Greg Donaldson's page

mdt wrote:

Ganny wrote:

I pretty much had the same idea, and I will probably end up playing the character cause I like the flavor of it...

An old Dwarven Zen Archer with Vow of Poverty, who has realized that all things material are just vanity, and forsakes them all in a personal quest for spiritual purity. His only possession? A longbow owned by his late human friend (Insert Name Here) he adventured with long ago, given to this Dwarf on the human's death bed.

I actually really, really like this idea. Though I wonder if each arrow counts as an item...I really hope not.

Yep, they are items. So, if he wants to, he can have 5 shots, but he has to run around naked.

He can have zero shots. The first 5 items are set he would just have a bow and no arrows.

*Sigh* Well, there goes that idea.

Ganny wrote:

I pretty much had the same idea, and I will probably end up playing the character cause I like the flavor of it...

An old Dwarven Zen Archer with Vow of Poverty, who has realized that all things material are just vanity, and forsakes them all in a personal quest for spiritual purity. His only possession? A longbow owned by his late human friend (Insert Name Here) he adventured with long ago, given to this Dwarf on the human's death bed.

I actually really, really like this idea. Though I wonder if each arrow counts as an item...I really hope not.

Yep, they are items. So, if he wants to, he can have 5 shots, but he has to run around naked.

Bloody hell.

TriOmegaZero wrote:

He can't craft as he is not allowed to own the materials/gold used in crafting.

He merely requires a patron! Perhaps he could get away with being a muse/ingenue. Will he pose for noodz?

+1. Seriously though, I could see a traveling Vow of Poverty monk who travels the countryside making items. Sure, he doesn't have an artisan kit, but those you could borrow, right?

bump!

I believe that Toothless said today would be the last day for character submittals.

I do believe so, yes.

I see no issues with what you have listed. Depending on what we need will probably vary what I will use.

Grunt (Seriously folks, that's his nickname)
Damnit
Wolfsbreath

If these interest you, please let me know. XP

Oops! Alignment is True Neutral for both Noctos and Qulyabani until I get more into Noctos's head.

Thanks for the input. It helps me understand stuff a bit better now.

Name: Noctos Melwasúl
Race: Half-Elf
Class: Summoner
Eidolon's Name: Qulyabani
Eidolon Template: Biped

Over-Arching Theme 1: The Living Nightmare

Noctos was a happy Half-Elf who grew up in a farmhouse with both his parents. He had a younger brother and sister, and while they didn't have much, they didn't know that much was out there to be had, so they were happy. The crops they brought in was enough to feed the family through the winter, and they sold the extra for any other supplies they needed. Had the plague not happened, Noctos would have been at best, a historical footnote. Unfortunately, plague took his family and almost killed Noctos. During the fever dreams he slept/wandered deep into a local cave system, where he encountered...something. Whatever it was left took the plague from Noctos, but left him marked. Now he travels with the thing that took the plague onto itself, and protects him where-ever he goes.

(For those wondering what it was, it was an aberrant being. Haven't decided what it originally was, but for now it takes the shape of a medium-size Hook Horror. When in public, it remains heavily cloaked and hooded, though it can have a nasty, nasty temper...)

Over-Arching Theme 2: Scientific Curiosity

Noctos wandered for a while after becoming orphaned, until he finally came to Ravengro. There he was taken in for a time by a kindly old professor and his daughter. He learned and began traveling with Lorrimor. Noctos's overwhelming urge to learn and practice science and magic took hold at this point, possibly because of the Professor's influence, and he began learning at the University of Lepidstadt as soon as possible. His abilities in summoning have caused him to excel in the field of Extra-Planar studies, and he was close to graduating when he got news that the Professor had died.

(Traits Selected: Poverty-Stricken, and Teacher's Pet)

Greatest Fear: Noctos's Greatest fears, for obvious reasons, is of disease and death. Both scare the living daylights out of him, and if given the chance to run from both, he will. If cornered by either or both, he will collapse into a little ball and try to pull the earth over himself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I believe that answers all your questions, though not necessarily in a way you were expecting. If I am excepted, please let me know. Have a nice day/night. XP

I honestly think there is another side to the story too. But when I ask the other players I get two saying 'I didn't like that you were undead' and two people saying 'I don't really care'.

As for what happened with the Vault...I have always treated a spell slot as sort of a battery. You have so much energy that you can use to twist reality into whatever you need or prepared that day. Each spell slot contains so many spell levels, etc, etc. It may be that my understanding of the magic system could be awry, but the general consensus I am starting to see on the boards and from players from other groups I am talking with is that what I did shouldn't of been possible, correct?

