Anonymouswizard's Random Banter #227 and Free Cup of Tea

[enderlord99]

Isn't 22 Celsius literally the temperature at which the human body has no need to spend any extra energy heating or cooling itself?

Apparently the actual temperature for that is ~84 Fahrenheit or ~29 Celsius.

EDIT: ...While naked, with still air. Clothing and wind would alter things.

[SZbNAhL]

Apparently the actual temperature for that is ~84 Fahrenheit or ~29 Celsius.

EDIT: ...While naked, with still air. Clothing and wind would alter things.

Surely this would vary by body type as well, especially surface area and level of insulating fat.

[el minster]

Skinny people are cooler than other people.

[The Fury]

Skinny people are cooler than other people.

I will have you know that I'm very skinny and not cool at all.

[enderlord99]

I think I read somewhere that Japanese Knotweed can occasionally survive direct injection of Agent Orange.

[Bartmanhomer]

I Wonder if Basketball is like Pokemon? There's Offense, Defense, Shooter, Wall, Blocker.

[el minster]

I will have you know that I'm very skinny and not cool at all.

I meant in terms of actual temperature.

[Anonymouswizard]

So work finally has regular plague testing.

In other news, my nose feels weird.

[Lacco]

I Wonder if Basketball is like Pokemon? There's Offense, Defense, Shooter, Wall, Blocker.

Only for the coach who gets to train his pokemon and then shout stuff at them during the match

Hmm... would be interested in seeing a basketball game with Pokemon-style actions

[Peelee]

So work finally has regular plague testing.

In other news, my nose feels weird.

Oh jeez, i wouldn't wish that test on anyone.

[LaZodiac]

So work finally has regular plague testing.

In other news, my nose feels weird.

Eesh, that sounds rough. I hope you're okay AnonWizard!

[Bartmanhomer]

Only for the coach who gets to train his pokemon and then shout stuff at them during the match

Hmm... would be interested in seeing a basketball game with Pokemon-style actions

You know what. I think that a great idea. Basketball with Pokemon physics.

[Anonymouswizard]

Eesh, that sounds rough. I hope you're okay AnonWizard!

Apart from the nasal assault and a mild headache? I'm fine, thanks for worrying.

[Cazero]

You know what. I think that a great idea. Basketball with Pokemon physics.

Considering Prince of Tennis is a thing, I wouldn't be surprised if there was already a manga like that somewhere.

[Aotrs Commander]

That point when you realise that you could make a half-way credible Superman build from Warlock and a slight Monk dip.

[Rater202]

That point when you realise that you could make a half-way credible Superman build from Warlock and a slight Monk dip.

...I can see it.

I mean, warlock can easily get 24 hour flight castable at will. Brimstone blast substitutes heat vision Warlock gets some decent DR and even usable fast healing, At Will Detect Magic and Devil's sight substitutes X-ray vision and the Warlock's various "buff myself for 24 hours" can cover some of the minor, passive powers...

Though I'm not sure where the Monk comes in. I figured that AC bonus, speed bonus, and unarmed strikes would substitute Superman's superhuman strength but it takes until level 16 in Monk before I'd consider that comparable to Superman

[Aotrs Commander]

...I can see it.

I mean, warlock can easily get 24 hour flight castable at will. Brimstone blast substitutes heat vision Warlock gets some decent DR and even usable fast healing, At Will Detect Magic and Devil's sight substitutes X-ray vision and the Warlock's various "buff myself for 24 hours" can cover some of the minor, passive powers...

Though I'm not sure where the Monk comes in. I figured that AC bonus, speed bonus, and unarmed strikes would substitute Superman's superhuman strength but it takes until level 16 in Monk before I'd consider that comparable to Superman

Easiest way to functionally get a decent Unarmed Strike with a one-level dip, to be honest (you could take that draconic archetype from PF to make your monk defence run off Cha to be less MAD, though Supes out to be on a very generous (3.Aotrs level) point-buy anyway. Also, little bit of super-speed with Flurry.

Hideous Blast (at least the 3.Aotrs version which basically just lets you do an Attack/ Full Attack and add blast damage until the start of you next turn) roughly approximates the "punch man really hard" thing. Evne toss-up whether you think the Force damage better represents "can punch anything" or whether blagging it being made into nonmagical bludgeoning damage would be worth it not provoking because it's techically an SLA.

