Having been granted rulership over the city of Vanhoover, and confessed their feelings for each other, Lex Legis and Sonata Dusk have started a new life together. But the challenges of rulership, and a relationship, are more than they bargained for.
For the first time since he’d returned to Equestria, Lex found himself completely without a plan.
In the few seconds that had passed since he’d dropped into the ground, he’d tried to come up with a course of action, but no matter how fiercely he’d concentrated, no effective strategies had come to mind. All of his methods of attack relied on spellcasting, and that monster’s spell resistance was virtually impossible to break through. Nor could he simply cause crystals to grow from the ground to try and impale it again; even if he hadn’t expended the last of his dark magic changing into shadow, the creature’s speed and ability to fly would have made that an iffy proposition at best. Worse, it was smart enough that it would certainly have moved so as to keep him from easily targeting its location.
For the barest fraction of a second, thoughts of retreat flitted across his mind, but Lex knew that was no plan at all. Even if he could have countenanced letting that abomination live, falling back now would have been worse than useless. The entire point of a retreat was to withdraw and regroup, but with Severance gone there was no way for him to easily regain the thaumaturgical spells he’d already expended. Besides, there was nowhere that he could retreat to that this thing, in all likelihood, wouldn’t be able to follow. If it could move so easily between dimensions, then mere physical space would almost certainly be nothing to it.
The only option was to go on the offensive, but doing so offered little hope of victory. He still had several attack spells left, but knew he was only going to get a chance to cast one of them, since he’d have to rise above the ground in order to target the monster. Since it doesn’t know exactly when or where I’ll emerge, I’ll likely be able to finish casting before it can react, he felt certain. But once it does, it will attempt to dispel my shadow-form again. That attempt, he knew, would almost certainly succeed. And once it does, I won’t be able to cast another spell. Not when I can barely breathe with the wounds I’ve taken. Which meant that his next spell would have to either kill or incapacitate the creature. Anything else would be insufficient to stop it from tearing him apart.
He was going to have to bet everything on a single spell which likely would never reach the creature.
The thing’s spell resistance wasn’t an absolute barrier; of that he felt reasonably confident. While he wasn’t completely certain, it was reasonable to presume that if he could dispel the magic it was using to possess Nosey, he could force his way past its spell resistance as well. But even if he was right the odds were decidedly against him, given how he’d failed to affect the monster since then. Worse, although he had more than a few attack spells remaining, almost none of them were powerful enough to have any hope of stopping the creature in its tracks even if they got through. Only three of them had any viability in that regard: a spell to seal the target in a cocoon of ice, an asphyxiation spell, and his remaining disintegration spell. The others might wound the creature if they reached it, but had no hope of incapacitating or slaying it outright.
It took only a moment for Lex to decide on trying to disintegrate the creature again. He had no idea if this thing needed to breathe at all, and sealing it in ice wouldn’t be of much use if the monster could shift through dimensions. I’ll channel as much additional magic as I can through this, he decided silently. If it gets through, it might be enough to reduce that thing to dust, and if that doesn’t work… He tried to push that thought away, but for once he couldn’t do so, not when he knew that the results wouldn’t stop with his own death. That thing would possess Nosey again, then resume whatever machinations it had been pursuing back at the camp, and everypony there would be none the wiser for it. Sonata would have no idea what had happened…
Despite his bodiless state, a cold shudder ran through him then, and Lex found himself casting another spell. It wasn’t a defensive enchantment; given how the thing’s dispelling magic had punched through multiple spells at once, that wouldn’t survive his being turned corporeal again. Instead it was a tactical spell, one that he’d almost certainly not be able to use, but he wanted as many options available as possible, no matter how minor they w-
Then Nosey started screaming.
The sound was audible even through the ground, and it made Lex’s immaterial blood run cold. Instantly, he realized that he’d stayed underground too long, that the thing had turned its attention to Nosey in an effort to cajole him into emerging. The thought was more than he could bear, and it didn’t occur to him to wonder why all he felt at that moment was guilt and fear rather than the righteous rage he would have expected. NOSEY! Surging upward, Lex didn’t have to think to focus on the source of the screams, comparing it to his mental map of the battlefield and realizing that she was right next to the acid cloud, calculating the most likely position for the creature to be in. Chanting and gesturing before he cleared the ground, Lex forced as much extra magic into the spell as he could, maximizing its destructive potential as he emerged…
Right through the middle of the monster’s body.
