Jesse Heinig's page

You can turn obscuring mist into pure advantage for your side with ashen path, which lets you see through it. It's a 2nd-level spell with a duration in tens of minutes!

Looking for 2-3 people willing to play as NPCs.

The party right now is relaxing within the Yawning Portals large common room. I think it would be fun to have some random people play as NPCs, to give the yawning portal some flavor, some color, some variety.

if interested,
all you need to do is choose adept, aristocrat, commoner, expert or warrior, and come up with a name.

for background: you were driven into the yawning portal to escape the extreme cold temperatures and tempest that is a blizzard hammering Waterdeep. Perhaps youre in the inn for some hot food and warm drink. Or you were expecting a friend who had made the journey into Undermountain but hasnt been seen in over a week. Maybe youre a bar maid serving drinks and decide to dawdle near the party's table, hoping for an extra tip? are you a noble who is slumming it among the peasants, taking in the sights and smells, bored of the trappings found normally on the higher, more exclusive floors of the Inn.

feel free to post here your thoughts, and i can work with you to flesh it out a bit, to have it fit the campaign and go nuts.

the downside is that there is an end date to these NPCs. they will no longer be needed once the party descends back into Undermountain come the New year....

That sounds like a li'l fun, gimme a hot second.

I'm going to get the ball rolling starting tomorrow. I see they are still having issues, but hopefully over now. I kept getting the "bad gateway" notice on Wednesday when trying to sign in.

Whenever I've gotten that in the past, I've had to clear cookies & cache on my browser. Annoying, because it means you have to re-login to all of your services, but it worked if nothing else did.

Also, particularly if you live in the States, be prepared for the big toddler in charge of the country to try and punish us all for hurting his feelings yesterday. I don't think any of us are in the direct line of fire, but toddlers having a meltdown in their highchair throw their food everywhere.

Mostly ketchup in this case :D

Jesse Heinig wrote:

[dice=Strength]4d6 -> 13

[dice=Intelligence]4d6 -> 9
[dice=Wisdom]4d6 -> 14
[dice=Dexterity]4d6 -> 6
[dice=Constitution]4d6 -> 10
[dice=Charisma]4d6 -> 12

Hmm. Not interested in playing that array.

Good luck, everyone!

This is expected for an old school game. Have you looked at what everyone else has rolled?

Anyway, good luck with your other games.

Yeah, I am just not a big fan of the "gong farmer" game style. When I run AD&D I usually use Method I for generation, and I follow the guidance in the PHB about minimum viable characters. Personal preference, just a stylistic difference.

Strength: 4d6 ⇒ (1, 3, 6, 4) = 14 -> 13
Intelligence: 4d6 ⇒ (4, 2, 2, 3) = 11 -> 9
Wisdom: 4d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 5, 6) = 15 -> 14
Dexterity: 4d6 ⇒ (1, 1, 3, 2) = 7 -> 6
Constitution: 4d6 ⇒ (1, 3, 4, 3) = 11 -> 10
Charisma: 4d6 ⇒ (4, 5, 2, 3) = 14 -> 12

Hmm. Not interested in playing that array.

Good luck, everyone!

Oh just saw that there's been some churn, so if you do wind up re-recruiting, I'll whip something up. 'course you probably have a waitlist from former recruitments.

Keepin' an eye here as I've been lurkin' on the game and it looks like this might be sadly relevant...

Sure, I'd go in. I guess reservist.

Jesse Heinig wrote:

Chrome delisted the add-on as "not following best practices." Unless Oladon rebuilds it, it's unlikely to return.

Well, you should clarify, it won't return to Chrome and likely any Chrome based browsers.

Firefox and those based on it are fine for the extension.

Chrome is literally the first word in my post.

Chrome delisted the add-on as "not following best practices." Unless Oladon rebuilds it, it's unlikely to return.

@Lexi. Axton has a lot of damage spells. Maybe you could try things like Confusion and other mind effecting spells? They tend to make a real difference in some fights.

I'm suggesting this because in another game I'm running the enemy got off a Confusion spell first and three of the party failed their saves!

What was going to be quick curb-stomp became a drawn out fight for survival. :)

Not even gonna mention the AoE feeblemind eh?

