# Anything But Normal, Sailing the Endless Falls... Characters Selected!



## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 25, 2006)

The Endless Falls is a world of great extremes, of mountains that don't just scrape the sky, but pierce it, and if you care to climb, you could find yourself knocking on the door to the gods' realms, of plains that hold grass that nourishes animals of astounding size and power, and occasionally grass that eats the animals, of vast cities that span not just continents, but the transitive planes between, and all manner of creatures and knowledge can be found.

You are the crew of to-be-christaned isle-ship, a sailing vessel wrought of earth with living trees for masts, flowing with pure water, a well of fire in its heart, and its own breeze to follow it.  Such a prize, however, doesn't come without price.  Your deeds of daring and heroism won you the ship from a greatful omnielemental prince, but others of his court protested giving it to mere mortals.  A violent coup took place, your prince was slain, and you were suddenly on the run, a high price on your heads.

You've sailed into the Sea of Fire and Ice, a treacherous near-ocean filled with currents of salt and pure water, stretches of ice and rimefire, flows of stones and desert waste, and waves of all sorts of elemental matter.  Amongst this place you may find allies, as sure as your enemies will find you!

For everyone: I have a special prize for each character chosen. If you describe a part of the Endless Falls, a place where you lived, visited, fought, or what have you, or perhaps a person, a mentor, guardian, friend with some detail, I shall craft an item specifically for your character, something you received from your Prince as payment or gift for your duties.

I also have some additional information about the backstory and campaign type.  Your omnielemental prince was named Taala.  He had four brides of the four greater (read classic) elementals, and children of all conceivable elemental, para-elemental, and quasi-elemental type.  Taala oversaw the Kingdom of Knowledge, a small but powerful country no more than a few hundred square miles.  It contains the massive Iceangel Lake and the twin mountains Ironguard and Stonemaw.  There are environments here to satisfy nearly elemental.

There are two main exports of Kingdom of Knowledge: pure elements and prophecy.  The great elemental weirds, keepers of knowledge and oracles without peer, reside in unusually high numbers in the kingdom, and Taala controls access to all of them.  Those seeking their counsel pay homage and tribute to Taala or fumble through on their own wits.

The coup against Taala happened when he presented you with the isle-ship, though it was only an excuse to ignite resentment that had been brewing for years.  By Taala's own laws, only greater elementals, omnielementals (MMIII), or tempests (MMII) could assume positions of power in his kingdom.  He feels only a quartet of greater elementals or a single omnielemental or tempest can have a fair and balance viewpoint to rule the Kingdom of Knowledge.  

This caused great resentment from the other elementals.  The paraelmentals often had minor positions, as their duel-elemental nature gave them some insight, but could not ascend higher.  But the quasi-elementals, with their smaller spheres, could not possibly be fair, and are barred from any kind of powerful position.  Acid (ToHII), lightning (ToH), obsidian (ToHII), and storm (MMIII) elementals, along with other elemental creatures like the immoth (MMII), living holocaust (FF), and chraal (MMIII), grew terribly resentful and angry at their powerlessness.  However, their resentment may have simmered forever, had it not been for the time and psionic elementals (both ToH).

Powerful beyond measure, but forbidden power over others as well as personal power, the royal time elementals, the leaders of the rebellion in progress, bided their time, waiting for the correct moment, for they knew the value of patience.  When one of the rare, powerful, newly-complete isle-ships was given to fleshy mortal servants instead of any of Taala's deserving elemental brethren, that was the single spark that was needed to begin the coup.

The reason the royal time elementals are now on your tail is because you carry Taala's regalia with you.  The crown, scepter, and orb of the Kingdom of Knowledge are bound to the soul of the land, and without them, no one can command the loyalty of the land's fey and weirds.  Without this, the Kingdom of Knowledge cannot keep the lock on their goods, and the small but powerful kingdom with dissolve.  

Your characters can try to find allies to do one or more of several things: 

1.  Hide the regalia and let the kingdom dissolve.  The weirds will go their own way and be much harder to find as a result.  You will still be hunted by the time elementals though.

2.  Get someone to help retake the kingdom by force.  If that's accomplished you can either:
2a - Install a quartet of Taala's children, or another related omnielemental or tempest on the throne.
2b - Install _yourselves_ on the throne, changing the rules to suit.
2c - Put a third party on the throne, perhaps a pair of paraelementals to represent all four elements, or even some other entirely different elemental.

3.  Get someone to help take the kingdom by trickery or deceit.  This will have a longer time-span, and once accomplished, you could achieve a result similar to those above.

4.  Some other wacky scheme that I can't even think of, but you might be able to.

As for some mechanics on the adventure itself... Your DM is inordinately fond of oozes, fey, elementals, aberrations, golems and other constructs, along with some vermin, odd giants, odd dragons, and magical beasts.  I swear there is an ooze, dragon, and golem or construct for every occasion!  

You will be less likely to see outsiders of any stripe, hordes of monstrous humanoids, or undead.  I favor deceptive creatures, things that aren't always what they seem, things connected to nature, quirky things, and things that are very, very hungry.  The ability to swiftly assess what you see would be an asset.  Barring that, a way to cover all contingencies would be nice.  Both a quick tongue and a quick blade will be useful.

~~~

This shall be my third and final game (as in I'm not starting any more until I finish another, to keep myself from overextending, not like I'm quitting or anything, heavens forfend!).

However, this one has a twist.  Those of you who played in or read my short-lived epic game might remember the Endless Falls... and that I destroyed it to kick off that adventure.  Needless to say, this will be a pre-destruction era.

You will be 8th level characters, 32 point-buy, standard wealth, hit points max at 1st, 75% +Con thereafter, round up. 

*BUT*, here's the fun part, the classes and races from the Player's Handbook are banned.  Yup.  Banned.  I want people to bust open their other books and play something weird and bizzare!  Or at least, very unique.  Below is what I own, but here is what I _don't_ have: Spell Compendium, DMGII, Races of the Dragon, MMIV, or Complete Psionic.  

I own and will allow people to draw from:

From Wizards of the Coast
PHB, DMG, MM (as necessary)
MMII, MMIII, Fiend Folio
Expanded Psionic's Handbook, PH II
Book of Exalted Deeds, Book of Vile Darkness
Unearthed Arcana (alternate races/classes, 2 flaws allowed)
Frostburn, Sandstorm, and Stormwrack
Savage Species, Planar Handbook, Manual of the Planes
Draconomicon, Arms and Equpiment Guide
Complete Adventurer, Arcane, Divine, and Warrior
Sword and Fist, Defenders of the Faith, Song and Silence, Masters of the Wild
Miniature's Handbook, Ghostwalk, Libris Mortis, Lords of Madness
Races of Destiny, Stone, and the Wild
Weapons of Legacy

Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
Player's Guide to Faerun, Magic of Faerun, Races of Faerun, Faiths and Pantheons, Monsters of Faerun, Champions of Ruin/Valor, Lords of Darkness, Lost Empires of Faerun, Underdark, Silver Marches, Shining South, Unapproachable East, Serpent Kingdoms 

Eberron Campaign Setting
Races of Eberron, Magic of Eberron, Explorer's Handbook, Player's Guide to Eberron, Five Nations, Secrets of Xen'drick, Sharn City of Towers

Oriental Adventures

Dragon Magazine #277-346

Malhavoc Press
Arcana Evolved, Transcendence, Legacy of the Dragons

Book of Eldritch Might I, II, and III (I don't own the Complete Book of Eldritch Might)
Book of Hallowed Might I & II
When the Sky Falls, Requiem for a God
Hyperconsciousness
Chaositech

Fantasy Flight Games
Dawnforge, Age of Legends
Traps and Treachery I & II

Sword and Sorcery Studios
_All things from this company are subject to nit-picking_
Relics and Rituals, Creature Collection II, Psionics Toolkit

Green Ronin Publishing
Book of the Righteous (use Holy Warrior 3.5 update), Unholy Warrior's Handbook, Shaman's Handbook.

Necromancer Games
Tome of Horrors I & II

AEG
_Subject to nit-picking_
Dungeons, Dragons, Wilds

Bastion Press
_Subject to nit-picking_
Arms and Armor
Alchemy and Herbalism

Citizen Games
_Subject to nit-picking_
Way of the Witch 

Goodman Games
Monsters of the Boundless Blue
Monsters of the Endless Dark
Primeval Groves

Place all potential here, in my Temporary Rogue's Gallery.  Read the first sentence of the first post carefully please!

Also I would like people to use, as little as possible, things from the DMG and MM.  I understand some feats are nearly necessary for prereqs, and some equipment is so basic it's hard to stray from the DMG and PHB, but I think you people can find something suitably fun after you've gotten your basics in!

Gimme a Mulchman (Primeval Groves) Swamp Ranger (Wilds) with the Scorpion's Grasp feat(Sandstorm) casting _animalistic power_ (PHBII) on his water-adapated reed wolf companion (Stormwrack) so he can aid in the battle against his most hated enemy, a shadesteel golem (MMIII)!

I would request no feats or whatnot that are terribly world-specific - No FR regional feats, no Eberron Dragonmark feats or whatnot, y'all know what I mean.

This _won't_ be first-come first served, I will be picking 4-6 in about 10-14 day's time depending on response.  And it should go without saying, sources must be listed for everything, with page numbers!  Please give me a good character concept and story, in addition to a few basic character mechanics (class choices, possible feat or feat trends, types of spells, basic kinds of skills, etc).

In addition, I have a special prize for each character chosen.  If you describe a part of the Endless Falls, a place where you lived, visited, fought, or what have you, or perhaps a person, a mentor, guardian, friend with some detail, I shall craft an item specifically for your character, something you received from your Prince as payment or gift for your duties.

So... who's ready to be... Anything but Normal?


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## Gli'jar (Aug 25, 2006)

Interesting, very interesting.  How about Green Ronin's take on the Shaman (Green Ronin's, The Shaman's Handbook)


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## Bront (Aug 25, 2006)

I'm in (Yeah, I know, like I need another game).  I'll let you know exactly what soon, but I've been looking at a Spirit Shamen for a while.

Edit: Darn, my Stormwrack is at home.  I'll probably take a race out of that, though I was pondering a Shifter too.

You mention UA, does that mean that variant base classes are ok?


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## Phoenix (Aug 25, 2006)

Bront said:
			
		

> I'm in (Yeah, I know, like I need another game).  I'll let you know exactly what soon, but I've been looking at a Spirit Shamen for a while.
> 
> Edit: Darn, my Stormwrack is at home.  I'll probably take a race out of that, though I was pondering a Shifter too.
> 
> You mention UA, does that mean that variant base classes are ok?




That's it! If Bront's in, so am I, someone has to show him up.  Once I beat my Metro players around a bit tonight I'll look into creating the character with the _most toes_ in the world...muhahaha...

Actually I think the digit-hydra is banned in 3.5, i'll just get something else...let me work on it.  Any alignments a particular hindrance (I'm speak LG and CE here, some people jus' don' like the paladins).


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## Strahd_Von_Zarovich (Aug 25, 2006)

Interesting indeed, I'll say if I can arrange something "wierd" enough for you


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## Fenris (Aug 25, 2006)

Phoenix said:
			
		

> That's it! If Bront's in, so am I, someone has to show him up.  Once I beat my Metro players around a bit tonight I'll look into creating the character with the _most toes_ in the world...muhahaha...
> 
> Actually I think the digit-hydra is banned in 3.5, i'll just get something else...let me work on it.  Any alignments a particular hindrance (I'm speak LG and CE here, some people jus' don' like the paladins).




Well if Bront AND Phoenix are in, I guess I may have to consider joining as well. If I can come up with something wierd enough


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 25, 2006)

I thought for a minute I didn't think I had the Shaman's Handbook... but it turns out I do.  Huh... I have so many books I forget what I have!  So yeah, that's cool.

Varient base classes and varient races from UA are cool.  Flaws are also cool, up to 2 if you're inclined.

And I'm glad to see some interest, this should be extra funtimes!


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## Bront (Aug 25, 2006)

Cool, I'll probably propose a few different characters then.

One's likely a shifter with a fighter varient (I'll detail it up, something similar to the Thug, but more natureish skills, likely calling it the Shifter Warrior) and the Waretouched Master PrC

One using one of the Stormwrack races (You have Stormwrack, right?)

And one Spirit Shamen (May end up being with the above)

We'll see.  I don't have the book here.


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 25, 2006)

Yup, I have Stormwrack.

Alternatively, you can just be a single-note-Nancy.  If you want to make an Azurine Soulborn with more feats-with-a-blue-name than you can shake a stick at, Incarnum away!


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## Phoenix (Aug 25, 2006)

Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> Yup, I have Stormwrack.
> 
> Alternatively, you can just be a single-note-Nancy.  If you want to make an Azurine Soulborn with more feats-with-a-blue-name than you can shake a stick at, Incarnum away!




I'm looking at either a Marshal, something from Incarnum, or a little of both.  And I'll have better everything than Bront and Fenris, cause all my magic items will have red racing stripes!


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## Bront (Aug 25, 2006)

Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> Yup, I have Stormwrack.
> 
> Alternatively, you can just be a single-note-Nancy.  If you want to make an Azurine Soulborn with more feats-with-a-blue-name than you can shake a stick at, Incarnum away!



I take it Dawnforge material is out of the question?


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## Bront (Aug 25, 2006)

Phoenix said:
			
		

> I'm looking at either a Marshal, something from Incarnum, or a little of both.  And I'll have better everything than Bront and Fenris, cause all my magic items will have red racing stripes!



Yeah, well, all my magic items will BE racing stripes!


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## Strahd_Von_Zarovich (Aug 25, 2006)

What about Half Ogre (RoD) Favored Soul of Vaprak the Destroyer (CD).


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## Bront (Aug 25, 2006)

Ok, I think I've narrowed it down to 2 concepts.

#1) A Hadozee(Stormwrack P41) Wilderness Rogue(UA)/Swashbuckler(CW)/Scarlet Corsair (Stormwrack P67), though the Race may still change (Could go Aventi, Shoal Halfling, or Darfellan, or even something else).  A sneaky, piratey, mobile combat type character, who could be a lot of fun.

Or 

#2) A Darfellan (Stormwrack P37) Spirit Shamen (CD), and potentialy even go Storm Lord (CD) if you'd allow it.  Probably a more contemplative character, and again, could be a lot of fun speaking of the spirits of the storm.

I'll get into a little more detail.  If you like one over the other, let me know.

#3) Oddball idea... Aventi Vampire Spawn (Might get past the running water issue) in Libris Mortis P39


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## Voadam (Aug 25, 2006)

I'd like to go 3rd party stuff if I can.

I'll check out my mostly unopened hyperconsciousness and see about something psionic.

I'll also check out my ToHr and Monsters of the Endless dark for race stuff.


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## Voadam (Aug 25, 2006)

Do you have any of these 3rd party sourcebooks with base classes I could consider? (some of them are d20 modern or variant d20 I know but it is my handy list of stuff owned).

0one Games: Heroes and Magic
Aegis Studios: Living Dead, 
Alea Publishing: A Question of Honor Military Orders, Mindcraft, Crusader Subclass, Poor Gamers Almanacs, 
Atlas Games: Nyambe, Occult Lore, 
Avalanche Press: Aztecs, Black Flags Pirates of the Caribbean, War in Heliopolis, 
Bards and Sages: Neiyar,
Bastion Press: Wildwood, Arena, Mysteries Of Arena, Torn Asunder, Spells and Magic, Pale Designs,
Chainmail Bikini: Beyond Monks 3.0, 
Creative Mountain Gaming: Lexus Culture Class County Clergy, Lexus Culture Class Trundlefolk, 
Cryptosnark Games: Deeds Not Words, 
Crystalkeep.com: Classes
DaemonEye Publishing: Academe Mentus, 
Dark Quest Games: In the Saddle, 
Dog Soul Publishing: Gallia, 
Dunham Studios: Elemental Powers Player’s Sourcebook, 
Emerald Press: Wilderness Master, 
EN Publishing: Three Arrows for the King, Crimson Contracts, Crystalmancy, Elements of Magic, Elements of Magic Revised, Asgard Magazine 1-7, 
Green Ronin: Testament, Witch’s Handbook, Avatar’s Handbook, Book of Fiends, 
Fantasy Flight Games: Cityworks, Traps and Treachery, Path of Faith, Wildscape, School of Illusion, Darkness and Dread, 
Goodman Games: Complete Guide to Fey, 
Heathen Oracle: Novice to Master, 
Malhavok: Arcana Unearthed, Complete Book of Eldritch Might, Book of Hallowed Might, Iron Heroes, Iron Heroes Bestiary
Malladin's Gate: Saint John’s College of Abjuration, Forgotten Heroes Paladins, 
Mind's Eye Games: Tarot Magic, 
Mongoose Publishing: Infernum Player’s Guide, 
Monkey God: Frost and Fur, 
Otherworld Creations: Forbidden Kingdoms
Paizo: Dragon 319, Dragon 320
RollInitiative.com: Book of Versus Classes
Ronin Arts: Core Class Variants, 
Sean K. Reynolds Games: New Argonauts,
Sovereign Press: Age of Mortals, 
SSS: Everquest RPG PH, Gamma World PH, d20 Aberrant, 
S.T. Cooley Games: Enchiridion of Elided Enduements of the Expanse, 
Team Frog: Vampire Hunter$, 
The Le: Unorthodox Barbarians, Unorthodox Bards, Unorthodox Monks, Unorthodox Sorcerers
Throwing Dice Games: Character Customization, 
Vigilance Press: Vigilance,


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## Nalfeshnee (Aug 25, 2006)

Sounds like fun  here are some vague ideas, ill come up with something more substantial later:

Rilkan arcane hierophant (favoured soul/incarnate/arcane hierarch)
half ogre duskblade (specialising in a large Jovar from Planar Handbook)
or aasimar or tiefling paragon, racial substitution incarnate

I hope incarnum exists around here 

hmmm... what style is the campaign? i wouldnt want to be brawnhead in an intense intrigue camapign


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## Watus (Aug 25, 2006)

Hmmm.... maybe something in a thri-keen scout / psychic warrior?


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## Voadam (Aug 25, 2006)

I wish the wealth guidelines were in the srd, what's 8th level standard gold?


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## Wrahn (Aug 25, 2006)

27,000gp is standard for 8th level

I am wondering how much before the previous game this one takes place and whether a young Rhaveon would be out of place.


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## Watus (Aug 25, 2006)

I'm wondering about Bastion Press _Complete Minions_.  Particularly the Nightling.


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## Shayuri (Aug 25, 2006)

Is a disturbingly cheerful Warforged Warmage far enough from ordinary to have a shot at this? The Warforged make an appearance in MMIII I think, so it's not just for Eberron anymore...


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## Bront (Aug 25, 2006)

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Is a disturbingly cheerful Warforged Warmage far enough from ordinary to have a shot at this? The Warforged make an appearance in MMIII I think, so it's not just for Eberron anymore...



Actualy, MMIII was designed for Eberron for the most part. 

But she said Eberron stuff was ok, so it's probably fine.

I'm realy liking this Darfellan Spirit Shamen idea at the moment.  Just let me know if Stormlord is ok.


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## Erekose13 (Aug 26, 2006)

Isida game? I am there.  Now to plot and plan... hmm so many ideas.

How much Malhavoc Press stuff is allowed in? (Ptolus? AE?)
How about Dragon Mag Compendium?

[sblock=quick notes]Illumian (races of destiny)
1 Unfettered (Blade Saint = Clever Blade = ) (AE/Transcendance)
2 Unfettered (Blade Saint)
3 Unfettered (Blade Saint)
4 Unfettered (Blade Saint)
5 Unfettered (Blade Saint)
6 Duskblade (PHB2)
7 Duskblade
8 Duskblade

Feats:
1 Enhanced Power Sigils (+1 Power Sigil Bonus) (RoD)
3 Skill Application (Bluff, Tumble) (AE)
6 Tumbling Attack (Tumble to Flank) (Tra)

Dex 18 10
Cha 14 6
Str 14 6
Int 14 6
Wis 10 2
Con 10 2

Tumble 11+4+3+2+2 = 22
Bluff 11+2+2+3 = 18[/sblock]


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 26, 2006)

Voadam said:
			
		

> Do you have any of these 3rd party sourcebooks with base classes I could consider? (some of them are d20 modern or variant d20 I know but it is my handy list of stuff owned).
> 
> Fantasy Flight Games: Traps and Treachery
> Malhavok: Arcana Unearthed, Complete Book of Eldritch Might, Book of Hallowed Might,
> Paizo: Dragon 319, Dragon 320




I have, per the first post, a great deal of 3rd party books, but apparently not as many as some.  I have listed them in the first post. *If I haven't listed it, I will not be allowing it, period!*

Alignments shall be... whatever you like!  This world is a land of extremes.  I will not be enforcing alignment-associate restrictions.  But please don't kill your party members.  I _would_ like you to be a cohesive team that has done extensive work together in the past.

Type of campaign - You are seeking patrons to help protect you against your hunters, and to reclaim your lord's lands for yourself/his heirs (whatever ends up being appropriate).  But since your potential allies often live in very dangerous parts of the Sea of Fire and Ice, you may have to fight your way to get to them!  And then you have to convince them...

Wrahn - For those that were in the epic game... I may be up for letting younger versions of their epic characters in.  I'm mostly worried about Ferrix though... the Architect was a monster.  Yeah, Wrahn, a young Rahveon would be fine if you desire.


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## Voadam (Aug 26, 2006)

Did a quick tabulation of ToH PC races and came up with the following, you might find it useful. Creature followed by racial HD if more than 1 and LA.

ToH

Atomie +3
Banderlog 4+1
Brownie +3
Buckawn +3
Crabman 3+3
Dakon 2+3
Dark Creeper +3
Dark Stalker 2+4
Demon Alu 6+6
Demon Cambion 8+6
Dire Corby 2+2
Flind 2+2
Forlarren 3+3
Frost Man 4+2
Giant Wood 7+4
Grippli +0
Inphidian Common 4+3
Kech 5+2
Korred 6+5
Lava Child 4+4
Leprechaun +3
Mite Common +0
Mite Pestie +1
Mongrelman 2+1
Nereid 4+6
Nilbog +4
Half-Ogre 2+2
Ogrillon 2+2
Orog 3+1
Pech 4+6
Quickling 2+4
Skulk 2+2
Spriggan 4+3
Stormwarden 3+2
Tabaxi 2+2
Taer 3+3
Transposer 6+3
Troll Cave 4+4
Troll Ice 2+4
Troll Rock 8+5
Troll Swamp 3+3
Troll Two-Headed 10+5
Tsathar 2+4
Tsathar Scourge 4+4
Ubue 3+2
Yeti 4+3
Skeleton Warrior +3
Spectral Troll +3
Therianthrope +2
Asswere 3+2
Foxwere 3+2
Jackalwere 3+2
Lionwere 6+2
Owlwere 3+2
Wolfwere 3+2


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 26, 2006)

Thanks Voadam!  That's a big help.


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## Bront (Aug 26, 2006)

Here's Ekilu so far.  My Darfellan Spirit Shamen/Storm Lord.

I'll get to the background a bit later, and I still need to finish his gear, but I have a fun backstory in store for him that should give Isida lots of fun plot hooks.  I'm willing to tie him in with anyone else.  I see him as the Sailor/hunter/Gatherer/wiseman, with an even keeled personality.  He also holds a special place in his races society, though he feels he doesn't live up to it.
[sblock=Ekilu]*Ekilu ka Wooli (Ekilu the White)*
_Darfellan Spirit Shamen 6/Storm Lord 2_

*Age:* 21
*Gender:* Male
*Height:* 5'0"
*Weight:* 176
*Eyes:* Blue
*Hair:* None
*Skin:* All White

*STR:* 18 [+4] (6 points +2 Racial +2 Item)  
*DEX:* 10 [--] (4 points -2 Racial) 
*CON:* 12 [+1] (4 points) 
*INT:* 12 [+1] (4 points) 
*WIS:* 18 [+4] (10 points +2 level) 
*CHA:* 12 [+1] (4 points)

*Hit Point:* 58
*Hit Dice:* 8d8 + 8
*Armor Class:* 20 (10 base + 5 Armor + 3 Shield + 2 Natural), 10 Touch, 20 Flat Footed
*Initiative:* +0
*BAB:* +5
- *Melee:* +9
- *Ranged:* +5

*Speed:* 20’ (Swim 40'(50'))

*FORT:* +12 (8 Base + 1 Con + 2 Feat + 1 item)
*REFL:* +3 (2 Base + 0 Dex + 1 item)
*WILL:* +13 (8 Base + 4 Wis + 1 item)

*Abilities:* 
Racial
- _+8 Swim, may take 10, 40' Swim speed, can run while swimming_
- _Hold Breath: Can hold breath Con * 8 rounds (96 Minutes)_
- _Bite: 1d6 + 1 1/2 Str as Primary_
- _Echolocation: Blindsense 20' underwater_
- _Racial Hatred: +2 to hit and damage Sahuagin_
Spirit Shamen
- _Spirit Guide: Whale - Wisdom, Power_
-- _Alertness_
-- _Folow the Guide: May make second will save vs enchantment spells 1 round later_
- _Wild Empathy +7 (6 level +1 Charisma)/i]
- Chastise Spirits: 6d6 vs Spirits within 30', DC 17 Will, 4/day
- Detect Spirits: As Detect Undead but for spirits
- Blessing of the Spirits: Protection from Spirits (As Pro Evil) till dispelled, takes 10 min to activate.
- Ghost Warrior: All weapons gain Ghost Touch ability, and uses normal AC vs incorperal attack
Stormlord
- Enhanced Javelins: Thrown Javelins considered +1 magic weapons
- Electricity Reistance: 5
- Shock Weapon: Spears or Javelins considered a shock weapon (+1d6 electrical), for up to 1 round after leaving hand
Spells
- Scales of the SealordLasts 8 hours per casting, +2 Natural Armor, +10' Swim Speed, -2 Cha vs non-aquatic)__

*Feats:*
1st Level
- Endurance
3rd Level
- Great Fortitude
6th Level
- Weapon Focus: Spear

*Skills:* 
Concentration +6 (5 ranks + 1 Con)
Heal +9 (5 ranks + 4 Wis)
KN: Geography +6 (5 ranks + 1 Int)
KN: History +3 (2 ranks + 1 Int)
KN: Nature +8 (7 ranks + 1 Int)
Language (1 CC rank)
Listen +9 (3 ranks + 4 Wis + 2 Feat)
Prof: Sailor +9 (5 ranks + 4 Wis) 
Spellcraft +3 (2 ranks + 1 Int)
Spot +9 (3 ranks + 4 Wis +2 Feat)
Survival ++11(13(15)) (7 ranks + 4 Wis + (2(4)) Synergy)
Swim +16 (5 ranks +8 Racial +3 Str)

*Languages:*
- Darfellan
- Common
- Aquan

*Spellcasting:*
*Caster Level:* 8 (Druid Spell List)
*Save DC:* 10 + 1 CHA + Level
*Spells Known or Available:*
*Oth level – 3* Detect Magic, Light, Resistance(6/day) 
*1st level – 3* Speak with Animal, Lessor Vigor (CD 186), Hawkeye (CD 166)  (7/day)
*2nd level – 2* Cloudburst (CD 158), Bear's Endurance(7/day)
*3rd level – 2* Scales of the Sealord (SW 121), Call Lightning (6/day)
*4th level – 1* Cuse Serious Wounds(5/day)

*Equipment:*
*Melee weapons*
-*Storm's Fury* Spear +1, +11 (1d8+7+1d6, 20/x2) Fine spear engraved with bolts of lightening (2302gp, 6lb*)
-Spear +1, +10 (1d8+6+1d6, 20/x2) Normal Spear or Long Spear (Reach) (Spear (2), 4gp, 12lb*)  (Longspear 5gp, 9lb*)
-Bite, +9(4) (1d6+6, 20/x2) Natural Attack
-Hand Axe, +9 (1d6+4, 20/x3) Hand Axe (6gp, 3lb)
-Dagger, +9 (1d4+4, 20/x2) Dagger (2gp, 1lb)

*Ranged weapons*
-*Storm's Fury* Spear +1, +7 (1d8+7+1d6, 20/x2, 20 ft.)
-Spear, +6 (1d8+6+1d6, 20/x2, 20 ft.)
-*Seaman's Bow* MW Compositie Short Bow +4 Str, +6 (1d6+4, 20/x3, 70 ft.) Fine bow of an able seaman (675gp, 2lb*)
-Javalin, +6 (1d6+5+1d6, 20/x2, 30 ft.) (Q18 18gp, 36lb*)
-Dagger, +5 (1d6+4, 19/x2, 10 ft.) Dagger

Note: All weapons are Ghost Touch, all spears or javalins are Shocking, and all javalins are +1 at least.

*Armor*
-*Name* Mithril Chain Shirt +1 (AC +5, ACP 0, Max Dex +6) Description (2100gp, 12.5lb)
-*Spirit's Shell* Animated Mithril Heavy Shield +1 (AC +3, ACP 0) A Mithril shield designed to look like a clam shell, said to be animated by the spirits of the sea. (10020gp, 7.5lb)

*Miscellaneous Items*
- *Wind's Defense*, Ring of Protection +1, Golden Ring carved with swirling winds (2000gp, -lb)	
- *Shark's Gloves*, Strength +2, Sharkskin gloves with runes carved along the insides (4000gp, -lb)
- Vest of Resistance +1 (1000gp, 1lb)
- Adventurer’s Outfit (-gp, -lb)

- Efficient Quiver (1800gp, 2lb) (Objects inside don't count againt weight)
-- Weapons noted above
-- 60 Arrows  (3gp, 9lb*)

- Handy Haversack (2000gp, 5lb) (Objects inside don't count against weight)
-- Bedroll (1sp	5lb*)
-- Flint & Steel (1, -lb*)
-- Grappling Hook (1gp, 4 lb*)	
-- Rope, 50' Silk (10gp, 5lb*)
-- Wand of Cure Light Wounds (50/50chg) (750gp, -lb*)
-- Potion of Enlarge (50gp, -lb*)
-- 2 Waterskins  (2gp, 8lb*)
-- 6 Days Rations (3gp, 6lb*)

-Belt Pouch (1gp, .5lb)
--Amulet of Everburning Flame (110gp, -lb)

* Weight not counted due to container
Weight Carried: 32.5 lb
Remaining money: 136 gp 9 sp

*Encumberance* 
*Capacity:* 100, 200, 300
*Lift:* 600
*Push/Drag:* 1500

*Description*

*Personality*

*Background*[/sblock]
Edit: Finished just about everything but background/personality._


----------



## Gli'jar (Aug 26, 2006)

Good to hear Green Ronin's Shamans handbook is in ( I much prefer it to the complete divine version).  No to figure out an appropriate race and post.


----------



## Phoenix (Aug 26, 2006)

*Work in Process*

Still lots to do, and some of the stuff is from Bront's other character since i just stole his code     Just bought Incarnum, so if i've put stuff in wrong just yell at me.