Lex heard its voices chorus in a shriek of surprise, the sound almost drowned out by Nosey’s screaming behind him. Its body immediately shifted, trying to exit the space he was occupying so that it could target him easier, and even as it moved Lex’s magical sense felt it gather and release its dispelling magic at him. It took barely an instant for the creature to accomplish both of those goals, wriggling to the side with incredible speed, its heads turning to look at him as its magical attack tore his dark magic apart. But even as the shadows that made up his body changed back into flesh and blood and he collapsed to the ground, Lex finished the last syllable of his chant, stretching his one good foreleg out towards the monster as he unleashed the thin green beam of his disintegration spell, the super-charged ray sparkling with a dazzling radiance.
But Lex didn’t watch the beam cross the few inches separating his hoof from the monster. His eyes were already turning toward the mare wailing in agony a few feet away from him, the sound of her screams more painful than any of the wounds he’d taken so far. In that moment, Lex fully appreciated that this wasn’t some random pony whose name he barely knew; that seeing her being tortured like that was more than some abstract violation of his principles.
“Oh come on, he and I go way back! I’m practically family!”
This was somepony he knew personally. Who had been there alongside him almost since he’d come back to Equestria. Who had decided, unlike so many other people, that she wanted to be around him.
“Stop pushing yourself so hard all the time,” agreed Nosey. “Blowing off some steam and resting for a few hours won’t change the city, and it’ll do you a lot of good!”
More than that, she had supported him. She had been the one to convince him to rest and replenish himself before exploring Vanhoover, ensuring that he’d been at his best before he’d faced Lirtkra. She had been the first one to call for doctors when he and Sonata had staggered back in from that fight. He had met her when she’d found him collapsed on the street and taken it upon herself to shelter and feed him.
“I really felt like we’d become a group, instead of just a bunch of ponies who happened to be traveling together. And that was because of you, since you made me participate.”
When he’d first met her, Nosey had been nothing but an annoyance, a self-serving reporter who wouldn’t leave him alone. But somewhere along the line, that had changed. Without his realizing it, she had become important to him, not because of what she could do or what she knew, but simply because of who she was.
Nosey Newsy was his friend.
The realization was enough to completely break Lex’s heart. Nosey was his friend…and he had failed her utterly. Not only had he not realized that she had been possessed before now, but he hadn’t been able to protect her from that monster. No matter the circumstances, no matter the reasons, he had let one of the few ponies who actually meant something to him be injured so terribly…and now, if this didn’t work, she’d have to suffer even more.
Nosey…I’m sorry…
The voiceless words slid through his mind again, and this time he registered them, recognizing that they were from the same source that so often tormented his waking hours and turned his dreams into nightmares. But the maelstrom of emotions going through him didn’t give Lex any time to process that, instead trying to speak through bloodstained lips. “Nosey…I’m s-”
Then the green ray struck the creature…and it voices rose in a scream that drowned out Nosey’s completely.
The chorus of voices rose in a cacophonous wail that was hideous to hear. The thing’s body thrashed wildly as the green radiance of the beam spread to encompass its entire body. Its tongues whipped back and forth, spasming madly as its cries somehow managed to grow even worse, and the one holding Nosey began to uncoil from around her throat. For a brief instant Lex had a horrifying vision of her being flung bodily into the acid mist, but an instant later she went flying in the opposite direction, tossed over the creature’s heads and knocking several of its floating gemstones out of their orbit, scattering them across the ground.
The monster barely seemed to notice, still shaking as though it were trying to physically cast off the spell Lex had hit it with. But suddenly its shaking stopped, and an instant later its screaming did also. For a brief second, the creature held perfectly still…and then a foul black substance began to spray from its mouths. As Lex watched, the substance erupted from the creature’s heads and maw, gushing out with such intensity it was as though the thing had just been stomped on by a giant, invisible hoof. In fact, that seemed like an apt analogy, as the creature’s slug-like body was – for lack of a better word – deflating, its form flattening out as the ichor inside it continued to spew out.
