[3.5] Neutral/Evil Campaign [Sandbox][Mature]

[brujon]

Sandbox, Medieval, Low-Mid Fantasy, Gothic, Magic is Witchcraft, Theological society, Non-Intervening God (Single), Humans are Xenophobic - Think 1000's Europe at the height of Christian power.

It's an evolving setting, which i'll be constructing along with the campaign. Starting area is more or less like England, physically, but more in line with Spain during the Inquisition, politically.

THE PREMISE:

You are all criminals. Whatever crimes you have committed, or were accused of committing, got you arrested. They were something really bad, punishable with death in the kingdom of Astaria - treason, murder, arson, kidnapping, racketeering, piracy, repeated armed robbery, aggravated assault of a noble, drug dealing, blasphemy, witchcraft, heresy, prostitution... It may have been any of them, or more than one, coupled with more minor offenses, and it doesn't matter if you were innocent, you were judged, tried, convicted and executed. ON THE SPOT. And, no matter the innocence of the crime you were convicted of...

You were sinners.

Buried in a shallow mass grave, along with all the other recently convicted...

But it didn't end there. You all awoke screaming, naked, searing pain burning through your skin... Hot irons sizzling in your chest. Burning hellfire all around you... Thousands of others, all the same...

Was this hell?

You felt cold, and blacked out.

When you awoke again, you were in chains. Neck, hands and arms bound. The room was pitch black, and a grave, otherwordly voice said:

"BEHOLD, for i have brought you back from the fires of hell itself, and i will give you the opportunity to avenge your deaths."

RULES and HOUSE RULES (lot of em):

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- Game will start at level 1. All 3.5/3.0 allowed (newer material takes precedence), including Web Enhancements. Homebrew and Dragon Magazine allowed on a case-by-case basis, if it is not completely unbalanced and appropriate for the game.

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- Clerics can choose any two domains, must worship the one God of the setting[No Evil domains], or Satan[No Good domains].

- Binders function by binding aspects of Pagan gods [Nordic, Greek, Hindi, etc...] (refluffed Vestiges, i'll work with those who want to play one to find appropriate refluffs)

- Arcane magic is blood-only - Sorcerer is in, Wizard[And similars] is OUT.

- Ranger: No Animal Companion, No Spellcasting,  Wildshape as Druid, Trapfinding as Rogue (on natural environments). NEW Combat Style: Natural World -> 2nd: Improved Natural Attack [Applies to the primary attack of the form you are taking], 6th: Rapidstrike, 11th: Improved Rapidstrike.

*Rapidstrike works like TWF but for all natural weapons, and Imp. Rapidstrike works like Improved TWF for all natural weapons of a form you are taking.

- Druid: No Wildshape, no metal restriction.

- Monk: Not setting appropriate.

- Rogue: Poison Use at level 1, as Assassin. Get one free EWP.

- Psionics - It exists, and is much more accepted than Magic is. Those who have the gift are viewed as blessed by God, while Sorcerers are viewed as tainted by the evil of Satan.

- Barbarian: New ACF - Blinding Fury - Lose all armor and weapon proficiency, Fast Movement and Rage. Get: Flurry of Blows (As Monk), Improved Unarmed Strike, Monk Unarmed Progression, Double Dex to AC (only unarmored). Substitute rage with Focus: +4 Attack, Damage and AC and one extra attack vs one opponent, cannot attack other opponents and get -4 AC vs them. Increase to +6 at 11, and +8 at 20. At the end you are Dazed for 1 round, then get -4 DEX for the same number of rounds as you stayed in Focus. SPECIAL: You only get the benefits of Focus if you are using Unarmed Strikes. At 17th penalties no longer apply. 

- Fighter: 4 + Int skill points...

- Swordsage: OK but no unarmed variant.

- Paladin: Crusader or Knight.

- Samurai: Don't know why you would use such a broken class, but yeah, not really setting appropriate...

- Bard: I'll be using the Divine Bard variant from Unearthed Arcana.

- Skills: If a skill is a class skill for a class in which you have more than 5 levels in, then it is a class skill for every other class you have.

- Gold and Items: You will all start with 1000 gold.

