Is there anything in the official lore that explains what would happen if a cambion used his/her plane shift ability to travel to one of the upper planes? Would anything happen to his/her body? Would celestials kill him/her on sight?
I've made a cambion NPC for an overarching campaign I've planned. He's a recurring NPC who occasionnally helps or hinders the player characters depending on the situation. He makes extensive use of his plane shift ability to retreat when in danger, to travel long distances, to find artifacts, to deal with outer planar beings, etc. He has nothing against celestials, in fact he speaks their language fluently and has thoroughly studied their cultures. This is explained by the fact that I gave him the Sage background. In addition to his normal languages, he can speak Celestial and Gith. The latter is useful when traveling to the Astral Plane.
He also makes extensive use of his alter self ability to disguise himself. However, he doesn't actually need it to pass off as a human. He had his horns and wings surgically removed in order to more easily pass off as a human, and he never had a tail to begin with because his father is a balor. As for his skin color, the balor in question is conveniently an albino. As for his eyes, he wears a pair of magic glasses that basically have the effect of changing the appearance of his eyes. He pretends to be far-sighted, which fits the stereotype of a bookworm.
His alignment is neutral. He's a pragmatic psychopath. He functions really well in society and goes to great lengths to avoid attracting negative attention to his public identity. He makes a living trading and identifying magic items, translating texts, and doing research for clients.
Ideally, his reason to travel to an Upper Plane would be to find a safe haven to rest and heal his wounds. I don't think all celestials would be able to detect his nature as a cambion. Even those with truesight won't be able to tell something is amiss apart from his eyes. At worse, they may mistake him for a strange looking tiefling. He looks like a white skinned human with tiefling eyes. However, the spell detect evil and good is extremely common among celestials and can usually be cast at will. Should any of them use it, they'd know the creature is half-fiend, half-human. I assume their reaction would depend on the type of celestial.
Which location on the Upper Planes do you think would be the safest and friendliest to my cambion?
First of all, why is your cambion even going to the upper planes? Why not somewhere nice and neutral like Sygil or the Astral?
If there's a plot reason to do it, I'd go to a place where people are likely to be understanding of his moral change. In other words, NOT Mount Celestia. That's where there are angels, and angels are a lot like paladins in that they will smite anyone who looks bad before they get a chance to explain. Similarly, the dwarves of Bytopia will likely oppose him strongly, and the eminent energy of Elysium might burn him up. I'd say that Ysgard is probably a good bet, given that the residents are likely to ignore him and not as strictly devoted to good as those of the other upper planes.
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Panda-wat (I hate my username) is somehow convinced that he is objectively right about everything D&D related even though he obviously is not. Considering that, he'd probably make a great D&D youtuber.
"If I die, I can live with that." ~Luke Hart, the DM lair
There isn't really a plot reason for him to travel to an Upper Plane. He simply likes it there. He hates the Abyss and everything it represents. He actually likes his nature as a cambion due to the powers it gives him over mere mortals, but he doesn't want to be associated with demons despite literally being half-demon himself. He doesn't mind dealing with devils to further his goals, and his hatred toward demons makes him a welcome visitor to the Nine Hells. However, he doesn't trust devils with his life, what with them being, well, evil. Should a devil believe that the cambion must die to further its own agenda, it would be easy for it to act when the cambion is gravely injured. The cambion has plenty of enemies on the Material Plane, and nothing is stopping a mortal from making a pact with a devil to get rid of him. Celestials don't do that kind of thing.
I don't believe the Astral Plane to be safe. The Gith can be dangerous, and psychic winds can easily kill you. There's also the risk of encountering other planar travelers who could be hostile to him. He uses that plane more as a way to travel to more than one plane per day (he can only plane shift once a day) and for trading with the Gith. When looking for a safe place to rest and heal, it's not his first choice.
Sigil isn't a bad choice. Travelers usually go there to trade or negotiate on neutral territory. Celestials and fiends don't kill each other on sight there. Perhaps a gate-town to one of the Upper Planes could be used to obtain permission to enter instead of relying on other creatures being nice. But which gate-town?
