Dark Star has been contracted by the occupying government to lead a team to infiltrate and stop a meeting of the Communist party in Baltimare. He discovers that they are importing arms, and more importantly, special forces advisers from foreign nations. Things reach a literal boiling point when a warehouse of gasoline drums is set on fire, and now we will see who will live and who will die
Welcoming Silver, the unicorn fighter
1642 replies and 103 files omitted.
>>71760Kirins can become Niriks when enraged, which gives them fire immunity (although it apparently does not confer to equiptment..) and a 1d4 fire damage touch attack that can potentially set enemies on fire.
Not much for a caster, but pretty decent if combined with Wild Shape. Energy immunity is also one less thing to worry about when abjuring to protect those precious hit points.
I'd prefer to use that power sparingly though, since I made it part of her backstory that she dislikes doing it. Plus, it makes little sense for a pacifist nun (neutral; wannabe Neutral Good) to always be angry, so I'll reserve the fiery hooves for dire emergencies when innocents are in harm's way.
>>71763Was it like the attack on the wolf that almost killed you?
>>71764No. That was a spell.
She wasn't actually angry then either.
>>71765I had her prepare a few fire spells today, as a silent gesture of solidarity with the Celestians she was praying with, that particular one being Flaming
plot Sphere. Heat Metal is also a spell for Clerics with the Sun Domain, so I prepared that too; although Chill Metal probably would have been safer.
Probably shouldn't have spent Call Lighting, but I wanted to make sure he was spooked off. Not much experience in playing vancian spellcasters (lot of decisions).
>>71766Yeah, that's why I didn't even consider going for a magic user first time. The amount of decisions for those characters is leagues above all others.
>>71766Actually, now that I look at it, most of the Granted spells for the Sun domain are spells on the Druid spell list, some of which only appear there. Heat Metal, Fire Seeds, Sunburst, etc.
Druids do have that animism theme, worshipping the sun and elements and whatnot. Fire and Light are two of the few energy evecation elements they get.
>>71767Fighter is a pretty simple class to play. They can't do very many things, but they're really good at what they do, to which is to smack their enemies with huge weapons and deal crippling amounts of damage.
I kind of prefer versitile classes that can do a lot of different things, even if they're not the best at any of them. Druid is good too because they can give up their prepared spells for summoning spells, like when Sister Ash gave up WindWall to summon that Dire Wolf.
>>71769Yeah, I know that they are versatile, but I would haver never guessed that, for example, magic users had to prepare spells, since Skyrim and other RPGs just gave you how to do the spell and then you did it, using up some spiritual energy to do so. That is why I'm mostly afraid of playing a magic class since I'm sure that:
A- The character will be a lot more complex, and therefore, have to put in more research on how wizards works (Maybe that's why most wizards are long beard robe types)
B- I won't even be sure if I am playing correctly by combat guidelines. Some examples are how far can I be from a melee enemy so that it doesn't hit me or how does dice even work for spellcasters.
>>71770Not all magic users have to prepare spells. Sorcerers, Bards, and Assassins are core classes that are able to cast arcane spells without preparation: they're spontaneous casters. Sorcerers and the like are limited to a certain number of spells that they know: they're more reliable and versitile in combat since they can cast any of their spells spontaneously (and get a lot more spells per day), but there's less things that they can do altogether.
Wizards, Druids, Paladins, Rangers and Clerics have to prepare spells before they can cast them: they're vancian casters. They have pre prepare their spells in advance, means that the spells they have, and the number of each spell they can cast, is set at the beginning of the day (or whenever you pray, if you're a Divine caster). They're versitile, since they can cast different spells day by day (with limitations), but if they have to make decisions when preparing and consider what spells may or may not be useful for that day.
Pic unrelated
>>71771If we had to place unicorns in this spectrum, what do you think they would fit in?
I'm still pissed off from last night>>71762You're playing a fighter, which means that you get 24 skills in total if Iron's Int is 10 or 11, and 16 skills in total if Iron's Int is 9 or lower
>>71759A creature that can fly, and fly reasonably fast, is definitely not going to get positive stat modifiers where it will be used as a playable race
>>71737I'm not sure you understand. Blue Skies was intended to be the embodiment of the war philosophy of the local chapter of the Black Hooves. It's an entirely different philosophy to Iron's. Iron's philosophy seems to be something like strength alone determines hierarchy, while The Black Hooves believe that the only thing that matters to dominance is who actually wins and achieves power. And even an objectively weaker contender can win sometimes, if they are smart, advantaged, lucky, or manipulative. Neither she nor the Fascists would play by Iron's rules when they could just change the game. I could go on for a very long time about this, but I am not sure I want to "tell" what I had intended to show in game.