Good luck new team! You can do it!

No post from me tonight. I had a bad flashback and it sucked the fun out of me

Ouch. My spouse gets those sometimes. Condolences.

@jesse: ohhhh yeah. you can keep those stats and level up jocasta if you want

Sounds great, I’ll do that. If anyone wants a character connection (sibling, rival, lover, spouse, fellow student, etc.) just lemme know.

Jesse Heinig wrote:

A couple years back there was a different WoT game on the boards run by you, but you weren't feeling it so you cancelled it. I was thinking of rebuilding the White Ajah that I had there.

hmmmmm.... i dont remember that character, so youll have to help me out.

Here is the former alias. I could easily go in a different direction if the team is already loaded with channelers.

Jesse Heinig wrote:

Seth86 wrote:

Jesse Heinig wrote:

I did the math and I would have a level 10 character with 22 hit points.

That's why I'm suggesting dumping STR or CHA

Sorry to be contrarian, I just tend to have a concept in mind as I'm building a character and I simply don't have a concept right now that supports a noodle-armed weakling or a maladaptive a*~*!!$. :/

whats your concept? let's see what youre thinking.

A couple years back there was a different WoT game on the boards run by you, but you weren't feeling it so you cancelled it. I was thinking of rebuilding the White Ajah that I had there.

I doubt the GM would allow it but I’ll happily swap my stat array for yours :-).

15,15,15,13,13,11,

That could work.

Jesse Heinig wrote:

I did the math and I would have a level 10 character with 22 hit points.

That's why I'm suggesting dumping STR or CHA

Sorry to be contrarian, I just tend to have a concept in mind as I'm building a character and I simply don't have a concept right now that supports a noodle-armed weakling or a maladaptive a##%%++. :/

I did the math and I would have a level 10 character with 22 hit points.

I had a thought but I just don't think I can pull it off with a 7. Unless I make an incredibly fragile channeler who dies in a stiff wind.

What's your goal for the game?

Is Undermountain simply the most famous dungeon in the Forgotten Realms, or is it the focal point of this adventure story?

If the former, the players might leave any time and go elsewhere and do other FR things.

If the latter, then the point of running the game is to "experience Undermountain," which means that there should be some reason that the characters are in there for the long haul: They are trying to rescue someone, looking for a lost artifact, want to meet Halaster and wrest magical secrets from him, hope to become famous specifically for exploring Undermountain, etc.

The "old school dungeon crawl" aspect of Undermountain has no fixed story. PCs enter the dungeon, the fight stuff, they wrest treasure from its depths, they return to the Yawning Portal to celebrate their victories and mourn their losses. In that kind of adventure you may want to just award xp when the PCs return to the surface.

If you want there to be story beats, then you need to figure out:
* Why are the PCs in here?
* Who or what is preventing them from achieving their goal in the dungeon?
* What is the series of challenges that they must overcome to reach their goal?

Then, the breakpoints of those challenges become the chapters of your story. You award xp for hitting one of those milestones, and introduce the next big challenge.

An early challenge might be as simple as "find a way down to level 3 so that you can reach <secret destination>." This means the PCs have a clear goal (find stairs/chutes/pits down!) and a clear completion state (we reached <secret destination>). Once they do it, you award a bunch of xp, folks level up, and you introduce the next phase of the expedition.

The goals might be personal (the PCs decided "we are working together to get rich by going as deep as we can and getting as much loot as we can") or external (the PCs are pursuing a group of kidnappers who escaped into the dungeon and took several people with them, and the initial goal is to rescue the hostages, then figure out why they were taken and who's behind it all).

Eyyy here we go. Will take me a little while to rework a character.

Stat roll: 4d6 ⇒ (3, 4, 5, 5) = 17 -> 14
Stat roll: 4d6 ⇒ (1, 6, 6, 3) = 16 -> 15
Stat roll: 4d6 ⇒ (3, 6, 4, 6) = 19 -> 16
Stat roll: 4d6 ⇒ (2, 1, 2, 3) = 8 -> 7
Stat roll: 4d6 ⇒ (4, 6, 6, 1) = 17 -> 16
Stat roll: 4d6 ⇒ (5, 6, 4, 4) = 19 -> 15

Never mind, don't wanna play a character with that stat array. Thanks anyway.

