Welcome everyone,

please introduce yourself and the character you are going to play briefly.

Hello all, I’ll be playing Smyth, an enforcer of the militant arm of the Jasidian clergy of Oerth. But this mystical marksman did not come to be favored by the Witch Goddess because of his sagacity or skill with arcane magic. In fact, this former Sigilian had the humblest of origins from an unremarkable prime world no one has ever heard of. But when you are as good at slaying fiends from the shadows as he is, you need no other qualifications.

Smyth is a lawful neutral human with levels in fighter, ranger, rogue, and cleric. I’m excited to be here, thanks for having me.

Welcome Smyth, glad to have you :)

Hello!  Mara is a halfelf bard, warlock (Raven Queen/pact of the chain), sorcerer (shadow) who has been instructed by her goddess that the poaching of Faerunian souls is not ok.

Welcome Mara, glad to have you as well :)

Mekkal is something of an anomaly among both Dwarves and Wizards, as he is both.  But somehow it seems to work out for him.

Hi all, I'll be playing Siveril. He's a winged aasimar goodie-two-shoes follower of Melora. He's big into the whole balance of nature thing which is kind of hard to have with a co-planar conspiracy to up and rapture everything with a soul. Trees have souls too you know...

I've gone with a full 17 levels of Oath of the Ancients paladin and will be getting all up in spellcasters' faces.

If anyone trips over a Holy Avenger on their mission be sure to let me know...

Edit: I was going to use Dwarven Plate but then realised I can't use my wings in heavy armor.
Does anyone have a better suggestion than +2 Half-Plate?
This message was last edited by the player at 02:03, Sun 15 Nov 2020.

If Arkadia - The Greek Setting for 5e counts as enough of a published book they have a heroic cuirass you can use instead of half plate that is the same without the disadvantage to stealth.

Might be a little bit of power creep, but by 17th level some of that should be expected.

I do like the aesthetic of that armor presented in the book but I think you're right in it being a bit little power creepy :)

Fun fact: I usually play dexterity based paladins for the reason of stealth among other things, this will be my first strong boi.

I'm more interested in alternative enchantments such as a +1 to AC but does some other cool thing versus the more mundane +2 to AC. While it is nothing to sneeze at, it's certainly not as compelling to me.

There really aren't many good 'fancy' armors, its just armor for AC, the fancy stuff comes from other slots.

As for stealth I don't think that will be much of a loss, I don't come with a stealth mode myself, I can only go from obvious to something in the 'strobe light' range.

This die roller hates me, I am absolutely convinced, lol.  Point buy it is.

The dice roller giveth and the dice roller taketh away, it's a bit ruder when it forgets to do the first part though.

I contain 110% of your party’s daily value of Vitamin Sneak.

Sounds good, Just be sure to check in for your daily allotment of buffs and or rituals.  I will probably be making use of Rary's Telepathic Bond any time we need to plot out a stealth mission, so everyone can keep in contact at a distance.

Well...the items I'm going to introduce myself will put those published to shame, so don't worry about this bit of power creep :)


Just remember, this thread here will be for all participants of the game and with that not necessarily everyone here will be in your party once the game has started.

I am sure this is obvious to everyone else, but is it 6 magical items total that can be any category listed or 6 of each category? I had assumed the former, but also that anything is possible.

I assume that because it says Or not And that it is 6 in total.

I didn't even consider it being a total of 24 magic items.  That would be a lot of extra stuff, it would be an interesting puzzle to try and get that many to work at the same time but I wouldn't expect even a game this high level to start with that many.

It is 6 items in total, yes :)

That is relieving.

You will get more items throughout the campaign, but we will start 'simple' for now ^^

Greetings everyone!

I'll be playing Jaylan Cairn, a bounty hunter from the city of Sigil.

I'm focusing on fighting and skill-monkeying. Hope to have a blast with you all!

Jastero Daxus is a Monk of the Silver Flame and also bears the Dragonmark of being a Draconic Sorceror.  Of Cyran heritage, he was an orphaned refugee raised in the temple of the Solver Flame.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:21, Mon 16 Nov 2020.

Welcome you two :)

I kind of want to wait to be "finished" until the new book comes out, :).  It looks really interesting.

I have a question about the Blink spell. My understanding is that the Ethereal plane overlaps with the material, and not the outer planes. If this is the case, would Blink fail, or would you go to some analogue location on the ethereal plane and still be able to see the plane from which you blinked up to a distance of 60' as the spell states.

5th edition largely ignores the plane overlapping or adjacency of previous editions.  You would expect the Ethereal to be between Prime and Inner planes and Astra to be between Prime and Outer planes but the Blink spell doesn't require adjacency to function.

If we wanted to use a closer to 2nd edition (and core planescape) cosmology Blink cast on the outer planes could just as easily make use of the Astral plane but be otherwise unchanged.

Well, it should come out tomorrow. So if you can get access to the book within the next few days (as we certainly won't start before then), you are free to make any changes or updates you want.

And thanks for answering, Mekkal!

If I chose a manual of golems, would that come with a Golem? There is a gold and time cost to make the golem once you have the manual.

I have it preordered on Amazon, hard copy, so I should get it by the end of the week I am guessing.

Question about equipment.  Are common magic items considered to be a part of basic equipment?  They kinda sit in a limbo, lol.  I normally completely ignore them but since there is no attunement restrictions I might be interested in some of them.

Hello World, and thanks for having me! Niki Piki is your friendly neighborhood Kobold Rogue! She's a sneaky and observant little jinx, with a knack for seeing trouble before it sees her.

OMG that picture is so cute!

Salutations and valedictions and benedictions and maledictions all around! I am Abernathy Thimblewwhistle III, Esq, mystical magical font of all things fun and arcane!

If there's one thing a Thimblewhistle knows, it's two things: casting spells and fleecing rubes. I'm here to do both.

Howdy all, I'll be your local Warforged Druid, ready to transform and roll out, coming all the way from the Magic: The Gathering dimension of Ravnica.

