...PS Rholf is buried at work atm, but he has indicated that might be interested in tossing a character into the ring. No idea what, but we did discuss something divine.Right on; like I said, the more the merrier!!!!!
Hiya Heathy. Many thanks for the invite, and I'm quite excited, if the door is still open. :)
Ainvar filled me in on level, point-buy info and the like. The game I run didn't pan out tonight, so we are working on characters (I'm going with a half-orc ranger, btw). How much gold should we start with at 14th level? Right out of the book (185k @ 14th), or do you have something else in mind? Also, do you have any spending restrictions or other house rules where monies are concerned? Thanks!
Oh no Ainvar - that means I have to make a decision between Irori-san the Wind of Heaven (magus) and Satari-san the Celestial Dragon (monk).
OK... 1-3 is the Wind of Heaven; 4-6 is the Celestial Dragon.
...PS Rholf is buried at work atm, but he has indicated that might be interested in tossing a character into the ring. No idea what, but we did discuss something divine.Right on; like I said, the more the merrier!!!!!Hiya Heathy. Many thanks for the invite, and I'm quite excited, if the door is still open. :)
Ainvar filled me in on level, point-buy info and the like. The game I run didn't pan out tonight, so we are working on characters (I'm going with a half-orc ranger, btw). How much gold should we start with at 14th level? Right out of the book (185k @ 14th), or do you have something else in mind? Also, do you have any spending restrictions or other house rules where monies are concerned? Thanks!
Yeah; welcome aboard! 185k sounds right.
Oh no Ainvar - that means I have to make a decision between Irori-san the Wind of Heaven (magus) and Satari-san the Celestial Dragon (monk).
And that, my friend, is the sort of dilemma I don't mind causing.
Ironically, it would appear that we will not have a magus after all that discussion...
heh heh
I might look at the magus again, but the dervish dancer is virtually complete, other than spells. I'm not sure what to pick and I don't want to duplicate the bard already in the party too much - thoughts?
I'm really close to being done with my character. Really just finishing touches at this point. That, and I need a history.
Right on;.....
I guess it would help you guys if I had a better fleshed out milieu.
cool map of Wa and Kozakura I found
I'm starting in the south of Wa.
Between the cities of Fochu and Jasuga, there's a town called Yu.
Yu has long been disputed between the two daimyos of Fochu and Jasuga. Each year they hold a battle and recruit ronin and sellswords to assemble and duke it out, the winning side gets Yu's tax revenue for that year. Desperate poor ronin from across Wa converge on Yu, to make a little cash by slaughtering their contemporaries and hopefully gain a retainership with an actual daimyo again......
The Shogunate is extremely powerful in Wa, and these two Provinces are relatively poor and in the styx and far from the action.....typically this is a real shit detail to be assigned as daimyo to one of these provinces.
The Shogun allows this annual battle ritual, however, because it is a convenient way to cull the number of ronin that have been created as a byproduct of his consolidation of power through dissolving and recombining several provinces and often "firing" their historical ruling daimyos. When a daimyo's house goes under, well.....he can't pay his retainers, so they are forced to walk the ronin path. And sometimes get into all sorts of rascally diversions.
The time for this annual battle draws near. The shugenja are consulting the omens to reckon the most auspicious day for the grand melee.
Also,....in the forest of Momoben at the south of Wa,....there have been rumors of disquiet. Unnatural occurrences. Strange creatures sighted, bizarre happenings.......watermelons growing off of pine trees, swarms of flying frogs, cats walking through villages and proclaiming that the end of the world is near. Something uncanny is up.
Any questions let me know; also any requests hit me with them. I haven't fully fleshed out the milieu of the scenario as much as I would have liked, but that leaves plenty of room for improvisation and like alteration.
Sweet. Culturally speaking, are half-orcs looked down on (or worse) because of their lineage? I know next to zippo about where we're going to be adventuring.
Yeah; they're aren't too many orcs around on the island of Wa, but I'll say there's some on the mainland. Maybe some mercenary/raider types had some contact with Wa, but they're not too common there.
Note; certain members of the existing party in general (i.e. the two humans) will be looked down upon in Wa; they're all foreign barbarians!
They're also 14th level, so it's not like they'll get thrown in the hoozegow too easily.
There's some horse orcs, in the steppes of the northern mainland.
They make decent mercenaries, though they tend to the vicious side of things.....not that that ever stopped anybody back then.
That being said,....Fochu is a long way from the capital of Wa. It's more like Mos Eisley than Coruscant......and the woods nearby aren't exactly the domain of humankind; they are far from subdued. It's the best place I could find to do what I wanted to do with such a milieu.
Sounds good. I'm going with a half-orc ranger. The next couple of days are going to be flat-out nasty for me, so it'll probably be after that.
Thanks!
I have rescued sleeping princes from the tombs of the Jade Demon. I destroyed the temple of Ibhei in a single night. I have climbed the thousand stairs to the Peak of the Silent Heron, and returned with both my sanity and my life. I mastered the Spinning Leaf Form of the Hotomori Dojo at a younger age than most are admitted, and was expelled four hours later. I slew the Burning Tiger, talked with the Gargantuas Turtle, and crossed the Bridge of Birds to save the son I can never see again. Now, an old man, I sit and drink tea.
