reel_big_gish
First Post
I'm toying with the idea of implementing a limited version of the Favor ability (from SWD20). I'm off to bed for the day. I'll elaborate more later today.
-
The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
The Xen'Drik Chronicles OOC
- Thread starter reel_big_gish
- Start date
reel_big_gish
First Post
I'm not familiar with Game of Thrones, but I love the Courtier class. If you're interested, we can adapt it for Eberron and update it for 3.5.
I imagine you're only looking for a 1 level dip, right?
I imagine you're only looking for a 1 level dip, right?
Nalfeshnee
Explorer
The Dragonlance CS has a noble PC class in it
reel_big_gish
First Post
To anyone who does wish to include NPC-class levels in their character design, I will treat any such characters as 1 level lower for determining XP. This is roughly equal to a 2%-5% increase in earned XP.
While I'm on the subject, I should also note that I use a slightly different XP system than the norm.
I look at each individual character's level, cross-reference it with the CR creature, and award that amount of XP divided by the total number of characters in the party.
For example, Arthur the fighter is ECL 3, and Jimmy the Rogue is ECL 5. Pug the Wizard and Martin the Ranger are both ECL 4. The group fights a 6-headed hydra (CR5). XP is awarded as follows:
Arthur (ECL3): 1800/4= 450XP
Jimmy (ECL5): 1500/4=375XP
Pug (ECL4): 1600/4=400XP
Martin (ECL4): 1600/4=400XP
This has the effect of keeping all the players closer in level in case of XP loss due to crafting, level loss, etc.
So, an Expert 1 / Wizard 3 would earn XP as a ECL 3 character, gaining an extra 50XP out of the hydra encounter
EDIT: Kudos to anyone who knows the example characters
While I'm on the subject, I should also note that I use a slightly different XP system than the norm.
I look at each individual character's level, cross-reference it with the CR creature, and award that amount of XP divided by the total number of characters in the party.
For example, Arthur the fighter is ECL 3, and Jimmy the Rogue is ECL 5. Pug the Wizard and Martin the Ranger are both ECL 4. The group fights a 6-headed hydra (CR5). XP is awarded as follows:
Arthur (ECL3): 1800/4= 450XP
Jimmy (ECL5): 1500/4=375XP
Pug (ECL4): 1600/4=400XP
Martin (ECL4): 1600/4=400XP
This has the effect of keeping all the players closer in level in case of XP loss due to crafting, level loss, etc.
So, an Expert 1 / Wizard 3 would earn XP as a ECL 3 character, gaining an extra 50XP out of the hydra encounter
EDIT: Kudos to anyone who knows the example characters
Nalfeshnee
Explorer
Um... isn't that the way Xp is calculated? thats how I always done it. 
I like the system you're using for the NPC classed characters
I like the system you're using for the NPC classed characters
reel_big_gish
First Post
Maybe they changed it for 3.5. I haven't actually looked at the 3.5 method for determining XP, but I thought it involved the average party level cross-referenced by CR to determine XP, which was then split evenly among everyone involved.
*Looks in the DMG*
Well, I'll be. They stole my houserule.
*Looks in the DMG*
Well, I'll be. They stole my houserule.
Arthur, Jimmy, Pug, Martin... that would be The Magician series by Raymond E. Feist, no?
Here's Se'ket: [sblock]Se’ket
Female human druid 4
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Region: Eldeen Reaches
Sect: Children of Winter
Height: 4' 9''
Weight: 103lbs
Hair: Blue-black
Eyes: Black
Age: 21
XP: 7,500
Str: 10 (+0) [2 points]
Dex: 12 (+1) [4 points]
Con: 14 (+2) [6 points]
Int: 12 (+1) [4 points]
Wis: 16 (+3) [8 points, +1 level]
Cha: 12 (+1) [4 points]
Class and Racial Abilities: Extra feat at 1st level, 4 extra skill points at 1st level and 1 additional on at each level thereafter. Animal companion, nature sense, wild empathy +7, woodland stride, trackless step, resist nature’s lure, divine spells, druidic oaths. Proficient with club, dagger, dart, quarterstaff, scimitar, sickle, short spear, sling, and spear, as well as light and medium armor and shields (provided they are not metal).
