Larkos's page

Well, given the backstory for the Lashunta, I would expect their skin coloration to tend towards camouflage colors. . . albeit camouflage by Castovelian standards.

That's an interesting thought. They are slightly insectile with their antennae so having skin match environment is feasible. Since Castrovel is a jungle, the idea of them having their skin match sunlight intake so it being like that theory about Human skin tone evolution is right out. They would be black in Pathfinder instead of white. So your conjecture is more likely.

So them being white or light pink means that the environment of Castrovel would have something white for them to blend into. The planet is called "The Green" so they should be greener I think.

Then again, they now have the bioengineering to control what subspecies a child turns to so the idea that they can change skin tone to whatever they'd like it is also valid.

dont forget teh male lashunta that's next to the other lashunta in the rulebook

I didn't. I just couldn't get a good linkable picture of him. He's also the same coloring as the female.

There's a male lashunta sniper in the Pact Worlds section of the campaign setting chapter. And a few others scattered here and there in various rules chapters, I think.

On pg. 429? I think that's actually Raia though it is a clearer shot. That has her as grayish white.

So what exactly is the range of colors a Lashunta can come in?

Pathfinder has them as mostly white and light pink from what I can find

This Lashunta from Children of the Void (2008) is maybe light pink but looks fairly Caucasian.

This Lashunta from the Gamemastery guide (2010) is flat out Caucasian-looking.

This Lashunta from the cover of Distant Worlds (2012) is also white especially in comparison to the two creatures.

This Lashunta from People of the Stars (2014) is far more pink than her predecessors.

The we flash forward to Starfinder (2017) where we only have two Lashunta to go off of.

First is our lovely Iconic Technomancer, Raia. She is grayish-green from what I can tell. She appears to be wearing makeup and has a glow from the Hologram on her arm making it hard to pin down the color. Either way, she is not white.

The only other Lashunta in the book is a mechanic. She is more gray than Raia and also certainly not Caucasian.

The ones from the Lashunta Page which I can only find the female of online (surprise surprise) are more pale brown than gray or white.

So what is the range? Are there black Lashuntas? Are there more fantastical colors like blue or full green?

Anyone have any better sources than I can find?

What caused Nethys to become saner? #theGap?

Does that mean that his insanity made magic stronger? Now that he's just a secretive dude, he won't let people have 7-9 level spells?

Why did he clearly demarcate divine, arcane, and psychic then but have them mushed into a flavorless lump now?

Corset of Dire Witchcraft or the Cackling Hag's Blouse

Happy 4th of July to all!

-Posted with Wayfinder

"Love is not the emotion your face inspires in me," Grelda says to Richard, overhearing his comment.

"Oh good, it's not just me then."

-Posted with Wayfinder

Avenger Vigilante isn't fighter+ per se. For an intelligent, rough-and-tumble leader of men that's the Vanguard Slayer.

Yes it won't win the DPR Olympics but it has combat boosters, the same HD and BAB, good fort and reflex save, initiative bonus, the ability to hand out teamwork feats, and enough skill points to really keep up with some of the other faces. It certain beats the Lore Warden and Duelist for Intelligent Fighter in my mind.

Avenger Vigilante is instead Swashbuckler+. Again it won't win a pure damage game but it is the highly mobile frontliner that the Swashbuckler was promised to be.

With close the gap and mad rush, it can move while keeping damage and without sucking a million AoOs. It has a good reflex will save, good amount of skills with in-class boosters to face skills, and full bab.

This is more inline with the root of both classes: The Scarlet Pimpernel. Note that I have only seen the stage play Percy is an excellent talker and can hold his own in a sword fight but is outmatched by his nemesis who is a career soldier. It's Percy's quick-thinking and ability to lead that wins the day rather than skill-at-arms.

Will do but I'll have to wait until after work. Just got Wayfinder so I can still post but changing my alias is far more difficult.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Mine all mine...don't touch wrote:

Can we get pronunciations on the iconics? I am seeing "I seff" but my friends are saying "I sep"

I believe it's pronounced "0100100101110011011001010111000001101000."

