Hello everyone!
We'll be beginning the campaign in earnest tomorrow, so I'd like to use today to get everyone on the same page and talk a bit about expectations and approach to the game.
First off: I ended up breaking one of my own criteria for recruitment, and have in fact put together a group of characters that may very well likely discover much to disagree about with each other. And this is not in and of itself a bad thing: as djdust said to while I was putting together a new character for the game they're running that I'm in: tension propels stories (or something similar. Paraphrase etc, etc).
That said, I'd like you all to frame that potential tension within a really great piece of writing by Rich Burlew of Order of The Stick: "Choose To React Differently". What this is is essentially a reminder that your character is fully under your control, and you are at no point powerless to control how they react. This frames the challenge of good roleplaying not as "How do I slavishly play my alignment and allegiances to the letter" but rather "How do I play my character true to themselves with the goal of party cohesion?". Your characters are a group of exceptional persons in exceptional circumstances, and there is no more perfect environment for a character to make exceptional choices. A paladin of Erastil and a cleric of Gorum might find little in passing each other during a night at the tavern, but I don't think it's a stretch of the imagination to see those differences overcome in the depths of a dungeon while cornered by eldritch horrors.
Secondly: Time to put in some final touches on your backgrounds to polish things off now that we have the group finalized. One thing I an think of right off the bat is that, with their respective campaign traits, Khathi and Aekon almost certainly live in Fort Inevitable and likely have for some time. How well do they know/know of each other? What is that relationship, if any, like?
Thirdly: This is a good time to get comfortable with each other in general. Share what you'd like to accomplish with your characters and the trajectory you're looking at with them (both story and crunch-wise) and work to build some shared expectations and goals.
Fourthly: Time for final audits! Go over your character sheets and make sure everything is accurate and in order. I'll be taking a look at them later tonight as well once I'm done with my IRL business for the day.
Fifthly: Questions for me! Anything you've got on your mind, any character elements you'd really like to explore in "side quest" material, anything you're uncertain about, or any expectations you'd like to elaborate on or me to elaborate on, now is the time!
And massive thanks to every one of you. I am excited to run this group through the big, bad dungeon and see who they become in the process.
(And yes the campaign title sounds like a cheesy Doctor Who episode title on purpose. What can I say? Everyone's got an aesthetic.)
Hey there, thanks for the pick!
Would you mind setting up the gameplay thread as well for the purpose of dotting?
I think Aekon would certainly know of Khathi, but the Hellknights rub him all the wrong ways and as such probably hasn't interacted much iwth her.
In terms of overall goals, Aekon is in it to find knowledge in any form. Cosmic secrets are his favorite, but he's not picky.
I'm just about to go to a show but I'll add gear to him tomorrow.
Would you mind setting up the gameplay thread as well for the purpose of dotting?
Done.
I'll definitely try to avoid having Liedae cause any party destroying issues because of her thought processes. Though, considering she's not even a local, I doubt she'll be one to cause any super significant issues. Unless there's an issue with food.
If anyone wants to know Liedae from the little time she's had to spend in town since coming, just tell me. Otherwise, well, she's a weird outsider.
As for the goal, really just have fun. I kind of hope I'll get her to the point I can take the prestige class I've been thinking about. Storywise, just see her make some friends and do some good in the world. Maybe spread her religion.
Hi y’all! Thank you for having me. I am very excited to be here!
Khathi is affiliated with the Hellknights as a recruit, but mostly as means to keep her own compulsions under control. She is serious, disciplined, and dedicated to the order. I’m assuming she will be ordered to join this expedition to the Spire, and so she will cooperate to the fullest to see the mission done and prove herself.
I need to read Aekon’s story, but maybe they were childhood friends, but grew distant as they grew up? Maybe Khathi’s enlisting in the Order is the wedge that drove them apart.
I just discovered this prestige class which I’m not totally sure I can qualify for as I may not be able to take the Warrior Priest feat (depending on GM discretion ;), but it may be a personal goal to fight and defeat a summoned devil in order to move up in rank. It’s not something that has to happen, but could be cool. It’s a hard prestige class to work towards with only 2 skill points a level.
Also, Khathi doesn’t really know this, but her mother is out there somewhere likely in the Echowood. Not a goal or quest per se, but something that might could show up.
One small issue I’m wrestling with build-wise. I envisioned Khathi as wielding shield and mace, mostly because she’s going to be lowish HP for the first few levels and I’m trying to get her AC as high as possible. That being said, looking at her spells, most have somatic components. She’s not going to be casting a whole lot, but it can be an issue with action economy in tough combats. I can improve the situation by taking QuickDraw at 3rd, but levels 1 and two she will be, uh, shorthanded.
