> Bite worse than her bark. You can use Tooth & Claw in place of Physique to Overcome obstacles with brute force, but at a cost.

That stunt comes for free (in ARRPG's ruleset at least) because actually using it comes at a cost for her. I like that the cost is there though - that is a feature for me, and I wouldn't remove it even if I had the stunt allowance to do so. :D

In ARRPG, 'cost' is a thing you can add to a stunt to make it not count toward your maximum number of stunts.

A cost is basically saying "You can compel me on this as if I had a trouble about it."

Subbing Lore may make sense, yes. Though on the other hand, alchemy is half of it, and his agility is the other. He was tanky through both of those factors, and they're both kind of important to his character. That's why I've been hesitant to shift away from Athletics as the base defense skill, because that makes complete sense for him.

You can have more than one defense skill!

> Though you don’t generally use Physique to defend against attacks, you can use it to provide active opposition to someone else’s movement, provided you’re in a small enough space that you can effectively use your body to block access. You might also interpose something heavy and brace it to stop someone from getting through.

Hmm <_<

I see. Even in ARRPG it doesn't have a straight-up defend from attack (just oppose advantages).

@doppelgreener Ahhhh, I see. Lore may do it, then.

@doppelgreener That's pretty cool. It's a rather different aura from Flainn (he doesn't brute force things with his body, he explodes them instead :P). But for that type of character, it makes a lot of sense.

@Pixie It definitely isn't exactly the same, but I wanted to show something comparable.

I need to use that stunt soon, I don't think I've been able to yet. >_>

He focuses on keeping a distance, being alchemically tough enough to take a hit when he can't dodge it, and blowing stuff up. Blowing stuff up was not his original intention, but he learns a lot of interesting things from his constant study of plant substances, so if he's got it... :P

(His actual goal is to create an elixir of life. Pretty generic alchemist stuff, though he has his reasons, which vary based on whether we're talking about Sylvari Flainn or half-elf Flainn. The goal remains the same.)

Today in totally misguided edit suggestions:

> Adding a Solution even though i could not add an answer (maybe allowing people to answer Questions that have been put on hold is a good idea ;)

@doppelgreener It does sound like a super fun stunt to use!

@Miniman Heh...

There are a few questions that were closed for bring too broad that I wanted to try answering

If a question is Too Broad it doesn't necessarily mean its unanswerable it just means it would probably be a really long answer

It's a bug that bites us all, but the way to deal with it is to help fix the question.

If a question is actually Too Broad, then no, it is too broad to answer meaningfully here. Long/involved answers are not a problem and not what marking something Too Broad is meant for.

@Pixie Along the lines of "long/involved answers" is asking "How to make a viable PC Giant race too broad?" or should I try to make it and then put forth my results for analysis? (I'm seriously lost.)

@Sandwich Alternatively, write a blog post about it! (And no, I'm not being sarcastic. This is my new textbook example of a post that should be on a blog somewhere because it's high quality enough that it deserves better than being a closed question here.)

Ahhh, sorry, I realized that I'm being unclear there. Too Broad may indeed be used for answers that would be too long. What I mean is that a lengthy answer (by a certain standard of lengthy), in and of itself, is not the same thing as a question that is too broad. Some questions require something that is finite and clear but also detailed, and that's not really "too broad."

@SolidusVerum What system?

@Miniman d&d 5e

I had a pretty long one that was kind of broad here

It had two close votes when I answered it

He did slim down the question a lot though

@SolidusVerum That's probably too broad, because it's asking for a huge amount of work.

Just posting a Giant race wouldn't be a proper answer to the question, because the construction process and analysis would be required as justification.

A better question might be "Has anyone made a viable giant race for D&D 5e?"

@Miniman Would it be better if I started out with a build and then asked for an analysis of it?

@SolidusVerum Definitely

@Miniman Yeah. That's a good example of something that is actually too long (and also too broad in the sense that without some very specific criteria, why is any one technique better for building a giant race than any other? what does giant race mean to you? what do you need?).

Okay then that's what I'll do.

@SolidusVerum It might still run the risks of being closed - you should probably be specific in your request for analysis. "Is this balanced?" is the easiest way to make this kind of question work.

@Miniman Help on balancing is basically all I want. I don't want to loose a broken PC into my happy little world.

@SolidusVerum Even more specific, now that I think of it - "Is this balanced with the other PC races currently available?"

Fantastic!

Oops, also probably worth specifying that you're looking for mechanical balance. The impact of a giant PC on story balance, or problem solving, is way too hard to define.

I think finiteness can be the difference between a valid question that needs a relatively lengthy answer and a question that is too broad. If there's one ideal, best solution that takes some time to explain (without just rehashing a book entry) to provide the whole package, that's one thing. If your answer could stretch on for eternity incorporating more things that are all equally valid as far as the question is concerned, too broad.

Specifically I'll aim the question in this direction: Here is a d&d-5e race I made and is it mechanically balanced with other PC races currently available?

@Pixie It is. @BESW @trogdor We have a transforming plant scientist, a plant warrior, a cyberdragon, a jedi, and soon a robot in the group. I request more physical obstacles that require such people to smash through or tear open or etc.

@SolidusVerum Sounds good to me!

@doppelgreener lol, don't worry

@doppelgreener It sounds like a very shounen protagonist thing to do and I love it.

I have that as an option next session

of course,... we will have to wait till next week T.T

Yay

@BESW @trogdor Essentially my thinking is our group is rather like Atomic Robo x ½ in either the brains or brawn department and sometimes both. Most of us can do more than the regular Tesladyne scientists can do. Some of us would give Jenkins a run for his money. (We'd lose, but he'd at least break a sweat first.) However the challenges so far haven't let us leverage much other than the brains department, and haven't hit many complications in the social department.

Except for fights, but those are often the least interesting option for physical opposition, I think, or at least should absolutely not be the primary source of it.

well those both were supposed to happen at the end of the session I have not finished yet

as it happened, it turns out I crammed way too much into one session and we couldn't finish it

Ok. What I mean is: we need more social challenges and complications and we need more non-fight physical challenges and complications.

(as a character who is all about both of those, the lack of both of those things is frustrating)

there was going to be a fight and then a non fight physical challenge

and the challenge was most likely going to happen alongside a social conflict kind of thing

Cool beans :D

There may be more than that depending on what we milk out of what you provide us.

I am probably going to find a way to compel something to go disastrously.

well yes, it is Fate

what I mean is just that I already had that stuff planned

A few of the Seventy Maxims may be helpful.

@trogdor specifically: prepare for floors collapsing / things caving in / possible volcanic eruptions / general mayhem and disaster and things being destroyed.

@doppelgreener this is no issue

groovy

I am going to make at least one of those things happen as a near-guarantee

anything I am not prepped for I will certainly wing

(and these will be intended as game-changers, not something easily recovered from or cool SFX)

as our last session showed, winging stuff is not hard in Fate

@BESW What do you have in mind?

@trogdor "winging stuff" was how I conducted the BRAC session. I only had some mental images and some NPCs statted and a general idea of a few things. :D

@BESW These are hilarious. I think these may be some of Stellata's maxims.

@doppelgreener cool, that is actually the level of prep I had for our unfinished session too

The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries

@BESW I may replace Stellata's Omega aspect with something about this mercenary mindset.