Confessions of a Noob

One more time I've tried to recreate my original NWN character. This time I might actually have a toon that's playable on BadLands RPG. This has caused me to reflect back on my noobness and how much I've learned over the years.

Qwildurn Bluemoon was my only character to complete the Neverwinter Nights campaign. After I finished the campaign, I started exploring online game worlds. Eventually I found BadLands (the original) and instantly knew I was home. Everything was just right, until I got killed by another player.

Qwildurn was, and therefore, always will be, an Elf. I'm not really sure why she is an Elf, but, this is role-play so I wanted to be something other than what my real life normally is. Since I am a male Human of average everything, my DND persona needed to be anything but....

I picked a Ranger/Bard mix. I actually had a neat write-up in my Bio about my parents being murdered and my search for revenge. Ranger and Bard were new classes for me and I thought that Ranger would give me access to all the divine spells similar to a Cleric. The dual-wield held it's attractions as well as the hide and search/spot abilities.

I had similar fantasies with Bard as well. Although a bit more realistic here, the end results were just as misconceived. I had thought that Bard would get me into all the arcane spells as if I was a true Mage with some good Rogue skills to boot.

The NWN manual talked about multi-class penalties but didn't say one word about Base Attack Penalties. To avoid the XP penalty, I kept my two classes equal.

I don't remember my attribute stats now, but they were probably 14's and 12's with a few 13's. Let's face it, this build needs every attribute in the book.

• Charisma for Bard spells.


• Wisdom for Ranger spells.


• Constitution so I can absorb some abuse.


• Strength so I can hit my enemy and do some damage.


• Dexterity so I can dodge attacks.


• Intelligence so I can solve life's problems as they come my way. Lets face it, DND is about solving problems so this is pretty important.

I went with a Katana and Kukri. I wanted the 1d10 base damage of the Katana and the critical threat range of the Kukri. The manual did talk about a small two-weapon penalty and suggested a Longsword / Shortsword combo.

I went with padded or leather armor because of the arcane spell casting failure as well as Rangers loosing their dual-wield functions with medium/heavy armor.

To do anything useful in the NWN campaign you need at least 5 skill points in every area. Certain NPC's just won't offer you quests without some otherwise useless skills. Since my Intelligence was somewhat low, I didn't have many points to spread around at level-up.

In game-play, I never found a Katana or Kukri worth using and usually used other weapons I wasn't trained in. I did the quest to improve my leather armor and it got turned into full plate that I couldn't wear because I didn't have that feat. I had to back-up to a saved game just get my nice leather back. GRRRR I finally got pissed enough about the whole deal that I used the editor to add some comparable weapons and armor similar to the stuff I had found but couldn't use.

When I saw Deekin get his red wings, I said, "OOOO I want some too!" I found that I had everything needed and started a third class immediately. Although all I really wanted was the cute red wings, the boost in strength and other stuff really helped my failing toon. If it wasn't for Daleon, I never would have made it very far.

When I finished the NWN campaign, I was around level 30. I had my cute red wings and could breath fire (the kind that can't do any damage). All three of my classes were equal and I really couldn't do much, I wasn't much better than a level 10 character in a level 30 world.


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Recreating this Qwildurn Bluemoon was not my first online toon, nor my first BadLands build. Maybe my third BadLands build. By this time I had learned a few more things about building characters.

• I had learned to skip certain skills and pump certain skills.


• But I still made the same basic mistakes as I had in the campaign.

I have re-made this basic build with more Ranger, less Ranger, more dex less str, more str less dex.... ect. ect. But always with the same basic results. Basic crap and something to be ashamed of.

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Recently, I decided to try it again. In concept, it just seems like a good platform, so, what did I do wrong and what should I change? I'm locked into the Elf, Ranger, Bard, RDD thing. After all, this is Qwildurn Bluemoon.

So, what else can I adjust or change?

• I picked the Dargonesti Elf subrace that had not been available before. This gave me a boost in key attributes: Str +4, Con +2, and Int -2.


