DM Feral's Player's Choice (Inactive)

Game Master Feral

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The other PBPs I have joined have all petered out, usually due to GMs losing interest or realizing they had less time than they thought. Some just disappeared, others had the decency of telling the players they had bitten off more than they could chew and apologized and closed the game formally. Which comes to an expectation _I_ have of PBP GMs, which is to communicate with the players and, barring emergencies where the Internet cannot be accessed at all, to take the 30...

You mention her appreciation for magic, but what is Ceru's view of actual arcanists? Particularly, dedicated ones like wizards?

Misha's passion and training largely mirrors that of members of the Pathfinder Society. What does she think of them? Did she ever consider joining? If so, why didn't it work out? If not, why not?

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I agree 100%.

We will finish at least the first book of whatever I end up running. If we go past that, is largely up to you guys.

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Was Pirknok ever formally made part of the tribe? If so, he would have undergone his Journey. Tell me about his Journey. Who did he visit? What did he learn? Did he encounter any trials or difficulties?

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You're going to have to give me more to work with. What blurbs you have don't tell me enough to even write you some good probing questions.

Pick an AP and write a character for it.

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It's short and it doesn't tell me much about Haruka herself but I very much like your backstory. (Short isn't necessarily bad.)

Tell me about Haruka's eidolon. What does it look like? What is there relationship like? How do you plan to build it mechanically?

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I like Adventus's backstory. It's short but tells me a lot about his character. Do you foresee Adventur's learning to control his hotheaded nature as the story progresses?

Sablemane Marine is a bit of a one-trick pony. Will you be upset if you're denied access to your mount for extended periods of time? Is Adventus prepared to fight with it? Does it have a name?

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Hey Alexei!

Of the characters you've offered here, the only one that really interests me is the inquisitor with a crossbow. I love to see non-bow archers.

How did this character become the arm of Abadar? How do you foresee him interacting with his party members? How do foresee him coming to terms with their non-lawful faults?

Are you willing to provide feedback on submitted characters that are (and aren't) chosen?

Yes, when recruitment is fully done. I'll give feedback to whoever wants it on why your character/concept wasn't chosen.

Keep in mind this is based on my preferences. I had a game I had to fight tooth and nail to get into because the DM thought my characters weren't optimized enough. I thought his complaints were absurd but it was his game. =/

Different DMs want to see different things from applicants so take any feedback I give with grain of salt.

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Of the characters you mentioned, Eli stands head and shoulders above the rest.

How guilty does Eli feel about what happened to his wife? How does he handle the guilt? To what lengths would he go through to truly cure her?

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Why did people call his mother names? (It's implied but I might be reading too much into this.)

How did Benton develop his lame condition? Did it happen when his divine powers manifested or before? Is it a bad knee? A club foot? Arthritis? How does Benton feel about this curse?

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What's Arak's relationship with his family like? What did they think about his deviation from his magical studies?

When did he become involved as a Ship's Surgeon?

In any case, it would be helpful if you indicated which adventure paths you have, so that we can limit our suggestion to them.

I currently own Serpent's Skull and Kingmaker but I don't mind buying whatever you guys want to play. Don't worry about that part.

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All I see is a wizard that I could have copy/pasted off of a dozen 'Build me a wizard' threads.

Give me something to work with, either mechanics-wise or story-wise.

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I like switch hitters. I want to like witches.

In either case, pick an AP and draft a character for me. If you have to, roll a die and pick one that way.

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Tell me about these enemies. Why are they enemies? How badly do they want to hurt Dairkal? Would they want to kill him?

Not much about his backstory makes him out to be a swashbuckler. When did Dairkal get his expanded martial training?

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Of the characters you mentioned, the paladin interests me the most. I particularly like how her backstory is written.

Where did she get her paladin training from? (I might have missed that part.)

How much did her adoptive parents know about her origins?

Has learning about her origins changed her view on sex?

Mug wrote:

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Why did people call his mother names? (It's implied but I might be reading too much into this.)

How did Benton develop his lame condition? Did it happen when his divine powers manifested or before? Is it a bad knee? A club foot? Arthritis? How does Benton feel about this curse?

