The Necromancer's Tower - Group 3 OOC

[Archwizard]

Okay, so here we go!

Everyone should pick a color to talk in, and I will update the table in this post with that color for ease of reference. I will be using color-coding in my messages for NPCs: Green for friendly characters, Orange for neutral/unknown characters, and Red for hostile characters.

Also, everyone should make sure their sheets are updated with all relevant information, including sources non-core things are pulled from.

I will begin doing sheet reviews now, and will post comments/etc. I will note in the Player Chart when people's sheets are ready to go, and once we're close to everyone being finalized there, the IC thread will go up.

Please remember that I will roll initiative and certain skills.

The 16

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1. What game system are you running (D&D, Call of Cthulu, Palladium, GURPS, etc.), and if applicable what edition (Original, Classic, Revised, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 10th, etc.)?

D&D 3.5E

2. What 'type' or variant of game will it be (i.e. "Shadow Chasers" or "Agents of Psi" for d20 Modern)? What is the setting for the game (eg. historic period, published or homebrewed campaign setting, alternate reality, modern world, etc.)?

Homebrew, potentially based on Ravenloft/Heroes of Horror/etc. I haven't decided. This may also end up leading to a variant of the published "Expedition to Castle Ravenloft" adventure. (It did when I ran it IRL.)

3. How many Players are you looking for? Will you be taking alternates, and if so, how many?

5-7 players, when taking submissions in the thread players that submit sheets and/or work with other players to develop their characters/stories get priority. After that, first come first served.

I can find ways to work in replacements if needed.

4. What's the gaming medium (OOTS, chat, e-mail etc.)?

OOTS PbP. I should be around every night around midnight eastern US time. Ideally, players will be able to post daily and give me a heads-up if an absence is expected. Extended absences (say 4 days) without any notice/activity will be subject to the heave-ho (with allowances for past behavior, i.e. habitual offenders may find that window getting smaller while very active folks will find it larger).

5. What is the characters' starting status (i.e. experience level)?

Create them for XL 6.

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

WBL
The party will get 1 Raise Dead scroll gratis.

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?

Homebrew will need to be approved, but I’m open to it.
No 3rd party stuff.

Banned Classes:
Crusader from Tome of Blades.
Archivist from Heroes of Horror.
Anything setting-specific (e.g. Forgotten Realms).
Anything I see proposed that ticks me off.

I have access to just about every 3.5 book, so please be sure to include which book your class comes from so I can look it up.

8. What races, subraces, species, etc. are allowed for your game? Will you allow homebrewed races or species? 'Prestige' races or species?

Any 3.5E race is fine. LA applies.
Homebrew races may be allowed, feel free to propose. (My wife played a half drow/half wood-elf in the RL adventure).

LA buyoff per UA rules is allowed.

9. By what method should Players generate their attributes/ability scores and Hit Points?

You get 28d6 to assign to stat rolling. You can assign from 1 to 23 dice to any one stat, taking the best 3.

Example:

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You want to make a fighter, so you do this:
Str 8d6b3
Int 3d6
Wis 3d6
Dex 5d6b3
Con 8d6b3
Cha 1d6

Max HP first level, then roll hit points. Re-roll 1's.

10. Does your game use alignment? What are your restrictions, if so?

Yes. Play it. Understand it's a party game.

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

Yes, full penalties. No more than 3 classes, including PrC.

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?

Roll behind spoilers in the IC thread. In general, I will roll the same way, I tend to be a very "let the dice land where they land" DM.

For skill checks that I will roll for, if you want to make a check just post your skill info (ranks, mods, etc) behind a spoiler.

Skills I will roll:

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Appraise
Bluff
Disguise
Forgery
Perception
Search (when take 20 doesn't apply)
Sense Motive
Stealth
Use Rope (if you go to tie up an enemy)

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.

Variant Rule: Turn Undead damage from the Complete Divine page 87 will be used, at the option of the player (i.e. you can turn per PHB rules or CD rules when you expend a use of Turn Undead). Be advised, turn resistance will be stronger than that variant rule states.

Greater Turning (Sun Domain Power): Your choice of double damage, or 60' radius (instead of 30').
Empower Turning (General Feat): Your turning does 1d8/cleric level instead of 1d6.
Knowledge (Religion) 5+ Ranks: +2 to damage.

Again, I may adapt this to Heroes of Horror or Ravenloft or something, not sure yet. Feel free to express an opinion.

