Die roll for Level 2 HP.
Actually, this is something we should discuss. Do we want to roll for HP at new levels? I'm also fine with using slightly above average #s.
Advantages to rolling:
(1) Rolling dice is fun.
(2) Randomness over small samples can make you more powerful than average (high rolls). (e.g. 4th level Barbarian - 64 HP vs. 44 HP).
Disadvantages to rolling:
(1) Randomness over small samples can make you weaker than average (low rolls). (e.g. 4th level Barbarian with 28 HP).
(2) Potential large disparity in HP between party members.
Advantages to taking slightly above average:
e.g.
(1) You will on average be slightly beefier than if you rolled.
(2) More parity between party member HP
Disadvantages to taking slightly above average:
(1) No potential for extra great rolls
(2) No dice to roll
What do people think?
Either way is fine with me.
Rolling a one on a HD roll is NO FUN. (I have a house rule when I GM that a 1 is rerolled, 2's are a different matter. Also true for Healing spells.) The assumption is that over time it averages out. Which then means, over time, the slightly above average method is to our advantage. I can go either way. Do we have any more input?
I also looked into panache and nonlethal. Nonlethal is not "real" damage. pg 191 Core Rule book. Thus I would not have reduces his HP to 0 or less not regaining me a panache point
I also looked into panache and nonlethal. Nonlethal is not "real" damage. pg 191 Core Rule book. Thus I would not have reduces his HP to 0 or less not regaining me a panache point
@Earll - that is technically correct.* However, we're not doing Organized Play, and I don't feel the need to be slavishly beholden to RAW (rules as written). I think it was good roleplaying for Earll to be attacking Gellion nonlethally. And you knocked him unconscious. That's good enough for me. My ruling remains that you get a panache point back.
--
*While technically correct, it opens up some weird corner cases. For example, if a good-aligned monk chooses to deal nonlethal damage, and the swashbuckler knocks the enemy unconscious with LETHAL damage, does this mean that the swashbuckler does not regain panache? After all, he or she did not technically reduce the enemy below 0 HP.
I'd rather sidestep these issues altogether. Just don't make a fully non-lethal swashbuckler build.
Malochia says the rolling bit is fine either way.
So three "either way is fine"s. @Dra'hir, you seem to be the deciding vote.
You know that I like the GCP rule. We roll, you roll, take the highest.
Or just roll... let the dice decide.
Slightly above average is boring.
I can support that as well. Odds increase in our favor and we still roll dice.
I think Lalia needs to stay to monitor via heal check the apprentices. Dra'hir thinks we need to send a squishy. I'm technically not squishy but I may be the best to go. Better speed than Del. Better social skills than Malochia or Dra'hir.
Agreed. Mine would stay. We could send Malochia along with you as (primarily nonspeaking) squishy backup.
We'll assume that's the plan then.
Uhhh I think I’ll quietly stay in the corner with my 2hp and just send the snake
Just bonk Gellion on the head if he moves
My bad. I knew better about the surprise round. I'm happy with how it's working out. Except for missing AGAIN!
Hey, in another campaign, I tried to use Acrobatics to help negate the first 10' of a fall into a pit trap. I knew better too, was just in a hurry and didn't think of it right then. :) It happens.
Kevin apparently I don't have precise shot so I miss... KILL IT!!
Well, I guess I am not ready to end it as I hoped.
Smart move Dra'hir.
Dra'Hir is smarter than me
Aight, I should be finally back and posting normally. Was at conference, sorry
Doobie Doobie doooo
Marco
Polo
Olly Olly Oxen free!
Mrs. Becky? Can Tommy come out to play?
Am I the only one still hoping to find something posted?
no
Going through withdrawals. Looking for my next fix!
So with some time on my hands, I wrote some background about Earll.
