Wow! That's pretty cool actually, and you're right I hadn't seen it. I particularly liked the Ancestral Avatar & Ancestral Reincarnation abilities, very nice flavor and RP opportunities there.
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I've been slowly expanding on a little homebrew setting to inflict on someone should my local gaming group ever revive. One of the things I wanted to do was to try and evoke a different feel. So to that end I tossed out every race except Humans, and tried to rustle up something new...here's the first (and most complicated) new race. As I am currently unable to really play test this, I thought I'd open it up to the scrutiny of your collective expertise. Have I balanced enough? Is it different enough? So without further preamble, here you have the... ATLANTEANS
Features: Ancestor worship, Caste System, Ancestor Channeling abilities, lost immortality in ages past, former masters in a slave culture, beginning to prosper and multiply after a long period of decline. Rules Detail:
Size: Medium. As Medium creatures, Atlanteans have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Atlantean Caste System: Noble, Priest, Sage and Warrior castes each grant specific bonus class skills, and access to Caste specific feats. Also determines favored class.
Spoiler:
Noble Caste: Skills: Diplomacy, Knowledge (Arcana, Nobility, History) & Sense Motive are always in-class Caste Feats: Favored Class: Sorcerer Priest Caste:
Sage Caste:
Warrior Caste:
*Channel (Su) – Once a day as a Free Action, the Atlantean may channel a particular ancestor from their caste for a limited time and gain the benefits of their specific affinity for that time (1 + Cha modifier + ½ ECL rounds). An Atlantean can only channel one ancestor and it must be from his Caste. The following are the temporary benefits of the specific ancestor types: Noble Ancestor: +2 Charisma, +4 bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy and Gather Info checks. Gains a bonus equal to Charisma bonus (if any) on all saving throws. Gains Charm Monster as a spell-like ability, cast as sorcerer of ½ effective class level. If the Atlantean can already cast Charm Monster, her caster level increases by 2 for that spell. Priest Ancestor: -2 Charisma, +2 Wisdom, Lay Hands as Paladin of same level, Turn Undead as Cleric of same level. If one or both abilities already possessed, they use them as if the Atlantean is 2 levels higher in the relevant class. Sage Ancestor: -2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +4 bonus on Performance checks. Gains Bardic Lore ability as a Bard of ½ effective class level. If Bardic Lore already possessed, it can be used as if the Atlantean is 2 levels higher in the Bardic class. Warrior Ancestor: – 2 Wisdom, +2 Strength, +2 to Constitution. Gains +1 dodge bonus to AC when wearing light armor. This bonus increases by 1 every 3 effective character levels. The Atlantean loses this Dodge bonus when wearing medium or heavy armor. Physical Appearance: Atlantean males are generally tall, in the range of 5'9 to 6'6 and they typically favor leanness, although the robust Atlantean appetite does lead to a certain amount of beefiness among the more sedentary. Atlantean females are smaller, in the range of 4’6 to 6’ and they favor a buxom physique. The dominant Atlantean skin tone is gold, although pale blue or deep red tones are not uncommon. Atlantean hair is worn long, usually with a single braid arranged in a manner indicative of caste and social standing. Atlanteans are wholly uninhibited particularly in their attire, often wearing billowing garments, or ornately decorated capes in bright colors when in public. In more casual settings both male and female Atlanteans wear only fine, and intricately designed waist-tunics. Atlantean Names: still to be determined
m'Apologies...wicked build-up to a mind-numbing meeting today. Thank God that's over... Also thought I'd let Shador chime in, now that Lich-Loved's back, before doing anything so final as slitting the guard's throat.
It certainly seems that of all the classes, the Paladin places the most constraints on character personality...at least it does if all you see is that alignment and code. Every other class leaves you quite a bit of latitude. But for me it comes to background and how it's shaped the character. Here's how I ran one...
Spoiler:
For a paladin I played in a woefully short campaign, I basically had the character have an abusive past, and violent criminality of his own before having his religious experience.
The resulting paladin struggled with his past, with his darker impulses always. It also reinforced his mercy towards the neutral (or was it chaotic neutral) rogue. On their first encounter the rogue stereo-typed the paladin from one comment and unloaded on him with some comments that unknowingly cut directly at the paladin's specific past. I decided that the paladin would not let himself take any action against the rogue's more dubious ways, until he had satisfied himself that he was not doing so out of anger for the wounding comments. Soon after he more or less committed himself to seeing the rogue to redemption. While neither gave ground on their essentials, they eventually got along better with each other than with other members of the party...based solely on understanding each other. It probably helped that the rogue was being hunted by an organization that the paladin was oathbound to oppose...but there you go. Otherwise, Because of the RP constraints, and for the purposes of playing in your average polytheistic D&D campaign...I think the Paladin's Code should really fit the Paladin's god. Coming as close to the god's playbook as mortally possible.
