Eclipse of Eternity (D&D Next)

[Gris]

TWF that table formatting... so nice. I'm going to finish and clean up mine:

Edit: To avoid any format problems I'm going to spoilertag the whole thing, just in case:

SPOILER: Click to show

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ALIS Female Human  Paladin 1 Age: 17 Height: 5'7 Weight: 155 lbs Eye Color: Blue Hair Color: Black	Abilities: STRength 17 (+3) DEXterity 13 (+1) CONstitution 16 (+3) INTelligence 7 (-2) WISdom 14 (+2) CHArisma 17 (+3)	Attack: Initiative: +1 Unarmed: +4 ; DMG [1 + 3B] Longsword: +4 ; DMG [1d8 + 3 S] (Versatile 1d10 S)	Defense: Hit Points: 13 Hit Dice: 1d10 Armor Class: 16 Saving Throws: Constitution, Charisma
	Class Features: Divine Sense: Action: Detect fiend/undead and similar within 50 ft. Lay on Hands: Pool of healing by touch with 5hp/level. Also disease/poison per 5hp spent.	Proficiencies: Proficiency Bonus: +1 Armor: All, Shields Weapons: Simple, Martial Tools: Mount (Land), Gaming Set Skills: Persuasion, Athletics, Deception, Intimidation	Spellcasting:
		Equipment and Notes: Ring Mail (22lb), Shield (8lb), Longsword (4lb), Adventurer's Kit (39lb), 11gp Movement: 30ft (25ft armored) Encumbrance: 73/170lb Languages: Common, Dwarven and Orcish Background: Thug (Bad Reputation)
Growing up as an orphan in Fairhaven gets you into a monastery if you are lucky and into all sorts of trouble if you aren't. Alis seemed cut for what the destiny had given her, being strong enough to brave her way in the slums, with her charm to compensate for a complete lack of wits and formal education. But even then, she really wasn't where she was meant to be. Alis always dreamed of a better life, away from bullying others, where one could use her gifts to protect others, to make them safe from people like... well, herself. Such a chance came the day an old knight, one who anyone would call venerable due to his age, stumbled upon her, wandering aimlessly in the wrong neighborhood. He seemed quite unaware of his surroundings, the cause of that being his advanced age or the bleeding wound in his forehead. It seemed that she wasn't the first thug he had encountered around, as he was wearing little more than his armor. "My beloved, I've found home..." he mumbled, stumbling in her arms, his eyes full of joy. "Daughter of mine, bandits stole my sword, your sword" said afterwards, weighted by shame, making little to no sense. He was clearly confused about who Alis could be, putting her in different places along the old knight's long and eventful history. "I'm here to serve you, my queen" announced once with utter devotion, "this is our last stand, we can't stop the orcs no more..." added then, with a hint of desperate bravado. While his last moments ended, as suddenly as he has appeared, Alis didn't even flinch, looking at his eyes, nodding to every otherworldly situation the knight narrated. Maybe it was the way the knight had talked her a life full of heroic deeds, maybe it was the way he was attacked when he couldn't really defend himself. Alis decided that she had to do something. She found and fought the thieves that attacked the knight, recovering his belongings after taking a wound or three, and took his remains to a temple, thinking that they could honor him there. But then, nobody seemed to know the old knight, or even the emblem on his shield, but the head cleric saw something in Alis. "We can't do much more than offer proper burial" he said, "But you... you can do much more. You can honor the memory of a man nobody seem to remember" added, putting a hand in her shoulder. With her wounds tended, Alis left the temple as a new girl. She was still dimwitted, and her reputation would precede her, but now her strength and her heart were in the right place.

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I think that everything is done correctly and I'm not missing anything.

[WildKnight]

Jun 1, 2014 0:06:33 GMT -5 shenron said:

May 31, 2014 23:24:42 GMT -5 WildKnight said:

I did not mean to step on your toes with the alignment.

