Do ye have th' guts? (Dwarven Pathfinder Game)

[Blinkin]

For years, I’ve wanted to play with a party of dwarves on an incredible quest, against impossible odds and just maybe walk away with the maiden and the treasure in the process.  I’m looking for 4 to 5 players to join me in what may be the challenge of a Dwarf’s lifetime!

Need to Know

There are some requirements that I’ll get out of the way. All of these are meant to help keep the game flowing and aren’t very much to deal with overall.

1.   The only acceptable race is Dwarf. There isn’t much point in playing a tefling in a game that is all about Dwarves, is there?
2.   Sexual content will be left up to the individual player. Unless it furthers the campaign, these events will take place in side threads to keep the game moving.
3.   No 3rd party classes. No sommers or gun slingers.
4.   I’m looking for players who will stick with the game long term. Regular posting is required and I would like to see a minimum of 2 post a week. I am aware that a game killer in PBP is the time that it takes to conduct combat. Therefore, there is a 72 hour time limit between a GM post and player responses. Players have the choice of having the round NPCed, or loosing the round if they do not reply.
5.   If there is interest beyond the 4-5 slots offered, players will be selected based upon character concept, so include a concept with your interest statement.
6.   Skills will be used in game. In order to give a range of crafting skills, each character will be allowed 1 primary craft skill. No other craft skill may exceed 2 ranks, or 75% of the primary, which ever is lower. To compensate, a bonus feat, “Skill Focus: Craft (Primary craft skill) will be given.

This game will be Co-GMed by Anon315.

In the history of every culture there are stories, legends, and fables, myths of fantastic feats, heroic battles and epic struggles in awe inspiring places; some of them may even be true! Such tales are often the focus of conversation around a warm fire, good mugs of ale or stronger spirits;no less true for the long lived Dwarves.

Indeed, such a story has often been told over some of those very fires and mugs for hundreds of years. A tale of heroic deeds, of resisting darkness most foul and  acts that any dwarven lineage would dream of saying, “That was me kin!.” For more than 300 years, the ledgend of Stonegard Keep has entertained Elder and dwarfling alike.

As the story is weaved, it speaks of the discovery of a vein of silvery mithral so wide that a wagon could not span it’s width. A find so rich and deep in the tunnels under the city that forges were constructed right in the tunnel to work the metal. Of how even before more than a few tons could be mined that something vast and of purest evil drove the hardy dwarves of Stonegard Keep from the tunnels and into the very heart of the underground city itself… of violent battles in the streets and of dwarf blood flowing so fast that it ran along the gutters like water… of gray bearded warriors and beardless dwarflings pushing against that tide of darkness… and died by the dozens for each foot given to it. To give the children and their protectors time to escape. How the struggle lasted to the very hidden gates of the city itself as the courageous last few warriors and boys alike stood shoulder to shoulder until even the king himself fell with the last of his faithful dwarven warriors… and even then only a relative few found their way to safety for that heavy price.

Since those days long ago, dwarves in the kingdoms speculated on what happened and where that entrance might be; if the tales were true or some fancy. For you see, Stonegard Keep did exist and hundreds fell before the gates…. But no one living actually knew how to get to the fabled stronghold. The few traders who knew the way died long ago and the survivors never spoke of it again… Fore you see, none could face that dread place and live to tell the tale themselves.

Then, less than a year ago, the last known survivor died of old age quietly in his sleep. He had been but a babe when he had been carried out of the darkness… but he had a legacy that might hint at the location and the horrors that they faced.

A few months ago, a band of Dwarves 30 strong set out to reclaim the city… and the vein of mithral once and for all… a scant week ago one lone dwarf staggered to the walls. Battered and feverish from hideous wounds, he swore that he had himself seen the city, and more, the silvery wall itself… before … but his last breath only whispered “black death.”



The pounding of a nail into a plank of wood secured the notice on the wall along with other notices for work, caravan guards, religious services and a lone, yellowed parchment advertising a revolutionary transportation device that every home simply must have… brought to you by Sherman the Gnome.

Do ye have the courage?
Is yer heart good an’ strong?
Do ye have ah good arm fer swingin' yer axe?
Do yer eyes strain ta see far off places an’ adventure?
Is ye lookin’ fer treasure an’ killin’ what needs killin’?

STONEGARD KEEP!

I’s be lookin’ fer good dwarves ta joins meself fer the wall o’ silver… if’n yer nay ah lilly-livered orc!

Bad pay, nay any benefits an’ yer as likely as nay ta die, but yer’s promised as many evil thin’s as ye can kills, All the good ale ye can guzzle an’ a share o’ the spoils as me’s new nobles o’ Stonegard Keep if’n ye live!

