Ask Arkanis

[DM Arkanis]

One of the best things about having a pipe organ in your living room is that you can play and sing songs like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb3iPP-tHdA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeugOSb2CAM


and free form Whiter Shade of Pale until the neighbours bang against the wall... oh and I think it morphed into All Creatures of Our God and King at one point but I was lost in the moment and 100 db of pure, sweet pipes.

Merry Christmas everyone. Life is so good - seize the day.

[Uncleboffo]

Is this what a Canadian Christmas looks like?

[DM Arkanis]

Yes, that is pretty close. Depending on what part of the country you are in generally depends on the availability of the moose and what you do with it - mostly we eat them, but I suppose on Christmas you might offer him a drink first.

Christmas in Canada is followed by Boxing Day which generally is a time to get together with friends and eat drink and be merry - it is our Black Friday for shopping as well. Christmas week traditions include: calling everyone you know and wishing them a Merry Christmas (my dad is famous for this) opening at least one gift on Christmas Eve, turkey dinners with all the trimmings (my mum still buys a 40lb turkey), desserts that include maple mousse, strawberry mousse, minced meat tarts, tons of home baking, lots of hard candies in dishes spread all over the house, egg nog with rum, playing cards at the kitchen table (we play bridge, but euchre is also a favourite), caroling throughout the neighbourhood (cold alcoholic beverages are usually offered in return NOT to sing depending on the group), there is usually some form of winter sport (the vulgar snowman building contest has been big in years gone by and at one point there were contests to see who could be the most vulgar... I'll leave it to youur imagination) cross country skiing, taking the snowmobiles (we call them ski-do's or snow machines) out for a rip, making naked snow angels and then jumping into the neighbours hot-tub, and in Newfoundland people dress up with sacks on their heads and visit neighbours who have to guess who they are - they are called Mummers; creepy and cool all at the some time. In my household my daughter gets a special pair of Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve every year and I think it is the highlight of her gifts, we do a giant jig-saw puzzle on Christmas Day on the dining room table and lay around watching sports on the TV and drink mamosas until the champagne is gone, then switch to Bailey's in our coffee and once the sun is over the yard arm (noon) we break out the beer. Other parts of the country enjoy tortiere (a kind of meat pie), or rappie pie (kind of like a big pan of baked grits - true rappie pie has a rabbits head in the corner of the pan), beaver tails (not real ones, deep fried flat dough covered in sugar and cinnamon, specialty poutines (that's french fries and white cheese curds smothered in gravy - shredded smoked meat, or pulled pork may also be added), out west Christmas dim-sum and fireworks after dark, and pancakes with maple syrup is a staple everywhere and of course you have to have your Tim Horton's coffee. We tend to be warm and generous towards neighbours and friends and it is very common to have a complete stranger in your home for Christmas because they had no where else to go or people to be with, and we generally don't lock our front doors so it is common to wake up in the morning and find the neighbourhood roaming party has crashed in your living room and drank all of your beer. Christmas in Canada is the best.

[DM Arkanis]

I know I am really late off the mark for this one and most of you might be asking where I've been, but I went to see the new Hobbit movie and thought that it was great. For players who are looking for some insight on how to play various races in terms of quirks/traits the Dwarves and Elves are both done pretty well in the movie IMHO in terms of these things especially with regards to how narrow they could see/interpret things. I saw it in 3D Imax and was talking in a Scottish/Dwarvish brogue for a few hours after it was all said and done must to the consternation of the patrons at my pub... The story deviates from the book a little but all in all a solid fantasy movie and worth seeing. I'm hoping that the extended version has some good scenes in it as well - definitely a movie for my collection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSzeFFsKEt4

[Rasael]

DM Arkanis, do Gelatinous Cubes have souls?

[DM Arkanis]

DM Arkanis, do Gelatinous Cubes have souls?

I've been waiting for someone to ask me this.

"The gelatinous cube is an invention of Gary Gygax, and first appeared in the Monster Manual (1977), rather than being lifted from outside sources and adapted to a role-playing setting, as were many mythological monsters like the Minotaur and dryad.

Being a cube that is a perfect ten feet on each side, it is specifically and perfectly "adapted" to its native environment, the standard, 10-foot (3.0 m) by 10-foot (3.0 m) dungeon corridors which were ubiquitous in the earliest Dungeons & Dragons modules... A gelatinous cube looks like a transparent ooze of mindless, gelatinous matter in the shape of a cube. It slides through dungeon corridors, absorbing everything in its path, digesting everything organic and secreting non-digestible matter in its wake. Contact with its exterior can result in a paralyzing electric shock, after which the cube will proceed to slowly digest its stunned and helpless prey.

Reproduction is through a form of asexual 'budding', in which a smaller, stub cube is left behind in a side corridor to grow into a full-sized cube, although these stub cubes run the risk of being absorbed by their own parent on its next trip down the corridor.

Gelatinous cubes typically live underground."

