>>179531 →>My concern was that liberties were being taken - not specifically by players, but by game designers who don't know the irl mechanics of what theyre designingWho really cares though? It's fantasy. AC is an abstraction. HP is an abstraction. Just use what's fun and serves your goals.
>>179535 →>Rosey's player has reason to feel put on, and Im a big reason behind it, but not cuz I wanna piss in their cereal.I have to say, it really did piss me off
Maybe I'm not one to object because you've been playing for longer than me, but I was doing fine until last week. I had anticipated meeting up with the rest of the party for more than a year, but this has really sucked the enjoyment out of it for me. Idk how to put it into words; maybe I'm just breaking under the weight of my irl struggles, but this has to stop. Let's agree to stop the toxicity.
>Meta/maxxfagging is fucking tedious. And no, new players should never have to.First of all "try this useful piece of armor from this book" is not tedious. If it were tedious, that would be Tenebrous's problem, not yours. Tenebrous expressed an issue with armor class, so I helped him.
Second of all, "metafagging" is part of the game. It is part of the appeal of the game, and this particular edition of the game.
I can avoid throwing math in your face, it ooc junk is your problem though. I can see how it would be annoying to have math break the immersion of roleplay, but I think I should be able to talk to other characters.
>>179536 →>He doesn't have a lot of levels in monk so the effects of wearing it aren't severe, but are there any workarounds to wear armor as a monk while retaining all abilities?Yes, although resource cost is a question. How much do you really care about armor class? There are a lot of alternatives to armor too.
Only low level characters care about AC anyway.
Notice how the cost for +1 armor is less than that for a +1 weapon? It's because this system values defense less than it does offense: You avoid more damage by attacking. Whenever I buy armor enhancements, I go for the special abilities, not AC bonuses.
>Maybe we could just rename those armor pieces to fit the setting?It doesn't really matter what you call them. They amount to "bracers" and "chestplate".
>I think the whole concern around Posey arises from the fact that none of us, probably including the GM, took notes on her character sheet so we have no idea just what she's capable of.My character sheet has been public for a long time.
https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheets//?id=2789871>makes it look like powergamingIt really depends what you mean by "power gaming", but I never once denied power gaming. Power fantasy is part of the appeal of d&d.
>>179538 →There are several ways for Monks to wear armor.
https://dnd.arkalseif.info/classes/argent-fist/index.htmlArgent fist is the first one to come to mind, because I've played it.
There are other options, but I don't have them off of the top of my head because they're suboptimal, and Armor Class is a tertiary priority for most characters (Tank Fallacy).
Also worth noting that the Monk has many ACFs, which means most of its armor-restricted features can be traded away for something else. You can trade flurry for Rage or Decisive Strike, neither of which need be unarmored. You can trade evasion for Feign Death, Spell Reflection or Invisible Fist, none of which need be unarmored. This is recommended for Multiclass Monks. Flurry Of Misses is a meme anyway.
https://srd.dndtools.org/srd/classes/baseCore/monk.html#decisive-strikeMonk has a lot of features (most of which meh), which meant it had a lot of features to trade away for ACFs written in various books and magazine issues.
Hunter Monk should be considered, for Multiclass Rangers. By combining Hunter Monk with Ascetic Stalker, you can increase your favored enemy progression faster than normal.
>>179569 →>Lamilar is grossly underrepresentedNo it isn't. It's been in the game since 3.0 A&E.
https://www.realmshelps.net/stores/armor/LamellarThis was the armor I gave to my Agire statblock, because I wanted a more eastern theme. Among medium armors, it's one of the better ones. Tied with breastplate, and cheaper too. Too bad it can't be dragoncraft.
There's no shortage of avant garde armors in 3.5e. Some of them are good, most of them are meh.
>>179658>Who really cares though? It's fantasy. AC is an abstraction. HP is an abstraction.This is true, but please understand that everyone needs to be on the same page with the numbers. We are not. That can be a problem.
>Only low level characters care about AC anyway.Why?
>I never once denied power gaming. Power fantasy is part of the appeal of d&d.Please understand that when one enemy encounters two characters, one who is very powerful and wants to be brought near death, and another who is only medium or low powered and does
not want to lose their character, there can be an issue in game balancing. This is not a non-existent issue.
Also, for the love of God, please stop trying to show up every other player on how much more powerful your character is than theirs in out of character comments or minor PvP. It pisses me off to no end and makes it extremely difficult to take your statements about taking elements from various books being benign at face value
>>179661I wouldn't have done the show-off thing if another player hadn't threatened to kill me earlier. I regret doing that.
>>179658>who cares, it's fantasyYes, but. Brie's backstory is more or less structured to be among the the top 3 sneaky ninjas in the world. Now, there are mechanical constraints to that manifestation, mostly supplied by GM.
When building him thence, I went with what made sense to the *already established mindset/build*. This includes a homebrew feat that allowed me to do something I could have done with another build but which didnt fit the backstory/character.
Tl;dr, I could have 2 extra feats if I wanted to go with an optimal build. Everything my character does that is "cool" comes at specific and deliberate expense.
Without having looked at this specific cbaracter, I admit to a prejudice to observing your (as a player) propensity to capitalize on racial/bonus feats, especially where flaws are offered in exchange.
What I'm grtting at is that while GM has permitted me things that he needn't have, it is after I have detailed in thorough why it should be this way, how the rule designers were ignorant/nescient of these aspects, etc. and why he would be advised to tell me no.
Other than such negotiations, I have only told him what I have chosen, and how those choices affect previous ones.
Idk if that helped. But anyway, I had this badass criminal bg and idfk what happened to my character sheet, did I ever have one? I think so, but fuck it, lets roll and a ... 6.
..
.
....
Fuck it, Ill make it work AND make sense, AND be the badass. Yes, I know, that 6 will hur skills,....
So when that happens and yoh try to suck it up and go with it, having someone else SEEM to be flaunting/gloating can have adverse consequences that I might be more adult about in the future?
>>179663I apologize for that. It wasn't a threat to kill, but thats just semantics. I acknowledge A. That was a bad response even OOC, B. That what Brie would assume would kill Posey would probably be grossly insufficient, in an Alan vs. Tyrant sorta way, and C. if no "good" responses come to mind, I could have not posted.
>>179658>LamellarFunny, you havent posted the 3.5e SRD for Lammelar. Wonder why.
>>179738 →What SHOULD have happened, having NOT descended from his 100' low altitude observation and NOT taken ANY further action (other than to declare an OOC intent to secure the rope WHEN GAMEPLAY COULD CONTINUE CUZ PLAYERS ARE PRESENT), saw the pony coming a mile away. I now realize I have to be exhaustive in my descriptions so to avoid unnecessary assumptions about what my character is doing, and only GM can carry the action forward from that point. I would have been fine with Brie going further onto the cliff if it makes the encounter easier/better but thats nowhere near what I had declared as action, nor was there any indocation that he was doing the other thing I had indicated he would. In future I will be entirely unambiguous about what my character is doing as well as being less accommodating to players trying to push things past where we reasonably stopped.
Part of the problem is that GM will make sweeping decriptions of things happening - clearly putting time, effort, and care - but will neglect to directly address what I had posted, sometimes several times. I'm left not knowing whether the posts were even seen. This is exascerbated when other players engage in needless cross-posting, ostensibly what the OOC thread is for.
The idea that "I was present right until" and "I should have known play was ongoing" is laughable for several reasons.
1. I expressly asked GM directly and the thread in general for advance notice for VERY specific reasons. There was no notice, egro I Assumed* that this was just horseplay and banter.
2. There were 2.5 (including me) players absent.
>but you were thereNot as a player. I was there, while watching YT, with music and distractions and lots of stuff you DONT do as a player. As a player I would have 1 window open, 2 books, a notepad, and the thread, and no distractions. I assumed* that the assurances I was given were not as flexible as they appear to be.
Lets take stock for a second:
Brie - Me
Silver - Silver
Kira
Rosey - Posey
Tenebrous - Him
Cavaliere - Amber's player
Dust - Noodle appreciator
GM - Alot. Like, ALOT alot.
How many players constitutes a quorum? 2/3 certainly, and 5/6 is debatable. 6/6 is ideal, but lets not kid ourselves about dnd schedules. To that end, I recommend favoring the newer players before seasoned ones, both in scheduling and in general.
>>179743What should have happened part 2:
The intent was NOT for Brie to have joined the fight; he could be said to be anywhere from 50-100'. What he would have done is signal/call-out something like:
"Eyes on contact, 2 o'clock" or whatever specific direction appropriate, left the mass of ponies to ascertain/deal with the contact, while surveiling for any other approaching contacts.
Brie isnt trying to be everywhere and do all the things I just want him doing the things I said so that he can at least contribute a situational awareness even if not actively engaging.
>>179742It's not in the SRD. I told you it's in Arms & Equipment.
A&E was printed before the SRD, but unlike the ELH, DD, and XPH, it didn't get the SRD treatment.
SRD only includes DMG1, PHB1, MM1, XPH, ELH, and DD.
Anyway, Lamellar is a top tier medium armor. Would recommend it for Warblades, Barbarians, or Fighters with good dex that isn't maxed, if you wanted a more eastern look instead of breastplate. It's statistically identical to breastplate, except it weighs slightly less and costs 50 gp less. Costing only 150 gp also means that lvl 1 followers may be able to afford it alongside a horse and weapons.
It is, however, partly composed of leather, which means that it would rot away overtime, making it not idea to place as treasure in the bottom of some ancient tomb, when a breastplate would last forever. There are workarounds to that though ("the leather lasts forever because magic and/or immortal monster skin").
Too bad it can't be Dragoncraft. Hide and Scale Mail are the only two medium armors that could be dragoncraft, which is probably due to their avoidance to referencing non-phb items in subsequent books. Lamellar is something like a cross between hide and scale mail, and were it made dragoncraft it would be a superior armor, being light with considerable AC bonus, and fitting for dragon-honoring oriental characters. Mithril is better than dragoncraft for Dex character, but dragoncraft lamellar would look so cool.
>>179658>Yes, although resource cost is a question. How much do you really care about armor class? There are a lot of alternatives to armor too.It's not the most important thing, and this character won't wear armor anyway, but I was wondering on a conceptual level since monk is a class that eschews all armor by design. Thank you for sharing!
>Only low level characters care about AC anyway.OOC, maybe, but in IC it depends on the character and what hit points are meant to be. If they're abstracted as "luck to not receive a deadly wound" then it's not a problem though it steps on the toes of AC. If they're actual health resilience, as they've been presented in the game so far, then aside from a sadist dread necromancer most characters would indeed prefer AC.
It's a roleplay problem. If one's character gets shanked by a hobo, the player is not going to freak out because 1d4 damage is nothing for a level 5 PC. But the character still has to be roleplayed as freaking out because he was just shanked by a hobo, for crying out loud. This creates a dilemma where the optimal play is to just not care about getting hit, but where effective roleplay would have a character prefer not to receive another orifice.
DnD 3.5e is highly generous in terms of hit points since party members are regularly fighting mythical creatures (and often dying to them), but in a grounded setting like OE then even level 5 has characters be absurdly tanky. We saw it in Silver's last dream sequence where he was fighting a war. You could design the campaign where there's a level cap (you mentioned 6e and I talked about it on the game thread) but even if you include more feats, you still lose out on powers, multiclassing, prestige classes, etc. I wish there was an easy solution to this but I don't see one.
>It doesn't really matter what you call them. They amount to "bracers" and "chestplate".True. I wonder what the horse versions would be?
>hunter monk>lose 1st level bonus featIt's tempting, but I like my feats.
>>179745I'm just curious as to how he would have called out the pony from a hundred feet away, without having a radio. Physically, he could do that by yelling loud enough, but that would be heard by
everypony else 100' away.
>>179746>Too bad it can't be Dragoncraft. Hide and Scale Mail are the only two medium armors that could be dragoncraft, which is probably due to their avoidance to referencing non-phb items in subsequent books. Lamellar is something like a cross between hide and scale mail, and were it made dragoncraft it would be a superior armor, being light with considerable AC bonus, and fitting for dragon-honoring oriental characters. Mithril is better than dragoncraft for Dex character, but dragoncraft lamellar would look so cool.Officially, you can't, but it would be easy to homebrew it in for a character with a very high armor crafting skill. In OE it would just be awkward to wear in considering dragons have their own country and are capable of co-existing with ponies to some extent.
>>179747>I'm just curious as to howIn the scenario where he is 100' and looking for anything and thereby notices the approaching pony, he will likewise have a range of vision approaching 270' ground level before white-out conditions at the diagonal, including any other potential incoming. Therefore, he would be perfectly fine calling out to the ponies in 100' range, regardless of anyone else in that 100' range heard him, while looking for other inbound, in case of trap/ambush/etc.
>>179747>Thank you for sharing!Anytime. I could talk about this all day.
>IC it depends on the character and what hit points are meant to beWell, we are low level characters, so we care about AC.
>If they're abstracted as "luck to not receive a deadly wound"That's how you're supposed to fluff HP. It says so in the DMG.
>If one's character gets shanked by a hobo, the player is not going to freak out because 1d4 damage is nothing for a level 5 PC.Sounds like a good time to introduce players to Erebus, the god of beggars.
Anyways, a lvl 5 hero narratively shouldn't lose to a lvl 1 commoner hobo with a shank: they should be good enough at fighting to avoid the attack or only be grazed by it, but also narratively their story wouldn't end like that. HP is as much of plot armor as it is physicality or skill at fighting, because players are supposed to win and Frontline fighters are supposed to tank deadly attacks. That's why HP exists.
>This creates a dilemma where the optimal play is to just not care about getting hit, but where effective roleplay would have a character prefer not to receive another orifice.Optimal play is to kill your enemies before they kill you.
This does remind me of an expert from the Rules Compendium though (pic related).
>DnD 3.5e is highly generous in terms of hit pointsI actually disagree with this, especially when compared to other systems, but that's just me.
>In OE it would just be awkward to wear in considering dragons have their own country and are capable of co-existing with ponies to some extent.Same thing is true in Forgotten Realms and Eberron, but that doesn't stop them.
>My character Amber is on the complete opposite end. I saw the world the DM came up with and wanted to create a character that typified an everymare, even one with many disadvantages.>My philosophy when playing Amber is to "go with the flow" and have her react realistically toward changing surroundings rather than trying to change the surroundings herself.Considering that Amber is a Bard, she should have all of the heroic potential as Pinkie Pie. Bards have the power to change the world with their words and songs, and their mere presence can turn the tides of battle.
Even Pinkie Pie in S1E2, who could have been considered a lvl 1 Bard at the time, was able to guide her friends through the Eldritch horrors of Everfree.
Bards aren't just warriors (although they certainly are), they're sages, scholars, and most importantly leaders, not grounded in any one place and spreading their inspiration wherever they go. Bards not only communicate with spirits, but with the emotions of others, and guide the struggling through turmoils both supernatural and mundane. In times of war, a Bard is what everyone needs. Perhaps Amber might not consider herself a warrior, but that doesn't mean she can't be a hero. She might realize that her role may come from supporting and uplifting others, with the power of friendship.
>she'll soon be properly ready for real adventure but I am quite happy with her story and I think others are too.Well, if you ever want help with your sheet, I'm always available.
Imo, Amber would make for a good Heartfire Fanner, Sublime Chord, or War Chanter. Perhaps she might even go through a sudden Spiritual Awakening, and become a Fire Soul, and inspire all those around her.
https://www.realmshelps.net/monsters/templates/firesouled.shtmlIt's +3 LA, but that doesn't really matter in milestone games, plus we have characters that can fly at-will (minimum +2 LA), so nobody cares.
>despite being a generalist at technically level 3.You haven't seen me play Clerics or Sorcerers, either of which would have made for a more powerful version of Posey. I picked Dread Necromancer because it's a tier 3 class that's good at exactly one thing and one thing only (at lvl 8...), also because she's from the Dread League and therefore must select every character option that has the word "Dread" in it.
Posey has high HP and enhancement bonuses to Str and Dex, but she's also maxed in those regards: she can't improve those with items. I spent two character levels and almost all of my starting gold gaining those traits, because they had to be applied in character creation.
>>179751>Amber is a Bard>final light bulb ticks on
>>179753Amber is more dialogue and social to resolution of circumstances and concerns. Though, for a moment I did get Kira and Amber mixed up in my head
>>179746Lamellar armor is pretty cool, you basically take a whole bunch of rectangular metal scale and tie them all together into large sheets. Unlike normal scale armor it only has a metal component to it, and requires no backing material like cloth. Kira's lamellar scales are made out of leather rather than metal to preserve lightness, but you can actually make it out of other non-metal materials
including bone.
>>179746>its in this bookSo not SRD, got it. I'm not the idiot for not knowing which of the half dozen non-srd lamellar's you may have been referencing.
>>179751>Perhaps Amber might not consider herself a warrior, but that doesn't mean she can't be a hero. She might realize that her role may come from supporting and uplifting others, with the power of friendship.That's what I'm going with. She's starting with her coltfriend and he's uh, a work in progress.
>https://www.realmshelps.net/monsters/templates/firesouled.shtmlI'll check these options out. Fire souled seems perfect for a Kirin character since kirins are already attuned with fire. One could bring up other inspiration from the show of actual ponies possessing this, like Twilight burning up in rage or a devout Harmonist becoming radical to the point of welcoming Daybreaker. Food for thought.
>>179757People also sleep on brigandine as an armor option.
How old was silver before he ate the fruit?
>>179770He was in his 50s
>>179767>Fire souled seems perfect for a Kirin character since kirins are already attuned with fire. One could bring up other inspiration from the show of actual ponies possessing thisBecoming Firesouled requires initiation by one who has the template. A Kirin Bard (Autumn Blaze?) would be an ideal mentor for the bonfire ritual.
Also, she's named Amber Sunset. You can't have that kind of name without doing something with fire/light.
>>179771Middle Age. Got it.
>>179767Brigandine is plate armor with extra steps
>>179771That's younger than I assumed. I don't know why he was so obsessed with youth, but I'm not even close to that age myself.
>>179773I was going for a grain theme (because she is from a farming background) but maybe.
>>179774It's medium armor but also really cool.
>>179777>I was going for a grain theme (because she is from a farming background) but maybe.Could be a Green Whisperer.
>>179780 →Posey is a character who, if
I am expected to keep Brie in a reasonably/respectable line (including not expecting other players/characters to care/accommodate) then it stands to reason,....
>I'm pent up from not killingFuck off to ooc with it then
>>179783>I'm pent up from not killingPosey is.
>reasonably/respectable lineIs attacking an unresponsive NPC who is attacking us unreasonable?
>>179790>Posey isSuper. That means fuckall to all not-posey.
>is attacking an whatever NPCSo you're gonna cool it when Brie threatens ponies? Carry on, if it means not getting second guessed and ankle-bitten all the time
>>179790Nah, it's a fairly reasonable course of action. Personally I wanted to figure out what was going on after not only how weirdly he was acting but also what he is after what I guess was a strength roll with a +4 modifier, but I'm also cool with just straight up murder.
>>179793I want to take him alive too, and it's why I chose grapple. Posey is acting in-character and isn't unreasonable.
>>179792>So you're gonna cool it when Brie threatens ponies?If they're attacking us, yeah.
>>179819 →Posey was crucimigrated by her Mentor, who through the apprentice feat is an 8th level Dread Necromancer, therefore applying the Undead Mastery feature to her. I marked it as one of her limited favors from her Mentor.
>>179822Who the fuck thinks another player knows or cares what that means?
>>179823I was just answering the question that was asked.
It's a temp score because it's enhancement. It does not stack with items.
>>179823Nah, I'll bear this one out
MOST PLAYERS DONT INTO EXTRA BOOKS
>>179826You weren't the one who asked.
>>179827Do you think I ask permission?
>>179822Oh, that's interesting. But how does that apply +5 dex and str?
>>179833Pls be nice
>>179835This is the OOC thread Xp
>>179836OOC means out of character for your DnD character, not for yourself. Apply your real-life decency here.
Silver's player, could you please post your ability scores? I really want to know.
>>179839>irl decencyDone! ^_^
Shutup faggit
>>179835If a Master (8th level) Dread Necromancer creates an undead (in this case, Posey), they increase the undead's HP and also adds an enhancement bonus to Str and Dex.
I'll do the same to you if I get to lvl 8 and I can convince you to die.>>179833Then why do you care?
>>179839Strength: 16
Dexterity: 18
Constitution: 16
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 16
Charisma: 10
>>179843Idk. I guess you made a comment about low sperm count. Something that didn't in any way relate to the game at all, but you decided.
And so, I decided. Decide now.
>>179839>Silver's player, could you please post your ability scores? I really want to know.His original scores were:
Strength - 16
Dexterity - 17
Constitution - 16
Intelligence - 7
Wisdom - 16
Charisma - 9
Imo, doesn't really reflect how he played, because Silver seemed a lot smarter and more charismatic than that.
>>179844>>179846When did they get upgraded? Those are very good stats.
And to think you didn't apply age penalties, tsk-tsk
>>179848Technically the age penalties would only be age bonus, now that he's back to prime age.
>>179848Intelligence is the only one that actually really got upgraded, and that's because I asked GM pone for it so Silver can actually have some skill points to put into Weaponsmithing and Armorsmithing. Mostly for flavor, but I do have plans for Silver to buy a workshop to turn into a smithy. Not only could it serve as a source of passive income to fund his...expensive newfound hobbies such as NPC collection, but he can use it to make better gear for himself and the various characters. I've already got plans for Silver to make a Titanium Breastplate for himself and a Titanium Chain Shirt for Kira. The rest of them were just some pretty damn good rolls during character creation.
>>179843>then why do you careWHY INDEED. ARE MY REASONS SUBJECT TO CRITICISM? I DONT RECALL SUBMITTING FOR APPROVALsureiya
>>179850Hey, I actually had this pure int unicorn fencer build, if you were interested at looking at it.
>>179851It's annoying and unhelpful.
>>179852That actually does sound pretty neat. Definitely far from what Silver is, but still, neat!
>>179849When you roll abilities and choose them, age penalties are applied afterwards. In the case of middle-age, which isn't so bad, it just nerfs your physical abilities in favor of your intellectual ones.
>>179850They are good rolls, but personally I think that increased intelligence should have needed a special quest for it (like that Tree of Life thing) or maybe a transfer of three ability points. I won't contest GM Pone's decision.
>>179851he mad
>>179852I was debating with making a fencer character because it's a neat concept in general.
>>179868 →What are you even talking about?
Quit shitting up the roleplay thread with ooc posts.
>>179881 →>>179885 →Okay, seriously, what is your problem?
Oh hey, I didn't even notice this thread.
She zeeb on my zoob til I ziib
>>179891She snij on my snej til I snoj
>>179886He feels the need to punish you for caring to look at additional books. I dare say this isn't his first time derailing a campaign with his need to enact justice on another player rather than just letting the GM handle how they please.>>179893I only have a 10 in int, but interdasting. I might just keep that in my back pocket
>>179891You have a good Heal Mod. You should use Healing Lorecall.
https://dndtools.net/spells/spell-compendium--86/healing-lorecall--4689/It buffs all of your healing spells if you have ranks in Heal.
Also consider using rules for the d20 modern Treat Injury skill:
https://d20modern.fandom.com/wiki/Treat_Injury
>>179854So basically it's the idea of a Unicorn Warrior who is a fighting genius, and has developed a manner of fighting styles through knowledge of warfare, history, and experience.
A Warblade that focuses on the Diamond Mind and White Raven Disciplines
https://srd.dndtools.org/srd/classes/baseTob/warblade.htmlThree Fey Bloodline levels, just because a character who has been playing for so long deserves something. Unicorn is fey-adjacent anyway.
https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheets/?id=2957511It's really unfinished. I originally left the Str at 16 because I wanted to qualify for feats, but then I didn't think of any feats that were really worth taking (Power Attack?)...
Might swap if for Con, but he already gets Int to HP ala Faerie Mysteries Initiate. Still, it's bad to dump Con, because Concentration is pivotal for the Diamond Mind discipline.
Could also roll it into Wis, although Keen Intellect replaces Wis with Int on both checks.
Might swap the Str for the wis, then un-dump the con by applying the Arctic (+0 LA) template, and roll the Cha penalty from Arctic into a Wis penalty ala Magic Blooded (+0 LA). The combo gives some nifty SLAs too (Rat of frost, detect magic, read magic, magic aura), on top of resistance to cold weather.
Silver Tongue is just a fun feat that goes well with a White Raven Commander.
Knowledge Devotion is good, and turns ranks in knowledge (local) into Damage vs humanoids.
Weapon Focus enables entry into Eternal Blade.
Not sure about other feats.
Still working on maneuvers.
This build includes two house rules:
1: The ponyfinder Advanced Horn Magic feat is acceptable
2. Unicorn Counts as an Elf/Halfling (for Faerie Mysteries Initiate; Eternal Blade if lvl 11 ever comes). 3.5e Elves get all of the unicorn stuff anyway.
>>179886You, not specifically. And unlike u, Im not gonna pretrnd otherwise
>>180004 →>axe to grindNigger, it is (You) who has been shitting up the thread with your ooc spamposts, despite there being an entire thread for that.
I have not done anything remotely antagonistic to you today, but you have been nothing but hostile. What is your problem? Why do you have to be so toxic? You're sucking all the energy out of the thread. It's fucking gay.
Notice how nobody else has an issue with me right now? The problem is (You).
And consolidate your posts, for the love of God. You don't need to make 50+ posts with half a sentence each.
>>180014Pretending otherwise, on cue
>>180014>i havent done anything todayThank you for admitting youve been pver the top insufferable EXCEPT today
>>180016Whatever, fag. Just stop shitting up the roleplay thread.
>>180019This pot seems to think its in a position to criticize the kettle
>>180020I'm making on-topic posts in the roleplay thread. You haven't posted in-character since early this afternoon.
Just quit the spam posts.
>>180021This is the ooc thread,...
>>180022I'm talking about the other thread.
>>179909I forgot to reply to this earlier, but I think this sounds like a pretty neat idea! Bonus points if you manage to flavor the character like a Water Dancer.
>>180025>Bonus points if you manage to flavor the character like a Water Dancer.I can try. Might be difficult with a greatsword build.
>>180023Wait, youre complaining about spam posts? Again? Ffs, you never learn
>>180026Oh, you mean for Silver? I'm not sure how much it makes sense for Silver, but I was imagining it for a different character using a rapier or other similar weapon.
>>180091Me on the top left
>>180091>>180092I'm on the bottom right
Would you be in favor of forensics from DnD modern being a skill?
>>180099Maybe, but unlike d20 modern classes, we don't have a lot of skill points.
Survival (tracking), Search (noticing stuff), Heal (how a creature died), and Gather Information (urban tracking) are the forensic skills in d&d.
Don't mind me,....
[1d6 = 3] [1d6 = 4] [1d6 = 1] [1d6 = 3]
[1d6 = 3] [1d6 = 5] [1d6 = 1] [1d6 = 3]
[1d6 = 1] [1d6 = 6] [1d6 = 4] [1d6 = 2]
[1d6 = 2] [1d6 = 6] [1d6 = 6] [1d6 = 4]
[1d6 = 6] [1d6 = 2] [1d6 = 5] [1d6 = 5]
[1d6 = 3] [1d6 = 5] [1d6 = 4] [1d6 = 3]
>>18039710 S
12 D
11 C
12 W
16 I
16 Ch
>>180399Post-racial stats
Str 10
Dex 14
Con 10
Wis 12
Int 16
Cha 16
To whatever degree they may be so inclined, Ponies in and around Baltimare may be aware of a Bar, Grill, and Strip club
that also offers prostitution and gambling called the Latex Saddle, owned and operated by one Lucky Roll and her cadre/stable of mares.
