Recruitment Thread for Pell's D&D 3.5 Game

[Amara]

Well, could use sign language. :b

[Aegis J Hyena]

Nah, Sassilraxius uses a slate around his neck and a piece of chalk to communicate.

[willpell]

Hm, does he write in Common and/or Draconic? (Common explicitly resembles English in my gameworld - its proper name is "Angelic Saxon", if that gives you an idea - whereas Draconic has a quasi-runic alphabet designed to be scratched with claws rather than written with a pen.)

[Aegis J Hyena]

He could do both. His religion has him worshipping some kind of ancient dragon, so it would be logical he would know both Draconic and Common.

[willpell]

Just FYI, dragons are never gods in my game, so while you could be a cleric with a fetish for dragons, you couldn't actually pray to a dragon for spells; instead you'd have to be an ideocleric (a cleric of an abstract concept rather than a deity), and choose a real-live-flesh-and-blood dragon who you think symbolizes the same idea that gives you spells, who you would devote yourself to. They wouldn't get anything beyond an ego boost (and sacrifices, if you chose to make such things) out of that devotion, and they wouldn't truthfully be giving you anything, but you might believe they were.

(The whole "thinking you worship something when you actually don't" is also used for Divine Minds in my game, and in both cases it's meant to contrast with the actual relationship of being a god's chosen agent in the mortal realm.)

[Aegis J Hyena]

Hmmmm. That does make things difficult. I don't do well with mind-based things and Sassilraxius is a scholar first and foremost so he'd focus on mental / enchantment / other concepts...

Maybe I should just go with Growls... just a natural-istic barbarian with a claymore, a photographic memory, a bardic singing voice, and enough muscles to knock down a hill giant.

[Nerre]

Can I get an up-to-date list of who wants to play what so I can make something that fits in and closes a possible gap in our class-diversity?

33 posts is a lot to read in.

[willpell]

The existing party of six characters is a CN Wood Elf Barbarian with some Divine subtext, a CN Wood Elf Ranger with a spider theme, a NE "Kobold" (known by a better name in my CS) Psion who likes to suffocate people in a Portable Hole so he can take their stuff, an LN Dragonfire Adept with one Duskblade level (human apart from having dragon scales and weird glowing eyes) from a noble military background, an NG human-ghost with four Bard levels and an intelligent Ghost Touch rapier, and the plain ol' boring ol' garden-variety Human Beguiler who'll be the Tom Cruise or Keanu Reeves equivalent in this particular samurai epic, where all the others are more interesting and probably more powerful, yet somehow they need a random white guy human to bring them together and lead them to victory. The Beguiler is True Neutral and has the social skills and Enchantment spells typical of his class, so he can keep the Good ghost and the Evil psion from killing each other for at least a few minutes, while I try to scrape together something resembling a plot.

Meanwhile, there's Aegis, who has proposed either a mute Lizardman or some bizarre Wolverine-Badger hybrid, and you. I'm planning to have you and perhaps one or two more people form a second party, but wouldn't be averse to having someone from the first group transfer over and join you. (Five-man parties are ideal because it makes the XP math easier to calculate.)

[Aegis J Hyena]

The proper term for Growls' "race" is the Volkaimolok, but "Beast Man" also works.

I've got a few other ideas... a necromancer/demonologist with a dire capybara for a familiar who is actually -responsible- with his Great Power, an anthropomorphic golden eagle skilled with spears and defensive moves, a completely psychopathic gnoll (who is the source of my current icon), a priest of a minotaur deity who fights only with fists (because the deity sees weapons as a crutch)... if Growls seems too complicated to remember or deal with, I can do any of these.

[willpell]

The proper term for Growls' "race" is the Volkaimolok, but "Beast Man" also works.

I'll be the first to admit that this is a really cool name, but even if I love the flavor of the race, I can't approve it for in-game use unless I'm satisfied with the mechanics. Lizardman lacks this problem; their stats in the corebook kind of stink, but I can at least work with that, as opposed to not having any stats in the first place.