I hope you can. Taking the S&S short story as a base it might be workable to run a one-session game, whet their appetites maybe.
Oooh, Incantations give me the creeps. But I suppose that's the point in the S&S context I suppose...
It's a shame about that sorcerer, he would have been more useful, but also more resilient to interrogation. Alas, Absalon has no healing skill to speak of with which to make the sorcerer serviceable for questioning, nor the inclination. Who knows what surprises he may have had up his sleeves. Er...you know, besides the all-knowing DM.
I would! S&S is how I prefer my D&D to run, even if the PCs do cast spells and generally behave like vanilla D&D, the locales & bad guys don't have to. :) I'm a big fan of S&S myself. Here's a link on the apparently/supposedly/probably defunct eZine Flashing Swords's site. It's a basic toolkit for retrofitting your D&D for a sword and sorcery feel. I've taken some of it and made my own adjustments. It's a good start.
Aaand the final randomly selected party line-up: A particularly smart Deep Halfling wizard (evoker) shirking her family's mercantile lineage, a physically strong Half-Drow wizard who came of age on a sailing vessel, a very hardy Halfling cleric of The Traveller from a woodland tribe, a clever Half-Elf rogue trying a career change from pirate to anything else, and an astute Half-Elf rogue playing hooky from the proud university of magic his mother forced him to attend. I'm not an exceptionally cruel DM, but this ought to be interesting. I'm going to use Action Points for their game - to give them a fighting chance when the going gets tough. Should I also use the Reserve Points option from Unearthed Arcana? Has anyone here used them before? I'm running them through some modified modules - but the adventures I assume were designed for a rounded party with at least one martial class.
Right. You have to pay for an effective total +2 enhancement (meaning a grand sum of 8,000 gold), not just another 2,000 for flaming or keen or whatever. So, if at 3rd level you have ~2,000gp to dedicate to weapon enhancements and you already have a +1 weapon, you're still short ~4,000gp before you can get that next enhancement. Wow...I've been doing this so wrong. I also thought it was as simple as 2000gp for the enhancement, and then another 2000gp for say: Bane which is a +1 Enhancement Bonus if I remember right. This is better though, makes that sort of thing as special as it ought to be...
Interesting system, I might use it in a game at some point. How do you deal with the balance issues that could arise from the 'legendary' luck? It would be somewhat unblancing to have someone have a +1 weapon at first level. hmm...must admit I didn't forsee it becoming too much of an issue balance-wise. For the most part, I thought that if someone rolled one up I would use it as a story element. The +1 Weapon would be a 'named' weapon, and carry a DM created history and that I would use as a springboard, catalyst and/or complication for a later adventure. As it is though, none have rolled it, and they'll wish they had as it seems they are fairly light in the martial classes. Toughest class on the party (from a HD/BAB stand-point) is cleric. The final (5 member) party make up isn't set yet - that will come later tonight - but so far the character pool I'm drawing from includes: 2 wizards, 2 bards, 5 clerics, and 2 rogues. 1 human and 1 elf in the bunch with 2 dwarves, 2 halflings, and the other 5 being half-elves. Wilderness and Maritime backgrounds heavily represented. Interestingly, all the half-elves rolled up maritime backgrounds - so I altered my setting a bit to depict a strong elvish naval tradition, likely putting the elf lands on islands near the mainland. Just the kind of stuff I hoped the randomness would lead to.
That's funny, a majority of the people who've done this have rolled up a Maritime upbringing...very wierd.
Thought I'd share the randomizing lists I put together,
STRONG SUIT roll 1d6
ALIGNMENT roll 1d12
RACE Roll 1d100
CLASS Roll 1d100
LUCK Roll 1d8
Now, the PCs will start at 1st level, but we all have a past...so on to Upbringing - which can be the PC's occupation, or maybe just what the PC grew up around: UPBRINGING Roll 1d10
...I started a pbp adventure offering a randomized character generation mechanic and it's really got some excitement abrewin'You did? I don't see it here. Are you listing it at another site? Oop, remiss of me. I've posted it at myth-weavers.com, here's the Link. I'd be happy to have my DM's in the game. If you're interested on checking it out I'll save spots for you. It's not a site I can usually get to during the day...due to firewall issues, but it's a neat site.
Oh hells yeah. Point buy almost ruined the game I'm in currently. I was the only one to roll dice for everything- even alignment, race and class- and ended up with a very interesting character for it. The rest of the PCs were so enamoured of what happened that they looked at die rolling in a new light. This quote from the Ability Stats: evens vs. odds thread, inspired me so much, that I started a pbp adventure offering a randomized character generation mechanic and it's really got some excitement abrewin' One thing I added was that once they've rolled for their stats, they roll a d6 to pick which stat will receive their highest roll. This is before they roll for race or class. I hope no one is too disappointed if they roll up something as normal as a Neutral Good Human Fighter with a Military Background, and a High Str or Con.
