Ashiel's page

Who is the darth vader in your analogy?

It is...

This post was removed because.

Well that went about as well as I expected.

I sent a letter to someone who may be able to help. He is my only hope, like some sort of transgendered nerd princess Leia. :|

You should check it out. Amazing stuff.

Finding time for reading is a daunting prospect but I'll see about ordering them.1

Have you ever read George Orwell?

Not personally but I'm aware of his works. :)

I believe that if people take issue with moderation practices we are supposed to use the website feedback?

Bonus points if you can get someone to explain what invisible rule was broken. I think it's the "transgendered people who don't have a certain opinion aren't allowed to have one at all" but that just might be my anger clouding my judgment.

Also, I know for a fact that several of my posts were not eaten because they were quoting things. They explicitly didn't have quotes at all.

Essentially, tempers flared way higher than they should on our forums, and the responses to those heated posts were removed.

Also, this is not true. Klara Meison's 100% lukewarm post was removed. These were not responses to heated posts.

Since almost 100% of the posts on page 69 and many from page 70 were removed because "heated conversation" (read: tantrums), I will be re-writing everything that I had to contribute to that conversation between now and tomorrow and re-posting.

In the meantime, I will be cooling down. I told Aratrok I won't cry about this. It's just a thing. It can be rebuilt. I just need a short time to collect my thoughts.

I would like to have back all the posts about Wrath of the Righteous, Transgendered characters in a fantasy setting, demographics, treating transgendered characters as people rather than things, etc. In short, Klara's longest post and my posts on the matter.

I wonder what is the "fair" villain-to-hero ratio. 1 to 4? 1 to 2? Probably closer to 1 to 8 if villain is a goblin with a clan and heroes have to pass through it's lair.

Someone could make a game of it like that. Create encounters and let other players play things in those encounters (such as controlling a hobgoblin sorcerer and her posse of 10 goblin lackies), which would mean each of the "villain" side of the screen would be like a bunch of mini-GMs.

I think there are a few PC games like that (kind of like Left 4 Dead where a set of players join the horde of zombies and mess with players, etc). It could be really amusing I bet.

Ashiel wrote:

Lemmy Z wrote:

So, Ash... When are you starting an online Skype/Roll20 campaign and inviting me to play? It's been around two or three years since you promised! XD

Probably as soon as I get d20 legends into a place where I feel an alpha playtest would be viable. ^.^"

That said it would probably use Discord/MapTools instead of Skype/Roll20. :P

I keep saying it. Three mile waiting list. Celebrity Ashiel, haunted forever. Have to hire an internet bouncer :p.

It feels really weird actually, but mostly in a good way I'd say. It feels very complimentary and it's something I appreciate and am quite grateful for, and feel very honored to have people expect so much. It's a great ego boost, and it's a driving force behind my insistence to try to maintain a certain level of quality and effort put into things that I do (because not disappointing those who are supportive is a really big deal to me).

It can, of course, be a bit scary too. The concern that I might disappoint someone, or have a dull day as a GM (maybe a session just falls a bit flat or has a lull that isn't very exciting, etc), does float a bit over my head. It's one of the reasons I try to avoid letting the attention go to my head, 'cause as my head grows so too does that looming cloud of uncertainty, y'know?

Overall though, I like it, because I feel and hope that I'm providing something for others. That something might vary from person to person. Perhaps it is entertainment, perhaps a bit of shared experience, perhaps it's an insight, or it's a product (such as my revised marilith & balor, or the revised simulacrum, or a guidebook) that someone finds useful or enjoys having, or maybe even just the eyes and ears of a conversationalist who won't judge you for asking questions or talking about things - frankly - that are touchy subjects in the rather disgraceful social jungle we find ourselves in these days.

Also, much <3 for my cultists. I literally cannot seem to avoid smiling and laughing whenever I see those aliases pop up. God as my witness, I will get some t-shirts made as soon as I can come up with some sort of fun logo to put on them. XD

On the topic of the Elixir...

Richard Magarey before elixir.
Richard Magarey after elixir.
And again...
This time, with music!

This is, essentially, what the elixir would do. Richard Magarey, better known for his crossdressing pro-wrestling persona of Lady Beard, is obviously recognizeable whether in "normal" clothing or in female clothing, just as he would be if he drank the elixir.