I've got a few other ideas... a necromancer/demonologist with a dire capybara for a familiar who is actually -responsible- with his Great Power

I like every part of that idea except the "dire capybara". First because I don't have stats even for a regular capybara, and second because you'd at least need to take Improved Familiar or the Animal Companion ACF (which would give you a combat-capable animal, but NOT one that's intelligent like a familiar; I don't know of a way of making both happen other than possibly Improved Familiar), and I don't even know if that would do it.

an anthropomorphic golden eagle skilled with spears and defensive moves

Anthropomorphic has the same problems regardless of which animal it is. Although you could just play a Giant Eagle straight out of the Monster Manual; this has obvious roleplay difficulties, but it's perfectly legal and would cause me fewer headaches than trying to figure out something homebrew.

a completely psychopathic gnoll (who is the source of my current icon)

Point the first, they're not called "gnolls" in my game, they're the Yeenagh. Point the second, I would have a very hard time dealing with another "psychopathic" character - the "kobold" I mentioned before at least has a Good-minded psicrystal embedded in his brain and occasionally moderating his wicked intentions. Unless you have a similar "leash" on this character, I won't even consider it; a PC member of a bestial race such as the Yeenagh generally needs to be an exception to his people's default psychology in order to be any good in civilization (and my game doesn't work very well away from that). Besides which, the stats on regular "gnolls" are so terrible that I'm debating entirely ditching them, in favor of the Flind Gnoll which is at least vaguely playable (it's got one more point of ECL, but at least you get something for it, while regular gnolls are stuck with two horrendous HD and a level adjustment, and have basically no advantages whatsoever).

a priest of a minotaur deity who fights only with fists (because the deity sees weapons as a crutch)...

There isn't a minotaur deity (just a demon lord, who I need to rename since he can't be Baphomet - I take my mythology much more seriously than the D&D writers evidently did), but you could certainly be a minotaur cleric of Zuoken the Enlightened Fist. Minotaurs as written have an ECL of 8, so you'd be a level 1 cleric in a level 9 party; even with some fairly cheesy optimization that will barely be functional. Homebrewing a halfway-decent "lesser minotaur" race is on my todo list; there's one in Dragonlance which is ECL 0, but they're an absolute pile of manure flavorwise, so I won't use them (indeed, the only Dragonlance thing that I've yet run into my game is the Noble class, because it was slightly preferable to Aristocrat; I may eventually use the Mystic as well, and perhaps a few of the more exotic races, but that version of Minotaurs are definitely out, along with the Kender).

[Amara]

For an eagle;
You could reflavor a Aarakocra perhaps? They're from Forgotten Realms, but they only have an LA of +2, (same as Lizardfolk) and their flight is the only reason for them having an LA that high. (Or so the book says) There are other anthropomorphic bird-people races in 3e/3.5, but as far as I'm aware, the Aarakocra has the lowest LA of them.

I know I pop in a lot with random suggestions, but my greatest strength in life thus far has been storing and recalling incredibly situational otherwise useless information, so I might as well try to be useful with it.

[Aegis J Hyena]

Yeah, I didn't think most of my ideas would work and the Dire Capybara is kind of central to the necromancer for being unusual... though I can give him a normal familiar if that would be the easiest way to go about doing things. Googling Dire Capybara turns up http://www.worldsofimagination.co.uk/mo ... pybara.htm (though I'd lower the armor to 13 in exchange for maybe a +2 to Reflex saves)

The priest of a minotaur deity ("Tavalorq the Metal-Horned") is human, actually... I'd link him but it's just more tiny purple text (he's basically a boxer, a preacher, and a womanizer who can't keep secrets and somewhat of a drunk; the deity avatar that manifested to him to turn him into the holy man he is today also gave him a short-range breath weapon as a gift for embodying the deity's aspects so well).

I -loathe- the Aarakrocra, though that is indeed what the golden eagle would likely end up probably being...

Kender suck. Heh.

