Jayzhee
Paint Manipulator
What should I work on today?...
Posts: 106
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Post by Jayzhee on Apr 4, 2015 4:46:52 GMT
I'll be trying out gridless Pathfinder for the first time next week, and I wondered how everyone handles blast, cone and line attacks.
Blasts seem simple enough; just pick the center and measure from there. No need for templates.
I'll probably make a template for cones. Seems pretty easy.
Lines seem both easier and harder in gridless. They can be fired in any direction, so there's no deciding which squares get hit. Do you imagine the line as being an inch wide?
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Post by DnDPaladin on Apr 4, 2015 5:55:00 GMT
its much easier if your DM wings some stuff up.
i usually take my measuring sticks which are already half an inch wide. and just imagine whats gonna be hit form there. i have no templates and just wings whos gonna get hit. the measuring stick does the distance the rest comes on its own.
templates does the job well as well.
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Post by sgtslag on Apr 4, 2015 14:44:43 GMT
I use transparency material for making templates. The old, OOP, BattleSystem Skirmish game had templates in the back cover. I scanned them onto my computer, then printed them off on a transparency, and cut them out. The figure scale for BS Skirmish is 25mm, so no adjustments necessary. It had cones, circles, and rectangles, for cloud spells, as well as certain dragon breath weapons. With them being tanslucent on the transparency material, they proved to be quite easy to use. You can easily make up your own templates on your computer, print them, cut them out, and voila! Cheers!
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Post by wilmanric on Apr 4, 2015 23:06:28 GMT
I made some templates from "Savage Worlds" using that thin, colored foam material. It's almost like felt. Do you know what I mean? Anyway, I used red and the stuff is tough enough to hold up to a lot of use.
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Post by voduchyld on Apr 8, 2015 20:44:14 GMT
I use no templates, just my measuring stick. For the blast you measure from the center. For the line, i just use the measuring stick as is (it's roughly 3/4" thick) and you just made me realise i never had to deal with a cone yet, since i switched to gridless.
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sotf
Advice Guru
Posts: 1,084
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Post by sotf on Apr 8, 2015 22:44:42 GMT
One easy thing to do for templates that a lot of wargame players have used is to find an image of the template and print it on a transparency sheet, though they're a bit harder to find now.
In all honesty, for longer term use, it would probably work extremely well to either go for the heavier covers like Scotty used for his 2.5d Next rivers, or even go all the way up to pieces of plexiglass. It's probably actually worth it for the plexi though because templates are things that you will likely need off and on for a good chunk of your DM career in dealing with various monsters gridless or not.
But take the template and you can easily paint it up with cheap stained glass paints (Just buy one of those cheap kits with preformed images as well, save the things for later and use the paints...you can often find them in multiples for $1) paint them like fire or whatever else you want to use, though you will likely end up using it for more than one elemental attack type, but players tend to get more into it in figuring things out with the representation of their fireball going off or in seeing the dragons lightning breath...
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Post by Cyan Wisp on Apr 14, 2015 22:25:46 GMT
Using gridless (5e D&D), I realised soon enough that I would need cones and lines. I have many dragonborn PCs who like to breathe over everyone and burning hands is quite popular. Instantaneous spherical or circular blasts (e.g. fireball) are easy with a measuring stick, so I didn't bother with templates. The lightning wasn't what I quite envisioned, and the fire is affectionately referred to as the "pizza", but I can't argue with their utility. It doesn't show, but the Moonbeam is really quite sparkly and holographic. I also had a Grease spell template, but it has slipped my grasp for the moment. (Method: single corrugation cardboard or thick card stock with hot glue texture and paint. For Moonbeam, I used holographic book covering stuff) Area spells and breath weapons
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Post by sgtslag on Apr 15, 2015 3:38:20 GMT
Those are really nice. You have some I had not thought to even make a template for... Very creative, very well done. Thanks for sharing! Cheers!
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Post by DnDPaladin on Apr 15, 2015 7:41:55 GMT
all of them are easily figured out with a stick. its when the spell keeps sticking to the board that it becomes a problem.
as for your templates... Nice ones !
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sotf
Advice Guru
Posts: 1,084
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Post by sotf on Apr 16, 2015 4:32:41 GMT
all of them are easily figured out with a stick. its when the spell keeps sticking to the board that it becomes a problem. as for your templates... Nice ones ! Cones are where that becomes difficult because if you aren't consistent with it, well, you have problems due to the arc needed.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Apr 17, 2015 7:44:17 GMT
you'd have to explain why its a problem ? because i dont have a problem with cones.
maybe it has with the fact that cones aren't actually cones. but much more triangle like. but the stick if held in place does exactly that for you, the arc. so im not really understanding what you are saying here.
anyway having templates is the better way if you want to be precise. so its always a good thing to do them if you want them. as for me, im trying a new approach... the chris perkins approach. im starting to wing stuff up more, including some fights and starting intiatives only when truly needed.
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leolad72
Paint Manipulator
I am a DM; it isn't in my job description to "kid around"
Posts: 147
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Post by leolad72 on Apr 22, 2015 2:08:51 GMT
you'd have to explain why its a problem ? because i dont have a problem with cones. maybe it has with the fact that cones aren't actually cones. but much more triangle like. but the stick if held in place does exactly that for you, the arc. so im not really understanding what you are saying here. anyway having templates is the better way if you want to be precise. so its always a good thing to do them if you want them. as for me, im trying a new approach... the chris perkins approach. im starting to wing stuff up more, including some fights and starting intiatives only when truly needed. Hipparchus is tearing out his hair and beard right now...lol! Spell attacks with a cone effect don't have an arc (5e Players Guide, pg 204), they have a maximum range. Tiny area at the source, large area at the maximum range. Some people can visualize fairly well, some people not so much so I can see the need for a template for 30, 45 or 90 degrees, but personally, those templates would be better used for Tactical Advantage, not Precision by both the Players AND the GM. For example: I want to move my Wizard to a point where Cone of Cold will affect as many Tangos as possible. At 5 feet, I can hit one. I move out a bit and target a cluster of them, and can hit three of them at 20 feet, etc. to the maximum range of the spell. Yeah, I will fudge, and winging it comes with the job, but even I will stop and check for effect if for anything to avoid game breaking. Winging it is different for us than it is for Mr. Perkins. If you watch his earlier videos, he fudged very little and was a LOT less animated in his presentation; he just learned to work the audience. Even you have pointed out that he appears to be saying "Screw the rules".....and I couldn't agree more, but it's purely for entertainment.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Apr 22, 2015 4:45:42 GMT
Leolad, i'd actually say he knows his players much more. binwin is a guy who likes combat, anything else. he just skips. James likes to roleplay a bit. Viari just wanna do cool stunts. and the cleric to which i forgot his name just wants to make money out of everything.
thats why you play D&D and thats also why the first thing that is explained in the DMG of 5E is that the first thing you should learn is your players. give them what they want. i'd say thats the only thing that actually changed on chris overtime. he actually learned his group and the audience is part of that group now.
back on topic, as i said, and as you also pointed out, there is no arc in cones. cones are more like triangles !
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