[NCES] A fiendish employer with a job of Epic proportions

[kongming]

Heheh, NCES is so close to NCIS...

The idea:
The player characters are well known - famous even, and have for a long time been doing incredible deeds around the planes. At level 20, after all, there is little that you can't do. As such, Belial had no trouble finding out about them, and asking for their audience, to make an offer.

The deal was simple: he had a legion of devils ready to unleash in one of his usual incursions, something that would strongly affect *a* plane and cause much suffering. If the team agreed to help him, the devils would instead be sent to the Blood War, where they would probably die senseless deaths or, failing that, would achieve victories against demons - equal in evil. He also offered magical items and prestige/favours, and all they must do is first prove themselves in the testing grounds (a series of fiendish challenges), and then deal with his errant devil daughter, Fierna.

Of course, it's altogether possible that Fierna could have plans of her own - even to hire the party herself...

The system:
Dungeons and Dragons 3.X (it makes little difference)

The specifics:
Starting level is 20, using 32 point buy for ability scores.
Just about every book and supplement is allowed - check with me first. I will stab you in the face though if you want to be psionic or a warforged.
If you want to be a weird race, talk to me and we'll work out a fair way to play one rather than the retarded Savage Species rules.
I'll be setting some ballpark areas for the various numbers. I want the players to have their AC, to hit bonus etc. in those areas so that we don't end up with "One player can't hit this monster, another can't miss it".
I allow and encourage use of Gaming Den/Frank&K material.
The game will go into low Epic levels. Instead of using the normal Epic rules, I will simply say this: tell me the basic idea of what you want the character to be doing ("A grand wizard who shapes the planes!", "a thief who steals souls, minds and even loyalties", "a knight who rides a friggin dragon") and I'll make a way for you to progress and do that.
Finally, loot: you can have anything that costs 15K or less, and as many as you want. If it costs even a penny more, it's special. You may each have:
1 item worth up to 200,000 GP
2 items worth up to 100,000 GP each
5 items worth up to 50,000 GP each
10 items worth up to 20,000 GP each

Sexiness:
Some of the tasks will involve sexual elements. Have fun with it. You can use stuff from the various "Sex in D&D" sources, but we're not using the "Have sex with people" skill, nor the Appearance stat. So if you like a Book of Erotic Fantasy item, class or feat, you can use it, but taking ranks in Perform: in the bedroom is a waste of skill points. Feel free to make up your own silly ideas for feats and stuff related to kinks and things (and using them in combat) and run them by me - I once made an entire supplement all about spanking in D&D, complete with feats, spells, prestige classes, magic items, monsters and ToB manoeuvres.

[Jeramiahh]

Mm, this is a very tempting idea, though I imagine I'd be looking at several hours to piece together the character I'd want... I'm considering it, though.

[kongming]

Well, naturally I'd expect the players to take their time with character creation.

Here are the ball-park figures I'm after - this includes magic gear and 0-3 buffs at a time:

Hit Points: 150-400
Saving Throws: +20 to +30 each
Armour Class: 35-45 (flat and touch should be no worse than 20)
Total Attack Bonus: +25 to +35 (+20 to +30 if you specialise in touch attacks or flat-footed, +15 to +25 if you specialise in flat-footed touch attacks)
Save DCs of best abilities: 30-35
Skill total for your "best" skills: +30 to +50 is recommended, but this isn't such a big deal.

If your shtick is healing: you should be able to heal a minimum of 100 HP per round, as well as have the capacity to: remove poisons, diseases, negative levels, fear, paralysis, charm/domination and curses, as well as raising the dead.

If your shtick is buffing: you should be, with one round, either giving all allies around a +5 on most d20 rolls or one person a substantially larger bonus, or as much as +20 on a single d20 roll, or +50 or more to damage rolls.

If your shtick is giving numerical penalties: basically as above, but negatives.

If your shtick is dealing damage: Expect to, assuming a couple of enemies and ideal options for flanking, area effects etc., deliver an average of ~100-200 per round (including spreading it out amongst several attacks or area effects)

If your shtick is dealing status effects: you should be able to hand out a variety - charm/dominate/suggestion/fascinate, poison/disease, paralysis/petrification, blindness/deafness and so on.

If you intend on getting attacked more than everyone else: add +5 to your expected saves and AC, and +100 to your expected HP. You should probably also be carrying a 25% or 50% miss chance.

[DarkTide]

I express interest!  Give me a day or so to sort out character ideas though :D.

[Vandren]

Could be interested.  Is there any way you'd like HP rolled?

