Gonna go ahead and use this to consolidate information and the like whilst I figure out who is even available to play in this madness.
For Ability Scores, I'm going to roll an array for everyone to use. If any one would like to try and roll their own instead, feel free to. It's the standard method: 4d6 and dropping the lowest. If you end up with an array so miserable you can't bring yourself to play it, you can just go ahead and use the one below.
Group Array: 18, 16, 14, 12, 11, 8
That thar is a nice default stat line. But I'll go with what I rolled over in the other thread good sir.
Just dotting here for now, I'll use that array.
I still gotta think this through but I'm certainly quite tempted.
Thron and Jelani, what're yall playing? Have either of you decided yet?
Kage, when you say Thursdays @ 1:00am EST do you mean an hour after midnight on Wednesday (which is technically Thurs 1am)? or do you mean "so late on Thurs night that it's technically Friday early AM?) I had assumed the latter (and prefer it, though I'm not sure I can make it happen either way yet).
So late Thurs it's Friday/early AM. So, 10:00pm Thursday for PST.
Thanks. A few more questions:
I'm thinking (at least if I'm curious about races & classes beyond the basic pdf) I need to go buy a PH. Is there any other way?
What setting/deities is this? Any web-based info on them?
I'm considering:
- gnomish illusionist (or diviner)
- halfling bard
- halfling druid
- halfling rogue/cleric (trickster)
- other cleric (race TBD because I'd need to read more about the gods and domains first)
It will be current year Forgotten Realms (1490 DR I *think* or thereabouts). FR Wiki still has a wealth of information, but there's a lot of stuff on there that isn't current. Of particular note, with the advent of 5e, a lot of dead Gods aren't dead any more. The short version is 4e Realmslore royally f+*%ed up everything and 5e is trying to put things aright.
So if you see a deity you like and they're listed as dead, you can probably assume they're alive again. Probably.
So far, Thron is making a High Elf Fighter (Eldritch Knight). Jelani was talking about doing a Warlock of some variety, sounded like a Blade Pact (who basically conjure weapons summoner-style and wade into battle).
Oh, and legal races thus far:
Hopefully didn't miss one.
Yeah, definitely going blade pact the Old Ones warlock...that's as far as I've gotten so far. Might be an elf of some kind to match Thron.
Cool. My gnomish illusionist is definitely not one to wade into battle (or to take the straightforward path to anywhere) but should be a reasonable compliment to two frontlinish gish characters...and so far we're all fey-descended too.
Nani!?
Heya! It'd be fun to play with you again, and Thron's been telling me how much he likes 5e. (On the other hand, I have zero time...but why should I let that stop me?)
Any changes from what you posted on this thread back in '15?
Yeah, it's safe to disregard anything else posted above. I was just being lazy about starting an entirely new thread while I only have my phone. Once I see who I have to work with, I'll start hammering out details more formally.
I guess for the sake of conceptualizing potential characters, I can at least say that the setting will be a blank slate that we build together (similar to Dungeon World) and we'll generate stats using a custom roll-and-pool method that will require all the players to resolve. But it was fun to roll the one time I've seen it used.
Heh two+ years ago....forgot this existed.
I’m gonna try a shapeshifter Druid
Eyes to the Campaign Info tab as I deposit little nuggets of gameness there.
Now that I'm at an actual keyboard, I'll go ahead and break down the way we'll be generating stat arrays. Each of the players will be rolling 4d6 and dropping the lowest six times. These six results will be placed into a party pool. Once we've finished that step, everyone will roll a d20 to determine selection order. Whoever rolls the highest gets to pick one of the results out of the party pool, and then everyone else will pick in descending order. The order will snake, however, by which I mean whoever picks last in the first round will pick first in the following round.
Generally speaking, people will take the highest value available on their turn, but there is always the option of taking a low value if it helps flesh out a character aspect. This generation method preserves the random fun of rolling while keeping all of the characters in a fairly balanced spectrum. Once everyone has picked all of their stats I'll allow a single 1-for-1 trade with other players as well. While it might be funner to do this in real time (but far less practical), in the interest of expediency I'll probably just have everyone roll their 6 stats and a d20, then start assigning final arrays from that.
