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01:44

Needles & Nilbogs: Geeking out over a rare fandom

posted on February 04, 2022 by Bardic Wizard

Tuesday I got my preordered copy of a book I’ve been waiting for since forever!!!!! It’s the third book in the City Spies series by James Ponti, and it is just as good as the first two (maybe better. We’ll see). The really frustrating thing, though, is that there is literally no City Spies fanfiction. None. Go check, I’ll wait. See, no fanfic (seriously, I google it regularly and can’t fi…

BESW

04:27

"5 tabletop RPGs to play if you like Dark Souls (but not D&D 5E)" by Alex Meehan for Dicebreaker. With the Dark Souls RPG set to use the D&D 5E system, here are 5 RPGs that give the same feeling but with different gameplay systems.

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Hot RPG Questions

11:44

2

Q: Is the damage of a higher-level Monk's unarmed strike reduced by the Heavy Armor Master feat?

At 6th level, Monks get the Ki-Empowered Strikes feature which states (emphasis mine): Starting at 6th level, your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage. Meanwhile, the Heavy Armor Master feat states (emphasis min...

Hot RPG Questions

13:01

3

Q: Who can False Attacker apply to?

False Attacker is a rogue talent that lets me attempt a Bluff check as an immediate action (opposed by the target’s Sense Motive or Perception check, whichever has a higher bonus) before rolling damage to convince the foe that another creature was the attacker. What does "another creature" actu...

pathfinder-1e rogue

SmokeDetector

14:07

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Manually reported answer (94): Price for creating a Robe of Protection from Evil‭ by Bartosz Skalny‭ on rpg.SE (@Rubiksmoose @ThomasMarkov @linksassin)

goodguy5

14:50

You like Nilbogs?

Get ready for Reabgubs.

Has anyone seen a Ranger with a human companion? I know it's not raw, but I'm trying to think of ways to get a sidekick

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@goodguy5 I've seen two, but they're both from US of A, not Planescape nor FR.

Thomas Markov

15:05

@goodguy5 Sidekick rules from Tasha's?

goodguy5

@ThomasMarkov oooh, I didn't notice that, one sec

Thomas Markov

@goodguy5 I've tested all three for combat, and the easiest to run is by far the Expert, cuz he's basically just "rogue lite", lots of "bonus aciton hide" and "I use the help action to distract that guy by shouting at him". Combat is pretty simple for him.

Warrior was a little tougher to manage, cuz you have to make more tactical decisions like you would running a proper martial, but still easier than running a full character cuz there's less abilities.

goodguy5

@ThomasMarkov Yea, looking over them, I don't think that's what I'm looking for. I don't want a true cohort, I want something even lighter. Those rules are good to know, though.

Thomas Markov

Spellcaster was by far the toughest to manage because of managing positioning and picking spells to cast.

linksassin

@goodguy5 look that is a valid option. But I wanted to add these spells to open up the options for unique injuries that aren't covered by existing spells. Without having to think through if each existing spell would heal that injury or not. Thus way I have a simpler answer for healing them.

goodguy5

15:16

@linksassin No worries, that's also why I suggested just a spell level - similar to the Holy Water Ceremony.

Just because I wouldn't want to do it at my table doesn't make it a bad thing.

@ThomasMarkov WOAH Spellcaster gets potent cantrip?!

Thomas Markov

@goodguy5 Yeah, I didn't bother testing the one with eldritch blast because I knew it would just be eldritch blast spam.

goodguy5

Yo, the Spellcaster sidekick is lowkey kinda dope.

Phoenices

15:43

Just all the non-combat spells you could ever need?

@ThomasMarkov Er... so Expert is an Owl Familiar?

goodguy5

@Phoenices with more hp, but yes

Phoenices

Yes, but an owl has total cover 100% of the time, Flyby, Darkvision and +3 Perception with Advantage :P

goodguy5

16:02

@Phoenices where do they get total cover?

Phoenices

In my hood, of course! Or just behind a handy tree, or a pile of earth if I have one turn to use Mold Earth, or...

goodguy5

16:13

@Phoenices gotcha.

