DataNinja's Scintillating Digital Random Banter #231

[Rater202]

I'm wondering if adding cayenne pepper, jalapeno extract, and maybe a little bit of cumin to a traditional cheddar sauce would be able to recreate the slightly spicy flavor I crave from nacho-cheese without having to buy something with chunks of jalapeno in it.

Of course, I'd have to figure out if oil or alcohol-based extracts would work better for it as well.

[Rawhide]

Has anyone ever told you that you have a beautiful brain?

I'm wondering if adding cayenne pepper, jalapeno extract, and maybe a little bit of cumin

You stay away from Hyoi's brain!

[Rater202]

You stay away from Hyoi's brain!

...Those were two completly unrelated thoughts.

I'm not secretly a zombie and/or illithid, I swear.

[Peelee]

You stay away from Hyoi's brain!

Brainslugs are actually quite fashionable. I have a brainslug that is just your size. Come, try the brainslug on for size.

[Fyraltari]

...Those were two completly unrelated thoughts.

I'm not secretly a zombie and/or illithid, I swear.

Sounds like what a secret illithid zombi would say!

[Rater202]

Sounds like what a secret illithid zombi would say!

It's also something that the victim of a witch hunt aimed at illithid zombies would say.

[Peelee]

It's also something that the victim of a witch hunt aimed at illithid zombies would say.

Great, now we have to hunt a zombie illithid witch. Are they multiclassed?

[Rater202]

Great, now we have to hunt a zombie illithid witch. Are they multiclassed?

Oh no, the GM made a Homebrew D20 game based on Soul Eater and is importing elements of it into D&D to test the waters, "Witch" is a template. It's normally applied over the base human template but exceptions were made due to the altered setting

[Cazero]

Wait, I thought witch was the class, and illithid and zombi the templates.

[Peelee]

Wait, I thought witch was the class, and illithid and zombi the templates.

Is illithid not a specific creature? A zombie template on an illithid who took the witch class, I was thinking.

[Rater202]

Wait, I thought witch was the class, and illithid and zombi the templates.

Is illithid not a specific creature? A zombie template on an illithid who took the witch class, I was thinking.

Nah, see, it's a crossover with a setting where witches are born rather than made. Something to do with the nature of their soul.

It's more a template that potentially qualifies you for certain classes.

[Anonymouswizard]

All this talk of anime/D&D crossovers makes me want to throw a Blue Eyes White Dragon at a party.

Like, I'd give fair warning. the dungeon would include several battles against mages with decks of highly advanced holograms illusions.

Also it wouldn't be hard to homebrew, stats-wise you probably begin with a blue wyrm dragon to get the right breath weapon. Bit the look on the player's faces once they finish their anti-cold preparations and it finally breaths.

Maybe in 13th Age.

[Rater202]

All this talk of anime/D&D crossovers makes me want to throw a Blue Eyes White Dragon at a party.

Like, I'd give fair warning. the dungeon would include several battles against mages with decks of highly advanced holograms illusions.

Also it wouldn't be hard to homebrew, stats-wise you probably begin with a blue wyrm dragon to get the right breath weapon. Bit the look on the player's faces once they finish their anti-cold preparations and it finally breaths.

Maybe in 13th Age.

I remember on the old wizards website their was a contest involving unique dragons modified with templates and class levels—the one that sticks out most clearly to me was The Chessmaster, a pair of Dragons with Psion levels, one black and one white, that used a custom version of the Fusion power to permanently merge into a two-headed dragon—but one of them, as far as I can remember, was just a regular red dragon that happened to be Albino.

It was presented as a mean trick to play on players: Its lair would be in a dormant volcano in the middle of a mountainous region that was naturally cold and snowy year-round. The locals would talk about the "white dragon" becuase they don't know that white dragons don't breathe fire and, I mean, it's literally a dragon with white scales. The PCs would prepare fire spells and invest in protection from cold and such, then end p fighting a red dragon in a lava pool and their prep would be useless.

[Rogar Demonblud]

It would be interesting to see how, for example, invulnerability would help with that.

No worrying about a crab nipping something delicate. And you could actually pet a stonefish.

[Anonymouswizard]

I remember on the old wizards website their was a contest involving unique dragons modified with templates and class levels—the one that sticks out most clearly to me was The Chessmaster, a pair of Dragons with Psion levels, one black and one white, that used a custom version of the Fusion power to permanently merge into a two-headed dragon—but one of them, as far as I can remember, was just a regular red dragon that happened to be Albino.

