House of Ainsley: Out-of-Character Discussion

And yes, i kniw i've been leaving you hanging but that was a sub par post and im sorry. I haven't done this for a while now. Still getting back in the groove, lol ^.^

Hey, I'm just glad that you're back. I see that you came back yesterday, too.

Sorry if I've been a bit delayed here, folks; there's just been a lot of yard work, home improvement work, a recently deceased laundry machine and a bunch of drama involving my sister and our parents on my end. The good news is that my manager let me have tomorrow off (if only so he could put me to work on Monday instead). So I'll be getting back to work on this game then. I still have to figure out exactly how many rounds Karnoz has before the town guards show up at the brick factory, too.

I'm still hoping to work on doodling up the Ainsley family tree some more, too. How do you like the new timeline, by the way?

Also, congrats on getting your big time chef toque, Wraith! So this means that you're no longer a humble commis and that you're going to be working with a traditional kitchen crew, with a chef de cuisine, a sous chef and everything else that I learned from watching Ratatouille?



And speaking of your newfound chefdom, you never did show us that pic of your fancy chef knives....

Haha thats a great movie. I will upload the piccy soonish :-)

Yeah, I figured that you, of all people, had probably seen Ratatouille. So was Colette on the level about everything that she taught Linguini there? "Messy apron, clean sleeves" and all that?

And remember: soonish. I'm holding you to it.

Speaking of punctuality, I have another day off today. Let's see if I can get back to Karnoz and Sylvea after I get my eight hours of sleep. We're just about done cleaning out a large shed and converting it to a third chookhouse with a chicken run, so I'll have a place to keep my breeding couples or any chickens that get sick and need to be isolated. And if I can dig a rut and run a 110-volt power line out to the new shed, I can turn the loft into a heated chick pen so I won't have to raise the chicks inside (where they tend to stink up the house and fling chick poop across the room on an hourly basis) anymore. Things are looking up.

Also, remember: soonish, Wraith. Soonish!

I'm still having trouble getting my Gametable to start, alas. I don't have time to do much tonight anyway, but I'm rebooting my computer now. Maybe that'll do it.

Also, my Dad and I are finally building my new shower stall! Since my bathroom was an add-on to the house, it was built around the shower stall and the door's not big enough for any shower stall on the planet, we've had to gut the bathroom and haul the old stall out in pieces after cutting it up with a Sawz-All. What began as a single crack in the shower stall floor (before I moved in here) had grown to a web of cracks across the entire shower stall floor, resulting in plenty of give and sag everytime I set foot in there. I didn't feel the least bit safe taking showers in that crumbling 20-year-old hunk of junk, and trying to shout for someone to call an ambulance while I'm naked, dripping wet and lying in the mud underneath the house would not fit my definition of a good time. So it's about time that we got on it.

We'll be building the new stall piecemeal, of course, starting with the drain basin and working upward to the ceiling. We'll be taking the opportunity to install a rain shower and possibly a dome light, so that'll be a nice thing to have.

The wooden subfloor underneath the stall was all rotted out from all that leaking water, of course, so we had to cut all of that out and get some fresh plywood and lumber for a new subfloor. At least the floor supports are still solid. I had also been hearing critters scurrying in the walls (most likely having gotten in there through the water-rotted holes in the subfloor), and those turned out to be rats. I've already trapped and killed one of them, but I still hear at least one more scurrying around in there, and since that rat insists on pushing my glue trap out through the hole in the floor and defies my efforts to catch it, I've brought in my big gun: the cage trap that caught the first rat underneath the house. Here's hoping that the cage trap does the job, and here's hoping that this rat doesn't turn out to be a nursing female.

So for now, I'm sleeping out in the guest cabin until Dad and I finish my bathroom and clear all the bathroom stuff out of my bedroom. But at least I still have my computer in my living room. Bear with me, folks.

There. I'm almost done with the descriptions for the list of Cleric spells...just the descriptions, mind you. After that comes the post which breaks down all the spells' spell components. And after that comes the list of Cleric Domains and all the powers that come with them.

