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[StormFront] PbP Character Thread

Ah, now I see... Chris is preparing an awesome adventure for us, so we'll just need to be patient :) It's hard, though, knowing how much fun it's going to be! :)

One thing I don't like about this website, is that the posts aren't threaded like they are in newsgroups. I imagine that's less important once we get playing, where everything should make sense in the order posted. But when we're asking questions, like we are in this thread, it sure would be helpful if the responses were threaded, instead of all lumped together. Just my $0.02.
 

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Re: Ranstaar's Skills

dougbass68 said:
Also, have a couple of questions about elves in general. I was looking at them in the MM (just to help w/ my story) and I saw a couple of things that I wondered if I could take advantage of. It says they have these skill bonuses: Hide +1, Listen +3, Search +3, and Spot +2. It also says they have the Weapon Focus (Longbow) feat. Can I add these things to my character?

No. These are quick & easy stats for the DM so that if he needs to have an NPC (Non-Player Character) elf ready for us to encounter, he can simply refer to the MM and have the NPC elf's skills and feats already prepared. All PCs (Player Characters) use the PHB as a reference. Great background on Ranstaar, by the way.

As for other things, I've been through a rough bout of sickness recently. Once that's done with :) I'll post more here including my character's background and some comments about Clayton's character. The plan is coming together.

Jay

ps. Please stop calling Chris "god". Apparently he's started growing a beard and walking around the house in a toga, yelling loudly and throwing light bulbs (thinking they are bolts of lightning). Melissa's getting pissed and Alex is starting to think his name is Jesus.
 

Since the rest of you have never played a PbP (Play-by-Post) game before, I thought I would link to the threads for the three games I'm involved with currently here on the ENWorld boards, so that you can see how it works:

Feint Whispers 1: The Burning Plague Recruitment
(I didn't join this group until their second adventure, but I posted this in case anyone wanted to see how it started.)

Feint Whispers 1: The Burning Plague OOC (Out-Of-Context)

Feint Whispers 1: The Burning Plague

Feint Whispers 2 & 3 OOC
(My character in this game is Tarowyn Coldoak, an Elven Ranger 1 / Fighter 1 - started out as a Ranger and when we leveled up, I multiclassed into Fighter to make it easier to reach the Order of the Bow Initiate Prestige Class. Ranstaar might want to take a look at Tarowyn, just to see how I built an Elven Ranger.)

Feint Whispers 2: Unearthing the Past

Feint Whispers 3: Festival of Falling
(This is the thread where the game is going on as of today.)

Gobtales Recruitment
(All of the characters in this game are Goblins who are trying to integrate peacefully in a city full of regular PC races. My character is D'Bruuhl, a Goblin Cleric 1 who secretly wants to be a Paladin. Xyffor might want to take a look at D'Bruuhl for my (hopefully) soon-to-be Paladin.)

Gobtales Characters
(Here's where D'Bruuhl is fully statted.)

Gobtales OOC

Gobtales: Nightwatch
(This is the thread where the game is going on as of today.)

Spelljammer: Starfarers Recruitment
(I joined this game late as well and it takes an old 2e setting (basically D&D in space) and updates it for 3e. My character is a Vanaran (monkeyman) Brahmin 1 (a modified Shaman from Oriental Adventures with an Indian/Pakistani flavor) named Zhangyong.)

Spelljammer: Starfarers Characters
(Zhangyong's stats are here.)

Spelljammer: Starfarers
(This is the game thread, but I'm pretty sure the DM has given up on it and the game is dead. It's too bad, cuz I really liked my character and his background.)

Take a look at these, let me know what you think and jump in with any questions you might have. All three have different flavors and don't be fooled into thinking that any of them will be like StormFront. I just thought all of you might be interested in how other games worked and how I built my characters for them.

Jay
 

Looks like I just had good timing, my problem wasn't the boards being down that wasn't letting me in it was ME. My problem just happened to happen when enworld started messing up. As I told Chris I was having problems with alot of other websites that I normally go to all the time, and I knew for a fact that those websites weren't having problems (when was the last time fileplanet went down? heh).

So a drive error scan, defrag, disk cleanup, and an uninstall and reinstall of internet explorer (all within the same night too! having to drink coffee to stay up for EQ tends to make you hyper at 4am in the morning...) later and all the websites (including this one if you couldn't guess) I was having problems with are working!

ok so the story, nothing fancy just mild background and a reason for him being in the town:

--------------------

I dont know why i'm here. I was told to see the world, that my magic was too wild and I needed to experience life to get a handle on it, but why would they send me to such a small pathetic town. The port town is nothing near what one of my status is used to, coming from the sorceror's guild to this is just sad. I have got to find some sort of work that will get me out of here as soon as I can.

"So what do you think of the town Carin?" Kaze snickered asking his hawk familiar.

"rawk!" The hawk responded none too pleased.

"Yes, I agree, doesn't look comfortable at all does it? we'll have to look around and try to find the best inn we can. Tomorrow we'll look for the man our master told us to meet."