[kongming]

Ancient voodoo rituals.

Er, I mean, first level is maximum. After that, it's half the die +1, so 3 for a d4, 4 for a d6, 5 for a d8, 6 for a d10 and 7 for a d12. And if your class says you have d2, d3, d20 or d% HP, you're reading it wrong ;)

[TheVillain]

Alright, I'm thinking I'll toss in my hat- and if you're going to go, why go half-way?

Basic Idea- (Subject to approval of course)

Name: Oren

Race: Piper (Bastards and Bloodlines Book- Elven Mother / Satyr Father)

Class: 2 Piper / 3 "Paladin of Freedom" / 10 Cleric (Freedom) / 5 Disciple of Aaluran

Bio: Born from a brief lustful tryst between his parents, Oren would grow up to become known as the 'Paladin of Freedom' (in spirit if not mechanically). Almost the epitome of Chaotic Good, his adventures in liberating the weak and oppressed have become the stuff of legends. A close second being his eye for women, as rumors to his skill as a lover and volcanic sex drive have been making the rounds as well.
This has recently led to a new complication in his life. Male pipers are known to be sterile, a common malady of many male crossbreeds in general. This fact was something Oren has taken advantage of quite thoroughly over the years. Now he's just learned that he's given so much pleasure to so many women of so many races over his adventuring career that in the eyes of the chaotic good hermaphrodite god of passion Aaluran he's considered one of the deity's mortal champions. Aaluran has cured Oren of his sterility and has declared that any child fathered by Oren from love or mutual lust will be considered a blessed soul in the deity's sight. Naturally, he's a little weary of bridling unsuspecting women with unexpected pregnancies, but a bunch of good weavers of divine magic down the line does have it's appeal.
Accepting the offer from the devil lord thinking of the well-being of the common people, the whole 'deal with a devil' doesn't sit with him very well- but it's better then any alternatives he can think of.

[kongming]

Yeah, that sounds fine.

And just for the record, anyone worrying about pacts and that needn't: it's not a traditional deal with a devil - you're getting paid for services rendered, and the benefits for doing so are far reaching on at least one plane. The actions are clearly good. This isn't "hey, want a power boost? Just sign here" kind of thing, so it doesn't involve alignment changes, future obligations and so on.

[TheVillain]

That's cool. Still wouldn't sit well with Oren though. Maybe he'll think of a way to double-cross the villains?

:P

[Darkforged Dove]

Oh damn. I want into this game. I haven't even read anything aside from knowing that you're running an epic 3.5 game.

What I'm thinking is..... a persistant spells buffed Archivist 7-ish/Church Inquisitor X/The PrC that gives you a Domain/Radiant Servant of Blargh (gives martial and full armour proficiencies)/Witch Hunter X.

Alternately, how is the RoW Fighter's item creation level 7 ability going to work? Right now they'd be able to make anything that has a CL of 23 (assuming someone has the spells to lend; or I ... you know, beat the spell out of a Djinni).

Because, I've got a singing warrior sage that has a knack for utterly murdering the largest creatures in the game. Well, creatures with massive amounts of Hit Dice. Since he's a multiple Con damage per round damage dealer.

If you're going to allow Fighters to build gear by buying a scroll and having high enough ranks in Craft, all I can say, is

Fighter 1/Bard 1/Monk 1/Fighter 2-11 was the character, for an other game that was lvl 14. In this case, he'd be 18 Fighter/1 monk/1 Bard. I'd probably ask for either new fighter abilties or monk fighting styles.

Hmm.... a fighter, who's a wizard level genius, and has barbarian levels of killing power*. As long as I don't have to make a Knowledge (Religion) check for any "sexiness" parts, everything should be fine....well, with the sole exception of vampires being okay for Knowledge (Religion) checks. I'm just not vurry keen on undead (or most Aberrations for that matter.... frankly most anything that's the wrong size, and not humanoid).

On the upside, I'll be playing a character who can deal 38 damage per attack with his bare fingertips alone (and an attack roll of 10 + non BaB bonuses). If he power attacks for full.

Also, how do you feel about Frost Oil (the alchemical opposite of Alchemist's Fire; basically Cold damage, instead of fire)? b/c this "fighter" type is able to go the Acid/Fire/Cold lobber route as well.

Some other things:

The "Intelligent Fighter" feat, that lets you use int for attack rolls, go or no go?