- Do not expect much in the way of magic items except for small trinkets - +1 items are hero material, +2 are extremely rare, and +3 are Legend (think, Sword in the Stone legendary-like), Item Creation feats and the Artificer  class are not available for PC's.

- Freedom of Movement grants +20 untyped bonus to Escape Artist checks to escape mundane bonds and grapples, but only grants immunity to magical forms of restricting movement.

- PHB Races or variants. Other races are extremely rare. 90+% of the world is human, and they are Xenophobic.

- Flaws and Traits: 2 flaws, 1 trait.

[zook1shoe]

sounds fun

so like seeking revenge on the Spanish Inquisition

[Raineh Daze]

It's an evolving setting, which i'll be constructing along with the campaign. Starting area is more or less like England, physically, but more in line with Spain during the Inquisition, politically.

We talking the popculture Spanish Inquisition or the real life one?

Interested. Will see what thoughts come to mind. Probably should not play another character whose idea is 'roll ALL the dice', honestly.

[StreamOfTheSky]

I assume this is PbP?  If not, I'm interested depending on day and time.

[zook1shoe]

thats very true... i would only be able to do a PbP

[brujon]

Yes, PbP, on these here forums.

Raineh Daze: Real life one. With all the gruesome details, corruption, etc... But much much worse, since magic actually does exist in this world, lol.

The government is a Monarchy, but in name only. The Church is the one that holds true power, having a monopoly on who gets to practice magic or not. They are divided in different sections:

Order of the Contemplative Mind:  Psionic ability is seen as a gift from God, and most children who exhibit the Gift are taken to the various monasteries of the Order of the Contemplative Mind for training, where they can hone their skills as psions, wilders or psychic warriors. They also employ the services of Swordsages, combat monks that didn't have psionic ability, but wished to serve them as well, who are then trained mostly in the Diamond Mind and Setting Sun schools. They are the second most powerful organization, having people infiltrated deep into the government, as well as every section of the Church.

Order of the Sacred Scriptures: The most influential section, spearheaded by high-level Clerics and Archivists, they are the ones that hold the most sway. They control the various churches, and are tied closely with the Order of the Holy Knight Crusaders, who answers to them.

Order of the Divine Choir: An organization that is headed by bards, it is responsible for propaganda, as well as espionage and subterfuge. They don't have much influence themselves, but know enough that they are nearly untouchable. They make dealings with pirates, nobles and rich men from everywhere, and are the order least concerned about the true purpose of the scriptures, but, ironically enough, are the ones responsible for spreading the religion to everywhere.

Order of the Holy Knight Crusaders are the church's army, composed of crusaders, knights, psychic warriors, as well as combat inclined clerics, psions, and divine bards. Many aristocrat sons who couldn't make it to anywhere else in life are thrown in here, to be used by the church to hunt down infidels. They have the most members out of every order, and thus the most power, but different factions fighting from within prevent them from becoming more influent.

There's also secret orders within the church... Who you will have to find out during the game!

Other than the church, there's the Monarchic government, ruled by one King, with 10 different regions divided amongst several nobles of varying influence. The king's army is small and pitiful compared to the Church's army, and so the King decreed his army was to become support for the Church's army, and gave high-ranking bishops the power of generals.

[Raineh Daze]

Heheh, fun.

Thoughts on the mechanics of this? Perfectly willing to find a way to refluff it.

... I just like bell curves.

[brujon]

Hmm... I think it is a bit strong. While i'm fully aware the Swordsage is the weakest of the initiator class, this one is even stronger than the Warblade or Crusader - And it is easier to break than you think... This guy can be a critical powerhouse. Just imagine this guy, using Blood in the Water, Fate Dice, Fate's Swordman, and a Keen 18-20 weapon? (Which, in the Bell Curve Variant, gets 13-18 threat range). If played RIGHT, this Character can crit every round, everytime. Give him a Kaorti-Resin weapon and Weapon Master's -2 to threat range, and you're now talking 11-18. 4d6 remove one once a round, plus the ability to replace one of the dice with one from your dice pool? Damn. That's not even talking about using the Fate Dice = +1/day luck feat, the reroll damage thing, and Aura of Chaos...