I disintegrated its organs, Lex realized with a sense of grim satisfaction. Whatever guts that thing had, the spell destroyed them. The black substance, therefore, had to be a combination of blood and whatever was left of its innards. I hope it hurts, he thought with sudden viciousness. I hope it’s worse than anything you’ve ever done to anyone else!
After a few moments the discharge of black sludge began to ebb, and the monster collapsed. Its body shuddered as the flow slowed even further, becoming a trickle before finally stopping altogether. As it did, the creature gave one last convulsion and went still, staring upward silently.
For a long moment Lex just stared at it, still fighting to draw breath. It was only after several seconds that he turned and started to crawl away from the creature. “No…sey…” he wheezed, looking toward where the mare had fallen. It wasn’t very far, but he couldn’t seem to get his hooves under him, and dragging his injured chest and stomach across the ground was intensely painful…but he had to know she was alright, had t-
“tHaT…wON’t…KiLl…mE!”
Lex realizes what Nosey means to him as he strikes back against the monster...in vain!
Will he perish before putting his new friendship lesson into practice?
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The power of the rule of three proves Victorious once more! Very nicely done. I forget if I have asked this before, but it do you use Discord?
Multi form bosses are really annoying, but by the time you reach them, if you are able to grind, its possible that your squad has more pheonix downs than a speed runner has potions and death states are another tactical advantage.
Lex rolled Critcal Success 20, Blobby rolled Critical Fail 1 because of Lexs Chance?
8747075 Thanks! I figured after how easy Lex has had it during this fight so far, I should make it a little harder to attain victory, you know?
All kidding aside, I don't use Discord (it's a chat app, right?); I suppose I never really thought about it, since I'm happy to communicate in writing.
8747259
That's all very true. Completely inapplicable to what's happening here, but very true nonetheless.
Well...not exactly. You're thinking along the right track, but have the specifics wrong.
8747584
It is writing, just a bit more real time. There is a Ponyfinder server, where we chat about Ponyfinder, ponies in general, and such like that. It'd be neat to have you on it. I often share bits of the book/chapter I'm writing for feedback as I go.
8747627 Whoops, I meant voice chatting; everything I've heard about Discord was that it was a VoIP thing. I didn't know it had text as well.
8747634
Text is its primary 'thing', though it does voice too. Most days, I don't use the voice.
8745438 This thread is getting beyond the length where I want to respond to each individual piece, so I'll just go into a few key points.
The ten to one ratio I'm getting from A)Thoth's own article used this, and B) the Setting work Oliver has used also estimates Equestria's population is about one tenth that of the United States, or 30 million.
Broadly speaking, my assumptions on infrastructure is that your technology level on end-stage consumer goods and beginning stage infrastructure goods is going to see an equal level of of development of middle-stage capital equipment goods, i.e. factories and machines serviced by infrastructure that produce end-stage consumer goods and reproduce other capital and infrastructure goods.
Of course, magic, whether unicorn spells or cutie mark magic or other types, is going to obviate a large amount of the technology needed, which is why I think Equestria can produce enough technology and infrastructure with a small fraction of the population, but that means they also need a certain level of technology. So instead of 100 humans with ten cranes building a skyscraper, 10 ponies and 1 crane can build that same skyscraper, with magic making up the vast majority of the productive power. However, they do still need that 1 crane, which means they needed 1 crane factory to build that crane. Given that we do see a technology level within a couple of decades of Earth's, in terms of the actual goods we do see, with almost every material good (outside of a few notable exceptions like Tank's helicopter), it doesn't seem to be likely to me that there's a huge disparity between end-stage goods being similar to human society's, underlying infrastructure being similar to human society's, but middle-stage capital and production equipment in Equestria being radically different from human society's. However, it does seem like to you that is the most straightforward assumption, and I don't think we can really bridge our different assumptions on what ponies are doing with their expanding production possibilities frontier.
