Apostle of Gygax's page

Redneckdevil wrote:

I'm stoked. I'm interested in how this plays out. Now I really am very curious to see Harley Quinn :)

I want her to be strongly based on her look in the Arkham Asylum video game

I want to see her in a costume based on Justice League: Gods and Monsters. ;)

The movie felt extremely rushed to me but that is about the only complaint. I enjoyed it, even with already knowing the major plot twist.

I have just moved to East Carbon this week and I am looking to find some players in the area to roll dice with. If you are in the area and want to give it a go drop me a line.

I think it depends on why the character is in the game. I only use DMPCs if there is a gap in the party that can't be filled some other way. For example, in my current campaign I only have two players. One is playing a summoner and the other is playing a barbarian. As a result I have been running a heal-bot cleric as a DMPC. His only purpose is to heal the party and assist with undead if needed. To me this seemed like a simpler and more realistic option than having every enemy they battle drop dozens of healing potions ala any fantasy video game out there. Before the game started I explained the character's role to the players and made it clear that he was not going to be anything other than a healer. He is not involved in planning and negotiations; just healing.

I can't speak for anyone but me but I feel this "mistake" makes the ACG even more cool.

I have to admit that, while the brawler is the class I am least looking forward to, Kess is the first of the new iconics who's story has really grabbed my attention.

sheepsquatch

It will need a cool name but yes.

What about Xian as a new class of outsider? In Chinease mythology Xian is the generic name for benevolent spirits much like angels in Judeo-Christian folklore.

I kind of want a Hecatoncheires race. Preferably playable.

There qre the Hekatonkheires Titans in Bestiary 3.

I do miss the beholder but not the mindflayer. The Denizens of Leng and Psychodaemons are good substitutes for mindflayers. Though I can't think of any good substitutes for beholders in Pathfinder.

I have always seen the Denizens of Leng as more of a substitute for the githyanki than the mind flayer.

I think that a series of all lawful dragons and a series of all chaotic dragons would be a great addition too. I would also like to see something like 4E's Catastrophic dragons, i.e. a series of dragons thematically tied to natural disasters.

Gancanagh wrote:

Araxiss wrote:

Apostle of Gygax wrote:

I don't know if anyone has mentioned Black-Eyed Kids yet or not, but if not then they really should be mentioned. They are the only monster I have seen on the show Monsters and Mysteries in America that has actually managed to make my skin crawl.

If done right they could be very interesting creatures.

Starting with giving them a better name.

The Acheri or Plague Child is also a child with pure black eyes, they are disease-spreaders so maybe they can be merged with the Black-eyed children, cuz something called Black-Eyed Child is a little bit off between all those other names like Aboleth, Chuul and Iron Golem.

The Acheri is actually from the same region as these creatures. Hmm...

The Acheri could be a good fit. Ju-on, which was also the title of a series of Japanese movies that inspired "The Grudge" in the United States, would also work.

1d100 ⇒ 17
1d100 ⇒ 19
1d100 ⇒ 4
1d100 ⇒ 39
1d100 ⇒ 52

So I got Sylph, Suli, Half-Orcs, Kobolds, and Harpys on the second time around. I'm gonna have to spend some time thinking about this. I kind of see a desert world developing.

Strix
Aasamir
Human
Vishkanya
Catfolk

Not sure what to do with this.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned Black-Eyed Kids yet or not, but if not then they really should be mentioned. They are the only monster I have seen on the show Monsters and Mysteries in America that has actually managed to make my skin crawl. And I usually watch the show at 3 in the morning.I would also like to again repeat my request for planetouched races that are part psychopomp.

My biggest problem with both this movie and the original LOTR trilogy is

Otherwise I loved the movie.

Half-breeds sounds icky as well. Half-bloods doesn't have any negative vibes unless you despise Harry Potter.

Or Percy Jackson.

