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I assume she was also mad online.
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Jan 2, 2019 20:23
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I'm going to point fingers at Macbeth for the evil hags thing too.
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Jan 2, 2019 21:01
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Bieeanshee posted:I'm going to point fingers at Macbeth for the evil hags thing too. At least Macbeth's Weird Sisters steal the goddamn show, get all the best lines and...honestly, they're not even especially evil, they're just witches that do a prophecy. Unless we're talking Lady Macbeth who definitely gets ill-treated.
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Jan 2, 2019 21:05
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MacBeth's witches just tell him some stuff. What he does with it is his own fault.
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Jan 2, 2019 21:06
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True, but it hardly prevents creepy blame-shifting.
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Jan 2, 2019 21:40
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Halloween Jack posted:I do like that thing in Eberron where there's a nation full of sentient monsters run by (I think?) harpies, and the idea of a diabolical grandmother hag as a major player in a setting is more interesting than your typical dark lords and insane high priests of the snake god. I believe it was medusae. Regardless, Eberron also has the goblinoid nation which is cool as hell too. It does a lot to subvert a lot of the "OH LOOK MONSTER KILL IT KILL IT" standard stuff and make the various intelligent monster species have some nuance to them (though the orcs are a bit too on the nose?). Also to subvert alignment though it's still shackled to the drat thing because D&D
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Jan 2, 2019 23:31
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OvermanXAN posted:I believe it was medusae. Regardless, Eberron also has the goblinoid nation which is cool as hell too. It does a lot to subvert a lot of the "OH LOOK MONSTER KILL IT KILL IT" standard stuff and make the various intelligent monster species have some nuance to them (though the orcs are a bit too on the nose?). Also to subvert alignment though it's still shackled to the drat thing because D&D Goblins in Eberron also used to rule much of the continent, and outside of their own nation are common throughout the Five Nations as oppressed working class folks.
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Jan 3, 2019 00:18
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I fully understand the need for evil witches, I just don't know why you'd specifically make them weird nonhuman things rather than just stat up a human with class levels.
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Jan 3, 2019 01:39
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The notion of an old hag or crone that lives in the woods or the sea or the mountains and does bad things to passerby is a pretty broad pattern in mythology, and you can find it all over. Of course, in those sorts of stories, it's rarely specified what she might be; she just is, and does the thing where she tosses children in the oven or rips off your skin or whatever. Most of D&D's interpretation of mythology has been pretty eclectic, though - see also the gorgon or tarrasque, who bear only modest resembles to their mythical counterparts - so "accuracy" isn't the issue. It's just that the hag, like a fair number of D&D monsters, more directly reflects how mythology drew upon real-life prejudices and stereotypes.
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Jan 3, 2019 02:16
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ZeroCount posted:I fully understand the need for evil witches, I just don't know why you'd specifically make them weird nonhuman things rather than just stat up a human with class levels. Because PC classes rarely have access to the specific abilities featured in the myths and DnD has historically been allergic to not statting things up or giving particular individuals weird and individual powers.
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Jan 3, 2019 02:26
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OvermanXAN posted:I believe it was medusae. Regardless, Eberron also has the goblinoid nation which is cool as hell too. It does a lot to subvert a lot of the "OH LOOK MONSTER KILL IT KILL IT" standard stuff and make the various intelligent monster species have some nuance to them (though the orcs are a bit too on the nose?). Also to subvert alignment though it's still shackled to the drat thing because D&D
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Jan 3, 2019 02:46
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Halloween Jack posted:I don't know exactly why, but I think hobgoblins are rad as hell. It probably has something to do with the fact that of the "savage monster races" they're one of the few who in books have stood on relatively equal terms with humans/elves/etc. as opposed to being just small-scale raiders and disorganized hordes. They had actual nations in Kingdoms of Kalamar, they were prominent in the Red Hand of Doom (one of 3rd Edition's best adventures), they are open to a variety of magic. They feel like a far worthier opponent when it comes to low-level humanoids.
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Jan 3, 2019 02:59
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I've always assumed that Goblins/Orcs/Hobgoblins corresponded to Misty Mountain orcs, Mordor orcs, and Uruk-hai in the Lord of the Rings, and were there so you have multiple types of Orcs of ascending difficulty. At least that's how it works in AD&D: Pool of Radiance for the NES.
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Jan 3, 2019 03:46
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Libertad! posted:It probably has something to do with the fact that of the "savage monster races" they're one of the few who in books have stood on relatively equal terms with humans/elves/etc. as opposed to being just small-scale raiders and disorganized hordes. They had actual nations in Kingdoms of Kalamar, they were prominent in the Red Hand of Doom (one of 3rd Edition's best adventures), they are open to a variety of magic. They feel like a far worthier opponent when it comes to low-level humanoids. Well as my review points out about them, they are not even a savage monster race. They build, farm, mine, trade and are just as advanced if not more then their neighbors. The lowest stake hobgoblins will be mercenaries rather then raiders. The issue the other races have with them is that they are aggressive conquerors, who are likely to try and take over their neighbors once they have the resources to do so. A recent adventure features a small hobgoblin settlement. It's pretty normal, they have a trading post, inn and other things. So long as you register at the gate and get your identification papers, you are allowed to come and go as you please. The only cost is a one time tribute of whatever you feel like giving to the Legion Commander when you get the papers. The shadiest thing about the settlement is that the hobgoblin running the trading post is an Oni, and the hobgoblins have to offer him a monthly sacrifice of a goblin child each month. (As they are not strong enough to get rid of him.)
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Jan 3, 2019 04:04
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Halloween Jack posted:I don't know exactly why, but I think hobgoblins are rad as hell. I used to have one of those Slayer's Guide books about Hobgoblins, and it's combined with various other RPG book sources over the years to have me really develop an affection for them. They just want to take over the world! Is that so wrong? Obviously yes, it's wrong, because they'd have to grind every other species on the planet under their heel to do so. But I think they're a way to do the Lawful Evil archetype in a way that's unapologetically monstrous without being cartoonishly unbelievable.
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Jan 3, 2019 05:40
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 Rifts World Book 21: Splynn Dimension Market, Part 10: "Touchy to the point of violent outbursts, temper tantrums, and confrontational behavior, not to mention a bit of paranoid delusions ('Oh yeah! You're just jealous of my abilities. You resent me because I can fly.' Or, 'Go to hell. I don't need you losers!' and so on)." Bio-Wizard Organisms Yep, it's time for the horrible comeuppance you get for trying to make your character more powerful. I know, you're thinking, "Isn't that Rifts' whole thing? Powerful characters?" Well, sure, but sometimes you just get to arbitrarily and gorily punish them for it! It's the bait-and-switch standard Palladium loves so well. New Parasites Time for the squishy cursed item list. And I'm covering all of them, just so you can see all the way down this rabbit hole. Oh, and to recap from Rifts World Book 2: Atlantis, trying to remove a parasite attached to the brain has a flat 20% chance of safe removal, 50% chance of brain damage, 20% chance of insanity, or 10% chance of a complete lobotomy. Removing a body parasite has a 30% chance of safe removal, about 65% chance of being permanently crippled, or a 5% chance of a phobia. Also reduce your Beauty in either case because scarrrs. The skill of the surgeon? Pals, friends, comrades, that's the result of a successful operation. I don't even know what happens on a failure. Death is implied as a possibility, though! Some are safer to remove than others, though, so make sure to check a parasite's writeup to be sure.
