[OOC] Pending Reboot...

[Necroes]

So, @Cao the Exiled, which class are you aimed at?

[Cao the Exiled]

@Necroes Dreeda is aiming for the Artificer class from UA. It was approved by Ms. Mae.

[Cao the Exiled]

Sorry, Mae had asked me to post this so you guys can see it and I kinda forgot

Dreeda's race

Verdan Race Details
The verdan owe their existence to chaos. Descended and transformed from a large clan of goblins and hobgoblins, those who became the verdan were simply living their lives, doing goblinoid things. But then passing through the shadow of That-Which-Endures changed them forever. Now the newest race to call Faerûn home, the verdan do their best to find their way in an unfamiliar world.

Reality is a descent into chaos punctuated by brief flashes of order, whence we arose and so imagine it to be the norm rather than a distant outlier. That-Which-Endures held entropy back for a mere instant, and the Verdan emerged. I’m sorry, was that the question?

— K’thriss Drow’b

Created by Chaos
When the power of That-Which-Endures mutated the verdan, their skin was turned the color of jade and their blood began to flow black. Their ears grew pointed, and they gained a limited form of telepathy — but at the cost of forgetting their history. The underground homes of the goblins were places of terror to the new creatures those goblins became, and the verdan quickly fled to the surface and into the sunlight.

When they arrived in the new lands of the surface, the verdan found that they were often mistaken for smaller, green-skinned half-elves. Attracting curiosity but no real questions, they have thus been able to make their way reasonably freely in the world.

THAT-WHICH-ENDURES

That-Which-Endures is a nameless, faceless, mysterious entity, something between a multiverse-spanning primordial spirit and an over-god. It represents the amoral and all-encompassing power of entropy — the force that unknowingly and uncaringly changes order into chaos, and that breaks matter and time down into its component parts so that all can be rebuilt. Some who study this entity claim that it is clearly evil and destructive. Others call it simply a necessary part of the cycle of death and rebirth. In the end, though, That-Which-Endures shows precious little interest in what people say about it.

Ongoing Mutations
Because the verdan have not dwelled long in the world, they are still discovering new things about themselves. Chief among these discoveries is that their physical forms change as they age, signifying that the mutative power of That-Which-Endures is not done with them. The first verdan emerged from the Underdark as creatures of goblin stature. But they soon learned that their kind were fated to eventually undergo a dramatic, painful, and random growth spurt that sees them transformed to hobgoblin size over a period of days.

At the same time, many verdan undergo changes in coloring as they age. Male verdan typically have little to no hair, while females sport shocks of wiry hair that they try to tame in a variety of styles. But the color of any verdan’s hair, skin, and eyes can transform from their original jade tones to pale white, deep ebon, or any other shade in between. A verdan’s ears also undergo numerous spontaneous alterations over their lifetime, from the typical range of point and peak seen among the elves, to huge ears that sweep back from the head like wings, and which are often pierced behind the head with a single ring to keep them from flapping about.

Changes in gender are also a known and accepted part of verdan life. These fluid aspects of form and identity are seen as blessings, allowing an individual to experience more of the world and grow in empathy and understanding. There is no pattern to any verdan’s mutations, as verdan from the same family can shift in drastically different ways. The verdan assign no cultural or biological relevance to any particular coloration, physical features, or gender.

Cultural Chameleons
The clan homes of the Underdark goblinoids who became the verdan covered an enormous area. As the verdan fled to the surface world, they emerged in culturally diverse locations. Some found themselves near dwarven strongholds, others near elven enclaves, and others near the widespread human settlements of Faerûn.

Without a cultural identity or memory of their own, the verdan quickly adopted the cultural practices of the areas into which they migrated. Still, a sense of not truly belonging is felt even by verdan who have been welcomed into other cultures. They are often stricken with wanderlust, keeping their possessions limited and easily portable. It is not unusual to see individual verdan or whole families trooping along the roads of the world with their tents and belongings strapped to their backs.

