Goblin Squad Member. Pathfinder Superscriber; Pathfinder Comics Subscriber. Pathfinder Society Member. 2,013 posts (2,090 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 1 Pathfinder Society character. 3 aliases.
Al-Qadim was cool, but it made no bones about saying that it was fantasy arabia based upon Hollywood's vision of arabian culture (it even said as much in the "Arabian Adventures" rulebook)...
If I burning ball of fire is coming hurdlign toward me and I can stop it by saying I don't believe it's real, can I just not believe in fire period, and become immune to it?
I would say no, because a character that does not believe in magic just didn't wake up one morning and wish it so... He carried that belief with him throughout his entire life; he was raised to believe it, and having never questioned that belief, it has become a part of his core being...
being immune to magic just because you don't believe in it? If deciding your character doesn't believe in something makes it harmless, every PC is going to stop believing monsters have claws and teeth. It's their character, after all.
I posted that houserule from the D&D Wiki above because it was the one I found first. But if I were to allow a character that did not believe in magic, it would it a two-way street...
If you want to make a character that does not believe in magic, fine, then that character cannot USE magic either. So no +1 longswords, no rings of protection, no healing spells, no healing potions, nothing...
In my view, you have to take the good with the bad...
However, if a player still wanted to create such a character, then I would also go so far as to remove any bonus damage dealt to such a character caused be magical weapons...
I agree that the cat is out of the bag with this...
However, ITAR covers pretty much every type of firearm. And while he did not offer these for sale, there are some firearms and components to them that cannot be distributed to certain foreign countries (and I believe that the AR platform rifle is one of these "controlled" firearms; which he offered designs of on his website)...
ITAR Part 121.1 Category I wrote:
Category I-Firearms
*(a) Non-automatic, semi-automatic and fully automatic firearms to caliber .50 inclusive, and all components and parts for such firearms. (See § 121.9 and §§ 123.16-123.19 of this subchapter.)
(b) Riflescopes manufactured to military specifications, and specifically designed or modified components therefore; firearm silencers and suppressors, including flash suppressors.
*(c) Insurgency-counterinsurgency type firearms or other weapons having a special military application (e.g. close assault weapons systems) regardless of caliber and all components and parts therefore.
(d) Technical data (as defined in § 120.21 of this subchapter) and defense services (as defined in § 120.8 of this subchapter) directly related to the defense articles enumerated in paragraphs (a) through (c) of this category. (See § 125.4 of this subchapter for exemptions.) Technical data directly related to the manufacture or production of any defense articles enumerated elsewhere in this category that are designated as Significant Military Equipment (SME) shall itself be designated SME.
I would say that anyone who does create a gun using a 3d-printer (or any other device) while it is against the law - has pretty much proved that they are not suitable to own a gun of any sort. After all, they have already carried out a criminal act (in creating the weapon in the first place)
This is incorrect...
The Federal government allows for us as private citizens, to manufacture our own firearms for personal use. What's more, we don't even have to add a serial number to it (unless we plan on selling it)...
we came across these people that were uneffected by magic. When I asked if they were immune to magic, he said no they just weren't effected by it because they didn't believe in it.
Actually, there was a "homebrew" trait on the D&D Wiki (for 3.5 D&D) that allowed for this:
D&D Wiki wrote:
Immunity to Magic
Complete immunity to all forms of magic
Benefit: Any magic with a harmful effect cast upon the player is completely ignored, as if the spell was dispelled. Splash damage, area of effects, etc., will affect others, but not the player with this trait.
Drawback: Any magic with a helpful effect cast upon the player with this trait is also completely ignored. In addition, you cannot cast magic, and the cost of any healing done in towns is tripled.
Special: Potions that the player takes affect the player as normal - potions can be closer related to a biological effect as opposed to a magical one. Indirect effects of spells still affect the player with the trait. Enchanted items work as normal, except the character with this trait is not affected by any result.
