Echo Vining's page

There was some material in 1e - either actually in the text, or in dev commentary - that the planes are vast. Like, really big. And that, basically, the part of a plane you interact with reflects your culture of origin, broadly speaking. It's why we from Golarion (or Earth, really) see outsiders with human-ish forms or modelled after different kinds of terrestrial creatures, and it also would explain the tech parity between the material and other planes - medieval-tech worlds plane shift to medieval-tech parts of the Outer Sphere, and similar for modern or future-tech primes.

If you want to lean a little actually Planescape, the Outer Planes are shaped by belief and literally infinite - so the setup there lets it be more clear that the medieval-tech and high-tech worlds stay segregated even when they planewalk.

My initial response is that it's a cultural influence from the Dongun dwarves, who developed strange fashions while back underground. A more out-there thought is that this is an effect of the Mana Wastes - a bit of wild magic brought fashion on the winds from a far-off place or time, and it's cool so it stuck.

Whenever I see something in an RPG setting that doesn't seem to make sense, I find "what reason can I make for it to be this way?" rather than "how can I justify why this shouldn't be the case?" So in that vein, here are some Echo-style solutions to the Free Captains problem. A couple notes: These ideas don't all fit neatly into canon (and some explicitly go against what's stated officially). Also, none of these ideas are waterproof. It's likely not difficult to create an argument as to why my explanations wouldn't work, or how this group of NPCs is too smart to not notice this workaround you've devised. That's not the point. Finally, these are all ideas for why Broken Rock is difficult to find/assault. Reasons as to why the pirates' enemies are, instead, choosing not to take action are left as an exercise for the reader.

1. Technomancers. This is really a family of solutions, based mainly around the fact that technomancers are my favourite part of science fantasy. So if I was a team of reality-hackers trying to keep the asteroid pirate base hidden, what would I do? I could establish a field around the asteroid that automatically hacks the nav system of any non-pirate ship close enough to find us. I could alter the space around the astroid in several ways to prevent or discourage approach. I could spoof the ship's sensors to make it look like there's no astroid here, or that a small fleet of, idk, vesk just dropped out of the drift and are charging weapons. I could send some kind of engine-virus that overloads the ship's reactor core. Basically if you're a wizard and love physics, there are like 241 thousand fun ways to protect a place.

2. Broken Reach has its own drift engine, so if a big fleet shows up to hunt them, they just jump to a different part of the Diaspora.

3. You remember the Diaspora is the remnants of two entire populated planets that were destroyed by a superweapon, right? I can't read something like that without thinking the place must be space-haunted. Clearly, with the sarcesians and dwarves and whatnot there are reasonably safe parts of the Diaspora. But Broken Reach could easily be in one of the parts that isn't.

4. Okay so this one is super-weird. But in one of the volumes of Attack of the Swarm! the backmatter has a whole thing about mindscapes, because

Like this, but deadly?

I am all for 80s cyberpunk drow with their shades and leather.

What do you do when you find out the Vesk are turned on by absolutely any kind of hat?

This is my new favourite Starfinder fact.

I think it's important to remember that Starfinder is technically a different game than Pathfinder. As such, direct conversions (say, of three energy resistances) may not be appropriate. Saying that tiefling energy resistance is being nerfed is a distraction from the point that you're actually converting between game systems, and that tends to require more consideration than just copying over text.

Thank you. :) It can be hard knowing that no matter what you do, *someone* is going to be angry or disappointed with your choices, but we're just going to make the best game we can within the constraints we've been given, and hopefully a lot of folks will have fun!

As a counterpoint, no matter what you do I will be SO EXCITED.

Regarding the wall, the intent behind the weight restriction seems to be to prevent bridging a chasm or using several walls to make "stairs" up to a high point. However, they are specifically intended to block attacks and protect you from harm. So I would go with the simple ruling of: the power does what it's supposed to and does not do what it's not supposed to.

