Vendle's page

The DD has been one of my favorite PrCs since it appeared in Sword and Fist 3.0. Nicely done conversion!

I'm also playing with a few people on Lumiel as Elyos. Our 'Legion' is Eternal Flame. Most of us are in the 20's now, but I tend to play a lot of alts so I don't advance as quickly as some can.

Personally, I don't like Drizzt for a combination of reasons pretty much covered already. First is my first-hand experience reading the novels. Yes, he did start out as an exciting heroic figure and then got fairly depressing, to put it bluntly.

The Tale of Krispos series by Harry Turtledove has one or two prominent gay characters. All the others I've read have already been mentioned.

This game is already being played in South Korea, and soon will be unveiled in the U.S. You can read more about it in Wikipedia.

I have seen this game played in Beta, and I am impressed. The graphics are exceptional, from armor and character models to beasts and monsters to water effects and buildings and landscape. I haven't yet seen the higher character levels and zones of the game world, so I can't say if the "end game" is robust.

Character creation allows for a huge variety in your avatar's appearance. I made a rather convincing halfling, while my friend created a tall muscled warrior and then a dwarf-like cleric.
I found the storyline's beginning to be mildly interesting, although a bit narrow as all characters begin as one of two races; this could be an issue for immersive roleplayers. I am pleased so far with the crafting system; later on, the crafting system should allow players to choose (within limits) the style and color of the items they create.

Well, now Jedit is an 80 warlock and Thetiefling is my latest 'main'. Man, I still have too many alts. Anyway, I encourage people to check out the latest patch content: the Argent Tournament and other raids and group instances. The Test of Champions, normal difficulty, can be done with a fairly fresh group of five level 80's and rewards gear that equals or exceeds most heroic instance rare drops, with a loot table that should allow for 3-5 gear pieces for each class-talent spec, allowing for multiple runs. It also has a heroic difficulty level for players who are experienced heroic-runners.

Even if you can't find a group, the grounds outside the instance provide new dailies that give nice gold rewards and faction; you can work through some preliminary quests to represent your home race and later your faction's other races as well. This has the late-game benefit of building faction with those 5 races, just in case you want the reputation without the runecloth farming, etc.

I was somewhat disappointed in this movie in comparison to the others.

Looks like the legal battles and technical hurdles are finally out of the way. The option to pre-order the game is open; I should have expected that a (hopefully) high-quality game is likely to have delays of some kind.

Not to threadjack, but I hope some more people do check out the game after the latest patch. It's getting easier to level and reach Northrend content, which IMO is beautifully-rendered and has some excellent stories woven into the quests.

I once used Soul Jar to "extend" the life of the BBEG in the encounter. He essentially possessed various minions in the room just to be able to taunt the PCs over and over.

Another option is multiple Simulacrums, which gives the minions the personal sneer/smirk of your BBEG with the table-turning impression of outnumbering the heroes, at least for a little while.

Devas are deceptively powerful. Memory of a Thousand Lifetimes and a couple resistances to energy are strong selling points for the race.

Maybe the first 50 minutes of the flick could be a little less depressing this round?

2. An uplifting tale of a small publishing company taking on the "Big Guy" to produce a role playing game that is fun and playable. The story ends (or begins?) with them selling out every copy of their first print run.

5. Valeros stumbles into the possessed queen's plot for immortality. Will he be charmed by the young beauty, or perhaps by his female companions? How long will it be before his next stiff drink?

So, I'm thinking I may have the flu... and this particular strain came from a friend's trip to Texas. I'm going to get a checkup later today because I can (yay military benefits) and maybe they'll be able to tell if it is H1N1. I don't have the highest confidence in my clinic, though (yay military physicians). :P

Of her work, I really enjoyed the Man-Kzin wars while my wife praises the Dark Sun Trilogy. She's definitely one of my favorite authors.

The stock market surged today... OVER 9000!?!
Seriously, the network news reporter actually said this.
I just added the stress at the ending.

Not a Lara Croft fan then?

Anyway, I'm slightly optimistic about this movie. Blizzard has been very careful in the past about protecting their image. As long as they don't let the director do any crying loser/hero scenes, it should be a blockbuster.

Edge.

Stupid canted results. That would have hit its AC!

