Ask Arkanis

[thids]

Drizzt meets Deudermont in 1356. for the first time (in Halfling's Gem when he seeks passage to Calimshan IIRC). I can't remember if he was a famous pirate hunter at that point. Drizzt is a part of Deudermont's crew in 1362. though (Stowaway), and at that point Sea Sprite and Captain Deudermont are quite famous pirate hunters on the Sword Coast.


http://rasalvatoreforums.yuku.com/topic ... 6NTlrEcM1Q

[DM Arkanis]

Dear DM Arkanis:

This humble reader has a small query for you. Could you explain what it is exactly that makes a gelatinous cube cube-shaped? Thank you ever so much.

Sincerely,

The Copper Fox

Old-school question Fox, I love it.

From the very first generation of D&D (Basic) G-cubes have been die-shaped. The reason I was told some 30+ years ago was that (get this) dungeon hallways are 10x10x10 feet and the G-cube was intended to block it solid so that adventurers would have to hack their way through it. Yep, it was intended to fill the entire hallway, thus is it cube-shaped.

[mireigi]

A Neutral Good priest is required to give aid to those who need it, the importance of a good act weighing higher than following the law. If hindered by the local guards from saving the life of a dying criminal, would the priest use magic to bypass the guards and give aid to the criminal, accepting whatever fine or punishment would follow for interfering with / going against the law?

[DM Arkanis]

Do our characters In Game realize the cosmos is a 'balance of Good & Evil, Law & Chaos' across two axis? And know which planes/creatures fall into these categories?

Usually, I would assume that was all OOC knowledge, but have been corrected by multiple characters that it is 'obvious' all people & beings are a combination of the two axis.

The best answer I could give is to think of yourself IRL - what alignment are you? I don't think our characters walk around stating, "I am Chaotic Neutral!" but rather have a good sense of themselves as not loving rules, and basically their ethics are situationally based. To give you another example from fiction, Anakin Skywalker, as he is turning to the dark side, explains to Padme that he views the Jedi as evil, and he is bringing justice/law/order to the universe (Lawful Evil) and sees himself as a good person. I don't think IRL there are loads of people walking around saying, "I am evil!" because they see themselves in some way as being good or at least OK and that is how they think others see them. That or they just don't care. In terms of the game, alignment is intended to be a guide on how to play your character - an evilly aligned character wouldn't be doing good deeds (without a really good ulterior motive ) and a good aligned character wouldn't be slaughtering babies (without an even better reason.) When it comes to RPing Lawful-Neutral-Chaotic, I DO believe that we could be paying closer attention to our character sheets. LG and CE alignments are really fanatical (if played properly) and LG has a ton of rules and CE has no rules and these kinds of characters really shouldn't live all that long, but they do. In reality I think most players properly play alignments from NG to NE (Im not saying there arent players who do LG and CE well) but for the most part not following the rules is viewed as how Chaotic is done, and killing babies is how evil is done, and really there is a lot more to RPing these alignments.

DM Asgorath and I have had good conversations around that and he is welcome to chime in here if he wants to.

[Hidennka]

Hey hey Chief! I had a question, or rather a curiosity when it comes to Palemasters and those of goodly alignment, specifically those who specialise in dealing with undead like Lathanderites. Would a Morninglord be able to sense some kind of unpleasant aura from the undead graft, or are the Palemasters in some way able to disguise this with magic in a similar way to "protect from alignment". Even though protect from alignment and detect undead are spells which are unavailable on this server, I was curious to know how Palemasters and Morninglords would be when in contact with each other, as Lathander would bless his clergy with specific skills and talents in dealing with the undead.

Undead Graft (Su): At 6th level, a pale master gives in to terrible necrophiliac urges. He cuts off his arm and replaces it with an undead prosthetic, which may be skeletal in form or preserved fl esh stitched in place like that of a flesh golem. [source]

Detect Undead: You can detect the aura that surrounds undead creatures. The amount of information revealed depends on how long you study a particular area. [source]

[Valkyrie]

Monster ecology questions: Do Crabmen still cause problems for the Swordcoast? Have there been reports of them in the background, or is this species endangered? Also, and years ago no DM could answer this: Why do they keep abducting fair maidens?

There's no reason Human females would be their natural prey! Land animals are not an aquatic animal's natural food source. What's more, to a humanoid crustacean, the lack of exoskeleton would make Human women squishy and unattractive, ruling that out. And, we've no sign the Crabmen have a functional economy - so it can't be for ransom! Thank you for helping this gamer put to rest a decade's-plus-old quandary!

[DM Arkanis]

A Neutral Good priest is required to give aid to those who need it, the importance of a good act weighing higher than following the law. If hindered by the local guards from saving the life of a dying criminal, would the priest use magic to bypass the guards and give aid to the criminal, accepting whatever fine or punishment would follow for interfering with / going against the law?

