The Pyramid of Shadows (Inactive)

Game Master 137ben

I'm not really sure which option to go with.

I feel more players could work, but I've had bad experiences with new folks coming in with jarring playstyles or "humorous" characters or worse, both. The other problem is having us or our characters explain who the various factions are, what the significance of various things are etc. That said, if we rescue a "prisoner/s" or come across others bereft in the Pyramid (new PC/s) - perhaps we stumble upon them at the entry Pit on one of our foraging sessions - somewhere, they might enjoy starting fresh with our kooky bunch.

Option 5: The current players take on some of the NPCs. The problem there is that all three NPCs are beholden to factions, and should really be under DMB's control.

Option 6: The current players make new characters to play alongside current characters. I'm up for this. The problem with this option is the reliance on three people stays the same.

Option 6.b: AKin to 6, above, but using Cohorts and Leadership both of which I am entirely unfamiliar with.

Option 7: Something I haven't thought of either.

N.B. If we were to go with Option 3 I personally wouldn't class the game a failure. It has been most fun. ;)

Gestalt seems interesting to me, primarily, as I have grown somewhat bored with Gemheart. Aegis just doesn't quite have the feel i thought it would. In addition, as I seem to often do, I made a rather bland character. However, my interest has grown slightly with the chat in the lobby, after having been waning due to my dislike of thorashka and my feeling of inability to actually contribute in combat against the fragments of karavakos.

I agree that new players shouldn't take over NPCs beholden to factions.

As for whether or not to bring in new players, on that I am ambivalent. I see the pros and cons to be roughly equal in measure.

If we bring in new players, and that is a big if, we could try just one (or possibly two) new players, so most of the old group cohesion would be there from the start. Recruiting for only one or two slots also means we can be more selective in picking people who
a)Have a long track-record of not disappearing, and
b)Who we are more confident will avoid the bad experiences Yessai is referring to.

I'll also throw out a bit more information:
--If new players are being brought in, I'd imagine they would be new arrivals in the Pyramid. Karavakos is disappointed that you haven't already restored him to full power. Or there might possibly be another way of getting in to the Pyramid that you haven't discovered yet....
I'll agree that none of the NPCs traveling with you now are really appropriate for PCs without considerable revision.

--In terms of exploration, I'd estimate that you are a little less than half-way done exploring the Pyramid, though that is a very rough estimate depending on how much you want to explore. How far along you are to completing this campaign depends a lot on what you actually decide to do in the future. So, there's still time for a new player to become an established part of the group well before the campaign's natural end.

--If we are staying with just three players, we could go gestalt, or you could get a couple mythic tiers, or I can just redesign encounters to account for the fact that there are only three of you. The latter won't help you with things like covering different skills, though, unless you trust the NPCs enough to believe them if they discover something via a skill you don't have.

I'd be open either to keeping our current player roster, or adding up to two more. I don't think I want to add more than two new players at once...it would change the character of the group too much.

I agree, two should be a max of newcomers.

not a huge fan of mythic, myself. i'll play it, just... not a fan.

Hmm.

* I'd be happy for Gemheart to go Gestalt if he wants to - seems like it would stoke his interest somewhat. I'm not interested in Gestalt personally, but like I said - I'm totally ok with Gemheart gaining that capacity - I wouldn't feel short-changed one bit if he was souped up and Yessai wasn't.

* I'm still keen to play a second character. A max HD vegepygmy of some interesting class would be awesome.

* I think adding one (maaaaaybe two) players is actually a good idea to a) add some agency, and b) protect against any future roster shakeups.

* Like Gemheart, I'm not a huge fan of Mythic. Mostly due to lack of familiarity. I think I would like to try it at some point, but perhaps not now.

If you don't mind explaining, Gemheart, what don't you like about Thoraska? I'm not insulted or anything, I am just curious to hear your feedback. I know you chose to have Gemheart not interact with her....
I get that you felt like you had trouble affecting the Splinter (though you did make a difference.)

Anyhow, there are a couple other points to consider:
a)I think that this campaign actually works better with fewer players. Less argument in decisions, more intrigue and leadership potential. Three players may actually be the ideal size, though four is good too.
b)However, with only three people, we run the risk of getting bumped down to two. If we did fall down to two players, I'd be less comfortable bringing in new players, since the group dynamic would be almost completely lost if half or more of the group is replaced at once. Hence, getting back to four players sounds like a good goal.

