Went with a psychiatrist. Here's my submission. Let me know if there's anything I should elaborate on or if there are any questions. Like a "true gentleman" he always wears a hat and gloves, but really, that's because his experiences with The War have turned him into a bit of a germaphobe, so he wanted an excuse to always wear gloves. And I don't at all foresee this coming back to bite me in a Cthulhu game. No not at all...
Richard Michaelson Fluff:
Richard Michaelson had just finished his residency when the Great War broke out. In lieu of starting his work in earnest, he enlisted like any good, red-blooded son of America and freedom. He was a bit older than an ideal recruit and lacked the physical abilities typically desired, but his medical training more than made up for that. Though he learned to shoot like anyone else in basic training, out in the field when he wasn't tending to the injured he was essentially a glorified chauffeur for the officers.
He thought his residency had prepared him for the blood and gore of battle. He was wrong. Like many of his fellow recruits, where he was promised glory and honor, he found only death and disease. He witnessed the horrendous effects of a new invention called mustard gas and had to amputate far more limbs due to trench foot than wounds from the enemy.
In many way, he was one of the lucky ones. He came home intact without any signs of shell shock or battle fatigue. The war's psychological toll only expressed itself later when he went to perform his first operation and went into a long tirade about the unsanitary conditions he was working in, images of the filthy trenches and gangrenous limbs dancing before his vision. That's when it was quietly suggested that the "War Hero" perhaps switch to a less...hands on branch of medicine.
He went back to studying and was quickly able to pick up the new and quickly evolving field of psychology. In his search for his next position, that's when an old war buddy managed to put him in touch with Anthony Carmichael, who as it happened was in the market for a new family doctor.
Crunch:
Str: 40
Con: 40
Dex: 50
Appearance: 30
Power: 50
Swapped Size and Education
Size: 55
Int: 65
Edu: 70
Luck: 35
Used the 1920s character sheet for skills. Let me know if there's something else I should have been looking at something else
Occupational Skills:
Psychology 50
Psychoanalysis 50
Library Use 70
Medicine 60
Science (Biology) 40
Science (Chemistry) 40
Latin 40
First Aid 60
Credit: 50
Hobby Skills (based on training in the army)
Drive Auto 40
Firearms Handgun 40
Firearms Rifle/Shotgun 45
Natural World 30
I would also be interested, though my experience with Call of Cthulhu is pretty limited (maybe 1-2 one-shots at cons and I have no idea which version was being used). Basically, unless you're running the Shooting Party, I have probably not played it.
Aww man, I wish you had decided to do this several months ago as I would have loved to play this module before DMing it and learning all its secrets. Sadly I'm currently in the middle of running it, so all the details are fresh in my head. IMO it's a great module. You get a fun Harrow mini-game, and a bunch of encounters can be resolved without fighting if you're so inclined. It's very sandbox-y with a lot of options for how players want to do things.
13th Age
13th Age Glorantha (I don't know the difference, haha)
7th Sea
Dragon Age
Dungeon World
Fellowship
GUMSHOE (Ashen Stars, Esoterrorists, Fall of Delta Green, Fear Itself, Night's Black Agents, Trail of Cthulhu)
Savage Worlds (Deadlands: the Weird West, Deadlands: Hell on Earth, Deadlands Noir, The Last Parsec, Sixth Gun, Solomon Kane)
I can also pair down my votes if you want. Though I will note that I have very little system knowledge for most of those games.
All the to-hit math is right above list of individual weapons. All my melee weapons are light weapons. I changed the title from "Melee" to "Light melee". Added the math for damage.
miteke wrote:
the feat math is a little hard to follow but I figured it out. Listing combat expertise 3 times and once with a different number? Perhaps put these items under a special section called Notes and say something like
Notes:
Combat expertise was decided to cost 7 instead of 10
Humans cost 18 BP but because of the extra feat refund 10
5 unspent points
Combat expertise was only ever listed 2x and with the same number. I think you got confused by Combat Reflexes, which was my note that I was 1 off from being able to buy that. I moved it to my future section notes though. Also, the build point notes section have links to the Discussion points I'm basing those values on.
I like the idea of using the template (especially with how often I lose track of the numbers), but I'm not able to copy the formatting; any ideas on that?
I do not. However, if you want to use my template (which is in a google doc), you are free to. Just be aware that there are 2 skills sections depending on if background skills are in effect or not.
I'll be at a company offsite most of today followed my IRL D&D game, so probably won't make much progress on my character. Sounds like I'm not going for Butterfly Sting, so just need to decide what my feats for several levels are going to look like/if I'll get to Spellcut/Cut from the Air, or if I should just grab the extra skill points (leaning skill points).
I'm hoping to at least have an alias with some background details in it by tonight.
Sounds fine to me then. I will however say that I'm going to be playing a good-aligned character (possibly one who worships Sarenrae), and depending on where he is in his confidence arc, he may try to stop you (I'm thinking a verbal confrontation since I'm not interested in PvP).
To elaborate on my character's beliefs, he doesn't really mind stealing, so long as you're not stealing from the needy. He will probably want to suggest alternate means to accomplishing goals than killing but will accept that if he believes it is necessary. Poisoning isn't really any worse than killing (and depending on the poison, could be a non-lethal way to end a fight). You'd have to convince him that the person in question is truly evil or that truly terrible things would happen as the alternative for him to be ok with torturing though.