```
[B]Name:[/B] Marcello Pancine
[B]Class:[/B] Aasimar Incarnate 4 / Marshal 3  
[B]Race:[/B] Aasimar 
[B]Size:[/B] Medium
[B]Gender:[/B] Male
[B]Alignment:[/B] Neutral Good

[B]Str:[/B] 13 +1 ( 4p.)	[B]Level:[/B] 7	[B]XP[/B]: 28,000 / 36,000
[B]Dex:[/B] 12 +1 ( 4p.)	[B]BAB:[/B] +4		[B]HP:[/B] 55 (2d6+5d8+14)
[B]Con:[/B] 14 +2 ( 6p.)	[B]Grapple:[/B] +5	[B]???:[/B] XXXX
[B]Int:[/B] 10 +0 ( 2p.)	[B]Speed:[/B] 20'	[B]???:[/b]
[B]Wis:[/B] 16 +3 ( 6p.)	[B]Init:[/B] +1	[B]???:[/B] XX
[B]Cha:[/B] 18 +4 ( 10p.)	[B]ACP:[/B] -		[B]???:[/B] X%

[B]	Total	Base	Armor	Shld	Dex	Size	Nat	Misc[/B]
[B]Armor:[/B]	10	10	+	+	+1	+0	+0	+0
[B]Touch:[/B]	11	[B]Flatfooted:[/B] 10

[B]Spell Res:[/B] None
[B]Dmg Red:[/B] None

[B]	Total	Base	Mod	Misc[/B]
[B]Fort:[/B]	+9	7	+2	--
[B]Ref:[/B]	+3	2	+1	--
[B]Will:[/B]	+10	7	+3	--
[B]Notes:[/B]

[B]Weapon			Attack	Damage	Critical	Range[/B]
Dagger +1		+9	1d4+1	19-20/x2	10 ft
Dagger			+8	1d4	19-20/x2	10 ft
Short Bow		+8	1d6	20/x3		60 ft
[B]Notes:[/B]

[B]Languages:[/B] Common, Celestial.

[B]Abilities:[/B]
Racial - Darkvision 60ft, acid resitance 5, cold resistance 5, 
electricity resistance 5, [I]daylight[/I] 1/day (caster level 7th),
+2 racial bonus on spot and listen checks.

Class - Aura of good (strong), [I]detect evil[/I] at will, incarnum
radiance 1/day (silvery light grants +1 AC for 5rnds, wpns are aligned good),
expanded soulmeld capacity +1, chakra bind (crown, feet, hands).

[B]Auras:[/B]
[I]Minor Auras[/I] - Master of Tactics (+4 to damage rolls when flanking),
Accurate Strike (+4 to confirm critical hits).
[I]Major Aura[/I] - Hardy Soldiers (all allies gain DR 1/-).

[B]Feats: [/B] 
Skill Focus (Diplomacy)*, Weapon Focus ()*, 

[B]Meldshaping[/B] (Save DC 13 + essentia invested):
[B]Essenia[/B]: 4 (Capacity - 2)
[B]Soulmelds:[/B] 
Crystal Helm (crown) - grants a +2 resistance bonus to
		Will saves against charm and compulsion.
	Essentia: 1 (+1 deflection bonus to AC)
Impulse Boots (feet) - grants the Uncanny Dodge ability.
	Essentia: 0 (+0 enhancement bonus to Reflex saves)
Bluesteel Bracers (arms) - grants +2 insight bonus to initiatve.
	Essentia: 1 (+1 insight bonus to damage)
Spellward Shirt (heart) - grants Spell Resistance 5 (SR 13).
	Essentia: 2 (+8 bonus to Spell Resistance)

[B]Chakra Binds:[/B] 
Crystal Helm (crown) - grants all melee attacks the force descriptor.

[B]Skill Points:[/B] 32	[B]Max Ranks:[/B] 10/5
[B]Skills		Total	Ranks	Mod 	Misc[/B]
Bluff		+8	4	+4	
Concentration	+4	2	+2	
Diplomacy	+10	6	+4	+3
Know: arcana	+1	1	+0	
Listen		+7	2	+3	+2
Ride		+3	2	+1
Sense Motive	+7	4	+3
Spellcraft 	+1	1	+0	
Spot		+7	2	+3	+2
Swim		+5	4	+1

[B]Equipment:			Cost[/B]
+1 Dagger			2302	
Shortbow			1	
4 daggers			10	
20 arrows			30	
Anklet of Dexterity +2		4000	
Bracelets of Armor +1		1000	
Earings of Disguise		1800	
Dust of Tracelessness		250

Potions:
-Sanctuary			50
-Cure Light (4)			200
-Shield of Faith		50
[B]Money:[/B] 307gp Xsp Xcp