Yes, yes I am.
>>180400>bat-run bar, grill and strip clubCool. My bat-ghoul Nightstalker will pay the place a visit.
>>180402I will assemble a selection of lewd ponies for atmosphere.
For those with criminal sensibilities, her real source of wealth/power/income comes from.her network of spies and informants, and the high price of that information, as well as unserialized weapon trade (small arms)
Think Leslie Faire, except an even more morally ambiguous and organized criminal
>>180412Quite ^,_,^
And damn sexy :3
>>180416Ooc, highly encouraged
In character, will never happen; her favor is currently reserved exclusively for Brie. ^,_,~
I should probably get to work on my nightstalker... I was going to wait for Leadership, but it seems as though we can play multiples without it, so I'll get to work.
I decided that my other two characters will be mares as well. Gloomy will be the only male among the four horsemen.
>>180398 →>Just remembered that "Average Array" existsWhat kind of sadistic DM would have their players use stats where the highest one is 13?
I always use high stats in my games: it makes things more fair to the MAD classes. My last one used 54 point buy.
>>180419>average arrayNPCs and adversaries only, imo
When I came into the game, I intended to eventually run four characters through leadership variants: based on the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
I intended to have a Nightstalker to represent Hunger and a Martial character to represent War. Originally they were to be pegasus and earth pony respectively, but I think I'll do Bat (ghoul) and Pegasus (semi-wight imitation) instead.
Posey represents Conquest. She's a fearmonger charisma build with vampiric lineage. You all know Posey by now.
My Black Horse is a ghoul arms dealer, smuggler and merchant: a horribly greedy and depraved creature who was executed for stealing the souls of the unborn in a maternity ward. Like Posey, she's a slave to the Masters of Magehold, and is being sent to the equestrian. Unlike Posey, who is supernaturally beautiful even in death, my ghoul would have a humanoid skin graft that lets her pass as a living thing, maintained by cure spells. Ghouls are associated with hunger and greed, so it makes sense to have a ghoul represent famine. Feats would be utility oriented, using Mercantile Background and Wanderers Diplomacy to procure hard to get items.
Nightstalker is a somewhat inferior class, and I would probably be better off with a Multiclass Cleric/Rogue with Sacred Outlaw, but all Posey must remain superior.
My Red Horse is a Pegasus, I was interested in a Shadowbane Inquisitor Blackguard build, with intent to eventually become a Death Knight. The build doesn't really work before ECL 8 though, as it requires fallen paladin mechanics. Could make it advance in Shadowbane Inquisitor ala Heretic Of The Faith though.
I also considered Barbarian, Crusader, or Warblade, but IDK. In any case, I want it to be an energy-drain build.
Gloomy is the pale horse. He represents Death. I had intended to magically age him and make him my cohort when Posey became a master at lvl 8, but idk if that will ever happen.
>>180421Even the DMG says to give any creature with PC classes the elite array.
Average array is for lvl 1 non-elite, NPC-class canon fodder enemies.
>>180419What are you bitching at me for? I’ve never used average array for anything, except maybe genetic NPC enemies
>>180423When I came into the game, I had wanted to run an anti-hero criminal inspired by Jarlaxle from Forgotton Realms, Raymond Reddington from the Blacklist, a dose of Guy Richie noir comedy, and a cup of batman. Creating Lucky is a sudden inspiration/determination in that it allows me as a player to have all sorts of reasons to participate in the social aspects of the game, through both her and Brie (I rly hope Vul doesnt object to my appropriation of her likeness, especially in a criminal context); the former because she's a proprietor
and an excuse for more Addy cameos xp, and the latter for both business and pleasure :3
Her personality is structured after Jemnifer Garner in the Sherlock Holmes movies, with elements of Faye (Cowboy Benop), titties (Lupin III) and so on.
Also titties from One Piece,....
The classic wild feminine archetype
>>180428>(I rly hope Vul doesnt object to my appropriation of her likeness, especially in a criminal context)Did you consider just making your own Bat OC?
There's no shame in taking inspiration from pre-existing characters.
My Nightstalker is a seductive Diplomancer build. A "civilized" , smooth-talking ghoul (like Cooper Howard) with even smoother stolen skin. Her mane style would probably like Aura (Frieren).
I based Posey's appearance in part on Makima (Chainsawman).
>>180427I'm not bitching at you at all. I was just talking about how silly it is that the game lists making players use the Average Array as an option. Idk what kind of hypothetical GM would do that.
>>180436 →>So instead is the a class that transitions into another or have different modes and are there any that's specifically about changing their martial art style?Swordsage, particularly with Stance changes:
https://srd.dndtools.org/srd/classes/baseTob/swordsage.htmlSwordsage know a wide array of maneuvers and fighting styles. It's also often referred to as a better version of Monk and Ninja (and most martial claases).
It's why I recommend Shadow Sun Ninja.
>>180437Okay, thank you. I will explore it. ^^
>>180435>consider just making your own Bat OCBut I already clop to Lucky ._.
>>180441If you really want to be a "style changer", you could dip every martial adept class, and then go into Master Of The Nine.
https://dnd.arkalseif.info/classes/master-of-nine/index.htmlIt would be really complicated though.
>>180443Yeah, that does seem more in line with what I was thinking of.
Though, I think, while I wouldn't refer to myself as new, I don't have enough, in game, experience with dnd mechanics as is so I think a normal monk might be just the right fit for me at the moment.
I think I just want to keep it mechanically simple and then add description to spice it up. To someone like me that's still kinda new and exciting.
Thank you again btw. I do really appreciate your help and enthusiasm. Feel free to give further suggestions, I do listen even if it might not seems so since I just shifted back to favor the monk class for my oc.
>>180443But I can give you some description of the character I have in mind so far and, you can say what you think would be cool for the character if you like. Also,
spoilers:So Virgin Flame suffers immensely from regrets and numbs herself with alcohol. If she doesn't get alcohol, her self-hatred escalates and she goes a bit berserk. With alcohol, she's temporary at peace with the past. She's kind and confident. She whistles a melancholic psalm from her church in Equestria. If she's still in bad mood, she's more likely to cry rather than be violent while drunk than sober, were she's more like to hurt, herself.
Something like that is her character so far.
>>180442In the interest of NOT blatantly plagiarizing another's OC, I am amending the character from Lucky Roll to Lacy Row (as in, to fight).
Further modifications/establishments to follow
(Born into the Row crime family,....)
Those familiar with the Netflix animae series Kengan Asura will have insight into where I'm going with the "Row" family, with the comparative Kure clan
Are bats the asians of MLP?
>>180423I appreciate the enthusiasm for new characters, but let's take a moment to consider how any new characters fit within the wider context of the game. I mean this in how they would play out within party dynamics, how they fit with the goals of others, and how their power level fits with their roles as presumably lower level than the PC characters.
First off, Posey and her like are established as coming from the Griffonian Northeast. Arcturian Order, snowponies, and hill ponies. Bat ponies in EAW are indigenous to the Equestrian Southeast. They have since migrated en masse all throughout the Equestrian East, to a portion of the Zebrican north coast, and New Mareland, and can be periodically found throughout Equestria and Nova Griffonia. They are
not found in the backwater parts of the Griffonian Far North.
But a bit more than that, I'm skeptical of evil characters more generally. When the game first started I was very welcoming of evil allignment, because to me, I thought that that playing "evil" meant a character that was maybe just a little bitchy, liked or aligned with the Nazi-coded factions, was maybe a bit sexually immoral, and had an idea of justice that placed much more emphasis on retribution than mercy. How very wrong I was...
There have been a couple villains who stood out as evil. One bought 10 year old foals as slaves, kept them in what is a basically a rape dungeon, and then invited friends over to sexually abuse these foals. They did the same with changeling nymphs, electrocuting them to coerce them into transforming into their favored sexual target. Another villain would tell immigrants he would smuggle them in past customs... Then rob them, chain them into a sweatshop and force them to work, have their life force drained from them by a captive changeling so they could extract the condensed love as changeling honey, and then finally have their drained bodies sacrificed to an evil god, remove their fur and try to sell it for value, make leather for books out of the skin, and then feed the bodies to gnoll minions. These villains are not supposed to be the average. They are supposed to stand out as uniquely evil even amongst antagonists within the setting. Fighting them is supposed to be non-controversial. It's supposed to be a goal that can be agreed on by the whole party, as kind of a break from fights and duties that mostly are about ideology or power politics and are not as agreeable. The goal here isn't to have a split-ideological party or campaign where one part is attempting to out flank these rare villains on the evil scale, or to normalize evil and make reveal scenes - like the foals imprisoned in the sex dungeon, or all of the skeletons thrown away in the garbage chute - less impactful.
You have the night stalker as "arms dealer, smuggler and merchant: a horribly greedy and depraved creature who was executed for stealing the souls of the unborn in a maternity ward." This is not the first time you've mentioned a night stalker character. When you mentioned it before, the night stalker was "a lawyer or barrister" named caligo, with that profession being kind of an explanation for, or tied to, a diplomacer style. I fell like this is a hell of change to go from "lawyer" to "Arms dealer but also merchant and smuggler and she steals the souls of babies from the maternity ward."
First off, is stealing the souls of babies just something level 3 or so characters can just casually do? Like stealing the catalytic converters off of cars, or shoplifting at Walmart? Do people need to guard their souls like they need to guard their pockets or purses so they don't get stolen. In the show, in the season 5 intro, there is a big reveal that Starlight Glimmer isn't using a magical artifact to remove pony's cutie marks - it's her own cutie mark magic. That power is unique and almost aberrant. No one else has that power in the whole series. But stealing babies souls is comparatively common?
I get that the character is likely intended to kind of be like Salem from the Sabrina the Teenaged Witch Series, forcibly depowered and eviler than the rest as a kind of deliberate contrast. But what is your intention with the character?
>>180468I do not watch any anime at all
>>180473>I dont watch anime at allFair, Ill comprise an acceptably comparative parallel. For simplicity's sake, Im vying for Lacy to be a Neighponese mafia Boss' daughter.
>>180476If I was GM and having to pull backstory out my ass, I'd say she and Brie FIRST met years ago in Neighpone, when Brie took on several of Lacy's older brothers single handedly,...
I just want to say that this character is unfinished and I haven't even decided on a name, so it's open to change.
>>180473>You have the night stalker as "arms dealer, smuggler and merchant: a horribly greedy and depraved creature who was executed for stealing the souls of the unborn in a maternity ward." This is not the first time you've mentioned a night stalker character. When you mentioned it before, the night stalker was "a lawyer or barrister" named caligo, with that profession being kind of an explanation for, or tied to, a diplomacer style. I fell like this is a hell of change to go from "lawyer" to "Arms dealer but also merchant and smuggler and she steals the souls of babies from the maternity ward."I believe I did mention the souls thing in the first draft of this character. It's admittedly a feat that can only be achieved with elaborate items and the assistance of casters. It's not really relevant to the character though, so I could strike that.
>I'm skeptical of evil characters more generally. When the game first started I was very welcoming of evil allignment, because to me, I thought that that playing "evil" meant a character that was maybe just a little bitchy, liked or aligned with the Nazi-coded factions, was maybe a bit sexually immoral, and had an idea of justice that placed much more emphasis on retribution than mercy. How very wrong I was...I see. I thought you were okay with Posey having minions though, and ponies who follow her cause would logically be evil.
>First off, Posey and her like are established as coming from the Griffonian Northeast. Arcturian Order, snowponies, and hill ponies. Bat ponies in EAW are indigenous to the Equestrian Southeast. They have since migrated en masse all throughout the Equestrian East, to a portion of the Zebrican north coast, and New Mareland, and can be periodically found throughout Equestria and Nova Griffonia. They are not found in the backwater parts of the Griffonian Far North.I imagined Magehold as a melting pot for necromancers and the living dead, with even it's leader hailing from Equestria. Most undead don't procreate well without the help of magic, so it makes sense that most of the residents of the Dread League were once creatures from living nations. Magehold imports slaves, spell components and talent from all over the world: it makes sense that an Equestrian ghoul would end up there.
>When you mentioned it before, the night stalker was "a lawyer or barrister" named caligo, with that profession being kind of an explanation for, or tied to, a diplomacer style. I fell like this is a hell of change to go from "lawyer" to "Arms dealer but also merchant and smugglerNightstalker is a rogue-like class with skills. Since this game involves interacting with creatures and avoiding exposure, all Dread League characters are basically spies.
I thought of making a charisma character with the personality of a sleezy lawyer, like Saul from breaking bad. The symbol of the Black horse of Famine is a set of merchant scales, so that made me think of a lawyer-like character.
>But what is your intention with the character?To round out my 4 horsemen gimmick. The third horse horse of the apocalypse is supposed to bring famine and economic devastation, so I thought a thief-like character, particularly a ghoul, would fit the archetype.
>There have been a couple villains who stood out as evil. One bought 10 year old foals as slaves, kept them in what is a basically a rape dungeon, and then invited friends over to sexually abuse these foals. Oh look, Posey's childhood.
>Another villain would tell immigrants he would smuggle them in past customs... Then rob them, chain them into a sweatshop and force them to work, have their life force drained from them by a captive changeling so they could extract the condensed love as changeling honey, and then finally have their drained bodies sacrificed to an evil god, remove their fur and try to sell it for value, make leather for books out of the skin, and then feed the bodies to gnoll minions.Business as usual in Magehold.
>>180473>evil charactersIt is important to distinguish between evil characters, and neutral characters who without conflict do evil things on occasion. Brie is an evil character (who Im hoping to transition to Chaotic Neutral) whereas Lacy is pure CN.
>electrocuting them to coerce them into transforming into their favored sexual targetI had forgotten that detail. And y'all wondered why Brie fought the party to free the bois.
>arms dealer, smuggler and merchantIs that a problem? Appreciating youre addressing another player, but thats most of the collective background of Brie AND Lacy
>, is stealing the souls of babies just something level 3 or so characters can just casually do?As a ritual cast? Kinda
>>180483>Business as usual in Magehold.That's my point
>>180486>inb4 magehold is the origin for the next bbeg and Rosey has to weigh the merits of loyalty versus ambition in combatting an otherwise worldending tyrrany
>>180486I'm not sure what you're getting at then. Posey's alignment is subject to change, but as she is she is unequivocally evil.
I made a character that is uber-evil, but that doesn't mean I don't want to be the hero of this story. Posey is based on the antichrist, and I wanted her to be a false Messiah, liberating Equestria by exterminating the changelings, so it could eventually be hers to rule:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qgoTQOELMigAre you saying that you don't want me to be evil? I intended to still take on a heroic role in spite of being evil.
>>180489>>180483GM. Without knowing Posey's specific intentions, I can argue the viability of her character, even with the spoopy bits
>>180489>Are you saying that you don't want me to be evil? I intended to still take on a heroic role in spite of being evil.I want to be more careful with new characters, especially as I do not know the intent.
I'm not RPing serial killing. Posey has not done that, but I really have no idea what to expect
>>180491>not RPing serial killing"Sorry bois, its been nerfed"
>>180491The characters I mentioned above were supposed to be Posey's cohorts, and therefore bound to her sense of vanity and the necessity for subterfuge.
The Red horse is mostly there to kill things that get in Posey's way.
The black horse is mostly built to help Posey secure funds for her army, and roll Diplomacy when charm spells fail.
It's Gloomy's job to bring the end of all days.>I'm not RPing serial killing. Posey has not done that, but I really have no idea what to expectNo real point in doing that. I want to conquer Equestria and genocide some bugs, not butcher lvl 1 commoners for no reason. Murder hoboing is beneath Posey
mostly.
I could make characters that are unrelated to Posey, but that would also be kind of tedious and bloat the story progression.
>>180496>No real point in doing thatHey now, I wanted Wesley and Kerr to go apeshit on a pedo country club; theres plenty of reasons to RP serial killing, with proper background
>>180496To be clear, I have
zero problems with the way Posey is and has been played since at the least the time the party got together
except maybe the vomiting being a bit over the top,
which I can't say about everyone.
>>180501Equal(?) clarity, Brie knows theres "something there", but more concerned with (imagined, apparently) commue militant factions
>>180501>except maybe the vomiting being a bit over the topNoted. I only did it to be funnyfor the sake of everyone's enjoyment, and to demonstrate that Posey is not invincible but in fact a flawed character with weaknesses and the need to rely on others, but in the future I will tone down the frivolous displays of supernatural gore
somewhat.>>180500 →You are not GM. The question was not for you.
You have not made an in-character post here all week, so don't tell the rest of us how to RP.
I am trying to lay the groundwork so that we'll be able to get to the good stuff once all the players are here. I'm not going to blow anything up until the rest i
>>180503You are correct.
I am not GM. Anything I posit is subject to GM whim, including line-item.
This is not.my game:
Any agreements and permissions are revokable at will
Any characters adjacent (Brie, Lacy. And yes even Addy) are consodered to be of partial - if noy discretionarily in FULL - property and/or objects to be manipulated by 3xpress will of GM, in absence of (Me)
>absence of meLOL
>>180506>last saltycommentI dont have to sneak up on GM with alot of stupid reasons to have gibs. My mains are the Ryu's, who figure it out the super-hard way. My BGs are are more resourced, if limited in an immediate sense
>>180507What does any of that mean?
>>180508It is to suggest that player/characters may be observed to have exploited GM permissiveness ^,_,^
>>180512 →>This player likes to drive action so they can capitalizeNo, I like to drive action, so the game moves forward, so we can finish quests and actually do things.
Also, stop making OOC posts in the RP thread.
>>180514That explains the salty shitposts about T and Sperm counts.
Washboard.
Dont be a douche, and I wont.
Deal?
>>180515I haven't even interacted with you in more than a week.
Keep OOC posts here.
>>180516>keep OOC posts here!He cries, while blissfully neglecting characters/players who dont habe his luxury of time
Ngl, this is gonna be tricky accommodating Tenebrous AND Cavaliere!
>>180517>luxury of time>implyingIt takes the same amount of time to post in the ooc thread as it does in the RP thread.
Also, Idk what your situation is, but I don't have a "luxury of time"
>Ngl, this is gonna be tricky accommodating TenebrousIt's partly for Tenebrous's sake that the ooc thread even exists, so that he doesn't have to sift through off-topic spam to backread what happened in the thread.
>>180518Compared to other players, by your posting habits, you have a comparable luxury of time versus Tenebrous and Cavaliere.
Lets just resolve to not try to push the story forward artificially until they anf GM have posted.
Surely thats not a bridge too far
>>180519The story doesn't move forward unless GM says so, and we've avoided getting into combat. All we've done this week is search empty rooms.
>you have a comparable luxury of timeI work ten hours a day.
A quorum for combat is four players. Silver and Posey seem (mostly) available. Cavaliere less so, but he does communicate his availability. Dust is even less available, but still communicative. Tenebrous… kind of just falls off the face of the earth at times. I want to help him catch up as much as I can, but there’s only so much you can do when he doesn’t respond to messages. I don’t think we need a quorum to do thinks like search rolls.
And please stop the constant crossfire posting. It’s not pleasant for either of you, it isn’t pleasant for the rest of us, and definitely keep it out of the game thread
>>180521Here's where the problem arises.
When you give the most, consistent, and careful responses to your least disciplined players, you conditoon a lack of discipline. When you allow them to "oopsie, did I nudge?" information, action and nuggets when other players are absent, you condition them to not REALLY respect the time and schedules of other players, and you condition main-character syndrome.
Lots of my posts - actual questions - go unanswered seemingly because they get bogged down with OOC posts and "should I blow this thing up? I wanna blow this thing up. Has enough time passed to do a"... and so on. I posed the question about a quorum on Sunday.
I know that left to my own devices I will run roughshod over you and the other players, and I hope that others can be brought to that same level of self-reflection.
Theres an OOC thread now, so that means ALL ooc posts belong here, correct? Excluding exchanges between GM and individual players, of course
Now then, when we ARE playing, Brie is present and detectable with a high DC listen check as the rest of the party is boarding the Freighter, it seems
>>180524Do you not know how PbP games work?
Players and GMs respond whenever they have time.
>>180524>Lots of my posts - actual questions - go unanswered seemingly because they get bogged down with OOC posts and "should I blow this thing up? I wanna blow this thing up. Has enough time passed to do a"... and so on. I posed the question about a quorum on Sunday.Okay, that's a fair sentiment. Nobody like their posts going ignored. My posts get ignored sometimes too, and I don't like it, but I try not to let it bother me because DM has a life too and can't always indulge my posting.
Still, you also have to see it from our perspective. From the flurry of posts you made last weekend, particularly this one:
>>180035 → , to anyone else it really looked like you had just ragequit at the time, and it came in context of a lot of other weirdly-cryptic posts that were quite frankly just spam. We would have preferred to have the rogue roll the search check to look for treasure, but you weren't there and we weren't sure you were coming back to begin with. If you would communicate a bit more clearly
Not that I'm perfect either though, as I also seemingly ragequit last week, ghosting the party as I sunk into depression... But I also didn't mean to hold you guys up. Going forward, if I'm unresponsive, please don't be shy to play without me.
Anyways, we don't mean to exclude you. Most of what we experienced in the last week can be summed up by "whale bones, bloodstains, greedy griffons, diary entries of struggling whalers, there was a struggle, made king?, artifact crown?", basically foreshadowing for the next part.
>Theres an OOC thread now, so that means ALL ooc posts belong here, correct? Excluding exchanges between GM and individual players, of courseI made this thread for meta posts, arguing, tangents, and anything that might detract from the enjoyment of the actual roleplay thread. It's not set in stone, but I think everyone would appreciate if tangent posts stayed out of the roleplay thread.
>>180521>Dust is even less available, but still communicative. Tenebrous… kind of just falls off the face of the earth at times. I want to help him catch up as much as I can, but there’s only so much you can do when he doesn’t respond to messages.I want to help Tenebrous catch up too, as I really like his character and he seems like a friendly guy.
I'm also detecting that you communicate with some of the other players off-board. It seems as though that doesn't apply to Tenebrous.
>I don’t think we need a quorum to do thinks like search rolls.I would normally prefer to have the rogue around to search for treasure or traps, but i also want to keep things moving. Idk though.
>And please stop the constant crossfire posting. It’s not pleasant for either of you, it isn’t pleasant for the rest of usI'm really not trying to be adversarial at all, and I'm trying my best to diffuse tension, but sometimes I do get annoyed. The weird flurry of standoffish spam that came after Posey asked for permission in m-character to finish the soldier last week kind of got on my nerves, because I was just trying to roleplay cooperatively.
Basically:
>hey, my character would totally just kill this guy because she's bloodthirsty, but I also know that we're part of a group, so I'll have her ask for permission so you guys can respondI really don't know how that came off as antagonistic to Brie's player, but if he has any other issues going forward I would prefer it that he clearly voice them in this thread.
>definitely keep it out of the game threadI agree.
>>180528Full transparency: That WAS a rage-quit, but I worked/structured it (after calming down/sobering up - more on that in a moment) so that rather than cutting off the head to spite the neck, Brie decided to put a little distance between himself and the party, in an "anticipating a squadron of commies to jump out of the woodwork" sense. He's hovering 80' overhead.
But that aside, the PRIMARY reason I would like SOME degree of structure/schedule/officiation to the game is because I don't want to be hammered when the game is ongoing, and trust me (you actually know already) you don't want me to be either.
Last weekend I was assured GM would be more or less unavailable, so I proceeded to enjoy the knockouts/finals of the 4cc. I currently have no reason to not anticipate the possibility of gameplay today and tomorrow, and will abstain until action/activity is more or less winding down to
start.
As far as spot/skill checks, GM has the only actual copy of Brie's sheet (in consolidated form, I have dozens of blurbs in several notepads) pinned in our discord DMs; his "10" spot check is an 18, and his search is a 21, for future reference.
IF there is gameplay AND I am unresponsive, GM is authorized (as is the nature of RPs) to commandeer Brie in a limited capacity especially as pertains to skill checks, and Brie is the sort who you call out something like "Hey creepy, where the fuck you at?" and he will swoop, appear, or whatever.
I will go ahead and stipulate now that unless expressly doing something, Brie can be said to be actively listening/looking (alternating between listen checks +11 and spot checks +8) around for any changes or points of interest with hostiles/threats being the primary sought. He might get a penalty because of elevation, but he's still trying to see "bad things" before anyone else does, and provide the best advantage before engaging himself (an 80' drop can occur in a single turn, ostensibly with charge/momentum bonuses)
In any case, I have a registered/conditioned ready-action with the GM, so until that is triggered, 'silently' surveilling overhead is all Brie will be doing until called upon in some other capacity.
Y’all are greatly exaggerating the degree to which your posts get overlooked. I see all of them.
>>180528>I also seemingly ragequit last weekWe noticed.
>I'm also detecting that you communicate with some of the other players off-board. It seems as though that doesn't apply to Tenebrous.I try to communicate with Tenebrous. He doesn’t reply
>I would normally prefer to have the rogue around to search for treasure or trapsI tried to suggest Kira drag her deer-slave along to serve as a rogue skill monkey. He didn’t want to do that, and no one wanted to splay rogue. Even Brie is multi-classed with monk. There was an NPC that would go along in the past to be the party rogue, but she doesn’t make sense here. It’s only Brie.
>>180530>That WAS a rage-quitWe noticed.
>>180531Alright. For future reference, please post character actions to the gaming thread.
So, I just want to say. I saw that turn going a LOT better in my head.
>>180704It was funny though. I liked it.
>>180735 →Do you have Ascetic Rogue?
>>180704Its not the first time I've been inadverdently nerfed. Running a 6 lvl shadow monk, we come across some harpies on a cliffside at night, undetected. Kino'ren says "I've got this," knowing she can bamf 60' every turn in darkness as a bonus action (5e).
Right before engaging, the Light cleric decided to be "helpful" and cast a sunlight spell above the what would have been ninja bloodbath, bathing the otherwise undetected ninja in daylight.
*sighs*
>>180743Negative. I'm running a more basic 5 rogue, 1 monk grapple/stealthkill build
Brie's early background is he was raised on the streets by a changeling of all things, at least early on. Knowing only the criminal underground for most of his early life - at the hands of a bug that eats off you from time to time - made him very sociopathic, but his skills are instinctual and basic, except for one time in Neighpone. He is a LITTLE stacked, but using conventional means, skills, synergy, etc.
>>180746If you're deadset on Multiclassing Monk/Rogue, you probably want Ascetic Rogue.
https://srd.dndtools.org/srd/feats/noncore-featsca.html#ASCETIC%20ROGUEOtherwise it would be better to just go Ninja/Swordsage.
Not criticizing, just thinking you might want this feat.
>>180749Its doable, but for meta/story reasons its best I keep his existing layout. He comes from nothing after all, though he was contemplating vying for the assassin PrC
>>180750Alright, although note that the Swordsage can do a lot of assassin stuff too. The Hand Of Death Maneuver can paralyze its target.
