[3.5] Souls

[Quillwraith]

Mmm 2nd level? I think I would be interested. I have some classes I would like to see in action.

What classes are these that you have in mind?

EDIT: And speaking off, what's the general balance level of things, and what are the rest of the party.  I don't want to come into a monk party with my homebrew super wizard or vice versa, or join the party of fighters with yet another fighter.

There are character sheets here. Short version: the classes are all homebrew (Xenoalchemist, Aetherforge, Spelljammer). Low level, medium-high op. Likely to be a less combat focused game, but that could change.

[SolEiji]

If you don't mind some self-shilling, I've been meaning to have an actual playtest of the Red Magus.  It's a jack of all trades/master of none gish type.  I don't know if you're doing homebrew feats too, but I also offer Illusory Familiar for consideration.

The basis concept: Starlord from Guardians of the Galaxy has gotten in a mixup of unknown origin and vanished.  He awoke to find himself endlessly traveling the planes, facing strange tasks and problems, and driven by an unknown force to make things right.  His only guide on this journey is his familiar, who appears in the form of an illusory woman he calls Lady Luck.  And so he finds himself leaping from world to world, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap... will be the leap home.

*Cue Quantum Leap theme song*

The name is Miles "Joker" Orion.  Is this fitting?

[samnemath]

Mmm 2nd level? I think I would be interested. I have some classes I would like to see in action.

What classes are these that you have in mind?

Well, I am currently interested in jack of all trades, or at least very adaptable classes. So any of the classes mentioned here: http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=14508.0

I am attracted to the Seer and the Cyberneticist, but any of them you think will fit the party's capabilities, I will play.

[Quillwraith]

If you don't mind some self-shilling, I've been meaning to have an actual playtest of the Red Magus.  It's a jack of all trades/master of none gish type.  I don't know if you're doing homebrew feats too, but I also offer Illusory Familiar for consideration.

The basis concept: Starlord from Guardians of the Galaxy has gotten in a mixup of unknown origin and vanished.  He awoke to find himself endlessly traveling the planes, facing strange tasks and problems, and driven by an unknown force to make things right.  His only guide on this journey is his familiar, who appears in the form of an illusory woman he calls Lady Luck.  And so he finds himself leaping from world to world, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap... will be the leap home.

*Cue Quantum Leap theme song*

The name is Miles "Joker" Orion.  Is this fitting?

Red Magus seems a little strong, but not intolerably so, at a glance. I'm utterly unfamiliar with GotG and Starlord, unfortunately, so the rest didn't mean much to me. Illusionary familiar is cool.

Well, I am currently interested in jack of all trades, or at least very adaptable classes. So any of the classes mentioned here: http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=14508.0

I am attracted to the Seer and the Cyberneticist, but any of them you think will fit the party's capabilities, I will play.

Seer seems like it'd be easier for both of us - I can take a look at Cyberneticist if you want, but I'm not quite sure where to start with that whole subsystem.

[SolEiji]

Neato.  You haven't seen GotG yet?  You should, it is awesomesauce.

I'll go ahead and summarize my plans.  One of the stronger abilities of the Red Magus is Dualcast (which comes later, I won't have it yet).  Since Charisma will be secondary or tertiary I won't be using it to blast out spells, but rather will use it for rapid buffing.  As a gist, combat rounds will probably be: Round 1: Doublebuff.  Round 2: Fighting.

Of course as you said it's not all/not much fighting.  Out of combat, I intend to use my vast array of skills (via Jack of All Trades) and my spells for utility.  Spell selection is largely focused on what spells have other uses besides their intended use, or versatility.  Getting a hold of magic items also helps, and I hope to become the swiss army knife of scrolls and wands.

I will begin construction so I have something to show you.

[samnemath]

No problem. Seer it is.

I am leaving on a business trip on Monday, so I will not be able to post until next weekend.

[MetroMagic]

The basis concept: Starlord from Guardians of the Galaxy has gotten in a mixup of unknown origin and vanished.  He awoke to find himself endlessly traveling the planes, facing strange tasks and problems, and driven by an unknown force to make things right.  His only guide on this journey is his familiar, who appears in the form of an illusory woman he calls Lady Luck.  And so he finds himself leaping from world to world, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap... will be the leap home.

