_Cobalt_'s page

If we got a kaiju-sized flumph I would be so happy.

Also, some sort of prism-based construct that can channel light for interesting effects would be groovy.

Gay people exist in the real world. Why wouldn't they in Golarion?

And if it really gets your pants in a twist, change that part of the path. No one is forcing you to play the AP exactly as written.

16. There were dragons. I didn't sign up for this.

Another way to do it would be to look at the Diplomacy skill. There, there are five "categories" for how a character feels towards another: Hostile, Unfriendly, Indifferent, Friendly, and Helpful.

One could say "Ok, well, Hostile and Unfriendly are the most likely that are going to attack me, so we well classify them as 'enemies,' while Friendly and Helpful would be the most likely to help me, so we will call them 'allies.'"

Let's look at the spells Bane and Bless.

Bane harms enemies, so it would work against characters who are Hostile and Unfriendly.

Bless helps allies, so it would work on characters who are Friendly and Helpful.

Alternatively, we could say that the spells effect it based on how the caster feels. Thus, someone could be trying to be Helpful, but the cleric is having a bad day and sees them as Unfriendly. Bane would then work against them and bless would not help.

I'd propose that these spells have no effect on those who are indifferent.

Lovecraft was far worse in his views, yet I don't see anyone calling for his works (or adaptations of his work) to be boycotted.

That's what I personally find hilarious about this. The man was a racist, I believe homophobic, jerk, and it came through in his writing. There is no "Homosexuality is EVIL!!!1!!11!" message in Ender's Game.

If you don't go see Ender's Game, don't go see it because you don't like Card's work. That's why I don't see many movies; because I dislike the movies themselves.

212. If you arrive at the dungeon and the guards are dead, wait and prepare an ambush for whatever went in.

This completely changed an adventure I was in. Made it easier, we got all the loot, and the enemy's wizard was almost out of spells. Fun times, turning the tables. The GM had a blast too.

165.) Comic: Listening to opera music and trying to sing along.

So we started with a discussion about if people of a particular faith would have any conflict of faith playing a game, and now we have moved on to saying that said faith is inferior?

(Not referring to the "modern" discussion, but the Richard Dawkins quote. You do realize that a good number people of religious standings see him as basically the atheistic version of the WBC, right?)

Alignment is not rigid. It is fluid, changing as the character does. Developing gradually, suddenly, for good or evil, for law or chaos. People seems to think that once you choose an alignment, there is no backing out.

Now, there are some classes that restrain this. Potato, pohtahtoh. Don't like the restrictions, don't play the class.

I've participated in some of the social/political threads, and let me tell you, they got ugly. Some I thought went on too long, even.

Also, keep in mind they are a company; not just a venue for hosting forums. If someone were to visit the site for the first time and saw a lot of hateful speech (from either side of any topic), they might assume things about Paizo that wouldn't exactly be flattering to a business. So, really, it's a smart move to close feral threads.

Also, the people here have to be one of the nicest groups I've come across on the internet. It's nice to come to a forum and not be instantly attacked.

I'll take the 50-point-flail challenge.

As the orc brings his flail down with an overhand swing, you feel it impact your shoulder, the spikes penetrating your armor and skin. In response, you stagger, and the orc takes this opportunity to attack again, this time catching you squarely in the gut. Feeling your ribs crack, you wheeze, coughing up a small bit of blood.

Happy? And all this without pints and pints of blood.

I changed it to VEIL, which would spell EVIL. The cleric instantly guessed it.

Have him have a pet snake.

When 3.5 Loyalist calls cartoony is what I call good literary technique.

In terms of media, the more left implied is better. It further involves the reader/watcher/player, as opposed to telling them what happens.

Show, don't tell. First rule of writing, and thus GMing.

So, there was a prophesy that a prophesy would be broken.

Either way, someone is wrong. :p

YOLAMTAYCR

(You Only Live As Many Times As You Can Revive)

I'd go 20 points, personally. There's some lethal stuff in there, and even a 20 point build (possibly a 25 point build) might succumb to in one or two hits, especially if rolling badly.

Nothing too specific. An Exarch Dwarf Inquisitor would be kinda powerful, or anything useful against chaotic creatures. There's more chaotic or chaotic evil enemies than straight up evil enemies. Not needed, but useful.

Nothing to shy away from, really.

Read Lovecraft. Seriously. For the fourth and fifth books, it's basically "Lovecraft - The Adventure." I'd recommend Nyarlathotep, At the Mountains of Madness, Pickman's Model, and Call of Cthulhu. They are all short stories (except AtMoM, which is a short novel), and if you just sit down to read them, you should be able to read them all in a night.

