[OOC] The Teary Eyed Maiden

[Timeless Prophet]

This is the place for all general out of character antics and chatter. Check out the character thread for information about character sheets.

Enjoy and welcome to the game.

I have included some general posting and PbP advice. I borrowed this from a friend of mine who I respect very much, and who has had a great deal of success online.

Posting by Pojo How to Post in DnDOG: -Respond to everything. Even if your character has nothing especially interesting to say on the matter, body language, verbal cues, and new actions all insert you into the conversation and allow for new inroads for players to interact with you. If your character is bored with the scenario, he should say so! This is the biggest checkback against player attrition. Consider it this way - a person who speaks up early in a classroom or meeting has a far greater chance of beneficially contributing to the discussion than one who lurks in the sidelines until he has something interesting to say. It gets the synapses firing and sets a standard for more interaction later, and forces people - including the DM - to recognize your presence so that they are more likely to direct attention towards you. A player who lurks in the background can expect to be bored, especially in a high RP setting. -Talk to each other. The best stories are driven by good characters and dialog, not by the DM's prescribed plot (and that will usually try to rely on good characters and dialog as well). Your interactions generate the best development in the story. If you want players to work with you and not against you, and if you want to play the game with everyone instead of just with me, keeping conversation going is the best way to get things done. Even if your characters detest each other, that conflict can be both interesting and fun to roleplay out. Again, this helps check back player attrition - if you're interacting with each other you are playing the game, and there will always be something interesting to say. -Don't be afraid to change. Good characters grow, they learn from their experiences. Sometimes they are scarred by them. Remember that the goal isn't always to get to the end of the dungeon. The best DnDOG experience I've ever had was with a True Neutral Boccobite theurge who had to reconcile with a failed will save that caused her to murder an innocent civilian. She'd never killed a soul before, and the revelation caused her to drift horribly close to an alignment change, and not for the better. Finding out new things about your characters is one of the great joys of writing and roleplaying. Combat Of all parts of DnDOG roleplaying, combat is the hardest to get right. Combat is the most rules-based part of the game, and in a slow to move environment like DnDOG, it can take months if done improperly. Here's some basic tips: -Ignore initiative order. It is the DM's job to sort out what happens in combat once all actions for the round have been posted, and he will adapt your actions if the guy ahead of you kills that goblin you were attacking. You'll never get anything done if you're waiting for the guy ahead of you. -Post contingencies. If you think that the guy in front of you is going to kill that goblin before your turn rolls around, let the DM know what the next thing you want to whack at is. If you aren't sure if you need to cast defensively, make the roll and let me know that it's only if you need to. Readied actions and spells are also great ways to control the field of battle, and I will accept "I will perform this action when X does X or at the end of the combat round" as an action due to the nature of online combat. -Speed over quality. One or two sentence posts are fine if that's all you have time for, but waiting three days for a six-second round is excruciating. As DM my cutoff before moving the round forward is shorter in combat than in roleplay - two to three days, at most. Post early, post often, and combat has far more potential to be fun. -Don't be afraid to roleplay. Talking is a free action. Shout orders, suggest plans of attack, make snarky comments or bad puns, cry for help, scream obscenities. Neglect to coup de gras the disarmed bandit out of mercy. Go berserk when your comrade falls. Flee in terror when the battle goes south, if that's what its in your nature to do. Remember that it's not about the dice. Games list, they lose energy, and on occasion real life concerns or other disappearances can put a grinding halt on an otherwise healthy storyline. The best way to stop player attrition and have a good time is to constantly interact with everyone. This way when one player drops off the face of the earth, others can pick up the slack. When the DM has semester tests and cant post for a week, the players can keep things rolling by conversing amongst themselves and developing their own characters. All systems stagnate and die when change and interactions cease to exist. The more you put into the game, the more you can expect to get out of it. --- Standard DnDOG conventions: Spoken text in bold, thoughts in italics. Please put quotations around spoken text as well. You can pretty up your posts any way that you please. [I would add that I am personally am not a fan of different colored texts either. The standard black is my friend.]

[Aosaw]

Yay, OOC thread!

TP, the spell Heilan "researched" for his masquerade costume resulted in a Scroll with an effect that mimics Alter Self, but with one important exception:

It lasts until Midnight of the current day, and only changes the appearance of the caster's clothes. The spell differs from Disguise Spell in that the change is actual, not merely illusory. If he decides to give himself fish-scales, his shirt will have all of the tangible qualities of fish-scales, as if he had killed a very large tuna and fashioned its skin into a shirt.

