The Black Bard's page

I look at it this way. As much as the aboleth looks like its spawning itself into the air (a disturbing image to be sure) its a better representation of an abolth than me slapping a trout head on the table. Well, that could be fun, but I wouldn't want to throw it in my minis box till the next week's session.

A decent looking Aspect of Vecna? Sounds cool.
The beholder has a great expression. Bored irritation. I like it. Might be nice to not have to shell out half a benjamin for an eye tyrant either.
Blood scarabs mean more vermin at the table. Never enough vermin.
Bonechill Chimera is a nice nod to the fact that chimera's can have any dragon head.
A new chain devil could be nice, the old one looks like a bizzare bondage fetishist.
Goblin delver will work great for henchmen/porters. Ignore the CHA 3 guy toting our loot, we pay him a silver a day to be strong and shut up.
Hellstinger scorpion: again, never enough vermin. Tired of using stuff from the bins at Class E Professor and Wal-mart.
Nice to see another medusa mini again. Been too long.
Rust monster. RUST MONSTER. FREAKING RUST MONSTER. This will be the expensive single that drives all the other prices down.
Gold dragon is sexy looking, but I'm a dracophile.

But to be fair, I have some negative comments, I suppose.
The grimlock makes me cry. Like if I washed my eyes with broken glass.
The hippogryph made me double check if it was a WoW screenshot.
The swarm of snakes is a cool idea, but (I know its a 4e product, but they had swarms in the 3e ones too) swarms for 3e just are counter-intuitive to miniatures, since they can shift and reposition themselves. You allmost need 4 medium swarm minis to do the job properly.

I can see snagging a box or two, then buying some singles from Paizo or Ebay.

"_________________!"

Because there are no words that can express my accolades for this. I am rendered speechless by the sheer awesome I see before me. You have impressed a very, very, very hard to impress gamer. I tip my hat to you sir!

Basquash! 3. Anyone other than myself form an opinion on this show yet?

Aside from the one I posted earlier? Nope. None at all. Basquatch is a great hallucination that only you and I are having. Because you and I are the same people. Soylent Green People!

My PCs will be escorting Melinde to Greyhawk City, to get her eyes regenerated (see pic of Grallak Kur for more details)....

You sir, are awesome. I did the same thing. Man was the Palladin of my party (the son of the chaotic warlock from the previous Shackled City game) pissed about that. Was good times all around.

But you love your family, so there's hope for you yet!

See, this is how it generally goes in my games. Mortals (and their alignments) are fragile things, so easily swayed by temptaion. Chaos and Evil are the downhill side of the slope, they are easier, more profitable, less stressful, etc. Law and good take dedication, patience, faith, and sticking to your guns even when under duress.

Most people, when truly pushed, especially when it comes to family, tend to break or bend on their "public" ethics a fair bit. Only a few truly rise above, to coin the phrase.

Mortals are temptable, but they are likewise redeemable. Imagine the raw damage and destruction a demon would cause if the one person it truly, honestly loved was taken from it. Imagine the campaign of intimidation, brutality, and unapologetic ruin that a devil would wage in the same situation. But likewise, can you picture the trust and faith in the powers that be that an angel would show in such a trying time?

Hmm, close, but not quite. Basically, I'm looking for a Large size Alligator Snapping Turtle. I have some spare Tyranid peices from my WH40K stuff, I might be able to cobble something together there.

I recall a line of National Geographic Animal Figurines, but I can't recall if there was a snapper in there, and the Nat Geo store didn't help me to find out.

Thanks for the thought given nonetheless!

Here's my language portrayals:

Orcish = German (Playing Rammstein during Orc raids intimidates players!)
Elven = French (Because....well, just because.)
Halfling = Italian (Mafia families much?)
Dwarven = Scottish (Can anyone actually understand a drunken dwarf?)
Gnome = Spanish (I see this as perfect.)
Sylvan = Swahili (Different enough to make players go O_o)
Draconic = Japanese (Not the high pitched Desu stuff, but if you've ever heard a decently deep voiced guy rant, intimidate, swear, or just be menacing in Japanese, you know why this works for dragons.)

