Got sick, so I haven't been in the mood to work on a character. I've been talking about making a (Spheres of Power) Shifter/Troubador, though. As much as I'd like to rebuild Rahlmaat it just doesn't seem to be happening.
Preliminary equipment done, just need to drop some items because I am at 400K and not 360K.
Just skills remain!
I went with grabbing as many items that give her some of her succubus abilities back as possible :). Not efficient but in character.
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Also still working on the half elf. Lots of things to consider with 3rd party being available. So many awesome things I'd probably be able to try out only once!
Otoh, trying to stay as in character as possible for selection. Going with the japanese elves theme in the Sovereign Stone setting and accounting for the divine artefact's nature, I think it might end up as a blind paladin/battle oracle using an elf katana and the Iajitsu maneuvers from path of war as his main attacks. Those are pretty cool :) Not optimal, and tbh pretty low on damage, but definitely stylish!
There's an alternate build i've considered using life oracle, as that has some cool stuff too. Mythic healers hands to heal up to 4 people with one use of the healer's hands feat for 150 each or so, with mass heal at the next level. But it feels a bit less flavorful than battle oracle for the samurai approach.
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"yo dawg we heard you like RPGs so WE SHOVED THEM ALL INTO A SINGLE CAMPAIGN! GET ROLLING, SCRUBS!" Like, holy crap man, it sounds awesome but does the phrase "choice paralysis" mean anything to you? XD
Well, from my perspective as a DM, my reasoning is I have 1,000s of books I've been collecting for 24 years, and I'd like to use some of my more obscure supplements and resources that are hard to use just by themselves as the basis for a campaign. I have most of the line of both the Sovereign Stone and the Warlords of the Accordlands settings. It's hard to get a group to play in a single campaign setting that no one has ever really heard of, but I'm hoping by mixing it with some more familiar things, it will be more digestible.
I also genuinely like specific pieces of different settings. I loved the early 3.5/late Dungeon Magazine, early AP output of Paizo where they did the Greyhawk material like the Styes, the Savage Tide, Porphyra House Horror, etc. and Hook Mountain Massacre, the Cult of the Dawnflower, etc. That era is a lot of my inspiration for the tone and concepts of this homebrew. I thought Varisia and Rune magic was really interesting as a piece of a new setting, and was really curious to see what they'd do with the rest of the gazette.
Then... they came out with the rest of the setting and we got a lot of pastiche like not-French revolution, not-Egypt, not-X with some individually interesting ideas like Numeria, Nidal and the religion of Xon-Kuthon, but all pasted on basically the same map as the Inner Sea of Faerun. I have the same feelings about Faerun outside the heartlands and the Inner Sea -- Mulhorand and Unther just don't have enough unique about them beyond being not-X, and Maztica and Kara-Tur are even worse in that regard. Like the Matizca setting, as well as the same cultural area in the Aereth Known World setting (Xulmex), literally just have the map of Tenochtitlan pasted on a fantasy map but with all the same set up and description. Like, why even bother writing that, just use wikipedia?
With all of the areas I've described, there's a bit more going on than a cut and paste -- the Asian area are Japanese elves that are also wind-oriented, for example; the Egypt area has a serpent theme and alien a la Stargate or 5th Element. Fantasy middle east has magitech and Dragonlance mixed in, etc.
Same thing with Earthdawn -- it's a really complicated, 20+ year old setting, and I recently got the new books on Iopos which have some fascinating ideas. I'm not realistically relearning the system and getting a group together, so I'm just cutting and pasting it into this mash-up.
I think the product will be interesting because I'm trying to use the interesting pieces of a dozen different settings that are the stuff people actually remember about them -- like the sin magic from Golarion.
Oh man, choice paralysis is right... my head's been swimming with so many cool ideas that I can't focus on one long enough to really flesh anything out! This is a fun set up but I'm worried I'm going to end up with a ton of half-formed ideas and zero finished characters, lol. That's not a critique though- I'm loving just chewing on the options. (Hopefully I'll actually have something ready in time.)
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I totally dig picking and choosing actually interesting things from the various settings, it is one hell of and undertaking though.
Still working on the summoning character, but I have a mechanical question:
Would you allow Augment Calling work with True Name?
Hmm. My only concern is that if you got this at 15th level(which we are), you'll be able to call a 20 HD outsider 1/day. Which is pretty heckin strong.
That's actually the plan, though based on how True Name is worded, I would totally play it as an actual relationship with an NPC, not just another summon to bring in. It's as much for role-play purposes as for combat options.
This is Jon's character, Rani. I built her using Inkantations on the theory that I'd tweek them if needed, so feel free to call out any issues. The biggest tricks with it are that I can have two tattoo items in a single slot, done on the belt and body slots, and that obviously Rani's tattoo items are a lot more difficult to remove. The downside is they're a little more expensive (500gp extra for any normal magic item) and other items don't work in those slots until the tattoo is disabled.
