Beltias Kreun

The Mysterious Stranger's page

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I love Dispater, too. Is it just me, or is he the least evil of the archdevils?


Asp-is. I emphasize the asp.


Have you had any problems with inquisitors? How about Imrijka?


How often do you break those long nails of yours? Do they get in the way of simple tasks? What do the people you travel with think of them?


Feiya wrote:
The Mysterious Stranger wrote:

Ms. Feiya: 2 questions.

1. Is that samurai, Hayato, as unfriendly as he looks?

I've only seem him in passing, but I hear he's more just gruff than unfriendly.

The Mysterious Stranger wrote:
2. You do realize you're falling out of your bodice, right?
If I say "no", and then proceed to fix it would you regret pointing it out?

The Neutral Good side of me wouldn't regret it. The Chaotic Neutral side, however... ;)


Ms. Feiya: 2 questions.

1. Is that samurai, Hayato, as unfriendly as he looks?

2. You do realize you're falling out of your bodice, right?


Nepherti wrote:

Kevlar doesn't cover the entire body. And if someone in the audience did have a gun, then they theoretically could have taken out the gunman. But you have to remember a few things:

1: Dark theater. You'd need a tack-light or a laser sight to get a good shot. Those with a conceal carry permit are taught to never shoot unless you have a clear shot.

2: The gunman used tear gas, according to witnesses. Civilians are not trained to fight its effects.

3: The fact that he shot up the place during a gunfight in the movie. Many of those witnesses claim to have heard the gunfire and at first thought it was part of the movie.

Plus, Spree Killers (or any killer for that matter) tend to pick places where there is a strong likelihood of getting a lot of victims before someone is able to put a stop to them. A theater is about the worst place to fall victim to a crime. It's too dark and there are too few exits. Many people are tuned in to the show rather than what is going on around them. A civilian who is carrying in a park or a fair is going to have a much easier time putting a stop to a Spree Killer.

Also the fact that most people just aren't trained for these kinds of situations. Just because you may have a gun doesn't mean you'd be calm enough to hit your target, and in a crowded theater full of panicked people running everywhere, a person shooting back at the gunman could just as easily kill more innocents by accident.


I view Snape as true neutral.

But applying the D&D alignment outside anything that doesn't use the system is very difficult with complex characters and even more with real life people.


Haladir wrote:

I didn't mean to say to stop playing with these folks-- just set your expectations accordingly. If they're the "kick in the door, kill monster, take treasure" kind of players, then I wouldn't bother running an AP. You can just randomly roll monster encounters, and they'll have a ball. Sometimes you have to adapt your style of GMing to what your players want-- but everyone has to remember that the GM is a participant of the game, and has to have fun too!

I guess I'm lucky that I have more gamer friends than I can run in a game session. (I had to turn away some players for my Rise of the Runelords game, because I know I can't effectively GM a party larger than 6 PCs).

Regarding GM style vs. player style...

One of my oldest and dearest friends and I have been gaming together for almost 25 years. We have come to the conclusion that we can't play in games the other GMs: we just don't care for each others' GM style or the kinds of adventures the other likes to run.

I like to run big, action-focued "save the world" kind of plots, with a lot of combat, a fair amount of moral ambiguity, and decent role-playing. I usually include horror elements in my games. I'm also big on rules, and I use tactical combat. He doesn't like horror at all. He finds the "sticking to the rules" of my style to be a drag on creativity, and that combat takes way too long and gets tedious. He'd be happy with one short fight every three or four sessions.

He likes to run small-scale, political intrigue games, generally where the PCs are nobles in the capitol city. The focus is on role-playing, making...

Hmm...I like your advice. I'll talk to my players about what they want to do.


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In my experience, the hardcore Magic players are aged 20+ and not necessarily introverts.

The days of socially inept nerds being the only sort of gamers are long past, no matter what network television would have you believe.


