Davia D's page

Sorry for taking so long- I had something half-wrote up and then lost the tab :\

Status check? DMs, you around/still in?

Yea, bunker down!

Ah, that'd make sense ^^ Regardless, I want to do something!

She's actually on her way back to Fort Invictus with Zorakir and Ametist. Along with several dozen refugees.

I sent ya a PM, but it might have gotten lost due to all the nonsense with the boards.

Yea, the board probably ate it, I don't have anything.

Welp, the boards seem to be back up and functional <knock on wood>

Who all is still around??

I am! Do want stuff for Lian to do ^^

Yea, I'm not going to try and solve *everything* with diplomacy, but there is a reason that when faced with legal or jurisdiction problems, my go-to is 'get Lian into a talk with the highest ranked person available.'

Also depending on what we're doing, I'll shift that +8 around.

Hm... and I changed my mind on the spell. Rather than Summon Monster V, I'm doing Mirage Arcana. Illusions serve me well.

A note that infernal is not as universally 'the enemy' as abyssal is. Asmodeus and Hell are tightly allied with Cheliax, and are one of the five lawful gods that the Hellknights consider part of the Godhand (which range from LE to LG, and Hellknights may be any, so you could be making some of them uncomfortable).

Evil or not, Devils and Infernal stuff is still 'of civilization,' basically, while demons are far more destructive.

Would Lian be in the fog? She's been staying back and using spells mostly.

Again, we waiting for something?

So are we waiting for anything?

So just checking- Klassalka's had an hours rest, can talk, and the exhausted has dropped to fatigued, right?

Also I'm assuming snooring doesn't count as not talking

So, we searching for secret underground doors?

Oh sure, the *Mermaid* loses her voice, how stereotypical ;)

There are planes of good and evil in a non-subjective sense, but the negative energy plane is *not* one of them- it's unaligned.

Destruction, consumption, etc. are often disliked by humans and negative energy is something that can be used to do nasty things to the soul, but the energies aren't innately evil, any more than fire is (and it's certainly possible to use fire for evil, I think you'll agree)- sorta like the ancient egyptians had a god of chaos protect the sun on it's journey through the night. Or how in Greek legend, Hades was one of the more chill gods.

Canon non-evil necromancers are a thing:
https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Giseil_Voslil
He's an elf who's an ally of the Shin'Rakorath, who spend most of their time fighting Drow and Demons.

I will also toss in, there's evil which is sometimes socially tolerated- like Asmodean followers, who follow the law and such- and evil which is not. Depending on the place, undead can fall into the former. Raising unintelligent undead is considered a minor evil (it has the 'evil' spell descriptor), but it's something that even good alignment wizards are capable of (though probably shouldn't too much).

Golarion isn't split into 'good' and 'evil' camps by any means, or at least not purely. Hellknights can be any lawful alignment and even Lawful Good ones do include Asmodeus among their five patrons. Demons are generally hated by *everyone* and if an army from Geb (land ruled by undead) showed up, there'd be grumbling but an acknowledgement that Geb is far better than the Worldwound- while the Whispering Tyrant, who spreads it's undead in an expanding horde, is far worse than Geb. A good person would talk to an ambassador from Geb.

A Necromancer being neutral and using unintelligent undead to fight far greater evils is something I think is quite doable in canon. Yea, even if the spell involves a bit of evil, on balance they can easily be in a non-evil category, and 'evil' does not mean 'kill' or enemies. We're allying with Hellknights, without a doubt defenders of civilization, who include members who are without a doubt evil, who fight alongside Hellknights who are good.

Lian will want to learn it too at some point- she's a linguist who speaks a ton, just not that ^^

Or to put it another way, I don't know when *you're* done with a theme, so my form of driving is 'I intend to do X' posts.

Ok, so please recall this a player driven game. It's OK to take initiative for non important posts like 'we return to the inn'. Similar to Loc's recent posts.

I mean, to complain a little, I made the post "If there's nothing else, heading back to the rest of the crew seems the next step." Then "Though first thing first- the others.".

And then came the post about Lian getting money for horses- so you did respond with her arriving somewhere, just a different place than I said I was going.

If anyone had responded with "Ah, Lian! How goes the meeting?" I would've taken that as a natural progression. I was waiting for such a response, which is why I missed the horse thing and then so on.

Then by all means, post that. I was kinda expecting it from you, but then it seemed like the group wanted to just leave the city.

I was waiting for a 'you arrive at the inn' post or something like that.

We really gotta do better about not getting tripped up over little things like that...

Yea, I don't have anything to add on the horses bit, I'd like to get to the inn.

Also, waiting on Lian atm.

Oh sorry, I totally didn't realize you were- Lian had already discussed letting people who know better do the shopping after all.

Let's not keep the other half waiting, time to re-connect :)

Understood, take care of yourself!