The last character I have in mind is just a prehistoric cavewoman with a wizard's IQ. Really strong, fast, and unbreakable willpower, but also very aggressive, impulsive, and man-hating (she's got a tamed jaguar as a pet but I can leave this out).

[willpell]

For an eagle;
You could reflavor a Aarakocra perhaps? They're from Forgotten Realms, but they only have an LA of +2, (same as Lizardfolk)

Actually Lizardfolk in the Monster Manual have 2 HD and +1 LA, making them a total of ECL 3 before gaining any class levels. Hence why I say they suck. Which is tragic because I love them, but also too appropriate for me to "fix"; they're physically tougher than human beings, so they ought to be born with HD, and they grow up in an utterly primitive society, so they have to work a little harder to master a class. (Although their favored class is druid, which is one of the three the most powerful classes in the game; a 2-level "tax" doesn't stop them from eventually becoming more potent than Human Fighters.)

and their flight is the only reason for them having an LA that high. (Or so the book says) There are other anthropomorphic bird-people races in 3e/3.5, but as far as I'm aware, the Aarakocra has the lowest LA of them.

The Raptorans are 0 LA, although they're only birdish in hands and feet, with feathers in place of hair on an otherwise humanlike head. They look a little dumb in all the book art, but it's probably possible to imagine them having a more harmonious blending of the elements of their anatomy. Granted they only have gliding until 5th level, and even then their powered flight is somewhat limited, but it does work.

I know I pop in a lot with random suggestions, but my greatest strength in life thus far has been storing and recalling incredibly situational otherwise useless information, so I might as well try to be useful with it.

I actually believe that's a really valuable skill that our society ought to recognize with some sort of prestigious and adequately-paid official title, such as "sage" or "loremaster" or "human database". Currently about the closest you can get is "Wikipedia editor".

Yeah, I didn't think most of my ideas would work and the Dire Capybara is kind of central to the necromancer for being unusual... though I can give him a normal familiar if that would be the easiest way to go about doing things.

You don't have to be normal, you just have to be something fairly close to the books. I'm very distrustful of 3rd-party sources (or even 2nd-party, such as Forgotten Realms, which is absurdly unapologetic in its embracing of LFQW and similar problems). And homebrew amounts to "4th-party", so I'm even more fastidious about it - virtually nobody, myself included, lives up to my standards (hence why I've gotten very little actual homebrewing done).

The priest of a minotaur deity ("Tavalorq the Metal-Horned") is human, actually... I'd link him but it's just more tiny purple text (he's basically a boxer, a preacher, and a womanizer who can't keep secrets and somewhat of a drunk; the deity avatar that manifested to him to turn him into the holy man he is today also gave him a short-range breath weapon as a gift for embodying the deity's aspects so well).

I almost want to say that the "deity" in question was probably a polymorphed Black or Red Dragon (or just an avatar of Not-Baphomet, although that wouldn't give you the breath weapon). We already have one Dragonfire Adept though, so I'd probably want to steer you toward being an unwitting Dragon Shaman or something instead, even though the class is pretty weak - it does at least tend to make the rest of the party better at being awesome, even if it's not very good itself.

I -loathe- the Aarakrocra, though that is indeed what the golden eagle would likely end up probably being...

For what it's worth I have absolutely no knowledge of their fluff, so if that's what you don't like about them, you're safe. Using them would be mildly more inconvenient than using Raptoran, since the Forgotten Realms Monster Handbook is not a book that I reference routinely in the course of usual play, while Races of the Wild is. But it's doable if you really want your character to have a beak.

Kender suck. Heh.

No argument.

The last character I have in mind is just a prehistoric cavewoman with a wizard's IQ. Really strong, fast, and unbreakable willpower, but also very aggressive, impulsive, and man-hating (she's got a tamed jaguar as a pet but I can leave this out).

