[3.Tomefinder] Beer & Pretzels PbP Recruiting

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 8:25 am

Grek wrote:Backstory: Once upon a time, Pankas was the heir to the jeweled throne of Tyrannos, an island nation ruled by Time Mages. Due to an unfortunate incident involving dinosaurs and some invading necromancers, Tyrannos no longer exists. Now Pankas wanders the world, attempting to gain power and secure his revenge.

@Hick's Mage: Link please?

http://tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=52837

It's a solid class, I considered playing one before I found gymnos defense.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 12:47 pm

So, I noticed that Prak's running an evil-ish character and that pathfinder demodands actually look like something that could potentially win a fight instead of just being bad line drawings of fat assholes like in 2e. That got me thinking of maybe playing a Tiefling True Fiend if you'll have me. If you're at your player saturation point though that's cool too--I enjoy making sheets anyway, so no worries there.

Anyway, true fiends have long hit me as kinda tough to evaluate because of the whole jack-of-all-trades aspect they've got going on--no single shtick is particularly overwhelming but it seems to me like piling up that many advantages should result in a character that can just sort of wag their dick at a surprising number of problems.

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:37 pm

Avoraciopoctules: Wahid, sample sketch (checking if the design's okay, I'll retrace it using strokes instead of fills so as to be more zoom friendly later on and so the line widths are consistent, and I'll fix the oddness with the right side of his vest, but I don't feel like re uploading just yet).

Cynic: I approve.

Mask_De_H: Tome Mage is cool. Go for it.

Whipstich: Sure, welcome aboard.

Okay, so everyone's fine with Pathfinder Concentration with old DCs right?

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:48 pm

I'll have a drawing of Tek and some background up soonish. Um. Thuuuursday? School and errands for family and my Greyhawk game tonight.

Are we doing Tome backgrounds?

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 5:09 pm

At the moment I'm considering one Tome background and two Pathfinder traits, or three Pathfinder traits unless this gets voted off.

Take your time, I still need to design the dungeon and its denizens. Also I'll try fiddling with flash to make a pan and scroll wheel zoom compatible battlemap. I'm going to have to trust you not to decompile the swf and use it too see hidden enemies and remove fog of war and stuff.

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 6:01 pm

Something like this maybe: https://www.dropbox.com/s/c94bdgyie7lq8 ... tled-1.swf

Open it with any browser. You can pan around by clicking and dragging and zoom with the scroll wheel. Requires Flash Player.

Grek · Post by **Grek** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 8:22 pm

Works fine for me. Is there supposed to be like seven different dragons?

Lokathor · Post by **Lokathor** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 9:55 pm

radthemad4 wrote:At the moment I'm considering one Tome background and two Pathfinder traits, or three Pathfinder traits unless this gets voted off.

this stuff? http://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits (for players: an easy search list is here http://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits/tools/traits-filter)

Can we use any trait listed? By that I mean: they've got a bunch of "campaign" traits listed, in addition to race and background and stuff, can we use those too?

Something like this maybe: https://www.dropbox.com/s/c94bdgyie7lq8 ... tled-1.swf

Open it with any browser. You can pan around by clicking and dragging and zoom with the scroll wheel. Requires Flash Player.

As a programmer myself, I am technically impressed that you threw this together so quickly. However, I still vote for using roll20.net as a battlemat, then players can move their own tokens, which seems a lot simpler.

EDIT:

Okay I think I have this figured out:

``Background: Raised by Owl-Bears: I can talk to Animals and Magical Beasts as if there was a shared language.

``Trait1: "Two-World Magic". Add a 0th level spell from another list to your own 0th level list. I'm adding Endure Elements off of the Dragon Sorcerer 0th level list. (which is normally a slightly cheap move to use special lists for things like this, but come on it's Endure Elements).

``Trait2: Veteran Jungle Guide: +1 Perception and Perception is a class skill. Also +1 to Survival in Jungles I guess, I don't think it'll come up.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 1:17 am

radthemad4 wrote:Avoraciopoctules: Wahid, sample sketch (checking if the design's okay, I'll retrace it using strokes instead of fills so as to be more zoom friendly later on and so the line widths are consistent, and I'll fix the oddness with the right side of his vest, but I don't feel like re uploading just yet).

Looks fine to me.

Lokathor wrote:As a programmer myself, I am technically impressed that you threw this together so quickly. However, I still vote for using roll20.net as a battlemat, then players can move their own tokens, which seems a lot simpler.

