Discussion thread is now open for the selected players.
Please post in here to indicate you are working on your character stat blocks (or to indicate you have completed your stat block).
Cindy Lu here. Arcane caster, buffer, de-buffer, and back up healer - she is not a melee fighter, but she is pretty tough, hit point wise, as her caster stat is Con. Cindy has lived in Coran all her life. Her mother was a healer/hedge witch but needed more cash so she started adventuring 4 years back. 2 years back her entire group failed to come home. Her father is a retired city guard but has a drug problem which has gotten pretty bad, so she has had to make it on her own for the last two years. Cindy wants to help her dad and sees this opportunity with the merchant's guild as a chance to make some gold and start her own career as an adventurer.
Character crunch is 80% complete. Ideas and recommendations are welcome from my team. I do need to pick one additional language. We could all speak some strange language to help communicate IF we had some reason for it. Recommendations are specially welcome for spells known and my patron. Which brings up a question for you bbangerte. How many spells can I know without buying and scribing scrolls (pretty expensive of course)? I would like to suggest that arcane casters might have had the chance to pick up a few spells along the way and thus might know a few more than those they learn from leveling. If all I know are the ones I learn from leveling I believe I would only know 10 first levels, 4 second levels, and 2 third levels.
Hey everyone! I'm very excited to playing with all of you! I just took another read through of the characters and backstories, and I think this is going to be an interesting group. I think we're all of us servants of the guild, rather than wealthy heirs or nobles. I posted my backstory under a different alias (SpectralVisage), in case you're having trouble finding it. I wonder if any of us have been employed together on Guild jobs, before?
I am working on my character's stat block, and it should be up by tomorrow night (Tues the 15th). I think it will take me another day to work out my magic items and such.
Quick summary, Vados is an undine monk whose order is employed and kept up by the Merchant's Guild. Specifically by one family, but they are generally employed by any guild higher ups. They tend to stay within the cities, rather than on the roads, but often have jobs where the guild trades, even Akleta, Gumlat and Issust Hold. Vados specialties are close combat and stealth, so he can get around the city and do what the guild needs done.
The language question is a good one, Cindy Lu. Vados will definitely know Aquan, but there may be other Undine in the game, so it may not be the best choice. If someone has a good idea I'd be happy to go with it.
Which brings up a question for you bbangerte. How many spells can I know without buying and scribing scrolls (pretty expensive of course)? I would like to suggest that arcane casters might have had the chance to pick up a few spells along the way and thus might know a few more than those they learn from leveling. If all I know are the ones I learn from leveling I believe I would only know 10 first levels, 4 second levels, and 2 third levels.
Just your starting spells based on level. Any additional ones will need to come from your starting funds as though your familiar had learned it from a scroll (at standard scroll prices). Assume you always make a successful spell craft check for these additional starting spells though.
Aria Stellar here. Arcane Caster, Craftsman, Tactician, General Nuisance to all enemies (foreign and domestic). She does not hail from any particular location, having lived in the empire and the surrounding smaller kingdoms as suits her purpose (the main one being warfare). She has spent the last few years of her life as a mercenary warwizard in the Silver Eagles, a mercenary unit under Captain Silvers. He is currently a captain of the city guard in Coran (newly appointed).
For the past two years, with no major wars to sell her services to, Aria has taken on lesser jobs such as caravan guard duty, and has even taken a job or two for the thieves' guild and the mages of Coran: wherever the pay is good. She has never forgotten her training from the Silver Eagles, however, and in addition to magical training is a professional soldier, can repair and maintain arms and armor, and even craft magical arms and armor when the need is great. Most people think a wizard with a sword at her side as well as a spellbook is an unusual combination, but the situation suits her well.
Familiar stats are up on the profile (bottom of the page), for review and correction. Still need to get equipment done.
I have the stat block done, I will give it one more look to make sure I did not miss anything. I will have completed update later on today.
Garion Tathos ready for action! Cleric of Desna,so he most likely knows Cindy Lu from services. He is also fond of a barmaid in Issust Hold, Mikal, so we probably at least recognize each other. Cindy, many guilds and organizations had secret languages known only (supposedly) to their members. It would not be unusual for a Merchant's Guild to have such a tool. Garion is a healer and melee fighter.