I use critical fumbles in combat. If you roll a 1, please roll %tile dice and I'll tell you what bad things happen to you.

Rest assured that anything that applies to you applies to the bad guys.

Altered Feats:

The Dodge feat simply provides a +1 Dodge modifier to AC.

Natural Spell is banned.
In general, I tend to really dislike feats like Natural Spell since they are designed to take away drawbacks built into a class.

Altered Skills:

Move Silently and Hide are combined into one skill called Stealth.
Listen and Spot are combined into one skill called Perception.

Perception and Search are class skills for everyone.

Diplomacy uses the Giant's homebrew.

The Heal skill will operate as follows for natural healing:
{table=head]Amount of Rest | Heal Check | Activity | Amount Healed Normal | Amount Healed Faster Healing
8 hours | No | None | Level + Con Bonus | Level + ( 2 * Con Bonus )
8 hours | Yes | None | Level + Con Bonus + Heal Success Amount | Level + ( 2 * Con Bonus ) + Heal Success Amount
24 hours | Either | Light | Double Above | Double Above
24 hours | Either | None | Triple Above | Triple Above[/table]

Skills can fail if you roll a 1 (in general, Use Rope to tie your shoe doesn't meet that threshold, but Jumping over a 2-foot gap in the floor in combat does).

Other Stuff:

I hate the idea of clerics dedicated to a cause. If you want divine powers/spells/abilities/etc, you must worship a deity.

Martial Scripts from Tome of Blades are banned.

If you hit 0 in a stat via drain you die. If you hit 0 via damage you are helpless until your stat returns to at least 1. Any bonus to a stat other than Inherent will not save you.

You must pay for material components worth 25 gp or more (and note them on your sheet), less than that, whatever.

Retraining is not allowed. Once the IC thread is up, characters are stuck with what they chose.

Flaws and Traits
People can take 2 flaws that actually hurt, and up to 2 traits.

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)?

I love backgrounds. Players should try to create a party that has an established background together, I really hate coming up with ways to get players in the party together.

I'll post more of the world later, but the easiest thing now is to create characters around the idea that the party is made up of dedicated (and beginning to become slightly famous) undead hunters, summoned to deal with a serious threat from a powerful necromancer.

15. Does your game involve a lot of hack & slash, puzzle solving, roleplaying, or a combination of the above?

The adventure is built with plenty of H&S, Puzzles, and Traps in it. RP will most likely have to be provided by the players, but I will attempt to rework a bit.

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?

3.5E only, nothing setting-specific (e.g. Forgotten Realms).
In general, I've found that Sandstorm and similar books tend to tick me off. A lot of the items in there are just stupid, and I have no idea how the heck they got printed.

A good rule of thumb: If you want to buy something that does something an item in the PHB does, but only costs 20% of the PHB item, it's not allowed.

Sheets on myth-weavers or equivalent, but m-w is strongly preferred.

Fluff Stuff

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For fluff purposes, the world is a pretty typical D&D world, the standard pantheons exist, and the era is essentially medieval fantasy.

You are an undead-hunting group that has had some success, and you are beginning to develop a reputation as such. Lord Ibrahim III of Ogdenhall has sent a summons to you, requesting your aid in dealing with a situation plaguing his lands that he believes is tied to undead activity.

Ogdenhall is a fortified city with some surrounding lands that used to be prominent, but its influence and reputation have been waning over the past couple decades. Trade caravans that used to go through there have slowly, but surely, finding other routes to take.

Also, the land of Barovia exists here, and is beginning to develop the reputation that Ravenloft is known for.

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Note that it is still not guaranteed that you'll end up in Ravenloft, we'll see what shakes out.

Aside from this, feel free to make up minor to moderate world details in backstories, I'll let people know if I have objections.

Player Chart

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{table=head]Player Name|Character Name|Race|Class|Alignment|Sheet|Speech Color|Ready?
Dunkoro|Mishiel Iltadh|Human|Egoist Psion/Anarchic Initiate|Chaotic Good|Yes|Teal|Yes
J-H|Morris Belmont|Human|Paladin/War Mind|Lawful Good|Yes|Blue|Yes
Swami Monsoon|Ali Divzadeh|Whisper Gnome|Dragonfire Adept|Chaotic Good|Yes|Dark Red|Yes
Togo|Nuele Flameshadow|Illuman|Cleric/Master of Radiance|Neutral Good|Yes|Dark Blue|Yes
blade artist|Festav (Festival) Sere|Human|Incarnate/Warblade|Neutral Good|Yes|Sandy Brown|Yes[/table]

Don't mind this, it's for cut/paste later.

