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3 years ago ::
Feb 19, 2010 - 10:34AM
#1
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Hi all,
What are your opinions on the spellplague and the spellscarred?
Spellplague
1. Does the spellplague improve the campaign setting?
2. Has LFR handled the spellplague well?
3. How interested are you playing mods with the spellplague as a primary theme (as opposed to say fighting the Netherese, solving the Mystara mystery etc etc).
Spellscarred
1. How interested are you in playing a spellscarred? Where has the spellscarred "class" gone right/wrong?
2. How do you feel about spellscarred monsters/spellscarred encounter themes?
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3 years ago ::
Feb 19, 2010 - 11:51AM
#2
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Date Joined:
May 20, 2007
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The Spellplague:
1. I suppose it improves the setting by providing the opportunity to encounter some more "unusual" areas and creatures outside of planar trips.
2. I think the spellplague (lands and creatures) has so far been underused in LFR considering how much importance was placed on it in the changing of the forgotten realms and that there are supposedly pockets outside the plaguelands where it exists.
3. I'm interested in playing adventures where the spellplague is encountered. Whether or not it's the primary theme is not as important to me.
Spellscarred:
1. I might be interested in playing a spellscarred, but the fact that you can only access it using the RPGA card which only allows "Larger than Life" to start (unless you got the other card during prerelease, I believe) has been relevent in my not yet having a spellscarred character.
2. I guess I answered this above. I would be interested in seeing spellscarred monsters/encounters occasionally. I would hate for this to be overused though.
-Sartredes
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3 years ago ::
Feb 19, 2010 - 12:06PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Jun 26, 2003
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1. Does the spellplague improve the campaign setting?
I can't think of one way in which it has. I've seen storylines, story arcs, &c that have *involved* the spellplague. But no adventures or storylines come to mind that used the spellplague in such a way that some other plot device or storyline could not have easily substituted. Granted, I haven't played as much as I might have.
2. Has LFR handled the spellplague well?
Mmmm . . . no. See above. Could easily be adventures I have not played yet that *did* handle the spellplague well, though.
3. How interested are you playing mods with the spellplague as a primary theme (as opposed to say fighting the Netherese, solving the Mystara mystery etc etc).
That's "Mystra" isn't it, as in the spoiler
Show
Order of Blue Fire thinking the Spellplague is a manifestation of Mystra and trying to spread it over the world to free her? Not particularly. This is because I just don't get a sense of the fight making a difference to the character or in the campaign world as a whole. (edit) - That is not to say that I would be opposed to playing *well-implemented* mods that had the spellplague. But currently, I don't get the feeling that there is any unifying force against the Spellplague, or that trying to combat the Spellplague makes any sort of real difference, either to the PC, the NPC, or any NPC interest groups. And when you get the feeling that something really doesn't make any sort of difference - well, how interested would *you* be in following that storyline?
There's no primary forces I've seen that personify the fight against spellscarring. Well, there's Tyrangal, but she hasn't really said much or done much just yet - so again, not a personification. Where's the human face (or elf or whatever) in the battle *against* the spellscarred? Who's going to support my PC in his/her struggle? Why does the struggle even make a difference? There's a lot of disconnected events that involve spellscarred creatures, but what is the difference in the campaign world, the NPC groups that care about the outcome of the battle - you see?
Spellscarred
1. How interested are you in playing a spellscarred? Where has the spellscarred "class" gone right/wrong?
You have to use an RPGA card to play it. That's just . . . awful IMHO. If racial cards didn't take up a slot, I would feel way better about the class.
Besides that, I think you should be able to *pick up* a spellscar in play, which to date I have not seen. The literature describes that characters pick up spellscars on scar pilgrimages. Why not PCs? (edit) Apparently it's just not allowed, which I understand as a game mechanic, but . . . well, let me put forth an idea, for example. Usually you need to use a Character Creation card at 1st level to have the Spellplague. What if, 1st, character creation cards didn't take up a slot, and 2nd, certain adventures let you *pick up* a spellscar (noted that you CAN choose Larger than Life as a spellscar creation card available as PDF). I bet if you allowed that, spellplagued storyline popularity would just explode. (As a side note, I would not be opposed to writing this into an LFR adventure.)
Anyways, I have generally just ignored spellscars.
2. How do you feel about spellscarred monsters/spellscarred encounter themes? If something's going to be "spellscarred", it isn't enough to just say "it spellscar! rargh!" It's got to be carefully set up by the storyline, and meticulously crafted with attention to detail, detail, detail. Specifically - why does the fact that it's spellscarred make it different from some generic fight against some weird monster? I'm not saying you need revelations all the time, but there needs to be some distinction, which so far has I think been lacking. I think writers have made fair use of the Spellplague so far as an agent - that is, something that uses the Spellplague or is affected by the Spellplague, and so on and so forth. But what I would like to see is use of the Spellplague as a *subject*.