Stat block's been done for a couple days now, and up on the character for whenever. I apologize in advance for all the crap he bought to put in his bag of holding; that won't make your money check all that fun, I imagine.
Quick character run-down: Talathel's the son of a human farmer who was killed when bandits attacked their caravan, and an elven bard. He learned from his mother to perform, and from one of the farm hands how to pick pockets and such, hence bard/rogue. He works as a caravan guard because not only does it let him travel, something he feels he'll have to do to ply his bardic craft, but also to try and prevent others from feeling the loss brought on by bandit attacks on the roads.
In terms of play style, Talathel is a total skill monkey, with lots of points in lots of different skills, and a bag of holding full of various things of questionable usefulness. Combat-wise, he's built more toward archery since singing requires he stay sort of in the middle of the party, and that's not always a position where he can attack easily. He does have a longsword though, in case he gets into melee. For spells, I took lots of utility stuff, since running a bard with dedicated damage spells is a total waste. Instead, he has some healing, Vanish, and lots of trickery stuff.
On the language issue, I took the Message spell, which might be a more subtle means of conveying information than screaming in strange tongues. Bards get infinite cantrip casts too, so it'll be helpful if we ever need to be stealthy. Might not hurt to all take a language for less subtle situations, but felt like throwing that solution out there.
As an Air Elementalist, Aria also has the Message spell, as well as Whispering Wind for long range communications.
I have message as well, and agree it will be useful. Note that it can be overheard with a DC25 perception. At 5th level, someone with a perception focus will make that over half the time. For the ultra careful we could use Aquan with the Message spell. :)
Looks like everyone has reported in.
Mikal - Ranger2/Inquisitor 3
Aria Stellar - Melee Wizard
Garion Tathos - Cleric with nice buffing domains
Talathel Miriel - Bard3/Rogue2
Vados Umbaran - Monk 5
Cindy Lu - Scarred Witch Doctor Witch
The one thing that jumps out at me is that we have no true melee fighter; no one has full BAB and can dish out 2d6+12 damage in a round. Mikal, who is better at range than melee may be out best melee character. Vados could be close, depending on his build which is not posted. Thoughts?
To answer some questions: Vados: Cindy has only recently come to work for the guild, so this will be her first assignment. But how about we work up that you have known about me living alone for a while and been helping me make it. If we've known each other for a while it gives me more reason to know Aquan. You might have even taught it to me.
Aria: I like the tie in with the city guard and my father, but I was confused with the change of gender in your post. Are you in the city guard or someone else? And I think I will need some help from you. You can teach me some spells that you know if you are willing to scribe them for me. I will of course give you the gold for the cost of the scribing. This will have to be done in game though.
Captain Silvers (who was once the captain of the Silver Eagles, and who is Aria's NPC contact) is now the captain of the guard I was referring to earlier.
As for scribing spells, if you throw in a few extra coins, it shouldn't be a problem. Aria rarely does anything without some profit these days. :P
EDIT: Also, I noticed that Scarred Witch Doctor is an Orc class, not a half-orc class, but if its fitting and allowed, no problems here. I was just not certain if it was permitted.
Aria has a Rhamporhynchus Pterosaur as a familiar, if permitted. It is not in the core rules, per se. But it is apparently featured as a familiar in the Skull and Shackles campaign. I am curious, however, about a familiar's skills as the rules are a little vague regarding the familiar's skill ranks. As I understand it, the familiar has the same ranks in all of the skills its master has, unless it already has better ranks in that skill, in which case it uses its own. I'll stat up Skyfire here in a bit and you can tell me what you think its skill ranks should be.
I don't have stat blocks for the Rhamporhynchus Pterosaur, can you send me a stat block for them? I assume they are comparable to other familiar types, in which case I'm fine with you taking this.
You are understanding the skill ranks correctly. If the natural animal has more ranks than your character does use those, otherwise use the animals natural skill ranks.
