First Immortals Gaming Session

Hi Ltheb dude!

Ltheb Silverfrond said:

U_K!
Any guidelines as to how often is using wish for self gain is "frivolous?" (Like x times a week based on number of WP?

Click to expand...

See my previous post.

Recap: the deity should always need to expend XP/QP unless the wish is granted (whereby the wisher takes the XP cost).

...and no the deity can't get a mortal servant to expend the XP but still wish for something the deity wants.

Ltheb Silverfrond said:

A deities with little or no worshippers (Tutelar, or a Highlander-esque strategy for divinity) wouldn't seem to have as much of a restriction here as a Deity who gains all their quintessence from worshippers. (A good strategy early-divinity, but Sloooooow once you hit cosmic levels of power. Better make the entire universe your body of worshippers. )

Which reminds me, any ETA on the Resonance rules? (My players think its funny that you can do things Highlander style, and it works much better than being a kind and loving god).

Click to expand...

Once I get Chapter 3 completed I will work back through the missing parts of the text while I put together the appendices. So you won't see it in the next update (Tuesday/Wednesday) but hopefully the one after that.

Ltheb Silverfrond said:

It's cool to see someone got a game going. Its hilarious an Orichalcum Guardian was felled by a 1st level spell. (A well placed spell, but a weak one none the less)

Click to expand...

Obviously its own gravity acted against it in a very drammatic fashion.

Hey paradox matey!

Thanks for posting some details.

What happens to a Tlin that eats Ioun Stones?

How have you found running an evil PC party? You have all those cool angels now to fight as enemies!

Upper_Krust said:

Yes I just read over my PHB. I'm a tad uncomfortable with the idea.

Click to expand...

I feel as you do on that point. I don't allow true resurrection or the others to bring back outsiders (other than native outsiders like 20th-level monks).

Hey Krust, would you mind mentioning in the IH itself that you suggest that Spell Like Abilities still factor in XP costs, but those costs can be paid by petitioners if the use is on the petitioner's behalf?

Indeed; the standard rule is that any SLA, even wish, has no components, including XP components.

Also, are you equating one XP to one point of Quintessence?

Upper_Krust said:

What happens to a Tlin that eats Ioun Stones?

Click to expand...

Nothing special. Crystalloids just eat minerals; they don't gain anything but sustenance from doing so. If an Ioun Stone is eaten, then the object holding its magical matrix together is destroyed, so the magic dissipates. Or anyway that's what I'd have happen. In Tlin's particular case, he has means of avoiding the need for food, so he won't be the one to test it.

Upper_Krust said:

How have you found running an evil PC party? You have all those cool angels now to fight as enemies!

Click to expand...

I haven't used any angels yet, but yes, I could go hog-wild on the PCs with the angels in the Epic Bestiary and elsewhere if I came up with a good in-plot reason. The fact of the matter is, the PCs have been pretty good at (a) covering their tracks, and (b) skipping and jumping all over the world via Teleport after Teleport- so the investigations into their crimes that I've been considering behind the scenes have yet to produce enough information for somebody to track them down and start a fight over it. And now, with the advent of the Deal, they actually have a measure of divine sanction, so any divine force going after them now risks direct conflict with Nexus and His forces- though it is admittedly only a risk, since Nexus is expecting to get the soul owed to Him sooner or later.

But mainly, it's been similar to running a Good party this time around, since the PCs have been beset by several rather momentous events (including being on the forefront of learning about the invasion of Epic dragons and exactly what that could mean for the world)- so they're sticking closely together due to enlightened self-interest in addition to working rather well as a team. The "self-interest" part is, of course, because there are enough nasty things out to get them now that breaking up the party would make them all a lot weaker in the face of enemies they know they have but not with any details, and of course that's just not smart.

Right now I'm actually running them through a boosted modification (meaning, I increased the HD/CRs of the opposition as well as the number of Archomentals involved) of Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil- and believe me, running an Evil party through that makes for some very interesting plot points! The salient excuse for getting them to do this is that the imprisoned entity- not named in my setting, but something else more directly tied to the world's history- is actually an Anti-God, a being essentially made of anti-Quintessence, to relate it to your rules. Thus, the imprisoned entity stands in direct and obvious opposition to all of the world's true deities, Evil ones included. And since the party has three members directly linked to the deities (Rangers use Divine magic, after all) now, their chances of giving up on this are about as good as the chances of me winning $100 million in the lottery tomorrow (assuming I even play). It's been an interesting ride, to say the least!

Hi CRGreathouse mate!

CRGreathouse said:

I feel as you do on that point. I don't allow true resurrection or the others to bring back outsiders (other than native outsiders like 20th-level monks).

Click to expand...

I don't like the idea at all. To me Outsiders (Spirits*) are undead. The only way to restore their destroyed manifestations is to recreate them, which means spending an amount of quintessence equal to that originally possessed by the outsider.

*As opposed to mortals born on the outer planes, or monks as you say.

Hi guys!

Fieari said:

Hey Krust, would you mind mentioning in the IH itself that you suggest that Spell Like Abilities still factor in XP costs, but those costs can be paid by petitioners if the use is on the petitioner's behalf?

Click to expand...

Okay.

WarDragon said:

Indeed; the standard rule is that any SLA, even wish, has no components, including XP components.

Click to expand...

I'd set it up that you would need to take an XP or QP hit to cast spells with an XP component. Additionally you would have to spend 1/25th the GP cost in XP, for those with GP requirements (that wouldn't include the cost of initially learning the spell obviously).

WarDragon said:

Also, are you equating one XP to one point of Quintessence?

Click to expand...

I can't recall offhand whether I have a different rule in my magic folder. I think its 1 XP = 1 QP.

But I am sure there is more to the relationship than that.

Upper Krust, you really have to be explicit about these things. You have all these assumptions about high level gaming that you just sort of assume go unspoken, but they cannot go unspoken if they're important. That Wish thing? If you don't write it in the rules, then you're just making stuff up; you're constructing a formal logic when you design this sort of crunch-heavy game, and what you don't include in the written rules exists outside that logic as a bug.

Hiya mate!

Anabstercorian said:

Upper Krust, you really have to be explicit about these things. You have all these assumptions about high level gaming that you just sort of assume go unspoken, but they cannot go unspoken if they're important. That Wish thing? If you don't write it in the rules, then you're just making stuff up; you're constructing a formal logic when you design this sort of crunch-heavy game, and what you don't include in the written rules exists outside that logic as a bug.

Click to expand...

I would have been covering the 'wish thing' in Grimoire.

I can't post everything in every book.

Do I post it in Ascension, or in Grimoire (advice on dealing with spells), or Chronicle (epic campaign advice in general)...?

Such things are not always clear cut.