Ren Yexiang's page

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I've reworked Ren a little bit, switching the +2 in CHA to +2 in INT. Of course that changed skills some. Mostly the trained skills are the same as before, but bonuses are different.

I've also finalized gear and money.

I don't really mind, rdknight makes a good point, its a pretty small village, after a certain point everyone knows everyone.

I'm willing to make the exception because it promotes roleplay and buy in into the adventure.

Not to say I want folks to all of a sudden pop up with polycules of all the named npc's in town.

Ha! no polycule for Ren. Based on her write up, Ba-Ming Ouh is about 16 or maybe at the most 17 years old depending on to how old the term "baby" can be stretched. That's how she's described 15 years ago. I'd describe the friendship as big sister - little sister in some ways. But also balanced by Ba-Ming Ouh's authority as a religious leader.

I did choose Luo Xi Yang and Ba-Ming Ouh for specific reasons, though there's guesswork involved. I'm guessing Luo Xi Yang likely leans Northridge, while Ba-Ming Ouh is more Southbank. If that turns out to be true, Ren would have split loyalties among the people she's close to. If there's real or intensifying friction between the two factions to the point that Ren is forced to choose sides, it's not just an internal debate for her. She has to weigh the impact of what she decides on her personal relationships as well.

If both Ren and Ink are selected, or if having two named NPCs in her background is just too much, I could redirect and make up a Northride stand-in for Luo. But, there are also ways that both Ren and Ink could be connected too Luo that could work, and be interesting.

Ren doesn't work for Luo all that much, just when there's more than she and Ink can handle. Ren is still mostly working at other places already anyway. Ren isn't getting any of the Close Ties boons, so maybe the nature of their respective relationships with Luo reflect that in some way. A key to that could be this from the background description: "Your reputation precedes you". Maybe Luo talks Ink up to other people she knows, but not Ren. Perhaps Luo is classist or something and doesn't actually respect Ren much. Maybe Luo wants to keep her relationship with Ren more on the lowdown for professional or personal reasons. Lots of possibilities for why Luo might treat them differently to Ink's social advantage.

Also, it would mean Ren and Ink (it's almost a pun) would know each other before the beginning. Whether they're happy about it or not is a different matter...

As I understand it, though there are certainly exceptions, the baseline is not that undead are inherently immune to precision damage. And yes, with your sneak attack scaling, plus your thief racket +DX to damage, my experience playing a rogue has been that those class features are greater factors to overall damage than weapon die.

Got to disagree with you on the "fighters cant skill" concept,

Yeah, I'm betting the reliance on precision damage isn't a stumbling block in this case and hoping it's a good bet!

I'm not claiming Fighters can't skill. They're miles better in that area compared to 1st ed Fighters. They just don't skill enough for what I'm looking for. My ideal is to make Ren roughly as good for non-combat and downtime as for combat. That's what I meant by 50/50. I think I can flex a Rogue in that direction better, even if I have to sacrifice some combat prowess to do it.

Ren Yexiang wrote:

Ren here is my character submission. She's a Human (Tian-Shu) Rogue (Thief Racket).

** spoiler omitted **

One thing I would say is that Ren's romantic relationship with Luo Xi Yang, and friendship with Ba-Ming Ou, is at odds with the Close Ties

trait. You're essentially getting that Close Ties trait for free for two NPCs (the 'friendly' part, that is).

Not just saying this because Ink, as written, works for Luo Xi Yang! :D

Hm, well it's easy enough to drop Luo Xi Yang from Ren's background if needed, for example if both Ren and Ink were selected.

Before I make any changes though I'll wait to hear something from GM Cody about it. I'd rather not make some changes just to possibly have to make more changes again afterward. I suppose it's possible named NPC's could be meant to be excluded from PC backgrounds unless they have selected the Close Ties background, but I've never seen it from any previous player's guides, even when there are (in my case) campaign traits connecting PCs to named NPCs.

Willowshore's population is given as 225. That's really small to the point it begins to defy credulity that PCs wouldn't have any connections to the roughly 10% of the population that's named because they're prominent residents.

Ren Yexiang wrote:

Ren here is my character submission. She's a Human (Tian-Shu) Rogue (Thief Racket).

** spoiler omitted **

In my opinion, your character looks pretty good to me....

Thanks for the feedback Thaumascourge. The last few days have been quite an exhausting information dump, and it's hard to hold it all in my head at once. I started with a Fighter and decided the class might not have enough utility outside combat to fit well for this campaign. Then I switched to Sorcerer before deciding that magic might be too complicated for a first time out.

I chose the thief racket because I'm thinking that not having to invest in strength will free up points for mental stats, which will allow me to make a character that's better for out of combat and downtime. I do wonder though if maybe a mastermind archer rogue with the higher intelligence would actually be the better route to what I'm looking for, which is a character that's about 50/50 effective in and out of combat.

There's also the question of precision damage. If this campaign is full of undead, which the title suggests, is a class that relies on precision damage in combat a good one to go with if lots of creatures are immune?

As for weapons, I'm not sure how to value them. Damage dice don't necessarily mean that much in 1st ed., but it might mean more in 2e. Also it's difficult to know what value to place on weapon qualities without having seen some actual combat played out. Not complaints, I'm just struggling to visualize how things come together from the hypotheticals. That's why I'm still tinkering.

Ren here is my character submission. She's a Human (Tian-Shu) Rogue (Thief Racket).