Assassin spells are great too though. I've played a few assassins. The spells are great if you use them right.
Idk, I just thought Swordsage fits the ninja martial artist gimmick you were gunning for. Maybe I shouldn't stick my chef spoon in other people's characters though. Didn't mean to intrude.
>>180757>>180759>>180761>>180768>>180769>>180776Is it your intention to keep deleting your comments over and over again?
>>180779IDK where Brie is gonna go honestly, all the recent with Lacy gives me a whole lot of background and personal motivation to round/flesh out his character way more than ever before. I'm open to "innovative" ways to improve on, when the time comes
Lacy wants Brie's progeny, and Brie wants the security of power. Effectively they both want the same things, but focused on opposite objectives first.
>>180812 →Her DR 2 is from her class. Her DR 5 is from her race (half-vampire)
Also, she's undead. Crits don't affect undead, oozes, plants, or elementals, because they don't have vital organs.
>>180814No, your character doesn't get fucking Damage reduction 5 on top of damage reduction 2. I said no to that bullshit when you pulled it out of your ass during a fight a year ago. It's still no. Why the fuck are you not satisfied with the highest HP, the highest AC, regenerating health, and Damage reduction 2?!
>>180814You know what, fuck it. We can change it so that no enemies even bother to attack Posey so that she's immune to everything. I'll just have her unable to make attacks when its necessary for game progression. I have no idea why playing that way is more fun to you, but sure, I'll let you play the way you want to play
>>180819>No damage reductionIt's your game, but also note that I spent two character levels and almost all of my starting gold to become like this. Posey is level 4, while the rest of the party is 5-6.
Posey has redundant damage reduction from three different sources (lich body, half-vampire, spellstitching); they don't stack, they just overlap. Do you want me to cut out all three of them?
>>180820I can tell that I have upset you. Can we work it out somehow?
>I have no idea why playing that way is more fun to youWell, to me it's like playing a vampiric monster, which is fun to me.
I don't want it to be unfun to you though.
>>180819>I said no to that bullshit when you pulled it out of your ass during a fight a year ago. It's still no.I must have forgotten this, and I apologize.
Posey would not have survived the Hydra fight if not for the DR5.
>>180749>swordsageEWWW no. No offense, but you've seen how long progression takes in this game, I'm not waiting around while "Improved unarmed strike" tries to vie as a decent technique. I'm good.
So GM, I like to present my ideas for my character and make it work with your world. Basically, this is the gist of what I want for this character and decide what works with our world and what needs to be changed.
I'll put this in a spoiler, since I know some people don't like to be spoiled, however, I don't mind if you do. It's only for your benefit that I put it in under a spoiler.
Backstory and motivation:
At Celestia's Sunny Sun orphanage/monastery or whatever I called the place, the Virgin had two fillies that she grow up with that were almost like sisters: Hope's Anchor and Pew Seat. They were all good friends, even though Virgin's and Hopes'es friendship was mostly through Pew Seat which was a filly so nice that you couldn't help but adore her. Hope's Anchor studied magic under the guidance of mother Justeney, the other unicorn at the place and a knowledgeable as well.
So since I don't know the lore, I'm just gonna give the events chronological order and you can tell me when and how they happened. But from what I get of the lore, here's my take:
1. Pew Seat gets abducted by changelings. (Did she die? I don't know. She could've if you wish. That's up for you to decide but both Virgin and Hope's assumes that she did.)
2. Hope's fights with what's essentially her surrogate mother (essentially all three's surrogates mother), Justeney. Hope's want to learn more dangerous and powerful spells but Justeney doesn't want to teach her.
3. Occupied Equestria happens and with the death/disappearance/or-whatever-happened of the Princesses, Hope's compltely disillusioned with the monastray and filled with hatred for the changelings.
4. She tries to convince Virgin of joining the Steel Hooves with her but Virgin can't forgive them for their part in Occupied Equestria_tm. Then she says something about how the Princesses were just mere mortals and they disagree.
5. In the end, Hope's leave and the last clue, maybe letter, ticket, or maybe she just said where she was going, leads to Baltimare.
6. For whatever reason, Virgin doesn't go after her immediately and is delayed perhaps with the war complications and stuff, or perhaps the wounds of what they said were too fresh. But now she's here in Baltimore, on this quest to find her and save her soul.
I would enjoy if you could fit her into the narrative in the world. I'd also liked it if she rivaled my character in power, like that she's a level 6 but instead of monk she's a powerful spell caster.
Past that and these things about her past, you have free reign to make her in whatever way you feel. Develop her skills set in anyway you want and so on. I trust you. ^^
So Virgin's goal is to find her but it shouldn't happened to fast. We gotta have some nice slow pacing for big reveal. ^^
But I thought it be cool if she somehow get embroiled in whatever the rest of the pc party is doing, or someone of these ponies. That way it could bridge the gap between the others and, well, me.
Just an idea. You do whatever you feel like. Just wanted to tell you what I would like. ^^
Also, these are Hope's colors:
A bit of a retcon but I think I prefer the right most one to be her body/fur color and the other two colors being the dual colors of her mane.
>>180921>with our world Meant *your*.
>>180921>But I thought it be cool if she somehow get embroiledWith "she", I meant Hope's Anchor not Virgin.
>>180923Like I, Virgin is looking for Hope's and because she's with the Party I meet the party, is the idea.
I want to emphasize that there was absolutely no attempt to figure out what the tiara was, where it came from, what culture made it, what religion it belongs to, what it does, if it's intelligent, or anything about the tiara before placing it on. There was no knowledge: religion roll, no Arcana roll, no Appraise roll, no attempt to look closely at it to see if there was any written text on it, no attempt to identify the creature depicted on it, no anything. Just "lol a cursed item let me activate it!"
There was a disarm roll to remove it from Posey's hoof that was just ignored by Posey's player.
I would like it to be known that the tiara absolutely could have been taken home by Posey, studied, and yes, ultimately be safely made to wear and even to be something like a phylactery. All that had to happen was for her to not immediately put on the very obviously cursed tiara.
>>180921Oh I can definitely work with that.
Any personality aspects of Hope's Anchor I should know about?
>>180926That disarm roll was 19, from the yellow griffin, was targeted at Posey, and was before she put it on. It was accompanied by words
in plain english that the crown was cursed and don't put it on. The disarm roll and the warning were both blatantly ignored by Posey's player, with no counter roll
>>180927Thank you, that makes me really happy.^^
I look forward to playing again. Feel no pressure or responsibility for that though.
;^P>Any personality aspects of Hope's Anchor I should know about?Not that I can think of right now. What I wrote is basically, everything about her. I guess, her character so far boils down to an atheist spell caster with a hatred for changelings probably also some kind of ptsd from having lost her dear friend, Pew Seat, and mixed feelings for mother Justeney. The reason she carries the can of soda in her hooves in the flashback btw, is because she's sore from practicing her magic too much. I imagine the powerful magics she desired to learn from Justeney was like evocation spells but I don't necessarily want to her limited to that, I just think they fit the theme of "powerful spells".
I think I want to you to fill in the blanks for her character. If I come up with something cool maybe I'll add that in a flashback. However, I feel like I'd honestly like the idea of giving you this character. So, I'd run by you if I have a cool idea for this character and you can implement it if you like but ultimately you get the final say on the matter. That way it be an interesting surprise to see what happens.
Yeah, I like this idea. So I hereby declare that:
Hope's Anchor is yours! ^^
>>180929Yes! Now I know. I'll just tell you whenever Virgin has one of her flashback episodes with the character and you can just play her in those flashbacks. That's nice. Because I still wanted to have flashbacks regarding Virgin's time at the orphanage and it then makes sense to have scenes with the two of them. But then you can simply take over the wheel for her character in those episodes. Nice.
>>180929>>180930Does this sound okay for you?
>>180921Curses, this is what I was gonna do. Nicely done.
The following are my OOC-Meta intentions for Brie in THIS mission/segment:
1. Transition (cuz reasons) from Neutral Evil to Chaotic Neutral
2. Get his Cutie Mark (yes, he's a grown-ass stallion who still doesn't have his CM)
3. MAKE IT BACK ALIVE (he's having moments in his head where he's having to reevaluate and challenge many/most presuppositions, it's all very canonical)
He is evil, but he's coming to a point of realizing that there's a fine line between necessary evil (mafia shit that helps protect the community, and enforces a standard of decorum that prevents socially abusive lawlessness) and unnecessary evil (this cursed crown incident really helped).
He's never been one to shy away from getting his hooves dirty (nor ever will), and has always always asserted/appealed to a sense of decorum even when being lawless. But his idea of "evil" is mundane, corruption, and nefarious conspiracies. Spoopy evil magic is well beyond his wheelhouse.
I'm not saying he's turning over a new leaf right NOW, but it's brewing. Where once he was looking at the world as needing someone to balance 'things', NOW he is starting to grasp what the world needs to be balanced 'AGAINST'.
>>180931Also, as not-GM, I think it's fantastic. ^_^
And as a piece of advice for Posey (appreciating if it isn't desired, but I'm being quite forthright and sincere in this):
Consider a calculatingly evil character. For example, I'm going with Arkhan the Cruel in Critical Role campaign 1. I'll spare most of the details.
Arkhan - an openly evil oathbreaker paladin devoted to Tiamat - never hid the fact that he was evil. He was openly and proudly and honorably evil. And he fought the good fight bla bla bla. But he wanted the hand of Vecna, so he hatched a very long and convoluted plan to orchestrate the surreptitious gaffling of the hand.
His 'betrayal' of the party was so clean and surgical, that barely had the words "This was just business" escaped his lips, he was gone and escaped.
Rosey is well established to want things. But she is also conniving and calculating. Please, let her not be so quick to try to "ascend" right this instance, perhaps have her be gathering the means to and do so behind closed doors when no one is watching (and we're not still in combat).
>>180939 →It was a fair tactic, tbh. Most of us have good Fortitude saves or resistance/immunity to the spell. Brie, sadly, got screwed, but we still won in the end.
A stunned character drops whatever its holding, and can't take any actions. Had the enemies not made splendid rolls, it could have ended the fight.
Next time just give us a warning
>>180926>There was no knowledge: religion roll, no Arcana roll, no Appraise roll, no attempt to look closely at it to see if there was any written text on it, no attempt to identify the creature depicted on itYeah, I probably should have done that...
>There was a disarm roll to remove it from Posey's hoof that was just ignored by Posey's player.I didn't ignore it though. Silver succeeded in knocking it off.
>I would like it to be known that the tiara absolutely could have been taken home by Posey, studied, and yes, ultimately be safely made to wear and even to be something like a phylactery. All that had to happen was for her to not immediately put on the very obviously cursed tiara.Sorry...
>>180928I misunderstood the situation. I was tired. It was a dumb idea.
>>180941It was, and on a very real note it was an excellent opportunity for me to engage in strategies I'm developing to try and control my less socially-acceptable reactions to adverse situations. I don't regret it having happened at all, though it took a WHOLE lot of effort to not lose my shit.
I would like to apologize to everyone for my actions last night. I was tired and getting impatient to try it after waiting all week, but I shouldn't have done that. Even in-character, Posey would know better than to try on something before taking a free action to examine it first, because she's a professional.
I just really wanted that crown, and I have fancy for cursed items, and I thought I had made my intentions to put it on clear at first. It was wrong of me to just do that without ample warning.
I didn't see the disarm checks, I thought those were just attack rolls.
>>180946Imo, as long as a lesson has been learned - and I say this being in the process of teaching myself alot of lessons - then the only thing you have to apologize for IMO is not posting the anonfilly/twilight version of that image
Not to belabor the point, but "realizing an apology is appropriate" is not the lesson. I can't really say what the lesson is, but if it were me it would involve taking stock of "what caused me to behave in the way I did, and how do I combat those impulses and proclivities going forward?"
>>180946Apology accepted!
>>180948Very true, very true
>>180428>>180465>I rly hope Vul doesnt object to my appropriation of her likeness, especially in a criminal contextYou can just ask him. He's not hard to reach, just send him a message on Ponerpics. Why not drag him into the game and have him play as Lucky? She's not an adventurer (yet) so it wouldn't be a demanding role for him. It would be awesome to have him, but he's quite busy as an artist.
I get your conniptions about your characters being romantical with other players' PCs, but I'm not entirely keen on having one's own two PCs being in a literal or metaphorical circlejerk. I mean, it eliminates any mystery in how the other character will respond to indications, words, or actions, and at that point why not just write a self-contained FiM story? When playing Amber, the most fun interactions with her coltfriend Mustard Trim have not so much been the raunchy moments as much as the attempts to understand each other, which often fail. If her relationship were entirely platonic (which it could have ended up being) it would still be worthwhile because it is interesting in its own right. Silver and Kira are under the same player, and they are in the same quest, but they won't necessarily be maintaining close proximity after this quest. It sounds like Brie and Lacy Row will be, so a good part of their respective stories will be just monologuing with no outside input. I like the concept of Lacy Row and if this is the only way you will have her then go for it, but I prefer interplayer interaction. That doesn't mean either character has to go around kissing other PCs, but there's room to explore.
>>180449So she's basically a dwarf.
Also, protecc this mare, not just because she's especially cute (she is), but because without her virginity she would need a name change, and that is a bureaucratic headache.
>>180483>I see. I thought you were okay with Posey having minions though, and ponies who follow her cause would logically be evil.You can have evil without being eviller than the average Western politician or Latin American cartel leader. In fact, fiction has no shortage of evil minions who aren't really that evil, or are loveable goofballs. Why not go for something like that? Gloomy is likeable as a character who was raised in a purely evil setting but who is not deliberately and maliciously evil. He's more of a character from
The Addams Family.
>I thought of making a charisma character with the personality of a sleezy lawyer, like Saul from breaking bad. The symbol of the Black horse of Famine is a set of merchant scales, so that made me think of a lawyer-like character.That sounds good
>Oh look, Posey's childhood.>Business as usual in Magehold.You can see how that throws a wrench into the DM's atmospheric worldbuilding. If anything grimdark in the setting gets repeatedly outdone by a PC hailing from the grimdarkest corner of the world, it loses its impact. Mind you, it's a setting based on Friendship is Magic, which is supposed to be bubbly and happy and the existence at all of your "business at usual" implies something has gone horribly wrong.
Your ideas for how the game should go are both really cool, but they are at a loggerheads. At one point I wanted to make a serial killer evil character, but I'm glad I didn't because it would have led to problems like this. I don't want to discourage you, but you should expect some occasional pushback from the GM until it's somehow resolved.
>>180514>>180516>Keep OOC posts here.GM hasn't said that we need to.
>It's partly for Tenebrous's sake that the ooc thread even exists, so that he doesn't have to sift through off-topic spam to backread what happened in the thread.Okay I respect that, and I hope he comes back to play.
>>180530As a fellow enjoyer of alcohol, I recommend moderating your intake. This is coming from a happy sort of drunk.
>IF there is gameplay AND I am unresponsive, GM is authorized (as is the nature of RPs) to commandeer Brie in a limited capacity especially as pertains to skill checks, and Brie is the sort who you call out something like "Hey creepy, where the fuck you at?" and he will swoop, appear, or whatever.>I will go ahead and stipulate now that unless expressly doing something, Brie can be said to be actively listening/looking (alternating between listen checks +11 and spot checks +8) around for any changes or points of interest with hostiles/threats being the primary sought. He might get a penalty because of elevation, but he's still trying to see "bad things" before anyone else does, and provide the best advantage before engaging himself (an 80' drop can occur in a single turn, ostensibly with charge/momentum bonuses)Thank you!
>>180746>5 rogue, 1 monkI know experience isn't being taken too seriously in this game, but that's going to hit your experience gain. Also, won't Brie's light armor affect his monk abilities (I ask, as Cavaliere used stunning fist while wearing a leather jacket classed as light armor)?
>>180785>Lacy wants Brie's progenyWouldn't that conflict with her job running a strip club? Brie's not likely to be a particularly good, or faithful father either.
>I can tell that I have upset you. Can we work it out somehow?GM Pone is upset because his world is grounded as a mix of FiM and a modern setting. There are some exceptional ponies capable of great feats, but fearful monsters are in decline and mass-produced weapons are easily capable of killing even hardened heroes. A shootout with even average gangsters is meant to be thrilling, and the heroes should have to avoid getting shot through tactics and stealth. Nigh-unkillable monsters are meant to be extremely rare and very difficult to deal with. I wasn't there when the party fought undead creatures in the catacombs but having read through it, it looked to be slog taking multiple trips and several close calls. The last undead were finished off with smarts rather than strength. Posey being the nigh-unkillable monster breaks all that.
>>180921What are the steel hooves? I like her backstory!
>color patternThe way I envision it, it doesn't look good. Also, what's her eye color? I recommend using a pony creator tool like this one:
https://www.numuki.com/game/mlp-pony-creator/>>180933>Transition (cuz reasons) from Neutral Evil to Chaotic NeutralDoesn't the rulebook say a character can move only adjacently in alignment? Wouldn't he have to become Chaotic Evil or True Neutral first?
>Get his Cutie Mark (yes, he's a grown-ass stallion who still doesn't have his CM)Blank-Flank!
>I'm not saying he's turning over a new leaf right NOW, but it's brewing. Where once he was looking at the world as needing someone to balance 'things', NOW he is starting to grasp what the world needs to be balanced 'AGAINST'.Interesting!
>>180946We all make hasty decisions sometimes when tired, it's alright. Only thing lost is time and some post numbers.
>>180952>the issue of Lacy and BrieI can see your concerns, and outside of a particularly justifying context, Lacy is not intended to be a combat-oriented PC. If anything, Lacy's business will be her singular location that Brie might sometimes be found at. I'm not going to RP any dialogue between them that other PCs aren't present for, and while they are expressly romantic, that will all occurr "off camera" outside some cheeky one-liners.
As far as inviting Vul, I'll consider it. In general I am amazed at his work (I had been unknowingly familiar with him previously) but I also admit that I can suffice with "Almost-Lucky" (appearance wise) who I can customize along specific lines.
In alot of ways, Lacey justifies alot of character development I had always wanted for Brie, as well as giving all manner of context for his backstory and how he came to be the bat that he is. It's the kind of thing that I really hope to depict in game, but not - as you describe - a one-poster circle-jerk.
The intended dynamic between the two is that she is the privileged daughter of a traditional yakuza-style criminal family who cuz of many reasons decided that Brie belongs to her, in spite of overt refusal from her family. Lots of drama and possible story-arcs there.
To Brie, she is a complete enigma, who is JUST bent in JUST the right ways that she's irresistable. Business partners at times, fierce compeditors at others, business always comes first, but they both can't stop playing the game. Through her lineage and upbringing, she has access to devastating traditional techniques, but physically (aside from lewd) there's nothing impressive about her, seemingly able to snap in a stiff breeze, and yet cunning and deadly and brilliant and,... she is gonna be a driving force for his increased participation back in and around Baltimare.
>>180953>dont the rules sayOf all the rules to defy, I'm okay with this one
>>180954That is a great explanation and you've won me over on this idea.
>As far as inviting Vul, I'll consider it.Please do! He's even drawn Amber before
>pic related
>>180933>Curses, this is what I was gonna do. Nicely done.^^ Really?
>>180934Thank you. It warms the heart.
>>180952>protecc this mare, not just because she's especially cute (she is)^^
>>180953>What are the steel hooves? I'm probably just wrong but I thought that was the name of the nationalistic pony military faction in Baltimare, but it was forever ago I knew.
>I like her backstory!Aww, thank you.
>The way I envision it, it doesn't look good. > I recommend using a pony creator tool like this one: I'll check it out but I do think that the color scheme look nice when I envision it though. ^^
>>180957>I'm probably just wrong but I thought that was the name of the nationalistic pony military faction in Baltimare, but it was forever ago I knew.That's the Blackhooves, and they rule from New Baltimare (which is actually an ocean away). Their leader is Duke Haygel, but he and his advisors aren't directly relevant to the plot.
>I'll check it out but I do think that the color scheme look nice when I envision it though. ^^Pony Creator is great because when I used it way back when, I had an accessible way of depicting and posing Amber. It doesn't come close to hand-drawn art, but it's a good baseline to get a feel for the appearance of a character.
>>180957>Really?Yeah. I have a habit of trying to keep my characters enigmatic with all kinds of lore and references (that no one ever gets because I never explain any of it), but I woke up deciding to give a better outline so that when I am depicting Brie, players can understand the type of "enigmatic" character that the other players can only guess at and react to.
While it can be fun for all to surprise players with revelations about characters, without the proper background info it falls flat and is boring/uninteresting.
I mean c'mon, I want people to know why I think what he is doing (and why) is so cool. :3
>>180956Amber is so pretty.
>>180952Also, the strip club is a money-laundering front for her prostitution, smuggling, and information brokerage, that also serves as an embassy of sorts for her family's business ventures in the area.
It's not so much that she wants Brie's progeny, it's that she wants to be able to HAVE Brie's progeny and NOT have them be taken/killed by the family, which is a difficult development to manage so far.
>>180958I might make a detailed description of her, like I intended to do for Virgin.
>It doesn't come close to hand-drawn art, but it's a good baseline to get a feel for the appearance of a character.Yeah, that makes sense.
>That's the Blackhooves, and they rule from New Baltimare (which is actually an ocean away).Thank you. Now, I know.
Virgin is in New Baltimare, I realize now, or rather remember, I just didn't remember that there existed two Baltimares in this world.
>>180962Question for the DM: Are strip clubs even legal in Baltimare? Although there is a prolific underworld, gambling is explicitly illegal and even conventional nightclubs (like the
Club Maurice) are harassed by the law at times. Such places might still exist in secret though.
>It's not so much that she wants Brie's progeny, it's that she wants to be able to HAVE Brie's progeny and NOT have them be taken/killed by the family, which is a difficult development to manage so far.Fair. Is her family in conflict with the Waterfront Gang? Iron seems to have stopped playing but the gang is still around.
>>180963She is in New Baltimare? New Baltimare is the former Equestrian colony in Griffonia and is the seat of the Blackhooves's power. Regular (old) Baltimare is a city in eastern Equestria and is under occupation. All active PCs are based in (old) Baltimare.
>>180964I expressly asked. Strip clubs yes, but not prostitution or gambling (yes, theres also gambling at her place; the only major vice she DOESNT serve is drugs).
Her family isn't well fleshed out yet, and its chock full of Shounen stereotypes, but as far as official alliances/adversaries,... maybe?
>>180965>Strip clubs yesMakes sense, given that there are no mores against nudity for ponies so this would be a legal loophole. Being aroused in public probably, but otherwise not. Will you be hosting gambling sessions in-game? GM Pone doesn't want to do it.
It seems there will be a lot more politicking to look out for. That's always been a strong point of this setting so the inter-gang conflicts will be fun.
>>180967Well to be clear, the door would be wide open for inter-gang politics if GM wanted to introduce those elements. Additionally, he has an entire framework to play with to do with the multi-family dynamics back in Neighpon that could spill over into Baltimare, that I would have no issue spearheading the creation of, assisting in, or being entirely ignorant of. It's a whole bunch of different categories that contextually just got added to his rolodex of future content, if desired to be explored.
>gambling sessionsI will have to think about it. Initially I want to say hard "no", but I suspect that something could be arranged. It would be far more story and RP related, and far less to do with basic dice rolls than one might expect, but that sounds like something that could be fun that Lacey would naturally be the Maitre' D for.
Oh curses, it's happening again.
It suddenly occurs to me how ham-fisted it is to just retcon in a strip club, etc. While permissible in certain game styles, it would be far better to have a grand opening,....
>>180968>NeighponYou keep bringing that up. I'm not sure if that country is in EaW, and if it is based off Japan it would be populated by kirins (who are a stand-in for Asians). How would a batpony be in a Neighponese crime family, in Baltimare? There's room for backstory there.
>I will have to think about it.I ask because Cavaliere, although lawful good, is an avid gambler, and gambling is a good way to gather information from disreputable sorts. Plus, it's fun, and although I cannot speak for Silver's player he might enjoy it too.
>it would be far better to have a grand openingI like that idea!
I wrote more than 1400 words about why Posey putting on the tiara
pisses me off. I'm not sure I should post it, but it was definitely necessary for me to write it.
>>180968Okay, so I haven' commented on the nightclub, but first off:
"Neighpone" is not a place in Equestria at war. You could probably insert it... somewhere, but I have idea where that is.
In Occupied Equestria, much like real life, organized criminal syndicates form mostly under ethnic lines by groups of immigrants. Baltimare's "Waterfront Gang" is actually kind of unique within the setting for being comparatively multicultural, and even then, it's lead by a native and has a clear relationship with Diamond Dogs as the main assistants. A random immigrant just walking in and taking over in a location where she is alien just seems... Unnatural.
Baltimare has a very firmly established monopoly on organized crime: The Waterfront Gang, lead by The Lady, and enabled by the Social Democrat Party. Any other operators of illegal gambling or whatever within Baltimare are going to be automatically at war with both The Waterfront Gang, and the Police.
Also, as I said to Posey:
Bat Ponies are not indigenous to "Neighpone." They are specifcally indigenous to the Equestrian Southeast. Whatever "neighpone" is, bat ponies don't come from there.
>>180970>how, kirins?This is where my ignorance of EaW starts to shine through,... I sorta always thought of bat ponies as asians or stand-ins, like how ziggers and griffons,....
>>180971Again, I'm increasingly appreciative about how the idea needs work,.... But uh, you see the direction I'm TRYING to go with it,....
>honestly always thought that since Neighpone is the "country" in /mlp/ OC lore that is the Japanese equivalent "why wouldn't that just carry over into EaW?"
>honestly hasn't bothered to learn ANY of the EaW lore, and will be doing so promptly so can fix Lacey AND Brie's backstory to fit with the setting
>>180964>New Baltimare is the former Equestrian colony in Griffonia and is the seat of the Blackhooves's power. I'm pretty certain she's there from what I remember from the first session with this character years ago. It also makes the sense for her character to be looking for her lost friend who presumably joined the Blackhooves at their seat of power, know that I think about it.
Thank you for your lore insights.
>>180959>why I think what he is doing (and why) is so cool. :3^^
You mean like that others need proper setup to get the payoff? Yeah, it is a bit hard to know how to implement such story telling ideas into a game like this. Hopefully, our characters can entertain us.
>>180968If you're interested in opening a business and not being an adventurer, consider the dragonlance Master class:
https://srd.dndtools.org/srd/classes/baseDragonlance/master.htmlThe Master class is basically a better version of the Expert NPC class. It lets you optimize certain downtime skills. It absolutely sucks in combat, but you won't care when you're making fat stacks of cash using the Profession skill.
Then check the DMG2 rules for running a business, which involves a specialized profession check. This basically turns it into a business management minigame (pic related).
Your lvl 5 starting gold is about everything you need to buy moderately sized building, as well as the supplies you need for your business.
After you've established your franchise, you could even turn your establishment into a guild, using Favored In Guild, Leadership and GuildMaster.
>>180974>>180976There are a couple options for a Japanese-influenced character's origins. You have the kirin cultures, obviously, but there is a pony option out there, however odd it may be. Lake City, also known as Jezeragrad, is a pony country in the Riverlands (Eastern Griffonia) based loosely on Serbia judging from its language,
but it also has a lot of Japanese flavor to it at the same time. A couple specific examples are a focus in its Princely Restoration path granting planes the ability to suicide attack (kamikaze), and the various manufacturing Guilds within the nation, including one guild named "Maresubishi". It wouldn't be too hard to develop other varied Japanese-inspired elements such as the Yakuza coming out of Lake City, or from Lakeish immigrants.