Guess who just found their new desktop wallpaper?

So, if we are saying that we can't have influence from an author because they were racist or homophobic, then prepare for the repercussions.

The Norse and Germanic tribes were quite racist. There goes a good number of fey and a few cool outsiders...

Japan isolated itself, mostly from a "Eww, westerners," standpoint, which is fairly racist. There goes almost all the oriental influences.

In the middle ages in Europe and a few places in the middle-east, you could be burned at the stake for being a homosexual. There goes... Well, everything else.

Racism and homophobia are everywhere, so that argument isn't entirely valid.

I think your problem is more "oh, look, more tentacles," which even as a Lovecraft fan, I admit I get sometimes with Paizo's stuff, especially if it's not in the context of horror or anything like that.

I've got one.

Ah. If it's not the intro music to a CSI show, I know nothing of The Who's music. :)

That, I'm pretty sure, is a crime in 23 countries, and is regarded as an unforgivable sin in 5 religions.

Now, to go listen to their music.

191. Book of Groaning
This 500-page book is nothing but bad pun after bad pun, but the outside cover promises "Humor and Fun on Every Page!". The reader must make a DC 15 Will save every hour for 24 hours after reading the book or start groaning loudly for the whole hour. This can be heard clearly for 300 feet at a DC 0 Perception check.

It would go something like this.

"Oh by Pharesma, don't hurt me! I'm a scholar, not a fighter! Please oh please don't kill me!" Followed by whimpers and continued groveling for mercy.

Just to get this out there, I am a conservative (I hesitate to say Republican). I think all three of these are huge deals. None of which do I want to see Obama impeached for. After all, we elected hi, and any impeachment is a black stain on history for America, and heaven knows he have plenty without impeachment.

Benghazi is a big deal because Obama would rather see four Americans die than proclaim the unspoken but unavoidable fact that the Middle East is still a tumultuous place, filled with radical ideology and a mentality of revenge for slights hundreds, even thousands of years old. The motives for this hesitance however, are hazy at best. Some would like to say that it's because elections were near and Obama wanted to appear to be a strong leader, but I'd like to give him a little more credit than that.

The tax thing is a big deal because a flaky "charity" (I don't have the numbers with me, put they raised quite a hefty sum and donated only a small fraction of it) run by Obama's half-brother, Malik Obama, became tax-exempt within weeks of applying, while conservative groups, such as those associated with the tea-party group, had to wait several months or even a few years to gain the same status. Any real crime? No, but suspicious none-the-less.

The AP scandal, I'll admit, I don't know much about. I just haven't taken the time to research it. As such, I can't comment on it.

Just my two copper-pieces. Please don't tar and feather me.

Into the Nightmare Rift mentions the fact that those that sleep near Guiltspur have odd dreams of Leng. In the same spirit as the Kaer Maga street corner thread, I thought I would start a Leng dream thread.

Possibly he wants to see the great-earth shattering events that take place end in the good guy's favor?

The vast resources we could say either he's a high level wizard (who has some sort of curse where he can't actually participate in events, only give advice and sell stuff) who crafts, or we could say an ex-adventurer who accumulated all this from his travels?

He needs the money for powering his shack, of course! It runs on money. Not gold, silver, platinum, nothing specific. Just money ("In fact, there is a culture in the future on another world that uses paper money. She still runs on that. However, I tried putting just raw paper in, but it didn't have any reaction. I think it somehow is a greedy little construct or something.")

We need a name for the shack.

Edit: Edited for clarity.

So, it was late, and I had an idea. What if there was a merchant who traveled through time and space specifically to sell to adventurers, because he knows what they will need at the exact time from reading the fables of the future?

Here's what I've come up with:

His name is merely the Merchant. He would say his actual name, but that would disrupt the time-stream in unpleasant ways. He has a small shack that follows him around via mechanical spider legs. The shack is his shop, and from the outside only appear to measure 20' by 20'. However, on the inside, it measures 200' by 200', and is chock full of magic items. He has his "recommended" items, which consist of, oddly enough, exactly what would be useful either in the next leg of the adventure or to a PC's build.

It's basically an in-game excuse for GM fiat with "yes, the magic shop /does/ have exactly what you need!"

Plus, there is definitely no inspiration from the Doctor. /sarcasm

I might just buy this chapter out of the AP, just to show support for the awesome that is World War I Russia. Possibly my favorite region and era in history.

