Time for an entry

[active_apathy]

And this entry starts with an odd idea that I've been having for a little bit now - a character concept, in fact. For a D&D¹ game somewhere. It goes further, though. This particular concept would be a paladin²; one who even carries a large-ish sword and plates on armour³. And owns a shield; a heater shield⁴, with an appropriate device. And did I mention the armour, which would be heavy and plateful?

If you haven't been following the footnotes⁵, this concept was really starting to scare me. A paladin? Heavy armour? I play not these things. Not ever, not for anyone.

And then I thought about it. Oh, yes, this could be a very fun concept⁶, just thinking about the other things such a character would need, or need to do. Not living in armour would be the obvious first step - the heavy metal stuff is only for when there's a serious patch of fighting to be done, and the rest of the time it lives in the bag. With the big sword. So, add a nice, light sword, possibly a rapier, for self-defence.

A paladin who can fight light? Mmm, this one was getting more fun already. Add in historically-plausible clothing, and there's plenteous fun to be had. And then, the ideas pretty much followed along the same path - a sensible, plausible character, based on historical principles. It'd be like a million hack'n'slashers screamed out in pain, and were suddenly silenced.

This train of thought was, however, promptly stopped by middle-aged men. There I was, standing at a bus stop, when they stumbled over after walking all the way across the footpath, breathing in a manner ragged so as to sound nothing so much as post-orgasmic. It was somewhat rainy⁸, and they took up loudly conversing, eventually turning to how they (a) hate for concession holders to have seats on buses in instances where they, Important People who can afford full fare tickets are standing, and how they (b) hate for anyone with a matched pair of sex chromosomes to let them have the seats they feel entitled to.

The thing about this rant, from the ragged-breathed-middle-aged-men, is that the moment they got on the bus, they went back to talking about fairness in seating and such. While taking up seven peoples' worth of seats.

And then I had a nap. Mmm, sleep.

And that's it for now. There was more entry, but it got eaten, so I rewrote these parts and I'll keep the notes for the rest, so I can rewrite and post it later.

1. Oh, yes. These kinds of things spring into my mind unbidden.
2. ZOMGWTFBBQ WHO AM I AND WHAT HAVE I DONE WITH THE REAL ME?
3. And so it gets scarier.
4. If this actually happens, I may even have to explain to D&Ders what a heater shield is, just so they Get It.
5. ...thus bringing shame upon you and yours for all time...
6. My sense of fun is a little odd, though. Remember the Scientology Answers?⁷
7. You probably remember them better than I. Hundreds of answers eventually just blurs into a whole heap of letters and a couple of scattered words.
8. This particular item of public transport proto-shelter featured a sloping roof, held in defiance of gravity by pointy metal brackets, the lowest points of which were under the roof. The roof also includes a small hole, to discharge water onto the footpath.
   
   Or so goes the theory.
   
   Instead, it runs onto one of the support thingies, and - by virtue of surface tension - spills forth all the water onto the exact middle of the bench, spraying all in reach in such a way that you'd be drier standing out in the rain itself, rather than adopting a not-so-sheltersome catchment area.
   

Comments

[ryttu3k.livejournal.com]

Footnote number eight is making me giggle. Considering the fact that I can hear the rain through my headphones, maybe I shouldn't have had a shower tonight, I should have just run around outside.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

Eberron holds the solution to your armor-wearing woes... Warforged!
Who needs to take off armour when you ARE armour?

Or maybe I'm just pleased with my Power Attacking Greatsword-weilding Adamantine warforged fighter nailing a mega crit on the Troll 2 nights ago, bringing what should have been a rather hard battle to a very swift conclusion

[laurenmitchell.livejournal.com]

Nice one!

As opposed to my last session, wherein my halfling nearly got eaten by a chuul.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

Warforged are fun. You're a living construct, so you're immune to tons of crap, including eating, sleeping and breathing. Your armor is built in... so you can't replace it or wear other armor, but you can simply get yourself enchanted directly :) My guy is adamantine, so I'm always wearing the equivilent of Full Plate AND I have DR.

We have one of the most insanely buff-happy groups I've ever played with. Once all the buffs are running, things are just ludicrous.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

Would you have preferred for your halfling to have been nearly eaten by a grue?

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

>_

[laurenmitchell.livejournal.com]

Gloria's got an Everburning Torch. No grue for her!

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

That's not much of a solution, mostly because I really don't like heavy armour. It's... heavy. And metal. And imposes monumental penalties on things like thief skills, not that this particular concept at all calls for them.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

You can get Warforged made out of wood! Or with no armour at all!

There's even a compromise. Get Mithral Body! AC +5, Max Dex +5, Armor Check Penalty -2, Arcane Fail 15%, counts as Light Armor.

Then you take Mithral Fluidity. Every time you take it, your Max Dex increases +1, and your Armor Check Penalty decreases by 1. Meaning you can have quite respectable armor built in, and NO penalty to your theifly skills (after investing a few feats)