See Rogar AnvilRinger this Tuesday at th’ Inn o’ the first home an’ signs yer name ta me party if’n ye gots th’ guts.”

Who could possibly resist such an inviting offer? I mean…Honestly?

Character Generation

Level 6
Ability Scores: Roll 5D6, rerolling 1’s and dropping the lowest 2.
Starting Gold: 16,000 GP (Note, if you take advantage of crafting to create items, reduce by 15%)
Take max HP at 1st level, then normal rolls afterward, rerolling 1's... there's nothing worse than getting a 1 on a HD roll...

HHow Crafting/Creation works

Ok, how crafting and creating magical items works in my world.

Before I begin, it has been brought up that players never see time for crafting during games, and therefore, never see time for creating magical items. Therefore, it’s a wasted skill or feat. I DO intend to give you time for this during game. All anyone has to say is “I want to spend a few days here and do some work.” Or words to that effect. I’m not going to push players through a campaign in the least amount of time possible. It’s YOUR game, I’m just offering a setting to play it.

The decrease in starting gold:

First, if you don’t want to use the feat, take advantage of another’s abilities or craft expensive items… then the 15% drop will not effect you in any way.

Because crafting/creating items saves a character ½-2/3 of it’s list price, particularly big ticket items, I have decided to institute a rule option that the GM’s section of the Pathfinder RPG already uses. I have, in fact, reduced the suggested penalty because I don’t completely agree with it but don’t want to see characters carrying around 25,000+ GP worth of equipment when they start with 16,000 GP.

How it works is, if you craft/create an item who’s base value is 500 GP or more, you can easily craft/create enough to exceed the 2,400 GP that you’ve lost. If you craft/create items with a base value of less than 500 GP, you are not effected at all. So, if you want to craft a MW weapon, you can do it all year long and not loose a copper piece. If you want to craft/create a Mithral Chain Shirt… well, you probably need to get another 1,900 gp worth of equipment to balance things out. This is actually not hard to do at all… Want a ring of protection, amulet of Natural Armor or handy havers sack? Well, that’s half of that remaining with any 1 of the items. So, it’s not going to be hard to recoop that lost gold at all.

IF you want to craft potions, unless the potion’s base cost is more than 500 GP, you will not be effected. Make 100 of them and I won’t bat an eyelash and you will not loose a single coin. It is ONLY if the base value of an item exceeds 500 GP and we can take that on a case by case situation.

Selling items:

I gave the crafter/creators the option to charge a minor fee for the items. 10% so that they aren’t just doing all of the work for nothing. If you craft a MW weapon for someone, say a battle axe, you spend 2/3 of the cost, plus 100 GP for the masterwork component. (Look it up, the 300 GP is also cut by 2/3 for crafting purposes). So, you end up spending about 120 for the work of making the axe. You may charge an additional 12GP for your efforts, if you wish. If you craft a Mithral Chain Shirt, your cost is 367 GP. You may ask for a fee of 36.7 GP for the effort. It’s small, but makes sense as friends don’t always take advantage of you, do they? As a side note, some players may not of realized it, but a number of “magical” armors listed in the Pathfinder site aren’t actually magical, so a simple crafting skill will allow their production.

During play, I will give anyone who wants it (assuming that the other characters agree) the opportunity to sit down someplace and craft/create items. To make the reason for crafting/creating more appealing, I am also increasing the amount that you can get for your efforts, if you sell the item, from the restrictive ½ value that the Pathfinder RPG allows to 60% of value. So, that Mithral Chain Shirt that cost you 467 GP to make will net you 168 GP instead of 83 GP. (334 GP for mithral+ 1/3 cost of a chain shirt+100 GP Masterwork cost). A Ring of Protection +1 will not go for just what you spent to make it,  (1,000 GP+the material cost of the ring) but for 1,100 GP… making you 100 GP profit (Instead of no profit at all)

Now, this is not a lisence to go wild on crafting and making thousands of GP.  You DO have to find someone who can buy the item and haggle out the price. You also have to actually spend the time to make the item and that requires the party to agree to allow you the days to weeks to do so. Perhaps sharing the profit will make thateasier, perhaps not. A good reason for that bluff or diplomacy skill, huh?

All of this will also effect the loot that the party gets from combat, but I don’t intend to run a combat heavy game, so it will balance out. The point is that I want to give you every chance to ROLE-PLAY in the game and use the things that you’ve sacrificed to get. Even non-magical characters can craft magical items if you take the feats and you should have the opportunity to use them.

Feel free to ask questions and we’ll answer them as best as we can.

Group Threads

Group OOC
Character sheets
Party RP

[Ghostwheel]

Thinking of doing an archer... Any idea on a time when you want to start?

