The Sideromancer's page

Having good hearing is something weird that annoys me. I would much prefer not being able to be woken up at 3am by someone upstairs doing anything more than sitting motionless. I have earplugs. They are not enough.

Shakspar probably made sure to drop a teapot off while he was in space. A great playwright like Shagsper has enough foresight to mess with future philosophers, right?

To me, the Loader seems like it has the most opportunities for a Technomancer to actually make use of their magic. Aside from buffing the weapon (mentioned earlier), you could also rule that Fabricate Arms could be used for ammo in the event you run low, as well as the possibility of using the Fabricate Scrap cantrip on spent casings for compaction and/or later magic use.

For me, I can't say I've had to many changes of my interests, strengths, or weaknesses. I had a scratch in my proverbial record, so I ran the same state for enough time for it to become ingrained into everything I do. I came into a world with too many people, and in a sense I only withstood it by believing it is better to be one of one than one of many. That my stat total matters less than the fact that it is minmaxed (min Cha, max Int, for the curious). And, because of how heredity works, I can't say I have ever known what normalcy is like.

The PF afterlife can be a new blank slate to start again. But my slate has never been blank. There would be no "again". The part of my existence that was built around bumps that have since been smoothed over would be conclusively and utterly finished. I can't really call it life-after-death when I am completely gone, can I? Heck, pushing back the Maelstrom is probably something important enough to be worth true death. I just object to the intermediary step of being just another face defined by a different definition than how I define myself.

There was a time when writing homebrew spells that I abbreviated the default arcane list to SAW (Sorcerer Arcanist Wizard).

So you're saying they're too pitiful to be pitied?

28: Despite being nowhere near Numeria, decide the best course of action is to loot Technic League storehouses for anything that might be useful.

My headcanon:

Normally, there isn't a way of containing the power of 9th level spellcasting at low levels. Prepared casters get around this by not taking in that much energy at low levels. Psychics do something similar, building up their power incrementally through their discipline. Sorcerers have their bloodline to contain the power, which itself is allowed to be more expressed at higher levels when its use as a buffer is not as necessary.

An Oracle needs to have this power dumped on them all at once (so that there is no need for future contact between Oracle and patron), so something needs to be removed so they don't overload. The secondary benefits improve with level because a lack of other abilities is no longer needed to contain the magic.

Planar Adventures confirms that the demiplane in question does have associated petitioners. If the setup is well-designed, there would be some way of releasing Rov's power in a controlled manner so it doesn't build up to be unstoppable. We know that there are monsters that exit the demiplane occasionally (Rov's Spawn and the Wrackworms also from Planar Adventures), but whether that means the seal is working as intended or beginning to fail is up for debate.

I'm a fan of this xkcd when it comes to toying with the government.

GM: And should we roll initiative for the "raven"? (actually a voidworm protean, the raven was chosen as one of the animal forms because it talking is slightly easier to get away with)

Witch: They have spells, so they might be useful *checks sheet* never mind. These aren't going to help. It'll hide in the robes.

Enough parity between PCs and monsters that nothing breaks if some one-off vampire becomes a semi-permanent travelling companion (this has happened at least twice).

The ability to take the most useful option instead of the least useless.

I mean, wouldn't removing all the things growing out of the surface be considered shaving the area?

Though if you are into the action, it might get boring after a while if they had the same moves all of the time. Maybe the villain could become more monstrous over repeated cycles of death or something...

This is starting to sound like a good idea for a video game, I hope somebody makes one.

An adaptation of tracking weapons to personal scales

rules for recoil boosting and/or rocket jumps

Weapons with deliberate and controllable ricochets or reflections.

Yes, these are all pretty silly

There's FTL communication. It's in the form of ships full of USB sticks. There isn't instantaneous communication, but you don't need to wait a few years for out-of-system news.

Which would be fine if worked anything else caused the same problems, or if metals found natively were exempt. What is so industrial about hitting things with blunt objects?

Honestly, I would probably destroy it, myself, and the immediate vicinity while attempting to figure out how it works. Possibly not in that order.

Oh wow, I didn't start the thread this time.

I never understood the restriction because to me, metal is completely natural. The most common thing in the universe occasionally behaves as a metal (i.e. tends to become a positive ion) in common natural processes. Frequently, organisms will build something up to maximize the use of a metal because it turns out that using metals is the best way to get a lot of stuff involved in living done (you know, like photosynthesis or breathing). Not that life would have gotten to that point if there wasn't a massive amount of metal around to protect it from whatever comes off the sun at any given moment.

And given the outsider-focused option was an ex-druid, shouldn't that be extended to other extraplanar origins e.g. the First World?

