Fredrik's page

Cane in hand, Enteri walks stiffly on the cobbled Taldoran street. His leg will never be the same; not since those adventurers used that fireball against a plant that was just defending its territory -- same as Taldor does -- and set half of the forest ablaze. It had taken him many years to track down the one responsible, but though the middle-aged druid had lost the fire of youth, his need for revenge still burned cold. At last, he knew the name and face of the lumber baron that had hired those reckless fools to make the woods safe for depredation. Impeccably dressed, Peron leaves his office a hundred feet away, locking it behind him. As the wealthy Taldan steps out onto the street, Enteri grimaces and silently concentrates (1 charge) on the wand hidden in his cane. Unseen and unheard (4 charges), a column of flame strike (1 charge) arrows out of the night sky to unerringly roast the perfidious capitalist. 7d6 ⇒ (6, 1, 2, 1, 4, 2, 5) = 21, Reflex for half (is that even possible with no warning?) Peron drops dead in a crowd, burned to a crisp from no apparent cause, while his assassin hobbles away, smiling grimly.

Sorry for interrupting. I'm a PbPer and got inspired.

My understanding is that they will merely be using our ordering for which items to look at first. And also some schadenfreude at our frustrations.

It's a Vanara, which is basically a sentient monkey. So close enough!

I did say "most things." I'll also mention that that one kept to formula by attempting to stretch into a terrible sequel.

There was only one Wayne's World movie, much as there was only one Highlander movie.

It is just a little frustrating when I see other items over a dozen times and never my own. Hopefully I didn't get disqualified for some reason and end up with no item to find.

That is unlikely. Items get weighted more likely to appear when they have less votes. So if your item is really good or really bad, then it wouldn't get as many "equally good/bad" votes as other items, and it would take longer for you to see it.

Merely paring down the entries wouldn't do it for me, since I have an ulterior motive. I have all of this pent-up criticism of bad writing to release, and you're telling me that I have to wait over three weeks?! Arrrgh!! But I want to blast them now. D:

Wow. I didn't realize how reality TV mimics comics until just now.

Amazing how the behavior of real people will mimic that of fictional ones! Almost like one is based on the other... Clearly, reality TV participants must read lots of comics. ;)

Here and here.

Lobolusk wrote:

I have another player with DR 5/nonlethal does that mean that all lethal attacks do 5 less damage?

It probably means your player wrote it down wrong. I suspect it's actually something like "DR 5/— against nonlethal damage" (viz. the Undead sorcerer bloodline) which is an awkward way of saying the DR applies against everything except nonlethal damage.

I think you meant to say that it's "an awkward way of saying that the DR is bypassed by everything except nonlethal damage." ;)

The eye role is irrelevant to the model because it happens outside of initiative. If something happens outside of initiative it doesn't matter how the role is split up. If you have a mediocre hammer you have a problem that can get you killed. If you have a mediocre diplomat aid another has a DC anyone with undumped charisma can hit on a take 10 for +2 per party member because there's no opportunity cost to actions outside of initiative. The only eye skill you can't split is stealth, and one guy stealthing is asking for defeat in detail.

(You can't take 10 on a skill check to aid another.)

And here's my thread on story arcs and connections. 8)

Starglim, I think that Toughness and rebuild are a good recommendation, even though I disagree with your ruling. The question was do you have to choose a feat right away; and the way I read it, the text only says that you can't add feats before the other three steps of leveling up. I don't see any reason why not to let someone wait; they're only weaker in the meantime.

Awww. The brave, noble Uudroth is drooping with disappointment. :(

*NSFW* Oglaf - Intermission *NSFW*

It's nice that everyone's being so nice, but here's the truth: I keep a mental list of DMs whose games I won't even consider, because of them disappearing without a word. (And I watch more games than I play, so it's a longer list than you might think.) When they come back and don't even try to revive their old games -- instead immediately recruiting for a new one (or more) -- that absolutely screams "avoidance issues" to me.

Apologies are nice; dealing with stuff is better.

Maybe I just have less patience for avoidance behavior because it's a tendency that I don't like in myself. But there it is. I'm not cool with it, and it will affect how I treat you.