Ha
Here is the alias I’ll use. And the basic backstory I’ve schemed up so far.
From a small enclave of wild elves, very tribalistic, daughter of the chief. Sons are traditionally heirs to position and hold family names, daughters have no family name until marriage and usually take on roles of healers, shamans, and other support roles. She was being trained by the head shamanic in Druidic magic. At her coming of age ceremony/arranged marriage, her enclave is attacked and the few survivors (including her) are taken captive by the slavers that destroyed her tribe. The remaining few members of her enclave are scattered to the point that rebuilding their tribe is impossible.
Brimley told me that he wanted us to weave our backstories together so we know each other. So I’m hoping one of you will have perhaps freed me somehow by either force or bought and released. I’m kinda wanting her to initially only speak Elven and Druidic, because I find it amusing and fitting for her.
I don't know fifth edition rules.
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17,15,13,12,12,9
Are warlocks a thing?
Yup
Yep, Warlocks are a thing. Every class has multiple Paths (a lot like archetypes) they take at 2nd or 3rd level. Warlock paths basically boil down to where or what they draw their power from. Then there's Pacts, which just kinda reinforce what kind of warlock you want to be (Chain summons a familiar, Tome leans caster, and Blade leans melee).
Only Warlock I've personally witnessed thus far is a Hexblade, and they put out absolutely crazy damage in the mid level range.
I'm thinking a half-elf warlock. Hexblade sounds fun, with the Pact of the Tome most likely.
Is there some kind of one handed weapon that's better than the others? I'd have proficiency with martial, and possibly willing to go for something exotic if that's a thing.
Weapon statistics are greatly simplified in 5e. There aren't exotic weapons in general, but you can approximate a specific weapon by just modeling it after something else. Longswords still do 1d8, for example, but they have the Versatile quality (allowing it to be wielded with two-hands to deal 1d10 instead). So, in effect, bastard swords and longswords are one and the same statistically. Probably easier to conceptualize it the same way you would a greatsword: whether you're swinging a claymore, flamberge, or zweihander, the game considers it a greatsword.
If there's a specific weapon you have in mind I can probably compare it to something similar for stats, so long as it's nothing too crazy. For example, if someone wanted to use an elven sword/curveblade/what-have-you I'd just model it after a rapier, but reclassify it as a slashing weapon. So it'd end up being a sword that deals 1d8 slashing with the finesse quality (finesse allows you to use Dex instead of Str for attack and damage rolls).
Or if someone wanted to play a samurai with a katana and wakizashi, I'd just call it a longsword and shortsword mechanically.
Edit: As far as one handed martial weapons, you'll be looking at 1d8 damage no matter which you go with. Choice mostly boils down to damage type: bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing and whether you'd like a Versatile or Finesse weapon.
Brief note on character creation: you guys will all be formerly acquainted in some way. I'll leave the specifics to you all, but it'll be a bit of a generic origin as far as high fantasy games go—you all are small town sorts just about to go on their first real adventure, etc.
I have my 5e PHB from when we flirted with this in 2015. I'll take a look at classes.
I'm not sure that I understand how the stat drafting thing works, but here are my rolls.
I'll use a smaller stat pool just for demonstration, but...
Let's assume Jelani rolls a 16, 15, and 12. On his d20 he gets a 14.
Gyrfalcon rolls a 15, 13, and 8. On his d20 he gets a 13.
Thron rolls a 14, 12, and 6. On his d20 he gets a 10.
In the pool goes: 16, 15, 15, 14, 13, 12, 12, 8, 6.
Jelani picks first, and chooses the 16.
Gyrfalcon picks second, and chooses a 15.
Thron picks third, and chooses the second 15.
Thron picks fourth, and chooses the 14.
Gyrfalcon picks fifth, and chooses the 13.
