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marshmallow creep posted:I'm not misunderstanding something about how spells do damage, right? They still do a d10 plus the damage value, like shooting someone with a gun? So this is 10 automatic hit attacks that do between 5 and 14 damage? Assuming armor applies, a human target might reduce that damage by 6, so unless you roll 1 or 2 on all the damage rolls you're doing at least 10 and as much as 80 damage to one target. Holy moly. At the same time the PC I'm playing right now (who admittedly is 3rd tier) has 11 Damage Reduction (6 Toughness, 5 Armor) and so serious targets are often able to individually resist a lot of that damage. Plus, you get 1d10 attacks, so it's highly random how many times they hit you. Shardstorm can totally gently caress you up, but it's actually weaker than the Bright Wizard version of the spell. The Bright Wizard version is CN 22 (so harder to pull off, notably) but hits d10 times for base Damage 4 (5 with Mighty Missile and if you're a Bright Wizard you took Mighty Missile back in Journeyman) and hits a minimum of times equal to your Mag stat. So a Bright Wizard Lord smacks someone for 4-10 d10+5 hits. And yes, Damage 5 in a spell is still d10+5, same as Damage 5 with a gun or bow or sword. The way to think of it is, say, you're hitting someone with DR 11 for 50-140 effective damage, but since you're hitting them 10 times, they're guaranteed to stop 110 of it. That is also 10 chances to Fury, though. And someone taking 20-30 Wounds is going down. Also Ice Witches have more ways to ignore your armor than pretty much anything else in the game. There's a reason their miscast table is so dangerous to them and it's because if you let them go full bore on their casting checks all the time they've be total murder machines. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 02:50 on Nov 17, 2017 |
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Nov 17, 2017 02:42
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Alien Rope Burn posted:
Hive-minded insect creatures named Formians? isn't that an Ender's Game thing?
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Nov 17, 2017 02:56
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gradenko_2000 posted:Hive-minded insect creatures named Formians? isn't that an Ender's Game thing? They're just a really old D&D thing, where they were originally non-Modron Lawful Neutral outsiders. (And thus terrible.) The Ender's game things are the Formics
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Nov 17, 2017 03:02
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If memory serves there's some bad guy in the Empire whose name is German for dentist.
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Nov 17, 2017 05:21
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Hostile V posted:If memory serves there's some bad guy in the Empire whose name is German for dentist. Does his character art look anything like this? 
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Nov 17, 2017 05:24
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Great, now I've got the song stuck in my head again.
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Nov 17, 2017 05:30
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gradenko_2000 posted:Hive-minded insect creatures named Formians? isn't that an Ender's Game thing? No, they're just following the same unimaginative naming scheme. Ants are of the family Formicidae.
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Nov 17, 2017 05:41
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 Part Four: The Booking Committee or, Vince Russo Simulator 2003 Actually playing Kayfabe is divided into three parts, as described in the intro, and the book handles each in turn. So first up we have the Booking Committee, the least mechanical part of the game. Here everyone takes the roles of writers creating the Show. Each player should come up with at least one Interview, one Promo, one Skit, and one Match- they can do more, obviously, and you don’t necessarily have to work alone. It’s expected that there will be a lot of back and forth, but the game says to set a time limit on how long this phase takes- anywhere from hours to days (PbP presumably already being a thing by 2003.) At the end of that time the Booker takes all that the writers have come up with and finalizes it into the Booking Sheet. The game assumes a 2 hour standard show (though realistically 30 minutes of that would be commercials)- they don’t really force this and obviously PPVs will be longer, but “How long will this segment be” is one question you’re asked to consider. The game says that most matches on a regular show will be 10 minutes and under (though I think as of late the WWE is much more commonly having matches go over that and throwing in a commercial break), whereas any of the other segments might be anything from 30 seconds to 30 minutes long. The other questions are a bit simpler- Who Will Be Involved, Why Is It Important, and What Effect Will The Scene Have. We get to talking about creating a writer next. Unlike the other characters we’ve made, writers don’t have stats- they’re just the personality you use when deciding what you’re going to write. You think about their background and what kind of style they want- are they an old fashioned, straightforward wrestling booker who treats the whole thing very sport-like, are they into booking Big Moments and shocking twists, do they try to come up with elaborate arcs, etc. The one mechanical thing