Rani's not offensively as dangerous as many likely are. Her Riven Darts are her main offense, and the 'two darts a target' limit means she isn't going to be destroying anything on her own at level 15.
Her main ability is that she can bestow Titles on her allies, probably one each. In addition, she can do some basic Bardic Performance to buff that way, grants everyone +2 to one stat, rerolling a Will save a round, and a few other tricks. Rani can also use Path of Wars maneuvers through anyone she grants a Title, including counters.
Rani can also yank back anyone who drops below 25% for healing as needed, and is pretty good at healing and buffing, so dying won't be easy.
Here is my revised submission of Eladithas Starchild, elf Luckbringer/Godling (clever) for the GOOD party campaign. I took some of Seb's lore and applied it to Eladithas's backstory and included all the Mythic progression that was missing.
To the other applicants, would you like to have our characters meet sometimes in the past. I figure by 15th level, we would at least be aware of each other's reputations if nothing else. Perhaps Rani and Eladithas would be former lovers? Just a thought.
NOW to see if I could create a character submission for the EVIL party campaign in time.
Hmm. My only concern is that if you got this at 15th level(which we are), you'll be able to call a 20 HD outsider 1/day. Which is pretty heckin strong.
On second thought, I'll just retract that feat interaction. He'll have enough shenanigans going on anyways.
After some conversions with both Seb and my group, I've come up with the following rules adjustments. Terribly sorry this comes so late in the recruitment, feel free to sent me hate PMs, lol:
1) One of the big things Seb has privately discussed with me, and has tried his best to convey during this recruitment is a big emphasis on world-building.
Therefore, we're gonna adjust WBL using the following rules with a major cavat:
In order to get the 450,000g, you need to create some sort of in world business/guild/org that explains where the extra gold has come from.
For us Thaythilors, we're going to create one of the infamous Thayan Enclaves somewhere out in the world.
If you also have item creation feats, you get 112,500 specifically for pre-game crafting if you have 1, and 225,000 if you have two or more.
Should you not be chosen to play as PCs, it is entirely possible you can play or 'be used' as a NPC, especially if you create a really unique or interesting business/guild.
2) In the same vein as the above, and with Seb's permission, I went ahead and made a custom Thaythilor race, based on the Azlanti Pureblood.
Thus, the other players can as well. However, instead of just making whatever 'crazy' to fit your concept, you will need to take a base race and increase it's power from there. The total RP you can use to upgrade your race is 41(Noble Drow).
You also need to have the upgrades make sense for the race as a whole, not just what benefits your PC. Help make the race, their country, their beliefs, etc come alive!
3) Finally, since I loathe limiting concepts, everyone gets 1 free archetype(of their classes, lol) for each side of their gestalt.
However, as before, if that makes a character too strong/broken, the GM(s) reserve the right to ask for a rework or to ban certain features/combos.
Here is GrinningJest3r's completed character crunch.
I'd like to use some of my more obscure supplements and resources that are hard to use just by themselves
I also genuinely like specific pieces of different settings
The ‘East’ contains: Thay – a combination of Thay and Thassilon
@seb
I'm still working through some backstory as one of the Thaythilion group, which pieces of Thay and which pieces of Thassilon are being kept to create Thaythilor? (And are there any other relevant world details we should know about specifically for that part of the world?)
Here is GrinningJest3r's completed character crunch.
I'd like to use some of my more obscure supplements and resources that are hard to use just by themselves
I also genuinely like specific pieces of different settings
The ‘East’ contains: Thay – a combination of Thay and Thassilon
@seb
I'm still working through some backstory as one of the Thaythilion group, which pieces of Thay and which pieces of Thassilon are being kept to create Thaythilor? (And are there any other relevant world details we should know about specifically for that part of the world?)
The Land of Thaythilor is similar to Thay and the Red Brotherhood realm of Shaar in Greyhawk, and also has inspirations from the Domination of the Draka from the Stirling Draka series and Thassilon.
Essentially, it is ruled by a race of pale skinned, blonde-haired, blue eyed humans that are made up of the losers of every great war -- Suel refugees from the Colorless Fire and from the lost continents of Lemuria and Mu, and other such populations; they gathered in the jungle-shrouded enscarpment on the eastern shores of the Sea of Starlight -- originally they were a dependency of the serpent people, but broke away under the leadership with the aid of the Sorcerers of the Scarlet Spires, a secretive order of sin-mages that allied with the Brotherhood of the Red Hand, the Red Mantis Assassins, the Blood Mages, and the Crimson Cloaks, among other groups, to form the new nation of Thaythilor and first re-imagined themselves, and then gradually interbred, a new ethnyme that constituted the 'master race' -- the homo drakensis, the order of the dragon, the true rulers of mankind. Their agents are dispersed throughout the western and eastern lands. The ultimate rule of Thaythilor is held by the priests and monks of the Temples of the Red Gods -- a pantheon of hungry deities made up of the surviving cults of several dead nations. The mysterious Father of Obedience in the hidden city on the top of the Plateau of Thaythilor is the ultimate director of the various secret societies that comprise the Hidden Empire. The rulers of the provinces of Thaythilor are the zulkirs of the Sorcerers of the Scarlet Spires -- masters each of one of the schools of Sin Magic. These satraps administer the provinces under the ultimate rule of the Father of Obedience in the Hidden City. The vast majority of the population are the serfs/slaves, and the various war races, such as genetically-altered baboons. The civil society of Thaythilor has certain features of a democracy with a senate and a democratically elected representative known as the Arkon who must, nevertheless, carry out the directives of the Supreme Leader -- the Father of Obedience, and his representatives, the zulkirs.
