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Post by Badasterysk on Apr 28, 2009 8:44:30 GMT -5
Ok, here’s what we have so far: Rojito- Thri-kreen monk at- Human scout (eventual Horizon Walker) tork- Half-giant fighter-type Yakumo- Human rogue/psion (poss. Lurker) TheUdjat- undecided menatkhufu- undecided Jolith- elf rogue or bard [whisper=TheUdjat,Yakumo,Rojito,Badasterysk]Just a heads up, AoH is updated…  [/whisper] |
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Post by Jolith on Apr 28, 2009 8:59:37 GMT -5
Well decided to post instead of just PM you Bad*.
I might be throwing a curveball regarding class. I really haven't truly decided. Seeing as we have mostly melee and one ranged type, and no real caster. I might instead switch up and play a caster type. Not sure yet as I like the high skill points of the rogue.
If I did switch, I'd probably play a psion. Not sure which Discipline yet, but leaning towards Metacreativity, Psychokinesis, or Telepath. I'll probably wait to decide until I see what TheUdjat and Menatkhufu decide to play.
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Post by TheUdjat on Apr 28, 2009 9:29:24 GMT -5
Still waffling between Human Templar, Halfling Druid, and Kreen Psywarrior. Just can't decide what I want most. We do seem a little caster-light, though, so that's a big point in favor of the Templar and Druid. Especially given that Templars have much improved casting options. Urikite Templars are beasts, man.
And druids, well, just ask Shakes.
I'll sit back and wait to see what others play for now.
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Post by Jolith on Apr 28, 2009 14:29:24 GMT -5
Hey Bad*, had a question. I know you're not going to run the game exactly like TheUdjat as different GMs have different viewpoints, but I was wondering if you were planning on giving everyone the free Psionic power?
As you know TheUdjat gave all characters a free power and a few PPs. Were you planning on doing that too?
I just ask because ever since 2nd edition D&D, Dark Sun characters have had that extra Power. Gives them a little more flash I guess.
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Post by TheUdjat on Apr 28, 2009 14:37:36 GMT -5
Yeah, I meant to ask that, too. Granted, it's only pertinent if a character is taking a psionic class or has a Charisma of 11 or higher to make use of it, though I see in this version they introduced feats to improve a Hidden Talent and make them scale up with character level and such. A cool feature, I thought. I was considering developing a mechanic where Hidden Talents could be based on ability scores other than Charisma (or the key ability of a manifester), and a way to randomize what powers one gets, but this gets into the realms of Tricky. It made sense to me, though, since typical people in Athas are supposed to have wild talents, but most races have a Charisma penalty, making this impossible, lol. Let me know if you're interested on my thoughts in this. But if nothing else, the power points allow characters to take Psionic Feats, which are often cool.  |
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Post by Badasterysk on Apr 28, 2009 17:43:14 GMT -5
... I was wondering if you were planning on giving everyone the free Psionic power? As you know TheUdjat gave all characters a free power and a few PPs. Were you planning on doing that too? The short answer is yes. The long answer is that I'll need to take a look at some things to determine how I want to go about it. Also, something that was brought to my attention that I neglected to address earlier... The harsh elements and vicious nature of Athas are a huge factor in Dark Sun (and one of the main reasons why it is my favorite setting). As such, I'm vetoing certain items, spells and psionic powers that negate or circumvent finding sources of food and/or water (Decanter of Endless Water, Ring of Sustenance, Create Water (and/or food), Sustenance psionic power or ioun stones, Sustaining Spoon, Concentrate Water power, and the like). |
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Post by TheUdjat on Apr 28, 2009 18:06:04 GMT -5
Also, something that was brought to my attention that I neglected to address earlier... The harsh elements and vicious nature of Athas are a huge factor in Dark Sun (and one of the main reasons why it is my favorite setting). As such, I'm vetoing certain items, spells and psionic powers that negate or circumvent finding sources of food and/or water (Decanter of Endless Water, Ring of Sustenance, Create Water (and/or food), Sustenance psionic power or ioun stones, Sustaining Spoon, Concentrate Water power, and the like). A wise decision. Are you doing the same for effects like Endure Elements that negate the extreme temperatures? (I would assume so, but you singled out food/water effects, so I wanted to clarify) |
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Post by Badasterysk on Apr 28, 2009 18:52:50 GMT -5
Are you [disallowing] effects like Endure Elements that negate the extreme temperatures? (I would assume so, but you singled out food/water effects, so I wanted to clarify) Yes. Thanks for pointing that out. |
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Post by tork8342 on Apr 28, 2009 20:06:02 GMT -5
Well now this could get interesting a first for me to have to worry about food and just plain surviving as apposed to just worrying about other ppl hurting me. I should probably bone up on the monsters for this game as some of them may end up fighting me for dinner (and i don't wanna kill and eat something thats gonna kill me in return). and to specify i'm a half giant barbarian.
