The empire where we will be playing would not do such things, but some of the surrounding nations might, so I can work with this background, except your character has come to the empire rather than stay in the nation that all happened. At least if you want to party up with other players.
The wagon buffeted back and forth on the stone road. Treg rode on top of one of rope secured crates. A gaggle of migrants were being guided to and froe from the city gate entrance. A wizard whose eyes shine with blue light, scans the on-coming migrants while floating over the road. His eyes lock onto the five year old Treg.
The wizard floats over to his family's wagon. "Greetings. I am Talon Scorn. I am magistrate of our city's war college." Talon pauses and looks over to Treg. "I see potential in the boy."
Talon looks back at Treg's father. "If you volunteer your son to the war college... You'll gain citizenship and residence"
Years of training had prepared Treg to become an exceptional warmage. Years of fearless service had earned Treg a reputation. He was not known for his mercy. A twisted set of politics has thrown Treg out of the city, luckily, alive.
Not sure if you were asking me the question...But yeah simpler is better. Rules that make the original game less hard are great "Elephant in the Room"
If backroom rolls tickle your pickle, then do it. Reflecting the rolls in your written summation also helps.
As far as characters, I was interested in a warmage. Essentially a glass cannon with specific set of spells and the ability(Chance) to hit anything that attacks.
Without the spells, then he becomes a bit useless. I was trying to work within your gaming paradigm, but it became too difficult. It was just the Warmage from 3.5 seemed like it be real fun to play.
CucumberTree, the background needs to be more mundane in nature. Drow are definitely not common in Cheliax and from what I know of Metatron, he would be an antagonist in this campaign.
The amber around him begins to dissolve. His body was resting comfortably against the weakening crystal. His unconscious body slowly hits the stone floor.
Voices whisper around him.
*Is he alive?*
*He lives. What, how old?*
*He's been frozen for...well since the end of Aroden.*
Wanderer had no specific name other than Wanderer. He was trained since the time of his capture. His Pride was murdered, and it's loot was taken. He ended as a Drow slave. He was trained as an investigator for the benefit of... He dares not think it's name.
His eyes open to see a old human. His arms and legs are strapped to the table. He struggles against the restraints. Wanderers face is stricken with fear.
"Worry not dark elf. You will be all well and free, you need only listen."
"My name is Metatron..."
The Drow listened and was intrigued. He knew that his skills could make a kingdom's wealth.
Running as Cimri Staelish is certainly an option and she already has a rapport with the party. She would be built to the same specs, so long as she keeps at least one level of some variety of rogue to stay true to her roots. If anyone likes this option, I will PM her background.
The 15-minute workday is an old argument about how players would face only one encounter and then in complete safety rest up before the next encounter. This was a done, and a problem, because it allowed players to use what are supposed to be limited resources for several encounters all in one encounter for every encounter.
Because some groups just accepted the 15-minute workday, some would build characters that focused on blowing through all their spell slots and per day abilities in every encounter and that allowed them to turn spike damage into an every attack thing instead of it being used only at key moments.
It is one of the things my rule changes are trying to address, but how I run the also matters. For example, the world does not pause when the party goes to sleep, so things might attack you at night, especially in dungeons or when facing a large group of enemies.
The armor thing will be more clear with the example character build.
As for working in the warmage, it won’t be an issue, but I noticed a lot of non-core spells which is why I wanted to warn you that it would be core only spells.
The 15 min thing/idea was new to me as an idiom, but aware of the situation...so, you'll set it up as like baldur's gate games...cool.
how much to craft spells for a 6th level character's wallet?
So, when you say 8 ranks is fluency in a language... You mean 36 skill points?
Yea, but A) poor wording perhaps but that is supposed to be fluent like a native speaker not only in understanding words and sentences but catching all the little things a native speaker would find odd despite being a valid sentence or phrase, and B) it is one of the imperfections of the system. No matter how a system is designed, you will get artifacts that seem not right. This is one of them and if it ever comes up I’d make some rulings, but it doesn’t seem worth it to me (as things stand now anyway) to add complication to improve it. That may always change of course, but remember, mechanics are guidelines not binding contracts
Also, of you could give a skill point cost for increasing a base skill and specializing, that would be great. I'm not clear on specializing cost.
3 points increase Perception to 2 ranks. It would cost 3 more points to increase Perception to rank 3, but only 2 points to increase Spot to rank 1.
Thus, +3 Perception would be 6 skillpoints.
