Knight Protector's page

Normally I would stay far away from such topics on a discussion forum, especially one on Paizo. The only reason why I'm responding is to counter the argument that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality. I don't think an argument can be made that homosexuality is not a sin according to the Bible.

While there is a difference between the moral law and the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament, the former transcending all of redemptive history, and the latter being fulfilled in Jesus Christ and thus no longer required, the declaration of homosexuality being an abomination in the sight of the Lord (Lev. 18:22) is that of a moral declaration which continues today.

The idea that one who believes someone's behavior is sinful to God makes them "phobic" is absurd. It would mean that Christians are "sinnerphobic," which means that Christians are afraid of people who sin, and therefore, are afraid of themselves. I guess in some sense that's true. If we are honest with ourselves as fallen humanity, we recognize that we are capable of some pretty evil things.

Since words do not seem to mean anything these days, then I suppose if we're going to simply redefine what a phobia is, then I guess not much can be said about it. A phobia is an irrational fear of something. I don't fear homosexuals. I think that, like those who covet or overeat, they are sinning against God, and I'm the worst sinner I know, because I know myself better than anyone else and how much I fall short of God's standard.

I guess since people are intolerant of Christian beliefs, and are afraid of Christian morality being taught, that would then make them "Christiaphobic," and bigots against Christians?

I won't deny that homosexuality seems to be singled out among the many sins condemned in the Bible, and in a lot of ways that is unfortunate. I think the government getting involved in marriage at all can cause a variety of problems that lead me to conclude that marriage should not be sanctioned by the gov't at all. I don't think it was intended that way by the Founders in the first place. Marriage licenses as we know them today did not come about until after the civil war. Marriage is a biblical concept, and it is something that should be handled and dealt with by the church. I mean, who is the government to declare what a proper marriage is? That, to me, is God's business, and I think it might be a slippery slope to allowing the government to further intrude into our lives than is necessary.

I think Christian beliefs are attacked because of their public involvement in the politics involved with a federal marriage amendment. I think this wouldn't be an issue as much if marriage became a private matter between families and dealt with by the church.

As a Christian, I am very sad to see his passing. I found myself surprisingly in agreement with some of his conservative political beliefs, though obviously in great disagreement over his spiritual ones. Cancer is a deadly thing that I wouldn't wish upon anyone. I found him to be a respectful gentleman, especially in his discourse with Doug Wilson in the Collision film which I would recommend to anyone. I'm sure would I have had the pleasure to know him in person I would say the same.

Ah yes. In a fairly recent campaign, I played an honorable and chivalrous paladin who was charged with escorting the child prince of the kingdom hundreds of miles away in order to protect him from those who would see him dead. My companion and I successfully escaped the elite King's guard, the Reclaimers, who needed to be kept in the dark regarding the danger the prince faced. We avoided their superb tracking skills, and on the way defeated all sorts of creatures and ventured into the plane of shadow and ran up against various minions of Lamashtu, defeating them all fairly handily.

Then we came upon a carnival being held by a local village. My paladin was taunted by an elderly woman who was operating some sort of spinning wheel which was suppose to test your strength. You'd roll a Strength check and then depending on how high you rolled, she would announce to all those present how strong you were. Some other bloke stepped up and rolled and after his result she stated, "Ahh, you are as strong as two men!" Tristan, being the manly paladin stepped up and grabbed hold of the wheel and spun it. I think I rolled a 1. The woman mockingly announced, "Ahhh, you are almost as strong as a single man!"

Yeah. His paladin ego was pretty much devastated. Poor sap.

Wow I just read the OP and all I can say is I feel like I just read one of those nonsensical spam emails.

I'm a Christian and a fan of Paizo. The word does mean play in Greek which is what the New Testament was written in. All I can say is... and your point? This dude seriously needs help though, at least with English grammar, syntax, and coming up with a coherent argument, as I have no clue what he is trying to say.

