Unorthodox Eberron Campaign

[Talgian]

Heya folks, long time lurker, first time poster (outside of Hero/Villain Showdown threads).

So my group and I started a new Eberron campaign. I'm DM'ing, and it's not, shall we say, a traditional party make-up. I identify it as a party of kind-of's.

We have 1 Warforged Artificer. He took the Level 1 Warforged Substituion Level, so he can cast improved infusions on himself, and then the Adamantine Body feat, with a net result of him being one resilient little fella. Basically, he's the closest thing we have to an arcane caster.

1 Xeph (from the XPH) Soulknife. He is the closest thing we have to a fighter. Due to some concern about this, and the fact that he can only use the equivalent of a shortsword until 5th level, I waived the prereq of Weapon Finesse, to make up for the lack of general martial strength in the party. So he's kind-of a fighter.

1 Changeling Rogue. He also took the substitution level for 1st level Changeling rogues, so he can't find traps, but he is a social beast. Amusingly enough, 3 of our 4 characters have high charismas. Funny story. Neither the rogue nor the artificer had the skills to find and then disable traps. Since neither one wanted to give up precious skill points for them, they comprimised, and the rogue now has search, and the artificer has disable device. The good news is he is more or less fully a rogue, just a particuarly suave one.

Lastly, there is 1 Human Favored Soul. He went this route to give the party a little more muscle while also providing some healing. He took Combat Casting and Augment Healing as his feats, so that should help in the healing department. Also, he's worshipping the Sovreign Host, so the 1d8 longsword is currently leading the party's damage department. He's kind-of our cleric.

Essentially, I'm just curious if anyone knows anything major either myself or the players need to be on the watch for because of our non-conventional makeup. We are moderately experienced (except for the Favored Soul, it's his first game), so we have a decent grasp of the rules. I'm just hoping the collective wisdom of EN World can help us avoid big pitfalls that could dent the fun.

To give a little insight into the campaign plans, I'm going to start off with the Forgotten Forge (it's their first time ever playing Eberron, most of them know little about it, so I'm looking forward to the surprise factor). The ending will be tweaked a bit so it provides a natural segue into a modified The Ettin's Riddle (instead of an adventurer polymorphed into an ettin, it was an experimental Cannith Warforged, designed to be a super soldier during the Last War. He was put under a compulsion effect [by the future BBEG]. House Cannith can't figure out what caused such a defect in their product, and since they trust the party now, they ask for help in figuring out this mystery).

Thanks for any help!

-Talgian

 

[Corsair]

Sounds like you have a relatively balanced and capable party. As long as the favored soul just accepts the fact his save DCs will suck for his spells and completely ditches spells that give the enemies saves, he'll be fine.

 

[shilsen]

Looks like an interesting group. You're possibly going to miss the versatility that a pure arcane caster brings to the table, but the artificer should be able to partially make up for that. In fact, the artificer will probably be the key member of the party, since he can help the others to perform at a level that they couldn't with any other single support class.

Speaking of artificers, depending on how much non-core material you use, you may find the artificer doing some horrendous things with wands once you crack 6th-7th level. It'll be partially mediated by the cost of wands, but an unprepared DM may be caught on the hop.

One last thing on the artificer - if this is a campaign without significant downtime between/during adventures, the artificer will lose a lot of effectiveness. Make sure to give him a chance to get some crafting done, since that is the primary focus of his class.

 

[Tinner]

It's funny. When I read this thread title I thought "The Le is doing Eberron stuf now? I didn't know that was OGC?!"

 

[Angel Tarragon]

It's funny. When I read this thread title I thought "The Le is doing Eberron stuf now? I didn't know that was OGC?!"

I actually thought that game was including the class options from the Unorthodox lineup.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Looks like an interesting group. You're possibly going to miss the versatility that a pure arcane caster brings to the table, but the artificer should be able to partially make up for that. In fact, the artificer will probably be the key member of the party, since he can help the others to perform at a level that they couldn't with any other single support class.

Speaking of artificers, depending on how much non-core material you use, you may find the artificer doing some horrendous things with wands once you crack 6th-7th level. It'll be partially mediated by the cost of wands, but an unprepared DM may be caught on the hop.

