D&D 5E Out of the Abyss OOC

[CanadienneBacon]

A better way to think of this priorception would be the archetypal "Blind Fighter" in the movies, who is able to use their other senses to tell where opponents are, the rough details of the area around them, but there is *no* visual information.

It sounds like you are looking for the equivalent of the 3.x feat Blind Fight. Not sure if you played 3.x? Let me know if Blind Fight is akin to what you intend. If I remember correctly, one of Blind Fight's uses is that it lets a melee combatant fight without penalty in darkness.

I grok what you're attempting with blending Wood Elf and Human Variant, but think you get where you need to be by taking Human Variant and one of these feats from the PHB: Mobile, Keen Mind, Alert, Grappler, Athlete, Durable, Resilient, or Observant. Most of those address one aspect or another of what you've described of Haruchai. Mobile grants the additional speed (10') you are after. Alert removes surprise, prevents advantage against Brinn from hidden foes, and grants a whopping +5 to init. To my eye, there is no singular feat/race combo in the published material that gives you all of what you're looking for (though Mobile, Keen Mind, and Alert or Observant all seem relevant and helpful). I skimmed SCAG and didn't see any crunch in there that helps with what you are driving at with prioception. (I did, however, think a couple of Backgrounds might be good for Brinn: Far Traveler, and Inheritor.) I will skim the UA articles tonight; if I see a feat or a race that I think nabs the essence of what you're driving for, I'll pipe up (you look, too?).

TLDR: What you want makes sense, but may not exist in the source material I've provided. Let's dig through the material a bit more to see what we can find, and then you'll have a choice to make.


Onward!

So the general rule of thumb is that he would accept anything that is "training" (the proverbial scroll of martial arts technique that is +1 str, for example) and would likely use enchanted items that fit in his RP conception (bracers of defense, which he would use to block weapon attacks), and would use items that are similar to what he knows (a potion of healing is similar to the healing berries of the Land), but pretty much everything else ... nope. No weapons, armor, wands, necklaces, rods, staves, potions (other than healing), cloaks, boots, etc.

I think we're in agreement. All of this sounds beautifully in character to me. And is absolutely do-able.

he will also necessarily conflate it with his failure- that this was a punishment.

Yay! You said conflate! Among lawyers, funnest word ever, right?

I think that he will start with the general fuzzy notion that the Realms is like the Land, and that the Drow are a form of corruption that are seeking to destroy it, and that his purpose is to defeat the drow and to help those that will defeat the drow and/or find the source behind the drow and destroy the corruption.

Nodding. I wonder what Brinn will think of the innate sense of superiority drow elves have? Can see it being both something he'd relate to and something that would be an irritant.

I think both of your concepts are awesome (and I agree that the idea of an undercover agent trying to get information is inspired!), but I would note that the wild magic sorcerer also has a hook with my character; as I mentioned upthread, wild magic is revered where Brinn comes from, and would give my character a very good reason for joining this party in addition to the whole "We need to get out of here together, folks."

Short version- Wild magic is necessary to defeat corruption, and Brinn would consider it necessary to accompany your character to help him fulfill his destiny, even though Kamael has no knowledge of said destiny, said destiny may not exist, and Kamael may have no desire to fulfill that destiny.

Super cool to watch you three at work, collaborating. Can't wait to see what you create.

 

[industrygothica]

CB- Will there be sufficient heals if we don't have a dedicated healer in the group? Like healing potions and the like, or do we need a healer. I'm still battling between a pissed off hulk-smashy orc and equally pissed off Dwarven cleric.

I like the idea of a morally torn orc, but a Dwarven priest in the realm of the spider queen has an interesting kicker too, imo.

-IG

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Not gonna sugarcoat it. Without some kind of healer in the party, the Underdark is going to be pretty rough on the group. We still haven't heard from GlassEye yet (more from him later in the weekend, I expect), and I know that KS likes clerics and has been working on a third concept (though I'm not sure what that third concept is). Maybe hold off just a mite longer to see what they do before committing yourself to cleric? I hate to see a morally torn orc go by the wayside.

 

[industrygothica]

Not gonna sugarcoat it. Without some kind of healer in the party, the Underdark is going to be pretty rough on the group. We still haven't heard from GlassEye yet (more from him later in the weekend, I expect), and I know that KS likes clerics and has been working on a third concept (though I'm not sure what that third concept is). Maybe hold off just a mite longer to see what they do before committing yourself to cleric? I hate to see a morally torn orc go by the wayside.

I suppose I could do a morally torn orc cleric... forced to use Gruumsh's gifts to save non-orcs, and afraid of what the consequences will be.