Phoenices

But souls end up going through the astral because it's the place that connects the planes anyway...

goodguy5

@Phoenices uh..... ~~life~~ death is a highway?

Phoenices

You have squished my objection three seconds before I made it!

I thought that was mostly just the Astral that was a highway, and spirits mysteriously end up in it or stay in the Ethereal as ghosts? Do spirits go Material+death->ethereal->drawn to nearest Astral portal->astral?

goodguy5

16:55

@Phoenices I'd have to read over it again - I'm no planeologist

Phoenices

Humph. You need to use a more latin name. This way you sound like an aircraft expert.

goodguy5

@Phoenices I'm not that either.

Dimensioneer?

Cosmosnaut?

Elysiologist?

Bah, I was hoping to post an answer on that gloom stalker question before I ate

hung on 4 reopen votes

Phoenices

18:10

Cosmologist sounds good.

Astrologist is for people who study the astral plane.

AncientSwordRage

Paralaminology would be the study beyond layers (of reality)

But Latin is boring, we should come up with a term from another language

Phoenices

No, no, I'm saying it needs to sound more latiny or it doesn't count, not that it needs to be latin. Cosmos is greek, but it clearly counts.

Thomas Markov

Xenocosmology?

Phoenices

18:26

That sounds like a Far Realm thing. Sure!

AncientSwordRage

That would only be the study if alien Cosmo's, not the astral or material say....

Phoenices

Yeah, we're accepting all planar researcher titles here.

goodguy5

18:48

I feel like German is going to have an answer for us here

AncientSwordRage

@goodguy5 Zwiebelschalenleser

2

Because reality has layers

goodguy5

@AncientSwordRage love it - Onion Skin Reader

AncientSwordRage

19:09

@goodguy5 I much prefer words that show the history.of them and need interpretation than just mashing two English words but translated together

goodguy5

@AncientSwordRage Well, I mean, some of them are just mashing two german words together that translates neatly to english - english being a germanic language and all

like ambulance is krankenwagon, which is health wagon, iirc?

*sorry: suffer wagon

which is way better

AncientSwordRage

19:25

@goodguy5 but this is the thing, those aren't the two words I'd mash together if I was making up a word in German

Whereas I know xeno means alien and cosmo means like... Stars and stuff (it actually means order), so mashing them together in another language doesn't change much?

Yuuki

If you're interested in Chinese, I might go with 外天家 (waitianjia)

AncientSwordRage

@Yuuki always interested

Yuuki

外 means "other" or "outside". 天 means "sky" but it's often used to mean "heavens" as well. and 家 is commonly used to refer to an expert, scientist, or sage.

AncientSwordRage

I've definitely tried to make plays on words in Chinese, but I haven't got a grasp of whether it works

Oh cool

Yuuki

incidentally, 外星人 is "alien".

星 is "star" and 人 is "person"

goodguy5

19:31

@Yuuki what's the other one?

Yuuki

i had stated it before, but 外 means "other" or "outside"

or "foreign". 外国 (waiguo) is often used to refer to foreign countries/nations.

goodguy5

@Yuuki oh, derp. I didn't integrate that they were the same explanation

Yuuki

funnily, 家 is often used to in conjunction with areas of study to denote an expert in that field (文学家 means a "literature expert" or writer while 科学家 means scientist) but when used by itself, it translates to "home"

goodguy5

19:44

@Yuuki ah yes, the expert at home

Yuuki

@goodguy5 china invented becoming an expert via an hour spent on googling before search engines were cool

goodguy5

XD

Yuuki

i am kinda interested in the etymology though, might ask around

AncientSwordRage

20:18

@Yuuki let us know what you find

Hot RPG Questions

20:41

6

Q: Price for creating a Robe of Protection from Evil

I have a player that wants to have a Robe of Protection from Evil made. Using just the continuous spell cost seems more than a bit low, as I explain below. What would be a more reasonable way to price this? Protection from Evil (PHB#266) is 1st Level spell castable by a 1st Level divine or arcane...

dnd-3.5e magic-items crafting pricing

Ben

21:27

Morning all

Currently it's 7.30am on a Saturday, I had to be up at 6am, and I'm currently sitting in an office getting paid $50/hr to (if everything goes smoothly; or horribly wrong on the power end) do nothing.

goodguy5

@Ben who's dollars?