The alternative is 2-hand wielding her heavy mace, which will up her damage and allow her to take Furious Focus along with Power Attack at 3rd, which thematically is cool, but will leave her a little more exposed on the front lines. Sorry, that’s a lot, but thoughts?
And speaking of HP, I assume full at 1st level, but then are we rolling or taking average beyond that?
I guess I haven’t really thought about where Aekon is from. Having some prior connection with Khathi could be a cool element, though in my mind they would’ve drifted apart when Aekon left town to find the truth of his heritage.
In terms of mechanical goals, I may go into loremaster at some point. For nonmechanical plot beats, finding some sort of information about his heritage could be interesting, especially if it doesn’t turn out how he imagines it’ll be.
Ok, nvm. I just read Aekon’s backstory. Childhood friends wouldn’t make sense. Khathi is ‘born’ and raised within the walls of Fort Inevitable. She’s pretty cloistered, too, and hasn’t seen much if any of the world beyond the fort.
Maybe they’ve bumped into each other at the local library, or she’s tried to check out a book only to find Aekon borrowed it just the day before. But, I’m sure someone like Aekon would stand out in town, so she at least knows of him
One small issue I’m wrestling with build-wise. I envisioned Khathi as wielding shield and mace, mostly because she’s going to be lowish HP for the first few levels and I’m trying to get her AC as high as possible. That being said, looking at her spells, most have somatic components. She’s not going to be casting a whole lot, but it can be an issue with action economy in tough combats. I can improve the situation by taking QuickDraw at 3rd, but levels 1 and two she will be, uh, shorthanded.The alternative is 2-hand wielding her heavy mace, which will up her damage and allow her to take Furious Focus along with Power Attack at 3rd, which thematically is cool, but will leave her a little more exposed on the...
Well wielding the weapon two-handed would help do more damage, but if you're needing a higher AC, just use a buckler or light shield with it. Move your mace over to the shield hand as a free action (since you can just have it strapped to your arm instead of held), cast, then move it back to your hand.
Well wielding the weapon two-handed would help do more damage, but if you're needing a higher AC, just use a buckler or light shield with it. Move your mace over to the shield hand as a free action (since you can just have it strapped to your arm instead of held), cast, then move it back to your hand.
One small issue I’m wrestling with build-wise. I envisioned Khathi as wielding shield and mace, mostly because she’s going to be lowish HP for the first few levels and I’m trying to get her AC as high as possible. That being said, looking at her spells, most have somatic components. She’s not going to be casting a whole lot, but it can be an issue with action economy in tough combats. I can improve the situation by taking QuickDraw at 3rd, but levels 1 and two she will be, uh, shorthanded.The alternative is 2-hand wielding her heavy mace, which will up her damage and allow her to take Furious Focus along with Power Attack at 3rd, which thematically is cool, but will leave her a little more exposed on the...
Really I had no idea that was possible with a light shield… Well, hmm… I’m gonna stick with the shield for now and see where I’m at at 3rd level. Thanks for the info, you learn something new everyday.
Silvash is a free spirit looking to find out what happened to his mother in the Spire. He despises the Hellknights as nothing more than bandits, (that's a personal view as well) and will do what he can to circumvent and undermine the Hellknights without compromising the mission. He would be happy to never set foot in Ft. Inevetiable and sell any goods they find in Thornkeep and not give the hellknights their supposed cut.
I am building toward arcane trickster but that won't fully come on line to well down the road. I see the AT as rogue with special abilities so I am not looking to step on any arcane caster's toes but if no one else is in that role I will be happy to build more toward it.
Inquiry about HP.
Ah yeah, my bad for not specifying: Max at 1st level, half HD+1+any modifiers from 2nd level on.
Speaking of HP, I just realized we've got three characters with a +0 Con modifier.
Pretty glad we also ended up with three characters that have healing spells, given that.
Dotting for now, at work. I'll give a read and response afterwards
It seems I shall be the tank... Though I might want to also buy a ranged weapon, considering the sheer amount of melee we've got going on. I think I've got enough money for it... 6 Chakrams should cover it well enough.
It seems I shall be the tank... Though I might want to also buy a ranged weapon, considering the sheer amount of melee we've got going on. I think I've got enough money for it... 6 Chakrams should cover it well enough.