To me, alignment is your overall behavior, your general predilictions before you take the factors of context, rationality, and emotion into account, as well as the usual process you apply to said factors to reach a decision.

Example: NPC comes home to find his family, whom he loves, was hurt by an armed robber. His child is unharmed, but his wife was seriously injured.

Lawful NPC: Leaves it to the authorities to bring the criminal to justice, concentrates on being there for his wife and child.

Chaotic NPC: Puts up reward bounties for the criminal. May be torn between desire to see the criminal brought to justice and the desire to be with family.

Good NPC: Forgives the criminal if it seems there was a reason for the robbery (starving, etc). Devotes himself to his wifes recovery and soothing any fears of his child.

Evil NPC: Makes a note of every detail he can regarding the criminal, so that if the opportunity presents itself, he can extract a revenge. May spend time pursuing information about the criminal that takes away from time spent with family.

So yeah, a CE NPC may abandon his family for a few days to try to hunt down and beat the crap out of the criminal, but he's doing it out of a need to prove to himself that he can protect his loved ones, even if after the fact. The LG NPC trusts in the authorities and concentrates on what is to him the most important thing: his family.

This is of course keeping in mind that alignment extremes are just that: extreme. And that the average person is neutral, and thus either a middle ground mish-mash, or a swinging pendulum between the extremes.

Right, I need to go back and look at Spellcraft, because maybe it was just common sense or 3.5 holdovers, but I didn't see any way to turn Spellcraft into Everycraft. Maybe I'm misinterpreting the OP, but that stuck in my brain and biased my perception of the rest of the post. I shall return with informed comments at a later time.

In my Age of Worms game, the resident nature lover decided they wanted to find a dire snapping turtle in the Mistmarsh, for taming and such. Game mechanics are a breeze, I don't need help with that, but what I do need is a mini!

So, Lords of the Boards, where do I find a mini suitable for a burly, spiny, hellbeast of a turtle, size Large? I'm not saying its fiendish or anything, its just a big alligator snapping turtle, which makes it terrifying by default.

Any trails for me to follow?

Is it sad that this power has sparked more interest in 4th edition for me than every other little bit and nibble put together since it's inception?

I can only look at it from a 3rd edition standpoint. Which means even as an at will power, its still a power, effectively a spell/bardic music/whatever ability.

If a bard in 3rd edition wanted to use some sort of vicious lampoon against an enemy, and was willing to make a perform (comedy) check and spend a bardic music, I'd let something happen. Heck, don't bards get Phantasmal Killer? Is it more appropros that the singing dude in the tight pants shows them their worst fear with magic, or cracks a joke so mean it works them up to the point of a heart attack and then the magic pushes them over the edge?

Lucky Star is great. Kind of like if the Paizo boards were suddenly turned into high schoolers. Wait....

And another vote for Mai-Hime. Sure, its a combo magical girl/monster summoner show, but man, the emotional rollercoaster was intense at the end. My anime watching buddy was actually shook up by it, and he's rarely emotionally affected by anything. Good stuff.

I like chocolate milk!

I see what you did there...

They could, depends on the country (I recall this movie, I enjoyed the bit at the end where he messed the big guy up with broken elephant bones).

Many asian countries have extremely strict gun control laws that most Americans can't really imagine. Most of Japan's police force doesn't carry firearms, much less private guards for a "legitimate" buisinessplace. That is, a truly legitimate place needing high security, or a triad/yakuza hideout.

More stuff to hate about anime

Giant robots.
Giant robots that merge together and transform into even larger robots.
Tentacle monsters.
Tentacle monsters that have an hard on for prepubescent schools girls.
Demons that have an hard on for prepubescent schools girls.
Prepubescent schoolgirls that are better endowed than Tyra Banks.
outrageously spiky hair.
Pink, purple, green hair.
Pink, purple or red eye color.
Giant monsters.
Giant monsters controlled by prepubescent kid.

