Common Acronyms, Abbreviations, and Terms

[Spartan_Samuel]

What do "gestalt" and"pun-pun" mean?

[Azrael]

Gestalt

As for Pun-Pun, I'd be willing to bet he's been addressed previously in this thread. So be a dear and Google "Pun Pun". The first result is what you're looking for. Wikipedia has a listing as well.


Gorby: Think it would be a good idea to put these two in under Terminology?

[Caelestion]

I must be having a stupid moment because I have no idea what MitP means, which is constantly referenced in the Homebrew section.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

I must be having a stupid moment because I have no idea what MitP means, which is constantly referenced in the Homebrew section.

As near as I can tell, it is "Monster in the Playground."

[Dragon_Rider]

As near as I can tell, it is "Monster in the Playground."

Yes, they hold some quite of a running vote tally thing where people post custom monsters and if they enough vouches for their creation, it becomes a member of the Monsters in the Playground. So when people post threads with their homebrew creatures, they will put a [MitP] tag on their thread title to signify they want to enter their creature into the MitP "contest".

[Fax Celestis]

Yes, they hold some quite of a running vote tally thing where people post custom monsters and if they enough vouches for their creation, it becomes a member of the Monsters in the Playground. So when people post threads with their homebrew creatures, they will put a [MitP] tag on their thread title to signify they want to enter their creature into the MitP "contest".

And at the end of said votery, the Approved creatures will be gathered together into an ebook and published. A PDF will be available for free, and hardcopies will be available for purchase, with proceeds benefitting this site.

Those curious can click the MitP link in my signature.

[geek_2049]

Ave eard 'gish' thowrn around by ye's landlubbers amuch of late, can any of ye's point meh spyglass in th' righ direction. Elucidate, if ye's will, so has to earn me eyepatch, as to wha 'gish be a meanin'.

[Gorbash Kazdar]

Arrr.

- Gish: A fighter/wizard multiclass character, specifically one capable of casting higher level spells and surviving melee combat. May also be broadened to refer to any combination of warrior/arcane (or psionic caster) classes. Hybrid classes such as bards, duskblades, hexblades, and psychic warriors are generally not considered examples (multiclass characters only). Originates from the term for a Githyanki war wizard (in 2e, a fighter/wizard or rogue/wizard).

[Spartan_Samuel]

Does an Enchantment Bonus add to the ability score or it's modifier?

[Were-Sandwich]

What does 'clunky' mean?

[Fax Celestis]

What does 'clunky' mean?

I would assume "functional, but old fashioned and not running smoothly." As in the term applied to a car engine.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Does an Enchantment Bonus add to the ability score or it's modifier?

Uh, that's really a question you should be asking here, in the Simple Q&A thread. This thread is about asking questions on Terminology, not rules.

But I'll save ya a trip anyway:

1.) To my knowledge there is no such thing as an "enchantment bonus." You may be thinking of an enhancement bonus.
2.) Bonuses always apply to the stat they modify directly. A +2 Dex bonus takes modifies a character's Dex score by two, which, in turn modifies the Dex modifier by 1. Likewise, a +1 enhancement bonus applied to the armor bonus granted by a suit of chainmail applies to the armor bonus, not to armor class. This is why a +1 enhancement to armor and a +1 enhancement to shield both stack when calculating total armor class.

[Zeb The Troll]

It's sort of a leet-speak version of "owned." To get owned is to get beaten really badly at something; "pwned" is clearly just a typo, but it took off for some reason or another and is seen as an amusing synonym, though some see it was being "owned" to such a degree that witnesses are rendered incapable of proper typing/speech.

It's pretty aggravating the lengths to which this kind of thing will take off. For example, the rather obvious mistake of lifting off of the shift key too soon yields "!!!11" sometimes. I can live with that on accident. That lead to this "!!11oneone". That's ridiculous. And I've even seen this on far too many occasions "!!11oneoneeleveneleven". That's just stupid. [/rant]

Uh, that's really a question you should be asking here, in the Simple Q&A thread. This thread is about asking questions on Terminology, not rules.

But I'll save ya a trip anyway:

1.) To my knowledge there is no such thing as an "enchantment bonus." You may be thinking of an enhancement bonus.
2.) Bonuses always apply to the stat they modify directly. A +2 Dex bonus takes modifies a character's Dex score by two, which, in turn modifies the Dex modifier by 1. Likewise, a +1 enhancement bonus applied to the armor bonus granted by a suit of chainmail applies to the armor bonus, not to armor class. This is why a +1 enhancement to armor and a +1 enhancement to shield both stack when calculating total armor class.