I also second the love of the wall-eyed Kobold image.  :3  It's also fun seeing that hooded Kobold icon you're using for your thumbnail, Niki, because that's one I submitted when the RPOL devs opened the floor to user submissions.

Greetings, and may you all find the Shade which you seek!  I am your human (looking) Hexblade, ready to read your mind and curse your family.  I may not like you, but as long as I've got a use for you, you're okay!



I second that dice roller garbage and will join you in the "little sibling" club.  But it's okay, because you are named after my daughter. (:-D)

Is anyone wanting to have a back story.  As a note Mara is Neutral Evil.  She has been instructed to help in this endeavor by her goddess.  Her "evilness" is basically that she is greedy and selfish but self preservation makes keeping her party members alive very important to her, :).

I’d be down, a good chunk of Smyth’s colleagues are LE (tbh he probably has a bigger problem with your neutral than your evil) but I don’t think he’s ever been to Toril. Perhaps they encountered each other on the Plane of Shadows?

Considering both of her patrons hail from Shadowfell that is quite possible.  PM me to work out the deets?

Thank you! It's a pretty accurate depiction of Niki's oversized eyes. =P

I'm open to having some shared history with others. Niki is from an unspecified prime world that was already overrun by demons, but she's been living in Sigil for about 20 years or so. With the Urchin background she can get around the city pretty quick, and would make a great tout.

I'd very much be up for a backstory collaboration as well. Abernathy is a little light on long-term goals. He's basically insanely good at magic, from a family of thieves and grifters, and has an iron-clad belief in fate and destiny. And, of course, destiny has something special in line for him.

I think he would work very well as the companion for someone with some direction and goals.

I set up my background to drop me right into the Obsidian Citadel at start of the story.  I think I will be sticking with a bit of mysterious this time around.

Shadow also has a deep connection with the Shadowfell, and his Chaotic Neutral-ness would not care about your evil ways.  Would you be interested in another connection?

Jaylan could theoretically met any of you in the past. His backstory is up in the Cast section, and he has more than 12 years of plane-hopping to interact with anyone.

You want a happy-go-lucky, fast-talking halfling with a Chosen One complex and a penchant for fireballs hanging around?

Mara is interested in whatever connections other people want to throw at her.  She is also an urchin (from waterdeep).  I haven't flushed out much of her adventuring but she is also young.

Highly likely Niki, Jaylan, and Smyth all know each other by reputation at least, having lived in Sigil during overlapping periods. Possible also there was a professional relationship, given our various careers.

It does not. But we could say that Elan made the golem after procuring the book, depending on what you want it to do. As an added companion for flavor, sure. As an active combatant, less so.


Indeed, that's why I didn't mention them in the rarity list. Wouldn't really be concerned about them, to be honest, so feel free to add what interests you (within reason, of course).

---

Great to see that people are already starting to work on shared background stories :)

I'd be okay with a working relationship in the past. Did you have something in mind?



Sure. You could have been the Jaskier to my Geralt. :p

In reply to Jaylan Cairn (msg # 47):

I’m thinking Smyth was a cheap but efficient consultant to hire on when the bounty target was somewhere you don’t want to go by yourself. Smyth is a creepy if otherwise ideal colleague, collaborative but quiet, cautious but decisive, willing to take order though was perhaps not the most exciting company. But he was willing to go pretty much anywhere, never had any judgments about the bounty (or if he did, kept it to himself), and didn’t seem to be in it for the money, nor wanted any credit for the bounty (just his small cut).

He’s a little...different now than he was back then. Much more of a clean and polished presentation, but Jaylan would still recognize him, and Smyth would remember their work.

I haven't started equipment yet, and still need to pick my 4th expertise, but I've done almost everything else on Niki's sheet (yay for not having spells to pick!). I was aimng for high perception and investigate, with expertise in both and the Observant feat for +5 to both passives. Since having advantage gives another +5 to passives, and Niki (as an inquisitive) has advantage while moving 1/2 speed, she nets a passive perception of 37 and investigate of 36 in ideal circumstances.

Niki and Jaylan would probably make a great team. She's great at spotting trouble, sniffing out clues, and arrived in Sigil around the time Jaylan started his bounty-hunting career.

Jaylan certain isn't too proud to call in help when he needs it. I thought my Passive Perception of 24 was nice, but damn! Yeah, Jaylan would have no trouble working with someone who can track better than a bloodhound!


And Smyth is/was a mercenary I take it?

Looks like Siv might be the odd one out as a chaotic leaning neutral good character.

Wait... does that make him the bad guy? :P

All these characters seem really interesting to me so I can't wait to get adventuring with you all.

I'm interested in doing some shared backstories with others even if they are only superficial.
Siv comes from a generic Prime Material world and would have spent some extended time in the Feywild and Shadowfell. He may have passed through the Astral plane and Sigil but only quickly.

Siv has been an adventurer of this level for maybe 20 years and doesn't age so if we've crossed paths before you'd possibly recognise him.
His home was invaded via the Shadowfell so any mercenary types might have been hired by his Company as guides or combatants when they pushed the invasion back into the Shadowfell. Alternately, you may have been on the opposing side and crossed blades with him at some stage.

In reply to Jaylan Cairn (msg # 50):

Yeah. Beyond shooting things with arrows until they stop moving, non-magical infiltration is his specialty, along with general SERE skills (expertise in Stealth, Athletics, Survival, and Nature). He was easy to hire, you just had to ask anyone at the Bazaar where to find him.

He left Sigil about five years ago, hasn’t been seen there since.

As much as I endorse the idea of shared backstories, I'm afraid Eltha here is going to be an odd duck in that situation.  She's only been active (ie, alive) for about eight months prior to the start of the game and is from a Plane that, until the plot at hand, was cut off from the rest of the Multiverse.  So she's definitely going to be the new kid on the multidimensional block in many regards.