It's not so much an issue of stepping on toes, so much as just something I'd rather discuss in PMs because typically, a player sees connections between their concept and their sheet and/or background that the GM doesn't necessarily get right off. I might ultimately end up still saying no because I'm looking more for things that enhance the game and story overall than just things that make an individual character "work" before I make exceptions, but it's always possible that there's some bigger connection between your concept and the LN alignment that you see and I don't because your character exists primarily in your head. I really won't know your character until I see it in play.

[takewithfood]

Nice, Gris!

I have a rules question that I should toss in here: As a druid, I still need a free hand to perform spellcasting, right? I also get my proficiency bonus to spell DCs if I have my staff (or wand or rod, but I went with staff) in hand, but can I hold the staff in the same hand that I use to gesture? As in, can I gesture with the staff? That seems to make sense for a wand or a rod (gesturing with the wand instead of an empty hand makes even more sense, really) but I'm not clear.

Basically, can I hold the staff in one hand and a shield in the other, and still cast spells? If not, can I temporarily pass the staff to my shield hand like you can in 3rd ed/Pathfinder?

EDIT: Found this:

Use an Item
Both mundane objects and magic items, from a
handful of caltrops to a horn of blasting, are
useful tools in combat. Activating the special
ability of such an item requires an action.

In contrast, you can combine drawing or
stowing one weapon or shield with your action,
your move, or both.

So I guess I could stow the shield as part of my move, then retrieve it as part of casting? At any rate, it sounds like less of a problem now.

I think those are my only questions for now, but I'm sure I'll come up with more later. ^__^

~TWF

[takewithfood]

Jun 1, 2014 12:56:09 GMT -5 WildKnight said:

It's not so much an issue of stepping on toes, so much as just something I'd rather discuss in PMs because typically, a player sees connections between their concept and their sheet and/or background that the GM doesn't necessarily get right off. I might ultimately end up still saying no because I'm looking more for things that enhance the game and story overall than just things that make an individual character "work" before I make exceptions, but it's always possible that there's some bigger connection between your concept and the LN alignment that you see and I don't because your character exists primarily in your head. I really won't know your character until I see it in play.

Just a suggestion from the peanut gallery here, but perhaps he could start out as LN and find himself moving towards LG as the story progresses? Particularly from finding himself working for the common good along other good characters, not the least of which is a paladin. Maybe we'll rub off on him.

~TWF

[WildKnight]

I believe you can probably complete the gestures with the held object. I may be reading it wrong, but I don't think it's going to be game breaking if I'm wrong.

[takewithfood]

Cool, that's how I interpreted it, too. It's really cool to see wands used as a spell focus like that. I don't know if I've ever seen that in D&D, despite how iconic it is. Perhaps we owe that to Harry Potter. lol

~TWF

[WildKnight]

Jun 1, 2014 13:05:58 GMT -5 takewithfood said:

Jun 1, 2014 12:56:09 GMT -5 WildKnight said:

It's not so much an issue of stepping on toes, so much as just something I'd rather discuss in PMs because typically, a player sees connections between their concept and their sheet and/or background that the GM doesn't necessarily get right off. I might ultimately end up still saying no because I'm looking more for things that enhance the game and story overall than just things that make an individual character "work" before I make exceptions, but it's always possible that there's some bigger connection between your concept and the LN alignment that you see and I don't because your character exists primarily in your head. I really won't know your character until I see it in play.

Just a suggestion from the peanut gallery here, but perhaps he could start out as LN and find himself moving towards LG as the story progresses? Particularly from finding himself working for the common good along other good characters, not the least of which is a paladin. Maybe we'll rub off on him.

~TWF

Yeah, I don't have a problem with that at all.

Cards on the table, my biggest problem with Neutral characters (well, LN and N... I have a HOST of problems with CN, mostly in the way the majority of players I've known have played them, more so than the alignment itself) is motivating them to do things. Good characters do things because, well, they're good, and they don't want bad things to happen. Neutral characters lack that clear cut motivation to act, and I'm equally disinterested in consistently create a "payoff" (sometimes literally) for a neutral character and in having neutral characters artificially behave in a heroic manner because their player wants to follow the obvious plot hook.

