DnD 3.5 - Valley of the Dead

[Myth and Legend]

Some suggestions. These are from the powergamer inside me, nothing wrong with them rules-wise.

Geryk Lavrynt:

Lose combat casting, it's a trap. Just max your Concentration check and get more Constitution!

No point in taking Extra Turning if you won't be blowing trough your daily turnings for DMM

Zen Archery is good if you plan to build your whole character around it. If you prefer melee go for a two-handed weapon and buff yourself with DMM!

Shielded casting is... so-so. A 5 foot step, anklets of translocation, anyone using Benign Transposition or a bunch of other things could stop or minmize AOOs. Anyway melee enemies will rarely have any significant impact on your spellcastig, the ones who can stop you from casting a spell are enemy casters or some insidious DM "rocks fall" type enemy that nauseates/stuns/one shots you. In effect this is a very sub-par feat (and remember your feats are precious!)

Lose Heavy Armour Optimisation. There is no benefit to having it that is worth one of your precious 8 feats. Get some Mitrhil armour instead.

Your stats - do you need 12 int? Being a human with 10 int already gives you 2 skills per level.

The charisma is nice if you plan to use DMM like a madman. If you just want to have it because it's fitting, get an item of extra cha.

Definitely lose the dex, it's a take it or leave it stat. Plus you don't have many ranged touch spells. Plus you got Zen archery anyway.

Get 16 Con! Con is what gives you HP at the later levels, not racial or class HD.


Get more holy symbols - get wooden ones, metal ones, get one engraved on your shield (if you insist on having a shield), one on your armour, get sevral spares, get one tattoed on your chest etc. Trust me.

Also, please paragraphs in your otherwise wonderful biography


Zinerath Woesbane

Get 16 Con
Umm you're planing to use your primary weapon in addition to your natural attacks? Please list your attack sequence such as +5/+4/+1 1d10 stick, +3/ 1d4 horns +2 1d6 tail slap etc. (i'm making it up for an example)

Explain your high Dex if you're not going for a finesse type character. More Str = more damage and even more damage for PA

It's an unconventional build and has great flavor, but I have to research it in detail to tell you where you'll end up power-wise, though that's not horribly important.

The guys over at GITP can help you optmize it. Just don't let them make you into a demigod and ignore the guy who comes and tells you to roll a Wizard instead (it always happens there )

Not sure where you got that folding boat from but you'll scarcely need it. Get a scroll of waterwalk or dark way or something and give it to our UAI monkey insetad Spend that gold on something else. There are a ton of great items in the MIC.

BTW explain to me how is your character CN if he can "Smite Good"?


Mei-Ying

Firball will certainly be tempting but no Fly? Fly makes the world go round for arcanists

Needs an appearance.


I haven't done the math for your items (that's not horribly vital, I tend to throw gold around anyway), I haven't cheked the BAB/save bonuses from all your classes put together and I haven't checked the prerequisites for all the feats, though most I know by heart.

 

[Shayuri]

I usually hold out for Overland Flight.

And Mei isn't as melee-shy as most arcanists are, since her charged strikes and AC are pretty decent.

Appearance and background are almost ready for primetime. Should be adding them tonight.

 

[Scotley]

Interesting suggestions. I think I did equip multiple holy symbols including one painted on the shield. I believe I took combat casting as a pre-req for shielded caster with the expectation that he would be staying deep in melee and doing some spell casting from there. The dex and heavy armor optim. were with an eye toward being in melee a good bit. I'll look over the choices as I didn't really try to max him out.

I'll add some breaks in the narrative for readability as well.

 

[Myth and Legend]

Had to get off the PC abruptly last night, will give you the summary later today.

Scotley your assumption is that you'll be somehow knee-deep in hordes of mindless melee monsters. Hollywood has preconditioned people I suppose

That's not necessarily true for VotD. Don't get me wrong it's a nice trick to have In at least 1/3 of the situations, but feats are very important.

Google the Clerics Handbook or the CoDzilla guide for some more info.

 

[Malachei]

Roll a wizard instead.

))

 

[Myth and Legend]

Heh Malachei I thought you had left us for greener pastures tended by more attentive and regular shepherds?

Le summary (as I promised):


The town of Angelwatch has been built around the ruins of an older town that pre-dates the current nation of Muirlane. One of the remnants of that previous civilization is a large area, a narrow but long valley that is littered with crypts, overgrown cemetery parks, marked and unmarked graves, tombs, mausoleums and so on. It's too big, too weird and has too much trouble and unexplained phenomenon linked to it for the regular folk of Angelwatch to use it. For as long as anyone can remember, there's been no going in or out of the Valley of the Dead (as the locals call it), and the lychgate has been sealed in a manner beyond what common folk can open.

The Temple of Lathander has established a dominant presence in Angelwatch, not in the least because they keep the fear of evil, undead things crawling out of the valley, at bay. As of late things have started getting strange however, and that fear has resurfaced and the time for the Temple to prove true and protect the people who have given it their devotion and faith has come

Dwanbringer Ferviel is the local head of the Temple - it is rumoured he was once a part of an elite force for the temple that had been sent on the most dangerous of missions which concerned undead, and indeed he mentioned battling a Lich at least once. He is the one who knows how to unseal the lycgate that guards the threshold of the valley.

Things have been strange for a while - people have been going missing, livestock has been found torn apart around the more remote farms around Angelawtch and when a party of local adventurers was sent to investigate the Valley, none returned.

This prompted a sudden and fierce response from the local ranger - Bran Bloodmane, who apparently had encountered some zombies and returned to town with their heads on display in an attempt to spurt the local Temple into action. Such things were not needed however, as the followers of Lathander were already quite far gone into preparations for what appears to be a holy Crusade of sorts. With a band of paladins of Lathander from the Order of Aster, lead by none other than the famous Lazarus Trimenheim, and a multitude of gathered sellswords and adventurers, they were quick to amass a sizable force and rode out of town under the cheering of the crowds.

Granted, the town was not particularly a calm place, but at the time of the army leaving, things had quieted down. An advance scouting party was sent to investigate the way and to avoid any mishaps or ambushes, not that such were likely so close to Angelwatch. The party encountered a farmhouse that showed signs of a recent struggle and massacre, and in the process of investigation Adelaide Swiftblade, Lazarus's third in command was slain. Here our story continues...

 

[Myth and Legend]

Updated the IC.

BTW need Rufus in the RG, and need a background for him. I'm going on a business trip from tomorrow until Wednesday. I'll update if I can, but If I can't you might have to wait until Thursday.

 

[Dragonwriter]

Done and done.

For some reason, I'd simply been stymied when it came to writing a semi-coherent background for Rufus. As it is, I'm not thrilled with this one... but at least it makes a modicum of sense.

 

[Voda Vosa]

Is Thok able to produce some kind of fire and burn the barn with the zombies inside?

 

[Myth and Legend]

I believe your inventory was lacking the more mundane items such as flints and needles etc. Thok could theoretically set fire to the barn but remember it was raining last night (well, I don't really expect you to remember that ). So, everything on the outside is damp. There is a pile of hay inside, but it's on the far end of the building (check a few posts back in the IC, there is a map)