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[Amperzand]

Somebody linked me to the Silverclawshift archives again. Really neat campaign log.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?116836-The-SilverClawShift-Campaign-Archives

[Rolan7]

Our Vampire game got a bit complicated.  There are things going on that would be hard to explain concisely (even my version of "concisely"), and it's possible that there is intrigue I shouldn't reveal.

But in a nutshell...
My character died, I think that's where I left off.  Jake the Mekhet infiltrator.  He was torn in half by the werewolf who caught up with our car and reached inside.
The other two characters suffer from Malkavia, due to sharing the tainted blood in a sick mutual bond (my character joined under duress, but died shortly after).

Long story short, they finished off the werewolf.  As they drove home with the corpse, they were accosted by police.
They fought...  But backup was called...  And they kept fighting.  Basically they hit 6 stars GTA-style, and also the local vampire society declared bloodhunt on them for gross masquerade violation.  (The ventrue didn't even do much, but the gangrel went full monster).

Here's where the intrigue sets in.  Gonna be brief.  The Ventrue's adoptive sire...  has his child-apprentice of 80 years (Invictus amirite) rescue our Ventrue from the morgue.  Then plant a bomb in our haven... almost killing our gangrel.  Then mindwipes the mission from said childe, who doesn't resist.

The gangrel survives, of course, and eventually both her and the ventrue are brought before this Ventrue.  He explains that my dead character's sire, Mike, is a tricky Mekhet.  Clearly he is behind everything.  Jake (my character) might not even be dead...  That's the power of Obfuscation.

Anyway that childe-apprentice is my new character.  A middle-aged ww2 medic WASP who saved the wrong-right person, and was embraced for her trouble.  After 80 years as house-servant to an ancient luddite, she's somewhat antisocial for a ventrue.  Deadpan, physically and mentally tough but thoroughly brainwashed, patiently waiting for her eventual chance to be an Invictus Lady.  Apparently that chance involves babysitting these murderhoboes as they research Malkavia in Raleigh, NC.

So far it's... not going well.  I'll go into detail later.  Basically, Raleigh is pretty cool, but 2/3 of us are rapidly shifting personalities due to Malkavia.  It inevitably led to the gangrel frenzying and murdering people in plain sight.

My character hasn't slept yet, btw.  She was charged with protecting the adopted ventrue, so she stands watch over her sleeping form every night.  It's not creepy (it's creepy)

[BlackFlyme]

A bit disappointing being a Big-Dumb-Fighter in a roleplay-heavy campaign.

I have no skills with which to make the rolls needed to roleplay. Every roleplay opportunity just leaves me sitting there saying "Hello, I am birb".

We had to crash another fancy nobleman's dinner party, and all my Strix could do was gorge himself on food, and make rolls to avoid eating to the point of nausea. All but one of my Charisma checks failed horribly.

Things brightened up when I got to start punching faces in.

[Skyrunner]

That's generally why Fighters are seen as a "weak" class despite all their stats and feats and high BAB -- when you're not smashing land-based creatures' faces in, you have literally nothing to do.

Is also why gishes and Tome of Battle or Path of War (depending on 3.5e or PF) classes are generally more interesting. They have more options. Same with Summoner, whose Eidolon is essentially a Fighter with 3 less hit die than you, and you a half-caster.

[Neonivek]

when you're not smashing land-based creatures' faces in, you have literally nothing to do.

Could always go Archer as a Fighter...

As I've said before Fighters make far better archers then even Rangers... by a huge significant margin (even more so now that they can trade in weapon variety in for boosts).

Rangers have to rely on their pet and spells to make up the difference... I'd include favored enemy but Fighters get the equivalent of favored enemy bonus on all enemies all the time.

Then again I have no idea why people keep insisting that Rangers are better than Fighters at two weapon fighting OR Ranged fighting when Fighters just flat out shut them down. Ignoring that fighters eventually get more feats... they also have access to Fighter feats that are leagues better.

[BlackFlyme]

I can fly. I am birb-man, Strix. Like Tengu, but not. Because unlike Tengu, we can fly.

My pet Tidepool Dragon can, too. We fuck shit up good.

Actually, I think the Dragon has more Charisma than I do. Much less Intelligence, because Mauler Archetype.

[BlackFlyme]

Rangers have to rely on their pet and spells to make up the difference... I'd include favored enemy but Fighters get the equivalent of favored enemy bonus on all enemies all the time.

Then again I have no idea why people keep insisting that Rangers are better than Fighters at two weapon fighting OR Ranged fighting when Fighters just flat out shut them down. Ignoring that fighters eventually get more feats... they also have access to Fighter feats that are leagues better.

