OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.(Edited2)

[Jack Simth]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
Yes - However, most of the the monsters I have thrown at you have been wimpy and easily disposed of.

Well... easily disposed of when we have the entire party available, fresh and with all spells/power points prepared for the day. Remember, when faced with the old, senile croc earlier, alone, after having exhausted Jacob's spells in the previous session, Jacob was taken down to 3 hp, and retreated. For the circumstances, that croc was not easily disposed of - wasn't disposed of at all, for that matter. It's possible it would have gone down in another hit (I don't have access to it's HP total) but it was far from easy. Granted, with Aphrinsi available, it would have been easier - but then, you would have scaled up the croc, too.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

I did say most.

[Jack Simth]

Well, there was also that Ogre (CR 3, I think) in the Improv session that floored Brian's Monk in one blow (only to be restored - completely - in one casting from Jacob, but still...), and how close of a track have you been keeping on the various party member's HP? Last fight, Aphrisini was down to 4 of 13 HP, and Jacob had taken some damage as well.

The last fight was "Two CR 2's"; from the SRD:

Challenge Rating

This shows the average level of a party of adventurers for which one creature would make an encounter of moderate difficulty.

. If I'm not mistaken, our party averaged (at that time, at least) level 2 - as there were two of them, that was a moderate-high difficulty encounter. The swamp crocidle (not the second that thought a lone Druid would make for a good snack) is listed as CR 2 as well - at a time when the party level was more along the lines of 1 to 1.5; again, a moderate-high difficulty, by the book, at least. The only real reason it was "easily" disposed of is because, as a party, we go through our limited-use abilities quickly - Stisnera was mind-thrusting every round, even though she only had about 4 power points max at the time (although she did have those grey ioun stones, at 25 gp a pop). Another such croc, even with a full party, at the time would have wiped the party out. We just make it look easy; our characters are actually straining to their utmost rather frequently. It's why the constant rest stops.

[Alneyan]

Jack Simth said:
(although she did have those grey ioun stones, at 25 gp a pop)

At the moment, Stisnera can always use her powers in battle by using these stones every single turn, which seems fairly odd to bit. Much later on (for the sake of my example, let's say at level 19), she would be able to use those stones to fully refill her power points between two encounters, if she happened to have a few hundred such stones nearby. It would, of course, no longer be possible for her to refill her power points in battle, but few battles should take more than seventeen fully augmented powers to resolve (six turns of casting).

I would certainly not mind a rule setting a limit on the number of points that can be regained that way, such as 200% of a total point reserve (the value has been scientifically established by pulling numbers from a hat). On the other hand, if our beloved DM does not make gold rewards scale up with levels, I guess it should work out (300 stones are worth 7,500 gold coins, while 17 daily power points cost 81,000 gold coins).

[Jack Simth]

If you went that extreme, I've got a hunch Narf would start including Carrying Capacity rules, simply to combat it. Think about it - how much does a gray Ioun stone weigh? How much would one full recharge (call it 400 of them) weigh? Planning on buying a horse and cart for carrying a week's supply while traveling?

Alternately, Narf could just raise the price on them due to local increases in demand (a. k. a., Stisnera's Purchases - think about it, why would any merchant have THAT MANY on hand?)

edit: Of course, long term, it would probably be better of Stisnera to stock up on Ranbow Ioun stones, which regenerate 5 PP/day, and store them in cognizance crystals.

[douglas]

Alneyan said:
she would be able to use those stones to fully refill her power points between two encounters, if she happened to have a few hundred such stones nearby.

Hmm, the SRD doesn't specifically say so, but I think those stones are supposed to be treated as one-use cognizance crystals, which means this rule applies: "A user cannot directly replenish her personal power points from those stored in a cognizance crystal, nor can she draw power points from more than one source to manifest a power."

[narf poit chez BOOM]

How about a simple buy limit of say 5-15 a day?

[Jack Simth]

Could work. On the low end, that would start affecting Stisnera just about now on level 2; on the high end, it wouldn't much affect Stisnera until about level 3-5.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

New question: What would you like to see in the game? In-character and out?

[Jack Simth]

For purposes of trying lots of stuff, faster EXP gain would be useful. This could be accomplished with either increased EXP rewards for that which already has EXP rewards, or with role-playing EXP rewards (Alynean plays Stisnera approprietly as a gruff person, even when it gets in the way of the plot - it's reasonable to reward good Role Playing in a Role Playing Game, so it is reasonable to award experience points to Stisnera for sessions when Alynean plays Stisnera according to Stisnera's personality, rather than Alynean's; Mighty Eagle is merciful, fighting to disarm, disable, and convert rather than kill opponents when faced with them, so it's reasonable to award Mighty Eagle EXP for session where Brian plays M.E. according to the character concept; et cetera).

For purposes of attracting new members, it would be appropriet to start any relative newcomers witht the EXP of the lowest of those who have been involved for longer periods, and the GP of the poorest of same (counting equipment at full value, but requireing that most of that value be spent on equipment), so that it's still possible for someone just joining up to keep up - a level-1 character with only 100 gp to spend on equipment will have very little place in the party once everyone else has reached level 3 or better, and is walking around in tailored armor with healing potions on hand. When such things are stated, thought about, and deliberately addressed, people may be more inclined to join up later on.