Ok, no problem. Looking forward to seeing it.
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I will absolutely want to play Ragnar again.
congratulations!
Interesting point, and - I think - a pretty good one. But I'm pretty sure feats alone would not satisfy those who crave EPIC, y'know? Epic is just a matter of scale. It has nothing to do with numbers. If you are in a setting where the most powerful NPCs in the game are 5th level, being 6th makes you epic.
If work is slow I'll have time to get it done tonight.
I'm not. I still have feats to pick. I haven't had the time to work out exactly how to make what I'm envisioning happen mechanically. The basics are there though. Would you mind if I just kept a few feats in reserve to pick later?
The following is from the Tome of Necromancy, and covers both sides of this argument extremely well. __Moral Option 1: The Crawling Darkness__ Many DMs will choose to have Negative Energy in general, and undead in particular, be inherently Evil. So much so that we can capitalize it: Evil. And say it again for emphasis: Evil. That means that when you cast a negative energy wave you are physically unleashing Evil onto the world. When you animate a corpse, you are creating a being whose singular purpose is to make moral choices which are objectionable on every level. That’s a big commitment. It means that anyone using Inflict Wounds is an awful person, at least while they are doing it. The Plane of Negative Energy is in this model the source of all Evil, more so than the Abyss or Hell. It’s Evil without an opinion, immorality in its purest most undiluted form. __Moral Option 2: Playing with Fire__ Many DMs will choose to have Negative Energy be a base physical property of the magical universe that the D&D characters live in – like extremes of Cold or Fire it is inimical to life, and it is ultimately no more mysterious than that. An animate skeleton is more disgusting and frightening to the average man than is a stone golem, but it’s actually a less despicable act in the grand scheme of things because a golem requires the enslavement of an elemental spirit and a skeleton has no spirit at all. The Plane of Negative Energy in this model is precisely the same as all the other elemental planes: a dangerous environment that an unprotected human has no business going to.
It’s not actually enough to simply make a sweeping generalization about the morality of Negative Energy and leave it at that. Like a butterfly flapping its wings, such changes will eventually cause Godzilla to destroy Tokyo. Or something like that, I stopped math at Calculus. _______Creatures________ Some monsters have been written up with the (incorrect) assumption that either “The Crawling Darkness” or “Playing With Fire” was the general rule. Others have been written in such a fashion that is actually incompatible with any possible interpretation of morality in D&D. Skeletons: If Negative Energy is inherently Evil, Skeletons must be as well. That means that they actually do Evil things. An uncontrolled skeleton will find the nearest source of life and start ripping it to pieces. A skeleton does not need to be commanded to attack, but to stop tearing up your vegetable garden (assuming even that it had not already found a more vigorous source of life such as the family dog). A commanded skeleton is a vicious, unthinking killer on a chain – not an inert construct awaiting commands. If Negative Energy isn’t Evil by itself, neither are skeletons. As described they aren’t moral agents. That means that they don’t have an alignment other than Neutral. Like a viper or a scorpion, though they do things that a paladin wouldn’t necessarily condone (such as use poison for the snake or move around after death for the skeleton), they aren’t gifted with the ability to make moral choices and default to the same Neutrality of the animated cabinet. Ordering a skeleton around could be Good, Evil, or Neutral depending on whether you are telling it to save children from a burning house, throw bloated corpses into the town well, or just carry your swag out of your basement. Vampires: Vampires are the rockstars of the undead world, but also the most affected by the gulf between Playing With Fire and Crawling Darkness Necromancy. Either vampires are tragically cursed Euro-trash with nice outfits or they are blood hungry princes of death…heck, sometimes they are depicted as both, as in the case of the patron saint of DnD vampires, Strahd Von Zarovich. Unlike most undead, vampires are morally affected by negative energy in a perversely contrary fashion; Zombies are evil if (and only if) negative energy makes zombies evil, but the opposite is true of the vampire. If Negative energy is a hungry and malevolent force that hungers for the light of the living, the vampire is a tragic figure compelled by dark desires he cannot control. He can even just be Good, but that’s not going to stop him from taking a nip from the farmer’s daughter. If negative energy is an objective force, then being a vampire is actually an evil act since you don’t have to eat babies for eternal life… you’re just a jerk. Zombies: Like Skeletons, Zombies must hunger for the flesh of the living or have no moral indictments. Either they sit and wait for their chance to devour your liver or they are Neutral. The Monster Manual version cannot stand. A zombie in the fields is either a figure of horror or comedy. _____Spells_____ Animate Dead: If Negative Energy isn’t Evil, this spell isn’t either. Zombies and Skeletons are the only possible creations of this spell, so the alignment tag is contingent on Negative Energy itself being a moral choice. Interestingly, create undead and create greater undead stay [Evil] even if animate dead doesn’t. Regardless of the moral inclinations of negative energy in general, Ghouls and shadows are just not nice people – they are a disease that exists for no purpose but to consume the living. So those [Evil] tags are on no matter what skeletons do with their free time. Deathwatch: This spell doesn't even use Negative Energy, it allows you to see positive energy. There's no reason for this spell to be evil no matter what version you use – this is just a typographical error as far as we can tell. Maybe this evil tag was supposed to be on death knell. Create Undead: While animate dead may or may not be evil depending upon your setup, create undead and create greater undead is an [Evil] spell regardless of the morality version you use. It creates evil creatures that unlive for nothing but to slay innocents, so it gets the Evil tag for the same reason that planar binding gets the [Evil] tag if it is used to call a Demon – it's bringing irredeemable evil into the world – the moral implications of the negative energy used are irrelevant.
