OoC thread

[Nacesh]

Okies about these kobold bodies. I know Nacesh can't see them right now and I know that even if he would he didn't have the appropriate skills, just thinking in team perspective whether this whole setup reminds anyone within the party to anything.
Like, a ritual performed by or a particular type of death caused by:
- reptilian humanoids? (nature)
- dragons? (arcana)
- demons or devils? (um... arcana?)
- undead? (religion)
- followers of a specific cult? (religion)

Here go my knowledge rolls: Arcana and Geography are trained, the rest are untrained (so assume they are valid up to DC 10 only, probably not applicable here)
Arcana [1d20+6] = 3+6 = 9 Geography [1d20+6] = 11+6 = 17 Untrained [1d20+2] = 2+2 = 4

Note-- the tendency continues. Testing a new macro spills rolls of 18-19-20 while "live' rolls end up being no more than 12 (before modifiers)

[GM Marvel]

A silly question but haven't you accidentally logged out?
I changed from editor to viewer and back to editor; please check if it's ok now. If still not ok I'll remove and re-add your permission from scratch.
I have a funny coupling of salamander heritage (+2 cl to fire) and silver draconic bloodline (+1 damage per die to cold). It was probably my great-grandfather, a half-dragon, who met my great-grandmother, a half-salamander, both outcasts of their respective societies.

I tend to stay logged into all sites but it's possible my computer logged me out during an update.  I'm at work right now so I will check in the morning.  However only yours and Mardak's were invisible to me.  Perhaps your settings are different than the other players.

[GM Marvel]

Okies about these kobold bodies. I know Nacesh can't see them right now and I know that even if he would he didn't have the appropriate skills, just thinking in team perspective whether this whole setup reminds anyone within the party to anything.
Like, a ritual performed by or a particular type of death caused by:
- reptilian humanoids? (nature)
- dragons? (arcana)
- demons or devils? (um... arcana?)
- undead? (religion)
- followers of a specific cult? (religion)

Here go my knowledge rolls: Arcana and Geography are trained, the rest are untrained (so assume they are valid up to DC 10 only, probably not applicable here)
Arcana [1d20+6] = 3+6 = 9 Geography [1d20+6] = 11+6 = 17 Untrained [1d20+2] = 2+2 = 4

Note-- the tendency continues. Testing a new macro spills rolls of 18-19-20 while "live' rolls end up being no more than 12 (before modifiers)

I thought humanoids were Knowledge: Local?  Demons and Devils would be Knowledge: Planes.   The other types seem correct. 

Wow, I see rolling still kind of sucks.  Normally knowledge skills can't be used untrained.  But I believe people can pick up small bits of information from their travels so I allow it with a possible penalty for more difficult information. 

So, with your Arcana roll, you're unsure if it was a ritual.  But with you're Knowledge Geography you believe you're currently underground.  In a mine.  Most likely an old copper mine.

[Nacesh]

D&D = planes. You are correct of course and silly me forgetting this .
Humanoids. Not sure about monstrous humanoids but IIRC you used local for kobolds as well so it's consistent.

As for untrained; I recall having a house rule (maybe in another game ) that you can do trained-only checks untrained but only if DC<=10 and you cannot take 10 on such checks. Anyway, 4 sucks

[GM Marvel]

I can now see your sheets.  In fact, they are on my list of characters.  Must be because you both gave me edit rights.  Also, the idea for untrained DC<=10 seems like it might work too.

D&D = planes. You are correct of course and silly me forgetting this .
Humanoids. Not sure about monstrous humanoids but IIRC you used local for kobolds as well so it's consistent.

I looked it up.  Knowledge: Nature, is for Monstrous Humanoids; Knowledge: Local, is for just Humanoids.  Kobolds happen to be just Humanoids (reptilian) not Monstrous Humanoids.  [see below]

Below are listed typical fields of study.