Well, there's also Bubbles The Wonder Hippo. 17 AC and 17 HP is fairly tanky.
It seems I shall be the tank... Though I might want to also buy a ranged weapon, considering the sheer amount of melee we've got going on. I think I've got enough money for it... 6 Chakrams should cover it well enough.Well, there's also Bubbles The Wonder Hippo. 17 AC and 17 HP is fairly tanky.
thats Bubbles to start, just wait...
17AC and 8HP, heh I’m hoping she can hit hard and hit often.
I think we can manage to keep the group cohesive until the first Belt of CON we find.
Realizing my mind skipped over the inclusion of background skills.
It seems I shall be the tank... Though I might want to also buy a ranged weapon, considering the sheer amount of melee we've got going on. I think I've got enough money for it... 6 Chakrams should cover it well enough.Well, there's also Bubbles The Wonder Hippo. 17 AC and 17 HP is fairly tanky.
Forgot about Bubbles, 17 AC and 17 HP is indeed pretty tanky for level 1. He shall lead us to victory!
Speaking of HP, I just realized we've got three characters with a +0 Con modifier.
Pretty glad we also ended up with three characters that have healing spells, given that.
I CAN cast healing spells, but my spontaneous casting and Fervor ability will be harming.
Some other character considerations:
Liedae, if you've been in town a while before everyone is assembled to be officially given the job, it's likely (if you choose to) you've been staying with Abernard, who certainly has the extra room to put you up. In that case, perhaps Aekon and you have had a chance to converse or get to know each other? Maybe bonded over being somewhat outside the stereotype of your planetouched heritages? Maybe you get on each other's nerves? Explore that a bit!
Eko and Silvash, have you been in town for a little while? Or are you arriving the day of the meeting? Silvash, you are likely staying at the Juliver Arms Inn with Iliara on her dime. Eko, perhaps the High Mother put you up at the Temple of the Golden Key?
I don't need you to write a novel, but give me at least a rough idea of where you're at when I kick the game off tomorrow.
I would be staying at the Juliver Arms Inn with Iliara. I would have arrived with her and have therefore been in town as long as she has, I don't know how that that would be though. Silvash would be staying low in the Inn unless specifically told to leave for some reason by Iliara. Silvash does not like it here.
Some other character considerations:
Liedae, if you've been in town a while before everyone is assembled to be officially given the job, it's likely (if you choose to) you've been staying with Abernard, who certainly has the extra room to put you up. In that case, perhaps Aekon and you have had a chance to converse or get to know each other? Maybe bonded over being somewhat outside the stereotype of your planetouched heritages? Maybe you get on each other's nerves? Explore that a bit!
Eko and Silvash, have you been in town for a little while? Or are you arriving the day of the meeting? Silvash, you are likely staying at the Juliver Arms Inn with Iliara on her dime. Eko, perhaps the High Mother put you up at the Temple of the Golden Key?
I don't need you to write a novel, but give me at least a rough idea of where you're at when I kick the game off tomorrow.
I didn't consider that, though I don't know how long she's been in town. Likely at least a week, in which case, I imagine there's definitely a chance they've had a conversation. Not that Liedae's the greatest conversationalist, but I suppose it's up to Aekon on how much they've spoken.
So, to be upfront with everyone. The plan for Eko and Bubbles is in fact a couple levels of Mammoth rider eventually. Because everyone loves Dinosaur sized Hippo's Right?
Second, Bubbles will be spec'd out as a Tank and Bite focused Damage. With Eko being focused on Control type spells, So we got defense covered. Also Secondary Melee with Nature fang.
Eko Personality wise is...the Noble, friendly Prince charming type... Except a frog, So you know. Limits. He generally will try to get along with and help others out, it's just who he is. Eko is...Kind of a naive idiot who wants to see the good in everyone... Do with that information what you will..
As for where Eko is? likely staying, if in the Temple, he will insist on working off any debts or the cost of supporting him.
i'm open to questions if anyone wants to know specific Mechanics or background stuff.
Drafting up the starting gameplay post (it's a long one). Have a few more chores/errands than I expected today so it'll probably be up closer to the evening. I'll drop an announcement here when it's up.
In the meantime please don't hesitate to ask me questions or continue to pick each other's brains!
The first gameplay post is up and the game is begun! Your intrepid band of brave adventurers kick off their saga... in a poorly furnished auxiliary meeting room. Because the Hellknights are nothing if not a dreary bureaucracy.