LMAO! Yeah, this is kinda what I was sayin' with the barbarian pictures. :P

So, Ash... When are you starting an online Skype/Roll20 campaign and inviting me to play? It's been around two or three years since you promised! XD

Probably as soon as I get d20 legends into a place where I feel an alpha playtest would be viable. ^.^"

That said it would probably use Discord/MapTools instead of Skype/Roll20. :P

G!# d@+nit... I had this nice post with examples of the Elixir in a, somewhat, real life sense. Also went into the "multiple deities of the same type" subject. But it got deleted because, f+%# you touch screen and my fat fingers!

I'll type it up again later, but, for now, I have yardwork to do in preparation for winter.

Yeah you live in Alaska don't you? O.o

Winter is coming... o_o

If I take their head off then dispel them, does it reattach?

Well the spell says:

Damage taken by the new form can result in the injury or death of the polymorphed creature. In general, damage occurs when the new form is changed through physical force.

So I would assume if you turned someone into a rock and smashed it with a hammer, dispelling it wouldn't be pretty. In the same way if you sliced the head off someone and dispelled it, likely bad for their health.

That's what I get out of it anyway.

Ashiel wrote:

Hm, you could use polymorph any object to transform a person into a corpse temporarily, cast sculpt corpse, and profit?

Wouldn't that be permanent?

Well you could dispel it. :o

Not sure the spell let's you temporarily kill someone and then de kill them. I mean, it's then the best death effect spell if so.

Well you can turn them into inanimate dead things like rocks so it seems legit. :o

Hm, you could use polymorph any object to transform a person into a corpse temporarily, cast sculpt corpse, and profit?

Fair few options I figure. The usual answers that make anyone good at disguise still work. Disguise self, alter self and so forth. Polymorph any object would be a superior but way harder to achieve option to begin with. Those less moral could also use magic jar.

But specifically in dealing with the elixir... Disguise would be as good as ever probably, but one could use surgery too. Possibly fleshwarping or demonic implants too :p. Equip succubi bits, maximize femininity!

That's an interesting idea actually. Combining some hard medicine with magic to solve the issue, perhaps?

...Damn it I'm thinking of too many ways for a villain to do this stuff. Darn brain! Mm. Another method could be hypnosis perhaps. Or a modified version of that one psionic ability that makes everyone think you're beneath notice. Claim to be a tiefling, they're all mutants anyways.

Hahaha. XD

Isn't there some sort of body sculpting spell somewhere?

I sorta have a different take on this stuff. To me it seems a little weird, depending where you are, that it is considered unusual.

One thing that the game has a lot of is shape shifters of various types and tokens. Tons of them. Never mind the illusionists and people with various items and so forth. The psychology of entities without a strong tie to a specific form is quite fascinating because of how hard it is for us to conceive of it.

This is something that I tried to touch on with changelings/doppelgangers in Alvena. To many of them the concept of a sexual identity can end up being pretty superfluous, though some can even lose track of their identity at all.

Now obviously regions that don't have a strong magical presence probably would find it weird, but areas that do often have to share space with creatures from beyond mortality in every form that may take, as well as people who generally defy gravity and so forth. Probably becomes about as remarkable as every other crazy wizard who does things for reasons. Might not be conducive to true understanding, but it'd be less remarkable, particularly since compared to the guy who animates hedge animals it's on the grand scheme way less flashy.

This is a great point and super useful for thinking about these things from a world building perspective. How weird is weird, so to speak. This is something that is worth considering when it comes to deciding how magic relates to the world too.

Also, would it have any influence over how people perceived the character? Might they think it a magical oddity perhaps? Maybe a reincarnate got awry? Would they try to dispel or remove curse their malady only to be left a bit stumped? :o

But I definitely get the issue of Anevia and Irabeth. Anevia's origins just never came up for the pcs when I ran it. I didn't see a reason why she'd bring it up, and they never asked. Far as they cared, she's just a tomboyish girl who sleeps with the half orc lady who takes care of their city when they aren't there. They spent way more time wanting to get to know the CE Barbarian who surrendered to them in book 2 who I have absolutely no background information on and thus had to invent things for.

Honestly, they never seemed interested in any of the listed npcs and gravitated to any I had to invent. Well cept the demon lord anyways. Who always seems to end up more popular than Iomedae from the threads I read. Funny how that works out. You've no idea how many faithful of the succubus queen I've seen since I ran that now.

There's something kind of adorable about the PCs picking up the NPCs like lost puppies isn't there? :P

The number of "throwaway" NPCs that end up becoming popular with the players is pretty staggering. Victoria was a throwaway NPC actually. As was "Jum Jum". The Paladin's future squire, Miranda, was also a throwaway NPC. In fact, most of the people the party ended up very close to were just extras. XD

>grants no benefit on Disguise skill checks or similar checks.

