Y is Ellow Yellow?

Dano sent me an email, not that he asked me to post it, but I thought it would make for an interesting discussion.

Qwildurn

email 1: from dano to Q
The new dm utopia is a real pain , and not at all cool. Sorry to say . If you care let me know . Otherwise Shadow Blades will disbann and move on from server , TY Shadow

email 2: my responce
Interesting. DM Utopia said the same thing about you.
Try to find a way to work it out with Utopia.

Q

email 3: from dano

It all worked out and we made like friends after the initial clash , thanks for the reply . PS Please update the server if you can someday. Racecars ....really???? Don't get hurt . Guess we will see you back on the server if you total the thing though. Hmmmmm....JK. Have fun . And you may have inspired me to do the same , there is a small raceway near here . Hmmmmmm . But on a serious note..... The Dark clan has started playing on the server . Last night their leader brought in 12 members to play . I intend to loan him the Shadow Blades guild in a way . After they build some character base , I'll invite their leader . Just yesterday Ellow used a forcefull hand onShady . Unable to hit Shady or beat his 70 sr again the coward Ellow (do I really need to make the joke where I put a Y in front on his name?)ok where was I.... Oh yes .....So ever the coward , Ellow left Shady lay in the grass and left the sceen . Some days later Shady , enraged from the insect bites he suffered that night while pinned under the forcefull hand . Did the unthinkable ....he enlisted the help of the most dreaded Dark clan to crush this smEllow once and for all!!! Soon over run by the sheer numbers of Dark Clan thugs in his outposts , Shady decided the best thing to do , to keep his head on his shoulders (litterally) . Was to enter into exile in a far off land ......and let the evil burn itself out in rpg..... OK so that is the idea , wish i was a better nolevist.....Soon this will take place , I will remain the warlord as Shady , but Dark clan will be representing the Shadow blades basically. I will not log as a Shadow blade unless to do some random item transfer or something non guild related....... While this will happen soon , I have allready created a few Good aligned chars . These good guys have joined the Holy Blades and We will oppoes the Evil plague known as the Dark clan . I wont exploit . I was getting bored with the low numbers on the server and view this as an oppertunity for some fun . Please send any ideas you have for this exciting new turn in RPG history. And please post this news on the blog , Every time I try something goes wrong and I can never post , but i view it weekly. Thanks Q , dano1122

Big Bad Dev Crit DC

I am posting this for Troll Snott. He is bragging or sneering about Deving Dark_1432 in the arena. Qwildurn


My toon Shark Bait went up against Dark's toon Holy in the arena. I won twice out of two battles, Deving him 4 times and he killed me once on a Dev. Am I gloating? You bet I am!

The main reason for this post is to resolve an argument (small) about my claim to having a Dev DC of 75. Dark says my Dev DC is only 65. I say It is 75 fully buffed and raged. In this image (cropped) you can see my Dev DC and Dark's Fort Save DC. I was not buffed, only Raging.



As you can see, my Dev DC is 71 + 1d20 while his Fort Save is 49 + 1d20

I would have posted to the Badlands Builders Challenge topic, but images can only be published in the main post.

Both our toons are nearly the same build, Deep Orc, Barbarian / RDD / Bard.
Holy did beat me in strength by 1 point, but clearly that's not enough to bowl me down. Not really sure what the differences are, maybe I have more Con. A higher constitution helps for a better Fort Save which is the defence against Dev Crit.

Oh, "Good Fight, Holy".

Troll Snott


Well, I'm staying out of this lovers quarrel.
Q

The Two-Bladed Warrior

Using two blades has always been an attraction to me and it seems to be an inviting concept to many others as well. But, as everyone who has tried to build a Two-Bladed Warrior knows, this has some major set-backs.

First is getting the three extra feats, Ambidextrous, Two Weapon Fighting and Improved Two Weapon Fighting. You need Dex 15 or Ranger 9 and then you still have an AB and AC drop.

