ReBoot Makes No Sense

ReBoot was the first fully CG cartoon, made in the 90s, and told the story of a virtual world inside a computer.  The characters were representations of programs and data.  However, there is something within this virtual world that doesn't make sense.

Game Cubes

Yes, ReBoot had something called a game cube years before Nintendo did.  A game cube occurred whenever the computer's user loaded a game.  The cube would descend upon the virtual city, and anything the cube landed on would be trapped within the game.  Any of the city's citizens trapped in the game could load game data into themselves, becoming a part of the game.

Time within the virtual city is measured in micro- and nanoseconds, with one of the characters saying a task "might even take one whole second!"  It's obvious, then, that the virtual world moves much faster than our own world, which makes sense, considering the virtual world is just a representation of a computer.  To the characters in the virtual world, a second is like an entire day.

When the characters are participating in a game cube, they are interacting with the computer user.  Logically, this would mean that time would flow at a rate appropriate for humans.  Considering a game could last for several minutes or even an hour or more, a single game should feel like an eternity to the characters of the virtual world.  However, the games seem to end in a matter of nanoseconds compared to the action happening in the rest of the city.  In fact, the time difference between the rest of the world and the game cubes is a major plot point of the latter half of season 3, except they do it backwards.

In season 3, three of the main characters get trapped in a losing game and change themselves into game sprites so that the game will take them with it instead of destroying them.  They then end up getting loaded into other computers, trying to find their way back home.  They end up aging faster than the characters they left behind.  It is later explained to them that game time is faster than their normal time, so they age quicker.  However, in actuality, they should have remained the same age, as they would be spending hours in games and the rest of the virtual world would be progressing at their normal rate.

Rolling Dice Builds Character... but it Shouldn't

I have been playing tabletop rpgs for quite a while now, mostly Dungeons and Dragons, and I've tried every version of D&D so far, and a few games inspired by it, and ever since the beginning, rolling dice has been the default method for building a character... but this is a bad idea.


Rolling for Attributes

Typically, when creating a new character for a campaign, the first thing you'll do is roll a bunch of dice to determine your attributes.  This can be fun and exciting, but this is also very unbalanced and terrible.  According to the rules of D&D 3.5, you roll 4d6, ignore the low die, and keep the remaining total.  This becomes one of your attribute scores.  You do this five more times and assign all six scores to the attributes you want.  If none of your scores is higher than 13, you may scrap it all and start again.  If the total attribute modifiers add up to 0, you may scrap it all and start again.

These rules do give you at least some form of safety net to keep your character from being totally useless, but if you end up with scores of 14, 13, 11, 10, 10, 7, then you do have an attribute that's higher than 13, and your modifiers will add up to a total of +1, and when you find out one of the other players ended up with 18, 16, 14, 14, 12, 10, you're still going to feel pretty useless.

This is the problem with rolling for attributes.  There is no balance.  Tabletop rpgs are a group game.  Whenever one player gets more than another player, the player with less is going to feel like they aren't contributing as much to the group as the player with more.


Rolling for Hit Points

Every version of the d20 system I have played so far has a "hit die" for each class, that tells you what die you roll to add to your hit points at each level.  In most of these, fighter or soldier classes tend to have a d10 hit die, while skillful, rogue-like classes tend to have a d6 hit die, and then other classes will have a d8 or even as low as a d4.  These dice tend to be distributed among the classes based on how often or how likely the class should expose themselves to combat.  For example, if you are playing a d10 class, your character is probably suited for getting into the thick of things, while a d6 class is better suited for lurking at the edge of a fight and looking for opportunities to attack.

Games like this use guidelines to help the GM determine if an encounter is balanced for the party.  Typically, these guidelines assume an average party.  What happens if the party's front-line fighter rolls a 1 for his hit points?  What happens if he does this for two levels in a row?  Now the character who is supposed to handle most of the fighting no longer has enough staying power to fight opponents of his level.


Randomness is Bad

In any game system that uses random elements, such as dice, these elements work against the players.  Player characters go through several game sessions, possibly an entire year or longer of making die rolls or whatever other random mechanic your game uses.  Your player characters have hundreds of opportunities for failure, but the average NPC (non-player character) is only around for one encounter.  If the NPC fails, who cares?  You'll just use another NPC in the next encounter.

Any random element is a potential for player failure.  Randomness should only occur DURING gameplay, when determining if players succeed or fail.  Players should not have to deal with any amount of randomness while building their character.  Think about this, a failed attack roll or skill check only hinders a player for a moment, but a low hit point or attribute roll hinders the player for the entire campaign.


A Better Way

I have been phasing out character build randomness from my games.  I've been using the point system for attribute scores, and have been giving players the option of taking an average result for their hit points instead of rolling.  The average hit point rule suggested in the Unearthed Arcana says that players should round down on every odd level and round up on every even level, so a d6 hit die would give 3 hit points or 4 hit points depending on what level you attain.  I decided to be a little nicer, and also not make my players keep up with whether they're rounding up or down, and just let them round up at every level, which results in higher than average hit points, but I don't care if my players have a few more hit points, it doesn't break the game.

To calculate the average of any given die roll, take the lowest possible roll, add the highest possible, and divide by 2.  For a single die you get the following: d4 (2.5), d6 (3.5), d8 (4.5), d10 (5.5) and d12 (6.5).


