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Recruiting - Shards of the Silver Flame (recruiting re-opened)


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Shayuri

First Post
Ugh...sorry for delay. Reworked concept a couple of times, and I think this will work much better (still warforged warmage though). Will be posting stats and bg tonight. Just poking my foot in the door so y'all know I didn't vanish. :)
 

wabinder

First Post
Background for Brother Dain

Brother Dain - Level 7 Human Monk

Dain was born into a good, loving family. He had an older sister (Polla), and his parents were fairly successful lesser merchants. They were not rich by any means, but neither were they poor. They lived in a small town on the Thrane side of the much-contested Thrane-Karrnath border. It may not have been the safest place to live during the Last War, but life and business were good for the most part.

All of that changed during one particularly bad border contest where the town was overrun. The tides of battle turned too quickly, and the town could not be evacuated before the enemy forces penetrated the town. Dain's parents hid him with his older sister in their home. When the front door was broken down, the parents fought to both defend their home and to allow the children time to escape. Somehow Polla did manage to escape with Dain, but not before seeing their parents cut down where they stood.

Polla ran and ran and ran, all the while carrying the infant Dain in her arms. Against all odds, she managed to get ahead of the invading army and back onto well defended Thrane soil. When she could run no farther, she collapsed. As fortune had it, she collapsed within sight of a monastery. The monks found the two children and brought them inside. They did all they could for Polla, but the exhaustion and fear had taken too much out of her. She died shortly after relaying her story. Her last request was that the monks take care of her younger brother.

The monks did take Dain in, and he spent the rest of his childhood and young adulthood studying with the monks at the monastery - a monastery associated with the Church of the Silver Flame. In time, his memories of his former life and family began to fade. The monks and the monastery were his family now.

Once he was old enough, Dain was made a Brother. He was given free reign as to what he wanted to study and how he wanted to grow. He decided to spend what became some of the last years of the Last War attempting to document the Thrane-Karrnath border disputes and battles for the official histories. This meant spending a lot of time in and near very fierce battles.

Sometimes, when the tide of battle turned too quickly, Dain was caught unawares, and he had to teach more than one small group of soldiers that an unarmed monk is still a very deadly foe. Other times, he saw groups of innocents about to be overrun, and he ran to their defence and helped get them to safer territory. Still other times, he was made aware of other Monasteries and Churches near the border that were under attack for their strategic positions, and he felt the patriotic call of duty to aid in the defence of these structures of his homeland and his faith.

Once the war ended, Dain returned to his home monastery. He has spent the past few years officially documenting his stories about the Thrane-Karrnath border disputes of the Last War. He has attempted to be as objective as possible. But since his Order is tied to the Church of the Silver Flame, and Thrane is his homeland, and the War claimed his family, his version of the histories are at least a little jaded in favor of Thrane. When not writing for the histories, he has been spending time in rest and contemplation, attempting to attain perfection of mind and body.
 



Anax

First Post
Update: I think I'm currently edging towards Rogue 3/Swashbuckler 4, or possibly even more in rogue, depending on which characters we have. Damn me for a fool for thinking so hard about that Able Learner feat, now I have neat rogue social and investigatory skills rushing through my mind full bore. If I am selected, I'll need to talk with you, drothgery, about how much rogue would be appropriate to the concept. (I suppose even as much as full-bore rogue could be, but I don't think that massive sneak attack fits so well.)
 

drothgery

First Post
I'm still trying to decide if I should tone down the Able Learner feat, backtrack on my decision to allow it at all, or just say what the heck. I really didn't realize how good the feat was in multi-classing scenarios at first glance. On the other hand, I almsot think anything that gives D&D characters better skill selection is a Good Thing.

I'm considering some sort of house rule on Able Learner mostly because by the book, it's human and dopplegangers only, so everyone can't take it if they wanted to -- at least, if my google-fu is working -- though by any logical explanation it ought to be availalbe to changelings in Eberron.

I really should knock things down to the five or six PCs and an alternates list tomorrow, but I'm having trouble trying to decide who to vote off the island (and I'm not running a game with ten PCs...).
 

Anax

First Post
Heh. Good luck. Worst case scenario, I bet you have plenty of random number generators rolling around. ;>

You're right that Able Learner is a very tricky feat. It seems to me that it has the main worrisome impact in the precise situation I've been looking at: it's not that swashbuckler and rogue don't have heavily overlapping class skills, because they do. (Or more specifically, rogue has every swashbuckler skill as a class skill, plus some 16 more.) So, it's really that rogues have only six skills (outside of the Knowledge skills) as cross-class. Bards are just barely lower on the totem pole, and nobody else even comes close.

The problem for me is that a rogue has a lot of class skills that *nobody* has--and those skills are one of the big class-defining features of being a rogue (so it feels like nobody should be able to get them that easily). On the other side, the swashbuckler (even though it promotes a high Int score and gives a pretty large number of skill points per level) doesn't really have a much variety at all. (My human with +3 Int modifier could max out all but two of the class skills at once, not counting Profession and Craft.)

