The Harbinger of Ferocity

The Purifiers

@LokiLeo789
Plague of Undeath as written is too powerful, given that it affects others contacting him rather than him alone needing to strike a target or maintain contact. Removing this and making it a strictly offensive tool would bring it in line given its apparent purpose. Having free, reactionary, regularly irresistible damage is a bit too much.

Silken Wraps need to be lowered in terms of tier down to Tier 3 and have the "nigh-impenetrable" removed. At best, something will offer resistance, but never immunity. The warding of the armor is too non-descript, needing further details as to just what the wards do. A similar issue exists with the poison, as it gives no indication how fast it works or just how it works.

Anya Alexi

@Dark Light
Your character has now received their second approval.

Grave Lord Mortan

@Sophrus
This character is now approved.

Ceraun Farohm

@JBRam2002
With those changes included, you have my finalized approval.

Dacer Gaico

@tex
This character has been approved.

DnD 5e - Beginner's Game

"Ye vould uin boer wischt o'th kairn yir wuthaad'er, hemanis." The voice of the beast came, loud enough to be heard but not booming enough to be intrusive, "Yir kessentad borvir yir ru'un othwa."

If anything the words were scathing remarks coming from a servant of the land. The very way one would speak down to a petulant child just before they would receive the switch for their behavior. For even if the duo could not understand the tremendous animal's words, as they likely could not, the way it presented them and the manner of which it carried itself in doing so had all the bearing in the world. It was not hate, instead unabashed primacy. For Lorenthar, people like these were prime targets outside this wood - that which belonged to the firbolgs - as not only were they disrespectful to the land by daring trespass, they sought nothing but to trap and capture anything they seemed to come across.

For now though, as the great cat took one paw and crossed it atop another, it abstained from any further reaction; perhaps just how stupid they made themselves appear by rambling on would shut them up and render them truly silent so the tribe could go on with their day and their plans. Which of course came with looking to the elder, knowing full well he unquestionably understood the words that had been spoken. Of course, the druid nodded, knowing it was no longer his place either to add comment.

One day, if not today, the feral soul would deal with this and if not him, another would.

For now however, it found itself to standing, taking a gaze upon the company at hand. Perhaps later, maybe that same one day, it would return, but for now? Now it decided to go on its way for the time being. It provided the firbolg leader a soft nod of its head, overt enough for it to know that the great cat had elsewhere to be for the moment and stepped aside quietly. How or why it left, to an observer at least, might have been impossible to define, but soon it found itself out and away from this place.

Translation and Effect

Druidic
"You would have been wise to keep your mouths shut, outsiders."
"Your arrogance betrays your real nature."

Lorenthar leaves the group.

Beginner's DnD 5e Game - Group 2

"If a problem arises, at least this time there is no question as to who is to blame." Arthera uttered under her breath, unrelenting eyes shifted to their cat-woman. It was provoked by the unfolding ordeal of Ceria and Daisy, especially the notion that another fight might break out as result. Instead, Ceria hurried off and disappeared, leaving the rest of them where they stood.

Unamused, the tall figure closed her eyes and drew in a long sigh, left to only herself in thought briefly as she awaited her opportunity to get on with this. They were being charged at the least busy time of day added coin, but at least under the "promise" they would not be interrupted or disturbed by any of the riffraff that plagued this place. At least that much the psion knew she could trust, as the man unquestionably had a business to run. Letting your patrons get the better of your word was how you lost customers and swift at that.

"And if I had wanted to have hurt you Daisy, I would have done so a long time ago." She commented, albeit this time with knowing audibility, "So the only issue we face is the one where we should probably see our enemies off rather than drag them around as we seem to be making habit of."

She passed by Talionis and Travos, boots falling in step and paying no mind to the goblin, disappearing up the stairs thereafter without another word; there was nothing to be added to this and her patience was taxed more than her mind or body were. Perhaps one day they would understand the reality of the world they lived in, but she had no high hopes. Rather, she did not even care one way or another if they ever did learn, provided it did not get her killed.

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

@Dynamo Frokane

I suppose I find myself asking, to what ends? So I will keep this brief and as unbiased as I can manage in my scope of ability. My opinion is already well known on this subject, at least to our previous fare here, but there's some remarks to be made all the same.

Elaboration

There is, provided the expedition is completed for solely scientific purposes, nothing inherently wrong with studying the genetic variations between races, variations in intelligence quotient, anatomy, or behavior of the human species. In fact, these studies are indeed carried out daily to some extent, but generally focus less on the individual races than humanity as a whole. There's a number of factors for this, namely that by and large humans of all "races" are not genetically distinct enough to merit individual research except in areas that are likely to return information, discovery, or really, monetary reward.

