Thirst - A Ravenloft PbP

Game Master Celestial Healer

Set in the land of Ravenloft, a band of intrepid heroes searches for a way home, but their fate may be inextricably tied to a vain, power-hungry madman. Uses the Pathfinder ruleset.


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Silver Crusade

Male Celestial Cleric of Myself 10/Radiant Servant of Me 10

Hi. I forgot to mention an important rules change.

In keeping with Ravenloft traditions, neither alignment detection nor undead detection will work properly. If you belong to a class with those abilities, we can come up with alternate class features.

Spells that raise the dead will have a risk of the target coming back as undead instead. There will probably be a caster level check involved. I will post firm rules on that soon.

Liberty's Edge

Male Mothman Expert 5

Cool.

I'll post or email some initial concepts / thoughts soonish.

Sovereign Court

Female Human Level 4 Bard

Ah! Finally it appears! I'm thinking inquisitor, for the other players' information. If it's looking like there are any critical "holes" in the party, I'll happily switch as needed.

Liberty's Edge

Male Mothman Expert 5

As usual I have half a dozen ideas for a character, but am also willing to tweak to fit a percieved hole.

I am thinking of either a ranger or a cavalier or on a completely different note a wizard, witch or alchemist!

Doesn't narrow it down terribly does it?

I will probably play a human male character if the ranger or the cavalier, I think that best fits my ideas there. Not sure on race or gender if I go more the arcane caster type.

The Exchange

Must have idea...........

Fighter


Human

Have absolutely no idea, but checking out my PF rulebook for inspiration. Since I've never played under PF and it's been at least a couple of years since I rolled up a 3.5 character, I'm slightly floundering.

Some kind of roguey type maybe?

Sovereign Court

Female Human Level 4 Bard

hmm...maybe we need me to go cleric then instead?

Silver Crusade

Male Celestial Cleric of Myself 10/Radiant Servant of Me 10

I plan on soliciting one or two more on the gamer connection forums, so if there is a gap, they will be made aware of it. Naturally, choosing a character that fills that gap increases their odds of getting chosen for the PbP :)

In other words, don't worry about it if we don't have a cleric yet.

Silver Crusade

Male Celestial Cleric of Myself 10/Radiant Servant of Me 10

And most of you have already gotten this, but here it is again, so it's all in one place:

The crunchy bits: Level 1, but starting with 1000 xp. Fast XP advancement. 20 pt buy. Start with 500 gp to spend as you like on gear (about what you would have gotten adventuring for those first 1000 xp.)

I plan on just giving group xp awards instead of individual awards, to keep people at the same level. I don't have the patience to balance encounters for a mixed-level party. Although who knows, I may change my mind later. Like I said on the boards, posting about once a day is fine. In combat, I will give people about 24 hours to post, or I will post a reasonable action for them. That keeps things moving, but at the same time is pretty reasonable.

It will be a pretty story-intensive campaign. Ravenloft is more about terror, atmosphere, and investigation than it is about beating down bad guys. Based on that, I'm not anticipating needing to tell people what they can and can't use to build their characters. Anything in PF is fine, and other things can just be run by me if you have any doubts.

The party will be starting in a rather generic fantasy realm, so we can work in just about any background elements players want to have. That includes gods, organizations, etc. None of that will matter once you pass through the mists anyway. I just need characters who can work together, whatever alignment or disposition they choose.

Silver Crusade

Male Celestial Cleric of Myself 10/Radiant Servant of Me 10

To give a little more info on where you will be starting:

At the top of the campaign, you have been asked (or begged, or bribed, as the case may be) by the leaders of a local village to stop a nearby minor noble from enacting some foul rite with a kidnapped village lass.

Your motives can be somewhat self-serving, if you prefer (she could be a family member, or you could just not like the idea of some evil dude getting too powerful). I want to start it in media res, so we can hurry up and get you into those mists.

Sovereign Court

Female Human Level 4 Bard

Looking at the inquisitor's Detect Alignment ability - I don't know what to do about that. I was going to suggest a more mundane bonus to sense motive, but she already has that as a class ability.

Maybe a different detect spell? Or maybe detect evil etc. doesn't detect a creture's alignment, but more their immediate intentions.

