Nathaniel Beers's page

I have a new video game problem to blame Cosmo for. I've been playing Monster Hunter World, and it's been great. The problem I'm having is that I can't figure out how to unlock soft soil in the botanical research center. From what little I have seen online, story progression is not a requirement, beyond needing to get to high rank. Which I did. I know that I need to complete a delivery request. I know the name of the request. I even know who I get the request from. And I know it can be done because my gf did it with her character.

What I don't know is how I get the request to be made available. And neither does ANYONE ELSE ON THE INTERNET!!!

I've checked. There are like 20 articles about unlocking more slots, but not one that talks about unlocking the various fertilizers. And my gf and I follow three different youtubers that are basically MH pros, and not one of them had a video about it, either. It's driving me insane.

I blame Cosmo, because I cannot conceive of any other force that could possibly explain it. Why are you so cruel? I just want to fertilize all my plants in a point efficient manner. Is that too much to ask?

bishop083 wrote:

Good news! I found those missing shrines!

Unfortunately, my despair drove me to the breaking point, and I looked them up. One was a shrine quest that wouldn't have pinged, so I don't feel too bad. The other one made me sad. I am SO MAD AT MYSELF over it. It was at the bottom of a cliff that was too tall for the shrine detector to catch, or maybe I had the detector focused on something else at the time. But it was so close to places I had been to repeatedly, and I cannot believe I forgot to head over there and look. I even had a regular side quest to do that would have pinged that shrine for me if I had just done it.

Clearly, Cosmo must have done something, because I never thought I would have broken that way. DARN YOU COSMO!!!

Now I just have the Trial of the Sword from the DLC. Which is INSANELY difficult. It's amazing how much you rely on your armor in that game without realizing it. I might not finish that thing. Although actually finishing it would probably give an amazing sense of accomplishment.

Just remember, you have more defences during Trial of the Sword than a section of the second DLC.

If you are talking about what I think you are, then that is technically true, but you still had all your stuff. Including all the arrows, and the really good bows. This is like starting the game over, and then trying to beat combat shrines with a pile of wooden sticks. And no pants.

EDIT: Forgot to add, I blame Cosmo for this. Especially given what he blamed himself for, I absolutely blame Cosmo for this.

Double Edit: BTW, I also want to say thank you, Cosmo. I know this whole thread is all in good fun, but part of that is because you chose to allow it to be that way. It's nice to have a completely silly way to vent about things, and I appreciate that you allowed this thread to form rather than crushing it.

A wizard in an anti-magic field is a scrawny man with no con and no strength. A dragon in an anti-magic field is still a dragon. And if the field covers the wizard before he casts disjunction, he is screwed. Summons won't save him. Contingency spells won't go off. Just one scrawny, probably old man against an extremely large, very strong, pissed off dragon. And if you think that dragon didn't use its money and power to investigate the wizard so it could counter all of his tricks, you are lying to yourself. Remember, wizards aren't the only ones with all those nice tools.

Good news! I found those missing shrines!

Unfortunately, my despair drove me to the breaking point, and I looked them up. One was a shrine quest that wouldn't have pinged, so I don't feel too bad. The other one made me sad. I am SO MAD AT MYSELF over it. It was at the bottom of a cliff that was too tall for the shrine detector to catch, or maybe I had the detector focused on something else at the time. But it was so close to places I had been to repeatedly, and I cannot believe I forgot to head over there and look. I even had a regular side quest to do that would have pinged that shrine for me if I had just done it.

Clearly, Cosmo must have done something, because I never thought I would have broken that way. DARN YOU COSMO!!!

Now I just have the Trial of the Sword from the DLC. Which is INSANELY difficult. It's amazing how much you rely on your armor in that game without realizing it. I might not finish that thing. Although actually finishing it would probably give an amazing sense of accomplishment.

*drops a bunch of gear in the water*

I need to scavenge? Okay!

*Picks up the gear from the water*

And that is the story of how I cleared Eventide Island without sacrificing my desire to do as much as possible with magitech options. Also, Urbosa's Fury was useful.

...

That works? How does that work? And why have I never heard that solution before? What happens to the stuff when you finish the island?

That is genius! And Urbosa's Fury was definitely useful. Just like always because Urbosa is the best. Mipha is my favorite, but Urbosa is the best.

