How do you feel about Warforged, Draig?
IIRC, warforged were mostly a part of the Eberron setting as magical AI soldiers.
I'm leaning no, since there was never a real reason for their creation. If they existed, they would have been created during the war that ended with the Necrocracy in power and the Mortal Kingdoms subjugated. Those that remain would be the last of their kind, the secrets of their creation long since lost. Again, I'm leaning no, but you can still try to convince me.
Draignean:
RE: autohypnosis
Given the amount of "pure filth" that a gourmand will have to taste during the yearly tasting, it is likely that this position is a third circle (or lower!) position in vampire society. As such, I would expect them to be less acquainted with abuses of hypnotism. Also, Wilder gets "volatile mind" feature at higher levels. The description neatly covers somebody with an unstable emotional mind, which is what I think you are suggesting as the consequence. It is a natural outcome of that kind of character build. Somebody who has made a career of artificially making themselves less palatable so as to only be considered useful for oddjobs, (and thus evade detection for certain criminal acts, like elopement) by abusing autohypnosis to make themselves TRULY BELIEVE a fantasy alterego is their true self for a short time would naturally end up creating a very volatile mind indeed. Since the subject truly believes the fantasy that is meditated on for autohypnosis prior to the tasting, the gourmand will taste the artifical personality construct, instead of the real personality. If there is a reasonable explanation for tasting artificial (eg, "I get routinely brain-wiped for security reasons. The Lordship is very particular to assure certain things do not end up as court intrigue, and has assured that i am INCAPABLE of speaking about them, even under torture.") then it can be overlooked as a political courtesy, and thus-- can be abused for a character of the type I am envisioning.
Does this sound like an acceptable loophole?
Huh, that is an interesting take on the volatile mind. I'm rather taken with it.
Gourmand is a class that exists in all circles. It is a good point, the drudgery of tasting most Kine (while hardly filth), is not something the second circle (much less the first) would trouble themselves with. Gourmands would exist in higher circles, and they would likely 'specialize' in working with the highest vints- like the blood of Talents.
Alright, I'm convinced. As long as you play him with that sort of mental instability, and a self-mutilated history, I shouldn't have major problems.
"I get routinely brain-wiped for security reasons" is a great excuse. I might have to use that in real life.
Second Question for Draignean: What tier should your players optimize for (in this particular game)?
Always I question that hate answering, because It's not usually how I think. I'd rather not have to pull out all the stops in order to prevent T1 shenanigans, so you're probably looking for something in the 3 range.
So, hyper-optimization is not required, but Samurai are probably still a bad idea. Due to the nature of the setting, I should be able to throw enough of a wrench in the plans of most magic users to keep the T1s in line, and there are a couple of decent built-in checks for CoDzillas as well.
As stated, I'm not a powergamer. I like interesting and peculiar designs, with efficacy as a secondary concern.
It is pretty sparse on the exact role of the Necropolitan template specifically, though. For instance, can anyone do it? Do you have to pay out the remaining estimated value of your lifetime's blood to somebody? Do they enjoy higher status by default? Lower, as they no longer have any innate value (ie product)?
Question for Draignean: How do Necropolitans fit into this setting?
To address both at once... Necropolitans lose the intrinsic value of being alive, yet are still subject to the tax. They have to pay, exactly as though they were alive, but they no longer have a guaranteed method of payment.
Now, as to the theoretical value of your expected vint yield, that can be solved two ways. If you can pay the, likely exorbitant, estimated value of your lifetime yield, can afford the ritual to become a Necropolitan, and you get approved to undertake the ritual, you've essentially bought your freedom and become a member of the lowest circle of the Necrocracy. However, unless you're already quite decrepit, your expected yield is likely to be astronomical as your lifetime blood yield is also factored by your potential children out to two degrees. Even then, if you're a very old mortal who can't possibly have any more children AND you're wealthy enough to afford whatever is left in you, AND and the ritual itself, there's still that niggle about getting approved. Every petition to become a necropolitan is evaluated against an individuals connections and abilities. If it would be a better idea to simply let a wealthy mortal die and liquidate their assets in order to foster a new generation of competive Rathe and Talents, then thee necrocracy has no compunctions about denying an individual immortality.
The second method I mentioned is to find a sponsor, a member of the necrocracy who can perform the ritual and is willing to take on an individual's debt. This is considerably easier than the first method, as it doesn't make you a member of the necrocracy by default, but rather you are transformed from a valued mortal resource to a valued immortal resource. Most Necropolitans who govern hinterlands or work plantations are of this latter group, acting as extension of one vampire another, but still uttery bound by their debt.
Ok, this is sufficiently confusing that I would like some handholding on character generation.
I looked for a convenient character generator script, and found one:
http://www.pathguy.com/cg35.htm
but it is being a bastard about my intrinsic class skills, and wont let me pick them.
For reference, the roll I got was surprisingly good...
11 ,13, 17, 17, 16, 10
and I want to allocate it this way:
17 cha
17 int
16 con
13 wis
11 dex
10 str
with a male half-elf, with neutral good alignment, moving down the wilder psion path.
In addition to the class feats, I want to take craft (knitting/spinning/clothesmaking), craft (brew potion?), craft (simple item?) knowledge (nature), knowledge (nobility), speak language (elven), deft hands, knowledge (architecture,engineering), knowledge (geography), survival, and some others.
Can one point me to a good generator that actually works properly?
Alright, I hate to do this, but I did put it in the OP. If you want to roll stats, I give you the six numbers, otherwise you use the 32 point buy. That is a great roll, no weaknesses at all, but it's not valid.
As for craft skills... Brew potion is a feat, and it doesn't require a craft check. Performing alchemy technically requires you to have caster levels, but I will ignore that at the drop of a hat as long as the potions are in no way magically augmented by the creator. Craft: simple item is a bit too vague for my taste. What kind of simple items? Houseware? Metal? Stone? Wood? Although, now that I'm reading it, you seem to have amalgamated your feats/skills/and bonus languages into the same group, so I have no idea which is which. I'll give it another look when its a bit more organized into feats/skills/other.
OK-- Dumb question time--
Elves dont sleep-- whats your take on half-elves and sleeping Draignean? Do they sleep? Do they sleep half the needed amount of a human? Do they sleep like a human? I ask because the player handbook just says they get the immunity to magic sleep that humans get.
Not a dumb question, a very old and good question. See, Half-Elves are immune to sleep effects, but they are not immune to the Nightmare spell, which has a number of rather interesting implications.
Here's my take on it: Half-Elves still trance, it's not as controlled as an elvish trance. You'll still dream when you're in a trance state, and you can be affected by dream manipulating spells, but you get the benefit of a shorter and more controllable sleep period.
I intend to have one of the oddball craft choices of my character be a "thing he does at night to unwind", namely-
I don't care if Profession is a near-univeral class skill, you can't take se-
knitting/crochet.
Oh. Right.
Knitting is an excellent example of a quirk skill. I approve.
Mythweavers does not like my yahoo email address. I suppose I could give them a gmail address, but I give out the yahoo address for a reason. (because yahoo gets so much spam already, I feel if people want it for selfish reasons, they can just add to that tidalwave that I keep bottled up and far away from my serious accounts like everyone else. Mythweavers seems to disagree.)
Is there something special about using one of their character sheets, vs using a laminated paper one and a dry erase pen? I happen to have the necessary thermal laminator.
Since it's on Roll20, I'd much prefer to have your character sheets on hand for quick reference.
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Topic: Stillborn Gods | D&D 3.5 Forum Thread (Roll20, Almost Not Not Dead) (Read 10196 times)