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Get out of here, you time travelling demon!
So once again, I go to the BK at the student center and order a bacon double cheeseburger, and I get a double cheeseburger sans bacon. And again, I tell the lady, I said bacon double cheeseburger, and she's all "you said double cheeseburger". Uh, I think I know what I frakkin said! I wanted a bacon double cheeseburger, why would I just say double cheeseburger? Don't be putting words in my mouth, lady! I know what I said, you just misheard me! I'm a go with the flow kinda guy, but when it comes to eating out, I better get what I asked for!
I can't remember who I'm with who just lets it go, but I know there have been a couple of times I went somewhere with them and they didn't get what they want or didn't get some appetizer and they were just gonna let it go! You asked for it, you should get it!! Now, I understand food service is a tiring, thankless job. And I'm a somewhat generous tipper- I'm lazy so I end up just giving 20% on top of the post-tax total since that's the quickest to figure out (divide your total by 10 times 2) So its not like I don't respect them or anything. But if I ask for a bloomin' onion, I better get a bloomin' onion. If I want my hash browns scattered, smothered, covered, and chunked, they better be. None of this only scattered, smothered, and covered or whatever! I mean, if you go to a restaurant and order from the menu, and what you get is totally random, its chaos!
Owel, geek fun talk:
Haven't gotten into the full combat mechanics yet, but reading up on the non spell-casting classes, fighters, paladins, rangers, and rogues get some pretty cool stuff. I mean, some of those combat manuevers are pretty useful (and snazzy sounding to boot!) Even though you can only use some of them only once per encounter, a lot of them can turn the tide of a fight or seal an opponent's doom.
I haven't fully read up on wizards yet, but while fighters and rogues have gotten a hell of a lot more tricks up their sleeve, I think the spellcasters have been nerfed a little. I did say they at least get at will magical attacks, so they can always do something. But a lot of their traditional attack spells have become daily or one per encounter. As I mentioned before, you can magic missile to your heart's content, but you can only drop a fireball but once! What happened to mages being able to drop the hammer? Only one fireball a day!? (A smaller radius version, fireburst, is one an encounter) Now, if it was powerful, I'd understand, but it only does 3d6+int on everything in a 3 square radius up to 20 squares away. So the range, blast radius, and damage have all been reduced, and you can only do it once a day. Fireburst has the same damage and range as fireball, but only does a 2 square radius blast area. Lightning bolt can only hit 1 guy with 10 squares, and does but 2d6+int damage, though it does arc to two targets within 10 squares of the first for 1d6+int damage.
But again, you can only use fireburst and lightning bolt but once a combat! That's kinda boring. Yeah, you can continuously pelt them with magic missile (or scorching burst, if you're a firebug) but that's basically being armed with a 2d4 ranged weapon. Which in all fairness is pretty decent damage compared to what wizards were armed with in previous games. But again, boring! "Ooh, I hit you with glowy darts!" If I were a wizard, I'd want to be frying people left and right with lightning bolts and making it rain fireballs!
But getting back to non-spell casters and their combat maneuvers, some of those combat maneuvers do like 4-6x damage plus some special effect if it hits, but even if you miss your attack roll, they take half and aren't subject to the special effect. But what that means is melee folks (and archers too, I guess) have attacks that are guaranteed to hit and do damage, so there's nothing that's "untouchable".
What does this mean for combat? I dunno. I'm not even sure if combat is safer or deadlier in the new system. As with the hit die comments in a previous post, I'm not sure if you end up with more hit points on average. I mentioned everyone gets healing surges that they can spend outside of battle. But you also get a chance to spend one surge during an encounter (more, if under the effect of some of the powers that let you or your allies spend a healing surge). Now, exactly how much does a healing surge heal? Your current hit point total, i.e. the number of points you currently have, not your max.
