New Player(s)

[harknail]

Welcome. Here's a thread to dicuss the game and characters.

[harknail]

I'm currently running two characters:
Vadania an elven druid along with her Wolf companion Ylva, the very first character posted in this game here
Neera a barbarian Weretiger, the newest character posted in this game here

This campaign started in the Steadlands, a swampy area where only one town had good water. Turns out the water was being pulled from a barier sealing a demon. Eventually the seal broke and the demon got loose. It's now going around trying to release the other demons then take over the world. Having been there when it happened, Vadania feels someone responsible, so she's doing what she can to reseal the demons. To aid her, she has a copy of a picture book that describes how the demons were captured last time. So far we've tharted demon plans a few times and actually recaptured one of the demons. She collected a strange assortment of magic items to help her, including one turned he blood into liquid metal so she now glows in the dark.

Currently we are in the dessert. Having saved the prince, we're now on our way to investigate a growing darkness in the distance. Along the way we found a long burried city that's now exposed again. Possibly the city where the demons where first summoned to this world.

Neera's story is much shorter. She and her lover were ambushed by the Khan (dessert dwellers) and her lover killed. Neera loves to fight (especially Khan), but not to the point where she interferes with others attempts to avoid fights. She met the others in the desert.

[crazydave]

Thank you for the information! If I'm understanding you right, the party is currently crossing the desert to explore a growing darkness - and along the way the party has come across a ruined city that they're currently about to check out.

If I were to make a character for this campaign, what are the character creation rules (such as starting level)? And what sourcebooks are/aren't allowed (such as the Tome of Battle)?

[harknail]

The characters are currently level 7. The GM seems to have a large library of 3.5 books, though I don't know if there is anything that isnt' allowed. The GM has tweaked some prestige classes to better fit the campaign.

Since we recently made a second 7th level character, I'll see if I can find the guidelines for starting equipment.

[harknail]

Found the posts from when I was working on Neera:

32 point build with reduced stats for +LA races (a +1 race gets 25 points for instance). Races and weirdness have to be approved (no anthropomorphic feral bats for instance)
Maximum hitpoints at lv1.
Level 7 - though not too far to level 8.
25,000gp of gear plus either your choice of ~10000gp of item(s) from the sets in the magic item compendium or my choice of a little more befitting of your character.
You can also take one or more legacy items which are considered all paid up - if you are unfamiliar with them they reduce your stats but grow more powerful as your level goes up.

+1 level adjust just means lower stats, but same level. The points buy starts at 8 in each stat plus points based on total level adjust.
+0 = 32 stat points
+1 = 25
+2 = 18
+3 = 10
+4 = 0

Legacy weapons in this game are weapons that were used the last time the demons were loose, the weapons used to defeat them. Neera has one as her primary weapon. Vadania has one also, but it's rarely used since she tries to avoid melee.

[at]

Hi - DM here.

In terms of restrictions, i'm familiar with the majority of the game system aside from psionics, combat maneuvers, incarnum, and a few of the more obscure casting classes like truenamers. I have the books, I just haven't used them. I can look into the mechanics as required though.

The game format is a medium-magic road trip - while powerful mages and factions exist they are relatively few and far between and caught up in their own affairs, while the player characters are effectively chasing a step behind an unfolding disaster. In essence it means that some high level mage isn't going to teleport in and steal your thunder but it is a world where powerful magics / items exist.


In the short term make a single character, i've set something up for the switch-over. Once things are underway there will be the option for you to add a second to fill the party out and reduce the need for hanger-on NPCs.

[crazydave]

Cool, thanks for the information, guys! Another quick question: Is the game combat-heavy? (I know that, due to the nature of play-by-post games, combat can be difficult to run)

[harknail]

Thinking about it, I would say there is much less combat than most of the face-to-face games that played in. Generally the characters have been avoiding combat were possible. Journal it would say we mostly have the climactic fights, but skipped most of the little fights that would generally lead up to that.

For example, we recently encountered a Dragon when we unknowingly intruded into its territory. While we may have been able to beaded in a fight (Don't know what level of Dragon it was, so not sure), we assumed it would be bad to fight it and tried talking to it instead. The result was the Dragon went in search of treasure we were talking about. We decided not to try losing its lair while it was gone...

Valdania's not as greedy as most adventurers. She looks for things to defeat the demons, but isn't interested in treasure as such. Not all of her companions have felt the same way, she tries to accommodate the goals of her companions as well. So it's fine if your character is motivated by treasure :-)

[at]

Jul 29, 2020 12:43:39 GMT -5 crazydave said:

Cool, thanks for the information, guys! Another quick question: Is the game combat-heavy? (I know that, due to the nature of play-by-post games, combat can be difficult to run)

It varies by location, though you'll either need a way to fight or a way to stay out of the fights (preferably helping the team out). You do have one or two boss fights per chapter though.