So, I'm not sure quite how to handle things. I'm inclined to think that Cosmopolitan's approach is better, although perhaps changing it to two skills at a time would be more reasonable (and removing the strange "it must be a cross-class skill *right now*" requirement.) On the other hand, Able Learner does eat a feat, and it does require you to take at least one cross-class level into one of the highly-skilled classes.

So, if you're okay with making feat + one level of rogue making highly intelligent characters able to substitute for rogues in terms of skill use, it might not be such a bad thing.

(The thing that tears me, really, is that looking at the swashbuckler/rogue/Able Learner combo, I'm seeing the sort of intelligent urban fighter I've always been interested in playing... The urban ranger variant from UA still gets spells and a weird animal companion thing going on--and the bard has spell casting from the get-go, plus weird performance art things--and neither of those really fits the style of... well... a character like D'Artagnan, or any of the other (non-comic relief) characters from the Musketeers. So this combination strikes me as gorgeous, except... it leaves you wondering "What about the poor helpless rogues of the world? Don't they deserve some *love*?")

(Oh, and on top of that, I guess: the combo gives access to all of the skills I think such a character should have: sneaking around and spotting things, and a smattering of social skills, along with mobility. The swashbuckler class only provides the mobility, and none of the social graces. But the combination also provides access to the more arcane side of a rogue's skills--forgery, breaking and entering, pick-pocketing, which are less germane. So when I think about what I want to do, I end up waving my hand at half of the bloody skills on the list.)

Bah. Oh, well. :) I must be up too late, this post just keeps getting longer. Good night.
 
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Lord Wyrm

First Post
Here's Alarich:


Name: Alarich d'Deneith
Age: 27
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 210
Eyes: Grey
Hair: Blonde with (clearly) Greyed temples
Complection: Fair

Class: Scout 6/Fighter 1
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
XP: 21,500

Str: 16
Dex: 14
Con: 12
Int: 14
Wis: 13 (+1 from level 4)
Cha: 10

Init: +7

Fort: +6 Ref: +7 Will: +3

AC: 19 (10 +2 Dex +1 Deflection +5 Armor +1 Shield) Flat-Footed: 17 Touch: 13
HP: 46
BA: +5
Speed: 40ft (30ft base)

Class Abilities:
Skirmish (+2d6 /+1 AC)
Trapfinding
Battle Fortitude +1
Uncanny Dodge
Fast Movement +10ft
Trackless Step
Evasion
Flawless Stride

Feats:
1 Dodge
Human Able Learner
Fighter Bonus at 2 Improved Initiative
3 Mobility
Scout Bonus at 5 Spring Attack
6 Track

Skills:
Balance (5 Ranks) + Dex = +7
Climb (5 Ranks) + Str = +8
Craft(Trapmaking) (5 Ranks) + Int = +7
Disable Device (4 Ranks) + Int = +6
Heal (4 Ranks) + Wis = +5
Hide (9 Ranks) + Dex = +11 (+5 Magic= +16 Total)
Knowledge(Geography) (5 Ranks) + Int = +7
Knowledge(History) (4 Ranks) + Int = +6
Knowledge(Nature) (5 Ranks) + Int = +7
Knowledge(Nobility) (4 Ranks) + Int = +6
Listen (9 Ranks) + Wis = +10
Move Silently (9 Ranks) + Dex = +11 (+5 Magic= +16 Total)
Ride (5 Ranks) + Dex = +6
Search (9 Ranks) + Int = +11
Sleight of Hand (4 Ranks) + Dex = +6
Spot (9 Ranks) + Wis = +10
Survival (9 Ranks) + Wis = +10

Languages Spoken/Read & Write: Common, Elven, Goblin

Weapons:
+1 Byeshk Longsword (+9 to Hit, 1d8+4, 19-20/x2 crit)
Composite Longbow (+7 to Hit, 1d8, x3 crit, 110ft range increment)

Armor: Mithral Breastplate, Masterwork Light Steel Sheild

Items:
Ring of Sustenance
Ring of Protection +1
Cloak of Elvenkind 1lb
Boots of Elvenkind 1lb
Spool of Endless Rope (Complete Adventurer) 1lb
Hand of the Mand 2lbs
x2 Waterskins
Handy Haversack 5lbs
-x2 Traveler's Outfits
-Cold Weather Outfit
-Karrnathi Uniform
-Deneith Uniform
-Bedroll
-Winter Blanket
-Crowbar
-Flint and Steel
-Grappling Hook
-Small Steel Mirror
-50ft Silk Rope
-Sewing Needle
-Signal Whistle
-Spade
-Tent
-Whetstone