An example of just what I mean would be the sickle-cell trait, which has well known drawbacks to include death, and unexpected benefits such as added malarial resistance. It is most often attributed to the African continent, but arises in portions of the Middle East and even lower Mediterranean Europe. Generally, people view this mutation in a negative connotation because in the modern era this condition is more problematic than beneficial, in that it reduces effective blood flow, transfer of oxygen and nutrients essential to muscular fitness, and the aforementioned risk of death. Reasonably one could view this as a "deficiency" in race, but that is applying a modern perspective to something that might have been more historically or even prehistorically beneficial, having only since in recent times been obsoleted more or less. A single example, but proof enough that nothing is ever simple.

However, such a mutation is just that, a mutation and only remarkable to some extent in this case because it affects a certain population of people (in virtually all cases). It is neither significant enough to help classify that person as another "race", rather a subspecies, nor is it a reasonable place to say those people with it are somehow irredeemably defective. This only expands further as you look at the general population of humans in that while each race has clusters of beneficial qualities or detractions, none of them, even when in totality, are enough to merit categorization as anything other than the modern human, Homo sapiens sapiens.

At this point you might ask where I am going with this, which is entirely reasonable. I am shuffling us toward the topic of genetic pooling and how, speaking from a strictly biological approach, "pure bloods" are actually at very minor disadvantage to those who are "mixed" in heritage when talking about human beings.

Humans are a terrible example for this because they have a tremendous amount of genetic diversity even among "pure races", largely owing to how widespread as a species they are, but this holds some truth even then. Taking any population and only allowing it to breed among itself reduces its pool of genetic quality (this is of course ignoring some extent where the population is so big that it is unlikely to have much overlap), which people see most often and extreme with inbreeding, but the general effects otherwise are likely to be relatively negligible. The numbers of drawbacks, as one imagines, just increase the smaller and more consolidated that population gets and the more genetically similar it becomes. Now, there is no "race" small enough for this quality to really manifest with in full at the moment to be a separate species, but in theory you degrade the amount of beneficial mutations or synthesis of new material by limiting that pool to just what it has and nothing outside it. It would take an extended period, tens if not hundreds of thousands of years, to really see anything come from this.

If you were then to cross over with another unrelated race who shared minimal ancestry, adding a dash of it to a line, you get a very, very diluted form of hybrid vigor; certainly no supermen or universally "better" humans. This act does more or less add back in a larger selection that was missing, but genetically available, meaning some traits that might been active or unavailable can be spurred into motion. This tends to trend beneficially just by helping to avoid consolidated defects, but again, you are not looking at something as extreme as a human version of a liger, wolfdog or zonkey. This might however, result in sought after attributes coming together through what amounts to selective breeding. The problem with that being that humans reproduce relatively slowly and are much more prone to external influences than internal ones; the nurture to the nature. But, this might still result in someone who has say, both a gene that has a higher threshold for muscle growth and density from one parent, as well as aerobic capacity and bone tensile strength from another.

Why? Because these qualities are not really consolidated to one race. African heritage might have a better record of athleticism, but they still might have inactive genes which Northern Europeans possess. If one were to bring them together, it is now possible to get the best of both, though that is very unlikely. You are going to see a general wash, unless of course your outbreeding is from an extreme. A severely inbred population is going to see much more notable benefit from outbreeding than a relatively diverse population, because that limited band of options was greatly expanded.

Outbreeding tends to be for the better in general, but nothing is easily assured with this.

I must note however these are all extreme cases. The average "mixed race" human being is still going to be generally close enough to someone who is genetically "pure" and both are certainly still humans (just as much as a tabby cat bred with a tuxedo will still produce housecats despite their difference "races"). There's a lot more issues that have to deal with human social function that influence this than the genetic aspect; the "save everyone" mentality, limited amount of predators or dangers, long life spans, advent and access to technology and so forth. It is just not worth writing home about. There's discoveries to be made, but most of them can be cracked from just about any human's genetic material rather than a specific people's.

Intelligence and behavior are mostly influenced by the product of environment and less biologically so for humans. This area becomes an absolute grey mess as one dives into it because human beings are the only "thinking animal", or at least the only truly sapient, sentient one on Earth. It is very difficult to study them in the same fashion would say, a dog or dolphin, whose individual members are more or less almost entirely instinctual and thus can be held to pretty uniform standards. People have too many factors, past, present, and future to account for even in controlled settings. Large numbers of surveys tend to almost always be more accurate, but this is more important than ever when dealing with humans to gain a better average; polling from across the globe.

Yes, some races might have higher mental potential than others, but the difference is less profound than those found physical. I say this because it is far, far easier for a group of subjects in a test to train their muscles to their maximum biological limit and measure the weight they can lift by race alone, than their theoretical maximum mental faculties. The level of complexity and error grow massively in such environments, but these tests could be repeated over an extended period too.

