Author Topic: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)  (Read 93451 times)

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #40 on: February 26, 2014, 05:21:19 PM »
True, F/SN heroics also works. XD

Offline oslecamo

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #41 on: February 26, 2014, 05:29:34 PM »
Nobody voting against gestalt, right?

Also, seems like option 1 for campaign setting is turning out more popular.

Oh I so want to join something to try out the Gate Guard class in :x
If go gestalt, I'd may want to try to work a way into going Lunatic Lancer on one side and see about finally doing that "impale everything on a single spear" thing. The thunderlance thing of Lunatic Lancer is a class feature, so would it technically not count as impeding upon the Gate Guard being an unarmed fighter?
Hmm, I'll allow that combination.

Offline VennDygrem

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #42 on: February 26, 2014, 07:06:57 PM »
Hmmm, I kind of like the idea of #1 but if there was a big, public outburst of tainted exposure in a populated, known "safe zone" and that kind of event ruins the attempts to keep the whole thing discreet. Kind of something that might take place in between options 1 and 2.

Also, that big plague/taint zone kind of reminds me of the Mournlands in Eberron. Now that I think about it, I may have inadvertently suggested an Eberron campaign... :lol
« Last Edit: February 26, 2014, 07:10:01 PM by VennDygrem »

Offline Nanshork

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #43 on: February 26, 2014, 07:44:28 PM »
I'm iffy about gestalt but that's just because I'm concerned about crazy powerful characters since your classes tend to be more powerful than most and people like playing your classes.  I think part of the problem is that I tend to play Tier 3 classes which is easily fixed.

I'm not against the idea though, in fact I've got a couple of ideas that I want to try that would work well gestalted.

Offline SorO_Lost

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #44 on: February 26, 2014, 07:57:03 PM »
So far there's Gazzien, phaedrusxy, Raineh Daze, Nanshork and VennDygrem expressing interest. So yes, still enough space for a 6th player whitout making the party bloated. Any preference for the kind of setting from the options above? We're ironing out the general details right now.
Wheel of Time it? Taint wasn't always around, the Dark Lord twisted the realm corrupting it. Three thousand years ago the pinnacle of society fell and we live in a world that has established kingdoms, safe guards, laws, people to enforce, etc. The problem is the Taint still exists, it corrupts and drives men (and women!) alike towards madness causing bouts of instability both on a home and national level. But there is hope, it was foretold that the Taint could be cleansed.

I have a couple quick observations to poke and prod on your houserules, I'll PM them instead of posting them here.

Offline VennDygrem

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #45 on: February 26, 2014, 08:12:45 PM »
Hmm, I like SorO's outline too. Nice and simple, but ripe for plot hooks.

Offline Gazzien

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #46 on: February 26, 2014, 08:20:57 PM »
Hmm, I like SorO's outline too. Nice and simple, but ripe for plot hooks.
Isn't that basically Version 2 + Prophecy?

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #47 on: February 26, 2014, 08:29:25 PM »
I take it that the Saint feature that prevents lasting effects wouldn't work on Taint?

Offline SorO_Lost

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #48 on: February 26, 2014, 08:40:18 PM »
Hmm, I like SorO's outline too. Nice and simple, but ripe for plot hooks.
Isn't that basically Version 2 + Prophecy?
Nope.

#2 is
Post-Apocalyptic[/b]
-Nobody knows how, or even exactly when, but it happenned. Most of the world is covered in heavy Taint, kingdoms and empires collapsed, fiends and undeads are at the top of whatever passes for society in this forsaken world, altough for the most part is a dog-eat-dog world. Only a few "safe" areas of precious untainted land remain, hiding some thousands of "pure "people. But hiding is not enough. For now the forces of Taint are still disorganized, fighting against each other for power and resources. It's only a matter of time until one of them proves stronger than the others and unites them to finish covering this world in Taint. You must strike out before that. You must go out there and start purifying the land, cleanse the fiends and unliving!
And this is Evil dominate. You're in a kingdom of good surrounded by evil on nineteen fronts trying to battle to purge the land of the "where in the hell did all these zombies come from!"

This is substantially different. To rip off WoT some more you can say Spellcasters are driven insane faster so they are not trusted unless trained and recognized by the Wizard's Tower. So now you've got a schism in the world, pet casters and their dogma and the people hiding their talents. However, you've got a group of zealots that are convinced you can never really trust someone that's walked through a blighted area or snuck through a tomb or two and as a general stance they oppose anyone not walking in the light as they do and these two factions don't exactly get along. King and kingdoms exist and hold together pretty well, but the ever presence of Taint makes all courts fairly corrupt. Anyone with money can buy someone looking the other way, spies and treachery spread faster than rumors. People do have the security in their daily lives that while the threat of assassination is possible, a ruler doesn't die overnight. The population for the most part would be safe and get along fine. But in the dark, each man locks his own door to keep the monsters, and his neighbors, at bay. Because you just cannot trust a man who might be Tainted.

In a gist, the world lacks trust in it's follow man. They go through the motions and such because they have to. Kind of like WoT really, distrust in the male side of the power lead to less spellcasters breeding, no 20+ circles of power, the submissive female half taking up and failing at the male's dominant role, etc. The author did some very nice world building, I don't see why we can't rip off and adapt :)

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #49 on: February 26, 2014, 09:21:48 PM »
Too much cynicism; boring. Also makes the entire concept of lawful good nigh impossible as ALL authority is inexplicably corrupt.

Also 'try and fix an utterly broken society' sounds like an excellent way to not bother with having character abilities, as they're barely relevant.