For those too lazy to google, that string of 0 and 1s converts to Iseph in binary.

Would still like a Taldane pronunciation of her name though. That is if Taldane is still Common.

The half-casters usually have class features to help them along. Bards and Skalds have bard song to boost their attack and damage. Inquisitors have bane, judgments, teamwork feats, and possibly inquisitions. Summoners have their Eidolons which the player controls. Magi have their arcane talents and touch attacks. Hunters have their animal companions and teamwork feats.

Really the Warpriest is the only one who relies on his spells to boost attack and damage. They have fervor to make things easier. Their sacred weapon and armor does alleviate things but they're limited. However, after playing a Warpriest from lvls 12-16. I can say that I used spells outside self-buffing and had a fun time. I was valuable outside of combat.

It's kind of head-scratching to me that what should have been an alternate class feature available to all Vigilantes is limited to just one archetype - and one that doesn't really fit the general MG theme in the first place.

A transformation sequence isn't thematic to Magical Girls?

Further, if all it takes is "But it's for a good cause" to tack something down to Neutral, then basically its carte blanche for people to do anything they want providing there's a vaguely justified window dressing for it.

Bamboo shoots under the orc's fingers? Hey we needed to know where the raiders were coming from!

Slaughtering all the civilians in that village controlled by the dark wizard? We're cutting off his supplies and saving lives in the long run!

Summoning a legion of undead? Well they're only being used to fight the demon hordes...

Sacrificing 20 virgins to complete my lich ritual? Just think of all the good I can do as an immortal skeleton wizard!

Trust me, I'm at least a neutral guy here!

BRB. Conquering the Heavens for the Greater Good!

TN = Best N

I'd give the the magical child the cleric spell list to represent the often light-based, angelic themed powers that magical girls get. Either that or the bard list to represent their musical talents.

B!&$!%+s!

I guess we could RP "offscreen" in the meantime?

By this I mean kinda talk in-character around a fireplace without being specific about when it happens. Maybe this happened the last time we camped or something.

*bursts down your door*

Nobody expects the Calistrian Inquisition!

We heard you weren't thinking lustful thoughts and were considering only engaging in sex after marriage. The rack should straighten you out! And by that, we mean we're going to have you touch the rack of the bustiest inquisitor until you start acting more Calistrian!

Our chief weapon is boobs! And dick! And ruthless foreplay! And an almost fanatical devotion to wasps.

Our chief weapons are boobs, dick, ruthless foreplay, and an almost fanatical devotion to wasps.

diabolical laughter

Time to sacrifice a virgin to the Random Dice god so Alata can start hitting things.

By the way, Gene and the Elemental should be an folk-alternative band a la Mumford & Sons.

Technically, Targan and Yoshi have not formally said their names to anyone. Targan would be known to the NPCs but not the party. I hate just saying "Dwarf" or "Elf" because that would be incredibly rude in real life. So please say your names out loud so our characters know who you are, lol.

BINGO!

I don't know where you've been but I hit bingo months ago...

Lol good TFS reference there Akkad.

But seriously how big is the house? It will influence how Alata reacts to it.

I like the Golarion pantheon for the most part but I've been thinking of house ruling two things.

First, all favored weapons should be martial. It really sucks to play an Inquisitor or a cleric of say Asmoedeus or Pharasma and get stuck with a simple weapon while other deities get everything from longswords to spiked chains.

Second, I would add a god of thieves. While Calistria and Norgorber cover some of that, there is no true god of thievery. I've been thinking of stealing (pun intended) the Crooked Warden from Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastards series. That way there IS a thief deity, but few know about it.

Agree with the first one but Norgorber under the Gray Master persona is the god of thieves directly. I think there should be a good counterpart even if they're just a demigod but ol' Norgie's gotcha covered.

Gorum is about conflict. When you get down to it, the only sensible thing to worship is conflict. Death can be overturned, time is mutable, love can turn to hate, rage can be quelled, nature burned, cities destroyed, order can be built over chaos and all orderly system tend towards chaos. In the end, conflict is the only thing that is eternal.

