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That could be an extension of the poor attentiveness. You tend to make bad decisions while overtired and get a little clumsy. It's kinda similar to being drunk. So much so that it's a little hard to differentiate between the two at the more extreme cases.
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After a year or so of playtest...
I present The Dragon Knight!
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Personally I think being tired should apply the penalties of the lullaby spell. Exhaustion and fatigue are all about physical fatigue. I can run a lot while on no sleep, but my attention span suffers and I may nod off very easily. Eventually I'll just pass out if I want it or not cus my body will force it too whether it likes it or not.This is one of the reasons I want to revise the fatigue and exhaustion conditions in D20 Legends. Mostly because fatigue and exhaustion, in reality, affect things like your concentration and awareness, and cause you to make mistakes you wouldn't normally make.
As a result, I'm leaning towards making fatigue and exhaustion work in a similar fashion to conditions like shaken, where you have some penalties across the board. They will likely apply penalties to a caster's concentration checks (which is used to cast spells in this system, so being fatigued would make it harder to cast spells effectively, causing you to fall back on using lower level spells).
I would have also added some flavorful, but usually mechanically unimportant debuf-e.g. being tired would force you to make DC 15-ish will saves every hour to not fall asleep if you are doing something non-stimulating (standing watch at night would be a good example), with stacking bonuses on the check for drinking coffee, walking around, splashing water in your face, etc, etc, etc.
Although, on a second thought, this might be the sort of thing best left to the GM, and not hardcoded into the base rules.
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Personally I think being tired should apply the penalties of the lullaby spell. Exhaustion and fatigue are all about physical fatigue. I can run a lot while on no sleep, but my attention span suffers and I may nod off very easily. Eventually I'll just pass out if I want it or not cus my body will force it too whether it likes it or not.This is one of the reasons I want to revise the fatigue and exhaustion conditions in D20 Legends. Mostly because fatigue and exhaustion, in reality, affect things like your concentration and awareness, and cause you to make mistakes you wouldn't normally make.
As a result, I'm leaning towards making fatigue and exhaustion work in a similar fashion to conditions like shaken, where you have some penalties across the board. They will likely apply penalties to a caster's concentration checks (which is used to cast spells in this system, so being fatigued would make it harder to cast spells effectively, causing you to fall back on using lower level spells).
I would have also added some flavorful, but usually mechanically unimportant debuf-e.g. being tired would force you to make DC 15-ish will saves every hour to not fall asleep if you are doing something non-stimulating (standing watch at night would be a good example), with stacking bonuses on the check for drinking coffee, walking around, splashing water in your face, etc, etc, etc.
Although, on a second thought, this might be the sort of thing best left to the GM, and not hardcoded into the base rules.
Actually, that seems like a pretty good idea. It would solve the issue that's existed in D20 for a while. Specifically, that characters don't ever have to actually sleep and if they don't mind the exhaustion penalties can pretty much be awake 24/7, even without magic items such as a ring of sustenance or similar.
Making it similar to other environmental effects, where it becomes progressively harder to remain awake seems like a pretty good idea. Kind of like how holding your breath starts at DC 15 and adds +1 for each previous check (meaning that eventually you will need to breathe, even if your Fortitude is godly).
After a year or so of playtest...
I present The Dragon Knight!
Cool. I'll check it out soonish. ^-^
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What is your opinion on the Tippyverse? Have you ever tried running a campaign in such a setting? Did any of your players ever try to begin the reformation process into the tippyverse-lite in any of your games (e.g. mass teleportation to solve travel safety, create food and water traps to solve hunger,...)?
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What is your opinion on the Tippyverse?
Last I checked out Tippyverse, I remember thinking it made sense. It seemed to take a lot of things to their rational conclusion and whether it's your cup of fantasy tea or not, it's a good exercise in thinking about how things introduced into the game affect the world at large.
I've discussed some similar, but noteably milder, things on my blog before. Mostly remarking about things such as how magic solves the energy question, since you can create infinite sources of magical energy; be they simple things like repeating shocking grasp generators, to things like permanency + wall of fire. Magic equates to free energy in the very least, as it breaks certain fundamental laws of our reality. You can create energy and matter where there was none before. Even if your equate things like fireballs as something like channeling the elemental plane of fire, you are still dealing with energies of a factually infinite plane of existence (ergo, infinite energy for all practical purposes).
So the question is, how does magic influence your world? Tippyverse is one example of an author of the setting who took it to the extremes (and honestly, it's a rare example of something that is not only extreme but reasonably so).
While I've never GMed a Tippyverse campaign or adventure, I've used it as a learning tool for designing my own campaign, because to me, the thing that makes a fantasy setting truly fantastic is how the fantasy elements change the way people in those worlds live compared to our own.
For example, in my campaign setting (Alvena), the world once existed in a sort of Tippyverse state (essentially high magitechology) before it was brought to ruin by a cataclysmic war between their material plane and the burning hells. So now the world is in a state of recovery, which includes finding ancient technologies and lost artifacts and re-inventing things that were commonplace in the ancient world (que adventuring parties exploring ancient ruins looking for magic shwag, oh yeah!). However, the world is still very magical in ways I feel make the world feel uniquely alive.
For example, there are small settlements all over the world. No climate is truly unlivable given the effort. Small settlements in deserts are supported by adepts, or using manufactured create water items to sustain the population, marking little points of life in regions that are otherwise arid wastelands.
Further still, even the architectural norms are a bit different in Alvena. Kiln fired bricks are one of the most common building materials found in the world, partly because of the ease of creating them in mass, but also because they are flame retardant, and in a world where some random teenager discovering their innate sorcery might involve burning down Rome, using dry wood and thatch isn't an ideal building material if it can be avoided. Castles may appear to have "hats" on them, which consist of slanted rooftops with murder holes and hatches, to protect against aerial invaders and dragons.
Similarly still, running water isn't particularly unusual in areas that are "civilized", though their method of achieving running water may vary from place to place. One example was a village that had a central water tower and lots of little wooden chutes that deliver water throughout the town from the central point (causing the town to have what appeared to be series of wooden pathways above the buildings). A bit crude but it meant most people had access to clean water on demand.
Have you ever tried running a campaign in such a setting? Did any of your players ever try to begin the reformation process into the tippyverse-lite in any of your games (e.g. mass teleportation to solve travel safety, create food and water traps to solve hunger,...)?
Well, I don't think they ever set up mass travel ports. That said, they have often pushed the limits of several campaigns I've ran. My brother's lich once grew himself a family in a lab, built a settlement for his fellow repitilians to integrate into the cultures of the core races, and built an underground trade tunnel network to discourage highway banditry (essentially making a sort of precursor to a subway system), though that was made mostly the old fashioned way with kobold miners and the help of some dire badgers.
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After a year or so of playtest...
I present The Dragon Knight!
