The Unseen Servant forums

Feel free to bounce around ideas for new character creation here, both with your fellow players and with me.

If you want it to be private, PMs are okay, too. This is a talented group of players, though, and I expect excellent feedback and inspiration to come from across the crowd if you talk publically.

Slight modifications made to the Character Creation rules today.

Elves now get bonus spells along with Magic-Users and Clerics for their high intelligence scores. I considered elves generalists and magic-users as specialists, but elves are effectively dual-classed, needing almost twice as much XP to advance. Magic-users still get Read Magic as a bonus spell and elves do not, but I'm going to allow elves to have the extra spells-per-day with their faster-advancing counterparts.

Humans get a choice of one language in addition to common. I'm clarifying the functionality of alignment languages, and I'd like to let humans have a more reasonable chance to learn to communicate in this world.

I'm working on a concept for an elven outcast:

I was the Second--Men might call it a lieutenant--to a Sword Singer named Maeldor, one of our greatest warriors. We were Bonded--you Men do not have a word for this. He was a...a friend, an elder brother. We were closer than family. I loved him.

It was over a woman. Her name was Ianis, and I was courting her in secret.. Maeldor took a liking to her as well, and proposed marriage to her. It was a good match, and she accepted. Heartbroken, I challenged him to a duel. It was a hopeless battle, and I knew it. I suppose I sought succor in the arms of Death, if I was to be denied it in <name>’s arms.

I prevailed. I do not say I won. I was, and remain, far inferior to him in skill of arms. Yet at the final moment, when he could have struck me down, he hesitated--and I did not. The Court adjudged it murder, and banished me.

I wandered for a time, seeking dissolution. Suicide is forbidden, as entry to the Shining Lands is denied to all who take their own lives. After a time I found myself here, where I shall find destruction or redemption.

I'm working on a fighter, dwarf or halfling (pretty much interchangeable. ( I'll wait to see which one fits in the least ) that has a serious personality quirk...
He is blessed with physical abilities, but his emotional stability is not as mature.

Clay Weatherwax was born to a poor-but-large family near the Midnight Forest. They bartered away yet another hungry mouth to the Order of Beith at a young age in exchange for a boar and 2 cords of firewood. Clay grew up in and later joined the order.

Upon hearing of the migration into the northern wilderness, the priest Leigh Dror was sent north to secure a (large) tract of land to remain wild, thereby preventing the influence of men (as well as other demihumans) on Beith's land. Clay was sent to accompany Leigh. Leigh drowned/was murdered/fell ill/etc during the trip and the 16-year-old-Clay inherited the task.

So the concept is that Clay is as close to a druid as you can get in LL, worshiping a goddess that is truly neutral. But he has to figure out a way to gain possession of a sizable chunk of land, preserving it in his goddess's name. He will be forced to adventure with other PC's in exchange for treasure and promises of land, which will pit his beliefs against his desire to succeed. Though injury and death are natural and should be allowed to happen, will he just let his companions die if they can help him succeed?

My question to you all is how would you equip such a character? What about core beliefs? What other limits would you place upon yourselves?

Marullus is allowing me to choose "Woodland Creatures" as my second language, which will work like the 9th level Elf ability. There are a nice array of druidic spells to choose from in the LL book and I will likely self-limit to those. I was thinking of only allowing non-metal armor and weaponry and bringing along a trained dog or two.

Here are some druidic spell considerations for Clay (alphabetical by level):
1st > Cure Light Wounds, Detect Magic, Light, Purify Food & Drink, Resist Cold
2nd > Resist Fire, Snake Charm, Speak with Animals
3rd > Animal Growth, Animate Dead, Cure Disease, Remove Curse, Cause Fear
4th > Create Food/Water, Cure Serious Wounds, Lower Water, Neutralize Poison, Speak w/Plants, Sticks to Snakes
5th > Cure Critical Wounds, Insect Plague, True Seeing
6th > Conjure Animals, Find the Path, Heal, Part Water, Stone Tell, Thorn Barrier (in place of Blade Barrier)
7th > Control Weather, Earthquake, Regenerate, Symbol, Wind Walk

Some arcane spells that may also be converted to druidic:
1st > Sleep
2nd > Web
3rd > Lightning Bolt, Water Breathing
4th > Hallucinary Terrain, Massmorph, Wall of Thorns (instead of Wall of Fire/Ice)
5th > Conjure Elemental, Hold Monster
6th > Move Earth, Flesh to Stone
7th > Simulacrum, Statue

Just some thoughts on spell possibilities.

I love seeing all your ideas so far! Keep 'em coming!

For the druid, it is the diety write-up which makes the difference. Specifically the three tenets and the taboo. With LL the rules are basic - it is less what you can do and more of why you do it, I think.

How picky are we being with supplies? Like "intro to D&D" where you can carry limitless coins and go for months without food or drink? Like Torchbearer where you will most certainly die because you jettisoned rations to carry a tapestry? Or somewhere between where we'd better have food and torches, but the economics of such things is somewhat loose?

Thanks.

And thanks to hedgeknight for consolidating that list of more appropriate spells. If Clay lives long enough, I may try to "invent" new cleric spells based on a few of the wizard spells you suggested.

We are using the rules as-written in Lab Lord Basic, which are actually pretty tough. Closer to Torchbearer with hard calls on what you carry and what treasure you bring back - Man vs Environment is a key factor in wilderness exploration play. Not likely to starve, though. You start taking penalties if you reach deprivation, making it easier for monsters to kill you.

The rules are a bit scattered in the book so I pulled them all together in a reference: viewtopic.php?f=353&t=5467&start=20#p245719

Using these rules in Keehnelf's game, we found the importance of pack animals when going delving and getting large amounts of uncarriable coin, the problem with keeping the mounts safe without a hireling, the problem when wandering monsters kill the horse, the problem of moving slow for carrying too much gear and needing twice as much food, etc. There is merit to moving fast and light, then coming back with help to get more treasure, but with a reminder that dungeons have the chance to change while you are gone, particularly if you take a while.

Characters are really coming along! Please continue to submit to me by PM.

I've opened the Tavern and town threads for those who are approved to begin roleplay with each other regarding your arrival and so you can start organizing yourselves accordingly. You have at least a week as more players submit and enter.

Those with characters complete, feel free to begin posting and interacting IC.

The private forums are in! You should all have one. If I have your character sheet and heirloom items (if applicable) they are posted. If I didn't post them, then they're lost in the shuffle so please PM them to me again.

Please go through our PM chains, get any other notes that you wish saved, and put them in the private forums. The PMs are proving too unwieldy for long-term storage and will likely be purged. Please help us both by copying over the important stuff that we should keep.

We have nine named characters ready and able to interact in the tavern. Enjoy!

As per the previous campaign - it is up to you to organize and initiate your expeditions. (The DM-provided plot hints were posted last week on the IC threads.) Post in the Tavern thread about your group's departure and I'll open the expedition thread(s) for you from there. You can begin to do this as soon as you are ready - I should be able to open threads this weekend if all goes well.