Role-playing Ideas: It may be possible that the player with this trait isn't aware of magic, or has festered a belief against magic so hard that it refuses to affect them.
The most ridiculous (horrible?) name a I've seen a player name his character in one of my games (and this was back during the days of 2nd edition), was "ah-f***-a-you" (and he thought that was the most clever of names)...
Since it was just a one-shot I was running (Tomb of Horrors), and the player was new to my group and I did not expect him to continue to play after that adventure (and I was right, he didn't), I did not argue over the name; I just rolled my eyes at him and let it stand...
First, I edited my post you qouted so it wasn't so accusatory towards you (I apologize for that)...
Secondly, my post wasn't about what DarkLight said, so much as it was about you not willing to accept anything sited that came from the right (and I mean in general here, because you seem to discount anything and everything that comes from the right whenever it comes up)...
Provide sources. Not insane right-wing sources, either. Legitimate, well-respected journalistic sources.
Or retract what you just said.
Regardless of whether DarkLight's claim is true or not, the problem Scott, is that any source that you would accept are left-wing sources that look to discount and refute everything coming from the right...
So given that, there is NOTHING he can ever sight or claim that is not centered at least partially to the left will do...
Considering that metal receiver "blanks" (like THIS AK-47 blank or THIS AR-15 blank for just two examples) are widely available (and are relatively inexpensive), the basic costs involved in making your own firearms are about the same between manufacturing one with a 3D printer and manufacturing one using a "blank"...
And no, you do not need a garage full of bulky expensive machinery in order to build these...
Wouldn't take much to make a fully automatic rifle using the AR platform
Which is dangerous (to the user), if that person does not know the differences between a fully automatic AR platform firearm and a semi-automatic AR platform firearm...
Dangerous because if done incorrectly, it often results in an "out of battery discharge", which causes the firearm to literally blow up in the user's face...
The BATFE has allowed for individuals to manufacture their own firearms for a long time now. And while they suggest that one add a serial number for identification purposes, it is not a requirement (unless one plans to sell the firearm)...
BATFE wrote:
For your information, per provisions of the Gun Control Act (GCA) of 1968, 18 U.S.C. Chapter 44, an unlicensed individual may make a “firearm” as defined in the GCA for his own personal use, but not for sale or distribution...
Further...
BATFE wrote:
Individuals manufacturing sporting-type firearms for their own use need not hold Federal Firearms Licenses (FFLs). However, we suggest that the manufacturer at least identify the firearm with a serial number as a safeguard in the event that the firearm is lost or stolen. Also, the firearm should be identified as required in 27 CFR 478.92 if it is sold or otherwise lawfully transferred in the future
The plot of this novel sounds like something that should happen "in game" by PCs; especially, especially if the main characters succeed in closing the Worldwound...
That is the number one problem I had with the Forgotten Realms novels (too many major plots solved by characters in a novel and not by PCs in a game session)...
I really hope that is not the case with this novel as it would set an unfortunate precedent IMHO...
My players are asking what non-weapon proficiencies are. They can't find it in the book, but one player says they're part of AD&D. Is a 2nd Addition thing?
Non Weapon Proficiencies were a part of 1st edition, but they were not added to the game until 1985 with the release of "Oriental Adventures"...
The "Dungeoneer's Survival Guide" and the "Wilderness Survival Guide" books were released a year later in 1986...
And for some advice on "old school" gaming... You can find a "quick primer" on PDF for free HERE
It wasn't written specifically for AD&D (it was written for "Swords & Wizardy"), but I think the advice it presents will give you a pretty good idea of how to run an old school game such as AD&D...
What's Christlike? or Godlike? What we have at best is a semi-historical figure layered with story, legend, and myth from a wide variety of authors with different axes to grind.
Christians do not look at the stories of Jesus as such. We Christians believe Christ to be a real person, who lived a sinless life, died on the cross, and was then resurrected 3 days later...
