New Player to D&D

[Macchu Picchu]

I have recently inherited my older brother's 3.5 D&d books and am going to play an Aereni elf Cleric/Hunter of the Dead. One of the other players wants to play a sea kin, class undecided. The Player's Guide to Eberron mentions some sea kin living off the coast of Aerenal, which might be a good way to tie in his PC with mine somehow. I have thought of the idea his character might be a refugee from the Cyran sea kin population, but otherwise have no idea how they could have met or decided to go adventuring in Khorvaire together. My PC is going adventuring to fight undead mainly (Deathguard). Can anyone please help with background? An idea for the sea kin's class woulf help to, none of us have experience with aquatic races. By the way the rest of us (3 players and the DM) haven't decided yet on race or class.

[Mastikator]

Your character was sent out by the high priest to destroy undead and evil that threaten your lands, then within some arbitrary time return and tell them what you have learned, then continue to combat evil.
Pretty straight forward.

[Eldan]

The Aereni should be strongly opposed to negative-energy powered undead. Look into the Blood of Vol, too: House Vol should be a strong enemy of any normal-thinking Aereni, and hunting them down gives you a good reason to go to Khorvaire.

[Yora]

Recommending characters depends a great deal on where the campaign takes place, what it's about, what level the characters will be, and what the other players will play.

But generally a good idea for new players is to start with a class that does not require to select from large lists of possible options.
Barbarian is a good example but might not be quite what the player wants, but ranger is also always a good way to start. Rogues are a bit of work with all the skill points but unless you want to be a frontline fighter who focuses on dealing damage they are also relatively easy to play. Stay away from spellcasters and prestige classes at first, new players have more than enough options with just one base class to not get bored with them.

[Macchu Picchu]

Okay that's very helpful :smallsmile: but how do I tie my PC and the sea kin PC together in this plot to go to Khorvaire and fight the Blood of Vol? And I have read in Races of Destiny that the druid is the sea kin's favored class, but would that work well with a cleric already in the party? And what sort of animal companion would he have in a campaign mostly on land with possible aquatic adventures on the side?

[rakkoon]

An animal companion that can fly would be useful.

[Macchu Picchu]

Oh, and campagn starts at 1st level but we're planning on it going on to 20.

[Shyftir]

Your first campaign always starts at 1 and is planned to reach 20. Your DM will probably burn out before you get that far. That doesn't mean all hope is gone just that you need to reach a point where DMs can trade off a bit.

Also ranger is fluff-wise pretty close to a "fightin'-druid" and would probably be a good place to start. A nice Sea-Hawk type companion would be workable. (Over land and sea!)

Honestly I never got to start the way you are. Enjoy it. Let the story drive your character's direction. You don't need to plan it all out ahead just let it happen. And always keep a back up character ready until level 7 or so. It will speed things up when you have your first character death.

[Yora]

For an aquatic ranger in an non-aquatic campaign one possible backstory could be that he belongs to a group of people that take care of most of the contact with the elves. The land would be a quite exotic environment for aquatic people so it would make sense that they have some rangers who specialize in that environment so they can be guides and guards to their leaders when they have to go to the surface. And it that case it would make quite some sense to have a sea bird as an animal companion since the ranger spends a great deal of time out of the water and a bird is very useful as a scout.

But I would check with the GM if your campaign really suits an aquatic character. When you spend a great deal of time at the coast or on ships, it's an interesting addition to the party. But when the first adventure starts with moving inland and you never get back to the sea, being an aquatic character doesn't get you any benefit but most likely quite some drawbacks. And I don't mean just in terms of power, but when you play an aquatic character you'll want to do some splashing around.

[Macchu Picchu]

OK then, if the player doesn't change his mind (he might, for all know, I'm the one with the most solid character concept at the moment), I'll tell that to the DM

[Macchu Picchu]

Just called the DM. He says if my PC is going to be an undead killer, then the campaign will probably be 1/3 undead adventures, 1/3 aquatic or seafaring if the other player is serious about that sea kin, and 1/3 everyting else. Probably not going to tackle desert adventures because of the lack of deserts in Eberron (only ones we can find are the Blade Desert and the Menechtarun in Xen'drik, and while there may be a Xen'drik trip or two it probably won't be there). Does that make sense and will it work?

[Yora]

You can have nearly any type of adventure on islands or in towns and ruins close by the sea. And eberron is exceptionally well suited for this as korvaire has a well developed transportation system that consists of magic trains, magic airships, and magic ships. Two of which do a really good job for sea travel and are mostly under control by two of the worlds major corporations. And the "default starting town" of Eberron is the worlds biggest port. Having a sea based campaign doesn't restrict the options where the campaign might go at all. You don't have to stand knee deep in water all the time to have fun with an aquatic character, just often enough that his abilities can be put to use. And there is actually quite a number of great aquatic villains, like kraken or aboleths. I'm sure your dm won't have any problem coming up with ideas to keep you wet and bussy. :smallbiggrin:

Not very sawy about Eberron but I think Cyre may probably have it's share of undead and weren't they the main enemy of Karnath? Don't know about the cyre seakin, but if yu go looking for something near the Cyre-Karnath border, there's a good chance you'll have to deal with undead. Maybe this might give you an idea how the two characters traveled to korvaire together.

[Ungvar]

And I have read in Races of Destiny that the druid is the sea kin's favored class, but would that work well with a cleric already in the party? And what sort of animal companion would he have in a campaign mostly on land with possible aquatic adventures on the side?

Druids, out of the box, are probably the most versatile class there is, so a druid will fit in w/ any set of other classes, aside from those which might directly conflict w/ a druid's ethos (i.e., a druid probably wouldn't get along w/ a necromancer in the party). If you're planning on being a healer/buffer, then the druid can support you in that role, or focus on battlefield control, blasting or melee.

Re: Animal Companions, the Druid can dismiss an AC from service and acquire a new one w/ a 24hr ritual. So if he has a land-based AC, and you know you're going to have an aquatic arc to the campaign, he can basically trade his land AC for an aquatic one. Ask the DM if maybe the druid can recover the specific former land AC when the aquatic adventure is over, perhaps by going on a side quest, either alone or w/ the party. Or, the druid may just take that opportunity to try a new land AC.

[begooler]

If you are looking for a way to incorporate aquatic adventure and undead into an Eberron campaign, I think the best choice is to adventure in the Lhazzar Principalities. In the north, you have an island where Vol is- the half elf, half dragon lich queen.
Perhaps the adventure could center on some plot that Vol and her cult have. Maybe they are building a navy or pirate fleets that are trying to take control of islands throughout the principalities.