Even when they are happily steeped in a culture, the verdan remain on the lookout for oppression and curtailment of freedoms. They understand the need for laws that protect, but they rail against laws that restrict and oppress — especially those designed to protect the power and wealth of the elite. When living among enlightened folk, verdan are still the first to speak out against cultural restraints on individuals, particularly those based on physical characteristics such as gender, race, or appearance.

Wide-Eyed and Curious
Verdan are hungry to undertake new challenges and absorb new experiences. When they meet other verdan who have traveled to different parts of the world, they drop everything to spend as long as possible sharing stories and observations from their respective travels. However, their inexperience in the world and their racial amnesia sometimes lends the verdan a kind of innocence that works against them. Some are credulous and easily fooled by hucksters, but most verdan have an intuition bred by empathy that helps them eventually sort out those who are sincere from those who are not.

Verdan Names
The oldest verdan names spring from goblinoid traditions, but more recent names reflect the character of the different cultures these folk have encountered since coming out into the sunlight. When a group of verdan live near dwarves, they might take on more dwarven-sounding names, only to change those names when they wander into a human area. A verdan is also not hesitant to change their name as their physical appearance changes — or, indeed, whenever the mood strikes them.

Verdan make no differentiation between male, female, and family names, and often eschew family names altogether.

Verdan Names: Bronn, Crahma, Dolar, Dreeda, Duglee, Gruvald, Hulm, Jeal, Kalo, Klesh, Korm, Lathi, Ovlig, Paracii, Pils, Praet, Promul, Reezni, Rin, Shylk, Slyra, Sollo, Stalsii, Stromvo, Stussa, Syrkart, Takat, Toit, Tubyna, Varr, Veriga, Wraq, Wural, Wurxee

UNDERLYING IMPROVEMENTS

When a verdan character gains an ability score improvement at certain levels, that increase can be tied to a physical mutation at the player’s determination. A boost to Strength might be accompanied by a growth spurt and the development of rippling muscle, while an increase in Intelligence might produce a stylishly large forehead.

Verdan Traits
Verdan characters have a number of traits in common with others of their kind.
Languages
You speak, read, and write Common, Goblin, and one additional language of your choice. This language typically has some connection to one of the areas or cultures that has been part of your life.

Ability Score Increase
Your Constitution score increases by 1, and your Charisma score increases by 2.

Age
Verdan reach adulthood at around the age of 24, and it is thought that they might live to nearly 200 years old. However, because no verdan has died of old age since the race’s initial creation, their upper age limits remain subject to speculation.

Alignment
Verdan are generally good, although their absence of racial identity and shared history can sometimes see individual verdan become untethered from any moral or ethical framework.

Size
Verdan start out similar in size to the goblins they were created from, ranging from 3 to 4 feet in height. But at some point after reaching maturity, each verdan undergoes a sudden growth spurt of 2 feet or more. At 1st level, you are a Small creature. When you reach 5th level, you become a Medium creature.

Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Black Blood Healing
The black blood that is a sign of your people’s connection to That-Which-Endures boosts your natural healing. When you roll a 1 or 2 on any Hit Die you spend at the end of a short rest, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll.

Limited Telepathy
You can telepathically speak to any creature you can see within 30 feet of you. You don’t need to share a language with the creature for it to understand your telepathy, but it must be able to understand at least one language. This process of communication is slow and limited, allowing you to transmit and receive only simple ideas and straightforward concepts.

Persuasive
Your people’s lack of history makes you trustworthy and humble. You have proficiency in the Persuasion skill.

Telepathic Insight
Your mind’s connection to the world around you strengthens your will. You have advantage on all Wisdom and Charisma saving throws.

[rush99999]

@Cao the Exiled

If you can get Mae to agree with it, Improved Artificer could possibly be a lot more fun to play.

[Cao the Exiled]

@Mae Can I use this instead?! It fit's much better then I originally planned!

[Necroes]

@Cao the Exiled

If you can get Mae to agree with it, Improved Artificer could possibly be a lot more fun to play.

@rush99999

That class seems... poorly balanced. I mean, I've not seen the alternative, so I can't really compare them. However, looking at it just as a class unto itself, it seems very front-loaded.