>>71751Much harder
>>71774There's no need to tell me OOC. Iron already has some rule bending to do too for his goals.
>FighterI was talking about the backup. I had like 72 skill points and forgot about the cutiemark thing.
>>71772If you meant by character class, it's not really that simple.
Unicorns in this game get +2 Int and -2 Str; which pretty much makes them the best at everything but two-handed melee (in my opinion).
From what I understand, most unicorns in Equestria aren't actually that powerful/magical. They seem to have a few spell-like abilities (their telekinesis is on par with Mage Hand), but only geniuses actually become powerful spellcasters; in that regard, they're a lost like gnomes. Twilight herself went to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns (the "gifted" word heavily implies sorcerous talent); and her obsession with books and study of magic makes her a quintessential Wizard (she even took Improved Familiar to have a Pseudodragon).
Most of the powerful spellcasters in the show seem to be Wizards to me, because of the presence of books and the emphasis on study. In fact, if Unicorns had a favored class, I'd say it should be Wizard.
>>71776So it's a mix. Problem is that they don't have to re-study a spell after using it, to my knowledge.
>>71777That's because FiM isn't D&D, and the showriters weren't really concerned with making their magic balanced (see: Glimmer fixing everything).
Twilight is definitely, absolutely a Wizard though. If she doesn't read at least one book every day, she'll die.
>>71778That's a hilarious drawback
>Can cast any spell indefinetly she after reading it but dies if she doesn't read a book for a day >>71778Also, with the Spell Mastery feat, Wizards can choose a one two of their favorite spells that they can prepare without consulting a book.
Sunburst and Starlight are also shown reading books in their studies of magic.
>>71779Twilight is a very powerful character. She may have taken some flaws to get some bonus feats. "Book dependency" and "literary anxiety" seem to be some drawbacks she took for extra power.
>>71780That's neat. I'll jot it down if I want to play a healer class myself.
>>71781Wizards/Sorcerers can't heal. That's the one thing they cannot do.
>>71782Nono, I don't want to do sorcerer. I'd rather go cleric and be a primary healer rather than shoot deadly lazors.
>>71783Clerics are useful. They can give up any of their prepared spells for healing spells. They don't get very many fancy lasers, but they get a lit of protective spells and buffs.
>>71784Maybe I can do another backup and choose cleric unicorn for the occasion.
>>71748>Only just saw this nowWait, she's being removed, entirely?
>>71786Maybe she comes back as another character. I think if I actually went and shot her, the GM would make sure that she dies in one hit.
>>71787That's what I was thinking (in hindsight).
Sister interfered because she believed that one of them was bound to die if they dueled with gunz, and she didn't want that
(as opposed to boxing/wrestling, which would be nonlethal), since she really didn't want anypony to die. She was rather brash with her words because she considers dueling to be foolish, which is actually related to her backstory. She even spent her Heat Metal Spell, which I had intended to use on the weapons of the remaining communists...
Maybe it wasn't so cool to mock her out of character though. She had some decent complexity.
>>71788Honestly, I might have the "That Guy" syndrome. I said it was a good character after she left anyway, just that Iron would not really respect her because he sees her as nothing more than a mare not fulfilling her role in view of the world.
>>71791>>71792Go tell a female Ghestapo or FBI agent that they are weak, that they don't have any value without a man, that they are terrible mothers, or that they are infertile and incapable of bearing children, and see how they respond
>>71792>>71791Correction. Go tell a female Ghestapo or FBI agent
who just saved your life, risking their in the process, after you tried and failed to sneak attack a guy with more muscles than you, that they are weak, that they don't have any value without a man, that they are terrible mothers, or that they are infertile and incapable of bearing children, and see how they respond
>>71794>>71793Ok, I get it, it was brash of me to say that through Iron.
>>71791Hmmmmmm, looks a bit like the militant feminist vs. the barbaric sexist archytypes...