*Cue Quantum Leap theme song*

The name is Miles "Joker" Orion.  Is this fitting?

Welcome to the game! Interesting character concept. Guardians of the Galaxy!

Soooo… there could be some interesting parallels between our characters, depending on how you develop the backstory.

He traveled through space across the galaxy; she drifted across space between galaxies and universes, ducking in and out of magical wormholes. He’s been jumping from world to world; she’s been fleeing from world to world (and is hoping this one works out better).

And some contrasts: If he’s like Starlord, he’s flamboyant, out in front, impulsive, impatient. She tries to stay out of the limelight, cautious, infinitely patient (from all that interstellar floating).

If he has Starlord’s background and tosses out comments about space, he’ll have an avid listener who might even know what he’s talking about, and if he can manage to draw her out on the subject, she may have some interesting things to say of her own. Unlike most of the gravity-bound surface dwellers.

And if he’s wondering where he has landed this time, and how it relates to anywhere else he’s jumped to, she may have some of the best star charts of any available in this world. (At least some of the sea captains think so.)

So it could get interesting to see how that all develops.

[Quillwraith]

Okay, to be frank, I have no idea how space travel fits in with this setting, but let's try to figure something out, it could be interesting.

I had assumed that the material plane was a flat world (though it needn't be), in which case the simplest course would be for him to originate from the astral, which is rather like space - empty & gravity-less with occasional spheres of solid matter, some inhabited.

Alternatively, the material plane could be a planet. If there are others, the Makers would have inhabited  them as well, and left ways to travel between, but in the current world, even the further continents are unknown.

Perhaps the Makers united many planets, creating great portals such that from the surface, the entire universe seemed to be one world - yet now some portals fade, and those from the further worlds may be isolated, unless they can find a method of traveling the void. Perhaps Miles Orion is from such a cut off section of the metaworld - if a last portal faded at the wrong time, his home could be far harder to find than it was to leave.

Or something else - if you have another idea, I'd love to hear! And knowing MM, he'll have some thoughts on the topic, too - I look forward to seeing!

[samnemath]

Hello, I am back.

I will make the character tommorow. Not sure about the background though.

[samnemath]

Standard treasure and 32 point buy?

[MetroMagic]

And knowing MM, he'll have some thoughts on the topic, too - I look forward to seeing!

Yes, true that. I've run and played in Spelljammer and Voidjammer (Astral-based) and Traveller campaigns.

RL has been extracrazy for the past two weeks, so I haven't had time to write a post on this, but hopefully within the next few days. I have just nearly finished a high priority project and hope to wind it up later today. Would have been done about 12 hours ago but I just spent most of the last 12 hours dealing with my laptop's demise, on which the project resides. After some intense troubleshooting I simply moved the HD to a spare laptop chassis that only has wireless card problems instead of boot problems, and am mostly back on the air. Well, not on the air at all, plugged in till I sort out the wireless.

[Quillwraith]

SolEiji? You still around?

[Garryl]

I understand you're looking for more players. What sort of capabilities would be a good fit with the current group?

[Quillwraith]

Well, we have a Xenoalchemist with a crab claw, a baby Spelljammer, and an Aetherforge, so... maybe an arcane caster, or someone sneaky. (Markus seems melee, CaraVela is mobility/knowledge, Qoden's Forgings seem to be self-buffs mostly)

[Garryl]

Hmm...

I normally don't like to play spellcasters at very low levels, but the Thaumaturge is piquing my interest.

What do the stars (*) by some of the listed homebrew in the house rules mean?

[Quillwraith]

Rewrites and fixes rather than original homebrew, I think. The list hasn't been updated in awhile, and was never comprehensive, but most anything is okay if you run  it by me.

[MetroMagic]

Bye, SolEiji, too bad- it would have been a very interesting roleplay between CaraVela and a Starlord type of character.

