Lucigen
2014-08-29, 03:40 PM
Finally getting to sit on the other side of the DM screen after years so I figured it'd finally be time to turn to the Playground after a smaller amount of time spent lurking.
Bit of info before I get to the questions in the title. First off it's a 3.X campaign as the DM is allowing us all books 3.0 (If they haven't been updated so he can read them over) and 3.5 but no pathfinder material. Secondly I'll be the most experienced player at the table DM included so I'd like to sort of take a backseat with my creations and myself to let them wade into all the fluff (And crunch of course) goodness that the campaign has to offer. Thirdly the campaign is a bit...not low magic but I suppose anti-Magic Item campaign story-wise it draws a sort of parallel with The Legend of Legendary Heroes in that in the Nth Age there were Epic level heroes swinging and blasting and leaving behind all sorts of relics for us to pick up if we can find them. Fast forward to our time and item creation techniques have either been lost, corrupted or made impossible due to strict requirements of physical materials not being available as said monster or some such have died off (Doubt this is the case but example : I think dragoncraft items from either Dragon Magic or Draconomicon...I forget which but you can't make that circlet/ring of x resistance if you can't get dragon scales or that faux-Flaming longsword if you can't get that red/gold dragon fang).
But onto my problems. First is the fact he has allowed me the Encyclopedia Arcane - Crossbreeding. I've already begun documenting creatures I hope to create and running them by him and he has OK'd the examples in the book as ones already able to be researched, mine I have to wing it and hope not to get murdered. Since I have faith in everyone else's ability to create mind-shattering horrors of obvious combat and non-combat use and there are obviously monsters I have overlooked I was hoping people could bring forth suggestions.
Secondly and more importantly, like I mentioned I am the most experienced player at our table and as such the levels of optimization are going to be well...low to nil (Current only other 'confirmed' character is a Fighter/Justicar set on subduing things for me to experiment on). That being the case and me already latching onto Wizard (Other classes would work with Crossbreeding with DM ruling but less changing I have to make him do the better in my opinion) I was hoping for advice on not exactly pulling punches or the like but being able to contribute meaningfully without making Timmy Facepunch or Sara Pincushion just rest their heads on their knuckles and go "Well glad I'm useless".
Sub-question of my second point is...well Crossbreeding is messy and for the most part evil so squeamish characters or more importantly squeamish players might not enjoy my character's life calling. What with magically fusing living, sometimes intelligent, creatures and the fact I'll be using zombified former enemies as heavy lifting/wranglers to prevent living assistants leaking my work (Oh come on we've all seen that hook where Henchman X was really a good guy undercover or just dissatisfied with his employer and betrays him). Normally I'd just do all of this under the table or at least secret from my fellow PCs but we will all be working closely under the same benefactor and if I mess up too badly on my check something very horrifying could be coming at my face. Both of those things mean I want them on my side and near me or at least not against me and so I was wondering about ways to make it seem less traumatizing. Only idea I have is use disguise checks and tools to make up my zombie pals into mute hooded monks that assist me but I'd love more ideas.
Sorry if this is a lot of things to ask all at once but I'm getting ready to head into work so I kind of wanted to throw out as much as I could to cut down on the amount of detail questions and let you all brainstorm heh.
Bit of info before I get to the questions in the title. First off it's a 3.X campaign as the DM is allowing us all books 3.0 (If they haven't been updated so he can read them over) and 3.5 but no pathfinder material. Secondly I'll be the most experienced player at the table DM included so I'd like to sort of take a backseat with my creations and myself to let them wade into all the fluff (And crunch of course) goodness that the campaign has to offer. Thirdly the campaign is a bit...not low magic but I suppose anti-Magic Item campaign story-wise it draws a sort of parallel with The Legend of Legendary Heroes in that in the Nth Age there were Epic level heroes swinging and blasting and leaving behind all sorts of relics for us to pick up if we can find them. Fast forward to our time and item creation techniques have either been lost, corrupted or made impossible due to strict requirements of physical materials not being available as said monster or some such have died off (Doubt this is the case but example : I think dragoncraft items from either Dragon Magic or Draconomicon...I forget which but you can't make that circlet/ring of x resistance if you can't get dragon scales or that faux-Flaming longsword if you can't get that red/gold dragon fang).
But onto my problems. First is the fact he has allowed me the Encyclopedia Arcane - Crossbreeding. I've already begun documenting creatures I hope to create and running them by him and he has OK'd the examples in the book as ones already able to be researched, mine I have to wing it and hope not to get murdered. Since I have faith in everyone else's ability to create mind-shattering horrors of obvious combat and non-combat use and there are obviously monsters I have overlooked I was hoping people could bring forth suggestions.
Secondly and more importantly, like I mentioned I am the most experienced player at our table and as such the levels of optimization are going to be well...low to nil (Current only other 'confirmed' character is a Fighter/Justicar set on subduing things for me to experiment on). That being the case and me already latching onto Wizard (Other classes would work with Crossbreeding with DM ruling but less changing I have to make him do the better in my opinion) I was hoping for advice on not exactly pulling punches or the like but being able to contribute meaningfully without making Timmy Facepunch or Sara Pincushion just rest their heads on their knuckles and go "Well glad I'm useless".
Sub-question of my second point is...well Crossbreeding is messy and for the most part evil so squeamish characters or more importantly squeamish players might not enjoy my character's life calling. What with magically fusing living, sometimes intelligent, creatures and the fact I'll be using zombified former enemies as heavy lifting/wranglers to prevent living assistants leaking my work (Oh come on we've all seen that hook where Henchman X was really a good guy undercover or just dissatisfied with his employer and betrays him). Normally I'd just do all of this under the table or at least secret from my fellow PCs but we will all be working closely under the same benefactor and if I mess up too badly on my check something very horrifying could be coming at my face. Both of those things mean I want them on my side and near me or at least not against me and so I was wondering about ways to make it seem less traumatizing. Only idea I have is use disguise checks and tools to make up my zombie pals into mute hooded monks that assist me but I'd love more ideas.
Sorry if this is a lot of things to ask all at once but I'm getting ready to head into work so I kind of wanted to throw out as much as I could to cut down on the amount of detail questions and let you all brainstorm heh.