It also grants no benefit on Disguise skill checks to be recognised as a different(i.e. former) sex. I should think it implies some degree of visual changes, at least enough to visibly change sex.

Well, I mean if you had some dude (or some girl) and they're runnin' from somebody, broke line of sight and chucked the elixir, the person would still recognize them as the same person unless they made a disguise check along with it.

Which, incidentally, you can already do per the Disguise skill. And the elixir explicitly notes that drinking it grants no benefits when applied to a disguise. Literally changing sex wouldn't even throw the person who was just chasing you as a guy/girl a moment ago. Because you are recognizable as the same person and it gives no benefits when being disguised (not even a little circumstance bonus). :|

Joking aside though, it creates a wellspring of questions. If playing a transgendered character (or a character who has underwent some sort of magical sex re-alignment), what sort of things are going to come up?

Victoria made use of the Disguise skill, which makes it surprisingly easy to pass for the opposite sex with a little practice. The -2 for disguising yourself as a different sex is largely offset with a rank or two and overshadowed if it's a class skill, and that's before any other modifiers such as from Charisma. Largely bolstered in effectiveness since most people don't get a check to see through the disguise unless they're actively interacting or intentionally observing you.

Are there any alternatives or supplements to using the elixir to complete the transformation? Perhaps the difference is made up solely through skills, clothing changes, and confidence? What sort of hurdles might we have left to climb over after downing the magical drought of shifting?

Put another way.
This is Ranma as a guy.
This is Ranma as a girl.
This is Ranma as a girl (using the elixir of sex shifting).

:P

Well, it says...

Upon drinking this elixir, a character permanently transforms their biology to take on a different set of sexual characteristics of their choice. While the imbiber's physiology changes dramatically and their features adjust slightly to take on the new qualities, the imbiber is still recognizable as the same person. The character has only minor control over the specific details of this new appearance, and the elixir grants no benefit on Disguise skill checks or similar checks.

Let's look at this how it actually functions. You are still recognizable as the same person, and the changes aren't drastic enough to provide any benefit on Disguise checks. Let's think about that for a moment.

Again, the elixir doesn't change your features enough for this guy to not be recognizable as the same person. It's not even "looks similar", it's recognizable and grants no benefits as a disguise. Imagine for a moment that changing into the completely different sex doesn't even make it harder to notice you're the same person.

It's not a matter of "You really look like this guy I know" it's literally "Hey you are that guy I know...except now you have a uterus?". :P

kyrt-ryder wrote:

Pathfinder lies and claims all PC classes are created equal.

I've never seen this alluded to even coyly. Where did you get it?

Because Pathfinder explicitly tells you that all classes are worth the same in terms of XP points, require the same amount of XP to advance, and that a level 10 Fighter is equivalent to a level 10 Wizard when building an encounter.

Its heavily alluded to.

From a world building perspective, it's interesting to ponder what sort of ways this sort of thing might be addressed by different faiths, areas, and social classes. In an area where mages were very commonplace (such as an arcane academy) you might find that young mages tend to re-orient their perspectives on the world and such when they start learning spells that can allow them to walk in other peoples' shoes for a while (stuff like disguise self or alter self can easily allow them to spend some time as the opposite sex or at least perceived as such, which can give them new perspectives on things).

In our reality, there were religions that required men to castrate themselves before becoming priests. What if there was a religious group that only took priests or priestesses and those entering the clergy were expected to become physically male or female? How would they respond to a character who thought this was unnatural, or a character who insisted on doing priestly roles or duties without changing? What if in a fantasy culture (even a small subculture) conforming to your natural gender identity was seen as an act of nonconformity because that was pretty odd indeed to a group of creatures or a race (such as changelings) that frequently change genders?

There's a lot of interesting possibilities that could be explored. Imagine, if you will, a goddess like lamashtu taking favor with their priests who change their genders to give birth to monsters. Would it seem all the more bizarrely lamashtan when you find out that a particularly devoted male has altered his body to get knocked up by strange beasts to give birth to abominable monsters? Squicky, yeah? O.o

As I noted before all the tempers flared, the unique realities in a fantasy world for transgendered characters are worth experiencing. For example, the elixir of sex shifting is super imperfect as a solution (see below for what I mean) but it overcomes a hurdle that the best advances on modern medicine has yet to overcome - it gives you working plumbing (which means being able to reproduce).

