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I've been noticing that there's a small but enduring trend of items that utilize oft-forgotten or ignored mechanics. Hats off!
Reviews and critiques of people's items to come when I have more time, but here's my Breach Master's Epaulets, edited for the one error I realized too late; the original version didn't have transmutation in the Aura. Breach Master’s Epaulets
For every panel deployed in such a fashion, the epaulets’ Damage Reduction value drops by 1. For example, with one panel deployed, the wearer possesses DR 4/adamantine. As a standard action, the wearer can reabsorb adjacent, undamaged panels, restoring the ribbon and its associated functions, DR and redeployment, immediately. The epaulets produce one new ribbon every 24 hours, and can never have more than 5 ribbons. If the epaulets have 5 ribbons, they may reabsorb previously deployed panels as detailed above, but to no benefit. Construction
After reading this thread, I'm beginning to regret my test stat block, Mythic Vampire Goblin What Only Lives in Absalom. Also off the drawing board: a giant crab that wears buildings like hats, thus technically fulfilling the "monster lives in the city" criteria in the same fashion that a hermit crab's environment could technically be "soda can."
Cool, the first time I saw my own item was after the cull. In other news, I saw a sub-90-word hat that was so fun in concept that I texted my girlfriend about it immediately after reading it. It's going into my home game!
Damn it, there was a super-cool hat that had a core mechanic that was totally superstar, but then had a bunch of little superfluous unnecessary extra bits. I still voted for it, but it pained me how much I loved ALMOST everything about it, like if I was eating a delicious key lime pie but instead of a dollop of whipped cream in the center, it had a big lump of nacho cheez.
Pacific Islander Tattoos were given, not merely purchased. Each tattoo MEANS something. EG, a friend participated in a cross-ocean voyage in a traditional canoe (1970s?). When they crew off loaded in Fiji (?), they had a big party and he woke with a Tattoo with stylized waves on his back. We were in a bar in Pearl City (near Honolulu) and the bouncer recognized the Tattoo and showed his. We got in and drank free that night and he and his wife got invited for lunch the next day. So a Paladin having Tattoos associated with advancement, etc. makes great flavor. In my first-ever Pathfinder game I played a half-orc paladin of Sarenrae from the woods north of Andoran. In retrospect I played him with all the hallmarks of the Redeemer, doing nonlethal damage when he could and trying to convince monsters to use their superior strength and other monstrous attributes to better society, but not even the APG had come out at that point. He was a reformed POW from the goblinblood wars, and I played him as having a lot of remaining aspects of orc culture that he applied to his life as a holy warrior; he wore a ghoulish war mask as the faceplate of his helmet, he had a tendency to eat monsters that wouldn't redeem to supplement trail rations, and most importantly, for every major victory (read: boss battle) he would pull his shaving razor, carve another tally-like scar into his face, and rub colored chalks in before letting it heal naturally (his lay on hands obviating the traditional orc means of obtaining status-bearing facial scars). TL;DR I played a Paladin who did body scarification as a sign of cultural significance!
I think the ninja is transgendered, merisiel and seltyiel bi, alain and kyra gay Expressly, Alain at the very least has a ton of heterosexual sex, although it's unknown whether he actually pursues it from a romantic standpoint or as a form of self-validation.
I had a particularly egregious ordeal with an inquisitor of Sarenrae who inquisit-ed his own teammates. By which I mean he acted incredibly suspicious of, rarely healed, and tried to steal the stuff of anyone who didn't have "Sarenrae" written in the religion tab.
Oh no, something got in my eyes in the middle of class!