[Blinkin]

Things will start when there's a party and characters are settled. I'm giving it a few days to a week to see what happens.

Tell me more about your archer... what's the concept behind it?

[Ghostwheel]

Personality-wise he'd probably be the the lancer, the foil to whoever leads the group, dour and cynical. Having relatively few spellcasters in the dwarven clan (since half the classes that get primary spellcasting take a hit to their primary stat) he was brought up to bring support fire and interrupt enemies who cast spells.

[Callie Del Noire]

Do ye allow Alchemists laddie?

[Blinkin]

Alchemist? Sure. Post up a character concept. :)

[Callie Del Noire]

Alchemist? Sure. Post up a character concept. :)

A modified version of my PFS character.. Boomstick McCracken.. Ironically your Gunslinger ban makes him more effective as a Fighter/Alchemist (Grenadier). I'm thinking Heavy Repeating Crossbow with Explosive Missile and a few more Crossbow focused feats and such.

[Ghostwheel]

I take it you'll be in the backline with me? :P

[Callie Del Noire]

More like the running gun type. Infusing Alchemical weapons into bolts, using his Dwarven Waraxe when needed and tossing out bomb shots every now and then.

[Ghostwheel]

For what it's worth, I think I can take care of traps... +12 to Perception and +10 to Disable Device from what I'm seeing atm.

[Blinkin]

Duh... I knew that I was forgetting something. The first post is modified to deal with HD.

To make it easier though, it's here as well.

First level gets full HP, roll regularly after that, rerolling 1's. There's nothing more irritating than rolling a 1 on a hit die.

[Muse]

hi hi!   I'm still intrested. 

If Callie-kun does't mind another alchemist, this time a front line one with a fighter level, I'd love to reprise Tarkana SToneskull.  :) 

[Blinkin]

When I asked for character concepts, I was hoping for more than just a class... Tell me about the character. No need to go into full character creation, just something to give me an idea of what you have in mind for the character.

[Muse]

  Oh, I tried to play her the first time we tried this game.  (When Chajesdad was hoping to run it.) 

  I didn't give more for two reasons. 

  A.  I'm busy for the next few hours. 

  B.  I didn't want to put too much effort into it if Callie was going to want that roll protected. 

  Basically, Tarkana is from a clan of dwarves who breeds riding boars and are the first line of defense against surface attacks on the dwarf hold.  (They splintered off from a clan of goat herds when they discovered the secrets of domesticating dire bores.) 


  Tarkana is a cavalrywoman style fighter, with a lance and a war axe and a dire boar named Frenzy.  After a war with the goblins, she discovers the secrets of transcendental alchemy in their loot and takes up the trade, learning to make her own body stronger and more resilient, and also delighting in bombs. 

[Ghostwheel]

Quick reminder for you two people with Brew Potion... :-3

Starting Gold: 16,000 GP (Note, if you take advantage of crafting to create items, reduce by 15%)

So might be more cost efficient not to actually brew anything for now. Also why I didn't craft my own bow, despite taking ranks in Craft (Bow).

[frost rose]

Interest registered! A game of dwarves sounds like great fun. Probably, if it's acceptable and there's still room, with a loremaster of sorts. Somewhat older and long in the beard, with an already established career as a jurist and scholar. Already past the hotheaded adventuresome years, still an active what passes for archaeologist in premodern day. And since it'd be useful for a researcher, with appropriate focus on conjuration and divination magic, and whose craftsdwarfship is all of the finest quality when evaluating and restoring ancient artefacts, magical and otherwise.

And because conjuration's a pretty boss specialty to have, not useless in a fight, either.

[Blinkin]

The "usual" items that an alchemist uses, elixures, bombs, and... what's the third? are so cheap as a rule that I wouldn't consider them crafting.

I shouldrestructure the limitation to refer to magical items. Simple Masterwork usually won't cost very much. A bow, for example, would cost less than 200 GP for masterwork and it would be silly to give up 2400 GP when you're only saving a couple of hundred.

Armor with special materials, on the other hand, such as mithral shirts, adamtine and other special materials can start to be huge gold savers. A mithral shirt, for example, being non-magical still saves you somewhere in the area of 700 GP. Add in any enchantment and you start to get some real savings. That is where the discounted starting gold comes in.  When I did both armor and weapon crafting for a 6th level character some time back, I ended up with somwhere in the area of 3,000 or 4,000 GP extra. The discount keeps the actual starting gold in the same range that's implied by the tables to begin with.

As an example, using the bow again, a +1 Composit longbow should cost about 2,400 GP. But, you get it for about half of that by doing the crafting and enchanting yourself... or having someone else do it.

