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There are some great submissions here so this has been really hard. To make it a little easier, I am going to select two characters instead of one. Those not selected, I've genuinely enjoyed reviewing your creative concepts and wish I could select more new characters; you may hear from me soon if life happens to one of our selections. Thanks all for your attention. Strandal the satyr bard
Thanks, Simeon! Mei: Much better but it's a little trickier. 4d10 for Shae. Psychoplasmic, like most templates, doesn't add any hit die. It just makes the HD you have more dangerous. Then 5d6 for wizard.
Edelsmirge-I'm still only seeing 5 HD in Mei's profile statblock. Latest roundup of submission statuses: Completed submissions:
Concepts in progress (You're not bound to these. I'm just keeping track):
Expressed interest:
I'll allow until 5 pm (EST) Saturday (Mar. 6) for people to make their submissions. I accidentally said Feb. 6 before but rest assured, a time machine is not a prerequisite for playing in this game.
I switched to Mei and finished my concept, thanks It looks like your submission has only 4 HD. It should have 5 class levels and 5 monster CR. Example, a troll (CR 5) + 5 wizard levels.
Completed submissions:
Concepts in progress (You're not bound to these. I'm just keeping track):
Expressed interest:
I'll allow until 5 pm (EST) a week from today (Mar. 6) for people to make their submissions. I accidentally said Feb. 6 before but rest assured, a time machine is not a prerequisite for playing in this game.
Reagents in the ribcage is pretty funny. Yes there's a few days of downtime here and there. Not long stretches though. A lot of tbe monsters spend their downtime improving the dungeon they now own.
Latest roundup of submission statuses: Completed submissions:
Concepts in progress (You're not bound to these. I'm just keeping track):
Expressed interest:
I'll allow until 5 pm (EST) a week from today (Mar. 6) for people to make their submissions.
Yeah that all works. Lucian Aldor was a female human wizard, yes.
Note: The evil wizard who owned the dungeon was female. That revenge/soulgem story still works well, though. Don't let polyfrequenciy's submission near your submission! XD Good question about the mental stats. This is a great example of how monster building only has the slightest appearance of being balanced for PCs. :P I rule that you can take the mental stats from any CR 1 or below NPC in the bestiary as your starting mental stats. The nephew's backstory doesn't have to be as that NPC.
Nice to see another completed submission! This is going to be hard to choose. In case the selection ends up with life complications, we'll have backups on call. Assembler: Good question. It seems pretty punishing to still have arcane spell failure, especially given how terrible the feats to get rid of that are. I'll say that, since it's bard casting, you can cast bard spells without ASF.
The template scales with overall HD both for the benefits and for how much of your CR budget the template costs you. Level up is often complicated in this game but I'm pretty flexible about rebuilding as long as the character keeps a coherent feel across levels.
Yeah templates could go pretty far for your stats.
Haha. Alright then.
polyfrequencies:
Thanks for the submission! 1. Magical knack is fine to boost sorcerer caster level up towards the max, your HD. 2. Sounds good. 3. Agreed. In character you might persuade a friendly wizard to let you copy without the surcharge but that doesn't apply to background since there was no chance for that RP to occur. 4. Ah yeah that's where this monster/adventurer hybrid gets weird. My ruling for simplicity and to limit power creep is that monster stats don't follow any sort of automatic or HD-based progression. So you pull your SR (16) right from the bestiary unless templates modify it or an adventurer feat says it boosts SR, or something like that. Does that make sense? 5. Sure thing. 6. Agreed about arcane strike. 7. I've clarified the background skills section to "To help with that, you get two background skills ranks for every HD you have. Max ranks in a skill will be based on your HD." 8. Good to know.
nightdeath: It's on discord but it's still play by post, meaning post once per day at any time of day. We've been playing for 18 months now and have leveled 6 times (started as just CR 2 instead of the CR/class level combo). It's been quite a lot of fun. Latest roundup of submission statuses: Completed submissions:
Concepts in progress (You're not bound to these. I'm just keeping track):
Expressed interest:
I'll allow until 5 pm (EST) a week from today (Feb. 6) for people to make their submissions. Note to everyone I realize I should have said at some point: I'm a fairly tough GM who thinks the tension in the game is more fun when the chance of player death is real. I don't go out of my way to kill PCs, but I do challenge PCs on purpose. We have had one PC death in this game so far, so it's not like it happens all the time. In a monsters game, that also means I will push you away from making an invincible or nearly invincible monster. That's totally doable with these rules but doesn't make the game better. I don't think I missed anyone but let me know if I did!
