[PF-1e] Eberron: The Forgotten Forge

[TheKhan]

Gottcha. I'd just go with straight UMD checks for the artificer for a number of reasons.
A) Infusions don't count as the actual spells in the first place.
B) There's one check for each spell, so anything complex is already tougher to create.
C) Excess checks bog things down.
D) Creating stuff easily is the artificer's shtick anyhow.

[Gavinfoxx]

So... can the UMD checks do everything the Spellcraft checks can do (like substituting feats) and more? That's what I'm trying to figure out. If you look at the pathfinder
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items#...-Item-Creation
vs. how UMD is used by artificers in Eberron Campaign Setting... each seems to have some capabilities that the other doesn't...

[GrimDarkOtter]

Posting interest. I have a character idea in mind, but I can't type it out at the moment.

[TheKhan]

Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx

So... can the UMD checks do everything the Spellcraft checks can do (like substituting feats) and more? That's what I'm trying to figure out. If you look at the pathfinder
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items#...-Item-Creation
vs. how UMD is used by artificers in Eberron Campaign Setting... each seems to have some capabilities that the other doesn't...

Yes. There's no penalty for sustituing in a spell since that's what the artificer does. If you want to emulate a metamagicked spell, you take the +5 DC increase as normal if you don't have that meta magic feat, no penalty if you do.

[aivanther]

Oooh, me, though I don't have my Eberron books anymore, I did at one point make a 3.5 warforged fighter that never made it off the ground...

Character name: Breaker
Race: Warforged
Class: Fighter
Alignment: Neutral

Biography

 

I came into being for the forces of Thrane during the war. I was assigned to a unit where they referred me as “Breaker,” which is what I am called today. We were a small but strong unit, fighting in numerous small skirmishes and outright battles. I was coupled with another, older Warforged, nicknamed by our troops as “Basher.”

At the end of it all while we were stationed on the edges of the Mournland we received news from a messenger of the treaty ending it all and setting us free. That night we of the forge stood guard while the humans celebrated.
“Long have a I fought, my plating is pitted, my hammer damaged and repaired more than I can count,” Breaker said to me. “And now it is over, and we are free.”

I looked upon the old warforged, looking at his pitted and dent armor, and scarred surface. How old he was I never knew, but he had seen more than I, and I had seen numerous battles in my time. “You think the paladin will really let us free?” I said, a feeling, something I had been having more and more of lately, rising up. I now realize it was excitement.

“We can hope, and that’s what they said the treaty said,” Basher said. He turned towards me, “It has been a pleasure to serve with you. Having another of my kind...” He drifted off and turned. I turned as well and saw the paladin, the commander of our unit approaching with 5 men.

“So,” he said, looking at us as if he were considering a pair of wild dogs, “You have heard, yes?”

I answered, “The war is over, we are free.” But I dared not really believe it.

“Yes, the war is over…” he said, pausing for a second, he then continued, “But constructs cannot be free, you cannot free a wagon, or a sword. You remain the property of the armies of Thrane. We will need labor to repair all the damage...”

“The messenger…the TREATY!” Basher growled, as he drew his warhammer. I drew my old, worn greatsword, preparing for the inevitable.

“Those dogs of Breland may think because you can talk you are as good as the rest of us, but you are not true beings, you are crafted things! You were made to serve, and I give you the option to do so now!” commanded the paladin as he drew his own greatsword and his troops drew their weapons.

“NEVER!” we roared in unision, and battle commenced. I fought hard there, back to back with Basher, and we proved our mettle more than they estimated, dispatching almost all the soldiers. At last though, Basher fell, his head cut through by our hated commander. I slew the last of his soldiers, a man I’d fought beside more than once, and turned to face the commander. I was pretty badly banged up, while he simply healed himself.

“Submit, construct!” he declared. I simply growled and struck. We traded blows until my own blade, long in need of repairs, cracked and fell apart. “SUBMIT!” He again demanded.