Ayse Ajam
Female half elf ranger
In many regards Ayse is quite attractive. She wears her long raven hair in a single braid over her shoulder and her eyes are the same color of gray as an approaching storm on the sea. Her skin is tanned from long days working in the sun and she has a slender build. She has some muscle tone but mostly it is lean muscle. Her body type reminds most people of a greyhound or a cheetah. She dresses in simple but attractive clothes that show just the right amount of skin to attract attention but not enough to be mistaken for a courtesan or prostitute. In short, she is the very model of what Asuras men want in a bodyguard. However, her very business like demeanor and the permanent frown on her face are off putting to most men, as is the jagged scar that runs from just below her left eye and down her left cheek to her jaw line.

Nicos wrote:

Lemmy wrote:

This is something that really bothers me. IMHO, if a player manages to have a high enough CMB to surpass the Storm Giant's size bonus and huge Str modifier to its CMD, she derserves the chance to trip the Storm Giant!

Amen brother.

That would be unrealistic. What next, dragons? Oh wait...

I'm sorry, but we are asking for the suspension of disbelief, not calling for it to be expelled and then mugging it in a back alley and going through it's pocket for loose change. I mean, how are you planning on tripping this giant? With your leg? Your whole body is probably smaller then his Achilles's tendon. Maybe you plan to have the wizard cast fly on you and zoom around him with a rope Empire Strikes Back style? (No kidding, this actually happened in a game I was DMing. I let it work for the shear inventiveness of it.) Up root a tree and hit him in the back of the leg with it? (Actually I like that idea.) The point is that from a physical standpoint there are different mechanical requirements needed to pick something up and throw it into the sun and to trip it. Not to mention tripping a giant is probably not a good idea if you are in melee with it anyway, since unless you have a great move speed you will probably be right under it's derriere when it falls.

MOST of the people who post on this site, or any gaming site have the chops to be successful game designers.

Every year RPG Superstar proves this theory wrong.

Or as my dear departed grandfather used to say, "if you search through enough dung you are sure to find a diamond. But you will still be covered in dung."

Because really, I have seen people who do a better job than Paizo ever has and who never got paid for it (or have their works ignored because it's 3PP), Kirth being one of them, while you are here claiming these people are a myth.

I don't recall Ciretose ever saying that talented and gifted amateurs did not exist. What I have seen him say is that, contrary to what some posters have been representing, they are not hiding around every corner and lurking on every forum just waiting to break out from under the thumb of the man and put everything that has come before to shame.

Absolutely nothing official about it.

Yea, I was just looking for a catchy title.

Apostle of Gygax wrote:

Tirisfal wrote:

Furthermore, I don't know if I'd trust the Daily Caller to present a scientific report without some kind of slant...

I did try and link to the original report, but you have to pay for the article. That seemed like too much of a burden to put on people.

Is it available in any scholarly journals?

Yes, you can find the journal where it was originally published here. You can also find a link directly to the article in the linked article.

Furthermore, I don't know if I'd trust the Daily Caller to present a scientific report without some kind of slant...

I did try and link to the original report, but you have to pay for the article. That seemed like too much of a burden to put on people.

edit: As for the illiteracy issue, I would say that is more a factor of education then it is of intelligence. There is no question that people are more educated today then they were in the Victorian period. The question though is whether that education actually translates into higher intelligence or not. Basically it comes down to a street smart vs.book smart question.

Pinky's Brain wrote:

We all know now that 3e for a very long time had a faulty assumption of the way casters would be played, in that they would predominantly use blasting for offensive purposes ... even though they were given the tools to do significantly better than that.

I think in Pathfinder a similar assumption is now showing itself, but this time for martials. The assumption that martials will predominantly use walk and strike for offensive purposes ... even though they are given the tools to do significantly better than that.

I'm not sure I understand your complaint.

I also fail to grasp the nature of your complaint. As I see it, martials are focused on striking for offensive purposes because that is their role, to kill people and break things. Perhaps it would help me understand your point if you gave some examples of what you would like to see martials do that they cannot do right now.