 "Soon, I will defy all attempts at nail care!"
 The T-Zone will tell you.
 "Maybe we should use the before image for the ad, not the after image."
 Who wears just one ugg boot?
 Power overwhelming, literally.
 "When you're short on good soil, sometimes you just gotta grow a chest tater."
Next: Your closest friend. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 05:54 on Jan 3, 2019 |
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Jan 3, 2019 05:51
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Volo's Guide to Monsters: Hags: Dark Sisterhood Part 3 Previous Entry Types of Hags There are five common types of hag each with their own preferred terrain. It's possible to find them in unusual areas for them, normally when they travel or join a coven different hag types. Grandmothers and Aunties are the most likely to travel and take up permanent residence in unfriendly terrain, normally when their big plans require it. Annis hags dwell in mountains and hills, easily being able to navigate the areas due to being the most physically capable hags, roughly being as tall as an ogre. They greatly enjoy tormenting the weak. Annis Hags will be further detailed in the bestiary. Bheur hags dwell in wintery land, favoring snow covered peaks. Bheur hags have a great affinity for the cold and watching it's negative effects on people particularly witnessing mortals freeze to death. Like the Annis, Bheur hags are further detailed in this books bestiary. Green hags  Green hags dwell in swamps, creepy forests and moors. They are the most manipulative of hags, using deception and illusion to get creatures to do their bidding and hide their intentions. A green hag thrives on creating despair and tragedy in the lives of others, using her illusion magic to help in this goal. Destroying the hopes of others brings her unbridled joy. Night hags  Night hags transformed from fey to into fiends and roam the lower planes, primarily the Grey Wastes of Hades were they are the primary power and organizers of the soul trade. Night hags have more variety to their build then other hags, most are stout or have a medium build rather than being thin or emaciated. Nights are also the only true shapeshifters among hags being able to freely take on any form they desire, while other hags at most can disguise their appearance with illusion, something that does not hold up on touch.. When a night hag runs low on souls, she heads to the material plane to corrupt good people. Slowly killing them through nightmares while corrupting their victims dreams to have them perform evil acts. Once they die she collects their souls and brings it back to Hades to barter it away. Night hags being the only hags that tend to dwell in the outer planes are the most knowledgeable about planer lore and many other powerful secrets of the planes. Anyone that willing to risk it can receive very powerful knowledge. The greatest example of their power is the Yugoloth species of fiend, which they created by commission of Asmodeus the King of Hell, who wanted a race of fiends not bound to hell to serve him. However the sisterhood of night hags that created yugoloths and the tomes recording all of their true names, broke up due to bickering and in the power grab stole or lost the tomes. Allowing the yugoloths to become masterless and disperse across the lower planes to serve as fiendish mercenaries. Sea hags  Sea hags live underwater or by the shore, favoring bleak and dispoiled places. A sea hag hates beauty in any form and seeks to attack, deface, or corrupt it so it has the opposite effect on its viewers. One is more likely to defile the inspiring statue in a town square, making it into a symbol of fear and sorrow, than to destroy it outright. Sea hags are stated to have the most horrid appearances among hags. And witnessing one can impose a supernatural fear in the viewer. Those who give into this fear can drop dead from a glance from the sea hag. "Although a sea hag can hide her true form under a veil of illusion, the hag is cursed to forever be unable to hide her ugliness. Her illusory forms appear haggard at best." HAG METAMORPHOSIS posted:It’s commonly believed that five kinds of hags exist in the world (and beyond it). What’s not so widely known is that some hags can change from one kind to another during their lives. Solitary but Social Hags are selfish, and each one cherishes her independence — from the rest of the world as well as from other hags. At the same time, every hag recognizes that she and her sisters are kindred, like the members of a sorority or sisterhood. Even though hags don’t much like each other, they share knowledge and trade secrets, helping them learn of worldly events and possible dangers. Even a hag living in a remote location is aware of goings-on that involve nearby hags, whether through magical communication, personal visits, or mundane messengers such as birds. "In most cases, these relationships with her sisters, though devoid of emotion, are the closest a hag comes to having friends." "When a hag is attacked or killed, other hags are likely to hear about it. If the victim was friendly with other hags, those responsible for her death might find themselves the target of retaliation." If the victim died while owing favors to another hag, that hag sees her killers as now responsible for the deceased's debts. If the victim was unpopular or if other hags were indebted to her (and thus are happy to see her go), her killers might receive relatively cordial treatment from those other hags instead. Every hag has a particular status relative to others of her kind and to hags of all sorts, based on age, abilities, influence, alliances, and experience, and is aware of her place (though not necessarily satisfied with it). The few grandmothers sit at the top, a larger number of aunties are beneath that, and all other hags vie for prominence in a pecking order that no mortal can truly figure out. A hag that is known to associate with an auntie has a higher status than a similarly powerful hag without such a connection, and a young hag born of a grandmother begins her existence already benefiting from higher respect and status. Volo posted:Want to know a dark secret? Ask a hag. The trick lies in getting truth out of her. Hag Covens To a hag, the thought of sharing her home with other creatures (Even other hags) is disgusting. She has nothing but disdain for anyone other than herself, and she loves being alone (only tolerating the company of minions and other creatures under her sway). But when a group of hags have a common goal or they seek greater power to combat a formidable threat, they suppress their basic nature and come together to do their work. The result is a coven. "Being part of a coven gives each individual hag more magic and spellcasting ability, and to her these benefits offset the inconvenience and bickering that goes with living and working with other hags." If a member of a coven is killed and the surviving members intend to keep the group from dissolving, they immediately attempt to recruit a replacement. This process involves each prospective member committing cruel acts with the aim of impressing the remaining coven members. Adventurers who slay only one member of a coven might deal a blow to it in the short term, but later on the surrounding region is wracked with plagues, curses, and other disasters as the applicants attempt to outdo one another. An unusually gifted mortal sorcerer, warlock, or wizard of a deeply evil nature might be invited to join a coven or allowed to compete for a vacancy. This arrangement is potentially dangerous for the mortal, but a pair of hags might agree to it if their needs are served. For instance, a human member of a coven makes an ideal spy and infiltrator in and around a humanoid settlement. Welcome to the Family "Hags make more hags by snatching and devouring human infants, birthing daughters who turn into hags on entering the thirteenth year of their lives. Fortunately for humanity and the rest of the world, such an occurrence is rare." "Rarer still, but not unheard of, is for a hag to repeat this process twice or more in short succession, giving her multiple offspring of about the same age. She might do this to form a coven with two of her daughters, or to create a coven made up entirely of her offspring". Some hags cite ancient lore that suggests that if a hag consumes twins or triplets, her