Yes, eventually you will die a final death due to old age. But what happens then? Pharasma judges you then you go to your afterlife where you may be eaten which is a conflict. You may become an outsider and be drafted into millennia-old war. Even if you die, conflict survives. Should Groteus ever get off his fat ass and end the universe, who's to say that will actually end anything? Life sprang from the mysterious Source before; why wouldn't it do so again? And in that new universe, there shall be conflict.

Thus Gorum teaches to embrace this conflict rather than pull the wool over your eyes and pretend that peace is achievable or even preferable. All peace is but a truce at best and a deflection at worst. Even if you stop a major war, there will still be fighting afterwards. Banditry often rises during times of war, the soldiers who celebrated "peace" would have to march home and fight another battle. Or they would return and prepare for a future fight. Should they retire to work their farms, they must fight the soil for their yield. Ever tried plowing? It's very difficult even with modern tools. A medieval fighter had to fight the land itself in order to survive.

So Gorum's conflict is not "pointless." In fact, it's the only thing that matters. Yes destruction happens but he isn't stupid. Gorum would not have you destroy all for no reason. He expects victory, not annihilation.

Now to actually answer the question. Groteus is boring to me. He's just the angry moon from Majora's Mask. His clergy is just those guys with the "End is Nigh" signs who scream at people on street corners. Yawn. At least Pharasma's clergy is dickish in a way that could make them good villains.

Vampires can breed as shown in Wes Schneider's Bloodbound, my favorite in the Pathfinder Tales line.

Yes, Vampires shouldn't biologically be able to breed. They also shouldn't biologically be able to exist.

They've always been wrapped up in sex, lust, and rape as themes for their literature. Of course, pregnancy is going to happen in some of the stories.

Frankly, I'm okay with female vampires giving birth if only because it's far more uncommon. PCs should be interesting and try to be unique after all.

About the leaf armor: Druid. Some a@+*+&* GMs will get on your ass about the studs being metal so it counts.

It also works for primitive nature peoples who have magic.

I'm not sure if I have Bingo in this thread just yet...

Just saying it'd be a little weird for me to suddenly switch sexes.

I would suddenly get breasts...

Bandw2 wrote:

i still say we need a fighter who can reliably topple a nation state

To be fair, a chained rogue with rumormonger can probably manage that, it still doesn't make the chained rogue a particularly good adventurer compared to its peers.

Hence why chained rogues are a tier higher. They fall under the can do many things but none very well mold.

I made some for the Evil Eye witch hex:

AC: Let their body grow weak, let their guard be dropped, Let their defenses be broken, Let not a blow be blocked.

Attack: Let their blades be broken, Let their arrows be dulled, Let their eyes be blinded, Let their rage be lulled.

Saves: Let their minds be weakened, Let their bodies be sapped, Let their courage whither, Let their senses be trapped.

Ability Checks: Let their strength flee, Let their hands fumble, Let their minds forget, Let their will crumble
.

Skill Checks: Let their feet stumble, Let their knowledge be unknown, Let their presence die, Let their weakness be shown.

I vote for NE.

A Lawful character may do Evil because he is just following orders. It's often forgotten that alignment also describes the mooks. They are the guys on the ground who actually pushed the Jews (et al.) into the camps. They didn't get the idea to on their own; they only had the capacity to do it. They needed to orders to have Evil be done.

A Chaotic character might do Evil because he is outright insane. A man who could be described more as a beast than a human - a character like Sabretooth - does as he pleases without truly thinking it through. They could be therefore guided towards non-Evil things through appeals to simple desires like offering money, sex, or food in exchange for restricting kills towards specific undesirables like enemy combatants or criminals.

A Neutral character does Evil only because he wishes to. He may have orders but he can ignore them to do further evil. This can mean torturing or raping a prisoner with being told to. But since they are non-chaotic, they are more likely to forgo a kill to inflict non-lethal cruelties. They extend the Evil in this way.

Neutral evil represents pure evil without honor and without variation.

Neutral Evil is Pure.

From a Pathfinder Cosmological sense, Daemons are the grandest threat. The Devils would only to rule everything. If everyone perfectly obeyed then they would be happy. The Demons want to destroy things and lives but it will leave some people and things alone so they can rebuild and knock those things down later. There is still life afterward.

