DnD Preparation Thread II: Let's Get Rolling

Not really, I am unfortunatly pretty busy with a lot of stuff and thus not 100% sure when I can start, sorry. Definitely not the next weekend, since I will be busy there. Probably not the weekend after that either. And during the week is kind of tricky for me at the moment. So we probably won't start within the next two weeks, that much I can tell. If anything changes or clears up, I'll let you guys know right away.

OverlordJ wrote:

[Detectiving snop]

Hm, alright. There's not really anything I'd want to give up for a higher Wis but I guess that's ok, since Baraqel can only really deduce what I can and I'd guess my Wis is pretty average.

On starting, is everyone done with their characters? Irelivent's sheet doesn't look quite finished (though maybe that's because he'll be playing as his familiar at first) and I'm not sure what the status on Sandstriker is.

ah okie oj, as long as its before next year im happy xD

and tbh i finish uni around the 21st of may i think? so thats when my 5e game will probs stop thatll be a good time for us to restart so i dont go into withdrawal

Yeah, Ireli's actual character won't join untill you all reach level 2, though I'll check to see if anything important is missing for the familiar. As for Sandstriker (and lH), if they don't make/fix their characters before we start we'll start without them, in the worst case they can join later if needed.

EDIT: Silck ninja'd this post and I didn't notice, so it didn't get through. Anyways, I think Ireli's sheet would actually need to be made for a second level character, since some of the familiars stats depend on its master and Ireli doesn't join untill level 2 since they are already second level.

Ireli, anything to say about this?

royalPawn wrote:

On starting, is everyone done with their characters? Irelivent's sheet doesn't look quite finished (though maybe that's because he'll be playing as his familiar at first) and I'm not sure what the status on Sandstriker is.

Kallistos' sheet should be complete! Ralte and I might need to decide a couple more specifics about their background, but yeah, I think I'm ready to go whenever.

so i found this

Quote :

"I love working with my hands. You can actually feel the job being done. And at the end of the day, you can look at what you’ve accomplished. I can walk over this plaza in 30 years and know that I laid these stones."

on fb and i think this sort of mindset fits well with wanderer if you stripped away some of the cocksureness and the love of combat

So, since we earlier talked about some mistakes made by the writers of the books, some of which a GM needs to fix, lets list some I enjoy and/or needed to rule.

Number one, from the Tome of Battle (the book the Warblade is from) comes the PrC of the Eternal Blade, which gets the ability Armored Uncanny Dodge, which is like Uncanny Dodge, except you can use it even while wearing medium or heavy armor. Which sounds pretty great untill you remember that Uncanny Dodge has no restrictions based on armor so it can already be used while wearing armor. Looks like whoever wrote that PrC mixed up Evasion and Uncanny Dodge, since both are classic Rogue abilities and Evasion can only be used in light armor (or no armor). Luckily, no ruling is needed, since the ability is only redundand, not actually wrong. I mean, yeah, you CAN use Uncanny Dodge even while wearing medium or heavy armor.

Number two is a bit worse and is actually right from the PHB. Unarmed Strikes, or in other words punches, are counted as light weapons by the rules. Anyone who is proficient with all light weapons is proficient with them as well, but those NOT proficient with light weapons are only proficient if Unarmed Strikes are meantioned. You know how Monks are all about punching people? Well, they are not proficient with all light weapons and the weapons they are proficient with don't include Unarmed Strikes. So by the rules, Monks are not proficient with Unarmed Strikes. The punching experts don't know how to punch properly. Most people either just add Unarmed Strikes to the list OR they say that anyone with the feat Improved Unarmed Strike (which Monks get as a bonus feat) is proficient with Unarmed Strikes. I think I like that second option, so unless someone has a good reason why I shouldn't rule it like that I will rule it like that.

On an unrelated note, but still a funny one, I just finished designing the Head of the City Watch, the ones who are basically the police of the city. Their leader ended up with (among other things) two levels as Vigilante.

When I read the first correction I thought u were gonna change armoured uncanny dodge to armoured evasion xD

As for unarmed strike I'm down with the second option too oj

Aren't all creatures with fists automatically proficient with unarmed strikes though? Regardless of what type of weapon you treat your fists as, they are still fists. So the light weapon thing should just be for weapon finesse, two-weapon fighting and such.

I mean, whenever I use a character generator, I always get proficiency with unarmed strikes listed right away after I pick race, regardless of what race I pick (haven't tried non-humanoid/goblinoids though).

im p sure warforged arent proficient in unarmed strike

Okay, first thing I need to clarify is that I made a slight mistake. Yeah, they always count as light weapons but for proficiency, the important thing is that they count as simple weapons. Unarmed Strikes are always considered simple light weapons. The only exception is an ability that monks get that allows them to treat them as natural weapons for spells and effects that enhance natural weapons, like magic fang for example. This doesn't include proficiencies though.

Now here is the funny part. If you pick a humanoid race WITHOUT a class, then you ARE indeed proficient with your unarmed strike, because before you pick a class, humanoids are a bit weird. All creature types, which is what humanoid is, have certain racial characteristics. These characteristics include among other things weapon proficiencies, which for humanoids is "All simple weapon or by character class", which means that if you don't have levels in any class, you are proficient with all simple weapons, including unarmed strikes, but if you take a level in a class, you instead have the proficiencies listed by the class. So if you would take a level as Wizard for example, you'd lose your proficiency with your Unarmed Strike.