>>180971GM, after a night of rest, I want to say that I apologize for my actions last night. What I did was stupid, inconsiderate, disruptive, broke character, and didn't even make sense in the context at the moment.
I should have considered your feelings when I did what I did. As a DM myself, I should have known that DMs do a lot more work behind the screen than is obvious to the players, and that it can be really demoralizing when a player suddenly decides to do something profoundly stupid, especially when concerning a powerful artifact. A DM is a player too and deserves to have fun with the game, and to have their efforts validated. I'm sorry to cause you so much unnecessary stress.
I could explain the logic of what I did in a way that makes me look better, but it wouldn't change the fact that I was in the wrong.
I hope we can work out a way to resolve what happened (or didn't happen, because technically me neglecting to roll opposed disarm checks amounts to choosing to fail them), in a way that makes things better.
If you want to dump your angry rant, that's fine with me. I won't take it personally or get depressed like I did last week (I was dealing with real life trouble at the time and I was at a breaking point).
>>180974None of the EaW races are completely 1-to-1 equivalents with real-life races. The closest we get to that is zebras = Africans and kirins = Asians. Other than that we get:
Ponies = Americans and Europeans including British and French (Equestria), Russians (Severyanans), Sami (snowponies), Mesoamericans (southeast tribals), and Czechs + Ancient Greeks + Balkan Slavs (River Ponies)
Changelings = German but Imperial Griffons are also German (don't ask why)
Griffons are also a slew of other European nationalities
Deer = Finns, Gypsies and Indians
Hippogriffs = Americans
Buffalo = Injuns
Minotaur = Greeks
Saddle Arabians = Arabs
Oh, and batponies are some sort of stand-in for Afro-Americans because they are discriminated against and stay up at night, but otherwise have nothing in common.
Confused yet? You should be. The easiest way to learn the basics is to open the EaW map and tag switch to learn which country has which race and which culture.
>>180979>>180981Tbh, I'm really not fond of EaW world building in some ways. It's a good pony adaptation for HoI, but it's world-building leaves a lot to be desired. Imperial Japan was a major player in WWII, but EaW doesn't really represent Asia well at all, despite having equivalencies for other countries. When they added Kirin they made them part of the Zebra continent.
As for languages, maybe we could consolidate languages into language groups? 3.5e doesn't account for humanoids if the same race having hundreds of different languages. D20 modern, which is based on real life, makes it much easier for PCs to learn new languages.
>>180981Herzland Griffons are like this weird mix of Austrians and Byzantines, while Equus Changelings (not Greneclyf Changelings) are German Germans.
>>180975 →Unfortunately, I loathe HOI4. It took me 170 hours to realize I just don't enjoy it (with at least 100 of those hours being EaW). My autism is simply not alligned with map simulators. Strange, cause I fucking love Risk but I can't get into games like HOI4, Stellaris, or CKII.
>>180978I'm not interested in ACTUAL values of money, I want the established pretense. I hate accountant shit IRL, I don't want to do it in game. Lacey WILL have an established character sheet, in anticipation of the possibility that GM someday decides "Ha ha, she's getting kidnapped and has to escape", or even something as mundane as her wee sexy frame deciding to give the bouncers a break and fuck up somepony causing a scene. She will not be INTENDED for combat, but she will be well suited to it.
Though, I will admit to having bookmarked this one page that describes how to have absurd money at level 1, and then building her up to level 6 by comparison advancement in the DMG (which I found recently ^_^), so maybe I will get autistic and do that. Idk
>>180979Well, it wouldn't be terribly difficult to modify what I have to fit in as her family being tied to an existing Kirin dynastic family. Like, historically this family of bats could have been private ninjas or something, who in 'present day' have come to be involved/significant in some area of criminal underground? I want to keep the japanese style/motif, as well as the underlying theme of Brie having stumbled into a specific area of the criminal world that is normally reserved for elite families. Its tropey as shit, I know, but it makes me smile and it is exactly the sort of context that would motivate Brie to seek money and power. NGL, unless inspired I'm not big on the specific details; I don't have any specifics about her appearance yet other than "Looks like Lucky, and has a weird sclera effect for her family's eyes". Eventually I will be inspired to include details, and those details will always have been so.
>>180981Very confused. I've been pouring through one of the many, surprisingly many EaW wikis.
>>180980I wasn't affected since I wasn't playing at the time but
pat pat>>180982>Tbh, I'm really not fond of EaW world building in some ways.It comes from a bunch of disparate headcanons being reconciled with each other and with an increasingly disjointed canon world. It could certainly be improved upon.
>As for languages, maybe we could consolidate languages into language groups? 3.5e doesn't account for humanoids if the same race having hundreds of different languages. D20 modern, which is based on real life, makes it much easier for PCs to learn new languages.I'm totally in favor of this, but it's not something that's easily done on the fly. We really could use an official OE handbook to help with all this. A lot of good stuff from DnD Modern and other systems could be ported over.
>>180985>I've been pouring through one of the many, surprisingly many EaW wikis.All of them are probably out of date
>weird sclera effectIf you really want it, go for it, but changeling infiltrators are singled out for having weird eyes so keep that in mind.
>>180985It's not really all that complicated. It's just a few d20 rolls using your skill mod. If you can handle playing a rogue, you can handle running a fictional business.
>>180987There's fun tables you can roll for story events related to your business.
The DMGII is full of these fun rules. It's a good book.
>>180987>>180988While I can appreciate that that's all appreciable, for me that is the OPPOSITE of what I want to do. I just want the pretense of a modest business that covers for a very profitable and very illegal series of ciminal enterprise, under the auspices of a well established family of japanese-esque origins. Actual in-game money and valuables are of little interest to me as a player, just as long as my players have the "fine things" that their background and story would afford.
I've got plans for a business for my character(s), though that's more just for a little bit of passive income to help support my NPC collection addiction and to provide the facilities for crafting all kinds of equipment for all of the characters.
>>180929Oh, I can definitely think of ideas for the character
I hope I can do her justice.
>>180930Hmmm... Well, for now, you control her, so I can see more of what your vision for her is. I suppose that if you want longer, interactive flashbacks, then we can do that, if perhaps a little later.
>>180989Imo, the real draw of it is having rules for running your business and story events related to your business. Profit checks once a month are just icing on the cake.
Suit yourself though. I just wanted to inform you that 3.5e has rules to accommodate all that stuff.
I had intended to pursue that with Posey after she bought some land, it being a Criminal enterprise, with a Research lab (University) as it's front, with the University of Arcane Sciences as it's associated guild.
>>180990Passive income to support NPCs is probably the best use of it, aside from flavor.
You only make a profit check once per in-game month.
>>180929Sounds like a Warmage:
https://srd.dndtools.org/srd/classes/baseCarc/warmage.htmlWarmage is a class that is easy to play, and even easier to build: all of the spells are already chosen for you. I recommend it for new players who just want to blow things up.
In my games, I typically use it for enemy spellcasters, since it saves me the trouble of having to build a complex character sheet every time.
It's much weaker than Wizard or Sorcerer due to fixed spell access, but it gets all the good SRD evocation damaging spells, and more.
https://srd.dndtools.org/srd/magic/spells/classSpellLists/warmageSpells.html
>>180993I can see the merit for the structure and rules, especially as something of an element for a base of operations or a recurring campaign setting, et al. Thank you for bringing it to my attention, though I'm not sure I want to engage that level of detail. Better first to fix the freakin' backstory.
That's another thing, I like to play fast and loose with the parts of backstories that will never get presented; dead relatives, being an easy example
>>180980Well this makes me feel
much better. You have no idea how pissed off I was. Seriously, for like 14 hours (including sleeping) I was fuming.
>I could explain the logic of what I did in a way that makes me look better, but it wouldn't change the fact that I was in the wrong.You know what, I would like to hear that.
From where I sit, I am aware that what the tiara
actually does is immediately mind control whomever puts it on, makes them more powerful than they were before, and then makes them hostile to whomever is around them. Posey deliberately putting it on comes off as outright malicious, and in a self-destructive way that is impossible for me to understand except
extreme dickishness.
I get that the tiara having that effect isn't immediately obvious, but it's definitely telegraphed multiple times. In the notes its described as "possessing" its wearer, the red griffin wearing it is described as "not acting on his own volition" when it's asked why he is immune to Posey's fear effects, the unseen servant is described as "repulsed" by it, when Posey picks it up it is described as feeling like it has a static electrical charge, and then when Posey attempts to put it on, all of the griffins who have experience with it become hostile, and two of them describe it as "cursed" in English and Norwiegen. I get that that's not quite the same thing as explicitly stating that it is the instrument of TPK that it is, but I think that that states pretty clearly that putting it on is not only inadvisable, but inadvised; that is to say, I'm telling you don't do it. Then posts like
>>180853 → imply to me that you actually expected the result you got. Combined with the fact that there was no effort to try to identify what it did with Arcana, it's hard for me to interpret this situation as anything other than you explicitly hoping to derail the entire quest line for shits and giggles.
>>180944What did you think that the situation was?
>>180864 →Where did this idea come from? Seriously, why would you believe this, and more importantly, why would you not attempt to confirm it in any way at all?
>>180843 →It's not even actually a crown. It's just a tiara
>>180995>a tiaraHa, a dude was wearing a tiara! GAY!
>>180997You should have seen what Brie was doing with a griffin
>>180995>You have no idea how pissed off I was. Seriously, for like 14 hours (including sleeping) I was fuming.That makes me feel kind of bad... I'm sorry.
>You know what, I would like to hear that.Well, here goes nothing.
I'll start by saying that what I did came from a bad place, and nothing I say is to justify my actions. I was tired and trying a new ADD medication, and the result was me acting like an inconsiderate fuck-up.
Anyway
>why would you not attempt to confirm it in any way at all?>no effort to try to identify what it did with ArcanaWell, for starters, in my experience of playing 3.5e, rolling arcana doesn't usually reveal the effects of an item. I thought it was same for this game, as my arcana checks didn't really reveal the functions of the hyena totem or mask I found last year. I figured the only real way to learn the effects of an item is to try to use it.
>I am aware that what the tiara actually does is immediately mind control whomever puts it on, makes them more powerful than they were before, and then makes them hostile to whomever is around them.Well, I thought that since it was capable of mind-controlling it's target, it must have a mind of its own, be it and intelligent item, a demon possessing it, or an undead spirit possessing it. I believed it was an intelligent item, as any hostile intelligent item can be considered to be cursed. Because I believed amit was an intelligent item, I treated it as an NPC that could potentially give us information or be negotiated with, and that the best way to know what its deal was was to listen to it by trying it on.
I actually thought of the crown to be something like a character foil for Posey: a evil item cursed by the nature of its making, trying to control others through power and fear, because deep down it's a lonely item that just wants to be treasured, adored and worn in all it's golden glory, since intelligent items universally wqnt to be used. I had typed out lines for what I would have said to it if it tried to communicate with Posey.
I also believed that the item would have a passable saving throw, so I decided to take the risk.
>unseen servant is described as "repulsed" by it, when Posey picks it up it is described as feeling like it has a static electrical charge>describe it as "cursed"See, in the moment, I was thinking reverse psychology here, and saw that as a challenge to experience the curse first hand, believing that there would be a detailed description awaiting me for the experience of the crown attempting to corrupt its wearer, kind of like the dream sequences in earlier threads. The description of it being cursed and evil only made it more attractive to Posey in character, and me out of character (I was curious). I know it's self-centered now, but since last week I believed that crown was an item made for Posey to try, even if doing so came with risks. Posey, in-character, believes in destiny, so she thought this was her moment.
>I get that that's not quite the same thing as explicitly stating that it is the instrument of TPK that it isWell, the item didn't kill us when the griffon used it, so I didn't believe it was powerful enough to TPK us if Posey had it.
Of course, Posey becoming a hostile NPC is a danger to the party, but Silver had a readied action to knock it off her head if she became possessed after I announced my plan to do it, so I thought we would be able to handle it easily while gaining information about the item.
>I think that that states pretty clearly that putting it on is not only inadvisable, but inadvised; that is to say, I'm telling you don't do it. Yeah... That makes sense in hindsight, but my communication skills irl aren't great, and even worse through text.
Instead of "don't do it" I read it as "Are you BRAVE enough to do it?" Pics related.
>Then posts like >>180853 → → imply to me that you actually expected the result you got.I fully expected the item to try to dominate Posey (although I didn't expect it was so powerful that only a Nat 20 could pass it; that sounds like a deity-level major artifact), and I was prepared to face the consequences if it succeeded. I was also prepared to rely on Silver's readied action to knock it off of Posey's head as well.
Silver rolled a Nat 20 to knock it off, and Posey would have been flat-footed and unable to oppose the check.
>What did you think that the situation was?I thought they were attack rolls meant to be resolved after Posey's action, to help Silver disarm the crown if Posey became possessed. This actually made me consider the situation to be even safer, because several characters where there to intervene if Posey lost control.
>Where did this idea come from?Books, lore, similar items I've seen in d&d.
>why would you not attempt to confirm it in any way at all?Poor decision making on my part, combined with the above explaination, and foolish impatience to see what the item did to Posey.
>It's not even actually a crown. It's just a tiaraWell, a tiara is like a crown, only for a princess, which made me think even more that this would be Posey's princess moment.
But overall, it was just me being an impatient, foolish, inconsiderate idiot. I am in the wrong. I apologize.
For the tiara situation, there are two basic routes:
Continue more or less with how things happened, with Posey putting on the tiara, Silver knocking it off, the griffins becoming either hostile or at least panicked, and then the tiara being shot by mala thrice, then carried out and dumped in the ocean by Cavaliere or one of the griffins or...
somethingOr, a retcon. Either to never attempt to put it on, or to Posey having the tiara slapped out of her hoof by the yellow griffin.
>>181002Well... That's much better than what I though
>>181007>destroyedGranted
>discardedLet's not get hasty,....
>>181007I would really strongly prefer a path where the Tiara is still intact
(also, RAW, a major artifact can only be destroyed in a single, specific way, so bullets really shouldn't hurt it), because I'm really interested in it and I believe it could be a source of amazing story or character development, but I also know that because I recklessly tried it on my opinion probably doesn't matter...
>Either to never attempt to put it onWell, we could roll those Arcana/Religion checks.
>>181007>retconA lot of the involved posts were deleted already, so maybe retcon is the best path.
>>181009Ngl, Brie also wants to keep the tiara intact, even if it means voiding the badass rifle disarm Brie pulled. He doesnt want to use it, he wants to appraise it (hes good at that too). He sees potential value to,... well somepony like Rosie, and he would like a share in that value.
>>181009>Noooo you can't destroy it with 12 gauge buck shot!Who said it was a major artifact? And in any case, you don't need to destroy it. Just throw it into the sea and it's gone forever.
>>181011I wasn't sure how to handle it in the moment. My first instinct was to just say out of character "Are you sure about that?" Then I figured I could have the characters do it in game in character. When that was ignored, I figured any out of character "Are you sure?" would be equally ignored, so I went into just describing the "find out" portion of "fuck around." I guess the players were into it, but I wasn't, because at that point the whole session and probably more had been thoroughly derailed and I was just sick of it.
>>181013I should have been more considerate, sorry to derail your session.
Well, on the one hoof, I know Brie's player wants to use this event as an opportunity for Brie's character development. On the other, retconning
would let us find ways to safely make use of the crown such that we can profit off of it, such as dismantling it to sell.
>>181009pet pet petNo, it matters, it's just...conflicted with GM pone's current feelings.
>>181013What if it falls on the head of a whale? Or worse.... A whale pony?
>>181013I assumed that Rosey wouldn't be permitted to cause any irreparable damage, except to themselves, by putting on the crown. It is expressly what I would have done in your case (lit "Drop to 0 health"), but I'm not happy about your experience of it all
In any case, I can work with it whichever way we decide to go, but retcon seems the easiest for everyone so I vote that.
The actual specifics of the retcon will only determine whether Brie has a rifle in his hooves, so I abstain on that
>>181041 →Posey also appreciates amoebas. Some of them are her friends.
>>181042^^
Well, sorry to tell you this. I ate them.
>>181021One of Posey's few downsides is that, being undead, if she drops to 0 health she instantly disintegrates. There is no way to render her unconscious or incapacitated, which makes balancing danger more difficult. With a regular character, losing a fight isn't the end of the world but Posey tends to go ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK and there's no way to stop her without permanently ending her.
Okay, two options:
After Posey has tried on the tiara, with it knocked off on the ground, the griffins riled up, Brie holding the rifle, Mala attempting (failing?) to shoot it.
Before Posey decides to put it on.
Take your pick
Anyone have the 3.5e Dungeon Master's handbook?
>>181052I suppose in the former you can try to keep the tiara, but the griffins become hostile again.
Here is my proposed resolution of this whole tiara debacle.
Lots of rolls to insist on, but the one I WANNA focus on was Silver's ready-action to slap the taste/crown out/off Rosey's face/head, nat 20.
I say we go with that, the crown is off and on the ground.
Idk where initiative is, but I would HOPE that being connected to and unconnected to phenomenally ebil magics would produce a 1 round stun effect, kind of like an ill timed sun grenade (sorry Dust, thats gonna be a thing).
Going from memory, that would allow 2 of the griffons to react to the crown being on the ground
If not moved before his turn, Brie would kick the tiara away, and if this could be said to be a free-action interim, then Brie would kick the tiara away from everyone and then return the disarmed rifle to the gay griffon
For sake of brevity:
We can argue about where/what, or we can continue on and try not to nerf this whole game. ^,_,^
>>181052>>181066In the latter case, Posey would just immediately put the Tiara in her purse after snatching it off the griffon.
This would delay having to deal with the Tiara until later.
Ill ammend my previous to offer a choice:
1. Posey puts the crown away - saying something about how "These types of magics must be studied in a carefully controlled environment, the captain is lucky to be alive." - and Posey can collaborate with GM on what will.occur with it later.
Or
2. The tiara is on the ground and Rosey is stunned.
>>181075>1. Posey puts the crown away - saying something about how "These types of magics must be studied in a carefully controlled environment, the captain is lucky to be alive." - and Posey can collaborate with GM on what will.occur with it later.That does sound like something a smart and responsible Necrologist would say...
Not to discourage other player input here, Im speaking for myself, but am also drawing something of a line in the sand. As one of the most disruptive players in this game, I'm increasingly impressed with how easy it is to 'want' to spin their character in a particular manner that "makes sense". The problem is, while.plausible, the reactions that the player in the moment decides are one of 1000 actual options; its not inevitability, its impulsivity driving the actions.
Scenario 1 allows Rosey to reset and act the calculating pseudo-villain they seem to want to be.
Scenario 2 allows Rosey to indulge those fantasies strategically improperly and prematurely
I'm heavy-camping on GMs professed intent to 'let Posey have it just dont do the thing' here
As a GM, I HATE when players try to 'surprise' me with freak actions and shit. Im here for the shenanigens, but allow me to help YOU make it fun for everyone, while not disrupting all my hard work.
Is what Id say if I were GM
>>181071Reeee it wasn't a grenade! It was divine zigger magical arts! Though now that I think about it I probably could have popped a thunderstone for similar effect without inducing eardrum bleeding....
Oops?
>>181080You... have thunderstones...? I expressly asked for thunderstones... ;_;
It would have the same effect, I wanna say my save roll was a 9?
>>181081The zeeb is trained in alchemy, and uses small alchemical weapons as ammo for his sling. I'm sure he can spare a few in the future.
>>181082Just use em on enemies. No dex bonus means sneak attacks :3
>>181083>but anon, thunderstones dont remove dex bonusThey do if you do it right ^_~
Ugh,I'm doing it again, sorry.
Stealth killers rely on one or both types of stealth, auditory and visual.
Impairing the hearing of oppnents can be exploited with certain skill checks, enabling a crafty ninja to land almost all strikes as sneak attacks, which Brie has at a 3d6
But back to the tiara
Im seriously and deliberately trying to structure this in a particular manner.
The underlying theme of the scenario compromise that is being proposed is this:
Yes, Posey can have the tiara if she is going to be responsible with it, and we can consider what transpired as a flash image in Rosey's mind as she briefly contemplated putting on the crown but deciding better of the idea.
We should retcon Posey putting on the tiara and have the party deliberate over what to do with it. Silver could have an interest in giving it to Pear and her university for study. Posey who is ostensibly from another university could contest it.
>>181081I could give you Posey's eggshell grenades. They're more suitable for Ninja-like characters anyway.
>>181092Once I have blind fighting, he'll only need smoke bombs.
There was no other way unless we were supposed to take 2 feats at 1st level for some reason.
He took weapon focus:dagger, to open up Advanced dagger mastery, and then weapon finesse.
Advanced dagger mastery enables a character who is not a monk to do flurry of blows but only with dagger and dagger-like. It also grants quickdraw and a few other perks, but thats the main benefit. A little cheesy on its own, but more understandable since Brie has the 1 monk dip, which technically allows him to do that anyway EXCEPT when armored, which ADM would seem to not prohibit.
Okay, so Cavaliere votes retcon, Brie votes let it play, I
think Posey is in favor of a retcon? We need fluffernoodle and Grenazebra.
>>181019pls don’t
>>181024That’s just expressway not what the tiara is and the function it serves in the story. In the story, the tiara mind controls a griffin, causing him to be a danger to those around him. (I mean, more so). It’s a danger to self
and others device.
>>181076What would
Posey say?
>>181079Oh no, Posey explicitly stated “I’m going to wear this crown that I know has the effect of mind controlling people, giving them them extra powers, and making them hostile.” And everyone else was like “Nah, it’ll be fine.”
>>181080You basically did throw a grenade in the room.
>>181081Brie had one job: don’t explicitly give the friendly NPCs hosting the mission a reason to distrust you. Brie failed at this one job. So he didn’t get the goodies.
>>181095Nono, my vote is retcon, I PREFER we let it play
>but the whales and fishesNgl, I was thinking it as well
>it'll be fineBrie trusts Silver, more or less
>you were bad and got coal in ur stockingFair
>>181095>What would Posey say?Something along the lines of that, followed by "trust me, I'm a professional" as she vows to bring it back to the cursed items department at the university where it can be safely disposed of.
Or, that would have been the smart thing to say. Pic related
>and making them hostileI thought there would be a saving throw to not be controlled by the item and to instead control it, but I guess I was patently wrong. You already saw my explanation.
>pls don’tRolling up and anthropomorphic (equipomorphic?) whale sea pony Bard character :3
just kidding
unless...?
>>181098One thing you and I as GMs have in common is an appreciation for cursed items, however I am more like GM (seemingly) in that I condition my players to NOT play with the obviously evil thing - at their own emphatic risk/consequence - without preventative measures in place, and ESPECIALLY don't let it out of your hands/sight, thats how you get eldritch-kaiju field mice.
I hate Ziggers and jewelry
This image of Virgin Flame, I felt turned out great, so this is how she looks from here on.
>>181104Okay. You can all stop dying of laughter. Here's the real pic.
>>181100>I hate Ziggers and JewelryThat was exactly the vibe after the session on Saturday...
>>181098I'm kind of falling in love with leviathans. I need to make them show up as monsters or background pieces or even as interactable NPCs/creatures.
>>181104It's so pretty. The exquisite singularity and application of just one color invites an almost synesthetic depth, imbuing the piece with a warmth that transcends mere chromatic selection.
>>181105Oh. She's an earth pony, right? I did figure she was white.
>>181107I am so game to fight a Leviathan, it would justify Rosie going super-saiyan
>>181107>I'm kind of falling in love with leviathans. I need to make them show up as monsters or background pieces or even as interactable NPCs/creatures.I can link you third some edition resources related to Leviathans if you want.
There's a leviathan in the MM2, which is basically a collosal whale. The MMII is not known for it's stellar monster editing, and I consider it's statblock to be a bit weaksauce for it's CR (no spells or ranged attacks), but the MMII leviathan is closest to the large whale you described. There's also also
The Leviathan in Elder Evils (very good book), which is a titanic apocalyptic monster with am outline of a quest concerning it's awakening and containment; it also has less-apocalyptic-aspects that the party can fight. I believe there's also another version of Leviathans in dragon magazine that comes with its own article concerning its ecology.
There's also the anthropomorphic baleen whale race in an index of Savage Species. Anthropomorphic animals are somewhat poorly written, but the baleen whale is one that I have played before.
There are also many more leviathan-like collosal sea monsters in several other books that may fit your description, as well as several whale-like monsters (elsewhale, soarwhale, etc) and races. Several templates that can be applied to SRD monsters as well (aquatic template on a tarrasque, Kaiju template on a mundane whale, half-celestial/fiend/dragon whale, guardian monster, monstrous beast, etc).
I think there's a mention of Leviathans somewhere in Stormwrack, the book for aquatic/naval campaigns.
>>181105Pretty. She shares Rosey Ring's color scheme.
>>181107>I did figure she was no monkey>>181111> She shares Rosey Ring's color scheme.The mane is the same but she had a light tan fur coat but she looked so good in white I decided against it.
>>181111Thanks. ^^ Sadly, she has a nine in charisma.
>>181107>She's an earth pony, right?Indeed, she is.
>synestheticDidn't know what that was before. The more you know.
Also: ^^
>>181108^^
>>181116>9Could be worse, mine is 6 ~_~
For roleplay purposes, Ill suggest 'slighly rude'
>>181123>pic 1 related^^
>>181118>pic 2 related^^
>Ill suggest 'slighly rude'I came up with something similar but I worded it more like clumsy with her words. She means well after all. It's essentially the same.
>>181126>Badger... BearAwww, Brie is cuddly :3
>>181095>fluffernoodleur silly
I'd vote retcon, mostly because we weren't thinking straight and as a result our characters were decidedly out of character, and if we
were thinking straight then things would have turned out much differently and this whole debacle wouldn't have occurred in the first place. I'd want Brie to get that moment of character development that his player wants, tho.
>>181133>CMI mean, thats gonna happen one way or another, its a question of "what memories/thoughts are gonna get triggered when it happens"
One of the main conditions for the CM trigger is "genuinely fearing for his life", which I intend that GM will see to. The rest is more or less established, and will be detailed when the time comes.
>>181126"Bask in my celestial radiance! [Kraken noises]!"
>>181138"Fear me! [whale pone noises]"
Zeeb here, I don't care what we do. I wasn't really involved. So I guess I abstain
Okay, so we have four(?) votes for a retcon... I think, and one abstention. Either way, retcon wins
poofWe're back to the very end of combat
>>181137When did he fear for his life?
>>181133wha
no ur silly
>>181147When he was a colt, but never since, thats the thing
>griffon, gay, black
>jew nigger-faggot
Well played GM
>>181147is silly
blepsand
so
r
U
>>181143> I abstainI vote we take the zigger to the zigger-boiler and have him boiled immediately.
All in favor reply "Boil that zigger!"
>>181163Nah, this one a qt. He can be granted honorary ponyship.
It's been a long time. When Amber got that invitation to Club Maurice, was it Dark Denizen or another pony that Dark Denizen sent? I haven't looked at it but I'm certain it was a bat pony and probably Dark Denizen.
