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She unequips her bite attack whenever you load a save.
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Mar 21, 2024 13:35
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Poil posted:Thanks for spoiling that that's a thing... As the first post says, be prepared for a very liberal attitude towards spoilers. This isn't an LP where the story is slowly revealed as we play through the game. I'm going to say in fact that, if you haven't played the game and plan on doing so, this is the wrong LP to be at.
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Mar 21, 2024 14:45
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Nenio might be my favorite character in the game and that's saying a lot because the party options here are quite well done compared to a lot of CRPGs. There's only one I wanted to boot out of the party immediately (we've met them) and even with most of the evil aligned characters they are intriguing enough to want to see where they go.
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Mar 21, 2024 14:46
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ProfessorCirno posted:As the first post says, be prepared for a very liberal attitude towards spoilers. This isn't an LP where the story is slowly revealed as we play through the game. I'm going to say in fact that, if you haven't played the game and plan on doing so, this is the wrong LP to be at. Yeah, sad to say it but 'slowly reveal and discuss things as they happen in the game' isn't how I approach video games in general (there are exceptions, but this game isn't one of them) and certainly not how I'm running this LP. If spoilers ahead of when they're revealed in the game are an issue for you, you should probably stop reading now. I'll be analyzing Galfrey's character in another two or three posts, most likely, and I will discuss what she does in Act 5 that pisses off so many players.
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Mar 21, 2024 15:46
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The Aeon choice here kind of encapsulates why the whole concept of Law-as-a-faction tends to fall flat for me in the general D&D/Pathfinder milieu- you're faced with an army of angels, who are divided between a camp that has willingly sacrificed themselves for an indefinite time to protect the mortal plane from an invading army, and another that has broken under the pain and is seeking relief at any price, and the Lawful response is to tell them both 'gently caress you, all crimes are equal, get off my lawn'. The entire idea of The Law as a force in itself, completely disconnected from any kind of morality or governing body, leads to so many issues and nonsense. The rest of the path generally manages a lot better since it's focused on resolving actual crimes but the starting point is not great.
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Mar 21, 2024 16:14
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"It's a legal system, not a justice system."
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Mar 21, 2024 16:23
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The thing is, Wrath is necessarily a story about transhumanism to some degree. These mythic paths are, fundamentally, about becoming something other than human (or kitsune) and gaining power by it. By embracing any mythic power we've seen, your PC is drifting away from what they are and were. Aeon is just up front and blatant about hitting you over the head with the fact that it's asking you to act in inhuman/inkitsune ways. If you want to draw on an Aeon's power, you need to act less human/kitsune and more Aeon. Of course it's nonsensical from a human/kitsune perspective. If you're here, you're voluntarily sacrificing your humanity/kitsuneity for the sake of power to become more like this being from the stars. To the Aeon perspective, yes as a matter of fact the crimes at hand are equal. It's an interdimensional incursion into the mortal plane, and should be opposed on principle. Context is irrelevant, a mortal way of thinking. And if you want to be an Aeon, you need to stop thinking like a mortal.
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Mar 21, 2024 16:32
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the Aeon is aware you all have some deeply felt reasons for what you are doing, in the same way that small children attacking one another about Pokemon cards probably have deeply felt reasons, and one side might even be in the 'right.' it also does not care. get back to class already.
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Mar 21, 2024 16:50
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Yeah Aeon is a lot of fun because its not so much about being Judge Dredd as much as it is being an alien cosmic entity.
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Mar 21, 2024 17:48
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And there's also a clear difference between the two sorts of "justice/law" you're applying. There the regular human law. A thief in a nation where stealing is illegal is a lawbreaker and must be punished, while a thief in a nation where stealing is not illegal is of no concern to an Aeon. But there is also "natural" law, that is general laws of nature/the cosmos. One of these is that generally, the denizens of the different planes should stay on theirs. And Iomedae likely agrees that there should be no angels on Golarion, but the demons violating this natural law made it necessary for her to send angels as a counterbalance. Demon lords definitely don't belong in the mortal plane, and as was pointed out before, Deskari withdraw rather quickly, lest he risks Iomedae or one of the other good gods coming to Golarion in response and kicking his rear end. To the Aeon, all of this is a violation of cosmic law that cannot be tolerated. From a human perspective, even if you agree with the general principle, strategic necessity would make you unlikely to do anything against the angels on Golarion. Aeons can't act this way, and so they destroy the wardstone. No human would act this way when faced with an imminent demonic invasion, but it's all very logical behavior for an Aeon.
