Messages

Eh, always disliked committing in posts like this =p But for those I was rp'ing with I've had a spot of rl issues which limits my time to an hour here and there as I slip in the time amidst other things. This state of affairs is going to continue for roughly another week at most, before I'll be able to commit enough time to logging in per session to make it worthwhile (and keep me from needing to run off mid rp).

I'm all for static hp, whether its fixed rate % or maxxed; Those random rolls, if you're on a bad streak, can make a build pretty unplayable in action sequences. Theres entirely enough luck in combat already, with the d20, in my opinion, and even if a barb suddenly got a flood of hp it's not going to minimize the weakness of the class as they currently exist, or negate its vulnerabilities, all it does is ensure that they have the advantage in the thing they're supposed to be good at - sucking up damage while hitting crap.

First, while I'm sure 10 strength half orc non-fighter, non-barbarian could be interesting its not really the point; Fighters, rogues and sorcerers could all be interesting prior to perks, I still think including perks was a good idea to draw more players to straightclassing those classes rather than splashing a level here and there - this was more to raise the point that the class which the race -favours- they are exceptionally bad at (largely because of changes out of the norm);  And while half elves are also not really a mechanically 'awesome' race  they're kinda a neutral draw overall with no stat penalties, or bonuses, the lack of a feat and reduced skillpoints arguably a horrid trade for what benefits the race gets - but in no way would I say they're 'half-orc bad' >.> without even digging into the social angle that playing one leaves you fairly despised ic.


Secondly, while I'm fairly certain a half orc barbarian would be fairly balanced whether you go strength or charisma (to 12 at least), I think the real comparison would be a half orc barbarian compared to a half-orc fighter (as an example of that race put to a class thats remarkably common to them now, rather than their favoured) or human (baseline) barbarian. For the first you have better armour, less divided stats, better feat progression (+specialization), at the cost of a rage you're never going to do -that- well without massive cash investment (and resources aren't an endless element here really), an average +1 hp per level, and a slight boost in skillpoints; And for the other you have pretty much the exact same starting stats after upping charisma/intelligence to the point where under the view of attributes here you're not considered braindead and you're down a feat and skillpoints.

Obviously a class doesn't need to be suited to your race to play it, but ultimately theres a real limit on the number of half-orc wizards I've seen running around lately - which does kinda demonstrate that people have some interest in being mechanically viable, or see being mechanically viable not necessarily being exclusive of interesting rp.  This suggestion was mostly to open up the favoured class, and archtype associated with half orcs really, to perhaps being more of a draw from the mechanics side.

My only concern tbh (since my only issue with racism is how little of it applies to those outside the village, namely towards those that released h'bala even, to be blunt) would be people overlooking their alignment because something is 'acceptable behaviour' - just because something is culturally right say, doesn't mean Good characters should suddenly be able to behave in a manner thats not-Good on a regular basis because of that, it really just means the society they're part of isn't Good in alignment overall.

Cormyr maybe being a fair example, overall a LG/NG kingdom, doesn't particularly have a 'hang the halfbreeds' law despite the recent goblin war; Theres no real clause that would excuse them from murdering goblin prisoners, it would just mean their values changed (which is totally fine).

You end up with a race with -2 intelligence, and darkvision, in the end.  If you even out Str/Cha (and your cha is going to come at a premium for over 12); I could type in the other modifiers for every single, better, race in default nwn (which are -better- before the considerations unique to nwn tbh) but honestly if you just check out the chargen screen it's pretty obvious half-orc is pretty low bar - and their primary 'bonus', strength, dissapears if you try to up charisma (especially past 12).  I'd argue thats kinda against the intent, of them having favoured barbarian and more or less something purely brought about by the changes to rage.

I'm inclined to agree with moving them, if you've played here awhile, or know someone that has, you're perfectly, ooc'ly, aware just how wtfpwned you will be meleeing a nightriser, even just one - if you're new however, and you're logging in for the first time, perhaps from another server thats more forgiving, your first concept ends up a smear perhaps before you can run away (if you have the bad luck to pull commander).

Failing that I'd make the nightrisers either slower around that part of the ziggurat or perhaps just keep it exclusively weaker ones that you might survive fleeing from after a few horrible rounds of combat. Whackamoling outside of a quest, is generally not all that rewarding anyways - so its not like weakening them a bit will suddenly open up a source of nightriser farming or something >.>

...

Barley Merryweather

http://www.mediafire.com/?nr04e237dbe5b4n

I imagined gadyw with more of an epic beard.

...

I expect the efuss part is, but the random -2 to the same social skills I don't believe is; And there was no movement in the listed skills from before or after I increased the secondary skills so I'm skeptical that the -2 came from the broken system.  That said, perhaps when I died and lost skill points from secondary diplomacy or something, it applied a penalty to the skills with the intent of peeling a bonus I never recieved - kinda skeptical about that too because my character's delevelled several time since and the skills haven't moved one bit.

...

I feel your pain, I generally roll on a new server with friends - but that whole wacky permadeath thing scared most of them off for a number of reasons; The following is what I think I've learned about factions to date in the game...


