Some Gaming Philosophy For Your Thoughts

 Greetings! This week I want to do a bit of theorizing.  Recently, with me playing such games as League of Legends and learning about the game mechanics of World of Warcraft (and similar games), I have come to discover that they tend to be dominated by the “tanky dps” (damage per second) or it is a “requirement” to have some sort of healer in a party in order for a quest to be completed.  With this said, aren’t these two “classes” the same as a monk/ranger (tanky dps) or a cleric/druid (healer)?  So this is to say that in many, if not most, mainstream games (in this genre) lend themselves to having one character do all the damage and another character passively throwing out a heal spell?

This brings up the question of whether this a good game mechanic.  Is it “fun” to let one character completely dominate and others just hang out in a limbo of only moderate helpfulness?  In League of Legends for instance, there are three champions: Lee Sin, Jax, and Tryndamere, all of which are nigh unstoppable unless you kill them frequently in the first 10 minutes of the game.  In World of Warcraft it is my understanding that without a healer, many quests or dungeons are unable to be completed.  Is this “right” in terms of how games “should be”?

If you think about it, Dungeons and Dragons is “plagued” by these same mechanics.  Our party right now would not function if we had no healer (we would have died almost immediately in many of our fights if we hadn’t had our druid throwing out heals).  At the same time, it is ok for there to be a dps as long as it is balanced by generally “squishiness” (like our rogue).  It is our Barbarian’s job to soak up enemy damage that would otherwise be directed at the Ranger.  While the dynamic between the support and the dps is a solid one (you kill stuff and I’ll make sure you can keep killing stuff), it breaks a game if the dps can fulfill both roles as a support AND dps. 

            Maybe it is just me, but it seems like a change would be welcomed.  Hopefully, these changes will come with Guild Wars 2, which claims to have no tank or healing classes.  Everyone is responsible for their own survival and skill determines success rather than exceptional damage output and a healer in the background.

Do you agree with me or am I just ranting?

Until Next Week!

Raz

And Now for More of the Same (Sort of...)

Greetings!  You will be pleased to know that I am indeed not dead, but was simply on vacation.  However, this week I wanted to elaborate on League of Legends (LoL) and how it relates to D&D. 

            As Endos described last week, LoL is a game full of playable champions that all have unique abilities, affinities, and back stories.  When I was doing some pondering over LoL, I had the revelation that many of these champions would make excellent NPCs/characters for a D&D campaign.  Quite literally, you could make up whole parties of NPCs/characters that are based on LoL Champions.

            So to demonstrate this, I will show you a “custom” NPC that I have constructed for my current favorite Champion, Vladimir the Crimson Reaper.  Hope you can use this and come up with your own adaptations to LoL Champions for your own gaming pleasure.  Enjoy!

(Quick note: I made this character build with the idea that it would be 3 to 5 players against him.  If ever he had a partner… well, it would be challenging to say the least.)

NPC Class: Vladimir

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Level: 18          Hit Dye: d8      HP: 150            AC: 19 (+3 Dex, +3 natural Armor, +3 Blood Aura)

Base Attack Bonus: +10/+5                 Attack: Blood Spike (1d6+3) Crit: (18-20/x2) Range: 30 feet

Base Land Speed: 30ft

Stats

Str	10	0
Dex	17	3
Con	15	2
Int	12	1
Wis	15	2
Cha	22	5

Save	Total	Base Save	Ability Modifier
Fortitude	9	7	2
Reflex	11	8	3
Will	13	11	2

Skills

Bluff	14
Concentration	18
Escape Artist	10
Heal	6
Intimidate	9
Knowledge (arcana)	15
Sense Motive	11
Spellcraft	15

Special/Spell-Like Abilities

Transfusion: Vladimir drains the blood from a single target dealing 6d6 damage and heals Vladimir for half the damage dealt. Range: 60 feet.  Counts as an attack rather than a spell. As a full round action, Vladimir can use Transfusion and make his secondary standard attack.

Sanguine Pool: Vladimir melts into a 10 foot radius pool of blood, making him invulnerable for 2 rounds except against spells that involve freezing (as in ice) of any kind.  Any enemy that is standing in the pool takes 4d4 damage and heals Vladimir for one fourth of the total damage dealt.  In addition, Vladimir’s base land speed doubles to 60 feet for the duration of the spell.  Vladimir cannot use this ability again for 1d6+1 rounds. This Ability costs 20% of Vladimir’s current HP.