It's hard being a robot *pat pat*

I hope not! Niki is CN leaning towards good. :P

Jastero is from Eberron, where the alignments are a little more... loose in their interpretations.  He is also of the Urchin background, his monastic order follows The Silver Flame (think along the lines of the Catholic church).
He has been to the Astral and Ethereal planes for short jaunts, for one reason or another, but is not a seasoned planar traveller.  So, a backstory with the more planar skilled would be unavailable, unless one or mare has been to Eberron.
He is also a sorceror of draconic heritage.  I have that all ready with his spells and all, but I am trying to figure out what monk archetype to make him.  Kensai is good, and I would make his skill be with improvised weapons so he can beat opponents with ladders, steins, and such.  Hand is always good.  Light, given his association with The Silver Flame, would also be a good choice.  Shadow would be an inteesting one, giving him a bit more chance to have met certain other characters, but it seems a little convenient to me.

I see alignment as more of a guideline than a rule, like a stepping off point I guess.

As for monk archetype I don't think you can go wrong with Open Hand monk really. Are you dipping a little or doing a bigger split between sorcerer and monk?

As do I!

So, if player recruitment is closed, are we looking at three groups of five characters?

Good grief, I'm not getting my book until the 25th...

Hello folks.

Lady Chanterelle is from Faerun...because she survived "Out of the Abyss"

She is a Circle of Dreams Druid focusing on "quality of life" dimension-hopping, high-end spell casting, and killing demons--can't forget killing demons.

Her staff has a mushroom on it...his name is Morel.

Hello everyone! I will be playing Pebble Wavereaver, a halflings monk (Way of the Open Hand). However, while she is mechanically a monk, she is more of a sailor flavor-wise. I left her background a little vague, so if any other halfing characters want to be related to her, let me know! She has not really done any planar travel yet, but may have met people who visited her (unspecified) plane. More info about her can be found in her description, as well as a good picture of her.

Also, I admit I am not extremely familiar with the nitty gritty of 5e, so if anyone knows good online resources for this system, feel free to send me a link or two! I have the basic player's handbook, but everything else I will need to search out (I have already located a couple websites, but would appreciate more suggestions if you have them).

The only online source for 5e material I use anymore is https://5e.tools/

I hadn't come across that one yet. It looks like it will be really helpful. Thanks!

Loving the character ideas everyone has here, just wanted to say.

There are lots of online sources, ;)

http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/

I use wikidot for general character building and 5etools for items, since it has such a great index of all the various gear and filters to review it with.

https://5e.tools/items.html#abacus_phb

That was my initial thought as well, though there might be a few latecomers yet. But in general I would prefer to 'only' have to run three groups, yes.


And welcome to everyone who has joined recently!

I just hate having to look through homebrew stuff, lol. I looked through a huge amount of magic items and none of them were interesting at all.  It seems that homebrew (for magic items at least) is purposefully nerfed or something.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 17:12, Tue 17 Nov 2020.

In reply to Pebble Wavereaver (msg # 62):

I played a water genasi monk who is a sailor, but that game died.  Currently playing the same, but as a shipwright.  I am also playing a halfling monk guild artisan (cooks and bakers) who went Drunken Master (he is now part owner of a brewery) and multiclassed as a Rogue.

Hey all!

Dana Stover here. They have a strange heritage but seem mostly human. Their powers, all of them, are derived from their noble genie. I'll be a warlock with a wish a day. I'm thinking I might have them mostly decked out in various rings and amulets still working out which ones.

And boy did I get some interesting stats. On the plus side if I really really wanted to I could multiclass into any class...

Jumping in on the online resources discussion, I definitely prefer 5e.tools for all the official WotC sourced stuff. It's just more easily consumable in bite sized pieces for me.

Just you wait for my own take on magic items. I at least endeavor to make the mechanical aspects of it interesting and useful (and more often than not too powerful ^^).

My favorite part of 5e (one of many actually) is the fact that they made magic item creation much more like 2nd ed.  I HATED the mathematical equations and general lack of creativity that 3rd and pathfinder went with.  Needing to have the feats was just a ridiculous addition too.

Yeah, 3/3.5 (and Pathfinder, as it fell into the same folly instantly despite wanting to "fix" it at first) were way too number crunchy and had a massive content bloat.  It's a real problem when there's a vast glut of items, feats, and spells, but they weren't made with one another in mind and only a very specific variety are actually worthwhile.  It's easier than not to make a mechanically useless character on accident.  I much prefer 5e's approach of blending a lot of the feats into the weapon properties themselves, for example.

That said, I do feel like 5e swung the pendulum a little too far in the other direction to begin with and there wasn't enough content.  Too few feats of sufficient variety, for example, but that's gradually been getting better over time with the drip feed of new content and racial feats.  But I do really like how it dialed back magic items quite a bit to make them more important when players do actually find them, rather than having everyone just blitzing through their +1/2/3/4 etc magic weapons like iPhone releases.

Hello new people!! :)

And thanks for those online resources.

Agreed as well. For experienced players 5E offers not enough options and variety for leveling up and in combat as a martial-based character. Hopefully ENWorld is going to fix this next year...

I think it did a really good job doing what it intended to do. I like that feats MEAN something now.  Anyone can do magic item creation and it's only limited by creativity and gm approval.

Oh update, my book is arriving on Thursday!
This message was last edited by the player at 20:37, Tue 17 Nov 2020.

5e.tools is very handy for quick reference. They also have the new stuff from Tasha's Cauldron up there.

Particularly handy given my preorder looks like it won't arrive here until January *shakes fist at Australia Post*

I'm looking at those fancy new Spellwrought Tattoos and thinking I should pick up a common one for a 1st level spell to have in the back pocket if it ever gets to panic mode. Like a cure wounds maybe.

I need to have a think about spells to have prepared and what sort of components I want to buy with my allowance but otherwise I think Siv is ready to go.

Like what? As a general rule, I prefer mundane characters to magical ones, and I've been playing D&D since AD&D. I find myself with as much tactical combat actions that I want, like disarms, shoving, use of environment and improvised weapons, etc...

