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[BlackFlyme]

Game night. Problem player bothered me about my class again, because any spellcasting class other than wizard suuuuuucks, apparently. Though I'm not too experienced with spellcasters, I would like to be able to play what I want without others jumping on top of me for my choices.

Fun game though, despite some bullshit here and there. Skipped more than an entire book in an adventure path by starting a straight-up mutiny on a ship. During some boarding action, everyone who boarded opted to ignore the ladders and ropes that connected the ships, and instead tried to jump across the gap.

And I got to see first-hand why evil player characters are generally discouraged. Dat murder boner. And everyone's generally chaotic, with no good players, so some of us were even encouraging the grimdark shenanigans. Hell, it's how we decided to name our (stolen) boat.

I doubt soaking a ship's sails in blood to colour them red is as practical a solution as just buying red sails.

[IcyTea31]

You (pl.) named a boat Grimdark Shenanigans? I think that tells a lot about how serious the game is, yet you're being called out on not playing top-tier, but having fun? Try creating an independently powerful lawful neutral character, and call the guards on the party whenever it gets unnecessarily evil. Seriously, nobody ever expects anyone to call law enforcement in any game ever; it's almost a shenanigan on its own.

[Frumple]

Pretty sure it wouldn't even work, for that matter. Blood doesn't really stay all that red for very long.

Also, neo, I just want to say that Lucha Judre would actually get me inside a synagogue, methinks. Those masks make basically everything better.

Spoiler: Case in point, spoilered for size (click to show/hide)

[BlackFlyme]

You (pl.) named a boat Grimdark Shenanigans? I think that tells a lot about how serious the game is, yet you're being called out on not playing top-tier, but having fun? Try creating an independently powerful lawful neutral character, and call the guards on the party whenever it gets unnecessarily evil. Seriously, nobody ever expects anyone to call law enforcement in any game ever; it's almost a shenanigan on its own.

Actually, we named it the Blood Eagle, after the psycho Lawful Evil wizard went and blood eagle'd Half of the crew after we mutinied. I just meant that if it weren't for the grimdark, we'd have no name for the ship.

We aren't a very serious group compared to others. Whatever is fun, we do. Though the adventure path is literally based on the PCs being pirates, and the entire region is devoid of anything resembling law enforcement.

Not much I can do, and being a necromantic type, I can't really call people out on it, since I'm also one of the ones playing puppets with corpses. At least I'm not as bad as the wizard, who is a dark, broody type necromancer with an intense hard-on for murder and violence. If I knew there would be two necromancers as players, I probably would have played another class, even though we are still two different classes, since there is more than a little bit of overlap between us, play-wise.

The skald gave the wizard the blood eagle idea, though skald only wanted to do it to the two cruel leaders of the ship we took over. Wizard did it to everyone who sided with the leaders, who immediately surrendered after we downed the leaders, and thus were harmless.

[Frumple]

At least I'm not as bad as the wizard, who is a dark, broody type necromancer with an intense hard-on for murder and violence.

... is, uh. That being a necromancer. How literal...?

[BlackFlyme]

He enjoys blood a little too much. His character may be a necrophiliac, but I'm not certain. I know he's not above cannibalism, at least. He's a half-elf, too.

Made masturbation motions as a joke any time violence was mentioned. Was funny for maybe the first few times. Joke wore a little thin after a while.

We're still too low a level to actually create undead, however. Well, he is. We just gained a level, and my class progresses a little faster in some areas of casting, but I don't have the material components to create any. The GM doesn't allow you to cast from your wallet, so I have to wait until we get a chance to dock so I can buy a few hundred gold's worth in onyx gems. Which reminds me of a question I may ask over in the tabletop thread.

How do other groups handle material components for spells with a value attached to them? Do you hand-wave it, and allow the player to directly subtract the cost from their wealth, or do you make them stock their own materials? I know amounts less than one gold are generally waved off, as there are feats or items that can nullify that cost entirely.

[Spehss _]

He enjoys blood a little too much. His character may be a necrophiliac, but I'm not certain. I know he's not above cannibalism, at least. He's a half-elf, too.