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{table=head]Initiative Chart
{table=head]Character|Initiative|Order
Mishiel|[roll]1d20+3[/roll]|
Morris|[roll]1d20+0[/roll]|
Ali|[roll]1d20+2[/roll]|
Nuele|[roll]1d20+4[/roll]|
Festav|[roll]1d20+1[/roll]|[/table][/table]

IC thread.

Days:

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Day 1 Start

[Archwizard]

Mishiel (Dunkoro):

Since you decided not to be a Necropolitan you have 15,000 xp towards 21,000 for next level.
17 HP? I hope the meat shields are meaty....
Please add a note, such as (MW) that the xbow is Masterwork (I assume it is since it has +4 to hit instead of +3).

Speaking of shields, yours seems to have multiple problems.
Armor/Weapons/Shields must have a +1 enchantment before they can special abilities, so yours would have to be an Animated Darkwood Shield +1. That item would cost 9,260 gp to purchase. Also, its stats would be +3 AC, 0 Skill Check Penalty, and 15% Arcane Failure.

When using items such as the Headband of Intellect, please keep your normal score (18) in the Score column and put the modified score (20) in Temp Score please.

Source on the ACF?

More fluff is always good.

That's it for now, not even looking at the rest of your gear until the shield is sorted out since between that and the headband your budget is completely blown.

[Archwizard]

Morris (J-H):

The spiked chain does 2d4+5+1d6(fire), Silver gives a -1 penalty to damage.
It looks like you bought stuff as if your WBL is 9,000 not 13,000. Go spend!

I don't know what Serenity is, aside from a badass movie.
Or Up the Walls for that matter.

Where do the +4 bonuses to saves come from (I sort of expect the answer to be Serenity lets you use Wisdom for Cha or something).

[Archwizard]

Ali (Swami Monsoon):

Please add current/needed xp

Man, this is the second time this has come up (second group): mods to hide/move silently/spot/listen only apply at a 50% rate to stealth/perception, to avoid making bonuses twice as powerful. So the cloak/boots of elvenkind each give +2.5 for +5 total. Sorry I forgot to write that originally.

Why do you show ranks in both hide/move silently? Just delete one of em, rename the other Stealth and done.
Same w/ Listen/spot/perception.


I really like how you have the feats/abilities section organized.

Sources on stuff please (mainly the class and all the draconic stuff).

Nice fluff. While I understand the personality being built, do try to keep the swearing to a relative minimum, and don't get in trouble over the filters or anything.

Think that's it.

[Archwizard]

Nuele (Togo):

Source for the race please. I know I approved lots of stuff i the recruitment thread, but that doesn't mean I remember where the heck it all came from.

Need XP info
Need a weight

Silver Dagger should be d4+1 damage
Technically, quarterstaffs can't be made of cold iron since they are wooden. But I see no reason why you can't make cold iron into the shape of one. But this does mean I have to make up a price for one. 320 gp for a MW one, sold!

Put the DR from the Earthsilk Jersey up in the DR box near HPs please

You are over budget, having spent 15,617 gp on magic/special materials. Now, I'm guessing from what you have written that you did this as if you crafted some of the items yourself. The only problem with that is making magic items costs XP as well as gold. So you basically can also spend the XP required (which will make you level 5 for a little while, and cost you the Craft Arms & Armor feat), or you can redo how you spent your WBL.

You've spent too many skill points. You get (2+Int)x8 for your Cleric levels, so that's 24, then 4+Int for the Master of Radiance level, so that's 5 more and 29 total. You spent 42.

That's it for now.

[Archwizard]

Festav (blade artist):

Breastplate is Medium armor, not Heavy.

Skill fun:
You get 50 skill points, 34 to spend as a Warblade, and 16 to spend as an Incarnate.
Of all your skills trained, only Concentration is a class skill for both classes.
It has a max rank of 9, the others are all class for WB so have a max of 7 (WB 2 + 3 + ( Incarnate 4 / 2 )).

So, recalculating how you spent your skills on the sheet you have:
Balance 7 (9 points)
Concentration 9 (9 points)
Tumble 7 (9 points)
Intimidate 7 (9 points)
Climb 5 (5 points)
Jump 5 (5 points)
Swim 5 (5 points)

That's 51 points against your 50 max, so one point needs to go.