Now, of course, if everyone has the same points to choose their attributes and has average hit points, you might think that everyone will feel pretty much the same.  While it's true that using this system doesn't allow for as much variety, in a game, it is more important for everyone to have the same potential than for a player to have the feeling of getting a lucky roll and starting with higher attributes.  When I allowed players to roll for attributes, I would often try to counter a player's bad luck by allowing everyone to roll more than one set of attributes and choosing what they wanted.  It was my intention to allow players to have the fun of rolling without condemning a player to their bad luck, but in practice, this has more often resulted in players with good luck getting even more outrageous results than keeping the party close to even.  So, it's really just better to cut out rolling altogether if you want your players to be able to build characters of similar ability.

Why Your 20th Level Character Doesn't Impress Me

I started playing roleplaying games just before I started college.  I met a few D&D players back then, and I've met others since then, and one thing I've noticed is that all the players I have met like to brag about their favorite (often highest-level) character.


I have been a gamemaster for just as long as I have been a player, since I started playing in a campaign about the same time that I started running my first campaign.  Whenever I meet a fellow D&D player, I like to talk about some of the stories I have run over the years, but inevitably, what they like to talk about is their 20th level badass with a +5 holy, vampire, shockingburst sword of awesome... or something similar.  It never fails.  EVERY player I have met, upon first meeting them, talk about what level they were, what magic items they had, but why?  Are they trying to impress me?  If so, they're failing.


So, why am I not impressed by what level you were, or what you acquired?  You might think it's because I've been playing since 2000 and I've probably had several characters get to epic levels with god-like magic items.  No, not at all.  I have never played a character who surpassed 12th level upon writing this (in D&D 3.5).  Maybe it's because I've had players get to that level in my games.  Well, not really.  I only ever ran one campaign that got to the point of the players reaching level 20.  So, why do their characters not impress me?  Simple.  They haven't told me anything that they accomplished!  You say you have a level 20 paladin with an epic sword... alright... so what?  Everything your character has was given to you by your gamemaster.  If I wanted to, I could start a game next week and give all of my players artifacts that can destroy and rebuild worlds and make them all level 40 if I wanted.  Your levels and your magic items mean nothing.


When you talk to a fellow player, don't brag about your level and your items.  Those aren't important.  We are roleplayers.  We participate in stories, but not as readers, but as a part of that story.  Players in an rpg have a unique opportunity to not just listen to a story being told, but to help shape that story, to make it a tale of their accomplishments.  I had a player play a paladin who decided to be a diplomat.  When I talk about him, I don't talk about what level he was or what weapons he carried.  I talk about how he befriended the dwarven royal family, how he talked down a group of minotaurs, how those minotaurs came to his rescue in a later battle, how he single-handedly killed a fire giant 4 levels higher than him, and how he united people, married into royalty, and eventually became a king with an alliance of three nations.  THAT is how we should be bragging about our characters.  Tell each other about your stories, that is what roleplaying is all about.

Playing Your Best (D&D) Lesson 6-2: Low-Mid Level Cleric Spells

In the Basics of the Cleric guide, I talked about 1st level cleric spells.  This time, I'm going to look at spells of 2nd to 4th levels.  As usual, this guide will only look at the PHB.  Also, there are a lot of good spells, and I'm covering multiple levels here, so I'm going to mostly focus on some of the best spells of each level, and at the end I will mention a few other spells worth mentioning.


Spiritual Weapon

I have always known how good this spell is, but it wasn't until I started preparing this guide that I re-read the spell's description and realized it's more awesome than I thought it was.
Spiritual weapon is a 2nd level cleric spell, which means a cleric gains access to this spell once they reach level 3.  Honestly, sometimes I wished WotC didn't use "level" for every damn thing.
Spiritual weapon is a purely offensive spell, a rarity for clerics.  Clerics typically use their spells to enhance the party or heal, but spiritual weapon is a pure blast spell, but it's better than just a blast spell.  When you cast this spell, you create a weapon of pure force energy based on your deity or your alignment.  Regardless of the shape of the weapon, the spiritual weapon deals 1d8 damage +1 per three caster levels up to a maximum of +5.  However, it has the same critical range and multiplier of a normal weapon of its type, so creating a sword gives you a 19-20 critical range, or if you are a cleric of Nerull, you get a scythe for an x4 critical.
Unlike a normal weapon, the spiritual weapon isn't wielded by the caster, it is a ranged spell.  The weapon floats and acts on its own, directed by you.  It uses your own base attack bonus, and gets multiple attacks per round if you would, but it doesn't use your strength bonus, but your wisdom bonus.  The weapon lasts for one round per caster level.  It only makes one attack when it targets a new opponent, but after that it makes its full number of attacks each round.  You must use a move action to choose a new target.
Now, spiritual weapon allows a spell resistance.  The first time the weapon attacks a creature with SR, you make your caster level check.  If you fail, the weapon is dispelled.  If you succeed, the weapon overcomes that creature's resistance for the duration of the spell.
Being a force effect, spiritual weapon strikes incorporeal creatures ignoring the incorporeal miss chance, and ignores damage reduction.
Unfortunately, spiritual weapon does not benefit from flanking or grant flanking bonuses.
Every cleric should prepare spiritual weapon at least once per day, and if you have access to the war domain, it can fill your 2nd level domain slot.  This is quite possibly the best blast spell available to a cleric at this level.  It's my favorite type of blast: a blast that can do damage multiple times.  Plus it ignores DR and incorporeal?  Amazing.