I simply gave him the gesture that many a man from my unit had taught me. He raised him blade on high to kill me when he suddenly gasped and stumbled. I knew not what was happening, but I snatched up Basher’s warhammer and leapt at him, caving in his skull.

As he fell I saw the fletching of an arrow protruding from his back. At that moment a figure appeared from the shadows. Our scout, simply called Shadow, a mercenary changeling who was hired by our commander stood before me. “Arrogant bastard,” he said, pulling his arrow out and inspecting it. “Got what he deserved.

“Thank you,” I said simply.

“Least I could do. Listen, this self-righteous prig isn’t the only of his kind. Everyone of those high-browed religious zealots is probably going to think the same thing. You’ve got to go.”

I paused, looking at the changeling. “Is that an offer of help, where we going?” I asked.

“We? No we’s here, we leave each other here and now, and never again. I’m glad to help, but there’s no way we can disappear together,” said Shadow, as he looked down at the reveling troops. “Listen, Breland will treat you fine, you can make it there through the Mournland, we’re far enough out where you won’t meet any more Thranian troops. You go direct-like and you’ll hit about a million troops wondering why you aren’t with your unit.”

“Fine…thanks…” I said, cold and hate growing in my chest as I looked down at the troops. “Good luck to you, Shad…” but he was already gone, a flitting of darkness.

I looked at the slaughter, and began to sift through the bodies. I kept Basher’s hammer, a memento of him, or of the death of the hated paladin, either would suffice. I also took my despised commander’s greatsword. It was of higher quality than my previous one, being in one piece, and he was through with it. I also took any coin they had on them, figuring I would need it wherever I ended up.

From there I wandered, heading southeast into the Mournland, wandering through that desolate territory for a while. I encountered little, which was probably fortunate. I eventually turned west, and headed towards Breland. I managed to enter their lands without undue attention, and have wandered from town to town since. I maybe free by their laws, but the looks they give me, the way they act, in their eyes, I am not free.

Character Description

 

Breaker is reluctant to trust most all people, and it doesn’t mind that it shows. The only exceptions are its own kind. It looks on most paladins with distrusting contempt, again due to previous experiences. It is bordering upon aimless, almost desperate for some form of direction as it does not know what to do with its new found freedom. It takes on the name it was called because of the insistence on names. It also despises a need to classify it by gender, even though many of its kind are identified as male or female.

In case there's any confusion: He spent the last war as a grunt with a unit of Thrane's army.

Questions:

- Three goals your character has
To figure out a place to belong
To find a goal
To protect his kind from becoming slaves again

- Two types of monsters you would like to see as allies
Undying?
Always thought it would be amusing to have goblin allies
- Two types of monsters you would like to see as enemies
Always been interested in the Quori
Never had a campaign with the Eberron Drow
- One organization/group/nation you would like to have friendly relations with
House Cannith might be fun
- One organization/group/nation you would like to have decidedly unfriendly relations with
Thrane, read the bio.
- One secret of the setting you would like to explore
The Lord of Blades

[TheKhan]

No problems, I understood.

Just a heads up, I've worked out a way of doing maps on google docs, so I thought I'd give you all a look

Map Link

[Melagant]

Can i get some feedback (Like/dislike, things you would like me to add/take out/change) about my app. Thanks for your time.

[TheKhan]

It's decent. Definitely a solid concept, there are a few questions that come to mind for me.

- What did Barrett do during the Last War? I'd imagine that anyone training to be a knight of Dol Dorn would have seen a considerable amount of battle and would have not remain cloistered.
- How does Barrett relate with more traditional (read: chaotic) followers of the Lord of Battle?
- What does Barrett think of his family?

[sammichweasel]

Name: Nal'Tiith the Unlucky

Race: Talenta Halfling

Class:Beast Bound Witch, Compsognathus Familiar, Vengeance Patron

Personality:The diminutive-by-halfling-standards Nal'Tiith takes most situations with a grain of salt and a sly smile, finding the humor in all things. He almost never reacts with any true emotion, keeping the anger of his Patron in check to better investigate the means to accomplish his goals. He's a bit stand-off-ish, but has no objection to spending time with others. He still holds some of his tribal sentiments, and does get hit with wanderlust easily. His familiar, a bird-like compsognathus named Littletooth, likes to perch on his shoulder and confuse friend and foe alike.