(Also, you could probably blag basic EB dealing Fire damage instead of Force so you wouldn't need Brimstone Blast, as it would be a nerf.)

See Invisible, obviosuly also onte X-Ray vision thing.

DR ought to be changed to DR/Kryptonite, obviously...! (I mean, really, given hoe easy Lex and every seems to find it, your theorhetical DM ught not to have problems having anyone and his uncle have kryptinite as often as they would have had Cold Iron weapons, so...!)

(Okay, the fluff downbside is EB is an SLA, but I did say only half-credible...!)


Y'aint gonn get Big Blue hisself, mind, but you could get something that would be at least flavorly within spitting distance, one feels.

[SZbNAhL]

You'd have similar powers, but you'd be getting them by selling your soul to an evil outsider. Maybe I'm forgetting something from the edgy 90s comics, but I can't really see Supes going in for that sort of thing.

[Aotrs Commander]

You'd have similar powers, but you'd be getting them by selling your soul to an evil outsider. Maybe I'm forgetting something from the edgy 90s comics, but I can't really see Supes going in for that sort of thing.

Who gives a frack about what the class fluff says, though? I certainly never have (c.f. my Naruto-style ninja, nothing more mechanially than a straight Cleric/Monk (dip) cross (Trickery and Competition domains)).

The mechanics are ultimately what matters, not the names of the abilities; classes are nothing more than metagame contructs of labelled abilities, as far as I've ever been concerned; flavour is mutable.

[Fyraltari]

Who gives a frack about what the class fluff says, though? I certainly never have (c.f. my Naruto-style ninja, nothing more mechanially than a straight Cleric/Monk (dip) cross (Trickery and Competition domains)).

The mechanics are ultimately what matters, not the names of the abilities; classes are nothing more than metagame contructs of labelled abilities, as far as I've ever been concerned; flavour is mutable.

What about the mechanics like how paladins fall when they act evil?

[Bartmanhomer]

Considering Prince of Tennis is a thing, I wouldn't be surprised if there was already a manga like that somewhere.

Prince of Tennis? What's that?

[Fyraltari]

Prince of Tennis? What's that?

It’s an anime. About tennis.
Whoever gets this reference, I’ll be proud to call my friend.

[Jasdoif]

You'd have similar powers, but you'd be getting them by selling your soul to an evil outsider.

Superman got his powers from Krypton, and kryptonite insists he return them. Clearly, the dead planet is his patron and is attempting to renege on the pact.

[Aotrs Commander]

What about the mechanics like how paladins fall when they act evil?

Paladins - and antipaladins - are ONLY classes in the entirity of 3.5/PF that ACTUALLY merit alignment restrictions (and those are integrated as mechanical restrictions, even, not fluff¹ AND their main class feature is predicated specifically on targeting the opposite moral alignment). Everything else is just silly. There's no reason you can't have good Dread Necromancers, Chaotic Monks, Lawful Barbarians and all the rest of it, and that's just ALIGNMENT, which as I've said before is a whole crate of poorly-thought-out worms entirely of its own. (I ditched alignment requirements basically the very first party in 3.0 we did where one of the players wanted to play Gabrielle off of Xena and thus be a nonLawful monk and I've never looked back; they went along with the equally pointless multiclassing restrictions.)

If someone wants to reflavour their Magic Missile to shoot little skulls, they damn well should be able to. If someone wants to reflavour Dragon Shaman into Phoenix Shaman by selecting an appropriate "dragon" mechanically, they damn well should be able to. If someone wants to take an Armoured Blade PF Soulknife and turn it into a full-on Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha build, Barrier Jacket and all, they damn well should be able to. If someone wants to take that one psionic NPC and make all his powers be blood and ichour related, they damn well should be able to; or those Golarion Ogre cleric to have hunger/greed flavoured spells, well, I think you get the idea.

(And every one of those but the first is something I or one of my group have done or planned.)

The Faerun and Pathfinder feats that "allow" you to reflavour spells (and are mechanically AWFUL as salt in the wound) have a very special place they can go to, along with whichever creativity- and roleplaying-stumping numpty thought of them and whoever was behind "Lichloved," because I take that one personally.



