@Yuuki Depends on the amount of skulls on his flags

A credible Uberkaiser needs many skulls

There’s always “Super-“.

@GreySage mermaid-ogre? I have an image of a merfolk in my head from some movie/game. Can't find yet.

@SPavel Uberkaiser. You install mobile app and when he need the passengers he posts order and you're notified and must obey.

@SPavel Metakaiser :D

@RollingFeles That's just a Kaiser that the other Kaisers all hate because he peeks at the rulebook

Arch is pretty good actually. But it doesn't have eastern feeling.

Well a Khagan is already a khan of khans

How Eastern, Middle-East or Far East?

The problem with Asia in general is that nobody English-speaking knows enough about it to make the reference useful to anyone but a very specific nerd

For Far East, you can use “Dai-“.

@Yuuki Middle :)

@SPavel You know there’s Asians outside of Asia, right?

@SPavel It may sound cheesy, but I'm searching for right feeling.

@Yuuki I don't see how what I said implied a lack of awareness of Asians' geographical distribution

Friendly NPC will translate local terms to something PC will understand.

Furthermore, I would not expect someone from, say, Thailand, to know anything about, say, Turkic medieval rulers' titles

@SPavel but does it matter? Take Mount and Blade for example. They use real or real-like titles and terms.

And it works.

@SPavel “Nobody English-speaking” implies either Asians not being in predominantly English-speaking areas or Asians don’t speak English.

@RollingFeles Are they not all "King"?

Ah, Sarranids are "Sultan" but that's a common term everyone knows

I think I will go with a suped up hydra

And the Khergits have a Khan

Nobles have different titles. Boyars, Emirs, Counts, Noyans

@GreySage A hydra but the heads are mermaids.

@Yuuki with fish heads and human... necks?

Like an entire mermaid for a head.

And the hydra neck attaches at the waist.

Rather disappointingly, the PIE word was "uper"

@SPavel PIE?

Proto-Indo-European

@SPavel Ah, I see.

@Yuuki That creates a very... disturbing mental image.

@GreySage Isn’t that what you’re looking for?

What about a hydra that's a medusa head

@SPavel So, a body with heads that are full of snake heads?

A hydra with medusas with hydras for snakes for heads.

Just alternating hydras and medusas all the way down. It’s the feared Recursive Hydra.

Perfect

Fractal hydra

Deals 1+1d2+1d3+1d4+1d6+1d8+.... damage

@Yuuki with Tail Optimization :D

No, 1d1 + 1d(1/2) + 1d(1/4) + ...

Converges to 2 damage.

@Yuuki Does it end with atom-sized bite marks?

@GreySage When you get down to it, we're all swarms of molecules

@SPavel "The Hydra lunges at you with one of its heads. Your arm... melts, because its fractal teeth attack you at the molecular level."

@GreySage "With some well-placed blows, the vorpal sword severs proton after proton from the brick of lead, transforming it into precious gold."

So, I now have: Salibs with their Salibats under Yust-Salib and his Amber Ulus.

@SPavel thank you for your help :)

"Salibs with their Salibats" is very Seuss

They all will be in Hats. And maybe with Cats. In Hats.

@Szega looks like the only relevant edge i took was Two-Fisted.

@NautArch you will also want ambidextrous to negate the offhand penalty

Hmm, I was wrong, it lets you ignore all of the multiaction penalty

also, how did you get the two swords? journey rolls?

@ATaco I think you need a larger set of initial syllables. Much larger.

On a side note, I upcast Bigby's Hand to 7th level last night. 8d8 damage on the attack was pretty amazing.

@PeterCooperJr. The only thing to watch out for is if you'd found fifteen you wanted to edit--probably worth spacing those out over the course of a few days. Otherwise it floods the frontpage with old questions that haven't really been changed and pushes other content further down the page where it gets fewer eyes.

@NautArch Nice! You guys must be pretty high level then huh?

@NautArch Did you tell the enemy to talk to the hand?

@Rubiksmoose yeah. I'm currently at level 15. But we're going to close the books on these characters shortly and move on to trying other systems.

@Yuuki missed opportunity :(

Me and our wizard both had Bigby up and running. Nightmare for the DM, who rolled about 8 fumbles.

@NautArch Next time, use the following phrase as your verbal component: "FIVE FINGERS TO THE FACE!"

@Yuuki Hahaha. Next time, definitely!

@NautArch Your ISP is 35, not 70, otherwise seems ok. lucky rolls

@NautArch did you start at level 1?

sorry, ISP=50

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Manually reported answer: How to kill a character without making their player too angry by JONES on rpg.SE

@Szega Hmm, I thought it was Simvan start with 15. Burster gives me 20 ISP. For a total of 35 ISP. Major Psionics then doubles that to 70.

