Unruly's page

Combine with Insistent Doorknocker, and make door, then break door down.

"Oi, was this door always here?"

"Iunno. Maybe."

"Better just ignore it then..."

Unruly wrote:

Clone master alchemist named Eldon Tyrell(or Hannibal Chew). A Tian investigator named Gaff. A bard(geisha? street performer?) named Pris or Zhora.

Maybe J.F. Sebastian could be a master summoner? Hordes of summoned monsters instead of his toys. Or just a wizard that focuses on summoning and/or creating constructs.

What about Rachael?

It's a shame; she didn't live. But then again, who does?

Clone master alchemist named Eldon Tyrell(or Hannibal Chew). A Tian investigator named Gaff. A bard(geisha? street performer?) named Pris or Zhora.

Maybe J.F. Sebastian could be a master summoner? Hordes of summoned monsters instead of his toys. Or just a wizard that focuses on summoning and/or creating constructs.

Boo! I had to wait until today to try and order something, and now it's sold out and never to return! CURSE YOU WHOEVER ORDERED THE LAST COPY OF SHACKLED CITY! CURSE YOU!

I will hunt you down and find you. And when I do, I will politely ask if I can borrow it. And if you say yes, I will never return it.

Welcome to what's sure to be a great party. Here's to painting the town red with the blood of our enemies!

Just like when the srd says that fighters are "Lords of the battlefield...shape themselves into living weapons...capable of taming kingdoms, slaughtering monsters, and rousing the hearts of armies." It's implied that you don't get +20 BAB, eleven feats, and a kingdom to rule at first level.

Yea, because that might actually make them worth playing!

Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week. Try the veal!

Well in real life there are Satanists. From what I hear, they worship Satan for power and like the idea of burning forever when they die. Cause a bit of them are pyros. Also, they are encouraged to sin as much as they can, and as we know certain vices are pleasurable.

That's not entirely true. There are various forms of Satanism, just like there are various forms of Christianity. They encompass both the belief in Satan as an actual deity and the belief in him as a symbol. While self-empowerment is typically a theme, the idea of Hell or a focus on fire usually isn't.

LaVeyan Satanism is a common, if not the most common, modern Satanist religion, and is the one practiced by the organized Church of Satan. They don't actually believe in Satan as a deity. They see Satan as a figurative representation of power, individualism, and instinctual urges. To a LaVeyan Satanist, there is no heaven or hell and all gods are externalized constructs of the human mind that were created by others to place limits on an individual's potential by forcing conformity to a common standard. Instead, LaVeyan Satanism believes that since the gods are creations of humanity and of ourselves, by worshiping a god you are worshiping yourself by proxy. So they cut out the middle man and worship themselves as their own gods, believing in individual freedom, personal power, and self-indulgence. They also don't tolerate ignorance or stupidity, and through this believe that one of a person's duties is to better themselves through education.

In fact, individuality, knowledge, and self-indulgence tend to be common tenets between the various Satanistic belief systems. Though how they go about it are often different. For instance, unlike LaVeyan Satanism, Luciferianism believes in Satan as an actual deity, but he isn't exactly the Satan portrayed in the Bible. Instead, he is the Morning Star and the Lightbringer, an angel who sought to bring knowledge and enlightenment to the world and was punished for it. They see his temptation of Eve to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge as his attempt to bring knowledge to the world and to awaken the human potential which God had chosen to limit. For doing this, he was cast out of Heaven. In this way he is seen in the same light as Prometheus, the Greek Titan who defied the gods and gave the knowledge of fire and civilization to humanity, and was punished for it by being chained to a rock where his liver would be eaten and regrown for all eternity. And since history is written by the victor, who's to say that the Bible wasn't written with a massive bias and slant to make God look better than Lucifer?

Though I will say that in terms of Golarion, that sort of argument is a lot harder to make since the gods aren't nebulous beings of questionable existence. They're unquestionably real, and they seem more than willing to tell you what they actually stand for. But everyone has different desires. If Asmodeus can promise power to the person who wants it, and he actually delivers, then it would be very, very easy to follow him regardless of what may happen in death. Politicians, kings, nobles, lawyers. They're all people who could be seduced or even willingly throw themselves at Asmodeus's feet. Someone like Rovagug is a bit harder to figure out who would worship him, but maybe they're just doomsayers who want to bring about the end of the world?

