Sly Boots's page

Voted for The Unsheathed Revolution. Love the intelligent weapons angle, lots of RP advantages I think.

"Angazhan's Madness": Across Golarion, heeding a call no humanoid can discern, packs of animal companions drift toward the Mwangi Expanse. Disobeying the pleas and orders of their druids and rangers, they crawl, slither, and fly away, at once and without warning.

At the center of four rough-hewn arenas, eight groups of eight creatures shun their masters to gather. Wolverines, wildcats, cardinals, lions, bulldogs, wolves--But for what purpose?

Pokemon battle?

I dunno. I don't keep up with sports :)

Sly, but that's why the typos are such a problem. I edit copy daily for my job, so I know mistakes get through (and that they can get through despite three or four reads!).

I think it's easy to argue that they're something for the Paizo staff to deal with, but the more that make it through to the editors, the more that will make it through to published products.

I have to admit, I was surprised by the number of typos in this round -- it certainly wasn't just James. As good as the maps are almost universally (and James' is one of the three best IMO), I was very disappointed by the grammatical errors throughout the round. I know they're all kicking themselves for it (I certainly would be), but letting it happen in a contest like this, where everything's analyzed more than they would normally be or at least by a larger audience, seems really egregious to me.

Posted in wrong thread, please see discussion over on the Palace Sumptuous encounter. Discussion still applies here, though.

Inspired tactical set-up. Love the encroaching water. Foes seem underwhelming.

10 points for Brike. Every time Ryan Dancey sees something other than "descriptive noun-noun" or "noun-descriptive noun" he rushes to Google it and freaks. From a safe "sales" point of view, not "weirding" out the "poor" reader probably makes sense. Mark Moreland asks if Brike is a funny name you came up with?!? Perhaps he means "did you make the (unsubjectively funny or not) word up? Lets leave the spectre of Greenwoodian naming conventions behind. They're boring, contrived and uninspired, and have done more to retard creativity and spawned more B-grade novels, games and tropes than any other part of our beloved passion. Just my 2 cents of Rantraging Pompousthought. ;p

Well said, I agree with everything. I'll just leave this here for everyone:

To be fair, I've only skimmed so far, but what language is "Draco noir" supposed to be? "Draco" is Latin, and "noir" French. So either "Draco nigrum" or "dragon noir" would work, but this is just sloppy pidgin-Latin. In an age of Google Translate, that is just lazy.

It's a fantasy name, despite its relation to a still available cologne. Neither French nor Latin exist in Golarion, right? Wouldn't it be assumed to be part of a language that won't show up on Google Translate?

@stroVal is banned for looking like a photo negative.

Post # 3,666. Even the thread recognizes my evilness.

Charles Scholz is banned for his evilness, and for also having a face-covering mask.

Oh crap Bob I hope you don't get disqualified!

I have to say, I hate the name 'cancer from the void'. I really do. I would be irritated every time I had to call the monster 'the cancer' in game.

This monster reminds me of a cross between a giant vampire bat and a Defel, a shadowy alien species from Star Wars.

I find it hard to believe that a creature won't notice when it's taken the equivalent of a longsword strike to wherever it's been bit.

My take is it seems to be an ability to ambush single creatures (like some others have mentioned), mainly like getting shot or stabbed suddenly. You might not notice you've been injured in those cases, and if you didn't seek medical attention you might bleed out. If something sneakily bodychecks you in the Darklands, you might not notice you're bleeding out, and the beast can then track and finish you off in your weakened state. This won't be as effective in a group, true, but I can totally see a Darklands predator developing something like this.

I like it. I like the cultural bits too, I think it adds a flavor and would help keep the beasts from being just straight up combat fodder. It presents an avenue for RP contact other than just 'Let's kill 'em!'

*This year, a lot of people really seem to want a pair of magical shackles. I just don't find that a very useful or compelling item to introduce into the game.

*I agree. Kind of a plain, boring item concept. And it doesn't really make sense. You know what you do to violent criminals in a fantasy game? You tie them up and take them back to town. Where they're probably executed. Or the adventurers just kill them right there. You don't need to spend 8,000 gp to make them harmless once you've made them helpless. You just tie them up.

*I need to invent an auto-reject category called "item solves a problem that doesn't really exist."

I must not have made it clear enough that these are intended for PCs to wear, so they can use any found weapon and it still be merciful. It wasn't at all intended for using on criminals in the field. My mistake for making them shackles I guess.

The real world doesn't have monsters of human intelligence, or definitely defined alignments. The real world provides great inspiration, but the parallel breaks down pretty quickly.