I stole/downloaded your thing, and there's nothing you can do about it~! NYA~!
()
Will look more closely at it later, but I like the initial flavor already.
Also, Ashiel, I'm definitely more of a kind of player to look into infinite loops, Trippy-verse concepts, and similar.
He's created variant genie-like creatures (lawful good, 5 HD, but constantly invisible with some wil-o-wisp traits and all five major genie type traits; only almost all of their SLAs are powerful illusions, including a unique wish-like replacement illusion; they also have a few templates granted, and the non-illusion plant growth and diminish plants and similar effects to increase life and fertility in the region, but to also balance them, where necessary) - one in each 'hex' of the regions controlled by the kingdom. In addition to balancing nature, they continuously search, read, and ponder on the thoughts of those living within their hex, and granting minor wishes (as best they can) to those who they find worthy of such a boon, as well as apprehending or even warding off unwanted criminal activity* (a heavy-handed use of subtle sow thoughts works wonders at discouraging such); as well they generally "enhance" all of Harathia's citizens (inherent bonuses ahoy!). He has also brought in, cultivated, and developed hosts of kami and fey (with celestial and axiomatic templates granted) throughout the land in every location possible. Many of these and other creatures that have been brought in and cultivated are also given the shadow creature and/or fey creature templates (where appropriate). He wants to do the same with Lares, when possible (and possibly find a way to do something similar with creatures like animate dreams or even shadows, though they are undead).
*
He's built roads that have an antipathy-like effect (tied to a heightened seek thoughts-like effect) to any people considering violence, crime, banditry, theft, or other problems, as defined by the laws of Harathia (screened through a phylactery of faithfulness effect devoted to Good) which flows through all of the roads. All non-evil others are granted sanctuary and granted darkvision and lowlight vision and an effect similar to that one spell (I forget what it's called at present) that creates light that only the individual traveler can see - this invisi-light does not in any way interfere with or dim the light from the stars or moon. Finally (still working on this one), each of the roads automatically creates a knowledge of which roads and paths to take to get to the traveler's intended destination(s) quickly and well - including if travelers simply desire to wander "freely" through them (it's taking a lot of time and money to find the time and money necessary to craft such find the path-like effects into the road).
He also built a series of "wells of life" - effectively wells tied to that illusory variant of wish previously mentioned that are hopped up on thousands of orange prism ioun stones used exclusively to bring citizens back to life from the dead (with granted half-celestial template and newly created clothing).
Any excess "stuff" that can't otherwise be recycled (and isn't too dangerous in "the wrong hands") - a very small list of things indeed - is permanently hallowed and consecrated and shunted into the plane of shadows for storage and/or pending discoveries for future recycling. He's working on replicating similar effects to those now-found in the kingdom (named Harathia) in the shadow and ethereal planes nearby (and, if possible, in the dimension of dreams and, maybe, parts of the first world).
Every member of his ruling council is supplied with a unique ring of sustenance that also permits keep watch and several other beneficial effects as part of their regency (they may keep their ring after departing such service, if desired, but the aspects of the rings currently in use change so as to avoid confusion or corruption); and all are equipped with partially-cursed magical items (that inflict terrible penalties on all who would steal or sell them without the express consent of their current owner or that owner's specified heir, or the current ruler of Harathia, barring any expressed heir; would be thieves or purchasers are clearly warned and informed before being cursed), as are important people in various settlements.
Similar, but lesser things are sold to the populous (as well as in Absalom) and arcane, divine, and mundane colleges of various sorts are open to the public for low- or no fees (necessary fees supplemented by careful investments, conjurations, and similar effects) to increase the general education and level (and literal class) of those living within the kingdom.
Despite all of these things, however, he works to keep actual planar intrusions to a relative minimum, though he also works to prepare Harathia to be a potential bastion of anti-Abyssal-invasion; and, though he brings back any citizen of Harathia who dies of unnatural causes free of charge (and does so for many other pilgrims, after bargaining with the deceased spirit), he also works with and councils the families of the dead to understand that Pharasma has a plan and guides the souls of the dead to their rightful place; he works to explain that death is a natural part of mortal life and that seeking to defy Pharasma's judgement indefinitely is not for the best - finding comfort in the full lifespan a person lived is. Hence, his attempts to ward off troubles from psychopomps, inevitables, and aeons (though the last might be irritated even if he did none of those - one can never tell with the Monad).
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Damn. That's a hell of a place. Though it sets off my authoritarian alarms heavily. Though maybe you were going for that, heh.
But hey, you got way more free leeway than I did. I tried to make an assassin cult and barely got over 20 members, and was constantly being undermined by an infiltrator bard who kept disguising as me whenever I leave the city and none of my code words or disguises or any of that worked out. They even got my cohort framed for murder and hung, and cus they thought I did it, they refused to return. I eventually found out who did it but they escaped and I never did find them again. Stupid dimension door.
But eh, my end plan was to wait til all the other party members got bored or died of old age or were devoted my faith, then cause the city to become the worlds largest open grave in the name of Kabriri, demon lord of graves and ghouls, by using magic to undermine the whole capitol all the way into the Darklands. All so I could be a Nabasu demon and eventually a Vrolikai. Then I'd probably build a new city out of the rubble. A better one! One that won't complain because I made a 9 district walled graveyard! This is what you lot get!
Also probably fight the Worldwound a bunch. Those guys are derps.
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I would just like to go on record saying "Rewriting the magic system (to be more modular) and spells (so, so many spells Q_Q) sucks".
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I never even got that far in Kingmaker. My GM decided that all of the commoners of the kingdom thought I was an evil necromancer controlling the throne, despite never using necromancer. My GM had it so people on the streets actively avoided me in terror, hastening away if they saw me.
I ended up deciding I was going to change that, and wrote up a huge plan to create a 'Festival of Lights' funded by me. I priced out the whole thing, including a bunch of new magical items for fun and games, like a magical laser tag or magical dodgeball and a holographic planetarium. Was going to end the whole thing with a Tangled-esque sky lantern display and a speech I'd written.
I did, ultimately, have plans for a magitech kingdom, as my wizard was design to be a 'magical Leonardo Da'Vinci' but I ended up dropping out due to issues with the GM.
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I would just like to go on record saying "Rewriting the magic system (to be more modular) and spells (so, so many spells Q_Q) sucks".
How do you find the willpower to do that, by the way? Avoid procrastinating?
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How do you find the willpower to do that, by the way? Avoid procrastinating?I would just like to go on record saying "Rewriting the magic system (to be more modular) and spells (so, so many spells Q_Q) sucks".
Typically I do most of my heavy writing while listening to music on repeat. Also if my mind is feeling a burnt out and I can't think anymore, I'll play a hentai game or watch some porn for a bit, then go back to writing.
Lately I've been listening to...