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Post by menatkhufu on Apr 29, 2009 7:22:46 GMT -5
I've never played a cleric. So I think it will be a cleric. Of Rain.
Possibly a human rain priest hailing from Gulg.
But then, I also would love the idea of an elven Sun priest, or a mul earth/fire priest.
I need your idea on that. Help me to choose an Element.
Rain seems to be out of place for Athas, in the Gulgan forests it would be logical, but I find the idea of a wandering Rain priest surreal, same for Water. But then, it is a good choice for a healer.
Elven or mul Sun-priest is very tempting, but I may have difficulty keeping up with the roleplay, in aspect of the Sun's aggresive doctrine. I want to get on well with the average Athasian. I think Sun may prove difficult on that.
That leaves Earth and Fire. But they are neither as powerful healers as Water and Rain, and nor as divinely destructive as the Sun.
Dunno. This time I want my character be able on the battleground. Be it dishing some damage, or complementing the party in some aspect, be it healing, blessings or curses.
Second, do you have any suggestions with the divine prestige classsess? I only found Elementalist in the PDF links you provided.
In any way, my character will be a Cleric.
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Post by TheUdjat on Apr 29, 2009 8:06:01 GMT -5
Well, Athasian Clerics have a ton of options. The 'personality' and interpretation of an element is entirely up to the individual, though there are obviously certain tendencies an element follows: fire and sun are aggressive, water is generally passive/healing, earth is stoic, etc. There are options. Any alignment is acceptable, too, though paraelementals (except Rain) tend to be of the darker end of the spectrum, since Sun/Magma/Silt tend to like the ecological devastation of the world while Earth/Water/Fire/Air are more in favor of preserving the land and restoring it. Rain is kind of an anomaly. There's a healing aspect to it, and there's a destroying aspect to it. And it's weird, yeah, because there's really not a lot in the way of rain on Athas--unless Bad* is doing something with the Cerulean Storm (which may or may not exist given our mutual stance on the Prism Pentad).
But whatever you choose, it really doesn't impact the cleric's ability to heal. Even with their domain options, you can still choose of channel positive energy and, therefore, to spontaneously cure. Hell, with the right feat/skill selection, a Druid can spontaneously cure, too (and in many ways they are far more healing-inclined than the elemental clerics).
I think Rain is an interesting choice for a wandering cleric (although many of them are wandering). It has a kind of mystique to it--one can be tempestuous and wrathful or nourishing. There are even two very appropriate-sounding domains for such a character: "Furious Storm" and "Refreshing Storm"... although in looking up the latter, it doesn't appear to exist, though Rain is listed as having 'Living Waters'. Maybe a type. Cold Malice is also pretty fierce. I think their other option is 'Drowning Despair' not 'Decaying Touch' as is listed under the class entry. Poor editing here.
Anyway, yeah, you have options. Rain is feasible. So are the others. Water and Earth are both very respected elements because people cling to earth for stability and thirst for water (I remember Nibenay had some very enormous temples to both, because they depended on the earth for clay and stone for buildings and for farming, and water for life, naturally. Most city-states seem to follow suit).
