Archmage Joda wrote:So, setting aside the bard stuff for a period of time no less than this post, another dennism I've seen but don't know the story behind: what is this "giant frog" business?
If Chaos really is the opposite of sanity, then on a plane of Chaos, Giant Frog is the answer to every question (Slaadi all look like Giant Frogs).
So Giant Frog is just because the way to open a door on Limbo is Giant Frog, and the way to tell someone else you like them is also Giant Frog, and everything is Giant Frog.
Last edited by Kaelik on Sat Nov 05, 2011 11:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
Archmage Joda wrote:So, setting aside the bard stuff for a period of time no less than this post, another dennism I've seen but don't know the story behind: what is this "giant frog" business?
If Chaos really is the opposite of logic, then on a plane of Chaos, Giant Frog is the answer to every question (Slaadi all look like Giant Frogs).
So Giant Frog is just because the way to open a door on Limbo is Giant Frog, and the way to tell someone else you like them is also Giant Frog, and everything is Giant Frog.
It's also a joke based on the fact that the native inhabitants of Limbo are all giant frogs.
The law in its majestic equality forbids the rich as well as the poor from stealing bread, begging and sleeping under bridges.
-Anatole France
Mount Flamethrower on rear
Drive in reverse
Win Game.
-Josh Kablack
Archmage Joda wrote:So, setting aside the bard stuff for a period of time no less than this post, another dennism I've seen but don't know the story behind: what is this "giant frog" business?
If Chaos really is the opposite of logic, then on a plane of Chaos, Giant Frog is the answer to every question (Slaadi all look like Giant Frogs).
So Giant Frog is just because the way to open a door on Limbo is Giant Frog, and the way to tell someone else you like them is also Giant Frog, and everything is Giant Frog.
It's also a joke based on the fact that the native inhabitants of Limbo are all giant frogs.
Kaelik wrote:
If Chaos really is the opposite of logic, then on a plane of Chaos, Giant Frog is the answer to every question (Slaadi all look like Giant Frogs).
So Giant Frog is just because the way to open a door on Limbo is Giant Frog, and the way to tell someone else you like them is also Giant Frog, and everything is Giant Frog.
It's also a joke based on the fact that the native inhabitants of Limbo are all giant frogs.
?? Yes... that's why I said that.
They're all giant frogs!
The law in its majestic equality forbids the rich as well as the poor from stealing bread, begging and sleeping under bridges.
-Anatole France
Mount Flamethrower on rear
Drive in reverse
Win Game.
-Josh Kablack
Kaelik wrote:If Chaos really is the opposite of sanity, then on a plane of Chaos, Giant Frog is the answer to every question (Slaadi all look like Giant Frogs).
So Giant Frog is just because the way to open a door on Limbo is Giant Frog, and the way to tell someone else you like them is also Giant Frog, and everything is Giant Frog.
In Soviet Limbo, Giant Frog Giant Frog Giant Frog!
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
Turns out there's a canon reason for slaadi being giant frogs.
Once upon a time there were two slaad lords named Ygorl and Ssendam. Ygorl was a scythe-wielding grim reaper dude and Ssendam was a giant amoeba. At that time a slaad could be anything. In fact a new slaad could be born at any time as something better than an amoeba or a grim reaper dude. So Ygorl and Madness Backwards carved runes into the some big rock called the Spawning Stone and now all slaadi are born as giant frogs.
That kinda explains why advanced slaadi have scythes and necromancy powers. The better a slaad is, the more like Ygorl it is. Under Ygorl's rules the best thing a slaad can be is Ygorl.
E: Ironically this means that for the question "how do I stop a being of ultimate power from arising out of Limbo and devouring the gods of madness and entropy," the answer really is "Giant Frog."
Last edited by ModelCitizen on Mon Nov 07, 2011 6:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
ModelCitizen wrote:E: Ironically this means that for the question "how do I stop a being of ultimate power from arising out of Limbo and devouring the gods of madness and entropy," the answer really is "Giant Frog."
