Open-Minded Adventurers Wanted for Extravagant Planes-Hopping!

[Jolmo]

Go ahead and round your hps up; I don't mind an extra point there, and it's been known to make the difference. Good to see you know the rounding rule, though, that seems to be the hardest thing about average hit points for some people.

Done.

Your Init bonus is 1 point too low for a 20 Dex.

Forgot to add my enchantment bonus..

You have Uncanny Dodge listed as a martial secret, but the speed bonus for Cheetah Speed, so I'm not sure which you actually have.

For some reason I thought 40 ft. was the standard.

Your DR for the righteous might effect should be 3/cold iron, as that spell has been errataed. The bonuses to Str and Con were each halved, and the natural armor bonus reduced to +2.

Fixed.

My calculations put you at 27,200 gp, 200 over. It's not a big deal, as long as you're aware of it.

I recalculated several times and always ended up at 27,000. Do you use the prices I've listed or is one of them off?

What was it that drew you to this region and a parry-based character? I hope it wasn't the scent of cheese.

Actually, this character idea jumped out at me while reading through your world-information (as well as a few others, you've got an inspiring world I guess ). Then I found the Martial Artist class, which fit perfectly, but when I looked at it in detail, I realized that he'd need someting to improve his defense. I looked through the rest of your files and found parrying. That mechanic seemed good, except that being disarmed so often was just unacceptable. I found the feat-list and immediately decided that Guarded Defense and Expert Parry were obligatory. Except - that would take all of my feats. So eventually I decided to drop Expert Parry for next level.

As for the cheese, it might be a little powerful, but only if you spend several feats and change your equipment to be good at parrying so I don't think it's overpowered, I guess playing will show.

When do you guys want to get this show on the road?

Whenever possible.

 

[Zerth]

Okay, next up is Zerth's Human Fighter 2/Sorceress 4/Spellsword 2:

• I'm having a bit of trouble with your stats, but it looks like these are meant to be the final ones, after adjustments. If so, then they're right, but I thought I'd ask to make sure.
• Sorcerers have Cleric BAB and d8 HDs. It isn't in the house rules due to a flub on my part, but I mentioned it somewhere in here. You need to bump those d4s to d8s. This gives you a hit point total of 58 (1d10 (max) + 7d8 (avg = 31.5) + 16 (Con bonus)).
• Your Base Attack Bonus should be +7/+2 (+2 Fighter, +3 Sorcerer, +2 Spellsword).
• Recalculate attack bonuses accordingly.
• You get the attack bonus of Heaven's Edge when you use it to parry.
• Speaking of parrying, you have Guarded Defense as a feat, but you don't have the Improved Disarm prereq.
• Don't forget the Planar Touchstone camapign bonus feat!
• You should have 55 skill points (5 maxed-out skills at lvl 8), but I only count 51 points spent, unless there are some unmarked cross-class points.
• Your equipment list is good, if a little sparse (sorry, I'm a big fan of mundane equipment), except for the elemental resistance (fire) effect, which puts you over by 18,000 gold.

Another good character. Did you feel like the bloodline Sorcerer let you get closer to your concept of the character mechanically?

1) The stats are final numbers after all adjustments. I thought I had item effects listed there. I'll check.
2) What a pleasant surprise - I get more hps and better BAB. Woo hoo! I'll make all the proper adjustments. Actually, I noticed I have 59 hp's. 10 (max 1st) + 1d10 (5.5) + 6d8 (27) + 16 = 58.5, rounded up becomes 59.
3) Guarded Defense Feat? I don't have that.
4) I'll add the Planar Touchstone Feat.
5) I had forgotten to add two ranks to both Concentration and Intimidate. Now I've spent 55 points.
6) Equipment list is not yet done. I only added the most expensive items and didn't have time to think much about mundane items. More items will be added. Elemental resistance (2/fire) is from your masterwork armor list. All magic items are masterwork items, so I chose that for my armor. True, I didn't make it clear, so I'll add a mention of it to my character sheet.

And finally, yes, the Sorcerer bloodline was a major part of my character concept also mechanically. Gotta love, what you've done to Sorcerers!

 

[Zerth]

Alrighty, here's what I've been working on all evening: all of the available starting planar touchstones. I want feedback on these, please, since it's really important to me that nobody picks a region based on the power it grants being more powerful than the others. I'd prefer them to be equal in "kewl factor" too, but I doubt there's any way to manage that.

I have a question about my character's planar touchstone. There are two possibilities for someone from Tila'kun and I'm not sure, which one I should have. The background says, that she is raised in a monastery, but then again she's not a monk or even lawful. Could she still have Tila'kun monasteries touchstone or should I take the island tribes one?

