You're also missing a big point here: RPGs are not books or other passive media. If your character is an a$*$$%$, everyone at the table has to deal with you acting like a jackass for 4-7 hours at a time every week. It grates. It gets old. It really doesn't add as much to the story as you think it does. Characters can have conflicts without a player going out of his way to make everybody miserable at the table week in and week out to make the story "better". The BEST CASE SCENARIO is this kind of character gets a quick comeuppance and is either replaced or learns their lesson...as all of my AND your examples do. This either results in an isolated incident or a revolving door character. In either case, it's just as well handled by an NPC. The healthier conflicts (and more interesting ones) are all represented in those same media. Gimli and Legolas have a rivalry, but neither would ever betray the other. Roy and Haley conflict...but Haley also has the best interests of the party in mind, just like the rest of them do. And so on, and so on. Ideological conflicts add more to the game without being a betrayal of trust.
That's...not a good analogy. This is sports, not a grand quest. This is exactly like what it is: An athlete doing what athletes do. This is like getting mad at a football team because while they're on their quest to win the Superbowl they need to play all these other stupid teams first and do exhibition matches and commercials and charity events on the side. If you want to put it in LotR terms though, what's happening right now is Frodo and co. made it to Mount Doom midway through The Two Towers and threw the ring in...only to realize it was a fake ring, and this was a fake Sauron, both destroyed. It's now been months with no sign of the threat. The orc armies have all but disappeared. The real Sauron (and his ring) are in the wind. The heroes have no way of finding him, so while they wait for Gandalf to track him down or the evil baddie to show himself of his own accord, they settle into a routine of daily life. This is the time in a story where you get character interaction and development, and get a sense of the charaters' personalities without a looming crisis. Which, let's face it, Tolkien didn't do much of. Which is fine, because not every story needs to follow the same exact structure and keep the cast laser focused on their goal (particularly in this case, where in the grand scheme the stakes are nonexistent).
Blymurkla wrote: Think of your favorite groups of heroes. Think of Star Wars and Firefly, or of the fellowship of the Ring and Order of the Stick. All of these make my point for me. There was no real betrayal by an ally in Star Wars (Solo repented almost immediately). The one betrayer in the Fellowship died. The minute Jayne went from "useful a%%!+" to actually betraying the party for money...Mal nearly killed him, and he vowed never to do it again under pain of death. Belkar was kicked from the group the second he became more inconvenience than help...only reason it didn't take is because of a mind wipe. This? Quote: What would you choose, having a rogue who finds traps for you yet sometimes helps himself to some of your coins or to have no-one and be killed by a swinging axe trap? It's a non-issue. Mechanically you never need a Rogue. Use the money you saved from everyone in the party getting the Rogue's full share AND not having a chunk of it stolen to buy a Wand of Summon Monster. Or hire an NPC. Or anything else. RP-wise, it doesn't make sense to keep someone around either unless your character's an idiot or for some reason you don't really need the money.
Matthew Downie wrote:
The revenge plot has taken a sideline because he was duped by the big tournament. He got into this to take out Yellow Devil and to destroy GWM if possible. Problem is, he took out a fake Yellow Devil and that trapped him in a contract...GWM is now using him to make more money and cement their Japanese audience. None of the current fights are related to the revenge plot because he got screwed over by contract.
Blymurkla wrote:
Never understood how it's supposed to be interesting. It's annoying AND nonsensical. Any party with two brain cells between them all would boot (or worse) the klepto at the first opportunity and hire someone who can be trusted. If they steal from their allies, they can't be trusted not to backstab in more literal ways later. You're probably one of those people who think Kender are cute, aren't you? I've got my eye on you.
Lathiira wrote:
All of the [Weapon] of [Hold] weapons (eg Axe of Whiterun) are randomized magic items just like any loot you find in chests, so none are guaranteed to be any one thing. Remember that merchants sell magic items. Check with Warmaiden's and Belethor's General Goods along with the Khajiit caravans enough times and they'll eventually have one. There are other merchants in other towns of course, but it seems like you're based out of Whiterun.
The next sarcophagus is empty. The only other notable features of the room are twofold: A tapestry, depicting Taldan Knights fighting against the forces of the Whispering Tyrant. In the centerpiece is Iomedae (as the mortal Herald of Aroden at the time). The other content of the room is a statue arrayed in armor identical to that of the knights in the tapestry, carved in an odd pose. It appears to have just completed a sword thrust, but the look on its face is that of despair, rather than triumph. It gives off an eerie, lifelike quality. Everything is carved a little too precisely.
SmiloDan wrote:
It doesn't...but then again, it also lacks significant choices in what those abilities are and those abilities being significant in the first place. You get most of your playstyle defining stuff in the first three levels and the rest is a mixed bag from meh to cool just like Pathfinder.
Kirth Gersen wrote:
Part of the reason I do the opposite (trade Vital Strike for Power Attack and something else, usually some unique gimmick like Cornugon Smash) usually. I feel more comfortable if I need a 14 to hit the PCs and then do 1/4 of their health than I do hitting on a 10 and doing 1/5 instead (or in the extreme cases, hitting on a 10 and doing 1/2).
The Toaster wrote:
The second Bomb probably hits the first Monk right in the face, out of spite. Deflect Arrows is only once per round.
