Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Jay_Ibero_911 01-30-07, 01:23 PM	Sometimes I find it hard to justify certain attacks being able to do certain ammounts of damage. For instance, An occult slayer wielding a +1 Holy Sacred Evil Outsider Bane Magebane Starmetal Greatsword attacking an evil outsider with spell-like abilities does 2d6+10d6+5 damage from the weapon alone. I suppose the weapon would have some kind of crazy energy vortex around it in that attack. Or how about archers with crazy bows? Do you suppose it looks something like when Kagome shoots sacred arrows in Inuyasha?
Japangirl 01-30-07, 01:34 PM	Well, when our archer shoots +1 Holy Sacred Bane (Evil Outsider) arrows at demons, we just avert our eyes so as not to go blind :D.
magebeast 02-01-07, 12:49 AM	For the Greatsword, I'd just imagine a glowing green greatsword flying with unerring accuracy, hitting a more vital spot than usual as well as flaring up with holy energy and then seeming to draw the magic energy out of the creature. I guess? Haha I said just
solbergb 02-01-07, 12:59 PM	Depends on the character but I always have visual stuff in my head that I sometimes describe. My monk for example sunders stuff with adamantine kama flurry by doing a series of swift strikes, which apparantly do nothing...then the object/door/whatever falls into several pieces. I also sometimes describe the spell differently when it's a sorcerer or divine caster to make it tie into their theme or religion better (eg, my cleric of gesthtai casting sound burst, you hear the roar of a waterfall. My favored soul of Procan casting shatter, you get a thunderclap instead of a ringing sound) I do not expect that flavor to interfere with spellcraft checks and I'm careful to use the actual spell name if anyone seems confused.
gomeztoo 02-01-07, 01:21 PM	One flavor description I use is that when my dragon disciple rages, her eyes glow green, she grows several inches and she sprouts (more) scales. I don't use flavor for attacks though.
Mattastrophic 02-01-07, 02:24 PM	I try to describe my Virtuoso as gracefully dancing and singing as he casts his spells. Not like some mere Wizard who just stands there and recites a few words, but an artist being very artistic about laying down the pain. -Matt
solbergb 02-01-07, 02:55 PM	One flavor description I use is that when my dragon disciple rages, her eyes glow green, she grows several inches and she sprouts (more) scales. I don't use flavor for attacks though. Yeah, my druid/barbarian turns into almost a weretiger when raging. Her armor then fits poorly, hence the lower AC :) Someday she'll turn into a real tiger, and the rage will just make the tiger bigger/stronger and more reckless.
Japangirl 02-01-07, 04:58 PM	So what do wounding holy or wounding sacred things look like?
solbergb 02-01-07, 07:18 PM	Sacred explicitly glows. Aligned stuff I always visualized as one of three things. Bane weapons pretty much the same 1. energy-like flash when you hit the correct target 2. just cuts through correct target like butter - the way stakes seem to punch right through vampire chests with little effort in Buffy the Vampire Slayer 3. wound expands from the cut (more the unholy type stuff) like the flesh is rotting or something. Wounding is pretty straightforward...wounds from such a weapon bleed a lot. Con drain via blood loss is a fairly normal mechanic - see Giant Weasel and Vampire. So a holy wounding weapon might cut through a demon with little resistance causing an injury that causes it to bleed ichor excessively.
copper_wyrmling 02-01-07, 08:36 PM	Sacred explicitly glows. Aligned stuff I always visualized as one of three things. Bane weapons pretty much the same 1. energy-like flash when you hit the correct target 2. just cuts through correct target like butter - the way stakes seem to punch right through vampire chests with little effort in Buffy the Vampire Slayer 3. wound expands from the cut (more the unholy type stuff) like the flesh is rotting or something. Wounding is pretty straightforward...wounds from such a weapon bleed a lot. Con drain via blood loss is a fairly normal mechanic - see Giant Weasel and Vampire. So a holy wounding weapon might cut through a demon with little resistance causing an injury that causes it to bleed ichor excessively. How would you visualize Zealot Pact, Brad? In her last game, Yolande got to do four rounds of six-attack full-attacks against evil foes, using a Holy quarterstaff, with Zealot Pact, Fires of Purity, GMW +4, Brambles, Divine Power, Haste and Righteous Wrath all active ;) (After four rounds, she ran out of 400-HP bad guys to squish: it would've only taken her three rounds if they'd been closer together.) Unfortunately the targets were immune to the Fires of Purity, so that was basically just a very cool visual effect :) I basically envisaged it as the warrior-priestess spinning her flame-wreathed thorny staff, striking with inhuman speed with blows that barely seem to have any force behind them (no power attack and Str 20 is pretty wimpy at APL 16), but where they rake across the creature's armored hide they leave deep smoking wounds and white holy fire washes out from the point of impact. My wild mage of course has some interesting-looking spell effects: her Evard's Black Tentacles appear like a writhing mass of absolute darkness (inspired by the Dreaming), although she is in denial about this, and insists on calling the spell "Azrien's Instant Assassin-Vines" (she had never seen it cast when she first learned it, but she HAD fought a couple of gargantuan assassin vines, and they made an impression). Having recently watched a water wyrd do a variant teleportation circle using a crystal lake as a focus, her Teleport spells now come with pretty rainbow light effects as well ;)
Morgen 02-02-07, 12:15 AM	I enjoy toasting things with my Empowered, Sculpted Energy, Substitution: Electricity, Born of Three Thunders Fireballs I toss around on occation. Got a hunter/killer group with one. Well a large part of one. Pretty much just four 10' cubes of energy start to collect around a few people and then suddenly explodes in a thundercrash and a flash of light! Bam! Then there's the song we wrote to Queen's theme of the Flash Gorden movie. "Slash! Aaaahhhh..."
solbergb 02-02-07, 12:35 PM	How would you visualize Zealot Pact, Brad? ) Oh you know...glowing with power, eyes gone white and fiery, energy bursting off every blow, possibly an overlay of the deity's appearance a bit on the person. The usual for overpowered divine magic :) See early star trek when a couple crew members became gods. Or hong kong action movies involving chinese sorcerers.
copper_wyrmling 02-02-07, 01:49 PM	Oh you know...glowing with power, eyes gone white and fiery, energy bursting off every blow, possibly an overlay of the deity's appearance a bit on the person. The usual for overpowered divine magic :) See early star trek when a couple crew members became gods. Or hong kong action movies involving chinese sorcerers. Hehehe cool. I had the glowing fiery eyes, hadn't thought about overlaying Joramy's appearance on Yolande :) I do want to see how that spell works on a real APL-appropriate tank at some point, rather than a L15 cleric playing tank at APL 16 because she was the best the party had ;)
solbergb 02-02-07, 08:18 PM	I've seen it on one. Things just explode near the tank, even more than usual. Although it's almost wasteful on a real tank, because at APL15ish standing next to any such character for a full attack is suicide, even without the Pact.