Lesser Restoration

I'm not going to spend much time on this spell.  It's a 2nd level cleric spell that can dispel an attribute penalty or heal 1d4 attribute damage.  This is a must-take when you know you're facing undead, but can also counteract the effects of a ray of enfeeblement.


Aid

Another good 2nd level spell.  Aid can only affect a single creature and has a touch range.  Use it on your fighter or yourself if you're a front-line cleric.  Aid grants a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls and saves against fear, so it doesn't stack with other morale bonuses, but it also grants temporary hit points equal to 1d8 + your caster level (up to a maximum of 1d8+10.)  Aid lasts for one minute per caster level, so cast it before going into a fight to give your front-line an extra buffer of hit points so you don't have to worry about healing as much.  You could also use aid on your sorcerer/wizard if you are worried about them getting hit in the next fight, however the +1 attack bonus won't matter as much.


Create Food and Water

A great 3rd level spell.  Has the party run out of rations?  Do you want to put farmers out of work?  This is the spell for you.  Casting this spell once creates enough food and water to sustain three humans (or a single horse) for 24 hours... per caster level!  This is a 3rd level spell, so when you get it, you'll be a level 5 cleric, meaning you cast this once and create enough food to feed 15 people!  Granted, the spell's description says the food is bland, but nourishing, and if the food isn't consumed with 24 hours it spoils... unless you also cast purify food and water.  Even still, a single cleric of level 5 could prepare this up to twice per day to feed 30 people every day.  A level 6 cleric can prepare this up to three times per day and feed 54 people!  Seriously, if there was ever a spell that could upset an economy, this is it.  Yes, the food is bland, but a couple of clerics can wipe out hunger in a poor village, easily.
Alright, I'm obviously poking fun at D&D a bit here, but this really is a good spell for long adventures.  Not one you'll prep all the time, mind you, but if the party runs out of rations, that's no problem, you can feed them all with enough left over for mounts, animal companions, beasts of burden, etc.


Prayer

This spell only lasts for one round per level, but it grants a luck bonus to attack, weapon damage, saves, and skills, and all enemies within the area take a -1 penalty to those rolls.  What's better?  The spell doesn't allow a save!  Spell resistance applies, but not saves.


Freedom of Movement

This 4th level cleric spell is a "get out of grapple free" card, however it also lets you ignore entanglement, moving underwater, magic that would hinder movement such as the slow and web spells, it even lets you use slashing and bludgeoning weapons normally underwater.  It lasts for 10 minutes per caster level, but can only target one creature at a time and has a touch range.


How to Stack Buffs

Cast bless and prayer, bless grants a morale bonus, prayer a luck bonus.  You want to cast bless before a fight, if possible, it lasts for one minute per level, while prayer lasts for one round per level and you want to catch enemies in its area.  Cast magic circle (hope you choose the right alignment) to grant everyone within 10 feet of you a +2 deflection bonus to AC and a +2 resistance bonus to saves against that alignment.  Finally, use freedom of movement on any party member you need to ensure maintains their mobility.

What if you just want to buff yourself?  Well, swap bless for aid, since aid hits only one creature and grants a morale bonus, so it wouldn't stack with bless anyway.  You can use protection instead of magic circle.  Use divine favor and divine power, and cast prayer once you get into combat.  With all of this, you have a +1 morale bonus to attacks and saves against fear, a +3 luck bonus on attacks and weapon damage, a +1 luck bonus on skills and saves, a +2 deflection bonus to AC, a +2 resistance bonus to saves, a +6 enhancement bonus to strength, temporary hit points equal to your caster level, and the base attack bonus of a fighter.  Also, any enemies too close to you when you cast prayer also have a -1 penalty to attacks, damage, skills, and saves.
Assuming a caster level of 9 (minimum to cast 4th level cleric spells) and we'll assume only a 10 strength to make things easy, and you have:
A base attack bonus of +9/+4
A total melee attack bonus of +16/+11
Your melee attacks deal +6 damage
You gain temporary hit points equal to 1d8+9 (and if you wait until you lose some before casting divine power, you'll get 9 more from that spell)
Plus you'll gain a +2 deflection bonus to AC (which stacks with magic armor, because that grants an enhancement bonus, but doesn't stack with rings of protection), a +2 resistance bonus to saves (doesn't stack with a cloak of resistance, but you could wear a cloak of charisma instead to improve your turning ability) and a +1 luck bonus to saves, and a +1 morale bonus to saves (only against fear).
With the above spells cast at the right time, you could turn your cleric into a temporary tank.


Now I'll give some quick notes on a few other noteworthy spells.

Bull's strength, bear's endurance, eagles's splendor, and owl's wisdom: These are all excellent buff spells at low levels, but do not stack with magic items that grant enhancement bonuses to those attributes.  However, since the cleric can change their spell's every day, you can freely prepare these if you want before your party has such magic items, and unlike the wizard, who could also do this, the wizard only learns a few spells from the entire list of arcane spells, while the cleric can freely prepare from the entire cleric list, which means spells such as these are better suited for the cleric so the wizard's spell choices aren't wasted once the party gains items with permanent bonuses.

Resist energy: If you know you're about to fight a dragon or an elemental, this is great, otherwise, this spell may go unused.  When you prepare the spell, you don't have to choose which type of energy, only when you cast it, so you don't need to know what you're going to be facing, only that you're going to encounter one of these damage types.

