BigNorseWolf's page

You stated an opinion. It is neither inherently right or wrong, and there's no need for an argument to refute it.

Don't give me epistemic nihlism as an answer. Its horsepucky.

In addition, it is not the burden of the one who disagrees to disprove it. It is up to you to prove the claim first, giving examples that can be proven true or false.

Which is why I asked what legal standard you wanted to use.

That's exactly what the Hamas charter reads like. I don't see this the same way you do, but I can understand why you would have those concerns. Even if they are falsifiable, it's still good to have those concerns to keep the eye of scrutiny on the subject at all times.

I'm more concerned with actions than political rhetoric.

Considering the "Palestinian Territories" are adjacent to other nations through which they can evacuate (nevermind all the tunnels), I wouldn't call it 'imprisonment'. Unless, you know, those other nations also built walls and enforced them to keep the population in. But none of them do that, of course.

This is factually false.

I cannot reconcile this position with the massive amount of death and suffering Israel is causing, both with their military strikes and daily economic deprivation.

How?

Now, the economic situation? That's a different story altogether. Does it make what either side does in a shooting conflict 'better' on a sliding scale of morality? No.

Of course it does. If someone is making your life a living hell you have a right to fight against them. A few rocket attacks don't qualify. Denying someone something as basic as concrete for a building material in an environment where thats the ONLY viable building material? Does.

YOU say the entire occupation is illegal. This does not mean you are correct.

Is there an argument that I'm wrong? Who's standard are we going to use? Israels?

From your point of view, because of that, the entire thing is considered one massive unlawful exercise.

I'm more concerned that its one massive immoral exercise in some combination of racism and land theft.

I have no problem with the IDF killing members of a terrorist organization whose established goal is to annihilate Israel.

If someone imprisoned you in the Palestinian territories you might want to shoot them too.

Despite this, however, when it comes to a 'moral high ground', they are well above Hamas, though obviously quite below the innocent bystanders.

I cannot reconcile this position with the massive amount of death and suffering Israel is causing, both with their military strikes and daily economic deprivation.

I sunder the adventurer's jugular vein. Its only got 3 hitpoints.

spells: He would be affected by spells that target outsider(native) or elf.

And that right there is a mechanical change. Its why you can't do it, and why campaign leadership comes down hard on allegedly cosmetic changes.

What should Hamas do? Not hide amongst civilians (not that they tell the difference). Not put stockpiles inside neutral or protected areas? That'd be a simple start, if you want to try and make the sides equivalent.

Please point to the map where exactly they would go to do that.

Can you explain how to carry out a fight against someone as heavily armed as Israel in that fashion AND accomplish their goals?

No. You cannot reskin your aasimar. There are a lot of mechanical effects from your race, or half race: spells, favored class bonuses, ad being hit with bane weapons off the top of my head.

Who is shooting a revolver in PFS? There are no advanced firearms in the campaign.

The gunslingers playing Yosemite sam with two pistols. The explanation that they are black powder pistols doesn't last long against the mechanics or narrative role that they play. A black powder pistol for a pirate was either an opening shot or a powerful ace up your sleeve, not something you fire off 6 times in 6 seconds. The only place "Oh, its a black powder pistols, its really slow to reload, really!" comes up is in the book. If it doesn't play out that way at the table, i don't buy it.

I think in that regard we disagree along the Law/Chaos axis, as it were. You favor them not being there to begin with, I favor them simply refusing any unlawful orders and being incarcerated then to serve as an example of the correct think to do when given an incorrect order.

What constitutes a lawful order in this case? The entire occupation is illegal (israel has occupied the palastinian areas by controlling all of the access points to it)

Even just standing there with a gun is perpetuating their imprisonment and deprivation.

@Akerlof: And the point about the distinction between substituting bonuses (Versatile Performance) and substituting checks (PotP)?

That kind of hair splitting is likely to induce fission.

Its not that fast firing gun breaks realism, its that it IS realistic.. for a completely different time. Renaissance is one thing, wild west is something else.

Please tell me again how gunslingers don't belong in this kind of "medieval" setting.

