Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) Roleplay- Comments

[Zaleramancer]

Well, I may have a reduced amount of time to help with this now.

Since I thought I was going to quit my job since I can't get any hours on days I want and have to work everyday, but it turns out I'm going to have to continue working anyway since they don't have enough people. This is what comes of working with family members.

In fact, I'm going to have to work even more hours than before.

I'll see if I can still find time, or something.  

[Philote]

Can someone build me or show me how to build a fun Druid?

Preferably the shapeshift for battle, use odd nature magic for problem solving things. I'd like to get shapeshifts with the Huge, Elemental, or Magic tags as soon as possible.

I played a Druid with my roommates earlier this year before the campaign fell apart because my roommates are terrible at sticking to a game. I had a wolf themed druid who became a werewolf and when he wasn't in combat, he had feats for fey magic that gave him wizard cantrips and some psychic powers.

[Zaleramancer]

It's hard to go wrong with a Druid.

I mean, you get spellcasting, an animal companion and the ability to turn into bears.

And even if you pick out shitty spells at the start of the day, you can change that tomorrow- and turn the ones you have into wolves or something.

I would personally ban Nature Spell simply because being able to cast spells while you're a dire bear or something is a touch bit much.

I'm certain there's Fey Heritage feats or just taking the Half-Fey template. You'd get some spell-like abilities, pretty butterfly wings all for the cost of LA 2.

It's not that bad, except for the wings, of course.

[Smackgiver]

Ah, yes.  I'm quite familiar with that table...just didn't recognize the abbreviation.   Answer to your question is "yes, the standard WBL, according to the DMG."

[Philote]

Can I trade the animal companion for something?

I'm fine with Fey stuff if I get a good amount of tricks that I can do.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Which rule set are we using, so I can start reading up on it.

[Zaleramancer]

I'm sorry if I came across as rude or dismissive, that was not my intent.

@Phi

Well, depending on if we use the Variant rules, there are some things you could trade Animal Companions for, though you may lose other things as well.

@Marv

If we're using the 3.5/3.0 rules, you could start by looking here. That contains most of the 3.5 base rules.  

[Philote]

I might just go with the animal companion then. The Druidic Avenger swaps out the animal companion, but I'm not sure if it gives what I was looking for. The wild shape variant doesn't seem too spectacular either.

[Smackgiver]

Whoa!  I just reread my post... frickin' autocorrect!     I edited it to make more sense and less snarky sounding.

And, no, Zale, you didn't even come close to seeming rude or dismissive.  

[Zaleramancer]

Ah, ok.

I'll try to avoid obscure terms from now on anyway.

So, Wulf, what are you looking for?

[Smackgiver]

OK.  Here is the MS Excel character sheet I referenced earlier.  Keep in mind - I've been out of practice for the past 5 years, so there is likely some online cloud resources that might work as well.

About the only key resource book that everyone will need is the WotC Players Handbook - either 3.0 or 3.5 will suffice.  It contains all the basic knowledge you'll need to roll up character.  I have analog versions, but nothing online.  I might browse over to Amazon to see if they have it in Kindle format.  If any of you Listers know a good, comparable substitution, please speak up.

@ Marv - your Pathfinder Players Handbook will probably work just as well.

Blank_Character_Sheet.xls

[Zaleramancer]

The SRD contains all of the freely available content for 3.5.

Though not the rules for character generation or advancement, for which the Player's Handbook will be needed. (Though Pathfinder resources would work more or less the same.)

I would say we should keep things simple by sticking to the core books, but the core books are hardly simple as it is. The Warlock (From the Complete Arcane book) is much simpler to understand than any of the casters in the Player's Handbook.

For the curious/new: The casters in the handbook all run off the spell-slot system, which basically says: You have a certain number of spells of each spell level (Spells are rated from level 0 to level 9) each day. So you may have five 0th level spells, and two first level spells, etc.

The two types of spell-slot spell-casters are Prepared and Spontaneous.

Spontaneous casters have a list of spells they can cast (Called their Spells Known) which is drawn from their classes's spell list. They may spend a spell slot of the appropriate level to cast the spell. Examples of this are the Sorcerer class.

The Prepared casters, on the other hand, have to decide ahead of time which spells (And which amounts of spells) they wish to cast for the day. So the caster must chose between all the spells they know which ones they want to use. (For example, if you can cast three first level spells, and you have to chose between Charm Person, Mage Armor and Disguise Self; if you chose to prepare two Charm Person spells and one Mage Armor spells, that's what you're stuck with.) Examples of this include the Wizard and Cleric classes.

As apposed to Warlocks, who just pick out which abilities (Called Invocations) they want, then they can use them as much as they want, whenever they want.

[Smackgiver]

Wow!  I just hit the site.  Very impressive little resource.  I figger we can work from that as our main, online resource, as Zale suggested.