offspring might have extra unusual abilities; similarly, "devouring the seventh-born child of a seventh-born is said to be a way to pass on rare magic to the hag’s daughter." THE RULE OF THREE posted:They say that things come in threes. Good things. Bad things. Strange things. Hags and purveyors of witchcraft embrace the Rule of Three, as it is called: a coven has three members, they believe that good or evil magic returns upon its source threefold, and the casting of many spells requires the same words chanted three times. Alternative Coven Spells Some covens gather for a certain purpose, "such as to defeat a champion of good, to serve as oracles for the delivery of baleful prophecies, or to corrupt a pristine wilderness." In such a case, because the coven strives to bend its magic to a more directed purpose, the members have different spells available for use with their Shared Spellcasting ability, usually focusing on a theme related to that purpose. Here are three examples of such lists: Death. For a coven whose members are obsessed with death and the ability to manipulate it, an appropriate spell list would be: 1st level (4 slots): false life, inflict wounds 2nd level (3 slots): gentle repose, ray of enfeeblement 3rd level (3 slots): animate dead, revivify, speak with dead 4th level (3 slots): blight, death ward 5th level (2 slots): contagion, raise dead 6th level (1 slot): circle of death Nature. Hags might seek to exert control over their environment and the creatures in it by mastering the following group of spells: 1st level (4 slots): entangle, speak with animals 2nd level (3 slots): flaming sphere, moonbeam, spike growth 3rd level (3 slots): call lightning, plant growth 4th level (3 slots): dominate beast, grasping vine 5th level (2 slots): insect plague, tree stride 6th level (1 slot): wall of thorns Prophecy. The power to affect the future or perceive things out of the norm could make these spells attractive to a coven: 1st level (4 slots): bane, bless 2nd level (3 slots): augury, detect thoughts 3rd level (3 slots): clairvoyance, dispel magic, nondetection 4th level (3 slots): arcane eye, locate creature 5th level (2 slots): geas, legend lore 6th level (1 slot): true seeing Next Time: Hags: Dark Sisterhood part 4 final MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 07:24 on Jan 3, 2019 |
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Jan 3, 2019 06:46
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It's entirely possible to have a plant that exists entirely parasitically. Why, about one percent of all plants are that way! Now normally they are parasites on other plants. As for these price tags, are they based on what it would cost adventurers to get hold of these things at retail?
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Jan 3, 2019 07:00
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Cults: Clanners, pt. 3 Degenesis Rebirth Primal Punk Chapter 3: Cults Balkhan Balkhan, the white racial stereotype land, was being shafted by basically everyone, Palers included. Then, two winters before the fall of Praha, Karakhan coup'd Sofia and showed the Cults who's the boss. He and two other Voivode Clans now rule the Eastern Balkhan. Any Cult member who doesn't toe the line gets sold to Africans. quote:Secluded from the eternal power struggles, there are still Clans living in the mountains: cranky, frugal people distilling their own Slivovitz, living in quarry stone houses, and welcoming every stranger as long as he shows respect. They are, however, still stereotypes, in that they have long-standing feuds with other clans, yadda yadda yadda.  Hybrispania So the Spanish Clans have long families that live in their own estates, and they track their family trees (and the pruning of those by Africans) very carefully. However, many of the castles (...because Castile?) are abandoned. Many others are half-empty, because, you know, war. What is most curious is that it's the Jehammedans who are urging Hybris to fight the Africans. quote:Again, the Iconides have incited the young ones with bluster and insinuation. “Do you know what the Scourgers do to your women? They take the children by the legs and smash them against the tree, so for them, it is over quickly. But the women...” No one can elude this without soiling the family honor. Young men and women march south at the side of Jehammed’s swords to confront the invaders. Ain't nothing as good ol' fearmongering! Then the Warpage ([url=https://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/jcdent/degenesis-rebirth/#27]previously only referred to as “the Distortion”) happened. The whole “an area is plunged into a time and space anomaly” thing makes it hard for the Guerreros to attack Africans, as their routes of retreat go through this Zone-like territory. Some, however, don't care and still do it. Jehammedans are pointed out as the ones least concerned with its effects, as the faithful will be guided through it, and if you die, it just proves you were lacking. Oh, and there are people living in Warpage, ones that fled from the war. Sometime they help folks lost in anomalies by marking the way with rocks. I'm glad we don't get anything more about these anomaly dwellers!  Purgare In Purgare, the main business is allying with the Anabaptists to fight the Filaments, the ticks and the Psychokinetics. However, Purgans are still Italians of every RPG ever: quote:Even if most of the Purgan families firmly back the Anabaptists, they have conserved their internal strife and struggles. They believe in honor and land. One disrespectful word could lead to a fight that starts a circle of revenge and counter-revenge. The heads of the families may stop these feuds via decree – as long as they can keep face doing so. It's like the Balkhan Clans, but these guys like the Cults! Well, a Cult, anyways... However, some shitbirds don't want to get along, and so they are the pushed into the Apennines or even into Western Purgare, which, if you remember, is where the reality warping bullshit is at its strongest. quote:Every family member knows what to do when encountering one: The younger children act as bait; How slow do Psychokinetics move that children can be used to recon them out?  Africa African Clans enjoy ancient traditions – including pagan worship - because, ugh, Africa. It is said that they treat their white slaves well, as “nourishing food and a strict hand are enough.” However, they're losing their youths to glitzy cities... or to the psychovores. quote:The elders resist. They involve the young people more strongly, let them lead the hunt, give them white beaters or concubines. Old rules are re-interpreted and defended against the coca-intoxicated elders. However, even one dead sparrow hawk on the village square can be considered a bad omen and thus destroy any progress, lead a Clan back to its old ways, and ossify in tradition. Make of that what you will! Psychovores, however, are an entirely different problem. Some clans move into circular areas that just rot away in the middle of the jungle. They move when the circle closes – so basically, they live the opposite life of Pollners, who look for mysterious forests in the desert and move when those die. Some clans move too far south and are never heard from again (is this a plot hook?). Other just burn and salt the expanding jungle. Spitalians think that this isn't the best idea, since the Psychovore jungle reacts like a single organism, yadda yadda. Next time: these Clanners are rank!
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Jan 3, 2019 09:08
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Bio-Wizard Organisms It's kind of impressive how aggressively worthless these things are. It would at least be interesting if you made them legitimately work as-advertised and made them better than close equivalents (or cheaper) and you had at least something resembling a moral quandary of your patronage helping a bunch of evil space wizards. That would also give them a better excuse to show up in the gear lists of baddies so you could get them the morally upright way of murdering their former owners and taking it from their corpse. What's a little bit of corpse mutilation?
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Jan 3, 2019 09:51
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MonsterEnvy posted:Annis hags Some say their taste is so foul that no beast will dare feast on them!