I don't hate the monk class. I just hate monk threads. So I don't read them. Problem solved! :D

I don't mind signatures as long as there's an option to turn them off, along with any random replies to trollish ones (which is theoretically impossible). So in reality, even if I turned off sigs and got a magical app to hide posts by monk_hijacker_98 (who I just made up), I'd still be seeing replies to his sig in EVERY SINGLE THREAD. So in other words, oh dear gods, please no.

Yes. Crystal, even. Thank you. :)

Scott Betts wrote:

Republicans tend to want hard-hitting attacks and really aren't picky about their accuracy, while Democrats want someone willing to explain things in an intellectually honest manner. Unfortunately, while the latter is perhaps morally commendable, it makes for difficult politics when your opponent follows the former strategy.

.

its called pulling a Dukakis.

Really? I thought that "pulling a Dukakis" was looking short, Greek, and excited in a helmet and tank that are both too big for you. I suggest you find another phrase.

* Art: whittling bones into horrific shapes, or painting nightmarish scenes in blood.
* Games: playing with their food, such as almost letting them get away before recapturing them.
* Cuisine: practicing the high art of fine cooking with long pig, or just boiling a basic human stock.
* Brewing: can blood be fermented? Inquiring minds want to know.
* Literature: reading (or writing) elaborate dramas that give catharsis for their odd failure to dominate the world, despite paralysis and conversion attacks.
* Business: assembling caravans to trade the unique flesh and bones of sentients in one area for those in another.
* Laziness: just kind of sitting around, staring into the distance.
* Gambling: you know, tossing the bones.
* Gossiping: Oh. Em. Gee. Did you hear about Halithupt? He was fighting these adventurers, and he just couldn't even paralyze any of them. He finally had to run away. Talk about "impotent"!

I hope it isn't too forward for me to interpret Aedalis's intent, given his limitations. I think that it looks something like this...

Round 8
MA: "Cackle" (extend Fortune on Corbius)
SA: Fortune on Anton

Round 9
MA: "Cackle" (extend Fortune on Corbius and Anton)
SA: Fortune on someone? Maybe Wicewakan? Someone that doesn't already have it on them (and hasn't had it yet today)

Round 10
MA: "Cackle" (extend Fortune on Corbius, Anton, and Wice or whoever)
SA: Fortune on the the next-most likely to be struck

Etc. (gods forbid it should take that long)

No, I am! (WTH, I FAQ'd it anyway.)

Just because it doesn't get said often enough, I'm going to say "thank you Strife2002" for all of your free proofreading. I know that it's a fun hobby, and also that you're not perfect, but still. You're doing something that's useful, and you deserve recognition for it. Yay you! :)

The Bottom Line

Chaotic neutral.

The Explanation

I've thought about this a lot. (For whatever that says about me.) Is Shimye-Magalla really a janiform amalgam of Gozreh's female aspect and Desna? Or is that just narrow-minded Chelish claptrap? Does Shimye-Magalla have an independent existence, does the answer to that question matter, and is the question even a sensible one regarding beings so far beyond us?

What if the faces that the gods present to the mortals of Golarion are just masks? Roles played by actors, since we couldn't possibly comprehend them as they really are? What if Shimye-Magalla is the real one, and Gozreh is a character that she helps another deity play? Would anyone notice or care about the difference between that and the provincial Avistani evaluation?

So anyway, I'm going with CN. Whether or not SM is really janiform, she's described to us from the colonials' perspective, so that's all we have to go on: fickle like the sea, free like the sailor, and inscrutable like the stars. So there you go.

But that leaves the interesting question, what about her domains? If you take out Gozreh's male aspect, combine hir female aspect with Desna, and focus on the concerns of sailors, then it sounds to me like this...

Domains: Chaos, Liberation, Luck, Travel, Water

Subdomains: Curse, Fate, Freedom, Oceans, Protean, Trade

But I've seen at least a couple of other ways of looking at it, and I can't say that they're wrong.

The Appendix

It's generally known that Shimye-Magalla reflects Gozreh's female aspect -- that which matches the capriciousness of the sea -- and pairs it with Desna's love of travel, freedom, and the stars by which the Bonuwat navigate.