I like to use the optional rules from the DMG when traveling to other planes. Some of the Upper Planes offer some kind of healing. This, and the fact that celestials are supposed to be righteous, makes the Upper Planes generally safe. Since my cambion is neutral aligned, psychic dissonance never affects him no matter which plane he travels to.
The blessed beneficence of Mount Celestia only affects good aligned creatures, so the cambion is unaffected.
The plane is the model of justice and order, of celestial grace and endless mercy, where angels and champions of good guard against incursions of evil. It is one of the few places on the planes where travelers can let down their guard. Its inhabitants strive constantly to be as righteous as possible.
It doesn't sound like a bad place to look for a safe haven. The "attack first, ask questions later" doctrine is evil. What you described is what we call Lawful Stupid. If a normally evil creature goes there while claiming to not be evil, the righteous and merciful thing to do would be to capture it and question it. Some powerful angels are capable of detecting lies and there's nothing that can circumvent this. Should the cambion be interrogated by one, the worst thing that can happen is being banished back to his home plane, which is the Material one. Still, there are much better choices.
The pervasive goodwill of Bytopia risks permanently changing his alignment to neutral good until someone casts the spell dispel evil and good on him. This isn't something he wants, as getting scrupulous would get in the way of achieving his ultimate goal (more on that later). Fortunately, it's easy for him to avoid the change in alignment from becoming permanent. All he has to do is plane shift before 1d4 days has passed since he failed the Wisdom saving throw after performing his long rest. I don't get how the dwarves living there would hate someone who looks like a human.
The goodness flowing through the plane creates feelings of goodwill and happiness in creatures dwelling there.
Considering the cambion is depressed, this could become a drug. He might as well accept the permanent alignment change once his ultimate goal is achieved. He wants to exact revenge on his father for murdering his mother. His plan is to gather a series of MacGuffins to build an artifact capable of imprisoning the essence of a demon within it. Should you kill a demon on the Material Plane with this thing nearby, the demon is trapped inside instead of being banished to the Abyss. He's manipulating the players into gathering these MacGuffins for him. Some of these MacGuffins actually serve to summon powerful demons. He plans on summoning his father so that he could kill him and imprison him. He needs a party of strong adventurers to help him defeat his father. No good aligned creature would want to risk endangering the Material Plane by summoning a powerful demon just to have a chance to give it a fate worse than death (the feeling is akin to being buried alive inside a coffin for all eternity). It's selfish.
The overwhelming joy of Elysium can permanently make anyone unwilling to leave, which is unacceptable despite its status as "a welcome refuge for planar travelers seeking a safe haven".
The Beastlands are an odd one. There's nothing appealing about them.
The intense yearning that pushes people to want to return to Arborea is bad, but isn't permanent. Regardless, it doesn't sound like a nice place to rest.
Arborea is a place of violent moods and deep affections, of whim backed by steel, and of passions that blaze brightly until they burn out. Its good-natured inhabitants are dedicated to fighting evil, but their reckless emotions sometimes break free with devastating consequences. Rage is as common and as honored as joy in Arborea. [...] Travelers must tread lightly.
The immortal wrath of Ysgard ensures that you're revived whenever you're killed in combat. While this sounds great, it also regenerates lost appendages. My cambion doesn't want his horns and wings to regrow. The risk of death is also high considering how dangerous the place is. Should he ever need to regrow his wings to help him fight his father, he might as well commit suicide there.
The planar vitality of Arcadia makes it the perfect place for when you need to be cured of a disease or poison.
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Age: 33 | Sex: Male | Languages: French and English | Roles: DM and Player
Mt Celestia is surrounded by a sea of holy water. In previous editions, planeshifting to Mt Celestia always caused the shifter to land waist-deep in the sea (based on their height). For a fiend of any kind, that tended to be quite lethal.
Celestials traditionally are openly hostile to fiends. Even a fiend who's actually good-aligned will be treated with suspicion and threats. None of them would be a truly safe place, there would always be a celestial looking for a reason to disembowel him. If he wants a safe location, the Clerk's or Upper Wards in Sigil are probably the best bets if he wants to be around people, otherwise a private demiplane is the way to go.
