D&D Shenanigans

[Wigmund]

Originally Posted by Smarty McBarrelpants

Isn't that point of NPC's? They're like mobile trap detecting kits!

I've always wanted to play as a Telepath/Thrallherd just so I can do this with an endless wave of fodder followers.

[krogothwolf]

You know what was entertainingly funny. We needed a force to help us attack something, there was a sizable barbarian horde nearby and our friend decided to, um, impress them with a display of magic and launched a giant fireball in the air. It didn't impress them, at all. It scared the shit out of them. They ran away so he chased after them. He got them all slaughtered cause they ran into a rival barbarian horde and where to exhausted from running to fight back. Not only that, he attracted a Greater Red Dragon who would of killed us if we didn't surrender each our best magical weapon. He had to surrender two cause he attracted it. It was hilarious.

[tacticslion]

Leadership and Thrallherd

Originally Posted by Wigmund

I've always wanted to play as a Telepath/Thrallherd just so I can do this with an endless wave of fodder followers.

Really, if you want to be a "leader", a thrallherd is the way to go. You are guaranteed loyalty, it holds none of the restrictions (as written) for thralls' and believers' class levels that Leadership does, and your score never drops. Plus you get two thralls instead of only one cohort. The only cost is that you can't have the Leadership feat. It's the perfect deal... until you get into epic levels. If you get into epic levels, then, well, it's the other way around. The epic Thrallherd is eternally stuck with a couple of sixth level believers and a seventeenth and sixteenth level thrall. The epic leader? not so much. One could argue that the Thrallherd would continue to grow as well, as per the epic rules for classes beyond their "cap" level, however it's given a specific cap "25 or higher", indicating that anything higher than a score of 25 nets you only the benefits of a score of 25, which, in epic rules, means it doesn't advance, by Rules As Written. A good GM should be able to spot you that, though, making most of this meandering diatribe pointless. Yay, I'm a pointless rant!

Adamantine Golems and Magic Immunity

Originally Posted by Rejected Again

... I toss a leveled up adamantine at the party. The new player( first time ever playing DnD) casts Metal to wood. I congratulate her on a smart move, since that removed a good chunk of DR.

Er, R-A? While you may have allowed it since it's her first time (a tactic I whole-heartedly approve of), I just thought you should know for the future: Adamantines have total, complete, 100% magic immunity. They have the ability of all Golems "magic immunity", which usually has some work around, but an adamantine's reads "Magic Immunity (Ex): An adamantine golem is immune to all magical and supernatural effects." I, personally, hate them (and that rule), but that's technically what's written there. In reality, however, it doesn't matter. An epic druid has access to the Shapechange spell. One Rust Monster later (their ability is Ex, not Su), and you've still lost an adamantine golem within a round or two. Basically, with epic druids, the rule is "don't do metal stuff" (among other rules). Fun story, though!

Specterbane's story reminds me of this one time my wife's character led a party in a "flaming ettercap on a stick" dance. ... huh, I guess that looks even weirder in print on the internet...

[Professor Smarmiarty]

There was also the time our pacifist halfling cleric disarmed a collosal demon wielding a collosal two handed scythe that she could barely carry despite have a check that was 64 points at a disadvantage (we use rules that if you roll a 20 you get to roll against and add the new results).

Also one time we played a campaign as level 1 commoners- that was pretty awesome until we got murdered by a kobold.

[tacticslion]

Originally Posted by Smarty McBarrelpants

There was also the time our pacifist halfling cleric disarmed a collosal demon...

That reminds me! There was this one campaign I ran that the party had worked really hard to get this dragon on their team. I mean, going on a ten-(in-game) year-long quests, large amounts of wealth, and stuff like that to get her to permanently join them (they were doing other stuff in the mean time, but that was a major part of their quest). So finally, they get her: she breathes a cone of electrically charged acid, is size huge, and has all the powers of an advanced druid and sorceress. A massive, powerful monster with an entire army of wicked things comes at the heroes, and it's only in the middle of this battle that they realize that she worships (and was a druid of) Eldath... deity of peace and patron of pacifists. Further, she'd taken a vow to do no harm to any creature, save far-realm inhabitants. You'd think after ten years (and at least triple that number play sessions) that they'd have caught on...

ANYway. So their absolutely crushing despair was eventually mitigated by the fact that a) the opposing force heavily used pseudo-natural creatures and golems and b) she had a massive, surprisingly large (to them) number of non-violent submission spells at her disposal from both sorcery and druid lists. The other party sorcerer, as often the case, was surprised to learn there were ways to overcome a problem that didn't involve evocation. She used a ton of non-violent subduing spells, then launched herself into a viscious, unbelievibly violent frenzy against the unnatural abominations - the only creatures/things that weren't protected by her vows. They still had a huge amount of work to do, but it was a great moment.

Originally Posted by Smarty McBarrelpants

Also one time we played a campaign as level 1 commoners- that was pretty awesome until we got murdered by a kobold.

