mistergone: So now I'll post content...

Mister Gone (

mistergone) wrote,
@ 2008-03-21 10:36:00

So now I'll post content...
Lenlow is back! Well, that is, he's put out a new song this month, which he hadn't done in a few months. If you're not familiar with Lenlow's mashups, then I recommend Last Night, To the Taxmobile!, Get Eastwood and My Shiny Gun Mosey (all direct links to mp3s). His latest mashup, Cyprestition is similarly awesome (but I am a huge sucker for Cypress Hill mashups). I love Lenlow because his stuff doesn't sound overproduced or "Club Mix" in nature (not that I don't like some of that style of mashup, too). When I listen to his mashups, to me, they sound like original creations, which I really like.

How Life Goes: It goes fine. I play video games. Lately - Mass Effect, Super Smash Brothers Brawl (I'll post my friend code tonight, if I remember) and my old standby, World of Warcraft. I now have three 70s on Argent Dawn (Bhaala, Utga, Stormcrow). It's ridiculous, right? But I love leveling, and I stopped raiding many months ago, and they made leveling easier, so... it kind of follows. I do wish I could do more Heroics and 5-mans - I should just start PUGing. And when Argent Dawn was dying a few weeks ago, I finally got my first 70, Balthezar, the coveted hammer Earthwarden, which was satisfying. I had wanted that hammer since BC was released, and I finally just ground out the cash to buy my way through Exalted.

In tabletop, I'm playing a Warforged Crusader (named Vet) in an Expedition to Castle Ravenloft game (that's all Dungeons & Dragons speak for the unitiated). Crusader (from the Book of Nine Swords) is, in some ways, a preview of 4th Edition Paladin. I'm naturally incredibly excited about D&D 4th Edition, and I've followed every tidbit of information that has been released. I think this next edition is going to make the game incredibly accessible, which is only good news for D&D fans worldwide.

I've been working on my writing off and on, both on Dr. Pou and Does Your Dog Bite and some essays which may lay the foundation for a new Master Ninja - we'll see. Being creative is nicer than being productive sometimes, so hacking away at stories becomes more important than finishing them... screwy, ain't it?

Anyway, that's it from my delightful world of fantasy. In the real world, I registered to vote Democrat in Pennsylvania... guess who I'm voting for! Go ahead and try!

(Post a new comment)

	gwillen 2008-03-21 03:04 pm UTC (link)
	You seem fairly perverse, in general, so I'm going to guess Hillary Clinton. Also, did you know I'm living in your old apartment on Wilkins? I just realized you might not know that. It's a Pretty Cool Place. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	mistergone 2008-03-21 03:30 pm UTC (link)
	You seem fairly perverse, in general, so I'm going to guess Hillary Clinton. I think the perverse already voted for Mitt Romney. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	mrsix 2008-03-21 04:27 pm UTC (link)
	I think I lived in that apartment too. First floor on the ... right, right? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	gwillen 2008-03-21 05:07 pm UTC (link)
	Second floor on the right, number 4. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	mistergone 2008-03-21 05:51 pm UTC (link)
	I actually lived in both. Heh. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	apestyle 2008-03-21 03:06 pm UTC (link)
	The Book of 9 Swords is my favorite 3.5 supplement, there are some editing problems but overall I thought it was a fantastic effort. I prefer the Warblade over the unpredictable nature of the Crusader, but yeah good stuff. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	mistergone 2008-03-21 03:29 pm UTC (link)
	Since Warforged have problems receiving healing, Devoted Spirit is the bomb for me. And it means I can heal my party, too, so our cleric can spend more time exploding undead. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	apestyle 2008-03-21 03:38 pm UTC (link)
	Oh certainly, if you need more healing in your party, Crusader is the way to go. So interesting point though, can the Warforged heal itself with the Devoted Spirit? I thought according to the mechanics, Warforged needed an alternate spell... I'm guessing you just houseruled it? (I would too). (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

mrblackwood
2008-03-21 03:48 pm UTC (link)

Actually it is specific types of healing effects that are halved, and the Devoted Spirit healing isn't any of those types, so it works fine.

As for the unpredictable nature of the Crusader, you mostly just need to look at it differently. Rather than picking an choosing when to use your strikes like Warblades and Swordsages do, you just pick your set of readied maneuvers such that you can do a strike every single round. Sure you only get to choose between 2-3 options each time, but you get to do one every single round, so it's pretty good.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

apestyle
2008-03-21 03:54 pm UTC (link)

I've read that some people make up cards of their Crusader strikes, shuffle them, then randomly draw, shuffle their choice back in and continue.

With my Warblade, I can only use his awesomebomb every other turn, but I know exactly when to use it and when it'll be useful. Or when an alternate strike can be useful. Can't hit that uber high AC monster? Fine, I'll do less damage output, but I'll use the attack that let's me touch attack it with my sword...

Can the Crusader limit his/her pool of strikes to just one or two options?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

mrblackwood
2008-03-21 04:03 pm UTC (link)

No he can't, which does make him different, but the cycle isn't that long. I think at first level (and not having played one my numbers may well be off) you have 5 prepared maneuvers and you start the fight with 2 of them available. So at the end of turn 4 you shuffle them and re-draw 2. Each turn if you picked all strikes you have the choice of 2 strikes (later you start with more and so have more choice at any moment), and typically I see crusaders picking related strikes so that they have some consistency.

