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Jesus christ don't scare me like that. Haven't spoken to Lemmy in a few days and I thought you meant him.
Could be. The nearest one I know of is in the Columbia Mall though, and it's a PITA to get there.
Finally got some more Lapsang Suchong. Worth the wait. I'd like to try other brands besides Twining sthough, see if there's a higher quality version that may be better. The only other brand I've been able to find is the Baltimore Coffee and Tea house brand, and the people that work there say it's not as good.
And the Monk cries, for he has no such cheap option.
The Minutemen General's Outfit is snazzy as fuark, and gives roughly as good protection as a full set of combat armor pieces.
Daredevil (not as much as the series, but it wasn't TERRIBLE), Mummy 3 (I mean...it's exactly like the first two. It delivers on what was promised, and it was hella fun, if dumb and cheesy. Exactly like the first two.), Van Helsing (I didn't realize people saw this as bad...), John Carter, Pacific Rim (wait, for real this time, who says this is bad?), Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and Beastmaster (The TV series too) have already been mentioned. I will put forward... 1.) Constantine. It doesn't really follow the comics from hat I've heard, and was critically panned....but I thought it was pretty good, and basically Keanu Reevs' best movie. Good imagery, Peter Stormare was great as Satan, and some solid action. I think the only reason this got bad critical reviews was because this was back when sci-fi/fantasy and ESPECIALLY comic book movies never got a fair shake because they were, by their very nature as not some sappy dramatically over-doe "artsy" movie somehow inferior products, and inherently juvenile. 2) Green lantern. Yes, the suit looks dumb. Yes, it is a bit cheesy. But Sinestro was pretty good, Ryan Reynolds made a good Hal, and it was a coherent origin for Hal Jordan as GL. The effects in general and the villain was its main downfall.
"Well he can't very well rule from here. Err...SQUAWK."
TBH, I didn't love Way of the Wicked in the first place. There was a steep downhill decline in writing quality after book 2. Books 4-6 are an unabashed railroad, the plot is largely nonsensical with the hoops you have to jump through to get help for things characters of your level, likely Vampires or something, can and should be able to accomplish for themselves, and the encounters are waaay too easy. I still enjoyed it well enough, but definitely not enough to wait with bated breath for almost three years with no communication one way or another like some people here.
I like to think Gary will finish it, he is using a single artist, who delivers excellent work and it is almost guaranteed to be a success when released based on the quality of earlier work. I have Faith! Even if he finishes it, it's a failure at this point. The man's credibility is shot all to hell. This thing was supposed to be completed, what, 2 and a half years ago?
Well, to be fair, eastern fantasy (much of which is anime/manga/manhwa these days) has a distinctly different feel than western fantasy. The topic still very much stands. Eastern fantasy is more fond of the "Charles Atlas Superpower" trope than western fantasy. Hard work can result in impossible gains, even from nominally normal people. It's not so much a power levels difference, but a justification difference. Western Fantasy: Q: "Why can that guy destroy a mountain/Slash a hole through space-time/Randomly gain body mass when he gets pissed?" A: "Because he's a wizard/demigod/got a mech-suit/was bitten by a radioactive spider." Eastern Fantasy: Q: "Why can that guy destroy a mountain/Slash a hole through space-time/Randomly gain body mass when he gets pissed?" A: "Because he trained REALLY HARD and wanted it SUPER BAD." Obviously this is just a generalization; There's a bit of either/or on both sides. But general trends it holds up. That's generally where the pushback for "Weaboo Fightan Magic" comes from. It's "wuxia" or "anime" if a non-magical character does something physically impossible. Really it's semantics in the big picture, it's the same end result. But for some, the justification of "He's magic" makes all the difference.
Two off the top of my head being a Ghoul Barbarian that benefits from Rage (undead are immune to mind affecting effects, including Morale bonuses) and Auren Vrood of Carrion Crown not being able to cast his main spell (Circle of Death) due to his PrC eating more caster levels than the writer thought. It happens.
Except the FAQ should not be used to request rules changes (actually, per forum guidelines, they shouldn't be requested in this manner at all "FAQ this" is in violation of the rules). You literally quoted the rules text that answers your question. Question answered. Q: "Are spells with a range of personal capable of being made into potions, or not?" A: "Spells with a range of personal cannot be made into potions." Done deal.