Throne, Heroes, Glory & Gore, Heroes, Wildfire, Impossible, Claritycraft, I Wish I Had An Angel (Most anything from Nightwish, though this and Nemo are my favs), Fire Inside (I've found myself pretty fond of this suicide sheep channel), and lots of random stuff.
I'll pick one and loop it for a while while typing.
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That said, procrastination is my eternal enemy. It's easily my worst character flaw, and while I intend to work on that...I haven't gotten around to it yet. :P
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Damn. That's a hell of a place. Though it sets off my authoritarian alarms heavily. Though maybe you were going for that, heh.
First, it's "Heaven" of a place, ;) and second, you're not the only one, but (surprising many, especially its non-citizen critics), the setup is
less authoritarian than you might expect. While the literal spirits of the land themselves are lawful good, that basically just means you need to respect them (and the natural forces they represent) in a manner in keeping with non-awful behavior.There are lots more specifics, but the laws are pretty clear: absolutely anyone may live in Harathia and benefit from such as a free citizen, presuming citizenship has not been revoked (and there are methods of regaining citizenship); there is no limit other than the ruler's council on upward mobility for non-evils (and any evils willing to start a new life as good); and you may come and go as you please, pursuing nearly any generally-legal career (with specific, limited exceptions) and making any generally-legal life choices desired. Not a fan of the potential abuses and over-reliance upon the magical doodads? Sure, we have (well, had, until it was abandoned) a town for that. Don't want to fit into a society? Yep, plenty of places that's a-okay; feel free to establish your own city in a place that won't harm anyone, or just the wilderness (watch out for fey and our barbarian allies, though). Want to talk about revolution against the king? Totes legal (though don't be surprised if he shows up to lay down a public humiliations with some well-crafted rhetoric and reasonable logic plus a few sick burns that turn you into a joke - he has freedom of speech, too, and tends to be pretty funny); after all, he has a Councilor who's entire job is to explicitly listen to, process, and understand complaints from citizens, so legitimate issues are already heard (and he's willing to try to find time for counciling and hearing issues, as-necessary). just want o be a rebel who delights in anarchy? You have: designated cities, certain facets of society, the wilderness regions, and our allies barbarian neighbors (though items crafted by the King do not function to assist such endeavors) as places to engage (though again, beware of random acts of fey and other anarchists). Want to abuse or murder legal citizens (whether or not this includes the royalty or serfs or slaves or noble's or me hangs or anything in between)? You will be broken in a manner appropriate to your crime, and your deeds will be revealed to the public at large. This includes declarations of war, willful acts of terrorism, or other abuses or murder aimed toward Harathia; this includes predation by wandering monsters (though many Harathians can do that themselves) and wandering banditry (again: most citizens can handle this). If citizens are legitimately overwhelmed with a problem, the government is aware and steps in, as-necessary to ensure the citizens can then get their stuff together and take care things again.
Harathia's largest concern is ensuring that people live happy, healthy, safe lives with the freedom to pursue any career they would generally be happy in, so long as it doesn't negatively impact the lives of their fellow citizens. It's secondary concern is ensuring a kind of self-sufficiency and (generally) a non-evil over-all alignment among the populous; while people are free to be evil, they will be monitored to ensure they are not actually living up to what that alignment implies - you know, hurting, killing, and oppressing others.
Illegal Careers
- Conjuring evil outsiders (specific pre-arranged exceptions can be made)
- Animating or creating undead (again, specific pre-arranged exceptions can be made)
- Being a slaver (citizens may sell themselves into slavery, but are automatically freed every seventh year; any slaves who did not sell themselves who enter Harathia's borders are automatically freed)
Speaking of monitor duty, each of the genies are constantly monitored (alignment/thoughts/etc) by each other bordering genie in the the network (this is a facet of how they're "born": as a fully sentient adult who is part of this network, whenever Harathia claims a new region). This functions as a fail safe so that if a given genie ever turns to evil, is corrupted, incapacitated, or similar, it can be freed or eliminated immediately by either its neighbors of the government; of course, it's born out of the personalities and memories of its neighbors, so falling is fairly unlikely already, but this just means they can't be forced to do evil or sealed away or whatever.
But hey, you got way more free leeway than I did. I tried to make an assassin cult and barely got over 20 members, and was constantly being undermined by an infiltrator bard who kept disguising as me whenever I leave the city and none of my code words or disguises or any of that worked out. They even got my cohort framed for murder and hung, and cus they thought I did it, they refused to return. I eventually found out who did it but they escaped and I never did find them again. Stupid dimension door.
But eh, my end plan was to wait til all the other party members got bored or died of old age or were devoted my faith, then cause the city to become the worlds largest open grave in the name of Kabriri, demon lord of graves and ghouls, by using magic to undermine the whole capitol all the way into the Darklands. All so I could be a Nabasu demon and eventually a Vrolikai. Then I'd probably build a new city out of the rubble. A better one! One that won't complain because I made a 9 district walled graveyard! This is what you lot get!
Hah! It worked out for me because I'm a super-wizard who used 3.5 loopholes in my favor and had the explicit permission from my GM for each thing (noting RAW, but also fluffing how it might otherwise work); not all classes/builds/tables need apply. ;)
((All of the PCs are exceptionally important: one is the queen and former high priestess, one is the queen-chieftain of the barbarians to the west, and one is (at her own preference) a quiet member of the Council who does "solo ranger-ing" as much as possible.))
Also probably fight the Worldwound a bunch. Those guys are derps.
I know, right?!
I never even got that far in Kingmaker. My GM decided that all of the commoners of the kingdom thought I was an evil necromancer controlling the throne, despite never using necromancer. My GM had it so people on the streets actively avoided me in terror, hastening away if they saw me.
I ended up deciding I was going to change that, and wrote up a huge plan to create a 'Festival of Lights' funded by me. I priced out the whole thing, including a bunch of new magical items for fun and games, like a magical laser tag or magical dodgeball and a holographic planetarium. Was going to end the whole thing with a Tangled-esque sky lantern display and a speech I'd written.
I did, ultimately, have plans for a magitech kingdom, as my wizard was design to be a 'magical Leonardo Da'Vinci' but I ended up dropping out due to issues with the GM.
That suuuuuuucks, Tel.
:(
I definitly had the approval of my GM before trying such crazy stunts; it could never really have worked, otherwise; but antagonistic GMs are not fun. :/
We got to book 5 and are technically in the middle of the tournament, but effectively quit playing due to real life. That said, the GM - my wife - has noted that this summer, there miiiight be enough time/energy to run it...
(Could be difficult getting all the schedules and connections and details in order, but if we could finish the last two parts in a blitz... :D)
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After a year or so of playtest...
I present The Dragon Knight!
I stole/downloaded your thing, and there's nothing you can do about it~! NYA~!
()
Will look more closely at it later, but I like the initial flavor already.
Also, Ashiel, I'm definitely more of a kind of player to look into infinite loops, Trippy-verse concepts, and similar.
