Kingdom of Alwen Res: Sword of Power Campaign

[Kinger]

Dude. C'mon.

Well, as long as you don't mind using entirely core rules, the SRD for 3.0 and 3.5 can both be found on the internet really easy-like. As for the mic... If you're not heading to Hamilton any time soon, you can probably pick one up for about $5 if you don't mind it sucking.


12th level? Sweet. Time for some kung-fu ass-whooping. This WILL mean, however, that I'll probably need a different back-up character for Fall. Hmm... Okay, both will be grappling monks, but Brother Tanius the Crushing Boa is the one I'd like to be out looking for the One True King, which I expect is the next goal of the party (or at least Galieth ). We'll figure out later exactly how he knows about the whole prophecy stone thing (connections to that wizard who read Flasheye's mind, perhaps?). For now, for the sake of continuity in Alwen Res, I'll play a monk of higher level with a different name. Brother... Uh... Hmm... Right, accessing Angelic Names...

Angel of Wisdom's name was Cherubim. Nah.
Angel of Prophecy: Bath Kol. Nah.
Angel of Temperance: Cassiel. Hmm... Yeah, I'll go with that.

Brother Cassiel, the Vigilant Mountain. Not so much into finding the One True King, more into upholding Order in a land currently plagued by Anarchy.


3rd edition, right? Right. Silly question.

How are we handling ability scores? Your current "roll them in front of me" system has a certain flaw in this situation. Can you guess what it is?

And yes, Skype does conference calling. Jeff, Logan and I use it for online games.

More sample quotes, to be tossed out in combat or something:
"One who has nothing can still give one's life."
"Hope is unnecessary when one has Discipline."
"To swear one's self to the cause of Order is to devote one's self to the highest of ideals."
"Uphold Order today, for tomorrow you may be dead."
"The Lawful must persevere."
"The Path of Law is straight and narrow. Only those with Discipline can withstand Anarchy's attempts to make them stray."
"The Path of Law is strewn with tests: Tests of Ability, Tests of Discipline, tests of Faith, tests of Will. One must overcome all tests in order to reach the path's end."
"Strength comes only to those with a Cause."

 

[DungeonMaster]

That sucks Jason... here's a link to a web-browsable version of the core rules:
http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/srd.html

How are we handling ability scores? Your current "roll them in front of me" system has a certain flaw in this situation. Can you guess what it is?

Ah but there you are wrong young grasshopper. For the internet is populated with many old-school DMs who in their old-school pig-headedness have banded together to create online databases so that we can continue to roll dice for ability score generation regardless of distance! You have yet to learn Drunken-Foo-Dog-Miracle-Kick! Ah-cho! *crack*
Here's an example:
http://www14.brinkster.com/nadaka/DiceBoxDB.asp?Page=Directions
So if you search under the name Cassiel you will find a sample!
Try it out under that name!
Then when you're ready to roll proper do it under the name "brother cassiel".

And yes, Skype does conference calling. Jeff, Logan and I use it for online games.

Great! I will try and get ahold of a pair by the end of the week. In the interim we'll hopefully see some characters!
Standard wealth, no items with caster level >14 but everything else is good. Starting XP is 70 000 and anyone with crafting feats can use up to 4000 XP for crafting gear at half price!
I want to test out some rather "dicey" monsters from the MM2, mostly old 2nd edition things updated, so be prepared!

 

[Kinger]

Bah! You old fools lack the vision of the young. You cannot see the heavenly virtues of progress! Your Drunken-Foo-Dog-Miracle-Kick is no match for my Crane-Beak-Willow-Point-Buy Style!

But, since you're the DM, I guess I gotta roll. Okay... I think I see how this works...

Right, there we go. Scores of 16 16 14 11 10 10 under "Brother Cassiel." Not bad, actually.

Brother Cassiel: Human Monk 12. I expect I'll have high strength, wisdom, and constitution. This should work out pretty good.

Details to come!

