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Dungeons and Dragons 3.5?


Sandman XI

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I'm thinking of starting an episodic campaign, from level 1 to whenever the game peters out. The setting would be Forgotten Realms or a generic setting with a Greek myth type tone.

Anyone?

,,

So, here we go with some hard rulings

,,

Level 2

40 point buy

900gp

I accept optimization. I DO NOT accept power gaming.

Books I Will Be Using
Cores
Player's Handbook

Player's Handbook II

Dungeon Master's Guide

Dungeon Master's Guide II

Monster Manual

Monster Manual III

Monster Manual IV

Monster Manual V

Completes
Complete Adventurer

Complete Arcane

Complete Champion

Complete Divine

Complete Mage

Complete Psionic

Complete Scoundrel

Complete Warrior

Races ofs
Races of Destiny

Races of Eberron

Races of the Dragon

Races of Stone

Races of the Wild

Alternate Systems
Expanded Psionics Handbook

Magic of Incarnum

Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords

Tome of Magic

Unearth Arcana

Weapons of Legacy

Places
Cityscape

Dungeonscape

Frostburn

Sandstorm

Stormwrack

Planar Handbook

Monsters
Draconomicon: The Book of Dragons

Dragon Magic

Drow of the Underdark

Elder Evils

Exemplars of Evil

Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss

Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells

Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead

Lords of Madness

Compendiums
Magic Item Compendium (I technically don't have this book It's the one that got away from me <ahttp://www.rpgpost.com/uploads/emoticons/default_sad.png' alt=':('>)

Rules Compendium

Spell Compendium

"Those that dont fit in any other category
Book of Exalted Deeds

Miniatures Handbook

Heroes of Battle

Heroes of Horror

,,

If we go with Forgotten Realms, I'll add in the FR setting books.

The World

The Center of Creation is Olympus. From the everything spreads out. The land surrounding Olympus is prosperous enough to be called Homeland.

To the north is a frozen region full of primal people. Their gods (Aesir), while not prosperous as the Olympians, are still gods and look after their people.

To the south is a desert region full of nomadic wanderers and oasis kingdoms. They TOO have their own pantheon (Pesedjet) enough to sustain them.

To the east is a region of no god worship at all. They seemingly have cut their borders off from Homeland, but not strictly so.

Finally, to the west is a mysterious shroud that no one but the gods can peer through. They know what's in there but they're not talking. Every once in a while a strange wanderer will come out of their having powers unseen and untold in unshrouded Creation.

Races

All civilized races are Human.

Dwarves are Humans blessed of Hephaestus.

Magical elves (-2 Str, +2 Int) are Humans blessed of Hecate.

Hunter elves (-2 Con, +2 Dex) are Humans blessed of Artemis.

Halflings are Humans blessed of Hermes.

Orcs are Humans blessed of Ares.

Gnomes are Humans blessed of Eris.

Regular humans are not blessed of any god. Yet they are the most free. While an Artemis blessed human can worship Hephaestus, they know where their real blessing came from.

Since they are all human, they can interbreed with each other. Though there have been some some socially anomalous humans. The offspring of the unblessed and the blessed (particularly Ares, Hecate and Artemis) have began to make their own little circles, growing up 'awkwardly'.

Races outside of Core, please have a talk with me.

Warforged were Hephaestus's original plan for his blessed. While he takes credit for their formation, he doesn't favor them over the humans (dwarves) he has.

Catfolk come from the south. They don't look human. Cat heads, tails, paw feet and fur.

Goblins and Kobolds are blessed of Echidna. They breed explosively fast. They do no look human and are called Goblins and Kobolds specifically. Kobolds are not dragon spawn.

Dark Elves, Dark Dwarves and Dark Gnomes are Humans 'blessed' of Hades. Hades wanted to build his kingdom faster so he managed to capture a few humans. He stripped them of their blessings and made them even more powerful. After a while, the Dark humans revolted and Hades, not wanting to hear the insufferable whining of his 'blessed' set them free.

Monsters

Why are their monsters-a-poppin in Creation? Echidna, Mother of Monsters, is breeding. Her production has kicked into overdrive in the past age. Everything unknown in Creation is attributed to her unless they find a good explanation.