Giant Robots = Transformers.

Giant robots that merge = More Transformers.
Overly endowed prepubescent girls = Excel Saga inverts this trope so hard it makes your eyes spin in their sockets.
Various hair comments = more normal than what I see at the local mall.
Eye colors = and your posting on a D&D board?
Giant monsters = see above comment.
Giant monsters controlled by prepubescent kid = see above post. So many sorcerors and druids with minimum starting ages crying out in anger!

I kid actually. I've watched more anime than most, and even I can get burnt out on certain aspects of the overall genre. Lets see, what comes to mind off the top of my head that contains none of these components? City Hunter. Or, in a different direction, Strike Witches (warning, panty shots abound like you wouldnt beleive).

But yeah, what you've commented on is totally par for course if your watching stuff like To-Love-Ru, Naruto, DBZ, or a lot of the stuff aimed at mainstream 11-19 year old males. I'm likewise sure you could come up with a similar list of critiques of the content of the shows on MTV2 that would not neccessarily overlap into shows on channels like Sci-Fi, Commedy Central, Discovery Channel, and Showtime.

Basquatch is intriguing so far. Ethnic diversity (of a sort), a bizzare spin on the mecha concept, and a cute mascot character that farts in the face of the main character to knock him out/settle him down. That and it does a very good job of combining CG mecha footage with some very beautiful and quality standard animation.

I enjoy One Peice for its ability to suprise me, even if it follows the Shonen formula. I was not expecting a supporting character to appear bearing an appearance similar to a certain Frank N. Furter. Got a chuckle out of me, and thats good enough for me.

It all really depends on what you want out of your viewing time. Action? Comedy? Romance? To this day, the origional Oh My Goddess series makes me shed a tear. Vandread, while abounding with fanservice, has some great moments in both action and drama. Seto no Harayume is a congealed manifestation of insanity, and I have to pause the episode every 3 minutes to get my breath back from laughing. Soul Eater has given me interesting ideas for magic weapons in my campaign.

Hating anime is about as broad a term as hating paperback novels. The diversity of genre within that category is rather broad. If you can honestly claim you hate the entire category, and not just a genre within it, then honestly you should stop wasting your time on something you hate, and find another hobby to pursue. But if its just aspects of a certain genre, and from your post it seems like it is mostly the Shonen genre, then you should easily find things to refresh your interest.

O_O

I see what you did there...well played.

Spousal Unit 001 has authorized the following link exemplifying Gamer Chick Hawtness. No lewd comments, if you please.

Ok, you had to link to the one with a Transformer shirt. Go ahead, dangle the bag of white powder in front of the junkie. I only have one thing to ask:

Are those Soundwave Hairpins?!?!

Lets not forget that a monster can take a Bo9S manuver as a feat, and take up to 3 of them! And, they use half their racial HD as initiator levels! Even if its only once per encounter, and limited to low level manuvers, some of those can be really nasty coming from a monster.

I've used this more than a few time, with manuvers that were thematically appropriate for the monster in question. PCs enjoyed a "fresh tactic from an old face" and was an overwhelming success at the game table.

Like The Black Bard, I allow EVERYTHING 3.0-3.5 ever produced, whether it is from Wizards themselves or anyone else. Unlike The Black Bard, I have players who are simultaneously interested in making a cool story together AND creating very powerful combinations of classes/feats/spells/racial abilities, etc.

A bit late and off topic, but you may want to read a bit closer before you include in responses. I never said my PCs were under-powered or afraid to make powerful or optimized characters. I merely said they didn't outright try to break the system or take away from the fun of others by exploiting loopholes.

My last game had an Admantine Plated Dwarf Knight (Nearly unkillable), a Draconic Human Bard (added incredible damage boosts and brutal enchantment effects), human monk/drunken master who did startling damage, a raptoran warlock/acolyte of the skin who was consistently breaking 3 digits on damage due to crits and boosts.

