Dromus Prep Thread

[Tux the Penguin]

Okay, after talking at length with Matt, I'm leaning very heavily to playing an Alienist.

I need to see the class to figure out more of the details, but that's what it'll be.

 

[Kelleris]

I refuse to take the blame for that!

 

[Kelleris]

Yes, I know you hate me by now for making you re-download this thing, but here's version 3 of the ever-growing house rules. I've added:

- Contact rules for, you know, contacts. Also a new feat, Outgoing, for you really well-connected people.
- Craft points rules for "overnight" creation of items both mundane and magical - including a special feat for when tomorrow morning just isn't fast enough.
- The Technologist has been revamped, including the long-awaited class ability progression; I suggest everyone reread the whole thing if they care about the class at all, as some of the changes are rather easy to overlook. It has charts now!
- I added a small pile of new feats related to parrying, and changed the parrying rules so that parry rolls are always modified by Dexterity instead of Strength and the effects of various feats on parrying are slightly different.

Any additional changes to these rules will be to the Alienist and Ascetic classes or not something you will need to make your character. I promise! This weekend I will try to reorganize the document so it is less cumbersome - using the miracle of Word document hyperlinking - and will post the final version before Monday. Or maybe on Monday.

In any case, my plan is to have the basics of the campaign setting (that would be information on the seven planes, a cosmology overview, and an idea of setting tone) and then flesh it out a bit over the next week. This will entail some stat-blocks (cities and planes) and more esoteric knowledge that will be in

Spoiler

spoiler tags

and only available to players of characters with a sufficient number of ranks in the Knowledge skill in question.

So far I only have 4 people who have posted to this thread, and 2 more expressing interest who haven't had the time/inclination to register and post (please do, by the way). That means I'll most likely be recruiting a few people from the general populace to make two groups, since 5 is the upper limit of what I want to try to wrangle. Besides, I think it'd be nice for us to get acquainted with some of the people whose board's we're using.

 

[Kelleris]

Oh, and one more thing!

Zeltrachaon and that other one (you know who you are), the Technologist is done as a class, except that, well, there are no devices to choose from. That's because I pretty much just pulled the Technologist out of my DM's hat, so making devices will be what I politely call a "player-directed activity."

That means I let you make them, and then approve them and add them to my ever-growing list of devices to choose from. I'll be available for contact here and via e-mail if you need any help, and if you're truly pressed for time I can do this part for you if you can give me a general idea of what you want each device to do.

The rules are pretty simple. I'm attaching a rough spell effects classification chart - it lists various basic spell effects, and rates them according to the Wizard's, the Cleric's, and the Technologist's ability to manifest that particular effect. For instance, if an effect has a 2 for Technologists, a 1 for Clerics, and a 3 for Wizards and you have a Wizard spell in mind you want to use as the base of the device's effect, you would increase the "spell level" by 1 to make up for a technologist's slightly-reduced ability in that area. If it had been a cleric spell, you would have instead reduced the spell level by 1 for this purpose. Zeroes are a special case: they represent minus 3 levels, basically things that that character class just can't do (Wizards and healing spells, for instance).

Once you have a phantom spell level, price it as below, and see what type of device selection will be required:

1st level - 5 (gadget)
2nd level - 10 (gadget)
3rd level - 15 (gadget)

4th level - 15 (technology)
5th level - 30 (technology)
6th level - 45 (technology)

7th level - 45 (artifact)
8th level - 90 (artifact)
9th level - 135 (artifact)

The numbers up there, from 5 to 135, are the costs for activating an instantaneous effect at that level. If it instead has a duration, divide that number by 5 to find the per-time unit cost. Technologist devices do not have per-level durations - they have a time unit (1 round, 1 minute, 10 minutes, 1 hour) and must be paid for as a swift action to keep them going.

Upgrades are like metamagic feats from the PHB/SRD - artificer upgrades are +1 levels, technologist upgrades +2 levels, and technomancy upgrades +3 levels.

Whew. That's the, uh, short version.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Hey, guys. Sorry about being late in my reply. I have been very busy. Anywho, I'll be playing Feiran except she won't have any of the critters. Actually the living critters will now be mechanoids. She'll be specializing in mechanical things instead of living. Not one word, Errol, about Digimon for I will pour out my undying wrath upon you.

 

[Tux the Penguin]

So, let me see...

We have a god-lackey... that'll be interesting when dealing with someone who likes robotics (for lack of a better word).

And then there is me, who is a Alienist who's magic is even more unpredictable than normal. Oh, and he thinks that all that the other types of magic are simply limited versions of Chaos Magic. This'll be fun.

 

[Chassama]

Finally... I'm now registered. I'll be playing Meridonelathis, a cleric devoted to Kord. I prefer the use of strength first, then anything else goes. Not really much more to say.

 

[Tux the Penguin]

Robert, I've got something to tell you man.

Today, 03:34 AM

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU BOY?

Now back to your regularly scheduled campaign planning...

 

[Kelleris]

So I promised to have setting info and a finished Alienist up by now. Sorry. A couple of guys by the name of Joseph Campbell and Søren Kierkegaard have been working me over pretty bad these last couple of days.

Instead, I have a consolation prize! I need help deciding on a name for one of the planes connecting to Dromus.

The plane in question is the cultural baseline for Dromus in many ways, and is very similar to the northern parts of Faerun in that respect. Think a combination of rugged nordic guy traits and sophisticated swashbuckler traits for the "average" native. The plane would be a pretty hospitable place, except that it's very cold (cold in the make-a-Fort-save-or-take-cold-damage-every-minute sense), forcing visitors to bundle up in heavy clothing to travel though. Natives are attuned to the plane, via the Planar Touchstone feat, and have cold resistance 5. That means they can get around in breeches and tunic during most of the year, despite the alarming chill. The peoples of this yet-to-be-named plane survive through intensive farming in natural and magically-created warm spots and the hardy local plants and animals, many of which are also adapted to local conditions. An honored local custom also involves hunting big game in the warmer parts of the world; in a few places where the plane is fire-dominant instead of water-dominant, a plethora of dangerous creatures that can't survive the cold take refuge.

Right, those are the basics. Now, I have a few names I came up with with the help of DemonWolfZero, so just pick one of the following and tell me about it:

Wintercealde
Caeldwyste
Morgencaeld

I'm sure you can tell what naming conventions I'm using here.

 

[Tux the Penguin]

Hey everyone, I've basically locked in into the idea of playing an Alienist, and I've made a few feats that he will have (one is a feat chain, the other special) that fit the way he casts magic.

The first is called "Faux Spells" which is basically a feat that allows Alienists to cast a limited number of normal spells (or powers), although they are cast using the same mechanics as normal chaos spells. This feat is here since the use of chaos magic is punishable by death. Therefore, Alienists would learn how to try to get around that fact.

The second is a feat tree based on a more chaotic version of chaos magic (yes, more random). Instead of tapping into the Far Realms, those who have these feats (the first must be taken at first level) tap into the chaotic energies that form the foundations of the multiverse (as well as the Far Realms). This allows for more poweful spells, but at a greater risk. Mechanically, these feats are balanced (each has a bonus and a penalty, as well as loss of a class feature or Wisdom), but I cannot tell if they would be balanced unless I play test them (so lets go for it Matt!).

I've basically got my character's history written and I made these feats to fit better the history that he has and the method he uses to cast chaos spells.

Hope you like them!