• Arcana (ancient mysteries, magic traditions, arcane symbols, cryptic phrases, constructs, dragons, magical beasts)
  
• Architecture and engineering (buildings, aqueducts, bridges, fortifications)
  
• Dungeoneering (aberrations, caverns, oozes, spelunking)
  
• Geography (lands, terrain, climate, people)
  
• History (royalty, wars, colonies, migrations, founding of cities)
  
• Local (legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, humanoids)
  
• Nature (animals, fey, giants, monstrous humanoids, plants, seasons and cycles, weather, vermin)
  
• Nobility and royalty (lineages, heraldry, family trees, mottoes, personalities)
  
• Religion (gods and goddesses, mythic history, ecclesiastic tradition, holy symbols, undead)
  
• The planes (the Inner Planes, the Outer Planes, the Astral Plane, the Ethereal Plane, outsiders, elementals, magic related to the planes)

Some Further Ramblings...

In the Forgotten Realms, they split up the map into regions that you must pick for Knowledge: Local.  And any other skill that has to do with that region would give you +2 synergy.  So if you had Local 5 (Sword Coast) you would get +2 for geography, Nobility, Religion, etc. dealing with the Sword Coast.  Which is a cool idea except it would require a huge expenditure of Skill points to become knowledgeable in just a few regions.  When the game sometimes only gives you 2 skill points per level it doesn't seem realistic.  Also, why should a Rogue be potentially more knowledgeable (8 skill points per level) than a Wizard (2 skill points)?  

If anyone has a suggestion that seems more fair then the one suggested for the FR, I'd be happy to listen.  Just off the top of my head I was thinking that Knowledge (and maybe craft and profession) should get their own allotment of skill points based only upon the character's intelligence mod per level (or Int mod+1).

[Nacesh]

Rogues get so many skill points to distribute among roguish skills, certainly not knowledge. From a different perspective, rogues get skills while wizards get spells. The rest of the class abilities are probably comparable (assuming you can compare sneak attack or uncanny dodge with a metamagic or item creation feat). And, of course, the fact that most wizards have higher Int than the average rogue, takes a bit away from the edge of this apparent difference.

Your argument about wizards being more like the "knowledge" than the "hide spot etc" person is reflected by class skills that you so generously dismissed by giving everyone Versatility

As for Local, I've always felt like it just hangs out of the crowd. Simply makes no sense in terms of utility. If a campaign is more about a single region with all the characters from that region then it makes sense to know more about the habits, observations, holidays, festivals etc of the locals. The way "we" (and I mean "you" ) use it is an intuitive way of using it for "everything commonplace" simply the name doesn't fit. Maybe it could be "Knowledge (generic)". If you treat it this way the synergy bonus is actually a good idea _in_addition_ and not as a sole purpose of the skill.

Talking about 2 sp per level... I have a particular gnome priest (2+Int skill points per level) with Int 7. He could actually have Int 3. Since you get a minimum of 1 anyway it doesn't matter if you have an Int Mod of -1 or -4. That is, as long as you don't want to roll for Religion or Spellcraft The sole reason he has 7 is because that's the lowest the point buy system goes in that GM's ruling.

EDIT: In AD&D we had NWP groups plus separate allotment for rogue skills. While it may be a bit better in modeling, d20 is much simpler and as such it's *my* way to go, regardless how much I love AD&D.

[Selina Parcellus]

Wizards get plenty of skill points themselves. And they have to have massive Int scores, so it's not uncalled for to have a wizard skillmonkey...just not ideal.

[Mardak Trannyth]

Most of my games are dead.  Hoping this game starts up again. 

And please please, do not take Mardak's BS to heart.  I am not attacking anyone out of game, there is no hard feelings.

[GM Marvel]

Most of my games are dead.  Hoping this game starts up again. 

And please please, do not take Mardak's BS to heart.  I am not attacking anyone out of game, there is no hard feelings.

I'm not sure what you mean by, "starts up again."  As for me,  I have said many times that at least every other weekend it is difficult to post because company comes to stay the weekend.  Then on that same Sunday, after they leave, I have my real life D&D group.  Likely I will post Monday morning when I get up.

[Selina Parcellus]

I have a similar issue with Saturdays. I can post via phone a bit more frequently now anyway, but I thought this game was a slow passing game anyway. Oh, and I don't take his bs to heart.