Sorry, I probably could have been more clear in my origional post, but I refuse to be misinterpeted if I can help it.

Slightly more on topic: Doesn't gate have a size limitation? Can you bring something that big through?

Here's my two coppers:

1cp: You are not a bad person for wanting retribution for a loved one. I shudder at the thought of the damage I would do if someone hurt my wife or daughter. Being raised on a farm gives you a tolerance for blood and a bit of skill at butchering. Not neccessarily skills I want to bring into play upon another human being, but if I came home to find my wife or daughter badly hurt and a suspect standing there with a bloodied weapon? He would have to kill me to keep me from turning him into so much worthless meat.

1cp: That being said, stay rational, but follow your heart. I hate stupidity, and I hate hate most of all, so I personally encourage you to press charges to the fullest extent of the law, and not settle out of court if that seems to be advantageous to them. However, don't embroil yourself in retribution so much it takes from your own life. Being with your partner is more important than being at the trial, and so on. Remember where your truest priorities lie. And if partway through the process you find youself changing your mind, perhaps about one individual in the bunch, or maybe even the group as a whole, and you think you might want to let that one person off, then do so.

There is no point to prove, no vengeance to be had, only what will cause the most good in the wake of a bad situation. That is what I feel the true purpose of justice is.

Anything is broken if a Rules Lawyering or Power Mongering gamer tries. See the Locate City Nuke and Pun Pun. These two are obvious enough that most sane DMs wouldn't allow them, based on a combination of game balance, fairness, and world versimilitude.

Druids are broken, sorcerors with magic missle and access to a lot of metamagic feats are broken, spell compendium is broken, magic item compendium is broken, book of nine swords is broken, warlocks are broken, spiked chains are broken, etc etc, ad infinitum.

I play with EVERYTHING produced by WotC, including Forgotten Realms material where thematically appropriate (I don't play in FR, so Red Wizards don't work, but I don't mind slipping in a Academy of the Crimson Order or something to make it possible).

I'm lucky, my players all want to tell a story together, play vibrant and fully developed characters, have some fun with each other, and work towards the goal of the adventure/campaign/adventure path as a group. As such, I have no issues with power abuses or imbalances. But not everyone can be as lucky as me, to have gamers who's goals naturally incline them to be disinterested in exploting loopholes or damaging the collective experience by imbalancing their characters by exploiting obviously exploitable material.

Arms and Equipment Guide has some info on mounts, up to and including purple worms, tendriculos, and gelatinous cubes.

Right, finally back from the hospital for good. Kaiya was having some trouble with nursing (still is) but we got a solid system for feeding using a finger, syringe, and a tube. Whatever keeps her fed, thats all that matters.

Anyhow, a few photos are up on my Flickr Page for those who like to look at babies. Thanks again to all for your support and thoughts!

Would you then start placing these purchased magic items into the hordes and treasure of those who purchased them?

"Alright! We defeated the undead dragon! Let's see what is in her horde! Wow! 28 greater crystals... that's kind of strange..."

Depends. Lashonna? Yes, because she hates Dragotha and would love to see him die, so keeping a few peices of "Kyuss contrabrand" is logical. But I don't see any of his Avolkai minions keeping them, seeing as how they basically are built to destroy what they eat (undead flesh). Thats like buying a box of mice and then tossing them into your grain silo.

As for Dragotha, I would think he would just destroy any he got ahold of. They are legitimate threats to the new world order.

This sort of thing works for my group, because it reminds the PCs that while the story revolves around them, the world doesn't. Which they like. Different groups, different tastes.

While I agree with the general sentiment regarding pricing (that ghost touch is rarely taken, therefore it must be overpriced, etc, etc) I do have one bit of my trademark "World Versimiltude" to throw into the mix.

Hyper-intelligent bad guys.