>>181163Boiling the zigger results in zigger distillation. You will seperate him by the stripes into two beings.
>>181187<Yer naurr boil ANY meat ye fukwits, ye braise or ye confit.<Ziggers tend te be lean, so ye wanna cook em in butter er fat
[1d6 = 3][1d6 = 6][1d6 = 5][1d6 = 6]
[1d6 = 4][1d6 = 5][1d6 = 6][1d6 = 6]
[1d6 = 6][1d6 = 6][1d6 = 5][1d6 = 5]
[1d6 = 2][1d6 = 3][1d6 = 4][1d6 = 4]
[1d6 = 3][1d6 = 3][1d6 = 4][1d6 = 6]
[1d6 = 6][1d6 = 2][1d6 = 5][1d6 = 6]
[1d6 = 2][1d6 = 2][1d6 = 2][1d6 = 4]
[1d6 = 1][1d6 = 4][1d6 = 5][1d6 = 5]
[1d6 = 6][1d6 = 5][1d6 = 5][1d6 = 4]
[1d6 = 6][1d6 = 1][1d6 = 2][1d6 = 3]
[1d6 = 1][1d6 = 3][1d6 = 5][1d6 = 3]
[1d6 = 5][1d6 = 5][1d6 = 1][1d6 = 4]
>>181123Amber has 17 charisma. Her cuteness is just too much to handle.
>>181208Is scared
>>181208>>181226Relax, its prolly the antag statblocks
>>181208Lets see
17
17
... 17
Ooh 11
13
And another 17
And THEN
8
14
16
11
11
14
>>181208>>181258Aren't these hero-grade stats? When you roll stats for an average character you use three die instead of four, and you don't discard the lowest.
>>181264Dont look at me, Im just tallying
I usually just use elite array when I make NPCs. Rolling is more fun for some, but I try to minimize the trouble I go through to make a character that the party is probably going to kill in the third round of combat.
Nice roll on the first one though.
>>181270I only roll for adversaries that are likely to survive
>>181271If they're important, I use point buy.
>>181274If theyre important, I give them a mid-combat objectives. Simple versions are "dospel the armor buffs sp can hit"
>>181271What if they're gods? You don't use the Divine Array?
>>181281>what if stuff that wont happenYou seem to need established rules
>>181282>wont happenPfft, says you. There's no less than five demigods in this setting alone.
>>181270>I usually use elite array<I only roll for adversaries that will live>what if theyre gods (cuz that matters?)>what aboutMuted
>>181291And if they're relatively weak allies that are useful to be kept around?
>>181292Weakness isnt a function of stats. Its not about the size of the dog in the fight, its the size of the fight in the dog.
Also, if we're all good and all,....
That grenade took off 1/3rd of Brie's health,....
>>181296Also, GM isnt allowed to roll damage for me anymore, especially not together with everyone. Call me paranoid, but these dice can lick my balls.
>>181297>He thinks that his feeble decrees can save him from Fortuna’s malevolent whimsDarling. Bro. I haven’t rolled damage for you even once this whole game.
>>181128^^
>>181130Indeed. ^^
Olways lookon the bright side of life.~ >>181138^^
>>181123So your oc can sell mine anything
>>181226and yours can turn her into a comfy footstool. Sorry,
hoofstool.
Btw,
GM I came up with few things that I'd like to run by you. As stated Hope's is yours so feel free to ignore these ideas if you feel like it.
Virgin Flame's character has continue to grow and I have come to realize that I'd prefer if she was more of bulky strong, hard-hitting kinda archetype. I like her best state to be str and I like her to buck hard that's why I was drawn to the barbarian class. However, I still want to keep the style of, well, her entire character but particularly the monk aspect. I still want her to fight unarmed for example. And while I know one can just used the aesthetics of a monk with barbarian with the feat unarmed, I like the idea of cross classing.
The idea is that during her time in the monastery, Vir was taught the monk ways but when she gained more independence due to different reasons, the her barbarian nature came out and she excelled in it instead.
Same idea goes for Hope's who was taught to heal, as in she gained levels in cleric before she later became a wizard or some other mage class of that kind.
So I was thinking something like this (1-2 lvl monk) + (5-4 lvl bar) for Vir and (1-2 lvl cleric) + (5-4 lvl wiz) for Hope's.
This could also be interesting for Hope's since she's an atheist now so it makes it interesting to see how she uses her cleric spells now or if that she's unable to use those spells (which is also interesting, I think).
Hehe, and Pew Seat could have been raised to be a paladin and then she returns as a death knight. ^^Anyway, tell me what you think?
>>181301Youre correct, I accepted Dust's roll, and should have contested at the time
>feeble decreesI had to try
>>181296Sensitive ears, weak to sound.
>>181316Thats what the earplugs are for ;>,_,<;
>>181318Become undead: Then you can just cut off your ears and stow them in your back pocket when you're not using them.
>>181320Here, hold this
stab(Not really)
>>181302>athiest clericIm not saying it can't happen, but Im very curious how that works
>>181321>Im very curious how that worksIt's in the SRD:
>If a cleric is not devoted to a particular deity, he still selects two domains to represent his spiritual inclinations and abilities. The restriction on alignment domains still applies.Power comes from faith itself, not just from the gods.
If you want specific lore, I can dig up examples from half a dozen books.
I actually considered making Posey a godless Cleric (Clerics are the best necromancers), but I chose Dread Necromancer because it has Dread in it, and also because u have powergaming tendencies so I figured I should avoid tier 1 classes in favor of a specialist tier 3 class.
I'm normally not fond of godless Clerics though, at least in most conventional d&d settings.
>>181302Hmm, actually. I haven't decided yet how I wish Vir to play. I'll think about it.
>>181321>Heals teammates by the power of God she doesn't believe exist. ^^Yeah, Idk. Maybe, it could just be a level of exp that she doesn't use anymore, like for story purposes.
>>181322>Power comes from faith itself, not just from the gods.Okay. I feel like I heard and extended diatribe about this topic but I don't remember it.
>>181323>how I wish Vir to plaOr, rather her aesthetic.
>>181322>Tfw Cleric gets to cast Animate Dead at lvl 5, but Dread Necromancer needs to wait until lvl 8Ffs....
>>181322>>181323I know it can be done, Im just interested to hear this particular take. My favorite is faith in the divine essence of the self, but theres many ways to do it in rules or just in essence
I heard of another that believed they were a god sealed in a mortal form to strip them of their power/area of dominion, and so it was
>>181296I'm sorry it did HOW MUCH? HOW SQUISHY IS THE BAT?
>>181332He is currently at 22/30 hp
>>181302> I'd prefer if she was more of bulky strong, hard-hitting kinda archetype. What was she before? I mean, I think you made it clear in the petting scene that she was much larger and stronger than the already reasonably sized Heather.
I suppose if you want you can make a barbarian multiclass. Barbarian is kind of an odd class as it generally refers to a tribal character. Maybe a homeless alcoholic with PTSD can be like a barbarian? It’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility.
When you mentioned Hope’s Anchor being a spell caster I assumed Wizard or sorcerer. I had contemplated an atheist cleric before for other reasons. However, because of the other discussion on that subject in the thread, I’ll abstain from comment for now.
>>181307> he rerolls for himself, hoping for a better roll>only goes from an 8 to a 7Hehe
>>181322First of all, that isn’t atheism. That’s “I’m spiritual but I’m not religious” or “Non-denominational” or Prince Charlie’s “Defender of the Faiths.” That’s a
very different thing from being an atheist.
>loreDarling. Bro. This world is, first and foremost, at its core, a recursive fanfiction of my little pony. A fanfiction of a fanfiction of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. This ain’t faerun. You can most certainly draw inspiration from that, but the reason I chose Dungeons and Dragons as a system was because I needed a system, I already knew dnd 3.5e, and the system was not important enough for me to justify the effort of finding and learning a new system. It isn’t because I wanted to be wedded to its lore.
Personally, I think it’s best to be creative with religion. Not every single fantasy religion needs to be I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Hellenism/The Vikings! It’s okay to have Pantheistic faiths. It’s okay to have faiths that believe in a single, non-personal god. It’s okay to have a faith that believes in a single, universal life force. It’s okay to have dualistic faiths. In fact, if you look at most civilizations that made it past the Iron Age, you’ll see that the vast majority practiced something other than what we’d recognize as European paganism. He’ll, it’s even okay in fantasy settings, I think, to have religions that believe in a, shock and horror, a single personal creator god. There’s so much more out there than just Odin and Zeus.
>>181325To quote a D&D forum I visited years ago
“Yeah, but immunity to wizard and resistance to fighter kind of makes up for it.” In this case it’s more like immunity to fighter and resistance to wizard, but it’s the same idea.
>>181331 →>As we are talking about it, Zigger went ahead and made a hippie cleric that doesn’t want to follow any kind of god but just wants those good feeling vibes. You know, without clearing by the GM first.Nigger are you for real?
>>181335I didnt think it counts, I was just curious if it would have made much of a difference, which obv the dice hate me like they hated Infernius
>>181335>When you mentioned Hope’s Anchor being a spell caster I assumed Wizard or sorcerer.Yeah, that's how I imagine her too, I'm just thinking that she could have a level in it as a vestigial feature or something. Its mostly that I think it fits that she'd be a cleric type, specifically life domain, since she learnt it from a nun. But again, I'm just throwing out ideas. Feel free to do whatever you want with her. ^^
>What was she before? I mean, I think you made it clear in the petting scene that she was much larger and stronger than the already reasonably sized Heather.Yes, but I don't know it it comes through in her stats, or rather, I might want to make her strength the core part of her character. There are other personality reasons too but i haven't decided yet.
>Maybe a homeless alcoholic with PTSD can be like a barbarian? It’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility.She prefer between homes.^^
>>181326The Cleric class supports just about any type of religion/culture you can think of. Some Clerics have faith in gods, others in the elements, some in abstract esoteric forces, some in the planes themselves, some in philosophical concepts, acts of war, dragons, extraplanar masses of mana, sometimes even in themselves.
Worth noting that although the default setting in 3.5e is Grayhawk, the Cleric class is meant for any setting, including settings where gods are complete absent (Dark Sun) or indeterminate/mystery/fictional (Eberron), or even irl-like (d20 Arcana)
That being said, any Cleric should be a religious character. In most conventional mileau I, as a DM, and not fond of players who play "ideal" Clerics just to mix and match their favorite domain abilities without roleplay restrictions, because I see that as tasteless munchkinry. I've only encountered a handful though.
It's the GM's choice for how he wants to treat Clerics in his mileau.
>>181335>First of all, that isn’t atheism. That’s “I’m spiritual but I’m not religious” or “Non-denominational” or Prince Charlie’s “Defender of the Faiths.” That’s a very different thing from being an atheist.You are correct. I was mistaken. An "atheist" Cleric would be something more like an Ur Priest.
>This world is, first and foremost, at its core, a recursive fanfiction of my little pony. A fanfiction of a fanfiction of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.True.
However, wouldn't the Harmonist Cleric we encountered who wasn't devoted to the princesses be the equivalent to an "ideal Cleric" in this mileau?
>Personally, I think it’s best to be creative with religion. Not every single fantasy religion needs to be I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Hellenism/The Vikings! It’s okay to have Pantheistic faiths. It’s okay to have faiths that believe in a single, non-personal god. It’s okay to have a faith that believes in a single, universal life force. It’s okay to have dualistic faiths. In fact, if you look at most civilizations that made it past the Iron Age, you’ll see that the vast majority practiced something other than what we’d recognize as European paganism. He’ll, it’s even okay in fantasy settings, I think, to have religions that believe in a, shock and horror, a single personal creator god. There’s so much more out there than just Odin and Zeus. I totally agree. 3.5e has mechanics and lore to support all of those. Deities and demigods has a lot of tips on how to support various approaches to faith (monotheistic, dual theistic, completing pantheons, etc).
I think there are at least a couple actual deities in MLP FiM. Discord is an lesser-to-intermediate deity, easily statted as a great wyrm ascendant chaos archdragon (chaos dragons look exactly like discord). Celestia is something like a demigod, probably base her stats on a half celestial unicorn with divine stat array and several levels in Cleric and Radiant Servant. Same with Luna, except she'd be a Shadowcaster, and lower rank.
.... But there's no real reason to make statblocks for characters that the party won't interact with...
>To quote a D&D forum I visited years ago“Yeah, but immunity to wizard and resistance to fighter kind of makes up for it.” In this case it’s more like immunity to fighter and resistance to wizard, but it’s the same idea.
I'm not really sure what that poster means, but okay.
Btw, I was thinking, you have before expressed frustration with Posey's durability. I am open to nerfing Posey. Posey has 55 HP, which is admittedly a lot for a lvl 4 character in a low-op game. 8 of those Hit Points come from Desecrate, and 6 of those Hit points come from Undead Mastery (also the source of her enhancement bonus to stats): they are both functions of Posey being created by her Mentor, an 8th level Dread Necromancer that Posey had access to through the apprentice feat. When I made her as a character, I considered Posey's creation to be one of her limited favors from her Mentor. In the interest of balance, I would be open to eliminating both the 16 bonus HP and her enhancement bonuses to Str and Dex that she gained from her master, although I would like for Posey to be able to reapply those traits if she ever gets to lvl 8 one day.
I could remove the spellstitching too, although tbh I like the ability to cast floating disk and unseen servant, and to buff the party with create magic tatoo.
Posey has three sources of Damage Reduction: Her class, (2/bludgeoning and magic; class), her inherited template (5/silver or magic; half vampire), and her applied template (5/silver or magic; spellstitched). These sources of Damage Reduction are redundant; I would strongly prefer to keep the first two, since they are Posey's class and racial abilities, the latter she paid two levels for, but it's your call.
To alter Posey in-universe, perhaps Posey's masters in the Dread League may have determined her to be a lackluster emissary for not having already conquered Baltimare in two weeks, and may have remotely taken away everything they gave her as punishment, telling her to become a master herself and earn her own powers.
>>181340>the latter she paid two levels forThe middle, not latter
>>181331 →Kind of sounds a bit more like a Druid, tbh, but you do you.
>>181342I'm getting more of a devotion/worship of life/death and the natural cycle sort of vibe, rather than nature
>>181340>I, as a DM, and not fond of players who play "ideal" Clerics just to mix and match their favorite domain abilities without roleplay restrictions, because I see that as tasteless munchkinryThis really gets to the core of the issue. Actual IRL religions impose moral codes and restrictions on what you can and cannot do. They impose duties. There are rituals that have to be followed. They almost always have societal institutions with their own hierarchies and impositions and social relations. People who are “””spiritual but not religious””” want the “everything is permitted” of being an atheist but without the downer parts. They want the feel goody goodness of religion, and the cushy happy ending afterlife, without any of the obligations that religion imposes.
A cleric with a religion has a moral code they must follow. They have a deity whose word they must follow, whose favor they must maintain - and if the BBEG has the power to threaten gods - whose wellbeing they have an interest in preserving. There are rituals that must be performed and customs that be followed. There is an institution with a hierarchy that must be respected and interacted with. There’s a whole theology that adds lore and depth to the setting and campaign. And even besides all of this, there’s a general expectation that if a cleric hears “hey, the BBEG is burning down temples of your religion!” that cleric is supposed to care and react. Bypassing all of this is… well it’s not as compelling.
>wouldn't the Harmonist Cleric we encountered who wasn't devoted to the princesses be the equivalent to an "ideal Cleric" in this mileau?The character was a deliberate ass pull for Brie. A joke character that pokes fun at the people who stand on street corners and talk about Jesus. I do think he was based on a “””non-denominational””” Protestant. However, even this is a very specific form of a specific faith that follows a specific tradition.
>I think there are at least a couple actual deities in MLP FiMI don’t think that Discord is a deity. Yes, he is a god in almost every way, such as evidently being immortal and possibly timeless. He represents a force within the universe. He has the power to create things out of air. He is a pagan style deity - or even stronger - in close to every way. However, I do not remember a single instance in the show of any character, be it discord or any one else, using any kind of religious language in reference to him. It’s true that My Little Pony has been deliberately scrubbed of any kind of religious language in order to appease The Guardians, but you’ll still hear religious references to Celestia, like Twilight saying “don’t take Celestia’s name in vain.” The characters don’t seem to think of Discord as a god, so I don’t think we should. I think that the reason for this is that he is based off of a character (Q) from an atheistic setting where it’s understood that gods are just ancient aliens. Thus, Discord is never referred to as a god.
Celestia has religious language associated with her and definitely has
something to do with godhood, though whether that means that she’s a god, an angel, a demigod, a buddha, or a paragon of harmony is up to interpretation.
I think the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic setting has one, clear, unambiguous, and ultimately powerful god: Harmony. It’s the source of all ultimate power, it has definite virtues in loyalty & courage, strength & honesty, laughter & hope, kindness & health, generosity & beauty, and friendship & magic. These virtues create magical power. It can spawn and power the elements of harmony, which can one shot even a super powered Luna or discord. And most importantly of all
it took physical form and became sentient in the episode “what lies beneath” like a pony Jesus.
In my interpretation, Harmonism is a more or less pantheistic religion that proposes that “Harmony” is a spiritual force that pervades the universe and is the source of all life force. Harmony is associated with the familiar virtues, and these virtues literally create harmony magic and cause it to grow in power. The universe is has always existed, presumably in cycles. This is basically the theology Aristotle seems to propose in his works, with “reason” replaced with harmony, and thus logically “Armonia” and its highest subset virtue of friendship being placed above the non-moral virtues knowledge. Whether Celestia is an outright minor deity, a paragon, or anything in between, is a matter of interpretation that gives rises to the various denominations of Harmonism.
>Nerfing PoseyThis is very much appreciated, but at minimum it’s going to need to wait until I’m back at the hotel to address it.
>>181345>This really gets to the core of the issue.I've only encountered it a few times, but it's also an easy issue to fix, imo, because I can at this point spot the difference between a person who wants to roleplay a different take on religion, and a tasteless munchkin. Dusty is the former.
First time I detected a player who was only playing a godless cleric to mix and match abilities without roleplay restrictions, I just houseruled that godless Clerics could only choose PHB domains. To this day, how I treat godless Clerics mostly depends on how much I personally like the character presented.
>Yes, he is a god in almost every way, such as evidently being immortal and possibly timeless. He represents a force within the universe. He has the power to create things out of air. He is a pagan style deity - or even stronger - in close to every way.This can mechanically describe a deity in d&d.
He should statistically be an ascendant Chaos dragon though, because Chaos Dragons look just like him, and live in Limbo.
>I do not remember a single instance in the show of any character, be it discord or any one else, using any kind of religious language in reference to him.Not all gods are worshipped like mortals, particularly the unknowable Lovecraftian kind of gods, or elder evils that have been sealed alway and forgotten.
Discord definitely falls in the category of "Elder Evil who was sealed away and forgotten".
>The characters don’t seem to think of Discord as a god, so I don’t think we should.Sure, but do you really want to eliminate the potential for "Chaos Cultists" in your mileau? They sound like they could make good villains. Also, 40k references are fun.
With Discord unsealed, and evidently unwilling to intervene in these chaotic times of war, his cult may re-emerge as a faction of deranged cultists who only cares about spreading mayhem and madness.
>Celestia has religious language associated with her and definitely has something to do with godhood, though whether that means that she’s a god, an angel, a demigod, a buddha, or a paragon of harmony is up to interpretation.If you're not interested in the cool demigod statblocks I was making for Celestia, and want to give her minimal power, you could probably just use a Solar for her statblock, with some abilities modified.
>I think the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic setting has one, clear, unambiguous, and ultimately powerful god: Harmony. It’s the source of all ultimate power, it has definite virtues in loyalty & courage, strength & honesty, laughter & hope, kindness & health, generosity & beauty, and friendship & magic. These virtues create magical power. It can spawn and power the elements of harmony, which can one shot even a super powered Luna or discord. And most importantly of all it took physical form and became sentient in the episode “what lies beneath” like a pony Jesus.You could probably stat Harmony as something similar to the monotheistic deity presented in Deities and Demigods, of state the elements individually as deities in a pantheon that join together to become a super deity. I think Clerics who devote themselves to one of the elements over all of them could make sense.
>In my interpretation, Harmonism is a more or less pantheistic religion that proposes that “Harmony” is a spiritual force that pervades the universe and is the source of all life force. Harmony is associated with the familiar virtues, and these virtues literally create harmony magic and cause it to grow in power. The universe is has always existed, presumably in cycles. Pantheism is a thing in d&d, particularly Eberron with the Sovereign Host.
To the issue of meta, the ability to sufficiently appreciate the potential of the crown would mechanically be based on a knowledge arcana check, probably high dc. 3 guesses what Brie's ranks are, trained only. The only things he knlws about magic items is how to sometimes get them to work (use magic), and a bunch of random tidbits. The odds of him knowing enough to really decipher what hes seen is very low, but he does know theres funny business hes QUITE keen to get to the bottom of.
>>181353>the ability to sufficiently appreciate the potential of the crown would mechanically be based on a knowledge arcana check, probably high dcI rolled a 30. 30 is high.
>>181353Through basic observation on its effects both before and after it was removed from the griffon's head, Silver could probably surmise that the crown has some kind of mind control power/curse and that it increases the natural abilities of its wearer. He has absolutely no knowledge of magic or the arcane (a result of being raised by a single Earth Pony father) outside of what his daughter White Light has told him in excited descriptions of her latest studies when she was a filly, and as such would have no deeper understand of how the crown actually operates than the next pony.
>>181354Well, heres the thing. I WANT Brie to immediately grasp the significance of what he has so far detected, cuz
I appreciate the significance of what he's seeing, but thats meta.
In reality, Brie owes knowledge, insight, and a few other checks to put together what I already know, and several checks he should automatically fail. Im gonna leave it up to GM to weigh on how I can roll to be as prescient as I was trying to overreachingly have him be.
I'm not rolling for the vomiting OR the critical stab thats healed. I did roll to notice the stashing of the magic sword but willfully neglected to sense motive, the crown Ill voluntarily waive/fail, so sense motive on the spoopy obsessive behavior/emotes.
[1d20+8 = (17+8) = 25]
K, so Brie can tell that Rosey is jizzing her pants at the crown but really doesnt want anyone to know. And, he cant know why she would be jizzing her pants, though she did claim profession,... but that captain summoned something, and these Griffons are talking mind control. More questions
>>181358>>181359Rosey and Silver were both calling the tiara "cursed" based off of the apocalyptic log of the whalers before shit went down, long before they went on that boat.
This is what happens when you quit for a week and miss part of the game...
>>181362Even in spite of my tantrum, Brie would not have entered the buildings with them, he would have maintained an arial vantage. He came into this mission:
1. Thinking he had it already figured out, and it was military/commie/mercenary (conventional)
2. Thinking they could be walking into a trap
It actually makes sense for him to fuck off for that portion, even though I was shitting my pants ^,_,^
Brie should get a bonus to bluff checks cuz mask .,_,.
>>181370Do
you trust people wearing masks?
>>181371I'll grant that that bonus would be removed for the sense motive check (the penalty to charisma is precisely to account for his overall suspiciousness), but it would be harder to spot/easier to conceal tells that account for the perception of the bluff
Alternately, n/pcs could get a penalty,....
>>181375only a -1 to.spot cuz its otherwise form fitting?
>>181353Posey already said out loud that it was cursed. The journals we read implied that it was cursed. Brie by now knows that it is a cursed items, and the cause of the Captain's aberrant behavior.
>>181356Even with her 30 on Arcana, Posey does not know the abilities of the tiara or even how it could be useful to her. She wants it because it is pretty, it is cursed (spooky = based), and it matches her color scheme: she sees herself in it. The crown as is not useful to anyone and is only a hazard to its bearer, but that isn't enough to deter Posey.
>>181356It should be common knowledge in this setting that magic items exist, and that cursed items can drive you insane if not handled appropriately. He might've heard a rumor of a situation in Ponyville (Knowledge: Local) a few years ago where such an incident happened with a certain blue unicorn who came in possession of a cursed amulet.
>>181358>>181359>And, he cant know why she would be jizzing her pants, though she did claim profession,...Posey failed to hide that she is incredibly excited to come in possession of such a heavily cursed item. She is a huge curse geek, like an entomologist discovering a rare poisonous bug after getting stung by it. Pics related.
It might be powerful if used in the right context. Who knows?
>>181370It's called a masterwork tool. They're not expensive. Buy one.
>>181387>Even with her 30 on Arcana, Posey does not know the abilities of the tiara or even how it could be useful to her.It channels divine energy. Do you want like, specific spells?
>>181387Yes, and one of the questions Brie intends to ask is "whats this about a curse? Like in fairy tales?"
Brie knows magic exists, has even dealt with some useful ones, but has no comprehension and is, not suspicious of but more mindful toward. He has loads of question once we're 86 the freighter (kek)
>>181388No. I want to figure it out gradually myself. Clues would be fun though.
>>181387Also, all of bries stuff except the revolver and suppressor is masterwork
>>181338What are her stats? Have you factored in racial bonii?
I like that you're putting deep thought into what class to choose, and you can choose whatever justification you want, but you don't need to factor in upbringing if you don't want to. Choosing Amber's class as bard was very easy for me: I had a mental image of a farmer pony with a music-related cutie mark who wanted to learn music, and the party never had a bard before. She could've been any class (she isn't even very good at music yet) and with research I might have chosen something other than a base class. As for Cavaliere, I knew he had to be a ranger for gunslinger-related feats. He wouldn't have an animal companion and I wanted him to be very good at unarmed combat so I chose to multiclass into monk. I was close to choosing a rogue multiclass instead but that would work better for a different character concept. Like with Brie, the monk multiclass is for mechanical benefit rather than character lore.
The discussion on religion and clerics is very interesting!
>>181347>Celestia is a SolarActually that would make a lot of sense.
>I think Clerics who devote themselves to one of the elements over all of them could make sense.Okay but where would the alicorns fit in? They also each represent a crucial aspect of harmony and life. Celestia represents the sun, warmth, and everything related to it. Luna represents the night, dreams, etc. Cadance represents love and family. Twilight is already the Element of Magic but also represents friendship and learning.
>>181392Why wouldn't his weapon of all things be masterwork?
>>181404>Okay but where would the alicorns fit in? They also each represent a crucial aspect of harmony and life. Celestia represents the sun, warmth, and everything related to it. Luna represents the night, dreams, etc. Cadance represents love and family. Twilight is already the Element of Magic but also represents friendship and learning.You could just start them as demigods and have harmonist priests who follow their teachings.
>Actually that would make a lot of senseJust remove the shapeshifting ability and replace it with something else.
>>181404One doesnt tend to deface the serial numbers nor possess illegally in commission of a crime such masterpieces (especially threading such a barrel!)
His suit, mask, boots, gloves, blades (2 killing, 10 throwing), all are tho
>>181415So Posey really has 55 HP, same as Silver?
>>181477Looks that way. I looked in their (posted) character sheet and the inherent build. Ngl, aside from being broken as holy fuck, it is published
>>1814774d12 + 6 (Bloodtouched Rite) + 8 (Desecrated on an altar) + 8 (Undead Mastery)
Yep.
The lvl 8 Warblade build based on Silver I made has twice that many hot points, wanna see the progress?
