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Tor the Fallen
2007-10-09, 03:52 PM
If you guys were playing in a salty dog campaign, what would you play?

I'm thinking a grizzled, old sailor/druid with a peg leg, a pet shark, and whole bunch of sweet abilities to overcome his old, crippled self. Ape morph to rig the masts, giant octopus with a bunch of cutlasses to fight with, swim around under water, spells....

Altair_the_Vexed
2007-10-09, 04:31 PM
I take it you'll be starting at higher than 1st Level, then?

Me, I'd play a Rogue, maybe multiclassing into Cleric of whatever travel / water gods you have in the campaign setting. Seafaring games need skillmonkeys.
Speaking of monkeys (or more properly, Apes), I'd probably go for a Hadozee if my DM would let me. I know I don't let those flappy gliding fuzzballs in my game, but they're kind of cool...

Tor the Fallen
2007-10-09, 04:34 PM
Hadozee leviathan hunter/horizon walker with a great big harpoon. "Thar she blow!"

Lord Tataraus
2007-10-09, 04:49 PM
An omnipresent being who has the power to alter the very fabric of the world to bring various enemies into reality for the only purpose of providing a small group of heroic, unlucky, hodge-podge misfits numerous challenge of slightly repeatative nature with the expectation that all challenges will be overcome with little more than minor inconvenience on the part of the group of misfits while steering the group to some end each shall inevitably be achieved in an unexpected manner and provide enough wealth to the misfit group so that all will live comfortable and be nearly forgotten except in the various legends and tales.

That or a Darfellan Warblade wielding a harpoon.

Tor the Fallen
2007-10-09, 05:18 PM
An omnipresent being who has the power to alter the very fabric of the world to bring various enemies into reality for the only purpose of providing a small group of heroic, unlucky, hodge-podge misfits numerous challenge of slightly repeatative nature with the expectation that all challenges will be overcome with little more than minor inconvenience on the part of the group of misfits while steering the group to some end each shall inevitably be achieved in an unexpected manner and provide enough wealth to the misfit group so that all will live comfortable and be nearly forgotten except in the various legends and tales.

That or a Darfellan Warblade wielding a harpoon.

And if you were to be such an omnipotent being, how powerful would you allow the small group of heroic, unlucky, hodge-podge misfits to begin at, using a scale from 1 to 20 (20 being high).

Hzurr
2007-10-09, 08:56 PM
I've played the charasmatic noble pirate captain before, and it was a complete blast. I've also always wanted to play a half-orc barbarian/ranger who weilds a harpoon and serves as the ship's whale killer.

togapika
2007-10-09, 09:06 PM
Darfellan probably barbarian, or really anything because they are such a cool race.

Green Bean
2007-10-09, 09:08 PM
A cleric of whatever the sea god of the campaign setting is. With the Water and Air domains letting me fool around with water and weather, I'd be able to get free passage on whatever ship I wanted, so long as I keep the seas calm.


Then I'd whip up the fury of the winds and water, and send the ship to the bottom of the sea. Poseidon demands sacrifices, mortal! :smallbiggrin:

BardicDuelist
2007-10-09, 09:22 PM
Either a Factotum or Bard. I just love those classes, and skill monkeys are perfect for marine campaigns.

Krrth
2007-10-09, 09:30 PM
The one I play in a similar campaine is a half-sea elf cleric of Valkur. For added fun, use the Seeker of the Misty Isle PrC.

Nerd-o-rama
2007-10-09, 10:01 PM
A Paladin, with that PrC that keeps you from dying instantly when you end up in the water.

More seriously, I like the build I came up with for an NPC pirate captain in a game I ran: Swashbuckler/Rogue/Dread Pirate. Although Dread Pirate's not as good as you'd think for a commander, considering the prereqs.

An aspiring captain PC in that game was a Bard, heading for Windwright Captain (it was an Eberron game) and Legendary Captain. That would have been quite a good support character. Plus, free whip proficiency.

