Across Del'thenog- DnD horror game looking for players

[nick012000]

The world is vast and dangerous. Beyond the kingdom humanity and their humanoid allies have carved out for themselves, the world is vast, and filled with horrors beyond humanity's worst nightmares, and tribes of savage humanoids who prove their devotion to their maddening gods with blood sacrifice. Humanity struggles on, however, and life struggles onward, though many threats are poised to destroy this. Humanity's only hope is that the sanity-eroding magics of their magicians and preists, and the resolve of their swordsmen is enough to hold the day.

6th level characters.
13,000gp starting gold.
Rules- Generic Classes, Prestige Bard, Paladin, and Ranger, Character Flaws, Character Traits, Recharge Magic, Legendary Weapons, Item Familiars, Incantations, Taint, Sanity.

All of the Prestige Classes listed here (but Blackguard) are allowed, as are all of the PrC's I linked to under rules (but the Tainted Sorceror and the Tainted Warrior).
No alignments. Spells that work along Law/Chaos lines fail, spells that effect Evil instead effect people with Severe Taint, and spells that effect good effect characters with no or light taint. Spells that effect Neutral creatures on the good/evil axis effect creatures effect creatures with moderate taint. Everything else is just a matter of roleplaying.
Arcane spellcasters use the low sanity loss option for spellcasting, while divine casters use the moderate sanity loss for spellcasting, as their powers are a direct result of their following of Nether Things.
Characters have Sanity Resistance equal to their Wisdom bonus, minimum 0. This applies to spells.
Yes, the spells you learn from Forbidden Tomes are added to the Spells Known for spontaneous casters.
The prerequisites for Dragon Disciple are changed to "Must be able to cast Charisma-based arcane spells".
If you want a Legendary Weapon other than the ones linked to under the Rules section, or here, post it's name and un-Scion-enhanced stats, and I'll work out its abilities, though you might not be happy with it.

Races:
Humans: Humans are the dominant species in the kingdom of Del'thenog, forming much of both the ruling elite and the peasantry. Most of the knights of the kingdom are humans, as are many of the soldiers who protect humanity from daily attacks from the north, by their skill in manning the Great Northern Wall.
Dwarves: Most dwarves dwell in strongholds within and above the Ironsheild Mountains, protecting the kingdom from attacks from the East.
Elves: Elves dwell within the Bloodroot Forest to the south, which is inhabited by many vicious beasts created by the Elven Lifeweavers, notable creations of theirs being the griffons, hippogriffs, pegasi, and unicorns. Despite this, very heavy fighting is seen here, and many elves die every day. Fortunately, their long lives mean that the typical elven couple produces dozens, if not hundreds of offspring by the time they die of old age. It's notable to point out that the starting ages shown in the PHB is the result not of slow growth, but of 90 years of compulsory military service.
Halflings: Halflings are the traders, fishers, and wandering gypsies of the kingdom, and are welcomed into many towns with open arms.
Half-orcs: Orcs are a savage people, who, despite the dwarves' best attempts at exterminating them, continue to not only exist in the mountain reaches, but persist in raids against human villages for victims to sacrifice to their dark gods. Often, they save the human women for last, but this is a mixed blessing, as they are very roughly raped by a number of male orcs. Sometimes, a squad of dwarven soldiers arrives in time to rescue them, and when they do, it is often found that at least some of the women are pregnant with hybrid children. Sometimes the mothers take care of them, but often, they are simply thrown into the city streets to fend on their own.
Gnomes: Gnomes are a people both blessed and cursed with a more intuitive understanding of magic than most humans. It is a blessing, as more gnomes become adept with the magic arts, and a curse, as they are more likely to go insane as a result of this, and even the most well-balanced gnome is likely to be lumped in with all of the crazy ones by most people, just as they are respected for their abilities.
Half-elves: Basically, half-elves are the same as core half-elves.

Organizations: There are a number of organizations in Del'thenog. Of note are a number of knightly orders to whom membership is a requirement to advance in a particular prestige class. Of these, there are the Order of the White Stag (ranger PrC), Order of the Ebon Rose (paladin PrC), the Order of the Iron Keep (Dwarven Defender PrC), the Order of the Silver Arrow (Arcane Archer PrC), and the Order of the Knights Arcane (Eldritch Knight PrC), though possession of the PrC is not a requirement of belonging to a particular order (though many of the members do). Also, there are theives guilds who teach their members particular techniques, like the Whispersong Guild (arcane trickster), the Dark Blades (assassin PrC), and the Shadowfire Guild (shadowdancer PrC). The Bard's Guild trains its members in lore and performance, and all members of the Bard PrC must be members. All spellcasters in general must register with the Mage's Guild to operate legally, and which offers psychological treatment to it members for free (as mandated by law). In addition, there are circles of mages within this system who share the secrets of their own specialties: the Cr'ltag Circle (Archmage PrC), the Kitrang Circle (thaumaturgist PrC), the Vry'thok Circle (Loremaster PrC), in descending order of esteem.