Born of the ocean’s fury and the wind’s wrath, Gozreh is a fickle deity. Those who ply the waters or rely upon the rains know this better than most, and are sure to placate Gozreh and honor him when the winds and waves are favorable. Gozreh has two aspects, equally depicted in art and sculpture. When at sea, or over water, Gozreh is a woman, with wild, flowing green hair whose body transforms into endless waves. In the sky and over land, Gozreh appears as an aged man with a long white beard, emerging from a mighty storm cloud.

This is complicated, so I'd appreciate any corrections. Let's say that someone who is next to you tries to trip you, and they don't have Improved Trip. So you get an AoO against them with your flail, and decide to use it to try to trip them. But you don't have Improved Trip either, so they get an AoO against you. And they decide to use it to disarm you; and let's just say that either they have Improved Disarm, or you don't have Combat Reflexes (because otherwise this would get ridiculous).

So, resolving backwards, it turns out that they disarmed you. But you still get your trip attempt; you just don't get to use your flail's trip property to keep from getting tripped on a failure, because you're not holding it anymore. (You still get your +1 to hit from bless, but not your +1 to hit from Weapon Focus (flail).) And it turns out that you fail big time, so now you're tripped instead. And then your opponent finally gets his chance to try to trip you -- that started this whole thing -- but you're already prone, so it's wasted.

Oh! But now it's your turn, so you can try to trip him -- albeit with a -4 to hit, since it's in place of a melee attack -- and of course you'd trigger an AoO... But hey! At least if you stood up, they wouldn't be able to keep you down with a trip attempt on the AoO; that's because it would resolve before you stood up, therefore taking place while you were still prone (and not preventing the standing).

Clear as mud?

From what I understand of talk radio and cable TV, getting outraged (whether sensible or not) is the preferred form of entertainment of a great many people.

...and there we go.

It's pretty remarkable how someone has hijacked this thread to tell the OP to fix his art already, when that doesn't even answer the question (unless they're a she or there was a telepathic question that I couldn't hear). Wouldn't it be nice if it went back on topic?

So first, I would like to hear a few comments from the female fan base and learn specifically what have RPG companies done very right and very wrong to help get you interested in what they were doing.

So "Hey, it was great that you joined us in our group and were part of the team but I have created a really difficult game that you can't play in because you aren't good enough at the game. Good luck finding another game to play" doesn't sound dickish to you?

No. Suboptimal, yeah. But given how hard it is for me to get inspiration just to make one character, I'm inclined to give a lot of latitude to a GM who has an inspiration for an entire campaign. Let them do it and then go back to a game that the rules-light lady can take part in. That's my perspective.

I'm going to play the devil's advocate and go with the GM here. When I was young, I once played an epic-level AD&D one-shot, and we basically played as first-level characters with epic-level abilities. Because we hadn't worked our way up, and didn't know what we were doing. And you know me; I always know the rules as best I can. So someone who doesn't would just be doomed in that game, and it would be cruel to let them in.

stringburka wrote:

And the fact that LPJ felt the need to start this thread indicates that the company at least might get less bad in this respect. There's no trying too hard in this case.

Felt the need, or saw a marketing opportunity in starting another discussion on the topic?

This just smacks of "reverse pandering" to me.

FWIW, whenever anyone says "reverse [whatever]", I automatically think: "Oh, there's someone who was born into privilege. They think that they're special; and so any [whatever] that's suddenly aimed at them when it's 'supposed' to be directed at others (like discrimination), or vice-versa (like pandering)? That's shocking and 'reverse'. Whereas everyone else is just supposed to suck it up as their lot in life. What an [redacted]."

ETA: And I say that as an attractive white male. It's not that I don't have privileges; it's just that I appreciate them.

Clearly, there is nothing left to do but tie the baggie of shower curtain rings to a brick and throw it through his new bedroom window, with a note attached saying "FORGET SOMETHING?". He wouldn't be able to take you to court without having to explain to a judge about how he was nagging you about a shower curtain and then didn't bother taking the rings with him. Catharsis!*

Now, having gotten all that out of my system, Maury's coming on and I need watch and see which one of those four guys on the stage is the real baby daddy.

Cheers!

One of the saddest bits of TV that I ever saw was an episode where it wasn't any one of them.

And it wasn't her first try. And she'd been all, oh no, these are the only other possibilities, I swear.