I think the main reason we won't see most races is that they weren't offworld at the time. Halflings, gnomes, dwarves, etc may have no interest in space. Elves resist change, thus I doubt many would take to slave regularly. Humans, however... well we did go to space. Then golarion suddenly vanishes. Where was everyone? On golarion. Except those who weren't. So while there are plenty of cool ideas for where dwarves or elves could've gone, the better question is would they be there? Probably not.

The problem here is that elves are already a spacefaring race. They are on both Golarion and Castrovel, and have a gate network that goes to a few other planets.

What I mostly don't get about them is how we're supposed to insert that into any campaign. I haven't found any smooth way to insert such an odd race, at the very least.

Off the cuff here, I'd say they were trapped in the Demiplane of Dream, or some sort of Astral demiplanar prison for terrible psychic things (of which they are the nicest), which has recently burst open and spilled its psychic terrors into the world.

Hmmm ...

Adult Dog Int = 2

Adult Human Int = 10

Adult Gold Dragon Int = 20

So this means dog breeders are evil?

I think there's a pretty clear difference between two sapient species (even if one is unilaterally much more intelligent than the other) and one sapient species, one that is not.

Needing hands free doesn't imply channeling through your hands. As so.

When did the beard/no beard thing happen?

According to this highly reputable source, 2007.

Yeah, Wall of iron is a REAL problem. ... If its unsuitable as it is, fine. MELT IT DOWN. Refine it. It's like tons of ore, just sitting there waiting to be used. Scrape off the impurities and reduce it to base iron, then remake it.

That's not what the spell says. It says the iron is not suitable for use in creating other objects. That means you can't do it. It doesn't mean you can do it if you think you're smarter than the person who wrote the spell.

For someone who's been harping on RAW RAW RAW, you're pretty adamant about ignoring any actual rules that don't support your point.

You don't see elves or dwarves making flying cities or world spanning empires or creating "I AM A GOD NOW" spells.

The elves do have the aiudara network, which is interplanetary (at least).

As a physics student, I get to claim apprentice arcanist.

Arcane Addict wrote:

Does this mean that Clerics (Capital C because I mean the class) are never fed to Groetus? Well... Except maybe Clerics of Groetus, that is.

I could see it happening (albeit very rarely).

Imagine a cleric of Gorum who has been so worn down by the years of endless, pointless bloodshed. He continues to fight - gloriously, even! - but in his heart, he is consumed by the idea that all his fighting is meaningless in the face of the imminent end. He fights to the bloody last, all the while simultaneously dreading and welcoming the end he knows is drawing nearer and nearer.

And when his end finally comes, he stands before the Lady of Graves... who slowly points upward, to the skull-faced moon.

He welcomed the end, and now it welcomes him.

He sighs, shrugs, and raises his memory of a sword. One last battle, then he can rest.

Lord Fyre wrote:

I'm going to risk being pummeled.

I wish her costume had a bit more "fanservice"

Why? I think Rivani's pretty hot. I want my characters to wear that outfit.

Characters? I would totally wear that outfit.

I had a player just straight-up multiclass alchemist and gunslinger. He primarily played it like an old-west bartender, all his extracts were whiskey.

I think swashbuckler is basically meant to supplant duellist, in the same way that magus overrides a need for eldritch knight. I don't consider this a problem, because they're basically making a way to play the character concept from level 1, done better. The old prestige class method was a patch, and there's a better way now.

If you have the opportunity, I would also pick up this adventure. It has rules for something called "troops" - imagine a swarm, but of soldiers rather than spiders.

It's also considered one of the best AP installments ever - no doubt partially because it's written by the extremely talented Brandon Hodge.

James Sutter is amazing. They should let him write more books.

You know what this thread needs? Todd Stewart. I'm hoping just mentioning his name makes him appear.

I have not seen anything that states clearly once per day means once per 24 hour period

Are you seriously arguing that since the core rulebook hasn't strictly defined "day" that we have no idea what they could possibly mean?

I just noticed... The mythic Harsk picture isn't legal. Pathfinder bayonets block the crossbow so it can't shoot anymore.