Actually, I've been slowly building a campaign for the last few years that effectively replaces PC classes with NPC classes. And in another campaign, I'm really looking forward to eventually playing my commoner that's infected with lycanthrope!
So, what happened? How did the campaign play out?

[Wigmund]

Originally Posted by tacticslion

Really, if you want to be a "leader", a thrallherd is the way to go. You are guaranteed loyalty, it holds none of the restrictions (as written) for thralls' and believers' class levels that Leadership does, and your score never drops. Plus you get two thralls instead of only one cohort. The only cost is that you can't have the Leadership feat. It's the perfect deal... until you get into epic levels. If you get into epic levels, then, well, it's the other way around. The epic Thrallherd is eternally stuck with a couple of sixth level believers and a seventeenth and sixteenth level thrall. The epic leader? not so much. One could argue that the Thrallherd would continue to grow as well, as per the epic rules for classes beyond their "cap" level, however it's given a specific cap "25 or higher", indicating that anything higher than a score of 25 nets you only the benefits of a score of 25, which, in epic rules, means it doesn't advance, by Rules As Written. A good GM should be able to spot you that, though, making most of this meandering diatribe pointless.

As a Thrallherd I don't want to be a 'leader', I want to have an never-ending supply train of bodies that I can use to fill moats. If I wanted to have followers and care about them, I go for the Leadership feat...the Thrallherd is built to jam traps and feed Swallow Whole monsters. Team up with a Necromancer and there's an endless supply for their undead army.

[tacticslion]

Originally Posted by Wigmund

As a Thrallherd I don't want to be a 'leader', I want to have an never-ending supply train of bodies that I can use to fill moats. If I wanted to have followers and care about them, I go for the Leadership feat...the Thrallherd is built to jam traps and feed Swallow Whole monsters. Team up with a Necromancer and there's an endless supply for their undead army.

I understand that. But at epic levels, with the Leadership feat and subsequent enhancements, you can have enough mage wrights and adepts that you can summon anything you want to do the exact same thing. Also, any given necromancer can only hold so much. Trust me, I totally see the benefit - no matter how many you lose, you get more. That's incredible. But once you get ten times the number of followers, all of which are spell casters (minor or not) you suddenly have real power on your hands. Plus at epic leadership, you (eventually) start getting up to - at least ten - twentieth level followers. Conjuring suddenly becomes quite impressive, especially Mage Wrights. Even with only Adepts, you still have tons of power on your side at that point. By that point, it doesn't matter if you care about your followers or not. Simply have them win DnD for you. Of course, it's no where nearly as powerful as the Thrallherd Chain Trick (tm)* (made by me), but that's the point at which the GM throws you out of his/her house and hates you, both forever.

[EVILNess]

The power that the pillars contained was absorbed by several different beings when the world exploded, so I spent my last several weekends slaying demigod class beings in an attempt to harness enough power to remake the world into not being blown up.

Except I then jumped into the vortex of power and was granted omniscience and the ability to alter reality as I saw fit (It was either that or have my soul destroyed, that was a hell of a will save.) I then granted my companion's desire's, paid all my debts to the world, got my debts owed, and then remade the world and replaced the pillar system.

I then faded out to places unknown ending the saga of a character I have been playing for four years.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Originally Posted by tacticslion

I understand that. But at epic levels, with the Leadership feat and subsequent enhancements, you can have enough mage wrights and adepts that you can summon anything you want to do the exact same thing. Also, any given necromancer can only hold so much. Trust me, I totally see the benefit - no matter how many you lose, you get more. That's incredible. But once you get ten times the number of followers, all of which are spell casters (minor or not) you suddenly have real power on your hands. Plus at epic leadership, you (eventually) start getting up to - at least ten - twentieth level followers. Conjuring suddenly becomes quite impressive, especially Mage Wrights. Even with only Adepts, you still have tons of power on your side at that point. By that point, it doesn't matter if you care about your followers or not. Simply have them win DnD for you. Of course, it's no where nearly as powerful as the Thrallherd Chain Trick (tm)* (made by me), but that's the point at which the GM throws you out of his/her house and hates you, both forever.

If you're epic level 20th level characters can't do shit. My character who was level 35 and had one level of every character class and one level of a lot of prestige classes and had old age penalties (ie. the worst built character ever) managed to take down a tarrasque in 1 round on 3 seperate occasions. He murdered 4 old white dragons in 1 round.
20th level characters are like little flies.

[Melfice]

Originally Posted by EVILNess

The power that the pillars contained was absorbed by several different beings when the world exploded, so I spent my last several weekends slaying demigod class beings in an attempt to harness enough power to remake the world into not being blown up.

Except I then jumped into the vortex of power and was granted omniscience and the ability to alter reality as I saw fit (It was either that or have my soul destroyed, that was a hell of a will save.) I then granted my companion's desire's, paid all my debts to the world, got my debts owed, and then remade the world and replaced the pillar system.

I then faded out to places unknown ending the saga of a character I have been playing for four years.

... this seems a somewhat anti-climatic ending.
I mean, don't get me wrong, the whole bit is amazing, but the way you bring it. I expected at least 2 big books, or something.
Still, nice work.