So here is yet another option:
8)Our three remaining players rebuild their characters as gestalt. The NPCs will not be gestalted, which will reenforce that the PCs are above their followers. Once everyone is ready, we can continue playing with just the four of us for at least a little while longer. If, at that time, we decide we still would prefer another friendly face, we can do another recruitment thread for one new player.
This option has the benefit of giving me extra time to prepare a possible recruitment thread in case we need it, without further putting the game on hold. And, Tenro's interest can be maintained from gestalting.
Alternatively, if OSW really doesn't want to gestalt, then Yessai can remain single-classed but gain a cohort, satisfying OSW's desire for a second character.

Thoughts?

Gemheart's main dislike of Thorashka is because i mean, you're a freakin' dragon, typically the very avatar of self-confidence, and you refuse to even have a discussion with someone in the very seat of your power unless they fully disarm?

On one hand, I get it, I had like six weapons on me. But to even demand that I remove my gloves, which were only usable as a weapon as an afterthought....

1. in my mind, no sane person would disarm in a place such as the pyramid. utter suicide.

2. if you are afraid of gloves that do 1d4 damage, and you are a dragon, you deserve no power and no followers.

in summary, there is a certain common sense in disarming potential enemies before they can approach. but on the other hand, demanding it, at least in Gemheart's mind, betrays a very insecure and petulant individual who has likely gotten where they are not through combat power but by manipulation.

as for affecting karavakos, i feel like other than a crit, i didn't do much. perhaps i was just being overly sensitive? I dunno.

Well, I'm likely going to feel a tad stupid for asking this, but what is going gestalt? Presumably from some of the comments, it causes a gain in power.

As for Yessai getting a cohort, doesn't sound like a terrible idea, since we'll probably need the class spread again.

And that's a good point about adding too many people at once breaking the team and flow. I think your suggestion of continuing with just us for a while, and seeing how it goes, is a good idea. Gives you time to prepare, gives us time to adapt, and keeps the game going.

Well, I'm likely going to feel a tad stupid for asking this, but what is going gestalt? Presumably from some of the comments, it causes a gain in power.

Ok, gestalt is quite simple, but a little too complex for my liking. Basically, you add a second class at the same level to your character. Let's say for the sake of argument, Fighter. You are now a Ninja//Fighter 6. You gain the better HD, BAB, Saves and Skills of the two classes. You gain ALL the class abilities of both classes.

So you are pretty powerful. But the action economy is still your limiter. Which is why I'd rather a cohort. ;)

Correct me if I'm wrong on the gestalt rules, or someone link to a reputable description - I've seen a few different versions....

As for Yessai getting a cohort, doesn't sound like a terrible idea, since we'll probably need the class spread again.

Yup. Also the action economy thing is a bugbear - like three powerful creatures are still only three - take one out and there be only two. Take two out and it's almost game over. The trick will be making a cohort that will still be able to contribute meaningfully and won't be a glass cannon.

And that's a good point about adding too many people at once breaking the team and flow. I think your suggestion of continuing with just us for a while, and seeing how it goes, is a good idea. Gives you time to prepare, gives us time to adapt, and keeps the game going.

Good summation, Dee!

Gestalt rules are here.

On the subject of Yessai's non-desire-for-gestalt, I don't think OSW should get a full-fledged second PC, because that's way, way, more powerful than just gestalting. The best option would be for Yessai to get Leadership as a bonus feat, and for OSW to create a cohort. (And if it wouldn't make sense for your cohort to have already been in the Pyramid, they can be conveniently brought into the entry pit from the outside.)

OSW, do you have access to either Alexander Augunas' Ultimate Charisma or the earlier version, the Leadership Handbook? That could provide a better way to handle things, but obviously only if you can access the book (one of the downsides to pbp is that I can't share splatbooks with you over the internet.)

And then Soth should decide whether you want De to go gestalt like Gemheart or to get a cohort like Yessai (or something else).

it doesn't bother me that OSW would have a full second PC rather than a cohort. I could understand if you made that decision based on how you have crafted our encounters and such, but if it was to make sure i dont feel bad or short-changed or something, it doesn't bother me.

on the subject of Gemheart gestalting, I am not sure what second class I would put in there.

The initial idea was that he would be an innovator/improvisor who would be able to change things here or there to meet challenges as they came up. Solving problems with magic/psionic power and mostly just being tough by virtue of his race (kinda like Normal from Mighty Max, if you remember that show). Aegis has not been as good at that as I had hoped.

what do you think of Artificer? Or does anyone have another suggestion? Although since I did Gemheart with Herolab, I suppose I should go with the Artificer version that is in there instead. Mostly the same as 3.5 but not using XP in items.