I will stretch to JUST BARELY conceeding that you can ask players playing organised play games at conventions not to extensively re-flavour stuff for the sake of not confusing the DMs, but that is absolutely as far as that goes.



¹3.Aotrs goes as far as providing a default Paladin's Code, something that they ALWAYS should have had, and getting rid of some of the stupider (Lawful Stupid) enforcing restrictions, most notably the "can't associate with Evil" clause which is a ridiculously counter-productive roleplaying doorstop, especiaslly these days where redemption stories are so damn common its hard to find something where more than one token bad guy STAYS the bad guy. Case-in-point proved by PF Kingmaker, which actually lets you redeem certain characters from Evil that a reading of 3.0/3.5''s (re: AD&D's) nonsense would have had you eject from the party or straight-up kill.

[Cazero]

Whoever gets this reference, I’ll be proud to call my friend.

I'm gonna go on a hunch and say Joueur du Grenier.
Because that's where I heard about Prince of Tennis in the first place, and you're french.

[Fyraltari]

I'm gonna go on a hunch and say Joueur du Grenier.
Because that's where I heard about Prince of Tennis in the first place, and you're french.

Yeah, my man!

[Rater202]

You'd have similar powers, but you'd be getting them by selling your soul to an evil outsider. Maybe I'm forgetting something from the edgy 90s comics, but I can't really see Supes going in for that sort of thing.

In 3.5 youcould have made a pact but the core book also says that it could be the result of a random gift or you having a powerful magical creature as an ancestor, just as was the case for sorcerers. the difference between a Sorcerer and a Warlock was, essentially, that the Sorcerer hard magic in the blood while a Warlock had it in their soul.

Complete Mage further clarifies that while devil and demons are a common source, you can also be a Warlock who was gifted power by a Fae or by any chaotic outsiders, including good ones. It even flat out says that while the "Celestial" Warlock prestige class was meant for Warlocks who turned their back on evil masters that it was also designed specifically so you could re-fluff it and say that you were getting your powers from a good guy all along.

And in every edition, it's made clear that can tell the person you made a pact with to piss off and there's no consequences for it. Being a Warlock in D&D is afaustian bargain that's horribly biased in the favor of the mortal insteadof being one-sided the normal way.

Hell: The Star Pact in 4E fluffed it as you literally getting power from the stars instead of tying into the Cthulhu Mythos(though it amounted to the same) so you could argue that the Super Man warlock made a pact with an Angel or Archon that served as a representative of Pelor or the settings equivalent god of Sunlight, Life, and Goodness, which thematically ties to Superman's superhuman metabolism and by extension his powers being empowered by Yellow Sunlight(Techncially, anything but a red sun. Red Sunlight doesn't hurt him so much as its not potent enough to fuel him and it takes up room in hs system. Expose him to more sunlight than he can store and old gets pushed out to make room for new.)

[Aotrs Commander]

In 3.5 youcould have made a pact but the core book also says that it could be the result of a random gift or you having a powerful magical creature as an ancestor, just as was the case for sorcerers. the difference between a Sorcerer and a Warlock was, essentially, that the Sorcerer hard magic in the blood while a Warlock had it in their soul.

Complete Mage further clarifies that while devil and demons are a common source, you can also be a Warlock who was gifted power by a Fae or by any chaotic outsiders, including good ones. It even flat out says that while the "Celestial" Warlock prestige class was meant for Warlocks who turned their back on evil masters that it was also designed specifically so you could re-fluff it and say that you were getting your powers from a good guy all along.

And in every edition, it's made clear that can tell the person you made a pact with to piss off and there's no consequences for it. Being a Warlock in D&D is afaustian bargain that's horribly biased in the favor of the mortal insteadof being one-sided the normal way.

Hell: The Star Pact in 4E fluffed it as you literally getting power from the stars instead of tying into the Cthulhu Mythos(though it amounted to the same) so you could argue that the Super Man warlock made a pact with an Angel or Archon that served as a representative of Pelor or the settings equivalent god of Sunlight, Life, and Goodness, which thematically ties to Superman's superhuman metabolism and by extension his powers being empowered by Yellow Sunlight(Techncially, anything but a red sun. Red Sunlight doesn't hurt him so much as its not potent enough to fuel him and it takes up room in hs system. Expose him to more sunlight than he can store and old gets pushed out to make room for new.)

