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Recent posts by
Aramil Naïlo:
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No offense taken. Before I continue, I will post the alignment descriprions as stated in the 3.0 PHB (I don't have the 3.5 handy at the moment). I would also like to state that I have taken the alignment test. Althuogh I realise it isn't the most thorough test in the world, I always get chaotic good.
Lawful Good, "Crusader"- A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. She combines a commiment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. She tells the truth, keeps her word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished. Alhandra, a paladin who fightes evil without mercy and who protects the innocent without hesitation, is lawful good.
Neutral Good, "Benefactor"- A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Jozan, a cleric who helps other according to their needs, is neutral good.
Chaotic Good, "Rebel"-A chaotic good character acts has his conscience directs him with little regard for others expect of him. He makes his own way, but is kind and benevolent. He believes in goodness and right but has use for laws and regulations. He hates when people try to intimidate and others and tell them what to do. He follows his own moral compass, which, although good, may not agree with that of society. Soveliss, a ranger who waylays the evil baron's tax collectors, is chaotic good.
I would now like to state that when you look deep, none of the three are really different from each other. All the arguements over the differences between good alignments are moot. For the sake of arguement, however, I will continue.
What makes one chaotic, I suppose, would be the willingness to work directly against the law. That, alone, is what would make the difference. A neutral good character would attempt to reach some medium before acting with the law or against it if necesarry. A chaotic good character would act as his moral compass deemed correct, wether or not it was agaisnt the law. A lawful good character would act as law dictated, so long as the laws were for the greater good.
As far as Batman's alignment, that doesn't prove he's lawful. I haven't seen Begins, but I have seen the Dark Knight recently. He acted against the law, even going so far as to beat the crud out of Joker in the interogation room. Tell me, how is that lawful? He even went so far as to jam the door so the police couldn't stop him, aswell as using excessive force. His unwillingness to kill Joker doesn't make him lawful, it gives him a conscience. Batman doesn't have the open support of the local government, he is to be arrested on sight. In fact, the only way that they aid him is by not arresting him. While he does have the support secretly, he does not openly work with them and actively works against them when the law isn't enough or is to restrictive. Yes, he does attempt to hand the city back. Everyone deserves a little RnR, and where does it say that a chaotic character can't retire from his profession?
On the subject of Batman, I think the most we can hope to agree on is neutral good as far as alignment is concerned.
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I'm not counting on the alchemist's fire or any of the other things I'm throwing down there to do the job. I'm counting on the concusive force from the explosions, which would be achieved by the items changing form while in their containers and causing to much pressure. Did you know that it is possible to boil water in a paper cup? As far as whole cauldron thing, from the looks of the map that is what it seems to be. If I could find a map online, I'd show you. From what my DM says, the water has been keeping the rock cool much like boiling water in a paper cup. If I can get rid of the water or create a weakness in the rock, the pressure from the lava underneath (which does seem to be pushing up, from the map) should melt or destroy the rock within a matter a minutes at the most. I know about explosions, chemicals, the laws of physics, among other things, so I kinda know what I'm doing. I don't want to simply drain the water via dimmension door, like I have been, because if it blows right away (like my DM says it will) I won't have enough time to teleport out.
My DM isn't requiring the use of proficiencies in his campaigns, but that doesn't mean that we aren't allowed to use them if we want to. Don't know if that'll help at all.
I have been trying to find ingredients that I know have a decent boom when pressurized, been thus far I have not been succesful. Apparently very few people, if any, have found a way to contain oxygen, CO2, or hydrogen at this point in time.
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I realise this post will be asking for help in a second addition adventure, but I didn't see a board during my scan for second edition.
