This is my new characater, a gnomish librarian. Help please. (long)

[Psionicist]

>Beware. This is a bit messy with (I bet) some spelling errors.<

Ah-hoy, hoy!

Before we start a huge RttToEE campaign we will play a small "campain" for around 1-2 months or so, with new DM, new characters and new players (a simple player/DM swap).

For your information, our "real" DM is Decamber who will host the elemental evil campaign later. The new DM is Kroax, our very own complete Forgotten Realms guru. He loves the D&D system and the FRCS so I bet this campaign will be more strict to the rules than what I'm used too

Anyhow, the character rules are as follows: 32 point buy and level 1 characters. The actual campaign will be set in Cormyr (i think) and it's generic, that is it's not based around our characters.

As I'm generally full of ideas when it comes to character creation, I come up with this in a vain attempt to create a medieval "nerd":

Merlin (short version)
Merlin has always been in his own world, wandering around dreaming. When he was 20 years old (60 years ago) he wandered around in the forest, dreaming that he walked on the bottom of the ocean - and suddently he woke up and noticed he was lost. You see, Merlin has NEVER explored the forest around his peaceful little village more than a mile or two. He has always been afraid of things and stayed underground as the elderly gnomes watched over him like a cat - he was bright and a good addition to the future engineering crew.
Anyhow, he was lost, he was afraid, he was scared, he panicked. He started to run, run and run to find a place to hide. And he did. So he entered the cavern he just found and stumbled right over a massive dungeon system. He fall asleep exhausted.
Then he woke up, he was lost, he was afraid, he was scared. He panicked. He started to run...

Then he woke up. It was massive, it was huge, it was friendly and cozy. It was full of books. Lots of books.

...

In short, he accidenlty got inside a VERY VERY large library (see other thread about libraries and books). I don't know which library he accidently walked into, but some ideas include Candlekeep, or even jucier, Candlekeeps "mirror" library or that secret library in... the mountains... something... its a huge library (see other thread).

...

Anyhow. He started to read. He read and read and read books and only ate berries until the owner of the library found him there helpless.

[some event related to if the library is secret or not - i can come up with that later]

So the owner of the library and Merlin both agreed that he could stay [he decided to stay due to something, as he couldn't leave because its a secret library or something like that] if he worked. So he started to clean things. The walls, the ground, everything.
In his free time, he read books. He read lots of books. And he wrote. He wrote about the books he read. Within a month he had a hundred pages about lots of books and his work was so appreciated he was hired as a full time librarian.
He read books. He read even more books and he wrote about the books, and within a year he had a big index of books. Later on he not only commented the books but he also corrected ugly sentences (as this one *wink, wink*), grammatical errors and such. He was indeed very good at writing.

So. He stayed there for 60 years. He has now read every single book in the whole library multiple times. He also copies books, edit new copies of the books and write about the books, index the books and so on, and he LOVES it!

A normal day
- Merlin copies and edit / rewrites books for 2 hours.
- He does other things related to writing for an additinal 2 hours.
- He eats and do other natural things for 1 hour.
- He reads and writes for 8 hours, that is his life. He can read 10 pages a minute in peaceful speed. This means he completes an average book 2-300 pages in 20 to 30 minutes. He then writes about the book for 20 minutes to an hour. An avarage day he reads and writes about 5-6 books, averaging around 2000 books per year.
- He studies math, magic and chess for 3 hours. He like to play chess as he is naturally good at tactics and logic [he have to be good at something as a future hero you know].He loves maths and all the literature related to magic, so he decided to learn it himself.
- He sleeps for 8 hours.


Now, he will leave the library to explore the world [The reason he will leave the library is because he have to find a new unique book to finish the test to become somthing really important, as a high librarian, great reader or something like that.]

Appearance:
Merlin wants to be a wizard. He has read about wizards. He has a very fanatastic view of wizards, therefor he wears some... odd clothes. He has a darkblue robe, a dark blue "pointy" hat and dark blue comfortable slippers. These dark blue clothes have rather big golden stars all around it. He has a magic wand he uses to channel energy, and he always, despite magical components, cast his spells by weaving the wand and saying the magical words.
He is fairly short at 3 feet and 70 pounds, he has white hair and large, blue wet eyes just like an innocent dog. He is a 'cute' gnome no one ever would like to hit [therfor the high charisma].
He is 80 years old

Personality stuff:
If it was a "secret" library, he will be a bit afraid of people, or masses of people. People will see him as intelligent. He is also INCREDIBLE patient and he can concentrate on one thing for years. He can probably beat a monk in the sport "don't move, just think". He is goot at tactics, he loves chess.

End of story.

There are lots of more details but they aren't so important right now. This guy is deffenitely a Diviner wizard who will level up as loreseeker later, or is he?
Some way, I want to squeze Bardic Knowledge in there. You do know LOTS of things if you have good memory and have read a one hundred thousand books (!), and I don't want to add some thousand knowledge skills, so either I make him Bard at first level or I slighly modify the Wizard class to fit my needs.

Okay.