I just kinda went with the group, but am fine with alternate suggestions- if an NPC suggests "you'd be more help here," Lian would present it to the group.

Sorry to beat a dead horse. But how will the resident Paladins work with the Zon Kuthon devotee?

I’m cool with Loc. He’s my favorite kind of evil (what I call pragmatic evil, with enough charisma to pull it off). And he’s got the contract which keeps this paladin, not so much happy, but content.

I’m honestly considering having Godwyn walk away to do good elsewhere. Some groups work well with Paladins. This...doesn’t seem to be one of them.

I don’t want to tell Zorakir how to play his character. I am considering making a new one right now, who will work better in this environment.

Also of note, the old crew is Karen, Loc, and Lian. You met the crew before Zorakir shows up. It's not that you're applying to a group with him, he's applying to a group with you.

We are bad at saves... what's the effect of this malady?

Please do-
Include a variety of races- that is to say, skin colors among elves (and quite possibly dwarves/gnomes/whatever? But especially elves) from the start. I know in the plot their color is supposed to be quite varied with proper-brownskin elves around, but we never see them. We shouldn't have to rely on word alone to know they exist- and bonus points if they do NOT have white hair!

Seeing a black elf fight a drow in an early book would really draw the contrast between 'these ones are racial diversity, these ones made pacts with demons and are now purple and white.'

Please don't-

All-white or mostly-white non-draw elves.

Please don't base magical item crafting on spellcasting.

Please do base it on craftsmanship and materials (and possibly the environment/seasonality/celestial alignment during crafting in some cases)

Yes, of some note, in mythology, and even D&D, the traditional best forgers are Dwarves, who are not the best spellcasters.

Please give every signature character their own signature hats. This is exceedingly minor but I like hats.

Oh, more seriously:
Please give signature characters weather appropriate outfits.

It's fine if they have a main look, but it is *really odd* when the tropical sorceress and the cold-weather warrior both walk around in their native garb with no respects for temperature and, indeed, no temperature would be suitable for the whole party at the same time.

If every signature character had a mere two outfits, that'd be good- and by outfits it can be 'basically the same thing plus or minus some fur or a cape,' though being varied is fine too. The artists are easily good enough to make things not-confusing even with a few different outfits.

Please do: Allow martials to be good at more than one fighting style. While in fiction a lot of fighters have a specialty, many are quite capable of switching around gimmicks or even having using lots of weapons and styles as a gimmick. I don't want a 'specializes in just this weapon,' I want 'may start out specialized in this one, but by the time they're higher level they can be advanced in many weapon types and styles or even have 'good at any weapon they pick up' as a not-that-hard-to-get ability.'

This applies to rogues too, 'sneak up/flank and stab from behind,' should be just one option of several they have.

Please do:
Give a variety of mechanically distinct weapons that are worth using.

Please don't:
Make exotic weapons/weird weapons cost a feat (or other mechanical cost) *if they aren't better*. If they're just foreign, an orchish whatever or a different continent's thingy, then even if it's something used in a different way than a sword, it shouldn't cost anything.

People should be able to play with weird weapons without paying for essentially nothing or even a disadvantage.

I'm with Todd Stewart. It's fairly baked into the setting and I *luv* the planar stuff. The Hellknights serving five lawful gods across good, neutral, and evil is great setting stuff too.

I will say:
Make it clear in the main book alignments aren't personality types, OCD doesn't make you lawful/being scatterbrained does not make you chaotic. People of certain personalities can *tend* one way, but they're different things. This is probably the biggest play problem.

Also make it clear that what a person's code is matters. If a person has a code that says it's ok to depose leaderships in revolutionary mobs, well, then they probably isn't too lawful. In short, 'has a code =/= automatically lawful,' a code is just a person's personal description.

Don't tie alignment to class unless it involves working for a specific ideology. An organization can be tied to class, but a lawful bard/chaotic monk is fine. This might mean you may be a former member of X, but only stuff like spell-granting clerical classes or paladins should be alignment tied- and even then, I say switching gods or such is fine, fallen paladin options, etc..

Please this:
Fix the martial/caster disparity. I want them to be close to each other from a optimization perspective- and I include rogue types in 'martial' here.

Please not:
Leave martials getting pluses to hit or damage while casters are getting new *types* of abilities like flying, summoning, etc- sometimes multiple per level.

Don't make martials go through chains of abilities to get to good ones. Heck, feat chains in general- no one should need to pick up a low-level ability at high level. The first feat of a chain should be worthwhile. Like, if there's a chain, 2 or 3 things in fine, earning a thing is ok, but each step should be worthwhile and fighting styles shouldn't be reliant on putting your entire investment to one thing, and the thing at the top of a chain should be good.

