Greg the Ghoul's page

No offence intended: even though you are a ghoul, you surprisingly have some really interesting stories to tell people about.

It is only surprising to people who are unaware of the great stories which came about because of failures. The Lord of The Rings trilogy can be traced to a halfling missing his survival check during a fight with some orcs and getting lost - Bilbo gets acclaim for starting a major war by not being able to tell his left from his right. A party of uber-competent heroes going down a railroad track and saving the world can make a decent story, a party of heroes-in-name-only getting side-tracked and overcoming their weaknesses to save (or fail to save) the world can make a great story.

Kirth Gersen wrote:

For example, if I were in a game with TOZ, he'd be respectful enough say point-blank at the start, "I will occasionally fudge the dice, and if you call me on it I'll admit it." I can respect that approach far more than the people who fudge the dice and then pretend like they don't. Hell, I've run games for players who preferred the DM to fudge rolls; I roll in the open, but I'd occasionally say, "Screw that 20! I'm rerolling it, unless anyone objects!"

Well, I'm no TOZ, but can we compromise? "I will occasionally fudge the dice, and if you call me out on it I'll call you a liar, say you drank all my milk*, and shame you in front of your peers. If you prove I'm lying, I'll storm out, break into your neighbors' house, drink all their milk, and leave a note saying it was you."

terrible to deprive the party like that. when characters get together in the bars to talk about their players, they don't talk about the upteenth time the party slayed a dragon risk-free because the GM was fudging the dice. We talk about the players who almost got us killed with their crappy rolls - Windmill Willy who couldn't roll above a 4 to hit for 3 sessions in row and had an 0 for 47 record, Stoney Steve who played a barbarian and made exactly one will save in a 15 level career and had to be repeatedly turned to stone by a druid to keep from wiping the party, and Snake-Eye Susan the girlfriend who filled a spot with a ninth level wizard for one session and cast fireballs that did less than 10 points of damage. We talk about the time our player learned that a babasu with a single spear attack can do over 50 points of damage on a crit. When the GM decides to coddle the players it is the characters who suffer, dying isn't bad as long as we get some good stories out of it.

A quick word about ghoulish eldritch heritage line. The first feat in the line requires a CHR of 13 and 3rd level and gives the claws. The second feat in the line requires a CHR of 15 and 11th level and gives either leathery skin or ravenous frenzy. The third feat in the line requires a CHR of 17 and level 17 and gives earth crawler or the ability not chosen before. Since headband can be used to qualify for feats, a character only really needs a 13 charisma at creation to get all three feats in the line, although 14 might be better.

For a human attempting to flatter ghoulkind (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery) the best option, while remaining human, is the vivisectionist alchemist using the feral mutagen discovery. There are many alchemist discoveries besides feral mutagen which can help a human mimic ghoulishness; chameleon skin, elemental mutagen, mummification, spontaneous healing, poison touch all come to mind. Many alchemist infusions (spells) can also help the poor human who desires to emulate the noble ghoul, admittedly infusions are inferior to the abilities of of a true ghoul but they grant pitifully helpless humans a reflection of the majestic power of the ghoul.

Only if the character is abusing the dust to get high by snorting or shooting it, since ghoul fever is usually only transmitted by saliva to blood contact.

It shouldn't be that hard - all you need is a time machine, a dozen trained monkey pickpockets, 3 ounces of blood from a dead god, a case of cheap white wine & a 1000 faceted ruby the size of a hen's egg. Once you've assembled the materials, the rest is obvious.

Scavion wrote:

Mark Thomas 66 wrote:

Scavion wrote:

Mark Thomas 66 wrote:

Charisma does not equal appearance.

HITLER

*Drops mic*

Nice. Good job bringing in the Godwin's.

It's the only time it's actually relevant ;P

It's a fine example. Just thought it was funny.

Amusingly, Hitler was Gary Gygax's example for both an 18 Charisma and why charisma and physical attractiveness are unrelated.

