[Re-Recruitment] When Journalists Attack!

[Jarval]

Feats: since magic items are so cheap nowadays, taking crafting feats may not turn out to be especially useful. If you want to add to the rough and tumble part of your image, consider adding dirty-fighting (+d4 damage on a full round unarmed attack), and fists of iron (+d4 3+Wis times a day), which would make you quite fearsome in a bar brawl (2d4+d3+1 base). The divine feats are also kind of nice to have. But I'll leave all that monkeying around to you.

Good ideas on the feats. I don't have access to S&F or DotF at the moment, so I'm a little unclear about the divine feats, but the unarmed fighting feats could come in handy (especially given the illegality of weapons).


EDIT: I've give Justin the Dirty Fighting and Fists of Iron feats for the moment. I've also removed his dagger and upped his BAB to +4. Of course, should someone see fit to tell me what the divine feats do, I might change my selection...

 

[anonystu]

Well, get yourself a heroforge excel spreadsheet (search google for it): it includes capsule descriptions of all the feats from the splat books. Quite handy.

 

[Dark Eternal]

Hey dere, everybody.



Sorry I've been absent... it's been a long and very difficult few days for me. I'll spare you the details.

I've got an email address in case anyone (particularly the DM) might need to contact me: taron_skyreaver@yahoo.com

I've decided (based in significant part upon your suggestions) to change up quite a bit of what I was originally planning - most significantly, race. I've decided to go with an elf instead of a dwarf; the dex bonus will make for a better nomad, and sixchan thinks dwarves are icky... *grins*

I'll have my character background, personality, and stat sheet posted pretty soon (all, of course, subject to improvement / alteration, and all subject to approval).

I like the developments so far... the other characters look quite interesting. I'm particularly happy about the bump up to 6th level; that way I can multiclass and still have 2nd level powers.

Be back soon!

 

[Argent Silvermage]

6th level is go.

I think this is a fine start: let me go through my usual suggestions, in the same way, background first, mechanics later.

So, there isn't TV: it's just too magically expensive to do. There aren't really legitimate journalism professions either: they all lead to death in the eyes of the law.

However, this restructures pretty nicely into: Bambi traveled to the City to try to become a politician's handler, or campaign advisor, or secretary, or even a politician herself, but scandals unfolded with her involvement with the Mage Ball team, and if there's anything worse than a public figure who sleeps around, it's a public figure who sleeps around, isn't available, and has a ridiculously strong guy as a boyfriend.

The Daily Float approached her, to be a very minor sports reporter, given her intimate knowledge of the sport. She's had a number of setbacks, controversies, blown stories, but has managed to survive long enough to be promoted to the city beat. Her editor (more about him when we get into the game), was the one who recommended the magical augmentation, and the general playing up of her talents. She's been with her copy editor for a few years now, and while they have very different approaches to getting things done, and quite the number of extremely loud arguments, it seems to work. Mostly.

This is of course, just a suggestion: how you two play your relationship together is up to you.

Sound good?

Mechanics:

hp: 4*5 + 6 = 26

Feats: You might want to consider quick draw instead of weapon finesse (which only grants you a +1). While the handy handbag lets you retrieve your weapon as a free action, it's still a move-equivalent to use it. Maybe quick draw + improved initiative. Maybe expertise/improved disarm/snatch weapon (pick up weapons you disarm as a free action, rather than letting them fall).

In addition, consider the feat chain of:
Persuasive: +2 bluff/intimidate
Trustworthy: +2 diplomacy/gather info
Alluring (prereq persuasive, trustworthy): +2 diplomacy, +2 to save DC for all mind-affecting/language dependent spells.


In any case, overall I like: I feel like it's a good fit, and will be lots of fun! Thanks.

These are all good ideas. I'll go with the political aspect. She was attached to a high profile politician who she was going to marry when the scandle hit. the politician still wants her dead and resurected as his undead love slave.

And I'm definately going with the last feat chain... very Bambi!
I'll have her reworked in a day or so.
I think we should create a new class or PRc for her 6th level... Cheap Ho.

 

[Sixchan]

Okay, I've edited again, and rearranged all the skills. Swapped WFocus for WFinesse, and edited the background some more.

Normal Dodge is fine, though.