Because the various religions tend to shun different things.

For example, someone who practices body modification, especially some of the more extreme forms, and is into things like S&M would probably be shunned by all the good or neutral deities to some degree. Generally because those things are considered "distasteful" in most societies. On the other hand, that's pretty much the entire schtick of Zon-Kuthon. He's basically the god of sadomasochists.

Jaded by "normal" desires? Solve the puzzle box and let Zon-Kuthon show you what true pleasure, that which you could never have known to exist, is.

With Order of the Dragon, Gloves of Arcane Striking and a helpful armor, Bodyguard becomes quite effective. It's a substantial investment at this point, though.

Aside from the Gloves of Arcane Striking, that's what I'm building my Order of the Dragon Honor Guard Cavalier towards. At level 4 I'm giving +4 to AC every time I use Bodyguard. Once I get my Benevolent armor, it's going to go even higher, but that's still a while off. It makes for a decent cavalier that doesn't depend on charging.

But as for the rules question, I've always seen Bodyguard as being an exception to the normal rules. It says you may use an AoO to perform an Aid Another action. It doesn't say that you make an AoO. By using the term use over make, I think the intent is to not have the standard AoO rules apply. Because it's not an actual AoO, it's just an action that occurs in that same general fashion.

Basically, Bodyguard turns Attacks of Opportunity, which are normally just a triggered attack, into an actual action type. It becomes a resource to be spent. They did this because, aside from Immediate Actions, AoO's are pretty much the only time you can take an action that isn't readied but still happens before the opponent's action occurs. And, by tying Bodyguard to AoO's, they allow you to make multiple uses of it per round through Combat Reflexes and your Dex score.

In summary, Bodyguard doesn't actually make an AoO, it treats your ability to perform AoO's as a resource which it consumes a use of. Much like how you can use your uses of Channel Energy to instead Turn Undead if you have the correct feat.

Or at least that's how I read it.

When a player sits down at the table with me, I don't want to see "optimized stats" and "cool powered builds" I want to hear about his backgrounds and motivations. Who does he love? Who does he hate and why? Even the numbers should tell a story. Not every fighter should come to the table with a charisma of 10 because charisma is just not important to the character class. I think even the numbers should help tell the story of who the character is. Elric of Melnibone is a perfect example. He was a great swordsman, but his strength and constitution are low without his drugs and later his dependence on Stormbringer. His numbers help tell his story. Cleary he's not optimized for fighting with a sword.

And yet, in a system like Pathfinder, you require those numbers to pull off the sorts of things you read about in books. Everything is dictated by numbers. Want to cast spells and have them actually affect enemies? You need a high casting stat. Want to actually hit enemies in melee on a consistent basis? At the very least you need a high BAB, with additional Str(or Dex if using Weapon Finesse).

It's nice to pretend that numbers don't matter, but they really do for this system. Do you need to be super-optimized to have fun? No. But you still need the numbers to back up your character concept somewhat, otherwise your "diplomatic, well-read, master swordsman" is going to play as the "bumbling idiot who can't hit the broad side of a barn." And it's a lot harder to build a fighter into a skillful character, due to a lack of skill points, without drastically reducing his combat abilities. Since combat is the only thing a fighter is even half-decent at, that's not really an option. At that point you'd be better off just picking a different class. Like Cavalier or Barbarian, which can do just about everything the fighter can, often better than the fighter can, while having more skill points to go along with it. You'll end up fitting your character concept while also being effective.

I'd like to see more sympathetic villains. All too often you see the "I eat babies and slaughter whole villages to attain immortality and usher in the apocalypse" types. You rarely see the "the king raped my wife, burned down my farm, and left me for dead. Now all I'm trying to do is rebuild my life and bring down an unjust tyrant through any means necessary" kind of villain. Make me kill Robin Hood and Kratos. Make me kill Coriolanus and Spartacus.

Build them up as the "eat babies" villain. Make me think they're terrible. Have them do things that most normal people would think were terrible if they didn't know the context under which they were done. Perhaps the villain rides into a town with a large gang, attacks the magistrate, kidnaps the magistrate's wife, and draws and quarters half the town guard. Looking at the face of things, it's a pretty horrible act. But then, when I've beat him and he's dead, I find his diary that he's kept for the entire time that he's been on his personal crusade. I do some digging, and find out that almost everything he's written in there is true. Those guardsmen that he killed? They beat him and left him for dead. The magistrate he attacked? He ordered the beating because the guy married a woman that the magistrate wanted for himself(the wife that the villain kidnapped earlier). And it makes me feel kinda bad about killing the guy, because if I was in that situation I'd want to do the same thing.