• I picked a higher Base Attack over multi-class penalty. So what if I level slower, at least I can level.


• It seemed I had gotten more out of the Bard Spells than anything else, so I went with a lot of Bard levels.


• To maximize my BAB (Base Attack Bonus) I took 8 Ranger, 8 RDD, 4 Bard in the first 20 levels.


• I started Red Dragon Disciple as soon as possible to gain the added ability and AC boosts.


• I took only 9 Ranger levels. Ranger 9 is when you get the Improved Two-Weapon Fighting Feat. Ranger 10 would give me a third spell level, but nothing that would be beneficial.


• I finished my tenth RDD levels as soon as I could to get my wings. - LOL. - Actually, this time what I really wanted was the Int boost so I could get more skills.
  
• This leaves 21 Bard levels. High level Bard spells ROCK.


• To maximize the Bard Song / Curse Song, 55 Perform Skills (adjusted) are needed at Bard 21. I got 5 skills from my helm and 28 from my Charisma Bonus. The rest I had to take at level up.


• This time I took 25 UMD (Use Magic Device) Skills instead of 5. This allows me to use any scroll I find or buy without chance of failure, and, I should be able to wear or hold any item I find. My Charisma bonus adds to this for an adjusted UDM of over 30.


• The user manual does not say that for every 5 tumble skill you take at level-up, your AC will increase by +1. Forty points in this skill can raise your AC +8 by level 37.


• Skill Concentration can't be scrimped if you want to do any casting during combat, so I maximized this skill.


• The feat: Extend Spell is a must. Then I extend only the spells that don't last "one hour per level". The hour spells will still out last the extended spells, but, at Bard 21 this is a nice long time.


• I took 16 Dex at birth and wear cloth armor. The +12 dex we can buy later allows my AC to be one point higher than Full Plate.


• I didn't waste my feats on two types of weapons. I went with a small weapon to avoid a big AB penalty. (I still get a small AB penalty).


• I chose the Hand Axe. It's a 1d6 base and has x3 critical damage.


• I did a coin-toss for Epic Feat: Devastation Critical. With my small crit range (18-20), it hardly seemed worth it. The coin said to take Dev Crit, so I did. I am getting enough Dev Kills that I'm glad my coin was smarter than me. Using two weapons increases my chance to hit on a Dev.

I was able to level-up alone fairly easy at BadLands RPG. At times I could get my max XP of 512 easy, at other times I was forced to play down in an easier area. "Tank" I am not, "Party Support" would be more accurate. My Curse Song hurts the enemy as much as Bard Song helps the party. Some say the a +3 AB boost is not enough. I say the -5 AC to the enemy combined with my +3 AB is the equivalent of 8. Anybody want to complain about a difference of 8? Some would call it 16, as our AC goes up 5 their AC goes down 5. Our AB goes up 3, theirs goes down 3. Call it what you will, the difference really shows in close combat.

At level 40, my AC was around 60. Not exactly high compared to a good Monk with 90 AC. But when you figure in the Bard spells that cover damage reduction and specific types of protection that does not get reflected as RAW AC, I am pretty hard to hit and hurt.

Currently I am level 43 and my stats are:
Ha Ha
I took a break from writing and went up 3 more levels.

Stats at level 46:
	naked unbuffed	dressed unbuffed	dressed buffed
HP	474	714	751
AC	27	58	64
AB	40	47	58	(6 attacks per round, 4 main, 2 off hand)
Damage 1d6	+6	+19	+19	(main hand)
BAB	27
SR	45
Str	37	49	49
Dex	14	26	26
Con	16	28	28
Int	14	20	20
Wis	12	14	14
Cha	16	28	28

(edited to reflect correctness about certain statements)

Exploiting Good Looks

When Bioware released the 1.69 upgrade, they included a ton of new stuff. Included was armor and robes. Bioware did not add any of these new items to the crafting menu. So I did.

Among this new wardrobe was what I call a 'surcoat' that is used to protect expensive armor from sunlight damage. Bioware did this in a two-part method:
Part 1) The top, chain mail or plate mail only.
Part 2) The lower skirt.

