[5e] Spell & Crossbones

[Quickleaf]

Quite a few of you are Wanted! It's good to be wanted Except when it's the Admiralty after you!

Possible character connections for Gentleman Jim, Gunner Teague, Katerina, and Jozef Van Der Nagel? Did any of you share misadventures which led to becoming wanted by the authorities?

 

[fireinthedust]

Sweet!

Okay, strongly considering going Warlock. Want to know what we expect to accomplish in terms of leveling: will I get more abilities ever, or are we staying roughly at 4 for the story by level? (ie: Ogres and Trolls are always a challenge)

 

[Quickleaf]

Sweet!

Okay, strongly considering going Warlock. Want to know what we expect to accomplish in terms of leveling: will I get more abilities ever, or are we staying roughly at 4 for the story by level? (ie: Ogres and Trolls are always a challenge)

Good question. Here's what I'm thinking for experience/leveling...if anyone objects, chime in!

You'll level by accomplishing "major quest objectives" which are going to be complex layered things incorporating multiple smaller quests. No tracking experience points, and allows you to handle encounters any way you want without worrying about "losing out on XP because we didn't fight the monsters." For example, the first major objective is to get a ship, recruit a crew, trade for supplies, and secure funding for a treasure hunting expedition for La Gloriosa del Mar.

The idea is that your PCs have had their own adventures during the time of Queen Anne's War, and this first adventure is about you all meeting up, concluding the tier of "apprentice adventures", and coming into your own on the greater theater of the Caribbean. While level advancement may be a bit slow, you could eventually get up to 10th level or higher depending on how long we want to keep the game going.

EDIT: Oh, and Warlock is a good fit for the party! Archfey patron and Pact of the Blade match well to the kind of character I think you're going for.

 

[fireinthedust]

Actually, was thinking Great Old One: Mer connection related to Dagon-following mermaids, or he got exposed to an idol of Dagon/Cthulhu, which transmuted him into a Deep One/Mer. Although I'm wondering if I ought to flavour it a bit more vampire-ey. More in the next day or two.

 

[fireinthedust]

Likely tomorrow. Lots of ideas. We'll see.

 

[Unsung]

[MENTION=51930]fireinthedust[/MENTION]- Since multiclassing is back (to some extent) and the proficiency bonus makes it so that specialization is less crippling than in previous editions, it’s a lot more viable to have a multiclass wizard who’s also a capable warrior. For example, you could go with a fighter 1/wizard 3 (abjuration), take true strike, mage armor, and misty step, and say you’re off to a pretty decent start.

...Or a warlock with the pact of the blade. That also works.

A pact with Davy Jones/Dagon or Calypso/Cthulhu? Swashbuckling pirates are probably not going to have Lovecraft’s twin-pronged phobias of...nearly everything, so the loathsome Deep Ones are actually the beauteous Mer (possibly conflated with the sahuagan or kuo-toa), and a pact with an old sea god isn’t quite so terrible...if you’re a would-be pirate, at least, committing his daily tribute to the depths.

I for one still like the idea of the callow youth making his way in the world, which does sort of seem at odds with vampirism and elder gods.

 

[Unsung]

[MENTION=23484]Kobold Stew[/MENTION]- Gaston Sauveterre, eh? So Gentleman Jim's not quite the British patriot he might pretend?

If you're a spy, maybe a few of our characters met in passing, during some earlier sojourn in an West Indies jail, and busted each other out. Your plan of escape, Mr Teague's lifetime at sea (and the accumulated pirate acquaintances therefrom)?

 

[Kobold Stew]

Yeah -- the quick version of the intended life:

* frenchman on commission from Academie des Sciences (Paris' cabal of wizards and sorcerers) to assassinate England's astronomer royal as undercover spy
* won to enlightenment's cause, betrays France (who now hunts him)
* adopts a different identity as Gentleman Jim, serving various ends, including (covertly) preventing interference with various astronomical and scientific missions in (observations of the transit of mercury, collection of botanical samples, etc.) which various groups (including the Academie) wish not to take place.

If he was in jail it would have been when he was undercover for the Academie.

 

[Quickleaf]

Great background stuff guys! I'm really enjoying reading about your characters

I just added a whole slew of Encounter Tables to the first page (post #5). If you have a chance, you might check it out; definitely gives you a feel for the setting, and lots of lore tidbits hidden in there too. Maybe it can help anyone still working on their characters ( [MENTION=6755061]Kiraya_TiDrekan[/MENTION], [MENTION=8058]Queenie[/MENTION], [MENTION=51930]fireinthedust[/MENTION]) too as an idea-generator.

Soon I'll add ship-to-ship combat rules. Got to work on the adventure first!

 

[Queenie]

Sooo... Kat's father was a fairly infamous pirate with a boat and crew and the such. I have come up with the way that's all been lost but it will be a goal of Kat's to eventually get her father's boat back. Is that okay? What kind of boat would it be, similar to the one you posted earlier - Blackbeards? She may never get it back so it probably doesn't matter too much. Ideas?