I will also add to all this that I'm totally fine with in-character tension and conflict between party members so long as it's purely in-character and doesn't become conflict between the players. I just expect there to be an open dialog to make sure nothing gets out of hand. :-)
I find it impossible to comment on an "evil" character without knowing more details. Worship of an evil deity isn't in itself evil, and even if you look at Norgorber's PF wiki page under followers, there's a range talked about. Even just under spies, you have
Followers: Reaper of Reputation wrote:
Followers of the Reaper vary from relatively benign manipulators of politics whose social maneuvering benefits others as well as themselves to groups...which hoards esoteric knowledge and kills anyone else who would possess these secrets
So my question is what is he actually going to be doing that earns him an evil alignment? What does the character believe that makes him evil?
Edit: Bah, got ninja'd. So it sounds like he's mostly evil in that he's willing to go to any length to achieve his objective. Is that accurate? And I'm guessing the other characters won't know what his actual end objective is? In addition to being willing to do anything to achieve his goals, does he also just do things like killing/torturing for fun?
Nuuu, don't tempt me with more feats! I already have so many I want to get, haha.
@Sebecloki: I'm going heavy armor, TWF, crit fisher Fighter (who's open to taking Butterfly sting if someone wants a high crit multiplier melee weapon). VixieMoondew is a kitsune sword-and-pistol swashbuckler. Dragoncat is an android witch. And Grandlounge has a laundry list of possible choices though most recently said
Quote:
I'm leaning toward a melee cleric of Gorum or Torag played very similar to a skald using the evangelist archetype. Still working out some story details. The other build I'm excited by is either a Swarm Monger or Death Druid as a druid grave digger/mortician (will not be a edgy character).
At first level I suppose it doesn't really matter if linguistics is limited or not since I'm still putting a point in it (going to learn "read lips." Which I have yet to see be useful but one day it will and it'll be great). If you want, we can revisit at 2nd level, where it'll actually be relevant.
I guess my question for bp evaluation is what about things that are useful now, but not later? For example, Rich Parents is definitely pretty useful at 1st and maybe 2nd level. But at later levels, the amount of gold you typically have vastly outstrips the bonus, making it not nearly as useful as, say, a bonus to a skill. Or compared to the trait Duskwalker Agent, which (probably) gives you less starting wealth, but also gives you a lifelong discount on gear you buy from the Duskwalkers/bonus on gear you sell to them.
Oh, something I should probably mention, I plan to track progress towards a number of the achievement feats listed in the player's guide. There's a good chance I won't actually take the feats, but the (video)gamer in me loves the idea of them, so I'm at least going to try to track eligibility for myself.
@DM: Can I sell you on making Linguistics one of the Lore-like skills? I suppose it's somewhat game-specific, but I don't often see it come up as a skill roll. I also don't often see language really being a huge barrier in games, and when it is, typically the best way around that is via magic rather than linguistics. That being said, for some reason I like having a long list of languages that my characters know.
I've started putting together a background in my head, but I'll probably hold off on writing it down until I've actually come up with names for my character and at least one NPC (naming is hard :-x).
I also have the broad-strokes plans for the crunch, but I'll need to figure out if I'm going to get Butterfly Sting (and therefore need to have an Int of 13) or if I'm going to eventually want Cut from the Air/Spellcut (and need a Str of 13) or if I'm going to be busy trying to get a million other feats.
Derp, should have just re-read the google doc. ^^;; I think the build point thing makes sense now. As long as humans count as 10RP races, I'm probably just going to assume all of my feats/traits/whatever are top dollar and build from there, haha.
I hesitate to say 1 BP since I do not want it spammed.
Can you talk more about this point build thing? Or is there a page describing it? I'm not really sure where the fear of it getting "spammed" comes from unless we can take as many feats/traits as we can pay for with build points. But even then, there are typically limits on traits (namely that you can't take more than 1 in a given category).
Also, humans get a bonus feat. How does that work? Do I get that feat for free or do I also have to somehow pay for it?
Is anybody interested in possibly linking backstories? I was thinking my character was probably bullied a lot as a child and as a result is probably shy, somewhat leary of law enforcement due to them not really helping, and cares deeply about trying to help "the little guy" now that he's a bit older and better able to protect himself/others. As a shy character, it might be nice to make him friends with another PC, but if not, I can probably make him more "quiet" than outright "shy".
On thinking more about it, I'm leaning more towards the fighter character. He's basically a heavy-armor wearing, dual-wielding crit fisher. Pairs well if anybody has a large crit multiplier and wants me to grab Butterfly Sting. More focused on defense than damage.
I'm flexible when it comes to party role. I'm hoping I'll have a better idea once I take a look at the player's guide (though I probably won't have a chance to do that for several hours as I'm just about to head out to work), but my initial inclination is either something Int-based/very skills-y or possibly try to make my fighter tank again.
If you want a sheet with all the attack bonuses listed, Takeshi Yoshida is a better example. Both René and Tatsuo are spellcasters who typically don't make attack rolls/have very simple attacks when it happens, so I tend to skimp on those details.
Probably a good thing this is most important to you because I would say dependability is one of my strongest qualities. I've been doing PBPs for around 6 years now and in that time I have yet to drop a game or disappear from one (the closest I've come is the DM and players mutually agreeing that it might be best to end the game for one reason or another). I consider that a point of pride and have no intention of breaking that streak. You can verify that by looking at any of my previous games, but probably the clearest indication of that is the last game I ran*. The game ran about 3.5 years and I was consistently updating it at least 1/day during the weekdays for it. I do a good job of notifying my games if I expect to be unable to post for more than a day, say because I'm traveling/expect to have limited internet connection/plan to be busy at a con. I have a strong sense of responsibility and believe that when I commit to something, I should see that commitment out. As such, I'm careful about what I commit to DMing, and I'm careful about not trying to join too many games.