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I'm in favor of Forgotten Realms. (Primarily because WotC specifically took steps to ensure that EVERYTHING THEY RELEASED had some analog in Forgotten Realms.

The caveat to this of course is that imho for such a game to work, the Super-Friends Team of (Insert canonical literature hero types here) needs to be taken out. Otherwise, why the bleeding hell would ANYONE turn to a band of lvl 1-5 miscreants in a quest to save the world when their resident Marty Stu Dark Elf can sneeze the problems away with a whirling shiny dervish of swords and backflips?

,,

~H

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So, here we go with some hard rulings

,,

Level 2

40 point buy

900gp

I accept optimization. I DO NOT accept power gaming.

Books I Will Be Using
Cores
Player's Handbook

Player's Handbook II

Dungeon Master's Guide

Dungeon Master's Guide II

Monster Manual

Monster Manual III

Monster Manual IV

Monster Manual V

Completes
Complete Adventurer

Complete Arcane

Complete Champion

Complete Divine

Complete Mage

Complete Psionic

Complete Scoundrel

Complete Warrior

Races ofs
Races of Destiny

Races of Eberron

Races of the Dragon

Races of Stone

Races of the Wild

Alternate Systems
Expanded Psionics Handbook

Magic of Incarnum

Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords

Tome of Magic

Unearth Arcana

Weapons of Legacy

Places
Cityscape

Dungeonscape

Frostburn

Sandstorm

Stormwrack

Planar Handbook

Monsters
Draconomicon: The Book of Dragons

Dragon Magic

Drow of the Underdark

Elder Evils

Exemplars of Evil

Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss

Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells

Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead

Lords of Madness

Compendiums
Magic Item Compendium (I technically don't have this book It's the one that got away from me <ahttp://www.rpgpost.com/uploads/emoticons/default_sad.png' alt=':('>)

Rules Compendium

Spell Compendium

"Those that dont fit in any other category
Book of Exalted Deeds

Miniatures Handbook

Heroes of Battle

Heroes of Horror

,,

If we go with Forgotten Realms, I'll add in the FR setting books.

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If we go with Forgotten Realms we don't have to do much for world building, just point to a years and and place and say, "that's when and where we're gonna be." Though it may be hard to put a square peg in a round hole. Eberron themed things, faithless divine (clerics and paladins of an ideal) and the straight black and white atmosphere in particular.

,,

If we go with the Greek themed setting, I will be building the world from the ground up with your input. We can feel like we accomplished something. Those for the moral grey area of fantasy will enjoy it, as Greek myths tended to be filled with it. The hard part will be justifying races (where do elves, half elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, orcs, half orcs come from? are there even stranger races? do we stick totally human?) and monsters (there was only one medusa, kraken, et cetera. dragons, demons and devils and a whole lot of other things weren't present) and some classes (paladin in particular, eastern classes, psionics, dragon classes, weird takes on magic [warlocks, incarnum and anything in the tome of magic])

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I think the easy road would be Forgotten Realms, Sand. It would require the least leg-work.

Although if I joined I would need a bunch of help in terms of making sure a character is fitting that world once I've gotten the crunch down in stats.

,,

Color me "considering" this game, but I'm fairly well stocked in terms of characters needing to be built.

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The World

The Center of Creation is Olympus. From the everything spreads out. The land surrounding Olympus is prosperous enough to be called Homeland.

To the north is a frozen region full of primal people. Their gods (Aesir), while not prosperous as the Olympians, are still gods and look after their people.

To the south is a desert region full of nomadic wanderers and oasis kingdoms. They TOO have their own pantheon (Pesedjet) enough to sustain them.

To the east is a region of no god worship at all. They seemingly have cut their borders off from Homeland, but not strictly so.

Finally, to the west is a mysterious shroud that no one but the gods can peer through. They know what's in there but they're not talking. Every once in a while a strange wanderer will come out of their having powers unseen and untold in unshrouded Creation.

Races

All civilized races are Human.

Dwarves are Humans blessed of Hephaestus.

Magical elves (-2 Str, +2 Int) are Humans blessed of Hecate.

Hunter elves (-2 Con, +2 Dex) are Humans blessed of Artemis.

Halflings are Humans blessed of Hermes.