Hit Dice: 4d8+8
HP: 30
AC: 18 (+1 Dex, +5 armor, +2 shield)
ACP: -2
Init: +1 (+1 Dex)
Speed: 30ft. (20ft. in armor)
Saves:
Fortitude +6 [+4 base, +2 Con]
Reflex +2 [+1 base, +1 Dex]
Will +7 [+4 base, +3 Wis]
BAB/Grapple: +3/+3
Melee Atk: +4 (1d6/x2/S, MW sickle)
Ranged Atk: +4 (1d4/x2/20 ft./P, dart)
Skills:
Diplomacy +7 [6 ranks, +1 Cha]
Handle Animal +7 [6 ranks, +1 Cha]
Heal +10 [7 ranks, +3 Wis]
Knowledge (nature) +12 [7 ranks, +1 Int, +2 nature sense, +2 synergy]
Listen +7 [4 ranks, +3 Wis]
Perform (wind instruments) +4 [4cc ranks, +1 Cha, +1 MW instrument]
Spot +6 [3 ranks, +3 Wis]
Survival +10 [5 ranks, +3 Wis, +2 nature sense] (+12 in aboveground natural environments)
Feats:
Swarm’s Embrace (human bonus) [Sharn, CoT]
Child of Winter (1st level) [ECS]
Vermin Companion (3rd level) [ECS]
Languages: Common, Druidic, Sylvan
Spells Per Day
Save DC +3
0th – cure minor wounds, detect magic, detect poison, flare, purify food and drink
1st - endure elements, goodberry, lesser vigor [ComDiv], magic fang
2nd – spider climb, summon swarm x2
Equipment
Backpack - 2gp
2 daggers – 4gp
10 darts – 5gp
MW Sickle – 306gp
MW Darkleaf breastplate – 2,450gp (This is shaped and painted in a shiny blue-green to resemble a beetle’s carapace)
MW darkwood heavy shield – 360gp (This is shaped and painted in a shiny blue-green to resemble a beetle’s carapace)
Identification papers - 2gp
Traveling papers (Eldeen Reaches to Breland) – 2sp
Pipes of the sewers – 1,150
MW pipes – 100gp
Wand of cure light wounds – 750gp
Bedroll - 5sp
Hammock – 5gp
Waterskin - 1gp
50 ft. rope - 1gp
Trail rations (10 days worth) - 5gp
Belt pouch - 1gp
Holly and mistletoe
Traveler’s outfit (Free)
Money
257gp, 3sp
Kek, bombardier beetle animal companion: Medium vermin; HD 4d8+8: hp 23; Init +0; Spd 30 ft (6 squares); AC 18 (+0 Dex, +8 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 18; Base Atk +3; Grp +5; Atk: bite +5 melee (1d4+2); full Atk: bite +5 melee (1d4+2); Space/Reach 5ft./5ft.; SQ darkvision 60 ft., link, evasion, share spells, vermin traits; AL N; SV Fort +5, Ref +1, Will +1; Str 14, Dex 11, Con 15, Int 1, Wis 10, Cha 9.
Acid Spray (Ex): When attacked or disturbed, Kek can release a 10-foot cone of acidic vapor once per round. Those within the cone must succeed on a DC 14 Fortitude save or take 1d4+2 acid damage. The save DC is constitution-based.
Tricks Known: Attack, Defend, Guard, Warn, Seek
~~~~~
Se'ket was born amidst a raging snowstorm, in the depths of a lightless cave. This may have seemed inauspicious, but that was not even the worse of it. Her mother, heavily pregnant with her, had been the victim of a vicious bandit attack. It was her wish to give birth in her home village where her mother lived, and in haste and fear, she was willing to travel in a late fall caravan. Of Se'ket's father, her mother never had named him to anyone, for no one came forth later to claim the child.
The small caravan was laden with winter meat and other foods, along with the few people desperate enough to travel in such uncertain weather. Today, however, the gods were not with them. The caravan was set upon by brutal and lawless men as a terrible snowstorm began to blow, men more interesting in stealing their bread than earning it. The passengers were simply a means of amusement to the cruel bandits, and their dead or unconscious bodies were tossed in a deep cave afterward, thrown away like garbage.
