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There Bias Two posted:Why would you use a bunch of emaciated children?
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Jan 28, 2018 14:18
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If I recall correctly his name is like "The Emperor of the World" or something like that. He's supposed to be quite insane. You know, as opposed to the other paragons of sanity that fill the BoVD.
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Jan 28, 2018 14:46
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NihilCredo posted:If I recall correctly his name is like "The Emperor of the World" or something like that. He's supposed to be quite insane. You know, as opposed to the other paragons of sanity that fill the BoVD. It is my hope that one day I will develop a degenerative brain condition, as I'm pretty sure that's the only way I'll be able to permanently forget Lich-Loved being a real feat.
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Jan 28, 2018 15:03
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Weird how Peter Thiel got into the book of vile darkness
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Jan 28, 2018 15:33
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There Bias Two posted:Why would you use a bunch of emaciated children? If I were in his shoes, I'd want my ablative armor to be well-nourished and hearty to withstand more damage. Treating them well costs evil points. Fake edit: I meant this metaphorically, not being familiar with the mechanics here, but that might be literally how it works, I don't know.
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Jan 28, 2018 16:05
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I'm always annoyed by that kind of gimmick morality-quiz NPC because they're so transparently designed to be a challenge to a player character as such rather than a coherent figure in a world with a history. Because what are the odds that somone styling himself Emperor of the World is going to routinely be mixing it up with people who give a poo poo about civilian collateral damage. The book describes the Dread Emperor as primarily coming to this plane occasionally to sell magic items, and getting constantly attacked in cities because of the emaciated kids hanging off of him, which surely can't be great for business-- this suggests that the Dread Emperor is deeply stupid, and rather than mostly being a target for good-aligned adventurers, he should be a target for neutral and evil characters who realize that an extradimensional fortress is floating out there somewhere under the tenuous command of an idiot. Really I don't know how this dope got to level 20.
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Jan 28, 2018 16:10
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Somewhere, and I can't remember if it was SA tradgames or 4chan /tg/, there was a running thing about the Dread Emperor Norton, the idea that that guy really wants to be a Dread Emperor but is in reality just a deluded old man with a dream. The kids aren't really attached in any serious way, and they're more like caretakers for him. The people in town humor him, saying things like "Oh no, the Dread Emperor in coming!" in his earshot, and so forth.
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Jan 28, 2018 16:18
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He's not Pragmatic Evil, duh
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Jan 28, 2018 16:24
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I think most of what you're thinking of is from here.
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Jan 28, 2018 16:24
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NihilCredo posted:If I recall correctly his name is like "The Emperor of the World" or something like that. He's supposed to be quite insane. You know, as opposed to the other paragons of sanity that fill the BoVD. Well he is known as the Dread Emperor but calls himself the Emperor of the world. He just kills anyone who says that claim is not true. Anyway he is a strange NPC.
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Jan 28, 2018 16:46
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MonsterEnvy posted:I remember a villain form the Book of Vile Darkness like that. He would enlsave kids and they were linked by magic chains to his armor that redirected any injury or pain he received to them. That wasn't a villain, just an item. Armor of the Dread Emperor. Forgive the chan link, http://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/28504050 but it has the description of the armor and belt. e - at least that specific picture from the book. Mercedes Colomar fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Jan 28, 2018 |
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Jan 28, 2018 17:12
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MonsterEnvy posted:I remember a villain form the Book of Vile Darkness like that. He would enlsave kids and they were linked by magic chains to his armor that redirected any injury or pain he received to them.
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Jan 28, 2018 18:28
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There Bias Two posted:Why would you use a bunch of emaciated children? If I were in his shoes, I'd want my ablative armor to be well-nourished and hearty to withstand more damage. "We've tracked him down, the Dread Emperor himself is in sight. Look at the children he's holding captive." "Captive? They seem happy and healthy to me. Look, they're dancing and singing, and the dread emperor is joining in with them." "He's holding them hostage via enchanted armor that transfers his wounds to them!" "But he's being such a good step-dad. Shouldn't we leave him alone?" "What part of child armor do you not understand?" "What part of not breaking up happy families do YOU not understand?"