Spider Silk Armour? The original reason that I went for this build was that Spider Silk was a heavy armour that was good for sneaking in, so I kept looking for ways to turn this character into a very well rounded "heavy ninja" type character. Covered in armour, a good slew of knowledge checks good enough to embarrass some wizards; spot/listen/hide/move silently checks that would make a rogue take notice, and enough damage to make a Barbarian soil themselves when they see a level 7 version of this character rape an Treent in one round; and a Conflagration Ooze (MM3) the very next (CR 8 Trent, and CR 7 Ooze).

Mind you bonus damage b/c of weakness to fire, and weakness to cold is what did the damage that made it from being a "near thing" into a "one round kill". Against other creatures, the fights would have lasted longer.

*: Note, this is not damage, just killing power. He dropped a 48 HD water elemental before his round even started via AoOs, and wasn't even harmed by the creature; this was at level 14, and his weapons couldn't bypass the elemental's natural DR (a huge killer for attacks that are many, but small)).

Of course, the idea was to create the most well rounded and powerful non-caster possible. It could hide well, tank well, snipe well, and make a large number of noticable and crucial skill checks.

[kongming]

Okay, assuming everyone who expressed interest is still in, I'll tentatively call the game full now. So that's Jera, Darktide, Vandren, The Villain and Dove.

Now...

a persistant spells buffed Archivist 7-ish/Church Inquisitor X/The PrC that gives you a Domain/Radiant Servant of Blargh (gives martial and full armour proficiencies)/Witch Hunter X.

Sure, if you can fit it into the 20 levels. Just keep it within the numbers I listed - no overshooting them.

Alternately, how is the RoW Fighter's item creation level 7 ability going to work?

Honestly I don't want to have to deal with Item Creation - it means either having to track XP separately for everyone, or having to make most things rushed with time limits so that artificial crafting restrictions are in play. I'd rather just say "People, you get what you're given and you'll like it". Considering that payment will generally be in the form of pure hope, essence of Chaos and so on (which you then trade out for level-appropriate gear), being able to customise won't be a big deal.

So you can do the fighter multiclass character, just... please don't go the crafting route. And keep in mind that the numbers I provided aren't only minimums, there are maximums too. The point was to try to keep all PCs in the same ballpark.

Also, how do you feel about Frost Oil (the alchemical opposite of Alchemist's Fire; basically Cold damage, instead of fire)? b/c this "fighter" type is able to go the Acid/Fire/Cold lobber route as well.

Some other things:

The "Intelligent Fighter" feat, that lets you use int for attack rolls, go or no go?

Spider Silk Armour?

Frost Oil is fine. One of the books has it listed as Coldfire or something.

The Intelligent Fighter feat is fine.

Spider Silk Armour? Since when was that heavy? Last I checked it was a Light Armour with a very high Max Dex, basically no skill penalty or ASF and a fairly small (+3?) armour bonus.

[Darkforged Dove]

Silk Steel is what I was thinking about.

I'll dig up my old fighter and have to update him. On the other hand the Roland Fist of the North character build/idea is one that I've always wanted to see in play, since the Fist of the North character used the Chameleon class for the bulk of its powers.

[TheVillain]

Think it got caught in the site cleaning.

Where will we make the sheets?

[kongming]

Wherever you like - posting them up here, using the various websites that host them and linking here, doesn't matter.

[Vandren]

Sorry, due to offline stuff, I think I'm out.

[TheVillain]

All right, I have everything done except items- for which I'm needing a ruling. This sounds like it will be fun.

[kongming]

That's okay, Vandren, take care.

We still have four people, at least in theory, so I can accept one more but likewise can start with four - either way works.

[TheVillain]

Here is sheet. I think.

[Darkforged Dove]

Wait, I just realized that our budget is this:

1 item worth up to 200,000 GP
2 items worth up to 100,000 GP each
5 items worth up to 50,000 GP each
10 items worth up to 20,000 GP each

I somehow thought that each of those was a specific option that we had to pick one of.

So.... any number of 15k or less GP items; and 18 other items, over 15k; is that right?

[Darkforged Dove]

Hmm, for my 200k item, a weapon in this case; how would a Truebane (+3), Metalline (+2), Wounding (+2), Extending (+1) Aurorum Kusari-Gama work?

Also... we're building pretty general characters, right? We won't be facing things like a dungeon of only undead, or only elementals, and not somehow know about it, are we?

There's lots of cheap things that can fit the bill; and I'll probably carry a 10-foot hole with a good mix of bane weapons of different materials. Plus alchemist's fire and other supplies. Basically, the character carries a storage shed's worth of stuff in his portable hole because they installed a custom-made set of wooden shelves and boxes to store all of their gear, plus tons of supplies, with them at all times.