So, if you want to craft MW weapons, disregard the 15%. If you want to get enchanted weapons, the percentage remains.

[Blinkin]

I could be mistaken, as I'm not sure of the breakdown that Cali was going for with the alchemist, but if your Lancer is more fighter than alchemist and Cali's is more alchemist than fighter, it may balance out. You and Cali can certainly work it out between yourselves. As always, my concern is that the party will end up too light in the front rank defense and too heavy in the back line. Fill any mage with enough arrows and he's going to not feel like casting much. ;)

A lore master could be interesting in a party mix and some devine spell may be useful. ;)

I don't want to cut anyone off in an opportunity to play, but I wasn't expecting 4 interested players already. Dwarves aren't particularly popular as a racial option... which ws why I wanted to go with it. If we get more than 5, the concepts will be the determining factor in order to get a well rounded party.

[Callie Del Noire]

Quick reminder for you two people with Brew Potion... :-3

So might be more cost efficient not to actually brew anything for now. Also why I didn't craft my own bow, despite taking ranks in Craft (Bow).

Grenadier loses brew potion.

[Muse]

By all means, keep the Grenadier.  I'm more a front line fighter than a grenadier.  (I do throw bombs.) 

And if you loose brew potion, but I don't, that works too. 

[Blinkin]

Ok Gang, Here's a little puzzle for you. If someone can give me an answer that works, everyone in the party will get a 1,000 exp bonus. I know one answer, but that is not to say that there aren't others.

You approach a room that is dimly lit. Within are two doors side by side, a chissled granite block hanging between them. To the side of each door is an identical  granite statue of a humanoid in robes, a staff in hand and faces obscured by deep hoods.

The hanging b lock has the following inscription:

"Two paths with two guardians.
One leads to thy dreams, the other to thy doom.
Offer questions three and heed wel.
Fore one offers not but lies
The other only the truth to tell.
Do not waste on Whys.
Only know the guardian tells the way
but dare thy not delay.

You may ask up to 3 questions of either guardian to find the correct door.

[Muse]

*Smiles*  I can do it in one.  :) 

[Muse]

Okay, now that I finally understand the crafting rules, if anyone wants Tarkana to make them a potion say the word. 

[Muse]

Oh, and Frenzy is an advanced dire war bore mount. 

How much should I pay for her?  I can eyeball it and come up with suggestions when I get back from breakfast. 

[Muse]

If 2,000 will cover a Mamoth, surely it will cover an advanced dire bore, war trained.  ^_^;; 

[Muse]

Here's what I'm working on so far, but I'm getting pretty dubious about dwarves who can't craft... 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KjhmbgVqEOesZBJeEkMo7ySl62S176TAZUC3ijUmiTQ/edit

[Blinkin]

Ok, lots to cover, and I will apologize to anyone who I have led astray on an issue brought up today.

The puzzle... what is the one question? You have to give me an answer before I award the points. ;)

The Boar. I would say, although I can certainly be corrected on this, that it wouldn't be much more than a good battle trained warhorse.... Probably less since it can't do as much as a horse in other areas such as movement... So.. 75% of the horse? Give me a counter offer and we can work something out on it.

Crafting

I've tried to address this concern in the first post in as simple of a way as I could. If you still have questions or concerns, I will be happy to address them more fully. In essence, I intend to give anyone who wants it the opportunity in game to craft and create items for profit during play, as part of the role-playing aspect. It's detailed above. This DOES mean that the loot in combat will be adjusted.

Muse, Thank you for trying to recruit for this game. It's suppose to be challenging, which is the whole point of playing dwarves. If players are giving you grief over my terms and conditions, please direct them to me and tell them that it's not your fault that it's my game. I WANT you to get to play sometime, no GM likes to run all of the tme. So, thank you for your efforts and I'm sorry if those efforts have caused you anguish.

[Muse]

^_^;;  My initial reaction was based on the idea that I was being punished for trying to craft alchemy and potions,things I often use for the benefit of the party, when it seems that nobody else is crafting anything that could benefit me in return.  ^_^;; 


Does anyone have a feat besides brew potion? Or crafts besides Alchemy and Boyer?  If so please talk to me, I generally like the idea of our forging back-stories together and crafting items for each other. 

[Muse]

Oh!  They have come out with an official pricing for a dire boar mount.  370gp. 

I can leave frenzy as a basic dire boar, but it would be really nice if I could pay some more to put the advanced template on her.  (It's not like I have any way to increase her as we level.)