[B]Age:[/B] 
[B]Height:[/B] 
[B]Weight:[/B] 
[B]Eyes:[/B] 
[B]Hair:[/B] 
[B]Skin:[/B]
```

*Appearance:*

*Personality:*

*Background:*


[sblock=Advancement]
Human: Combat Expertise
1: Improved Feint
3: Weapon Finesse
4: +1 Dex
[/sblock]


----------



## yangnome (Aug 26, 2006)

Isida,

Any chance you have room in here for more players?  This sounds like it will be a fun game.


----------



## reel_big_gish (Aug 26, 2006)

Just saw this.  Shiny 

Do you allow sources you don't own if a complete writeup can be provided?

I was thinking of a Chaos Mage from Encyclopaedia Arcane: Chaos Magic (Mongoose Publishing).  It would essentially allow me to dream up spell effects as I needed them, at the expense of causing madness, hideous disfigurement, and eventually death or worse.


----------



## Strahd_Von_Zarovich (Aug 26, 2006)

*Gorgamesh - work in progress*

[sblock=still in progress]
Gorgamesh
Half Ogre(RoD) Favored soul of Grolantor, the foe crusher(cd) 6  

Age: 26
Gender: Male
Height: 3.7 meter
Weight: 430 Kg
Eyes: Black
Hair: Black
Skin: Ocher

STR: 20 [+5] (6 points) 
DEX: 10 [--] (4 points) 
CON: 14 [+2] (4 points) 
INT: 8 [-1] (2 points) 
WIS: 15 [+2] (6 points) 
CHA: 14 [+2] (10 points)

Hit Point: 46
Hit Dice: 6d8 + 12
Armor Class: 20 (10 base -1 Size + ? Armor + ? Shield + 4 Natural), 9 Touch, 13 Flat Footed
Initiative: +0
BAB: +4
- Melee: +9
- Ranged: +4

Speed: 30

FORT: +7 (+5 base +2 con)
REF: +5 (+5 base)
WILL: +7 (+5 base +2 con)

Abilities: 
Racial
- Giant type: Large, 10ft. reach, -1 AC and attack rolls
- Dark vision 60ft.
- Natural Armor: +4 to AC
- LA +2
 Favored Soul 
- Diety's weapon focus (GreatClub)
- spells 

Spells Known
- 0 lvl (7):
- 1 lvl (5):
- 2 lvl (4):
- 3 lvl (3):
Spells per day (DC 10 + spell level + wis)
- 0 lvl: 6
- 1 lvl: 7
- 2 lvl: 6
- 3 lvl: 4

Feats:
1st Level
- Power attack
3rd Level
- Point black
6th Level
- Weapon Focus: Javelin

Skills: 
Concentration  ( ranks )
Heal ( ranks )
Listen  ( ranks )
Prof: Sailor  ( ranks )
Spellcraft  ( ranks )
Spot  ( ranks )
Survival ( ranks )

Languages:
- Giant
- Common


Equipment:
Melee weapons
-

Ranged weapons
-

Armor
-
-

Miscellaneous Magical or Psionic Items
-Name (gp, lb)

Potions or Psionic Tattoos
-Type (gp)

Wands, Staffs or Dorjes
-Type (XX/50chg) (gp, 1oz)

Scrolls or Power Stones
-Type (gp)

Mundane equipment
-Adventurer’s Outfit (gp, 8lb)

Weight Carried: lb
Remain money: gp

Description

Personality

Background 

[/sblock]


----------



## Dichotomy (Aug 26, 2006)

If I manage to make the time (I have to move this week and start a new job soon), I'll likely be adding a sylph to the mix.  If I go that route, would it be acceptable for me to advance its racial hit dice?


----------



## Bront (Aug 26, 2006)

Voadam said:
			
		

> Asswere 3+2



Someone will be on the butt end of a lot of jokes.


----------



## Phoenix (Aug 26, 2006)

Bront said:
			
		

> Someone will be on the butt end of a lot of jokes.




Allow me to begin...which anatomical lycanthrope shouldn't have been given dentures???


----------



## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 26, 2006)

yangnome - I'm going to be picking people after 2 weeks, so throw something up here and we'll see if I like it.  

Erekose - Looking fine so far, but be sure to put, next to each non-core item, the sourcebook!  Page number too would be nice, at least with spells/psionic powers/whatever else.  

reel big gish - I had an unfortunate experience playering with a chaos mage that scarred me for life.  However, send me the write-up, and I'll look at it from a DM's perspective.

Dichotomy - Oh I _so_ saw what Voidrazor doing in moritheil's thread with the sylph...  And don't think that I didn't!  And I happen to agree with moritheil's ruling, as you do too apparently.  So yes, yes you may advance the HD for the sylph.  

*If anyone is using a 3.0 source, check to see if any errata exists!*


----------



## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 26, 2006)

Everyone please put their potential characters here: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=3030904#post3030904


----------



## Random Encounter (Aug 26, 2006)

Heya, I gots an idear for a character. How's about a Grey Elf (MM) Psion5 Mindbender3 (CompArc)?


----------



## yangnome (Aug 26, 2006)

I am inclined to draw up an 8th level Rakshasa as per Savage species.  Any issues with this Isida?


----------



## sans (Aug 26, 2006)

Isida, how is this for "anything but normal"?

An awakened transmuter-domain wizard octopus who is carried around _inside_ his small water elemental familiar.

The water elemental familiar is gained by the improved familiar. We can use the mounted combat rules when the octopus is inside the elemental. 

Unforunately, I need a couple of house rules to play this:
1) permission to play an awakened animal (awakened as in the druid spell)
2) a fudged +3d6 INT roll during the awakening. Enough for an INT high enough for the octopus to be a wizard
3) the water elemental has to be able to walk on land (this might already be in the rules, but the MM is unclear)
4) the water elemental was to be able to hold the octopus inside it (they are both size small, but an octopus is a master at contortion)

Note all these rulings are soley to bring the concept to life and none will be used for any kind of optimization or min/maxing. In fact, all my feats will be for mounted spell casting and eschew materials.

If the above is not acceptable, then I'l come up with some variation (some kind of tiny, level adjusted creature carried around by a cohort in a fishbowl, or something like that). I'd need more time to research this.


----------



## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 26, 2006)

sans... that is possibly the best idea I've heard this week!  Totally go for it.  The water elemental might leave a lot of mud behind him walking on land, but that's fine. If you want to let your familiar wear a magical flying item or something, that'd be cool too.

Random Encounter - fine with me.  Detail your cohorts/followers out appropriately.

yangnome - rakshasas are fine, Savage Species away!


----------



## Tyler Durden (Aug 26, 2006)

Ohh...would a bloodthirsty Anthropomorphic African Elephant/Totemist 3 with the Open Least Chakra feat using Girrilon Arms and Lankshark boots to rend his enemies while sceaming "Your flesh is weak!" fit the bill?  I'll assume so and start working on the crunch...


----------



## sans (Aug 26, 2006)

Isida, how should I do my octopus' ability scores? The base stats for an octopus are:

Str 12, Dex 17, Con 11, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 3

Awakening gives +3d6 for INT and +1d3 for CHA. I'm ok with you just telling me what the stats should be.

Also, what about level adjustment. The base octopus has 2HD awakening grants +2HD more.

EDIT:
I think I'm gonna have to beg for a +0 LA since with 4HD my octopus wizard is already going to be 2 entire spell levels behind in casting.


----------



## Gli'jar (Aug 26, 2006)

Sans, The octopus with water elemental familiar. Very cool, very, very cool.


----------



## Shayuri (Aug 27, 2006)

Warforged warmage is posted in RG.

I love the octopus idea, but consider making it a cohort rather than a familiar. Granted, you lose some nice stuff like linked spells and so on, but you could also possibly get a Medium elemental, and cohorts get some starting funds which you could use to buy items to offset the penalties that water elementals suffer on land. Plus, penalties to Leadership score aside, cohorts are easier to replace than familiars.


----------



## Twiggly the Gnome (Aug 27, 2006)

Cool idea for a game! I have two character concepts swimming in my head...

"The Snow Queen" - female Arctic Gnome Cold Domain Wizard with the Polar Chill spelltouched feat. (All from Unearthed Arcana)

"The Plague that Walks in Darkness" - male Nezumi (Oriental Adventures) Druidic Hunter (Unearthed Arcana) with the Child of Winter feat (Eberron Campaign Setting book).

Any preference?


----------



## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 27, 2006)

Tyler Durden said:
			
		

> Ohh...would a bloodthirsty Anthropomorphic African Elephant/Totemist 3 with the Open Least Chakra feat using Girrilon Arms and Lankshark boots to rend his enemies while sceaming "Your flesh is weak!" fit the bill?  I'll assume so and start working on the crunch...



  Hee hee, that character might be an interesting foil for a scaled-down version of Wrahn's character.

sans - LA is +0 to keep it simple.  Int is... a total of 16 (2 plus the 14 I rolled), Cha is a total of 6.  And you know what Shayuri said about having the elemental as a cohort, I just had a really killer image: have your familiar be a fish or sea urchin!  So you're swimming around in the water elemental and your familiar is just like, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming..." inside there with you!  

Sorry, just a really darn funny mental image.  Make your character as you like.  

Twiggy - Do whatever you like, truly.  I am rather enamored of the Child of Winter feat chain, but I do like cold-based casters.  If you have the Frostburn book, you could make a really killer cold-caster, in addition to what you've already chosen.  Make whatever's more fun for you!

For those using Frostburn or Sandstorm and have taken Snowcasting or Drift Magic, there will be plenty of both snow and sand in the Sea of Fire and Ice, so don't fear to take temperature-dependent feats.


----------



## Bront (Aug 27, 2006)

Ugh, why do I feel so... normal now?  (I don't have many of these odd supliments either).

Hope my idea is ok so far.  How's my character sheet format?  It's not quite yours, but it's fairly close (It's a converted Ferrix sheet).  I can fix it if it's not acceptable.

I had a slightly different concept for the spirit after thinking about it today.  Perhaps the spirit guide is a spirit of the storm instead?  So while the character himself is fairly stable and clear thinking, the spirit is vengefull, wrathfull, and powerful.  I'd make him Neutral, with drawings to LG and CE depending on if he's listening to himself or his spirit guide.


----------



## Voadam (Aug 27, 2006)

Do you want work in progress characters there or just finished ones?

I'm working on a grippli (ToH frogman) erudite (dragon 319 psion variant) and considering hyperconsciousness stuff. I got the 319 pdf recently and like the erudite mechanics a lot.

Concept 2 is a leprechaun (ToH) whatever 5. Just because a leprechaun would be fun.


----------



## Tyler Durden (Aug 27, 2006)

Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> Hee hee, that character might be an interesting foil for a scaled-down version of Wrahn's character.




Hmm...well if you've already played with an anthro elephant, then maybe I would be better off trying something else.  Maybe I'll try a Marrulurk Assassin or a Gloura (if we could make an appropriate advancement since they are ECL 9).


----------



## sans (Aug 27, 2006)

Shayuri, the cohort is a good idea, but unfortunately, Pfft's charisma penalty disqualifies a medium water elemental... However, I think I remember reading about a feat that boosts one's leadership score. I can't seem to find it. Anyone know which book it's in (if it exists)?

Isida, lol, I can picture it too. Say the elemental gets evaporated by a fireball and the Dori-like familiar and octopus are flopping around on the ground, the fish is yelling, "Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming!"


----------



## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 27, 2006)

Tyler Durden said:
			
		

> Hmm...well if you've already played with an anthro elephant, then maybe I would be better off trying something else.  Maybe I'll try a Marrulurk Assassin or a Gloura (if we could make an appropriate advancement since they are ECL 9).



  Either would be fine.  You can advance or unadvance monsters if you need to, I have no problem with that.   



			
				Voadam said:
			
		

> Do you want work in progress characters there or just finished ones?
> 
> I'm working on a grippli (ToH frogman) erudite (dragon 319 psion variant) and considering hyperconsciousness stuff. I got the 319 pdf recently and like the erudite mechanics a lot.
> 
> Concept 2 is a leprechaun (ToH) whatever 5. Just because a leprechaun would be fun.



  I don't _need_ a finished character sheet, unless you want to.  Just a well-fleshed concept and background would be dandy if you don't have the time right now.

Grippli are fun, mostly because they're little frog people.  And little frog people are cool.

The leprechaun worries me slightly, because it doesn't have an LA listed, and while its physically weak, it's magical powers are... prodigious to say the least.  If you can find a fair level adjustment from an official source for it, I will allow it.  _Polymorph_ any object at will scares the DM.  I agree with the concept whole-heartedly, but the mechanics are troublesome.



			
				Bront said:
			
		

> Ugh, why do I feel so... normal now?  (I don't have many of these odd supplements either).
> 
> Hope my idea is ok so far.  How's my character sheet format?  It's not quite yours, but it's fairly close (It's a converted Ferrix sheet).  I can fix it if it's not acceptable.
> 
> I had a slightly different concept for the spirit after thinking about it today.  Perhaps the spirit guide is a spirit of the storm instead?  So while the character himself is fairly stable and clear thinking, the spirit is vengeful, wrathful, and powerful.  I'd make him Neutral, with drawings to LG and CE depending on if he's listening to himself or his spirit guide.



  That's fine Bront.  The role-playing idea is pretty interesting, which is the important part.  I would like a good story to go with these odd concepts, so your "normal" character is doing fine so far.  



			
				sans said:
			
		

> Shayuri, the cohort is a good idea, but unfortunately, Pfft's charisma penalty disqualifies a medium water elemental... However, I think I remember reading about a feat that boosts one's leadership score. I can't seem to find it. Anyone know which book it's in (if it exists)?
> 
> Isida, lol, I can picture it too. Say the elemental gets evaporated by a fireball and the Dori-like familiar and octopus are flopping around on the ground, the fish is yelling, "Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming!"



  Oo, oo, I gots it!  _Planar binding!_   Just might work...  Depends on what you offer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For everyone: I have a special prize for each character chosen. If you describe a part of the Endless Falls, a place where you lived, visited, fought, or what have you, or perhaps a person, a mentor, guardian, friend with some detail, I shall craft an item specifically for your character, something you received from your Prince as payment or gift for your duties.

I also have some additional information about the backstory and campaign type.  Your omnielemental prince was named Taala.  He had four brides of the four greater (read classic) elementals, and children of all conceivable elemental, para-elemental, and quasi-elemental type.  Taala oversaw the Kingdom of Knowledge, a small but powerful country no more than a few hundred square miles.  It contains the massive Iceangel Lake and the twin mountains Ironguard and Stonemaw.  There are environments here to satisfy nearly elemental.

There are two main exports of Kingdom of Knowledge: pure elements and prophecy.  The great elemental weirds, keepers of knowledge and oracles without peer, reside in unusually high numbers in the kingdom, and Taala controls access to all of them.  Those seeking their counsel pay homage and tribute to Taala or fumble through on their own wits.

The coup against Taala happened when he presented you with the isle-ship, though it was only an excuse to ignite resentment that had been brewing for years.  By Taala's own laws, only greater elementals, omnielementals (MMIII), or tempests (MMII) could assume positions of power in his kingdom.  He feels only a quartet of greater elementals or a single omnielemental or tempest can have a fair and balance viewpoint to rule the Kingdom of Knowledge.  

This caused great resentment from the other elementals.  The paraelmentals often had minor positions, as their duel-elemental nature gave them some insight, but could not ascend higher.  But the quasi-elementals, with their smaller spheres, could not possibly be fair, and are barred from any kind of powerful position.  Acid (ToHII), lightning (ToH), obsidian (ToHII), and storm (MMIII) elementals, along with other elemental creatures like the immoth (MMII), living holocaust (FF), and chraal (MMIII), grew terribly resentful and angry at their powerlessness.  However, their resentment may have simmered forever, had it not been for the time and psionic elementals (both ToH).

Powerful beyond measure, but forbidden power over others as well as personal power, the royal time elementals, the leaders of the rebellion in progress, bided their time, waiting for the correct moment, for they knew the value of patience.  When one of the rare, powerful, newly-complete isle-ships was given to fleshy mortal servants instead of any of Taala's deserving elemental brethren, that was the single spark that was needed to begin the coup.

The reason the royal time elementals are now on your tail is because you carry Taala's regalia with you.  The crown, scepter, and orb of the Kingdom of Knowledge are bound to the soul of the land, and without them, no one can command the loyalty of the land's fey and weirds.  Without this, the Kingdom of Knowledge cannot keep the lock on their goods, and the small but powerful kingdom with dissolve.  

Your characters can try to find allies to do one or more of several things: 

1.  Hide the regalia and let the kingdom dissolve.  The weirds will go their own way and be much harder to find as a result.  You will still be hunted by the time elementals though.

2.  Get someone to help retake the kingdom by force.  If that's accomplished you can either:
2a - Install a quartet of Taala's children, or another related omnielemental or tempest on the throne.
2b - Install _yourselves_ on the throne, changing the rules to suit.
2c - Put a third party on the throne, perhaps a pair of paraelementals to represent all four elements, or even some other entirely different elemental.

3.  Get someone to help take the kingdom by trickery or deceit.  This will have a longer time-span, and once accomplished, you could achieve a result similar to those above.

4.  Some other wacky scheme that I can't even think of, but you might be able to.

As for some mechanics on the adventure itself... Your DM is inordinately fond of oozes, fey, elementals, aberrations, golems and other constructs, along with some vermin, odd giants, odd dragons, and magical beasts.  I swear there is an ooze, dragon, and golem or construct for every occasion!  

You will be less likely to see outsiders of any stripe, hordes of monstrous humanoids, or undead.  I favor deceptive creatures, things that aren't always what they seem, things connected to nature, quirky things, and things that are very, very hungry.  The ability to swiftly assess what you see would be an asset.  Barring that, a way to cover all contingencies would be nice.  Both a quick tongue and a quick blade will be useful.


----------



## sans (Aug 27, 2006)

Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> Oo, oo, I gots it! Planar binding! Just might work... Depends on what you offer.




Unfortunately, Pfft has to be a 9th level wizard to cast lesser planar binding.  

Also note that Pfft can only have 4 levels of wizard  (4HD awakened oct + wizard 4 = ECL8).


----------



## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 27, 2006)

Meh.  I say throw a fish into your familiar anyway, just for fun.  Or a snack!


----------



## Gli'jar (Aug 27, 2006)

I am looking at a base creature of Anthropomorphic wolverine.  The table has it at +2 Cha but acording to text detailing, it should be +4 (10 base +4 ability adjustment) what should I use?  Do I keep the critters bonus Feat?


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 27, 2006)

Gli'jar - Use both the stats given on the table plus the adjustments given in the text detail.  You don't keep the bonus feat unless it had Weapon Finesse as a racial bonus feat.


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## Fenris (Aug 27, 2006)

Isida,
I put up my background in the RG along with preliminary char stuff. I'll fill him out tomorrow or Monday.

Fenris


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## sans (Aug 27, 2006)

Isida, I posted my entry to the rogues gallery. Concept and background only. I still have more to add to the background, but it is pretty gosh darn long already.


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## Erekose13 (Aug 27, 2006)

okay done. wow that was another interesting one to work on.


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## Bront (Aug 27, 2006)

Ok, background posted.

I detailed the former village of his tribe, and potentialy what has happened to it, Fee’utikoo (NPC love interest), and the Earth Wall that borderes the Sea of Fire and Ice.

Hope that is enough information for you.  It was amost 4 pages in MS Word.

[sblock=Isida]FYI, I was trying to be vague enough at times to give you enough to work with, but the idea is that basicly Ekilu is drawn to conflict that idealy helps his Darfellan people, much as the sign of a whiteskin birth indicates.  The storm spirit is part of that, and I figure a great NPC foil for Ekilu to "hear voices" with.  I figure you'll help work the upheval in Ekilu's life once the ship is granted.  If you want to work that out ahead of time with me, we can do that here or in e-mails.

Assuming you pick me of course.[/sblock]


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## reel_big_gish (Aug 27, 2006)

As much fun as this sounds, I have to formally withdraw.  I have too much on my plate now as it is.  Good luck with the game, and I hope you all have fun.


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## Voadam (Aug 27, 2006)

Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> Grippli are fun, mostly because they're little frog people.  And little frog people are cool.
> 
> The leprechaun worries me slightly, because it doesn't have an LA listed, and while its physically weak, it's magical powers are... prodigious to say the least.  If you can find a fair level adjustment from an official source for it, I will allow it.  _Polymorph_ any object at will scares the DM.  I agree with the concept whole-heartedly, but the mechanics are troublesome.




LA +3 from TOH

LEPRECHAUN
Small Fey
Hit Dice: 1d6 (3 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class: 14 (+1 size, +3 Dex), touch 14, flat-footed
13
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/-6
Attack: Dagger +4 melee (1d3-2)
Full Attack: Dagger +4 melee (1d3-2)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 10/cold iron, low-light
vision, SR 27
Saves: Fort +0, Ref +5, Will +4
Abilities: Str 7, Dex 16, Con 11, Int 16, Wis 15, Cha
16
Skills: Bluff +7, Concentration +2, Escape Artist
+7, Hide +5, Listen +13, Move Silently +7,
Perform (comedy) +5, Perform (dance)
+5, Perform (limericks) +5, Search +5,
Sense Motive +4, Sleight of Hand +11,
Spot +5
Feats: Improved Initiative, Weapon FinesseB
Environment: Temperate forests
Organization: Gang (2-4), band (6-11), or family (12-
20)
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: Double coins; 50% goods; 50% items
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 2-3 HD (Small)
*Level Adjustment: +3
*


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## Wrahn (Aug 27, 2006)

I posted a young Rhaveon, keeping with his spirit and conforming to these rules of creation, rather than going litereally.  The older Rhaveon was a lot more tempered, young Rhaveon is much more brash and prideful, which is always fun to roleplay.

I haven't quite completed his equipment list, there is mundane equipment to add and maybe room for a minor item.


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## sans (Aug 27, 2006)

Fellow gamers, I need your help. I'm having trouble creating my octopus + water elemental combo. 

The biggest issue is that the elemental familiar only has 19 hit points (half it's master's hp). Most CR8 monster can kill it with one full attack. Unfortunately, if the water elemental dies, my octopus wont be able to breath. I'd have to spend too much resources/spell slots just to buff the guy to a below average level.

What can I do? I only have access to Core, PHB2, UA and Complete Series. Can anything in the other books help me out? I really like the concept and it would be a shame to toss it for technical (non-roleplaying) reasons. Also, I'm will to change the class, Beguiller or even Duskblade are interesting alternatives but I have to burn a feat slot on aquiring a familiar (in addtion to getting Improved Familiar). Also, be aware that due to ECL calcs, the octopus is only a 4th level wizard (5th if Isiada oks my request below).

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[sblock=Isida]
Can I reduce the octopuses HD to 1? I can make it tiny or something. The resulting extra wizard level would help a lot (as it would get access to 3rd level spells). Also, I just re-read the improved familar feat and the octopus needs to have at least 5 levels of arcane caster.

If my concept is starting to require too many house rules for your taste, just let me know and I'll think of something else.... an awakened daisy growing out of her earth elemental familiar.. no wait, never mind 
[/sblock]


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## Shayuri (Aug 27, 2006)

Yar...elementals have some problems...your notes about why a cohort wouldn't work are well taken, but too bad, cuz a Medium elemental with a Con booster is a lot more durable.

Hmm...

What about paying someone else to Bind an elemental for you? Is that reasonable in your starting funds? Or perhaps paying a cleric to cast Animate Object on a medium sized volume of water? Animated water is more durable than an elemental, cuz of the bonus HP due to Constructs. They're also immune to more bad stuff.

In other news, Trebuchet's character sheet has been revised. All magic items are named and given a brief accounting of how he acquired them. Background has been changed to offer more mystery and potential GM hookage. It also now doesn't presuppose that there's a nation in the world capable of creating warforged...now he's a unique creature (?) unearthed from old ruins; memories erased by an exceptionally long damage-induced stasis.


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 27, 2006)

sans - [sblock]Your request seems reasonable.  Asking for a planar-binding might not be too bad.  Of if you have a really nice description, I might give it to you for your prize.  Your background is looking just fine and dandy.[/sblock]

Shayuri - Excellent, looks good.  I think I remember you putting for Trebuchet for an Eberron game one time, I remember the background.

Backgrounds for those already up in the RG are very well done.


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## Shayuri (Aug 27, 2006)

Hee...actually, this background is new for your game. But the concept of the happy warforged warmage is indeed something I tried in an eberron game once, awhile ago.

I'll be updating soonish with more info on the regions mentioned in the background (of which the items are part of), as well as some character goals and contacts and so on.


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## Twiggly the Gnome (Aug 27, 2006)

sans said:
			
		

> Fellow gamers, I need your help. I'm having trouble creating my octopus + water elemental combo.
> 
> The biggest issue is that the elemental familiar only has 19 hit points (half it's master's hp). Most CR8 monster can kill it with one full attack. Unfortunately, if the water elemental dies, my octopus wont be able to breath. I'd have to spend too much resources/spell slots just to buff the guy to a below average level.
> 
> What can I do? I only have access to Core, PHB2, UA and Complete Series. Can anything in the other books help me out? I really like the concept and it would be a shame to toss it for technical (non-roleplaying) reasons.




Perhaps rather than treating the water elemental as a familiar or cohort, it could be a mount. You could use the Elemental Creature template from _Manual of the Planes_ to have a Water Element Heavy Warhorse. Since it's now "equipment" you might have a couple of one shot magic items that keep one these creatues "on retainer", in case the current one is destroyed.


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## Bront (Aug 27, 2006)

An amulet of health adds 1 HP per 2 HD per +2, though at +4 at 16,000, that's still only 25.

Improved Toughness may help a bit as a feat if you qualify for it, but at about the same rate.

If Isida would allow it, maybe taking Improved Familiar a second time would give it more HP?  75% maybe?  or even 100%?

That is if you have the feat to spare, which I don't think you will till you hit 6 HD.

Here's another odd thought.  How about if you purchased it as an animal companion?  There's a feat that lets you take one at 1/2 level, and it get's it's own HD at that point.  If you can also take Natural Bond, that adds +4, which should get you to the L8 mods for an animal companion.

That's assuming a medium sized elemental is the equivilent of a 1st level companion.

And of course, companions are a bit harder to control.

[sblock=Isida]2 things on my item.

If it's something from Fee, I'd imagine her using similar weapons, so I could see her gifting me some kind of spear.  If that's the case, I'd like to spend the money elsewhere that I spent on the spear (Probably just enchant the bow as a backup).  Otherwise, I'm open for anything if it's from the village.  Or, if you have other ideas, that's fine too 

You're the master at this stuff, I'm just offering up ideas.[/sblock]


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## Bloodcookie (Aug 28, 2006)

Kig’nagrodan’szaar III, kobold warlock and chieftan-in-exile, submitted to the RG for your perusal


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## Bront (Aug 28, 2006)

Wrahn, Attribute items are 1000 * bonus ^2 in cost, so the +2 items are 4000 each.  Love the character btw (Fish stories rock).

btw, Sans, Pfft's story is cool.  Hope you manage to get it to work mechanicaly.


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## Kelleris (Aug 28, 2006)

Hey Isida.  I'd like to get in on this if you still have the room.  Unfortunately, I can't make a lower-level version of Arion, largely because Bard is banned.  I guess I could make an *actual* Ninja, but then I'd have to have a decent Wisdom, and where's the fun in that?

Also, I just moved to Chicago a week ago from my usual Texan haunts, so I'm a bit book-sparse.  I'm working on getting something going, but I'll need a while longer to get a character up.

Oh, and (weird request) could you or Wrahn post the link to the epic game's Rogue's Gallery?  I want to steal the formatting I used there.
 [Nevermind.  Found the new RG thread.  Whoopsie.]
