[5e] Spell & Crossbones

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=23484]Kobold Stew[/MENTION]
Hey I caught some discrepancies on your character sheet...might want to double check your numbers...

Initiative should be +3 (not +2) since Dex 16 (+3)

Pistol attack should be +5 (not +7) since Dex 16 (+3) and prof +2

AC should be 16 (not 17) since AC = studded leather (12) + Dex (3) + heavy armor house rule (1)

 

[Queenie]

Katerina sounds like fun!

Here's how Fortunes work: Pick up to 3 from Mixed and/or Good Fortunes. For each Good Fortune you take you must also take an Ill Fortune. This caveat does not apply to Mixed Fortunes which already are a mix of good and bad so don't need an Ill Fortune to balance them out.

For example, Katerina might have: Notoriety (mixed), Contacts (good), Monkey Magnet (good), Enemy (ill), Wanted (ill).

She's is going to be So. Much. Fun! I'm excited

In theory, you are not limited to how many Mixed Fortunes you take? Or is that included in the three. Just want to make sure I understand!

Now, here is my current conundrum. I rolled pretty well 17, 17, 16, 12, 9, 8. I will post the IC link in my character sheet (it's hard to do on my iPad).

As a human I can bump each one up to 18,18,17,13,10,9 or give up 4 increases to get a feat and a skill proficiency.

At 4th level I have the choice of bumping 2 stats by 1 or 1 stat by 2 or taking a feat.

First glance the highest numbers go to DEX and CHA. Lowest probably STR or possibly CON (from the curse). I need her to be able to have the Captain requirements and probably also the Sailing Master's too (navigation). Fighting with swords and guns, we were thinking two handed fighting. Also very acrobatic. Typical roguish swashbuckler.

Suggestions? I am especially wondering about the feats. I'm not really familiar with 5e at all yet.

 

[Quickleaf]

She's is going to be So. Much. Fun! I'm excited

I'm looking forward to see how she and [MENTION=6755061]Kiraya_TiDrekan[/MENTION]'s character interact!

In theory, you are not limited to how many Mixed Fortunes you take? Or is that included in the three. Just want to make sure I understand!

Yeah, mixed fortunes were meant to be included in the 3 limit. Mainly I put this limit to prevent it from getting out of hand or too much blurring of character niches. HOWEVER. If you want to break this limit (within reason) and it fits your character's story, I say go for it!

"The rules are more like guidelines, really..." Doubly true in a pirate game!

Now, here is my current conundrum. I rolled pretty well 17, 17, 16, 12, 9, 8. I will post the IC link in my character sheet (it's hard to do on my iPad).

Nice stats! To be honest, I trust you guys. And even if someone were to cheat (pirates, savvy?), there will be some very fierce opposition and high stats are probably toward the low end of the barrel in terms of things that will save your hide.

First glance the highest numbers go to DEX and CHA. Lowest probably STR or possibly CON (from the curse). I need her to be able to have the Captain requirements and probably also the Sailing Master's too (navigation). Fighting with swords and guns, we were thinking two handed fighting. Also very acrobatic. Typical roguish swashbuckler.

Suggestions? I am especially wondering about the feats. I'm not really familiar with 5e at all yet.

Some feats that might fit your character concept...

Athlete: +1 Dex, standing from prone only takes 5 ft movement, climbing doesn't halve speed, only need 5 ft take off for a running jump

Crossbow Expert: re-skin to Firearms Expert; ignore loading, being next to enemy doesn't impose disadvantage on ranged attacks, when you Attack with a one-handed weapon you can use bonus action to attack with loaded firearm

Defensive Duelist: with finesse weapon, can use reaction to add proficiency bonus to AC against a melee attack

Lucky: gain 3 luck points, which you can spend to gain advantage or impose disadvantage, regain luck points after a long rest

Mobile: +10 speed, ignore difficult terrain when you Dash, when you make a melee attack against a creature you don't provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn (hit or miss)

Skilled: gain proficiency in any combo of 3 skills or tools

Tough: HP increase to twice your level when you take this feat, and every level thereafter you gain +2 HP

 

[Quickleaf]

A question for everyone about the "Lives" house rule: Do you prefer the number of lives (1d4+2) your characters have be kept secret by the DM? Or do you prefer to know how many lives your characters have?

Either is fine. The first case creates more versilimitude and mystery, while the second creates more suspense.

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

I could go either way.

Edit: Holy biscuits - I just now looked at your sig, [MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION]. You wrote Tales of the Caliphate Nights? That's one of my wife's favorite books.

 

[Quickleaf]

I could go either way.

Edit: Holy biscuits - I just now looked at your sig, [MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION]. You wrote Tales of the Caliphate Nights? That's one of my wife's favorite books.