I noticed that there's hardly any mentions of Ygorl and Ssendam after 2e. I found them to be sorta interesting (at least as interesting as a grim reaper and an amoeba who created Giant Frogs can be), but I also found them missing from more or less all 3.5/3.0 books that I've seen. Does 3.X need more Giant Frog, or have I not looked around well enough?
Last edited by icyshadowlord on Mon Nov 07, 2011 12:45 pm, edited 3 times in total.
"Lurker and fan of random stuff." - Icy's occupation
sabs wrote:And Yes, being Finnish makes you Evil.
virgil wrote:And has been successfully proven with Pathfinder, you can just say you improved the system from 3E without doing so and many will believe you to the bitter end.
If PHB2 is available, you could probably just play a Beguiler, tell people you're a Bard, and just never worry about Bardic Music.
I took this suggestion, thanks. I'm needing to cover the rogue stuff and Beguiler is pretty decent at this.
I do need to branch out from just illusion/enchantment spells though. There's a feat in Complete Divine I think that will give me spells from a Cleric domain. Something like spell domain would be quite handy.
I'm playing an ex-addict and dealer, now turned good, in an urban campaign.
Go into Shadowcraft Mage if gnome. It gives you all conjuration (creation), conjuration (summoning), and evocation spells off the Sorc/Wizard list. In a weird way, but still. Versatility.
Take Arcane Preparation and Circle Magic and go into Mage of the Arcane Order to get any kind of Sorc/Wizard spell once or twice per day.
Saxony wrote:Go into Shadowcraft Mage if gnome. It gives you all conjuration (creation), conjuration (summoning), and evocation spells off the Sorc/Wizard list. In a weird way, but still. Versatility.
Take Arcane Preparation and Circle Magic and go into Mage of the Arcane Order to get any kind of Sorc/Wizard spell once or twice per day.
Otherwise, you have a pretty big weakness.
Races of Stone is not an allowable book, but I am playing a gnome. Right now I'm eying Arcane Disciple with something like Spell Domain.
I see that Mage of the Arcane Order is from Complete Arcane, and that is an allowable source. I'll look at this.
The campaign is actually Ptolus, I'd have to see how that would fit.
Last edited by cthulhudarren on Wed Nov 09, 2011 9:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
icyshadowlord wrote:I noticed that there's hardly any mentions of Ygorl and Ssendam after 2e. I found them to be sorta interesting (at least as interesting as a grim reaper and an amoeba who created Giant Frogs can be), but I also found them missing from more or less all 3.5/3.0 books that I've seen. Does 3.X need more Giant Frog, or have I not looked around well enough?
Sort of. There was a 3rd party monster book called "Tome of Horrors" that had special permission from WotC to use old D&D monsters. Like some totally stupid shit like brain rats and flail snails and moon dogs.
But they also had entries for "Slaad Lord: Lord of the Insane" and "Slaad Lord: Lord of Entropy. These are intended to be Ssendam and Ygorl as far as I can tell.
It doesn't give a lot of information about them beyond their stats, but interestingly, of Ygorl, the skeletal reaper dude, it says:
Tome of Horrors 3.5 edition, page 318 wrote:...it is believed his true form is a 15-foot tall black slaad.
so maybe he's just a giant frog after all. Although I don't think this book is supposed to be consistent with WotC's own D&D lore.
I used flumphs before. The players didn't really know how to react (they were nonhostile NPCs in the deep ethereal. The players managed to treat with them peacefully).
In this moment, I am Ur-phoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my int score.
Vnonymous wrote:I actually think that cranium rats are awesome. Chris Avellone agrees, too.
While your greater point stands, Chris Avellone is a terrible game designer partly responsible for the steaming turd of a company known as Obsidian; and, more relevantly to the subject matter, he hates sapient animals and animal-like creatures capable of communication with humans besides:
Chris Avellone wrote:BTW, the talking deathclaws were destroyed at the end of Fallout 2. Xarn and Goris did not go on to create a new species. They are gone. Kaput. Goodbye. In fact, any mutant animal that talks can safely be assumed to have died at the end at the exact minute that Fallout 2 was over.