Thus, Heilan can create any costume he likes, even giving himself vestigial "wings" if that's what he decided on, but no matter what the costume is, it will disappear at midnight, leaving him in his normal street clothes.

He would have researched a more powerful version of the spell that would have lasted all night long, but he ran out of time, and (unbeknownst to him) it would have been far more powerful than he could currently cast.

I'm pricing it as a level 2, Power 1 scroll for now, which yields a total market cost of 100gp (I need to double-check the pricing formula, but I think it's level squared plus power squared multiplied by ten for creation costs, and then doubled for market price).

Does that sound acceptable? If so, I'll add the scroll to his inventory for future use; its usefulness is fairly limited, being mostly applicable for situations like a masquerade ball , but it could potentially have other utilities.

I could also add the Power 2 version of the spell, which would exactly mimic the effects of the Alter Self spell but with the same duration as above, which would cost 160gp, and Heilan wouldn't be able to use it safely until level 4. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on that.

[Timeless Prophet]

I think that sounds fine as long as we are talking appearance only. I think if we decide to return to this power later and you want it to change function then we'll probably want to bump it up a little bit (at least in terms of power level...maybe not spell level). That is if I understand the spirit of the system correctly. This might come down to two parts brilliant explanation on your part and one part creative interpretation on mine.

As a side note, I have read the system a couple of times now and what I would really like (if this were a system I was looking at implementing wide scale) would be a table of generic effects per school of magic per spell level. I think that would help me get a feel for what is supposed to be a certain trade off where. Not that I don't mind certain spells being fleshed out, but I think in a system where you want a little more free form magic including a table like I am talking about would help players and DMs adapt spells effects on the fly. Just a thought.

[Timeless Prophet]

Side note two: I don't think that any of you need to be super concerned about changing too much about your characters. My criticism was just based on what I was thinking while reading the apps. You'll get plenty of opportunity to interact and shine up totally different character hooks(in addition to those shiny ones you provided) and stuff related to the setting with your characters as we play. I think we'll have plenty to work with from your end and my end.

Moral of that story: Up to you if you want to fix up your apps like I mentioned, but by no means required. My hope is that you will return to those descriptions later and shine them up with details of the campaign(I typically offer bribes and such at various points to do that).

[Aosaw]

A table of iconic effects by spell level wouldn't be a bad idea. I'll see if I can come up with something, and add it to the PDF. I'll let you know when that's done.

The scroll formula, by the way, is this: Base MP cost squared x 5gp = cost to create.

So for Disguise Self (power level 1), which is a 3 MP spell, the cost for the scroll would be 3x3x5 = 45gp. Double that for a market price of 90gp.

Extended for the rest of the PL ratings:
PL2: 4 MP = 160gp
PL3: 5 MP = 250gp
PL4: 6 MP = 360gp
PL5: 7 MP = 490gp
PL6: 8 MP = 640gp
PL7: 9 MP = 810gp
PL8: 10 MP = 1,000gp
PL9: 11 MP = 1,210gp

So the market price is basically MP squared x 10. That means, also, that a PL 9 Magic Missile scroll would cost a flat 1,000gp. Meaning that you could potentially buy it at an early level, but you wouldn't be able to cast it safely until you actually reached level 16.

And a PL9 Wish scroll would cost 18 x 18 x 10 = 3,240gp. And if you tried to cast it before level 32, you'd not only destroy the scroll, but you'd also take 324 points of damage from trying to tap magicks beyond your ken.

[Aosaw]

Don't tell me the alchemist and the mage have more hit points than the rogue...?

That's hilarious.

[GrazztTheDark]

More than the Bard as well (only 16, with my Favoured Class bonuses still unassigned).

And it's not much of a surprise: we all have the same hit die and you have good enough rolls to be able to pump your Constitution.

[Dragonsnack]

Ouch...

[GrazztTheDark]

Originally Posted by Dragonsnack

Ouch...

If it worries you, just focus on range or not getting hit (Offensive Defense is good for that). I know my character is going to stay out of melee.

Quick question, are we playing with traits?

[Silverbreeze]

I don't have the stats to be anywhere near melee sadly, especially with my awesome 7 Strength. Protect me, I'm delicate :3

[Timeless Prophet]

Originally Posted by GrazztTheDark

Quick question, are we playing with traits?

I think I originally said no in the application thread, but I have been reconsidering that. Let's go ahead and take traits. Go ahead and just run which ones you would like by me first. I'll probably be fine with anything, but I always like to know what I am getting into.

