Talk to Ashiel About Anything Mark II [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

Ashiel

2016-09-17, 05:58 PM

Introduction
Good morning, afternoon, and evening. My name is Ashiel. Traditional D20 RPGs have been my passion for the last 16 years. I used to post on GitP years ago but took a long hiatus and have recently returned with a bunch of new friends. Because I often got into a lot of rule heavy discussions and make a number of homebrew things to share with people from time to time, I started getting lots of questions from people and so an AMA thread (http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2rxtz?-Ask-Ashiel-Anything) was born. This thread is so people can discuss anything they want with me publicly here at GitP.

To make everyone's life easier, I'll try to update this thread periodically to link to any creations, projects, threads, or specific posts that I've created. Both to serve to help people find them if they are looking for them or have a question about them. I decided to do this since I've had a number of people PM me in the past looking for stuff I made so it ends up as a common question that I can answer beforehand. :smallsmile:

Note: A good friend, Klara Meison, took the initiative to try to create an AMA thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?500653-d20legends-Development-aka-Off-Topic-discussions-Ask-Ashiel-Anything-The-Askening) for me before I even got back to GitP. However, due to questions and commentary about a different forum, the thread was (or will be soon) closed. Because of this, if you have any questions or concerns about the circumstances surrounding those things, toss me a PM as I don't think I can answer them in this thread (even in good spirits).

D20 Legends Project
If you have a question or discussion concerning my d20 revision, you can find its official D20 Legends Project thread here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?500934-D20-Legends-Project-Ashiel-s-Crunchy-but-Approachable-D20).

Links of Interest Concerning Me
Generally speaking, anything here is probably written with Pathfinder in mind but isn't particularly troublesome to use in a 3.x game.

Ashiel's Fighter Redux 2018 (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sOGN9WDedN8yI9bd1kZzpltBqoav2MuQ): A revised Fighter for people who don't want to deal with things like entirely new subsystems or who want the fighter to feel like the classic d20 fighter, with the intention of being as valuable in a party as other classes. Intended to feel like the fighter we've always wanted.
Ashiel's Blog - Alvena Publishing (http://alvenapublishing.blogspot.com/): My very infrequently updated blog which serves mostly as a platform for musings and advice pieces. There's a few encounter, GMing, and world building articles people have said they enjoy here.
Ashiel's Adventuring Guidebook (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1xywEW58IoLVXFSenJPQWVkU2M): An infrequently updated tips & tricks guide for surviving and thriving as an adventurer.
Ashiel's Ascetic Characters Mini-Sourcebook (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1xywEW58IoLQU9McjBVdjRoRjQ): A ruleset I threw together one afternoon as a gift for my friend Mikaze.
Ashiel's Revised Mariliths & Balors (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1xywEW58IoLblVMYzJQbFVHbU0): Mariliths and Balors are kind of a joke for their CR in 3.x D&D/Pathfinder. These are the ones I use.
Ashiel's Alternate Vampire Template #1 (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1xywEW58IoLeDRwS2c0cm95NEE): I wasn't fond of the vampire template from core 3.x/Pathfinder. This is the one I wrote as a replacement.
Ashiel's Psionic Monk (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1xywEW58IoLUTJyd05TZ09QS1U): This is the monk I use in my games and is intended as a replacement of the core monk.
In Defense of CR (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1xywEW58IoLZmpOb1kzc1RCY0k): This is where I explain why I like the CR system and think it's a good thing overall.
WoW-style Warlock Proof of Concept (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1xywEW58IoLTmRidmFRSF9CU3c): A project I started back when I had more free time. Destined to never be finished (by me anyway) and exists as a sort of proof of concept / academic piece. Even though I haven't worked on developing this in a long time I still get asked about it occasionally (hence why it's here).
Ashiel's Practical Optimization - Make the Numbers Fit the Character (http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2lh7k?Practical-Optimization-Make-the-Numbers-fit#1): A thread I started years ago on the Paizo boards to help players get their mechanics to better reflect what they wanted their characters to do.
Ashiel's Tome of Soul Binding (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1xywEW58IoLaEpGanFLODV5Mzg): This is an item I used in my games that a few people have asked about in the past.
Planar Binding And You (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=7503773&postcount=1): An old pre-Pathfinder guide I did about planar binding and similar spells. It's still relevant in Pathfinder too.
Ashiel's Terrible Goblins (http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2mgi0?Help-me-with-Tuckers-kobolds-scenario#8): An old friend, Ravingdork, asked for help making a goblin warren that challenged his mid level party. This is proof that I'm going to GM hell.
Ashiel's Really Unfair Dazing Druids Part 1 (http://paizo.com/forums/dmtz25dm&page=3?Blasting-Screw-the-mortals-and-their-victory#120) and Part 2 (http://paizo.com/forums/dmtz25dm&page=3?Blasting-Screw-the-mortals-and-their-victory#135): Some posts concerning taking a usually under powered form of blasting and making it stupidly good with a metamagic feat or two.

A special thanks to my friends for encouraging me to do this. :smallbiggrin:

Tels

2016-09-17, 07:00 PM

What are your favorite types of anime?

137beth

2016-09-17, 07:09 PM

"Dotting," as they say (even though there are no dots here.)

So, since we are now on this website, how often do you read/re-read OOTS?

On an unrelated note, what are your general feelings about the scope of "skills" in RPGs? In some games (e.g., GURPS), skills encompass almost everything you can do. In other games (e.g., D&D 3.5), "skills" are ultimately a very minor thing. Do you prefer one of those approaches over the other, or something else? Or does it not matter because what counts as a skill is just a semantics thing?

Yet another unrelated question: I know almost nothing about anime. I don't know that much about American movies, either (I'm more of a play person). But if I were to look to anime for inspiration for my D&D 3.5 or D20 Legends game, what would you suggest?

EDIT: Partially swordsaged by Tels

Kryzbyn

2016-09-17, 07:17 PM

Kryzbyn here, checking in.

Ashiel

2016-09-17, 07:29 PM

What are your favorite types of anime?
Define "types" for me? :smalltongue:

Lemmy

2016-09-17, 07:39 PM

What if I want to talk about something not Mark II?

Ashiel

2016-09-17, 07:41 PM

"Dotting," as they say (even though there are no dots here.)

So, since we are now on this website, how often do you read/re-read OOTS?
Not as often as I'd like. I'm literally years from being caught up. :smallredface:

On an unrelated note, what are your general feelings about the scope of "skills" in RPGs? In some games (e.g., GURPS), skills encompass almost everything you can do. In other games (e.g., D&D 3.5), "skills" are ultimately a very minor thing. Do you prefer one of those approaches over the other, or something else? Or does it not matter because what counts as a skill is just a semantics thing?
I think there's a tenuous balance between too many and too few. Even among my think-tank on Discord, there's sometimes discussion about trimming the number of skills down and consolidate more skills, but (perhaps to the frustration of some of my friends :smalltongue:), I've been fairly resistant to trimming what I think may be too much. We are going to consolidate a number of skills for sure, though I want to retain things like Craft, Profession, and Perform, albeit with some tweaking. I think it's all about finding a nice mixture of enough skills to give variety without needing a skill for everything from flying a plane to tying your shoes.

Yet another unrelated question: I know almost nothing about anime. I don't know that much about American movies, either (I'm more of a play person). But if I were to look to anime for inspiration for my D&D 3.5 or D20 Legends game, what would you suggest?
Depends on where you're looking for inspiration. Virtually any medium from anime to video games to comic books can be used to get conceptual ideas for things like adventures, settings, or even tones. For example, I'm a huge fan of the Vampire Hunter D movies (the original 80s film was one of my favorite movies as a child) and it has permanently colored my views on vampires and that reflects in the games that I GM.

If you mean mechanically, well, similar story. If you see something you like thematically, you can try to capture that in a mechanical sense, though this is notably more difficult since you have to translate those things into a mechanical sense but it's not impossible. In fact, quite frequently, when I'm writing mechanics I think about what thematic elements it is supposed to convey in game and write towards that end.

If you're looking for anime that have close ties to RPGs, I'd recommend Record of Lodoss War, an old anime that I really enjoyed and was actually based on a D&D campaign by the writer IIRC.

Ashiel

2016-09-17, 07:43 PM

What if I want to talk about something not Mark II?
Then you're a heretic and thus always welcome here. :smalltongue:

TheDerpyAlicorn

2016-09-17, 07:50 PM

Yay I found it!

I did take the chance to update my name from TheAlicornSage to TheDerpyAlicorn. Fits better I think. Do you like it better than my old one?

Ashiel

2016-09-17, 08:01 PM

Yay I found it!

I did take the chance to update my name from TheAlicornSage to TheDerpyAlicorn. Fits better I think. Do you like it better than my old one?It's definitely more humorous. I'd like you the same either way though. :smallsmile:

Tels

2016-09-17, 08:10 PM

Define "types" for me? :smalltongue:

Well there's the type directed at young teens, like Dragon Ball Z, Fairy Tail, Sailor Moon or Ouran High Host Club, then there's the ones directed at older teens - college age, like Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Paradise Kiss or Velvet kiss. I'll ignore the anime made for young children. I know there are specific names they use for these (like shoujo and seinen) but I have no idea which is which.

Then, of course, there's the different genres, slice of life, action, comedy, supernatural, sci-fi, horror, romance etc.

If I had to guess, I would imagine you would prefer the older teen/college age, as you've mentioned your some favorites in the past that were more mature and had darker elements. But you also enjoy your Outlaw Stars from time to time.

Not as often as I'd like. I'm literally years from being caught up. :smallredface:

I think there's a tenuous balance between too many and too few. Even among my think-tank on Discord, there's sometimes discussion about trimming the number of skills down and consolidate more skills, but (perhaps to the frustration of some of my friends :smalltongue:), I've been fairly resistant to trimming what I think may be too much. We are going to consolidate a number of skills for sure, though I want to retain things like Craft, Profession, and Perform, albeit with some tweaking. I think it's all about finding a nice mixture of enough skills to give variety without needing a skill for everything from flying a plane to tying your shoes.

Depends on where you're looking for inspiration. Virtually any medium from anime to video games to comic books can be used to get conceptual ideas for things like adventures, settings, or even tones. For example, I'm a huge fan of the Vampire Hunter D movies (the original 80s film was one of my favorite movies as a child) and it has permanently colored my views on vampires and that reflects in the games that I GM.

If you mean mechanically, well, similar story. If you see something you like thematically, you can try to capture that in a mechanical sense, though this is notably more difficult since you have to translate those things into a mechanical sense but it's not impossible. In fact, quite frequently, when I'm writing mechanics I think about what thematic elements it is supposed to convey in game and write towards that end.

If you're looking for anime that have close ties to RPGs, I'd recommend Record of Lodoss War, an old anime that I really enjoyed and was actually based on a D&D campaign by the writer IIRC.

To further expand on this, anime is such a broad term that it covers literally everything you could see on TV, but animated. There are anime focusing on people who just live their life and deal with things as they come (like a sit-com), anime focused on cooking, except with more bewbs (see Food Wars). There are action and adventure anime, coming of age anime, romance anime, anime that is really popular yet also extremely hated (Naruto, Sword Art Online).

You can find inspiration for RPGs in nearly any anime, because there are so many ideas and stories and plots you can adapt or steal from. But if you're looking for anime that specifically deals with games... There's a genre of anime in which people get trapped in a game, and has shows like .hack, Sword Art Online, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, Log Horizon, and to some extent, No Game No Life. Many of the different action adventure stories have plots or things that can be a good resource for inspiration, like Hunter x Hunter, Fairy Tail, Naruto, One Piece, Outlaw Star, Trigun, Yu Yu Hakusho etc.

It all comes down to what inspires you, and what you're looking to adapt. I mean, I know that many people hate Sword Art Online as an anime, and they have many good reasons, but there are also some gems as far as inspiration for class mechanics in there (or, at least in the light novels anyway). A show like Grimgar could help you better paint a picture of what it's like to be an adventurer at low levels, while Log Horizon can show examples of how to challenge god-like powerful PCs with other things than simply combat. Attack on Titan is a good show for showing what it's like for humans to deal with giants, while shows like Trigun, Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star are all more space-western adventures.

Ashiel

2016-09-17, 08:39 PM

Well there's the type directed at young teens, like Dragon Ball Z, Fairy Tail, Sailor Moon or Ouran High Host Club, then there's the ones directed at older teens - college age, like Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Paradise Kiss or Velvet kiss. I'll ignore the anime made for young children. I know there are specific names they use for these (like shoujo and seinen) but I have no idea which is which.

Then, of course, there's the different genres, slice of life, action, comedy, supernatural, sci-fi, horror, romance etc.

If I had to guess, I would imagine you would prefer the older teen/college age, as you've mentioned your some favorites in the past that were more mature and had darker elements. But you also enjoy your Outlaw Stars from time to time.
That's a pretty good assessment and helps a lot in understanding the question. I like a wide variety of things for different reasons. While on average I'm pretty attracted to mature plot heavy animes, I likewise have no problems enjoying things like DBZ or Panty&Stocking w/Garterbelt, or fun genre-bending things like Outlaw Star. I even enjoy some anime aimed primarily at kids (I'm a big Sailor Moon fan for example). I'm pretty happy that I haven't gotten too rigid in my appreciation of different expressions of ideas and entertainment because I have no problems interfacing into a conversation about the cool setting of Vampire Hunter D, or having a conversation with a teenager about the pros and cons of Tokyo Ghoul (which I think is crap btw, but YMMV :P).

To further expand on this, anime is such a broad term that it covers literally everything you could see on TV, but animated. There are anime focusing on people who just live their life and deal with things as they come (like a sit-com), anime focused on cooking, except with more bewbs (see Food Wars). There are action and adventure anime, coming of age anime, romance anime, anime that is really popular yet also extremely hated (Naruto, Sword Art Online).
Honestly, I'm all over the place honestly. Heck, even some animes that are hated I actually like. For example, we recently got Netflix and I was browsing through the anime section and found an anime I had never heard of called "Tweeny Witches" which is rated at like 1/2 a star or something abysmally low. I was so curious as to why it was so bad that I started watching it and amusingly, I like it. It's really different and kind of cute but strangely dark in some ways. I haven't gotten around to finishing it but I'll end up rating it much higher than its general rating I'm sure.

You can find inspiration for RPGs in nearly any anime, because there are so many ideas and stories and plots you can adapt or steal from. But if you're looking for anime that specifically deals with games... There's a genre of anime in which people get trapped in a game, and has shows like .hack, Sword Art Online, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, Log Horizon, and to some extent, No Game No Life. Many of the different action adventure stories have plots or things that can be a good resource for inspiration, like Hunter x Hunter, Fairy Tail, Naruto, One Piece, Outlaw Star, Trigun, Yu Yu Hakusho etc.I think your post is going to have to serve as a list of things to go look up. :smallsmile:

It all comes down to what inspires you, and what you're looking to adapt. I mean, I know that many people hate Sword Art Online as an anime, and they have many good reasons, but there are also some gems as far as inspiration for class mechanics in there (or, at least in the light novels anyway). A show like Grimgar could help you better paint a picture of what it's like to be an adventurer at low levels, while Log Horizon can show examples of how to challenge god-like powerful PCs with other things than simply combat. Attack on Titan is a good show for showing what it's like for humans to deal with giants, while shows like Trigun, Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star are all more space-western adventures.
I sometimes get inspiration from seemingly unrelated things because of messages that carry across genres. I was talking to a friend on Discord about how important the dhampir hatred in Vampire Hunter D was for the story and setting, and explaining that you need NPCs to react poorly towards certain races because it creates the adversity that makes the light all the brighter when you see it. When Doris Laine apologies to D because she spoke harshly about vampires and their honor, only to realize she may have hurt his feelings and his response to her was important. It led up to the intense scene where she grips him later and tells him she doesn't care and is even willing to let him have her as a vampire. It creates the intensity and draws out the real characters within.

EDIT: Specifically, we were talking about how when you set out to play something out of the ordinary, like a tiefling, or vampire, or whatever, having everyone act like you're a run of the mill human with horns growing out of their face or an eating disorder is pretty immersion breaking and it's disappointing for the player most of the time. In fact, a big part of the fun of playing a vampire character for me is the game of pretending to be a human and socializing with NPCs and feeding on them in secret. Because the need to keep it secret makes it all the more impactful when you have to make the choice between revealing yourself and doing what needs doing.

Cicciograna

2016-09-17, 09:40 PM

Lemmy

2016-09-17, 09:51 PM

Have you ever been in a period of your life where you thought Gosh, if only I were my cool/powerful/characteristic/different wizard/rogue/ranger/whatever! (...)?
Wait... Are you telling me you don't think that nearly all the freaking time?

Uh... Because I don't either! Yeah... I sure never think about having the powers of my characters. Nope. Not at all...:smalleek:

Tels

2016-09-17, 09:57 PM

Wait... Are you telling me you don't think that nearly all the freaking time?

Uh... Because I don't either! Yeah... I sure never think about having the powers of my characters. Nope. Not at all...:smalleek:

I never walk around my house pretending to shoot fireballs, or explode windows. Nor do I ever long to have telekinetic powers so I can float around, move things without touching them or clean my entire house without ever leaving the couch.

That's totally not what happens!

*cries inside at the lack of telekinetic powers*

Rynjin

2016-09-17, 11:45 PM

Telekinesis is within my top 3 of "Powers I wish I had". It shares space with #1 (shapeshifting. Proper shapeshifting with no particular form or duration limits. boom I have Gills! Tentacles! Abs!) and super speed.

So what are your top 3 powers you wish you had, Ashiel?

And since you said you watch TFS stuff, do you follow their gaming channel?

Have you read the words of my lord and master Wildbow (Worm, Pact, and especially Twig)?

Zilrax

2016-09-18, 12:17 AM

Mine will be Shapeshifting, Super Speed, and Teleportation.

137beth

2016-09-18, 12:43 AM

Then you're a heretic and thus always welcome here. :smalltongue:

Which reminds me:
There are no aliases on this website. In pbps, people typically use colored text for in-character (with a different color for each character depending on the theme you want to set for that character), which fulfills much the same role pbp aliases do on Paizo.com, except that you can have multiple different characters in one post.

So, uh, what color should we use for Ashiel Cultist posts? I'd prefer if it wasn't Blue, gray, or plum, because I already mentally associate them with other things on this website.
Blue is totally not sarcastic. And this trend is totally not the most popular color-association on the forum.
Technically it's not an official forum rule, but a lot of people seem to use grey for nitpicking.
The meaning of plum text is basically established in the What am I Supposed to do (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?275152-What-am-I-supposed-to-do/page10) thread, but only an Authyr of superior intelligence can understand what it means.

But none of those are anywhere near set in stone, and they are overridden frequently by individual users' desires to use them for something else (particularly on the pbp forum.) It's just my personal preference to reserve those three colors. What do the other Ashiel Cultists prefer?

Klara Meison

2016-09-18, 03:26 AM

Your link to your old AmA thread links instead to your old profile page. Probably unintentional.

"Dotting," as they say (even though there are no dots here.)

There are, actually. See here. (http://puu.sh/rfej6/4965bd5c59.png) Gray tick is thread you replied to, green dot is threads with new posts, and green tick(not shown) is threads you have replied to with new posts.

Have you read the words of my lord and master Wildbow (Worm, Pact, and especially Twig)?

I tried to make her interested in Worm by retelling the story of Miss Riley, but, alas, I don't think I succeeded.

Mashallah

2016-09-18, 05:50 AM

Just in case: Ashiel, your AAA link in your signature still points to a single post, not to a thread.

Ashiel

2016-09-18, 06:02 AM

At what point, in your opinion, playing RPGs transcends the mere search for fun/challenge and becomes escapism?
Have you ever been in a period of your life where you thought Gosh, if only I were my cool/powerful/characteristic/different wizard/rogue/ranger/whatever! because you were in a particularly stressful phase, because you wanted to be more than what you are, or simply because you wanted to be "different"?

I can't say that I've ever leaned that far into being a character, but I've definitely used RPGs to explore concepts or issues that mattered to me in real life. They can be a wonderful learning and perhaps therapeutic tool that way.