1.) Aye, that was pretty much it. And when the flesh started to rot, I was officially undead.

2.) The party leader quit because he started to dread going to the game. I think he would have had more fun if he wasn't the party leader, but he kinda got pushed into the role (We started in a military setting, and he is the only one with military experience).

Oh, I misunderstood. You were the sorcerer.

My last line above still stands; why are they complaining about the Wish to undo things?

They were complaining about it because they thought it was because I wanted to stay an undead. To me, staying an undead was an added bonus: Like getting a cash back bonus on a new car. You don't buy the car for the extra $3k in your pocket. You buy the car cause you want/need the car.

I just really wanted to look at the goodies that were behind the extra warding in wizard vault...and almost survived the explosion.

And it sucks when the meta-gaming happens like that...I have seen campaigns torn apart by such things.

Answering questions as they came up, from WraithStrike:

1.) There weren't any particular gradual changes noticed by the party, but I spent alot of my time using Elemental Body I and trying to avoid getting damaged. I didn't end up really getting healed that often, and the cleric didn't really take a close look at me.

2.) Breaking into the vault set off an alarm, and after some OoC discussion and spellcraft check to see how long till guards would come, the GM said we had about two and a half minutes to get out without an issue, but we could only take around 4 items unless we got creative. He didn't particularly hint at a solution, I don't think he expected me to tackle the problem.

Correct solution, from gear that was available: There was a Rod of Nullification and a Staff of Transmutation available on a nearby rack. Since the shield was held in place by a magic circle, the Rod of Nullification could have been used to shut down the ward, or the Staff of Transmutation could have been used to disintegrate a section of magic circle (and a 10 foot cube of stone) away. However, as this rack of goodies had 8 other items on it and identify takes 3 rounds to identify an item...I didn't really consider it an option.

3.) The Groundhog Day idea came from earlier in the campaign. A different player character had been trapped in a cell and had sold his soul for three wishes. After the third wish, he was zapped away to one of the Nine Hells. He had already used a wish when we found him (He had been stuck in the cell for 100 years and wished for food and water till he was rescued) so when we encountered a Pit Fiend at level 8, he wished that the day would be started over again. Unfortunately, it meant a Groundhog's Day where we all didn't remember anything, and it repeated Ad nauseum. In order to stop the loop, he changed the wish after Groundhog Day 100 to have him remember the events that had happened previously. It all still happened (Every other player had motives for meeting the Pit Fiend, was supposed to be a non-combat encounter), and after the player realized he couldn't stop it, he dropped it.

The reason I wanted to use the two wishes as such was that the vault was in the basement of a tower, and the resulting magical destruction had forced the tower to lean 30 degrees or so. Since we had to destroy the demon controlling the forces in the tower, and the demon was at the top of the tower, I was pretty sure the party didn't want to die if we all stepped too far the wrong way.

However, my primary reason for stopping the campaign wasn't the complaining about the wish. It was that the cleric (Probably should of mentioned she is the GM's sister) decided not to talk to me about it, and chose to go around my back and force the GM's hand. Doing something like that is a pet peeve of mine, and I will not stand for it. I still feel kind of guilty though, which is why I posted the thread.

Plus there has to be some decent stories of campaigns exploding, or being shanghaied in another direction.

This thread is a two-part discussion. I want to know if I am responsible for the destruction of a campaign, and I want to hear the tales of other campaigns exploding into little pieces in the most spectacular ways possible.

So, I am playing an Halfling Aberration Sorc (I liked the idea of the really long arms on a halfling XP ). My GM insists on rolling stats, so I ended up with a really high dex and charisma, with negative strength and con (My rolls were abysmal but still legal). My over-arching themes for this character were Loving The Daughters (My Halfling had a bad habit of being found in the barn with the village mayor's or head farmer's, or both on one occasion, daughters) and Magic Solves EVERYTHING. His greatest fear was Mind Death (His body could die, but not his mind!).

Why does explaining these things important? Well, in order to escape the reach of more than a few of these very vengeful fathers, my halfling joined the military. You know, travel the world, see new and interesting places, have fun with new and exotic women...you get the idea. Well, he ends up with the rest of the party sent to cure an Unknown Plague in a Valley. Over the course of 10 levels, we solve the valley's problems, but not before getting a little side-tracked. We end up stopping a Lich (Oddly enough, not the cause of the valley's problems). This gives the halfling the idea of becoming a Lich himself, which he keeps to himself.