I asked why, and then I googled what ecchi means, and immediately regretted asking. If you regret seeing some harmless ecchi, I hate to see your reaction to full-on hentai.
TBH if your GM is THIS THICK you're probably better off finding a new one. You shouldn't need to do research and provide a 5 page proof every time you try to show him something this simple.
If that's what you got, you need to take off your fanboy glasses and calm down. He said the plot disregarded the intelligence of the viewer. Meaning the plot assumed its audience was dumb, or at the very least wouldn't question any contrivances. Which it did, really. You just went with it because everything else was enjoyable enough to off-set the bad plot writing. Liking it despite that doesn't make you stupid. Even if that's what he was saying he called HIMSELF stupid because he said he enjoyed the damn thing already, but for the character interactions and development alone. No need to try and start an internet slap fight over someone's opinion on a TV show.
It's comforting to me, since I made a judgement call about this a while back and it resulted in a PC's death. The part about maneuverability bonuses seems clunkily worded. Took me two reads to get what it was saying. But, that's the side I was on anyway. Fly bonuses from the Fly spell are HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE.
Title: The Universal Designer, The Two-Sided Coin of Creation
Domains: Artifice, Destruction, Knowledge, Luck, Madness
Worshipers: Smiths, Engineers, well-intentioned extremists, among others.
Favored Weapon: Swordbreaker dagger Ethos: There can be no creation without destruction, and there MUST be no destruction without creation. Sometimes the old must be swept away in favor of the new, but all destruction serves a greater purpose. Herald: A sentient golem made of a material stronger than even Adamantine. He wields a strange combination of a Dwarven Dorn-Dergar and a Smith's hammer modified for combat. (I.E. a wrecking ball and a hammer). He often shows up to help civilizations crippled by disaster or war rebuild, though just as often shows up to speed along destruction of civilizations deemed to be contributing to the stagnation of progress.
Weapons already get 1.5 Str to danage, and 1.5 Power Atrack to boot, so that's a wash. Trips and Disarms can be done with weapons as well, and often better due to having a higher Enhancement bonus at any given level. I'm uncertain why you think this us uniwue to unarmed attacks. Grapple cannot replace an attack either way.
I found those guys once. They ask you to "shed yourself of all your worldly possessions". For shiggles, I agreed (after saving). They literally just take all your shit ("Oh...you uh, you really did that. Okay.") and basically just tell you "Tough noogies, moron" if you try to get it back. I had a good laugh.
I honestly don't remember him from 3 at all. Here, let me jog your memory. *Puts on doofy ass combat helmet* "Hey, mungo. Get your stupid mungo face out of here. We don't like mungos, you mungo."
I do... Ascetic Style is just the nail in the coffin though. Unarmed had a few minor things going for it, like larger damage dice (gone), Style Strikes could only be used with it (gone), Stunning Fist(gone...though to be fair Ki Focusing did away with it a long time ago), and so on. But Ascetic Style just kinda destroys all that. The Temple Sword makes a good Jian reflavor. The Jian is just a Chinese long sword, and that's what the Temple Sword is meant to represent. I'm aware of what a Jian is, but we're trying to work within the ruleset, yes? The Temple Sword weighs 3 lbs. and can be Flurried with. Given your Finesse mention, I'm assuming what you really want is a weapon that can be used for a Dex based character? If so, you should have said so from the start...it would have narrowed things down a bit. If not...why does it matter? The Temple Sword is the closest you're going to get as a sword, unfortunately. But the Bich'Wa is a Light Monk weapon, and could potentially be reflavored. It's more of a knife than a sword, however. Ditto the Butterfly Sword.
I'd rather be a slave than exterminated. Gonna go with Enclave is worse. "The Robo-Nazis and their Computer Hitler are worse" doesn't mean the Legion is anywhere near good, or even gray. Just sayin'. =)
Breeders having it relatively easy would be a pro if they had a choice in the matter...but they don't. I'd have to say systematic rape assembly lines is pretty far into the black, even if you do treat 'em nice when they're not servicing.