Silence: Multiple party members automatically succeed at move silently.  Hope you have worked out nonverbal communication.

Stone shape: A great, versatile spell, so long as you're not on a boat or inside a wooden building.  There are a lot of uses for this spell, but if your party contains a druid, it may be better to let them worry about this so you can focus on spells they don't have access to.

Protection from energy: I want to like this spell, but I don't feel it's that good.  It's one spell level higher than resist energy, but it makes you completely immune to the energy type you chose, until it has stopped a total of 12 points of damage per caster level, up to a maximum of 120 damage.  I don't know, I'd rather have resist energy, which grants you 10, 20, or 30 resistance to the chosen energy type.  Both spells have the same duration, but protection is eventually discharged once it blocks its limit.  I guess it's a matter of preference.  If a 7th level cleric were protecting you, would you rather have resistance 20 for 70 minutes, or be immune until the spell blocked 84 damage?  I feel like the cleric can often do better things with their 3rd level slots.

Magic weapon and magic vestment: These spells make your weapon or armor magic, giving it an enhancement bonus.  These are fine spells until you actually have magic weapons and armor, at which point you won't be using these any more.

Lesser planar ally: Here's a big one.  You can summon an elemental or outsider of up to 6 HD and you give it a task to complete.  This spell has a 10 minute casting time, so not something you'll do in combat, this is a spell you use to prepare for a situation.  According to the spell's description, you don't get to choose the creature you summon unless you know the name of the specific creature you want, and this spell only summons creatures of your alignment.  It even says if you try to call a specific creature, you might still get a different one, so this spell is basically "hey, GM, help us out here, what will you send us?"  You ask the creature to perform a task, and you must be able to communicate with the creature, so you'd better hope you share a language with it.  Unlike a normal summon, the creature is actually present, so it doesn't unsummon if defeated, it can actually be killed.  However, the spell has no time limit.  The creature will require a payment for its service which must be made before it does what you asked, which is typically dependent upon the danger of the task, how closely it follows the creature's alignment, and how long it will take, and this is in addition to a 100xp component cost of the spell, so you must cast this spell in a place where you will be capable of paying the cost the creature demands, because these costs could be a donation to the temple, paying the creature directly, or performing a task in exchange for its service, and if you are unable to do so, or are unable to come to an agreement, then you get NOTHING from this spell!  Effectively, it is possible to burn a 4th level spell slot and 100xp and get nothing in return.  However, it is also possible to have a 6 HD creature running around doing you a favor, so there's that.  This spell is entirely up to your GM and yourself to negotiate.


If you choose and use your spells carefully, you will hopefully be casting the spells you want to cast more so than converting them to healing.

Playing Your Best (D&D) Lesson 6: The Basics of Clerics in 3.5

The cleric is an important member of the team. A party without a cleric has less long-term endurance, and has a harder time dealing with undead. In addition to providing support to the rest of the party, a cleric can cover a lot of party needs.

The Basics of the Cleric

Clerics are primarily a support class. Their primary role is to make the rest of the party better. Clerics cast divine spells, which are not affected by the spell failure chance of armor and shields, but do provoke attacks of opportunity. Clerics can wear heavy armor and can use shields, so they are often backup melee fighters.

For all of the builds I talk about here, you want wisdom to be your highest attribute, since it is needed for your spells. You'll want charisma to be your second-highest if you want to be able to turn undead well, but if you aren't as concerned about undead, then you could put a lower attribute into charisma.

Playing a Melee Cleric

This is probably the most commonly played cleric I've seen. This seems like an obvious choice for the cleric, since they can use heavy armor, they tend to have high AC. To play a melee cleric, you don't need very high dexterity, because you'll be better off with the heaviest armor you can afford. For a melee cleric, you'll want a high constitution. Constitution is more important than strength for a melee cleric, because you want to be sure you have enough hit points to survive melee combat. As a cleric, you are probably the party's primary healer, and if you get defeated in combat, then the party is going to have trouble. It is for this reason that I don't advise playing a melee cleric. If you insist on playing a melee cleric anyway, then you will probably want to choose the destruction, good, or war domain as one of your domain choices.

The destruction domain will give you a once-per-day smite ability. This smite works on any enemy, doesn't care about the target's alignment. It is not dependent on any of your attributes. It grants you a +4 bonus on the attack roll and adds your cleric level to damage.

The good domain simply lets you cast good-aligned spells at 1 higher caster level. For most of these spells, that means a slightly longer duration. Some of your most useful low-level buff spells are good-aligned. Protection from evil grants the target a +2 deflection bonus to AC and a +2 resistance bonus to saves against any effect from an evil source, plus it prevents attempts to possess the protected creature, and suppresses the effects of charm and compulsion for as long as the protection spell lasts, regardless of the alignment of the source. It also prevents any non-good summoned creature from even touching the protected creature, unless the protected creature attacks or touches the summoned creature.

(Obviously, if you are playing in a campaign where you are more likely to fight good creatures rather than evil, then you will want the evil domain.)

The war domain grants you proficiency with your deity's favored weapon (if you aren't already proficient with it) and grants you weapon focus with that weapon. This is a pretty good benefit, especially since all deities of war in the Player's Handbook have favored weapons with a base d8 damage, however Corellon and Heironeous are slightly better choices since they use the longsword as their favored weapon, which gives you a better critical range, or if you are a follower of Gruumsh, the longspear will give you reach, allowing you to mitigate some of the threat to yourself while you are in combat.