>>181491Now that is a lot of HPI was just gonna say it actually makes me a little proud of Silver's stats, being on par with Posey
>>181493Silver has enormous stats, totaling 43 points, before mods. They're somewhat lopsided though. Those points could be more evenly distributed.
>>181493Silver's rolled stats are way above average
even without counting in free points from the GM with no tradeoff scrunch
>>181491Both Rosie and Tarnished Silver (you know u wanna)
>>181498Also, not as an indictment, lets not forget Rosie's damage reduction
Short version: Brie would land one, maybe eben TWO (otherwise) devastating killshots.
And then he would be eaten by something he has no frame of reference to
Final point.
Brie is a kind-of John Wick Baba Yega.
Rosey is the actual Baba Yega
But yeah, its easy to forget that characters dont know to think/look for spoopy shit, when youve spent years playing characters who know - by background, sense, or both - to watch out for and know that shit
>>181489You and I have a very different perspective of what broken means, tbh....
Notice how Posey has no Metamagic feats? That's because she's not doing any crazy Metamagic gimmicks, and by spellcaster standards she's low-op.
To me, broken means using the writing of Warshaper's Morphic Weapons (technically has no upper limit for how many weapons you can grow) to grow unlimited/infinite crotch tentacles for infinite attacks. Or using Summon Elemental to summon Living Holocausts (technically, they're Small Elementals), at-will. Or using the Spelldance to persist every buff spell (Or really any use of Persistent Spell with Metamagic cost reducers). Or casting Wall Of Salt, and selling the salt (it's worth its weight in silver). Or buying a candle of Invocation, and doing literally anything with it.
High HP has never been on my list of broken things.
>>181502I was interested in building a castle that stands on chicken feet.
>>181505>unlimited/infinite crotch tentacles~oco~
>>181505We get it. Your character is merely unkillable. Not infinitely powerful on the offense.
>>181505Okay, Broken may be hyperbolic. Spellstitching is kinda hax, and Im - in good faith no less - warning you now that the same concentration rules that apply to spells apply to spell like abilities
>>181509Will fucknoff to ooc for the remainder of this
>>181507Well, I offered to cut 16 HP off of her, along with the other benefits of her Mentor's modifications. Would you be satisfied with that?
>>181511No. I WANT Posey to be powerful. I want GM to give a threat to justify it.
You know, if she turned the Tiara into a legacy item, she could sacrifice some of her max HP to make it usable.
Some of the things Rosey has applied are kinda intended to not be used together (or worse, they were e_e)
But, lemons and lemonade.
Bring on the Leviathan *clap clap*
>>181507I know this probably isn't helping, but I'm not even sure I'd describe her as unkillable. Exceptionally sturdy, sure, but she's already nearly died twice...or was it three times? I forget how that battle against the griffon paladin went. As for the current party - not saying anyone is currently planning anything hostile towards Posey because we really aren't - I can see a couple creatures actually posing a serious threat to her in battle. Defiant Dust absolutely could turn Posey to dust, and Silver could hold his own with the help of his sword.
>>181515<Not a criticism, but your conditiions for death rival.my own - Infernal Thez
>>181512GM has explained multiple times that the design of the campaign is for a lot of mundane threats and a few eldritch threats that should terrify the PCs, but for Posey is "just another Tuesday."
>>181515She's not unkillable by any means, but definitely really tanky.
>>181517I know, Im trying to reframe. Rosey can be ridiculous, but that means being clutch ridiculous (and not 'yet' in a villain mastermind sense) 'for the time being'. I get it
Im perfectly okay with Brie being amazed at what Rosey is capable of, the same as deducing what Posey up to.
The race is on, and the clock is ticking Batpon (oh, thats me)
>>181515>Exceptionally sturdy, sure, but she's already nearly died twiceIn both of the encounters where Posey was substantially threatened (the fight with Luminous, and the hydra fight), she only barely won with single digit HP.
>>181515>I forget how that battle against the griffon paladin went.She had literally 1 HP left on the final round.
>Defiant Dust absolutely could turn Posey to dustAlso this. If he rolled high enough, he could instantly destroy her.
Posey is also vulnerable to any of the other various spell effects that control or destroy undead.
And if she goes to 0 HP, she's just destroyed, not dying, and she can't be raised.
And she can't benefit from conventional healing magic.
And also, she can't just go walking through machine gun fire in broad daylight in front of witnesses, can she? She's a spy, she has to keep her true nature secret.
>>181515>>181512Yes yes yes yes, I know, you an just infinitely inflate the numbers on both sides until fights are superhero fights where they punch each other and shoot lasers at each other and there is no visible damage.
>>181521>And also, she can't just go walking through machine gun fire in broad daylight in front of witnesses, can she?Posey literally tried to do that after the Luminous fight
>>181521In the fight with luminous, the only reason it was like that at all was because I told you No, there is not 5 damage reduction, and no, Posey is not immune to criticals. Remove that Critical - which, by your own rules for the character should not have existed - and that fight was not a single digit HP fight. Luminous got ridiculously lucky on a critical hit on a smite AND I told you to fuck off with immunity to crits AND fuck off with the damage resistance.
The hydra fight was just... Every singe round was calculating three or more different dice rolls for each attack. There were so many saving throws involved. I lost track of it because of how complicated it was. It was
not fun. It was a convoluted slog.
>>181521>Posey is also vulnerable to any of the other various spell effects that control or destroy undead.Okay, so she's completely immune to multiple types of harm, but vulnerable to enemies specifically designed to fight undead. Do I need to redesign my entire world around fighting undead?
>And she can't benefit from conventional healing magic.What does that matter when with her fast healing, she's back to full health in four and half minutes? Fuck healing magic that cost spell slots, just stand still for five minutes.
>>181524>superheroKaiju, please
>>181524Addy, who can be said to be in something of the background, suddnly starts busing herself cleaning, not in anybway cuz shes guilty of kinda the same thing
>>181506My stat block for Chrysalis would had a level in warshaper
>>181524>Posey literally tried to do that after the Luminous fightNo, she tried to use gaseous form to escape, but at the time I didn't understand the situation.
>In the fight with luminous, the only reason it was like that at all was because I told you No, there is not 5 damage reductionI must have missed this, because at the time Posey had given Luminous her silver sword.
> I told you to fuck off with immunity to critsAt the time, I understood it as Luminous having a feature that let him crit undead, because paladins have access to several.
>The hydra fight was just... Every singe round was calculating three or more different dice rolls for each attack. There were so many saving throws involved. I lost track of it because of how complicated it was. It was not fun. It was a convoluted slog.Oh... Well, I had fun. Sorry that it was so complicated for you though.
>Do I need to redesign my entire world around fighting undead?That would be interesting, but I know your question is rhetorical.
>Do I need to redesign my entire world around fighting undeadMost of her healing comes from her Charnel touch, which is an active ability that takes actions.
Idk what to say though. Would you be satisfied if I cut Posey's bonus HP?
>>181524>In the fight with luminous, the only reason it was like that at all was because I told you No, there is not 5 damage reduction, and no, Posey is not immune to criticals. Remove that Critical - which, by your own rules for the character should not have existed - and that fight was not a single digit HP fight. Luminous got ridiculously lucky on a critical hit on a smite AND I told you to fuck off with immunity to crits AND fuck off with the damage resistance.I understand your perspective, but I also would like to propose a counter point: players are supposed to win.
I did enjoy that fight that ended with 1 HP, but is every fight supposed to end with me at 1 HP?
If Posey had immunity to crits, that fight would have ended with her around ~10 HP. Isn't ending a fight with 10 HP fine?
I had neglected your DR ruling during the hydra fight: without the DR/Silver or Magic, Posey would have just died. She expended all of her spell slots, took a ton of damage, and was fighting an enemy underwater with only one way to counter it's fast healing (summoning amoebas). Was your intention for her to die in that fight? Posey, an ECL 3-5 character, was fighting a monster that would have been a hard fight for an entire party of her level. Was she supposed to just lose?
I'm not trying to be adversarial, but how do you want encounters to go in your game? What's the lethality level that you are interested in?
As far as I can tell, none of the characters have died, everyone has ended their hardest encounters with around a quarter of their health. It didn't seem like high lethality was the intended atmosphere to me.
>>181527Ngl, thats a very compelling argument. I dont have any issue with OP characters, I have issues with OP characters who vomit blood for a whole flight, go Smeagol around spoopy.magics, and generally express an intent to entertain themselves at the expense of the party, and I admit a.dying prejudice to that conclusion
Before I made Posey, I took this interaction into account:
>>167499 →GM:
>Most likely, the majority of enemies that Posey will face, and certainly the vast majority of enemies faced by the party so far, have been "humanoid" type enemies with melee or ranged weapons. Ponies, Changelings, Diamond Dogs, and Griffins with talons, machetes, and bolt action rifles. Sometimes, there are zombies or animals or monsters with teeth and claws. And sometimes, there is something more exotic, like machine guns, explosives, or combat mages who use deflective shields to bolster their submachine guns. Sometimes there is armor, or cover, or many enemies. But in all instances, combat is ultimately about dice rolls and modifiers. Chance of hitting multiplied by damage against health. It's all about math. I can balance things just by changing the numbers.>Spells, by contrast, tend to be more qualitative, and a bit harder to quantify. When Posie has a spell that I've actually worked with before like vampiric touch that does something like, let's say 2d6 damage, I can say to myself, okay, she's doing twice the damage of a knife, let's put her up against at least one diamond dog with a knife, or maybe even put her against a pony who has a pistol that does 2d6 damage. But if Posie has [spell that I can't remember the name of] that does [I have no idea because I couldn't even name the source book], then... what do I put her against? Four changeling drones who guard a fifth and a sixth with a machine gun? It's an apples to orange comparison, so I really don't know what to expect here. Either she is going to win and win very easily to the point that it's boring, or she is going to lose and lose massively to the point that it's frustrating.
>I guess you can just post sources, or what these spells do. If the spells are too powerful I'm probably still going to be hesitant because I'd rather Posie be comparable in power to the other characters when she is alongside them. So long as she's in solo combat though, it shouldn't matter, as the enemies can be adjusted accordingly. There's also the danger that she could be too weak, especially as what are essentially MG42s have been used in combat before, although this is usually easily fixable by adjusting enemies.Me:
>>combat mages who use deflective shields to bolster their submachine guns>That sounds like a pretty brutal encounterGM:
>Yes.I came into the game believing that there would be wizards with machines guns and changeling firing squads, but that Posey was supposed to win.
I took into account the skepticism with spell balance, so I made Posey a character that was more focused on combat and less reliant on spells. That's why I didn't take any Metamagic.
Of course, I did try that defiling thing at first, but I removed it on my own volition because it was too cheesy for my taste.
Maybe I misunderstood what the point of this game was going to be. I thought the characters were going to be fighting actual wars with machine gun Wizards, so I focused on durability. I would not have paid two whole levels of spellcasting for that durability if I didn't think it would be necessary.
And overall, Posey has only had between four and six serious encounters in this entire campaign: the equivalent to a single adventuring day. Isn't it a bit early to judge how "broken" she is?
>>181529Machine gun wizards sound kinda badass, honestly
>>181529I can remain silent, nut Im offering to ne constructively critical. I leave it open for reception.
I even voluntarily abstained from using any kind of firearm, just to handicap myself and follow the abysmal tech level of the Dread League.
I played an inferior dread necromancer instead of a cleric, because I decided that delayed spell progression was worth the name. I could have cast animate dead on day 1, but I let it be 5 levels away.
I spent all of my starting gold on becoming a monster, instead of buying items.
I made my character all-but-die when she passed over running water, compulsively knock on door to forfeit surprise rounds, and
Am I really power gaming that hard? What problems have I caused with my build? What issues has Posey created (besides the crown which is irrelevant to her build)? Has her high HP, immunities, or DR ever been an actual issue before? Are there any fights that Posey has been involved in that should have gone differently than they did? Was she supposed to lose some of those solo encounters?
What's the problem with Posey? Tell me what it is so I can fix it.
On a personal note, I have an unresolved issue with 'Gamer' culture in D&D (surely its been noticed).
Theres a time and place for characters like Rosie - expounding the envelope- and this can well be one of them. But lets not pretend its really east to balance a bunch of reasonably squishies alingside a (cuz regen and DR) 4x more health (aline) undead powerhouse.
I was exceedingly proud of what I accomplished with the unadulterated rolls I made with Brie (>point buy, <low sperm [Xp]), and knowing that I got the budget build "in good faith" kinda sucks.
I dont claim to fully grasp the spellstichjeedd necromicon in undead half vampire form with dread the fuck ever rituals and unholy nipply and clit piercings, but *aside from some oversight wrt spellstitched SLAs* actually seems not as - if justified (read combat) - can work really well for everyone
>>181535>*aside from some oversight wrt spellstitched SLAs*The spellstitched SLAs are all utility spells: Posey uses them for unseen servant, floating disk, and otherwise really only really uses them to lift and carry things. Today was the first time she used it to buff her allies.
I was going to give her Sleet Storm, Fireball, Shivering Touch, etc, but I didn't because I didn't want them to eclipse my actual spellcasting, and because I do in fact have some self-restraint with optimization.
But yes, the spellstitching was excessive: it gives spell resistance, a bonus to saving throws, damage reduction (redundant for Posey), and more. I wasn't sure if it was appropriate for Posey to get it basically for free, but it's also the only part of my character that GM hasn't complained about, so I didn't mention that until now. I'll cut it away right now if GM wants.
>I have an unresolved issue with 'Gamer' culture in D&DThis is 3.5e. Look at every forum, blog, thread, and server that talks about it for the past 25 years: it's all "gamer culture". 3.5e is the nerdy, crunch-driven version of d&d; that's what people like about it.
All I want is to make a character that is effective for the story we're trying to tell, and nobody complains about. I want to make a character with interesting abilities that make sense for her background, and also not get nerfed mid-combat when I use them for the first or second time.
What can I do? How can I do that?
>>181535More to the point on gamer culture is the proliferation of guides and build templates. Yes, I get wanting to main-character 'be THE BEST (Or observably trending toward.
The problem (as GM has illustrated and I hope Im not beating a dead horse,... kinda maybe preaching to the choir by now) is that when an observable but undeniable minority all flock to the "extra most bestest" class build, and most OTHERS are playing more or less mundane/minimally maximized if at all,....
It undermines the quality of playing not kitted/maxxed characters, or having to be okay with doing less than others are doing in a balnced risk-assessment/reward sense, neither of which is happy making,
>>181537Most of the hactardedness of 3.5e is ppl overlooking rules or ignoring them.
Most bonuses DONT stack, if of similar type. You can ONLY concentrate on one duration spell (unless specified in description: Hallow) at a time, and so on.
3.5e is actually really decent AND balanced *if pne learn all the rules and what they mean*
Rosey isnt balanced, but Im okay with that (fwiw) if she's gonna be the Golu who everyone rallies around to kill things. Im saying, do your evil when we've parted ways
Just saying, emoting kissing the tiara,... it was in character too, cant unsee
>>181527>Was your intention for her to die in that fight?I can't speak for GM Pone, but he had probably gotten irritated that Posey was both so strong and so reckless, and wanted to throw something at her that would make her pause and behave different. Unfortunately that's not in character for her, she's like a stereotypical Viking berserker. You can call it railroading, you can call it a "write a book already!" GM, but in a serious setting Posey acts unserious and there is no way for him to change that without outright killing her.
>Posey, an ECL 3-5 character, was fighting a monster that would have been a hard fight for an entire party of her level.Yeah, she's very strong.
>I'm not trying to be adversarial, but how do you want encounters to go in your game? What's the lethality level that you are interested in?>As far as I can tell, none of the characters have died, everyone has ended their hardest encounters with around a quarter of their health. It didn't seem like high lethality was the intended atmosphere to me.When I first started playing Amber I would insist to GM Pone, "don't pull any punches and if she dies I'll roll a new character." Since then Amber has grown on me more, and although I still like that hardcore attitude I would be peeved if she died. Amber's a very imperfect OC but she has become my permanent fixture in this campaign. The other players likely feel the same way, though there is less risk of a game-over when their characters don't immediately disintegrate at 0 HP. You probably feel the same way and don't want Posey to die, nor does anypony else.
>I came into the game believing that there would be wizards with machines guns and changeling firing squads, but that Posey was supposed to win.Well, there are and will be, but the power creep hasn't reached that level except in some dream sequences. We're barely past the "fight gangsters with knives and smuggled hoofguns" level.
>>181530I do want to see her in serious combat alongside the rest of the party, but statwise she looks broken. Balance could be mitigated by having her take center stage with the rest of the party supporting her, but that doesn't match her roleplay characteristics. In previous quests it was Iron (earth pony fighter) and Silver filling that role, but they are extremely tough stallions. Posey is a lithe, bookish unicorn mare who is powerful because of her undead status, but is trying to hide that status (especially from the party members who lean good-aligned). It's paradoxical.
>>181533I don't doubt your good faith in wanting Posey to be balanced. No one can reasonably pin blame on you except in regards to eagerly crafting an interesting character and initially misjudging the nature of the campaign. I legitimately don't know what you could do differently that doesn't involve changing Posey's behavior.
>Has her high HP, immunities, or DR ever been an actual issue before?I don't think it actually has, mainly because Posey hasn't been in multiplayer fights yet. We're wringing our hooves over "what-ifs" regarding balance and I think you have a point in that we should just step back and let it play out. I'm just not convinced those issues won't bear out.
>>181535This too. I never intended for Amber to be very powerful of a character, and Cavaliere is OK at what he does, but I won't conceal that I was a little disappointed that Silver got extra ability points for free (first by not having age modifiers, second by having his intelligence raised with nothing else adjusted). I like Silver and Silver's player, and those free points don't affect me or my characters at all, but just knowing about it changes how one views the game. If this can happen because of Silver who's been here from the very start, then Posey would of course affect our perceptions too. It's not malicious or particularly envious, it's just how we compare things.
>>181537I like the spellstitched stuff personally. A floating disk following her everywhere is an odd visualization but a decently capable unicorn could do the same thing with a physical disk. The buffs for other players are nice too. Spell resistance has never come into play and saving throws aren't a concern unless if we're doing PvP (which we're not). I was only ever really shocked by Posey's incredible stats and skills which make her checks way more powerful than anypony else's.
>This is 3.5e. Look at every forum, blog, thread, and server that talks about it for the past 25 years: it's all "gamer culture". 3.5e is the nerdy, crunch-driven version of d&d; that's what people like about it.It could be worse: it could be AD&D!
>>181539Every handbook screamed that half-vampire isn't worth the +2 LA. The golden rule for caster optimization is "THOU SHALL NOT LOSE CASTER LEVELS!"
But look what I did: I started two level lower than the party and gimped my spellcasting. I also have no Metamagic feats
Why did I choose the suboptimal half-vampire race? Because it was sexier. I wanted to justify not being a rotten corpse, because I was part vampire. My reward for that was DR/5, and a Charming Gaze that only works when the GM wants it to, at the cost of two whole caster levels.
>Most of the hactardedness of 3.5e is ppl overlooking rules or ignoring them.Try that in a 3.5e discord server: the users will pick you apart. Ignoring the RAW for optimization is not tolerated.
That will instantly disqualify you from any Iron Chef challenge.
>Most bonuses DONT stack, if of similar type. You can ONLY concentrate on one duration spell (unless specified in description: Hallow) at a time, and so on.I know this.
>3.5e is actually... balancedNo it isn't, lol.
Monk exists in the same book as Cleric.
>>181542I dont mond spellstitched, its basically glorofoed daily use scrolls.
The problem with spellstitched is the perception that because it is a spell like ability, it doesnt require or bypasses concentration.
It very much does not.
It does bupass verbal, somatic, material, and focus components.
But for example, Rpsey CAN NOT have an u seen servant, tensers floating dosk, and part ac buffs (excliding Brie e_e) at the same time
>>181544Re: Duration, subcategory: Concentration
This gets back to gamer mentality.
Everything I have askef GM for in my character is based upon a personality type I wanted to play before I knew what the mechanics, benefits, consequences, or possible layouts were (within reason, not.my first rodeo).
Rosey SEEMS to be a cut and paste of (no offense, but short of Pun pun) among the most broken of builds.
>>181546I had a lengthy sales pitch, and knew why I SOULD be able to without breaking the indended balance ang guidelines of the game.
Rosey doesnt come across that way. I am willing to see her mainfest as that kind of character, and I apologize if I go overboard in wxpressi g skepticism/criticism
>>181542>wanted to throw something at her that would make her pause and behave differentEarlier in the story, Posey expresses having always wanted to fight a hydra. That was her wish being granted.
>she's like a stereotypical Viking berserkerThat's close to the vibe I was going for.
>Posey acts unserious and there is no way for him to change that without outright killing herIs her acting unserious the problem? Am I not playing her as serious enough?
I made her intentionally aloof and arrogant to make her cuter...
>You probably feel the same way and don't want Posey to die, nor does anypony else.I don't mind it when my characters die... Well, unless my death is the result of my RAW abilities being nerfed mid-combat, then I get kind of ticked off.
I don't mind character death so long as it feels like I could play my best game.
>the power creep hasn't reached that level except in some dream sequencesNo, it has, I back read. There was a changeling wizard who cast mage armor, shield, protection from arrows, and then blasted the party with a machine gun that had three dozen shots per round.
>Posey is a lithe, bookish unicorn mare who is powerful because of her undead status, but is trying to hide that status (especially from the party members who lean good-aligned). It's paradoxical.To me, that is internal conflict and roleplay restrictions that i willfully took on when making her.
>I legitimately don't know what you could do differently that doesn't involve changing Posey's behavior.Except... I like her behavior. I like her throwing herself into melee and taking grievous wounds because she worships pain and is confident in her powers, like a vampire. It's been the main appeal to me. It's like playing a Barbarian.
>I don't think it actually has, mainly because Posey hasn't been in multiplayer fights yet. We're wringing our hooves over "what-ifs" regarding balance and I think you have a point in that we should just step back and let it play out.See, this is my biggest issue here. It's all hypothetical. It feels low-key unfair, because idk what I could do.
>it's just how we compare things.Well... If you want, I could help you build a better sheet, so that you won't feel jealous...
>>181546>Rosey SEEMS to be a cut and paste of (no offense, but short of Pun pun) among the most broken of builds.No. I reject this. You are wrong.
Show me one Dread Necromancer build that took on +2 LA from half vampire, and has no metamagic.
Nobody else has play a strength-based, half-vampire, sword-wielding Dread Necromancer like me. Everyone else focuses on the spellcasting.
>>181544>But for example, Rpsey CAN NOT have an u seen servant, tensers floating dosk, and part ac buffs (excliding Brie e_e) at the same timeWhy do you even care about unseen servant and floating disk? They are not combat spells. They're only good for carrying things. Is that a problem?
I'll cut them, but why that of all things?
You a talisman of the disk is only 500 gp, right? At-will floating disk.
>>181544>But for example, Rpsey CAN NOT have an u seen servant, tensers floating dosk, and part ac buffs (excliding Brie e_e) at the sameNone of those are concentration spells, btw.
>>181548>cast mage armor, shield, protection from arrowsAnother example that shouldnt happen
>reee, you havent seen my final form!Dude, Im trying to be okay with how unfathomably broken Rosie is,... youre not helping
>why do you care[I]Its one of the most basic functions of the game. Duration spells require concentration. U wanna not concentrate? Use a scroll. You want a scroll that regenerates every day cuz some asshole decoded he wanted to for his game and then told someone else and they eventually decided to sell their broken ideas to a pu lisher who said "fuck it why not',....
Oppsed.
Concentration is a thing, and its not just a saving throw when taking damage.
>>181549Yes they are. Read it
On a different topic, I've imagine if Silver was ever somehow corrupted by dark magic into being evil, his name would change from "Silver Sword" to "Sundered Sword", and the sword in his cutie mark would change to appear broken in half.
>>181550>Another example that shouldnt happenWhy?
>Duration spells require concentrationNo. You're confusing it with 5e again.
Only spells with the Duration of Concentration require Concentration to maintain.
>U wanna not concentrate? Use a scroll..... Scrolls take Concentration to use just like any other spell.
>Concentration is a thing, and its not just a saving throw when taking damage.I know how concentration works. You are mistaking it for 5e.
Posey only has one spell with a Duration of Concentration, and that's Summon Swarm.
>>181553Sundered Sword sounds like a blackguard name.
>>181554No, no, NO. Go. Read your pdfs, PHB. Look up under spells, Duration: read until the end of subset Concentration. Have fun, Rosey isnt nearly as powerful as you were convinced (still super powerful, ngl)
>>181554A little bit, I suppose. It sounds like a cool idea to me.
>>181555I dont mean the specific spell, I mean the general breakdown of duration and concentration as a concept
>>181557Okay fine, I'll spoonfeed. Spells without specofic qualifiers in their description, that have a duration REQUIRE CONCENTRATION.
Even SPELL.LIKE ABILITIES
>>181555I'm looking at it right now. Timed durations are not the same as concentration duration spells. You are wrong.
I know this by heart, because I am in two other PBP games. Look things up before you talk out your ass.
>Rosey isnt nearly as powerful as you were convincedIt's not even relevant to that Discussion, because Rosey has never even tried tried to use duration spells at once: she had no buff spells, duration isn't an issue for her. The longest she maintained a spell was when she summoned her amoebic crawlers in the hydra fight.
>>181559You know what, I guess they really did write it that way. Forgrt I said anything.
>>181558You're wrong. That's not how concentration works in 3.5e.
You're thinking of 5e, where every ongoing spell costs concentration.
You are wrong. You have fundamentally misunderstood how 3.5e spellcasting works.
3.5e doesn't have 5e's silly concentration restriction. 3.5e spellcasting works like THIS:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nqjz5R8LrU
>>181561Ive never met anyone who actually played 3.5e in any contemporaneous sense who interpreted the rules that way. Maybe they were intended that way, maybe youre right. You disgust me, and this convo is over.
Your intepretation of the rules disgusts me, let me qualify
>>181562>Ive never met anyone who actually played 3.5e in any contemporaneous sense who interpreted the rules that way.There's literally NPCs in modules who do this: a Cleric in Age Of Worms casts Bulls Strength and Bless before combat. Monsters with tactics: a Nightwalker casts invisibility and haste before combat.
>>181562>Maybe they were intended that way, maybe youre right. You disgust me, and this convo is over.How is playing the game as intended disgusting?
And Posey hasn't done any of this at all. She has no buff spells. She has touch attacks, fear-based debuffs, and a handful of summons.
>>181563My interpretation is the intended reading. It is a very clear reading. It is clearly published in the SRD.
I have never encountered someone who said that unseen servant and floating disk are concentration and you can't have them at the same time.
Even in 5e, neither of those spells are concentration. You are talking out your ass.
Are you drunk?
>>181548>Berserker, intentionally aloof and arrogant>internal conflict and roleplay restrictions>but also throwing herself into melee and taking grievous wounds because she worships pain and is confident in her powers, like a vampire.That's part of the paradox. Don't get me wrong, she's a fun character, but she breaks the vibe of major quests. If you've noticed GM Pone's tendencies when making quests, and what he's explicitly said, he loves interjecting both mundane consequences (like in a crime thriller) and Lovecraftian horror. Neither has much room for snarky remarks and suicidal ideation. Posey at times feels like the main character in a video game with wacky armor (a suit of armor made of bones) and the ability to act completely different from everypony else.