This is suppose to be a one-piece cover that slips or drapes over. Quite often the surcoats were colored to show which House or Kingdom the soldier was representing.

For the 1.69 upgrade I built a new crafting system from the ground up. Yes it looks and feels like the old one, but it's new. I included all the new armor and robe parts. In this, I chose to only allow the bottom to be used if you already had chosen the top.

The 1.69 upgrade also included the ability to change body parts, tattoos, colors, heads and such. Although crude and unfinished, the ADHD Tattoo Girl was born. She can even make your torso look like armor.

If you craft your cloth armor to have a bare chest, then your new Tattoo will show and take on the color of your armor. This can allow a Monk to look as if he is wearing full plate.

Using the normal method of crafting, you can't get a Surcoat while wearing cloth armor. My toon, Qwildurn Bluemoon, found a way around this. She looks like she is wearing a mix of chain mail and scale mail and a surcoat. And can cast Bard spells without arcane failure. She is wearing cloth.

How she did this is kind of complicated, but I will explain.

1) She bought a Dye Kit in Dozo.
2) She bought a new Chain Mail armor.
3) She crafted the chain mail to look like she wanted it, parts, color and surcoat.
4) She used the dye kit to store the color and armor parts.
5) She went to see the Tattoo Girl and made her chest (torso) look like the armor type she wanted. She used a surcoat over chain.
6) She put her cloth armor on and made the chest (torso) look naked.
7) She used the dye kit to restore her armor color and parts.

Now she looks like she is wearing chain mail with a surcoat and can cast without arcane failure. She could do this to look like full plate as well.

I should point out: If you can't wear chain mail or plate mail, you probably can't do this. With the help of a friend, you should be able to get it done.

An Evening of No Great Importance

My evening started out in the usual fashion. Log on, look to see who is near my level, shout for a party "lvl 30 lfp", get no response from those near my level. Amazingly, no level 5's or 60's invited me. Terry was on with his level 30 toon, "Shadow Dancer". As typical for Terry, he refuses to party with anybody.

I rest, buff, and head up to The North Face to hunt ants. About this time I get a tell from Dano. The screen capture tells all.

Sometimes I feal like I'm my Grandfather and stuck in a world that no longer exists. "Kid, I remember when 'bye' meant 'the end'. Nowadays, 'bye' seems to mean, 'wait, there's more'.



Once I recovered from all that mess, I hooked up with a cleric near my level in my area and we ripped those ants a new pair of pants. Soon a third showed up and Dragon Ledek joined us. Ledek actually had a impressive build and was holding his own. Ledek wanted the quest item from the Krenshar, so we ran off in search of bigger and better things. The three of us died quickly, rested, buffed and changed our plan of attack. The second time went better, but we all died again. We went back for thirds to find Darian there with his 58 who healed us all afew times. This time we killed a Krenshar and got the boss drop.

The other guy (sorry, but I forgot your name) had to log, so me and Ledek headed up the hill to hunt a Prismatic Dragon named Sheelo. We needed some dragon blood as the other part of the quest. We saw Shadow Dancer heading out of Northbound while we were buffing. This lead us to believe we would have a clear path past the bears. Who am I kidding here? Terry had run past all his bears leaving them for us. Not that is was a problem, but, as Ledak said, "My how rude."

Shadow Dancer suddenly became our hunt. We eventually found Shadow Dancer and proceeded to pay him back for the bears. He ran all over The North Face spawning spiders with us hot on his tail. No, we never did hit him, but we certainly tried. He finally used his HIPS to sneak off like a coward, leaving us with some spiders. Since we had killed what we spawned, while in search of Shadow Dancer, we only had a few spiders to go back to after we lost Terry.

We finally got killed by Sheelo the dragon. Twice we had him near death. Twice we both died. After that we wanted to go hunt cats to gain a few levels before going back for a piece of Sheelo.