Does anyone have access to Honor and Shadow. Yep. Just give me a call.
Muni is a summoner. We should have plenty of melée backup from that. Also, he's not going to have the magical staying power or damage output that solvi has, but his save-or-die spells are going to be terrifying.
Would anyone who loses an ability to gain an additional companion due to already having one gain anything as a replacement? Would the existing companion get stronger, or something like that?
I think I'm in. Im not sure I want to run Ragnar without Ilona, so hopefully Mark comes back.
Had to happen some time I guess. Here's to hoping for a short hiatus. It's been great guys.
"Greetings Vornar. I am Ragnar. This is Ilona. I would prefer not to be separated from her."
I'm also fine with the pairings. Life update: Back from my trip. Finishing moving over the next few days. Should have internet up at my new place within the week, and then I'll be back to my usual posting rate.
Ragnar says nothing. He seems disturbed by his surroundings, and a bit off balance. He makes a face at the gem and sticks it to his head.
Ragnar stares at the old man for a moment looking like an admonished child, then he simple nods. "Yes, sir. He turns to the dwarven woman. "I will wear your collar. So long as your people act with honor and honesty, you will never have anything to fear from me."
Ragnar shakes his head in somber disagreement. "By putting on a collar? How would that make me better than those who died? There were dwarves who lived in Nalford. Every one of them would have rather have died than wear a collar."
Ragnar takes on a solemn tone, obviously reaching some decision. He was meant to be a speaker for his people. One who sees to the heart of things and shows people the reflections of themselves that they would rather not see. A speaker for those who have no words. So he speaks. "You blame the victims and fear that the enemy sends us to weaken you. I lived in such a city once. The spirits that follow me and the evil I carry are the products of the pride and faith that the outside held nothing for my people. We were warned. We turned away those that wished us no ill. Now I am all that is left. You claim you do not need us, but that is not true. You need what we represent. Either you are willing to help those in need, without dressings of bondage, or you are simply waiting behind your walls and hoping they do not fall before you rot from within." He speaks sadly, with great loss in his voice and nothing but pity for the Last City. "I hope you do not choose as we did. Or as Cale or Highwall did. Your fear and pride are the tools of the Namestealer, and they will be the doors through which he enters. No one with a prayer of standing against Him would ask people at their gates to collar themselves before being given shelter. The Skeleton King asked for the bondage of Solvistania and myself. Our resistance brought us here where you do the same. The only difference is that when we refused him he sought to kill us. You will merely leave us to die. What would you do? What would you think of such a choice, or the people who offered it?"
Ragnar looks around at his friends, both living and dead. "As long as it will not harm any of them, I will do it, but only on my honor will it stay. One of this company will keep it's key. I trust them, and I will not willingly give the control of my bondage over to those that fear me."
Apparently mr. "DR 50/anti-aircraft gun" wasn't paying attention Lyj gets demon powerz instead of covenant item stuff. The only one who doesn't get covenant items is you, because Nightflier hates beards, and me, because Duncan hates weapons.
I didn't get my white bone powers. From either white bone item I had. Know why? It's because I made them into a sword... Man, I'm glad this section is a role-playing section. I'm out my casting and my path abilities and I don't even have any cookies to compensate. Ragnar's soooo useless right now. ;)
That's exactly my point. Doesn't that mean the spirits will "die" if Ragnar puts the collar on?
