Hey, I just got your message. Didn't have time to get to a computer over the weekend much. I was helping my dad move. And I would definitely be interested in that celestial barbarian character.
Thanks for the bump ;) No witch, that guy is a player in the sister game.
I'll answer your PM about drow here in case it matters to anyone else:
This setting as published doesn't have as rich of a drow lore as golarion or FR does but I picture the standard tropes pretty much in place. So yes, matriarchal.
I do have some underdark adventures that might see play in this campaign but they are heavy on weird unique stuff, not so much just iconic underdark tropes.
If you have a vision there is some room to change things since its not totally dictated by the setting material. Just run it by me.
I introduce Ares Valorn a cleric of muir and new to the city, seeking the age old pilgrimage that many of his order have taken before him. I wanted to get my concept in before it was to late the alias is still being worked on.
Greetings to each of you, those who found me named me Willow. I have studied and meditated with my rescuers, and they have raised me in the ways of the forest. I offer my meager services to those heading to the shrines of Thyr and Muir, along with those of my elk companion, Hmarfrd.
20 point buy. Dump stat as low as 7 after racial is fine. No starting stat above 18 after racial.
*CRB: Everything (Just about. Crafting is limited to consumables, the other crafting feats may come into play at mid-high levels. More on this later. Leadership will be altered. There may be other things I have forgotten.)
*Base Classes: Cavalier, Inquisitor
*Featured Races: Aasimar, Tiefling, Drow
*APG: All feats, all spells. (most other crunch like rage powers and bloodlines is go too)
*Ultimate Magic: All feats, all spells.
*No Ultimate Combat. (except some archetypes)
*No Advanced Race Guide*
As for archetypes, I still haven't compiled a list but all APG is good. If it's UC or UM, ask for now.
Special house rule: No traits, unless you are a fighter or a rogue. Fighters and rogues get 2 traits. Traits from hardcovers are fine, AP/splat/blog ones or whatever run it by me, re-skin as needed.
We are using Action Points (hero points from APG). Begin with 2. Gain one at level. Max 3 in the bank.
Everyone gets one free bonus feat at 1st level.
For those getting here late here are the rules if you missed them.
This recruitment is not going to close and go to gameplay quite as fast as the other two, because it's the final one.
Feel free to dot and discuss and ask questions and make builds whenever your ready, but when you have an avatar ready for me to look at, please touch on a couple things for me.
*What is your posting availability like? What do you like in terms of pace for PbP?
*How familiar are you with the setting? Have you run or played in Necromancer/FGG modules before?
*How many PbP do you currently participate in? Player or GM?
*What does "Old School" mean to you?
*Would you have still been interested in this campaign if it was CRB only? Why or why not? (just curious really.)
For the most part there are no right or wrong answers to these questions. "I can only post once a week" is a wrong answer but that's the only one I can think of right now :p
Fubbles there is a good plot hook for a druid if you want to use it. There is a lake by the shrines called the crystal lake, that has turned all corrupted and foul, Willow may be interested in cleansing it?
*What is your posting availability like? What do you like in terms of pace for PbP?
- I would be able to post several times a day. While I describe my actions and thoughts in a manner that I find fairly clear (I don't just say full attack [dice=.....), I am not normally verbose and not a wannabe author.
I won't be getting into a virtual affair or hateful relationship with the other PC's. I have no interest in that. (Just making it clear because a prior PbP GM seemed very upset that it wasn't happening.)
*How familiar are you with the setting? Have you run or played in Necromancer/FGG modules before?
- I know absolutley nothing about it. Any special rules I need to know about? I think one of my prior F2F groups used one of the modules once, but not sure.
*How many PbP do you currently participate in? Player or GM?
- I am currently in Fast Paced Darkmoon Vale as the 1/2E cleric barbarian Nebdel Melfcane. I also usually try to keep one of my PFS characters in a PbP. Though they tend to be shorter, they are often very fast paced. My Nagaji naga aspirant is in PFS which seems to have stalled.
*What does "Old School" mean to you?
- Depends upon how far back you want to go. I played clear back to the original red box. Though I missed out on the hand stapled pamphlets version. The world was more lethal if you weren't careful. Magic items were rare and prized (not expected gear). There was no expectation that "Whatever we decide to do will be winnable."
*Would you have still been interested in this campaign if it was CRB only? Why or why not? (just curious really.)
- Sure. The other is CRB only plus traits. I am not eager to learn whole new systems or move back to 3.x, but it is a possiblity. Played a bit of Dark Heresy not too long ago. As an occasional GM I can understand the desire to limit the source material that you need to learn and keep track of. Or prohibit what doesn't seem to fit the world.
