Pryllin's page

Posted back on Apr 26, 2015, 02:39 pm.
So, we're now millionaires.
Most of it's tied up in our paid off house.
We have an investment property, paying itself off but we own half of it.
And we have superannuation tied up until retirement.
I was hoping to be able to retire, but I'm still a fair few years away.
My wife's job imploded. She has a much lower paying job now, but she's happy and working part time. We save her entire income.
The investment property almost lost us a fortune. We think the seller was taking cash in hand or fixing the books, but as soon as we bought the place, the tenants didn't pay any rent. We hadn't increased it or anything, but after months of no rent, we eventually had to evict and the tenants trashed the place as they left. Fortunately, it come with insurance and the place was finally fixed up and now we have boring tenants. We haven't raised the rent since before covid and everyone seems happy.
I'm still working my mediocre job that I hate and covering all our expenses.
We still have no children.
We still have no major medical issues.
Next step in the dream is to save enough for me to retire. Should take 3-5 years.
Will update again then. :-)

Braddon rolls his eyes and turns to Lil.
"These rubes are useless without me. I'll get rid of them and be back in a moment."
He charges down the steps to land beside Snake (M9)and hacks at the only creature that isn't his friend, the demon.

Bastard Sword: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27
Damage: 1d10 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7

(Ooh, now I get a potential crit...)
Bastard Sword confirm crit: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23
Damage: 1d10 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8

Braddon is only too happy to lead the way back upstairs. Muttering quietly under his breath, he moves about on the balls of his feet, stopping before doorways before lunging through them, swords in hand.
One wonders how long he's been practising this. And, more disquieting a thought, why.

When are you going to retire and just play Pathfinder 24/7? ;)

16 September 2023 :-)

Dude, you're saving lives... we'll wait.
And, y'know, take care of yourself.

"Ooh. What a great place to hide treasure. And there won't be many traps, 'cause the water would set them off. They'd probably have just a net or two. You just need to hold someone in place and they drown when the tide rolls in. Or I'd use electric eels and poisonous octopuses. I wonder what's over there?"

Sense Motive (+2 vs Humans): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

"No."

Marikel shakes his head, still reeling from the massive blow.

Iomedae has never promised him an easy life. The Goddess of Honour; he has followed her laws to the letter. The Goddess of Justice; he has trained to fight and kill. And now here he is, no parents, no home and no healing, wounded on a wretched stony battlefield of broken weapons and bodies outside a village in the middle of nowhere that doesn't like the colour his church is painted.

He frowns up at the giant that stands above him, a creature that swings fully grown orcs as if they were simple toys held by an excited baby. Iomedae has never granted him an easy life. Maybe she'll grant him something else.

Marikel charges the giant.

Masterwork Longsword (Charge): 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 7 + 2 = 26
Damage: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

(Oh, that's right. Reroll 1s for healing...)
Cure Light Wounds (+1 Gifted Adept): 1d8 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 3 + 1 = 10

Badly handled in good ol' Skull and Shackles too.

In my IRL Skull and Shackles game, the PC's handed all their captured ships over to their underlings and started creating a fleet well before book 5. :-)

I wish I could get into a Kingmaker game that didn't fall apart within the first book. Ansha would make such a good queen/diplomat/spymaster. :(

My first attempt, many years ago, fell apart one session before finishing the first book. They'd even defeated the Stag Lord and were going to explore the last two hexes and return to town to claim their reward next session.

Ansha would be great to game with. Maybe next time I'm in America. :-)

Isolda Lebeda, Human Wizard and cousin of the fiancee to King Regent of Brevoy, Nikoli Surtova.
Ursula, Human Rogue (Spy). An orphan of the streets of Restov, taken in by the thieves guild and commandeered by interests unknown to monitor the fledgeling nation.
Yaneshi, Human Oracle of Life who watched her mother kill herself while searching for immortality.
Karl Medvyed, Human (Red) Dragon Disciple rumoured by some to be Choral the Conquerer reborn.
Otto Orcson, Half-orc Paladin of Iomedae struggling to abandon his heritage and live up to standards he's never known.

