James the Dark's page

Since the question was 'what can't a Natural 20 do', I'll give an answer: Miss an attack against a creature without miss-chance. If it's a twenty on the die, the bugger gets hit. It doesn't matter how special snowflake your big baddie is, he gets hit. Probably won't kill him, but gorramn it all, he's gettin' a sword in the face!

I've got one player in my Kingmaker campaign who swore she would take Leadership at level seven, just so she could have a Kobold buddy. This is mostly due to the fact that they took every opportunity to be diplomatic with the little buggers, and developed a very good rapport with them. But I use them as the quintessential ambush predators. Only, they ambush using low level spells, crossbows, and some of the most devious traps known to humanity.

For reference, in my version of Kingmaker, there is a story told by the Sootscale tribe about the birth of their forebearer, the First Sootscale. He was the runt, deformed offspring of the great black dragon Ilthuliak, and was set upon by his sister Ammouet, but because of Sootscale's cunning, he survived and hid from his sister. But after three hundred years bolstering his numbers, the new Sootscale was set upon by Ammouet once again, but this time, the fight was on Sootscale's terms. It cost most of the tribe, but the scions of Sootscale brought down the black dragon, through cunning and relentless violence. The group ate that story right up when they heard it.

Well, I'm hardly the expert on the gods of Golarion, but from what I've read, Gorum cares more that a small humanoid has the courage and guts to fight than the manner in which that little bugger fights. The aphorism is 'Will you fight?', not 'Will you fight fair?'. It's about courage and resolve. It is not cowardace to punch your enemy in the b~$**!+s if he's trying to kill you, it's just sensible.

I've learned that you can never be sure if your players are going to kill everything in front of them, or make them into pets. I've had a bit of both tonight.

So far in my Kingmaker game, everything non-sapient the group has killed, they ate. Well, with one exception. Because of the large group, I layered a couple templates onto Tuskgutter the boar and turned him into a fey-infested troll-regeneration-bearing monstrosity. They didn't want to eat him after they killed 'im.

Much like that famous test that I can't think of the name of right now... the one where the subject is convinced he's experimenting the value of pain in learning.

The Milgram Experiment, which was ironically designed to disprove the common German servicemens' explanation that their acts of evil were 'just following orders'. At its onset, it was estimated that only roughly 3% of those undertaking the task would see it through to completion. Instead, a remarkable 65% of the subjects did an evil despite only (pitifully) minor coaching by a figure of authority.

Now, taken back into context, this either means that more than half of all people are Evil, or that half of all people have really terrible Will-saves. I doubt its either. Rather, that humans are humans (and demihumans if you so desire). Alignment is just a tool which Paladins can use to see who can be Smote, which I justify as he sum total of a person's beliefs and actions. Do you become evil the first time you stomp a puppy? Probably not. Are you evil if you make a habit of stomping puppies? Yes, probably. There is no tipping point, only a blobby, blurry morass which can be reversed or held, depending on the individual.

It's reasons like this that I prefer nWoD's Morality/Humanity system to D20's alignments, really.

By the progression of the AP, one is supposed to raise armies during module 5, the War of the River Kings. Raising one before then should be possible, but not ideal, since they have immense consumption ratings and cost a bomb.

I'll just chime in on 3. In the first module of Kingmaker, there should be few problems. In the second, immediately ban the withdrawl of BP from the kingdom treasury. If players build their kingdoms around loyalty and economy, they can pillage their national coffers to buy anything they want at whatever level they care to reach. Also, it's just tacky.

1. You can have one city, but theoretically any number of districts (each 6x6 grid constituting a district) in one hex. Of course, since each district is apparently supposed to be a mile to a side, that means there's a cieling of... was it around three hundred districts?

2. As I don't know what the 2.0 rules are, I can't answer that directly. And bear in mind that there are a couple of 'rules patches' in this forum, so please clarify which set you're using.

If you can get ahold of the Bastion Official Soundtrack, I recommend it for ambient music. It's got a very 'frontier' feel to it, and it sets the mood for strangers in a wild land.

The Yet-Unnamed Greenbelt Explorers

Donat Volk = Human Wolf Shaman Druid, a cynical outsider who heeded the call to the charter in no small part to deal with the bloody bandits in the Narlmarches. Is pretty sure Ulfred's going to get himself killed.
Pyter = Elf Divine Hunter Paladin, who is going to 'retire' after only the second session, to be replaced by a fresh minted Aldori Swordlord.
Olga Orlovsky = Half-Elf Ranger, a legitimized daughter from a tryst with an elven diplomat, she was so far out of the line of inheritance that she decided to roll the dice and head out into the wild to earn her own fortunes and glory.
Ulfred Geidie = Human Witch, the sole Arcane caster, and a somewhat selfish brat. He's young, and it shows. Finds Donat humorless, and Sati spooky.
Sativa Badesh = Human Rogue, a Qadiri woman looking for very specific revenge in the Greenbelt, and is otherwise quite closed off. Deals well with Donat since he doesn't ask questions she doesn't want to answer, and she just doesn't talk much.

I like to call it GO-lair-YON, but that's probably because I do the NPC's voices in my mind and right now the campaign is in the Russia analogue.

Shovel. Apply directly to the forehead as needed. Do not exceed two inches of indentation per week, as that might qualify for a depressed skull fracture.

That's one of the tricky businesses of dealing with spellcasters. If they've got the right setup, there is nothing which can stop them definitively and absolutely from spellcasting. A stilled/Silent cast of Freedom of Movement and that wizard's on the loose again. That's why in my experience if they ever come across an opposing wizard, he's dead, decapitated, and on fire, before they move on.

Starting at level 1 and working upward. I know, it's a bit of a range, but I was struck with envy and a touch of ignorance upon looking at the old 3.5 'expected gear/level' tables. Probably capping at 15 to 17, all in the same class if possible, because Grand Hexes are awesome. Essentially, I'm looking for a guideline of where money should go, not a shopping list which I can fulfill immediately.

I'm crafting up a Human Witch to run through a campaign in which he's the only real Arcane Caster in the group. Granted that a lot of his abilities are essentially costless (Hexes, for example), what would a self respecting Witch spend loot on, what would he claim, and what would he need? I don't exactly have a strong grasp of the economy of spellcasters, since I tend to run skill-monkeys, martials, or clerics.

Love fatigued. Being able to keep watch all night and then cure fatigue in the morning gives me the iconic eternal guardian feeling.

At level 6: Remove disease. Why do it once a week, when you can do it 3 or more times a day?

Depending upon the system, it varies. All time favorite? A Demigod of Shi Wang Mu in Scion. 3 years of play, lingering at the precipice of godhood. Pity the World is pretty much on fire all the time and everybody's dying. On a plus-side, I did manage to short-circuit Ragnarok a bit and released Hope into the World from Pandora's Box.

Now, in DnD, the favorite I have is the longest running character I have, which would be Sativa Badesh bin Seema din Nassar, a daughter of Ekbiri traders. Recently married, and recently widowed (since most of her family was slaughtered shortly before play began), she's had to learn a lot of duplicitous talents to survive on her own. She rolls deep in Rogue, but she will be taking a few levels of Paladin along the way.

Good times. If only I can deal with the crazy Elf who kicks prisoners off of cliffs sometimes.