[Tyger]

I took the toughness feat... and all my favored class bonuses went into HP. So that was an additional +6 to my Hp pool, not to mention I didn't have crappy rolls for hp, nor did I skimp in a 14 Con. I made sure I wouldn't die.

As for traits. I can never seem to find good ones... so I think I choose... reactionary or something like that. +2 to Initiative. And I am pretty sure I took a trait that adds a +1 reflex save. Nothing overtly OP.

[GrazztTheDark]

Originally Posted by Timeless Prophet

I think I originally said no in the application thread, but I have been reconsidering that. Let's go ahead and take traits. Go ahead and just run which ones you would like by me first. I'll probably be fine with anything, but I always like to know what I am getting into.

Oh, I did a Ctrl+F on "traits" on the first page of the application thread. Your original opposition must have been on a different page. Sorry about that.

[Timeless Prophet]

Originally Posted by Tyger

As for traits. I can never seem to find good ones... so I think I choose... reactionary or something like that. +2 to Initiative. And I am pretty sure I took a trait that adds a +1 reflex save. Nothing overtly OP.

Deft Dodger and Reactionary are perfectly fine.

It was Grazz. An another applicant asked and I said no, but I think I'll try them this time around.

[Aosaw]

TP, I'm implementing the following change to the mana system; if you could take a look and let me know if it makes things too powerful, let me know:

From House Rules Elemental Spells Certain spells deal energy damage, such as fire, cold, sonic, acid, or electricity. When you add one of these spells to your list of spells known, you must choose the energy type you wish to learn. Once this decision has been made, it cannot be changed; you can learn the spell again with a different energy type, using another one of your spells known to do so. When scribing these spells into your spellbook, you do not need to scribe the spell once per energy type. You simply scribe the spell into your spellbook, and it encompasses all energy types. When you cast such a spell from your spellbook, then, you must choose which energy type to cast. You can also, at your option, choose to cast the spell with the Force descriptor. Casting a spell with the Force energy type has no secondary effect, but otherwise functions exactly like the normal version of the spell. For purposes of energy resistance and damage reduction, treat all Force damage as Bludgeoning damage. Note that in this system, energy damage does not necessarily bypass a creature's damage reduction unless specifically mentioned in the creature's Damage Reduction ability. You can also take Energy Focus to enhance the effects of a particular energy type, as described below: New Feat: Energy Focus [Arcane] Prerequisites: Spellcraft 5 ranks, must have at least two spells of the specified energy type as Spells Known. Benefit: Choose one energy type, such as Fire. When you cast spells with the chosen energy type, the spell's secondary effect occurs even if the target's saving throw is successful. You can also select Force as the focus of this feat. If you do so, all of your Force effects deal an additional 1 point of damage. Special: You can take this feat more than once. Each time you take this feat, it applies to a different energy type.

If that will work, I'll be teaching Heilan an elemental Magic Missile of some kind (probably fire, since that tends to be the iconic energy type and best suited for playtesting), which would mean that it has a secondary effect of: "If the target fails his saving throw against any of the missiles, he is set on fire and takes 1d6 points of fire damage per round for the next 1d6 rounds."

The secondary effect would follow the exact same conventions as Elemental Blast, except that the secondary effects would start at PL 1 instead of PL 4. That change would also affect the Elemental Blast spell, making it slightly more powerful. The Energy Focus feat also makes pyromancers rather a bit more powerful, particularly at higher levels, but I don't see a real issue of balance there. I could be wrong, of course.

EDIT: Traits!

Well, Armor Expert would be a great one for a mage, but Heilan doesn't wear armor (making him the very first unarmored mage I've created; should be interesting). So let's see...

Well, Theoretical Magician is an obvious choice, considering Heilan's penchant for studying magic he knows nothing about. That gives a +2 bonus to Spellcraft.

I'm also considering Dangerously Curious, which would give Heilan a +1 bonus to UMD and make it a class skill for him. UMD is actually rather useful for mages, since it lets them (potentially) cast spells from scrolls that they couldn't normally cast, without taking the MP cost squared in damage. I'm not sure if this application would make a mage too powerful, so it would be a good opportunity to test it out.

Otherwise, I'm thinking either Havoc of the Society (+1 force damage to all damaging spells), or Quick Learner (small reduction of nonproficiency penalty after the first attack made).

I might also go with Charming, which gives a +1 bonus to Bluff and Diplomacy when interacting with someone of an appropriate sexual orientation. Any thoughts on whether any of these choices would be too potent, or perhaps one that would be better than others?