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D&December 2017 – W2D4 – Celestial/Demonic – Fallen Angels

Celestials are a strange piece of D&D/Pathfinder. They are a necessary group, serving as the compass opposite to devils and demons. Sometimes they serve to provide context or boxed text to the characters. And lesser celestials can be summoned for a few rounds to fight in combat for your cleric. Aside from that, however, they seem to provide only one other value proposition to game play. And that’s when they fall.

Friday, December 15, 2017 | 2 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W2D3 – Abyssal/Fey

I may have mentioned once or twice that I hate fey. They’re nothing more than an annoyance. As for abyssal creatures, my favorite is probably the glabrezu demon. There’s just something about a half demon, half crab that can cast spells that is oddly amusing and appealing at the same time. Another part of it is the experience that my bard turned cleric had on Occipitus during the Shackled City adventure path. We had some fun interactions with a glabrezu, among other demons.

Thursday, December 14, 2017 | 1 minute Read
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D&December 2017 – W2D2 – Too Many Dragons

I discussed previously my favorite draconic creatures so I won’t repeat that information here. Instead, I’ll take this time to discuss something I don’t like about dragons. There are just way too many types of dragons. CETEC ASTRONOMY In the beginning… the “dragons” part of dungeons and dragons referred to two basic types. There were the chromatic dragons (bad guys) and the metallic dragons (good guys). That was it. And even the metallic dragons didn’t come along until the Greyhawk set a little later that year. Sure, there were a couple of near dragons like the pseudo and the dragonne, but those didn’t really count as dragons.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017 | 1 minute Read
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dndecember-w2d1

I’m not sure what creature I would call my “favorite”. We’ve encountered all sorts of creatures over our more than 20 year span of just the Wyrmfang Chronicles alone, let alone any other gaming experience. I guess that there are two creatures that stand out a little bit. Roper These things are vicious, deadly and tough. Many years ago our band of merry adventurers encountered one in some underground ruin somewhere. I forget the details now, but I remember we were afraid to face it. And that’s the proper attitude to take whenever you encounter a roper. With their incredible reach, multiple attacks and grapple/restrain abilities, they’re difficult to beat.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017 | 2 minutes Read
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D&December 2017-W1D7-Your Player Character? Nope, Fave RPG PC Games

My current character is named Qen. Since I wrote about him recently, I’ll just refer you to that page. What I’ll write today instead of that summary is this. My favorite RPG PC games. Why computer? Am I including console games? Nope. And I’ll tell you why. Because you can’t play a good RPG, a REAL RPG, using a D-pad. I’ve said it. I won’t take it back. And if you wanna argue with me, don’t bother. You are wrong, and clearly wrong, yet no amount of proof will ever be acceptable to you. And don’t even get me started on the Mac.

Sunday, December 10, 2017 | 4 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W1D6 – A Moment of Despair

As with great successes, I’ve had my share of moments of despair while gaming. One of the worst for me was the two deaths of my character Thelisn. I have mentioned previously how Thelisn died, both times. At the time that he fell in a field to the bodak, I had really grown to like him as a character. What he had gone through storywise had really gotten me attached to him. I began making all kinds of plans about his future class levels, ability, and skill score increases. More than any character I had before that time, even Delban, I had a clear vision of where I wanted him to go from where he was.

Saturday, December 9, 2017 | 2 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W1D5 – A Moment of Triumph

Hmm, this is a difficult one. I’ve been a part of many moments of triumph over the years. Most, sadly, I have forgotten, but one does stand out. We were running the Shackled City Adventure Path. As with many modules, we re-located this one into the Forgotten Realms setting. I don’t remember exactly where now. It was somewhere in the far south or southwest, perhaps Chult or Halruaa. My character was a bard named Aeduin Tharn. The son of a merchant from Raven’s Bluff, his father had gone missing somewhere in the Cauldron region during a trade expedition. As a result their family came upon hard times. Aeduin set himself the task of finding what had happened and restoring the family’s name.

Friday, December 8, 2017 | 3 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W1D4 – Favorite Villain

Previously, I mentioned that one of my favorite NPCs was Lord Soth. Sticking to strictly bad guy NPCs, he’s definitely at the top of the list. Part of this is, of course, due to his role in the Dragonlance novels. I grew up reading those books. Dragons of Autumn Twilight was the first fantasy novel I can remember reading, even before the Hobbit or A Wrinkle in Time. Krynn remains today my favorite campaign setting from any RPG I’ve ever played.

Thursday, December 7, 2017 | 2 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W1D3 – Favorite NPC

In my previous “Favorite NPC”, I talked a bit about Keraptis, Lord Soth and Garaleth Axom. This time I’ll talk about another of my favorite NPCs. Klarkosh, of the Emerald Spire. In the Wyrmfang Chronicles, Chris is our main DM. It’s his campaign overall and he has final say in everything. However, we do have a couple of us who also take turns at the DM seat, myself included. The last time I was running as DM, I was running the Pathfinder module The Emerald Spire. While we had transitioned to the Pathfinder rules instead of 4E with that came out, we had remained in the world of Faerun where our campaign was based.

Wednesday, December 6, 2017 | 2 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W1D2 – Favorite Class

During the last post, I talked about how my favorite class was wizard. Without a doubt that remains true. And my second favorite class was fighters (in which I include rangers and paladins). So rather than rehash a previous post, I will take the same tact as yesterday and talk about the class I want to play the most that I have not ever played. That class is barbarian. I have played clerics and paladins and rangers and fighters, but I have never played a barbarian. It’s one thing to be able be in melee and fight in close quarters. It’s another to be able to wade knee deep in joyful rage into the midst of the enemy’s ranks and I’ve never been able to do that with no concern for yourself or even your companions. I want to take the opportunity at some point to just be the tank.

Tuesday, December 5, 2017 | 2 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – Rapid Fire - W4D4-Trinkets/Treasures, W4D6-Forbidden Knowledge, W4D7-Spell/Item

Nothing like waiting til the last minute for the last three topics I didn’t get done. So here we go in rapid fire succession. Trinkets & Treasures, Forbidden Knowledge and Favorite Spell/Item. Favorite Trinkets & Treasures As a DM, my favorite treasure items are those that have a bit of a cursed trait to them. Or at least some significant downside anyway. Any adventure I run has to have a couple of cursed items. Well, during my first foray as DM it was a LOT of cursed items. Don’t worry, I’ve toned it way down since then. Now, in cursed items, I’m including any item that has a significant downside to it, not just those specifically defined as cursed. For instance, it may be a long sword +2, but it might also be an intelligent sword. And that sword is prone to lecturing the player in a condescending tone on their fighting techniques the entire time it is wielded. This would force the player to make a save every round or have a penalty to hit that round. I find those kinds of items to be far more fun than a straight up cursed item.

Monday, December 4, 2017 | 3 minutes Read
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D&December2017 – W1D1 – Favorite Race

Last time the focus was on PC races, and I mentioned that I was torn between human and dwarf. This time I’m going to talk about the race I most want to play that I haven’t so far, the Kenku. The Kenku are a 5e race that are basically birdmen that have lost their wings. They are a fallen race that once served some great power who is long gone. Kenku Druid – by Halcyon450 src: DeviantArt The Kenku are master thieves and are driven by greed. Forgery is second nature to them and they can mimic any sound they’ve ever heard perfectly. They even use those mimic’d sounds as their names and speech. Something about role playing that in a game setting seems fascinating to me.

Monday, December 4, 2017 | 1 minute Read