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Jan 3, 2019 09:58
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MJ12 posted:It's kind of impressive how aggressively worthless these things are. It would at least be interesting if you made them legitimately work as-advertised and made them better than close equivalents (or cheaper) and you had at least something resembling a moral quandary of your patronage helping a bunch of evil space wizards. That would also give them a better excuse to show up in the gear lists of baddies so you could get them the morally upright way of murdering their former owners and taking it from their corpse. What's a little bit of corpse mutilation? I enjoy the fact that the parasites/symbiotes don't really care about your physical or mental scores when it comes to their various penalty-inducing drawbacks
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Jan 3, 2019 10:00
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JcDent posted:Some say their taste is so foul that no beast will dare feast on them! Named after Black Annis a english folklore boogyman figure. Despite the name she is stated to be blue.
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Jan 3, 2019 11:38
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Those parasites seem great! As examples of prototype and failed bio-wizard experiments from a mad space scientist lab. When you're making Juicers look reasonable about the timetable for personal success, you've really hosed up.
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Jan 3, 2019 14:21
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Nessus posted:As for these price tags, are they based on what it would cost adventurers to get hold of these things at retail? Yeah. They run from 100,000 to 2,000,000 credits. If you've noticed the fact that a number of them reproduce upon the completion of their life cycle, so that the costs don't match up remotely with the cost of production (under 1000 credits for a warm body in Atlantis)- congrats, you've now worked out how to break the Atlantean economy.
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Jan 3, 2019 15:47
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Double Cross Infinite Power Alright, I've had some time to mess around with characters with these options, so I'm going to cover a bit of what's in Infinity Code, too. I will not be covering the new Ouroboros Syndrome, because I have less experience with it and a 'build your own' power set plus a bunch of Encroachment manipulation feels like the kind of thing I'd need a lot of time working with to be able to comment on properly. This other stuff, though? This I can cover right now. I'll be covering six syndromes in one, then six in another, plus the new Commons (which are actually great). Infinity Code's add-ons for the power sets are mostly focused on helping them fill in things they hinted at but didn't commit to sufficiently (like giving Balor some more options for melee) or tossing in one or two more powers to make some of the more hyper-specialized power sets play nicer with others (Chimera is the big beneficiary of this). Excepting Brahm Stoker, which gets 15 new powers (mostly related to Servants) and then 8 new Servant powers, every Syndrome gets 3 new normal powers, a new Restrict 80, a new Restrict 100, and a new Restrict 120. They manage to do a lot with only a couple extra powers. Angel Halo gets a new focus on illusion and dodge-tanking. They get a power where the Halo can step in for an ally and Dodge for them if the ally fails a Dodge, which is really great. It's limited to Lv (max 3) uses per adventure, but it's a great safety net for allies who aren't as evasive as the Halo, and it can work at any range; you can be sitting in the back throwing out lasers and then your big Chimera-Neumann weapon-master buddy completely flubs a critical Dodge, and you go 'Naw' and put out an illusion and save them. They also get a power where they name an enemy during setup, and if that enemy attacks anyone BUT the Halo this turn, they get a Lv+1 dice penalty (max lv 5). So either you get them to shoot at you, the Dodge Tank, or if they go for anyone else they suffer a significant penalty. They also get a new 'turn a single target attack using any Halo into an AoE' but that's not very exciting, plus the ability to drop the Crit Value of their Dodges with their new Restrict 80 at the cost of some attack power. Their new Restrict 100 is 'Dodge even if Dodge is supposed to be impossible', and their new 120 lets them switch someone's targeting with another character in their engagement. In other words, you swap places with illusions and your enemy shoots his buddy thinking it's you. Nice. Balor gets a weapon summon, which produces a high power but inaccurate gravity melee weapon. It also gives good Guard and has the excellent, excellent 'anyone hit with this suffers Rigor' rider. No need for extra powers for that, you just have a spear that on any melee hit stops people moving unless they spend a Minor or Major action to free themselves. You want someone to stay 'stuck' in melee with your guard-tanking Balor, that helps. They also get a stacking melee debuff that inflicts -1 dice to everything on a target with each hit, though it's limited to Level uses (level 5) per adventure. Still, throw that on with the Pure power that lets you turn anything into an AoE and the powers that let you pull people into a fight with you, and there you go. Their new Ranged power just directly debuffs movement. Their new Restrict 80 is just Salamandra's Plasma Cannon if you were a caster Balor, except it can go 2 levels higher but can't be used in melee like Salamandra's, and costs more. Still, a high damage direct damage blast is never amiss. They get a 'use a power useable once a round twice' ability for their 100, so they can throw out damage reduction for their buddies more. And at 120 they get a damage reflection power, making a target suffer the damage the Balor just took. Black Dog actually gets some new Hardwire options. A 15 power, 10m range wire-whip melee weapon that takes 3 Hardwire slots, an armor-ignoring swarm of flying turrets for a gun that take 3 slots, too, armored skin that can be expended for emergency damage reduction, and a direct magic damage boost (2 per slot). They get the ability to speed up allies' movement by hitting them with lightning, and a kind of lovely 'spend your minor action and take 5 damage for +2 per level Black Dog damage' damage enhancer. I guess you can take it if you already have your other damage buffs? They get a stun shield that does chip damage and dazes an enemy who drops you while you were Guarding, which seems kind of meh. They get a magnet grab for their new 80, which pulls a character out of their current fight and into engagement with the Black Dog. You can use it to rescue allies or grab enemies. Their new 100 lets them throw down the ability to ignore armor on themselves or an ally as a Major action buff. Considering it can be combined with the '+Dice, -1 CV' buff spell they get, that's better than it sounds. Their new 120 is better than exploding themselves: It's the 'let someone go again, or go now, or go twice' power from Neumann. All in all, Black Dog mostly benefits from the new Hardwire options and the neat ultimates, with their new normal powers being kind of eh. I can't go into detail on every new Stoker power because there are dozens, but the big theme of the new Stokers is doing cool poo poo with (and sometimes sacrificing) your servants. You can feed servants to one another to create terrifying superbosses. You can sacrifice a servant to gain enormous power for either your Crimson Sword summon or your Fists (this is important for a Pure Stoker, because they have that great Fists-only life-stealing attack, but without something like Chimera have no way to make their Fists good). You can now eat your servants for a significant heal and max HP boost. They also get a bunch of new blood attacks to 'fill in' that their powerset was so deeply split between bloody moves and servant stuff. They can blind people with blood, gain even more strength from blood, debuff with blood, etc. Their new 120 is also just a massively powerful direct damage boost, the new 100 is eating a servant for power, and the new 80 is a Setup move that costs them some HP to boost their damage for the turn with Stoker powers. In general, it's much more viable to play a 'blood' Stoker and not bother with servants if you don't want to, and your servants are now much more flexible and customizable if you invest in them. Chimera can now be a Muscle Wizard. See, one of Chimera's problems was that