In_digo's page

Scythia wrote:

Sanmei Long wrote:

From what I've heard, it isn't what people do or don't do that kills them, it's the fact that monsters have a relatively high chance of hitting, critting, and sometimes even killing the PC in one blow -- and that's if they're optimized. Battles are very swingy when optimized (apparently the average chance for a fully optimized character to land a blow or a spell against a same level opponent are never better than 55%) and tend to flatten you if you're not.

I agree. While I didn't have a TPK, I did have to use the dying rules in the very first battle I ran. An enemy had gotten an easy first hit on a PC, then crit on the second.

Any battle since that lasted beyond the first round has involved a PC falling to five or less HP. Enemies are basically stronger and better than PCs, including free magic bonus damage despite not having magical gear.

I can vouch for it not being PF1 assumptions, I didn't use AoO in PF1.

This was our experience with the Lost Star scenario. We never TPK'ed, but it was close a couple of times. Enemies would regularly knock out at least one of our party every encounter. This was even with retreating from the dungeon and healing up in town several times.

For our party healing we had one Paladin with the improved (d6) Lay on Hands. Which is not nearly enough.

We also weren't poring over the rule book trying to build the most optimized characters either. We like to play characters based on them being cool and interesting characters. So we pick skills and feats based on what interests us.

As a result, Drakus could one-round KO any one of our characters. And did so twice. Two hits in the same round, no crit needed. Once was after being hit with enfeebled(2) by the Paladin. That guy was seriously unable to miss our player characters.

I was part of a group that TPK'd during the Lost Star and a lot of this was similar to our experience. One of our members felt we could have beat Drakus if we had rolled less unlucky, but I don't really know if I'm convinced. We just started In Pale Mountain's Shadow and almost every encounter has been whack-a-mole, with the two martial characters quickly dropping and the other two rushing to spend actions to heal them again (we lost two members, so we're down to 4).

Part of my personal goal in joining this playtest was to see how characters that weren't optimized played. I built my characters similar to breithauptclan's group, something that seemed interesting and fun, and could contribute to the party in a few meaningful ways. I was hoping there would be more flexibility for characters like this in Pathfinder 2e, but now I'm getting worried. I thought TPKs and near-TPKs had been much more common but the stats say otherwise.

Welcome, In_digo!

I’ve found the folks on this thread to be wonderful, and elsewhere on these messageboards, generally, when I dabble outside of here and a couple of play-by-post games. I’m a trans woman who’s recently started her transition, and I’d be happy to offer a cheery wave as someone headed in another direction than the one you’re taking, along with some personal experiences, if you think that would be helpful.

I don’t think I could give any serious advice, though. You know what they say: “Go not to the elves for counsel…”...
When you ask about handling transitions, do you mean how one started it, or later steps? Likewise, do you mean coming out, specifically, when you talk about “opening up” to friends/family? To the extent that I can, I’m willing to talk about any of these.

I should confess, though, that I’m a decadent lady who’s never lived beyond commuting distance of Canada’s major metropoleis, so my perspective will definitely be a bit skewed. 400 000 people is a small-ish town (OK, fine, city :) ) from my point of view, for example.

Welcome again, though, and I’m sure others will be happy to offer their salutations soon as well.

Another Canadian, cool! Nice to meet you.

As for the clarification, I'm not looking so much for advice on the medical side of things as I am looking for advice on the social end of the spectrum. Currently, my major concern is how to come out/ what to be aware of while doing it. I've been looking into a few of the community programs downtown Toronto to connect with others like me, but I live pretty far away (about an hour and a half west by transit), so I'm not sure how sustainable that option is. As far as I know, downtown is the best place for those kind of 'meet & greet' options, though.

Welcome, sir!

Thank you for the advice and the links! I'm currently at the stage where two people in my life are aware of my transmale identity (excluding my post on here): My partner, and my therapist. I opened up to my therapist about a year ago, and to my partner about 4-5 months ago. Surgery is definitely a long term goal for me, but being young and still partially dependent on my family's income (I'm currently still a student), I'm saddened to say it may have to wait awhile. A long while. I have pretty right-winged parents, and although they aren't homophobic, they've expressed what I'd describe as 'the minimum standard for being considered open minded' in regards to the LGBTQ community, and I can't imagine they'll be happy with my identity or even take it seriously at all. Coming out to them could either lead to them trying to 'fix' me, or end with me being a homeless, penniless student. I can hope they will accept me, but I just don't really believe it.