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/goods-and-services/animals-animal-gear
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/animals/boar/dire-boar

[Ghostwheel]

Hey, that's the bonus of being a paladin/ranger :P

That said, right now it's as strong as a cohort would be... Making it even stronger...? *hesitant*

[frost rose]

I'm looking at quite a few crafting feats (y'know, provisional on a lot of stuff, naturally), as I kinda have this image of taking the excuse of dwarfiness to do a lot of things I might otherwise wouldn't. I'm currently thinking a lot of knowledge and crafting skills (I am going to have awful scores — stupid 2 point wizards. T.T ) in service of a notion of a sage-scholar sort of wizard, with social role heavily inspired by Jewish and Islamic jurists, with some active adventuring as fantasy always has lots of unearth and rediscover.

And out of that collection and rediscovery, picking up a lot of means of producing and repairing old dwarven artefacts, represented mostly so far by taking at least craft wondrous item (and of course scroll), and then arms and armour and maybe wand, and in theory more as things leveled into the range where the others were accessible.

Which, come to think, I think this has been already answered but I wanted to confirm, if I have craft arms and armour, can we coordinate so I can help out with their costs? Or at any rate can we if we then coordinate backstories to explain why?

Basically, I have this really strong image of aging dwarven Indiana Jones runesmith historian and legal scholar. Who is probably too old for your shit, but getting to be on the ground for a successful expedition here is just too tempting to pass up.

[Blinkin]

Muse: We'll have to talk about the boar a bit, but I'm a little wary at the moment. If you want to haggle over it, I might be willing to replace, or make available the animal companion feat if you can give me a good reason for it.

The idea is, again, for the characters to help each other out with arms, armor and equipment. If you're making things for 1/3-1/2 the cost, pass that on to friends and they get to save gold. THAT is why there is a penalty for the effort. Most will get more than the 2,400 gp loss in equipment savings. My own character will have the armorer craft skill, and so can craft the MW version of the armor. So, he'll trade MW work for the 10% fee of enchanting. Background story is the purpose behind all of this.

I have taken Master Crafter, and when he has the levels, I'll go for Craft magical Weapons/Armor. That doesn't do any good at this point, but it's planning ahead. There WILL be opportunities for doing crafting/creation work in game.

[Ghostwheel]

I have taken Master Crafter, and when he has the levels, I'll go for Craft magical Weapons/Armor. That doesn't do any good at this point, but it's planning ahead. There WILL be opportunities for doing crafting/creation work in game.

What are you playing?

[frost rose]

Sort of a random aside/follow up. I've been looking at skills, and I have as expected stretched myself crazy thin, putting points in, amongst other things, perform. In particular, I was wondering if I could have a particular kind of perform that unfortunately is not perfectly easy to categorise in English. Elements of oratory, chanting, singing, playing the harp... basically is it permissible to have Perform (Be This Guy). Because being a performer of dwarven epic poetry would be awesome. Relatedly, is there a skill appropriate for composing such poetry? Seems important for a historian to be able to do.

[Ghostwheel]

I think there's a class feature that does precisely that.

EDIT: Was thinking of the Versatile Performer feat from 3.5; maybe there's something similar in Pathfinder, or the DM will let you take that feat?

[Blinkin]

I'm going to be playing a straight up fighter... Someone has to be able to take the punishment. ;)

Perform is one of those hard things to deal with. On one hand, I don't think that you nessessarily need normal situations. If you're trying to sway an audiance, make a statement or something unusual, the skill makes sense. If you're just doing  kareoke, who needs a performance skill? I mean, have you ever seen some of the people doing it? lol

Back to the serious side of things here, I honestly am not sure. Muse? Ghostwheel? Anon? Thoughts on this one?

My initial thought is that if you are limiting it to something fairly specific, like "Dwarven Chant" then it's covered. Instruments involved in chanting really don't take a lot of skill and you can probably get by without having to have a skill for it. I would also think that composing would fall under that as well. You're composing and performing dwarven chants, which can be anything from history lessons and retelling great events to conveying the latest news in an entertaining way. You may want to look at Bards to see how they deal with it. Lets see what the other experts have to say first though.

[Anon315]

I think Ghost's idea of porting the "Versatile Performer" feat over would be a good idea, it's an innocuous enough feat. Otherwise we could trait it off as "Perform X is always a class skill for you, gain a second Perform Y at -Z skill points", where Z is 1 or 2. Not a huge penalty, but it's like people who sing and play guitar or something. They're usually a little better at one or the other. And Traits are easier to write off than feats.

Given that there are only 9 categories of Perform, you could go "Sing" (which includes ballad / chant), and "String Instrument", to get most of what you want. Or if we just want it flavor-wise, just turn versatile performer into a trait, with like a -2 penalty to all non-primary perform arts (intelligence mod additional types).

[Blinkin]

Ok, since feats appear to be at a premium, how about creating a talent for this..

