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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Live Reactions & Discussion)

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A thread to discuss My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and the tie-in media.

All of the usual forum rules apply. In addition, please remember that the thread is discussing a kids' show, and it's primarily focused on the work itself, not the fanfic — in particular, we don't want to see lewdness creeping in.

     Original OP text 
I don't know WHAT the Hell happened (I blame shenanigans) but we're going to start from scratch. Post your feels for this awesome show again! Naow!

Edited by Mrph1 on Aug 26th 2024 at 10:24:26 AM

kegisak Element of Class Since: Feb, 2011 Relationship Status: In Lesbians with you
Element of Class
#60651: Mar 24th 2014 at 4:24:55 PM

Yeah, that's fair enough. I can do some looking into it and all that.

Or just hope I get some situations where sneaking around is more useful. I've been trying to see if you get a hit bonus for being stealthed. IF there is I might switch to a ranged build - in Pathfinder if you're more than 10 feet away when you come out of stealth to attack you can immediately go back into it, which would be useful.

Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.
Starscream759 Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: In denial
#60652: Mar 24th 2014 at 4:27:42 PM

@Dark Huh. Well I was drunk tonight and plus I feel like watching a few episodes of Adventure Time to make up for that.

"Transform and Roll out!" Optimus Prime
darkabomination Since: Mar, 2012
#60653: Mar 24th 2014 at 4:29:54 PM

Cool beans man!

Stupid American drinking laws, one more year, one more year.

edited 24th Mar '14 4:30:22 PM by darkabomination

Seraphem Since: Oct, 2009
#60654: Mar 24th 2014 at 4:38:43 PM

@Kagi, you don't get a bonus, but if you are stealthed and the enemy doesn't know where you are, they lose their DEX bonus to AC, so it is easier to hit them, plus sneak attack damage if you have the right feats. As to buffing your attacks, pretty much just equipment. higher bonuses on your weapons, buffing your attack stats. As a rogue.. what's your STR and DEX scores and are you using Weapon Finesse?

@ Dark, glad you are feeling better. It is amazing how bad stuff like that can hit you, and you never realize till it's start to go down.

edited 24th Mar '14 4:39:32 PM by Seraphem

Starscream759 Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: In denial
#60655: Mar 24th 2014 at 4:39:29 PM

@Dark I'll PM the reactions to you when I'm done.

"Transform and Roll out!" Optimus Prime
Enlong Court Dragon from The Underground Facility Since: May, 2011 Relationship Status: is commanded to— WANK!
Court Dragon
#60656: Mar 24th 2014 at 4:40:36 PM

Do you guys have any tips on the roleplaying portion? Do I just need to spend more time thinking about who my character is and working out his/her personality traits during construction, or what?

I have a message from another time...
Seraphem Since: Oct, 2009
IrishZombie Since: Dec, 2009
#60658: Mar 24th 2014 at 4:43:40 PM

See this is why you do the research. If you asked online for help, people could have showed you how to build a character that's really, really awesome at burning things. Heck, you can even burn things that are fire immune. You can do pretty much anything in 3.5.

It's sort of like the Monk trap. There is a way to play mystical unarmed martial arts masters in 3.5 but it is not Monk. It is Unarmed Sowrdsage, or possibly Tashaltora Psychic Warrior depending on your taste. The Monk class itself is a horrible newbie trap.

Well at the time, I was completely new to tabletop games, and games where you so completely build your own character in general. But I was and still am very much opposed to minmaxing.

I realize there's a big difference between that and what you suggest, but to me if a game gives you a strategy that it turns out is much less effective than something else that you might not want, then there's a problem, and a game that forces you to bend over backwards to make said obvious strategy work just leaves me feeling like I'm cheating.

Seraphem Since: Oct, 2009
#60659: Mar 24th 2014 at 4:46:44 PM

[up] Agree 100%. having to go through so many hoops, break out tales and go that into depth, just to be average.. means the game design is messed up in the first place. I care more about it for the story, not the mechanics. And chucking massive fireballs, battling out with brawn, all that.. is a better story to me then, Wizard found a loophole to invalidate the whole fight.

edited 24th Mar '14 4:47:43 PM by Seraphem

Wryte Since: Jul, 2010
#60660: Mar 24th 2014 at 4:49:41 PM

Which is exactly why I roll my eyes at the people who bitch about WoW and Diablo 3 being too dumbed down. :P

Sydxelia Are you into... Vinyl? from Cranberry World Since: Nov, 2010
Are you into... Vinyl?
#60661: Mar 24th 2014 at 4:50:07 PM

@ Dark: You're better off not drinking alcohol. It can make depression worse. Trust me, I know.

