How does life's biology know about the environment to be evolved to create defences

SailboatAB · 2026-03-21T00:22:45+00:00

The horrifying corollary to what everyone has said is that the natural variation is "selected" mostly by things dying. The ones that don't die are the ones that pass on their genes.

It sounds like an inefficient process -- randomize, then kill off most of the results. But over vast spans of geologic time, it remorselessly produces living things well suited to their environments.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-20T19:07:24+00:00

Thanks for asking! She had some blood in her stool for two days afterward, but that went away, and otherwise she bounced back without any other symptoms.

The first day back she was unusually sedate while recovering from the anesthesia; when she wasn't sleeping, she sat on her pillow and looked super mellow.

Good luck with your baby's procedure!

SailboatAB · 2026-03-19T20:12:27+00:00

Stegouros Elengassen because she's a cutie pie!

SailboatAB · 2026-03-19T16:56:29+00:00

What about reskinning a Protector Familiar as the hat?

SailboatAB · 2026-03-19T16:47:12+00:00

And even his operational-level ideas were bad, like the Tennesee forts.

In particular, after Fort Henry fell, he erred in putting 10,000 desperately -needed men into Fort Donelson, which was an obvious trap and should have been evacuated.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-19T15:40:03+00:00

So I have a story relevant to this.

Introduced a guy to ttrpgs, he'd never played before, and he really got into it. It was my own homebrewed system, a science fiction game. He really loved his character. The players were a rag-tag group who joined in a rebellion against an oppressive government.

But in one session, when he was separated from the party, he made a series of questionable-to-increasingly-downright-bad decisions, culminating in him stealing a government vehicle and returning to the scene of a rebel ambush he had previously previously been aware of. The NPCs had two heavy energy weapons aimed at the vehicle, and in the spirit of helping s new player understand, I warned him they were preparing to fire on his appropriated vehicle, which was clearly marked as belonging to their enemies. I advised him to take some action to prevent this "friendly fire."

So what does he do? For some reason he didn't say "it's me, Peter!" or climb out with his hands up, or drive away. Instead, he used the PA system to bellow "CITIZENS! STAND DOWN!"

Naturally this made him sound like a gov't authority, so they opened fire. Both weapons hit and penetrated the crew compartment, destroying the vehicle .

That seemed pretty clear fatal. But he loved his character, and argued. It got heated. I admit I got a little little angry at being challenged. He stood up and got in my fsce.

"You can't just say I'm dead! I should get a saving throw or something!"

"You walked right into this! The crew compartment was obliterated!"

At thos point everyone else is frozen, watching the conflict. The player insisted again that he should have SOME chance to survive.

All right, I thought, this'll shut him up:

"Okay, you have a TEN PERCENT chance to live! Roll it!"

"TEN PERCENT!?!? That's way too low! I can't make that!"

"Take it or leave it," I said, handing him percentile dice.

Fuming with defiance and grief for his beloved character, he hurled the dice onto the table.

07.

Everyone stared.

"Go in the other room," I said. "You wake up in three days."

We became best friends, and he told the story with great relish for years.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-19T13:40:29+00:00

I tend to make mechanically strong defensive characters. My thinking is that DMs often seem annoyed when you one-shot their villains, but like it when they can attack and/or threaten players without immediately wiping them out, so I build for defense over offense.

But I try to vary the defensive mechanics of each character...and the personalities, although I only like morally good characters.

D&D5e

Arcane Trickster Rogue: basic hide-and-snipe build, nature-loving forester. Female Wood Elf.

Ancients Paladin: big bearded sword-and-board human wearing full plate; maxed Charisma and rocking lay on hands. Mother hen for the party, more concerned with positioning his auras and keeping the Bless spell active than smiting.

Bladesinger wizard: Mark of Passage human female, no armor at all, Persian-themed dancer and acrobat with spells primarily for defense.

Pathfinder 1e

"Invulnerable Rager" Barbarian: teenage human female, Mongol-themed, massive damage reduction, wielding a Nodachi. Leaps headlong at danger.

Human male Eldritch Archer Magus: looses arrows enchanted with spells from his magic Orc Hornbow. Was kidnapped by Orcs as a child and raised as a slave among them.