This is a pretty big job, let me tell you. And to think that Sorcerers and Wizards have an even bigger selection of spells than Clerics do. I am not looking forward to tackling the spell list for Sorcerers and Wizards...which is half the reason why I'm doing the list of Assassin spells next. The other half being, of course, that Karnoz might actually need that list sometime soon. Plus, it's a pretty short list, about as big as the Ranger spell list.

Okay, I may have enough time to add some more spell school notes to those brief descriptions, then I have to get back to justifying my paycheck. Stay tuned.

A lot of the stuff she said was on the level, but dont forget, this was a childrens movie
Unfortunately, i have a habit of having messy sleeves. Due to my build and height, i am foorced to wear mens large jackets, the womens were clearly made to fit supermodels. Haha.
And because i am shorter than thw average height of a bench top and because my sleeves are rolled up to within an inch of their lives, my sleeves (or makeshift cuffs) are constantly dragged onto messy surfaces
No bull, i have unremoveable stains on the INSIDES of my sleeve elbows....
Egads, the amount of bleach i go through each week....

I really like the cleric spell list. The components list will make my game far more enjoyable and I love having a resource to refer to, seeing as I don't have the books.

Thanks so much! Keep it up

Wraith wrote:

I really like the cleric spell list. The components list will make my game far more enjoyable and I love having a resource to refer to, seeing as I don't have the books.

Thanks so much! Keep it up

You're welcome, and will do.

The good thing about clerics is that they use their holy symbols for most of their spellcasting, which greatly cuts down on the need for material components. Of course, the downside to that is that, if that holy symbol ever gets lost, stolen or destroyed, the cleric suddenly loses the ability to cast about 80% or 90% of her spells. Good thing Sylvea has a spare, huh?

(And seeing as Evil deities have unholy symbols, and Neutral deities have holy symbols, but Evil clerics tend to use or create unholy stuff, does an Evil cleric serving a Neutral goddess wield a holy symbol or an unholy symbol? I'll have to read up on that one.)

There are still a fair few Cleric spells that eat up material components, of course, and that can get a bit pricey. If Sylvea ever grows powerful enough to restore the dead to life, it's going to cost her a pretty snazzy diamond every time she does so. So she should probably start stocking up on diamonds now, since you just know that Karnoz is going to get himself killed at some point....

Wraith wrote:

A lot of the stuff she said was on the level, but dont forget, this was a childrens movie
Unfortunately, i have a habit of having messy sleeves. Due to my build and height, i am foorced to wear mens large jackets, the womens were clearly made to fit supermodels. Haha.
And because i am shorter than thw average height of a bench top and because my sleeves are rolled up to within an inch of their lives, my sleeves (or makeshift cuffs) are constantly dragged onto messy surfaces
No bull, i have unremoveable stains on the INSIDES of my sleeve elbows....
Egads, the amount of bleach i go through each week....

Shorter than a bench top? Do you have to drag a stepstool around the kitchen with you too?

Well, I hope that your restaurant buys the staff new uniforms every year or two. As for Ratatouille, I thought that movie was plenty educational. For years after I bought Devil Bunny Needs a Ham back in 1998, I never really understood what a sous-chef is. Only after watching Ratatouille (and reading Wikipedia about it) did I finally figure out that the sous-chef is the kitchen's second-in-command, below the chef de cuisine and above the chef(s) de partie.

You chefs have a surprisingly intricate rank structure, apparently.

Horst (the German dude who "once killed a man...with this thumb") was apparently the sous-chef in that movie. I was also a bit surprised to learn that there are two types of ratatouille: the regular kind (ratatouille niçoise) and the quasi-Turkish kind that some guy came up with (confit byaldi). And did you notice that Anton Ego was served the quasi-Turkish kind, yet he was eating the regular kind as a boy in his flashback? I wonder if that difference was thrown in there intentionally.

I want to cook up some ratatouille now. I even got a recipe! Two of them, actually. For the regular kind. They disagree on whether or not I should add white onions. You're the professional chef. What would you advise?

Hi, Wraith! I see you!

Well, white onions make things a bit sweet. So if you want to sweeten up, use them. Brown onions are milder, and red (or spanish, your preference) will givenit a mediterranian feel.

Heres a tip. Add yellow squash for texture and colour.

The kitchen brigade is very loose, but you will usually have the head chef, the sous chef and any apprentices. Its usually because small businesses dont have the money to hire an entire brigade.