Excellence in written form

*fans himself vigorously* I do declare, I believe I've got the vapors...

Quote:

Ah, The Animated Series. It's been awhile.

This finally registered which it was for me. And then: I could hear it. In my head. Playing out, I saw that scene again. What an amazing show. Thanks, TOZ!

I still don't recognize the first quote, though! It's driving me crazy!

Any more hints as to where that one comes from? Is it still part of TAS? I really thought I would remember it... :(

EDIT: is it from the redesigned one with the different look set several years in the "future" of TAS? Because I wouldn't know that one as well. I'm not talking about the one in the "far future" (Though I'd know that one even less... even though it's in continuity! Which is awesome!), just the one that happens after the original TAS.

It's part of the redesigned series, aka The New Batman Adventures. It's from the episode "Over the Edge" when Batman and Bane are fighting on the rooftop. Batman goes to open a roof door, only to have Bane kick it open from the other side.

Batman: Bane.
Bane: I'm pleased you remember me, Mr. Wane. *beats on Batman*
Bane: You can't believe how I've looked forward to this. *throws Batman into a wall*
Bane: Though I was hoping for more of a fight. But what could I expect from a killer of children?

And then later...
Commissioner Gordon: *holding a gun on Batman* There's no place to run, Wayne.
Bane: Good. I want to finish him slowly.
Gordon: *puts a bullet at Bane's feet* I want him alive! Alive to rot away in Arkham, surrounded by the monsters he created!
Bane: Poetic, but no. *smacks the gun away from Gordon*
Gordon: We had a deal!
Bane: Thought about it. Didn't work for me. *kicks Gordon over the edge of a building, but he catches himself*
Bane: *walks over and steps on Gordon's hand* Please, give your dear Barbara a kiss from me...

Even though they're technically two separate series, and some of the voice actors changed, they're both included in the Batman: The Animated Series collectors edition, and most people refer to both series as such since the creative team was kept almost 100% intact between them(I think Eric Radomski left or took a smaller role in the later series). Either way, I absolutely love the show. The storylines hold up, the animation is top notch, and it's probably the absolute best adaptation of Batman ever. Conroy and Hamill will be my Batman and Joker until the day I die, while Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Alan Burnett, and Eric Radomski will forever have my thanks for bringing it all together.

Well then, I guess it works. Have fun playing with a severely limited number of players, and I sure hope they don't try to turn your contract around on you the first time you show up late. Because I can see that attracting the worst kind of rules lawyer to your table. And I would not want to be involved in that situation.

Problems I see -

Profession engineer is clearly the BEST SKILL EVER!

This is true...

Black Dougal wrote:

"cut the chatter red 2"

"stay on target......

We're too close!

stay on targetI"

R2, that stabilizer's loose again. See if you can't lock it down.

Something I just noticed was that it took a few tries to edit a post. Every time I hit submit, it would dump me to the main page, with the url of paizo.com/posts#newPost. The edit wouldn't take effect.

This happened while editing a post in a campaign discussion thread. I haven't tried editing posts elsewhere in the forums to see if it happens there.

Essential: Just the AP, and nothing else.

Useful: The appropriate campaign setting book(s) and player companion(s), as well as the player's guide.

Really, the AP itself is all you need to run the game, though the player's guide is also a very nice thing to have. Everything else is just gravy/icing/your favorite condiment on top. Having the proper campaign setting and player companion books can help you and your players get more involved with the setting, but they're hardly necessary. The map folios, from my understanding, are simply the same maps that are included in the APs already.

I don't find much use for the minis and pawns because I'm only playing PbP currently, and I have a somewhat large collection of minis already so I can usually find something close enough to what I want when I do sit down at a table. Item and face cards fall into sort of the same territory, but even more so in my case.

But then again, most of my gaming experience has been with a group who used plastic chess pieces, a dry-erase board, and scraps of paper to represent everything. And we got along just fine! Kids these days with their pre-painted minis, and printed battle maps, and dwarven forge terrain pieces...
I want me some of those dwarven forge terrain pieces. They're so delicious....