Evil disguised vampire is hiring us to take out the werewolf plaguing his cattl...er...villagers. He genuinely wants us to take care of this problem, and intends to pay us as promised for this service. He would detect as good and lawful because he's at the moment not meaning harm to anyone, and plans to fulfill his obligations...?

Other detect spells at levels 0-2:

0:
Detect Magic
Detect Poison

1:
Detect Animals or Plants
Detect Chaos/Evil/Good/Law
Detect Secret Doors
Detect Snares and Pits
Detect Undead

2:
Detect Thoughts

If we turn out not to have a rogue, I can trade it in for some of the more roguish detections, like Secret Doors and Snares and pits - but without disable that will be of limited use. Maybe it should go a different route - more like a locate object or person sort of thing?

Hm. Or maybe my first level domain spell as a replacement, so it'll follow my domain theme (inquisitors usually don't get their domain spells)?

I'm just throwing random thoughts out. Let me know if something does or doesn't appeal.

Sovereign Court

Female Human Level 4 Bard

Basic plan for the inquisitor:

Half Orc Female Inquisitor of Erastil (Feather Subdomain (from Animal domain))

She will generally be an archer. Her first domain power is Eyes of the Hawk - bonuses to perception and initiative. Her second will be an animal companion at -3 levels (I'm thinking the dire bat). If you were examining the Domain Spells option to replace Detect Alignment, the ones available to her are: calm animals, feather fall, fly, summon nature's ally IV, beast shape III, mass fly, animal shapes, summon nature's ally VIII, shapechange.

As Erastil is the god of community and rural areas, I figure she was raised much more kindly in a small town than many half orcs, and values such a small town lifestyle when it's cooperative and kind instead of just insular. Her main focus is going to be on protecting the populace from danger and fostering a sense of community between people. Erastil is Lawful Good, so she'll be either Lawful Good or Neutral Good.

Silver Crusade

Male Celestial Cleric of Myself 10/Radiant Servant of Me 10

I'm liking what I'm seeing so far. I'll look at my APG tonight for those class features.

Sovereign Court

Female Human Level 4 Bard

Quick question (sorry to be a pest!):

The dire bat starts off medium and becomes large. I"m not interested in a giant battle pet - he's going to lag levels behind everyone anyway - I'd rather have him be a scout sort of thing. May I attempt to model him after a smaller companion? For example, the Bird companion stays small, and the dog and small cat companions only get as large as medium. A small pet could ride around on my shoulder - I figure a lot of his size is in his wingspan - though he'd still be a remarkably large bat.

Edit: Traits? No?

Silver Crusade

Male Celestial Cleric of Myself 10/Radiant Servant of Me 10

I'll think about the bat. I'm inclined to allow it to stay smaller, as that's easier to run anyway.

Traits: I always forget about those things. Sure, have 2.

I got another player expressing interest, so we may be getting to a point where I don't need to reach out publicly for more players. That does mean, however, we may need to be a little more conscious of party makeup. We'll see what people come up with and go from there, though.

The Exchange

Maybe I will be special and be a cavalier instead. Decisions, decisions.

Shadow Lodge

Male Husband/10 Dad/10 Gamer/5 RPGer/2

Posting to state my interest. I'll start working on a concept now. I'm thinking Oracle, Cleric or if Mothman goes a different way, Ranger off the top of my head.

Silver Crusade

Male Celestial Cleric of Myself 10/Radiant Servant of Me 10

There may be some opportunities for mounted combat, for those going that direction, but there will also be crypts, old mansions, and the like. And remember - it's more about the character's story than what they can do.

Tordek, a cleric would certainly have plenty to do. You would never run out of opportunities to channel positive energy.

Also, to all, be aware that Ravenloft is a bit more human-centric than other campaigns. Some people may be more suspicious of non-humans than they would be in other settings, although that can also be part of the fun :)

Shadow Lodge

Male Husband/10 Dad/10 Gamer/5 RPGer/2

palm to the forehead Duh! Undead. I wasn't thinking. A human cleric it will be. Any resources online for ravenloft that I can use to help me develop my backstory? Also, will you be using Golarion deities or are their other deities in ravenloft?