I am currently in a party for a second edition Return to White Plume Mountain adventure. I've come up with a way to cut the adventure short, but I need some help. I am going to cause the volcano to erupt, killing everything living in it and anything caught in the radius of the eruption. I will do so by utilizing the dimension door power to drain an amount of the water in area 35-The Boiling Lake, to another part of the volcano. I will then drop 100-200 flasks of alchemists fire and roughly 600 gallons of tar, oil, and pure alcohol combined (in containers) into the lake. The resulting explosions, caused by increased pressure within the containers, should cause enough structural damage to the bottom of the lake to cause the volcano to erupt (lava flows underneath the lake). However, I want to evacuate Ringland (the nearby town) before doing so. If I don't, it'll simply be mass murder and the group paladin will spread the word after I take off and I'll have half the world after me for it. I will not include the details, so any who will help can do so in an educated manner (without guessing or suggesting a route I have already managed to deny...unless I forget to add it here).
If you are wondering why I want to blow the volcano, here are four reasons-
1) Because it sounds like fun.
2) Because I've never done it before.
3) To cause chaos.
4) To kill the false Keraptus' and their minions (which appears to be the goal of the adventure).
I am a level 10 chaotic neutral psionicist traveling with a lvl 12 palladin, two lvl 12 fighter/priests, and a level 11 fighter/mage. Thus far I HAVE maintained a decent balance with my actions and reasoning for my actions (although I am pushing chaotic evil, with lawful evil close behind).
The DM decided to use a plot hook that had a mage hiring us to find and return a weapon that was stolen from him, which is a weapon that is part of the adventure. As a reward, he offered us a 10,000,000 GP diamond (he finds the weapon to be worth more, apparently). The diamond happened to have the constant attention of the local thieves guild, who try to steal it about once a month. The party decided to wait until the thieves attacked again and capture a few, to see if they new anything of the stolen weapon. I had not met up with the party yet, however, and did not know this. Before meeting the party, I met the thieves, who hired me to help steal the diamond (which I did so very effectively, but that comes later). We agreed on 10,000 gold for my services, and at this point I knew nothing of the actual size or value of the diamond. Afterwards, I met up with the party, learned what was going on and the plans to capture the thieves if and when they struck. The next night, when gaurding the diamond, I used time shift and a magical black horse statue that turns into a horse and can go ethereal to steal the diamond by tieing a rope around it and dragging it through the ethereal plane. After arriving at the warehouse to meet the thieves, I forced them to up my patment to 100,000 gold before giving them the diamond. I then went back to the party and the diamonds owner and told them where to find the thieves. I did, however, manage to aquire the weapon he wanted later and return it to him. That got the city gaurd off my back. I then took the diamond and gave it to the thieves, which got them to stop trying to kill me. Yes, I did that without the party knowing.
That was to explain that I am not well trusted. The person who hired us also happens to be the cities mayor and a high level mage.
The city is three weeks away from Ringland (DM says it should be out of the blast radius of the volcano). I need to come up with a good, plausible arguement as to why the cities mayor (the guy I stole the diamond from for the thieves) should believe me when I tell him that the volcano is going to erupt within a week or two, so he will do what he can to get the town (ringland) evacuated. I can't get help from my party because when I told them what I was going to do, the mage teleported them halfway across the globe without telling me where they were going.
The only other option I can think of is gnolls. When travelling through another area, the Plague Fields, outside the volcano I befriended a tribe of gnolls by teaching them how to breed cattle (my original intention for this was to help them become a world power). If I do this, I need to come up with a way to convince the gnolls to raid Ringland. Since they no longer need to attack towns for food, how would I do this? I already know what I'll tell the palladin when I see him again, though: "I made sure that the town was empty before causing the volcano to erupt."
I do not have clairaudience/clairvoyence, and therefor no way to dicern the parties current location. Any thoughts? I'll check back once in awhile incase I remember a piece of information I forgot to include.
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A few things to think about before posting again.
1) At least most of you are assuming that they are imprisoned. Not that there is no reason for you not to, I did say dungeon. However, I meant more like say...hmmm...Ah!! If anyone reads Salvatore you should recognize this reference. The paladin and his group were fighting an evil party in a tunnel, and it collapsed, leaving the paladin and one member of the opposing party trapped with each other and separated from the rest.