is you can choose a focus- whether it’s Matches, Interviews, Promos, or Skits- and you can substitute an extra one of those in lieu of another required type of scene. (So someone who focuses on Skits might do an extra one of those but not submit a Promo, etc.) Okay there’s a bit of confusing writing here- “Once the Booking Sheet has been posted writers must make Clout rolls like anyone else if they want to change something. Only characters with a Clout Trait can change the Booking Sheet.” The NEXT paragraph talks about how writers can sometimes become On-Air characters, at which point you have to stat them up, so THEN they can use Clout to influence things. Okay, I think I get it. Even though the player will have a bunch of characters they made, the game defaults to an assumption that you won’t necessarily favor “your guys”. However, wrestlers with the Asset of Married to the Business, Born Into the Business, or Friends In High Places may form an alliance with one of the writers- as a writer you make a note of such wrestlers, to indicate you favor them. Though the Booker’s role is kind of detached, it does say that the Booker can more actively take on the role of the Promoter during the Booking Committee- they can change anything they want to, obviously, since that’s a power the Booker already has. The game suggests that if you fully role-play out the Booking Committee, in character and everything, the players should also be able to each bring a wrestler to sit-in. Wrestlers do sometimes sit on booking committees to get an idea of where things are going and offer input. A wrestler can use a Clout roll to change a suggestion by a writer (and since writers don’t usually have Clout of their own it will often be unopposed), but the Booker still has the final word. Finally the book says wrestlers can be a part of a Booking Committee, but that historically this is a very bad idea. A wrestler needs a Clout of at least 8 to even try. Then we break down the four types of scenes described earlier. Matches come first, and the obvious is gotten out of the way- who’s in it, how long is it going to take, and who will win. The writers don’t actually have to define who will win since that is down to the Booker, but you can suggest who you feel should, and I can see this being a big opportunity for negotiation and roleplay especially if the Booker plays the promoter. In talking about the time limit they again say that TV matches will usually run from 2 to 10 minutes. Now, this was 2003- I wasn’t watching wrestling at the time, but for pretty much all of the Attitude Era the then-WWF’s shows did tend to have short matches broken up by lots of skits and craziness. Nowadays the matches go a bit longer but their roster is deeper and Raw is 3 goddamn hours long so something has to take up time. There’s also the question of what titles, if any, are on the line. This is one of the few rulesy bits of the chapter, because to simulate the importance that titles can have to a promotion, each title has a Heat requirement for the wrestler to hold it. Wrestlers with a lower Heat than the Heat requirement can take the belt, but this causes the promotion to lose 1 Heat for each show the wrestler has it.  There’s a list of Heat requirements for most titles- it’s generally derived by looking at the promotion’s overall Heat. World and Tag titles require Heat equal to the promotion’s Heat x2, most other titles require you have Heat equal to that of the promotion, and “TV” and “Hardcore” titles have no such requirement. (I’m not sure about the Tag Team restriction being as high as the World one, though.) Promos are defined here (sort of, it’s kind of imprecise) as being verbal confrontations between wrestlers, in service of an upcoming match or ongoing story. They usually have one wrestler in the ring, they talk a bit and call someone out, then the person they’re calling out comes out to fire back at them. There can even be a brawl at the end, though the game recommends that this be kept short. (1 or 2 Move Sets, though this hasn’t been defined yet. The layout has problems.) Interviews, somewhat counterintuitively, are just one wrestler talking- there can be an interviewer, they can even be staged as a “talk show” segment hosted by another wrestler (a la Piper’s Pit, The Highlight Reel, The Shelton Benjamin Show, you get the idea) but the speaker is the focus. You can also have “shoot” interviews where the wrestler breaks kayfabe- this is discouraged, but can be used to explain things like injuries or sometimes help turn a heel into a face by showing that they’re not bad, they’re just booked that way. Skits are basically anything that’s not one of the above- two or more wrestlers doing… whatever. Conscious Skits are ones where the guys are deliberately playing to the crowd, Unconscious Skits are where we’re supposed to think this is live backstage footage and the wrestlers don’t know they’re being taped. There’s a note about Booking for TV- if the promotion is one with a TV show, that show usually will be heavier on skits and promos and such than on the wrestling, because you’re trying to hook the casual audience with storylines, while if you’re doing local live shows you might want more wrestling, and PPVs will be almost all matches with a few bits in between. “Tricks of the Trade” is a sidebar basically defining some wrestling concepts like “Schmoz”, “Turning a Wrestler", “Screw-Job”, etc. That wraps up this part of the Booking Committee. Next Time we finish this section with Tag Teams, Stables, Feuds, and Building to a PPV.