If the pistol was a fire and forget weapon, or if you shot the musket once and then had to bayonette, maybe. But asit is you have a six shooter or a gatlin gun. Mechanically it fires faster than a hunting rifle from d 20 modern. You're looking at very late 1800s tech, not reniasance.

Except that there's no bonus to the bluff check. You can already try a bluff check to pull that off.

On one hand, 15 skill points for 1 is nuts, even for a bard. It obviates bardic knowledge as something to be dropped like a bad habbit.

On the other hand, "I bluff this guy to convince him i had the right answer all along" is nearly prone shooter level of redundant.

Honestly, in a setting with undead i don't know why cremation isn't SOP.

Canibalism is definitely evil. Its a good way to wind up a ghoul.

For most other things its legitimate DMs call. Thats part of what they're there for.

@Calybos1

I still think that the gunslinger issue could be addressed by more clever use of NPCs and less reliance on NPC natural armor bonuses. I understand your point, but just removing gunslingers does not change Golarian to a medieval setting.

There aren't enough other sources of armor for it to matter.

Come on bulletproof enchant..

1. I want to play a Cleric and found the pregens but can I actually play Kyra from level 1 on up or do I have to build my own character from scratch if I want to keep playing it?

You can play kyra from level 1 on up if you want to. She's not horrible and everyone is always happy to see a cleric.

You could make a cleric of your own though

2. I'll have to read the crafting rules at some point but do craft feats make buying items cheaper? Or am I not allowed to take craft feats in PFS?

Along with most things that mess with your wealthy by level, this is banned. Its far too easy to take a few feats and effectively double your cash.

3. If I do need to build my own Cleric or possibly I should regardless, Can anyone make recommendations? I see people badmouth pregens but Kyra seems to get a lot of Healing and Scimitar is a good weapon.

From an optimization standpoint she should have a big honking two handed weapon or a light shield.

Well, what do you want your cleric to do, mechanically?

The line I'm holding is that I feel that the IDF is being treated unfairly - that it is blamed for it's actions, when often there simply is no better way to accomplish it's objectives, and no army would really fare much better in there situations.

If your objective is bad then it doesn't matter how few civilian casualties you have by military standards: you're killing innocent people for all the wrong reasons. That's the case whether you're fighting to maintain a racial aparthied or invading a country for its oil.

Will all faction traits be remaining the same (other than the faction name changing)?

If you have it, then you have it. Its grandfathered in. They might release some new stuff.

They don't reset.

They are planning to start releasing convention boons you can use once a year that allow your stars to reset.

Linky to the interview

I've seen druid players do this. It's not just theory. I've seen them with WAY more summons on the table than a PFS summoner can manage. There is power is preventing NPCs' movement by clogging the board. It also makes for turns that last as long as every one else's combined.

How can they do more than a summoner? The summoner has just as many spells and gets a 1 round head start from the summon monster ability.

Original: Factions were nations vying for control over absolom.
That didn't fit for everyone.

Paladins couldn't do faction missions without falling. So they added the silver crusade.

Some people didn't care for any of the nations and wanted to be shady without being evil, so they added the scarzini.

The shadow lodge were cool enemies, so they added the shadow lodge.

The season was going to Tien, so they added an asian flavored faction.

That was 10 factions to write missions for. it took up too much space and too much time, so they ditched the lantern and shadow lodges.

Now they're decoupling the factions from their nations (almost) entirely.

currently have characters that are in the Qadira

I would expect the Exchange to be influenced by the scarzini a bit and become a little shadier. If you don't have any serious problems with that you should be fine.

Silver Crusade

hasn't changed a bit.

Osirion

Now with even more egyptian flavor. New name and under new management, same tomb raiding fun. It looks like this faction is going to start to shine a bit more.

Grand Lodge factions.

Hasn't changed a bit.

SO... because I sing really good, I have a +34 Sense Motive... How is this possible?

You're hyper aware of the subtleties in tone, pitch, and timber and can tell when someone is taking that miniscule pause in the pattern of their speech to lie.

Guns are traditionally blamed for the disappearance of armor on the battlefield. I am sure there was a reason for that.

Cost. Its not that armor didn't work, its that armor that worked was ridiculously expensive. Instead of putting someone in absurdly expensive armor, training them for their entire lives to wear that armor, cheap firearms and a peasant with 6 weeks of training suddenly became a viable army.