Yeah, they sound doomed...dooooomed.
I've no problem with reading other's scenes...especially given that I'm already playing ignorant of what's gone before with this crew...
Indeed...i've heard of the vanishing post but i've never seen it myself...my post just there too...I saw it. Anyway, this is what I posted for your convinience...from crystalkeep's spell index. Phantasmal Assailants
Methinks I posted an copyright infringing amount before...
If you'll forgive the intrusion...was reading the game thread and thought I'd lend a hand. Or a post as the case may be. Phantasmal Assailants(CArc p117) From the crystalkeep spell index <Ill(phantasm)[fear][mind], VS, 1StdAct, Close-range, Instantaneous, SR applies>– One living creature is “attacked” by nightmare monsters only the target can see. The target is allowed a Will save to disbelieve the effect. If the save fails, the target takes 4 points of Wisdom damage (Fort½) –and– 4 points of Dexterity damage (Fort½).
My party has never used a shield wall, but the gnolls they have been fighting make use of it quite often to keep the casters safe. Gnoll War 1 with the shield wall feat and a tower shield get full cover, and the caster behind them gets +4 AC and no AoOs from enemies with reach. It usually only lasts a round or two, low level mooks being what they are, but it has allowwed me to get off some serious damage and my players couldn't do anything about it :) Now that's a way to make your players think tactically. :)
Woo-hoo! Thanks. Absalon will be patiently sitting in the wings until you're ready for him, sharpening his blade or some such thing.
Okay, i've updated Naz's sheet. 10hps added +2 Con mod. 6 skill pts. divided up +1 to Climb, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, and 2 pts. put into cross-class Knowledge (religion) to raise by 1 to +3 Oh yeah, and Uncanny Dodge! Woohooo!
Excellent. Everything is coming together precisely as I have forseen. ...I mean, I'll update the sheet and stick 'em on stand-by.
A thought occurs to me about swimming across lava/boiling water, (or just hot...) ought there be a mechanic perhaps to cover the body's pain response. Dip your toe in the lava...reflex action makes you withdraw your toe-stump. You want to go...you may need to go for this lava swim. But you just can't bring yourself to do it. Admittedly, in the realms of the heroic not very heroic.
Well, that there is some pretty impressive posting. Well played all around. Kind of intimidating, really, but a good challenge. If Stunty_the_Dwarf falls through, please give this simple, Sembian swordsman your consideration... 'Absalon desCoine'. Thanks, and good gaming.
Thanks Lizzer...
Okay, I'm off to a work-related event...so if you need to npc Naz for combat please go ahead. Wouldn't want to hold back anyone's fun. I figure going down to 1/2 hp's would be a good trigger for his rage in a combat situation. Otherwise, he's going to differ to 'Nastasia in the temple - she seems familiar with the place and he's uneasy being inside the temple, on account of his supersticious nature.
I agree, so far so good, nice actiony beginning...like in the movies.
We werent supposed to show any Mercy I hope!!! And at least Jimmy wont feel any remorse. ;-) Jimmy won't get any grief from Naz at least. Who weeps for the kobold? Maybe Mama-Kobold.
NY here as well, GMT -4
I assumed we didn't buuut...Naz is easy to get to know. He might have met one or more of you upon arriving in civilization. He might have needed a pointer or two from someone more savvy.
Also there's a player registry on Pen and Paper games.
Something as simple as Columbus set out for China, and well, found it. Remove the americas, and rewrite the history from that point. Actually, this all emerged from a series of short stories I've been peddling around lately. The initial event of this campaign is Columbus crossing the Atlantic as normal, but finding something quite different than a few island tribes ripe for conquest. This initial event looses arcane forces into the world and wackiness ensues... I plan to keep most of the action in this alternate New World - but adventures in Europe aren't out of the question. Or you could pick up d20 Modern, and adapt it to an earlier period. Actually, after reading some of the thoughts on low-magic settings elsewhere on this board I've started looking into "d20 Past" as a possible system. I've been pretty limited to d&d though...I'll know better once I've read more on it. I'll look into Iron Kingdoms while I'm at it. If a party disturbs a tribal burial ground and the sprits get aroused for retribution... Nasty thought indeed, considering how the bodies piled up during Aztec sacrifices...that could become a zombie invasion of apocalyptic proportions. Exorcism domain bears some thought.