It's kind of a given that PCs should at least try to get along with important NPCs, if a story is going to go smoothly.
>>71796I say it's a learning process. I chose my character to be basically a dick since he'll look for strength tests whenever possible, so it's going to be hard not to be one unless something or someone changes his ways somehow.
Promise I won't be a murderhobo though.
>>71797I wanted my character to be a politically neutral pacifist; although now it looks like she doesn't really have any motivations other than helping children, learning about Equestrian Clergy, and studying new forms of magick. I'll adjust her to be more helpful and convicted.
She's Nuetral as she is (but wants to get better): I wanted to aim her towards Netral Good as her motivations solidified.
All these characters with complex personalities, goals, and motivations.
And all Silver is worried about is employment.
>>71799My character is just a big boi that takes no shit from anybody unless they put their strength as well. He's basically a variation of a power fantasy. It's not really that complex.
>>71801What alignment were you thinking of playing?
>>71802Was thinking of neutral or neutral evil. Although I think I'm acting more lawful than I should for my alignment.
>>71803He seems more Chaotic Neutral,from what I've absorbed. He fits a British Barbarian archytype pretty well.
>>71804Although it depends what you want to consider law/chaos as.
>>71804Law as in codes of honor and stuff of the sort, something like "respect wahmen" and "fight fair, hoof to hoof"
>>71805>>71806The most I know about alignments just comes from the few times I've seen alignment charts, but I think I've gotten a good idea of what each one means despite that.
>>71798>Tfw if I become Nuetral Good I lose 3 summons and 6 spellsMeh, no big deal. I was prepared for alignment restrictions when I chose to play a divine caster. I originally thought of her as a purely good, unwavering exalted character, but I think I put her s bit too high and mighty so I switched her up a bit
(admittingly, because I couldn't take the feat I wanted).
That being said, I'm only just calling her Nuetral because she herself believes she hasn't done enough to be considered good. She knows that assisting the poor and raising children is a universal virtue, so she committed herself to that cause for the sake of helping herself; however, she hasn't really attained any motivations to fight evil yet, because she herself isn't sure of her own convictions. I want to give her some more solid motivations as the story progresses and make her an exalted-tier character who traveled across lands fighting evil and ugliness to protect the world.
Or at least, that's the character I would like to play her as.
>>71806I'm just saying, if you're intent on only using your hooves, I'd strongly encourage you to take just a few Monk levels before advancing as a Fighter, just for the unarmed combat abilities.
>>71801>A variation of a power fantasyWell, that's the problem here. If you want to be a complete dick to every person you meet within a minute of meeting them and regardless of what they say, then you better make damned sure that you actually are, as a matter of fact, stronger than them. Iron's fighting style makes him actually a weaker character than Onyx and Silver, who are also level 5 fighters but are optimized. He would probably lose against these characters.
There is only one character thus far introduced in this setting that would obey Iron's demand to go hoof to hoof in unarmed combat when they had realistic alternatives. That character is Ho Redclaw the GLA Fighter. He would have told his mooks to stand down, put away his machete, put away his rifle, and even put away his talons if Iron had requested it, for a complete duel. Instead, Iron chose to attack this character stealthily and try to surprise him. Every single other NPC villian, or hell, even the mooks, would have called for 10 allies or mooks to shoot him from a range he couldn't harm him, runaway and then call in 10 mooks, or shot him in the face while ordering 10 mooks to attack. Marecuse would have shot him or even gone invisible. That gang member would have had henchmen 100 feet away shoot him at once. And do you think that it's just an astonishing coincidence that a minute after the Black Hooves agent leaves the scene, the Black Hooves have sent in the Right Wing Death Squads?
The scene with the Iron character that truly stands out to me is when he challenged the Capo on the docks. I know the character didn't actually know what was going on, but if you talked that way to an actual Mexican Cartel member, they would come at you in at least threes, kick your teeth in, stab you, continually kick you on the ground, and basically kept beating you until you learned to respect them. Iron can say "I am better than you because I can beat you in a fist fight" to an NPC that never threatened him, but the only response he will ever get from them is "If you want me to kill you, I can just shoot you with my gun and stab you with my knife." Well, he will eventually get one that just pulls out a gun and shoots him.