 

[Dark Eternal]

Ok, here's what I've got so far -

Eriel Sathaen was the son of a prominant elven family among the ranks of the Red mages. His father was a powerful wizard who expected his son to follow in his footsteps, but alas Eriel proved to have no aptitude for wizardry, much to his family's chagrin. In an effort to salvage some kind of presitige through their son, his parents sent him to law school, expecting him to become a skilled and reputible lawyer. Eriel discovered a profound dislike for formalized law, however, and spent most of his time in school involved in athletics and sports, at which he generally excelled. Unfortunately, as his academic achievements suffered, his family began to place increasing pressure on him to give up his 'pointless' athletic interests and devote himself to his studies.

It's uncertain how things would actually have progressed if not for the intervention of strange fate. One day, Eriel simply disappeared from the University, without leaving behind much in the way of clues as to his absence.

Eriel himself doesn't really know what happened - to him, there is a blank period of several days that he has never been able to fill. This was, in fact, just the first of many 'blackouts' that were to plague him in years to come.

Finding himself in a completely unknown environment several days later, Eriel's first thoughts were to find some way to get back to the university, before he got in real trouble. However, before he was able to actually make any kind of contact with anyone, it occured to him that whatever had happened might just be his ticket out of an increasingly unsatisfying life. He decided to try and go it alone, figuring whatever happened it couldn't be as bad as spending the rest of his life as a lawyer.

Over the next couple of years, Eriel worked various odd jobs on and off, frequently skimming the law's grey areas as he struggled to get by. Every so often, he would be uprooted by another 'blackout' that would leave him missing a few days of memory. One day, he woke up from the latest 'blackout' in the most unusual circumstance yet - the middle of a pitched battle between a rogue psion and a group of law enforcers.

When the dust cleared, the psion was the one still standing. Taking Eriel with him, he explained a lot of things to the young elf - perhaps the most surprising of which was the fact that Eriel, himself, was a burgeoning psion. The man who had taken him in - whose actual name Eriel never discovered, but who called himself Archiel - taught Eriel how to harness the power of his mind and trained him how to use his body and will in harmony.

Archiel was a friend of the Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Float, and gradually Eriel was introduced to the underworld of Journalism. Finding a niche, he began to work off and on for the Float in various capacities as opportunities permitted. Things continued along this vein for a couple of more years before disaster struck.

Eriel hadn't had a 'blackout' since the one that brought him to Archiel, and had begun to think that they were no longer a part of his life. Unfortunately, he was mistaken. One morning, he found himself coming to in Archiel's hidden sanctum - a place that he had never been to before. The place was demolished, and Eriel quickly discovered his dying mentor by a safe.

Before Eriel could ask his mortally wounded friend anything, Archiel gave him a pouch. He told his charge to take the pouch's contents to the Daily Float, and give them to Archiel's friend. He also instructed Eriel to take the contents of the safe; in the event that the Mages' Enforcers caught up with him, they might just save his life. Before he could impart any more information to the young elf, he died.

Equipped with a small stash of magical and psionic gear that had been in the safe, Eriel managed to reach the Float safely. After turning over the pouch (whose contents Eriel never did discover), he was offered a full-time job with the Float, which he accepted.

In the time since, Eriel has found his niche with the publication as a Photographer - his keen senses, psionic talents and natural aesthetic principles make him a natural. He still has the occasional 'blackout', although they generally last only for a few hours anymore, and seldom upset the order of his life overly much. Since meeting Selprin, he's slowly started to come out of his shell, brooding less and less and interacting with his team more and more. Perhaps there's hope for him yet.

Eriel "Snapshot" Sathaen
Elven Psion (Nomad) 4, Psychic Warrior 2 (True Neutral)

Str 13 (+1)
Dex 16 (+3)
Con 12 (+1)
Int 14 (+2)
Wis 13 (+1)
Cha 10 (--)


Combat Stats:
Base Attack Bonus: +3
Melee: +4 (+1 Str)
Ranged: +6 (+3 Dex)
Hit Dice: 4d4+4; 2d8+2 (~38 hp)
Armor Class: 17 (10 + 4 (Armor) + 3 (Dex))
Touch AC: 13 / Flat-footed: 14
Initiative: +3 (+3 Dex)
Movement Rate: 60 feet (Boots of Striding/Springing)
(80 feet with PP reserve >1)

Attacks per round:
Unarmed strike (+4 to hit, 1d3+1 subdual dmg)
Quarterstaff (+4 to hit, 1d6+1 dmg)
Short Bow (+6 Ranged to hit, 1d6 dmg)

