This episode of Critical Hit, A Major Spoilers Dungeons and Dragons Podcast: The choice is made, but before the party can take flight, a discussion on Cold Iron Weapons and Money.
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23 Comments
Thank you for the map!
“KETH.DRANK.TOO.MUCH.TEA!” I laughed so hard :)
Cool map :D
Great testament to this show that I was still spellbound listening to cold iron accounting and eagle flight time calculations :) can’t wait to see what’s waiting for them when they land!
I found it a little frustrating that some of the players couldn’t grasp the idea behind their new weapons, but given that they haven’t done it to this extent before, it makes sense.
Also, I’m very worried about Randus, he’s ending up like Orem did when they first entered the Spring Wood. I just hope he can hold it together.
It bothers me that a 1 in a skill check results in an automatic fail. As far as the rules are concerned, with skill checks, 20 isn’t automatically a success and 1 isn’t necessarily a failure.
Randus’ bonus even after the 1 was enough to aid in the nature check. It shouldn’t have been ruled a failure. Granted, DM has the final say in rules discussions, but if a 20 isn’t a critical success, then a 1 shouldn’t be a critical failure for balance reasons.
I love this show and all the members of the podcast do a great job with it.
I actually like this house rule where 1 is an automatic failure. With the bonuses that the characters get in the higher levels, some characters may have a bonus over +9 in a skill and then always be able to hit the DC 10 to assist. At least with the 1 being a failure there still is a small chance (or in Brian’s case about even odds) that something will go wrong.
I like it, because it allows the possibility of failure in any circumstance. You’ve washed a thousand dishes or more in your lifetime, it’s a mundane, everyday activity, but there’s still the chance that, for whatever reason, one will slip out of your hand. Same thing here— granted, 5% is a bit high for representing the chance of failure at something as mundane and rote as dishwashing, but you see my point.
Either way, love it or hate it, at least the rule has remained consistant from episode one. A 20 has always succeeded, and a 1 has always failed.
LoL! Orem summoned ea-gulls!
ROFL! Great observation Nathan.
MAN did I pick the wrong week to not get around to listening to Critical Hit last week. Just caught up on 195 and 196 today, and Holy Crap. I have to congratulate each and every one of you on top-notch acting and improvisation. Brian especially— Randus’s sending was incredibly heartwarming, and his reaction, the growing panic, the desperation… heartbreaking. Even your dice were in the groove, building the tension so perfectly and hitting that 20 at the exact right moment. I know I’m emotionally invested in this plotline.
The party all rallying around Randus, and Ket’s eventual “shut up, we’re leaving” thing with the weapons… fantastic. The little bits of dialogue from Orem’s sword had me rolling for five minutes. And hell, even the mechanics discussion was fascinating.
195&6: two of the best episodes of Critical Hit ever. They’re in my top five. Speaking of which, hey how about a Critical Hit/ Top Five crossover special? Would be way too specific for the actual Top Five show, but would make a good bonus episode for Critical Hit. Top five moments with the torqueltones!
…naah. That’s crazy. Never mind. Keep up the good work!
Not to sound like a stickler, even though I am a stickler, but episodes like this are why I rarely donate to your website. CH is the only one of your podcasts I listen to regularly so I can’t help but think that if you want to be paid for your time, you should ALL be prepared and know the rules of the game. I enjoy the rules/mechanics episodes that are put out every so often, but having to listen to rudimentary rules interruptions in the middle of a story is just boring and even frustrating at times.
Now that that’s out of the way, I do love the podcast and appreciate the work it takes.
Well I see your point, but you should keep in mind that a lot of people who listen don’t play D&D themselves and may enjoy learning the finer points of the rules from time to time (although 4E is almost technically a dead language at this point). Also, the Torqueltones have given the world the equivalent of 98 movie lengths worth of entertainment, so we should all appreciate the work they’ve done. That’s 98 Biodomes!
I kind of agree, really, I mean this is episode 196 and I kind of feel that anybody that really wanted to know about basic mechanics would start at the beginning. I shouldn’t really complain though, Critical Hit is basically the entire reason for me DMing smoothly, as after listening to the first 50 episodes there is no way I could ever forget how marking and AoOs work. Or how not to use history. Or that a player can indeed roll three ones in a row in three consecutive sessions, completely changing how encounters play out.
Figuring out how gosh darned gold works at this late an episode is a bit too much, and that is what a big chunk of this episode was, but frankly considering what I’ve gotten from Critical Hit overall, I don’t really mind an occasional slow week.
Also I kind of am introducing people that were originally fighting fiercely in the edition wars to 4e now that the entire thing has blown over and playing it from an objective point of view it certainly has a bunch of advantages over many other systems and we’re having a lot of fun, and Next is looking kind of silly at this time, so I wouldn’t discount 4e quite yet.
“Critical Hit is the reason for me being able to GM smoothly”— hear, hear. Apart from being an entertaining show, CH (and a few other RPG podcasts) can be taken as master classes in game mastering. From that perspective, this episode is an example of dealing with rules-related confusion, and is therefore educational.
Of course, that only applies to the portion of the listenership who do or want to GM, but still… *shrug* it’s one of the reasons I don’t mind these episodes.
Next time on Critical Hit: Orem does his taxes! “Damn it Randus, I told you to save the receipt for those eagles – business expenses are deductible! Also, I’m claiming Torq as a dependent.”
LOL
Great mechanics episode. About time we looked into upgrades for everyone. One thing that Randus may know about is of the Transfer Enchantment ritual. I know you won’t be able to respond to this until next game session, but that could save a bunch of components. E.g., Torq transfers the +2 Magic weapon enchantment from his greataxe to the new base non-magical cold iron weapon, and then pay the difference from upgrading the +2 Magic to +2 Cold Iron. That’s up to Rodrigo to call on whether that would be feasible though.
if this gets enough reply’s they may actually SEE this!
Another great episode!
Love the map!
Given that the loss of those magic weapons means that the party is technically under equipped, I would not be surprised if Rodrigo provides the party with a lot of magic items, gold or ritual components over the next story arc. What will really interest me is how he will manage to do this in narrative terms – the way that the Torqletones gets magic items and treasure is always really well built into the story.
This rules/mechanics talk also reminds me of something else I’m really looking forward to – the next level up episode. As level thirteen is the first level where powers get switched it will be interesting to hear the choice of new power and then the way that the power changes are justified in character.
Matthew, was the “little blue Prius” comment a reference to Jeff Dunham’s Comedy Central show “Spark of Insanity” show?
I hope not
Great Episode!