"Dwarven Chanting: You are skilled at performing chants in the dwarven tradition. Performance is always a class skill." That gives you a minimum of 3 in the skill, plus the ability score modifier as a base.  That should save you some skill points without sacrificing a feat or unbalancing things.

What do you think Anon?

[Muse]

  I believe there's a dwarven religious trait that does something similar.  To use the trait formula, I would give a +1 trait bonus to two perform skillso on top of that. 

  *bows*  nice to meet you, Frost Rose.  Are you familiar with the Lorematter Prestige class?  I need to review how it looks in pathfinder. 

   If you need more skills, don't forget your favored class bonus.  Also, there's a feat from Psionics Unleashed if Blinkin will allow it.  It is not a psionic feat.  It's called Open Minded, and gives an extra skill per level.

[Blinkin]

Make it so Number 1.

There is a feat as well, although I think that it's a racial feat. It's called "Fast Learner" that allows you to take both 1 skill point and 1 HP for your favored class (Or the favored class bonus and one of the others). I'm fond of it when I play humans.

[Ghostwheel]

So we currently have a backline alchemist, archer, frontline alchemist, fighter, and wizard... Should we cap it at that many players, or wait for more people to join too?

Also, Blinkin, have you thought about playing a frontline cleric instead so we have a decent source of healing?

[Muse]

*smiles*  I like Fast Learner too.  (It's human specific.)

Okay, redoing Tarkana's equipment list with the idea that we've been making things for each other in back story: 

Frost Rose gets 375   
Blinkin gets 81   
Ghostwheel gets 27

Let me know if you want any alchemy or potions at 10% above creation price.  :)

[Muse]

200 more for Miss Frost.  Tarkana is playable now. :)  I'd like to write more about her backstory.  Preferably including some shared history.

[Blinkin]

Muse: 81 what?

GW: I'm playing a fighter mainly because the story requires the type to work. Remember the guy who's looking for dwarves? It would be hard to create a cleric who wants to hire the party to clean out a city so he could make himself king and everyone else nobles.

We'll wait a couple of more days; there's no huge rush to begin and I would like to see if we might actually get a cleric type.

Muse's alchemist can produce healing potions at quite a rate and that might be as good as a cleric.

[Blinkin]

I need to know if anyone is going to pick up the create magical feat or not.  If not, I'll arrange for an NPC to make a deal with Rogar for cheap magical weapons/armor if anyone wants to take advantage of it. Otherwise, all of the magical items will be the regular price and no one suffers the starting gold reduction.

I believe that the Loremaster has to have a certain number of divine spells to qualify for the prestige class, so we do have some potential for healing spells. At least 1 plus wisdom bonus... Better than nothing and the potion brewer can fill in the lack at relatively little cost. I think Potion of Cure Lights are about 25 GP each to make. 27.5 GP if Mr. Muse wants to make a modest profit on it.

As an alternative to the magical weapon/armor issue, after reaching level 7... and that may be a long time down the road, Rogar will start enchanting them in exchange for the cost to do the work at that time.

[frost rose]

The Loremaster actually has a requirement for divination spells, so I'll be strictly arcane and no healing from me unfortunately. Save for whatever wands or potions or whatnot I tote around.

And it looks like I'll have craft arms and armour. And pretty much everything but brew potions within level range, really. Crafting is neat, and very dwarfy and all. And two different perform skills, since the actual backstory is requiring it, but worth it, I think, given how much I'm liking how it's turning out.

[Blinkin]

Damn, I need to watch things more closely. lol Devine, devination... I'm really tired.

So, are you willing to do the enchanting for party weapons/armor? Rogar has both craft armor (primary) and Weaponsmith. He's much, much better at armor, but master work weapons shouldn't be a problem. If someone else is doing weaponsmithng, I'll free up those points for something else... all 2 of them. lol

[Muse]

Frost Rose gets 375   
Blinkin gets 81   
Ghostwheel gets 27

  Oh, I was referring to your crafting rules, where we pay 10% of what we save tot he person who crafts for us. 

Rose:  575 gold. 
Blinkin:  81 gold. 
Ghost:  27 gold. 

[Blinkin]

Ok gang, time for a little house cleaning.

as of this time, this is the party that we have. If one more shows interest, that'll give a full party. We can, however proceed with what we have.

There are a few items to work out individually, but we'll deal with that either in PM or in the OOC thread, which you'll find below. There is also a character thread and a IC post for side threads and general IC chatter. Use it to establish backstories via RP, doing the trading for items and so on.

I would ask, because I have some trouble with Googledocs and Mythweavers, that character sheets be posted as text so I won't get confused trying to see them. Anon and I will look over them and approve them. If there are questions about the character, I'll contact via PM to clarify.

Ready to go?

