a question

[Chaos018]

tell me, gitp peeps, I am playing a senile PC. Fun but a little problematic when the GM enforces it, lol.

I am playing a Venerable Jungle Kobold necromancer name Zak-Zak. As part of my background story, I was trying to figure out a reason why someone so old had begun to adventure, even starting at lv5, and the only thing I thought of was him believing a clearly made up collection of stories, in the search for five particular skeletons to merge into one Huge or larger skeleton warrior. When I pitched it to the GM, he loved it (though facepalmed heavily) but as a prerequisite, I would have to be enforced on the whole senility point. RPwise, not hard, just gotta be myself, troll a little bit and generally have fun. However, since this campaign has no undead for me to command (or not much to find), I clearly have to raise up those NPCs we kill (have one now, only one though, an Orc skeley with breatplate armor and great axe already in hand) or go to a graveyard and well, ya know. When I ask if I can see a graveyard, of course he secretly rolls that and, yes, I "see" one, though I make no save roll against it (the one thing I am a bit mad at). I call out that I walk over and begin casting (never said what, but y'all know it was gonna be Desecrate). Yea, that place wasn't a graveyard but a mess hall for an orc warband. Luckily, I was picked up by my Orc buddy, Dizzy the unarmed swordsage (btw, rolled 4 6s so got a 20 for Wis, knocked down to 18, and the 18 he rolled later made for a nice 24 in Str), picked me up and placed me on my skeley buddy.

My question is simple, how do I offset my senility to ensure I get at least some of a skeleton army going while not breaking the conditions of my agreement with the GM? Is there some way in game, say an item or spell I can use to make sure the decisions I make IC are gonna net me a crucial for my PC utility? I know I am gonna die horribly in the campaign (still will be fun, GM is a good guy for the most part) but I am a man of my word, and I rather not break it. Just trying to amass something while helping my PC buddies. Don't want to be standing around being useless just buffing them, and lobbing bolts at targets. Heck, can't even be the face (have the highest Cha in the party, and points in Diplomacy) due to how my senility will interfere. Can you guys help me out a bit? Thanks, :)

[Urpriest]

First of all, I think it was ok for your DM to not provide you with a save, since it's not an effect targeting you so much as your own mind. That said, it really should be something you're enforcing on yourself, and the DM shouldn't be the one proposing what your senility does or does not do.

That said, you've got a party, have them help you! If you had a senile old necromancer you had to keep safe, you'd help lead him to graveyards, show him good corpses, etc.

Also, one point to make is that often someone will lose the things they think a lot about last. You could be deep in dementia, but necromancy? Corpses? Graveyards? Those things are your trade, they should stick with you.

[KillianHawkeye]

How in the heck did you mistake an orc war band for a graveyard??? That's not senility, that's hallucinations. :smallannoyed::smallsigh:

I'd have a talk with your DM about precisely what the effects of your condition should be.

[Phelix-Mu]

And ditto on managing it yourself. I played a character with a kind of multiple personality/more accurate term I can't recall, and as the campaign went on, it was mainly up to me to decide how much I wanted to do it (usually came into effect in plot-appropriate ways...e.g., one personality hated other people and was unhelpful in the extreme, so sometimes she wouldn't toe the line with the party plan).

Try to make the impact role play related instead of something that totally messes with character concept. If you are smart, but easily misled (though I would argue the best way to replicate dementia is low Wisdom, not sure you qualify), then you should find one member of the party who is helpful and whom you find you can trust.

Not sure how it works out in party dynamic, but other people don't always jump at the chance to help the little old necromancer cross the street. Can't imagine why, though.:smalltongue:

[ahenobarbi]

That said, you've got a party, have them help you! If you had a senile old necromancer you had to keep safe, you'd help lead him to graveyards, show him good corpses, etc.

"Yes grandpa you can raise some skeletons today, but first you have to finish your carrots, remember?" :smallbiggrin:

[Chaos018]

How in the heck did you mistake an orc war band for a graveyard??? That's not senility, that's hallucinations. :smallannoyed::smallsigh:

I'd have a talk with your DM about precisely what the effects of your condition should be.

Talked to my GM, and he said it was more for comedic relief that anything. I sighed with relief and not to TPK our group but emphasized that next time he needed to do this, we needed some kinda system, a simple check. Haven't got with him again, but I figured either a Will, straight Wisdom, or a scaling Concentration check should be good for this. Say DC 15 Concentration check and +1 culmination each level, that way I have a way to fail no matter what, and it will keep to a constant percentage.

@ahenobarbi, I like your style, :P

@Phelix-Mu, Low wisdom is a no-go. Being Venerable and a cleric means my highest stat should be Wisdom (it ain't with necromancy, but not by much is it suffering). My mental stats are Int 15, Wis 21, Cha 22 baseline with a standard persisted wis and cha 2nd level buff to help even further. I will further talk to DM so that I can play my senility off as an act. That way I can still be "senile" and bluff my way to making each PC party member think I am weaker than I really am. Diplomacy and Bluff, though mostly unused, are maxed for a reason, lol. A constant Bluff check is perfectly fine with me, but I will still check with meh DM.

@Urpriest, I agree. For the most part, I have been enforcing this on myself. It was the the graveyard/mess hall that got me. That being said, I will get my roommate and fellow party member Dizzy to further help me. I am after all buffing him to high hill with a Concentration buff (+10 Concentration buff, Strength of Mind spell, 1st level), lol. Hopefully this is enough to disallow more hiccups like this

[Psyren]

I'm going to go against the grain here and say your DM was actually right. It makes no sense that you would manage your own senility - the whole point of being senile is that it's not under your control.

What I would probably ask for though is more transparency. Maybe come up with a table of effects with the DM, and have the DM roll on it, in the open if necessary. This however relies on you not to metagame, so if you think you won't be capable of that, then hiding the roll is better.

Where I do agree with the others is how badly what you saw diverged from what was actually there. Senility primarily affects your memory and/or makes you more paranoid, but a full-blown hallucination seems a bit excessive to me.