One last thing on the artificer - if this is a campaign without significant downtime between/during adventures, the artificer will lose a lot of effectiveness. Make sure to give him a chance to get some crafting done, since that is the primary focus of his class.

Ditto--I can relate from personal experience. The series of Eberron modules (Shadows, Vampire's Blade, etc.) are tied rather close together & don't allow for much downtime at all. Our group's aritficer had a hell of a time.

My group's characters seem to be in the same unorthodox boat, but we barely did well. Because of the odd mix, we FREQUENTLY had to rest between battles, because so many resources got used up during the fight, not to mention some poor player choices during the games (like the player of the group's healer charging into melee combat & getting taken down).

Character deaths didn't help matters much, either: new characters came in at the same level as the lowest-levelled member of the party. Over time, this REALLY held back the group & made some modules really tough (A CR 7 module with 2 8th-lvl, 1 7th-lvl, and 3-4 5th-lvl PCs doesn't really add up well).

The party, in 1 form or another, had the following PCs. I'll list them by player, since soem players had multiple character deaths/retirements.

• Me: A human bard/human paragon (retired after Vampire's Blade because the half-elf ranger reported the details of our covert, tell-no-one-about-it mission to his house; cost the group its pay after a very costly & difficult mission, & the ranger his freedom; the bard shifted from NG to N because of it)--said character died (as a pre-gen for another player) during a later adventure. Then a half-elf barbarian/half-elf paragon/extreme explorer who intends to go into Human paragon. I have a (soon to be evil) gnome wizard who's looking to level up in Alienist, & who isn't present since he skipped out to evade potential reprisal for a very selfish act committed earlier. Think of a gnome, looks like Riff Raff, sounds like Zorak. Utterly crude & nuts. Plans to kill Player 1's gnome PCs (family rivalry).
• DM's wife: A shifter barbarian who died from ghoul; A half-vampire spellfire wielding human paragon/battle sorcerer (yes, you heard me right--check the player tag as for why) who died from lethal giant ruins trap; A half-earth elemental spellfire wielding fighter/battle sorcerer (ahem-player tag) who died it the latest battle, now reincarnated as a gnoll; and a gnome druid who died in the same battle as the aforementioned PC-turned-gnoll.
• Player 1: One of the few sole survivors of the original group, a gnome artificer. Intended to retire, & have his PC's son, a gnome bard (think gangsta rapper, with kobold sidekick/accompanying vocalist). After the last mission, gained a few nifty artificery things that may pull the greedy older gnome out of self-imposed retirement.
• Player 1's younger brother: Another long-time survivor. A warforged cleric with Adamantine Body, a starting Wis of 14, and a starting Str of 8 (yes, with Adamantine Body). Died in the most recent battle with many other characters.
• Player 2: A new player, he took on the character of a brief participant, an elf ranger, then when plot/opportunity presented itself, took on his own PC, a human fighter. Died, but brought back. He's a new addition, so he wasn't part of the earlier chaos.
• Player 3: Mr. Bad-Luck Magnet. 1st, & still surviving PC, was a half-elf ranger who talked when he shouldn't have--he was imprisoned, then exiled, & just now is admitted back into Breland, though for pending case review. A archery-based ranger who seems to fail saves, lose all gear recently purchased (from falling out of an airship he was trying to climb out of when it reached its destination), and the inevitable natural 1's while shooting ranged into melee w/ allies in it. During the exile, had a warforged fighter/paladin (in an effort to make an unstoppable combo) who died after failing his save vs. a bodak's gaze (only 1 in the group to do so). I think he had another PC (to replace the exiled one) who met swift death as well.
• Player 4: Where should I begin? All of the PCs were highly "self-motivated" & caused problems for the rest of the group. All died relatively soon (except a pre-gen he was given when he jumped in mid-adventure, which left soon after that adventure ended). The pre-gen was a half-orc barbarian; but his own PCs (both dead) were a changeling spellthief/chameleon & a human warlock; a gnome rogue (along with my gnome wizard) double-crossed the rest of the group, & while my PC skipped town, his PC suffered reprisals. Said player doesn't frequent anymore due to new work (3rd shift) schedule.