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Nov 17, 2017 06:55
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unseenlibrarian posted:They're just a really old D&D thing, where they were originally non-Modron Lawful Neutral outsiders. (And thus terrible.) I think they were probably fine as an alternative until they evicted the modrons in 3rd edition for being too much fun. I do like the old Planescape Diterlizzi ant soldier art, in any case.
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Nov 17, 2017 07:04
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 Starfinger Alien Archive Part 10: "Those captors, though, have much in common no matter the specific circumstances or the species of the victim: an otherworldly presence, condescending interactions, and a sinister disregard for the agency and dignity of those they take as subjects for their experiments." It is my masterpiece! You've gained nothing by obtaining the G file!
 Goblin Zaperator, Space (CR 0.333) and Goblin Honchohead, Space (CR 2) So, the marquee monsters of Pathfinder return, this time with bubbles on their noggins. You know, the ones that are like goblins from Legend of the Five Rings, who were like the goblins from Warhammer Fantasy, which were derived from the goblins in Dungeons & Dragons... no doubt the original source, with no goblins ever before that. Supposedly they stowed their way on to Absolom Station, and have made occasionally-lethal nuisances of themselves ever since. They're like Gremlins, except presumably they gently caress the old-fashioned way. Y'know. In case you needed that fact. I mean, it even refers to their "rapid reproduction rate". Maybe they have funny songs they sing about dogs while they do it. In any case, they've become somewhat smarter than regular goblins so we can draw pictures of them with lasers and bubbles on their heads. They worship Triune most often, dreaming of a heaven that's basically one large junkyard to raid. They're also stupid when comically appropriate, trying to understand technology by chewing on it or making devices that explode when they use them. They refer to anything on four legs as "dogs" or horses" so they can still stay on-brand and call their weapons dogslicers, though they do now call flamethrowers horseroasters. Ha-larious. We get two statblocks, the first being your standard mook humanoid with a laser and  Gray (CR 4) "So, I heard you were playing a grey infiltrator in Robin's game, I didn't know they were playable." "Oh, yeah, they give rules for playable grays in Alien Archive, so I thought I'd try one out." "What are grays like in Starfinger? I mean, are they like X-Files-" "More or less, they wander space and kidnap people while they're asleep and then experiment on them. The usual probing sorts." "It's been hundreds or thousands of years they've been doing that, right? I mean, they were in Golarion, so they've been at it for awhile. You'd think they'd discovered all there is to probe." "Apparently not, the grays are still at it." "But why so they do it? You'd think people could just fly over and ask them why." "Nah, the grays don't talk to anybody." "But you could just visit their home planet, right?" "Nobody knows where they come from." "But as a gray player, you get some of that, right? Like, does it explain why they're still out sleepnapping people for their scary experiments? You'd have to know that to play one, right? Like, what they're about-" "Look, I'm gonna stop you there. I read the Alien Archive and I don't know poo poo about grays you wouldn't have already found out from Communion or Fire In the Sky or whatever." "Wouldn't you need to know more to play one? Like, to really get inside their heads?" "I thought so too, but apparently not. I mean, I'm no RPG Superstar." "But if you're playing a gray..." "... yeah?" "... and none of the grays talk to other races..." "... mmhm..." "... how does that work?" "Nothing works, man, this is Starfinger." Grays are basically big balls of stun and mind reading effects - deep slumber, hold person, a special ability to paralyze sleeping people, have a staggering psychic "probe" they can inflict with a touch, and they carry needler pistols with a Constitution poison. They can also turn briefly intangible and any attack that targets them has a 20% chance of missing. Though they can speak Aklo, they can only communicate telepathically. They're bog-standard interpretations of the pop culture critters, apparently not having changed their modus operandi even slightly when interacting with interstellar civilizations. You can play a PC version, though it only gets a smattering of their full statblock - darkvision, the ability to mind attack once a day (that doesn't scale with level) and daze whenever, and once per day they can gain a 20% chance to have attacks miss them... for a single round. Bizarrely, the PC version doesn't even get the full-fledged telepathic communication other races get, instead just getting