Tides of Blood: Vladimir throws blades of blood at all surrounding enemies within 20 feet of him dealing 4d6 damage (costing 1d4 HP).  If used in succession, the damage is increased to 4d8 (costing 2d4 HP), then 4d10 (costing 3d4 HP), then 4d12 max (costing 4d4 HP).  As a full round action, he may cast this ability twice.

Hemoplague: Vladimir infects his opponents within a 40 foot diameter of himself with a deadly virus that causes all enemies infected to take an additional 20% damage (rounding down) from all sources.  The affects last for 5 rounds and at the end of the 5^th round, it deals an additional 4d6 damage to all those infected. This ability cannot be used again for 2d4+5 rounds.

Blood Aura: Passive. An aura of blood surrounds Vladimir that gives him +3 AC and allows him to slowly siphon the life energy of living things around him.  This gives him the unique ability to heal himself for 1d8 each round.  In addition, if an enemy(s) fighting Vladimir is in combat with him for more than 10 rounds, the enemy(s) will become fatigued.  If they spend 20 rounds in combat with Vladimir they will become exhausted, and if a fight lasts for 30 rounds, the player must make a fortitude save (DC 22) each round or become immediately reduced to -1 HP.

Until next week!

Raz.

P.S. The reason for no DM or Player tips recently is due to a few factors, but mostly because of the summer break and the fact that I have not had the chance to play D&D recently.  As game play picks up, expect the tips to start coming again.

P.P.S. Expect a post from Zedd sometime in the near future.

And Now for Something Entirely Different…

 Greetings, readers of Do A Spot Check! I am Endos, summoner of centipedes, frequenter of the evil axis, co-creator of alignment charts, editor for the site, and mayor of a little village up the coast(very scenic in the springtime. You should visit sometime). Raz is currently occupied/on vacation/dead so I’ll be writing this week’s post.

Raz got me involved in D&D about a year ago, and I’ve been an enthusiast of the game since then, but this year I’m going to try my hand at DMing for the first time. Now, as any typical first-time DM might do, I’ll be borrowing many of my ideas from D&D related comics and videos like Order of the Stick and Unforgotten Realms, but I’m also taking ideas from the readers of Do A Spot Check. That’s right! If you have fantastic and epic ideas and want to share them, now’s your opportunity! If you have suggestions for things to pit Raz and his teammates up against, please leave them in the comments section and I’ll be sure to include them in some fashion in the next campaign. The more outlandish and ridiculous the premise, the better!

Second item on the agenda: League of Legends. You may have heard of this game before, but if you have not, allow me to explain. League of Legends (LoL) is a free online game created by the same people who constructed DotA Allstars. League of Legends (and DotA, by extension) is a game where there are two teams with a Nexus at the center of each base, which each team is attempting to destroy. Teams are usually comprised of 5 “Champions” that all stem from the basic fantasy classes in D&D. There are mage and fighter and cleric-like heroes, but some heroes embody the class exactly. Tryndamere is a Barbarian through and through, Akali is rogue/assassin, and Lee-Sin is a monk, and just as kick-ass as the ones in D&D. The paths to each base are guarded by periodic towers that require large amounts of firepower to bring down. The game is centered around PVP combat, but you can play with teammates against the a computer team if you wish. Raz and I have been spending a fair amount of time honing our skills in this game. The entire game is online and free to download in an hour.  The trailer for the game is here:

If you try it and like it, feel free to add Raz and I to your in-game friends list and we’ll be happy to give you tips or play cooperatively with you. Our in-game names are Innersist and Randomocity132, respectively. To download the game visit LoL’s main page here.

Alrighty, now that that’s taken care of, this is usually the part where Raz posts tips for players and DM’s, so let’s get to it.

Player Tip of the Week

Don’t be afraid to find others who play D&D in the networks of people you know.  A lot of the reason that people don’t go out and try to find others who also play D&D is because of the stigma that the name “Dungeons and Dragons” carries. People are sometimes worried of what others will think of them when they find out that they play D&D, but you don’t need to be super-secretive about it. Raz and I played D&D with a group of friends at our college for months without realizing that there were actually nearly two dozen veteran players on campus, many of which we already knew personally. Several of them have graduated now, and we would have had a chance to play with them, had we told them earlier in the year that we played. You don’t have to shout it at people, but let it be known, you never know who else might be a player.

DM Tip of the Week

Be flexible playing with new players you don’t already know.  This goes along with the above tip. If you do happen to find others who are interested in the game, find a way to incorporate them in your campaign. You can start them off at a higher level if it’s been going on for a while.

Alrighty then. That just about wraps up this week’s post. I hope you enjoyed it. This is Endos, signing out.

P.S. (But seriously, do leave suggestions in the comments)

P.P.S. Centipedes.