Just in case: Ashiel, your AAA link in your signature still points to a single post, not to a thread.
Thanks. Fixed it. :smallredface:

So what are your top 3 powers you wish you had, Ashiel?
I think I answered a similar question a while back but it'd probably be...

Psychokenesis
Mastered Necromancy
Telepathy/Mind-Alteration

And since you said you watch TFS stuff, do you follow their gaming channel?
They have a gaming channel?

Have you read the words of my lord and master Wildbow (Worm, Pact, and especially Twig)?
Nope...I kinda forgot about it. :smallredface:

Mashallah

2016-09-18, 06:39 AM

Thanks. Fixed it. :smallredface:
I deleted my cookies and cache to ensure it's not a problem on my end and it's still not fixed as far as I can see.

EDIT: now it is. Forum lag or something?

TOZ

2016-09-18, 09:52 AM

*lurches in* Three slot days at cons tend to kill me. Thankfully, everyone here has been super awesome.

Edit: And now I'm playing with Clinton Boomer running the adventure he wrote.

Klara Meison

2016-09-18, 11:27 AM

How do you usually go about designing your characters? What do you start with, what considerations do you keep in mind?

Ashiel

2016-09-18, 01:53 PM

I deleted my cookies and cache to ensure it's not a problem on my end and it's still not fixed as far as I can see.

EDIT: now it is. Forum lag or something?
Nah, I had just fixed the wrong link and fixed the right one just before running out the door for work. :smallredface:

Ashiel

2016-09-18, 02:11 PM

How do you usually go about designing your characters? What do you start with, what considerations do you keep in mind?I create my characters like I draw pictures. I begin with a loose conceptual thing and expand from there, adding additional details. Where that initial concept is formed varies from character to character. Sometimes it begins with an idea such as "a creepy witch living in a small hut in the woods" and then I'll find what best represents it mechanically, or it might be born from mechanical inspiration such as "this shapeshifting thing looks really fun, I'll make a character around it" and then end with a creepy witch down the line. The end result is the same either way: A creepy witch living in the woods who shapeshifts.

When I'm adding details to a character, I tend to ask myself questions like these.

What's his/her personality like?
Why is his/her personality like that?
What family do they have? Also, what relationships do they have with them?
What friends or rivals do they have? Also, what relationships do they have with them?
What got them into adventuring / what tends to motivate them?
What sort of character flaws and weaknesses do they need to grow out of?
What's something that's pretty good about them as a person?

A lot of these are slightly built out of an interest in psychology. For example, when you start thinking about why a character's personality is a certain way, their backstory will begin to build itself in your mind as your brain starts explaining why they have things like insecurities, what inspires them to be brave, etc.

In the case of family, friends, and rivals, no human exists as an island. Your relationships with things like friends and family shape you. Even if it never comes up in game, it's generally more interesting to talk about sending your brother or sister back home souvenirs or trying to make your parents proud than to talk about how your family was wiped out by orcs and how your life was crap. BUT it has the side benefit of actually making your friends who have the "Bad thing happened and now I'm orphaned" more special since it provides a sense of contrast that makes their situation feel more special than it would in the traditional faceless hobos game. :smallamused:

Because of this, I'll usually create a few minor NPCs that matter to my character at the beginning of a campaign. I ask my players for these sorts of cliffnotes too. Things like "Do you have mother/father/brothers/sisters? Do you have any friends/rivals?", or they can let me surprise them.

Of course, very little of this actually has to be completed before playing. Sometimes you haven't quite got the personality of your character locked in until you actually meet them at the table. One of my more deep characters (the shapeshifting witch I mentioned here) began as nothing more than a loose concept and I built on her over the course of a several sessions and between sessions. Before long, she had a deep personality, friends and rivals, a family legacy, long term wishes and obligations, and flaws she was working through as she gained levels (and did in fact work through them. When we began she was nervous and skittish around people and had poor social skills, by the time we stopped playing she was the party's face).

Ashiel

2016-09-18, 02:12 PM

*lurches in* Three slot days at cons tend to kill me. Thankfully, everyone here has been super awesome.

Edit: And now I'm playing with Clinton Boomer running the adventure he wrote.
That sounds pretty awesome. I've never been to a gaming Con. We don't have many of them nearby.

TOZ

2016-09-18, 04:46 PM

That sounds pretty awesome. I've never been to a gaming Con. We don't have many of them nearby.

I am blessed to have the means to travel to many of them. After the airline delays back in August, we got vouchers for our next flight, so this trip cost about 5 bucks with reward points. The hotel was thankfully split with another con-goer at about 150 and early reg was 20. So ~180 bucks to come out here, plus the cost of food.

Tels

2016-09-18, 06:34 PM

What is your favorite meal of the day? Mine is breakfast. If I could eat breakfast for every meal of the day, I would die a happier man.

Snow-blind

2016-09-18, 06:39 PM

Here is an interesting game design question that I have been pondering...

How much should the tactical and strategic framing of a fight affect its outcome?

What I mean by that is this:

Consider a group of PCs and a group of hostiles who encounter each other under the following (rather extreme) conditions:

1. The PCs and hostile blunder into each other, and all of them are totally unprepared beyond common day-to-day precautions and had no idea of each others existence.

2. The PCs and the hostiles know they are going to be fighting each other and all show up to the battle buffed to the max and with as many "silver bullet" options as they can muster.

3. Aided by plenty of information, time, planning and powerful equipment, the PCs carefully set up an ambush against the hostiles, who are utterly unaware of the PCs.

4. As 3., but the PCs are getting ambushed.

How different should these fights all look?

In particular, if one side is weaker, how much weaker can they be while still being able to defeat their opposition using advantage that doesn't stem from power-level or wealth. In a similar vein, should a mutual lack of information be a boon to the weaker side, or the stronger one i.e. can an advantage in character power be negated through preparation, or does preparation augment character power beyond an opponent's ability to counteract it given equal opportunity.

EDIT: I should clarify. This is more of a general question rather than anything relating to d20 legends specifically (hence why it isn't in that thread). It is something I have been wondering about since the homebrew I have been working on swings the pendulum very heavily towards "Great Wyrms can get splattered by an A10 with virtually no opportunity for defense or retaliation". In more directly gameplay relevant terms, a well planned ambush by a shadowrunner-esque PC strike team can kill CR=APL+10 foes before they can respond. I don't really know if this is a problem that I have to fix or not, because I haven't seen any serious discussion on this issue.

Double EDIT: On the bright side, this sort of thing could explain why high level characters don't just go around and do everything - the slightest screw up has the potential to cost those extremely rare high level characters their lives, and given the value they can provide it is a far better option to send an "inferior" force if that force is sufficient. Especially since those high level characters are so freakishly high value and so relatively easy to kill that they are almost the definition of the term "high value target" and will be gunned for by intelligent opposition whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Klara Meison

2016-09-18, 07:05 PM

Here is an interesting game design question that I have been pondering...

How much should the tactical and strategic framing of a fight affect its outcome?

What I mean by that is this:

Consider a group of PCs and a group of hostiles who encounter each other under the following (rather extreme) conditions:

1. The PCs and hostile blunder into each other, and all of them are totally unprepared beyond common day-to-day precautions and had no idea of each others existence.

2. The PCs and the hostiles know they are going to be fighting each other and all show up to the battle buffed to the max and with as many "silver bullet" options as they can muster.

3. Aided by plenty of information, time, planning and powerful equipment, the PCs carefully set up an ambush against the hostiles, who are utterly unaware of the PCs.

4. As 3., but the PCs are getting ambushed.

How different should these fights all look?

In particular, if one side is weaker, how much weaker can they be while still being able to defeat their opposition using advantage that doesn't stem from power-level or wealth. In a similar vein, should a mutual lack of information be a boon to the weaker side, or the stronger one i.e. can an advantage in character power be negated through preparation, or does preparation augment character power beyond an opponent's ability to counteract it given equal opportunity.

>1. The PCs and hostile blunder into each other, and all of them are totally unprepared beyond common day-to-day precautions and had no idea of each others existence.

>2. The PCs and the hostiles know they are going to be fighting each other and all show up to the battle buffed to the max and with as many "silver bullet" options as they can muster.

Given that in Pathfinder "common day-to-day precautions" may include "Ask your 28 pet imps to use their Commune to get 24-168 questions about what would happen today", I am not sure what's the difference.

Snow-blind

2016-09-18, 07:10 PM

>1. The PCs and hostile blunder into each other, and all of them are totally unprepared beyond common day-to-day precautions and had no idea of each others existence.

>2. The PCs and the hostiles know they are going to be fighting each other and all show up to the battle buffed to the max and with as many "silver bullet" options as they can muster.

Given that in Pathfinder "common day-to-day precautions" may include "Ask your 28 pet imps to use their Commune to get 24-168 questions about what would happen today", I am not sure what's the difference.
Most PC parties don't do that because it would be considered abusive and game breaking. On the contrary, plenty of PC groups do minimal scouting or intelligence gathering, and are very likely to blunder into a fight with no warning. The distinction matters a lot.

Ashiel

2016-09-18, 07:56 PM

What is your favorite meal of the day? Mine is breakfast. If I could eat breakfast for every meal of the day, I would die a happier man.Whichever meal I'm currently eating. :smalltongue:

Ashiel

2016-09-18, 08:17 PM

Here is an interesting game design question that I have been pondering...

How much should the tactical and strategic framing of a fight affect its outcome?

What I mean by that is this:

Consider a group of PCs and a group of hostiles who encounter each other under the following (rather extreme) conditions:

1. The PCs and hostile blunder into each other, and all of them are totally unprepared beyond common day-to-day precautions and had no idea of each others existence.

2. The PCs and the hostiles know they are going to be fighting each other and all show up to the battle buffed to the max and with as many "silver bullet" options as they can muster.

3. Aided by plenty of information, time, planning and powerful equipment, the PCs carefully set up an ambush against the hostiles, who are utterly unaware of the PCs.

4. As 3., but the PCs are getting ambushed.

How different should these fights all look?
Generally speaking I think that strong preparation makes a bit difference in how a fight goes down. I've seen my players SWAT-team encounters that were very hard and clean them up very effectively. I've seen them do the same with encounters that would have been more or less impossible and succeed from much the same. I think that's a good thing but trying to pin down how much it should matter is pretty hard to gauge since the value of information varies depending on what you're encountering (knowing you're fighting a werewolf lets you prepare the appropriate weapons, but knowing all but one of your enemies are going to be illusions is a different story :smalltongue:).

In particular, if one side is weaker, how much weaker can they be while still being able to defeat their opposition using advantage that doesn't stem from power-level or wealth. In a similar vein, should a mutual lack of information be a boon to the weaker side, or the stronger one i.e. can an advantage in character power be negated through preparation, or does preparation augment character power beyond an opponent's ability to counteract it given equal opportunity.
Again, I think it varies depending on what sorts of shenanigans each side is going to be getting up to and how beneficial their tricks are against unprepared foes. For example, against an ill prepared group, things like darkness SLAs can turn an otherwise trivial encounter for PCs into a really harsh encounter even if their foes are otherwise trivial. Meanwhile, enemies that might normally be really terrible might be trivial if you can counter their main shtick.

That said, I think it generally favors the guys who are have better gear and stats because they have more of a chance to adapt before getting dismantled.

Rynjin

2016-09-18, 08:51 PM

They have a gaming channel?

Yeah, a pretty good one actually. Their Let's Plays are usually really fun to watch.

Recently in particular, their Pokemon Leaf Green Nuzlocke (completed), Soul Silver Nuzlocke (ongoing), and Kingdom Hearts streams are great. Their drunk streams are fun to watch too if you don't mind loads of deaths in Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3.

Lanipator (Vegeta and Piccolo, primarily. Owner of TFS), Kirran (does writing, and played the Big Ghetti Star in the Cell 2 Revengeance movie. I think he's also their community manager), and Grant (Kirran's friend...that's basically it. He's cool though) are the primary ones who do stuff.

Good way to get your TFS fix between episodes of DBZA and Hellsing Abridged, and a head and shoulders above most of the competition in the Youtube gaming channel scene IMHO.

Ashiel

2016-09-18, 09:04 PM

Yeah, a pretty good one actually. Their Let's Plays are usually really fun to watch.

Recently in particular, their Pokemon Leaf Green Nuzlocke (completed), Soul Silver Nuzlocke (ongoing), and Kingdom Hearts streams are great. Their drunk streams are fun to watch too if you don't mind loads of deaths in Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3.

Lanipator (Vegeta and Piccolo, primarily. Owner of TFS), Kirran (does writing, and played the Big Ghetti Star in the Cell 2 Revengeance movie. I think he's also their community manager), and Grant (Kirran's friend...that's basically it. He's cool though) are the primary ones who do stuff.

Good way to get your TFS fix between episodes of DBZA and Hellsing Abridged, and a head and shoulders above most of the competition in the Youtube gaming channel scene IMHO.
I'll have to check that out sometime. Sounds like fun. :smallsmile:

137beth

2016-09-18, 10:02 PM

I am blessed to have the means to travel to many of them. After the airline delays back in August, we got vouchers for our next flight, so this trip cost about 5 bucks with reward points. The hotel was thankfully split with another con-goer at about 150 and early reg was 20. So ~180 bucks to come out here, plus the cost of food.
I've never been to a gaming convention. Not enough time, and honestly, I'm not sure I'd like it: I prefer to game with people as a part-time hobby, and I feel like I'd be too focused on gaming at a convention for my own enjoyment.

On the other hand, I might be willing to go to a convention if it meant meeting Ashiel and/or TriOmegaZero in person.

Klara Meison

2016-09-19, 06:34 AM

Why is your oots avatar a planetar?

Talonhawke

2016-09-19, 07:24 AM

Talonhawke I'm back and stop moving:biggrin:

Tels

2016-09-19, 08:06 AM

How often do you pull all-nighters? I'm currently doing one 'cause I have an over two-page letter to get sent off in the morning.

Kryzbyn

2016-09-19, 09:42 AM

I was up until 3 am trying to get 30 world quests done in WOW, does that count?

Lemmy

2016-09-19, 12:54 PM

Why is your oots avatar a planetar?It's cute and powerful... Does she need any more reason? :smallwink:

PS: BTW, I love how you added a curly mustache to your avatar! :smallbiggrin:

PPS: I use so many emojis... think I might have a problem. :smalleek:

Klara Meison

2016-09-19, 01:34 PM

It's cute and powerful... Does she need any more reason? :smallwink:

PS: BTW, I love how you added a curly mustache to your avatar! :smallbiggrin:

PPS: I use so many emojis... think I might have a problem. :smalleek:

That is because this is actually my evil twin.

Kryzbyn

2016-09-19, 01:41 PM

Should be a goatee, then? ;)

Ashiel

2016-09-19, 02:29 PM

Why is your oots avatar a planetar?
The main reasons are...

It was the most appealing avatar for me on the list at the time.
I really like angels in D&D and see them as my iconic good outsiders.
Angels hold a certain significance to me due to IRL experiences.

While the 1st isn't very interesting, and the 3rd reason is kind of a can of worms that would end up going down the rabbit whole of spiritual experiences, the 2nd I think stands to make a decent D&D tangent. That is the nature of angels as outsiders wearing the "good" badges, so I'm going to talk about that here a bit.

As framed in the D&D I've grown up with, the three primary good-aligned outsiders are Archons, Angels, and Azatas.

Archons who are typically Lawful Good.
Azatas who are typically Chaotic Good.
Angels who are typically Neutral Good or just "Good".

I think angels have appealed to me as the quintessential good outsiders because they have no predisposition for Order or Chaos, their predisposition is one of simple Good. And it is the Good and Evil alignments that I care the most about and enjoy toying with when telling stories as a GM or creating characters as a player. In hindsight that shouldn't really be surprising considering law vs chaos tends to present itself in paradoxical and stupid forms in D&D, such as the logical fallacies of Inevitables, or the lack of meaningful persona of Proteans, while Good and Evil are far easier to relate to and - within the definitions given in alignment - are easier to understand.

Angels for the most part appear as human-like creatures as well and these similarities are both subtly encouraging as an icon of perfection, and subtly discomforting when their perfection is found to be flawed. In some ways, angels and the notion of fallen angels serve to contrast the high and lows of ourselves in spirit, in much the same way that orcs represent the vices of humanity in a cultural sense.

Even when they break from their Good alignments, most fallen angels are understood to still on some level be angels, and their reasons for falling are often presented as pragmatic or overly zealous, often understandable, often relatable, and often not wholly without some remnants of their former righteousness still manifesting and muddying the waters of themselves.

Angels are often ideal outsiders to use as guides, guardians, and messengers because of their various strengths and apparent wisdom. Likewise, being unaffiliated with Law or Chaos, they're a suitable catch-all ally for good heroes and characters in general. They're of course not the only outsiders that fall into these roles (I've even used Djinn for similar things in the past), but when I think about good outsiders that are going to aid PCs, angels are usually on the forefront of my mind.

On Outsiders in My Games
While angels are a favorite outsider of mine, they're often given less screen time than other outsiders. Given their high CRs, most are treated as sort of quasi-deities or demigods in my settings, and I use a very wide range of other outsiders for various purposes. I also try to avoid portraying outsiders as caricatures and more as powerful but intelligent spiritual beings. For example, in my games, evil outsiders don't instantly want to destroy everything. Pit fiends could almost be described as classy with a sort of faux honor born out of their own self respect. Succubi are quite capricious but not unreasonable, quite suited for sowing discord or acting as an unlikely ally in some cases where their interests coincide. I include both Hindu and Zoroastrian elements to Asuras (something I was disappointed with in the Pathfinder depiction). Spirits such as Djinn may act as guardians and guides for people or individuals. Most, somehow, tend to be relatable.

Ashiel

2016-09-19, 03:00 PM

How often do you pull all-nighters? I'm currently doing one 'cause I have an over two-page letter to get sent off in the morning.It depends on if I have work the next day. My sleep schedule as it relates to working is probably one of the biggest obstacles to getting stuff done at an efficient pace. My schedule shifts around a lot so I often have to re-align my sleep pattern with only a day in between, which I've mostly adapted to but it tends to mean I spend a fair amount of time in bed going to sleep to make sure I'm at least fairly rested before going back to work.

I'm getting a new job in a few weeks though unless something weird happens. I should have a more reasonable schedule when that's the case, which I'm hoping will mean giving me more time to work on my projects and GM a game or two for my group (who have said they miss me having time for gaming :smallfrown:).

When I land a few days off in a row, all nighters tend to happen with fair frequency.

Klara Meison

2016-09-19, 03:13 PM

Should be a goatee, then? ;)

My drawing skills aren't sufficient for that. Even the moustache has been photoshoped in as a separate picture I found on google.

Ashiel

2016-09-19, 03:35 PM

My drawing skills aren't sufficient for that. Even the moustache has been photoshoped in as a separate picture I found on google.

I think it seems pretty classic in a mustache twirling **** Dastardly (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/****_Dastardly) sort of way. :smallamused:

EDIT: I did not see that filter coming. I wonder if the filter butcher's poor **** Van Dyke (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/****_Van_Dyke) too.

Rynjin

2016-09-19, 06:35 PM

I'll admit, I was actually expecting it to come out as **** Van ****. I've seen that a few places with overly strict word filters.

Also mustachified.com is a good site for making silly facial hair changes. The original avatar I was going to use was an image of Franken Stein from Soul Eater with a top hat and goatee/mustache (I use it elsewhere) but it seems like it was too big for this site and just came out a white box, and I'm too lazy to edit it.

Edit: And this site has a minimum post limit for posting links, apparently.

Ashiel

2016-09-19, 07:03 PM

Zilrax

2016-09-19, 08:13 PM

You read dis webcomic I posted for you earlier? If so, what you think? http://www.valsalia.com/comic/prologue/01/

Rynjin

2016-09-19, 08:21 PM

Yeah, auto-filters are funny. Speaking of Frankenstein, I recently started watching Penny Dreadful on Netflix. I'm only a few episodes in but it looks like it might be interesting. :smallsmile:

It was a good show, though the ending was...eh.

