Shards of the Silve Flame -- OOC thread

[drothgery]

As for how Saalin made contact with Alistair, Alistair could have heard of him through Saalin's (human elder w/ regards to Allistair's probable age)

FYI - Lord Alistair is in his early 50s; he may well have meant Saalin's mentor when he was younger.

 

[stonegod]

FYI - Lord Alistair is in his early 50s; he may well have meant Saalin's mentor when he was younger.

I'll put Lycia about 70 when she died, making her Alistair's parent's generation or so (assuming standard 20-year differences).

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Does anyone have any ideas how to integrate my character into the rest of yours? (All I've come up with is her just being an acquaintance to the rest of all.)

 

[SelcSilverhand]

Drue will have spent many years working for the church but rarely visiting any of the church holdings. His career as an informant requires him to spend much of his time in the field finding contacts, infiltrating heretical groups, and studying unusual events. While he may not get home much, he creates regular reports describing the latest goings on in the land. His reports may have crossed Lord Reverend Alistar's desk or brought to his attention be other departments when something comes up he may be interested in. As a man interested in fine detail, he may have appreciated Drue's straight forward, fact filled field reports. Whatever his assignment, the Lord Reverend knows that this agent of the church will provide an accurate and complete report of all events that take place.

As for his relationship to the others, Drue makes it his business to know about the people he will be working with before he even meets them. Gathering some background information, he will have gleaned a few facts about the history, behavior, and loyalty of his fellows.

 

[Anax]

Woo! I’ve added a portrait to my character in the rogue’s gallery. Also made a couple of small corrections to errors I found in the sheet. (I forgot to add the masterwork enhancement bonus to the hand crossbow when showing my work, and failed to include the +1 competence bonus to Reflex saves from Grace +1 anywhere.)


Brother Shatterstone: That’s a tough one. Your character is quite unique, and also really rather creepy when I start thinking about it too much.

First question: how much of your character’s background should be know to us? (From what I read before, I assume pretty much everybody in the household knows what happened, but folks from outside wouldn’t unless someone told them. At which point... well, they might get kind of creeped out, but we can figure something out there.)

After that: I could certainly imagine Hariel and your character becoming friends if Hariel has spent much time around the area. I mentioned somewhere that Hariel might be trying to learn to ride a bit: she never had the need until recently, since she’d spent her whole life in Flamekeep. If your character does any riding (which seems reasonable for someone brought up as a bit of an aristocrat in Thrane), perhaps she offered to spend some time teaching Hariel to ride a bit, and they became friends during that time.

That’s the best I can come up with, anyway.

Edit: P.S. Does it irritate anybody else that the mithral shirt is pretty much impossible to beat for price and performance for anybody willing to wear armor who has a Dexterity score above +1? (I tried so so very hard to come up with a good reason to use one of the medium-armor-made-from-a-material-that-makes-it-act-as-light-armor type things, but it just made for armor that cost more, had an armor check penalty, and a lower max Dex. Then I tried to use studded leather instead, except that a mithral chain shirt is better than +1 studded leather in every dimension... and it costs less. Whee.)

 

[drothgery]

Edit: P.S. Does it irritate anybody else that the mithral shirt is pretty much impossible to beat for price and performance for anybody willing to wear armor who has a Dexterity score above +1? (I tried so so very hard to come up with a good reason to use one of the medium-armor-made-from-a-material-that-makes-it-act-as-light-armor type things, but it just made for armor that cost more, had an armor check penalty, and a lower max Dex. Then I tried to use studded leather instead, except that a mithral chain shirt is better than +1 studded leather in every dimension... and it costs less. Whee.)

Well, the only way there's not going to be one two clearly "best" armors is if one introduces things like weapon type vs. armor modifiers, or there's a lot of mechanically similar armors available at the same prices.

So expect almost any armor you find in treasure to be a mithril shirt or full plate

 

[Shalimar]

It gets even worse if you compare it to Eberron materialsthat are highly prized for their protective qualities, like a Darkleaf armor. The Darkleafs more expensive, and still has armor check penalties. Assuming you were willing to eat the -2 ACP just for coolness, you can get a magical mithril shirt, with special abilities like glammered, and have it be under that 5000gp cap, but the Darkleaf armor with the same qualities, is over the cap, and inferior to boot. It does boggle the mind a bit.