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Mar 21, 2024 18:03
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And to be fair, Aeons expelling all creatures to their original plains would be a net positive here, given you know, demons being way more of a problem than any benefit angels or other good aligned outsiders bring. There is something I'm curious on a reread, though. Tje options relating to each Mythic Path are clear, but what does the no-tag, "Destroy the Wardstone" do? Give you a game over, lead to another scene with no impact or is just an unaligned way of doing the other options?
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Mar 21, 2024 18:09
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For my Aeon playthrough, I went all "Demons are invading and all Angels do is stick a big magic rock in a city and call it a day? Forget that! The Aeon's here now! You aren't needed, Angels!" 
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Mar 21, 2024 18:14
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GiantRockFromSpace posted:or is just an unaligned way of doing the other options? It's this. Both Angel options preserve the Wardstone, every other choice destroys it one way or another. This will have some consequences down the line regardless of what mythic path you commit to. The unaligned one just specifically leads to the result of killing both groups of angels instead of one or the other or sending both groups packing to their appropriate planes. Edit: For the record, since folks are interested and talking about the Aeon choice, here's what would have happened had Yua done as the Aeon wanted: quote:The Wardstone, the goddess's weapon used in her violation of the cosmic order. The demon-crafted chisel discovered at the scene of the very same crime. It would be only fair if both instruments ceased to exist in the same moment. One precise strike and the chisel will cut through the stone like a hot knife through butter, nullifying the criminal magic of the Inheritor. With cries of terror and amazement, the imprisoned angels go to their rightful places the faithful to Heaven, the fallen to the planes of chaos and evil. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Mar 21, 2024 |
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Mar 21, 2024 18:16
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Aeon is very painful to play through because you are asked to be inhuman (and because, well, it just kinda isn't good mechanically). It's also very cool and I'm glad it works the way it does, because you are asked to be inhuman. I actually wonder if the Aeon specifically took more work then the other paths, and if it's possibly the reason the later paths are so truncated; the ideal would've been every path diverging as much as the Aeon does.
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Mar 21, 2024 18:54
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Yeah my only actual gripe with Aeon is that it feels pretty weak compared to most of its competition. Angel is death incarnate with a merged spell book and can curbstomp Core into the ground with zero trouble, Lich is the same way. Trickster on a martial can tear basically anything apart in a single round of combat and Demon can stack enough bonuses if you know what youre doing to alpha strike most things in a single turn. Aeons stuff is neat and flavourful but has nowhere near the oomph.
RevolverDivider fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Mar 21, 2024 |
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Mar 21, 2024 19:31
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Torrannor posted:And there's also a clear difference between the two sorts of "justice/law" you're applying. There the regular human law. A thief in a nation where stealing is illegal is a lawbreaker and must be punished, while a thief in a nation where stealing is not illegal is of no concern to an Aeon. That's kind of my issue with the concept, though. The Aeon is nominally the dispassionate arbiter of cosmic truth, but like, in the real world laws aren't a fundamental particle of the universe and even in Pathfinder it's a weird point. It's sort of like how the lawful neutral plane in D&D is Modron central and they act functionally indistinguishable from the worst kind of CN crazies; when you dig into the deep end of the philosophy alignments it just turns into a thoughtless regurgitation of Moorcock without understanding that his versions of them were (a) the villains of the story (b) basically full of poo poo. Honestly I'd be willing to argue that it's not even that in character for the path itself once we get further into the game.
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Mar 21, 2024 22:20
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kvx687 posted:That's kind of my issue with the concept, though. The Aeon is nominally the dispassionate arbiter of cosmic truth, but like, in the real world laws aren't a fundamental particle of the universe and even in Pathfinder it's a weird point. It's sort of like how the lawful neutral plane in D&D is Modron central and they act functionally indistinguishable from the worst kind of CN crazies; when you dig into the deep end of the philosophy alignments it just turns into a thoughtless regurgitation of Moorcock without understanding that his versions of them were (a) the villains of the story (b) basically full of poo poo. Honestly I'd be willing to argue that it's not even that in character for the path itself once we get further into the game. My increasingly go-to comparison point for Aeons is the Auditors of Reality from Discworld, if they were taken seriously and given a fair shake as protagonists.
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Mar 21, 2024 22:34
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And were less vulnerable to chocolate.
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Mar 22, 2024 04:44
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Again, what made Aeon work for me was that it wasn't my first playthrough. And it is a path that the devs really put a lot of effort into, and it shows. So yeah, your morals are clearly inhuman, but it just works. There's this great moment when you get the ability to see who's a lawbreaker, and then you go out into the town, and it's just a reaction of "holy poo poo!" once the reality of your situation sets in.