telepathic message as an at-will spell that takes a standard action, is limited to 10 words, and can even be eavesdropped on by saavy witnesses! So forget communicating in combat without spending anaction. No. Really. But, then again, even though it says "Grays communicate only telepathically, even among their own kind.", the PC statblock has no restriction on speech, even though it's on the NPC statblock... But they're pretty much just awful as a PC race. And, well, they're kind of boring and awful as monsters, too, given all they do is kidnap people... and put them back. Which can be either interpreted as bad but mostly harmless or as a violation on par with sexual assault, and either way it's not real functional as a plot point. Add in the fact that any GM is going to have the flesh the hell out of them to use them beyond just a low-level wandering encounter, and you get one bummer of a writeup. There's also memory-erasing disks you can steal from them if you want to go around making Men in Black impressions. Next: H is for Spider Glider. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 08:03 on Nov 17, 2017 |
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Nov 17, 2017 07:57
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Paizo I know you are reading this, just find a bunch of 12 year old kids and gove them the artwork for goblin and grey. Whatever they come up with will be waaaaaaaaay more fun than you could ever make.
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Nov 17, 2017 08:02
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Alien Rope Burn posted:"It's been hundreds or thousands of years they've been doing that, right? I mean, they were in Golarion, so they've been at it for awhile. You'd think they'd discovered all there is to probe." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KlTYziu5Ss
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Nov 17, 2017 08:08
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALXZ2ElV8_U
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Nov 17, 2017 08:18
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Horrible Lurkbeast posted:Paizo I know you are reading this, just find a bunch of 12 year old kids and gove them the artwork for goblin and grey. 
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Nov 17, 2017 09:07
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It makes me direly gay
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Nov 17, 2017 09:10
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TIL There is ANOTHER gigantic railroady adventure that involves the same gently caress-you-players rear end in a top hat choice of Hell on Earth- Call of Cthulhu's Beyond the Mountains of Madness.  I'm exaggerating a little- there are NPCs available, potentially even animals, and a player can choose to sacrifice themselves instead of it having to be murder, although someone still has to cut off their head and the book thinks you're a bitch if you don't make an Investigator die. The event is also technically optional, but the book all but commands you to make the investigators trigger it even though there's an NPC who is probably going to do it anyway.
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Nov 17, 2017 09:27
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unseenlibrarian posted:They're just a really old D&D thing, where they were originally non-Modron Lawful Neutral outsiders. (And thus terrible.) Formica is a genus of ants and formic acid was called that because it used to be made out of ant squeezins. Honestly it's just a boring name all the way down. Like if fantasy bear people were called Ursa. Oh wait, they are, all the time.
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Nov 17, 2017 10:34
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Kavak posted:TIL There is ANOTHER gigantic railroady adventure that involves the same gently caress-you-players rear end in a top hat choice of Hell on Earth- Call of Cthulhu's Beyond the Mountains of Madness. Really? Where? I´m currently running the campaign for a group of players in the first of three books (german edition, it´s basically part 1, on their way to Antarctica still) and having not yet read ahead, I´m kinda bitchy about the campaign already (the entire layout is poo poo, the material is unwieldy and it´s generally in dire need of an editor). Come to think of it, that campaigns actually kinda worth an F&F writeup.
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Nov 17, 2017 14:41
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It's in the last act, where (Spoilers for anyone who might play it in the future) Starkweather's head is found lodged in an Elder Thing device that keeps a super-nasty Outer God contained. If the party doesn't do it or touch the machine otherwise Lexington yanks it out, and somebody's got a put a fresh one in. Does the book mention why the Dyer Manuscript didn't reach Starkweather and Moore, by the way?