And I could see why she neglected to mention them the first time; I wouldn't want to depend on them either.

All of which implied that the real father was even worse daddy material than the players on the stage.

Sad.

No me. I respect JJ in many ways, but not as a source of rules adjudications. Especially not his off-the-cuff answers in an off-topic thread.

Fredrik wrote:

Quote me the part where it says that those gems do not exist in any other values.

I don't see how my failing to do so really supports your apparent claim that such gems do exist.

You're the one complaining that it's a new rule that they don't exist, so you're the one who has to back up the claim that they don't any more.

...... Another time my barbarian was just relaxing at the local brothel in some town for a while. He decided to speed things along, since the party ha only a few hours before going after the disappearing sailors, and have 3 women at once. Not only that, he decided to actually Rage during his entertainment. Needless to say, He ha to pay for a new bed, new wall, and cover medical expenses (healing) for 3 women.

Best 1k gp I ever spent. Now, I have my own personal room there (only I can stay in there), and now I have 3 informants when needed.

I find it appalling that the best 1k gp you ever spent was for your character to get away with violence against helpless women. I find it appalling that xanthemann favorited that post. I find it appalling that no one else said anything. I'm generally tolerant of alternative playstyles, and I dislike tangents; but I can't let this pass without comment. That would be a bridge too far. It's important to me to let you know how I feel.

I googled and found this illuminating thread. I think you'll like it. :)

I felt like listing them all, but I haven't played many, so I'm just going by descriptions. Please tell me of any others. :)

Blakros Museum
Scenario #5, Mists of Mwangi
Scenario #35, Voice in the Void
Scenario #2-11, The Penumbral Accords
Scenario #3-07, Echoes of the Overwatched

House of the Immortal Son
Scenario #7, Among the Living
Scenario #49, Among the Dead

Dremdhet Salhar
Scenario #8, Slave Pits of Absalom
Scenario Intro 1, In Service to Lore

Fiend of Rachikan
Scenario #22, Fingerprints of the Fiend
Scenario #2-10, Fury of the Fiend

Tides of Time
Scenario #23, Tide of Morning
Scenario #3-05, Tide of Twilight

The Devil We Know
Scenario #29, Shipyard Rats
Scenario #30, Cassomir's Locker
Scenario #41, Crypt of Fools
Scenario #48, Rules of the Swift

Echoes of the Everwar
Scenario #36, The Prisoner of Skull Hill
Scenario #42, The Watcher of Ages
Scenario #44, Terror at Whistledown
Scenario #53, The Faithless Dead

Eyes of the Ten
Scenario #46, Requiem for the Red Raven
Scenario #54, The Maze of the Open Road
Scenario #2-05, Red Revolution
Scenario #2-22, Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

The City of Strangers
Scenario #51, The Shadow Gambit
Scenario #52, The Twofold Demise

Before the Dawn
Scenario #2-01, The Bloodcove Disguise
Scenario #2-02, Rescue at Azlant Ridge

The Heresy of Man
Scenario #2-06, The First Heresy
Scenario #2-07, Where Dark Things Sleep
Scenario #2-09, Beneath Forgotten Sands

Shades of Ice
Scenario #2-15, Written in Blood
Scenario #2-17, Exiles of Winter
Scenario #2-19, Keep of the Huscarl King

Shadow's Last Stand
Scenario #2-23, At Shadow's Door
Scenario #2-24, Web of Corruption

The Rats of Round Mountain
Scenario #3-20, The Sundered Path
Scenario #3-22, Pagoda of the Rat

Aspis Consortium Demiplane
Scenario #3-25, Storming the Diamond Gate
Scenario #3-26, Portal of the Sacred Rune

First Steps
Scenario Intro 1, In Service to Lore
Scenario Intro 2, To Delve the Dungeon Deep
Scenario Intro 3, A Vision of Betrayal

HangarFlying wrote:

It's not a perfect prophecy of what happened, but it is eerily close.

It certainly reads like a prophecy. With all the jargon and double negatives he might as well have been speaking in tongues. I'm still not sure I understand it.

Yo. Our decades-long cultural heritage is largely in the SRD now. Peeps won't go for a new version unless they can mod what's open to fit what's new. Too diff, and they'll just stick with the games that they already enjoy with their bros -- and demand creates supply, so *someone* will rise up to give 'em what they want. For enabling the continuation of all of their existing relationships, the upstart will be treated like they're the real thing, and like the new version's the fake. And popularity will breed success.