Any issues with allowing Psionic classes?  That's my wheelhouse. I'd feel very comfortable accommodating them, but of course, it's up to the players to select their class.

[Zaleramancer]

Psionics is not only great, but also thematically appropriate for this site.

I generally speaking, don't mind anything so long as the players feel they can understand what it is they're doing. If they grasp the byzantine grappling rules or something like Incarnum, then by all means- I will do by best to accommodate them.

Anyway, Marv, you wanted to be a Paladin right?

There's the normal Paladin. There's also some other alignment Paladin variants (Though most of the chaotic ones are kind of stupid). While it's not exactly the Paladin, there's also the Crusader from Tome of Battle. They're very Paladinish.

Though if you're going with the normal Paladin, I personally would replace all instances of "per week" with "per day" simply because having the ability to do once per week what the Cleric can do twice per day is almost insulting for a class that has stricter requirements.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

I'd like to go for something Psionic. Remember my character Phasma Geist the Spirit Medium, and her cat Casper? I'd like to rework her stats and whatnot for the purpose of a proper D&D campaign.

For the purpose of D&D, her abilities would be somewhere between those of a Shaman and those of a Necromancer?

[Smackgiver]

Wow.  Shaman and Necromancer?  You have a gift for juxtaposition!  Shaman - natural spirit radiating life and struggle; Necromancer - diviner of death.  Ouch!  That is a tall order.  

However, I still think I can accommodate your sensibilities.  Gimme a moment and I'll see what I can do to accommodate you.  Can you give me more of a backstory on her?  

(interesting fun fact - Necromancy is a HOT/CONTROVERSIAL topic amongst psionic enthusiasts in the WotC community.  Bruce Cordell once wrote an adventure that addressed the possibility of Necromancy emerging as a discipline of psionicists at the cost of a usual discipline... but more on that later)

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Celadon's Penultimate wrote

 Phasma Geist is a wanderer by nature. Her family consists of necromancers, exorcists, mediums, undertakers, undead slayers and even liches. And her work requires constant travel, to whoever would need her services.

Though, her only passion doesn't lie with the dead; she's always wanted to see the world in general, and so she's excited to set out into the world, with interesting folks, and being a medium is a monetary bonus.

Is this good? This was my introduction of Phasma Geist into this Forum. I can come up with more, if this isn't enough.

[Zaleramancer]

I'd personally recommend being a Seer or maybe a Shaper- most of the abilities he wanted to use for her before were based on spirits and the incorporeal.

And Wulf, you can find most of the basics here and the basics on Psionics here.

Basic run down on terms:

Magic-users cast spells, which expend spell slots.

Psionic characters manifest powers which expend power points(PP).

If you've ever seen the mana system usually used in games, psionics is like that. I think a Psion would work well for you, since it's more newbie friendly than a wilder, and because Phasma strikes me as more of a caster type than a fighter type.

A Psion's powers are enhanced by their intelligence. (As apposed to Wilders, who are Charisma based and Psychic Warriors, which are Wisdom based).

They can select powers from the Psion/Wilder list, as well as one of the specialized lists (Called Disciplines)- they select a single Discipline at the first level. This determines some of their class skills (Class skills are skills that are listed in the class's entry. They can be raised one rank for one skill point, and have a maximum equal to level+3. Cross-class skills, which are not listed, cost two points per rank and can only be half of level+3.).

The disciplines I mentioned to Smackgiver are Metacreativity (Called Shapers) and Clairsentience. (Called Seers).

Seers are based on clairvoyant powers and manipulating dice rolls. I figure that with your character, that might be an option you favored if Smack can't find anything necromantic to substitute.

Now, the Shapers are based on making things out of psychic energy. Most of their powers form things out of Ectoplasm and such. The main power I think would resonate with your character's idea is the Astral Construct power. That lets you form, out of raw ectoplasm, creatures to fight. As long as they only do what their stats allow, you can call them whatever you want. If you want to say it's Geist giving solidity to the shapeless spirits drifting into the ether, that's perfectly okay. (Just keep in mind that Astral Constructs are not intelligent or sapient.)

In addition to that, there are plenty of powers from the generalist list to consider. There's the old jedi mind trick among others. This whole list is here.  And besides that, there's also the Complete Psionics book, which I am not terribly familiar with. It may have other powers that could mesh with your concept. Oh, and here are some Psionic races if you want to select one for her. (Human is also good. Can't go wrong with Humans.)

[Philote]

So about the Elemental, Huge, or Magic wild shapes, what level would it be feasible to get any of those?

[Celadon's Penultimate]

It all sounds good (I'll be sure to keep up with that site, and to refer to my D&D PDFs). Phasma is definitely human and definitely a Psionic. And, as predicted, I am having something of a hard time between the Metacreativity (Shaper) and Clairsentience (Seer) disciplines. At some point, I can start combining capabilities from each, though, right?