Welcome to the group. Here we can discuss out of character stuff.
Hello all, Cuàn here. Lanaste is a member of House Lyrander, though of a rather obscure branch. Her training and job consist of negotiations with the various elementals her House binds to their ships (assisted by a Gnome from House Sivis who makes the actual deal). In addition she's part of the more clandestine branch of her family where it's her job to actually spy on the Gnomes she works with.
Sheet obviously is still under construction, figuring out the order in which I want to take my feats.
Greetings all. When it comes to themes, I'm torn between Noble (Dragon 399) and Sidhe Lord (Heroes of the Feywild). Both look like they'd help the party out a bunch, both fit the concept I've got so far. Anyone want to weigh in on preferences?
Hello, here's the name and brief background for my revenant (DMRaven).
I'm not -that- familiar with the Eberron setting but figured that the best way to explain a revenant would be through the Blood of Vol or the Undying Court.
@Istyarian
I think the Noble theme looks more handy to begin with, although summoning an elf guard to your side is pretty wicked thematically.
There actually is another road for the revenant: Aerenal.
Basically the Elves (so possibly also Eladrin) there venerate their ancestors to the point that they keep them around in the form of the Undying. Basically those are positive energy undead made only of those considered worthy. Only real effect this would have on you is that your deity is more or less set on Undying Court.
As for themes I'm looking at Windlord and Elemental Initiate at the moment, both from HotEC
The only theme that I can find that seems to fit even remotely with Andros is Explorer, and even that one, I am not entirely convinced about.
Take a look at Hans, if you like.
I can act as the party-face, except for Diplomacy. We Tieflings don't do well with honest interaction!
Important questions:
How do we deal with Ini-Order in combat?
a) Waiting to post until it is your turn.
+ Combat is more transparent
- Combat takes longer
b) Post early and your action triggers at your initiative.
+ Combat is a little faster
- Some actions might be invalid at your ini-count
- More difficult to see what happened in which order
...and how do we deal with out-of-turn actions?
a) Only possible if you post at the right moment
+ Faster
+ Clear and transparent
- You might miss opportunities to use your powers
- Unfair to those who cannot check the thread often
b)May use later on
+ Fair for everyone
- slower
- may create potential to "rewind" some turns
Is a post-frequency of one post per weekday and one post per weekend acceptable for everybody?
I have other suggestions for both:
Initiative:
Everyone rolls, monsters as a cluster.
Everyone with higher init than monsters acts.
Monsters act.
Everyone acts (so for some this is round one, for others round 2)
Monsters act.
etc, etc, etc
Out of turn actions:
Put them in spoilers ahead of time with conditions for use.
I have other suggestions for both:
Initiative:
Everyone rolls, monsters as a cluster.
Everyone with higher init than monsters acts.
Monsters act.
Everyone acts (so for some this is round one, for others round 2)
Monsters act.
etc, etc, etc
That's roughly how I've come to handle it. As DM I generally roll all the initiatives (to try and save some time); based on the rolls, I create groups of PCs and monsters. Within each group, it's posting order; as soon as everyone from one group has posted, it moves on to the next group. I've found it to be a good way to keep things moving in a pbp while still rewarding those who invested in high initiative. Most fights there will generally be one or two monster inits (mob and boss, if there is one), but bigger fights may occasionally have more as there may be multiple mob types.
For really simple fights, I'll just roll two dice, one for the party, and one for the bad guys, add an average of the init modifiers from each side, and whoever wins goes first; these kinds of fights, I generally don't do maps for either, since they are one or two rounds at most. How many of those will show up in a 4E campaign I'm not sure; from what I've seen 4E does better with major set piece battles broken up into two or three large chunks at most rather an a series of individual battles.
Agreed on initiative with Cuan. It's generally easiest to roll that way. At least, that's been my experience in the past. Let the people who've really maxed out their init get that first action.
For immediate actions, I'll probably ahve several of those in time. I'll include spoilers with what will trigger them in my action posts. My posts will probably wind up longer than most others (once we've gained a few levels at least) but most of that won't factor into the average combat round.
I like Lanaste's idea as well.
For out of turn actions, many of them may seem obvious and the DM can roll. For example, if an enemy is going to provoke from one of us, he can assume we'll attempt one of our basic attacks to hit it and roll for us to keep the game going, no?
Might want to put in some kind of rule for combat to auto-do someone's turn if they don't reply in a certain time frame (24 hours, 48 hours, etc, whatever).
Ah, nice! Let's do it that way.
Auto-Actions? Maybe everyone can state a specific auto-action. Mine would be...