Offline SorO_Lost

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #50 on: February 26, 2014, 10:01:12 PM »
Too much cynicism; boring. Also makes the entire concept of lawful good nigh impossible as ALL authority is inexplicably corrupt.

Also 'try and fix an utterly broken society' sounds like an excellent way to not bother with having character abilities, as they're barely relevant.
You missed it. Taint is detectable and more importantly curable.

Kingdoms can afford to employ methods to detect and cure Taint. "Fixing" society is as simply as Mass Restoration cast on hordes of people daily (which is too costly to realistically do without an epic spellcaster around). That is the fundamental difference between Osle's Ravenloft suggestion or this WoT ripoff. The world isn't in a state of evil already won, the world is in a state that it's holding it's ground against evil.

If you're playing on the evil side, there are people, communities, leaders, to corrupt and influence. There is power to be had because there are innocents to kill. If you're playing on the good side you've got corrupt officials to investigate, wayward communities, even battlefronts where people fend off attacks of Tainted creatures where the Dark One's influence is at it's strongest. Something for everyone, and hair lined enough a couple of Players can break the world one way or another rather than playing Griffball and hoping you're not the guy against everyone else.

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #51 on: February 26, 2014, 11:16:04 PM »
Hmm... a slight twist on option 1 (and this might be the same as SorO's WoT "ripoff") would be a Post-Post-Apocalyptic setting. One where at some point in the (distant) past, Evil won, but eventually the heroes banded together and purged the corruption. However, that was so long ago that all that is left is distant memories, and people are becoming complacent, and once again, evil is cropping up more and more. Of course most people are like "ah, that could never happen again", except for pockets of forgotten orders devoted to purging taint, etc (Knights of Solomnia :P ).
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Offline Gazzien

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #52 on: February 27, 2014, 12:59:50 AM »
Build stub so that I can flesh it out later:
Evolutionist 5 / Evolutionist Anamoly 15
||
Karsite 1 / Karsite Paragon 3 / Saint 2 / Monster of Legend 2 / Paragon 12

Evolutionist for some SLA/PLA's, telepathy, mad skills yo
Other side for defenses, CHA to more stuff, general passive buffa
General Role = Skillmonkey. Guess I need Trapfonding from somewhere....
« Last Edit: February 27, 2014, 01:02:07 AM by Gazzien »

Offline linklord231

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #53 on: February 27, 2014, 01:25:06 AM »
Maybe the Great Wall was built thousands of years ago to keep the Taint out, but nowadays there's not much out there and people have forgotten the wall's original purpose, a la Song of Ice and Fire.
I'm not arguing, I'm explaining why I'm right.

Offline ketaro

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #54 on: February 27, 2014, 02:51:40 AM »
Maybe the Great Wall was built thousands of years ago to keep the Taint out, but nowadays there's not much out there and people have forgotten the wall's original purpose, a la Song of Ice and Fire.

Or even that there might be people and a world still alive on the other side of that wall?  :huh
People who which see the wall as a prison to keep the locked away from the rest of the world because they live in the taint. Thus willing to want to tear down that wall and bring misunderstood oppression to the people on the other side who don't even remember why there is a wall.
« Last Edit: February 27, 2014, 02:53:46 AM by ketaro »

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #55 on: February 27, 2014, 07:17:54 AM »
Eternal Royal 20//Paladin 18/Saint 2 (maybe with PrC's, it's hard to check when my computer has no internet connection). Dead for centuries before this point. But very much alive now. XD

Very, VERY CHA heavy. Good at talking. And fighting, I guess.

Offline SorO_Lost

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #56 on: February 27, 2014, 08:16:30 AM »
Gestalt and level 20? :lightbulb

Maybe I can just recycle Talim. :D
I made the character as an indulgence and barely got to use it. In a gist, Savage Ghost, StP Erudite, & Ol's God Base Class. The god of lust has taken mortal form to directly prod humanity back on track but used to everyone else doing things while s/he socializes, holds other gods in contempt and pretty absent minded. Really, just character flaws since I am convinced spellcasters should hold back or no one has any fun. Naturally good tendencies through technically neutral.

Barring that. The Madara homebrew I'm too lazy to finalize as of yet. Barring that, it's going to be a charisma based gish, with Swiftblade levels and a decent attempt to obtain Dark Moon Disciple's Shadow Blend. Sort of Ichigo meets Enzio.

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #57 on: February 27, 2014, 08:26:19 AM »
Not level 20, just planning that high. No level given yet, though I hope it's at least 7.

Offline ketaro

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #58 on: February 27, 2014, 09:19:20 AM »
I tend not to play with optimization as the point, so even with gestalt available I can still make something that's only average at best; even with access to os' homebrews.

For example, I'm feeling pretty good about a Rogue 2/Gate Guard18//Carrionette1/Rogue1/Needle Fighter 5/Lunatic Lancer 10/Undecided3levelsofsomething
:D

It'll be a bit weird, but Guard Guile can remove any penalties for grappling larger opponents easy, keeping mass impalings still possible. Preferable start for this build is level 7 tho  :-\

(My fallback is a Noble Draconian, Lightning. It'd probably fit in well with it's paladin-esque load out with this setting)
« Last Edit: February 27, 2014, 09:21:25 AM by ketaro »

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Taint Campaign-checking Interest (D&D 3.5)
« Reply #59 on: February 27, 2014, 09:44:14 AM »
Not sure that Paladin is really the best idea; I already have an equivalent to Divine Grace (and I'm not sure they'd stack), plus I've got a martial adept on one side. On the other hand, I don't really know what else to do with that half. XD