We look to Christ to absolve us from all of our sins. We look to his perfection, and strive to live according to His two great commandments: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." and "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
At least that is what the Bible tells us to do (and we all fall short of this mark). But some Christians seem to utterly forget this, which at best gives us all a bad name as Christians, and at worst makes others turn away from Christ entirely...
Robertson is apparently confusing D&D with WoW -- the latter is a video game, and there are examples of people doing stuff like not sleeping or going to work or feeding their kids, because they got too into it.
This could be true, but I don't think he means WoW though. I think he was just lumping any and all games that deal with what he believes to have "the appearance of evil" together... He has never liked D&D however, for the very reasons he stated in the clip.
Reasons that, even though I am a Christian, do not believe myself.
And so, somehow, being successful (or lucky enough to be born into a family of means, which nobody can choose to do BTW), one should be penalized, and quite frankly, robbed, by the US government because they have what - too much money??
I'm sorry Mr. Rich-man, but you have far too much money, so we are going to force you to hand a large portion of it over to us so that we can dole it out to those less fortunate than you!
I'd love to be a multi-billionaire or what have you, but I know that I have not worked hard enough to be one, nor been fortunate enough to be born into a family of means. I can live with that...
Why aren't you putting even more blame on the republicans who refuse to raise taxes on the rich?
Let's suppose you and I were to start our own (separate) businesses. We both start manufacturing and selling identical widgets right across the street from one another...
But you, being somehow more successful than I, sell more widgets (thus making more money than I)...
Then "The Man" comes around, and says to you: "Since you are so much more successful than that poor little Digitalelf Fellow over there across the street, I am going to require you to give me more of your profits than I require of him! Oh, don't worry, I am taking money from both of you, it's just that I need more from you... I mean you can obviously spare it right?"
No offence, but I thought as much... I knew even before posting that this would not be enough (but I'm glad to see that you'd be willing to at least to try and see if that would work).
I contend that if we were to just enforce the laws that we already have on the books, instead of making yet more laws, and further complicating the system, that many of these problems we have concerning firearms would be solved...
The same is true in NY, but if people want to they can just drive across the boarder into PA and go to a gunshow.
One doesn't even have to go to a gun show. In many states, if a felon wants a gun, all they have to do is look in the newspaper (or online), find someone that is selling a firearm, call that person to set up a meeting, and make the transaction. There are no questions asked, and there is no paperwork involved... What's more, since there is no paperwork involved, the newly purchased firearm is still in the original purchaser's name (and not the felon's).
So if California's law (and apparently New York's law as well) is implemented on a federal level, then felons (and others who are not able to buy firearms legally) could not just cross state lines and buy firearms illegally...
What I want to hear about is something we can do to reduce the sale of guns to criminals here in this country.
Right now in California, if you want to buy or sell a firearm, you have to do so through a licensed dealer, period. Further, the buyer has to go though the mandatory waiting period (in California, it's 10 days) before they can take possession of the purchased firearm; this is true even if the sale/purchase is a private party transfer (PPT). The transfer of ANY firearm must go through an FLL.
The only exceptions to this are: 1). The firearm is defined as a "Curio or Relic" or 2). The transfer of the firearm is between immediate family members (such as from father to son, or husband and wife, but not from say grandfather to grandson).
If this were implemented on a federal level, I would have little problem with such a law...
If by "Book of Dragons" you mean a book of dragon ecologies as seen by Paizo, then yes, there are two sources...
The first is an article in AP #4 "Fortress of the Stone Giants".
The second is from the "Pathfinder Chronicles" (later renamed "Pathfinder Campaign Setting") line, called "Dragons Revisited"...
Both were written for D&D 3.5 however...
If you mean a book of "Famous Paizoian Dragons and their stats", then no... The closest thing to that I have seen is Super Genius Games series of books entitled: "Codex Draconis" which stats out generic dragons of each age category from the PFRPG Bestiary...