It was presented as a mean trick to play on players: Its lair would be in a dormant volcano in the middle of a mountainous region that was naturally cold and snowy year-round. The locals would talk about the "white dragon" becuase they don't know that white dragons don't breathe fire and, I mean, it's literally a dragon with white scales. The PCs would prepare fire spells and invest in protection from cold and such, then end p fighting a red dragon in a lava pool and their prep would be useless.

Sure, hence the Yu-Gi-Oh themed telegraphing. It gives the players a chance, and thus makes it fairer.

Honestly though, now I've started statting up the Millennium Items as artefacts. They work really, really well, I've not quite worked out detailed rules for Shadow Games, but their other powers fit really nicely into an RPG framework. But you just don't want the PCs getting hold of the Millennium Ring (more for it's dowsing powers than it's soul manipulation).

[Rater202]

No worrying about a crab nipping something delicate. And you could actually pet a stonefish.

I'm not sure why you'd want to pet a stonefish.

Invulnerability or even just normal super-toughness is one of those "quality of life" superpowers. At a bare minimum, you're less likely to suffer the annoying minor injuries or take permanent harm from accidents and, depending on how it works, might age slower as you don't suffer as much wear and tear from everyday actions or environmental damage.

[Peelee]

I'm not sure why you'd want to pet a stonefish.

Invulnerability or even just normal super-toughness is one of those "quality of life" superpowers. At a bare minimum, you're less likely to suffer the annoying minor injuries or take permanent harm from accidents and, depending on how it works, might age slower as you don't suffer as much wear and tear from everyday actions or environmental damage.

Also can't donate your organs when you die, can't get surgery if needed, can't get any IVs, and I don't evergreen want to thin about the invulnerable cancer that eould have a chance of showing up..

[Rater202]

Also can't donate your organs when you die, can't get surgery if needed, can't get any IVs, and I don't evergreen want to thin about the invulnerable cancer that eould have a chance of showing up..

I mean, if you're invulnerable all the way through the surgery and IVs aren't an issue and if you're invulnerable down to the cellular level then you have a much lower cancer risk.

But yeah, in general, you want to pair toughness up with a healing factor, especially if the toughness isn't "invulnerable" and /or is only skin deep.

If you only get toughness you want it to either be minor--protects from incidental damage but is only a minor inconvenience to invasive medical treatment--or absolute(can't be harmed period.)

[Fyraltari]

Also can't donate your organs when you die, can't get surgery if needed, can't get any IVs, and I don't evergreen want to thin about the invulnerable cancer that eould have a chance of showing up..

Don't forget: can't shave or cut hair and (toe)nails.

[enderlord99]

I remember on the old wizards website their was a contest involving unique dragons modified with templates and class levels—the one that sticks out most clearly to me was The Chessmaster, a pair of Dragons with Psion levels, one black and one white, that used a custom version of the Fusion power to permanently merge into a two-headed dragon—but one of them, as far as I can remember, was just a regular red dragon that happened to be Albino.

It was presented as a mean trick to play on players: Its lair would be in a dormant volcano in the middle of a mountainous region that was naturally cold and snowy year-round. The locals would talk about the "white dragon" becuase they don't know that white dragons don't breathe fire and, I mean, it's literally a dragon with white scales. The PCs would prepare fire spells and invest in protection from cold and such, then end p fighting a red dragon in a lava pool and their prep would be useless.

That's similar to another unusually-pale red dragon I'd read about way back when. It was undead. The person who first warns the PCs about it is knowledgable and trustworthy, and says that there is a dragon, that it's dangerous, where it lives, and that it's "a wight, I think."

[Peelee]

I mean, if you're invulnerable all the way through the surgery and IVs aren't an issue and if you're invulnerable down to the cellular level then you have a much lower cancer risk.

I vulnerable all the way through means your bacteria and cells are invulnerable. Which means when they go bad, or replicate unco trollably, they do so with invulnerability. So you still do get sick, or have an unburstable bad appendix, or get cancer. Those things are now just even more untreatable.

"imvulnerable" does not mean "healthy".

[Rater202]

That's similar to another unusually-pale red dragon I'd read about way back when. It was undead. The person who first warns the PCs about it is knowledgable and trustworthy, and says that there is a dragon, that it's dangerous, where it lives, and that it's "a wight, I think."

...Oh, that's cruel.

With the albino dragon, there's always the chance that an NPC could mention its fire breath or something but that seems to be almost deliberately misleading.

Especially with it being undead. That potentially changes up not only the Dragon's behavior but the tactics that might work on it

I vulnerable all the way through means your bacteria and cells are invulnerable. Which means when they go bad, or replicate unco trollably, they do so with invulnerability. So you still do get sick, or have an unburstable bad appendix, or get cancer. Those things are now just even more untreatable.