EDIT: Annoyingly, the two books I do have are the one I wrote and Mongoose's Quintessential Chaos Mage, both of which I would love to play something from but that you don't have.  Oh well.  On that note, I wish you had the DMG II, since that's my main source of non-core items at the moment.  I'll just have to improvise.  Do non-standard items built using the DMG rules count as not being core?


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## Bront (Aug 28, 2006)

I don't think items are an issue being core vs non-core.

Where in Chicago btw?


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## Kelleris (Aug 28, 2006)

Bront - I'm in Loyola of Chicago's philosophy Ph.D. program.  I live on campus, essentially, so Roger's Park, right near Lake Michigan.  Do you know of any groups around here looking for people?

Isida and others - Well, I've got two ideas I like, but unfortunately will be a bit too wimpy for my tastes if I can't get your help on a few things.  I'll go ahead and list them here and see what you think.

Lupaz, the Hound of Ill Omen (N Male Blink Dog Hexblade) - A fantastically unlucky blink dog, Lupaz was exiled from his pack after a series of mishaps led to the tragic deaths of a litter of blink dogs at the hands (er, paws?  tentacles?) of a malicious and infinitely cruel displacer beast packlord.  After his banishment, Lupaz wandered, seeking a way to avoid the influence of the ill stars he was born under.  He came to the Kingdom of Knowledge, seeking the wisdom of the great elemental weirds.  Even these powerful beings could not divine a way to remove the dark eye cast over Lupaz's fate, however.  What they _could_ do, however, was show him how to inflict his misfortune on others, channelling its power to cause mishaps and unforeseen errors for those around him.  And - they immediately gave Lupaz a job, and a home, suiting his special talents.  For even the incredible magic of the weirds is not infallible, and so these beings employ secretive agents, working alone, to tip the balance of fate and ensure that their prophecies came to pass.  Appearing as nothing more than an ordinary dog (albeit one with a deep sadness evident in his eyes) and blessed with the mastery of the ethereal common to all blink dogs, Lupaz could infiltrate almost anywhere, leaving the messages, ill omens, outright curses, and (occasional) dead bodies necessary to see to fruition the visions of the weirds.  For his services, he has been given a position on the island ship, although no one truly knows which of the inscrutable elemental masters he serves.  Lupaz, for his part, will do what needs to be done to repay the kindness shown him by the weirds - especially since his horrid luck will return again if he does not use it to influence the turbulent times ahead.

* The problem here is mostly that I can, as things stand, take a grand total of 2 levels of Hexblade, which isn't nearly enough to make the cursing worthwhile.  I'd like to do something to lower the LA a bit (maybe reducing the number of natural HD or treating hexblade as nonassociated since I don't plan to focus on the martial aspect [I can only ever get one attack anyway, no matter what my BAB is]?).  Maybe fiddle with the Hexblade's class abilities (cleric BAB instead of fighter for a faster curse or spell progression?  dropping Mettle and Summon Familiar for cursing feats?).  I'd also like something like to be able to take, as a feat,  a Practiced Curser feat (like Practiced Spellcaster - +4 levels for determining cursing stuff as long as your total ability doesn't exceed your level).  Between those things and spending all my feats on the cursing feats from Dragon 339, I think I can cover the "Ill Omen" thing well enough.

Kisoku Tenrai, Weird's Apprentice (CN Male Air Mephit Shugenja [Air]) - This surprisingly ancient air mephit (almost 300 years young!), styles himself a wanderer and apprentice diviner; all straw hat, oversized fan, and cryptic pronouncements.  In truth, he has only a modest amount of divinatory ability, nothing like the air weirds he claims as his honored ancestors.  He has made some progress, true, but the flighty nature of all his kind has kept him from true mastery of the mystic arts.  He serves, instead, as a messenger for his master's delivering their prophecies to places that are only reachable by air and not important enough for a more powerful elemental's time.  A bad habit of tweaking these missives has made him many (alarmingly many) low-key enemies over the years, the sort of antagonist who won't go out of his way to crush you, but will certainly take the time to make life hard for you when the opportunity arises.  Largely by dint of his greater elemental bloodline and sheer duration of service, Kisoku finds himself on the island-ship almost by accident.  He's not sure what to do about the succession (though he has decided to try to avoid annoying quite so many powerful functionaries in the future), but he fears for his life - when you've annoyed as many people as Kisoku has, the chaotic times of civil unrest are particularly bad news - and is willing to throw in his lot with the heroes he finds himself with.

* And again, I just don't have the levels for this.  I really need four levels of Shugenja and a slightly modified spell list so I can get _augury_ to be fairly divinery.  Strangely, _augury_ isn't on the Shugenja spell list, but that's fixed easily enough by making up a new order to represent Kisoku's work with the weirds.  Not sure what to do about the LA problem, though - 3 HD plus +3 La means not enough levels in Shugenja.  Again, if there's some swapping I can do to make this work, that'd be really nice (particularly since LA races plus full spellcasters = bad, bad characters as a rule).  As it is, Kisoku wouldn't really be able to _do_ anything of interest in an 8th level party.  It'd also be nice if someone could suggest a weak air-elemental creature instead of the mephit, which has a -4 Int penalty.

How do one of those sound to everyone?  I'd like to play one of these guys, but I'll understand if Isida doesn't want to do the fiddling it'll take to make them viable characters, and keep looking for something else to try.


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## Voadam (Aug 28, 2006)

sans said:
			
		

> Unfortunately, Pfft has to be a 9th level wizard to cast lesser planar binding.
> 
> Also note that Pfft can only have 4 levels of wizard  (4HD awakened oct + wizard 4 = ECL8).




Would a single use scroll work?


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## Kelleris (Aug 28, 2006)

Fenris - Something I just noticed.  Unless I'm missing something, your ECL is way above what it should be.  Your base ECL is 5 for your satyr HD, plus 2 level adjustment, for a total of 7.  So you should only have one Druid level, I think...

Unless Isida has some kind of house rule regarding LA races that I'm not aware of?


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## Voadam (Aug 28, 2006)

I'm liking the grippli erudite concept a lot and will start with that one. I'm thinking a slightly paranoid psionic tutor for one of the omnielemental's progenies (crysmal makes sense, though psionic would work too), rewarded with a share in the ship after aiding in foiling a minor plot. inquisitor feat, probably wounding resonance from Hyperconsciousness, and either the focus as move feat or the narrow mind permanent focus chain. Strong sense motive and lots of psi and knowledge skills as well as a few points to learn common and probably Terran.

The leprechaun is listed at +3 but I think it is a fairly powerful +3 with at will PAO and more. I will drop the concept if you think the mechanics will be a pain, the grippli will be enough fun to develop.


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## Voadam (Aug 28, 2006)

How much xp do we have to spare for item creation and whatnot?

Erudites can learn new powers from contact with willing or unconscious creatures at a cost of 20 xp per power.


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## Bront (Aug 28, 2006)

Kelleris said:
			
		

> Bront - I'm in Loyola of Chicago's philosophy Ph.D. program.  I live on campus, essentially, so Roger's Park, right near Lake Michigan.  Do you know of any groups around here looking for people?



Nope, but Buzz is running a gameday in October at Games Plus.  Check out the thread in the General forum. 

I'm in the western suburbs.


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 28, 2006)

Everyone has 30,000 XP, which is 2,000 above the 8th level minimum.  That should allow the item creators some leway.



			
				Kelleris said:
			
		

> Oh, and (weird request) could you or Wrahn post the link to the epic game's Rogue's Gallery?  I want to steal the formatting I used there.



Here's the link to the Scions of the Endless Falls gallery.



			
				Kelleris said:
			
		

> Lupaz - Hound of Ill Omen
> * The problem here is mostly that I can, as things stand, take a grand total of 2 levels of Hexblade, which isn't nearly enough to make the cursing worthwhile.  I'd like to do something to lower the LA a bit (maybe reducing the number of natural HD or treating hexblade as nonassociated since I don't plan to focus on the martial aspect [I can only ever get one attack anyway, no matter what my BAB is]?).  Maybe fiddle with the Hexblade's class abilities (cleric BAB instead of fighter for a faster curse or spell progression?  dropping Mettle and Summon Familiar for cursing feats?).  I'd also like something like to be able to take, as a feat,  a Practiced Curser feat (like Practiced Spellcaster - +4 levels for determining cursing stuff as long as your total ability doesn't exceed your level).  Between those things and spending all my feats on the cursing feats from Dragon 339, I think I can cover the "Ill Omen" thing well enough.



  The Hound of Ill Omen is one of my favorite legends, so I personally like this idea a lot.  I agree there are several things that can be done to make Lupaz a better prospect for a hexblade.  Now, stripping the Blink Dog down to more of a Blink Puppy will be a bit more difficult.  Let's drop the _blink_ ability and the _dimension door_ ability down to once a day.  Natural AC down to +1 instead of +3, Dex only a +2 instead of a +6, no Wis adjustment.  Keep low-light vision, darkvision 60 ft., and scent. I think we can drop you down to a +2 LA with 1 racial hit die.  *Anyone else feel free to chime in if you feel I'm far off base!*  I don't often do monster power-downs, I tend to do power-ups!

As for making the hexblade a curser supreme as opposed to a misguided paladin-type...

All bonus feats are to be hex feats, spell focus, spell penetration, or metamagic feats.

Hit die is d8.

LvL...BAB......Fort..Ref..Will....Special................................................Spells per Day
.................................................................................................1st...2nd...3rd..4th..
1st....+0.......+0....+0...+2...Hexblade's curse 1/day
2nd...+1.......+0....+0...+3...Arcane resistance
3rd....+2.......+1....+1..+3...Bonus feat..............................................0
4th....+3.......+1....+1..+4...Hexblade's curse 2/day.............................0
5th....+3.......+1....+1..+4...............................................................1
6th....+4.......+2....+2..+5...Bonus feat..............................................1
7th....+5.......+2....+2..+5...Greater hexblade's curse............................1...0

How does that look to the rest of the class?    Or do I need to be smacked around a bit?



			
				Voadam said:
			
		

> I'm liking the grippli erudite concept a lot and will start with that one. I'm thinking a slightly paranoid psionic tutor for one of the omnielemental's progenies (crysmal makes sense, though psionic would work too), rewarded with a share in the ship after aiding in foiling a minor plot. inquisitor feat, probably wounding resonance from Hyperconsciousness, and either the focus as move feat or the narrow mind permanent focus chain. Strong sense motive and lots of psi and knowledge skills as well as a few points to learn common and probably Terran.
> 
> The leprechaun is listed at +3 but I think it is a fairly powerful +3 with at will PAO and more. I will drop the concept if you think the mechanics will be a pain, the grippli will be enough fun to develop.



  The ability to _polymorph any object_ at will scares me greatly, so I saw go with the grippli.  He sounds cool.  



			
				Kelleris said:
			
		

> Fenris - Something I just noticed.  Unless I'm missing something, your ECL is way above what it should be.  Your base ECL is 5 for your satyr HD, plus 2 level adjustment, for a total of 7.  So you should only have one Druid level, I think...
> 
> Unless Isida has some kind of house rule regarding LA races that I'm not aware of?



  I agree wit Kelleris.  LA must be added to Hit Dice.  An satyr has an ECL of 7, not 2.  BUT!  There is a half-satyr race in Dragon #313 that has an LA of +1, if you're interested.  I can discuss preliminaries with you over e-mail if you can't get ahold of the magazine.

sans - As Voadam asked, using a single scroll for a planar binding might work, depending on what you offer.  Consider your current place of residence, as wantonly binding an elemental against their will might have caused you to die before now.  But if you found one that was willing to travel or that liked magic... that's a different kettle of fish all together.


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## Kelleris (Aug 28, 2006)

Yikes!  That's probably more than necessary, I think.  Don't forget that the blink dog has a fair share of negatives to go along with all the other stuff - I can't speak a humanoid language without getting some kind of item, I have no hands for items and the like, I can't (and wouldn't anyway) wear armor, and my magic item slots are all screwy (especially since I want to be able to pass for a normal dog!).  With those changes, it looks even less worth the (now 3) effective levels I'm giving up to me than the 6 levels I was losing earlier.

Also, the revised advancement you posted looks weakened rather than anything else.  It looks (unless I'm reading the chart wrong), that I'm giving up a HD size, Mettle, a familiar, and 2 points of BAB to move the spellcasting chart down 1 level, get freer bonus feat choices, and get the second use/day of the curse one level earlier.  That doesn't look like a balanced trade to me.  What do you say to using the Bard as the basis (I debuff instead of buffing, basically)?  So it looks something like this:

Bard
1d6 HD
6 + skills/level
bardic music and bardic knowledge
rogue BAB
good Fort and Ref
Cha-dependent spellcasting as noted in the PHB

and the revised Hexblade would be -->

Hexblade
1d8 HD [one size better than the bard]
4 + skills/level [one step worse than the bard, and I'd like to improve the skill selection to match, with your permission]
cursing abilities (as listed except increase the uses/day progression from 1 extra per 4 levels to 1 extra per 3 levels)
rogue BAB
good Fort and Will OR good Will and Arcane Mettle
Cha-dependent spellcasting identical to the bard's using the hexblade list
and LOSE Mettle and Summon Familiar (about two feats' worth of stuff) entirely

Nobody's ever accused the bard or the hexblade of being overpowered to my knowledge, so matching them to each other should be fine, power-level-wise, assuming you agree with me that bardic music and bardic knowledge are (together with losing Mettle, the familiar, and possibly arcane resistance) two good, solid abilities and roughly equivalent to the hexblade's cursing ability.  It's worth noting that the hexblade's spell list is substantially worse than the bard's as well.

And considering the built-in drawbacks of playing a dog, I think you'd be alright leaving all the basic stats alone and just concentrating on the ethereal movement ability, which is where the meat of the blink dog's LA comes from in any case.  In keeping with the nature of the character, how about making them unreliable (Lupaz is extremely sensitive to minor variations in the ethereal, and thus subject to mishaps most blink dogs instinctively avoid).  Say, an automatic failure chance of 50%.  So I can only dimension door half the time I try to, and it can take me several rounds at the beginning of combat to start _blinking_, or to shut it off if it becomes inconvenient.  That way I can't rely on the abilities tactically, so they're more balanced for combat, but I can still do the creepy "appearing from nowhere" and "walking through walls" bits I'd like to be able to do.  If you're still worried, that failure chance could go all the way up to 75%, making those abilities almost useless in combat and only really good for movement and the like.

How does that sound?  I know it's a lot more than your first thought there, but I've tried to stick pretty closely to existing models for the alt. Hexblade and I really think the basic blink dog stat boosts are essentially paid for by the drawbacks of being nonhumanoid, leaving the admittedly impressive teleportation abilities as the only real reason to tack on a +2 LA.


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## Gli'jar (Aug 28, 2006)

I just couldn't deal with the loss of 4 caster levels with the wolverine shaman so I decided to go with a anthro snake constrictor monk.  POst coming soon.  Do I qualify for the rending constriction feat (p. 39 SS).  Only one part of me, my body, is constricting rather than 2 limbs.  On the surface I would say no, but considering my whole body is involved, I figured it may be a possibility.


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## Kelleris (Aug 28, 2006)

I thought of another point of comparison for the alt. Hexblade - the druidy-Bard variant in _Unearthed Arcana_ gets the animal companion, nature sense, resist nature's lure, and wild empathy abilities of a druid in exchange for the "_inspire X_" line of abilities and bardic knowledge.  The cursing is probably better than those druid abilities, but giving up _fascinate_ and _suggestion_ as well as Mettle and a familiar in addition would balance things out, I think.


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 28, 2006)

Kelleris, go ahead and lay me out a class and race progression that seems fair to you and I'll review it.


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## Kelleris (Aug 28, 2006)

Okay, let's see if I can get this to format right...

Following the progression out from above, out to 10th level (as high as we should need) -->

Hexer (alt. Hexblade)

Hit Die: d8
Skill Points: 6 + Int Mod./Level
Class Skills: TBD

LVL......BAB.....Fort.....Ref.....Will.......Special
.....................................................................................
1st.......+0.......+0......+0......+2.........Hexblade's Curse 1/day
2nd.......+1......+0......+0......+3.........
3rd.......+2.......+1......+1......+3.........Arcane Resistance
4th.......+3.......+1......+1......+4........Hexblade's Curse 2/day
5th.......+3.......+1......+1......+4........Bonus Hexblade Feat
6th.......+4.......+2......+2......+5........Greater Hexblade's Curse
7th.......+5.......+2......+2......+5........Hexblade's Curse 3/day
8th.......+6.......+2......+2......+6........
9th.......+6.......+3......+3......+6........Bonus Hexblade Feat
10th.....+7.......+3......+3......+7........Hexblade's Curse 3/day

Spells per Day and Spells Known - As Bard, using the Hexblade spell list (so at 5th level I'd have 6 cantrips known useable 3/day, 4 1st level spells known useable 3/day, and 3 2nd level spells known useable 1/day.

NOTE: I did accelerate the rate of curse gainage a bit, to make it a little better and to get a smoother progression.  I could reduce the HD further to 1d6, maybe, to make up for that, although at 8th level the changes I made didn't make any difference to my actual abilities (assuming I'm getting 5 levels).


----------



## Shayuri (Aug 28, 2006)

Hmm. Ishida, what are your feelings on the character class options from PHB2? Specifically, the Warmage option for Eclectic Learning. It lets you select non-evocation spells, but at +1 level (so Invisibility would be a 3rd level Warmage spell when learned this way).

Would this be a possibility?


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 28, 2006)

Fine with me Shayuri!

Kelleris, I'm going to think on this a bit.  The skill points and spell progression just went way up in comparison, and the loss of BAB, mettle, familiar, and a slightly lower hit dice is not quite weighing up yet.  But that could be because it's late and I'm tired.  I'll let your fellow potential players look it over if they're so inclined, and I pass judgement on it in a day or so.


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## Kelleris (Aug 28, 2006)

Alrighty.  I might almost be better to consider this an alternative bard than an altered hexblade, though, since the bard is closer to what I want for the character (just debuffing instead of buffing).  Maybe I should look into some other way to get the same effect...  I'll do that while others weigh in.


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## Voidrazor (Aug 28, 2006)

Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> Dichotomy - Oh I _so_ saw what Voidrazor doing in moritheil's thread with the sylph...  And don't think that I didn't!  And I happen to agree with moritheil's ruling, as you do too apparently.  So yes, yes you may advance the HD for the sylph.




Heh, I haven't seen an official LA for sylphs. So either moritheil's ruling or RAW with maybe a +8  LA would balance it out. I have seen +5 LA bandied about on the net. But that would be broken , effectively paying one caster level and a bunch of HPs for at will improved invis, nice stat adjustments, flight and a 1/day elemental.

That said, moritheil's ruling clearly works better for your campaign anyway. And it looks like it will be and extremely cool campaign. I'm not sure if I'll have time to get a character submission together, but I do have an idea developing in my mind. Haven't picked a race yet, but an adolescent child of a hulking monstrous race from a small town in the orbit of the Kingdom of Knowledge that has a tradition of being relatively self-governing.


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## Random Encounter (Aug 28, 2006)

Alrighty, I have posted my Psionic Gray Elf, Ununisr and await criticism from anyone will to give it.


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## D20Dazza (Aug 28, 2006)

Hi Isida,

I don't check the TtT thread much and so unfortunately this is the first time I've seen this thread and I'm keen as mustard to whack an application in. No idea what though, there are some fantastic PCs floating around in the RG so I'm going to have to do some flicking and come up with something suitably interesting - I'm on it though.

Love yer work

Cheers

Daz

P.S. Good seeing ya Phoenix, been awhile.

EDIT: I had a quick look at some books and am currently thinking Tauric (Savage Species) Blink Dog (MM) Hadozee (Stormwrack 41) or Insectile (savage Species) Hadozee (Stormwrack 41) with some aberrant feats and other goodies from that book (depending on how many levels I have I might take a PC), as to class, hmmmm - something roguish, Ninja or the Spellthief, or perhaps the Duskblade or Beguiler if noone has got dibs.


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## Voadam (Aug 28, 2006)

Kelleris said:
			
		

> Hey Isida.  I'd like to get in on this if you still have the room.  Unfortunately, I can't make a lower-level version of Arion, largely because Bard is banned.  I guess I could make an *actual* Ninja, but then I'd have to have a decent Wisdom, and where's the fun in that?
> 
> Also, I just moved to Chicago a week ago from my usual Texan haunts, so I'm a bit book-sparse.  I'm working on getting something going, but I'll need a while longer to get a character up.
> 
> ...




www.d20srd.org check out the psionic and variant rules sections for easy to access XPH and UA OGC material, including variant bard class stuff which IT said would be allowed if you want to go with that concept. In addition to psionic classes and variant core classes (and paragon race classes) they also have race options from UA and XPH which are not core.


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## Bront (Aug 28, 2006)

Also, check the Wizards site for book previews.

I've found the Darfellan, the Psionic Rogue, the Chamelion PrC, and the Knight on their site, so there are all sorts of interesting things there for the picking.


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## Kelleris (Aug 28, 2006)

Voadam said:
			
		

> www.d20srd.org check out the psionic and variant rules sections for easy to access XPH and UA OGC material, including variant bard class stuff which IT said would be allowed if you want to go with that concept. In addition to psionic classes and variant core classes (and paragon race classes) they also have race options from UA and XPH which are not core.




Yeah, there's also http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20/index.php.  They have the consolidated feat lists from all of the Complete books, as well as all the base classes and a number of different races.  It's where I found the Hexblade and Shugenja's stats, actually.

Does anyone have an opinion on the changes I suggested for the Hexblade?  I'd like to get started on this character properly, or find another one.  I, too, am getting antsy seeing all the other good characters hanging out on the RG thread.


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 28, 2006)

Hey, if nothing else, just get your background up and a general _idea_ as to where you're going stat-wise.  I'm picking on background and concept first.  

Kelleris, drop the HD down to 6d and it's yours.  Ethereal travel down to 50% reliability for the blink dog.  But I still get the last say.  


To all:  I was just hoping to get things like a whisper gnome ninja or azurine incarnate...  I'm not holding a "weirdest character ever" contest, really I'm not.  And a simple hazodee swashbuckler with the Old Salt feat has just as much chance as an octopus wizard inside his water elemental buddy.  

So, you don't _have_ to try to make the weirdest thing your mind can devise, unless you want to.  Just something cool and a bit odd that you weren't able to get in another game.  

I just don't want people to feel they can't give this game a try because they only have one or two non-core sources.


----------



## Random Encounter (Aug 28, 2006)

Hey sans, what if someone, let's say me  , were to play the water elemental instead of using him as an NPC? Would that fly or would that kinda mess up your character?


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## Kelleris (Aug 28, 2006)

Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> Hey, if nothing else, just get your background up and a general _idea_ as to where you're going stat-wise.  I'm picking on background and concept first.
> 
> Kelleris, drop the HD down to 6d and it's yours.  Ethereal travel down to 50% reliability for the blink dog.  But I still get the last say.




But of course!  Glad you liked the unreliability nerf for the ethereality too.




			
				Isida said:
			
		

> To all:  I was just hoping to get things like a whisper gnome ninja or azurine incarnate...  I'm not holding a "weirdest character ever" contest, really I'm not.  And a simple hazodee swashbuckler with the Old Salt feat has just as much chance as an octopus wizard inside his water elemental buddy.
> 
> So, you don't _have_ to try to make the weirdest thing your mind can devise, unless you want to.  Just something cool and a bit odd that you weren't able to get in another game.




Heh.  Just speaking for myself here, a whisper gnome ninja or azurine incarnate is the kind of thing my players inflict on me anyway, so they're kinda mundane.  I'm looking forward to trying a character that isn't even a humanoid, though.



> I just don't want people to feel they can't give this game a try because they only have one or two non-core sources.




Well, between the UA stuff online and Crystalkeep's compilation of the Complete books, we've got quite a lot floating around for free, so it's not so bad.


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 28, 2006)

Kelleris said:
			
		

> Heh.  Just speaking for myself here, a whisper gnome ninja or azurine incarnate is the kind of thing my players inflict on me anyway, so they're kinda mundane.  I'm looking forward to trying a character that isn't even a humanoid, though.



  Right now most of my players are 12 years old and younger, so their library of books is small, to say the least.  Of course they all want to play massively powerful demons and dragons and drow and kill everything on sight.  But someone's got to teach the new generation, and I sorta fell into it.  Gaming on here lets me play with some more mature gamers, which helps keep me sane.


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## Mad Hatter (Aug 28, 2006)

Woah, this sounds totally interesting!  Anywho, I'm tossing around 3 ideas here.  I'll of course flesh out the character as soon as you approve one.

1st:  The Creature Collection II has the stormchild.  I created a character using this race as a base but I had to work with my dm a lot to do this.  It was a stormchild.  So I was heavy in weather manipulation.  But some of the things the race gets are too powerful and emphasize things that I kinda don't want (i.e foresight, blidnsight, and see ethereal).  And other things are slightly weak for what I actually want to do with it (of course you may not think so).

2nd:  It goes along with the first one but I was thinking that maybe I could take the celestial or fiendish template from the MM and change the abilities to be more weather-like and less celestial/fiendish-like.

3rd:  This was the rogue/diviner-type that I sorta peddled to you when you had your epic level campaign.  This character would be a rogue only in that she gets her sneak attack because she see things before it happens not so much because she's actually all stealthy and such.  I see that you want more weird stuff, but I don't exactly know how to get sneak attack without actually needing to be a rogue or  more standard than you want.  Ok, so after talking with a friend down by the way, I found that a ninja could be used for what I want.  I could substitute ninja abilities for divinatory ones.


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 28, 2006)

Ya know, there's a creature called a Stormwarden in the Tome of Horrors.  Medium-sized humanoid with the ability to conjure a storm once per day.  A nice big nasty storm.  Not as powerful as a stormchild, and doesn't have as many things, but it does keep things a tad simpler, if that's what you want.  Do you have the book Stormwrack?  There's a Stormcaster prestige class in there that sounds up your alley.


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## D20Dazza (Aug 28, 2006)

Bront said:
			
		

> Also, check the Wizards site for book previews.
> 
> I've found the Darfellan, the Psionic Rogue, the Chamelion PrC, and the Knight on their site, so there are all sorts of interesting things there for the picking.