Deurack was there alone and immediately attacked Ledak on sight. Ledak went down after just a few hits. Since we were all the same level, I decided to help my party-mate and jumped in. I wasn't so easy to kill. Although I died and Deurack lived, he was hurtin bad in the end.

Ledek wanted to know what his brother had done to piss off Deurack. I said something about Deurack hating his sister too. Ledek said, "What sister? I don't have a sister. Oh my God! What has my brother done this time?"

Ledek was even more surprised to find his 77 AC didn't help him much against Deurack while my 55 AC held out much better. What can I say? Raw AC isn't the only thing that helps to protect you from attacks.

Christmas Comes But Twice a Year

I finally finished my big job. This built-in shelf / cubbie unit is my Christmas Present to my girlfriend (almost wife).


I can't get back far enough to get the entire wall in one picture. The picture below is three shots that have been stitched together, which is why there is a blur in places.


I am so damn tired and excited at the same time. I seldom do jobs this involved or large. Some how, My Lady was expecting it to take only two or three weeks, not six months. So for the last four months all I heard was, ...well, you know....

Her daughter moved out, so she decided to turn the spare room into her sewing room. She makes quilts when she can find the time. The wood will be left bare and unfinished. We like the look of the wood and we don't want any oils leeching into her fabric. We chose a dry wood (and it didn't cost a lot).

At one point I told her that her new workshop was my workshop first. That pissed her off. LMAO


A dry fit just to see how things are fitting. It's up-side-down and will become the part framing the window.

The "workshop", complete with sawdust on the floor. Here you see what will become the shelf just below the window. I used a 'router' (the blue thing) to make Rabbit Joints. In the fore-ground is a wood jig that took me a week to make cause I kept making it wrong. I used it to guide the router as I cut each joint. Leaning against the wall are the finished 'uprights' that will support the eleven foot six inch (3 meters) shelf.

The shelves are fourteen inches deep. Planks normally aren't that wide because they split and warp to easy, so I had to make my own by jointing two eight inch planks together.


The wood is Poplar. I used a 'Biscuit Joint' and glue to bond the planks together. Then I had to trim them down to my size.


The biscuit is an oval, or 'football' shaped piece of wood the gets put in a small slot in the edge of the planks. Here you can see the biscuit in the edges of the cut wood as well as in one of the rabbit joints. The only reason the biscuit is showing in this rabbit slot is because I didn't have the jointer centered.

I wasn't planning on posting so many pictures or saying so much. I am just so excited that it turned out so nice. Now I have some free time and can get to work on the game updates.

Awesome People Revisited

So here I was, logged on Gamespy quickly just to see who was on and I see a "Raz" person online. I thought to myself.. "What a wonderful wooooorld..." errr... I mean, let's go get some xp for a bit, luckly I can run into the lovely heater5 and we can chat for a little bit..

Hmm, I accidentally hit the wrong buttoms and he died!!! Oh my..
He didn't like that much.. so he came back to teach me a thing or two.. but nah, that didn't end up well for him:

At this point, Razius tried to save some dignity and play it cool.. don't mind needy lycan asking for love lol:


ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz boooooriiing... he relogs with a higher toon.. and I thought "Wow, now that's gonna get interesting.." But he was nowhere to be found.. I use my magical powers to search for his worthless toon but found out he was taking a trip to the Limbo. .. well, well.. I think after getting owned by some random npc, he had enough for one afternoon:

More Awesome People

Not alot needs to be said on this one, the pictures speak for themselves.

Enjoy.

The Lich and Other Wizards

First off, I want to announce that I have finally earned a Mage. This it the first mage I have ever got past level 9 or 12 (NWN).

Thank you, thank you. Your applause is overwhelming.

I will give the credit to Pyro for starting a tank just so I could level without dieing every 3 seconds. I finally made it past 21, I'm 24 or 26 as I write this. Leveling alone is still a bitch, but not as bad as when I was under level 15.

I mostly wanted to check out some of the Lich parameters, good points and bad. So far, my worst failing is that I can't get See Invisible or True Seeing. At level one, I chose Necromancy School which turned off Divination spells. So far, most of the spells I use aren't even Necromancy Spells. I have taken all the spell focus feats for Necromancy, just as outlined for a Lich. (NO! I can't actually become a true Lich yet. I am 'play testing' to see how it might be from a players perspective.)

