[DnD3.5 Gestalt] The End Of A World

[Szechuan]

Okay, my creative juices started flowing again and I'm currently putting together some ideas for what I think could be a pretty interesting game. I'm only going to jot down the basics right now, but I'll answer the questions of any interested parties.

Setting:

The characters have been pulled to their current plane and location via Epic-level magicks gone awry. The inhabitants of the two known continents of this world have been at war for as long as their recorded history, probably longer. At this point, things are bad for both sides. Every able-bodied individual has been called to the fronts, leaving nothing but the barest bones of civil and agricultural infrastructure required to maintain the supply lines. Basically, the only people of any real power not at the front are nobility who pulled strings for administrative duties, and their guard - some of which are damn powerful and may be working toward their own ends.

These continents are huge. With every able mage on each side aiding in counterspelling the other, news can take weeks, and often months to reach settlements on the far sides of these nations. Usually, the inhabitants deduct how the war is going from the adverse effects of such ridiculous amounts of magic being tossed around. I'll explain this in the next bit.

Magic - Magic is very rare, in the same way metal was rare during the world wars.. Anyone of a high enough level to maintain a dispell or contribute to a ritual is at the front. We're talking ridiculous amounts of magic here. We're talking 'detect magic' can get an aura from several thousand clicks away, due to all the residue left behind. Anywhere but on the war fronts, though, magic is essentially a myth. Even Temple duties have fallen to what amounts to choirboys.

Citizens do feel the effects of these magicks, usually in the form of anomalies that crop up at random. Sometimes, though, part of a spell gets through before it is countered, and this tends to have disastrous and sometimes strange consequences. The peasantry judges the tide of war by the frequency of these strange weather and magical happenings.

As far as local monsters are concerned, I don't want to give everything away.

Style:
I run my game with my characters in mind. Diplomacy and alternate methods of solving problems are heavily encouraged, but this is a war. Build your character accordingly. This is going to be very dirty and earthy, and the heroes are definitely going to be an exception to the average populace - not unique, but not average. This is a big world.

I /will/ be bending the traditional rules in order to come up with more interesting situations. Please don't bark at me because creature X has abilities that don't exist in print. This is a story and it's meant to be fun.

System:
Gestalt: Take the best of two classes and combine them as one. For example, a rogue/fighter gets fighter Fort saves and bonus feats, and rogue skills and reflex feats. Yes, this will become a high-power game, probably quickly.

Limitations:
/Any/ class, playable race (Pc or monster) or template goes, pending my approval, so long as you're willing to deal with having a +5 level adjustment or whatever. You guys have been sucked in from many different planes and walks of life. Please don't rape the system, just take a concept you've always thought was cool and go with it.

Given this diversity, I need you all to be some form of good or neutral, so that we can avoid killing one another. If your characters hate each other, fine. Just don't let them start a bloodbath. Again, I love good roleplaying.

Stats are rolled with 2d6, and you will have 30 points to distribute however you see fit. Max starting value of 18+racial and template bonuses. We will start at first level by default, but those with lower level adjustments will be boosted to compete with those higher. I will adjust the difficulty of the campaign based on how powerful you guys start off.

When: Any time except for Thursday evenings.

Where: Almost 100% likely to be on IRC.

You all know how to contact me if you're interested.

[Anguirel]

You all know how to contact me if you're interested.

Do you know how expensive hump-o-grams are?

[Szechuan]

You all know how to contact me if you're interested.

Do you know how expensive hump-o-grams are?

Thanks for making me think someone was interested. Ass. :cry

[TheScamp]

Fart. Failed to read the part where it said IRC.

[Bishop]

Actually sounds pretty interesting, but last time I played D&D was AD&D. I've never played 3, or 3.5, or any of the variances, for that matter.

[Szechuan]

Actually sounds pretty interesting, but last time I played D&D was AD&D. I've never played 3, or 3.5, or any of the variances, for that matter.

If you're interested in learning, I'll see what we can do. Gestalt isn't the same idea as regular DnD, but the changes are all character-based.

[Reika]

This actually sounds cool, count me in provided you don't mind anything weird.

[Szechuan]

This actually sounds cool, count me in provided you don't mind anything weird.

/Any/ class, playable race (Pc or monster) or template goes

Weird is not a problem.

[Reika]

Just making sure before hand.

[TheScamp]

Damn you people and your cool sounding IRC games!

[Anguirel]

Szech - I am interested. I just thought I'd make a joke at the same time.