And as a side note, nothing about this character sounds like a psychopath, and "functional psychopath" is an oxymoron anyway. I think you maybe mean functional sociopath?
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Devil respawn in the 9 hells, not sure about demons. Angel’s will know about this cause it’s there job to know so they will jump at the chance to catch a devil rather then kill it as killing it is a minor inconvenience. What will they do with it now that they have it? Well their good so probably not torture, given how the person in question could be turned good I expect them to get a lot of lectures about doing good.
Probably not killed on site but I can see then getting arrested.
Mt Celestia is surrounded by a sea of holy water. In previous editions, planeshifting to Mt Celestia always caused the shifter to land waist-deep in the sea (based on their height). For a fiend of any kind, that tended to be quite lethal.
This is 5e though, not a previous edition. The RAW for plane shifting allows you to appear in a more specific location, although a DM may choose a place where you can see the place you want to go without actually being in. However, it's good to know about that sea. Just in case things do go wrong, I don't think my cambion would pick that plane.
Celestials traditionally are openly hostile to fiends. Even a fiend who's actually good-aligned will be treated with suspicion and threats. None of them would be a truly safe place, there would always be a celestial looking for a reason to disembowel him. If he wants a safe location, the Clerk's or Upper Wards in Sigil are probably the best bets if he wants to be around people, otherwise a private demiplane is the way to go.
Racism is evil though. You're not truly good if you kill people based on race alone. Being cautious is fine, so capturing and restraining for later questioning is fine. They're supposed to be merciful. Besides, cambions are only half-fiends. Mine is 50% human. I'm not familiar with the Sigil locations you described, can you elaborate? While searching for information, I came across a piece of lore that says it's impossible to plane shift to Sigil, only via specific portals. If that's still true in 5e, then that rules Sigil out for emergency plane shifting.
And as a side note, nothing about this character sounds like a psychopath, and "functional psychopath" is an oxymoron anyway. I think you maybe mean functional sociopath?
Psychopath and sociopath are basically the same thing. They both refer to the Antisocial Personality Disorder. Many people in the psychiatric community use psychopath for those born with the disorder, and sociopath for those that obtained it from their environment. It's a nature versus nurture thing. To learn more about APD, read this.
My cambion is a born psychopath who was nurtured by a pure hearted mother before she was brutally murdered. In Harry Potter fashion, her love allowed the preteen cambion to unleash immeasurable power and kill the murderer, banishing him to the Abyss for a very long time. By pragmatic, I mean he has learned to keep a low profile and follow social norms when under his public persona. It wouldn't be practical nor useful to get in trouble with the law because he needs the help of others to accomplish his goals. His quest for revenge is the only thing that matters to him. Empathy and guilt are foreign feelings to him. He understands them, but doesn't feel them. He also doesn't see the point in hurting others just for the sake of hurting others. He's truly neutral aligned, there's both good and evil in him. He was born chaotic evil, but his mother managed to shift his alignment one step closer to lawful good.
Devil respawn in the 9 hells, not sure about demons. Angel’s will know about this cause it’s there job to know so they will jump at the chance to catch a devil rather then kill it as killing it is a minor inconvenience. What will they do with it now that they have it? Well their good so probably not torture, given how the person in question could be turned good I expect them to get a lot of lectures about doing good.
Probably not killed on site but I can see then getting arrested.
Demons respawn in the Abyss. However, cambions are different. Although they stop aging once they're fully matured, they're technically mortals. If they die, they die. Their soul can still go to the afterlife, though.
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Age: 33 | Sex: Male | Languages: French and English | Roles: DM and Player
Mt Celestia is surrounded by a sea of holy water. In previous editions, planeshifting to Mt Celestia always caused the shifter to land waist-deep in the sea (based on their height). For a fiend of any kind, that tended to be quite lethal.
This is 5e though, not a previous edition. The RAW for plane shifting allows you to appear in a more specific location, although a DM may choose a place where you can see the place you want to go without actually being in. However, it's good to know about that sea. Just in case things do go wrong, I don't think my cambion would pick that plane.
