Sir Spiff

It's good to pick one spot and keep a stash there. Generally, keeping all your stuff next to whatever enchanting anvil you actually use is ideal. It's safe, it'll never run out, and you don't have to lug everything around all the time.

I like the Sorceress, myself, but I'm not very good with her. I tend to fare better with shapers/lifecrafters.

Does excessive canister use still affect quest availability and endings? If so, what's the magic number to keep from becoming a slathering psychopath before the end?

I've only done the Astoria ending, but I have to say it was a bit disappointing. I just buffed the allied minions and plowed through to the sole target, focused fire of Ghaldring, and won. I'm guessing the full-on Shaper ending with Alwan is similar. Next to that, taking on every member of the council sounds sweet.

Terrestria is the size of plot. It's as big as it needs to be for story and convenience purposes.

Originally Posted By: Ex culminatio I guess we have a difference of opinion. I don't find the cleric, wizard, or druid balanced. They can be played so they don't do everything better than everyone else, but they don't have to be. Balancing something against them is a bad idea. Actually, they're totally, explosively overpowered to the point that they should be banned, too. Like I said, I'm for balancing against Psion, Bard, or Warblade instead. Going off ye olde tier list, anywhere from tier 2 to tier 4 is fine. For differentiating critters, I'm thinking some form of double-cost buffs permanent on the critters would help differentiate them, but... the differentiation's going to be the hard part. For casting slots, I'd suggest just reading up on psionics. They're a lot easier than Vancian. However, translating to and from spell points may suffice for figuring out what's worth what. I'd vote against a new essence mechanism, just using power points as combined spell points and essence points, giving a real hit to your casting power for having critters.

Originally Posted By: Ex culminatio The problem with trying to play a shaper is that D&D isn't made for it. Classes must balance against each other, and thus a shaper must be no more powerful than, say, a fighter. If you're talking 3.5, which it seems you are, then that's bollocks. Fighters are weak. Horribly weak. As in the Wizard could melee better if she wanted to, whereas the Fighter cannot melee effectively against level-appropriate foes due to the way monsters scale versus the way characters scale- meaning Fighters only get bigger numbers going for them, while monsters have bigger numbers growing so much faster that the Fighter is irrelevant and only the casters can keep up. Core melee is hideously gimped and saying that anything must be balanced against Fighter and Monk is utterly silly when Cleric, Druid, and Wizard are absolute gods that utterly overpower the entire game and even manage to do the Fighter's job better than the Fighter- in the case of Druid, they can do it without batting an eyelash courtesy of the animal companion. The real target falls somewhere between Rogue and Sorcerer as the functional range for 3.5. Nigh featureless mooks are fairly meaningless, and a class whose feature is the ability to make nigh featureless mooks is easier to balance than you make it sound. This may be rather harsh, but if the class is to be made, one must understand the standard for game balance and that core 3.5 is not remotely balanced. If you want 3.5 to be balanced, you have to bring in all the sourcebooks, axe all the standard melee classes, replace those with Tome of Battle, then kick Archivist, Artificer, Cleric, Druid, Erudite, and Wizard out the highest window in a world where Feather Fall doesn't exist. Stop comparing to Fighter and start comparing to Bard or Psion, and in the case of melee, Warblade. Originally Posted By: Ex culminatio Basically, he'll just point out that druids and rangers get animal companions and their companions aren't exactly powerful for exactly this reason. Actually, the animal companion can consistently be stronger than the standard Fighter from level one to twenty if you upgrade companions at every opportunity, without sacrificing any real Druid power. Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity It might well be very hard to make one set of rules for a Shaper class that would work well as written in every possible party and campaign. Technically, there already is a Shaper class. That's the name for a Metacreativity-specialist Psion, and that particular species of Psion is an excellent basis for a Geneforge-style Shaper without making a new class at all. Just make new feats and powers So, we'll just use a Psion and make some new Metacreativity powers and pimp out Astral Construct like the whore it is. The fact that the Shaper really is just a Psion means you can get all other types of side-powers too in order to keep all the side-magicks that Shapers have going for them. The first power to make this beast work is one I shall dub Shape Being for lack of a more creative name. It looks something like this: Shape Being Metacreativity (Creation) Level: Shaper 1 Display: None Manifesting Time: 1 round Range: 0 ft. Target: One Astral Construct Duration: Permanent Saving Throw: None Power Resistance: No Power Points: Special (See text) The duration of a single instance of Astral Construct becomes permanent. The construct's type becomes Magical Beast and it loses all construct immunities. Recalculate saves and AB accordingly (meaning full BAB and strong Fortitude/Reflex saves, as per other magical beasts). Do not recalculate HP. All shaped constructs have a constitution score of 10 and an intelligence score of 4. This power may only be used on an astral construct manifested entirely from the caster's own power point supply, not another manifester's astral constructs or those manifested via psionic item. As a move action, you may absorb any one of your own shaped constructs to regain a number of power points equal to the amount originally used to summon the construct. The cost to manifest this power is equal to the number of power points originally used to summon the construct. (So if a construct cost one point to summon in the first place, this power costs another one point, for a total of two points.) For as long as the shaped construct remains, you cannot regain the power points originally used to summon the shaped construct or the power points used to manifest this power. (Meaning if you use this power on a lowly one-point construct, you're down two power points for as long as the construct is still alive.) This should form a strong backbone. The fact that a five-point construct costs ten points to make permanent is a pretty big deal in both directions. Sure, permanent is a lot longer than a minute or two you'd get with normal Astral Construct, but on the flip side, 3.5 fights tend to be measured in seconds, and ten-round combat is pretty rare in a group with a firm grasp of how to kill things with rules. On the flip side, all psionic classes have trouble maintaining their PP reserves, so investing double cost in an astral construct to keep it around is a hefty cost, only arguably worth the effort. I have a level 4 Psion right now with some really hefty Int, and she only has 25 power points. With the help of Overchannel, she could spend 20 power points to get two permanent 5-point shaped beings and only have 5 to play with for as long as those two big 3-HD brutes are still around. From here, it's a matter of getting more menu options and investiture powers to help represent the fact that Geneforge creatures are a lot more varied than astral constructs. In 4e, I hear Arcane Power has some summoning mechanics that could be cannibalized, but I don't know enough about 4e to do it myself. However, if anything, I'd classify them as defenders simply because that's what all the minions ultimately do- defend the squishy Shaper until everyone else is dead. Unless, of course, the Shaper is sending wave after wave of Pyroamer to die in a glorious Earth-shattering kaboom. >

