Sharkskin Boots

this is probably my favorite boss drop yet. There's something for everyone. +7 ac (the tumble will add one more) discipline, help with fear. Very very nice boots.

Odd Thing

My favorite way to farm giants and other clumsy livestock is to cast Storm of Vengeance. It works well when outnumbered because at least one of them will fail their reflex save. That's the one I case blade barrier on. It chews away at clumsy while I slice up the more agile ones.

Except now when i try to case blade barrier I get a message that "magical energy is being used for other spells." I looked at the rules and update logs. Did the latest patch change things so that only 1 area affect spell can work at a time or am I on drugs? It seems like battle tide also interferes with blade barrier, creeping doom, and storm of vengeance. Not that clerics aren't already pretty tough, but spamming aoe damage spells was their best boss killing technique. I can see only letting one of each work so that they don's stack with themselves but I liked being able to make the screen about me a hellish place for large slow farm animals.

Drake Vega the Dracolich of Devastation

Here is a screen capture of Drake Vega right after he hit 49th level. He's got pretty good AC for a melee build, with good defensive capabilities including epic mage armor and epic warding. His attacks are decent, but he doesn't get many. However, when he connects he has a powerful devastating critical. All in all he is a lot of fun to play, especially against trogs and other farm animals. Bosses pose a problem though, which is why a decent spellcaster sidekick (aka, Hellie Lane or Blasty) would make him damn near invincible.

Solicitors

Last night while playing on BadLands RPG, a player named Colossus-X logged in a few times to solicite his server called "A Carpathian Nightmare" or something like that, not sure exactly. Now aside from all the annoying players that we've discussed people who solicite are the WORST offenders in my book. I hate that shit so much I actually logged into their server and verbally berrated them over shout for soliciting at BadLands. Needless to say I got banned in like 20 seconds, myself and one other person told them to never do that shit again, (tyrswrath I think it was). Unless you have permission from a DM to advertise, then stay the hell off.

Ancient Caverns

Ok, Jim and I found the Ancient Caverns last night. All I can say for now is. "Damn, that place is HUGE!"

Best Module Ever.

I'm nearing completion of creating all the areas in my module, so the next step is adding items and enemies etc. Any suggestions on what kinds of weapons/armor types I should have? Like a sequencer rod perhaps?

The best part of playing a cleric is the buffs, the worst part is casting them

I've played on chaotic world and world of greyhawk. I like BL/RPG better but man could it use a sequencer rod. The rod version I saw in CW didn't seem to work in combat, and required that you have the spell memorized. I have no idea if it's easy to add, or a huge huge pain for the creator. But it's a huge pain having to sit there for 2 minutes and cast buff spell after buff spell. The worst part isn't the waiting. The worse part is Jim having his character claim to be bored over and over again.

Rana Ellow

Ever since Darian heard of the infamous 40th level Rana Ellow build, he's been literally hounding me non-stop for screen shots of the final stats as proof. I know this is HOT so please keep a plastic cover over your keyboard D . :))

(More real updates coming soon.)

Locked Doors

So I was making a new character and I found a locked door that I had to bash through. I’ve heard that Q wants there to be more for rogues to do, but I don’t think putting in a locked door that you HAVE to go through is the way to do it.

If it’s a rare thing than people will just bash ‘em when they have to.
If locked doors are common people will cross class pick locks and count on +12 dex gear to get them through but still won’t take much rogue.

What I think would be cool are side quests that you need a rogue to do.
Like a storage area in the Drow area with plenty of locks and traps and some good loot, potions you can’t buy anywhere else like heal or heroism. Maybe a tough guardian that you need to sneak past.
Or a secret tunnel that gets you to a boss without having to go through the rest of the critters.
Or allow rogues to get into bases without killing a boss if they have enough search/sneak and open skills.

Just some thoughts.

Devastation Shell

Here is another powerful magic item that you can create using some boss drops. If you take the dragon blood (that Sheelo drops) and the devastation beetle's carapace to Shorty (in the Dozo Armory), he'll make this shield for you:


Killing Sheelo is not that difficult. She's fully susceptible to IGMs (maximized work best) and Blade Barriers. It's about the only way to cut through her high damage resistance. The Devastation Beetle on the other hand is a verifiable BASTARD. The only trick I've found is to dominate the Frost Giant Badass and use him to tank for you against the beetle. You'll have to spam heal kits on the FGBA too, since the beetle will be dropping 100-200 hp damage on him per hit. I've tried Mord's on the beetle to reduce that spell resistance, but it's almost a lost cause.
Another key note about the shield above: Don't plan on any melee builds to be able to use it early in life... the level requirement is 38!!! Still, it's one of the only decent boss drops in the game IMO.