This is also why any enhancement bonus is usually specified in the naming; so as to determine whether or not it stacks with other bonuses that may affect the same game mechanic. For example, a +1 shield bonus, a +1 dodge bonus, and a +1 armor bonus all affect your armor class and all stack because they are each different. However, bracers of armor +1 that specify a +1 armor bonus in its description does not stack with the +5 armor bonus provided by chainmail.

[Khantalas]

What's Divine Meta-Cheese refer to?

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Divine Metamagic Cheese refers to a potentially broken combination of feats and magic items from Complete Divine, Complete Arcane and Libris Mortis.

Divine Metamagic is a feat from Complete Divine that allows a cleric, paladin, or any other type of character that can turn/rebuke undead and cast spells to spontaneously apply the effects of a metamagic feat to prepared spells by spending turn/rebuke attempts. Since the spell still only uses the slot in which it is prepared, this allows for things like casting a Quickened 8th level spell, which would normally require access to 12-level spell slots. Such a trick would require the expenditure of 5 turn/rebuke turn attempts, though (the cost of a particular divine metamagic is 1 + the metamagic's level increase.) The other primary balancing factor is that when you take the feat Divine Metamagic, it only works with a particular Metamagic feat you already possess.

Where things start to develop problems is with a particular item from Libris Mortis. I don't recall the item's exact name (Night Stick or something like that... I don't have Libris Mortis), but it is very, very cheap and grants a cleric more turn/rebuke attempts per day. Naturally, these attempts can be used to power Divine Metamagic. There are also other relatively cheap ways to gain more turn/rebuke attempts (if you're really in need, you could take the feat Extra Turning, for example).

The other problem area stems from Persistent Spell, a metamagic feat from both Complete Divine and Complete Arcane. Persistent Metamagic allows spells with a range of touch or personal to be extended to a 24-hour duration. It normally adjusts the spell's level by 6, and, therefore costs 7 turn attempts to use with Divine Metamagic.

This combination becomes all the more troublesome when you realize that metamagic feats don't have any prerequisite of actually having available spell slots in which you can use the modified spells. That means that though a cleric normally requires a 6th level slot to even use a Persistent 0-level spell, he or she couls still take Persistent spell at 1st level. And those clerics induldging in "Divine Metamagic Cheese" do just that. Since Persistent Spell has a prerequisite of Extend Spell, a human cleric gets Divine Metamagic (Persistent Spell) at third level.

The typical scenario used in discussions on this subject then assumes that the cleric goes to work at "out-fighting the fighter" by casting a Persistent divine favor every morning. At 7th level, the cleric is assumed to have move on to a Persistent divine power, effectively making him or her a fighter with divine spells instead of feats. If the cleric has enough Night Sticks (or whatever they're called...), at 9th level he or she can afford to use both divine power and rightous might. Note that all spells mentioned above have a Personal range, so they absolutely cannot be used to make the current fighter an über-fighter instead.

The Conventional Wisdom™ is that combinations such as the above are both Cheesy™ and Broken™.

Personally, being as used to tight teamwork situations where each character has a specific role, I have trouble seeing how clerics have enough chance to actually put those persistent buffs to use. They're always busy performing their unique support services. As such, your opinion on the above and similar combinations may vary from Conventional Wisdom™.

[Gorbash Kazdar]

Added Cheese, me love Thog, and Catgirls, re-wrote Fluff and Crunch, added new books to Abbreviations, expanded MAD entry, added WH, WH40k, IK, and FRPG, added additional minor clarifications, expansions, and corrections.

[Azrael]

... That lead to this "!!11oneone". That's ridiculous. And I've even seen this on far too many occasions "!!11oneoneeleveneleven". [/rant]

To be fair, the only times I've ever used seen "!!1oneleven" is when actively deriding the overexuberant use of exclaimation points. Its (I believe) original intent is to mock poor punctuation and leet speech.

[Zeb The Troll]

To be fair, the only times I've ever used seen "!!1oneleven" is when actively deriding the overexuberant use of exclaimation points. Its (I believe) original intent is to mock poor punctuation and leet speech.

I wish I could say I had the same experience. Unfortunately I see it used several times a week (nearly daily) in MMORPG's that I play. Much like "pwned*," the original use may not have been intended to lead to everyday usage, but it's caught on to such an extent that the common usage is no longer derisive but intentional and instead of mocking overuse of the exclamation point, it serves to actually over-emphasize it.

*To my horror, I even hear this used in face to face communications. The usage even includes the pronunciation of the "p," as in "powned" (rhymes with loaned) or "pownt" (loant?) and I cringe every time I do. I wish I could at least say that this conversational usage was at least limited to teenagers and twenty-somethings, but I've even heard men into their forties use it without the slightest hint of mockery when doing so.