 

[Yavathol]

Is Kamael from the same city in heaven that Solace is from? If it is a celestial city, say something about why and how there is hunger, poverty, and corruption. I want to know more about this (sounds like there's a story there).

I`d like to check with [MENTION=23484]Kobold Stew[/MENTION] before committing to anything, but yes I did intend it to be the same city as Solace. As I read it, Solace (possibly and Kamael at the same time) were expelled from Heaven to a Faeroon city (probably on Sword Coast).

Sorry if this dampens your thoughts on celestial city politics But the questions I was thinking of were: Were they both expelled for doing something wrong together, for having an illicit relationship maybe? Or did they both volunteer for a mission to right some wrong on the Prime plane?

If you opt to play Kamael, would you be willing to provide me with a gloss of the Magistrate's NPC stats? Do you think he or she is the sort of individual to track down Kamael in the Underdark? If so, what's the motive?

NPC request duly noted, will come up with someone for whichever character I go with, once details have been fleshed out I'll also generate at least a random trinket, since I love that table! Kamael doesn't actually need much equipment, which is fortunate given his poverty

Glad to see you're brave enough to roll with being a complete rube in the Underdark.

Kamael & Veseh are complete opposites in this regard!

And if you find yourselves in a city in the Underdark, I think City Secrets will definitely be useful. I'll make sure it is; in many respects, one city is like another.

I'm glad you said that, it wasn't clear from the PHB whether City Secrets applies to all cities or just the home city..

Veseh isn't as well fleshed out at Kamael, but there's weight and meat to him that I sense that excites me. I'd be interested to mine a little more for info about the woodsman who raised Veseh. And the nearby monastery.

Yes, I realized that..was looking at the Hermit`s Discovery when I got the deliberately captured idea and was so excited that I wanted to post it ASAP & see if you liked it! Will certainly flesh out more, such as the bonds, but I want to wait and hear about the other characters first so as to tie in with them.

As lowkey13 posted, there are potential links between Kamael & Brinn, but Veseh & Brinn share a self reliant mind set & that commonality could be fun to explore; though one uses equipment & the other doesn't. Although he`s a monk, I expect Brinn to be very different emotionally to the monks that Veseh knows!

As I said, I'll wait to hear about the other characters now before deciding which to go for & completing the back story; e.g. if KS rejects Solace for the goblin barbarian then I'll probably go with Veseh

 

[Yavathol]

I suppose I could do a morally torn orc cleric... forced to use Gruumsh's gifts to save non-orcs, and afraid of what the consequences will be.

Wow, interesting idea! I guess a cleric would have a high enough wisdom to realise the necessity of working with "good" races in order to escape from the Underdark..it may be a pretty tenuous alliance though!

Maybe if it went too far, Gruumsh could end up rejecting him/her but Tempus or other human god then makes an offer that can't be refused!!

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[CanadienneBacon]

It's even better when it begins to slip into casual conversation- "The dispositive issue when deciding where to eat is which [pizza] place has the best pizza beer. And you never want to conflate the issues of pizza topping choices with overall pizza quality."

FIFY. [emoji41]

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Good pic, [MENTION=6799753]lowkey13[/MENTION]. I dig it. There's action and tension going on in it, so cool. I know what it is to spend hours searching through waaaay too much fantasy art, trying to find just the right image, and so I'm grateful that you're invested enough to do the same.

Re: what to do about Brinn's race, I avidly do not want to homebrew, so nix on blending any traits of Wood Elf, Variant Human, and/or Human. Please select a race as it appears straight-up in the source material. We've discussed Human, Variant Human, and Wood Elf, and any of those are fine. They're all on the approved list and you needn't permission from me to take them. At your discretion, go ahead and take the Wood Elf race if you want but we'll roll with a human-looking appearance for Brinn (no pointy ears ). I skimmed the source material and did not see anything I deemed to be truly on-point for what you want. Thanks for your patience waiting for me to do that, I sense you're ready to post your character sheet.


EDIT: Unless I'm at work and posting on the fly (which I shouldn't do because it causes me to make mistakes, yet I sometimes do it anyway), I usually re-read my posts for accuracy. Did what I typed convey what I intended to say? You'll often see me edit for substance. And for grammar. Here, I'm editing because I see I should further clarify that, *CLEARLY* (see what I did there, [MENTION=6799753]lowkey13[/MENTION]? heh ) you should feel free to take some other race that we hadn't discussed. Anything in the list of source material in the OP is fair game. You needn't constrain yourself to Human, Variant Human, or Wood Elf merely because those were the options we'd most recently been kicking around. Hope that was clear!