PG-13 or PG, depending on subject.

Violence? PG-13.

Sexual content? PG.

Mostly because we came here for violence, not that.

Inversely, why do you think you can't stack templates?

Treat others as you wish to be treated.

Carry a bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing weapon at all times. A club and a dagger fulfill this. Get a sling too, and boom, you have ranged attacks.

Have fun.

And welcome to the game!

GURPS cyberpunk one-shot, for context.

Sniper has almost max ranks in Sniper Rifle skill. He takes a full round aiming at the target, a corrupt VIP with tight security around him. He says into his microphone wired to the other party member's ears ,"Alright guys, just another couple seconds and we can get out of here."

Takes another few rounds aiming, improving his skill to the point where missing is near impossible (1/216th or somesuch unlikely fraction).

He fires, simultaniously sayting into the mic "Alright, time to go guys."

He rolls, and, of course, rolls three sixes (in GURPS, rolling lower isbetter, with three sixes being automatic failure). Because this was meant to be a just for fun, light-hearted one-shot, he shot the guy's toupee off.

"Guys, look like this just became a lot harder. And he's bald."

The last bit just made the whole table lose it. It was more the delivery than anything.

_Cobalt_ wrote:

Basically, what if the Aztecs had near-modern technology when the Spanish cam and did their thing?

For an interesting follow-up, Jared Diamond's (nonfiction) Guns, Germs, and Steel does a pretty good job of explaining why that wasn't (and wouldn't be) the case.

Yeah, it's definitely not a "guys look what could have happened" kind of what if but more of a "I'm bored, I'm going to write this, oh, people bought the book, cool" kinda what if.

He also has versions of this for the Norse, Greeks, and Egyptians. I think he also has a few thrillers. Definitely not an author that will become super famous, but he's pretty good.

It has a grimdark feel and pulls in some pulp elements. Kinda like V for Vendetta in terms of it follows the story of a vigilante as he combats the evil all controlling government of death.

It also does a great job of showing why theocracies don't work. At all. "The gods told me to" quickly becomes a scapegoat for all sorts of vile behavior.

Plan your actions out one round in advance, modifying as the round advances.

I would see not reason why not. As long as the tattoos did not depict some atrocity (unless the atrocity was being stopped), it should be fine.

I could even see a paladin who has his paladin code tattooed on his forearms as a constant reminder of his duties.

Shamhayk - The act of poking gelatin with a long stick before consumption, just in case it's a hungry ooze

Liythium

I'll add a popular one.

Not killing goblin/orc babies.

Er, rise, I guess.

Thinking about paladins got me thinking about their evil counterparts. So, what would cause an anti-paladin to fall? Would it be called rising? Do they even fall/rise?

This is not intended for serious debate, just to see what humorous reasons people come up with for anti-paladins falling/rising.

Mr. Robertson is what the Christian community refers to as an uberchristian. For context, we put Wesboro in the same category.

Prerequisites include the following:

Saying anyone who disagrees with you is the antichrist.

Hating the sinners, not the sin. This is a very key point. I don't hate murderers, for example, just their murder. I pity them.

Not doing any research on the subject and just going with urban legend. Cause, you know, those are tru factz.

Either A: Reading between the lines too much in the Bible. Or B: Taking a rigid, literal, hostile approach to it.

Seemingly forgetting that we follow the New Testament, not the Old. The Old is where you find that God said to stone homosexuals and such. The New is where you find we must be kind and show God's love to them. Herpaderp stoning is easier so we gonna do that.

A few other things...

He said in his Halloween video (paraphrasing) "We don't believe in haunted stuff or ghosts." Then what's the problem? There is no conflict of faith.

The Bible forbids magic as the real world sees it. Yes, Christian doctrine does believe in magic, believe it or not. But it states magic is basically making deals with demons for them to do things. So, like, making a rival sick. But not giving you fairy wings or something silly like that. So, Romantic (as in, fanciful) magic does not conflict either.

/christian

And that, my friends, is why you don't chum the waters. Unless you want XP.

"Technically, you are just a soul with a meat suit. When your soul has left, would you want your flesh to be unused, consumed by the worm of the grave?"

I go away for a few hours and I come back to this. >.>

A few points, just to end this, and it will look rather silly of me and I apologize.

He approached me since I've made this thread. Following is a rough version of the conversation.

He: So, I sense you really don't want me to play a kitsune, and I think I figured out why. I noticed I tend to be a problem player. This campaign I'm going to actually try to play the game and not cause problems. I still really want to play a kitsune, though. If I promise to play it in a non-overbearing way, can I?