I'd rather not have to sign up for another website for this game.

Lokathor · Post by **Lokathor** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 2:15 am

I thought that too when someone first asked me to sign up for it, but it takes like 20 seconds, you pick a name/password and you're basically done. It's pretty insidious.

ubernoob · Post by **ubernoob** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 3:01 am

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 4:03 am

Traits eh...

-'Reactionary' +2 initiative
-'Bred for War' +1 intimidate, +1 CMB
-'Second Chance' reroll failed save 1/day

All I got left is magic items and skills. I'm going to focus on athleticism and leaving people awestruck/terrified by my manlihood.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 7:22 am

Cynic wrote:I envision a grass hat and a lot of yawning. A lazy Yuan Ti it is.

In keeping with the theme, you should definitely take the Sleepy drawback (it gets you a third trait)

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 7:55 am

Grek wrote:Works fine for me. Is there supposed to be like seven different dragons?

I just copy pasted the same square several times to see if it could reliably handle a larger map. That's not the actual dungeon. Still need to work on that.

Lokathor wrote:Can we use any trait listed? By that I mean: they've got a bunch of "campaign" traits listed, in addition to race and background and stuff, can we use those too?

They seem general enough at first glance, so I'd say okay pending opposing votes.

Lokathor wrote:As a programmer myself, I am technically impressed that you threw this together so quickly. However, I still vote for using roll20.net as a battlemat, then players can move their own tokens, which seems a lot simpler.

I didn't actually. I reused some old code I wrote a few years ago for... I'm not sure what to call it... an 'interactive document' I guess. I just commented out a few lines that were specific to that project and made a few slight modifications.

I tried Roll20 and it does seem pretty cool, but my internet connection is too slow and/or unstable for it. e.g. there's a delay when zooming and when placing tokens, and sometimes the page stops loading.

Prak_Anima wrote:
Cynic wrote:I envision a grass hat and a lot of yawning. A lazy Yuan Ti it is.
In keeping with the theme, you should definitely take the Sleepy drawback (it gets you a third trait)

I'm a little hesitant about allowing drawbacks, but then again, traits don't seem to be that powerful so it's fine. Pathfinder limits it to one drawback, and I think I'm fine with that.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 7:59 am

Tek
Vampire Tengu Warmage2/Vampire Paragon1
Tek is the last scion of a noble line which fell to infernal vampires.
It's fortunate, then, that he happened to become a vampire in that terrible ordeal.

The Daihane (Long Feather) administered a sizable mountain range, with many subjects. They were known for their peak monasteries which taught arts spiritual, martial and sorcerous.
Tek had just finished his initial training as a Senso Mahotsukai (War Wizard), ready to represent his family in battle, enforcing the rule of his father and protecting their honored subjects, when the hordes of Lorukan, vampire devil lord, struck.

Tek battled fiercely to defend his father and his family's honor, hacking with a prized nodachi which usually hung in their front room to show their wealth and power, blasting the enemy with his wand of fire in his other hand.

Ultimately, the fiends won, as Tek bled out into the snow in front of his family's shrine.

Tek's next memory was awakening in a strange shrine, shrouds hanging all around to plunge the room into darkness. A dutiful servant had carried his body away to an independent shrine away from the mountain, using half remembered stories from childhood and the aid of more knowledgeable priests to guide him through his transformation into an undead beast.

One would think that Tek hated the undead for his family's death at the hands of vampires, but he's really rather pragmatic about it. The dead have nothing but time, and lack many weaknesses of the living. He draws on the magic of his old heritage, and stands as a promise that he will, with time, and study, rise his family's banner once more. He'd certainly like to raise his father with it, but also understands that the old man was a bit more traditional about these things, and so might take some convincing, or simply be better left dead. The fact that a bunch of zombie and skeleton tengu were waiting outside the shrine to follow him when he finally recovered also helped this philosophy.

Once he'd recovered, the servent presented Tek with his family's prized nodachi, found clutched in his hand in a death grip, an enchanted parasol used by a vampire Tek felled that he could now use to protect himself from the sun, and his father's Kitsune-Blessed (Fey-Blessed) Lamellar armour, now rightfully his own. Altering the clan mon only slightly, Tek renamed his clan the Akumahane (Devilfeather) clan, embracing the horrible night it was nearly entirely wiped out as simply the next era of his clan.