The 3rd party feat won't be allowed, sorry.
I'm fine with the change to move your bracers of armor to be on your robes instead.
Ah well... it was worth a try. Even warcraft (int based skill) or tactics (int based skill) from some 3pp might have worked. But they're mostly designed for mass combat.
Here is the Pterosaur.
@Vados: Assuming no objections on your part I'd like to tag the merchant family that supports your monk order with the name of Baelson.
@Cindy, your father Dane would likely live near the western gate of Coran. A seedy part of town with a jumbled collection of small ramshackle homes, run down taverns, pleasure houses, and so forth.
Aria,
Half orcs count in all ways as orcs and in all ways as humans, per the rules. Herolab allows the half orc race to take the class. And I have seen other people play this class as a half orc. That is all I can go on. The class is not overpowered imho. Sure I have a lot of health for a caster. But I give up a lot of skill points too. Like 30 skill points. I also loose a hex and as far as I can tell I can never gain an improved familiar. Still I wanted to try this class. If the DM decides I should not play the class I would be just as happy, and likely a little more powerful switching to a human or elven witch. Background would only change a little.
I am fine waiting for the right time in game to talk about sharing resources and helping each other but am not interested in paying you for a scroll. I would rather just buy them from an NPC and start with them if that is the option. We are going to eventually be a team and I think will have incentive to work together for mutual benefit and survival. And, to me at least, its more fun to play as a team.
Edit- An idea for you- Instead of your Robes of Armor for +2 armor that cost 4K, consider taking a lesser metamagic rod of extend that would make your mage armor (4 points of armor) last for 10 hours. This only costs 3K. With the difference you could buy a pearl of power to recall your mage armor, and the rod can be used three times a day on any spell you know.
@Aria, the familiar is fine.
@Cindy, your fine with the scarred witch on the half-orc.
Garion, Certainly you would know Cindy, even in such a large city. Perhaps you have been a good influence on her in the last two years, which might have prevented her from moving fully to the dark side. :) Currently she is CN with some good tendencies.
Cindy would have been in the temple of Desna on an off quite a bit over the last 4 years. Sometimes as a seeker of wisdom, sometimes for worship or to help with healing work, and sometimes in need of food or a warm place to sleep. Maybe once or twice she was in trouble with the city guard and was looking for a place to lay low too.
Cindy, thanks for the update on the Scarred Witch Doctor. I was sure it was alright, but I just had questions concerning the legality of it. A lot of DMs don't necessarily play by the rules 100%.
As for playing as a team, Aria does that quite a bit. And if there were a way to trade spells rather than simply give them away that would be another thing entirely. But since Wizards cannot learn spells from a Witch's familiar, it leaves a bit of an imbalance, socially speaking. Also, in case this wasn't clearer before, Aria's primary motivation is wealth. Has been for quite some time. But I am very certain that our characters will have clashes from time to time (CN vs N). And we will likely need one of our more Lawful team members to intervene occasionally.
Thank you also for the earlier advice. I've decided to keep the robes of armor, though, as they represent a long-term investment to eventually enchant up to +5. Five hours of mage armor is probably good enough for any normal day of battle. And if not, it can be easily prepared twice. But it was very kind of you to offer that advice and I appreciate it.
Aria and Mikal, can I have you paste your back stories into your profiles? Thanks.
@Garion, your significant NPC Astrid BelVan has spoken to you a few times regarding the Tower of the Heavens. She is troubled by its presence. You haven't been able to discern, or get her to tell you though, if she knows something about the tower, or if perhaps it is just in contrast to her faith as a follower of Desna and her reverence for the heavens that troubles her.
@Talathel, can you clarify which of your parents was human and which elven? Thanks.
Oh, sure. Father was human, mother is elven. It's in the less brief version of his bio.
I added my backstory to my alias. I will start looking at everyone elses and come up with some tie ins.
@Cindy Lu- I will take a look at Mikal and see if I can make him a little more melee friendly. It should be noted though, that with his judgements going he is about the same to hit as a straight fighter.
Aria and Mikal, can I have you paste your back stories into your profiles? Thanks.