Choosing Ranger is fine except you're limited to Light Armor or lose your Ranger Abilities including the Dual Weapon Package. Most have found that this isn't to bad if you build a Dexer (dexterity based) and small weapons such as Kukri or Hand-Axe. Then your Dex Bonus is your AC if you wear Cloth. Be sure to take Weapon Finesse so your Dex Bonus will be your AB. You still get an AB drop but it's -2 instead of -4.

I am still searching for the right combination of Attributes, Feats, Skills, Race and Sub-Race qualities that can make up a STRENGTH BASED Two Bladed Warrior. An Ogrillon is a good start because he/she can hold two Scimitars or Katanas without the -4 AB drop. Unfortunately, the Ogre can't apply Weapon Finesse towards a Scimitar. Hmm, maybe an Ogre with dual Rapiers and Weapon Finesse would be a good start. But that would not be the Str Base I'm looking for. The biggest problem with the Ogre is the low Int.

Usually I start with Half-Orc for the Str boost and go with Fighter / WM for the feats and AB. The combination of WM (Weapon Master) level 7 and the Scimitar is the Critical Threat Range of 10-20. Don't forget to take Improved Critical and buy Keen. With a Str based platform, Overwhelming Critical and Devastating Critical are a must.

Strength is the driving force behind the DC for Dev Crit, not just good AB. With two Scimitars, you will get twice the chance for a Critical Hit or even an Instant Death hit on a Dev Crit.

Getting WM needs Dex 13, Int 13 and a lot of feats. A fighter can start WM at level 7 if done well. A none-fighter can't get WM before level 17. Fighter 7 and WM 7 is 14 levels, leaving 26 levels for something else.

BadLands RPG offers a unique AC boost called Two Weapon Shield (TWS). TWS uses nearly the same Feat list as a WM, so all you need now is Improved Initiative and then Superior Initiative. This would qualify you for TWS AC+3. Talk to Shorty in Dozo for the full details.

Barbarian would work well here and the UBER Barbarian offered in BadLands RPG certainly has it's merits. +8 Strength from Rage. Terrifying Rage, Thundering Rage and Mighty Rage will all work well with the WM crit range and Overwhelming Crit.

Rogue or Assassin would work well also. The Sneak Attack or Death Attack won't stack with Overwhelm Crit, but can take advantage of the 10-20 threat range provided by WM 7. I'm not really sure how the dice roll works here, but it would have to chose between a Sneak Attack or Overwhelm Crit hit. 26 Rogue or Assassin would work quite well with UMD.

Bard 26 would work if you start with Deep Orc (+4 Cha boost). Cha 16 would be needed to get all 6 levels of Bard Spells and UMD would be nice. Bard Song needs Perform Skill which is Cha based. The Cha bonus ads to the Adjusted Perform Skill. (75 Adjusted Perform Skills would be needed to get max Bard Song for Bard level 26.)

Let's not forget Cleric or Mage. The ability to buff one's self is important, especially with this build. As with any build combination, it's a compromise, give and take. Try to get to much and you end up with a mediocre toon. Focus on one thing to much and you lose other things that make up a well balanced DND Character.

Qwildurn Goes Racing

Although this really isn't the forum for "personal" stuff, (then why do we take this game so personally), different players have expressed an interest in my attempt at being a Race Car Driver and have asked me to post a picture or two.

Six months ago, my brother Pete (logon "aura8440") and I bought a 1973 Datsun 240z to turn into a hobby racer. We have been fixing it up in our spare time and finally made it to the track. The track is Willow Springs Raceway near Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Dessert of Southern California.

Pete Russell on left, Bob Russell (Qwildurn) on right. Yes, I'm an old fart. The "X" is to let the other drivers know that we're noobs. Separately, we have both taken a High Speed Driving Class using our Dad's Alfa Romeo. I was able to drive Dad's racer enough to get my Time Trials Licence, while Pete was recovering from two broken legs. After Pete gets some more experience (points) and a TT Licence (level-up, ding), we will work on our Full Competition Licences.

It was a near perfect weekend for racing in the High Desert of Mojave, California. Last year at this time (January) it never got above freezing. In our summer, it is between 100-120 (Fahrenheit). On this day, we had a few sprinkles of rain, gusting wind and about 50 degrees. In the early morning, a HUGE rainbow covered the track leading a storm front away.