Well, that depends on your play style of course. But I had several players (barbarian and rogue) who pretty much had to repeat their basic move+melee/ranged attack over and over due to the lack of interesting options, while the spellcasters are able to vary their round-by-round actions with their different spells.

The Battle Master is a good example of how martial characters should look like to me, though with even more options at higher levels in general. But it's all a matter of preference.

I find that melee combat tends to be more of a group coordination thing than most people expect, particularly on a map, with a rogue, or with any sort of enemy that isn't just willing to bang on the tank's armor because they stood in front.

That said combat is always the simpler part of D&D, the problems that spells can solve are so much wider in range, but sometimes you just need a guy with a big axe to chop down a wall, or push a boulder down a hill, or some such.

Okay, I've decided.  I'm going with Way of the Sun Soul (Way of the Silver Flame to him).

Well, I don't want to badmouth people I don't know, but it sounds to me like either a lack of imagination on their part, or a lack of understanding of the options that 5e has to offer. For example, I am playing a Pirate Barbarian in my only RL game right now. We were fighting some bad pirates in an empty room (because we trapped them in the room, and we didn't want them to use anything to their advantage), and as the tank, I was at the front. Instead of just whacking away the whole time, I decided to try to force the pirates to surrender after we killed the captain. How? I picked up the captain's corpse and clubbed a dude unconscious with it, just to emphasize the point when I made my Intimidate check.

It worked.

Or a couple years ago when I was playing a Noble Fighter, when I realized that the BBEG was going to escape if I stopped to save one of my party members who was slipping into a pit trap. So I Disarmed the BBEG with one attack, Shoved over a broken pillar to fall on top of them to incapacitate them with my second attack, and then Action Surged my way all the way down into the pit to pull my buddy out of the grinding death.

This isn't just me trying to toot my own horn, I'm just using some ready examples off the top of my head. I mean, if you are just looking to kill someone as fast as possible, yeah, whacking away is probably the best, unless you can like Shove a Fire Elemental into the ocean or something. I'm just saying, the mundanes have way more options than just whacking away every round.

Being a creative player with a good dm isn’t a replacement for rules support. You should be able to have both.

Those actions were only possible because of the rules. Otherwise, they would have been DM rulings.

Part of that is dependent on the DM, of course.  I've played my fair share of games where the DM wasn't especially creative with how they handled combat and it just basically ended up being "everyone stand in a line and take turns hitting each other" every time a fight started.  At which point, yeah, being a melee fighter is dull as hell.  But if the DM is even moderately handy at presenting interesting challenges, varied terrain, or breaking up combat with skill checks, then it becomes a lot more engaging for everyone.

Some of it can be self-imposed as well.  In another game I play a particularly acrobatic assassin, so I make sure to focus on keeping my character moving at all times - they never stand still, so I'm constantly maneuvering around the party and terrain.  Or in another I was playing a Warlock who was emotionally invested in revenge against the enemies and had absolutely no chill whatsoever, so despite being squishy she always threw herself headlong into every fight.  It made it more fun for me to figure out ways to keep her going while up on the front lines where all the danger was.

Speaking of warlocks, I got my most important piece of gear approved!  An adamantine crowbar!!!!

I figured I would just make due with a portable ram if there is a need for the less than subtle approach to doors.

In reply to Jaylan Cairn (msg # 85):

Sure, both of those stories are great examples how you can mix it up if the right conditions are present. But what if you are fighting a huge beast-like monster? You won't have the chance to disarm, shove or club something else with its corpse.

Anyway, I get what you mean and I agree, but only to an extent. It would be nice, for example, if different martial classes had different actions they could use during battle to emphasize their distinct style and role in combat.


Wholeheartedly agreed. Not saying you couldn't use the basic actions available to creative use if the right players are involved, but at least having some other options presented to you (and maybe inspire you with what you could do) would be nice.


That's rather important as well, of course. No question. And not feeling any pressure for this game here now...*gulp*

The different actions, or at least use for actions, by martial classes are based more on weapon choices than the class choice.  The class however influences which weapon choice is more suitable, and a few feats adjust it a bit too.  But most of those do fall into the 'more damage more efficiently' category.

Some skill use, and terrain is always an option but in the end a fighter does tend to come down to hitting things with pointy sticks.

LOL, one of my biggest issues so far is that Rogues can't use a sap to sneak attack, :)

Definitely a point for DM homebrew to get involved.  Just add "Finesse" to a Club and call it a day.  I've done similar in the past to change the Rapier weapon from piercing to slashing damage in order to get a Machete.

So do we have an idea of how we are going to proceed with groups in character?

I imagine some might have preferences for teaming up due to shared backgrounds or may wish to prioritise certain missions once we see what is available.

Are we looking at 3 teams of 5, 5 teams of 3 etc?

I should be able to function in just about any team, unless one is based on stealth, but if we have a limited supply of healers it might be a good idea to build teams around them.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:11, Wed 18 Nov 2020.

Pffft, healers, who needs 'em? We have healing potions for that. That being said if anyone wants to act primarily as a healer more power to them.

Yeah, Team Ninja could be good.

While Siv has healing abilities he isn't so much a healer as a damage soaker. More preventative than reactive.


Party roles might be useful for initial sorting through, you are right there.

Smyth has emergency healing magic. Reserved for the dead and dying. Try not to need it!

He doesn't, by any chance, happen to have a teenage ninja tortle for a friend?

---

My only healing is when I beat one of my cursed foes to death and absorb their HP.  That and healing potions.