Meanwhile we have a lot of interesting magical solutions to adapting to this strange condition. Spells like disguise self and alter self can allow people to fake it or live temporarily in a body that feels more appropriate for them (and magic items like a hat of disguise or custom shapeshifting ring or something can make it more practical to keep up for long periods of time).

There's interesting interactions that could be explored about the nature of sex and gender and how magic can turn reality on its head. For example, if a couple of lifelong friends ended up stumbling upon a girdle of masculinity/femininity and one ended up donning it, only for them to eventually end up in a romantic relationship that wouldn't have happened otherwise. Finding out that a character's mother Jacklyne used to be Jackson might explain why the character's mother seems to know so much about the life of a young boy but little about the life of a young girl (because she's only been a woman for the past few decades).

It invites exploration for how different cultures might look at things differently. If the majority of the world mirrors reality, then we can begin to explore new concepts and press our experiences into new directions through imagination. It gives us a chance to really push down on the "what if" button. Exploring different ideas and things leading up to different kinds of "normal" for those fantastic places. And we can learn from those experiences and explorations. Roleplaying and story telling is cool like that.

About the Elixir
The elixir of sex shifting is a wildly imperfect tool for achieving a male or female version of yourself beyond simply changing your most fundamental biology. The elixir explicitly notes that you are instantly recognizable as the person that you were before, to the point it cannot even be used to improve a disguise that you are someone else (let that sink in for a bit).

That means that if this guy drinks the elixir, anyone who's ever seen him will instantly recognize him as the same person (what with the narrow hips and burly beard and stuff). That is miles from a particularly feminine woman.

In a similar fashion this lady drinking it isn't going to make a particularly masculine looking man (what with the wide hips and large breasts and stuff). Because again, it explicitly cannot even slightly make you look like anything other than instantly recognizable as the same person.

Meanwhile in reality, while our advanced medical knowledge cannot perfectly fix the plumbing we can do a mighty fine job of fixing the aesthetic aspects that make us feel like the appropriate sex (which is heavily connected to self image). So the elixir has different pros & cons.

From another thread:

Ashiel wrote:

Klara Meison wrote:

Wrath of the Righteous:"Huh? Wait, what? Where am I? What am I doing here? Who are you? How did I get here?" "WRONG ANSWER!!!" CHOOO CHOOO CHOO CHOOO

I still intend to run this at some point. I just need to Frankenstien it before I'll do it.

It's Mythic. Don't you hate Mythic?

Yes. Which is why I need to gut and restuff a lot of it. It's not just the mechanics that I want to revise, a lot of it are the NPCs in places. Sarenrae the tyrant would need some changing, the token transsexual-lesbian couple in the beginning of the game would need to be heavily revised before I would include them in a game, etc.

Wrath of the Righteous:"Huh? Wait, what? Where am I? What am I doing here? Who are you? How did I get here?" "WRONG ANSWER!!!" CHOOO CHOOO CHOO CHOOO

I still intend to run this at some point. I just need to Frankenstien it before I'll do it.

Ashiel wrote:

That's a fair point. Feather tokens are conjuration-based magic items so it would be fair to just not have them do anything when inside a creature, so I might need to revise my view on it (btw, this is how I talk with my players too, so if I make a bad call we can discuss it and fix it later).

I'm pretty sure this question would come up with an instant fortress as well (it literally causes damage from its expansion and requires a save to avoid suffering commoner-dusting levels of damage just from getting hit by its expansion).

>it would be fair to just not have them do anything when inside a creature

On the other hand, I like the idea of expanding trees being used as a counter to being swallowed. Or, at least, expanding something. You would probably make a permanent version to be something less clumsy, like a small box with a couple buttons for different size settings that unfolds into a Czech hedgehog-looking thingy made of steel or adamantium.

My willingness to let PCs explode creatures with swallow whole probably stems from enjoying the idea of severely punishing the creature for swallowing you like that. Likewise, I generally find that when a creature swallows a player whole, it's usually a death sentence for the creature anyway since it's near impossible to defend itself with the character inside them (nothing says you have to leave its body after dealing enough damage to free yourself, you can just continue to rip the creature to shreds from inside, and the amount of damage from being inside of it is often more manageable than actually getting hit by the thing outside).

After seeing enough tree token shenanigans, my group decided to rule that in case the tree hits a barrier before it finishes growing, it stops growing...

This way you can still block corridors and whatnot, but can no longer burst open creatures and vehicles.

Probably a good idea. :P

That's a fair point. Feather tokens are conjuration-based magic items so it would be fair to just not have them do anything when inside a creature, so I might need to revise my view on it (btw, this is how I talk with my players too, so if I make a bad call we can discuss it and fix it later).