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Mar 22, 2024 14:51
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Torrannor posted:Again, what made Aeon work for me was that it wasn't my first playthrough. And it is a path that the devs really put a lot of effort into, and it shows. So yeah, your morals are clearly inhuman, but it just works. There's this great moment when you get the ability to see who's a lawbreaker, and then you go out into the town, and it's just a reaction of "holy poo poo!" once the reality of your situation sets in. Honestly, this is more than enough to convince me to try a playthrough. Probably take a page out of Cyth's book and do it on story, though. I really like the game, but tryharding this game once is more than enough for me.
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Mar 22, 2024 14:58
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I vastly prefer Owlcat's take on Mythic Paths to Paizo's introduction of the concept, which only ever gets touched upon in this AP anyways. Paizo's very "good" at designing new subsystems that then quickly get thrown away when their original purpose is done with - except Mythic actually ended up having some staying power beyond Wrath of the Righteous, mostly because it came in its own sourcebook released the same month Book 1 of Wrath of the Righteous released. It is now a very popular subsystem for Living Worlds and campaigns, and that's without having these more interesting, non-generic paths that Owlcat created. But creating these specialized mythic paths would have likely led to the 3.5 Prestige Class Problem, so... Anyways, the moment of becoming Mythic is, as CommissarMega pointed out, a moment of gently caress Yeah for the PCs. The tabletop buffs do make the Babau fight effectively unloseable unless they get very lucky with flanks and sneak attacks - it's a straight up curbstomp. And it's a moment that's needed, because if the 17 updates haven't clued you in, Book 1 is a slog - I'd go so far to say it's the biggest Book 1 slog of any AP except possibly Savage Tide. Low-level d20 games, for those who may not have played them, are a constant war of attrition between HP, low numbers of spell slots, mobility, and player retention. I really feel that Wrath of the Righteous would have been better served as starting as a "normal" campaign of a couple of adventures across the countryside on your way to Drezen and then hit you with the hosed-up situation of Deskari and the Shield Maze when you were level 3-5 and proceeding from there, when you actually have the resources as a party to survive the urban nightmare the campaign makes it out to be. It took my table group something like 6 4-hour sessions to clear Book 1 - and we played gestalt and started at level 3. (My MC also had us start as Mongrelfolk greeting the displaced surfacers, so we skipped quite a bit of intro, then got to bring in different PCs when we hit the surface.) You can breeze through Book 1 in the cRPG in a couple of hours by comparison - or if you've minmaxed everyone, I've managed to clear it in about 45 minutes. My point is, as a player, you feel incredibly good the moment that first hit of Mythic Power slams home because of the misery you've suffered to reach that point. Absolutely laying utter waste to the babau makes it all feel worth it. RelentlessImp fucked around with this message at 16:47 on Mar 22, 2024 |
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Mar 22, 2024 16:43
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My take on Aeon was more like we can't apply our own morality to the good/bad things that happens, because Aeons are operating on the cosmic balance scale.
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Mar 22, 2024 18:32
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Vargatron posted:My take on Aeon was more like we can't apply our own morality to the good/bad things that happens, because Aeons are operating on the cosmic balance scale.
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Mar 22, 2024 18:43
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The Aeon storyline also specifically discourages thinking about context and long-term consequences. You are here to fix the problem in front of you. Nothing more, nothing less. There's a reason the Aeon story has the strictest alignment requirements of any mythic path that doesn't just automatically change your alignment and lock it. You must be unbiased and impartial in your judgments and actions. The problems of tomorrow will be dealt with tomorrow. You are resolving the problems of today, and what people choose to make of your solutions is not your concern unless they elect to make it into a new problem you must solve.
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Mar 22, 2024 19:14
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I'm doing a lawful neutral kineticist on my current run and I can already tell it's gonna make me feel bad playing Aeon straight lol.