Oh right, I'm supposed to be blaming Cosmo for something, not just having a BOTW chat. Umm...
I also blame Cosmo for Eventide Island, and for not having heard of that trick and doing it the hard way twice.

Also, invest at least half your first lvl Paladin spells in hero's defiance. It will save your bacon if you have any lay on hands left.

Our network drives and applications have been down all day. I have been unable to work on several important reports my VP asked for as a direct result. This has been a problem since at least 8:30AM. I'm not sure how I had even a slightly productive day.
I blame Cosmo for the server issues. I also blame Cosmo for the server issues being bad enough to severely impact work, but not bad enough to justify just going home, thus giving us the worst of both worlds.

Speaking of gunslinger, you could build a singing cowboy. One level of mysterious stranger gunslinger, the rest as an arcane duelist bard. You get a pile of free feats, can get charisma to damage, at bard 5 you get arcane bond on a weapon (which is the gun you own), and starting at bard 6 you can use bard rounds to increase your enhancement/apply weapon enhancements. It's pretty awesome.

The only issue I'm having is that, for reasons that i swear made sense at the time, I dumped my con to 8. I am a glass cannon. Oh, and make sure to take jury rig and abundant ammunition as some of your spells. Your wallet will thank you. As will your face if you ever roll a misfire.

John Mechalas wrote:

Thank you. If I were to get just one of the books, which one would you suggest? I am partial to the second one because Paizo's description lists a gazetteer.

Understood that there isn't precise placement but if the AP mentions distances or travel times that would be useful.

While it'd still be rad if you picked up the Adventure Path, I do go into detail about the rough location of the region in Pathfinder #122.

Here's the most relevant bit of information that I think you're looking for:

Ruins of Azlant Regional Gazetteer wrote:

The region mapped here is only the eastern edge of the shattered continent. After sailing for 1,000 miles due west from Mediogalti Isle, this is the first region one comes across. At roughly 30° N latitude, Ancorato and nearby islands have a humid subtropical climate.

Thanks for the globe, by the way. That really helped me zero in on my distance.

This post has made my day. The fact that one of the devs actually took all of this work into account and openly acknowledged it is super cool.

Rysky wrote:

Christopher Anthony wrote:

Sara Marie: tea is probably better for me than more sad

Fact!

Also, *offers hugs*

It's ok. Thanks.

** spoiler omitted **

Is it bad that my brain decided to read "sad" as "salad"? It changed the quote and confused me when rysky replied with a hug.

Cosmo wrote:

bishop083 wrote:

I blame cosmo for giving me the idea to play as a mysterious stranger/arcane duelist singing cowboy.

...this bit needs an extra favorite.

{stuffs extra cotton into ears as precaution against "Indian Love Call" sonic attack]

Be still my aching heart (which I blame Cosmo for) he noticed!

I will supply an update post once we get farther into the campaign, so I can notify everyone of Quentin's descent into madness, and if he gets killed, blows himself up, or goes insane first.

And so I can properly allocate blame where it is due: the Great and Powerful Cosmo. This is especially topical since the only reason for those terrible things to happen is if I or others in the group roll bad enough on our dice, and we all know who to blame for bad dice rolls.

The thing about traits is that they should, technically, feed into your character's backstory and can shape how they are played. In other words, if you are taking a trait, you should have a backstory that justifies it. This isn't necessarily a requirement, but if you are the GM, then you can MAKE it a requirement. If your players can't justify it with their backstory and/or how they are going to role play their characters, don't let them take it.

Also, don't let them take campaign traits unless you are running the campaign they were created for. They can definitely be more powerful than other traits, but they are also designed to tie directly into their respective campaigns and sometimes have story reasons that tie directly in and can balance or justify the power.

I'm from Wisconsin, and while I'm always tempted to sneer at how the Seattle area panics whenever there's snow, there actually are some factors which make it a lot safer to stay in -- generally no salt because they don't want it getting into Puget Sound, tons of hills, and very little equipment for dealing with snow.

Ok, so I can understand the reason for not salting and the potential ice difficulties inherent in a hilly region. But Seattle really doesn't have enough equipment for dealing with the snow? Really? That just seems silly to me.