I'm pretty sure this question would come up with an instant fortress as well (it literally causes damage from its expansion and requires a save to avoid suffering commoner-dusting levels of damage just from getting hit by its expansion).

Reign of Winter: Embark on a whimsically senseless journey that you didn't want, to free a powerful ancient evil you don't like, for reasons that don't make any sense, to have them defeat the evil that would have been more satisfying to defeat any other way.

Experience classically horrible adventuring hooks such as geas/quest, and explore a long campaign full of exotic peoples and places that you will never interact with long enough to develop any interest in. Do things like heroically pick sides in major conflicts on a world you've been on for five minutes and help that side kill off the other side with no real knowledge of the world whose future you're changing forever, simply to get an item for a riddle that takes you to the next place you won't care about to meet people you won't get to know.

It's recommended that players give witch hating witch hunters a try in this campaign, because it's also recommended that your friends play witches, and the campaign involves rescuing the b#@~*iest witch of them all.

Prepare yourself for Reign of Winter. It was cold in the office that day. We wanted to be anywhere but there. Now you will be.

Hell's Rebels: A concerned member of Thrune's government takes over a city, subjects it to martial law, and undergoes a ritual to tie him permanently to the land to root out the most insidious horror that threatens Cheliax: mint.

Damnit, you beat me to it. XD

If someone dropped a tree token under a creature, what would happen and how damaged would that creature end up?

Under a creature, I'd probably rule that it forces creatures occupying the space into another adjacent space as it pushes them away as it expands and grows.

Tels brings up a rather brilliant and probably horrific use of the token and quite frankly I'd need to think about the effects of that. At the very least I would need to rule that the creature vomits the contents of its stomach up violently (automatically freeing anyone inside) but rationally I think I'd need to have it deal some obscene amounts of damage to the creature since the tree would be expanding and so large in such a short time that the creature should very well rupture violently, and very likely just outright die unless it has some sort of regeneration.

Does some thinking...
Thinking about it carefully, I would probably rule based on how large the creature was relative to the token. If the tree wouldn't fit (the creature was less than colossal size) then I'd probably have it rupture them, immediately inflicting enough damage to burst out of their bodies, and inflict 1d6 Constitution damage and subsequent bleed per size category too large. So if it was a gargantuan creature that swallowed you, in addition to automatically freeing you it would suffer 1d6 Con damage immediately (in addition to the amount of damage for slicing open its stomach) and take 1d6 Con damage each round after. But if the creature was Large size (3 size categories too large) they'd suffer 3d6 Con damage immediately and 3d6 on subsequent rounds.

Essentially representing how you just ruptured their torso in a truly violent and horrific manner by planting a 60 ft. oak tree in their digestive track.

i feel there is a story im missing here

Tree tokens are just kind of infamous for being a magic item that sounds semi-useless at first glance but you can end up doing sooooo much with them. Plant a tree anywhere to climb, get cover, use for tree stride, block a door, fill a hallway, support a structure, use for firewood, use for fabricate, make a distraction, make something to tie a rope to, start a forest somewhere, use as portable trees for that druid spell that creates treants, etc, etc, etc.

The list of possibilities is pretty exhausting actually. Any situation where you can say "Man, would a bigass oak tree be nice right here?" is probably good for a tree token, and if you have tree tokens, you'd be surprised how frequently the answer to that question becomes "Yes".

Most of the feather tokens are pretty good. Heck, in a pinch, the anchor token has a lot of potential too. At the very least you can pretend you can pretend to be a loony toon and drop anchors on people. :P

Man, those tree tokens. XD

see i'm personally interested in the automatic bonus progression optional rule. never met anyone that has tried it just think it would be cool to have magic items that do thing instead of just boost combat stats.

I like dropping items into my games that have x/day effects. Quite frequently actually. It's easy as a GM to drop these sorts of items into the game (or add these sorts of effects to the big six) because x/day effects tend to be relatively cheap compared to alternatives.

It means a lot of the magic items you'll find in my games have spiffy little effects you can play around with a few times per day. They're more fun on NPCs as well since their relatively low cost makes them affordable on NPC wealth.

> Not currently.

Have you been using any previously? How did it go?

Nope, but I've played in a few games briefly that had some of the optional mechanics like Stamina and stuff. From what I've seen from my friends' (I haven't bought Unchained) I haven't had a want to buy the book. I'm not going to rule out that there's nothing in the book I'm interested in, merely that at the moment I haven't seen anything that jumps out to me.