Thanks Bront, you saved me a search - just before bed last night I made a note to scour the WoTC site and see if they put a preview up of the Lurk (psionic thief) - looks like they have, I haven't played one before, and have recently purchased the Complete Psionic book so......will that fly Isida? Even though it's not on your book list are you happy if I hunt down the WotC preview and provide you a link?


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## Bloodweaver1 (Aug 28, 2006)

*Blasco the Blade*

Here is my stab. However, it does require a alternate view on the defination of 'flanking'.

halfing fighter 2 / rogue 3 / Invisible blade 1 / master thrower 2
Backstabing Knife thower

[sblock=Background]Blasco and Lyly have grown stronger and closer ever since that day. Over the past couple of years they found that they had a real affinity for knifes and other small sharp objects. It wasn’t long before they started a small knife juggling and throwing act at Emporium. It didn’t attract a large crowd but it did bring in an extra silver or two. When a large caravan would come through the town they would sometimes even get some gold pieces. When they were not performing or practicing Blasco usually could find work as either as a Bar hand or table cleaning while Lyly worked as a beer wench most of the time. Both of them worked at many of the local pubs, taking odd jobs wherever they could. Though their honest work did bring them in some coin it was their uncanny talent in lightening the pouches of the fellow drunken patrons that brought in the real coin. Together on a busy night they would work the room and help themselves to as much as ten gold pieces sometimes. They didn’t do this all the time mind you; attracting too much attention to yourself can only lead to bad things. Nile at least taught them that much. However, every now and then the two of them would take advantage of those who lost count of how many tankards of ale they have had and would elevate them of their troublesome coin. He knew they where stealing but he didn’t care. To him and he imagined to his sister too it was payback for all the jokes and bullying they did to them. Plus he couldn’t help but feel that he was slowly filling in the black void that was created when Niles was murdered.  [/sblock]


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## James Heard (Aug 29, 2006)

I'm probably going to try to gear up a character for this, no clue on what yet, because the setting sounds very like one that's been bouncing around my head for a while. Anyways, right now this is just a placeholder for my brilliant concept character. You have been warned.


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## Gli'jar (Aug 29, 2006)

Isida, 
 I decided to go with a anthro snake constrictor monk.  Do I qualify for the rending constriction feat (p. 39 SS). Only one part of me, my body, is constricting rather than 2 limbs. On the surface I would say no, but considering my whole body is involved, I figured it may be a possibility.


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## Mad Hatter (Aug 29, 2006)

Hey Isida, I decided to play the ninja-type character.  Also, to make it more interesting in light of some of these characters you got here, I was gonna make the character a 9 year old child.  I was thinking maybe making the character with small size, 20 foot movement, and -2 on all physical stats for a -1 LA.

For the ninja class, I'd trade in all the stealth and movement for divination abilities while keeping sudden strike and the skill set.  I'd keep the ki pool as well.

The divination abilities would pertain to war and death premonitions. 

How does that sound?  If that sounds good then I'll give you my proposed changes to the "ninja" and background.


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 29, 2006)

Gli'jar - Hmm... possibility.  Do you want to be able to constrict a guy with the middle of your body and tail and leave your head free to strike?  Can you bite?  It sounds like it would be something would be able to take, provided you take all prereqs as normal.  

Mad Hatter - Interesting idea.  Sounds like this one character in a story my sister wrote once...  Anyways, lay out this mystic ninja for me.  And what race were you going to be?


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## Gli'jar (Aug 29, 2006)

Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> Gli'jar - Hmm... possibility.  Do you want to be able to constrict a guy with the middle of your body and tail and leave your head free to strike?  Can you bite?  It sounds like it would be something would be able to take, provided you take all prereqs as normal.




Yes, Exactly where I was headed.  I do possess a bite attack. Great.

I have a rough version up in the rogues gallery.


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## sans (Aug 29, 2006)

Thanks to everyone who offered advice on the water elemental aspect of my character concept. 

Possibly, some good news (for me at least). I found I was totally misreading the leadership feat. I _can_ obtain a 4HD cohort which would allow for a medium water elemental *if, and only if, Isida grants a +0 LA for a water elemental.* So, Isida, wadda ya say?  If no, then I'll go with the planar binding suggestion. I'm assuming you mean _lesser_ planar binding? It will allow me to get a 6HD water elemental (regular or greater pb is probably unfair to the other players).

@Random Encounter, that would be awesome if you were a water elemental. We'd probably make the oddest dynamic duo in D&D history . However, there's no guarantee that either or both of us will be selected by Isida. So, I'm going to plan for a bound elemental. However, if we both get selected, that would be sweeet. Good luck!


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## Kelleris (Aug 29, 2006)

Alright, Isida I'm moiling away at my character and I wanted to ask you a few things -

I'd like an item like the _monk's belt_ that increases my effective class level for cursing.  The belt gives you +5 levels for AC and unarmed damage purposes and an additional use of the Stunning Fist feat, so I was thinking for the same price (13,000 gold) how about an item that gives me +3 levels for cursing and another use of the curse per day?

In the same vein, there's a feat called Empower Curse that increases the penalty inflicted by your curses by 1.  I have two additional curses from feats that give a larger penalty but a more specific effect (only one save or two skills instead of all saves, attacks, checks, and damage).  Could I increase the benefit of that feat proportinately for the more specific curses?  Otherwise it isn't a very good feat for me.  So, for instance, I can inflict either -2 on everything or -5 on two skills.  Can I have that feat increase those penalties to -3 and -8 instead of -3 and -6?

Also, for the extra-special bonus section of the character, I was thinking about doing some work on a port city that Lupaz often visited and that has close trade relations with the Kingdom of Knowledge.  I thought it could serve as a first stop for our exiled selves.  Does that sound good to you?

I like the character so far thematically, but he's looking pretty weak against the others that have been posted, combat- and save-wise.  I was hoping to be able to contribute in combat outside of the cursing, but I guess I'll need to just think scout and debuffer.  I've never tried that before - I can't win, but I can make sure people lose.

EDIT: Oh, and I wanted to check on taking a flaw to lose the Hexblade's Simple and Martial weapon proficiences, Light Armor proficiency, and ability to cast in light armor without penalty.  That's a lot of stuff to not be getting anything for.  (In this case the flaw would simply represent devoting that training time to something else, i.e. better cursing.)

For that matter, can you think of a good way to represent an Unlucky flaw?  Maybe something like a -1 luck penalty on all saving throws or something.


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## D20Dazza (Aug 29, 2006)

This is fun 

I'm pretty well advanced and really just need to spend cash and pull all the background notes together but first a question.

[sblock=Isida Question]Isida does it seem reasonable to you to allow my PC to stack two natural AC bonuses - it's not normally allowed but this seems a unique case. I've started on a Half-Air Elemental Hadozee 'Winged Deck Ape' Spellthief 5 who was bought up by a swarm of Silthilar (LoM 168). He gets a +1 natural armour from his half-elemental template which I figure isn't something physical like tough skin or anything, but something more like a lessening of the blow because he is slightly insubstantial. With the Silthilar being masters of the graft I wanted to take advantae of him having being raised amongst them. The only graft I can afford at this level is the Chitin Plating which provides a +1 natural bonus that doesn't stack with other racial bonuses. I suggest though that in this case the physical nature of the plating would complement the elemental bestowed bonuses - what say you?? I'm happy if you say no, I can get a magical item that will stack with the natural but I thought this was more flavourful - sorry bout the sblock, I want to keep him quiet until he is fully realised [/sblock]

Cheers

Daz


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## Watus (Aug 29, 2006)

Added a background to Swift as well as some items.  I'll probably hold off on spell selection until after your decisions.  Given that he's a Stormcaster, though, I expect there might be some lightening.  And thunder.

You never can tell.


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## Bront (Aug 29, 2006)

Watus said:
			
		

> Added a background to Swift as well as some items.  I'll probably hold off on spell selection until after your decisions.  Given that he's a Stormcaster, though, I expect there might be some lightening.  And thunder.
> 
> You never can tell.



Stormcaster + Stormlord = fun


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## Watus (Aug 29, 2006)

Bring your earplugs.


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## James Heard (Aug 29, 2006)

Isida, approximately how long before the Endless Falls game are we talking about? I mean, so I can use the Scions' character's backgrounds as tinder to build my own?


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## Velmont (Aug 29, 2006)

I am interested... I have no concept in mind, and I must confess what catch me is more the creation of my own part of the world. It gives a lot of flexibilty and will allow me to create something cool. If you make your choice before I write down the background, too bad, but I should gives you a background tomorrow night. From there, we will see what my mind will have created.


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## bluegodjanus (Aug 30, 2006)

I'm playing with two ideas. The first is a half-celestial githzerai (I'd prefer the MM version, but the XPH one would work, too) oathsworn (Arcana Evolved). The trouble I have with this idea is that it'd leave me with 2 HD, and I'm not sure if it's entirely safe to be that squishy.

The second concept is a half-ice elemental fey-touched pirate. Fey-touched is from the Fiend Folio, and the half-elemental template is from MotP - trouble there is that there isn't actually a half-ice template. So... I would request to extrapolate one, based on the half-air and half-water templates, with some ideas likely gleaned from the ice paraelemental. As for the class, I'm not exactly sure - probably just swashbuckler.

So, two ideas proposed (so far). The first, I don't know if it's viable. The second, requires some minor tinkering to create the template involved. Input?


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 30, 2006)

D20Dazza said:
			
		

> Thanks Bront, you saved me a search - just before bed last night I made a note to scour the WoTC site and see if they put a preview up of the Lurk (psionic thief) - looks like they have, I haven't played one before, and have recently purchased the Complete Psionic book so......will that fly Isida? Even though it's not on your book list are you happy if I hunt down the WotC preview and provide you a link?



  That's fine, lemme look at the link, once you get it, and I'll get back to you.  Probably it will be a yes, so you can start doing your background on that if you wish.



			
				D20Dazza said:
			
		

> This is fun
> 
> I'm pretty well advanced and really just need to spend cash and pull all the background notes together but first a question.
> 
> ...



  Answer: [sblock]Sounds plausible.  Your air elemental natural armor bonus, let's call that a deflection bonus, representing the subtle currents of air around your body.[/sblock]



			
				Kelleris said:
			
		

> Alright, Isida I'm moiling away at my character and I wanted to ask you a few things -
> 
> I'd like an item like the _monk's belt_ that increases my effective class level for cursing.  The belt gives you +5 levels for AC and unarmed damage purposes and an additional use of the Stunning Fist feat, so I was thinking for the same price (13,000 gold) how about an item that gives me +3 levels for cursing and another use of the curse per day?



  Hmm... yes.  Yes you may.  Also you asked me previously about a Practised Curser feat.  I also find that plausible.



> In the same vein, there's a feat called Empower Curse that increases the penalty inflicted by your curses by 1.  I have two additional curses from feats that give a larger penalty but a more specific effect (only one save or two skills instead of all saves, attacks, checks, and damage).  Could I increase the benefit of that feat proportinately for the more specific curses?  Otherwise it isn't a very good feat for me.  So, for instance, I can inflict either -2 on everything or -5 on two skills.  Can I have that feat increase those penalties to -3 and -8 instead of -3 and -6?



  Also sounds plausible.  If all you're doing is cursing, you better be darn good at it.  



> Also, for the extra-special bonus section of the character, I was thinking about doing some work on a port city that Lupaz often visited and that has close trade relations with the Kingdom of Knowledge.  I thought it could serve as a first stop for our exiled selves.  Does that sound good to you?



  Sounds good.  There is more than one city of that sort, but one that a party member knows well would be very useful.  



> EDIT: Oh, and I wanted to check on taking a flaw to lose the Hexblade's Simple and Martial weapon proficiences, Light Armor proficiency, and ability to cast in light armor without penalty.  That's a lot of stuff to not be getting anything for.  (In this case the flaw would simply represent devoting that training time to something else, i.e. better cursing.)
> 
> For that matter, can you think of a good way to represent an Unlucky flaw?  Maybe something like a -1 luck penalty on all saving throws or something.



  Perhaps you could call the first flaw Pacifist?    And the Unlucky one is fine.



			
				sans said:
			
		

> Thanks to everyone who offered advice on the water elemental aspect of my character concept.
> 
> Possibly, some good news (for me at least). I found I was totally misreading the leadership feat. I _can_ obtain a 4HD cohort which would allow for a medium water elemental *if, and only if, Isida grants a +0 LA for a water elemental.* So, Isida, wadda ya say?  If no, then I'll go with the planar binding suggestion. I'm assuming you mean _lesser_ planar binding? It will allow me to get a 6HD water elemental (regular or greater pb is probably unfair to the other players).
> 
> @Random Encounter, that would be awesome if you were a water elemental. We'd probably make the oddest dynamic duo in D&D history . However, there's no guarantee that either or both of us will be selected by Isida. So, I'm going to plan for a bound elemental. However, if we both get selected, that would be sweeet. Good luck!



  sans, you and I probably know that a water elemental has more than a +0 LA, so in good gaming conscience, I cannot do that.  So shell out (_shell out_, I slay me) for the _lesser planar binding_ scroll.  Unless, of course, Random Encounter has a good character up his/her sleeve for you to "bond" with.  



			
				James Heard said:
			
		

> Isida, approximately how long before the Endless Falls game are we talking about? I mean, so I can use the Scions' character's backgrounds as tinder to build my own?



  Two hundred and fifty years.  Precisely.  To the day.    



			
				Velmont said:
			
		

> I am interested... I have no concept in mind, and I must confess what catch me is more the creation of my own part of the world. It gives a lot of flexibilty and will allow me to create something cool. If you make your choice before I write down the background, too bad, but I should gives you a background tomorrow night. From there, we will see what my mind will have created.



  Excellent!  I look forward to looking it over.



			
				bluegodjanus said:
			
		

> I'm playing with two ideas. The first is a half-celestial githzerai (I'd prefer the MM version, but the XPH one would work, too) oathsworn (Arcana Evolved). The trouble I have with this idea is that it'd leave me with 2 HD, and I'm not sure if it's entirely safe to be that squishy.
> 
> The second concept is a half-ice elemental fey-touched pirate. Fey-touched is from the Fiend Folio, and the half-elemental template is from MotP - trouble there is that there isn't actually a half-ice template. So... I would request to extrapolate one, based on the half-air and half-water templates, with some ideas likely gleaned from the ice paraelemental. As for the class, I'm not exactly sure - probably just swashbuckler.
> 
> So, two ideas proposed (so far). The first, I don't know if it's viable. The second, requires some minor tinkering to create the template involved. Input?



I think the second can be done.  Use the water ability changes.  As for spells... I'm going to give one from the PHB and one from Frostburn, use what you have access to.

1-2: endure elements or lesser shivering touch
3-4: chill metal or frost weapon
5-6: sleet storm or shivering touch
7-8: ice storm or frostburn
9-10: cone of cold or frostbite
11-12: Otiluke's freezing sphere or mass frostburn
13-14: control weather or raise ice forest
15-16: polar ray or frostfell
17-18: elemental swarm (ice elementals only) 
19+: Plane Shift (to plane of cold)


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## James Heard (Aug 30, 2006)

Alright, I'm almost ready to post my Azarin Arcane Disciple/Human Paragon. Arcane Disciple is a variant cleric from Dragon 311, pretty cool except that it doesn't have the ability to turn undead or domains, which pretty much excludes a huge chunk of neat feats and PrC's. She's also going to possess some of the Oathbound prestige race traits outlined in Dragon 304, eventually.

I was going to aim for some sort of connection with Fairweather, but 250 years seems to be a little pushing it for humans to have a "What do I care?" moment about, relations-wise.

Anyways, if nothing else this has been a challenge. Dealing with not having a PHB race OR class wouldn't have been a problem, but with both excluded and some pretty cool ideas already knocked out this was pretty hard. Kudos to all!


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## Gli'jar (Aug 30, 2006)

Isida, 

How much of the equipment do you want detailed.  Currently, I am trying to focus on background and personality and plan to tackle equipment last.  Does this work for you in presenting the character concept?


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## Kelleris (Aug 30, 2006)

Hmm, I have a couple more questions for you, oh beloved DM (I know, I know, I'm sorry).

1) As it stands right now I'm not sure if I can speak Common (or any other humanoid language, for that matter).  I'm leaning toward can't at the moment, but I need to get your ruling on whether or not blink dogs can speak.  If I can't speak, how do you want to handle it?  Should I just RP someone who can't speak, or would you like to have me get a cheap item to handle it (something like 30' telepathy that requires a common language for 1,000 gold or something)?

2) Do you want us to do the extra stuff before or after we get picked (assuming we do get picked)?  Put another way, do you consider that stuff when you get around to selecting players in a few days?      I'm starting to really look forward to playing with some of the guys that have been posted.  How much information do you want on this city - a basic DMG/Dungeon style write-up and two pages of information or so?

Thanks for bearing with me, Isida.  This character's pretty complex, but I'm just about done rules-wise and I can start improving on the background info I posted upthread somewhere (and cut and paste into my RG entry).

Incidentally, I think it would be cool to have Mad Hatter's premonition-having ninja-esque character in the same party as Lupaz.  Then we'd have good AND bad omens!


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## Bront (Aug 30, 2006)

I thought Blink Dogs could speak?  Not sure why, maybe an old GM played it that way.


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 30, 2006)

You don't _have_ to have your gear all detailed out, unless some piece of gear is very important to your character background.

Kelleris, I don't believe Blink Dogs can speak regular languages, though they do have their own.  You can spend the cash on a limited version of telepathy if you like.

You can finish up your gear after I've made selections.


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## D20Dazza (Aug 30, 2006)

I've played a blinkdog on these boards before that could speak - young Grymsnarl, even had one of the artists on here kindly do up some (very cool) pictures for him.

have a look Kelleris and let me know what ya think.

http://enworld.org/showpost.php?p=2534744&postcount=5

cheers

Daz


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## D20Dazza (Aug 30, 2006)

hi Isida,

Another quick query. I've been thinking about founding a Weapon of Legacy for the PC. Is it feasible or too much hassle? If it might be a goer how would you like to handle it?

Cheers

Daz

Edit: Actually thinking about it, in a game as slow moving as a PbP and with this likely not being open ended, having a weapon of Legacy is probably a waste of time. In most PbPs you'd be lucky to gain 2 levels and they don't start being really cool till higher levels. The caveat in this case being that my PC has a +3LA so he is effectively 5th level and that's the level that the WoL awaken.


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## James Heard (Aug 30, 2006)

Sans, 

_Air Breathing_ is a 3rd level Cle/Dru/Wiz/Sor spell in Stormwrack. Even if you can't have your walking fishbowl you could probably manage an item that operated that effect most/all of the time. Then you could get a Monkey familiar and have him wear you as a hat or something. Buy him Gauntlets of Ogre Power if necessary. Put him on steroids. Whatever.


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## James Heard (Aug 30, 2006)

Ok, I'll probably revise my history a few half dozen times to make it more interesting, and I need to double check all the math and add in spells prepared, etc. but otherwise I think I'm pretty much done with at least the initial concept for fish-girl princess priestess sailor-girl adventures. I even managed to work in the city of Kital, from Rhaveon's future background. I like the weirdness of the concept, but I still want it to be a little bit tighter and focused - so I'm open to any suggestions and critiques on the character.


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## Velmont (Aug 30, 2006)

hmmm... almost! After Rereading a few thing in that thread, I might change a few details to my story...


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## bluegodjanus (Aug 30, 2006)

Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> I think the second can be done.  Use the water ability changes.  As for spells... I'm going to give one from the PHB and one from Frostburn, use what you have access to.
> 
> 1-2: endure elements or lesser shivering touch
> 3-4: chill metal or frost weapon
> ...




Excellent. I have Frostburn, so to keep in line with the only use PHB when necessary, I'll stick to the FB spells. Besides, I won't need _endure elements_. Unless I go to a warm place.

EDIT: Also, neither MotP nor Fiend Folio is particularly specific on the subject, so I'm assuming my spell-like ability DCs are 10+1/2 HD+Cha. Is this correct?


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## Mad Hatter (Aug 31, 2006)

Hey, Isida, I realize that I'm being slow but school just started and I have administrative things that I need to do and it's taking up my time.  It'll be better after this initial week.  As such, is it ok if I get you the modfied ninja Sat and background then as well?  If that's not fast enough please let me know and I'll burn some oil and get it to you tomorrow.


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## James Heard (Aug 31, 2006)

I just was reading Savage Species again, and I think I'm going to make one of those really lame massive revisions to my character I didn't want to do. But, since the Ghaele levels as a Cleric I think it should do pretty much everything I wanted Moera to do in the first place, and be fancier and more exotic besides. So, anyways, look for the revision sometime soon.


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## Velmont (Aug 31, 2006)

Finally, I can't get inspiration. There have been so many proposal of character and as I wanted to find something original... I just can't. Anyway, I am not sure it would have been a good thing to join anotehr game. Surely I have the time, but I think I have enough too. Good game all.


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 31, 2006)

Ok, I'm glad to hear characters are coming along, or not as the case may be.  Sorry we couldn't get you inspired Velmont.  Drop by as an alt sometime if you find inspiration later.

bluegodjanus - Yeah, 10+1/2 HD +Cha for a DC is standard for those kinds of things I believe.

*I'm going to close recruitment by 11:59pm on Monday September 4th, Labor Day for those in the States.  Tuesday I will review the characters entered and select first group.  The others will remain in alt status until called upon, if they wish.

Remember, while the nuts and bolts of your character is all well and good, I will be selecting from concept and backstory first, and character sheets second!*


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## Kelleris (Aug 31, 2006)

D20Dazza said:
			
		

> I've played a blinkdog on these boards before that could speak - young Grymsnarl, even had one of the artists on here kindly do up some (very cool) pictures for him.
> 
> have a look Kelleris and let me know what ya think.
> 
> ...




Interesting.  You went a different way from me on a lot of basic things - I assumed blink dogs would be as long-lived as humans, you went with a dog's lifespan; you went for a much smaller dog than I envision as being Medium-sized; and of course Gyrmsnarl can speak.  It probably also doesn't help that the only blink dog name I'm familiar with is Lepook in _Shackled City_, so our naming conventions are...  ah, a tad different.

Got any pointers on roleplaying a nonhumanoid?  Did you find yourself passing yourself off as a normal dog most of the time or not?  Any problems handling doors and the like?  I took _open/close_, _mage hand_, and _unseen servant_ to get around that, but I wonder if I'm not just being paranoid.


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## Kelleris (Aug 31, 2006)

Okay, I have achieved mostly-done-ness.  Now for filling in more background stuff.  So, I had one last couple of questions for you, Isida -

My concept is that Lupaz is basically dispatched to tip the scales in whichever direction best suits the Kingdom of Knowledge when the elemental weirds' divinations come up reading "could go either way".  So I basically get close to the person or persons that are at the crux of an upcoming event (finding them through scent-tracking, rapid travel with dimension door, and Knowledge (local) and (geography) and spread the unluck until things have a much better chance of going the way the Kingdom wants.  So things like splitting off a royal ambassador from his guards while he's travelling through rough terrain and then giving him a -13 penalty on Survival and Balance checks so he gets lost and never gets to an important meeting (or simply gets there late).  Or afflicting an army's standard-bearers with a -8 on their Will saves the morning of a key battle so they fail their saves against fear and break and run at a bad time or cursing an adventuring party's leader with -5 on everything when they start getting to close to making a fateful discovery.  Pebble-in-a-river sorts of things.

Is that too underhanded or subtle for the Kingdom of Knowledge?  I'm reading them as pretty Neutral-ish and kinda mercenary, and having someone to nudge your prophecies into line is a huge competitive advantage (especially since Lupaz basically works for information alone).  If that's not the case, is there some sneakier element within the Kingdom that I could work for instead, like say the time elementals themselves (which would of course give me somewhat of a conflicted motivation for this game)?  Either way, what's the hierarchy here like?  I assume I'm usually left to my own devices to accomplish whatever task I'm given, but maybe I have some official ranking in the military instead, or access to some of the Kingdom's resources while on missions?  I still have a feat slot left over if you would like me to use it to model some kind of campaign-specific benefit.  (I'm okay either way, but you may have a preference.)


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## D20Dazza (Aug 31, 2006)

Kelleris said:
			
		

> Interesting.  You went a different way from me on a lot of basic things - I assumed blink dogs would be as long-lived as humans, you went with a dog's lifespan; you went for a much smaller dog than I envision as being Medium-sized; and of course Gyrmsnarl can speak.  It probably also doesn't help that the only blink dog name I'm familiar with is Lepook in _Shackled City_, so our naming conventions are...  ah, a tad different.
> 
> Got any pointers on roleplaying a nonhumanoid?  Did you find yourself passing yourself off as a normal dog most of the time or not?  Any problems handling doors and the like?  I took _open/close_, _mage hand_, and _unseen servant_ to get around that, but I wonder if I'm not just being paranoid.



The game I played him in didn't last very long so a lot of stuff I didn't get to explore. The party was a new one so initially he just wandered into camp, snuffling around and playing the dog, then he started to do some lassie-like things, and then, when he was forced to through circumstances, he revealed he could speak, blink and dimension door. It was good fun while it lasted, had some nice comic moments as well. He also dimension doored onto the back of the dragon that was hassling the party, managed to get a sneak attack bite in before he was shaken loose 

