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MechanicalTomPetty posted:OD&D was even worse. You picked a column listing all the monsters of a certain alignment and then rolled a dice to see what you got. ALL the monsters, including liches, giants and dragons. ...How is one reborn as a lich?
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May 14, 2015 02:34
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Sefer posted:Interesting that they have a rule against changing votes when a vote can be nullified just by having the representing cleric leave the room. Usually the 'no-kill' clause prevents this, but it seems a proxy's presence is required for a vote to count. As the other dude said though, the rules don't take into account Roy doing a really, really bad job at being a bodyguard.
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Aug 31, 2015 23:38
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D1Sergo posted:Jesus, what size is anything? What perspective is anything? What kind of insane demon dimension is this where objects have no form or context? I used to read it but long fell behind and don't care to catch up. I think the Axe yellow gob passes through literally cannot hurt good creatures and phases through them, and at that point they're in a super evil city so it never comes up for whoever that guy who is fighting him(I have no memory) uses it on others, but uses on yellow gob, it's useless. So yellow gob steals it away. It also somehow gives him armor. Axe that can't harm good creatures isn't a terrible item concept in itself. Shame about everything else.
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Aug 27, 2016 20:55
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If we're going with common sense ignorance murphies, you can add that it doesn't say Drowning actually makes you dead. Although being dead isn't that terrible of a fate. D20 SRD posted:Dead Nowhere does it say you can't continue to take actions and otherwise act normally. To take it to a more absurd degree. D20 SRD posted:Dying If you're going to be a little poo poo, you can be dying bleeding corpse, then the enemy coup de graces you. Since you are now at -10 and take on the Dead condition, you can now get back up and keep fighting, confusing the gently caress out of the guy who just killed you. Fifth Edition doesn't even have a 'Dead' condition listed. Clearly there are no restrictions attached to it. What a weak status effect to inflict. Edit: I thought this was the Murphy thread. Whooops. I guess relevant to the discussion. How about that Order of the Stick? NameHurtBrain fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Sep 20, 2016 |
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Sep 20, 2016 19:38
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Basically video games can get away with arcane and bizarre math because the computer does it for you. Look at a Final Fantasy game's damage calculations. There's so much random multiplication and division you're wondering what the gently caress the programmers were thinking. PnP games don't have that luxury, so all these fiddly bits take time to figure out and generally slow everything the gently caress down.
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Mar 12, 2017 00:14
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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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It would be such an anti-climax but it would be hilarious if Belkar doesn't die, and it's revealed the the Oracle was just seriously loving with Roy all along. I mean, from what we know of the Oracle he definitely seems like the kind of jerkass who would just give people foreboding prophecies and enjoy watching them squirm. Massive, monumental anti-climax, and prob would play against Belkar's arc of gaming the system by breaking into a non-CE afterlife through heroic sacrifice.
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Jul 30, 2018 13:17
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I just took "The One-Step Alignment" rule being broken was due to simply Thor being chaotic. The rules say he can't have lawful followers. But he thinks that's a dumb rule anyway.
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Aug 25, 2018 02:38
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I never really understood why Necromancy was the big bogeyman school for so many. It's easy to flavor it as basically recycling with something people would culturally object to(disrespecting the remains of the dead) but ultimately can be spun as 'you don't care about social norms as much as getting results'. One of my high-concept character ideas I've wanted to do is a 'good' necromancer who wants to do the most good for society but is strangely obsessed with showing that necromancy is a helpful and efficient tool for heroism. Stuff like offering contracts to people who might die for permission to use their body as materials in his projects. Whereas Enchantment spells(mainly dominate/charm line)? It's... um... very much always struck me as pretty evil. You're suppressing free will, denying them choice, and basically enslaving them. Even if you're intentions are good, you're still forcing someone to do something they don't want to do. It's Evil Steve's right not to not want to run into a burning orphanage to save the day - at best, you come off as some sort of twisted control freak. Not to mention there are more real world parallels here that can make it even more uncomfortable - which may be why it's more traditionally tolerated than necromancy - supernatural evils are taken as worse somehow. Hold spells never struck me as particularly super loving evil beyond just the horrors of paralysis. I can buy Hold spells being some sort of magical taser for non-lethal subdueing.