Sovereign Court

Female Human Level 4 Bard

My understanding is Ravenloft is generally a place adventurers aren't native to - it's a place the multiverse kinda drops you in.


husband half Italian Expert 15 (carpenter 5/ gamer 5/ reader 5)

Actually, some of the settings books assumed native characters- with Calibans replacing half-orcs and half-Vistani available.

Sovereign Court

Female Human Level 4 Bard
Crimson Jester wrote:
Maybe I will be special and be a cavalier instead. Decisions, decisions.

Oo! Oo! Be a hound master cavalier from superstar! :D

"Release the hounds!"

Silver Crusade

Male Celestial Cleric of Myself 10/Radiant Servant of Me 10

To give some background, if you don't know a lot about Ravenloft:

It is a demiplane that myseriously touches on the material world from time to time (usually when an act of unspeakable evil attracts the attention of the unknowable powers of Ravenloft). It's a realm where the very soil is evil, and those with a bent towards darkness find it nurtured by the land itself. It's very dark, hostile, and dangerous.

While it is possible for a campaign to consist of Ravenloft natives (which may be the case if we find ourselves needing a replacement character at some point), the classic template is adventurers snatched by the "mists" from some other, fairer realm and drawn into the prison-like demiplane, forever looking for an escape.

Thus, you will all begin together in another realm. Because I want your backstories to be your own, the creation of this material plane can be a cooperative effort. You can use whatever deities you like, make up places, people, organizations, etc, for your backstory. Whatever you choose becomes canon. Whatever god you follow as a cleric will be virtually unheard of in Ravenloft, as the gods have no influence there. They will grant you spells and abilities, but will otherwise be distant.

I need to review the sourcebooks again to get a good list of spells that may not work properly in Ravenloft (I want to disclose it all in advance). Off the top of my head, raising the dead will generally require a caster level check, spells that detect alignments (Know Alignment, Detect Evil, etc) just don't work, and planar travel is impossible. There may be circumstances in which teleportation will be impeded (most often when a domain is sealed), or when spells like Commune may be a bit more murky than usual. If you have a class ability that mimics one of these spells, we can work out a substitute. If one of these spells would be a domain spell for you, we can substitute that, too.

Silver Crusade

Male Celestial Cleric of Myself 10/Radiant Servant of Me 10
niel wrote:
Actually, some of the settings books assumed native characters- with Calibans replacing half-orcs and half-Vistani available.

That is true.

I'm going old school, though.

So, if you don't know much about the setting, that will make it even easier to roleplay your character.


husband half Italian Expert 15 (carpenter 5/ gamer 5/ reader 5)

My wife used to run Ravenloft years before we met. She like to say, 'In Ravenloft, your Paladin doesn't detect evil- evil detects you.'

Silver Crusade

Male Celestial Cleric of Myself 10/Radiant Servant of Me 10
niel wrote:
My wife used to run Ravenloft years before we met. She like to say, 'In Ravenloft, your Paladin doesn't detect evil- evil detects you.'

That summarizes it pretty succinctly. You looking to join? We could squeeze in one more.

Liberty's Edge

Male Mothman Expert 5

I keep returning to my original idea of a grim and driven ranger with a tragic past and a dark secret ...

But if we are looking at too much overlap with a ranger, an inquisitor and a fighter / cavalier type, I am happy to go arcane instead.

If niel (or someone else) is joining, I might see what they want to play ...


Female Half Orc Inquisitor 5 {HP:28/30}

Here's a first general sketch of Eliva the Inquisitor.

She's focusing on perception, intimidation (going dazzling display asap, I think) sense motive and monster identification.

Sovereign Court

Female Human Level 4 Bard

I tried to work backwards to a small bat, and ended up with a crippled thing with a -3 modifier in strength and a -2 modifier in constitution.

The easier route might be to make it just like a bird. Hopefully the loss of two talons, the loss of speed from 80 ft to 40 ft makes up for getting blindsense 40' instead of low light vision.

Dark Archive RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32

I find myself compelled to want to join this game... assuming there is room for another. I love Ravenloft so very, very much.


Human

I'm battling a system I don't know and while I'll get my head around it eventually, I'll happily go alternate.

