The General D&D thread

Now I want to play an Emiya Kiritsugu Expy as a Paladin with Oath of Treachery.

Who says evil means can't be used to good ends?

edited 20th Dec '16 12:06:51 AM by Cozzer

Iunno, the fact that Kiritsugu's canonically Lawful Neutral iirc?

Do you mean the same canon that asserts that Gilgamesh is Chaotic Good? :P (I'm talking about the character sheets I found around the Internet)

Well, that said I definitely agree that you can't say that Kiritsugu is Good. But he's definitely a "paladin" in a general sense, since the whole point of his life is following a well-intentioned code of conduct. I would allow for somebody like him to be a Paladin, as long as the player would promise me to make him a better team player than the original character. :P

But I hate alignent restrictions in general and would get rid of all of them, so I don't know if I count.

edited 20th Dec '16 2:06:06 PM by Cozzer

Gilgamesh is Chaotic Good: The Alignment for Servants also takes into account their legend, and in The Epic of Gilgamesh he's pretty clearly Chaotic Good (which means he's also the Trope Maker of that as well ). Gilgamesh's personality however, is according to Word of Nasu, is affected by the era in which he's summoned to. This is why he's a complete ass in Zero, whereas in Fate/EXTRA CCC and Fate/Grand Order he's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold (emphasis on the Jerk though).

That being said, almost all of the Servants in Fate's alignment is pretty spot on.

edited 20th Dec '16 2:19:45 PM by BlackSunNocturne

Huh, did not know that, but I'm not a follower of the Fate-series.

I do remember reading about regions having some affect on Servants, but only on their power, not their personality.

What is it about Japan that turns Gil into a damn near omnicidal asshole?

Japan did nothing to his personality, its the fact that he was summoned in the modern-day. Because of how the world is, the value of a human life is worth less than what it was in his time. Humanity had fallen a lot, in both technology and societal level, since Gil was a living breathing person^remember Gilgamesh has a personal flying machine that can match a fighter jet in speed, and it was apparently common in his day

Basically: Gil wants to kill most of humanity so the value of a human life will be back to what it once was, and those who survive would be "worthy" of his kingship (Yes, really). Since EXTRA CCC and Grand Order's world has already gone through a cataclysmic event, the value of a human life is back to what it once was.

Also, yes, summoning a Servant in their "home turf" would give them a Home Field Advantage because of Popularity Power. In Apocrypha, Vlad the Impaler (Lancer of Black) was summoned in Romania, near where he was born^note Vlad is one of Romania's BIGGEST national heroes. It took ALL of the Red Faction's servants to take him down after he went One-Winged Angel. Iirc, its canon that if Artoria or any of the members of Arthurian legend were summoned in the United Kingdom, they'd be able to basically curb-stomp a Holy Grail War.

edited 21st Dec '16 6:28:24 PM by BlackSunNocturne

Also, he's Evil incarnate in our modern view of morality, but back in his day his job was to protect humanity from even bigger and eviler creatures. He was Chaotic Good because he rebelled against evil gods, if I remember right. His alignment is Values Dissonance incarnate.

Eyup. No arguments there.^note Well, aside from his EXTRA CCC and Grand Order personalities. That's Jerk with a Heart of Gold Good Is Not Nice I mean, Values Dissonance seems to be relatively common in the Nasuverse when it comes to Servants.

Example: Vlad the Impaler in his EXTRA and Apocrypha incarnations (same Heroic Spirit, different versions) is Lawful Good and Lawful Neutral (respectively) for crying out loud, and the one in EXTRA is legitimately Ax-Crazy.

The weirdest case though is Sasaki Kojiro or the "Fake" Assassin from Fate/stay night. He's listed as Neutral Evil, but looking at everything he's done, he acts somewhere closer to True Neutral, Lawful Neutral, or Chaotic Neutral, as he doesn't really seem to fall into the description of Neutral Evil. That aside, considering the quote that he makes on his profile, his alignment as Neutral Evil seems to be based on his own view of himself, as opposed to what he should be.

edited 22nd Dec '16 10:25:39 AM by BlackSunNocturne

Well, I think it's a thing that would become an issue in any setting with time travel that has character from wildly different eras. When a person comes from a society where war is common, you can't expect them to hold life as sacred as it's held in a mostly peaceful society.

True that.

Though speaking of Values Dissonance, I'm having something like that in my homebrew world (it's 3.PF but hey). One of the races, the Vaikesh, are a mostly Lawful-alignmed race, and a Proud Soldier Race^note This essentially makes them the foil to Orcs in my world who have a.... very extreme distrust of inborn magic users (Sorcerers and Bloodragers for example). Their response to one of them is to... basically collar them, bind them, and magically silence them because they have a fear of them becoming possessed and sowing chaos amongst their race's lands^note This fear is justified, as about 500 years before the present in my setting several hundred Vaikeshi sorcerers were possessed by fiends and almost destroyed the Vaikesh empire. Other races, even Orcs, view this practice as barbaric and cruel. Vaikesh view it as a necessity.

Just a heads up, there IS a celestial warlock path. Seeker, I think it's called?

This thing is pure genius. Like the deck of many things, but infinitely less game breaking and a whole lot funnier. Perfect for games heavily influenced by Discworld or that don't otherwise take themselves too seriously.

Expelliarmus!

I mean, there's no way that can be overpowered, right? :P

Get equipped with: Unearthed Arcana: The Artificer.

I knew Wizards of the Coast was selling digital releases of old D&D editions, but I didn't they would be THIS far covering. Just a few moments ago, I saw that they released "Chainmail: Rules for Medieval Miniatures" on Drive Thru RPG. You know, the wargame book that you needed to play the original D&D.

edited 11th Jan '17 9:37:51 AM by DS9guy

I've never really understood the "point" of Artificer before, but looking at that UA it seems pretty clear now. I actually really want to play both of those subclasses at one point. It's also nice to see a class that uses INT as its base stat, as now in 5th Edition it seems to be the dump stat for anyone who's not a wizard.

One thing I'm wondering, though: for such a magic-based class fluff-wise the artificer has quite low-level spell slots, closer to Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster than even Ranger or Paladin. I understand it from a balance standpoint, it just seems a bit weird. I guess the magical knowledge is more ritualistic, as a lot of the class is focused around crafting magical items.

Question is there anyone here that would be interested in a online 5e game on Monday, Friday or Sunday?

(Who have not read or played the adventure Princes of the Apocalypse.)

I'm unfamiliar with that adventure, what level is it? And what would you want to play it on?

I Intend to use the Virtual tabletop map tool with Discord for chat.

Princes of the Apocalypse is for levels 1 to 15.

I played that one.

It went really off the rails though As someone who played it in campaign and afterwards had a chance to read it through, I can give you tips on things that it helps if you are aware of. That campaign is really easy to go off the rails in tpk-ish ways

I have pretty much memorized the book.

Its not case of memorization its case of... Well, if you are interested in conversing about it, we can continue in pm

edited 12th Jan '17 9:37:51 PM by SpookyMask

@Envyus: Trying to add that to the campaigns I am currently in would be... dumb.

I will advertise your game in the Trash Heap though, if you don't mind.

Thanks I would appropriate it. And sure I don't mind continuing talking over PM Spooky.

edited 12th Jan '17 10:14:29 PM by Envyus

I have advertised on Several sites so I am a bit surprised I have not gotten any takers.