The Nightfall DnD Preparation Thread

Diplomacy is indeed easy to buff and it is surely a useful skill to have. As a note, I like to use Diplomacy and Intimidate similar to Bluff, tell me what your character is saying and if you make a convincing argument ("Sell me this armour for a 10% discount and I will put a good word for you with the dwarven miners I saved last month to get you better metal") or a believable threat ("You saw how easily we defeated you friend, so stay down") you might get a bonus on your roll, though if you do something unconvincing ("Sell me the armour for a 10% discount because I don't want to waste my money on this, lol") or not threatning ("You know how good I am at singing and dancing, so stay down"). Also, as much as I love some of the epic uses for skills, I dislike what they did with diplomacy, so I will probably not include fanatic as a condition, or only if I think the person would be the kind of person who'd get into stuff like that. And as a fair warning, many Diplomancers forget that a Diplomacy check takes a while in which you need to talk to the person. If they can't hear you/aren't listening/paying attention then your check WILL fail and if they are charging right at you, you probably won't convince them fast enough.

As for the Sha'ir...

Hmm, that is difficult.
On one hand, if it doesn't use a slot, nothing but time would stop you from sending your gen to fetch you literally EVERY spell before you start a quest, which would turn you into a uber sorcerer, since once you got the spell you'll be able to cast it at any point for the next few hours. On the other hand, I agree that if you'd have to spend your spellslots just for calling a spell, you'd be a much weaker wizard, mostly... At lower levels the first option should be fine though at higher levels it might get too crazy. Then again, you did say you plan to multiclass out of it fairly early, so that should be okay. Probably.
So I will rule the following: Calling a spell does not take up a spellslot BUT if you call more spells then you have slots, you will forget the spells you called first. Does that sound fair to you? In the end, you should be able to prepare plenty of spells that way and you could easily still call spells when you need them, as long as you aren't in a hurry. But yeah, tell me what you think of this ruling, I'd be willing to change my opinion.

Well, the starting gold I found is 3d4x10, which would give you an average of 75gp, which, yeah, is not enough to call a familiar. I am also hesitant to give you one for free because I feel sorry for Sorcerers, familiars are literally their only class feature...
One way I could rule it is that you need a familiar in order to cast spells, though that would make you nearly useless untill you earned your first money, which is why I think that's a kind of dumb option. Here are a couple of options I could see:
1) I bump up your starting gold to 4d4x10, that'd give you an average of 100 gp, enough for a familiar but nothing else. Or you could roll it with that, having a higher chance to get the 100 gp you need.
2) I rule that the first familiar for everyone is free. On one hand, this might be nice to Sorcerers as well, on the other hand, a well used Familiar can be a real beast, so I am hesitant.
3) You start with 3d4x10 and won't be able to cast spells untill you earned some money.
4) Since Mather is going to spend some pre game time crafting his own weapon, with ranks in Perform or Profession, you could perhaps earn some money pre game. Normally people aren't supposed to do that but I'd allow it as an explanation how you have the money you needed. As a fair warning though, 4 ranks in a Profession with a Wis mod of 0 will earn you an average of 1 gp per day, which you'd need to spend on food and housing as well, so you would have to have been working for quite a while to earn 100 gp, at least half a year, probably even a little more.
5) There is a large Academy of Arcana Arts right in the centre of the city, since you want to be good at Diplomacy, maybe ask them if they would be willing to either give you or at least loan you the 100 gp you need to get a familiar. You would probably have to do something to earn that from them but hey, that even gives you a good reason why you are starting to adventure. This would basically be a version of option 3), since you'd be starting the game with too little money to get your familiar, but it should be an easy way to get the money in the very first (or first few) session(s)

As for familiars, I'd rule that all familiars, animal companions, special mounts and summoned creatures are usually controlled by the player who they belong to. However, I want you to RP them properly, all these creatures are seperate creatures NOT just a simple class feature. A familiar will obviously help their master but they want to stay alive, too. Especially in your case that might be important. Your Gen is even more complicated then a simple animal. They have the same alignment as you do. Roleplay them as such.
So yeah, everyone controls their own familiars, animal companions, special mounts and summoned creatures, but if I feel that they aren't being roleplayed as seperate beings, I will revoke this ruling and take control of them instead.

