The volcanic mountain is about to erupt. Your party is helping a village located on the thought to be dormant mountain evacuate as quickly as you can. You come upon the ancient bridge that was the last way for everyone to escape. But alas, the ropes had become frayed, the structure weakened, as the earth had begun to shake. Seeing no other option, you rush to the center of the bridge, wrapping the ropes around both arms you do the only thing you can to keep the bridge stable. You flex. Muscles bulging to their limit, sweat beading down your head, across your bare chest, a puddle forming at your feet. over 1000 villagers cross, many elderly or infirm, as you flex, quoting to all that pass by "This is what it means to be a man!". The lava is quickly coming, you can see it, but the last of the villagers makes it across. The rest of your party is yelling, hurry and cross! You turn and look, giving them a smile. Your arms have long since broken yet still you Flex. "It seems it's time that I go teach the gods what it means to be a man." The very mountain erupts as your arms finally give out, ripping you in half sending you falling into the ravine as lava pours down around you. Yet the last expression on your face as it's consumed, the same macho smile you've always worn. Or at least that's my suggestion.
I've been watching it as well and completely agree with everything you just said. The series has been decent up until this point but that fight was just plain amazing!
So first let's count how many times each letter is used. Letter count:
A xxxxx xxxxx x = 11 B xxxxx x = 6 C xxxxx x = 6 D xxxxx x = 6 E xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx = 15 F xx = 2 G xx = 2 H xxxx = 4 I xxxxx xxx = 8 J K x = 1 L xxxxx x = 6 M x = 1 N xxxxx x = 6 O xxxxx xxxxx xxxx = 14 P xxx = 3 Q R xxxx = 4 S xxxxx xxxxx = 10 T xxxxx xxxx = 9 U xxxxx x = 6 V xx = 2 W xx = 2 X x = 1 Y xxx = 3 Z This gets us 11, 6, 6, 6, 15, 2, 2, 4, 8, 1, 6, 1, 6, 14, 3, 4, 10, 9, 6, 2, 2, 1, 3. Changing these to letters we get K F F F O B B D H A F A F N C D J I F B B A C Using the spaces above turns this into KFFOBBDH AFAFNC DJIFBBAC We then unscramble them to make the words Kbboffdh Fancaf Bacbijd. And we obviously have the next AP.
I watched that and found it hilarious! And keep an eye on old Patrick!!
Left handed dice. I swear they always end up in my bag, and I don't find out until I fail that important save. And of course the GM never believes me it's because I used the wrong handed dice. They don't pay attention to what hand I use to roll. Better to just ban them entirely.
Reading through the comments here makes me wonder who besides myself actually finished the entire series. When the last book was coming out I started them all over again in preparation (if I recall I was only like book 9 when it released). I was amazed at how many little things I had forgotten and how many little things didn't really matter to the story but were fun in their own right. It felt like he had too many stories he wanted to tell in this world and tried to tell them all at the same time when it would've been better to give each their own story. I've felt tempted to go back and do it again, but I doubt I will.
The source is split into two gender based halves, Saidar and Saidin. Men draw on Saidin while woman draw upon Saidar. The Dark One managed to taint the male half of the source Saidin during his battle with Lews Therin Telamon. This in turn causes people who draw upon it to go crazy. The more you draw the faster it is, but it's inevitable.
Might be a tad more specific than what you're looking for, but archtypes that take advantage of the Samsaran reincarnation would be interesting. Like maybe bladebound magus (or the arcanist version) where the blade shared a former incarnation. Possibly something similar with the Samsaran and the summoner and it's eidolon. The hunter/druid/ranger where the pet is reincarnated with the Samsaran. Those kind of themtatic things which can already be done in flavor, but possibly a mechanical bonus to it.
I'm not sure htis quallifies so much as a bad backstory as just a disconnect between two people. A friend was trying to model his character off some movie where he was a member of this order of killers with two friends (also members), one of whom was a girl he was in love with. His love was considered a weakness and he either had to kill the woman or his other friend would kill him. So he killed her, but then left the order out of guilt and trying to escape this order of killers who are now after him. So enter my other friend who listened to this, and realizing the character was a monk who only fought unarmed, pointed out that to kill her he would have had to beat her to death with his fists. And he was kind of appalled by this. He tries to point it out to him, and there's just this disconnect. Not on that it's horrible, they both seemed to understand that. Just not quite meeting on whether this would be a good character to play in the group or not. On one side it was 'guy who beat woman he loved to death I don't want evil pcs in this game' versus 'guy who did horrible thing wracked with guilt and seeking redemption'. Eventually they came to some kind of terms with it, but sadly the game ended before it could really be explored.
Dwarves, the dirty hairy drunkards! Oh wait, what class to remove. Well they already removed that a few editions ago from them! I'd agree with gunslingers. Before playing one I didn't have any real issues with them. But playing one through skull and shackles I feel they are more than a bit overpowered at times. And I wasn't playing as effective as I could. So I'd agree with removing them.