I think you read into it just enough, but to give more detail; his mother had an illegitimate child (Benton) --a child who is a half-elf. The small community the live it is very harsh on such children, and their 'harlot' mothers.

I've added a bit to explain his leg, and Benton (currently) doesn't really believe in the divine. He prefers to explain away his gifts as skill or the imaginations of a frenzied mind. Also, the lame condition came to be after the battle which destroyed his home.

You mention Arduino's family line defending the forest (at one point you mention the Worldwound) but you never specify which lands/forest.
I prize flexibility in my character backstories and naming a specific forest is not crucial to Arduino. If you require me to have one then I'll just bring up the Golarion map, pick a random clump of woodland- check Pathfinderwiki.com to be sure- then say he came from there.

Where did the elder Arduino start out?
The official line is that Arduino the Greater has spent the vast majority of his life in the forest or at the edges defending it. I'm running him in another game on the basis that he secretly got stressed about his responsibility and left the forest to backpack a bit around random lands. I'd say he spent some time in Varisia, and Cheliax.

Your character is a fey sorcerer which lends itself to enchantment (and thus save-or-die style spells). Do you intend to pursue these sorts of spells? This style of character tends to put the DM and the party at large in a bit of a difficult spot. If he's effective every encounter is ended by one spell (which is generally not fun for anyone). If his spells are denied, he may end up feeling useless. Do you have a way to mitigate these problems?
Arduino the Lesser does specialize in enchantment, so will be stocking up on Hideous Laughter and Sleep and such spells. His bloodline does however give him a formidable battlefield control spell- Entangle- and he'd be happy to take a few more, so in the event that he goes into battle against enemies invulnerable against mind-effecting spells he'd still be useful.

Nawtyit wrote:

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Some more stuff

I very much like the idea of a druid/zen archer. That said, I may end up houseruling/nerfing zen archer to some degree. Is this a deal breaker for you?

Not at all. I should point out that I would no longer be going Zen Archer. The build I have in mind is going to be almost exclusively a spell caster who ideally would go into the Green Faith Acolyte. But that depends on whether you'd be willing to have a Druid grove appear somewhere in the campaign so that Moony can make the necessary challenges to fully advance.

I can build up the Druid/Zen Archer, however, if that's what tickles your pickle. I'm also happy enough to take the nerf, depending on what it is. Basically, there's only one reason I'm grabbing Zen Archer and that's to get my bow attacks off WIS so that I can, largely, dump every other stat without much consequence to the character's overall effectiveness. Since I'd cast off WIS and hit off WIS, Moony should definitely be a viable character for the group.

Also, the character would likely be Vanaras, not a Tiefling which means I may have to tweak the back story somewhat (though, Vanaras being uncommon could leave Moony with the same social inexperience as the Tiefling version; as well as the family issues [if you'd want to keep them]). Regarding nerfing the Vanaras (if that's an issue) my reply for this is similar to the Aasimar and Tiefling below.

Same for assimar and tiefling. I don't have a problem with the thematically but they are undeniably more powerful than core races. If you're committed to them, they will be nerfed.

Depends on the nerfing. Basically, the primary reason I grabbed those races was their stats coincide with what I want my character to do (bonuses to CHA and DEX). A secondary concern is darkvision which is always helpful, but that can be grabbed even if I went Half-Elf from the alternate racial traits (assuming that too is permitted, of course).

I like Cag's abridged history. The story of the engineered soldier learning how to be human (or in this case, elf) is a good one. How do you foresee Cag's emotional development working out as the story progresses? How will he handle growing into (at least some level) of heroism?

This depends largely on the group dynamics. I see him being emotionally distant, at first; cold, indifferent, quite possibly paranoid. He will be unaccustomed to kindness and charity and will likely consider such things to be traps.

How he develops...it really is hard to say. If I were to go through and read the AP, I could get a better idea of major dramatic points and then I could give you a better answer about what each would signify for Cag, but then there's no sense to playing through the AP. And I don't want to layout some elaborate schema of how Cag will develop only to find it wholly incompatible with the 'themes' and 'tones' of the AP, because then Cag'd just feel artificial.