I like some WoT gaming.

After playing several KMs and running it a couple times, I suggest:

If your players care about kingdom management and you intend to actually do the military mass combat in the late game, then you should have a break of six months or a year in between each AP. While the APs are built to kinda transition seamlessly and to let players stroll around handling stuff in whatever order they want, giving them solid breakpoints to work on the kingdom without time pressure for a while is a useful way to let the kingdom spread and grow so that they're able to actually raise a meaningful army to fight Pitax.

Source: When running my PCs kept speedrunning adventure challenges and never developed the kingdom enough, so when they wound up in the War of the River Kingdoms, they were unable to field any sort of army. Had to do some tap-dancing to give them breathing room for a meaningful build-up.

Updated.

Jesse Heinig wrote:

Here's the gray paladin. Might get a piece of custom art if the game goes for a while.

Her stats look good--only thing really missing is an appropriate Campaign trait.

Oh, I didn't see any campaign traits in the player's guide for CoT.

I was just riffing on Drogeney's comment about a magi-tech arcanist :)

Hmm, interesting idea, I hadn't thought about the technologist and technomancy spells. Could be interesting...

I wouldn't multi-class though, straight arcanist all the way if I go that route.

Yeah, the Technomancer is really tailor-made for Iron Gods, where all of its class abilities shine. In this AP it probably isn't worth the price of admission.

If you take the Technologist feat at some point, then at level 7 you could take Craft Technological Arms and Armor and, if we can buy or steal a manufacturing workshop from Numeria and, say, move it into a warehouse in Westcrown, you can start turning out nonsense like a laser pistol or plasmathrower. That's assuming our DM wants to deal with that kind of stuff, though.

So the three I currently have in mind are:

1.) Faithe: Fetchling Oracle of Bones loosely modeled after Lady Death

2.) Lidyan: human arcanist with the fanciful idea of creating "magi-tech" via magical engineering.

3.) Fauniel: practicing dhampir mesmerist

I was leaning strongly towards Lidyan but I don't really want to step on anyone's thing since we already have an wizard, eventual oracle in the game. She would be a straight class as opposed to multi class so that would make a difference.

If you go with the oracle you will probably have no trouble with a niche (as noted above).

The arcanist could be very distinct if you take the Technologist feat and lean into technomancy like the Technic League wizards of Numeria. You could even take later feats for cybernetic implants and go full Thundarr the Barbarian, if you wanted to. There are a few interesting technomancy spells for doing stuff with radiation and unusual devices. The technomancer prestige class can also be a cool direction with that, though you'd be feat-starved as you'd need Technologist AND Skill Focus: Engineering, and then also want Favored Prestige Class and Prestigious Spellcaster to offset the loss of a caster level. Since this isn't Iron Gods, though, you might not get as much benefit from that PrC, as we won't be running into timeworn tech artifacts and robots. Still, if we can find a manufacturing facility (or visit or purchase one), you could dabble in cyberware or pharmaceuticals, or even make laser guns, without even having to take the PrC.

Here's the gray paladin. Might get a piece of custom art if the game goes for a while.

I think that the Graey Paladin would be really useful givenw hat everyone else seems to be gravitating towards but I agree taht it might be a bit of a stretch.

The skinwalker could be really interesting, I've never seen one of those used before.

The gray paladin is fun b/c of the tension of "No really I'm a good person, buuut I hang out with a bunch of sketchy folks and sometimes they do shady things." It creates interesting drama. The character is also a tiefling in Westcrown, which comes with its own foibles.

The skinwalker's main thing is that he can swim and breathe water and bite people like a shark. While rangers are usually skirmish fighters, you can build one that does weapon-and-shield and get a pretty good AC. The skirmisher archetype replaces spells with some special combat tricks. It's fun if you are doing a lot of water-based gameplay, less so if the entire AP happens on land. Westcrown is a port city so I figure there might(?) be a chance at doing stuff on a ship, but except for APs that are specially made for it (like Skull & Shackles), most adventures only dip their toes in the water, so to speak, because underwater movement and combat is so challenging for a typical unprepared party.
Also, this character is way less sociable than the paladin, which could be a liability for an adventure that relies on a lot of social skills.