* For this game, my promise was to run Crypt of the Everflame with the potential for continuing and running the full Price of Immortality series. I met that promise, running the entire trilogy. When the players finished, they were interested in running another game and one player suggested Cult of the Ebon Destroyers. I agreed. Unfortunately, the player who suggested that disappeared, and the remaining players weren't enjoying the challenging combat encounters (the player who suggested it was also combat-focused, which may have been why it was suggested), so we decided to wrap the module up and part ways there.
You also mentioned having completed an AP; I completed a run through of Mummy's Mask on the boards. That being said, the game was run at a kind of accelerated pace that skipped most of the role playing and kind of turned the game into a series of dungeon crawls/combat encounters. But I was there for the entirety of the game (which lasted about a year).
Creativity:
If you want role play examples, Kaoru Miyamoto is probably your best bet for me (though that's also a Masks game rather than Pathfinder).
If you want PF examples, typically I build characters around one central idea and then everything kind of stems from that.
Sometimes it's a crunchy idea, like Tatsuo Arashi is built around not liking to roll poorly and trying to find a way around that. My answer was to focus on evocation spells that require saves and then in my effort to make those save DCs really high, he wound up focusing on electricity spells. That then resulted in me deciding that the village he's from has 4 main clans, each focused around earth, fire, electricity, or water. Each of those clans has their own fighting style and specific views on the other clans (all detailed in his profile). None of that has ever come up in gameplay, but they were fun to create as a background.
René Treize is less of a crunch concept and is instead built around the question "Can I make a spell caster who pretends not to be a spell caster?" He's a witch, so most of the time I rely on hexing things, but I try to be careful about what kind of hexes/spells he uses. Typically he goes for luck-like affects (Fortune, Misfortune, Evil Eye) that otherwise have no outward indication that he's doing anything. But there was a case where we were about to go into a fight against a really tough enemy who had previously kicked our asses, and I decided that Summon Monster might be our best bet of survival. As a result, 1) he interspersed his spell casting words with a prayer to various gods to try to mask what he was doing and 2) he bought a smoke pellet (which at the time was pretty expensive compared to his actual wealth) and, with GM permission, threw it down at the same time his spell finished in at attempt to make it look like he was actually using a magic item to summon the creature. I will also note that with his +1 Bluff, it's far more important to me that he continue to insist he's nobody (for now anyway) rather than being able to actually convince people that he's not doing spell casting (though for that particular Summon Monster trick, I want to say I rolled really well on my Bluff).
Other ideas that I've had but may or may not have gotten to play include:
- How do I justify making an evil character who's primary role is to heal/buff/otherwise take care of the party?
- How can I make a pacifist who is still a useful, contributing member of the party/whose pacifism doesn't get in the way?
- Can I make a character who likes to run around grabbing enemies and using them to whack other enemies?
Flexibility:
I'm relatively flexible, but it depends a lot on what specifically you want me to be flexible about. From your doc
1) Team Effort and 2) Loot and leveling: Sound fine.
3) Crunch: This is already how I structure things (PBP games take forever, so I find it important that when I look at my character months from now, I can figure out where exactly I got my numbers from and if they're out of date).
4) Build Points: I'm up for trying this. I will, however note that I'm not big into negotiating things; I'd much rather just have the DM tell me what the cost of something is and build from there. If you want someone to try this out with, I can do that. If you want someone to help you try to make this system balanced and to debate balance with you, I'm probably not your person.
5) Classes and Archetypes: I'm generally pretty happy with Paizo classes. Since you're not outright opposed to 3pp stuff, I might take a look at them since you don't always get a chance to try them, but I'm not going to be crushed if I get a "no" to my 3pp proposals. Honestly, one of the characters I keep trying to play (but then the games keep dying) is a vanilla human fighter.
6) Skills: Sounds fine. No background skills is slightly sad, but unless I'm playing a skill-deficient character, I might use that Lore rule a lot. I don't typically make Intimidation-based builds anyway.
7) Suggestions: Generally fine/Mostly things I do anyway or can easily start doing. I will probably not use your template though because I like mine (you can see it on both René and Tatsuo's sheets above).
The protege thing is something that actually occurred to me while writing that. My thoughts are that Kaoru can't be Delphi's protegee until they actually have a meaningful relationship, which I am hoping to develop over time. But the Kaoru/Delphi relationship track is a separate track from the "Who am I?" track. If the former develops a lot faster than the latter, then yes, it could turn into more of a protegee character. But if it's the latter that develops faster, I'm not sure it really makes sense to go that way. So...it sort of depends on how things go. That being said, if selected, I definitely wouldn't want to step on your toes, so if things looked like they were heading that way, I'd be sure to check in with you to see how we might handle it. :-)
So currently I still think Kaoru is more of a Delinquent since being like Delphi isn't even something she's considering right now (except for the purely technical wanting her skills); Browyn's right in that it's more of a "Do I even want to be a hero?" question. Not gonna lie that I definitely want Kaoru to develop into a hero (and hence why I want her to develop a positive relationship with Delphi). But from a world perspective, she could go either way in terms of hero or villain. As such, I kind of like the idea of warring influences on her with Delphi trying to draw her to heroism, and Pinky encouraging selfish villainy.
Hmm, I would say the most important part of Delinquent is rebelling against who other people say/think you are or want you to be while simultaneously actually trying to figure out who you really are. Or at least, that's what the playbook means to me in the context of Kaoru. She doesn't want to be who other people think she should be; she wants to be who she is. And sometimes that involves overcompensating as she tries to show that she's not just other people's perceptions.