((This is totally out of character for him, and I was a bit taken aback))

Me: Uh, sure. Um, yeah that would be awesome. I'll even point you to a few kitsune-related things. (I had been researching them to see what the "real-world" lore was, just to check them out)

So, all in all, this thread is now pointless. I thank you all for your advice and honest criticisms. Moral of the story: let it all work out, and it will most likely be fine.

Steve Geddes wrote:

What would happen if you let him? It doesnt sound that bad to me.

Human druids are humans who are in touch with nature, have special animal companions, cast magic spells, and can turn into foxes.

Kitsune druids are foxes who are in touch with nature, have special animal companions, cast magic spells, and can turn into humans.

The former is perfect for a solemn and grim campaign, but the latter would obliterate the seriousness of my elfgames.

I detect a moderate amount of sarcasm here.

My problem is /not/ with kitsune. They have their place. But I don's think their place is in this kind of campaign.

If you were to run a light-hearted adventure, and someone insisted on playing a angsty and somber half-orc barbarian who laments the gods for killing everyone he knows, would you say that this adds or subtracts from the game that you have crafted to be light-hearted?

I should also note I initially tried "Ok, but you better have a pretty good reason to be in Magnimar." His response? "But I'm a player character, I don't have to worry about why I'm there because it's just where we start, and we'll be heroes before something like that would come up."

I GMed a game where the Gunslinger based his character loosely off Vash from Trigun.

Coincidentally, the Cleric based his off Wolfwood.

Yeah, it was an interesting campaign, being Lovecraftian and all.

If I typed it all out it would look like a bad Trigun-Lovecraft crossover fanfic.

This thread is quickly devolving into "You are having badwrongevilboring fun. Stop it. Even if you are across the world from me and will in no way impact my gaming, you are wrong and should stop."

Please stop.

There was one occasion where I disallowed Gunslingers, just because I hadn't played a campaign without one in forever and needed a change. To justify this, I said the players were being sent to a back-water village that has been out of contact for decades (gunpowder being a recent invention of some insane gnome wizards).

However, one player was adamant about playing a Gunslinger. He pestered me. I gave in. This is AFTER I made the plot decision. This in no way effected my writing process.

The PCs arrive in the village, and all the villagers are arguing about how to accommodate the newcomers. The Gunslinger gets the brilliant idea to fire his pistol in the air. That shut all the squabbling villager's mouths! However, not knowing what gunpowder is, they assumed he was some sort of demon and burned him at the stake (along with all his gunpowder in his power horn. They assumed the explosion was a sign from the gods).

Long story short, if you pester a GM, you might be pulling a tiger's tail. Sometimes, heaven forbid, a GM knows what will best fit his campaign.

Let's get something straight about "gender equality."

Men and women are different. Why pretend otherwise? Then we just end up with frustrated males and frustrated females. No one wants to be frustrated.

For example, as a man, I would have no idea how to raise and support a child. No idea. None. I would fail. I think, largely, males don't have a "motherly" instinct. Yes, there are exceptions to this rule, but aren't there always?

TL;DR, this whole thing is silly.

I have a nation that the Divine have abandoned completely. Divine magic has all die rolls halved there. As such, Witches have become the prime source for healing, removing diseases, and so on. This gives them quite the edge to vie for their patrons (in my setting all Witches serve either a Demon Lord, Archdevil, or other such ruler of evil outsiders). Did I mention it's ruled by a Half-Fiend Black Dragon? Not exactly a place many faiths send missionaries to convert the populace. Also had a bit of an Aberration problem. Fun times.

I had a player play as a Paladin trained in secret to combat the corruption of the land, and going on an epic quest to reforge a sword that could slay any evil outsider with a single stroke, shattered in a huge war that is fairly pivotal to the setting. Too bad that campaign ended prematurely. I had lots of cool ideas for plot hooks based on that one sword.

In my gaming group, we've had a female in it since it's inception. And let me tell you, her characters are not to be trifled with. :p

GURPS cyberpunk campaign: Couldn't seem to hit the broad side of a barn with a revolver, but behind a computer terminal, she could make you wish she had shot you instead.

Pathfinder campaign: Her character's sword wasn't nicknamed "Beheader" for no reason!

Basically, this is a foolproof plan; treat females like an other player. Don't show favoritism towards her. Don't blow her off. Treat her as an equal at the table, and you'll be just fine.

Also, I think that's sound advice for non-gaming as well.