General Discussion

[Armando]

Re: D&D

K, I finally understand the skill rank thing. For each skill point you invest in a skill you get a +1 on your success roll. I'd still like a better explanation on multiclass penalties but I think I'm just about ready to put a character together.

[Firewind]

Re: D&D

Okay time to put my 3.5 cap back on.

Difference Between Skills and Feats

Skills are basically your standard RPG skills really. You get so many points per level that is determined by your class and your Int mod. Feats are more like Job Traits from FFXI really. They are used to customise classes by giving bonuses or new abilities.

XP Penalty for Multiclassing in 3.5 Edition

Going by the rules as written. You get a stacking 20% XP penalty if you Multiclass and don't keep the levels roughly even. Once you gain more than 2 levels in one of your classes over an another. This penalty stacks per class so it massively limits customisation if the DM actually enforces it.

Say you are a 3 Fighter/2 Rogue and go 4 Fighter/2 Rogue, you will then start getting an XP penalty if Fighter or Rogue is not a favoured class. Now say your 4 Fighter /2 Rogue takes a level in Cleric, then you will be hit with a 40% XP penalty. If our 4 Fighter / 2 Rogue / 1 Cleric then decided to take a level in a prestige class, guess what? 60%.

Now if we had a Dwarf doing this he/she would take no penalty? Why? because Fighter is a Dwarf's Favoured class, for all intents and purposed, Rogue is classed as the highest class level when it comes to working out XP penalties.

Basically Multiclassing is only worth it if:

You are a Human, Half-Elf or your highest class level is your Race's favoured class.
You're a Rogue. Only 19 levels in Rogue are actually worth it and Rogue is so feat staved it's worth taking an XP hit just to get some bonus feats from say Fighter.
You take a prestige class or base class where the benefits out weigh the XP hit and potential loss of progress in a vital class ability (Like Sneak Attack or Spellcasting Levels) until you can get those levels up.
You were stupid enough to roll a Monk in Core Only.

Dex "Penalty" with Armour

It says it in the description under Max Dex Bonus. Lighter armour lets you use a bigger proportion of your Dex mod while no armour lets you use your max mod.

Armour Check Penalty however gives you penalties to some skill rolls that are effected by it. They are most notably physically demanding skill checks like Climb or stealthy ones like Hide and Move Silently.

Confusion about character sheets

Myth-Weavers - Powered by vBulletin

Seriously guys use this site. The sheets fill out the important stuff themselves. If you add stats it fills in the relevant mod fields and any skills and defences they effect automatically. Ygg can also print off versions for himself and you can keep them updated really easily.

Too Much Awesome

So who here is playing a Rogue? I don't mind rolling another class. Beguiler and Hexblade are pretty fun and Bards are always fun to RP. Also been pondering a Cleric character.

[Armando]

Re: D&D

You are a Human, Half-Elf or your highest class level is your Race's favoured class.

Does the race's favored class have to be the highest class level for it to not count? D20srd's description implies it doesn't matter what level it is, it simply doesn't count either way.

A multiclass dwarf’s fighter class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing

I kinda need to know because I wanted to take a level in Fighter to get the martial weapons and tower shield proficiencies, but otherwise level a Cleric (and I was thinking of being a Dwarf.)

[cidbahamut]

Re: D&D

I spent all of last night working on my Rogue's character sheet, does that count?

I think Mezlo was considering Rogue, and I know TM is planning to multi-class as a Rogue/Fighter.

[Firewind]

Re: D&D

Human or Half Elf = You use the highest Class Level regardless of what it is when working out if you take an XP penalty or not.

Dwarf = You use Fighter to determine if you take a penalty regardless of how many levels in fighter you actually have.

So an 8th Level Dwarf Cleric would take no XP penalty if they took a level in Fighter. However they would if they took a level in say Rogue.

An 8th level Human or Half Elf Cleric could take a level in any class and not take a penalty because Cleric for all intends and purposes is classed as their "Favoured Class"

A Human going 8 Cleric / 5 Fighter / 3 Rogue for example would only take a 20% XP penalty because again their Cleric levels don't count. Likewise a Dwarf would only take a 20% penalty because the Fighter levels don't count. An Elf however would take a 40% hit because none of those are a favoured class for an Elf.

[cidbahamut]

Re: D&D

Does the race's favored class have to be the highest class level for it to not count? D20srd's description implies it doesn't matter what level it is, it simply doesn't count either way.I kinda need to know because I wanted to take a level in Fighter to get the martial weapons and tower shield proficiencies, but otherwise level a Cleric (and I was thinking of being a Dwarf.)