The inability of Druids to wear metal armour. Completely clashes with what I think of as nature (i.e. willingness to adapt via anything that works, the sheer commonality and importance of various metals IRL for various natural processes)

You will not die today, thread! I swear it on my honor!

Nah, it metioned that their blindness and deafness isncongenital, much like that in IrL dogs. And much like IRL dogs (and humans, for that matter, as the medical principle is the same), they still maintain the genetic ability to see, and even the functional hardware, so to speak. But a defect in the occipital or parietal lobes makes it impossible to perceive sound or hearing. However, corrective surgery for a society as technologically adept as SF’s, such as neurological fix is probably relatively simple. As to the justification as to why you should or shouldn’t fix a congenital defect...I mean technically it is a choice, sure. It *is* a weak cultural justification IMO. This gets used for the argument of whether we should “fix” autism if found. Speaking as someone who has autism, yeah I’d have preferred functional social skills thank you very much, and a lower predisposition towards GI problems. That would’ve been nice. And the whole “it’s just a different experience” is an argument. I don’t buy it though. Different, sure. It also causes me grief. That’s just me though. Still, it’s a bit of stale reasoning.

Speaking as somebody else who has Autism, screw that. Sure, there are times when I wish I didn't have as good hearing or could figure out what the hell is going on with normal people. But **** it all, there's enough normal people around already, the world doesn't need any more. If I'm going to feel that I have any reason to exist, it's sure going to be on my massive differences and not just being another brick in the wall.

The problem with weapon and shield classification is most cultures didn't really have multiples within a broad category. So you end up with a lot of somewhat different implements all named "sword"

Void Kineticist element (Occult Origins): Fully distinct specialization.

Eldritch Archer Magus Archetype (Heroes of the Streets): More varied weapons on the main gish class is always nice.

Urban Bloodrager and Urban Skald (Heroes of the Streets): Useful counterparts to a fairly core Barbarian option.

Weapon and Armour modifications (Adventurer's Armoury 2): Direct control of your main equipment is always nice.

the 'One Ring''s corruption power is stronger the more powerful the one holding it is.

look up youtube for the explanation about why they didn't use giant eagles to just fly there(answer - they are demi-gods level in mid earth, so they would have fallen for the ring), which is why Hobbits are set as the best default keepers who are less corruptible.
Gandalf taking hold of the ring to teleport would have been worse then giving it to Sauran.

All this time, I thought it was because Sauron was sensible enough to install anti-air defences.

[Pharasma] is powerful, controlling the resource of souls that other gods depend on as well as being the closest to an omniscient deity in the pantheon means that plotting against her is going to be pretty tough to accomplish.

I mean, personally I'd take omniscience of the present that happens to work consistently instead of omniscience of a future that doesn't work as well it used to.

Oh wait, I already did.

You would be missing that both round 1 and round 2 are guaranteed, leaving you with 1+1+0.8+0.44+Σ(0.132*(0.05^x))=3.38

Edit: ninja'd by Mark when looking for a sigma

There are better places to go to plumb the depths of what can be done with a game than places like this?

Gorbacz wrote:

Luckily, Paizo is basing their decisions upon hard feedback data from various sources and not feelings. Phew! Feelings, verily can they throw one off the hook, leave an opening for a dash, a jab, a quick dirty blow, ouch, right between the ribs that one went! En garde!

Cranky social science methodology comment - feelings are data too, and "hard" data (quantitative) is not necessarily more or less useful than "soft" data (qualitative).

As well, the ability to plug data into a model will only give you results as good as that model. Figuring out a design that only varies the parameters you are looking to change is not only a pain to do right regardless of the data type, but also fails to account for changes in anything else. Whether the survey data is sufficiently accurate (i.e. a given situation leads to the expected answers for that situation), representative (how many people didn't last long enough to get data?), and complete (i.e. covers every reasonable factor) is up for debate, and there's still how you would go about interpreting that data.

There's a reason I stick to theory. Experiments are really freaking hard to do correctly.

Interesting. I will frequently go to sites somewhat like this as a way of answering "is there enough here to be worth getting into?" To hear that somebody wanted that information not accessed would be suspicious, to say the least. Oh, I'd probably listen, but I likely wouldn't ever get beyond being a first-timer either.

So you disagree with the premise that success on a nova spell is necessary. When I was referring to the agreement, I was speaking of the players (known to discuss actions beforehand). That's fine, but if you're going to reject the current situation as not what optimized players vs optimized monsters looks like, I would very much appreciate an example in similar detail as to what it does look like.

Which can be argued to be a problem with the monster math. If what is nearly-unanimously agreed to be the best possible course of action only allows a 5-10% chance of getting anywhere, that is far, far too low. Whether or not you agree with the premises of this perspective, the conclusion they have is entirely consistent with them.

