Author Topic: Vow of Poverty Bard in a pirate campaign  (Read 5464 times)

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DMM4ever

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Re: Vow of Poverty Bard in a pirate campaign
« Reply #40 on: July 15, 2010, 11:28:24 PM »
Does your DM, um, not like your character being effective? I mean seriously, FASCINATE?! Lingering song??

All he wants you doing is playing constantly in the back providing bonuses and not doing anything INTERESTING?? Didn't he approve your character ahead of time??  Why is he hitting you with the banhammer??

It sounds like he would agree with this statement, "The only thing I expect bards to do is stay in the back, playing constantly, providing small, manageable bonuses to the melee classes in combat at the cost of all of their actions."

Actually, he said something to the effect of that statement as we were packing up...  He apparently forgot about fascinate entirely -_-.  Vow of Nonviolence is kinda dumb with it though.

weenog

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Re: Vow of Poverty Bard in a pirate campaign
« Reply #41 on: July 15, 2010, 11:31:43 PM »
Well, you said he's new and inexperienced.  Maybe this is an opportunity to teach him what D&D is actually like, when you play with what you can do instead of what dusty old assumptions make you expect.  You could try linking him to the boards for a look around (probably no posting if he's especially full of himself, though, he'll be gutted).
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Gavinfoxx

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Re: Vow of Poverty Bard in a pirate campaign
« Reply #42 on: July 15, 2010, 11:50:59 PM »
Actually, he said something to the effect of that statement as we were packing up...  He apparently forgot about fascinate entirely -_-.  Vow of Nonviolence is kinda dumb with it though.

Okay, just have a sit down talk with him about the sorts of things that D&D characters are assumed to be able to do.  Have the whole "Gandalf seriously could be statted out as a fourth level adept (the NPC spellcasting class)", saying that D&D characters are expected to come up with absolutely insane, off the wall, solutions that completely bypass or shut down problems or encounters for them ALL THE TIME.  The idea of a DM in 3.5 is not to say, "You can't do that", the idea is to say, "Awesome, you now have that entire boat and all the people who were sent in it to kill you, following you loyally! Now what do you do with them?"  Seriously, a 9th level druid and her animal companion can pretty well take on MAJOR ARMIES and WIN.  If he wants to run a balanced miniatures game where it is hard for player characters to bypass and completely shut down encounters, he should run 4e. If he wants to play a game where players are expected to do massively powerful, off the wall crazy shit from the get go, then bring on 3.5e (or Exalted...).  Seriously, the existence of spellcasters in the game basically means, for many types of scenarios, they can say, "I chose to overcome this scenario that has been placed in front of me with one of my arbitrary superpowers."  If he isn't prepared for that, he should run a tier 4 game (show him the tier list, including the "why things are the tier they are" part).
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BackHandOfFate

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Re: Vow of Poverty Bard in a pirate campaign
« Reply #43 on: July 16, 2010, 12:33:51 AM »
Aww man Now I want to play a VOP Bard!  Perhaps with Healing Hymn alternate class feature.

bearchucks

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Re: Vow of Poverty Bard in a pirate campaign
« Reply #44 on: July 16, 2010, 12:35:10 AM »
So wait.  No Fascinate (admittedly it can completely derail campaigns, I know because I'VE DONE IT and it rocked).  No DFI (all right, I guess I can see that, it can get crazy), No Lingering Song (because apparently he doesn't want you going and doing other things; I'm of half a mind to hand that feat to Bards in any game I run like Sorcerers usually get handed Eschew Materials.  Inspirational Boost, useful but not insane, is gone.  Improvisation's an okay replacement.

AND HE'S LEAVING WORDS OF CREATION, THE MOST BUSTED ABILITY OF ALL OF THEM.

apparently he needs to reread the rules and consider what kind of game he wants to run.

and yeah, actually, it makes a twisted amount of sense.
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PhaedrusXY

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Re: Vow of Poverty Bard in a pirate campaign
« Reply #45 on: July 16, 2010, 12:09:25 PM »
Guys... SCREW LINGERING SONG. Don't you know that the bard can go and fight after using his first standard action of combat to start Inspire Courage? Seriously. It lasts for 5 rounds after he stops singing. How many combats have you ever been in that lasted more than 5 rounds? I'd wager not very many. Me either. So sing on round one, then go do something else like cast spells, etc. Your DM did you a favor by getting rid of Lingering Song, as it is a complete waste of a feat.
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