The Gaming Den

What is Paizo's justification to make the soulbound doll a CR 2 creature? It's worse than an imp in essentially every conceivable way.

total bloody incompetence? The dearth of good guidelines on how to judge CR? Aliens?

It's still immune to a bunch of random things for being a construct, I guess?

I mean, you'd still prefer an imp.

There's a vanishingly tiny chance one specific type of them lands deep slumber on a party and they all die to coup de graces?

Dunno. Supposedly Paizo uses a giant spreadsheet to calculate all their monster stats, but either their sheet sucks or it doesn't exist considering how often they publish stuff like this.

SlyJohnny wrote:It's still immune to a bunch of random things for being a construct, I guess?

I mean, you'd still prefer an imp.

Especially since it doesn't even have immunity to mind-affecting like constructs normally do.

Axebird wrote:Dunno. Supposedly Paizo uses a giant spreadsheet to calculate all their monster stats, but either their sheet sucks or it doesn't exist considering how often they publish stuff like this.

There's their official monster stat chart, but it feels like a small minority of official monsters actually follow their guidelines.

Do you have to be properly hiding to use the sniping rules? For example, your assassin is dressed as a beggar in a crowded street and is plainly visible. Can said assassin palm a shuriken and throw it at someone with the -20 Hide penalty to make it so nobody noticed that they threw it?

virgil wrote:

Axebird wrote:Dunno. Supposedly Paizo uses a giant spreadsheet to calculate all their monster stats, but either their sheet sucks or it doesn't exist considering how often they publish stuff like this.

There's their official monster stat chart, but it feels like a small minority of official monsters actually follow their guidelines.

Very small. Someone compiled a spreadsheet of monsters from the bestiaries, and the statistics derived from that do not match the official monster guidelines.[/i]

After having spent the better part of 15 hours playing it again last friday, anybody ever managed to find a good way to somehow speed up ClassicBattleTech somehow?

virgil wrote:Do you have to be properly hiding to use the sniping rules? For example, your assassin is dressed as a beggar in a crowded street and is plainly visible. Can said assassin palm a shuriken and throw it at someone with the -20 Hide penalty to make it so nobody noticed that they threw it?

You actually can Hide from someone not in the crowd in that instance, as per the Rules Compendium:

RC 92 wrote:Blend into a Crowd: You can use the Hide skill to blend into a crowd, but doing so conceals you only from someone scanning the area to find you. You remain visible to everyone around you, and if they happen to be hostile, they’re likely to point you out.

RC 97 wrote:Tailing someone still requires cover or concealment, as normal for attempting a Hide check. A moderately crowded street provides sufficient cover and concealment to accomplish this goal.

Preventing people in the crowd from noticing isn't covered, and seems more like a Sleight of Hand sort of task (for which I unfortunately couldn't find a rules citation).

I was going to ask a few questions concerning the limits/rules of the commune spell, but then I realized it's essentially a poorly written MTP spell. And so, I'm going to rephrase the question - how do you adjudicate this spell? Do you specify whether any particular answers are given by the deity or its agents? What are common limits of knowledge you ascribe to the spell's source (or the spell itself)? Do you permit spells such as nondetection and other anti-divination magic to work?

Commune is where the player gets to have a game of 20 questions with the DM.

The DM uses this to tell them whatever they need to know to get on with the game, and maybe twist things a bit if it suits the deity's wants.

By the divine rules, Deities can see anything that is not blocked by a Deity of equal or higher rank. Only, like, one new place per round, and only if within a few miles of a worshipper, and they automatically know everything related to their portfolio if they're rank 11+ (which all the PHB gods are). Basically they know where shit is and will play yes/no until you do too.

Also of note, Deities can totally just tell their worshippers stuff relevant to their portfolio at any time. It's part of the official 3e game that your Cleric will be told stuff by their Deity as needed to preserve fair contests of strength, or the secrets of magic, or whatever.

Magic Modern Format Question: Is there some way to go infinite with Nest of Scarabs/Hapatra in Modern? Ideally it'd be something like "sacrifice a creature: put a -1/-1 counter on target creature" but if there's some combination of cards that effectively turns into that, that could work as well.

Edit:
I found a clunky way to do it-

Set up:

Have Nest of Scarabs in play, AE to make Basal Sliver and Nest of Scarabs work together. Target either.

Work:

Enchant Grim Poppet with Torture. Remove one of it's -1/1 counters to put one on something elese, get a scarab. Sac the scarab, get BB, put a -1/1 on Grim Poppet. Repeat until your opponent has no creatures.

Absurd Add On:

Instead of the Poppet, you can sac all your scarabs to play a huge Black Sun's Zenith, killing your opponent's creatures and getting X scarabs for each of them.

Two Nests and one Blowfly Infestation, then just keep targeting the scarab tokens until you have as many as desired. You will need a Toughness 2+ creature to end the loop though, Infestation isn't optional.

Ice9 wrote:Two Nests and one Blowfly Infestation, then just keep targeting the scarab tokens until you have as many as desired. You will need a Toughness 2+ creature to end the loop though, Infestation isn't optional.