Beyond Thaythilor are the great wastes that contain the Lands of the Black Sun (Dark Sun), but these are hidden behind a great ash storm similar to that which surrounds Ur-Draxa. The wastes are also populated by the skorne from Iron Kingdoms, a warrior, honor-bound culture of raiders.
Near Thaythilor lies the Theocracy of Menoth (Unther), a quasi-Sumerian region with steampunk magitech, Taman Busuk, the domain of the draconians and the Dark Knights of Tiamat, Acheron, a quasi-Egyptian realm ruled from the shadows by serpent-men from the stars who once ruled the lands of Thaythilor, and a group of slaver city-states similar to the cities of Slaver's Bay from Westeros (Astapor, Yunkai, Mereen).
If you want to ask me with more specific questions I can answer those -- I'm also taking inspiration from the Lunar Empire in Glorantha (specifically the cult of the Crimson Bat), Asshai in Essos (the cult of the Red God), and the Red Land of Vralk from Numenera (the cult of the blood gods and the blood priests) in depicting Thaythilor, so there's a whole bunch of stuff -- more than I can summarize in any one post.
Background for being rich:
Everything ready comrades? Blyad. She asked through the communication device.
Assault squad ready, cant wait to burst out of this f*$%ing sewer Blyad
Resident Omoxes give you any lip? Blyad. She said before continuing I do hope there was no actual f@$~ing? This city is full of much better options .
Nyet Comrade, our booze-flamethrowers prevailed over the dermocratic foe! Blyad.
Nothing can stop the invincible march of Vodka filled progress, Sa Pobedu! Blyad. She answered giggling a bit at "dermocratic".
Remodelled t-34 ready, the fools think it is a steampunk booze cart haha! Blyad
Mortar squad ready. We smuggled them in claiming that they are Vavakia condoms. Blyad.
Machine Gun Squad in position.We told them the machine guns are well, between the legs prostethics for people that wish to be as well endowed as a Vavakia. Blyad I cant wait to start shooting Blyad!
Very well comrades, our target is Sakroszemyr, the insanely ugly Gibrileth currently running the Alyushinnarran booze market. He has fallen out of favor with Shamira, but does not know about that yet. We are going to kill him, take his stuff, and set up our own operation. I have him in my sight, 3,2,1, GOGOGOGO BLYAD
As she, and her comrades unleashed a devasting hail of fire upon the Gibrileth and his retinue.
Those surviving the first volley tried to flee through the sewers, but were greeted by Flamerthrowers, Cold Iron Spades and PPSHs.
It was over in less then 30 seconds.
Financial base aquired! She thought, to the sound of the T-34 tank crushing the remains of the Gibrileths possee beneath its tracks.
I hope running an Abyssal booze market, but with actually good booze because you have a Soviet dirty dozen squad manning the destilleries, does explain being rich.
When you say, "Near Thaythilor lies..." how far are you thinking these other places are? Do they hold any influence upon Thaythilor? For example, do the draconian's clothing, food, culture bleed into Thay? What of the Acheron, Knights of Tiamat, or the quasi-Egyptian realm?
In this region, what primary targets do Red Mantis Assassins engage with? Slavers? The mentioned nearby other peoples encroaching on their city?
It sounds like a hot place, so clothing-wise for those from there, I'd imagine we are looking at a more middle-eastern egyptian type of clothing rather than knights in fullplate with capes and blackened armor that would roast them alive?
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After some conversions with both Seb and my group, I've come up with the following rules adjustments. Terribly sorry this comes so late in the recruitment, feel free to sent me hate PMs, lol:
1) One of the big things Seb has privately discussed with me, and has tried his best to convey during this recruitment is a big emphasis on world-building.
Therefore, we're gonna adjust WBL using the following rules with a major cavat:
In order to get the 450,000g, you need to create some sort of in world business/guild/org that explains where the extra gold has come from.
For us Thaythilors, we're going to create one of the infamous Thayan Enclaves somewhere out in the world.
If you also have item creation feats, you get 112,500 specifically for pre-game crafting if you have 1, and 225,000 if you have two or more.