As such, I think maybe I should have Delphi play a more active role than I had initially planned in trying to tell Kaoru how to act/use her hacking (still initially with the goal of "correcting" Pinky's influence rather than trying to be a mentor or help her grow, but I could see that changing as they get to know her better). And then when Kaoru figures out Pinky's manipulating her and gets angry, she winds up in the awkward position of two people with opposing influences over her, and how can she rebel against one without giving the other exactly what they want?
That's on the more superpowered/hacking side anyway. On the more mundane side she's primarily rebelling against her mom's idea of a "perfect daughter" and what that implies about who she should like, her gender and gender presentation, and her choice of future occupation. She's realized that this image her mother had didn't line up to the person she's starting to suspect she is. So there's conflict in dealing with this shift in her self-perception and resentment over feeling like she got forced into this box but still an underlying love for her mom and desire to be accepted.
I actually found filling out the character sheet pretty straight forward, especially after Wingblade's helpful primer to explain all the various terms. :-)
Pinky's villainy comes mostly from the fact that they only care about their own amusement and essentially views everyone else as toys to be played with. So the villainy reveal will come when Kaoru realizes Pinky doesn't actually care about her/have her best interests at heart. Currently Delphi is blocking all access between the two, so Kaoru can't realize that, but I can definitely see Pinky attempting to get to Kaoru through the rest of the team (since after all, Dephi's only blocking access to Kaoru, not them) and trying to break any connection between them through either turning her against them or them against her (back home, they already manipulated Kaoru to stay angry at her friends who would have otherwise reconciled with her, specifically Kaoru's best friend Chloe). Whether that reveals Pinky's true nature to Kaoru would depend on how that plays out, but it would at least put a sizable dent in her trust.
In the heroing world, Delphi is entirely a whitehat/intel gatherer/support hero, lacking the physical capabilities to really do anything outside the digital world. For this reason, her true identity (or even that fact that's she's a she) is not widely known as it would be far too easy to send a thug to just go kill her. But luckily and also as a result of her lack of meat-space presence, many villains are also completely unaware of her existence or have only heard vague rumors; it's mostly just other technologically minded villains and people they have then told who are aware of her influence.
In Kaoru's life, Delphi's presence is entirely digital (Delphi probably also does not live in Halcyon City). But I'm not opposed to her deciding to come see Kaoru in person in an attempt to connect with her (though she probably wouldn't reveal her actual name to Kaoru). It would certainly be impactful for her as it'd be the first time she really met a hacker she respected (and while she may hate Delphi, Kaoru definitely respects her abilities). It would be a bit of a risky move on Delphi's part though, so it wouldn't be done lightly/for no reason. But if Kaoru figures out the risk Delphi took in meeting with her, that would have its own impact.
Also decided to give a shot at filling out the Delinquent backstory/powers stuff.
Spoiler:
Look: Ambiguous/male, asian, untrusting eyes, rebellious clothing, full-length cloak and mask costume
Abilities: Gadgetry and hacking, power negation
Labels: Danger 0, Freak 0, Savior -1, Superior +3, Mundane +1 (though debating about putting my random +1 in Freak instead of Superior)
Backstory
- How did you get your powers?
Gadgetry and hacking: A combination of inherited intelligence and spending time with her parents (father [deceased] was an electrical engineer with an interest in mechanics, mother is a software engineer)
Power negation: Unbeknownst to her, when Kaoru started to befriend Pinky, they sent a robot to her house that injected her with an unknown substance while she slept. After the stunt she pulled with her ex-boyfriend, Pinky wanted to nurture her hacking ability because they thought her prank was entertaining and was eager to see what more havoc she could reap with better skills. Instead of enhancing her ability to hack computer systems, this gave Kaoru the ability to hack into people and shut down their powers. Kaoru is currently unaware of this ability.
- What do you do for fun?
Play any and all video games. Build gadgets (currently working on building a mini-gundam model with working flight). Sometimes reads, mostly manga or sci-fi/fantasy novels. Hacking into random websites to prank them or just to see if she can.
- Who, outside the team, thinks better of you than you do?
Depends on your definition of "better". Pinky sees the potential for great mischief in Kaoru. Kaoru's mom Naomi sees the wonderful girl she used to be and knows that's still inside of her (she's generally confused/sadden by this sudden drastic change both in appearance and personality. But she's also very busy and kind of out of touch with Kaoru, so there was definitely an element of seeing what she wanted to see there). Delphi thinks she's better than who Pinky is trying to turn her into, but they are likewise busy and is working more because they know Pinky isn't to be trusted than because they really know or want to protect Kaoru. Depending on how long Kaoru is supposed to have been at Halcyon High when the game starts (I picture her as being a new kid at school, having only recently moved to the area), she has probably endeared herself to the shop teacher.
- Why do you try to be a hero?
At this point, out of fear of Delphi cutting off her access to the internet/taking her life completely offline.
- Why do you care about the team?
Without knowing the team, hard to say. I imagine initially she won't. Then it'll be because it provides another way of escaping/keeping her mind occupied or a more legal way to improve her hacking skills. And eventually it'll be because she cares about the other members and wants to protect them.
Delinquent Moves Mary Contrary: When someone tries to pierce your mask, comfort or support you, or provoke you, you can interfere. Roll + Superior. On a hit, they take a -2 on their roll. On a 10+, you also take Influence over them or clear a condition. On a 7- 9, you expose yourself to retribution, cost, or judgment. On a miss, they get a 10+ no matter what they rolled and you mark a condition of their choice.
I don't care what you think!: Whenever you reject others' influence, add +2 to your roll.
Are you watching closely?: When you mislead, distract, or trick someone, roll + Superior. On a hit, they are fooled, at least for a moment. On a 10+, choose three. On a 7- 9, choose two.