That's besides the in-universe conflict between trying to appear like a science student or
femme fatale and acting completely like a bloodthirsty maniac. As players we're rolling our collective eyes because it's so easy to see through Posey's disguise yet we have to pretend otherwise. A good spy would play the part of a pretty but weak mare and only in the face of an immediate threat would try to easily fold the enemy. Mind-controlled griffons or not, she wouldn't initiate fights. It's like that plane scene where she vomited an ungodly amount of blood, but we're taking a supposedly living mare into a combat zone because OOC we can't leave you out. It breaks our suspension of disbelief which is frustrating.
>Except... I like her behavior. I like her throwing herself into melee and taking grievous wounds because she worships pain and is confident in her powers, like a vampire. It's been the main appeal to me. It's like playing a Barbarian.She has her appeal, but that disconnect is jarring. More and more I truly believe that the issue isn't with Posey's physical stats, but with her behavior. I don't know what it would take to have character development significant enough to fix that.
>Well, unless my death is the result of my RAW abilities being nerfed mid-combat, then I get kind of ticked off.>I don't mind character death so long as it feels like I could play my best game.I agree completely.
>Well... If you want, I could help you build a better sheet, so that you won't feel jealous...I appreciate it. Amber and Cavaliere are still level 5 so I have to figure out what to do when each of them levels up. 6 is an important level. Also, you still have my thanks for pressuring GM Pone enough to start leveling us up.
>Nobody else has play a strength-based, half-vampire, sword-wielding Dread Necromancer like me. Everyone else focuses on the spellcasting.I know you are arguing about metas outside the game but no one cares about the meta in this game. The only real spellcaster we've had in the game was Spark and he didn't look to powergame.
>I'll cut them, but why that of all things?I disagree with Brie on this. There's nothing wrong with these spells. Unseen servant is especially good because no player wants his character to have to dig through a latrine for some garbage clue. It's not worth arguing with him over unseen servant or floating disk.
>>181552This is really cool! I forgot that goats are technically sapient in FiM. I'd swap them out in favor of kirins. It's also missing bat ponies.
Idk how this was even an argument.
I asked for ways that I could voluntarily change/nerf my own character sheet to be more in line with the GM's intentions and fit in with the party, and it sonehow turned into a BS argument about Concentration spells because Brie's player can't fucking read.
Why does shit like this happen every fucking week? This is not fun.
>>181567It's got 'em. Check the last link
>>181568I know there's a temptation to reply to every single post directed at you but sometimes it's best to not take the bait. Brie's player is not a bad person
to my knowledge but he is extremely autistic and autistic people will hyperfocus on minor details sometimes. Just acknowledge the post exists and move on.
I still don't know what Test is.>>181570Ooh!
>>181571It turned/s into an argument cuz I read the character sheet, and MOST of the bullshit minmax sites he derived it from. (Im still behind on a few of his bullshit bonus feats cuz reasons).
That he insist its 'perfectly fine' ("Im jus tryin to play a lil ol villain, uwu") is exactly the sort of harktardedness Im trying to indicate as making the game more difficult for everyone.
Lets be clear. With the ability to daily-cast several spells with (primarily) no consequence raises a character CR far beyond "what the designers decided it does".
The WHOLE PARTY would LIKELY LOSE if facing Rosey.
But yes, I took the bait again. I know
With Posey's interpretation of spell duration, spells like Force cage, Gate, and a variety of other very demanding spells "dont require concentration". Im not on about ritual casts, theres an argument to be made there. Im talking about involved spells with very lasting/exacting effects that apparently you can just "set it and forget it".
Thats just one issue, and one that very significantly affects party balance.
Maybe I should have more faith in GM, theres a case to be made there.
Oh, 'Telekinesis requires concentration'. Nevermind, I guess they thought of everything.
Control Undead, 7th lvl sorceror/wis spell allowing control of multiple HD of undead for a number of rounds determined by caster level. Not a concentration spell.
Detect animals or plants
Concentration spell
Shall I go into Time Stop? Or shall I stop, with an admission that theres a glaring insufficiency in the concentration rules as written - if Posey's interpretation is correct - or that there is room for reevaluation of stacked spell effects, as I am asserting.
In conclusion, GM had expressed an interest that this game be "more /mlp/ and less D&D, excluding neither" (paraphrased). But also that 3.5e was a convenient/familiar system with lots and lots of optional add on material for consideration and integration with/without modification. 3.5e broke either because of liberal interpretation of the rules, or liberal implementation of rules. And, some players like breaking the game by CL and balance; ive seen players run full 18s for all stats, triple-classed from level 1.
>Oh gawd, he's at it again.
The thing about DnD is, its designed so that every class has their own specific role to play that they specifically excel at, beyond others. Naturally if you have EVERY class in the party, there will be overlap, but still; a role for every class and every class in their role. But that assumes that the roles are effectivrly balanced against eachother.
Then we have 3.5e which is JUST THIS SIDE of a PERFECT engine but ONLY if the PLAYERS have the presence of mind to pccasionally say "Whoa, this doesnt make sense" or "they couldnt have meant that, thats absurd when compared to this", and so on.
Theres a concept in Law called "The Letter of the Law" and "The Spirit of the Law". The idea is predicated on the idea that the letter of the law can be to exacting, demanding, or harsh in particular circumstances or context; more generally it refers to how laws are intended to protect society and it's people, and that rigid and unwavering appeals to the letter of the law can be injurious to the society who structured those laws.
In a comparative sense, 3.5e D&D has lots of rules. So many rules that they tried to fix it with more rules, and when that failed and it was worse they said "well hey, they bought all these new rules, lets just sell them more rules."
The spirit of the Rule - like the spirit of the Law - assumes that the rules can, should be and already are broken. Because even before modules and supplements 3.5e was exploitable and breakable if the interpretation of the rules is not with a mindfulness toward all class types and fair play/balance.
>>181580Bro, can you stop?
I was trying to have a productive conversation with GM about how to alter my character sheet, and now he can't even see my posts about it if he clicks "last 50 posts".
>>181581All you had to do was ask
>>181581I was going to reply to your earlier post, but it doesn’t show in “last 50 posts”At first I was going to go on a lengthy diatribe about the /5 damage reduction specifically, why I’ve never approved it, and using math to show why Posey is OP
However, you asked “why does it matter that Posey is OP?” and I like that way of framing the issue much better, so instead I will respond to that I have
a lot to say.
It’ll take some time before I am able to write it all out, but first I would
very much appreciate it if you read this post
>>181567 as I whole heartedly agree with everything in it
minus the “thanks for forcing GM to level us up. And when you’re done, read it again. When you’re done, read
>>181542. It’s not quite as good, but it has many good points, especially in that first paragraph. The line “In a serious setting, Posey is an unserious character” is golden, if a bit harsh.
>>181583>you asked “why does it matter that Posey is OP?”What I asked was what the problems I caused were, and how I could amend them. I asked how you expected combat to go in the game, and how my character sheet could reflect that.
I already offered to cut abilities and HP from her sheet.
>I was going to reply to your earlier postPlease do...
>“In a serious setting, Posey is an unserious character"Tbh, I originally meant for Posey to be to this game what the Dread League is to EaW: out of place and archaic, but also fun. She behaves the way she does because the country she hails from is a strange place.
Posey is a D&D character in a d20 Modern game, and I did that by design thinking it would be fun and well recieved. I guess I was wrong...
Okay, so I’m going to start my “why Posey being OP is in fact a bad thing” series. I have three, or sort of four, different points. Please take these criticisms seriously. No, I am not claiming that every one of these criticisms applies to Posey all the time. I am not claiming that they apply to Posey even most of the time. In fact, I think it’s pretty obvious that Posey has been mostly fine, most of the time, and the situations where in there are actually problems are kind of rare.
Please don’t dismiss these concerns with just “oh, well that doesn’t happen very often” because I am aware of that.
First,
Because you want the game on hard mode.When you mentioned liking instances of combat that have occurred this far, you mentioned two. The fight against Luminous, and the fight against the Hydra. You did not mention the first encounter with the gangsters. You did not mention the fight against the dire wolves, or the fight inside of the cavern, or any part of the combat against August. You did not mention the fight against the diamond dogs, or against the panther. You did not mention the first small encounter here against the intruder nor the last fight against the griffins. Why? You know exactly why. Because in those two fights. Posey’s health was reduced to a single hp (or something close to that, anyways) and that is an essential component of any ideal combat encounter to you.
>>181527> Isn't ending a fight with 10 HP fine?For you, I don't think it is. I don’t care, but I do not believe that you would actually have been as positive about that encounter if Posey’s HP did not go that low.
You are a power gamer. And what do power gamers want? Do they want to dominate over all of their foes? No. Do they want to win? I don’t think they do. Power gamers want to lose. Or more accurately, to almost lose; to just barely pull out a victory.
This game (was) level 5. The threats in the world are more or less designed to match that. When it was just your level-7 equivalent character I could try to adjust the encounters to meet your character's power and desired level of difficulty. The problem is that now Posey is within a party of other players who made characters that are balanced for level 6 except Garv apparently, who wants to protest the move to level 6. And those players don't necessarily prefer the same level of difficulty as you. I can try to accommodate this by increasing difficulty and having enemies target Posey more often than most characters, but we know this won't be enough. Either you'll have to suffer an easier game, or Posey must be nerfed. Pick one.
When I wrote that 1400 word "Why Posey Putting on the Crown Pissed Me Off" essay, one of the points was that the incident looked like you expressing boredom with the previous encounter (where Posey was supposed to take like 10 damage, but because you claimed 5 damage reduction took almost nothing), and deciding to toss an apple of discord into the room because it was more fun to you. It's hard for me to imagine this is not going to be an issue.
>>181530>Posey has only had between four and six serious encounters in this entire campaign: the equivalent to a single adventuring day.Okay, I just knew there was an issue.
You asked before how I feel about Diplomancers. There's a serious problem with resolving encounters by means of diplomacy, and that is that I know that every single time an encounter that is intended to be resolved by means of combat is resolved by means other than combat, it gets held against me. If I design a neat situation and have a set up for combat that makes sense in context (rather than just some ass pull "hey there's an outsider here") and then that situation gets resolved by diplomacy, then all of that time spent on that gets held against me, just "Hey GM why do you have so few combat encounters?"
You mentioned hating going three weeks going through a swamp with "no encounters." I very strongly suspect you're talking about when Posey encountered the ghosts. The ghosts were supposed to become hostile and attack Posey. Posey instead decided to befriend them and damn near pull a Silver. Then after that, Posey was supposed to walk along the road to circle around back to the destroyed bridge and get on a raft to go across. Along the way she was supposed to encounter giant bees, which I even foreshadowed with sound. But no, Posey wanted to just go the long way and backtrack. And was the conclusion of that section of the mission "hey, I'm glad I befriended these ghosts and Posey avoided more dangers on the road." No, it was "Why did GM waste my time for three weeks?"
Similar with the gnolls the first time that Posey went into the ghetto. This area was designed to be a high difficulty encounter area where significant, life-threatening combat could take place without doing too much to disturb the status quo of the factions in the region. I had this whole plan for an abandoned elementary school that had been turned into a strange kind of religious school for the Crocutta, and a larger battle inspired by the "Hornets Nest" mission of Modern Warfare 2 with little references to it, and ultimately drawing in the Anarchists and Occupier forces as well in a battle. But no, Posey did an admittedly pretty clever Ghostbusters shtick and felt sorry for the widow, so she never provoked anything, and ultimately decided she wanted to apparently try to befriend the gnolls. I'm sure that this is also counting against me, because I didn't force them to go hostile. Am I supposed to nerf the power of friendship in a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fanfiction? I'm trying, but setting up encounters that are actually sensible in the world is not easy.
>>181585>She behaves the way she does because the country she hails from is a strange place.Bro come on, you know what he and I are talking about. No one is complaining that the character is silly. The problem is she doesn't respect the world around her.
>>181572>The WHOLE PARTY would LIKELY LOSE if facing Rosey.Dust solos her, give me backup and the fight maybe lasts 3 turns. Maybe.
>>181588Shush, we'll get into that later
>>181587>“why Posey being OP is in fact a bad thing”I didn't really ask that.
The only reason I need for that was that it upsets you.
What I asked were what issues I caused, and how I could fix them.
>When you mentioned liking instances of combat that have occurred this far, you mentioned two. The fight against Luminous, and the fight against the Hydra.I called out these two because they were my favorites, not because they were the only ones I liked. I liked all of these encounters.
>LuminousThe assassination of Luminous was the first fight that directly contributed to the cause of Posey's faction, and it actually felt like Posey had a sense of direction as an emissary of the league. It was also the first time that Posey had killed a Paladin, after the truce with August.
>HydraPosey mentioned that she always wanted to fight a hydra. Meeting one when she was underleveled came as a surprise, but also a challenge that she wasn't going to back down from because it was part of her equestrian dream, even though she couldn't actually make a zombie out of it.
It was also one of the few actual d&d monsters Posey has fought.
>gangstersI had fun with that too. It was a power fantasy moment, making them run away in fear, and being a monster that could be stabbed in the heart and ask for more was part of that fantasy.
>You did not mention the fight against the dire wolvesThat was fun, but it only lasted like one round.
It was actually more of a roleplay challenge to me, as Posey accidentally revealed her immortal nature to Luminous as a consequence for her DR and healing factor in that fight.
>fight inside of the cavernI fumbled that encounter... I didn't understand the situation and ended up ignoring key parts of it, even though they should have been interesting to Posey.
>part of the combat against AugustI've mentioned that before, haven't I? That was the setup for a recurring antagonist.
>the fight against the diamond dogsThis wasn't my proudest encounter because I felt like I made Posey break character there, entering a home* uninvited, in broad daylight, over a river... But I did enjoy making them flee in fear; it felt very villainous.
However, sicking the ghasts on them as revenge for getting in Posey's way was really fun, even though Posey did not participate in that fight.
>against the pantherThe panther fight was Posey embarrassingly losing grapple checks for three rounds against a cat before finally scaring it off. I do appreciate a good random encounter, but it wasn't exactly special.
>the last fight against the griffinsWe just had it. We all experienced it. I didn't think it needed to be mrntioned
It was fun, and it involved teamwork. Posey tanked 20 points of damage and disarmed the enemy. Silver took care of the dog after being informed by Posey's check that silver worked on it. Kira grappled rec so Posey could snatch the tiara.
>Because in those two fights. Posey’s health was reduced to a single hp (or something close to that, anyways) and that is an essential component of any ideal combat encounter to you.Not really. I like fights that are memorable and give me a chance to use my abilities. I also like encounters that advance the story.
Posey's main method of attack is Fear. Most of her spells are fear based. I like making weaklings flee in fear.
And I know I didn't mention the less-intense fights, but in my defense they were a year ago.
>I don't think it isIt is though. That sums up the majority of my encounter experience in 3.5e. That's what the DMG recommends.
>I don’t careAre you sure, because you sound like you care.
I just offered to cut 16 of Posey's HP. Do you persony want that? I wonder do it if you don't actually care.
>I do not believe that you would actually have been as positive about that encounter if Posey’s HP did not go that low.
No, that's not true. I liked those encounters because they were glorious, not because Posey almost died. I like slaying powerful foes, whether or not they go to low HP.
>Do they want to dominate over all of their foes?
Posey is a dominatrix: she is supposed to be dreadful and feared. I based her on the shite horse of Conquest. Dominating over all of Posey's foes is exactly what I want. I'm still waiting to enact changeling genocide.
>Do they want to win?
Losing is dying. I don't mind character death, but I do like winning, leaving up, and getting cool treasure.
>Power gamers want to lose. Or more accurately, to almost lose; to just barely pull out a victory.
I've met a lot of power gamers, and this isn't necessarily the best way to put it.
Powergamers like to have their power vindicated, to crush enemies well above their weight because they played so well, but that doesn't mean they don't like regular encounters. Power gaming is about power fantasy: I know many gamers who get frustrated when the GM flubs monster stats to make them more challenging, because it gets in the way of their power fantasy (I'm not one of those powergamers, but I also don't really consider myself that high on the power gaming scale when it comes to the 3.5e community).
>level-7 equivalent character
A lvl 7 equivalent spellcaster would be able to cast animate dead...
>The problem is that now Posey is within a party of other players who made characters that are balanced for level 6 except Garv apparently, who wants to protest the move to level 6. And those players don't necessarily prefer the same level of difficulty as you.
This is a sentiment I understand and appreciate. This is why I offered to nerf her sheet and asked for specifics for what kind of combat you want.
>Either you'll have to suffer an easier game
I am actually fine with this. I thought it was you who wanted her to be nerfed.
I'll take back the immunities and the DR too, if it wasn't your concern. My enjoyment isn't really an issue here. I made Posey with intent for her to take over the world: winning isn't an issue for me.
>or Posey must be nerfed
I only offered to further nerf her because you expressed discontent with her character. I was doing it to appease you, not because the game isn't hard enough.
I don't even like the nerfs that already happened: I liked my undead traits. I liked my immunity to crits. I liked my immunity to mind-affecting. I liked my DR5 Silver or Magic. Playing the unkillable zombie was part of my fantasy; I have a foot in the grave irl, I like roleplaying the pseudo-vampire who doesn't fear death. The only reason why I offered to make more changes was because you sounded like you wanted me to.
>Pick one.
I'll gladly pick the former. I asked what it was that you wanted.
>I know that every single time an encounter that is intended to be resolved by means of combat is resolved by means other than combat, it gets held against me
That's not really how I meant it at all, I don't mean to hold it against you. There's lots of way to resolve encounters (all of which should give XP, but we're not using XP...)
>Hey GM why do you have so few combat encounters?
Well, I did think this was going to be a war game when I entered...
>You mentioned hating going three weeks going through a swamp with "no encounters."
You misunderstand. At the time, I was expressing frustration at the irl wait between the encounters. There were five encounters in that adventuring day, which is more then enough, but the irl wait between them kind of killed the hype.
Tbh, it's not actually that big of an issue. I was just really frustrated at the time.
>ghosts
I'll be real with you: Posey is going to try to make every undead creature she encounters her friend. She befriended Baka, she befriended the ghosts, she'll try to befriend the ghouls. All dead ponies are frens. That's her thing.
>hey, I'm glad I befriended these ghosts and Posey avoided more dangers on the road
Actually, I am glad to have ghostly frens.
>Gnolls
Yeah, I'm sorry I skipped that... Gnolls are dog-like though, and Posey likes dogs, so Gnolls are frens.
Also, I believed that Agire and the witch were allies of the Dread League, so their frens are my frens
>I'm trying, but setting up encounters that are actually sensible in the world is not easy.
Yeah, sorry.
There's some urban random encounter tables for you to roll, if you're interested.
>The problem is she doesn't respect the world around her.
Posey also fucking hates the world around her and considers herself to be above it and that she is destined to destroy it all. I thought I made that clear when I made her.
I could change her though.
And all of this aside, I still have unanswered questions for what I can do to fix her.
Let me interrupt with the D20 Past rule book. Carry on.
>>181592Okay, a small portion of my rant
You said you "feel like your character is not being taken seriously" because several of Posey's powers that you've sprung on me are things I had no idea her character was supposed to have.
Well I went through and reread her character sheet, and it is not easy to understand. I see that there is 2/ damage reduction. I see the stats. I don't see "immune to mind altering abilities" and "damage reduction 5."
I was fully aware of your character's HP, dark vision, charm, damage reduction 2, natural armor, and several other things, because these were talked about in thread, or were clearly readable on the character sheet. I am not bullshitting you when I say that when you mentioned damage reduction 5 for the very first time in one of the big fights - I think it was the fight against Luminous - I very seriously thought that it was you pulling something out of your ass in an attempt to reduce the difficulty of a very hard fight. Please remember that my immediate response was "Not just no, but Hell no." For this entire year and a half I have assumed the damage reduction was 2. When you claimed on Saturday, after the fight against the griffins had concluded, that she in fact has DR 5, this was my first time to learn about it in a year and a half.
I suppose what I'm supposed to do is to take every trait or feature, put it into bing, and hope that the articles that come up are relevant to what you're claiming? Are you aware that every time I type in keywords for whatever obscure thing you are talking about, I usually get three similar things that are not the same thing, and I just have to guess what you are talking about? This is not an issue I have with anyone else's character.
Like with your Nightstalker character. You said you wanted a "Night Stalker." What the fuck is a Night Stalker? So I searched it, and immediately I found an article with the exact class you were talking about. But I didn't just find that. I also found an article talking about Night Stalker as a type of vampire. And you didn't clarify that when you said "Night Stalker" that you were referring to a class and not a race. You didn't say it was a ghoul until later, so I did not know. I was very much not at all enthusiastic about the suggestion of any kind of literal vampire because 1. serial killing is a No for me, and 2. Blood drainage is a
hard no for me because of my vasovagal reaction where literally just talking about it will literally reduce the blood flow to my limbs and probably eventually cause me to faint. So you mentioned a "nightstalker" character, and for some time I'm just left sitting and wondering if you were intentionally going to ignore a hard line I set in the game.
Part 2 of “why does it matter if Posey is OP?”
In order for the GM to create a problem for the player to solve, the Player Character must perceive and react as if there were a problem
So something you must have noticed is the absence of traditional puzzles. I don’t think that Uncharted style puzzles are very realistic. And the amount of effort it would take for me to think of them is greater than the reward. So then, how do I make puzzles for the player characters to solve? Simple: Combat must itself be a puzzle, as well as non-combat encounters and elements that rely on potential danger to the player.
My best ever execution of this was with Silver in a flashback dream sequence: the battle of Vale. In that, Silver Sword had to destroy multiple fortified machine gun emplacements guarded by teams of changeling rifleman. So, how do you do that? Do you charge right into MG42 fire? Well, no. obviously not. You don’t charge right into machine gun fire in real life, and you don’t even do it in fiction. No, a machine gun emplacement is a problem. You have to get creative with the solution. In context this meant creatively going around to flank and surprise from another building, attempting to find grenades and get close, and using a mortar.
Basically, I create an obstacle, and the players must get around it. Think of walls in a labyrinth to direct the person using it. To do that, something must be impassable or otherwise stop proceeding. A locked door, a military check point or what have you. And especially in combat situations, this means some kind of threat that cannot be directly attacked without an unacceptable degree of danger to the character. The easiest way to communicate “try to find a different way” is for there to be a threat posed to the character. This entire process is as essential to the game as combat or roleplay, and basically forms a third core of the game.
So when Posey does not have any kind of sense of danger… It kind of makes playing the game impossible. When a character is both so resilient that not much threatens her it’s hard to make obstacles. And when a character is suicidal, she does not even perceive an intended obstacle as an obstacle. Like literally what am I as a GM supposed to do? How am I supposed to handle a character that does not perceive a problem that is intended to be solved as a problem? Like if I had an MG42 nest against Posey, she’d just attack it head on. She’d either destroy it or die trying. What she would not do is engage with the puzzle I have created for her. Posey would not acknowledge there was even a problem to be solved. She would think, first of all “Oh I’m invincible” and not acknowledge the threat. She would then think “Well why does dying matter anyways?” and not acknowledge the downside of losing. And if she won but almost lost, she would think “Well pain is good” and just not alter her behavior.
This is a trio of overlapping traits of Posey’s character that make her not really work with many types of puzzles. Arrogance makes her not acknowledge risk. Suicidal Ideation makes her not acknowledge downsides, which is a part of risk, and masochism means that she will not learn from mistakes. Imagine a mouse in a laboratory in in a maze, incentivized by electrical shocks. Imagine that mouse did not learn anything at all from the shocks, and barely perceived them. You might kill that mouse by slow electrocution. The mouse might just sit at the starting point. What is not going to happen is that mouse successfully completing the maze. Just as people who cannot feel pain are at serious risk of biting their tongues off or losing limbs to injuries, Posey might miss puzzles altogether.
This admittedly is not a character sheet problem. If Posey were impervious to the concept of danger, this would be a problem even if she were as weak as Brie, she’d just get herself killed. If Posey were as cowardly as Kira, even if she were as powerful as… you evidently intended her to be, this would be a complete non-issue. She’d just not die.
It’s not that Posey being cocky and fond of combat is necessarily a bad thing. I just want her to act like she thinks that there are some things in the world that she doesn’t particularly need to fuck with. And you can definitely play cocky and bloodthirsty well. Let me quote my original rant:
“The thing is, there are actually ways of playing your character’s traits that are not disruptive and actually rather compelling. Take the end of the briefing sequence. Posey is telling Shoal Water confidently that there won’t be any kind of issue, she can accomplish the mission. This is the product of her cockiness, and it works really well here. Brie, meanwhile, confronts Shoal Water about there being something he isn’t telling them, and then tells the other characters that there is some hidden danger. This is the product of Brie’s paranoia and cynicism, and it works beautifully. Both of you can play your characters basically in the way you envisioned them, without interrupting the whole flow of the game for everyone else”
My other point here is going to need to be a separate post.
>>181596No comment, hust saying halfway through I heard it in Critical Drinker. Not a criticism.
>>181595>You said you "feel like your character is not being taken seriously"GM, when I said that, it was an emotional response when I expressed exasperation about you seeming surprised about the immunities that appeared in the SRD: the crit immunity and the kind affecting immunity. I was exasperated at the time because you seemed surprised, when those immunities are listed under "undead traits" in the monster manual, and at the time I was frustrated because I was questioning if you knew what Undead Traits are in the core game. That emotion did not extend to anything else on Posey's sheet.
I would never expect you to keep track of everything on Posey's sheet: that's my job. I only expected basic knowledge of PHB/MM materials, like the undead traits, not anything else. I wouldn't blame you for retroactively nerfing something from an obscure splatbook that you didn't know about, but at the time I was frustrated when you seemed surprised at the mind affecting immunity.
I would understand your frustration when Posey uses splat abilities, but also you haven't really complained about any of the splatbooks abilities I have used. You did complain about the undead traits and the HP, which are a combination of core materials and my class. That was why I was frustrated at the time I wrote that.
>>181596So I see the issue is that Posey's play style makes it difficult for you to write challenges.
I offered to cut abilities off of Posey and cut down her HP, but what you seem to express here is the product of who she is as a character: her gung-ho, brute force, archaic berserker warlord mindset. I could rewrite her as a character, if you wish.
Posey is goal-oriented, she's all about conquest and domination. She'll do anything to meet her goals, but she's flawed because her mindset is an archaic, medieval one where brute force and magical power solves everything: that was supposed to be a flaw in her character that makes her not a mary sue.
> Just as people who cannot feel pain are at serious risk of biting their tongues off or losing limbs to injuries, Posey might miss puzzles altogether.Posey is always looking for the big cheese. Her existence is inherently horrible, but she dreams of a higher destiny, one where she conquers Equestria. To Posey, she's desperate to meet that end, because her "life" is hardly worth living without it, which is why she's willing to risk total destruction to meet her goals.
She does have her Gloomy to come home to, which is her one motivation to not throw her life away, although in reality Gloomy might be better off without the evil sorceress controlling his life...
>So, how do you do that? Do you charge right into MG42 fire? Well, no. obviously not. You don’t charge right into machine gun fire in real life, and you don’t even do it in fiction. No, a machine gun emplacement is a problem. You have to get creative with the solution. In context this meant creatively going around to flank and surprise from another building, attempting to find grenades and get close, and using a mortar.This is how I handled it after the fight with luminous, after I realized that running through it wasn't an option. The only reason I even considered running through it was because I wasn't aware of the underground tunnel.
