OOC and discussion

[Endarire]

I updated the Character Builds thread with dashboards for my posse.

[Sohala]

Completely forgot to ask, psicrystals and feats, how are we treating that in this game?

[dither]

Completely forgot to ask, psicrystals and feats, how are we treating that in this game?

Let's say for the time being that the psicrystal begins play with Alertness (as described in its monster entry), but that after creation it can be retrained for something else. Now, the psicrystal class feature/advancement notes that its owner gains the Alertness feat and this won't change -- just the psicrystal wouldn't benefit from it anymore.

Choosing feats for a psicrystal as it advances though...

...Let's go ahead and extend this to all NPC companions, animals, and so on -- the current generation will be grandfathered in without changes, so this affects future familiars, companions, summons, and so forth -- my preference is for PHB feats, or monster (MM) feats to take priority. Followed by that, feats from the source the creature or companion is derived from (Incarnum for soul-things, XPH for psi-things, etc.).

This will use the same basic rules and guidelines as retraining -- one kind of change at a time (change skills OR feats OR class features), and typically during level advancement. So for the case of the psicrystal, the most obvious time for this to happen would be when your PC levels up.

...But getting back to choosing feats as the familiar/companion advances...

The best rule I can think to apply in this case is based on Handle Animal. If you wish to forgo the immediate acquisition of a feat for your companion -- say you hit 3rd level and you want to give you psicrystal a feat that doesn't suck, or that appears in a source that's above and beyond the PHB/MM/XPH/CPsi -- you can take a week to teach it... I don't know, something bizarre out of Tome of Battle. (If it qualifies, right?)

Does all of this make sense?

Now one of the things that I really, really need to point out is that outside of the immediate dungeon setting -- I don't really care about the passage of time. You guys can totally be in control of that. Hyper time dilation or whatever.

All I want to see is someone say, "I'm going to take a week to train my psicrystal how to lead a charge, White Raven-style! Who's with me?"

And then, barring any bizarre action necessary to do so -- you can then go right ahead with it.

I'm not necessarily trying to reconcile everyone's personal time-line or anything. You just have to be willing to break down the actions into their component parts and describe to me what's going on. You can get all timey-wimey if you have to. This is the Internet. Anything is possible.


--Dither

[dither]

All of that said, you also have to be willing to accept the consequences for staying in one place for so long.

If you've made enemies who want you dead really bad, and you decide to squat in the open teaching a hundred dogs how to do tricks ... your enemies will probably find you pretty quickly.

But that... is what makes this game fun. So if you have a problem with that... you signed up for the wrong game.

If you don't make some enemies, you're doing it wrong.


--Dither

[Endarire]

Dither: Or you're doing it very right because you can persuade doors to open for you just by being in their presence.

[dither]

Dither: Or you're doing it very right because you can persuade doors to open for you just by being in their presence.

Someone is going to be pissed off at whoever opened the door.

Some people want the doors to stay closed.

And if not people, then monsters. And if not monsters, then deities.

There is a veritable menagerie of things just looking to be pissed off.


--Dither

[Endarire]

Just checkin' in on the status of dither and company.  Going this long without an update feels weird.

[dither]

Oh man, I thought I was waiting on you. I didn't realize I'd missed an update.

I'll get right on that.


--Dither

[Endarire]

Thankee!

Do let me know if you need more info before proceeding.

[Rikimaru]

Due to the unfortunate circumstance of no internet access I will be withdrawing from the game presently, if anything changes I'll inform you later.

[phaedrusxy]

My character is hiding like the coward he is (survival strategy when Everything is Trying to Kill You ).

[dither]

My work has finally decided to address the network issues we've been having the last couple months, so my connectivity is severely limited.

*sigh* Nothing like trying to fix a problem to utterly break things.


--Dither

[Endarire]

Dither: A workaround for your network problems: Take a screenshot/picture of the text, save it to a USB drive/your email, and when you have some spare moments at work, write your reply in a file (Word doc, Wordpad file, Notepad file, etc.) and save it on your phone/USB drive.  Do the actual network-requiring things at home or a restaurant or some other place with Internet access.

[Frogman55]

I'm a little sad that I've only just now noticed this game. And you have more than 10 players. Oh well, I'm watching anyways.