- You get an opportunity
- You expose a weakness or flaw
- You confuse them for some time
- You avoid further entanglement
On a miss, you're hopelessly embroiled in it and under pressure; mark a condition.
Keep checking for an update (an advantage, I guess, to getting sick and leaving work early), so I thought I'd post a list of characters thus far. Apologies if I missed anyone.
Don't forget, Anon, you can pick up additional moves on level ups. so you can grab a brain move or two
You can? That's really good to know! I had just assumed any new moves you picked up also had to be from your playbook. Though now that I look more closely, under advancement there is "Take a move from another playbook". I will have to more carefully look over things, especially since I now notice the earlier website link includes a link to the actual rules to explain what all the terms mean.
@ Anon Looks like a fun start. Have you made any further thoughts regarding Delinquent vs. Brain? Also, and this question might eventually get familiar as recruitment goes on, what's going to make Cal 'suit up' and fight crime? We can work an inciting event into things, but make sure your character is going to want to be on a super-team. Or at least feel like it's their only option or something :-p
I looked over the sheets for the two. There's admittedly a lot I only kind of understand about it (what is Influence and do I want it, pierce the mask, Team, etc). I kind of wish Delinquent had more tactical moves and less "Bwaha, I'm a minor league criminal" moves, but overall, I think Delinquent fits more. I mean, it even has the power "gadgetry and hacking".
As for suiting up, initially it's probably going to be a forcing function of some sort until she eventually decides "Well, I guess this is more interesting than the alternative..." Either some kind of "There's a crisis and if you don't team up, you'll probably be killed" or Delphi basically being like "You need better influences in your life. Join a hero team or I completely block your access to the internet" (probably not actually within Delphi's powers, but Kaoru doesn't need to know that).
Well, this ended up taking longer than I expected to write up. I wound up writing the backstory from Kaoru's point of view, which probably obfuscated a few things like the fact that Pinky is my proposed villain (Kaoru is unaware of this fact though and thinks Pinky is her friend). I can elaborate on the villain thing if desired, but I think my backstory may already be a little on the long side.
Appearance: Before moving to Halcyon, Kaoru dressed as your typical preppy kid. Slacks, plaid skirts, pastel blouses, the occasional sweater vest. But recently, due to the whole unpleasantness that she hopes to escape from, she's cut her hair short and switched to a decidedly more goth/punk look (I have a vague image in my head, but I'm not sure if it's more of a light goth or punk-ish look). Ripped black pants, some black nail polish, one of those belts with the silver studded holes in them. And definitely no skirts or dresses. Nothing that would give away that she's girl. She could, in fact quite easily be mistaken for one of those pretty asian boys. Especially if she didn't actually ever tell anyone anything to the contrary.
Personality: Kaoru doesn't care what you think of her. Or at least, that's what she'd have you believe. Really, it's just a way to keep others at arm's length; she was burned in the past by people she thought were friends and has no desire to repeat that mistake. So the best way to protect herself is to keep others from knowing who she really is. Because if they don't know her, they can't really reject her. But like most people, all she really wants deep down is to be loved and respected. As such, she typically only provokes others if confronted rather than going out of her way to get in someone's face. She'd really much rather be left alone to do her own thing or silently throw judgemental looks at people from the outskirts.
Backstory:
Changes from initial proposal: Didn't really find a way to work in technomancy as a power (intelligence vs empathy continuum ended up being more of a side effect of the villain Pinky's influence). So currently as-in, she's just a smart, talented hacker. Maybe she'll later develop technomancy as an ability, we'll see.
You wanna know about me? Well, my story is dumb. Like, tv trope, stereotype dumb. Your typical popular girl has an epiphany turns social outcast dumb. Or, I guess it's not quite that bad; at least I wasn't head cheerleader or anything. God, that would be embarrassing. But I was your typical top of the class, on track to get a full-ride scholarship to any Ivy league of my choosing preppy good girl. Oh, and I was dating the rising star of the JV football team Jack Liu, so there was that. But I mostly only did that because all my so-called friends kept telling me what a catch he was and what a cute couple we'd make and yadda yadda yadda. Based on some of the things they said, I'm pretty sure they didn't realize he's Chinese and I'm Japanese. Because all us asians look alike. Obvs. But I just wanted to shut them up; they had started to look at me weird. Plus me and Jack had known each other for forever even though he's a year older, and he wasn't exactly subtle about his feelings for me (though I'm sure he thought he was). I liked him well enough and he was a nice guy, so eventually I gave in and asked him out (I know, scandalous that I didn't wait for him to ask me, right?).
Things were...ok I guess. For a while. Then he started his junior year, got promoted to the varsity team, got a taste of the stardom that offered, and he started to get kinda...well...handsy. I laughed it off at first, but he didn't stop. When it became clear that that was what our relationship was going to be -- him trying to move further around the bases and me attempting to fend off his advances -- I broke it off. I mean, that's what you're supposed to do, right? It was no big deal 'cause we had never been that serious in the first place, right?
Of course, I was wrong. He took it pretty poorly. I think some of the other guys kept giving him s@++ about it or something? Well anyway, he started this rumor that I broke up with him because I had a thing for this super smart girl with the most amazing green eyes you've ever seen: Lena. But no way could a rumor like that actually take hold, right? I mean, there was no evidence or anything. Wrong again. Next thing I know, my "friends" are pretty much all yelling at me for no reason. Some are pissed that I didn't tell them. Some were convinced I was perving on them all these years. Some thought I was trying to play the minority card for college applications. None of them believed that it was all Jack trying to get back at me.