The only turn-by-turn we have from Colette is a Kraken fight, which we already know is too tough, and in which the players consistently make terrible choices, using all-or-nothing spells against the strong saves of a boss

I am going to disagree with this. All-or-nothing is the absolute best option when you need All to succeed. Sure, you've basically lost if you fail, but you've basically lost if you do anything other than succeed on that specific hit. We can argue back and forth on how reasonable it would be for the players to know what saves the Kraken was good at anyway, but I don't think we can blame the players for believing that they absolutely needed successful All-or-nothing spells to get through. Since that's basically what every previous fight they've experienced in PF2 is: either everything goes perfectly for the players, or they lose.

Ah, Halloween. When you can't get to sleep until 2AM because everybody outside is completely disregarding any semblance of quietude.

Sometimes I wish the hard part of university was the courses.

They did say they ask politely. The hammer's just there in case you need some carpentry done while they happen to be around.

I always thought of Odin being defined as a god of magic was because basically every Nordic god was a deity of war in some fashion. "The one that gets out there and fights" isn't a unique identifier.

Who uses Imperial measurements in spacecraft? Haven't we learned from our mistakes?

Oh hey, it's the guy trying to follow in my footsteps! You'll get there, I'd like to say I'm sure of it but some other upstart broke prophecy or something.

With all due respect, it's hard to think of a less intimidating creature than the one you named yourself after. Not great for a reaper.

Groetus, Harbinger of Last Days wrote:

Pharasma, Lady of Graves wrote:

Bring it on.

As you wish

Looks suspiciously at the imposter.

You might want more than one Mirror Image for the attack. I've got a good stack of scrolls if you need them.

Bonus->Bogus

conditional/circumstantial bogus

If your character’s Intelligence score is 14 or higher at 1st
level, you can select one of the bogus languages from this
list for your character to speak in addition to her ancestry
language or languages.

IMPROVED COMMUNAL HEALING FEAT 4
Prerequisites Communal Healing
You can grant the bogus healing from Communal Healing to
any creature within the range of your heal spell instead of just
yourself.

As with other spell slots, you can use this bogus slot to cast any spell, not just the one your bloodline gave you.

...

To use an external example, there is a video game I'm a fan of that happens to have a deity as old as the universe (and at least partially its creator), whose dominion happens to be life, arguably the ending of said life, and seeing the future. For at least 95% of the story, the protagonists have no idea what their deities reasons are.

He was the final boss, because those reasons were entirely self-serving to the detriment of everybody else.

Weird coincidences, huh?

When fantasy settings make up their own names for creatures that are clearly carbon copies of entities from mythology. (Though in settings that have very little mythical basis it's okay. But it's things like Griffin, Hydra, Troll, Tauren, that annoy me. Why not just call a Minotaur a Minotaur?)

I personally prefer custom naming if and only if the original name derives from an earth-specific proper name. If whatever setting we're in has absolutely nothing whatsoever named Minos, calling something a Minotaur doesn't make any sense.

Or the entangling debuff, Cone of Cord.

People cheering, especially "woo" cheering, is extremely grating. It's probably one of the reasons I'm not very competitive. I don't want to be anywhere near an awards ceremony.

I would deerly appreciate the inclusion of the Hart spell. Shame Erastil isn't actually evil enough, though.

Megistone wrote:

I'll use a Lightning Belt if you have been naughty!

I'll throw my Wireball at them.

I cast Solid Dog for some cover.

ShroudedInLight wrote:

Yep, yep.

With Planar Adventure's we learned that souls who believe in the gods go on to become petitioners for their various planes of existence. These petitioners lose pretty much everything that made them who they were as a mortal, and either are sculpted into a higher being, feed their way into becoming a higher being, or else collapse into cosmic dust to power the outer planes from death or inaction.

No afterlife full of bunnies for these folks, just either being forged into an entirely unrecognizable version of themselves or turned into dust to be used to empower the outer realms.

Almost makes someone mad enough to rebel against this system and lock one's essence away so the gods can't get it. Of course, Pharasma takes offense to that for some reason...

That's . . . nightmarish. I knew JJ was into cosmic horror, but . . . wow.

Also, if you tell Pharasma you don't want any part of that, you will be escorted to a quiet place in the Boneyard to mope for a few millennia before dissolving into the Boneyard's Spire once your personality is well and truly dead.

If we're abusing chemistry, I would recommend C2N14 except it would explode before hitting the ground. In fact, it would explode as soon as you finished casting a spell that makes it. Possibly before. I guess you could crank up abjurations and handle it personally.