And +3 Spot (+2 Perception with +1 Spot) would be 5 skillpoints.
Now imagine you have 2 ranks in Perception and specialized in both Spot and Listen getting a +1 each. This would cost 7 ranks total. Next, consider raising Perception to +3.
Well, it matters the order in which ranks are purchased.
If you have 3 Perception and +1 Spot and +1 Listen, the order you bought ranks matters. If bought Perception 2 first, then Spot and Listen, then bought Perception 3, that’s 10 points, but buying perception 3, then Spot and Listen is 12 points.
But there is value in a unified cost so it doesn’t matter what order the ranks are bought in. To achieve this, I add the additional rule that the cost to improve should always be the cost it would be if you bought all the base ranks (Perception in this case) first before buying the Specializations, and use that as the cost needed to improve rank, thus...
I don't think that I'm autistic enough to understand this.
I'm not sure what the following means: "I don’t do 15-minute work days so keep that in mind."
is there like a replacement for removal of armor based on type...like adding mage armor.
I'd like to play it 'cuzz it's cool to play. I won't know how it interrelates to your new rules, Untill, I build it 3.5 then translate....but I was hoping for you to help me to fit it in. If it's to hard to do, then please let me know early.
So strength is 8 plus six point buy, a score of 14.
Dex gets 3, con gets 4, etc.
Final scores: 14,11,12,13,12,12, a 26 point buy spread.
(As a note each point increase costs one point buy until you buy a 15 or higher, so it matters only if you get more than six dice to one score, which didn’t happen here. But if say, 7 dice landed on strength, that would be a 14 with an extra point that could be shifted to dex or con.
That's all very cool, and I bet you'd be a great GM. As a player, the storyline is the best part of a game...you know, if they live long enough to see it.
The premise could be anything from sci-fi to mythic to all the endless possibilities. I look forward to your recruitment thread.
Look, you can keep the story premise a secret(Once Decided), but still start with something explosive first.
A caravan at rest for the night, is besieged upon by a powerful necromancer. Many fought hard, only to be brought back as the undead. The necromancer grabs a child while killing it's parents with a wave of his hand. The corrupt magician and child melt into a swarm of insects then disappear.
Second, the particular setting I have has a strong aspect of personal power (evil) and team power (good) as two valid if incomplete philosophies according to the goddess the made and runs the world. Most ethical dilemmas will fall under that framework. It should also be noted that the goddess does not favor one over the other, but sees both as philosophies for the unenlightened that individuals should eventually rise above.
"I got somethin, she can rise above."
Would that make the character good or evil?
A solid story line that awaits discovery is helpful, you know, to scoot us along.
Per my discussion with DM-T, I will be re-booting my character using the stat rolls which can be seen in my post last night. It seems that due to the way that I was cutting and pasting the terms into my compiled post, most of the die rolls were not the same as when I previewed them
I should have rolled survival first which was a edu 13
If advancement is second, then its a int 7
Advancement here would give me the Science 1
life event:
You are assigned to work on a secret project for a patron or organisation. Gain one of Medic 1, Any Science (any) 1, Engineer (any) 1, Computers 1 or Investigate 1.
3. a. Choose a career. You cannot choose a career you have already left.
Choices: Agent, Army, Citizen, Drifter, Entertainer, Marines, Merchant, Navy, Nobility, Rogue, Scholar, and Scout.
b. Roll to qualify for that career.
c. If you qualify for that career, go to Step 4.
d. If you do not qualify for that career, then you can go to the Draft or enter the Drifter career. The Draft can put you back into a career you have been forced to leave, at your old rank. You can only apply for the Draft once.
4. If this is your first time on this career, get your basic training.
5. Choose a specialization for this career.
6. a. Choose one of the Skills and Training tables for this career and roll on it.
b. Roll for survival on this career.
c. If you succeed, go to Step 7.
d. If you did not succeed, then events have forced you from this career. Roll on the Mishap table, then go to Step 9.
7. a. Roll for Events.
b. Optionally, establish a Connection with another player character.
8. a. Roll for Advancement
b. If you succeed, choose one of the skills and training tables for this career and roll on it. Increase your Rank and take any bonus skills from the Ranks table for this career.
c. If you roll less than the number of terms spent in this career, you must leave this career.
d. Military characters (Army, Navy, Marines) can roll for commission instead of rolling for advancement.
9. Increase your age by 4 years. If your character is 34 or older, roll for Aging.
