(D&D 3.5) The Goblins of the Shattershtruk Hills

[Felix]

Cassander,

I'm vacillating between Ftr4 and Ftr2/Clr2. When need I let you know the final decision? That would also likely change the equipment selection a touch. I suppose the other party members might help me make that decision: if we have few other fighter types but plenty of spellcasting, I'd stay fighter; if we have lots of mundane fighting capability, I could throw my weight in and help out with the healing.

masterwork bonus to your waraxe

Oh, thanks for that. With that tower shield and Combat Expertise, every little bit will help, eh?

pull off 64 gp in equipment

Right on. I bought all my mundane stuff last so that put me over the mark by a touch; I suppose I was trying to get by without tightening my belt too much. I'll just drop a potion and a few sundry to bring it under 5400.

Would it be considered too metagamey if I made a ranger with favored enemy: goblin?

Alas, the Goblinbane weapons are beyond us!

It sounds like we need to be prepped to kick some serious Goblin butt; how about making it a grudge match with an All-Dwarf Party? Sound tasty to anyone?

 

[Cassander]

I'm vacillating between Ftr4 and Ftr2/Clr2. When need I let you know the final decision? That would also likely change the equipment selection a touch. I suppose the other party members might help me make that decision: if we have few other fighter types but plenty of spellcasting, I'd stay fighter; if we have lots of mundane fighting capability, I could throw my weight in and help out with the healing.

You can confer with the other players as much as you need to before the adventure, just as if you all were sitting around the table discussing who'll play what. I'd like to see the sheets by about a week before the gameday to make sure everything looks ok.

 

[Dungannon]

Alas, no all-dwarf party here. I briefly considered a dwarf cleric, but right now I'm thinking either human ranger or human rogue.

 

[Felix]

Ach! Ah well. So much for hoping I wasn't going to be hopelessly outpaced by a party who can move 30ft/round.

 

[Cassander]

I've gone a little math crazy and added rules for buying items for 1/2 or 1/3 price if a character has a craft skill. So if you want to give your character some ranks in a craft skill, you can buy items for less using the rules I added. It's all in the first post covered up by a hide/show tag since it's a bit complex.

Essentially, I've taken the dice rolling out of craft and assumed a linear distribution on the craft check rolls that would have to be made to craft the item. I assume there will be 1 failure of 5 or more, which will require buying half the raw materials again. So the total raw materials come out to 1/3 the market price *1.5 (initial +failure), which is 1/2 market price. For that 1 failure, I calculate the number of successes you'd get on average and multiply that by the average gp result of each success. The result is the max value of an item you can buy for a given DC and craft skill bonus while making an average of 1 failure. If your bonus is high enough that you never fail by 5 or more, however, you can obviously make the item for 1/3 price.

But really, you don't need to understand how I created the table to understand how to use it, which hopefully is clearer due to the example I gave. Let me know if you have any questions.

And if all this is too complicated, don't worry about it. The GP saved might not be worth the complexity for most items. But if you want your character to make something for less using the craft skill, feel free to give this a shot.

---

Have fun creating your characters... 5 weeks till gameday

 

[Dungannon]

I've finished my character, I'll get him formatted for posting tonight.

 

[Dungannon]

I present to you Arkady Blackthorn, rogue extrordinaire.

 

[Cassander]

I present to you Arkady Blackthorn, rogue extrordinaire.

So you decided not to go with the ranger/favored enemy:goblin after all, eh?

Your character sheet looks good... I just see a few minor issues:

1. Might want to note your Dodge bonus on your AC if you think you might forget it, though of course it's just against one opponent.

2. Short Sword has a crit range of 19-20.

3. Dagger actually has crit range of 19-20/x2, not x3 as listed. Unless you mean this to be a punching dagger? If it's not a punching dagger, then you might want to also list it as a thrown weapon with range and a different attack bonus due to Dex over Str.

4. You can select one more language for free. You have Common down, which you get for free, and then Dwarven and Goblin. But due to your 16 int, you can select 3 extras.

5. I believe you have only assigned 75 skill points instead of your total of 78. All the skills you took ranks in are class skills, so you can put three more skill points into your skills.

6. You forgot to factor in your mwk thieves tools in your Disable Device and Open Lock bonuses. These should be 2 higher, I think.

7. You don't have the synergy bonus notated that you get from Escape Artist. That'll give you a +2 bonus on Use Rope checks to tie people up.

Additionally, you can also up some other skill bonuses by using even more synergy. As just one example, instead of having 3 ranks each in bluff and diplomacy, you could put 5 ranks in bluff and 1 rank in diplomacy and get a higher bonus in one skill and the same bonus in the other for the same 6 skill point cost... in this case you'd also get additional bonuses to other skills like Intimidate and Sleight of Hand since Bluff is excellent for synergy. Just something to think about.

 

[Dungannon]

INT was 15 until 4th level (that's where my extra point went), thus only having 2 extra languages. As for the skill points, I forgot to list a skill. I also have Tumble w/3 ranks. I'll repost a corrected sheet later. I have a full character sheet I'll be bringing with me with the situational stuff figured out, what I posted is just the basics for your review.

 

[Cassander]

INT was 15 until 4th level (that's where my extra point went), thus only having 2 extra languages. As for the skill points, I forgot to list a skill. I also have Tumble w/3 ranks. I'll repost a corrected sheet later. I have a full character sheet I'll be bringing with me with the situational stuff figured out, what I posted is just the basics for your review.

Ah. Now that I look into the question of whether you get new languages if your INT increases, the rules are somewhat contradictory. On the one hand, it says that INT is applied to languages your character starts the game with, which would imply you do not get new languages, but it also says that you get everything with an increased score except retroactive skill points for INT... nothing is said about bonus languages.

And the missing Tumble makes sense... I was wondering why you had Dodge and Mobility but not Tumble.

And thanks for the basics... I just pointed out things I saw. I know it's easy to drop a modifier here or there.