I'll go a step further and point out that Warlock mechanically has NOTHING that ties to a patron other than the flavor-names of the abilities. The PF Witch has a mechanical patron; the 3.5 Warlock doesn't. It's purely a flavour thing, and as such is completely ignorable.


(Come to think about it, neither I nor my players have even ever given consideration to a pact with any warlock we've had in play - it's siimply that unimportant it doesn't need consideration.)

[Rater202]

I'll go a step further and point out that Warlock mechanically has NOTHING that ties to a patron other than the flavor-names of the abilities. The PF Witch has a mechanical patron; the 3.5 Warlock doesn't. It's purely a flavour thing, and as such is completely ignorable.


(Come to think about it, neither I nor my players have even ever given consideration to a pact with any warlock we've had in play - it's simply that unimportant it doesn't need consideration.)

I usually latched onto the "your soul is a font of magical power" fluff: All of my warlocks were random flukes born with powerful but chaotic magics baked directly into their soul... Which I carried into 4e: Both of the warlocks I played in my first game merely used a pact to focus their abilities into something usable and, as I fluffed it, the true source of their power was a spark of divinity.

And if you want to play with expectations: Warlock literally means "liar" or "Oathbreaker" in old English. So strictly speaking, for a spell caster to accurately be considered a Warlock, they should be someone who is who got their powers becuase they tricked a powerful being into giving them to them and didn't hold up their end of the Bargain.

[Aotrs Commander]

I'll be honest - I tend to do nothing more than skim a bit of a character class, the first time I read it, above where it says "Class Features" and the table starts. If it isn't important enough to be mentioned in the class features, it isn't important at all, especially when classes are metagame constructs. I point back to Shiuke - he tells everyone (loudly and enthusiastically) he's a ninja or a shinobi, but he's a Monk 2/Cleric 16 mechanically. His "deity" is his Shinobi Way (and since clerics don't have a particular code of conduct, it doesn't matter, since Shiuke wouldn't do anything that would cause him to lose cleric status (just like literally every other cleric anyone has ever played)).

(Faerun's gods would probably have kittens, but the game is only in the Realms because it started as a spin-off from a random comment made in another party, and the canon has been fairly brutally kicked over (most of them are probably quite dead) and largely ignored.)

(His holy symbol is his forehead protector ala Naruto; for what little it matters (as we don't even normally worry about clerics having to physically hold their holy symbol, so long as they can use their shield-arm (i.e. only have a light shield) and a weapon arm), for the sake off arguement, I awlays said his hand that would be considered holding his holy symbol is busy doing all the handseals.)



Another examnple; nobody cares where or how Immune Petervious (the warlock) gets his powers, only that he can fly and shoot force beams at people and that his ability to turn invisible means that he with his complete lack of perception skills and 10 Wisdom, constitutes the party's entire scouting capability. It's simply not important.

("Play whatever you like," I says. "I doesn't matter!" I says. Cue a party of warlock, psion, ardent. psychic warrior, duskblade and unicorn dragon shaman, only latterly with (sometimes) a barbarian/fighter and (sometimes) a druid and/or an archvist/wizard mystic theruge bringing some desperately needed ANYTHING to a party that was otherwise basically confined to challenges of a "hit things until they die from it" nature...! They had to have one of the Ardent's NPC Contubernium multiclass into Tracker just so that they had SOME ability to blunder around outside. Disarm traps? Diplomacy? Finding things? Dealing with esoteric hazards? Madness, sirrah!)




Edit: I actually checked Pertervious background, to see what (if anything) I said (usual Bleakbane rules apply, I write background to the extent of any provided by the players (none, I think, for most of this party), and it is mostlt "you are here, this is what happened to get you here.")

There was one sentence about him having "Evil blood in his veins," that he fought and alluisions to having some sort of childhood slip-up, but that's it, and I'd clean forgotten it, which shows you how vastly important it was to the character, and said sentence is going back to 2007 and I wouldn't likely even bother with that much these days, at the time I was still vaguely paying scant lip-service (shows how vaguely, even there, though) to 3.5's fluff stuff.

The rest of it is just about how he was at the medical camp the party started at which was about two minutes into the game of being attacked.

(I could post the whole thing up if nayone cares, it's notably very short, much shorter than the ones I typically do for them now, which often reach a full page...!)