I took 20 levels of Wizard and then started Pale Master. And yes, I am Chaotic Evil. The thing I am noticing and don't like at all is this: PM is not increasing my spell slots.

I did kill The Sleeping Dragon rather easily. My spells didn't touch the Rak. I will change my spell list and try again.

A List Of The Classics

I was talking to someone last night who had not played for a long time and was trying to remember and build some of the “Good Old Builds”. He had a build that was xp’ing on Sheelo Mt and was fairly effective, but I made one little suggestion that would greatly improve the effectiveness of his build and he was ready to feed his level 39 build to the shark. This got me thinking that many hours of frustration could be saved if people had a list of some of the simple but effective builds that they could reference.

So this post is for people to give some of their favorite classic builds. I’m not asking for your “SUPER SECRET UBER BUILD OF DEATH THAT NO ONE CAN TOUCH CAUSE IT’S SOOOO L33T!!!!!!11111” build, just the old classics that everyone should have in their stable.

The Lich, A Quested Subrace (Continued)

With all the conversation this post has generated lately, and considering that it's not even on the first page of posts anymore, I thought I would bump it up to the top. Here's the link:

http://badlandsrpg.blogspot.com/2009/04/lich-quested-subrace.html

I like the way this discussion is going, it sounds pretty cool and like it could really work. I also like that this is going to be a CHOICE that people can make, not something that is automatically applied to all toons with 10+ levels of Pale Master:P

How about some Love for the Arcane Archer?

I have made a few Arcane Archers on Badlands over the past 2 years and anyone who has made an archer here will agree with me, THEY’RE FREAKING EXPENSIVE!!! So I had an idea: Can you make a low level mini-boss that drops a low level bow with unlimited ammo? That way someone who wants to make an AA can kill it early and use it until they have made some decent money and can afford to design their own bow with their own better arrows.


It would also be nice to have a high level Boss drop bow as well, for those AA’s that make it to level 40+. Maybe take Leech off the Medusa and put it on her, that would make sense anyway since she uses arrows when fighting…and I cant remember ANYONE using Leech since Sephka, and that’s not much of an endorsement.

A New Spring Migration/Invasion?

For those of you who might not have been around about a year ago, the Badlands had a bit of an invasion for a while of a peculiar species of player that some lovingly refer to as an "Oki". They were players from Denmark, and we called them Oki's because if you asked them a question, they would always answer "Oki" instead of "OK". If you're interested in learning more about these fascinating creatures I'm sure you can find a few old posts that can help you understand just how special they were:

http://badlandsrpg.blogspot.com/2008/03/annoying-players-part-ii.html
http://badlandsrpg.blogspot.com/2008/03/hellie-and-bers-apsis-tep-commiserate.html
http://badlandsrpg.blogspot.com/2008/02/annoying-players.html

Well, hopefully if you read through some of those you'll get an idea of how frustrating these people were, but unless you were there you just cant relate. But, for your viewing pleasure, here is a nice screenshot of a typical Oki in action. Check out the lovely shouts by Shadow Mendon [PL], he is good person.

I think he left because of Game Mistake.

Dano's Still a Bitch

Dano asked me to Blog some things, so I'm doing it. Wouldnt want him to think I'm uncooperative.