Quote: In violence, media manipulation, fear-mongering, spreading dissent. In how we're used like fighting dogs, given a slap on the nose and thrown into a ring, mindlessly attacking one another instead of biting the hand that slapped us on the nose, in breaking the cycle of violence and hate. This may be a nitpick, or just a consequence of the analogy, but doesn't this just redirect the hate and violence, not stop it? Arguably you are redirecting it in a justified manner toward a deserved target, but it still perpetuates that cycle. Which I guess is the main problem. Violence begets violence but it's damn hard to stop violence without violence in the grand scheme.
Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:
So...don't download random programs you haven't vetted? That's not Google's fault, it's yours. Same way it's not Microsoft's fault if you randomly download something from the internet and get a nasty virus.
Mind you it doesn't matter after 6th level (Ranger/Slayer), 10th level (Fighter, any full BaB class with a Combat feat at 10th), or 11th (any full BaB class) since Shield Master negates all the penalty anyway. I think the Unhindered Shield Feat might help, but I don't have Armor Master's Handbook. You could always just use a Light Shield instead. It's one less AC. Big whoop.
I have my two cats, a big calico (Rosie, 8 years) and a little grey longhair (Misty, 3 years). Rosie was a package deal with her sister (Reese), originally, but she got sick a few years back and we had to put her down. I adopted Misty not long afterwards because Rosie was so lonely. Thankfully they've bonded well. =) Rosie is currently deforming my spine by being half on the arm of my chair, and half behind me where I made the mistake of bending in to type. At 16 lbs (and yes, that's her healthy weight, says the vets) she is more able to muscle in than your average cat. I've had other pets (dogs, hamsters, turtles) but none have lasted as long as these two, nor any have I gotten so close to. They do a decent job of keeping me sane, when they aren't actively driving me the other way (Misty has decided she's an outside cat now, and goes on little adventures during the day).
Matthew Downie wrote: I never see PCs using longswords. Why don't longswords get any love? It's always greatswords and rapiers and longspears and composite longbows... Longswords fall on the opposite end of the spectrum. They're a good, solid weapon with oodles of weapon specific Feats and effects along with many special magic weapons that are longswords (See: Holy Avenger, Firebrand, etc.). Most people are sick to death of them.
MageHunter wrote:
So can a normal bow shot, except you don't need to spend 3 Feats on it that are practically worthless at any other time. 1d8+12 or more is still a pretty hefty Concentration check to pass. Even better, you can then spend those 3 Feats on something that does work on a prepared spellcaster, so you can send a flurry of arrows downrange to get rid of those Mirror Images, or ignore their Blur or Displacement. And then when they're dead, they can't cast any more. Wind Wall and its ilk screw you either way, of course, but again you haven't wasted 3-4 extra Feats now.
I think I'm going to go ahead and okay both Osric and Zone. That'll put us at 4, 5 if LizardWizard wants to come back, and 6 if Endoralis shows back up, which is plenty manageable. I have a solid idea for bringing Osric in now because of an interesting decorative detail I forgot about in the very room the PCs just entered. I'm going to update soon and make a very slight amendment to the room's contents. Side note: Technically speaking, you can be a Cleric of an ideal. If, instead of changing patron deities to Iomedae, you would like to gain your Cleric powers from the ideals that Aroden espoused (and/or a steadfast faith that he is not dead, merely gone) you could do that. His Domains are listed on the wiki if you're interested. Zone, how do you feel about being contracted by the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye? You can take the place of a Dhampir vampire hunter with a similar backstory to your own and get worked in that way.
Think I'm gonna go ahead and upgrade my Klar from +2 to +4. I've been trying to keep my weapons evenly upgraded but that's not really feasible with the Axiomatic property on the Sword of Aaqa eating so much gold. Honestly, I'm kind of tempted to sell it at this point. Its special wind blast thingy has literally never worked. Would Tenser be interested in buying a historical artifact weapon, perchance?
Skyrim Rampage Cap'n Yesterday wrote:
A few years back the volcano in Morrowind erupted, destroying pretty much the whole island. That sent a shockwave across the ocean, causing an earthquake in Winterhold and a good 90% of the city fell into the sea (you can actually see some of the ruins down below the college if you go in that ravine). It's the main reason the inhabitants of Winterhold town hate the College, they resent the fact that so much of everything was ruined but the college is still standing, and some people think they caused it for whatever reason.
Untentril wrote: So why, in your estimation, do different Banes not stack with either mg die or enhancement bonus? They explicitly aren't the same special ability, cuz u can't take the same special ability twice, right? Wrong. Bane: Can I apply multiple bane special abilities to the same weapon? If so, do their effects stack? wrote:
It even conveniently comes with examples of similar abilities that you can take multiple times with mutually exclusive effects. If your Fighter wields a dagger (both a Thrown and Light Blades weapon) they don't get 2x Weapon Training either. They're still the same source: Weapon Training and the Bane special weapon property.
Alex has consistently pissed me off in almost every episode this season. She's worse than f%@@ing Laurel over on Arrow, and that's saying something. She has such an entitled attitude. She makes the wrong choice, b!$~#es people out for calling her on it, doubles down on the bad choice, and then for some reason everybody apologizes to and makes up with her because her bad choices were cleaned up by them. It's like everyone in this show is a masochist and Alex is their personal torturer. And mine. "Oh, please Alex, give me more pain. Make more messes for me to clean up. F#@# up Alex! F&+* up harder! Please!"
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