Traditional fantasy is such a subjective term nowadays though.

Consider Dragonlance - it's 30 years old now, and you'd consider that to be old hat nowadays... and here it is with flying citadels.

Similarly Ravenloft - it's mere mention conjures reams of nostalgia among many gamers... and it's got Masque of the Red Death circa 1994 which blurs lines with 1890s Earth.

So in two of the marquee 'old-ish-er-school' settings you've got the flying x's and crossovers to Earth.

That's not to mention S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. Crashed alien spaceship, robots, lasers, you name it. Pretty much all the stuff that people are complaining about with Iron Gods. And, if the wiki is to be believed, that was first played in 1976 with actual publication in 1980.

That's an easy one. Life of Brian.

Cthulhudrew wrote:

Adam Daigle wrote:

I just didn't have the space to work that far west in the time frame presented. Glad you enjoyed it!

Ah, that would be another reason I hadn't considered! :)

I thought the Numeria part was really fun, especially what happens to the Starmount. Darn meddlers!

Silly Technic League... think they know everything. :)

I just skimmed through this thread, and I felt the need to post this video of a guy putting certain preconceived notions of what's possible to shame. Granted, he may not be using a heavy draw weight bow, or be the most accurate shot while using his technique, but it's still very impressive and I wouldn't believe it was possible if I hadn't seen the video.

I've also seen a video of a guy swimming in 3/4 plate(in the style of the Landsknechts and Swiss pikemen), though it was for a very limited distance and was very, very labored. He only made it about 10 feet, and his head was below water for about half of that, but it was still swimming.

A warning about the video: The guy is Danish, and uses the Microsoft Sam text-to-speech system for the narration. The result is some odd grammar at times and a mildly annoying voice for the narration.

This is likely just me, but my potential Iron Gods soundtrack would be composed of nothing but the Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn soundtrack, courtesy of Frank Klepacki.

I'm a mechanical, I'm a mechanical, I'm a mechanical man!

Ju-ju-ju-ju-ju-just do it up!

I'm actually kinda glad this got pushed back to June. Money has been strapped kinda tight for me since shortly after New Year's. Gives me more time to scrimp together the funds to put down a preorder.

Not everyone wants to play their NPCs as cheese machines. I'll play my NPCs smartly, but I won't do something like that unless my players try to do it. Once that happens, it's fair game all around. Which basically sums up my thoughts on using or not using anything as a GM. If my players use it, so will I.

Though I did see a thread over in Advice once about someone GMing an Antipaladin BBEG who used Death Knell and got his players all up in arms about it. Personally, I think that might have been a bit of a bad move on the GM's part, but at the same time it was probably a very reasonable course of action for the BBEG.

Galt is Revolutionary France. They've even got the super-guillotines.

I had a player that wandered off on his own, went into a room, saw the tables start moving, and then try to ride one of the tables like a surfboard. He wanted to tame it and make it his mount. I had him attempt a grapple, which succeeded, and then allowed him to use the grapple to climb on top, at which point he had to make a ride check.

He got bucked off of it, and ended up prone, so he decided to crawl underneath of it. His reasoning being that hiding under it would be the safest place for him. Well, the table had a slam attack, and he ended up dying.

He asked for a description of how a granite table was slamming someone that was underneath of it. So I said "It's a magically animated table. Think Beauty and the Beast mixed with The Discovery Channel."

The other players gave him a headstone that read "He'll never forget the table that loved him back."

Of course, that particular player was well known for making absurd, comic relief characters that stuck around for a session or two before dying because he could never make it to games on a regular basis.

All I'm saying is that you're complaining about the rules relying on GM discretion rather than being set in stone. That's what your whole problem has been. You think that the rules allow for Diplomacy to be too powerful, but you're completely ignoring the part of the rules that limit its power. You even said as much by being sarcastic and flippant about it.

If you're going to complain about what the rules don't say, while ignoring what they do say because it requires interpretation, then maybe a system where the rules are 100% hard written, with no variance for interpretation, is what you're looking for.

Pathfinder simply isn't going to do that for you. Board and video games will, however. It wasn't meant to be as harsh as it came across.

*sneers* Newman...

I'm not attempting to continue the rant against PFS with this first bit, simply explaining why I, and probably some others, are going to blame PFS for this change.