So what's a girl to do in this kind of a situation? Well, obviously hack into all of Jack's accounts, expose his embarrassing emails and pictures to the rest of the school, change all his grades, and put him on a goverment terrorist watchlist for good measure, what else (I did mention that I'm super smart, right? Especially when it comes to computers)? Nevermind the fact that the accusation maybe sorta kinda had some truth to it. Nevermind the fact that you broke the kid's heart. It was a scorched earth policy: leave no survivors.
Things only went downhill from there. There were parent-teacher conferences, yelling, and other crap. The one good thing to come out of all of this was -- and don't laugh -- Pinky. Yeah, like that dumb kid's show. S/He (They?) even had the dumb icon to go along with the name as their avatar (oh yeah, they're an internet friend). They had found the government watchlist hack and thought it was hilarious that some nobody teen from Podunk, Nowhere was on it. They started giving me tips on how I could have covered my tracks better, made it more believable, and what other things I could have done to get my revenge.
It was pretty cool. My skills were growing in leaps and bounds. I mean, I thought I was good before, but I was nothing compared to what I was becoming. It was like I was directly talking to servers, able to literally see the vulnerabilities laid out before me like missed stiches in a quilt or whatever. I could feel my anger and frustration slipping away, replaced with this resplendant view of the grand tapestry of pranks and digital minipulations I was making with Pinky. All my problems at school, at home, just didn't bother me any more.
Until some a@@$@&$ calling themself "Delpi" stepped in. I don't know how they did it, but they managed to completely block all my interactions with Pinky. Said something about it being for my "own good," so obviously it's some know-it-all who really knows nothing adult. One the bright side, all this crap with my school means we're packing up and moving, so maybe that will help me get around whatever block Delpi put up. I think they're detecting my IP spoofing, so maybe if I actually have a new location I can more easily slip around their defenses. Plus Halcyon is a city, so there might be actual things to do there. I can't wait to get away from everybody here.
I'm interested. No opinion on which side to work for. My general idea is a probably-human oracle or shaman healer/probably buffer? Plan would be to use life-link to keep others alive and then focus on being able to heal self a lot. Leaning a little towards shaman since I haven't played once before.
Then, when going out on a date or just hanging out or whenever, you can say a batch of rogue translator bots intent on rewriting humanity so they all speak PASCAL fly in and suddenly a nice evening is interrupted and it's time to go to work (such is the life of a superhero). We'll follow your lead.
Everyone speaking PASCAL? You monster. I mean, if they had picked a modern language, they could have been forgiven.
I guess my main concern about DMing is that I typically have broad strokes ideas, but lack the glue/details to turn them into something usable. As demonstrated by the fact that I already have two different ideas for adventures, but they're mostly just plot hooks with a general goal in mind. But given than I was kept up last night by my brain trying to flesh out details of one of them, I think I gots ta submit my character.
I'll write up a backstory/more details after work today, but the main idea is an androgynous Japanese hacker (powers are techo-magic but also has mundane hacking skills). Leaning towards The Brain for general intelligence and being more of a support/intel hero than a brawler. The Delinquent might work for general attitude/some less than legal hacking activity. There's also an element of The Doomed in my idea for powers (basically, the more they're used, the smarter but less empathetic the user becomes). I'll write down my ideas tonight and post them.
I am potentially interested (let's face it, I'm a sucker for anything superhero related and Young Justice and Teen Titans are two of my favorite comic lines). I'm a little leery of this "co-DM" thing, especially since I have no familiarity with this system and typically when I DM I run written modules rather than homebrewing it to reduce the amount of work I would need to do. How does DMing something interact with the fact that you also have a character? In the past when I've seen rotating DMs, that person's character typically has a reason to not be involved in the DM's adventure (or to play the role of an NPC). Is it actually a rotating DM thing or something else? Like, if I interact with a random NPC, who's in charge of controlling that NPC's response and what if two other players want the NPC to respond differently?
@Zagig: My Account -> Account Settings
You should see a section called "Messageboard Aliases". Create a new alias (you'll need to select a name at a minimum). From then on, when you go to post somewhere, there should be a "Post As" drop down menu that will let you select from your aliases, so you can choose to post as your character. Once you have an alias, you should be able to click on it and navigate to a "Profile" tab to set up your character's profile.
Still at work, but I'll update my character when I get home tonight and post here.
Dotting for interest. Thinking about re-using an Eastern-themed tattooed sorcerer that I have from a game that died out. His focus is save-based evocation (as opposed to attack roll evocation). I can re-stat him to fit the guidelines later today.
The easiest way to tie me in is that Olivia was on her way to Waterdeep in the hopes that such a large city would have the means to rid her of her demon (if she still had the vision mentioned in the original recruitment, that's presumably where she got the idea the Waterdeep would help her). The village was on the way to Waterdeep, so Olivia was just there passing through when she got kidnapped.
Anon A Mouse: Great name, btw. I love the idea you have going here.
Thanks! :-)
Pawn's Dilemma GM wrote:
Have you considered healing word over cure wounds? Less healing per spell slot but far better action economy and you're really, really not going to be limited by spell slots compared to other characters. Also, guiding bolt makes for an incredible twinned spell. Just saying. ;) I love the divine soul sorcerer, which is the only reason I'm offering opinions on it.
Hmm, oddly when thinking about healing word, action economy is not something I considered (maybe because I haven't played a healer in 5e before), only range and amount of healing. I was thinking Cure Wounds for empowered healing, but now I realize that I don't get that for a while, so Healing Word might be a better choice (especially since I also went with a feat that gives me more healing anyway). I will think more on the guiding bolt suggestion; my current plan was probably to twin shield of faith and possibly cure wounds.