For example, if your hp total is 50, and you've taken 25 damage over the course of the battle and are at 25 hit points, spending that surge will give you another 25 and take you to full. Now, if you were down to 10 though, the surge would only give you 10 and you'd only be at 20! So, when using your healing surge for the encounter, you don't want to use it to early, but you don't want to use it too late either. I guess when you're around the halfway mark makes the most sense? Prolly, since once you're at half hp, you're considered "bloodied", and some of the special maneuvers can really frak you up when you're bloodied. Like the rogue power "slaying strike". Its an attack that will do 3x+dex in damage (and half of that if you miss), but if done against a bloodied opponent the damage is increased to 5x+dex, plus you can crit on 17-20, which means you max out that damage, as well as get any special effects a weapon does on a critical hit.
Of course, attack doesn't grow as fast, at least for fighters. Rather than getting a +1 every level + the relevant stat modifier, attack rolls are 1/2 your level + ability score modifier for the attack + any misc bonuses. Like weapons in 4th edition have accuracies (or "proficiency bonuses", the majority of which are around +2 or 3) that add to the attack roll. I guess at level 10, in 3rd edition, a fighter would be rolling 10+str mod (let's say since they're a fighter, they prolly made str their primary stat, 18, or +4) for 14. In 4th edition, the fighter is rolling 5+str mod+2. Again, assuming an 18 for +4, that's around 11. But armor class and reflex/will/fort defense grow with level now too. Well, ref/will/fort saving throws grew last game too, but now you get an addition to armor class equal to half your level+10! So your AC is way higher than it was in the previous editions, but I think your attack roll is lower. Then again, as I said, you do get attack maneuvers that guarantee damage whether you hit or not.
Oh, and I mentioned before how some of these maneuvers have ongoing effects that a save will end. There are no more saving throws. When they say save, you roll a d20. 10 or above, you save. Below that, you fail. So its friggin' 50/50 each time. That's kinda lame.
And since I haven't talked about it in a while, some Exalted blather: I think of the various celestial martial arts out there, Tiger-style is by far my favorite. If going by straight damage, Tiger-style is generally agreed upon as being the most powerful. I mean, the second charm adds your essence to an attack's damage, and the form charm lets you add your martial arts score in damage. So possessing just the first three charms in Tiger-style, your attacks are doing an extra 6 to 7 (lets assume an essence of 2-3 and a martial arts score of at least 3 or 4) dice of damage. Now, if you're using the artifact version of tiger claws, the razor claws, that's on top of the 6L of it, giving it damage a tad below a grand daiklaive.
And, unlike the heavy weapons, razor claws have a rate of 3, and are insanely accurate- +4 base, using a soulsteel version you're getting a +6 to hit. So its gonna be pretty hard to miss compared to the other melee and martial arts weapons (I think only the reaper daiklaive is as accurate). But the real power of Tiger style comes from the spine-shattering bite charm, which is only 5 down the list. It costs at least 3 motes. At first I thought it just made your attacks overwhelming 4- as long as you hit, you did at least 4 dice of damage. But I read that wrong. It does 4 LEVELS of damage base. I thought it was a mistake, but according to the people in the know, that's right. So even if they're in friggin superheavy plate, they're still taking at least 4 health levels of damage.
Even worse, the real power of the charm is you can spend extra motes 1:1 to increase the number of damage dice. Now, this isn't more levels of damage, because that's insane. You still do a minimum of 4, regardless, but you can increase what you're rolling for damage. The cap? dex+martial arts times 2! So if you have your form charm up, and you combo spine shattering bite with the other charm I mentioned, you're doing str+6L+martial arts+essence+(number of extra die up to your [dex+MA]x2) If you hit someone (and with a +6 acc, your chances are pretty good), you can basically choose to eviscerate them!
But in addition to the damage bonuses, tiger-style also gives bonuses to stealth. So? Well, that way its easier for you to make a surprise attack, meaning no dodge, no parry. And they have a charm that basically makes the attack piercing if you successfully sneak attack them. So half soak, no dodge and no parry against an already high accuracy attack on top of the insane damage? Bossanova!
What are the drawbacks to the style? Well, its one of the no-armor styles, but the form charm gives you your MA to your bashing and lethal soak totals, and they also get another scene long charm (celestial tiger hide) which lets them add their essence to the total as well. Its comparable to the soak you get from the lighter armors, so its pretty good. Of course, there is an armor available to martial artists of no-armor styles, that specifically says it can be used with styles that disallow armor. But I won't say what it is just yet. I have to save some of my secrets!