You might be able to get martial weapon proficiency via your Diety. That's a thing. A thing I'm not entirely familiar with, but it's a thing. Clerics get funky bonuses based on their diety and said diety's domains. Just another option for you to agonize over.

[Yygdrasil]

Re: D&D

Yyg...I need to know more about your campaign world so I can figure out what bonus languages my character might realistically know aside from Common.

I don't know your INT score or any skills you're placing... but it would be a safe bet to take Elven and Orc. In the distance Dwarven... although you'll have little interaction with them.

[Firewind]

Re: D&D

You might be able to get martial weapon proficiency via your Diety. That's a thing. A thing I'm not entirely familiar with, but it's a thing. Clerics get funky bonuses based on their diety and said diety's domains. Just another option for you to agonize over.

Not in Core Only. IIRC it's a Forgotten Realms thing but it's been ages since I've played an FR RP because I'm not a massive fan of the setting personally (Even if I do love Baldur's Gate and Swordmage from 4th Edition).

[Armando]

Re: D&D

You might be able to get martial weapon proficiency via your Diety. That's a thing. A thing I'm not entirely familiar with, but it's a thing. Clerics get funky bonuses based on their diety and said diety's domains. Just another option for you to agonize over.

I can get it by picking War Domain as one of my two domains but I'm not 100% sure I want that yet. Also doesn't get me the Tower Shield Proficiency, so I'd have to pass up on Combat Casting on first level to take that.

[Squiggs]

Re: D&D

I'm kinda glad Saturday's don't work for me. Even reading this thread is confusing me (though maybe it's easier with the material right in front of me).

[Firewind]

Re: D&D

So we have:

cid = Rogue
Tasky = Fighter/Rogue
Mezlo = Not sure what he's doing now
Armando = Cleric/Fighter?
Murphie = ???

I don't mind being the person to fill in a gap in the party but is everyone sure of what they are playing? I would like to keep my current character though like I said, if nobody else wants to switch then I will.

The only classes I really hate playing TBH are Wizard and Sorc really since:

1) Vanican Magic is pants on head fuckwitarted
2) Arcane spellcasters are impossible NOT to make obscenely overpowered even at low levels so they aren't even fun to play in 3.5 unless you're a munchkin.
3) Vanican magic leads to groups making pants on head fuckwitarted decisions when the spellcasters are out of spells like resting in the middle of a battleground, or running from fights they could easily win without magic.

---------- Post added at 04:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:59 PM ----------

I can get it by picking War Domain as one of my two domains but I'm not 100% sure I want that yet. Also doesn't get me the Tower Shield Proficiency, so I'd have to pass up on Combat Casting on first level to take that.

Combat Casting isn't really worth it at later levels as long as you keep your Concentration high. Bear's Endurance will also give you +2 to Concentration due to the Con Mod bonus anyway.

Take tower Shield Proficiency if you want it.

[Taskmage]

Re: D&D

My guy is basically just savvier than your average fighter. There are a couple rogue talents I want to take to support his fighting style (Offensive Defense, Slow Reactions), a couple more for role-play purposes (Black Market Connections), and I want the extra skill points for Sense Motive, Perception, and Stealth to round him out a bit. Combat-wise I picture him being a support tank with debuffs and some options for opportunistic extra damage. Plenty of room to build a full rogue without overlap, I think.

Wasn't Mezlo going to be a sorcerer?

---------- Post added at 10:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:00 AM ----------

Murphie is rolling a Druid.

---------- Post added at 10:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:01 AM ----------

Now that I have a character sheet in front of me, I want to play nownownow.

[Firewind]

Re: D&D

Wait, I thought we weren't using Pathfinder Rules. At least that's what Ygg told me.

[Taskmage]

Re: D&D

We're not? I was going by the campaign information on the first page. <_<

[Armando]

Re: D&amp;D

Combat Casting isn't really worth it at later levels as long as you keep your Concentration high. Bear's Endurance will also give you +2 to Concentration due to the Con Mod bonus anyway.

Didn't occur to me that Concentration is a skill, and thus I can dump skill points into it. Also forgot to take into account that my Con mod will be added to concentration checks. Thanks.

d20srd says I can use a Tower Shield to gain total cover instead of the shield AC bonus if I give up my attacks for that round. Can I still cast spells? Also, I imagine the cover would only help against a target in front of me, and I'd be giving up the AC against targets on my sides, right?