Yea I'm fine with that actually. I get a bit stuck on rules sometimes. I will have the character done this weekend. With enlightened construct and savant creature it will still be an awesome wizard with a ton of skills. Sounds good!
Diamondust: You're more than welcome to argue your case. I certainly don't mind, as long as we're all in good spirits. I do normally respect James Jacob's clarifications quite seriously. In this case, I don't follow his ruling because we're doing something the monster creation rules were never intended for: making PCs. He even clarifies that that rule doesn't always work. For example, that CR progression would allow one to start as a house centipede and add 5 CR in templates to get to CR 1. That could lead to madness pretty quickly. So I clarify these rules to try to limit how much I have to tell players later, after they've made their characters, that they have to change something. nightdeath: Not yet! Feel free to make one, esp. if it can cover knowledge skills.
We only deal with CR in whole units of one. I believe this came up in the original recruitment for the game. So CR 1/3 counts as CR 1. Partially, I think we are miscommunicating. A CR 1/3 creature can add 4 CR increases to count as CR 5. By CR increases, I mean templates or other effects that add a whole CR +1. My understanding is that those templates literally add one point of CR, not one step on the CR table. Does that make sense? Another rational for it is to prevent min/maxing from getting too out of control. Some CR 1/3 monsters can get REALLY powerful with the right CR +2 template. This ruling is part of why some of my players who made really dinky little fey to slap stuff on played atomies. No point in being a CR 1/4 mite because it would have counted the same. Simeon: I will roll the 3d6 for each stat for you then you can decide to play an animal or not.
Welcome, Simeon! Almonihah: :'( Well I'm not going to buy it and I can't approve it without seeing it.
polyfrequencies: Sounds good! Almonihah: I am not familiar with that. Is it available for free online? Diamondust: Sounds good so far. The one issue is that we round CR up ("Always round in a way that punishes the player" :P). So CR 1/3 counts as CR 1 for leveling purposes. Might be better to spend those 2 construction points. Regarding backstory, your idea for being the old, evil mistress wizard's spellbook is a good one, esp. since the party is about to return to the main lair.
Given the description in the bestiary, venedaemon's can manipulate objects as if they had hands. Since it doesn't specify, I'll say you can manipulate objects as if you had two hands-worth of tentacles (weird concept). Strict RAW for spell targets with the exception that I'm up for negotiating homebrew feats to allow certain spells, effects, etc. to buff your allies with things that wouldn't normally work on them. You would have to pay the cost of a feat for that ability, though. Example:
Yes to counting as an unusual creature for armor prices. Magic item slots are way trickier and that's something we'll need to sort out for a few party members. I'd say that venedaemons count as if they were bipedal animal companions, so lots of slots.
Whoever fills the party's intelligence hole will probably also have an IC, RO role of helping keep the party on track. Some of the lower int monsters play dumb and ask what they're supposed to do next a lot, which gets fairly funny. Yes I would allow that half-elf archetype for a witchcrow. Quick note: Since the game is on discord, you don't need to choose an avatar from Paizo (limited choices for monsters). You'll be able to choose from any image on the internet. If you already have discord and don't want to change your existing avatar, we use a bot that lets you lost through an alias. Expressed interest:
Complete submissions
I fixed it so everyone with the link should now have access. You could try a blue dragon but it might not be optimal flavor. I'd have to see how I think it would work with the party. Intelligent item is fine with me.
You would raise the CR by adding templates to the monster. I'm open to any 3pp options but none are approved without me looking at them specifically first. And I reserve the right to later say "Ok this turns out to be really crazy in play so let's adjust."
Haha. Yes good points! Ethyl is the bay, for those interested.
