Artimedorus's page

Just to be clear the lamp oil thing was only a bold way of getting the boss to talk after he laughed in my character's face and wouldn't crack. A candle was tossed at him as the final "last ditch" effort to break him and the flames were quickly put out. From personal experience (flaming shot gone awry) this would only have resulting in superficial 2nd degree burns which would heal just fine leaving no permanent scars.

The 3 thugs that were killed were unconscious at the time so the idea was to end their lives without additional pain and suffering. My PC also made the choice to cut the ropes off the boss after he went unconscious (was at 0 hp) from the fire damage and give him back the most likely magic dagger the group had taken from him. This same dagger was used by the boss to drop my PC from 10 hp (max) to 0 hp with one critical hit. Poetic I thought.

I tried to play a bit of regret from perhaps going too far with the interrogations and the idea of hopefully tracking this guy to the bigger fish. Interesting that no one other than my GM (the OP) made any comments about my Taken reference. Ask 100 movie goers their thoughts on his actions. Leave a guy tied to a chair and turn on the power? I bet no one polled would say that was evil because it was justified by the bad guy's actions. And therein lies the rub...

It sounds like the CN rogue in your example felt that the 3 thugs he bled out had already made their choice in terms of doing good or evil when they attacked the party. They used poison, worked for an employer involved in illegal activities and likely would be killed if they failed in their hired tasks.

He reasonably waited for the rest of the group namely the LG member to exit knowing that they would likely insist on somehow hauling these 4 thugs back to the authorities even though a number of factors probably made this an extremely dangerous and futile task.

Interrogating and torturing the head thug who likely would have ordered his henchmen to kill the party (or kidnap them) in order to protect the racket was merely a means to an end. I'm sure the player thought the same would be done to them so the thugs could find out "who they worked for". Think of what Liam Neeson's character did in Taken. Were those acts CE?

You mentioned the CN rogue lit the head thug on fire only to then put him out and let him live after the interrogation. Interesting choice if he is deemed to be shifting towards CE.

In the end perhaps the CN rogue was merely doing what he felt no one else had the stomach to do or he wanted to save some of the members from having to struggle with some very tough moral choices. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what he had in mind.... considering I'm the player of the CN rogue ;-)

The PCs in my campaign are currently in a Victorian Era of my world, having traveled there via a Temporal Gem. I introduced them to the fun of firearms by having them attacked by bandits wielding revolvers. After doing some research and reviewing Masque of the Red Death v3.5 I would like to add a derringer style gun as well as a more powerful .45 caliber gun.
The standard revolver I think works well as a .38 caliber (navy pistol) weapon. I was thinking of stating out the other two guns as follows:

Derringer, 1d6, x4, 1 rd, 10 ft. (+2 on sleight of hand to conceal)
Army Pistol, 1d10, x4, 6 rds, 20 ft.

I'd also like to add dynamite sticks to the game but am still thinking about how to convert them from MofRD. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Again I think the hover thing is only a poor choice of wording to explain not really touching the liquid that is firm ground. Also, I'm pretty sure "hovering" does require a solid surface to act against, say like a hovercraft. Hover is the not same as fly or levitate. Also check out the feat Hover. It only works at a certain distance to the ground.

Back to the question, do you put weight on the "solid" liquid or ice with this spell? My opinion is yes and eventhough it probably only matters when dealing with thin ice over an open space it will come up again in my game, perhaps with some other liquid as well than could trigger something.

I can imagine columns of water/acid that you stand on and have to move/push down with a certain amount of weight you carry. That could be really cool to "solve". You'd need to keep the spell going/not be dispelled as you figure out which columns to step on and what weight to use.

To add, the players were rewarded with being able to cross a deep and very cold lake as well as being able to move throughout a 100 ft high ice spire with easy. The ice spiked pit traps were just nice little curve balls thrown at them, which using a wand of fireballs they beautifully "disarmed". Well, save the monk who found one pit the hard way.

Just to be clear, what's in question here is whether you exert a downward force or not with this spell. Since the spell mentions walking, firm ground, normal ground, and standing I feel the answer is yes. What defines solid ground is a substance that can support your weight. As Caliburn mentioned you are walking on the liquid which means it has to at least be supporting your weight and when you run even more.

Hopefully we can stay on target here and discuss the spell's intention and not drift into the world of "winning against the PCs" etc.

I'm the GM mentioned above and for the record I brought up fly checks only when comparing movement methods. I also didn't immediately claim broken on the spell. After reading the spell description carefully a couple things really stood out.
The spell mentions firm ground, normal ground and standing on the liquid which to me means the "solid" liquid is able to support your weight. It does not say you are levitating on the liquid and I feel only mentions "hover an inch or two above the liquid" as a way to explain why you are not injured by standing on lava, acid, etc.
You do not suffer direct contact damage.
If you did still suffer damage from lava, acid, etc. the spell would be very limited in use.
Yes you can already walk on ice but doing so is much more difficult than normal ground and with water walk you can run, charge, etc. just like normal/firm ground.
Flying allows you to glide over the liquid but requires checks if not moving at least half speed, or making certain turns, etc. and you cannot run while flying.
Finally, the part about being borne to the surface is a way the designers avoided creatures getting stuck in a "solid" liquid as some type of nasty trick.
The thing I'm pondering the most is whether the moving liquid acts as a conveyor belt or not.
Oh, and to StabDoom, the ice wouldn't break through in your example because the water below it supports the weight of the person, like ice over firm ground.