Technically, he currently looks like this right now:

"Merlin"
Gnome something 1

Str 8
Dex 8
Con 8
Int 18
Wis 16
Cha 14

Skills
Concentration 4
Profession(Reading fast) 4
Knowledge(Tactics) 4
Profession(Chess) 4
Knowledge(Mathematics) 4


Feats (1)
Some feat that give one a bonus to Bardic Knowledge. It's the only idea this far.

Languages:
Common
Gnome

Now I have a whole lots of quesions:

1) The easy one: How do I solve the Bardic Knowledge thing? And are there any feat that adds a massive bonus to bardic knowledge? I know the silverymoon feat Foclucan Bard adds a +4 bonus but background on the feat doesn't fit here. And I really do thinks it fits. He heas read books and books and books and journals and stories and biographys and that stuff for 60 years. He is a true sage god dammit
So would it be unfair to just create a generic "+4 bardic knowledge" and give Merlin it? I don't think it would unbalance anything as he is a little shafted as is.
2) Any idea for spells when he levels up as a wizard? Or any idea related to the technical stuff?
3) Any interesting ideas for the story? As which library he found and things like that?

Thanks!

Sincerely,
Psionicist

 

[Conaill]

Skills
Concentration 4
Profession(Reading fast) 4
Knowledge(Tactics) 4
Profession(Chess) 4
Knowledge(Mathematics) 4

So, he's only been reading about tactics, chess and mathematics, hmmm...?

I'd add a bunch more knowledge skills. History or legends would be a good one. Aracana, even if he doesn't start as a mage. Maybe herbology, Knowledge (monsters), if your DM lets you get away with it...

The problem with all this is that you'll need *lots* of skill points. It's a little screwy, but the best way to achieve that it to start as an Educated Rogue. Rogue for the skill points, Education feat so you have all the knowledge skills as class skill, plus you get a +1 to two of them.

The less powergamer solution is to start as an Expert: reasonable skill points, and you can pick your own class skills (including up to two exclusive skills, such as Decipher Script and maybe UMD or Scry). I'm currently playing an Expert Gnome with Cosmopolitan:Alchemy.

 

[Volaran]

Well, he is used to having a lot of reference material on hand, right. Perhaps he carries his references (his own writings about other books) with him. The DM could allow him to make general knowledge checks, maybe with a +2 bonus (no more since they'd just be reminding him of what he read in the full volume), but only when he has access to his books.

Later, the Loremaster gets something resembling the bardic knowledge check anyway if I recall.

 

[Psionicist]

Re: Re: This is my new characater, a gnomish librarian. Help please. (long)

So, he's only been reading about tactics, chess and mathematics, hmmm...?

I'd add a bunch more knowledge skills. History or legends would be a good one. Aracana, even if he doesn't start as a mage. Maybe herbology, Knowledge (monsters), if your DM lets you get away with it...

The problem with all this is that you'll need *lots* of skill points. It's a little screwy, but the best way to achieve that it to start as an Educated Rogue. Rogue for the skill points, Education feat so you have all the knowledge skills as class skill, plus you get a +1 to two of them.

The less powergamer solution is to start as an Expert: reasonable skill points, and you can pick your own class skills (including up to two exclusive skills, such as Decipher Script and maybe UMD or Scry). I'm currently playing an Expert Gnome with Cosmopolitan:Alchemy.

That's what Bardic Knowledge is for! You can know LOTS of things without one million knowledge things. However I get your point. There are some things you can only do with knowledge skills and not Bardic Knowledge, so I have to add some generic knowledge skills... I think...

Any ideas?

 

[Psionicist]

Well, he is used to having a lot of reference material on hand, right. Perhaps he carries his references (his own writings about other books) with him. The DM could allow him to make general knowledge checks, maybe with a +2 bonus (no more since they'd just be reminding him of what he read in the full volume), but only when he has access to his books.

Later, the Loremaster gets something resembling the bardic knowledge check anyway if I recall.

Yeah. One of the "details" I included that he just HAVE to read when he is nervous, so he carries a whole lot of books with him.
The only time he is aggressive and really sure on whats he is doing is when he reads and play chess.

 

[Acmite]

Languages, man. Languages. How was he able to read so many books if the only mainstream language he knows is Common. He should have the following: Draconic, Elven, Chondathan (lot of areas speak this), and a lot more Forgotten Realms languages. They are listed on p. 85 of the FRCS.

Ummm....there is no way your character could have read all the books in Candlekeep in 60 years. Not according to anything I've ever read, anyway. If that is the story you want to go with, you might be better off going with a smaller library (in Cormyr?) that you can make up yourself.

You might want to take some ranks in Profession: Scribe.

To be honest, based on the background you gave, I'm kinda confused about the bulk of your skill selections. I'd focus almost entirely on knowledge skills.