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Nov 17, 2017 14:52
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You have a 2/6 chance of becoming infected when clawed or bitten by The Deck of Encounters Set One Part 30: The Deck of Ghouls, Giants, Gnolls, and Gnomes 177: Grave Robbers In a dark graveyard, a dozen ghouls are trying to break into a fresh tomb to eat a family that recently died of plague. The PCs will wander past and see them clawing at the door. The ghouls are territorial over the tomb, but otherwise not looking for a fight. The remaining family would reward them 100 gp if they drive off or kill the ghouls and can prove it, however. I like this well enough. The PCs can approach the situation however they want, or avoid it entirely. Keep. P.S. “There is little treasure in the tomb itself; PCs who loot the tombs of the dead are little better than ghouls anyway, so do not award any experience points if that is the course they choose to take.“ Uh, I understand the sentiment, but isn’t looting the tombs of the dead a time-honored PC activity? Just not usually the recently dead. 178: The Cursed The town secretly has a major ghoul infestation. The guard have been hunting them for weeks, and they’re starting to panic. They’re trying to pass on their curse to raise their numbers, and for some reason think the PCs are good candidates. (Seriously, ghouls, go attack the miller or something instead.) They’ll jump out, focus attacks on one PC, and flee, and they’ll do the same to other NPCs across the city if not stopped. Keep; there are some cool plot hooks here, as long as I’m not a jerk about the ghoul ambush and give the PCs a fair chance to notice or respond to it. Note: The XP values on the front of the card seem to have been mixed up between this encounter and the previous one. This card lists: “XP Value: 1,050 for eliminating the ghouls and informing the surviving family members, 0 for looting the tomb.” 179: The Giant's Baby A thick fog descends on the PCs when they’re up in the mountains. A storm giant comes up to them and asks if they’ve seen his child, offering 10,000 gp in worked silver jewelry (!) for her safe return. The giant points them in the direction he last saw the kid (wait, if he knows that, why is he dispatching expensive human-sized mercenaries?). The giant girl has wandered into the plains, sowing childish destruction. Finding her isn’t hard, convincing her to come back is. I dunno. The reward seems disproportionate and I don’t really get why the job is being outsourced at all. It’s be better if the PCs just found a rampaging giant baby, deal with it however they wanted, and justify their actions to the parent later when they showed up. However, to play it that way, it would need to be not a "mountain" terrain encounter card. As presented, pass. 180: Warband Divided Gnolls are quarrelling. The gnoll chieftain ended up dead somehow (there are also dead orcs here, so that had something to do with it), and two factions each blame the other. “When the PCs enter the clearing, one of the would-be gnoll leaders points to the PCs and says that they are spies coming to make a deal with his rival who is obviously a cowardly human-lover.” If the PCs support this accusation or do nothing, the accused rival leader will be butchered in one round, then the remaining gnolls will fall on them. If they gently caress with the gnoll who made this accusation by greeting it like a friend or ally, then the warband will fall into confusion and tear itself apart, the survivors fleeing. All in a day’s work for PC harbingers of chaos and destruction. Keep. 181: Gnomes on a Holiday Spriggans have set up a trap in the mountains. They're hanging around partying outside of a cave, pretending to be gnomes of a racial type that the PCs do not hold violently racist attitudes towards (snirfeblin, specifically), and they invite the characters to join in. Here's the twist - the spriggans are actually in their giant size, drinking potions of diminuation, so when the PCs share their drinks, they'll shrink down, and THEN the gnomes will attack! GENIUS! Some of these encounters tread a fine line between enjoyably dumb and just really, really stupid. For me, this falls on the pass side of that line.
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Nov 17, 2017 15:51
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My next Starfinder character concept is a Gray who got turned by Xcom and then got mysteriously teleported to whatever sector of space the game is taking place in.
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Nov 17, 2017 15:58
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A Gray who regularly delivers passionate and meaningful soliloquys entirely in sign language, then gets frustrated when no one notices.
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Nov 17, 2017 16:00
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That Starfinger goblin's head is bigger than the neck hole of his bubble helmet.
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Nov 17, 2017 16:07
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OutOfPrint posted:That Starfinger goblin's head is bigger than the neck hole of his bubble helmet. It's just a Howie Mandel-style inflated glove or condom or something.
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Nov 17, 2017 16:20
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Dallbun posted:181: Gnomes on a Holiday This one tickles my rear end in a top hat Fairies button. I should probably rephrase that, but eh.