Background: Royalty of a Fallen Nation- +2 leadership, people generally well disposed to you. Assassins and ninja pursue, some people particularly unfavourably disposed to you.
Traits: Outlander (Lore Seeker)- Magic Missile, Cause Fear and Entangle are +1 Caster Level and +1 DC
Signature Spell- +1 Caster Level for Magic Missile
Natural Born Leader- Cohorts, followers, or summoned creatures under your leadership gain a +1 morale bonus on Will saves to avoid mind-affecting effects. +1 Leadership rating
Drawback: Attached (Family Nodachi)- Whenever the object of your attachment is either threatened, in danger, or in someone else’s possession, you take a –1 penalty on Will saves and a –2 penalty on saves against fear effects. If the item is destroyed/lost/etc, exchange for the Doubt drawback.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 9:40 pm

radthemad4 wrote:I'm a little hesitant about allowing drawbacks, but then again, traits don't seem to be that powerful so it's fine. Pathfinder limits it to one drawback, and I think I'm fine with that.

Traits are a bit of an odd duck, in large part because you end with a lot of adventure path or setting book specific shit getting split up from their peers and shorn of context in the SRD. Said cherry picking results in a few gems like Defensive Strategist or saving throw re-rolls smugly coexisting with traits that blow dogs for nickels like River Fighter. Amusingly, Defensive Strategist in its original form was linked to a specific good aligned Golarion deity while River Fighter is a fairly generic "combat" trait. You know, because for some reason developers keep thinking exclusivity=balance and that religious characters weren't winning D&D hard enough. As always, it's probably best to just blame SKR and not to worry about it too much.

Anyway, if flaws are considered kosher, I wouldn't mind rolling out with War Veteran (Tome), Reactionary, Carefully Hidden and Defensive Strategist with Paranoid or Avarice as the flaw if that's OK.

ubernoob · Post by **ubernoob** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 10:30 pm

Lokathor · Post by **Lokathor** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 10:45 pm

I did a little bit of dumpster diving and a little bit of "Well, I wouldn't have that I guess", and came away from it all with a pretty cool implied life story I think. Prak seems to have done the same.

We could still down-vote a specific trait if it's too good or anything like that. None of the traits folks have picked so far seem to be over the top, they're more fun than powerful I'd say.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 11:06 pm

Whether we use traits officially or not, I'm probably not going to bother for Wahid. He punches alright, and he's spent all his skill points already. I guess I could boost his saves, but that would involve expending effort looking up the names of all the save-booster traits, and I'm feeling really lazy today.

ubernoob · Post by **ubernoob** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 11:19 pm

Grek · Post by **Grek** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 11:37 pm

Traits can go fuck themselves.

Lokathor · Post by **Lokathor** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 11:48 pm

It's more like just a halfway Uncanny Dodge. Unlike Foresight, it doesn't always let you act in the surprise round, you just don't lose your Dex to AC before you've acted. Which, truth be told, I even forgot was a thing until just now, I thought you just couldn't take AoOs before you'd acted. And Tome's version of "the surprise round" is "surprised creatures take -10 to initiative and everyone else doesn't, but everyone gets a full round all the time", as I recall.

I mean if you wanna say he can't have it then sure, but it's not a 9th level spell for sure.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 12:26 am

I'd be fine with nixing it--I was already using gray armor and a '360 helm anyway. Idea behind going True Fiend was that I could layer on enough initiative bonuses and immunity to X bullshit that I could do party scout stuff without turning things into a classic "Well, I guess we need to go save the fucking rogue. Again." scenario too often.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 2:48 am

Lokathor wrote:I did a little bit of dumpster diving and a little bit of "Well, I wouldn't have that I guess", and came away from it all with a pretty cool implied life story I think. Prak seems to have done the same.

We could still down-vote a specific trait if it's too good or anything like that. None of the traits folks have picked so far seem to be over the top, they're more fun than powerful I'd say.

Yeah, honestly, the best Tome Background, to me, is generally Royalty of a Fallen Nation. I don't tend to build characters that really genuinely need the other stuff (Raised by Owlbears is always nice, but someone's already got that). So once I chose that, I had a general idea of the backstory I wanted, and found Traits that supported that. Even Attached, which was pretty perfect. The only other drawback I was really looking at was Oppressive Expectations, because it would be hilarious to roleplay Tek talking to his dead father all the time, but I can just, you know, do that.

ubernoob · Post by **ubernoob** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 3:53 am