[Locked page limit] Kinslayer OOC

[archolewa]

Out of character stuff. 'Nuff said.

[shaidar]

Hi everyone.

These are my initial thoughts on a character:

Corvin
Lupine, male

STR: 14 (+1)
INT: 11 (0)
WIS: 13 (+1)
DEX: 16 (+2)
CON: 12 (0)
CHR: 9 (0)

Corvin was part of a specialist wilderness/infiltration group in the army. He had just finished his training when the war ended and the unit was disbanded.

2 weapons: unarmed strike, a bow of some kind

4 skills: first aid, tracking, nature lore, navigation, or maybe escape artist or jumping.

I went for high dex to mainly improve his AC, and his str gives a small bonus to his unarmed attacks. I did think about swapping str and con to give his hps a boost. I'm not sure if Lupines prefer a crossbow or ordinary bow. I chose unarmed strike for a weapon feat to give him a non-lethal option and at higher proficiency levels he would a bonus to hit both with unarmed strike and and his claw/claw/bite, but I'm now wondering if a weapon (such as sword) might be better in increase his damage at lower levels.

Any suggestions/thoughts are welcome.

This world sounds like a really interesting and fun premise.

Do Lupines wear clothes? Or are they a bit more like Wookies, and only were belts and cloaks and things like that for utility?

I found the following pic that I rather like:

lupine_small.jpg (240.72 KiB) Viewed 538 times

[Edeldhur]

Dropping in to say hi and take a look.
Not working on a character yet, but it will definitely by a Magic-User. I guess focus on Strength and Intelligence.
I will be away for the whole weekend, so not much time to post, but hopefully some time to take a further look at the class, and the info on the game threads

[archolewa]

Hi everyone.

These are my initial thoughts on a character:

Corvin
Lupine, male

STR: 14 (+1)
INT: 11 (0)
WIS: 13 (+1)
DEX: 16 (+2)
CON: 12 (0)
CHR: 9 (0)

Looks good to me. *Maybe* swap Con and Charisma if you want to keep Con at +0, unless having a Charisma of 9 is important to matching your
conception of the character. Con will almost never come up in stat checks, while Charisma will, and in Dark Dungeons X you use your *score*
not your *modifier* for stat checks. So swapping your Con and Chr will have almost no gameplay impact on your constitution, but give you a 15%
higher chance of passing any charisma checks you may need to make. But that's fiddling around the edges.

Corvin was part of a specialist wilderness/infiltration group in the army. He had just finished his training when the war ended and the unit was disbanded.

I like it! Edeldhur might be worth considering your character coming from the same unit. Would give your characters a reason to adventure together other than "met each other in a tavern."
Which is fine, but not my favorite style.

2 weapons: unarmed strike, a bow of some kind

4 skills: first aid, tracking, nature lore, navigation, or maybe escape artist or jumping.

This all looks good.

I went for high dex to mainly improve his AC, and his str gives a small bonus to his unarmed attacks. I did think about swapping str and con to give his hps a boost. I'm not sure if Lupines prefer a crossbow or ordinary bow. I chose unarmed strike for a weapon feat to give him a non-lethal option and at higher proficiency levels he would a bonus to hit both with unarmed strike and and his claw/claw/bite, but I'm now wondering if a weapon (such as sword) might be better in increase his damage at lower levels.

Lupines are perfectly capable with crossbows or bows, so it's up to you. If you plan on focusing on increasing unarmed strikes, and leaving your ranged weapon at basic proficiency for a while, Crossbow is probably better since it does more damage (2d4 vs 1d6). If you plan on increasing your ranged weapon, then it depends on what you want to do. Crossbows do more damage and can stun a target (which is *nasty*), but bows give you an AC bonus, which can help mitigate your fairly bad AC. They also delay an opponent which isn't as good as stun, but can help support your allies if one of them uses a two-hander.

Personally, I think you'd get more mileage out of a ranged weapon than another melee weapon. Enemies are going to have pretty bad saving throws early on, which means you'll have a pretty good chance of knocking an enemy out when you hit them with an unarmed strike. Unless they get *really* lucky (roll less than 4 on a d100), they're as good as dead at that point. Undead may give you trouble, but I'd probably let you at least delay them with an unarmed strike.

For comparison, if you're fighting a goblin with 4 HP, you'd have a 45% of hitting them (AC 6 + 1 attack bonus + 1 strength), a 33% chance of just killing them outright (1d3 + 1 from strength damage), and a 60% chance of knocking them out (they succeed on a death ray chance on a roll of 13 or higher). So, that's what .45 * .33 + .45 * .66 * .6 = 32% chance of effectively one shotting them? Am I doing my math right? If you used a bastard sword, meanwhile you'd still have a 45% chance of hitting them, and an 87% chance of one shotting them (1d8+2 damage), so 39% chance of a one shot? So unarmed strike is competitive against most of the enemies you'll (probably) be facing early on. Actually, it's better than that, because you can "dual wield" unarmed strikes, which means you get two attempts per turn to one shot the goblin. Of course, unarmed strikes grow less reliable as enemies get better saving throws, so most classes probably don't want to invest heavily in it, but at that point, Lupines can use their teeth and claws!

As for going strength vs. con, if it were me I'd stick to having a higher strength. But to me, constitution is straight up boring, and I begrudge any game that expects me to pump it to be effective (looking at you DnD 3.5 and newer!). Con is especially weak here, because you only get Con bonuses for the first 9 levels, and it doesn't impact anything else like saving throws or resurrection chance. On the other hand, getting even a 1 point bonus to HP, means your character is guaranteed to survive climbing anything of 20' or less (it's 1d6 damage per 10' if you fall, and you fall halfway up if you fail your climb check). That's not nothing. It will also give a not-insignificant boost to your survivability in the early levels when Lupines are at their weakest.

