When was your character last filled with DETERMINATION?
As for me, my paladin was last like this against a dragon turtle we fought. Took a steam breath to the face and kept screaming justice.
In the game I GM, the party was riding across a desert with some gnolls. The gnoll leader had an artificer companion that went nuts and forced the gnoll leader to kill the party's previous caravan members, most notably with stabbing their kindly old gandalf-style wizard leader. Everyone was kind of sad when he died, since he would shoot the shit and do magical drugs with them. worst off was the druid, he was a minotaur that only the wizard would talk magic with and didn't judge by appearance. After the artificer fucked off to do plot things, they had no choice but to travel with the gnolls, who wanted to help them find that drone building fucker.
Unfortunately, they kept the wizard's body their covered wagon. When he was stabbed, he was implanted with a infiltration robot that replaces the body just under the skin. They knew something was up with his actions, but had to act like they were fooled because they didn't know what it was capable of. As things went on, the ranger figures out the terminator-thing hybrid is being remote controlled by the artificer. Things get out of hand, and the gnoll leader tries surprise attacking it. She almost cuts its head off, and the guise fell pretty quickly after that.
Cont.
>>43848240
Determination is for people whose sense of self-worth is so low that they'll jump on a sword for some strangers they met in a bar half an hour ago.
Let the meatshields boast about their heroics, I'm fine with just getting paid.
>>43849150
>ow the edge.jpg
>not killing the hostile animals, furries, and skeletons reanimated with evil magic
>>43849194
It's not edge, it's Disregard Paladins, Get Money.
>>43849150
Yikes, I can hear the Linkin Park on this side of the internet. Are you okay? Cutting yourself isn't good for you.
>>43849070
Spidery metal legs wriggle around at the wound that makes it look like headless nick in a wizard hat and it tosses the gnoll leader across the wagon. The fighter and ranger start slashing and shooting, but it turns out it can eat metal on extended contact. Soon, it tries eating the ranger's armor by grappling him and cramming his chainmail down its neckhole.
Cue DETERMINATION. The druid gets pretty fed up with seeing the mockery of his friend trying to kill his other friends. He has no spells, and has taken some good damage from the events earlier today. He doesn't care. With no metal on him, he decides to tackle the drone by the flopping, barely attached head.
So, this thing was meant to be really strong, right? And I don't give players breaks just to rule of cool some half baked war story on /tg/. I grab two d20 to roll the advantage it has on the strength contest in my hand. It has 18 STR and the druid, despite being a minotaur, has 12. You can probably see where this is going.
The druid's player says he wants to finish the decapitation by tearing the head off in the struggle. He rolls a 7. We share a look knowing he may have fucked up big time. I drop one dice out of my hand, concealing the other. I roll a 2.
I give him a "it's not over yet" look and drop the next. 3. I am not ashamed to admit that I tried to say "oh!", but it came out as a loud, yelping kind of sound. As for the druid's player, he exclaimed to the heavens something along the lines of "NOT THIS TIME, ROBOT BITCH!" I'm unsure if it was meant to be IC or not.
So the druid rips the drone's head off, carries it like a football to the gnoll leader, and she punts it into the desert night. They burn down the wagon, load into a new one, and get the caravan going like it's nobody's goddamn business. Good times.
>>43849218you can be determined while being a genocidal monstrosity. hell, i think it makes for a better story
>>43849269
What does determination have to do with paladin-ness? There are plenty of amoral characters who refuse to give up.
>>43848240
>Fucking Infyrana thought she has won.
>Got her gloat on.
>Offered to spare cowards.
>Malicious remark about being peckish.
>Not a chance.
>Say we'll see who eats who.
Six rounds of combat later, and Dragon steaks were on the menu.
>>43849218
>not being able to enjoy the company of unparalleled spaghettore Papyrus
who hurt you, anon
who took the joy out of your life
>>43848240
Played a wood elf ranger jihadist in my evil campaign. I jokingly put on a nasheed because it fit the character when we went into our combat rolls. Took initiative and my opening of 3 attacks was a nat 20. Played nasheeds for him ever since.
>>43849638
It seems someone may have stolen Anon's soul.
>>43848240
*(Knowing that the Skaven horde might one day get past the bevy of traps and eat the adventurers, it fills you with determination)
>>43849728
*(The xenos banshee's scream splits your eardrums at the seem. It fills you with DETERMINATION)
>>43849150
>not enough belts.jpg
they are ncessary to hold the edge in, you know
>>43849791
*(You whisper a short prayer to the Emperor)
*...
*determination
>>43849917
* 1322 left.
>>43849150
You forgot to add:
>It's nothing personal, kid.
>>43849150
What about the determination to get paid?
>>43848240
So, I'm playing a cleric of Fate (Death and Knowledge domains) in a first-level Pathfinder game. Our party was exploring an ancient tomb under order from a circle of druids, as both repentance for harming their "god" (a massive, sentient tree that roamed the forest) and as payment for them not outright killing us after one of the forest creatures nearly TPK'ed us.
We clear the tomb, kill some skeletal champions, and find that each one was wearing a piece of armor that pinged as carrying a fairly powerful enchantment. Putting these on lets a person see lines of necromantic energy - but also forces the wearer to make a Will save or go mad temporarily (thank god that the rogue had bought a sap at character generation).
Anyways, one investigator-sapping later, we discover the rearmost chamber in the tomb, and standing in front of a congregation of zombies was a half-mummified priest. We pretend to be members of the noble house buried in the tomb, and he invites us in and tells us that if we wish to join his congregation, we must fall on our swords.