Weapons and Armor:
Armor: Studded Leather of Landing +1 (+4 Armor)
Weapons: Quarterstaff (1d6 Blud., 20 x2 Crit); Shortbow (1d6 Pierc., 20 x3 Crit)

Saving Throws:
Fort: +5 (+3 base, +1 Con, +1 Resist. (Cloak))
Ref: +5 (+1 base, +3 Dex, + 1 Resist. (Cloak))
Will: +6 (+4 base, +1 Wis, +1 Resis. (Cloak))


Feats:
Alertness (1st)
Speed of Thought (Bonus Psychic Warrior)
Inner Strength (Bonus Psychic Warrior)
Inner Strength (3rd)
Mental Leap (6th)


Skills:
Balance +9 (5 ranks, +3 Dex, +2 Synergy (Tumble), -1 armor)
Concentration +6 (5 ranks, +1 Con)
Escape Artist +8 (5 ranks, +3 Dex)
*Hide +17 (0 ranks, +3 Dex, +15 Skin of Chameleon, -1 armor)
Jump +23 (9 ranks, +3 Dex, +2 Synergy (Tumble), +10 Boots, -1 armor)
Knowledge, Law +4 (2 ranks, +2 Int)
Knowledge, Psionics +7 (5 ranks, +2 Int)
*Listen +5 (0 ranks, +1 Wis, +2 racial, +2 Alertness)
Psicraft +7 (5 ranks, +2 Int)
*Search +12 (0 ranks, +2 Int, +10 Third Eye)
*Spot +17 (0 ranks, +1 Wis, +2 racial, +2 Alertness, +2 Psycrystal, +10 Third Eye)
Tumble +10 (5 ranks, +3 Dex, +2 Synergy (Jump))
(* indicates an untrained skill.)


Languages:
Common, Elven, +2

Special Abilities:
Elf abilities
Psycrystal (Observation)

Psionic Powers:
Power Points/day: 16 (3 Psychic War., 7 Psion, 3 Bonus, 3 I.S.)
Free Talents/day: 11 (4 Psychic War., 7 Psion)

Powers Known: 7/3/1
Lvl 0 = Burst, Catfall, Finger of Fire, Far Hand, Awareness*, Hover Field*, Memory Recall*

Lvl 1 = Spider Climb (Primary), Call Weaponry (Primary), Minor Creation

Lvl 2 = Knock (Primary)

Psychic Combat:
Attack Modes: Id Insinuation; Ego Whip; Mind Thrust; Psychic Crush; Mind Blast
Defense Modes: Mental Barrier; Intellect Fortress; Tower of Iron Will


Equipment:
Studded Leather of Landing +1 (PsiHB, 4,175gp)
Psychoactive Skin of the Chameleon (PsiHB, 4500gp)
Third Eye of Aware (PsiHB, 4000gp)
Boots of Striding/Springing (DMG, 2500gp)
Cloak of Resistance +1 (DMG, 1000gp)
Dorse of Astral Construct III, ~1/5 charges remaining (PsiHB, 3600gp)
Hat of Disguise
Brooch of Non-Detection
Quarterstaff

Total value: 19,275gp
Total Weight Carried: 26 lbs.
Encumberance: Light

 

[Argent Silvermage]

Sorry to do this D.E. but Boots of striding and springing were errated at a MUCH higher price.

 

[Argent Silvermage]

Updated Bambi above. Set her up for a change into Holy liberator at 8th level. Notice the change from Bard to rogue!

 

[anonystu]

DE:

I really like the character. I want to think some more about the details, and some of the hooks you've left dangling, but overall I'm very pleased with this. I'll touch on a few mechanics for everyone, then get back to you later on today with some background thought.

Mechanics:

Kalanyr will be joining us, he's just been very busy. His character will be around by Saturday.

We'll be starting sometime between monday and wednesday of next week, with a post/2 days as our minimum pace. I'll talk about my posting guideilnes when this draws more near, but basically, I'd like to concentrate on getting high-quality, descriptive posts rather than quantity.

Sixchan: Any armor has to have an enhancement bonus of +1 before you can start enchanting it, so for 4,160, you can only get Shadow Leather +1, not Silent Shadow Leather. You can make up for this by taking boots of elvenkind or a cloak of elvenkind, and dropping the +1 from your immovable rod for now.

DE: Argent is in fact correct: boots of striding/springing are 6,000 gp. It's a cool ability that meshes well with your character, so you've got to save 3500 gp.