Together with half a dozen NPCs they rule the Freelands as a council where all are supposed to be equal.
Lily Teskerton was their first spymaster but stepped down after Grigori the Bard exposed her entire network. She has been replaced by Yuri Gargarin, Karl's long time friend and confidant.
Oleg and Svetlana were also on the original council as Treasurer and Councilor but have since been replaced by Karls cousins Tatiana Medvyed and Vladimir Medvyed respectively.
Jubilost Narthropple was the original Warden but was replaced by Isabella Gargarin, another of Karl's entourage.
Kesten Garess was their Marshal and Akiros Ismort their General. Kesten has been replaced with Gunta Eisenzhan, another of Karl's cousins, whereas Akiros continues to serve as General, and as Yaneshi's protector and lover.
Karl is engaged to his childhood sweetheart, Natasha while Ursula has herself recruited the cunning orphan Tabatha as her apprentice and lover.

Apart from the towns of Olegton and Tatzleford, they have placed Stockton in the plains, Jhod's Rest in the forest at the temple site, Karlsburg where the quickling fey tower was and claimed both Varnhold and Fort Drelev, which they renamed Fort Liberty.

Since they've built a lumber mill in every forest hex they can, their internal threats are the environmental terrorists, Nature's Scourge, stolen from the Villain's Codex, and Corax the lumberjack who heads the entire woodcutter guild and has never done anything illegal but abrasively disagrees with everything the PCs do that doesn't directly benefit the lumberjacks.

All the external threats to the kingdom have been systematically overcome, but now war is on the horizon as we enter the fifth book of the Adventure Path.

Hope that helps. :-)

So, here are my notes for my 3.5 pantheon which was supposed to only have 9 Gods

PELOR of Bytopia
Warrior of Light, The Shining One, Lord of the Sun
Lawful Good God of Light
Domains: Good, Law, Sun, War
Favoured Weapon: Mace
Favoured Race: Humans

ELDATH of Elysium
Lady of the Lake, Goddess of the Singing Waters, The Healer
Neutral Good Goddess of Water
Domains: Good, Healing, Protection, Water
Favoured Weapon: Net
Favoured Race: Merfolk

EHLONNA of Arborea
Mother of Life, Ehlonna of the Forests, Goddess of the Woodlands
Chaotic Good Goddess of Life
Domains: Animal, Healing, Knowledge, Plant
Favoured Weapon: Longsword
Favoured Race: Elves

MORADIN of Arcadia
Stonefather, King of the Mountain, Lord of Might
Lawful Neutral God of Earth
Domains: Earth, Law, Protection, Strength
Favoured Weapon: Warhammer
Favoured Race: Dwarves

BOCCOB of The Outlands
Lord of All Magics, Keeper of Wisdom, Sage of the Gods
Pure Neutral God of Magic
Domains: Knowledge, Luck, Magic, Trickery
Favoured Weapon: Quarterstaff
Favoured Race: Gnomes

OLIDAMMARA of Ysgard
Master of the Four Winds, The Eternal Wanderer, The Laughing Rogue
Chaotic Neutral God of Air
Domains: Air, Chaos, Luck, Travel
Favoured Weapon: Shortsword
Favoured Race: Halfling

WEE JAS of The Grey Waste
Queen of the Dead, Collector of Souls, Lady of Sorrow
Lawful Evil Goddess of Death
Domains: Death, Destruction, Magic, Trickery
Favoured Weapon: Dagger
Favoured Race: Undead

GRUUMSH of Gehenna
Lord of Flames, The Slayer, God of Battle
Neutral Evil God of Fire
Domains: Evil, Fire, Strength, War
Favoured Weapon: Spear
Favoured Race: Orcs

LOLTH of Pandemonium
The Dark Queen, Mistress of Poison, Lady of Shadows
Chaotic Evil Goddess of Darkness
Domains: Chaos, Death, Destruction, Evil
Favoured Weapon: Whip
Favoured Race: Drow

Then Dragonstar bought out its 12 generic gods which worked nicely so I added another 3 gods to my world to be discovered.