What I can say with relative confidence, however, is that Cag will never shift very far from wherever he starts on the alignment scale (it would be either LN or LE; he is, loosely, a church assassin but by choice). He'll never be Superman running around solving every NPC's wholly insignificant problem. I like morally ambiguous characters and those who do good for the sake of good are...uninteresting to me. So while Cag may hesitate about killing indiscriminately 'because they said so'; he will still be the kind of character who goes in and does what needs doing.

I'm also playing with the idea of Cag taking the monk vow of silence for purely RP reasons; though I worry that may take away from why Cag is cold and distant to the others.

ADDENDUM: I have updated the Eris alias with something more directly related to the SD campaign. The story is written on the assumption he is a Half-Elf, but the same story runs if he's Aasimar or Tiefling (as both are basically half-breeds anyway).

You mention her appreciation for magic, but what is Ceru's view of actual arcanists? Particularly, dedicated ones like wizards?

She is fascinated by many arcanists, especially by sorcerers and other spellcasters who get their source of magic from within or another unusual source (like witches and their patrons). She wants to understand how they work (but then gets bored if the explanation is lengthy). Wizards she is less fascinated by and expects them to be longwinded and dry like her father--but at the same time, because her father IS a wizard, she feels a loyalty to them like to an extended member of one's own family. She is also jealous, because they were able to accomplish what she was not -- develop a skill which would have pleased her father. It does bother part of her that she could not become the thing her father wanted her to be, although she tries to focus on what she CAN do. The more rational part of her knows her father will be happy if she is, and that's all that matters. But there is some emotional conflict in there. She would try to hide her mixed feelings in front of other spellcasters however unless she either got to know them long enough or a situation arose which specifically jabbed at her inadequacies. Otherwise, Ceru has VERY good poker face, so they'd likely be unaware of her conflicted feelings. A friendly wizard might get challenged at a game of cards--let's see how good his pattern recognition skills REALLY are....

Misha's passion and training largely mirrors that of members of the Pathfinder Society. What does she think of them? Did she ever consider joining? If so, why didn't it work out? If not, why not?

Misha's drive toward her studies and explorations has diverted her from taking the time to look into what it would take to join the Society (even if it would in fact be quite simple). Further, she wouldn't want to risk an assignment which distracted her from her focus on the lost ruins--no, much better to be self-employed and seek the goals she wants to seek out. There's also a part of her that is interested in furthering her personal glory and accomplishment, and wouldn't want her merits to be hidden under the Society's bushel. She doesn't mind working with other people--she knows she can't do everything by herself--but affiliating with a few individual colleagues and affiliating formally with an organization are two different things. Organizations are more likely to steal her thunder, or so she assumes (the truth of the matter may be another thing entirely--note that all of the above is Misha's assumptions).

That said, she would have no problem allying herself with the Society or some of its members if they had immediately mutual goals. Certainly on a broad scope they do have similar aims as you say. Further if the Society actively sought her out for membership, she'd probably join--flattery goes far with Misha. But right now they're just not in her sights.

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To the other posts going on about AP selection -- as I'd mentioned, Kingmaker would be less of a draw for me because the other PBP I'm in is also based on Kingmaker. I'd also be less interested in Kingmaker if it's sans the empire creation as that's the part I find most interesting.

Magus lends itself to novaing, hard. Do you plan to follow this trend? If so, do you have plans for when you're out of resources?

I'm not sure Magus can be effective outside of high burst damage, its just the way the class works out. It would actually be especially bad for this character since the archetype has limited spells per day.

I suppose the only thing you can do it attempt to be as effective a melee character as you can, although this looks like it would be difficult at lower levels.

There is a 99% chance than I will be houseruling spellstrike and/or spellcombat? Is this a dealbreaker for you? What is it about being a magus that appeals to you?

Houseruling for me is not a rulebreaker necessarily, although I suppose it would tend to depend on how the rules are changed.

To be honest it's more the archetype that appeals to me than a Magus in general. I love the idea of the dwarf craftsman infusing magic into his beloved hammer. I haven't played a magus yet either, so there is definitely a curiosity factor involved as well.

Grey, the Lady's dog wrote:

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Of the characters you mentioned, the paladin interests me the most. I particularly like how her backstory is written.