The rest of this post omitted for space, but interestingly, I had the exact opposite impression, which also adds a little more moral ambiguity to the dwarves and duergar. If you read between the lines, orcs and duergar coexist a lot better than either of them do with dwarves. When I was looking into Hagegraf for my Wayfinder article, I noticed that the city was 5% half-orc: more importantly, 5% FREE half-orc, making them the largest non-dark-folk free minority in the city. Similarly, although the duergar city of Fellstrok borders the orcish capital of Urgir, and although the books mention that the duergar fear an attack by the orcs or dwarves from the surface, the slave population in Fellstrok contains exactly zero orcs. If they're not on friendly terms, the worshipers of Droskar and the orcs are at least at a standstill with some cultural overlap. I postulate that the dwarves drove the orcs to the surface, but the war was a lot more morally ambiguous, and has been oversimplified in media thereafter. Sure, the primitive orcs may have struck first, but they were essentially little more than neanderthals at the time, whereas the deeper-dwelling dwarves were a fully mobilized bronze age civilization already on edge from the nasty beasties dwelling below them in the vaults of Orv (if we assume they were spread out over northern Avistan, that puts them over the Land of Black Blood, Deep Tolguth, and the Crystal Womb, of which only the latter is even remotely not bad news). For better or for worse, the dwarves saw this as the impetus to begin fighting their way upwards, and the orcs were an easy "enemy," both to fight and to keep their population motivated. On the surface, the incredibly harsh environment of Belkzen (given that Varisia is a mild, boggy chaparral environment equivalent to California, I've always pictured Belkzen as the Mojave), drove the orcs to desperation and violence over the course of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of years. This, of course, is where Rovagug comes in, and warps the species over time to better fit his image, feeding off their collective nihilism and despair and giving them hate and anger in return. Now is where we go back to the duergar. The duergar are the dwarves who, for whatever reason, didn't buy in to the Quest for the Sky. To a certain extent, that also means that they're the dwarves who thought that fighting the orcs was wrong. This takes on an especially morally interesting angle if you consider that the duergar might have seen the orcs for what they were at the time; essentially harmless primitives. We know for a fact that the duergar only turned to Droskar in desperation later, when more and more horrible underground dwellers (drow, derro, ghouls, et al) encroached upon their civilization, and they needed Droskar's help to mobilize into the fascist model that was required to survive. Is it possible that the duergar were orc-sympathizers? Is that why there are over one and a half thousand half-orcs in Hagegraf, the crux of duergar civilization, which is so geographically far away from any modern orc tribes? Were it not for the public worship of Droskar, would the orcs in duergar society be upstanding and sympathetic, now that they've had millennia to culturally adapt?
That is delightfully cruel. If you must corrupt the wish, OP, my vote is for this one, especially because it's not actively harmful, merely extremely obnoxious.
I think that, in all honesty, the solution to this isn't to NOT warn women that there's adult content upcoming, but rather to warn EVERYONE that there's adult content upcoming, lest ANYONE be offended.
Hey guys! So, I'm the president of a local game club, and I've been trying to come up with an interesting weekend event for a bunch of our local Pathfinder players. I figured that I'd pitch the premise and what I've worked out for it so far to you guys, and see if you have any suggestions. This would be a super intensive event, so any suggestions and comments would be welcome. My roommate and I have also been thinking about hypothetical strategies to playing this thing, so that could be fun to discuss, too!
Every year, the gladiator state of Tymon in the River Kingdoms runs a special tournament, independent of the regular gladiator battles. Gorum's Gambit, as it has come to be known, is a grueling multi-day running battle through the wilderness around Tymon, in which color-coded adventuring teams wage war on each other for the grand prize: a single unlimited service courtesy of the First Blade, herald of Gorum. The rules are simple... ...and that's where we segue into game rules. The Rules Gorum's Gambit requires twelve players, to be separated into four three-man teams (red, yellow, blue, green). Each team has its own GM, and all four GMs will constantly be in contact via computer. Each character is a 20-point character of 8th level, but with the gear of a first-level character: they may possess only what can be paid for with their class average starting money. Characters can either be built by their respective players in advance, or the GMs will make multiple "stock" teams that can be played by new players. The game will take place on a Kingmaker-style hex map, with the gladiator city of Tymon at the center. All teams will start out adjacent to Tymon. Instead of using the Kingmaker travel system (which would swiftly become unwieldy with multiple teams), gameplay will be divided into two phases, the ACTIVE PHASE and the SLEEP PHASE. Traditionally, this will represent day and night, but a team might hypothetically choose night as their active phase (an advantageous strategy if all three team members have darkvision, for instance). During a phase, teams get TWO MAP MOVEMENT ACTIONS: -Moving to an adjacent hex costs ONE MAP MOVEMENT ACTION