I think it's a bit like Moore's Law, the idea that every 18 months computing power will double. Even if both parties agree on this underlying logic, one party might use it to predict that a society in a few decades will have shrunk their computers to a tiny fraction of their size but have similar power, the other will predict that society in a few decades will have tremendously advanced computers that have stayed the same size.
On Twilight, "Advanced Combat Training" sounds kind of pretentious, I admit. I assume that unicorns in the royal guard have some kind of basic training of "here's when you shield, here's when you fire a force bolt," though I admit it hasn't done them a lot of good. It's hard to imagine a military organization, even a fairly incompetent one like the royal guard, not having at least a smattering of sparring and training.
When I said Twilight would have benefited from combat training, I mostly meant she could have made fuller use of her existing powers, especially now that she is an alicorn (though her behaviors in situations like the hydra in S1 are also less than ideal), if she had had a bunch of sparring practice with someone before the S5 finale. I didn't mean she would have learned a bunch more advanced and deadly spells or anything.
Ah, thanks for explaining more about Lex. It sounds like he was burning magic items to power his arcane magic in the Everglow, and metering it religiously. Reminds me of Robert Aspirin's Myth Adventures series, where vampires were extremely good spellcasters because their home dimension has so little magic, they were forced to become both highly efficient and highly creative.
Lex is a 12th level caster, right? I'm guessing that was a maximized disintegrate,
but even so that wouldn't kill a Belier devil (who was fully healed at the time, as I believe this one was). The good news is this one probably doesn't have the ability to heal itself.
8748271 With regard to 10:1 ration issue, I was trying (and maybe I did a bad job) to separate the idea of overall population versus ability to accomplish work. That is, I wanted to make it clear that I wasn't explicitly endorsing the idea that "because there are 1/10 as many ponies in Equestria as there are humans in the US - and the two lands have a similar level of sociotechnological development - then 1 pony can do the work of 10 humans." I can understand why that seems to be a natural conclusion, but I'm somewhat suspicious of it. (Also, if Equestria is at the level of the U.S. in the 1950's, then it's more at a 5:1 ratio, since the U.S. population then was roughly half of what it is today.)
I agree that we're taking a look at the end results and basically disagreeing as to how the ponies would ultimately get there. As you've noted, you're of the opinion that they'd have overall infrastructure comparable to what we'd have, simply scaled down to match the overall population level (and, I think, disbursement). In essence, if I'm understanding you correctly, Equestria is functioning like a mini-U.S., and it's because the ponies have magic (and quite a few other advantages) that enables them to function that way, since otherwise there'd be numerous issues that would crop up with operating that level of infrastructure at that scale. The only real reason I objected to that was that - and again, this is just my take on it - it relied upon a deterministic approach to that level of development (e.g. "this innovation must follow that innovation, which in turn has to follow this other innovation, otherwise it could not exist") which I don't find convincing, and that the various unpleasant side effects (e.g. industrial waste, unsafe working conditions, and economic necessity trumping personal fulfillment) didn't seem to be present at all. To my mind, those two points made it more likely that the ponies were simply bypassing a lot of the infrastructure necessary to achieve the end-products that we saw in the show, using magic to (mostly) bridge gaps in production that humans couldn't accomplish without a great deal more mechanical assistance. (Though, to be clear, I wasn't making that out to be categorical - I'll certainly concede that there's some level of production infrastructure - but that it's likely to be the exception rather than the rule.)
Of course, the entire debate is moot, as - unless future seasons happen to have some major reveals regarding the (relatively boring) details of how Equestrian society functions on a macro level - we'll never be shown any clear answers anyway. And while rules for interpretation and inference can be helpful, at the end of the day they can only take a particular line of inquiry so far. So I suppose the positive spin on that would be that there's room for both of us to say we're, at the very least, "not wrong."
Insofar as the Royal Guard goes...you know, even leaving aside my general contempt for their complete uselessness for anything besides guarding empty hallways (which even then they don't do very well), minor crowd control, or running errands for Celestia, I feel like they run into the same problem that's usually applied to guards in D&D, which is that they're functionally weaker than the very people they're supposed to protect. That runs into an issue, because other than serving as cannon fodder and/or meat-shields, they're not going to be able to stop anything that would be a credible threat to the more-powerful character that they're supposed to be protecting. If Princess Celestia is 9th level, and the guards are all 3rd level, then it's no wonder that they come across as useless whenever we see anyone capable of challenging the princesses!