Playing a Ranged Cleric

This is my preferred way of playing a cleric. This keeps the party healer out of melee combat, where they are most likely to get themselves killed. You will want your dexterity to be your second or third priority when assigning your attributes, which means your dexterity will benefit your AC, and will provide your attack bonus. Because of this, you don't need heavy armor, so you will want to take armor that allows you to get the most benefit from your dexterity. The breastplate is the best choice for you, if your dexterity bonus is less than +4. A chain shirt is your best bet if you managed a dexterity of +4. You are already proficient with crossbows, which is fine for a cleric, but if you are an elf cleric, then you are already proficient with shortbows and longbows, so splurge and get a longbow when you can afford it. You won't be using a shield, since you'll need both hands for your weapon. As a ranged cleric, your choice of domains are not as important for combat, so you can choose your domains based entirely on your party's needs.

Domain Choices

When you create a cleric, you will choose two domains. You domains give you special powers, and give you a choice of domain spells. As a cleric, when you prepare your spells each day, you also choose one spell of each spell level from one of your two domains.

Travel

Any cleric can benefit from the travel domain. Its granted power allows you to ignore any movement restrictions for a number of rounds per day equal to your cleric level. The power itself says “as if you were affected by Freedom of Movement,” which is a 4^th level spell. The spell's description says you may move and attack normally, even under the effects of magic which would impede movement, including paralysis. You automatically succeed on a grapple check to resist or escape a grapple. You can even move normally underwater, including attacking with slashing or bludgeoning weapons.

The domain's power says it functions automatically, as you need it. So, did the enemy troll grapple you? Just slip out on your turn, or just choose to not be grappled. Were you paralyzed? Not this turn. Enemy druid cast Entangle? Just walk through it. For a total number of rounds each day equal to your cleric level, you ignore all effects that would stop your movement, and it turns on and off at-will. This is probably the single most awesome domain power available to the cleric.

Alignment Domains

These domains all allow you to cast spells of the appropriate alignment at +1 caster level. This isn't huge, but choosing the law or good domains in most campaigns means that your protection spells are more effective. Especially good at low levels.

Elemental Domains

These domains give you the ability to turn creatures with a certain elemental sub-type the same way you could turn undead. It also lets you bolster creatures of a certain elemental sub-type the same way an evil cleric can bolster undead. The bolstering effect might be the more useful ability here. Summon a creature, bolster it. Turning creatures of certain types can be useful, but I'd say this isn't as useful as some other domains, simply because you don't know how often you will encounter those creatures. Take one of these domains if you, or your party's druid or wizard, plans to do a lot of summoning.

Animal and Plant Domains

If your party doesn't have a druid, you can substitute for the druid. Neat.

Knowledge and Trickery Domains

If your party doesn't have a rogue, you... still can't substitute for the rogue, but you can get close.

Sun Domain

Once per day, instead of turning undead, you destroy them. Neat, but not really useful. For the most part, a turned undead isn't much of a threat anymore, and if you waste your one use of destruction on undead that are too powerful, oh well.

Strength Domain

Once per day, you can make the party barbarian or fighter feel inadequate. This domain does give you access to some useful spells such as Stoneskin and Bigsby's Hands, which are spells otherwise only available to sorcerers and wizards. If your party contains a wizard who specialized and gave up evocation, you might want this domain just to get the hand spells at later levels.

Magic Domain

If your party doesn't have a wizard, you can kind of substitute for the wizard. Well, technically, this domain lets you use scrolls, wands, and and spell-trigger items as if you were a wizard of half your cleric level. Some of the domain spells are useful, but some are pretty pointless.

Luck Domain

Once per day, you can reroll any one d20 roll you just made. You do have to use this before you find out if you succeeded. This can be useful, especially if you're in a save-or-die situation. In fact, you should probably always save this ability for a situation when failing a save will result in death, or at least significant drawback that would cause you a lot of damage or burn a lot of resources to mitigate.

Healing Domain

You cast healing spells at +1 caster level. Meh. You don't need this.

Death Domain

Just no. Don't ever take this domain. Even if you're evil. There are better, more useful choices.

The Cleric's Tactics

As a cleric, you should focus more on preventing the party from taking damage, rather than trying to heal. If you play your cleric as a healer, you will always be playing catch-up, and will always be running out of spells. To accomplish this, you will need to choose the right spells. I shall discuss the best 1^st level spells below. In a later guide, I'll go over higher-level cleric spells.

Bless

This is a great 1^st level spell. It gives multiple characters a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls and saves against fear for 1 minute per caster level. Even as a level 1 cleric, this will last you 10 rounds.

Divine Favor

This spell only affects yourself, and only lasts for one minute, however it grants you a +1 luck bonus on all attack rolls and weapon damage, and increases by +1 for every three cleric levels, up to a maximum of +6. This is good if your party is lacking in combat ability, but at lower levels, you should prioritize Bless over Divine Favor, simply because Bless will affect several characters, and even if you only have yourself and one other attacker, giving two characters a +1 is better than giving just yourself a +1. Don't start preparing Divine Favor until about level 6 or so.

Entropic Shield

Use this if you're playing a ranged cleric.