For the sake of discussion, let us assume from this description that a cube is basically like any other "animal" that being neutral and mindless. (Yes, I know we could argue some animals are intelligent but in this case the cube has the same intelligence as a house fly.) The question then is, "Do mindless animals have souls?" In real life many monotheistic religions believe that animals of any kind do not have a soul; Hinduism and Buddhism believe in a reincarnation of the soul and you could be a worm in one life and a human in another. The Wiccan religion however believes that animals do have a soul. For the sake of discussion again, let us juxtapose real religious beliefs with those of the gods in our game. Gods whose portfolios don't directly and explicitly have nature would not be concerned with animals in terms of them having an eternal soul - Mystra, for example, might not care one way or the other as it is not in her purview. Nature gods on the other hand might feel very different although specific citing of beliefs might not be apparent. Chauntea is concerned about balance and views life and death as part of it, but I don't see much mention of animals having souls in the creedos of the god. Mielikki on the other hand, is the patron of sentient non-human creatures but also of "forest creatures" (mindless or low INT creatures in my interpretation) and vicariously might attribute a soul to them as she does other woodland creatures. Again, I cannot find anything really solid on this one way or the other. Silvanus holds "life" of all kinds above anything else and fights hard against anything that would seek to recklessly and mindlessly end it without purpose - very similar to aboriginal beliefs which hold that animals do in fact have souls so this may be the closest we can find to compare to the cube in question.
In aboriginal tradition animals are hunted and killed for food, and the rest of their remains are used for clothing, tools, weapons, and crafted into art. The hunters often offer prayers not only to be successful in their hunt, but also for a clean kill and that their animal knows that its body will feed clothe and serve the hunter and her family. African San People or Bushmen hold a very sacred, and religious belief system that all living creatures are interconnected and use a form of palatalization poison when hunting so that their prey is immobilized so they can talk to it and explain why they are killing it. It is almost a symbiotic relationship in nature, but I digress.
I cannot find reference to a Cube heaven/plane of existence other than the Prime Material, and from a strict sense of FR lore that would seem to be the crux of the discussion. When creatures with souls die they "move on" to their dieties' home plane to live/suffer/enjoy/hate the afterlife. Creatures with no faith join the faithless. Mindless animals...? I think that they simply cease to exist and that is that. Out on a limb I could suggest that Cube's could occupy certain special places in the home plane's of evil-nature deities (you know, on a whim) to act as agents of torture or simply as creatures that keep 10x10x10 dungeon corridors clear of organic matter but as they serve no purpose to the gods in terms of being one of a faithful who offers prays and aids (post-TOT) the god I would think that even the nature-based more neutrally aligned pantheon would give them a "meh" in terms of them having a soul.

Short answer after long ramble, no, Gelatinous Cubes do not have souls.

Old Ark

[Montleberry]

I've got one, after looking for some information on it and not finding a great deal.

Chauntea's dogma includes the teaching that her faithful should eschew fire. Looking into more on this, mostly what I found is that she probably does not grant her priests any fire magic (so no flamestrike, etc), or tolerate their using other fire magic (scrolls, wands, etc).

It appears that normal fire is also frowned on, but not banned - though that some clerics might even refuse to use non-magical fire at all. This is where I get unsure, would a truly devout Chauntean cook with fire? Use fire to warm their homes? Carry a torch in a dark place if magical light was not available to them or for that matter light their homes with candles? Restrictions on those would seem to make the normal lifestyle of her followers almost impossible.

Seems reasonable they would refuse to use magical fire, don't cremate their dead, don't use fire to clear land, etc. Also came across a reference that if after disease bodies had to be burned they would hire non-faithful to burn them.

Thoughts on if one is to role-play a devout Chauntean...is it reasonable to make a campfire with PC tools? Carry a torch? RP cooking over the aforementioned campfire? What level of non-magical fire use is over Chauntea's line of acceptable for a lay follower and/or cleric?

[DM Ioulaum]

I salute thee, DM Arkanis! Fare thee well, with both hands on the steering wheel and a hefty breeze in the sails!

[PiaMango]

Hi Arkanis, thank you for your service on the DM team it is sad to see you depart.

My first question is whether you intend to carry on this thread?

If the answer is yes as I hope I would like to hear your thoughts upon the following.

The first conclusion gained was that skills are both represented in the physical and mental entities of a character, perhaps barring the knowledge/lore skills. An obvious example of this would be tumble. Tumbling requires adept hand-eye coordination, technique but also muscle memory and natural reflexes. While the latter could be said to be represented as ones Dexterity score in their natural ability to tumble, I would think those are both things one must train and develop to become master tumblers. Reading a book on how to swim might give you some insight into how to swim but one does not truly learn how to swim until they are thrown into water. Skills therefore have physical and mental representations.

Charisma directly increases social skills such as bluff, intimidate and diplomacy. These all have physical representations, like a person with high bluff would be better at holding a poker face, the sheer appearance of a lion is far more intimidating than their domesticated household cousins, a diplomatic person might be able to manage a calming smile that could help diffuse a situation.

I love the description of Gatsby's smile by F. Scott Fitzgerald as an example.

He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced—or seemed to face—the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.

So what I am trying to gather from this is whether one can determine where the training of their skills can be devoted into a bias of either their physical or mental focuses, or whether they must come hand in hand.