Well, according to the Leadership rules with my Cha mod of +3 and Level of 6 I end up with 9 Leadership, and that gets me a 6th level cohort.

I guess you could apply a -1 to my Leadership score for "moves around a lot" reskinned as " currently trapped in a demiplane"...

well, leadership (at least in 3.5) imposed a hard cap of PC level -2 for the cohort, so no matter how charismatic you were, your cohort could never be more than your level -2

EDOT: oh, says it in PF too, under the paragraph starting with Cohort Level

It makes sense that the cohort is of a lower level than the character...

Yea, your cohort has to be two levels lower than you regardless of your Leadership Score.
Interesting to note: that limitation does not apply to followers. That means, at least in 3.5, it is possible to have sixth level followers at level six. If you can build your own followers (which isn't clear from the text of the Leadership feat), then your followers could take Leadership, potentially leading to an infinite-followers loop. I'm not sure if it can be done in Pathfinder (EDIT: Nope, looks like they raised the Leadership level requirement in PF to 7th, without raising the maximum follower level, which rules out any followers taking Leadership.)

As to the whole Articifer question, I'll quote what I wrote in the Chaos in Sarlona campaign info tab

Articifer: The Craft reserve can be used as crafting gold instead of xp. It has five times the values listed in ECS (so 300 reserve gold at level three). Retain Essence also allows you to add points to your craft reserve based on the item's gold cost. The class otherwise works the same as it does in 3.5 (I think it is already powerful enough that it doesn't need any new class features or other boosts to put it on par with pathfinder classes.)

I'm not so wild about the changes tzizimine made to numerous things.

Sounds good. I'll work on a 4th level concept.

I got some mod, probably by ShadowChemosh (big name in HL community), that lets you gestalt in it. It is slightly tedious though. Normally in HL, if you are making a character above 1st, you can just slap all the levels on at once if you're single-classed. With the gestalt mod, you have to do each level 1 at a time, choosing Gestalt as the class and then the two levels to gestalt together. The mod then combines the values of those classes according to gestalt rules and makes that the one class. Still less tedious than putting the character level together the normal way with pen and paper (or .txt or .doc, etc.).

As for the version it is the same as the old Artificer (at least at first glance, I will look deeper) but the craft reserve was swapped to GP at x10 value rather than x5 as you say.

as for the tziz changes, I do like them somewhat, especially ingenuity. but no big deal, nothing that cant be done the old way.

@DMB - are you au fait/open to the Occultist Base Class?

I don't speak French...Google Translate tells me "au fait" means "by the way," is that what you meant? Sorry.

Anyhow, yes, I'm okay with the Occultist base class.

Anyhow, Gemheart, yes that's acceptable, but I should warn you that there aren't a whole lot of places to get crafting material in the Pyramid, so your articifer may seem not as good as you might expect. There are some places to find crafting material, though, and someone who's been in the Pyramid a long time might know where to find it....

hmm, what are classes are good at improvisation? Investigator is not as good as i had hoped

Ok, I would like to propose a Vegepygmy Occultist, using the racial rules found in Wayfinder #8.

The flavor would be that the vegepygmy took items from the corpse of a githyanki adventurer that was killed by russet mold somewhere in the Pyramid's first level, that in turn spawned the vegepygmy. This vegepygmy is not aligned with the arborlings, and has scratched and scavenged to survive, but knows nothing of the Pyramid except for the 1st level/what we have already explored.

Said cohort recognises regalia of the gith and comes to see Yessai as his priestess/goddess. Yessai will take time to learn his guttural thumps, inflorescences and explosions of pollen/scent that make up his forms of comunication.

What "level adjustment" would the vegepygmy have given the base racial abilities presented in the article?

Gemheart: I'm not exactly sure what you are asking.

Yessai: I've never seen that before, so let me take a look...
Okay, my initial estimate is that the vegepygmy stats you presented should have at least a +2 LA. My actual initial estimate is that it should have at least a +3 LA if it were a 3.5 race, which is more what I'm used to, and I'm using my general guideline that 3.5 races should have their LA reduced by 1 if used unaltered in Pathfinder).

That's just my initial estimate, though.

Basically, I am looking for a character that is a problem-solver. Has some versatile abilities rather than just being a vessel that swings a 1d12 weapon around. Artificers can solve any problem given time and resources, and while we have tons of time, not so with resources.

Investigator, while supposedly good at improvisation, is really just a class built around some d6s added to d20 rolls.