Hey, thanks! Always heartwarming to hear that Caliphate Nights made someone stoked

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

Time to brag a bit - My wife also happens to be in the biz. Mainly as a layout artist (1001 Spells, Lords of Gossamer & Shadow, and a boatload of others), but also as writer (Book of Heroic Races: Seedlings) and developer (Treasury of the Sands).

 

[Kobold Stew]

[MENTION=23484]Kobold Stew[/MENTION]
Hey I caught some discrepancies on your character sheet...might want to double check your numbers...

Initiative should be +3 (not +2) since Dex 16 (+3)

Yes! Thanks -- legacy of the form I copied from.

Pistol attack should be +5 (not +7) since Dex 16 (+3) and prof +2

No! Fighting style gives +2.

AC should be 16 (not 17) since AC = studded leather (12) + Dex (3) + heavy armor house rule (1)

Good catch. That's me just being bad at addition.

 

[Unsung]

My vote's for keeping Lives hidden. I'm all for surprises, even if they're bad. I don't especially mind if they're not, but that's my vote.

EDIT: Link to the Rogues' Gallery (updated)

[sblock=Player Character: Gunner Teague]
CN human (English) Barbarian 1/Cleric 3 (Tempest domain)
Backgrounds: Sailor, Escaped Convict (features- Ship’s Passage, Wanderer)
Bond: Curse of Aztec Gold
Duties: Master Gunner
Fortunes: Old Salt, Hangin' Look, Treasure Map, Enemy (Commodore Bennett Rafferty, the son of a former captain)
Notes: Missing one eye (-2 to Initiative and Perception), illiterate, harried by Rafferty and his men, mysterious map tattooed on his back

Armour Class: 16
Hit Points: 43/43
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Abilities: Str 12 (+1), Con 14 (+2), Dex 16 (+3), Int 8 (-1), Wis 16 (+3), Cha 8 (-1)
Initiative: +1
Senses: Passive Perception 13
Inspiration: ?
Experience: --

Proficiency Bonus: +2
Armour: Light armour, medium armour, heavy armour, shields
Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons
Tools: Navigator’s tools, vehicles (water), tinker’s tools, dice
Saving Throws: Strength +3, Constitution +4
Skills: Intimidation +1, Nature +1, Athletics +3, Perception +3, Deception +1, Survival +5
Languages: English, Island Carib, semaphore

Equipment
Boat hook (pike; heavy, reach, two-handed). Melee weapon attack: +3 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 1d10 + 1 piercing damage.
Dagger (light, finesse, thrown). Melee/ranged weapon attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft/range 20/60 ft, one target. Hit: 1d4 + 3 piercing damage.
Pistol (36 bullets, loading). Ranged weapon attack: +5 to hit, range 30/90 ft, one target. Hit: 1d10 + 3 piercing damage.
Blunderbuss (12 shots, loading, misfire (1), two-handed). Ranged weapon attack: +5 to hit, range 20/60 ft, one target. Hit: 2d6 +3 piercing damage.
Harpoons x4 (javelins; thrown). Melee/ranged weapon attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft/range 30/120 ft, one target. Hit: 1d6 +1 piercing damage.
Component pouch (divine focus). Melee/ranged spell attack: +5 to hit.

Carried: Explorer’s pack (worn), 50 feet of silk rope (coiled around chest), common clothes (worn), tinker’s tools (in pack), belt pouch (1 gold doubloon, Aztec gold coin)
Trinkets: Water-damaged logbook (in pack) of one Captain Henry ‘Long Ben’, every page filled with cryptic navigation charts and unknown islands
In bunk: Belaying pin (club), shovel, iron pot, common clothes
Purchased this level (20 starting gp): Blunderbuss 15 gp, 48 bullets 2 gp, Dagger 2 gp

Class Features
Barbarian 1: Rage 2/day, Unarmoured Defense
Cleric 3: Channel Divinity 1/rest (Turn Undead, Destructive Rebuke)
Divine Domain (Tempest): Wrath of the Storm 3/day

Spellcasting (Cleric 3)
Cantrips (3): ghost rigging, mariner's boon, thaumaturgy
Spells prepared 6
Spell DC 13
Component pouch (divine focus). Melee/ranged spell attack: +5 to hit.
1st level 4/day: bane, command, create or destroy water, healing word; Domain Spells- fog cloud, thunderwave
2nd level 2/day: augury, enhance ability; Domain Spells- gust of wind, shatter

Feats
Human: Tough- +2 hit points per level

[sblock=Other Notes]
Background
Sailor, Escaped Convict
Personality Traits: I work hard so I can play hard when the work is done. I judge people by their actions, not their words.
Ideals: Fairness- We all do the work, so we all share in the reward (Lawful). Might- If I become strong, I can take what I want-- what I deserve (Evil).
Bonds: I have a family, but I have no idea where they are. One day I hope to see them again.
Flaws: The people who know me when I was young know my shameful secret, so I can never go home again... Don’t expect me to save those who can’t save themselves. It is nature’s way that the strong survive and the weak perish.