It's not the same edition, but that's the last time we got any serious lore on the plane. Planeshift allowed for more precise travel in previous editions too, but Mt Celestia had a unique effect that dumped planar travelers into the sea. Only gods could get around it.
Celestials traditionally are openly hostile to fiends. Even a fiend who's actually good-aligned will be treated with suspicion and threats. None of them would be a truly safe place, there would always be a celestial looking for a reason to disembowel him. If he wants a safe location, the Clerk's or Upper Wards in Sigil are probably the best bets if he wants to be around people, otherwise a private demiplane is the way to go.
Racism is evil though. You're not truly good if you kill people based on race alone. Being cautious is fine, so capturing and restraining for later questioning is fine. They're supposed to be merciful. Besides, cambions are only half-fiends. Mine is 50% human. I'm not familiar with the Sigil locations you described, can you elaborate? While searching for information, I came across a piece of lore that says it's impossible to plane shift to Sigil, only via specific portals. If that's still true in 5e, then that rules Sigil out for emergency plane shifting.
Celestials aren't perfect beings. Nor are they all happiness and sparkles. Some Celestials exist to hunt down evil and stab it until it stops being a threat. Fiends are literally made of evil, and even those who've had a genuine change of heart have typically committed a lot of evil acts before that change.
Now, if you're looking for a safe bolthole, I'd recommend a demiplane rather than any of the Outer Planes. Much harder for unauthorized guests to get to you.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
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Is there anything in the official lore that explains what would happen if a cambion used his/her plane shift ability to travel to one of the upper planes? Would anything happen to his/her body? Would celestials kill him/her on sight?
I've made a cambion NPC for an overarching campaign I've planned. He's a recurring NPC who occasionnally helps or hinders the player characters depending on the situation. He makes extensive use of his plane shift ability to retreat when in danger, to travel long distances, to find artifacts, to deal with outer planar beings, etc. He has nothing against celestials, in fact he speaks their language fluently and has thoroughly studied their cultures. This is explained by the fact that I gave him the Sage background. In addition to his normal languages, he can speak Celestial and Gith. The latter is useful when traveling to the Astral Plane.
He also makes extensive use of his alter self ability to disguise himself. However, he doesn't actually need it to pass off as a human. He had his horns and wings surgically removed in order to more easily pass off as a human, and he never had a tail to begin with because his father is a balor. As for his skin color, the balor in question is conveniently an albino. As for his eyes, he wears a pair of magic glasses that basically have the effect of changing the appearance of his eyes. He pretends to be far-sighted, which fits the stereotype of a bookworm.
His alignment is neutral. He's a pragmatic psychopath. He functions really well in society and goes to great lengths to avoid attracting negative attention to his public identity. He makes a living trading and identifying magic items, translating texts, and doing research for clients.
Ideally, his reason to travel to an Upper Plane would be to find a safe haven to rest and heal his wounds. I don't think all celestials would be able to detect his nature as a cambion. Even those with truesight won't be able to tell something is amiss apart from his eyes. At worse, they may mistake him for a strange looking tiefling. He looks like a white skinned human with tiefling eyes. However, the spell detect evil and good is extremely common among celestials and can usually be cast at will. Should any of them use it, they'd know the creature is half-fiend, half-human. I assume their reaction would depend on the type of celestial.
Which location on the Upper Planes do you think would be the safest and friendliest to my cambion?
Age: 33 | Sex: Male | Languages: French and English | Roles: DM and Player
First of all, why is your cambion even going to the upper planes? Why not somewhere nice and neutral like Sygil or the Astral?
If there's a plot reason to do it, I'd go to a place where people are likely to be understanding of his moral change. In other words, NOT Mount Celestia. That's where there are angels, and angels are a lot like paladins in that they will smite anyone who looks bad before they get a chance to explain. Similarly, the dwarves of Bytopia will likely oppose him strongly, and the eminent energy of Elysium might burn him up. I'd say that Ysgard is probably a good bet, given that the residents are likely to ignore him and not as strictly devoted to good as those of the other upper planes.