There are several legends and tales of babes being adopted by wolves or lions or unicorns, raising them when their mothers meet with tragic ends in the wilderness. But for Se'ket's mother, no such magic was in the offing. In pain and fear, she gave birth to her daughter; then died of her wounds. In this cave, full of the bandits' discards, there were no friendly wolves, only the smallest of creatures, the insects. They were no tales of insects guarding human babes, at least until two days later.
In the depths of the cavern crept a druid, a man sent by those of his sect, the Children of Winter. They believed the world must be cleansed to make way for a new and brilliant spring, and by accepting and accelerating death, this could be brought about. Tugor had come to this cave to study the actions of the insects upon the dead; hoping to learn both more about the natural process and to gain insight into the shape of the world to come.
It was with astonishment that he found a healthy girl-child lying upon the breast of a decayed woman, the many insects around her paying her no mind. Seeing this as a sign from the forces of nature, Tugor brought the girl back to his home and told the others the tale. Though it seemed too far-fetched to be true, Tugor was not a man who lied. Therefore the girl had to have come as a sign from the Winter to Come.
She lived and was given the name of Se’ket, an imitation of a beetle’s chittering. Often she heard the story of her birth and rescue, and the elder Children would tell her what they believed it meant. Se’ket had no reason to doubt them. She could sit in the middle of a fire-ant hill and take no harm; she could gather honey from a hive without getting a single sting. It was clear that the creatures of the Winter to Come favored her, and she was instructed at a young age on how to channel their power.
Se'ket has great affection for Tugor, the man who found her and helped raise her with the Children, along with several others in her small sect. He stood in as a foster father, and Se'ket has great love for him. Irigane, the leader, was a stern but fair woman who was responsible for Se'ket's education. She taught her both the philosophy of the sect and the manners she needed to learn.
"Most people regard us as fanatics, and indeed there are many who spread our word with the tact of charging moose and the subtlety of a tornado. We must help temper their enthusiasm with persistence and logic, for if we are written off as insane, no one will be able aid the Coming of Winter," was something she said often. Se'ket understands persistence, and her own human blood helped her understand the logic, so she brings Irigane's presence with her whenever she starts speaking of the Children
Se’ket devoured her learning of the natural world, but began to long to see even more of it beyond the borders of her forest. She was very knowledgeable about all insects and other vermin, but wished to see and observe as many as she could in their own habitats. She felt that she could learn more of the Winter to Come by the movements and habits of the insect world. Perhaps not so strangely, she ended up in Sharn. Though crammed with people and not at all like anything she had seen before, she almost immediately felt at home.
This was a place where people lived like ants or termites, all together in a great hive. And down below, in the depths of UnderSharn, lived muckdwellers, carrion crawlers, and great swarms of unusual beetles, species she had never seen before! It was entirely by coincidence that a pair of students from Morgrave University came to her depths to study a rancid beetle swarm. While they remained at a safe distance, their jaws literally dropped as they watched a young woman walk in the middle of the swarm, almost seeming to become like a beetle herself.
Almost before she could turn around, Se’ket found herself hired as a “research assistant” to Regalt Turmin, Professor of Natural Sciences. He was a bustling man, bursting with energy about his chosen topics of natural behavior. Se’ket’s life story had him enthralled, and the fact that she understood insects and even wouldn’t take harm from small ones made her priceless to him. Though philosophically the two couldn’t be more different, Se’ket has been helping the Professor and his staff research various insect species.
At the university, she's made a few friends, alienated a few others, and probably made at least one real enemy. Professor Rugalt and his two doctoral students, Sharrin and Festral, have become her little family away from home. There are about a dozen others in programs of naturals sciences and entomology who she counts as casual friends or friendly acquaintances. Some people, however, found her presence offensive.
"She's not a scholar, she has no references, is not even a native of Breland, has never been enrolled here... you got her out of the sewers for gods' sake!" Professor Toffin has said frequently and often whenever the subject of Se'ket comes up. He doesn't like the fact that Rugalt has been teaching her in his classes without asking for tuition, that he is willing to pay for her lodgings on campus, or that her skills have brought Rugalt significant fame in the entomological field. Toffin is an academic rival, most of his bitterness stems from the fact that Rugalt found her first. Predictably Toffin's own students and research assistants try to make life hard for her whenever they can get away with it, but they have expressed nothing more than petty jealousy towards her, not real hatred.
