Character Creation

[drpete]

Discuss character creation here.

[sulldawga]

drpete - Any chance I can make that Sword +1 a Crossbow +1 instead?

[drpete]

Sulldawga,

Sure, that's fine with me.

[The-Dungeon-Shaker]

Since you were asking in the other thread, I'll go fighter of course.

A cleric will be mandatory, I plan to hire one as henchman (still have a load of gp I don't know what to do with)
6000 gp for a 4th level curate if I understand correctly.

[Zhym]

I might as well throw 1,000 gp at one last shot at a 15% chance of something cool.

[drpete]

Zhym,

You get a wand of negation, usable by arcane classes. It will disable an enemy wand, staff or rod for one round per charge.

[NJWilliam]

Wow, you guys were at work in the looking for players thread!

Str: 10 Int: 8 (-1) Wis: 13 (+1) Dex: 8 (-1) Con: 12 Cha: 16 (+2)

Shaman, still looking over totem animal choice.

Are there any animals particular to this setting other than those on the totem animal list on page 40 of PC?

He'll spend 10,000 gold for 50% chance at 4 magic items, potion, & scroll.

Before spending more gold, what would need to be spent to scribe scrolls and brew potions, and what limits would you place on those for starting?

[The-Dungeon-Shaker]

From the setting blurb we had:

"The forests and plains contain mastodons, saber toothed tigers and other great beasts"

[drpete]

Yeah... This area has those kinds of prehistoric creatures. The local "Elphand" cavemen ride the mastodons in war for the World Emperor, and Amazons are known to occasionally have Smilodon companions. I think Mastadon might be a little hard to have traveled with, but if you want a "young" smilodon (it would only have half your hd, as a totem animal) we could work that out. I'd guess something like ambushing would be appropriate as a bonus proficiency, but would be open to something else. Generally, powerful animals like that have powerful spirits that it's hard for a human to bond with fully.

The world in general is more "normal" in this sense, though there are interactions with merfolk, etc. If you've got an idea of a prehistoric beast or other animal you'd like to work with, let me know and we can try to work it out.

[Zhym]

Wait, are stat adjustments possible?

Also, do I know how many charges the wand has?

And how do spell repertoires get selected?

[drpete]

Zhym,,

Yes, you may adjust your stats as described in the early part of the core book, but you must first qualify for the class. It's 2 for 1 trades into your prime requisites, but you can't go below 9 or lower your prime requisites.

Spell repertoires are rolled for, and I'll give you the number of charges.

[sulldawga]

Since there's no difference between 12 CHR and 10 CHR, I'll lower that and raise my DEX to 18. Giddyup!

[drpete]

Shaker,

You are right, 6000 gp will give you a lvl 4 cleric. Equipment is extra.

[drpete]

Wow, you guys were at work in the looking for players thread!

Str: 10 Int: 8 (-1) Wis: 13 (+1) Dex: 8 (-1) Con: 12 Cha: 16 (+2)

Shaman, still looking over totem animal choice.

Are there any animals particular to this setting other than those on the totem animal list on page 40 of PC?

He'll spend 10,000 gold for 50% chance at 4 magic items, potion, & scroll.

Before spending more gold, what would need to be spent to scribe scrolls and brew potions, and what limits would you place on those for starting?

Lessee, to craft magic items, you need a workshop worth at least 4000 gp. You can take any potion or scroll results as formulas instead at a factor of 2 formulas for 1 potion/scroll. The rules pretty clearly intend it to be a fixed lab rather than a portable thing. I'll say you can have the equipment for the workshop portable, but you need to assemble it in a fixed location and use downtime for the research, rather than doing it while travelling. It could, in that sense, be semi-portable, but the group would end up going at wagon/cart speed and it's not going to generate a lot of returns unless you plant a flag somewhere for several weeks. That said, a few weeks in a town can be made to zip by, and I would keep people busy.

Like the issue with the army, the research/magic item system is better for higher level characters with a fixed base of operations and lots of money to burn, though it can be made to work in this situation, sort of.

[sulldawga]

Can we get some sort of idea where the nearest town (Class IV-VI) and nearest city (Class I-III) will be, relative to the areas we'll be exploring?

Trying to get an idea of how often we'll be able to return to "civilization" and what sort of markets we're dealing with.

[The-Dungeon-Shaker]

Shaker,

You are right, 6000 gp will give you a lvl 4 cleric. Equipment is extra.

In fact, I must add 1200gp to cover for 6 months of waging.

Since there's no difference between 12 CHR and 10 CHR, I'll lower that and raise my DEX to 18. Giddyup!

I'll do the same kind of adjustment.

From Str: 16 (+2)Int: 8 (-1)Wis: 10 Dex: 11 Con: 10 Cha: 11

to Str: 18 (+3)Int: 8 (-1)Wis: 10 Dex: 9 Con: 10 Cha: 9

[drpete]

Shaker,

The six month wage requirement is for hirelings and mercenaries, not henchmen, who are expensive enough to level already. Though I'm fine with that henchman, it looks like we will have a shaman along, which will give the group some amount of magical healing. I guess I'm wondering if you're sure you want to spend so much on him/her? I'm not objecting, mind you...

[thirdkingdom]

It will be the weekend, most likely, before I can get my sheet up. Um, so my preference for henchmen/hirelings is to hire a couple of guys to act as non-combatant torchbearers. I don't know, Dr., if you allow such a thing or if only henchmen will go into a dungeon. I typically allow hirelings to act as non-fighting torchbearers at a rate of something like 1 gold a day or the something.

Also, I'm guessing we will have mounts/pack animals, so we will most likely need a couple of drovers to watch over camp, fix us food, etc.

[drpete]

In terms of civilization level, you're going into the boondocks.

The Elphand Lands are a primitive area pretty far from big cities.

The area is a tributary to the "World Emperor", who rules Viridistan, the largest city in the setting, but they are on the very far northern border of that territory. That cosmopolitan city, ruled by the last of the powerful and sorcerous green-skinned Viridians, lies a few hundred miles south. By tributary, I mean that some of the local cavemen are allied with them. There are cities between here and there, but it's a long trip. Viridistan is a class I market.

You'll be coming in from the east by ship from the City State of the Invincible Overlord, a major city which is a rival to Viridistan. You'll go by boat over the great sea of the north, the Uther Pentwegern Sea, but you'll be hugging the south coast to avoid sea monsters and Kraken. The City State is a class I market.

Maybe 300 miles north up the coast, along the edge of the Great Glacier is Valon, a city of blue skinned wizards descended from elves. Valon is notable, but it's a class IV market.

It's not uninhabited, but there will be mining villages, elven fastnesses, etc. Mostly class V and VI markets. Damkina is a city out there, probably a higher market class, which we'll treat somewhat like Timbuktu... it exists, there are traders who have traded with it, but it's remote, you don't know much, and no trade is coming out of there now.

[drpete]

Third,

I can see the desire to have non-combatant torchbearer/packbearer hirelings, but I'm gonna say people will only follow you into a tomb full of zombies (or whatever) for loyalty, a share of the treasure and some xp, even if they're non-combatants. Once the critters are cleared out, you can have teamsters help you lug treasure out, though.

Pete