8 - On Our Hooves
Twilight looked out a window over the small town they were in and the sparkling lake that gave it its name. She sighed softly, drawing the attention of their smallest member. He sat beside her and gently nudged her. "Hmm? Oh. I'm just wondering what's going on back home... I hope someone remembered to feed Spike." He tilted his head at her. "My pet dog." He nodded at that with seeming understanding, "Worst comes to worse, he can talk if he has to." The small pony seemed confused at that. "You have to imagine how surprised I was. My world has a lot less magic and hocus pocus than yours." He nodded.
Sunset approached from the front. "I could swear you two were having a conversation without him saying a word. Twilight, have you been practicing?"
"You bet!" Her horn began to glow evenly, hefting the small pony right into the air in a feat of magical ability. "See?"
The little pony clopped his hooves with unbridled joy at the feat and Sunset nodded. "Very good. We're going to want to get moving soon."
Twilight cringed at that. "We finally found a safe place..."
"Sure, for us. They smile and nod when we walk by, because this is a unicorn town. They don't do that with Roll or, um, we really need a name for you." She reached up and pointed the small pony and he turned red, unable to speak his name.
Twilight got an idea that seemed so obvious. "Can you write?" She fetched a quill and paper and held it out in her magic.
He accepted the quill in his mouth and began to slowly write as if he didn't do it all that often. 'True Shot'
Twilight nodded at the words. "Nice to meet you, True." She tilted her head faintly. "True Shot... Were you an archer?"
True blushed softly and nodded quickly before making a curious motion of pulling something back with his head and releasing it with the sound of his lips parting.
Sunset shook her head. "Well, it could have been worse. If he had to say those funny words I said to do magic, he'd be out of luck."
"Why doesn't picking things up need words?"
"I have no idea."
With a clop of hooves, Twilight seemed to leap to a conclusion, right or not. "Maybe it's a supernatural ability."
"What?"
True looked equally confused.
"Well, sure, all magic is supernatural, but this is specific. Supernatural abilities don't require words or gestures, they just work. It's from the game." She made a circular motion. "You know, the one we're trapped inside. Your spells are, well, spells. So they need verbal and somatic components. You haven't needed random items, have you?"
Sunset shook her head slowly. "Not that I'm aware of? I mean, I did several spells during our escape without anything but, well, me involved. The cleaning spell didn't need anything either."
"You're a sorcerer." Twilight nodded firmly. "Sorcerers can cast without material components." She let out a little nervous laugh. "I never thought this information would become so applicable..."
The front door closed quietly, but loud enough for all to hear. It was Roll, approaching them at an easy pace. She had a new outfit on, covering her metallic form much more evenly in soft shades of blue and gold. "Are you all feeling ready?"
Sunset rose to her hooves and directed one at True. "True Shot here could use a bow."
True perked up at the mention and began bobbing his head up and down in agreement.
Roll was less enthused, shaking her head. "I'm afraid any bow we procured from this village would be of unicorn make. Lacking multiple grasping points, you require a cloudbow."
True deflated a bit at the news.
"Regardless, we should not hinder our hosts any further. True, you're coming with me." She pointed a hoof at the small pony. "We will depart."
Twilight blinked in mounting confusion. "If you're going, aren't we all going? Why just True Shot?"
"Negative." She frowned. "You will be safer here. I will escort True to a town that accepts him before continuing."
Sunset stomped the ground as she snorted. "The very idea. We're a team! We're not going to let--"
"Negative." Steam billowed from Roll's sides as she planted herself, ready to fight for her view. "You will be safe here."
Twilight moved between the two, putting up a hoof towards either of them. "Hold up. Look, we won't be safe anywhere until we get home. Until we're home, we'd really rather keep the group together. Look, don't split the party. Rule #1 for any RPG. Besides." She turned to look at Roll directly. "We owe you. We owe you a lot. Please let us pay you back."
Roll let out a gust of steam, a sigh from all sides. "Very well... It seems showing logic to any of you is fruitless. Prepare yourselves. We leave shortly. I will inform the village of our passing and request food and water for you as well. They should be amenable since it is for your sake, and gets rid of me faster." She turned towards the door. "Are you certain?"