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Jan 28, 2018 22:05
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Tenebrais posted:Treating them well costs evil points. Does that still count if you do so with bad intentions? Like what if you help an old lady cross the street because you know the cupcakes she'll distribute to the village are laced with poison?
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Jan 28, 2018 22:18
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Pope Guilty posted:Somewhere, and I can't remember if it was SA tradgames or 4chan /tg/, there was a running thing about the Dread Emperor Norton, the idea that that guy really wants to be a Dread Emperor but is in reality just a deluded old man with a dream. The kids aren't really attached in any serious way, and they're more like caretakers for him. The people in town humor him, saying things like "Oh no, the Dread Emperor in coming!" in his earshot, and so forth.
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Jan 28, 2018 22:28
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Maybe I'm not a fancy D&D person or nothing but wouldn't the answer just be to cut the chains?
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Jan 28, 2018 22:29
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ImpAtom posted:Maybe I'm not a fancy D&D person or nothing but wouldn't the answer just be to cut the chains? If you memorize splat books or make the knowledge check to know that (or figure it out after a few attacks), sure sunder check away.
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Jan 28, 2018 22:33
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ikanreed posted:If you memorize splat books or make the knowledge check to know that (or figure it out after a few attacks), sure sunder check away. I doubt that would even be necessary. The point of the armor isn't to give you an extra 12 ablative hitpoints (or however many you'd get from four children) but to disincentivize people attacking you. It's just +1 full plate until you tell people what it does.
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Jan 28, 2018 22:40
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ikanreed posted:If you memorize splat books or make the knowledge check to know that (or figure it out after a few attacks), sure sunder check away. I assumed that the evil jerk wearing the armor would tell you what it does or otherwise his plan is "Haha, nobody will attack me or else they risk harming the child oh god they killed all the children by accident and now they're REALLY pissed at me."
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Jan 28, 2018 22:42
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The fatal mistake the Emperor of the World has made is assuming players consider consequences BEFORE they get their murder on instead of immediately afterwards.
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Jan 29, 2018 00:10
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There are so many cool and awesome gimmicks and twists and cool things and powerfully dramatic thints you can do with wound transference magic. This is probably the stupidest example of it i have ever seen.
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Jan 29, 2018 00:11
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If I threw that dude at any of the players I know, it would immediately turn into either a charnel house or a puzzle fight straight from Stardust Crusaders
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Jan 29, 2018 00:13
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I do remember there was an old game, starsiege, where the robots strapped incredibly lifelike animatronic babies to the outside of their mechs, and played baby cries out of their loudspeakers, with the idea not that it would stop people from attacking them but that the instinctive mammalian response would slow down reaction time enough to reliably let the cybrid get the first shot. What I am saying is casting an illusion to cover yourself with fake crying babies would be a lot easier to maintain and still probably give you a distinct combat advantage against good aligned characters, without having to maintain actual children.
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Jan 29, 2018 00:22
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GlyphGryph posted:I do remember there was an old game, starsiege, where the robots strapped incredibly lifelike animatronic babies to the outside of their mechs, and played baby cries out of their loudspeakers, with the idea not that it would stop people from attacking them but that the instinctive mammalian response would slow down reaction time enough to reliably let the cybrid get the first shot. https://www.oglaf.com/weepingwoods/ (Warning: Oglaf. That page SFW, other pages very much NSFW.)
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Jan 29, 2018 00:28
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If a guy keeps a baby around to kill it if you attack him, it's still him killing the baby.
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Jan 29, 2018 00:32
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The Dread Emperor himself apparently just always keeps four kids on him. The Kids tend to be different each time he shows up.
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Jan 29, 2018 04:44
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He can only be stopped by five teenagers withattitude
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Jan 29, 2018 04:47
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Dominions has taught me that wound transference magic works best when the wounds are transferred to something regenerating and invulnerable that has hundreds of hitpoints. So like, he should be carting around four trolls instead of four children.