Dano killed 3 of my builds tonight. There's no way around that. I wont sugar coat it or try to say he didnt. He did. And he's still a little bitch. Here's why:

Dano has a build called Man-Bear-Pig, a 26 Bard/4 Black Guard/10 RDD. It's a fun build with lots of Str that relies on Bard/Curse Song and Taunting to lower his opponents saves, skills, AB and AC, then tries to knock them down or Dev them. I had one before the most recent crash, it's an XP machine. Anyway, he was fighting some people in the Underdark and some harsh words were traded (he tried to draw me into the conversation and I told the bitch not to talk to me like he knew me). I was playing Sidian (20 Monk/15 Cleric/ 5 SD) who is level 42 and still getting his equipment together. I was on my way up Sheelo to upgrade my helm when dano came and Dev'ed me. I think he was suprised when the server shouted that Sidian was only level 42, so I asked him if he wanted to try fighting someone his own level, to which he said yes. I logged on Necur (lvl 58, 28 Cleric/ 2 Bard/ 10 RDD) and fought him. Necur is a fun build but doesnt have enough AC to go toe to toe with a high AB Str build, and Dano got a knockdown the first fight and killed me, then I rolled low on a Dev the second fight and he killed me again. Shouting that I should "Blog THAT!!", he sent tells to people in my party that I was a "Weak little turd" and asked if I had anyone else he could "Turn into a pin cushion, since I was a nice sheath for his scimitar."

So I logged on Mordred. Mordred is still a work in progress, but even at level 43 I was fairly sure that Man-Bear-Pig wouldnt be able to kill him, and I was right. We started fighting and I was hitting him regularly and he was having a hard time hitting me. Then one of the mages in my party began casting IGMS's at him and killed him. When she started casting I said "lol, it wasnt my plan for her to start casting" but he still shouted that I should "Blog THAT" again, like it was my plan to have her help because I needed her help to kill him. So I told him to go rest, buff and we would try it again.

But Dano is a bitch. He knew that my build was a match for his and he wouldnt have an easy victory, so he sent me a tell "I have a cool build, brb" and logged off, returning with his Mage. Mordred is basically a Cleric, and anyone that knows anything about PK knows that Mages kill Clerics fairly easily, and anyone that knows anything about Dano knows that he cant stand a fair fight. But, because I'm a good sport and I dont need to switch builds to win and boost my self esteem, I stayed in the Underdark with Mordred, suspecting that I would be killed by the Mage, which is exactly what happened.

After the fight I asked Dano the bitch "What about that challenge, not interested in fighting Mordred with Man-Bear-Pig? Mordred is only 43, your 57 should be able to kill him easily". He said something about "not wanting the PK points" and that I should go level up. Funny, he didnt care too much about the PK points before when he was one-shot Dev'ing the people in my party, but when I had a build that could stand up to him, he didnt seem to want to fight.

Dano might have some high level builds, but he's still the old Dano that will run from a fair fight and come back with either a different toon or help from his buddy Quad. In short, he's still a bitch.

The Upgrade Shops

The BadLands RPG Upgrade Shops have changed over time. For the most part, I think they are working well now and won't be changed in the future, except for a minor adjustment to fix an unknown problem.

Crafting your equipment is not the same as Upgrading your gear. Crafting is the art of coloring you're toon to look cutesy. This is done by right clicking self and choosing the Craft icon. This is free and very custom on BadLands RPG.

Upgrading your equipment is not free. To buy all new gear at maximum value (level 21) will cost about three million gold. If your dual-wielding, be prepared to spend around four million gold.

The first thing I need to explain is how the "item level" works. This is a NWN thing and is hard-coded. Yes, I can dis-able the checking system, but I won't, so don't ask. You don't want "The Wrath of Qwildurn". Just ask any old-timer. ("The Wrath of Qwildurn" is a bit nicer than "The Wrath of my Girlfriend".)

The "Item Level" is based on the gold value of the item. Simple. Different upgrades change the value, but not in any logical fashion. NWN uses a chart to determine how much each single upgrade effects the Gold Value. I tried to make a math equation once to sort this out, but it's not a logical value base.

What I have set up for the Upgrade Shops to follow is rather easy to explain, and I'm sure most of have seen the pattern by the time you made it to the shops in Underdark.

Each set of shops is set to a maximum level they are allowed to build to.