>>71796She wasn't really intended to be a feminist, Iron was just extremely condescending to a character he had to know was a secret police agent. Why would a tribal society only allow women to care for children anyways? Do they really have that much spare labor that they can just throw away half their work force? I think real tribal societies have women grind flower and make crafts and goods, because obviously someone needs to do that work and the men are doing other things.
>>71809Well, I didn't mean feminist in an extreme sense, just to an extent at which makes sense in the FiM universe. Faust herself was a feminist when making the show, and it reflects on how it encourages girls to be strong and capable individuals in their communities (not just hating nen, like SJWs today).
Also, any plans to play today?
>>71808Yeah, the novelty of only hooves kinda faded. Now Iron will adapt to the circumstances.
>>71809Well damn. Don't worry, these encounters will make him grow more fond of melee weapons later on. Heck, maybe I'll take out the Improved Unarmed feat and go full two-handed hammer build if you let me, as well as going full armor with the bits I have (~750 or so).
I'll adapt to the circumstances that you throw up. That's a D&D player should do. It's only a matter of when the stubborn stallion understands it in-character and I think with this failure of my part as a player for not realizing your intent and my character's failure of taking out a griffon he considered a "fair fight", I think I can change him to be more suited for this world.
I really need to work on cues, since I thought he was an expert in guerilla tactics, he would be more logical than to duel Iron 1v1 hooves only >>71812With regards to builds, there are a few possibilities. Unarmed combat is actually a pretty massive advantage under certain circumstances, specifically when killing an opponent would result in unwanted police attention. If you wish to do that, I recommend taking the two-weapon fighting feet and using both hooves, that way you can have two attacks, and do strength damage times 1 1/2, rather than just full strength damage. The other great advantage fighters have is weapon specialization, which gives +2 damage to each attack with the relevant weapon. Attach that to, well, something.
Also, if saying something in real life would cause an otherwise non-threatening person to punch you in the face, expect the same to happen here
>>71813Two weapon Fighting requires a pretty high Dex score to advance though.
If he had just a 1 Monk level, he'd get an extra attack per round, and his hooves would count as two-handed weapons (so they'd do double damage on a power attack). Plus, the bonus feats that come at the earliest levels in Monk.
>>71816Right, thanks for pointing it out. You sure if I pick Monk, I'd suddenly have 15 Dex?
>>71817Wait, what's your Dex score?
>>71818It's pretty low for the feat. It's 11 DEX we're talking about.
>>71819Two weapon Fighting isn't exactly an option then. You're better off wearing heavy armor and/or using a large, two-handed weapon.
>>71813Actually, I'm not sure how an earth pony exactly uses a weapon anyway. Is it in the maw?
>>71820Well, that was what I had in mind. I'll try to just use bludgeoning two handed weapons if I can.
>>71820Maybe for light and one-handed weapons. Could be for heavier two-handed weapons they have a bipedal fighting stance.
>>71821>BludgeoningWarhammers are one-handed weapons. Greatclubs and Heavy flails are two-handed.
>>71824Can I use the warhammer as a two-handed weapon or does it just not work because the modifiers are super inefficient without feats?
>>71825I think so.
Really, technical details are up to the GM. I think he would have had a vision for how he intended Earth Ponies to find, so ask him. The bonus to strength and Constitution implies melee focus.
>>71788She did more than that. First, she made a sarcastic remark bout the legality of dueling and claimed to not like dueling. Then, in the very next line, she said that a proper duel requires the terms to be set by the one who is challenged, and not the challenger, which first of all is stupid and not how dueling works, but secondly and more importantly would require her to think of dueling as proper, and unambiguously favors Iron. It's pretty damned obvious when you blatantly contradict yourself in the very next sentence that you don't actually mean what you say, you are just making arguments to try to favor Iron in a fight that never involved Ash
>>71827I guess you know its damage? I can't find the normal variant in 3.5e SRD
>>71828Well, I did favour Ash as an emotional foil and possible love interest, so I guess it's in character?
>>71830Thank you.
>>71828Yeah, I was a bit inconsistent there.
Ash was just trying to stop a fight, but I couldn't help myself from asserting my own beliefs concerning duels/matches (which is, that that when you challenge someone, you fight on their terms).
I can't say that that was the most in-character thing to do, but I was close to passing out then, so I made some mistakes.
>>71832Although, in that regard, she said that dueling was "frowned upon" where she came from, which was actually my way of hinting it as a part of her backstory that I wanted to reveal later.