it was so good at boosting Body that if you, say, played a Chimera-Salamandra and wanted to be a fire breathing dragon or something you'd always feel kind of weak breathing fire. Chimera now gets the ability to spend 2 Encroach to activate Hell Beast's Intuition to use Body for magic. That means Therianthropy can buff your magic attacks for some extra cost. Flex hard enough to laser guys. Breath fire all over people. Whatever you want, Chimera can now do a hybrid melee-caster build much more effectively. It's less heat efficient, but it's worlds more EXP efficient, and that's a tradeoff I bet a lot of Chimera hybrids can live with. They also get a magic attack, and it's...okay. It's fixed damage (+5 damage), but levels in it give you +Dice, so it might be worth investing for a cheap way to get some extra damage and dice onto other magic combos. Then they get a terrible power where they stop a forced movement by going Berserk. Ehhhhh. They also get a Restrict 80 where they grab an ally and have them 'ride on their Monstrous Backside' (that is the name of the power) to let allies move with them. Their new 100 lets them Guard or Cover while Berserk, which is potentially life-saving. Their new 120 lets them take 2d10 less damage per level, max level 5, being a weaker form of others' 120% no-sells. The addition of Muscle Wizard Chimera combo potential is a huge, huge boon. This power has prompted several characters in current games getting rebuilt to work around it. Exile has also gotten in on the wizarding a bit. They get one of the best basic 1 encroach magic attacks (since it's Damage 4+Level, max 10, instead of 2+level max 10 like most) so that your Exile-Balor caster dodge-tank now has even more solid magic potential, plus a great magic rider attack that gives both Pressure AND Taint (the DoT poison) at the same time. Sure, those are the only two magic attacks an Exile gets out of Exile, but if you wanted a caster who has Exile for their tankiness, now Exile can dip a couple magic powers to help out with their caster side, too. They also get a breakaway move, where they stretch and squish and slip away from a fight. Also good for horrible bio-wizards! Their new Restrict 80 lets the Exile turn into a shape that supports allies, taking -5 dice to their actions to give all allies in an area +5 dice. Interesting, and a lot of tactical potential. They can also choose to go Berserk for one turn during the setup for a huge attack and dice bonus for their 100. Also an interesting ultimate, making yourself vulnerable to go fully on the offensive. Finally, at 120, they get a 'restore a use of a limited number of uses per session/scene power' ability, which is expensive, but could save your life. Exile got some really nice stuff that like Chimera, really opens up new combo potential. Both the physical Syndromes have a little more to offer a wider range of combos, now. Next Time: More power! MORE!
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Jan 3, 2019 16:23
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One thing I don't quite get in Double Cross: is it a good idea to split your offense between two skills, or are you a fool not to focus entirely on Melee, Ranged, or RC?
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Jan 3, 2019 16:27
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Halloween Jack posted:One thing I don't quite get in Double Cross: is it a good idea to split your offense between two skills, or are you a fool not to focus entirely on Melee, Ranged, or RC? It depends a lot. You should generally only do it if the second skill does something for you your current doesn't. Let's use an example from the Bible Fanfic game: Alice Winters is a Chimera-Halo hybrid who focuses on high burst damage stealth melee attacks and then uses magic for AoE against mooks because Chimera can't do that for her. Thus, she's got a reasonable reason to put points in magic and with the Chimera Hell Beast Intuition power, she can do it reasonably efficiently. By contrast, Enoch, Son of Jared is a Morpheus-Solaris who has everything in RC because Sand Blade is loving incredible and because most of his focus is on protecting and supporting allies and because one of his Morpheus powers lets him Dodge with RC anyway. So he's wholly focused on one attacking power because he sort of doesn't need another one. In general, it's best to start out focused on one move type and then build in a second one later if and only if it does something for you that you can't do with the original one. This is a general theme for DX: You branch out to get new options, but if you can do everything your build wants without branching out, that's going to be more efficient. E: Those two examples are also characters with a fair amount of EXP: Early on you won't have enough powers to actually build towards multiple things. One of the flaws of DX in my opinion is that while it starts out with a reasonable assumption that simpler PCs are better for learning the rules, it doesn't have a lot of support and guidance for starting with more powerful and more complex PCs once you're used to the system. You really need a good 10 powers or so to really start to get 'builds' going beyond something like our example Makoto who just has 'summon 2 solid guns, shoot people with them'. This is a shame because there's so much synergy potential and so many interesting things you can do with the powers once you have enough. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 16:39 on Jan 3, 2019 |
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Jan 3, 2019 16:35
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 Circle of Hands Chapter 1: Original Metal Chapter 2: Iron Folk Chapter 3, Part 1: Forging Steel The third chapter is about both character creation and setting up the first session. A character’s stats fit on a single sheet of paper, and that’s by design. Everyone (including the GM) creates two characters, and it’s assumed that you’ll play one of your characters for the first session and start trading characters around after that. There’s a lot of random rolling in character creation, so some characters will be flat-out stronger than others--but not overwhelmingly so, and again, you’ll be trading characters around. First you roll up Attributes: Brawn, Quickness, Wits, and Charm. You roll 1d6+1 for each, except Brawn, which defaults to 6. (Spellcasting drains your Brawn, so for both narrative and game reasons, all PCs are hardy Muscle Wizards.) You get to raise some Attributes by taking two of the following Traits. Brave (+2 Quickness): When in danger, fleeing is not your first choice. Cunning (+2 Wits): You prefer to operate through deception. Romantic (+2 Charm): You believe the world operates according to a narrative. Ambitious (+1 Quickness/Wits): You’re determined to rise in social class. Brutal (+1 Brawn/Charm): Physical and emotional bullying is just a fact of life to you. Traits aren’t just descriptors or aspects that you can draw on when needed. They’re fundamental parts of your personality that anyone who knows you is aware of, and major cues for anyone to play that PC. Your home region is determined by your highest attribute: Tamaryon for Brawn, Famberge for Quickness, Spurr for Wits, and Rolke for Charm, or if there’s a tie, just to round it out. Next you choose your Professions. You get one Profession for each 4 points of Wits, rounded up, so you could have as many as 3. Professions are the only skills in this game. If a task is complicated and you don’t have a relevant Profession, you just can’t do it. This means that the PCs will have to work together, and build trust with the people that they meet, and not treat scenarios like a stealth/action game. Artisan (choose something specific): making, fixing, and inventing stuff; appraising materials Entertainer (low): Dancing, juggling, joking, working a crowd, dirty fighting. Entertainer (high): Literacy, history, fancy high-class singing, dancing, and playing. Fisherman: boating and shipbuilding, survival at sea Martial (low): making camp, animal care, first aid, robbery Martial (high): strategy and tactics, command in and out of battle, parlay, horses Merchant: literacy, finance, management, geography, varying customs, appraisal Outdoorsman: hunting, swimming, wilderness survival, natural history Priest: theology, counseling, leading discussion, making hashish Sailor: running a ship, navigation, organizing labour, survival at sea, swimming Scholar: literacy, philosophy, language, natural history, maps Wizard: sensing magic, knowledge of sorcery and magical creatures, all the spells You can’t be both a high and low entertainer, nor high and low martial, nor can