 

[Kinger]

ph34r the wr47h of Vigi14n73 M0un74in!

Oh, you're gonna LOVE this...

I used a few things from Sword & Fist, which are tentative at best. As always, you have a yay-or-nay say regarding non-core feats, items, etc. All S&F stuff marked with *.

Brother Cassiel, the Vigilant Mountain
LG/LN (haven't decided which) Human Monk 12
28 yrs old, 6'4", 227lbs, speaks Common
Str 20 +5
Dex 12 +1
Con 14 +2
Int 10 +0
Wis 22 +6
Cha 10 +0

HP 88, Initiative +5, Speed 70
AC 25, Touch 22, Flat-Footed 24

Fortitude +11
Reflex +10
Will +15

Melee bonus 14
Ranged bonus 10

Attacks:
Unarmed Strike +14/+11/+8 (or +12/+12/+9/+6 with Flurry), 1d12+5
When charging, deals 2d12+10 thanks to Sandals of the Tiger's Leap*
When charging and making a successful jump check, deals 2d12+20 thanks to Mantis Leap*
Grapple +23/+18, 1d12+5
Includes +5 enhancement to check from Gloves of Fearsome Grip*
Melee touch +14/+9 to initiate

Skills:
Balance +18
Climb +25 (includes +5 from Gloves of Fearsome Grip*)
Jump +52 (yes, FIFTY-TWO, thank-you Ring of Jumping!)
Listen +21
Search +0
Spot +11
Tumble +18

Feats:
Monk 1: Improved Unarmed Strike
1st level: Improved Grapple
Human: Improved Initiative
Monk 2: Deflect Arrows
3rd level: Blindfight
Monk 6: Improved Trip
6th level: Knockdown*
9th level: Run
12th level: Mantis Leap*

Special Abilites:
Stunning Fist 12/day, DC 22
Abundant Step 1/day (Go Dimension Door!)

Evasion, Still Mind (+2 vs Enchantment), Slow Fall 50ft, Purity of Body (immune to mundane disease), Wholeness of Body (24hp/day), Leap of the Clouds, Improved Evasion, Ki Strike +1, Diamond Body (immune to poison)

Possessions (GP Cost):
Belt of Giant Strength +4 (16000)
Periapt of Wisdom +4 (16000)
Bracers of Armor +3 (9000)
Ring of Protection +2 (8000)
Cloak of Resistance +1 (1000)
Dusty Rose Ioun Stone +1 deflection (4000)
Sandals of the Tiger's Leap* (3500)
Gloves of Fearsome Grip* (15000)
Eyes of the Eagle (1000)
2 Potions of See Invisibility (300 x2)
3 Potions of Cure Moderate Wounds (300 x3)
1 Potion of Blur (300)
2 Potions of Enlarge at 5th Caster Level (250 x2)
Backpack (2)
Bedroll (0.1)
Flint and Steel (1)
Everburning Torch (90)
Masterwork Manacles (50)
10 days Trail Rations (5)
Waterskin (1)
50 gold pieces, 9 silver


And that's it.
Oh, and take note of my ability to Jump. 52 is really high, of course, but take into account the fact that my maximum distance is not limited by my height (Thanks, Leap of the Clouds!), I move at 70 rather than 30, and I have the Run feat. All told, the distance I can running jump is equal to (I believe):
(1d20 + 47) x 70/30 (from faster movement) x 5/4 (from Run)
= (1d20 + 47) x 35/12 ~= (1d20 + 47) x 3
Which, on a roll of 1, is STILL about 140 feet. Considering I need to run 20ft first, there appears to be NO WAY I won't jump my maximum moveable distance in a round. I mean, DAMN.

This is gonna rock.

 

[DungeonMaster]

Looks great Steve! I'll allow it all.