Ashiel

2016-09-19, 09:26 PM

You read dis webcomic I posted for you earlier? If so, what you think? http://www.valsalia.com/comic/prologue/01/
Not yet but I bookmarked it. :)

It was a good show, though the ending was...eh.
Hmmmm...I haven't gotten there yet. I'm like maybe 3-4 episodes in I think.

TOZ

2016-09-20, 12:44 AM

On the other hand, I might be willing to go to a convention if it meant meeting Ashiel and/or TriOmegaZero in person.

I try to be pretty open about my travel plans to facilitate people meeting me.

DracoknightZero

2016-09-20, 01:19 AM

Hmm, on the topic of outsiders: Personally i was thinking of having a "Hirachy" of the outsiders where you have the Law and Chaos as "lesser" deities and then you have the neutral kind as the "true" good/evil as their being is not being split on the topic and not too extreme on the side of law nor chaos as it would prevent them to do the most good/evil.

Like on the evil side you have Devils too obsessed by the contracts and their lawful nature to do be effecient where the situation require chaos, and the chaotic side is too chaotic to get anything properly organized. So then you will have the middle ground as the proper leaders as they herd the chaotics and bind the lawfuls to their will.

Tels

2016-09-20, 02:54 AM

If you haven't watched the anime Food Wars yet, you should. Absolutely hilarious.

Klara Meison

2016-09-20, 03:09 AM

Should be a goatee, then? ;)

By popular request, I added a goatee to my profile picture. What do you think?

Tels

2016-09-20, 04:23 AM

By popular request, I added a goatee to my profile picture. What do you think?

My thoughts. (https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RXKJolS9Atg/hqdefault.jpg)

Kryzbyn

2016-09-20, 08:15 AM

By popular request, I added a goatee to my profile picture. What do you think?

LOL very nice.
Evil Spock should have tad a twirl mustache.

Klara Meison

2016-09-20, 08:15 AM

The main reasons are...

It was the most appealing avatar for me on the list at the time.
I really like angels in D&D and see them as my iconic good outsiders.
Angels hold a certain significance to me due to IRL experiences.

While the 1st isn't very interesting, and the 3rd reason is kind of a can of worms that would end up going down the rabbit whole of spiritual experiences, the 2nd I think stands to make a decent D&D tangent. That is the nature of angels as outsiders wearing the "good" badges, so I'm going to talk about that here a bit.

As framed in the D&D I've grown up with, the three primary good-aligned outsiders are Archons, Angels, and Azatas.

Archons who are typically Lawful Good.
Azatas who are typically Chaotic Good.
Angels who are typically Neutral Good or just "Good".

I think angels have appealed to me as the quintessential good outsiders because they have no predisposition for Order or Chaos, their predisposition is one of simple Good. And it is the Good and Evil alignments that I care the most about and enjoy toying with when telling stories as a GM or creating characters as a player. In hindsight that shouldn't really be surprising considering law vs chaos tends to present itself in paradoxical and stupid forms in D&D, such as the logical fallacies of Inevitables, or the lack of meaningful persona of Proteans, while Good and Evil are far easier to relate to and - within the definitions given in alignment - are easier to understand.

Angels for the most part appear as human-like creatures as well and these similarities are both subtly encouraging as an icon of perfection, and subtly discomforting when their perfection is found to be flawed. In some ways, angels and the notion of fallen angels serve to contrast the high and lows of ourselves in spirit, in much the same way that orcs represent the vices of humanity in a cultural sense.

Even when they break from their Good alignments, most fallen angels are understood to still on some level be angels, and their reasons for falling are often presented as pragmatic or overly zealous, often understandable, often relatable, and often not wholly without some remnants of their former righteousness still manifesting and muddying the waters of themselves.

Angels are often ideal outsiders to use as guides, guardians, and messengers because of their various strengths and apparent wisdom. Likewise, being unaffiliated with Law or Chaos, they're a suitable catch-all ally for good heroes and characters in general. They're of course not the only outsiders that fall into these roles (I've even used Djinn for similar things in the past), but when I think about good outsiders that are going to aid PCs, angels are usually on the forefront of my mind.

On Outsiders in My Games
While angels are a favorite outsider of mine, they're often given less screen time than other outsiders. Given their high CRs, most are treated as sort of quasi-deities or demigods in my settings, and I use a very wide range of other outsiders for various purposes. I also try to avoid portraying outsiders as caricatures and more as powerful but intelligent spiritual beings. For example, in my games, evil outsiders don't instantly want to destroy everything. Pit fiends could almost be described as classy with a sort of faux honor born out of their own self respect. Succubi are quite capricious but not unreasonable, quite suited for sowing discord or acting as an unlikely ally in some cases where their interests coincide. I include both Hindu and Zoroastrian elements to Asuras (something I was disappointed with in the Pathfinder depiction). Spirits such as Djinn may act as guardians and guides for people or individuals. Most, somehow, tend to be relatable.

You know, you really should read Worm. One of the main characters there looks like this (https://imgur.com/ETqK33q), and encompasses a very unique perspective that book has on what is effectively Outsiders of that world. Or, at least, I don't think I have ever seen something like that anywhere else.

Kryzbyn

2016-09-20, 08:27 AM

Dunno if any of you have read Ravine (https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/ravine), but it's pretty much awesome sauce.

Ashiel

2016-09-20, 01:41 PM

You know, you really should read Worm. One of the main characters there looks like this (https://imgur.com/ETqK33q), and encompasses a very unique perspective that book has on what is effectively Outsiders of that world. Or, at least, I don't think I have ever seen something like that anywhere else.
I wouldn't mind checking it out. I'm actually going out of town for a week in a few days and it'll involve a lot of driving. Maybe if I can grab a copy before I go, I can do some reading while I'm out. :)

Dunno if any of you have read Ravine, but it's pretty much awesome sauce.
I haven't but it's one of those comics on my list of things to try to get around to reading. I've loved everything I've read by Stephan Sejic, which primarily consists of Death Vigil and Sunstone. It's more or less why I have a comixology account. I do groan that the comixology issues are as expensive as their paperback counterparts (a practice that has continually bothered me throughout the years when it comes to publications). Maybe if I knew that 100% of the price difference were going to the creator.

Kryzbyn

2016-09-20, 01:51 PM

The first 2 volumes are in print or .pdf. The 3rd will be done via a deviant art account.

Klara Meison

2016-09-20, 02:00 PM

I wouldn't mind checking it out. I'm actually going out of town for a week in a few days and it'll involve a lot of driving. Maybe if I can grab a copy before I go, I can do some reading while I'm out. :)

I haven't but it's one of those comics on my list of things to try to get around to reading. I've loved everything I've read by Stephan Sejic, which primarily consists of Death Vigil and Sunstone. It's more or less why I have a comixology account. I do groan that the comixology issues are as expensive as their paperback counterparts (a practice that has continually bothered me throughout the years when it comes to publications). Maybe if I knew that 100% of the price difference were going to the creator.

Here is a link. (https://parahumans.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/)

I can't post a PDF here since the author specifically asked the readers to not distribute any publicly, since that makes it harder to publish later on, I am afraid. Hovewer, I hear that if you wish upon a star, The Faerie Queen might send one to your private messages...

There is also an audiobook (http://audioworm.rein-online.org/) if you are into that.

Ashiel

2016-09-20, 02:45 PM

Here is a link. (https://parahumans.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/)

I can't post a PDF here since the author specifically asked the readers to not distribute any publicly, since that makes it harder to publish later on, I am afraid. Hovewer, I hear that if you wish upon a star, The Faerie Queen might send one to your private messages...

There is also an audiobook (http://audioworm.rein-online.org/) if you are into that.
This makes me think I need to get back to writing. Talking about writing gets me longing. :smallamused:

the undermined

2016-09-20, 05:04 PM

what the... how long was i out?

-cuatroespada

DracoknightZero

2016-09-21, 12:14 AM

This makes me think I need to get back to writing. Talking about writing gets me longing. :smallamused:

Oh? What did you write back then?

edit: Clearification due to raptors.

Rynjin

2016-09-21, 12:26 AM

Her hands, probably.

DracoknightZero

2016-09-21, 01:03 AM

Her hands, probably.

Clever girl... :smalltongue:

Ashiel

2016-09-21, 04:22 PM

Clever girl... :smalltongue:

Yeah that was funny, wasn't it? :smalltongue:

I wrote some stories now and then. A few years ago before my mom died, I started a novel when an old friend challenged me to write something during the month of November. I typed up 14,512 words in a few days, then never got back around to working on it (procrastination you foul demon!), but I've got the outline for more or less the whole story. It's a fantasy story about a young woman who is murdered protecting others, is transformed into a ghoul (in a country where undead are to be destroyed on sight), and her quest to be reunited with her family and to bring justice to those connected to her murder. In the depths of her despair, she decides to embrace what she has become and assume the guise of a ghostly apparition as she follows the trail of thugs (and viscera) to the mastermind, while her sister (a member of the templar order assigned to investigating the apparition people have seen) hunts her down to destroy her - unaware that the strange undead creature stalking the city is her murdered sister. I've got what I had wrote for it in pdf form if you feel like reading it sometime.

I also write some story elements and such for RPG-related stuff of course.

And I have at least one adult fanfiction involving one of my PCs and her psicrystal, at the request of my friend Justice who was shipping them during that campaign. It's assuredly NSFW and while I don't think it's been written as particularly vulgar (since I prefer to illicit a response from the mind's eye, so to speak) it's basically smut, and it involves some fairly twisted dynamics between an older witch and her niece, but since game of thrones has been so popular the familial element might not seem as of kilter as it could. :smallconfused:

Tacticslion

2016-09-21, 07:28 PM

'Sup? Mark II.

:)

Ashiel

2016-09-21, 08:19 PM

'Sup? Mark II.

:)

Not much. Preparing to go out of town for a week with my family. I'm gonna see if I can find a nice flash drive to backup my D20-L stuff and see if I can work on it some while I'm gone (perhaps while my family's out grocery shopping or something when we get there).

Lemmy

2016-09-21, 09:32 PM

Did you see the new "Youtube Heroes" thing?

Youtube decided to be a SJW's wet dream and become a fully-fledged Orwellian crapfest.
:smalleek:

Ashiel

2016-09-21, 09:52 PM

Did you see the new "Youtube Heroes" thing?

Youtube decided to be a SJW's wet dream and become a fully-fledged Orwellian crapfest.
:smalleek:
I haven't actually. :smalleek:

DracoknightZero

2016-09-22, 12:06 AM

I haven't actually. :smalleek:

I suppose its better to not see that and free yourself of the curse that is youtube dependancy.
But.... we all know that is never going to happen, how else are we going to waste 15 hours watching cat videos?

Razade

2016-09-22, 12:21 AM

@Ashiel, I saw you mention Shoeonhead and Armored skeptic. You should check out Logicked as well.

Ashiel

2016-09-22, 02:36 AM

@Ashiel, I saw you mention Shoeonhead and Armored skeptic. You should check out Logicked as well.
Thanks, will do! :smallbiggrin:

I suppose its better to not see that and free yourself of the curse that is youtube dependancy.
But.... we all know that is never going to happen, how else are we going to waste 15 hours watching cat videos?
Having went and looked it up at your mention, my palm is going to be lodged in my face for a while. I'm waiting for the muscle to get tired before attempting to pry it off with a butterknife. :smallannoyed:

Tels

2016-09-22, 04:20 AM

Did you see the new "Youtube Heroes" thing?

Youtube decided to be a SJW's wet dream and become a fully-fledged Orwellian crapfest.
:smalleek:

I dunno, it's not nearly as bad as China's Sesame Credit program (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lHcTKWiZ8sI).

DracoknightZero

2016-09-22, 07:42 AM

Having went and looked it up at your mention, my palm is going to be lodged in my face for a while. I'm waiting for the muscle to get tired before attempting to pry it off with a butterknife. :smallannoyed:

I believe you were properly warned and i take no responsibility for any scars, damages or mental trauma this might have caused.

Kryzbyn

2016-09-22, 08:51 AM

I'd have to say that SJW's are the living personification of "The road to hell is paved with good intentions".

Tels

2016-09-22, 04:20 PM

Ashiel

2016-09-22, 05:27 PM

What are your thoughts on allowing a "could de grace" like effect, but for healing? Essentially, a full-round action to focus the healing and achieve a stronger effect. Rationalizing is casting it as a standard action is inefficient and the energy is scattered, but if you take your time and focus it on the affected areas, you can achieve a greater result.

It could simply be maximizing it, or 50% more healing, or doubling (ala a critical hit), or something like a vital strike and roll dice twice then add static modifiers.

I've been considering letting people use coup de grace and vital strike for healing spells or effects to make in combat healing a little more attractive.
As far as I'm concerned I'd have no problems with that. Most healing spells are touch-range attack rolls which means they can critically hit and they can be used for coup de grace attacks. The rules assume that you don't have to roll attacks with such spells against willing targets so you don't typically end up threatening critical hits, but to my knowledge there's nothing explicitly preventing you from using such a spell to perform a coup de grace, but you'd generally need to be holding the charge already (since you need a full-round action to deliver and it takes a standard to cast). It could be a great way to make healing between combat encounters more productive.

The biggest issue in regular D20 is anytime you perform a coup de grace there's a 10 + damage taken save DC vs dying, so even if you took no damage from the attack (it actually healed you) you've still got a chance of suddenly pushing daisies (I guess this is the material plane equivalent of vacationing on the positive energy plane or something). I actually wrote a note into d20 legends noting that if the attack deals no damage (using the example of a healing ability being used to make the coup de grace) that they don't have to test vs dying.

Of course, some healing abilities may have no attack, or even rolls involved (the psionic ability natural healing which heals X Hp * Y PP, or things like lesser vigor or infernal healing spring to mind) so those wouldn't be applicable for those reasons.

Personally I have no problem with someone doing that. In fact, it might even create a great reason to pre-cast spells like cure light wounds and hold the charge if you intend to be healing in combat. That also has the side benefit of making healing a bit more proactive since you are essentially reading a "big heal" and then using it when someone gets clobbered. You'd need to be careful of positioning though as you'd still provoke from those who threatened you (fortunately if you're behind your target they provide soft cover which prevents AoOs).

EDIT: Also yes, as best as I can tell, you could use held charged spells with vital strike. That's an interesting thought and would definitely open some doors to launching some big heals or hurts using those feats. Spells tend to have a pretty solid pile of dice associated with them so multiplying those would be really nice. It might also be a tactic that a Magus might be interested in as well since vital striking 5d6 electricity damage can make for some pretty big booms on the cheap.

Tels

2016-09-22, 06:34 PM

EDIT: Also yes, as best as I can tell, you could use held charged spells with vital strike. That's an interesting thought and would definitely open some doors to launching some big heals or hurts using those feats. Spells tend to have a pretty solid pile of dice associated with them so multiplying those would be really nice. It might also be a tactic that a Magus might be interested in as well since vital striking 5d6 electricity damage can make for some pretty big booms on the cheap.

I've already removed quite a few of the nonsense restrictions on Vital Strike for games I run (no vital strike on charge/spring attack etc), one of the changes was letting it be used with touch attack spells or effects, on the round it was cast, but as a full-attack action. A magus can bring a lot of pain with an intensified shocking grasp if he has the opportunity to vital strike as well.

Tels

2016-09-23, 01:58 PM

I'm leaving for New Zealand today, first time leaving the country.

What are some places you would want to travel to? Any particular reason?

Nicos

2016-09-23, 09:38 PM

Did you see the new "Youtube Heroes" thing?

Youtube decided to be a SJW's wet dream and become a fully-fledged Orwellian crapfest.
:smalleek:

What's that?

Tels

2016-09-23, 10:59 PM

What's that?

Nutshell summary? Users can help police YouTube. The more you police, the more you are rewarded and the more valuable your policing becomes.

Zilrax

2016-09-24, 01:19 AM

Eh, let's be honest, while the SJW might like it, this is not something made by them. This is purely a youtube is trying to laze their way out of responsibilities by handing it to the internet thing. It's getting people to do paid jobs for free for them and seeming like they are doing things while doing nothing.

And there will be trolls who get in. Patient ones sure but they will. This is the internet and the only thing certain is that you never turn to the internet to handle itself. They are basically relying on the moral compass of people who comment on youtube videos. This will only end in hilarity. It will be like the time Macdonalds let the internet make their own burger, or the time Mountain Dew wanted a new flavor name from the internet. Or the legend of Boaty McBoatface.

That all said, the add subtitles thing might actually be alright. Pity the moderator crap got tagged onto it.

lunaticfringe

2016-09-24, 02:04 AM

I didn't come up with this, it's part Chuck Klosterman's 23 Questions. They are fun to ask people though.

Your best friend is taking a nap on the floor of your living room. Suddenly, you are faced with a bizarre existential problem:

This friend is going to die unless you kick them (as hard as you can) in the rib cage. If you dont kick them while they slumber, they will never wake up. However, you can never explain this to your friend; if you later inform them that you did this to save their life, they will also die from that. So you have to kick a sleeping friend in the ribs, and you cant tell them why. Since you cannot tell your friend the truth, what excuse will you fabricate to explain this (seemingly inexplicable) attack?

Klara Meison

2016-09-24, 05:04 AM

Zilrax

2016-09-24, 05:18 AM

"Your ribs were planning an uprising. I saved you."

Mashallah

2016-09-24, 07:07 AM

"There is a memetic class S hazard associated with telling you why I did that. Yes, I am serious. You know me well enough to realise I wouldn't do this just because. Now kick me so that we are even."

Since you aren't informing your friend of the exact nature of the memetic hazard, I believe this qualifies.

I really like this answer.

"Your ribs were planning an uprising. I saved you."

I believe this kills the friend.

Idlaviv

2016-09-24, 07:23 AM

Klara Meison

2016-09-24, 08:42 AM

Ash, do you have any insights regarding the effects of [aligned] spells and items regarding character alignment? In addition, have you ever thought of producing a 3pp regarding the magic item creation rules? (either as a user manual, or a catalogue of wondrous items that are actually worth the gp cost)

> effects of [aligned] spells and items regarding character alignment

Allow me to attempt to bestow the wisdom granted me by her lordship, divine Ashiel, upon you. Please, do not smite me if I fail in this attempt, deithic thoughts were never meant to be translated by human minds, and thus some errors are likely to appear.

It is as follows: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, no."

I believe that it means "Alligned spells don't allign the caster any more than Fire spells turn a caster into a fire elemental."

Zilrax

2016-09-24, 05:45 PM

I really like this answer.

I believe this kills the friend.

That's okay, his treacherous ribs will go with him. It's a sacrifice we have to make in the endless war against the skeleton within.

Tels

2016-09-24, 06:32 PM

I believe that it means "Alligned spells don't allign the caster any more than Fire spells turn a caster into a fire elemental."

This would probably make casters way more fun and interesting though. Spell descriptors have physical effects on the caster. Cast too many fire spells and you start to become an elemental spirit, or or illusion spells start making you illusionary and your illusion starts reflecting your thought. As in, when you get angry to r visage randomly flickers into a hatred form or your emotional dislays are over exaggerated.

Snow-blind

2016-09-24, 08:59 PM

Tels

2016-09-25, 01:10 AM

I'm boarding the flight to New Zealand right now. Also listening to a book in which international flights get hijacked by terrorists. Is this bad luck?

[Edit] Sitting here, waiting for take off, and the bloody power went out! Like, the plane blew a bloody fuse and then... darkness.

OMFG IT JUSY HAPPRNED AGAIN AD IM TYPING THE EDIT!?!?

If this were an RPG, I would not be going through with this flight. You just know something bad is coming if this hhappened during a session.

Lemmy

2016-09-25, 08:57 AM

Klara Meison

2016-09-25, 09:50 AM

Tels

2016-09-26, 05:54 AM

>If this were an RPG, I would not be going through with this flight.

What kind of adventurer passes up free experience points? Stock up on holy water and anti-invisibility grenades and onwards to glory!