Should you not be chosen to play as PCs, it is entirely possible you can play or 'be used' as a NPC, especially if you create a really unique or interesting business/guild.
2) In the same vein as the above, and with Seb's permission, I went ahead and made a custom Thaythilor race, based on the Azlanti Pureblood.
Thus, the other players can as well. However, instead of just making whatever 'crazy' to fit your concept, you will need to take a base race and increase it's power from there. The total RP you can use to upgrade your race is 41(Noble Drow).
You also need to have the upgrades make sense for the race as a whole, not just what benefits your PC. Help make the race, their country, their beliefs, etc come alive!
3) Finally, since I loathe limiting concepts, everyone gets 1 free archetype(of their classes, lol) for each side of their gestalt.
However, as before, if that makes a character too strong/broken, the GM(s) reserve the right to ask for a rework or to ban certain features/combos.
Interesting. I think I have a good idea for both the business and the Race for Krynn lorewise. Though, one question, 41 RP is quite a lot of racial points to play around with, when most base races are 10. Are we really allowed to use all of it? (I'll admit here, I have no experience creating or adjusting races). And could you perhaps share your template for the altered Azlanti pureblood just so I'd have an idea of what is considered fair here?
What I'd make is something tentatively titled a Stoneblessed (race) to expand upon the lore concept for why Krynn is a half-elf in a part of the setting where they normally don't seem to exist. This is the effect of having the artefact of creation, the Sovereign stone (according to that part of the setting), used to imbue someone with its powers. I'd imagine given its lore as an originally human artefact that it makes the person more human in the process and that the resulting individual ends up somewhere between human and their original race, along with some manifestation of divine power. It might also make them infertile/incompatible with the original race (unless it's human?). I imagine such individuals are fairly rare in general, as there probably are limits to such a use, and it's probably also a right reserved for champions/prospective champions.
Statwise, I'm not sure how that would work, leaning towards giving the advantages of the main race along with the human ones while removing the drawback, if any, and adding some divine traits to account for the Stone being a gift from the gods. Possibly starting with the advanced template even, the spread of which must be in line with the original race?
However, even adding all that, which feels very powerful even if it lorewise seems fitting, it's like 4 Rp for the advanced template, 2 x 4 RP for two added stat boosts (=the normal human normal limit if they forego the feat), 4 rp for skilled and 4 RP for a flexible feat, that's only 20 RP compared to the 41 of drow noble. You can add a lot of the race's skill boni and minor benefits and it'd end up somewhere in mid-twenties probably. You could buy I.E. like 2 to 3 x flight for angel wings with average to good maneuverability along with it.
Is that acceptable or too over the top? I feel the Drow noble's at-will spelllike abilities, accounting for 27 out of their 41 RP, might be overcosted compared to their effects - especially at very high level where they stop to matter as much.
When you say, "Near Thaythilor lies..." how far are you thinking these other places are? Do they hold any influence upon Thaythilor? For example, do the draconian's clothing, food, culture bleed into Thay? What of the Acheron, Knights of Tiamat, or the quasi-Egyptian realm?
In this region, what primary targets do Red Mantis Assassins engage with? Slavers? The mentioned nearby other peoples encroaching on their city?
It sounds like a hot place, so clothing-wise for those from there, I'd imagine we are looking at a more middle-eastern egyptian type of clothing rather than knights in fullplate with capes and blackened armor that would roast them alive?
The basic setup is similar to the eastern side of the Sea of Fallen Stars -- Thaythilor is on a plateau surrounded by jungles, slightly to the southwest is Acheron, and the Theocracy of Mennoth is further to the west. Taman Busuk is south of the Theocracy, and the independent slaver states are on the border of this region to the west near the Chessenta/Vilhon reach area.
The various populations that constituted the homo drakensis largely blended older cultures or revived the ancient culture of the ruins in the jungle-shrouded plateau to which the emigrated. The culture of Thaythilor is hodgepodge of influences from Acheron and the other surrounding cultures, the ancient ruins of the plateau, the old Suel empire, the pre-cataclysm civilizations of Mu and Lemuria, among others. One possible model is if national socialists from 20th century europe moved to south east asia or north africa and then created a new culture based on a mix of ancient teutonic traditions and digging up ANE ruins. The Red Mantis assassins are the assassin arm of the nation -- they don't have the stipulation about not killing leaders from Golarion -- they kill whoever the Father of Obedience tells them to kill, including high-ranking members of the serpent people, hierarchs of Mennoth, and dark knights of Tiamat, if that's what's asked of them. It is a warm climate, but so are Spain and Italy, and the medieval near east had metal armor as well.
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Here's my custom race. You'll note that the two SLA, while useful spells, don't really matter at our level. You can either cast them a ton via normal spell slots, have them made into a magic item, or get them permanently cast on you.
However, as I said above, I felt giving the race those two SLA at will made sense of them as a people, not our PCs.