[Rex Idiotarum]

It's 1337 (pronounced leet, as in elite), it a computer language that uses Symbols, Numbers, and even letters that are visually similar to the original intent, also it uses alot of gaming terms, and mixed languages, like "Uber" (German) and "Kekeke"(Korean Evil laugh). For more, Wikipedia, and even Google

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet
http://www.google.com/intl/xx-hacker/

[Zeb The Troll]

It's 1337 (pronounced leet, as in elite), it a computer language that uses Symbols, Numbers, and even letters that are visually similar to the original intent, also it uses alot of gaming terms, and mixed languages, like "Uber" (German) and "Kekeke"(Korean Evil laugh). For more, Wikipedia, and even Google

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet
http://www.google.com/intl/xx-hacker/

I'm well acquainted with the concept of "1337" speak. I'm not 12 and I've had an online presence for some years now. (By the way, it's not a language and arguably isn't even a dialect. At best it's "internet colloquialism".) That doesn't mean that I have to like it. Especially when the origination of a term is clearly not something clever but a typo that caught on and then was exaggerated. I hate it when I chat. I hate it when I read message boards. I hate seeing it in online games*. And I REALLY REALLY hate it when people say it to me in a face to face conversation like it's okay to stop using English. I don't even ask that it necessarily be proper English, just that if you didn't like something, say "That sucked" instead of "that was teh suxxorz." Gods help me the day I see 1337 One-Oh-One 4 N00BZ in a college course catalogue.

As it happens, what is construed as leet speak today is a total bastardization of the original leet speak and its intent. Given that it's original intention was to obfuscate the message, anything that is in common parlance (pwnt, teh suxxorz, l33t) is anything but "elite". It's just laziness combined with a misplaced perception of "cool".

It would be more accurate to call it netspeak or something along those lines, but alas, much like Alternative Rock has become fairly mainstream and no longer alternative, the term is ubiquitous even if inaccurate and as such not likely to change any time soon.

*It should be noted that what I'm disagreeable about is not common abbreviations or emotes that help to convey a message. LOL, OTOH, and :-) are all fine and dandy. In fact they are often useful in setting the tone of a message so that the proper inclination/inflection/inference can be read and nastiness avoided because of a misunderstanding.

[Rex Idiotarum]

Yes, yes, yes, I was providing more information on the subject rather than complaining about it's usage. And it's common enough to have i's own google.

[Gorbash Kazdar]

Comrade Gorby: This thread isn't meant for the discussion of whether or not the usage of a particular term is "acceptable." It is for explaining what a term used on the forums actually means. If you wish to discuss the former, please take it to another thread.

[Khantalas]

What's CoDzilla?

I looked for it, but couldn't find it. Does it have something to do with the Conspiracy?

[Shhalahr Windrider]

CoDzilla stands for "Cleric-or-Druid-zilla". It's a term meant to describe the theory that Clerics and Druids are the most powerful classes in D&D and that it is trivially easy to use these classes to completely dominate a campaign. The term originated on the WotC message boards. (I'm not sure exactly who coined it, nor do I have a link to the relevant post, but I know from experience other people on these boards could give you that information.)

[Khantalas]

I always read it as Caster of Doom - zilla. Or Caster of Death - zilla.

Guess I was wrong.

[Pegasos989]

I always read it as Caster of Doom - zilla. Or Caster of Death - zilla.

Guess I was wrong.

Nope, cleric or druid zilla. I think it was radical thaoist who used it... I'll see if I could google the original...

Oh, yes. It was on whether core only is better balanced.

"It bears saying: if up against a logic-impervious DM who thinks Core is balanced and Psionics (or Warlocks, or Fochlucan Lyrists, or anything balanced that's come out of splatbooks that aren't munchfests like Complete Divine) isn't, then the most powerful way to disprove that is to play a C.o.D. (Cleric or Druid). Noncore material will not be necessary unless you are going for pure overkill (Draconic Wildshape? Divine Metamagic?). So by all means, if you must win that argument, take you C.o.D. to town. Annihilate the opposition. Make the NPCs and other players scream "Oh no, it's C.o.D.zilla!!!!!" in badly dubbed English. Breathe radioactive fire. Knock down buildings. Then stomp out of the burning Tokyo that is the ruins of the game and swim off into the ocean, seeking a DM with some basic cognitive functions."

Whole quote (and illustrative diagram) can be found here: http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost....7&postcount=49

[Gorbash Kazdar]

Added twink and CoDzilla.

[Sisqui]

What does Woot (wOOt) or any other variation stand for?

[Maxymiuk]

"Woot" is basically an expression of joy at having done something that turned out well. An internet version of "Hooray!" if you will.

[NEO|Phyte]

I've also heard of it standing for "We Owned Other Team"