Thorkull wrote:
Ice Titan wrote:
Elrostar wrote:
Haladir wrote:
Frankly, I wouldn't bother GMing for a group that won't bother to read my handouts. But your miles may vary.
Pretty much.
Double yes.
+1

Frankly, I don't have the luxury of choice and they're my best friends. And they were interested enough when I explained for a whole car ride the cosmology and gods of the Pathfinder-verse. I don't mind being the "campfire storyteller", so to speak. And when we all played a previous campaign with another GM he just explained what was going on at the beginning and there was no confusion.

That said I looked over the whole campaign of CoT and ended up not liking it. So we're doing RotR instead.


Maybe a daemon-centered AP? (I don't THINK that has been done yet...)

Devils and demons have had their time to shine, give the Horsemen their due!


Deadmanwalking wrote:
Give them the Player's Guide. It's free and that's what it's there for.

Ha! My friends....reading something themselves.....that's rich! If they were the reading sort I would be all over this but one of them can't be bothered to read a comic book!


I'm going to be running a campaign fairly soon, and I'm looking at Council of Thieves.

Should I read the Adventure Background stuff to them or should I just tell them they're in Westcrown, Cheliax and that Cheliax is ruled by devil-worshiping nobility and leave it at that?


So back on topic: Can Myconids wear armor tailored for a more human-shaped race? Their bodies wouldn't necessarily be a problem, but their mushroom-shaped heads could make it difficult...

Should we just ignore that?


Irori: Perfection of body in mind will lead to mastery over all other beings.

Gozreh: Bring civilization to its knees by burning the cities and forcing people into a life of savagery.

Gorum: Create war for the sake of war.


I've always had the idea in my mind (and a former GM reinforced this between wizards and sorcerers) that a notable number of wizards look down on sorcerers for not being academically trained in their magic.

Now when I look at the fluff behind Pathfinder sorcerers (never played 3E) it seems that they could be just as snooty towards wizards for the wizards having to "learn their magic from books".

Then when you throw witches into the equation their powers are basically granted to them by some mysterious force which makes it seem like both of the other classes could look on them with disdain.

I'm basically asking your opinions on this matter and how you play your character/NPC spellcasters. I'm not saying <i> every </i> wizard has to fit the "no like sorcerers" persona.

Also, while writing this post this question came into my mind: Do wizards have to have some special quality to actually train to become a wizard, or could anybody with the privilege of having the cash and being in the right neighborhood become a wizard? (i.e. Could Valeros have been a wizard had he had access to a school?)


MMCJawa wrote:

I don't think there is anything wrong with the fluff for the motherless, it just didn't have room to be elaborated on. We get half a page of text on them, most of which is on appearance, etc. If the Xenomorph didn't need to be bottle-fed, I don't see why the motherless would be.

Especially since the fluff mentions that they are seldom isolated births, and in fact are born in clusters. If you have a small community or neighborhood, you might have only one or two available midwives, so it's quite plausible for a motherless to rip it's way out before being noticed, especially if the process is as fast as in say Alien.

Ah, but the Motherless feat in the Social section (pretty obviously tailored towards Qlippoth-spawn) makes it seem that they are indeed not self-reliant at an early age.


Dragon78 wrote:
I like the 100 alternate racial abilities, I wish we could see stuff like this for other races other then Tieflings and Aasimar.

I does make sense though, when you consider that outsiders are extremely varied in nature even in their own little groups. So a tiefling with one ability could have inherited it from a bone devil whereas a tiefling with another ability could have inherited it from a marilith.


Set wrote:
Pyrrhic Victory wrote:
Calistrans are the way they are because they choose to be.

And that's the bottom line, right there. Nobody is dragged off to a Calistrian nunnery and set to servicing the various wealthy men the church is seeking to court.

Any elf who wants a less brothel-y religion can choose to worship Nethys, Desna, Ketephys, Findeladlara, or Yuelral, or even a (gasp) non-elven-traditional god like Sarenrae or Shelyn or Gozreh or Cayden or Norgorber.

I can at least see why, people being people, someone like Calistria would have no shortage of people looking for a little payback (or a consequence-free 'live for tonight, for tomorrow we'll pretend we don't know each other and that it never happened' sex life), calling her 800 number, unlike Rovagug or Groetus or Zyphus or Droskar.