Orcs are Humans blessed of Ares.

Gnomes are Humans blessed of Eris.

Regular humans are not blessed of any god. Yet they are the most free. While an Artemis blessed human can worship Hephaestus, they know where their real blessing came from.

Since they are all human, they can interbreed with each other. Though there have been some some socially anomalous humans. The offspring of the unblessed and the blessed (particularly Ares, Hecate and Artemis) have began to make their own little circles, growing up 'awkwardly'.

Races outside of Core, please have a talk with me.

Warforged were Hephaestus's original plan for his blessed. While he takes credit for their formation, he doesn't favor them over the humans (dwarves) he has.

Catfolk come from the south. They don't look human. Cat heads, tails, paw feet and fur.

Goblins and Kobolds are blessed of Echidna. They breed explosively fast. They do no look human and are called Goblins and Kobolds specifically. Kobolds are not dragon spawn.

Dark Elves, Dark Dwarves and Dark Gnomes are Humans 'blessed' of Hades. Hades wanted to build his kingdom faster so he managed to capture a few humans. He stripped them of their blessings and made them even more powerful. After a while, the Dark humans revolted and Hades, not wanting to hear the insufferable whining of his 'blessed' set them free.

Monsters

Why are their monsters-a-poppin in Creation? Echidna, Mother of Monsters, is breeding. Her production has kicked into overdrive in the past age. Everything unknown in Creation is attributed to her unless they find a good explanation.

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I was looking at the Illumians, possibly as the blessed of Thoth/Djehuty in the south?

I have no problem with that.

For some reason I'm really latching onto the idea of psionics...but I haven't really played a lot of 3.5e psionics.

,,

So...I dunno if I'll stick with that.

,,

I'll give it some thought.

Alright :)
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I actually rolled up an alternate warforged, a psychic warrior. I think the idea is cool, but I like it just as much as my ninja. If you were thinking about a different version of psion (shaper perhaps... with repair?), I think we could work off each other and learn together.

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Just a thought. Honestly I'm not really married to anything besides the warforged; I'd be willing to do just about any class.

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I think I may have (inadvertently-ish) brought Max over to the Shapeshifter Dark Side. (Druid / Changeling / Something else that changes shapes)

,,

That said, I'm more than willing to let him take the spot for the shifty person since the other thing I was looking at was, in fact, psion.

,,

Depending on silly things like party makeup and the like, I was looking at asking to be one of the psionic races. Kalashtar ftw, possibly Thri-Kreen, but that second one's a pretty severe stretch.

,,

~H

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Size and proportion are still intact, but they all have human features. Aphrodite (changelings? seemingly into the beauty aspect of their blessings in this setting) and Zeus (no idea) have blessed people, I'm just putting the core races (yes, i count Eberron races as core) in Homeland and the noncore races (halfgiants are a northern thing. thrikreen are a southern thing, etc) elsewhere. If you players have ideas for where these should be and do in this setting, shout it out. That said, I'm going to put my blueprint of what i have for classes so far.

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Anywhere

Clerics (mostly in Homeland and the south, the north has them sparringly, east probably none at all)

Favored Souls (everywhere but the east)

Fighters

Rogues

Rangers

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North - Norse feel - Aesir gods

Barbarians

Druids (who outnumber clerics for their role)

any 'primal' class

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South - Arabic/Egyptian aesthetic - Pesedjet gods

Sorcerers

Psionics(?)

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East - Oriental aesthetic - no gods

Monk

Ninjas

Samurai

Wu Jen

any ;eastern' class

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Homeland - Greek aesthetic - Olympian gods

Archivists

Artificers

Bards

Beguilers

Wizards

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Classes I haven't figured out where to put (i'd like to put them somewhere in Creation before i start pulling them 'out of The Shroud')

Incarnum (Totemists are probably a Northern thing)

Binders

Dread Necromancers

Paladins

Shadowcasters

Swashbucklers

Trunamers

Warlocks

Warmages

any other class not named here

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We talked this out in chat, here's what we came up with

[salmonMax]: Sandman, I asked another question. :)

[sandman XI]: Max, forgive my ignorance

[salmonMax]: Sandman, no worries. This is why I ask things. :)

[sandman XI]: Eastern Culture in this setting is ancestors and chi powers, not getting their powers from outside sources, but from themselves

[salmonMax]: Sandman, ok. The reason I ask, is because one idea I have involves a character on a quest to become divine. But if there are no divinities there, then I'll have to alter that basic concept. This is not a problem, mind you.