Dragotha has a hoard of UNPRECEDENTED size. Lashonna likewise has access to obscene amounts of money, even more so if we consider her political and social connections. The overall "Kyuss Organization" posesses large amounts of money.

Why then, would they allow items capable of making any weapon of decent quality into a frightful threat against themselves, their minions, their god, or their goals?

These crystals should be normal price in the first adventure only, maybe the second. After that, start increasing price as both need and scarcity increase alarmingly. Heck, Lashonna might be more than interested in "gifting" the PCs with a set of them when she decides to send them after Dragotha. Especially if she could put some contingent spells on them.

Right, update time, as I set up my brother to watch the dog, cat, king snake, and gerbils, since we need to spend another evening at the hospital (no problems, just general observation). Here we go:

Kaiya Annette Rands, daughter of Morgan Tyler "Black Bard" Rands and Anna Katrine "Chalinda" Rands, was born April 3, 2009, at 1:43 AM. She weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces, and was 20 inches long. Labor was 4 hours (not a joke, short labors run in my wife's family).

She is wonderfully healthy, bewlideringly alert, and has the cutest voice I have ever heard. I will find a place to upload some pictures tomorrow when we come home.

Thanks to all the Paizo community for your kind words and wishes, your thoughts mean a lot to us!

Right, my wife's water broke, were off to the hospital. Will post again whence we return with our daughter!

One downside to the APs is that they are built with only core mechanics, and what little extra they are able to squeeze into the margins. If you play with heavy splatbooks (like I do) you have to spend a little extra time rebuilding Boss Grade bad guys to take advantage of the same material.

Also consider that NPCs are built off of 25 (aka Standard) Point buy. Its only their lower gear ratios that make them technically weaker than PCs. If you use a higher point buy, you should likewise increase important NPC stats by the same amount (but not neccessarily all, because that would devalue the Heroic concept of higher point buys).

You'd be surprised what an extra 7 Points can do for a BBEG when you realise your running 32 Point Buy PCs.

Also, it seems like a lot of the power comes from the fact your PCs work together well (using White Raven to refresh the warblade and such). Enemies rarely ever work together effectively, either because as the DM you don't have several play sessions of practice testing the tactics the way PCs might, or the creatures themselves would not actually work together. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Unfortunately, the very nature of the Thrifane encounter is a non-cohesive response from the bad guys, so it won't help you here.

Look for ways for the smarter, less suicidal villains in attendance to realize how they can bolster each other. Hate the Dread Wraith can cause serious damage to high AC characters thanks to his incorporeal touch attacks. Mhad's level drains are nasty as well. But Khyron Bonesworn, while not really a threat to the PCs, is an evil cleric, and could spontaneously drop spells to heal the two undead that could be genuine threats.

I play similar to HD, in that if the PCs ask "Whats going on in town? Anything new on the rumor mill?" I then give them a few rumors. Usually one or two thats "level appropriate", one "below level", one "high level" and one final "not your problem, yet". If possible, I make them related, or at least seem related.

Example using Level 4 PCs:
EL 4 Hook1: Ogres have been menacing the caravans coming from the west, people think something has stirred them up or taken control of them.
EL 4 Hook2: The notorious theif Vindeloo was spotted riding towards town, and an anonymous tip implies that Baron Rochletoft is his target. The baron is looking for mercenaries of skill to guard his estate and capture the theif, who is known to not back down from any detterrent.
EL1 Hook: Miss Miggens Pie Shop apparently has some sort of rat problem. Someone who deals with it might get a few free meals out of it.
EL6 Hook: A wandering mystic arrived in town and began warning everyone to set out offerings for the Crimson Storm. Who or what this Crimson Storm is remains unknown, but the two young men who openly mocked the mystic turned up dead the next night, torn to shreds by a pack of animals apparently.
EL 12 Hook: One of the hunters from the southern hills said he found a patch of rock with a few broken red dragon scales scattered about, like the beast had sated an itch there. From the size, it would be a great beast, the likes of what Motlan the Bold defeated in the Ballad of Crying Flames.