[takewithfood]

He isn't N-N, though, he's lawful neutral, and that's at least something. He has the lawful-axis to motivate him. And even completely neutral characters have personal reasons to do things; it isn't as though they just go catatonic and never act. Plus, he doesn't have to be neutral all the time, in the same way that evil characters aren't allergic to doing the occasional good deed, etc.

Getting involved in the game could be personal for him, someone might convince him or order him to participate, he might just think it sounds like fun, or perhaps a recent job went sideways and it's in his best interest to get out of town for a while or better his name by performing a good deed, etc.

Man, I still don't like the alignment system. I know it's a classic part of D&D but it causes a lot of problems like this.

~TWF

[Deleted]

I've always felt that people should be given an alignment by the DM based on their actions after a bit of time playing.

[WildKnight]

Jun 1, 2014 14:57:30 GMT -5 dunecat3d said:

I've always felt that people should be given an alignment by the DM based on their actions after a bit of time playing.

That is a long-running discussion in the D&D community... you can build a character and say "I think he'll be Lawful Good!" but most players really don't know who their character is until a few sessions into the game anyway.

[Deleted]

The groups I've played with have always been pretty lax about changing alignment once things get rolling. The only time it's ever been a problem was with classes like the Palladian where alignment was a requirement of the class.

On another note I've got most of my character scribbled down in my note book. If I get a chance around prep for my weekly rl and group I'll toss it together and post him up. Thanks for the info on the military groups in the city. :-D

[takewithfood]

Yes, I even had a DM back in my university days who had us re-choose our alignment at the start of each adventure to reflect our character's stance towards the current events. We had a wild elf ranger who was lawful during an adventure that took place in his homelands, and who was chaotic in the next adventure when it took place in a big city, for example. It was kind of cool, but in the end we still mostly forgot about what we had written down and focused more on the game and just playing our characters the way we imagined them.

While we're at it, I'm curious to know what you guys think of the system so far. This is my first look at the rules, and it's a bit better than I had expected. I think my ideal system would be a mid-way point between this and Pathfinder: a little more customization than 5th ed, but without as many sacred cows as Pathfinder.

~TWF

[WildKnight]

One of the guys mentioned in the "design journal" posts for 5E that he was adamant about not removing customization to the extent that they did... and then it was pointed out to him (and he couldn't argue the point) that virtually every problem with 3, 3.5, 4, and Pathfinder, ALL go back to this notion of "customization." They're actually really stressing a return back to randomization with this edition, which I think is a smart move.

[takewithfood]

Well, I don't really mean customization as opposed to randomization, I just mean in terms of how many ways you can flesh your character out with stuff that goes on your sheet, rather than just details that go in the fluff you write on the back of your sheet.

Like, I like the backgrounds in 5e. They don't do that much, but they do add a bit of flavour, and for once it matters when you say your character used to run with the thieves guild, or went through formal military training, etc. I like the Pathfinder class archetypes, too, but they're all about what you are, not who you are or where you came from.

~TWF

[WildKnight]

Jun 1, 2014 19:33:46 GMT -5 takewithfood said:

Well, I don't really mean customization as opposed to randomization, I just mean in terms of how many ways you can flesh your character out with stuff that goes on your sheet, rather than just details that go in the fluff you write on the back of your sheet.

~TWF

Right, that's what I was talking about as well. The giant lists (and huge number per character) of feats, alternate racial traits, etc. were the primary force behind totally unbalancing D&D 3 & 3.5, and I would argue a strong reason why Pathfinder is starting to lose it's player base as well.

Randomization (which in the current implementation is mostly stat generation, but they're supposedly working to bring more randomization back to other areas of the game as well) isn't necessarily the enemy of customization... it's just how the D&D Next design team chose to answer the question of "if we reduce customization, what else do we do to bring excitement to character creation?"