Magic Weapon

Prepare this at least once a day, every day, until your party gets their hands on actual magic weapons. Until then, you give your party's primary fighter a magic weapon for one minute per cleric level. This not only grants a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage, but since the weapon gains an enhancement bonus, it bypasses the damage reduction of any creature that is overcome by magic. Keep in mind, enhancement bonuses replace masterwork bonuses, so this is best when cast on mundane weapons.

Obscuring Mist

Great defensive spell. Use this to block off areas of the battlefield. This grants concealment to an area, making all attacks in that area less likely to hit. Keep in mind, this works both ways.

Protection

This is probably the best defensive spell you will have for a long time. Cast this on your party's primary melee fighter at the start of a big battle. You should prepare at least one of these every day for the rest of your life.

In part 2 of my cleric guide, I'll discuss most spell options for higher levels, and strategies for spell effects.

Playing Your Best (D&D) Lesson 5: Rangers in 3.5

Like other entries in the "Playing Your Best" series, I will be limiting this post to the Player's Handbook.

The ranger is an interesting class in D&D 3.5.  The ranger is part fighter, part druid, and has many skills suitable for scouting.  Rangers get the track feat, favored enemies, wild empathy, and a combat style.  It is the combat style that we're going to be focusing on in this post.

At level 2, the ranger can choose either archer or two-weapon fighting as their combat style.  The chosen combat style improves at 6th and 11th levels, and once chosen, cannot be changed.  The effects of the chosen combat style gives the ranger the effects of certain feats while wearing light or no armor, but does not actually grant the ranger the feat as a bonus feat.

Many players mistakenly choose their combat style based on what they want their ranger's primary method of combat to be, and why wouldn't they?  That's how it's presented in the book.  If you want your ranger to be an archer, you choose archery, and if you want your ranger to be a dual-wielder, you choose two-weapon fighting, but this would be a mistake.


Never be a Dual-Wielder

Two-Weapon fighting in D&D is a topic I have discussed before, but it bears repeating in this post.  A character wielding two weapons gets to make extra attacks per round, which, of course, means more chances to hit your target, but even with the two-weapon fighting feat, and a light off-hand weapon, you take a -2 penalty to each attack.  There are no light weapons that deal more than 1d6 damage, and there are no one-handed weapons you can wield in your other hand that deal more than 1d8 damage.  Your off-hand only adds half of your strength bonus to damage.
Let's assume a character with a +3 strength bonus and +2 base attack (since the ranger gets combat style at level 2).
If you wielded a great sword, you would make one attack per round with a +5 attack bonus that deals 2d6+4 damage.  On average, you would hit a target of AC 16 50% of the time and deal an average of 11 damage per hit.
If you wielded a longsword and short sword, you would make two attacks at +3, one deals 1d8+3 damage and the other 1d6+1 damage.  On average, against a target of AC 16, you would hit with one attack 40% of the time, and both attacks 16% of the time, dealing an average of either 8, 4, or 12 damage.
So, to figure out damage per round (DPR), we'll take average damage, multiple by chance to hit, which gives the greatsword 6.5 DPR, and the dual-wielder 4.8 DPR.


Archery

The ranger's archery combat style gives the ranger the effects of the rapid shot, many shot, and improved precise shot feats.  This does NOT give the ranger the actual feats, since the ranger loses the ability if he wears medium or heavy armor, but thankfully, there are no feats in the PHB that require these feats, except for the fact that many shot requires rapid shot.  If you want to focus on archery as a ranger, you can take other archery feats (point-blank shot, far shot, etc.) and just add your combat style as you level up.  This is a decent way to make an archer, but if you just want to be an archer, you're better off being a fighter.  So, if your goal is to make an archer, don't play a ranger, but if your goal is to be a ranger, and you want to focus on archery, then this is a perfectly fine way to go.


Don't be an Archer

The other option is to focus on fighting with a two-handed weapon, or sword and board, and use your combat style to give you the effects of archery feats, while you use your actual feats to focus on melee combat or other options, this way you have a decent option for both ranged and melee combat.


Sadly, I've never liked the ranger class.  As you can see, the combat style is lack-luster, with really only one good option.  They get an animal companion, but not until level 4, and their companion is based on half their level, and the companion must be chosen from a small list, which means they aren't effective for combat.  They get spells as early as level 4, but not many.  They get a decent variety of skills, but not as many as the rogue.  They get the track feat for free, but unlike the rogue, whose trapfinding is a class ability, any character can take the track feat, so it's not exclusive to the ranger class.  In a future post, I'll further explore the ranger class and discuss the pros and cons of the class as a whole.

The Real Reason the Star Wars Prequels are Bad

Star Wars Episodes 1-3 get ragged on a lot for various reasons (Jake Loyd, Haden Christensen, Jar-Jar Binks, midichlorians...) but nobody ever seems to talk about the real reason the movies are bad.


First, Obi-Wan is... too young?

Obi-Wan is depicted as an old man in Episode IV.  Probably somewhere in his sixties.  However, the expanded universe shows that Jedi strong in the Force age slowly, so in reality, Obi-Wan looked like he was in his sixties, but how old would he have to be to look that old?  Well, the EU also reveals that Qui-Gon Jinn was sixty-five when he died.  Sixty-five and he looked like he was probably in his forties, maybe.  Supposedly, Obi-Wan was twenty-five when he was knighted.  Twenty-five, and we know in Episode 2 that it has been ten years since Anakin saw Padme, so Obi-Wan has to be about thirty-five in Episode 2.  The Clone Wars only last about three years, so Obi-Wan would be thirty-eight.  Luke and Leia were about nineteen in Episode 4, so Obi-Wan would be fifty-seven.  Still younger than his former master.  Episode 1 should have been set further back in order to make Obi-Wan's age match up.