I also custom made Master of Magic by combining two existing race traits. And Mystic Insight is just the unique name I gave to the Skill Bonus trait(I believe that's the trait where you get a + to skills).
Thayhilor(41 rp):
Type
Humanoid (human) 0 rp
Size
Medium 0 rp
Base Speed
Normal 0 rp
Ability Score Modifiers
Flexible: 2 rp (+2 Str, +2 Int)
Languages
Linguist 1 rp
Racial Traits
Feat and Skill Racial Traits
Flexible bonus feat 4rp
Skilled 4 rp
Advanced Cha(4 rp)
Advanced Con(4 rp)
Advanced Dex(4 rp)
Advanced Wis(4 rp)
Gift of Tongues(2 rp) Members of this race gain a +1 racial bonus on Bluff and Diplomacy checks, and they learn one additional language every time they put a rank in the Linguistics skill.
Master of Magic(4 rp): Members of this race gain a +2 racial bonus on concentration checks made to cast arcane spells defensively, caster level checks made to overcome spell resistance, and on dispel checks.
Mystic Insight(4 rp): +2 racial bonus to Arcana and Spellcraft
Spell-Like Abilities(4 rp): At Will- Detect Magic, Read Magic.
For traits you can pick one from each of the following category:
Campaign, Regional, Social, Combat, Racial, Magic, Faith. If you take a drawback, you can take an extra.
You can also swap out one category for another. This way, if there's no campaign trait that fits your concept, for example, but a religion one does, you can switch them.
For the armed forces of Thaythilor, I'm sort of imagining something like this: dracula bat armor
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@Monkey Thanks for the response! I'll go with something similar then for the race. Mostly useful things with some fluff choices, but spend the full budget.
All right, I have all selections (except items) done now along with an outline for the fullbackground and appearance/personality. I hope to have it all written out in an alias probably the day after tomorrow. Was there a hard time limit for the applications? Couldn't find in on a screening readover, might have missed it.
lol. You guys keep making this more enticing but also more overwhelming. I'm still struggling to lock down a single concept. I was looking at a magitech gunslinger from Unther but when I built him he seemed like kind of a one trick pony (and his 'graviton rifle' could do enough damage that I worried it might be problematic).
I like the idea of doing something 'stormpunk' from the northern Coast of Blades, but I've been having trouble trying to figure out how to really implement that. I mean, I know I could do a lot of it with custom items that are appropriately flavored, but that seemed like a little bit of a cop out. With the new racial options, would something with people who are actually augmenting themselves with stormpunk grafts/implants be feasible? What kind of stormpunk elements were you (Sobecloki) envisioning?
I also had an idea for a sage who would fit very nicely in/over an organization that collects (and sells) information, but his knowledge checks would be pushing the boundaries of what might be acceptable and his combat ability would be more limited than most of what I've seen mentioned.
And then I had another idea for a planeswalker guy (an explorer who's actually ventured out into the planes), and he could potentially head like a planar expedition league or something, but I wasn't sure if that was within the scope of this setting or if you wanted us to limit ourselves to this world until the adventure takes us elsewhere.
Oh, and I didn't see anything about fey or the first world... are those a significant thing somewhere in the world or no? I had one idea that was kind of built around having one foot (proverbially) in the first world but I didn't see mention of a region where that would really fit.
Any feedback either GM would like to offer on any of these ideas would be helpful, please.
I don't know if you know anything about the Palladium world -- but the northern reaches in it are my inspiration for the north here. There are barbarian tribes with animal totems (the Kidrion), and an island nation with magical stone vessels, dwarves in the mountains with rune forges, giant and yakman strongholds, and a nation of wolfen. I'm basically imagining something like Asgardian tech from the MCU with these various groups.
Ok, I think I get that. Thanks. Any feedback on any of the other ideas/questions?
You're also free to just make up something if you'd like to create an organization/religion/country etc. as long as you run it by me.
-I don't have any immediate ideas for Planeswalkers or the sage organization, but you could propose something.
-I was planning on including the plane of spirits, the plane of mirrors, the plane of dreams, and the fairy plane, but I don't have any ideas for whole regions dedicated to, the fairy plane, for example. My basic idea for the cosmology is a version of the Great Wheel/Great Tree from 2e/3e combined with some of the additional transitive dimensions in the doppel cosmology from the 3e Book of the Planes.
I'm willing to put something together for this, if there's still room for consideration. I'm a bit wary of PvP, but it sounds like it might be through intermediaries rather than actually fighting each other, which sounds ideal. I have lots of concepts, so I imagine it will take a lot of soul-searching to figure out what to build!