One of my recipes includes cubed yellow squash, as a matter of fact. Maybe that's why my Dad kept bluffing with "Yellow squash" when we were playing Apples to Apples after Mom and Dad and I read over my ratatouille recipes last week. True story.

I may go with the red onions, though; I'm not a big fan of sweet stuff, but I love salty and spicy foods. Thanks!

I suppose that I should probably reconcile this conversation with the topic at some point. Maybe I'll toss in a kitchen brigade of highly cultured ghoul chefs somewhere. Guess what the main course is.

(Also, Sylvea's ready. And remember to keep an eye on Ariean's little Hunger gauge in the Party thread. )

Quick question, can she eat ghouls or zombies? Does it need to be 'living' flesh?

Wraith wrote:

Quick question, can she eat ghouls or zombies? Does it need to be 'living' flesh?

Nope! Living, dead or even undead flesh will do. If it's made of meat (regardless of the freshness or quality of that meat), a ghoul can eat it.

This also means that a ghoul who's striving towards humanity, redemption and the Good end of the Alignment pool can just pop down to the nearest ghoul-friendly butcher shop and pick up some raw stew meat and a rack of ribs (while the ghouls who can't be bothered with morality can just go the usual route and devour a cow or a peasant here and there). Ghouls have a more demanding need to feed than vampires do, as ghouls must eat enough flesh to fill their stomachs every day, while vampires can get by with drinking blood every three days. But the good news is that the ghoul's dietary requirements are more forgiving than the vampire's needs are, and a ghoul might be able to feed in a decrepit old cemetery for years before anyone notices. But then, vampires also have the advantage that their live victims might actually survive a "meal" without losing an appendage or two. Which may or may not compensate for ghouls being able to wade through a river in broad daylight with priests throwing garlic bulbs at them. And so the vampire/ghoul rivalry goes on and on....

I guess that the "made of meat" thing applies to carrion crawlers and other Aberrations too, come to think of it.

Also, randomness! Randomness with some nasty cussin' and a nipple slip or two, so hide the kids. As if the gore showers weren't enough of a deterrent....





Don't you just love it when jerks get hosed?

(And yes, it's true. Ghouls are pretty handy at digging and excavating, thanks to their claws and their supernatural inclinations. After all, those graves aren't going to exhume themselves. Keep that in mind whenever there's a treasure to be dug up and Ariean's just standing around doing nothing. Be sure to toss her a meaty treat afterward. )

Also, if it seems like GD's been awfully quiet lately, it's because he apparently had some sort of internet trouble for a while there. And now he's in PM Land with me, fielding a bunch of questions about Karnoz's options. Because when you're a fugitive criminal stuck in a medieval brick factory with the city guards (whose number may include at least one of the mayor's very own handpicked elite watchmen) breaking down the front door, you don't want to leave anything to chance.

So what has Jazman been up to lately?

And now, everyone has gone quiet. I blame Yulemas.

But I've been playing a lot of Neverwinter Nights lately, and I'm grooming up a really nifty Bard/Assassin on the Forgotten Realms: Cormyr setting. Naturally, I thought back to Karnoz, to Rogues-cum-Assassins and to Assassins in general.

Like noted in this topic, there are five requisites to become an Assassin: Evil alignment, Hide 8, Move Silently 8, Disguise 4, and finding a trainer and doing a job for them. And as far as getting there, some of the basic Classes are faster than others, so picking the right starter Class helps...and it flavors the end result as well.

The fifth requisite there can be settled through roleplay and gameplay; anyone can find an Assassins' Guild or a master assassin, as long as they know where to look. So let's focus on the other four requisites, which depend purely on the game's mechanics.

The Evil requisite's not too hard to fulfill; out of the eleven basic Classes, the Paladin is the only one that's completely incompatible with the three Evil alignments. So pick something that's not a Paladin and make 'em Evil*. There you go.

* With regard to the Class' restrictions on ethical Alignment, of course. Monk/Assassins can only be Lawful Evil, Bard/Assassins and Barbarian/Assassins can't be Lawful Evil...I think that's it.