Sunset nodded firmly. True was more physical in his answer. He scampered up to Roll and hopped up on her back, hugging her tightly from above.
Roll let out a little smile. "Then we depart together."
So they did. They gathered by the banks of the lake the town was named for and made to orient themselves north. They had supplies to make the journey with some extra left over. "My funds are depleted," reported Roll. "But I thought to bring so much for the dance. Being captured by gem gnolls was not accounted for."
Sunset shook her head as she adjusted the backpack she wore. "We'll get a job if we have to, once we're somewhere safe, for all of us."
Twilight was quick to agree with the sentiment, nodding. "For now, we're catching a train, right?"
"Affirmative." Roll pointed the way, then got to walking, with the others following her. They had begun their second adventure, even if Sunset and Twilight could hardly be blamed for considering it one extended one.
The first hour of walking was peaceful and scenic, with rolling hills, trees, and wildlife to admire on their passing, including some dangerous looking predators that thankfully looked elsewhere for prey. Perhaps they were scared away by the unsubtly unnatural whirrings of their mechanical companion? It was impossible to know for certain.
About halfway through the second hour, a group of ponies approached them, going in the opposite direction. They were dressed in rugged clothes seemingly made for the wilderness and had weapons at their side. The one that seemed to be in charge, though not the largest, advanced. "Coming from Sun's Tears?" He raised a brow high. "I thought they only did unicorns around here."
Twilight looked from pony to pony. There were four of them, and none of them were unicorns. "Why are you going there?"
He smirked before he drew his blade with a deft motion of his neck, holding it in his teeth. "Unicorns usually have a fair bit of coin. Let's see how these two do." The others were armed without word, the actions of their boss apparently quite enough of a signal.
Roll's forehooves deployed claws into the earth as she widened her stance. "This is your first and last warning. Cease all hostilities or great harm will be visited on your person."
"Kill the wizard, then the golem should shut up."
Sunset and Twilight shared a glance. Which of them looked more like a wizard?!
Two of them charged forward for Twilight, making the choice. Apparently her glasses did her no favors in this situation. She squealed in terror and backed away in a hurried scamper.
With a flash of her horn and alien words, Sunset filled Roll with power and girth. The metal mare stormed towards the two, intercepting them as she became larger. She brought down a hoof on the first, hitting the shield held in the pony's mouth, only to shatter it violently as she brought her claws past it to the ground and roared in fury at the two, commanding their attention.
"By the gods, their golem fights like a devil!" hissed the de-shielded pony. He had a lance in a rack at his side and took a step back as he swung viciously.
The leader advanced on Sunset, only for True to come between him and her. "Oh ho, what's this? Is she your mother, little foal?" He took a swipe at him, forcing True to spring out of the way. "Go on, get. We don't kill foals if we don't haveta."
Sunset rewarded his 'generosity' with a lick of flames that he rolled away from. "Oh ho! Maybe we figured the wrong one for the spellcaster. Get 'er!"
The last pony planted his bow in the ground solidly, drew an arrow and pulled it back with his teeth. True let out an excited squeak and dashed for it, knocking it and its wielder askew as he crashed into it. "Damn foal. Ferget it, I'm gonna re-arrange your little face." He drew a dagger with a menacing glare.
No longer being chased, Twilight turned to see her friends engaged. Roll was trading blows with two of them while True and Sunset each had a pony one them. It was four against four, but only if one counted her. And she didn't really count... She took a step back towards the fight, fury building in her. She wanted to count. She wanted to help.
"Do you really?" asked Lashtada's voice in her mind. "Fighting is not my strength or what I wish of the world, but to protect your friends and my follower, perhaps I can awaken something..."
"Are you watching me?" hissed Twilight as she looked around. Of course a god could keep tabs on her, but that didn't make the fact any less odd. "Yes, please! I want to help my friends."
"I will help, but only you can do it. Fight as best you can."
Twilight gathered the magic she had learned in her horn. She didn't want to cast spells, not like Sunset. She didn't have odd blood or time to learn magic, that kind of magic. She relied on the magic that seemed built into her as a unicorn. She heard the flowing of water as the magic above her head began to condense the water in the air into a ball, then began to chill rapidly. It became a frozen bit of snow and flurry as she looked at the pony closing with True. "No!" She let it loose, unleashing a newfound bolt of pure coldness at the unexpecting pony.