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Nov 17, 2017 18:56
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OutOfPrint posted:That Starfinger goblin's head is bigger than the neck hole of his bubble helmet. To be fair, a goblin getting their head stuck in a bubble and starving or having to smash it open would be entirely in character. How kooky! But probably not what's intended. Also I realize after the fact that I completely wrecked the art but, well, you can pull it from the Starfinger review if you want a clean version. It's the exact same art they used the Core Rules and in First Contact, meaning it's the third time I've seen that art going through these books. Even though they have different art of the same goblin.
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Nov 17, 2017 19:07
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I prefer my goblins to be more long nosed shifty types like in Hams. But I would play starfinger in an all goblin party to mess with their srs tone. Plus, I like my goblins as shifty little fuckers with slapped together weaponry. Wait, can a gobbo be a solarian?
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Nov 17, 2017 20:09
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Dallbun posted:181: Gnomes on a Holiday Do potions of diminution actually do anything? I thought they just made you like a percentage smaller equal to whatever amount you drank, like if you drank half the potion you went to half size. I don't remember 2nd edition having really specific rules for getting weaker when shrunken. theironjef fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Nov 17, 2017 |
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Nov 17, 2017 20:11
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theironjef posted:Do potions of diminution actually do anything? I thought they just made you like a percentage smaller equal to whatever amount you drank, like if you drank half the potion you went to half size. I don't remember 2nd edition having really specific rules for getting weaker when shrunken. ...does that mean that if you drink an entire potion, you cease to exist, having become 100% smaller?
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Nov 17, 2017 20:22
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Mors Rattus posted:...does that mean that if you drink an entire potion, you cease to exist, having become 100% smaller? The greatest assassination in history revolves around swapping someone's fizzy drink for a different, more existentially erasing fizzy drink!
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Nov 17, 2017 20:25
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JcDent posted:I prefer my goblins to be more long nosed shifty types like in Hams. But I would play starfinger in an all goblin party to mess with their srs tone. There's no restriction on classes, so sure. The fact that they gave attributes a hard cap of 18 with flat costs means your race plays surprisingly little in terms of maximizing suitability, assuming you're sticking to the default point-buy attribute system. If you're doing attribute random rolls, their -2 Cha is a problem for playing a Solarian. Of course, some racial traits are more useful for some classes than others; goblins seem to make good Engineers and Operators. That's why I'm not really covering what traits races have in Alien Archive, because what traits have a bonus or penalty only really matters in terms of maximizing multiple attributes; you can always at least maximize one attribute to start even if it's penalized. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 20:29 on Nov 17, 2017 |
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Nov 17, 2017 20:27
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Mr.Misfit posted:Really? Where? I´m currently running the campaign for a group of players in the first of three books (german edition, it´s basically part 1, on their way to Antarctica still) and having not yet read ahead, I´m kinda bitchy about the campaign already (the entire layout is poo poo, the material is unwieldy and it´s generally in dire need of an editor). Come to think of it, that campaigns actually kinda worth an F&F writeup. I ran about 2 sessions of that before I went to my group and was. "Say, you know that classic campaign that we all chipped in to buy off ebay because it was super-expensive (this was years ago, before the PDF's/reissues.). Turns out it's a boring railroady piece of crap, and I hate it". So I ran my own Coc game instead, and we were all much happier.
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Nov 17, 2017 20:32
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Alien Rope Burn posted:There's no restriction on classes, so sure. The fact that they gave attributes a hard cap of 18 with flat costs means your race plays surprisingly little in terms of maximizing suitability, assuming you're sticking to the default point-buy attribute system. If you're doing attribute random rolls, their -2 Cha is a problem for playing a Solarian. Of course, some racial traits are more useful for some classes than others; goblins seem to make good Engineers and Operators. Man, I should get back to reading your coverage of the main book, I don't remember whether minmaxing is important in Star Path: The Search for Finger. Then again, a probably all goblin party would have a GM that would be suitably on board.
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Nov 17, 2017 20:37
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Mors Rattus posted:...does that mean that if you drink an entire potion, you cease to exist, having become 100% smaller? I think it bottoms out at 5% of original size. Which means you should never shotgun a potion of diminution. Save it for some time when you'd really like to be 5% smaller. Like when you're flying coach, I guess.