The Father------Light
The Lover-------Water
The Mother------Life
The Smith-------Earth
The Magus-------Magic
The Stormlord---Air
The Reaper------Death
The Warrior-----Fire
The Trickster---Darkness

The Judge-------Protection
The Merchant----Time/Luck
The Destroyer---Destruction

BAHAMUT of Celestia
The Protector, King of Justice, The Blessed One
Lawful Good God of Protection
Domains: Good, Healing, Protection, Strength
Favoured Weapon: Morningstar

CHRONEPSIS of Baator
The Watcher, Hand of Fate, The Keeper
True Neutral God of Time
Domains: Knowledge, Luck, Magic, Trickery
Favoured Weapon: Scythe

TIAMAT of The Abyss
The Destroyer, The Serpent Queen, The Many
Chaotic Evil Goddess of Destruction
Domains: Destruction, Evil, Trickery, War
Favoured Weapon: Flail

Dragonstar had this exact concept and worked it awesomely.
They had 12 gods but I can only remember some...
They had the Father, the Mother, the Warrior, the Stormlord, the Merchant, the Magus, the Destroyer, the Trickster.

My own world had 9 gods- 1 for each alignment; Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Light, Dark, Life, Death and Magic.

Vhailor looks to Marikel to give guidance towards what the next step might be.

Marikel places a finger over his lips and watches the others carefully for signs of danger, ready to run forward if needed.

Ah, Legacy of Fire... how we've missed you.

:-)

Marikel drops by The Killin' Ground in the Inner Quarter, his disapproval of the place evident in the expression of determined tolerance forced on his face. Banny is sharing a drink (or three) in Kerst's memory with the presently-off-duty shift of the Patrol, Rabus Clarenston dead sober behind the bar with the latest duty roster at hand before he serves anyone in uniform. She lets the priest know that she returned the recovered Hopeknife to Brinya Kelver and that the teacher seemed somewhat comforted by the facts both that Kerst had been proven not to be a suicide as well as that he appears to have died heroically in the line of duty.

Marikel holds in his conflicting emotions at what Banny has to say but looks forlornly at the range of empty mugs about her. Before he leaves he thanks her and clasps her hand warmly between his own strong hands.

"Well?!" the dwarf barks with a crazed look in his eye. "I told you: it's one hundred fifty gold. Do you want it or not?" A thought appears to cross his mind, and his expression grows crafty and wheedling. "What do you say, boy? I'll let you have it for 130 if you'll promise to come back and tell me what it looks like when you use it."

A pained look crosses Braddon's face.

My wife and I are going to be millionaires.
We are saving 70% of our income and investing it.
We both have good jobs, have done the math and we can do this.
It will take us about a decade.

We have several unfair advantages-
We were born white middle class in a first world country.
We were raised to value education and both have degrees.
Our education was mostly freeish- we don't live in the US.
We don't have children and don't intend to have children.
We are both healthy.
We are both frugal.

Why aren't we millionaires yet?
Until the past few years I was working when I wanted at stuff I liked.
I was studying to get that degree.
Our jobs pay a lot less than a million dollars a year.
We are unable to borrow 10 million dollars to invest and turn into 12 million and pay back the 10 million plus 1 million interest.

What could stop us?
Some or all of our investments crash.
Losing our jobs.
Having children.
Getting seriously sick.
Divorce.

These are ordered from most to least likely.
The crash wouldn't stop us, just delay us... possibly until the next crash. And the next, and so on. If we can make it to a million, we should be able to diversify enough to avoid those sorts of things.

When we succeed it will be due to hard work and luck. Lots of luck.
But still better odds than the lottery.

Hiya. Sorry to get political, but 50 Shades actually has little to do with sex and BDSM and the 'soft erotica' tag is way off the mark.
I just read this review that makes me realise how dangerous the movie really is.
50 Shades Review

Yeah, we are supposed to be about for the next casino thing. Braddon could be talked into delaying. Or, quite simply, the GM says that the only ship we can get will leave Moonday and the problem is solved.

'Cause that's what Joana does- solve all our problems for us, right? ;-)

The past years are behind you if you stop and take a look,
The Bible will remind you, God, He cleft the devil's foot
To hear a mermaid singing you must listen to the sea,
To keep off envy's stinging you must listen not to 'me',
And what you find upon the wind may serve an honest mind,
But no man's trash that has been binned is treasure till it's mined.