We were doing an outdoor adventure at the time so wasn't too worried about doors, thought the party could handle the door or I could dimesnion door past it. 

It is a very useful race for scouting purposes when in civilized environs - just another stray.


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## Bront (Aug 31, 2006)

Isida, did you say that the characters have actualy known each other for a while?


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## James Heard (Aug 31, 2006)

Ok, except for some fairly lame feats (IMO), formatting, and equipment, I think Moera is done. 

Now added: Outsiderish goodness, revised backstory (now with angst!), more stuff in personality and appearance to help me get a handle on the character, names for things that suck less, etc. Rakish tricorn optional.

As she stands, Moera is a pretty powerful character with some rather severe limitations. I probably could have turned her into a combat powerhouse by shifting some of her stats around and picking feats to match them, but I rather like the idea that she's kind of off-kilter for an eladrin and not a melee monster in plate mail and combat boots. No, instead she's a simple sailor lass with awesome magical powers who (literally) swims like a fish.

If I'm way off base with the backstory bits about celestials and elementals, or even the audience, I can still change things around.


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 31, 2006)

Yup, the characters have known each other and work together in the past.  You can  work our specifics when I pick the initial group.

Kelleris - I could see the more devious members of the Kingdom of Knowledge using Lupaz that way.  Some of the time elementals might have a nice little scam, er "service," running to keep things moving in their employer's chosen direction whenever possible.  So yeah, sounds good, run with it.


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## Bloodweaver1 (Aug 31, 2006)

Anyway a mass appilcation list can be provided?

Also is my submission too 'oridinary' ?   

-Blood


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## Fenris (Aug 31, 2006)

Isida, 
Ok I re-work my character and I have put up the background and appearance. The character type is correct, I need to finish the nuts and bolts with the new changes. Thansk for your help with him and let me know how he looks.


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 31, 2006)

Bloodweaver1, I specifically mentioned in the first post that all PHB races and classes are banned.  You have created a halfling fighter/rogue/invisible blade/master thrower.  Under my current submission guidelines your character is unacceptable.  Re-read the first post carefully and examine the character sheets of your fellow hopefuls to get an idea of what I'm looking for.  The title of the game is Anything But Normal.  So find me something unusual.  

Just so y'all know, the current submission pool consists of:

*Shayuri* with *Trebuchet*, LN Neuter Warforged Warmage 8 (Race ECS, Class CompArc)

*Bront* with *Ekilu ka Wooli (Ekilu the White)*, Unknown Alignment male Darfellan Spirit Shamen 6/Storm Lord 2

*Erekose13* with *Brightstar Vaukriel, Angel of Splendor*, CG Male Illumian Unfettered (Clever Blade Saint) 5 / Duskblade 3 [Race RoD, class AE(Tra)/PHB2]

*Watus* with *Kaiee Taraniule (a.k.a., "Swift")*, NG Male Raptoran [RW] Domain Wizard (Storm) [UA] 5 / Stormcaster [SW] 3

*Fenris* with *Androclese*, N Male Half-Satyr Swift Hunter Druid 7 [Race Dragon #313, class UA pg 58] 

*sans* with *Pfft the Octopus*, Unknown Alignment Male Awakened Octopus Transmuter Level Unknown (Class must be non-PHB wizard before can be accepted)

*Wrahn* with *Rhaveon*, CG Male African Elephant Animorph Paladin of Freedom 3 [Race SS, class UA]

*Bloodcookie* with *Chief Kig’nagrodan’szaar III (Szaar)*, LE Male Kobold Warlock 8 [Race: MM, class: ComArc]

*Gli'jar* with *Asa'Adis Twilight Fang*, N Male Anthropomorphic snake, constrictor Denying Stance Monk Variant [Race MM/SS, Class UA]

*Random Encounter* with *Ununisr*, LN Male Grey Elf Psion 5 / Mindbender 3

*D20Dazza* with *Tempest Wintersquall*, N Male Half-Air Elemental Hadozee 'Winged Deck Ape' Spellthief 5 [Race MoP188, SW41, Class CompAdv 13]

*Voadam* with *Maester Rodian Grubwort*, Alignment Unknown Male Grippli Erudite 8 [Race ToH, class Dragon 319]

*Kelleris* with *Lupaz, the Hound of Ill Omen*, N Male Blink Dog Hexmaster 5 [race MM/Custom, class CW/Custom]

*James Heard* with *Moera Sky-Eyes, Knight of Eladril*, CG Female Amphibious Ghaele 8 [Savage Species level progression p 172, template Stormwrack p136]

*bluegodjanus* with *Alierin, Who Has Kissed the Storm*, CN Female Half-Ice Elemental Fey-Touched Swashbuckler 4 [Race MotP/FF, class CW]


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Aug 31, 2006)

Fenris said:
			
		

> Isida,
> Ok I re-work my character and I have put up the background and appearance. The character type is correct, I need to finish the nuts and bolts with the new changes. Thansk for your help with him and let me know how he looks.



  Fenris, the half-satyr doesn't have any ability adjustments, so you only have the ones from your elf side.  You are a Medium Humanoid in terms of type, though you have the fey bloodline.


*A little note to everyone, be sure to run your backgrounds and whatnot through a spelling and grammer checker!  And get someone else to read over your character sheet to check for grammatical errors.*  I'd like to be your DM, not your English teacher.


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## Fenris (Aug 31, 2006)

Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> Fenris, the half-satyr doesn't have any ability adjustments, so you only have the ones from your elf side.  You are a Medium Humanoid in terms of type, though you have the fey bloodline.
> 
> 
> *A little note to everyone, be sure to run your backgrounds and whatnot through a spelling and grammer checker!  And get someone else to read over your character sheet to check for grammatical errors.*  I'd like to be your DM, not your English teacher.




Isida,
Those are the Sylvan (Wood) elf ability adjustments (at least if I am reading them correctly since it says "These traits are in addition to the high elf traits, except where noted. 

+2 Strength, -2 Intelligence." I took that to mean I still had the +2 to Dex and -2 to Con. Is that not correct?

Thanks for the clarification on humanoid, I wasn't sure where that would fall.

And I am sorry, did my background have may errors? I did it in word so most of the errors I caught, I see there were a few it didn't that I can correct.


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## Erekose13 (Aug 31, 2006)

If selected, I am hoping to work a bit on Vaukriel's background. I'd like to work more on the personality change when rping him. So I'd like to establish a close connection with one of the other characters prior to his capture.  When he returns he will be trying to hide what has happened and what it has done to his soul.


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## James Heard (Sep 1, 2006)

Vaukriel could probably be connected somehow with Moera's family/clan/location fairly closely. I don't think it's much of a stretch to imagine how some of the answers/quests that he sought could have actually come from the inhabitants of Eladril rather thant directly from Taala, and how answers gained from descendants of Eladrin could produce confrontations with evil outsiders.

Anyways, since Moera's been gone a very long time I'm not sure that the connection would be able to be direct - but on the other hand, I'm not sure if I've completely declared how long it has been since she returned either, so I assume a few decades could have been spent being upset about how her cousins had sorely mismanaged their city.

Which brings me to another thing, I haven't seen any age thingees for outsiders anywhere that I can remember? Do such things exist for Ghaeles? I've been operating in my background under the conflicting assumptions that Eladrin were nearly immortal, but that they did indeed age and die, without much support from the rules that I could find. If anyone knows of such an animal though, and if ghaeles only live as long as goldfish or something, I probably need to do something to fix that.


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Sep 1, 2006)

Fenris, that's fine.  I just must have missed the fact you were a half _wood_ elf. 

And the thing about grammer was just a general thing for all.  I noticed a mistake or two here and there and wanted to give people time to proofread and correct before I evaluate.

I am assuming that celestials don't age, but rather ascend from one form to the next as they gain in age and experience.  Same with some other types of outsiders.


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## Mad Hatter (Sep 1, 2006)

Ok, Isida, I read and saw your no phb races or classes, but an underage human isn't exactly normal.  Is that violating your rule?


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Sep 1, 2006)

Well, you could be underage anything else.


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## Voadam (Sep 1, 2006)

Bloodweaver, a quick way to adapt your character is to make the halfling an elemental variant halfling from UA and the fighter and rogue use variants from UA. www.d20srd.org under the variant rules section has the specifics.


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## Fenris (Sep 1, 2006)

Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> Fenris, that's fine.  I just must have missed the fact you were a half _wood_ elf.




_Mea culpa_. I used the alternative sub-race descriptor of "Sylvan". I should have been more explict, I'll alter the character sheet next edit cycle. Glad he's kosher now.


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## Bront (Sep 1, 2006)

Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> Yup, the characters have known each other and work together in the past.  You can  work our specifics when I pick the initial group.



Cool.


			
				Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> *Bront* with *Ekilu ka Wooli (Ekilu the White)*, Unknown Alignment male Darfellan Spirit Shamen 6/Storm Lord 2



You mentioned that alignment restrictions weren't a big issue.  I was thinking that likely Ekilu was LG but with a CN spirit whispering sweet nothings in his ear.  would I be better to put that in LG or N with LG and CN tendancies?


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## James Heard (Sep 1, 2006)

Ok, fixed some more errors I found on my sheet, still haven't decided on how best to spend some more money (oh to have a rl problem like that), and took some liberties with sblocking much of Moera up because it was starting to take me days to scroll down the character sheet to find stuff.


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## Mad Hatter (Sep 1, 2006)

Ninja- as it is in Complete Adventurer

Lvl...BAB........Fort.......Ref........Will......AC.........Special

1.....0...........0...........2...........0.........0...........Ki power, sudden strike +1d6,trapfinding
2.....1...........0...........3...........0.........0...........Ghost step (invisible)
3.....2...........1...........3...........1.........0...........Sudden strike +2d6, poison use
4.....3...........1...........4...........1.........0...........Great Leap
5.....3...........1...........4...........1.........1...........Sudden strike +3d6
6.....4...........2...........5...........2.........1...........Acrobatics +2, ki dodge
7.....5...........2...........5...........2.........1...........Sudden strike +4d6, speed climb
8.....6/1........2...........6...........2.........1...........Ghost strike
9.....6/1........3...........6...........3.........1...........Sudden strike +5d6, improved poison use


Removed -------------------> Replaced With

Trapfinding- 1st lvl ---------------> Daunting Presence (LM p25)	

Ghost Step (invisible) ------------> Augury*

Poison Use- 3rd lvl ---------------> Detect Thoughts

Great Leap- 4th lvl ---------------> River Eel Jutsu (DR 342 p85)

Acrobatics +2- 6th lvl ------------> Uncanny Knowledge**

Speed Climb- 7th lvl --------------> True Strike

Ghost Strike- 8th lvl --------------> Shadow Puppet Jutsu (DR 342 p85)

Improved Poison Use- 9th lvl ------> Omniscient Whisper-1/wk (UA p94)

* As a standard action
** Works just like acrobatics, except with three knowledge skills

With LA -1 for being a child, I would get an extra level, Isida.  Also, I have decided on gray elf as my race. I figured all of these abilities except omniscient whisper would be subject to the ki pool.


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## Mad Hatter (Sep 1, 2006)

Oops, double post


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Sep 1, 2006)

Mad Hatter, that sounds fine.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 1, 2006)

Ooh, I missed this recruitment thread for a while--there's still time before Labor Day, though, so hopefully it's okay that I'm coming in late.  I'm thinking a Nereid (Stormwrack) Beguiler (PHII).  With the combination of fey and water elemental tendencies, it seems highly appropriate for the setting, plus I've wanted to play a Beguiler for a while, and it seems like a highly useful class to have around for this adventure.  I'll get started on an RG submission right away!


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 1, 2006)

Quick question--in an effort to take absolutely as few feats from the PH as possible, I am thinking of taking the Breathing Link feat from Stormwrack, but for some reason that isn't clear to me, they've restricted that feat rather specifically to water genasi and aquatic elves (my guess is that this is because Nereids are listed under monsters rather than races?).  Would it be okay to take this?  I figured it would fit in well with the Air Breathing at will ability.


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Sep 1, 2006)

Rystil that's fine.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 1, 2006)

Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> Rystil that's fine.



 Great, thanks!  I'm having trouble picking non-PH magic items, so I'm just going to rework the ones I took a bit and give them cool names.  Also, I'm hoping it's okay for Nissa to have a pet hippocampus (paid for as per the price in Stormwrack of course)?


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## Voadam (Sep 2, 2006)

Rodian's background and personality entries are now done. I am going to hold off on psionic powerss and equipment until after characters are chosen.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 2, 2006)

Hmm...are most people holding off on equipment?  I actually went ahead and picked some for Nissa--they mostly came from core stuff, so I tried to make them interesting.  Just making sure Isida, but is it okay to make something weird and claim it's "equivalent to X"?  The example that jumps to mind from my equipment is Miera, a Protective Water Aeon who usually lives perched on Nissa's off-hand but whirls around with torrents of water and deflects attacks in battle (this instead of a humdrum mithral buckler).

Anyways, backstory and equipment done, plus mechanics.  Appearance and Personality have not been changed yet from the template, but I will do so soon.  Oh, and I created some NPC hooks partially in lieu of a physical region (though Clymene's holdings were described somewhat as a place of oceans and sea creatures).


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 2, 2006)

Okay, should be done now.  Writing that was a lot of fun, so I hope it's fun to read too! (and that the plot hooks and NPCs are useful)


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## Bront (Sep 2, 2006)

Items from the DMG/PHB are fine, it's just races, and experiment with other things.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 2, 2006)

Bront said:
			
		

> Items from the DMG/PHB are fine, it's just races, and experiment with other things.



 Oh, I know it's allowed, but I wanted to try to stick to the spirit of 







> Also I would like people to use, as little as possible, things from the DMG and MM. I understand some feats are nearly necessary for prereqs, and some equipment is so basic it's hard to stray from the DMG and PHB, but I think you people can find something suitably fun after you've gotten your basics in!



 where I could.  I figured it would be better to make cool semi-custom (if mechanically fairly core) items in that sense.


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## sans (Sep 2, 2006)

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to drop from the running. I don't have enough time to finish by this weekend. Too busy. Damn RL keeps getting in the way!


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Sep 3, 2006)

Don't worry sans, all I need from you is the background.  Character sheets are secondary.  If you can finish your background before I start reading through things on Tuesday, you might be fine.  

Voidrazor... did you just put up an awakened ooze?


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## Bront (Sep 3, 2006)

Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> Voidrazor... did you just put up an awakened ooze?



Why can't he just let Crothian sleep?


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 3, 2006)

Bront said:
			
		

> Why can't he just let Crothian sleep?



!  Now you know he's going to have to give his ooze a book to read as a magic item 

Hmm...from the description, it looks like Voidrazor's ooze would get along really well with Miera (Nissa's water aeon intelligent shield).


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## Bront (Sep 3, 2006)

I need better item books


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 3, 2006)

Bront said:
			
		

> I need better item books



 I only had the DMG (well, I had others, but most of them had items that were either too expensive (Sotrmwrack) or else priced for 3.0 (Arms and Equipment Guide), so I just used my imagination to pretend that the items were cooler than they actually were (also, I gave them all a bit of backstory, so if Nissa is chosen, you'll know why she loves her cloak so much and why she always pales a bit when she feels her circlet on her head, yet keeps wearing it regardless)


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## Bront (Sep 3, 2006)

I did for a few of them, at least in naming and describing them.  I figured they had histories of some kind.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 3, 2006)

Bront said:
			
		

> I did for a few of them, at least in naming and describing them.  I figured they had histories of some kind.



 Cool.  I actually threw a few plot hooks into the items, like thie circlet:

[SBLOCK=Circlet Info]Circlet of Understanding—Perhaps both the most hated and most dangerous piece of Ianissa's apparel, this circlet of pure solid platinum is etched with symbols representing the flow of time unto eternity. After convincing Nissa that she was worthless, terrible, and stupid, Ananke bestowed this circlet upon her charge, an item that undeniably made the little nereid even smarter and played a key role in learning her two divination spells. Despite Proteus's continual protestations against it, even today Nissa feels inadequate and stupid while not wearing the circlet, and she refuses to part with it despite the awful memories. After careful magical analysis, Proteus was able to determine that there is not a secret malefic enchantment on the circlet to let Ananke control Nissa or something worse, but he still covered the thing in wards immediately to prevent Ananke from using it as a focus for her divinations. Only time will tell if Proteus was successful, or if he was outmatched by the mistress of inevitability. The circlet grants Nissa a +2 bonus to Intelligence. 4000 gold value.[/SBLOCK]


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## Bront (Sep 3, 2006)

Wow, nice discount   (You're missing a 0)


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 3, 2006)

Bront said:
			
		

> Wow, nice discount   (You're missing a 0)



 Oops, I did pay full for it   No discount for cruel time elemental teachers


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## Erekose13 (Sep 3, 2006)

I did my best to stay completely non core, but there were a few things that made it difficult - combat casting is a freebie from Duskblade and shocking grasp is the only touch range spell at 1st level on their list and they need a touch range spell for their abilities to work.  I guess I could try to find a different one and see if Isida would let me replace it.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 3, 2006)

Erekose13 said:
			
		

> I did my best to stay completely non core, but there were a few things that made it difficult - combat casting is a freebie from Duskblade and shocking grasp is the only touch range spell at 1st level on their list and they need a touch range spell for their abilities to work.  I guess I could try to find a different one and see if Isida would let me replace it.



 You probably don't have to worry--I looked through feats and items (where they were selected), and it looks like most people took a decent amount from core.  I'm impressed you managed to buy items without the DMG.  I couldn't find anything in the right price range (except in A&EG, but that is priced for 3.0)


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## Erekose13 (Sep 3, 2006)

With Malhavoc stuff in the mix its pretty easy to find cheaper equipment. The 1/2 bonus stuff from BoEM3 was fun as I've never played with them before.  The wings I have to admit I stole that idea from another poster over on the WotC boards, but as soon as I read that Vaukriel's background and personality fell into place.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 3, 2006)

Erekose13 said:
			
		

> With Malhavoc stuff in the mix its pretty easy to find cheaper equipment. The 1/2 bonus stuff from BoEM3 was fun as I've never played with them before.  The wings I have to admit I stole that idea from another poster over on the WotC boards, but as soon as I read that Vaukriel's background and personality fell into place.



 Ah, the BoEMs I forgot about that.  My little brother has the CBoEM between us, so I wouldn't have had access to that anyways.


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## Erekose13 (Sep 3, 2006)

I've got that, plus a complete catalog of Malhavoc pdfs (and a number of other hardcovers from them too).  I'm something of a Monte fan boy.


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## Voidrazor (Sep 3, 2006)

Isida-
Yup. Well actually I was planning to use the fused aberration template from Chaositech (amazingly cool book btw) since the awaken spell only mentions animals and plants. I haven't started on any of the crunch yet though.

Could you determine an LA for a few ooze possibilities? First the really nasty one, a living spell that combines acidball (fireball with acid energy substitution) and black tentacles. Another one I'm interested in would be acidburst (fireburst with acid energy substitution from Complete Arcane). And one last living spell possibility, acid breath (3rd lvl, d6/lvl acid damage cone, printed in Magic of Faerun as Mestil's acid breath and reprinted in Spell Compendium). If none of those are feasible, an LA for the good old gelatinous cube would be helpful.


Rystil-
Oobobooboo would definitely find and intelligent shield that gave off waves of emotion fascinating. I could just see it waking Ianissa up several times a night saying, "I polish Miera now?". But since Nissa's a caster, that would be a rude thing for me as a player to do.


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Sep 3, 2006)

Voidrazor, I'm tapping the WotC boards for ooze LA possiblities.  You want to tap the House Rules forum here to get some enlightened opinions?


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## Bront (Sep 3, 2006)

Isida, I made a few minor revisions, adding a few extra items to the background, notes about some of his items, and an important encounter at the end.  I pondered perhaps the shield being given to him by the Prince, perhaps having been crafted for him, or something something that his spirit guide lead him to, but I wasn't sure, so I figured I can leave it up to you.


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## Bront (Sep 3, 2006)

Voidrazer, check out the Half-Ooze template.

I've seen another one that's a bit different out there, can't find it at the moment though.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 3, 2006)

Voidrazor said:
			
		

> Rystil-
> Oobobooboo would definitely find and intelligent shield that gave off waves of emotion fascinating. I could just see it waking Ianissa up several times a night saying, "I polish Miera now?". But since Nissa's a caster, that would be a rude thing for me as a player to do.




Ah, but Miera isn't a shield--she's an amorphous living creature of water that swirls around Nissa and deflects attacks (which happens to have the same stats as a shield).  So she and  Oobobooboo have even more in common


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## Voidrazor (Sep 3, 2006)

Isida-
Posted. Come to think of it, maybe I should just write up my take on what the ECL 8 statistics should be and you could just appove or modify. Seems simpler than getting an LA for the base ooze, modifying it with a fusion template and then probably having to break it down into monster levels anyway.

Rystil-
Apologies for the misread. Does Meira have projective empathy? Or does she just feel the emotions of those around her?

Bront-
Thanks for the link. Interesting, the CR accounts for both base critters, but the LA is +4 no matter what the base ooze is.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 3, 2006)

Voidrazor said:
			
		

> Isida-
> Posted.
> 
> Rystil-
> Apologies for the misread. Does Meira have projective empathy? Or does she just feel the emotions of those around her?



 Meira's got projective empathy, and she understands but cannot speak Aquan and Common (maybe later with a bit more gold she can learn to talk).

Oh, I posted a guesstimate to the thread in HR too


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## Bront (Sep 3, 2006)

I thought about an intellegent item, but I already had too many voices talking to me.  And so does my character.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 3, 2006)

Bront said:
			
		

> I thought about an intellegent item, but I already had too many voices talking to me.  And so does my character.



  I actually hadn't originally thought of an intelligent item, but as I started writing Miera, I realised I needed to pay for one if I wanted a little elemental.  But yeah, you've got that storm spirit, right?  Even between Miera and Anemone, no voices in the head, though, although Nissa can talk to Anemone with her Speak With Animals power


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## Mad Hatter (Sep 3, 2006)

Isida, I'm posting my character with knowledge skills as class skills, but I'm giving up the physical skill set of the ninja such as tumble, jump, balance etc.  Also, there is this feat called intuitive strike that's in the BoED that lets me use my wis mod instead of str for atks on simple weapons only, but it's an exalted feat.  I don't see any real reason why it's exalted so I treated it as a normal feat.

Is that ok>


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 3, 2006)

Mad Hatter said:
			
		

> Isida, I'm posting my character with knowledge skills as class skills, but I'm giving up the physical skill set of the ninja such as tumble, jump, balance etc.  Also, there is this feat called intuitive strike that's in the BoED that lets me use my wis mod instead of str for atks on simple weapons only, but it's an exalted feat.  I don't see any real reason why it's exalted so I treated it as a normal feat.
> 
> Is that ok>



 I believe the idea of the BoED was to grant feats that were more powerful than usual and apply RP penalties (requirement to act Exalted) to balance this.  Many people were upset by this, since it goes against 3e design goals, but there it is.


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## Mad Hatter (Sep 3, 2006)

There is no reason for it to be an exalted feat.  It has a built in limitation with the fact that it is applicable only with simple melee weapons.  And unlike many things in BoED, that feat is actually well balanced.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 3, 2006)

Mad Hatter said:
			
		

> There is no reason for it to be an exalted feat.  It has a built in limitation with the fact that it is applicable only with simple melee weapons.  And unlike many things in BoED, that feat is actually well balanced.



 Hey, either way   I'm just telling you what the design rationale was behind the Exalted feats


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## Mad Hatter (Sep 3, 2006)

Heh.  This is the first time that I've used anything from that book, but this feat is pretty balanced.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 3, 2006)

Mad Hatter said:
			
		

> Heh.  This is the first time that I've used anything from that book, but this feat is pretty balanced.



 Compared to some of those other ones, it's definitely on the more-balanced-as-a-normal-feat side (look at Nymph's Kiss, for instance--that's one darned good feat).  Myself, I'm always a bit wary about 'stat-consolidation' feats ever since I saw someone who managed to legally transform just about everything in their character into using one stat, I think it was Int (they got to hit, damage, init, and AC from it, plus it was their casting stat), but it doesn't seem bad for a Ninja to just use Wis for AC, to hit, and special attack DCs.


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Sep 4, 2006)

Mad Hatter, that's fine.  But are you a good ninja or a bad ninja?


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> Mad Hatter, that's fine.  But are you a good ninja or a bad ninja?



 Neither, he's a pirate disguised as a ninja


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Sep 4, 2006)

Oo... the most devious kind...


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> Oo... the most devious kind...



 Yup.  That's why he needed Knowledge [Skullduggery], Knowledge [Seafaring], and Knowledge [Buccaneering] instead of Tumble and Jump


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Looking at the new sheet, you can tell the ninja is devious due to being a male human child and female grey elf at the same time 

Not that I'm going to go back and change things, but were we supposed to buy things that cost over 50% of the starting gold?  Oh, and didn't they update the S&S Expert Tactician in one of the Complete books?


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## Kelleris (Sep 4, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> Looking at the new sheet, you can tell the ninja is devious due to being a male human child and female grey elf at the same time




Hoo!  Identity crisis!    

Oh, and Isida -