Do you use any optional systems introduced in Unchained? For example, Background Skills?

Nope. Not currently. I see the appeal of the background skill system and Aratrok and I have discussed some ideas for mechanics that are similar at least on a sort of fundamental level (such as the possibility of splitting skills into major and minor skills relative to their impact and function in the game) for D20 Legends but nothing has been ironed out yet.

I haven't been GMing much recently due to juggling shifting work schedules, socializing with friends and family, and trying to be productive, so I haven't really been doing much with any optional systems outside the usual house rules my group(s) usually run with.

I intend for my next game that I run to be some variation of d20 legends though, so it might not even come up then. :P

The skill system for d20 legends is still in a state of extreme...uhhh...flux. Mostly because there are a lot of ways to handle things and we're still debating internally on some things (which reminds me that I need to have a talk with Aratrok about that stuff 'cause he pitched some thoughts over Discord and I haven't got a chance to really discuss them with him yet).

But I need a nap before that happens (I worked night shift, need to crash) so I'm going to go do that now. XD

It would make for a sensible errata, honestly. I don't see why a spell that creates a spear that stabs an enemy would have different effects from a fighter stabbing an enemy with a spear. It's still ultimately a sharp stabby thing that affects the enemy, right?

It could be, yeah. I'm not saying it's a terrible house rule. I'm just saying that it isn't how the game actually works. They really need to learn what a FAQ actually is.

Not very helpful when the FAQ isn't even accurate. >:|

Also, obscenely unhelpful when you have to browse through an FAQ that's not even linked to from the PRD, to find descriptions (not rules, descriptions of rules) that either do not exist or are directly contrary to what the manual actually says. Which means if you read your rulebook or the PRD or whatever, you will find something wildly different from the FAQ.

Even worse is the way they have flip-flopped in the past.

Vastly inferior to WotC's method of handling errata and FAQs.

I really cannot say anything positive about Paizo's FAQ system because there is nothing positive about it.

Given the coversation we had a few pages back, I though I would repost this.

Look what JJ posted in his ask me anything thread:

James Jacobs wrote:

...

Apart from the elf thing, yeah, a few come to mind. I'm not gonna repeat some of them here because I'd rather have them fade away, since they were terrilbe ideas to begin with.

But one that IS still in the game is the whole "Cult of the Dawnflower" element of Sarenrae's worship, which is at the root somewhat nonsensical. Sarenrae is the greatest agent of good in the core 20 deities and a goddess of healing and redemption, but some early authors misunderstood this and set up her faithful, in the form of Qadirans, as super aggressive warmongers. So that's why we have this schism going on in the church now, with the warmonger side being "wrong" and the traditional church being frustrated by them; they want to redeem the Cult but the cult is stubborn.

It does make for an interesting element of the church, but for a lot of people the subtleties are completely lost and folks (including many freelancers we use who have to constantly be corrected) keep mistakenly assuming Sarenrae is a war goddess.

The problem I see here is that until they retcon it, that's the boat they're sitting in. Actions speak louder than words so while she may say she's not a goddess of war, until she stops providing spells to her warmongering followers, well...if the shoe fits.

Why wouldn't you follow that FAQ?

Because DR explicitly only works against normal attacks and spells explicitly ignore it.

Damage Reduction

Some magic creatures have the supernatural ability to instantly heal damage from weapons or ignore blows altogether as though they were invulnerable.

The numerical part of a creature's damage reduction (or DR) is the amount of damage the creature ignores from normal attacks. Usually, a certain type of weapon can overcome this reduction (see Overcoming DR). This information is separated from the damage reduction number by a slash. For example, DR 5/magic means that a creature takes 5 less points of damage from all weapons that are not magic. If a dash follows the slash, then the damage reduction is effective against any attack that does not ignore damage reduction.

Whenever damage reduction completely negates the damage from an attack, it also negates most special effects that accompany the attack, such as injury poison, a monk's stunning, and injury-based disease. Damage reduction does not negate touch attacks, energy damage dealt along with an attack, or energy drains. Nor does it affect poisons or diseases delivered by inhalation, ingestion, or contact.

Attacks that deal no damage because of the target's damage reduction do not disrupt spells.

Spells, spell-like abilities, and energy attacks (even nonmagical fire) ignore damage reduction.

So the FAQ is outright lying.

The damage type of a spell still affects or could affect other things. For example, if you damage certain ooze monsters with a spell that deals slashing damage the ooze can split because it activates their "slashing damage" stuff.

