Julie's D and D Game!

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Actually the builds worked exactly as they should, in comparing strikers Serin did more damage per hit than Justicia did. Justicia hit more often doing less damage than Serin did.
 
I just think having a Fighter, Druid, and Pursuing Avenger against a single big target is a lethal combination.
 
I wouldn't say lethal, but it is very sticky. The monster simply has to accept the lesser of three evils and stay put. It it moves the fighter smacks it, it if moves away from the avenger it dies, if it doesn't move it takes a little damage from the druid.

Actually most single mobs don't fare well unless they can severely disrupt the party. If it kept dominating people it would have been much different.
 
Well immobilizing just made an easy decision even easier for it. Had the beast moved to avoid the druid damage, it would have taken a two free attacks from Grendmir and one free attack from Justicia with an expected two additional attacks the next round and Justicia would still be adjacent to the target.

So 5 certain damage or an anticipated 76-120 point of damage....not much of a choice really.
 

doomdragon6

Staff member
I actually get really bored on single-mob fights where the enemy doesn't do anything spectacular and there is absolutely nothing in the room to utilize. After a Dazzling Ray, it's just popping off Chaos Bolts until it's over.

Wait-- how did this move to Julie's Game?
 
Wait... what? 76-120 damage? Seriously though, there are limits to the min/max and OPness of some abilities/class that I can endure. I find that some abilities really don't have much of a place in D&D and find them downright lame even if I'm profiting from them. I believe we're better than that. I like solo monsters as a well created one can bring a lot of excitement but if they are immo/dazed/whatever the hell I just read... what is the point of combat?
 
I dunno what you want Jay. That monster did a reasonable amount of damage to us, either by counter attacking almost every time it was hit, mind-controlling Grendmir, or doing giant burst attacks. You used both your healing words, and at least Serin used her daily. I used two of my encounter get-out-of-death-free cards, despite one of 'em horribly backfiring on me.

I dunno that INTENTIONALLY NERFING OURSELVES would have been advisable, especially after the gauntlet that Shawn had spent the previous couple months running us through, where each and every encounter could have resulted in character death with no chance to take an extended rest in between.
 
I dunno what you want Jay. That monster did a reasonable amount of damage to us, either by counter attacking almost every time it was hit, mind-controlling Grendmir, or doing giant burst attacks. You used both your healing words, and at least Serin used her daily. I used two of my encounter get-out-of-death-free cards, despite one of 'em horribly backfiring on me.
Adia, Justicia and Serin all used dailies on it, Adia used an action point, the beast had over 400 HP, the combat lasted 7 rounds and Errik almost died. So it was a pretty decent fight.
 
Errik took one critical hit from a Warrior with a special weapon to take off most of his hits points. One hit. That’s it. All other damage was relatively superficial that never endangered anyone.

I passionately detest seeing abilities that create such sheer imbalance in combat situations. It is one thing to create a solid character that hold their own in what they do but if your daily can do upwards of 100+ damage one of two things will happen. Either the DM will allow it to happen and permit it to be a crutch for every critical combat situation (which to me completely deflates the excitement for them) or the DM will take this to account and create an even more powerful encounter that will imbalance combat to the point of making non-strikers turns trivial. I’d like to avoid that.

It’s boring enough to play a Cleric with a +8 to attack, that even if he hits is for an average of 10 points of damage. To have to possibly endure 2+ hours of combat as the strikers debate on whether or not to use dailies to take down baddies with a gargantuan pool of hit points to compensate with overpowered abilities quickly makes the concept of combat pretty boring and petty. Even Simkin isn’t built that way. There’s far too much min/maxing going on.

I though we were more of a role-playing group who took abilities that complimented our character’s personalities and decisions, what is this shit that stun locks solos with abilities that transcend sheer MMOness? 100+ damage dailies? If this is the direction Shawn’s game is going to go, I’m starting to feel disinclined to continue my attendance and that’s all I have to say about that for now.

Let’s move this subject to the right thread. I’m sorry to have commented on this but what I read earlier today upset me as that’s not the direction I want the game to go.
 
I don't feel we're a min-max group in Shawn's game, but I also trust Shawn to be able to balance things out at the right times. For example, my hit bonus is ridiculous, but I think he knows better than to paint every monster across the board as having super-high AC just to compensate. There are ways of getting around such things, which is why there are four different defensive stats.

It's just that that battle had only one opponent being whomped by the six of us--hardly a fair fight for the dragon.
 
Jay, what you need to do is re-read. Because that over 100 pts of damage you have convinced yourself is a daily avenger power is in reality the total expected damage of the 5 separate attacks it would suffer from Grenmir and Justicia by moving away from them.
 