Hatred towards her comes from one man, Suvarin Tu'gesh, a Warden of the Wood and also a druid. However, he sees all life as worth preserving, even city life, and fights against unnatural death with every fiber of his being. Someone dying of a disease is not necessarily a tragedy, unless that disease was given to him by letting diseased fleas into his home. He has come across the works of the Children of Winter before, and finds Se'ket's presence an offense to his morals. He is at the university to learn about the mindset of those that live in cities, while simultaneously learning about animals and plants he might never see himself.
He tried to get Se'ket banned from the university shortly after he found out her sect, and when that didn't work, has tried many forms of harassment to get her to leave. Se'ket feels that he may do anything short of death to keep her ideas out of Morgrave.
As for Se'ket herself, she had short, straight blue-black hair cut in a sleek cap around her head. Her skin is a dark ivory, with odd flat features, and her eyes are nearly black. She is slender, short, and graceful, and tends to wear body-hugging clothes in silk, usually in shiny hues of blue, blue-black, or blue-green, like a beetle's wings. She really doesn’t resemble any of the races of Khorvaire, which led the Children of Winter to believe her mother was a foreigner from across some distant sea.
Se'ket doesn't trumpet her friendship with insects and her membership to the Children of Winter, but she doesn't care to hide it. She has a large bombardier beetle that sticks by her side as a friend, and she casually speaks of the Winter to Come in a calm and logical manner when asked of her beliefs. She has never had the occasion to lie, though has found ways of honey-coating the truth to avoid unnecessary hardships in her life. She knows that though she has found some friends in Sharn, her sect is not well loved, and some would see her harmed or dead before spreading her philosophy around.
Despite her preoccupation with the Winter to Come, Se'ket is not morbid. However, she is very accepting of death. Her affairs for such things are always in order, and she finds the life-risking behaviors of healers to save the lives of the dying as curiosities. She often helps people work to an acceptance of death, which means she can often be found at the sites of fires, plagues, and other disasters as a very strange grief counselor.
Se’ket is an expert on insects; she knows their types and habitats, their behaviors, and even why they do what they do. She knows their affects on flesh and vegetable manner, and often has an educated guess as to when a person died, by observing the insects present. But she knows her knowledge is limited by where she’s been. She may be an expert in the Reaches or in Sharn, but not in Zilargo or Droaam or Xen’drik.
Recently, Professor Rugalt has mentioned there might be a trip to Xen’Drik in the offing, something Se’ket can’t possibly pass up. Who knows what fascinating new friends she might meet there…[/sblock]
I also had a few questions: [sblock]I wondered if I could swap out the bat and rat swarms that I could summon with summon swarm for a vermin swarm of an equal CR? Spiders are a CR 1, and bats and rats are a CR 2. A beetle swarm (ECS pg. 314) or wasp swarm (FF 2) are CR 2. Or, if an aquatic environment, how about a leech swarm, CR 1 (Stormwrack, pg 162)?
A second question was I got myself the pipes of the sewers and I was wondering if I could summon a beetle swarm or other insect swarm instead of the standard rat swarm.
Third question, I was hoping to eventually summon more and more powerful swarms, but currently there are no summon greater swarm spells. I do get to summon a few swarms with my Child of Winter summon nature's ally, but unfortunatly they don't include swarms from other sources. I might eventually like to be able to summon scorpions (CR 5, Sandstorm pg. 185), scarab beetles (CR 10, FF pg. 171), plague ants (CR 5, FF pg. 167), rancid beetles (CR 6, Sharn pg. 182), death scarabs (CR 7, Sandstorm pg. 184), hoard scarabs (CR 5, Draconomicon pg. 168), swamp striders (CR 5, MMIII 171), and maybe velvet ants (CR 4, Tome of Horrors II pg. 156).[/sblock]
Here's Se'ket: [sblock]Se’ket
Female human druid 4
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Region: Eldeen Reaches
Sect: Children of Winter
Height: 4' 9''
Weight: 103lbs
Hair: Blue-black
Eyes: Black
Age: 21
XP: 7,500
Str: 10 (+0) [2 points]
Dex: 12 (+1) [4 points]
Con: 14 (+2) [6 points]
Int: 12 (+1) [4 points]
Wis: 16 (+3) [8 points, +1 level]
Cha: 12 (+1) [4 points]
Class and Racial Abilities: Extra feat at 1st level, 4 extra skill points at 1st level and 1 additional on at each level thereafter. Animal companion, nature sense, wild empathy +7, woodland stride, trackless step, resist nature’s lure, divine spells, druidic oaths. Proficient with club, dagger, dart, quarterstaff, scimitar, sickle, short spear, sling, and spear, as well as light and medium armor and shields (provided they are not metal).