Byeshk Longsword 6lbs
Composite Longbow 3lbs
x40 Arrows 6lbs
Mithral Breast Plate 15lbs
Masterwork Small Steel Sheild 6lbs

Mount:
Valenar Riding Horse
-Military Saddle
--Saddlebags
---Feed (5 days)
-Bit and Briddle

57 GP

Background: Son of the late Markus d'Deneith, Alarich is a member of the illustrious house Deneith and a citizen of Karrnath. Originally showing potential as a paladin his tendencies were put down by a combination of cultural influences and the terrors of the Last War. Originally thought an orphan the young Alarich was adopted by the Kessler noble family, little did anyone know Alarich was a member of the Deneith family. Signing up with the Rekkenmark academy at thirteen years of age. Becoming an officer at eighteen the young man was sent to the front against Cyre.

Alarich was as a demon against Cyran units, charging along side undead regiments he struck deep into the enemy lines. That is until the battle of Lake Arul, in the midst of riding forward Alarich was blinded by a great flash of light. When he awoke Alarich was atop a hill surrounded by several of his skeletal soldiers. When he looked to the battle field he saw only dead grey mist. The skeletons had carried him from it and cared for him until he could recover naturally. Mounting a light horse the warrior rode toward Karrn as fast as he could. On the way he met many other soldiers from the Cyran front who recounted similar stories concerning the dead grey mist. Upon arrival Alarich, now twenty three, met with King Kaius III and told his tale. King Kauis thanked the boy and sent him to Fort Bones to await orders. After nearly two years of glorified guard duty with the skeleton soldiers Alarich heard a knock upon his barracks door. Answering he saw several members of house Deneith and his commander. The young man had been lost to the house but due to the closing of the Last War they had time to track him down.

Following his inclusion to the house the Rekkenmark graduate was sent to Sharn as bodyguard to a Wayfinder prior to and during his mission to Xen'drik. The expedition was almost destroyed during a battle with drow in an ancient giant city, however the guerilla warfare techniques of Alarich and his ability to direct troops allowed the expedition to escape with minimal casualties. Upon return to Sharn, Alarich was set to aid in the escort of a house Tharask member into the Mournland. Alarich doesn't talk about what happened out there but when he was found by a patrol of Valenar Elves they said he "looked like the grave had refused him". He also had a small company of Karrnathi undead escorting him away from the Mournland which gave rise to rumors of his former unit still fighting the Battle of Lake Arul. Following that he asked for leave from his house superiors and went back to serving Karnnath for several months before being recalled to house service and sent into Thrane to work for various noble patrons.
 
Last edited:

Shayuri

First Post
Name: Arbalest ("Arby" for short)
Race: Warforged
Class/Level: War Mage 7
Age 3

(STR) 8 (0 pts)
(DEX) 16 (6 pts)
(CON) 14 (4pts)
(INT) 14 (6pts
(WIS) 8 (2pts)
(CHA) 17 (10pts)

Alignment: Lawful Neutral
AC: 22 (10 + 3 Dex + 7 armor, +1 shield, +1 deflection)
Hit Points: 38
Movement: 30'

Base Attack Bonus: +3
Init: +3
Melee Attack: +2
Ranged Attack: +6
Fort: +6
Reflex: +7
Will: +6

Race Abilities
+2 Con, -2 Wis, -2 Cha
Living Construct Type
-Immune to poison, sleep, disease, paralysis, nausea, fatigue, sickening, energy drain
-No natural healing
-Does not eat, sleep, or breathe
-Light Fortification (25% to avoid sneak attacks or criticals)
-Natural Weapon (1d4 slam)

Class Abilities:
Armored Mage (Light)
Warmage Edge
Advanced Learning
-Floating Disc
-Tiny Hut
Sudden Empower

Skills:
Concentration +12 (10 ranks, +2 Con)
Craft +7 (5 ranks, +2 Int)
Intimidate +7 (5 ranks, +3 Cha)
Knowledge Arcana +12 (10 ranks, +2 Int)
Spellcraft +12 (10 ranks, +2 Int)

Feats
Mithril Body
Spell Focus: Evocation
Extra Edge

Languages -
Common
Draconic
Goblin

Spellcasting: Base DC 13+lvl, Evocations 14+lvl

0 - 6/6 1 - 7/7 2 - 7/7 3 - 4/4

Money - 831gp

Weapons -
Slam (+2 to hit, 1d4 damage)

Armour -
Mithril plating +2 (AC +7, Max Dex +5, Check penalty -2)
MW Buckler (AC +1, 165gp)

Gear -
Backpack (2lbs, 2gp)
2 Belt Pouches (1lb, 2gp)

Magic -
+2 enchantment to chassis - 4000gp
Cloak of Charisma +2 - 4000gp
Vest of resistance +2 - 4000gp
Gloves of Dexterity +2 - 4000gp
Ring of Protection +1 - 2000gp

Background:

Almost done!
 

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