Droskar is like, crazy. "Yes, I worship the god of back-breaking toil and sub-standard goods. 'Work twice as hard for something half as good,' that's our motto!"

Really, between Calistria and Cayden, Golarion has gods of sex and beer, hookers and blow, it just needs a god of rock and roll. Shelyn may be a music goddess, but I cannot see her banging her head. Perhaps somewhere between Zon-Kuthon and Shelyn, there's potential... (A conjoined church of Zon-Kuthon and Shelyn would be a freaky, freaky thing, and I like it!)

I think it would be funny if a god like Torag was secretly the god of rock and roll.


The NPC wrote:
The Mysterious Stranger wrote:
I tried playing an intelligent half-orc in a 4e (bleh!) campaign and my DM would say things like "You're a HALF-ORC, you aren't supposed to be witty!" :/ Where's the fun in that?
Isn't that kind of 4th edition in a nutshell.

Yes but I didn't know any better at the time.


Mikaze wrote:
The Mysterious Stranger wrote:
there is "hero likable" and "villain likable".
Hoping to pull off both in a post later tonight!

I would ask what you mean, but I assume that would ruin the surprise.

[offtopic] Assassin's Creed is "silly"? That's news to me. :/ [/offtopic]


I honestly find Calistra to be the least likable of the Core Gods.

Before anyone points out evil gods let me just say that there is "hero likable" and "villain likable".


I tried playing an intelligent half-orc in a 4e (bleh!) campaign and my DM would say things like "You're a HALF-ORC, you aren't supposed to be witty!" :/ Where's the fun in that?


Chengar Qordath wrote:
The Mysterious Stranger wrote:
So I guess my real question is, do Qlippoth-born have some sort of illusory or mind-control ability, or is the "iconic" qlippoth-born shown in the magazine just a particularly horrific example?
Going off the fluff/tables, it does seem like most of the images of Tieflings are a bit exaggerated for effect. Going off the table of Tiefling features on page 31, there are Tieflings that would be close to indistinguishable from humans at first glance (until you noticed oddities like not having a shadow/reflection, a birthmark, oddly-colored eyes, etc).

Good point. Anyway it's not like my Motherless has to look like that if I don't want it to. Prior to my purchase, I pictured Qlippoth-born as having weird deformities like tentacles on their heads instead of the standard horns of demon/devil-born. Closer to aberrants really.


If Pathfinder included more steampunk and sci-fi elements, I wouldn't be disappointed. But I also wouldn't be disappointed if they didn't either. There is still a lot of Golarion that hasn't been detailed. Vudra, Arcadia....


Ch3rnobyl wrote:

That's too bad, because I really like having a hard copy book.

Can the content be found in any other book, such as "Advanced Race Guide?"

Thanks,
Stephen

It contains a lot of fluff that is not in Advanced Race Guide. However, not a whole lot of it is particularly interesting.


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I bought a hard copy of Blood of Fiends and I must say, kudos to the designers of the book! It really is a great book for lovers of the fiendish such as myself.

There's just one thing nagging me. We are given a picture of one of The Motherless and it is by far the least human looking of all the Tiefling types. Quite horrifying actually. Then the book describes that they eat their way out of their mother's wombs, killing her.

Now I know that it says they have talent for getting others to care for them, but I can't believe in a world where half-orc babies are all-to-often left in alleys to die that anyone would want to care for a freakish barely-human looking thing that kills its own mother upon birth. The first thing most people would probably grab when seeing an infant Motherless is a weapon. And I seriously doubt any maid wants to nurse one of them.

So I guess my real question is, do Qlippoth-born have some sort of illusory or mind-control ability, or is the "iconic" qlippoth-born shown in the magazine just a particularly horrific example?


I like this! Great artwork and interesting to roleplay.

Mushroom people FTW!


Joana wrote:

Link

Look at the second table for your answer. 2 CR 2 creatures = 2+2=4. 2 CR 20 creatures = 20+2=22.

Far from an exact science, though.

That's good enough for me. Thank you Joana.


Since we're on the topic of nooby questions. One more thing I don't quite get (and won't have to worry about for a little while anyway). The way the book phrases it had me confused.