I allow Knowledge checks for them to get basic ideas of what is within their capabilities. Its not unreasonable for a person aware of the limitations and strength of both his own group and the potential threat to make a general assement of the danger. Works for me, might not work so well for others. I admit, getting weekly play sessions of 5 hours makes it easier to slow down the pace of the game.

I'm not going to blame it on the Book of Nine Swords, as I use material from that regularily and don't have problems with it, but I must say, from the examples you gave, something seems wrong.

In my game at that point I had a Warlock, an NPC Healer, A Bard/Rogue, A Rogue/Assasin, and a Dwarven Knight. Access to almost all WotC books, including Spell and Magic Item Compendium. The Dwarf Knight had an AC in the 40s, but that was her goal. The warlock was a damage cannon for sure, but only against single targets. The assasin was probably the most dangerous, because he was frikken smart and bought numerous arrows of slaying whenever he could.

I don't mean any offense to you, but if they are pulling off 30+ touch attacks while power attacking, I have to wonder where the bonuses are coming from, although the degree of power attack is a factor.

It sounds like you have some serious powergamer/minmaxers, but maybe my group is just "low key" compared to average. The encounter was challenging for my group, and that was even after the assasin sniped Thrifane with an Arrow of Human Slaying and killed her in the first round before she could order her Shield Guardian to do anything.

*Breathes a sigh of releif at not being alone.*

Right then, this thread is done.

Honestly, I can see conjuring acid.
Cold....hmmmm.....dry ice?
Fire isnt a stretch either, if we consider a chunk of magma or napalm-ish substance.
Conjuring electricity....hmmm....maybe its actually conjuring some iron filling and imbuing them with a powerful charge?
Sonic? Ummm, I supposed you could compress air enough to create a sonic boom when the compression is released....wait....how is that conjuration?

For me, the spells just break a lot of the pseudo-science of D&D magic.

Right, so as I am running Age of Worms again, and this group isn't retardedly powerful like the last one that I played in, I find myself in need of a bit of information.

Specifically, the levels of various service providers in the Free City, for things like healing and spellcasting. The most powerful cleric at Diamond Lake was able to handle a Restoration, but for anything above that, its going to take some travel, and I would like to stay "within" the Greyhawk lore as much as possible (events from the previous Shackled City game nonwithstanding).

So who's who in Greyhawk? Where can I go to find this information?

Mighty cleaving comes to mind. Defending property is somewhat like Combat Expertise.

Magic Item Compendium has a few things that only boost one save, so a +2 save booster could be calculated. Only downside is that most feats are "typeless" bonuses, and most magic items aren't. Just something to keep in mind.

Are tool items double? I thought items that had to basically be carried were normal, and only stuff that could operate without being held (Ioun Stones, Luckstone, Prayer Beads) cost the double for "no slot".

I could easily be wrong though.

My wife would make me sleep on the couch if I showed any favoritism. Sometimes it may seem that way, since I'm a fan of "if you can give me a reason why it might work, I'll let you try it" and she knows that. Other players sometimes don't think outside the rulebooks like that. Others do, and they get just as much advantage as my wife does.

Now, flipside, we have two new players who are attached. Still house(rules)training them, but they have a tendancy to get a smidge smoochy at the table. Not bad, but just this side of the line between sweet and annoying. However, they both pay solid attention to the game, and the less-of-a-gamer girlfreind (now fiancee, as I hear) actually picks up the "gist" of the rules exceptionally fast, so I don't mind ignoring it as long as it stays at the current level.

A couple years back, before we accepted the places where our DMing styles don't overlap (my wife DMs as well, but she was introduced via White Wolf, wheras I came in through 2nd Ed), we had some EPIC arguments about rules interpretations or such. Made our roommates seriously uncomfortable. But we got past it, are happily married, shes about 10 days from bringing a new generation of gamer into the world, and things couldn't really be better. Well, they could, but you know what I mean.

