Gaming W/Jemal: Planar Quest! (Closed)

[Scott DeWar]

[MENTION=4936]Shayuri[/MENTION]: Wow. Either, and i am just guessing, you are a lawyer or a daoist or both.

 

[Shayuri]

Hee hee

Can't claim to be either, sadly, though Taoism is interesting.

It's just Chinese folk mythology with the serial numbers filed off, a few little quirks of my own thrown in, and probably a whole pile of errors to round it all off.

 

[Binder Fred]

Shock Trooper DOES allow a free trip check against both targets, but it's not using 'improved trip', it's a reaction to the bull rush, so doesn't grant the extra free attack from improved trip. Hows that sound?

Pretty good. Clarification: does he still use the +4 from Improved Trip (or increased size for that matter) on the opposed str check? What about somebody Bull Rushed into a wall or other obstacle, does that allow a (simple) Trip attempt as well?

I'm sort of hoping you'll give out AC and Str bonuses on our opponents so I can work out the effects of Ur's attacks in my posts. Else it's going to be a lot of "If pushed back at least 10' into *that* guy's square, then trip attempt and use remaining attacks on this other guy. If pushed back just 5', then, etc, etc".

It's just Chinese folk mythology with the serial numbers filed off, a few little quirks of my own thrown in, and probably a whole pile of errors to round it all off.

Interresting stuff. Hope we get a chance to discuss it IC. Just wondering, but what do you see as the relationship between these Gods and mortals? For example, how does prayer work in this context (if at all?) and what of the role of the earthly emperor and his court? Do they have a special relationship with the heavens (as claimed by pretty much all of them IRL)?

[MENTION=49929]Scott DeWar[/MENTION], know you're busy right now, but did you see the question about choosing a "pantheon head" for Rauland in my last post?

 

[Shayuri]

In theory, gods have a wide latitude over their earthly area of authority...so mortals can and do pray to the gods of the field for rich harvests, to gods of weather for rain, to gods of fertility for strong and healthy children, and so on.

The degree to which those prayers are answered is, as in real life, debtable. This is because in practice, the gods' actions are constrained by other gods, and the Byzantine agreements and various opposing and mutual interests that bind them. You might pray to a god for rain, but that god might be causing a drought as part of a contractual agreement to a desert god...in return for which the rain god gets something else. The mortal has no idea of all this...he just knows it's not raining.

Of course, if the mortal can get the god's attention somehow, and make a good case, and perhaps placate the desert god enough to release the rain god from the contract...then rain could come!

So there can be interactions. It's just not a normal state of affairs. It's a little like praying for a driver's license renewal, or a tax refund check. You'll get what you want eventually, but there are gears and circuits whirring that control it all that you'll never see unless you make extraordinary effort to penetrate the system.

As for the relationship between the Eternal Empire, and their quirky notion of a celestial monarcy/bureaucracy...the earthly Emperor claims a mandate from heaven, of course. It's not a hereditary position. When an Emperor falls, there are a series of divine tests to determine which candidate has the favor of the gods and of the Celestial Emperor.

In theory, anyone can be a candidate. In practice, only those who have great education (which requires money and/or political clout) will ever get past the first round of tests, which are designed to weed out spurious claims. Various other challenges sneakily test a candidate's political aplomb, statesmanship and knowledge of law and philosophy...all the while cloaked in trappings of ritual and appeals to divine guidence.

In the end though, it's pretty well known that the final decision is made by a circle of high priests. They lack direct power over government and state, but by virtue of their capacity to select Emperors, they have tremendous influence. They are pantheist priests, beholden to no one god, except the Celestial Emperor himself.

By virtue of access to powerful magic and the resources of the entire nation, the Emperor tends to live a long, long time.

----

I see the Eternal Empire as being very human-centric, by the by. The Conclave, which is the advisory body to the Emperor, and is where most of the actual work of governance takes place, has a handful of nonhuman delegates to speak for their people...but they're too few to be easily heard. Most nonhumans either integrate into human society (halflings and 'halfbloods'), or keep to isolated enclaves of their own (gnomes, dwarves, elves).

 

[Wrahn]

Voda,

I was looking at the characters and your equipment cost looked wrong to me. I added it up and I got 653,711, which is considerably less than the alloted amount for a 20th level character. Anyway, I could be wrong and I missed something in your format (btw you have the cost for the boots of striding and springing wrong. )

Also, I am not sure I understand how you have your stats allocated. If I understand correctly there is a base 10, with 30 stat points (not stat buy) to distribute. As near as I can tell, your base buy looks like:

Str 36 (16 Base +10 Race +4 Level +6 Enhancement)
Dex 16 (18 Base -4 Race +2 Enhancement)
Con 14 (14 Base +4 Race +4 Inherent +6 Enhancement)
Int 13 (17 Base -4 Race)
Wis 10 (10 Base)
Cha 8 (12 Base -4 Race)

Which is 27 points. Again, I could be wrong here. just seeing discrepency and thought I should mention it, since it would be in your favor to change it

 

[Scott DeWar]