Unless the artist is changing that rule for us! *hopes

Harsk is a mythic ranger. He will put a bayonet on a crossbow if he wants.

The really important part is the archetype allows you to support your god-king in his bid for true deification.

God yes, that image and Xanxost in general made the Tanar'ri section of that book for me in many ways.

"Tanar'ri are immune to poison and fire. Even poison that has been lit on fire. Xanxost has tried."

In every Chinese fantasy I've seen where the topic comes up, stealing or draining chi from people is considered quite wicked. So thematically I think it fits. On the other hand, the game is sort of arbitrary as to which spell effects are [evil] or not, and the argument that the spell doesn't mechanically harm the target in any way is reasonably compelling. I think the game is a lot smoother if it's intent, rather than specific action, that determines whether something is evil or not, but there's also a lot of literary precedent for certain types of magic being corrupting and always evil, so it's hard to come down on one side of the fence here.

I view linguistics as the skill Daniel Jackson in Stargate uses.

I think the point is that the mythology is more interesting if we can't say "this is definitely the right answer". Maybe Asmodeus' self-proclaimed history is right. Maybe he's lying. Since we can argue over which one is true, that gives depth and interest to the situation, rather than "according to The Big Book of Facts, page 314, my position is objectively true. No more discussion!"

Wait, what??! *boggle*

How and why am I on your favorite person list?

It started with your storyhour and your presence on Planewalker. You are entirely the reason I fell in love with yugoloths. Your work in Pathfinder products has not diminished my opinion at all.

The inclusiveness of cultures(and not making them an afterthought) and all sorts of people is a big part of its pull for me.

Also, the Shoanti. And Shelyn/Zon-Kuthon.

And strix. And Verces. And the Vercite castes. And Vercite Augmentation. And Vercite aetherships.

And Proteans. And Psychopmops. And the new take on Kytons.

And the benign alien bug goddess. And Nagajor.

Stopping now because this post can quickly turn into a timesink...

To elaborate, since this whole post is pretty opaque to a total newcomer...

Shoanti are a tribal human ethnicity. They have kind of a fantasy native American feel.

Shelyn is the goddess of beauty and art. Zon-Kuthon is the god of pain and darkness (think Hellraiser). They're siblings! Zon-Kuthon used to be a good deity, until he found the Lament Configuration went somewhere beyond the planes, and came back... different. Now he's the LE god of torture-cultists, and Shelyn still holds out hope that her brother's in there somewhere.

Strix are winged humanoids, kind of like China Mieville's garuda.

Verces is another planet in Golarion's star system. Because there's a book for that. I have it on my desk right now. Anyway, Verces is science fantasy. They explicitly have spaceships and cyberware and are fighting a space war with the lich planet. There's a brilliant thread all about Verces and what Mikaze all the creative folks on this board can imagine about it. Here, if you want to check it out.

Proteans are Pathfinder's CN exemplar race. They're the replacement for slaad, since slaad are not OGL and also kind of badly written.

Psychopomps are the outsider race that serves Pharasma, goddess of judging the dead. They serve the cosmological niche expected by the name psychopomp.

Kytons are now a fully-fledged (i.e. multiple CR range, up to CR 20, just like demons and devils) outsider race. They serve the aforementioned Zon-Kuthon and are effectively Pathfinder cenobytes.

I think the benign alien bug goddess is Desna. Desna is the CG goddess of stars, travellers, and dreams. She appears as a pretty elf lady with butterfly friends... now. She's one of the old gods. She comes from space. She's a big space butterfly, except something more beautiful and terrible than any earth butterfly.

Nagajor is a country over on Tian Xia, aka the fantasy Asia continent. It's a big jungle/marsh ruled by naga. Tian Xia's snake people (nagaji - humanoid reptilian PC race) come from there.

Also, to add something of my own, Lirgen had a damn space program. Then a big hurricane showed up and wrecked the country when a god died. I'm simplifying, because it's hard for me to form coherent thought around the idea that there was a functioning space program on Golarion.

Although, really, that's not as bad as the time an ancient empire tried to terraform the moon and ended up opening a rift to the Abyss.