All in all, tiger style is pretty straight forward and lacks the "cool tricks" of something like laughing wounds or hungry ghost or any of the Sidereal martial arts. But if you're just wanting to kick an ass, it won't fail you.
I can't remember who I'm with who just lets it go, but I know there have been a couple of times I went somewhere with them and they didn't get what they want or didn't get some appetizer and they were just gonna let it go! You asked for it, you should get it!! Now, I understand food service is a tiring, thankless job. And I'm a somewhat generous tipper- I'm lazy so I end up just giving 20% on top of the post-tax total since that's the quickest to figure out (divide your total by 10 times 2) So its not like I don't respect them or anything. But if I ask for a bloomin' onion, I better get a bloomin' onion. If I want my hash browns scattered, smothered, covered, and chunked, they better be. None of this only scattered, smothered, and covered or whatever! I mean, if you go to a restaurant and order from the menu, and what you get is totally random, its chaos!
Owel, geek fun talk:
Haven't gotten into the full combat mechanics yet, but reading up on the non spell-casting classes, fighters, paladins, rangers, and rogues get some pretty cool stuff. I mean, some of those combat manuevers are pretty useful (and snazzy sounding to boot!) Even though you can only use some of them only once per encounter, a lot of them can turn the tide of a fight or seal an opponent's doom.
I haven't fully read up on wizards yet, but while fighters and rogues have gotten a hell of a lot more tricks up their sleeve, I think the spellcasters have been nerfed a little. I did say they at least get at will magical attacks, so they can always do something. But a lot of their traditional attack spells have become daily or one per encounter. As I mentioned before, you can magic missile to your heart's content, but you can only drop a fireball but once! What happened to mages being able to drop the hammer? Only one fireball a day!? (A smaller radius version, fireburst, is one an encounter) Now, if it was powerful, I'd understand, but it only does 3d6+int on everything in a 3 square radius up to 20 squares away. So the range, blast radius, and damage have all been reduced, and you can only do it once a day. Fireburst has the same damage and range as fireball, but only does a 2 square radius blast area. Lightning bolt can only hit 1 guy with 10 squares, and does but 2d6+int damage, though it does arc to two targets within 10 squares of the first for 1d6+int damage.
But again, you can only use fireburst and lightning bolt but once a combat! That's kinda boring. Yeah, you can continuously pelt them with magic missile (or scorching burst, if you're a firebug) but that's basically being armed with a 2d4 ranged weapon. Which in all fairness is pretty decent damage compared to what wizards were armed with in previous games. But again, boring! "Ooh, I hit you with glowy darts!" If I were a wizard, I'd want to be frying people left and right with lightning bolts and making it rain fireballs!
But getting back to non-spell casters and their combat maneuvers, some of those combat maneuvers do like 4-6x damage plus some special effect if it hits, but even if you miss your attack roll, they take half and aren't subject to the special effect. But what that means is melee folks (and archers too, I guess) have attacks that are guaranteed to hit and do damage, so there's nothing that's "untouchable".
What does this mean for combat? I dunno. I'm not even sure if combat is safer or deadlier in the new system. As with the hit die comments in a previous post, I'm not sure if you end up with more hit points on average. I mentioned everyone gets healing surges that they can spend outside of battle. But you also get a chance to spend one surge during an encounter (more, if under the effect of some of the powers that let you or your allies spend a healing surge). Now, exactly how much does a healing surge heal? Your current hit point total, i.e. the number of points you currently have, not your max.
For example, if your hp total is 50, and you've taken 25 damage over the course of the battle and are at 25 hit points, spending that surge will give you another 25 and take you to full. Now, if you were down to 10 though, the surge would only give you 10 and you'd only be at 20! So, when using your healing surge for the encounter, you don't want to use it to early, but you don't want to use it too late either. I guess when you're around the halfway mark makes the most sense? Prolly, since once you're at half hp, you're considered "bloodied", and some of the special maneuvers can really frak you up when you're bloodied. Like the rogue power "slaying strike". Its an attack that will do 3x+dex in damage (and half of that if you miss), but if done against a bloodied opponent the damage is increased to 5x+dex, plus you can crit on 17-20, which means you max out that damage, as well as get any special effects a weapon does on a critical hit.