Voda,

I was looking at the characters and your equipment cost looked wrong to me. I added it up and I got 653,711, which is considerably less than the alloted amount for a 20th level character. Anyway, I could be wrong and I missed something in your format (btw you have the cost for the boots of striding and springing wrong. )

Also, I am not sure I understand how you have your stats allocated. If I understand correctly there is a base 10, with 30 stat points (not stat buy) to distribute. As near as I can tell, your base buy looks like:

Str 36 (16 Base +10 Race +4 Level +6 Enhancement)
Dex 16 (18 Base -4 Race +2 Enhancement)
Con 14 (14 Base +4 Race +4 Inherent +6 Enhancement)
Int 13 (17 Base -4 Race)
Wis 10 (10 Base)
Cha 8 (12 Base -4 Race)

Which is 27 points. Again, I could be wrong here. just seeing discrepency and thought I should mention it, since it would be in your favor to change it

Wrahn, we have a budget of 1 million gp

also on his stats, did you account for stat boosts every 4 levels?

 

[Scott DeWar]

Binder Fred: No I did not see that question addressed to me. Sorry about that. I really don't know at this time. This city-state might be pantheistic as there are going to be so many societies present. Heck, there could be a Lawful neutral contingent of hobgoblin mercs for hire and/or part of the city's defenses.

*shrug*

there could be various temples for aspect to be worshiped:

near the ocean for posiden, Odin and who ever

a shrine for miliekie, the green man and Apollo

a fighter school with a shrine for Mars, Athena, and ????

thieves guilds each with their own 'patron saint'

/*shrug*

 

[Wrahn]

Wrahn, we have a budget of 1 million gp

also on his stats, did you account for stat boosts every 4 levels?

Yeah, that was why I mentioned it. Now I could be misreading the character and not seeing some other stuff he has, but it drew my attention because I was trying to figure out what he did with all his money.

And yeah, I assumed he put his 4 points (if you follow the rules is the epic level handbook the bonus stats are based on hit dice (and level) and not effective level) into strength

 

[Binder Fred]

This city-state might be pantheistic as there are going to be so many societies present.

Well, let's start right there (and I think you have the wrong word there (Pantheism is the belief that the universe/nature *is* God), but I understand what you mean): I was thinking of Rauland as an actual country, a kingdom to be precise. If we're talking city-state, then we're talking about an entirely different scale.... A scale that, IMHO, does't fit too well with opposing, and winning, against the conquering clutches of a full-blown foreign *empire* (Dormith).

As briefly mentionned before, I'm personnaly thinking of Rauland as a chaotic land rich in natural ressources (mostly wood, fertile soil for farming and sun-dappled meadows for raising cattle, metals would come from trade (dwarfs? Historically Kadrath? That would certainly have put the pinch on Rauland when Dormith invaded then)). The country rises as one goes inland, crumpling into tree-covered hills from which the rocky points of Tutek's mountains eventually burst through, climbing the sky. Cities/major town would be rare (just the one city?), clustering near the coast, at the mouth of rivers (the main method of transportation into the heart of the country -- though the fore-country would have plenty of trails and sea-side earthen roads). Rauland's natural wealth would flow/float down these rivers - um, let's make it a single large one called The White - to be traded with the neighbouring countries at Gerard's city which sits on both sides of the White (much calmer and siltier, almost lazy in its flowing at this point -- and much browner). Under Rauland's green covering sits the ruins of at least two ancient kindgoms, including the crumbling Sounding Wall, once meant to keep Tutek's ancestors at bay (there is even a rumour that much of the foundation of Gerard's city was originally from a much older (and stranger, some say non-human (quasi-human?)) city that occupied the same spot).

In this context, I suggest we relocate the capital further along the coast and a bit inland, in a large town that's much less cosmopolitan/forward-thinking than Gerard's city. Would have made for some interresting tension, I think.

My point being that Rauland, however we end up defining it, should have it's own personality (and not be defined simply as a meeting point for other cultures (that can be what defines Gerard's city, if you want Scott)). Choosing a head for its pantheon is therefore a big part of the flavor we can impart to the country where we spent all those exciting early years of our adventuring career.

So, yes, multi-God worship is pretty much a given (polytheism). The idea here though, is that "posiden" would be a demi-god - say a mighty fisherman that slew the dread elemental Kraken in the gulf of Pluwy (I had already named the gulf, so I call dibs ) and mapped the way around the Dragon Claw islands before re-discovering the sunken city of Raksassa from where he now rules his underwater kingdom after being rewarded and raised to Godhood by... [insert Pantheon head here]. This entity would sort of tie the different aspects of the country into a central theme (imagine a map of the world with the gigantic figures of each pantheon head standing tall on their chosen country -- or sitting on his jade throne in Shayuri's case ). I would personnaly go with something Norse, Celtic, Finnish or maybe even Summerian to encapsulate the wild and free aspect of Rauland vs the ordered nature of Dormith (as personnified by Atana/Athena), but that's just me.

Thoughts?

 

[Shayuri]

I suggest the mountains that Tutek hails from can also be the barrier mountains between the rugged forested foothills sloping down into Rauland, and the bitter desert wastes between the Empire and Rauland.

Mei and Tutek may even have met while she made her crossing into Rauland...