I played a couple of Barbarians on here that found creative was very similar to what was already mentioned here, to defeat enemies. One, as one of the passengers captures and jailed on flying ship taken over by goblins, got out and defeated the guards by punching one goblin, then using his corpse to beat his two buddies to death.  The other Barbarian was in a fight against a pair of wererats, bat had no magic or silvered weapons.  So, he attacked one barehanded, then grappled him by his ankles.  After that, he proceeded to beat the other wererat with him.  Now, he couldn't really hurt them (DM decided a wererat does not count as a magic improvised weapon), but he certainly kept them occupied while his friends tried to find away out of the basement of a burning building.
If you want a machete, use a scimitar.  I played a Fighter/Soldier from modern Earth in a CoS game.  He liked survivalist camping, so he had modern versions of certain weapons:  breaching axe (battle axe), machete (scimitar), compound bow (longbow), composite crossbow (light crossbow), plus an entrenching tool and a hatchet (handaxes), and wore motorcycle armor (leather armor).  Scimitar in 5th edition works fir a machete or a cutlass, though I think it should do 1d8 while the Rapier does 1d6 (the scimitar blade is better at cutting because the curve gives a longer contact with the surface, and is wider than the Rapier's).
That tortle seems too old to be a teenager.  And spends way too much time trying to interview beings who need to be killed. LOL

Healing?

You mean killing the bad guy before he hurts you?

Damage mitigation via murder, yes.

Here's what I've been able to summarise based on what I've seen/read. Please correct me where I'm wrong.


I think Mara and Smyth are looking to have crossed paths so may be on a team together, possibly also Shadow.

Jaylan and Abernathy an interesting duo.

Niki, Jaylan and Smyth look to have lived in Sigil at the same time and may know each other professionally.
Elan also from Sigil?

Mekkal and E1-THA unlikely to have known anyone prior.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:50, Wed 18 Nov 2020.

I wanted to approach this question once most players are ready with their character creation, but it's as good as any time to discuss this.

My first question would be if you guys prefer to sort yourselves in game with character dialogue and conversations, or out here?


Definitely preferring less groups with more members to lessen my workload at least somewhat.

---

In reply to Siveril Balberos (msg # 102):

Well, it seems like this will be the place for sorting the groups then. Thanks for your work so far, Siveril!

Elan left the prime material plane a long time ago. He travels the planes looking for knowledge and artifacts important to his work. He has spent a lot of time in Sigil, as well as the outer planes, mostly the lawful ones. Not that Elan is particularly lawful, but it's easier to get by if you know the rules to the game and those rules are enforced. He appears to be a typical human from the prime material, but people who know him well, claim that he is very long lived, but this sort of anomaly is common in the planes.

I am open to having known other players. Elan is more of a loaner (don't worry, I won't play as one, that's just his backstory and how he assumes he will eventually end up after this problem is resolved).

Are you playing a bard?

Please tell me you're playing a bard.

Greetings.  I'm still rounding off the edges, but Seti is from Europa, a world much like Oerth within the prime material plane. He is a Cardinal of Pluto, Lord of the land and its boundless riches and keeper of souls in the underworld. He recently learned of the Cabal of Souls and suspects it may be linked to a recent failed attempt in Europa to open gates to the Abyss. He is the initial representative of Europa, with the blessing of the Emperor Justinian to respond to Mordenkainen's call.

While he has had some extraplanar adventures, they are far from his expertise. That said, he may have met any who visited his world, particularly any interested in Europa's religions or politics. He has had some limited adventures in the Abyssal and Celestial planes.

OOC: He will be a support character, your resident cleric to fix battered bodies.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:55, Wed 18 Nov 2020.

I am not :(

I am playing a UA mystic. More of a psion, and not so much a psychic warrior.

Well, Mara is very easy to heal, :)  as long as her familiar is near her she gets max out healing dice.  She also has healing word if need be (not spectacular but useful).

In reply to Siveril Balberos (msg # 102):

Good work ^__^

I am going to take the psionic restoration discipline.

Mend Wounds (1–7 psi). As an action, you can spend psi points to restore hit points to one creature you touch. The creature regains 1d8 hit points per psi point spent.

Restore Health (3 psi). As an action, you touch one creature and remove one of the following conditions from it: blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned. Alternatively, you remove one disease from the creature.

Restore Life (5 psi). As an action, you touch one creature that has died within the last minute. The creature returns to life with 1 hit point. This ability can’t return to life a creature that has died of old age, nor can it restore a creature missing any vital body parts.

Restore Vigor (7 psi). As an action, you can touch one creature and choose one of the following: remove any reductions to one of its ability scores, remove one effect that reduces its hit point maximum, or reduce its exhaustion level by one.

Greetings Seti and Elan.

Given Mekkal's comment earlier about spreading out our lovely healers, how do we feel about these initial allocations? Obviously move about however you like.

Sigil Squad {7 characters is a lot}
Elan
Mara the Blessed
Smyth
Niki Piki
Shadow
Jaylan Cairn
Abernathy Thimblewhistle III

B-Team
Lady Chanterelle
Siveril
Pebble Wavereaver


Team Eclectic
Seti Alderi
E1-THA
Mekkal
Dana Stover
Jastero Daxus

Unallocated: Zyre

I don't have any preference where I go.  Mekkal should be able to benefit any group and doesn't have any existing background connections to try and maintain.

Not overlapping healers is just a good plan, even if we technically have an infinite number of healing potions.

Pending approval of magicy doodads, I think my sheet is finished. :)

Mara doesn't live in sigil?  Perhaps we should have the gm place people where they belong?

I am also fine with being placed anywhere.

Yeessss the shiny doodads.



Put you there because I thought you had shared background with Smyth.

If GM wants to place us that's cool with me, just wanted to see if people had preferences :)

Nah we couldn’t work something out. And Mara is from Toril.

You could just as soon put Smyth in B group if we are going by where you’re from. But I was under the impression that groups would be chosen specifically for a particular mission, so we are perhaps mother superior jumping the gun here.

Too keen to get started haha.

Lol, totally feel you.  I personally would like to wait until friday though.  I get the new Tasha book tomorrow and I wanted to look through it to see if anything interesting caught my eye, :).