I am Satari, the Celestial Dragon. You may have heard of me.
I'm back to leaning toward the kensai, but it's not very close to done. If we are on a timeline, the dervish is basically ready to go. Otherwise, I'll work on the kensai.
I'm back to leaning toward the kensai, but it's not very close to done. If we are on a timeline, the dervish is basically ready to go. Otherwise, I'll work on the kensai.
No hurries; make something you want to play, says I.
I have rescued sleeping princes from the tombs of the Jade Demon. I destroyed the temple of Ibhei in a single night. I have climbed the thousand stairs to the Peak of the Silent Heron, and returned with both my sanity and my life. I mastered the Spinning Leaf Form of the Hotomori Dojo at a younger age than most are admitted, and was expelled four hours later. I slew the Burning Tiger, talked with the Gargantuas Turtle, and crossed the Bridge of Birds to save the son I can never see again. Now, an old man, I sit and drink tea.
I am Satari, the Celestial Dragon. You may have heard of me.
** spoiler omitted **
I'm all over this dude, man.
Need those books now.....
Sounds good. I'm going with a half-orc ranger. The next couple of days are going to be flat-out nasty for me, so it'll probably be after that.
Thanks!
Yeah; I get the feeling it's not just you that's gonna have a nasty few next days.....
just got done working; started 7 am, drove to call job, worked till 8:30 pm. and I have fri sat sun on call to go.
I need a little hut next to my job, man. Like, Occupy Work or something.
I'm back to leaning toward the kensai, but it's not very close to done. If we are on a timeline, the dervish is basically ready to go. Otherwise, I'll work on the kensai.No hurries; make something you want to play, says I.
It's a tough call. The gish idea has always appealed to me, but I've been a lot less spellcaster than warrior in most of my games, which fits the kensai pretty much - more warrior than spellcaster.
And after I worked on the dervish and was thinking spells, I realized that there was already a bard in the party and I would rather avoid duplication of effects if I could, even though she's designed more as a combatant than a spellcaster or even a typical bard, anyway.
Looking at the magus, I can definitely see why people lean toward the Dervish Dance and Dex-based builds. It makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, I had a different idea in mind and what makes sense doesn't necessarily attract me when I'm designing characters, so I'm looking at an elven kensai, STR-based, using the katana. My rough picture of him at the moment has him potentially attacking twice a round at +12/7 for 1d10+15 without taking any magic into consideration.
Not bad for a spellcaster, I think. The trick will be getting him enough defense to survive to swing the katana since he gets no armor proficiencies(!).
Of course, the dervish could be a lot of fun, especially in a crowd of mooks - she would have a move of 55' and could make her full attack as she moved through, possibly attacking at +17/+17/+12 for 1d6+9 before magic - I'm picturing her running through the goblin invasion of Sandpoint, cleaning house by herself.
Anyway, still kicking around. Sorry you guys are having such a time of it - I'm finally at a relatively calm point, but next week looks like it's going to be rough for me, too. Que sera, sera. Or something like that.
There was a couch in the staff breakout room in my previous office, it wasn’t unheard of for people to sleep there when there were major deadlines looming.
It also wasn’t unheard of for people to use it for other reasons, but I wouldn’t know anything about that of course.
So was there a signal to keep other people from entering the breakout room like college dorm roommates use? No, wait. Never mind. I'm pretty sure I don't want to know.
AinvarG, FWIW I think that "an elven kensai, STR-based, using the katana" magus is just damned sexy. And better for an oriental milieu than a scimitar-bard. Please do it.
Heathy re books: I would rather read the third book in Pat Rothfuss' Kingkiller trilogy than win RPGSS. (Note to Sean, Neil, Clark, Ryan: this is trufax, but says more about how good Pat's writing is than how seriously I take RPGSS. For real, this guy should get the Nobel Prize for Awesome or something. Also, Barry Hughart wins.)
What do we noobs need to know about the campaign, the existing characters, and the style of play. Other than 'heathy', that is.
Fourthly, that is one inspirational map. I love the outer islands in particular. Where do we start?
Also, yes some wine, a little beer, and a curry now that you ask.
AinvarG, FWIW I think that "an elven kensai, STR-based, using the katana" magus is just damned sexy. And better for an oriental milieu than a scimitar-bard. Please do it.
Well, I don't need much encouragement. ;-) But I appreciate the vote for the concept very much.
AinvarG, FWIW I think that "an elven kensai, STR-based, using the katana" magus is just damned sexy. And better for an oriental milieu than a scimitar-bard. Please do it.
Heathy re books: I would rather read the third book in Pat Rothfuss' Kingkiller trilogy than win RPGSS. (Note to Sean, Neil, Clark, Ryan: this is trufax, but says more about how good Pat's writing is than how seriously I take RPGSS. For real, this guy should get the Nobel Prize for Awesome or something. Also, Barry Hughart wins.)
What do we noobs need to know about the campaign, the existing characters, and the style of play. Other than 'heathy', that is.