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Mar 22, 2024 23:59
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There are some bad moments, and there are some good moments. For all the problems with D&D's alignment system, there's a reason law and good are not synonymous. But I still get chills when I see the Aeon ending slides. It's some powerful stuff, but it won't necessarily leave you feeling good. But it doesn't necessarily makes you feel bad, either. For the pure feel-good factor, Cythereal is LPing the best path for that 
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Mar 23, 2024 00:09
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Tales from the Fifth Crusade: Ripple Fire In truth, no edict from queen or commander could have prevented the celebration at Defender's Heart. For three days a pall of dread had hung over the city of Kenabres like a funeral shroud in a mortuary, building tension beneath the invisible gossamer almost to the breaking point. Almost. When night had become day at the Gray Garrison, a false dawn that blew the roof from the fortress and seared demons and cultists across the city with almost physical force, that tension had redoubled. Then the senses penetrated the adrenaline and hind-brain instincts of fight or flight, a rupture in the shroud soon echoed by the war horns of Galfrey's army as they approached, and the tension released explosively among the survivors - the victors - of Kenabres. In fact, the revelry at the Defender's Heart tavern was downright sedate compared to the relief-fueled debauchery happening elsewhere in the city. Cradled in the eye of the storm, the queen of Mendev and the adventurer at the center of these events had been discretely moved to a small table at the edge of the common room, warded by Irabeth and Anevia Tirabade to one side and the strange scholar known as Nenio to the other. Even the most indiscriminate of revelers had learned to hesitate approaching the latter, lest a strange interrogation begin. Yua seemed comparatively unaffected by the raucous mood of the evening, content so far to work on an enormous mug of dark porter and watch Aranka, that Desnan bard, perform on stage. Galfrey's taste in drink preferred something lighter than her companion, who she studied with interest. In her vulpine form, Yua was tall and lean compared to humans, strangely proportioned with arms and legs that seemed just a little too short compared to her long torso and abdomen, all covered in in dense, white fur and complemented by her long, bushy tail and canid face, but when her mug of stout had arrived the kitsune's fur had retracted into her skin, proportions changed, and tail and muzzle withdrew until a beautiful human woman with long red hair sat in the humanoid fox's place. The reason for the shift, she explained to her companions, was simple: a kitsune's protruding muzzle makes drinking from normal mugs challenging. All the better to drink like this. Human or vulpine, though, Galfrey knew a woman not quite seeing what she was nominally looking at. "For the hero of the day you're looking pensive." Galfrey broke the quiet space between them. "I'm surprised you aren't on stage yourself, Commander Tirabade tells me you have a unique singing voice." "I've killed a lot of people over the last few days." Yua replied darkly, without returning her companion's gaze. "I'm not in the mood." "That's fair." Galfrey agreed. "I would imagine that you weren't in the mood to do much of what you've accomplished here." Yua turned to look at the queen, and sighed without giving voice. "Survival didn't give me much choice." Yua replied after a moment. "Fight or die is what it came down to. I don't think I'm blessed by Iomedae, and I don't think I was sent here to save Kenabres." "But those are the stories people are telling." Galfrey concluded. "I had a chance meeting with a Desnan priest on my way here, Ramien. He had a different story about you, but it amounted to much the same thing." Ramien. That song that Yua couldn't get out of her head. That sense of excitement that had had nothing to do with danger, like a dream where you're just awake enough to realize you can't be hurt. "And Commander Tirabade," Galfrey continued, "Tells me you're from Tian Xia. I must admit I'm curious, we don't see many kitsune in Mendev, and you do have something of a courtier's tone about you. What brought you all the way to this part of Avistan?" "Exile." Yua shrugged. "Don't worry, it's nothing that would affect Mendev." "All the same..." Galfrey prodded. "I was caught in bed with the betrothed of someone I shouldn't have been in bed with." Yua finally permitted herself a chuckle. "I don't think I have anything on your cousin, and I've kept my leggings where they belong since leaving. My lord would have been well within his rights to execute me, but that would only have raised more awkward questions." "Hah." The queen's bark of laughter was followed by a moment's giggle. "Well, Mendev has survived the Count's existence, so I suppose we'll make do with you. I don't suppose you have any useful diplomatic contacts from your journeys, either." "None." Yua confirmed. "I traveled through the lands of the Linnorm Kings, then spent some time with a traveling mercenary company before coming here." "Very self-reliant." Galfrey agreed, sipping more of her ale. "Just a wandering minstrel with no home or family until one day you ended up in Kenabres and wound up saving the entire city. Blessed by Iomedae, Desna, or both depending on who you ask. With the Accidental God's own luck according to the bartender. Just the expected sort of unexpected that people look up to as a leader." "Leader? Me?" This time Yua's laughter was rather longer. "If you want to give someone that kind of job, talk to Seelah." "Remind me, who was it that blew the roof off the Gray Garrison?" Galfrey set her mug down on the table and looked directly at her companion. "Oh, that's right. It was the woman who got Prelate Hulrun to stop hunting dreamers and go smite demons while Ramien's adepts met my army and guided us straight to where we were needed. The same woman who convinced the local thieves' guild to cooperate with the Eagle's Watch and rescued an old friend of mine from the Blackwing Library. The same woman who met the underground crusaders I didn't even think existed, wrote them off as misreports of tieflings, and brought them to the surface to fight the demons. The same woman who rekindled the faith of a city on the verge of losing it." "Yua of Tian Xia," Galfrey's voice had turned completely serious, "When my army met refugees fleeing Kenabres, it wasn't Commander Tirabade they were talking about who was fighting back across the city. I respect Tirabade's work immensely. She is a tireless servant of goddess and crown, and I have never found any fault with her. But she's not the one who's been inspiring the people of Kenabres, and she's not the legend already starting to spread across Mendev. That, whether you like it or not, is you." "So tell them the truth." Yua shot back, still unwilling to set down her own mug. "You barely know anything about me and I've been in Kenabres for three days. If you need a hero, get someone else." "It's much too late for that." The queen of Mendev replied with the finality of a judge pronouncing sentence. "People believe what they see, and they do not see with their eyes alone. Destiny has you in her clutches, Yua of Tian Xia, and she is a mistress not given to mercy or relent. Brace yourself for what comes next, I'll tell you that much."