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Nov 16, 2018 12:21
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D&D isn't necessarily a setting though, and 'magic' can mean different things for different fantasy settings. Part of the fun of fantasy is that the rules can be malleable setting to setting, even though sometimes the 'rules' can be written lamely - IE the rules might decide the Paladin falls for lying about hiding the orphans from now uncontrolled evil Steve, in a hyperbolic example. The concept of the helpful Necromancer is more of a concept of someone who is willing to do what society views as reprehensible for the greater good, and not necessarily in a Machiavellian sense. To make it work, you sort of need to approach the 'problems' of necromancy in a certain way, and if you had a DM who at every turn treated your use of necromancy as a cosmic sin, you're pretty much not going to be able to do it because someone in your collaborative story telling session is being a dick. Instead, you have people bring up those problems "IT CORRUPTS THE ENVIRONMENT!" they say, the friendly necromancer tries to argue that wielded recklessly those forces can cause damage, and tries to argue that a wild fireball can be as destructive. He claims to be able to contain the corrupting energies of the magic, coming off a bit like someone in reality arguing for clean coal or whatever. Enslaving the soul? He tries to argue that again, that's the easy way out. A fresh corpse has all the materials needed to be a useful worker or warrior, just needs the whole life thing, which is why it might be more efficient than just building a golem or whatever. His method may be projecting his own soul, or maybe he tries to enslave the soul of those who have done wrong. I think it's important in both of these examples is that the character doesn't have to be *right*, it's interesting because they believe it. Someone argued above it's a gradual struggle with justifications and all that - a character before the fall or someone with enough willpower to resist the fall is fun to me, whether they are actually befouling the land or enslaving the souls of murderers is any different from dominating the murderer to save orphans. Think I just approach these games weird. In a 3.5 game I DMed, I had a 4,000 year old Lich who undertook the the ritual because his soul's continued existence was needed to keep a great evil sealed away. There were paladins in the group, hardliner traditionalist players who viewed the lich as an abomination even though I implied he hadn't really done anything nefarious since then. "Here is thing you hate but thing is not being like you're used to it what do you do now" is something I like throwing at people I guess.  To my defense I wasn't going to make them fall* for not accepting the most boring Lich ever or even just outright trying to destroy him. To their faiths, the lich's destruction would be just, it would also just hasten the release of the same great evil they were trying to prevent in the first place. *I'm generally of the philosophy that you don't fall the Paladin unless they do something wildly out of character, in which you probably ask the player 'what the gently caress are you doing' then before anything else. Anyway, so Rich, he's probably okay and whatever I guess? NameHurtBrain fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Nov 17, 2018 |
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Nov 17, 2018 21:35
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Subverting alignment: sure. But if they adhering to the D&D rules so much, why is he going through all this effort to be a loving paladin?
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Oct 16, 2019 17:27
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I read initially as gay but ultimately just kinda decided it didn't matter - Hook is curvier as far as stick figure phrenology goes but also took Peg into their arms. Joke works either way, have at it whatever orientation you are stick figure pirate people.
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Apr 28, 2020 10:42
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Rich is a cishet white dude who seems to be legitimately learning and trying. Like, there's no doubt in my mind that V was probably envisioned as 'male', got spun into an androgynous elf joke when the community questioned this(probably not in a pro-queer way), and sort of just canon'd into queer representation. The comic started in 2003 - not exactly the peak of trans rights knowledge. But he's learned and is trying to go with it, and pretty much has avoided more modern deliberate hate. Not to write this off as all 'fine and good' as a perfect excuse - it's lovely, but I guess in away 'retcon' into it kinda adds a sense of LGBTQ people were always there, they were just forced to hide from the eyes of the hetero-orthodoxy of society. Strawberry Pyramid posted:I like the implication that elven language just has more words and nuance to describe the gender spectrum and the relationships therein, and it just does not translate to our current version of English at all and comes all stilted such as "Are you alright, beloved child?" "Yes, thank you, parent!" I actually like this as a way of presenting other cultures and using representation to add depth, but putting it on the elves to me feels like, I dunno, the laziest way? (Again, as above, OOTS sort of fell into this idea IMO). The opposite extreme is Discworld dwarves where everyone is basically Gimli, and any performative gender role is a huge faux pas. A recurring plotline in the watch books is a dwarf daring to be openly female - like, not trans, just a cis dwarf woman. It feels like a fun world building exercise to me is to how each race/species would approach this in their culture, especially if you want to present a more positive fantasy of acceptance - not every LGBTQ story needs to be them overcoming bigotry, and I'd imagine some LGBTQ players would like their escapism to be one where they're considered normal by society, something that is sadly and truly a fantasy in today's world. Like maybe an Orc society that isn't aggressively masculine as much as literally not caring what you do beyond you swinging axe good. An Orc wanting to be a wizard is a graver cultural insult to them than being any sort of NB. The traditional depiction of halflings I think leans really well into the 'you do you' philosophy. Dragons and any longer lived race fall easily into the whole writing gender off as some sort of petty mortal fascination.
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Apr 26, 2021 09:46
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sebmojo posted:Belkar's is still waiting to drop. But he killed the oracle. Zulily Zoetrope posted:I think all the prophecies, bar Elan's "happy ending" one, have been explicitly fulfilled since vampire Durkon invaded his hometown. You could even make a case that Elan's was fulfilled when he hooked up with Haley at the end of the arc or with Girard's ultimate phantasm, if you want to predict Elan coming to a tragic end. I can't help but thinking an ending where Elan and Haley don't make it will end up too bleak for the overall tone of the comic.
