Monthly 100% RCR

[aaron22]

And why is nobody addressing my big question...why do barbarians get evasion?

it (at least) doubles the amount of variable barb(x)/(y) builds that would both be effective and desirable to the player base.

not on any team that discusses these things, but that is what it looks like to me from way over here.

[Reckeo]

And why is nobody addressing my big question...why do barbarians get evasion?

it (at least) doubles the amount of variable barb(x)/(y) builds that would both be effective and desirable to the player base.

not on any team that discusses these things, but that is what it looks like to me from way over here.

It's a conspiracy I tell you! *adjusts his tinfoil hat of +1 paranoia*

I will NOT BE lol'd AT!

[Hawke]

Just to be clear.

Keep it on topic, please.

[chad878262]

I had a different experience, not in that it wasn't difficult, but that it was also a lot of fun. My first character wasn't great, but he was serviceable.

My first character started as dual-weapon dex fighter. Before deadly defense was a thing. This works in OC because you can stack up elemental damage on weapons via enchanting. Doesn't really work this way on bgtscc, due to SIGNIFICANTLY higher equipment requirements.

Cranston was a DEX ranger ptwf which was also before deadly defense. It worked fine for me in most areas, though yes it closed off some due to low damage.... I've seen a ptwf weapon master dual wielding kukris with no sneak damage so it is possible.

[Sun Wukong]

I suppose a build like Fighter 14/Weapon Master 7/Swashbuckler 6/Shadowdancer 3 could work well enough. Shadowdancer for HiPS and Evasion, and it could grab Improved Whirlwind Attack.

But again, it is a build that is okay to great in late epics.


Oh yeah, Lock has had a lot of dexterity based Weapon ;asters on this server.

[NegInfinity]

Cranston was a DEX ranger ptwf which was also before deadly defense. It worked fine for me in most areas, though yes it closed off some due to low damage.... I've seen a ptwf weapon master dual wielding kukris with no sneak damage so it is possible.

To make it possible, you first need to spend half of a year on the server and figure out the building voodoo. I don't need a build advice on that right now, by the way.

I can easily create bunch of fairly decent class combos right now (because I already wasted enough time on build system), but the problem is after playing just OC nobody is going to ahve this knowledge. Also, nobody who is playing on a NWN2 PW for the first time ever will have this kind of knowledge either.

My OC character was Fighter23/WM7. Or maybe even Fighter20/WM10. With two short swords. It worked well enough to steamroll the whole OC campaign.

On bgtscc you'll need a combo that is quite insane from RP perspective, nevermind that majority of kaedrin classes don't exist in storm of zehir. So you come in expecting to forge your own swords, and you can't do it. You want to enchant weapons, you can't do that either. Then it turns out that BGTSCC has signficiantly higher requirements to AC, so you now have to hunt down those damn boots of dodge which you never needed in OC campaign and that didn't really exist in OC either (Boots of Sun Soul required monk levels of UMD. You never needed UMD either). It is a good thing that prices got a bit closer to the sanity now, because back when I started hunting those items took a LOOOONG time. Then you head out of the town, take a wrong turn, and suddenly are facing an uberboss skeleton from field of the dead.

This is probably usual BGTSCC experience for a beginner, unless you get lucky and pick something mechanically flexible or powerful.

[chad878262]

I don't know Neg... I never played a pw before this one so i think it is more about perception and individual taste...i fondant have good luck with looting and rarely partied for long as others would often leave me in their dust because i was moving to slow (using stealth, trying to separate off targets one at a time, etc.) Luckily i found a core group of excellent rp'ers and found my place. Having grown up on pnp i see leveling as a key part of the experience. I agree that 20-30 needs better options to have a consistent leveling experience without 4 hours of worst grinding per week, but starting a brand new character at 30 gives no sense of growth... it takes away a key aspect of d&d.

[NegInfinity]

Luckily i found a core group of excellent rp'ers and found my place.

Well, in my case groups come and go. Once another group disappear, it is once again time to roam through empty maps alone. It was always this way. And groups rarely last long - they usually fall apart in a month or two.

At the end of the career my first character was at some point was remembering old companions and acquaintances. None of them were around anymore.

I recall Viktor Nerak complaining abotu the same probelm long time ago. The gist was - if you don't find your "group", you'll have very lonely experience. Because people form group, and are not exactly open to interacting with outsiders. Viktor Nerak left server years ago as a result.

but starting a brand new character at 30 gives no sense of growth... it takes away a key aspect of d&d.

If you want to experience sense of growth, you'll be completely free to start from level 1. It is not like starting over from level 30 is supposed to be the only option if RCR100 is in effect. It is also possible to create some sort of bonus for feeding a high-level character to death npcs as well. I recall that in 2014 there were several auctions selling off gear of retired adventurers. Those were in-game and not in "parallel forum universe".

The idea is to give more options for those who already "walked the road". I probably had too many characters on the server, and in current situations can't really justify trying to grind like crazy again. If you read the rest of the the thread you'll see people who are in the same boat. The idea for 100% RCR is to allow people who already played to provide new characters for the rest of the server to interact with. And I don't see anything wrong with it. Without such option the people will have to quit and you will have less characters in the world.