The Chancellor and the padawan

Anakin and Palpatine are showed to have a relationship in Episode 3, to the extent of a mentorship.  Why?  In Episode 1, we get a tongue-in-cheek nod to the fact that we're building to Vader when Palpatine tells young Anakin "we will watch your career with great interest."
Sure, in Episode 1, Anakin was the incredible boy pilot who blew up a Trade Federation control ship, but Anakin spends no time with Palpatine in Episode 1 or 2, and suddenly in Episode 3 Anakin just hangs out in Palpatine's office as if it was perfectly normal for a young Jedi to just chill with the most important and busiest man in the Republic.  Sure, there's a war on, and Anakin was a commander, but how often does the president meet with lieutenants or captains?  Palpatine would obviously meet with Yoda, Mace, or Obi-Wan.  They are generals.  Anakin was only recently knighted.  He wasn't knighted in Episode 2, but he is a knight in Episode 3, so at some time during the Clone Wars he was knighted, so within the past three years.  He wasn't a master yet, and even though he was knighted, in Episode 3 he is only ever shown in battle alongside his former master, Obi-Wan, and never shown actually leading a battle, so he's not a general.
Aside from all of that, there is no build-up to this in the movies.  Anakin and Palpatine just go from perfect strangers in Episodes 1 and 2 to friends in Episode 3.  Are we to believe that just because Anakin rescued Palpatine from Dooku in the beginning that Palpatine is suddenly a mentor to him?  No, when Anakin has defeated Dooku, we see Palpatine encouraging Anakin to kill Dooku, and when they do speak during the escape, Palpatine doesn't act like a chancellor giving orders, but like a friend giving advice.


General Grievous

Dude knows how to fight, but he has no Force powers.  Why has it taken the Jedi so long to beat him?  Even a padawan should be able to get the best of him.  Just lift him and hold him in mid-air.  Now he can't fight.  Moving on.


The Jedi go to war

In Episode 4, Leia referred to Obi-Wan as "General Kenobi" in her hologram and stated that "years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars."  Lucas basically wrote himself into a corner here.  He needed a reason for Obi-Wan to be a general during the Clone Wars, so how did he solve that problem?  Well, have the clone army commissioned by a Jedi, then have Yoda decide to go get the clone army in order to save Obi-Wan from Geonosis, but wait a minute, by Yoda's own admission in Episode 6, he is not a warrior and says "wars not make one great."  Why would Yoda consent to leading an army?  The army should have been turned over to the Republic and the Jedi should have stepped back.  The Jedi, by their own admission, are peacekeepers.  It goes against the Jedi's own teachings for them to actively lead a war.  Their only role in war time should be to protect VIPs, act as negotiators, maybe take on missions of special circumstances where it would cost too many lives to send in soldiers, but even then...


The Jedi serve the Republic

The Jedi are supposed to be unbiased practitioners of the Force.  They follow the will of the Force.  The Jedi temple should not be on Coruscant.  We see Jedi Masters constantly consulting with politicians in Episodes 1-3.  The Jedi becoming generals for the Republic shows us that the Jedi are more concerned with serving the Republic than they are with serving the Force.


Anakin was right

If the Jedi Council was more concerned with serving the Republic than it was with the Force, then Anakin was right.  The Jedi had become corrupt, not by the Dark Side, but by politics.  So, Anakin did bring balance to the Force by destroying a corrupt system and forcing it to start over.


Anakin wasn't dark enough

Anakin's fall to the Dark Side begins in Episode 2 where we see him slaughter Tusken Raiders because of his mother's death, and in Episode 3, he fears losing Padme, and Palpatine uses that as a way to manipulate Anakin further, but when Anakin turns, it's like flipping a switch.  Sure, we can see some frustration in Anakin, due to Palpatine's involvement, with him feeling like the Jedi are holding him back, but once he turns against Mace, he's suddenly "I have to kill ALL the Jedi."  Anakin doesn't question anything.  He knew Palpatine was a Sith Lord, he knew Palpatine needed to be arrested, he even said to Mace "he must stand trial," but once he sees Palpatine kill Mace, he just abandons all that.  He just accepts that "oops, I goofed, guess I'm a Sith now."  Palpatine, a man Anakin knows to be a Sith, kills the Jedi who was trying to end the evil of the Sith, and Anakin just decides that instead of trying to stop Palpatine himself, or running away and waiting for Yoda, he'll just go kill.  He goes from seeing Obi-Wan as his brother to "I hate you!"