On it, boss. :P Let me get a look at some of my compatriots backstories, and mine will likely match in length and format. :)
I added my backstory to my alias. I will start looking at everyone elses and come up with some tie ins.
@Cindy Lu- I will take a look at Mikal and see if I can make him a little more melee friendly. It should be noted though, that with his judgements going he is about the same to hit as a straight fighter.
Agree. You can do a great job, but I wanted to make sure you realized we may be needing to call on you to fill that role.
I tend to think we need to cover the regular party roles and we have a somewhat unusual set of players here so its important to consider everyone's strength and weaknesses compared to each other.
Aria's background is complete.
I'm going to change her skills around a little to reflect her background a little better and since Profession (soldier) doesn't really offer much mechanical advantage.
Stealth (4)
Profession (Soldier) (1)
Phew! Motored through and finished my Stat Block tonight, posted on my profile. I also pasted my backstory in there, though it may still need a few tweaks. I still need to finish out my magic items, but that should be quick.
@bbangerte - Baelson it is! I added that into my backstory on the profile. I also made Vedra the daughter of a Baelson family member. Also, I've been calling them House Baelson. I don't know if the House identifier is standard in Coran or not.
@Cindy Lu - Vados is definitely pushing towards melee damage, hopefully making up for big single attacks with multiple attacks through flurry of blows and judicious ki usage. But my AC isn't amazing so I may not be the best tank. Also, I'm totally down with Vados having supported you a bit. Vados makes contacts in the city as part of his work for the guild, so I could have sought you out for help with guild work before you were officially employed. And if you want to learn Aquan that sounds good to me!
Work has been kind of crazy this week, but I expect to post a bit more soon.
I should also note that as far as skills go, Vados basically does five things and not much else:
Acrobatics, Climb, Perception, Stealth, and Swim
He has a pretty low Int, so I tried to concentrate his points in just a few skills.
@Vados, House Baelson is fine. Coran has no nobility, but the wealthy merchant's are about as close as it comes minus the power to craft the laws. The mages just don't even think of it in those terms.
Knowledge: Warfare from A Game of Thrones RPG was exactly what I was looking for, but the rules for it are a little complicated, and I don't want to make anything more complicated for the DM who already has 5 pbp games to DM. :P
Reading through everyone's backgrounds, very creative and I can see why everyone has been talking about how eclectic a group we are. If we play with the same creativity shown in the backstories, we should have no problem overcoming any challenge put before us.
I see several ways that we could be be tied together:
@Aria Stellar, this is more tangental, but it would seem reasonable that Mikal would have had some contact with Cpt Dryval Silvers. He could be a contact that Mikal goes to for info about the coming and goings in Coran.
@Vados, we could have met on a caravan of some importance that required the special attention of the Myrmidos.
@Cindy Lu, Mikal's family could have gone to your mother for healing before she went adventuring, and Mikal's mother could still be secretly keeping tabs on her now that Cindy's mother is gone.
@Talathiel, could also be a contact for information of goings on in his district in Coran.
@Garion, could be the 'novice' that Mikal tries to show the ropes, seeing in Garion something special and wanting to mentor someone in much the way that Dragun mentored him.
Just ideas, and we can develop them as much as you all would like.
I fear that most of Aria's connections with the other characters will be tangential. She has worked on projects for the merchants guild before, so we might have met during those as well.
Some added information regarding Captain Silvers. He is currently stationed in the district containing the Merchant Guild offices, which covers a portion of the merchant's road, beggars street, and the surrounding areas.
@ Cindy: Certainly not the best for melee, but he does have levels in rogue (and as a prestige class, might be going into Arcane Trickster, which gives both sneak attack dice, and the ability to make attacks per day sneak attacks), so he could easily flank with Vados or Mikal when needed. Otherwise, he's going to be hitting rather hard as an archer, especially with spells like Vanish and especially Glitterdust, which will let him get off sneak attacks even at range and outside of the first combat round.
@Vados: Long as you're good on the skills your character needs to do, should be okay.