It would be four on four. Sure, her cold beam wasn't enough to knock a hardened brigand down in one shot, but she had power. She could help. Twilight began to giggle almost manically as the realization came to her.
She could help.
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7312254
I gave it a pass.
It's cold and analytical, but clearly not intended to be hurtful. Perhaps your work has been rubbing off on me, but I have a strong resistance not to rush to judgment on the characters in your stories.
7312260 Oh no, she's done nothing hurtful to anyone that's not a gnoll, purposefully. Unlike Samantha, she is aware of most societal norms and even navigates them without causing a scene where she goes, besides being what she is. She clearly likes life, and wants to live. She just isn't alive, and it bothers her.
Non-spellcaster with a cold elemental blast? Sci-Twi's a water kineticist.
For some weird reason, PCGen still requires Java 5 on this machine, as any new install refuses to include it as a deprecated security risk, and I dont like firing up the Win 7 machine all that much which is does run on, to save the drive etc.
Depends what CR theye running on, induvidual wilds would probably take them on without the Clockwork, but she is definitely not level 1, and a bandit crew heading for town I wouldve expected to be at least either somewhat experienced or totally and utterly dumb. If they were that dumb, they wouldnt exactly have weaponry worth collecting except for really good loot rolls?
Given Lashtada is along for the ride, Id have put Twilight as a Cleric, given one definition is that of knowledge, being many religions spent a lot of effort writing the teachings down and collating them into bible ographies? Trouble is, Clerical spells are based on Wisdom, not Inteligence, which is why Twilight is having such problems, unless there is a Feat that allows Ability shift? Because if Twilights modifier can be moved to INT, well, lets see, start with +4 basis, then add another +1 for OnO and power, then maybe another +1 for Favoured child, which theoretically could give her a +3 to Caster Level for spells power?
squealed i n terror - squealed in terror
half way - halfway
Twiilight - Twilight
*****
Twilight as a cleric. I had a feeling ii was moving in that direction, but it's not something I would have ever imagined otherwise.
And so much for hoping that the way to the rail station would not be fraught with dangers. This is Everglow after all and the danger is where the fun is.
Once this is over, Roll needs some group hugs. Especially since she seems to feel that she is unwanted. Poor dear...
7312317 Fixed! Cleric spells require both verbal and somatic components.
7312332
Hmmm... I'll just hop on over to Google and search for Pathfinder classes... nope. Maybe base classes then... oh. Ohhh... Very interesting, and quite appropriate.
Oh ho. This is interesting. Not quite sure what Twilight is; there are several classes that can blast cold, and a nerd who spent most of her life sitting around reading and tinkering seems a poor fit for the physically demanding rigors of kineticism. Personally, I'd say her real class is metagamer.
Also, the unicorns of Sun's Tears were harboring a typo:
Planted. Tense agreement.
7312371 Fixed, and started to re-read, and found another. Damn them all...
Twilight is a frost mage.
Some sort of cleric, I'd guess, as she was just granted aid by a goddess she beseeched. She might be able to heal the halfling archer if that's true.
Sci-Twi serving a promiscuous fertility goddess is inherently funny.
Or, potentially, tragic.
It's sort of like in the Dungeons and Dragons verse there's a marked difference between wizards and sorcerers, but especially notable is that wizards require a focus (like a wand or staff) and need to memorize their spells. But they can do more of them. A sorcerer doesn't need any of those and casts on his/her own power, but can only know so many.
*sigh* I know that I'm bringing my own baggage to the table here, but Twilight's talking about how magic works for various classes only served to highlight why I've grown so frustrated with the class-level paradigm of character construction. I don't think that it's a bad system, unto itself, but I think it works best when the differences between classes are highly rigid, and make that tie in strongly to the in-character implications of the game world. By contrast, the Pathfinder presentations of classes (continuing in the 3.X tradition) is to make them as elastic as possible in an ultimately quixotic quest to create total freedom in character design while still adhering to the class-level system.