Take care. :-D

Traps do damage and can only be removed by rogues. You can tie spells to them to do funky stuff. They do little, if anything, to further the story.

Haunts do damage and can be removed by anyone who fulfils the special condition. You can tie spells to them to do funky stuff. The special condition can be something that furthers the story.

I think haunts are superior to traps story wise, and inferior damage wise. The tension with haunts is knowing something will happen and that you can't stop it.

Haunts should take at least a round to manifest.
They should have a scary description of how they manifest.
They should be suppressible with positive energy once they manifest.
They should be always persistent.
They should be only destroyed by a special condition.

If players want to bypass the haunt, they pay the healing tax every time they do. And it affects them multiple times. Otherwise, they go off somewhere else, find the story condition required and use that to defeat the haunt, with little extra expenditure of resources.

Detection should be a non issue. The haunts shouldn't be able to be detected until they manifest. The only way you should be able to find out about one is rumour, hearsay, or some other forewarning.

The haunt manifests. Party gets actions. Haunt attacks.
Give it an initiative of 0 if you have to. It appears as its action. Characters respond by either fleeing and taking no damage, or by fighting it. If the latter, they can only hurt it with positive energy and it attacks them every single round until they flee, suppress it or destroy it.

This is particularly apt for PFS, where combat is almost always an option for bypassing an encounter, but rarely the best option.

Lastly, and this is being stated rhetorically, but you don't have to use them if you don't like them.

LOL. The answer to the thread on how to use Haunts in Carrion Crown is "Don't!"

My wife GMed us through the Haunting of Harrowstone. She hated the rules for haunts. She wanted to be a good GM and she read the rules for haunts and checked the forums and tried so hard. She's an actual lawyer and still couldn't piece together the rules. Ultimately we did what we always do- we rolled a d20 when we thought it would help.

After that, we had an awesome time.
The scorching ray trap almost killed one PC. We managed to save him and we avoided that area afterwards. The burning brands- another trap, more damage.

But Father Charlatan- that was awesome!!!

Why did Father Charlatan work sooooo well!!??
Because it didn't trigger immediately.
Because we knew something was wrong with our Sorcerer but we didn't know what. The GM said we could see Father Charlatan behind the Sorcerer every time my Paladin used detect evil. And with the Sorcerer being a halfing, that just added creepy and disturbing child abuse issues, all put there by our imaginations, because the GM didn't reveal much at all. She just smiled quietly and answered our questions. We fled the dungeon with our Sorcerer and tried to fix him. It took ages. We even gave up for a session or two and returned to Harrowstone to slaughter more undead. Eventually, the Oracle had an idea and we took the Sorcerer to the church. He explained his idea to us.
The Sorcerer has never been hurt!
We all looked on sceptically. He got the sorcerer's permission.
Then stabbed him with a dagger.
"I rolled a 3...+2 strength damage."
"You... you're adding strength?"
"I want to make sure it works."
"You... you're adding strength?"
We almost died with laughter. Then, as per the rules, the GM took the player outside and the tension flooded back in and rose to new heights.

The GM tried to follow the haunt rules, but they just got in the way, so we mostly ignored them.
"Can I lay on hands the haunt?"
"Umm, sure, roll a d20. Make it a touch attack or somesuch."
"What does he do?"
"He thrashes about some more?"
"I detect evil. What do I see?"
"Chains. Strangling him."
"Try some holy water. A symbol. Cures. Anything."
The battle was intense and memorable. I don't think we'd found the haunt siphons at that point otherwise we would have used one and mayhaps that brilliant piece of story would instead have been a footnote of "Yeah, whatever, it dies."

My long winded point?
Haunts are a brilliant concept. The mechanics are terrible.
Just like traps, they detract from the game when used poorly. But, when used well, they add so very much more.
Because the haunts are plot and story based, they need less rules, not more. They are continuously compared to traps, but instead of using trap rules, or disease rules, or curse rules or any other already established and known rules, we made up new rules for haunts. And sadly, the idea has suffered because of that.

$0.02

"They're sharing a drink they call Loneliness, but it's better than drinking Alone."

"I've fallen in love for the first time and this time I know it's for real."

"As if I never noticed the way she brushed her hair back from her forehead."

