Skuldin's page

The Tiefling's stats after racial adjustments

Str 15
Dex 15
Con 13
Int 15
Wis 12
Cha 15

Weapon of Choice 2-h Heavy Flail:

I believe the character is taking Battle caster (allowing him to wear a breastplate without messing with his spell-casting). I'm looking for the feats you guys/gals would take with this class/race combo.

Since the PC was raised as a human I allowed him to either take the extra skill points or the extra feat at level 1. He took the feat so he has two feats to take.

Any suggestions would be great. Too many of the feats in these books are so situational they seem worthless in about 80% of the fights.

If you list a feat I would appreciate knowing where it came from. Thanks!!

Ok I'm running this campaign in an election year for Lord Senator; a seat that only comes up once a decade. Only lords may vote on other lords (no votes for yourself) at a council to decide who the Lord Senator is to become. The PCs are working for the High Magistrate indirectly (well one PC is his apprentice) and the High Magistrate is the primary advisor to the incumbent who is seeking a second term.

On the night of Mid-Summers Eve a nobleman's son (Curio) who backed the incumbent Lord Senator Q. Misonius Othos was murdered after carousing around a bunch of gypsies in the Old Quarter of the city.

One of the gypsies was accused of the murder and sentenced to death three days hence at the gallows but the High Magistrate saw this as a "message" murder sent to the other lords to place their vote somewhere other than to Othos. He asked the PCs to pay the guards watching him off under the table and to free the gypsy for questioning of why he did it (who hired him etc) or if he did not do it who did. The gypsy swears he was framed by his half-brother Vinovati so the PCs go gambling hall to tavern to tavern looking for this guy leaving a wake of dead bodies behind them (8 in all and all of them missing a right ring finger thanks to the psycopath cleric they have with them) so it looks like a serial killer is on the loose.

The PCs bumble around and finally figure out that Vinovati has fled out of town to a safehouse (insert the House from the SInister Secret of Saltmarsh) that is said to be haunted. Some say he (Vinovati) uses gypsy magic there and speaks with demons.

The PCs made it into the basement and are now in there...i have this part all planned out. The gypsy that is with them that they freed from teh death sentence (A PC) really was in on the original murder because they owed the young noble large gambling debts, but they were hired by a guy posing as the young noble's bodyguard Vadim.

When the PCs find Vinovati it will be a brother vs brother yelling match about betrayal and Vinovati will swear up and down that Vadim betrayed them both and he had to flee his wrath as well and that he planned to free Innokenti (the pc gypsy framed for murder).

Well the Pc in question has decided he doesnt like his bard (Innokenti) so he is in on this plot twist and we have planned to kill both half-brothers off or at least make them disappear in the main combat scene upcoming Saturday night. He has written a story and pre-rolled a hexblade that he wants to play instead. Not a problem and it makes for a nice early plot twist that the PCs actually freed a guilty man.

My problem lies in city adventures with a 6 man group. I know the high magistrate will be PISSED that they killed 8 bodies and left 7 of them in the streets for the morning guard to find. Town criers will be yelling about a psychopath on the loose etc...my question lies in when I kill off Vinovati the only lead they will have is the name Vadim.

I dont want to nose ring them right to him so how do i make a 6 man party interact in the city in a fun way that will lead them eventually to this character to try and find out if "he" is a main threat to the current Lord Senator or if he isnt who HE works for?

I'm up for any suggestions.

I was revamping the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh that I stole from Kikai13 many years ago (ok I think he gave it to me but that's beside the point) and I was reading through the adventure to find two creatures that were staples of 1st edition that seem to have fallen into oblivion. Does anyone know if they still exist anywhere? Rot grubs were so gross I just have to use them :)

I am not fond of the memorize and forget system of the standard 3.5 rules and I've tried to write my own version using Spell Points and fatigue but if anyone has a homebrew or even store bought system that works well I would love to read it.

Other highlights of what I'd like in a spell system.

I want casters to roll a spell check in stress situations just like a fighter swings his weapon. I am currently using a d20 instead of the take '10' on spell resists. Basically resisting a spell is now the caster's d20 roll, plus spell level, plus stat instead of 10+level+stat.

I would like to have all spells based on this have a 1 failure 20 crit chance unless you took a feat like fighters to double the crit threat range. This would include having fireball spells possibly do 20d6 on a crit etc, BUT at the risk of failing every cast in a desperate situation.

I also want to have the system be robust enough to allow overcasting for desperate situations or something that you could take feats into allowing you to cast spells over your standard level but at great risk, mental fatigue and chance to blow yourself or allies to tiny pieces at thy mercy.

If anyone has a system that can do "some" of this I'm all eyes/ears :)

What are the best mapping (city, castle, and overland) program out there that are easy to use and look halfway decent?

I take it no one uses a mapping program?

<sigh>

I have color blind on my chart of minor banes and one of my characters took a boon so now had to random roll and hit color blind.

What in-game penalties should this incur?

I was thinking search checks might have a penalty in situations where colors blended.

I'm up for any suggestions.

I looked at RPoL but it seems to be a post and wait type setting. I'm looking for a site where you can try to get into a game as a player and meet online once a week and all play via an online message/dice etc system and play for a few hours.

Any suggestions?

I'll keep this as simplified as I can but basically I'm seeking some city campaign help. I'm trying to keep it gritty (intrigue, political jockeying, and assassinations) but it's getting the thing rolling at level 1 that I'm finding difficult.

I've been running games for almost seventeen years now so usually I don't have issues with campaign plots but for some reason getting this upcoming campaign going is causing me grief.

Setting: Terranth (home setting)
The city-state of Dravnia is based upon a rough outline of medieval St. Petersburg Russia. In my campaign the city-state of Dravnia has been overrun by the Sinestrath Empire (think Rome) and occupied for ten years.

The old Dravnian king is in exile and no one knows where he is in hiding. The Dravnic peoples have splintered into factions; the ones that remained in or near the capital and are now ruled by the Sinestrath Empire, the ones that fled the city and wander as gypsies, and the third faction are the Luptavi which never lived near the city-state and were never really fond of being ruled by the original king in the first place.

The Sinestrath Empire is using the city-state of Dravnia as a staging ground for their wars against the barbarians of the north. They are also gathering resources from the barbarian areas including spider-pine wood for ships (highly fire resistant) and iron from the peat bogs.

My campaign will have as a centerpiece a Sinestrian mage (wizard but I use mana and not the memorize and forget), a Luptavi rogue (assassin), a gypsy bard, and a Sinestrian scout that will work for the mage.

The PC mage's master is the magister officorum (head judge and political advisor to the Lord Senator) and the Lord Senator's term is coming up at year's end so many lords are vying to be voted in by their peers to sit upon the emperor's council.

And so here I sit with many plots swirling but not sure how to mesh it together by Saturday night. I'm up for any suggestions or questions if you want further clarification about what is going on.

thanks!