Also, the idea of "once per year" seems to be based on philosophy where a player is supposed to have a life-time commitment to one character. Not everybody is playing this way. Once per month should be the starting point. Maybe it could be "just N free RCRs per month" or something like that.

[Egg Shen]

I don’t enjoy playing this character anymore for xyz reasons.
I don’t enjoy grinding (and questing is really just grinding in safe mode) for xyz reasons.
I do enjoy max level play for xyz reasons.
My options are?

I think that boils it down to its most basic essence. The Server is good, well maintained and well balanced with an active community. Would like to continue playing, but I’m forced to do something I don’t enjoy in order to get back to something I do enjoy. I know I’m not going to disrupt anybody’s role play because due to time constraints, I’m just a bit player in the realms. A capable and/or dangerous bit player, but a bit player nonetheless.

Plenty of people manage to get epic level characters with our existing set-up without being a truly known entity on the server, so having a level 30 appear from thin air shouldn’t really bother anybody. In fact, When I came back after a years long absence, I had level 30’s nobody had ever heard of and it caused nary a ripple in my estimation. I imagine it’s fairly commonplace at this point.

All that said, I don’t have any characters I want to RCR right now. Lol. But I’ve got a certain lady dwarf that I suspect will eventually be gathering dust, and I’d love to get max Xp for her when another build/character concept gets my imagination going.

[Reckeo]

I don’t enjoy playing this character anymore for xyz reasons.
I don’t enjoy grinding (and questing is really just grinding in safe mode) for xyz reasons.
I do enjoy max level play for xyz reasons.
My options are?

I think that boils it down to its most basic essence. The Server is good, well maintained and well balanced with an active community. Would like to continue playing, but I’m forced to do something I don’t enjoy in order to get back to something I do enjoy. I know I’m not going to disrupt anybody’s role play because due to time constraints, I’m just a bit player in the realms. A capable and/or dangerous bit player, but a bit player nonetheless.

Plenty of people manage to get epic level characters with our existing set-up without being a truly known entity on the server, so having a level 30 appear from thin air shouldn’t really bother anybody. In fact, When I came back after a years long absence, I had level 30’s nobody had ever heard of and it caused nary a ripple in my estimation. I imagine it’s fairly commonplace at this point.

All that said, I don’t have any characters I want to RCR right now. Lol. But I’ve got a certain lady dwarf that I suspect will eventually be gathering dust, and I’d love to get max Xp for her when another build/character concept gets my imagination going.

This dude said it way better than I ever could, even with +100 clever words, +100 hours of RP, and +100 hours of xp and para-phrases. Truth be told, I love ya'll, and I've had an overall pleasureable experience, role play or otherwise. Jus' sayin.

Nothin' but love for ya'all.

This being said, nev'mind what I said before except for what I said before including love. THAT counts. It bei'n Valentine's night n'all. Otherwise it aint. Aint it? I dunno.

But love is real nevermind the Matrix. Or Neo. Sorry Ya'll. I am ready to take my punishment. Love n' all. OP topic. Damn. <3.

[Steve]

I’m forced to do something I don’t enjoy...

No one is forced to log on, or roll up a PC, or/especially not forced to Level.

If anything, you are "forced" to role-play, as this IS a RPG and RP Server.

BGTSCC also needs capable "bit players" at the low levels as well! If all the good RPers sit at Lvl 30, then as Valefort pointed out, the Servers low CR areas become a wasteful content and provides no good experience for those Newbies that have not the luxury to RCR evens single Experience Point.

Don't give up on the Lowbie RP, people!

[Sun Wukong]

100% RCR will not delete low level characters from existence. People will grow sentimental. People want to try new things while keeping their old character around just in case new thing doesn't pang out. Maybe someone gets a new build idea, or sees one on the forums and wants to try it out. Then there is the nostalgia for low level areas... etc.

[chad878262]

Have you ever compared the number of * PCs logged in to the number of ** and ***? Other than when a new group gets formed or new players join in fairly significant numbers there are very few * PCs. It would be naive to think that 100% RCR wouldn't have a further impact to this.

[Zanniej]

Well, there's always people like me that are unable to progress beyond level 20 Though I must admit that in the past, RCR was a big part in that.

So far, I'm still undecided on my own opinion on this. I do have an opinion, just not a decisive one.

For monthly RCRs:
Why not, really? How big of a problem will exist over the entire population with monthly 100% RCR periods? People who don't like it, won't do it. People who do, can. And perhaps this should just be added because there are people wanting this, and there are not big enough issues to say no?

Against monthly RCRs:
The for is mainly mechanical. The against? Too many RCRs are immersion breaking. As some people might change their character rigorously because their current classes didn't fit their wishes anymore. This has been mentioned before.
I am personally also of the opinion that a character should grow. Grow into his character, grow into his powers, etc.


So really, this seems to be a discussion of mechanical benefits and ease of life, vs RP and immersion. RCR was once made as a reward for good RP. To reward people for retiring a character who's storyline has finished. To give at least something back.
This request is more of an arcade game request. "Give me the option to start over more often".

There are no wrong choices, I guess. I think it comes down to to whom we want to cater most. The RPer, or the casual gamer...

[Planehopper]

I feel like that is a false dichotomy. I am only an RPer. I would enjoy this ability. I think I've made the case for that elsewhere, but wanted to step in before this became an RP-vs-action debate.