I love these "what if's" but here goes. The characters "neutrality" does not necessarily just apply to one form of law. She may be neutral not only with respect to secular laws, but also to ecclesiastical ones as well. Cleric of Mielikki for example, in BG, sees a criminal in need of aid, goes to help, is stopped by guards, MAY shrug her shoulders and say, "I tried." Her goddess' portfolio is nature-based and there is not necessarily a driving compunction for her to fight/argue with guards to heal the criminal. If it was a wounded druid, dryad, or forest creature, maybe the outcome would be different. The clerics' god, their domain, and the focus on the domain should not only determine the characters alignment, but their actions as well. In the scenario you have outlined, a LG pally of Tyr might say the criminal deserved his injuries; a CE cleric of Talos might beat the gaurd to heal the criminal just to sown a little chaos (or it might be his buddy who owes him som gold... ) It is really situaionally based.

[DM Arkanis]

Hey hey Chief! I had a question, or rather a curiosity when it comes to Palemasters and those of goodly alignment, specifically those who specialise in dealing with undead like Lathanderites. Would a Morninglord be able to sense some kind of unpleasant aura from the undead graft, or are the Palemasters in some way able to disguise this with magic in a similar way to "protect from alignment". Even though protect from alignment and detect undead are spells which are unavailable on this server, I was curious to know how Palemasters and Morninglords would be when in contact with each other, as Lathander would bless his clergy with specific skills and talents in dealing with the undead.

Undead Graft (Su): At 6th level, a pale master gives in to terrible necrophiliac urges. He cuts off his arm and replaces it with an undead prosthetic, which may be skeletal in form or preserved fl esh stitched in place like that of a flesh golem. [source]

Detect Undead: You can detect the aura that surrounds undead creatures. The amount of information revealed depends on how long you study a particular area. [source]

I can see this going either way - a high enough level Morninglord SHOULD IMHO be able to detect something wrong, but exactly what? Maybe not...? Is the Palemaster, maybe, a butcher and that is what the cleric senses? Is what the Morninglord "smells" magical? Due to the semantics of our game and spells available/unavailable I'd have to say RP is the best way to get through this.

[DM Arkanis]

Monster ecology questions: Do Crabmen still cause problems for the Swordcoast? Have there been reports of them in the background, or is this species endangered? Also, and years ago no DM could answer this: Why do they keep abducting fair maidens?

There's no reason Human females would be their natural prey! Land animals are not an aquatic animal's natural food source. What's more, to a humanoid crustacean, the lack of exoskeleton would make Human women squishy and unattractive, ruling that out. And, we've no sign the Crabmen have a functional economy - so it can't be for ransom! Thank you for helping this gamer put to rest a decade's-plus-old quandary!

Good question. The only good answer is that our game (that being D&D) has evolved significantly over the last forty or so years it has been around and some of the sillier things have, er, gone by the wayside.

[mireigi]

A Neutral Good priest is required to give aid to those who need it, the importance of a good act weighing higher than following the law. If hindered by the local guards from saving the life of a dying criminal, would the priest use magic to bypass the guards and give aid to the criminal, accepting whatever fine or punishment would follow for interfering with / going against the law?

I love these "what if's" but here goes. The characters "neutrality" does not necessarily just apply to one form of law. She may be neutral not only with respect to secular laws, but also to ecclesiastical ones as well. Cleric of Mielikki for example, in BG, sees a criminal in need of aid, goes to help, is stopped by guards, MAY shrug her shoulders and say, "I tried." Her goddess' portfolio is nature-based and there is not necessarily a driving compunction for her to fight/argue with guards to heal the criminal. If it was a wounded druid, dryad, or forest creature, maybe the outcome would be different. The clerics' god, their domain, and the focus on the domain should not only determine the characters alignment, but their actions as well. In the scenario you have outlined, a LG pally of Tyr might say the criminal deserved his injuries; a CE cleric of Talos might beat the gaurd to heal the criminal just to sown a little chaos (or it might be his buddy who owes him som gold... ) It is really situaionally based.

Wouldn't a LG paladin of Tyr attempt to sway the guards to let him tend the criminal so they can stand trial and receive fair justice, rather than suffer death that may or may not be related to the crimes they have commited, no matter how evil the criminal may be (murder, torture, orhpanage-arson, etc)?

Also, and this is more personal, Lathander is all about forgiveness and allowing everyone, no matter who they are or what they've done, a chance to attone for their past and forge a new and better life. A NG priest of Lathander would likely attempt to bypass the guards in a non-violent manner (eg. Etherealness/similar) to reach the dying criminal and subsequently heal him, thus rematerializing and be subject to getting apprehension himself, but at least having saved someone's life and given them a chance to attone.