This would actually work pretty well. She might have been born among the Neanderthals with a Human or Sun Elf parent. I don't know if I can give you anything that's specifically a jaguar, but if you'd settle for having Panther stats, I could certainly say that it's a jaguar appearance-wise (I don't know if they've statted Jaguar up specifically, or if it would be any different from a Leopard or Cougar if they did). Both the Neanderthals and the quasi-Aztec region which would have Jaguars living in it are very specific, and very different, locales in my campaign which I've had no previous opportunity to explore with a player, so I like this idea a lot, and it would require less work to explore than your previous suggestions, which were cool as general concepts but mechanically problematic.

[Aegis J Hyena]

Sure, we can do that if she's the easiest of my characters to work with. She's a (former) chieftess of a tribe who sent herself into exile after failing to uphold an oath, and is waiting for "signs from the spiritual world" to say it's proper for her to return. If we're running with that, her tribe's trademark weapon is the katar ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katar_%28dagger%29 ) and hers is an Obsidian Bladed Katar +3 (if we're starting at a higher level and she can "afford" it).

Panther stats for Tarja the tamed feline are fine. Said feline is incredibly protective of her and will kill anyone who looks at her funny.

http://hyena-yena.deviantart.com/art/Ry ... -480173209

[spiderwrangler]

What class would she be? You'd said wizard INT, but she seems to be more combat based as well?

[Aegis J Hyena]

Definately physically oriented class. She's written as almost feral, so my guess is Barbarian. It just happens she is a genius, mind-wise. Just... impulsive. She doesn't take time -out- to think all that often unless it's a major decision. Her instinct guides her life 90% of the time.

[spiderwrangler]

Are katars in D&D, or is that the 'same' as punching dagger?

[Aegis J Hyena]

Pretty much the same as a punching dagger, I would say. Ryka'd be extremely proficient though, if that makes a difference. She's -quite- good at keeping damage output high (or is supposed to be, anyway).

[spiderwrangler]

The Weapon Focus feat tree would grant bonuses to use of a particular weapon, but I think you'd have to go with the Fighter class to get them all, granting +2 to attack rolls and +2 on damage rolls, but needing three feats to do so. There are a number of other combat feats that benefit from an INT over 13, but again, would pretty much require fighter type class...

[willpell]

Sure, we can do that if she's the easiest of my characters to work with. She's a (former) chieftess of a tribe who sent herself into exile after failing to uphold an oath, and is waiting for "signs from the spiritual world" to say it's proper for her to return. If we're running with that, her tribe's trademark weapon is the katar ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katar_%28dagger%29 ) and hers is an Obsidian Bladed Katar +3 (if we're starting at a higher level and she can "afford" it).

I'm not sure about the obsidian part; do you know what book defines the stats of an obsidian weapon? If I don't have access to said book, I'll have to veto that part, but you can pretty definitely afford a +3 weapon (it'd be just over half of your starting gold at our current level, which is a fairly reasonable investment; Burns's character put almost all of his money into his own weapon, which I pretty much had to approve for plot reasons, but in general being this fixated on a single item of gear is discouraged - about half is the usual limit, and I have no problem with being slightly over).

Panther stats for Tarja the tamed feline are fine. Said feline is incredibly protective of her and will kill anyone who looks at her funny.

Hm, so she's not a psychopath, but her pet is. I guess we can call that Neutral enough....

Definately physically oriented class. She's written as almost feral, so my guess is Barbarian. It just happens she is a genius, mind-wise. Just... impulsive. She doesn't take time -out- to think all that often unless it's a major decision. Her instinct guides her life 90% of the time.

While intelligent barbarians are certainly amusing, let me offer you a few other options....

1. The Totemist - You said she had a spiritual bent, and this Incarnum-wielding class is fluffed in my campaign to explicitly draw its power from what passes for the "spirit world". (There is also a Druid-esque class called the Spirit Shaman, but I haven't fully investigated it and it just does standard magic; probably not ideal for you.) The only weird part is that it fixates on Magical Beasts rather than just plain animals, but careful meld selection and a little refluffing could keep you feeling appropriately primal and not too Gygaxian.