[sandman XI]: i am flexible on the setting

[Malachite]: Max - They could be on the quest for Nirvana/Total Enlightenment.

[salmonMax]: Mala, indeed.

[sandman XI]: if you have a better idea, please let me know

[salmonMax]: Or something lower key, like a Taoist Immortal.

[salmonMax]: Sandman, it's your setting of course. My very vague concept revolved around something like Chinese folklore mythology, in which the Heavens are a giant a bureaucracy of divinities...though these 'gods' are not like the gods of Olympus. Most are minor functionaries, and even the powerful ones are part of a hierarchy that goes all the way up to a Celestial Emperor...who tends to spend centuries in contemplation at a time.

[sandman XI]: hm

[salmonMax]: Of course, to a Westerner, those gods might not really seem all that godlike.

[salmonMax]: Who worships a God of Shoe Crafting?

[sandman XI]: right

[sandman XI]: heh

[salmonMax]: And of course, ancestor worship is also very big.

[salmonMax]: It's a very confused, and confusing mythology.

[salmonMax]: All tangled up with, as you say, a parallel mythology about personal enlightenment and oneness of being.

[sandman XI]: So, since this is a greek centric setting, i'll call the notion of 'no gods' a thing that Homelanders think

[sandman XI]: but only Easterners know what really happens

[salmonMax]: That sounds eminently plausible.

[Asarasa]: Guan Yu, motherfucker. A general that was the epitome of loyalty and righteousness, who was later deified.

[salmonMax]: The Easterners don't hold it against them. What can they expect of barbarians?

[sandman XI]: Max, consider that incorporated

[salmonMax]: Thanks. Of course, I may not go with that character concept in the end. ;)

[salmonMax]: A monk/sorceror would be fun though.

[salmonMax]: But so would a changeling master of many forms.

[sandman XI]: still using that :D

[salmonMax]: Keen! Heck, I may be Eastern even if I go with the changeling...

[sandman XI]: max, considering that the east is slightly (not totally) isolationist, it might be misunderstandings even

[sandman XI]: contrived misunderstanding i mean

[salmonMax]: Indeed

[salmonMax]: Hm. Can't really do MMF until 5th level, which means I'd start out a druid...but that works. Animist...the kami are everywhere.

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Okay despite my general opinion of 3.5, I have been jonesing for a good fantasy game and this do sound like fun, particularly the mash up of real world mythology and fantasy high adventure.

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The concept that I came up with last night is a southern desert nomad trained in the blade magic of his people who got lost lost in a terrible sandstorm and was rescued and taught to survive by a crochety desert shaman. I am still working on why he's traveled north, out o the desert though...

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Mechanics-wise I'm a Human Swordsage/Totemist.

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I really appreciate the 40 points too. Neither of my concepts have a good race/class mesh (both require wisdom which starts at a -2). But that's ok. I like a challenge.

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I just recently went through my Psychic Warrior build, and I really like that. I think I'm going to say that that's what I definitely want to do. Since it's a Psion class, it means it went down south to learn it. Maybe it and Craig ST's characters know each other. I'm thinking that it got tired of playing second fiddle to the dwarves and heard about another set of gods down south and went to go see if some god down there would patron itself or if there was another race of second string beings that it could relate to/with. Rough outline.

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Okay, I think I finally have my character class and race down. I'm going to go with the Factotem class, but I'm switching from the Illumian race to just a vanilla human. Looking over the Illumian stuff, it's just not as useful, or at least more confusing and doesn't seem as useful to me, than the extra feat, extra skills, and access to the Chameleon PrC.

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So~! I'll be working on the character sheet crunchies and her background over the next few days. I'll probably be pestering people with questions as I still don't get at least 50% of all the rules and exceptions and synergies and optional rules that exist in the morass that is D&D. ;)

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Also, Sand, I found this and thought you might like the rules rewrite: Berlew's Diplomacy.

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