Ashiel wrote:

Something to point out is that negative energy is inherently less destructive to creatures powered by it.

Yup, and, weirdly, creatures nurtured or empowered by negative energy are less innately destructive than creatures healed by positive energy, since most living creatures have to kill and devour other living creatures (plants, animals, etc.) every single day, and still rot and fall apart from age, as if the mortal world is constantly eroding them away. Undead, on the other hand, can exist without killing anything forever, unchanging, as if the mortal world *didn't* consider them as unnatural as living creatures, whom it ages and destroys.

The fact that so many undead, like vampires, ghouls, wraiths, shadows, etc. *choose* to kill and destroy life, even though they don't actually need to (unlike humans, animals, etc. who will literally die if they don't devour other living creatures), is, IMO, what makes them evil. Not something they can't control. Something they *choose.*

Perhaps amusingly still, according to Blood of Night, an undead creature that has some sort of hunger (such as ghouls and vampires) remains satisfied after feeding for 1 day per HD, which means that generic vampires only need to feed once every four days (vampire spawn in Pathfinder have 4HD, real vampires have 5+). The amount of blood that a vampire needs to live comfortably is actually really small. They deal 1d4 Con damage for a feeding, which means a single vampire can survive by feeding on a single person or animal indefinitely.

You recover a minimum of 1 Con/day, or 2/day if you're resting well or have someone with the Heal skill on hand. Even if you're not resting and have no aid, you'll still have recovered 100% of the maximum possible Con damage that the vampire would have inflicted on you by the time the vampire needs to feed again.

The actual number of vampires is pretty hard to gauge as a result since a rather large number of vampires could be existing within a given community and nobody would be any the wiser for it, unless the vampires started getting gluttonous.

Ghouls and such are even funnier. They explicitly prefer to do their own thing and don't like freshly slain meat. A ghoul doesn't care much about what kind of meat it's eating as long as it's bad. They're happy consuming week old corpses and spoiled meat and if they do kill someone they don't want to eat them right away. They're a really passive undead from a purely ecological perspective. They would also be extremely handy to have during a plague outbreak since they could just eat all the plague corpses and go back to their business of not bothering anyone.

Do you like cake? If you do, what kind?

I like some cakes. I prefer cakes the have fruit in them (such as apple, pineapple, bananna, lemon, etc), but I also like chocolate cake as well.

I don't usually eat a lot of sugary sweet stuff (I just lack desire, it's not a conscious health choice or anything) so I don't usually eat much, though if I had fruity cakes more often, I'd probably eat those more often.

EDIT: >Enter Dazing Spell.

Well that's one way to do it. What is your opinion on that feat from a purely mechanical design perspective?

It's hard to say, really. I'm tempted to say it's overpowered but it might not be. The awkward thing about dazing spell is the way it's set up, it's extremely good when combined with certain kinds of spells (acid arrow is really nice on the mage side of things), and it can turn any damage dealing spell into a pseudo-save or die effect (losing several turns worth of actions is harsh).

For example, with the druid, once you can reliably pop dazing call lightning storm, each time you pop someone with one of those bolts, they make a Reflex save or lose 5 turns. If you want to be the emperor of dicks, dazing wall of thorns will get you the most dirty looks ever. :P

Aside from stopping the spell damage (which is really hard to do as many of the damages are non-elemental and spells explicitly ignore DR) or making the save, there's little way to defend against it.

That said, I admit that it's one of those things that's probably unfair but is still damn fun to play around with. There's something very satisfying about making a druid who wields dazing flame blades while daring anyone to strike her back and risk the wrath of her dazing thorn body. :P

Not sure how unusual it is as a character concept, but as far as the pirate lords are concerned, Captain Scurvy is easily the most benevolent of them. He's good natured, prefers taking captives (and releasing them later), and has a humorous side. He has a sort of honorable pirate thing going on that makes him fairly endearing. However, his peers are not so pleasant.

One of the pirate lords is a sea witch, one of many sea witches, but one who has taken up the practice of raiding merchant vessels and plundering them for their riches. Her name is an enigma to most, because unlike Scurvy, few ever see her and live to speak of their encounter, let alone actually speak with her.

She's a powerful druid who rips massive holes in the hulls of ships and causes them to sink out at sea. Far from land, the best hopes that the crew have are life rafts, but many of those are capsized by often poor oceanic conditions that seem to commonly travel with her, or by the large sea creatures that seem intent on taking no prisoners.