There is a new report in the journal "Intelligence" that proposes that people have grown dumber since the Victorian age. They came to this conclusion by studying the time that it takes to react to stimuli, rather than by looking at IQ tests which has been the standard measure until this study. Thoughts?

goldomark wrote:

Cthulhu!? Mythic I see.

Will Kaiju also use mythic or have their own set of rules. I remember reading James saying that Kaijus need their own (long) subsystem.

It's a bit early to give away the whole farm.

Patience. You'll see. :)

Okay, but could we get the Zombie Lord template in this book?

I would ditto the Changling suggestion. As Drejk rightly points out the way they are written they are all female but that is color text and color text is easy to rewrite or ignore as needed. After all, the drow color text is that they are all evil there are all sorts of non-evil drow characters running around out there.

Many of the prior settings played around with what is or isn't a core race. Dragonlance doesn't have half-orcs, but Kender and Minotaurs (I think?) were major players. Eberron I think had most of the core, but they also had shifters, warforged, and changelings as important races.

The core races were built based on what were the major races in popular fantasy at the time (namely Tolkien and his clones). A lot of fantasy settings however are moving away from those classical races, either ditching them completely or radically rebooting them into something else. A DM might very well not want to run a setting with standard races.

Exactly, my own semi-homebrew world has eighteen core races including the standard seven. I like to have a lot of options for my players and although many are human offshoots the diversity is quite fun.

Pirates of Dark Water

Matthew Morris wrote:

One thing I liked about this movie was it didn't spend time explaining, it let you put the pieces together. Both from why Loki's trick didn't work on Tony to the...

Fully agree with that aspect of the writing, it's what hurts most modern superhero movies most (and movies in general).

Also ** spoiler omitted **

I have read on IMDB that this was the case, but I can find no other conformation of it.

Yes, either a changling or catfolk preview next week please.

@Persis,

I look at the 'adopted children might be offended' about the same as I look at Indians getting offended that they showed a slum in India. It was a funny line. It's more "We're not all like him" then a slam on adoptions.

I think this is exactly it. Particularly if IIRC someone had just made a statement to the effect of Loki being representative of all Asgardians.

I am glad the movie is doing well. I am hoping this gets us a Black Widow movie.

This. I loved the sequence where Natasha was tied up by the bad guys, seemed to be in a very bad spot, and yet was the one who had everything under control. I also loved how Coulson was just like everything was business as usual listening to her whoop up on a couple of creeps right in the middle of a phone call. A Black Widow movie that was more James Bond and less super heroics would be awesome.

Sincubus wrote:

I'm really curious for the REAL reason all RPG-games, Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder (and what not?) doesn't use mantis monsters in their games, as there are enough possibilities with them and they aren't gentle at all.

I just told you the real reason. Mantis are not a dangerous kind of insect in North america so we dont tend to think about them in terms of dangerous monsters

Also, most monsters in games like Pathfinder/D&D tend to come from mythology of some sort. Our ancient ancestors in cultures like Egypt, Greece, and central Africa believed that the mantis was a symbol of good luck. The bushmen of central Africa even viewed them as divine messengers and psychopomps. Since they are very helpful creatures, combined with the lack of danger to humans they were never imagined as evil beings and so the collective human psyche never created any mantis monsters. I did a little digging and the only mantis related monsters I could find were simple variations on the giant mantis, ala the first Bestiary and most of them were from video games.

Okay, here is a revised version.