I've been playing in a long-running albeit seldom meeting epic campaign for the past five years or so. This might be an even better example of 3rd Ed. epic play because the ruleset we're using (still) is 3.0. We started at 16th level and we are now at 24th (I think). It's been a twice a year gig where we head up to a cabin in the woods and just game it up for 3-4 days. We're set to meet up again at the end of next month where we'll be finishing our current DM's campaign and then I'll be picking up the reigns for the next one which will be Pathfinder rules starting at level 15. Anyway, background aside I don't think epic play is 'broken' per se. The Epic Level Handbook is actually a great resource with a lot of good info specific to running epic campaigns.

It does certainly take a higher level of energy for a DM to run an epic game because of how many options are available to the players. With the higher level spells that tend to be "game-breaking" such as teleport, wish, polymorph, etc... there are good ways to handle them, and then there are house rules. Pathfinder has fixed these as far as I'm concerned.

Combat can be a long drawn-out process with iterative attacks, and again, a plethora of options. There are ways to speed things up that work at any level such as having the players determine what they are going to do when it isn't their turn, and then roll for their hits/damage beforehand. One houserule that I picked up from Trailblazer is to reduce the iterative attacks to two with minor penalties to attack. It was designed to speed up play primarily, but also since the system was designed for players to hit often and for lots of damage, it helps smooth things out.

I remember the first session we played, I one-shotted a Nightmare Beast (MMII), the first boss in the campaign with Disintegrate. Again that was 3.0 edition rules, but man was that satisfying! Don't be afraid of the characters dominating some encounters. They are epic! Make sure to put them up against more than one or two monsters, or give them a lot of extra HP and don't afraid to make them tough. Trailblazer has some neat rules for elite and solo monsters which might help with this if you're interested.

It definitely requires an experienced DM to handle epic play, but if you have the motivation and the energy, it can be extremely rewarding. I look back on our 3.0 campaign and there were a few encounters we had where I genuinely felt we were screwed, however after we overcame them, I realized that we were fine. Either way I've had a blast rolling 24d6 damage with an enhanced Ruin spell (Epic level handbook), and yet the creature keeps on coming. Even if it died outright, the satisfying nature of being that powerful is a lot of fun in itself.

We fought two templated Terrasque's in a row and while I wouldn't say they were a cakewalk, they weren't the challenge of a lifetime either. Still, we will always remember those battles because... they were Terrasques! Giving creatures a higher HP certainly helps. I think those things had over 1200.

I'm a part of the camp that doesn't require that D&D be 100% balanced all the time. If the wizard is out-damaging the fighter all the time, then the DM might need to find ways to threaten the wizard. Disjunction, anti-magic fields, you get the idea. High damage and utility is the wizard's schtick. Without it, he's a poor wizard. The fighter can go toe-to-toe with the baddest beasties of the land. Who cares if he's not cranking out as much damage as the wizard? It's about flavor in my mind. If you have players that want 100% balance then you have to do a lot more tweaking, but it can be done. Even so, the fighter-tank of our current group has been out-damaging the wizard (me) on most occasions recently. At one point, he one-shotted a creature with a melee attack which was friggin' awesome. Still, we've gotten pretty beaten up as well.

Ultimately not every DM should probably run epic campaigns, but I think every DM should give it a shot. You really have to go in with certain expectations, the biggest of which is to have fun and not sweat balance too much. If you're a stickler for 100% balance, you might want to stick to lower levels, but you are missing out!

Admins, can you delete this thread?

Well, lets see. You could have him triumphantly arrive at a major city, let's say, Cloud City; the swelling crowd cheering his name as he rides down the streets on a Taun-Taun who is clearly out of his element. Next you could have him summoned to the leadership and given a task to help assist in a major war which has been brewing with a deviously evil BBEG. After the first major victory, he could infiltrate the BBEG's facility and discover that his long-lost son is actually the BBEG himself, fallen from grace. Of course, that's after the hero lops off his head with a light saber.