Driving hard through a right-hand sweeper. The skid marks show where the "losers" have been.

A pair of Alfa Romeo's past me like I was standing still. Very well built cars with excellent drivers.

A Mercedes SLK ready to overtake me. I was hoping to hold him off longer than I did. Notice the stock street tires tucking under. I'm probably doing 70 MPH and turning sharper than the tires look. The stock 240z throttle steers quite well. Lift the gas to turn in sharper, push down to lift the nose and turn out. Weapon Finesse is the key feat here. To much throttle change and it's Devastation Critical.

A different view of the same turn doing about 70 MPH. Yes that's Q driving. Notice the daylight under the right front tire. The stock suspension allows for a lot of body roll. The two inside tires are not doing any work.

Our Dad's Alfa Romeo GTV blew the transmission, so we let him drive our Datsun 240z. During our last practice session the battery fell out ending our weekend just before the main event. All we missed was the last 5 laps of our weekend. We have our own in-car-timer and recorded our laps.

1. Dad = 1:55
2. Bob = 1:56
3. Pete = 1:57

Had we have been able to compete in the "timed event", the winning car of our class recorded a time of one minute, forty-five seconds. We would have been dicing it up for fourth place.

Racer Z
(LOL - my logon in the other forum)

Big Bertha Butt

I was talking with Psyammy about stuff and one of my characters came up, Big Bertha Butt.

The name comes from an old comedy act (so I thought) that I had heard once many years ago. Bertha Butt and the Butt Sisters. I couldn't remember much except that it had been on a Vinyl Record and I had been quite stoned. So I did some Internet digging and found some real information.

I found two songs (might be more) by The Jimmy Castor Bunch. Troglodyte and Bertha Butt Boogie. Then I found the original music video to Troglodyte (about 30 years before MTV) and a hilarious home-made video with the original sound of Bertha Butt Boogie.

Troglodyte (U-Tube)
Bertha Butt Boogie (U-Tube)

Although not a comedy act, that is where my toon, Big Bertha Butt got her name from.

Another One Bites the Dust

Cuinoe has been permanently banned for cheating. His toon, Arcane Wall, a Bard / PM / SD, had tons of extra feats. Feats exclusive to Barbarian, Fighter and Ranger as well as just plain to many feats.

When questioned by Glub DM, he wouldn't say much. Too bad Glub didn't take a screen shot.

Some of the player started talking about Cuinoe being bothered that others could kill Bosses and such while he couldn't. Amazingly, he didn't have any feats that could help him kill Bosses.

Badlands Builder's Challenge

There's been some talk lately about what is the highest AB possible in the Badlands. After some thought, I thought it'd be fun to get everyone's ideas for a build with maximum AB. There are a few rules though:

1) Use of True Strike is not an option. Here's why, it only lasts for a few seconds and there are no scrolls available to purchase in the Badlands.
2) Furthermore, you can only use scrolls (or wands) available to purchase from a store (no transferred scrolls or wands). As of my writing this, I think the only purchasable scroll that will boost your AB is Bless.
3) It is assumed that any activated skills, feats, or spells will provide maximum benefit. (for example, empowered Bull's Strength will give +7 to STR).
4) Obviously, you can only use Badlands subraces and items/equipment available in the module.
5) All builds are assumed to hit maximum level (60 for ECL 0)

Here's my first attempt at a maximum AB build. I was hoping to hit 90, but I only got it up to 89. Here's how I did it:
Barbarian21/Cleric15/Bard4 (Barbarian 1-20)
Half-orc/Ogrillon subrace
Strength: 23 (starting)+10(abil)+12(uberBB)+9(legend abil)+10(GrtSTR)+8(mighty rage)= 72(+31)
AB = 30(BAB)+31(STR)+3(EWF)+1(EpProw)=65
Buffs= +7(wpn)+5(divine fav)+2(battletide)+3(prayer/aid/bless)+1(bard song)=83
with maxed Taunt and full effect (lowers opponent AC by 6), I get 83+6=89.

I look forward to everyone's ideas. Maybe next week, we'll have a builder's challenge to see who can come up with the highest AC possible!