Kardinnyr Azrinrae

Krisam's page

293 posts (5,643 including aliases). 2 reviews. 2 lists. No wishlists. 45 aliases.


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I was reading some Lone Wolf choose-your-own-adventures, and my math teacher in 5th grade noticed it. "Have you heard of D&D?"

I had not. I thought it was a board game.

Long story!:
My math teacher ran a game for me, and eventually the rest of my small class, which ended abruptly when he got a new job elsewhere. One of the older students took over as DM, and sucked really badly, but I was not deterred. This game was the most awesome thing I'd ever seen.

I got the 2e DMG and PHB for my birthday, right around when they came out, and I was over the moon. Saved up to get the Monstrous Compendium, too. I got my friends interested in it, and for a while we played (it turned into freeform, as the only one who wanted to DM didn't want rules holding him back - that sucked, DM-PCs everywhere, but that's another story), then I moved to this country with my family.

That was around the time the world was discovering the internet. I was immediately hooked on this amazing new medium. And the gold box games!

Played mostly VtM, like a lot of others around that time, but unlike most of you, my experience online has been chiefly D&D (various editions) and Pathfinder 1e. Just a sprinkling of other things like CoC at cons. And I've mostly played online since then.

I'm actually running 11 PBEMs at the moment. The call of the DM got me in the end, haha. But once in a while it's nice to be on the other side of the equation.

Though in retrospect, trying to avoid clichés and leave room for the interesting part of his career being in the future, I may have made Kael a bit too bland to be selected. :/ Well, here's hoping.

TL;DR: I don't have a lot of experience with other systems than D&D 2e and 3.5e, and PF1, but I cut my teeth on the Forgotten Realms, and I'm happy to see that the "old days" in them aren't just nostalgic for me! I read all the FR books up until around '97, and that's still how I picture the Realms (apart from the Time of Troubles books. Blech.).

The Baldur's Gate games came out when I was in the equivalent of high school in this country, I think, and I never played them. :( I think I would have loved them as a kid, but these days I never seem to have the time to learn how to play a new game. But I have many fond memories of pixel art characters trouncing black dragons in gold box games, haha.


You'll probably find people are more willing to take a chance if you have a profile, and maybe a few aliases with some examples of your writing in their backstories.


I'm going to bow out as well. Enjoy your game!


Friedrich Vollritter:

male human (Karrnathi) crossblooded (black blood/shapechanger) bloodrager

Concept: A somber, half-mad war veteran is seeking peace within.

Appearance:
A dour, hulking bear of a man, Friedrich sports thick moustaches that meet his meticulously clipped black sideburns, the heavy and well-used weapons of a veteran, and a notable lack of medals of distinguishment for service in the Karrnathi during the Last War. He bears a passing similarity of appearance to a shifter, with those dark, feral eyes, but he is quite human, though deathly pale. He moves with slow, even gravitas - until he's angry, upon which he becomes frighteningly quick for a man his size. He bears many terrible scars from his time in the War, but most are hidden by his crisp nigh-military uniform, and he does not speak of them. He's fatalistic, but with a dark sense of humor, and a penchant for philosophy.

Background:
The taste of old blood is what Friedrich remembered from the Day of Mourning.

He drowned the memory in the taste of ale. There was nothing quite like it; Nightwood ale had that certain something. A yearning for a time that had never been, perhaps. Certainly he hadn't known it in his childhood.

"One more."

The barkeep wouldn't meet his eyes. He knew that there would be trouble soon, if he didn't leave.

Just one more.

It drove away memories, that crawled up from the past as he had crawled up from among the dead, shifter and undead alike; came seeming through the fog of memory and ale as he had staggered through the mist of what would come to be known as the Mournlands.

He drank the dregs of his ale with bitter satisfaction, and grasped the new tankard possessively. If there was something in his nature that gave the impression that he was feral, what of it? He had no medals to prove his valor, to prove himself to anyone. He had no need. His thick, black blood ran dark with fury, and if they would give him a target for it, so much the better. What more could a mere mercenary hope for?

What was the nature of goodness, when the world held such evil? Shades of grey that ran so dark that he couldn't find his way out, never a light so bright he couldn't stare it down. Never an answer for why he had lived, when his blood had been spilled all over the earth. "How" was not a question he concerned himself with.