As far as Twilight is concerned...yeah, she would definitely benefit from learning how to fight better, but in the end I suspect that would kind of undercut the point that, at the end of the proverbial day, friendship is supposed to be the strongest magic of all, rather than combative prowess. It's no coincidence that she wasn't able to defeat Tirek or Starlight in actual combat, but friendship ended up carrying the day for her. The trickier question is whether or not that's purely a meta aspect of the show (i.e. friendship wins because that's how the writers make it) or if it's some sort of function of that particular universe (i.e. friendship will win out over virtually any position because it has to). That's rather difficult to determine.
Finally, with regard to Lex, he wasn't burning magic items to power his magic...he doesn't have that ability. Rather, he has one magic item that grants him three free spell levels each day (well, I suppose it should be four now, since I've had him put some of his ranks in Craft (precepts) into it), and can take ability burn to his physical ability scores to conserve spells, and that's it; after that, he has to actually expend them. (He also can't change his prepared spells unless he can find an opportunity to actually replenish them, as well.) But overall, yeah, he's gotten very good at working with what he has because for a long time that was what he had to do. Now that he has Severance, he can cut loose (pun intended).
8748320 That's exactly right. If only Lex had scored a critical hit, he could have killed it outright, but alas he wasn't that fortunate.
8748530 Right at the end I was looking at the Production Possibilities Frontier as a way of exploring how magic and technology could combine to make certain quantities of goods with different levels of inputs, and then I realized that the research involved for me to speak even semi-coherently on such a subject is not something I'm willing to invest. I think at the very least, we've come away with an exceptional understanding of each other's positions.
I kind of think the guards are meat shields, there to buy a round or two for Celestia to charge up her personal shield. And I definitely agree about the inherent absurdity of bodyguards in a fantasy setting. Pathfinder has always had every major world leader have like 15 class levels, even if they've practically never left their castle, and it bugs me. By coincidence every single major ruler was an adventurer in their youth? (You could also apply this trope to Celestia and Luna, but at least with them their not one of like 30 listed leaders with lots of class levels).
So Lex needs a pearl necklace of power, basically. Hopefully his hyperlogical non-sentimental self will let him justify investing a significant amount of the "reclaimed" money from the bank into paying for more pearls of power or upgrading them, rather than spending every last cent on farmers.
8748533 That's why you play as a magus, stab people with your keen scimitar and you've got at least a 25% chance to crit. I used that with Disintegrate on the final boss in a campaign. Good times. I really hope Aria or Sonata comes along soon... heck I'd take Adagio stumbling through a portal at this point!
8748632 Yeah, it's always nice when these things end at a point of mutual understanding instead of going down in flames. Certainly, a large part of this can be blamed on the fact that not only do we never really get into the background aspects of production in Equestria, but Equestrian magic is also hideously undefined. But at least that problem makes itself obvious to even casual scrutiny (even if the specific examples of how it tends to be inconsistent and self-contradictory can sometimes be harder to find).
I suspect that you're right about the guards being meat-shields; simply put, there's really no other value for them in a fight except to play into the old tradition of letting the spellcasters do their thing. It's not like they're setting up flanking positions for sneak attacks or anything. Part of that problem is the methodology by which XP is gained (and what it represents, to get back to that old chestnut), but it's also a meta-game issue of the overall distribution of levels among the populace, which is an area where Pathfinder has been inexplicably more reluctant to delve than even 3.5, despite the fact that Pathfinder has grounded itself so firmly into Golarion, whereas 3.5 - outside of its campaign settings - managed to present itself as being at least somewhat world-neutral. And yet Pathfinder doesn't manage to give us the "class and level distribution in settlements" table that 3.5 did (which, to be sure, had its own problems...I understand why they had those footnotes about a percent chance of the rural rangers and druids being exceptionally high-leveled compared to everyone else, but that really screwed up the default world assumptions).