An excerpt from the 3.5 Players Handbook.

Charisma (CHA)
Charisma measures a character's force of personality, persuasiveness, personal magnetism, ability to lead, and physical attractiveness...

Diplomacy's base stat is Charisma which consists of the quoted above, force of personality etc but also physical attractiveness. Could it then be debated that it would be possible to represent a character's diplomacy score through their physical attractiveness, perhaps through the sculpting of muscles. As an example if a situation were to arise where there is controversy over my characters actions do you feel this would be a viable strategy to dissolving that situation diplomatically.

If you agree what would you consider the roll to then be:
1d20 + diplomacy, where it is indeed possible to sculpt ones muscles to pulse with loyalty
or
1d20 + cha + str

[DM Arkanis]

I’ve had several players ask me recently about XP versus RP. They seem to think that you can have one, but not the other. On one hand, I tend to agree. I have a 30th level wizard that I made on a dare from a long-time player, who in levelling up, only ever killed quest-related monsters, i.e. the Orc Chief, but never any other monsters. Took me three years to get him to 30th but he never interacted with other players and he never killed a monster. On the other hand, I know players who have subscribed to the mantra of RP-only XP and have followed the same path to glory over an extended period of never killing monsters, and only getting XP from talking to other characters. I have also recently heard a story of a character performing a quest and running past other characters, and then sending OOC information saying “just ignore me” and the other characters being a little put off at being left out of some RP. Should we be forced into RP when we are focused on only running quests? I have a circuit that I run on quests and it takes me about 90 minutes’ real time to complete and gets be about 7500xp give or take once I’m done. Hasted and invisible I could shave maybe 15 minutes off the time, and when I am in the groove, I really don’t want to RP with anyone either. Once a week, every week running these quests I could maybe make level 30 in a year (from level 14 to level 30, running quests and only quests once per week.) Or I could have an RP only toon who meets and knows everyone on the server, but in a year, is not quite maxed out on levels. The question really is, what do you want your character to be? It is not XP versus RP because XP will come over time, and RP will depend on how invested you are in to being involved in server plots, and interacting with other characters. What it really comes down to is, do I need to be involved in RP to max out on my XP? The short answer is, yes! Answer the character who asks you who you are when you are running quests, and interact with them even if it is only for a minute or two. Every character can gain daily XP by talking to and being involved with other characters. I think it maxes out at 2,500 or so XP. There is also fishing, at places like the beach at Ulgoth’s Beard, where you can but your fishing gear and bait, and max out at about 2,500 XP per day just from throwing a line in the water. So there is 5k XP ripe for the taking, with a little talking and a little line-in-the-water efforts. I’ve been in game long enough to know where the surface quests are, and how I can max out on them – ever tried to find half a sandwich? There are more quests worth more XP there if you are willing to invest the hard, real time in doing them but it is not all that there is to levelling up. The question for me becomes, at what point is two hours of quest running NOT worth grinding an area with 25xp per monster, and RP generated XP from being in a party? If your goal is to level up, as fast as possible, I believe that you need a balance of quests, grinding, and role playing. Yes, you can only run quests once per week, but once that is done, find a party, find an area, and grind to your hearts content. This not only serves to get you the XP to level up, but it also introduces you to other characters and players on the server, and exposes you to various RP styles, but also introduces you to a larger world where the end game is not being level 30, but having fun. It is through these connections that you will join guilds, find RP friends, and get more involved in the server. There really isn’t a XP versus RP scenario; they go hand in hand. If you get to level 30 without interacting with any other players you’ve lost something special. Take the time to smell the proverbial roses and interact with each other, even if it is just to say, “hey dude, not interested.” Level 30 will take care of itself.

[LISA100595]

Off Topic * So Glad you're BACK * Welcome Back!!

[DM Dialectic]

Great to see you back in this thread, DM Arkanis!

[DM Arkanis]

Hey, it's great to be back! Thanks!

For those of you who may be new(er) to the server, I started this thread a couple of years ago after some conversations with players that really didn't fall into the "ask a DM for help with game-stuff" category. The intent is to keep it light, funny, witty, (semi) intelligent, and of course, not at all about making game-based rulings or decisions. We have talked about game mechanics, the Forgotten Realms in general, Wizards of the Coast and other source material, and even debated "who shot first?" (Everyone knows it was Greedo.)

In the spirit of server collegiality, I encourage everyone to, "Ask Arkanis" those tough questions, and to check back often to find innovative, creative, and even bizarre replies. Have fun! Sweet water and light laughter to all you elvish types, "BAH!" to the Dwarves who have very politically incorrect attitudes (any hygiene); wishing all the Zhents a happy and productive, "Club a Harper Day" and for all the UD toons out there, YES! I know what you have in your pack, and NO! you can't hide it....

Live long and prosper.

Old Ark

[DM Dagon]

"who shot first?" (Everyone knows it was Greedo)

....

Han shot first

[DM Arkanis]

"who shot first?" (Everyone knows it was Greedo)

....

Han shot first

((I get one every time.....))

Ark