I thought I'd give y'all a heads-up: this chapter of the campaign will be ending soon, in three or four sessions, depending on how things go. I know we've had setbacks sometimes with the campaign and it's been a lot of fun, but it's also been stressful for me each week I'm up for DMing. I know part of it is me getting myself psyched out, but getting a session together is a lot for me to consider, and I feel it's a good time to take a break, rather than pretending I'm up for it each week, or having mini-break downs like that one time last month. I hope you guys aren't too disappointed. I've really enjoyed playing with my friends and tormenting you through Amaranth with tentacles, parasites, breast-feeding demon halflings, and dead party members. But I don't think it's fair to continue on if my heart's not in it and the actual DM stress is getting to me, and better to take a break soon than run a promising group and story into the ground. I plan to halt things at a hopefully satisfying point, a chapter-end, and then maybe someday we'll pick things up again.

Again, just to be clear we still have a game this week, the next week, etc. until this chapter is concluded. So don't not show up, k? ;)

Thank you so much, everyone. Hugs and kisses (as always)!

- Juls
 
I can at least say that Errik isn't min-maxed. I specifically started his initial intelligence at 16, brought up to 18 by the racial bonus. I did this because I wanted him to be a fast-talkin' ex mafioso, so I bumped his Charisma up a notch instead. I feel all the feats I've taken for him so far in-character, as well as powers. In fact, I've already pretty much decided what his paragon path will be because it fits the way his character has developed and his role in this story, rather than just maximizing stats.

And yeah, Saryon doesn't have a big to-hit or do a lot of damage, but that's because he's basically a dedicated healer/support character. I'm sorry if playing a Leader is boring for you. I know it was for me the one time I tried it.
 
I thought I'd give y'all a heads-up: this chapter of the campaign will be ending soon, in three or four sessions, depending on how things go. I know we've had setbacks sometimes with the campaign and it's been a lot of fun, but it's also been stressful for me each week I'm up for DMing. I know part of it is me getting myself psyched out, but getting a session together is a lot for me to consider, and I feel it's a good time to take a break, rather than pretending I'm up for it each week, or having mini-break downs like that one time last month. I hope you guys aren't too disappointed. I've really enjoyed playing with my friends and tormenting you through Amaranth with tentacles, parasites, breast-feeding demon halflings, and dead party members. But I don't think it's fair to continue on if my heart's not in it and the actual DM stress is getting to me, and better to take a break soon than run a promising group and story into the ground. I plan to halt things at a hopefully satisfying point, a chapter-end, and then maybe someday we'll pick things up again.

Again, just to be clear we still have a game this week, the next week, etc. until this chapter is concluded. So don't not show up, k? ;)

Thank you so much, everyone. Hugs and kisses (as always)!

- Juls
So we'll have the game the next two weeks and then.... a break of sorts? How long will that be? And what happens to The Simkin?

*suspense*

Does that mean we go back to a full month of Shawn games? Or do we get someone else to DM a full group?

Despite to whatever you call drawbacks, I enjoyed the games very much so and I'm glad you DMed. :)
 
Julie has at least three more sessions planned that I know, counting this Thursday.

Don't know what happens after either though. I think if that will be the stopping point, maybe we could do three Julie games in a row, so we're not taking a three-week hiatus before the last one?
 

doomdragon6

Staff member
Dammit. And I might not even be there tomorrow either. One of my best friends and roommate is moving to Philadelphia forever, and he's leaving Friday. So today and tomorrow are the last days we'll have to spend with him, and one of those days is going to be movers coming.

So it is highly highly unlikely thar I'll be there for the game, but dammit I really fucking wanna be there. ;_;

Sigh. I swear all this "maybe, maybe not" crap will stop once school starts (2 weeks) 'cause I'll be on a normal schedule where nothing really interrupts it.

So, what's next? Jay DMs a game chapter during Julie's break? =P Pretty soon it'll go full circle.

I DMed for a while IRL but everyone's schedules fell apart, including mine. I loved every bit of it and never really felt stressed about it-- and we'd play all day-- 12-14 hours.
 
Yeah back when I first started playing IRL it was hard for us all to get time together since we all had wildly differing schedules.

We'd play like once every 4-6 months, but it'd be like a 9-12 hour session.
 
Don't know what happens after either though. I think if that will be the stopping point, maybe we could do three Julie games in a row, so we're not taking a three-week hiatus before the last one?
D:

Wat?[/QUOTE]

That we play Julie's game this week, next week, and the week after, since those would likely be the last three sessions, that way we're not having the three weeks surrounding Shawn's two sessions interrupt between pre-climax and climax, because it's hard to get it up again--I mean, to get the energy going again. If Shawn is okay with it.

Julie's intending the break to be of indefinite length, so it's up to everyone what wants to be done. We can see if Shawn wants to go back to weekly, or if Jay wants to start a game in Julie's old slots, or maybe Doom has more stuff to do every Thursday, or I don't know. People can discuss it though.
 
If we start a new game for a while with someone else DMing in the same time slot, I call dibs on Defender. :)
 
I'll definitely be interested in starting a new game with my HF buddies. Looks like it'll be setup for September 9th at 7:00 PM.
 
Maybe you can start up a new thread...?

Also, everyone get the new update. It's unlikely, but it's possible you might wanna make some edits to your level 5 with new material.
 
Well, I figured I'll create it in a few weeks. No need to steal from Julie's thunder for her finale.
 
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