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Mar 23, 2024 00:19
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Vargatron posted:My take on Aeon was more like we can't apply our own morality to the good/bad things that happens, because Aeons are operating on the cosmic balance scale. It's like how the devs of King of Dragon's Pass specifically say that you can't play the game through the eyes of a modern person, you're playing as an ancient Celtic tribe, raiding was a way of life but actually going on raids with the intent to kill was very bad.
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Mar 23, 2024 03:53
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The Accidental God mentioned in the last update is Cayden Cailean, who passed an infamous, nigh-impossible test to ascend to godhood while he was blackout drunk.
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Mar 23, 2024 07:54
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Solitair posted:The Accidental God mentioned in the last update is Cayden Cailean, who passed an infamous, nigh-impossible test to ascend to godhood while he was blackout drunk. It's worth noting that according to Paizo, the first part of the test is to somehow cross a bottomless pit that leads to the rest of it, without using a bridge. It only goes uphill from there.
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Mar 23, 2024 09:58
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Solitair posted:The Accidental God mentioned in the last update is Cayden Cailean, who passed an infamous, nigh-impossible test to ascend to godhood while he was blackout drunk. Still sad we didn't pick him as the patron god for this LP.
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Mar 23, 2024 10:20
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Solitair posted:The Accidental God mentioned in the last update is Cayden Cailean, who passed an infamous, nigh-impossible test to ascend to godhood while he was blackout drunk. Imagine the horror of this - waking up after the test, with zero memory of what the gently caress just happened over the last three days with a blinding hangover... made worse by being able to see and hear everything out to Divine Rank miles and not knowing how to shut it out yet.
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Mar 23, 2024 11:26
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RelentlessImp posted:Imagine the horror of this - waking up after the test, with zero memory of what the gently caress just happened over the last three days with a blinding hangover... made worse by being able to see and hear everything out to Divine Rank miles and not knowing how to shut it out yet. "I swear to drunk, I am not God."
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Mar 23, 2024 11:56
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RelentlessImp posted:Imagine the horror of this - waking up after the test, with zero memory of what the gently caress just happened over the last three days with a blinding hangover... made worse by being able to see and hear everything out to Divine Rank miles and not knowing how to shut it out yet. "Ah, gently caress, not again."
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Mar 23, 2024 14:36
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Besides avoiding burnout, updates are likely to slow down now since the last of the Stardew Valley mods I was waiting to update for 1.6 has rolled out an update. 
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Mar 23, 2024 16:48
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This is the perfect place for the update pace to slow down, since we just completed act 1. And I fully understand, I've had a ton of fun with unmodded Stardew Valley 1.6.
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Mar 23, 2024 17:26
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 Next update recorded. Y'all gonna stop yapping about ascendant element now?