It is the Daemon that offers the perfect ideal of Evil: selfish, destructive, and violent. They want to destroy all creation, including themselves. The last Daemon will look upon the emptiness of a universe devoid of creation and know the final peace right before it commits suicide to forever rid the universe of the possibility of Life, Goodness, and Beauty.

Is 'Arbitrary' like, the new word for "My GM said I couldn't use a rules exploit to destroy game balance, and I'm sour about it", or something? It seems like I've been seeing talk of 'arbitrary' GM rulings more and more lately.

Well, something I like that a number of people apparently don't, then: I like a supposedly 'arbitrary' GM who knows how to put their foot down and says "No, I'm banning your convoluted exploitation of the rules" when a player is clearly just trying to be as overpowered as they can get away with.

Yeah, screw GMs for making arbitrary decisions about the games they arbitrate. Who died and made them the arbiter of the rules of Pathfinder?

I'm tired of only a few weapons being viable.

Casting guns aside for a second as the only really work with one class under the rules most people play with, there are only two ranged weapons worth using: Composite Shortbow and Composite Longbow. Crossbows requires a ton of feats or the very specific gunslinger archetype to make them even halfway usable. And they will lose to the bow. I understand the bow is a more heroic weapon. From Robin Hood to Katniss Everdeen to Hawkeye, it is a weapon of choice for many heroes. Crossbows don't get many outside of vampire hunters and even then they tend to be repeating crossbows (like Van Helsing), which require a special feat or the Inquisitor class in this game.

Thrown weapons are right out without the exact right build and magic item (blinkback belt.) Without the belt which prevents physical stat raising in non-ABP games, you can't affordably use magic daggers which are required by later levels. You could enchant four or so daggers but you'd have to spread out the cost and lose out on powerful effects. Or you can enchant all of them on lose out on magic items and enchanted armor.

For one-handed melee weapons, you have one or two weapons that are good in your level of proficiency. Rogues should always pick a short sword or rapier (maybe a dagger if you're a Knife Master.) Clerics should always pick a Morningstar unless your god(dess) gives you a better proficiency which many don't. Hells, Pharasma's favored weapon is one you're already proficient in and I don't think she's the only one.

Full Martials should always pick a longsword or scimitar. Both are excellent weapons in real life and were indeed used in the period. But people had a large variety of weapons used for many reasons. Maces or warhammers are hardly used except at lower levels to deal with DR/bludgeoning. Axes are even less used because their DR breaker is the same as the longsword and scimitar. You can throw axes better but, as established, thrown weapons suck.

Side note: shields are utterly b&#@+!&s too. AC in general is near-useless and shields are huge reason why. It's actively better to forgo the shield bonus and use your shield to attack. You know what Knights with a sword and no shield were called in the Medieval Ages? Dead.

For Two-Handed, there's the greatsword and the Earthbreaker. And the Earthbreaker is there purely for bludgeoning. Greatsword is mathematically superior.

Exotic weapons have the falcata and the Elven Curve Blade which both eat a feat without racial proficiencies. But I'm less mad about this one as these weapons require special training by their nature and should have a build around them anyway.

Notice I left out spears and lances. That's because it's the single area that infuriates me most. Why is the single most used weapon in history and before it so useless in this game? Reach weapons are better in theory for the same reason as real life: I can kill you over there before you can kill me over here. But after eating a single attack, a guy with a sword and a very common feat line (Step Up et al.) can utterly shut you down. There exist few archetypes or special feats for spear too and they are underpowered.

In order to do something as basic as wield a spear in one handed without eating massive penalties, you have to be a specific Fighter Archetype. The name of the archetype, Phalanx Fighter, shows that the writer know that people knew how to handle a spear in one hand before the morningstar was even invented.

To choke up on a spear so that you can hit someone five feet in front of you requires a separate Fighter archetype that doesn't stack. And that requires a massive penalty especially at level 2 when you get this ability. Sure it gets better as your level but it's still bad through the levels that most people play at.

