Tonight there's going to be a Jail Break...

[BiblioRook]

...or not.
As you might have guess, the campaign I just joined involved everyone being in a maximum security prison. The whole thing is pretty open, focusing on just how we interact with the prison and the people in it. Starting at level 1 (ugh) and no equipment whatsoever aside what you can find (which includes spell components, something the GM is going to be strict on). One interesting bit is how experience will be gained, we get it by ether making allies or making enemies, so NPC interaction really is something of a focus in this game.

So what would people do in this situation? I'm curious. It's a casual game so I went with Monk, I never played a Monk before and it seemed as good as a time as any. Nearly half of the party are Rogues, with a Bard, and Druid, and a Wizard thrown in to the mix. Aside from me everyone in the group is fresh to the game and I didn't want to do anything too crazy.

[Lightlawbliss]

Get more information.
Wait to get equipment until you figure out how to keep it.

Make allies both among prisoners and guards. Build up favors people owe members of your group.

Get some contacts on the outside. If you ever want out or need something from the outside, it helps to have the contacts in advance.

[Haldir]

Start up a mercenary company that operates for the various factions inside the prison, take contracts for favors and goods. Start to get a handle on the illicit trade of materials moving in and out, find the leaks and get control of them, if you can. Material components for a Druid are rather simple, and with a couple of full casters at your back you shouldn't have trouble using Charm magic and doing favors for people and strengthening your position.

It would be nice to know the strength and power of the prison system- Level and class of guards, wardens, and support crew. Build a schedule of the NPC's working for the prison, what they do, where they go, -what they want-... Information is going to more valuable than gold in your current situation, and everyone wants something.

A similar schedule/factsheet should be made up for the other prisoners, so you can eliminate potential rivals and tempt potential allies.

[BiblioRook]

We don't have much information (as players) aside from a sheet of 20 or so prisoner names. The GM has hinted that most of the prisoners have been designed to focus around one particular skill each which probably will have something to do with how to win them over. There's also a gang of Dwarves that is the dwarven equivalent to the Aryan Brotherhood.
We have already started pondering what would pass as 'currency' in a D&D prison, something about decapitated thumbs came up and I sorta started to stop listening...

All and all it's feeling very Skull and Shackles, which isn't really a bad thing.

[Lightlawbliss]

We don't have much information (as players) aside from a sheet of 20 or so prisoner names. The GM has hinted that most of the prisoners have been designed to focus around one particular skill each which probably will have something to do with how to win them over.
We have already started pondering what would pass as 'currency' in a D&D prison, something about decapitated thumbs came up and I sorta started to stop listening...

All and all it's feeling very Skull and Shackles, which isn't really a bad thing.

Your first priority right now should certainly be getting more info. you are sitting on next to nothing. Don't worry about small matters like currency untill you learn more about the world you now live in.

[LTwerewolf]

This sounds like a job for a beguiler with eschew materials.

[BiblioRook]

Your first priority right now should certainly be getting more info. you are sitting on next to nothing. Don't worry about small matters like currency untill you learn more about the world you now live in.

That was less about us seriously thinking about how to handle the campaign and more along the lines of idle speculation while goofing off.

[Venger]

dip totemist, blink shirt out of prison

[Extra Anchovies]

dip totemist, blink shirt out of prison

Heck, even Shape Soulmeld (Blink Shirt) would do that. It's probably the most useful soulmeld to take as a feat for a non-Incarnum-using character.

[BiblioRook]

Actually though, I was honestly more curious what people would do class wise when dealing with the limitation of being level one with no equipment. Gods I hate starting at level one, I never feel like I can do anything!

[icefractal]

Psion (Shaper) could be fun, if you want to subvert the whole "no equipment" thing significantly. Psionic Minor Creation (1st level power for Shaper) means that you (and your whole party) can have plant-based gear. And with Bronzewood, that means weapons and armor too. In Pathfinder, even more so, since it's at will.