** spoiler omitted **...
No sir, it's free to all :)
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That said, procrastination is my eternal enemy. It's easily my worst character flaw, and while I intend to work on that...I haven't gotten around to it yet. :P
PREACH.
No sir, it's free to all :)After a year or so of playtest...
I present The Dragon Knight!
I stole/downloaded your thing, and there's nothing you can do about it~! NYA~!
()
Will look more closely at it later, but I like the initial flavor already.
Also, Ashiel, I'm definitely more of a kind of player to look into infinite loops, Trippy-verse concepts, and similar.
** spoiler omitted **...
Thanks! :D
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How do you find the willpower to do that, by the way? Avoid procrastinating?I would just like to go on record saying "Rewriting the magic system (to be more modular) and spells (so, so many spells Q_Q) sucks".
Typically I do most of my heavy writing while listening to music on repeat. Also if my mind is feeling a burnt out and I can't think anymore, I'll play a hentai game or watch some porn for a bit, then go back to writing.
Lately I've been listening to...
Throne, Heroes, Glory & Gore, Heroes, Wildfire, Impossible, Claritycraft, I Wish I Had An Angel (Most anything from Nightwish, though this and Nemo are my favs), Fire Inside (I've found myself pretty fond of this suicide sheep channel), and lots of random stuff.I'll pick one and loop it for a while while typing.
>Also if my mind is feeling a burnt out and I can't think anymore, I'll play a hentai game or watch some porn for a bit, then go back to writing.
That's...quite open of you. Thanks for sharing?...
>I've found myself pretty fond of this suicide sheep channel
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How do you find the willpower to do that, by the way? Avoid procrastinating?I would just like to go on record saying "Rewriting the magic system (to be more modular) and spells (so, so many spells Q_Q) sucks".
Typically I do most of my heavy writing while listening to music on repeat. Also if my mind is feeling a burnt out and I can't think anymore, I'll play a hentai game or watch some porn for a bit, then go back to writing.
Lately I've been listening to...
Throne, Heroes, Glory & Gore, Heroes, Wildfire, Impossible, Claritycraft, I Wish I Had An Angel (Most anything from Nightwish, though this and Nemo are my favs), Fire Inside (I've found myself pretty fond of this suicide sheep channel), and lots of random stuff.I'll pick one and loop it for a while while typing.
>Also if my mind is feeling a burnt out and I can't think anymore, I'll play a hentai game or watch some porn for a bit, then go back to writing.
That's...quite open of you. Thanks for sharing?...
I try to be honest so, since it's usually a way I'll let my brain chill for a bit after the words start running together on the screen, I said as much. :P
That said, lately the enemy of progress is Stardew Valley and DotA. Truly, these are the overlords of my wasted time. :P
>I've found myself pretty fond of this suicide sheep channel
Thanks. :D
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In your opinion, when does a character's inventory begin and when does it end? Teleport-like spells only work if you are carrying less than maximum load, so if a wizard is carrying a backpack with a big rock(heavier than his maximum load), it won't work. But what if an enemy tied that rock to a net with hooks and threw it at the wizard? He can't very much unentangle himself from the rock, but can he teleport without it?
EDIT: ...Also, why is Tacticslion favouriting every post? Is this a local thing? I wanted to ask this for some time.
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Tacticslion: Oh I get it. And in a system with objective alignment it can work out since you start pinging the wrong colors if you start going down the pathological altruism path. My brain just has alarm bells cus in real life where things get more grey it's gonna get messy sooner or later when these goodly ubermensch start looking at other countries and feel they must step in for their own good and so forth. There's a quote about nothing being scarier than a tyrant who's morality justifies his actions somewhere.
Also for the record, Kingmaker should end at Book 5. Book 6 reeeeeally feels tacked on to me.
Ashiel: Musics the only one that works for me. The other options tend to just end with me being sleepier. And haven't played DotA for a bit myself, I find most comp games boring if I don't have someone to coordinate/complain with. Stupid Templar Assassin, rabble rabble etc.
Klara: Personally I just run it that if the Wizards overweight, he can use the slim fast method and burn the pounds away! Or just choose to leave stuff that's exceeding his weight behind when he ports. If you want to keep someone from interdimensional villain poof, Dimensional Anchors there for you.
That said there really needs to be lower level methods of stopping that stuff, teleportation can come up as early as level 1 cus of low level outsiders. And even by level 4 some enemies may dimension door out on you. Your best answer is to ready an magic missle action for if they try to cast it, but they can just walk out of line of sight and poof.
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In your opinion, when does a character's inventory begin and when does it end? Teleport-like spells only work if you are carrying less than maximum load, so if a wizard is carrying a backpack with a big rock(heavier than his maximum load), it won't work. But what if an enemy tied that rock to a net with hooks and threw it at the wizard? He can't very much unentangle himself from the rock, but can he teleport without it?
EDIT: ...Also, why is Tacticslion favouriting every post? Is this a local thing? I wanted to ask this for some time.
he is what we refer to as a "jolly fellow".
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
In your opinion, when does a character's inventory begin and when does it end? Teleport-like spells only work if you are carrying less than maximum load, so if a wizard is carrying a backpack with a big rock(heavier than his maximum load), it won't work. But what if an enemy tied that rock to a net with hooks and threw it at the wizard? He can't very much unentangle himself from the rock, but can he teleport without it?
EDIT: ...Also, why is Tacticslion favouriting every post? Is this a local thing? I wanted to ask this for some time.
Generally, I'd allow the character to simply decide to leave items behind. A good rule of thumb would be, if the item is considered attended by the character (and thus subject to the character's defenses), it's probably your item. Generally speaking, I've never heard of anyone considering a net or similar item "attended" by its victim so I'd go with that. :P
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Generally, I'd allow the character to simply decide to leave items behind. A good rule of thumb would be, if the item is considered attended by the character (and thus subject to the character's defenses), it's probably your item. Generally speaking, I've never heard of anyone considering a net or similar item "attended" by its victim so I'd go with that. :PIn your opinion, when does a character's inventory begin and when does it end? Teleport-like spells only work if you are carrying less than maximum load, so if a wizard is carrying a backpack with a big rock(heavier than his maximum load), it won't work. But what if an enemy tied that rock to a net with hooks and threw it at the wizard? He can't very much unentangle himself from the rock, but can he teleport without it?
EDIT: ...Also, why is Tacticslion favouriting every post? Is this a local thing? I wanted to ask this for some time.
How about an arrow sticking through a wizard's arm? Can Teleport be used for some forms of surgery?
EDIT: ...Also, why is Tacticslion favouriting every post? Is this a local thing? I wanted to ask this for some time.
NYAHAHAHAHAH~! You've been stealth-favorited, SUCKAH~! No one escapes the favoriting power of ME~! RAHAHAHAHAHAHAH~!