But "why" ate much of his waking moments.

The Mourning had struck him like a cold wave, reaching even through his death haze to shock him into action. Enemies, allies, what difference? Death came for them all. Even the undead ones, eventually. Was this divinity?

He heard the scrape of chairs behind him, and smiled.


I have an idea for a Karrnathi crossblooded (black blood/shapechanger) bloodrager. An ex-mercenary who was fighting a shifter platoon with the undead forces on the Karrnathi army side when he was touched by the Mourning. Is that acceptable? Or are the hybrid classes out?


Are the minotaurs on the site you linked to an acceptable race? Or did you mean only the new Eberron-specific races?


I can't put together a concept today, but dot for interest.


OK, that's what I thought. Oh well. Thanks for your fast answer!


Like many others, I got the Humble Bundle, but my question isn't about downloading. Rather, I was wondering if it would be possible to swap out the Hell's Rebels adventures for Kingmaker ones? I realize I'm already getting a really good deal, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask. :)


Congratulations to those who got in! DM, please keep Roath in mind if you ever need a replacement character. (Rebuilding him as something else isn't a problem if you prefer a different class.) :)


Roath is either a Machine or a War Hero, whichever fits better.


Okay, here's Roath. I haven't given him any equipment, and thought I'd wait with the traits until his campaign trait was defined, but other than that I think I got everything in there. If there's anything you'd like me to elaborate on (or change), let me know! :)


I only just saw this recruitment, so I don't have a submission yet, but consider this my dot for interest!

Off the top of my head, I'd find a shifter or warforged Machine interesting... I have to read the rest of the thread and see if that's been done already.


I'm interested, with a barbarian/slayer in mind, but I probably won't have her ready to post until Monday. :/


I just got the Runic Might books, and I love them! More of that! More stuff for the base and hybrid classes would also be awesome.

There's so much else that I don't even know where to begin looking...

Also: Happy birthday! And kudos on this sale!


Huh, I thought I had tried with Chrome, but I must have been confused because it worked now. Thanks!

Also: haha, great name.


I'm trying to buy some pdfs, but it won't let me until I enter a shipping address, and when I click on Manage Addresses there's nowhere to enter a new one. Hitting Edit just loads the same screen that says I have no addresses, with nowhere to add an address.

When trying to pay, it allows me to enter a new address - but the popup is so small that I can't get to the bottom, and I can't scroll down, so I can't enter it there, either.

I've tried to enter an address in Chrome and IE (I can't use Firefox because it keeps crashing lately). Neither works. I'm using a Win7 machine.


I'm quite fond of running PBEMs out of Yahoo Groups, myself. There's space for cast photos, file area for maps and whatnot. I usually pull the maps into Photoshop and black out the areas the PCs haven't been in, though.

If you want an additional website with a wiki, Obsidian Portal is pretty good.


I recommend the Everchanging Book of Names. You can provide chapters to it specific to a particular world, though I'm not aware of a Golarion chapter available yet. Still, they have Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms and generic fantasy, which generally serves pretty well.

Alternatively, there's behindthename.com.


The monster is listed as CR8, and I'm not that experienced a DM (which is why I was using a published adventure), so I didn't realize how horridly it was overpowered before too late. I have no idea how this monster got published.

Syrus: I'd really prefer not to kill anybody because I made a dumb mistake... though dropping a few more hints about the knowledge they already have might be a good idea.

Thanks for that rebuild, JohnHawkins! That's extremely helpful! :) (Though the look on their faces if it started flying around would be priceless.)


Sandslice wrote:

I hate to say it... but it sounds like you need a bit of fiat. Just for a round, at least, put emphasis on the fact that the Sorcerer's familiar is fighting with the mound for control of the harp, pecking at an arm-branch that's reaching over to swat the bird away and play it.

The distraction causes the boss to loosen its grip on the Sorcerer (lowering its CMB so that she has a chance to escape.)

Not a bad idea, but that still leaves the rest of the battle, during which it's bound to be Bad News for the party unless rebuilt somehow...


My players stay out, please.:

I'm running a Pathfinder-modified version of the Dungeon #90 adventure Elfwhisper (3.0, I believe), and the final boss encounter is set up to be a TPK against my party. I'd like to avoid that.