I came in with Basic and 2nd edition. 3rd ed was a huge improvement except it went from 4 classes to 11.

Way back in the good ol' 2nd ed days, I rolled a fighter with 18/impressive strength. So I gave him a 2 handed sword to capitalize on this. That meant I couldn't afford decent armour, so I gave him hide armour, and lo, a Barbarian was born. Since that day, I can make pretty much any character I want to play using just the 4 core classes. With dozens of skills and hundreds of feats, it has never been easier to play the character you want to play. And all without 23 extra classes.

I loved 2nd ed having rangers, druids, bards and stuff as subclasses.

Swashbuckler? Put your fighter in a floppy hat.
Investigator? Max out your rogue's perception skills.
Witch? Play an elderly female wizard.
Druid? Give your cleric nature spells.

I understand I don't have to use any of the new classes.
I've certainly never needed any of them.

There's only one thing you need for a game based on imagination.
$0.02

:-D

I made a thing for my game-

Phylactery of Pharasma

Aura moderate necromancy; CL 10th
Slot headband; Price 20,000 gp; Weight —
Description
This item is a silver eight pointed star containing a small clear diamond at its centre. The star is affixed to a silken cord and tied around the forehead, worn so that the star sits upon the wearer’s brow. There is no mundane way to determine what function this item performs until it is placed on the brow of a deceased humanoid. The soul of the wearer of a Phylactery of Pharasma immediately returns to the deceased creature as if raise dead had been cast upon the subject. However, the subject does not gain two permanent negative levels and this effect is temporary until such time as the subject is actually raised or resurrected. Additionally, the clear diamond changes colour to match the wearer’s alignment as shown in the following table.

Lawful Good - White
Neutral Good - Blue
Chaotic Good - Green
Lawful Neutral - Yellow
Neutral - Grey
Chaotic Neutral - Orange
Lawful Evil - Purple
Neutral Evil - Red
Chaotic Evil - Black

Should the subject be slain again, their body crumbles to dust and dissipates and they can only be revived by a miracle, wish or similar magic. Should the phylactery of Pharasma be removed or destroyed (2 hit points, hardness 1, and damage reduction 5/slashing), the soul will depart the body once more, returning the subject to its dead condition.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, detect chaos, detect evil, detect good, detect law, raise dead, restoration; Cost 12,500 gp

In designing it-
I used White for purity, Black for corruption. (no surprises there)
I used blue for good and red for evil tying them to water and fire which I also link to Good and Evil and have standard game tropes.
I used Green for CG and life and nature.
I used Purple for LE mostly as an opposite to Green and for its closeness to red.
Grey for NN I used as an obvious balance of Black and White and for its lack of colour/alignment.
Yellow for LN and Orange for CN were somewhat arbitrary.
But I wanted to use the 3 primary colours, the 3 secondary colours, and the Black, White, Grey as my nine alignments.

I allow core rulebook, and some stuff from the APG. Everything else is case by case. I only bought APG because I found it going cheap.

Most banned would have to be Ultimate Magic.

Whatever happened to using personality to make characters different? Is every rulebook beyond Core saying Core doesn't have enough options? 500 pages of rules and you can't realise your dream character? Please!

There's always risk with random dice rolls, but many people think that risk lies in rolling poor stats, in which case rerolls may or may not be allowed. Risk also lies in someone getting high rolls and dominating the party with awesome stats.

The simple fact of the matter is that using a random method, someone will roll better than the rest of the party, and someone will roll worse. If you're going to give rerolls to try and give everyone similar stat values, you may as well just cut to the chase and assign a point buy method.

In Riddleport there didst arrive a man,
Yet not a man, a boy of twenty two,
All swagger and bravado yet he knew,
He didn't know the dangers that he ran.
But Desna favoured Braddon with employ,
A man who knew the layout of the land,
A man who would not settle to be banned,
Had uses for a cocky half-elf boy.
Now Braddon runs between the lords of crime,
A happy pawn for players of the game,
Collecting points of infamy and fame,
He'll soon be rich or dead beore his time.
And he shall want for nothing whilst he's paid,
Except with Samaritha to get laid.

:-)

I generally agree with this, though would now propose ...