Jelani picks sixth, and chooses a 12.
Jelani picks seventh, and chooses the second 12.
Gyrfalcon picks eighth, and chooses the 8.
Thron picks last, and gets the 6.
It just follows that scheme until the pool is empty. Then you guys can swap one stat with someone else depending on personal preference. Stats go up a lot more over the course of leveling in 5e than in Pathfinder, but you can't increase anything above a 20.
Do you guys want to just try to make a go at it with the three of us (four if Jubal elects to join) or open up recruitment for a new face or two?
I’m fine with either. Entirely up to y’all.
Hi Brimley!
What's all this then?
I'm in for 5e! What do we need?
cheers
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Jubal seems to be very busy lately. I forgot I was supposed to tell him about this, so I just did that. We'll see if he bites.
As for my weapon, I want to be charisma based. So that means I need to rely on this ability:
At 1st level, you acquire the training necessary to effectively arm yourself for battle. You gain proficiency with medium armor, shields, and martial weapons. The influence of your patron also allows you to mystically channel your will through a particular weapon. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with and that lacks the two-handed property. When you attack with that weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls. This benefit lasts until you finish a long rest. If you later gain the Pact of the Blade feature, this benefit extends to every pact weapon you conjure with that feature, no matter the weapon’s type.
So, if I'm reading that right I have basically two build choices. I can go with Pact of the Blade and form a two handed weapon with my pact. That would allow me to use Cha for hit/damage on a two handed melee weapon.
Or, I could stick with my plan of Pact of the Tome and go with a one handed melee weapon of some kind.
I really wanted to use a longbow, but it seems that all the Hexblade stuff is either one handed (Hexblade) or linked to a melee weapon (Pact of the Blade can't summon ranged weapons).
Would you be open to me being a Hexbow? Same as a Hexblade except that the Hex Warrior ability would read:
"At 1st level, you acquire the training necessary to effectively arm yourself for battle. You gain proficiency with medium armor, shields, and martial weapons. The influence of your patron also allows you to mystically channel your will through a particular weapon. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with and that has the range property. When you attack with that weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls. This benefit lasts until you finish a long rest. If you later gain the Pact of the Blade feature, this benefit extends to every pact weapon you conjure with that feature, no matter the weapon’s type."
(change bolded for emphasis)
@Thron - I see you are thinking wood elf druid. I was also thinking half-wood elf. We could be related somehow...half-siblings, you could be my mom, or cousins or something...
There probably aren't that many wood elves in Thornleaf. What do you think?
Did you see my planned background? I’m fine working something out though. Give it a look over.
Let me read over the pact and patron info tonight and I'll get back to you on that. My initial answer is probably that bows are okay.
Jubal: glad you can make it! Looks like we got a pair of half-elves so far, Warlock and Druid. Sky is the limit beyond that. I'm okay with any unearthed arcana kits as well. Setting info has not been settled yet. Will wait until the table is settled for sure to hammer that out.
Cool. I've played most everything and really enjoy 5e. I'm currently running a Half-elven Palock, Elven Monk, Human Diviner, Half-elven Eldritch Knight. Did run a rogue to 5th level, too. They're all fun.
There's a Bladedancing elf class somewhere that my friend plays in our home game that looks cool. And there's a Swashbuckling rogue that a fellow player in an online game plays that looks cool, too.
Druid's can be pretty tanky. Warlock's are pretty cannony. Jelani, are you making the Warlock a face too with that Charisma?
What's up with the Gameplay? Can't dot
Ordered the stat rolls so far as well as everyone’s d20’s.
18, 17, 16, 16, 16, 15, 15, 15, 14, 13, 13, 13, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 11, 11, 11, 10, 9, 8, 6
Jelani: 14
Gyrfalcon: 13
Thron: 10
Jubal: 8
Jelani: regarding linking our backgrounds, I still am kinda wanting to roll with the outsider/fish-out-of-water style of person. Barazi is from a very primitive, small enclave.