Background: Nal'Tiith grew up listening to his parents secretly discussing the teachings of the Holy Uldra. They whispered behind the tribal council's back, and taught Nal the overwhelming importance of their ancient traditions; traditions that had kept the halflings safe and secure for longer than recorded history.
Of course, Nal was a bit smarter than they gave him credit for, and he was able to differentiate the good and the bad of both systems of culture. He instead chose something other than both of them, finding that the ways of the Wild were far more appealing than being stuck permanently traveling with his bigotted family or hunkering down and attempting to establish a unified halfling nation. He remained a part of his tribe, but spent more and more time traveling by himself.
On one of these walkabouts, Nal'Tiith stumbled across the cursed land of the Boneyard. He wandered between the ancient carcasses of the long-dead dragons, marveling at the sheer power they held even this far removed from life. It was there, amidst the fractured past of the world, that Nal'Tiith found his true calling.
A voice, not talking, instead growling and hissing, wended its way through the bleached white of the ancient winged reptiles. It spoke, not in words, but in sensation, of the shrinking of free lands. Invasion, oppression, taint - he could feel all of this in the presence of this voice. When it finished, he knew he would never be the same, for he had been found here, in this place of cursed death, by Stormtooth, the legendary thunder lizard that stalks the dreams of the Talenta Plains themselves. Nal would become his hands, and strike out to push back the encroaching powers by halting the "progress" of their movement away from the Wild.
Nal'Tiith returned, and his people knew where he had been. No one could say it out loud, nor even think it, but they knew, and Nal obliged the sideways looks, leaving to never return. He remains the Unlucky, although it is all externalized, those around him faltering where before confidence had carried them. When he uses his powers, his eyes flash with the seething and unbridled will of Stormtooth, a glimpse of a time before the dragons and after the last human, a time outside of time. It's quite disturbing, really.

The Last War:Nal'Tiith had left his tribe by the time the War began to encroach on their traditional migration patterns, so he didn't realize it was as close as it was until it was almost too late. He tried to return to his tribe, but they had left the pattern to join up with the newly unified halfling "state", and he couldn't track them down before his path was cut off by a regiment of Cyre. Deciding that Stormtooth was telling him this was not his way, he turned north and headed for Karrnath.




Three goals your character has
*Find and converse directly with Stormtooth. I know patrons are supposed te be mysterious and otherworldly, but I think it would be a fun scene.
*Establish contact with the Eldeen Rangers. See below for full details on that.
*Bring down House Cannith. Again, further detail below.

Two types of monsters you would like to see as allies
*Dinosaurs! Specifically, I'd love to explore his natural connection through his familiar.
*Kobolds. I... have a problem. Love the little dog-lizard-things.

Two types of monsters you would like to see as enemies
*I'm a sucker for the Far Realm, so helping the Eldeen push back any of their abberrant denizens would be fun.
*Quari. I love the difficulty in pinning down the enemy.

One organization/group/nation you would like to have friendly relations with
Eldeen Rangers. While he's not particularly concerned with securing the world from the denizens of the Far Realm, he feels that both groups are interested in preserving the natural order of the world, and thinks they could help eachother.

One organization/group/nation you would like to have decidedly unfriendly relations with
Per background, he is clearly at odds with House Cannith. He ultimately wishes to see the end of the Rails, Warforged, and everything else that is perverting the natural world, and sees Cannith as the epitome of all of that.

One secret of the setting you would like to explore
Where the Warforged truly gained their sentience. While he finds the fact that they were created abhorent, he does not hold it against them personally, and is actually quite curious how they appear to have been granted souls.

