Yep, the great and mighty Bahamut, the paragon of good dragons all across the cosmos, was originally a darn big fish.

Oh well, we can still work with this.

When I was reimagining Tiamat, I went back to her roots a little to dredge up some of that old stuff and put it into use. Naturally, in keeping with my idea of dualities as a part of the setting of Therafim, she had to have a male counterpart, her greatest lover as well as her greatest enemy, the father of the gods just as she was the mother. When I tried to do the same with Bahamut, I discovered he was the Arabic divine fish on which much of the weight of the cosmos rested. He's a holy fish of ginormous proportions, sure, but he's still a fish.

Aw, nuts with it, or so I thought to myself: Bahamut's been in pretty much every Final Fantasy, for goodness sake. He's as classic D&D as they come, too. And I've already got an idea for a serpent (Worm, actually) gnawing at the base of reality, just like in the Arabic cosmos (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falak for more on that), so what if I replace the fishy with a dragon instead. I've never really been that good with picking out cool names anyway, so Bahamut was as good as any, and you can't buy that kind of roleplaying lore anyway.

So, this is Therafim's version of Bahamut. He's not the same as Bahamut in most other settings, and some of his differences are pretty extreme, just the same as with Tiamat, his evil counterpart. But he's still recognizable as the king of good dragons, just like Tiamat is the queen of evil dragons, and they're both pretty hot stuff. I think I've done them proper justice, even while making changes to fit the setting more perfectly, and hope that the overall effect works for others.

I did think about that long and hard before I shrugged my shoulders and just went with the name Tiamat, like the classical Babylonian goddess of primordial chaos. I tried to go back a little bit in describing her, as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiamat talks about the original, real-world mythology of Tiamat, identifying her as the mother of the draconic deities, just as Bahamut is the father. Still, she's got a long history in gaming, and as far as I know she's not a copyrighted creature either, and her gaming image and flavor fit fairly well into Therafim's setting without too much modification. A name is an important thing, so I didn't bother changing it, letting all that past stuff hang upon her as it always has, without trying to diminish her awesomeness.

That's a very good question, and I'm sure that I have a decent enough answer. The simple answer is, I've always loved Baba Yaga, and I just had to have her in the setting. Now for the longer answer. The stories about her are insanely awesome, and I love 'em all. Besides that, she's an established D&D character, from way back in the feature-length adventure module "The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga" in second edition. So, of course, I set about putting her into things, but, as I was tinkering with her, the name Baba Yaga just fit. Anything different cast a whole different sort of light on her, and also made it seem to me as though I was trying to one-up a legendary being.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Yaga should give most readers enough information about Baba Yaga to give them a decent start on understanding her, and where her name came from. It was as I was reading over the etymology of her name that I realized the linguists had guesses that made sense, but, as in so many cases, really didn't know for certain quite where it came from. With that air of mystery about the name of Baba Yaga, I decided to keep it as it was without shame.

Baba Yaga almost made it into the Forbidden Gods, or maybe the Mortalborn Gods. After some thought, though, I realized that she really wasn't suitable for either category. The legendary creature Baba Yaga has been known to be genuinely helpful on occasion, and she certainly isn't interested in the annihilation of the world, or in any sort of twisted orgiastic rites. She's a cranky old woman who happens to also have some terrifyingly immense power. She's not Mortalborn, either, because she has way, way too much personality, and she's not terribly inclined to help out mortals much anyway, except at her whim. Demigod status fit her perfectly, so there it stays.

You see, I still had this odd god out, which was Apophis in the original lineup of deities, called Worm in his reimagined form. He was supposed to be the serpentfolk god, and sort of like Set was in the original Conan movie, an orgiastic and highly charismatic god of creatures untouched by light. Tharizdun fit that bill, surprisingly enough, but was far too "extroverted" about it, lacking subtlety in his methods of smash-and-grab divine power. Worm was a more subtle deity, a borderline entity that could almost be accepted into the family of the gods, if only he wasn't trying to corrupt all of reality like a worm gnawing at the base of a tree. I wanted to keep the Elder Elemental Eye, because of the monsters and adventures that were tied to him, which I felt could be run in Therafim, which I've always wanted to be a "limited" kitchen sink sort of campaign setting (no high-tech stuff, in other words, but most other things are allowed). So, how better to keep the Elder Elemental Eye in play than to have his power tossed off into the hinterworlds, and his essence remain a part of Worm, who was forced to be subtle since he'd lost the power to challenge gods directly? That's what I did, and all of the Forbidden Gods then fit neatly into their assigned places, having to rely on slow and craft means for the most part rather than direct conflict.

Total Earning: 8005xp
1005gp

B) I abstained from the vote that removed you from the staff and voiced no opinion on it.