Next there could be a long hiatus of downtime... let's say about 25 years. After this, the hero is summoned once again to the same city as before and discovers that the zombie-plague has hit the city in full force. He then heads off to visit his old mentor, we'll call him Obi-John-Kenobi about it, but finds that his mentor has slipped off to another star system. The hero, seeking this information, heads off to the star system and ends up meeting some crazy fire-alien in a bar who directs him to the location of where Obi-John has slipped off to.

While seeking the mentor on yet another star system which we'll call Fireplane, he finds that the universe is in danger from an even greater villain than the former BBEG. At this point, the hero needs to unleash legendary Banthas capable of devouring whole worlds in order to stop this new BBEG.

From there, the hero unleashes them and then finds out that Obi-John is actually the former BBEG in disguise so he has to free the real Obi-John and then realizes that his best buddy, Spitbacca is actually a crazy old prophet named Solotannen.

Epic.

OK, I think a similar plot has been used before...

You might need some more help.

Alkir, no problem, thanks for the kind words. I don't want to hold the group up because of my lowered ability to check the forum and participate. Thanks for the offer, things should clear up after the holidays. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Thanks for a enjoyable game everyone.

I'd like to join up in a Pathfinder game, homebrew or otherwise. I'm currently DMing a game for two of my buddies but would like to try playing in a game as well.

Theophilus wrote:

When will the pdf be available? Do you get to download the pdf immediately if you purchase the print copy? I have a camping trip coming up with my friends next weekend and would love to run this but need time to prep.

the PDF becomes available on the street date. You only get the PDF for free 1)when it SHIPs and 2)only if you are a modules subscriber.

Edit: the street date is usually 2-3 weeks after subscribers get it and you can order it in the store.. amazon has the street date for 'hungry' as November 26, 2008

Yeah, answered my own question. Thanks though. I became a subscriber and they prepped it for shipment within a couple hours. I was able to download the pdf right away! Rock on.

When will the pdf be available? Do you get to download the pdf immediately if you purchase the print copy? I have a camping trip coming up with my friends next weekend and would love to run this but need time to prep.

When will the pdf be available? Do you get to download the pdf immediately if you purchase the print copy? I have a camping trip coming up with my friends next weekend and would love to run this but need time to prep.

My gaming group seems to stick to D&D pretty tenaciously, but we sometimes take a break to play board games. Usually, it's Monopoly, since we don't have that many other board games. Thus, I'm looking for suggestions as to what board game(s) you all think are worth the money.

Thanks!

Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition!

My gaming group and I just played this game before our normal session and we had a blast. We look forward to playing it again. It is an epic space conquest game that takes about an hour per player. We played with four. It's worth the time invested though! What an awesome game.

This only proves my suggestion for an edit of the core rules should reflect this possibility if they are to have any claim at universality.

Well, I don't personally see how they would incorporate a monotheistic setting along with a henotheistic setting, which is what D&D actually encompasses. That is, the worship of one particular deity despite there being several actual deities.

I don't think Paizo must make this an option because they are going to do what they feel would be most profitable, and I don't think a monotheistic setting is something that most people want to run or play in. I think if it were done well, however, that many people would want to try it. Unfortunately I don't think there is enough "demand" per se of folks who want this type of setting in order for there to produce a quality monotheistic RPG product.

I pretty much feel it's up to you to houserule that if you desire, which is what I'm doing, because I personally don't think they could do it in a manner that I would find to my liking.

Hey Onion,

I'm actually working on a monotheistic campaign setting right now that actually incorporates some of your suggestions. While I enjoy playing in the traditional D&D setting, as a Christian who actually has a bachelors degree in Bible Science (yes, and I enjoy D&D and play in a group with 5+ Christians who also mostly have Bible degrees), I tend to want to explore a fantasy setting that's based on the Christian world view and since I have yet to find a setting that actually does it justice and seems like it would be fun to play, I decided to work on my own. I did run a monotheistic game with my friends a couple years ago with great success that is still talked about today, however it was very specialized (based in a desert continent and the PCs faced mostly undead) and I wanted to make something more broad and capable of supporting multiple parties and varying adventures.