@ Mikal: Actually, I think you're on to something with that one. With all the disguise, stealth, and bluff (actually zero bluff, but Versatile Performance makes his Sing skill his bluff and he's got +13 in that) Talathel has, I think a bard/rogue would be rather perfectly suited to act as some manner of information broker between guard duties, both for the guild itself and possibly for other parties on the side. He may then have links to the other party members through that side job. Maybe Garion went to him looking for information on his father, for instance.
I'm starting to go through character stats for those who have finished.
I still need to finish my equipment purchases, that's the worst thing on the lot. I have almost no idea what standard equipment to purchase.
I'll be done later today. My issue at the moment is picking spells. It really hurts to only get 4 second level spells and only 2 third level spells.
Aria, not sure what you are picking, but you might want to know that Haste is not on my spell list, so its not an option for me.
My spellbook is complete and on my profile. I mostly stuck with air elementalist spells, but I plan to buy more scrolls with any treasure we find. lightning bolt and fly need to be on there as soon as possible.
I will finish my equipment today. Meant to do it yesterday but fell asleep.
Her equipment is finally done.
I'm about to post my initial pass at the character reviews. After doing a number of these though I've decided to alter a couple of things.
For very mundane items like a basic backpack, rope, rations, waterskins, chalk, paper, whistles, lamp oil, thread, etc, I'm not adding those into the cost of your 10k starting gold. It was just getting way to tedious to track a lot of these items that are usually coming out to a combined total of less than 100g. This also includes a basic 20 arrows or bolts or sling stones. Still make a note of these on your character sheet though - within reasonable amounts for these items, no 5000' of rope :)
For encumbrance if your item weight is within a couple pounds of a carrying capacity level I'm ignoring it, but otherwise remember that this is in effect.
For these reviews its a real possibility I've made mistakes, so don't hesitate to correct me if I tell you something doesn't add up. I realize some of you are not quite yet done either, but no worries on that.
@Cindy
I'm showing all your saves as 1 point to high
e.g, Fort (+ 1 base + 6 con + 1 cloak)
Can you also note in your saves +2 vs pain effects when wearing mask
I'm assuming the spells you have listed are those you have memorized, not your known spells.
I'm not seeing your known spells listed anywhere, but it should be:
all cantrips
9 1st level
4 2nd level
2 3rd level
assuming you take the highest level spells available each time you leveled from 1-5.
I'm not sure how many ranks you've spent in each skill. Can you note that in parenthesis
Fly (2) +8 etc
Hate you hit you with this one cause its such a good spell, but infernal healing is from ISWG, so not allowed for your wand.
Removing the infernal healing and ignoring the cost of the witch's kit (which contains all your mundane items)
Wand of Mage Armor 750g
Haramaki 3g
Cold Iron Bolts (50) 100g
Dagger 2g
Mwk Light Xbow 335g
Belt of Con +2 4000g
Cloak of Resistance +1 1000g
Handy Haversack 2000g
Wrist Sheath (2) 2g
Total Spent 8192
@Vados
Your ability scores are over cost.
Str 21 (20 base (not possible), -2 racial, +1 level 4, +2 belt) I'm guessing that should have been 18 base final 19? If so everything else is good for abilties.
Ignoring skills and combat stats till that is clarified.
Gear I have the following:
Masterwork Cold Iron Siangham (2) 606g
Masterwork Shuriken (x50) 310g
Amulet of Mighty Fists +1 2500g
Belt of Giant Str +2 4000g
Bracers of Armor +1 1000g
Wand of Mage Armor 750g
backpack and climbers kit being counted as mundane items
Disguise kit (10 uses) 50g
Smokestick (5) 100g
Total cost 9316
@Aria
With the basic mundane items removed from your costs you've spent 9955g, leaving 45 left over in your pockets. Everything else looks good.
@Mikal
Init should be +5 (+3 dex, +2 reactionary)
With mundane items removed from your costs (everything but the antitoxin and healer's kit in your haversack) you've spent 9755g
@Garion
You've only spent 19pts of the 20 on ability scores.