Also, Psion is just a fun class in general.

[Divide by Zero]

How is the wizard handling the spellbook issue?

[emeraldstreak]

How is the wizard handling the spellbook issue?


he cries a lot

[emeraldstreak]

Actually though, I was honestly more curious what people would do class wise when dealing with the limitation of being level one with no equipment. Gods I hate starting at level one, I never feel like I can do anything!

Lvl 1 is a great level to accomplish awesome things. Anyway, back to your character:

monks can useful but only when highly optimized. what are your source books, dragon magazine, etc? is the escape bound to happen at lvl 1?

[BiblioRook]

The Wizard is aware of the spellbook limitation, in fact even when presented with alternative caster options she wanted to stick with the Wizard because she thought it made the most sense for her. Kudos on her considering it's her first time playing.
Interesting point, one of the factions that we were told of so far is simply called 'The Book Club'. Guess who's planning on spending a lot of time with them?

My frustrations with level 1 campaigns are less about how you can do so little starting out (though that's still a big part of it) and more about how by the end of the campaign you usually still can't really do much (unless the campaign is going through some sort of hyper-leveling). That being said, I usually take the expected lack of level progression as an excuse to goof off. I just went the Stunning Fist route and found a nifty feat called Pharaoh's Fist that should make any inevitable jail brawl more fun.

I don't actually believe we will manage a jail break any time soon (if at all really). I mean, we are level one characters in a maximum security prison. The GM says he's prepared to deal with it in case it does come to pass though.

[Calimehter]

This might be one of those rare opportunities to take advantage of having Diplomacy on the Monk's skill list. Making the right friends in the big house seems like a good idea.

[frost890]

Do not worry about money until you have some. Most of the thing are going to be bought in barter and favors. the rouges cna hide thing and make hidden spaces. find out about your prison. do they let you go to a open yard or is the only time you can talk at supper. do they give you a job to do? kitchen duty gives you a chance to make friends. a little extra food goes a long way. messengers can get the lay of the land. someone with skill in calligraphy can be put to use writing messages for the warden. If you have skill at healing, magical or mundane, get a gob at the medical station.

[atemu1234]

The wizard writes his spells on toilet paper, I guess.

[Wolfepuppy]

I feel like a sorcerer with eschew components would be great in this situation. Your cha will both help your spells and help you ruin that prison like you own it. You would be the natural leader with your cha and you would have the power to back it. Monk would also be helpful, I know alto of people don't like it but VoP could be your friend here if you can get around the moral implications druid and bard are good as well, with eschew components

[atemu1234]

I feel like a sorcerer with eschew components would be great in this situation. Your cha will both help your spells and help you ruin that prison like you own it. You would be the natural leader with your cha and you would have the power to back it. Monk would also be helpful, I know alto of people don't like it but VoP could be your friend here if you can get around the moral implications druid and bard are good as well, with eschew components

Maybe Sorcerer with a level of rogue?

[Wolfepuppy]

Also, the book of vile deeds has drugs in it, most prisoners will use these as currency, just a suggestion. Also what could 5 1st level characters do to get pour in a high security prison?

[atemu1234]

Also, the book of vile deeds has drugs in it, most prisoners will use these as currency, just a suggestion. Also what could 5 1st level characters do to get pour in a high security prison?

I don't know the cigarette to gold piece exchange rate! :elan:

[BiblioRook]

kitchen duty gives you a chance to make friends. a little extra food goes a long way. messengers can get the lay of the land. someone with skill in calligraphy can be put to use writing messages for the warden.
Funny you should mention those things. It was up to us to decide just how we ended up in prison (via legitimate means or maybe just politically making the wrong person mad). Among our party is a professional chef (Ranger) who had the radical idea of serving up elf flesh to her customers and another is a playwright (Bard, duh) who, well, made the wrong person mad.
Also talking about kitchen duty, that's probably going to be one of the better places to get a hold of spell components as, like I mentioned, the GM is making a point to be strict about those.
Me? I don't expect to do much, I expect to sit back most of this to try to keep the newbies in the spotlight whenever possible. Skill wise I didn't even take Diplomacy, mostly because it didn't really fit the LE brawler character I was going for but also largely because Charisma is my worst stat...