Holy water and anti-invisibility don't help against your airship falling out of the sky.

I didn't die, by the way. Or at least, I'm thankful for cheap resurrections.

Mashallah

2016-09-26, 05:58 AM

These two threads feel so deserted and inactive lately. It's awkward.

Lemmy

2016-09-26, 06:28 AM

Maybe Ash is taking a break from forum activity.

Klara Meison

2016-09-26, 07:27 AM

Maybe Ash is taking a break from forum activity.

Ashiel is currently on a car trip for a week.

These two threads feel so deserted and inactive lately. It's awkward.

It's all in your hands. Post something that starts a discussion then.

And I think that this is more or less the average level of activity for the old thread.

DracoknightZero

2016-09-26, 07:51 AM

It's all in your hands. Post something that starts a discussion then.

And I think that this is more or less the average level of activity for the old thread.

Kinda hard to ask questions to a person who cant answer them no?

Lemmy

2016-09-26, 08:36 AM

Kinda hard to ask questions to a person who cant answer them no?Well... Techinically speaking, no. "Asking" is just as easy as it was before... It's getting the question answered that became more difficult. :smallbiggrin:

DracoknightZero

2016-09-26, 09:51 AM

Well... Techinically speaking, no. "Asking" is just as easy as it was before... It's getting the question answered that became more difficult. :smallbiggrin:

What is a question without an answer?

Rynjin

2016-09-26, 10:01 AM

The wonderful thing about asynchronous communication is that the subject does not need to be immediately present for you to communicate with them. Knowing Ashiel is on a car trip, I can ask:

Hey, how was your car trip? Where'd you go?

Through the magic of time travel, this message travels forward to the future, and arrives (to her perspective) when she exits the car and checks the thread. At some point thereafter, she will choose to answer (or not), and the ritual is complete!

Zilrax

2016-09-26, 03:10 PM

Yeah, this happens every so often, that pesky RL thing. They'll be back soon enough. And I'll be stalking them and waiting to see what they think of that webcomic and such. And building random path of war characters.

TOZ

2016-09-27, 12:52 PM

What is a question without an answer?

Rhetorical?

Klara Meison

2016-09-27, 02:22 PM

What is a question without an answer?

Is that a, forgive the pun, trick question? It's just a question then.

Groblutsnak

2016-10-01, 05:40 PM

Wow, Ashiel got bored of his echo chamber that fast? Man, I was hoping he will try harder.

Ashiel

2016-10-01, 06:55 PM

Hey everyone. I just got back from my trip to Tennessee, but I've got work tonight, so I'll resume my regular posting tomorrow. :smallsmile:

PS: Thanks, Klara, for mentioning I was on a trip. I could have sworn I said something about that in the thread but I apparently only told everyone on Discord. :smallredface:

Ashiel

2016-10-01, 07:10 PM

Wow, Ashiel got bored of his echo chamber that fast? Man, I was hoping he will try harder.
Actually, what's kind of funny is I'm super happy that I don't have to worry about random peoples' posts vanishing with no explanations, so I actually think this is more conductive to avoiding echo chambers in general. I'm not particularly interested in an echo chamber since people don't grow if they're not challenged. I'd dare say that if it wasn't for being constantly challenged by those with opposing views, I'd have at best a tiny fraction of any respect I've earned, because without those challenges and the subsequent debates, discussions, or simply inspirations to produce or address something, I most likely wouldn't have.

It's because of those challenges that a track record could be established, which is a good record, of which I'm very happy with. I like that people value my opinions or thoughts on mechanics and such, but they likely wouldn't (or would have little reason to) if not for the history of conflicting ideas. It also has encouraged me to try to maintain a certain quality of production in my posts and such, since the last thing I want to do is disappoint someone or make them feel like their valuing my thoughts was a waste. That bit of pressure helps keep me sharp, I think.

Our good friend Alicorn can probably attest that I'm willing to entertain ideas that I don't necessarily share. We spent probably four pages or so discussing different approaches to game design and mechanics. :smallsmile:

Lemmy

2016-10-02, 10:14 AM

Ashiel

2016-10-02, 03:04 PM

Did you notice your signature is wrong/misleading?

This thread is names "TALK TO Ashiel About Anything", but in your signature you linked it as "ASK Ashiel Anything)... Are you saying we can only ask and never talk? :smallamused:

Eh, it was originally my AMA thread but it seems to have evolved or took a prestige class or got reincarnated or something... :smallamused:

BTW: It seems my internet is acting up again (came back from Tennessee to find it won't stay connected for more than a few minutes) so I'll be posting as often as I can manage without pulling my hair out. I'm off the next few days though so I'll get the techies over here and then play lots of thread catchup.

DracoknightZero

2016-10-02, 03:50 PM

Wait you have a discord group? Can i has invites or do i need to know the "Super secret handshake that might or might not involve a sausage at some point, or is that a metaphor for something more sinister" Handshake?

Zilrax

2016-10-02, 11:41 PM

It;s obviously a waffle, not a sausage.

Lemmy

2016-10-03, 11:52 AM

I guess this place is as good as any to ask...

How do I roll dice here? :smallconfused:

Klara Meison

2016-10-03, 12:38 PM

I guess this place is as good as any to ask...

How do I roll dice here? :smallconfused:

This thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?360837-This-is-how-you-use-the-Dice-Roller) seems to be talking about it, but I can't make it work on my end.

Mashallah

2016-10-03, 04:01 PM

Since the topic is "anything", let me try politics.

{scrubbed}

Klara Meison

2016-10-03, 05:37 PM

Since the topic is "anything", let me try politics.

{Scrub the post, scrub the quote}

It's an "Inapropriate Topic" under the forum rules, so be wary.

Tels

2016-10-03, 09:24 PM

Since the topic is "anything", let me try politics.

{Scrub the post, scrub the quote}

Here are the forum rules. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/announcement.php?a=1)

Hey Ash, how was your trip?

Ashiel

2016-10-04, 09:42 AM

Here are the forum rules. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/announcement.php?a=1)

Hey Ash, how was your trip?

My trip was good, but the internet where we were at wasn't, so the time not spent hanging out with my family was spent trying out Fallout 1, which I've found to be a really fun game (and has also led me to realize that the writers of d20 were pirates :smallamused:). It has even made me question my general stance on called shots and such since I really like Fallout's called shot system (sans the instant-death mechanic for getting a really great roll vs head, eyes, or torso).

We got home on Saturday night and I had to go right to work. I got home Sunday morning to find our internet was still acting bad (the techies dropped by a fixed a similar issue about two weeks ago and all was working great but it seems to have re-appeared while we were away), but I had to sleep to get ready for work that night so I didn't get to call the techs until Monday afternoon (because then I'd actually be here to let 'em in the house). However, the modem was showing a completely different issue than the constant disconnections (it was staying connected but the connection was dead), so when I called there was an automated answer saying that work was being done to the lines in our area today and that the problem would be resolved by 9am this morning (it's 10:33 am here, I just got up).

I'm not yet 100% sure if the problems were related (they could be, as the tech guy and I talked a bit when he was here before and he said that the lines in our area were pretty terrible and it was something they would need to soon address since it was causing problems) but my internet seems to be working this morning so if it doesn't start dropping like it was, I'll consider it resolved. Otherwise I'll be calling tech support again today. :smalleek:

How was your trip? :D

PS: To answer the question about where would I want to travel to. I hadn't thought about it too much. There's a lot of places I think would be cool to visit (especially areas with beautiful rural landscapes), but I've always been pretty content living in North Carolina (we've got everything here except deserts and tundras :smalltongue:). If I had the money to travel and see the world, I'd definitely visit Japan, Germany (though not right now :smallannoyed:), France (also not right now :smallannoyed:), Ireland, Norway, Iceland, Scotland, and the Netherlands I think. Also Gencon...it always sounded like the promised land to. :smalltongue:

Ashiel

2016-10-04, 09:54 AM

I guess this place is as good as any to ask...

How do I roll dice here? :smallconfused:

I don't know yet. I haven't done any PbP games in over a decade so it never came up for me. :smallconfused:

Since the topic is "anything", let me try politics.
I think I can answer those in PMs though, so I'll try to do that. :smallsmile:

Wait you have a discord group? Can i has invites or do i need to know the "Super secret handshake that might or might not involve a sausage at some point, or is that a metaphor for something more sinister" Handshake?
Yeah, I hang out in my friends' Discord group all the time. Klara joined it too. I can send you a PM, though with the vacation and sudden internet maladies I've been pretty mute the entire time. I'll be jumping on Discord in a bit after breakfast if my internet's still working (and if it isn't, I'll spend the next hour or so on tech support I'm sure).

I often worry people might feel a little like Dorothy peeking behind the curtain, but Klara did inspire me to practice my protoss voice. :smalltongue:

EDIT: Okay, 'net's being wonky still so on to tech support...

Klara Meison

2016-10-04, 10:16 AM

Yeah, I hang out in my friends' Discord group all the time. Klara joined it too. I can send you a PM, though with the vacation and sudden internet maladies I've been pretty mute the entire time. I'll be jumping on Discord in a bit after breakfast if my internet's still working (and if it isn't, I'll spend the next hour or so on tech support I'm sure).

I often worry people might feel a little like Dorothy peeking behind the curtain, but Klara did inspire me to practice my protoss voice. :smalltongue:

Tis' a silly place (https://youtu.be/1Npo0cmp-VY). You have been warned.

DracoknightZero

2016-10-04, 11:08 AM

Sure send that PM and stuff.

I have no fear of silly places, i live in norway for the elements sake and thats silly by itself!

Ashiel

2016-10-04, 12:29 PM

Sure send that PM and stuff.

I have no fear of silly places, i live in norway for the elements sake and thats silly by itself!

PM sent. My internet is still being horrible and tech support hasn't been super helpful (got disconnected about five minutes ago). I've got some errands I need to run so I'll try again when I get back, I guess. :smallconfused:

Zilrax

2016-10-04, 01:28 PM

Can I get the pm too?

Klara Meison

2016-10-04, 02:32 PM

Honestly, not much happens in that place. I don't think I have seen a single game design discussion so far.

Axebird

2016-10-04, 05:17 PM

It's not dedicated to game design or anything. It's just a place where our circle of friends hangs out and organizes games.

Mashallah

2016-10-04, 05:39 PM

It's an "Inapropriate Topic" under the forum rules, so be wary.
Oh wow, that's a bummer.

Tels

2016-10-04, 11:28 PM

I'm actually still in New Zealand, I don't leave for home until... Thursday, I think, in the Western Hemisphere, and I won't get back home until Saturday or Sunday, not sure which.

New Zealand is a beautiful place, incredibly picturesque. The internet and cell phone infrastructure is terrible here though. Places that offer free wifi, do some but only for like, 30 minutes a day, or they have a 30 MB data limit, or are super slow. The two best plaxes, so far, have been museums with 10 mb download and 2 mb upload, with unlimited data and time. So I have had very limited access to the net here.

I've been taking pictures of different plaxes and terrain to, maybe, use in a game encounter one day.

My sister's wedding was amazing, she and her wife both cried buckets of tears at the speeches and the turnout. Most of the food was good, it was all vegan and I haven't enjoyed most vegan meals. Got to meet some really nice people and chatted about tons of things. I've still got a few days left and I've enjoyed most of my time here so far. Plus, the plane rides weren't bad at all! Luckily for me, I got the international flight to myself, so I really got to stretch out.

Ashiel

2016-10-05, 01:44 AM

FinnLassie

2016-10-05, 08:07 AM

Any plans to say hi in the Random Banter thread? :smallwink:

Also, hello, person I haven't encountered before!

Ashiel

2016-10-05, 09:12 PM

Any plans to say hi in the Random Banter thread? :smallwink:

Also, hello, person I haven't encountered before!
Sure, why not? :)

Also, hello! :D

Also as an update for everyone, my internet got fixed early so posting should re-return to regular paces. I'm gonna be runnin' a few errands tomorrow and such but I should, finally, be back in action. :smallbiggrin:

EDIT: I think I'm overlooking the Random Banter thread?

Iruka

2016-10-06, 04:07 AM

PS: To answer the question about where would I want to travel to. I hadn't thought about it too much. There's a lot of places I think would be cool to visit (especially areas with beautiful rural landscapes), but I've always been pretty content living in North Carolina (we've got everything here except deserts and tundras :smalltongue:). If I had the money to travel and see the world, I'd definitely visit Japan, Germany (though not right now :smallannoyed:), France (also not right now :smallannoyed:), Ireland, Norway, Iceland, Scotland, and the Netherlands I think. Also Gencon...it always sounded like the promised land to. :smalltongue:

I wanted to ask what's the problem with Germany right now, then I remembered. :smallyuk:
Hopefully, more pleasant times will come again and we can greet you as a guest. :smallsmile:

EDIT: I think I'm overlooking the Random Banter thread?

Right here. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?489200-Aegis-J-Hyena-s-Super-Hyena-Fun-Show-Random-Banter-Thread-215)

This thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?360837-This-is-how-you-use-the-Dice-Roller) seems to be talking about it, but I can't make it work on my end.

Maybe the wrong sumforum? IIRC, it only works in those related to pbp-games.

FinnLassie

2016-10-06, 06:05 AM

Also, hello! :D

EDIT: I think I'm overlooking the Random Banter thread?

Hello hello hello! I'm always kind of amused when I bump into a username I've not seen before, even when I know there's plenty of people posting here that I'll likely never encounter. :smalltongue: It's like... "what?! other people exist outside of my personal bubble?! how dare they!"

Well, I'll give you the li--

Right here. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?489200-Aegis-J-Hyena-s-Super-Hyena-Fun-Show-Random-Banter-Thread-215)

Ah. There ya go! Welcome, welcome. The subjects are random indeed!

Klara Meison

2016-10-06, 01:39 PM

Since the topic is "anything", let me try politics.

{Scrub the post, scrub the quote}

It's an "Inapropriate Topic" under the forum rules, so be wary.

Can I just mention how great it is to have an actual list of rules you can go and look up and reasonable mods who actually enforce that list? Because it's great to have that.

Ashiel, who is on your avatar now? It was a sorcerer on the previous forum.

Ashiel

2016-10-06, 02:27 PM

Can I just mention how great it is to have an actual list of rules you can go and look up and reasonable mods who actually enforce that list? Because it's great to have that.
Speaking of which...

@Mashallah: Could you send your question in PM to me? Since it was scrubbed I can't remember the specifics about it and had nothing to reference. :smallredface:

Ashiel, who is on your avatar now? It was a sorcerer on the previous forum.
I'm not sure who the OC is, but this is one of the tokens I've used for the vampire Victoria from the game I ran for Aratrok and Raital. :smallsmile:

Klara Meison

2016-10-06, 04:51 PM

Ashiel

2016-10-06, 05:28 PM

I wanted to ask this question for a while, but there was never a good opportunity. You just don't want to ask this lightly. Arguments over this have split families apart and started wars.

So.

Cats or dogs?
Both. :smallsmile:

I grew up with more cats though. I like how low maintenance they are.
EDIT: With the caveat that I live in a rural area and our cats were outdoor/indoor cats, so they spent a lot of time outside when they needed to burn off some energy, and they were housebroken, etc. A lot of cats are fairly okay with moderate to low levels of attention and ours were quite happy with cat napping most of the time.

Ashiel

2016-10-06, 05:36 PM

I wanted to ask what's the problem with Germany right now, then I remembered. :smallyuk:
Hopefully, more pleasant times will come again and we can greet you as a guest. :smallsmile:
Indeed. To better tomorrows! :smallsmile:
German is one of the languages I just find enthralling to listen to (even if I don't understand much if any). Japanese, and Russian also sound so good to me. :smalltongue:

Right here. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?489200-Aegis-J-Hyena-s-Super-Hyena-Fun-Show-Random-Banter-Thread-215)
Thanks. ^.^

Zilrax

2016-10-06, 08:25 PM

Your profile is active again on Paizo.

Ashiel

2016-10-06, 09:03 PM

Your profile is active again on Paizo.
Wait, really? :smallconfused:

EDIT: Hm, well I still can't do anything on the boards so maybe it's a bug?

Lemmy

2016-10-06, 10:02 PM

Can I just mention how great it is to have an actual list of rules you can go and look up and reasonable mods who actually enforce that list? Because it's great to have that.

Ashiel, who is on your avatar now? It was a sorcerer on the previous forum.What?! Isn't "Don't be a jerk." specific enough? :smallbiggrin:

Lemmy

2016-10-06, 10:04 PM

Your profile is active again on Paizo.Seems like I'll be the only one to remain perma-banned... I'm special! :smallbiggrin:

Zilrax

2016-10-06, 10:36 PM

Wait, really? :smallconfused:

EDIT: Hm, well I still can't do anything on the boards so maybe it's a bug?

Maybe? It's not demanding I log in to see your profile and reach a repeat loop. So maybe they fixed the bug? I dunno. Just noticed it cus I use your profile to reach paizo's site at all.

Lemmy

2016-10-06, 11:43 PM

Does anyone know what program people use to create their customs avatars around here?

Ashiel

2016-10-07, 12:11 AM

Does anyone know what program people use to create their customs avatars around here?
I'm not sure. I think back when I used to frequent these forums, a lot of them were just made in MSPaint.

Mine's just a token I made with TokenTool that's been resized a little.

Lemmy

2016-10-07, 12:19 AM

I'm not sure. I think back when I used to frequent these forums, a lot of them were just made in MSPaint.Paint messed up colors real bad for me... :smallfrown:

Mine's just a token I made with TokenTool that's been resized a little.Yeah, I recognized the Tokentool frame. But I meant the OotS-style avatars. :smallsmile:

TOZ

2016-10-07, 12:39 AM

Wait, really? :smallconfused:

EDIT: Hm, well I still can't do anything on the boards so maybe it's a bug?

They mentioned a codefix to correct the redirect problem on banned accounts. I assume everyone who has been banned can now see their profile again.

Ashiel

2016-10-07, 01:37 PM

They mentioned a codefix to correct the redirect problem on banned accounts. I assume everyone who has been banned can now see their profile again.
Makes sense. The Paizo forums have a lot of technical and quality of life issues (editing and formatting being the #1 IMHO, but I've also spotted little bugs here and there, such as discovering a - eventually patched - method for editing your posts anytime after making them). In any case, I'm glad they're improving them.

Tels

2016-10-07, 06:15 PM

15 hour flight back to the states...

What is everyone's favorite and least favorite parts of traveling? I look forward to reading responses in 15 hours or so... Hopefully.

Lemmy

2016-10-07, 08:50 PM

15 hour flight back to the states...

What is everyone's favorite and least favorite parts of traveling? I look forward to reading responses in 15 hours or so... Hopefully.
Favorite: Seeing new things, scenery and people or revisiting beloved things, scenery and people (specially family). :smallcool:
Least Favorite: Loading/Unloading my luggage... I ****ing hate it! :smallfurious:

Zilrax

2016-10-08, 01:29 AM

Klara Meison

2016-10-08, 08:57 AM

Do you use color maps or simplified, pencil-drawn ones when running your games?

Iruka

2016-10-08, 10:22 AM

Indeed. To better tomorrows! :smallsmile:
German is one of the languages I just find enthralling to listen to (even if I don't understand much if any). Japanese, and Russian also sound so good to me. :smalltongue:

I think that's the first time (nah make it the second time, read once an article about a chinese student of german philology, but he mostly fancied the saxonian dialect) that someone likes the sound of the german language. I often hear we constatntly sound angry.

Does anyone know what program people use to create their customs avatars around here?

Inkscape is a popular choice, it's what I used.
You can find links to tutorials for several programs in the first post of this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?448993-Request-an-OotS-style-Avatar-14-Even-More-Revenge)thread.

Tels

2016-10-08, 06:11 PM

Do you think all this clown nonsense about might be part of, or started as, a promotional stunt for the "It" remake that has gone horribly wrong? Or even worse, horribly right?