What I've been doing is letting the PCs take rubbins and whatnot of the various places and turn these in to the church of pharasma for a line of credit on healing resources (mostly spells, occasionally wands and such). The other option is to take about half value in gold. They go for credit every time. Remove disease/curse, lesser restorations, etc. This helps since it doesn't immediately increase party wealth but helps to mitigate bad rolls. Plus I control how much I award them at completion to keep a rein on it. They're already on a second wand of CLW in book 1. The wand of lesser restoration from the sanctum was awarded by gasps of thank yous from the party as well, lol.
Ran my first session yesterday. Oh boy! Party consists of:
Spoilered for Length:
Started off with the lottery. I made a small role-play encounter early on where I introduced an NPC named Mutaba, a human oracle who failed the tests to enter the Pharasmin clergy and since gained oracular powers while still following the faith. This brought them back to the Tooth and Hookah where they met Mutaba's group and some of the others. Overall it was nearly two hours of just RP in a bar, so I thought fruitful. They aren't too suspicious of the Scorched Hand yet. One thing I did was have one of Mutaba's companions become infatuated with the ifrit sorceress character to the point of asking to draw a sketch of her (this comes into play later and in book 2).
So then off to the dungeon. Not much issues getting in and the ghost scorpion easily dealt with (buncha min-maxin' cheaters I tell ya!). Going off an earlier idea up thread, I put my own version of a haunt in. Basically a DC 11 will save or fall prone and be confused for 3 rounds as though you are experiencing the memories of the fallen adventure (babbling incoherently was suffering alone in the darkness, attacking yourself was feeling the despair to end your own life, and attacking someone else was seeing the face of the one who cut the rope). A standard action to shake someone out of it would give them another save at +2. This did not go well. At the end of the first round the Oread nearly killed himself, and the suli fighter attacked the suli oracle and crit. The ifrit babbled a round while the kitsune tried to shake the suli fighter out of it (he was the only one who made it). So I decided to make it one round (shh, don't tell them!) and they buried the body and headed back to town to rest to come back tomorrow. Fortunately I had Mutaba's group find them as they traveled and helped to heal the oracle back to full (yay for NPCs!) Day 2 was fairly uneventful. They finished off most of the temple. They didn't trigger the trapped sarcophagus, and didn't find the real one. Also they didn't encounter the dolls yet. But nearly everything else they found. The solifugid's were a pretty fun encounter, my rolls amazing while the player's not so much. Many Alien face hugger references were made. The Sandling managed to escape, so that might pop back up at some point if I feel a bit mean. Returning back to the Tooth and Hookah from day 2, I started off Mad Dog showing off his sword to everyone. After that they found Mutaba crying and drunk at the bar. I was using his group as a way to signify some of the dangers by having his group wiped out and only he survived it. Also I plan to use them during book 2 (I'm evil like that!). While some of the group consoled him I attempted to have Black Kiss draw off the Oracle to join their group (going with the whole wanting a cleric thing), which oddly almost succeeded. The PCs had to justify him staying with them. A bit of fun RP there. Day 3 they returned to the temple, and I had rolled a random encounter of one of the groups (Chandren's Champions I think?). My plan was to have them follow the group back to the tomb and pull up the rope, only to force them to turn over some of their valuables as payment to lower the rope, and escape while they climbed. Instead the PCs saw them, and the rogue flanked around from behind while the PCs waited around a corner for them. In the end they were intimidated into stripping naked and leaving with only a bedroll between the three of them. I'm thinking of using them in book 2 possibly, positive points by talking them into helping or negative points if they don't. Back at the temple they finished it off. I did the fale sarcophagus trap a little wonky (I misread it), but it turned out fun. One thing I had done is turned Akhentepi's armor into a suit of scarabs, counting it as a breastplate the druid could wear. He was happy with that. Also his shield I turned heavy instead of light for the fighter. So between both of them they left pretty happy. All in all the first dungeon was a pretty good success. Coming up next session I have a few ideas. I plan to have Black Kiss attempt to recruit Mutaba next, only to end up with him leaving drunk to enter the tomb to 'rescue' his friends. She'll end up following him (not quite sure why at the moment), only to be jumped by thieves (specifically I'm thinking that group from Book 2). The plan is for the PCs to return to the Tooth and Hookah, find out Mutaba had left to 'find his friends' and the map to his site to explore he left behind, and go attempt to rescue him. In the end I'm not quite sure how it'll play out, but hey that's the fun of setting these things up! I'm also planning another combat involving probably Sigrun's group (the Suli fighter warmed up to them quickly) and the PCs end up entering the necropolis around the same time in a similar direction and have to fight off a mutual threat. I might use Velriana's group instead, but trying to avoid drawing too much attention to them. Sorry if it got kinda long. Just a bit excited is all!!
I'd counter that Light is a far more powerful spell for it's investment. It's spammable at will, lasts 10 minutes a level and negates 50% miss chance for all party members that don't have darkvision. So about half of everyone's attacks end up being made thanks to Light. And miss chance negates sneak attack, so all that sneak attack damage they manage to deal can be attributed to Light as well. Find me another 0th level spell capable of that.