 

[rangerjohn]

Hey rangerjohn! Hopefully you're still awake when I post this:

• I normally don't like elf subraces, but wood elves work well for the Tangle. Foiled again!

• 
  The only reason I took the sub race was favored class: ranger. It actually cost me in the ability point area.

  [*]You should have base saves of +8/+8/+1 and total saving throw mods of +9/+15/+3.

  I was looking at 8th level ranger, since they had the same save progression. But that would actually be +3/+3/+0 ranger plus +5/+5/+2 Martial Artist for a total of +8/+8/+2 With bonuses that would be +9/+15/+4 note I have a 14 wis, hence a +2 bonus.

  [*]Expertise should be Combat Expertise. How's that for a nitpick?
  [*]Your feats look good. However, if you are thinking "planar scout," and you seem to be thinking that, please note that you can take Planar Touchstone multiple times. Being able to adapt to another plane and retain your portal sense sounds like a good idea. If you do this, consider buying some 250 gp "attunement items" to avoid the usual 3-month wait.

  Yes, I was going the Planar Scout route it seemed a natural for a Tangler.

  [*]Is the everburning like that on the everburning torch?

  Yes. As Isidia can tell you I like the simplicity of this.

  [*]Your attack bonuses against evil outsiders are too high. When the bane effect boosts you to a +3 enhancement bonus on attacks, that supercedes the +2 style bonus.

  I had B.A.B 8 +7 dex +3 enhancement +1 weapon focus=19/14 or 18/18/13 with flurry. Note this is just using the spear head the shaft is not enchanted. Thats how the SRD treats double weapons but that does remind me to include +2 light weapon in two-weapon parry, the off end of a double weapon is considered light.

  [*]Hmmm... You also spent 27,200 gold pieces. Did I forget the 200? That number keeps coming up...

I will add again, I thought I was well below 27,000. Unless your including the gems and coins edit: Added again, I still come up with 27,000 including gems and coins. Could you point out the descrepency?

Okay, that's everyone who's posted so far! rangerjohn, I've noticed that Guarded Defense is quite popular. Is it just the sweet scent of novelty, or am I underestimating the impact of parrying?

Possibly, that is getting two defenses. That would be like getting to saving throws for every effect. The Guarded Defense, simply allows you to do that with out a chance of being disarmed. On the other hand, to do it effectively it is quite expensive, In my case it cost a 16 str , and two feats I wouldn't normally have chosen.

In any case, I'm sure your character will be a lifesaver when the party gets really far afield. Not that I would ever do that.

 

[Zerth]

Here's the latest version of Illira. With the better BAB progression for Sorcerers I noticed, I could take only one level of Fighter and three Spellsword. Basically I just traded one hp and bonus feat for ability to cast 3rd level spells, which is a good trade. Most of all, it allows me to progress faster in the PrC.

I hope everything is in place this time.

Edit: replaced the attachment after adding languages and also made some minor additions to background.

 

[Kelleris]

@ Jolmo - I'm just going crazy. I probably shouldn't be proofing things at what was for me 2-3 in the morning, huh?

@ Zerth - Hmm, yeah, maybe my paranoia is getting the best of me. No Guarded Defense. I was just checking for your stats, I was pretty sure you had them listed correctly since the math was coming out okay. Sorry about the fire resist thing, I forgot about mine and remembered the magical enhancement. I should probably rename that masterwork component.

I was going to go through and chat a bit about backgrounds after we had all the crunchy stuff squared away, but I can field this one now. As you probably noticed from the description, most people outside the monasteries are part of loosely-organized "savage" island tribes, a la most Pacific Islanders before we Europeans showed up. That doesn't rule out a non-monastery such as the one you described, but it would be very rare. Perhaps they are unwitting immigrants from another plane, or tribesmen who adapted quickly to the urbanity of Caeldwyste and places like it when exposed to it?

What it really comes down to is whether you think your character would be more likely to accompany the monks on one of their most sacred tasks, or work out her aggression in the surprisingly-pragmatic tribal ritual I described.

@ rangerjohn - Hm, I didn't notice that, but you're right. Too many human characters over the years, I guess. I'm still getting 27,200 for your gear, though: 26215 magical gear (8415 + 1800 + 16000) + 57.6 mundane gear (18 + 10 + 1 + 8 + 7 + 10 + 1 + 0.5 + 0.1 + 2) + 927.4 gems and cash (500 + 400 + 27 + 0.4) = 27200 spent total. Maybe you were thinking platinum pieces = 5 gp?

For the planar scout build, did you want another Planar Touchstone? I think I mentioned it, but it seems like a good idea to mention it again.

@ everyone - My reasoning for parrying is basically as follows:

First off, there are quite a few penalties and restrictions attached to it, most importantly the inability to parry ranged attacks, multiple attackers, and in anything heavier than light armor (keeping your normal AC from being really high as well). And there's the size restriction on the attacks you can parry, too. Of course, many of these can be overcome by feats, but that gets expensive.