(3, 2, 3, 3, 5, 3, 3, 6, 2, 6, 6, 4, 4, 4, 6, 5, 3, 5, 2, 4, 3, 3, 2, 6) -> 666665554444333333332222
(4, 5, 4, 4, 5, 3, 5, 3, 4, 3, 3, 5, 2, 4, 5, 3, 5, 6, 4, 2, 5, 1, 4, 3)
(2, 3, 5, 2, 5, 5, 3, 2, 5, 6, 5, 3, 3, 3, 4, 6, 2, 5, 5, 6, 4, 4, 3, 6)
(3, 2, 5, 5, 2, 5, 4, 5, 2, 3, 2, 2, 3, 6, 4, 5, 5, 5, 2, 2, 5, 6, 5, 3)
(6, 4, 5, 2, 5, 3, 4, 6, 6, 3, 4, 5, 5, 2, 5, 2, 6, 6, 5, 4, 5, 6, 6, 5) -> 666666655555555444433222
(4, 6, 6, 2, 2, 3, 4, 6, 4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 6, 2, 5, 5, 5, 6, 4, 3, 4, 2, 1)
(5, 6, 1, 5, 4, 5, 5, 4, 3, 6, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2, 6, 2, 6, 5, 3, 2, 5, 5, 6)
(3, 2, 3, 4, 6, 5, 4, 5, 4, 5, 3, 2, 3, 6, 6, 4, 5, 2, 3, 5, 6, 4, 6, 2)
(2, 3, 3, 5, 5, 2, 5, 6, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 2, 5, 1, 4, 1, 6, 3, 6, 1, 5)
(2, 6, 2, 2, 3, 6, 2, 2, 5, 6, 4, 2, 5, 4, 3, 3, 6, 2, 6, 3, 6, 4, 6, 3) -> 666666655444333322222222
(2, 4, 2, 2, 2, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 5, 3, 6, 5, 5, 6, 2, 5, 6, 2, 4, 3, 1)
(3, 3, 6, 6, 3, 2, 6, 4, 4, 6, 3, 6, 2, 3, 5, 6, 6, 5, 2, 5, 2, 3, 2, 5) -> 666666655554433333322222
Looks like roll #5 is the winner!
666 = 18
666 = 18
655 = 16
555 = 15
555 = 15
444 = 12
Seb, who are the the Blood Mages, the Crimson Cloaks, and the cults of the Crimson Bat and Red God(I know they are two different groups, lol)? If you can provide links, that would be awesome.
What groups/organizations/religions/nations are the Thaythilors(outside of their own, obviously) allied with? Is there any one of these that they are most closely aligned with?
Blood Mages are basically the bloat mages of Kaer Maga, but a cabal that works with the rulers of Thaythilor. The Crimson Cloaks are a mercenary arm of Thaythilor -- think the sardaukar from Dune; many don't survive training and are a kind of janissary corps; they worship the Father of Obedience as a semi-divine figure.
The cult of the red bat crimson bat
red god R'hllor
Thaythilor doesn't really have any allies -- their goal is world domination, and that doesn't offer the opportunity for any long term alliances. Any such alliances would just be temporary -- it'd always be understood it's a "them today, you tomorrow" kind of a business.
The gods of Thaythilor are many, and include imix, achaekek, the crimson bat, wee jas, allfux, and many others.
Getting the drow noble backstory together. Are there any particular drow clans or families that would be most appropriate? I'm thinking maybe one that has fallen but is still reasonably powerful and trying to reclaim power? I though maybe Nasadra, but let me know if I should not choose that one.
@Sebecloki- if you're open to us doing some world building of our own, I have an idea. I could flesh it out myself as much as you want but I figured I'd run the basic premise by you first before I put too much work into it, plus I didn't know how much you would want me to run with it versus how much you might want to develop it yourself. I'll spoiler it to avoid a wall of text but please let me know if you're interested in it at all, and (if so) how much you'd like me to develop it.
I was trying to think of a good analogue from established fiction but I'm not as well read as you seem to be; the closest thing I could come up with was actually the Maleficent movie from Disney where there's a fey kingdom in the wilderness near the human kingdom, but it would sort of play on a lot of the tropes of like Germanic fairytales, or the plethora of stories about 'haunted' forests.
In my mind, I'm picturing it as more of a region than a kingdom, but I was thinking that sort of at the edge of the Feywilds there would be an established city-state that was open to (and relatively safe for) humanoids, and where trade between humans/elves/gnomes and the fey was fairly commonplace. And I thought this city's primary inhabitants would be the Faefolk, a new race of humanoid-like fey that I would build. In a sense it would actually be two races because, like the drow, there would be 'normal' Faefolk (that'd I'd put together on probably a 12 point buy) and noble Faefolk (that'd be more like the 40 point level) who make up their ruling class.
I was also thinking, if you're open to it, that there would be one trade road running out from the city towards the nearest humanoid kingdom, and another, on the opposite side that runs to the heart of the wilds; the second road would lead, for those able to follow it, to a city that's actually in the First World and inhabited by 'real' faeries.
Worldbuilding
Ramsen is a very old city. It used to be a pinnacle of technology in the world before the wars ravaged the region and what used to be a country was swallowed to the ravages of time. All that was left of these ancient people was the decayed city of Ramsen. These ancient wars, which this city-state at one point referred to as the cataclysm, their ancient technology was destroyed and left to decay on the mountainside.