I know that the plural of anecdote is not data. I also know that forum stories are anecdotes, and that the closest thing you get to hard data on how things perform is from PFS by virtue of it being structured and semi-controlled. But from what I've read on here, there are fewer people outside PFS that have had actual, serious, problems with Crane Wing than inside it. By saying that they came to you with it as their #1 concern, and then the change being such a drastic one, you give the impression that the largest part of the decision to change the feat came from the PFS experience with it. And I think a lot of people, myself included, are going to find that as something that gets under their skin.

Is it that big of a deal to just keep the original printing of the rule in a home run game? I mean you don't even have to print out the changes if you don't like them.

The issue, as with all errata, is in dealing with multiple people having multiple printings of the same book. Some people won't bother with errata at all, while others will jump on it as soon as it gets posted. Then, as a group, you have to decide which changes you're going to actually implement and which you aren't. In all honesty, I typically prefer to go by whatever the current errata is, because I tend to use the PRD as a reference more often than not. Every time there's a change that I strongly disagree with, such as this one, I have to add yet another house rule to my games. And I don't like to do that.

I actually try to house rule rather sparingly, because the fewer extra things that my players and I have to remember, the better. Especially when you're playing in multiple games, under different GMs, and with different house rules in each. The more standardized the rules are between games, the better. And the best ways to do that are to either force the same set of house rules onto every game, as PFS does, or to try and house rule as little as possible, as my current group does. This change is just going to make it so that there's one more house rule to be remembered for my game that may not see use in another.

While I understand that PFS is the "official" Pathfinder playing group, I don't really think they should have a strong say in what gets written into the rules that everyone else is supposed to build their game upon. Just because they consider something to be a problem doesn't mean that it actually is one. They already have an extensive list of house rules which cover various feats, traits, archetypes, and even spells. It's something that you tend to expect when it comes to organized play of any game, so one more house rule to cover something that they perceived to be imbalanced should have done the job. Why does the rest of the playerbase, which I'm guessing outnumbers PFS rather greatly, have to suffer mediocrity because PFS decides they don't like something?

As it is, if I were just getting into Pathfinder, and picked up this latest printing of UC, I'd never know what Crane Wing was like beforehand, and I would most likely dismiss the Crane Style feats as mostly worthless. I now have to include yet another house rule in my games, and I really don't like having a long list of them. Which is a large part of the reason I won't play PFS.

So, no prison time, no bullets in the back of the head, no mysterious poisonings years after the fact. All things Snowden advocates say he ran away to avoid.

This is more of a reason to do things through legal channels, not less. He could have even included the two people mentioned above as parts of his plan.

How is "My complaint got swept under the rug and ignored, and American rights were violated en masse, until I went to the press." more of a reason to not go straight to the press? It just proves that the government doesn't care until something absolutely forces them to. Snowden cut their "we don't care" time down from 3 years to 0. And that's discounting the fact that by the time Drake went to the press the government could officially say "Oh, we're not doing that." without it technically being a lie. Because by 2005, when it actually hit the papers, they had already scrapped Trailblazer.

Anyway, who's to say there aren't plots in motion to kill, maim, or further discredit them? Just look at what the FBI is willing to do by taking a look at some of their actions through COINTELPRO. By the government's reasoning, Drake and Binney could be considered terrorists or dissidents and extrajudicially executed at any time. Kind of like Fred Hampton was. If someone like Mark Felt, the Associate Director of the FBI, was afraid to publicly announce who he was after unveiling the Watergate scandal, what makes you think that someone with few to no high-ranking connections is safe? If you think that programs like COINTELPRO are a thing of the past you'd be mistaken, since the FBI still teaches its agents that they have the power to suspend the law.

I'm surprised there aren't more people like Snowden, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I think most people are good or will strive to do what they think is right but it just seems like with that many people involved, then there'd be a good probability of finding SOMEONE who'd leak (actually, I thought you'd find more than one).

There have been. The difference between them and Snowden is that they tried to go through the official channels when bringing up their complaints and were persecuted(and prosecuted) by the government for it. In fact, Snowden released his stuff the way he did specifically because of what happened to those people when they tried to go through the official channels.

Thomas Drake
William Binney

Both of them went to the DoD Inspector General to report NSA rights abuses and waste, and both have since been targeted by the FBI. Drake was actually indicted for having documents in his possession that were unclassified and should have been able to be freely distributed. The prosecutors argued that he "should have known that they were really classified" despite them being marked otherwise.