If you wanna link our characters, perhaps you freed her from the slavers somehow? Either bought her from them, or stole her away?
@Jubal - Yes, I will be a face. I'm going to try to get everything that is Cha powered going that I can, including the Beguiling Influence eldritch invocation. We'll see how Jubal rules on bows as to whether I'll be melee or ranged primarily, but either way I should have some ranged power with spells if nothing else.
@Thron - I will look over her background and see if anything sticks out to me. If nothing jives we don't have to be related, I still haven't really thought about fluff yet.
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Hey Jubal, welcome aboard.
Based on what Kage said, I think these are our stats:
Jelani 18, 15, 14, 12, 12, 6
Gyrfalcon 17, 15, 13, 12, 11, 8
Thron 16, 15, 13, 12, 11, 9
Jubal 16, 16, 13, 12, 11, 10
What are the deities we're playing with?
Okay, regarding Hexblades and ranged weapons: You'll have to go Pact of the Blade to pull off what you're going for. You get 2 Eldritch Invocations at 2nd level. You can burn one of those to select Improved Pact Weapon. This invocation, through the Pact of the Blade feature, overrides the baseline restriction to two-handed weapon or melee weapon. The downside will be that you're probably going to be pretty janky at level one, but we won't spend very long there at all.
Prerequisite: Pact of the Blade feature
You can use any weapon you summon with your Pact of the Blade feature as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells. In addition, the weapon gains a +1 bonus to its attack and damage rolls, unless it is a magic weapon that already has a bonus to those rolls. Finally, the weapon you conjure can be a shortbow, longbow, light crossbow, or heavy crossbow.
I will note as a bit of a caveat here, that a bow as a pact weapon won't conjure ammunition out of thin air for it.
Bit of advice: If you want to be really good at making things blow up (on the off chance we carry through to mid-range levels, at least) you'll want to go Pact of the Blade anyways. The reason why is the invocation below. Eldritch Smite allows you to dump absolutely crazy amounts of damage in short bursts (think like a Magus in PF on steroids). The reason this ability in particular is so brutal is that you can decide after you hit whether or not to use Eldritch Smite, combined with doubling all rolled damage dice (including from spells or other sources) on a critical hit.
Eldritch Smite (Xanathar's Guide to Everything)
Prerequisite: 5th level, Pact of the Blade featureOnce per turn when you hit a creature with your pact weapon, you can expend a warlock spell slot to deal an extra 1d8 force damage to the target, plus another 1d8 per level of the spell slot, and you can knock the target prone if it is Huge or smaller.
And, finally, some of the spells that you get for being a Hexblade depend on using a melee weapon as part of the casting: wrathful smite at 1st level and staggering smite at 4th level. Rather than just have you carrying around some worthless spells, I'll swap out the 1st level pick for ensnaring strike and the 4th level for conjure barrage.
Deities: Any one picking a class that needs a deity/God will get to create the God they worship. After that, I'll design a few more greater deities myself (enough to cover the bases: war, magic, life, nature, death, etc.), and any one who feels like it can design some as well.
Jelani 18, 15, 14, 12, 12, 6
Gyrfalcon 17, 15, 13, 12, 11, 8
Thron 16, 15, 13, 12, 11, 9
Jubal 16, 16, 13, 12, 11, 10
Those arrays are correct, Gyr. So you guys can go ahead and start working w/ those numbers on your characters. I think keeping the table to 4 is probably a good way to start. I'll just drop an NPC into the mix if I feel it warranted for encounter balancing issues.
The two wood-elves: If you two are cool with being captured together (and rescued together), I can work that into the game pretty readily. It would make things super convenient if Jubal and Gyrfalcon were both responsible for saving you from the slaver band that was transporting you through the area.
Re: Barazi's background
From a small enclave of wild elves, very tribalistic, daughter of the chief.
First question, is there a distinction between wild and wood elves like there is in say, Faerun?