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Would you rather I post build/background/concept questions here or PM them to you?
Finished the alias, let me know if I forgot anything. Now for your questionaire.
*What is your posting availability like? What do you like in terms of pace for PbP? I am available to post one or more a day and I am on the eastern timezone. Speed of a post a day or faster is cool with me.
*How familiar are you with the setting? Have you run or played in Necromancer/FGG modules before? No ,but I quickly adapt to new settings. Learned all I could when, made this character and will learn more. That's also why I made him from a no name town and not knowing what has been happening in the outside world.
*How many PbP do you currently participate in? Player or GM? I am currently in 3 other active games in which I am a player in each of them.
Under my alias's of Sir Respen Bayleef, Xeros Felshar, and Jorus Skyecliff.
*What does "Old School" mean to you? I think more focus on the story rather then rules and rolls. No maps except for the ones in your mind, and as well that crazy word that makes many players cringe....ThaCo!! Dun Dun DDDDUUUNNNNN!! Hehe.
*Would you have still been interested in this campaign if it was CRB only? Why or why not? (just curious really.)
I think I would, I like the concept of what your doing with this mega campaign plus I love learning new worlds and systems. As well as you seem so excited about this series of games that was another thing that attracted me to them.
Let me know if you have any quesitons about any of my character or responses.
I know you said you were kinda looking for a cleric. Unfortunately I'm not really interested in another divine caster at this time. My other active characters are a cleric, oracle, druid, and 2 inquisitors. I'm thinking either arcane or martial for a change. If you really want clerics I should bow out now.
I know you don't want to spoil things too much, but are clerics desired for religious knowledge, channeling, hitpoint damage healing, channeling, or condition removal? All but channeling can be gotten in several other ways.
I read that you are using hero points. What about the spells and feats for hero points? Are the PC's the only one that will have hero points or might major NPC's and bad guys also have hero points?
You implied low magic items. How difficult will it be for a prepared arcane caster to get spells to fill his spellbook?
You said no ARG but you are allowing a Drow. Are other non-core races allowed and/or common in the area? (For some reason, I've been thinking about a lizard folk lately.)
Are you going to allow evil alignments? I probably won't want to play one, but I would like to know if I can expect them amongst my allies.
You ok with the eldritch heritage chain of feats? What about taking it for multiple bloodlines? (Not legal by RAW, but some GM's are ok with it. Though I haven't seen anyone try playing it yet.)
If you said anything about summoner and its archtypes I missed it. Are they allowed?
Will there be enough open space opportunities so a mounted concept is not a waste of time?
Debating on either; Bard(normal), Fighter(two-weap) or a Cleric (no Theologian, so just normal).
And for race either Aasimar or Half-elf(Half-Drow, but would of liked some ARG feats)
I know you don't want to spoil things too much, but are clerics desired for religious knowledge, channeling, hitpoint damage healing, channeling, or condition removal? All but channeling can be gotten in several other ways.
There's a bunch of reasons. It begins with the fact that the adventure as published calls for it right up front where it says how many PC's and of what level the adventure is appropriate for. If that sounds like a bit of a cop-out or a appeal to authority I can only add that my group at home disregarded this advice and after seeing how that plays out I think there will be less frustration if I make sure it's heeded in this pass.
The reasons are both thematic and mechanical. If you check out the "adventure background" spoiler under the campaign info tab the story part will make sense right away. Of course it's possible to come up with other hooks and seeds to use this material but I like the obvious one a lot.
The stuff you mentioned is icing on the cake. I'm sure there's other ways to get those mechanics covered, but simply asking for the quotient of divine characters that the module was designed to be played with goes a long way towards things being challenging and rewarding and not frustrating without me having to change it too much.
Kydeem wrote:
I read that you are using hero points. What about the spells and feats for hero points? Are the PC's the only one that will have hero points or might major NPC's and bad guys also have hero points?
Some of this stuff I'm using has a reputation as a meat-grinder. It's not rocks-fall you die, or even tomb of horrors kind of killer, but you can get in over your head with one wrong turn. I like when players get attached to characters, and I get attached to them myself, so the action points are one of my measures to mitigate the deadliness. I encourage the players to try to keep two in the bank, so they can cheat death. I've never considered the feats or spells, are they in the books I allowed? If so, I'm not going to limit them now at this late stage. It has never come up so far at home.
Kydeem wrote:
You implied low magic items. How difficult will it be for a prepared arcane caster to get spells to fill his spellbook?