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Mar 24, 2024 02:31
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Call to Arms, Part One Act 2 opens with a preview of the new world map. You can still go back to Kenabres if you want, but the first three chapters of Wrath of the Righteous are a steady escalation of scope.  Galfrey has assembled an army, and brought Yua and Irabeth to meet them.   "Today is a day of sorrow, and pride. Sorrow, because we weep for our brothers and sisters who perished in Kenabres. Pride, because despite demonic treachery, our heroes repelled the attack and saved the city. I, Queen Galfrey of Mendev, declare this day the first day of the Fifth Crusade. And I am glad to introduce the one who will lead the attack on the forces of the Abyss. The hero of Kenabres, Knight Commander of the Fifth Crusade your leader, from now unto victory or death!" An important rule of adventuring I hadn't yet learned: the gratitude of the powerful is a terrible weight to bear. Few people earn a throne's confidence and come away unscarred. "And now it's time to rest. Everyone is dismissed! There, the troop review is finished. I'll give you some time to look around the camp, and then I shall expect your presence at headquarters." "Commander! Please allow me to join you while you inspect our encampment!"A traditional feature of Dungeons and Dragons going all the way back to the earliest iterations of the tabletop system is that after a certain point, the PCs will become leaders of fame and renown in the world and take on new responsibilities, often leading troops or entire armies - or governing whole regions, whether they formally join the nobility (or already were nobles) or not. Baldur's Gate 2 fans likely remember the class-based strongholds on this theme, Neverwinter Nights 2 gave the PC the title of Knight Commander and put them in command of a fortress, Owlcat's previous outing Kingmaker was all about coming to rule a small nation, and so on and so forth. Wrath of the Righteous continues in this vein.  But first, new levels for the core group! Yua Level 6: +1 Bard (Bard 6) Skills: +1 Knowledge: Arcana, +1 Knowledge: World, +1 Mobility, +1 Perception, +1 Persuasion, +1 Trickery Class Features: Fascinate, Uncanny Dodge Spell: Heroism Yua could have become a better archer at this point, but instead I gave her Uncanny Dodge, which makes her immune to being caught flat-footed and she can always add her DEX modifier to her AC even if circumstances would normally deny that.  Lann Level 6: +1 Demonslayer (Zen Archer 1, Demonslayer 5) Skills: +1 Athletics, +1 Knowledge: Nature, +1 Mobility, +1 Stealth Class Features: Favored Enemy increase Lann's hatred of demons and skill at killing them intensifies.  Ember Level 6: +1 Stigmatized Witch (Stigmatized Witch 6) Skills: +1 Lore: Religion, +1 Persuasion, +1 Use Magic Device Class Features: Aura of Purity Spell: Lightning Bolt Ember picks up an iconic blasting spell and gains a new 'hex' that lets her clear the area of a variety of annoying spells.  Nenio Level 6: +1 Scroll Savant (Scroll Savant 6) Skills: +1 Knowledge: Arcana, +1 Knowledge: World, +1 Lore: Nature, +1 Lore: Religion Spells: Communal See Invisibility, Spiked Pit Key thing here is Spiked Pit, one of the more hilariously abusable spells in the game for 'gently caress you, you don't deserve to get a turn.' Necessary on this difficulty? No, but I'll try to find a good opportunity to demonstrate it.  Seelah Level 6: +1 Paladin (Paladin 6) Skills: +1 Lore: Religion, +1 Persuasion, +1 Trickery Class Features: Mercy - Diseased Business as usual for Seelah, but she can now cure disease on party members.   "Killing a high-ranking crusader would bring a demon far more prestige than killing a common soldier. Not long ago, I stymied a few of the Spinner of Nightmares's attempts on the lives of influential crusaders so I know what I'm talking about." "Do you know anything about a Pathfinder named Finnean Dismar?" (Hilor rubs his chin.) "Let me think... Dismar, Dismar... I've definitely heard the name before." "Of course you have! I'm a Pathfinder too. So, you're the chief in these lands now? What about Lady Auery? When I left for the Wound, she had just taken up the position." (Hilor examines the talking weapon and chuckles sadly.) "I'm afraid, Auery perished during the Third Crusade... Yes, now I remember. Finnean Dismar went missing in the Wound at the end of the Second Crusade. His name has been on the lists of the fallen for a while." "Here I am, alive and well! Write in your lists that I'm back and soon I'll file a detailed report about everything that happened to me." (Finnean's voice is full of joy.) "I knew it was a misunderstanding! But now everything will return to normal. I need to write to my folks, they probably think I'm dead too!" (Hilor shakes his head sadly.) "Poor lad... but such is the fate of a Pathfinder. We face the unknown, but sometimes the unknown wins, and our mind cannot take it." "I need brave and experienced fighters."So most of the major NPCs from Defender's Heart have come with us to the new hub. Besides continuing to tug at the thread of Finnean's story, it's time to show off one of the things Hilor can do for you.  "Deal." This pops you into the character creation window. You see, Wrath lets you build an entire party (and then some!) of your own custom-designed party members if you want! They don't get as many attribute points in character creation as the PC, and they do not have any reactivity in the story at all. As such, I will probably not be using any but I wanted to show this off. And we start with a demonstration of Wrath letting you import your own custom portraits.  Crossblooded Sorcerer is a kit for those who think having magical powers because of magical beings in your family just isn't special enough, and you're instead a mix of two distinct magical bloodlines. More power, but you learn fewer spells.  