Healthcare reform, and associated costs.

Sorry, I'm like 3 hours away. I used to work at Ft. Leavenworth during the summer, when all the students move in and out of housing.

Where's global warming when you need it? I was going to BBQ tonight.

Who watches TV anymore anyway? The internets are the way of the future.

This is a very good card game, by the way. I'm trying to rework my gaming budget to get more chapter packs right now.

Velen server. I'll try to remember to stop by tonight.

My impression is that several gun-metal gray Decepticons towards the movie's end were 'extras', representing very minor or previously non-existant characters from the comics. I could be wrong; perhaps there is a diehard solid breakdown of each and every character's location and activities to satisfy the purists and realists.

b@%%#&*# Surfers? Can I say that here?

edit: apparently not

I don't have a problem with adjusting a current base class to suit the particular vision of a player (light-armored fighter with +skill points? sure). I also recognize that not all DMs have the time or inclination to supervise these adjustments themselves. For that reason, and for the very cool new ideas Pathfinder presents that I may not have thought of, I am in favor of some new base classes (especially non-spellcasters).

I really enjoyed this movie, especially the fight scenes. There were plenty of small annoyances that kept it from being great, but I left those in another thread. Certainly worth the price of admission.

There's plenty to like, plenty to dislike. I'll focus on the latter in this thread.

I thought a lot of the juvenile humor could have been cut. Not all the humor, certainly. I'm talking about this stuff:

1. Dogs humping
2. robot leg-humping
3. wrecking balls hanging conspicuously
4. worst offender: Sam's mom

The action scenes were sometimes too busy, making it frustrating to keep up with what was happening. Lastly, with a new plot and new characters, the disproportion of attention and screentime for various characters was noticeable and a little jarring for me.

Other than these minor faults, I enjoyed the film.

I had a very nice Free RPG Day. The FLGS outside Omaha had plenty of free loot with almost no restrictions; I was disappointed that there were no miniatures and that only people that stayed to play games got a pair of dice. I thought the Amethyst free adventure was a little... odd. Mixing modern and fantasy with 4th Ed. mechanics sort of works, but, well, I guess it just wasn't what I was expecting.

I'm glad to see more people being proactive and altruistic; the superhero touch is kinda neat.

I'm not a member, yet.

I'm playing casually again after a 6 month break. I don't want to commit to anything as for the moment I'm entertained by server-hopping around to my many alts and toying with their talent trees that have been reset.

I am open to PC clerics that follow ideals instead of gods, especially in worlds where gods have fallen, disappeared, mortals have ascended, et cetera. A symbol representing that PC's ideals/domains should function just fine to channel divine energy. Some may wonder where this power comes from, if the cleric or paladin or ranger doesn't worship a god? The power could be given by any single god or any number of gods who believe that PC is serving their interests, if not in their name. I see this option as especially strong when power is given by gods of deception and trickery.

I really like the page layout and the artwork for the Bonus Bestiary. I can't wait to take a copy home, instead of just a sneak peek while the local shop was unwrapping their shipment.

That's the one!

Hey, I was at the local shop yesterday and I noticed a few handouts that were being unpacked by the shop owner. At first I wasn't too interested, but then I saw the PAIZO golem near the bottom of the flyer. Investigating further, I found the Pathfinder Beastiary Sampler handouts. It's looking good! I especially liked the reworked Shadow Mastiff.

Could someone please provide a link if this has already been mentioned on the boards? Or perhaps it hasn't been officially crowed from the rooftops just yet. Either way, more information on these Samplers is wanted!

Samuel, I know you tend to get wordy and sometimes abrasive when playing devil's advocate. I often appreciate your point of view, and this thread is no exception.

I believe what you want to get across in the simplest terms is the following: the world's climate is always changing hotter/colder, etc. and humans have not been studying climate long enough to learn enough of its quirks to justify taxes/green laws/hysteria over it.

As for myself, I keep my perspective tempered with the information that when dinosaurs roamed the earth, the average surface temperature of the shallow oceans was in the low 80's; that's the estimation by some climatologists, anyway.

So many things to comment on...

I had a lot more to say on many things, but I decided to cut it down for the sake of brevity. For the moment, I'm going to touch on the scientific method and Christianity.