I also thought that you would only use parry against attacks that had rolled quite well anyway, making the high bonuses on parry rolls somewhat reasonable. And then there's Dragon, from which most of the parrying rules were cribbed, which makes me at least a little more confident.

What really worries me is all those +2s that you can get. They're flavorful, but maybe too much, since most of them stack in one way or another.

In any case, Jolmo's completely tricked his character out for parrying, so if it's breakable, he's broken it. We'll see what happens, I guess.

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

I'm still working on the stats for my technologist, but here are a few of my gadget ideas. I decided to go for a sort of ice-theme, which should be apparent after reading a few of my devices (I'm afraid I suck at the technological writeups, though, heh):

Invention #21 [Ice Ray Gun]
Gadget [?, Cold]
Activation Time: 1 standard action
Range Increment: 20 feet
Effect: One or more rays
Base Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Activation Cost: ? points
Weight: X lbs.

Invention #21 is a device forged from cold iron, designed to fit around one's wrist as a bracer would. Half an inch under it's tough outer shell lies a complex chamber that generates and stores an energy derived from studying the plane of water. Attached to the top of the device appears to be a thin strip of metal with a diamond attached to the end facing away from the gauntlet's user. A complicated transformational process is used to conduct the energy and shape it into a ray that comes out of the metal strip.
This device has an effect similar to that of Scorching Ray, except as above and it deals cold damage instead.

Invention #22 [Remote Control]
?

Invention #22 physically appears as Invention #21 except it is perfectly smooth all around. In truth, this device has little in common with its predecessor, instead functioning as a sort of remote control for other devices. There is a hidden compartment on the top of the bracer that can be pushed and slid inside, revealing about a dozen or so buttons. This device is used in junction with devices #23 and #24, with the capability to be upgraded and used with other inventions.

Invention #23 [Mechanical Servant]
Gadget [?]
Activation Time: 1 free action
Range Increment: Special
Effect: Small mechanical servant
Base Duration: 1 minute
Saving Throw: None
Activation Cost: ? points
Weight: ? lbs.

This device appears to be a metallic sphere with a glowing blue diamond in its center as an "eye", along with 6 iron protrusions, three from the top and three on the bottom that appear to make it look like some weird sort of spider. Created for combat, this creature is activated by Device #22, forming a sheathe of ice around itself and taking flight when called upon.

Mechanical Servant (#23): CR 2; Small-size Construct; HD 2d10; hp 11; Init +2; Spd Fly 30 ft (perfect); AC 17 (+1 size, +2 dex, +4 natural); Melee None; Ranged Frost ray (touch) +4 (2d6 cold); SA Frost ray; SQ Construct traits, ice sheath, immunity to cold; AL N; SV Fort +0 Ref +1 Will +0 Str 1, Dex 14, Con -, Int -, Wis 11, Cha 1.
Skills and Feats: None; None.
Frost Ray (?): A mechanical servant's frost rays have a range of 30 feet.
Ice Sheath (?): A mechanical servant can, once per hour as a free action, form around itself a shield made of ice, making them look like a floating crystal. This has the effect equivilant to the Aid spell, using its owner's technologist level as the caster level, except it affects only the Mechanical Servant.
(above based off of the stats of a Lantern Archon)

More to come later (Left to go: Gloves which form a barrier of force, Shoulderpads which are magnetic and attract metal weapons/projectiles to them, Warding Stones which are little orbs that can be set loose to fly around my technologist ala ioun stones and intercept attacks, Boots which release a cold material that freezes quickly and forms a Grease-like effect and also allow its wearer to walk on it as if it were normal ground, mines that when activated shoots a 5 ft. shard of ice from the top, forming something similar to a stalagmite (or whichever stone formation comes out of the ground)...)

 

[DemonWolfZero]

Criminy you people have some flavor to ya. All I am is a talker Telepath.

Adinal Gyrfalcon, at your service

If any of y'all wants to know, I plan on hiding behind most of you. If I remember correctly, I have 20 HP

I'm such a pansy...

Edit: Forgot to say, "Nice to meet you all" as well. Heh.

 

[Zerth]

What it really comes down to is whether you think your character would be more likely to accompany the monks on one of their most sacred tasks, or work out her aggression in the surprisingly-pragmatic tribal ritual I described.

I've given some thought to the issue and since there's nothing forbidding it, I will take the monasteries version. It feels like the better choice considering, that she's lived with the monks almost all her life.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

Kellaris, I've made the appropriate changes to my character (and I'd like to go with the fixed rather than variable DCs for my powers). I've also posted Narine's title, contacts, and background. Please tell me if I need to make any more changes.