Shabti Princess's page

Secondly, the way you've expressed yourself, you're implying that - and my group - do not play games "about character development, friendships, choices, and consequences." I won't bore you with a wall-of-text refutation, but suffice it to say, my groups aren't beer & peanuts casual gamers.

Actually, I meant to imply that I did not agree with giving up on a character and going dead beat dad purely because the story got dark, or that long discussions of things happening in stories are needed so long as table rules are set at the beginning.

I then continued to provide an example I hoped would answer the original question, which besides mentioning the shock factor, said nothing about this being a terrible move on the DM's part, and everything about how to play moving forward. It had nothing to do with your premise at all.

I have no doubt that you and your table have sufficient experience, and did not mean to offend or insult your e-peen so horribly by disagreeing with a premise. But please, feel free to private message me a refute if you need. I love me a good word wall.

XOXO

P.S. As for infanticide... "teenage daughter"

I have to disagree with Anguish, but that's just because our group is seriously story based. I don't believe pathfinder or D&D should strictly be a campaign of kill, loot, defeat, conquer. It is about character development, friendships, choices and consequences. I'm a method actor, so it is easy for me to get in character and define their reactions as different from mine. For others in our group, they have to methodically plan out their character's reactions and learning experiences after each session. Either way, it is part of the game, and part of the fun, learning how your character would react. One thing you will have to think about is, though, no matter which choice you make on how your character reacts, give him a way back. What in his personality is strongest, that will pull him back to life. Protection seems to be the consensus in this forum.

Our DM planned a death of a character that mine was extremely close to, and, in a story twist my character hasn't figured out yet, give her a shadow without causing her to break with Pharasma. If we had discussed it at length outside of the game, it wouldn't have had the effect on out group as it did. It won't sound as good out of game, but imagine:

Explosives are primed to go off any moment. A supposed hostage is actually a mole and just set a trap for the closest person. This character uses switch places to take the brunt of the blow, losing his arm in the process. The air is thick with dust and blood. No one except for my character can see through the impossible conditions. She see two enemies drop from the ceiling on the injured character, who takes his remaining blade and cuts himself with it. An Auquan phrase meant only for her ears and an unknown Shadow. "Watch over her for me." A sharp pain as the blade pierces her shoulder. Screams as another group member scoops her up and runs from the explosions and the collapsing cave system, ignoring her struggles.

I am not ashamed to say I was in tears the moment I figured out what was happening. It was cruel, but brilliant, and the story can only develop from there. ...And just saying, we knew main characters would die during these battles, and many other characters had their huge story plots/enemies show up. We'd only gotten 4 hours of sleep and went through at least 6 very large encounters. We were expecting to kill off at least one PC, but somehow we all survived. ...We also managed to kill an enemy that was starting to be borderline on our side(he failed a reflex save) ...And we had an entire army, and we were left with... 8 total people? plus our party? So much emotional outrage, but nothing hit quite as hard as the surprise one that had been written in and planned for weeks. It had everyone shocked into silence.

My character is withdrawn at the moment, dwelling in her normal self pity, though a bit darker and bit more quietly than the group is used to, but due to new character development, she will get pulled back by her "Adventuring Family", because that is what she lives for now. That is what will make her still a functional character.

That's my opinion, anyway.

Based on this new information, I am more inclined to believe that pathfinder intended to stay as close to the Egyptian lore as possible, So here is my final conclusion:

The Shabti statue/figurine is basically the Shabti's future body. So the details and effects and likeness of the figurine, that is what defines the Shabti's look. So agreeing with if it was made in haste, it may not have any likeness physically to the creator. It may also not have as many decorative gemstones.

However, there can be much detail put into these figures, as Egyptians are known for, so this can vary. Depending on how meticulous or vain or artistic a creator was.

I'm not even sure what a tengu/dragon/mutant weredragonfly wereankylosaurus merfolk would look like... so...

*Back at Shabti Builder headquarters...*

"We have a custom order coming in! It's a doozy!"

"Is it supposed to catch on fire like that?"

"Boss! I don't think we have a mold that can handle this!"

*Boss reads order* "Ah, give up. Just use the human model, carve some scales and wings on it, call it good."

"...Don't you think Pharasma will notice?"

"Not my problem."

~~

My character's creator was an elf, presumably, but the only thing different between humans and elves are their size (which shabti have their own) and those gosh darned ears! ...Which my character has, but hides beneath her hair. But we went with the creator being very vain, so my shabti looks almost exactly like her, plus the shabti-ness.

Agh, just happened. We have a player that has a hard time... doing anything. One player in character actually lied to her and pointed to an enemy, saying that it was her arch nemesis. She full rounded and knocked the guy prone, nearly dead. That trick hasn't worked since.

Today, we have convinced her to take some actions. After 5 minutes of debating with herself, she decided that her character would shoot some VERY high powered explosives. In a cave. Underneath an acid lake. Attached to a support pillar. These explosives had JUST been placed by a long time NPC friend.

He's dead.

... Not sure if she will survive the encounter anymore.

p.s. Her intelligence is supposedly 16

But they are "Created" and "built" from shards of mortal souls, in the form of the mortal who created them. And they are gold statues in the material world.

Also, for people obsessed with anatomy, the Egyptians didn't give Shabti belly buttons.

I like the debate though.

Okay, so not so serious question, but I have perfected this Shabti character, and still one question is debated around the table over and over again... Does she have a belly button?

The only reason why this is even a relevant question at all is that my character is a dancer, and can be caught in clothes where she has a bare midriff. The debate:

1) Shabti's are created, not born, so she shouldn't have one.
2) Shabti's look like perfected humanoids, humanoids have bellybuttons. Shabti therefore have bellybuttons.
3) But they're not humanoids.
4) But they look like it.
5) ...Is it really that big of a deal this late in the game? No one is looking at her belly button with a figure like that and a charisma score of 20+...

So now I formulate the question to the Pathfinder population, and also, while on the subject... Can Shabti reproduce? and if so, are their children mortal and take after the other parent?

I am a storyteller, as are most of my friends, so our campaigns are very story heavy. One of the things that is never a good idea, but is incredibly fun, is giving the GM ideas. We just finished a story arc, and I gave a short blurb over text how my character was spending our days of rest. (I have extreme stats damage due to another way this giving GM ideas backfired.) Just a little while ago, The GM sent another text, and it turns out our days of rest may not be so quiet. Having these little tidbits of information about our characters gives our GM more material to work with to create an intense story that will effect all.

Sometimes all that you need is to know your group dynamics. We have a GM's discretion rule, where if something goes terribly wrong, or right, we know that he will keep the game balanced. I have had it help and hurt my character, but it keeps the game interesting for all of us.

Open communication is the the best way to make sure everyone is having a good time.