(That, and, uh, I like a looooooooooot of things.)
he is what we refer to as a "jolly fellow".
This is basically correct.
I kind of treat the favorite button as a "like" button - since I'm not really on Facebook (I mean, I sort of am, but I check it around once a year or so?) or similar, I suppose this is my outlet of "Ooh! I like that!" and it happens a lot.
Anything that I hadn't thought of, that introduces me to a new idea, that I agree with, that I don't agree with (but is made in a thoughtful way that forces me to at least reconsider my opinion, whether or not I change it), or that challenges me in some personal way are all also favorite'd.
... and in some threads it's an easy method of tracking where I've read up to.
Heck, someone even made a thread explicitly about that (not to mention all the rumors of the nefarious purposes I have in favoriting so very much...).
EDIT: Oh, double post, you irascible cad.
How about an arrow sticking through a wizard's arm? Can Teleport be used for some forms of surgery?
AM PERFECT EXAMPLE OF WHAT AM TALKING 'BOUT.
THIS KIND OF THINKY NOT SOMETHING THAT OCCUR TO SELF BEFORE - IT JUST NOT COME UP IN GAMES.
TEN OF TEN, WOULD FAVORITE AGAIN.
ALSO, AM STILL UNCERTAIN IF AM USING PROPER "AM-GRAMMAR" AND LANGUAGE CONSTRUCTS, BUT AM DOING BEST AM CAN.
Tacticslion: Oh I get it. And in a system with objective alignment it can work out since you start pinging the wrong colors if you start going down the pathological altruism path. My brain just has alarm bells cus in real life where things get more grey it's gonna get messy sooner or later when these goodly ubermensch start looking at other countries and feel they must step in for their own good and so forth. There's a quote about nothing being scarier than a tyrant who's morality justifies his actions somewhere.
Also for the record, Kingmaker should end at Book 5. Book 6 reeeeeally feels tacked on to me.
So noted, and it makes sense. Man, 'dem phylacteries, dude: they're all over the daggum place in this kingdom...
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So noted, and it makes sense. Man, 'dem phylacteries, dude: they're all over the daggum place in this kingdom...Tacticslion: Oh I get it. And in a system with objective alignment it can work out since you start pinging the wrong colors if you start going down the pathological altruism path. My brain just has alarm bells cus in real life where things get more grey it's gonna get messy sooner or later when these goodly ubermensch start looking at other countries and feel they must step in for their own good and so forth. There's a quote about nothing being scarier than a tyrant who's morality justifies his actions somewhere.
Also for the record, Kingmaker should end at Book 5. Book 6 reeeeeally feels tacked on to me.
They'd really have to be. I can think of so many ways it could go wrong if everyone couldn't immediately tell if they were oppressing someone. This is one of those cases where it'd be just so easy to fall into so many slippery slopes without those things.
Klara: I favorite for much the same reasons Tactics does, so I've a lot of Ashiel's posts favourited. He also tends to be a lot better at being concise but accurate than I am. I go off on tangents easily. As for the arrow thing, Sort of? I imagine it could be used to remove things that aren't outright attached inside you, so arrows and bullets but not much else. You're still injured after all. But if I made magical surgical tools to do such an effect I;d definetly use a teleportation type spell for it.
Also, as a general aside, I ran into something amusing recently.
Hell's Rebels Spoilers
Me and the sorceror are already figuring out how abusable that is. She can never say anything that;s factually incorrect, so she ergo technically knows everything, she just doesn't know it. So just starting saying random things until you can actually vocalize it! I mean, think of how easy it is to find rebels in a city! Just ask her to say "The rebels base is in X district." And if she can say it, it's there! And if not, go to next one. And just narrow it down from there. This is a low level kyton too so I;m already planning to bind one and see if I can get her to state the answer to everything is 42.
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How about an arrow sticking through a wizard's arm? Can Teleport be used for some forms of surgery?Generally, I'd allow the character to simply decide to leave items behind. A good rule of thumb would be, if the item is considered attended by the character (and thus subject to the character's defenses), it's probably your item. Generally speaking, I've never heard of anyone considering a net or similar item "attended" by its victim so I'd go with that. :PIn your opinion, when does a character's inventory begin and when does it end? Teleport-like spells only work if you are carrying less than maximum load, so if a wizard is carrying a backpack with a big rock(heavier than his maximum load), it won't work. But what if an enemy tied that rock to a net with hooks and threw it at the wizard? He can't very much unentangle himself from the rock, but can he teleport without it?
EDIT: ...Also, why is Tacticslion favouriting every post? Is this a local thing? I wanted to ask this for some time.
That's a good question, and I think the most honest answer is that the system is a bit too abstract for it to really come up. By default, ammunition that hits a foe is considered destroyed and being struck with a ranged attack (piercing or otherwise) doesn't actually become lodged into a character.
For example, being struck with an arrow doesn't require a Heal check to remove the arrow before you can recover from the wound naturally.
A similar question came up a long time ago, when it was wondered if you somehow attached at antimagic field to an arrow (such as an Arcane Archer using imbue arrow) wouldn't that ruin anyone that was shot with the arrow since they'd be stuck in the field until the arrow was removed. The answer was simply that unless something funny is going on, arrows don't actually stick to enemies after the initial shot.
That said, thinking about it a bit while getting ready for work, I think it's one of those questions that due to the way the system works has no 100% certain answer. I think if the item actually contributes to your load then it should probably work, though I see the stone w/ hooks on it to be akin to a variation of a net or entangle spell (both have additional stipulations about movement outside of the entangled condition).
If the item was written so that as long as it was latched onto the character it counted as being carried by the character, then RAW, teleport couldn't do anything for them.
So, having thought about it further, I guess the answer is "it depends". :P
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Speaking of teleport as surgery...
One of my favorite offensive psionic powers is dissipating touch which is a damage dealing "psychoportation (teleportation)" power that deals damage by literally using teleportation to unmake your body without reassembling it, teleporting chunks of the victim without the rest of them.
It would be a lot like Scar from Full Metal Alchemist. You literally just grab onto someone and tear them apart on a molecular level. It's a surprisingly decent damage power because it's non-elemental, so short of the target having dimensional anchor cast on them or failing to pierce spell resistance, there's not a whole lot that stops the damage.
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I've always thought that arrows should do bleed damage until removed (heal check), or you receive magical healing. Like 1 point of bleed, +1 per enhancement bonus of the arrow or bolt.
As it is, it's too easy to ignore being shot.
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I think the reason comes from the level of abstraction. There's not really any reason that an arrow should cause additional bleed damage if a greatsword doesn't, especially if the latter actually causes more actual damage.