I'm suffering from some writer's block regarding my appearance and suchlike, but I've got some good ideas from seeing other characters' backgrounds.  Of course, only about a third or so of those will actually be in the game, so I'm somewhat leary of tying their stuff into Lupaz's background, even though I seem to recall you wanted us to all know each other beforehand.  Am I correct in assuming it'll be okay to make some alterations to the background as well as to the stats after you pick people?

Hopefully I'll get some good ideas to fill things out before then, but it's been a bad week...

Incidentally, Rystil have you looked at Lupaz?  I was hoping to get a few people to look over the sheet for errors (and general opinions, since I can't seem to expand on the concept interestingly right now), so as long as you're heckling the ninja-pirate could I press-gang you into giving me a similar treatment?


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

> Of course, only about a third or so of those will actually be in the game, so I'm somewhat leary of tying their stuff into Lupaz's background, even though I seem to recall you wanted us to all know each other beforehand. Am I correct in assuming it'll be okay to make some alterations to the background as well as to the stats after you pick people?




This is a good point--I've been glancing at everyone else's characters and brainstorming stuff to make it easier to slip in right away with the group having already met (if I'm chosen).  It would be cool to have a bit of shared history of previous adventures too, as well as a little short paragraph about how the character feels about each other character (which I first saw done by Ferrix in another game that Isida and I were in).  However, I figure it's best to wait on the chosen before writing those, probably, since we don't know who's going to be in (though I do have tons of free time now and classes start on Tuesday, so I keep getting tempted  )


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

> Incidentally, Rystil have you looked at Lupaz? I was hoping to get a few people to look over the sheet for errors (and general opinions, since I can't seem to expand on the concept interestingly right now), so as long as you're heckling the ninja-pirate could I press-gang you into giving me a similar treatment?




I've been shanghaied!  Sure--let me check it over


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> I've been shanghaied!  Sure--let me check it over



 Okay, I looked through.  I still don't see any errors per se.  So are all of the items homebrewed, then?  What about the spells I don't recognise?  It looks like for race, you're fairly similar to the standard Blink Dog, but you've removed three racial Hit Dice and in exchange given two abilities a 50% failure chance.  For the class, you seem to have taken away Mettle and the Familiar in exchange for the curse being shockingly devastating.  Not sure if either of those are balanced, but they definitely seem more balanced than being a Child, giving yourself -2 to all physical stats and then becoming "LA -1" and taking an extra level, so I doubt it will be a problem.  Frankly, being a race with LA already puts you behind the people who take an LA +0 race and play a caster (doubly so for those LA -1 guys), but I see it as just part of the challenge, and Nissa will just have to be happy with Charm Person when the other people have Dominate   Looks like an interesting if unlucky little Blink Dog


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## Mad Hatter (Sep 4, 2006)

Heh...male human child?  No maleness, although I can see how you would think that with the name.  And I get to be a ninja pirate?!  Well, darned if my day just ain't the coolest!

And I am precociously bad, Isida, precociously bad.


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## Kelleris (Sep 4, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> Okay, I looked through.  I still don't see any errors per se.  So are all of the items homebrewed, then?  What about the spells I don't recognise?  It looks like for race, you're fairly similar to the standard Blink Dog, but you've removed three racial Hit Dice and in exchange given two abilities a 50% failure chance.  For the class, you seem to have taken away Mettle and the Familiar in exchange for the curse being shockingly devastating.  Not sure if either of those are balanced, but they definitely seem more balanced than being a Child, giving yourself -2 to all physical stats and then becoming "LA -1" and taking an extra level, so I doubt it will be a problem.  Frankly, being a race with LA already puts you behind the people who take an LA +0 race and play a caster (doubly so for those LA -1 guys), but I see it as just part of the challenge, and Nissa will just have to be happy with Charm Person when the other people have Dominate   Looks like an interesting if unlucky little Blink Dog




The items are all from one source or another.  Erm, I should note that.  Except that I combined a couple of items into one (dogs are hard up for item slots, especially item slots that don't make me look stupid).  And the _periapt_ is a riff off the _monk's belt_ (I checked with Isida about it upthread...  somewhere...).  The _shard_, for instance, is a slightly modified _bag of tricks_ with a usage restriction.  Anyway, I decided to go with tentative items for now (and keep a couple thousand gold for easier fadiddling), since it's the least concept-y part of the character.

Ditto for the alternate blink dog stats.  Okay, I proposed them, but I did make sure to get approval.  Spells are from a hodgepodge of sources based largely on what I felt suited the character and wasn't unbalanced, trying to stick to the bard and hexblade spell lists (with some restraints - I really wanted to take _heroism_ as a second-level spell like the bard, but decided that would be a bit much).  The most important ones are _Phade's fearsome aspect_ (+5 Intimidate and can demoralize as a swift action for 1 minute/level, plus the RP goodness of being disguised as a horrible being of horrible horribleness) and _nightmare lullaby_ (flavored as creepy howling; it's a Long-range single-target confusion effect with a concentration + 2 rounds duration, so I can confuse people and just keep it up until they off themselves).

And the curse is actually that crazy in the hexblade proper at 7th level (which I count as, +1, due to the item), except that I've boosted it a bunch with, uhm, almost all of my feats.  Stranegly, the de-fightering modifications to the Hexblade hardly affected the cursing at all - I would up with one more use/day than I otherwise would have had.  They're marked, I think, with regard to their sources.  What I actually gave up was fighter BAB and d10 HD for better skills and spells, for an end result that's kinda like a bard with cursing instead of bardic music and knowledge.  Compare: a bard with all the feats and items spent on doing music could give +4 to attacks, most Will saves, and damage to all allies without having to worry about punching through a Will save.  Not to mention all the other alt. bardic music feats I'd be picking up.  So I think it's pretty balanced, especially since I'm using the bard as a power-level baseline.  I call that a safeguard!    

How 'bout it?  Is the curse overkill?  Maybe I should shuffle things around and put a little effort into melee (you know, more than +4 for 1d6 anyway).  Right at the moment I'm thinking skills + low-light/darkvision/scent + my natural doggish inconspicuousness + _disguise self_ + maybe an owl familiar means good scouting, and the cursing will be my contribution to combat.  Maybe mix it up after I get the _blink_ to work and just Aid Another, but it'd be nice to have some appreciable punch to go along with being the scariest, cursiest dog around.

What I'm really looking forward to is using a free action supernatural ability that requires no gestures or anything to screw with people.  We start negotiating with someone?  Wham, they have -13 on Bluff and Sense Motive.  We know one enemy is going against another?  Wham, the one we want to lose has -5 on almost everything for 24 hours.  It should be entertaining, if I get to play.  I can't win myself, but I can make sure someone loses.


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## Kelleris (Sep 4, 2006)

Oh, and might as well mention these for the curious - _disquietude_ is a Will negates Close range spell that prevents the target from making physical contact with others (playing up the creepy vibe, and to isolate my target from any allies so I can *really* screw with their heads), _Horizikaul's cough_ does 1 point of sonic damage and Will negates being deafened for 1 round (angry bark!  OF DOOM!), and _shadowplay_ lets you control a shadow's appearance, Will negates if it has an owner (more creepy goodness, along with the other cantrips).


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## Kelleris (Sep 4, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> Frankly, being a race with LA already puts you behind the people who take an LA +0 race and play a caster (doubly so for those LA -1 guys), but I see it as just part of the challenge, and Nissa will just have to be happy with Charm Person when the other people have Dominate.




Actually, I know how you feel.  Even aside from the "impotent in melee" thing, another guy here's playing a ghaele eladrin.  For his +2 LA he's getting 6 outsider HD (arguably the highest-quality HD in the game, and certainly better than any PC class, with fighter BAB, all good saves, d8 hit points, and 8+ skills), the spellcasting ability of an 8th-level cleric with the extra addition of 5 whole domains to the list, +16 total to various stats, a constant _tongues_ and double-strength _magic circle against evil_ effect (so he's immune to summoned monsters and mind-affecting abilities, along with everyone within 10 feet, as well as getting +4 to AC and all saves vs. evil creatures!), 17 spell-like abilities (including _aid_, _see invisibility_, _comprehend languages_ and _cure light wounds_ at will and _chain lightning_, _charm monster_, _improved invisibility_, and _wall of force_ 1/day, so say goodbye to damage between combats, language-based puzzles, invibility tricks, and everyone in the party not having temporary hit points and attack bonuses all the time), an alternate form that can fly at 150 feet (perfect) (this is actually faster on average than my unreliable _dimension dooring_), and other miscellaneous abilities I'm too lazy to retype.  I mean, dang, that makes my magical beast HD and +2 LA look like nuthin'.

EDIT:  Doy, three posts in a row.  Sorry, guess the thread's eating all the talkativeness I should spend on the character.  I think I'll head over there now...


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

> Actually, I know how you feel. Even aside from the "impotent in melee" thing, another guy here's playing a ghaele eladrin. For his +2 LA he's getting...




Are you sure about this?  It was in SBLOCKs, so I didn't read it, but Ghaele Eladrin have more than +2 LA.  Much much more.  In fact they have more than +10 LA (this is a rule that can be inferred by the fact that the MM wrote LA - for the Ghaele but not for the lower Eladrin--if you check the dragons, they write LA - for any monster whose LA would bring it above 20).

Edit: Ah right, Savage Species monster class levels from 3.0.  Heh--whoever wrote that particular monster class was feeling very generous that day, compared to, for instance, the succubus monster class levels.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

> ow 'bout it? Is the curse overkill? Maybe I should shuffle things around and put a little effort into melee (you know, more than +4 for 1d6 anyway). Right at the moment I'm thinking skills + low-light/darkvision/scent + my natural doggish inconspicuousness + disguise self + maybe an owl familiar means good scouting, and the cursing will be my contribution to combat. Maybe mix it up after I get the blink to work and just Aid Another, but it'd be nice to have some appreciable punch to go along with being the scariest, cursiest dog around.




It's very very strong, but I wouldn't say overkill.  Certainly by this level (if not sooner), enemies must learn that if they fail a save, they are pretty much screwed   I mean, Nissa has the ability to drown at will (albeit it isn't a free action and requires a touch attack) on a failed save, though it isn't something she'll use much, I imagine.


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## unleashed (Sep 4, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> Are you sure about this? It was in SBLOCKs, so I didn't read it, but Ghaele Eladrin have more than +2 LA. Much much more. In fact they have more than +10 LA (this is a rule that can be inferred by the fact that the MM wrote LA - for the Ghaele but not for the lower Eladrin--if you check the dragons, they write LA - for any monster whose LA would bring it above 20).



The Ghaele has a full 20 level progression in Savage Species (pg. 172) which comes out at 10 HD + 10 LA, but at 8th level they're 6 HD + 2 LA.


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## Kelleris (Sep 4, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> It's very very strong, but I wouldn't say overkill.  Certainly by this level (if not sooner), enemies must learn that if they fail a save, they are pretty much screwed   I mean, Nissa has the ability to drown at will (albeit it isn't a free action and requires a touch attack) on a failed save, though it isn't something she'll use much, I imagine.




I meant overkill more in the sense that I might be focusing on it overmuch.  I'm not really sure how I could get to the point of doing anything useful in melee, but maybe I could reassign a feat to get better skills or something (although, unfortunately, most skill feats stink out loud for some reason).  Or, I dunno, kick my Charisma down a notch and get better skills from a higher Int bonus or something.

Ergh, I should be writing background, not tweaking...  I think I might have different sensibilities than Isida.  "Concept" to me is a workable background and mechanics that play to a central theme and avoiding overt silliness like giving a dog a cloak ("giving a dog a cloak"?  sounds like the beginning of a song).  I don't have much experience with detailed backgrounds.

Heh, actually, I just realized that I still owe Isida Arion's background from the Scions game.    



			
				unleashed said:
			
		

> The Ghaele has a full 20 level progression in Savage Species (pg. 172) which comes out at 10 HD + 10 LA, but at 8th level they're 6 HD + 2 LA.




Yeah, that's what bothers me.  Maybe in a full 1-20 campaign it's balanced (okay, I doubt that, but for the sake of argument), but in a PbP where we aren't likely to gain more than 2-3 levels (and that's being optimistic)...


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

> I meant overkill more in the sense that I might be focusing on it overmuch. I'm not really sure how I could get to the point of doing anything useful in melee, but maybe I could reassign a feat to get better skills or something (although, unfortunately, most skill feats stink out loud for some reason).




Hmm...well not everyone must be useful in melee--though it would be great to have somebody that was, of course, to be a meat shield and such.  Nissa's even less useful at damaging, if possible.  But she has skills, a few spells, and she is surprisingly hard to hit.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

unleashed said:
			
		

> The Ghaele has a full 20 level progression in Savage Species (pg. 172) which comes out at 10 HD + 10 LA, but at 8th level they're 6 HD + 2 LA.



 Yup, I realised that when I looked at it.  Looks like the Ghaele used to have lower LA back in the day and that the writer of the class was being very nice (when I write them, I try to distribute the LA and HD evenly)


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## Kelleris (Sep 4, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> Hmm...well not everyone must be useful in melee--though it would be great to have somebody that was, of course, to be a meat shield and such.  Nissa's even less useful at damaging, if possible.  But she has skills, a few spells, and she is surprisingly hard to hit.




An AC of 30 and constant displacement is pretty surprising at 8th level, yeah.


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## Mad Hatter (Sep 4, 2006)

I hear grumblings about my LA -1 ninja.   I figured the LA -1 wouldn't be bad because I'm getting a -2 to all my physical stats. And since I am a child, my damage is reduced.  The only real damage is my sudden strike stuff.  So I figure that I'm a threat in combat but not insanely so and can't compare to a real and true fighter.  My biggest strength is out of combat I think.

What did you think of the background and fluff stuff and other non mechanics things, Rystil?


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## unleashed (Sep 4, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> Yup, I realised that when I looked at it.  Looks like the Ghaele used to have lower LA back in the day and that the writer of the class was being very nice (when I write them, I try to distribute the LA and HD evenly)



Yeah, I try to distribute them evenly too. Of course by their own admission (MM pg. 7) the Level Adjustment line is only included in the entires of creatures suitable for use as a player character or as a cohort. Of course they should have included LA for everything, whether they considered it playable as a PC/cohort or not, seeing as they included the ELH in the SRD.

Anyway, back to trying to work something out for this game before the deadline runs out.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Mad Hatter said:
			
		

> I hear grumblings about my LA -1 ninja.   I figured the LA -1 wouldn't be bad because I'm getting a -2 to all my physical stats. And since I am a child, my damage is reduced.  The only real damage is my sudden strike stuff.  So I figure that I'm a threat in combat but not insanely so and can't compare to a real and true fighter.  My biggest strength is out of combat I think.
> 
> What did you think of the background and fluff stuff and other non mechanics things, Rystil?



 Actually, although I think LA -1 is not really fair in general, but it worked not too badly with your ninja.  If you had been a spellcaster and used that to get more spells, it could have been scarier 

The fluff looks cool.  I've already been thinking about how I would play off your ninja with Nissa.  I can't help but think she would be creeped out, and perhaps secretly a bit jealous of Lex's innate divination talent.


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## Mad Hatter (Sep 4, 2006)

I really tried to be fair with the LA -1, so if you really and truly have strong objections I'd be willing to hammer it out.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Kelleris said:
			
		

> An AC of 30 and constant displacement is pretty surprising at 8th level, yeah.



 I did spend most of my money and points on AC, mind, but I feel terribly fragile when I'm missing nearly half of my HD due to LA.  It's like being naked


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## Kelleris (Sep 4, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> Actually, although I think LA -1 is not really fair in general, but it worked not too badly with your ninja.  If you had been a spellcaster and used that to get more spells, it could have been scarier
> 
> The fluff looks cool.  I've already been thinking about how I would play off your ninja with Nissa.  I can't help but think she would be creeped out, and perhaps secretly a bit jealous of Lex's innate divination talent.




Heh, poor guy.  You make an innocent comment in passing on one person's character and now everyone wants your opinion.    

I think it's the 22,000 posts.  They add gravitas, dont'cha know?  You're like the messageboard equivalent of an elder statesman...

EDIT:  *23* thousand posts.  Geez you're fast, man!


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Mad Hatter said:
			
		

> I really tried to be fair with the LA -1, so if you really and truly have strong objections I'd be willing to hammer it out.



 What's important is Isida, of course.  She's cool with it, so I am too--and I definitely agree that you don't seem to have abused it.  I was more trying to use it as a meter-stick for the Blink Dog since Kel asked for my input (and it's hard to measure balance without looking at what other characters are allowed--for instance, Eberron allows Warforged at LA +0, which means that inherently different things are balanced in Eberron than any other setting)


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## Mad Hatter (Sep 4, 2006)

Kelleris said:
			
		

> Heh, poor guy.  You make an innocent comment in passing on one person's character and now everyone wants your opinion.
> 
> I think it's the 22,000 posts.  They add gravitas, dont'cha know?  You're like the messageboard equivalent of an elder statesman!




LOL!  There are no innocent comments.


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## Mad Hatter (Sep 4, 2006)

Thanks for the thought Rystil, but in addition to Isida I like to think that the players can respect what I do.  S0 really thanks alot.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Kelleris said:
			
		

> Heh, poor guy.  You make an innocent comment in passing on one person's character and now everyone wants your opinion.
> 
> I think it's the 22,000 posts.  They add gravitas, dont'cha know?  You're like the messageboard equivalent of an elder statesman...
> 
> EDIT:  *23* thousand posts.  Geez you're fast, man!



 It could be the posts--surprisingly, there are a goodly number of folks on the boards who still don't know who I am (I saw a thread where someone complained about me on Circvs and someone else said "Rystil Arden--who's that?").  Trust me, I like chatting in OOC threads a lot, so I'm much happier this way than back when everyone just ignored my posts most of the time


----------



## Mad Hatter (Sep 4, 2006)

And I'm sorry if it seemd like I was getting curt or something.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Mad Hatter said:
			
		

> Thanks for the thought Rystil, but in addition to Isida I like to think that the players can respect what I do.  S0 really thanks alot.



 Yeah, no prob.  Now, if I was trying to make a Child that would be harder for those darned casters to abuse, I'd probably also saddle it with mental ability penalties too.  After all, though it was a fair trade for your Ninja, imagine a Wizard who shrugs at the Str loss, winces slightly at the Con loss (but consoles herself with the extra HD worth of HP), is a bit upset about the Dex loss, and grins maniacally at the extra level of spells.  The real tricky thing is what to do about aging effects.  For an elf, we surely needn't worry, but what happens if someone is playing a human child in a game that lasts a few years and they grow up (or get hit by a magical aging effect)?


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Mad Hatter said:
			
		

> And I'm sorry if it seemd like I was getting curt or something.



 No biggy.  It's the ninja way


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## Mad Hatter (Sep 4, 2006)

Can it be the pirate ninja way?


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Mad Hatter said:
			
		

> Can it be the pirate ninja way?



 I don't know.  The pirate ninja code is more of a set of guidelines, anyway, y'know?


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## Kelleris (Sep 4, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> I don't know.  The pirate ninja code is more of a set of guidelines, anyway, y'know?




P'shaw!  I say she just needs a good excuse to take Profession (sailor) and then, baby, we are _golden_.  How could we lose with a force like that on our side?


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## Mad Hatter (Sep 4, 2006)

We are on an *isle-ship*.  Think they'd let me navigate ?


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Kelleris said:
			
		

> P'shaw!  I say she just needs a good excuse to take Profession (sailor) and then, baby, we are _golden_.  How could we lose with a force like that on our side?



 I actually have Profession Sailor.  I needed it to take Ship's Mage.  It may not be as flashy as Practised Spellcaster (which I'm thinking of swapping my give-friends-water-breathing thing for), but it seems to fit (it gives +1 caster level when you're on your ship).


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## Kelleris (Sep 4, 2006)

You know, anyone out there who's still looking for a character could totally make a whisper gnome Ninja 5/Dread Pirate 3 if you can figure out a way to make Appraise and Profession class skills.  You are not likely to find a campaign in which said character is more appropos.

Think about it!


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Kelleris said:
			
		

> You know, anyone out there who's still looking for a character could totally make a whisper gnome Ninja 5/Dread Pirate 3 if you can figure out a way to make Appraise and Profession class skills.  You are not likely to find a campaign in which said character is more appropos.
> 
> Think about it!



 Hey, they could make our ship go faster!  And there's kicking pirate captain feats in Stormwrack.  I remember a Dread Pirate NPC who managed to make a rowboat with a sail move at a very low speed through the desert thanks to strict reading of the class's abilities to make a ship move 10 mph faster than normal


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## Kelleris (Sep 4, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> Hey, they could make our ship go faster!  And there's kicking pirate captain feats in Stormwrack.  I remember a Dread Pirate NPC who managed to make a rowboat with a sail move at a very low speed through the desert thanks to strict reading of the class's abilities to make a ship move 10 mph faster than normal




Now that's dedication to good captaining right there!

C'mon, any takers?  We are probably going to be sore in need of an actual leader-type guy...


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Kelleris said:
			
		

> Now that's dedication to good captaining right there!
> 
> C'mon, any takers?  We are probably going to be sore in need of an actual leader-type guy...



 Nissa is sometimes quiet because she is recovering from self-esteem issues, but she makes a pretty good leader/face if she's comfortable with the people.  Her Charisma and Charisma-based skills are quite uncanny (especially Disguise, though I guess leaders don't need that particular cha-based skill much).


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## Kelleris (Sep 4, 2006)

Oh, I meant more in the roleplaying sense and the sense that we can hand off shiply duties to one person.  Admittedly, that one person could be anyone with Profession (sailor), but the Dread Pirate would certainly be a further step along that path.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Kelleris said:
			
		

> Oh, I meant more in the roleplaying sense and the sense that we can hand off shiply duties to one person.  Admittedly, that one person could be anyone with Profession (sailor), but the Dread Pirate would certainly be a further step along that path.



 Hmm...make the hippocampus do the work!


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## Kelleris (Sep 4, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> Hmm...make the hippocampus do the work!




Hey, there's a good idea!  Say, is your hippocampus strong enough to drag this here island-ship in the case of an emergency?


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Kelleris said:
			
		

> Hey, there's a good idea!  Say, is your hippocampus strong enough to drag this here island-ship in the case of an emergency?



 Uh, probably not


----------



## Bront (Sep 4, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> I actually have Profession Sailor.  I needed it to take Ship's Mage.  It may not be as flashy as Practised Spellcaster (which I'm thinking of swapping my give-friends-water-breathing thing for), but it seems to fit (it gives +1 caster level when you're on your ship).



I have 5 ranks in Prof: Sailor too


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## Bront (Sep 4, 2006)

Kelleris said:
			
		

> Oh, I meant more in the roleplaying sense and the sense that we can hand off shiply duties to one person.  Admittedly, that one person could be anyone with Profession (sailor), but the Dread Pirate would certainly be a further step along that path.



Ekilu sorta is.  He's kinda a reluctant leader (who hears voices).


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Bront said:
			
		

> Ekilu sorta is.  He's kinda a reluctant leader (who hears voices).



 He can fight too.  Fighters are good, even if they are Shamans in disguise


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## Bront (Sep 4, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> He can fight too.  Fighters are good, even if they are Shamans in disguise



Yeah, for an 8th level character that only has 1 attack, he's pretty good.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Bront said:
			
		

> Yeah, for an 8th level character that only has 1 attack, he's pretty good.



 True--you do have the highest strength except those animorphs with the huge racial Str bonuses.  I mean, you have as much Strength as Nissa, Lex, and the Mindbender combined!


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## Random Encounter (Sep 4, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> True--you do have the highest strength except those animorphs with the huge racial Str bonuses.  I mean, you have as much Strength as Nissa, Lex, and the Mindbender combined!



Haha. ... hey wait ... I"m that mindbender ... ouch


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## Bront (Sep 4, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> True--you do have the highest strength except those animorphs with the huge racial Str bonuses.  I mean, you have as much Strength as Nissa, Lex, and the Mindbender combined!



Yeah, the +2 racial bonus helped.  Fear my spear!

In a side note, I killed 2 characters in my campaign today.  First time I've killed anyone in a campaign, and I did it twice!  Same guy was playing both when they died, but oh well.

Admittedly, one of them set off a bomb equivilent and that's what did him in, so he only has himself to blame, but not my problem


----------



## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Bront said:
			
		

> Yeah, the +2 racial bonus helped.  Fear my spear!
> 
> In a side note, I killed 2 characters in my campaign today.  First time I've killed anyone in a campaign, and I did it twice!  Same guy was playing both when they died, but oh well.
> 
> Admittedly, one of them set off a bomb equivilent and that's what did him in, so he only has himself to blame, but not my problem



 Bombs are deadly.  I'm surprised it was that that did them in and not the deadly kinetiforged


----------



## Bront (Sep 4, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> Bombs are deadly.  I'm surprised it was that that did them in and not the deadly kinetiforged



Different session.  The Lord of Blades did much better than your Kinetiforged (Nearly took out 3 himself).