Lemmy

2016-10-09, 03:23 AM

Do you think all this clown nonsense about might be part of, or started as, a promotional stunt for the "It" remake that has gone horribly wrong? Or even worse, horribly right?Meh... The way I see it, the whole thing started with a couple coincidences and then turned into a silly self-fulfilling prophecy. :smallsigh:

Creepy clowns aren't something you see everyday, so when 2 or 3 happened (or at least attracted media attention) in a relatively short time spam, it was called an "epidemic" and other hyperbolic terms. And, of course, once it attracted the news, people became hyper-aware of clown-related news and some idiots decided to be part of it, so they started dressing as creepy clowns...

Therefore increasing the media attention... Therefore increasing the number of idiots dressing as clowns... Therefore increasing the media attention... Therefore increasing the number of idiots dressing as clowns...

And on and on it goes until the fad fades away. :smallsigh:

Zilrax

2016-10-09, 03:39 AM

Plus IT's studio already stated it's not related to them.

Tels

2016-10-10, 06:06 AM

I just came across this anime that I wanted to share called Ghost Stories. I've only watched the first episode, but... my god, this is gold. I'll just leave a link to this blog (https://thecajunsamurai.wordpress.com/2011/10/26/a-review-of-ghost-stories-a-study-in-taking-liberties-with-the-script/) that does a good job of explaining the history of the show and why the English dub turned out the way it did.

Rynjin

2016-10-10, 07:46 AM

Ashiel

2016-10-10, 06:00 PM

Okay, so the Hurricane has passed and I have power / internet. Time for responses. :smallamused:

15 hour flight back to the states...

What is everyone's favorite and least favorite parts of traveling? I look forward to reading responses in 15 hours or so... Hopefully.
Favorite Part: A mixture between experiencing something new and coming home (because I'm a homebody).
Least Favorite: Probably scheduling as a group, because for some reason traveling always makes my family pissy and irritable.

Do you use color maps or simplified, pencil-drawn ones when running your games?
Traditionally quick pencil sketches and many of them were horrifically ugly. Back as a teenager, most of my maps were drawn on the fly in real time and much of it were things like Xs, Os, and squares doodled on a piece of paper. The paper often didn't even have graph lines, I just marked little legend-lines somewhere to give a loose idea of distance (such as " |----| = 10 ft. ").

These days, a friend got me a rollout mat that has squares and hexes on it, and I usually use spare dice for representing NPCs, badguys, and objects on the field. Really, it's super trashy. When GMing on MapTools my maps are better though. :smalltongue:

Let's just say that whatever the reason people play with me, it's not my beautiful cartography skills. :smallamused:

Do you think all this clown nonsense about might be part of, or started as, a promotional stunt for the "It" remake that has gone horribly wrong? Or even worse, horribly right?
Not really. I'm with Lemmy here. I think it's our (horrible) media being sensational, which encourages copycats.

I just came across this anime that I wanted to share called Ghost Stories. I've only watched the first episode, but... my god, this is gold.
Ahhh, ghost stories. I was actually talking about this anime and the hilarious events behind it, while on vacation. My brother, his girlfriend, and I, were discussing english dubs that were good or in rare cases better than the originals for various reasons. This one of course came up. :smallbiggrin:

Speaking of dubs, while I haven't watched the entirety of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie in original japanese, I have to admit I was extremely disappointed in the final battle between Ken, Ryu, and Bison (or Vega for the japanese purists). The english version was just so much more epic and the music which was completely different set the feeling better. The original Japanese version plays a soft and slow melodic track which feels really weird and not as artsy as I think they hoped while watching the three beating the stuffing out of each other.

TheShippingMuse

2016-10-12, 12:07 AM

Does anyone know what program people use to create their customs avatars around here?

Someone beat me to the program name and everything, but an interesting and wonderful feature of this forum is a whole series of threads dedicated to requesting custom avatars (particularly ones based in the OotS style). They have rules on how you request things, and you don't necessarily get to choose who fulfills that request, but it's a placed filled with many talented artists and friendly people. I can't link to it yet since i'm technically new, but the way to get to it is go to the "arts and crafts" sub-forum, and click what should be the first stickied thread. It says request an avatar on it.

EDIT: It's the same link that previous person replied with. But yeah, you can request free avatars using that thread if you're too lazy/feel like using another artists work with their blessing.

TOZ

2016-10-12, 01:52 PM

Ghost Stories is ****ing hilarious. Gag dubs that turn mediocre shows into great ones deserve a medal. IIRC this is why that ine YuGiOh ripoff I can't quite remember the name if was so much better in English, they turned it into a parody of those kinds of shows.

Dragon Half is a good example. Watched the dub, laughed my ass off. When I got the DVD and had access to the original audio, everything was flat and lacked the character of the English voice actors. You could really tell that they had a blast dubbing it.

Tels

2016-10-12, 02:20 PM

Will you be taking part in this Dreamscarred Press bundle sale? (https://www.opengamingstore.com/collections/newest-products/products/dreamscarred-press-mega-bundle)

Rynjin

2016-10-12, 02:27 PM

that one YuGiOh ripoff I can't quite remember the name of

Duel Masters! That was the name!

137beth

2016-10-12, 08:33 PM

Will you be taking part in this Dreamscarred Press bundle sale? (https://www.opengamingstore.com/collections/newest-products/products/dreamscarred-press-mega-bundle)
I...wow. How long does this thing last for? I gotta get it:smalleek:

Do you use color maps or simplified, pencil-drawn ones when running your games?
Not Ashiel here, but I do neither of the above: I will take a board game and use its board as a make-shift grid when necessary (I prefer to describe stuff rather than trying to use miniatures and/or colored tiles to present what the world is like). That's when I need a grid...in non-d20 systems I greatly prefer to play grid-less.

They mentioned a codefix to correct the redirect problem on banned accounts. I assume everyone who has been banned can now see their profile again.
It was a rather weird bug, because it undercut Paizo's "whether someone is banned is Top Secret" party line. Anyone who knew about the bug could easily tell when someone was banned, but Paizo continued to insist that the status of being banned was a secret.
Now, at least they are honest.

And since Paizo allows bumping of old threads, now it would be possible for a determined individual to dive through the thread history of Yellowdingo and Shallowsoul, and bump a bunch of their threads:smallamused:

15 hour flight back to the states...

What is everyone's favorite and least favorite parts of traveling? I look forward to reading responses in 15 hours or so... Hopefully.
Favorite part: seeing people I don't normally get to see face-to-face.
Least favorite part: seeing people I don't normally get to see face-to-face.

Tels

2016-10-12, 09:44 PM

Do you use color maps or simplified, pencil-drawn ones when running your games?

My group has a 6 ft. x 3 ft. plexiglass board that we carved 1 inch squares in to. We've since cut the board into two equal sizes to make it easier to transport. We use dry erase markers to draw out buildings. We play at our local hobby store, which is owned by a member of the group, and there is lots of terrain there built for Warhammer/Warmachine games over the years that we make use of as well.

[Edit] This guy spent nearly 5 years making a fantasy kingdom in Minecraft: Link. (http://uproxx.com/gaming/minecraft-world-galekin-built-over-5-years/)

And here I was a little proud for building Castle Scarwall from Curse of the Crimson Throne :(

Ashiel

2016-10-12, 10:59 PM

Klara Meison

2016-10-13, 06:22 PM

Snow-blind

2016-10-13, 06:55 PM

Zilrax

2016-10-14, 12:11 AM

If you were caught by a god of duality and given a choice to be transmuted into a half-human creature(such as mermaids, centaurs, driders and so on-creatures with half of their body being human, and half not) which type of creature would you choose?

Dnd version of Lamia. The basic cat one, not the Matriarch. Not that I mind those. Can haggle over Harridan status :p.

Also I'd totally get that bundle if I didn't already have all the books in there that I am interested in.

DracoknightZero

2016-10-14, 12:44 AM

If you were caught by a god of duality and given a choice to be transmuted into a half-human creature(such as mermaids, centaurs, driders and so on-creatures with half of their body being human, and half not) which type of creature would you choose?

Hmmm, Gorgon? Any form that is basically the lower half of a snake...
The problem i have with this is how many medias have em different, you have the Warcraft version of the Naga basically being upper body humanoid with snake tails, while the D&D version of the naga is just a snake with a humanoid head.

The other two interesting choices would be of the sphinx and drider setups.

*sigh* the inconsistencies of fantasy creatures over media is making it hard to describe characters, especially if you want to go for a setup that gives the right image, but they are not named that in D&D.

Zilrax

2016-10-14, 03:00 AM

Hmmm, Gorgon? Any form that is basically the lower half of a snake...
The problem i have with this is how many medias have em different, you have the Warcraft version of the Naga basically being upper body humanoid with snake tails, while the D&D version of the naga is just a snake with a humanoid head.

The other two interesting choices would be of the sphinx and drider setups.

*sigh* the inconsistencies of fantasy creatures over media is making it hard to describe characters, especially if you want to go for a setup that gives the right image, but they are not named that in D&D.

Blame their origins. The Naga are a Hindu mythological entity, a species of snakes who could turn into men, or just half snake wait down and man waist up, usually with a cobra hood. They were also commanded only to bite those who were evil, or would soon die anyways. The problem arises is that mythology itself changes depending which era you're talking about. Egypt is one of the most easily presented examples, as their ruling god changed several times, and their great evil changed as well. This is usually due to societal shifts.

Originally, their god of evil was Apep, a great snake who sought to swallow the sun. Meanwhile, there was also the god of chaos, Set, who represented not bad things, but foreigners. But as Egypt became embroiled in more and more foreign battles, over time Set became the god of evil and Apep kinda got fazed out. Another example is Bastet and Bast. Once Bast was one of the greatest of dieties in Egypt, but eventually her priests lsot power, and their mythology shifted, renaming her Bastet, as a lesser diety and such. This happens a lot in a lot of myths.

Hell, look at Vampires. Even ignoring everything after and including Bram Stoker, you've countless examples of weaknesses and strengths.

In a sense this can be a strength too. Means that you can be creative with your version of a creature.

DracoknightZero

2016-10-14, 03:33 AM

In a sense this can be a strength too. Means that you can be creative with your version of a creature.

Yeah, the vague sense of mythos and the variants over the ages can allow you a lot of freedom in making of monsters... but its a pain in the arse if you are trying to go for a look in a setting and the setting have the wrong variant.

On the other hand, i must admit my knowledge in old egypt mythos is rather weak, its kinda sad really as mythology is pretty fun.

I have more insight into Norse and Greek/Roman mythos, mostly Norse because Norwegian :P

Tels

2016-10-14, 06:13 AM

Yeah, the vague sense of mythos and the variants over the ages can allow you a lot of freedom in making of monsters... but its a pain in the arse if you are trying to go for a look in a setting and the setting have the wrong variant.

On the other hand, i must admit my knowledge in old egypt mythos is rather weak, its kinda sad really as mythology is pretty fun.

I have more insight into Norse and Greek/Roman mythos, mostly Norse because Norwegian :P

I explained Norse, Greek/Roman, and Egyptian mythologies, in a nutshell, to some people once. They told me I was weird and so were those gods.

DracoknightZero

2016-10-14, 06:20 AM

I explained Norse, Greek/Roman, and Egyptian mythologies, in a nutshell, to some people once. They told me I was weird and so were those gods.

Well i have to say the old mythos made more sense of the chaos in the world with all of the weird personalities the gods have, the monotheist mythos is weirder imo.

Hey if you and i sat down to discuss mythology we would sit there all week, the old myths are interesting as hell ( or Hel if you like ) not only because they are interesting stories, but also that they kinda explain sometimes why we still have some words and sayings around.

As a history nerd, there is a lot of history in old mythos :smallbiggrin:

Tels

2016-10-14, 11:12 AM

Well i have to say the old mythos made more sense of the chaos in the world with all of the weird personalities the gods have, the monotheist mythos is weirder imo.

Hey if you and i sat down to discuss mythology we would sit there all week, the old myths are interesting as hell ( or Hel if you like ) not only because they are interesting stories, but also that they kinda explain sometimes why we still have some words and sayings around.

As a history nerd, there is a lot of history in old mythos :smallbiggrin:

I think it was more to do with the relationships the Gods had with each other. Like Zeus running around sleeping with anything that lives, including his own grandmother and raping his sister, or Loki turning into a female horse, mating with another horse, and giving birth to an eight-legged horse.

Stuff like that.

DracoknightZero

2016-10-14, 01:11 PM

I think it was more to do with the relationships the Gods had with each other. Like Zeus running around sleeping with anything that lives, including his own grandmother and raping his sister, or Loki turning into a female horse, mating with another horse, and giving birth to an eight-legged horse.

Stuff like that.

So basically that all gods took levels in bard at some point?

Ashiel

2016-10-14, 02:36 PM

Hey Ashiel, can I ask you about something I am working on?

I am trying to make a Google Sheets based character sheet so that I can use/give to friends a character sheet that doesn't annoy the &%$ out of me for various reasons (like every other sheet I have seen), and I have got the first page semi-ready. I would like your opinion on how the styling looks, and how functional you think it would be. Anyone else can chip in too, of course.

PDF link (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxfKAVELLzfcLXNmT0FrN0YxWkU)
At first glance it looks pretty decent to me. I like the details for the ability scores (listing things like damage, penalties, inherents).
Ditto for the level progression section. Including stuff like favored class bonus is a nice touch.
I liked the jokes spread across the sheet as well. :smallamused:

All in all, I like it. If the rest of the pages are great, I might have to recommend it to my friends the next time we get around to playing tabletop. :smallsmile:

Zilrax

2016-10-14, 02:54 PM

So basically that all gods took levels in bard at some point?

They were gods. Obviously they were the first bards.

Mythology is fascinating, but I find whats even more interesting is finding the correlations between when the myths shifted in tone or description and what was happening in the lives of the people at the time, like the whole Apep/Set thing corresponding to Egypts increasingly negative view of non-egyptians. These things never happen in a vacuum after all, so it's always fun to try and see if something like that links up.

DracoknightZero

2016-10-14, 03:24 PM

They were gods. Obviously they were the first bards.

Mythology is fascinating, but I find whats even more interesting is finding the correlations between when the myths shifted in tone or description and what was happening in the lives of the people at the time, like the whole Apep/Set thing corresponding to Egypts increasingly negative view of non-egyptians. These things never happen in a vacuum after all, so it's always fun to try and see if something like that links up.

Indeed, one thing i havent quite looked into is how descriptive the mythos about Ragnarok is in Norse... i wonder if that part was made around the time of the Black Death, or if that was the cause of some other major incident... or just... "The world will end, and this will happend" like some kind of doomsday prophecy?

For Greek/Roman i have a bit of a hard time splitting the two, but they are quite similar to the point you dont really care too much unless you are discussing the difference between the two.

You also have the "retellings" of old battles and the heroes and such, personally as a D&D player it really is a large inspiration source for concepts. My way of making characters is first to pick a "theme" and then develop mechanics and personallity as i go. Sometimes i try to make the combat style and personality match, and other times i kinda go lazy and just play myself + traits overplayed. ( Last character i played was a Oracle of Time which was a more clumsy and emotional version of Lenneth the Valkyrie http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=431834 )

I have to admit the mythos of Angels, Valkyries and the similar "Winged Humanoids" are a favorite theme of mine.

Tels

2016-10-14, 08:14 PM

50 Urban Legends, one from each state. (http://thoughtcatalog.com/jacob-geers/2016/02/here-is-the-scariest-urban-legend-from-every-state/?utm_source=scariesturbanlegend&utm_medium=fb&utm_campaign=ad) Potential adventure hooks or campaign details to spice up your world.

Zilrax

2016-10-15, 03:58 AM

Indeed, one thing i havent quite looked into is how descriptive the mythos about Ragnarok is in Norse... i wonder if that part was made around the time of the Black Death, or if that was the cause of some other major incident... or just... "The world will end, and this will happend" like some kind of doomsday prophecy?

For Greek/Roman i have a bit of a hard time splitting the two, but they are quite similar to the point you dont really care too much unless you are discussing the difference between the two.

You also have the "retellings" of old battles and the heroes and such, personally as a D&D player it really is a large inspiration source for concepts. My way of making characters is first to pick a "theme" and then develop mechanics and personallity as i go. Sometimes i try to make the combat style and personality match, and other times i kinda go lazy and just play myself + traits overplayed. ( Last character i played was a Oracle of Time which was a more clumsy and emotional version of Lenneth the Valkyrie http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=431834 )

I have to admit the mythos of Angels, Valkyries and the similar "Winged Humanoids" are a favorite theme of mine.

I usually go for whatever interests me mechanically at the time then let the personality and character evolve on it's own generally. For example, I got bored and decided to see how far I could push crossbow damage. And somewhere along the way got distracted by Reaper from Overwatch and ended up with a Kasatha with four Heavy Wrist Launchers firing off 7 bolts for silly damage but low accuracy, but using grit to make them touch attacks to compensate. And then ended up with a precipitation naming theme somehow.

As for mythology, I find I don't have a favorite per say. There's so many interesting ones, and a lot get overlooked in favor of the Greco-Roman ones. Not that they are bad in any way, and people often forget about a lot of the entities in the lot. Like few people remember the Primordial entities. They know the greek gods and they usually know some of the Titans, but rarely the progenitors of the Titans.

Personally I kinda enjoy jsut making mythology based off the species themselves. I've made... I don't know how many dnd worlds now. One I decided to go through each core race, and a few others and just... Figure out what made more sense to me. Like the elves being super pale and such is a liability in nature. So I made them quite the opposite of natural, favoring magic heavily. Meanwhile, the Dark Elves prefer technology and enchanted objects. They're dark hued and have darkvision because their cities are choked with smog and ash, blocking out the sun and it permanently stains their skin dark, and they've developed resistance to magic due to their dislike of direct magic.

Meanwhile the Halflings dwell on sheer cliffs at high altitudes where their smaller size is an advantage moving along narrow crevasses. They always seek to go ever higher, and believe they once had a great city on the highest peak, but were cast out by the mountain spirits, hence the altitude sickness thing. A Halfling in a non halfling settlement inevitably will attempt to climb on top of tables and into rafters to converse from. As such, dark elves began selling a new version of their self cleaning countertop for removing Halfling Stuff.

Gnomes meanwhile are like swamp dwelling leperchauns who use illusion magic to lure the bigger more dangerous creatures of the swamps into quick sands when threatened, on the promise of "gnomish gold." A Gnome's first thing when they go anywhere is usually finding three diffrent escape routes.

Orcs meanwhile used to be one really really massive orc who was tricked by a hero and then shattered into a billion pieces. All these pieces became the orcish race, and are very angry and lash out violently, but are prone to grouping up anyways, because their natural instinct is to try to somehow reform into the whole. But it's undermined by that infuriating sense they're missing things. Orcs often have to overcome this to associate managebly with non aggresive species.

Just things like that kinda interest me. Stuff that sorta sounds legitimate. Just has to sound it, heh.

DracoknightZero

2016-10-15, 04:27 AM

My Mythweaver have gotten up to about 30-40 sheets by now with different house rule variants, but all in essence pathfinder.

First on my list is a handful of characters for a homebrew E6 that my friend is putting together:
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=834076
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=862373
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=836371
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=836587
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=832723
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=834118
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=834134
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=845696
Blitz is a low level "Arcane Archer" type, Bounty Hunter is a cavalier that exploit the order that lets him bind people with his rope easily. Leader is a Noble with rapier Daring Champion which was meant as a "martial supporter". "Rock" is just a Dwarf "meat wall", "Rusty" is a warpriest with the startoss setup. Tag is a Eldricht Guardian with his Mauler familiar, and Zealot is combat cleric.

The list of homebrew rules are insane, but you get 1 feat at the halfway point to each level, some feats are "buildt in" to just require +1 BAB, and the requirements for a lot of feats are revised and what not.