My primary concern has to do with the nature of the fluff we've created around ragnar's path. Normally spirits go kind of crazy, but ragnar's presence keeps them sane and focused. What happens to them if his path is dampened? Tomorrow they become flesh-and-blood fully living creatures and ragnar is a normal guy. Just for that one day. Could they pass through the idiot dwarves stupid ward then? What happens after that as they first fade, then disappear entirely? Also, there's the fact that Ragnar's a Dorn. Talk about a folk who'd rather die than be collared. There's a huge cultural pride hurdle there. I don't want to derail the game, but Ragnar, both for what he is and the people he comes from, would probably rather just sit here in this little safe place until the mountain crumbles around him than submit to these dwarves demands.
Ragnar says nothing, but puts his hand on the group's diminutive leader in quiet thanks.
Is there none of you who is pure?" "I am... tainted... by what the forces of the Dark One have done to me, but I try to live as though I was not." Ragnar says uncertainly. "I am not pure, but I believe my intentions are."
I'm chomping at the bit for that to happen. If there was ever a franchise that needed a reboot and better people at the reigns, it's x-men. I'm not saying that everything about the series is wrong, but if you took all 5 movies, crammed them together and measured the good stuff, you'd find you had about an hour of good stuff crammed firmly into ten hours of garbage.
Lyj's player is the assistant director of a play that opened this weekend. After today I'd imagine his life will get a lot less hectic.
Ragnar blinks at Ilona like she had told him he had grown a second head.
"The full moon again? Of course. I slept. It must be. Fortunate timing." Ragnar frowns. "I am not sure I can tell my story. I scarcely understand what happened myself. I spent most of the night the city fell locked in a basement. After that it was simply a matter of surviving."
Ragnar sighs at Gilian's words. "I am not a very adept speaker. I wish the dead could simply speak for themselves."
Ragnar grumbles and rubs his eyes, blinking away the fog in his brain. He looks around at the group as they stand around talking. He sits up. "Did I oversleep? His stomach growls loudly. "Hmm. Food. Right."
Yeah, all the skeletons are visible and audible ghosts right now. I've just been too busy to change their avatars for the next three game-days. I'll get to it soon. So Eyvindr was just blocked by something?
Ragnar continues to sleep peacefully in spite of all the commotion.
Ragnar sleeps deep and still, only the slow rise and fall of his chest even gives away that he still lives. Around him the spirits, now visible, make things more complicated for everyone, though a few try to make themselves useful.
Ragnar receive 1 Fate Point for the 1st chronicle post, as well as Muni. All the others went just to Muni. Gotcha. Thanks for clarifying.
Ragnar, I have decided to give further awards for Chronicle posts. Since you use Muni as voice, I'm gonna give Fate Points to the raven as well. He gains number of FPs equal to the number of posts in the Chronicle. Did find this though. Was I supposed to be giving Ragnar FP's as well as muni?
Hmm. Pretty sure they were right when we went through character gen, but I scoured the old posts and can't find when we talked about it. Oh well. Ragnar's Dex is now 7
Ragnar lets out a low rumble of tired contentment an smiles sleepily, relaxing into her hands. After a few minutes he shoos away a pair of children that had tried to lay down on his blanket, lays his head in Ilona's lap and is asleep in moments.
I'm heading out of town for a week. I'm still going to try to post once a day, but I might fall behind. If we get into a situation where you're waiting on me, Sorok can post for me and Gilian or Ilona can make choices for Ragnar.
Sorry to stick my head in. Scranford, wanted to let you know that in the Midnight game Sky'Tor is making a rare appearance to the whole group. He'll be visible and audible but incorporeal (unable to effect the real world except for a once a round mage hand spell effecting only what something he tries to "touch") for one day. Fully corporeal the next, and back to visible/audiable but incorporeal the third day, and finally fading back to spectral at dawn of the fourth day. I thought you might want to do some role-playing with your old character.
"This place is safe then? Good. We need to rest." Quietly Ragnar lays out his bedroll. He nods and murmurs to the spirits around him and peels off his long hooded coat. He stands and stretches his arms over his head with a sigh and rolls his neck. He winces slightly feeling some kink or another. Never has anyone seen him behave in such a human manor. Before, even when bleeding or exhausted it always seemed like the big dorn was only partially aware he even had a body. Now he seems to be feeling every aching piece of it. The light shed by his spirit torches does not gleam nearly so brightly. Less than half their usual luminescence, as if the lights were somehow echoing Ragnar's own obvious fatigue. The usual half seen, half heard faces and voices that swirl about him are strangely brighter, more fully formed. Every single person in the group can plainly see the shapes of their fallen companions becoming more and more corporeal, as well as dozens of smuge-faced children ranging from perhaps three years to as old as twelve. His spear in it's usual place, floating there beside him is revealed to be held by a husky ten year old boy. The corners of his bedroll, seemingly helped by some unseen hand, are slowly shown to be a pair of young twins. The surface of the blankets rumple as the shade of a squealing child jumps into the middle to tangle up the freshly laid out bed. By the time the twins drag the troublemaker away they are seemingly solid, though still occasionally walking through things as if they were not there. Anvinder and a stern-faced elderly Dorn are sitting at a spectral table perusing some tome. Sky'Tor and Eyvindr are scouting the area, each followed by a lithe young boy carrying a now-weakened spirit torch. An attractive young woman with a slightly sad expression fades into sight standing next to Ragnar but staring at Duncan with calculating appraisal. Ragnar, as usual, stoically goes about his business, only occasionally responding to the constant badgering of the children. Only now, what is normally his alone to deal with is now plain to everyone.