The gist of my meaning being this; yes, some races do have positive or negative biological predispositions, but these are generally negligible enough to not matter too much across an entire "race" and even less so across an entire species' population. They tend to only matter at the extremes of the spectrum or the closer one gets to them. In theory, humans of mixed lineages should be more likely to get the better of both. Humans are one of the worst areas to argue this for because of their external factors. Tigers, for example, are more genetically diverse and varied than humans are.

As for creating "pure societies", it would be as much an effort to consolidate mapped genetics into one place as one could and socialize them there while limiting their ability, or eliminating their ability, to reproduce outside that circle. Essentially, isolating them intentionally and fostering more an atmosphere than a pattern of breeding. Yes, in time you would get a notable population that might be readily identifiable by a collection of traits, but this is generally impractical and there's no real tangible benefit to the human animal in doing so as whatever gains to be made are likely to be offset somewhere, ignoring any ethical concerns of course.

This ends with the note that there are, as of yet, no modern distinct subspecies of humans and nothing to suggest they are based on race. They might perhaps arise with tens of thousands of years of breeding, but at such a point it is more likely humanity is either extinct or capable of modifying its own genome.

Provided the science is carried out to better understand the human species and not leverage their supposed, or actual, strengths or weaknesses against one another, there's no real racism here. Yet, as I note, there's obviously lucrative grounds for those who do hold extreme beliefs that these factors are somehow universally tangible and to be applied in that fashion.

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

"You have yet to impress anyone with your mindless fanaticism and talk of some 'great dragon'."

Brannor spoke as he stood again, using the motion of his shifting armor and the calling of the ebon beak to cover the drawing of the vicious blade. Gripping tighter where his hand laid upon its bind, he hefted the sword and in one motion, set to ready its edge to her flesh; the obscure engraving upon the height of its fuller shown some in this process, but her eyes were not to have seen them, just as they would never again see her captors or those men she so foolishly set out with tonight. He continued after, unimpressed with her feeble efforts to mock them, instead showing her one last kindness none of them rightfully owed.

"All of this babbling for not... but let it be known that I would have honored your repentance. A pity that you were too lost."

The sword then sang an unrepentant song of steel, the blow landing square upon the throat, perhaps the only thing that had less remorse than the dragon worshipping woman. The only other noise that followed was the flutter of the black wings as their service in this particular task had come to an end and the grinding of the huntsman's foot as its pivot ended upon the filthy stone floor. Despite the mass of the mighty weapon in hand, the raw power behind it controlled it in a disturbingly smooth way for it did not shudder even slightly, not even as it was withdrawn from its grim duty.

With the point of the sword easing toward the ground, the knight of the green looked to Torus and shook the feral features of his head slowly from side to side. They gave her a merciful end, something the outlander of Brannor not thought likely for the rest of them if the enemy were to have them in such straights. He knew little of dragons, yet what little he did know of them suggested they were cruel masters and the sort to toy with anything that dared stand against them if they found it more worthwhile than annihilating it outright. After all, terror seemed to be one of their weapons, which tonight proved beyond reasonable doubt.

"I fear that she might have been the most reasonable of our enemies to come. If she was but only a lowly acolyte, the rest might be beyond any offer of redemption." He said after, followed by a step forward and the taking of a swatch of ruined cloth from her still person to run clean the steel's length.

Effects

Brannor issues a coup de grace to the cultist, not needlessly prolonging her death.

@Hekazu@Ryonara@Lucius Cypher@Gordian Nought@Norschtalen

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Question 25: How exactly do extra ordinary talents such as magic or superhuman powers work in the new tier system for Expanding Horizons?
Answer: The easiest way to explain the new tier system for extraordinary powers is that at Tier 1, a character is completely mundane and average for their species. At Tier 2, that person might have an uncanny talent that is more than natural for them, such as the ability to cast minor cantrip spells like a tiny ray of frost, the ability to see in the dark, sense electromagnetic fields, or the power to manipulate small fires with their ki. Tier 3 suggests that character is proficient in their unusual ability, such as being able to levitate, cast conventional healing, damaging or warding spells, sense beings or objects without sight by "feeling" or be impervious to modern projectile weapons.

Tier 4 by comparison implies that person has effectively transcended what is considered even remotely possible in the terms of the extraordinary. They can cast repeated uses of powerful offensive or defensive spells, such as fireballs or walls of stone, leap miles with a single bound, fly through space as fast as a conventional craft without suffering ill effects, or perform feats of intellect such as hacking even if potentially unconscious.
- @The Harbinger of Ferocity

@Dead Cruiser

Question 26: Could a large group merge with smaller groups in Expanding Horizons?
Answer: The answer to that question is no, we do not intend for factions to merge into super factions. At most you can have ten players in a single group. Groups can be allied with one another and always work together, but you can never combine them to create superpowers. This is to prevent too many benefits from accumulating.
- @The Harbinger of Ferocity

@Dark Light