I'm aware of only a couple things in Pathfinder that can translate into "you're so pretty you actually get a mechanical advantage from it"

1) The Charming trait.

2) Being a Changeling with Green Widow.

Those are the only instances I can think where being pretty in of itself is doing something for you, and they specifically only give you the bonuses against people who find you attractive.

Someone else can probably bring up more.

Half-orcs get the reverse with the intimidating trait, so ugly they get a mechanical advantage.

How hard is it to hide a skeleton?

Not that hard at all, especially if the bones aren't wired together or anything, just dig a hole and bury it or replace a wall with bones on the inside if you want to do the classics.

Personally I think it is better to get rid of skeleton's entirely instead of leaving evidence, but it isn't as easy as you might think. The acid bath is a fine in theory but it actual practice it screws up the plumbing and there is almost always a knuckle or ankle bone that isn't completely dissolved by the acid, and when the plumber finds that it can lead to embarrassing questions. The best thing I've found is to get a band say and spend the hours it takes to convert the skeleton into bone dust (be sure to wear a mask, a skeleton is a lot of bone dust) and spread the dust around town.

Ooops, just read your post. Forget I said anything, I know nothing about disposing of the remains of my victims. Not that I have any victims, but if I had any victims, then I would know nothing about getting rid of their skeletons.

It was the vampires wot did it governor, descended on each city in turn and enthralled all the people before dragging them down to their underground lairs. And did the ghouls who helped them get anything out if it, no, just the bodies of those who resisted.

An infernal healing is not just healing someone, it is healing powered by the raw evil stuff of the pit. When you heal a man with it that disgusting feeling is that raw unadulterated sick of the universe is both binding to your being and re knitting you back together.

I don't understand what you have against the raw evil of the pit, I find the sensation of infernal healing to be rather pleasant, like being gently washed in the tears of children who's parents were just slaughtered in front of them.

Well the problem with the STR based fighter types is that that they are tough and the DEX based ones are rather stringy. Now a wizard or oracle that dumped STR and CON has nice marbling and just melts in the mouth like butter and makes the preferred first target in case the rest run away.

p.s. I don't look at the packaging my meals come in, I look for the BMI and a lack of exercise.

Also be careful about worshipers of Calistria - this one time at band camp we let an inquisitor of Calistria interrogate this guy and she had a four hour torture session in which she forgot to ask any questions.

I was considering becoming an adventurer when guidance counselor told me, "if you are interested in a career as an adventurer you should check out these pamphlets." It was the pamphlet Undead Opponents & the Adventurer that got me interested in my eventual career path.

Depending on how characters got into adventuring it could vary from 5% to 95%. If a character has been trained to be an adventurer since a young age then they would have a pretty good knowledge of monsters, it is an important job skill. If the character was a peasant farmer who no one ever expected to travel more than 5 miles from where she was born before being dragooned into adventuring, then she would have minimal knowledge of monsters and even animals like lions could be unknown or at best known only though campfire tales.

First let me clear up a misconception, ghouls do not dine on the living. Even if we were to somehow get living flesh in our mouths, we would spit it out as it is as inedible as cardboard is to humans and of similar nutritional value (cardboard is much better tasting though). Flesh from the dead is another matter, even freshly killed humanoids are nutritious, although the taste leaves much to be desired. Something happens at the instant of death that renders the flesh edible, some sages believe it is a byproduct of the soul leaving the body while others believe it is some chemical released at the moment of death, personally I could care less what causes it, only that it happens. Ghouls are not parasites on the living like some undead (suck on that cloak boys), but instead are an essential part of well integrated ecology who perform the valuable service to humanoids of corpse disposal.

And what do we do when not engaged in corpse disposal duty or defending ourselves from ignorant adventurers who consider us some sort of monsters? It varies and is really pretty embarrassing, but mostly it's poker. Endless games of poker. I'd be playing poker right now instead of writing except I'm down 4 and 1/2 billion gold and no one feels like extending me anymore credit.