[National Acrobat]

I would be very interested in this game, playing a halfling of some type, most likely a ftr/rogue.

[WarDragon]

Interesting... not a huge fan of subjective morality in D&D, but I'd give this a shot.  Looks like casters are pretty fair screwed, though, with those sanity rules.  Am I missingsomething, or do you take that loss every time you cast a spell, no questions asked?  O_o

And I would have expected the arcane to have the higher risk of insanity.  Are you saying that there are no non-evil deities in your setting?

EDIT: Almost forgot; how are ability scores generated?

[Natalie C. Barney]

Maybe I'll play too- an Expert/Warrior (sneaky bitch that can swing a mean sword). Depends on the stats but a 32 Point Pool POINT BUY METHOD would work for above-average but not TOO much so, heroic characters.

[nick012000]

Yes, we'll be using 32-point buy. I intended to say so in the original post, but I forgot, and realized I omitted it after I went to bed last night.

WarDragon: Yes, casters always take Sanity loss when they cast spells. But thanks to the variant rules, they can learn any kind of spells, and you can cast them as many times as you want (with a pause in between each spell). I gave divine spells a higher Sanity loss because if I didn't they'd be clearly superior, as you'd use the same ability for both your spells, and to reduce Sanity losses. Also, divine casters will tend to start out with a higher Wisdom, and thus a higher intitial Sanity.

As for the lack of non-evil gods... well, the closest thing would be the gods who have taken an interest in humanity as playthings, which would be the ones your characters would worship. However, they still have alien mindsets, and the increased sanity loss is because you're channelling the power of them. I'll point out that none of the gods are good or evil (though many are tainted, especially the ravening-world-eating types, and most of the "you are as but ants to them, and they'll squash you if you get in their way" types).

[Natalie C. Barney]

So its like the Greek Gods in the myths most had their favorite pets and cities but the gods have no problem sending monsters and killing them for fun, or to piss off another god. I was curious in the afterlife do the gods favorites get to go to Elysium if a god or goddess sponsors them? Just wondering.

[WarDragon]

Are they the only source of divine spells, then?  I was thinking of playing a nature-worshipper, maybe even whipping up a Prestige Druid based on the Paladin, Ranger, and Bard alternates you linked to (and submitting it for your approval, of course).

If that isn't viable, I'll probably go with a warrior/arcanist.

[nick012000]

Sure, you can play a druid-type who is in touch with the Spirits of the Land. You'll still suffer the increased sanity loss from being a divine caster, though, as said Spirits would be just as alien to contact as any god.

[WarDragon]

Excellent... 

Or I may go the Eldritch Knight route, after all.  Who knows?

[Natalie C. Barney]

I think I'll do the ever popular straight up WARRIOR. Not sure but I'll likely do the rippling muscle, heavily armored, big weapon wielding TANK. Who needs finesse or fancy tactics just walk up and whack the enemy with a bastard sword.

I was thinking a human I was going to do a half orc but they seem to have a hard time of it.

[WarDragon]

Something that just struck me; what exactly are the Elves fighing down there in Bloodroot forest, that takes such a heavy toll on them?

[nick012000]

Mostly hordes of Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds, and gibbering tentacled aberrations.

[Natalie C. Barney]

I've decided on a character and even have some notes: A decent and professional  , female, half-orc, warrior. She's not near a rocket scientist but will real good at ONE skills Profession (man-at-arms) so she can at least go to likely employers and be seen as a respectable professional soldier. Her Cha is even going to be 10! I figure she learned to keep her clothes clean, boots polished, bathe enough and is not UGLY just sort of average if you take her shapely figure and big rack into account would likely be a turn on below the neck. 

In other words a TANK. Heavy armor, big shield, big sword and rippling muscles with great skill at beating in heads.

[National Acrobat]

I'll be doing the halfling expert/warrior. Setting up to be a sniper as far as combat goes.

[Natalie C. Barney]

Or maybe a dumb as hell blond female human warrior. LOL

Kelly Bundy meets Xena. hahahahahahaha

*stands in front of door and tries to figure out how to use the doorknob then breaks it in- LOL*

[nick012000]

Okay, guys. Time to start posting your character sheets over here.