2) The paladin does have the choice to try to get out on his own. Does he do that, or ally with this evil person whom he should be attempting to kill.
3) There is no greater cause. The whole point is to survive and escape the tunnels.
I can understand taking the specific deity that the paladin worship and adding it to the equation. It would, after all, make sense for a paladin who follows Pelor or Yondolla to be accepting of a mutual agreement for survival than a paladin of Heironeous or St. Cuthbert...hold that thought, new question.
Paladin's are self-sacrificing. Why would the paladin ally himself with an evil character to survive, when they would not run from a battle that they knew they could not loose? Another thing to take into consideration would be the "help" part of the paladins code.
Code of Conduct: A paladin must be of lawful good alignment
and loses all class abilities if she ever willingly commits an evil act.
Additionally, a paladin’s code requires that she respect legitimate
authority, act with honor (not lying, not cheating, not using poison,
and so forth), help those in need (provided they do not use the help
for evil or chaotic ends), and punish those who harm or threaten
innocents.
How far into the future do you need to look to determine if the help was for an evil of chaotic end? The primary goal at the time is survival, sure, but if the evil character survives then the paladin just help him to continue about his work...in a way.
There was more I wanted to say here, but my time was just cut abruptly short. I will add it next time I'm on.
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I am under no circumstances allowed to play a wizard who specializes in evocation in 2nd edition.
I am under no circumstances allowed to play a psionic pixie in 2nd edition.
I am under no circumstances allowed to play a telepathic psionic in 2nd edition.
Saying that the new female halfling in the group is naked because she forgot to put clothes on her character sheet is inappropriate.
Calling said halfling female Strumpet instead of her characters actual name is also inappropriate.
Having your human wizard/alchemist ask the halfling how much it would cost to go "around the world" is even more inappropriate.
Calling said female halflings player Strumpet from that point forth in real life is also inappropriate.
Asking the halflings player how much it would cost to go "around the world" is grounds to get yourself slapped and kicked between the legs.
Having your female human necromancer cuddle to the dead male paladin because he was the first person to not chase her out of town is inappropriate.
Having said necromancer "raise" the dead paladin is probably not a good idea when a resurrection spell is available back in town.
Stripping the two dead males and having them hold each other is probably not a good idea when you plan on raising them. Especially if they are both fighters. Definitely if you are a wizard who has run out of spells for that day.
Having your drow ranger kill the party's kender rogue is unacceptable. Even though he treats you like a servant constantly, refuses to listen to your advice on monsters, and doesn't appreciate you getting covered by every rat swarm the party comes across just to keep the rest of the party from getting to badly injured.
Having your drow ranger kill the party's kender rogue is still unacceptable even though the rogue can't seem to tell the difference between a live dark mantle and a dead one that fell on you. It doesn't matter whether or not the rogue stabbed you in the eye while attacking the dark mantle.
It is a bad idea to charge past the ogre.
No, you do not find a new room in the dungeon because the ogre did four times your hit points in damage with his attack of opportunity.
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Actually, I would agree with the extra uses of rage for the half-orc, but not so many. I know I enjoy dropping my PCs in battle after battle. You could, however, make the part based off of how the PC makes the character. Say they want there character to have grown up in human lands, they could instead gain feats (slower than the human). Or, if they grew up with orcs, they could rage (decrease the number of times per day, give the orc race same ability at a slightly increased rate?). They could instead get certain feats like power attack, cleave, and great cleave at certain levels (showing there bloodlust and brute strength, I would make sure that orcs get these benefits, too, possibly a couple more).
Actually, you could give such options to other races as well. The half-elf could get the feats (at the same rate as the half-orc) along with a couple other things that come with the territory, or get some (or all, at a decreased rate) of the elves abilities.