[Inukotsu18]

Very interesting combination you got here, placeholder for now and quite delighted to see my favorite Campaign setting be put to play.

[aivanther]

I got to peruse a friend's Eberron books to refresh me and I got to say, I would love RPing Breaker with Redemption, that'll be all sorts of moral quandary for Breaker.

[TheKhan]

At this rate, I'd guess that will be highly probable Avianther. I agree though, that would be a very interesting character interaction to see play out. It would also be interesting to see how Nal'tiith deals with the two 'forged.

[TheKhan]

FYI, as the game has been approved if I don't see any new characters by Wednesday, I'm going to go ahead with the people who have already applied. If you want in, I suggest you hurry!

[Ange]

A deadline certainly kicked me into action! I decided to take things in a slightly different way, seeing as how the current group needs a skilled character of some sort, and I just started playing a druid in a different game. This is brief as I'm kind of busy (should be studying!), but it gets the gist across.

Name: Savrin Caldemore
Race: Wildhunt Shifter
Class: Ranger
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Gender: Male

Appearance: A hulking brute of a man, Savrin has hair the colour of autumn leaves—and he's quite hairy (or furry) all over, with shaggy sideburns and long arm hair. He tends to prowl rather than walk, and his ugly mug (covered in a number of scars, with a crooked nose and mysterious burn wounds) with glowing amber eyes tends to scare off people before he has a chance to get a word in. His fingernails are generally overgrown and sharp, and his teeth almost all end in jagged points. Savrin wears a thick leather vest that leaves his arms bare, and he eschews footwear whenever possible. Around his neck hangs a tiny blue dragonshard affixed to a leather chain, claimed from an enemy soldier in the Last War. His pointed ears are both pierced twice through the lobe with tiny silver bands.

Personality: Though rather intimidating at first glance, Savrin is surprisingly gentle, although he loses himself when battle becomes an inevitability. He enjoys small things (especially halflings and children), cute things (see previous), and things that smell nice; he has an especially strong sense of smell, and the reek of cities and other filthy places tends to make him irate and grumpy. He has a sharp eye and dextrous hands, traits that caught the eye of his former military commander and got him tossed into an archery squad. His time served in the army makes him rather obedient to orders granted by authority, but Savrin obeys only those who he feels deserve his respect. Savrin's time in the army taught him that most people are fundamentally good at heart, and that very little in this world is more important than camaraderie. He'll do anything to protect those he trusts, no matter the cost to himself; that explains the numerous scars he's picked up all over his body. His time in Cyre also impressed upon him an appreciation of art and beauty, although the Day of Mourning has given him an instinctive distrust and fear of magic.

Background: Savrin was born to a family of nomadic shifters; they travelled all the way from the plains of Talenta to the depths of the Eldeen Reaches, never satisfied to stay in one place for more than a few days. What Savrin only discovered later is that they were not simply struck by eternal wanderlust, or of some desire to escape the worst of the Last War... they were on the run. His family hid a weretiger refugee from the time of the Silver Flame purges, and the entire group were terrified to see what would happen if the secret about his great-grandfather ever got out. Savrin was never able to understand why such devastation of his ancestors occurred; he loathes the Silver Flame as a result. Ultimately, though, his childhood was a warm and happy one.

The family were travelling through Cyre when everything went pear-shaped. An ambush attack was launched when they happened to be in the area, and the family suddenly found themselves amidst the chaos and crossfire of a full-scale battle. Savrin got lost from his family, stumbling into a Cyran soldier's trench in his attempts to flee. The young shifter's sobbing and weeping saved him from being killed on sight, but nonetheless, all subsequent attempts after the battle to locate his family were fruitless. The military commander, a man named Larren, decided out of the kindness of his heart to take the shifter in, at least temporarily. Savrin made himself useful helping out about the battlefield, using his keen sense of smell to scout and locate enemies. In time, he was taught the tricks of archery, and was officially welcomed into the ranks of the Cyran army. Savrin was with the Cyran army for almost a decade; he saw horrors that no young boy should ever see, and grew up quickly, but he also experienced the mateship that comes from serving in the trenches together, and came to love his new adopted family.

