked 3, heard rumors about 3.5 that caused me to boycott it (as I essentially did with 2)...
Now I guess I'll have to see about 4.

Currently I just play NWN, haven't bothered to try to find a PnP game for years. Maybe 4 will change my mind.

(rogues so often get the shaft... funny to hear it happened literally in your game...)

[NewJeffCT]

35. 4E came out last year

I've barely looked at it due to a lack of time.

Once 3.5E gets above level 8-9, prep time becomes a bear. It's a ton of work to come up with a Fighter 12/Blackguard 3 bad guy, choose his or her feats and skills, equipment, etc. Then, if you want to layer on the half-fiend template, it's even more work...and,then when you get to the table, you have to remember all those skills, feats and special abilities/attacks/defenses.

[DarkTirade]

29. 3.5 is teh awesome.

[rug]

2. This game is lasting longer than their marriage?

[NewJeffCT]

8. yes, unfortunately

the guy is still with us.

[TK421]

3. Man...I would love to join your group, but I play a strict Ranger

don't know how that goes for you in your campaign...wish I could be there. I want to make an epic-level Ranger...but just haven't had the time to do so.

Marilith...Evil Outsider? Demon? Ranged weapons with a tank....the wizard never stood a chance going toe-to-toe with that thing

[NewJeffCT]

9. The cleric in the group has a ranger apprentice

the cleric is a follower of a nature/archery goddess, so I gave her a ranger apprentice. However, he'll be pretty useless against a marilith, other than being a meat-shield.

the group has no ranger, otherwise. I'm having a ranger NPC make an appearance at the end of the next session, though.

[TK421]

12. Haha..Rangers do make good meat-shields don't they?

take a hit, suddenly can't attact ( bad roll ) totally screwed because of little to no AC. I still like rangers and their versatility...I will ask my roommate about this Marilith.

[NewJeffCT]

14. well, the apprentice is 4-5 levels lower

than the rest of the party... so, is screwed that way as well. Plus, the apprentice has gotten the leftover items - they probably should have at least gotten him a magic bow, but one suddenly isn't going to appear in the middle of a jungle with a demon bearing down on them.

[Mojambo]

4. I'm also curious as to what edition you're playing.

I'm to start a campaign for some newbies soon and I'm trying to decide between 2nd and 3rd.

My head is with 3rd, my heart is with 2nd.

Do you keep a blog or website for your campaign? I'd love to read more about it.

[NewJeffCT]

6. We started with 3.5E and we've stuck with it

we'll keep playing 3.5 through the end of the campaign... which I anticipate being August/September.

We have not decided if we'll stick with 3.5 after that, go to Pathfinder/3.75 or to 4E.

edited to add. I've posted a few campaign updates on DU in the past... I'll see if I can find the links. I'll post tomorrow if I can find them.

[Mojambo]

11. I love what I've read about Pathfinder.

Downloaded the beta materials. Looks great. I'm definitely going that way when it comes out.

I hate just about everything about 4E. The daily, encounter and at will powers are cool. I wish there was a way to adapt them to 3.0/3.5, at the very least for casters.

While I've got your ear... What's the difference between 3.0 and 3.5?

Oh, and one other question. I absolutely hate using miniatures/grids for combat. How does 3.0/3.5 combat go if you're going without that stuff. I usually just use paper or white boards to sketch out rough locations when necessary.

Thanks for answering. You're the go-to-guy on this stuff.

[NewJeffCT]

13. Let me see

between 3.0 and 3.5:
They just cleaned up some of the rules -
the "buffing" spells like Bull's Strength and Cat's Grace now last for minutes or rounds/level instead of hours/level. They gave the ranger more skill points/level and gave the ranger a choice between archer ranger or two weapon ranger (Legolas or Drizz't) at 2nd level. Damage Reduction was simplified - so, it wasn't 20/+3 or 15/+2, it was simply 10/magic or 5/silver or whatnot. I would consider more like the change from 1E to 2E.

I've barely looked at 4E, so I'm not qualified to answer much on it. I've spent a lot of my free time working on my current campaign, so it has not left me much room to learn a whole new edition.

I've got a pretty extensive miniature collection, so I use them for all combats except the smaller ones. I don't think a grid is always necessary, as you can do a lot of things with just the miniatures and a ruler (how many miniature wargames are played on a grid - none that I know of) - or, a few coins and a ruler, if necessary.