I have a simialr character (book worm, spent a lot of tiome in a library) in a FR game right now (3rd level atypical evoker) and he has the following skills:

Alchemy 3 ranks, Concentration 6 ranks, Craft (Cartography) 2 ranks, Craft (drawing) 5 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 5 ranks, Knowledge (planes) 2 ranks, Knowledge (engineering) 2 ranks, Knowledge (geography) 3 ranks, Knowldege (vermin) 2 ranks, Knowledge (Local History: Lake of Steam) 2 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 1 rank, Knowledge (nature) 1 rank.

He has a +4 Int so most of those skills have a hefty bonus.

That's my two copper ingots.
Acmite

 

[Psionicist]

Languages, man. Languages. How was he able to read so many books if the only mainstream language he knows is Common. He should have the following: Draconic, Elven, Chondathan (lot of areas speak this), and a lot more Forgotten Realms languages. They are listed on p. 85 of the FRCS.

Ummm....there is no way your character could have read all the books in Candlekeep in 60 years. Not according to anything I've ever read, anyway. If that is the story you want to go with, you might be better off going with a smaller library (in Cormyr?) that you can make up yourself.

You might want to take some ranks in Profession: Scribe.

To be honest, based on the background you gave, I'm kinda confused about the bulk of your skill selections. I'd focus almost entirely on knowledge skills.

I have a simialr character (book worm, spent a lot of tiome in a library) in a FR game right now (3rd level atypical evoker) and he has the following skills:

Alchemy 3 ranks, Concentration 6 ranks, Craft (Cartography) 2 ranks, Craft (drawing) 5 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 5 ranks, Knowledge (planes) 2 ranks, Knowledge (engineering) 2 ranks, Knowledge (geography) 3 ranks, Knowldege (vermin) 2 ranks, Knowledge (Local History: Lake of Steam) 2 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 1 rank, Knowledge (nature) 1 rank.

He has a +4 Int so most of those skills have a hefty bonus.

That's my two copper ingots.
Acmite

Excellent reply Acmite. Regarding the technical details: I'm working on it, and I like your ideas. I will sit down and create a list of skills. Or I get it!

What about this? I take first level as Rogue, for all the skill points, then I replace sneak attack with bardic knowledge - I will rename it too "lore"! That's an idea. Or I go bard. Our bard gets 6SP per level as they are a little unbalanced...

Here's something to think about:

Assuming he reads 6 books per day, that makes 6*365.25*60 for a total of 131490 books. Heh... Wow...

Lets say 5 books. 5*365.25*60. Thats 109575 books. Not counting spell books and magical tomes of course, that would be a little overkill.

 

[Psionicist]

Good news everyone! Friend and board memeber Volaran gave me this info in the other thread, regarding the hugest library in Toril:

I don't doubt at all that he could have stumbled in. Since it mentioned that there is at least one gate that leads to the Library, it wouldn't be at all unreasonable to say he could have stumbled into a forgotten one and ended up in the Library.

It says that many of the librarians are of the kindly old shuffling greybeard variety, so a gnome as an apprentice would seem to fit right in.

This means I know a location. I know there are people there who have helped him in wizardry as well as playing chess with him. It is also a mysterious place dedicated to a god, Deneir. He is a part of something as he knows the location of the secret library!

Wow! This will indeed be an interesting character to play

 

[Conaill]

Chonjurer on the WotC boards (don't remember if he's on here as well) lists Bardic Knowledge as being worth about two feats!

http://boards.wizards.com/rpg/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=110&t=001420

If that seems a bit much, keep in mind that it automatically scales with level (no need to put skill points in it), and it's essentially Knowledge:Everything.


How about this for a reasonable house rule: untrained Knowledge checks can be made as if your number of ranks is 1/10th of your total number of ranks in knowledge skills.

So if you have 5 other knowledge skills, you could use an untrained Knowledge check at half the average number of ranks in the other 5. Seems reasonable? If not, maybe you can persuade your DM to let you take this ability as your 1st lvl feat?

 

[Pazu]

<snip>

Now I have a whole lots of quesions:

1) The easy one: How do I solve the Bardic Knowledge thing? And are there any feat that adds a massive bonus to bardic knowledge? I know the silverymoon feat Foclucan Bard adds a +4 bonus but background on the feat doesn't fit here. And I really do thinks it fits. He heas read books and books and books and journals and stories and biographys and that stuff for 60 years. He is a true sage god dammit
So would it be unfair to just create a generic "+4 bardic knowledge" and give Merlin it? I don't think it would unbalance anything as he is a little shafted as is.
2) Any idea for spells when he levels up as a wizard? Or any idea related to the technical stuff?
3) Any interesting ideas for the story? As which library he found and things like that?

Thanks!

Sincerely,
Psionicist

1. Song and Silence has a feat called "Obscure Lore" that gives a +3 bonus to Bardic Knowledge checks. Maybe that might fit the bill.

2. Again, Song and Silence has a couple of neat little bard spells that might work well for this character, if you want to take the bard path, rather than the wizard. The one that springs to mind is "Easy Math", which lets the character, among other things, immediately know how many of a large number of objects are present (think "Rain Man").

3. Don't know the Forgotten Realms, so I can't help you there.

-- Pazu