It's not really about where they are from, it's more about who wants to and can work together with whom. It would be nice to figure this out during the actual roleplaying at the start of the game, but I guess that will take too much time.

So characters of fitting alignment and goals should be together in a group, unless you have different ideas.


It will work pretty much like this (as outlined in the Game Overview thread):

Tomorrow or so I'm going to post an overview of the various planes that needs to be visited in order to stop the cabal from achieving their goal. Each of the groups then should choose one plane they want to tackle first. For each plane, there will be between 2 and 4 different locations that need to be infiltrated/assaulted with one member of the cabal somewhere within. Each group can then decide which of the available locations on their chosen plane they want to start with.

Once a group has finished one mission, they are free to continue with a different location on the same plane, or mix it up and visit another plane for their next mission. This cycle will continue for quite a while. There is also always the opportunity for PCs to switch from one group to another if the necessary resources are available during missions (Plane Shift, Teleport, etc).

I think it would make the most sense to have the evil characters deal with the Upper Planes and the celestials within, as good aligned PCs might have a harder time doing what needs to be done when faced with those type of creatures. But that is just my line of thinking, in the end it's all up to you guys.

You will have no other intel before each mission besides what knowledge your characters have have about each location (which will be limited). But I will try my best to present each mission in a way that multiple paths can lead to success, may it be frontal assault, stealthy infiltration, or charming diplomacy. It will be then up to each party how they want to approach each location in turn.

TLDR: Groups need to be formed before anything really happens. As no one knows what awaits them, having a well-balanced party might be the best option, maybe focusing on one single aspect (all stealth party?) could also be viable.

5e.tools has most of it up there for you to look at if you are interested.

The point about good characters having a hard time in Celestia makes sense, but then again they might fit in easier. Some tough choices ahead to be sure.

Well, Siv gets bonuses against fiends and undead so maybe it makes sense for him to head in that direction.

Looking forward to seeing what out options are tomorrow-ish :D

Any other fans of the Forge of Combat? That’s how I tend to see party balance, though given the nature of the game we should also be mindful of various skill competencies we might need fulfilled to accomplish a given mission.

But otherwise, I’d recommend that each group of five have at least two semi-dedicated Hammers (Damage), and one each of Arm (Support) and Anvil (Control). If we categorize ourselves thusly we could even just assign the groups randomly.

Just wrapped up my work day early so I can finally try to finalize some things character wise and be ready to go and give everybody more details about Dana that are all up in my head. Getting those details out and written down sometimes seem really easy and other times it's like some force is working against my internal/external coherence.

I got my copy of Tasha's in already and while it's a lot of neat stuff to go through, it is primarily a DM's resource more than a player's.  A lot of the player-facing content like class options, spells, items, and feats are already online in various spots and ready to go.  There are some neat new items though.  One in particular I'm really grappling with whether or not I want to pick up for this game called the "Cauldron of Rebirth".

https://5e.tools/items.html#ca...n%20of%20rebirth_tce

For the new character creation options, it basically just allows you to reassign your racial ASI, languages, and skills as you please within reason.  There's also a "Custom Lineage" variant that allows you to functionally create your own race, or a sub-set of an existing race.  It's actually really handy for picking up Darkvision or getting rid of the diminished movement speed some races have by default.



One additional feature they've introduced, which I really like, is a skill swap table that allows you to trade skill, weapon, armor, and tool proficiency for another during character creation.  So, for example, if your class gives you proficiency in a specific Martial weapon you know for certain you'll never use, you can swap that for proficiency in a different simple or martial weapon, or a tool set.  That's really great for me since being a Druid gives me proficiency in a bunch of very specific but fairly useless Simple weapons (like darts, for example) which I'll never use but can now swap out for tool proficiencies instead.

I'm afraid the Proficiency Swap is specifically for races not class or background.

Oh?  Good catch then - I was reading my copy late in the evening, so I must've glossed past that part.  That puts a damper on some of my plans then, but not too much so.  Thankfully Warforged racial skills are already "pick what you want" by default, so I merely lack for quantity rather than availability.

That said, the next section does follow up with changing a given class skill proficiency or even your Subclass during gameplay via working it out with your DM and undergoing various approaches, like downtime training or a sudden dramatic supernatural transition event.  So there is still room for it, depending on the DM's call.  But that's basically going back to the usual DM homebrew at that point.  ^^;
This message was last edited by the player at 22:28, Wed 18 Nov 2020.

There are too many options I fear :)

I always love the Nine Hells and the Feywild. Never a dull moment. ;)

Jastero has an attack each round that does radiant damage....

Speaking of languages and such.  Are we allowed to say our characters trained any languages or tools via the training method in Xanthar's?

I need a computer... If only for doing character sheets here. All the rest I can do from my phone fairly easy but the sheets... I'll pop over into that planar discussion in a few minutes hopefully.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

Well how else do you expect him to finish his book?  He is an anthropologist, damnit!  It is a very prestigious calling with a long history of cataloguing... well, history!  If you all didn't spend so much time killing everything in sight, he'd have most of his interviews done, and would be well on his way to making his mark on the world.  I mean, sure, there are still the kobolds, but they still don't seem to trust anybody.  I suppose that he could speak to the robot's new squire, but the kid seems kind of flaky.  Not sure if he would even understand the questions, much less be able to answer them.

</TortleRantOff>

---

Shadow is also from Toril, though has done a bit of plane hopping in search of the Shadowfell.

In reply to Shadow (msg # 132):

LOL

Not that 5E really needs it, but for balance issues, I've decided to for Wizard(Illusionist) 14/Sorcerer(Wild Magic) 3. It's not the most optimal choice, but it's the most entertaining, as it'll allow me to have Halfling Luck, the Lucky Feat, and Tides of Chaos. Which is why Abernathy is convinced that the gods just LOOOOOOOVE him.

I may have a couple of blasty bits, but I'll be focusing mostly on buffs and illusions.

Certainly. Just don't go overboard and say your character has studied a dozen new languages during her lifetime or something similarly unlikely.