I overwhelmingly cannot overstate how much this matters. High end fighters need to be equally imposing to high end wizards, and if this means performing mythology-like feats without external magic boosts, that's good. It should be possible to build a martial who's good at killing wizards without being consistently thwarted by 'summon in path/wall in path/fly away,' because there's no way to get the raw variety.

More minor-
Please this:
Lotsa races. I know it'll take time to build up the array of non-core races we had before, but most of what I play is ecclectic races like Androids, Ghorans, Kitsune, etc.. I *like* their flavor a lot and that it's reflected in their abilities. So yea, continue to have race matter and come in many flavors. Starting with goblins in the core is something I take as a good sign.

Keep alignments.

Have Proteans be chaotic and equally creation as well as destruction. None of this 'their goal is to return everything to the maelstrom,' stuff, there's so much more possibility.

Have an official name for planar exemplar types- you know, the alignment races that are tied to a plane and are it's big representatives, as opposed to just random-outsiders. Demons, Daemons, Azata, etc.. I call 'em planar exemplars but any collective name would do.

Make the good planes more distinct- don't have them share any outsider types.

Maybe mythic again, but more balanced/less rocket-tag-y? I'll understand if you skip this but I liked the concept.

Please not:
Don't in-universe change the setting in an in-plot to explain the rules changes. We all remember when Forgotten Realms did it, and I say pass on that. You can do some retcons, but none of the "and then magic changed in year X" stuff.

Where am I (Lian) at right now?

I certainly wouldn't mind it- my saves aren't as good as yours and it cost me in both of the last two fights. If you want to RP something with that, that'd be cool.

Yes, no need to drag things out.

Have fun, if you ever need a replacement, gimme a message, I'll still be interested ^^

Heh, that'd be funny :)

Btw, my computer's pretty iffy at the moment so if I go quiet for a few days, that'll be why (planning on getting a new one soon). If need be Klassalka can be autopiloted for a bit.

After two bad mage encounters in a row, I think 'superstition' would be a good choice for Klass next rage-power!

And this makes it *way* harder to follow RP threads.

Oh, addum- I can't list posts on the second page (and presumably any past the first?) either.

I had an idea for a Magic Child archetype character that I think would fit well.

Race, half-elf, vigilante, magic child with a thrush familiar, and a Cheliax native of somewhat noble origins, but lesser-noble, the family's not exactly rich at the moment.

I'd like to have a different archetype each time the familiar gets a new form, but that's some distance away.

I've been trying to add threads to my favorite threads list but I find when I click on 'list,' on the first post, the post temporarily vanishes, and no option to add shows up.

I can add later posts if I want, but adding a specific post won't tell me if there's new posts on the thread.

Yea, the mainland is where the action is. While I don't mind politicing a path to get there, it doesn't give as much for everyone to do, and we've already done most of that part.

I decided that Klassalka will learn the spell 'grow claws and rip into people,' (lesser beast totem) in case she's disarmed or wants to attack more things.

Also she's still 10 hitpoints down from the last fight, I think, but now she has enough that that still leave a good-sized buffer.

The issue for Karen is that Jalmeray is weeks-months of travel away from the inner sea, and going there meant that the millions of people suffering under the combined yoke of evil was too much to take searching for a single person.

For me, I viewed it as a way to get to the mainland with allies, though I could see that point.

Mainly, it was the main travel option offered, and part of Lian's operation, considering we had little actual resources, was promises fast in order to gain support, and then use that support for later action.

This game was set up as player driven. There are many times where Monkeygod stated players could go where they wanted, together or separately. This does change the focus from DM driven to player driven.

Player-driven still definitely requires a lot of DM attention, arguably more-so- It means if a player is expressing interest in something, they need the DM to be active and fill that out. If they do something, it's extra important for the DM to respond because they can't go forward without a response. And they still need the DMs to check which direction they're going in- this is something I've learned from similar experiences. Sometimes the players think they've posted enough to give direction and the DMs not realize it, so they need to ping to check whenever stuff isn't happening or just a reminder that something else affects them- like I had a companion a few times, but NPCs would mostly just talk to me.

I don't think the goal thing was a problem- The players wanted to get on the content and get involved, and we were given a couple possibilities and we went on them. We were self-motivated, that wasn't really an issue. The splitting up? That's much more of a problem.

For me, I wanted to do some diplomacy to speed along our journey- I have a diplomacy build, after all. My initial intent was to bring along most of the others, and for the diplomacy mission to involve some fairly rapid back-and-forths, and it took longer than expected while others sat around. This was a problem.

I could be down for a restart without the party splitting and with assurances of more active response.

Like, the problem is with DMs splitting up scenes and characters, that just made inconsistent amount of time between players as some people got responses and others didn't. Second, if someone wasn't actively doing something, they were forgotten, when they should be presented choices or prompts to find out what they're doing. The DMs should be the ones pushing things, players shouldn't have to consistently be the ones asking for replies or such. And the post rate.... was just low.