Gold Dragon Armor

If you kill the Sleeping Dragon (Ancient Gold Dragon that guards the Rakshasa), it will drop a dragon scale. Once you have this scale you can take it to Shorty (in the Dozo Armory). Having it in your possession will initiate a conversation where he basically calls you a badass for slaying a dragon, then offers to make you armor out of the scale. Here is the Gold Dragon Armor that he makes for you:

The main thing I want to note about this armor is that it's only useable by good or evil characters. So all those neutral PC's running around (mainly trying to avoid smites) won't benefit from this armor. An old fashioned Dracolich such as Drake Vega will though!

Character Build Calculator

Ok, I didn't know about this until today thanks to Qwildurns website, even though I suspected such a thing existed. Here's a link to the NwN Vault with an excel spread sheet that calculates your character builds. Apparently it doesn't have subraces but thats ok for what we're doing. Oh, and if anyone figures out how this thing works make sure to let me know :).

Chacter Build Calculator

Annoying Players

Annoying players are something that have been plauging our little gaming group more and more lately. We've been getting bombarded with "invite's", why in the heck do players with low level characters feel the need to invite everyone on the server into some gigantic MEGA-party? When I'm playing my higher level characters I only want to be in a party with players in the same level range so we can communicate normally and grind out some levels. It's a pain the rear when you're trying to kill Insane Druids while the lowbies are talking about that rat that took 47 hits to kill down in the tombs.

Which leads me to my next complaint, babysitting players with crappy characters, nothing is more annoying to a party than that one person that has like a straight 40th level fighter that only used the "reccomended" Button to build his chacater, and doesnt have any gear. Just the other day there was some idiot that needed us to escort him from Northbound to the north face of Sheelo mountain because his AC was 27....27! Come on! what the heck, go buy some frigging upgrades, when we asked him if he was going to upgrade his gear he said "no". Seriously, what the heck is wrong with people like that? If you're going to gain enough levels to go to Sheelo Mountain you probably have enough money to at the least add +5 AC to all of your gear.

Another problem is gaming with players that speak a different language, and when the player pretends that he doesn't understand english so he can steal your boss drops. Jim Brannick speaks of a time when he, Darian The Bold, and some non english speaking player, killed the shark, and when Jim went to pick up the boss drop it was gone. Darian told Jim that he could have it so it was wasnt him, the only other person that was in the party was the non english speaking player (nesp) who convienatly played dumb when asked to please hand over the shark skin to Jim (who was the one that killed the shark in the first place). So if you run into any NESP's beware.

I really hate it when people abuse 'shout'. The worst one is when this certain player we all know just sits there and repeats "I'm bored" over and over again. Well, why the hell did you log in then? If you're that bored why not try to gain some levels or go exploring, but oh wait, you have a crappy character that has to be babysat by every player on the entire server so your only option is to cry and whine when nobody will party with you. Oh thats a good one, players who cry and whine when you don't want to join their party. This has happened to me more than once. Sometimes I just feel like playing alone, or don't have alot of time to make joining a party worth while, so when people ask me to join or send an invite I politly decline the offer. Thats when the whining & begging starts, sometimes its so bad I just log out so I dont have to deal with it. Next time this happenes thats when the PK'ing starts.

I think the worst are players who are just plain lazy. When my friends and I started on BadLands we explored as much as we could, read all the rules and descriptions before we'd so much as ask anything. I hate when people log in and ask for a Dozo Stone. I mean come on, just look around for 30 seconds and you'll find it. Or my favorite, "where's the armory?" Are you kidding me!? You practically run into it when you enter Dozo for the first time, idiot. I wish they'd just slow down and do some exploring and reading first before they start 'shouting' or sending 'tells' with their stupid questions.

These are only a few of the annoyances that happen to us on a weekly basis, if your're one of these people please use some common courtesy when gaming on BadLands, it's not difficult and it makes the place more fun for everyone.

Blast Bucket Triumphs!

Blasty yurfaceface kicked Sheelo's ass, then went to the underdark and mopped the floor with the drow weapon master AND killed the queen. What a fight, it was truly epic.