For now I'll just DMPC Veilwar until I can figure out some way to dispose of him (cue evil grin). I put up a very hasty rerecruitment notice here but there haven't been any replies yet and it's starting to get buried among all the recruitment threads (much obliged if one of you would leave a comment to bump it). The good thing is that we're still on the zone of comfort as far as players go - but I'd still like to get that super comfy 6th.
I'm thinking of leaving the recruitment up just a bit longer considering that the party currently isn't traveling anywhere before making a pick. If any of you have any input on the applicants please let me know, as this campaign is yours just as much as it is mine.
Aggg: While I have nothing against Manny, his character seems to be filling niches we already have filled. Scout functions in most of the ways Manny would, and the odd jobs are also already mostly being handled. If they aren't handled, then I haven't noticed!
Katie: A great replacement to get some magic back into the party. I approve of adding a fortune teller, but I'm not sure how our friends would feel about stepping on the other fortune teller's toes :P
Shi'vatha: MDT is an awesome player, and I welcome him in any of my games, either as a GM or as a Player. While I don't know what the Eidolon will bring to the table for performances, I'll vouch for him as a good player. You can ask the orc if there's still more positive references for MDT. :)
As for how to handle the missing HD, I don't see anything wrong with just giving class levels, or giving more outsider HD at the bare minimum. :)
Shi'vatha: MDT is an awesome player, and I welcome him in any of my games, either as a GM or as a Player. While I don't know what the Eidolon will bring to the table for performances, I'll vouch for him as a good player. You can ask the orc if there's still more positive references for MDT. :)
Question is.... if we do pick him, how the heck is he just going to show up?
"Oh, we have this caged animal we're selling." "Help me! They took me prisoner!" "Shut up you! Now, how about we haggle the price."
LOL!
Seems like the area could just have an eidolon walking around. I mean... no one's got the Volo locked in a cage :P
So it's more a question of whether or not we go after something he'd go after, and he's going after it... or if he wants to join the circus in some way :P
In Shi'vatha's occupation field he wrote "troubleshooter for the church of Muir" and as it so happens there is a temple to Muir in Bard's Gate. I'd assume he'd be living with the clergy before you guys rolled into town - although it'd really be up to him.
Well, who doesn't want to run away and join the circus these days?
Shi'vatha seems a decent enough creature, though there's some oddities about the build that might need working out—I can't see where the +6 to dexterity would come from (unfettered eidolons usually start with fixed ability scores that they can boost by spending evolution points), and he should have +4 natural armor but no proficiency with actual armor (or following the original eidolon rules, no ability to wear armor at all).
The reasons Eidolons can't wear armor is because of their connection to their summoner, so wearing armor makes sense for one that doesn't have a summoner. :)
I'm much less worried about where the stats came from, as he's still point-buy viable if you simply gave him the human (least favorable) stat allocations based on race. But... I'll do it anyway!
The attributes are a little bit of a mess, but if you made small quadruped into a race, you would arrive at: 10/16/11/7/10/11. He probably went with treating its racial bonuses as 0/6/0/-4/0/0, then, as per allowing a player to play a monstrous race. He then applied his 20 point buy to a 'race' with +6 dex, -4 int as racials, and arrived at where he is.
If he'd gone nuts with the form and all that, he'd actually be sitting at significantly higher than 18 dex if he wanted, in this way. But at the end of the day, even without the insanely crazy mods, a simple +2 dex (as if human) puts him at his exact same stats by point buy. :)
He also hasn't applied his 2 HD +1str/dex yet from the looks of it.
I think that covers everything. :) Just also bear in mind that the Centaur, at some point, may decide to regrow to Medium, giving 4 str, 2 con, and taking away 2 dex. I'm not sure if that's planned at all, or if the DM would even allow it. :) (then he'd swap to 18/16/14/12/10/11 for his bases before level-ups)
Hope that helps. <3 Summoners.
Yeah, except... eidolons get enough str/dex through leveling and evolutions that allowing a rogue eidolon to use a stat array would go completely nuts, rather than the seeming intent of "summoner without the summoner"
Also, he's not proficient in armor anyway.
Other than that, eh.
I'm not good at determining broken or no, but from what I know of him he seems pretty cool. Good at role play.
I like the shadow girl as well. She'd be a good replacement. And as far as finding a way to swap veilwar, they're almost similar enough to just be interchanged without modifying canon.
Yah... and mechanical stuff is always the easiest to fix/change/nerf after a game's started in any case, so no worries there.
Well, I wouldn't know what to do with the Eidolon.... I say "Dog Rider" minus the shadow template like Steve suggested. Replace a magic user with another one.
"Behold! The strange and wondrous centaur-beast of farthest Mandalay! Half serpent, half crocodile, half unicorn, it knows nothing but kindness towards mankind, but a strange curse prevents more than one such creature from being born at a time across the whole wide globe! Marvel at its iridescent wings, and its ability to dissolve solid stone with the tip of its tongue! Here for one night only! One silver to see the creature up close after the show, two to pet it, and ten to let your child ride a once-in-a-lifetime magical creature of the utmost rarity!"
....Man.... it's kinda hard to argue with that $_$.... Hmmm.... The appeal is pretty high (and like the speech by the way... I should come up with stuff like that), but what about our arcane ability? Technically, my character is a divine caster that goes up the 9th level spells. While I guess we have two arcane casters, they only go up to 6th and 4th level spells.... No offense, you guys have a lot of other things going for you.