Also, if you really want the kicker about Drake and Binney, both worked on the NSA's data collection programs and their complaints were about what was known as the Trailblazer Project, which was the setup the NSA was implementing to collect all the data. If I remember right, it didn't have any safeguards in place to filter out data from US citizens on top of it being inefficient and blowing way past its budget. While a different project to do the same thing, ThinThread, did have those safeguards in place, was actually functional at the time that it was cancelled, and was well within its budget.

From what I understand, after the government decided to screw over Drake and Binney for filing complaints against Trailblazer, they wasted millions more on it before calling it defective and scrapping it. Then they brought in the stuff behind PRISM, which is mostly just ThinThread with the privacy safeguards removed. So, you know, Drake and Binney pointed out the problems, got dragged through the mud for it, and then a few years later the government says "Those guys were right. Let's use the thing they recommended, but we'll make a few changes to it because screw the 4th amendment."

So, you know, given the way they treat the people who actually do go through official channels, I can definitely see the majority of the US government wanting to hang the guy who goes outside them. And they definitely don't care about what the people they're supposed to serve think.

I guess you're just not seeing just how similar what you're requesting is to what TSR did. The Expert rules weren't a completely separate product from the Basic Set, they were a supplement book just like the one you're asking for.

As for levels 1-5 not working for long term play, sure they do. Just use event-based leveling instead of XP-based leveling. Or do something similar to what others do, and for every "level" gained past level 5, the players get extra feats and maybe some skill points. Characters still grow in power, but it's not as drastic and things like goblins never stop being a threat.

It's a roleplaying game that lives and dies by house rules. Even the "officially sanctioned" PFS doesn't follow every single rule in the books to the letter.

RAGELANCEPOUNCE! Barbarian 10 with Greater Beast Totem.

The pounce attack could act as the jumping bit that an FF dragoon does, since the word pounce evokes imagery of someone jumping on something. Of course, you don't get the "full" effect of RAGELANCEPOUNCE since the charge bonus only applies to your first attack and not the subsequent ones, but it's still a thematic fit.

It should be noted that the FAQ explicitly says that pounce does allow a full attack with a manufactured weapon. I'm actually not 100% sure about there being a ruling that the charge bonus doesn't apply beyond the first attack, but I could have sworn I saw it somewhere.

EDIT: I found the FAQ about lances, charging and gaining extra damage, which says that beyond the first iterative there's no extra lance charge bonus, but it only actually mentions the lance because of the lance's special charging rules. However, the reasoning behind it is solid enough that I'd say the charge bonus only applied to the first attack with any weapon.

The best way imo, is to get a bunch of mooks... er... minions! er... no... Henchmen? Hey, what's the word... Those other people in your party. Yeah! those guys. Put them in front of you.

Minions!*raises fist* They prefer that to "henchmen."

426. Embracing the Unembraceable or: How I Spurned Freedom and Gave Myself to Tar-Baphon: This tome, bound in heavily cracked and faded leather, describes one man's descent(or ascent, depending on how you look at it) into the madness and tyranny of Tar-Baphon's kingdom. The early chapters describe a life of malaise, ennui, and multiple existential crises. As the book continues, mention is made of purchasing higher and higher ranks in Tar-Baphon's hierarchy, and with it an increasing sense of purpose and enjoyment in life as well as increasing alienation from those who did not serve. Eventually, the writer claims to have become one of a special class of Tar-Baphon's servants. They refer to this as being an "Otiii," but never give any real definition to the position. All in all, it really makes Tar-Baphon seem like a decent, but misunderstood, guy.

By the way, how do you play 36 times a month for 8-10 hours a session?

A lot of Red Bull, short naps, and decreased work performance.

Well, as the DM he is allowed to do pretty much that. It doesn't make him less of a jerk, but if he wants to say you don't get XP for talking your way through something rather than just tossing them into the woodchipper, or that he wants Drow to fly, that's his prerogative.

As for banning barbarians, a lot of DMs will ban classes in their games because of a perceived power imbalance. Just look at how many threads there are about Gunslingers and Summoners being banned around here.