Silver Crusade

Male Celestial Cleric of Myself 10/Radiant Servant of Me 10

Jess, I agree with starting with a bird and going from there - just tweaking a tad to be bat-like.

I was prepared for 7 in the party: Mothman, Moorluck, CrimJ, Jess, Tordek, Rosey, Fatespinner would be fine. (I'm not sure if niel meant to express interest, or was just checking out the thread.)

Also, Rosey, this game is all about story, which I know you have down cold (it is why I invited you). I know all these folks and they're the friendly type who answer questions and help each other out - if you have any questions, just ask.

Silver Crusade

Male Celestial Cleric of Myself 10/Radiant Servant of Me 10

On another note: spell modifications are a pain. I reread the part of the campaign guide that deals with them, and I think I'm good with what I posted before. I do like the modification to Gate (it only brings things in - nothing can leave that way), and Remove Curse (which does not apply to "Ravenloft curses").

Also, Jess, the domain spell idea to replace the inquisitor's alignment detection will be fine.

Liberty's Edge

Male Mothman Expert 5

I started statting up a ranger today, then went back and read the thread and realized that mechanically my concept was almost identical to Jess’s inquisitor, down to ability scores, skill choices and focus on archery. So I think I’ll stick with ranger but maybe change some skills around and almost certainly go with a melee focused character.


Male Human Cleric/6 {HP:49/49, AC 16 (11 touch)

This is first draft of my cleric of Gorum. He is going to be a melee cleric. I haven't purchased any of his gear yet.

Res's Background:
Born in Lastwall, Res Thannq is the son of a crusader from Nirmathas and a mother from Varisia. Unfortunately, His mother died during his birth and it took the healing energy from an attending Gorum cleric to help Res survive his birth. Res grew up under the tutelage of his father and the Gorumn cleric and was destined to continue his family's tradition of protecting Lastwall from the return of the Whispering Tyrant. However, when he turned 18, he learned that the cleric had selectively channeled his healing energy to save Res, but not his moher, in order to raise a hardened battle cleric untouched by a mother's influence. Unknown to Res father or the cleric, a spark of his mother's goodness infused itself within Res as he was born and thus he instinctly prefers to help good people against evil. Given, Res's skills with the greatsword, and the bloody trail of defeated evil beings, Gorum has chosen to overlook the bouts of goodness that Res often manifests.


Human

Thanks :)

I'm still thinking rogue, but more because I'd like to build a skill bunny than an arch combatant. Sorry not to have posted earlier - I've been running classes for 8 hours today and will be out again shortly. I'm looking at some pre-gens and not liking any of them much so far.

Will look properly later tonight, but if anyone can point me at a suitable build, I'd be grateful.


husband half Italian Expert 15 (carpenter 5/ gamer 5/ reader 5)
C.H. wrote:
That summarizes it pretty succinctly. You looking to join? We could squeeze in one more.

Seven seems like plenty, but if you can sqeeze me in, I would be interested.

Celestial Healer:
If you wanted a character to horrificly murder to put the fear of Ravenloft in the players, that would be awesome!


Male Human Cleric/6 {HP:49/49, AC 16 (11 touch)

Click on Res's profile to see his stats. Below is his updated backstory with typos corrected.

Res Backstory:

Born in Lastwall, Res Thannq is the son of a crusader from Nirmathas and a mother from Varisia. Unfortunately, His mother died during his birth and it took the healing energy from an attending Gorum cleric to help Res survive his birth. Res grew up under the tutelage of his father and the Gorum cleric and was destined to continue his family's tradition of protecting Lastwall from the return of the Whispering Tyrant. However, when he turned 18, he learned that the cleric had selectively channeled his healing energy to save Res, but not his mother, in order to raise a hardened battle cleric untouched by a mother's influence. Unknown to Res's father or the cleric, a spark of his mother's goodness infused itself within Res and thus he instinctly prefers to help good people against evil.

At the discovery, of the treachery that occurred during his birth, Res became disillusioned with his father's plans, and left Lastwall to pursue his own destiny.

Given, Res's skill with the greatsword, and the bloody trail of defeated evil beings left in his wake, Gorum has chosen to overlook the bouts of goodness that Res often manifests.

