Not to derail the thread , but I agree 100% with all sentiments there.Calamitus wrote:Holy crap BD, (pun intended) that's a sorry excuse for a DM. No one should ever RP another's reactions/actions. I dislike PVP simply for the fact that I suck at builds and prefer RP to getting my arse handed to me on a regular basis. I've played on 2 different servers, one for at least 10 yrs, and they had really strict rules for PVP which I really enjoyed, even those times I was stomped into the ground as the RP around them was fantastic from both sides.
I NEVER min/max any build, first off I'm too lazy too keep up with the little nuisances to do so. I just level what fits my character concepts.
I had that discussion with Tara before ... I make interesting characters , or try to. My characters are usually revolved around a theme, or inspired idea , and I try to match that as close as I can with-out worrying about making a "super-build" .
PvP , ... I know there are servers out there, that specifically that's a goal of in some way here and there. I personally don't see a point in level 40 characters beating on other level 40 characters though, with uber gear, and uber abilities.
I understand RP conflict ... I don't get trying to see which character get's the first best random roll , and wins the day fighting.
Other aspects that turn me off to PvP, ... one server I played on had a "neutral" based adventuring guild in it. I played a paladin of Torm there ( She was half celestial ) , supposedly there was a law in the guild, no opposing forces could fight in there.
But here was the flaw in that, as it wasn't enforced.
Every evening, me and my buddy whom were playing "lawful good" characters , and were about mid level ranges ( around 12th or so ) , my Diety was Torm, his was Lathander ...
This one player whom was playing another epic character elsewhere , would log out and log backin with his maxed out epic cleric of some evil undead god ... he'd summon succibi , demons, and undead minions in there ... even though this was "against the rules" , and try his best to be antagonistic toward our characters.
After a few times of this, we started ignoring him completely.
He reported to the Dms we weren't RP-ing our characters correctly , allowing evil to take place right in front of us. And that we were refusing to acknowledge his character when encountering him.
I responded by PM to a DM that questioned us on the matter. I told him, the only reason the guy was doing that to begin with , was because he had a epic uber character that would kill ours, take what gold they had, and make us respawn for XP loss, just because he could. I considered it greifing, and also stated he did that in the only place in the Mod that was supposto be PvP free too. ( Otherwise he would never find us to harass. )
Anyways, that was the thing ... there were many other epic level "do-gooders" on the server , he could have went and tried getting his "evil rp" out on, and be matched with PvP on a fair level scale ... but instead he chose to target our characters because it was easy pickings if we actually had tried to attack his summons. He denied that of course, but that's what he was doing.
About 6 months later ( and several DM personal quest with my character , I was finally at level 39 myself , had a epic and uber holy sword , and my Pally was rock solid in combat aspects ... including Dev crit, she could smite evil for 400 points of damage unbuffed on average.
I ran into the same character else where, and I goaded him to be confrontational then.
He responded to me, he didn't PvP ... which was a lie, because he had killed my character before when she was weaker, and before we wised up to his antics. He then reported me , for metagaming to a DM , saying I was harassing him and he wasn't doing anything to prompt automatic dislike from my character.
The facts were, he knew my character wasn't weak. He knew those dev crits and smites would end him. He knew my holy sword would debuff any protections he had, or ignore most spells cast at me due to the spell resistance. He knew , my Pally would wipe him easily and fast , and he didn't want to loose his gold horde to my character who could now stand toe-to-toe with him.
So to me, PvP invites a lot of powerful characters, to prey on weaker ones ... why? because most can't do the same things easily to characters of their same level ranges.
Now, I have played on many a server where I played evil characters, and never got into PvP aspects with any other players. NPCs sure , DM led NPCs and such , yes ... but even if our characters didn't "get along" , even my evils weren't dumb enough to expose their true intent to rest of the universe lol. Nor did I ever find reason to physically attack or sling spells at another player, no matter the opposing alignments.
So, I say it's not really necessary to have PvP situations in most cases.
I don't know how that works here mind you ... I chose to play the "good aligned" types here, according to the rules in the OOC , my characters are of like minded moral sets. Mostly, because in most DnD games, and other RPGs I have participated in, you are supposto be "good guys" , aka "heroes" ... saving princesses in distress, and thwarting the dark tides of evil ... lol.
But there is that "separation" here , between the forces of Light ( Xymoria ) and the forces of darkness ( Darkmoor ) ... so I am unsure how those encounters ( if ever , I've not yet met any "evil" PCs I know of ) are suposto be handled.
Anoksuna isn't quite as nice as Jes is , but she's the same alignment. They just have different personalities and taste is all. I am hoping I display that when RPing them both. Anoksuna is edgier, seen more horrors and hardships in her life, that it' s hard for her to actually celebrate life and enjoy things. But even Anoksuna , wouldn't go around just attacking people because they had different moral standards than she does.
She'd have to have reason, and is a powerful ally/hero in her own right ( or will be someday ).
So, anything I ask for is never PvP minded according to any changes for the AA builds. Or any characters/builds.
As it stands, try to avoid such conflicts if possible ... unless backed into a corner, and there's no other way out of it.