Child of the Hunt Bloodline
Class Skill: Survival
Bonus Spells: True Strike (3rd), Locate Object (5th), Haste (7th), Locate Creature (9th), Animal Growth (11th), Transformation (13th), Ethereal Jaunt (15th), Screen (17th), Shape Change (19th)
Bonus Feats: Agile Maneuvers, Blind Fight, Deadly Aim, Diehard, Endurance, Spell Penetration, Stealthy, Toughness
Bloodline Arcana: Whenever you cast a spell that allows a saving throw to avoid the spell effect against a target that is flat footed, you receive a +1 arcana bonus to the DC of that saving throw.
Bloodline Powers
Force Arrow (Sp): At 1st level, as a standard action, you unleash a bolt of pure force energy targeting any single foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. This bolt inflicts 1d6 points of damage +1 for every two sorcerer levels that you possess. This is a force effect. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.
Track (Ex): At 3rd level you add half your level to Survival skill checks made to follow or identify tracks.
Beast Kin (Su): At 9th level you gain a +1 bonus to natural armor, a +2 bonus to Stealth skill checks, and gains an animal companion as if you were a druid of your level -4. At 13th and 17th levels the natural armor and skill check bonuses increase by +1.
Beast Rider (Su): At 15th level you gain an empathic link with the animal companion you received from the Beast Kin trait. This link has a range of 1 mile and allows you to communicate with your companion and sense everything that they sense. While you are “riding” your companion it will not go further then one mile from you. You remain helpless while you are in communication although any damage will break the link.
Master of the Hunt (Su): At 20th level, you become the personification of the hunt. You gain DR 10/magic, you can see perfectly in all forms of darkness, continuous Freedom of Movement, and any target that you confirm a critical hit against is considered flat-footed against you for the next round.

The Beast Kin improvements only improve the NA and the Stealth skill. However, the Boon Companion feat will help you with the effective Druid level As for just having one class skill, I am not entirely sure that it works for what I was aiming for here. Both Stealth and Survival are important to hunters. On the other hand, you are exactly right that it gives twice as much as any other bloodline, so the list should be trimmed down.

I am thinking that A-Senee-Ki-Wakw would make good additions to the ranks of the titans. These Native American giants were said to be so large that they injured the earth with their weight. A colossal giant like this would truly make an epic opponent.

feytharn wrote:

And the movie was great, easily the best of the avengers franchise yet.

** spoiler omitted **

Is THAT what he said? :D

The audience was laughing so hard I only caught the last word.

At my showing, the audience was laughing so hard we missed the whole line.

My biggest complaints are I hate the faux documentary style that seems to be the fad these day with camera going blurry and then back into focus as they pan across because they were filming something else when the action started and that there was no mention of Wendall Vaughn (Quasar) during the whole time at Project PEGASUS.

I didn't say I didn't like them. I just don't like how they are being diluted. Frankly the menace is being removed.

One thing as a counterpoint to this statement. This book is as much a resource to GMs as it is to players. I don't allow goblin PCs in my campaign but my first response was that I could not wait to use this in my campaign. Thus was born Kramas, a goblin fire bomber who is going to debut in my campaign as a minion of the BBEG of this campaign arc. If you don't want people in your game to use them as player options, that's great. But also take a moment and think about all the fun a GM can have with these buggers.

bump

Call me odd (and I expect people will) but I think the goblin love has gone a bit over the top. Yeah they are fun but a whole section of the book that could have been given to options for a core race? No thanks.

There is already a pretty large chunk of this book dedicated to the core races. I believe it is something like 15 pages or so per race. Between that and the Races of Golarion books that should provide plenty of material. IIRC goblins will only get six pages in this book.

Gorbacz wrote:

Coeurls are copyrighted, too. :)

Are they? I just assumed they were public domain by now.

The book "The Voyage of the Space Beagle" would have fallen into public domain in 1978, but the copyright was renewed so now the earliest that it will become public domain is 2073.

Sweet, I am slipping one of these into my campaign on Thursday.

Tick, tock; tick, tock. That is the clock counting down until 3:50 PM Pacific Daylight Time on Friday afternoon when I will be able to see this movie.

Well, in X-Sanction it was stated that the even-worse future where Cable spent some time was caused by the Avengers successfully locking up Hope before the Phoenix showed up, so that has to be taken into account. So Captain America showing up and demanding that the girl get turned over wasn't going to go over very well.....

Of course, if the Marvel Universe in general and the X-Men in particular should have learned anything it is that if you try and change on bad future you usually end up with one that tends to be even worse. And don't forget that Bishop said that Hope will cause a really bad future as well, so it's really a Catch 22 for the X-Men.