Honestly, our group suffered severely. We really lacked the D&D "basic 4" (fighter/rogue/cleric/wizard), which seemed to be a useful combo for the standard-issue modules we ran through. The artificer was handy, but REALLY suffered from the almost-nil downtime between modules. The arcane spellcasters were partial, either due to class design (artificer, bard), or player build (the DM's wife PCs, who had races with rather high Level Adjustments--maybe actually had 1st-2nd lvl as a spellcaster, then the rest of it eaten up by a level in another class, & then the LA). The artificer covered the open locks/traps bit (with the lack of a rogue for the most part), but losing him to a trap really hurt spellcasting. Our AC tank was the cleric, who shouldn't be front-line as it is, and the frequent warrior was the low-AC, Weapon Finesse, archery-based ranger whose player got bad rolls. And, it really didn't help that these module series were heavy on crit-immune critters like undead, elementals, constructs, & warforged, who in turn got their fair share of crits against us.

The Eberron game is on pause for World's Largest Dungeon by the same DM. Hafta see how we fair against it (our chances may be better since Player 4 isn't present--he really screwed with the PCs chances of success just because he felt like doing it; same player habitually cheated [which we all knew and expected]; he apparently was acting like this with another group he gamed with, too, which was a bit more lax than our group [& which you'd think would cater to his preferences more]). But, nevertheless, Eberron was a nice setting, but quite a rough ride.

 

[Talgian]

Artificers

Well, I'm glad to hear that the party should be okay (with ample downtime), but this thread has made me realize I have a problem. I don't understand the Artificer.

I get the "idea" of the class. They are exceptional crafters and can enhance items. But I guess I don't see how that works in-game. One problem is our group has never really used the craft skill before, so I'm not sure how that works, and he is not sure which craft skills he should take. Essentially, I am confused as to what they do in-game, and how they do it. Any advice is greatly appreciated .

-Talgian

P.S. How do you pronounce Artificer? I've heard both ar/tuh/fie/ser and ar/tuh/fish/er, and there are probably others as well.

 

[CronoDekar]

Oh, you probably shouldn't have to worry about the Craft skill -- the main deal with artificers is that they create magic items, which only requires feats, which the class gets. All they have to do to make them is with the approprate feat, spend 1/2 of the market price in gp and 1/25 of the market price in XP/craft reserve (some of the newer supplements will already have this worked out for you). Potions will be able to be brewed in a day, the rest will take one day per 1000 gp of the market price. (All this is in the magic items section of the DMG.) See the Item Creation section on ECS pg. 32 for artificer specifics for duplicating spell reqs.

Craft would be if he wanted to create mundane or alchemical items, or if he wanted to try to heal himself during the night (see pg. 46 for the "Repair Warforged" use of Craft). If you want to create regular items with the craft skill, the craft skill in the PHB lists how to do that.

And I personally say it ar/tuh/fis/er.

 

[Darkness]

P.S. How do you pronounce Artificer? I've heard both ar/tuh/fie/ser and ar/tuh/fish/er, and there are probably others as well.

I pronounce it the first way (i.e., with 's,' not 'sh'). Looking it up now, dictionary.com and a physical dictionary I have both seem to agree.

 

[Spatula]

Well, I'm glad to hear that the party should be okay (with ample downtime), but this thread has made me realize I have a problem. I don't understand the Artificer.

I get the "idea" of the class. They are exceptional crafters and can enhance items. But I guess I don't see how that works in-game. One problem is our group has never really used the craft skill before, so I'm not sure how that works, and he is not sure which craft skills he should take. Essentially, I am confused as to what they do in-game, and how they do it. Any advice is greatly appreciated .

What they do is bestow magical properties onto items - they "create" magic items, if you will, without actually creating anything physical. It might make sense for the character to pick up some craft skills (to craft the items being enchanted, or just to make useful items with alchemy) but it's not required by the mechanics of the class.

P.S. How do you pronounce Artificer? I've heard both ar/tuh/fie/ser and ar/tuh/fish/er, and there are probably others as well.

The first is correct. There's another correct pronunciation that sounds like "ar-ti-fi-cer" (instead of "art-i-fi-cer"). I'm not sure what language would turn the 'c' in "-cer" into a 'sh' sound, but it isn't english...