Which makes me wonder what would happen if they assigned a spellscarred storyline to Waterdeep. But I digress.
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3 years ago ::
Feb 19, 2010 - 12:13PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Aug 22, 2007
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The Spellplague does not excite me. I wasn't an FR fan pre-4e, so it's not nostalgia -- I'm just not seeing it used to any great effect. The places where I've enjoyed spellplague material... mostly Byar's Seven, and you could substitute J. Random Arcane effect there without much loss. DALE 2-1 relies on the history of the Spellplague to good effect, so there's one exception. Short shameful confession regarding ADCP 2-1: if you tell me there are monoliths coming towards me, out of the Plagueland, I am going to immediately envision Naxxaramas. So a lot of any potential Spellplague impact there was probably lost on me. I don't dislike the Spellplague either. It just hasn't made much of an effect on me.
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3 years ago ::
Feb 19, 2010 - 1:24PM
#5
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- Dragon Slayer
- If only he would apply himself
- Dammit Jim, this is Star Trek, not D&D!
Date Joined:
Jan 31, 2006
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I like the concept of spellplague.
I very much wanted to have 1-2 PCs be spellscarred. But, the powers are just terrible. A feat to take a weaker power? Yeah, no thanks. (I consider it every level with my bard... but I love my bard powers!) I can see that if they had made it fantastic (the way it logically should be since you were touched by an incredible power source!) then all PCs would be spellscarred and the setting would make no sense. But... the current state is fairly ludicrous with practically no spellscarring outside of a few periodic exceptions.
Follow my blog and Twitter feed with Dark Sun campaign design and DM tips! Dark Sun's Ashes of Athas Campaign is now available for home play (PM me with your e-mail to order the campaign adventures).
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3 years ago ::
Feb 19, 2010 - 3:23PM
#6
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Date Joined:
Aug 11, 2006
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Short shameful confession regarding ADCP 2-1: if you tell me there are monoliths coming towards me, out of the Plagueland, I am going to immediately envision Naxxaramas. So a lot of any potential Spellplague impact there was probably lost on me.
Probably a stupid question but: What is Naxxaramas? Sounds like some kind of aboleth holiday.
[Edit: Ah, OK, it's a World of Warcraft thing. I wouldn't understand.  ]
Talk to you later --
Sean
----
M. Sean Molley | sean [at] basementsoftware [dot] com
LFR Global Administrator
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3 years ago ::
Feb 19, 2010 - 3:37PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Aug 22, 2007
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Probably a stupid question but: What is Naxxaramas? Sounds like some kind of aboleth holiday.
[Edit: Ah, OK, it's a World of Warcraft thing. I wouldn't understand. ]
Yeah, it's just a name coincidence that happened to resonate with me. 
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3 years ago ::
Feb 19, 2010 - 3:55PM
#8
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Date Joined:
Jul 16, 2002
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Besides that, I think you should be able to *pick up* a spellscar in play, which to date I have not seen. The literature describes that characters pick up spellscars on scar pilgrimages. Why not PCs?
I woudl say because you need a card to play it. One of them is an Expansion card (as opposed to a creation card) and can be added to your stack at any time (Larger then Life), so you can "pick it up" at any time. Play a MyRealms mod and go to the plaguelands. It'd be a perfect use for a MyRealms mod.
Sorry WOTC, you lost me with Essentials. So where I used to buy every book that came out, now I will be very choosy about what I buy. Can we just get back to real 4e? Check out the 4e Conversion Wiki. 1. Wizards fight dirty. They hit their enemies in the NADs. -- Dragon9 2. A barbarian hits people with his axe. A warlord hits people with his barbarian. 3. Boo-freakin'-hoo, ya light-slingin' finger-wigglers. -- MrCelcius in response to the Cleric's Healer's Lore nerf
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3 years ago ::
Feb 19, 2010 - 4:22PM
#9
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Date Joined:
Aug 22, 2007
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Spellscarred is so underpowered as to be worth it only in extreme niche cases or for someone who thinks the flavor is just so good that he can overlook the loss in power.
Dragonmarks are so overpowered that the majority of characters in that campaign world should have one.
Hopefully, Dark Sun and future campaign settings will get their campaign-specific mechanics in the right balance neighborhood.
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3 years ago ::
Feb 19, 2010 - 4:27PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Aug 22, 2007
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Dragonmarks are so overpowered that the majority of characters in that campaign world should have one.
Minor philosophical digression: sure! And they can, if it's a home game with only 5 PCs. The PCs are, after all, able to be the special people. Overpowered options only become a problem if it's a living campaign and all five thousand PCs have the same "rare" option...
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