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Greatswords aren't left in the people that are hit by them. Too expensive :P
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How about an arrow sticking through a wizard's arm? Can Teleport be used for some forms of surgery?Generally, I'd allow the character to simply decide to leave items behind. A good rule of thumb would be, if the item is considered attended by the character (and thus subject to the character's defenses), it's probably your item. Generally speaking, I've never heard of anyone considering a net or similar item "attended" by its victim so I'd go with that. :PIn your opinion, when does a character's inventory begin and when does it end? Teleport-like spells only work if you are carrying less than maximum load, so if a wizard is carrying a backpack with a big rock(heavier than his maximum load), it won't work. But what if an enemy tied that rock to a net with hooks and threw it at the wizard? He can't very much unentangle himself from the rock, but can he teleport without it?
EDIT: ...Also, why is Tacticslion favouriting every post? Is this a local thing? I wanted to ask this for some time.
That's a good question, and I think the most honest answer is that the system is a bit too abstract for it to really come up. By default, ammunition that hits a foe is considered destroyed and being struck with a ranged attack (piercing or otherwise) doesn't actually become lodged into a character.
For example, being struck with an arrow doesn't require a Heal check to remove the arrow before you can recover from the wound naturally.
A similar question came up a long time ago, when it was wondered if you somehow attached at antimagic field to an arrow (such as an Arcane Archer using imbue arrow) wouldn't that ruin anyone that was shot with the arrow since they'd be stuck in the field until the arrow was removed. The answer was simply that unless something funny is going on, arrows don't actually stick to enemies after the initial shot.
That said, thinking about it a bit while getting ready for work, I...
Let's assume something funny is going on then. Suppose a player proposed a custom weapon concept to you - a special weapon designed to let non-mages prevent teleportation attempts. I can imagine some sort of heavy crossbow made of lead for extra weight, that shoots a single barbed arrow attached to a steel cable. Arrow lodges itself in the wizard's left buttcheek, and since it is attached to a steel cable that is attached(not tied, mind you, then arrow and the cable would be separate objects. I am thinking of something like welding.) to a really heavy crossbow, wizard can't teleport. Would you allow that, or would you consider this unbalancing?
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Well, you could do it with a melee weapon using impaling critcal. Cast antimagic field on a rapier or something, impale it on someone, then leave it there.
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Can you cast dimensional anchor on a x-bow bolt and hit a square with it?
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Let's assume something funny is going on then. Suppose a player proposed a custom weapon concept to you - a special weapon designed to let non-mages prevent teleportation attempts. I can imagine some sort of heavy crossbow made of lead for extra weight, that shoots a single barbed arrow attached to a steel cable. Arrow lodges itself in the wizard's left buttcheek, and since it is attached to a steel cable that is attached(not tied, mind you, then arrow and the cable would be separate objects. I am thinking of something like welding.) to a really heavy crossbow, wizard can't teleport. Would you allow that, or would you consider this unbalancing?
Firstly, apologies for being two days late on the reply. :o
What seems to be described is some sort of harpoon item that seems explicitly for the purpose of snaring a foe, so that would take care of the "arrows don't stick in people" issue. From the sounds of it, it also would seem that the item would be explicitly used to anchor someone by using their carrying capacity against them (as a lead crossbow would be ****ing heavy as **** (@_@) ), so sure, why not?
Since you've brought this up, I think I'll need to address this in d20 legends because a definitive answer is much harder to come by than I originally thought and IMHO, that's a bad thing. I'll have to include some details about the teleportation subschool about what sort of things 'porting can free you from and what sort of things it cannot.
Because, interestingly, I'm no longer sure that you can teleport out of a Net (it's not clear as to whether or not the net's requirement for a Strength check to move a distance greater than the rope the attacker is holding takes priority over magical forms of movement or not), and I think you probably should be able to teleport out of a net (because you're traveling through the astral plane, not the physical world) but at this point I'm really not sure (honestly, this will be filed under "other things to address alongside freedom of movement").
So thanks. :D
As an aside... I'm not actually certain that using an anchor would stop many of my mages. My 7 Str mages quite typically have the best carrying capacities in our groups. My "witch" Agatha I've mentioned on the boards lots of times had a 7 Strength, but thanks to things like muleback cords, ant haul, and shapeshifting, at one point the party pondered whether or not it would be worth climbing a tower to fight the BBEG at the top when Agatha could have just pushed the darn thing over.
We opted to raid the tower for the lulz. :)
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Greatswords aren't left in the people that are hit by them. Too expensive :P
Heheh, indeed. :P
Mostly what I was getting at was basically that in real life, if you're hit with a greatsword, you've probably got a gaping hole in your favorite torso, which usually comes with unpleasant side effects such as a rapid loss of blood, or organs falling out of your body. :P
But we gloss over that sort of thing because it's just a fun abstraction (and quite frankly, being an adventurer would just involve never getting hit). In much the same way that arrows, bolts, darts, and similar weapons would likely lodge themselves inside you and cause you to die of infection later (it's my understanding that historically, arrows didn't kill nearly as surely as infected arrow wounds did, mostly because archers frequently stuck their arrows in the ground on battlefields).
I won't say that I don't steal some ideas from reality however. Fighting certain creatures in my campaigns can be more of a hassle than usual, since goblins often intentionally wipe their arrowheads in feces to be little s***s (no pun intended) and cause infections to people they hit with them. Since goblins are often smaller and weaker than the other races they find themselves in conflict with, they'll often use stealth + shortbows to haze foes and large beasts before running away and/or hiding, and wait to thin the ranks over time as people or prey succumb to infections (similar to how komodo dragons bite herd animals and then wait for the infection to ruin them).
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Let's assume something funny is going on then. Suppose a player proposed a custom weapon concept to you - a special weapon designed to let non-mages prevent teleportation attempts. I can imagine some sort of heavy crossbow made of lead for extra weight, that shoots a single barbed arrow attached to a steel cable. Arrow lodges itself in the wizard's left buttcheek, and since it is attached to a steel cable that is attached(not tied, mind you, then arrow and the cable would be separate objects. I am thinking of something like welding.) to a really heavy crossbow, wizard can't teleport. Would you allow that, or would you consider this unbalancing?Firstly, apologies for being two days late on the reply. :o
What seems to be described is some sort of harpoon item that seems explicitly for the purpose of snaring a foe, so that would take care of the "arrows don't stick in people" issue. From the sounds of it, it also would seem that the item would be explicitly used to anchor someone by using their carrying capacity against them (as a lead crossbow would be ****ing heavy as **** (@_@) ), so sure, why not?
Since you've brought this up, I think I'll need to address this in d20 legends because a definitive answer is much harder to come by than I originally thought and IMHO, that's a bad thing. I'll have to include some details about the teleportation subschool about what sort of things 'porting can free you from and what sort of things it cannot.
Because, interestingly, I'm no longer sure that you can teleport out of a Net (it's not clear as to whether or not the net's requirement for a Strength check to move a distance greater than the rope the attacker is holding takes priority over magical forms of movement or not), and I think you probably should be able to teleport out of a net (because you're traveling through the astral plane, not the physical world) but at this point I'm really not sure (honestly, this will be filed under "other things to address alongside...