How can you do that? You can play a little on the dangerous side, and ditch the landing, which saves you all the money you need. Dropping the cloak saves you +1000, and I'll also allow you to downgrade an item: you could take a +5/+5 eye of aware for 1000 instead of 4000. Your choices.

My personal style meter says it would be oh so fun to sub out alertness and inner strength and instead take psionic charge and up the walls. Running on walls, jumping all over the place: what could possibly be better! You could then sub out spider climb for skate (110 ft base move, or 140ft downhill?), or expanded vision, or sense link, all of which seem useful.

DE and SixChan: it should be noted that edged projectile weapons are also illegal. It shouldn't be too hard to hide your hand crossbow (although hiding it means a move-equivalent to recover it), but your shortbow is a much bigger liability. I know you're already strapped for cash DE, but gloves of storing are nice for this kind of thing.

Next post (sometime around noon): backgrounds and hooks.

 

[anonystu]

Or just right now, if that's fine too. I've thought about it some more, and have decided not to go with player-to-player feats per se: in it's place, just think about what you think of everybody else in the group. You can post this, or you can not, it's your choice, although it's good to help everybody else get into character. Part of this depends on your prior relationship: we'll work out exactly how long all of you have been working together in the past.

That said, we will have backgrounds. I'm going to use a slimmed down version of the Spycraft system. Basically, spycraft has you sacrifice skill points to take backgrounds, for which you get XP when they show up, or if your GM ignores them, you get a lot of XP for him being lazy. I don't like the min-max factor of this, and I also don't want to have you go back and redo your skills. Also, XP will be handled very capriciously, so I don't want to institute all these mechanics on how I give it out.

So, what's going to stay is the following: you should take 4 points of backgrounds, but take no more than 2 backgrounds. The point value of a background determines its severity, and the danger involved, such that one-three point hunted background means that the people who are hunting you are very dangerous and very interested in you indeed.

You should think about these not just as establishing your history, but rather, you should think of them as what do you want to see in the game related to your character: this is the active part of your background, and it'll be really cool to see issues and backstory developed from your character. For example, DE, your background is really good as is, but I'd consider tweaking it to make some of the questions more unresolved: who killed your master? What was in that pouch?

What are the various types of backgrounds? I'll edit these later when I have my hands on the complete list, but feel free to make up your own, as they're mainly just categories. Also, feel free to use PC to PC backgrounds, although as with all backgrounds, subject to approval. Don't feel you have to spend a lot of time coming up with background if you don't want to: saying that these people are angry with you, or you owe these people money is probably enough for me to get whirling on.

It is also integral to note that backgrounds are not just descriptive, but conflictual: there has to be some sort of pressure it exerts.

Journalists are always on the wrong side of the law: taking a background like Hunted means that you specifically have been targeted by the law. Similarly, journalists always have a strong obligation to serve the Float: taking obligation means that your responsibility is even stronger.

Anyway, so the incomplete list (the flavor text is just by me, making up examples of what it means, feel free to deviate):

Amnesia: You can't remember certain parts of your life. (The conflictual part of this is in why you're amnesiac, and what groups/parties are responsible/influencing you now).

Claim-jumping: Every spellcaster has sources of power in the world, that are more or less secure. Taking this background means you want to emphasize the less secure.

Debt: You owe a substantial amount of money to some group.

GM Fiat: You want a plot, but you don't want to know what it's about.

Hunted: Some group is hunting you for some reason.

Hunting: You're hunting some person or some group.

Lost Object: There is something you value highly, which is now broken or stolen.

Lost Love: You've had someone you love taken away from you, or forbidden.

Obligation: You have an obligation to protect or serve some interest, regardless of the consequences. (Blackmail is a common reason for obligation)

Romance: You have someone you're currently in love with, and who you either have to defend from suitors, or defend from danger.

Secret Identity: You live a normal life as well: if anybody were to find out what you were doing on the side, bad consequences.

Vow: self-explanatory.

Please note finally, that these are all voluntary even if they seem to fit your character well: for example, DE's character obviously has amnesia, but he is not required to take this background: if he doesn't, then he just has mental blackouts, and we're not going to worry about it too much, and it's all fine. If he takes it, he's saying that he wants this to be an active sub-plot in the game.

Everybody cool with this? If you don't want to take backgrounds, this is also a fine decision, although I like the fleshing out it brings.