Axes in the Dark

Right, I have moved. That was tiring beyond measure. Need to work out more, so stairs aren't such an obstacle. Got to see my sister last week, and she brought the whole family with her. My new nephew is so small, I have no other adjective for him yet. It's very odd holding a baby when you have little contact with children. I never babysat or really had younger siblings (my younger sister is only two years my junior) so I have zero idea what to do when someone hands me a baby. It's scary. I'm a big guy, and Tucker (that's my nephew) was only the size of my forearm. A whole person fits in my arm! My mind was blown.

So, on to gaming stuff, because babies freak me out after a while. With the new apartment comes a new venue for our group. I'm excited to play again, and I'm still being wishy-washy about my bard, Baron Saiga. I've been annoyed with his performance (his most memorable moment so far has been falling off a dock and almost drowning) and really don't know what to do. I Like the character, but his class is, I don't know... underwhelming. I think I'm focusing too much on being the super leader/healer, and not enough on enjoying the role I've picked for him. He's the third son of a noble devoted to the Raven Queen. Actually, his entire family is, and to escape that, he joined the military as an aide de camp to a general of the Ikemmu army. He did well and was being groomed for a command of his own one day. So the bard thing I played up as more of a military drummer or dirge, and he just used magic to control the tempo of battle. Now I kind of want him to lose the magic, because it isn't working out the way I wanted it to, but Dan pointed out I wasn't rping him as well as I could be. I'm going to stop coaching the other players, and just start making decisions, and hope they can catch on to what's going on. He thinks forcing the officer will help me enjoy him a lot more, and I'm very willing to try. I don't like dreading playing a character.

In my efforts to make an alpha-striking half orc of some type, I realized that unlike earlier editions of D&D, you cannot sneak attack with just any weapon. There is a very specific list, which consists of the rogue weapon proficiency list (go figure) and a couple of weapons that can be expanded by feats. That's it. I was dissatisfied by this as I really, really, wanted to use a fullblade with this build. Do't get me wrong, I understand the design philosophy behind limiting the weapons to those classically favored by rogues. I was just upset that there was no way to expand it. I wanted my burly half orc Vandall to step out of the shadows and cleave an enemy in twain. So I'm adding this particular issue to my list of ideas to pitch to Wizards of the Coast come October. I'm thinking to balance it, I'm going to limit it to racially favored weapons i.e. hammers for dwarven rogues, longswords for eladrin and so forth. Should be interesting.