Yep. Barbarian. Spirit Totemm uncanny dodge, Stamina (midnight barb trait) better bab and better HP. This is a good level.
Ragnar takes the remains of his once-great blade and listens with an unreadable expression to Duncan's words. He rolls the shattered hilt over in his hands, the spectral fire from his ghost torches still lighting it with a ruby glow when it is placed in his hands again. He seems about to speak, but then turns his head away, listening. A moment later his eyes raise. "I am not telling him that. No. Well phrase it differently. Hrmph." Turning back to Duncan the big dorn smiles ever so slightly. "She says she forgives you." He looks to the side again, and then back. "But when she comes back you are going to make it up to her." He looks back to the empty air. "If you don't want me to paraphrase, speak less crudely." He pauses, then continues. "Hush. Go speak with Anvinder. You've never had a body, and when I stick you in one I don't want you tripping all over yourself." His eyes widen, scandalized. "Sorrow, if you ever do that, I will never make a body for you. I don't care. No." He rolls his eyes. "I would imagine that skeletons make terrible kissers. I doubt he'd appreciate it." Facing Duncan again, Ragnar shrugs. "Swords break. People die. Nothing is ever really lost. Anything can be remade."
HP By the way NF, I totally stole your HP rolling system for my own games. It's spreading like wildfire.
Only when we feel like we have no other option. That feeling is based on our understanding of the situation, which is based on your descriptions. The moment we understand better, we tend to run, but that sometimes takes a while. We aren't brash. (well, except for Chops) We just don't feel like we have a choice. As soon as we know we do, we take it.
This is a great example. Army on one side. Army on the other. At first both seem to be gunning for us. We start to dig in. We know it's a TPK, but we think it's the only option. We realize that they're tied up with each other. We still don't realize it's even possible to leave. We get a better description of the situation (after we've spent a collective 10 or so spell energy that we wouldn't have if we had known there were other options) and we decide to run. We don't know how far we ran, or for how long, just that we entered a cave. We don't know how far down the cave we went, or even how wide it is, just that there's mushrooms in our way, and one of them can drop creatures that can one-shot us (and in theory can do this every round for quite a while), and that's still the lesser threat. That TPK is coming hot on our heels (or so we think) We don't know there's other passages. We've been told to "wait for them to dissipate" All while we still have two armies behind us. I really don't understand where you think our tactical blunder was. We've made the best decisions possible based on the information we were given. If you want to see a change in that sort of behavior, make sure that we understand the entirety of the situation, and what our options are, at the beginning. You've done a great job making us feel haggard, at the end of what we're capable of, and being followed, closely, by certain death. That's awesome, that's what the setting's all about, except that now when we act on those feelings, just trying to get through this, to get away from the enemies at our backs and survive, you tell us that the right decision was to wait for the enemies to vanish. I guarantee that from now on I am going to make a total nuisance of myself when it comes to asking for more details. This is the first time since the game started that I'm not having fun. I'm really hoping it's just a fluke and that making sure we know more in every situation will remedy it. I'm not interested in quitting, or changing GMs or changing the characters. I've enjoyed the hell out of this game for a long time. I don't know what's happened since we hit these caves, but I've been getting more and more frustrated feeling like I'm being forced deeper and deeper down a hole where I have no say in what happens.
That would probably do it, yeah.
More HD take care of that, or just more weaker enemies to keep us occupied. Actually, that's the beginning of the current problem. It has to do with wording and how the HD system works. I don't think that this is how you meant it, but it's a great opportunity to point out one of the details of the issue we're facing, so i'm going to run with it. A lot of spells and abilities have HD caps. Others are based on a monster's HD. If the monsters all have double HD, a lot of spells that should work on them don't, and some of thier abilities get way more powerful. So it's not the HD that needs to increase. it's just the HP. The monsters, for all mechanical purposes, need to be identical to the normal versions, just (as you said) more durable. This isn't accomplished by adding HD. It's accomplished by making each individual HD worth more.
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