An elf could get the spell abilities granted by there race, or if they grew up studying more swordplay the could get certain feats like weapon finesse, combat relexes, and another or two that I can't think of off the top of my head. Since elves love both magic and swordplay, it would make sense.
Gnomes could get abilities similar to the druid, or more potent spell-casting abilities along the lines of an illusionist.
Halflings...could get the same options as half-breeds as far as feats go (at a decreased level) with some pure halfling abilities, or they could simply gain a few feats and increased skill bonus that deal with being sneaky and getting places they shouldn't.
I like the way the dwarf was done, and I'm kinda trying to make things similar (more to make sure things are even than anything). However, I like the idea of have more options during character creation.
Racial spells could go off their own list. Elves could get spells from the druid or ranger list, with some from other classes to spice it up, or get spells as a druid or ranger at a lower level. Gnomes could get spells from the druid list and illusion school.
Using Speak with Animals, one can effectively use diplomacy with the animal, since they are speaking with each other. If it's not in the books, that's my ruling. It makes sense.
No thanks necesarry. Seeing my input put to use in the books would be thanks enough. I've always wanted to do this. :P
I have to leave soon, so I have to cut myself short. I will, however, get back on as often as possible to give updated ideas. You're most welcome.
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Dragonchess Player wrote:
Aramil Naïlo wrote:
My suggestion would be a Rogue/Ranger, Fighter/Ranger, or Sorceror/Ranger gesalt. If you go S/R, then I'd suggest prestige to Arcane Archer/Ranger gesalt.
Elf ranger 11-arcane archer 9/wizard 15-spellsword 1-archmage 4
Elf Ranger 1/Elf Wizard 1; Substitution levels from RotW, Animal Companion instead of Familiar (UA/SRD), Flaw: Non-combatant (UA/SRD), Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot
Ranger 2/Wizard 2; Combat Style (Rapid Shot)
Ranger 3/Wizard 3; Weapon Focus (Composite Longbow)
Elf Ranger 4/Wizard 4; Substitution level from RotW
Ranger 5/Wizard 5; Craft Wand
Ranger 6/Wizard 6; Improved Combat Style (Manyshot), Skill Focus (Spellcraft)
Arcane Archer 3/Wizard 9; Armor Proficiency (Heavy)
Ranger 7/Spellsword 1
Arcane Archer 4/Wizard 10; Widen Spell
Arcane Archer 5/Wizard 11; Spell Focus (Evocation)
Arcane Archer 8/Wizard 14; Spell Focus (Conjuration)
Ranger 9/Archmage 2
Elf Ranger 10/Archmage 3; Substitution level from RotW, Empower Spell
Arcane Archer 9/Wizard 15; Quicken Spell
Ranger 11/Archmage 4; Combat Style Mastery (Improved Precise Shot)
Full BAB and spellcasting, all arrows fired are treated as magical, unrestricted arcane spell access, and archmage High Arcana. The most useful High Arcana choices are: Arcane Fire, Mastery of Counterspelling, Mastery of Elements, and Mastery of Shaping.
Not quite sure what that has to do with what I said, but nice. A gesalt class takes the best parts of two classes and puts them in one, estentially leveling to classes at once. However, you don't get the stacked bonuses like you would if you simply multiclassed. You take the best bonus, best hit die, best base attack, best skill points. You get all the skills as class skills and all the other specs for each class.
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Aramil Naïlo wrote:
I would suggest improved skill pluses on the halfling as it goes up, decrease the max uses of that luck ability to...3 maybe.
The rages for the Half-Orc could stack with the barbs, if they didn't already. I agree with the +4 str bonus.
My biggest suggestion is that, since a few races seem so keyed to specific classes, would be to focus more on that. The human would make an excellent fighter (aside from granting fast meta-magic feats to spell casters!!), as would the dwarf, and the half-orc would make a good barbarian.