I didn't originally intend it as such, but it turned into her Eulogy for Professor Lorrimor/introduction to the other characters kind of thing. Glad to know others liked it as much as I did, though I have to admit it is on the purple side. On the other hand, considering Ustalav has always read 'Gothic Horror Kingdom' to me, purple prose fits in a way...

Where did she get her paladin training from? (I might have missed that part.)

It was implied that her Paladin 'training' was initially just being touched by a divine spark, so-to-speak, hence her untrained Detect Evil & Smite Evil. When he witnessed this & realized the implications is when Cecil, the priest of Shelyn, knew she needed formal training as a Paladin. I imagine the Shelynite faith has a few old Paladins here & there for the purpose, I should give more thought to that guy/girl. It was during her formal training that Ysmerelda met Professor Lorrimor so likely at a University somewhere in Avistan, possibly even in Lepidstadt though more likely to have been closer to home. I think Pitax has something of a University.

How much did her adoptive parents know about her origins?

By now, as much as she does & they can process. Growing up, all they 'knew' was that she was odd & had a bad tendency towards somnambulism, not that they called it that. Given that she was no more 'difficult' as a child than any other is honestly, they didn't really care, they were just happy to have a child to love & care for.

Has learning about her origins changed her view on sex?

Not consciously. Considering that her first exposure to sex between people was catching a homosexual couple in-the-act so-to-speak & her parent's were barren, she had already processed that sex =/= babies before learning about the cruel realities of her own origin. That said, while she is still a virgin (and has the traditional Shelynite aversion to casual sex), she actually swings bi, though she is more willing to admit to herself her attraction to other women & probably 'reads' as a lipstick lesbian to the untrained observer. You would have to know her very well, or be a very good judge of character to catch her interest in men as well.

Capricornus wrote:

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Of the characters you mentioned, Eli stands head and shoulders above the rest.

How guilty does Eli feel about what happened to his wife? How does he handle the guilt? To what lengths would he go through to truly cure her?

Eli was initially devastated. Now he is feeling intense guilt over what he did to her. At the moment he is handling it by trying to cater to her every need and finding alchemical remedies to soothe her pain and get her off the drug. He is also angry at those who led him into the drug-making, and wants to hunt them down and make them pay. An element that I did not include in the background as it is written now, is that he is still taking the drug, mixed with his Mutagen, but he doesn't know it consciously (aiming for a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde kind of situation. More roleplayed than actually using the prestige class.). To cure her, he'd do just about anything. He's not hung up on law, but he'll probably balk on outright evil acts.

Oladon wrote:

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Was Pirknok ever formally made part of the tribe? If so, he would have undergone his Journey. Tell me about his Journey. Who did he visit? What did he learn? Did he encounter any trials or difficulties?

Oladon wrote:

Are you willing to provide feedback on submitted characters that are (and aren't) chosen?

Yes, when recruitment is fully done. I'll give feedback to whoever wants it on why your character/concept wasn't chosen.

Keep in mind this is based on my preferences. I had a game I had to fight tooth and nail to get into because the DM thought my characters weren't optimized enough. I thought his complaints were absurd but it was his game. =/

Different DMs want to see different things from applicants so take any feedback I give with grain of salt.

Excellent, thank you! You probably saw my view of typical "optimization" in my spoilers to Adventus... I'm glad to hear that you aren't expecting us to all be super-heroes.

Seranov wrote:

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Hey Alexei!

Of the characters you've offered here, the only one that really interests me is the inquisitor with a crossbow. I love to see non-bow archers.

How did this character become the arm of Abadar? How do you foresee him interacting with his party members? How do foresee him coming to terms with their non-lawful faults?

Yeah, the crossbow bit is pretty awesome, but Doran's going to end up blowing all of his funds on a heavy repeating crossbow asap, because spending 50% of his turns reloading is laaaaame.

Doran grew up the son of an Absalom city guardsman, who was his hero and idol. The man instilled his great respect and love for the law in his son, who hoped to be every bit like his father when he grew up. A devout worshiper of Abadar, Doran's father taught his son everything he knows about the Judge of the Gods. Doran was even seen to be a gift from Abadar himself, as he was born with a mottled birthmark on his left palm that resembles a key.