Whoops, looks like some of my antipathy towards Abadar is showing >_>
There's currently a link to a map of Fort Inevitable, with a numbered location key, in the Campaign info tab. The location key also list prominent NPCs that are often/almost always at that location.
Once you enter the Spire proper, I will also include a link to the battle maps in the same tab.
Hello my wonderful players!
Work recently got a bit hairy and my wife just started a new job with very non-standard hours, so for the next week or so I'm going to be working out where my free time best fits in with the current status quo. My posting might be a little spotty during that time, but it will be no less frequent than once every 36 hours-ish. Thank you for your understanding!
I love Eko, seriously i do as a character. But looking over the Hippo stats, in thinking what were the Devs thinking?? No strength bonus, No swim speed.
I love Eko, seriously i do as a character. But looking over the Hippo stats, in thinking what were the Devs thinking?? No strength bonus, No swim speed.
Yeah, the hippo definitely starts out entirely focused on defense, but their strength balloons quite a bit once you're a few levels in. I think with the amount of hits Bubbles can soak up she'll be contributing plenty in the early levels.
Oh, also, I think her bite is 1d8, not 2d6.
I love Eko, seriously i do as a character. But looking over the Hippo stats, in thinking what were the Devs thinking?? No strength bonus, No swim speed.Yeah, the hippo definitely starts out entirely focused on defense, but their strength balloons quite a bit once you're a few levels in. I think with the amount of hits Bubbles can soak up she'll be contributing plenty in the early levels.
Oh, also, I think her bite is 1d8, not 2d6.
Normally yes, but Bubbles has Improved Natural Attack, nvm your right i just looked and bab plus 4 required...dammit thats frustrating
im having a heck of a time actually figuring out what to do with a feat for her.
strength is too low for power attack
con is too low improved natural armor
but the big cat get Str 13, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 15, Cha 10 right away. ps i'm just venting about how unbalanced Ac's are.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Toughness is a good choice. It will be hard to keep HP scaling with the party's as the hippo's HD will fall behind.
a good simple choice i overlooked. thanks Silvash
Normally six goblins at level 1 would qualify as an at least moderate threat just due to sheer numbers and high initiative.
But with rolls of -checks notes- 2, 10, 2, 6, 6, and 4, I don't think you have too much to worry about here lol
Whooof. Sorry folks, I made a ding-dong mistake.
Coming off an after-hours event at the store Friday evening followed by Free Comic Book Day yesterday clearly struck me with a small amount of delirium because for some reason I thought the goblins were up next, lol.
So! None of those attacks happened -though the info about the goblins being unaffected by the difficult terrain remains accurate.
Consider that a parallel universe we're chopping off here on the spot.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Quick someone call TVA, in all seriousness though it happens don't worry too much
I'll have an update in later this evening.
Apologies folks, been a busy++ couple of days.
Apologies for the extended delay everyone. Work is in the very last week of wind-down before my time at the job ends, so there is much to get done. Additionally, my wife and I's move out of state has had it's date moved up so I have a lot on my plate outside of work as well. I'll be updating as frequently as possible, but please be patient for the immediate future.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
We are finally taking our honeymoon and travelling for the next two weeks. I will post if I can but dont wait up and feel free to bot.
Would like to reiterate my thanks to everyone for being patient with the game moving slowly for the time being. It'll probably be like this for the duration of September, but we'll be settled in to the new place by start of October and I'll be able to post more consistently.
I am back from our travels.
Hi everyone! Still here! Still very intent on keeping this going!
I am very, very sorry about the amount of downtime. In addition to just having a looooot on my plate, it also seems my Emerald Spire hardcover got packed up by mistake. I had time to go through a few of my tabletop boxes today looking for it, and I'll check the rest of them tomorrow. Once I've got the book back in-hand I can get us moving again (though it will probably still be slow-going until early October).
Thank you everyone for your patience!
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
NOT A PROBLEM, WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN TIME TO PLAN THE DEFEAT OF OUR ENEMIES!
Still here.
I'm still standin~
Still here too.
Deepest apologies everyone. The move just ended up taking much longer and being much more overwhelming than I had estimated. We'd never done a huge move on that level - out of state - before and we sort of underestimated everything.
Fortunately, we've gotten to a point where we have something resembling free time in the evenings and I can get back to regular posting.
I hope hope hope you are all still around and eager to play. And I appreciate your patience during the long lull we ended up having.
I'm gonna take a check-in with everyone. I'll send out PMs as well.
I'm still here and ready to go
Still here and set to jet.