I couldn't post my answer last night because the forum was acting weird, and I got error 502 every time.<br/><br/>How come you're ok with a game about raping helpless women but not so with one of the chosing pride over her life? It's rape we're talking about, just saying. And while suicide would definitely be extreme, it would make sense for the character, and it was everyone's choices that led up here. I'm not saying she kills herself on her next turn, only that it's an option for her to consider, given recent happenings.<br/><br/><br/>This will come off as harsh and it is intended because I'm sensitive in this matter.<br/>To those who can relate: take a virtual bitchslap and be grateful for it. That's for offering to take over my character. Unless you're the GM stay put, and if you're the GM talk to me about it. When and if I decide to give her away, I'll tell you don't worry, but your decision in the matter will be to accept or not.<br/><br/>With that out of the way, here comes the rant...<br/><br/>You did ask for critics and opinions so here's mine, and please don't get offended, or think that I flipped out because my character got unlucky or because she can't use smite evil to excel in every encounter. It's about fundamental player and GM issues.<br/><br/>About in game stuff:<br/><br/>As for the damage dealt to monster, to put it bluntly I don't g ive a fucking damn. That's player knowlege. Don't take this harshly, but if you expect the characters to act on player knowledge you are a bad GM and should play a wargame instead of a roleplaying game.<br/>From our characters perspective (due to descriptions of several 'direct hits'), this encounter is hopeless, the monsters were blowun up, slashed, skewered, and eaten by a familiar over the course of the battle, and show no sign of flinching. For all they know, they regenerate and or immensely powerful, have the numbers (due to tentacles and the ability to grapple multiple foes) and the surprise. The only logical course of action the girls can take is give up or flee at this point.<br/>While I assumed we were pinned by the tentacles, I wasn't sure about our options, but on the same argument I'd like to make this point: if you have slimy penis-tentacles prodding all over your body, don't tell me you'll have the composture to do anything but try to get the hell away from them, the same way you waste an action to putting out flames if you catch fire, instead of 'saving' that 'wasted' action used to prevent 1d6 damage. When you panic you don't do logical stuff.<br/>Given all that, "Don't worry about me, get the big one!" is technically communicating metagame knowledge in character.<br/><br/>And some metagame things:<br/><br/>I understand you are playtesting, but you are still throwing possibly 3-5 HD creatures with incredible zone ofcontrol at level 1 characters. At this point, you don't reduce the game system's existing complexity, you add to it for yourself, and limit players on the other hand by denying them options.<br/>I will not assume anything bad and chalk the utterly boring battlefield and lack of non-attack options up to the same thing, you wanting to reduce complexity and testing out monster mechanics. That's okay, but I feel like I need to spell it out nontheless. 3rd edition combat is effin boring and static. There is no terrain, hazards, and options beside move, attack or escape, and if you want to make things interesting you'll have to add special terrain, hazards, and skill options so we can take advantage of them, given how our enemies have advantage in every other aspect already. The only remarkable thing on the map is the cart, which I asked about, but instead of an answer the monsters moved away from it, rendering the only piece of special terrain obsolete, and it's not like we can kite these things either. We're standing in the same spots for 3 turns or what.<br/>Getting a bit personal for a moment, Seth take a virtual bitchslap for telling us not to build overpowered characters but optimalizing monsters. Again, forum games are not the medium to make coordinated tactical moves through, nor are roleplaying games in general. In a roleplaying game there is room for mistake so the characters can learn how to make those decisions that are probably obvious to players. Think about trolls. They hand you your ass unless you know their weakness, but you have a hit point pool, an abstract way of tracking fatigue and injury to get away unscratched until you figure it out.<br/>More on the thought of hit points and damage: if you're using an abstract system like this, please don't describe every "hit" as a hit, or you'll get into the trap of bleeding from a hundred wounds while you fell the low level monster with one blow. Also, as stated before, it is misleading IC information that characters will then have to act upon.<br/>I only repeat what I said before when I say, melee is useless in the game. No opportunity attack against grapple, enemies can grapple multiple foes at the same time, and have reach. Effectively they always have advantage no matter the circumstances.<br/><br/>I'm fine with you throwing more difficult and complex encounters at us, but give us the resources to adjust. Because level 1 characters fell one monster won't mean they can beat two, especially after they "powered up".<br/><br/>At this point however, I honestly say I don't see any justifiable outcome to this encounter that the remaining gills fleeing screaming in terror while Tess and Naia are fucked silly and dragged away.<br/><br/>I'm sad that this needs to be pointed out, but I think we also need to agree on what is fun for everyone. Getting instant tentacle gratification every other encounter is utterly boring for me, and pretty much impossible with the same character. For those that enjoy the tragedy of the heroine failing and getting raped as a result, I think her fall is meaningless unless she already succeeded over a period of time, and raised the stakes so high that her failure seems overwhelming, contributing to the punishment she takes physically, perhaps overshadowing it entirely, like losing the last battle or messing up just within reach of her goal. We also need to agree on what this game is about. Roleplaying, testing combat mechanics, or smut. Unless we clear these things up, someone will bound to be disappointed, meaning that the game fails at its foundations.