Did anybody else notice the expression on the goblins face in the background on the one with the wizard? I sprayed early morning Mountain Dew on my screen.

____ Yeah Seaking!

If anybody else on paizo gets this (or rather, I wasn't the only one to think it) then you get a cookie. Not a Lillith Cookie, but a paltry, crum/b/ling splenda-instead-of-sugar sort of cookie.

I love you all, its way too late, time to sleep.

On a more related note, I love this author. Leigh Brackett is a literary addiction, indeed.

Hehe, in my Age of Worms game my players asked me to run a rogue, so they could have a chance with traps (they all had other concepts in mind).

So I made a DMPC named Lenny Steelglitter, gnome rogue. My dice are swingy (the dreaded DM dice, hitting median 10 by rolling a lot of 1s and 20s) so he has had some epic win and epic fail.

Specifically, in 3FoE (Age of Worms) he got crit by a greataxe (Paizo Crit Deck) and was gutted. Total damage + con damage took him from nearly full to dead.

Has since been reincarnated as per his wishes. Now he's a gnoll rogue.
My PCs know that death is one crappy dice roll away. Luck is what allows them to roll d20s for their rolls, rather than 2d4+6 (what I use for background NPCs). PCs take the big risks.

If you are interested in world cohesion, consider that a part of Savage Tide involves the Wormfall Festival, a celebration of Kyuss defeat, in which many people dress up as the heroes that defeat the Wormgod.

So consider that they could be seeing people dressing up as their old PCs.

Take it a step further, and instead of putting ST only 1-2 years after AoW, put it 15-20 later, and they could be the children of the AoW PCs (human at least, elves would be harder).

My group recently wrapped SC and started AoW, and the two players who were "returning" played a native of the new and improved Cauldron, and the son of the warlock from SC. Its good times, and makes for great world investment.

I'm playing in Age of Worms a gnoll (was reincarnated from gnome) rogue/swordsage named Lenny Lenneb Steelglitter Sparkbarker. His personality: Rowan Atkinson's Black Adder. Max ranks intimidate is great.

"Cross me and you will find that under this playful, boyish exterior, beats the heart of a rutheless, sadistic maniac."

"To you, the rennaisance was just something that happened to other people, wasn't it?"

"Oh, he's decent enough, for a dwarf. Although I use the term in its broadest possible sense, as Moradin created dwarves in his own image, and it would be a sad outlook for his faithful if he looked anything like that fellow."

Personally, I would reserve Tattoo Monk for the Yakuza explicitly. That way they have their "own" PRC, and you don't have to do any legwork making up one.

As for martial arts, I understand your desire, but I don't know how well it will work to try and implement in the abstraction of D&D combat. It worked in Rifts, but that was because Rifts combat was much more simulationist (and tedious to adjucate).

It boils down to this question: what are martial arts to you? If they are diverse schools that can have a fair degree of leeway within them, then you could cluster certain feats together to represent a certain "school". Power Attack, Iron Will, Great Fortitude could be feats from Karate. Lightning Reflexes, Combat Expertise, Improved Trip for Judo.

If you see martial arts having less leeway, you could make specific feat "chains" for them. I beleive Unearthed Arcana had some of this, as did a Class Acts article in Dragon.

If you see the simple progression of base attack being mastery of a martial art, then feats could represent the special moves learned by a practitioner. This is the simplest way, and can diffuse a lot of out-of game arguments, because you aren't going into specifics.

Considering that Twilight vampires are basically solid rock, from all the various direct and indirect descriptions, to me it makes sense that they sparkle. I mean, if the vampire's skin has the density of stone, but they can easily cut their own skin with their teeth, that means the teeth must be incredibly sharp. Possibly even diamond edged sharp.

Many stones like marble and granite sparkle, due to microcrystals within them. I'd cry no more or less shenanigans if someone said an earth elemental summoned in a marble quarry was sparkly. To me its a non-issue.