It's because of this (well, that and the economic need for a company to keep releasing supplements, rather than create a single-book solution), in keeping with the original Third Edition credo of "options, not restrictions," that we now have several dozen classes, myriad archetypes, lots of prestige classes, feats, traits, etc., with no end in sight, all trying to deliver on the promise of being able to make (and, just as importantly, make effectively) any kind of character that we can imagine. Of course, this simply isn't possible, as anyone who's ever attempted to make a high-level unarmed combatant that doesn't use magic items has discovered firsthand. Instead, we now have a meta-game of combing through sourcebooks and online resources to try to kludge together a Frankenstein's monster of a character that resembles the original character idea (the alternative being that we simply instead start couching our character concepts in game mechanics, rather than narrative ideas, from the get-go).
In this chapter, we see what this looks like from the in-character standpoint, wherein the characteristics of a particular class are presented as being axiomatic, despite the fact that there are so many different options and customizations available that the idea of any particular class features being universal to that degree, let alone recognized as being a signature of any particular class, become less and less plausible. This showcases the logical disconnect that comes with having each class be its own discrete entity while still watering them down in terms of both mechanical distinctiveness (e.g. via feats and archetypes) as well as narrative function (e.g. different classes with the same "roles" and abilities).
This is why I prefer to use a supplement that allows for character abilities to be purchased directly as a character levels. It puts the emphasis squarely back on what the character can do, rather than on a nebulous definition of what they are.
Ray of Frost was only on wizzard/sorcerer list, so chances are Twilight is a wizard.
7312861 The idea that a sorcerer is a spellcaster that does not use material components is, indeed, fairly universal. You're more likely to spot random sorcs than wizards with strange archetypes or who blew a feat for the honor of it. Ultimately, it's a story, even if a story about a game. I think they're being pretty in-character about it.
Twilight's genre-savvyness really saves time doesn't it?
A crossbow would work too, and those are pretty common.
Never mind. Problem solved. As they say at Staples, "That was easy."
The lack of all components makes it looks like kineticist. It's odd for her to be a hydrokineticist though, since telekineticist matches pony Twilight's powers in the show closer than any other class. (Even including her overpowered levitation) Then again, this is human Twilight, so who knows?
7314273 I don't think that it's nearly as rare to have another arcane spellcaster "blowing a feat" on Eschew Materials as you make it out to be, even leaving aside that classes such as Bloodrager also gain that feat for free. That's particularly germane when you consider that a lot of spells don't have material components anyway, so seeing a spell that's cast without one shouldn't necessarily make someone think "ah, sorcerer."
7315381 Enlarge person does, as does... actually most spells, but enlarge person definitely does.
7315111 Unless the crossbow is designed to be strapped to a hoof, which does exist in Ponyfinder, aiming and firing would be basically impossible with a mouth, no matter how clever the tongue.
Having Twilight be a roleplayer has served well so far! She is not pony-twi though, so she doesn't have to match her arcane style. Heck, having pony-twi be anything but a book-based arcane caster would feel like a crime.
7315404 No, actually, most spells don't.
Of the twenty 0-level sorcerer/wizard spells in the Core Rulebook, only eight have material or focus components.
Of the forty-two 1st-level sorcerer/wizard spells in the Core Rulebook, only nineteen have material or focus components (though, to be clear, the protection from chaos/evil/good/law spells all have the "M" listing, but don't say what the component actually is and have never been updated to fix this; as such, I've counted them as not having material components).
Enlarge person does have a material component, but even assuming that Twilight would know that (and avoiding the entire debate about the in-character justification for a Spellcraft or Knowledge (arcana) check), that wouldn't necessarily presume that she's a sorcerer rather than another kind of arcane spellcaster who "blew" (which is a weasel word) a feat on Eschew Materials.
7315620 Let's assume you are entirely correct. This would all be good reasons for Twilight to be red-faced and shamed should she be wrong.
She isn't. She played the safe bet and assumed a spellcaster casting spells that need components without those components is probably a sorcerer. She did not need a spellcraft to know Sunset did a thing and Roll got big. If she did, well, she got several tries, because Sunset has used that spell multiple times. This is entirely ignoring the intuitive nature of Sunset's magic, which is also the hallmark of a sorcerer. No book, no components, arcane spells? Sorcerer. Could you be wrong? Sure. Will you be wrong? Not nearly as often as you will be right.