Alright, that makes sense to me. So, as it stands, we're kind short on both heals and arcane if I'm reading our sheets right. So we're probably going to need a fill in for that side of things, that synergies with ninja... Hmm, its gunna be a couple of days till I can get to my hardcover manuals and character notes(out of town temporarily) but I'll keep having a think till then.

Basically, I am looking for a character that is a problem-solver. Has some versatile abilities rather than just being a vessel that swings a 1d12 weapon around. Artificers can solve any problem given time and resources, and while we have tons of time, not so with resources.

Investigator, while supposedly good at improvisation, is really just a class built around some d6s added to d20 rolls.

Yea, that's an issue with a lot of Paizo classes. Class features are invariably either "spells" or "number boosts." You could get some of what you wanted as a witch or wizard, but then you'd be either taking off your armor or dealing with an ASF chance. You could go the Bard route and switch to light armor (I'd let you retrain your ability scores to have a better charisma in that case). Having mentioned I'd be remiss not to also mention a Maestro from Strange Magic (or any of the other SM classes), but if you don't have the book then that might not be an option.

You could also go psion, or vitalist. Or Divine Chaneller (Secrets of Adventuring) or Oracle, again with retraining for your ability scores. Alchemist is also an option.

And then there's Spheres of Power and its 11 base classes.

I'm not sure if any of those classes are what you are looking for, I'm just throwing ideas out.

Alright, that makes sense to me. So, as it stands, we're kind short on both heals and arcane if I'm reading our sheets right. So we're probably going to need a fill in for that side of things, that synergies with ninja... Hmm, its gunna be a couple of days till I can get to my hardcover manuals and character notes(out of town temporarily) but I'll keep having a think till then.

No need to rush, enjoy your trip while it lasts.

Spheres of Power looks interesting from the overview and reviews. I will have to read more into it, as i just picked it up and it is big, heh.

Wouldn't necessarily want to switch to Bard (too off-character) an Earth Kineticist might be good. But with the high praise on Spheres of Power, I will give it a look-through.

Incanter, from Spheres of Power, seems pretty interesting. it would give me, unless i am missing something, a wide array of new things with which to solve problems. Destruction, Creation, Alteration all seem suitable. In a few levels, I might even be able to solve the guy in the lobby's brother's bodily issue.

GM:

1. What do you think of Incanter for Gemheart's other class?

2. What do you think about the Break Enchantment Life Talent, specifically as it applies to someone who has been turned to stone?

Excerpt from the talent:
This counts as using the break enchantment or remove curse spell against those spells and effects that specify they can only be removed through those spells. This has no effect on instantaneous effects.

a. The spell description for Break Enchantment specifically says that it can reverse even an instantaneous effect (such as Flesh to Stone).

b. Then it says it has no effect on instantaneous effects, contradicting itself.

1. I'd be fine with it. I'll admit I don't have a lot of experience with SoP: I've only used it a little, and only in a game that was otherwise 3.5.
2. I...have to think about it a bit.

Yeah, i figured it was a bit of a thinker. On one hand, it says it acts like something that totally works, and on the other hand it says it doesn't. Classical poor writing / not checking for specific contradictions (which i could excuse if it weren't for the fact they named two specific spells, one of which contradicts).

Okay, it looks like SoP Break Enchantment cannot reverse Flesh to Stone: it says it counts as the Break Enchantment or Remove Curse, but has another clause which specifically exempts instantaneous effects.

In other words,

a. The spell description for Break Enchantment specifically says that it can reverse even an instantaneous effect

It doesn't specifically mention that it can reverse instantaneous effects: counting as Break Enchantment or Remove Curse could, for example, it could reverse Bestow Curse (which has a permanent Duration.)

Ah, i was afraid you'd say that, but i figured i'd ask.

so i'll probably have to get into some spellcrafting or advanced talents or something. maybe make an incantation? do you see any of those as being unsuitable for the game?

I'll try to get Gemheart updated soon, but i have a bit of a medical procedure tomorrow so it may be a few days.

I was thinking Creation, Destruction, and Life spheres, more or less. Creation actually seems really limited, surprisingly so. If I drop it altogether, the number of talents i desire will be the same number as that which i can choose (rather than being 4 over with Creation added, and having to parse down).

Gemheart: it could work. I'll warn you though, that I don't expect this game to go past level eight, or maybe nine, so you probably shouldn't plan on building past there.