I wouldn't say it's exactly low-magic. The way that's going to work, is you have to capture spellbooks or deal with NPC casters, you don't just check a city statblock, ok population x so y casters of z level, subtract x gold, y days pass by, done. You have to actually deal with these NPC's but it's not mother-may-I, fiat kind of thing because the NPC's are there. They are already detailed, you can find them, you can steal from them, you can befriend them, you can exchange favors, you can do whatever you want.
Shopping was a big reason this playstyle flopped over and over the first couple years I tried it in PF, but I finally got it to work in a way my players love using this excellent city sourcebook I'm using for this campaign. It works because the city is so detailed. See you aren't totally at the mercy of hauls from dungeons, you can shop, but you do it from NPC's not lists of equipment on the PRD.
Of course it's a tradeoff.
Kydeem wrote:
You said no ARG but you are allowing a Drow. Are other non-core races allowed and/or common in the area? (For some reason, I've been thinking about a lizard folk lately.)
The concept for this was really supposed to be "core mostly" and it has gotten a lot bigger from there but ARG is a headache for me because I just don't have it yet and the books I have are the ones I've really curled up with and gotten to know.
The three "featured races" I put on my allowed list are things we've been using at home since way before ARG. We just used the little sidebars in the Bestiary to make PC's of these races. Drow, Aasimar, Tiefling. Would EGG roll in his grave at the idea of a drow PC, yes of course, but they scream DnD to me and I like to play them myself.
Kydeem wrote:
Are you going to allow evil alignments? I probably won't want to play one, but I would like to know if I can expect them amongst my allies.
I most certainly allow evil characters at home, with players I know can pull it off in a non-disruptive way. I haven't explicitly forbidden it in my PbP but I would have serious reservations, because I don't know who I'm playing with and I really don't want any drama. Thankfully it hasn't come up yet.
Kydeem wrote:
You ok with the eldritch heritage chain of feats? What about taking it for multiple bloodlines? (Not legal by RAW, but some GM's are ok with it. Though I haven't seen anyone try playing it yet.)
Eldritch heritage is cool, multiple bloodlines no.
Kydeem wrote:
If you said anything about summoner and its archtypes I missed it. Are they allowed?
The only two base classes I listed for inclusion are cavalier and inquisitor. There are others I was on the fence about and would allow certain builds for if they were proposed, but summoner is not one of them. Summoner is a hard no.
Kydeem wrote:
Will there be enough open space opportunities so a mounted concept is not a waste of time?
This is a hard one because it depends what is a waste of time to a given player. Mounts for medium characters get to see enough action in this segment of the campaign that I would be very happy as a player but I did have a player at home who found the stretches of dungeon frustrating. He ended up multiclassing paladin with the weapon for his divine bond and he ended up happier, and still gets the occassional mounted lance crit but it's more icing on the cake.
Tarvelin may not be celestial, he is a barbarian. I've had warhammer on the brain and made a slayer inspired character. Tried to make the celestial barbarian, but I can't seem to get a good enough backstory.
Anyway, Survey time!
1-I can post at least once a day under normal conditions. Usually more than that.
2-I'm not familiar with the setting and haven't run necromancer modules before. Though, I'm a fast reader. If there are any necessary materials to read, I can get through them quickly.
3-I GM one Play by post at the moment. I try to update it about once a day or after everyone else has posted. As such, it goes slowly.
4-To me, old school means a reliance on story over abstract or clunky rules and letting the story unfold as it would naturally. Sometimes people die. Then you make a new character
5-I might still be interested if this was core only. It really depends on what mood I'm in. One track mind after all.
Trying to finish the inquisitor. Still have some work to do but mostly finished
1d8 ⇒ 8
Grimmy Question:
How about this Teamwork feat. Not planning on it right away, obviously, but I like it defensive possibilities down the road.
Lastwall Phalanx (Teamwork)
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +3, good alignment.
Benefit: You gain a sacred bonus to your AC against the attacks of evil creatures and a sacred bonus to saves against the spells and abilities of evil creatures equal to the number of adjacent allies who also have this feat.
Ok Andrek and Tarvelin can head over to discussion, but Tarvellin how attached are you to that avatar? Another player is already using it . (Ogrim in MoD.)
I read that you are using hero points. What about the spells and feats for hero points? Are the PC's the only one that will have hero points or might major NPC's and bad guys also have hero points?
... so the action points are one of my measures to mitigate the deadliness. I encourage the players to try to keep two in the bank, so they can cheat death. I've never considered the feats or spells, are they in the books I allowed? If so, I'm not going to limit them now at this late stage. It has never come up so far at home...
They are in the APG right in the section that introduces hero points. It's kinda wierd to me, but no one seems to ever consider using them much. I was considering making use of them to represent a guy that is just incredibly lucky.