Sons are traditionally heirs to position and hold family names, daughters have no family name until marriage and usually take on roles of healers, shamans, and other support roles. She was being trained by the head shamanic in Druidic magic. At her coming of age ceremony/arranged marriage, her enclave is attacked and the few survivors (including her) are taken captive by the slavers that destroyed her tribe.
Attacked by whom? What kind of slavers? Where was this in relation to Thornleaf? Is Thornleaf in a kingdom, if so what is the general racial makeup of the kingdom? Is slavery legal, illegal, unregulated?
***********
My person (haven't even chosen gender yet) is only half-elf, and I'm thinking a generally more urban feel for them.
Just had an idea though. Maaaaybe, you were taken a slave quite some time ago (18-25 years). Then, at the same time your father or mother was taken and sold in some human city as a body slave to a human merchant/noble/something. Your enslaved parent either impregnates their new master, or is impregnated by their new master.
Then, the human and elven parent then raise my character. Once I'm a teenager/young adult my elven parent finds out that you're still alive and have been in slavery the whole time (they thought you were dead). They can't leave to go save you themselves, so they send me instead.
A couple decades of elf life span would be nothing for you, you'd be a young adult equivalent still, and then my character would be old enough to rescue you. So my character goes to wherever you're being held, busts you out somehow, and the two of us started traveling together.
Since you weren't educated or exposed to anything during your slavery you are naive, etc. However, my character is jaded and worldly, so they keep an eye on you. I can't go home because I left without permission. You can't go because you're an escaped slave. We are in Thornleaf just temporarily. I guess our normal thing would be to travel around looking for whatever work we can get with our magical and combat skills. We can probably put on good entertainment if nothing else with our cantrips and my Cha in these little villages...enough to keep us in wine and salad or whatever.
Sounds workable. Jubal, you leaning any particular direction?
My thoughts at the moment:
- Gnome Illusionist
- Halfling Barbarian
- Halfling Rogue/Cleric of a god of trickery
About the halfling barbarian...am I going to be screwing my effectiveness significantly by playing either a DEX-based barbarian (so losing rage damage and reckless attack) or still going STR-based but having no bonus to STR?
The two wood-elves: If you two are cool with being captured together (and rescued together), I can work that into the game pretty readily. It would make things super convenient if Jubal and Gyrfalcon were both responsible for saving you from the slaver band that was transporting you through the area.
Actually, just disregard this haha. Whatever you guys decide on I'll weave some stuff around it instead of trying to steer you in a specific direction.
Okay, regarding Hexblades and ranged weapons: You'll have to go Pact of the Blade to pull off what you're going for. You get 2 Eldritch Invocations at 2nd level. You can burn one of those to select Improved Pact Weapon. This invocation, through the Pact of the Blade feature, overrides the baseline restriction to two-handed weapon or melee weapon. The downside will be that you're probably going to be pretty janky at level one, but we won't spend very long there at all.
Prerequisite: Pact of the Blade feature
You can use any weapon you summon with your Pact of the Blade feature as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells. In addition, the weapon gains a +1 bonus to its attack and damage rolls, unless it is a magic weapon that already has a bonus to those rolls. Finally, the weapon you conjure can be a shortbow, longbow, light crossbow, or heavy crossbow.
I will note as a bit of a caveat here, that a bow as a pact weapon won't conjure ammunition out of thin air for it.
Bit of advice: If you want to be really good at making things blow up (on the off chance we carry through to mid-range levels, at least) you'll want to go Pact of the Blade anyways. The reason why is the invocation below. Eldritch Smite allows you to dump absolutely crazy amounts of damage in short bursts (think like a Magus in PF on steroids). The reason this ability in particular is so brutal is that you can decide after you hit whether or not to use Eldritch Smite, combined with doubling all rolled damage dice (including from spells or other sources) on a critical hit.
And, finally, some of the...Eldritch Smite (Xanathar's Guide to Everything)
Prerequisite: 5th level, Pact of the Blade featureOnce per turn when you hit a creature with your pact weapon, you can expend a warlock spell slot to deal an extra 1d8 force damage to the target, plus another 1d8 per level of the spell slot, and you can knock the target prone if it is Huge or smaller.