I don't see how in dnd terms you could have evil clerics worshipping an inherently good god although this is certainly possible in real life. I'm planning to relax the alignment requirements, to reflect the more gray terms of the world. I imagine a distinction between faithfulness to God and faithfulness to the governing body of the earthly organization, with the cleric's powers coming from devotion to their god that is - either the transcendent being or the terrestrial power of the historic church. Looney? Using the saints for Domain is a good one, but the Brotherhoods also had some strict rules and concepts for their members. ...I would recommend limiting the number of orders to save yourself a lot of work. Yeah, I'm beginning to see how out of hand this side of such a simple idea can become. In addition, there’s also the problem with the Roman Catholic Church vs. the English Anglican Church. That’s an interesting one. Yikes...could lead to some strained moments despite alignments, when say a LG cleric from one church meets LG cleric from the other. Interesting indeed. As far as someone’s mention of alignment, the majority of Inquisitors have been shown by history to be right nasty bastiches, and the church turned the inquisitions from its original intent into a property stealing, life destroying, power grubbing, political game-playing machine, so the presumption that they’re all Lawful Good or Lawful Neutral seems rather ludicrous. The majority of the hierarchy of the church of the time was occupied by political appointees and younger son relatives of power connected nobles. They... True 'dat. Precisely what I was thinking about the Inquisitors. What I'm imagining is akin to the binder class. Totally clueless on the binder class. I'll have to look that up.
Keep this in mind for your setting. When you bring magic into the mix, history is very likely to change from the way we know it today. Point taken. As I'm planning it, magic itself is a new abberation tied to a twist in the discovery of the New World...so the official stance of The Church is what one would expect. Actual clerics who have their prayer/spells happen would be problematic for church hierarchy. And I would imagine that if they went against the church's interests openly their miracles would be retro-labeled witchcraft in a blink. I will have to consider the effect on history and historical attitudes. thanks.
Thanks, I'll have to google that.
Thanks Kuthax, I found this low-magic discussion really helpful. And Eyebite...LOVE the patron saint idea! Thanks Cosmo for the uber handy listy. Would Inquisitioners be inherently evil? Or only the ones who committed torture, etc? I would say they would be inherently evil...some in delusional denial, others embracing the madness.
I'm working on a homebrew low-magic campaign set in Europe and the Americas circa 16th century. I wanted to keep the choices of gods simple to match the setting...Europeans have Christianity, in the Americas there would be Meso-American pantheon(s) - one of the things I thought about doing was allowing Christian clerics to be of any alignment despite their professed alignment - in the vein of how Eberron handles alignment. I would set the organization of the European church itself to be Lawful Neutral, with maybe individual brotherhoods having their own differing internal alignment, Lawful Good or/Evil. I'm uncertain how to handle the Domains. Just leave them up for grabs? Limit them to certain sects/brotherhoods? Any thoughts. Also, I'm not fully fleshed out on the low-magicness of the campaign. I believe there's a discussion elsewhere on the boards about that. I just don't want glowing swords around every corner, and stuff like mass teleport and planar travel don't gibe too well with what I envision. I'd appreciate any thoughts on the above.
...but essentially biblical:... ...they must be put into prison or otherwise forever kept from entering this sacred land. ...Wow. Thanks for sharing that bit. What impresses (or rather depresses) me about this reasoning here, is the blatant shoe-horning of theology to suit a point-of-view. It is dangerous to equate/align or intertwine nationality with spirituality. America is a great nation, a dream built up, stumbling here and there, but still in it's liberty great...I love it - absolutely. But it's not a promised land...not heaven on Earth. I mean, otherwise the worst pedarast or axe-murderer (...when was the last time we had one of those? I digress...) would be considered to morally superior to a person bouncing across the border for a better shot at life. I don't believe in amnesty, but I understand why people would come. I know people - mostly Central & South American immigrants themselves - who are extremists on both sides of this issue...it's fascinating to watch their debates. There's got to be some middle ground here. It's utterly unrelated to the Christianity I was taught growing up. And it's one of the many reasons I want nothing to do with the religion any more. Totally! And it's one of the many reasons that a group of us removed ourselves en masse from our traditional denomination and started a no-frills, church-unplugged fellowship.
...when you have your character cards all set and character backround e-mail it to me... Silly question perhaps, but where does one make a character 'card' ...does it refer to the profiles on Paizo, or some other form of character sheet? Thanks.
Whoa! That'll learn me to miss a day or two on the boards. I'm thinking a wily but superstitious barbarian. Will email.
Welcome to the boards. ... Read over some of the games currently going on. This is what I did. Thanks, I'll do that. Sovereign
Hello all,
I was wondering if there was a primer out there for play-by-post...covering say, ettiquette, conventions, how rolls are handled, character sheets. Thanks in advance...
I'd call on the power of the boards to direct me to the best spot. Well, in Manhattan the only (RPG) gaming shop worth the name is really 'The Compleat Strategist' 11 E. 33rd St., New York, NY 10016 nr. Fifth Ave. ... www.thecompleatstrategist.com/Can't speak for the other buroughs... |