Everyone: Should I start preparing a new recruitment thread for one new person, or should we hold off a bit? I'd rather not wait until we are dropped to only two active players (hopefully that never happens, but ya never know), but we don't need to do the new recruitment right now if you all would prefer to wait a little longer.

ah, ok, so i probably wont be able to un-petrify that guy then. shame.

but i didn't have hard plans after that. i find in PbP games that it is a wasted effort to plan characters too much, by the time i actually attain the levels that i previously planned for, i forgot the plan.

EDIT: Oh, and recruiting sooner rather than later is probably better. now seems like a good time to introduce another character.

Okay, I have mostly written up the easy parts of the new recruitment thread. The big thing I am missing is a summary of everything that happened in the campaign so far...which I'll probably do this weekend. Yea, it's a long thread, but I've already gone through it a number of times when I am looking for details to avoid creating continuity errors.

There's one other idea I've been thinking about that I want your opinions on: should we discard my critical-hit house rule?

I use that rule in my face-to-face 3.5 games, but during this campaign I realized some things about it that indicate it may not have been a good idea for this campaign:
a)When I use it in face-to-face games, my group has a lot of other house rules, many of which are designed to play well with the Open Ended Rolls variant and my associated critical hit house rule. Without those other house rules, a lot of the benefits of the critical hit house rule are lost.

b)My critical hit rule was originally designed primarily to address issues that crop up in high level d20 play. (The Open Ended Rolls variant, on which it is based, comes from a sidebar in the ELH). At lower levels (especially without all my other house rules), the critical hit and natural 20/natural 1 changes have a much smaller effect on the game (especially without my other house rules that go along with it). In a campaign which will be played entirely at low and mid-low levels, there isn't much point to using my rule.

c)In a pbp setting, y'all are probably playing in many other games, not all of which use the same house rules. While my critical hit rule has very little effect on the game at low levels, it does have the potential to create confusion if you are also playing with WotC's and Paizo's critical hit rules in another game at the same time.

All in all, the advantages I see in this rule in my ftf group mostly don't apply to this group, while there is an extra disadvantage that I don't see in ftf play. What would you all think of axing the critical hit HR from this campaign going forwards? I'd just delete it from the campaign info tab, and not mention it in the new recruitment thread. Thoughts?

While i wasn't vehemently opposed to it, neither am i a fan of it.

DMB: I agree with your summation - I think removing it would remove an added level of complexity we aren't exactly interacting with. BTW - I just checked, and I don't see that houserule evident in the Chaos in Sarlona Campagn tab...

- Still working on my 2nd level Vegepygmy Occultist...does he...it...get WBL for a 4th level character or something else. Seeing as he/it spawned from a githyanki, any chance he can have a githyanki's silver sword? :)

@DMB - for my 2nd level vegepygmy Cohort, do I use the character generation appearing in the initial recruitment thread - it was for 4th level characters - 20 pt buy etc...?

The big thing I am missing is a summary of everything that happened in the campaign so far...which I'll probably do this weekend.

Turns out I had a bit less time this weekend than I thought. I'll try to get it done some time this week....

Whew, and back, now 19. Fun was had, books were gotten back from friends and shall be poured over tonight. Should have a rough idea tomorrow. And like Gem, I wasn't opposed to the critical rules, but I'm not going to lament their absence.

Sorry for my lack of posting. Been slammed by real life of late. Trying my hardest to catch up on everything...

No problem, Yessai.

I just posted the new recruitment thread. Feel free to chime in in that thread, or not. Or, if you have particularly strong feelings about a potential applicant that you aren't comfortable posting publicly, you can PM me/each other. Or not.

Awesome post on the recruitment thread. I like the summary. :)

Gemheart is updated. His updated flavor is similar in vein to before, but more well-rounded. I dropped all the crafting abilities and flavor since we aren't getting any loot or materials that can be re-purposed.

He can do both melee and range now, though he remains much better at melee because i didnt change his attributes, so he is still strong and not very dexterous. his is slightly more tanky (a few more AC) than before, but can also at least put out a little more damage than before (a few more dice instead of hefty static bonuses).

of note:
- he has gained a slight bit of CC for utility
- he can change sizes which may or may not be of use depending on the battles
- he can heal us now. his healing isn't all that great in combat. i mean, he can heal for 2d8+12, but it costs him a lot more of his resources than it would cost a cleric to heal like that. That said, out of combat he can grant Fast Healing 2 for 6 minutes. so that is more than we really need. And he could do that in combat but it is more efficient to do it when everyone is in touch range.

i COULD drop a d6 of damage to increase my healing range from Touch to 40ft. that would make it more viable in combat. just depends on if you all want Gemheart more melee-damagey or more heal-supportey.

