Eschaton OOC

Voidrazor, a few questions if I may...as my concept matures and my sheet nears completion.

1) Is it necessary to track the cost of one's stronghold(s) on one's own planet? I'm not speaking so much of flavor style things, like a floating city...but more nitty gritty stuff, like the exact defenses one has installed on one's Vault of Wonders or whatever. If tracked, do those costs come out of starting funds? Is there a limit to what can be spent? If not tracked, do you still want to know the game stats at all?

2) We each begin play owning a planet...which is plenty. But I was considering a demiplane as well. To begin play with one, should I purchase a scroll of Genesis and deduct it from start funds? Or is that also something that can just be assumed to be part of one's demnse without needing much/any game statting?

3) Regarding followers. We own a planet, 1000 or so 1HD commoner eqs and a few 5HD elite lieutenants, as posted previously. Surely those 1000 folks aren't the only ones on the whole planet? Will our relationship with those planetary citizens that aren't considered followers be important? What degree of power/authority do we have over planetary occupants that aren't under our direct control?

4) Goals. It's an interesting universe you paint, but since each of us is essentially a power unto ourselves, answering to no one...how does one gain influence and power, short of military conquest? Oh, a corollary too. To what extent is this fantasy versus far far sci fi? Is magic actually MAGIC, or is it manipulation of exotic physics unknown to real science? Realizing that the difference between the two can be tenuous, it does make a difference as far as flavor text and such go.

Thanks!

Important Info

Deadline for submissions is Monday Jan 15th. But if multiple people aren't done yet I'll add a week. If possible please include book and page #'s for non-core material.

Also you can go over your starting wealth, essentially 'borrowing against' the commons. But the more you borrow the less lucky you are and the less friendly NPCs tend to be. Anything beyond 150% of starting wealth would be so unlucky as to be unplayable.

What I was thinking for spirit followers is that each character would get 5,000 points to spend. Each spirit would cost points equal to its CR cubed. Thus a CR 1 critter would cost 1 X 1 X 1 = 1pt. While a CR 17 critter would cost 17 X 17 X 17 = 4,913pts. I'll add an extra 1,000pts for strongly themed spirits. If this seems too complicated or otherwise problematic, I'll be happy to consider alternatives.

Vertexx69 - The feats are fine, but some spells and technologies will be capable of overcoming Psychic Inquisitor. You may also consider just taking the Inquisitor (from the SRD psionic feats section) to save a feat.

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Shayuri said:

Voidrazor, a few questions if I may...as my concept matures and my sheet nears completion.

1) Is it necessary to track the cost of one's stronghold(s) on one's own planet? I'm not speaking so much of flavor style things, like a floating city...but more nitty gritty stuff, like the exact defenses one has installed on one's Vault of Wonders or whatever. If tracked, do those costs come out of starting funds? Is there a limit to what can be spent? If not tracked, do you still want to know the game stats at all?

2) We each begin play owning a planet...which is plenty. But I was considering a demiplane as well. To begin play with one, should I purchase a scroll of Genesis and deduct it from start funds? Or is that also something that can just be assumed to be part of one's demnse without needing much/any game statting?

3) Regarding followers. We own a planet, 1000 or so 1HD commoner eqs and a few 5HD elite lieutenants, as posted previously. Surely those 1000 folks aren't the only ones on the whole planet? Will our relationship with those planetary citizens that aren't considered followers be important? What degree of power/authority do we have over planetary occupants that aren't under our direct control?

4) Goals. It's an interesting universe you paint, but since each of us is essentially a power unto ourselves, answering to no one...how does one gain influence and power, short of military conquest? Oh, a corollary too. To what extent is this fantasy versus far far sci fi? Is magic actually MAGIC, or is it manipulation of exotic physics unknown to real science? Realizing that the difference between the two can be tenuous, it does make a difference as far as flavor text and such go.

Thanks!

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Shayuri -
1. Assume that your fortress can have any defenses commonly available in RL for free. So biometric locks, motion detectors etc. are included. Anything more exotic would have to be bought with starting funds.

2. You'd have to purchase a scroll and the XP cost would knock you down a level. Alternatively you could pay someone to manifest it for you for 45,710 gp (7 times the normal spell service cost because it takes a week). In either case, you'll get enough free growth time for the plane to be about a mile in diameter. To grow it to planet-sized will cost an additional 100,000 gp. To grow it to solar system-sized will cost 300k over that. Getting one's own dimension is one of the primary perks of ceding democratic control over one's planet and helping to shepard it into a core world. So work arounds are costly.