I didn't know about Improved Pact Weapon, that's good to know. However, my reason for asking was to get a bow as a Hex Warrior weapon, not a Pact Blade weapon.
I'd prefer to avoid Pact of the Blade altogether if possible, and go with Pact of the Tome.
As you say, I would then have some useless hexblade granted spells (at least with my bow), but I'm fine with that. Or I'm also fine with the spell swaps you mention:
...some of the spells that you get for being a Hexblade depend on using a melee weapon as part of the casting: wrathful smite at 1st level and staggering smite at 4th level. Rather than just have you carrying around some worthless spells, I'll swap out the 1st level pick for ensnaring strike and the 4th level for conjure barrage.
I don't care about being super optimized or whatever. I want to use a bow mainly for the flavor, and because I'm sick of playing melee.
If you're unwilling to make the change to Hex Warrior, then I'll probably just go with a glaive + pact of blade + improved pact weapon = 1d10+cha+1 (magic, reach) at second level.
If you make the change to hex warrior I will go longbow + pact of tome = 1d8+cha (no magic, no reach) at second level.
Sounds workable. Jubal, you leaning any particular direction?
My thoughts at the moment:
- Gnome Illusionist
- Halfling Barbarian
- Halfling Rogue/Cleric of a god of trickeryAbout the halfling barbarian...am I going to be screwing my effectiveness significantly by playing either a DEX-based barbarian (so losing rage damage and reckless attack) or still going STR-based but having no bonus to STR?
You'll definitely be significantly gimping yourself in terms of damage dealing capabilities if you play a barbarian without a respectable Strength. If you don't care about how hard you're hitting things, the trade-off is that you'll have a great AC, high HPs, and shrug off a ton of damage. Mostly boils down to what you want the character to be: if you're looking to just make a tanky meatshield, a Dex barbarian totally works. If you want to dish out some punishment too, it will likely come up disappointing (especially in a group with a hexblade).
Warlock stuffs
I'm fine with you using the bow, personally. I'd just give the Eldritch Invocations a good read-through before you commit though—they shape the class's playstyle moreso than the other class features.
Cool. I've played most everything and really enjoy 5e. I'm currently running a Half-elven Palock, Elven Monk, Human Diviner, Half-elven Eldritch Knight. Did run a rogue to 5th level, too. They're all fun.
There's a Bladedancing elf class somewhere that my friend plays in our home game that looks cool. And there's a Swashbuckling rogue that a fellow player in an online game plays that looks cool, too.
Druid's can be pretty tanky. Warlock's are pretty cannony. Jelani, are you making the Warlock a face too with that Charisma?
I'm extremely satisfied with 5e. Reminds me of playing 2e AD&D as far as the general flow of the game, but with some modernized mechanics and systems.
What's up with the Gameplay? Can't dot
Not sure. This is a 2+ year old thread, and paizo's servers are hosted on a mostly-eaten dorito, so who knows? If there's some technical issues at play I'll just have us migrate over to a brand new PbP thread after we finish making characters and setting-building.
Jubal, you leaning any particular direction?
My thoughts at the moment:
- Gnome Illusionist
- Halfling Barbarian
- Halfling Rogue/Cleric of a god of trickery
Nope. Pick what you want. Then I'll pick. There are so many cool choices. Besides, race and class are only 80% of the build. The backgrounds make a difference too.
Brim, are we relatively settled on the setting? Forgotten Realms? I thought I saw the date, but I cannot access older pages. I think you need to create a new series of threads. This is too wonky.
Wait, am I the only one with the problems? I'm running the Paizo Add-on on Firefox, which may be causing me problems
Where is Thornleaf? I'd like to consider that with my background.
cheers
@Jelani FWIW Eldritch Blast cantrip plus the Agonizing Invocation is the same as longbow pact weapon mechanically without needing a longbow. Plus EB scales with level. Just so you know your options