Any last words, talking animals?
I thought not.
Which is a shame, because talking deathclaws rock my socks off.
Unless you were being sarcastic, or Avellone only hates sapient animals in Fallout.
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
Darth Rabbitt wrote:While your greater point stands, Chris Avellone is a terrible game designer partly responsible for the steaming turd of a company known as Obsidian
What? Care to go into some detail on this one?
I wish in the past I had tried more things 'cause now I know that being in trouble is a fake idea
Oh, for the most part I just hate Obsidian (which he co-founded).
I didn't like Fallout: New Vegas (made by Obsidian) nearly as much as Fallout 3 (made by Bethesda), although that's not a big thing, as New Vegas is still pretty enjoyable (although I suspect that's due to the fact that many of the people who worked on previous games worked on New Vegas, in spite of Obsidian, and even Avellone himself had been involved in some of the earlier games, although I personally don't think he was particularly important to their development).
But Obsidian, and indeed Avellone himself, being lead designer, IS responsible for the horrible thing known as KotOR II, which is an insult to its predecessor in terms of how buggy, incomplete (in both story and gameplay), and just suffering in general from being a tacked-on sequel (but one that could possibly be saved if it was handled by a better designing team and management).
Basically Obsidian is a company whose most notable characteristic is being the trashy ghostwriters of games, they took two of my favorite games and made either slightly or significantly worse sequels of them, and I'm not giving them a third chance with either my time or money.
And Avellone, being responsible for much of Obsidian and also the abortion that is KotOR II, is the worst of a bad lot.
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
I liked KotOR II signif more than KotOR I, once it was patch'd up. I also vastly prefer New Vegas to Fallout 3.
KotOR has a much more complex story and deeper and more original characters than its prequel. It also really deconstructs Star Wars and CRPG tropes, which is fun. The main area it fails is in its combat, but, tbh, combat was never KotOR's strong suit. It's almost invariably too easy and simple.
Now, the game is basically unfinished in its released state. But LucasArts seriously forced Obsidian to release the game in time for a Christmas release. And Obsidian included enough of their unfinished material that modders have basically been able to complete the game. And the completed game is absolutely brilliant.
Now, every other one of Obsidian's game has also been unfinished to some extent or another. But this state of unfinishedness is fairly prevalent in most RPGs not by Bioware: Bethesda, Piranha Bytes, Troika... This is stupid and really unfortunate, but it's also hypocritical to blame Obsidian moreso than other companies for this state of affairs.
Now, a more valid criticism to make of Obsidian is that Neverwinter Nights 2 was boring. But Mask of the Betrayer was dynamite, and more than made up for that. And let's be honest: The Neverwinter Nights (1) campaign is probably Bioware's weakest game, ever. Possibly excepting Jade Empire. I've also heard baddish things about Alpha Protocol, but I haven't played that yet.
tl;dr: Obsidian makes some of the deepest and most complex RPGs on the market. They're invariably flawed, but these flaws are generally ignoreable.
[/fanboy defense]
Last edited by Blicero on Thu Nov 10, 2011 5:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
Out beyond the hull, mucoid strings of non-baryonic matter streamed past like Christ's blood in the firmament.
Well, I liked Fallout 3, but New Vegas was more of a legitimate sequel, instead of being some spin-off outside of continuity. Mind you, it was really good, but a bit shaky on its connection to its predecessors. For example, the BoS and the BoS Outcasts should've been reversed.
Also, beside Many-as-One (Who is, incidentally, a cranium rat swarm), talking animals rarely work outside of comedy. Its fine as a one-shot, but as a repeating occurence, its just stupid. I know about the sentient deathclaws, but I don't remember them talking.
...I was going to point out Gaspode, but then I remembered what Discworld's actual style is...
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
Spider from the Amazing Maurice was pretty wicked but...
...a hive-mind of eight rats. Yeah.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