Or am I completely off in that regard?

[Hitman Hard]

an evilly aligned character wouldn't be doing good deeds (without a really good ulterior motive )

Maybe he wants to do something right for a change?

[The Whistler]

Here's a question that's been vexing me for quite a while. What happens when you cast cat's grace on a cat ?

[NegInfinity]

Got two questions here...

Crafting:
Would a weapon forged in hellfire possess special properties? I'm talking about hellfire warlock blacksmith.

Attributes (this one has been bothering me for a while):
A character is neutral on law/chaos axis while having high intelligence (16) and low wisdom (8). Not a wizard. Among other things low wisdom can cause character to be very prone to distractions, unreasonable and somewhat foolish. So, my guess is that character can be distracted from whatever it is she/he were doing by a shiny or valuable thing, for example, especially if greed is character's trait. "I wanted to go to.... *notices expensive shiny thing, fails dc15 will save and forgets everything* Oh, I want it, want to buy it! *runs off to buy it*". The problem is that such behavior looks chaotic to onlooker.

Does that mean character is chaotic?
And what would be a difference between neutral and chaotic character with the same stats and traits in this situation (both high int, low wis, greedy, prone to distractions, loves jewelry, notices something expensive in mid conversation)?

[DM Arkanis]

A Neutral Good priest is required to give aid to those who need it, the importance of a good act weighing higher than following the law. If hindered by the local guards from saving the life of a dying criminal, would the priest use magic to bypass the guards and give aid to the criminal, accepting whatever fine or punishment would follow for interfering with / going against the law?

I love these "what if's" but here goes. The characters "neutrality" does not necessarily just apply to one form of law. She may be neutral not only with respect to secular laws, but also to ecclesiastical ones as well. Cleric of Mielikki for example, in BG, sees a criminal in need of aid, goes to help, is stopped by guards, MAY shrug her shoulders and say, "I tried." Her goddess' portfolio is nature-based and there is not necessarily a driving compunction for her to fight/argue with guards to heal the criminal. If it was a wounded druid, dryad, or forest creature, maybe the outcome would be different. The clerics' god, their domain, and the focus on the domain should not only determine the characters alignment, but their actions as well. In the scenario you have outlined, a LG pally of Tyr might say the criminal deserved his injuries; a CE cleric of Talos might beat the gaurd to heal the criminal just to sown a little chaos (or it might be his buddy who owes him som gold... ) It is really situaionally based.

Wouldn't a LG paladin of Tyr attempt to sway the guards to let him tend the criminal so they can stand trial and receive fair justice, rather than suffer death that may or may not be related to the crimes they have commited, no matter how evil the criminal may be (murder, torture, orhpanage-arson, etc)?

Also, and this is more personal, Lathander is all about forgiveness and allowing everyone, no matter who they are or what they've done, a chance to attone for their past and forge a new and better life. A NG priest of Lathander would likely attempt to bypass the guards in a non-violent manner (eg. Etherealness/similar) to reach the dying criminal and subsequently heal him, thus rematerializing and be subject to getting apprehension himself, but at least having saved someone's life and given them a chance to attone.

Or am I completely off in that regard?

Again it is going to depend on the specific situation. If the criminal is injured and just being guarded, and isn't in immediate danger of dying, AND whomever is likely to try him is fair (i.e. this is not in some evil place) then the pally is likely not to act - he has faith in the system of justice to mete out the proper punishment for whatever crimes were committed. If the criminal is dying and the guards are simply watching him die I agree one possible action from the pally would be to intercede so a fair trial could be held - one possible action. It would really depend on what led to the situation in the first place, and what the likely cause of action/inaction would be. Deviate from this, and we get into a lot of different potential scenarios....
With respect to the priest of Lathander I think it would come right down to their personality and how their view their own personal mission/relationship with Lathander. Again, taking into account what came before, possible consequenses/outcome not only for the criminal but for the priest I'm not sure the priest would risk their life if the situation were too difficult to accomplish and the outcome could lead to the priest dying as well. I am not entirely certain in Lathanders creedos that there is anything about the clergy sacrificing themselves in this manner? I really think it comes down to how a player a) plays their character sheet, b) interprets their role/mission in their church and c) chooses to play their alignment. I really don't think there is one and only one answer based on alignment alone.

[DM Arkanis]

Here's a question that's been vexing me for quite a while. What happens when you cast cat's grace on a cat ?

Well, it's DEX goes up by 4 points 1 minute per caster level... Then I suppose it would be up to the cat. Cat's, like every other creature, would all have different natural DEX scores - some low and some high. An older cat who sits around all day might have a low score, and the spell would really just make him feel a little younger for a while. A young cat, who is prone to hyper tension (my mom calls this, "the crazies") would simply be that much more so for the duration of the spell.