Troll Lord Games

Well it happened. First a little background

I got into a discussion with a fellow player about how D&D 3.x is a high powered game. He disagreed with me, although he did acknowledge that it was higher powered than older editions of the game.

an hour later into the actual game, we got templates by walking into a forge of the gods. Here is the party now.

Half-Fiend Elf Ninja

Half-Celestial Human Cleric

Deathless Lich Halfling wizard

Half-Elemental Elf Rogue

Monster of Legend Gnoll Fighter

Half-Dragon Lizardman Fighter

I looked at the guy I was discussing things with and my thoughts were like, yeah right not high powered.

I think we figured the Gnoll had 4 attacks with her claws and had a 36 str.

I'm so glad I refused to add templates to C&C (not that they were being considered in the first place... but still....) though I still hold that practical use of some templates can be quite fun. When everything encountered or created has thirteen different templates, is when I say "what the Brother Maynard?!"

Yeah but you guys can't top me I'm a Half-Poor Nerd College student! Hahahaha, beware my awesome power!
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CK the CK
"My goddess touched me at an early age."

-Grikis Valmorgen, Paladin

The beginnings of my homebrew campaign world and info for my play by chat game:
http://kbdekker.googlepages.com/home

Blurgh!

Only in 3e would there be a halfling lich that wasn't a joke.

What a mish-mash of insanity that group is.

yipwyg2 wrote:
Deathless Lich Halfling wizard

yipwyg2 wrote:
Half-Fiend Elf Ninja

Half-Celestial Human Cleric

Deathless Lich Halfling wizard

Half-Elemental Elf Rogue

Monster of Legend Gnoll Fighter

Half-Dragon Lizardman Fighter

What the hell is half that stuff?!?!

....................................Omote

FPQ
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> Omote's Advanced C&C stuff <
Duke Omote Landwehr, Holy Order of the FPQ ~ Prince of the Castles & Crusades Society

You can't fault WotC for marketing their stuff to young'uns who really want to play "superhero" rather than actually role-playing... after all, that is the essence of what is being done with 3.x - take the D&D brand and infuse it with unlimited options to allow players to basically be "superheroes" rather than archetypal characters, add in healthy (or unhealthy as tastes and appetites may be) serving of anime, couple of cups of cyberpunk rearranged into dungeon- and mage-settings, and serve with lots of garnish to make it look pretty. Oh, and make sure everyone can level up twice in one evening's game so that you get to 20 in a month.

I honestly don't mind that this is what a lot of younger players want. Before I discovered C&C I used 3.0, just house-ruled everything down and threw out lots of stuff. Of course then the game stops as some player pulls out the 3.0 handbook to show me why as GM I "had" to let them do something.

Thank you TLG for C&C, and most importantly for consistently reminding the readers of the work that FLEXABILITY and IMAGINATION are sometimes more important than a bunch of stats.

Cheers!

John William Wright

"In the Immortal Words of Socrates.... I Drank What!?"

Oh an a story of how I handled this one time - during my 3.0 days I banned non-traditional characters, limited feats, etc., but one player just HAD to play his Half-Dragon Character. The other players rolled their eyes, I said no, no, no... he persisted. I gave in, but at least insisted his character needed twice or three times (can't remember for sure) the XP needed to level as the other players.

Eventually I found myself setting up some puzzles and conditions that were the character's downfall - he entered a room filled with mirrors and treasure, and trying to take anything triggered the magical trap which produced an exact copy of the player to fight, equal in every way. If defeated, the room instantly kept repeating this doppleganger trap, sending endless copies into the fray.

All the character had to do was walk out of the room.

He didn't. To his credit he made it through 2 before the third killed him almost immediately.

John William Wright

"Never forget... No matter where you go... there's a tavern somewhere."

I had a DM in 3E do something similar, by the end of the campaign everyone had some kind of template. (I got a half-dragon template by drinking a potion ) somebody else had a vampire template, the dwarf was a earth/elemental template, etc. This was one of the things that led me to C&C.
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Never throw rocks at a man with a Vorpal Sword!

Excuse my ignorance, but can someone explain this template idea to me?
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The Gargoyle often makes his perch

On a cathedral or a church,

Where, mid ecclesiastic style,

He smiles an early-Gothic smile.

-Oliver Herford

Nym wrote:
Excuse my ignorance, but can someone explain this template idea to me?

Essentially, as the name describes, a template is a "model" for something. Such a "model" is applied as a "transformation" to something that already exists. A typical example is "being a Vampire", which in 3e is treated with a template. So, a Vampire human would be a human to which the Vampire template is applied. A template then describes which abilities, feats etc. you get. So, a Vampire might get strength improvement, immunity to diseases etc.

All in all, not a bad idea at all. But, as with so many things in 3e, it simply got abused and misused.

Cheers,

Antonio

Gotcha, thanks. I thought maybe there was something more complex about it.
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The Gargoyle often makes his perch

On a cathedral or a church,

Where, mid ecclesiastic style,

He smiles an early-Gothic smile.

-Oliver Herford

Essentially rabindranath72 is right, though it is a bit more complex, in that templates actually modify the monster. Not only do templates stipulate new things for monsters, such as gaining special attacks or defenses, but they also change existing ones, even to the point of altering HD and other areas. For example, a vampire gains a certain number of abilities, but they also get a bite attack, which, if already possessed, changes to deal XdY instead, and HD is modified to d12. Also, attributes are changed. And now, because the creature is "undead" (monster type changes, usually always, with a template), new rules apply, such as the loss of a Con score but the gaining of an immunity to all Fort save effects (well, at least those that affect living creatures) and it also makes the thing turnable. Anyway, the point is... templates add a great deal of complexity because there are numerous things they modify, though, this is not so bad when used in small quantities and when care. What is annoying is when everything encountered is a templated this, template of that, template of this, and has nine different classes, five of which are "Prestige." That tends to irk many "old-schoolers" but seems the trend in online posts about characters (what people actually play outside what is posted is anyone's guess.)

Ah, a classic munchkin-killer! Nice!

seskis281 wrote:
trying to take anything triggered the magical trap which produced an exact copy of the player to fight, equal in every way.