[OOC] Planescape: Divided We Stand

[Hella_Tellah]

That's fine by me. Btw, for starting gold, are we supposed to roll, take average, or take max?

Also: The Savage Progressions stats a werewolf Lord in hybrid form gets reach of 5 feet(normal reach), while the SRD states a werewolf Lord in Hybrid form has a reach of 10 feet.

It also contradicts the SRD in regards to the 'trip' ability. Savage progressions grants it both in Hybrid and Dire wolf forms, while the SRD states it only applies during Dire wolf form.

(I'm not quite sure why large size is advantageous for a Lycanthrope if they don't get the reach, though.)

For starting gold, please roll.

Level 5 of the Werewolf Lord's Dire Wolf class looks like a fairly dead level, so why don't we increase his reach to 10 ft at that level? At 4th, he'll get the awesome grapple mod and bonus to intimidate (among other things), then get reach at 5th. In exchange, let's make trip only available in Dire Wolf form. I envision the wolf trip attack as biting the leg and pulling, which I don't imagine a 9-foot-tall wolf man would be doing.

Sound good to you?

STR 11, DEX 16, CON 12, INT 15, WIS 18, CHA 11

I might rearrange the stats, depending what I play, but this was based if I were to play a Druid, which I'm debating doing. A chimp druid with an animal companion.

Mother of God... Nice rolls! Looking forward to seeing the chimp in action.

On further reflection, I've decided to bump starting Keys to 3 and maximum Keys to 6, and I'll change the OP to reflect that. Having a wider variety of motivations and goals available makes it easier for me to drop hooks and motivate your characters, and it gives you guys more opportunities for advancement.

 

[Theroc]

For starting gold, please roll.

Level 5 of the Werewolf Lord's Dire Wolf class looks like a fairly dead level, so why don't we increase his reach to 10 ft at that level? At 4th, he'll get the awesome grapple mod and bonus to intimidate (among other things), then get reach at 5th. In exchange, let's make trip only available in Dire Wolf form. I envision the wolf trip attack as biting the leg and pulling, which I don't imagine a 9-foot-tall wolf man would be doing.

Sound good to you?

Haha, I can live with that, though I always thought of it more of the wolf leaning down and tearing open their calf... (I think I'd 'trip' if I got shredded by a werewolf ) Works for me. Another question on that note: If Viktor had a medium sized reach weapon, does he have 15' or 20' Reach, with a one-handed weapon?

On further reflection, I've decided to bump starting Keys to 3 and maximum Keys to 6, and I'll change the OP to reflect that. Having a wider variety of motivations and goals available makes it easier for me to drop hooks and motivate your characters, and it gives you guys more opportunities for advancement.

Alrighty.

 

[Hella_Tellah]

If Viktor had a medium sized reach weapon, does he have 15' or 20' Reach, with a one-handed weapon?

Tough question. I'm looking at 3 different spots in the SRD here:

A typical Large character wielding a reach weapon of the appropriate size can attack a creature 15 or 20 feet away, but not adjacent creatures or creatures up to 10 feet away.

I think this means you can't reach with a weapon that isn't designed for your size, so a 10ft. reach weapon designed for a medium character wouldn't extend your reach. Kind of weird, so maybe we'll make it 15 for a medium weapon, 20 for a large weapon.

Inappropriately Sized Weapons: A creature can’t make optimum use of a weapon that isn’t properly sized for it. A cumulative –2 penalty applies on attack rolls for each size category of difference between the size of its intended wielder and the size of its actual wielder. If the creature isn’t proficient with the weapon a –4 nonproficiency penalty also applies.

The measure of how much effort it takes to use a weapon (whether the weapon is designated as a light, one-handed, or two-handed weapon for a particular wielder) is altered by one step for each size category of difference between the wielder’s size and the size of the creature for which the weapon was designed. If a weapon’s designation would be changed to something other than light, one-handed, or two-handed by this alteration, the creature can’t wield the weapon at all.

I believe this means you can use a two-handed, medium reach weapon one-handed at a -2 penalty.

Any gear worn or carried by the creature that can’t be worn or carried in its new form instead falls to the ground in its space. If the creature changes size, any gear it wears or carries that can be worn or carried in its new form changes size to match the new size. (Nonhumanoid-shaped creatures can’t wear armor designed for humanoid-shaped creatures, and viceversa.) Gear returns to normal size if dropped.

The result is that if Viktor is carrying a medium reach weapon when he turns into a large, hybrid form werewolf, the weapon will become a large reach weapon, so we won't need to deal with inappropriate weapon sizes too much. That is, unless you'd like it to work differently. We could have your equipment remain unaffected, which would be interesting, but possibly less useful, and more likely to be embarrassing when you turn back into a human. Sigilian spandex, anyone?

 

[Theroc]

Well, now that's confusing. The entry in the SRD on Werebears mentions a werebear's axe is medium sized so when he becomes large he can wield it one handed, hence my question.

I'll stick with it expanding with me, though. >.> Less confusion that way.

If we get to that level, anyhow. That'll be awhile.

 

[Baronsquee]

That sounds like it could be really cool! It definitely works for a Githzerai, what with spending their lives shaping reality around them constantly. Monk could definitely work for that character; I could see him as a Psion or Psychic Warrior pretty easily, too, if you're looking for suggestions.

One sticking point, though: Githzerai have a +2 LA, so we'd need to either tone down your character's racial benefits or divide them up into a 2-level Savage Species-style progression and start him with an NPC class. I really like Githzerai, so if you want to play one, I'll do everything I can to make it work for you.