Always better in my opinion to go with the more interesting/entertaining choice, than the mechanical optimal one!

In reply to Aenarion (msg # 135):

That's very much the sense I got from this whole set-up. And I'm pretty excited by what I'm cobbling together. :)

In reply to Abernathy Thimblewhistle III (msg # 32):

No, Mara isn't emo or goth.  She's just heavily shadow based, :).  She's got a level in bard and will be outgoing and friendly.  She can definitely function as a face.l

I'm looking forward to it :D

I hope Abernathy has access to some glamours should we need them, we are going to stick out like a sore thumb.

Sweet! Looks like Silveril and Jaylan are the serious ones, then. Otherwise, we seem an affable and friendly bunch. I don't imagine Nikki has a ton of charisma, but she seems the happy-go-lucky type.

Unrelated...

I did some world-building on Halflings, since we have a bit of a tabula rasa here and I love using some basic lore to inform character. Just in case anyone is interested, this is what I think is happening with Halflings:

1. Halflings have no lands of their own. They're nomads and wanderers. And even when they form communities it's usually because some other people else has forced them to, not out of any innate desire to hang out together.

2. To the outside world, halflings worship a wide (even dizzying) variety of gods, but the secret truth is that, to them, all the gods are the same god: a shapechanging trickster god who has many aspects, many faces and many names.

3. The relationship of the halflings to this god is that he/she/it once wronged them horribly as part of some godly scheme or another, and they wound up homeless wanderers, and so 'owes them one' and has been watching out for them ever since. And all of their theology and ritual is about making sure he/she/it pays up ("For Lo! Thou really screwethed us over really bad that one time, O Lord, and we're STILL really mad about it.")

4. You can find halflings almost anywhere, a part of existing power structures but rarely at the top. They tend to be advisors, go-betweens, specialists mercenaries, rather than leaders or rulers. NOTE: the Thimblewhistles are a particularly bottom-feeding bunch.

5. Halflings are typically very open/fluid/pansexual/not super specific about who they are attracted to or make time with. Similarly, they have very loose (or at least different)  definitions of 'commitment' and 'monogamy.' Conservative societies teem with scandalous stories about halflings and their temptations and many perversions.

6. Halflings don't really believe there's such a thing as 'the truth' in any objective sense. There's my perception, your perception, my memory, and your memory, but as to what 'reality' is, it probably doesn't exist, and if it does, it doesn't matter since you can't ever know it. The old halfling adage goes "Who am I? Another mask, please." A big part of the halfling storytelling tradition is people interrupting to ask if something is true and the storyteller swearing it is with oaths of escalating intensity. The joke being that not only does no one care if it's true, no one believes there even is such a thing.

7. Halflings don't see lying, or conning, or grifting, or even stealing, as things. Lying is only lying is there's truth, and stealing is based on owning, and owning is just another thing that's basically pretend as far as they're concerned.

8. The one thing that halflings are serious about is community (which is weird, seeing as how they make no efforts to band together). They might mess with each other, butt no one messes with them. They're very much of a 'No one hits my little brother but me' kind of people.

9. Among themselves, they use favours to pay for goods and services, rather than money or barter. A 'rich' halfling is someone who has done many favours and not cashed any of them in, and so is someone who has put a lot into the community and not taken anything out. They may look the same as other halflings to outsiders, but you can almost always tell them by the way others listen to their stories.

10. Although Halflings seem to have no consensus on how many Clans there are (3, 5, 9, and 14 are the usual numbers), they are VERY serious about what clan they're a member of and what clans are their enemies and/or friends (even though there's no clear consensus on that either). The whole thing is very confusing to outsiders, but halflings seem to understand it intuitively.

11. Halfling clerics generally get their spells from 1. worshiping the community as an Ideal, or 2. worshiping one aspect of their many-faced god or 3. worshiping the idea of a mutable reality and using their magic to influence it.

12. Halflings have no native arcane magic tradition. They tend to see magic as something they take from other races.

13. Sorcerers are seen as Personally Blessed by the Many-Faced God. They're respected, but cautiously. Such a Blessing comes with tests. And historically, the Many-Faced God has not been not super careful about collateral damage.

:)

Seems like you mixed kenders and halflimgs together, which is awesome because I LOVE kenders and feel they've been given short shrift in the gaming community, :(.

In reply to Mara the Blessed (msg # 140):

They are a little Kender-y, it's true. I hadn't thought about that. And yeah, they were really everyone's favourite there for a bit and they just got dumped in the RPG Clearance bin.

Siv is definitely a bit serious but as an Oath of Ancient paladin he still likes to goof around a bit. There's a lot in the Tenets about joy and laughter.

Probably because a bunch of bad apples spoiled the barrel by using the Kender's light-fingered habits to justify being absolute jerks at the table, stealing from their own party and causing trouble, to the point that it became a community stigma.  I see Kender the same way I do Kenku or Goblin characters - in the right hands of a player who appreciates their traits and concept, they can be amazing characters.  In the hands of a troublemaker looking for an excuse to behave badly, they're an absolute blight.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:42, Thu 19 Nov 2020.

I LOVED goblins in PF!  My favorite race by far!  :)

So, I got my book today, not very impressed with it.  Changed out one feat and that's about it.  I DO like that they added a bunch of feats to add to stats though.  Allows for more diversity!  Shadow Touched Charisma here I am!  :)

Sorry for holding things up, clients came in from out of state so work has been hell.

Got Zyre 90ish percent finish barring some misc questions before asking for final approval. As for his party roll, primarily hes a  melee combatant, serving acceptably as a secondary face tank with some skills. Any group that wants to have a strong emphasis on stealth should NOT ask for his assistance unless they want him as a plan B if things go fubar.

Zyre has a serious personality, and defiantly follows 'might makes right' philosophy, but he does know how to play nice and talk when the need arises. If one of the groups going to the good planes needs someone to make the tough calls, they can always drag him along to do so.