Currently the way I have it set up is that God, who in this setting is known as Allfather (Have not come up with a proper name yet), is obviously the only supreme, true deity in the world. However, among His people there are various Creeds which have differing understandings of Him. Like our own modern denominations in Protestantism, monetarily speaking, some are "worth" more than others. The Harmonians are strict and focused on the letter of the law (lawful good). They are often legalists. Their qualities include the care of the poor and sick and their intense study and knowledge of the holy documents, however their legalistic mindset often steps in the way which causes them to lose sight of the larger picture. There are also the Freedans who see strict adherence to the law as pure legalism which detracts from the freedom that Allfather has bestowed upon the races of the world. They see the law simply as guidelines to behavior, rather than a literal "you must do this or you are being unfaithful." Characters in the Freedan Creed are Chaotic Good and are able to choose the Paladin of Freedom alternate class found in Unearthed Arcana.

There are other Creeds I am working on, mostly based on real world denominations, even including such groups as the Amish which translates to a Creed that lives in the wilderness, separating themselves from civilization and living entirely off the land. To be a player character in this particular Creed would allow you to visit cities and towns, however you could never stay there long term. Being a resident of Lancaster County, PA, I can tell you that even traditional Amish have no qualms riding in cars, trucks, or even heavy machinery, so long as they themselves do not operate them. They can be quite the legalists themselves, although I think I would leave this aspect to the Harmonians since technology is very low in fantasy settings.

As far as domains go, I am restricting Evil, Destruction, and Death from Clerics of Allfather, however every other domain is available so long as your particular Creed lays hold to it. In other words, Clerics of the Freedan Creed cannot take Law as a domain, for example.

There are other so-called gods and goddesses that are worshiped in the world, however they are in reality fallen angels that present themselves as gods. The reason why they fell was because they sought to deify themselves, jealous of the worship that Allfather declared was reserved for Him only. Allfather permits them to retain their abilities and powers, capable of granting them to mortals, however they will be ultimately accountable for their use of them at the Great Culmination (end of time). This means that these fallen angels are anything but good, or even neutral for that matter, though I haven’t decided yet.

So how do you as the DM work this campaign with an all-powerful, all-knowing divine force capable of doing whatever He wills?

Well, again, I am a Christian and so I believe that there is an omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-benevolent God in this real world of ours. Some pretty awful things happen to even people we consider good, moral individuals even in this world with an all powerful and all good God. It is what has been called the problem of evil, an apparent contradiction which appears when God who is understood to be all-powerful, does not obliterate evil in the world. I’m not going to get into theology on here, but it really comes down to God’s sovereignty – that He is ultimately in control of all things and has even ordained certain things to take place in order to accomplish His will which is always good. An example would be Joseph in the Old T. whose brothers sold him into slavery. The Old Testament specifically states that this occurred in order to save many lives. It was an evil act which the brothers are accountable for which they fully chose to do, however it was ordained by God to occur according to His will, for a ultimately good purpose. In other words there is no contradiction when it is understood that God has a morally sufficient reason for the evil that exists in the world. That hardly does it justice, but at least gives you an idea, and I'm not going to debate on here with anyone about it.

There is another way of doing this that doesn’t require a theology degree, and that is to essentially play in a type of silent years period. After the Old Testament canon was essentially closed, there were 400 years known as the silent years before the coming of Christ. They were called such because no new revelation was coming from God---He wasn’t directly interacting with His people or revealing any new prophecy. This would be a good time for an RPG setting where Clerics are still receiving their spells from God, however He is not directly interacting with the world.

I'm still working on it and there are many things to iron out, but since I found your thread I thought I'd post my ideas to see if that would help you out at all. Granted I understand this is in the context of Pathfinder, I know I will not be using the Pathfinder pantheon when I run the modules, and if you are just using the Pathfinder RPG ruleset, you can easily adapt it to a monotheistic setting like mine.