I got the idea from a level 4 game, and asked for a portable hole to store the 100's of bottles of flasks of oil that I bought, and changed into "make-shift" firebombs that are 1/10th the cost of a normal alchemist's fire.

[kongming]

Yeah, it's all of the above, not just one option.

So... I don't know what Truebane or Metalline do, or the Aurorum metal type. Tell me those and you'll probably get the go-ahead.

And yeah, if people want to take Handy Haversacks with 1 each of Silver, Cold Iron and Adamantium x 1 each of Bludgeoning, Piercing and Slashing x 1 of each +1 Bane then they totally can. But I'm not saying that'll be more useful than focusing on the one weapon or whatever.

Oil flasks can indeed work as Alchemist Oil, however there is a chance that they won't ignite. Not that that's relevant in this game, because you can have as much Alchemist Oil as you like, but just so you know that.

Yes, it's pretty general. I will hint that Evil Outsiders are likely to be the majority of things you need to fight. But not the only things.

[TheVillain]

Just thought I'd add that I'd forgotten spell components but I remembered them now. Looks like Oren is a healer, for those keeping track at home.

[Darkforged Dove]

Don't worry, I'm going to be playing Merhault. Merhault is.... if anything, a one man party. It's how I introduced him to the PCs the first time around. With access to wands, and scrolls, there's very little that this character can't eventually deal with.

Well... Truebane is "bane versus whatever"; Metalline is "change to be any metal"; Aurorum is a "Book of Exalted Furries" metal that fixes itself if broken. Basically, it's a weapon that can bypass the DR of anything except Yugoloths, Demodands and Elementals.

Getting... a +1 Evil Outsiderbane, Lawful Outsiderbane Silver Bastard sword; and a +1 Evil Outsiderbane, ChaoticOutsiderbane Steel Bastard sword might be handy. They'd be +3 weapon... that's only 18k, not bad. Dropping two of my 50k slots to get a pair of +1 Aurorum, Metalline (+2), Holy (+2) bastard swords. Would let me bypass most evil, and material DRs. On the other hand, getting basic Bane weapons is also a good idea.

I'll probably buy my weapons last, and look at other gear first. Flying is pretty important; as is not getting hit (displacement/concealment gear); and jacking my saves up.

Also, how are weapon/armour costs going to be calculated? The total cost of the weapon, or on the cost of each thing that is added to it? So... a +3 Weapon is 18k; but if it's Adamantine, or has something like "Hideaway" (a 7,500 non-plus ability, that makes a weapon easy to hide), that brings it over a threshhold, is it now over the threshold? or not?

Hideaway
(Races of the Elf(s) p171)
Any Weapon
As a Free Action, the weapon transforms into a cylinder small
enough to fit in the wielder’s hand (+2 Circumstance bonus to
Sleight of Hand checks to conceal it).
The weapon can be restored to its normal size as a Free Action.
Faint
Abj 5 Craft Arms & Armor Shrink Item
+7,500 gp

Or would the total cost need to be caculated, or would each component of an item that can be seperated from an item be calculated seperately? Since something like Hideaway can be added to a weapon, after it is built, and still will only cost 7,500 gp to add.

Oh, here's an item to run by you; Suspension Spheres. They're basically contained fireballs that you throw and create blasts on impact. In some ways they'll deal more damage, if there's say, a crowd. But they can very well also deal less damage; since I can't deal Con damage, nor apply my BaB twice to these ranged attacks.

Suspension Sphere –
Acid - Cold - Fire - Electricity
(DR313 p56)
6” diameter glass sphere containing
shimmering acid.
On impact, the sphere breaks, causing 10d6
[Energy] damage in a 30’ radius Spread (Ref½
DC15).
Single use.
—
Combo Single Use Offense
Mod Evoc 10 Craft Wondrous Item
Acid Fog  1,500 gp

Also, we're in the Wish Economy, right? Does that affect our stats?

[kongming]

Dove: they all look fine to me, then.

Yeah, I forgot Wishes can do that. So everyone may as well say "I Wished my stats up" and gain +5 to all of their ability scores. Merry Christmas.

Villain: Oren looks good. Some of the numbers are barely less than the ballpark, but not enough to make a difference (for example one save being +19 when I put +20 as the ballpark minimum) - and if you apply the "I wish to be stronger, faster, tougher, smarter, wiser and prettier" bonus, he should be just fine. The character himself seems very cool.

I look forward to getting started. The others would be wise to get to work.

[TheVillain]

Wait, so the +5 to every stat is serious?

. . .I'm not going to argue with this.