I should also buy more crossbow bolts and ditch the arrows since I just realized that I can do slightly more damage making my pact weapon a heavy crossbow than with my eldritch blasts until I reach 5th level. And I'm probably never going to get multiple weapon attacks, so a longbow will never be better.
Ok, I think I'm about done. Backstory was getting a little long, so I glossed over the details of a few scenes. Let me know if I'm missing anything.
Olivia Moore
Race: Human (Variant) Background: Hermit Class combo: Sorcerer/Warlock
STR 8 (-1) DEX 11 (+0) CON 16 (+3) INT 10 (+0) WIS 12 (+1) CHA 16 (+3)
HP 27 (HD: 3d8)
AC 13
Initiative +0
Speed: 30' Land
Proficiency +2
Alignment: NG
Class 1 Features: Sorcerer
Skills: -
Lang: -
Spellcasting (See spells known) Spells known 4
0: Guidance, Spare the dying, Thaumaturgy, Light
Bonus: Cure wounds
1: Shield of faith, Feather fall, Aid
2: Prayer of healing
Other features
- Sorcerous Origin: Divine Soul
-- Can select spells from either the Sorcerer or Cleric spell list
-- Affinity: Good (Add Cure Wounds to spells known)
-- Favored by the gods: +2d4 to failed saving throw or miss with attack roll once per short/long rest
- Font of Magic: 3 sorcery points
- Metamagic: Quickened, Twinned
Class 2 Features: Warlock
Skills: History, Nature
Lang: -
Spellcasting (See spells known). Spells known 4
0: Eldritch Blast, Prestidigitation
1: Hex, Comprehend languages, Shield
2: Misty step
Other features
- Patron: Hexblade
-- Proficient with medium armor, shields, and martial weapons
-- Use Cha instead of Str/Dex for attack and damage with one non-two-handed weapon you're proficient with or your Pact of the Blade weapon (no matter the type)
-- Hexblade's Curse: Curse someone within 30 ft as a bonus action once per short/long rest. Curse lasts 1 min or until the target dies, you die, or you are incapacitated. Until the curse ends
1) Add proficiency bonus in damage vs target
2) Any attack roll against target crits on a 19 or 20
3) If cursed target dies, you heal HP = Warlock level + Cha mod
-- Expanded warlock spell list
- Pact: Pact of the Blade
- Eldritch Invocations: Agonizing blast, improved pact weapon
Race Features: Human (variant)
Ability Score: +1 cha, +1 con
Speed: 30
Size: Medium
Languages: Common, Celestial
Other racial features:
- Proficiency in Perception
- Feat: Healer
Feature: Discovery One potential "discovery" is mentioned in background and leads to Olivia gestalting into Warlock. I'm open to a different discovery if the DM thinks it would be interesting/useful.
The quiet seclusion of your extended hermitage gave you access to a unique and powerful discovery. The exact nature of this revelation depends on the nature of your seclusion. It might be a great truth about the cosmos, the deities, the powerful beings of the outer planes, or the forces of nature. It could be a site that no one else has ever seen. You might have uncovered a fact that has long been forgotten, or unearthed some relic of the past that could rewrite history. It might be information that would be damaging to the people who consigned you to exile, and hence the reason for your return to society. Work with your DM to determine the details of your discovery and its impact on the campaign.
I'm taking the 'can be customized' to mean I can just make these up instead of picking from the list. Though I'm a little unsure how to fit my idea of a character into this framework, so appologies if, for example, my custom "bond" isn't really a bond.
Olivia Moore
Trait: If people find out I'm possessed, they will turn on me
Trait: It's best to stay out of the limelight
Ideal: There is always redemption for those who seek it
Bond: A terrible fate awaits me if I can't rid myself of my demon(s)
Flaw: When the going gets touch, I run away
Alter ego: Liv the Id
Trait: Live for today for who knows what tomorrow may bring
Trait: A little fun never hurt anybody
Ideal: Meddling in other's affairs only makes things worse
Bond: I must protect Olivia no matter what
Flaw: I don't think about the potential consequences of my actions
Backstory and Character Description:
Olivia Moore is the daughter of an apothocary (her father) and a former knight and adventurer (her mother). At a young age, she started to exhibit signs of magic. This in itself wasn't that extraordinary -- she was at about the age such things typically manifested -- though it was a little odd that she seemed to have an affinity for healing. But as well her mother knew, such things weren't unheard of. However, it was uncommon enough that other people in her small village (most of whom had spent little to no time out in the wider world) had not heard of such a thing before and began to talk. Sensing an opportunity for their own social and political advancement, her father's sisters began spreading rumors that Olivia was a blessed child, specially chosen by a god long thought dead. Such claims worried her parents, and as Olivia's aunts became more and more outspoken about their claim, her parents eventually decided to quietly send her far into the woods, ostensibly to learn herbalism from the hermit who had taught her father.
Things went swimingly for the next several years. Olivia learned a lot and no one from her village seemed able to find her remote forest location. One day, Olivia was running through the forest, playing and exploring, when she tripped and tumbled down a hill. The force of her landing caused a small, underground tunnel to collapse. Suffering only minor bumps and bruises and an insatiable curiousity, Olivia decided to explore the tunnel. The tunnel lead to ruins lead to the girl accidentally releasing some monster bound within. The monster immediately attacked her, bringing her to the edge of death's door, where she saw a vision of a shadowy blade and a soft woman's voice promising protection and strength. In a panic, she grabbed the weapon, but as soon as she did so the blade turned, plunging itself into her and slashing violently upward. Olivia felt something rip in half.
