Unluckyblackjack's page

The Sun Sailer
The Nighthunter
The Void Jumper
No Moon, That's
Planet Express Ship
The Moon Marauder
The Crater Creator
Titanic VII
Space Core
The Soul Train
The Antidisestablishmentarianism
Cold Iron Cruiser
Mitheral Dancer
Adamantine Avenger
Shipy McShipface

such as in the case of the Shadow Plane

Now I want to see what happened to the Shadow Plane. Or what Space Shadow Plane would look like. Would it be double-shadow?

The way I see it, your gnome tricked and humiliated a Evil cleric (who worshiped a Evil god) who was trying to make you do a Evil thing. And in the process of it, you took an LE church down a peg and even get off scot free. In a way, it's kinda fairytale-esque, when you think about it: An Evil cleric tries to get one over on a (seaming) naïve young hero, only to be tricked in turn. There's even a moral about pride and underestimating opponents in there.

Also, I don't really have an issue with the LE cleric's actions. You burned his holy book, made a mockery of his religion, and worst of all, made him look like a fool in front of his congregation. That's a straight-up called shot to the pride right there. And considering his "I'VE GOT YOU NOW MY PRETTY! HAHAHAHA!!!" tendencies, suddenly turning into a cold, calculating Count of Monte Cristo would have been weird. At least, weird if he did it right at that moment.

"After being plagued by some powerful, unknown foe who seemed to have unlimited financial and political power, clues lead you to an old grave of an old foe. Digging through the packed earth, you think of how he promised revenge on you and all of the village who laughed with you. About how he didn't seem to die... 'right'. You think of how you returned to the village on a hunch you got from a dream, only to find the fate of its citizens the stuff of nightmares. You open the coffin, finding not a corpse of a long dead cleric, but a stuffed bear. The bear is missing a button that was his eye, and has stains and tears from use. And in its paws is a note. The note is written in Infernal, and the ink is red. Still wet. The note is for you; you're the only one it could be for. All it says is 'You signed a contract. And I will collect what is owed.' And then you feel a cold hand on your shoulder, its boney fingers digging into your flesh. A voice, gravely with age and full of hate, crawls inside your ears and festers inside your brain.
'The owner of that bear was about your size. The tortures of Hell are nothing in comparison to what I did to him. To you, I will do far worse.'"

Or you know, whatever.

Wish granted! All mortal life is now in Hell, Abaddon, and the Abyss. Now the outsides don't have to interact with the material plane at all.

I wish I could make the perfect wish.

... my inability to drop it like it's hot.

Wish Granted! But I'm afraid not much has changed...

I wish I could see the far-reaching consequences of my actions.

I disagree. I still see no issue with the summoner as it was.

The above allegory of the summoner happens even more with the Unchained summoner as they don't gain the abilities of whatever they are meant to mimic again until they reach a certain level. Which of course leaves you with no actual choices of your own because the amount of points you have got cut in half. Unchained Eidolon is only good for a select few concepts and even then they are locked behind alignment for little reason.

I think that was the point. Instead of having a pet monster that follows you blindly, you have a companion that has it's own identity. It's not just a follower that you make to look like a dragon. I even think the alignment aspect is good because of the summoner's inherent connection to the other plains. The eidolon paired with the summoner because it feels that the summoner can (or be used to) further it's own goals. And the summoner feels the same way about the eidolon. The vanilla summoner basically has a crude copy of some monster, creature, or outsider that it got from someplace. The U-summoner has a genuine article, from the actual plane that the outside's from.

I do wish that Pazio would release some of the older archetypes for the U-summoner though, or at least add some new outsider eidolons. I mean, with every bestiary there are new outsiders, and I kinda want to summon them. Or maybe even a dragon-specialized summoner, or something else out there. Perhaps a Old One themed summoner.

"I summon you, Yagaiknyadwgoimoyikna!"
*sounds man wasn't meant to hear*
"WHAT IN HELL IS TH-AAAHHHHH!!!
*sounds of a man ripping out his own eyes*

I read the terms and conditions and then contacted my lawyer, so that we may go over them together.

You fool! Your pogo stick-jackhammer activated my trap card! I use Pogo Stick-Jackhammer Reversal! You lose all your life points! MIND CRUSH!
*crunch*

Ventnor shouldn't rule this city until he learns the true meaning of friendship.

MageHunter is banned for not banning me in the form of a question.

Wish granted! They've decided not to grant wishes anymore.

I wish that I could wire my consciousnesses to the internet.

On another note, can I make attacks with the shield (Shield Bash)? And would it deal damage to the scroll? It doesn't mention that anywhere.

I think it you could, and it would do the damage of a light wooden shield. As for damaging the scroll... technically no? It only talks about if there's a successful attack against the scrollmaster. If I were the DM though, I would still make the scroll lose hit points for bashing.