Then we have my backup characters to one of our campagins that is 34 point buy, one of them is a Dervish of dawn with a bit of horizon walker to make a "dancing through the dimensions" kind of deal, and the other is a kitsune enchantress sorcerer with a 3rd party archtype that let me take tails instead of spells.
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=227249
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=239535

A Gestalt Paladin&Bloodrager, Your basic "Smite and Cleave" i thought the idea was hilarious.
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=512931

And some various characters i made for fun at lvl 20, Winter Witch with as good Cold spells as possible and a weird setup with Crimson Assassin where i tried to get as many dimension doors as possible into the build at 15pt buy.
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=269585
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=852226

A kingmaker rogue, with the "glory rogue" 3rd party archtype and Scout and Knifemaster to get daggers into the light.
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=273592

And a Warpriest of Pharasma i made at lv 16 to test out how much i could get out of daggers. Inspired from the rogue attempt above.
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=943722

Addendum: I make most of my characters at 15pt buy, as it puts a challenge to the making, and its easier to put more points in later if the campagin i use the character for allows more.

Tels

2016-10-15, 05:42 AM

DracoknightZero

2016-10-15, 06:11 AM

It amazes me what GMs will allow in their games. Came across a guy on Reddit wanting help as a new player Ina gestalt game that is headed for PvP. One of his future enemies is a Forsaker (https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Forsaker_(3.5e_Class))/Barbarian and he is playing an Arcanist/Investigator.

After reading the Forsaker, I have to wonder, "Do some GMs just want to see their games utterly ruined my OP nonsense?"

PvP is set to happen around level 11 and I told the guy the only way to win, was not to fight. Either that, or murder him now before he becomes any more powerful.

Jeez, I suppose you could go for a Kitsune Mesmer/Sorcerer and just dominate his willsave and ask him to kill himself. At lvl 11 that should be a rather easy feat, or just cast a extended hold person/creature and Coup him a few rounds.
Just make sure you have higher initative ^^;

Klara Meison

2016-10-15, 06:44 AM

It amazes me what GMs will allow in their games. Came across a guy on Reddit wanting help as a new player Ina gestalt game that is headed for PvP. One of his future enemies is a Forsaker (https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Forsaker_(3.5e_Class))/Barbarian and he is playing an Arcanist/Investigator.

After reading the Forsaker, I have to wonder, "Do some GMs just want to see their games utterly ruined my OP nonsense?"

PvP is set to happen around level 11 and I told the guy the only way to win, was not to fight. Either that, or murder him now before he becomes any more powerful.

Heh, that's one way to "fix" caster/martial disparity I suppose.

Jeez, I suppose you could go for a Kitsune Mesmer/Sorcerer and just dominate his willsave and ask him to kill himself. At lvl 11 that should be a rather easy feat, or just cast a extended hold person/creature and Coup him a few rounds.
Just make sure you have higher initative ^^;

Forsaker gains magic immunity at lv 10. Good luck with that.

Tels

2016-10-15, 07:23 AM

Jeez, I suppose you could go for a Kitsune Mesmer/Sorcerer and just dominate his willsave and ask him to kill himself. At lvl 11 that should be a rather easy feat, or just cast a extended hold person/creature and Coup him a few rounds.
Just make sure you have higher initative ^^;

Forsaker starts off with a SR of 10+HD and it increases to 15+HD at level 5. At 10th he becomes immune to magic, lime a golem. At 9th he can emit an antimagic field, as the spell, a number of times per day equal to his Charisma mod.

Really read through the class and it's total bonkers. Fast Healing equal to his level at level 3, gains +2 to all ability scores at 3rd and a further +2 every 4 levels after. Permanent freedom of movement at 7th.... For a class that supposedly forsakes all magic, it actually duplicates a lot of spells, "except they're extraordinary, and totally not magical."

Also, don't forget this is a gestalt game and the guy is also a full on Barbarian. Except he simply can't take any Supernatural Barbarian rage powers.

DracoknightZero

2016-10-15, 07:25 AM

Forsaker starts off with a SR of 10+HD and it increases to 15+HD at level 5. At 10th he becomes immune to magic, lime a golem. At 9th he can emit an antimagic field, as the spell, a number of times per day equal to his Charisma mod.

Really read through the class and it's total bonkers. Fast Healing equal to his level at level 3, gains +2 to all ability scores at 3rd and a further +2 every 4 levels after. Permanent freedom of movement at 7th.... For a class that supposedly forsakes all magic, it actually duplicates a lot of spells, "except they're extraordinary, and totally not magical."

Oh.... you know what? That class is lifetime BANNED in every game i every even look at.... holy crap, who thought that was a good idea to even MAKE?

Zilrax

2016-10-15, 07:29 AM

I've a ton of sheets as well, just... I've only ever actually gotten to use maybe 8 of them?

Let's see... Got my necromancer healer who uses gentle repose combined with animate dead and really fresh corpses as she can get to study biology as lifelike as possible to help the living and such. Pretty heretical where she's from, but just means she's secretive about it. Undead Lord Cleric, nothing too special.

Got a Vitalist who's trying to become a Ghost. Because nevermind having an psionic character who can stand 500ft away and heal people, I want to hide in a wall and do it :p. Share in my immortality, mwahaha. Vitalist, going into an alternate version of Uncarnate from The Seventh Path. Love that book. I had the old 3.5 book that had the adventure that contained psionic necromancy. Good times. Bit sad none of the moves allow controlling undead beyond body swap, but lots of ghost fun in there.

Got an ogre sized Stalker. One of the odder things that happened to a character. Had a low str to begin with so ultimately it had little change since was dex based fighting, but now just means whether I'm the size of a mountain or end up somehow the size of a gnat, I will make things suffer.

Bunch of npcs... Couple cohorts... The time I demonstrated mythic by trying to make a Lich who could smother entire armies with his spells...

And then all the char sheets I made mucking around with these. Waiting for the full release, which got delayed due to erm... Unfortunate fatal incident. Not that I'm likely to eveeeeeeer find a gm for it haha.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/3rd-party-races/rite-publishing/dragon-taninim
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/rite-publishing/draconic-exemplar

DracoknightZero

2016-10-15, 07:38 AM

Speaking of fatal incidents, a kingmaker campagin i was a player in stopped adruptly because one of the players died.
IRL thats it.

Tels

2016-10-15, 07:46 AM

Oh.... you know what? That class is lifetime BANNED in every game i every even look at.... holy crap, who thought that was a good idea to even MAKE?

The idea, I think, was to compensate for the harsh restrictions of the class. It can never willingly benefit from magic in any form: spells, SLA, psionics, supernatural abilities, even magic items. It forsakes magic to such a degree, you become something like a tear in the fabric of magic and magic just stops working in your vicinity.

The idea is cool and all, but t the execution is badly flawed.

DracoknightZero

2016-10-15, 12:39 PM

Zilrax

2016-10-15, 02:19 PM

Well there's some difference, usually, between something someone made and stuck on a wiki and a purchased product. Not enough diffrence sometimes but yeah some things are quite derp.

Rynjin

2016-10-15, 10:24 PM

The idea, I think, was to compensate for the harsh restrictions of the class. It can never willingly benefit from magic in any form: spells, SLA, psionics, supernatural abilities, even magic items. It forsakes magic to such a degree, you become something like a tear in the fabric of magic and magic just stops working in your vicinity.

The idea is cool and all, but t the execution is badly flawed.

Honestly the resistances and immunities in a certain kind of game aren't that big of a deal. Sure, you're a tank, but what else have you got going for you?

If that was the extent of it, it'd be kinda stronk, but whatever. It's stuff like this:

"As a move action you can read the motions of a creature in 60 ft. and learn their next intended action, such as "attack your cleric" or "cast a buff spell" or "attempt to flee". The DC is 10 + CR of the creature, or the creature's opposed bluff check, whichever is higher. If the creature is amorphous or inhuman, you take a -4 penalty on your roll. "

That make me look askance at it. Locking the GM into an action a round in advance is such a monumental headache that at the very least this ability would need to be removed.

DracoknightZero

2016-10-16, 02:31 AM

Honestly the resistances and immunities in a certain kind of game aren't that big of a deal. Sure, you're a tank, but what else have you got going for you?

If that was the extent of it, it'd be kinda stronk, but whatever. It's stuff like this:

"As a move action you can read the motions of a creature in 60 ft. and learn their next intended action, such as "attack your cleric" or "cast a buff spell" or "attempt to flee". The DC is 10 + CR of the creature, or the creature's opposed bluff check, whichever is higher. If the creature is amorphous or inhuman, you take a -4 penalty on your roll. "

That make me look askance at it. Locking the GM into an action a round in advance is such a monumental headache that at the very least this ability would need to be removed.

The issue is mostly that its used in a Gestalt so you have a magic immune barbarian, but with further thought... you cant use any magic items at all. Your AC will suck massively, you have no additional damage except for your strenght and power attack, and you have no further immunities to stuff like demoralize and poisons.

So you are magic immune and can cancel out magic as you please, which is very strong in itself... but you are just a mundane Barbarian underneath and you would have issues if you met a Physical Ranged character, like a Ranger/Inquisitor, a Telekinetic mage or if the DM actually split magic and psionics you could destroy him that way.

Tels

2016-10-16, 04:15 AM

The issue is mostly that its used in a Gestalt so you have a magic immune barbarian, but with further thought... you cant use any magic items at all. Your AC will suck massively, you have no additional damage except for your strenght and power attack, and you have no further immunities to stuff like demoralize and poisons.

So you are magic immune and can cancel out magic as you please, which is very strong in itself... but you are just a mundane Barbarian underneath and you would have issues if you met a Physical Ranged character, like a Ranger/Inquisitor, a Telekinetic mage or if the DM actually split magic and psionics you could destroy him that way.

He actually gains scaling bonuses to all ability scores and scaling dodge bonus to AC. No damage bonus though. Also, any plan relying on magic is foolhardy at best. By the time the PvP is expected to go down, he is immune to any magic with SR and can negate magic with an antimagic field. The field isn't evdnimited to rounds per day, it's as the spell a number of times a day equal to Cha mod. So at 9th level, he can "cast" it at least once and it lasts for 90 minutes. This makes him practically immune to any spell or psionic ability you want to through at him. Then he just comes after yoh and tears you apart.

Remember, inside the field, no one else has magic either, but he still has his scaling AC and ability scores. At 2nd level, he increases the maximum dexterity bonus of any armor he wears to equal his Forsaker level. So come PvP time, he could wear full plate with a max Dex bonus of 11, more than enough for his boosted Dex score.

DracoknightZero

2016-10-16, 04:42 AM

He actually gains scaling bonuses to all ability scores and scaling dodge bonus to AC. No damage bonus though. Also, any plan relying on magic is foolhardy at best. By the time the PvP is expected to go down, he is immune to any magic with SR and can negate magic with an antimagic field. The field isn't evdnimited to rounds per day, it's as the spell a number of times a day equal to Cha mod. So at 9th level, he can "cast" it at least once and it lasts for 90 minutes. This makes him practically immune to any spell or psionic ability you want to through at him. Then he just comes after yoh and tears you apart.

Remember, inside the field, no one else has magic either, but he still has his scaling AC and ability scores. At 2nd level, he increases the maximum dexterity bonus of any armor he wears to equal his Forsaker level. So come PvP time, he could wear full plate with a max Dex bonus of 11, more than enough for his boosted Dex score.

...Obviously i should read t he class before saying anything... but you know... the more i hear about it the more it sounds like one of the games we played as a kid: "I shot you!" "No, because i have a invisible shield" and in the end it just sounds like a "Mary Sue" class which is written by a person that "he is immune to X with no penalties"

Btw, Psionics is actually not "magic" per say, but often DMs make it magic just for the sake of simplicity. ( At least the 3rd party variant, not the occult ones )

So how are we going to counter this mess of a class anyway? Just Earthquake the arena and hope he dies in the rubble? Summon a Volcano? Bind a Planar being so it isnt a "summon"? Just make a hyper martial that basically dont need magical items to beat someone to a blump?

If anything i do think you could more or less "kite" him using a Mount and mounted archery and just run in circles full-rounding him while moving. Add the horse-shoes of speed for more distance and hope his anti-magic field doesnt cover the entire arena?

*sigh* I get so ranty and annoyed about the whole "I do X to counter" "But, i have Y so it doesnt work" setups... it really drains the fun out of any semblance of PvP in D&D... especially in discussions where none of the sides specify what they have and make their characters so vague that you could basically be a lv 20 wizard&Cleric&Fighter&Rogue with 99 in every attribute and immunity to everything including DM fiat.

Tels

2016-10-16, 04:54 AM

I could swear that magic-psionic-equivalency was the assumed norm as far as Dreamscarred Press was concerned, which is a reversal of previous editions. It's recommended that things that affect magic, like SR or antimagic equally affect psionics and vice-versa.

Apparently, the guy who made the class dropped in on the Reddit thread and said the class was considered "high powered" to Pathfinders "moderate" classes as per the regulations on the wiki. He and someone from the wiki it's hosted on got a little butthurt because I said it was a "bull****" class and shouldn't exist.

Klara Meison

2016-10-16, 05:13 AM

The issue is mostly that its used in a Gestalt so you have a magic immune barbarian, but with further thought... you cant use any magic items at all. Your AC will suck massively, you have no additional damage except for your strenght and power attack, and you have no further immunities to stuff like demoralize and poisons.

So you are magic immune and can cancel out magic as you please, which is very strong in itself... but you are just a mundane Barbarian underneath and you would have issues if you met a Physical Ranged character, like a Ranger/Inquisitor, a Telekinetic mage or if the DM actually split magic and psionics you could destroy him that way.

>Your AC will suck massively

Forsaker gets +10 to DEX, +10 deflection AC bonus and +5 armor bonus by lv 20 before accounting for armor. That's +20 AC bonus unless I am mistaken. By lv 20 a forsaker could be rocking a 42-ish AC without much difficulty.

>you have no additional damage except for your strenght and power attack

They do get a Magebane enchantment on their weapons, and ignore hardness/DR. In addition, they get +10 STR(+5 damage), a +5 untyped weapon bonus(+5 damage) and some bonus combat feats so it's not like they are very much behind a Fighter or something.

>and you have no further immunities to stuff like demoralize and poisons.

Forsakers are immune to poisons and diseases since lv 6, and immune to fear since lv 3. See under "Extraordinary Immunities". Here is what they get by lv 20:

Immunity to blindness, deafness, fear, disease, poison, ability damage, ability drain, energy drain, paralysis, polymorphing effects (including petrification and turning into dust if slain by destruction), death effects, fatigue, exhaustion, sickened condition, nausea condition, dazing, stunning, all the immunities and abilities associated with mind blank(as in, he gains them, not becomes immune to them), and critical hits.

This is a pretty terribly over the curve class and it's author should think really hard about their behavior.

EDIT: amusingly enough, it can't fly or move fast. So as long as you destroy his bow and stay at least 60 ft away, it can't do anything.

DracoknightZero

2016-10-16, 06:43 AM

Apparently, the guy who made the class dropped in on the Reddit thread and said the class was considered "high powered" to Pathfinders "moderate" classes as per the regulations on the wiki. He and someone from the wiki it's hosted on got a little butthurt because I said it was a "bull****" class and shouldn't exist.

I would call him a Mary Sue and make sure the class a all-time banned from every game i ever look at... How bad can you be at the game to even consider this class "Moderate"? Even "High powered" is stretching it a bit as its just all out BOLLOCKS!
Just... what the hell?

Personally i dont even mind that my characters have some weaknesses and even if i have the ability to make them a non-issue i feel like its a part of the character that there is just something that they are weak to. Ingame it could have fatal consequences, but what is the point of a party if you are going to be the "Do all, end all"?

Like my oracle character is a "Combat-Oracle" with time mystery and mostly buff spells, the weakness is the time to set up the buffs and the lack of "1-turn combat enders" spells before in the later levels, or just playing a rogue! One of the weaker classes in the game and yet so bloody popular.

Yet to read anything of the Forsaken class, and i dont think i ever want to either because it would just make me lose faith in humanity, but you have a class that would be interesting as a "disrupting magic" kind of theme, but you have a character that NULLIFY every non-magic means to beat him, you have a character that NULLIFY other casters, you have a character that NULLIFY other martial characters equipment while he himself gain the equivalent of a full set of free magical gear for litterally no penalty. "But he cant use magic stuff!" I hear you say... bollocks he doesnt need to as virtually everything he meets will be a mundane equipment goon, and the stuff that can kill him cant even hit him!

When your class kan do Defense, Offense and Utility all at once while nullifying basically 90% of the beastiary AND the classes... you just have to wonder.... WTF are you smoking?

Rynjin

2016-10-16, 01:27 PM

>Your AC will suck massively

Forsaker gets +10 to DEX, +10 deflection AC bonus and +5 armor bonus by lv 20 before accounting for armor. That's +20 AC bonus unless I am mistaken. By lv 20 a forsaker could be rocking a 42-ish AC without much difficulty.

Agree with your other points mostly but a 42 AC at level 20 is GARBAGE. Remember a CR 20 creature is going to have an average of +30 on its attack (many are quite a bit higher), and gets a lot of attacks per round, usually. These are the creatures going to be sent at you in mobs. Boss creatures (CR 24-25) are hitting that on a 5-7 multiple times a round.

This class is basically screwed in any encounter against a dragon, probably. Just as an example. Its damage output is okay, but nothing to write home about, and a dragon in an AMF is still a beast.

Lemmy

2016-10-16, 01:44 PM

Seems like a pretty boring class to play, for the most part... Doesn't seem to have much utility or variety.

Klara Meison

2016-10-16, 02:06 PM

Agree with your other points mostly but a 42 AC at level 20 is GARBAGE. Remember a CR 20 creature is going to have an average of +30 on its attack (many are quite a bit higher), and gets a lot of attacks per round, usually. These are the creatures going to be sent at you in mobs. Boss creatures (CR 24-25) are hitting that on a 5-7 multiple times a round.

This class is basically screwed in any encounter against a dragon, probably. Just as an example. Its damage output is okay, but nothing to write home about, and a dragon in an AMF is still a beast.

I said "Without much difficulty". You can go higher. Start with 16 DEX, improve it to 18 with levelup bonuses, to 28 with class bonus. This gives you +9 to AC.

+10 deflection from class

+9 plate mail

+5 armor bonus from class

+2 shield

+5 combat expertise because who are you going to compete with for attack bonuses in an AMF?

+2 various feats

=52 AC just off the top of my head.

Ashiel

2016-10-16, 07:28 PM

I will point out that they'd be loosing 11 points worth of stats over their career. Not being able to benefit from spells means no inherent modifiers from wish. Their lack of mobility isn't particularly helpful either since even being able to fart antimagic fields won't protect you against prismatic spells (such as prismatic wall, prismatic spray, etc), and IIRC I don't think spells like wall of force care about antimagic field. Spell Sunder on the barbarian side is a supernatural ability so that's off the table, so CC'ing the guy by simply placing obstacles in his way seems simple enough. At least until 15th level where he gets super goofy magic immunity.

I also noticed that the class lacks any sort of energy resistances which is bad news. There's a lot of ways of drowning a character in elemental damage without directly affecting the character with magic. For example, this character is vulnerable to alchemist-fire spam throughout its entire career. Most adventurers can be comfortably immune to alchemist fire spam by low-mid levels (6+ maybe) easily enough, but a bunch of goblins no longer worth XP can melt one of these guys to pieces. He's likewise vulnerable to all sorts of environmental effects, and Ex energy damage attacks such as the Ankheg's acid spitting ability, etc.

There's also little protection for him against things like planar binding since such creatures are called rather than summoned. So a cleric can still just gate in a Solar and let it rip him to shreds (fun fact, it's literally impossible for this guy to kill a solar since there's no non-supernatural way of inflicting aligned damage to the solar, to my knowledge).

I wouldn't ever play one of these. If only because their options consist of "I attack it again, I don't even activate any magic items". :smallconfused:

Tels

2016-10-16, 08:40 PM

Bypass Damage Reduction (Ex): At 4th level, a forsaker begins to force his will into his weapon to bypass damage reduction and strike incorporeal creatures as if using a magic weapon. At 8th level, this ability improves to also bypass damage reduction as if using a weapon aligned to his own alignment (for example, a LG forsaker would deal lawful and good damage with a sword) and act as ghost touch weapons. If the forsaker is TN, choose one alignment which your weapons bypass. At 12th level, his weapons bypass damage reduction based on materials such as silver or cold iron. At 16th level, his weapons bypass any aligned damaged reduction, not just his own alignment. Finally at 20th, he completely ignores damage reduction, including DR/epic and DR/-.