Blowfly Infestation, Scarab Nest, and Blood Artist works as well. As soon as anything dies you repeatedly make Scarabs by killing Scarabs and gain infinite life and your opponent loses infinite life.

-Username17

So, here's the decklist I worked up for that.

It had a splash of green for Hapatra, but she's not super necessary. Testing it on TappedOut, I found that I don't get the combo pieces reliably. So there are fourish slots that need to be filled. What would be good ways to fill those slots and get the combo pieces more reliably?

It had a splash of green for Hapatra, but she's not super necessary. Testing it on TappedOut, I found that I don't get the combo pieces reliably. So there are fourish slots that need to be filled. What would be good ways to fill those slots and get the combo pieces more reliably?

Read the Bones? Or just Diabolic Tutor but at CMC 4 with no acceleration that seems kind of slow.

I was going to ask though -why are you running 2 Ruthless Sniper? I would think a deck like this wants either 0 or 4. Definitely seems like a better 1-drop than Torture.

Ruthless Sniper was put in as a way to start the scarab engine once the pieces are out, but it requires cycling cards to make it work. Torture is a more reliable way to start the engine, but also is essentially 3 mana...

I had no idea that shadow evocation was as restricted as it is. It's written that objects automatically save to disbelieve, and nondamaging effects do nothing against disbelievers. Even if you did a bunch of gnomish shadow magic to make it 100%+ real, ice wall does nothing against ranged attacks or creatures who make their save. Heck, it's doubtful a caster can fail to disbelieve their own spell, and thus not be able to utilize any of the personal buff spells of evocation.

It's pretty badly written also:

Spells that deal damage have normal effects unless an affected creature succeeds on a Will save. Each disbelieving creature takes only one-fifth damage from the attack. If the disbelieved attack has a special effect other than damage, that effect is one-fifth as strong (if applicable) or only 20% likely to occur. If recognized as a shadow evocation, a damaging spell deals only one-fifth (20%) damage. Regardless of the result of the save to disbelieve, an affected creature is also allowed any save (or spell resistance) that the spell being simulated allows, but the save DC is set according to shadow evocation’s level (5th) rather than the spell’s normal level.

Nondamaging effects have normal effects except against those who disbelieve them. Against disbelievers, they have no effect.

Objects automatically succeed on their Will saves against this spell.

So is it 20% likely to occur, or no effect?

Also, it repeats itself for no reason:

Spells that deal damage have normal effects unless an affected creature succeeds on a Will save. Each disbelieving creature takes only one-fifth damage from the attack.

If recognized as a shadow evocation, a damaging spell deals only one-fifth (20%) damage.

Shadow Conjuration doesn't have the contradictory "no effect" part, so with that one it's always 20% chance for non-damage effects. Except for summoned creatures, which always exist but have 20% of their normal HP.

I've been in campaigns that used them, but I think we must have applied some mind-caulk without even realizing it.

By the tightest possible reading, the "the disbelieved attack" in sentence 2 is likely referring back to the "spells that deal damage" in sentence 1.

I.e. if you cast a spell that deals damage, disbelieving creatures take one-fifth damage. If that damaging spell has an effect other than damage, that effect is one-fifth as strong or only 20% likely to occur against disbelieving creatures. Separately, if you cast a spell that does not deal damage, it has no effect on disbelieving creatures.

I would not be surprised if I were the first person on the planet to deliberately read it that way. It's a little absurd; "the target creature is dealt 1 force damage and stunned for 1 round" has a 20% chance of stunning a disbelieving target, while "the target creature is stunned for 1 round" has a 0% chance of stunning a disbelieving target. I don't think anyone would naturally arrive at that meaning from a casual reading. It's just too obviously dumb.

Stahlseele wrote:After having spent the better bathmate results part of 15 hours playing it again last friday, anybody ever managed to find a good way to somehow speed up ClassicBattleTech somehow?

No it takes forever.

I want a monster that eats thoughts & mental energy, but I don't want to deal ability damage or the like outright. Having it consume a spell slot or power points from casters at first is fine, but I'm specifically trying to figure out an alternative to the Intelligence damage. Perhaps it could make the target drunk for a time, or perhaps some other condition/debuff? Or is all of that too complex, and should I just have it hurt people and label the attack as dealing psychic damage?

Schramm wrote:

Stahlseele wrote:After having spent the better part of 15 hours playing it again last friday, anybody ever managed to find a good way to somehow speed up ClassicBattleTech somehow?

No it takes forever.

Yes.
I realize that.
Especially the 15 hour doubleblind . .
I just had hoped for there to be a way to somehow speed it up a bit <.<

There are a variety of computer versions of BT that speed things up dramatically. But for an actual tabletop experience? Nope, that just takes forever.

Yeah, agreeing with above. Megamek does a decent job, but otherwise you should just use the simplified rules they publish, but then you lose out on the immersion of CBT. There's really no way to do one without getting rid of the other.