"imvulnerable" does not mean "healthy".

Your symbiotic bacteria are not "you" so your invulnerable cells can handle anything they can dish out.

And if your cells are invulnerable then the only way they'll become cancerous is from aging, because if they're truly invulnerable then they can't be harmed by the toxins and radiations that can cause dells to become cancerous.

Invulnerable means "can't be harmed." Getting sick is a form of harm.

[Peelee]

Your symbiotic bacteria are not "you"

Well now we're getting into biological quandries, aren't we? Is it just your brain that's invulnerable now? Also, your definition of "harm" is remarkably open-ended, which is similarly problematic in ways that would cause unintended catastrophes.

[Rater202]

Arguaing about the brain shifts it o philosophy.

I think it's a moot point though. You never want just the one super-power, you want a package of them that cancel out their weaknesses.

Pulling an easy example: You don't want just one of Wolverine's powers: If you have the bone claws without the healing factor it's gonna hurt like hell and probably make you bleed to death. Without the adamantium plating, they're not going to be able to cut through much, without the ultra-dense bones your skeleton will be crushed by the weight of the adamantium, without the enhanced physical attributes that come from the healing factor trying to make you perfect relative to your condition at the time it activated, you won't be able to move with the hundreds of pounds of steel-based allow bound to your bones and ligaments.

The healing factor by itself might be okay, but that's becuase it's potent enough to negate aging and cellular damage and does its best to make you perfect rather than just healing you until you're fixed. If it didn't do that then every use of it would take years off your life both becuase it's using up your finite number of cellular divisions and becuase it probably causes stress to your entire body, you'd suffer premature aging, and you'd have a drastically increased risk of cancer.

Moving away from the obvious powers: peak human sight, touch, and hearing combined with superhuman smell(and presumably taste) would be incredibly unpleasant if not for the superhuman tolerance for bright lights, loud noises, foul smells, and general sensory overload.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Without a brain mod you probably can't even make sense of what the senses are telling you.

[Rater202]

Without a brain mod you probably can't even make sense of what the senses are telling you.

I mean, you're not seeing, smelling, tasting, or hearing anything that humans can't, you're just picking up more details.

[Peelee]

I think it's a moot point though. You never want just the one super-power, you want a package of them that cancel out their weaknesses.

Oh you're absolutely right!

[Rater202]

Oh you're absolutely right!

The Spider-Man oackage is another one: There's a film theory video on this, but the gist of it is that even with his superhuman strength and toughness, web-swinging the way Spider-Man does should kill him simply because a human body isn't built to do that.

Luckily, Spider-Man is partially magic so he's not reliant on the hard rules of biology to make his powers work.

[Peelee]

The Spider-Man oackage is another one: There's a film theory video on this, but the gist of it is that even with his superhuman strength and toughness, web-swinging the way Spider-Man does should kill him simply because a human body isn't built to do that.

Luckily, Spider-Man is partially magic so he's not reliant on the hard rules of biology to make his powers work.

I love Spider-Man but I constantly have an issue where he can stick to walls through his limbs but then somehow he can still do it with the suit, which should negate any way his hands work to stick to the walls.

[Rater202]

I love Spider-Man but I constantly have an issue where he can stick to walls through his limbs but then somehow he can still do it with the suit, which should negate any way his hands work to stick to the walls.

In the comics, he's not sticking with his and so much as he can use his hands to manipulate bonds between molecules.

He essentially fuses his hands and feet—or the fabric of his gloves and shoes—to the walls to catch on and then unfuses them when he needs to move.

This, combined with his superhuman toughness, is why someone trying to rip him off a wall usually rips out chunks of wall instead. If he don't wanna let go he's not letting go.

Of course, to Peter this is all instinctual, he's not consciously thinking about the molecular bonds.

There does seem to be an upper limit to how thick something can be and still do that through it though—The Spider-Man costume is noted to have thin, soft-soled shoes. Anytime he's wearing a thicker costume or some kind of armor they're made of special materials designed to work with his powers, or with unstable molecules which just kind of do whatever it is they need to do.

Of course, That's Peter Parker and presumably, Cindy Moon and Anya Corazon, since Cindy was bitten by the same spider and Anya was infected with Spider-Flu. I have no clue how it works for Miles or Ghost-Spider and Jessica Drew is actually problematic becuase her wall-crawling is explicitly becuase her fingertips and toes are selectively adhesive so she shouldn't be able to d it through her costume.