1. Yes, as per "otherwise prevailing light conditions".
2. Yes, but only to counter or dispel it. (Negating it goes by overlapping areas of effect.) And for the other, oh dear gods no. Try holding up some pants-like cloth to a really bright light, and then imagine that it's your monk's junk emitting the light. Do you really want that to happen??
2a. Yes, but only until hit. As a one-hit wondrous item, untouchable parachute pants quickly become an object of ridicule.

Pg. 4, Non-Human Aasimars

3rd Paragraph opens with the following statement:
Non-human aasimars have the same statistics as human aasimars with the exception of size. Thus a halfling aasimar is Small but otherwise possesses the same statistics and abilities as human aasimars--the difference is purely cosmetic.

Shouldn't the Small sized aasimar have a base speed of 20ft like other Small creatures? Then that puts the 'purely cosmetic' idea up for disagreement in my book. If someone at my table would want to play a halfling or gnome aasimar, I'd have them change both the size AND speed. Thoughts? I feel like this was left out, or the writers should have explained that the celestial gift of speed was given to the Small creature.

The Bottom Line

What they're saying is that a gnome- or halfling-descended aasimar is a Small aasimar, not a celestial-touched gnome or halfling. Also, Small and slow do not go hand-in-hand in the rules. Finally, being Small inherently changes stats -- the difference is only "purely cosmetic" aside from that.

The Explanation

In the gnome and halfling entries on pgs. 23 & 26 of the CRB, there are separate entries for Small and Slow Speed. Sure enough, the race builder in the ARG lists Slow Speed separately as being worth -1 RP (Small is worth 0 RP). Also, I'm going to call out the word "otherwise" and the capitalization of Small as particularly important -- because being Small alters statistics in several significant ways.

Everything listed under the Gnomes' and Halflings' "Small" racial trait is listed elsewhere in the CRB as universal to that size. The +1 size bonus to AC and attack rolls? Pg. 179. The -1 penalty to CMB and CMD? Pgs. 198-199. The +4 to Stealth? Pg. 106. I am unaware of any rule that states that smaller creatures must have slower speeds, and in fact the Small quickling has a base speed of 120 ft. (Bestiary 2); apparently, gnomes and halflings just happen to coincidentally be both Small and slow.

My conclusion is that gnome and halfling aasimars are statistically different from their Medium peers. They have the usual modifications to their stats that any other Small creature would have -- but *otherwise* the same. So, they have a 30' base speed, on account of that falling under the "otherwise".

Thank you for raising the question -- it was interesting, trying to figure it out -- and I hope you like my answer. :)

240. Good news!

That's probably enough right there, but let's test that theory.

241. Good news! I'm finally opening the mortuary of my dreams!

242. Good news! I've earned enough to add a crematorium, just like I always wanted! Since who can tell one ash from another... heh. heh. heh.

243. Good news! With so many neighbors inexplicably moving away from my mortuary/crematorium, I was able to buy enough land to add a cemetary!

244. Good news! I found kobolds who build mausoleums -- specializing in creepy and dangerous, so that no one will ever get in to disturb your coffin!

245. Good news! The state has decided to outsource its orphanages, hospitals, and prisons -- and guess who got all the contracts!

246. Good news! I'm branching out into meatpacking. I finally have the abattoir of my dreams!

PS: HeroLab is not a Paizo product, and I think calling it Paizo's "official" character creation software is a bit of a misnomer. I think it is more likely that they hold a great respect for the product and help to support it because it is more of an "industry-leading standard."

I respectfully disagree. IIRC, SKR said something about working with Lone Wolf to get Hero Lab to where it can do the same as his (in)famous spreadsheet for generating statblocks. (Oh, here it is.) That's pretty darn official.

Trilingual joke time!!

In Spanish, Mar = Sea, and descriptive adjectives come after the noun.

We may all now look forward to our sea donkies.

16. "Oops."

10. "If you see anyone with torches and pitchforks, I was never here."