Story: The party began working for an evil wizard in her dungeon doing pretty routine things. But then an experiment gone awry let an extraplanar force of astronomical proportions and malice loose on the material plane, killing the wizard. Now the monsters are bravely seeking the shards of a lost, holy artifact so they can defeat the extraplanar being and save the world. Mechanics:The party started as CR 2 monsters and is nearing CR 10. However, we have changed the build rules a little. See the google doc under in my tagline. Short version: Builds are evenly split between monster CR and class level. CR 5 monsters with 5 class levels. Logistics: We play on Discord and use roll20 for maps. Players are expected to post once per weekday and once per weekend unless they give prior notice. You can obviously expect me to post at least that often. Submission requirements:
What I'm looking for:
Current party:
Lich atomie/summoner is basically the weird, creepy, drunk aunt of the party and does some inspire courage stuff. Gelatinous cube/kineticist does some ranged blasting, has a lot of hp, and can disable in melee with paralyzing acid. RPs as a low-int, mostly cheerful monster. Babau/brawler+vivisectionist is a melee brute who's extraordinarily friendly to the rest of the party and brutal to all the party's enemies. White dragon/barbarian is a mobile striker/breath weapon blaster who loves shiny loot and has fun doing everything except being exposed to fire. After selecting a player, I will coordinate with them how to modify their backstory/the current storyline to bring them in relatively seamlessly.
You all gather safely outside the Necropolis. It seems the skeletons are bound to protect the place and they don't venture outside... But that treasure chest is still inside...
It's still a closed recruitment just for people I know. Snowball is right you get traits with your first level in a class. And yes I'm going to give new recruits a special item so they're equipment is roughly similar to the party.
Bob finds someone strange examining the exterior of the Necropolis...
GM screen:
The giant skeleton swipes at Snowball as she flies by but misses.
GM screen:
The skeleton near Snowball swings a mighty limb and splats the cleric again then swings at Snowball but misses. Still, the intense heat keeps Snowball from feeling her best (3 fire damage for starting turn adjacent). The other two skeletons stumble blindly over to Tina, as if bound to stay in the Necropolis.
GM screen:
Both skeletons are blinded by Goldslip's blast of light. One of them slams Bob before being engulfed. It then tries to break free (does 23 break free, Bob?). Bob burns from being so close to two skeletons then is struck twice more by one of the big skeletons. Snowball also takes a flaming whack as the skeletons unleash flaming hell, the crackling of flames in their skulls sounding like evil laughter. Tina and Goldslip are also exposed to the flames.
The giant skeleton fails to dodge the blast of ice, which is particularly effective against it! GM screen:
Until it figures out or beats down the door, yes.
Bob's rock smacks into the nearest skeleton while Goldslip's spell destroys one of them while damaging two others.
The cleric appears and channels, damaging three of the skeletons a little bit but looking really unhappy with her position. GM screen:
One of the skeletons finally finishes pushing through the tight door and slams Bob the rock-thrower (14 bludgeoning and 1 fire) while the other blindly pulverizes the cleric. Then the last skeleton moves over toward Snowball.
GM screen:
Snowball leaves herself open to many attacks and is struck hard twice and missed three times (28 bludgeoning and 10 fire after vuln in two hits).
Bob's rock hits the blinded skeleton in front.
Tina offers unhelpful opinions based on conspiracy theories while Goldslip blinds three skeletons while damaging them! Tina's summoned cleric hurts all the skeletons while killing one of the small ones. The dumb skeletons then retaliate, ignoring Snowball's unconscious body. A massive one tears the cleric apart with flaming blows (or so I presume with 26 and nat 20 to hit for 37 damage. Not bothering with the crit). The rest crowd forward trying to get at the rest of you. One squeezes into the doorway and takes a blind, cramped swing at Bob. It misses wildly but Bob feels like a nimble swashbuckler as he dodges.
We're moving to Discord and roll20 after this battle. So if Cindy is still around and/or anyone is following, here is the link. Also, I know this game slowed down a lot with Sendi leaving, Cindy maybe leaving, and my move/new job. But I want us to re-commit here as much as we can to posting every day. Let's use moving to Discord as an opportunity to refocus in that way.
Like the fact the monster with the most Hp is the best ranged attacker? XD
Questions:
2. Why is the only one with fire vulnerability the front lines? XD
The mindless skeletons crowd forward crazily. GM screen:
The giant skeleton keeps a firm grip on Snowball and moves her to beside him. The little one moves in and claws but can't hit her. A big one reaches over and claws at Snowball really, really hard.
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