Not very many. The larger damage dice are outweighed by weapons costing half the price while being twice as good, and 19-20/x2 or x3 crits being available. The Temple Sword makes a good Jian reflavor. The Jian is just a Chinese long sword, and that's what the Temple Sword is meant to represent.
There is no Jian. Though there is the Dao (9 ring broadsword) that's a Monk weapon.
Elementals have their own language and everything, if you look. Air Elementals speak Auran for example. If they were incapable of speech, they'd have text like the Shambling Mound, which has its languages listed as "Common, Undercommon (Cannot speak)".
Yeah, that's the thing. You can't know until you get to the combat. A control Wizard will generally be really good at it. Stinking Cloud potentially 100% f&+@s whoever is in the area, and 50% f&#%s them no matter what. Quite possibly better than Haste...and definitely what the Wizard player will have more fun with. Ditto the wand...not all Clerics are healers. The Cleric player can very well say "I'm not that kind if Cleric" and never prepare a healing spell. And he'd be perfectly within his rights to.
The issue is nothing you suggested actually *helps* martials. Which means it doesn't really address disparity and your listed suggestions would actually make disparity worse. If that wasn't clear from my post, I hope it is now.How is reducing access to wands, scrolls and spells hurting martials? The most obvious effect here is reducing caster versatility. Which, in and of itself, is GREAT! Except martials are very, VERY much reliant on that versatility. It encourages casters to be a bit more "selfish", and requires them to be much more prepared in general. They can't just whip out a scroll of Fly and send someone up a wall...now they need to prepare it. Every Fly is one less Haste or Stinking Cloud. Given the option, is a non-buffing focused Wizard going to prepare the buff or his attack/battlefield control spell? Probably the latter. Which means the martial is SOL. But really, that's just a tangential effect. The main problem is because in addition to this, now the martial can't just bring his OWN potion of Fly along when he needs to lift off, and things of that nature. Essentially, you've taken Martials = X and Casters = X+1 and made it into Martials = X-1 and Casters = X. You've lowered the power of both equally, leaving the overall gap between the same. You've simultaneously made casters less likely to buff martials with their spell slots, and martials less able to mitigate that with wealth expenditure.
Some obstacles simply DO NOT have a mundane solution. Shifting planes, crossing hundreds of miles in under a day to thwart the baddies, surviving in a vacuum or cloud of poisonous gas that goes on for miles...these cannot be done without magic.I'm not going to throw those things at a low-magic group. ...Okay? How is this relevant to the discussion the rest of us were having? Providing them with magic items or magic users doesn't stop that reliance on magic. That should be pretty obvious.But it does address class imbalance within a given campaign. A wizard with Invisibility is more stealthy than a rogue. A rogue with lots of potions of Fly and Invisibility does not have that problem. It's not an instant fix to C/MD, but it helps. But...it doesn't. It's right there. The Rogue needs Potions. Brewed by a caster. Because the Rogue is physically incapable of doing those things otherwise.
Which is part of the disparity. There are a lot of plots that are simply cut off to you without magic. There's a "You must have this much magic to ride" sign on a lot of things in this game. Though again, how does this have anything to do with "Nerfing casters at this point will harm martials more than it helps"? Yes, you can give them cool magic swag for free, but that's adding another houserule to only half-patch the hole the previous one made.
Some obstacles simply DO NOT have a mundane solution. Shifting planes, crossing hundreds of miles in under a day to thwart the baddies, surviving in a vacuum or cloud of poisonous gas that goes on for miles...these cannot be done without magic. Or Tech Guide stuff, but those are all just magic items with new fluff anyway. Providing them with magic items or magic users doesn't stop that reliance on magic. That should be pretty obvious. Raising the casting time doesn't affect any of those non combat challenges...but makes the combat ones commensurately harder for everyone. No Haste for the martials, or Heal when needed, or Fly to attack flying creatures. Not unless you quadruple their wealth and assume they always commissioned the right items for the job, anyway. Implying I'm a shitty DM for not providing solutions to the problem you claim doesn't exist is both comically missing the point of what we're talking about here, and false.
Jacking up the casting time fixes zero problems and raises more. Martials are still wholly dependent on magic to solve most problems...except now casters are less capable of solving them as well. This leaves everyone up shit creek equally. All it really accomplishes is making casters less fun to play, which isn't really a solution at all.