It's clear that Paizo doesn't want to nail down the basic details of Golarion too closely, lest they find the fans ready to hoist them on their own petards if and when they contradict themselves on some esoteric point, but I don't think that trying to avoid details is necessarily the best way to go about it either. After all, it goes against the grain of their stance about having products lines that keep defining more and more aspects of the world. I get wanting wiggle room, and that the game world can only go so deep into simulationism, but at the end of the day the basic facts that make up the background assumptions should be foundational elements of a setting, rather than details to be overlooked...but that's just me.
Also, a "pearl necklace of power"? I know what you meant there, but that just sounds wrong. All kidding aside though, Lex is going to have some problems in that regard. He doesn't know how to create Pathfinder-style magic items; in fact, his inability to do that - and the frustration he feels over it - is a plot point introduced early on. He desperately wants that knowledge, and has tried to deconstruct and reverse-engineer magic items that he acquired on Everglow, which is how he's able to interface with the items he has to the extent that he does...but so far, being able to actually create them has eluded him.
That drives him crazy, because he knows he's maddeningly close to figuring it out, but can't quite solve the last part of the puzzle. Minor spoiler for something that I don't think I've had a chance to mention yet in this story so far: Lex can make magic items in the native Equestrian fashion, which let him 1) create minor magical baubles (a la Tank's little helicopter) that are extremely weak in d20 terms (i.e. charms and talismans, from The Practical Enchanter), and 2) kludge together a combination of exotic magical ingredients and esoteric processes to create unique, nonstandard magic items, which by definition is difficult to do since it relies on not only having special components but also in knowing how to fuse them together into a coherent whole (i.e. the "Create Artifact" ability in Eclipse; that's not quite the same as traditional "minor artifacts" and "major artifacts," but the unique nature of such items makes it close enough). (He's likewise figured out how to store pre-cast spells in a physical medium for later use (i.e. make scrolls, although he stores them in gems), but that's not the same as truly enchanting an item.)
But while the former items are convenient yet weak, and the latter are very inconvenient yet strong, Everglow's (Pathfinder) magic items are convenient yet strong. They take a little time to make, and can be a huge money-sink, but they represent being able to lay permanent enchantments onto relatively mundane items in a reproducible fashion. No need to find exotic components, or accept only weak enchantments. Just pony up the cash (pun intended) and have a talented spellcaster create it. Lex wants to be that spellcaster very badly, but so far he hasn't figured it out.
8748637 Adagio, given how she exited David Silver's original story, would be much harder to work back in. Not that I haven't thought about it, of course. After all, when you've got two Sirens, who could resist wanting to complete the set?
8748869
What? That's crazy. Would there really be a group of fans that would obsessively study the society and economy of a fantasy setting that closely just to get into petty arguments? Pshah!
Yeah, I wish him the best in getting a sweet sweet Craft Wondrous Items feat.
Yup, my thoughts exactly.
Aww, Lex understands he has a friend now...if only he knows this friend wants something more than just friendship.
Anyways, that belier is either tough enough to have had its insides disintegrated or it has a trump card(or more) up its none-existant sleeves that allowed it to survive that in one way or another. Either way, Lex is completely vulnerable and likely at the belier's mercy(of which it has none) though given its sadistic nature, I doubt it will simply kill Lex.
Question is, how will Lex pull himself out of this one though that's rather doubtful given the state of his body and I doubt anyone would come to the rescue given how no one has bothered to check after Nosey's screams. Moving so far away from the camp might have proven detrimental to his survival though I can understand that Lex wanted to keep everyone out of harms way.
8749124
Point taken. But at least they know enough to bring the fans in on certain things, like playtesting new base classes (a lesson that was rather painfully reinforced when they didn't do that for the shifter class, and faced a huge revolt on their forums over how unpalatable their hardcore fanbase found it to be).
He's going to need it. Figuring that out is a large part of what he wants to be able to accomplish going forward (if he survives).
That might take some time though; unlike her sisters, Adagio remained on Everglow.