Str 12 2pts
Dex 13 3pts
Con 14 5pts
Int 11 1pt
Wis 14 5pts (+1 level 4, +2 racial bonus for final of 17)
Cha 13 3pts
Can you add ranks spent in each skill in parenthesis. For example Heal (3) +9
For this game Bluff/Diplomacy/Intimidate are all one skill called Bluff. So any abilities which raise one of those 3 skills are raise the combined Bluff skill. Drop diplomacy from your skills list and move any ranks you have in it into bluff instead (still max of +5 ranks at current level). Ease of faith then makes bluff a class skill for you (as does diplomacy being a class skill for clerics anyway). And your skill focus (diplomacy) becomes skill focus (bluff).
You are over cost on items
Potion of Remove Curse 750g
Potion of Remove Disease 750g
Postion of lesser Restoration 300g
Alchemists Fire 20g
Scale Mail +1 1200
Heavy Steel Shield +1 1170
Heavy Mace +1 2312
Starknife +1 2324
Handy Haversack 2000g
Healer's Kit 50g
everything else falls into the common mundane items
Total Spent 10876
You are slowed by your medium armor and/or medium weight load and have a Speed of 20 ft
@Talathel
Your fort and will saves appear to be to high.
Fort should be +3 (+1 con +1 bard +1 cloak)
Will +2 (-1 wis +3 bard +1 cloak)
Bracers of Armor don't stack with your mithral chain shirt, putting AC at 16, flat 14.
I show gear cost at a total of 9130.
Mithral Chain shirt 1100g
Mwk Composite Longbow (str rating 12) 500
Mwk Cold Iron Longsword 630g
Mwk Silver Dagger 322g
Sap 1g
Bracers of Armor +1 1000g (but with this not stacking you could remove this item)
Cloak of Resistance +1 1000g
Wrist Sheath 1g
Bag of Holding 2500g
Efficient Quiver 1800g
Caltrops (4) 4g
Smokestick (2) 40g
Mwk Thieve's tools 100g
Blunt Arrows (20) 2g
Grappling Arrows (4) 20g
Smoke Arrows (5) 50g
Disguise Kit 50g
Portable Ram 10g
I dropped everything else under the common mundane items category so not of that matters for cost
@Cindy
I'm showing all your saves as 1 point to high
e.g, Fort (+ 1 base + 6 con + 1 cloak)
Can you also note in your saves +2 vs pain effects when wearing mask
I'm assuming the spells you have listed are those you have memorized, not your known spells.
I'm not seeing your known spells listed anywhere, but it should be:
all cantrips
9 1st level
4 2nd level
2 3rd level
assuming you take the highest level spells available each time you leveled from 1-5.
I'm not sure how many ranks you've spent in each skill. Can you note that in parenthesis
Fly (2) +8 etc
Hate you hit you with this one cause its such a good spell, but infernal healing is from ISWG, so not allowed for your wand.
Removing the infernal healing and ignoring the cost of the witch's kit (which contains all your mundane items)
Wand of Mage Armor 750g
Haramaki 3g
Cold Iron Bolts (50) 100g
Dagger 2g
Mwk Light Xbow 335g
Belt of Con +2 4000g
Cloak of Resistance +1 1000g
Handy Haversack 2000g
Wrist Sheath (2) 2g
Total Spent 8192
GM Ascension, Thanks for the review. Great that you are taking the time do this level of review to make sure the field is level. The character is not final but I will consider this a baseline from which to make changes and try to note those changes for you. To address your comments:
Saves: Cindy has taken the Mystic alternative racial traits (Sacred Tatoo gives +1 to all saves and replaces Orc Ferocity. Shamen's Apprentice provides Endurance feat and replaces Intimidating.)
I will note in your saves +2 vs pain effects when wearing mask
I will show spell known, which will likely include a few purchased spells. I agree on your number of level spells I will know outside of what I buy. My final stats are higher, and would allow more, but at first level, when I learned my initial spells, they were not.
I will note points spent for you in skills.
I will change out that wand. :( Is the spell Lipstitch allowed?
I still hope to finish everything tonight but we have had some snow here (rare for north Alabama) and its screwing with my schedule.