These look like fun! Samurai: Must draw blood if they unsheathe their katana. Ninja: If ever seen, must kill themselves in dishonor. Fighters: Hitting it too violent. Lose all weapon proficiencies, gain proficiency in slap. Does no damage. Magic Missile: Now requires an attack roll, doesn't target touch AC. Also now bludgeoning damage instead of force. Power Attack: Must now make a fort save when used to avoid pulling a muscle. Fabricate: Summons Oompa Loompas to do the fabricating. Fireball: Requires an attack roll. Rule Zero: Officially removed from all rulebooks.
...the paladin and necromancer are friendly to each other, the rogue and monk are topping the DPR, the summoner is well prepared with summon monster stats printed out and organized, and the GM is bright eyed and ready to run the adventure! With a group that good, who's left to screw it up for everyone?
I'm recalling it mostly from my opinion at the time. Honestly I don't remember any of the shorts besides Presence, though watching that clip does make me want to re-watch it now. Perhaps I'll have to see about watching it again and possibly revise my opinion on it.
Resting overnight in a small mountain town, our adventurers take part in their annual Pharasmin festival of the Release of the Whippoorwill, where the citizens release a whippoorwil and if it's shadow passes over the statue of Pharasma, it will be a long winter. Attempting to leave later that day for a city large enough to sell their loot, the snowstorm that sets in blocks the only pass out of town, forcing the adventurer's to stay in the town. But the next morning, things turn strange as once again, the Release of the Whippoorwill is to be performed. Exploring the town they find the truth to be they have restarted the previous day. And thus begins the loop where each day begins with the same day, even death not a release from this cycle. It is up to our brave adventurer's to find out what they must do to escape. Spoiler: Groundhog Day
On the closing at Christmas, that sucks, but it happens. And has happened to me. Just something you have to deal with sadly. Though an email is a crappy way to do it. As far as the piercings item, where I work the policy is pretty simple. Piercings in ears only, no tattoos showing. This does mean many people have to wear long sleeves even in the summer to cover on the arms. Worked with a person who had to wear a long necked shirt all the time because of a tattoo on the back of their neck. Piercings in the face come out while working. An exception is made while healing, but that's or clear studs only. These are not extreme policies in any way that I know of. I'd put them in the same category as dressing in business casual and showering. Express yourself on your time, express the company on their time.
An ancient demon lord, imprisoned a century ago, manages to escape his prison to traverse time itself to destroy the ancestor of the one who defeated him, thus preventing his defeat from ever having happened. Either one of the PCs or a close ally happens to have the same ancestor, and is only prevented from disappearing by a powerful Diviner who halted time's change to them. With the Diviner's help, the PCs must then go back in time to prevent this demon lord from killing the ancestor without mucking up the timestream. Spoiler: Tenchi Muyo the movie
My brother, his wife and his in-laws are anti-vaccination. It has nothing to do with religion but rather a complete belief in natural healing and medicines. I know the school district his two kids go to 'require' vaccination but there are numerous loopholes to get through that. It's one of the topics we pretty much completely disagree on. As far as the whole vaccination by force, I just don't see that happening here. Fines, sure. But the child being taken away and vaccinated against the parent's will doesn't seem likely to me. There are far too many parties that wouldn't go for that. I'd rather see efforts made to educate people on why vaccination is so important and more effort made to dispel the myths surrounding it, funded by the fines placed on non-vaccinated children. Of course that's probably the Optimist in me speaking.
In my home group, my hatred of 3.0/3.5/pathfinder/4e humans is a well documented fact. I understand the desire of a flexible race, I understand many people prefer humans. I just feel that humans have been designed to be a tad to flexible. Floating stat adjustment, bonus feat, bonus skill point. They can be pretty much whatever a person wants. Also the most hated statement in all RPGs for me is "Guess I'll go human for that bonus feat." People have their preferences, and that's fine. But as a GM I'm far more lenient with the non-human races when it comes to making rules modifications to try something, including moving stat bonuses around to accommodate a player. I'd rather have a party of a Tiefling, Elf, Dwarf, Gnome and Catfolk then Four humans and the token demihuman. Of course I've long since learned that seems to be the minority (from my experiences at least) and generally don't bring it up unless asked. Or threads like this.
In response to the servant, Lyrysa responds, "I will need a new tome in which to scribe my spells, as well as the inks and brushes to perform such a ritual. Also equipment appropriate to whatever task has been assigned to us. Also clothes more suited to travel."
All this in and out talk sounded a lot less like a sport and a lot more like teh intercourse.
Wow, lots of good scenes here. And a couple movies I think I need to see. I'm kinda sad to say it, probably my favorite cinematic scene is from Short Circuit 2, when Johnny 5 finds out Oscar locked up his friends, but tried to smash him, then goes nuts about it. It's the first thing I thought of when I read this thread title anyway. |