Of course, attack doesn't grow as fast, at least for fighters. Rather than getting a +1 every level + the relevant stat modifier, attack rolls are 1/2 your level + ability score modifier for the attack + any misc bonuses. Like weapons in 4th edition have accuracies (or "proficiency bonuses", the majority of which are around +2 or 3) that add to the attack roll. I guess at level 10, in 3rd edition, a fighter would be rolling 10+str mod (let's say since they're a fighter, they prolly made str their primary stat, 18, or +4) for 14. In 4th edition, the fighter is rolling 5+str mod+2. Again, assuming an 18 for +4, that's around 11. But armor class and reflex/will/fort defense grow with level now too. Well, ref/will/fort saving throws grew last game too, but now you get an addition to armor class equal to half your level+10! So your AC is way higher than it was in the previous editions, but I think your attack roll is lower. Then again, as I said, you do get attack maneuvers that guarantee damage whether you hit or not.
Oh, and I mentioned before how some of these maneuvers have ongoing effects that a save will end. There are no more saving throws. When they say save, you roll a d20. 10 or above, you save. Below that, you fail. So its friggin' 50/50 each time. That's kinda lame.
And since I haven't talked about it in a while, some Exalted blather: I think of the various celestial martial arts out there, Tiger-style is by far my favorite. If going by straight damage, Tiger-style is generally agreed upon as being the most powerful. I mean, the second charm adds your essence to an attack's damage, and the form charm lets you add your martial arts score in damage. So possessing just the first three charms in Tiger-style, your attacks are doing an extra 6 to 7 (lets assume an essence of 2-3 and a martial arts score of at least 3 or 4) dice of damage. Now, if you're using the artifact version of tiger claws, the razor claws, that's on top of the 6L of it, giving it damage a tad below a grand daiklaive.
And, unlike the heavy weapons, razor claws have a rate of 3, and are insanely accurate- +4 base, using a soulsteel version you're getting a +6 to hit. So its gonna be pretty hard to miss compared to the other melee and martial arts weapons (I think only the reaper daiklaive is as accurate). But the real power of Tiger style comes from the spine-shattering bite charm, which is only 5 down the list. It costs at least 3 motes. At first I thought it just made your attacks overwhelming 4- as long as you hit, you did at least 4 dice of damage. But I read that wrong. It does 4 LEVELS of damage base. I thought it was a mistake, but according to the people in the know, that's right. So even if they're in friggin superheavy plate, they're still taking at least 4 health levels of damage.
Even worse, the real power of the charm is you can spend extra motes 1:1 to increase the number of damage dice. Now, this isn't more levels of damage, because that's insane. You still do a minimum of 4, regardless, but you can increase what you're rolling for damage. The cap? dex+martial arts times 2! So if you have your form charm up, and you combo spine shattering bite with the other charm I mentioned, you're doing str+6L+martial arts+essence+(number of extra die up to your [dex+MA]x2) If you hit someone (and with a +6 acc, your chances are pretty good), you can basically choose to eviscerate them!
But in addition to the damage bonuses, tiger-style also gives bonuses to stealth. So? Well, that way its easier for you to make a surprise attack, meaning no dodge, no parry. And they have a charm that basically makes the attack piercing if you successfully sneak attack them. So half soak, no dodge and no parry against an already high accuracy attack on top of the insane damage? Bossanova!
What are the drawbacks to the style? Well, its one of the no-armor styles, but the form charm gives you your MA to your bashing and lethal soak totals, and they also get another scene long charm (celestial tiger hide) which lets them add their essence to the total as well. Its comparable to the soak you get from the lighter armors, so its pretty good. Of course, there is an armor available to martial artists of no-armor styles, that specifically says it can be used with styles that disallow armor. But I won't say what it is just yet. I have to save some of my secrets!
All in all, tiger style is pretty straight forward and lacks the "cool tricks" of something like laughing wounds or hungry ghost or any of the Sidereal martial arts. But if you're just wanting to kick an ass, it won't fail you.