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This post is tongue-firmly-in-cheek. It is intended for comedic value, nothing less, nothing more. I am not bashing, trolling, soliciting feedback or any other such thing. But this song keeps playing in my head. It may also have something to do with my line of work, namely that I am a customer-facing Support Representative in a call center for a major service provider. My customers spend the entire day singing this song to me, so I'll play it for you.
Dear Paizo, I want it all. And I want it now.
If this is inappropriate, please feel free to say so and I will very happily remove it. Mods, feel free to remove it.
Those who enjoy classic rock, enjoy.
Ok, now while this may sound silly, that's because it is.
I have a Bariaur Ranger (specifically a Planar Ranger build from Unearthed Arcana) who, upon a recent trip back to Ysgard, was given a bundle of stuff from her childhood. In said bundle, a squirrel. (It's in keeping with the flavor of Ysgard, IMO. Cross-reference 'ratatosk' if you don't believe me)
As this is going to be her Animal Companion, and she is an 8th level Ranger, this means that the squirrel is equivalent to a 5th level Druid Animal Companion.
My question is thus. How would you build the base creature? Obviously the Celestial template will modify that.
Then how would you advance such a creature at the 4th/7th level increase?
The base creature, as presented by my Beloved Spouse (Kobold chorus: "We love you!") is as follows:
Squirrel: CR --; Diminutive Animal; HD 1/4 d8 (1 hp); Init +3 (Dex);
Spd 10 ft., climb 15 ft.; AC 17 (+3 Dex, +4 size); Atk none; SQ Scent; Face
1 ft. by 1 ft.; Reach 0 ft.; SV Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +1; Str 1, Dex 16, Con
11, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 4. Climb +15, Hide +18, Jump +4, Listen +5. Squirrels
use their Dexterity modifier for Climb checks, and gain a +4 racial modifier
to Jump checks.
I'm thinking that at 4th the squirrel would go to Tiny size, would gain +2 DEX +2 CON and a 1d4 bite.
Thoughts?
How do you, the great and wonderful players, pronounce the word "Drow"?
Coming as I do from a hybrid world of grognardia, I have pronounced it to rhyme with 'Ow'. After some conversation with my Resident Expert Grognard (aka Beloved Spouse... *looks for the kobolds*) I am returning to the Gygaxian original pronunciation. Which rhymes with 'Oh'.
This is a wonderful example of the written word being pronounced differently by different people, and I'd love to see how different people pronounce this common gaming word.
Also, I would like to hear people ringing in on this to present it in the format of:
Rhymes with "Ow" or Rhymes with "Oh".
When you started gaming. (By edition, game, or year as you see fit)
Did you self-learn this pronunciation, or were you affected by another person's input.
Thanks in advance for your contributions to Science!
I originally posted this in a response, but I thought I'd cross-post it here for input. Basically, when I started the build-up for CoT my wife we thought "Hey, this is a great time to play to the moral gray areas of Chelaxian society" and she built her PC's accordingly. On multiple read-throughs of the source, I completely missed the "Robin Hood" flavour somehow. (Probably overjoyed at the awesomeness of everything else) And thus, we come to the below situation.
As regards the overall flavor of the AP:
To my perception, a good-aligned group would better integrate with the NPC organization. The "we don't want to kill people" bit has caused some consternation with my Chaotic Neutral with a tinge of Good PC's.
My Beloved Spouse (Kobold chorus: "We love you!") is running four PC's. One is Neutral, one is Neutral Good, one is Chaotic Good and one was Neutral something or other then went Chaotic Evil at a plot twist before dying horribly in the sewers. (That's a different story, though)
During the NPC meet-and-greet, it was presented "We don't want to kill people" but I didn't properly pitch this and make it clear that the NPC organization is full of very traditional Stand Up Do Gooders and Lawful types. So when it came time to spring Arael, lots of people died badly. And at the end, the Chaotic Good fighter proposed "sending a message" to the Hellknights. And was basically told "We're not terrorists!" This broke the game flow pretty hard for me and my player and we paused for the night to rethink the character's approach.
There was talk of the PC's splintering. There was talk (I think) of one of the PC's selling out the NPC's. It was a fascinating study of psychology. And at the end of the day, we reached an agreement that the PC's would continue to work with the NPC's more out of a sense of "Hey, they might roll over on us to the Hellknights" than a moral obligation to doing the right thing.