It's a prejudice. Twilight is classist! She's making assumptions! Sunset could be a fine wizard that took eschew and the other feat that lets you memorize a few spells without a book. That would show Twilight, ha ha! This is not the case, however, and one could hardly be blamed if they didn't assume someone took two feats instead of just being the class that is born with it when thrust into a world where they didn't get to learn how to do things from the start! It's not like Sunset had time to develop feats, and already mentioned her magic wasn't working normally for her.
7315652
The thing about this is that it answers an in-character line of reasoning (e.g. Twilight's presumption about Sunset's "class"), with meta-character knowledge (the author saying that Sunset's character class is sorcerer). Now, that would be a more forgivable assumption on Twilight's part if abilities (e.g. class abilities, feats, etc.) were strongly segregated from one another, but that's not the case here.
It's worth noting that this brings up the question of why Twilight is presuming that the fantasy world they've suddenly found themselves in functions as per the mechanics of the game she used to play. It's not that the entire idea of bring transported within the game world is all that unintuitive - quite the contrary, that's a time-honored trope in a lot of fantasy - but rather why she made that particular leap in the first place, particularly since she's had contact with fantastic elements before (e.g. the events of the Friendship Games) which markedly didn't conform to 3.X/Pathfinder rules.
That...strikes me as at least somewhat "iffy." I say that because your line of reasoning here seems to be based off of the implication that the Core classes will be more numerous - and more likely to be represented in any instance of uncertainty - than other base classes. Now, that becomes somewhat more plausible if you take into account that it's more likely to be the case that any instance of a particular class is more likely than an instance of (particular class + particular feat), but even then the total lack of in-character data (e.g. a demographic class breakdown, the in-character nature of acquiring a feat, etc.) makes this somewhat flimsy.
Spell Mastery.
Leaving aside the aforementioned issue of a lack of in-character knowledge regarding feat acquisition (particularly with regards to the nebulous nature of "when" a 1st-level character acquired their first level, feats, etc.), I'll grant you that one is more likely than the other, but I question the degree to which it's more likely.
7315381
That's only true for bard spells, and it's easy to tell a bard because they sing all the time (or equivalent). There are other classes that get eschew materials, but they all have easy ways to tell them apart. Nobody wastes a feat on eschew materials when they could be boosting their DCs instead, Sunset is an obvious sorceress, and there is plenty of evidence for it.
7315856
It's only true for bard spells that a lot of them don't have material components? Yeah, no. You need to check again.
Again, no. There are some abilities that are unique to classes as written, but that doesn't mean that they're unique in their effects, which is how they'd be viewed (and thus judged) in-character.
Oh, sweet summer child, you're mistaking your opinion for a fact.
That's not surprising, as nonsense like "nobody wastes a feat on eschew materials when they could be boosting their DCs instead" tends to get bounced around in internet echo chambers so much that it's easy to see why armchair theory-crafters can start to believe it. But the truth is, that's an illusion caused by hyper-focusing on the meta-game of character-building, which typically comes at the cost of focusing on actual game-play itself. It's this kind of attitude that posits that all characters can only exist as either "super-optimized point-whored munchkins" or "special snowflakes that have forsaken all competence to try and be 'unique.'" In fact, these two points are tiny extremes that are vastly eclipsed by the gigantic amount of middle ground between them.
Lots of characters take Eschew Materials rather than focusing on raising spell DCs, and moreover that doesn't make them "bad" (or whatever other pejorative you want to use) characters for having done so.
Hence, there's really nothing "obvious" about Sunset being a sorcerer. Deal with it.
Becasue, as we all know, there are no such things as collector's items, pawn shops, and specialty stores that market and cater to bigots or strangers. Those 'damned merchants and their high standards couldn't be bothered to keep schlocky primitive crossbows and other ground pounding goodies on hand... Becasue, obviously, there's no profit in everyday carry items when everyone is an engineer with telekinesis? Unless she means the unicorns were more likely to make bows for a musical instrument, a weaponized one, other than a crossbow, would still need multiple grasping points... Then again, with magic one assumes they could just manufacture bolts out of the ether and launch them without blinking until their mana points run out.
Haven forbid there be any crafts-ponies looking to develop the next Welf Crozzo armory.
Cryomancer
7321808
I'm not sure if you're being serious, or if you're deliberately avoiding the obvious Cleric.