You are right, he doesn't have any energy resistance, and that leaves him vulnerablerable to only non-magical energy damage effects, which are rare for PCs to use.

Remember, he is going to be in a PvP scenario with half the party vs the other half. He has a Sorcerer/Oracle Lich on his side vs a Paladin/unknown and an Arcanist/Investigator. The Arcanist is the guy asking for help because he's new at the game and the other two (Forsaker and Lich) are veteran munchkins.

Rynjin

2016-10-16, 11:49 PM

Why are one player and the newb o one team while Munchkin 1 and Munchkin 2 are on the other?

DracoknightZero

2016-10-17, 04:14 AM

Ashiel

2016-10-17, 06:06 AM

You are right, he doesn't have any energy resistance, and that leaves him vulnerablerable to only non-magical energy damage effects, which are rare for PCs to use.

Remember, he is going to be in a PvP scenario with half the party vs the other half. He has a Sorcerer/Oracle Lich on his side vs a Paladin/unknown and an Arcanist/Investigator. The Arcanist is the guy asking for help because he's new at the game and the other two (Forsaker and Lich) are veteran munchkins.

Damage reduction. It doesn't do diddly vs Regeneration. :smallamused:

Ashiel

2016-10-17, 06:10 AM

Because its 1on1 and they are eventually going to meet eachother for some reason?

Anyway, breaking into a completely different topic: I have thought of a curse that would be somewhat interesting, basically you have a curse or a cursed item that just is a constant "speak with plants" spell on it.
It might sound useful at first and thats the fun part as it seems useful, but heres the curse part: since you cant turn it off or remove it ( without a proper remove curse ) the character constantly hear the whining and talking of all the plants within his range of hearing at all times slowly driving him insane.

Imagne walking in the forest hearing the grass under your feet constantly screaming and complaining that you are stepping on them, or the trees around you talking crap about your band of adventures or other useless things. Mechanically it would make your perception for hearing a lot worse ( take a -5 or more depending on the density of the plantlife )

I was thinking of having a NPC that became a hermit on a top of a icy mountain just to get away from all of the voices, and maybe he just have just a single mountain tree he speaks to just to appear insane to the players that find him.
That is hilariously awesome. I've pondered the fun someone could have with bestow curse using the limits of the spell as a guide for what sort of curses you could place on someone. Lots of really fun curses wouldn't even have to have mechanical ramifications. For example, a curse such as "Animals go out of their way to urinate on you" would be a hilariously cruel curse with no mechanical downside for the cursed (well, perhaps making you particularly vulnerable to Scent since things keep marking you as their territory). But that's the sort of curse that will certainly make people want to lock themselves indoors. :smalltongue:

Klara Meison

2016-10-17, 06:32 AM

Tels

2016-10-17, 11:53 AM

Actually, Forsaker gains +10 to all states by level 19. They gain +2 to all stats at level 3 and a further +2 every 4 levels afterward. So even if you just use the generic Heroic NPC array of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 then you would end up with 25, 24, 23, 22, 20, 18 before racial and level up bonuses. So while they may be missing out on +5 inherent and +6 enhancement, they are only a +1 behind everyone else as they gain scaling bonuses to make up for it.

Kryzbyn

2016-10-17, 12:34 PM

I'll have to keep the Forsaker in mind...
My group uses ABP :)

DracoknightZero

2016-10-17, 01:35 PM

I'll have to keep the Forsaker in mind...
My group uses ABP :)

No! BAD COOKIE! No cake for you!

137beth

2016-10-17, 06:48 PM

I'll have to keep the Forsaker in mind...
My group uses ABP :)

Does Paizo's ABP actually do what it's supposed to do? I've used Grod's anti-Christmas Tree rules (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?357810-Chopping-Down-the-Christmas-Tree-Low-Magic-Item-Rules) in 3.5, and they do work, but Paizo's ABP doesn't seem to do more than a small fraction of what Grod did.

Tels

2016-10-17, 11:35 PM

Ashiel-senpai, is this.... Well, I guess my phone has learned my speech, it just auto corrected "Ashiel" into "Ashiel-senpai" :D

Anyway... Is this person, (https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG/comments/57p5zf/creation_of_golems_vs_undead/d8tumm3) like, an illegitimate offspring, or long lost twin? Perhaps a secret cultist? (Read all of his comments on Urgathoa)

DracoknightZero

2016-10-18, 01:09 AM

Hmm, i like their discussion about atheism in D&D. Especially the planescape version where they respect the powers of the so-called "divine" but they have no right to judge or meddle in mortal affairs.

Like this Atheist paladin concept i found on a site that should not be mentioned:

How about an atheist paladin who believes that all 'outsiders' should stop interefering with the material plane (the number of good gods to evil ones is 90 to 198, based just off domains- and the good gods make a mess of things too going on crusades, catching people in the crossfire).

For mechanical reasons, I had this paladin worship Irori because
A. Irori was a human that gained godhood through his own efforts. Fairly respectable, and it means he understands the mortal perspective
B. He is fairly hands off. He lets you find your own way to enlightenment, and only interferes when people (especially other gods or outsiders, I would assume) mess with his followers.
C. Focus on honing yourself-useful for someone that militantly wants to fight off both good and bad outsiders- intends to be self reliant as much as possible.

Klara Meison

2016-10-18, 01:35 AM

Ashen One had a pretty good atheist paladin/cleric concept somewhere on the old forums, but I can't find it at the moment.

Lemmy

2016-10-18, 09:04 AM

I blame Phasmara's jerkness on JJ. She's his pet mary sue goddess, and he apparently shares many of her views, although he's business-sawy enough to not explicitly say it out loud.

DracoknightZero

2016-10-18, 09:53 AM

Kryzbyn

2016-10-18, 10:07 PM

Does Paizo's ABP actually do what it's supposed to do? I've used Grod's anti-Christmas Tree rules (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?357810-Chopping-Down-the-Christmas-Tree-Low-Magic-Item-Rules) in 3.5, and they do work, but Paizo's ABP doesn't seem to do more than a small fraction of what Grod did.

Yeah, it does for the most part...we use a modified version that gives you more choice on certain things. By 20th, you end up with +6 to one or +4 to two main and secondary stats, +5 AC, +5 all saves, +5 deflection bonus, +5 natural armor bonus, +5 to hit and damage...

137beth

2016-10-19, 02:43 AM

I blame Phasmara's jerkness on JJ. She's his pet mary sue goddess, and he apparently shares many of her views, although he's business-sawy enough to not explicitly say it out loud.
I thought Iomodae was JJ's Mary Sue in WotR? Or maybe he has more than one. He seems to have a decent number of Gary Stus too--I don't think it is a gender bias.

Yeah, it does for the most part...we use a modified version that gives you more choice on certain things. By 20th, you end up with +6 to one or +4 to two main and secondary stats, +5 AC, +5 all saves, +5 deflection bonus, +5 natural armor bonus, +5 to hit and damage...
Interesting. How do you deal with certain classes not being able to get flight/protections from certain divinations/other stuff adventurers need but not all classes can get without items?

DracoknightZero

2016-10-19, 03:51 AM

I thought Iomodae was JJ's Mary Sue in WotR? Or maybe he has more than one. He seems to have a decent number of Gary Stus too--I don't think it is a gender bias.

Well Pharasma was extremly anti-Atheist and had some more "harsh" biases towards certian alignments ( read religions ) and it was wastly toned down in the current offical versions because it was mentioned JJ shared some of her "traits" in that aspect.

At least thats the version i have heard, could be wastly errorous in the details, but its kinda the gist of it.

Kryzbyn

2016-10-19, 08:11 AM

Interesting. How do you deal with certain classes not being able to get flight/protections from certain divinations/other stuff adventurers need but not all classes can get without items?

ABP doesn't remove the need for all magic items, just the ones that provide the above bonuses.

Kryzbyn

2016-10-19, 08:51 AM

For my next Pathfinder character, I'm thinking of trying a Deep Marshal Magus. For the theme, he'll be a dwarf (I do love playing dwarves...)
We usually play gestalt and with the following array: 18, 16, 16, 14, 12, 10 before racial mods. What do you think a good gestalt choice would be?
I'm leaning toward vanilla fighter (advanced weapon training allows him to grab a warpriests bonuses with his warhammer) or possibly a stone lord paladin (this would be mostly for flavor; they give up most of the nice stuff a paladin gets).
Any other ideas or synergies?

Lemmy

2016-10-19, 03:41 PM

I thought Iomodae was JJ's Mary Sue in WotR? Or maybe he has more than one.I think Iomedae is just really, really poorly written in that AP. I don't know how much of it is reflective of her actual character concept and how much is bad writing. However, quite a few o JJ's statements led me to believe Pharasma is at least among his favorite characters. Quite possibly his #1 favorite.

He seems to have a decent number of Gary Stus too--I don't think it is a gender bias.I never said it was. I usually use the term "mary sue" for characters of both genders. Also, Pharasma is female (AFAIK).

Lemmy

2016-10-19, 03:49 PM

Kryzbyn

2016-10-19, 04:05 PM

There would be hella culture shock for the other races for sure.
This reminds me of the Alera Codex books by Butcher. Humans from the Roman era appeared on a world that had never seen a human before, nor a structured society and military. There was plenty of war...

137beth

2016-10-19, 06:27 PM

Sorta reminds me of Mother 3, where Pokey travels from the present time to a world with no wars or money, and stirs up a lot of trouble.

Tels

2016-10-20, 05:49 AM

I guess it depends on the type of humans you use. Are they the Three G type, God, Glory and Gold, ala Columbus and Cortez, or are they more like the Vikings who landed in the Americas hundreds of years before any other European ships? All three interacted with the Natives, but only one didn't proceed to ruthlessly dominate and exterminate the locals. Because that plays a huge factor in the over-all interactions.

If the humans are the more explorer type, lime the Vikings, they could be more interested in exploring the land and meeting the people. When the Norse landed, they built temporary settlements to survive the winter and traded with locals, and left in the spring/summer.

But if they're the Three G type, the major hostility and arrogance is to be expected. They should think they are superior to anyone else and seek to integrate and dominate the cultures around them.

It'd be kind of interesting if, perhaps, rival sects of humans crashed in a space battle, or something. Like, maybe one side had a history of unleashing genocide on previously visited worlds to secure resources, and the other side can no longer stand all the death.

To make it a little more morally gray, the violent human s have a reason for it, perhaps preparation for a threat from another world that seeks the death or subjugation of all species, or something, and the non-genocidal humans, not knowing better, have a different viewpoint that is actually very dangerous, like disarming to show a lack of hostility to prompt peaceful negotiation, not realizing there will be zero peace where this threat is involved.

As for meta changes or differences... There won't be a "Common" tongue, unless another race has dominated the face of the planet. Each race with speak it's on language, so knowing more languages should be important. In addition, things won't be built to human standard, I.e., most cities will be sized to non-humans.

You might have multiple countries with a dwarven majority populations so most everything is sized for a dwarf. You might have entirely halfling countries, or gnome countries.

Most racial options for humans should be wiped away, as they are all part of a very small bloodline on the planet now. While they could have carried some of the differences from their previous world, they likely stuck together on the new planet and lost many of the racial diversity options and need to start over again. Especially if they were more technologically advanced and now have to revert and relearn things.

DracoknightZero

2016-10-20, 06:18 AM

Hmm, you could do a "Endless Legends" type where the humans are from a high tech civilization in space and then get cut off from that civilization crashland into a planet and over hundreds of years their tech malfunction or is in extremly limited supply and they have to go with "high-tech looking swords and armor"

Or you have the "Star Ocean" setup where you have ordinary humans that observed the other races and somehow their starbase get shot down and they are left to fend for themselves... This plot is very similar to the Star Trek episode of the same setup.

You could also see the recent "GATE" anime, though i havent seen it myself you could have high tech modern humans meet with the ancient alien races, and/or have that gate shut and you have humans stranded on this world, but are seen as "elves" to the other races as a earthling lives longer than most beings in this world ( or slower span of time )

This is ideas based on "Modern humans in a New world" deal, you could have "Young human race rising in a old world" which is basically Tolkien.
So take your pick really, personally i think its more interesting to have the "X generation of forgotten colonists" with modern designs, but had to backtrack to swords and shields due to Y issues.

So it depends on what you theme you go for and then you can see how a world would react to them: Modern humans: Most likely as elves, or "The outsiders" and have a fear of them due to their interactions in the past when they still had technology, and the only reason to why they arent wiped out is the old fear from stories back then.

If you have the humans are young and on the rise, you are kinda subbing humans for orcs. Young violent race, organized and potent.

Kryzbyn

2016-10-20, 10:43 AM

Lemmy

2016-10-20, 11:18 AM

Zilrax

2016-10-20, 11:22 AM

No ideas here?

Suspect there aren't a lot of Magus players. I've never used one myself. But I'll roll with it.

Magus are sorta renowned for their shocking grasp tactics but it doesn't fare well against most outsiders. Taking a level into Wizard or Arcanist to get access to Admixture, allowing you to change the energy type of it may help. Plus more touch spells to grope faces with.

Dreadnought Barbarian can let you get half the bonuses but still use your spells and get some nice rage powers.

Get a Conductive weapon and choose antipaladin, deliver your nasty touches via sword to weaken them then follow up with various spells.

Alternatively take cleric and use the Lightning subdomain. May as well go full Thor on things.

Lemmy

2016-10-20, 11:24 AM

No ideas here?
Hmmm... I think I'd go with Slayer or maybe Ranger. Oracle and Bard/Skald would be cool, if they didn't use Cha :smallsigh:. Unchained Rogue might work as well...

Klara Meison

2016-10-20, 02:56 PM

I thought Iomodae was JJ's Mary Sue in WotR? Or maybe he has more than one. He seems to have a decent number of Gary Stus too--I don't think it is a gender bias.

Paizo writing has so many Mary Sues, plot holes and general deus-ex-machina's it's not even funny.

So, when that adventure starts, you find this playing card in your house, which gives you a time and a place. You go there, meet the rest of the party and a lady questgiver who gives you a hint where you can find Lamm(person who was hyped up as this untouchable unfindable mafiosi, who ****ed over everyone in the party at least once, and at that point you are thinking "Well, here is the BBEG for the first book"). Lady very unabashedly hints that it was she who snuck the card into your house, bringing you all together. You later find out that she is dead and is actually a ghost thingy tied to the deck of cards, and the ones you got vere illusory.

Well, here is the thing. She literally couldn't have done it. She has no abilities that let her manifest illusions so good they don't grant a save when interracted with from across the city with no line of effect or line of sight and god knows how many walls in the middle. "O but it doesn't matter focus on the story hurr durr"-it actually does matter very much. I was told about this by a friend who played through CotCT, and at one point they had to get a piece of information to a person on the other end of town. So he said "Well, lets call up our lady ghost friend and ask her to do it, like she did with our cards". Nope. Not possible.

And by default you kill/capture Lamm in session one. Talk about overhyping.

Want more? A second serving of plot holes coming up! At the end of first book there is a scene with a public execution. One person participating is JJ's self-insert character who is pretty much batman. Yes, with the costume. Yes, makes about as much realistic sense as the original. What that batman does is stop the execution, right in front of everyone(like half a city is gathered) call for a rebellion, then attempt to escape with the executionee. Party is basically assumed to be helping them. Yep, help out an open rebel out in the open in front of like half of the city, the queen, her guards, and god knows how many other important people. But that's not the insane part. Insane part is that if batman escapes, he manages to hide from Queen's wrath for months. Queen is a high-level caster with a lot of time and money on her hands, and a particular hate for rebels. Batman is something like Fighter 3/Swashbuckler 1. How he manages to not be found in less than a day is beyond me.

Still here? Well, here is the big one. See, CotCT is generally considered the best adventure path by Paizo out there. Pretty much everyone agrees on that. And out of that whole adventure, book 2 is the central point. Devs literally said that the rest has been written as more or less background for book 2. Book 2 of CotCT is where the best of the best Paizo has to offer in terms of writing quality is. What happens in that book is complicated, but basically the whole city suddenly gets infected with a plague. Dropping the question of how the flying flickety flock a mundane plague can function in a world with Remove Disease(it's really rather easy when you consider population mechanics and how many clerics there are in a city), that plague is the whole point of book 2. You do all sorts of quests related to the plague, trying to find out how it started in the process.

Well, riddle me this. What does an adventurer who is just about out of the "amazing mundane people" range do with a problem? How about a threat?

They deal with it. (https://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lphm4enunH1qj6y3go1_500.png) Directly. They don't run away or ignore it, that has been passed behind 2 levels ago. So, what's a good way to deal with a plague? Well, you try to find a cure. AP blessedly enough gives you a fair amount of downtime to allow for this, so unless your Wizard/Witch/Alchemist/Harbinger is particularily lazy or selfish, they would probably either try to either find a cure themselves through experimentation or try to join an existing research division(it has been announced that The Crown is working on the cure by that point in the AP). Well, guess what. AP has literally no support for this rather obvious idea. None. Nada. Nill. Nihil subsidium.

So, here we have the best book out of the best AP, and it assumes the players will sit on their hands and go on stupid quests on the level of "go and kill those 10 evil people, don't ask questions" to pass the time instead of actually trying to do something productive.

Yeah, not terribly sad about leaving Paizo forums.

Anyway...

Ash (and everyone else :smallsmile:),

How would you go about creating a setting where humans are relatively rare, being newcomers in a weird world/continent/plane/whatever and so far only having had time to create a handful of cities?

What contextual and metagame implications can you predict? What would happen to a continent where the other races exist, living mostly in isolation from one another, if humans were suddenly introduced into the mix?

What if the humans had relatively advanced technology (for a mostly medieval world), but not the resources necessary to use/create it? (The idea being that most humans who actually knew how to create/use said technology either died on whatever event caused the humans to leave their land or on their way to this new world).

Depends. Are we talking about an RPG? Because then you also have to consider who the players are. If they are all humans, i'd consider making the human society more modern-level or perhaps a bit into the future(maybe self-driving cars and intelligent houses are a thing, but not teleportation or space elevators). That way the players will have a lot of background knowledge on their society, and none on the society of this new world, which will help roleplaying a ton. Unless one of your players is an engineer, you probably won't have any trouble with them suddenly figuring out how to make technology either(they may have ideas like "steam machines are good" or "we should make steel", but probably won't know how to do it). I'd likewise make the world the humans were thrust into more medieval/magic-focused, to give a good background for modern technology being awesome.

On the other hand, if players were from the magical world, humans would probably be either the enemy or a powerful third party that everyone would try to get on their side. Then I'd perhaps move technology even more into the future, and have humans accidentally annihilate a few cities with superguns because they didn't know what that small shiny button on the ship's console did.

As for worldbuilding...unless there is some sort of diplomancer amongst the humans, this is a star trek-style expedition or there are only a handful(party+a couple more) humans, they'd probably do what humans do 90% of the time when meeting a less developed civilisation-loot, pillage and murder their way across the continent, replace all the goverments with democracies(or whatever kind is the most popular with those humans), take a whole bunch of slaves and leave everyone really angry at them.

Tels

2016-10-20, 03:58 PM

No ideas here?

Nah, I just forgot.

You might take the Weapon Master Fighter archetype and Advanced Weapon Training (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/advanced-weapon-training-combat) as a Fighter bonus feat a couple of times to make use of the advanced weapon training options. Like, take Versatile Weapon to use your BAB in place of ranks in 2 skills from a limited selection of skills. Or take the Tactician option to treat all allies as having your teamwork fests, like the Inquisitor, and then stock up on a few of the better ones, like Outflank.