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Jan 29, 2018 10:11
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So what's stopping a gang of orcs from just cutting him down? Or any of the other races who generally don't give a poo poo about human children? Monsters would probably eat the kids too. The whole thing stinks of a bad gm trap to gently caress over the party paladin. "Haha if you attack him you hurt a child and fall but if you don't attack him he is evil and killing people so you fall anyway lol."
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Jan 29, 2018 11:24
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TheDemon posted:Dominions has taught me that wound transference magic works best when the wounds are transferred to something regenerating and invulnerable that has hundreds of hitpoints.
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Jan 29, 2018 11:33
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Poil posted:The whole thing stinks of a bad gm trap to gently caress over the party paladin. "Haha if you attack him you hurt a child and fall but if you don't attack him he is evil and killing people so you fall anyway lol." He's from, "The Book of Vile Darkness." So yes, that's exactly what he was, an excuse for the party to experience some mature roleplaying. e: Says so right on the sticker! 
Mystic Mongol fucked around with this message at 11:43 on Jan 29, 2018 |
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Jan 29, 2018 11:40
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Couldn't you just sunder the armour until it's destroyed and nonmagical, which for some reason deals no damage to the man contained within?
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Jan 29, 2018 11:41
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Eox posted:Couldn't you just sunder the armour until it's destroyed and nonmagical, which for some reason deals no damage to the man contained within? Sure, but that means you spend several rounds doing nothing, followed by several rounds doing damage. In 3.5, a system where you can cast spells that instantly win fights. Spells that deal no damage so his hostages are all safe! Spells like Turn Sucker to Shrimp. Damage is a sucker's game.
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Jan 29, 2018 11:45
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Eox posted:Couldn't you just sunder the armour until it's destroyed and nonmagical, which for some reason deals no damage to the man contained within?
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Jan 29, 2018 11:56
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You could also hit him with an Antimagic Field, then all he's done is provided four flanking buddies for the party paladin.
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Jan 29, 2018 12:04
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The kids probably have poo poo saves, so polymorph them into squirrels and they'll fall straight out of their shackles. 
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Jan 29, 2018 13:30
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Poil posted:The whole thing stinks of a bad gm trap to gently caress over the party paladin. "Haha if you attack him you hurt a child and fall but if you don't attack him he is evil and killing people so you fall anyway lol." I mean a whole lot of stuff in D&D, even in this very comic the thread is ostensibly about, is very clearly intended as puzzles for the players and makes no sense in a cohesive world. Figuring out non-damage based ways to quickly defeat him could be fun.
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Jan 29, 2018 15:20
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GlyphGryph posted:I mean a whole lot of stuff in D&D, even in this very comic the thread is ostensibly about, is very clearly intended as puzzles for the players and makes no sense in a cohesive world. Figuring out non-damage based ways to quickly defeat him could be fun. Bind him or any "Baby Armor" type then walk up, sever the link, sever the head.
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Jan 29, 2018 15:56
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GlyphGryph posted:I mean a whole lot of stuff in D&D, even in this very comic the thread is ostensibly about, is very clearly intended as puzzles for the players and makes no sense in a cohesive world. Figuring out non-damage based ways to quickly defeat him could be fun. This is all part of the larger problem with 3.x D&D where, as a consequence of the system was designed to be able to do anything and encompass everything, there was very little cohesion or focus. As comically edgy as the child hostages are, the basic mechanic behind "physically harming this opponent will instead harm innocents" is actually a fairly interesting puzzle encounter in isolation. It's only in the larger context of the assumed 3.x D&D campaign world that you run into problems like "why not just kill him and the kids, and then pawn his magic armor for four scrolls of raise orphan," or "why not just wait for someone less scrupulous to come along and solve this problem for us?"
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Jan 29, 2018 18:04
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He should buy the same armor for all the orphans and then give those orphans orphans.
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Jan 29, 2018 18:08
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