The Day of Mourning brought all that to a screeching halt. How Savrin survived the blast of arcane magic, he has no idea, and wishes to never loom upon the events of that day to find out. One moment, he and his squadron were out scouting; the next, there was a wave of heat, and light, and destruction, and pain everywhere. The land around him withered and died; some of his compatriots were destroyed in an instant, while the rest screamed and wailed and fled. Savrin, too, ran for his life, running until he could handle it no more, and then running some more. After god knows how long, he stumbled upon a Brelish outpost; he was not the only Cyran refugee there, either. He remained there for some time, his trauma sending him mute for half a year; eventually, he was moved to the developing refugee camp at New Cyre, and the events of the world unfolded around him.

For the four years since Cyre's destruction, Savrin has occasionally aimlessly wandered, occasionally served as mercenary or muscle, and occasionally simply drowned himself in taverns and pubs around Breland. Recently, though, Savrin has decided that he can't simply ignore reality anymore. He has decided to take action, and make his own goals and motives in life. For the first time, Savrin had to take charge of his world.

Three goals your character has
1. Learn the whereabouts of his family, if they ever survived for all these years.
2. Investigate the Day of Mourning, why it occurred, and how to make sure it never happens again.
3. Re-establish Cyre as a true nation.

Two types of monsters you would like to see as allies
1. Lycanthropes, because, well, duh.
2. Dragons, because I really like the Chamber and the Draconic Prophecy.

Two types of monsters you would like to see as enemies
1. Rakshasa and other fiends, because they are so evil and sneaky and cool.
2. Quori, see 'evil and sneaky and cool' above.

One organization/group/nation you would like to have friendly relations with
1. Cyran refugees and Prince Oargev. I like the idea of solving the mystery of the Mournlands.

One organization/group/nation you would like to have unfriendly relations with
1. The Silver Flame. Bloody uptight jerks.

One secret of the setting you would like to explore
1. What happened on the Day of Mourning, exactly?

 

Books Used: Pathfinder RPG—Core Rulebook (CRB), Advanced Player's Guide (APG), possibly Ultimate Magic (UM)/Ultimate Combat (UC); D&D 3.5e—Eberron Campaign Setting (ECS), Races of Eberron (RoE), possibly other Eberron books

• I'm unlikely to use very much outside of the Eberron books and Pathfinder books, purely because I strongly dislike a lot of 3.5e splat. That, and I don't think PF needs it.
• Archetypes: Shapeshifter and Skirmisher (both from APG). Would you consider letting me taking Shifter feats as part of the natural weapon style (or replacing some of the choices even)?
• I'll also be taking the Shifter Ranger substitution levels in RoE pp. 128-129.
• Though I'll have the Natural Attacks combat style, I'm planning to focus on archery; the shapeshifting will just allow me to wade into melee if I need to.
• My "flavour" for Savrin is a tiger; would you consider letting me take a big cat animal companion at 4th level? Otherwise I'll take the small cat and just flavour it as a smaller tiger.
• As he goes up in levels, he's going to become more and more like a weretiger in appearance. I'll be taking Form of the Bear and Form of the Cat shifter's blessings in the Shapeshifter archetype to represent both the strength and the nimbleness of a tiger.
• I may take the Weretouched Master PrC from ECS pp. 85-87, but I think the Shapeshifter archetype does a good enough job at mimicking the same effects.

[TheKhan]

I figured it might, plus I think it's a waste for the thread to be all set and then wait four or five days if everyone's going to get in anyhow.
Anyhow, looks like another good character, with yet more interesting interactions.
- Yes to shifter feats as part of the natural attack combat style, but they have to add or enhance a natural weapon to count (so no beasthide, wildhunt, swiftwing feats etc)
-I'd be okay with a big cat companion
- I'd agree that the shifter archetype does a pretty good job of emulating a weretouched master, I'd stick with that