Wizard be your sole profession. Your social class is determined by your lowest-class Profession. Class is immediately visible to everyone, and determines how people see you and how you see the world. When a session starts and PCs come to a new community, those of the peasant class will see whether the common folk are happy, or starving, or fearful. Those things are beneath the gentry’s notice; they instead perceive things like fortifications and how well they’re received at the longhouse. Peasant: farmer, fisherman, low entertainer Freeman: outdoorsman, sailor, martial (low), priest Professional: scholar, artisan, merchant, high entertainer Gentry: Martial (high) You get weapons and armor according to your Professions. "Adventuring gear" is ephemeral. You’re knights, and you’re traveling with a small retinue of animal handlers, haulers, and guides. You don’t have to keep track of torches and ten-foot poles. You're also assumed to have some gear relevant to your Profession. Peasants and freemen know how to use weapons relevant to their jobs such as hatchets, knives, and staves. Outdoorsmen also know the bow, sling, and hand axe, and low martial characters also know the spear, crossbow, and round shield. High martial characters can use shields, mail and gambesons, helmets, bows and crossbows, and specialist weapons like the flail, francisca, and great axe. Gentry have expensive gear like a sword, spangenhelm, and a horse, and can fight while mounted. But they’ll only fight with a warrior’s weapons--sword, spear, bow, and the specialist weapons. Even if your Profession gives you no martial training, you get training from the Circle. You can wear mail, a helmet, and a round shield, and get training in a single weapon of your choice. Every Circle knight also knows Magic. There are 84 spells; I won’t go over them here. Spells are either black or white and rated 1-3 points. Wizards know all the spells. Other knights have spell points equal to their Wits, and must have a mix of black and white spells. The game provides some handy starting packages for non-wizards. For example: All-purpose: Bless, Curse (4 points) Forest Walking: Vine, Trailtwister, Forward (6 points) Magic Sword: Blade, Envenom, Righteousness (5 points) Master of the Dead: Walk, White Light, Black Speech (5 points)  Circle of Hands began life as Ron’s D&D heartbreaker, and like early D&D, there are some interesting implications in the rules that aren’t always spelled out. For example, if you want to maximize your Charm, you are probably playing a domineering narcissist. (One interesting bit that is noted: because gameplay is only concerned with Ventures and never with the internal politics of Rolke, an Ambitious character can never realize the goal of raising their social class.) Playing a member of the gentry is attractive for obvious reasons: you get fighting skills, the best gear, and you’re at the top of the social heap! But that means having a narrow skillset and a massive blind spot when it comes to getting along with people in unfamiliar territory. The last randomly-rolled bits are your Demeanor, Feature, and Name. For the first two, roll a d6 and add your Charm, then consult a chart. Higher results are more favoured traits, giving you an idea of what most people in the Crescent Lands value without thinking about it. For Demeanor, the results range from traits like Shy, Friendly, and Blunt to Fierce, Stoic, and Serene. Ill-favoured features include tattooing and a thin build (remnants of the primitive Pananthuri people) while impressive ones include bright clothing and metal ornaments, neat grooming, and facial scars (presumably earned in battle). For Name, just roll 1d6. There’s a big list of Germanic names, and the result tells you what kind of name to choose, based on the meaning of the name: martial, positive (bright, beautiful, happy, etc.), sacred, or long multisyllabic ones. Name is also modified by social class: Peasants have no surnames and are called by diminutives: “Ric” instead of “Emmerich” and so on. Freemen use both forms and may have simple surnames based on place and profession. Professionals always claim surnames, and gentry are always called by a full impressive name like Brunhild Eckhart, denoting both themselves and some famed ancestor. The final step in creating a character is the Key Event that prompted you to join the Circle. It should be brief (150 words), almost certainly a shattering experience, and probably involves magic. One given example is a gentrywoman finally defeating the mob of pirates who killed her husband and murdered their way up and down the coast, only to find that the last raider she killed is her undead husband. There’s one last thing to do in the transition from individual character creation to setting up the group. Divide the PCs into two groups based on their total Attributes. The less-lucky half all get +1 to an Attribute of their creator’s choice, and the weakest overall character gets a supernatural Gift. I’ll go over them along with spells in a later chapter. Next time: In the second part of Chapter 3, I’ll go over creating ventures for the Circle knights. Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Jan 4, 2019 |
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Jan 3, 2019 23:50
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AD&D: 2nd Edition Player's Option: Skills & Powers Chapter 4: Character Class Character classes follow much the same pattern as races in PO:S&P, being suddenly given an extra jolt of customizability, both in terms of being allowed to pick extra advantages, but also extra disadvantages. Some assumed basic abilities are now also stuff you have to pay for, though. For instance, to recreate a generic 2nd ed Fighter you'd spend some of your 15 points on Followers(5) and Weapon Specialization(5), which would still leave you with 5 more points to spend. Though, each also get upgraded 10-point versions, allowing multiple specialized weapons or to gain followers before 9th level if a fortress is built before then. On the other hand, if your guy is meant to be a lone badass, you could leave off the Followers entirely, and instead invest in, say, having a loving D12 for hit dice, making you a serious juggernaut, or an innate 2% Magic Resistance per level. A 10th-level Fighter with a 20% chance to just no-sell any kind of magic(ON TOP of still having sick saving throws) is the sort of thing that makes wizards cry. If you wanted to recreate Conan from the movie you could invest in getting a +2AC when unarmoured, the D12 hit die and the ability to Move Silently like a thief, though to get all those you'd need to take some disadvantages(like only being able to use certain weapon categories, armor limitations(which would go well with the +2 unarmoured AC option and either the human-innate AC bonus or just a race with a sweet innate AC), or barring yourself from certain magical item categories). Paladins mostly just get to junk some of their less-used divine abilities in exchange for being able to specialize like a basic Fighter, which is a good drat deal. Rangers also get the weapon specialization option(which would go well with dual-wielding two weapons of the specialized type...) as well as being able to become more thiefy, for instance gaining a thief's Backstab ability, which would really let them leverage their Move Silently. Clerics are interesting in that the custom Clerics the PHB/DMG told us we should be building while only giving us vague hints on how to do it are the basic assumption in Skills & Powers, Clerics get a huge point pool to spend, but the catch is that they spend it on buying access to their various spheres of magic, including being able to buy access to an entire wizardly school of magic(it's really expensive in terms of CP, but having access to, say, Evocation spells like their Cleric spells is massive. Plus, since they're cast as Cleric spells, the Cleric can still wear full plate while tossing around fireballs. It's also worth noting that generally a single Wizard school, excepting a couple that get shafted like Divination and Necromancy, has way more spells than a single Cleric sphere, since the Wizard spells are only split among eight schools while the Cleric is split up among like... 20 Spheres, albeit with some overlap). Everyone getting expensive Weapon Specialization access does steal some of the Fighter's thunder as an incredible badass, but this is close to making wizards irrelevant as a class. Wizards, meanwhile, get access to Armored Wizard, which means they can cast spells while wearing one type of armor of their choice. It does not, however, say they also actually become able to wear armor, so this ability is useless unless they're multi-classed, but if they are, it's a huge boost. On the other hand, getting access to that means giving up access to three out of their eight schools of magic. So wizards still get kind of shafted. Welcome to 2nd ed AD&D: The "Shove Magic Nerds Around And Bully Them"-Edition, even when they do something that gives mages a boost, Fighters still end up coming out on top. This entire thing always felt like where D&D should have doubled down. Rather than having 500 different splats, have the classic 8 to 10 splats(Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Cleric, Druid, Rogue, Bard, Wizard... and then Specialist Mage as perhaps the 9th splat and Psionicist as the 10th if you really wanted to get exotic), and make them customizable. Depth rather than breadth. 