The party consists of a lvl.7 diviner with virtually no offensive spells (for house rule legacy reasons), a lvl.7 bow ranger, a lvl.6 antipaladin (who I'm allowing to smite evil for story reasons, with the use of hero points and some good RP), a lvl.6 shadow sorceror (with a shadow raven familiar), and a lvl.6 NPC cleric (their rogue is currently missing). They don't have a great deal of magical or alchemical equipment - only the ranger and antipaladin have low-grade magic weapons. They do have the aid of a dying lvl.4 NPC bard, who was attacked by the boss, and the antipaladin is being protected by elven spirits as though he were under a stacking mage armor effect. The party has proceeded to attack the boss over a harp of charming it has.

The boss is an advanced half-fiend shambling mound with some odd powers. It has fire resistance 30 and cold and acid resistance 20, a fairly high AC and attack as well as hps, and the thing that concerns me most: its spell-like abilities, which it uses as a 14th level sorceror. The one that concerns me most is blasphemy. That one, cast at such a high CL, could be a TPK on its own. If you have the magazine, you can see the others, but they don't concern me as much (except maybe for unholy aura, which would grant it SR 25 vs good spells/spells cast by good creatures once cast!). Honestly, the spells appear to be chosen out of a hat full of "let's destroy the party." On top of that, the boss is supposed to be able to use the harp of charming, which might conceivably take out the party's main firepower/muscle if they fail their saves. Its main concern is to kill the sorceror, who is an elf. She has currently gotten too close, and is grappled. Did I mention that it has a reach of 20'?

I don't want to nerf the encounter entirely, as it should be hard, but obviously I don't want to slaughter the party. On top of that, they've been grumbling about not succeeding at their other quests, so they probably will be unhappy even if they survive this unless they defeat the boss somehow. Since the game is supposed to be fun for them, and we've been playing a long time (pbem) without what they consider significant victories, I want to make it possible for them to defeat the boss - but I don't want to make the boss a pushover, either. I hinted earlier in the game that the boss could be controlled by the harp it now has, but a) they don't seem to think they can get the harp without killing the boss, though the familiar is holding it along with the boss, and b) they don't seem to have realized that the boss IS the boss I hinted about.

Since they aren't carrying much in the way of offensive power that can defeat the mound, especially with its fire resistance (which might as well be immunity when it's that high), their choices are to simply run away and come back better equipped, which they don't want to do because they're in the middle of tracking down the missing rogue, or abandon the harp entirely, which they don't want to do because they think it's important to the plot. OR... we're looking at TPK material. Or I DM fiat that they win somehow, which is a pretty hollow victory.

Other details:
- the boss can speak so long as it's within a 40'r of a dead tree (unhallow tongues effect), in the center of a clearing in some ruins, which is its lair. It doesn't want to go too far from the tree due to the SA spells centered on it, but can be lured away because it's not too bright (though it doesn't speak like a caveman or anything). It has dropped some plot hints about the antipaladin, and wasn't inclined to attack him (or anyone but the bard (a half-elf) and the elf PC) at first, but now he has attacked it and the gloves are off.

- the boss has, in the story, been killing off elves in the region for a long time. Not just once long ago, but continuously since it arrived; it just arrived so long ago that, combined with general hostility towards elves in the area, most of the killing was long ago, and no one worries about a missing elf here or there now. The harp is instrumental to keeping it under control, and the boss knows that the harp can do that. The boss is actually the pawn of a greater power, the true villain of the campaign, which the party doesn't know about yet (though the missing rogue does).

- there is an escape hatch nearby (within the clearing): a fairy ring that leads to the outer part of the forest. I've described a desecrate effect on the dead tree as the Weave unravelling into wild magic just around it, again for story reasons. (The diviner can see this.)

- I do allow hero points to be used to get hints on how to deal with situations.