@Rubiksmoose I think we started at 3.

@NautArch If you get the arcane bg from framework, it gives +5

@Szega I"m confused.

@NautArch If your framework does not give arcane bg(psi), you get that. If it provides that, you get +5 ISP and one power as bonus

@Szega I think that may different than the TOmorrow Legion rules. What I had done as take the Natural Psionics from a Simvan (15), and added it to the Burster BG which gives 20 ISP. Then doubled it with Major Psionics.

@NautArch That is from the TL book. just read the whole paragraph

I didn't take the Power Points Edge (for the +10). Just the Major Psionic Edge.

great question @KorvinStarmast!

@NautArch The trick is that the doubling from the edge is already in the starting 20 of the burster

so you get 2*(10(bg)+5(race)+10(roll))=50

@Szega simvan gets 15, not 5 to start.

@NautArch please read the whole paragraph

@Szega which paragraph? I'm sorry...

@Szega ah! I did not understand that before.

okay, although I think the Burster starts at 20 ISP?

@NautArch The framework descriptions are a mess. They wrote 20 because you start with the arcane bg edge + the major psionic edge

@NautArch I have some ideas on an answer, but I'd like to get other minds working on this. I have always found illusions to be difficult spells to work with in D&D, since people are already having to imagine things in the first place.

@Szega arglebargle. That's annoying! I never would have figured that out.

And having to build a character across two rulebooks is also really frustrating.

@KorvinStarmast I have a feeling it's going to come down to DM fiat. Because Illusions.

@NautArch DM ruling, you mean? This is 5e. :p

illusions are just too iffy. iffy awesome. but iffy.

I'll give it 24 hours before I offer my own answer

@NautArch I am somewhat surprised that this question has not yet been asked, but my initial search into RPG.SE did not come up with anything.

@KorvinStarmast and my lack of understanding clearly shows that this is not a DM ruling question :) for hte most part.

I am somewhat surprised to find this question not having been asked before.

@Szega Do you think this build is viable? Or does it take too long in combat to become useful? I also built this guy:

@NautArch You have also calculated your skills wrong. Psionics is linked to Smarts, so you only get to raise it to d10 with 2 points. You also have no Notice skill, which might be problematic

On the LLW: how did you get 35PPE? I can see 15(framework)+5(race)+5(roll)=25

Also note that Knowledge(arcana) and Spellcasting are different skills

@Szega i'll have to look at that again. I'm guessing a problem with the langauge like with the Burster.

@NautArch This might be a really dumb question, but is Bigby's hand considered an object actually?

@NautArch Nvm, reading comprehension lol

that is great news.

Quick, start breaking SE ToS!

Hiya @Shalvenay so I won't be available this Saturday, I could only do Friday.

@SPavel [gets a twitchy eyelid]

@SPavel I'd have to read them first...

As with many things, if illegality was the only thing prohibiting you from breaching the ToS, either you're not a very good person or the ToS are not very good :P

@doppelgreener Hey, just because you're a moderator, doesn't mean you have to defend the ToS

Maybe it does, I don't know, I haven't read it

@Szega well, the good news is i have time to figure this out. Can't come up with a date that the DM can get down to us (he's basic weekend only, and a lot of our group is weekday only)

Is anyone here doing any chatizen FATE games?

@NautArch Looking on the bright side there :)

I might, maybe, do a short Fate campaign, at least two and a half months from now.

@Szega and it's not very bright. but this showing me how freaking complicated and poorly written SW is :(.

@BESW Hmmm....

@BESW a chat campaign?

@trogdor Maybe Discord. Nitsua's interested in getting some experience with Fate, Lady Blackbird, maybe some other games.

But he's not even remotely available for it 'til March, and the first two-thirds of March aren't a great time for me to run a noonish RPG.

@BESW I'm also interested in this. Not sure if I can make it work, but definitely interested.

@SPavel that's true, i only really care about the bits that are already covered by site rules :U

@NautArch I'm not FATE's biggest fan, but if an additional player is needed I'd be game

Or Fate's, I guess, I never was clear on the capitalization ;)

@BESW I'd be interested as well, if you end up wanting more players. The one time I've tried Fate wasn't great, and I'd like to see what it's supposed to be like.

Fate with BESW; How it's supposed to be done

@BESW I would certainly be interested as long as the time doesn't conflict for me

@trogdor Chances are it'll be the same time as the VI campaigns.

ah

at work for me then

I probably won't even be able to spectate now

our firewall there has gotten stricter and my new phone also just recently decided it doesn't like giving me internet acess

@trogdor Ah, same for me.

Well, except the spectate bit.

very frustrating

I can handle not being able to participate but not being able to spectate is definitely irritating

@trogdor Yeah, this whole business of working kinda sucks XD

@Ben And for my next trick, I'll use a jug of Clorox.