From an ecological standpoint there are way too many intelligent top shelf predators in close proximity. That's called D&D. So how they react to each other is sort of up to logic and flavor.

Which is part of the trouble with this organization. Join 'em, fight 'em, they just don't seem that antagonistic unless you're a monster.

Or someone with a reason to not have the monster killed. I looked at it this way. You don't kill non-poisonous snakes, because they sometimes eat the poisonous ones, or to keep the poisonous ones from moving into the territory.

How about if the CHL members came in and killed the beast that was keeping a flood of much worse things at bay? I like a little ambiguity in my bad guys, which is why I like this org so much. They would seem like heroes to the commons, but the PCs, better educated, more experienced than the commons, know better and get involved.

Why do they know they are good monsters? Because you read it in the Bestiary? Because you have been playing for several years and have run into friendly werebears and noble dark elves and so on and so forth. I think it is more realistic and fun to play a campaign where things are scary and unknown and characters react accordingly.

I would like to point out that in Pathfinder there are things called 'Knowledge checks' that, amongst other things, allow PCs to learn about the creatures that inhabit their world, including creature behavior and alignments. Maybe you disallow these in your realistic campaign, I can't say. Knowledge is way more common in an RPG world than it was in the real world analogue period. There's way more literacy. Not to mention magical means of gathering knowledge.

Sentient creatures might also have these 'knowledge checks', and recognize stuff about the people they need help from (ie; the player characters) such as do they worship a generally recognized good aligned god. If in game a PC sees someone wearing a butterfly holy symbol, you might think 'That person is going to have a recognizable set of beliefs', if you know what the symbol represents (you know, from those knowledge checks we spoke about).

I voted for eight, it bums me out to not use all of my votes:

Adam Donald - The Red Bastards
Bob Drouin - Fear, Fist and Flame
Steve Miller - Arcadian Interceptors
Eric Morton - The Six-Hundred Geisha
James Olchak - Cold Hearth Lodge
Sam Polak - Riders of the Black Steppe
James Raine - Besmara's Chosen
Russell Vaneekhoven - Foulgrip Rangers

Sly Boots wrote:

Lars Lundberg wrote:

Helping monsters!!!! are we playing the same game!!!

Anyway, I can definitely see this one being a recurring thorn in the side of an adventuring party. First thing I thought of was the PCs coming to the aid of a 'monster' (I see a metallic dragon, but I just like dragons, heh) that is being targeted by the hunters. It's potentially very tear-jerky if they fail, which I love. Will vote for!

Maybe this is just a pet peeve but realistically, no character would be helping monsters of any shape or size. As players we know the difference between a metallic dragon and a chromatic dragon but even in a world of magic and wonders its still the dark ages, comparatively speaking. In our own enlightened time now we can hardly stand anyone who has a differnt skin tone, religion, or social status. It just stretches the boundaries of logic to think that characters would go out of their way to help anything not of their own race.

Wow, I disagree completely, and not just because I suspect you mean 'species' and not 'race' in regards to this org. You can't apply the words 'realistically' to how ANY PC will react in ANY fantasy role-playing game; it's all made up, you can do anything. How much of role-playing games stretches the boundaries of 'logic' in the first place? Do you think magic is logical? How about gods that grant spells? And how a PC will react to an appeal from a sentient beast is where you draw the suspension of disbelief line, huh? What if you have players who don't want to role-play a horrible racist? I'll just ignore what you said about the real world, here, also.

In MY RPGs, players whose PCs are of good alignment should feel obliged to help sentient beasts who are also of known good alignments, ESPECIALLY if that beast came to the party specifically, as is possible with this organization. If I was playing a good PC in such a campaign, I would try and convince party members to help. Lumping everything under the heading of 'monster' as bad is pretty narrow. I would be bored.

Go easy on me please.(Sorry, I'm sensitive :)) :

Lamb's Bonds
Aura: faint conjuration; CL 5th
Slot: wrists; Price 4000 gp; Weight 1 lb.
Description:

Crafted originally as a means to control the most violent of criminals, these have become popular amongst adventurers whose ideological requirements preclude lethal damage. All weapon damage by the wearer is non-lethal; this includes ranged and fist damage, but excludes damage to creatures with non-lethal damage immunity. Unlike the Merciful weapon enchantment, the bracers do not impart an extra d6 of non-lethal damage. Otherwise, the bracers function as normal shackles and can be locked onto the wearer’s wrists, or removed with a key or disable device check.
The bracers are roughly forged iron, resembling a pair of prisoner's shackles (with or without the connecting chain/locks). Words of the common tongue are engraved on the bracers; on the left: There is no hope for the aching world, and on the right: but the narrow and straight path of peace.