So... is there a way to save this situation without being extremely heavy-handed with hints and cheating in favor of the PCs? They do have plenty of hero points (due to an old house rule that removed the limitation of max.3), so they can avoid insta-death, but... well, they haven't come up with anything clever and neither have I. Best-case scenario at the moment is that the boss crushes the elf, then drops her and leaves her for dead (though with judicious use of hero points she wouldn't be) and... I don't know, goes away for some reason. Maybe they even sever the branch holding the harp before it can use it (the ranger severed the vine it used to grab the harp before, but no one got to it before the boss picked the harp up again - not sure why she thinks it won't work again), and grab the harp. But I doubt they'd let it go (or use the harp to control it, since they don't seem to have understood that this is the boss the harp was meant to control, and with the bard dying and no one inclined to help him, no one can play it anyway), and if they did, they'd be unhappy about another "defeat." Quandary!

TL;DR: The boss is too tough for the party (with their limited resources) to win at the moment, but I don't want to nerf it too much. I would prefer that they have some sort of victory, even if they don't manage to destroy the boss. Ideas on how to achieve this? I'm no good at building monsters, which is why I used a published one in the first place. I suspect a story solution is called for, I just can't see the forest for the shambling mound. :P


Rolling hps for Bergi:

lvl 4:bard: 1d8 ⇒ 5


Re-rolling hps for Devin (Hero Point used):

lvl 4:rogue: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8

Rolling hps for Durriken:

lvl 4:cleric: 1d8 ⇒ 7


Rolling hps for Devin:

lvl 4:rogue: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2


Here's Lioslan thrown into the mix!


Here's the bare bones of my idea. I linked her background with that of the cleric who's applying with me. I'll keep updating the profile; let me know if I've misunderstood the house rules or anything.


Hey there! I was directed here by Kinna - I'm interested in playing a beatstick. Let me just check out the PG and I'll jump back with a concept, if that's okay?


My main gripe is that Chaotic Neutral appears to equate to either Neutral Evil or Chaotic Evil in most games. To me, that is really stupid. But then, to me, evil is selfishness on a large scale.

Many years ago, I read all these pages about alignment by James Beach, and they have proven formative to my perception of the nature and use of alignments.


Rolling hps for Devin:

lvl 2:rogue: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

lvl 3:sorceror: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5


Okay, I've decided against using El Mano Sangre, Guiterrez the half-orc bloodrager from Ber. Man, that was hard. *cries* But I think Aziel, the tiefling gunslinger/fighter from Danor, will be more fun in the end.

I'll try to get a profile up shortly.


Woot! This will be so awesome.

Also, dot.


Hahaha. I never actually wanted to punch Darth Vader until I saw episodes II and III. Actually, I never wanted to punch the Jedi before all three of the first episodes, either.

Sorry I wasn't clear - while the PC hasn't actually gone around committing good acts OR bad acts, his alignment is still good, thanks to those house rules. He never became evil - the powers are just a way to tempt him to become evil. He doesn't so much need a spark to remind him of the good in humanity as he needs to realize that the god he worships is Evil and has goals that are totally incompatible with his, and his morals.


Thanks for your response, Nearyn. Good advice, too, except... I was originally playing 3e with a lot of house rules, the relevant one being that I didn't require alignments to match class or deity. I decided to fall more in line with the regular rules when we switched to Pathfinder.

In-game, we had treated the character as retaining his good alignment, but being tempted to the dark side by the powers he'd been granted by a deceitful god (ie. the local population thinks Bane is a good god. I'm still brewing a few ideas why the PC was chosen for these powers, but I'd love to hear new ideas). He hasn't actually commited any heinous acts yet, though, and doesn't believe his faith in Bane is evil, just necessary. Bane is still trying to tempt him to use his powers to evil ends, though. Thus, the change to paladin isn't quite as unlikely as it might otherwise be.

Also, because it's a pbem (and going quite slowly at the moment), I can't draw out the change too long, because years of real time will pass! Thus I'm thinking some sort of intense event that has him reject evil in favor of good (and hopefully the new force) in a sudden blast. Possibly endangering his crush due to her connection to Mielikki, which Bane will be all about destroying, thus catalysing his decision to abandon the teachings of Bane (and the powers that go with them).


bump?


Make your rolls here if you like - just note which character it's for, since I don't know all your aliases.


My players (KFR0) stay out, please.:

I'm running a 1345DR FR pbem game in which one player has given his character a level of antipaladin in service to Bane. He has agreed with me on a character arc that has his antipaladin eventually rise to become a normal paladin, though he hasn't chosen another god (and I'm kind of hoping he won't for metaplot reasons, so that he can gain his new powers from a new force I'll be introducing, though this would hopefully be a surprise, so I can't tell the player about it now).