Juicing up monsters by giving them new abilities is also something that a lot of DMs do. It adds variety to otherwise boring fights against the same thing over and over. So yea, give the Drow the ability to levitate so that they can do neat stuff with positioning in combat. Just make sure that he treats every movement while levitating as a move action and gives the Drow that cumulative penalty to attacks while they're doing it.

If you don't agree with how he's running things, tell him and explain your issues. And also point out that if he continues to play the game as "DM vs. Players" rather than "Everyone has fun" that you're not going to play anymore. That's about all you can do.

For stuff like a flat modifier(+1, +2, etc.) you could say that the weapon glows with a faint inner light or something like that. Anything to hint that it's magically enhanced.

For Ghost Touch, you could say it has an ethereal, almost ghostly, appearance.

For Fiery/Icy/Shocking, you could say it leaves a trail of fire/frost/static as it is swung.

For masterwork "It is of exceptional quality." The balance is immaculate, there's no wasted weight." etc.

For Keen - The blade's edge is like a razor, finely honed and exceptionally sharp.

There's a lot of ways to do it. Just look at what the magical enhancements are and find something that you think would describe what it's doing.

Well, to keep with your idea of being a Vader-esque character, all three of those would work. Vader committed desertion by joining the Sith, treason by helping remove power from the senate and murdering the jedi, and was in the duel to the death with both Count Dooku and Obi-Wan(twice, though one was well after his fall). All of which was done out of a misguided sense of love and to protect his girlfriend.

The problem with Vader comes when you realize that he's evil because it's all he's got left. Otherwise, he hates himself for everything he's done. You'd have to find a way to make your Vader come to terms with everything by embracing his evil side. Maybe rather than wallow in your self-loathing, you simply continue on the path of "protection." You want to set up the new world order and rule with an iron fist so that no one ever has to go through the pain that you did. You're evil, but for all the "right" reasons.

Just trying to give you some ideas based on what you've said previously. Not trying to tell you how to make your character.

EDIT: Also, your stat array should be this -
Str: 13(15, assuming that's where you put your racial)
Dex: 15
Con: 15
Int: 18
Wis: 10
Cha: 8

The Focus/Foible system has your rolls fall into order. You can't rearrange them.

Quote:

Whereas the fighter fumbled his sword swing and sent the sword flying 15 feet away. Now he has to provoke AoO's by both moving AND picking up his sword, which eats his entire next turn. Or, alternatively, he can draw that non-magical, non-DR bypassing, backup weapon that he has and be only running at 50% effectiveness.

Just to use this as an example, I for one don't have things nearly so dramatic happen on a fumble. I've personally called it out as my fumbles never provoking an AOO to recover. Yours is not the only example in the thread that objects to severe, slapstick fumbles, and while that's a valid concern, it's not the kind of fumble most DMs on the thread seem to be using.

That still doesn't directly address what I was getting at. Even if you don't do the "thrown weapon" fumble and he just drops it in his square, the fighter still has to waste an action on his next turn recovering his sword and thus can't perform a new full attack. And until then he can't really do anything offensively without provoking an AoO. The wizard doesn't have to spend an action recovering from anything. He just goes back to being at 100% effectiveness immediately.

So the fighter fumbles in the middle of a full attack. He drops his sword. Now he can't move away from the fight, he can't make AoO's without provoking one of his own unless he's spent a feat on Improved Unarmed Strike, and he can't make a full attack on his next turn because he has to spend a move action to pick up his weapon. The wizard fumbles his Disintegrate. He can still move in that same round and he has the opportunity to do the exact same thing next round.

For all intents and purposes, the wizard fumbling a ray attack is the exact same as if he had just missed normally. His damage output for the next round isn't affected at all, and he can just choose to use a spell that can't fumble next time(such as chain lightning or fireball), while the fighter loses 2/3 of his damage potential and runs the risk of fumbling a second time.

So unless you're have your spellcasters running the risk of a fumble with every single spell they cast, and having that fumble result in the caster going prone or becoming staggered for a turn, it disproportionately affects martials. Even if the spellcaster fumble makes them lose an action, they're only risking 1 fumble chance per turn while the martials are risking it up to 8 times a turn. So it still targets martials much worse than it does casters. And martials don't need even more stuff making them fall behind casters.

Making it available isn't forced inclusion. Making it unavailable IS forced exclusion.

I'm really starting to understand why so many people on this forum seem to dislike you.