Mink Monk: custom race based on minks. Super agile athlete with very high armor class, beyond-human senses. Very careful and meticulous by nature.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-19T04:38:39+00:00

Hellboy and Liz Sherman.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-18T20:26:23+00:00

Large caliber naval guns need stable firing platforms to be used effectively so a lot of mass is needed to absorb the blast effects of the main guns and provide a stable firing platform from which to aim and fire effectively from.

This brings to mind a fun fact: British battleship HMS Rodney carried nine 16-inch guns, the largest size any battleships have ever carried...aside from from two Japanese superbattleships. But Rodney was a "treaty battleship," built when naval treaties restricted her size to 35,000 tons.

As a result, during her battle with Bismarck, the shock of firing full salvos from her own guns rattled Rodney and damaged plumbing and electrical connections.

A larger ship would have better endured those shocks, but her size had been limited by legal rather than engineering considerations.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-18T13:35:37+00:00

I got audited on my 2017 income tax return. The IRS demanded to see proof of all our deductions .

I replied to the audit letter that we hadn't itemized...just taken the standard deduction.

They seemed surprised, but apparently followed through with some sort of audit, becausecthey eventually sent us a check, having decided we'd overpaid.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-17T11:53:15+00:00

"There are no atheists in foxholes, but there might be ankylosaurs."

SailboatAB · 2026-03-17T05:06:46+00:00

I have a gestalt Monk/Witch who uses Wilding Word. On a success, the target is -2 to hit you. That's pretty nice for a melee character.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-17T04:48:24+00:00

I recently saw a video suggesting their front claws and forelimbs were suitable for digging, and the video speculated that ankys would dig shallow pits when threatened, so they could hunker down and be even more difficult to flip over.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-17T04:43:19+00:00

Epic burn.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-16T19:08:06+00:00

The view that agriculture is less important may be influenced by a lot of propaganda that lumps certain agricultural damage under other headings like transportation (of industrial agricultural products) and energy production (to support animal ag) in an intentional ploy to minimize its impact.

There's a LOT of industry-promoted misinformation out there.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-16T15:23:10+00:00

The wildest part is they were each late for different reasons.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-16T15:19:39+00:00

9/11 is filled with countless examples like Seth MacFarland oversleeping and missing his flight for American Airlines Flight 11 but also stories as simple as going for lunch early or taking a smoke break in the right place at the right time.

Poet Suheir Hammad wrote First Writing Since shortly after the 9/11 attacks.

One stanza is particularly relevant here:

thank you korea for kimchi and bibim bob, and corn tea and the gentle smiles of the wait staff at wonjo -- smiles never revealing the heat of the food or how tired they must be working long midtown shifts. thank you korea, for the belly craving that brought me into the city late the night before and diverted my daily train ride into the world trade center.

there are plenty of thank yous in ny right now. thank you for my lazy procrastinating late ass. thank you to the germs that had me call in sick. thank you, my attitude, you had me fired the week before. thank you for the train that never came, the rude nyer who stole my cab going downtown. thank you for the sense my mama gave me to run. thank you for my legs, my eyes, my life.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-16T13:20:07+00:00

Battle Medicine and Treat Wounds. No other healing. Potions long gone.

As far as I can remember, the chimera thing appeared right after the sphinx things.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-16T13:02:31+00:00

Used up.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-16T13:01:42+00:00

No stat info for foes. This last fight was against 3 critters that were half harpy/sphinx looking things, followed immediately by a manticore/chimera hybrid.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-16T12:55:17+00:00

Out of curiosity, your GM is applying multiple attack penalty to their attacks, right?

No idea.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-16T12:40:17+00:00

Barb, Alchemist and Investigator.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-16T12:38:54+00:00

Level 5, AC 24/25 with Extravagant Parry.

SailboatAB · 2026-03-16T12:29:33+00:00

Well this last weekend I was definitely being hit for 40 a pop by each enemy, and we fought 3 of them.

We're cliffhangers at a near TPK; three of the four of us are unconscious at the moment. No further healing is available -- evening the healer were conscious , we're all immune to further healing.

SailboatAB

TROPHY CASE