Are you asking me for input on which idea you should go with?

Just checking to see if anyone has a preference or an "ooh that sounds neat try that." A temperature check, if you will.

So the three I currently have in mind are:

1.) Faithe: Fetchling Oracle of Bones loosely modeled after Lady Death

2.) Lidyan: human arcanist with the fanciful idea of creating "magi-tech" via magical engineering.

3.) Fauniel: practicing dhampir mesmerist

I was leaning strongly towards Lidyan but I don't really want to step on anyone's thing since we already have an wizard, eventual oracle in the game. She would be a straight class as opposed to multi class so that would make a difference.

Well, the other oracle isn't going to go too deep. With a Charisma of 13 that character won't be able to use oracle spells above 3rd level. A single-classed oracle with a different niche should have no trouble.

Ok here are the choices.

1. Kalindrah Keyes: Female tiefling (pitborn) paladin (gray paladin). Heavy armor frontliner who tries to live up to the paladin ideal but kinda stretches it a little. A follower of Ragathiel; like her patron, attempts to rise above her fiendish heritage.

2. Bryce Hawthorne: Male human magus (mind blade). A man of few words who relies on his psychic talents to manipulate and, if necessary, fight. (Thanks to using psychic casting, can get into pretty heavy armor without worrying about spell failure.)

3. Tanjona the Islander: Male skinwalker (seascarred) ranger (freebooter, skirmisher). Originally from the Shackles, in Westcrown for a while since arriving by ship. At home in the ocean, but still a mean hand on land, where he relies on heavier weapons and armor than most rangers. Basically a pirate who can frontline in heavy armor (when you can breathe water, you don't have to worry about armor while swimming).

Whoa, an oracle with an 11 Charisma? Not planning on getting many oracle levels?

I have a tiefling gray paladin sitting around but not sure it's the right character for this AP. Vigilantes are interesting but hard to do effectively. Brawlers (which I mentioned considering before) have the problem of being light armor fighters, so they are really more strikers like a monk, otherwise I would probably do one of those and make the character a scruffy ne'er-do-well to fit with the rogue motif. The brawling blademaster archetype for the samurai would sorta work, but what the hell is such a character doing in Westcrown? Gotta keep chewing on this.

It's rough because the PF adventure structure typically requires someone in the team to have high hit points and damage mitigation, but those roles also don't tend to fit in with the "clever and charismatic rogues and mountebanks"-type groups that the AP suggests.

Yeah, just ruminatin'. I was thinking of playing a big bruiser type character and realizing that PF, much like D&D, doesn't really support large creatures as PCs.

Thoughts on a lizardfolk PC?

Hmm. Dunno. May need to do the big beefy damage-absorber/dealer, given the characters so far. Possibly a magus, maybe a brawler.

Regarding challenging scenes, no particular barriers, though remember that stuff that's spoilered can still be found by someone searching your account online, while stuff in PMs can't be.

I was hoping to invite TheNine to join us as well, but I haven’t heard back from them yet. Does anyone know if they’re still on the boards here?

TheNine got pneumonia and has been extremely ill and not checking private messages.

No worries, my backup plans are all much more conventional. :)

Ah, I forgot that the wacky class I had in mind uses a kind of card-deck mechanic that would be excruciating to do in play-by-post, so, on to another idea!

Here was the swordsage class, in case you were curious.

Ooh, I already thought of something terrible to do class-wise.

Ok, great! I'll come up with something that fits the AP.

Heya. Was the intent here to start a new game of Council of Thieves using the same characters from a former group, or just to nab the same players and create a whole new team?

I'm a technological cave-man, I know the name Discord but have no idea what you can do with it. What kinds of things could you set up on it for this game?

Discord is mostly a chat server, though it has some limited functionality for adding forums. Basically you can host a set of chat channels so that people can talk about whatever, whenever. You can pin specific posts so they can always be found later, or create threads so that specific topics don't wind up disrupting the flow of other chit-chat.

I was planning to spend a bunch of time outside of the suit.

Not interested in playing a heavy conversion cyborg with this character.

Soooo what's the verdict? :D