Lamb's Bonds, Greater
Aura: moderate conjuration; CL 6th
Slot: wrists; Price 8000 gp; Weight 1 lb.

These function as lamb's bonds, with the addition of penalties for lesser geas (–2 penalty to each of its ability scores for 24 hours, cumulative per day) applied should the wearer through direct actions cause lethal damage to a creature susceptible to non-lethal damage, e.g., pushing the creature off a cliff.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, cure light wounds; Cost 2000 gp
Requirements for lamb's bonds, greater: Craft Wondrous Item, lesser geas, cure light wounds; Cost 4000 gp

Helping monsters!!!! are we playing the same game!!!

Who are you talking to?

Anyway, I can definitely see this one being a recurring thorn in the side of an adventuring party. First thing I thought of was the PCs coming to the aid of a 'monster' (I see a metallic dragon, but I just like dragons, heh) that is being targeted by the hunters. It's potentially very tear-jerky if they fail, which I love. Will vote for!

Mental Vault: doesn't need a new mechanic. Either mind blank or nondetection fit the bill, and save words.

How does a rogue get either of these without taking a spellcasting class?

Mental Vault: We already have a saving throw mechanic for this sort of attacks, and this ability seems to completely bypass that. And unless the rogue has a really crappy Cha, this caster level check is going to be much more in the rogue's favor than just a Will save. That's a powerup.

This in specific seems designed to counter a paladin's detect evil, which has neither a save nor spell resistance.

Before. I've been charged the pre-order for it, so I guess you can just refund that.

Sly Boots wrote:

Hi, I still haven't seen this. Would it be possible for me to get a credit on the next month's issue instead? I can go ahead and purchase this one from the gaming store. Also, can you cancel my subscription after this is settled? I can no longer afford to receive it every month and will just pick it up when I can from my local store.

It's still a little too soon to give up on your order showing up completely.

Did you want your subscription canceled before or after Pathfinder #31 has shipped out?

Thanks,
cos

Hi, I still haven't seen this. Would it be possible for me to get a credit on the next month's issue instead? I can go ahead and purchase this one from the gaming store. Also, can you cancel my subscription after this is settled? I can no longer afford to receive it every month and will just pick it up when I can from my local store.

Sly Boots wrote:

My past orders states this shipped Feb 16, 2010. That was two weeks yesterday; I have not yet received it. I wanted to check when I should be seeing it.

Your order probably should have arrived by now, but it is not yet so late that we should give up on it. Please give your package another week to arrive. If you still have not seen it by the end of next week, please let me know.

Thanks,
cos

My past orders states this shipped Feb 16, 2010. That was two weeks yesterday; I have not yet received it. I wanted to check when I should be seeing it.

Please be gentle, I'm a weeper:

The Luck Dragon's Cloudy Eye
Aura Faint abjuration, conjuration CL 6th
Slot Eye Lens/Goggle; Price 18150 gp; Weight --

"Stars of the goddess, I can see! ... I nearly fell into that hole, didn't I?"

Description

This item appears to be a jade coin with two diagonal holes through which leather thongs are threaded, to tie behind the wearer's head over an eye socket. The creamy green of the jade is shot through with veins of bright white. When inert, the coin is blank on the wearer's side; the inside is smooth and slightly indented, as from a thumb's constant rubbing. The outward facing side has four runes carved into the surface. When charged, the runes fade and a coiled dragon appears on the face of the coin.

When this item is worn by someone with two working eyes, they can see through the coin as normal. When this item is placed over an eye that has been removed, injured or magically blinded, the wearer can see through the coin as if under the effect of the Remove Blindness spell. This works at all times, with a single charge secondary effect. The item is found uncharged. When the wearer is in a life or death situation and rolls a natural one on a saving throw roll indicating an automatic failure, the coin's face changes from runes to dragon and the item is charged. The natural one is still in effect on this occasion. On any subsequent saving throw roll of a one the charge is used, and the roll changes from an automatic failure to a success.

Construction

Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, Remove Blindness/Deafness, Resistance; Creator must have access to luck domain sixth level power Good Fortune
Cost 9075 gp

Robyn Wittlief wrote:

This has been pending for some time, I just wanted to see when I should expect to see it. Thanks!

Your order is in the shipping queue and we will be getting it shipped out to you as soon as possible. It should probably be going out (depending on the volume in the warehouse) either later this week, or early next.

Thanks,
cos

I still haven't seen this. It says on my account it shipped on the 8th , but 8 days shipping is unusual. Can you let me know if the date shipped date is correct? When should I expect AP 28?