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  #16  
Old Feb 8th, 2016, 11:49 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PassionFruit View Post
I guess it's not a powerful build I fear but a broken one. One that specifically is designed to work its way around a pillar of the game mechanics (allowing player more actions per turn, making it so a spell basically has no save or a rediculoualy high one). Then again...if I have the right players nobody will care if I say "we need to change that because..." I just hate policing players because I know I hate it myself.
I usually expect to nix perfectly broken builds in the character sheet review phase or sooner. If one sneaks into actual combat without my notice, I'll make them regret it - creatively.

Honestly, I might just tell a player with an infinite action combo "nope, you're done" after their first action, leaving them in an exposed position where the monsters can clobber them to a bloody lump on the floor. Rules are not there for their own sake - they're a codification of shared understanding, and their spirit is more important than their letter, not less. If a player turns rules lawyer and violates the spirit of the rules by cobbling together a Frankenstein's Monster of RAW edge cases, as the DM, you have the right to tell them no - even and especially if that means describing how the low-level monsters of the first encounter perforate their character with crude spears and flint knives.

The moment a player goes out of their way to break the game like that, they are in effect giving the DM permission to turn their character into an object lesson. If that means having the character murdered in their sleep over pocket change, or cursed by a witch and turned into a planarian, or having their Undetectable Alignment spell fail while on a tour of the headquarters of the local order of paladins, so be it.

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Originally Posted by PassionFruit View Post
...What would float your boat more as a player and a good role player? Gestalt or being able to help customize a bloodline that fists you(and your vision) to a tee?
What I look for in a game isn't the mechanics proposed so much - it's concepts and themes set to appropriate mechanics. If you are allowing customized bloodlines, it seems to me that the characters' ancestry should be plot-important in some way. If they're just tacked to an average game, I'd be curious why, rather than interested necessarily. Similarly, Gestalt is fine, but with great power, I want to see great responsibility - big things the characters are involved in, not rat-hunts in the inn's basement or orc stomping campaigns in the rural hinterlands. The rat hunts and orc stomping campaigns can be lots of fun, but it would detract from the fun to pile on extra mechanical burden to such things.

My point is, on its own, a rule is just a rule - I can say what themes I think pairs with it best, but I can't say whether or not interests me as a player on its own. I suppose I should have led off with this rather than with the monstrous paragraph that precedes it, but what's done is done.
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  #17  
Old Feb 9th, 2016, 02:18 PM
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Originally Posted by zevonian View Post
There have been a few Midnight games on site. If that's what you're running, then I would suggest sticking with the Heroic Paths, as you'll likely have applicants expecting them.
As for players expecting the world to be a certain way because it's Mdinight....I will have to think on how best to present it. The feel of the world (dark horror) won't change. It was the feel of the world which made it so compelling to me (I love Ravenloft too). So if they are wanting to play in this grim reality that 'feels' the same as when they played it years ago, they will get a face full of it. All of the bad guys from the campaign will be there but we are going to go back in time to before the land was overrun and let them experience it first hand. Better yet, they can change the outcome. If they are expecting the same game mechanics...then they will be in for a surprise. The campaign world is incredible....the game mechanics...not so much (channeler, defender, certain heroic paths, feats, etc). Besides, it was written for 3e so this is why I am rewriting it all while pulling from Pathfinder.

That being said...and after reading several chapters in the campaign book last night and thinking how best to have the world come alive for the player..I am really starting to lean towards your 'stick with heroic paths' suggestion Zevonian. Adding the gestalt template gives the players more options of course and makes them more durable but does it make the world more alive for them? Not really. Working with them to create a specific heroic path that matches the view/beliefs/actions of their character and is tied specifically to the world in some way....I like that! In a way it will be the players (and mine to a lesser extent) Midnight specific version of gestalt.

OMG what a bunch of psyco-babble I am spewing! *sigh*. I REALLY do appreciate everyone's input into this. It has certainly set my course on several things.
  #18  
Old Feb 9th, 2016, 02:53 PM
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If you're planning on running a Pathfinder based game, you could consider substituting Midnight's Heroic Paths with PF Mythic Adventures Paths.
  #19  
Old Feb 9th, 2016, 04:07 PM
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Ehh, as someone who has used Mythic a little I would hesitate before using Mythic for anything. There are tons of pitfalls to look out for when using Mythic to keep from destroying the game.
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  #20  
Old Mar 14th, 2016, 05:56 PM
Tekomandor Tekomandor is offline
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The best way, in my opinion, to balance a gestalt game is to recognise that not all classes are created equally. Tiered gestalt allows for cool mixtures of concepts, whilst blunting the sheer dominance of tier-1 characters.
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