Dave, I'll take you up on your offer of lurkitude (that a word?), I hope this game lasts as long and does as well as the WoT game did.

 

[Anax]

Well, the only way there's not going to be one two clearly "best" armors is if one introduces things like weapon type vs. armor modifiers, or there's a lot of mechanically similar armors available at the same prices.

So expect almost any armor you find in treasure to be a mithril shirt or full plate

Yeah, pretty much. It really just irks me that the medium armors don't have a place, except on (stupid) NPCs, and in the low levels when you have a heavy armor character who can't afford heavy armor yet. I'd think that there'd at least be a "good" medium armor like there is a good light and a good heavy.

It gets even worse if you compare it to Eberron materials that are highly prized for their protective qualities, like a Darkleaf armor. The Darkleafs more expensive, and still has armor check penalties. Assuming you were willing to eat the -2 ACP just for coolness, you can get a magical mithril shirt, with special abilities like glammered, and have it be under that 5000gp cap, but the Darkleaf armor with the same qualities, is over the cap, and inferior to boot. It does boggle the mind a bit.

Yeah. I was looking at that. It does have significant utility for druids, of course, which I assume is why it exists. I did note with some surprise that neither leafweave nor darkleaf armors are described as being automatically masterwork, like mithral and adamantine are. That gives you another one point ACP reduction (if it's not an error: I checked for errata, but found none.) This makes the darkleaf breastplate mechanically interesting to mid-Dex characters at higher levels, when the price isn't an issue. (If you're not going to break the +4 Dex boundary, you get a further +1 AC in exchange for -1 ACP, without pumping up the +x armor price as far.)

Still, I think these are clearly intended for druids. And, of course, it seems a little weird to imagine folk-not-of-the-forest to be wearing them.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

First, Mithral Breastplate’s –1 ACP is rather edible… (You would need a DEX greater than 24 for a Mithral chain shirt to be better.)

Brother Shatterstone: That’s a tough one. Your character is quite unique, and also really rather creepy when I start thinking about it too much.

Oh. I thought you liked the concept... :\

First question: how much of your character’s background should be know to us? (From what I read before, I assume pretty much everybody in the household knows what happened, but folks from outside wouldn’t unless someone told them. At which point... well, they might get kind of creeped out, but we can figure something out there.)

They would/should have no clue.

After that: I could certainly imagine Hariel and your character becoming friends if Hariel has spent much time around the area. I mentioned somewhere that Hariel might be trying to learn to ride a bit:

Well, that would be a cross class skill for my character... I can give it some thought though.

 

[Anax]

First, Mithral Breastplate’s –1 ACP is rather edible… (You would need a DEX greater than 24 for a Mithral chain shirt to be better.)

True. This is pretty much equivalent to the wood version we were talking about (except the special wood is cheaper.) The real trouble with the mithral breastplate is that going from 1100gp to 4200gp for an additional +1 armor is cost prohibitive until quite late. Still, it's worth considering, I will admit. (And, of course, elven chain has high "ooo, pretty picture" points...

Oh. I thought you liked the concept... :\
They would/should have no clue.

Oh, I think the concept is great! It's just that the scenario is... creepy. Having the characters have no idea helps a lot, actually, because it means I don't have to resolve Hariel's ooky feelings over the matter before play. (Not only because it's hard to figure out how to resolve them, but also because it'll be more interesting on-screen.)

Well, that would be a cross class skill for my character... I can give it some thought though.

Heh. Well, Hariel hasn't put any skill points in Ride yet, and it's possible that this is more just the basics: things that really don't belong in the skill rank system in the first place. Your character would know something about riding, but very likely wouldn't have experience riding in combat, or show jumping, or whatever. Likewise, Hariel's not aiming for that level of proficiency at all.

In short: if you think that's a fair reason to know each other, we can go with that--Ride ranks or no Ride ranks. If Hariel doesn't know anything about your character's history, then this scenario (befriending Lord Alistair's daughter) is perfectly in character for her.