Alcomus's page

55. When asked if you wanted to live forever, you answered "Sorta..."

56. The choir is short a few tenors and you just wanted to do your part.

57. Some zombies attacked your choir, but they could vocalize really well. Now you can show up that Bard College for kicking you out!

Putting this one on here for all those party's that have a prepared caster.
Wand of Channel the Gift.
I recently discovered the spell while browsing through PDF's, and was very excited at the prospect of it. While not AS useful during combat, as an out of combat it is pretty nifty. Oh, the party wizard only prepared one mount and your party needs to act as the cavalry? No problem. The cleric only has one lesser restoration prepared and you all failed the save from that poison trap? Easy day, just make sure you smack the rogue for not finding it first. The only downside is that I would imagine it would have to be made by one of the PC's, it's unlikely that there are that many wizard-priests of Nethys just willing to pass them out. Not cheaply, at least.

71. Because its Friday night, you have nowhere else to go, and a massive stockpile of pizza rolls, mountain dew, dice, and other people who keep telling you it's more fun in a group.

72. You heard that "They" are taking the hobbits to Isengard, and really want to know what the hell a hobbit is, but have yet to see one. Hopefully they are tasty.

(Anything can be rationalized.)

There is, unbeknownst to us mere mortals, a fountain of pure, liquid adamantine. Upon becoming as master of the forge, the crafter must enter the cave which houses the fountain of adamantine, overcoming the dangerous creatures, traps, and other smiths waiting in line like they are at the DMPV. (Department of Material Plane Vendors) Once their, it is a simple matter of creating a masterpiece, one per customer, and returning to their humble shop, many hundreds of miles from the fountain. Coincidentally, the trip costs them exactly 2,998 gold. It is customary to leave a 1 gold tip at the tavern which provides free ale to all smiths, courtesy of the epic level dwarves (and that one goblin with the lisp) who run it just because there is nothing else for them to do, and they have the spare coin. The other gold is for their trouble. Consider them that make the adamantine weapons more charitable than any cleric, more noble than any paladin, and more ingenious than any rogue, because while you are busy slaying monsters for fun and profit, they are doing it mostly for xp, and by being super charitable and stuff they get mad bonuses from their modified vow of poverty, and plan on showing up to the party at the end of the world decked out in full adamantine garb, with total ac's in the ballpark of 7000. (Don't ask how, you don't wanna know.)

I would call that a little bit of both player entitlement and lack of immersion, and a lot of 'player-gm miscommunication.' What I recommend is sitting down and talking with your players to find out if they are even interested in the possibility of losing. If all they want is to crash through dungeons with no worry about losing, let them do it on a trial basis. After a few sessions of them not being challenged, talk to them again. They will probably see how bored they are, and you can give them the old "I told you so." Just don't be a jerk about it. If, after a few sessions, they are loving the game being on easy or 'god mode' then just go with it. However, if YOU are not having fun with it, talk to them about it again. Honestly, talking to your players will solve almost any GM's problems. I feel for both the players and you, because nobody likes when their characters become disabled, and nobody likes when their players aren't enjoying the games or looking for 'the easy way out.'

What NOT to do: Become a draconian GM that will not allow them to re-roll and force 'status effects' on players, put them into constant situations that keep them from doing what they do best, and never give them a chance to shine.

All in all, give them some spotlight time where they get to do anything they want, and mix it up with the occasional challenge. Just don't go killing all the players. (even if you really want to, and you think they deserve it)

Well, maybe if they REALLY deserve it.

514a: To protect the world from devastation.
514b: To unite all people within our nation.
514c: To denounce the evils of truth and love.
514d: To extend our reach to the stars above.

515: There's too many snakes on this material plane.

507. An old wizard informs you he has perfected time travel, insists you go with him so you can take your mother on a creepy mother/son date before making her fall in love with your dad by getting him to stand up the the fighter, who happens to hate manure.

508. Aliens.

Ah... Well now I feel super smart.

Speaking from a military standpoint, everyone breaks eventually to torture. Everyone. The only things that you can do to prevent yourself from breaking in the long term are A) Give up. B) Suicide. C) Play nice, look for the right opportunity, and escape.

That said, IMHO lying is the best course of action for this, because it can lure the demon into a false sense of superiority, thus allowing the paladin to escape to fight another day/kill the demon/buy enough time for his party to return/at least hamper the demons plans and cause it to waste resources looking in the wrong places. Its no different than a paladin that Feints in combat, or one that specifically targets a demons weakness. Is it fighting fair if you study up on a particular type of enemy, then exploit every weakness it has from a position of strength? Nope. But, to me, paladins aren't necessarily about fighting fair, they are about winning the war between good and evil. Sun Tzu teaches "All war is deception." Even the paladin deceives in combat in a way, regardless of how you look at it. They just make it look honorable. That's my take on paladins, at least.

I am now picturing a 'Dog The Bounty Hunter' Ranger, hunting for the Church of Abadar. And his animal companion can be a hippo.

Actually had this come up in a 3.5 game I was in back in the late 90s, and the GM made the character rethink what he did by allowing him to do it once. It was a raptor, and within a week of the sale, half eaten bodies started showing up around the city, including the new 'owner.' Raptor didn't like the new owners and because of all the training it had recieved by the druid it was smart enough to know that it was more deadly than most people in the city. Sum things up, guards kill raptor, arrest druid for selling an exotic animal without a license, fine him X gold (X was twice what he received for selling the raptor) and he swore never to do it again. All pretty realistic, and valid. Good mini story arc too.