Earll’s parents were minor merchants plying their trade along the Conerica River, between the capital, Elidir, and Logas. They had the misfortune to be early victims of the Goblinoid Wars. The caravan they were traveling with was attacked. While the Goblinoids were repulsed by the caravan guards, it was a minor victory at best, falling short of a route while the caravan retreated. His parents were killed yet Earll survived and was taken to Elidir to be fostered by his mother’s sister and her husband. Earll was very young and recalls little about his parents. What he does recall, he was loved by them both.
His new life in with his Aunt Nanette and Uncle Uillium was not as full of love as a young boy could wish for. The story of this adoptive family is not unusual. His aunt was all he could wish for. She loved him and did what she could for him. She became the foundation of his reverence for the fairer sex though not its only source. However, to say she married poorly is the best that could be believed of his new family.
His uncle was ill-suited as a role model. He had survived on the largess of his brother-in-law, Earll’s father, and with that source of easy living gone a darker side of the man arose. The war made earning a living difficult, more so for a man looking to take the easiest road in life. He resented having an extra mouth to feed when the cost of everything was going up due to the expenses of the war. There is no surprise his already hard drinking increased. The drink dulled his senses and multiplied the difficulty of living with him. Anger and resentment flared and Earll became an easy target to expend those feelings on. His aunt did what she could to protect Earll, but she remained loyal to her husband as well, irrationally staying with her husband no matter what abuse Earll or she received.
Earll escaped as best he could to the streets of the city. But this was just an escape from his uncle. In the streets, he found more hazards. Evading his uncle often meant not eating at home. Finding food on the avenues and alleys of the city was hard as well. The city was full of orphans from the war. To say every street corner had its own gang would be stretching the truth only by a small margin. All were hungry and a very young Earll was an easy target for abuse from the other children who would take from him what he found.
Malnourishment stunted his development in one way while necessity improved it in another. He was never as strong as the other children, his body nearly forced to feed on itself to survive tends to affect the natural development of muscles. Too weak to ever able to fight back with any hope of winning against the larger and strong youths, he had to find other ways to endure. Anticipating their actions and acting before they wrought their cruelty on him was one way he lasted on the streets and at home.
Earll learned to use his charms upon the ladies of the city. His love for his aunt colored his views strongly. Her love instilled in him his near boundless confidence. He could not believe, even in the face of some harsh reality, that a maiden was anything less than a lady. He managed to cultivate a few good-hearted souls that looked upon him with kindness, wantons with specks of gilt in their hearts, that could supply him with a few scraps to keep himself breathing if not well fed. These amused women became places of refuge that garnered at least a temporary respite from the abuse of the streets, reinforcing his self-assurance. He eventually learned that not all women deserve a place upon a pedestal, but he would still treat them as if they did. He also learned a cheerful demeanor could turn aside some of the abuse from the other children. Keeping them entertained made them less likely to do him long-lasting harm. Ultimately, Earll literally made a choice to be happy and be positive regardless of what misfortune fell upon him.
Finding places to hide was another way to avoid his abusers. The trouble with hiding was, any place he could find, so could the other urchins. A seemingly fortuitous event occurred. While hiding he spotted a thief picking a lock. Doubly fortunate that he himself was not spotted bringing the robbers wraith upon him, it sparked within Earll an idea. If he could get past the lock and then lock it again, he could find a measure of safety. Learning what tools were needed and how to use them, without any guidance made the task nearly impossible.
His endeavor to teach himself did not go unnoticed. A burglar by name of Vogl came upon the waif practicing. Earll had without looking, found another source of abuse. Vogl at first kindly, took the urchin under his wing so to speak. Vogl gave him the training he was failing to gain on his own. Vogl, of course, had a plan to use the boy and as Earll became more proficient, he was put to work taking the risks while Vogl reaped the rewards. The abuse Vogl applied to coerce and motivate the still naive youngling not unexpectedly included berating, threats, and beatings. His ability to disable devices was a hard-earned skill.
Earll’s life could have taken a different turn if fickle fortune again had not intervened in his life. Vogl simply disappeared. Word on the street says he died, but how he died could not be agreed upon among the many rumormongers. Bad debts, an old score settled, an irate husband, he was mugged, the city guard got him, a fall from a roof, he missed a trap, he angered the thief’s guild, and more were circulated about. The only thing all agreed upon… there was no body found.