For example, Chuck prepares 2 healing strikes (a higher level and a lower level one), and 2 bonus damage strikes, 1 defensive counter, and one thing that gives him DR (I think that's what he generally has available). So, out of every 4 rounds (since I think his readying ability is 6, starting with 3) he can do 2 bonus damage and 2 healing along with one shield block. He doesn't always have the exact one that would be perfect, but he at least generally has a strike of the category he wants.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

mistergone
2008-03-21 05:31 pm UTC (link)

You've read that some people do what now? The way you wrote it doesn't seem to match the way it's supposed to be run.

I'm a 6th level Crusader. Here's how it works for me:

I have 5 maneuver cards readied. Combat starts. I shuffle my cards and draw 3 cards (2 at my level, plus 1 from [Extra Granted Maneuver]). At the end of my turn, I draw one more card. If I can't draw a card at the end of my turn, I pick up all 5 of my cards, shuffle them and draw 3, starting the whole process over again.

EDIT: I should mention that I use maneuvers from the "face-up" cards that I've drawn, so if I have a certain strike in front of me and there are still "face-down" cards to draw at the end of the turn, I know I'll still have that strike next turn. I should also mention that once I used a maneuver, it is "discarded" until I "refresh" my maneuvers when I run out of "face-down" cards to draw. So yeah, I end up with a pile of face-up readied maneuvers, a pile of face-down not-yet-readied maneuvers, and an off-to-the-side "discard" pile of maneuvers. It's like being a sorcerer, or (as some critics of 4e are saying) playing Magic the Gathering Lite. :END EDIT

Actually, I'm a 7th level Crusader. I leveled last night! Still, the above applies.

So, I have four strikes (2 for extra damage, 2 for healing) and one Counter (Shield Block). Thus, I always draw a strike. [Extra Granted Maneuver] might as well be required to be a good Crusader. I've never been in the situation where I had nothing to do on a turn. Now, I always take standard actions and always do single attacks, which is a limitation, but all of my attacks either do extra damage or heal somebody.

I can definitely see the appeal of Warblade and I'd like to play one someday (unlikely, with the coming of 4e so close now), but for Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, I really wanted to tank in heavy armor (so I'm usually in the stance Iron Guard's Glare) and provide bundles of extra healing.

It's been incredibly effective, and this character probably fits my style of play more than almost any other PC I've played.

Edited at 2008-03-21 05:41 pm UTC

(Reply to this)(Parent)

mistergone
2008-03-21 05:20 pm UTC (link)

Houseruling: Unnecessary.

Warforged: "Spells from the healing subschool and supernatural abilities that cure hit point damage or ability damage provide only half their normal effect to a warforged."

Book of Nine Swords: "Martial maneuvers and stances are never spells or spell-like abilities. Unless the description of the specific maneuver or stance says otherwise, treat it as an extraordinary ability."

Since Crusader's Strike, Revitalizing Strike, et cetera, do not specify, they're extraordinary and thus they have full effect on warforged. So, Devoted Spirit maneuvers are very handy for a warforged.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	apestyle 2008-03-21 05:24 pm UTC (link)
	Interesting. Maybe I'll do a build like that sometime...my group is pretty traditional though, so it'd be a hard sell. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

mistergone
2008-03-21 05:47 pm UTC (link)

We abandoned "traditional" when we started spending money on more books!

Also, as the WotC folks say, "It's all canon."

Anyway, I have tons of fun with this character. The character is a long-time war veteran, he knows he was built to fight and he has the desire to use that to do good. And the rules let me roleplay that on the battlefield, which is awesome.

Vet (my character) gets in the way of the enemy. He dares them to try and hit him (through the Iron Guard's Glare stance), he intervenes when his alies are threatened (through the Shield Block maneuver), he heals his injured comrades by striking out at the enemy and, in general, he stands tall against the worst odds.

When I'm in a fight, throwing blows and heals and really making my poor character a target, I really feel a roleplaying aspect to playing "the tank" that I never had before.

And in case it ain't obvious, I love it. :D

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	apestyle 2008-03-21 05:49 pm UTC (link)
	Sounds good, like a more effective in battle cleric. Or a paladin that can do more than "lay on hands". (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	mistergone 2008-03-21 05:52 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, and it seems more and more that 4e paladin is going that way, which is fairly exciting. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	girlvinyl 2008-03-21 05:41 pm UTC (link)
	Hello! I am commenting, eventhough I don't know much about video games. My dad plays them. He likes them. Sometiems I watch him kill people in first person shooters. (Reply to this)(Thread)

mistergone
2008-03-21 05:48 pm UTC (link)

OMG ur dad soundz kewl

Edited at 2008-03-21 05:48 pm UTC

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	girlvinyl 2008-03-21 07:27 pm UTC (link)
	He is pretty cool. I should take pictures of his stuff. It is all pretty lol. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ghost_girl 2008-03-21 06:30 pm UTC (link)
	Clearly I have friended you at a crucial time in LJ's darkest hour of need. (seriously though wtf - how were you not on my friends list?) I didn't know you were on Argent Dawn. My old character was on Argent til we all hopped to a new, less crowded server. I still miss it. Still got a Horde undead on there though, but she's like, level 30. heh. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	mistergone 2008-03-21 08:10 pm UTC (link)
	seriously though wtf - how were you not on my friends list? Because you hate me... but not anymore! Still got a Horde undead on there though, but she's like, level 30. Undead, you say? She would fit perfectly into the Skeleton Crew! Undead pirates FTW! (Of course, we're not a racist guild, so we accept everyone.) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	ghost_girl 2008-03-21 08:38 pm UTC (link)
	omg so tempting. no megan no.:D (Reply to this)(Parent)

	mrblackwood 2008-03-21 09:39 pm UTC (link)
	Please: we're not a racist guild anymore. :) (The standards have gone way down since the original crew. What's with all the living people?!?) (Reply to this)(Parent)

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