Because unlike Fighter feats, Ranger bonus feats allow you to ignore prerequisites, so you can go pure-strength and still get all Two-Weapon Fighting feats. Much less useful once Dex-to-Damage became a thing, though.

And Favoured Enemy Bonus is much stronger than Weapon Training in Pathfinder. It gets up to 10 to-hit and damage at cap.

Edit: Whoops. Did not mean to double-post. Thought I hit Modify, not New Post.

[Jimmy]

Depending on your rules system, multiclassing is typically the best method to achieve a decent archery build. 3.5e is especially feat intensive for a focused archery build, and Pathfinder only less so due to increased feats. My archery built character in 3.5e ended up being a Rogue 1/Fighter 2/Ranger 2/ Assassin 2/Shadowdancer 4/Horizon Walker 1/Assassin 7/Eldritch Knight 1.

It was, incidentally, a hellishly fun character to play, being a Chaotic Evil assassin murder-hobo. Roleplay doesn't necessarily mean roll-play using your skills, it means being an interesting character who does interesting things and plays well with the group dynamic.

[Arx]

Yeah. My fighter is moderately useful out of combat purely by being Average Joe and thus able to fraternise with random guards and stuff to extract information.

[scriver]

when you're not smashing land-based creatures' faces in, you have literally nothing to do.

Could always go Archer as a Fighter...

You could, but PoW archers are even better.

And I think he wasn't necessarily talking about smashing in faces in the most literal sense. Archery might let you smash in faces from afar, but it isn't any more useful in a fancy nobleman's dinner party than a big stick is.

[Skyrunner]

I'm the one who said it, so she

And yeah what scriver said -- "smashing your face in" is just a casual shorthand for combat in general.

Roleplay doesn't necessarily mean roll-play using your skills, it means being an interesting character who does interesting things and plays well with the group dynamic.

My fighter is moderately useful out of combat purely by being Average Joe and thus able to fraternise with random guards and stuff to extract information.

These are things you can do no matter what class you pick. But other classes offer more stuff on top of that, while fighters can ... fight. Poorly, later on -- once AC goes sky-high and monsters often fly, have five attacks or more a turn, are incorporeal, etc.

[BlackFlyme]

Except there are DCs to make people like you, or to gather information.

I do literally have to roll, and since Fighters have few skill points or class skills, I am not well suited to do much. We don't even get Perception, which is a mandatory skill to have for all players.

The parties had scripted events and required some moderately high Charisma-based skill rolls to not piss off the hosts. And we only have one Face party-member. He completely carried us. We'd get penalized for failing, and some DCs were higher than 25.

I guess the term is Roll-play? I've heard it used a few times to describe mechanics that replace roleplay with dice.

[Skyrunner]

Incidentally the degree of rolling in games tends to vary wildly from gm to gm. In my games, diplomacy can usually be done by actually talking and bargaining with the person, while Intimidate usually requires a roll. Some GMs strictly use diplo, bluff and intimidate rolls all the time, and others never.

[BlackFlyme]

This DM doesn't do homebrew games often. He just goes by official Pathfinder Adventure Paths.

[Harry Baldman]

A bit disappointing being a Big-Dumb-Fighter in a roleplay-heavy campaign.

I have no skills with which to make the rolls needed to roleplay. Every roleplay opportunity just leaves me sitting there saying "Hello, I am birb".

We had to crash another fancy nobleman's dinner party, and all my Strix could do was gorge himself on food, and make rolls to avoid eating to the point of nausea. All but one of my Charisma checks failed horribly.

Things brightened up when I got to start punching faces in.

But Charisma checks failing horribly is roleplay of a sort. Look for other fancy noblemen who are fellow enthusiasts of smashing in faces (think Robert Baratheon-types, there's gotta be some of those about), participate in drinking contests, do card tricks with that Sleight of Hand you probably don't have, eat out of other people's plates when you talk to them, display charming ignorance of social customs and dance. Oh my god, dance your heart out. Preferably after a drinking contest. Be the best birb you can possibly be.

I mean, in one of the games I was in we went to an underground fighting ring, a party of a Paladin of Tyranny, a Cleric, a Warlock and a Sorcerer. Bare-knuckle, no magic or potions. Sorcerer steps up first, has a bit of whiskey, gets into the ring with a moderately menacing bruiser (something like a level 3 fighter, I think), and has a no-holds-barred fistfight that he wins basically by sheer luck without even needing to cheat. Stepping out of your sphere of competence can be pretty fun if you commit to it, even if you fail, perhaps especially when you fail.