[Edit] Okay, so I actually read Deep Marshal, and Fighter with Advanced Weapon Training can do you some good. For example, if you opt to not take Weapon Master, you can take the feat once ever 5 levels, but the bonuses are no longer limited to only your one, single, weapon, line with the Weapon Master. What this means, is, if you choose Axes as your weapon group, you can take Finesse Fighter and gain Weapon Finesse with all weapons in the Axes weapon group [I]even if they normally wouldnt be able to![I] Or you can take Weapon Spirit to get around the Arcana limit on weapon choices. You can also take the Weapon Specialist option to apply feats line Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization to all of the weapons in your weapon group.

Make sure to go through the Advanced Weapon Training options as there are a lot of interesting things in there.

Another option might be to go with the Investigator, to capitalize on similar build options, high Dex, high Int, etc. You can turn your Dwarf Magus into a super skill monkey, via Inspiration as well. Or you can opt to go Str!Magus and use Investigator to take Mutagens to make you stronger and turn yourself into some sort of Arcane Spellcasting Hulk.

You could also go Wild blooded Sage Sorcerer to get an Intelligence based spontaneous class to back up your prepared Magus casting. You can also get around the limitations of your Spellcasting this way too.

Tels

2016-10-20, 04:13 PM

Lots of great insight here. Thanks guys! :smallsmile:

To add a few more details, if that helps (and anyone is interested :smallbiggrin:):

The idea is that humans arrived in a large fleet of ships (seafaring ships, not spaceships) at the eastern coast of the yet unnamed continent (by unnamed, I mean I didn't think of a name yet. Its inhabitants certainly have a name for it) just slightly south of the mountains where the dwarfs make their home (the reason is that the first thing they'd see from their ships is the mountain range, so they sailed towards it and then outlined the mountain range until they found a place suitable for landing).

Humans' original homeland was made all but completely uninhabitable by some unspecified catastrophe (most likely caused by humans themselves). The fleet is basically a bunch of refugees seeking a place to stay. Their journey lasted a couple decades, however, and at the moment when they landed in this new continent, most people who knew how to use/create/maintain their technology was either dead or quite old.

In any case, human technology is not on par with modern technology... It's more Steampunk-ish. Maybe something close (but not equal) to the Iron Kingdoms. They have steam and gunpowder, but anything much more advanced than that is either lost or unusable. Humans settled on an small island a few miles from the coast at first, then moved on to the actual continent, establishing a few coastal cities (well... towns, I suppose).

I have a few sketches for their first interactions with other races, but nothing settled on stone yet.

Because they landed next to the mountains, dwarfs were the first race to have contact (or at least, prolonged contact) with the arriving humans. I'm thinking the two races got along without significant incidents, since most humans would rather not live on unknown mountains or undergrounds (at least not while there's plenty of space next to the coast), there was no real territorial disputes. Both races sharing an industrial mind-set also helps (maybe they traded technology?)... Of course, this may very well change as human population grows, if they decide to expand towards the mountains and/or explore it for minerals.

Elves were cautiously curious about the newcomers, but didn't bother interacting with them at first. My current idea is that as humans started expanding at a rate completely insane for elven standards, our pointy-eared friends, having had some bad experience with orcs in the past, decided to act before humans destroyed too much of the continent's biosphere. After a short, but intense conflict... Humans and elves reached an uneasy truce, where humans "agreed" to not deforest beyond a certain boundary. Basically... There's a large natural reserve between the elven kingdoms and the human settlements, which serves as a "neutral zone".

Im not sure the Dwarves and Humans would actually fight too much in this case. Humans are fairly lazy creatures, so why would they try and start mining the Mountains if they have a good relationship with a race of beings who are already mining it, and already have huge fortresses and cities built into said mines? Better to just trade with them, than try and take it from them. Or perhaps even send people into the mines and work with the dwarves to improve mining, like via their steampunk technology.

How long will the Truce last between humans and elves? The humans are going to need more wood eventually, even if they aren't expanding and population has stabilized. They need it for houses, wagons, barrels and all sorts of things. Eventually, someone is going to cross that border.

Unless the elves have taught the humans some alternative method of acquiring sufficient wood? Like, I'm picturing the elves from Warcraft games were able to acquire lumber without cutting down trees through a magical method. It was slower than just cutting them down, but it didn't damage the trees.

What is the relationship between dwarves and elves? Stereotypical Tolkien one of "mutual dislike" between them? Or something different? The about other races, like halfling and gnomes? I assume half-orc and half-lives are basically non-existant as there just hasn't been enough time for such races to really be even a minority instead of a unique being. What other races will be playable in this setting, as that will greatly change how the setting is shaped.

Zilrax

2016-10-20, 04:29 PM

Paizo writing has so many Mary Sues, plot holes and general deus-ex-machina's it's not even funny.

So, when that adventure starts, you find this playing card in your house, which gives you a time and a place. You go there, meet the rest of the party and a lady questgiver who gives you a hint where you can find Lamm(person who was hyped up as this untouchable unfindable mafiosi, who ****ed over everyone in the party at least once, and at that point you are thinking "Well, here is the BBEG for the first book"). Lady very unabashedly hints that it was she who snuck the card into your house, bringing you all together. You later find out that she is dead and is actually a ghost thingy tied to the deck of cards, and the ones you got vere illusory.

Well, here is the thing. She literally couldn't have done it. She has no abilities that let her manifest illusions so good they don't grant a save when interracted with from across the city with no line of effect or line of sight and god knows how many walls in the middle. "O but it doesn't matter focus on the story hurr durr"-it actually does matter very much. I was told about this by a friend who played through CotCT, and at one point they had to get a piece of information to a person on the other end of town. So he said "Well, lets call up our lady ghost friend and ask her to do it, like she did with our cards". Nope. Not possible.

And by default you kill/capture Lamm in session one. Talk about overhyping.

Want more? A second serving of plot holes coming up! At the end of first book there is a scene with a public execution. One person participating is JJ's self-insert character who is pretty much batman. Yes, with the costume. Yes, makes about as much realistic sense as the original. What that batman does is stop the execution, right in front of everyone(like half a city is gathered) call for a rebellion, then attempt to escape with the executionee. Party is basically assumed to be helping them. Yep, help out an open rebel out in the open in front of like half of the city, the queen, her guards, and god knows how many other important people. But that's not the insane part. Insane part is that if batman escapes, he manages to hide from Queen's wrath for months. Queen is a high-level caster with a lot of time and money on her hands, and a particular hate for rebels. Batman is something like Fighter 3/Swashbuckler 1. How he manages to not be found in less than a day is beyond me.

Still here? Well, here is the big one. See, CotCT is generally considered the best adventure path by Paizo out there. Pretty much everyone agrees on that. And out of that whole adventure, book 2 is the central point. Devs literally said that the rest has been written as more or less background for book 2. Book 2 of CotCT is where the best of the best Paizo has to offer in terms of writing quality is. What happens in that book is complicated, but basically the whole city suddenly gets infected with a plague. Dropping the question of how the flying flickety flock a mundane plague can function in a world with Remove Disease(it's really rather easy when you consider population mechanics and how many clerics there are in a city), that plague is the whole point of book 2. You do all sorts of quests related to the plague, trying to find out how it started in the process.

Well, riddle me this. What does an adventurer who is just about out of the "amazing mundane people" range do with a problem? How about a threat?

They deal with it. (https://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lphm4enunH1qj6y3go1_500.png) Directly. They don't run away or ignore it, that has been passed behind 2 levels ago. So, what's a good way to deal with a plague? Well, you try to find a cure. AP blessedly enough gives you a fair amount of downtime to allow for this, so unless your Wizard/Witch/Alchemist/Harbinger is particularily lazy or selfish, they would probably either try to either find a cure themselves through experimentation or try to join an existing research division(it has been announced that The Crown is working on the cure by that point in the AP). Well, guess what. AP has literally no support for this rather obvious idea. None. Nada. Nill. Nihil subsidium.

So, here we have the best book out of the best AP, and it assumes the players will sit on their hands and go on stupid quests on the level of "go and kill those 10 evil people, don't ask questions" to pass the time instead of actually trying to do something productive.

Yeah, not terribly sad about leaving Paizo forums.

According to the new hardcover, she's not a ghost, but a Haunt. And the illusions aren't spells, they're all in the pcs head. It's why they can pick them up and such. And it only works on the pcs because she can feel everyone Gaedren hurt and manifest to them through shared hatred of him. That said, they do get a save now. It's will 25. But only if they have doubts on the subject. The pcs now get to manufacture the cure but they can't do so until they get the notes on the disease in the dungeon. There's three sets. With jsut one the check is dc 30. Dc with no notes might be even higher.

Seems they addressed some of this stuff in the re-release.

DracoknightZero

2016-10-20, 05:00 PM

I played a AP for my group called "From the depths", the introduction to the story was so lame i had to write my own story where they travel from Absolom to the point where the adventure start. The beginning of the adventure was alright with the village and the spooky setup and gave my players a scare ( especially as i used the firelink shrine theme as backdrop ). However as soon as i got to the island **** just didnt go so well as its described that the players are supposed to wander the island for DAYS with random encounters, and the DCs for the knowledge checks were in the 20s so i wonder how the hell a lvl 6 party could make them for a 15pt buy that is standard for APs.. ( our party is equivalent to 34pt, but they still couldnt do the knowledge checks, considering our mage wasnt among us )

And then its just "go from A to B, event trigger" for 5 locations, and then the adventure end in a litteral "death corridor" with no way back up and rather heavy encounters. I even let my players rest down there as it was kind of stupid how you could have ambush encounters right before the final fight.

The ending was 2 dominated, the rogue and the sorcerer. The Monk got dominated in the last round and then the paladin managed to kill off the boss with a attack of oppertunity as the boss tries to escape. To make it not a TKP after all of that **** i just made the dominated people pick on the wall for the boss to escape, and later just do a combat manouver to delay the rest of the party.

Also in a game of "Wrath of the Rightous" and there is so many awkward moments of "HEY LOOK! THIS PERSON IS LESBIAN! HEY LOOK WE HAVE PERSONS WITH DARK BACKGROUNDS!" Our DM had to tone down a lot of the cringy scenes in that AP...

Tels

2016-10-20, 06:36 PM

According to the new hardcover, she's not a ghost, but a Haunt. And the illusions aren't spells, they're all in the pcs head. It's why they can pick them up and such. And it only works on the pcs because she can feel everyone Gaedren hurt and manifest to them through shared hatred of him. That said, they do get a save now. It's will 25. But only if they have doubts on the subject. The pcs now get to manufacture the cure but they can't do so until they get the notes on the disease in the dungeon. There's three sets. With jsut one the check is dc 30. Dc with no notes might be even higher.

Seems they addressed some of this stuff in the re-release.

Actually, the original publication of CotCT addresses the issue of hiw a plague starts when Remove Disease is a thing. In the Dungeon Master's Guide for 3.5, it breaks down the number of casters of each level available by city population, and points out that, even should every caster capable of firing the plague do so, they simply don't have the numbers to pull it off as Blood Veil spreads too quickly.

You have to understand, the plague itself was not accidental, in the original, the Queen's servants and the Urgathoan Cultists had a ship sunk that was carrying little lock boxes designed to float. Inside the boxes was something like 50 silver coins, each tainted with Blood Veil. The coins were then spread through the population, infecting everyone who handled them. At the same time, they deposited coins in the Bank of Avatar, and also used them for purchases around the city.

So Blood Veil went from non-existant, to everywhere in the blink of an eye. There simply was no possible way of counteracting the spread of the disease with anything less than, like, an Angelic host or army of Clerics/Paladin's etc. Or without abusing the magic trap system.

Criticisms of Book 1 are well known, so too are the criticisms for Book 4. Many things can be attributed to oversight, and that they wanted to focus more on telling a good story instead of making everything viable by RAW. It's funny, I always see, "don't worry about the nitty gritty details of the rules when GMing, just focus on the story and fun for the players" as the Number 1 tip for new GMs, yet I see so many people complain when some little aspect of the rules is forgotten or ignored.

Anyway, CotCT is regarded as arguably the best AP due to its overall story and setting. The scenarios, especially Book 2, are some of the best every written, and Castle Scarwall in Book 5 is a beast. The NPCs in the books, especially Laori Vaus are huge fan favorites too. I mean, what's not to love about a demented and psychotic Elven cleric who giggles at the thought of torturing puppies and enjoys long walks on the beach, dragging you along in chains made from your eviscerated entrails, followed by several hours of flesh rending sex? Also, she makes cookies.

Rynjin

2016-10-20, 07:42 PM

Anyway...

Ash (and everyone else :smallsmile:),

How would you go about creating a setting where humans are relatively rare, being newcomers in a weird world/continent/plane/whatever and so far only having had time to create a handful of cities?

What contextual and metagame implications can you predict? What would happen to a continent where the other races exist, living mostly in isolation from one another, if humans were suddenly introduced into the mix?

What if the humans had relatively advanced technology (for a mostly medieval world), but not the resources necessary to use/create it? (The idea being that most humans who actually knew how to create/use said technology either died on whatever event caused the humans to leave their land or on their way to this new world).

Required reading on this subject, IMO:

1.) The Coldfire trilogy, by CS Friedman. Three books, obviously. Group of space explorers land on a planet that is ruled by a force they come to call the fae that makes all thoughts reality. They learn to survive and harness the fae to eke out survival, and clash with the natives that always lived in harmony with it.

2.) The Codex Alera, by Jim Butcher. Seven books. Born of pulling two seemingly unrelated ideas (Pokemon and the lost Roman Legion) out of a hat (literally), and a series that is almost as good, if not on par with the Dresden Files. Elemental pacts abound.

3.) The Pern novels, by Anne McCaffrey. I am too lazy to open my box and count them, but there are a lot. I suggest just reading the prologue book, which is Dragon Dawn IIRC. Explorers land on a new planet, are ravaged by an unforeseeable threat called the Thread, genetically engineer dragons to survive. No sentient native life to clash with, but a good example of how even limited (by the extent of their resources originally available) amount of sci-fi tech can change things.

137beth

2016-10-21, 09:29 PM

Anyway, CotCT is regarded as arguably the best AP due to its overall story and setting. The scenarios, especially Book 2, are some of the best every written, and Castle Scarwall in Book 5 is a beast. The NPCs in the books, especially Laori Vaus are huge fan favorites too. I mean, what's not to love about a demented and psychotic Elven cleric who giggles at the thought of torturing puppies and enjoys long walks on the beach, dragging you along in chains made from your eviscerated entrails, followed by several hours of flesh rending sex? Also, she makes cookies.
I've heard plenty of good things about CotCT, and have been considering getting the compilation. For the last few years, I've mostly been sticking to buying compilations only for RPG products. It acts as a quality filter of sorts, since there are tens of thousands of RPG products and I can't possibly consider all of them. I do make exceptions for really awesome material (Word Mill's Location Generator, for example), and for the core rules of a game (since I need those to play, obviously.) So CotCT naturally came on my radar due to being one of the few Paizo products that survives my "Core and Compilations" filter, and due to the praise it regularly receives.

There are, though, a few things holding me back from the purchase button:
1. Issues with the Paizo.com store push me away from wanting to buy it directly from Paizo.
2. Adventures are really something that I think are a lot more convenient to have digitally. If I'm going to be referencing it while running a session, I want it on my laptop. I would consider using a print version, but the extra inconvenience of having to handle a big heavy book without a search feature or copy/paste makes it less desirable than it would be if it were digital.
3. The hardcover is expensive, even with Amazon Prime. Especially when accounting for the fact that it is already in an inconvenient format.
4. Since my ftf gaming groups don't do Pathfinder, I'd either have to convert it to another game system (which shouldn't be particularly hard for Word Mill's Mythic RPG or Mongoose Legend, but might be harder for 3.5 or GURPS), or I'd need to run it in an online game. And if I'm running a game online, point (2) becomes even bigger.

So, yea. There's still a pretty high chance I'll get it eventually, but I'll wait until the price goes down somewhat. RPG books have shelflives of decades, after all.

Lemmy

2016-10-22, 01:24 PM

Don't you love when electricity goes out on Saturday of all days... And you have nothing to do but fiddle with your phone?

Even my cat is bored... :smallsigh:

137beth

2016-10-22, 01:43 PM

Not nearly as bad as when the power goes out and you have work you actually have to do, but can't:smallmad:

Lemmy

2016-10-22, 03:59 PM

Not nearly as bad as when the power goes out and you have work you actually have to do, but can't:smallmad:Not as bad, but just as boring...:smallsigh:

Electricity is back now, though! :smallsmile:

Lemmy

2016-10-22, 04:21 PM

Im not sure the Dwarves and Humans would actually fight too much in this case. Humans are fairly lazy creatures, so why would they try and start mining the Mountains if they have a good relationship with a race of beings who are already mining it, and already have huge fortresses and cities built into said mines? Better to just trade with them, than try and take it from them. Or perhaps even send people into the mines and work with the dwarves to improve mining, like via their steampunk technology.Yeah... That's a good point. I'm actually considering the idea of humans having adopted the dwarven currency.

How long will the Truce last between humans and elves? The humans are going to need more wood eventually, even if they aren't expanding and population has stabilized. They need it for houses, wagons, barrels and all sorts of things. Eventually, someone is going to cross that border.Yeah, that's meant to be one of the sources of conflict in the setting. Even if humans adopt a very environment-friendly policy, they'd still expand and have to revise their policies much faster than elves find acceptable. For humans, raising the limit of how much can be harvested/cut/hunted every 20 years or so would be very reasonable... Elves would see that the way we'd see someone proposing a new policy every 3 months. Both sides have individuals/organizations proposing diplomatic solutions as well as individuals/organizations proposing military conflict.

What is the relationship between dwarves and elves? Stereotypical Tolkien one of "mutual dislike" between them? Or something different? The about other races, like halfling and gnomes? I assume half-orc and half-lives are basically non-existant as there just hasn't been enough time for such races to really be even a minority instead of a unique being. What other races will be playable in this setting, as that will greatly change how the setting is shaped.
Mostly they find each other really strange and somewhat foolish, but do not hate each other. Historically, they've been allies more often than they have been enemies, but still, most of the time they are just uninterested in each other, save for a few trade agreements.

Half-elves are nonexistent (so far)... Half-orcs are extremely rare, but not unheard of, as humans did encounter a few orcs tribes and raiding parties. Nearly all of these encounters ended in military conflict, but not all of them. Since orcs are rare in this portion of the continent (mostly because of the presence of elves and dwarfs). A few orc tribes were incorporated into human society as mercenaries and bounty hunters, but they are still widely seen as 2nd class citizens at best.

Not sure on the other races populating the continent... Halflings live among other aces, and have no significant society of their own. Gnomes have a small, but prosperous kingdom close to the elven borders...

There are a number of islands on the southern half of the continent, where the climate grows increasingly tropical the more you go south... I'm trying to decide what races to place there... Maybe catfolk based on the desert-dwelling saber cats from Diablo. Lizardfolk could be cool too...

Tels

2016-10-22, 08:46 PM

On the subject of power...

This summer my phone company came by to work on our phone lines due to frequent issues with internet. We have two buildings on our property, and the other being was built first (intended to be a shop, but we ended up living in it until we could finish our house). The phone line connects to the, now, shop, and we live in the second building (which is our house).

Anyway, we had our phone connected through a buried cable between the two buildings (easier and cheaper than hooking the house up directly), but an earthquake damaged it. So the phone company laid a temporary line across the surface of the ground, along the backside of our property. We were supposed to dig a new trench for a new buried line, but with everything going on this summer, we forgot.

So this brings us to last Wednesday, the 12th. Local power company was doing maintenance on the lines behind my house, trimming off dangerous branches and cutting bush growth. They did this with a machine with, what amounts to, a giant lawn mower attachment. A lawn mower the shredded our temporary phone line.

So we dug our trench that Friday, the 14th... And we're still waiting for the phone company to come by and reconnect us. It seems most of their techs have either quit or gone on vacation, so they are short handed and super backed up in my area.

Now here I am with no internet except my cell phone, thank heavens for unlimited data, and I've been trying to prep a Halloween Zombie short game using only my phone. To make it even worse, looks like no one is wanting to play, so most of my effort is being wasted. At least I've got some NPCs to use.