>From the sounds of it, it also would seem that the item would be explicitly used to anchor someone by using their carrying capacity against them (as a lead crossbow would be ****ing heavy as **** (@_@) ), so sure, why not?
That was my idea for it, yes. And it wouldn't be that heavy, modern soldiers carry 30-ish kilos around with them, and a 55 pound crossbow would only weigh around 25. I mean, the soldier wouldn't have much else other than this thing on them, but it's definitely doable.
Hmm. It needs a name. I'll call it "The Grounder", has a nice ring to it.
>So thanks. :D
I am helping! Nice!
>My 7 Str mages quite typically have the best carrying capacities in our groups.
Blasted mages, always ruining perfectly good mundane plans with their magic. Guess The Grounder would need something added that would glue it to the nearby wall, like a bottle of a special alchemical glue on the stock. But now that I think about it, mages aren't going to be primary targets for The Grounder. You know who would be? Outsiders. They can only teleport with 50lbs of objects, so a 55lbs lead crossbow would ground them quite nicely. Now demons can't even run away from a team of mundane NPCs nuking them with a hail of Alchemical Fires. And nobody said they can't be hit with five Grounders at the same time.
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Greatswords aren't left in the people that are hit by them. Too expensive :PHeheh, indeed. :P
Mostly what I was getting at was basically that in real life, if you're hit with a greatsword, you've probably got a gaping hole in your favorite torso, which usually comes with unpleasant side effects such as a rapid loss of blood, or organs falling out of your body. :P
But we gloss over that sort of thing because it's just a fun abstraction (and quite frankly, being an adventurer would just involve never getting hit). In much the same way that arrows, bolts, darts, and similar weapons would likely lodge themselves inside you and cause you to die of infection later (it's my understanding that historically, arrows didn't kill nearly as surely as infected arrow wounds did, mostly because archers frequently stuck their arrows in the ground on battlefields).
I won't say that I don't steal some ideas from reality however. Fighting certain creatures in my campaigns can be more of a hassle than usual, since goblins often intentionally wipe their arrowheads in feces to be little s***s (no pun intended) and cause infections to people they hit with them. Since goblins are often smaller and weaker than the other races they find themselves in conflict with, they'll often use stealth + shortbows to haze foes and large beasts before running away and/or hiding, and wait to thin the ranks over time as people or prey succumb to infections (similar to how komodo dragons bite herd animals and then wait for the infection to ruin them).
Oh, I know, I was mostly being facetious...mostly.
Realism can easily ruin a game if you go too far down that rabbit hole, I guess.This was related more to a thought of the arrow having punctured your armor, so now every time you move, your armor moves, it gets jostled a bit, and adds further injury, unless you take time to remove it, or get healed.
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Yeah it'd wreck outsider teleporting hard. Their weight limit is a hugely limiting factor to their teleportation. It's also the reason that I gave Mariliths the undersized weapons property when I was rewriting them. Turns out that using large-sized weaponry makes it near impossible to actually teleport unless they're completely naked.
6 large longswords = 48/50 lbs.
This means it's essentially impossible to let them carry around loot for the PCs to get when they defeat her. And that sucks. Loot is cool. :(
So I gave her the undersized weapon quality and so her weapons usually average around 24 lbs. instead, which is plenty of room left to decorate her in lavish doodads, baubles, and bling, which is not only awesome to loot but makes the marilith quite a fashionable enemy to engage. :)
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Greatswords aren't left in the people that are hit by them. Too expensive :PHeheh, indeed. :P
Mostly what I was getting at was basically that in real life, if you're hit with a greatsword, you've probably got a gaping hole in your favorite torso, which usually comes with unpleasant side effects such as a rapid loss of blood, or organs falling out of your body. :P
But we gloss over that sort of thing because it's just a fun abstraction (and quite frankly, being an adventurer would just involve never getting hit). In much the same way that arrows, bolts, darts, and similar weapons would likely lodge themselves inside you and cause you to die of infection later (it's my understanding that historically, arrows didn't kill nearly as surely as infected arrow wounds did, mostly because archers frequently stuck their arrows in the ground on battlefields).
I won't say that I don't steal some ideas from reality however. Fighting certain creatures in my campaigns can be more of a hassle than usual, since goblins often intentionally wipe their arrowheads in feces to be little s***s (no pun intended) and cause infections to people they hit with them. Since goblins are often smaller and weaker than the other races they find themselves in conflict with, they'll often use stealth + shortbows to haze foes and large beasts before running away and/or hiding, and wait to thin the ranks over time as people or prey succumb to infections (similar to how komodo dragons bite herd animals and then wait for the infection to ruin them).
Oh, I know, I was mostly being facetious...mostly.
Realism can easily ruin a game if you go too far down that rabbit hole, I guess.
It definitely ruins the fantastic elements of the game to be sure. I mean, in D20, it's actually factually a thing that your high level barbarian can get snatched up into the jaws of a dragon, and while pinned in his swordlike teeth, the dragon then exhales his breath that is so hot as to be able to instantly completely destroy a full suit of full plate to the point it's not even armor anymore (in less than 6 seconds, imagine how ****ing hot that would have to be to melt a suit of full plate down to not plate mail in less than 6 seconds) all over your barbarian.
And your barbarian gets pissed about it, forces the dragon's mouth open and slams him with his battleaxe to show his disapproval of the whole thing.
If a gritty RPG is the thing, well, the fantastic elements of D&D would just be right out. There really isn't any prayer against certain types of enemies if "reality" got in the way but they were still magical monster thingies. I mean, a fire elemental could just grab you and that would be the end of things. Most heroes would die a few days later after they caught an arrow that got infected despite not dealing any serious damage. The #1 killer in the realms would probably be diarrhea. :(
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Death by E. Coli.
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>Kingmaker thing Tacticslion wrote
What is the will save of that king? Unless it is approximately +50, he is quite vulnerable to mind control, and so is his country as a result. Would be a shame if a high-level succubus mindraped him and tweaked some things in the laws.
>Kyton thing Icehawk wrote
Wow, that is just, wow. My brain keeps coming up with ways to abuse this, but most of them would end with Inevitables coming down on your head in seconds, probably. Ability to play 20 questions with the universe where universe doesn't lie all the time is crazy broken.
Oh, his saves are through the roof. Not that he needs it, given he's gained near-immunity to mind-affecting effects (barring, of course true neutrals - he only has a "very, very large" bonus to a set of multiple saves per effect" versus those - and people that have nearly-free use of disjunction in the same way he does).
Again: 3.X... magic was significantly more cray-cray there. (With a coooouuuple of Paizo spells).