Everyone else? Lets see if I can remember. An assassian (Rogue), an acrobat (another Rogue), a necromancer (Wizard) and a Druid who for some inexplicable reason gets a kick breaking into prisons...

[Bad Wolf]

Shank the biggest guy there to show you're the boss, and gain XP and cigarettes on the side. :smallbiggrin:

[Wolfepuppy]

Lol it would probably be some arbitrary value based on the drugs effects value and obtainability within the prison. An oz.of devils weed would also be worth more to someone who was going to use it compared to someone who was using it for trade.Also you would have to account for any inmates who were addicted. For these characters the drug would be particularly valuable. If somehow you could convince a guard to supply you with the drugs on a regular basis you could make it the currency Enron if there was already a different one in place. Imagine an any of junkies at your back

[Arbane]

We have already started pondering what would pass as 'currency' in a D&D prison, something about decapitated thumbs came up and I sorta started to stop listening...

Severed thumbs. 'Decapitate' specifically means 'remove the head'.

As for actual useful advice... this is one situation where Knowledge: Architecture might actually be useful, both to figure out the prison's layout and if you end up having to dig your way out.

[BiblioRook]

So yeah, not off to a good start. First off the group ended up being slightly different then I was expecting in rather significant ways. Where I was expecting two Halfling Rogues and a Gnome Bard I instead get a Elven Rogue, a Half-Elf Bard, an Orc (not Half-Orc) Barbarian, and a Human Paladin (new player). Goblin Wizard and Halfling Druid remained unchanged. As an evil Drow I'm none too pleased by this development (aside from the Orc, that I can work with).
Then getting things further off on the wrong foot I managed to piss off the one freely helpful NPC we were giving. I'm not actually all that disappointed in this as he was actually really obnoxious and I may or may not be trying to find a way to get away with murdering him by the end of this campaign just because. On the plus side I managed to find myself in rather neutral standing with one of the most hostile prison factions we know of (a Dwarven version of the Aryan Brotherhood) simply because they don't know how to react to the presence of a Drow.

Unfortunately as a player I'm somewhat behind in learning about a handful of NPCs because I had to step away for a while to help a late-coming player (the Druid) to finish up her character. All I know is that I'm on kitchen duty (with the Barbabrian, who somehow managed to steal a knife) and that there is an NPC prisoner known only as 'The Old Man' who all the other prisoners look up to and keep telling us not to mess with. Sadly he's also an Elf, which doesn't bode well for me.

[Wolfepuppy]

Have your half elf bard pump up diplomacy. I believe there is a great ACF that allows him to use diplomacy to calm periods down, could come in handy.what is a Palin doing in there, that will not be very fun if he plays his character the way a Paladian is supposed to act, unless he goes fallen blackguard B-). Good luck with the elf Drow thing though :-\

[Hiro Quester]

The bard's fascinate ability is going to come in handy for distracting guards and other prisoners.

[...]

So yeah, not off to a good start. First off the group ended up being slightly different then I was expecting in rather significant ways. Where I was expecting two Halfling Rogues and a Gnome Bard I instead get a Elven Rogue, a Half-Elf Bard, an Orc (not Half-Orc) Barbarian, and a Human Paladin (new player). Goblin Wizard and Halfling Druid remained unchanged. As an evil Drow I'm none too pleased by this development (aside from the Orc, that I can work with).
Then getting things further off on the wrong foot I managed to piss off the one freely helpful NPC we were giving. I'm not actually all that disappointed in this as he was actually really obnoxious and I may or may not be trying to find a way to get away with murdering him by the end of this campaign just because. On the plus side I managed to find myself in rather neutral standing with one of the most hostile prison factions we know of (a Dwarven version of the Aryan Brotherhood) simply because they don't know how to react to the presence of a Drow.