Wizards of the Coast put out a 2nd to 3rd edition conversion guide. It's still available HERE (just scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page; it's under "Classic Downloads")
Granted, it was written for 3.0, but I think it's still rather useful for your needs...
Planescape in 2nd edition hit on this subject a bit...
Take the Outlands for example (the plane of absolute neutrality). It is infinite in size, and yet has a number of settlements that people and planar beings frequently travel to and from...
What TSR suggested, was to have the time needed to travel from one town to the next vary a little. The important thing was knowing your destination, as if you just wandered, it would take literally forever to get anywhere...
As to up/down, the city of Sigil sat atop the infinitely tall spire at the center of the plane (you just had to assume that an infinitely large place even had a center)...
I've been wordbuilding and tweaking mechanics recently, and am trying to round out a set of elemental dwarves. Google searches mentioned that in 3.0, there was an article on seafaring dwarves that included water planetouched dwarves. They said that it was in Dragon 383, but that can't be right.
I've been looking for this for hours now. Can someone help pls?
You can check the "Dragon Magazine Index" for that article: HERE
I think it's worth mentioning however, that the 3e Unearthed Arcana had "Aquatic Dwarves". Though they were not planetouched...
Here is a link to their entry in the D&DWiki: Aquatic Dwarves
if you use the rule of 1 gp = 1 xp, as is suggested and don't stray too far from that (in terms of giving out treasure), you might be able to get away with it that way.
Experience for gold went away in 2nd edition, except for rogues...
I can agree with a lot of that article, but much of it has to deal with individual style of play and perhaps a lot of that author's personal anecdotal experience with the older games systems. Take for example his fourth point on internal logic; in my experience, the game had consistency and an internal logic from very early on in my gaming "career". And the idea of internal logic and consistency didn't come from out of nowhere; I mean Gygax tossed around the term "verisimilitude" (in the narrative sense) from darn near the beginning...
Another such article on "Old school Gaming", by the same people that made the 0e retro-clone "Swords & Wizardry" can be found (on PDF for free) HERE...
Joshua G above is right; just averaging the party's level against the average Hit Dice of their opponent's is a very good place to start... Experience however, is the best way to gauge encounter strength, so just keep at it and it will become second-nature to you as a DM. Though, the DMG has some good advice on how to deal with encounters that are too powerful or too weak for the party:
The 2nd Edition DMG wrote:
The Encounter is Too Difficult
The DM has accidentally pitted his player characters against a group of creatures too powerful for them, so much so that the player characters are doomed. To fix things, the DM can have the monsters flee in inexplicable panic; secretly lower their hit points; allow the player characters to hit or inflict more damage than they really should; have the monsters miss on attacks when they actually hit; have the creatures make grievous mistakes in strategy (like ignoring the thief moving in to strike from behind).
The Encounter Was Too Easy
As long as the treasure the characters earned was not excessive, this is not a problem. The DM can always make things tougher for them in the next encounter.
Kobolds do damage by whatever weapon they use, which is what "damage by weapon" means...
Most of the weapons listed in their entry do either 1d4 or 1d6, so just pick a weapon and use that weapon's damage...
Don’t let the Monstrous Manual’s entry be a strait-jacket! You are not tied to only what the entry lists for weapons as kobolds will use whatever weapon is available to them...
This is why I miss the older edition's rule of having to receive training before a character was able to go up in level. Because now, one can play (for example) a Wizard for say 5 or so levels and then decide totally out of the blue to "dip" into Fighter in order to gain "weapons training" without ever having that character pick up a longsword prior to that decision...
I find it more reprehensible that one would argue for the more laws on others when you find it convenient, while arguing for less laws on themselves when it isn't.
And as I said, most conservatives merely want what laws we already have in place enforced instead of enacting news laws... So how is that arguing for more laws on issues such as [illegal] immigration (or fewer laws on other issues such as the ones you've previously mentioned)? No new laws; just enforce the ones we have. And if, if after doing that, we find that they do not work, THEN (and only then) come to the table proposing new laws. But again only AFTER we have at least tried, and I mean seriously tried, to use and enforce our existing laws...