Unknown to Olivia, this fractured her psyche. At this point her other half, Liv, took over. Liv misty steped to the other side of the monster and used her new warlock powers to put up just enough of a fight that the monster -- weak from its long captivity -- decided she wasn't worth killing.
When she came to, she was still in the ruins, badly hurt but still intact. There was no sign of the monster, and not wanting to wait for its return, she scrambled out of the ruins and back to the hermit's camp. To her horror, her mentor had been torn to shreds. In a daze, she buried his remains and set out to try to find her home village, but she hadn't really been paying attention on the journey from there so many years ago and was unable to find it. Around that time she started to become aware of missing pieces of time. Pieces that sometimes involved waking up next to dead things. Mostly predatory animals, but when she one day woke up next to what looked like dead thugs, she began to really worry.
Gradually she became aware of a second personality that seemed to take over in times of stress. Convinced she was possessed by some evil being (after all, "Liv," her id, seemed to keep killing people/animals), Olivia began looking for a way to rid herself of her demon. And after one bad experience in a small town, learned that it was best to keep her possession to herself. Hoping that a larger settlement would have better resources for such things, Olivia began to head towards Waterdeep. And when she received her vision, believing that the toothy maw belonged to none other than the beast she had unleashed, she became convinced that the way to her redemption (and to lose Liv) was to end this menance.
-----
Olivia is a fair girl of slight build. She has pale skin, long platinum blonde hair, and pale blue eyes. She tends to hunch slightly in an attempt to make herself smaller and less noticable. She tends to be shy and uncertain and in many ways naive. She likes stories, peace and serenity, reading, and helping others. She dislikes loud places and loud or pushy people. She currently has no knowledge of what Liv gets up to and believes her to be a demon or devil possessing her.
Liv, on the other hand, is confident and kind of impulsive. She believes in going after what she wants, and looking after number one. Where Olivia would like to run from a fight, Liv would rather put down the threat. If she had control, she probably never would have agreed to help out on some silly vision quest that is probably just going to get her killed. But unfortunately for her, Olivia is in control most of the time. She's aware of everything Olivia does, and is a little miffed that the girl thinks she's evil ("I'm not evil; I'm just practical") when all she's doing is protecting a silly little girl who keeps getting them both into trouble. She likes stories, lively parties, and having a good time. She dislikes bullies, busybodies, and people who take things too seriously.
-----
Olivia desperately tried to get the attention of the city guard ushering the clump of people into the city of Waterdeep. "Uhh, e-excuse me? Sir? Could I maybe get directions to-". She was jostled by someone behind her causing her to lose her train of thought. Not that it mattered; her words were drowned out by the crowd, and the guard seemed more intent on his conversation with the buxom lady next to him. Clearing her throat, she tried again, her voice only maginally louder. "Excuse me? Sir? I need to find-" This time the jostling person managed to knock her down, plunging her into a word of mud and a sea of countless legs. She began to panic. Why were there so many people? Surely she'd be trampled.
Oh for pete's sake... From somewhere in the back of her head, Liv rolled her eyes and took over. Standing, she made a few gestures to prestidigitate the mud off of her clothes. The small act of magic quickly had people backing away to give the spellcaster who might be casting fireball a wider bearth. Straightening her shoulds, Liv walked up to the guard and tapped him on the shoulder. When he looked at her, she gave him her best smile before asking, "Excuse me but could you direct me to the nearest temple? Then I'll let you get back to your conversation with this lovely young lady." She threw a wink at the woman for good measure as she waited expectantly for the guard's response.
The next thing Olivia knew, she was next to the guard hearing "...head down this street, make a left at the courtyard, and continue on until you see the foundtain. Then it's a right and keep walking until you hit the temple to Tyr." She blinked, ducking her head and mumbling a quick 'thank you' before fleeing the man's odd look.
Still chugging along on my submission. Crunch is mostly done (just missing gear) and then need to write down the fluff that's in my head. One half is a divine soul sorcerer with a focus on healing (and one buff spell) and the other is a hexblade warlock focused on ranged damage. I should hopefully have the completed submission by tomorrow.
Dotting for interest. Thinking a sorcerer/warlock for some healing and ranged damage (and maybe some buffs?). Basic backstory would be something along the lines of character starting off as a sorcerer (divine soul) and then village got wiped out and s/he wasn't able to help, so wound up making a warlock pact (or maybe s/he was about to also die and ended up making a pact in order to live?). I'll work on fleshing things out and getting a submission over the next day or so.
How were the centipedes each managing to attack the players? Did the players retreat? When I ran it, because the room was so tiny, they were basically fighting only 2-3 centipedes at a time. My players also completely skipped the A7 goblin fight because they had a rough idea of where they were supposed to be going from the NPC goblin, and it wasn't in that direction. Their Drakus fight also went the opposite way because they got some lucky rolls, managing to get off maybe 2-3 crits in the first couple of rounds and thus killing Drakus pretty quickly.
For chapter 2, my players pretty much saw that the elemental fights were going to be really rough and just ran away from them. Since the elementals don't leave the room, it was fine. Then they just spammed dice rolls to try to beat the DC for the puzzle room. The manticore also wasn't too bad because it ran out of quills to shoot at people, resulting in flying down to an enemy, attacking, and then flying out of reach. Though my players also completely forgot that they had a scroll of fly.
My players didn't have too much trouble with Sombrefell, though they've also reduced the amount of channeling clerics have since then. Personally, my favorite chapter by far was chapter 4. The lake monster was almost a tpk, but they managed to kill the other couple of non-diplomacizable encounters pretty easily.