I think I'll be going the route you did, and come out to friends at first. I have my partner to support me, so I'm planning to do it face to face. That way I can build up the courage to eventually tell my folks.

It's definitely a relief to speak to someone who's gone through the same transition (well, sort of). I spent a lot of my Gender Dysphoria questioning whether or not I was 'just crazy' for feeling this way. I'm all to happy to leave those thoughts behind.

So I've been lurking this thread for awhile, and now that I finally have the courage to post something…
Hi.
I currently identify as transmale, and I'm in the process of opening up to the people I trust & reaching out to communities about my transition. I'm not at the point where I'm ready to be fully open, but getting there is a goal of mine. I'm stuck between wanting to share my self discovery with the world, and feeling the need to cover it up as much as possible, so that i don't lose people in my life (namely, family).
I don't have very many non-cis non-hetero friends in my circle, and I've grown up with very little influence beyond the cis-straight-white community (lived in a small town my entire life, and in fact, during my high school years there was controversy over the drama club performing a play that brought light to the prosecution of homosexuality. Sigh), so this transition has been mostly me trying to 'figure stuff out' on my own.

I guess I'm looking for advice, and/or personal experiences here. How did you handle/go about the transition? How did you open up to friends/family? What was their reaction?

Also, being really foreign to the LGBTQ community, I apologize if I use any terms/ say anything that's considered inappropriate. Or seem completely out of the loop on stuff.

Edit: Also, I'd like to thank Crystal for making up an item for FtM PCs in the Shaman thread, just based on my request. You're absolutely wonderful :)

DAMIEL! <3
I hope Wizkids will be able to reproduce the quality paint jobs we see here.

Mulibrous Tincture

** spoiler omitted **...

Crystal, do you know if there are any plans to release a similar official substance for those who are looking for a FtM transformation?

F. Wesley Schneider wrote:

We had a lengthy discussion about Damiel in the lead up to defining our new iconics. While Damiel made an okay option if we wanted to retcon one of the existing iconics into a transgender character, it would be a retcon. Also, if you read Damiel's backstory, you'll see he's not necessarily a nice person, and that he's on pretty shaky mental footing. That's not the way we wanted to represent our first transgender iconic.

Rather, than trying to shoehorn an iconic into a role, we opted for a specific, strong, and positive characterization. Something Crystal has achieved here brilliantly.

All that being said, alchemists would make strong choices for characters with similar backgrounds. You'll see why when the Advanced Class Guide debuts.

Wes and I had a very long discussion about which iconic to go with (and I really appreciate being a part of that discussion), and touched on Damiel for a while. It would have been nice to have a trans man character after the excellent representation trans women got with Annevia, but we were worried about Damiel's past making it look like we were painting all trans men as sociopaths. In the end, we settled on the shaman because of the religious role of gender-variant people in many different historical cultures.

I especially appreciate that our first trans iconic was intentionally trans from the outset, rather than being retconned in later. I also appreciate that Paizo felt accurate representation was important enough that they not only sought out a trans woman to write her, but a trans historian (not to toot my...

Wow, thanks for the information guys! I didn't think we'd find out whether or not our speculation was accurate (or at least, not this soon).

And actually, my favourite character to date is my FtM Alchemist. Sadly, that Serpent's Skull game got put on hold...

Crystal Frasier wrote:

Shardra Geltl: Great Iconic, or Greatest Iconic?

As a trans person who plays Pathfinder, Greatest. Thank you Crystal and anyone else involved in her creation!

+1. Great job, Crystal!

I like the iconics >.> They give us fan girls/boys something to fuss over.

It would probably be most effective to just put a time cap on how often a new account can post. You don't want to punish a new player who's just joined the forum to ask a question, who finds out that they aren't eligible to make even one thread.

I assume they mean "quit buying the specific Pathfinder books that have this kind of thing in", because quitting the entire game over a specific adventure path and the support material for it seems kinda extreme.

