Monsters I Will Use Until I Die

I know I've taken three posts up with complaints about really stupid monsters that Wizards of the Coast used for the 3.5 edition of Dungeons and Dragons.  But there are a lot of monsters that I do enjoy using, and usually I end up using them over and over because I just love them so damn much.

I'm going to list them here now...they aren't in a particular order other then alphabetical.  Though there are a few select favorites that I'll be putting in the next post after this one.  Now, I limited myself to just the first Monster Manual.  Not that there aren't any monsters that I love from the other books, I just have had the first one the longest and, damn it, most of the best are in it.  Also, I left out a lot of the really low CR monsters (such as goblins or kobolds) not because I don't use them, but just because you are kind of forced to use them at low levels.  And I do love me some goblins and kobolds...it just doesn't fit with the theme I was going for.

So here we go, my favorite monsters from Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition!

10 Monsters I Don't Use (Monster Manual 2)

What is that?  Oh yes, it is more monsters I don't understand or don't care for.  As these books progress, these charts get relatively easier to fill.  By the next two, I may need to increase the size of the lists.  Oh well, sit back and enjoy reading my impotent nerd rage.

10 Monsters I Don't Use

So I decided to do another list!  Basically I was looking through the Monster Manuals and thinking, "Man, some of these are really dumb."  So I figured I would put them together for you to read.  I'm going to go through all the Monster Manuals for 3.5 1-4, then go through the Pathfinder Bestiary 1-3.  Now, this first one was a little hard cause for the most part the monsters in here are pretty well written and make sense.  Once I finish this series, I'm going to move onto the next feature of which monsters make no sense in terms of evolution and ecology.

For now, enjoy the list and feel free to comment or argue why a monster I included is the most important monster ever.

Tips for Infusing More Roleplaying in Your Games

So, yesterday I talked about roll-playing versus role-playing and my discontent with how modern gaming has kind of lent itself towards players sliding into simply roll-playing without much creativity.  One of the points I mentioned is of course that with older games, you had to be creative and imaginative (no lie, it even says it in the old white box rule book as a requirement) and in the newer systems you can rely more on using your dice rolls to get out of a spot.

This does not have to be the way.  Now, granted, if you are the kind of person who enjoys roll-play, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that.  But if you are in a game that you feel lacks some sense of role-play, be you DM or player, I'm going to be offering up some tips to kind of help infuse your game with some more little bits of role-playing.  These can be put in to pretty much any game type, and can be used as much or as little as people feel comfortable using.

Tomb of Horrors, an Overview

Well, it is finished.  We killed the bad guy and got our treasure.  Though of course we know that it doesn't really end here, since there is "Return to the Tomb of Horrors".  Though apparently that one is only available to play in previous editions, though I heard rumor of a 4th edition version.  Which means I'll never play it since my current group hates 4th edition.  I'm a man who likes to hold out and actually play it before passing judgement.  Though I will say it's biggest detriment is of course in the fact that Wizards of the Coast has admitted that it is supposed to be a compromise between MMORPG's and table-top gaming.

More after the break!

Tomb of Horrors Part 10

Here we are, faithful readers.  We have come a long way and it is finally time to end our time in the Tomb of Horrors.  Tomorrow, I'll be talking a little bit about my thoughts on the Tomb, and also some of the interesting differences it has shown me in terms of the mindset of "how to play" so to speak.

Tomb of Horrors Part 9

You've all been patiently waiting, so here is part 9 of Tomb of Horrors.

Tomb of Horrors Part 8

Man, I really need to stay on the ball here as far as posting regularly.  Today will be part 8 and tomorrow morning I'll put up part 9.  Hopefully, the DM figures that this next session on Friday will be the last one, so we shall see whether it ends in death or victory!

Tomb of Horrors Part 7

Here we are folks for another installment of Tomb of Horrors.  On a personal note, I just got the news that I will be able to go back to the local community college and continue towards getting my degree.  Which ultimately may help get me a job that will give me more free time for writing!  So big yays for that!

Denith Charthagnion, a background

 Here is the background for the character I'm going to start playing in the Sunday campaign, The Curse of the Crimson Throne.  Tomorrow I'll be putting up the background for my girlfriends character.  I'm very curious to see where this character's personality will go, as for now he is really a bit of a jerk.

Tomb of Horrors Part 6

Alright folks, welcome back to the sixth part of Tomb of Horrors!  We had two new players join up, my old friends Jenna and her girlfriend Shannon.  Also, in other news, we have started a new game up on Sundays as well, a Pathfinder campaign path called Curse of the Crimson Throne.  My girlfriend is joining us, as well as a few other new people.  I'll be starting to include it in the weekly updates.

Tomb of Horrors Part 5

Wow...it has been a while since I updated.  We are going to get back on track though, got some good articles coming up, some about class roles in Dungeons and Dragons, as well as some more original short stories by me.  But for today, another edition of Tomb of Horrors.

Tomb of Horrors Part 4

Alright, this upcoming Friday there will be no game due to the DM having a friend from out of town visiting.  Yet, today, I will still give you something to read from last Friday.  Now I will warn you folks with more tender sensibilities that some of this may be considered NSFW, so if you don't like that sort of thing...well, too bad cause I thought this last session was absolutely hilarious.

Top 5 Worst PC Prestige Classes

So one of the things that I always find amusing is looking through some of the fluff books that Wizards publishes and look at the different new prestige classes they put out.  And invariably, one of the things that always comes around is that some of them, while good for say...NPC's, are absolutely rubbish for player characters.  Seriously, these are horrible to use for your character as a player.  So, here we are 5 of the worst prestige classes from the Complete and DMG's.

Tomb of Horrors Part 1 and 2

Yes, it is much later then I intended to post this, but what can you do?  Easter weekend is busy for wage slaves at retail apparently.  Anyway, there is no part one because the first session happened before I started this blog.  I'll give a quick little recap of it before we begin.

Of course, the first session was filled with the always exciting part where we all meet for the first time!  It is always interesting for me to see the new characters that my friends make and what different sources they pull from.  For example, our rogue is an elf named Ophelia.  My friend decided to pull from Hamlet and plays her like the character from the play, which leads to some very amusing moments in the game.  Even myself isn't above pulling from other sources, namely, my Aasimar cleric is Landring Carter.  And he talks like Foghorn Leghorn.

So...picture your cleric casting spells and praying for healing like this:


It gets some good laughs.  I also took the leadership feat, so I have a minion as well.  Dantil Carter, a human divine bard who is his nephew.  We have a human monk named Turngald Lightfoot in the party as well...he deals out some pretty decent damage, though he tries to tank a bit too often.  We have a Wood Elf barbarian named Torak Ironwood.  Yes, there have been many jokes about his name.  And of course you have to have a magic user, so we have a human sorcerer named Sainrith.  He also has a minion named Tindell, a human cleric.

Rest after the break