lastknightleft's page

Democrats

Kama Sutra.

I've provided links to where the Catholic Church unilaterally decided that felonies committed by its priests are specifically outside the authority of the the countries where those crimes were committed. Why are people OK with this?

I'm *not* "OK" with it. I haven't commented further because:

(1) I'm not OK with Mr. Cain's position on mosques, either, rendering him an unacceptable candidate -- and making his apparent hypocrisy a moot point; and

(2) Gary asked us to get off religion.

Here's a link to an article in the WSJ entitled "Why Can't Herman Cain Win?"

It was short, but a good read, and I recommend it. It pretty much sums up the attitude that I used to have about him. "I really like him a lot, but..." and that's probably the response that I think is most common amongst the Republican base. For some reason, there are a number of people who don't see him as very electable.

This is the primary reason that I think the straw poll really gave him a serious boost: it made a great many people in the base see him as a for-real, electable candidate. No, he doesn't have the financial resources of campaigns like Perry and Romney, but his staff reports that donations have been flooding in over the last week to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars a day. Whether that's true or not is difficult to say, but I think it speaks volumes that the man even got to this point with as little money as he's had.

Even if he's had no legislative experience, I also think his business experience lends a great deal to the presidency. I mean, really. How is it NOT impressive that the man has risen to the top (or very near the top) of nearly every business pursuit he's had? He's worked ballistics for the Navy, then worked for Coca-Cola as an analyst, then went to Pillsbury, where he became VP within five or so years. When he went to Burger King, he took his region from the least profitable to the most profitable in just three years. He brought Godfather's Pizza back from the brink. He was CEO of the National Restaurant Association, then chairman of the Kansas Federal Reserve Bank, one step removed from chairman of the entire Federal Reserve. He's also a recipient of the Horatio Alger award, along with people like Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Ross Perot, Gerald Ford, Herbert Hoover, and Clarence Thomas.

I think it's entirely logical to make the argument that of all the candidates, Cain has the MOST experience in bringing businesses back from the brink.

Unless Herman Cain is the messiah, I'm wondering how we got on the subject of god?

Maybe he is. Maybe he's just a very naughty boy.

But probably because some people on the Right love to talk about how America is a Christain country and how everyone should obey Christian rules and some people on the Left love to say that these people are the whole of the right and everyone who votes Republican wants theocracy. Both positions are a little or more nuts.

A dude on RPG.net said about building a barbarian.

Toughness is always good, cus your going to get hit alot. Also I would only pick a race where I can pick Barbarian twice as my favored class (+2 HP a level!)

You get to pick your favored class in Pathfinder which gives you +1 skill or +1 HP every time you take a level in that class. The advantage of the Half-Elf (for example) lets you pick two classes as favored classes. You are allowed to pick the same class twice so you can double your bonus. So if your playing a class that needs HP or Skills its a huge advantage. As a Half-Elf Barbarian I'm gaining +2HP per level.

I have to admit, it does not say pick two different classes. So ergo, he isn't wrong by the wording.

Is there a FAQ about this?
Can you pick same class for favored class bonuses?

I wouldn't have a GM PC, or even a player controlled NPC, just because the number of PCs is below that for which the adventure is written - I would instead change the adventure. This is why I tend to write my own scenarios and campaigns as then I can tailor them to the particular PCs (both number and type).

If the PCs don't have a healer amongst them, I ramp down the foes a bit. if the PCs don't have a trap finder, I reduce the number of trap and the lethality of those that remain. If the PCs don't have someone who can pick locks, I make daman sure there are ways to get the keys, or get around another way (or that getting past the locked door isn't essential to the plot).

The term DMPC is a contradiction in terms. The correct term is NPC, specifically recurring NPC. This is of absolutely central importance. When a character run by the DM tags along with the party for a long time, it's such a character. However, DMPC implies a few things that are simply not done:

* That the DM sees his/her job as doing good for that character.
* That the character can be trusted as much as any other PC.
* That that character is as important as the other PCs.

All of these are game-breakers, at least to me. Someone pulled that on me, I'd leave. As a DM, I have had recurring NPCs, even quite long-term ones, but always firmly understood to be precisely NON-player characters. Usually, to help me establish this, they are clearly weaker/useless compared to the PCs.

How many GMs out there have made their own character to use along with the rest of the party? For instance, if the party consists of one or two actual players, and most adventures are for 4 or more, the adventure has to be scaled down or hirelings hired. Granted, players control hirelings, but who, as GM, uses a character?

Obviously this could pose problems, as the Gm has all the info and will naturally be biased in the actions of that character no matter what he does, but it certainly seems plausible.

What does everyone think?

I don't add GMPCs ever, even with only a couple of players. I'd much rather let players control build and play more than 1 character simultaneously than add in my own if I didn't want to scale down the adventure. I already get to have the fun of building and playing every NPC in the game- I'd rather let the players have the entirety of the spotlight.

Rules loopholes being exploited for gain is NOT legit in any play, organized or not.

Except... it isn't a 'rules loophole'. It is >the rules<. As they were intended. Indeed, as they have ALWAYS been. AD&D v1, 2, 3, 3.5, and Pathfinder... all of them explicitly indicate that violations of Paladin/Druid/Cleric/et cetera codes result in loss of powers even if the violation was unintentional or magically compelled.

Alot of people apparently really dislike that... but their belief that it 'is not fair' does not suddenly make the books say something different. You can CHANGE the rules for your home game, but it certainly isn't 'cheating' for others to play by the rules as written and intended.

It IS possible that this particular use of 'Beguiling Gift' was overlooked and the spell should be tweaked to account for it. However, it seems unlikely that they overlooked 'Beguiling Gift' being used for, 'here drink this poison' and other 'self-destructive' acts. That's the obvious use of the spell. Yet, 'Dominate' allows you to compel someone to violate their code (they get an extra save at bonus), but NOT to force them to do something they know is self-destructive... making 'Beguiling Gift' potentially able to compel someone to do something that 'Dominate' cannot. Thus, it is also possible that the restrictions on 'Beguiling Gift' (short duration, long casting time, close range/AoO provoking, et cetera) were deemed sufficient to balance such a powerful (though constrained) effect. I'd probably adjust the spell to have the same caveats as Dominate, but that's house rules and again... using it as written certainly isn't 'cheating'.

I'm in the "nope; not realistic, the snake would just crawl out of the armor" camp.

Careful you may smack yourself with that dire flail or cut yourself with that star knife...

I thought that part of the fun of a good fantasy RPG is the fantasy? There are many things in the game that are awesome, but would be just silly in real life (How many arrows can a professional archer get off in 6 seconds?).

Barding on a snake just gives me great visuals, plus it is no more overpowered than giving armor to any other animal companion.