Defeating the Lich yielded several magic items, including an Amulet of Disease Immunity. Here comes the issue...the Amulet is cursed. After two levels of wearing the Amulet (a month or two), the wearer of the Amulet becomes undead, while retaining his sentience. This wouldn't of been an issue, had the Sorcerer not been given the Amulet by the rest of the party. Here is where the problems start...

10 days after officially becoming Undead (He had burned away his flesh so he would stop stinking) the party cleric tries to Heal the Sorcerer to death, concerned with saving the Sorcerer's soul. When that didn't work, the cleric threatened to kill herself to force the Sorcerer to willingly accept a Raise Dead. The Sorcerer talked the Cleric down, so the Sorcerer managed to work out a Geas that would effect his Undead Form, so he couldn't kill innocents, experiment with other undead, that sort of thing.

To sum up the rest of a very, very long story, the campaign blew up when the Undead Sorc, now level 12, wanted to get to the Restricted Area of a Wizard's Vault. He unleashed all of his remaining 69 spell levels to short out an epic level warding, nearly killed everyone in a 1 mile radius (Forgot to shunt the energy). Instead of getting killed, thanks to Hero Points, he was True Resurrected thanks to crashing into a Philosopher's Stone and shattering it over him.

The spark that ignited the campaign was when the Sorc identified a sword that had been taken from the open section of the vault, a Luckblade with two wishes on it. He was going to use the Wishes to give his earlier self the information of what had happened, and rewrite history (Groundhog's Day, essentially). The cleric put pressure on the GM, who put pressure on the party leader, and after chewing me out for three days, the party leader and myself decided we were done with this silliness. With two of 5 players dropping the campaign, the campaign ended.

So, was my decision the correct one in dropping the campaign, or should I have tried to work something out with the party?

So...been having some issues in a campaign run by a friend. I have been playing a Greatsword wielding inquisitor of War, who, after drinking from a magic fountain and being turned Neutral Evil, is now going to be leaving the party post-haste (You know, before the Paladin kills his butt).
That being said, I have been giving much thought to playing a Rage Prophet, and with some of the options offered in the Advanced Players Guide, it is possible to build a true Juggernaut.

Thus, the Build:

Dwarven Barbarian 8/Oracle 2 into Rage Prophet 10
25 Point Buy (Starting Stats)
Str 15
Dex 12
Con 16
Int 14
Wis 09
Cha 16
Alternate Class Feature: Invulnerability
Rage Powers: Guarded Life, Reckless Abandon, Moment of Clarity, Increased Damage Reduction (x3)
Reveletions (Life Tree): Combat Healer, Safe Curing, Enhanced Cures
Feats:
Power Attack, Skill Focus: Craft (WeaponSmith), Master Craftsman (Craft: Weaponsmith) Craft Arms and Armor, Craft Wonderous Item,
Extra Rage Power (x2), Extra Revelation (x2)

Why Dwarf? Well, I wanted to be a Dwarven Weaponsmith. No real reason other than that.

The basic idea is to build a true Juggernaut. With Invulnerability and Increased Damage Reduction (x3), you are looking at DR 7/-. Combined with the effects of Guarded Life, and you are preventing 14 points of physical damage when you rage at 1 HP. Throw down a Cure Critical Wounds on yourself while raging, and you get rid of quite a few of that pesky non-lethal damage, as well as gain back a nominal amount of HP.

As for so many Barbarian levels to Oracle levels, I needed more rounds of Rage. I could of gone 5 Barb/5 Oracle and gotten the Heal spell, but the rounds of rage I would of had would not of been enough to make great use of Guarded Life.

So, that all being said, what do you all think?

A cavalier with a full eidolon. Order of the Sword anyone?

Falls apart at the "Charge attack" line in mounted mastery -- since you have to full attack in order to use mounted skirmisher and you have to charge when using mounted mastery you can't do both at once -- both are full round actions and therefore are mutually exclusive.

Ah, thanks.

Alright, so let's take a look at the order of the Sword Cavalier. The Ability in question is as follows:

The feat, Mounted Skirmisher, says the following:

Alright, so let's say your GM allows you to take Oversized two-weapon fighting from the 3.5 books. A lance, when mounted, is a one-size weapon. You take Spirited Charge, your mount charges, moving less than its speed, triggering Mounted Skirmisher. So, assuming you have two weapon fighting, improved two-weapon fighting, and greater two-weapon fighting, are you able to make your 6 attacks, with Spirited Charge coming into play for the Triple Damage on each attack?