5E kind of came around to it in an extremely limited way with its three archetypes for each class, but Player's Option always felt like the superior evolutionary path of D&D that got ignored. Chapter 5: Character Kits Kits were always a bit of a weird mechanic, in that they were grafted on in a dozen different ways post-launch, yet never appeared in the core books(PHB, DMG, MM). Instead, almost every supplement on races, classes or something else had a bunch of Kits to glue on to your classes. Most of them would be flavour only("You're a Jester, be sure to pick the Juggling NWP, or don't!"), some of them would be awful penalties("You're a Beggar! You start with the pox, no money, a penalty to all stats, and also the cops broke your knees just before the first session!") and a few were wildly advantageous for no penalty("You're an elf who dances with sharp stuff, have a bunch of bonuses because the writers of this book were the sort of scum who jam ten kinds of elves into all their fantasy. The fuckers."). It was mostly the former, somewhat the second and very rarely the latter, though. The book recommends either letting players choose freely, or rolling a social class, then picking a kit based on that. Sadly, there's some degree of sanity-checking involved, so we can't end up with a Paladin Jester, though Paladins can, strangely enough, be Spies, Outlaws and a few other unexpected options. Each kit generally consists of a description, some non-binding roleplaying suggestions, like, "A Swashbuckler's outfits and armor should be really flashy!" or "It'd be great if this Mariner actually knew how to handle a boat." and actual mechanical parts called Benefits and Hindrances. The only parts you're forced to adhere to are the Benefits and Hindrances, as well as any modifiers to the character's starting money. This means you can make a Mariner who has no idea what to do aboard a ship, an illiterate Scholar or a Scout who manages to get lost in his own back yard. Player's Option is probably the most "mainline" book that presents them. Most of them are thoroughly uninteresting, such as the Assassin, which gets five disclaimers about how evil they are but ultimately their SINISTER ABILITIES just amount to being able to recognize poison more easily. Spooooooky. On the other hand, the Barbarian... Player's Option posted:Benefits/Hindrances: Barbarians are intense, and NPCs tend to have very strong reactions to them. People either are drawn by the barbarian’s animal magnetism or repulsed by his primitive qualities. This effect comes into play when NPCs meet barbarians for the first time. If the NPC’s reaction roll result is 8 or less, an additional –2 bonus is applied to the result. For example, if the character is acting indifferently toward a shopkeeper and the shopkeeper’s reaction result is a 7, the shopkeeper is indifferent. However, since the character is a barbarian, the –2 bonus applies, lowering the shopkeeper’s result to a 5—a friendly response. The shopkeeper has been won over by the barbarian’s presence. However, if the shopkeeper’s reaction roll was a 14 or higher, the modifier becomes a +2 penalty, resulting in a 16—threatening—score. For more information on reaction results, see the Dungeon Master Guide. It's a cute idea, the idea that few people don't care about a Barbarian, either they absolutely love him or they absolutely hate him. It's an interesting take on the concept. I also really like the Peasant Hero, though it's essentially just a roleplaying aid: Player's Option posted:A Peasant hero is the “local kid done good.” Whatever his class, whatever his ambitions, this character always remembers that his roots are in the soil of his home—be it a bustling village, a quiet hamlet, or a lone farm miles from the nearest neighbors. Since I like to imagine that no matter where the player is, even if he's in the Abyss or atop a mountain bargaining with the Gods themselves, some tattered peasant will pull himself over a ledge and go: "Help, help! We've lost a pig!" to this legendary, ultimate hero shimmering with five different auras of power. Being a Pirate is also awesome since it comes with a pre-made, free hideout, up to and including your own suspiciously skull-shaped island, and apparently the only limits to piracy are racial. You can, in fact, be a Paladin Pirate by 2e AD&D RAW. The unexpectedly OP kit is probably one you wouldn't expect, since it's called something as innocent as "Rider." In effect all it means is that you start off with a free randomly generated animal that you have a perfect bond with, more or less like a familiar. First it's a 1d6 roll for the type(1-3: "Normal," 4: Flying, 5: Giant, 6: Underwater), then a 1d8 roll for the specific animal. Obviously an Underwater mount would suck for most games, and the Normal results aren't really the ones we want(though we can still get a loving elephant or a cave bear, and those can kick rear end like a PC Fighter and then some for a good part of the game). Just about anything on the Giant list is in the same vein as the bear/elephant, giving you a hug early game combat advantage, and the Flying list is flight, that's huge, especially if you have a decent ranged combat option, not to mention that something like a Giant Wasp is a respectable combatant in its own right, especially for the early levels of the game. It feels kind of strange, too, that Kits more or less vanished after 2nd edition. They were a cute combination of background fluff and crunch they really should have been kept around, it would have been even easier in 3e, if anything, since they could have consisted of skill bonuses/penalties more or less.
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Jan 4, 2019 02:58
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I remember the Swashbuckler Kit from Complete Thief, which was 'here's a sweet disarm move and Fighter THAC0 and the opposite sex loves you, but in return ADVENTURES happen to you.' It's like...okay. I was already here for adventures.
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Jan 4, 2019 03:03
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Interestingly, I think the place kits resurface (or closest to them) is in Pathfinder's archetypes, which are the same kind of 'lose this standard thing, get this unusual thing for the base class' sort of deal, and in almost exactly the fashion you outline.
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Jan 4, 2019 03:07
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Mors Rattus posted:At least Macbeth's Weird Sisters steal the goddamn show, get all the best lines and...honestly, they're not even especially evil, they're just witches that do a prophecy. first witch posted:A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap, Now true I'm not entirely clear on what rats without tails are noted for doing. It might be something nice!
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Jan 4, 2019 03:10
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I always thought that Prestige Classes were the 3E evolution of kits, given that some of the later kits seriously rewrote class mechanics. I liked the ones offered in the Fighter's and Thieves' handbooks; they were mostly flavour, with some minor trade-offs. Nothing like that one that gave you expensive proficiencies like blind fighting for free.
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Jan 4, 2019 03:12
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Bieeanshee posted:I always thought that Prestige Classes were the 3E evolution of kits, given that some of the later kits seriously rewrote class mechanics. Prestige classes were more like multi-classing into an upgraded version of your class, kits changed your class from the ground up if you had them. So I don't think I'd exactly call them the same... it feels like they sprung from two different trains of logic in any case.