I live in a suburb of Philadelphia, which puts me at a latitude of approximately 39.5 degrees North. That is roughly 8 degrees SOUTH of Seattle, which means I am somewhere around 550 south of you all. I know we get those nasty Atlantic-powered snow storms over here, but how could a city that much closer to Canada be ill-prepared for snow?

I blame cosmo for me not having the time or energy to properly catch up on this thread, leading to me skipping roughly 60 pages and two years of blaming cosmo. I may also have to skip the over 9000 "new" entries in the ask James Jacobs thread, and if so then that is probably cosmo's fault.

I blame cosmo for giving me the idea to play as a mysterious stranger/arcane duelist singing cowboy. I further blame him for the fact that my first opportunity to play said character is in a strange aeons campaign. To add to his fault, I must further blame cosmo that I had to choose between dropping my wisdom or my constitution in order to have enough strength to carry my gear. To compound his fault, I must additionally blame cosmo for the fact that my singing cowboy now has an 8 constitution, and has rolled badly enough on his HD that he only has 15 hp at lvl 3, even with the bard FC bonus on hp. There is a familiar in our party who almost has that much hp.

Finally, I blame cosmo for me responding to this thread on my cell phone, making it super tedious to type out and annoying enough to tag that I did not even bother this time. Which is a shame because there are several places where I would/should have used italics and/or bolding for emphasis.

Edit: I blame cosmo for making write that number of messages in ask JJ thread wrong, and for having to add a blame entry after had already written finally in the previous paragraph.

Let the GM finish the room description before you start doing things.

Published adventures seem to have a tendency to put the list of occupants after the room description. It can be very awkward to walk into what initially sounds like a treasure vault and start taking things because you didn't let the GM tell you, "Oh by the way, there is an Ancient Red Dragon sitting in the middle of the room."

Related note, always ask if the word large is describing the size category or being used in a more flavorful manner. The difference between six large scarabs and six scarabs that are large sized can be a matter of life and death.

Is it appropriate to apologize to Chris for making a character with only 8 constitution?

If so, then I apologize for it. If not then I will take my apology and find someone else that deserves it.

64) As a Paladin, remember that if the target is evil enough, committing a heist will not violate your Paladin Code of Conduct. Especially if the primary objective is something the target needs in order to commit some evil ritual. Make sure you do your homework on the target before hand.

65) The Paladin Code of Conduct says you must "respect legitimate authority." If the local government is trying to stop you from committing a good act, or is engaging in evil or overtly oppressive actions, you no longer have to do what they say.

30. NEVER Accept a Zen Archer's Death. RECHECK EVERYTING! Trust me you missed something and she's not really dead!

Honestly, you could probably extend that and just say, "Always triple check a monk's resources before accepting they are dead." We had one campaign that coincidentally ended with our monk's death (he died with the BBEG, and it was such an epic scene that we didn't bother with true resurrection). This campaign happened 7 years ago, and we STILL occasionally realize that he had yet another way to avoid that death which we had forgotten.

Carry a ranged weapon

I second this one. You have full bab, so not having a lot of dex, especially at 3rd level, is not a huge issue. And it will give you something to do until you get into melee. Also, don't be afraid to drop the bow on the ground. It probably won't get stolen mid combat. Just remember to pick it up again after combat is done.

25) Do not split the party.

First and foremost, if you haven't done so, consider checking some paladin guides from the class guide list.
Here it is
Second, check the thread on how to play a memorable paladin. The thread talks about how to play a good character instead of a disruptive presence. I bring this up because this class has a big potential to be disruptive if role played wrong.
Check it out

Good luck and have fun!

Isn't there another thread on the message boards that is already devoted to this exact topic?

One VERY quick check in the message boards later. There is. It's even in the General Discussion area and is on the front page. Way to create an unnecessary thread. (Would add link to thread, but typing this on my phone.)

cosmo: My name is Cosmo. Feel free to affix it with your Blame. Swear by it at your own peril.

Isn't there an entire thread around here somewhere that is devoted entirely to blaming cosmo for things?

Could have sworn I saw something about that...

Specifically not going to link to the thread that I absolutely know exists.

Also added this comment because the sarcasm in my head almost certainly did not translate itself into my text.

Unrelated note, I just learned something about the message boards. If you enter two paragraph breaks in a row in the middle of formatting tags, that can apparently prevent the formatting from carrying over to that next paragraph, but without causing the end tags to show up in the preview post. I used a few more tags in this post as a result then I expected to.