What I like most about this is that with these changes, alot of ECLs for other races could be dropped, like for the Drow (unless you do the drow racial levels instead of taking everything at level one).
I'm sure myself and my co-DM can come up with more suggestions. In fact, I'm sure he'll be making his before to long.
After reading over several times, I do see something about the Gnome. I would drop the Speak with Animals, or atleast limit it's uses, and/or the animal companion, and/or the wild empathy, and/or the pass without trace. I would most deffinately drop the pass without trace, and any other combination of the three before. Why would one need wild empathy when they can talk to the animals? I doubt a gnome cluster would have as many animals as it does gnomes. I would instead add the animal companion as a sub-level to each class for the gnome, possibly along with wild empathy or speak with animals.
Apologies, but one thing I always ask when making a character, dungeon, or anything in DnD, is "why?". The second question is "how would that work?". Question number three is "is it logical?". Once things pass all three questions, I think they are good for insertion into my world. I have even added restrictions and bonus to certain classes simply because I thought they worked and didn't off-set the game to much.
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I would suggest improved skill pluses on the halfling as it goes up, decrease the max uses of that luck ability to...3 maybe.
The rages for the Half-Orc could stack with the barbs, if they didn't already. I agree with the +4 str bonus.
My biggest suggestion is that, since a few races seem so keyed to specific classes, would be to focus more on that. The human would make an excellent fighter (aside from granting fast meta-magic feats to spell casters!!), as would the dwarf, and the half-orc would make a good barbarian.
What I like most about this is that with these changes, alot of ECLs for other races could be dropped, like for the Drow (unless you do the drow racial levels instead of taking everything at level one).
I'm sure myself and my co-DM can come up with more suggestions. In fact, I'm sure he'll be making his before to long.
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My suggestion would be a Rogue/Ranger, Fighter/Ranger, or Sorceror/Ranger gesalt. If you go S/R, then I'd suggest prestige to Arcane Archer/Ranger gesalt. I'm not much of a bow person, so I don't know any other ranged classes off hand. However, I am good at making chars...especially high-powered ones. D*** do I love my Dread Fang... I think he's the best I've ever done.
Gesalting give you a +1 ECL, and you take the best of both classes. You can't gesalt multiple prestige classes, but you can do a prestige and a main class together.
I'm sure others here can explain it. Otherwise myself or my co-DM can explain it to you...and maybe help you be a little ahead of the rest of the party!:P
However, you could go with another gesalt we've thought of. A Cleric/Monk or Sorceror/Monk. What's better than punching someone while casting detrimental touch spells on them at the same time?
As I can't think of any usful feats or classes/variants/prestiges other than the stated (I'm more the guy who loves to make over-powered villains using the Book of Vile Darkness, Libris Mortis, and Heroes of Horror (among other sources that are generally for evil N/PCs)). My co-DM might get on some time and throw out some useful things.
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Rift wrote:
Just a quick note before I indulge myself in another expensive dinner party: The budget is 1.129.000,- gold pieces. I've spent around 560.000 so far on the keep, that'll probably go up a bit but as far as I'm aware I have around half a million gold pieces to spend on military staff, which apart from having to guard my Keep also have to secure the surrounding countryside.
Working together with my DM on finding a good income source. But I like the advice so far, gives me a frame to work with. Oh and merry christmass, before I forget again.
Merry Christmas to you too. If you send me a blueprint (aramilnailochoda@yahoo.com), I can set up a good, strategical defense and figure out patrols for securing the countryside. I can complete it with half-a-mil, just remember that the gaurd has to be paid regularily so let me know any changes in income. Look for a natural income in the surrounding land (ie wood, mining, fishing) and see if you can't secure some territory on a heavy trade route.
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Since your building a simple stronghold, not a school, I'll have to change my thoughts a little, but I can help. I'm gonna break this down like this.