afik in 4e and the tiny bit of 3.5 ive started summoned creatures(in 4e) you control and druids familiar(in 3.5) you also control

i have no idea about sha'ir or indeed any class outside of druid in 3.5

and the summon creatures is only from my two spells which summoned angels and an whistle which summoned an onyx dog

i never summoned either of them but i was told by my dm that i would have controlled them same as my character

Druids don't have familiars (usually), they have animal companions.

Your ruling on spellslots is fine.

If I'm allowed to use skills to make money to afford my familiar I should be able to use craft(poisonmaking) (rules for craft(poisonmaking) are in complete adventurer) to make 1 dose of salvo per weak with 1 rank and my int bonus, salvo is from complete scoundrel and 2 doses would sell for 100gp and cost me about 33 gp to make. Considering the cities large magical college and large unpoliced slums materials and buyers should be fairly easy to find.

another option might be that I received my magical training in another city and took a student loan to afford my familiar, unable to pay it back I am now on the run and that's why I'm in this city.

My personal vote goes to everyone gets their first familiar for free because 100gp will be pocket change in a few levels anyways.

So, I think we'll go with the investing points into a perform/profession/craft skill option. Please consider the implycations though. For your example, it means that your character was willing to make poison and sell it to strangers in the slums. So keep that in mind. Also note that characters will, sooner or later, probably get somewhat well known. Trying to get into a position in high society might be tricky when it turns out that you sold poison to some assassins for example. Oh, and just to be clear, the money you earn is ONLY for the familiar.

Ok, I'd like to roll for my starting gold, maybe I'll get enough for a familiar and this whole discussion will be rendered pointless =P .

Fine with me but I roll the gold, to be safe.

Your starting gold is (2+1+2)×10gp=50gp

...

Sorry, not a good roll :/

hey guys just started reading this its p good so far

Oh yeah I know that one.
I got like a dozen chapters to catch up to.

yeah i just started so its a big slog for me xP

Chapter 25 here.

Fully caught up, introduced Silck and Shaula to it.

Heard about it before, never read it.

I've been reading it as it released new chapters since...

uh...

I'm not even really sure. A few months at least.

*peeks in here*

... Is this a thing still?

Somewhat limbo-ified, as far as I'm aware.

(I ordered three sets of dice for this I really hope it's still a thing)

(I got three because I wanted color variety and more than one of each in case I lost any okay shut up)

(I have tons of dice too don't worry I understand)

Well if it does turn out to still be a thing, I would like in if I could. :)

Yes, it is still planned and I am still working on it. Sorry I am taking so long.

Edit: And please, do join, the number of currently active players is sadly a bit lower now, since people keep vanishing. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Most of you have probably not heard of the D20 supplement Eclipse: the codex persona; it's a book that converts D&D 3rd edition to a point buy system instead of a class based system, in addition to adding a decent amount of new content.

Some of this new content is in the form of an expanded bardic music system called mystic artist. One of the sets of abilities you can get with mystic artist lets you do things like damage objects and simulate the disjunction spell.

Comedy is a valid performance type.

This means you can make a character who makes puns so terrible they rip asunder the fabric of reality. I though some people here might find that amusing. (also you should check out codex persona, it's cool and you can download a pdf for free)

I haven't heard of it, but that's not saying much, since I've never even played it before. But... I certainly approve of the pun thing... I don't intend to do it, but it's VERY amusing, yes OuO

I need this in my life like right now.

holy shit my guy would /so/ use this xD

Just to be clear, we will not add that supplement. That said, almost any perform skill can be used for Bardic Music abilities, so while you might not be able to shatter reality with them, using bad puns to motivate your allies is totally possible.

*slowly building evil laughter*