True. Although if that's what they're implying, then I'm kind of confused why they'd post at all. I don't go to every product I unsubscribe for and post about it.

Anyways, not important. Technology supplements, yay!

Edit:

It's happened.

Well, that just seems like a sad way to miss out on awesome Pathfinder stuff.

Seriously, there's people here who will quit playing Pathfinder, JUST because they've released some stuff you aren't interested in? That seems a little over-dramatic.

I've actually... never had a bad GM. I've had ones I don't agree with, but I wouldn't call them 'bad'. Every GM I've had has put a lot of effort into what they'd prepared, and ran a pretty fair game (Guess I'm lucky :) ).

Bad players, however...
We usually figure those out pretty fast. Me being the usual Gm (and, being a female), issues tend to arise quickly with douchebags, and they get asked to leave. Neither I, nor my boyfriend, are willing to tolerate that. Coincidentally, players with poor attitudes tend to have poor play styles that none of the other players enjoy, either. So it works out :)

Flaky players will be flaky. Set a start time, and start at that time. He can jump in an hour and a half later than everyone else.
Worked for our group!

Hey folks, I have a question for you: What is the one question you have about androids that you would like to see addressed in an article about androids? (I won't be answering those questions here, at least not until an article comes out.)

To manage expectations, I may not be able to answer all of the questions asked for whatever reason.

Nighttree has most of the questions I'd vote for. Personally the most interested in how they view other races (and how races view them). Will they also have the 'how Androids fit into different classes' section, seen in the companion line?

Newly, sorry to see that you're having these issues with your group. I know how it feels to have people turned on you unfairly after a disgruntled friend rampages through the internet with half a story.
If you're players are really this upset and unwilling to speak directly to you about it, maybe consider taking a break for awhile and letting them run their own game.

My boyfriend is currently looking at playing a Nightskulk in my RotRL campaign, and after reading through these comments I may be making some house rules (didn't realize they got negatives to Cha while shapeshifted - doesn't really seem appropriate. As a GM, I think I'm fully capable of role playing NPC reactions to a scary rat man, thank you very much).
I'm thinking of dropping the penalty and instead swapping it for a +2 BONUS to intimidate checks, similar to the feral mutagen Alchemists get. That way he doesn't get penalized for picking something he likes, as opposed to picking a generic human.

I have an item I'll be submitting this year, too. My only goal is to get it into the contest right now.
Starting small! Heh :)

Paizo doesn't have an official way of blocking a poster, but there are third party applications.

For instance Ignore

I know I'm going to be shot down for this, but I can't help but keep thinking 'Master of the Mana Wastes' for this class.
Come on, doesn't this just scream Primalist caster?

There's a difference between a useless company who doesn't care about customer service and a company who's having issues, but trying their best to alleviate them.
They're trying their best, guys. Give them a bit of a break.

How about slimes, oozes and swarms? That would be cool :)

Or familiars and animal companions?

(of course, the issue with those is that they won't have quite the draw that undead and goblins do)

Familiars/ animal companions/ summon sets seem to be a pretty popular suggestion, actually.

I don't like Tieflings.

I never understood why people liked the artificer now if we had a engineer/inventor class that deals with gadgets like Edger from FFVI or can make golems/robots/clockworks/constructs and/or can use bombs that would be interesting.

I could totally see an Engineer class combining Summoner and Alchemist ideas, hopefully with a gunslinging archetype (like the Swashbuckler).

Well, I'm a stuffy rules-lawyer lore obsessed person (or at least I used to be :P), but I finally realized as a GM, I needed to step back, take a deep breath, and just let the players have fun.
Currently I have a RotRL party consisting of 3 Vanaras, 1 Kitsune, 1 Elf, and a lonely Human (who originally wanted to be a Hobgoblin, I talked him out of that just because I didn't want to have to role play excessive hate towards a player. Not fun times). Only one of them so far has explained to me in any detail why the heck their character is there (which makes me still grind my teeth a bit >.>) but overall, it's actually been really fun.
The players have had the opportunity to approach all the challenges so far in completely different ways than I've anticipated (due to the climb. Always the climb!), and this has actually saved them from more than one party wipe.
I'd say give them all a chance to play something weird, even if just for a module. Maybe you'll find you have a change in heart after you experience it.