[LooseWilly]

32. What do you think of the buffing spell changes?

I personally think that it really weakens casters, especially at lower levels... when they are often depending on those spells to last more than a single combat to make them really worthwhile.
I also heard that harms and heals were capped in efficacy, which isn't horrendous, but does seem like a bit of a slap in the face of clerics... especially clerics who aren't heavy combat clerics but who need some spot of "desperation" combat effectiveness, but can't rely on divine favors and such like to do the trick.

[NewJeffCT]

34. I didn't play enough 3.0 to realize the difference

When 3.0 came out, I was stuck in a job that required ridiculous hours, so couldn't game for a few years. Then, my wife had our daughter and that kept me busy for a few more years, and by that time, 3.5 was out.

However, I think having Bull's Strength, Bear's Endurance, etc last for minutes means that at mid to higher level, it is still not an all day sort of thing. In the old edition, the cleric would cast them in the morning and they'd last all day, basically.

Of course, the marilith has her Unholy Aura going. So, anybody that attacks her in melee will have to make a Fortitude save or take Strength damage.

[NewJeffCT]

17. I posted some very condensed summaries here:

I left out many of the role-playing moments, or glossed over them:

http://www.kenzerco.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39368

[arcadian]

5. I wonder how many gamers looked at that picture and thought:

"Sure, I'd bang that chick." :rofl:

[NewJeffCT]

10. well, I have this super-cool marilith miniature

and, I warned the group over a year ago that the miniature was too cool NOT to use.

the paintjob on mine is better than this, but it's the same miniature.

[Lethe]

15. typical dwarf behavior......

hehe

times like that i run and hide or if i'm a cleric cast Meld into Stone or whatever that spell is

one time i played a human monk were-badger capable of human, hybrid, and total badger forms. In that case i always just dug a hole and hid in it while my party was decimated. (lol!)

[NewJeffCT]

16. well, the demon has the "true seeing" ability

active at all times, so unless the cleric teleports or plane shifts out of sight, the marilith would see them.

[Lethe]

25. that's when i run!

i've had too many DM's that revel in killing of the PC's. If i'm up against a tough or unfamiliar situation that's always my first instinct, especially when the DM starts to smile.

run and/or hide!

that seems to be a familiar scenerio to newbie D&D players. their first instinct is, "why would the DM put this monster here if we couldn't kill it? let's attack!"

but a lot of DM's will do that to prove that sometimes there is a situation that is impossible, and you need to get the hell out of it.

[LooseWilly]

33. Hehe...

I'm always amused when players are too sure of themselves to run. I'm always ready to run. I mark escape routes and my spell casters always keep a couple of "run for your life" spells handy when possible.

Playing the computer version, NWN, I've listened to the death howls of my party members who were too foolhardy to run too many times to count. In fact, a monster summoning spell to create a distraction while I run is always a useful strategy... disposable meat shield spell, it should be called.

[NewJeffCT]

39. I would love for this marilith encounter

to have several PCs dropped to below 0 hit points, but not dead. The marilith does a lot of damage per round because it will likely hit many times each round. And, 12 hits for 10 points of damage is still 120 hit points of damage, as opposed to a bad guy hitting 3 times for 40 points each time. So, if the marilith drops a PC below zero, it most likely will not kill them if the PC can be stabilized in time.

One of the best epic battles I've been involved with as a player was when every party member in our group, save one, was dropped down below 0 (luckily, everybody was stabilized - 2E was so much easier to stabilize). The one guy was left was down to 1 hit point when he finally finished off the Big Bad Evil Guy. (My PC had fallen the round before, so I could at least say that I almost lasted the entire battle.)

But, I honestly got depressed for a few weeks when I killed two PCs just about a year ago in the campaign.

[Iggo]

18. NERDS!

Actually, it sounds like fun. <---- post #4999.

[NewJeffCT]

20. Congrats on 5,000 posts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3njjD41f48

[Orsino]

19. Thermodynamics says your game will end in the next year. :-(

But good on y'all for keeping it going this long!

[NewJeffCT]

22. I can stretch out the campaign

but, from what I understand, 3rd edition - 3.5 specifically - gets to be unwieldy once you get past level 15/16 or so. It's already tough to prepare, as creating a level 15/16/17 adversary takes a lot of work, and it's very easy to forget all the powers/feats/skills that a character at that level has...

Oops, forgot that this bad guy has "Mettle" an ability that allows him to avoid all damage on a successful Fortitude or Reflex save instead of taking half damage.