[edit]And now I just noticed the 'always accepting' add. Nice. I'm going to have a few build questions, but those can wait while I trawl the old stuff.

[edit 2] I think this might be an interesting opportunity to dust off an old build of mine, leavened with some ToB goodness. The build is done, I just need to break down equipment (armor decisions are tough when you've only got 100gp).

I'll probably be polished by tomorrow morning.

[Endarire]

Greetings, Frogman, and welcome to our game!

Sohala and I and our respective hirelings are exploring the Goldburn Mine, here.  We'd welcome helpful company.

If you're very into the notion of a martial adept, consider my homebrew martial discipline revisions and expansions.  Get dither's permission before using stuff though just to be sure.  The Unquiet Twilight discipline focuses on debuffing, life stealing, and being Undead- and Vampire-like.

[Frogman55]

Greetings, Frogman, and welcome to our game!

Sohala and I and our respective hirelings are exploring the Goldburn Mine, here.  We'd welcome helpful company.

If you're very into the notion of a martial adept, consider my homebrew martial discipline revisions and expansions.  Get dither's permission before using stuff though just to be sure.  The Unquiet Twilight discipline focuses on debuffing, life stealing, and being Undead- and Vampire-like.

I'll check it out. More cha-synnergy would be great, though to be honest if I'm really going to try and sell some non standard material I'd rather push a hexblade fix. But I'm honestly happy with things. My only problem with the crusader is his stance progression, and given that I'm planning on 4 levels of hexblade before I ever come back, well, that fixes the progression.

It also looks like your mini-party could use a front-liner, which is good. It appears that a hand-waved arrival is appropriate?

[Endarire]

Regarding my revised martial adepts and martial disciplines, look at the Crusader.  I revised him (and all martial classes) to get a new stance at the same level a new level of stances is available.  My martial adepts can also swap all of their stances and maneuvers known on a daily basis, like how a Cleric swaps his prepared spells.  When I was revising the Crusader and the Unquiet Twilight discipline, I thought of the Crusader using this discipline as a pseudo-Hexblade.  (Unquiet Twilight stuff has CHA-based DCs.)

Your appearance, however wavey, would help.

Note that Sohala and I each have hirelings to handle most the muscle work.  I have 4 Half-Orc Adepts for healing, buffing, and melee.  Sohala has two Half-Orc or Dwarf (not sure which) Adepts, two Warriors, and one Dwarven Brewmaster.  If phaedrusxy joins us, he'll be our Gnome Druid for melee/heals/spells.

Regarding being a Hexblade or/and Crusader, we'd quite appreciate the Martial Spirit and 'heal us as you kill them' approach.

Regarding other characters: At present, a bunch of people have left the game or stopped playing for an indefinite/long time.  These are the current unofficial groups:

-Super Steve and McPoyo.  They're going for goblin bounties.
-Endarire and Sohala.  We're going for the Goldburn Mine which is a seemingly abandoned mine with a Salamander guarding it.  There are crystals that resonate with planar resonance.  A portal to Sigil, the hub of the planes, may be there.
-phaedrusxy.  He's in the Goldburn Mine instance.  We aren't sure yet of his loyalties in character.

The expedition of Sohala, me, and our hireling posse is to get rich, get extraplanar, and make an extraplanar empire.  We need money for that - lots of it.

[Frogman55]

I think your group is a good fit.

I'm planning on Crusader 1 - Hexblade 4, then straight crusader. Maybe a dip into fighter if I decide I need more feats.

Anyways, expect some more concrete posts tomorrow.

[Endarire]

OK.  Remember, you can take flaws, but expect the GM to exploit these flaws.  Murky-Eyed is just asking for dither to ambush us, though other flaws are probably more 'tame.'  For Seymour, I went with Noncombatant and Vulnerable since I don't plan to melee and I'm willing to trade 1 AC (including touch AC) for my INT bonus to HP per HD.

[Endarire]

Also regarding your build, do you plan to go Jade Phoenix Mage to progress maneuvers and spells?  You may need to tweak your build or get GM permission to 'handwave' you in with just 4 Hexblade levels, but that seems spiffy... and also many levels from now.

I'm also curious what sort of combatant you planned to make.  I'm a fan of reach/trip Crusaders.