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Nov 17, 2017 20:51
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JcDent posted:Man, I should get back to reading your coverage of the main book, I don't remember whether minmaxing is important in Star Path: The Search for Finger. Not nearly as much as Pathfinder, but there are definitely some trap options and weaker classes. It's still got a lot of issues d20 games have, it's just the breadth of imbalance has narrowed. Which is better; it doesn't become great, but it's better. Working out your equipment is where crunching every credit comes into play, and what and when to spend your money on turns into a maximizing mathmare.
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Nov 17, 2017 20:57
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theironjef posted:I think it bottoms out at 5% of original size. Which means you should never shotgun a potion of diminution. Save it for some time when you'd really like to be 5% smaller. Like when you're flying coach, I guess. So what happens if I transfer the remains of my potion into a smaller bottle, which it then fills completely. If I hand this off to someone who doesn't know about the original potion, does it work just as well as a full potion would?
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Nov 17, 2017 20:57
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Bieeardo posted:This one tickles my rear end in a top hat Fairies button. I was thinking instead of just attacking (presumably in a fight to the death) they might have some scheme cooked up that involves tricking miniaturized adventurers. Perhaps they want to kidnap them and sell them as novelties (and if the potion wears off after they've been sold, caveat emptor) or perhaps they are shanghaiing adventurers for some kind of miniature expedition--they are too lazy or cowardly to go into the Tunnels of the Snake Pixies to steal their treasures, so they promise a potion that will turn the players back to normal if they go in and get it for them.
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Nov 17, 2017 21:08
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Warhammer Fantasy: Realm of the Ice Queen I promised you a laser cannon. I'm a little sad we don't get a set of Divine Marks for the priests (you'll see those in Tome of Salvation eventually) because Divine Marks are pretty cool. They work exactly like Witch Marks, just they reflect a priest coming to resemble their God. We do get a full Divine Lore for the Gods of Kislev, though! Remember that Divine Magic usually has lower CNs and fewer spells because Divine casters never get past 3 Mag (and don't get Mag at all until Career 2, nor a Lore until Career 3). Dazh starts us off with a divine flashbang with Brilliance, a Half Action CN 12 spell that makes everyone with eyes within 6m make an Agi test or lose -20 to WS, BS, Agility, and perception tests for 1d10 rounds because they can't see after you blind them with sunlight. Simple, useful combat magic for debuffing a bunch of enemies around the priest. DAZH SZHEG! is a CN 14 Full Action spell that calls down a small template (6m diameter) area that then gets smashed with a brilliant beam of holy light from above. This beam translates to an Agi-10 save or take a Damage 4 Ignores Armor (they really went crazy with Ignores Armor stuff in Kislev, probably because they expected a lot of campaigns to be fighting AV5 Chaos Meatwalls) hit that also sets the target on fire if they take a wound. Recall that being on Fire is really, really bad (d10 Wounds, without reduction, per round until you make an Agi save to put yourself out as a full action). I told you there was an actual orbital laser cannon; being underground will not stop Dazh from frying someone like a bug under a magnifying glass, either. Dance of the Alari lasts for an hour per point of Mag and is a non-combat spell that causes the northern lights to brighten and amplify within a 3 mile radius, providing enough light for people to see. These are supposed to be Dazh's warrior-consorts, the great Alari, performing a dance for you. Naturally the northern lights are the sun-god's girlfriends. Rouse the Coals causes a target that is flammable to catch fire if it's within 2m of you and you use a full action and hit CN 7. I wonder if people wearing flammable clothes count? The book is not clear on this. Sacred Guest lets you bless your time with another in their house or castle, with a simple CN 5 prayer to Dazh. If your host violates their obligations as host, they are cursed by Dazh (things like fires refusing to light or burning 4 times as much fuel) until you ask him to forgive them. Wreath of Flame is a half action, 1/mag round spell at CN 13 that wreaths you in holy fire. While like this, foes need to pass a WP test to attack you in melee or they suffer -30 WS. If they make the test, they still suffer -10. You also become totally immune to fire and make Bright Wizards very, very sad. Dazh magic is entirely worth it for the sacred laser cannon, but Tor's going to have some strong contenders, too. Tor starts off with Call of Tor, a full action spell