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Ammutseba
2016-02-13, 05:40 PM
This is really just a thought exercise for now, but I want to get your thoughts so I can develop the idea a bit further. So...

Gestalt 3.5 campaign, four players, starts at level 8. The premise is you're a part of a strike team on a mission from Faerinaal to infiltrate Nessus and rescue an important eladrin prisoner. Shortly after your arrival in Avernus, Asmodeus closed off the borders to the Nine Hells, preventing planar travel from the outside or between the layers that don't use one of the gates already in place within the plane, so your party will have to descend the nine pits the old fashioned way.

I don't currently have any intention to run this as a campaign, otherwise I would have put it over in the campaign section. Right now, this is just for discussion and the presentation of ideas.

1. What game system are you running and if applicable what edition? Dungeons and Dragons, 3.5 edition.

2. What 'type' or variant of game will it be? What is the setting for the game? Gestalt. The Nine Hells of Baator.

3. How many Players are you looking for? Will you be taking alternates, and if so, how many? Ostensibly four, alternates irrelevant. Any character you build should have three other party characters in mind.

4. What's the gaming medium? Conceptual exercise.

5. What is the characters' starting status? ECL 8.

6. How much gold or other starting funds will the characters begin with? Standard.

7. Are there any particular character classes, professions, orders, etc. that you want... or do not want? What are your rules on 'prestige' and/or homebrewed classes? No monster classes, no homebrew classes. Fullcasters discouraged. Prestige classes permitted.

8. What races, subraces, species, etc. are allowed for your game? Will you allow homebrewed races or species? 'Prestige' races or species? No homebrew races, racial HD limit 1.

9. By what method should Players generate their attributes/ability scores and Hit Points? 32 point-buy, 3.5 rules. Hit points are maximum at 1st level, average thereafter.

10. Does your game use alignment? What are your restrictions, if so? Alignments are used. No restrictions, pending that Faerinaal would be able to trust your character implicitly.

11. Do you allow multi-classing, or have any particular rules in regards to it? Multiclassing allowed.

12. Will you be doing all of the die rolling during the course of the game? Will die rolls be altered, or left to the honor system? If players can make die rolls, which ones do they make, how should they make the rolls, and how should they report them? Irrelevant.

13. Are there any homebrewed or optional/variant rules that your Players should know about? If so, list and explain them, or provide relevant links to learn about these new rules. Leadership and similar feats that grant cohorts and followers are not allowed. Feats that grant familiars and psicrystals are.

14. Is a character background required? If so, how big? Are you looking for anything in particular (i.e. the backgrounds all ending up with the characters in the same city)? Yes, two paragraphs. All characters start in Darkspine, Avernus, just after the Bone Maw, a permanent gate leading into and out of Baator, closes.

15. Does your game involve a lot of hack & slash, puzzle solving, roleplaying, or a combination of the above? Hack & slash, roleplay, infiltration, exploration and social encounters would be common gameplay elements.

16. Are your Players restricted to particular rulebooks and supplements, or will you be allowing access to non-standard material? What sources can Players use for their characters? A&EG, BoED, BoVD, Cityscape, Complete series, DMG, DMG2, Draconomicon, Dragon Magic, DotU, Dungeonscape, Elder Evils, Exemplars of Evil, EPH, Fiend Folio, FC1, FC2, Frostburn, Heroes of Horror, Libris Mortis, LoM, MIC, MoI, MotP, Miniatures Handbook, Planar Handbook, PHB, PHB2, Races of series, Sandstorm, Stormwrack, ToB, ToM, Unearth Arcana; Eberron setting books; 3.5 Dragon magazine. I might consider additional resources, if you suggest them.

What else would you like to know? And more importantly, what would you build?

AvatarVecna
2016-02-13, 05:44 PM
Interested, but not sure as what.

Ammutseba
2016-02-13, 06:36 PM
Well then I'm looking forward to what you come up with. :D

AvatarVecna
2016-02-13, 06:44 PM
Well then I'm looking forward to what you come up with. :D

I've got a few ideas, but they mostly depend on what level of game this would be playing at...not character level, but optimization level: in a low-op game, a reasonably well-built paladin can tear through legions if devils with impunity; in a mid-op game, I'd probably go for a Hulking Hurler with some solid skills and a big adamantine boulder, or maybe a classic Bard/Warblade; in a high-op game, gotta go for either the Shadowcraft Mage cheese, the DMM Persist Cleric, the nature goddess Druid, or the Easy Bake Wizard.

EDIT: Also, while I'm thinking about it, this might fit better in the Recruitment sub-forum, rather than here, if/when you reach the point that you want to actually play through this game.

Ammutseba
2016-02-13, 07:04 PM
If I did ever run such a thing, I honestly don't think I'd be capable of low-op anything, but I find anything fullcaster to be so intensely boring that I'd avoid high-op on principle. I seriously doubt I'm running this, though. I have to finish the Test of Ice and Mettle, first, and Petty Heroes, second, and goodness knows how long those are going to take.

Edit: Oh, and Apocalypse gone Mad. So yeah, quite a ways out if anything.

ExLibrisMortis
2016-02-13, 07:13 PM
I'd build something that doesn't need to sleep, being either warforged or undead, and initiator//caster, probably. Since full casters are discouraged (and I'm assuming artificers are in with that lot), I might pick up some half-casting PrCs, or take psychic warrior or bard.