I put my friend in a coconut! He lives in my hat! Hey, come hang out!
storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
More like giant cherries
#60662: Mar 24th 2014 at 4:53:32 PM

Do you guys have any tips on the roleplaying portion? Do I just need to spend more time thinking about who my character is and working out his/her personality traits during construction, or what?

Sorry, I'm not particularly good at roleplaying. Luckily none of the groups I've been in have cared too much.

I realize there's a big difference between that and what you suggest, but to me if a game gives you a strategy that it turns out is much less effective than something else that you might not want, then there's a problem, and a game that forces you to bend over backwards to make said obvious strategy work just leaves me feeling like I'm cheating.

The thing is that a complex system with a wide variety of options is inevitably going to have some that are better than others, and restricting that has its own downsides (see 4ed). One of the things that makes 3.5 awesome is that it has rules for playing everything from a literal god to a dead peasant (no really, Commoner with the Corpse flaw).

I think the real failing of 3.5 is the trap options, the things that don't do what they claim to do, like Monk. That's a big problem and it mostly comes from basically Early-Installment Weirdness.

The funny thing is that 3.5 splatbooks actually got a lot more balanced as it went since the designers got better over time. But there's this common perception that core only is balanced and using splatbooks is munchkinism when actually, the PHB is the most imbalanced book in the game!

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play
kegisak Element of Class Since: Feb, 2011 Relationship Status: In Lesbians with you
Element of Class
#60663: Mar 24th 2014 at 4:56:23 PM

As to buffing your attacks, pretty much just equipment. higher bonuses on your weapons, buffing your attack stats. As a rogue.. what's your STR and DEX scores and are you using Weapon Finesse?

STR and DEX are 10 and 11 respectively, so I'm not using Weapon Finesse yet. I do plan on taking it when I can improve my dex, but at the moment it's not useful to me.

How do I get improvements on my weapons? And, how easy are they to get? My current plan involves speccing myself out for a specific weapon(Elven Curve Blade), but I'm planning on saving up for a masterwork one. If it's difficult to get weapon enhancements I'll probably trash the plan and just try to get a masterwork Shortsword as soon as I can, since I don't need to do anything specific to be able to use it.

Rogues do have the benefit of magic talents, but there's very little at 0th or 1rst level that's that helpful.

Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.
storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
More like giant cherries
#60664: Mar 24th 2014 at 4:59:35 PM

How do I get improvements on my weapons? And, how easy are they to get?

Well if you had a party Wizard, they'd be hilariously easy to get. Crafting in PF doesn't cost XP anymore and has no restrictions other than the item creation feats needed. So with 1 or 2 feats, you can basically double the party's WBL and act as their own personal Magic Mart.

That's what I tried to do for Sera's party back when I was playing.

Incidently, what level are you? What's the party composition?

edited 24th Mar '14 5:00:14 PM by storyyeller

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play
MetaFour AXTE INCAL AXTUCE MUN from A Place (Old Master)
AXTE INCAL AXTUCE MUN
#60665: Mar 24th 2014 at 5:00:06 PM

Tealove? I thought you died fighting the sockbomination.
That was Minty, not Tealove.

kegisak Element of Class Since: Feb, 2011 Relationship Status: In Lesbians with you
Element of Class
#60666: Mar 24th 2014 at 5:03:00 PM

Do you guys have any tips on the roleplaying portion? Do I just need to spend more time thinking about who my character is and working out his/her personality traits during construction, or what?

My writing professor in college got her start making campaigns for Dn D, so a lot of the writing advice I got from her is applicable.

A big part of it is motivation. Basically, everybody wants something at all times, so it's good to bear in mind what they want. There's also things like various hangups or major personality traits. Sometimes things will come up, sometimes they won't. Like, if your character is a womanizer it won't come up in combat, but when you're in pub he will probably chase the waitresses tail, some.

A lot of roleplaying will be derived from how the P Cs interact. For example, my last character was a half-orc Paladin who was raised in a nunnery, and was afraid of men. A lot of her behaviour was derived by being just really, really skeeved out by the guys in the party and trying to avoid them as much as possible. she was also deeply religious, so she spent a lot of time trying to convert people and the like. So she always had a desire(Spread her religion) and a hangup(doesn't like men) that informed a lot of her behaviour.

Basically during creation think of something significant for their origin that would give them a solid trait, and give them a sort of general objective that you can keep in mind a lot of the time. You can also base things on stats - my current character has so low a charisma and is so disgustingly evil that he simply has no filter and just says whatever terrible thing comes into his head, which usually makes him seem vain, egotistical, psychopathic and a bit stupid, despite actually having a very high INT.

Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.
storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
More like giant cherries
#60667: Mar 24th 2014 at 5:03:30 PM

You think Tealove would be interested in contributing to her fanfic?

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play
kegisak Element of Class Since: Feb, 2011 Relationship Status: In Lesbians with you
Element of Class
#60668: Mar 24th 2014 at 5:05:42 PM

@Story: I'm level two at the moment, but close to leveling up.

The mainstays of the party are myself, a L Vl 2 Wizard and a Lvl2 Cleric. We also have a Lvl1 Ranger and a Lvl1 Monk who appear less frequently though.

I didn't know Wizards can improve weapons, though. I should talk to the wizard's player about it. Goodness knows it would be useful.

Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.
storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
More like giant cherries
#60669: Mar 24th 2014 at 5:06:42 PM

He won't be able to do it until level 5. He can get Craft Wodnerous Item at level 3 though, and that gives you all the useful non-weapon magic items.

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play
Seraphem Since: Oct, 2009
#60670: Mar 24th 2014 at 5:10:05 PM

STR and DEX are 10 and 11 respectively,

There's you problem, abysmal starting stats. Yeah not much you can do when you get screwed with a bad stats like that.

Wizards need the Craft Magic Arms feat in order to do it, and need to be a certain caster level, know certain spells etc....

Past having that it's just money and time.

edited 24th Mar '14 5:10:31 PM by Seraphem

kegisak Element of Class Since: Feb, 2011 Relationship Status: In Lesbians with you
Element of Class
#60671: Mar 24th 2014 at 5:12:06 PM

Yeah... like I said, I have generally bad luck with rolls, and, well... roll for stats in order, no arguments no rerolls. My stats down the board are,

STR: 10

DEX: 11

CON: 11

WIS: 10

INT: 15

CHA: 4

So nothing that's gonna kill me, but... I took rogue because skills was really the only way I was gonna be useful. And we already had the spellcaster; two seemed redundant.

Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.
Seraphem Since: Oct, 2009
#60672: Mar 24th 2014 at 5:13:24 PM

... yeah the issue is just your GM's rule about making you have stats like that.... So, not much you can really do, especially at your level.

Wryte Since: Jul, 2010
#60673: Mar 24th 2014 at 5:16:05 PM

Oh, right. Duh. They're both similar shades of green, so I got confused.

Anyway, regarding the roleplaying portion of roleplaying, I'd be happy to chime in. Roleplaying is mostly just a combination of character creation and improv acting. The first step is to create a basic character outline - age, appearance, job, interests and personality, etc. - and then let those choices influence your reactions to what's going on around you. As you get more comfortable playing the character, you'll probably start adding more things to the character's profile; friends, enemies, quirks, habits, and so on, and let them start influencing your reactions, too. For this reason, one useful trick for beginners is to model your character pretty closely on either yourself, or an Archetypal Character, like a Genki Girl or Idiot Hero (just be careful not to pick one that's going to drive your co-players nuts having to put up with :P) that you have a lot of reference frames for how such a character would react in certain situations.

One big piece of advice, though: don't model yourself on the Ineffectual Loner, because while it's fun to fantasize about being that friggin' cool, they're a dime a dozen in any RP circle, and generally not that interesting. I once took part in a tavern RP where damn near all but two of us spent the entire time brooding over their drinks alone in their shadowy booths, while I and the other guy had a hilarious series of interactions based on a language/cultural barrier causing me to interpret all his attempts at friendly gestures as subtle threats, and responding in kind, which he missed the underlying significance of. XD

I'll be happy to go on if you have any more specific concerns or questions.

edited 24th Mar '14 5:18:04 PM by Wryte

JapaneseTeeth Existence Weighed Against Nonbeing from Meinong's jungle Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Mu
Existence Weighed Against Nonbeing
#60674: Mar 24th 2014 at 5:16:26 PM

@Enlong: In addition to what Keg said, you might want to look at this for stuff about developing characters. It's a writing guide that the fanfic thread has been working on and off for a while. The section isn't done yet, but it might help.

As for all the D&D stuff, I think it boils down to how good the GM is. Even if the mechanics are crap, a good GM can compensate for it.

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MetaFour AXTE INCAL AXTUCE MUN from A Place (Old Master)
AXTE INCAL AXTUCE MUN
#60675: Mar 24th 2014 at 5:19:26 PM

Did you guys have a date for the Pony RPG yet? I'd be interested in joining in. I do have a little bit of experience with tabletop games.


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