@Yuuki I actually had a bottle of Windex, with blue cordial

@Ben Is that made with Gatorade? That's the only thing I can think of that tastes distinctly of blue.

@Yuuki Normally "Blue cordial" is actually labelled "blueberry", or some such, but there was one brand that just called it "Undiluted blue drink"

@Ash Honestly, because of your avatar it's not hard to imagine this is already you haha

Pure blue is actually a colour no human can see :P

@ACuriousMind I'm going to oretrend that every time someone is invisible, they're just pure blue

We need to dilute it to be able to drink it

@ACuriousMind someone offers you an empty glass, and tells you to "drink it". At first you're amused, because honestly, this has to be a joke. Eventually they convince you to pick up the glass. This is the first clue that something is off. You pick up the glass. You swirl the glass, and hear a liquid sloshing around. You sniff it. The scent is the purest you've ever smelled. This must be what truly fresh air smells like. Cautiously, slowly, you bring the glass to your mouth.

As you tip up the glass, you are in a state of utter confusion. You think to yourself. "I am actually drinking an empty glass?" but then the liquid touches your lips. And you understand. Everything. That ever was.

This.... this is blue.

::overdoses on blue::

@BESW Or as we say it here in Aus: "Hold my beer"

Some people are comically confused by the point-of-view character in her "Imperial Radch" series.

Heard of it, never read it.

It's very good. Excellent writing and worldbuilding, and very traditional in the sense of scifi being used to explore What It Means To Be A Person.

It's probably some of the best "hard" scifi I've ever read.

Fair enough! Honestly I'm terrible at picking books. I am (ashamedly) one who judges the book by its cover: often shiny with little detail.

The Broken Earth trilogy is also some really high-quality speculative fiction, though it's really fantasy with a sciencey crust.

Well, personally I'm Sci-Fi/Fantasy > everything else anyway haha

And anything that can combine those two genres well is doubly awesome.

Lord of the Rings but every fifth day of the week, everyone uses laser pistols.

No wait, that's Sci Fri.

Lessee. Seanan McGuire's InCryptid series is fun popcorn reading that straddles science and fantasy pretty well--it's about a modern-day family of scientists who study and help cryptids while hiding from an ancient cult that wants to wipe out all cryptids and their allies.

McGuire's also got a less-lighthearted series, Parasitology, which is the only zombie series I've ever actually been interested in.

@BESW The problem with trying to see "plot holes" (quibble: even though people acting irrationally isn't a plot hole, rrrrrggh) everywhere is that the reader is operating from the privileged position of being the reader.

(In the near future, almost everyone uses genetically modified tapeworms to control their body chemistry... but something's going wrong and hosts are turning into mindless zombies.)

@Ash Somehow I couldn't get into those as much? [shrug] Maybe I'll try again some time.

@Ash this was a great book

I liked it, but didn't find it super engrossing. Didn't seek out the sequel.

Either did I

Oh, the Peter Grant novels. Police detective in London learns magic is real, becomes the first magician's apprentice since WWII, starts dating a river.

@BESW That... took a turn.

One of the things I like about that series is, it has a strong sense of place and history through architecture.

It's probably the best "gives you a real sense of what an English place is like" series I've read since Margery Allingham's Campion novels.

Personally I've never really had much interest in any "real world" places, mainly because I live in Aus, have never been overseas, and all these books are based in other countries, so all of the real-world landmarks are lost on me.

I've never been to England either, and part of the reason I read is to travel.

Granted, for me Henry Huggins lived an exotic life in a foreign land, with sidewalks and regular bus schedules and a YMCA.

@Ben In some ways, there's not much difference between a fictional place and a place you've never been. I only assume famous landmarks are real because so many people talk about them.

Fancy things like stop lights?

Hey! I was in my teens when we got a stoplight installed a fifteen minute drive away, and cut in half the amount of time it took to get to a stoplight.

@JoelHarmon True, but I have also always like d the idea of magic/sci-fi existing present day. It would certainly liven up the usual peak-hour traffic jam when the Fire Elemental develops road rage.

@Ash I'm reminded of a place called Pie Town, New Mexico. It features a church, three bakeries, and ~200 people.

@Ash When I visited during college, the roadside sausage vendor had upscaled from a shipping container to a concrete building. It was so weird.

Before you could drive by and see if your friend were eating, because they'd be sitting on the lawn furniture by the container. Now you can't tell!

@Ben Brandon Sanderson has a series of trilogies mostly out. The first trilogy is in a medieval world, the second steampunk, and the third (pending) trilogy I'm told will have some kind of space travel. All share a magic system, as it follows the world's development.

I've heard very good things about Ninefox Gambit, Radiance, The Stars Are Legion, Robopocalypse...