Hi everyone!

I have a slight problem. Back in the Overheard thread, Cosmo said that he built a singing cowboy using a combination of the Mysterious Stranger gunslinger archetype and the Arcane Duelist bard archetype.

Now, I know that trying to do anything Cosmo approves of is dangerous to both my mental and physical well-being, but the concept is just that little bit too hilarious and awesome to pass-up. The problem is that since I typically do not multi-class, I have no idea what balance to strike between the two classes, or at what point I should even start taking the second class.

So, Advice board goers, advise me!
Except for advice saying that I should not do this since it was Cosmo's idea. It's advice I am going to ignore, so don't waste your time.

diego: Yes, I used you guys for likes, I apologize but I’m not sorry

I believe that is also known as "I posted something to the Overheard thread," but maybe that's just me...

So I cannot believe I am saying what I am about to say.

Why did they have to make the game live now? The game went live within the last hour. I was super excited about this, until I got to character creation. Its 1AM where I live right now! I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO INVEST IN THESE KINDS OF DECISIONS!!!!! I HAVE WORK IN THE MORNING!!!!!!! WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME BETHESDA???????!!!!!!!!!!! DAAAAGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I mean, you even made the banter between the male and female protagonist options just that right level of adorable that signifies a happily married couple!!!

Ok, enough ranting. I am going to get some sleep, because the sooner I do that, the faster I can get through the work day, and the quicker I can get to a window for actually running through character creation.

Liz (GM Mode) ROLL ETERNAL, SHINY AND CHROME

And now I feel the urge to get new dice that can evoke the image of post-apocalypse based on coloring or pattern. TO THE GAME STORE!!!

katina: Remember, they’re not called calories. They’re called delicious points.

If I could favorite this post more than once, I would totally do so.

Money Chris: I'm totally having an ice cream sandwich for breakfast. And none of you can stop me.

Money Chris/Blue Chris is an adult last time we checked (which I admit, was done by someone else and may have simply been done by asking him if he was an adult). As an adult you are entitled to do things like this. Also to redefine what a ball pit means to you.

Our group tends to believe that the player's should avoid sharing any dice besides the d6s with whoever is the current GM. (IE: don't use his d20s, don't let him use your d20s. Can share d6s because everyone who needs them needs a lot and they sit in the common pool when not in use).

For me personally, I own 2 sets of Chessex Dice (and a 3rd d20 that I got for free a few years back), and I am constantly cycling through those d20s once they start to roll poorly. And oddly enough, the die that was rolling crap will eventually (after a cool-down period) start rolling better. Also, I always try to use dice with gold numbers or pips because they roll better. Also are bling dice (not really, but it always sounds amusing to say, "Help me find the bling dice.")

At some point, one of my friends pointed out something. I have graduated with a degree in mathematics and passed the first actuarial exam, so how can I have such superstitions given my knowledge of mathematical randomness. Now, I could have gone the route that the crazy gamescience guy, but I didn't. I went with chaos theory. And I shall share that argument with you, so as to destroy all who claim that giving a die a break before rolling in again.

So there are two basic facts you need to know for this argument. First, if you can get a set of equations that accurately and completely describes a situation (like rolling a die), and if you can accurately replicate a given set of initial conditions for that situation, then you can replicate the results reliably. In other words, if you could completely define rolling a d20 in all respects, and if you could perfectly replicate a given die throw, you could roll that roll's result on command.

The problem is that rolling a die is excessively complex. There is linear and angular momentum. The die rolls across a large number of irregular and regular surfaces (like your had for the former, and possible the table for the later). Then the die will probably bounce of a number of other die on the table, and good luck getting those lined up exactly as they were when you rolled that 20. And how do you account for the other people in the room?

That brings us to the next fact. If you take the set of equations I mentioned in the first argument, and then input even small difference in the initial conditions, the end conditions will be vastly different.

The second fact is the important part. As you hold your dice or pick them up to roll them, they slowly absorb some heat from your hands. That slightly and subtly alters the die. Setting them aside lets them cool off, thus resetting the die. Plus, just the act of rolling other dice can change factors we aren't even aware we are changing.

So the next time someone asks you why you rotate dice, tell them a math major used chaos theory to justify his superstition, and that's good enough for you.