Also, this only occurred to me a little while ago, but the magus' spellstrike ability only works with touch-range spells, so couldn't be used with disintegrate. Were you using an archetype to modify that?
8749610 The belier did say that Nosey "had feelings" for Lex, though since it was trying to goad him at the time (and it's been shown to be duplicitous), I have to wonder just how much stock can be put in that. Then again, we do know that Nosey is rather lonely, and she does seem to admire Lex. If he saves her, he might have an uncomfortable situation on his hooves...
Of course, that's only if he survives. As of right now, he's injured too badly to keep casting spells, and he can't change back into shadow. With his enemy apparently still being alive, there's really no way Lex can effectively fight back now. Unless a rescue makes a timely appearance, then this looks extremely bad. As you noted, they seem to be far enough away from the camp that nopony is going to notice, much less try and do anything.
8749698
Of course, considering how the camp ponies have been hiding terrified behind the so called blockade, I doubt they'll do much even if they have heard all the commotion and Nosey's screams. At the very least they would have informed the other members of Lex's group but that would take too long for any form of rescue to make it in time to save Lex.
Though it would be long enough for them to find a wounded 'Nosey' who would likely make up a story of how Lex died saving her from the beast that attack them. At least that's how I imagine the belier would spin the tale should it succeed in killing Lex.
8749693 I didn't follow the shifter play-test closely, but from what I heard it's like a severely depowered druid, so I'm not surprised.
My magus bought himself some Spellstrike Gloves. Also liked to use them with Greater Dispel Magic so he could work it into his arcane combat full attack.
8749714 Strictly speaking, we don't know if the camp ponies haven't heard what's going on, or at least glimpsed it. All that's separating them from Lex is a substantial amount of flat land. So far, there's been an area of acid fog created, a Huge-size astral construct (which was, admittedly, dispelled immediately), and quite a bit of screaming to alert them to what's happened. So there's potentially someponies who know that something is going on...maybe.
That said, if Sonata knew that Lex and Nosey were out there and something was happening, she'd run toward them without hesitation.
8749826 The shifter didn't have a playtest, which is what people blamed for why the class was considered to be so incredibly weak at its main role (which was supposed to be "to the druid what the paladin is to the cleric"). What people got, from what I've heard, was a full-BAB class with no spellcasting at all, and shapeshifting powers that were both limited and weak, ridiculously so. The amount of vitriol it generated was such that Paizo had to lock - multiple times! - the discussion thread on the Ultimate Wilderness product page, only reopening it after they warned people not to discuss the class at all there (you could discuss it on other threads on their forums, but not on the product page).
It finally ended up with Jason Bulmahn, Paizo's Director of Game Design, issuing what was tantamount to a public apology and some official errata for the class that will be incorporated into the next printing. Needless to say, the entire thing was quite the debacle.
Having said that...spellstrike gloves don't work with ray spells, which is what disintegrate is.
just going to sit back and see how this all plays out.
8749867 Enjoy the ride!
8749861
Yup. One of the things Paizo has been really leery about is shapeshifting, so they've generally nerfed that kind of mechanic severly. But the shifting was worse than the wild-shaping of a druid, in a class called the shifter... Then they tried to pull that old "if we keep to the current peak design, we're somehow pushing up the power curve, so the smart thing to do is make every new mechanical thing slightly worse than everything before it." Honestly the changes were very slight. There's a reason I review new archetypes, and see if they are PFS legal, before I buy content these days. For the last couple of years Paizo has erred on the side of making things mechanically weaker on this assumption that 99 boring builds are fine, as long as they avoid that 1 overpowered build. If I don't see an archetype that looks interesting to play, I won't buy.
Shoot. I hadn't previously noticed that line. I bought them right before we went into the last dungeon, and used them for GDM, but on the last boss I saw an opportunity to go big and use my maximize arcana. No one at the table caught it, but then again we had the villain (a wizard) surrounded after we had put him in a force cage and destroyed all his golem servitors, so he was going down in that round.
CALL THE CHRISTIANS, HE SAID THE FORBIDDEN F-WORD!
9217588 Even Lex can grow and change over time, though he's only now realized what Nosey means to him when they're both at the brink.