Interest in Escaping the Tower [3.5 Game Opening] (Need Players)

[Raineh Daze]

Necessary? Err... I think I may be in a situation where items are going to be mostly optional.

... now I just need a way to get from Diminutive at level 6 to Fine at level 7...

[geniussavant]

Off hand, compression and dungeonbred come to mind, but each have their own problems.

[Raineh Daze]

Namely that one is a power and the other requires that I be Large first, neither of which are readily accessible (and, in the second case, useful)

[geniussavant]

I agree they have their issues. I guess if it ment that much to you, I could hand waive the size decrease for something else.

Edit: to get a similar effect, a combination of giant type(say, half-giant), return to nature cast multiple times, and the winged template would give you a fine character with butterfly wings. You'd lose out on some of the abilities from anthromorphic animal, but would have a few levels to play around with, because this would only cost you a racial HD for the half-giant's normal +1 la, and a second racial HD for the la from the wings. The castings I would probably give for only a single HD or something similar. I don't want to give you something for free, as I don't plan on doing anything similar. However, I could give out a bit of virtual gp for each player to spend on permanent spell effects, grafts, or the like.

What does the group think of me potentially allowing each character a set value of grafts and spell effects to spend on the characters? I may also hand out some rewards like this by making a npc that can do this available to the group.

[VennDygrem]

Hmm, doing a quick build, I notice that I won't get a heck of a lot of skills thanks to chokers getting only 2 skill points per level, and having to take Choker 1 as my first class level. The Quickness ability is still so tempting, and for an Impulse Mage means being able to regain formulae faster. There may be options that are just as tempting, though.

So far it seems I'd have decent face skills (Diplomacy, Bluff, Intimidate all at +10 bonus), and some unimpressive but still useful knowledge skills (+8 in Arcana and Planes, +5 in Dungeoneering, +4 in Local), +12 in Spellcraft, +10 Concentration, and Adept's Knack allows me to treat my ranks in any other non-trained-only skills as 2 (1/2 my Impulse Mage level). Not really impressive numbers for an 8th level character, though it doesn't take into account items since there won't be any for a while.

On the plus side, the character is fairly gear-independent. Equipment is useful, but unnecessary. No need for weapons, and while there are magic items that can make spellshaping better, they aren't necessary for keeping up. If the right formulae occur to him right away, armor may also not be a huge problem, and he's somewhat mobile (though slow; 20 foot move speed is a pain, and though he also has a climb speed, it's only 1/2 base speed, so 10.) Most likely he'd try to get out of reach ASAP and use ranged touch attacks.

------edit-------
Being able to spend virtual gp on grafts and inherent magic effects seems pretty nifty.

[Raineh Daze]

Eh... no. Messing around with templates is just... annoying. Will see if I can dig something up.

(AA 6/Something 1/Rogue 1 gives me SA as a Rogue 7 and possibly a large number of natural attacks as well as some other stuff, which seems better than two levels of racial HD and digging around in classes for sneak-attack benefits)

[VennDygrem]

Raineh: Hmm, combining AA with Rogue and at least one or two levels of Assassin Devil seems like a fun time, even if it necessitates spending two feats to accomplish. I think I'll keep that idea on the back-burner for a future character myself...

[geniussavant]

How much value does the group think would be appropriate?

Would slight build help you any? That could probably be taken as a feat if the group didn't object? Or hell, I could just drop you the size if there isn't an issue with the rest of the group. Maybe you could have the size decrease instead of the virtual gold...

I really need to spend some time going through the monster classes in homebrew here...

[Scout89]

Hmm...A snail, a bug, and some strange dude with weird hands. Interesting bunch. Would you guys find an Iron Golem would fit well in the group? Or maybe it's too normal? 

[VennDygrem]

Not just a strange dude with weird hands... a strange dude with weird hands that can manipulate the forces of time and space! 

I'm actually thinking I may go with something other than choker, if it works out properly. It would end up with one racial hit-die, in all likelihood,  but would allow another class level in a spellshaping class and would probably result in better skill points. Gotta try it out and see how it fits.

