[One PC Needed!]3.5 ed. CORE + approval game[One PC Needed!]

[michael_noah]

Lots of responses so far!

As a note, I'll be more inclined to allow non-core material for characters that actually need it. A halfling outrider is a great example of this, as it's something that really couldn't be accomplished without some specialty material. Almost all of the non-core Cleric/Wizard prestige classes seem to simply make what are already very powerful, interesting options even moreso. I'd have to see Radiant servant of Pelor again to see which category it fits into.

@Lord Dominus: I'll obviously take into account the ability of everyone to keep up, but if you can craft a good character, I'll probably not be to worries on needing to explain, e.g. the grappling rules, from time to time. I'm also looking at the Malhavoc Press books. I like a number of them at first glance, but worry they might stray too far from the Core environment I'm familiar with.

@Ivellious: I don't know yet the exact nature of the adventures we'll have, but almost all campaigns will involve significant time in dungeons, cities, etc. where a mount may not be as helpful. That's one reason I'm inclined to allow some non-core options for this sort of character in order to make it worth it when the mount is around. The lizard, I'd have to think about ;-)

 

[randomling]

Randomling: If you like the background stories, then you should go bard. You can have tons of fun with their histories (You can with just about anything, but bards do it with class ) Only reason why I said more combat oritent is because they get to actually cast spells in lower classes of armor with out arcane speel failure. That, and they get a better bab rate. Though I know what you mean about a good mix of rp and hack-n-slash. You get a good mix, and I'll be hooked till the end of time

I know what you mean, but I actually don't enjoy bards that much for some reason, so I think I'll stick with sorcerer this time around. (Aaaages since I've played a caster, actually!)

It's lots of fun writing long and involved histories for your character, but much more fun to have your character's, er, character have an impact on the game (and the game have an impact on the character, other than death or levelling up). That's what I mean by character developement. I'm actually more likely to start with a reasonably sketchy character history and flesh both the history and the personality out during play. That way the fun stuff happens in the game rather than before it starts!

 

[Dichotomy]

I haven't submitted too many characters recently, but if anybody has been paying attention, I have a nasty hankering to play a bard. And mid-levels is right where I'd like to be.

As for adventures to use, I've nothing terribly useful to add to the above, other than to note that there could easily be a ton of completely 3.5 adventures in Dungeon. Perhaps if you checked the Paizo boards (but don't you dare look at the Age of Worms boards) you'd get some good insight.

As for stuff outside of core, the only thing that I'd likely have any interest in is the bardic music feats from CAdv. I like my bards to be the masters of diversity that they naturally are.

 

[Ivellious]

I know what you mean, but I actually don't enjoy bards that much for some reason, so I think I'll stick with sorcerer this time around. (Aaaages since I've played a caster, actually!)

It's lots of fun writing long and involved histories for your character, but much more fun to have your character's, er, character have an impact on the game (and the game have an impact on the character, other than death or levelling up). That's what I mean by character developement. I'm actually more likely to start with a reasonably sketchy character history and flesh both the history and the personality out during play. That way the fun stuff happens in the game rather than before it starts!

lol, I know exactly what you mean with the histories. That's why I don't really try making the nice long impressive histories with my characters just because not alot of it is going to come up in play (Might be an odd quirk here or there, but that's easily fixed )

 

[hero4hire]

If you are looking for interested players, I wouldnt mind playing a Half-Orc Shaman (Barbarian/Druid)

 

[Rino]

well have we decided on a module? if we have then i can start building

 

[michael_noah]

I have not yet decided on an adventure. I'm out of town a bit for Christmas, but will be back looking through bookstores as of tomorrow. I'll be attempting to make the choice by the start of the new year, and will post shortly after that with a request/deadline for character submissions.

Thank you all for your interest and suggestions, feel free to keep adding them.

 

[Voidrazor]

So I've been thinking a lot about what non-core twist to put on my druid. What I'd like to play is a CN druid 'bound' to the Abyss through the Planar Shepard PrC (Faiths of Eberron p. 105). Admittedly the class is considered pretty broken, and rightly so, due to 3 of its abilities.

At 4th level it gives Planeshift once per day (twice at 8th) to the character's 'attuned plane'. The attuned plane is chosen at 1st and can't be changed thereafter. Since the attuned plane in this case would be the Abyss, planeshifting there would be a Bad Idea. But if you wanted to nerf away the second use at 8th (character level 13), no problem.

At 5th level Planar Shepard provides a power called Planar Bubble once a day. This makes a 20' radius area around the character take on the characteristics of the attuned plane. This is ridiculously broken in Eberron where one could choose a plane called Dal Quor that has a time characteristic that runs 10 times faster than the prime material. But the Abyss' only characteristic is that its elemental and energy traits (see p. 148 of the DMG) are variable. This could mean that when my character uses it nothing happens except for a creepy (but non game effecting) atmosphere. Or at DM option, and when appropriate to the plot, it could have a number of interesting effects.

At 9th level (character level 14) the PrC gives the ability to change into outsiders native to the attuned plane AND gain their EX, SU and SP abilities. That, of course, is just silly. If we get to 14th, which is unlikely in a PbP game, by all means nerf or remove it.

There is a power, granted at 3rd that I really like. It lets you change into magical beasts native to your chosen plane. This includes creatures whose type changes to magical beast due to the fiendish template. To my knowledge there are no magical beasts native to the Abyss other than creatures with the fiendish template. So, is there any chance I could use a fiendish Sphinx as my druid's primary wildshape form? This would have some advantages over the usual dire or polar bear, but would lack much of the bear's massive strength (and hence ability to hit and win grapples). The most important difference to my mind though is that sphinxes can speak, and thus RP.

Let me know what you think.

 

[michael_noah]

Well, I walked in to Barnes and Noble today and found that they have absolutely zero source books. Hopefully I'll have better luck tomorrow at Shinder's...

@Voidrazor: If your goal is to play a planar-oriented druid, that would certainly seem to be the class to take. As you noted, it needs serious overhall in order to become non-game breaking (this I know merely from occasionally browsing the Char-Op boards at Wizards). If you have access to the class and can send me the abilities, etc., I'd be happy to look it over.

 

[michael_noah]

Greetings, all. I believe I've narrowed down my choice to one of two published "adventures". The first is the above suggested Mysteries of the Moonsea. This would be a very loose, adventure driven campaign with a lot of room for the players to explore, look around, interact with NPCs, and decide what they want to do on their own. It may lack a grand over-arching story, and there may be times when things don't fit together as well as we all might like (due to the mini-site adventure nature of the book).

The second is a little known necromancer games product. This is a much more congealed adventure. It has a main plot, a big villain, and some mysteries to solve. There may be some railroading at times based on reviews I've read.

I happen to prefer the second option a bit because it will mean less work for me, and probably a better overall story for all of you. Let me know what you all think. No matter which option I choose, we'll be starting at 8th level, so get get cracking making characters. I've put more details about construction in the first post.

Also, I've added a list of prospective adventurers and their proposed characters at the top of the thread for reference when you're trying to decide what to make.