My replies to your questions are below. I'm throwing my answers out there in case any others want to discuss my answers.

1.) Preferences, none so far. I haven't looked at their crunch or fluff too much, as it is a lot to keep up with when things change along a recruitment thread. That said, with your summary post, that makes it a little less difficult.

I have played 1 game with Arkwright and I am in a game with Thunderbeard, and i have probably been in an old dead game or two with one or the other. The other names aren't familiar to me, not that that pushes me away from them. I have no unfavorable opinions of Arkwright or Thunderbeard.

Based on class alone (still havent dug into their builds):
A.) Edeldhur: Krezen, half-orc bard 6//fighter 6
Bard could be useful as we need social skills. What kind of fighter would be important, i suppose (melee/range/maneuver/etc)
B.) Arkwright: Saint Trevor, human cleric 6//vitalist 5/thrallherd 1
Cleric would be good for heals. I haven't dug into it too deeply but domains would be important, I'm not sure Shelyn gets any that are of particular use to us. Vitalist is very good though in combination with cleric and more so in combination with Thrallherd. Have a big enough collective, do a channel with as many allies as you can, then funnel all those HP... could be enough to fill Gemheart up from 0 if done right.
C.) Helikon: Runa Fendinn, aasimar paladin 6//bard 6
Paladin Bard could give us some much-needed charisma and direction. Not sure how often our normal enemies are evil, so mileage may vary. Also I take it this person is planning on light armor so they can cast bard spells, which means they're gonna wanna be an archer.
D.) Angelpalm: Genevieve, tiefling stalker 6//warder 6
it has been a good long time since I have looked deeply at the PoW classes. I recall stalker being quite good, and warder having some helpful abilities. I assume this person plans on flanking with Gemheart. While appreciated, I would hope this person also has some sort of social skills.
E.) thunderbeard: Githzerai UC Monk 2/Stalker 4//Occultist 6
this could be interesting. occultist has social skills, and hopefully theyre using their monk and stalker sides to set themselves up to get by with very low wealth by level.

2.) Sexual assault is not a sensitive issue as pertains to me. I understand that it triggers others, I personally just dont have any real triggers. That said, sexual content in general I consider somewhat of an annoyance, particularly when overdone. A mention in the backstory, a singular discussion when it comes up organically, fine. But if said person were going up to every NPC asking "wanna know how i got these scars?" I would be annoyed. I am the same way with romance in videogames and pointless love interests in movies.

3.) Two additional players wouldn't bother me.

Even without considering that I have played with them before, I'd say my order of preference (barring them having something in their crunch to change my mind, as I didn't look too deeply) would be:

Thunderbeard / Arkwright
Angelpalm
Helikon / Edeldhur

Ah, sorry about being rather quiet for ages, was doing some of the prep work to move jobs (got a position as an AV Technician understudy, yeeeees), and hadn't had time to recharge my credit and ahhhhhh, so flustered. Got a day off, as well as an evening in town, so ill probably be setting up Dee as a gestalt Ninja/Ranger, since that gives us some additional heals, bolsters her ranged ability and gives a bit of robustness to her. I'll get that up ASAP

Good work on the summation and pros/cons Tenro!

Ultimately I see this as your decision DMB, and thanks for asking us our opinions. Yes will react to and interact with whoever turns up.

* My vote is with the Githzerai, both from crunch/build approach and more importantly approach to the Recruitment. Obviously another Gith would be interesting to me.

The Aasimar and Tiefling are also interesting, but more from flavour than builds. I'm not big on balance through crunch, I'm much more focused on intraparty dynamics.

* Personally I would find it hard to reconcile a new character as the face/leader of our band given that we have travelled and interacted with various factions/creatures/situations as a unit.

* I have not read the possibly triggering content, but I am not a triggerable person, so I'm ignoring that aspect for now.

* I am fine with two players.

That said, sexual content in general I consider somewhat of an annoyance, particularly when overdone. A mention in the backstory, a singular discussion when it comes up organically, fine. But if said person were going up to every NPC asking "wanna know how i got these scars?" I would be annoyed. I am the same way with romance in videogames and pointless love interests in movies.

Just to be clear, what you just said is pretty much my opinion as well on the matter.

Anyhow, thanks Gemheart and Yessai for your answers, and I'm glad to here you are doing well De. I'll think about which new player(s?) to bring into the game....

Yair, that about sums it up fre me too on the unnecessary content angle.

@Dee - glad to hear you got that understudy position!