Panda-wat (I hate my username) is somehow convinced that he is objectively right about everything D&D related even though he obviously is not. Considering that, he'd probably make a great D&D youtuber.
"If I die, I can live with that." ~Luke Hart, the DM lair
There isn't really a plot reason for him to travel to an Upper Plane. He simply likes it there. He hates the Abyss and everything it represents. He actually likes his nature as a cambion due to the powers it gives him over mere mortals, but he doesn't want to be associated with demons despite literally being half-demon himself. He doesn't mind dealing with devils to further his goals, and his hatred toward demons makes him a welcome visitor to the Nine Hells. However, he doesn't trust devils with his life, what with them being, well, evil. Should a devil believe that the cambion must die to further its own agenda, it would be easy for it to act when the cambion is gravely injured. The cambion has plenty of enemies on the Material Plane, and nothing is stopping a mortal from making a pact with a devil to get rid of him. Celestials don't do that kind of thing.
I don't believe the Astral Plane to be safe. The Gith can be dangerous, and psychic winds can easily kill you. There's also the risk of encountering other planar travelers who could be hostile to him. He uses that plane more as a way to travel to more than one plane per day (he can only plane shift once a day) and for trading with the Gith. When looking for a safe place to rest and heal, it's not his first choice.
Sigil isn't a bad choice. Travelers usually go there to trade or negotiate on neutral territory. Celestials and fiends don't kill each other on sight there. Perhaps a gate-town to one of the Upper Planes could be used to obtain permission to enter instead of relying on other creatures being nice. But which gate-town?
I like to use the optional rules from the DMG when traveling to other planes. Some of the Upper Planes offer some kind of healing. This, and the fact that celestials are supposed to be righteous, makes the Upper Planes generally safe. Since my cambion is neutral aligned, psychic dissonance never affects him no matter which plane he travels to.
The blessed beneficence of Mount Celestia only affects good aligned creatures, so the cambion is unaffected.
It doesn't sound like a bad place to look for a safe haven. The "attack first, ask questions later" doctrine is evil. What you described is what we call Lawful Stupid. If a normally evil creature goes there while claiming to not be evil, the righteous and merciful thing to do would be to capture it and question it. Some powerful angels are capable of detecting lies and there's nothing that can circumvent this. Should the cambion be interrogated by one, the worst thing that can happen is being banished back to his home plane, which is the Material one. Still, there are much better choices.
The pervasive goodwill of Bytopia risks permanently changing his alignment to neutral good until someone casts the spell dispel evil and good on him. This isn't something he wants, as getting scrupulous would get in the way of achieving his ultimate goal (more on that later). Fortunately, it's easy for him to avoid the change in alignment from becoming permanent. All he has to do is plane shift before 1d4 days has passed since he failed the Wisdom saving throw after performing his long rest. I don't get how the dwarves living there would hate someone who looks like a human.
Considering the cambion is depressed, this could become a drug. He might as well accept the permanent alignment change once his ultimate goal is achieved. He wants to exact revenge on his father for murdering his mother. His plan is to gather a series of MacGuffins to build an artifact capable of imprisoning the essence of a demon within it. Should you kill a demon on the Material Plane with this thing nearby, the demon is trapped inside instead of being banished to the Abyss. He's manipulating the players into gathering these MacGuffins for him. Some of these MacGuffins actually serve to summon powerful demons. He plans on summoning his father so that he could kill him and imprison him. He needs a party of strong adventurers to help him defeat his father. No good aligned creature would want to risk endangering the Material Plane by summoning a powerful demon just to have a chance to give it a fate worse than death (the feeling is akin to being buried alive inside a coffin for all eternity). It's selfish.
The overwhelming joy of Elysium can permanently make anyone unwilling to leave, which is unacceptable despite its status as "a welcome refuge for planar travelers seeking a safe haven".
The Beastlands are an odd one. There's nothing appealing about them.
The intense yearning that pushes people to want to return to Arborea is bad, but isn't permanent. Regardless, it doesn't sound like a nice place to rest.
