The Troubadour's Travels - Low Magic [D&D 3.5/G'n'GR] [Recruiting]

[wysiwyg]

String, I just added my spoken only language - Sabrian.

I'm contemplating changing my Knowledge (local) to Craft. Since we are playing in a low-magic world, would there be any magic replacing benefits that can be done via a high Craft skill? For example can we fabricate an item that will give a +1 or more bonus to a skill, or a weapon (not just MW), or armor, etc.

Let's say someone has +15 Craft (Armorsmithing). Could he make a set of armor that would be an equivalent of say +3 magical armor (without the armor being magical)?

So far we have an interesting, well balanced group:
An aristrocrat, an archer, a rogue like warrior and my fighter.

 

[Ilja]

@Toptom: You made a pretty good argument there, and you're right. The big dice can be confusing, and at the level we're talking, you've got a point. In E6, it's quite a fair trade anyway.

@Wysiwyg: Yes, there will be improved masterwork items and weapons (and usage of superior materials), and though I haven't finished the details, and won't until someone actually wants to create items, it will include such things as decreased weight, increased soak on armors, increased hardness and hit points, +1 damage weapons, and even +1 threat range. An Exceptional Helmet might provide Light Fortification (as the magic ability) for example.

You won't be able to make a +3 magical armor (which has a CL of 9!), but you might be able to make an armor with 2 less ACP, +1 Armor Class, Light Fortification, and through special materials maybe even things like acid resistance. Should you for example for some reason get your hands on dragon hide, I might allow that to provide +1 Soak and Fire resistance 5, at an increased DC of 10 or something.

I'll use four tiers of items:
Crude - Bad quality or made of the wrong material, such as all-wooden spears of some primitive tribes. Quite unusual for PCs.
Normal - Same as now.
Masterwork - Same as now.
Taleworthy - Like an extra masterwork, that can have several different abilities (and several at a time) like lower weight and higher damage, or increased skill bonus for tools and clothes (an exceptional cloak might give +2 to Hide checks). I'm thinking of setting the DC to 25 plus extra per ability, meaning that you have to get high ranks, good equipment, and probably a servant or two helping you. Should be no problem at that point though - getting that dragon hide would probably be harder :3

And yes, the group seems very well balanced! An idea might be to get someone with the Heal skill though - it's quite important when you don't have magical healing.

 

[Theroc]

Sorry about the delay, String. Having trouble finding the starting gold for a scout. Can anyone help me out there? Once I have my starting money, I can figure out gear selection and finish most of it up... though, I realized that the Ranger/Scout cross feat requires the level 3 version of the scout's Skirmish, which precludes me from the level 4 of Ranger that I wanted.

Stringburka, is there any chance you'd allow me to pay 5,000 EXP post level six (should we achieve this) to acquire the Skirmish: 1d6, +1 AC (Which basically would give my character a simple +1 AC after moving 10' over the level 1 part of the feature), so that after the second bit of 5,000 exp, I can take the 'Swift Hunter' feat?

 

[Ilja]

No probs!
It's 5d4*10 gp, so 75sp

What is it that you miss with not having level 4 ranger? From what I can see, it's only an animal companion equal to a 1st level druid... You can have that for a feat with Clvl 6 as req instead. Far easier. Or am I missing something? The difference I can see between 3R/3S and 4R/2S would be that the second gets -1 fort saves, 2 less skill points, no fast movement, trackless step, and the +1 skirmish AC, but instead gets the druid companion of level 1 - actually in my opinion a quite bad choice, except for pure roleplaying. And then you could as I said get that through a feat instead.

 

[wysiwyg]

String, I was looking at section in the E6 rules about feat progression once 6th level has been reached. There are 3 options (see below). Which are you going to implement?

ON ALLOWING FEATS​

There are 3 philosophies on what feats to
allow in an​

​

​

​

E6 game, each more generous
than the last:
1) The Cautious Approach
2) The Gestalt Approach
3) The Lean Upward Approach

The Cautious Approach is exactly what it sounds like – a GM chooses what feats to allow in his E6 game very, very carefully. This GM does not make exceptions or new
feats to accommodate players chaacter concepts - he chooses what feats to allow and the players agree to work within that framework.