1 Captain (lvl 13 fighter), oversees the commanders and answers to you.
3 Commanders (lvl 8-11 fighter), 1 for each shift (3x8 hours)
84 Soldier (lvl 5-7 warrior), 28 per shift
21 Elite (lvl 6-7 fighter), 7 per shift
3 Healers (lvl 5-7 cleric), 1 per shift
6 Medics (lvl 5-7 expert), 2 per shift
3 Runners (lvl 5-7 warrior, expert, or rogue), 1 ready per shift
I total 121 men. I usually design things for more wealthy adventurers, or people with a steady source of income. I'll get Joral's (my blighter and "co-DM") advice for this too. He should be able to help, he IS running the defenses of an entire town. Maybe my setup is to expensive for you.
Edit: Oh, I forgot.
1 Mage (lvl 12-14 wizard or sorcerer), A higher lvl arcanist available when needed.
3 Arcanist (lvl 5-9 adept), 1 per shift to give your defense a little magical boost if needed, but not so dire as to call out the mage.
This would give you a total guard of 125, although the arcanists aren't necesarry. Again, my designs tend to be a bit more expensive. Have you considered investments for a steady income outside of adventuring?
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The Jade wrote:
I don't see it as completely one-sided, just mostly one-sided. Every dragon egg raised by gnomes becomes a good dragon? Not in my campaign. D&D doesn't use weakly statted commoners as PCs. PCs tend to be the stronger (physically or mentally) exceptions of their kind. Thus, a Drizzt can happen, but all drow raised by good folk are not Drizzt. He's the exception-to-the-rule legend. As a near mythic rarity, he gets to do his own thing, even fight in drag if he wants to.
If we cohabitate with a cannibal ghost for ten years can we get it to see that haunting and eating children is wrong? I'm just asking for a mention of Casper, aren't I? You might say dragons are smarter than ghosts but I don't see intelligence as being the same as moral awareness and soulful pliability. Brilliant people don't necessarily have more choice over how they're going to act around others. Most of the hardcore geniuses I've ever known are so socially inept they can't help but to insult people during a first meeting. Shouldn't a smart person be able to get over their bad wiring and hang out with everyone fraternally? You'd think so, wouldn't you?
I said it was a great rarity, not an impossibility. I think with little effort we can ascertain that monsters with a description that suggests an inherently evil alignment are likely to be inherently evil. Not that this is the source of my argument, but I'll bring it up again: That's why the BOED says that getting an evil dragon to become good is a very difficult, near impossible thing to do. If a bunch of head pets and a good education were all that was required to turn that bad boy around, I don't think a special prestige class would be needed to redeem wicked creatures.
Think about it, it's like saying that better school system and softer sweaters would have orcs behaving politely and acting just like the decent folk of Happyshire. The same way criminalism and aggression can pass from a father to the son he's never met... so passes evil. This isn't the real...
I'm not trying to say that nurture always wins, and I apologise if it seems that I am. Before I continue I apologise if my post seems all over the place. No, intelligence does not make one more aware. It does, however, seem to make a one more aware. Maybe I'm just an exception in this world if what I'm saying isn't true. Sometimes ones nature is stronger than their nurture, and vice versa. If you want you could base it off of their willpower, maybe use the averaged value of int and wis. Of coarse, just because someone is a genius that doesn't mean they are completly aware of what's going on, which is prolly where wisdom (common sense and logic) comes in. I comepletely understand. And, saying this while hoping that my players aren't reading it, in my campaign dragons are the bases for magic. If dragons were to be eradicated magic would dissapeer (someone please give me the correct spelling for that!). Which also means that deities would only be people who were so great they deserve recognition. Tendencies, however, are mostly bred into a race, which means that they could possibly be bred out of atleast a group of that race. And if a good party travels with a cannibalistic ghost then yes, he could eventually see that what he's doing is wrong. Then again, just like everything else, right and wrong are all based on point of view.
I think I'm done. Jade, I kinda like you. This is fun.
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