The immortal wrath of Ysgard ensures that you're revived whenever you're killed in combat. While this sounds great, it also regenerates lost appendages. My cambion doesn't want his horns and wings to regrow. The risk of death is also high considering how dangerous the place is. Should he ever need to regrow his wings to help him fight his father, he might as well commit suicide there.
The planar vitality of Arcadia makes it the perfect place for when you need to be cured of a disease or poison.
Age: 33 | Sex: Male | Languages: French and English | Roles: DM and Player
Mt Celestia is surrounded by a sea of holy water. In previous editions, planeshifting to Mt Celestia always caused the shifter to land waist-deep in the sea (based on their height). For a fiend of any kind, that tended to be quite lethal.
Celestials traditionally are openly hostile to fiends. Even a fiend who's actually good-aligned will be treated with suspicion and threats. None of them would be a truly safe place, there would always be a celestial looking for a reason to disembowel him. If he wants a safe location, the Clerk's or Upper Wards in Sigil are probably the best bets if he wants to be around people, otherwise a private demiplane is the way to go.
And as a side note, nothing about this character sounds like a psychopath, and "functional psychopath" is an oxymoron anyway. I think you maybe mean functional sociopath?
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Devil respawn in the 9 hells, not sure about demons. Angel’s will know about this cause it’s there job to know so they will jump at the chance to catch a devil rather then kill it as killing it is a minor inconvenience. What will they do with it now that they have it? Well their good so probably not torture, given how the person in question could be turned good I expect them to get a lot of lectures about doing good.
Probably not killed on site but I can see then getting arrested.
Mostly nocturnal
help build a world here
This is 5e though, not a previous edition. The RAW for plane shifting allows you to appear in a more specific location, although a DM may choose a place where you can see the place you want to go without actually being in. However, it's good to know about that sea. Just in case things do go wrong, I don't think my cambion would pick that plane.
Racism is evil though. You're not truly good if you kill people based on race alone. Being cautious is fine, so capturing and restraining for later questioning is fine. They're supposed to be merciful. Besides, cambions are only half-fiends. Mine is 50% human. I'm not familiar with the Sigil locations you described, can you elaborate? While searching for information, I came across a piece of lore that says it's impossible to plane shift to Sigil, only via specific portals. If that's still true in 5e, then that rules Sigil out for emergency plane shifting.
Psychopath and sociopath are basically the same thing. They both refer to the Antisocial Personality Disorder. Many people in the psychiatric community use psychopath for those born with the disorder, and sociopath for those that obtained it from their environment. It's a nature versus nurture thing. To learn more about APD, read this.
My cambion is a born psychopath who was nurtured by a pure hearted mother before she was brutally murdered. In Harry Potter fashion, her love allowed the preteen cambion to unleash immeasurable power and kill the murderer, banishing him to the Abyss for a very long time. By pragmatic, I mean he has learned to keep a low profile and follow social norms when under his public persona. It wouldn't be practical nor useful to get in trouble with the law because he needs the help of others to accomplish his goals. His quest for revenge is the only thing that matters to him. Empathy and guilt are foreign feelings to him. He understands them, but doesn't feel them. He also doesn't see the point in hurting others just for the sake of hurting others. He's truly neutral aligned, there's both good and evil in him. He was born chaotic evil, but his mother managed to shift his alignment one step closer to lawful good.
Demons respawn in the Abyss. However, cambions are different. Although they stop aging once they're fully matured, they're technically mortals. If they die, they die. Their soul can still go to the afterlife, though.
Age: 33 | Sex: Male | Languages: French and English | Roles: DM and Player
It's not the same edition, but that's the last time we got any serious lore on the plane. Planeshift allowed for more precise travel in previous editions too, but Mt Celestia had a unique effect that dumped planar travelers into the sea. Only gods could get around it.
Celestials aren't perfect beings. Nor are they all happiness and sparkles. Some Celestials exist to hunt down evil and stab it until it stops being a threat. Fiends are literally made of evil, and even those who've had a genuine change of heart have typically committed a lot of evil acts before that change.
Now, if you're looking for a safe bolthole, I'd recommend a demiplane rather than any of the Outer Planes. Much harder for unauthorized guests to get to you.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.