As Carin and I walked to the inn I remembered how I got here. It had been about 8 months ago, I had been practicing one of my new spells on a sparring sorceror, I had let all my anger flow in to the spell and it went wild. The other sorceror had been blown through the wall and spent a week in recovery at the local cleric guild, the spell had also back fired on me and cut me down the side of my face, just barely missing my eye.

The masters had said I was too wild to be a sorceror, that they couldn't help me until I learned to control my magic more. I had spent all my life at the sorceror's guild studying to become the best. The council of the school had decided I was too naive to the world and that if I saw more of it that would make me learn to control my magic....truthfully they didn't know if they could control me and wanted me as far away from their school as possible.

Shortly after I left my master sent me a letter saying to find a certain group of adventurers. He said I would know them when I saw them, how is that for vague? so I have spent the last 7 months in four different towns looking for this group, today I arrived in this port town by boat....


--------------------

Well thats it for the moment, i'll post some more later, kinda realized about half way that I didn't have NEARLY enough information to really do much with the story (as I dont know how we're meeting...who we're meeting...what the name of the town is...etc etc etc) so any of this can be revised at any time to fit the first post of the campaign.

Also I know alot/most of familiars talk themselves, but unless anyone objects I was wondering if my hawk could just speak....hawkish and I am able to understand him due to the bond of sorceror and familiar.

umm...had some more questions but forgot them over the course of writing, so if I remember i'll ask them.

- Clayton
 
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Kaze (might as well keep calling people by their character names) / Clayton,

Welcome to the boards and the StormFront group! I've gone over your character and I have a few suggestions/comments/tips:

1. You have only spent 30 pts on your abilities, which means you still have 2 more to spend. I would also rearrange your scores like this (remember that a Sorcerer's main score is in Charisma, followed by Dexterity and Constitution):

Ability - Score - (Point Cost)
Strength - 10 - (2)
Dexterity - 14 - (6)
Constitution - 14 - (6)
Intelligence - 12 - (4)
Wisdom - 12 - (4)
Charisma - 16 - (10)

The rest of these notes are made with the assumption that you changed your stats as above:

2. You do get max HP, but not 11. A Sorcerer gets a d4 each level for HP, which means at 1st level you would get 4 [max HP] + 2 [Con modifier] = 6 HP Total.

3. Sorcerers are not proficient with any armor (just wearing it incurs automatic penalties) and spellcasting itself can be greatly affected by armor (ie. further penalties), so I would ditch the armor. That makes your AC 12 [10 Base + 2 Dex mod].

4. Your Initiative would be +2.

5. Your saves would be Fort +2 [Con mod], Ref +2 [Dex mod], Will +3 [Sorcerer + Wis mod]

6. Your ranged attack bonus would be +2 (but your melee attack bonus would be +0)

7. I would rethink your feats. Hopefully, the "tanks" in the party will keep you protected enough that you won't ever need Combat Casting. Besides, it only comes into play when you are casting on the defensive, and even then, there is a chance it could fail. Also, Spell Penetration gives you bonuses to overcome a monster's Spell Resistance [SR]. Because we are low level, we probably won't be meeting up with any monsters that have SR. You can pick this feat up later, if you feel that you need it. Instead, I would go with Toughness, because it gives you 3 extra HP, which you sorely need. And I would try Improved Initiative, which gives you a +4 on Initiative checks and should allow you to cast your spells before anyone else can do anything. Fast & Tough - yeah, that's the ticket.

8. You get 12 skill points. Go back over your skills again. Try not to spread yourself so thin. Pick a few and get really good at them. Remember that you can only spend a max of 4 pts on any one skill at first level. Your class skills cost you 1 pt for each rank, cross-class skills cost you 2 pts for each rank. Skills are based on abilities too, so you will obviously be better at skills based on Cha, Dex & Con. Check out the Human Sorcerer Starting Package on p50-51 of the PHB for some suggested skills & ranks. Don't take .5 in any skill (see my comments to Xyffor on the 1st page of this thread for more info on this).

9. You start the game with 120 gp [max starting gold for a Sorcerer], so you can't have 199 gp left over. Make sure your equipment prices add up correctly (but remember that you don't have to buy armor :) ).

10. As for spells, you get to cast 5 cantrips (0 level) and 4 1st level [+1 for your high Cha] spells each day. However, you only know 4 cantrips and 2 1st level spells. Your spell choices are fine, but I might suggest that you swap Color Spray for Shield, especially now that you don't have any armor. Up to you, though.

11. You can't speak with your familiar until you reach 5th level (PHB p.51), but when you can it will work pretty much like you described it. Right now, you share an Empathic Link with Carin, which means that telepathically you can get a pretty good feeling about what Carin is thinking.

OK. I'm done for now. Please don't let this process make you feel bad or anything. Everybody here is learning and I'm just trying to give pointers. If you have any questions about any of this, feel free to post them. Hope that helps.

I like your character background alot, especially the fact that your were kicked out of your school. Makes the chaotic part of your alignment even more interesting.

