[Scrap] GMPC Hardcore

[dither]

This thread's for an experiment.

I figured that instead of spinning my wheels, I could be trying to do something elsewhere -- give you guys some characters to interact with. I can promise you that none of these characters will get in your way unless you specifically go looking for them.

They will ... maybe ... add to the world in some fashion. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with them yet.


--Dither

[dither]

Seven Dwarves. Strike the earth!

Doc

(click to show/hide)

Strength 3d6 : 2, 6, 5, total 13

Dexterity 3d6 : 4, 4, 5, total 13

Constitution 3d6 : 5, 6, 3, total 14

Intelligence 3d6 : 1, 6, 6, total 13

Wisdom 3d6 : 5, 1, 3, total 9

Charisma 3d6 : 5, 2, 1, total 8

Grumpy

(click to show/hide)

Strength 3d6 : 5, 4, 4, total 13

Dexterity 3d6 : 1, 6, 3, total 10

Constitution 3d6 : 4, 5, 3, total 12

Intelligence 3d6 : 3, 3, 1, total 7

Wisdom 3d6 : 2, 4, 4, total 10

Charisma 3d6 : 6, 5, 3, total 14

Happy

(click to show/hide)

Strength 3d6 : 3, 6, 1, total 10

Dexterity 3d6 : 3, 3, 6, total 12

Constitution 3d6 : 3, 3, 2, total 8

Intelligence 3d6 : 6, 3, 5, total 14

Wisdom 3d6 : 3, 3, 6, total 12

Charisma 3d6 : 4, 4, 6, total 14

Sleepy

(click to show/hide)

Strength 3d6 : 4, 1, 4, total 9

Dexterity 3d6 : 6, 3, 3, total 12

Constitution 3d6 : 1, 3, 4, total 8

Intelligence 3d6 : 4, 1, 5, total 10

Wisdom 3d6 : 3, 5, 5, total 13

Charisma 3d6 : 3, 3, 3, total 9

Bashful

(click to show/hide)

Strength 3d6 : 6, 5, 3, total 14

Dexterity 3d6 : 4, 3, 1, total 8

Constitution 3d6 : 3, 5, 1, total 9

Intelligence 3d6 : 4, 4, 6, total 14

Wisdom 3d6 : 1, 1, 4, total 6

Charisma 3d6 : 4, 1, 1, total 6

Sneezy

(click to show/hide)

Strength 3d6 : 3, 4, 2, total 9

Dexterity 3d6 : 5, 1, 2, total 8

Constitution 3d6 : 3, 4, 3, total 10

Intelligence 3d6 : 4, 2, 5, total 11

Wisdom 3d6 : 3, 4, 3, total 10

Charisma 3d6 : 3, 4, 4, total 11

Dopey

(click to show/hide)

Strength 3d6 : 5, 4, 5, total 14

Dexterity 3d6 : 2, 1, 1, total 4

Constitution 3d6 : 2, 2, 4, total 8

Intelligence 3d6 : 6, 6, 5, total 17

Wisdom 3d6 : 3, 3, 1, total 7

Charisma 3d6 : 6, 2, 4, total 12

[dither]

Okay, based on those rolls (after applying racial modifiers, which I should have considered ahead of time), I think the party make-up will be something like this:

Doc, Grumpy, and Sneezy -- dwarf fighters
Happy and Sleepy -- dwarf clerics
Bashful and Dopey -- dwarf wizards

I'd have been a little more creative with it, but for the sake of simplicity and solidarity -- I went with simpler classes where possible.

In a bit of poetic irony, Dopey the wizard had the highest Intelligence of the group (17). Bashful only has an INT 14, but that's plenty enough to cast 4th-level spells -- and we don't know how long he'll survive anyhow. Happy also has INT 14, but he was one of only two dwarves with Wisdom over 10 -- so he got slotted in a cleric role. He's joined by Sleepy, with the highest Wisdom (13) score of the band.

Spellbooks. Wherever possible, Bashful chooses spells that Dopey has so they can share spellbooks in the event that one is lost or stolen. Both wizards have Charm Person, Color Spray, and Sleep. On a typical adventuring day, they'll prepare Color Spray. On a day in a settlement, they'll prepare Charm Person. Both wizards prepare Mage Armor as their bonus 1st-level spell.

Bashful adds: Alarm and Mage Armor
Dopey adds: Alarm, Identify, and Mage Armor

((They might have considered choosing different spells so they could increase their overall/combined versatility, but it's expensive -- 100 gp per page times pages per spell level -- and carries a chance of failure based on Spellcraft checks.))

Cleric spells. Both clerics are Good and worship Moradin -- and as such spontaneously cast healing spells. Both choose the Earth (turn Air/rebuke earth) and Protection domains (resist bonus to saves), and both prepare the Magic Stone spell.

Marching order. F= fighter, C=cleric, W=wizard

^^^
FF (Doc, Grumpy)
C (Happy)
WW (Bashful, Dopey)
C (Sleepy)
F (Sneezy)
^^^

The dwarves will swap out their front-line fighters as they sustain injuries.

...
I think that covers pretty much everything but skills.

[dither]

I realized, after some experimentation, that trying to construct an "actual" party of PC-equivalent adventurers was doing a disservice to them.

I have a hypothesis which I hope to turn into a theory, that there should simply be no more than one PC per player -- put another way, that complex characters like PCs complete with ability scores, race, class, feats, skills, spells, and so forth, should not outnumber the actual players.

This might seem like an obvious thing, but some obvious things are taken for granted instead of accounted for -- in a solo game for example, a player may be accompanied by familiars, hirelings, companions, summoned monsters, and even a cohort should they take Leadership, but not other characters of PC classes except under very special circumstances.

There are a lot of reasons for this -- too numerous to list.

Crowding a game with PCs diminishes the impact of individual PCs. Hirelings and NPCs become meaningless because everyone should be of a PC class. If NPCs are meaningless unless they're of a PC class, then the players have no reason to care about them. PCs and PC classes lose "special-ness" (though I'm loathe to call it that) in much the same way they do in MMORPGs due to the sheer number of PCs in the world.

Who really believes they are a hero of destiny in a world with tens of thousands of heroes of destiny?

This will require some more thought.


--Dither

[Garryl]

Since they're working together, Dopy and Bashful have plenty of time to make the DC 25 + spell level Spellcraft check to permanently be able to prepare from each others spellbooks (either Complete Arcane or Complete Mage, I don't remember which book has it). Even without that, they can do it one spell preparation at a time with a DC 15 + spell level check. With 4 ranks in Spellcraft and their Int scores (both of which are 14+), they can take 10 to get the 16 needed for 1st level spells. That way, they can learn different spells to broaden their access without having to spend money to duplicate them.

[dither]

Even without that, they can do it one spell preparation at a time with a DC 15 + spell level check.

I suppose since they have so few spells to begin with -- and the checks would be considered part of the hour of spell preparation they already use -- it wouldn't necessarily require any additional time to prepare spells from each others' spellbooks.

Interesting. I'll have to store that factoid away for later use.


--Dither