Hit Dice: 4d8+8
HP: 30
AC: 18 (+1 Dex, +5 armor, +2 shield)
ACP: -2
Init: +1 (+1 Dex)
Speed: 30ft. (20ft. in armor)
Saves:
Fortitude +6 [+4 base, +2 Con]
Reflex +2 [+1 base, +1 Dex]
Will +7 [+4 base, +3 Wis]
BAB/Grapple: +3/+3
Melee Atk: +4 (1d6/x2/S, MW sickle)
Ranged Atk: +4 (1d4/x2/20 ft./P, dart)
Skills:
Diplomacy +7 [6 ranks, +1 Cha]
Handle Animal +7 [6 ranks, +1 Cha]
Heal +10 [7 ranks, +3 Wis]
Knowledge (nature) +12 [7 ranks, +1 Int, +2 nature sense, +2 synergy]
Listen +7 [4 ranks, +3 Wis]
Perform (wind instruments) +4 [4cc ranks, +1 Cha, +1 MW instrument]
Spot +6 [3 ranks, +3 Wis]
Survival +10 [5 ranks, +3 Wis, +2 nature sense] (+12 in aboveground natural environments)
Feats:
Swarm’s Embrace (human bonus) [Sharn, CoT]
Child of Winter (1st level) [ECS]
Vermin Companion (3rd level) [ECS]
Languages: Common, Druidic, Sylvan
Spells Per Day
Save DC +3
0th – cure minor wounds, detect magic, detect poison, flare, purify food and drink
1st - endure elements, goodberry, lesser vigor [ComDiv], magic fang
2nd – spider climb, summon swarm x2
Equipment
Backpack - 2gp
2 daggers – 4gp
10 darts – 5gp
MW Sickle – 306gp
MW Darkleaf breastplate – 2,450gp (This is shaped and painted in a shiny blue-green to resemble a beetle’s carapace)
MW darkwood heavy shield – 360gp (This is shaped and painted in a shiny blue-green to resemble a beetle’s carapace)
Identification papers - 2gp
Traveling papers (Eldeen Reaches to Breland) – 2sp
Pipes of the sewers – 1,150
MW pipes – 100gp
Wand of cure light wounds – 750gp
Bedroll - 5sp
Hammock – 5gp
Waterskin - 1gp
50 ft. rope - 1gp
Trail rations (10 days worth) - 5gp
Belt pouch - 1gp
Holly and mistletoe
Traveler’s outfit (Free)
Money
257gp, 3sp
Kek, bombardier beetle animal companion: Medium vermin; HD 4d8+8: hp 23; Init +0; Spd 30 ft (6 squares); AC 18 (+0 Dex, +8 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 18; Base Atk +3; Grp +5; Atk: bite +5 melee (1d4+2); full Atk: bite +5 melee (1d4+2); Space/Reach 5ft./5ft.; SQ darkvision 60 ft., link, evasion, share spells, vermin traits; AL N; SV Fort +5, Ref +1, Will +1; Str 14, Dex 11, Con 15, Int 1, Wis 10, Cha 9.
Acid Spray (Ex): When attacked or disturbed, Kek can release a 10-foot cone of acidic vapor once per round. Those within the cone must succeed on a DC 14 Fortitude save or take 1d4+2 acid damage. The save DC is constitution-based.
Tricks Known: Attack, Defend, Guard, Warn, Seek
~~~~~
Se'ket was born amidst a raging snowstorm, in the depths of a lightless cave. This may have seemed inauspicious, but that was not even the worse of it. Her mother, heavily pregnant with her, had been the victim of a vicious bandit attack. It was her wish to give birth in her home village where her mother lived, and in haste and fear, she was willing to travel in a late fall caravan. Of Se'ket's father, her mother never had named him to anyone, for no one came forth later to claim the child.