Speaking of skills, need to add misc modifiers such as ACP and synergy (e.g. +2 to Balance due to Tumble >= 5).

Needs fluff!!

I think that's it.

[Archwizard]

Reserved for review of ? (doxkid).

[Dunkoro]

Mishel reserves Teal as her colour
If you shall require extended history I can do it, just tell me beforehand...

EDIT: Reposting my Psicrystal, in case it'd be needed.

[J-H]

Morris will take Blue.

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=47269

[Swami Monsoon]

I will use dark red.

[Archwizard]

Just so folks know, I'll be doing sheet reviews starting in about 12 hours (give or take). I don't have access to the good computer until then.

[blade artist]

Reposting character sheet

Festav

Still working on a background, I'm mostly running ideas through my head right now.

edit: all of the materials for my character can be found in core, Magic of Incarnum, and Tome of Battle

[Archwizard]

Okay folks, reviews have started going up. One down!

[Archwizard]

Okay, three down and my brain is quitting on me. More to come sometime tomorrow, depends when I can get on the good computer.

[Dunkoro]

Mishiel (Dunkoro):

Since you decided not to be a Necropolitan you have 15,000 xp towards 21,000 for next level.
Corrected.
17 HP? I hope the meat shields are meaty....
Yeah, I do too. Result of 11 in CON when I've put 6 dices there hurts...
Please add a note, such as (MW) that the xbow is Masterwork (I assume it is since it has +4 to hit instead of +3).
It's Deep Crystal, so it has to be masterwork, but I'll add it.

Speaking of shields, yours seems to have multiple problems.
Armor/Weapons/Shields must have a +1 enchantment before they can special abilities, so yours would have to be an Animated Darkwood Shield +1. That item would cost 9,260 gp to purchase. Also, its stats would be +3 AC, 0 Skill Check Penalty, and 15% Arcane Failure.
Changed to Light Fortification Darkwood Shield +1. Corrected to AC+3, 0 penalty and 15% ACF.

When using items such as the Headband of Intellect, please keep your normal score (18) in the Score column and put the modified score (20) in Temp Score please.
Done

Source on the ACF?
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070314a

More fluff is always good.
Ok, I'll think of something later today.

That's it for now, not even looking at the rest of your gear until the shield is sorted out since between that and the headband your budget is completely blown.

All responses in bold.

[J-H]

Morris (J-H):

The spiked chain does 2d4+5+1d6(fire), Silver gives a -1 penalty to damage.

+6 damage from STR 18 (4 x 1.5), +1 magic damage (from being +1), -1 for silver

It looks like you bought stuff as if your WBL is 9,000 not 13,000. Go spend!

Cool

I don't know what Serenity is, aside from a badass movie.

Keys Paladin abilities to WIS instead of CHA - you approved it in the recruitment thread. The bonus to saves are from Divine Grace.

Or Up the Walls for that matter.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/ps...htm#upTheWalls
The ground-pounder's partial answer to flight.

[Swami Monsoon]

The Dragonfire Adept is from Dragon Magic. It is also included in the free content on the WotC site:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x...060912a&page=2

The Draconic feats are in Dragon Magic and Complete Arcane.
(The D&D Tools website has a pretty comprehensive listing of feats.)

[Archwizard]

The Dragonfire Adept is from Dragon Magic. It is also included in the free content on the WotC site:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x...060912a&page=2

The Draconic feats are in Dragon Magic and Complete Arcane.
(The D&D Tools website has a pretty comprehensive listing of feats.)

Yeah I'm a book guy, and I have access to just about all of them. I'm trying to get better about using the web resources, but it's a journey.

Even if stuff is on the web, it really helps me to know what book they came from.

[Archwizard]

+6 damage from STR 18 (4 x 1.5), +1 magic damage (from being +1), -1 for silver

Keys Paladin abilities to WIS instead of CHA - you approved it in the recruitment thread. The bonus to saves are from Divine Grace.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/ps...htm#upTheWalls
The ground-pounder's partial answer to flight.

Not sure how I missed the +1 enchantment. Ah well.

I figured that's what Serenity was, and I was dealing with like 23 people in the recruitment thread ;p

Thanks for the link.

[Archwizard]

Okay, so getting more reviews done.

Hurry up with that character Doxkid!