One comment though - an AC of 30 is pretty much required for mellee at these levels if you don't have spring-attack. For some figures of merit your average young adult red-dragon has +27 to hit CR 12, a noble salamander CR 9 has +23 and a cloud giant +22 CR 11. Many of these can kill your monk in 1-round of not terribly lucky full attacks without muscle thrown in from power-attack.
The dusty rose ioun stone doesn't stack with the ring of protection because they're both deflection bonuses.
I suggest an amulet of natural armor for a cheap increase and something to improve dex like an ioun stone.
So unless you have a plan I don't know about or I recall the feats wrong I highly suggest an AC of ~30!
Expertise can net you the difference too.
A jump of +52 is very cool isn't it?
But can you cling to the wall grasshopper? Oh wait... you can climb a standard DC 25 brick wall automatically...

 

[Kinger]

I could have sworn deflection bonuses stack... Wait, no, it's only Dodge that does.

Okay, changing...

And I'd rather have a Periapt of Wisdom than an Amulet of Natural Armor. Both take up the "amulet/periapt/scarab/broach/thingy" slot of the body.

If I had rolled one higher for my Dex I would be able to take Dodge/Mobility/Spring Attack, which would be good, but as it stands I can't. Also, Intelligence isn't high enough for Expertise. So, I'm stuck with relying on items, mainly.

And just re-adding up my costs... I've got about 14000 left over. Whoops! Can't have that!

Dropping the stone... upping Bracers to +4...
Dropping Cloak of Resistance, adding Deep Red Ioun...
Swapping Con and Dex scores...

All told, AC of 27. Hmm...

Replace Blindfight with Dodge (and aim to take the S&F feat Blindsight 5ft when I can)
Replace Run with Mobility
Sigh. Still no Spring Attack.

Well, I want to charge as much as I can, so Spring Attack isn't quite what I want, but I don't have the AC to compete in melee, really. I DO have the Tumble skill necessary to nullify any Attacks of Opportunity over 20ft, so Mobility isn't as useful there anyway.

No, I think I'll stick with Blindfight and Run. Hmm...

At 4th level I'd up my 11 Con to 12 for a higher mod. 8th level, up Wisdom to 17. Same with 12th level. I COULD put those into Dex instead, BUT, I get the AC bonus from Wisdom as well (being a Monk), and it applies in all instances a Dex bonus would along with OTHER times (flat-footed, for example).

Okay, dropping Run. Means I can't jump QUITE as far, but whatever. Taking Mantis Leap at 9th level, and Pain Touch* at 12th. Now, creatures Stunned are Nauseated the round following. At level 15 I plan on taking Blindsight, most likely.

Still have the 27 AC, though. That could hurt. Well, I guess we'll just have to see how it goes. Brother Cassiel is a "strike down Anarchy" kinda guy anyway, so I think he's more into fighting chaotic humanoids with class levels (see the manacles). If we go up against MONSTERS, hopefully we'll have a meatshield to go first. I'm looking in your directions, Doc and Bif. I chose a non-standard class, so you lot have to make up for it.


We'll just see how the leap-half-a-mile-with-a-flying-kick Monk fares. Hopefully better than Black Belt.

 

[DungeonMaster]

Ok! And you can technically almost meet a maralith at this level so Black-belt syndrome may occur....
Now all we need is more characters!

 

[Kinger]

I just have to hope 2d12+20 plus a DC 22 Stun is enough to make the thing reconsider its present course of action. On top of that I get a free trip attempt for doing more than 10 damage.

Oh wait, I bet that thing has damage reduction, don't it? Okay, 2d12+10. Damn.


EDIT: Please, please, please, PLEASE someone make a fighter that uses sword-chucks. Think of the pwn@ge!

 

[DungeonMaster]

Now if there's only some more support for the idea...

 

[Kinger]

C'mon guys! I can't wrestle Maraliths on my own!

EDIT: Or CAN I??? What's a Maralith's grapple mod? I know they'll have a pretty nasty attack bonus, strength bonus, and are probably large (another +4), and I bet they have Constrict on top of it all. Man, I need a Constrict feat or something.