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Jan 4, 2019 05:49
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Cults: Clanners, pt. 4 Degenesis Rebirth Primal Punk Chapter 3: Cults RANKS CLANNERS And just like that, we're dumped into the rank system. Boy, am I glad that all of these disparate groups of clans from wildly different cultural and geographic backgrounds have a regimented structure, not unlike other Cults!  Not a lot of space for horizontal advancement 1. Scout This is the job for the young and fast. The descriptions talk more about roaming the ruins and not scouting in wilderness. 2a. Hunter You hunt animals by running them down, making use of that famed human long-term endurance. 2b. Gatherer The other side of hunter-gatherer coin, they know the territory, they know how to cook, and they look after the children. 3a. Tribal Warrior Either way, one can become a Tribal Warrior to keep your children safe from being eaten by Gendos and to keep your root soup from being stolen by rival clans. 3b. Shaman However, if you turn out to be less suited for violence, you can “plumb the depths of the human soul”... which the book takes to mean “reading the weather and/or animal bones”. Also, you get to make potions and salves, some of which enhance virility (yes, really). You make barbarian boner pills. 4. Chieftain Either being really good at the art of applying club to heas or by going on spirit journeys, you can become the leader of the clan. Have fun being a petty tyrant that goes unquestioned. 5a. Champion quote:He led his Clan through dozens of battles, won by guile and pure strength every fight and duel. He is a blessed warrior, the archetypical embodiment of strength and control. Even if he leaves the Clan one day to join the all-father, his children and their children will bring him sacrifices and remember his exploits. So if you were a great warrior chieftain, you can become this guy, venerated after death. 5b. Founder These are the guys who were so diplomatic (or made such great boner pills) that they unified a bunch of tribes and made a new clan. The winning state in “King of Boner Pill Pass.”  The peace club is twice as big STEREOTYPES ”Stereotypes” posted:ANABAPTISTS: They lend us a hand, help us on the fields without asking for anything in return. Weird. Maybe their teachings are not all wrong. A toast to the Anabaptists! Apocalyptics: still the worst!  ULKAR Culture: Pollen Concept: The Traveller (not of Destiny's fame) Cult: Clanner (Champion) This dude lost his clan, so he's a wandering pit fighter now. That's basically it.  Frekka of the Corpse Eaters Culture: Borca Concept: The Destroyer Cult: Clanner (Shaman) quote:drat those Cockroaches, worms, and flies! They rob the Corpse Eaters of the bodies of Scrappers killed in accidents – ah, what a joy it is when one of these hairless voles thrashes in the pit! The Shaman Frekka knows the symbols she needs to paint onto the cadavers to stop the victims’ souls from vanishing into death’s nothingness before the Clan’s warriors are able to devour them along with the meat.  Luren Culture: Borca Concept: The Mediator Cult: Clanner (Pneumancer) He was sent with a Mechan(?) to Justitian to craft an alliance between the city and Ramein region rulers. The Mechan died from fever, so he spent years in the ambassador quarters. He also learned about Pneumatics at Tech Central... because they'll teach anyone, right? Anyways, back home, his clan was conquered by Phospophorites, who got owned in turn. Mechans don't rule the land anymore, which might give him the opportunity to go home because... reasons. In conclusion: Clanners are kinda meh. The heart wasn't really in it to make a Cult focused on "I'm a barbarian or something" and you can totally see in the rank system that doesn't offer much in the way of choices. It's one of those places where they could have gone strange and introduced culture-specific Clan ranks (like Balkhan Slivovitz Runner or something)... but they didn't. However, if you look at Techpriest Larpers that shoot actual lightning, flamethrower doctors and hammer lawyers and think "man, I wish I wasn't special," here's a Clan for you. Next time: Scrap diving!
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Jan 4, 2019 09:24
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PurpleXVI posted:You can, in fact, be a Paladin Pirate by 2e AD&D RAW. 
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Jan 4, 2019 13:45
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Chernobyl Peace Prize posted:Interestingly, I think the place kits resurface (or closest to them) is in Pathfinder's archetypes, which are the same kind of 'lose this standard thing, get this unusual thing for the base class' sort of deal, and in almost exactly the fashion you outline. Bieeanshee posted:I always thought that Prestige Classes were the 3E evolution of kits, given that some of the later kits seriously rewrote class mechanics. D&D 3e had "Variant Classes", "Alternative Class Features", and "Substitution Levels". The specific rules between each of these varied somewhat, but the basic idea was that they gave players a choice to replace something that the base class had, and gain something else. For example, a Barbarian could take the Hunter variant class: quote:Lose: Rage, greater rage, indomitable will, tireless rage, mighty rage. Or the Barbarian could take the Aquatic Barbarian alternative class feature: quote:Aquatic Barbarian Or the Barbarian could take the Fangshield Barbarian substitution level at levels 3, 5, or 7 * the level 3 substitution level would replace Trap Sense, with a +10 foot speed bonus when charging * the level 5 substitution level would replace Improved Uncanny Dodge, with Awesome Charge, which lets the Barbarian make an Awesome Blow attack at the end of a charge * the level 7 substitution level would replace the DR bonus, with Raging Vigor, which lets the Barbarian spend one daily use of Rage to heal HP equal to twice their hit dice As you might notice, these "sidegrades" or "thematic changes" to a class's abilities, without necessarily being intended to be straight-up buffs, are the rough equivalent of AD&D Kits. What Pathfinder did, was to condense these Variant Class / ACF / Substitution Level rules into Archetypes, so that instead of having to deal with three different kinds of rules, you only had the Archetype system - such as a Barbarian that chooses the Deepwater Rager.
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Jan 4, 2019 14:45
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I don't know why, but "aquatic barbarian" just gives me the strangest mental images. Mostly because I'm imagining a berserking barbarian crossing the sea bed by yelling all the time and never stopping to take a breath, so he can't drown, or a furious barbarian just swimming out to a ship in the middle of the ocean and suplexing it into Davy Jones' locker.
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Jan 4, 2019 15:28
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Rifts World Book 21: Splynn Dimension Market, Part 11: "The males of the original species expel their spore-like sperm into the air, hoping that it will find a female." Symbiotic Organisms These are like the parasites, but not as harmful - they may have drawbacks, but they don't actively cripple you.  Perfect for a hot night at the beach.
 There are actually a lot more cutaways than I'm posting.
 "Finally, god has granted us... A NIGHT LIGHT!"
 Adam's Pineapple.
 "Uh, Hulk, you have a moth on your back?"
 "It's not a shoulder dick- dammit, why does everybody think that!"
While the high prices are clearly meant to gear them towards a sort of PC sidegrade or magical item, a titanizer costs around as much as a Glitter Boy; it's hilariously overblown. Granted, most of the prices in this book are well beyond any practical price, something to keep in mind when we get to the next section... Next: Guns don't kill people, they just torture them indefinitely to generate ammunition.
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Jan 4, 2019 16:28
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