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May 31, 2021 22:47
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jsoh posted:he probably has better physical stats than v because hes a epic level character with a bunch of powerful magic items This, he was doing smashing scenery onto V because he's thrown on a +6 item at least at some point. He may have had a better than average strength score in life - even a 20(14+6) is incredibly strong by real world standards. Being grappled by Roy could even suggest he'd go higher because if something stops him from just bamfing out of there he'd rpobably want ot be sure. Plus smashing thing with brute force is cool and Xykon is probably into that. A Lich in an AMZ also loses his damage reduction, paralyzing touch, and fear aura. Because the magicless isn't scary anymore to those with 5HD or less. So yeah, I'd put money on most of the order besides V being able to solo Xykon in an AMZ if he doesn't have contingencies(he probably does). Elan is a maybe if you consider the dashing swordsman stuff extraordinary or supernatural, or if being punned is mind affecting so Xykon would be immune to to the damage. Anti-Magic Fight Club is the new alignment debate.
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Jul 13, 2021 01:07
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A deep dive into the roots of table top roleplaying games that just doesn't go GYGAX would be incredibly interesting. I'd imagine it's just a continuing evolution of things. Board games are literally ancient history. Spinning a narrative into a board game is hardly unheard of. Like, Chess technically has a narrative backdrop of a war between two nations, with the pieces powers proverbially symbolic of what they would mean to that nation. Like, the Queen is the most powerfully due to political maneuvering or some other historic explanation, least what I gather from wikipedia. Like, the succession of Chess > Wargaming > Chainmail > D&D is pretty clear. No one makes up anything entirely out of nothing.
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Sep 14, 2021 19:24
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Wittgen posted:V being min maxed for 2nd edition is a pretty funny meta joke. Um, ACKSTUALLY... In D&D 3.0, Telportation was considered a Transmutation spell. 3.5 changed it to Conjuration. https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0340.html It's obviously a way to restrain V from just making GBS threads on every threat(which he can still absolutely do because D&D Wizards are busted), but it does add a subtle bit of further hubris that V didn't consider everything when going for raw power.
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Nov 16, 2021 18:46
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I still giggle at the Paladin mount pokeball gag.
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Dec 13, 2021 19:16
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The big thing is if you realize you've been amnesia'd or not. Most of the people Serini's been memory wiping are completely unaware they've been memory wiped so they've never tried to remedy it. Ditto for the Oracle, I believe. But mainly plot device, yes.
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Dec 15, 2021 22:25
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4E is the only edition that lets me yell at people as a primary mechanic and use the Barbarian as my standard attack. As such, there is no competition in this debate. Edition wars are pretty eh. I find you can have fun with pretty much everything with the right group of people and if everyone's on board. 5E really lucked out that Critical Role and company reignited interest in TTRPGs, and as such I don't think it's success is tied too much to anything about 5E's design in particular. IE, if the whole thing got rolling a few years earlier, 4E would have gotten the light shined on it, and not for any reason of 4E's design either. And if you're trying to get new players in, you usually get them on the hook for the most well known game of the genre, which is D&D, for better or worse. It'd be like trying to get into MMOs - it's probably an easier sell with WoW or FF14, because people have heard of those, versus, I don't know, trying to sell people on playing on your City of Heroes private server.
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Jul 25, 2023 21:14
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The Peasant Railgun breaking physics and doing any actual damage is a myth. A bunch of peasants just handing a stick down a line is perfectly fine RAW. It's traveling 5 feet in 3 seconds 300 times a round, its velocity never increasing, the whole thing still taking less than six seconds. It's ultimately just very labor intensive teleportation.
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Feb 10, 2024 05:37
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Eh, the bucket brigade has existed forever. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucket_brigade It just takes a lot longer than 6 seconds. NihilCredo posted:If a falling character takes at most 20d6 from falling damage, does it mean you also take 20d6 from an object falling on you at terminal velocity that's roughly your same size and mass? If I was a DM, I'd allow it, because it's basically looney tunes and I allow anything if its funny enough. Screw the peasant railgun, we need the peasant humanoid pyramid that gets high enough to drop heavy objects on the dragon.
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Feb 10, 2024 15:45
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see, it's a narrative commentary on D&D, explaining that while you can optimize, ultimately it's not a competitive game. The theoretical DM in this game just throws Belkar bones here and there to let him play his crappy build. There's some meta commentary on Belkar not giving a poo poo about the game for the most part until he finally gets into it, which does describe some actual D&D players - they'll come in with a suboptimal, funny build but are too attached to the character to really remake them. Improved Critical would probably help Belkar's build? If this was Pathfinder, Slashing Grace or some other method of Dex to Damage would also greatly help him, but it'd also make the Barbarian levels kinda worthless.
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Mar 12, 2024 14:21
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Wizards get to be the wizards of all the elements, of illusions, of mind-reading, of creating grand magical prisons, summoning both the dead and creatures from other planes, and of manipulating matter. You may specialize in one of these, but you're still perfectly capable of doing them all, with very few exceptions. But if a Fighter wants to be an absolute master at both really big sword and slightly less big sword? Woah, WOAH. Reel it back in here, let's not get too crazy.
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Mar 12, 2024 19:06
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Wouldn't the moon have a massive penalty to its Hide checks due to its size? There is some loving nerd who has calculated this I bet.
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Mar 27, 2024 15:25
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