When in melee and a shift isn't enough to get out of enemy-reach: Move, provoke aoo, use Elemental Bolt from save distance, preferebly on a bloodied target.
When in melee: Shift and use Elemental Bolt preferebly on a bloodied target.
Else: Use Elemental Bolt preferebly on a bloodied target.
BTW: I have made the first gameplay-post to introduce the party quick and dirty.
Bit of a question for the Dms since some people are still figuring out a few mechanics..
Hybrid for the Executioner states that you pick a guild style to take 2 at-wills from. The character builder only allows you to pick from the two original guilds. However, the Ninja style guild came out awhile ago in the Dragon mag and was never allowed as an option. By the text of the hybrid, its at wills should be selectable. Could Aramil use the ninja-style at-will powers? I'd love to have the shuriken and kusari-gama ones.
I'd only care for game balance. Those powers you mentioned: Are they pretty good balanced against the rest? Then I had no problems with you taking them.
Another question: Didn't you want to do a Brawler-Fighter? Decided against it last-minute? Could be tough running around without a defender... Don't think you can stay with the defender-thing instead of this hybrid-striker?
I'll wait reacting on your post until we have cleared this, in case you really do the defender last minute.
I believe it was someone else who was going to run a brawler, I didn't think I was in the game until I got a message from Twisle about it.
On powers: I like to think they're better, but they're really just different. The kusari-gama one lets you pull + hit twice, but lacks the problems that Twin strike has with being better than every other at-will (no damage roll for first attack, just dex damage). The shuriken lets you hit multiple times but each has to be against a different target. It exists to let you spread your poison around so its really only useful during either: 1) fights with minions or 2) a fight where you use a poison on the shuriken.
The garotte and dagger powers remind me more of a thug, I had wanted Aramil to be a bit more...stylish.
I don't see a problem. As for defender, I still need to finalize Andros; I can turn him into a quasi defender.
I guess no pure druid can develop the degree of stickiness to let the softer targets survive reliably. But I'd be glad to be wrong on this one. Hans' AC is pretty lousy and I guess others might have similar problems.
Depends on how the druid is built; Andros could get both AC and HP from CON due to the guardian class feature.
Yes of course he does. But nothing prevents a monster from just ignoring him and killing others first. Even Melee Training isn't usually enough, because skirmishers for example shift around you and just eat the yummy, red-skinned, horned ones in the backrow. :-)
Seeing the huge number of strikers around, (two and a half actually) it would certainly help a lot if one played a defender. I'd volunteer if nobody else does.
I was considering picking up the primal guardian theme for other reasons, but the encounter ability allows him to mark targets. He's not a substitute for a full defender, but he can hold folks for a round or two, especially if I pick up the Warden multiclass feat.
If only we started at higher level I would have made my Gnome Paladin. I love the guy but a defender with speed 4 isn't doable.
EDIT: Then again, I ran into problems with a hybrid paladin|warlock. I'll take a look at either full pally or a defender|defender
That's one reason I'm shifting Andros to help fill the role. It's already kind of part of the concept I have of him, so it's not that radical a change, and gives me something to focus on. He'll never be as effective as a full defender, but he'll be able to hold a few folks for a round or two, and be able to shape the battlefield to make it harder for people to move around him.
Wonderful! Now my old red skin feels save enough! ...and as a devout believer in the Silver Flame, Hans will most certainly like a paladin much! :-)
Aside from fleshing out the descriptions of some of the powers, Andros should be done.
Changed Lanaste into a Gnome Paladin|Battlemind. The Battlemind part adds versatility and mobility. As for background, she basically moved to the other side of the story. Lani is a member of the Oversight deperatment of House Sivis, so protection and counter-espionage.
Good, good. Then just head over to the gameplay-thread and make your post. Meekin is a bit scatterbrained and has so far forgotten that you were part of his rescue-team-assembly, but you can enter the "Stout Cucumber" anytime.
Gnomes and Kobolds tend to get along horribly anyway, could be on purpose.
Isn't much of a problem in Eberron I think.
Supposedly they have the most hostile contact with the Gnomes in northern Zilargo. It's not a hate like in other settings, but Lani knows all to well the problems the scaly buggers cause.
I know that I would prefer that at least the basic stats such as HP, AC, init, saves, anything I would be likely to need to reference directly, be in the profile, as it makes writing combat posts significantly easier.
That is my opinion too. You can just list the powers by name. No one expects you to give a powers details of course.
Yeah, I don't need the full breakdown, just a quick reference.
I'm going to have to step out of this game, usually two isn't hard to roll with but the other game is moving along very quickly.