Or Invulnerable Rager levels of DR.
Yeah, it's too bad. Maybe in another 5 years when another printing is needed.
Ironskin was around long before Monster Codex anyway.
Of course not. Souls are invisible. That's what makes it so perfect. That and who's going to make you pay taxes on souls?
Unfortunately, it's far too little, far too late. They spent too many years claiming it didn't exist (as my first post in this thread will attest), and now their hands have been tied by their own work. Within the framework of the current game, these things can only be done by Feats, Archetypes, and "Fiddly Bits" (like Rogue Talents). So martials still have to juggle what they need to do their job well, vs what they need to get new options...while casters get all of the above out of the box. It closes the gap in one direction, but opens it in another, like trying to squeeze a water balloon.
This isn't going to be a very interesting thread if people just keep quoting the OP as though they're making a point. It's super interesting because it shows exactly which people are too lazy to read the first post in the thread that preemptively rebutted the argument they're trying to make.
I do have to admit I do like it to a degree, though I can never place exactly why.I quite like narratives where the mundane underdog somehow defeats or shows up the magical know-it-all who thinks he can do anything. Without unfair disparity, you can't heroically overcome unfair disparity. IMO that's a valid trope...in something that's all about the narrative. But RPGs are games as well, and games require all options to at least TRY to have some semblance of equality. At the very least it should be a CHOICE, not a trope the game FORCES you to play into. Being the underdog is great, when you're facing a superior enemy force and come out on top. Not so much when you're stuck playing Krillin forever, while other people get to be Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo. Krillin is cool, Krillin is fun, but it gets kinda heartwrenching seeing the little guy work so hard and still get slapped down by 95% of the enemies he fights, only to have someone else come in and wreck them no issue, no matter how great the remaining 5% might feel. Sometimes you want to be able to play what you want to play while not having to deal with the rest of the party showing you up all the time.
Luke Cage is the next Netflix one I believe, and should be coming 2016...sometime. Early-ish 2016 I believe was the last word, May or so. Civil War is the next MCU movie, also in May. IIRC Agent Carter will be filling in for Agents of Shield on its winter hiatus again.
Baseball somehow manages to be one of the most accessible and fun sports to PLAY while simultaneously being the most impenetrable, slow, boring games in the world to watch. Football is similar, but the commentators at least have more pizzazz. Then again, I like watching tennis, so maybe my opinion is worthless.
My hometown isn't on the list (no surprise there, it has a population of under 1000 people. Probably less now that they razed half of it and put a highway through). So next best thing: Tallahassee, FL, .3C. No real surprise, given it's a college town, even if it is a Republican state. Current town of Odenton, MD is 1.4L...which I actually AM surprised about, since Fort Meade is right across the street, and generally the main draw for this town (military and their families. And people taking the train). I've never met a liberal military man who stayed that way for long, especially Army.
Sorry I couldn't help myself. Yeah, good list. I can't think of anything big you left off.
Sounds exciting. Any hints?
^Exactly. Even if it was "innocuous" (and I still disagree...losing someone you're romantically involved with is no picnic, and a much more PERSONAL tragedy than most of the other things listed), all that stuff has been building up for a while. If people haven't seen Coulson on the edge compared to early season 1, they haven't been paying attention.
Lol.
What's innocuous about the only woman you've tried to open up to in years being killed right in front of you during a date?
I don't think you'll get a lot of traction here arguing that poor wittle arcane casters are not powerful enough as is. Ask Rynjin what he thinks! ;) Heh. I hadn't even glanced at this thread before you linked it. Grease is a plenty good spell though, one of the best 1st level spells. But not like, obnoxiously good. You can use it for like 5 different things, more if you're creative. It can be offensive, defensive, and utility. Not sure how anyone could come to the conclusion that it's not strong enough. As for whether you can 5 ft. step through it...iffy. It does say only "difficult terrain or darkness" prevent one, though Grease could just be another example of a poorly written spell, and its slowing was meant to be difficult terrain. I've always been under the impression that line was not a comprehensive list of things that prevent 5 ft. steps though anyway. For example, I'm pretty sure being Entangled prevents 5 ft. steps as well, and it has been so at any table I've ever played at. May as well FAQ it.
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