Ammutseba
2016-02-13, 07:57 PM
Yeah, artificers are totally in with that lot. Warforged/undead is smart, though. Uncertain of how you'd get Faerinaal to trust an undead abomination, but I guess there are probably ways?

TheMooch
2016-02-13, 11:11 PM
Ooo so I would run:

Psiforged Paladin 5/Fist of Raziel 10/Knight of the raven 5//Incarnate 4/fighter 3/war mind 7/incarnum blade5
Feats: psiforged, sapphire smite, psycarnum infusion, serenity, psionic meditation, awesome smite, improved essentia capacity, servant of the heavens
This is a smiting machine by using a combination of sapphire smite, psycarnum infusion and psionic meditation you never run out a super powered smites thanks to Fist of Raziel. You have a nice mix of defenses and offsense with these classes. You also have some lock down capability with the knight of the raven ability at lvl 5 and awesome smite for tripping

Half-minotaur dwarf knight 3/ barbarian 2/fighter 1/crusader 14//incarnate 8/deepwarden 2/hellreaver 10
Classic lock down mixed with healing abilities you have massive defense and hp thanks to con to AC and extra HP from vitality belt.

dragonborn lesser aasimar Bard 5/lyric thaumaturge 2/sublime chord 5/war weaver 5//warblade 20
A buffing support character with standard inspire courage optimization (dragonfire inspiration). Buffing consists of white raven manuevers, and warweaver buffs.

Bad Wolf
2016-02-13, 11:54 PM
Very interested. I'm thinking maybe a duskblade? Either that or a Hellbred Warlock.

EDIT: Missed the gestalt part. Then I'd be a Warlock 8//Binder X/KotSS.

Ammutseba
2016-02-14, 12:05 AM
Ooo so I would run:

Psiforged Paladin 5/Fist of Raziel 10/Knight of the raven 5//Incarnate 4/fighter 3/war mind 7/incarnum blade5
Feats: psiforged, sapphire smite, psycarnum infusion, serenity, psionic meditation, awesome smite, improved essentia capacity, servant of the heavens
This is a smiting machine by using a combination of sapphire smite, psycarnum infusion and psionic meditation you never run out a super powered smites thanks to Fist of Raziel. You have a nice mix of defenses and offsense with these classes. You also have some lock down capability with the knight of the raven ability at lvl 5 and awesome smite for tripping

Half-minotaur dwarf knight 3/ barbarian 2/fighter 1/crusader 14//incarnate 8/deepwarden 2/hellreaver 10
Classic lock down mixed with healing abilities you have massive defense and hp thanks to con to AC and extra HP from vitality belt.

dragonborn lesser aasimar Bard 5/lyric thaumaturge 2/sublime chord 5/war weaver 5//warblade 20
A buffing support character with standard inspire courage optimization (dragonfire inspiration). Buffing consists of white raven manuevers, and warweaver buffs.

Wow, it took me ages to track down that class. It's pretty neat, though. I like it.


Very interested. I'm thinking maybe a duskblade? Either that or a Hellbred Warlock.

Well, it's gestalt, so why not Zoidberg both?

ben-zayb
2016-02-14, 12:06 AM
Out of curiosity, why Hell? When I think of Eladrins and fiends, the first thing that comes to mind is the Abyssal layer of Androlynne instead, where you already have a settlement of long-trapped Eladrins.

Ammutseba
2016-02-14, 12:17 AM
In part because it's easier to build a series of descents around the more firmly established setting of Baator, and because there's a secondary mission of locating Asmodeus's true body. Though, I did choose the eladrin connection because they're in direct opposition to everything Hell stands for. Also, because there has to be something hinky up if Asmo were keeping an eladrin captive in Nessus, rather than just killing or executing them. I had also thought about Androlynne and the Abyss, but it didn't strike me as such an interesting story, even if I do love the obyrith to bits.

ExLibrisMortis
2016-02-14, 09:39 AM
Yeah, artificers are totally in with that lot. Warforged/undead is smart, though. Uncertain of how you'd get Faerinaal to trust an undead abomination, but I guess there are probably ways?
You can be RAW good-aligned undead via the Baelnorn or Good Lich templates, from Libris Mortis or Monsters of Faerūn. Alternatively, you could just be a necropolitan.

I think LN characters, while not generally favoured by eladrin, are understood to be reliable. Eladrin may well be willing to send a lawful neutral undead to Hell with a contract to rescue someone, on the understanding that the survival of the undead is completely irrelevant (this should be in the contract - if you're a lich, you can even give your phylactery as 'hostage').

Ammutseba
2016-02-14, 03:13 PM
I would suggest LN Necropolitan, then. Monsters of of Faerūn isn't on the source list. (:

Also, I really dig the idea of the character being under contract to fulfill the terms of the mission. If they're hardcore enough about their oaths et cetera, I can see every reason Faerinaal would be willing to extend that trust. Such a character could also go quite a ways toward helping the party descend Hell, since a party full of devil-murder-machines is rather unlikely to be able to pass for regular denizens when it's required of them for their own best interests.

Bad Wolf
2016-02-14, 05:15 PM
So is this actually going to happen?

Ammutseba
2016-02-15, 02:04 AM
Uh, no. Like I mentioned in the OP, this is a thought exercise. If anything, it exists for the purpose of refining the idea for the future when it might happen. However, I have a small list of campaigns I'd like to run before this concept is realized, and each of them is a significant endeavor.