Her agreement with Iron was also in part her way of discouraging Blue from proceeding with the duel, because she thought that blue would put it off until later if she didn't consider the circumstances to be honorable enough.
It wasn't the best course of action or the fairest, but that's vaguely what was going through my head at the time.
>>71833And in the end, I resorted to spending a 2nd level spell to disarm Blue from shooting Iron or being shot herself, which I had intended to avoid with words.
>>71834I guess Assault of a Federal Officer did stop a fight, although Iron just saying "sorry" would have done it without, well, consequences
>>71835[Shrugs in Druidic]
I guess i'll have to deal with that when it comes up then.
I'm free for the rest of the day if y'all still want to play. I might have to go eat at 6-7ish (est) though.
>>71837I think the GM is waiting on the other players.
>>71838Dark Star's character won't be available until the evening, judging by his sleep patterns...
>>71839We need to wait for everyone to be here. Dark Star decided to shoot at Redclaw after those two rock throws that edged him closer to death and he will need every other available player to hit the goons with him.
>>71840Are we still doing the gas explosion plan?
>>71841I guess not, if Dark Star is intent on giving away his status as hostile right there in the crowd
>>71842How far away from Redclaw am I?
>>71843With non-hostile enemies on the wharf, she could go pretty much anywhere she wanted in the wharf area, by which I mean the area between the sea and the warehouse, and from which the pier protrudes
>>71844I'd hate to get overly technical, but I'm going to need at least an estimate of how many feet away he is, before I figure out how I'm going to cast my spells.
Is there any cover she could use to hide nearby?
>>71845The area is almost perfectly flat and open, save for the one stack of crates, and the two two-and-a-half-ton trucks that are about 20 feet from it, and ten feet apart. Redclaw is between one truck and the stack of crates. The stack of crates is maybe 15 ft in diameter
>>71846So that's why it was doable for me to throw rocks at him. I thought he was near the ship, not the trucks.
>no cover
Hmmmmmm...
I guess I'll have to avoid casting spells with verbal or somatic components then, or at least not those tracable to the caster..
I guess there's fiery burst, although it only has a 40 foot reach, and will only do 2d6 since I summoned that wolf..
If she took out the trucks tires or gas tanks that way, they could easily believe it was a planned booby-trap /by infiltrators.
Sister Ash moves closer to the truck and crates along the wall of the warehouse, moving defensively (AC 12) until she's just 40 feet away from the truck (using the crates as cover).
When the day ends in-game, I wish to do a small rehaul of Iron, mostly deleting and adding feats to favour the weapon you mentioned while keeping the main allure of unarmed on the side.
>>71849Well this sucks. I really hoped we would have gotten started by now. Anyone still waiting for attack with Dark Star?
>>71852Anyone else? Onyx, Brie or whomever else that can attack with Dark Star?
>>71848If we're ready to go, I would like to use a Fiery Burst to create a very small explosion beneath one of the trucks to disable it.
(Reminder that it's a supernatural ability, not a spell, so it isn't immediately obvious that it's her who caused it, except to an experienced spellcaster)
>>71856If you don't know, Dark Star will execute a shot on Redclaw, and we need all players to attack the goons he's with or else he'll die.
>>71856aka set up your attack soon, or we lose Dark Star, in a nutshell
>>71857>Infinite Ammo Weightless Stealth FlamethrowerWe're putting limitations on this somehow. It was never intended to be unambiguously superior to the options and limitations every single other party member has
>>71856Hello. Would you like to position your character on the wharf? He is not recognized as hostile, and so can go anywhere on it.
The area is almost perfectly flat and open, save for the one stack of crates, and the two two-and-a-half-ton trucks that are about 20 feet from it, and ten feet apart. Redclaw is between one truck and the stack of crates. The stack of crates is maybe 15 ft in diameter
>>71860Uh... isn't the damage subpar?
>>71860Okay...
Can I still try to spontaneously combust the truck tires this time? I could use produce flame
>>Infinite Ammo Weightless Stealth FlamethrowerWell, when you put it that way...
>>71861It is sub par in damage, but I've only used it to attack objects so far.
>>71860Hmmm, how close can I get to the upcoming target?
>>71862*I could use Produce Flame but that would involve throwing a fireball as a ranged touch attack.