Deal with a dragon, but only when it beats the alternative (pissing it off by not dealing with it, for instance). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

That's called a lose-lose. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Yeah, they be serious bad-assess, so much so, that in either game I would not want to have to deal with. The only other game I know that make dragons that way is Rolemaster where, on average, an adult dragon can one-hit-one-kill a high level character with a claw swipe. Not to mention their breath weapon destroying squads in a single breath. D&D dragons are major weenies comparatively. (Except the ones in The Iron Kingdoms, they were nasty - you should read the description for their primary dragon, "and two score and seven went screaming into the maw...." Awesome!)

As soon as you Inhabited, Possessed, or Materialized, you'd technically no longer be Projecting now, would you?

Offtopic but what is ROI? I've seen it a few times now and can't figure out the acronym.

Return On Investment.

RAW = Rules As Written.

RAI = Rules As Intended.

ROI = I have no idea.

EDIT: Ahh, thanks Critias.

Wow, that was quick. Thank you Critias.

Meh, I was right here when you posted it. No biggie.

So it would work??? I have an idea I want to try now... It could be either VERY good or VERY bad...

In my opinion, Materialized would still count as projecting - you're materializing a projection but are still out of your body. And the effort of maintaing the materialized body into existence is more likely to shorten your time available than to extend it.

Inhabiting and possessing are more debatable since even you're into a a real body. It's not yours so there might still be some problems, but it's probably safer than being out in the open.

The big one that would help would be Astral Form. If you have that power, you would be safe from the Evanescence effect.

Inhabitation should work as well as you are permanently anchoring your astral self into a physical form.

So if you got a 'true form' from inhabiting yourself, would that mean you're now a free spirit?

wouldn't your body die, if you inhabited someone else? Severing your connection to your old body.. and yes.. effectively becoming a free spirit?

No actually, your old body would remain alive and well, unit something else killed it

I think you'd turn back into a projection and just die, without additional powers.

Effectively. But you still aren't a free spirit for the purposes of what Free Spirits can do. They are a different 'race' than (meta)human which you still are (unless your race changes to Free Spirit by performing Inhabitation & getting the True Form result).

The major issue is that you are only good to go as long as you have the Astral Form power. If that goes away, you are potentially boned depending on how your GM is going to interpret the rules.

But hey, that's between you & your GM. For my players, I reward creative / out-of-the-box thinking. If they come up with stuff that breaks the rules, I reward them and we figure out what to do to prevent the problem from cropping up again.

This whole idea also touches on an old thread where Neraph & I were discussing these very concepts. It was where he showed how one could potentially convert (with GM approval) your mage into a free spirit via an Ally.

Reward children for creativity. Punish players for munchkinry. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

No, because as soon as you Materialize, you create a body and fully assume its form. That means you're no longer astrally projecting - you're now Materializing.


Vaguely - except with vastly fewer Powers, and only for as long as you've got a spirit sustaining the Endowment on you. Soon as that's up.... you're in trouble.


? This is mechanically different, but conceptually similar.

That would be the one. The concepts are similar but the methods are drastically different.

But unlike a spirit, you still have (or are supposed to have) a meat body you're currently leaving vacant somewhere else. And the materialized body isn't something existing that you're taking residence in, but something you fore to exist through sheer will. If you get stunned in that body, odds are you'll be dumped back to a passed-out astral form in a fashion somewhat similar to a disrupted spirit, with the materialized body vanishing.

In the same happened into a possessed or inhabited body, my opinion is taht you would be knocked out but would remain in the concerned body - which is afterall existing by itself rather than only through the exercise of your powers.

Which would then shunt you back to your real body.