Renrik
2007-10-09, 10:07 PM
A ranger/fighter/legendary captain or rogue/fighter/dread pirate

or, better yet, a monk. Fun in ship campains.

reorith
2007-10-09, 10:13 PM
if you're playing a cleric try and get the watery death domain. it is pretty nifty.

Guy_Whozevl
2007-10-09, 11:15 PM
Being a swashbuckler/rogue with Daring Outlaw would probably be my bet, but that's conforming to an extremely prevalent stereotype.

For kicks, a cleric of a fire or earth diety wishing to claim as much of the sea in the name of his/her god. Just be a summoner, conjure up some earth elementals over opposing ship's decks, watch the elementals fall through the hull, and laugh at your DM's exasperated look. Or not.

Renegade Paladin
2007-10-09, 11:29 PM
Swashbuckler. (http://dsenchuk.googlepages.com/swashbuckler) Failing that, ship's prelate has a certain appeal to me; a cleric of Valkur could end up being quite fun. But the Martial Weapon Proficiency for the cutlass is a pain, seeing how the Captain of the Waves doesn't offer the War domain.

Leon
2007-10-10, 12:03 AM
A Swashbuckling Deck Ape or a Lightning obsessed Sorcerer/Stormcaster

The VP
2007-10-10, 12:58 AM
In the so-far-nautical themed campaign I'm currently DMing, my 8th level PCs are a full Swashbuckler, a half-Swashbuckler/half-cleric, both of my Arnavaja homebrewed race (see http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58750) and a human full Cleric. Needless to say they've picked up a couple NPC companions in their travels, to provide a bit more utility to the party. Currently these are the cold-obsessed Arnavajan sorcerer who was the navigator of their first ship, and a Divijan (another homebrewed race, see same link) rogue.

My last PC in a nautical campaign was a Swashbuckler/Duelist/Dread Pirate, but I've got some other less-stereotypical characters floating around in the back of my head for the next time I end up as a PC in such a campaign. Most of my group has a bit of a pirate fixation (VP in my name is actually short for Viking Pirate) so we end up playing salty-dog campaigns quite frequently.

GenLee
2007-10-10, 03:03 PM
Academically-trained navigator/professional ship's officer, translated to:
Wizard who's plowed a bunch of ranks into Knowledge (geography), profession (sailor), and has a lot of tools for navigation. Battle spells are up to you, but divinations may be more his style. I'm thinking about picking mostly spells that can curse the bad guys, like Bestow Curse, Grease, Cause Fear, and the like.
Dragon #340 has a "Master Astrologer" PrC that looks like it could sync with this pretty well, if you accept that stellar navigation/astronomy and astrology are closely related. I want to do this guy whenever our group moves on to the Savage Tide AP.
I think it would be even kewler to do it with an Archivist, rather than a wizzie, but my potential DM has previously frowned upon that class.

Macrovore
2007-10-10, 03:57 PM
Swashbuckler (actually, jaerom darkwind's martial artist)1/warmage x. I was the wisecracking, swashbuckling, fire-mage. I could pick off a ship's mast from 500ft away from the crow's nest, and I could still hold my own if I was caught in melee.

...Eh?
2007-10-10, 03:58 PM
Sea Kin with the Net and Trident feat. The best part is that almost any class qualifies, since Sea Kin treat nets and tridents as simple weapons.

Lord Tataraus
2007-10-10, 05:06 PM
And if you were to be such an omnipotent being, how powerful would you allow the small group of heroic, unlucky, hodge-podge misfits to begin at, using a scale from 1 to 20 (20 being high).

About 3

In fact, I was such an omnipotent being in the "marine setting" game my group played.

Dr. Weasel
2007-10-10, 05:53 PM
A near-sighted Awakened Shark with levels in Telepath. He act as a puppeteer for the seafaring world, organizing a massive conspiracy to reunite himself with his one true love; an Orangutan named Dorothea.

In his free time, he would play the key-tar.

He would be a dastardly rogue indeed.