Anyway, as you can see, there's a lot of rather brilliant material written for Golarion and some of us will talk forever about it. The only defence is to act like you're very interested and quickly escape when we need to refill our tea.

My favourite readied action I saw someone use is "I ready to move 30' away from the party if an AoE spell is cast on us."

Have you played any barbarian without armor recently?

You know who did so (successfully, I should add)? Erik Mona.

I favour boomerang arrows. They come back!

Books on the evil planes and the elemental ones would be the most interesting.

The good planes tend to be boring as that is where good souls go to live happily ever after, so its harder to include interesting adventure hooks for them. Also good outsiders are more interesting when they are doing stuff outside of their home planes, rather than just sitting around in their otherwordly paradises.

Attitudes like this are why we need more planar material.

However, anything beyond making a pittance is up to the GM and not really supported otherwise by the CRB.

True, however Profession (Sailor) is often used in adventures as the right skill to use for sailing ships and related matters, so there is some precedent.

The Manga that was supposedly the origin of Gojira

Or, you know, any other of the ridiculous claims you make.

That doesn't mean I go full out to extremes and play like, 'The color blue' or anything

I ran a Planescape game where one of the PCs was a sentient piece of music.

Technically legal, sure. But have you worn a corset? I bet you can't do great kung fu in one of those.

As for curing a plague... Yes the stories of heroes and legends are made of it, but do you know a lot of stories that goes: "That guy came into town, he cured everyone and left, the end"... No, because what makes a story Mythic is what you have to do in order to end the plague. And use a power that magically cures everyone is really just anti-climatic. If your characters can't afford to cure everyone by spamming remove curse/disease, they'll have to search for a cure, search where the epidemy comes from and you can build a journey or an adventure around it.

And then, after spending all day curing everybody, they keep getting sick. I guess the heroes will have to figure out what's going on after all.

Jiggy wrote:

I guess if you carry two loaded ones with you, you could full-attack TWF style on round 1 of combat, then drop them and switch to something else afterwards.

Like the other two loaded hand crossbows you have strapped to your chest

What if it was one guy with six guns?

I really really hope, Verces doesn´t become "grim-dark" in the coming publications. (This whole grim-dark-and-gritty-Sci-Fi-Thing was a bit overdone during the last few years...)

I doubt it. Maybe it's partly Mikaze's influence, but I kind of see Verces as a bit of a bright spot in the star system, as well. And there are plenty of other planets to throw down the grimdark with, if that's desired.

Also <3 Verces. Mixing tech and magic has always been one of my soft spots.

Sure it seems like a simple enough question, but then every faith is prepared to defend itself or attack outsiders, but what happens when the High Priest condems the faith he has so long adhered to?

Image

With that in mind...how would you (specific to quoted poster, OR to anyone else) consider Numeria? Can you possibly give me a mishmash of assorted works, or even a single one, from which to draw inspiration? What is your inspiration for Numeria?

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

Per CRAFTING rules (as broke as they are) you set a value for the painting and work on it until it's done. Your rolls only state how fast the painting is accomplished, not how good the quality is.

I'd suggest, given the nature of art, it could be reasonable to invert this process. Instead of deciding its value then working 'til it's done, decide how long you want to work on the painting. Make Craft rolls for that period of time, and then see how much it ends up being worth.

Numeria, to me, is METAL. Not, like, copper, but like a dude in a loincloth swinging a technoaxe at a murder-bot cyborg bear, and he's got a sexy metal lady clinging to one leg while firing eye lasers at a pterodactyl covered in skull holograms. Wait, what were we taking about?

European power metal (Manowar and Hammerfall especially) is my inspiration for D&D in general. I feel like my Pathfinder games should be about the sorts of things metal bands sing about.

The whole alchemist class brings a certain amount of steam punk to the game. I kind of like it but it is definitely another move away from a pure tolkeinesque fantasy setting.

Man, (swear word) Tolkien. There's so much more you can do with fantasy than "elves and dwarves and magic rings, lol".