After that come the Skills. The Hide and Move Silently requisites are the most demanding, so you're going to want a Class that has both of those Skills as Class Skills. The Disguise skill is a lesser concern; given the Skill-ranks-per-Level limits, even if you cross-class Disguise, you'll be reaching Disguise 4 at the same time you reach Hide 8 and Move Silently 8: at Level 5.

So of the ten remaining basic Classes, four of them have both Hide and Move Silently as Class Skills: the Bard, the Monk, the Ranger and the Rogue. Bards and Rogues also get Disguise as a Class Skill, so they have the easiest climbs to assassinhood. But, as mentioned before, the Monks and the Rangers can keep up with them, even if they have to cross-class Disguise.

And even though the Tumble skill isn't a requisite, it and its Armor Class bonuses (when going on full defense) are very useful for Assassins and for these four starter Classes, seeing as they can't wear anything heavier than light armor without inviting some nasty penalties (and Monks can't even wear that much; good thing they get their mystic Wisdom bonus to AC). Bards, Monks and Rogues all get Tumble as a Class Skill; Rangers don't, but that's the price they pay for being able to dual-wield with absolute minimal penalties and for being able to talk animals into doing their fighting for them. So don't pity them.


So that leads to how these combinations complement each other, as I see it:

Bard/Assassin: A strong complement of arcane spells and the Bardic Music power can give Bard/Assassins an edge over the other varieties; while any Assassin can learn how to cast Darkness, only a Bard/Assassin can cast Locate Creature, enabling the Bard/Assassin to blind an entire gathering with impenetrable darkness, find his target in that darkness, kill his target without interference and escape, leaving the deed to be discovered after the darkness clears. Bard Spells such as Mage Armor, Haste and Keen Edge can shore up the Assassin's shortcomings and augment his strengths, Bardic Knowledge can tell the Assassin everything he needs to know about his quarry and Bardic Music, which can empower the Bard/Assassin in a pinch, becomes even nastier when the Assassin has allies; fear the band of Assassins with a Bard/Assassin in the middle.
• A good combination for an Assassin with a Phantom-of-the-Opera-styled theatrical flair, setting a grandiose stage, killing his victim in the final act and exiting Stage Left...and getting clean away with it. Also good for the mean-spirited Assassin who composes songs about killing his victims, then sings those songs while killing them, then composes stirring (or mocking) dirges for the victims' funerals afterward.

Monk/Assassin: Monks can excel at adventuring with a bare minimum of equipment, making Monk an ideal starter Class for Assassins who like to travel light. With their strong Saving Throws and resistance to Enchantment, Monk/Assassins make good mage killers. They can easily surmount walls and fences with Leap of the Clouds, their Monk Speed can see them in and out before the guards can be rallied, their Stunning Attack and Improved Trip abilities can quickly strip their targets of any bodyguards, and Deflect Arrows can frustrate any archers trying to kill the Monk/Assassin as he makes his escape.
• A good combination for the unstoppable "ninja assassin" who specializes at getting into fortresses and killing a target who is all too confident that his security measures will protect him from any assassination attempt. Also good for a brute who prefers to kill people with his bare hands, crushing throats, shattering sternums and snapping necks with ease.

Ranger/Assassin: In indoor areas, Ranger/Assassins are passable. But in the wilderness, they become stalking terrors which no other variety of Assassin can match. Only Evil Rangers can take their own kind as a Favored Enemy, a perk which can turn a Ranger/Assassin into an ideal manhunter. The Ranger's Favored Enemy and Track abilities, as well as the Ranger's Speak with Animals and Speak with Plants spells, can make Ranger/Assassins almost impossible to elude in the great outdoors, and their Animal Empathy can quickly summon up bestial allies to harry the target...or to distract the target while the Assassin makes his move. And then, Death Attack and Sneak Attack can combine with the Ranger's easy dual-wielding to quickly end the target's life in a grievous and blinding flurry of blows.
And unlike these three other basic Classes, Rangers can also wield any Martial weapon, with the option of passing on their dual-wielding to wield a mighty two-handed weapon. If you Sneak/Death Attack someone with your greatsword, they're going to feel it.
• A good combination for the "last resort" Assassin who specializes in hounding fugitives who have had head starts of several days. Also good for the horridly cruel and savage Assassin who prefers to paralyze his victims (with Death Attack), then leave them to be torn to pieces by wild animals.