Hehe, I like how I started a discussion on how Kobolds could exist in the crusades. Keep going, you're making it easier to make my case ;)

... well, I'm just excited that that traits can be tailored with ease. Means I can play my Kobold Paladin without having to explain how generations of my family were in the crusade.
>.>
<.<

One thing Erik mentioned at the banquet last night, but doesn't above, is that they're hoping to have another set out by the end of the year...

Yikes. Not sure if I can keep affording that.

Kor - Orc Scrollkeeper wrote:

Funky Badger wrote:

Kor - Orc Scrollkeeper wrote:

Fact: Most gamers are male, and most of those play male characters.

You're confused about what "fact" means.

And also wrong.

You seriously need to attend GenCon at least once before you make such contradictory statements. It's a fact.

No, it's not a fact. Con attendance is not representative of who actually plays games, any more than posting demographics on a forum are an accurate microcosm of who actually reads a forum. In both cases, you're looking at a highly self-selecting group that is choosing to be visible.

Also some of us females can't afford to attend cons/don't have the time to attend cons...

There isn't! Like all things it's relative. I would guess, though, that (to avoid danger of stirring up the optimize vs role-play argument/fallacy/debate/whatever) a Power Gamer is more a case of attitude to play than anything else.

A power gamer plays primarily to make his character THE most bad-ass powerful they can be, more powerful than the rest of the party and certainly more powerful than anything the DM can throw at them. Role-play be dammned, this guy (or girl) just wants everyone else to be in awe of them.

Note that Power Gaming and optimization are NOT the same thing. A power gamer can be a terrible optimizer, as well as a terrible role-player. The point here is, the power gamer's main motivation is power beyond everyone else's, not role-play, while an optimizer is often interested in role-play and isn't bothered if other players have PCs as good as his own.

+1. It's all about the attitude.

Power Gamers are the type of players that get angry at the GM because they're character almost drops in a fight. Power Gamers are the ones that make comments like "that's a stupid idea" when other players try and do things IG that don't directly benefit their character. Power Gamers are the ones that brag to the table about how wicked powerful their character is, how the other players aren't doing it right, and if you think there's anything wrong with their behaviour, well then you're unmistakeablely the jerk, not them.

Grats guys! If we're ever in the area, you can guarantee we will stop by!

*Waits patiently to have her new demons and demon templates*
... :)

I'm getting confused here. Why are we talking about men vs. women? Is there a female in their group?
I read through that conversation and he doesn't really seem to have a lot of respect for the other players. Either there's another issue that's causing friction between the two members or UP is really overreacting.

I was lucky for the first two sets, I got no broken figures. This time however...
I got a medium air elemental that fell of its base, and a Wyvern that fell of its base. I was able to glue both back on easy enough, so no issue there.

My last breakage was Koriah Azmeren, who lost an arm in the package. I haven't decided if I'm going to send that one to Wizkids or attempt to glue it on myself...

My Top Ten Reasons Some People Hate Paladins:

5. Nobody likes folks who are "better" than they are, and paladins undoubtedly are.

Half of me wonders if this is a more OOG problem. I once had an experience in a group where another player got seriously offended when we all tried to explain to him his character was more Neutral than Good due to his actions (refusing to help anyone without being paid money), and this wasn't even a class that had alignment restrictions. Later on, he showed all of us that he was actually incredibly insecure with himself, and it was pretty clear he had taken the "non good" alignment thing personally.

A solution to looting could be to instead apply the items to accounts as "skins" that can be placed on a weapon, so even if your weapon is looted, you can get another weapon and place the "skin" on it again.

I am not that barbaric!

Just look at her "clothes" how...artistic?
She needs to meet a real tailor.

:)

Ninja'd

But why does such mimicry of reality annoy you?

Ehh... I guess for silly feminist reasons :) Yes, a female barbarian iconic was definitely a good step... But a little more muscle would have been nice. I'm not saying body builder or anything, but something that at least implies she can use that sword. Muscles can be just as sexy as super skinny women!

One player talking about the party Kitsune currently in 'human' disguise:
"Hmm.. She doesn't talk much... I don't trust her... She's going to end up being the boss, isn't she?!"
Kitsune player: "and this isn't even my final form!"