Ha! I had exactly the same idea as this about an hour ago. Monk seemed kinda OK, but not really perfect. Psion seems much closer, I think, to the intent of the character.

Insofar as LA goes, I've really gone for a Githzerai for the fluff rather than the crunch (To be honest, I've not even looked at the Githzerai racial summary - what book is it in? Does anyone know off the top of their head?) So really, I'm more than happy to downplay any uber powers they may have so long as I can still be a Githzerai in the iconic ways that matter.

Whoa...that's weirdly close to where I was going!

Want to team up? I'm making a Beguiler...who better to manipulate beliefs, right?

Absolutely positively yes! This is a new idea for me... the idea of a teammate for this character. A beguil;er could work well... Is there a way you could beguile me into believing things, if I voluntarily go for it? That would be interesting.

 

[Baronsquee]

These are the stats I rolled:

invisiblecastle.com/stats/view/24982/

• STR: 11
• DEX: 15
• CON: 9
• INT: 11
• WIS: 17
• CHA: 14

 

[Hella_Tellah]

Insofar as LA goes, I've really gone for a Githzerai for the fluff rather than the crunch (To be honest, I've not even looked at the Githzerai racial summary - what book is it in? Does anyone know off the top of their head?) So really, I'm more than happy to downplay any uber powers they may have so long as I can still be a Githzerai in the iconic ways that matter.

Good news everyone! I just found something really nice in Complete Psionic, which surprised me, because I hadn't found a use for the book yet. There's a Githzerai racial variant on page 147 that lets you start out at 1st level in a base class, and optionally improve over the course of your career. A post over in Living Eberron has the skinny on this, but basically you'll start with:

+2 Dexterity, -2 Intelligence
Medium size
Base land speed 30 feet.
Darkvision out to 60 feet.
Automatic Languages: Common (Planar Trade), Gith. Bonus Languages: Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic, Slaad, Undercommon.
Favored Class: Monk.
Naturally Psionic: At 1st level, githzerai gain 2 bonus power points. This benefit does not grant them the ability to manifest powers unless they gain that ability through another source, such as levels in a psionic class. Power points do allow a character to make use of psionic feats and attempt to gain psionic focus.
Catfall: At 1st level, a githzerai gains the use of catfall (EPH 82) as a psi-like ability three times per day (manifester level equal to 1/2 Hit Dice, minimum 1st).

Plus whatever benefits you get from your starting class. If that works for you, you're totally welcome to take that and not advance any further in Githzerai stuff if you'd like, or you can take the racial class progression.

If you'd like more fluff information on the Githzerai, have a look at Chapter 2 of the 3.5 Planescape Campaign Setting. In *knowing* the teachings of Zerthimon, you have grown stronger.

 

[Baronsquee]

That all looks perfectly excellent!

The +2 Dex gives me a starting Dex of 17, plenty high enough for me. An Intelligence of 9 is actually good, as it suggests a limited capacity for lateral and creative thinking - which would only get in the way of my job. It's easy to tow the line in a new belief system if you're not bright enough to pick holes in the logic.

A smattering of power points and a little bonus psionic thing just to make the character feel Githy, and we're all good! I'll pick a class and work up a character directly.

I hope this character doesn't break the 'multiple personalities' rule, seeing as he'll be believing one thing one day and another the next. Of course, once the adventure gets going, he may be between jobs for a bit anyway (depending on what happen, of course), and I think it's important to have a core personality that is the same regardless of what the belief structure of the moment happens to be.

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to explain the character as a prime though. Can I play a planar? I have a pretty good knowledge of the Planescape setting, and the planes are so enormous it's entirely likely I'll never have been anywhere we go before anyway. Sound OK?

 

[Shayuri]

Baron, are you interested in linking backgrounds with me? My character could be business partners with yours.

My concept (peddling belief) was similar to yours...though my character is more selling a belief-changing service than any personal changes in belief. And the scale of th service is different, more personal, less global.

Basically, imagine a streetside hawker, going on about how he can get you money! Women! Power! Whatever you want! But instead of peddling snake oil, he's peddling a "multiversal change initiation network." Claiming that he and his confederates will go out and seed the multiverse with stories about the client that, while untrue, will -become- true with time, as more people come to belive it.

It's mostly a con, of course.

 

[Hella_Tellah]

I hope this character doesn't break the 'multiple personalities' rule, seeing as he'll be believing one thing one day and another the next.

No worries, your character as described is far removed from the guy that made me start instituting that suggestion. Basically, he always wanted to play a character that was a cute, naive young girl by day and a vicious psychopath by night, with the two personalities entirely unaware of one another. That can be played in interesting ways, but he never did. He played that archetype in 3 different games I was aware of, so I got pretty sick of it and am going to let that archetype rest for a few years before I GM for that kind of character again.

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to explain the character as a prime though. Can I play a planar? I have a pretty good knowledge of the Planescape setting, and the planes are so enormous it's entirely likely I'll never have been anywhere we go before anyway. Sound OK?

Yup, I'd expect a Githzerai to be a planar, so he can definitely be a planar.

I put that suggestion in there for a couple of reasons:

1. Fantastical stories (usually) require at least one relatively mundane character who shares many of our judgments as an audience. Arrested Development needs Michael Bluth; A New Hope required a farmboy protagonist; Doctor Who doesn't work without the companion.
2. It's a lot more fun to discover the setting with fresh eyes, rather than rolling a lot of knowledge checks.

I suggested playing a prime because I think it'll be more fun for most kinds of characters, but you've got an idea that works better as a planar, so rock on with your bad self.