with a radius of 1 mile and a CN of 16 that only lasts a single round after you cast it. However, it infuses all Kislevites with such patriotic fervor and thunderous strength that any Kislevite character gets to attack 2 times if they Charge next round. Failing this spell will always invoke Wrath of the Gods, even if you didn't roll a miscast. Tor has a Patriotism spell that can infuse an entire front line with the power to crush their enemies right before they clash. Cleave the Sky is a half action, CN 15 spell that lasts 1 day per point of Mag or until you let it end. It requires overcast weather to cast. It asks Tor to hit the clouds with his mighty axe and begin a downpour that will slow down everyone in a 3 mile radius. Useful for ending droughts, I suppose. DO TOR! fires a magic bolt of lightning for CN 11 and a Full Action. This bolt does Damage 3 Ignores Armor damage, and if it kills its target, the bolt leaps to another target until someone survives it or you stop the chain. Simple attack spell, though I'm getting a bit wary of all the armor-ignoring given how rare it is elsewhere in the system. Incoming Storm is a CN 9 Full Action spell that lasts for 5 minutes per point of Mag and lets anyone affected roll WP+10 to avoid Surprise if they get surprised during the duration. Given that surprise can easily TPK you this isn't a bad idea if you're going into a bad situation. Thunder of War is a simple CN 12 spell that hits in 12m around you for a full action. It causes every enemy in the area (specifically only enemies, Tor's buddies know this is just loud noises) to roll a Fear save due to the crashing thunder of your drums. Tor's Fury is a simple CN 6 Half Action 1 minute/Mag blessing that blesses your axe (it must be an axe) and makes it so you do not need to confirm Fury rolls with the weapon. No second WS test; you get a 10, you keep rolling damage. Tor is simple and effective at making warrior priests, but that patriotism spell is ace. Ursun's focuses almost entirely on buffs. Ursun starts off with a CN 9 spell that summons a bear. The bear isn't going to fight for you, but he is not upset that you woke him up, and will answer questions in 'a sonorous, noble voice' if he knows the answers. The bear is wise. Growling Fury is a CN 9 Half Action spell that lasts 1 minute and grants you Menacing and (sigh) Frenzy, plus +10 to WP and Toughness tests while it's in effect. Good god, this is like...the fifth or sixth spell in the line to grant someone Frenzy as if that was a big deal and not a totally worthless Talent. Skin of the Ice Bear is a CN 10, Half Action self-buff that makes the caster Unsettling, grants them Keen Senses, and +1 damage while in effect. As well as +10 to all survival skills. For 1 Minute per Mag. Effective and useful buffs, all of it, but especially the flat damage. Note it's damage, not melee damage; it'd work fine on ranged weapons. Unyielding Ursun lasts a full minute, has a 36m range, and takes a Full Action at CN 21 so you know it's a big spell. And it is; it awakens the spirit of the unyielding bear in every Kislevite in range. Kislevites only and specifically. They all gain Fearless (total immunity to Fear or Terror tests, cancelling any Fear or Terror they were suffering from when it's cast) and Unsettling. CN 21 can be pretty hard for a priest, though. Ursine Strength is a CN 8 half Action prayer that gives you +10 Strength, +20 Strength when grappling, and makes your Unarmed attacks do +1 damage for a minute. Grappling is a little niche, but a burly priest with this spell could definitely hold a Chaos Lord down for his buddies to stab him. Finally, the best spell is last: Winter's Sleep. You call upon all the sleepy powers of Ursun and hit a small template of foes with the sudden urge to hibernate with a CN 14 Full Action. You thought I was making it up with Ursun being a sleepy god, didn't you? No, you have the power to force enemies to make a WP-10 save or nap for d10 Rounds. Note that they are considered Helpless (taking an extra d10 damage if they take a hit) and it doesn't mention they wake after being struck, unlike Sleep the Petty Magic spell. Father Bear could conceivably make this a save or die for an enemy that way. I'd probably rule it was an oversight and have it work like the Asleep condition does elsewhere in the line, though (once struck, they wake immediately). Next: Oh god, another pre-made adventure. Book's almost done!
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Nov 17, 2017 21:11
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Mors Rattus posted:So what happens if I transfer the remains of my potion into a smaller bottle, which it then fills completely. A potion is a defined unit of measurement like a Mole is in our chemistry, and is strictly defined by the Wizards Council of Weights and Worths
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Nov 17, 2017 21:12
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Deptfordx posted:I ran about 2 sessions of that before I went to my group and was.
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Nov 17, 2017 21:49
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