I am getting intrigued by the campaign setup. So I think I will apply to join. I'll probably stop doing PFS PbP to make the time. I will check/post at least 4 times a day.
A few more questions that I thought of.
Is witch ok? It isn't listed in your "base classes" but it looked like you were ok with some one else suggesting one.
You ok with the familiars and improved familiars from the UM and later Bestiaries?
Would any favored enemies be a particularly poor choice for this?
Are the rage powers from UC allowed?
Does a multiclass fighter/caster get traits?
A caster class does not get free traits. But could they take the additional traits feat to get a couple of traits?
I'm guessing these archtypes are a 'no' but I thought I'd ask.
Order of the Paw (cavalier archtype from ARG)
Scarred Witch Doctor (witch archtype from ARG)
Lore Warden (fighter archtype from PFS Field Guide)
Sorry, for all the questions. I've got several potential concepts floating around in my head. Weird and possibly unrelated questions come to mind until they begin to coalesce into a single concept.
I might send you a couple of concepts to see if you think one or more of them are not a good fit for the campaign.
To the other players. If any of you are interested in joining with me to make a pair (or more) of characters using the teamwork feats, please give me a PM. I like that concept, but it takes some joint planning to make it work.
I am getting intrigued by the campaign setup. So I think I will apply to join. I'll probably stop doing PFS PbP to make the time. I will check/post at least 4 times a day.
A few more questions that I thought of.
Is witch ok? It isn't listed in your "base classes" but it looked like you were ok with some one else suggesting one.
You ok with the familiars and improved familiars from the UM and later Bestiaries?
Would any favored enemies be a particularly poor choice for this?
Are the rage powers from UC allowed?
Does a multiclass fighter/caster get traits?
A caster class does not get free traits. But could they take the additional traits feat to get a couple of traits?
I'm guessing these archtypes are a 'no' but I thought I'd ask.
Order of the Paw (cavalier archtype from ARG)
Scarred Witch Doctor (witch archtype from ARG)
Lore Warden (fighter archtype from PFS Field Guide)
Sorry, for all the questions. I've got several potential concepts floating around in my head. Weird and possibly unrelated questions come to mind until they begin to coalesce into a single concept.
I might send you a couple of concepts to see if you think one or more of them are not a good fit for the campaign.
To the other players. If any of you are interested in joining with me to make a pair (or more) of characters using the teamwork feats, please give me a PM. I like that concept, but it takes some joint planning to make it work.
-On the fence about witch, depends on build. (slumber hex worries me for example.)
-UM familiars and improved famiiars are cool, later bestiaries run it by me
-In the long term campaign, every favored enemy category will see action, but in this segment, undead is best followed by human
-UC was originally not on the table at all, I opened up some archetypes since then but better skip the rage powers to be on somewhat equal footing with people who built before I cracked that book open a little
-Yeah, even a rogue or fighter dip gets you the traits
-Yeah any class can take additional traits with a feat
-Actually, Lore Warden is on the table. See list of archetypes a few posts above your first in the thread.
If I build a witch it would not have slumber hex. I agree it is stupidly powerful (although not the game ender that some feel). I would assume you would prefer I don't take a patron that can create undead (since that is likely to be goal to remove). How do you feel about switching those out of the list for more anti-undead appropriate spells?
Oops, I missed lore warden in the archtype list. I was going by the book list before. That is starting to fit in with my concept.
What about cross blooded and wild blooded sorcerers?
Kydeem, FYI before you invest tons of time, there is only one spot left and submissions still expected from fubbles, AZ and psychicmachinery, so not everyone is going to get in. Just FYI before you go nuts on crunch and backstory (unless you're like me and never consider making characters a waste of time!).
Gotta say I'm really exited about your high level of activity and participation. On the other hand I think the builds you like test the boundaries of my parameters for this campaign a bit ;)
I suffer from a bit of grognardia you could say.
I think I like "a)" the most at a glance. Haven't read your backstory letters all the way through yet but I noticed mention of an Academy. There is a a city in the setting called Reme that I've kept blank for player created stuff to be slotted into since Bard's Gate is already so detailed. Another player has already imagined an academy there, maybe you two could merge your ideas?
Yes, I like building characters. I make lots of them. That is probably why I do tend to push the limits of what a GM will put up with in builds. I calm down to more normal if still memorable levels in actual game play.
If I'm going too far, just let me know what you want toned back. I won't get offended and it doesn't bother me. I just don't always notice I'm getting to the edge if someone doesn't say something.
For example, if you don't like the hero point feats and spells, just say you'd rather not deal with them. They aren't central to my concept or anything. I don't think they are really all that overpowered, but a few GM's don't like them. Most have never had to consider them since players consider them so weak they don't want to take them.