I get that they're probably trying to avoid the silliness of a person charging in with two spears a flurry poking people to death. But if you allow that people can wield two shields then you can allow two spears. Or you can say that you can wield a spear in one hand as long as the other hand wields a shield or is free just like with lances and being on horseback. Switching grips can take an immediate action.

I'm not saying that the options listed above (Long/Shortbow, Longsword, Scimitar, Rapier, Greatsword, etc.) are overpowered or cannot lead to good characters. I'm saying that the fact that these choices are so mathematically superior to all other options within the general build that it leads to samey looking characters and cuts off interesting weapon choice.

I blame the general heroic stereotypes. Heroes wield swords or bows. Maybe a big brute wields a greathammer. Thieves use shortswords or daggers. Priests wield maces. The weapons that are really shafted relative to their historical popularity (Crossbow and Spear) are ones more often used by peasants or lowered class soldiers. So if you have a character with a background as a peasant, conscript, town guard, or other lower class warrior, I hope they drop their spear and learn to wield a sword quick.

Best Core race, Flavor wise, is the Halfling. It's nice to be happy-go-lucky and personable to counter all the loners with a tragic backstory

Best non-core is too close to call. I do the love the Aasimar/Tiefling but I think I'll have have a special place in my heart for the Changeling. Yeah they are a bit pigeonholed storywise but it's also a great story that can be subverted nicely.

Least favorite is the g$$$!#ned Gnome. First off, they shouldn't even be a core race. Core races are supposed to be flexible and iconic. Even Dwarves, which are far more iconic in fantasy fiction, have more options. The racial traits compel you to be a jackass illusionist prankster. Secondly, when people praise 4th ed. for removing something, you know it's bad.

To counter the hate of Catfolk, I offer the fact that you don't have to play an Anime character; you can be ears-and-a-tail, Thundercats, or Khajit. Also I don't care if someone does want to play an Anime catgirl so long as they know what game they're actually playing. Don't expect the world of Pathfinder to cater to Anime tropes.

As for Drow, don't let them be the brooding race-traitor anti-hero. Let them be so much more interesting.

Wendigos

They're straight out of the scariest Native American myths and badass. Just one is CR 17 and they have powerful variants. What makes them scary is that they have the intelligence and tools to haunt a party, not just destroy them.

They harass and harry a party, seeking to change one of them into a Wendigo themselves. The process of becoming one involves eating a close friend or loved one.

Today PrCs are best used for their original purpose of flavoring NPCs.

I understand why people think a paladin or inquisitor would have a defined role in society and in the church of the god(dess) they worship. There is a real, in-world difference between them and a cleric or non-magical priest. They receive power from a deity.

What that means vis-à-vis society depends on how that god(dess) is viewed. A cleric or inquisitor of Asmodeus in Cheliax is going to be viewed differently than a cleric of Milani or even of Abadar.

Does this give you actual authority? That again depends on the type of nation you're in. Certainly not in Rahadoum but in a theocracy it should. The aforementioned advice about actually roleplaying and talking with your gm is sound and should be done regardless of class. But don't look down on people for assuming things that are easy to infer.

Alkenstar and the Mana Wastes could work too. They have a toxic environment and mutated wildlife.

Flanking bothers me.

Imagine a situation where King Arthur is dueling the evil Mordred. Sir Lancelot comes up behind Mordred and starts hitting him. Mordred now has to split his focus between the two righteous warriors thus lowering his AC. So far so good.

Now Guinevere decides that she doesn't want to just be a damsel in distress and takes the fight to Mordred as well. She took some levels in rogue as she had to hide her martial prowess in a male-dominated world. So since Mordred has his attention split, it is logical that Guinevere should have a bonus to hit him and be able to pinpoint his weak points thus allowing a sneak attack, right? Wrong.

Not only is Mordred so perfectly focused on her that he has no loss to AC against her, he can also perfectly covers all of his vital areas so as to deny her the ability to sneak attack. He also receives no penalty against his other two attackers for dividing his attention further despite the fact that he lost AC for having two attacks. Two is a problem, four is a bigger problem, but three is perfectly manageable.