Pathfinder guns are

Expensive
Fast firing
Hard to use
Go right through the best armor

Historical guns were
Cheap
Slow to reload
Point and click.
Little better at penetrating good armor than armor piercing arrows.

War was, is, and probably will be, a matter of economics as much as effectiveness.

I wonder what a commoner boon would go for at GenCon....

Silent tide. there are puzzle boxes as well as a musical puzzle if any of them are musically inclined.

If you created a painting, and tried to tell people it was great, it doesn't matter how high your bluff skill is; they look at the actual painting and see that it's crap.

Dozens of museums of modern "art" with blank canvases and red dots belie this line of thought :)

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Greater shadow pops out of wall. Hits you (it can't miss). Wins init, hits you twice.

No real difference between a 5 strength and a 10 strength you're still toast.

And actually if the greater shadow pops out of a wall - it can most certainly miss - I believe you have total concealment from it.

It can 5 foot float out of the wall and then attack. How i usually see it work is

Auto surprise round 5 foot step. Attack once

Its turn, full attack. 5 foot step back into the wall

5 foot step out of wall, full attack.

Counter tactics, like most tactics, tend to rely on an ability to act that simply doesn't exist in a turn based game, especially with surprise happy DMs and scenarios.

I once saw a Greater Shadow critically hit a paladin's bonded animal, boom 13 strength taken.

Right, but since you can't have 14's everywhere trying to prepare for every possibility of stat drain is kind of pointless.

Also, I was under the impression that this FAQ entry overruled the usual "PCs may not take gold off each other" rule.

It doesn't. Aram Zey can charge you library fees because he's an NPCS. Bobs wizard cannot charge you, he CAN let you look for free, or trade spellbook access.

You forgot all the extra help that druids can summon in.

I didn't forget it because I actually play druids, rather than theory craft it. Summoning in anything useful requires burning your highest or second highest spell slots: you can't do it every fight. So does turning fluffy into fluffy the terrible.

Damage reduction and flying will severly limit the summons help: flying DR almost stops it unless you burn a top level spell.

Wiggz: I don't think anything about that feat can be called straitforward.

I know players who enjoy doing so. And besides, it really depends on the three. And while Harsk may fail the standards of the optimizers he's hardly useless.

He does less damage than a well optimized familiar.

Narrow sighted, oblivious to the endless posts about how with my spell I did this, attempt to look cool and smart. A sarcastic response is not worth the effort to write my personal examples up.

Or I've seen them and I'm not impressed about how well they worked vs just jacking the DC. Pointing out that your answer was vaguely insulting was not an invitation to be more overtly insulting.

Greater shadow pops out of wall. Hits you (it can't miss). Wins init, hits you twice.

No real difference between a 5 strength and a 10 strength you're still toast.

I would hope so, because otherwise it would imply the IDF is a military entity not under control of a civilian government.

What I mean is that a lot of prime ministers came in from the military. Netanyahu, Sharon, Barak,Netanyahu :), Peres, Rabin, Shamir, Peres, Shamir, Peres, shamir, peres...

The military's opinion is thus very well represented politically.

Aaaaand now I disagree. Conditionally. So... if they have forced conscription where everyone of a certain age has to join, those people are automatically complicit and responsible for everything done by the IDF? Or do they simply not have your support? I'm OK with the latter, not so much the former.

I don't consider someone threatening to put you in jail to be justification for oppressing someone else.

That's an interesting can of worms to open. I wonder what things I can find that Palestinian civilians say about Israel. Pretty sure it's worse than not liking concrete. And yet, I still separate those from the ones who actually do terrible things.

In terms of the Israelis that hold that position their political will is enacted into policies that hurt people.

BigNorseWolf wrote:

I have rarely, if ever, seen the oft vaunted tactics overcome sheer number crunching. Whenever I ask for examples of these tactics, they're usually a rather minor bonus.

When you mix in spells it becomes very easy to bypass encounters with a creative mind.

Vauge, non specific, and mildly insulting. The standard response.

"*This* is the problem with the summoner; players and jGM's don't know the rules well enough to run them at the table.."

I know them. That's why I say the druid is more abusive in the wrong (or right) hands.