1. Level 6 (+1) in Dozo
2. Level 9 (+2) in Crystal City
3. Level 15 (+3) in Newport
4. Level 18 (+4) in The Duergar Mines
5. Level 21 (+5) in Underdark

At level 21, a total of five types of items can be added. No more than three types of elements. And no more than +5 AC, AB or EW. (Armor Class, Attack Bonus, Enhance Weapon)

The Element Damage can not exceed the base damage of the weapon. A Dagger is 1d4 base and can get up to 1d4 element damage. A Long Sword is 1d8 base and will stop at 1d8 element damage. A Great Sword is 1d12 base, with 1d12 element.

A Great Axe is 2d6 base, will max out at 2d6 element and requires a level 24 shop to put this much magic on it. To add +5 EW, keen and three elements at 2d6 requires a level 24 shop.

There is a level 22 shop in the old castle on Sheelo Mountain. This is for strength based melee builds. +6 AC is available if certain conditions are met.

• Strength 30 (natural)
• Ten levels in a single class that gets "one BAB per level" (fighter, blackgaurd, ect)
• There is a minimum player level of 35 or so (this is in a level 45-50 area)
• Medium or heavy armor only
• Can add +6 AC only (only +6 AC)
• Armor, Helm, Shield
• If you use cloth or light armor, you can't upgrade your shield and helm here

All weapons can be upgraded here to level 22 as well. There are only a few weapons that can be upgraded past level 21. Great Axe and Great Sword are the only two that come to mind, but I'm sure there are a few others.

No upgrade shop will not go past the +5 AB / EW cap. To do that requires a quested weapon, usually a "Boss Drop".

Currently, there is no shop to finish building the Great Axe. This will require a level 24 shop. I do have plans to build one on Death Island. Hehe, good luck getting past Black Betty.

Let's not overlook the Monk Gloves. This follows the same outline as steel weapons. As the Monk grows in levels, so does his/her base damage to her fists, which should be registered as a deadly weapon. This is Monk Level based, not Character Level based. As the base damage grows, so will the allowed element upgrade. Currently, there is no Monk Shop to work beyond level 21. Cubwolf is building a new area named Westfold. We plan on putting a level 22 Monk shop there. Be prepared to do a quest first.

The size of the monk and the level of the monk determine the base damage and is "hard-coded". They did not make provisions for players using "huge" bodies like the Ogre. Here I allow for more element damage than the base damage.

Bolts and Arrows follow the same "base" damage. Short and Long Bows have a differant base damage, hence the Short and Long Arrows.

Sometimes, the Monk Gloves or Ranged Projectiles get bugged and won't work. All you can do at this point is sell them and replace them with new.

I'm sure I missed something, so don't be afraid to ask.

Qwildurn Bluemoon

DM Helpline

For those of you that can't start a new topic and want specific help from a DM, please create a blogger account and leave your questions under this post. The BadLands DM's will try their best to check this post which will be a permanent link in the sidebar of this blog.

Please keep your posts simple and limit them to questions regarding the game, possible bugs, or exploits.

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An Error In Judgment

I had a terrible error in judgment today and I’m hoping that my tale of woe and sadness can both entertain and educate others so that they can benefit from my mistakes.

So I’m happily xp’ing with my Halfling Paladin experiment in the Savored Sands on my way to the smoke shack when I get a party invite from some guy named something like “Mister Picksyourpocketmaster”. I think to myself “why not, I want to know who is playing a toon with that name anyway so I can watch out for him” and click accept. I click on the person’s picture and find out it’s Velocite, or something like that. Now, for those of you who don’t know, that’s the new name of Dragon Ledak. I instantly regret accepting the invite but decide to ride out the storm. I mean, how bad could it be, right?

When I accept the party invite the first thing I notice is that my companion is in the savored sands as well and has 2 hp. I discovered that we’re both level 8, so there shouldn’t be any problems with the creatures here. I was making a bee-line to Bane for the extra Xp; I didn’t really care about the harp or the armor. I get to him and realize that Ledak is nowhere to be seen. He’s off fighting some other spawn, which didn’t overly concern me as I was fairly confident that I could handle Bane on my own. I begin fighting him and see Ledak running towards me trailed by 2 Kobolds. At this point I begin to get a little concerned. Some of them can cast spells that can be bothersome at this level, and the thugs can actually do some damage if they get lucky. I continue fighting Bane and while we both almost died, we (meaning “I”) were able to kill all 3 of the enemies.