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Post by Jolith on Apr 29, 2009 8:21:09 GMT -5
I've never played a cleric. So I think it will be a cleric. Of Rain. Possibly a human rain priest hailing from Gulg. But then, I also would love the idea of an elven Sun priest, or a mul earth/fire priest. I need your idea on that. Help me to choose an Element. Rain seems to be out of place for Athas, in the Gulgan forests it would be logical, but I find the idea of a wandering Rain priest surreal, same for Water. But then, it is a good choice for a healer. Elven or mul Sun-priest is very tempting, but I may have difficulty keeping up with the roleplay, in aspect of the Sun's aggresive doctrine. I want to get on well with the average Athasian. I think Sun may prove difficult on that. That leaves Earth and Fire. But they are neither as powerful healers as Water and Rain, and nor as divinely destructive as the Sun. Dunno. This time I want my character be able on the battleground. Be it dishing some damage, or complementing the party in some aspect, be it healing, blessings or curses. Second, do you have any suggestions with the divine prestige classsess? I only found Elementalist in the PDF links you provided. In any way, my character will be a Cleric. I wouldn't worry about non-Rain/Water clerics being bad at healing, in fact they're just as good. If you look through the domains, not a single one has a Cure spell on the list. Also, only one domain has a "healing" like domain power and that's Living Waters which stabilizes everyone within 60' radius. As for a Rain priest being out of place. I don't think so at all. There are a variety of reasons you could go out into the world. For one, to spread the word. The more priests of rain, the more chances that they could influence the environment and the more rain that would come. So spreading the word is one of the most important roles a priest could have, especially one that preaches about Rain and Water. If not for them, the world itself would continue to worsen. Also, you could head out into the world to directly influence it. To fight against those priests that worship Fire and Magma. To put out their fires so their influence on this world lessens, and the influence of water would start to become more predominant. As for being able to dish out damage. Any cleric is going to be able to do that, no matter the type. Jo'lith was an air cleric and he could seriously pump out damage. That of course was mainly for my 18 str because I was a Mul, but also had to do with Divine Power spell and some others. Most clerics are going to be able to self augment enough to be affective in combat. If you did feel like playing a Sun priest, I don't think that you'd not fit in. First off having an aggressive doctrine doesn't mean your character has to be overbearing. You could be completely passionate about your work, having the fire within you drive you to succeed, but still not be pushy about your doctrine. It all comes down to how you play your character. One big thing to remember is that even though you're playing a style that has stereotypes, it doesn't mean you have to fit the mold exactly. You could just have some qualities, and have others that aren't as pronounced or not there altogether. I just don't want you to think that Sun is aggressive, Water is passive, Air is flightly, and be done with it. You probably already know all this, I just don't want you to think you're pigeon-holed. As for Prestige Class, I personally liked the Elementalist one. Fits well within the idea of an elementalist cleric. Of course it's also a good stepping stone for the Elemental Master, in the Prestige Class Appendix 1. Edit: Apparently TheUdjat already posted regarding this and had similiar comments. Darn him for being faster than me! |
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Post by Rojito on Apr 29, 2009 9:37:43 GMT -5
Also i would like some assistance with how a Thri-Kreen Monk would work. What would be the base damage die? d6? and since he has four arms how would flurry work?
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Post by TheUdjat on Apr 29, 2009 10:03:13 GMT -5
Also i would like some assistance with how a Thri-Kreen Monk would work. What would be the base damage die? d6? and since he has four arms how would flurry work? A lot of this depends on how Bad* wants to work it. In all technicality, natural attacks aren't quite the same as an unarmed strike, which is what a monk uses, but I think one could probably rule for them being similar enough to overlap in this case. Still, a standard character's attacks and natural attacks work different. A monk's flurry ability, like rapid shot, work off of Base Attack, and therefore off of the idea of iterative attacks. As written, the ability grants you one additional attack at your highest base attack, but with all attacks being at a -2 penalty (though this decreases over time). A thri-kreen, however, has a natrual 4 claw attacks and a secondary bite attack at a -5. They're not the same. At worst, one could argue that a thri-kreen monk could use a flurry of blows for the usual -2/-2, which isn't much help at all when the Kreen can normally do +0/+0/+0/+0/-5 anyway. At best, one could argue that this grants one additional claw attack, but still imposes a penalty, meaning you get -2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-7. Also not much of an improvement since the penalty becomes a bigger problem than the one additional attack. Granted, at later levels a monk's penalty to flurry is removed, so eventually that could work out to being an awesome option. On the other hand, flurry is eventually supposed to get more attacks due to iterative attacks, and natural attacks don't do this. They're always the same. A thri-kreen with +0 BAB has the same number of natural attacks as one with +20. In short, it's up to Bad*. So is the damage. You could rule claws get upgraded to 1d6 damage, or you could rule that the 1d6 damage isn't a thri-kreen's claws but 'other' unarmed attacks. After all, if you increase the claws, do you also increase the bite? Or do you give the thri-kreen monk two separate styles of fighting--natural attacks and unarmed attacks. This is probably the RAW way to do things, with a thri-kreen monk getting either the unarmed attacks (and flurry) with 1d6 damage or his four claws/one bite for 1d4 damage. It is, clearly, extremely complicated. Hopefully Bad* will weigh in and let you know how he's doing things. |
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Post by Badasterysk on Apr 29, 2009 10:05:33 GMT -5
Menatkhufu, there’s not much to add to what Udjat and Rojito have already said. The only thing I would do is urge you to remember is that you don’t have to know every outlook or attitude your character will have right out of the gate. Circumstances change and people with them- you can develop and evolve much of your character’s viewpoint and approach as we go along.