On the other hand, with Starlord not in the game, I just got out from under the temptation to write what probably would have turned into a treatise on mixing space travel into D&D, which I had not had time to write before and realistically, not much better now. So… whew.

As Quill suggested, I’ve played in several such “space arcana” campaigns and run a few myself, even allowing tech characters into D&D games with great results and much hilarity, so I’ve got a lot of info and ideas to share.

Garryl!!

It’s great that you’re interested. Come on in, play a Thaumaturge or whatever strikes your fancy, and we’ll have a good time with the roleplay and problem solving at the very least.

About the low level, ingenuity often counts for more than raw power in problem solving anyway, and it’s already an interesting puzzle, and we’ve just started. And CaraVela is a curiosity, not the usual D&D character in motivations, capabilities, and interests, so I hope that’s fun for you too.

If you’re looking for specialty or spell suggestions that fit the story from what I’ve seen of it, there are frigid north uplands where this trip began, and we are on a ship that was heading downriver from the headwaters lake where Shadow has just touched the world due to the semiannual Equinox Eclipse that, at this time of year, signals the start of spring. So, Fire, Cold, Shadow, or more healing is always a welcome option for a low-level party that dies easily. But really any flavor of character could fit into the Makers World from what I’ve seen. Lowlanders from the larger cities could be into anything.

Anyway, welcome!

[Garryl]

I think I'm going Thaumaturge, but I'm having trouble picking a race and feats. Since we're starting at such a low level, there's no point in getting more than 14 in Wisdom (the effort to go to 20 for an extra 1st level slot is too much). Feats are probably going to be Spell Focus (Conjuration) if nothing else jumps out. As for race, it's either the standard fallback (human) or something more interesting (preferably with an Int or Wis bonus).

Oh, and characterization. I always have trouble developing a character concept.

[MetroMagic]

I think I'm going Thaumaturge, but I'm having trouble picking a race and feats. Since we're starting at such a low level, there's no point in getting more than 14 in Wisdom (the effort to go to 20 for an extra 1st level slot is too much). Feats are probably going to be Spell Focus (Conjuration) if nothing else jumps out. As for race, it's either the standard fallback (human) or something more interesting (preferably with an Int or Wis bonus).

Oh, and characterization. I always have trouble developing a character concept.

I’m traveling this week, so I don’t have much opportunity to write. But if you’d like some sources of inspiration about character concept (which can give some direction to selecting a race), there are some in the developing story, and world.

With Quill’s support and help from the other players, they and I have developed some detail about the region where our story begins. There are chill mountains, a profound monastery, fishing villages harboring secrets, a Shadow Mage’s workshop, and lots more on the map. I don’t have time to recap it all, but it’s around here and here and here.

That third link describes a process to bottle Shadow that requires lots of assistants for efficiency, so a lower level Thaumaturge could have come to the eclipse to get some training and experience, help out, and maybe come away with a few bottles himself, or some other interesting magical goods in trade.

Just one possibility! For such a magically charged area, there are others that would make sense.


About races with wisdom bonuses, IIRC one of them is the anthromorphic bat. SirP has already played one in this world with Quill’s approval, here, so I guess they are in the world somewhere. Where and how they might fit in… maybe they live in caves in the northern mountains, for example. Maybe one decided to be an apprentice…

Other odd races with wisdom bonuses: IIRC, I thought there were Gnome variants with wisdom bonuses, rock gnomes and forest gnomes but I didn’t find links with a quick search; both of those would fit into the geography where the adventure starts. There is probably some good homebrew, if there’s nothing in RAW. You probably know better than I do.

That’s all I have time for right now. Hope it helps.


Quill – I have it on good authority that CaraVela will post IC in a few days, hopefully before the end of the week. 

[Quillwraith]

Feats are probably going to be Spell Focus (Conjuration) if nothing else jumps out. As for race, it's either the standard fallback (human) or something more interesting (preferably with an Int or Wis bonus).

Oh, and characterization. I always have trouble developing a character concept.

Well, we use homebrew all over the place, if it matters for feat/race options. MM's summarized things pretty well, and, of course, you can always go with a simple background, as long as you like how the character works in game.