The small caravan was laden with winter meat and other foods, along with the few people desperate enough to travel in such uncertain weather. Today, however, the gods were not with them. The caravan was set upon by brutal and lawless men as a terrible snowstorm began to blow, men more interesting in stealing their bread than earning it. The passengers were simply a means of amusement to the cruel bandits, and their dead or unconscious bodies were tossed in a deep cave afterward, thrown away like garbage.
There are several legends and tales of babes being adopted by wolves or lions or unicorns, raising them when their mothers meet with tragic ends in the wilderness. But for Se'ket's mother, no such magic was in the offing. In pain and fear, she gave birth to her daughter; then died of her wounds. In this cave, full of the bandits' discards, there were no friendly wolves, only the smallest of creatures, the insects. They were no tales of insects guarding human babes, at least until two days later.
In the depths of the cavern crept a druid, a man sent by those of his sect, the Children of Winter. They believed the world must be cleansed to make way for a new and brilliant spring, and by accepting and accelerating death, this could be brought about. Tugor had come to this cave to study the actions of the insects upon the dead; hoping to learn both more about the natural process and to gain insight into the shape of the world to come.
It was with astonishment that he found a healthy girl-child lying upon the breast of a decayed woman, the many insects around her paying her no mind. Seeing this as a sign from the forces of nature, Tugor brought the girl back to his home and told the others the tale. Though it seemed too far-fetched to be true, Tugor was not a man who lied. Therefore the girl had to have come as a sign from the Winter to Come.
She lived and was given the name of Se’ket, an imitation of a beetle’s chittering. Often she heard the story of her birth and rescue, and the elder Children would tell her what they believed it meant. Se’ket had no reason to doubt them. She could sit in the middle of a fire-ant hill and take no harm; she could gather honey from a hive without getting a single sting. It was clear that the creatures of the Winter to Come favored her, and she was instructed at a young age on how to channel their power.
Se'ket has great affection for Tugor, the man who found her and helped raise her with the Children, along with several others in her small sect. He stood in as a foster father, and Se'ket has great love for him. Irigane, the leader, was a stern but fair woman who was responsible for Se'ket's education. She taught her both the philosophy of the sect and the manners she needed to learn.
"Most people regard us as fanatics, and indeed there are many who spread our word with the tact of charging moose and the subtlety of a tornado. We must help temper their enthusiasm with persistence and logic, for if we are written off as insane, no one will be able aid the Coming of Winter," was something she said often. Se'ket understands persistence, and her own human blood helped her understand the logic, so she brings Irigane's presence with her whenever she starts speaking of the Children
Se’ket devoured her learning of the natural world, but began to long to see even more of it beyond the borders of her forest. She was very knowledgeable about all insects and other vermin, but wished to see and observe as many as she could in their own habitats. She felt that she could learn more of the Winter to Come by the movements and habits of the insect world. Perhaps not so strangely, she ended up in Sharn. Though crammed with people and not at all like anything she had seen before, she almost immediately felt at home.
This was a place where people lived like ants or termites, all together in a great hive. And down below, in the depths of UnderSharn, lived muckdwellers, carrion crawlers, and great swarms of unusual beetles, species she had never seen before! It was entirely by coincidence that a pair of students from Morgrave University came to her depths to study a rancid beetle swarm. While they remained at a safe distance, their jaws literally dropped as they watched a young woman walk in the middle of the swarm, almost seeming to become like a beetle herself.
Almost before she could turn around, Se’ket found herself hired as a “research assistant” to Regalt Turmin, Professor of Natural Sciences. He was a bustling man, bursting with energy about his chosen topics of natural behavior. Se’ket’s life story had him enthralled, and the fact that she understood insects and even wouldn’t take harm from small ones made her priceless to him. Though philosophically the two couldn’t be more different, Se’ket has been helping the Professor and his staff research various insect species.
At the university, she's made a few friends, alienated a few others, and probably made at least one real enemy. Professor Rugalt and his two doctoral students, Sharrin and Festral, have become her little family away from home. There are about a dozen others in programs of naturals sciences and entomology who she counts as casual friends or friendly acquaintances. Some people, however, found her presence offensive.