No, they set off the equivilent of a 20d6 disintigrate that got everyone, more for the forged that were closer to it.  Long story, but earlier they had used a similar effect to end the artificialy generated mourning.

Yes, the campaign's over.


----------



## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Bront said:
			
		

> Different session.  The Lord of Blades did much better than your Kinetiforged (Nearly took out 3 himself).
> 
> No, they set off the equivilent of a 20d6 disintigrate that got everyone, more for the forged that were closer to it.  Long story, but earlier they had used a similar effect to end the artificialy generated mourning.
> 
> Yes, the campaign's over.



 Silly meatbags.  They dared to question the superiority of the Warforged


----------



## Bront (Sep 4, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> Silly meatbags.  They dared to question the superiority of the Warforged



That's what you get when you combine creation crystals, corupted crystals, and a javalin of lightning


----------



## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Bront said:
			
		

> That's what you get when you combine creation crystals, corupted crystals, and a javalin of lightning



 Javelin of lightning?  Ookatooli!  What did you make Ekilu do _this_ time?


----------



## Voidrazor (Sep 4, 2006)

Well this probably reads like a wishlist of abilities from a couple of oozes. But, hey its a fighter type with a +4 BAB and 6HD.  :\ 

ECL 8 Sentient Acid Ooze
Str +2 Dex +4 Con +4 Int -4 Wis -2 Cha -2
Size: Small
HD 6d10
no good save, but a +3 resistance bonus to all
Skills: (Int +2) class skills are climb, hide, listen, move silently, and swim
Speed: 30'
BAB +4
Attack: Slam d4+4d8 acid or melee weapon
Full Attack: Slam d4+4d8 acid and  melee weapon

Acid (Ex) acid secreted by an sentient acid ooze does not effect metal or stone
Improved Grab (Ex) To use this ability, an ooze man must hit with its slam attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold but cannot constrict or pin
Vexing Grapple (Ex) Ignores relative size differences when making grapple checks but cannot pin. In addition, when maintaining a grapple an ooze man can attack with a single one-handed weapon in addition to dealing acid damage
Attacks that hit a grappling sentient acid ooze deal half their damage to the ooze and half to their grappled opponent
Liquid Body (Ex) Sentient acid oozes can fit through any opening a viscous liquid could pour through 
Blindsight(ex) 60'
Blind, immune to gaze attacks
Immunity to illusions, decapitation, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, polymorph, and stunning 
Considered and ooze rather than a humanoid for the purposes of charm person, hold person etc.
+2 save versus other mind-effecting spells and effects
Moderate Fortification 75% chance of normal damage when hit with a critical or sneak attack
Not subject to flanking
Sentient acid oozes eat, but can breathe air or water, and do not sleep 
Sentient acid oozes may use the body, neck, and 2 ring slots but cannot effectively use items that use the feet, chest, face, head or hand slots
+5 racial bonus to climb and swim


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Looks about right to me for ECL 8, although you may want to clarify on the crit thing by just claiming it to be a type of Fortification so it's easier to understand (and it protects against sneak attacks as well, etc).


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## Shayuri (Sep 4, 2006)

Hahaha...my little old warforged warmage is looking pretty pedestrian right about now.

Ah well.


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## D20Dazza (Sep 4, 2006)

nah man it's all good - if nothing else we got to play in Isida's sand box for a little while


----------



## Bront (Sep 4, 2006)

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Hahaha...my little old warforged warmage is looking pretty pedestrian right about now.
> 
> Ah well.



Keep in mind, the background is what's important, and for the extremely odd characters, backgrounds are a bit harder.  So, as long as you have a good background, there shouldn't be a problem.


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## Shayuri (Sep 4, 2006)

Arr...I did try to make it a bit more exotic this time around. Being an amnesic, thousand-year old war machine awakened from torpor is a bit more fun than being just another soldier in an automaton army. 

Fingers and pseudopods crossed at least!


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## Mad Hatter (Sep 4, 2006)

*chorus of rustling as various tentacles, psuedopods, and slushing goo crosses their finger-like appendages*


Shayuri, I have found that adding "amnesiac" to almost anything is a win.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Mad Hatter said:
			
		

> *chorus of rustling as various tentacles, psuedopods, and slushing goo crosses their finger-like appendages*
> 
> 
> Shayuri, I have found that adding "amnesiac" to almost anything is a win.



 "Before I kill you, I must ask you one question--who am I?  for I have...amnesia!"

Futurama is great


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## Mad Hatter (Sep 4, 2006)

Hey, Rystil, I read Nissa's background and all I gotta say is "woah".  I mean a big "woah".  Anywho, I like it.  I think we round out things well.  This is gonna be a fun group.  I mean we have insecurity, near insanity, a tin man (it only he had a heart), a dog, a child (won't somebody please think of the children  ), an elephant man thing, an ooze and the list goes on... Like love, this is gonna be a wild and surreal trip.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

> Hey, Rystil, I read Nissa's background and all I gotta say is "woah". I mean a big "woah". Anywho, I like it. I think we round out things well.




Well, I hope it's a good woah   I also hope I didn't overdo it, but I was having fun so I kept writing


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## Mad Hatter (Sep 4, 2006)

Nah.  You just put a lot into it and it made the character a rich start point.


----------



## Rystil Arden (Sep 4, 2006)

Mad Hatter said:
			
		

> Nah.  You just put a lot into it and it made the character a rich start point.



 Thanks--I started out by brainstorming based on the situation with the elementals and the weirds, so I decided I wanted to have Nissa be the heir of a prophet.  Then I thought of time elementals, and how Ananke is ancient Greek for 'inevitability', so I added in the 'bad guy', and more stuff.


----------



## Isida Kep'Tukari (Sep 5, 2006)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> Looking at the new sheet, you can tell the ninja is devious due to being a male human child and female grey elf at the same time
> 
> Not that I'm going to go back and change things, but were we supposed to buy things that cost over 50% of the starting gold?  Oh, and didn't they update the S&S Expert Tactician in one of the Complete books?



  Correct, no more than half your starting gold on any one item.  And yes, Expert Tactician was updated in Complete Adventurer.  Always used the updated feats.



			
				Kelleris said:
			
		

> Hoo!  Identity crisis!
> 
> Oh, and Isida -
> 
> ...



  Of course, people will have time to tweak backgrounds, finish buying stuff, finish or start their character sheets, all that good stuff.

Ok, it's not midnight yet... but I thought I would let people know that I'm sleeping in tomorrow.  If you need more time, if you can get in your background before I wake up (probably around the crack of 10am Central time) then you're good to go.


----------



## Gli'jar (Sep 5, 2006)

Isida--
I posted Asa'Adis as both a monk and psionic warrior.  The basic background storyline information is the same however I find it difficult to incorporate a monk background into someone on the run and a history that doesn't really support it as such so I felt psionic warrior may be a template that works well.  As for character concepts, monk will focus on grappling while the psionic warrior will focus on making effective use of reach.
Thanks.


----------



## unleashed (Sep 5, 2006)

Hopefully I've managed to sneak in a background it in time to be in with a chance at selection...I'll ask about the special pixie arrows and other things if I get picked.


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## James Heard (Sep 5, 2006)

Alabama is boring, so I worked on another character concept while I was away this weekend. Anyways, _another _submission to enhance my chances - this time a more vanilla elan psion that relies more on the background for the snazzy awesomeness than several pages worth (it seems) of special abilties and considerations.

Still no equipment or psionic powers picked out for this one, though I might try to knock those out this morning too.


----------



## Isida Kep'Tukari (Sep 5, 2006)

Here are my comments on all submitted characters:

*Shayuri* with *Trebuchet*, LN Neuter Warforged Warmage 8 (Race ECS, Class CompArc) - [sblock]I like the idea of him being a creature of some ancient empire, as the Endless Falls have had many over the years.  The Kingdom of Knowledge would have been interested in him purely for the historical value.  His powers look to make him a powerful combatant, and I always thought the warforged warmaged was a natural combination.  [/sblock]

*Bront* with *Ekilu ka Wooli (Ekilu the White)*, Unknown Alignment male Darfellan Spirit Shamen 6/Storm Lord 2 - [sblock]He has a troubled background, which is pretty interesting.  The idea that his personality can change with the weather (so to speak) is a cool idea.  I like the fact that he is considered both blessed and unlucky, which certainly suits his class choice.  There's a saying I've heard in some books that it is unwise to be favored too much by the gods.  It's almost necessary to have Fee come with him though, she seems to come as a package deal with Ekilu.[/sblock]

*Erekose13* with *Brightstar Vaukriel, Angel of Splendor*, CG Male Illumian Unfettered (Clever Blade Saint) 5 / Duskblade 3 [Race RoD, class AE(Tra)/PHB2] - [sblock]I _love_ this character.  He was already on the tentative list the first time I read him.  The background is absolutly fantastic.  I like the idea of seeking redemption, and his skills are very well suited for this campaign.[/sblock]

*Watus* with *Kaiee Taraniule (a.k.a., "Swift")*, NG Male Raptoran [RW] Domain Wizard (Storm) [UA] 5 / Stormcaster [SW] 3 - [sblock]While the description of Cliffs of Vilanuue is excellent, you've given me almost no background on Swift.  He ended up becoming a wizard because he showed magical aptitude.  All well and good, but he's an 8th level character.  What adventures has he had?  Why did he become a Stormcaster?  You have a framework, but almost nothing to fill it, I'm afraid.  [/sblock]

*Fenris* with *Gilead*, N Male Wood Elf Half-Satyr Swift Hunter Druid 7 [Race MM/Dragon #313, class UA pg 58] - [sblock]I like his dedication.  This is a guy with a good head on his shoulders, a solid understanding of the world.  His discovery of his bloodline's powers is well-done, and his dedication to restoring balance to the woods is excellent.  My single concern would be why he left he woods?  His background, while excellent, revolve entirely around him protecting that little corner of the world.  I don't know if Taala would have messed with such a good thing.[/sblock]

*sans* with *Pfft the Octopus*, Unknown Alignment Male Awakened Octopus Transmuter Level Unknown (Class must be non-PHB wizard before can be accepted) - [sblock]The concept of Pfft tickles me to no end.  The idea of the land-dwelling octopus inside his buddy the water elemental is very fun indeed.  I like the beginning of his background, his own dedication before he was even aware of himself, and his friendliness to the people that _awakened_ him.  Unfortunetly, and I know this must have been because you ran out of time, I have no idea how he came to be in Taala's service, nor how he acquired his familiar/friend/planar binding victim.  There's a great start here, but a start is all it is.  If I end up needing an alt, and you've had time to finish him, I'd like to have him though.[/sblock]

*Wrahn* with *Rhaveon*, CG Male African Elephant Animorph Paladin of Freedom 3 [Race SS, class UA] - [sblock]I have many questions about Rhaveon.  Mostly why a Prince of one culture should swear himself to the service of another, when his stated purpose was travel.  I supposed Taala would have many potential great deeds for him to perform, but I'm a little at a loss on how he got to the Kingdom of Knowledge and what he did when he got there.  There's not a whole lot to work with here, I'm afraid.  [/sblock]

*Bloodcookie* with *Chief Kig’nagrodan’szaar III (Szaar)*, LE Male Kobold Warlock 8 [Race: MM, class: ComArc] - [sblock]Ya know, he reminds a little of Rygel from Farscape.  While most of the other characters are good, Szaar presents an interesting take on Taala's _other_ types of servants.  I like his acquisition of power, and how he needs to learn how to read the fine print.  His sympathies to what some might consider Taala's greatest flaw is a nice touch.[/sblock]

*Gli'jar* with *Asa'Adis Twilight Fang*, N Male Anthropomorphic snake, constrictor Denying Stance Monk Variant [Race MM/SS, Class UA] - [sblock]I like the legends you've written, they give a nice background.  While the history of Asa'Adis' people is interesting, I still know very little about Asa'Adis.  I know something about his people and philosophy, but I don't know what tasks or trials he has faced.  I don't know why he would work with any "hairless ones," considering what they did to his people.  I would be confused as to why he could ever settle himself in one place or kingdom, given the World Serpent's edict.  I would suggest extending the background a smidge to fill in the blanks in between a great tragendy to all his people and how that affected Asa'Adis' life and character specifically.[/sblock]

*Random Encounter* with *Ununisr*, LN Male Grey Elf Psion 5 / Mindbender 3 - [sblock]You've seemed to stop in the middle of his background.  As an orphan, he has little heritage, which is understandable.  The concept of an indugent couple paying for their child's every whim in an interesting path to becoming a manipulator, though the fact that the couple was _human_ begs the question of how Ununsir was even past the toddler stage before they died.  However, you stop when he goes off with the beggar to learn how to use his powers.  I don't know if he left the beggar, or killed him, or was sent away.  I don't know how he ended up in Taala's service, how he decided on the path of the mindbender, or any of that.  He's an 8th-level character, he has experience, and I needed that to be detailed before I have the hooks to put him on the isle-ship.[/sblock]

*D20Dazza* with *Tempest Wintersquall*, N Male Half-Air Elemental Hadozee 'Winged Deck Ape' Spellthief 5 [Race MoP188, SW41, Class CompAdv 13] - [sblock]I _love_ the Slab, Bloodgeyser, and Riddle.  It's a totally original and extremely cool place, and it just found its way into the Endless Falls.  You've given me a solid background (and apparently it's not even half-finished) and a good reason for him to be with Taala (access to the weirds, I would guess, to find his father).[/sblock]

*Voadam* with *Maester Rodian Grubwort*, Alignment Unknown Male Grippli Erudite 8 [Race ToH, class Dragon 319] - [sblock]Well, you've given me an interesting place, a good plot for the elemental coup, and some of Rodian's recent history.  However... I don't know where he came from, how he got there, how he gained his powers, how he was able to convince Taala that he, a fleshy outsider to his Kingdom, would have the skills to _teach_ his offspring.  You've given me an excellent end to his story... but the first two thirds of the book are missing.  [/sblock]

*Kelleris* with *Lupaz, the Hound of Ill Omen*, N Male Blink Dog Hexmaster 5 [race MM/Custom, class CW/Custom] - [sblock]I very much like Lupaz.  He's got a great history, a complicated backstory, and has accomplished some excellent deeds in his life.  He has the experience of an 8th level character (something people seem to forget, people often write their backgrounds as if they're just starting out, instead of well into their careers), and the war wounds to show for it.  Well done.[/sblock]

*James Heard* with *Moera Sky-Eyes, Knight of Eladril*, CG Female Amphibious Ghaele 8 [Savage Species level progression p 172, template Stormwrack p136] - [sblock]You've given me a very interesting history, a rich place to draw NPCs if I need to.  Moera has definite purpose and direction in life, a reason to do what is needed to keep people from being corrupted, she would make a good heart for the crew.[/sblock]

*bluegodjanus* with *Alierin, Who Has Kissed the Storm*, CN Female Half-Ice Elemental Fey-Touched Swashbuckler 4 [Race MotP/FF, class CW] - [sblock]I like Alierin's background a lot.  She's a quintessential fey, fun-loving and caprcious, going as the winds of life take her.  With her new sense of purpose, she might be ready for the more serious purpose of retaking a kingdom.  I found it particularly funny how she thought of her destiny as the clearly lesser of the two things she got from Chill's Heart.[/sblock]

*Rystil Arden* with *Ianissa, daughter of prophecy*, CG Female Nereid Beguiler 2 [Race Stormwrack, class PHII] - [sblock]Delightful novella!    This is a really excellent background.  I can really feel for Nissa, and you've given me a lot of potential hooks to use during the campaign.  Very good job.[/sblock]

*Voidrazor* with *Oobobooboo*, CN sentient ooze - [sblock]For one reason or another, I find sentient oozes to be the most hilarious characters one can conceive.  I once put an _awakened_ white pudding into a campaign to mess with my characters.  He had a clipped English accent and a very curious manner.  Very very fun for me to NPC, let me assure you.  So when you came up with a sentient ooze that uses something from another one of my favorite supplements (Chaositech), I just _knew_ I would have to let him in, provided you had a good story to go with him.  And you didn't disappoint.  Taala's court jester.  Priceless. [/sblock]

*Mad Hatter* with *Lex Starwhisper*, CN Female Gray Elf Child Ninja 9 [Race UA p, Class ComAdv] - [sblock]I'm intrigued by Lex's story, and I particularly like how she was able to thward an assassination attempt simply by manipulating events.  Her unusual birth and background are fairly well-done, and I like how you integrated the isle-ship into her personal prophecy.  And I like her name.  [/sblock]

*unleashed* with *Perynomen*, (CN?) Male Pixie Wilderness Rogue 4 [Race MM pg.236/ Class UA pg.56] - [sblock]Sneaky little bugger, ain't he?  My concerns are that there's little reason for him to suddenly go from being content in the forest to being scortched and frozen in the desert.  Then he is drawn on by the lure of treasure... where did this come from?  He may have been born different, but I wish that had been made more explicit, or an alternate reason had been expounded upon.  The fact that he tricked the shiek is consistant with what background is known, but I'm not sure why he would think his skills would be welcome in the Kingdom of Knowledge.  Taala gave the party the isle-ship for heroics and services rendered, so I was hoping for a brief explaination of how you had aided or worked for Taala in the past.  What you have is only the beginning of your story, and I need a few more chapters to put him in my story.[/sblock]

*James Heard* with *Seraff, He Who Serves, Knight of Mysperea, Hero of Harven's Dale*, CG Male Elan Psion 8 (Shaper) [Race XPH, class XPH] - [sblock]You've given me a very elaborate and complicated history.  However I felt like I was reading a history book after skipping all the introductory chapters and maps.  I did not know what you were fighting for, or who, or where you were.  Your backstory is well-written, but extremely confusing to someone without prior knowledge.  It feels as if it were written for a different campaign setting, one in which the reader should already have some knowledge.  I also have this picture in my mind as Seraff as a human warrior or soldier.  If I had been asked to guess his class or race, elan shaper would not have even been on the list.  I also don't know why this former soldier would have been working for Taala or how he even would have gotten there, I'm afraid.[/sblock]

All righty then.  I've had a hard time choosing characters, believe you me.  I ultimately had to go with people that not only had a good backstory, but had a reason to be in Taala's court, have reasons to be willing to travel, have a reason to work with others, and have a fighting chance of not killing each other.   Also some of these choices were thematic ones, to avoid having people with very similar or related character themes from trying to stand in the same spotlight.  Those that weren't chosen this time around are on my alt list.  

*Shayuri* with *Trebuchet*, LN Neuter Warforged Warmage 8
*Erekose13* with *Brightstar Vaukriel, Angel of Splendor*, CG Male Illumian Unfettered (Clever Blade Saint) 5 / Duskblade 3
*D20Dazza* with *Tempest Wintersquall*, N Male Half-Air Elemental Hadozee 'Winged Deck Ape' Spellthief 5
*Kelleris* with *Lupaz, the Hound of Ill Omen*, N Male Blink Dog Hexmaster 5
*Rystil Arden* with *Ianissa, daughter of prophecy*, CG Female Nereid Beguiler 2
*Voidrazor* with *Oobobooboo*, CN sentient ooze

For all those chosen, I have a new Rogue's Gallery and a new Out-Of-Character thread for you to post in.  For your character sheets, I need people to use the format provided in the first post.  No exceptions.  All formating, including bolding, must be used.

All magic items, particularly those modified or renamed from DMG counterparts, must name their original source.  If you have something called a Purple Heart of the Thunder Shrike, that looks like constantly beating stone heart crawling with electricity, I need to know it's actually a _stone of good luck_, because I'm not going to guess that.

All items with a non-core source (which is going to be a lot, obviously), must have their source named.  All feats, spells, powers, items, and whatnot must have their source page number named explicitly.  

For the Complete Series, the abbreviation are as follows:
_ComAdv
ComArc
ComDiv
ComWar_
Because CA could mean Complete Arcane or Complete Adventurer, you can see why I do this.

Also:
_Savage Species = SavSp
Sandstorm = SanSt_
SS could mean either, so again, please use these.  

If you're using a source that is normally part of a campaign setting, put the setting abbreviation before the name unless the name of the setting is part of the title:
FRCS
FR UE = Forgotten Realms Unapproachable East
MaoF = Magic of Faerun
MoF = Monsters of Faerun
ECS
E FN = Eberron Five Nations
E EH = Eberron Explorer's Handbook
MaoE = Magic of Eberron


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## unleashed (Sep 6, 2006)

Congratulations to all that got in.  

[SBLOCK=Isida]







			
				Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> *unleashed* with *Perynomen*, (CN?) Male Pixie Wilderness Rogue 4 [Race MM pg.236/ Class UA pg.56]
> Sneaky little bugger, ain't he?  My concerns are that there's little reason for him to suddenly go from being content in the forest to being scortched and frozen in the desert.  Then he is drawn on by the lure of treasure... where did this come from?  He may have been born different, but I wish that had been made more explicit, or an alternate reason had been expounded upon.  The fact that he tricked the shiek is consistant with what background is known, but I'm not sure why he would think his skills would be welcome in the Kingdom of Knowledge.  Taala gave the party the isle-ship for heroics and services rendered, so I was hoping for a brief explaination of how you had aided or worked for Taala in the past.  What you have is only the beginning of your story, and I need a few more chapters to put him in my story.



I think you've misread a lot of Perynomen's backstory to come up with that conclusion, so I'll answer your concerns as I see them.

I though that his reason for leaving was pretty clear, that he found after some time with his kin, that the simple life of the pixie wasn't for him. Seems pretty straightforward, and a great reason to leave.

He went to the desert as an _explorer_, which was the last part of his long journey (see the first part of the second paragraph, which I'd hoped to expand upon later when I found more time) exploring the world before heading to the Kingdom of Knowledge, with only the mention of great treasures driving him onwards though the harsh conditions. The treasure was not his reason for going there in the first place, though it was the cause of him gaining the emnity of the Jann.

Why he thought his skills would be welcome in the Kingdom. He's an _explorer_ so why wouldn't a kingdom that prizes knowledge want the knowledge he had already gained from spending many years in the world, exploring it's many and varied nuances, and use his obvious ability to gather more.

As for a brief explanation of how he'd aided or worked for Taala. I notice a few who were picked had little more connection than joining a band of adventurers (not even mentioned as being in Taala's service), returning to the kingdom itself, or nothing at all, so I don't know that that's entirely relevant. Though I had hoped to write more about that with at least some of the other characters who were picked, though his abilities as an explorer were inferred to be his reason for thinking he might be accepted there...obviously too subtle on my part.

Oh, and he was going to be neutral, not chaotic neutral.  

Anyway, that said, I not terribly surprised or worried about not getting in, as the backstory was a rush job, after I'd given up all hope of trying to write anything to get into the game (bad case of writers block for several days, as I didn't spot the thread until 3-4 days ago).  Mainly I'm concerned that the backstory I did manage to get up was so thoroughly misinterpretted.  [/SBLOCK]


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## Bront (Sep 6, 2006)

Pout, I was looking forward to Ekilu.

Oh well, I'll lurk as an alt.

[sblock=Isida]Fee could be a package deal, but at the same time, I figured we'd probably have a few NPCs on the ship.  Also, it's an added wrinkle if Ekilu has to leave behind Fee not knowing if she's safe, perhaps at her insistance.  Just a few thoughts.

Anyway, that makes me a lurker alt in 2 games of yours.  Those are pretty much the only 2 I'm holding slots of games I'm willing to play in at the moment, so let me know if/when I'm needed.[/sblock]


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## Mad Hatter (Sep 6, 2006)

COngrats to the folks who go it!

Isida [sblock]Call me Lurky cuz that's what I'll be doin ;D [/sblock]


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## Fenris (Sep 6, 2006)

Isida
[sblock] Thanks for the recruitment. You are absolutely right that I gave very little reason, other than the whim of Talaas, as to why he would have left. i am glad you liked his background at least. And he was fun to make. Truth be told, I am a little relieved. The game was going to be a bit weird for me and I have had a family medical emergency come up yesterday that would have made this harder. But have fun and thanks for the opportunity to create a unique character! [/sblock]


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## Mad Hatter (Sep 6, 2006)

Isida

[sblock]On the off chance that you need an alternate and you choose me, is there anything you'd like to see in my background?  Any expansions or gaps or anything?  Thanks.[/sblock]


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## Bloodcookie (Sep 7, 2006)

Congratulations to those selected   I look forward to watching this unfold.


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## sans (Sep 7, 2006)

Isida, 

Wow, thanks for going through all the effort of commenting on each individual's submission, that must have taken a looong time.

As for Pfft the Octopus, I think I _will_ finish his story. I too want to find out how he end's up with his water elemental side kick


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Sep 10, 2006)

unleashed said:
			
		

> [SBLOCK=Isida]I think you've misread a lot of Perynomen's backstory to come up with that conclusion, so I'll answer your concerns as I see them.
> 
> I though that his reason for leaving was pretty clear, that he found after some time with his kin, that the simple life of the pixie wasn't for him. Seems pretty straightforward, and a great reason to leave.
> 
> ...



 [sblock]I think my misinterpretation was mostly due, to what you already said, that this was bascially the Cliff-notes version of the character.  I can see where you're coming from with your futher explanation, but you can see, how in bare-bones form, how your character can seem a little flighty and even random.  He's not, obviously, but the first impression was poor on my part, and I apologize.  I'll see you around if I end up needing you!  [/sblock]

Guys, I'm glad I have people willing to finish their stories and willing to lurk about.  I enjoyed reading the backgrounds, and I'm impressed there was such a range of personalities.  

I have roughly arranged my alts in order of who was the closest to being done, in terms of background, at the time of my original selection, in a separate list I'm keeping to myself for the time being.  That is subject to change if the backgrounds are.  Also, I was not intending to be nasty or snotty to anyone in my comments of their character, and in re-reading my comments, I realize several of them sound rather mean and abrupt.  That was not my intention, I assure you.  If anyone has further questions for me regarding what I thought of their characters (even if you just want to get kinks hammered out for your own amusement), feel free to e-mail me.


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## unleashed (Sep 10, 2006)

[SBLOCK=Isida]







			
				Isida Kep'Tukari said:
			
		

> I think my misinterpretation was mostly due, to what you already said, that this was bascially the Cliff-notes version of the character.  I can see where you're coming from with your futher explanation, but you can see, how in bare-bones form, how your character can seem a little flighty and even random.  He's not, obviously, but the first impression was poor on my part, and I apologize.  I'll see you around if I end up needing you!



No problem, just wanted you to see where I was going with the charcter, as it was as you say the cliff-notes version.  (I only wrote it in the hour or so before it was posted, and thought it was better to get something brief up with an antagonist rather than nothing at all.  ) I'll continue to work on his backstory in hope of getting a chance later on, though I won't hold my breath if that chance will only come with the drop of a character with a similar role, as those that are filling Perynomen's role are unlikely to drop out.  [/SBLOCK]


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