I guess we need the author to definitively describe the transformation process as a sort of crystalization. Maybe that would provide some "justification" for the nay-sayers. Then again, maybe its just a bunch of people who think glittery things are silly and thats the end of it.

My only beef with the movie was that the "big brother" of the vampire family, Emmett, was not nearly big enough. In the books he was portayed as massive, almost impossible to pass as a high schooler. I would have casted the guy who played Collosus in X-Men, but thats just me.

Is it bad when gamer chicks bring dice to the bedroom?

Here's my "great wheel" metaphor.

Having all the Completes, I can say that Complete Arcane, Warrior, Divine, Adventurer, and Psionic function as a sort of "inner planes" to the core books "material planes". Now, the problem is that the next set of completes don't all go in the same spot.

Complete Champion is like the "astral plane" in that it can connect to all of the others.

Complete Scoundrel is similar, but introduces some new mechanics (skill tricks) that don't rely on prestige classes as much, so I call it the "ethereal plane" of the books, very close to the material.

Complete Mage has a lot of work built off of the warlock, so not having Complete Arcane can be limiting. It almost feels like a second layer to an elemental plane, only fully accessible if you can get to the first layer.

The next problem is that there is no Complete Buttkicker, no book exclusively for Martial Characters. Some point to Tome of Battle for its incarnation, but I think PHB2 is the closest, thanks to the feat trees for high level fighters in it.

So, looking at it, I can say that, yeah, 3rd was a little scattered, but not terrible.

If nothing else, Pathfinder Splatbooks should A: have more fluff and a smidgen less crunch, B: have a "little bit of everything" paradigm (spells, feats, PRCs, monsters, items), and C: try to at least conceptually playtest the material against what else has been released.

The worst part of 3.5 splatbooks is that they were all playtested against the core rules and nothing more. Which is why I always tell my new players the Theory of Relative Brokenation, which is Core + Splat x Splat x Splat ad repeatum.

If Pathfinder material could be even merely directed by a known and obvious set of design parameters, with blatantly new mechanics being heavily worked over by the core design team, we could avoid the splatbook carried disease of Power Creep, and prolong the longevity of the Pathfinder game's current edition.

That link is made of epic and win. I love Nids simply for the variety, but that same variety makes deciding on a bioform arduous. Now I can do as I please!

Seriously, thanks for a great link that has renewed my interest in a hobby that provides a lot of entertainment for me!

Definitely increase the size of the room, and give some terrain elements. She needs mobility to survive, and the defaulty room gives none. Consider that big fluffy beds and armchairs are difficult terrain (stops charges), and such.

If your going to give your PCs anything above a 28 point buy, let them pull from more than one splatbook, or let them play anything with a level adjustment, give "boss" monsters Max HP at the very least. If you do more than one of those things, give them Max HP +5 or +10 more per CR. It just becomes somewhat neccessary to challenge them.

I can definitely see the excessiveness in the hands of a Sorc, who has no need for anything but Cha. Bards have a bit more MAD, and this spell seems spot on power-wise for one.

I think this is something that should be limited to bards and maybe an alternate luck domain.

+8 cha, base of 6/4/10, a +5 save booster (easily within the gp range), gives scores of 19, 17, 23, before other ability mods. With 12s and relatively cheap +2 boosters in his save scores, plus taking the 3 save boosting feats, he could easily hit 23/21/27. His saves are good, but not amazing. I could probably get them close to 30/25/30 if I tried, all legally with core material. Paladins have good saves, to resist the forces of evil. Thats part of their "schtick".

Of course, when I see Paladin 2 in any stat-block, I immediately smell powergaming. I could be totally wrong, but its just a common trend I see, especially with sorcerors.

In summary, the spell is fine. The spell in combination with the particular character, and the fact that the character is a sorceror, makes it a bit wonky. But consider, he blew a 4th level slot for it. I would have taken Improved Invisibility and made your life a lot harder, personally.