Calculations
Armour Class: 16 = 10 + Dex mod (+3) + Con mod (+2) + 1 heavy armour proficiency
Hit Points 43/43 = 12 for 1st level barbarian + (3 x 5 per cleric level) + (4 x +2 Con modifier) + (4 x 2 Tough feat)
Ability Scores: Rolled 16 15 14 12 8 7, +1 to Dexterity and Charisma from human Ability Score Increase[/sblock][/sblock]

[sblock=Background]
A lifetime at sea not amounting to much, that’s the sad story of Gunner Teague.

The years and waves have taken much from him, robbed him of the strength of his sword-hand, the faces of a family he knew too little, years of his freedom-- whether breaking rocks for his countrymen in the prison at Point-Saint Charlotte, or languishing in the dungeons of the French island-fortress of Bon Ebon-- and opportunities, so many missed chances. He was young once, handsome and strong once, practically a hero-- once. He claims that years ago, he and a vain, young, and newly famous Captain George Lightly Rafferty were bosom friends. Rafferty, whose name has since passed into legend, alongside the disappearance of his ship, the HMS Rescue; the rather ironically named Rescue, of which Teague occasionally professes to be sole survivor. Some find it odd that they are only hearing of such an acquaintance upon meeting the gunner for the first time. He seems to mention it often enough, though the details of what claimed his old ship differ with each telling-- a whirlpool with giant fangs of gnashing ice, a huge barnacled hand with the bloated skin of a corpse rising from an otherwise placid sea, a rogue wave with a host of elves on horseback riding its crest...

If he’s drunk, that is. Ask again once he’s sober, and he’ll simply say, “A storm.” And that’s all.

Mottled with tattoos, fingers blue with the touch of blackpowder and gunmetal, his back strewn with the tracks of the cat of nine-- much of the time Teague appears a grim-faced taskmaster, tight-lipped and stern, one gimlet eye and a mouth like a sword. You’d scarcely credit him the imagination which seems necessary for such wild tales.

But his tongue is loosened by rum. The same may be true of his penchant for spinning outrageous falsehoods, delving into the mists of memory and coming up with some scarcely-remembered undersea monster or ghost ship. When drunk, he claims to have crewed with captains who died before he was born, to have sailed to destinations out of stage-plays and fairy tales-- to have docked in Avalon and weighed anchor on a kraken’s shell. Even the tattoos on his back seem to show islands surely too large to have gone undiscovered so long.

There’s but one sure bet, and that’s that the man was born in Bristol. Dare you to try and get a straight answer from him on the subject, however, of his long-ago life on dry land, and he’ll clam up sure as the tide’s ebb, no matter how drunk he might be.

Those who could give the lie to the more outlandish of Teague’s claims, who could glorify or condemn him, linger now in the locker of Davy Jones. Teague, for his part, goes on, serving on navy boats and merchanters, aboard privateers and pirate vessels. He’s decorated the inside of many a cell, English and foreign alike, drawn blood at the Crown’s behest only to sail under the flags of her enemies. In his long life, he says, he’s buried treasure and friends enough to sail a navy out of Hell’s own harbour, and who’s to say he won’t, one day? Maybe that was the plan all along.[/sblock]

[sblock=Rotation]
4:00-8:00 Sleeps like the dead. (ends long rest)
8:00-20:00 Maintains the ship’s cannons, checks the powder, cleans and counts pistols and muskets, shouts up and down at the powder monkeys. Throws his back into any task calling for more than one set of arms. (Master Gunner/Crew)
20:00-24:00 Drinks rum on deck, reciting jokes, tall tales, and mangled scripture to anyone who passes by. Often falls asleep. (starts long rest)
24:00-4:00 Becomes sombre and morose, delivering forth ghost stories and old sea legends and waxing poetic on the nature of the sea as a fickle goddess. Occasionally draws a crowd. (Entertainer/Lookout/Crew)[/sblock]

 

[Queenie]

Hey, thanks! Always heartwarming to hear that Caliphate Nights made someone stoked

Cool! Is it actually a book or a game? I am assuming it's the world we're going to be playing in?

Time to brag a bit - My wife also happens to be in the biz. Mainly as a layout artist (1001 Spells, Lords of Gossamer & Shadow, and a boatload of others), but also as writer (Book of Heroic Races: Seedlings) and developer (Treasury of the Sands).

Also cool!

Fenris wrote a book too! But it's not a cool game book, it's a Botany Textbook for his students. It just got published this year and his students are using it for the first time this fall. It's got lots of nutrition info and info on fun things like beer, marijuana, other drugs plus talk of bio fuels and economy of foods world wide. So it's cool in a different way. I am super proud of him and you guys who wrote books should be proud too!!