A> Bigger isn't Better.
Sure, the Armada nets you fullplate, but alot of the dm driven/fixxed organizations seem to be hindered by a reliance on dm's because of rank and all that jazz - you play cogs in the machine, which has it's merits, but some pretty horrid flaws as well. On the other hand, two of the best "factions" I've seen to date have been the Elves and the Loyalists (If you can't deal with the floppy ears) - which seem to survive based on player enthusiasm alone, which generally means they're pretty inclusive and theres usually folks around. I would be playing my elf more ~ but his build brings on slight twangs of guilt.

B> Pick based off players you get along with.
A faction can have 20 people, but if you don't particularly know a bunch of them its just 20 strangers that you might or might not get along with -- picking a faction because you like the theme of it might be nice in theory, but your better off getting to know a few folks ic and ooc and see what they're doing. That or follow Thomas around, he seems friendly enough even if his characters have lemming-like survival instincts <.<

Lastly, while it might seem joining a faction would be a great way to see the server? My experience is that it makes for good rp, but also cuts off alot of potential rp with other groups, or makes it so most interaction will be hostile, until you're terribly familiar with the groups ig it seems more advantageous to actually avoid the factions and try late entry. Anyhow, I hope everything works out for you.

...

I don't have races of faerun handy or anything, but I was under the impression sun elves racial alignment leaned lawful anyhow - so traditional paladins wouldn't be a stretch; I think an answer to as if they were exempt from the traditional paladin code would be handy though -- does the code, as written, only apply to human deities in general? Are there acceptable variations on the code?

Not directly related to elves, but I can recall reading about Baravar Cloakshadow's Knights of the Shadowy Cloak - an order of paladins that both works secretly, and sees a slew of evil humanoids as being 'beyond redemption' and fit for elimination; Arguably two actions sorta out of the norm for standard paladins.

...

I'm a teddy bear I guess, I'm pretty content with other players as long as they're not running around all 'how mine for fish!?' or whatever - trying is whats important to me, and I can overlook a great deal as long as folks make an effort.

Consequently, considering the above, my idea of a "great player" is one that can roll with the punches ic and still keep a smile up - willing to lose as gracefully as they win; Being able to laugh off personal or party failures, or looking at the bright side all score high marks with me.

There is always the matter of consideration, obviously in any character versus character setting players are going to end up doing horrible things to each others concepts - taking a moment and considering that the toon you're about to do away with is likely as developed as yours, with a personality and goals, and a influence on others rp enjoyment, before you act seems good form. I'm not saying full death should be overly avoided, but I'd probably say theres ample NPC's to make examples of and most of the time a long standing vendetta over a duelling scar left in a previous fight, and jazz like that have more of an impact over long standing rp than ganking someone and tossing them in the water.

To me a great player of a Villain? Can be villainous without standing on a heap of dead PC's, and much the same for the Heroic types as well. All matter of opinion of course :-D

[Suggestiony Bit:]

So yesterday I was sitting down, contemplating the next character I was going to roll and I immediately thought 'why not half-orc barbarian! I like barbarians, I like half-orcs!' only to have realized that this would be a painful effort to try to capitalize on favoured class, for the following reasons:

- stats are weighed differently on efu than in standard dnd; Mentally below 10 you're considered paste eating, socially you're considered shut-in/monstrous. Because of that redistribution if you want an orc that knows you sit on a couch as opposed to eat it, you need to sink more points in than common to get to the efu 'norm' - which absolutely negates that bonus strength.

- key feature tied to barbarians, is rage - which on efu  is penalized on half-orcs by being tied to charisma. With barb being a favoured class for them, this is kinda a double kick to the junk.  


Now, currently, unless you're dropping 6's in your attribute array like a madman, half-orcs are like the opposite of dwarves - they're a pure flavour race and the only real reason to lean that way is rp, and if you do lean that way when the choice comes between barb or fighter you're honestly better off stapling some furs onto your fullplate and just being really angry in your emotes - which I suppose is manageable but really just not quite the same.


Suggestiony Bit:  If its possible, make half-orc's charisma considered +2 higher only for the purpose of dealing with rage bonuses: It's hardly a broken good race, +2 charisma in that purpose does nothing to aid them in other roles (exclusively incentive not to go tank fighter), and while it does nothing overall to make the race 'better' it surely opens up at least one class to them a bit more.

For some reason, my character seems to suffer -2 to the three social skills of Bluff, Intimidate, and Persuade beyond what his charisma and skill ranks should allow for; This penalty remains when entirely unequipped, restored, and otherwise unharmed and is always present at log in, and after resting, for an entire session; In fact even efusl shows  the skills as being lower than they are and it's only when I level up that I see the ranks I initially dropped into the skill :/ Additionally secondary diplomacy seems to have no effect on my character sheet stats whatsoever, or on my skill check description (but I can't tell if it influences the roll obv, as the rolled result is not shown)

character:  ender locke
skill ranks:  persuade 3, bluff 0, initimidate 0 & sec. diplo 10
background: man-at-arms
perk: animal skinner

-- just not sure if any of that is relevant

From mistlocke, don't seem to be working (assuming the quest giver is the fellow inside the caravaneer inside the town castle); That or it might work perfectly and theres just some part in the process I'm entirely overlooking (a requirement of multiple people in vicinity to initiate or something).