Though I guess I can be the resident magic man, my utility is a little bit lower and my most damaging spells are higher level...
Funny enough, my character in an antimagic zone is worth about the same as a warrior. :)
I've never really worried about having 'the balanced party'. I worry more about making sure that the players have the tools to have fun with what they have. I -do- like shadow lady, and again, she fits for basically swapping out with Veilwar in several ways, already.
If you're outright looking for party parity, we have 3 effectively martial, 2 mini-arcanes, 2 skillmonkeys, and a divine. Possibly more than that. (I'm mixing roles a lot) If we're just wanting a stronger composition, Fortune teller will fill the arcane niche much better.
Though, at the same time, having Scath play an Eidolon and giving him a pet summoner fills that very same Niche while actually -strengthening- the character, and breaking his concept, which I don't think he'd go for.
An illusionist is certainly handy. But we're not super combat-optimized, and I usually support going for whoever looks like the most interesting player (at least until higher levels).
Thing is, this will probably be a pretty low-level campaign, which makes the lack or presence of a wizard a smaller deal than the lack or presence of a few martial attackers (which we're good on either way). And a pet summoner would fill arcane support nicely, hadn't thought of that—but I don't have strong opinions at this point.
Pet Summoner seems interesting. Then might I suggest that if Steve/we pick him and he uses a summoner, that the summoner use the 3rd Party Paracosmist archetype from Into the breach - The Summoner. Its an archetype that trades summon monster for a permanent (stays summoned unless killed), more powerful eidolon. Considering I think its a little bit more balanced and the fact that the eidolon is permanent instead of having to be re-summoned every time he goes to sleep or is knocked out (of course he also has to re-summon him if he dies and he is also dismissed if his summoner dies like normal though...).
That sounds... possibly problematic? But if he's "playing" the eidolon, he'd never really want to use the summon monster ability anyway, and it's a little less powerful than the standard problems. Also, fun ideas on the same line could include an eidolon who calls a summoner to his side, but now I'm just brainstorming.
I still think the fluff will be more important to him than the crunch. I think he has a backstory regarding why his eidolon is by itself, and that that will be important to his character.
I haven't said much, but the eidolon sounds interesting.
I decided on Shi'Vatha - he's got an interesting circus themed character, a good recommendation from Sergei, and his connection to the church of Muir work's well with some upcoming plot lines I hope to develop.
Hello everyone. Thanks for letting Shi in. He's a blast to play. :) I'll get the equipment fixed up shortly.
Any specific way you want to bring him in? I was thinking they might hear some rumors in town of him at the local church. Maybe people even thinking he's already a circus performer, and the PCs wondering which of the circus people is hanging out at the church...
Oh, a quick note, I travel on Sunday nights and Thursdays, so I will likely be unable to post usually at those times.
Welcome to the party. ^_^
Glad to have you. It looks like I am no longer the strangest one in the group. ;-)
Shi's fairly normal. :)
For an unfettered eidolon. :)
Shi's fairly normal. :)
With an original pronoun, apparently...
Either that or a shortened version of his name. ;-)
Shi'Vatha -> Shi. Vatha seems a bit long for a nickname. Although Vath might work as well.
Just as long as it's not Darth.
Vath Drader!
Just let me know how you want me to enter the game thread.
I'll be getting around to all that later tonight, I had some last minute business to take care of afore work and couldn't get around to posting.
NP
Should we run a minor show with our hypnotist gone? It'd be a good way to build up the crowd, and get those who would pay less for tickets through, before the big spenders arrive. Plus, Sergei can save 'making it look easy' for the bigger spenders.
Who will be the announcer?
Dunno! Sergei could, in theory.
As for performing: He can only do four big lifts per day, if he uses rage rounds in pairs. And only one big lift will look easy.
It probably goes a lot better without announcing in between and just assuming things -were- announced. That way we don't spend five days on each performance.
Everyone still around? I think we all might be waiting for someone else to post - I'll try to get something up during my lunchbreak today.
Sorry. Been really busy at school.
I'm here, there's just decidedly little to respond to. I could take more initiative and push folks towards an early show, but I was waiting for more interest in doing so... Or in waiting for the return of the hypnotist.
I think what's happening is that we split the party, and the group at the inn is waiting for more to interact with, the hypnotist is apparently waiting for the shi scene to play out, and the circus group is waiting for the return of the 'away team' to start a large show. I think it's in everyone's best interest to stick to one -big- show each day. I know Sergei is much better off that way. :)
I'll second the one big show idea. Helps us plan things out a bit better while doing other things on the side.
Shi posted several days ago, and no response from the innkeeper. Unless someone else approaches him at the inn, he's pretty much monologuing with the GM.
Sorry... it seems I to was waiting for more things to respond to... That's why I tried a little push with the Slatha side show...
There you have it. :) we're all just waiting for continuation. :)
Yeah, sorry... Jack's just waiting for someone else to talk first, as he's quite shy.
No worries, I've been pretty busy with a new job anyways, where my lunch break turns out to not be as long as I had thought, so I'll kick us off tonight.
:)
Shi pokes around, watching as everyone he talks to freezes in place like a bad digital image. :)
Lol. That's Pbp for ya.
Sorry. I've just been really busy lately. X(