By thread demand, an emberkin aasimar - a descendant of a fallen angel.  By my whim, a temple healer in her early life.  By thread demand, the descendant not only of a fallen angel, but a black dragon as well!  Black dragons in DnD - unlike Warcraft - are themed around acid as their element of choice. Many of the spells added by the black dragon bloodline use acid. So let's run with it.  Let's run with it hard. No secondary bloodline was specified, but I'll make it earth elemental. Appropriate for a Warcraft black dragon, and more importantly this bloodline makes it so any time the sorcerer casts a spell that would deal elemental damage, that element is converted to be acid damage instead.  Don't worry, mercs like this will automatically level up to where the party's currently at and get mythic perks.  So let's go even harder on the theme. Dragon Disciple is the first prestige class of the game I've shown: a class you can only take levels in after gaining multiple levels in other classes and meeting certain prerequisites. Most prestige classes have a cap of 10 levels. JRPG fans, think of this as promoting from a class to a job, or going up a class tier, with the note that many prestige classes aren't simply 'that but better' and tend to be more specialized or veer off in different directions. And now the cap to this madness: Ascendant Element is a mythic ability that makes the character completely ignore trivialities like elemental resistance or immunity. It's a godsend to kineticists and certain other character builds (as the thread noted at length, Ember is a great choice for this), of which Katarina here is one: every elemental damage spell she casts is acid, and now there ain't nothing in Golarion that can shrug it off. However, mercenaries don't appear in camp or anything, so I have to improvise.  Commander Yua? Ramien sent me to find you. Katarina Turan, adept of Desna, at your service. You weren't one of the adepts at Kenabres, were you? Nope. But after two nights straight of dreaming of a city being invaded by demons and then a pillar of white light scorching the sky, I took the hint and joined up with the Mendevian army. Ramien thought you might need support from another dreamer. Hmmm. I'm still not sure what the queen is talking about with this knight-commander nonsense. Are you sure you want to stay here? Commander, with respect, this is the Worldwound and there are zealots like Hulrun running around to boot. Noble intentions and stirring oratory are well and good, but you have the look of a woman with a pressing need for copious amounts of boiling acid that can be directed at targets of your choosing. Your logic is compelling. Welcome to the Fifth Crusade! Happy to be here. I'll be seeing to the security of Desna's faithful here in camp, but if you ever need some damage in the field, I'll be ready. Katarina Turan was an interesting woman I never did get to know as well as I would have liked. She had the blood of dragons, higher realms, and elements in her veins, and was manifestly adept at channeling that tangled mess of birthrights. Our first meeting aside, though, she reserved her bravado for the battlefield and preferred to keep to herself. A quiet woman when not called upon, she, and I always wondered what convoluted series of events must have taken place for her to be born. All she ever told me was that her parents loved her very much but were in no position to raise a child, so they gave her to Desna's temple to give her the best life possible. [Give the Storyteller the broken buckle and the necessary materials] "Please restore this relic for me." (The elf cautiously uncorks the vials and begins to work his enchantments. The essence evaporates, turning into light that streams onto the buckle. The light thickens, becoming gold.) "The Covenant of the Inheritor that is the name of this relic. This buckle once adorned the belt of a glorious knight from Mendev. It is the embodiment of a promise made to a young girl by a powerful deity. A great promise that has changed much in the world." (When you touch the restored relic, a strange vision comes to you. It's as if you can see the events that happened to it in the past. A burning sensation spreads across your chest from the very spot where your mysterious wound sometimes opens. What is this the influence of the Storyteller's spells? Or is it something else?) "I had a vision!" (The old elf frowns.) "How strange... You are a remarkable mortal. No one has ever shared my visions before." "What do you think caused it?"The Storyteller is another character who comes with you.  And it's a remarkably handy item for the early game.  "I found the page you were looking for in the Gray Garrison." (The Storyteller carefully takes the page from your hands. His fingers touch the ancient letters gently, examining them lightly, following their lines.) "I see... myself. Young, energetic... able to see. Oh gods, have I found the key to my past? Finally I will find out what my own mind has been hiding from me! (The elf's expression becomes withdrawn. The wrinkles on his face soften.) "Thank you, Yua, and please, follow me to my story. Let us embark on this journey together." (The Storyteller inhales sharply a few times and begins his story.) "They are leaving. The people of Kyonin faced the coming Earthfall and admitted that they were incapable of handling this disaster. Proud rulers, artful crafters, brave warriors, wise mages, and skilled healers, all of them hurry to the gate to Sovyrian, looking around fearfully. A clean, safe world is waiting for them there. My people decided not to fight for Golarion. I am ashamed. And I am sorry for them their hearts wavered in the face of the catastrophe. But my will is strong. I am staying. My kinfolk are looking at me angrily. How dare I diminish their decision with my recklessness? My choice makes them cowards, traitors of their own home! One of them, my former mentor, looks at me bitterly. He hands me a neat notebook with a tree bark cover. 