1. If in a settlement for several days doing nothing except maybe trade and craft the "influence" of the settlement gradually moves you towards that settlements alignment.

2. If you are randomly wandering the wilderness doing nothing but maybe gather and explore you "go wild" and your alignment gradually moves towards true neutral.

Could be interesting. You could make the argument that by being part of that society then you are actively pushing its agenda. But I disagree.

I think alignments should be worked at. They each should have their own rewards and penalties. The only 'free' alignment should be True Neutral.

There's groans all around the table as she KNOWS she's walking into a trap OOCly, but her character thinks the coast is clear. She sucks it up and takes it though,

See, for someone playing in character I would have moved heaven and earth to save that PC. The PC who rolls the 1 and decides they've forgotten something at the back of the party- that's when the 3 crossbow bolts and the sneak attack are suddenly behind the party too. :-)

ummm- doesn't clone read... "If the original individual has been slain, its soul immediately transfers to the clone, creating a replacement (provided that the soul is free and willing to return)."

That said- I am totally against her being a clone - all this does is justify the rogue's actions.
Firstly- why does he not want the other players told? If they're good roleplayers, they can handle it, and that info won't be transferred to the characters. Sounds like he knows he's making trouble...

Secondly- These characters are 18th level. Let him proceed with the plan. The other characters can just ask the Gods what happened. The other PCs can, and should, find out what happened.

Thirdly- They should be unable to complete the climax of the game without the sorceress. Let them figure out how to get her back.

Most importantly- Your job is to make the game FUN!!!! Remind the players of this. And if it comes down to US vs THEM, do what would be the most fun for the most players (include yourself in those numbers). If the only person who would get fun from the death of the Sorceress is the rogue, don't let him. Tell him you have to make the game fun for everyone, and not just him.

Pryllin wrote:

I think letting crafting change WBL for a new character undermines this message.

Then suggest a way for characters to use crafting feats while maintaining the WBL standards, yet doesn't result in them receiving less treasure overall than a character without a crafting feat.

Once the game has started, crafting feats should start breaking WBL. That's what they're there for. The party can wait a week while the crafter crafts, or the adventure pushes them along and they have to make do. The crafter farms out their skills to the party, borrows money from them to craft certain items, and generally the whole party benefits. Or the crafter keeps it to themselves and has to find time and capital away from adventuring. Like any other feat, its usefulness is determined by the game environment.

Before play, I think all new characters should have equal WBL. Especially if they're all equal point buy characters. Before play, the Cleric was given the holy relic of the Church, the Fighter defeated the Monster for its loot, the Rogue "won it in a game of dice" and the Wizard lovingly crafted the item.
They should all have the same WBL. Why should the crafter get more?
Is there any other feat that kicks in *before* a character enters play?

Definitely Splinterwall.
Splinter can be a noun or verb and has multiple meanings. The wall can be obstacles, defence or divides. So much potential.

I assume the 3 factions will generally be of opposing alignments (LE, NG, CN?) though it will be interesting to see how and if alignments even work.

The area of play is huge. Perhaps even too huge. With an initial 4500 players, that's an average of less than 18 players per hex. Obviously players will be mainly based from the 3 starting areas, meaning many hexes will be empty of players a lot of the time. Of course, this will all change as new players arrive, but it'll need a lot of players to become cramped. 1 square kilometer is pretty big: 1,000,000 square meters. You can easily fit 10,000 people there and give each one their own huge 10m x 10m house.

Firstly, the caster essentially misses the first round of combat because his spell doesn't go off until just before his next action. An entire round almost passing before the spell happens would diminish reactive spells, and could easily be the difference between life and death with healing spells.
Secondly, any movement beyond a 5' step stops the caster from being able to cast.
Thirdly, all damage inflicted will result in the caster having to make a concentration check DC 15 + the damage dealt. I think they may have to do that every time they get hit too.

Obviously, this will impact the strategies used against casters- no longer do you have to kill them, you just need to damage them each turn.
When you get beside them, they can't even retreat and cast taking an AoO. Stick them on difficult terrain and they can't even 5' step any more.

I think casters would become a lot less fun to play, IMHO.

$0.02

:-D