Due to his upbringing, Doran is a very stuffy fellow. He is generally indifferent, even uncaring, towards others, seeing himself as an agent of the law before he is a person. While his is capable of being very charismatic when it involves his work, he can be quite obtuse and unfriendly to people he does not trust. Despite this, he is fiercely protective of those who earn his respect, willing to bring down the full might of the law on those who would threaten them.

In a situation where his party members might be acting unlawfully, Doran would, at best, accept it grudgingly, and at worst, arrest them. He would never let them live it down, either way. Nag nag nag!

That sounds like fun, Doran (I read it since it wasn't spoiler'd). It should be interesting to see how Doran and Pirknok interact... hopefully we'll get the chance. Pirknok isn't a criminal, for sure, but he also wasn't raised in a traditional urban setting... nor is he very familiar with the laws and customs thereof.

Adventus Artemidorus wrote:

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I like Adventus's backstory. It's short but tells me a lot about his character. Do you foresee Adventur's learning to control his hotheaded nature as the story progresses?

Sablemane Marine is a bit of a one-trick pony. Will you be upset if you're denied access to your mount for extended periods of time? Is Adventus prepared to fight with it? Does it have a name?

First of all, wow I did not expect such a full examination of all the characters.

Yeah the Sable company marine does put a lot of emphasis on the animal companion but that does not mean I'm going to end up sacrificing a lot of other things for it. The trade off is the first favored terrain and the normal animal companion. Apart from that, I tried to make an effective front line fighter. The great thing about the ranger class is that it is exceedingly easy to make a decent fighter with or without his class features. He still gets full feat progression for a ranger (Weapon and Shield Combat Style) and full favored enemy. Skirmisher will also provide me some interesting options for combat abilities.

I was planning on acquiring a juvenile hippogriff later and training it to be a companion once I've got some disposable income (4th level is still a ways away). I'll name it then. He is a former military character and he is training his beast for war. It would be silly not to use it in combat but that was a fair question. I've seen other players become too attached to their animal companions before.

As for places it can't go, that is something I came to terms with when using mounts and animal companions a long time ago. There are just places you can't take a horse sized beasty but the times I can use him will mean we will provide excellent battlefield control. Also, I've found having a means of vertical movement as a melee character is indispensable when dealing with casters. One of their favorite tricks is flying or climbing above combat and out of reach. Almost every boss monster in Jade Regent did that. It irritated the bejeesus out of me.

A) What AP(s) you would like to play.
a. Rise of the Rune Lords sounds interesting

B) Your character mechanics (Give as much detail as you can. A full character sheet doesn't hurt.)
a. this character was worked up for a Chelexian andventure but I don’t see why he could not have moved on from there. Let me know if anything does not fit.

C) Your character fluff (Backstory, Appearance, Zodiac sign, etc)
a. again let me know if you don’t lilke something I am always open to improvement

D) Your PBP history (Keep this brief but if you're in an active or longstanding PBP game, this would be the time to mention it.)
a. I am currently in two PBP games and wish I could get more done in each of them, but I understand that others may not have as much time as I. I can post from my phone at work and computer at night so I am very open to posting multiple times a day.

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What is Magnauk's view on the infernal influence with Cheliax? What does he think of devils in particular? Does he have any specific plans for his revenge beyond blood and mayhem?

The enemies, along with any previous trouble, was intentionally left vague for purposes of GM plothooks. If you'd like me to flesh some of that out I will, but I would like to keep it more vague and general than anything too specific. I doubt any of them want him dead, as nothing he ever did would warrant that kind of revenge.

As for him being a swashbukler, its an archtype that lends itself well to a character who is agile and acrobatic, along with quite daring and a bit fearless, which he gets from being a Halfling as well as his general lifestyle.

I figure his gleeman mentor, again left vague for GM use, taught him how to use the rapier. The starknife is used due to his unusual connection to Desna. I kinda like the idea that he was almost divinely inspired on how to use it. Might be a little cheesy, so I am sure I can come up with a bit of a tale for him to learn it, based on it being his Goddess's favored weapon.

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If you need better or more in depth answers, let me know. Not a problem working with you to make Dair fit better.

I am feeling really tempted to have a go at this one - are "applications" still running?