Group OOC
Character sheets
Party RP

[Marie Reynolds]

Would there happen to be room for another in this game?

[Blinkin]

There is. Have you read the first post in it's entirity?

Tell me about the character.

[Marie Reynolds]

Well as far as Back story goes, A  Female Dwarven Bard/ Rogue, in her back story she was born into Drow Slavery her mother died in child birth, She was raised by the other slaves that were used for entertaining and wrestling for their Drow owners amusement. this would be their lives till a conflict between the house that owned them and a rival house erupted and they took that chaos as their time to make their escape. Since then she has been leading a wandering performing troupe that has gone from dwarven community to dwarven community hoping to be accepted in on but never finding a place to settle due to other dwarfs not wanting someone in there community that has been tainted by drow life even if it was not her choosing That is the rough draft of it that i have so far Also have a archetype question as well.

[Ghostwheel]

Should/can I drop Disable Device if your character is joining us?

[Blinkin]

MR: Ask your question. So far, I don't see anything that I would object to. I think there is a trait that you'll have to take due to the raised in drow society, but I forget what it's called at the moment.

GW: You can drop disable device if you like, it's probably costing you an arm and a leg to get it that high when you aren't getting a lot of SP to start with.to begin with.

[Ghostwheel]

GW: You can drop disable device if you like, it's probably costing you an arm and a leg to get it that high when you aren't getting a lot of SP to start with.to begin with.

If no-one else has it, I'll be picking it up. That said, if MR's character has it, I'll take Sleight of Hand or something similar instead. My character concept is that of a sneaky scouty tracky kinda guy, so either one works decently.

[Marie Reynolds]

I was looking at Ninja to fit the motif of the character being a more stealth unarmed combatant.

[Blinkin]

GW, why didn't you just go for a ranger type. They're more suited for what you're looking for and you get 3x the skill points.

MR:  I'll have to take a close look at the Ninja, but my initial reaction is a no. It really doesn't fit either the setting or the drow background... but let me look at it. What do you think Anon?

[Ghostwheel]

GW, why didn't you just go for a ranger type. They're more suited for what you're looking for and you get 3x the skill points.

Ummm... I do have levels of ranger.

[Blinkin]

Ok, so fighter/ranger? or rogue/ranger?

I'm waiting on Anon315's response to the request. While the Ninja (Not a Rogue archetype), the class will be weaker in trap finding than a regular rogue.

[Ghostwheel]

Ok, so fighter/ranger? or rogue/ranger?

The former, with the Trapper archetype to give me Trapfinding so I can disable magical traps.

[Blinkin]

Ah, ok. So, you want the character to be out front and scouting then? It makes sense to me. I've always thought that rangers should be out front in the wilds, rogues in urban or dungeon situations. What's the point of finding a trap after you set it off because the guy who can find them are in the middle of the pack. I don't have a problem with the concept that I've heard so far. It'll be interesting to see the character in it's fully flushed out condition.

[Ghostwheel]

He'll be a scout, but in the classic scout-ranger-archer style, scouting ahead and staying in the backline in actual combat. And while ninjas don't have Trapfinding, I'll have it covered, since you can't disable magical traps without the class ability.

[Phaia]

darn darn DARN!! i waited too long to reply here. I was busy the  past few days and was looking at trying to join!
By the way a create feat ya all should look at is inscribe tattoo.... upto to3rd level [5th casting level] a magic tattoo could be placefor 500gp or less so as an example the wizard [which i was considering -- monk1/wizard5 or even monk1/witch5 no longer able to advance as monk] could do a magic tat of burning hands on anyonr for scroll cost x4 in this case [level 5 cast] for 500gp or a  summon monster 3 on everyone

inscribe tattoo for the group along with scribe scroll would be useful

well have fun and good hunting

Phaia

[Marie Reynolds]

Okay I already have the Privileged Slave Trait, so ill find that one if i can. that will be the last ting ill need to do and ill post the character sheet shortly after.

[Callie Del Noire]

Argh.. lost my write up for the fighter/alchemist I built.

[Blinkin]

There's time still. You can recreate and submit it.

[frost rose]

I don't even have the excuse of losing this for taking a while, but... here.

Now, I wrote it up as is, but I have a few questions as to whether I might want to redo some bits. I nicked an alternate conjurer specialty out of... Advanced Player's Guide, I think, and likewise swapping out a racial. The bonuses to knowledge checks instead of appraisal checks, and making items instead of acid dart. And a few (mostly effectless normal) items as well. Mostly things that seemed reasonable, tho'.

The other thing is that by the RAWs you can make a wondrous item with a continuous spell effect at 2k base price per spell level per caster level. Soooo taking this at face value, items with continual mage armour and shield — is this okay? I realise some GMs find this sort of flexible wondrous item creation to be gaming the system a bit.