Typical elf, being a cannibal.

 

[BlackFlyme]

I'm half-vampire, and I still wouldn't do that. Those corpses still have a use as potential servants.

Plus there's no benefit to it, other than to be grim. We aren't going to want for food.

[flame99]

He enjoys blood a little too much. His character may be a necrophiliac, but I'm not certain. I know he's not above cannibalism, at least. He's a half-elf, too.

Made masturbation motions as a joke any time violence was mentioned. Was funny for maybe the first few times. Joke wore a little thin after a while.

We're still too low a level to actually create undead, however. Well, he is. We just gained a level, and my class progresses a little faster in some areas of casting, but I don't have the material components to create any. The GM doesn't allow you to cast from your wallet, so I have to wait until we get a chance to dock so I can buy a few hundred gold's worth in onyx gems. Which reminds me of a question I may ask over in the tabletop thread.

How do other groups handle material components for spells with a value attached to them? Do you hand-wave it, and allow the player to directly subtract the cost from their wealth, or do you make them stock their own materials? I know amounts less than one gold are generally waved off, as there are feats or items that can nullify that cost entirely.

How I usually handle it is subtracting the cost when the player prepares it, provided they could reasonably get that wherever they are. Otherwise, they can't prepare the spell unless they bought extra materials with them.

[BlackFlyme]

That could work, though with animating dead the cost is variable depending on the hit-dice or level that the creature had. It's 25 gold per hit-die/level.

Plus my class doesn't prepare spells. I just regain my used slots after I rest.

The DM was nice enough to throw me a bone and let us find some onyxes as part of our plunder, but it was too late for me to use them, since the game ended shortly after. Me and the wizard split the gems, and I also bought a couple off of him, since he had gotten some well ahead of time.

Now I have "onyxes" written in my equipment, with the total value of gems written next to it.

[flame99]

Hrm...I think there I would track onyxes as items, and just removing the correct number of them when the spell is cast. For your character, the same could be used for all spells with material costs, but that might become cumbersome. Maybe allowing for retroactive payment for the items provided you have, at some recent point, been to a place you could get them from?

[BlackFlyme]

Generally, materials costing less than one gold piece are handwaved, as material component pouches are incredibly cheap, and have an indeterminate amount of uses. That and there are feats that can ignore an amount of materials cost, such as eschew materials.

I'm not that experienced with spellcasters, and was thinking that component cost could just be pulled directly from my wealth, as I've witnessed spells that do take your money directly, and assumed that was the norm.

Though I've stocked enough to last me for up to twenty hit-die worth of undead. Hopefully that will last me, though I'm still too low a level to get variant zombies or skeletons, let alone stronger types of undead. I may put off animating anything until I can at least make a bloody skeleton, as those don't die as easily.

[flame99]

Yeah, that's how cheap materials are handled. But I've never really considered how to handle expensive materials for things like clerics or favored souls (I'm assuming you're playing one of those two).

[BlackFlyme]

I should specify that this is Pathfinder. I'm playing an oracle, which is a divine caster. They get a curse and a mystery.

The curse is a weakness that grants benefits as you level, while the mystery can grant a number of 'revelations', which are benefits of your choosing at certain levels, with differing options depending on the mystery you have chosen. I was allowed to choose Juju as my mystery, which some feel is overpowered.

My first revelation was to be able to control 50% more hit-die of undead than normal (6 per level, compared to 4), and my second was to get command undead as a free feat, along with the ability to channel negative energy to use the feat.

Divine casters get a few spells earlier than arcane, I've noticed. A few party members cried bullshit when I tried (and failed) to animate a corpse in combat. I asked about casting from my gold, but was told that only sorcerers can do that.

I looked at the sorcerer block, and they cannot.

[Bohandas]

It just depends on how the game presents its narrative and how the gameplay is.

Think back to my Rant about "The Purge"

In that movie the whole "It could actually happen" day where all crime is legal is sort of a scary concept and the movie alludes to it being a cover for class warfare and things like that.

I think it's actually just a knockoff of the Powerpuff Girls episode where Princess Morbucks bribes the mayor into making crime legal