3. What I was thinking for spirit followers is that each character would get 5,000 points to spend. Each spirit would cost points equal to its CR cubed. Thus a CR 1 critter would cost 1 X 1 X 1 = 1pt. While a CR 17 critter would cost 17 X 17 X 17 = 4,913pts. I'll add an extra 1,000pts for strongly themed spirits. These are not the only inhabitants. Although Eschaton planetary populations tend to be low, ~10,000 for colonies, 100,000 for most established barbaric worlds, and up to about a million for the most populous of core worlds. Most Autarchs like to have palacial estates and have no compunction about moving away from planets where large amounts of space aren't available.

And yes, relations with the populace will be very important. Gaining influence over other Citizen's populations is one of the easiest ways to build one's power base beyond one's own planet. Autarchs have an incentive to follow the dictates of their presiding Citizen, as it brings them closer to rising in status themselves. But there are other methods of achieving social mobility, so the loyalty of beings with souls is a precious commodity. Its possible to increase one's population by somehow getting them from outside of Eschaton, but that would have to be done in game.

4. Well the standard way of gaining more resources is to start giving the populace a measure of democratic control. A common setup is to let the Autarchs vote on various matters while the Citizen is responsible for organizing the implementation of those decisions. But there are many ways to gain power. Interplanetary and interdimensional guilds are common. High status in a guild that specialized in magical or technological experimentation would provide all sorts of opportunities. Also there are syndicates of barbaric Citizens that trade in various methods of achieving internal and external power.

Most people in Eschaton consider technology to be a form of magic, rather than vice versa. The various ways of utilizing the deep structures of existance can all be broadly grouped under magic and subgrouped into thaumatugy (standard D&D arcan magic), channelling (divine magic), psionics, technology, and any number of more esoteric forms.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Avalon®
Voidrazor, do we really need to have control of a planet? How about something like a roving mercenary band or a gladiator ring?

Voidrazor said:

Absolutely.

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In that case I would probably have Jack as the ringleader of a "Carnival of Souls".

It would make much more sense with the infiltration schtick I had in mind.

Voidrazor said:

Tonguez - You're welcome to submit a character. Do you mean the Dark Hunter PrC from CWar? And yes, a Nightwing would be OK. It would be a mere LA +2, but your point buy would be only 33 since you'd have no Con.

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I'm thinking Nightwing Druid but at HD17 + LA 2, I get Druid 3? Dark Hunter is his title/name not the class

For followers I think a Swarm of Cannibal pixies, a Darkness of Shadows, a Dread of Wraiths and a murder of Kenkus (the mortal population) fits the theme. The Nightwing would be seen by the Kenku as a huge amorphous creature with a kenku like head veiled in shadows.

His Home World known as the Grey Lands a place of enternal shadows with high rugged mountains cut with deep gorges, and twsited gnarly forests inhabited by dire wolves, ravens and more terrible creatures. The Kenku often raid other worlds and bring back creatures (humanoids) for The Hunt.

Voidrazor said:

Vertexx69 - The feats are fine, but some spells and technologies will be capable of overcoming Psychic Inquisitor. You may also consider just taking the Inquisitor (from the SRD psionic feats section) to save a feat.

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I never had any intention of taking the feats...only lowering the cost of the item, which works on everyone

Tonguez said:

I'm thinking Nightwing Druid but at HD17 + LA 2, I get Druid 3? Dark Hunter is his title/name not the class

For followers I think a Swarm of Cannibal pixies, a Darkness of Shadows, a Dread of Wraiths and a murder of Kenkus (the mortal population) fits the theme. The Nightwing would be seen by the Kenku as a huge amorphous creature with a kenku like head veiled in shadows.

His Home World known as the Grey Lands a place of enternal shadows with high rugged mountains cut with deep gorges, and twsited gnarly forests inhabited by dire wolves, ravens and more terrible creatures. The Kenku often raid other worlds and bring back creatures (humanoids) for The Hunt.

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Druid 2 I'm afraid. But we could work out a custom race that had the feel of a nightwing while still leaving room for a decent number of class levels. Or you could play a 0 LA race with the Blighter PrC (or some customization thereof) that has spent so much time as a Nightwing that he doesn't remember being anything else.

Cannibal pixies that's great! In general I was going to limit follower choices to extraplanar outsiders, undead and other clearly souless creatures. But as long as the critters aren't super-optimized, I don't mind making exceptions.

Oh, looking at the kenku brought up an important point. Critters that have a CR of less than 1 will have to be an exception to the CR^3 = point cost rule. the CR equals the points cost for such little guys. Otherwise people would be able to run around with upwards of 3 million 1/2 HD zombies!

mmm...3 million zombies. It's like Mexico City

I was going to want all Fey followers...is that bad? Maybe just a few fey, for my entourage, if not all of them?

Voidrazor,

Any input on Jack before I go ahead and right up some background?

Is his flavour to your liking or does his "shtick" not really fit with what you had envisioned?