...the fact that I didn't have any aglets.

KenderKin... is banned... for not... using enough... ellipsis....

TheTwelvinator was a golem built by a bitter and jealous mage, who never understood why the "dum-dums" were always so much healthier. I can reduce the hit dice of creatures by half, but only if the creature uses a d12 as a hit dice. It looks like a massive d12, with stubby arms an legs. It is uncontrolled now, after it accidentally tripped and crushed it's creator.

Next material: Sponge

I have only ever came up with one character name. All the others, I just used a random name gererator or a default race names.

(It was a CG human bard with the sandman archetype. His name was Blackjack the Unlucky.)

Okay, controversial opinion time: I think the Unchained Summoner is much better that the vanilla version. I like the fact that the eidolon is not just a servant to the summoner, but instead has it's own goals and ideas. Also, I like that you get a general idea of what it's going to be. That way this conversation never happens:

"I choose you, Eldragon!"
*horrible screeching*
"What in the world is that!?"
"When I finally get enough points, it's going to be a dragon. Just ignore the lack of... everything dragon-like until then."

I will say this, and the same goes for the Spiritualist: They can easily become the spotlight-stealing squad.

As for the rest of your list:
1. I like the arcanist, but it is unnecessary. Fun, but unnecessary.
2. Same with the shaman.
3. Unchained rogue is the default at my table.
4. Hey! I like paladins. And, in an effort to avoid the whole "you're just playing it wrong" argument, all I'm going to say is that they can be a little difficult for the party to handle. Especially if the paladin is more lawful than good.
5. I have already stated my dislike for rangers. It's not they're obsolete in the face of hunters and slayers, but I can't think of a reason to play a ranger when you usually would be better of just going with on of them. I will say though, they make really good NPCs.

Giving a character a nickname really helps people remember them. I had a elf wizard with a elven name. After a... unfortunate situation involving a certain bread and meat combination, an angry half-ork, a failed acrobatics role, and a (now burned down) tavern, his nickname was "The Sandwich Mage", or "Sandy" for short. But by god did he earn that nickname, and no one (left alive) ever forgot it.

I once made a CN cleric... In a evil party. He worshiped Nocticula, but still. Speaking of evil parties, I am actually okay with evil games on one condition: They must play as a party working on a big score. It helps with team trust (until the payoff), gives them a goal, and I don't have to worry about them playing the "SET ALL THE THINGS ON FIRE!!!" type of character.

Or at least keeping Wang Fire on a tight leash until he's not useful anymore...

I had a paladin once. He was a Holy Gun follower of Zohls. He was basically a old west sheriff mixed with film-noir detective. I wish I remembered what his name was, but I lost his sheet a while a go.

For paladins, I recommend following an Empyreal lord. Just imagine a paladin for Lymnieris (prostitutes and virginity), or Kelinahat (spies and stealth). They would be lots of fun, and would present a different take on Lawful Good.

Great, now I want to be a paladin again.

Just make you character look like he is actually having fun. I don't mean the "murder, death-kill, HAHAHAHAHA" type of fun, but the "I actually enjoy my life" kinda a fun. Nothing is more boring than the guy who just spends all his time brooding.

"4e was balanced, and 4e is boring, therefore balanced games are boring" is a complete non-sequitur.

It's not that I'm against balance, I'm against the idea of everyone doing the same thing. Every class should be good at "something", and sometimes that "something" is better than someone else's "something". Or something, I kinda confused myself with that last one.

4th Edition is the Godwin's Law of RPGs.

... I hate it when someone says something so perfect that I have just to go "yeah, you got me there." Sorry about that, I won't be so quick to throw the "4" word around in the future.

Athaleon - 1
Sundakan - 1
Unluckyblackjack - 0

Unluckyblackjack wrote:

The high casters can be used; they just need to be role-played well.

I'm used to "Rogues are fine, you have to play them cleverly", but this is a new one...

"Casters are fine, you have to play them stupidly"

Because having an arch-enemy, that you could kill by just looking at them, alive for more than 2 encounters...well it makes you pretty incompetent.

And nope! If you think killing world-threating criminals is immoral and you have the power to do so, you're responsible for everything they do, thus making your choice immoral at the same level they are (which is pretty bad).

Saying that to play full casters you need to pull your punches, by whatever means, just shows how much broken they are even more.

"If I don't kill you, everything you do is my fault."

I never got the logic in that. It completely absolves a person of responsibility. By the same logic, if you save a person, you should get all the credit for his work after that.

And when I said played well, I meant "like a person who's first response to a problem isn't fire." And while there is a place for a good hack-and-slash, not everything can be solved by "Mike the Magic Murderer."