Yeah, no. I've had a pouncing four legged weapon wielding eidolon thing to to my velociraptor what my velociraptor normally does to rogues by leaving it in the dust in terms of damage.

*This* is the problem with the summoner; players and jGM's don't know the rules well enough to run them at the table..

Eidolon dies.

Summoned critters come in

Enemies die.

Combat ends you stop counting rounds.

Next fight starts.

Summoned critters enter combat. Summoner holds action. Summoned critters die, Summoner brings in more!

I have rarely, if ever, seen the oft vaunted tactics overcome sheer number crunching. Whenever I ask for examples of these tactics, they're usually a rather minor bonus.

So, when do we get to see the mechanical goodies new pieces of character inspiration?

LazarX wrote:

Fromper wrote:

Bonekeep with 3 players.

I would give the players an option to run with a preen while noting that this an advanced scenario. If they choose to risk it, I'll allow it.

I think we were considering Harsk as our 4th.

So you wanted to run bonekeep on harder mode?

Slacker2010 wrote:

David Bowles wrote:

Slacker2010 wrote:

Remove Gunslingers.

Or fix them by not allowing them to hit touch AC.

Guns should be adept at penetrating armor. Besides, if we get rid of gunslingers or their touch AC shenanigans, what will I template my NPCs with in home games with lots of pets?

Why should black powder guns be adapt at penetrating armor?

Because they were?

Not any more than arrows were, and those don't get to make touch attacks.

So with all the Faction changes, will there be free faction resets?

Yes. Eyup

Hmm.... so you're of the mindset that anyone who disagrees with your position is incapable of having good arguments?

Absolutely not.

I'm calling the arguments terrible on their own merits (or lack thereof). After long enough looking for a good argument and not finding any, you start to think they don't exist.

Can't say as I agree with that at all. I'm hoping I'm misunderstanding, because it seems quite arrogant and closed minded.

Its a misunderstanding. I'm hoping you'll come to find me arrogant and close minded for better reasons.

But hopefully I'm missing something. When you refer to 'support of Israel', are you referring to the nation, the IDF, the leadership, the civilian population, or all of the above?

The government (which seems to have a revolving door with the idf). The citizens and government of israel are often more critical of their actions than politicians are allowed to be in the us. This goes out the window if someone joins the IDF drafted or not. They know what they're supporting.

I can see having problems with the IDF or the leadership for various things they do. The nation as a whole or the civilian citizens? Not sure much.

Well, when some of them insist that they need to deprive people of concrete because its dual use technology then I get a little less forgiving of the citizens.

So is the problem that he buys into bad arguments or that he supports Israel?

Both. Its a timey whimey ball. The bad arguments are needed to support Israel, support for Israel seems to be the only reason to buy the bad arguments.

Chewbaca defenses make my blood pressure rise. I'm odd like that.

Dude, why do you think I said "for what it is worth"?

Because you put a LOT of stock in what Israel says and its justifications, buying into some really, really bad arguments.

They are saying the shell didn't cause any casualties actually. An airburst shell designed entirely to kill the most people possible...

When you use the word "Actually" you're supposed to be correcting someone. You don't appear to be doing that, and you appear to be hinting at something without outright saying it. Out with it.

So why not just come out and claim a false flag operation? Because thats ridiculous with the un sitting right there. Of course they can't admit how often these things go off course, because then they couldn't use them around civilians.

This is the last word I'll say on this as someone who GMs PFS for NAGA..

What does NAGA stand for? Always confused the heck out of me on the sign in sheets.

Officially, Hamas was not behind the kidnapping and murder of Gilad Shaar, Naftali Frenkel, and Eyal Yifrach.

Officially, such an admission of involvment would derail the reconciliation of Hamas and the PA.

That didn't stop the PA from publishing cartoons celebrating the murders, though.

So do we also blame Israel for the palastinian boy that was taken and burned in revenge? Willing to bet some of those people had some ties to the IDF

As long as the archetypes are for different classes there shouldn't be any confusion.

Required OOTS comic

Israel is still responsible for the deaths of those civilians, but Hamas plays a role and it isn't the one of savior.

This is international politics. Looking for a white knight is pointless: they don't exist. The best you can hope for is the one in grayer armor.