Another Immortals Handbook thread

[Sledge]

Okay looking at the pics I really like them. Slight problem with the scale on the orichalcum golem (twice man-height) unless the little guy is a halfling. As for the omnimental being black, technically adding all the colours will not make black. In art adding extra pigment (which absorbs spectrums of light) will reduce the brightness of the colours, so that adding lots of colours together approaches black. However if you are using light (like a prism making a rainbow) you will get white when you add all the colours of light together.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey U_K!

Hello again matey!

I'm a devoted groupie at this point.

I appreciate the love dude.

It's recognizable but original. I like how the faceplate has a more "templar-esque" look to it and the background is quite good.

I sort of wimped out there, I sort of wanted to have the Immortals Handbook logo as the visor shape (a Teutonic Cross before you ask, the reason being it looks like a combined upper case I and H in a way).

The right arm definitely appears to be cooling after the plasma blast (if not warming up for a blast).

All my initial sketches for that golem had it flat-footed firing a plasma blast, but generally I prefer a more dynamic image, helps divert attention from the shoddy approach to detail.

I love what you've done with the ears.

Overall it looks much more diabolical (in the general sense I mean, not the planar sense necessarily). Well done.

Thanks. I always wanted a humanoid monster that had full size wings growing from its head. I suppose this is something of a compromise. The original monster looked too friendly, so I hunted about looking for ideas that would make him a bit more menacing.

Honestly (no flattery) the art of yours that I've seen is better than what I've seen in most of the d20 line and most rpg products generally. It's not something that's going to be a problem for you and in fact I would venture that many of your readers would applaud it (although you are your harshest critic). However, we should keep in mind that you are tackling some difficult subject matter. Bottom line is that I really like what I see.

I'd just be happy to get by without totally embarassing myself. But I suppose the main thing is whether people like it or not.

I did notice the church window silhouettes and like the idea as a trademark of sort.

I have all these really bizarre chapter title page illustration ideas that incorporate the symbol in some way, like a devils horns or an angels wings or even turned on its side like bullets being loaded into an automatic pistol (for the Gods vs. Modern chapter)...but I am just not sure I can pull off the idea.

Good like with the release of Volume I of the Bestiary!

Thanks dude.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hiya mate!

I like the pictures a lot! Having a "church window" is a nice touch.

I have a question about items and creatures made out of Orichalcum. Wouldn't they be so heavy that normal floors would be unable to support them? If someone has an orichalcum suit of armor, wouldn't they sink into the soil like a normal person sinks into snow? Unless they have anti-gravity properties, that is.

Sort of. Few non-cosmics could wield an item made of pure orichalcum, most of those beings have the innate power of flight/air walking, which is something I have given the revised orichalcum golem. Such beings could also initiate earthquakes merely by stepping on the ground (as I was trying to show the beginnings of a tremor in the illustration).

I was thinking about the omnimentals you mention in the bestiary.

Do I actually mention the word omnimental in the bestiary I wonder?

In a sense people are omnimentals; we breath (air), drink and have liquids flowing inside us (water), produce body heat (fire) and are basically solid, especially our bones (earth).

So I think that omnimentals should be basically humanoid in form. To emphasize the "body" aspect of them, as opposed to the intellectual and spiritual, they should lack a head. Eyes and mouth and so on could be on their torso. Kinda like a four armed star fish. The lack of a head would give them a "fourness" suited for a creature made from the four elements, while people have a "fiveness" to them (think of the human form drawn in a pentacle).

Or maybe like a rose cross lamen.

As for color, your suggestion that they should be black (maybe an oily black) sounds good. As you say, all colors mixed together make black. And it's an appropriate color for the eldest omnimental whose common name is "Sin." I still don't like the esoteric name, but I can't think of a better alternative. The greek work for sin is "hamartia" but that doesn't sound right.

I like the colour to put the tar into Elementar.

...sometimes you would almost think I had put some thought into these things.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey Anabstercorian matey!

Upper Krust, I know I've been dumping a lot of fairly cruel barbs on you lately

That last one was good, I give you that. As long as they are funny or poignant I don't mind.

- and don't think for a second I'm going to stop, you ditsy cur

Perish the thought.

- but I think your art is quite nice.

Well it should be given the time I've taken to finish it.

Do try to finish your work - I'm not going to buy your new bestiary until you release the new epic level CHARACTER content, but once I have the tools I need to use the creatures you're providing, you can be sure I'll snap em' up.

Okeydoke.

Now get back to work! *whipsnap*

Slave driver!

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey Sledge mate!

Okay looking at the pics I really like them.

Thanks.

I reckon if I redid all the illustrations I could probably make them all pretty decent...though I imagine most people wouldn't enjoy the wait so I guess we are stuck with whats there.

Slight problem with the scale on the orichalcum golem (twice man-height) unless the little guy is a halfling.

Technically they are actually meant to be 14 feet tall (as tall as two tall men) and very stocky, but I could have made the opponent a touch bigger I suppose.

*cough* I mean he was meant to be a halfling paladin from the start.

As for the omnimental being black, technically adding all the colours will not make black. In art adding extra pigment (which absorbs spectrums of light) will reduce the brightness of the colours, so that adding lots of colours together approaches black. However if you are using light (like a prism making a rainbow) you will get white when you add all the colours of light together.

Evil oily tar beastie.

 

[Ulitharid_Lord]

I just saw the art preview. Impressive. I especially like the Cogent.

BTW: When's the bestiary coming out?

 

[Anabstercorian]

One interesting thing I rather like about these creatures is how far from generic they are. I toyed with the idea about converting them to Exalted, but I realized that most of them are too tightly connected to their implied setting to easily fit outside of it. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but most likely it's just that Exalted has a really weird cosmology.

 

[Anabstercorian]

I just saw the art preview. Impressive. I especially like the Cogent.

BTW: When's the bestiary coming out?

What a nonsensical concept. Products don't "come out". They merely fester in production eternally.

 

[Cheiromancer]

Do I actually mention the word omnimental in the bestiary I wonder?

My mistake. You just call it the eldest elemental.

...starfish.

Or maybe like a rose cross lamen.

Nah, it couldn't walk around then. It would only just stand/lay there.

I like the colour to put the tar into Elementar.

...sometimes you would almost think I had put some thought into these things.

Is Old Night going to be a character in the IH too?

 

[Pssthpok]

UK, I'm having trouble understanding the relationship between density and Strength.

While I've found that one can multiply a material's density ratio to water by water's density ratio to flesh (0.83) in order to discern its increase in weight (i.e. gold [19.3 times the density of water] times 0.83 weighs in at roughly 16 [16.02 to be exact] times an equal volume of flesh and bone), I'm not sure how you come to the modifiers to Strength that you do.

You say that the Strength-to-weight formula can be reversed, but you never reveal the formula nor explain the relationships between density and strength any more than your table shows. Furthermore, it seems like table 1-5 and 1-6 in the Preview are not consistant. One shows a +10 bonus to Strength equalling a x2.82 increase in weight while the other shows a x2.9 increase in weight for the same increase in Strength. Furthermore still, on one hand you say that every +20 bonus to Strength equals a x8 increase in weight - so why does gold (x16 weight increase) only have a +26 to Strength? Shouldn't it be +40?

Could you shed any light on this? I think I'm just missing something otherwise obvious. I'm interested in materials that are heavier than steel and gold but not as astronomically as orichalcum and ran into these snags when trying to distill your density rules into formulae.