My wife's take on this was, and I'm paraphrasing here: "A bunch of hippy idealist peaceniks won't survive very long at all in Cheliax." Cheliax is very appealing BECAUSE of its crunchy evil center. Seriously, an entire diabolical country is not one that will change by the actions of a group of idealists who are not willing to spill blood. It's not like the Hellknights would stop just because of a stern talking to. Her Infernal Majestrix Abrogail II is not going to show her soft white underbelly because of a scolding. They're EVIL! And worse yet, they're BORED and evil.
I, the GM, like the idea of such a bunch of NPC's. And as a player, I'd be totally down with running a group of Lawful types through this and having a ball. But at the end of the day, it sticks out a bit from the crop of 'dark and gritty' products that I'm used to seeing from the Pathfinder crew. And you don't get much more dark and gritty than Westcrown.
In summation, Good guys make more sense in this adventure than Neutral and definitely more sense than Evil. At least, as the adventure is written. As I've tweaked it, it's a perfect framework for morally gray and gritty types. The structure allows for the latter, but painting in the lines is (to my perception) designed for the former.
Another day, another post about wacky hijinx and a request for "What would the messageboards do?"
Today's installment: The body in the box Player Character.
Framework:
During a run through Westcrown's sewers (Bastards of Erebus), one of the PC's discovers a box. A very well crafted, tightly sealed, wooden box.
As an aside, I highly recommend this strategem for amping up the tension of a low level game...the look on the Beloved Spouse's (Kobold chorus: "We love you!") face was PRICELESS at the prospect of a second level fighter running into a Vampire.
Character takes box back to hideout without opening the box. We joke a bit about nails scratching on the inside of the box, etc. To make an already moderately sized story short, it's not a Vampire. But it is a body. At least, on the initial read. At this point, the character is thinking "This person was shipped back home to be brought back to life" the player is thinking "That can't be, because the body in question is wearing a holy symbol and clerical robes of Pharasma") and the GM is thinking "Mwa ha ha ha ha!! That'll teach you to take home boxes from the Wiscrani sewers" with a side of "I'm sure she can spin this into a story/RP xp award")
The PC's go about their business with the box and its contents sealed back up and unattended. During their frolic, the noble scum Sorcerer buys the proverbial farm in a random encounter with a Gelatinous Cube (CR 3?!?!?) in the sewers (they really LOVE the sewers).
We look at each other and begin the earnest discussion of replacement characters. And then the idea strikes.
Party has no cleric.
Body in box is almost certainly a cleric.
Body wasn't all-the-way-dead dead. (Think Princess Bride - Billy Crystal = crazy delicious)
Body wakes up and is actually quite very alive, having been in some sort of GM fiat sort of hibernation coma of a magical or poison induced nature.
A plan comes together.
So, my dear readers, what would YOU do?
The lines already set are as follows:
Body in box, packed tightly in preserving and aromatic herbs.
Female Half-Elf Cleric of Pharasma, level 2 w/ Repose and Healing domains (The writeup is already underway)
Shipping label clearly shows point of origin as Absalom, destination "Cheliax"
Box is in pristine condition.
Box was intercepted by a priestess of Urgathoa, who had Foul Intentions Of The Worst Kind(TM) before buying it herself in a freak Otyugh accident.
Everything else is, as they say, fair game. Hit me with your best shot.
Due to the search string of this, I can't really find a reference to this. So if, this is a duplicate post or inquiry, please accept my apologies.
With that said, there's something that's always amused both myself and my Beloved Spouse (Kobold chorus: "We love you!"). Specifically, this is the prevalence of what we have both come to call the "Pathfinder Sword", also the "Golarion Sword".
By which is meant a sword with an angle or curve (in some cases multiple curves) not commonly found in swords of other fantasy intellectual properties. Now, I understand and accept the khopesh as a well known blade variant. And I totally understand the fact that curves + swords = crazy delicious. But I'm just curious if anyone else has observed and/or commented upon this phenomenon. And where it originates within Paizo.
Examples:
http://paizo.com/image/product/catalog/PZO/PZO9022_500.jpeg
http://paizo.com/image/product/catalog/PZO/PZO9024_500.jpeg
Anyway, I just thought I'd share a perspective.
Sorry to post so much, but I keep having different things come into the forebrain that merit a seperate post.
With that said, I'd like to discuss worldbuilding a bit more.
