I think the dice were kind, but with 30 of them coming from the -5 +10 feature, he only needed 70, and I think that without rage damage it would not have gotten over 100. That was all three hits combined.
@NautArch We all just went "WoW!"
(Hmm, maybe one of my long sword hit included? No, I think it was all him).
I'm not sure pure fighter won't be right there in the conversation, though. If we're talking about action surge and haste, then the difference between Extra Attack and Extra Attack (3) is going to be huuuuge.
@KorvinStarmast (right, but it's listed as "Extra Attack (3)", since only 3 of them are extra. And it's all fighters, not just champion.)
I don't think critting on 18-20 (high-level champion) is going to beat out what a battlemaster can do with those dice. Converting a miss to a hit is... say it with me, people: huuuuuge.
@nitsua60 I think Eldritch Knight is also.pretty good at high levels. There are some really good disabling level 5 spells that can get you advantage on attacks
Right now, my paladin at 17 could deliver with a greataxe against a non-fiend (GWM, GWF, PAM). If I hit on my main attack, extra atttack, bonus attack, I'd get: 2d12+1d4+45+16d8
@NautArch But OP "prefers" mundane damage. Which I'm reading as a requirement, otherwise the line is moot and obviously some sort of sorlock divine smiting for 1d10b+372d8r is going to take the cake.
@nitsua60 I'm not even sure OP would allow the player to take a casting class. It wasn't stated directly but it was implied by one of the now-deleted comments.
@nitsua60 Is going sorlock even that necessary? with only 1-2 encounters/day and a request for biggest damage in a round, having more/regenerating spell slots isn't as good as things to increase your attacks, damage (GWM, PAM, Sentinel)
@Rubiksmoose I didn't think casting classes were out, but the use of magic wasn't their core design
Okay, I'm going to shoot to do a L20 battlemaster tonight. Because I like the complexity of figuring expectation values with precision dice thrown into the mix. MATLAB, here I come =)
I feel like so many charop questions come from the mindset that there are just great amazing builds out there that crush every other one in every case and all someone has to do is ask to find them.
I'm trying to learn 7th Sea because we're finally starting our campaign, this seems like a lot of paradigm shifting for me and especially my DnD-focused player base.
I think they'll be cool with the roll mechanic, but I worry a bit about Stories, a mechanic where the players script quests for themselves.
This is a bit unfamiliar territory to me. I don't often GM games I haven't played before, nor games with heavy barrages of lore (although as a history enthusiast, the lore works well for me) nor games that... well, seem quite professional but whose rules I'm still not quite sure of.
The authors clearly have vision, and they have style, but I'm not sure if the book represents that well... yet.
So the player doesn't just decide on the goal, they actually script the Story
"I do this, then I do that, then I do that and then I reclaim my barony in Eisen".
(and that's the main way of mechanical character advancement!)
So basically I worry about the players creating Stories that, even if they don't contradict each other, go unfulfilled because they are nowhere near each other or anything else that's interesting
The cool thing about the Stories is, they're proactive (where RPGs usually are all about reacting - do this or the Lich King rules the world, defeat the Minions of Chaos or all hell breaks loose etc)
Yeah, there are a lot of different techniques for making sure improvised stories follow expected narrative guidelines like "interact with each other meaningfully" or "have a satisfying ending."
But in addition to player Stories, the GM should create some Stories (using the same step-by-step pattern) of their own AND run Villain schemes in a way that's quite similar to the traditional RPG quest where the Villain sets up the scene and the players try to thwart it
So I'm really worried there'll just be too much of everything
Now I'm thinking about a campaign plot where the heroes take the fight to the Lich King whereas the Lich King personally doesn't care. He waits like Orcus on his throne because he is immortal and therefore can take as long as he wants to complete his plans.
And now I'm thinking of WoW's Wrath of the Lich King expansion.
Where the heroes taking the fight to the Lich King was actually his plan all along.
Because he's an immortal necromancer, he'll play the long game and wait for the heroes to become stronger. And stronger still. And strong enough that they'll serve as perfect champions. All he needs to do is wait until they arrive on his doorstep and he kills them where they stand.
Oh man, that'd be a great transition from a good -> evil and possibly a future evil -> good campaign.
Each Villain has an Influence value, which reflects the social power, wealth and stuff like that of the Villain. The Villain must scheme to increase their Influence - rob a bank for gold, murder a rival, something similarly evil, and can spend the Influence on a variety of things
Whenever they scheme for Influence, they invest some of it into the scheme, and if the PCs thwart the scheme, they lose their investment - otherwise, they gain it back doubled.
Could definitely see it as a prologue where you have your players build fairly strong characters (8-10th level maybe?) to challenge the Lich King, he kills them and your party will eventually have to face them again with their new characters.
I asked my players how they felt and they want to at least try out the personal stories... I guess they're ok as long as they understand a Story might be left out of spotlight for several sessions in a row.
@KorvinStarmast Except, of course, it depends on the modifiers. Critting is very similar to converting a miss to a hit minus the modifiers. And if you're a half-orc, maybe the crit is more impactful than a miss-->hit. Or maybe those precision dice go to waste... there're a lot of moving parts =)
@nitsua60 Yeah, my half orc champion does get that added damage die on a crit ... but he does not have those silly underbit tusks. He looks more like mom. :p
@Shalvenay Would love to see your additions or corrections to the journal entry. I am sure I missed forgot some of the things that happened. (Fridge went down Saturday, we are still living out of coolers until Friday ..)
Thx, am hoping Salty will toss in his recollections as well. I sometimes will miss a key point perspective wise, so we get a little too Hal centric on the journal entries ...
Ok y'all, so my group played D&D last night and something struck me.
I'd like some help to see if this question would be on topic.
Most dice are engraved with a certain depth, meaning certain sides have less material and therefore less weight than others. Reading through a few questions, it seems like the expected die roll would be linear, however this is only the case when all sides are exactly the same.
Is there a higher probability to roll a low number if no steps are taken to readjust the weight of a multi-sided die?
I'd like to ask this as a question, but I haven't turned up much in my googling.
@Anoplexian I am not a dice-scientist, but from my reading the amount of material taken to make the numbers is insignificant, and in most cases is fairly equal on all sides, so it wouldn't lead to an imbalance even if it were to be insignificant.
Dice are often more "weighted" because of edge imperfections than because of literal weight. Also, opaque dice often have an imperfect fill inside 'em which throws the weight off more than the pips ever could.
Most gaming dice are tumbler-polished anyway, so true balance isn't even tried for.
