So I made a decision that I find myself very satisfied with.

I'm taking the Windlord Theme. It mentions some elemental air Eladrin in it and that just caused everything to "click."

So the story is he is from a special rare lineage of Eladrin that are a cross between Fey and Air due to the actions of an Archfey progenitor long ago. The whole thing about there being two factions who are stewards over the Sealed Vessel is still true, and he came to our world to the city trying to track it down. He has a high perception bonus due to racials, theme, and training so is good at finding clues and being a sleuth, and with his prodigious intelligence puts the clues together and has followed a trail to the city but the trail went dry again.

Unknown to most, his rare lineage of Eladrin has attained high mastery of the fey arts ages ago and began to commune with the powers of the element of air. Some crazy stuff went down between these Eladrin and some powerful air spirits (most likely genies or something similar) and a royal genie  royally - all pun intended - pissed off the Archfey Valveria, matriarch  of these Eladrin, in some sort of feud that ended up with the Archfey sealing the elemental spirit away into a vessel and amends being made by the air courts to the court of Archfey Valveria as they gifted her royal lineage with a potent blessing of elemental air as a sign of enduring peace between the two courts, for the air courts ruled this royal genie was in the wrong and wanted to kiss and make up with Valveria and her court. With order restored between this Fey court and the air courts, the vessel was sealed away as the two dominant royal lineages of Valveria couldn't agree on who was fit to possess such a treasure and the Archfey herself was so disgusted by the genie she wanted nothing to do with it and commanded her royal lineage to "work it out or else I'll get angry again" and went off to lay around on her royal Archfey ass or something.

So time passes, Caylius is born from a tryst between two members of each of the 2 royal air Eladrin lineages, somehow the vessel is stolen (probably in relation to the death text being stolen from the dwarves), and while he's only a lesser royal he possesses blood from both lineages so is one of the few Air Eladrin no one can complain about investigating and trying to claim the vessel. And All Eladrin agree the thing is an Eladrin treasure that MUST be reclaimed for the people by one of the lineages or sealed away again.

So there! I feel really satisfied, think the theme and powers all fit the character and game well (he's very mobile now), and it ties into my recent obsession with the prince of genies paragon path.

I need to do some tweaks like finalizing stats, and I need to buy equipment still but the theme and background elements of the concept bugged me so much I focused just on finishing them tonight!

Ok character done!

Awesome!  I've gone through everyone's character sheets and everything looks good. The only corrections I had to do were a single hitpoint total and an attack bonus calculation!

I'm compiling everything for the first encounter, and should have the first story thread up in the morning!  Thank you guys for being so awesome and giving me so much to work with.  Cheers!

Hello. I posted in the wrong game!
This message was last edited by the player at 06:52, Sat 09 Jan 2021.

It's on, mothertruckers!

I have to thank you guys; I absolutely love the energy and the personality you have brought to this game, and these particular characters.   I've been having an absolute blast building up this scene, and I honestly couldn't do it without y'all.

You're the best! ^_^

I want to take this moment to give you some praise too!

I really like how you've set the scene up so far. The mimic in the kitchen and the mugs is super cute by the way, and so far I've felt engaged with every one of your posts. The other PCs are reacting well to them too I can tell.

And I really REALLY like how you're handling skills so far. Even the use of the mimic speaking primordial was a nice subtle touch and I can see you're using these skills - including passive skills - in a way that is in net engaging multiple PCs' abilities and being inclusive. You definitely have your audience in mind while also obviously enjoying the storytelling aspect of it all.

Agree with the other Cal :)

It’s been really fun and I love your descriptions!

In the real world, knocking someone out is a tricky business. In the game world, the characters would know that knockouts are an option, even with swords, arrows, acid, fire, etc.

Edit: I dislike using Intimidation or social skills to end a fight, but intelligent opposition can reach a point (even before a fight starts) where it isn't worth it to them to press an offense. Early editions had morale checks, which I admit to not understanding when I played those editions and only "getting" recently. But I DM could still have opponents weigh the odds and give up, allowing the PCs to leave, or accomplish some other goal.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:27, Tue 12 Jan 2021.

Fantasy physics for the win!

I don't really want to argue in character, unless I'm sure that it's just roleplaying.

The fact is that players can generally decide whether to knock targets out or kill them. Furthermore, "the heat of the moment" isn't a mechanical aspect of the game.