[Muse]

Forst, the listed cost for a continual force armor bonus superscedes that, just as the cost for stat bonuses supercedes bull's strength items. 

May i sugest a pearl of power 1 or two, so that you can keep your own mage armor spell going through the day? 

[Blinkin]

Frost Rose, I don't have a problem with the racial trait change. I think that there's already an alternate that you can use for that, so it's not an issue. The APG usually sticks to a balanced class, so I'm not concerned about that one either.

I think Muse is right about the cost thing. I would have some concern that the option may be taking too much advantage of the game. You could go with the pearl option, or just get Bracers of Armor +4 at 8K if you use the same feat to create them and it's effectively the same thing without loosing a spell slot every day.

[Inash]

If it's not too late, I have an idea for a frontline cleric.

I was thinking a young, bit of a prodigy really, hot-headed dwarf from an order of weapon smith priests.  The order would have been far enough from stonegaurd that they never quite understood how bad it was, and have always wanted to mount an expedition.

[Muse]

  I don't know if there's room or not, but that would be very useful to have!  :)

[Blinkin]

At the moment, we have 3 of 5 character sheets submitted and 2 in development. I would agree that having someone who can stand up and swing something would be useful, not to mention a cleric as well.

If we don't see the last 2 character sheets by Sunday, I'll give you a slot.

Basically, at the moment, you're on the back-up list, if that's ok. I want a fast paced game (2 post per week), so if we hit a problem there, we'll bring you in.

[Inash]

Ok, thanks.

[frost rose]

Mmm, I was under the impression the reason that bull's strength and a belt of strength didn't stack was because they were both typed enhancement modifiers, but point well enough taken.

So that said, the pearls are nice on their own, but not actually useful for what I had in mind. Basically the reason I'm trying to sneak around this is not so much an optimisation attempt (as I'm on the whole pretty bad at that to be honest — just look at my skill selection after all), but that I am loathe to use spells for basic defence here. I have enough slots more or less, and the real problem for me as I see it is that, as mentioned, combat has the potential to slow down pbp games to a crawl, and I really don't want to spend the first one or two rounds of every combat just putting up defensive spells that honestly are less useful anyhow than just making sure party cooperation is good.

Doubly so for an internet game where mostly what I'm after is less the mechanics-y bits — if I wanted that I'd go for an entirely different system anyhow — but the RP-y bits, which is why I avoided attack spells as well. Battlefield support and control in my experience just allows me more options and interesting possibilities to write for, for the mixed reasons of more often is going on, and that I have more flexibility in what I can put up before GM feedback.

Okay, all those words words words aside, given that there is no way in hell I'm managing a decent pair of bracers on a budget, I think I'll just scratch trying to get AC to something reasonable. The extra survivability is not worth the threat to my motivation in posting. People drop out of games way more often than characters die, in my experience.

But yay on the other things — thanks. They didn't look too unbalanced, which is why I didn't mind grabbing them and asking permission afterwards, and it fit a lot better with my character image. I'll think about gear a bit more and make the necessary modifications there.

[Ghostwheel]

It's not that they don't stack, it's the a "permanent" spell of bull's strength in an item might be cheaper than the 16k it costs by the rules to buy an item that grants +4 to a stat, and when those conflict, you should go by what it actually costs to get the ability by the rules, rather that custom-creating an item that does precisely the same thing, but cheaper and better.

[Inash]

So what gods'r ye us'n then lad?

[Blinkin]

Maybe this should be taken to the OOC thread?

[Marie Reynolds]

Do you have a problem reading myth weavers blinkin?

[Blinkin]

It's a headache generator, but if there's no other option, I can manage to get most of it. The same problem with Plothook, the way that my screen reader deals with both sites is that everything is tripled. I get 3 acrobatics, for example, the stats of abilities and weapons repeat and I have to figure out where one starts and the other ends sort of thing. It's all my screen reader, and not much I can do about that without a new computer and newer screenreader.. which would be about $2,000 investment that I don't have. *sighs*

[Inash]

I see, you really, really are blind.  Do spoiler tags mess things up?

[Blinkin]

No, spoiler tags are fine. The only things that I can't deal with on E are images and telling if something is bold, italized or underlined. Things like that.

There are issues with other sites, but that is mainly an accessibility issue and designers not taking the visually impaired into account when they design the site. We are in the vast minority when it comes to role-playing.

As a side note, the game is closed down. There were a number of difficulties that made the game unworkable.

[Phaia]

ahhh dAMN blinkin i was gonna say i would love to be on stand by!!

what the heck is going on anyway!!

Phaia