I think at this point we have enough 'not stealth' people to make a party almost or even completely devoid of it, call it the traveling band, if we want to go that road.  Perhaps toss in a bard with some bagpipes if we want it to be cool.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:02, Fri 20 Nov 2020.

5e's rule that only half the party needs to make a stealth check for the whole party to pass it makes it so that non-stealth characters aren't really a detriment in a stealthy party now, :)

That's a good reminder, I tend to forget this part regularly!

I love it!  I have been in sooooo many parties where one or two people got the group ambushed becaused they refused to even try to be stealthy, lol.  I always have stealth and perception on my characters.

Groups have been assigned and private threads created!

Thanks Boss!

In older versions and Pathfinder I always try to give my guy some ability to stealth, but with 5e the disadvantage and not needed dex at all in full plate does make it hard to argue for picking it up. Might see bout getting some elvenkind boots fown the road so he can try to do it.

General question for everyone. Would you prefer to see the threads of the other groups as well, or should they stay separated from each other? Seeing as you are all working towards the same goal, I would have no objections to allow this for player entertainment.

I find that seeing other threads is at best distracting, at worst it gets in the way of the character interaction later when sharing information gathered should be part of the story and everyone assumes all the players have read all 300 other posts.

Aye. As fun as it could be to read everything as it happens I think there is more to be said for players sharing information actively rather than passively when the time comes.

Now that could certainly come in the form of posts here where a team just has to brag about an encounter they just had or some such not necessarily just IC interaction down the line.

Show me the threads!

It might be fun to have the threads visible after they have been completed. I am mostly indifferent on the matter though.

I think that seeing them after they are completed would be the best way to do that.

Hidden while ongoing is my preference.

Yeah, I vote for "read after completed" myself, just to avoid clutter.

I'm fine either way.

Either one works.  Though, it is sometimes easier to just have only the thread your in to look after.

Alright, thanks for the feedback. So once a mission has been completed, I'll lock the according thread and change it to group 0 for everyone to peruse at their leisure.

That is exactly what the archive effect does, you may as well use that.

Sorry for the lack of updates, but it's pretty busy around here in the time before Christmas. Will be able to update by tomorrow at the earliest.

I'm just happy the game is still moving during the holidays, lol.

I'm sorry everyone, but I'm afraid I have some bad news.

I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon due to abdominal pain and it turns out I have to visit the hospital rather soon to be on the safe side. As this is rather unpleasant and I would like to take care of this before the upcoming holidays, I'll have to leave and won't be able to update here for a while. I cannot promise when exactly I'll be back, hope it's just a week or so, but I completely understand if this is too uncertain for some and you prefer to look elsewhere for a different game in the meantime. No hard feelings.

I know it's bad timing (when is it not?), but it cannot be helped. Thanks for understanding and hope to talk to you soon again!

Hey, no worries. Take care of yourself first and foremost.

This game will still be here when things have settled, however long that takes. And I'll still be around as I'm sure many others will be as well.

Hope things go well and you recover swiftly mate.

I'll be here waiting mighty leader!  Need to save the multiverse!

Sorry to hear, and I hope you feel better soon. Take care of yourself, I'll still be here when you get back!

Jeez, that sucks, Boss.

As always, take care of yourself first and foremost. IRL comes first before gaming and all that. We will survive, and I'm sure we will still be here when you get back and feel better. :)

Thank you for taking the time to let us know. I hope you are able to recover quickly!

But whether it takes you a week, month, or even a year, I expect I will still be ready to play when you return.

Thanks for letting us know, and hope you have a speedy recovery.  I've never gotten to play such a high level character, so I plan to be here.

Please take care of yourself!

Agreed with everyone else. Take care of yourself man. Just let us know when you're recovered and we'll get this show back on the road.

Hope everything turns out okay, and I'll be here upon your return.

Just wanted to check in, see how everybody is doing, and say happy holidays to yall.

Thinking about you, GM. Hope you're doing alright.

Happy Festivus to all, I hope you are all well :)

Happy Hanukwanzmas!

FYI, I'm getting back to my regular weekday schedule.  Hopefully, the game will wake up from the slumber.  On here, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

Happy random day in January folks. Hope all y'all are well. Continued thoughts going out to our GM.

Yay random January day! Well wishes to all :)

Hullo.

Howdy y’all.

Hi!

G'day! :-D

I wanna play!  :) Blessings to you gm person!

Happy random February day!  Hope everyone is doing well!  My life is fantastic right now.

And a good random February day it is :D

Nice to hear life is good Mara :D

Happy rando February day!

Actually, for those of us who are veterans, the day is 223. LOL
Actually, it would be 23 February, but the other makes sense if you look at it.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:32, Tue 23 Feb 2021.

Actually, for some of us, it is Happy Sweet 16 to an amazing daughter! :-D

Oh woe is me, so boring on rpol now!  I hope the gm is ok and coming back eventually, :)

Mayhaps.

I am still ready to play if/when they do!

In reply to Mara the Blessed (msg # 194):

Did someone cast Augury? Maybe try changing your specific course of action and try again. Of course odds are you'll get a random answer if you try again today...

Separate note, still around as well. Hoping against hope the GM is okay. Especially since it was a health issue that seemed to pull them away initially.

How's everyone else?

Also I think we're due our happy random day in march!

I got my vaccine, so that's good.

Got mine as well.  Both caused a reaction, though the first was the worst of the two.  But, otherwise good.  My wife gets her first tomorrow.

I have a question, did you get a CDC vaccination record card? If so, did they fill anything out on the back, or is it supposed to be blank?

The date of my first dose is stamped on one side, the other side has stickers that show manufacturer, lot #, date and clinic site (got mine through work as a state employee).  With the stickers showing the date of innoculation, the stamp on the back is a bit redundant.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:28, Tue 23 Mar 2021.

Mine just has the front (the back is in spanish) but I got the johnsons and johnsons sniper shot, :)

Happy random March day, I hope all are healthy.