If the DM wants this to be a point of tension, or wants to complicate the rules on knock outs, that's fine; we just need to know what the changes are. If a player wants to complicate things for the group for roleplaying purposes or anything else, that's something we can negotiate out-of-character.

I most cases, it should be possible to incapacitate targets and escape, rather than killing them. If not, then Barracus is right and we've got a conflict.

Though it occurs to me that the NPC might resolve this for us.

Edit: I don't mind our characters killing intelligent creatures, as long as it's necessary. In a dungeon ones going to be in for a while it's arguably necessary, as leaving enemies alive is likely to result in being attacked again. During a heist, it's a different story. And I don't have any problem with destroying constructs, undead, demons, etc.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:41, Tue 12 Jan 2021.

Caylius will kill rather than be captured and tortured. But he's not actually evil but more neutral in alignment so isn't bloodthirsty. Just feisty.

Oh believe me, this is all in-character.

Barracus is "not nice"

...at all.

If left to his own devices he would CARVE his way to the treasure--and then go looking down all the side paths and murder those people too.

He is literally asking questions right now to find out just how much murder he can get away with before the people he's hanging with will start clutching their pearls.

Someone might have to leash him eventually...

Correct...he is, after all, still a gentleman. He knows he has to play the game to keep us happy. And he most likely sees us as interesting and as investments for his own success so coddling us a bit is something I think the gentleman would think is worthwhile.

OK, good. In-game killing is something people can have strong feelings about.


What I you imagine that looking like? PVP combat rarely goes well in my experience.

Barracus might prefer to kill everything he can, but the game should make that, or any other action against in-game opposition difficult without the support of a team. It tends to assume at least a defender and a leader on hand. Is "leashing" just a matter of Barracus realizing that, and acting in such a way that he keeps his allies?

I don't think he means pvp. I think he means killing npcs.

I'm asking what "leashing" the character would look like. That usually involves a threat of repercussions. If the party doesn't have any form of repercussions besides beating the character up (which would be of dubious effectiveness anyway) then PVP is in the offing, which has its own issues and which some DMs ban outright.

We're dealing with a party member who would kill anyone, without worrying about consequences, and I'm looking for help understanding how that can be handled.

But it can probably wait until later, since we don't know what the situation will look like in play.

I suspect he means social pressure. The party dynamic will leash him in. He will be amidst a party of his peers each as strong as he is broadly speaking...and even more important, each a valuable gifted ally who can have his back when his dark plans go awry.

He'd play nice with us because we're important networking investments and good friends to have.

This is not a pvp game and I don't think he was trying to insinuate that. I can see why you would think that but I think he meant he would walk over npcs unless external forces or reasons encouraged restraint. Like not wanting to alienate us, his biggest resource.

Caylius has the right of it.  I meant 'leashing' in same way Tarkin "holds Vader's Leash."  Not physically restraining, just whacking him with a newspaper every once in a while.

If our amnesiac gnome wants to hold the newspaper, I'm okay with that too.

In reply to Gentleman Barracus (msg # 81):

OK, though I've never quite seen what Tarkin had over Vader, other than rank. Which none of us have over each other other.

I can't say I understand who or what the gnome is. But I have her journal to read, if necessary.

Yup. :)

I envision him holding back on doing things that would hurt the goals of the other pcs because quite frankly keeping us in his pocket is in and of itself far more valuable than mere gold and jewels. That's what also will encourage him to be a gentleman towards us and even sincerely helpful towards us...because we can in turn be of great use to him later.

You know what they say about having friends in high places and such.

He'd never put it that way of course. :P
This message was last edited by the player at 22:52, Tue 12 Jan 2021.

Cal is sitting this debate out. He kills when he has too. Typically monsters and prey.

In reply to Cal'alais Eltharin (msg # 84):

The in-character debate is done for now on Barris's side. It was really for Bili to answer anyway.

In reply to Gentleman Barracus (msg # 75):

Funny, I got that sense just from in-game. I made my post without even reading this thread. Absolutely came across to me that Barracus was just seeing how much he could get away with

In response to the "leashing" debate there is also the fact that the background of two of the party members include MacGuffins that promise greater power to Barracus than he can currently muster and that a third party member might have information that can lead to those items.

The potential need for peaceful interaction with those characters could be a strong "leash" to moderate Barracus' behavior. Now obviously as the characters increase in power, or the sense of actually finding the MacGuffins decreases that may change but we'll see where the game takes us.