Shaking my head at Ledaks stupidity, I use a healing kit and head towards the gate, leaving the armor and harp in the corpse. I didn’t need the money and if Ledak did, he could have it. However, as I killed 2 more kobolds and got close to the gate I noticed that he wasn’t following. I get a party chat saying “Stay” and then “I’m Encumbered”. So, I wait for him. He comes up to me and “offers” (using the trade tool) me the armor I just left behind. Now, I might be playing a Paladin, but there are limits to how gracious I am willing to be. This jackass expects me to carry his loot, the same loot that was rightfully mine that I left for him? Shaking my head again, I decide to accept, thinking that if this build wasn’t a Paladin it would just keep it. Anyway, we go through the gate (which he shut on me while I was trying to go through…moron) and I stop and buy some Bark Skin and Negative Energy Protection potions. Ledak doesn’t, he goes right into the tombs. Shaking my head again, I follow him in.

It doesn’t take long for me to figure out that his build sucks. I’m shocked to the core of my being to find that Ledak didn’t make a good build, but it’s unfortunately true. He can’t hit a thing, and when the planets do all align properly and he gets a hit he does under 10 damage. Resigning myself to the fact that this is just another pathetic installation in the pattern of Ledak leeching xp off of me, I soldier on. We get to one fight where he is forced to run for his life, leaving me to fight all 3 of the undead myself, which I dutifully kill. It then dawns upon me that I haven’t seen him use a healing kit yet. Every time he gets damaged he rests. (BTW, this is making for some SLOW progress through the tombs). I ask him “You don’t have any healing kits?” and he responds “no.” This time I cant even shake my head. I just stare at the screen slack jawed and stupefied. I manage to type in “Adventuring with no way of healing yourself isn’t very smart” but get no response. Having recovered from the shocking lack of intelligence displayed by someone who’s IQ I already would have compared with that of a common garden slug, I shake my head and continue on to the next fight.

It’s at this point that Ledak stops fighting. It’s not like he’s been doing much to begin with, but at least he was trying. He starts saying something about his AC being 15 and his AB “for the 1st axe being +3 and the second axe being -3”. Again, I just stare at the screen. Now, I know it’s possible to have a build with 15 AC, but you have to try REALLY hard. I mean, let’s think about this. If the person has put ANY effort into upgrading his equipment, he should have gotten +1 from armor, helmet, amulet and boots. That’s a 14 AC right there, with no armor. Even if it’s a Str build, ANY armor would have put him well over 15, but I’m assuming that he’s not playing a Strength build because he was encumbered by the Leather Armor from Bane, wich means he’s some sort of a Dex build. How can a Dex Build NOT have more than 15 AC???? My mind boggling from this realization, I’m then overcome by the even greater stupidity of Dual Wielding axes at level 8. I’ll just let that speak for itself.

I’m starting to get irritated because Ledak is just standing back and not attacking. I’m doing all the work for someone who invited ME into HIS group. As the leader of the group, he should be doing SOMETHING, right? The final straw was when I ran into a room and started fighting 3 undead myself, 2 of which were Tyranfog Zombies, which at level 8 can be quite a challenge. Ledak didn’t just come into the room and hang back, he hugged the wall and went around to the other side of the room close to the door, supposedly so he would be ready to run to the next leach session. I typed in “You need to help me fight and stop leaching xp from me.” He replied “When we get to the smoke shack I will”. Not the response I was looking for. I typed “No, now. Do what you can” to which he replied “yes mother”.

That’s when I logged off and left him in the middle of a zone he couldn’t handle on his own. I wish I had thought to scroll up and take some screen shots of the dialogue but I was too irritated. My fondest wish is that the undead set upon him and messily devoured him in a manner befitting “Night of the Living Dead”.

So, that’s my story. It’s official; Ledak has added his name to the very small but prestigious list of people who are on my Shit List.