Oops, forgot this NPC had "Winged Boots" allowing him to fly... no way those would not have been activated going into battle, despite being mounted on a wyvern (to save him the trouble of activating them if he falls)

[Akoto]

21. That is an awesome marilith painting! n/t

[NewJeffCT]

23. It's the cover of the "Hordes of the Abyss" book

One of the last books for 3rd edition (well, 3.5)

[NewJeffCT]

24. afternoon kick

to see if i can get more responses.

[Systematic Chaos]

26. I used to love D&D back in the 1st and 2nd Edition days.

I used to have all the original 1st Edition manuals, in very good condition, and like an idiot I either gave them to someone or threw them out at one point. Then I invested in a ton of 2nd Edition stuff and have never even really used it. I think my biggest problem was lack of decent games. Most of the ones I went to either had a GM who was Monty Hall to the point of absurdity -or- like one of the last campaigns I joined (run out of a hobby shop, no less) the guy insisted that I roll a 1st level character from scratch when everyone else was nearly level 5. I could go on at length about just how useless I felt in that game but nonetheless I gave as much input as I could. And that STILL didn't stop the jerkwad GM from penalizing me a bunch of experience points for supposedly not contributing enough. What? I had one fucking Magic Missile and that was it! So sorry I didn't want to run up and melee 4d8 HP creatures with my awesome 4HP and tight +8 Armor Class. :grr:

[Hanse]

28. 1st edition had the best interior art.

It was all low budget and pretty shoddy. But it had real character.

Erol Otus rocks my world.

[NewJeffCT]

36. I think almost every guy who started out with 1E

loved that Succubus picture from that old Monster Manual.

[Hanse]

44. Dieties and Demigods had better T&A.

But being 7 at the time, I just thought it was funny you could see a lady's butt.

[NewJeffCT]

37. After I got divorced 9-10 years back

I put my original copy of the 1E Deities & Demigods book for sale on eBay to get some extra cash. It was the one that had the illegal Cthulu and Melnibonean mythos' in it. I ended up getting close to $60 for it, even though it was not in great condition.

[RandomThoughts]

27. I played D&D when younger,

And a bit while doing software, would be great to find a group.

Its a fun game when you have a good GM.

I play Clerics or Paladins(LG), But I can get annoying at times LOL.

[DarkTirade]

30. I usually end up playing characters that are spread a little too thin to be good at any one set of

things but they end up being decent at everything. So in the game we just started, I decided to play a dwarf cleric. I can kick a little ass, cast a few spells... and that's it. No need to get all complicated this time around. :)

[NewJeffCT]

38. You mean like bards?

the quintessential jack of all trades character..

[DarkTirade]

40. I'd never actually played a regular game of D&D before, so I don't know which D&D classes are the

normal 'jack-of-all-trades' types.

This is my first non-computer D&D game. :) And I just started my first Shadowrun game recently. Unfortunately the GM for that one is going off to a different college next semester. D'oh.

[NewJeffCT]

41. The standard/iconic D&D party is

a cleric, a fighter, a rogue(thief) and a wizard.

The bard has some of the skills of the rogue and also some of the spellcasting ability of the wizard, plus can also give combat bonuses to his companions through inspiring songs/music. When they go up in level, bards can also inspire enhancements to out of combat stuff as well.

A ranger would help in that way as well - they have some of the fighter's combat abilities, some of the skills of the rogue, and can eventually cast minor spells for helping out with healing.

[DarkTirade]

43. Yeah, our party was cleric, fighter, rogue and ranger.

Although the rogue just had to drop out and two new people (who I have yet to meet) have signed up. So I don't know what the party'll be like soon.

[NewJeffCT]

45. Sorry to hear about the group

Good luck with the newbies.

It was an odd stroke of luck in our group - the married couple breaks up and the woman drops out, but the one single guy gets more serious with his g/f and gets her to join up to take the woman's place. And, she is a gamer. The woman in the married couple was a WoW player, but not an avid face-to-face gamer.

And, I also found out that the guy playing the party sorcerer until December is now available. He had dropped out due to a job change, but his schedule is such that now he's available. So, I'm having him show up late for the marilith session as a surprise to the whole group. (I had emailed him to say I was going to have his old PC put in an appearance as an NPC and to see if he had anything pithy to say when his character arrived on the scene, which was how I found out)

[AngryAmish]

42. I always like being an assassin back in the day.

Best survival odds. My fellow campaigners were just carrying my stuff until I killed tham.