Anarenn solo campaign (Loth keep out)

[Ambrus]

I've been thinking about it some more and I think I'd like to go ahead with the pseudodragon PC. Sorry; I know it was your least favorite of the three options.

As I see it, I've already explored the concept of a gold hatchling dragon PC; any other true dragon I could pick would end up feeling largely the same though inferior to the statistically superior gold. I think I've also gotten my fill of playing a naive infant dragon with a melee focus.

A pseudodragon on the other hand can be played as an adult with mature motives and savvy. I'd also be moving away from the brute force of the larger draconic species to focus instead on the eldritch power which dragons traditionally embody, but that true dragon PCs never manage to achieve in play because of their young age.

The kobold, though tempting, ends up feeling like a reduced or neutered excuse for a pseudodragon. Since the pseudodragon begins as an ECL 5 creature, we could start the campaign there and have it begin leveling in a class after it's begun exploring the larger world. For the pseudodragon it'd be like starting at the beginning of the adventure instead of coming into the story halfway as it would with a 5th level kobold. Whenever possible, I prefer to avoid butchering the rules if possible.

A glance at the pseudodragon's stats seem to indicate that its ability modifiers would work out to be -4 Str, +4 Dex, +2 Con and +2 Wis. Did you want to use a point buy system to generate ability scores or roll some dice? I generally prefer point buy myself...

Storywise I believe a pseudodragon wouldn't consider itself "pseudo" anything. If anything, with the lack of any other intelligent species of dragon in the world, it'd probably consider itself to be the apex of draconic existence seeing as its the most savvy and smart. The fact that it is also naturally telepathic would only feed into that notion I'd imagine. Pseudodragons would likely regard other dragons much as humans regard ogres, trolls and giants; big, powerful and dangerous, but quite stupid and ultimately unimportant in the big scheme of things.

I think I'd like my pseudodragon to have started off its life in a natural setting, perhaps in the woods near a rural human settlement where it could have observed human society enough to familiarize itself with them. Now its grown ready to indulge its curiosity and begin exploring the world at large in hopes of accumulating knowledge and wealth. Alternatively, some event could occur which would prompt it to leave its forest home in favor of entering human settlements.

I even have some ideas as to how it could communicate and interact with humans without revealing itself as a dragon without the need to adopt a human shape at first.

Heh, I'm starting to get excited by the pseudodragon concept now.

 

[Nightbreeze]

Ok then, pseudodragon be it

5d6 take highest 4 (I use high powered builds for solo campaigns), you can move up to 2 points from your second highest stat to you lowest stat.

Growing in a natural setting is ok. Your egg was placed in a non-natural cave, and it had some objects (will describe it later, I have to thing about some things).

You should choose what kind of settlement is nearby. You can tell me the type/mood of the settlement and/or tell me where it is placed on the map.

Regarding the event that prompted it to enter the human society, I'm giving you some tracks to choose from, and I'll develop it.

1) The winds of war are coming: heretics/local nobles/foreign power are going to battle with their enemies nearby.
2) The city is already under attack, by bandits/a foreign army/ancient fathers, angered by human settlers that dared "attack" the forest
3) There is a new governor in the city, and people are not pleased by him.
4) A group of wizards came into the city, and it seems that they want to explore some ancient ruins nearby. Wild rumors about them are getting people's interest: they are searching for a holy relic, no, actually they are studying some local effects on magic, no. actually they thing that once those ruins were inhabited by wizards and dragons.

And yes, you would certainly call youself "Dragon"

 

[Ambrus]

I don't mean to be difficult, but would it possible to scale back the power levels a bit? I'm not really used to playing characters with super-boosted stats, skills and feats; I think I'd prefer a somewhat more moderate power level if at all possible; the challenges could perhaps be scaled back a bit to compensate. I am afterall, already starting off at a higher ECL then you'd originally planned. Combined with a standard array of ability scores I'm already going to be playing a pseudodragon who easily outclasses other members of its species. Perhaps I could simply roll 4d6 drop the lowest and keep the extra skill points and feats as a compromise? If it's a problem for you though, then I'll just go ahead and build a character with the boosted stats as indicated.

As for setting, I imagined living within a few miles of the forest's edge near a cluster of small farming villages, which in turn are a few leagues from a reasonably significant city. I don't know whereabouts in your world that'd best fit in; preferably somewhere with a history of draconic activity.

I have to admit that I'm uncertain what a lone pseudodragon could do in the midst of a all out war except keep safe and hope it ends soon; so the first two options don't appeal overmuch. The latter option would seem to be a good impetus for my character's involvement however.

 

[Nightbreeze]

If you prefer toning the power levels a little bit down, that's perfectly fine for me.

Hmm...draconic activity.