'In case you change your mind.' With a heavy sigh, he returns to the line of those departing. Forgive me, brothers and sisters. I watch the gate of the Sovyrian Stone close, separating me from them. It's time for me to go too. I open my master's notebook. These are his notes about traveling between worlds. 'In case you change your mind.' He hopes the burden I shouldered voluntarily will be too much, I will lose heart and find my way to Sovyrian. That will never happen! My mouth set stubbornly, I tear my master's notebook to pieces. I use my forced pride as a shield against my fear of what is to come." "Why did the elves decide to flee, not fight?" (The Storyteller's lips purse with disdain.) "They are afraid to lose what they have. They were rulers, long-lived and powerful. They valued their lives and sunshine too much to enter the fight with the aftermath of Earthfall." "What is the Sovyrian Stone?"So apparently Golarion has suffered at least one apocalypse in the past, and the elves took the Tolkien solution to Lucifer's Hammer.  "Why are you angry at your fellow elves?" "I spent many hundreds of years in Kyonin. I have always admired the way my kinfolk cared for the forest that was our home. But the rest of the world... seemed to mean nothing to them. But I love Golarion. All its places, all the forms it manifests in. I traveled widely and then came home and told my kinfolk about my travels. But they weren't interested. They only cared about Kyonin. Their lack of desire to hear about the wider world makes me sad and angry." "What happened next?" "Earthfall happened at night... I am standing at the top of my tower, many miles to the north of Kyonin, and I see a blaze far in the south. I hear a horrendous rumble the air is groaning, giving way to a huge rock, rushing down on my world. And then a blow. Vibration that penetrates everything, reaching down into the bowels of Golarion and up to the vaults of the sky. Crunching bones, blood from burst vessels filling my eyes with darkness. Drowning in timelessness along with countless denizens of Golarion. Never before have we been so united in our feelings... When I come round, the darkness remains. My first terrible thought: I'm blind! But no, little by little I begin to see the stone wall. I am alive. But why is it so dark? The answer is quick the smell of ash everywhere. The great burnt sacrifice filled the air with incinerated particles of what was recently the continent of Azlant. Great clouds of ash covered the sky, cutting us off from the sun and the moon, dooming us to dusk at day and complete darkness at night. My heart sinks with fear. Treacherous thoughts fill my mind: why did I stay? Why didn't I run like everyone else when I had the chance? I clench my teeth and stand up to watch Earthfall proudly, like the last archmage of Kyonin should. Will my world really perish like this? Will I perish? No! That will never happen! I am still alive, and I can fight Earthfall and the darkness. Not run from it in a blind panic like my kinfolk and my cowardly teacher. But what can I do? I will not stop the disaster, I will hardly be able to save empires from their destruction. What can I do? I am but one archmage, powerful and weak at the same time." "What is Earthfall?"The Storyteller has been through some serious poo poo. Frankly, it's no wonder he doesn't have a clear memory of his past: we've already seen one person, the curator at the Tower of Estrod, who's implied to have repressed his memories due to trauma.  "What was that tower you mentioned?" "It's my retreat to the north of Kyonin. My home away from home, my observatory. From its top, I watched the stars and when they were correctly aligned the other worlds as well. Here in the northern wastelands, I found the highest mountain and built a tower on top of it. On clear days I could see the mist over the Lake of Mists and Veils in the east that's how high I was." "What are you going to do next?" "I don't know... I need to think. My opponent Earthfall is much stronger than me." (Without noticing, the Storyteller raises his voice to a shout.) "It is merciless. It does not simply destroy life it kills an era, ending the greatness of Golarion's civilizations. They will sink into oblivion, be forgotten as if they never existed... I need to think! (The elf suddenly winces and is silent for a few moments as he calms his heavy breathing.) "Forgive me. I shouldn't have raised my voice. This story was much harder than many before it. Most likely because I played the main role in it. It is so strange to see myself, feel the emotions tearing me up inside those that I felt a long time ago and not remember them. It's like I split, I became both the storyteller and the main character. Too bad the story ended at that moment. Please, if you find other pages covered with ancient elven writings on your travels, bring them to me. I might be able to shed some light on my past, and we will find out how my story ended, and perhaps even why I forgot it."So yeah, this is a game-running subplot where it's very easy to overlook any one of the dozen pages scattered throughout the game that you need to restore the Storyteller's memories. I could keep going, but I think this is a good break point for the update. There's a lot more talking to do in our new hub.
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Mar 24, 2024 14:12
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Aw. Tease us with the other leading vote more, why don't you? I suppose since you can get most of your party perma killed or having them leave for good, you need some source of new party members. Expensive as hell though.
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Mar 24, 2024 17:55
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For comparison, how much gold did you have coming out of Kenabres?
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Mar 24, 2024 18:06
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