If a team does not sleep during their sleep phase, they may spend an additional two movement points, but they may not prepare spells and are fatigued the next day. If they engage in combat during the sleep phase, they are exhausted instead of fatigued. If a team attacks another during the sleep phase, the attacking team gets a surprise round (unless the defending team has foolishly not chosen a lookout, in which case the attacking team could very well attack under cover of silence and wipe the whole defending team). This also applies if a team that has chosen night as their active phase moves into the same space as a team that has chosen day as their active phase, or if a team with day as their active phase moves into the space that a night team starts movement in. Regardless of context, if two teams enter into PvP, the two GMs will merge them onto one table, and then run the combat "Battleship Style," with combat taking place on a numbered grid, movements being written on paper, and miniatures only being revealed when a member of the rival team makes visual contact. Otherwise, battles with NPCs are run as normal. Time Rules During combat, Panic Mode is in effect and players have only 60 seconds to choose what they're doing and describe it. If they can't choose something in 60 seconds, they are presumed to be delaying their action and the next person in the initiative order goes. Orders and suggestions being shouted are presumed to be said aloud, for the purposes of teams engaging in PvP. Encounters will be balanced to take no more than a few turns, and each hex will have only one or two NPC encounters. This will be to expedite play such that each active phase can be hard-capped at an hour. If for whatever reason a team is still dancing around an encounter after an entire hour of Panic Mode combat, they continue into the next phase and are considered to be fatigued the next day. Increasing in power and off-limits areas The city of Tymon itself is not off-limits, and is in fact the only place around to grab gear, healing, resurrections, or magic items. However, this makes it appealing to all the teams, and due to the characters' reputation as competitors and the willingness of Tymon's citizens to spur on conflict, hidden characters in Tymon will not stay hidden for long. The primary impetus to leave Tymon and skulk around in the wilderness is that many of the local monsters, bandits, beasties, and natural hazards have been "seeded" with cash, magic items and useful pieces of gear (It is even rumored that 5,000 gold pieces' worth of diamond dust is hidden somewhere), which when retrieved by the competing teams could offer them a leg up on other teams. After 10 days have passed, the hexes on the edge of the map go off-limits, and teams have one action phase to leave or become disqualified. This repeats on day 12, 13, and so on, until all parties have either killed each other or been forced into Tymon. During this period, if a party enters Tymon, it is brought to the Arena of Aroden to await the arrival of another party to do battle. This is the rough framework I had in mind. Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
Tar-Baphon? I always saw the emphasis of Tar-Baphon's evil being the same career track of a lot of horrible despots: an inconspicuous nobody who slowly became more evil and relevant until it all boiled over at once and everybody wondered why no one saw it coming. I think it kind of cheapens his brand of "this was once a man" evil to make him an aboleth.
I wonder if it is possible if there is at least one who is a member of the Decemvirate or if all of them are...Because their identities are unknown, some say even masked to the gods, members seem ageless. It is assumed that the position is passed down through a hidden method, although it is not beyond reason that the Decemvirate age very slowly or are truly immortal IF YOU ARE MY PLAYERS, DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS Spoiler: This is the endgame of my home Pathfinder game, actually, inspired by the Cults of the Dark Tapestry from Carrion Crown and the fact that a cleric of Zon-Kuthon is listed as one of the Patrons. Aspis is, unbeknownst to the lower-rung members, actually an effort designed to mold the future of human history in the interests of Nyarlathotep. As the most "Human-Like" of the Outer Gods, Nyarlathotep is uniquely suited to running what is essentially a multinational corporation.
I don't want to be a wet blanket, but most of the last 2 pages of this thread have been about many things, but those things have not been homosexuality in Golarion. Other topics and real-world discussions have different threads and sections of our messageboards.Aren't flumphs basically sentient wet blankets? I mean, just look at your avatar! My girlfriend has actually been wanting to play an aberrant-blooded sorcerer with this exact backstory for a while. Basically, the topic came up of "how the hell could you justify an aberrant-blooded sorcerer without a horrible parental rape backstory?" The answer was that daddy was a very lonely Varisian farmer and mommy was the space jellyfish who came to warn him about Nyarlathotep, and they really hit it off and one thing led to another and things got kind of out of hand. Also, being descended from a flumph turns the long, noodly reach limbs bloodline power from disgusting to adorable. EDIT: I mean, imagine the hugs!
Well, furries are a whole nother bag of sex politics worms, now that you mention it.