Each event in his life, for good or bad, fell like dominos, one following the other, as such, could be construed as divine intervention, molding the young adolescence to set the cast of his future. The final life event was the fateful intersecting with Doutreval Sabatini. His first encounter was a headlong charge into her. He was rather distracted from observing where he was going as he was more interested in knowing how close his angry pursuit was upon his heels. The rapid reflexes of Sabatini saved her from being knocked prone but did not prepare her for the hasty, yet sincere apology delivered with a smile before the chase resumed. Doutreval found the encounter amusing. The small youth under pursuit, pausing to make see if she was well and running off while throwing out compliments produced a bark of laughter from her and a lasting impression of the guttersnipe. This encounter produced no lasting impression on Earll as he was too fixated on his basic need for survival.
However, Fate was not done with these two. Once more looking for a place to hide Earll picked a lock to what he thought was a warehouse but was, in fact, Doutreval Sabatini’s fencing school. On this momentous occasion, Earll witnessed Doutreval confront the forceful demands of a rival educator. The rival, large and arrogant, wished to take Sabatini’s students and propose a duel to settle the matter. From his hidden viewpoint, Earll’s sharp eyes made note of the thin delicate blade held by Doutreval and observed the thicker, heavier blade of the aggressor. The comparisons in their blades were comparable to each academic’s physicality. Earll’s entire life up to this point had taught him the damsel was in distress without hope of overcoming such a bigger and stronger foe.
Shockingly for Earll, Doutreval was not subdued. The blows exchange demonstrated the adversaries were both skilled. The larger mans' attempts to exert his size and strength to control the exchange met with complete failure, which lead to his failure to control his emotions as well. Sabatini, on the other hand, remained in control of the duel and her emotions. A smile upon her lips while she sent verbal jibs with her pointed jabs of her weapon. Like being struck with lightning Earll had an epiphany. This weapon and style of fighting was his salvation.
Paying for the lessons was an impossibility. While he was somewhat skilled at picking locks, his tutelage under Vogl had soured him of the life of crime that could provide such an income. Nor did such a life fit with the morals taught him by his aunt. He set himself to “break into” this room of weapons and learn from a distance. Earll did not see this trespass in the same light as stealing. Try as he might Earll was never able to keep himself from being seen by the Master of the Room. Doutreval would chase him away to have him reappear. It became more distracting and time-consuming rousting him from his roost than to ignore him, so after a few weeks, it could be said, Earll had earned himself a view from the gallery. More weeks passed, turning into months. Earll had finally found himself a hideout from the street gangs. Not that he cared at this point. He was entranced with trying to learn this new skill.
Doutreval for her part could never quite ignore her new audience. She went from angry to annoyed to finally amused with the persistent youngling she recalled from their encounter on the streets. She laughed out loud upon seeing him mime the action of the class with a slender stick. She found herself giving subtle corrections directed at the rascal made by proxy with her “paying” students. Realizing she had accepted him as a student despite herself she took steps to make it a more formal arrangement. She waited to the end of her normal workday to find her audience still in attendance though preparing to leave. Seeing that no other students remained she called out to the ragamuffin. “Come my little hawk, fly down from your earie and shelter in the shadows no more.” And so, began hardship for Earll that he most eagerly sought.
Master Sabatini quickly found out his lack of coinage and arranged a “loan” to pay for the lessons. She wished to instill in him the value of what he was receiving. It was made clear that he would pay for his lessons. He was given jobs at the school to earn his fee and he was worked hard and was trained hard. Doutreval ascertained the basics of the boy’s life, his driving force, his determination, his wit, and charm and trained it all. Throughout the hard work and harder training, she found the boy never stopped smiling! He was happy! Perhaps more so than ever in his life.
I feel this is wasted...
Perhaps, but you read it. I was getting attached to Earll, and I'm still holding out hope against hope we will return to him.