But all this aside, can I do to my character sheet for you to be satisfied? I offered to remove 16 HP and some abilities, but from the way you say it idk if that would fix anything. Posey with 16 less HP would still be Posey. I like Posey as she is, but I am open to change her. What do I do to her?
>This admittedly is not a character sheet problem. If Posey were impervious to the concept of danger, this would be a problem even if she were as weak as Brie, she’d just get herself killed. If Posey were as cowardly as Kira, even if she were as powerful as… you evidently intended her to be, this would be a complete non-issue. She’d just not die.So you're saying it's how I play her? What should I do differently? Make her act more afraid?
I'm really tired. I have a lot of cooking to do tomorrow. I have to sleep. I can't actually respond seriously because I have had almost no sleep for the past week, but I'm trying.
>>181598First of all, you should sleep and take care of yourself now. I think that every player has had moments of anxiety regarding this game and what to do next. Don't let it wear you out.
>I offered to cut abilities off of Posey and cut down her HP, but what you seem to express here is the product of who she is as a character: her gung-ho, brute force, archaic berserker warlord mindset. I could rewrite her as a character, if you wish.>Posey is goal-oriented, she's all about conquest and domination. She'll do anything to meet her goals, but she's flawed because her mindset is an archaic, medieval one where brute force and magical power solves everything: that was supposed to be a flaw in her character that makes her not a mary sue.>Posey is always looking for the big cheese. Her existence is inherently horrible, but she dreams of a higher destiny, one where she conquers Equestria. To Posey, she's desperate to meet that end, because her "life" is hardly worth living without it, which is why she's willing to risk total destruction to meet her goals. >She does have her Gloomy to come home to, which is her one motivation to not throw her life away, although in reality Gloomy might be better off without the evil sorceress controlling his life...An easy solution would be to introduce character development to change some part of that. Character development, however, doesn't come out of the ether. What circumstances could arise in the game that would have her change her behavior enough that this issue isn't a problem? As of right now Gloomy's existence isn't enough to prevent her from throwing her life away, or at least it seems so.
Mechanically I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with Posey
except that charming NPCs should be met with sense motive checks, or whatever check is relevant. Narrowing down this conflict to roleplay style makes it much easier to remedy and represents a good amount of progress. It's probably been stressful for you and felt like being on trial, but it'll get better from here.
Sleep well, little poner.
>>181598I could and likely ultimately will write another 1000+ words in what I perceive as a problem, but really, I only want one thing. Just one single thing.
I want you and your character to take certain, very specific, very high level threats seriously, and not treat them as jokes, because it’s
extremely disheartening when you treat them as jokes.
A fortified machine gun emplacement one level up, 100 feat away, and with eight riflemen all with readied actions for a surprise round. The literal Swamp Fever from the show that spawned the entire “Infection UA” thing. A hand grenade exploding right in your face when this situation is easily avoidable and isn’t necessary. A curse of unknown and certainly ancient origins. I’d kind of like to add any kind of spell that has
a small risk of exposing Posey’s secret to the Paladin and undead-hunting cleric in the room. That’s it. That’s all I want. I want these things to not be treated as jokes or not seriously. I want just a couple things in my world - just a few very specific things - to be considered seriously as something your character shouldn’t dance around with as “lol I don’t need to give a shot about anything because I’m invincible! Look at how irreverent I am towards the GM’s world building and scenarios! Isn’t that funny? Everyone laugh, it’s funny.” I just want these literally not even a half dozen things to be taken seriously. When they are treated as jokes, it’s extremely disrespectful, it’s extremely disheartening, and it’s extremely angering.
If the one and only way I can make you and your character ask themselves the question “do I
need try to tank a hand grenade?” is by forcing you to play Posey with Brie’s level of defenses, then that’s what I will do. If I could get you and posey to just take my game seriously and
not these specific things and things like them
without any kind of nerfing, then I might be persuaded to not nerf, so long as you also stopped flexing on the other, weaker player characters out of character.
>>181599>character developmentAsshole bat here, this is what Ive been working on, fwiw. When I set out to revamp Brie I was all "this is how he is, isnt it funny?"
It wasnt funny apparently,.... and since then Ive been looking to trim off uneven/jagged edges. Unfortunately, the jagged edges that are more pressing seem to come from the player. Fpr Brie, it's not about ammending stats pr anything, it's about changing my idea of his personality so that hes NOT such an asshole, but IS still himself.
You wanna know how I would nerf Posey? Well here's the following
First, taking away the temp stats (the specific ones you mentioned) is a damn good first step. The HP specifically doesn't bother me all that much per se, but combined with damage reduction and an absurdly high AC, it is way too high
Second, I could write an essay on why 5 damage reduction is absurd, but if you want to cut to the chase, I think that 5 damage reduction is absurd. I have approved 2 damage reduction in the past and I stand by that
I think that Posey's AC is absurdly high. +2 Natural AC is overpowered and you know it. You know that natural AC is by far and away the best, as it stacks and has no penalty. I think the best way to nerf this is to say that Posey cannot wear a dastana, and cannot be said to be making use of any kind of shield that is never mentioned in roleplay and exists only when you're trying to claim that an attack does not land against Posey. I'm sure there's a good argument to be made for Dastanas to be allowed for Tenebrous or Brie or whomever, but they don't have +2 Natural AC. This reduces Posey's AC but allows her to keep her +2 Natural AC. Posey is only allowed to have the AC she gets from dexterity, the natural AC, her armor, and from spells, feats, and shields that are actually mentioned.
The spell resistance... you know that no one else has spell resistance, right? No other character has ever claimed spell resistance. Not Dark Star, not Brie, not Silver Sword, not Amber, not Virgin Flame, not Spark, not Garv, not Onyx, not Tenebrous, not Kira. Not even retired characters like Ash, Iron, Fantasy Play, or Midnight Lily. Are you really going to try to make me, every time a spell is used in combat, stop the game, go back to the wiki, try and figure out spell casting level, come back, roll for that, and then proceed to actually play combat? Combat is horrifically slow on PBP as it is, and it's bad enough that you have already overloaded your character with Initiative hax to basically ensure that you go first and everyone else has to wait; it's unfair to the other players to make them wait for this as well. I know the solution is that I should try to figure out all of that stuff before hand and have it ready, but that's a hell of a lot of prep to cater to a very specific hax you want. I have a job, I have some of my family still alive, I have IRL friends, I like to travel. I'd rather spend my prep time on this game doing something else that benefits the other players as well and is actually fun for me.
Critical hits - after thinking about it, I think the best way to handle this is to say that Posey is on notice that enemies that have training on the Undead - Paladins, specific kinds of clerics (like Defiant Dust), and pages and auxiliaries of Chruch Militant Orders - can crit Posey. No one else can.
Immunity to Mind Altering Enchantments - you know that Undead were intended to be enemies, right? They were intended to reduce the number of ways that Players could respond to them to force players to be creative. They were not intended to nerf GMs and other players engaging in PVP. I don't like this one at all. At. All. It goes.
Immunity to sneak attack - I'm going to say that Brie can sneak attack Posey just because it pisses me off that you are flexing on other player characters with "lol my character is entirely immune to literally the only decent attack feature your class has." Fuck you, don't mock my decision to let you play the character you wanted by mocking other player characters for following the handbook. I'm also ruling that rogues and assassins can sneak attack Posey if they know that she's undead and they have training from a Church Militant organization on how to handle undead. That's an extremely specific and rare circumstance, but I am uncomfortable with saying that it can't happen.
Posey's absurd bluff bonus - I'm nerfing this by saying that other party members get a +2 circumstance bonus to Posey's bullshit, because they have been around her for a while now and they see how much of a weirdo she is. This does not apply to NPCs (besides Mala).
That's pretty much it
>>181602>sneak attacksWhile I appreciate the consideration, theres no reason I would want Brie to sneak/regular attack Rosey. I dont communicate well. Seemingly all this started when I reacted poorly to Posey trying to charm Brie early on, and Ive had a chip on my shoulder. Ive thought of a half dpzen ways I could have handled it better and hopefully I will have a comparable resolve if my jimmies get rustled in the future.
I never wanted or want any actual actual pvp (though I do like the occasional RP scrap in character :3)
Okay but I don't think we're answering the biggest question about Posey.
Is banging her necrophilia?
>>181601applaudsI like Brie much better now.
>>181602>spell resistanceI'm fine with her keeping spell resistance. There are ways to make it go by faster, such as printing out the attributes of this spell resistance to have it on hoof, or keeping those tabs open. A core mechanic shouldn't be axed just because only one character is using it for now. Other characters might get items that provide spell resistance. Spells aren't even used in combat all that much.
>I know the solution is that I should try to figure out all of that stuff before hand and have it ready, but that's a hell of a lot of prep to cater to a very specific hax you want. I have a job, I have some of my family still alive, I have IRL friends, I like to travel. I'd rather spend my prep time on this game doing something else that benefits the other players as well and is actually fun for me.Maybe Posey's player could send you a document giving you all the information needed? This is what should have been done when Posey was first conceived, and it's recommended in the Dungeon Master's Guide. I will be brutally honest and say that you dropped the ball when it comes to "A good DM will always know the following facts about the characters in his or her game." This ignorance stemmed from ignorance of source material and Posey's player should have just given you all the information. The guide also has good advice regarding balancing PCs, and resolving all this out-of-character should have been done a while back.
>other nerfsThey look reasonable to me, but let's wait on what Posey's player says. Behavior towards serious danger is the one crucial thing that must change.
>>181605Only if you know her secret.
>>181606>Only if you know her secretTo that end
>>181588The only way EVERYPONE doesnt die in 3 rounds ish, is if they know her secret and have the right spells. And thats without the crown on, where everyone more or less dies almost if not instantly.
I kinda figured out what the crown does, thats why I deep dove into Rosie's character sheet. What I do know combined with what Rosie has listed is a party wipe. Thats why GM was so upset when Rosie went "Should I or shouldn't I, too late I did"
I hail from the same school, Im not criticizing.
Iut, thats also why I went ham on the letter of rules vs spirit, etc.
There was something GM said in the previous that gave me an orgasm hearing it said nicely but effectively. I would have pointed it out but didnt want to interrupt. I cant find it now, likely for the best; suffice it to say GM has effectively addressed my last prevailing concern.
I dont mind Posey getting nerfed, I dont mind them NOT. I'm cool with Posey using le ebil crown to become uberest of
bliches later on in her own time, and coming back for a later mission hovering on a shimmering field of magical energy.
All of my concerns (real or imagined) could have been solved by Posey partnering with GM on their personal shenanigens, so that GM can
1. Write it non disruptivrly to the ongoing story
2. Advise player about how to effectively do the thing, and if they can't, why
3. Veto anything that for whatever reason is unacceptable
4. Explain to me/others what is happening, why, and how we are expected to gp with it. As a basic example, being demanded to make a saving throw and being condescended is not a good way to start some tomfoolery, and not having GM already aware of what is happening so that he can indicate that in spite of appearances player ISNT just being a dick,....
The impression I get is that nerfing Posey would be functional in making things easier on GM, which Im in favor of. Otherwise, I would advocate for keeping things as is.
>>181608>right spellsDust's whole build is undead killing. Spells, feats, etc. He's very efficient with it. Zeeb with just Kira I think could take her down pretty effectively. He might need Silver instead? Idk.
But the real real question. Is she cold or is she using some funky magic to keep it warm inside?
The thing about Brie and the transitional intent behind this mission:
When I first came back, I was proposing a scenario to GM where Brie was facilitating the Changeling boys going on a serial killing spree on the aristocratic pedos in government/politics, that the other players could murder mystery through. I assume thats why he later declared that serial killing was a hard hard:3 no.
His response at the time was a paraphrased: "Uhm, how about this mission Im about to send them on...."
Brie's asshole personality is a function of his upbringing, where being an asshole and getting under skin was essential for survival; but it isnt anymore, and its becoming more of a liability than an amusement/strategy. I'm actively seeding GM with ideas that he may be interested in introducing that may circumstantially assist, but as I learn/see the story develop I am increasingly impressed that I should just shut up and let it happen.
>>181609When she seduced August Wreath she had to take a hot shower to raise her body temperature, so she is naturally cold to the touch.
>>181610Serial killing probably would have been approved if it was directed at random ponies and lowlifes. When it starts affecting the whole region's government is when the chance for derailment is high. Don't get me wrong, I would love some Dishonored gameplay in here, but I can see why he decided against it.
>>181611Yeah, but if he cant about blood, obvious no go
>>181612His limit is explicitly exsanguination. The scene at the sealers' camp has a shack with blood covering the floor. Regular portrayals of blood are fine, so are dead bodies. Vampire stuff is just a no-go.
>>181613Well, I have several plans - beyond even the serial killing changelings idea - that involve Dexter-like scenes, but I'm gonna assume thats not gonna fly
And when I say "plans", what I mean is "story elements, themes, and probable events based on temperment and likelyhood of circumstance". The only LEGIT plan is Brie getting his CM
>>181605It makes you a necrophile, but it's only necrophilia as a condition if you know and are into it. Having fapped to skelenore with a fleshlight,... (I dont have the img anymore, though its somewhere in mixed nuts)
>>181611So its warm when she likes you (or wants something)
>>181605...
BOI
You go in time out!
>>181606Posey's spell resistance is known. It's 17. What varies is the specific caster level of every individual enemy. That must be calculated for ever enemy that uses magic, and then a spell caster roll must be made for the application of said magic against Posey with DC 17.
>I will be brutally honest and say that you dropped the ball when it comes to "A good DM will always know the following facts about the characters in his or her game."no u
>>181610>I assume thats why he later declared that serial killing was a hard hard:3 no.That's not what I mean by serial killing. I basically mean murder hoboing or otherwise killing with murder itself being the goal and not as a means to an end.
>>181611>Serial killing probably would have been approved if it was directed at random ponies and lowlifes.Actually it's pretty much the exact opposite.
I don't know why and I don't know how to explain it, but going into video games and killing random NPCs for the lulz has always pissed me off. A large number of adult cartoons think that killing people is intrinsically funny and I have no idea why; it's a mood killer for me. Death is not funny.
Having an "Assassin's Creed" style plot to kill off very specific members of the aristocracy who, may it be known, are all child rapists, is much more understandable.
>When it starts affecting the whole region's government is when the chance for derailment is high.Technically it's sort of a follow up to a plot line that was implied after the Comte and Blackwood Pier missions where the Blackhooves was looking to replace the SDP as the government of Baltimare. However, that plot point has since been on hold and things have remained mostly the same so far.
>>181613>>181612The primary trigger of my, or most people's, blood-injury phobia is hypodermic needles. I cannot stand IVs, I avoid needles as much as possible, and blood draws especially are a trigger. I' not a super fan of cuts or bleeding more generally, it is true. To use an example from the game that stood out, Posey bit her lip in order to draw blood
Pony and human teeth aren't even very sharp, that's a lot of crushing. Gah under the theory it would be sexy to the Goat priest she was trying to seduce. It's not a trigger, but I can certainly say that however sexy it was to him (not enough apparently, she didn't make the DC 15 I set) it certainly wasn't for me.
>>181618
>>u dropped the ball
>no u
Not to glaze, but this. Theres more at play, and its not as simple as it seems. Suffice it to say, depending on how a character is presented to a GM, theres lots of room for NOT-bad-faith lack of oversight.
>no unwanton murder esp of the less fortunate
My man
For the audience, the Kerr and Wesley serial-killing would be specific to pedophile politicians in league with Comte (y'all remember, or will get the tl;dr). The purpose was to begin the process of replacing significant politicians with Changelings, but eventually something would go awry and there would be an unintended/reported crime scene
The potential for a/the party would be to weed through one or more "replaced changeling" politicians, leading inexorably back to Brie and the Boys. Ostensibly, Brie would sacrifice his freedom (through incarceration) to enable the lings to escape. Obvs this wont happen with Bries intended change of perspective, but its what I was gonna work toward when I FIRST came back
How are you people saying that Posey would TPK this party? You all have magic weapons: you can bypass her DR.
All of her spells are debuffs or touch range melee attacks.
Would, a lvl 5-6 party, not being able to handle a single Vampire Spawn?
>>181600So it's a roleplay thing then.
I can roleplay differently.
>so long as you also stopped flexing on the other, weaker player characters out of characterI really only did that to discourage Brie's player from attacking me after he threatened to.
I only mentioned that feat grenades are low damage to settle the argument over who got how many.
>If I could get you and posey to just take my game seriously and not these specific things and things like them without any kind of nerfing, then I might be persuaded to not nerfMore of this is a product of Posey's personality and detachment from the world than it is her build, tbh.
I can fix that.
>First, taking away the temp stats (the specific ones you mentioned) is a damn good first step.I'll gladly do that, because it's a product of her mentors meddling, although I would like to reapply them when Posey gets to level 8 so she can do it to herself.
>>181602>The HP specifically doesn't bother me all that much per se, but combined with damage reduction and an absurdly high AC, it is way too highI'm willing to cut off the 16 bonus HP Posey got from her mentor.
I would really rather keep the Half Vampire DR, because it's something that I paid levels for, and it has been referenced in her roleplay quite a bit, such as with her aversion to silver and her wounds closing quickly.
To put it in perspective, the majority of encounters that are legitimate threats are going to have attacks that bypass DR/magic. Posey's protects her from being stabbed by low level thugs without magic weapons.
It's not serious, but consider the level cost I paid for it. Posey would be lvl 6 if not for her half vampire thing.
>I think that Posey's AC is absurdly high. +2 Natural AC is overpowered and you know it.At the cost of 2 character levels, I really don't think so, tbh... Look at other races with high natural armor.
Wouldn't removing the Dex bonus be enough? That would be -2 AC
>You know that natural AC is by far and away the best, as it stacks and has no penalty.I would actually say that deflection, insight, dodge and luck bonuses are better, but that's just my opinion.
>dastanaPosey's dastana are made of the slave shackles that she wore as a filly, so I would be sad to remove them...
>cannot be said to be making use of any kind of shieldPosey is not proficient in shields, and cannot reliably cast spells when holding them.
>The spell resistance...Yeah, I'll cut that. It has never been relevant, but I'll cut it.
I'll cut everything she got from spellstitching, because tbh I would rather Posey pay the costs to spellstich herself at a later level. Losing unseen servant and floating disk would be sad, but maybe she could just do more tricks with her horn magic?
>try and figure out spell casting levelNgl, that's something you should know even without SR involved.
I'll still remove it along with the rest of spellstitching though.
>Critical hits - after thinking about it, I think the best way to handle this is to say that Posey is on notice that enemies that have training on the Undead - Paladins, specific kinds of clerics (like Defiant Dust), and pages and auxiliaries of Chruch Militant Orders - can crit Posey. No one else can.Reasonable. Paladins and Clerics have a lot of feats, features and spells that let them crit undead anyway.
>Immunity to Mind Altering EnchantmentsI'm actually more than willing to cut this, as it was one of the weaknesses I was considering adding to Posey to offset her LA. Also, it makes a Ghostly Visage familiar redundant.
>Brie can sneak attackWe could also just buy him some Deathstrike bracers, for when he has to fight over kinds of undead.
I only "bragged" about it because I didn't want him to attack me and wanted to discourage such antics.
>Posey's absurd bluff bonus - I'm nerfing this by saying that other party members get a +2 circumstance bonus to Posey's bullshit, because they have been around her for a while now and they see how much of a weirdo she is. This does not apply to NPCs (besides Mala).This is what we call a circumstance bonus.
Tbh, I was sort of aiming for Posey's secret to gradually become a bit more apparent as the party grew to know her.
Posey's whole stick is that she hates the world because she has never been loved or appreciated in her entire torturous existence. How would she change if she were accepted for who she is?>That's pretty much itI think I'm still going to cut the spellstitching, because now that I scrutinize it a bit more, I think I misunderstood the WBL requirements.
Posey should have to buy it and apply it to herself.
I'll also gladly cut the 16 bonus HP, but I would like for you to reconsider the Natural armor and DR which I paid very real level costs for.
>>181619We should return to the Comte/Pier questline sometime
>>181629If Posey faces off against the whole party, final fantasy style, yes its debatable.
If Posey puts on a crown that grants mind-control to plebians, bodied instantly.
>>181633Yeah, its not just mind control.
Its mind control, and spells, and spell levels, and other things specific to your characters things theyre good at.
Posey is good at alot of things.
Alot alot of things.
Now you have an ish perspective of why no no no to the no no
>>181629Cavaliere doesn't have magic weapons (yet), neither does Brie. I don't know if any of Silver's weapons are magic, and I don't think Kira's bow is. Excluding Dust and Tenebrous, the party would probably win but it would be close if you didn't pull any punches.
It's terrific that we're close to an agreement.
>>181632yes
Ill even go a step further to suggest to Posey (the player) that Posey's interest in it might be a cursed compulsion
One that Rosey as a necrologist would detect and be mindful of
>>181603Thank you and sorry.
>>181605Yes.
But you've seen vampire romance stuff, right? Vampires are an inherently sexual trope.
>>181606>I'm fine with her keeping spell resistanceI'll cut the spell resistance anyway, and everything from spellstitching. I want to spellstich myself at lvl 8.
>Maybe Posey's player could send you a document giving you all the information needed?I can do something like this.
>The only way EVERYPONE doesnt die in 3 rounds ish, is if they know her secret and have the right spellsSilver could cut her on half in that many rounds. He has a magic weapon, and all of Posey's damaging spells are melee range. And that's assuming that Dust doesn't disintegrate her with a Turn on the first round.
The only thing about her that could seriously threaten the party is Kelgore's Grave most, but just because it would debuff them for long enough to have to long-rest after living her.
Could you not handle a vampire spawn? A regular vampire? You are a lvl 6 party. There's very little that Posey can do that similar CR monsters couldn't do.
>All of my concerns (real or imagined) could have been solved by Posey partnering with GM on their personal shenanigens, so that GM can>1. Write it non disruptivrly to the ongoing story>2. Advise player about how to effectively do the thing, and if they can't, why>3. Veto anything that for whatever reason is unacceptable>4. Explain to me/others what is happening, why, and how we are expected to gp with it. As a basic example, being demanded to make a saving throw and being condescended is not a good way to start some tomfoolery, and not having GM already aware of what is happening so that he can indicate that in spite of appearances player ISNT just being a dick,....I am okay with this.
>>181609>But the real real question. Is she cold or is she using some funky magic to keep it warm inside?Depends how much blood she has had recently.
Worth noting that how lifelike a katane or vampire appears is proportional to their charisma score, and Posey has a lot of charisma.
That's actually the reason why I chose to play a half vampire, before becoming undead.
>>181611>Serial killingIdk what the point of this would even be.
I love random encounters, but killing lvl 1 commoners for no reason isn't fun. I want encounters with treasure and purpose and level-ups.
Posey likes killing, but she didn't come to Equestria just to kill random noponies until she was eventually discovered and destroyed: she came for glory and conquest.
>>181619>Having an "Assassin's Creed" style plot to kill off very specific members of the aristocracy who, may it be known, are all child rapists, is much more understandableThis is why I liked the Luminous quest so much: it's killing with purpose.
Too bad there was no treasure.>blood-injury phobiaMaybe I haven't been respectful of your triggers with this blood-obsessed character who likes to get stabbed in the chest. I didn't understand the severity of your condition.
>>181620>theres lots of room for NOT-bad-faith lack of oversight.The only thing that stood out to me was the SRD immunities that I expected DM to already know about undead, but were then mentioned as unacceptable mid-combat.
>>181633The griffon didn't mind control us. Why would Posey have been significantly more dangerous?
>>181634Posey is a fixed list caster. There are no surprises:
https://srd.dndtools.org/srd/magic/spells/classSpellLists/dreadNecromancerSpells.html90% of her spells do some variation of the same three tricks (inflict wounds, fear debuff, summon monster).
Even her cerebrosis spells do that.
>Cavaliere doesn't have magic weapons (yet)What did you spend your 5k WBL on?
>BrieBrie has so many magic weapons that he gave away a +2 shortsword to an NPC.
>Silver's weapons are magicSilver's sword is magic.
Heck, if you want a magic weapon, you can borrow one of Posey's. She has two magic weapons.
>the party would probably win but it would be close if you didn't pull any punchesIt's really only Brie that's vulnerable with his low Fortitude and Will saves.
>>181639>the griffon didnt mind control usThere
A rube gained mind control
And infernal(?) Powers
He and his associates seem PANICKED at the idea that anyone would put on the crown
As a necrologist, by background (and Im building up cuz I know part of GM wants to go ha )
Posey simply wouldnt. She wouldn't.
>It's not serious, but consider the level cost I paid for it. Posey would be lvl 6 if not for her half vampire thing.>I would really rather keep the Half Vampire DR, because it's something that I paid levels forMaybe I do need to post the math. Does she
need to be 50% more resilient than the fighter? Is it not okay for her to be equal to the fighter?
>To put it in perspective, the majority of encounters that are legitimate threats are going to have attacks that bypass DR/magic. Posey's protects her from being stabbed by low level thugs without magic weapons.But that's what I want. That's exactly what I want. I want legitimate threats to be legitimate threats and minor threats to be minor threats. You're using a template that was designed to be used by Dungeon Masters as enemies against the party, not as player characters in relatively low level campaigns. These immunities and the DR make something like half of possible threats something she is immune to. That's not great for encounter design, especially in a party. It destroys diversity of encounters and the chance for encounters and enemies to arise diegeticly from the environment.
>At the cost of 2 character levels, I really don't think so, tbh... Look at other races with high natural armor.Wouldn't removing the Dex bonus be enough? That would be -2 AC
Did you read what I said? I said she should keep the +2 Natural Armor
>I would actually say that deflection, insight, dodge and luck bonuses are betterWhy are you like this? Insight, Deflection, Dodge, and Luck are not relevant to this conversation or to my analysis. No one here has that. I'm not here to argue "ACsHaUlY this specific thing in this book, page 409." I'm not in a goddamn competition with you over who knows more about D&D. I'm comparing the sources of AC the characters actually have, which is Dexterity, Armor, and here, Natural Armor. Specifically in contrast to Equipped Armor, which is relevant, Natural Armor is better.
>Posey's dastana are made of the slave shackles that she wore as a fillyI don't remember this being mentioned
>Ngl, that's something you should know even without SR involvedFuck off
>This is what we call a circumstance bonus.Yeah. Reread my words that you just quoted. I called it a circumstance bonus. Why do you have to sound like a redditor know it all who gets their corrections wrong?
>>181633>>181629You're missing the point.
By the time someone has put off the crown, the quest has gone off the rails and in a very unfun way. In a single player game, this is the point where I would reload a save. I never play these out to figure out what happens, I just know this is not the timeline I want to play on.
Posey, as a "professional" would be like "this is extrme shit, I know things they dont know, this is bad on many levels"
>>181641>by the time crownNo, my emphasis point. No
>>181641GM, by your response, I realize that I misfired these past two posts. I really shouldn't be going this while I'm cooking.
I changed Vir's ability scores as I'm making a proper character sheet for her. Here's the one that I have decided upon right now.
I think this is the final one.
>>181644It do be. But yeah, you also gotta admit when you fuck up. Good pone
>>181645What class did you decide on?