She rarely has a true "crew" (though she occasionally may work with sahaugin) but is frequently accompanied by groups of sea creatures such as sharks, octopi, etc. She scavenges the downed wreckage, taking her pick of the plunder. In the underwater lands where she operates her dominion spreads for many miles and looks like a great graveyard of ships scattered about the ocean floor.

Even other pirate lords fear her, and some sailors revere her as a sort of oceanic deity, and make offerings in hopes that whatever terrible creature in the depths will pay them safe passage. A common practice to appease the great sea witch is to throw treasures into the ocean if some sort of strange sign happens (such as a mixed school of sharks swimming along the ship). A suggestion dating back to a diviner who was questioned as to how to avoid the fates of the many ships that went missing.

She is perhaps the most successful pirate if solely for the fact that merchants and travelers willingly offer up gifts and treasures in hopes of a safe journey. Few other pirate lords can claim that their marks revere them as a natural wonder and pay homage to them.

Captain Scurvy the Pigmy Pugwampi Pirate springs to mind, if only because his name and title is so unusually fun to vocalize. Captain Scurvy is a runty pugwampi (he's a size category smaller than usual thanks to the young template) who was never expected to amount to anything. However, he became one of the most successful pirates on the seas of my world.

Being quite clever, Scurvy gathered up a ragtag crew of gnolls who were down on their luck and propositioned them to become pirates with him, and he could ensure that the spoils were easily gained and plentiful. With a bit of convincing, the gnolls agreed and became his crew.

Captain Scurvy is a ranger with a large rat for an animal companion (a wharf rat actually) named Skitters. Skitters and he, being very small, easily sneak out onto ships that they intend to conquer. From there, Scurvy simply makes himself comfortable on the ship and lets his aura of unluck take its vicious toll. After the crew ends up with some run of bad luck (ranging from getting lost at sea to crashing on islands and stuff), Scurvy signals his crew to sail up and they quickly seize all the plunder. There's nothing particularly special about the gnolls (though some have gotten decent at fighting and sailing) but with Scurvy leading them and his aura, they easily overpower most merchant vessels.

Captain Scurvy is a sort of honorable pirate. He's perfectly fine accepting surrender and is more inclined to jump ship to pirate another day if given the chance. He's likely to joke and tease during his adventures and respects those who are willing to give them a good run for their booty.

So one of the great and mighty pirate lords of Alvena is in fact so small that he could fit in someone's shoe, who uses mounted archery on land and sea, and leads a crew of gnoll pirates known as "Scurvy's Dogs".

EDIT: Oh, and I forgot to mention that the name of his flagship is "Finder's Keeper". :D

Ashiel wrote:

Rysky wrote:

Ashiel wrote:

As for the good/negative channeling thing, that only applies to clerics. Paladins for example, have no issues channeling negative energy if they gain the ability to do so in some way, such as having a magic item that uses inflict spells.

?

Positive channeling clerics can prepare and cast inflict spells just fine, or were you talking about something else?

Merely pointing out that channeling/using positive or negative energy is not innately aligned, merely that the cleric's unique class feature is restricted by alignment. Trying to take that restriction and use it to justify some sort of universal truth is as asinine as trying to suggest that because druids can't cast in chainmail means that chainmail is antithetical to divine magic (demonstrably false) or nature magic in general (also demonstrably false).

-_-

Aligned spells being aligned acts weren't co-opted from the cleric's class abilities, that's a great amount of ignorance there. Aligned spells have been aligned acts for as long as there's been alignment.

We aren't talking about alignment subtype spells, we're talking about positive and negative energy and the channeling of such being aligned, which is only a thing in the case of the cleric's class feature.

The cleric example was just to show that it's tied into the mechanics of alignment... if it wasn't they would have just made all clerics choose their spontaneous casting like a neutral cleric at character creation

Except that it isn't. Except for Clerics. Hence my parallel drawn with special class restrictions. A similar thing is how a Paladin's code of conduct has restrictions not associated with alignment.

Ashiel wrote:

As for the good/negative channeling thing, that only applies to clerics. Paladins for example, have no issues channeling negative energy if they gain the ability to do so in some way, such as having a magic item that uses inflict spells.

?

Positive channeling clerics can prepare and cast inflict spells just fine, or were you talking about something else?

Merely pointing out that channeling/using positive or negative energy is not innately aligned, merely that the cleric's unique class feature is restricted by alignment. Trying to take that restriction and use it to justify some sort of universal truth is as asinine as trying to suggest that because druids can't cast in chainmail means that chainmail is antithetical to divine magic (demonstrably false) or nature magic in general (also demonstrably false).