Plus, characters aren't playing in a vacuum; the world should respond to their actions. If a bad guy knows that the wizard loves to go in guns-a-blazin', the bad guy should compensate and prepare for that. After all, he is a smart bad guy, and he has probably dealt with magic users before.

You are right though, full casters are powerful. More powerful than other classes. But I would argue that's a good thing. If every class were equal in power, nobody would be special. All the numbers would be the same, just with different names. And I played that: it's called 4 Edition. And it is sooooo boring.

Personally I like newer classes better. In fact, I can't stand the CRB classes and refuse to ever play them. They're completely unbalanced, unimaginative, broken trainwrecks. In the same book, you have the Wizard, Sorcerer, Druid and Cleric, all hideously broken. Then you have the Rogue, Monk and Fighter, all underpowered and useless. The Bard is the only balanced class in that entire book.

The Ranger can be either OP or worthless, depending on what favored enemy/terrain you pick, and the Paladin ruins more campaigns with that stupid alignment requirement than all the other classes put together.

Personally, I think PF works best with 6-level casters. Martials are worthless and 9-level casters are Godlike. That's the big issue with the Core classes, they exist on either extreme with nothing in the middle except the Bard.

I disagree with you on somethings. The high casters can be used; they just need to be role-played well. Think of it like Superman. He has a weakness, but it's not kryptonite. Okay it is, but he has another one; himself. It's the reason Luthor can be his arch-enemy, even though he's just normal guy. He can play with superman's emotions, exploit supes' ethics, and use his own ideals against him. Even with all his power, Lex can still match him. Just replace "Superman" with "wizard" and there you go.

I still love the new classes though.

As for the paladin, that's easy: don't play it Lawful Stupid. Paladins know that sometimes, lying can be useful. That sneaking and stabbing have a place. They personally won't do it, but as long it's for the greater good, and there's no other way, the paladin shouldn't mind. I don't know why everyone plays their paladins like sticks-in-the-mud. For a paladin, they are Lawful Good, but the latter is the more important part than the former. Unless they follow a Lawful Neutral god, of course.

I do agree with you on two points, the rogue and ranger. The rogue got fixed in Unchained, but the ranger only got worse. The way I see it, if you want to be a minor nature-themed spellcaster and have a pet, be a hunter. If you want to be a tracker who can fight, be a slayer. Rangers have two choices: either you play it safe, but boring, or out there but useless. Favored enemy: Orc/Undead/Animal/other boring thing, or Favored enemy: Dragon/Fey/other thing you rarely ever fight. Favored terrain: Forest/Urban/*snore*, or Favored terrain: Shadow Plane/outerspace/place you will go only once.

The way I see it, it's all about how it feels. I like the new classes because they feel different. I know they all still use almost the same rules (or at least a variation). Oracles are Sorcerers that use divine magic. Spiritualists are Summoners who use ghosts instead of outsiders. But they needed their own class because an archetype is a slight variation on a class; a shift to focus more on an aspect that the class has in it's purview. A new class can have an entirely new purview. Let's look at a example:

Let's say I wanted to make an dwarf. But not just any dwarf: a dwarf that loved to dance. But our dwarf still wants to fight. He could be a fighter, and could take an archetype or a prestige class. Or, and here me out, he could be a Swashbuckler. With the Slashing Grace feat, he could be the most graceful, axe-wielding, swash-buckling, dancing dwarf that has ever been. And sure, you could accomplish a substitute means through archetypes/feats/squinting hard, but it wouldn't have had the same feel as the Swashbuckler. How about another example?

You want to be a shadow summoner. And since the Shadow Caller archetype for the summoner is a no-go now, what are you going to do? You could still go Summoner, but none of the outsiders are shadows, or "shadow-ish" even. You could be a wizard/sorcerer, but it's still not close enough. Shadow conjuration/summon monster to summon shadows just means you can only do your thing a couple times a day. But, the Spiritualsit has an archetype that is a Shadowcaller. And it is basically Paizo going "Remember that thing we took away? Sorry! Have it back, but even better." And it is.

It fits much better with the more esoteric Spiritualist than it did with the more plane-focused Summoner. Eidolons have a personality as part of their type of outsider; Phantoms can be emotionless, which fits better as a shadow. Plus it feels different. A Summoner just summons shadow-related things; the Spiritualist can do shadow-related things.

tl;dr version: New classes can have different feelings and tones to them that can't be expressed through archetypes of preexisting classes, and the new classes can have new archetypes because of their different feelings and tones. One last example: you want to play Batman. You could do a weird Ninja/Fighter/Investigator build, or now you can just go with a straight Vigilante. And anything that makes it easier to have a medieval Batman in a campaign is always a plus.