Molthune with it's rampant militarism and "might makes right" and "ordnung muss sein" attitude among upper echelons is pretty much XVII+ century Prussia. I'm surprised that no one in this thread has drawn any parallels between the Holy Roman Empire and Taldor. A factionalized remnant of a once much larger empire, headed by a powerless inbred King and a bunch of feuding nobles? A continued reliance on knights well into the age of more effective tactics? A sense of national entitlement to lands that once belonged to it, now owned by other nations? Even with the Byzantine-themed names and appearances, it always came off to me more as 75% Holy Roman Empire, 25% Byzantine.
I have to say that Pathfinder is supposed to be a game that facilites lighthearted fun. The last thing I want in the game is something that promotes the homosexual agenda or any other political or philosophical agenda. I was highly annoyed at having to change the gender of the love interest in "The Midnight Mauler" so I could run the scenario in good conscience. This sort of thing has no place in your typical rpg game. The amount of "really, dude" indignation that I felt at the assumption of homosexuality as anything other than a narrative choice (much less a political agenda dedicated to ruining your "lighthearted fun," because as we all know, one type of gay counteracts the other) was enough to power a small electric vehicle off my neural synapses.
From what I've always gathered, it's not that the sexualization of the female form is inherently offensive, but rather the ubiquity of the archetype and the lack of any clearly displayed alternatives. I completely understand the want to be the sexy character. In basically every game I've ever played, I've had at least one "the sexy character." The issue that gets brought up time and time again is that the sexy character should be a possibility, rather than an inevitability. Were I playing many an older roleplaying game than Pathfinder, the artwork and tone of the rulebook would have established that my male player's lithe, handsome half-orc maestro sorcerer could have just as easily been a bookish wizard or a brutal barbarian, whereas my female player's sexy priestess of Calistria could have been a sexy wizard, or a sexy barbarian, or a sexy priestess of a deity of piety and chastity.
A lot of pretty dramatic stuff has happened to visible women in gaming, from the Anita Sarkeesian drama to the threats and hostility against women in the industry who had the temerity to be A Woman Who Speaks As An Authority On Gaming (see, for example, Bioware's Jennifer Hepler), and general backlash, such as the Fake Geek Girl absurdity. Hell, Kim Swift talked about being afraid to speak up, and when you are responsible for Portal, no one in the industry should be questioning your right to speak. I hope -- I hope so much that it's exhausting, at times -- that the backlash is actually a sign that at least these things are being talked about openly now, and that we will continue to move forward. I think that this hits the nail right on the head. Although I would not consider myself a fan of Sarkeesian or Hepler (and in fact, have my reservations about statements that both have made), I've found myself disgusted by the utter abandonment of communicative criticism in gaming discourse in favor of gendered attacks and ad hominems, often to an overwhelming degree that is patently absurd. I commend Paizo for making an effort to provide a warm and welcoming space for gamers of all stripes, especially as antipathy towards other gamers becomes the norm in the public discourse on gaming. Congratulations to all the women gamers who participated and continue to participate in this contest!
There is the Cellini-like Ayavah of Magnimar, the sculptor of the statuettes and buckles depicting entwined succubi you find in several adventures. One of my players' character is actually commissioning sculptures from Ayavah for his villa, after I had the artist feature prominently in a subplot involving an aristocratic elf attempting to shame one of the other party members with an art show showcasing her least honorable moments. Boy, do I love the fluff on elven duels.
One observation: I am learning way, way more about good design from the lame ones than I am from the fantastic ones.
Ok, the item itself is interesting but why it has exactly specified range? Why not 20 feet, 30 feet, or 60 feet? My favorites are the items that specify range, movement, or distance outside of five-foot increments.
Alternatively, it casts feather fall, fireball, acts as a Rod of Wonder on alternating Tuesdays, has a table for the random effect it generates on a full moon, is prized by dwarves, and comes with cup holders.
I find that I often prefer items with one single very well-defined and thought-out ability, rather than items with multiple abilities, even if the abilities are all thematically consistent. The more bells and whistles there are to something, the harder it becomes to adjudicate and, on top of that, the more it starts resembling a staff rather than a wondrous item.
At the end of the day, while there have been a few dissenting voices, I think majority opinion is clear. If you're silly enough to grapple a succubus, you deserve to get screwed. That one actively hurt as it made its way into my occipital lobe. |