The Gestalt Approach dictates that if an ability can be learned under 6th level, then it’s learnable via some chain of feats. The Gestalt Approach usually means all WotC sources are available, as well as a few extra feats to provide ways to learn class features. These can be done on an ad-hoc basis for a given player or they can be gathered from sources like the Book of Unusual Feats. The Gestalt theory is the one used in playtesting.

The Lean Upward Approach looks at the Gestalt Approach and says “6th level plus many feats is clearly more powerful than 6th level. Thus, it won’t be game-breaking to allow feat chains that bring characters from 6th level to 8th level, although this progression should be quite slow.” GMs
who like the Lean Upward approach might have feats to bring BAB to +8, or to gain 4th level spells, or 8th level class features, additional hit dice, and so on.​

 

[Toptomcat]

I have Heal. Have to keep students and sparring partners in good repair, after all.

 

[Ilja]

The middle aproach is what I'm going to use. You normally won't have access to any ability that a 6th-level character can't have access to, except for the single capstone feat. For the warblade and swordsage, I'd say it's Battle Cunning and Discipline Focus (Defensive Stance) respectively. The Aristocrat has The Lord's Survival and since Theroc's char is multiclassed, he won't have any. Fighter becomes quite a special case since their capstone feat allow them to count their BAB as 8 instead of 6 when taking feats, giving them access to several abilities that a 6-th level character can't take.

I'll allow most WotC sources, it has to be something really earthshattering for me not to allow it when it comes to feats, and I might also allow certain low-level class features as feats with prereqs (For the animal companion feat, I'd require Handle Animal 9 ranks and make it not grow with levels).


EDIT: Toptom, it's 4*5+50, so 70 sp

 

[Theroc]

No probs!
It's 5d4*10 gp, so 75sp

What is it that you miss with not having level 4 ranger? From what I can see, it's only an animal companion equal to a 1st level druid... You can have that for a feat with Clvl 6 as req instead. Far easier. Or am I missing something? The difference I can see between 3R/3S and 4R/2S would be that the second gets -1 fort saves, 2 less skill points, no fast movement, trackless step, and the +1 skirmish AC, but instead gets the druid companion of level 1 - actually in my opinion a quite bad choice, except for pure roleplaying. And then you could as I said get that through a feat instead.

You'd allow the animal companion as a 5,000 exp 'feat'?

If so, I'll go 3r/3s. I didn't think you'd allow that, as you'd said 'feat' before, and I've always heard the animal companion was pretty useful(I also like having a bit of added meatshield, for this game).

 

[wysiwyg]

The middle aproach is what I'm going to use. You normally won't have access to any ability that a 6th-level character can't have access to, except for the single capstone feat. For the warblade and swordsage, I'd say it's Battle Cunning ... Fighter becomes quite a special case since their capstone feat allow them to count their BAB as 8 instead of 6 when taking feats, giving them access to several abilities that a 6-th level character can't take.

Can my warblade go the fighter's route instead of Battle Cunning (have a BAB of 8 instead of 6 for taking feats). Take a look at his Weapon Aptitude class ability making him very similar to a fighter in terms of allowed feat selection.

 

[Ilja]

@Theroc: A 2hd wolf won't be useful as a meatshield, and any other animal even less (apart from maybe a horse, but they don't really have the instincts needed for a warrior unless ridden). It'll have 5 defense and 4 soak, and pitted against enemies for your level 6 character, he'll be hash in no time. And due to the lack of Speak With Animals that regular druids and rangers have, the usefulness of the animal as a scout will be very limited. As a guard, tracker, or hunting animal it could be useful though.

Wysiwyg: Sure, that sounds fair. For feat prerequisite purposes, you would count as a 6-th level fighter instead of 4, with a BAB of 8 instead of 6.

But still, both those matters are quite far away in terms of time. You're only level 2 now, and even with high leveling rate, it's several weeks until this will become a real problem.