I've been wanting to play a half-fae Bard for a while. Combining classes, though... Hrm, I'll have to think about that one. Bard Sorceror. Hmmm, nah, don't want to get dragged off kicking and screaming to the front... Bard Paladin.

Having been dragged in - should we avoid spell casters due to the fact that they'd be found and sent to the front, or are we exceptions or (since we were dragged in as an unintentional side-effects) simply exempt until someone finds us?

To keep the level adjustments of various "superior" races down, you might look at the Savage Progressions stuff that Ancient pulled up for his game.

[Anguirel]

Savage Progressions

Currently looking at Githzerai Monk-Something. Or Half-Dragon Githzerai*. Because I really need a +8 Str and +6 Dex to go with +4 Natural Armor and +4 Inertial Armor... Anyways... I've always wanted to play a Gith, and Githyanki, being Evil and all, probably not the best choice. I suppose I could do a rogue Githyanki, but I've never been into the whole Drizzt thing. I'll think about it more, but assuming I don't go that way, that leaves Githzerai, which are still fun (even if they don't have Dimension Door at will ).

Question - looking at the 3.5 SRD, did Monks lose the ability to attack more often unarmed / with Monk weapons? Old listing in D&D 3 had Monks with a separate Unarmed Attack Bonus which included an extra attack earlier and with a reduced differential between the primary and later attacks. I don't see that in the current listing (Flurry and Two-Handed are still there, of course, as options, but not the increased normal unarmed attack counts).

* How to break any "anything goes" system: add Half-Dragon.

[Szechuan]

Play a spellcaster if you'd like. Everything else seems fine. Afraid I don't know about the Monk Unarmed Attacks off hand, and I've got to jet shortly, but we'll figure that out later.

[Reika]

Ang - Get out of my head.

[Bishop]

What would I need to read to get up to speed? Picturing a fighter, quiet, almost dark. Actually, maybe even Half-Dragon. (half something, and struggling with it). If you're familiar with the Shanarra series, picture Garet Jax, the weapons master.

[Anguirel]

Play a spellcaster if you'd like. Everything else seems fine. Afraid I don't know about the Monk Unarmed Attacks off hand, and I've got to jet shortly, but we'll figure that out later.

I think it got absorbed into Flurry. Suck.

Bishop - If you just need rules, try The SRD. It has the rules without a lot of fluff around them. Basics are about the same - 6 ability scores that grant a bonus or penalty to specific actions depending on how far above or below normal they are. AC got inverted and THAC0 was eliminated. You now have BAB - Base Attack Bonus - and AC, which starts at 10 and goes up. If Roll + BAB + any other bonuses beats AC, you hit. Otherwise you miss. Simple. Saving throws are about the same, but have been condensed into 3 types - Fortitude, Willpower, Reflex.

The information for the various classes is fairly well laid out and shouldn't be too difficult to pick up off the SRD. Full character creation without a real PHB might be a pain, but it's not impossible. I'm sure someone could walk you through it in IRC.

For your particular concept within the Gestalt environment Szech is setting up, I'd say once you decide on a racial type, go with Fighter/Barbarian if you want to be raw beserker power, or Fighter/Rogue if you want to be more of an artist in your strikes - combined with some specific feats, you'd be able to strike single very damaging blows when needed, or spread your attacking out over multiple targets. Fighter/Monk would get you unarmed and unarmored power. Feats are where you can really customize your character, and that's where most of your real power will show up. Good selection of feats will let you do what you want to do, and Fighters get extra.

[Reika]

I've read the Shanara Series, and I remember the name, but can't place what the char could do. My suggestion for Jax would be the Shade template from the FR books, I can dig that out and type it up if you'd like. Basically the Shade template makes a humanoid be from the Shadow plane and be able to do all sorts of funky shadowy stuff.

[TheScamp]

I've read the Shanara Series, and I remember the name, but can't place what the char could do.

Beat the shit out of anything, basically. He's probably best done with a figher/monk hybrid, I'd say.

[Reika]

Fighter/barb sounds better, especially one aiming for the Weapons Master prestige class in one of the splatbooks.

And if Bishop didn't mind his char being fuzzy, could make him an anthro to be really scary.

[Bishop]

A huh?

[TheScamp]

I'm not sure that barb really fits. Garet had no berzerking qualities about him, and there was an element of unarmed asswhooping in there, if I recall correctly. And doesn't the Weapons Master prestige mean mastering one weapon, essentially?

[Bishop]

No, there was no beszerk. Just calculating and almost cold. Course, he was crazy and on a "quest" to find the thing that could kill him, but hey, who isn't?