Jay
 

ok, well i've yet to get etools to work right (I can make the character, save the character, but if I try to make the sheet it messes up), so my my dad sent the character sheet for me, so whenever chris puts up the new character sheet i'll go by that. (I basically did all the changes jay said)

11. You can't speak with your familiar until you reach 5th level (PHB p.51), but when you can it will work pretty much like you described it. Right now, you share an Empathic Link with Carin, which means that telepathically you can get a pretty good feeling about what Carin is thinking.

hmm, ok, well here's a dilema I have now. I can go back and change the story, but then I can't really give the information of the name of the familiar without saying something like "I have a familiar named Carin" and that'd be bland and kinda stupid :/

Soooo....how about I just hit my head on the way inside the inn and thats why I can't talk to my familiar anymore? /nods knowingly

just for the sake of the information and because rewriting that original part would be hard to do and get the information across I wanted to.
 

Vire said:
hmm, ok, well here's a dilema I have now. I can go back and change the story, but then I can't really give the information of the name of the familiar without saying something like "I have a familiar named Carin" and that'd be bland and kinda stupid :/

Soooo....how about I just hit my head on the way inside the inn and thats why I can't talk to my familiar anymore? /nods knowingly

just for the sake of the information and because rewriting that original part would be hard to do and get the information across I wanted to.

I just see it as you talking to your pet. You think it knows what you're saying and you even have imaginary conversations with it, but it's not really talking to you. Just remember - You can love your pets, just don't LOVE your pets. ;)
 


OK, Jay, I'm pretty frustrated. I've been reading (and enjoying) the threads you suggested. I understand how to write the stories, but I don't understand most of the stats. Let's start from the beginning. Here's what I know:
(1) I know how you arrive at originally assigning STR, CON, WIS, INT, etc.
(2) I know that Base Attack Bonus is obtained in Table 3-1 of the PHB.
(3) I know that my Human Paladin starting package says my speed is 20 ft.

But there are so many things I don't know--
(1) Xyffor's Fort is +3, Reflex is +3 and Will is +2. But according to Table 3-12 of the PHB, mine should be +2, +0 and +0 respectively. How did I get the extra points?
(2) How is HP and AC calculated? I can't find it in the PHB.
(3) How is Initiative calculated?
(4) Does my Scale Mail armor reduce my speed to 15 ft? (per Table 7-5 of PHB)

I think the PHB is a bit confusing and I don't understand what I am looking at or how to arrive at all the stats. Is there a D&D for Dummies series? I think writing the story scripts will be fun. But if god makes a mistake with my stats, I won't have a damn clue and wouldn't know how to correct it if I had to. But I'd like to understand it. Can you explain to me how the stats work using my Character Sheet (which is posted) so that I could figure them out "old school" if I have to or want to? Also, does E-Tools also change my stats when I increase in level? How does it do that -- what do I need to enter?

Thanks for the help.
 

Idsquare said:
But there are so many things I don't know--
(1) Xyffor's Fort is +3, Reflex is +3 and Will is +2. But according to Table 3-12 of the PHB, mine should be +2, +0 and +0 respectively. How did I get the extra points?
(2) How is HP and AC calculated? I can't find it in the PHB.
(3) How is Initiative calculated?
(4) Does my Scale Mail armor reduce my speed to 15 ft? (per Table 7-5 of PHB)

Xyffor,

E-Tools is expressly made to hold your hand through this process, I think. :) But having a Mac, I'm not sure about that. Here are some ol' skool answers to your questions:

[1] Look at Chapter 1: Abilities for answers to this.
Fortitude +3 [+2 Paladin +1 Constitution = +3 total]
Reflex +3 [+0 Paladin +1 Dexterity = +1 total] (Yours needs to be changed, I think.)
Will +2 [+0 Paladin +2 Wisdom = +2 total]

[2] HP for a Paladin is found on the top left of PHB p42 - Hit Die: d10. This means that you roll a d10 every time you go up a level and add that to your HP total. You also add in your Constitution bonus [+1]. Max at 1st level = 11 HP. AC is covered in Chapter 7: Equipment, specifically on Table 7-5 Armor, PHB p104.
AC 17 [10 Base +1 Dexterity +4 Scale Mail +2 Large Wooden Shield = 17 total]

[3] Initiative is explained on PHB p120. Your Dexterity bonus of +1 equals your Init bonus.

[4] Your unencumbered Speed is 30 ft. Your Speed with Scale Mail is 20 ft.

Idsquare said:
Is there a D&D for Dummies series?

As a matter of fact there is. I haven't used it, but maybe it will answer some questions.

Idsquare said:
But if god makes a mistake with my stats…

It'll never happen. Never. [And I'm begging you - Please stop calling Chris god. Please.]

Idsquare said:
Also, does E-Tools also change my stats when I increase in level? How does it do that -- what do I need to enter?

Thanks for the help.

As far as I know, E-Tools makes all of the behind-the-scenes changes for you. Just tell it that you've gone up a level and it does the rest. I think. All E-Tools questions should be directed to Chris.

And you're welcome,

Jay
 

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