While the majority of this city-state of Thaythilor has been insignificant in the recent past due to its degraded, useless position tactically and economically, some recently uncovered and preserved technology has given them a leg up to actually become a target for the expanding nation of Thaythilor. Within the last 100 years, it has become their property. A city state--and these grand technological defenses found have helped keep the city secure.
Being that this city is located up in the mountains it has become a source of a great deal of Thaythilor's ice and local freshwater supply. As a result, it has been the target of many incursions over the years from elements outside Thaythilor and has only recently within the past few years begun to be able to defend itself well without help from the larger Thaythilor.
The population within Ramsen is almost completely Thay and they are close genetically. It is often seen as a resort town up in the mountains for those seeking cooler temperatures in summer. The city often boasts of relatives of those within the main Thaythilor territory or nobles who have properties in both Ramsen and Thaythilor proper. A newer, more elegant city has been built over the ruins of the older city and for this reason, there is no telling what can be found when a new foundation is laid.
Possible Quests:
--Assassinate an official who desires to make Ramsen his own country.
--Dragons have entered into the mines outside the city proper and have taken up residence there.
--After completing a mission, the party is given the chance to relax and enjoy themselves in this location, but not all is what it seems.
--Various mountain-terrain monsters could threaten the safety of this city and may require dealing with, including giants, roc, and stone elementals.
I think my character Opal Farella is finished for the most part. Some of her background and details may change as others begin to complete their character and I learn more about the team.
@Seb
I'm having a hard time building a backstory for my evil character because I can't find a place for them to be from that feels. What I have so far is this:
-Antipaladin (tyrant)/Conjurer (exploiter wizard) who worships Asmodeus but grew up in a area where devil worship is unpopular or forbidden. He grew up constantly on the run because of his race, but after devoting himself to the Prince of Hell, he was gifted great magical power, and began to build up infernal influence in his home country/region using a combination of deception/subversion and summoned monsters (planar mercenaries).
NOW to see if I could create a character submission for the EVIL party campaign in time.
Yeah. That plan has fallen through. I can't ponder an evil character to play and create in the remaining time. And it looks like you have a decent selection of evil PCs. So Eladithas will be my only entry.
Due to the elf's wandering nature, I won't be making any permanent locations to worldbuild. This backstory speaks to how he won't be accepting the additional money to worldbuild either.
Despite the hard work going into creating Eladithas, I enjoyed myself. I hope he is picked for this epic undertaking and I wish good luck to all character submissions!
@Seb
I'm having a hard time building a backstory for my evil character because I can't find a place for them to be from that feels. What I have so far is this:-Antipaladin (tyrant)/Conjurer (exploiter wizard) who worships Asmodeus but grew up in a area where devil worship is unpopular or forbidden. He grew up constantly on the run because of his race, but after devoting himself to the Prince of Hell, he was gifted great magical power, and began to build up infernal influence in his home country/region using a combination of deception/subversion and summoned monsters (planar mercenaries).
Couldn't that be almost any non-evil country -- what specifically do you need in terms of a world-setting for this idea?
Getting the drow noble backstory together. Are there any particular drow clans or families that would be most appropriate? I'm thinking maybe one that has fallen but is still reasonably powerful and trying to reclaim power? I though maybe Nasadra, but let me know if I should not choose that one.
Is there any interesting 'twist' that this house has? Like, the drow in the Rise of the Drow from AAW have velociraptor-riding guards, for example. It'd be neat if you'd just make up your own house that had some sort of interesting twist on the drow concept -- male priests of Lloth, half-aboleths, dragon-drow sorcerers who rule the house instead of priestesses, etc.
@Sebecloki- if you're open to us doing some world building of our own, I have an idea. I could flesh it out myself as much as you want but I figured I'd run the basic premise by you first before I put too much work into it, plus I didn't know how much you would want me to run with it versus how much you might want to develop it yourself. I'll spoiler it to avoid a wall of text but please let me know if you're interested in it at all, and (if so) how much you'd like me to develop it.
** spoiler omitted **...
I think something like this exists in the Old Margreve forest from Kobold Press' Midgard -- we could just stick that in the Dale Haart or Agjōharduz (western heartlands analog) region.
Awesome. If it’s alright with you, I’ll post my proposed race(s) later tonight along with some thoughts on the city and it’s politics.
edit: oh, and a rough idea of a character, since I haven’t actually posted that yet, and the race/home setting narrows that down a town.
Couldn't that be almost any non-evil country -- what specifically do you need in terms of a world-setting for this idea?@Seb
I'm having a hard time building a backstory for my evil character because I can't find a place for them to be from that feels. What I have so far is this:-Antipaladin (tyrant)/Conjurer (exploiter wizard) who worships Asmodeus but grew up in a area where devil worship is unpopular or forbidden. He grew up constantly on the run because of his race, but after devoting himself to the Prince of Hell, he was gifted great magical power, and began to build up infernal influence in his home country/region using a combination of deception/subversion and summoned monsters (planar mercenaries).