Wild dragons are really rare in the lands of the Empire, to the point that there are many imperial citizens who don't even believe in their existence. Indeed, several orders of the church (based primarily around Sorenn, the imperial capitol city) insisti upon a rational view on the world: one that negates the existance of the most fantastical creatures (like dragons, unicorns and so on). They grudgingly admit that some fantastic creatures exist, but only because they are summoned, so they are not very real.

There are wild dragons scattered out of the borders of the empire, however. Dragons praying on cattle are reasonably common in semi-indipendant states, and along the contries in north-eastern Anarenn, there are even repots of overlappin dragon territories, which leads to a fight between these monsters of legend.

In the Virdees, wild dragons can be encountered, and often valiant knights try to imitate the legends by trying to fight them. Almost always this leads to the loss of some precious well-made armor, because of the useless idiot who was wearing it.

There are known dragons living in the Holy Mountains, but it seems that they don't provoke that much havok. Indeed, whenever dragons hunters dare to enter the mountains, searching for them, they are genty sent away by a party of monks and priests.

I would suggest placing you in Hethron. It's a feudal forest kingdom. At its west, there's a chain of mountains covered by thick and dangerous forests, and further east there are the Virdees. North of it there are other forests, inhabited by human tribes (think the saxons), and thereafter there's the northern limit of Anarenn. At the eastern edge of Hethron there's the great river Oddai, that flows south until it flows south to to lake Amarya, the greates lake of Anarenn. Hethron doesn't hold much power, even if it covers a lot of territory. It's people are isolationists, and they are far from any Imperial territory or Imperial road. It mainly communicates with Hargrass, another kindgom at the east, and Mirui, one of the great commercial cities, placed on the northern shore of lake Amarya.

Are we going for option 4) then?

 

[Ambrus]

Alright, I'll try banging out a character sheet this evening. Am I to understand that I'm to ignore the issue of starting equipment altogether?

For local draconic activity, it doesn't really matter to me if the draconic activity is current or merely a local legend based in the distant past. In fact, the idea that no one in the area believes in the existence of dragons or that the local legends about them are merely fairy tales could be amusing.

I don't really have a good grip on the world or its geography so I'll defer to your better judgement. If Hethron is a good fit, then we can go with that. When you were describing it, you didn't really say anything about what lies to the west of it though...

In many ways, I imagine that pseudodragons are regarded (amongst humans at least) as having more in common with woodland fairies than the rampaging wyrms of yore, if anyone even knows about them that is. They're small, clever, mysterious and mischievous more than they are dangerous.

Option 4 seems fine to me; a mysterious cabal of wizards, ruins to explore, local legends of dragons and rumors of magic to investigate... Sounds like fun.

 

[Nightbreeze]

Dang. The Virdees are west of Hethron, not east. At the east there's Oddai and Hethron.

As for the starting equipment, we can convert in in something else. First of all, there will be some items in your cave (but they aren't going to be of much worth. There will be a somewhat rusted armor, some clothes and a book or two.) However, you have a better knowledge of some places unknown to human, where rare plants grow. And during the years of your youth, you have amassed a great deal of pretty stones: you have recently found that humans value them much for some reason...strange beasts. Well, they are barbarians after all

No need to hurry with the sheet...I'd like to start the game after 10.01 (I've got an exam). Ah, forgot to mention int: feel free to change your racial feats, and if possible keep the 5th level slot open for the feat that enables you to gain human shape.

 

[Ambrus]

I intended to take a look at the pseudodragon's starting feats and skills and perhaps tweak them to suit my own tastes. As is though, the dragon will only have 2 racial hit dice when we start, so it should have only one feat for its first hit dice (and possibly the freebie feat you mentioned). It'll be gaining another feat as soon as it gains another hit dice next level (as its 3rd Hit Dice feat).

Personally, I'm in no rush to adopt human form just yet; I'd like to play for a bit and see how it goes before considering whether to take a made-up alternate-form feat if that's okay.

 

[Nightbreeze]

Ok. So you have feats at 1st, 3rd and 5th, with a bonus feat at 1st.

 

[Ambrus]

I've been having trouble accessing invisible castle to roll my stats since they seem to have changed their website. It doesn't seem to jive with my browser any longer. Anyway, I seemed to finally be able to save my roll results so I could post them here; the trick seems to be to not assign them to any particular abilities. Very confusing...

Anyway here are the results of a 4d6 drop the lowest set of rolls:

http://invisiblecastle.com/stats/view/15562/

I'll try assigning them later.

 

[Nightbreeze]

Nice rolls.

By they way, what class do you mean to take? I had a look on the dragonfire adept, and to say the truth I'd hate playing it (far too few invocations), but I have no problem in DM-ing it.

Also, what are your intentions (in general)? Are you going to search for a suitable human "companion" or you are just going to give orders and suggestions while staying hidden?

Another note: pseudodragons are described as tiny reddish dragons. If you want to change the color, feel free to do so.