2. The Warblade - This is a combat class that explicitly gets some Intelligence synergies. It uses fancy maneuvers to be more efficient in combat than a straight Fighter, and while I'd probably have to limit your selections and require some refluffing to represent the primitive background, I think most of it could work fine, and maybe we could say that part of why you left your homeland was in search of more advanced techniques that your people hadn't learned yet.

3. Various Psionics - The Psion is directly an Intelligence-based "caster" class, and if you use the Psychometabolism variety, you get Polymorph-type effects and various physical buffs which can make you quite effective in close combat, despite being a half-BAB class with d4 hit dice. For a more directly combative build, the Psychic Warrior has much more robust basic stats, gets bonus fighter OR psionic feats, and can manifest a few powers, although he uses Wisdom. There's also a somewhat questionable "psionic assassin/rogue" type class called the Lurk, which is not quite as combat-capable as the PsyWar but a bit more so than the default Psion. Some combination of these classes, all of which are designed to mix with relatively few issues, would make for a pretty effective "brain warrior" concept.

4. The Archivist - This is a weird option which uses standard magic, but unlike a Cleric or Druid, it uses Intelligence for most of its casting (I think you still need fairly decent Wisdom though); it uses Knowledge checks to get bonuses against particular types of monsters you've studied, and in theory it's capable of learning ANY divine spell, not just one list worth, although you'd have to spend rather a lot of gold to get as many different spells as a Cleric or Druid initially has. The main strike against the class is the use of a "spellbook", but we could fluff yours as being a collection of bark scraps and sealskins that you've scribbled crude and counterintuitive pictographs upon in charcoal; maybe you don't even read them when preparing spells, but just handle these artifacts while going into a meditative trance where you remember "writing" them, despite not actually being able to write normally. Come to think of it, if you're not using this concept, I am.

Are katars in D&D, or is that the 'same' as punching dagger?

As far as I'm aware it's a punching dagger, but if he wants to call it a katar that's fine by me. Personally I prefer to call kukris "machetes"; I am a stickler about names, but as long as the name "works", it certainly doesn't have to be the one in the book.

The Weapon Focus feat tree would grant bonuses to use of a particular weapon, but I think you'd have to go with the Fighter class to get them all, granting +2 to attack rolls and +2 on damage rolls, but needing three feats to do so. There are a number of other combat feats that benefit from an INT over 13, but again, would pretty much require fighter type class...

I will again mention the Psychic Warrior. Also it's legitimate to take a version of the Rogue class which gets Fighter Bonus Feats instead of Sneak Attack - you have a lower BAB and a smaller hit die, but SO MANY MORE SKILLS. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be legitimate to take Weapon Specz when you're not an actual Fighter, but I'd probably allow it for this build, considering how much Sneak Attack damage you're giving up.

[Aegis J Hyena]

Obsidian would be pretty much just appearance... fluff if nothing else. If you want to increase its damage due to obsidian's natural sharpness (this is why she normally wields one --- obsidian is some sharp shit) by a point or two, that would be cool. If not, no problem. She's not a totemist as she is not "connected" (that's what shamans are for). If not a flat out Barbarian, then she'd be a primitive Warblade but I don't know a thing about prestige/modified classes. I DESPISE Psionics, so nothing there.

She relies on herself only. She wouldn't be rogue-ery, she is more direct than that. If she needs extra muscle and knows her own stealth isn't up to par (which it kinda isn't unless she's in a jungle environment), then that's what others in her tribe were for, acting as a team.

[Arch Lich Burns]

Oooh why not druid? You become animals to tear off faces, and have animals to tear off faces, and can summon animals to tear off faces.

[Aegis J Hyena]

Ryka's no druid, that's what the shamans in her tribe are for. She's a barbarian / warrior / in-your-face type.

[Arch Lich Burns]

Druids can do that too. Druids love being in one's face, tearing them a new one

[Aegis J Hyena]

Nah. She's no druid. That's not her. She's a Barbarian, and not just for the HP.