Tales of a Dying World: Dragoncat's AD&D DARK SUN Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master Dragoncat

The discussion thread is open!

Dot dot dot

'allooooo

OK, profile done - is there any other info that would be useful in the top bar?

Please forgive me in advance for being a buttinski here.

@Icky: Did you take the Tribal Psionicist kit? There are no kits listed on your sheet but you have a wild talent in addition to being a psionicist.

@Crow: Did you spend multiple weapon proficiency slots on punching specialization? It's 2 slots for specialization in the two-handed sword, but only 1 for punching specialization. See The Will and the Way p. 29 or The Complete Fighter's Handbook p. 75 - everyone's proficient in punching, but for 1 slot you can specialize to get the +1 to attack and damage, one extra attack, and a +1 table bonus. Thus you should have 2 slots left (5 starting; 2 spent for specialization in the two-handed sword, 1 spent for punching specialization).

Don't forget PHB p. 50: "These initial slots must be filled immediately, before the character embarks on his first adventure. Any slots that aren't filled by then are lost."

I'd recommend a weapon that you are likely to be able to find without having to look for a metal version - something that doesn't require using the material rules, like a spear, war club (from Combat & Tactics), or sling.

Would it be possible to make one small change to my character by making them a specialist mage? Specifically diviner. (I would go abjurer, invoker or transmuter, but they require human or Half elf, invoker requires 16 con and transmuter requires barring abjuration which I need a lot of)

@Laurelin: they appear to be a tribal psionicist, they only have the one defense mode, and its mind blank

I am tribal I haven't notated it in my class yet. The stats should be legal for it. I'm right in the middle of a move and my internet access right now is less than optimal.

I am tribal I haven't notated it in my class yet. The stats should be legal for it. I'm right in the middle of a move and my internet access right now is less than optimal.

Cool, just checkin' ;)

Lord Foul: Unfortunately, no. Specialist wizards don't last long on Athas.

they don't?
why would a specialist fare worse than a regular mage? I've not seen that in the books.

Courtesy of Defilers & Preservers: The Wizards of Athas, page 21:

There are no specialist wizards on Athas, though different types of spells are still classified by schools of magic. Due to the restrictions placed on magic over the centuries, wizards have a hard enough time learning spells—and no opportunity or method for specializing in a certain field of study. Preservers are essentially the same as wizards of other campaign worlds.

Defilers have a few differences, including a faster level advancement... ...Individual wizards may choose their spells in a manner that simulates specialist wizards (choosing for example, to learn more alteration spells than any other kind), but they receive none of the benefits and have none of the penalties associated with specialist wizards. Of course, most wizards can’t be selective as to the spells they learn. Therefore, even pseudo-specialists are extremely rare and usually short-lived, as they don’t have the variety of spells needed to survive beneath the crimson sun.

See Defilers & Preservers p. 21, sidebar, "No Specialist Wizards."

EDIT: Ninja'd by like, 49 seconds!

thank you much! missed that bit

Anyways, thank you all very much for joining. :)

Fair warning--this is going to be my first time really using the AD&D ruleset, so I'm bound to make my share of mistakes. All I ask is that you bear with me as I get used to how the ruleset runs.

I will help as I can, while trying not to be too annoying. I have everything for DARK SUN. :)

Thank you, Laurelin. I'll go an rummage through the books and look for that.

And yeah, I'm in the same boat as Cat. Skipped AD&D 2nd Ed. Skipped 4th too. So I played 1st, 3rd and 5th. Apparently I don't like even numbers?

I got my start in 2e back when I was a teenager, it was the first rpg I ever played. but I haven't played it in about a decade.

I cut my teeth on AD&D back in the day but my exposure to Dark Sun was primarily through Shattered Lands CRPR. My friend from high school had the books for it but he never ran it for me. My main setting was Planescape, that I have all the things for. If I had more money I would have expanded out. I am excited about playing in thd setting.

I like Planescape too, it's like... #2 after DARK SUN for me. Except the video game (Torment), that's the tops!

I personally loved old school ravenloft, so much potential in the demiplane of dread and desire
Heck, possibly sentient dimiplanes in general were great, though most of my adventuring was in erberon and Tirol

So, anything else to work out? Any backstory connections from before captivity?

Oh that could be fun!

@Cale: Athasian elves don't have any special resistance to charm or sleep spells.

knew I missed something looking over the elf stuff. thanks.

So does anyone want to be a relative/rival/lover/business partner/other connection or shall we all meet with "So, what's YOUR story?" at the start of our captivity?

