OK. So Nik now has a more fleshed out and Eberron specific background. I'd be happy to answer any questions or address any concerns you have with mechanics or fluff.
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Me again. It's been awhile (3.5 days) since I read any Eberron stuff. I want to read up to flesh out my backstory. Should I read 3.5 or 4th edition fluff. Is there a difference fluff-wise?
Alright, this is Nikeltas Alset (Alset is Tesla reversed). Basically, Alset will be a junkyard engineer. Smartish but not extensively educated beyond what he could learn on his own. He is, however, a naturally gifted engineer, putting scrap and crap together to make pretty spectacular inventions. His crowning achievement is his powered armor made of scrap metal. I've been reading a bunch of Wild Cards books lately and in one of them they talk about Aces that seem to be inventing amazing or impossible things are just using latent psychic (in this case magical) power through what is essentially a prop, something that couldn't work without him. I think that's a good angle for Nik. I'll get something written up tonight or at the very latest tomorrow morning. Edit: Got some really basic stuff in the background. Mostly restating what's here with a couple sentences about personality.
Thanks for sharing that. Truly awesome.
I know, right? Strange world out there in the ether...Oh, my god... Dang it, that link was supposed to direct to an image, but now just goes to their home page. It was a phallus joke, anyway...
Made some changes. Hope they appeal.
So, my solution to this whole thing is basically to say that when considering feat, trait and other selections that have prerequisites, to consider the fused synthesist to be the entity taking the feat, trait or whatever. In other words, Nik could take Power Attack (prerequisite: Str 13) even though he only has a Strength of 10, because when fused he has a Strength of 16. He just can't use it when he's all by himself without Surge around. This is also how I've determined the rules to work. I think I've even seen some supporting comments to that effect from Sean Reynolds or someone. I would say that Surge and Nik have a shared feat pool, but I'm not entirely sure I've really thought my way through all of the consequences of that statement, so I'm just going with my interpretation above--that the fused Nik is the one who qualifies for selecting new shiny things as he goes. Does that sound okay to you? My understanding is that mechanically speaking, Surge doesn't exist as a separate being. Merging is basically a series of stat and ability adjustments like raging and getting stat bonuses and rage powers. So Nik is the only one with feats or skills and he continues to have access to them whether he's merged or not. He just might not qualify for some of them depending on his state. I see you have selected the Varisian ethnicity for Nik. Does that mean he's from Ustalav? If so, I have a query about his presence on a Chelish expedition to the Mwangi Expanse; Cheliax is a long way from Ustalav, and a 1st level character being accepted onto such an expedition would be a little odd if you ask me. It's around 1700 miles from Caliphas to Westcrown, for instance. Add another 300 or so if he wanted to get all the way down to Corentyn. That's a long way for a 1st level character to travel. Though native to Ustalav, he hasn't lived there for some time. That's something I meant to include but forgot about. Nik is in his early 30's now and his parents died about 10 years ago from plague. For the last decade plus he's been doing research and the safer sorts of expeditions/excavations all around the Inner Sea area. He might have been as near as Korvosa or something. However, you do bring up a good point about the distance. He'd need an airplane to cross it in time to return for Lorrimor's funeral. Perhaps, I'll put the expedition further in his history and say he'd already returned to Ustalav, maybe to pay his respects at the 10 year anniversary of his parent's death? If you're willing to permit me a suggestion, I think it might make more sense for Nik to be Chelaxian himself, living in Cheliax to begin with. Then his expedition would make more sense, especially if he was a member of what was (once) an upwardly mobile family with aspirations to grandeur. Getting a son sent on a theoretically simple and safe trip to the Mwangi Expanse wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility. Then if it all turned to crap, perhaps the Professor was there at the time--and that's when Nik got to know him, when they together saved the members of the expedition. Inspired by Greatness would still easily apply. Then maybe because the expedition was a failure, all the members of it were shunned and Nik's family exiled to Korvosa. Then it's only say 600 miles or so--as the crow flies--to Lepidstadt. How does that sound? If you don't like my above idea, I can work this in instead. Of course, Nik is your character, not mine; the suggestion above is just that--a suggestion. What I'm baulking at is the concept of an Ustalavic native being drafted to a Chelish expedition to the Mwangi Expanse. Why would Cheliax even advertise for volunteers in Ustalav? It just pings against my 'doesn't make sense' radar. I know you have Nik's father down as a Chelaxian trader, but that's a pretty tenuous link to his homeland. Because of his travel and work in the more "civilized" areas of the Inner Sea which I forgot to write about and you couldn't have know, I hope this will make more sense. One other thing I'd like to see about Nik is a little bit more clarity around the chronology of his life. I think because you've added some new sections in that on the page come later, but in terms of Nik's life come earlier, that's got me a little confused. Were Nik's experiments with mage armor before or after he met Professor Lorrimor? Did Nik meet the Professor before or after his expedition to the Mwangi Expanse? I think Nik's background could do with a bit of a realignment to put it all in chronological order, it would make his story easier to grasp. Yeah, chronology is a little iffy the way I wrote that, huh? I'll clean it up. No problems with Surge, although if you can give me an alignment for Surge that would be great. On a rules front I am assuming that a fused synthesist detects similarly to someone who's possessed. By the rules, an Eidolon must match the alignment of the Summoner. But, again, Surge isn't technically his own entity and doesn't have an alignment.
Gotcha. I took me some time, too. I've had to make some educated guesses here and there. If selected, we'll just briefly make sure we're both thinking along the same lines so there are no hiccups when the game starts.
Cynarion, I've just done some substantial revisions to the background section of Nik's page. I added more details on Nik's early life and some on Surge, as well. Hopefully, I won't have made you redo any work. I promise I'm done now.
Would it help people if I appended a 'reviewed' tag to the characters I've already reviewed? And perhaps a link to the review post? I think that would be highly awesome. I noticed the question marks on my submission. As a native Ustalaven I had planned to make him ethnically Varissian but because of the sort of ominous look that Surge ended up with I'm think perhaps half Chelish. I'm probably going to go with that unless you object.
Thanks for the update. Nik's background has been improved somewhat on his page. I'll probably be making additional changes as they come to me but, of course will stop by Thursday evening. |