The investigator manages to convince the necro-priest that we wish to do so at his feet, and once we get within striking range, our investigator tries to launch a surprise attack. His rapier stabs harmlessly between the priest's ribs. Combat starts.
The twelve or so zombies that had been sitting in the pews start advancing on us. The bloodrager gets pumped up, I throw out my puny first-level buffs, the rogue chucks a flask of oil at the mouth of the aisle, and the investigator rushes back to light the puddle. He manages to set it on fire to create a serviceable firescreen, but the priest lets loose with a souped-up version of Channel Negative Energy, dropping him into the negatives. He falls, but both the rogue and I are actually healed by this, as we're wearing the enchanted pieces of armor.
The zombies close in on the investigator's unconscious body and start tearing him apart, killing him.
My DM has actually implemented DETERMINATION in our current campaign. It's similar to inspiration, but you can get it from different sources and use it for different things.
I used it during a boss fight to goddamn cleave something in half.
>>43849150
GEE I WONDER WHO COULD BE BEHIND THIS POST?
>>43850314
The other members of the party get in a few good licks, but the zombies are closing in and we can't deal with all of them. The priest recognizes that the rogue and I are wearing his artifacts, and he forces us to make the will save once again.
The rogue fails, and is stunned.
I fail as well.
The zombies advance.
The bloodrager tries to keep fighting, but gets stabbed by the priest and starts to drop dangerously low.
The rogue fails again.
At this point, I offer up a prayer to Fate, begging her to stay her hand for one more day - the undead are all around me, and by her will, they MUST fall. The GM (probably out of pity more than anything) gives me a circumstantial +1. I roll... and thanks to that +1, I just barely make my Will save.
Now, at chargen, I'll admit that I chose somewhat poorly. Extra Channel and Turn Undead aren't precisely useful for a Cleric with a DC of 11 for his Channel Positive Energy. Still, I make my roll, hoping at least that I can heal the party and maybe do some damage.
I roll a 5 for damage. The priest makes his save, naturally, but the zombies...
One by one, I watch as nine of the mob fail their rolls. Three die outright from a combination of ongoing fire damage and the channel, and seven more are sent fleeing, straight back through the fire. It's enough to rally the party - we keep up the offensive on the priest, not letting him breathe for a second so that he can't cast his more powerful spells.
Four rounds later, it's over. The bloodrager decapitates the priest with one final swing of her axe, and he crumbles into grave-dust. We mop up the stragglers, put out the fire so that we don't suffocate on the smoke, and tend to the wounded. We'd survived - not without cost - but we'd did it.
I had planted my feet and said "Not today," and Fate had listened.
Now, we just needed to see those druids about a reincarnation.
>>43849815
I thought of a genius idea for belts you see in so much fantasy art:
Clothes get torn up and destroyed so often, people just quickly patch them up with something tougher - belts made of leather - rather than sewing on a proper cloth repair. Those clothes are the clothes of an experienced adventurer who used his crafting skill for Leatherworking.
>>43848240
One of my current characters is among the last survivors of an apocalypse, seeking a home for his people. For five years he led a tribe, for five years he fought, for five years he traveled. It's affected him deeply, but he's come too far to ever stop now.
He's practically made of Determination now.
>>43848240
My ex-commandante ex-deserter fighter when he and his group was about to get double-crossed by an order of knigths (they discovered the conspiracy because our thief went to do thief things). Then we barricaded in the kitchen and hold something like 20 knights using only our weapons, our guts and a copious amount of flour.
In a pit fight versus a gnome ranger. That NPC deserves a medal by himself, because for some reason that fucker did not miss at least a dozen shots in a row - and for a while he was shooting well outside the range of his bow.
My paladin ended up taking a little more than half a dozen shots as she ran him down against a wall. Turns out he did not want to melee at all, and she sliced him up with her scimitar with her gods name on her lips. The badass moment was ruined when she looked up at the cheering crowd and whispered "oh Abadar there are so many pointy things stuck in me get them out."
Well, I had a character in a super robot campaign.
Add that to the fact that the mecha's power source was running on emotions and willpower, and yeah she was basically the embodiment of DETERMINATION.
>>43848240
I was playing a medic in Only War once.
His leg kept getting charred by the Tau, last time happening while in mid-flight with a jetpack, from a twin-linked pulse canon.
He survived.
He kept his leg.
He pushed forward with his jetpack.
He fragged the fuckers in the vehicle that shot at him.
And he nailed the landing.
>DETERMINATION, SON!
Strapped a bunch of beartraps to a mule. Open ones, facing out.
Fucking Ankheg ate my dog. Going to see how it likes eating that.
Almost all my characters are psychotically determined in one way or another, the kind that fits square blocks into round holes.
>>43848240
He was filled with DETERMINATION when a supervillain had knocked out a bunch of civilians.
He then proceeded to one-hit KO him.
>>43848240
She practically runs on the stuff. She wouldn't be doing any of what she's tasked with, nor would she be striking deals with eldritch abominations to ensure that task goes well, if people and things she cares about weren't on the line.
>>43848240
I was acting as bait for some heretics that had been kidnapping missionaries on a feudal world. We expected them to also be undercover like we were with swords and mail, but they turned up in flak with autoguns. When the bullets start flying, my party members are all diving out of the way and the people behind them who came to listen to my sermon were getting hit instead. When one of the gunmen opened up on me, I refused to make a dodge roll despite the protestations of everyone around the table, including the GM. I joined the Inquisition to protect people. I took five bullets, and they all rolled 1 for damage.
>>43852937
>Expecting heretics not to take any advantage they can
Asking for it desu