Oh, I'm quite aware that I can minimize. It's just really annoying, as I like to write or surf while I play. It's a habit games with absurd load times got me into, but it carries over.

I'm not too keen on being forced to play games in full screen mode. Alt+Enter isn't taking the game to windowed mode. Is there any way to do so?

Ghaldring; cunning, ruthless, unfathomably powerful- what's not to like?

I use 'em all extensively, but mental is the most fun for me.

Quote: Originally written by Suspicious Vlish: The Shapers still lack the ability to negotiate with the resistance. Perhaps if they had a 'sit-down' with the humans, Drayks, Drakons, and Eyebeasts, then perhaps they could come to a compromise. At the worst, they could attempt to negotiate a truce.[/QB] Two points: 1) Did the rebels, especially the Drakons, even approach the Shapers diplomatically? 2) Throughout the entire game, the Shapers know the Drakons are creating a doomsday type weapon. What great power in their right mind would, through diplomacy, grant the enemy the time they need to complete a doomsday type weapon? Quote: Originally written by Suspicious Vlish: If that indeed is true, then the Rebellion is achieving its goal, isn't it? If extreme violence forces the Shapers to rethink their attitudes towards non-Shapers, then resistance has been successful.[/QB] The human/servile half, perhaps, but when have heard the Drakons state their goals as "Destroy all Shapers"?

Quote: Originally written by Suspicious Vlish: Quite simply, merely because civilization X is more orderly than civilization Y does mean that it is preferable to civilization Y. You got my point backwards. I said, "Order is the foundation of sustainable prosperity." Let's say that a concrete slab is the foundation of any house (I generalize, but it's to make a point). You can have a concrete slab without a house, but a house without the concrete slab will fall. Likewise, you can have order without prosperity, but prosperity without order crumbles swiftly. Quote: If the Shaper regime were to grant autonomy to serviles, allow Drayks and Drakons to exist, and allow ordinary humans to have a say in the regulation of Shaping and magic, it's reasonable to assume that most popular support for the Rebellion would bleed away in a microsecond. The fact that the Shapers won't do this is very telling. Quite simply, they are a war-like sect which enforces its whim with violence, oppression, and a monopoly of the Shaping arts. Yet at the same time, the hard-core shaper, Alwan, is willing to deal with a rogue servile (you, if you choose to be a servile), and keep his word, even consider you something like a friend. He does not NEED your help, but he accepts you. Shaper conservativism is not as absolute as it once was. While in the strict shaper ending, it takes deeper root, in the stalemate ending, I believe there is hope within the shapers themselves to overcome their hyperconservativism. Quote: The Drakons don't bring peace. Wow, what a surprise, given that they are under constant threat of extermination. What do you expect them to do... lie down and die, so that 'peace' can reign in the Shaper empire? That's the most god damn ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Perhaps countries under Nazi occupation should have laid down their arms, in the interest of maintaining 'peace'. Of course you oppose the enemy tooth and nail, but Drakons are openly hostile to their own allies, who certainly aren't trying to destroy their entire race. In their arrogance, they throttle their human "allies" by shutting down their only truly powerful weapon, the Geneforge, because they see humans as trivial. Quote: If someone first created me, enslaved me, and then targeted me for extermination, I would use any means necessary to save my own life, and that of my race. Correct. You would make any ally, use any tool, and support those who can help you in any way possible. You wouldn't alienate your only supporters and rely solely on your own resources. Humans and serviles could have help with the Unbound project, Litalia especially. The Drakons irrationally discarded valuable resources and skills out of arrogance and dementia.

Quote: Originally written by Suspicious Vlish: A left hander in the early 1900's would have been inferior to a right hander, because all of the utilities were crafted with right handers in mind? Righty propaganda, oppressor.

Quote: Originally written by Lord Safey: If I made such a claim about the US ya'll flame me off the forums. "Ya'll" is incorrect. The word means "you all," which means the "ou" is being dropped. The correct spelling is "Y'all." Apparently, Drakons' claws won't allow them to hold a wrench. Tool use is one of the primary abilities which define higher life, and for Drakons, this ability is seriously curbed. Drakons are dramatically inferior because they can't use a hammer.