Suz, since different races get more or less space depending on what chapter they're in, here's a summary of the table of contents. Please keep in mind that it really doesn't do this book justice; for example, the aasimars' feats were really interesting to me, and could add a lot of flavor to a character of mine. And that's just one section of one race in one chapter.

Chapter 1 (Core Races): Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, Halflings, Humans. Each one has sub-sections for Racial Traits, Alternate Racial Rules, Racial Archetypes, and New Racial Rules.

Chapter 2 (Featured Races): Aasimars, Catfolk, Dhampirs, Drow, Fetchlings, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Ifrits, Kobolds, Orcs, Oreads, Ratfolk, Sylphs, Tengus, Tieflings, Undines.

Chapter 3 (Uncommon Races): Changelings, Duergar, Gillmen, Gripplis, Kitsune, Merfolk, Nagaji, Samsarans, Strix, Sulis, Svirfneblin, Vanaras, Vishkanyas, Wayangs.

Chapter 4 (Race Builder): Race Examples; Creating a New Race; Step 1: Concept; Step 2: Racial Qualities; Step 3: Racial Traits; Core Race Examples; Expanded Race Examples.

Appendix 1: Age
Appendix 2: Height and Weight
Appendix 3: Spells

You mean like a lantern archon?

I just realized something awesome. If you extrapolate.. then four gestalts could combine into a super-gestalt with the size and powers of a Huge air elemental, 3d6 light rays, and a bump to the aura of menace DC (I can't figure out how much)! But wait. When would a regular gestalt be better than nine Small archons with 1d6 rays?

I would apologize, but I'm not even sure that this is a tangent.

... what is wrong with removing a powerful core feature of a class? Archaeologist removed Bardic Performance, numerous Monk archetypes remove Flurry of Blows, and the vast majority of Rogue archetypes remove Trapfinding. Removing a core feature just opens up interesting design spaces, while giving choices to those who find a certain feature anathema to their character concept. Some people find Mutagen to be an odd feature, and would love the ability to trade it out for some other option, even if it is a bit weaker.

If I were to ever play an alchemist, I would want to try out the "spagyric devices" alternate class feature by Super Genius Games. I love steampunk, but Jekyll/Hyde just doesn't do it for me.

Apologies for the tangent. Really looking forward to this!!

"Master! Master!" Your trusty raven sidekick Quoth lands on the bare dirt of the yard in front of the sagging porch that you're sitting on. (Unfortunately, this backwater's worst inn is also its only one.) He begins an excited birdy dance, dipping his neck and prancing and hopping in a circle. "You wwon't believe! I found love! A rravenette crrazy enough to love me! Wwe'rre going to have chicks! Afterr all this time, I'm finally going to be a da--" <hawksplosion>

Quoth seemingly disappears in a cloud of black feathers, like a birdy ninja. But then you hear him screaming above you, and look up to see him in the grip of a vicious-looking hawk. It flexes its talons, and Quoth screams some more. "Maaaasterrrr!" Your heart drops. You're no cleric, to heal rended organs; the best you can do is put him out of his misery, and take your revenge on the beast that stole him from your life. You loose a lightning bolt that you coincidentally learned just the other day.

Rushing toward where you saw them last, a tiny charred body falls at your feet with a small <plot>. Tears begin to well in your eyes, when suddenly it twitches as if still alive. You recoil in horror. "What the... how??" On his deathbead of dirt, your longtime companion replies in an unfamiliar cant. "I have half yourr hitpoints, and the dice gods hate you. But masterr... wwhy? You knoww howw ticklish I am! And hawwks only do 1d4-2 damage. A simple acid arroww... wwould have sufficed... you fool." Quoth's last breath comes out in a raspy rattle as his head falls to the side, tongue lolling.

You barely understand half of what he said, except that you just murdered your best friend due to underestimating him. Grief and guilt vie for supremacy in your heart. You drop to your knees, face turned to the heavens, and let all of your self-loathing out in a primal scream, as if you could turn back time by sheer force of will. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Then you bury your face in your hands, rocking in shame at the dramatic cliche that you've become.

Jeff Alvarez wrote:

It is currently on hold in customs and won't be delivered in time to make this month's subscription run.

Aasimar being held up in customs? Sounds like racial profiling to me! :p

Someone heard they were outsiders, and now they have to prove that they're native. ;)