To take it even further, Sir Percival has taken up a bow within 30 ft of Mordred and across from Guinevere. He took some levels as a Vanguard Slayer and wants to sneak attack since Mordred is distracted. With three opponents, Mordred should be wide open, right? Wrong again.

Mordred can not only perfectly cover all his weak points from Guinevere; he can, at the same time, cover all his weak points from Percival as well. Neither of them gets an attack boost or the ability to sneak attack. And this again does not cost him anything in his fight against Arthur or Lancelot.

TL;DR Flanking has too many arbitrary conditions that especially screw over rogues.

What Devil would be best for selling one's soul to in exchange for power a la the Warlock? The Phistophilus (Contract Devil) can give you Wishes which is great but temporary. Can you use the Infernal Slave contract to gain magical power (not necessarily for a warlock)?

Guided Hand? My friend did a cleric of Shelyn but it wasn't very good. We were all inexperienced. I can tell you based on that to never focus on channeling. It just isn't worth it.

Don't get trapped into healing in combat. An emergency channel here and there isn't so bad but ultimately it won't scale with damage.

Low str, high dex for a combat reflexes reach-focused build for the glaive might work. Guided hand helps with the to-hit. Have a backup mace handy. Keep power attack. Buff yourself accordingly. Even Shelynites aren't afraid to bash in a few faces to save others.

Serious question here: why do people leave the mounts behind to go underground? Why don't the GMs just make the dungeons bigger?

I've read official Paizo stuff that has the Darklands be big enough for Duergar riding giant spiders and such. Why can't the cavalier bring his horse?

I understand that realistically a horse would not want to go underground which is why Aragorn sent his horse away before Moria but Pathfinder is way more high fantasy. The cavalier horse is supposed to be be basically a super horse. That's why it levels with the cavalier.

Dungeons should be bigger anyway because Cavaliers aren't the only ones with animal buddies. Druid, Hunter, Ranger, and Summoner all have theirs so why shouldn't dungeons be big enough to accommodate them? Unless you're going into a peasant cellar to clear out giant rats then you should be able to handle it.

I kinda hate flanking and how sneak attacks are limited. One of the big things that was keeping rogues down is that they can't apply their sneak attack and therefore 90% of their combat utility reliably.

As the system stands, I could have the Mountain that Rides in my face with Bruce Lee punching me in the back and face a penalty to my AC. This is fair as I'm dividing my concentration to defending against two foes. But, while the two are fighting me, if Frodo attacks me from the side, I can apparently put all my concentration into defending my weak spots allowing him no chance to sneak attack me or even get a bonus to hit me.

In the same scenario, with all three attacking me, if Samwise Gamgee decides to help his small-sized friend directly across from him by throwing a knife at me, I can also divert all my attention to blocking that dagger so as to not expose myself or drop my guard in anyway.

In the next round, Bruce and Gregor get a bonus to hit me as I'm so distracted but Frodo still doesn't and neither does Sam. How does this make any sense?

Wouldn't it make more sense for Frodo to have a flanking bonus too? I think his should be even better. Sam should be also able to SA. I'd being willing let Sam not get a bonus to hit because he has to worry about hitting the others.

Did Yoon ever accidentally burn Gom-Gom, I wonder...?

No atheists in foxholes, and love is a battlefield. :)

That first phrase is obnoxious.

For a rogue? Vanish.

142: Doodles in Spellbook and then seeks to act them out. Example: flying above a bunch of orcs throwing fireballs. Or drawing teachers in lewd positions and then making illusions to the same effect.

Fear me in my comfy harness for I am LORD OF THE ELEMENTS!

I will smite thee with lightning from the heavens then lay down for a nappy nap.

Oh my god, she's so tiny. She doesn't even reach the waist of the non-halflings.

Barges into Buckingham palace in outlandish clothes. "Sup your majesty. Got anything you need taken care of?"

Dijiron wrote:

Sorry about not posting. I've been sick since Sunday.

I'm so sorry to hear! That sucks! A lot! I hope you feel better, soon!

Thanks, GM. Luckily, it's just a cold and should pass soon.