Totally Off The Subject:
And seriously? How is arguing for or against new laws more reprehensible than willingly disregarding the laws already in place that you swore to uphold?? I mean as an officer of the court system, you swore an oath to protect and UPHOLD the law just like any other law enforcement officer does...
It is ironic that "conservatives" are for more government and enforcing laws when it comes to immigrants, but not so much to general regulations and guns.
Spoiler tagged again, as this is off topic...
Spoiler:
No, not for more government, just for enforcing those laws that are ALREADY on the books (for everything actually, not just the areas you mentioned)...
The laws on immigration may have changed since your Great Grandfather's time, but it sounds like he still followed the laws of his time... Just sayin'
I find it reprehensible that a LAW ENFORCMENT OFFICER is on the side of those breaking the law...
I know, people coming to america from other countries. How un-american...
Since this, and my response to it is a bit off topic...
Concerning Immigration:
This country has a long tradition of people from other countries immigrating to it, and that has NEVER, EVER been the issue that most conservatives have with immigration. What we DO have an issue with, are those immigrants that choose to ignore our laws of legal immigration and enter this country anyway; which you, seeing as how you are in Law Enforcement and all, should know is against the law. We conservatives further have issue with our own government also choosing to ignore the immigration laws, and welcome these blatant law-breakers with open arms...
If people want to come to The United States from other countries, great, awesome, keep 'em coming, but so long as they do so LEGALLY!
I'm certain you are intelligent enough to understand that the advantages you were born with (and they weren't) have meant that you started the game with a more advantageous hand
I know this wasn't directed at me, but:
Almost 20 years back, I applied for welfare (as I really needed the assistance)...
I was told flat out that while I was free to apply, there was almost no chance of me receiving benefits as I was 1) male 2) white and 3) had no children...
I was eligible for “Food Stamps” however... About $150 a month...
Obviously I survived, but I've had to struggle hard to get to where I am now.
I'm going to ask all the Erastil/gender roles-interested people to have a read of this thread and continue discussion there if they are interested, unless it has something specifically to do with homosexuality.
I like the inclusion of things like sexual and gender diversity in Golarion, but I find the almost universal acceptance of these things by every race, gender, nation, and deity to be a bit bland...
If a setting is to be truly diverse, shouldn’t the negative as well as the positive of these ideals be included?
Anyway, just my thoughts on the subject; YMMV and all of that...
Regardless of caster power levels, why is it a good idea to have an enemy that's completely immune to anything that's thrown at them by a caster?
It doesn't really fix any of the balance issues, it's just an appeasement enemy that you can point to in the book and say "Just throw one of these at him every now and then!".
It is a different mindset on game play really...
Just read what the 2nd Edition DMG said on the subject of using monsters that are immune to certain things.
2nd Edition DMG wrote:
Creatures with powerful weapon immunities should be used with care. Players trust the DM to create situations in which they have a chance to win. Don't use such creatures unless the party has weapons to defeat them, or there is some other reason for encountering that monster.
Every player character in the party needn't have a weapon effective against the monster, but there should be at least two in the party. Avoid making an encounter dependent on the actions of a single character. It's not much fun for the other players and too many things can go wrong with the plan if the key player doesn't cooperate or his character gets hurt.
The warning above is just that, however--a warning. It's not a rule. There are times where using such creatures on an unprepared party can lead to creative and entertaining play.
For example, say the party is just beginning an adventure involving lots of werewolves. Early on, they are attacked by a hairy creature and their weapons don't seem to do any good! If not dispatched by spells, it causes serious injury, but doesn't manage to kill anyone, before it flees for some reason or another. It shouldn't take too much for players to figure out what they need, and getting appropriate weapons can become part of the adventure.
Immune creatures also can be used to control a party that has become abusive or just too powerful. Such uses of very potent creatures should be extremely rare.
Digitalelf