Liberty's Edge

Male Mothman Expert 5
Rev Rosey wrote:

Thanks :)

I'm still thinking rogue, but more because I'd like to build a skill bunny than an arch combatant. Sorry not to have posted earlier - I've been running classes for 8 hours today and will be out again shortly. I'm looking at some pre-gens and not liking any of them much so far.

Will look properly later tonight, but if anyone can point me at a suitable build, I'd be grateful.

Rev Rosey, I'm happy to offer any advise or answer any questions regarding PF or rogues specifically. I've never been much of a rogue player, but have been playing a PF rogue in Heath's Saltmarsh / Isle of Dread / Sasserine game and have been having a lot of fun with it.

The PF rogue is pretty similar to the 3.5 version, but has a few more tricks up his or her sleeve.

Liberty's Edge

Male Mothman Expert 5

It's been far, far to hot in Sydney this weeklend to spend much time in front of the PC (or rule books for that matter), so I still haven't had a chance to do that much on my character. Hope to have something up in the next few days.

The Exchange

Let me check....yup male. Drow/Irishman Exterminator 10/ Former Kickboxer 5/ Dad 4

You got room for one more? I got an idea for a Sorceress.... ok so maybe I just want to play my beloved Tiffa here as well as at home.


Since we appear to lack a proper arcane spellcaster, here is my character, pending approval.

(Fatespinner)

EDIT: Hah, Moorluck posted while I was in the middle of creating this one!

The Exchange

Let me check....yup male. Drow/Irishman Exterminator 10/ Former Kickboxer 5/ Dad 4
Erfan Treefriend wrote:

Since we appear to lack a proper arcane spellcaster, here is my character, pending approval.

(Fatespinner)

EDIT: Hah, Moorluck posted while I was in the middle of creating this one!

I see no reason why two arcane spellcasters can't be better than one, we can cover each others weak points that way. >:D


Male Human Ranger (Skirmisher) 6; AC 21; touch 13; ff 18. HP: 59/59. Fort +6; Ref +8; Will +6

Here is my ranger character as he currently stands.


Human
Mothman wrote:

Rev Rosey, I'm happy to offer any advise or answer any questions regarding PF or rogues specifically. I've never been much of a rogue player, but have been playing a PF rogue in Heath's Saltmarsh / Isle of Dread / Sasserine game and have been having a lot of fun with it.

The PF rogue is pretty similar to the 3.5 version, but has a few more tricks up his or her sleeve.

Thanks Mothman - I'd really appreciate that.

Liberty's Edge

Male Mothman Expert 5
Rev Rosey wrote:
Mothman wrote:

Rev Rosey, I'm happy to offer any advise or answer any questions regarding PF or rogues specifically. I've never been much of a rogue player, but have been playing a PF rogue in Heath's Saltmarsh / Isle of Dread / Sasserine game and have been having a lot of fun with it.

The PF rogue is pretty similar to the 3.5 version, but has a few more tricks up his or her sleeve.

Thanks Mothman - I'd really appreciate that.

No worries, let me know if you have any specific questions or want to bounce any ideas off me (or the rest of the good folk here).


Human

It's been about 2 years since I built a character that wasn't 4e, so I'm really back to basics here.

As I said, what I'm looking to build is really a skillbunny, and rogue seems to cover that most effectively. Not a trapmaker or finder as such, but someone who in their every day life does something fiddly and mechanical and has translated those skills to other uses.

Liberty's Edge

Male Mothman Expert 5

Rogue is a great choice then. Skill points to spare and oodles of class skills, though you could also consider bard as a valid choice if you're not so bothered with trapfinding (though it is a good ability to have).


Human

Trapfinding is likely to be useful, but I did wonder about bard. I think it might be handy to have someone around who can fiddle about with stuff both for our own safety to confound enemies.

Shadow Lodge

Male Husband/10 Dad/10 Gamer/5 RPGer/2

just my 2 copper pieces

I don't think you can go wrong with either the Bard or Rogue. Both have high skill ranks to play with. The advantage of the rogue is the trap finding/disabling capabilities as well as the sneak attack capability. While, the bard does have the ability to control the battlefield with your perform skills.

I really like your concept of the rogue character NOT being a thieving sort of character, but rather more of a McGyver meachanical type.

Whichever way you go is fine with me.

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