This world sounds like a really interesting and fun premise.

Awesome! I'm glad you're liking it.

Do Lupines wear clothes? Or are they a bit more like Wookies, and only were belts and cloaks and things like that for utility?

I'd say Lupines wear clothing. By and large, Lupines still view themselves as humans. Also, they are *very* sensitive about being mistaken for werewolves, which are savage, brutal murderers. Wearing clothing helps emphasize that they are *not* rabid monsters, but civilized people. Indeed, calling a Lupine a werewolf is a grave insult.

I found the following pic that I rather like:

lupine_small.jpg

I love it!

Dropping in to say hi and take a look.
Not working on a character yet, but it will definitely by a Magic-User. I guess focus on Strength and Intelligence.
I will be away for the whole weekend, so not much time to post, but hopefully some time to take a further look at the class, and the info on the game threads

No rush. We still have two slots open, and that gives plenty of time for other people to join before we start gaming in earnest. I hope you enjoy exploring the class and looking through the campaign!

[shaidar]

Thanks for the feedback.

I will very likely swap con and chr. As for bow I can't quite decide between light crossbow and long bow, sightly leaning towards long bow.

My thought was to place my first new weapon feat (at 3rd level) onto bow to get to 'skilled' so I start getting those nice extra abilities. The rest of the weapon feats I would put into unarmed strike. I don't think I can do off-hand until I hit expert, which would happen at 9th level, I'd get two lupine attacks at 5th.

[archolewa]

My thought was to place my first new weapon feat (at 3rd level) onto bow to get to 'skilled' so I start getting those nice extra abilities.

That makes sense, and I think would work fine. I do think the bow will fit the ascetics of your character better (crossbow feels more like the weapon of a Fighter coming off of infantry, rather than a Lupine hunter/scout).

The rest of the weapon feats I would put into unarmed strike. I don't think I can do off-hand until I hit expert, which would happen at 9th level, I'd get two lupine attacks at 5th.

Oops, you're right! I think I got base unarmed strike mixed up with a class feature for Clockworks. They have a class feature that allows them to dual wield their fists from the beginning.

[shaidar]

It's still certainly a WIP, but I've posted Corvin on the character sheet thread.

[archolewa]

It's still certainly a WIP, but I've posted Corvin on the character sheet thread.

I like what I see. Love the little bit about the doll tucked into his belt. I'm going to propose that Corvin's village is one of the outlying villages from Thorncity. Basically, Thorncity abuts up against the Thornwall to the east, and then to the west is a large swatch of farmland, dotted with villages, hamlets, clumps of trees that sort of thing (someone's gotta feed Thorncity!). Corvin lived in one of those farming villages.

[shaidar]

Cool. I'm going to have him carry a large dagger on his belt, even if he's not proficient. it'll be good for cutting things like ropes and poking things he does want to touch.

I'll fill the rest of the sheet in over the weekend.

[shaidar]

Are we using the standard 3d6x10 starting money?

[archolewa]

Are we using the standard 3d6x10 starting money?

Yes.

[shaidar]

So, when you leave the army, do you get to keep a uniform, or a patch you can wear to indicate your old unit?

[archolewa]

So, when you leave the army, do you get to keep a uniform, or a patch you can wear to indicate your old unit?

Uniforms aren't really a thing (clothing is expensive to make, and the enemies are much more obvious than they would be in the real world). The closest you might get to a uniform is some regalia that a major noble's or the royalty's retinue may have, like an embroidered cloak. I think it reasonable for the various units to have made some memento (like a patch) as a show of solidarity with each other, if nothing else to stave off boredom.

[shaidar]

What's the deal with languages? Do we get racial for free and spend skills on the others?

[archolewa]

What's the deal with languages? Do we get racial for free and spend skills on the others?

Based on the rules, everyone starts with just Common. And skills need to be spent to learn others.

As for why that is in my setting, at this point, humans, lupines and halflings all pretty much just speak the shared language, which is called Common (a mishmash of what was once Common, and various other languages). They've all been living and fighting together for *generations* at this point.

Elves and dwarves were decimated in the early years of the war. They had the most powerful civilizations at the start of the war, and thus were the ones that the Kinslayer focused the most heavily on. They also both reproduce very slowly. *Very* few elves or dwarves older than 350 still live. Most adults at the start of the war were slain, with the children plus a few caretakers sent as refugees to live with human and halfling allies. As such, very few indeed speak any sort of Elvish or Dwarvish as a mother tongue. Elvish is still used as a scholarly language (similar to Latin in the Middle Ages), and those smiths or engineers that receive formal education will learn some Dwarvish so that they can study what treatises the dwarven refugees managed to preserve, but that's the extent of it.

Probably, the most common languages that a scout like your character would learn would be monstrous languages. Things like orcish or goblinoid, so that you could eavesdrop on enemy conversations.

[shaidar]

OK, so I think I've just got equipment to do.

[archolewa]

OK, so I think I've just got equipment to do.

Your thief skills aren't quite right. They're accurate by the book, but I'm giving the starting thief skills a bit of a boost as a house rule (look under House Rules: https://www.unseenservant.us/forum/view ... hp?t=13583).

[shaidar]

Thanks, that should all be right now, I hope.

[archolewa]

Thanks, that should all be right now, I hope.

Looks good!

[shaidar]

Equipment is now done. His long bow and thieves tools took a big chunk of his cash, so he is traveling light and certainly needs to find a job soon.