Other background: his PC has a serious crush on another PC from the same area, who is ostensibly a follower of the same dark pantheon as himself (I gathered a handful of deities and made them a new pantheon under Bane), but who in reality is a follower of Mielikki. I'm thinking she could help advance the antipaladin's character arc, but I haven't made any agreements with her player yet.

Other other background: The campaign will have a strong fey presence. Also, it being a pbem, we're a pretty RP-heavy group.

So far I've just been sending the PC nightmares about an upcoming event, with urgings to commit dark deeds in preparation for standing against it - but with a slender ray of light offering another path, referencing his long-gone parents. I was hoping I could get some more ideas of how to encourage the PC to make a decision between good and evil, ramping up the intensity until the change takes place. I've considered having him find an intelligent weapon belonging to the new force (and making it the source of the light in his nightmares), but I'm not sure if that would be too railroady. Then again, since we've agreed on his arc, I'm not sure railroady is a problem.

So, any fun ideas? Or lacking that, any interesting metaphors I could place in his dreams?


@dien:
Since I've decided Baird is going semi-incognito (the better to mesh with the dwarves in the party without starting a brawl), maybe he came to Talas to enlist his aid before leaving Kyonin? Or perhaps this: Baird is quite a bit younger now, so maybe Talas has helped him learn about dwarven history by allowing him access to the city's libraries, and once Talas learned of his plan to go delving, he insisted on coming along to keep the hot-headed Baird out of trouble?


OK, it looks like we have skills covered, so I'll go with Deepsight instead of Breadth of Experience.


If Talas is going with Breadth of Experience, maybe I should choose something else? Deepsight is looking good... and then I could lower Baird's age a bit. What do you guys think, should we double up on skills or trust Talas to let us know things? ;)


dien wrote:
Do these backstory mentions of Baird work for you, Krisam?

Sure, sounds good to me. Baird might not admit it, but he'd be relieved to see a friendly familiar face, and he does have a soft spot for elves. He might even have been a friend of Talas, whenever the Ironhames were passing through. Certainly the family would have been grateful for his mother's support.


YoricksRequiem wrote:


Looks good! The same above applies to you if you wanted to up your age a bit more (Dwarven Middle Age kicks in at 125 and you're already 100). In such a case where you only get one Flaw / Feat, I'd just check out to make sure that you didn't choose one that won't ever come up.

Heh, thanks, but while Baird may have reached the hill, he isn't quite over it yet. I'd actually have liked to make him just a little younger, but there's yonder prereqs to consider.

I also keep thinking that dwarves get older than they do - must be thinking of elves. I may have some kind of mental block regarding nonhuman aging; I thought something similar with Bad Ben. :P

EDIT: Due to Baird's background (his family fled to the protection of the elves for the civil war), it would actually be quite likely that he might know Tarthiel. The Ironhame family's reputation among the dwarves isn't good because of it, though. Let me know if you want to build on that potential relationship.


Baird Ironhame ready for inspection.


I wouldn't mind a larger group. I can recommend i.jason and karlprosek, whom you know from the Mummy's Mask game. Also, I should have a sheet for you up soon.


Yeehaw! I'll post a more thorough idea later, but I'm thinking of a plain old dwarf fighter, possibly with an archetype.

Really looking forward to this!


While I would really like to play in this setting, I think I've gotten too used to the ease with which I can understand Pathfinder. I'm getting a bit confused about the old rules, which used to make sense to me before 3e. I think I'll withdraw from the running - best of luck to the rest of you, and good gaming!


Fair enough. I've just read enough alignment threads that I thought I'd ask to be sure.


I had a question...


I did post my character back in post #70, but here he is again. I waited with the spells in case you wanted to choose them or something? I need to read up on events for that year and the years immediately previous so I can come up with a background that meshes into the story well... or maybe I'll wait with that 'til I know if I get chosen. I understand that the elven Retreat was canceled, though? That might be an interesting jumping-off point.


Kiesylan is here. Hopefully I haven't screwed it up completely. I waited with the spells since I saw you were choosing them for someone else?

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