C) I have given you recommendations so that you can alter the character to better suit the setting. If I had no other interest but denying it because I disliked you, I would not do so, as that would be a waste of my and your time, and I've little interest in wasting either.

D) You're free to make an effort, work with me on this, or simply continue throwing insults at me. I promise you- the latter will get you nowhere productive. The former will.

Any further comments regarding your displeasure with me in this forum will not be answered. Productive work with the character will.

-Seren

Feel free to work on the character, and I will review any new story.

"The most powerful of the neutral gem dragons, amethyst dragons are honorable, regal creatures. They inhabit the mountains of the northern islands, living on the shores of isolated lakes and pools. At birth, these dragons have lavender skin with fine, translucent-purple scales. These scales darken as the creature grows older, eventually reaching a sparkling lavender color."

As well as "Amethyst dragons approach mating in a very logical manner, seeking the optimum partner to produce the best offspring. Love and pleasure rarely, if ever, enter the equation."

I didn't mean to imply it fell in love with her, but I see no compelling reason it would be with her, or even help/not kill her after she attempted to fight him.

Amethyst dragons are wise and regal. They sometimes serve as intermediaries between warring dragons, or even humanoid civilizations.
An amethyst dragon has lavender skin and scales that are shaped like naturally formed mineral crystals. When it first hatches, its scales are a light, translucent purple shade. As it grows older, they gradually darken and take on a crystalline quality.
Most amethyst dragons live in hollowed-out spaces on the Elemental Plane of Earth. These caverns can consist of many passages and chambers resplendent with crystals of all colors.

Nowhere in that does it say they pick mates based off quality, no where does it say they are honorable, simply wise and regal like all dragons, and I never said they were in love merely that two sentient creatures had sex and the result was a child unwanted by the mother and that the father didn't know.

Edited.

60 rep spent.

(Edit): Not sure why, but it is :(

I'll deduct the gold which comes to a total of 13,150 GP

Also, the quarterstaff is presented as a gift to Eve White

Spending 360 UP for 720 XP and GP

XP After: 3000 (and Level 3)
UP After: 53

Approved

With that said, I wish to make the following point:

I dislike seeing something instantly shot down just because it was banned in the past. If such a thing is revisited after a period of time and potentially modified I don't see why it can't be looked at again. We have already done such with the Artificer, stuff from the ToB, and so on. If after these modifications the class is still painfully game-breakingly broken then fine, uphold the ban on it. But I still prefer to see some kind of discussion based on the changes made instead of saying "No, because I already said so once a long time ago"

We ruled this PrC to be a No no, and its not just Kara who did it if I'm not mistaken. So…here's what I think.

Mechanically: When I look over a PrC, I consider numerous factors. Is it going to be balanced? Is it going to be fun to play, and so on. Yes I think the PrC has its merits, however there's a good reason WHY it was banned. 16 swift/free actions? I don't think so. Besides, if the Quest Runner does his/her job, they'll give em a smack for trying it. The class is broken from the book, and our homebrewing it to fit MAY or MAY NOT be a good idea unless its put into practice.

Story Op: The Crusader could work in lieu of the RKV for what Seren has in mind, however I like how the class itself gives our current ToB classes some more pinache. Hell, I want Bloodstorm Blade for a character I'm slowly working on and I have Bloodclaw master on my existing one.

Final Verdict: I'm in the middle of the fence on it. A part of me wants to say yes, but at what price are we paying here? Will DMs refuse to run them because they are broken and encounters will be pointless? Will more staff quit? If this were at the table, I'd do a trial run of the class itself for a few sessions, but that's not an option for Therafim, especially when some of your players have the patience of 10 year olds (and maturity to match) on ritalin.

So…with that, I'm abstaining from a vote.

I personally approve of this class with the requisite changes to Divine Impetus.

Bracers of Armor +1: 1,000 gp
Amulet of Natural Armor +1: 2,000 gp
Ghost Shroud: 5,000 gp
Gloves of Dexterity +2: 4,000 gp

Total Spent: 12,000 gp

Also:

Spending 10 REP on Feat: Weapon Focus (Unarmed Strike)

This spell is good, but is by no means comparable to an epic level feat. Especially since epic feats cannot be dispelled or counterpelled as this feat can, and said feat also creates free action spells, not swift action spells.

Otherwise, all approved if you can spare the extra 600gp for the staff :)

Spell Scribing:
-Teleport, Greater - 2,275
-Synostodweomer - 2,275

Total Cost: 12,550

XP After: 10,001 (And Level 5)
GP After: 12,835
UP After: 12

I have 2745XP.
To advance to lv 3 I need 3000XP which means I need 255 more xp.
At lv 2, 1UP=2xp and 2GP. So I need to spend 128UP in order to get 256XP and 246GP

Thus my UP would be 187 (315-128) and XP would be 3001, and so lv 2.