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It definitely ruins the fantastic elements of the game to be sure. I mean, in D20, it's actually factually a thing that your high level barbarian can get snatched up into the jaws of a dragon, and while pinned in his swordlike teeth, the dragon then exhales his breath that is so...Greatswords aren't left in the people that are hit by them. Too expensive :PHeheh, indeed. :P
Mostly what I was getting at was basically that in real life, if you're hit with a greatsword, you've probably got a gaping hole in your favorite torso, which usually comes with unpleasant side effects such as a rapid loss of blood, or organs falling out of your body. :P
But we gloss over that sort of thing because it's just a fun abstraction (and quite frankly, being an adventurer would just involve never getting hit). In much the same way that arrows, bolts, darts, and similar weapons would likely lodge themselves inside you and cause you to die of infection later (it's my understanding that historically, arrows didn't kill nearly as surely as infected arrow wounds did, mostly because archers frequently stuck their arrows in the ground on battlefields).
I won't say that I don't steal some ideas from reality however. Fighting certain creatures in my campaigns can be more of a hassle than usual, since goblins often intentionally wipe their arrowheads in feces to be little s***s (no pun intended) and cause infections to people they hit with them. Since goblins are often smaller and weaker than the other races they find themselves in conflict with, they'll often use stealth + shortbows to haze foes and large beasts before running away and/or hiding, and wait to thin the ranks over time as people or prey succumb to infections (similar to how komodo dragons bite herd animals and then wait for the infection to ruin them).
Oh, I know, I was mostly being facetious...mostly.
Realism can easily ruin a game if you go too far down that rabbit hole, I guess.
In my opinion, it ruins things if it is done badly(as with most things, really). You can think like this:
1) There are fire elementals that are made of fire.
2) Hero just got grappled by one
3) Brain, what would happen if Hero got that close to a fire in real life?
4) Brain:massive full-body burns, followed by death, without agony because of shock.
5) Therefore, Hero gets full-body burns(40d6 damage) and dies.
Consequences:player is pissed, encounter wasn't fun, no engagement in the world happened
On the other hand, if done properly, it makes the world feel more alive. For example, you can think like this:
1) I want fire elementals made of fire who would be on fire while being fire. Fire is cool.
2) I want them to deal fire damage if grappled, since they are on fire.
3) Brain, how much damage would it be fair to deal if someone grappled/was grappled by a fire elemental, to subtly discourage getting close to one but without being unfair?
4) Brain: Do I look like a mathematician's brain? I don't know, let's say 2d6 fire. And they would have to roll something to not catch on fire.
5) Therefore, fire from an elemental deals 2d6 damage, which isn't much. Why would a fire be that weak?
6) Fire is weaker when it is colder.
7) Maybe fire from fire elementals is actually relatively weak?
8) Weak fires are dimmer and redder in real life.
9) *Looks up some numbers* Barely visible flame is 500-ish celsium, which is still a bit too hot for 2d6.
10) Maybe fire elemental isn't made of pure fire, but instead something else? Glowing ash, coal, burned wood?
11) *looks up description on SRD* >Fire elementals vary in appearance—they usually manifest as coiling serpentine forms made of smoke and flame...Features on a fire elemental's body are made by darker bits of flame or patches of semi-stable smoke, ash, and cinders. Yep, ash and cinders are allowed for fire elementals.
12) Therefore, an average fire elemental would look like a coiling cloud of ash, smoke and cinders, with only some features being open flame-eyes, horns, some flames here and there bursting out and going out quickly. Hot enough to hurt, not hot enough to instantly kill.
13) Can we expand on this?
14) Brain:sure enough, let me call creativity.
15) Creativity:fire elementals are magical manifestations of fire, right? It stands to reason that they feed on flame, temperature and whatever magical stuff their plane supplies. So, say, if you got a fire elemental away from fire and anything burning, it would get weaker, but would still be sustained by the link to it's plane(assuming it was properly Called, allowing this link to estabilish). If, instead, you encountered it near a burning forest, it might be stronger, hotter, bigger and deadlier, up to the point where it is pure yellow flame, no ash, represented by various tweaks in their mechanics. Going into melee with one on their own plane would probably be suicide. This also explains why summoning spells only give control over one to the caster for a couple rounds-summoned elemental is sustained by caster's own magic, instead of a connection to their plane, and there is only so much magic in the spell(though this still doesn't explain other creatures, but story for another day). After it ends, creature would collapse into a heap of ash, which would slowly cool down, no longer alive. Ooh, this can make for an interesting encounter-a fire elemental in a wooden house, who gets stronger or weaker based on how much fire there is around. Maybe we can throw in an ability to teleport through flames into the mix, to allow for...
16) That's enough for now, creativity, you did good.
Consequences:mechanics are fair, if you somehow manage to show(not tell) some of these things to the players they will be engaged much more by the world and the game wouldn't feel like a bunch of combat rules piled ontop of one another AND this thought excercise just gave me ideas for like 3 different encounters with fire elementals alone. A good example of realism being beneficial.
P.s. Wrote this and accidentally pressed "Cancel" instead of "Submit Post". Blessed be Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C and heightened fine motor skills on an adrenaline rush I got when I realised browser was about to delete the whole thing.
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Just another little update. Since I broke the magic chapter into multiple parts (the magic chapter itself which discusses things shared by most magic subdisciplines like duration; range; areas; targeting; concentration checks; subtypes; etc, versus chapters on things like spellcasting and psionics which give information specific to those disciplines), I'm currently working on the spellcasting mechanics which includes things like descriptions for magic schools and explaining things like spells per day, spells known, prepared spells, etc.
Something I wanted to share was that "spellbooks" are getting standard, codified, rules for determining things like price and value of spellbooks based on storage capacity, and some information about making sturdier spellbooks or making spellbooks out of unusual materials.
What this means is that creating custom spellbooks for flavor purposes has never been easier. If you want your campaign's spellbooks to be secret scrolls handed down through your ninja clan, you can do that. If you would prefer to carry around strips of paper with single spells written on them rather than a book, you can do that too. If you want your dwarf to carry amulets with little rune tablets on them that store spells, you could do that too.
Spellbooks have a base value, weight, and sturdiness based on the capacity of the book. These can be quickly modified based on materials. For example, by default a spellbook has 0 hardness and 1 hp / 10 pages, and weighs 0.02 lbs. per page (or 1 lb. / 50 pages). You can do things like add bindings or make a book out of an exotic material (a list of materials is given), so if you ever wanted to know what the cost and weight of a spellbook with 200 pages bound in a mithral case would be...well, now you can.
I'm also going to include some material on special kinds of spellbooks, such as tattoos or familiars.
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P.s. Wrote this and accidentally pressed "Cancel" instead of "Submit Post". Blessed be Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C and heightened fine motor skills on an adrenaline rush I got when I realised browser was about to delete the whole thing.
Someone recommended me the Lazerus addon. If my post gets eaten, it lets me recover it. :)