[Doxkid]

I'm working on him! His backstory is being difficult and it took me a while to pick feats, but I'm chugging along.

[Archwizard]

I'm working on him! His backstory is being difficult and it took me a while to pick feats, but I'm chugging along.

Excellent!

[Archwizard]

All initial reviews (except Doxkid's) are now done.

[Archwizard]

Dunkoro:

You are over budget on your items.

You spent 15,795 on magic/special materials against a limit of 13,000.

Shield (4,260), Crossbow (1,035), Headband (4,000), Gloves (3,000), Cloak (1,000), Anklet (1,400), Rations (350), Mug (200), Ioun Stone (50) (For the ruby dust required for Continual Flame), Talisman (500).

Other than that, I think you're good.

[Doxkid]

I'm in class until 9 (and I've been at school since 10, give or take a few minutes) so it might be best to go on without me.

Fair well, little guys.

[Archwizard]

I'm in class until 9 (and I've been at school since 10, give or take a few minutes) so it might be best to go on without me.

Fair well, little guys.

Bah, people still need to do corrections for second review and Togo hasn't checked in yet, you got time.

[Dunkoro]

Dunkoro:

You are over budget on your items.

You spent 15,795 on magic/special materials against a limit of 13,000.

Shield (4,260), Crossbow (1,035), Headband (4,000), Gloves (3,000), Cloak (1,000), Anklet (1,400), Rations (350), Mug (200), Ioun Stone (50) (For the ruby dust required for Continual Flame), Talisman (500).

Other than that, I think you're good.

Ok then, I'll get rid of the gloves (how could I have miscount? ;/)
That should leave me with 205... Right?

[Archwizard]

Ok then, I'll get rid of the gloves (how could I have miscount? ;/)
That should leave me with 205... Right?

Man, I missed a +1 enchantment on J-H's chain, so don't feel bad ;p

And yeah, 205 is close enough (technically it's like 202.5 or some crap cus of the other tiny stuff you bought, but I don't care that exactly).

[Togo]

Hi, checking in. Nuele will speak in darkblue

Nuele (Togo):
Source for the race please.
Races of Destiny
(I'm taking the race mainly for the flavour, so if you object mightily, I can always go human instead)

Need XP info
Need a weight
Put the DR from the Earthsilk Jersey up in the DR box near HPs please
Added

Silver Dagger should be d4+1 damage
Changed

Technically, quarterstaffs can't be made of cold iron since they are wooden. But I see no reason why you can't make cold iron into the shape of one. But this does mean I have to make up a price for one. 320 gp for a MW one, sold!
Can I get a wooden one bound with cold iron bands? It seems more realistic than hefting an iron pole.


You are over budget, having spent 15,617 gp on magic/special materials. Now, I'm guessing from what you have written that you did this as if you crafted some of the items yourself. The only problem with that is making magic items costs XP as well as gold. So you basically can also spend the XP required (which will make you level 5 for a little while, and cost you the Craft Arms & Armor feat), or you can redo how you spent your WBL.
I could do this... By my calcs the xp difference is exactly 100 xp, which seems like a small value. In order to mange the change I'd have to change my character sheet to a 5th level character, then, probably after the first fight, level the character back up to a level 6 character. Presumably I'd also get a different xp award for being a different level than the other characters?

That all seems too complicated. In the interests of harmony I've just dumped both feats and two of my items, and taken two different feats instead.

You've spent too many skill points. You get (2+Int)x8 for your Cleric levels, so that's 24, then 4+Int for the Master of Radiance level, so that's 5 more and 29 total. You spent 42.
Skill points changed to 35. 29 as above and 6 for my Nymph's kiss feat.

NB, Nuele will be asking a beefier character to help carry some of her stuff, as she's slightly over the encumburance limit.

[Archwizard]

That's a very strange race. Seems like it's on the strong side for no LA, but too weak to need LA. No real problem.

Re: staff, yeah that works too. The gp difference is whatever.

I didn't calc the xp value out at all, I just can't let you effectively spend that much more than everyone else.

And yeah, I forgot the Kiss feat (nice to see you changed it from kill to kiss, bit of a difference there) gave sp's, I got sidetracked by the gear when looking at feats.

In your "additional information" calcs, you left off the holy symbol, 1000 gp.
Or, since you altered your TU to 9/day, I'm guessing you forgot to delete the item from your "other possessions" list.

Looks like you're basically ready to go.