How much is that in freedom dollars?

but also - nice

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@ThomasMarkov I suspect the topic brought up in comments would be a lengthy one, and also one that might benefit from broader consensus. Is it really a good idea to 'claim' a tag for a term that is not a cross-system one, even if I am the first one to use it? IIRC at some point there was a controversy when something like that happened.

Thomas Markov

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica Goodness, that sounds like the most boring controversy ever

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

Heh.

AncientSwordRage

@goodguy5 $35

Thomas Markov

21:39

@goodguy5 Is it really freedom dollars if youre working on saturday?

Someone_Evil

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica Describe it as it is currently used. If another system starts using the tag, we can (and should) expand rework it then

And currently used means for Universalis in this case

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@ThomasMarkov Ah, found the precedent. rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/magus

Thomas Markov

also:

4

Q: Tags with at least 10 questions that need usage guidance

I went through and looked for tags with no usage guidance/blank wiki excerpts having at least 10 questions on the site. Here they are: bloodline 26 questions immediate-actions 23 questions move-action 23 questions aegis 19 questions inquisitor 16 questions channel-energy 10 questions If you vol...

discussion tags tag-wiki

Still two things on my list there needing descriptions: channel-energy and aegis

17

Q: "Magus" is a bad tag - let's fix it!

the tag magus is described as "Pathfinder class that blends martial prowess with spell casting, from the book Ultimate Magic.", yet that is very very system centric. The term magus/maga is also used in RPGs (among others!): as a generic term for Mage in ars-magica as a term for any male guild m...

discussion tags

Found the meta, before my time.

goodguy5

@AncientSwordRage that's still pretty good

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

Oh dear, a split between accepted and upvoted.

Thomas Markov

21:45

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica You love to see that on meta :/

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@ThomasMarkov For now, I added a description that fits Universalis, but also is compatible with the other system where I encounter the term (more) often.

Ben

My only qualm is I left my coffee in the car, because I thought I'd need to wear my mask. I'm the only one in the workspace, so it would have been fine without it

Thomas Markov

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I added a note for distinguishing from skill-challenge

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@ThomasMarkov Ooh, I thought I should've encountered at least one more system with the term.

Ben

@goodguy5 my dollars. No one else's

Thomas Markov

21:55

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica just as we were talking about magus, someone answers a question with the tag.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@ThomasMarkov Magic!

Thomas Markov

Also that answer could use some help.

Groody the Hobgoblin

22:54

Hi, I've been advised to test-pitch possible questions here to debug them and save us all unneccesary effort. My last one was about if Gloom Stalker was overpowered, let to a lot discussion how to better frame that. So this brings me to another question: what is the definition or what are the criteria for being "overpowered"?

Is that an elegible question?

I can think of a lot of answers, like when the group or character easliy defeats opponents that the DMG defines as deadly without and risk or damage, or some such. But in my experience, deadly anyways seems to be more on the level of "mildly annoying".

Ben

System/edition?

On a separate note, I have a level 6 Forge Domain Cleric and I'm trying to figure out the best spell list.

Can anyone suggest/short list the best options? I'm the only healer/spellcaster in the group, warforged, 20 base AC, and weilding a warhammer.

Hot RPG Questions

23:40

7

Q: Would creating a Simulacrum duplicate the effects of the Fates card from the Deck of Many Things?

The text of Simulacrum states: [The Simulacrum] appears to be the same as the original, but it has half the creature's hit point maximum and is formed without any equipment. Otherwise, the illusion uses all the statistics of the creature it duplicates, except that it is a construct. That seems ...

dnd-5e magic-items simulacrum

5

Q: Is Gloom Stalker overpowered?

Sharpshooter is considerered to be among the most overpowered feats in D&D 5e. It's gross damage boost is even more disgusting when one has a consistent source for Advantage. Gloom Stalker has the following feature at level 3: UMBRAL SIGHT (...) While in darkness, you are invisible to any creatu...

dnd-5e optimization balance vision-and-light

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