"She's not a scholar, she has no references, is not even a native of Breland, has never been enrolled here... you got her out of the sewers for gods' sake!" Professor Toffin has said frequently and often whenever the subject of Se'ket comes up. He doesn't like the fact that Rugalt has been teaching her in his classes without asking for tuition, that he is willing to pay for her lodgings on campus, or that her skills have brought Rugalt significant fame in the entomological field. Toffin is an academic rival, most of his bitterness stems from the fact that Rugalt found her first. Predictably Toffin's own students and research assistants try to make life hard for her whenever they can get away with it, but they have expressed nothing more than petty jealousy towards her, not real hatred.
Hatred towards her comes from one man, Suvarin Tu'gesh, a Warden of the Wood and also a druid. However, he sees all life as worth preserving, even city life, and fights against unnatural death with every fiber of his being. Someone dying of a disease is not necessarily a tragedy, unless that disease was given to him by letting diseased fleas into his home. He has come across the works of the Children of Winter before, and finds Se'ket's presence an offense to his morals. He is at the university to learn about the mindset of those that live in cities, while simultaneously learning about animals and plants he might never see himself.
He tried to get Se'ket banned from the university shortly after he found out her sect, and when that didn't work, has tried many forms of harassment to get her to leave. Se'ket feels that he may do anything short of death to keep her ideas out of Morgrave.
As for Se'ket herself, she had short, straight blue-black hair cut in a sleek cap around her head. Her skin is a dark ivory, with odd flat features, and her eyes are nearly black. She is slender, short, and graceful, and tends to wear body-hugging clothes in silk, usually in shiny hues of blue, blue-black, or blue-green, like a beetle's wings. She really doesn’t resemble any of the races of Khorvaire, which led the Children of Winter to believe her mother was a foreigner from across some distant sea.
Se'ket doesn't trumpet her friendship with insects and her membership to the Children of Winter, but she doesn't care to hide it. She has a large bombardier beetle that sticks by her side as a friend, and she casually speaks of the Winter to Come in a calm and logical manner when asked of her beliefs. She has never had the occasion to lie, though has found ways of honey-coating the truth to avoid unnecessary hardships in her life. She knows that though she has found some friends in Sharn, her sect is not well loved, and some would see her harmed or dead before spreading her philosophy around.
Despite her preoccupation with the Winter to Come, Se'ket is not morbid. However, she is very accepting of death. Her affairs for such things are always in order, and she finds the life-risking behaviors of healers to save the lives of the dying as curiosities. She often helps people work to an acceptance of death, which means she can often be found at the sites of fires, plagues, and other disasters as a very strange grief counselor.
Se’ket is an expert on insects; she knows their types and habitats, their behaviors, and even why they do what they do. She knows their affects on flesh and vegetable manner, and often has an educated guess as to when a person died, by observing the insects present. But she knows her knowledge is limited by where she’s been. She may be an expert in the Reaches or in Sharn, but not in Zilargo or Droaam or Xen’drik.
Recently, Professor Rugalt has mentioned there might be a trip to Xen’Drik in the offing, something Se’ket can’t possibly pass up. Who knows what fascinating new friends she might meet there…[/sblock]
I also had a few questions: [sblock]I wondered if I could swap out the bat and rat swarms that I could summon with summon swarm for a vermin swarm of an equal CR? Spiders are a CR 1, and bats and rats are a CR 2. A beetle swarm (ECS pg. 314) or wasp swarm (FF 2) are CR 2. Or, if an aquatic environment, how about a leech swarm, CR 1 (Stormwrack, pg 162)?
A second question was I got myself the pipes of the sewers and I was wondering if I could summon a beetle swarm or other insect swarm instead of the standard rat swarm.
Third question, I was hoping to eventually summon more and more powerful swarms, but currently there are no summon greater swarm spells. I do get to summon a few swarms with my Child of Winter summon nature's ally, but unfortunatly they don't include swarms from other sources. I might eventually like to be able to summon scorpions (CR 5, Sandstorm pg. 185), scarab beetles (CR 10, FF pg. 171), plague ants (CR 5, FF pg. 167), rancid beetles (CR 6, Sharn pg. 182), death scarabs (CR 7, Sandstorm pg. 184), hoard scarabs (CR 5, Draconomicon pg. 168), swamp striders (CR 5, MMIII 171), and maybe velvet ants (CR 4, Tome of Horrors II pg. 156).[/sblock]
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