Iron Golem class is very nice. I think it definitely makes sense for this guy to have an Iron Golem guard, and maybe you made friends with one of the inmates/experiments and helped orchestrate the 'prison break.'

[geniussavant]

I've got the initial break planned already, but iron golem looks acceptable. He could easily be a guard that decided during the break that he wasn't being paid enough to deal with it.

Be prepared to deal with unusual abilities and defenses. I'm not gonna throw anything impossible out, but fighting other golems around your CR should be expected.

Don't expect much room inside the tower either. This will be similar to an underground dungeon crawl in that respect. One that you can't teleport out of to sleep. And it will take days to get out. Think of escaping from a super max prison during a riot, only with a demented wizard as a warden.

[VennDygrem]

Hmm, given that, maybe having the small-sized Choker would be beneficial. Unfortunately, there's a lot of its racial abilities going to waste. I'll continue trying to figure out what might work best for me.

As for the grafts/magic idea proposed before, picking a value is difficult since there are a few which are fairly affordable, but most of them tend to be pretty pricey. I might say instead that characters can have a limited amount of wealth to spend on innate magical effects, reproducing the effects of certain kinds of magic items; otherwise, maybe a certain pool of points to use to trade for fairly equivalent bonuses (one point might buy you a +2 to an ability score, a +5 bonus to a skill, or a +2 to AC or saves, for instance, while two points might allow you to cast dimension door as an SLA 1/day or something or grant winged flight). Just spit-balling.

[Scout89]

But if the tower's corridors are too small for a large creature, do you think the mad wizard would have other large creatures as guards?
I'd like to play a brute character. What medium sized creature do you suggest then?

[VennDygrem]

Any of Oslecamo's monster classes that gain Growth as an ability can choose to forego the size increase and instead gain an extra +1 to one of their physical stats (Strength or Dex, in the case of a construct, as there is no con score).

That way you could still be Medium-sized.

[Scout89]

Yeah, I know. But half the fun of this character is its size. I imagine someone sitting on his shoulder operating the siege crossbow while swinging iron fists all around. It wouldn't work well with a medium Iron Golem.

[ketaro]

Huh, maybe I should go with something less silly then.....

Edit: Hmm...an Anthropomorphic snake thingy sounds good to me. Yeah, I could do this. Be like, figure out some grapple everything stuff. Yeah.

[Raineh Daze]

But I'm doing an AA. ;-;

I will accept anything that drops me the last size category so long as I keep my classes.

... also I  must decide if rogue because practical or ninja because entertaining.

[geniussavant]

Maybe my comment about the size wasnt as effective in conveying what I ment. There will be room for large size creatures without a problem. However, because it is in doors, flight on large creatures would be fairly wasted, as it would only be used in the largest of corridors. To give you an idea, corridors will most likely be 20' x30', wide enough for a pair of large creatures to walk side by side comfortably, but not really huge amounts of maneuverability otherwise.

[Scout89]

@Keyaro: may I suggest a Salamander? It's snake-like and can be good at grappling.

@Geniussavant: it might be my fault not grasping the meaning since I'm not a native english speaker. Back to the golem, I don't intend to make him fly, so that's not a big deal. And being large means one less combatent blocking the enemies' way to the squishies. I'll Start working on it.

[VennDygrem]

Snakelike and good at grappling? Sounds like either Yuan-Ti or Marilith are right up your alley.

A Marilith 6/Totemist 2 binding the Girallon Arms to the Totem chakra and taking the Expanded Soulmeld Capacity feat can invest up to 4 points of essentia in the arms (probably need Extra Essentia feat to get enough) and gain a +10 to grapple checks, you would have 8 arms, a tail slap, Improved Grab and Constrict, not to mention a +3 to both Str and Con and some nice SLA's. Take two more levels of marilith to get Growth and that's +14 to grapple without factoring in a good BAB and strength mod.