That's fair. On second though, I'll just go with him being originally from Thaylinor, and get back to you with something soon.
Who all are making PCs for the evil party? And what are your concepts? Tryin to figure out who might gel with our group.
My idea for the faefolk is that they are, for the most part, very humanoid-like fey. They're typically more capricious than most humans or elves but otherwise act more like those races than like many of their fey kin. They look a lot like half-elves (with pointed ears and angular features, but not to the extent of full-elves) but their hair and eye colors vary a lot more (with eye colors including blue, green, amber, and purple, and hair ranging the full spectrum from red to violet, plus white and black). Their society is sharply split between commoners and nobility, the latter of which possess powers well beyond their kin.
Faefolk <12 points>
type fey <2>
size medium <0>
movement 30' <0>
ability modifiers +2 Dex, +2 Cha (flexible) <2>
languages starting: common and sylvan; bonus options: aklo, aquan, auran, elven, gnomish, ignan, terran (standard) <0>
low-light vision (from type)
fey luck +1 racial bonus to all saves (lucky, lesser) <2>
first world resilience DR 5/cold iron (fey damage reduction) <3>
wild lore +1 to knowledge [nature] and survival (skilled) <2>
spell-like ability whispering lore 1/day <1>
The most obvious distinguishing characteristic of noble faefolk is that they possess wings. The appearance of their wings vary greatly and include feathered (sometimes in brightly colored plumage), bat-like, translucent insectoid, and butterfly or moth-like. Within related clans all nobles have the same type of wings (though the markings vary) and marriages are usually always within the same clan (or set of related clans); in mixed marriages, each child will take after one parent and associate with their clan. Faefolk nobles are organized into houses which are not dictated by their family or clan but by what special power they possess. Faefolk scholars debate whether nobles are born into specific houses or if they unconsciously select their gift (and therefore house) before it manifests; in either case, it is agreed that dividing clans into separate houses and composing houses of members of many different clans is a vital safeguard against any one clan or house gaining too much power and influence.
Faefolk Noble <41 points>
type fey <2>
size medium <0>
movement 30'; fly 60' (good) <10>
ability modifiers +4 Dex, +2 Int, +2 Wis, +4 Cha (advanced, advanced str, advanced cha) <12>
languages starting: common and sylvan; bonus options: aklo, aquan, auran, elven, gnomish, ignan, terran (standard) <0>
low-light vision (from type)
noble fey luck +2 racial bonus to all saves (lucky, greater) <4>
first world resilience DR 5/cold iron (fey damage reduction) <3>
wild lore +1 to knowledge [nature] and survival (skilled) <2>
spell-like ability whispering lore at will <2>
house gifting (only gain the one matching their house) <6>
- Aenyr: change shape, greater (6)
- Forketh: advanced constitution (4), +1 natural armor bonus (2)
- Kaeleth: shadow magic (2), shadow conjuration 1/day SLA (4)
- Lokmar: beast shape 1 at will SLA (6)
- Morridan: swordtraining (4), instant weapon 1/day SLA (2)
- Senth: memory lapse at will SLA (2), modify memory 1/day SLA (4)
- Quaemor: vermin shape 1 at will SLA (6)
That took longer than expected to write up, so I'll have to post more tomorrow, but I have some thoughts about the city I mentioned and about a character: a servant of the Eldest (ancient fey of godlike power), probably built as an inquisitor/swashbuckler. In the meantime I'd love feedback from one or both GMs on the race(s).
@Monkeygod- I'm just making one submission and he'll be neutral (and open to working with either party).
male priests of Lloth, half-aboleths, dragon-drow sorcerers who rule the house instead of priestesses, etc.
And across the planes, hundreds of thousands of drow cried out in anguish and fear as Lloth herself raged at the blasphemy.
Either that or, basing on the theory* that Drizzt was an unwitting champion of hers, she'd give full blessing because of the chaos it would bring to the "natural" order.
*I haven't picked up any of RA Salvatore's books in a very long time, so this may have been outright stated or disproven and I wouldn't know.
Well, just for the sake of argument, let's imagine a drow society where the priests are considered, something like nuns, as married primarily to Lloth, and thus her primary representatives as her concubines/chosen mates. By contrast, the women in this version of drow society see themselves as in competition with Lloth for primacy of place, and are explicitly non-religious, pursuing instead lichdom and other means of empowerment.
The drow i'm making the backstory now for is open to working for the good or evil group. Surviving in exile you take whoever will help you survive.
He is going to be an oracle/slayer and his 'gifts' will have been secretly given to him from Vhaeraun so he won't exactly be working with any Lloth priestesses or clerics (willingly). So shadow, darkness and illusion based magic.