Unfortunately as a player I'm somewhat behind in learning about a handful of NPCs because I had to step away for a while to help a late-coming player (the Druid) to finish up her character. All I know is that I'm on kitchen duty (with the Barbabrian, who somehow managed to steal a knife) and that there is an NPC prisoner known only as 'The Old Man' who all the other prisoners look up to and keep telling us not to mess with. Sadly he's also an Elf, which doesn't bode well for me.

Whoa whoa whoa, you're forgetting the fact that wisdom is a wizard's dump stat.

[BiblioRook]

The Paladin's backstory (as much as we've heard of it so far) is that he was framed and arrested for war crimes he didn't commit. His playing a Paladin was the DM's idea as he's another player new to D&D and didn't know what to play and he thought a Paladin would fill out the party more. Looking at how the guy plays though I think it kind of a mistake, cleric would have worked out much better as I don't even think the guy knows how a Paladin is supposed to act... and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing because a Paladin acting like a proper Paladin would only make things more annoying for everyone.

[Wolfepuppy]

Yea I played with a paladin in a mostly neutral party once, it was quite annoying for both us and him. But there is the fallen paladin route in which he can trade his paladin levels in for black guard levels. Might be worth looking at.

[sage20500]

For base class ideas at level 1 for this setting I'd actually recommend (depending on how much your allowed to get away with with acfs) a Spirit Lion's Totem City Brawler Barbarian (With possibly the whirling frenzy rage variant) if you want to have fun ways of arguing why you don't need a weapon, or if my Cha was high enough, I'd actually say going for a level in Battle Dancer over monk, mainly for the Cha to ac and getting improved unarmed strike as well as full BAB. Depending on how well your Dex is compared to your strength, Starting off as one level in the Unarmed Variant Swordsage and grabbing Shadow Blade as your first feat could also be very good for you, plus there are a lot of very interesting maneuvers you can play around with to have fun. Other than that I'd usually go human and and try to grab dreadful wrath if its available in order to make a competent intimidating unarmed brawler.

Depending on whether or not your allowed to template your character as well, Unseelie Fey could lead to rather hilarious results, especially if your doing an intimidating dreadful wrath build, and you grab the winter ability to make anything within 5 ft of you have a -Cha mod to their saves.

[BiblioRook]

I kinda wonder what the DM would do if I actually tried to pull some crazy character build out on him. Not that I've ever really done so before, I think my craziest build was the Tibbit Beguiler that I've always wanted to play as but yet to manage to get into a game. (Bah!)

[KingSmitty]

Shank the biggest guy there to show you're the boss, and gain XP and cigarettes on the side. :smallbiggrin:

+1 to this

[BiblioRook]

Shank the biggest guy there to show you're the boss, and gain XP and cigarettes on the side. :smallbiggrin:

So as it happens I ended up doing exactly this, though slightly on accident.
Basically on our first day the 2nd to the main boss among the prisoners came to us all individually saying how we screwed up and now had to make it up to him (while being brought into the prison the Barbarian tried to escape and knocked out a guard, that guard was on this guy's pay roll). To get square with him all we had to do was 'send a message' to another prisoner.
Currently I don't trust the Barbarian character, he's kinda a psycho and I feel like working with him is a good way to get killed (as the Bard is finding out as the Barbarian's current partner in crime, we've been playing barely one day and the Bard was almost killed twice covering up for the Barbarian. The Barbarian so far hasn't so much as suffered a scratch.) I figured I would just go and take care of it myself without having to deal with the other PCs just yet. I lured the target into a less-watched place in the Yard and sucker-punched him. Unfortunately I hit him hard enough to kill him though, but the job was done and I ended up leaving quite the first impression on most of the prison.
Needless to say, I forgot that you could do the Unarmed Strike Non-Lethal without a penalty... but I'm not sure I would really do it differently if I did.