Obi-Wan was an idiot because plot

We already know that Obi-Wan had to defeat Anakin, but we also know that Anakin had to live, so because plot, Obi-Wan can't kill Anakin.  That's fine, but the way their duel ended allowed Obi-Wan and Anakin to share some heart-breaking dialogue.  THAT was stupid.  Because of that scene, Obi-Wan walked away from a still-living Anakin, who he had just left disabled and watched burn beside a river of lava.  If Obi-Wan really loved Anakin, he would have tried to save him.  Anakin had only one arm, no lightsaber, he was no longer a threat to Obi-Wan.  Obi-Wan should have used the Force to render Anakin unconscious, then carried him from Mustafar to get medical attention.  However, because Lucas (or his writers) didn't know how to write the scene correctly, Obi-Wan does the most evil thing he could do for a brother.  He walks away and lets him lie there in agony, not knowing if he was going to die, or if someone else would save him, but who else could save him?  If Obi-Wan walked away, the only other people in the galaxy who knew where Anakin was were Yoda and Palpatine!  So, Obi-Wan leaving Anakin was basically saying "you're either going to lie here in pain until you die, or Yoda will fail to kill Palpatine and you'll be rescued by the only person in the galaxy we don't want you to be with."
The scene should have taken place far above, on one of the platforms suspended over the lava.  Obi-Wan could have had his heart-breaking lines, then Anakin could have lashed out in a rage, Obi-Wan cuts him down, Anakin drops his lightsaber, but falls over the edge to the lava below.  Obi-Wan sees him fall, unsure of whether he lived or not.  Obi-Wan goes to search for him, but senses Palpatine coming and realizes he has no choice, and has to flee.  Or the scene could have played out like it did in the movie, but Obi-Wan takes an unconscious Anakin back to the ship, and on the way, he is intercepted by Palpatine and is forced to abandon Anakin in order to safely escape with Padme.  Seriously, there are other ways to have written that scene.


Speaking of idiocy...

Owen and Beru Lars were Luke's actual relatives?  That was stupid!  Anakin had already visited them in Episode 2.  He knew where they lived.  Yoda thought it was a good idea to hide Luke there?  Owen should not have actually been related to Anakin.  He should have been a relative of Obi-Wan, or one of the non-clone officers who served the Republic during the war who befriended Obi-Wan, maybe could have even written in that he saved Obi-Wan from Order 66 or something!  That would have been awesome.  It also would have made sense for the Jedi to hide Luke with someone Anakin didn't know, and by putting Owen in the war along with Obi-Wan, it would have given Obi-Wan a reason to trust him, and a reason for Owen to act like he did in Episode 4, not wanting Luke to go off to the academy.  As it was written, though, there's no real reason for Owen to keep Luke away from Obi-Wan.  No real reason for Obi-Wan not to train Luke as a child.  If Owen had actually fought in the war and had first-hand experience alongside the Jedi, maybe even witnessing the effects of Anakin's fall, then his reservations would have made more sense.


The planet it's farthest from, yet everything happens here

Why oh why was Anakin born on Tatooine???  Episode 4 already used Tatooine as Luke's home planet, where the Jedi chose to hide him from his father.  Just like we shouldn't hide him with actual relatives, how about we don't hide him on his father's home world?  Episode 7 introduced us to Jakku as another desert planet.  It wouldn't have been so hard to create another desert planet for Episode 1, or here's an idea, how about anywhere other than a freaking desert?  They have podracing on Malastare, how about that planet?  Ord-Mantel?  Anoat?  Seriously, there are so many planets that are named in the EU, or even mentioned in the movies that we never see on screen, why not expand the galaxy a bit more and use them?  Why does everything have to happen on Tatooine?  It's Anakin's birth place, Luke's home, and also happens to be where Jabba runs his organization.  For a desert in the outer rim, a planet Luke describes as "if there's a bright spot in the center of the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from" it sure is a pretty important planet.


Technically, Dagobah is farther

In Episode 5, we learn that Yoda lives on Dagobah, a swamp in the middle of nowhere.  Apparently, nobody ever has a reason to go there because we never see any sort of settlements.  The only living things we see are Yoda and a bunch of birds and lizards.  Yoda obviously lives here for a reason.  In Episode 5, Obi-Wan says Yoda is the Jedi Master who taught him (which Episode 1 screws over by making Qui-Gon Jinn his master, but hey, I guess Lucas can't remember every line from the orig trig that established continuity), so we know Yoda is a more powerful Jedi than Obi-Wan, so even without the prequels or the EU, we can guess that a really powerful Jedi would live in such a miserable swamp in order to hide.  So, we know that at some point after Episode 3, Yoda would go into hiding on Dagobah.  That doesn't mean he has to give up, though.  In Episode 3, he duels Palpatine, puts up one hell of a fight, even gets the better of him a couple of times, but when the two of them hold Force lightning between them until it explodes, Yoda just decides he has lost and runs away and goes into exile.  He doesn't even try again?
You know what would have been really awesome?  What if Yoda didn't use a cane in Episodes 1-3?  Yoda duels Palpatine until Palpatine injures him so badly that he can barely walk.  Yoda barely manages to crawl away after the explosion and the next time we see him in Episode 5, he has a cane.  That would have been pretty cool, and would have given Yoda a better reason for giving up the fight.
One could argue that after that point in the duel, Yoda could sense he was going to lose, but in a movie, it's really hard to convey what a Jedi senses if they don't tell us.  Yoda could have said to Bail Organa, "too powerful he is, defeat him I cannot," rather than say "failed I have, into exile I must go."  Failed?  How did you fail?  Yoda's line in the movie gives us no explanation.  It makes it feel like Yoda just gave up.


So, rather than complain about the poor acting in the prequels, or midichlorians, how about we instead complain about how they effectively ruin the story of Star Wars?  With Episodes 4-6 already 20 years old when the prequels were made, it's not like the writers didn't know how the story would end.  You established things 20 years ago, now write the prequels to fit what you already said.