Fourthly, that is one inspirational map. I love the outer islands in particular. Where do we start?
Also, yes some wine, a little beer, and a curry now that you ask.
RE: Noobs.....They just got teleported to Wa from elsewhere; you'll run into them pretty soon.
I don't have much more than the bare bones of the area thought out really. Plenty of time for that,.....We're starting in the bottom part of Wa, by/in the forest.
Might bop around all over the place; I was thinking about that southern forest, but since you're all 14th level, hell.....you've got magical transportation options.
I'm making little notes here and there, like "I love the outer islands," and I kinda like to riff off of the players like that.
That and the Celestial Dragon's little intro snippet.....burning tigers and temples and getting kicked outta dojos and whatnot.
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What do we noobs need to know about the campaign, the existing characters, and the style of play. Other than 'heathy', that is.
We kind of bounce around a lot, do a bit of this, a bit of that ... usually defeat the bad guys but leave a lot of loose ends behind us. We were on our way to the Isle of Dread via Sasserine from Saltmarsh (I forget why) when we got distracted, ended up in Asgard to find a giant magic user, got distracted by some troll wizards, then in a fight between dwarves and efreet, then in a quest to slay a dragon, then pissed off Loki and ended up here.
We tend to do a lot of pretty full-on battles interspersed with wandering about looking for trouble, getting drunk and philosophising and getting ambushed by assassins in bath-houses and brothels.
You’ll meet the party soon enough. While they’re all definitely good guys they’re no paladins and don’t mind getting their hands dirty (or abandoning a quest to go treasure hunting or get drunk or laid).
Yeah; I don't care about alignment that much.
I work in architecture, there are a lot of very late nights and odd hours, so this sort of thing (allegedly) happened late at night or on weekends. Not during normal office hours.
Yeah, I didn't think it would. I went to a state university that has a pretty significant architecture program - or so I have heard - and there were a lot of similar tales about the late nights in the studios. Most of which I doubt had much truth to them, but they certainly had plenty of imagination. ;-)
Yeah, good call I think.AinvarG, FWIW I think that "an elven kensai, STR-based, using the katana" magus is just damned sexy. And better for an oriental milieu than a scimitar-bard. Please do it.Well, I don't need much encouragement. ;-) But I appreciate the vote for the concept very much.
I'm having trouble finding time to hang all my ideas together, so I'm kind of sketching the character out here. I'm leaning toward a female elf named Emrael with heavy emphasis on mobility and hitting hard - Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Power Attack, Greater Weapon Focus, etc.
I'm sure she won't be ideal when I'm done because that's not how I build 'em, but I think she's going to be a slugger. Add some enhancements to her weapon and a pair of boots of haste, and she's going to have some fun. And she'll have a good UMD, so she will have the option of providing healing with the right wand selection.
I haven't really looked at the arcana yet, but I've seen Walter's Guide to the Magus. I'm not sure how valid some of his recommendations are for a kensai, but the discussion is valuable.
Yep, lots of late nights / all nighters in the studios at university too, though I never heard of all that much going on there; so many people lived within a couple of kilometre radius of the university (or on campus) it was usually easier to go back to someone’s place for that sort of thing.
And most of the architecture students that I knew were half asleep the entire term that they were in studio, so I wonder how much non-work they managed up there.
Just because we didn't belong there and wondered what it looked like, we walked through the studios one night at about 1AM. People were jammed in there tight - half were working intently, half were snoring gently. lol, didn't mean to make that rhyme until it showed up on the screen. There certainly didn't seem to be anything going on that wasn't work.
Weighing choices for feats here - I can take Spring Attack and Whirlwind Attack or I can take Combat Reflexes and Combat Patrol...
Suggestions?
Yeah; I get the feeling it's not just you that's gonna have a nasty few next days.....
just got done working; started 7 am, drove to call job, worked till 8:30 pm. and I have fri sat sun on call to go.
Youch... Well I hope it goes smoothly and quietly for you.
The first pair of feats sounds more fun doesn't it?
That's what I was thinking, too. But I don't know how often I'll be in a position to Whirlwind - I've never had the feat, so I really don't know how practical it might be. With Lunge, it could be pretty cool, though - assuming I have my normal 5' reach, I will threaten 24 squares on a battle map. If I can reach out and touch all of them for a possible d10+15, that's just cool.
I am already a big fan of Spring Attack, though... OK, I'm sold.
heh heh....
Holy Cheese Weasels...
Looks good!
As soon as I get his history done, which will be sometime beyond 6 hours from now, I'll be ready to go
cool, angry Jawa,.......the show's almost ready to go on........heh heh.
Uh-oh, sounds like I'd better get'r done!
meh...no hurry.
I got lung scans and bone scans and myocardial perfusions to do.
I believe I am ready. Character history is not as detailed as I would like, but it's all I can manage right now. :)
Heh, I am enjoying the 'creation' and side chat as much as I am enjoying the game! :)
BTW, MArdi Gras weekend here, which you'd THINK would mean I'd have time on my hands, but as the family is all out of school too, means usually,... No. I don't ;P
So in short, might not get to post much until Ash Wednesday. But I'll try to keep up.