Rogue/Assassin: Rogues get the most Skill Points out of all the Classes, which can make a Rogue (or a Rogue/Assassin) freeform and adaptable to a vast variety of situations. While the most powerful traps and the strongest locks can keep most other Assassins away, these measures may be but minor inconveniences--or perhaps even new weapons to be turned against his prey--to the Rogue/Assassin. On top of that, the Rogue's Sneak Attack, the Assassin's Sneak Attack and the Assassin's Death Attack (and the Blackguard's Sneak Attack, if you really want to mix things up) aren't exclusive to each other; they all stack. So the Rogue/Assassin's combination of heavy damage and the chance of either paralysis or instant death when striking from hiding can make for some very short--and very lethal--ambushes.
• Another good combination for the methodical killer who can break into well-defended fortresses and kill his quarry, albeit more slowly--and more infallibly--than the Monk/Assassin can. Also good for the "one-hit kill" Assassin and the "bag of tricks" Assassin who uses a vast variety of tools and methods to ensure that it's never the same kill twice.


Of course, every combination demands a balancing act. The Monk class, for example, pays off handsomely at the high Levels, and it carries the special restriction that once you cross-class out of Monk, you can't go back. So do you cross-class into Assassin at Level 15 and deny yourself five Levels of Assassin goodness (including all those bonus spells, +3 or higher bonuses to Saves versus poison and +5d6 Sneak Attack damage)? Or do you cross-class into Assassin early on and deny yourself a heap of Monk goodies, starting with Perfect Self at Level 20, which turns your Monk into an Outsider who's immune to pretty much anything? Not to mention Empty Body (a temporary ghost form) at Level 19, Ki Strike (which essentially turns your whole body into an increasingly powerful magic weapon) at Levels 10, 13 and 16, the instantly fatal Quivering Palm attack at Level 15, and so on....

The other combinations face similar balancing acts; Bards must forfeit many of their higher-level spells and their more powerful uses of Bardic Music to become Assassins. Rangers forfeit additional Favored Enemies, more powerful spells and the higher ranks of Animal Empathy (and with it, the ability to command more animals and more powerful animals). And Rogues must sacrifice their strongest Uncanny Dodge defenses and access to one or more Special Abilities, while gaining Skill Points only about half as quickly once they turn Assassin. But considering everything that Assassins can do (including killing things flat-out dead in one hit), quite a few players would consider these sacrifices to be entirely worthwhile.

Of course, these are just the four Classes which have the earliest access to the Assassin prestige class. If you want to turn a Wizard into an Assassin, go for it. It might take you a whopping 13 Levels in Wizard to get there, but you can do it.

Sorry ive been quiet sweetie, this is one of the busier times in the hosptality industry. I shall try to post soon :-)

Oh, you're fine. I understand. But you know, it has been quite a while since we heard from those GoldenDrakon and Spirit of the Tiger people, hasn't it?

(...or SEAMUS, or Shadow, or Jazman...*ahem*)

So how did you like that Tales from the Crypt episode?

Blah...

Okay, that's enough screwing around. How did y'all enjoy the holidays?

I should be picking back up with Karnoz tomorrow. And I'll be picking back up with the rest of you as soon as you pick back up with me. Comprendemos?

That's the best news I have heard in weeks!

The holidays were kinda blah. They were nice, nothing really special, but at least I was there with the family this year.

Done! And as you can see, I'm still tinkering around with those Height/Depth markers and trying to find the right arrangement which marks an object's or character's altitude without being too obtrusive. I'll roll out a few samples of those markers (with Gametable "swatches" for comparison) tomorrow and see what y'all think would work.

I was kind of hoping that the watchmen would have busted through those double doors before Karnoz made it to the window, but I still believe in letting the dice fall where they may (though with the occasional exception where the dice might be considered too merciless). So it looks like Karnoz is going to leave the watchmen (or at least that particular group of watchmen) in the dust.

My Chrimbus was better than last year's, I have to admit. Having my mother and my sister in Canton had much to do with that. Celebrate those little moments, right?

Hi, Wraith! Sorry if I missed you yesterday.

Might this perchance mean that you're dropping in more often now?

You know you shouldn't even ask... lol....