See where i'm getting at? Sorry, the class is just too powerful when played right.

[zook1shoe]

i'm feeling like playing a dwarf tank.

is the Planescape setting available? i've got a feat or two from there that looked interesting

[StreamOfTheSky]

Aww, that's a shame.  Sounded like fun.

[Raineh Daze]

Honestly, I had never even considered the idea of crit-fishing. I don't like crits. I don't seem to ever roll one.

Hm, really not sure what class to go for... definitely not a spellcaster, though; and Incarnum is maddening. Too. Much. Blue (and horrifying freakishness for Totemist appearances).

[brujon]

i'm feeling like playing a dwarf tank.

is the Planescape setting available? i've got a feat or two from there that looked interesting

Yes, if it's not something outsider specific or anything... If it's not inappropriate, then it's fair game. Even dragon and homebrew. Like, if you want to take the Choke Hold feat from Oriental Adventures, it's fine, because it's really not thematically linked to orientals or anything, but if you wanted to play a Mahõ-Tsukai or a Mahõ-Bujin, then we'd need to talk it over to see if a refluff is possible, etc...

[sirpercival]

Dread Champion? Warpsoul?

[brujon]

Dread Champion? Warpsoul?

Dread Champion i'll have to have a look later... I need to see the Maneuvers. The class does look pretty cool, though.

Warpsoul is approved.

[zook1shoe]

Yes, if it's not something outsider specific or anything... If it's not inappropriate, then it's fair game. Even dragon and homebrew. Like, if you want to take the Choke Hold feat from Oriental Adventures, it's fine, because it's really not thematically linked to orientals or anything, but if you wanted to play a Mahõ-Tsukai or a Mahõ-Bujin, then we'd need to talk it over to see if a refluff is possible, etc...

if its not approriate huh.... i'll look for some of that crazy stuff.

no really, the feats i was looking at right now are...
-Mountain's Stoicism, which gives Con to AC while defensive
-Destruction Embraced, which gives you a +1 luck (plus additional +1/4 levels) to saves and AC if you actively resist ALL divine healing and not use healing items

[Raineh Daze]

Well, time to spam classes etc. at you before I try and work out which of the official stuff I'm interested in using (because Artificer is currently the only thing that springs to mind, which, uh, is the height of inappropriateness). Sorry for any trouble this may cause.

Pyromania is always fun. Less screwy than a Nord Blade. Hardly a new thing, but eh. When in doubt, shoot it. I expect the answer is no unless this place has a barbarian problem.

Probably not given the item restrictions.

And one totally inappropriate but so much fun to link.

[sirpercival]

I think my choice would be Dread Champion, if it's approved, since I've never played one. I've always wanted to do Warpsol/Soulfused Transcendant, though.

[linklord231]

Fuck Yeah!  Sounds like an awesome setting!

How do you feel about Binder/Divine Adaptation Anima Mage?  Otherwise, doesn't someone around here have some nifty Binder PrC's - was that you, SirP?

[zook1shoe]

this sound awesome for my idea The Monstrous Armiger

[brujon]

Z-Fighter - It's almost like a Monk/Warlock combo. Lol. I like it, but yeah, not really appropriate...

Monstrous Armiger: omgwtfbbq. Basically at-will Alter Self + Polymorph but for creatures on the Summon Monster List, all at level 1. Oh, and you can use spell-likes, and supernatural abilities... Except this can also be comboe'd with Polymorph, so you can basically be two creatures at once... I'd have to say no :|

Naseli: Some problematic abilities, but could work. Stuff like anything they light on fire is subject to dispel, etc...

Gambler: I don't know, i'd have to look over every maneuver. Also, they are gamblers, but they don't really seem to take much risk, if at all. They get bonuses to AC, evasion, DR/- equal to half the class level a few times a day, etc... I'd REALLY have to think this one through.


Warlock Rewrite: Approved.

Sniper: Approved. Pretty balanced. Might cause problems in a regular game with Splitting, etc., but not here.

Dovahkiin: Not appropriate.

Linklord: A divine adaptation wouldn't fit in this scenario, since divine classes worship the "one true God", and a Binder inherently gets his power from elsewhere. A psionic adaptation, on the other hand, could be done.