There are proofs and theories and apparently facts that, in ways both minor and dramatic, contradict passages of the Bible or Christian teachings. To a lot of people, this makes Christianity false, horrible, uncomfortable, or just unbelievable. There are two factors that I feel are overlooked when people take this stance; faith and the limits of knowledge.
1. Faith. As I understand it in very simple terms, this means true acceptance of something one cannot prove to exist, which is in large part why religion is not science.
2. The limits of knowledge. These are closer than many people realize. The scientific method, for example, only works if all outside factors are eliminated; otherwise there is no proof, only evidence of and support for a larger theory. Since I believe there is more in heaven and earth than humans currently understand or can even percieve, my acceptance of scientific evidence is rarely immutable.

So, this 'documentary'; Is it worth seeing if you are fairly well set into a particular religious view? It was my understanding by experience and rumor that Bill Maher is terribly contemptuous of all religions and their adherents. If there are some valid issues discussed in his interviews, I might take the time to consider them. I'm quite willing to hear ideas that conflict with my own beliefs, but I do ask for reciprocity or at least civility in return.

It could have been an old Manual of the Planes or Planescape book, but I remember the clockwork swordsman. I really like the idea, as long as there aren't thousands of free-willed types running around. Echoing the general sentiment here, I like my 'living constructs' to be unique or rare creations, an oddity even in a fantasy game of magic and dragons (and dungeons!). I have had the urge to play one, but I've been repulsed somewhat by the extent to which warforged are living creatures. If I am going to play a construct, I want it to have metal or stone parts and probably some visible gears. I would like to flaunt the artificiality of the thing, if such a quality exists.

Is Spartan too much to aspire to? I always dream big.

The story was a little different from the comics and cartoon but the dialogue and the same feel of it were right on. At first I wasn't sure if I should be pleased or disappointed, but my wife and I quickly took to liking this flick. It has a few laugh-out-loud scenes that are easy to imagine being animated instead of filmed, and the casting for Yamcha at least was perfect. Goku did an admirable job with his awkward teen-turned-Earth's hero role; For those unfamiliar with DB and DBZ, it might be simpler to imagine Goku's actor wasn't good at delivering dramatic lines. I hope plenty of people see this movie with the right expectations.

Air Force enlisted in '04. In my experience a good number of military like to game. Must be the escape from reality part of it.

Stormtroopers and battledroids also can't hit heroes. I would downgrade them to 1st level warriors from 3.5 or make them take the Collective Incompetence flaw (-1 to attack for every ally in the encounter). That's why they aren't likely to be minions; minions are supposed to represent a threat.

If those lesser nations could ignore their jealousy before, they'll find it much harder to scoff at our resurging glory now in full color.

*clap clap* Bring me my afternoon tea!

This is one situation the Spring Attack feat was designed for. Considering the PC monk only gets one attack per round out of it, it seems fairly balanced to me.

When using the attack action with a melee weapon, you can move both before and after the attack, provided that your total distance moved is not greater than your speed. Moving in this way does not provoke an attack of opportunity from the defender you attack, though it might provoke attacks of opportunity from other creatures, if appropriate. You can’t use this feat if you are wearing heavy armor.

edit: Moving 30 feet total for the round doesn't seem very excessive, nor is it safe in this case. The monster can take a 5-foot step and use a full attack against the monk on its turn. Spring Attack is better used with greater distances and/or obstacles that provide cover.

165. Pat yourself on the back.
166. Scratch that itch in an embarassing place without reaching.

Valterra Deathwalk, LG cleric of Kelemvor (death and travel domains).

Cythe the rogue, nicknamed 'Twitch' after botching every attempt to disarm electrical traps he encountered.

Killum Ded, dwarf fighter name randomly generated from a dwarven race guidebook.

Along the lines of characters named after wines, I was in a WoW guild where pretty much all the founders names were of alcohols:
Zinfandel, Ketelone, Merlot, Riesling, Chardonnay, Bordeaux
I think the guildleader being a professional wine-taster had something to do with it.

Swords of Lanhkmar (Lankhmar?)

The Grey Mouser is the rogue that rogues should aspire to be.

I LINKED! I'm a helper! I'm a person who helps!

disclaimer: Again, this is the story from one perspective and may not be wholly accurate.