Egg Shen wrote:As for playing your character sheet, c'mon. Over in the character build subforum, people advised me to SKIP open locks and disable device as completely unnecessary for a character dedicated entirely to looting. Not only unnecessary, but an actual detriment as it's faster to just bash the locks and use a heal kit. So it's okay for a str based meathead to not need a rogue to deal with traps and locks, but if a non str based character wants the same autonomy, he's trying to bypass our role playing rules? With so many ooc concessions already being made on the server in the name of smoother gameplay or accommodating various playstyles, and there are many, it always seems oddly arbitrary where we decide to draw lines in the sand.
Some people on the character build forum told you to skip putting a single rank in Open Lock skill? Who are these people? When have they said this? There is literally no reason not to put some ranks in Open Lock, there are already far too many nonsensical '
Magical Strong Boxes' that can only be opened through the Open Lock skill.
The fact is, if you can afford to get three levels of Rogue/Divine Seeker and max out the following three skills: Open Lock, Search, and Disable Device, you can open all chests in two rounds without any risk whatsover. There is no need to walk slowly in Search mode either, because as you are unlocking the chest, traps usually reveal themselves automatically. But here is the thing, maxing out those skills requires Able Learner feat, and there are other skills that a player would like to max out of gameplay benifits or role-play reasons, not to mention that the levels Rogue can bring you multiclassing experience penalty, and the requirements on the Divine Seeker are actually rather high. Thus, there are many who consider such an investment ill-adviced. (Still going to say that a strength based two-weapon Ranger 26/Divine Seeker 4 is pretty neat on its own right.)
Now, it is possible that someone with a large damage output can bash a chest open wihin a single round, but there is also a chance that they get with that 100+ to 200+ damage trap it had. Getting hit by nytrap counts as combat, and hence you have to wait until next round before you can take 20 with your healing kits. Even with a maxed out Heal skill you will only heal 33+ per kit, so it can take more than a round to get back to full health. Now, they can keep doing this of course, but those tens of stacks of healing kits consume inventory space and easily take a lion's share out of your carrying capacity. Especially on a character that is not a strength based barbarian.
Now, I would like to remind you that we cannot pick up these 'Magical Strong Boxes' and just carry them to the FAI fire where the only 'true rogue' of the server happens to stand AFK, and then wait another hour for him to finally get back to his character. Not to mention if you make chests harder to bash by increasing their HP, well, you are just making things worse for the low damage output characters. I mean, have you tried to bash those chests in the CR1 bandit cave with a -2 Str Mod rock gnome wizard? Go ahead, while you are at it, you will have time to read a book.
Valefort wrote:With evasion and high heal skill he'll really be overall fine though, it's true. One solution is replacing more chests with their unbashable versions (and probably breaking some potions, wouldn't hurt).
If these 'true rogues' suffer from their low strength ability score, a fix is not something that makes things less fun for others. A possible fix would be an alternative rogue archetype via some kit that is not 100% dexterity and HiPS dependent to deliver that sneak attack dice. Instead of sneak attack dice, they could just get +1 damage per hit. Or perhaps give them pack mules that have the same stealth skill as their owner, hence allowing those mules to follow as their owners sneak through areas. Or perhaps you could just add wands of 'Waukeem's Minor Transaction' that summons some imp or mephit merchant for three minutes with a maximum buy out price set at 250 GP or something.