Rojito, a thri-kreen monk’s unarmed damage will advance as a monk (1D6 to start, 1D8 at 4th level, and so on- though the bite attack won’t change, it will remain as written in the race description). As for the flurry of blows, you will get a sixth attack with a -2 penalty to all attack rolls (four claws, a bite, and an extra claw attack per FoB. As a full-round action, of course).
EDIT: I've come up with how I'll handle latent psionics. Everyone will receive the Wild Talent feat for free. Also, based on your character description and background, I'll give each character a choice of one of three psionic powers. Sound ok?
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Post by Rojito on Apr 29, 2009 10:24:44 GMT -5
ok that works well for me, but what happens if i take the Improved Natural Attack feat? would that up the damage another Die? i know i wont get that anytime soon, but its a thought.
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Post by TheUdjat on Apr 29, 2009 10:33:20 GMT -5
EDIT: I've come up with how I'll handle latent psionics. Everyone will receive the Wild Talent feat for free. Also, based on your character description and background, I'll give each character a choice of one of three psionic powers. Sound ok? Sounds cool to me. I assume the mechanics for those without psionic classes remain akin to the Hidden Talent feat? |
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Post by Badasterysk on Apr 29, 2009 10:33:53 GMT -5
ok that works well for me, but what happens if i take the Improved Natural Attack feat? would that up the damage another Die? i know i wont get that anytime soon, but its a thought. I'm going to say no to this feat. I can't have a 4th level character (or 6th with LA) making 4 or 5 attacks a round at 2D6+ damage each. Sorry.  |
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Post by Badasterysk on Apr 29, 2009 10:37:36 GMT -5
EDIT: I've come up with how I'll handle latent psionics. Everyone will receive the Wild Talent feat for free. Also, based on your character description and background, I'll give each character a choice of one of three psionic powers. Sound ok? Sounds cool to me. I assume the mechanics for those without psionic classes remain akin to the Hidden Talent feat? I suppose the Hidden Talent feat is more applicable (if I have it correctly- can't find the reference- 2 power points plus a first level power). If this is the case, consider my above post, just with the Hidden Talent feat instead of Wild Talent. |
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Post by TheUdjat on Apr 29, 2009 11:16:29 GMT -5
Sounds cool to me. I assume the mechanics for those without psionic classes remain akin to the Hidden Talent feat? I suppose the Hidden Talent feat is more applicable (if I have it correctly- can't find the reference- 2 power points plus a first level power). If this is the case, consider my above post, just with the Hidden Talent feat instead of Wild Talent. Yeah, it's on a weird page in XPH, but basically that's it. The pertinent mechanics are that one needs a charisma of 11 to use the power if they're not psionically trained, and are always considered a 1st-level manifester. If one is psionically trained (psywarrior, psion, wilder, lurk) it effectively becomes part of their powers known list and they use their class's key ability for it (i.e. Cha for Wilder, Int for psion, Wis for psywarrior, etc), as well as increasing it in manifester level with their level. I still like you giving us a choice of three based on background. |
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[/whisper]