It does reward mounted characters, who invest time, money, feats and RP on there mounts as well as cleverness to get them working into a dungeon-crawl (At least, all the games I play go into at least one) and allows someone to keep up with the damage of the Archer or, the Wizard should he/she be playing a blaster.

Hrm...I wonder what other feats I would want as a mounted rider then...Skill Focus: Ride is always good...but what else...

Now, I have been playing a Summoner who rides his Eidolon into battle, using a lance, and I have naturally picked up the Mounted Combat Tree. The question is, could I use ride by attack to vital strike a foe I am fighting, using Spirited Charge?

I know Vital Strike is a Standard Action, and normally you wouldn't be able to use it with a charge. But would Ride-by-Attack let you get around it?

Sorry about the double post, but does anyone know if there will be a feat that allows Cavalier and Summoner class levels to stack for the purposes of determining an Eidolon's number of available feats, Evolution Pool, maximum attacks and armor bonus?

Ah, thank you very much.

So, reading up on the Summoner, and I have been taking a closer look at the Eidolon. It doesn't go into great detail about the Eidolon, just that it is a powerful outsider. So, if the Summoner bound to the Eidolon wanted it to be something ride-able, would another character, like a Paladin or a Cavalier, be able to ride it into combat using things like Mounted Combat?

Somehow, I don't think Handle Animal quite covers the checks to teach the Eidolon...well, anything.

I am looking for a way to make a fighter into a ranged tripper/disarmer. Stand Still might be a pretty cool way to go as well (Pinning them to the ground or knocking the wind out of them to stop a move action?), but I am having issues finding a way to go about this with bows/crossbows.

Any ideas? I remember a feat for this, but I can't find it...

Skyguard, that makes a lot more sense and I agree. Of course, you have to deal with the pesky wizard who decides to cast shield, but that is what Disintegrate, Chain-Lightning (I believe each bounce would give sneak attack bonus damage) or Freezing Sphere are for.

Hrm...though, in comparison to the other abilities it almost negates the effect. Yes, you can sneak attack on an area-of-effect spell, but it only effects one target? Seems a little weak when you compare it to say, Crippling Critical (Duelist) or Spell Critical (Eldritch Knight). Though I do see it as a balancing issue.

Hrm...can we get a definite answer as to whether or not everyone eats the sneak attack damage from the multiple attacks (I don't think the magic missile sneak attack of doom works here, as it isn't an attack and doesn't gain the bonus damage from point blank shot, but I could be wrong).

Not sure if this has been posted, but a tribal shaman, whose spells are arcane instead of divine but the entire tribe is too stupid to realize the difference.

Something the allows you to go into a full shamanistic rage (akin to that of a barbarian) and throw spells around like a madman. Heck, it doesn't have to have full-BAB, or even 3/4 BAB, give me the ability to rage and still throw spells around and then we could talk (And no, I didn't mean damaging spells...you ever look through some of the transmutation school options? A ton of fun things to do there).

Ooooh, I like that idea. I think I will purchase some, and just sit close to the DM. XP

So, title really says it all. I have been playing in this group for 3+ years, and all was good at first. Everyone seemed to be pretty even, and there wasn't alot of talking over each other and clamoring for the DM's attention. However, as time has gone on, I (and a couple other players) have found that those with the loudest voice tends to override the group. Normally I wouldn't bother complaining; I like being in the background and getting things done without notice. However, people have started to ask questions about why I am not roleplaying...and I find myself stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I love the group, but hate the situation. What do I do?

Of course. But it does give me basis for the sorcerer who, for dropping ninth level spells (Which are shiny), can gain 7d6 sneak attack with all of his spells so long as the opponent is flat-footed. Hello ray spells...XP

So, a long time lurker has a question concerning the Arcane Trickster's 10th level ability, Surprise Spells.

My basic concept is to go 4 levels of sorcerer, three of rogue, and 10 arcane trickster. Coupled with practiced caster for the full caster level and the spell Nondetection, we end up with a Trickster that leaves your average monster unable to find him/her.

My question is this: Say I am invisible and none of the monsters have noticed me (flat-footed they all be, as Yoda would put it). I cast a Delayed Blast Fireball against a room of five or six monsters, none of which have any resistance to fire. Would they all eat the 17d6 damage from the spell (assuming they fail the reflex save and are all in range), in addition to the 7d6 sneak attack damage I gain from rogue and prestige class levels?