Crow was a Gladitorial slave being transported for sale before whatever happens in the intro. You may have seen him, given he'll be one of the larger folk around, but you'll probably meet during the slavery.

Ok, so you may have a little gladiatorial fame, that's cool! Cale? Ick? Other participants who haven't checked in yet?

I need to tweak/finalize a few things and find a solid image, but checking/dotting in. It is entirely possible that Khar and Crow may be aware of one another, both being born to the arenas. Khar was born and trained predominantly in Urik.

Tree alts aren't really done, but I would expect I will finish them in the next couple of days.

The only connection I could see so far with Ick is Cale. Ick's tribe was destroyed by an elven tribe which forced Ick to fend for herself, that is until she was picked up as a slave. Not sure how that would fit Cale's backstory. But it does mean that Ick will be slow to trust Cale. Her tribe possibly could have had contact with any other PCs.

Cale wasn't born to the arena but he's been there for at least a few months, having botched an attempt to free the slaves there (or if that's too unbelievable he could have been one of the 5 missing elves who's body wasn't found in the recent raid on Nibenayv and could have been captured then. the book elves of athas doesn't specify who attacked Nibenay, presumably to leave things open for the DM and players)
prior to being captured he worked as a "merchant mystic" as he likes to call it, trading goods and learning new things

Ears are a little round, but I think this profile pic works. A few little changes will be made (alignment might go more TN or even LN, not sure about weapon profs, need to add Mul stuff) but he is just about good to go.

Looks like that's all five of us!

Two gladiators
One psionicist/preserver
One ranger/cleric/psionicist
And one straight-up psionicist (that's me!)

Traps are gonna suuuuuck!

I will try to help with clariescence but right now all I can do to help with that is danger sense

"Don't open the box!"

I'll take it ;)

In case you hadn't already figured it out, I'm suuuuper eager to get started

Me too lol.

@ick what elf tribe raided yours?

Going to be working on an opening post now.

The gameplay thread is open. :)

Woooo!

The Slave Caravan card should be open for viewing now.

So, for the sake of easier bookkeeping, I've decided to track food and water in units instead of quarts, pounds, and whatnot.

PCs require 1 unit of water per day to avoid losing CON to dehydration. Half-giant PCs require 2 units of water per day, whereas thri-kreen PCs only need 1 unit of water per week to avoid dehydration.

Travelling by night will halve a PC's water requirements--so a PC will only need half a unit of water if they travel through the dark, one unit for half-giants, and a half-unit per week for thri-kreen.

Does that sound good to everyone?

would the elven hot/cold resistance render them effectively only needing as much water as a normal human at night even during the day?

Resistance to Heat and Cold. Athasian elves are

less affected by their world’s temperature extremes than are other races. For this reason, elves do not suffer as greatly from the heat of the day or the chill of the night—and thus they appear less weathered than mem- bers of other races. The sun still bakes their flesh dark, and the cold still causes them discomfort, but not to the same degree as humans, dwarves, and halflings.
Until the temperature climbs above 110°F or dips below 32°F, elves exhibit no undue stress. They lose no body water to sweat until the heat of the day surpasses their tolerance limit, and they do not need to protect themselves from the night cold until it drops below freez- ing (a rare but not unheard of occurrence in the Athasian wastes). This resistance does not, however, extend to mag- ical or supernatural heat or cold.

In fact, I think that sounds reasonable.

so elf 1 unit per 2 days, half giant 2 per 1 day, human 1 per day, thri keen 1 per week
sucessful find water check provides enough water for 1 unit (yes?)
is there a synergy for having both find water and survival?

After reading the descriptions for both Water Find and Survival, I've noticed that both proficiencies include finding water in miniscule amounts. Normally, using either proficiency would only allow you to find enough water to not lose any CON points to dehydration.

There wasn't a synergy between the two proficiencies at first, but I'm thinking of allowing a synergy between them. If you have both the Water Find proficiency and the appropriate Survival proficiency for your current environment (such as Survival: Sandy Wastes in a sandy waste environment), then you can find 1 unit of water for others per day.

How's that sound?

Survival covers a lot of ground but only for a specific terrain. There are a number of skills that this could apply to as welll.

i Forgot to pick a terrain type for my survival
That's fine I can pick based on where my tribe lived...I'll need to look that up later

Heat Resistance is useful, especially at Half-Giant water consumption.

Yeah, if... say... a certain person had Water Find, Survival, and Heat Protection, they might be set for water. Food would actually become the larger issue.

It seems putting that 14 in charisma instead of strength paid off a little already