Wu Jen & Shou Lung

[Palanan]

This is a DM-privileged thread, so my players need to go somewhere else and dream of loot.



So, I'm running a campaign in the Realms, and I have a couple of questions about Shou Lung:


1. Is there any information on Shou Lung in any of the 3.0 sourcebooks? It's barely mentioned in the FRCS, and there are only a few scattered references in Unapproachable East, plus the Shou Disciple. In terms of history, geography, politics and culture, are we strictly limited to 2E supplements?

2. In Oriental Adventures, the point is driven that "druid" is a Western concept with no equivalent in Rokugan. Assuming this carries over to Shou Lung--which I allow is a huge assumption--is there any indication of how the Shou would react to something obviously druidical, like a dramatic wildshape in front of a crowd?

[Psyren]

For your second question, I doubt a wildshape would be seen any differently from any other magic to the average Rokugan resident. After all, both Shamans and Wu Jen can polymorph.

[Palanan]

This raises another question, having to do with Wu Jen. Somewhere online I saw them mentioned as being court officials in Shou Lung, and I'd like to work up a couple NPCs in that capacity.

Unfortunately I have zero (0) experience with Wu Jen, and Kuulvheysoon's Wu Jen Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=246975) doesn't seem to have any sample builds. Can anyone point me towards one or two basic Wu Jen builds? Or, if you like, throw down a couple here?

[Vaz]

They are similar to Wizards, just less well supported. They have a couple of unique spells which is handy to make a Gish; Body outside Body gives a small number of clones, giant size can make colossal.

Otherwise they still have some of the usual Wizard tactics; timestop, shapechange, gate, celerity, wish etc are all still available. If you can manage to get a Spellsecret on the time you get 9th level spells you can get a free extended timestop.

[Palanan]

Well, I'm looking to make about a fourth-level Wu Jen, so timestop and whatnot probably won't be a factor.

Any suggestions for a basic Wu Jen build? Kuulvheysoon's handbook seems to have petered out before he got to the feats, and I've never had much experience with arcane casters.

This particular Wu Jen will be a court official on a great ship of trade and exploration, so some sort of elemental-themed reserve feat sounds appropriate. What else does a fourth-level Wu Jen really need?

[Psyren]

As a sidenote: I don't know as much about Kara-Tur - but in Rokugan, Wu Jen are largely seen as barbarians/savages due to their taboos. Shugenja are more in line with the "court wizard/advisor" archetype despite being divine casters.

[Palanan]

Very interesting, thanks for that. I'll have to go back and read that part of OA more carefully.

I'm pretty sure I saw something recently (online supplement, maybe?) that mentioned Wu Jen were the court spellcasters in Shou Lung...but I can't remember where. For some reason, it just seems to fit my image of a court official with a few arcane tricks up his sleeve.

Also...Wu Jen, I can more or less grok, but for some reason shugenjas just give me a headache.

:smallfrown:

[Vaz]

Well, I'm looking to make about a fourth-level Wu Jen, so timestop and whatnot probably won't be a factor.

Any suggestions for a basic Wu Jen build? Kuulvheysoon's handbook seems to have petered out before he got to the feats, and I've never had much experience with arcane casters.

This particular Wu Jen will be a court official on a great ship of trade and exploration, so some sort of elemental-themed reserve feat sounds appropriate. What else does a fourth-level Wu Jen really need?
Having a Psion cast Reformation on you can allow you to reassign your Spellsecret.

However I' ve not yet built a low level caster. Have a look on a website which filters Filters out Wu Jen spells (I like Dndtools.eu) and learn which are the Wizard tactics you can recreate - you both get some some form of bonus metamagic while wu jen just need to watch out for the party joker slipping beef stock into his Morning Porridge being the essential only difference.

It is when you get to the big boy Unique Spells that Wu Jen shine against Wizards. Namely 5 150ft tall copies of themselves. Of course, Level 13 with Int 24 is enough to get there IIRC.

[Palanan]

Right now I'm thinking a half-elf Wu Jen, possibly with a dash of Half-Elf Paragon. Maybe HEP 1/Wu Jen 2/HEP 2, which would give him the improved bonus on Diplomacy and charisma checks (valuable for an imperial official) plus second-level Wu Jen spellcasting. The only thing he misses out on is the first spell secret, which seems rather meh.

This gives him several feats to play with--his standard first- and third-level feats, plus the bonus feat from HEP 1 and the Wu Jen's bonus metamagic feat, and probably a flaw at first level. Any ideas what to spend those feats on?

[Psyren]

Having a Psion cast Reformation on you can allow you to reassign your Spellsecret.

Limited Wish will allow you to do this as well, and it's on the Wu Jen list.

[Vaz]

Good to know ta!

[Kuulvheysoon]

As for the Handbook, I'm still.... working on it. My Wu Jen died at an early level to a ghast ambush, and my (playing) group split not too long after.

Hells, I've just gotten back into Dungeons and Dragons again.

This link (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/frcc/20070918) might be of some help in placing your Wu Jen in the Realms - it's as official of an answer as we can expect from WotC.

Best of luck, man.

[Palanan]

Thanks for the article and the well-wishing, and sorry to hear about your Wu Jen's fate. I'll be relying on your guide when it comes time to start choosing spells.

It sounds like your Wu Jen wasn't too far in level from the one I'm working on now. Do you remember your choices for feats? I figure Extend Spell is a decent choice for the free metamagic feat, but I'm not sure what else to add on.

[Kuulvheysoon]

I also picked Extend Spell for my bonus feat. My third level was for Fiery Burst, ad I know that i Still'd something as my spell secret (taboo: cannot wear red), and I think that it might have been Torrent of Tears (CM).

I'll get down to updating/finishing the Power of the Orient one day soon, I hope. Inquiring minds need to know!

[Vaz]

I'm starting a group next week as a Caster, I think I might go Wu Jen, there is a Sohei there after all, so I should fit in thematically.