I'll get something posted tonight after supper.

I'll be taking apps up till Friday.

Just my own personal preference, people who say 'supper' should be included in the game automatically. Because it's awesome. :)

Just my own personal preference, people who say 'supper' should be included in the game automatically. Because it's awesome. :)

Lies... "supper" is a nonexistent meal (despite my grandmother's claims).

A) What AP(s) you would like to play.
Rise of the Runelords

B) Your character mechanics (Give as much detail as you can. A full character sheet doesn't hurt.)
C) Your character fluff (Backstory, Appearance, Zodiac sign, etc)
Ensu, gnome cleric of Nethys

D) Your PBP history (Keep this brief but if you're in an active or longstanding PBP game, this would be the time to mention it.)
A fair bit, both playing and DMing.

Benton Fisk wrote:

Just my own personal preference, people who say 'supper' should be included in the game automatically. Because it's awesome. :)

Lies... "supper" is a nonexistent meal (despite my grandmother's claims).

Technically supper is a light meal had at night where dinner was used for the main or more substantial meal (which used to be had during mid day).

now that the largest meal is had at night it is dinner and your light meal in mid day is supper. But most people just call it lunch.

8-)

I say include Deathquaker and sunshadow 21.....

I endorse both of them with posting consistency!

Oladon wrote:

Benton Fisk wrote:

Just my own personal preference, people who say 'supper' should be included in the game automatically. Because it's awesome. :)

Lies... "supper" is a nonexistent meal (despite my grandmother's claims).

Technically supper is a light meal had at night where dinner was used for the main or more substantial meal (which used to be had during mid day).

now that the largest meal is had at night it is dinner and your light meal in mid day is supper. But most people just call it lunch.

8-)

Well, perhaps... I guess I can only really speak for "suppah", which is the evening meal. But it's not actually, that's dinner. ;)

I say include Deathquaker and sunshadow 21.....

I endorse both of them with posting consistency!

That is very kind of you!

OT on the issue of meal words

Stuff.

I have a soft spot for clerics of Nethys.

The rune domain, while very cool, is a bit cumbersome in play as usually the PCs are moving in on the enemy instead of the other way around. How do you foresee using those domain powers? Describe a scenario when you'd use it.

Does Ensu channel positive or negative? Why?

I don't think anyone in my immediate family has ever used the word "supper"... ever. My parents are from Brooklyn and Manhattan, and my brother and I are Jersey-born, so I suppose it'd come out as "suppa'" at best, anyway!

sunshadow21 wrote:

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I have a soft spot for clerics of Nethys.

The rune domain, while very cool, is a bit cumbersome in play as usually the PCs are moving in on the enemy instead of the other way around. How do you foresee using those domain powers? Describe a scenario when you'd use it.

Does Ensu channel positive or negative? Why?

Honestly, he probably won't use the blast rune all that often, but flavor wise the domain overall fit with the character's linguistic nature, and the scribe scroll bonus feat and the domain spells were the main mechanical reasons I took it; the blast rune just came along with the package. It'll probably be useful for a last ditch defense or when dealing with narrow corridor fighting, but it's not really a major focus of the character. If I get a chance to develop the character in game and play around with his abilities, I might find more interesting uses for it, but for now, it's just kind of there.

Positive energy; he is a good person overall, and tends to be more defensive/healing/buffing/indirect in his actions, so it just fits better with the character overall.

Oladon wrote:

Benton Fisk wrote:

Just my own personal preference, people who say 'supper' should be included in the game automatically. Because it's awesome. :)

Lies... "supper" is a nonexistent meal (despite my grandmother's claims).

Technically supper is a light meal had at night where dinner was used for the main or more substantial meal (which used to be had during mid day).

now that the largest meal is had at night it is dinner and your light meal in mid day is supper. But most people just call it lunch.

8-)

Perhaps I should amend my statement to say, Everyone who says 'lunch' should be included! Because lunch is awesome! :)

It looks like the number of fresh applicants have slowed down so I'm going to pick finalists on Thursday instead.

Cool, looking forward to it.

Looking forward to it.

Edit: Why, you ninja! How dare you steal my words!

Because I am already in your brain.