Also, any creature is proficient with their natural attacks, but since unarmed strikes aren't natural attacks by the rules, this doesn't affect them.

The description of Unarmed Strikes can be found in the PHB in the section about weapons in table 7-5:Weapons on page 116 and listed under "Strike, Unarmed" on page 121

oohhh okie

OverlordJ wrote:

So if you would take a level as Wizard for example, you'd lose your proficiency with your Unarmed Strike

It's because of all the weird angles we twist our hands and fingers in when casting spells. They're really flexible now but punching someone hurts like hell. :maybenotevenmspa:

Eunomic Zenith wrote:

royalPawn wrote:

On starting, is everyone done with their characters? Irelivent's sheet doesn't look quite finished (though maybe that's because he'll be playing as his familiar at first) and I'm not sure what the status on Sandstriker is.

Kallistos' sheet should be complete! Ralte and I might need to decide a couple more specifics about their background, but yeah, I think I'm ready to go whenever.

Okay, write me on the MSPA Forums about our characters. Were we can figure out details.

OverlordJ wrote:

Honestly, Ralte, just keep your backstory seperated from Drea and if you guys end up becoming friends, make it happen via RP, okay?

I have the feeling that I missed something. Or not… I can’t exactly remember right now. Sorry.
But if Shaula wants it that way I will accept it.

Ralte wrote:

Eunomic Zenith wrote:

Kallistos' sheet should be complete! Ralte and I might need to decide a couple more specifics about their background, but yeah, I think I'm ready to go whenever.

Okay, write me on the MSPA Forums about our characters. Were we can figure out details.

Um, if it's private messaging, can we do it here?

Eunomic Zenith wrote:

Ralte wrote:

Eunomic Zenith wrote:

Kallistos' sheet should be complete! Ralte and I might need to decide a couple more specifics about their background, but yeah, I think I'm ready to go whenever.

Okay, write me on the MSPA Forums about our characters. Were we can figure out details.

Um, if it's private messaging, can we do it here?

I know the MSPA Forums PM system better as the one on the nightnight forums to be honest. I can handle it better I want to say with that.

tbh i prefer this version, everytime i start a conversation on mspaf i need to delete previous posts to tidy up the message cause it quotes everything and its damn annoying


at least here u can see the conversation below the pm ur writing and still have the pm ur writing be clear of p much all the stuff ur posting, i really prefer it on here and am really considering just removing my account on mspaf and moving totally to here cause the only real reason i have an mspaf account now is for pms

Well then Eunomic Zenith, let us talk here about our characters.

For the start, a suggestion of mine:
Why should Urmelena let a chaotic good outlaw not deliver to the authorities?
I figure that he has to promise her that he will never harm an innocent on purpose out of low motivations?

Kallistos is chaotic good, and an outlaw at that, but has a rather good moral compass: innocents do not deserve death, but some (read, most) criminals are plenty deserving, and if the law won't, he will. Of course, he's still prone to mistaking one for the other, but the above sums it up. Well, outside of this, he doesn't mind breaking the law in ways that don't do much evil to anyone, if it speeds up matters. Forgery, for instance.

He'd be okay with giving up his personal justice plans provided Urmelena shows him that the law is doing its job, even if he'd be slightly iffy about having to bring the evildoer to justice, which means waiting, which means giving them chances to weasel out, which returns to his distrust of slow, inefficient law. Basically, why not just kill them?

So basically, classic chaotic good "I'm going to do good and I'm not going to limit myself by following the rules if they are in my way"?

Pretty much. I'm sorry, I'm not too original. Heh.

PS: The upd8 today: CONFIRMED _

we should make an upd8 convo thread that massive spoiler warnings all over the place in case someone logs onto here without reading the upd8, that way we can still talk about it

EDIT:

done! its in the general chat, same place as this thread

Anyways, I've been making some potential enemy NPCs for you guys, depending on what kind of stuff you get into. I hope I have enough prepared in advance that I can react relativly quickly to what you guys want to do.

I see Kallistos point Eunomic Zenith and I am understanding it.
Urmelena probably too to some degree. But she would try every lawful way before letting him have his way.
Or she could try to lure the criminal into a lawful trap...

silckenSoul wrote:

we should make an upd8 convo thread that massive spoiler warnings all over the place in case someone logs onto here without reading the upd8, that way we can still talk about it

EDIT:

done! its in the general chat, same place as this thread

Oh... I hoped we could talk again in the Pesterchum Memo....
Like we did often in the past.
I still miss it.

silckenSoul wrote:

we should make an upd8 convo thread that massive spoiler warnings all over the place in case someone logs onto here without reading the upd8, that way we can still talk about it

EDIT:

done! its in the general chat, same place as this thread

I still read it before the upd8 because I clicked the new post thingie assuming it was the DnD thread :B

Ralte wrote:

Oh... I hoped we could talk again in the Pesterchum Memo....
Like we did often in the past.
I still miss it.

Ah yes those were the days. Even though I was pretty late in joining.
But hey, between this forum and the game coming up there should be plenty of conversing to go around :)