Not had any problems with combat so far, though we've not had any characters that need more precise positioning or attack chains like dungeoncrashers. For the most part I don't use combat maps/grids (outside of my own notes) so there is a degree of abstraction.

[crazydave]

I see, OK. I'm thinking that I might draft up a rogue or a caster of some kind. For the purposes of clerics or other divine classes, do religion and specific dieties play a big role in this setting?

[harknail]

The Silver Flame (what's left of it) backs the fight against the demons. Vadania and Ylva have ended up with a connection to the Silver Flame as well. In the case of Vadania it's 2 levels of Storm Lord Prestige class. In the case of Ylva, it was a wolf growing to the size of a pony.

But other than that, I don't recall what pantheon this game has. Our last cleric worshiped Fharlanghn, I'm not sure if he's from grayhawk or one of the core deites.

[at]

You can choose your god freely if you want to play a cleric. As a rule the gods to not act directly upon the world, and while there are areas of strong theocratic rule they are not on a direct path with the overarching story.


To follow up on a few character creation options:
- No more than two flaws
- No more than two traits
- God/race specific PrCs can be re-themed
- Printed class variants are allowed within reason (i.e. shapeshifter druids)
- Untyped stat-to-value abilities don't stack (i.e. monk wis to AC and ninja wis to AC)
- A few things are banned on a case by case basis - mainly to keep the characters power levels from getting too far out of sync. Shouldn't be an issue unless you were planning on a sevenfold-incantatrix or dragonwrought loredrake

[crazydave]

Okay, cool. I'm thinking of rolling a cleric, yeah - do you want me to choose a published god from somewhere, or is freehanding one OK so long as I don't pick discordant domains and the god in question is small/forgotten? (And write a backstory for it for your approval, of course)

And is the cloistered cleric variant allowed? I'm thinking about playing more of a holy-caster than a holy-warrior.

[harknail]

A cleric sounds like someone motivated to stop demons :-) Also holy magic is good vs. demons :-)

Vadania is jack of all trades, master of none. Usually she stays back and launches lighning bolts, arrows, or magic missles. She has her legendary longsword and a decent AC for when she must fight in melee, but doesn't have the strength to do much damage. She also has some healing (mostly from items).

Neera is a high AC barbarian that can do a lot of melee damage. Ylva is a big wolf who can support Neera in melee (to protect Vadania).

The current NPC with the group is an arcane spell caster.

So I think a cleric would complement the group nicely :-)

[at]

Cloistered cleric is fine - the only thing i'd err away from would be the persistant metamagic path.
A small/forgotten god/belief system is fine.

At this level you'll also be qualifying for the majority of prestige classes if you plan on going down that path.

[crazydave]

Okay, cool, thanks! I haven't actually had too much experience with building clerics, so I'm currently shifting through the mountain of options available. I've never played with legacy weapons before - I gave the book a look-through and it looks really cool!

[harknail]

I'm not sure the legacy weapons are worth the drawbacks for a power gamer. But they're thematically nice and are tied into the game.

GM, is the hammer that sometimes glows a legacy weapon? I think it is, but I'm not sure. If it is, it hasn't been activated like the wooden longsword has.

[at]

The hammer is, but it is not active beyond its basic ability (because legacy items drain stats so they have to be explicitly chosen).

Outside of the more exotic builds a clerics initial choices are mainly based around:
-cloistered or not (cloistered clerics are more skillfull but weaker in combat)
-spontaneous or not (you only know a few spells, but can cast them as you need them)
-domain selection

Past that point most clerics progress with an eye on a prestige class. If you can think of any kind of theme that you would be interested in (i.e. holy knight, healer, elemental master, inquisitor, etc) i'm sure I can find something that fits.

[harknail]

The reason I mention it is if the hammer suits the cleric, Vadania would happily hand it over.

[crazydave]

I'm thinking of doing a cloistered cleric into the Contemplative prestige class after 10 cleric levels. I'll have a lot of skill points from cloistered cleric, and by taking the Spontaneous Domains feat, it'll give me access to a pretty large variety of different domain spells. (I noticed that the Persist/Divine Metamagic super-buffer build that is talked about a lot online isn't allowed; it doesn't sound that fun to play anyway)

Just to make sure I understand, if we choose a legacy weapon from the Weapons of Legacy book, do we start with any of its rituals cleared? The legacy weapon I was looking at is the Scales of Balance quarterstaff from the book. While permanently giving up hit points on a class with a d6 hit die is dangerous, it's got such a cool flavor that fits with the character that I'm willing pay that cost.