The source reference document for my world can be found at http://worldoftinris.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/initial-overview-wip
In my previous post, I discussed my beloved Halflings on my homebrew world. Now I'm moving on to the rest of the races in a comparative analysis.
As I see things, Elves on this world really get the short end of the stick. Sub-normal-fantasy human lifespans, no racial deity, harsh living conditions in their home islands and other factors. They're rather in a Charlie Foxtrot situation after their racial deity's death several centuries previous. Since then, their lives have grown shorter, the reproductive drive/ability has faded, and the entire race is in the twilight years of its existence.
My Beloved Spouse (Kobold chorus: "We love you!") has pointed out that this trend seems to make these Elves almost unrecognizable as Elves. Sure, they have pointy ears. They use bows and live rather tree-huggy lives. They speak Elven. But she suggested that I not CALL them Elves because they 'violate the preconceptions most players have of Elves' (paraphrasing, but close to verbatim quote).
Moving on from Elves, you may also next notice that the Dwarves of this world aren't really Dwarven. Sure they have beards (even the women!) and they're very clannish. But they're not miners, they're farmers. They have a democratic society. They're nomadic. There are SOME that are curious about 'traditionally Dwarven' things like archaeology, but this is a very recent trend spawned after one clan stumbled across a 'dig' while farming. (This being not in the source doc yet, but in my brain)
So, my Beloved Spouse (Kobold chorus: "We love you!") thinks these individuals shouldn't be called Dwarves.
So, I guess this brings us to the question again. What do you fine people think? Each race DOES have its own 'native name' for itself, as currently outlined. But should I use the traditional fantasy names? Should I change them? Should I document elsewhere in the source that X race is actually an analogue of Y race with a different name? (ie list the racial equivalents in a system reference document like a 'GM's guide' rather than the 'player's guide' such as an entry in the GMG stating "Barnatim are Orcs")
This brings us to the audience participation part of this post. What do you all think? Am I changing too much? Should names be altered to protect the innocent?
Constructive input is very welcome and appreciated.
Afternoon all,
I'm working on writing my own homebrew world, and I'm doing some WILDLY variant idea implementations. The biggest, in some estimations, is that Halflings on my world are the dominant race and as currently written live up to approximately 1500 years. This has, as written, led to a gerontocracy (rule by the eldest). Additionally, the Halfling race also reproduces incredibly quickly (one year gestation, almost always results in a multiple birth, and so on). This is reasoned by Divine Mandate.
Essentially, the world itself was called from nothingness by an erstwhile Halfling adventure-cum-Greater Power. As such, (S)He cast the dominant race in Zir (pardon the use of gender unspecified pronouns, it's part of the mystique of this particular Power) own image. QED, Halflings are prodigious, long lived and basically take an admixture of racial roles normally filled by other races rolled into one. (ie, the lifespan of Elves and the rapid spread of Humans)
In a readover by my Beloved Spouse (Kobold chorus: "We love you!") she points out that my post-Great-War semi-Utopian Halfling society doesn't match with how people work. By which she means any race that lives that long wouldn't behave as I've written them to. And any race that prodigious wouldn't behave that way either.
Which, I guess, brings us to my question.
Putting aside one's preconceptions of Halflings as they have been written in fantasy and gaming to this point, how would you envision a race such as described above behaving?
The factors that should enter into the equation:
1) Divine Providence. These are LITERALLY the Chosen Ones of the world's Great Power. All other races (which I won't get into on this post) are allowed to live here by this Power's sufferance.
2) This is a race that has just (within the past millenia) come out of a Great War (Think American Civil War, much larger scale, fantasy typical weapons)
3) This race inhabits a belt of land surrounding the planet's equator, and has an incredible amount of space over which to spread before encountering any resource depletion or urbanization difficulties.
There are other factors, but 3 is a good number.
So, let's hear all your feedback. Keep it constructive please, but be honest.
Over here I posted a bit of waxing poetic about my current Game. I mentioned the wacky mix of characters from across the D&D/OGL multiverse. (Elven epic wizard/fighter/thief/gate crasher, Dwarven evoker wizard/astrogineer, Gnome archivist/sorcerer, Bariaur planar ranger, Kitsune bard/nogitsune, Half-demon sorcerer, Halfling rogue)
I'm just curious what odd, eclectic, fun and otherwise weird combinations of characters other people have come up with in their own games.
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