Will two of the same (or different) CR 2 monsters make a CR 4 encounter or a CR 3 encounter, and similarly, will 2 CR 20 monsters make for a CR 40 encounter or a CR 21?


And now everything makes sense! Thank you wraithstrike for showing me the light! Edit: And you too, Young Tully!

So having a group of five level 1 players fight 4 goblins with 11 hp apiece would be a disaster, correct?


I'm going to be the GM for the first time. One thing I want to get cleared up is concerning Monster hp and Hit Dice.

I understand the function of Hit Dice, but I need to know:

On the stat block for oh say, Goblin, it says hp: 6 (1d10 + 1). Does that mean that when I roll a d10 to determine hp, and I roll a 10, will the Goblins hp be (6+(10 + 1)) = 17, or will it be 10 + 1 = 11?

Or say I'm running the Tarrasque. Its stat block says hp: 525 (30d10 + 360). Say I roll 5's on every single one of those d10's (for the convenience of this thread). Would its hp end up being 525 + (150 + 360) or would it end up being just 150 + 360?


Well, I don't necessarily care about the snooty nobility thing as much as maybe having a place for downtrodden "English" peasants, Celt-y barbarians, "Scottish" highlanders, plenty of downs and moors, and flocks of sheep.

Chelaxians are easy enough to turn into a sort of twisted Victorian culture if I feel like it.

I suppose I could say that parts of Cheliax are like GB, whereas others are like Italy and Spain...


About acid blood when it takes damage. What if they are using blunt weapons or improved unarmed strike? i.e. not-cutting/puncturing weapons? That would be more likely to include internal bleeding than external.

Also, spells, a fire or frost spell shouldn't cause blood to spray everywhere.


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A lawful good rogue? Easy!

A rogue trained from early age in the arts of espionage by his order. They send him into orc camps/goblin lairs/cultist hideouts in the dead of night to slit the throats of these evil-doers. He is no thief, but a master of espionage.

A rogue need not be a thief, heck, not even a non-good rogue has to be a thief.

Basically, a rogue is anybody who is good at stealth/trickery.

Thief, spy, runaway noble, hide-and-seek champion turned adventurer...


Perhaps like Gregorian or Benedictine monks.

What a lot of people don't realize is that the Knights Templar (and I think maybe the Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights) were a monastic order.

But in Golarion the Templars would have become Paladins.

I have suddenly envisioned an order of Templar look-alike monks that have a similar tunic to the Templars (white with red emblem) minus the metal armor and swords.


I'm personally fine with anybody playing as anything even if it's stuff I don't particularly like.

Wanna be a monk? Fine! Wanna be a Friar Tuck look-a-like with kung-fu skills? Fine! This is Golarion, baby!

However, I've always sort of rolled my eyes at the fact that Ninja and Samurai get their own classes instead of being archetypes. At least they are alternate versions of existing classes though.


Most of all though, I wouldn't mind seeing more than 3 types of demodands.


If you did more Books of the Damned, you might consider doing one for the native fiends (rakshasa and oni) and another with kytons and asuras. Qlippoth might deserve their own book, and then divs and demodands could be worked into another book.

Metal name for a celestial book? Holy Defenders.


I've sort of assumed that since Andoran is akin to colonial America, that Cheliax would be similar to the British Empire....but Taldor seems to fit the image too...

Thoughts to point me in the right direction?


1. Vudra, please! (By the way, where is Vudra located?)

2. Arcadia.

3. More Tian Xia stuff.


As an avid reader of the Book of the Damned series, I would love to see for each type of the Big 3 D's:

Devils: Devils are my favorite of all fiends. Expand upon The Whore Queens. They are interesting in that they are a part of Hell but are fairly separate from the archdevils. They get about a footnote apiece in Princes of Darkness. Also: The Malebranche.

Demons: Demons are my least favorites of the three. Maybe some more Nascent Demon Lords. Overall, each demon lord got less info than the archdevils and horsemen because of the sheer quantity of demon lords. Maybe some more tidbits on them.

Daemons: The Oinodaemon. We know his origins, but what is her agenda? Does he even have an agenda? What would she do if he were to be unleashed upon the world again?