[TheScamp]

He was also kind of quiet and sneaky if he needed to be, right?

[Bishop]

Yeah. Basically Brook's version of a ninja, for the most part. Always wore black, used a shortsword for the most part.

[Reika]

See, it's been that long since I read the book, my memory is very rusty.

As for what I meant by fuzzy, was using one of the anthromorphic animal templates.

But if you can hop on irc, we can discuss options better.

[Moonwolf]

What time GMT would this game be being run, if there are places still open?

[Szechuan]

What time GMT would this game be being run, if there are places still open?

We haven't decided on a "for sure" time yet. We're tentatively looking at something like 9pm-12GMT, I think. Not sure. I need to know Kai/Reika's schedules first.

[Reika]

As I said in IRC, right now the only night not good for me is Tuesdays.

[Moonwolf]

We are allowed to use classes from the Complete range of books that's recent, right?

[Szechuan]

We are allowed to use classes from the Complete range of books that's recent, right?

Yep. I'll have final call but right now everything's okay.

[Moonwolf]

Ang: Half-Celestial is much, much more broken than half-dragon. And half-fiend is about as grim. Also, the new monk flurry for extra attacks gives them better attacks than they had before, and means that it works with other classes rather than requiring you to have two different base attack values, one for unarmed and one for everything else.

[Anguirel]

Ang: Half-Celestial is much, much more broken than half-dragon.

Isn't it also an extra ECL or two? Most of the "Half-X" seem to be at least somewhat broken - Half-Fae gets you Charm Person at will.

Also, the new monk flurry for extra attacks gives them better attacks than they had before, and means that it works with other classes rather than requiring you to have two different base attack values, one for unarmed and one for everything else.

Yeah - but you used to be able to Flurry with your Unarmed rate, which meant more total attacks at some levels. Just sorry to see it gone, I guess, it was an interesting side thing for the class and a reason to keep going Monk instead of dualing off. I won't miss it particularly this game, though - I'm setting up for finessed single strong hits instead of multiple weaker strikes (though the multiple strikes could also be powerful in the right circumstances).

[Reika]

And I think we need to make up our minds about which board to consolidate the discussions, don't know about anyone else but I find flipping between here and animalball is annoying.

So far the only people that have bothered to show up and talk about the game on irc have been Kai and myself for the most part and Moonwolf tonight. Sal, Ang and Bishop are you guys actually going to do anything with this game?

So far the only confirmed chars we have are:

Kai - Werepanther paladin-druid
Moonwolf - Tiefling ranger/spellthief
Reika - half-dragon fighter-sorcerer

Per Szech we're at ECL 4 with according starting gold as given by the DMG.

If we're going to do this game, I would really appreciate if my fellow players could have the courtesy of showing up for at least one rough charrgen planning session before the game starts so we can avoid major overlaps and aim for chars that will at least tolerate one another.

[Anguirel]

And I think we need to make up our minds about which board to consolidate the discussions, don't know about anyone else but I find flipping between here and animalball is annoying.

What discussion on Animalball?

So far the only people that have bothered to show up and talk about the game on irc have been Kai and myself for the most part and Moonwolf tonight.

What IRC showing up to talk?

Like, I totally didn't know about any of this. Makes it very difficult to be part of it when it's never mentioned in the only topic I know about.

[Szechuan]

And I think we need to make up our minds about which board to consolidate the discussions, don't know about anyone else but I find flipping between here and animalball is annoying.

What discussion on Animalball?

So far the only people that have bothered to show up and talk about the game on irc have been Kai and myself for the most part and Moonwolf tonight.

What IRC showing up to talk?

Like, I totally didn't know about any of this. Makes it very difficult to be part of it when it's never mentioned in the only topic I know about.

Sorry. I was sure I'd mentioned here that we were going to discuss it on Animalball, since that was where people first started replying. From now on, we will discuss it here, since Bulldrek is likely more familiar to all of us.

We're planning on getting people together, or at least accessible, on IRC so we can plan the characters for the reasons Reika outlined above.

[Anguirel]

Githzerai Monk/Rogue at ECL 4 (+2ECL, 2 levels) is almost ready, some changes may be made pending IRC discussions. Heavy on the social skills right now, light on the rogue mainstays, but that can change quickly given some practice and need.

[Reika]

I mentioned the meeting on animalball which as Szech said he wanted it on Animalball only, but since people were still posting here, I made a request for everything to be consolidated at one of them.

[Moonwolf]

I'll cover the rogue staples more then, easy enough to do.