If I'm reading it right-I could not be, I've done that before-then starting at level 1 you can get a CR 3 monster that fights for you. You can use a cantrip to fix it between fights, and the initial cost to make it is hand-waved away. Even if it dies, you can still bring it back. If you lose it, though, then it costs you a 1000 gp to replace it. You either make the investment, or the invention points are wasted.

The very next level, you can get Another CR 3 creature to fight for you. Quite a power boost. Every level after that, though, you have to sink what seems to be your primary class resource into making them better. Otherwise, it looks like they're just going to fall to the wayside in terms of usefulness.

The same thing seems to be true of guns. They start out really strong-if somewhat of a money pit, though that's ranged weapons in general-but then you have to keep sinking points into them to remain good. As long as you have options to sink into that makes them better, they get steadily better and remain powerful. When you run out of those options, then they fall to the wayside.

Alchemy and artifical limbs offer the class a lot of options-especially alchemy, which has options that level with the class-but both have pitfalls. Alchemy upgrades are one-offs, and they'll only ever be what they are when you pick them. That's not so bad, and I'd recommend learning some no matter what path you choose.
The artificial limbs, though, can get pretty risky. They're expensive in terms of invention points, though many are quite worth it, but that risk of madness is really hard to balance. You risk rolling your first one as early as 2nd level, and if you're just unlucky your character could become a construct as early as 6th. Conversely, if you Are lucky, there's no actual negative to the options.

I'm not trying to say that it's overpowered. It's more like it's a build-your-own-class guide. A lot of 5e classes do something like that, where you get options to pick what your character is good at, while still being built around a general core.
However, unlike most of those classes, this one doesn't make you pick a path. It also doesn't reward you for taking one option and specializing with it, which seems like it would have been the better way to go. At the end of the day, it just seems like a class that needs a good understanding of the rules and the game to make work. While at the same time creating a possibility for people who Do have that experience to very quickly become munchkins.

Just my two-cents.

[Mae]

@rush99999@Cao the Exiled

That artificer class looks sweet as hell.

I usually run this sort of stuff by my partner who's more into the technical side of the game to help me work out if things can get more out of hand then I'm able to predict, so I should have an answer for you later today regarding the Improved Artificer class. Although this is a 300 Wands campaign so I doubt it'll be the most weird thing happening by the time you reach Artificer.

Please bear in mind, folks, you got 5 shorter levels in Commoner to survive get through. I'll be using standard XP (XP for monsters, overcoming traps, exceptional interactions, and cleverly navigating situations) but we might switch to milestone if it feels like a better fit for the game.

I don't usually run with any sort of firearm type thing but, again, I'll have a think about it because it sounds cool.

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I haven't heard from @Shovel recently so I might get the ball rolling on the IC front.

While I'd kinda like to start a while before getting the quest and have a chance to enjoy the festivities first, I don't mind starting as we receive the quest if that makes things easier.

@rush99999

Yeah, that's the downside to doing it this way. But I'm kind of hoping people will still have the option to explore the festivities, although I'm guessing the motivation to do so will be a lot less.

Heads up I'm assuming The Adamant Tankard, the forge, and Ye Olde 'Magic' Bookstore are nestled around the village centre in a kind of village square type deal to make things a little more convenient. I think usually in villages of this size things would be clustered together anyway~

[Mae]

Pinglist

@Lugia@Necroes@rush99999@Shovel@Cao the Exiled

IC is up! Let me know if you want to take a crack at any rolls to get more information on the dwarf.

There's alot to do in the festival as well, hopefully once the main quest is sorted you can go explore a bit before going off on an ill-advised adventure. Some of the stalls have some helpful rewards, if you can best them ;)

The festival runs for two weeks. I might put together a map of swampmuck or at the very least, next post will have more information about what stalls are where-ish.

[Necroes]

Post up!

Do let me know if any of my actions require rolls, @Mae. As you may have guessed, I enjoy generating narrative, especially the little details.

[Lusus Naturae]

How come I'm never part of the pinglist lmao

[Mae]

@Lusus Naturae woops, let me fix that, sorry!

[rush99999]

Let me know if you want to take a crack at any rolls to get more information on the dwarf.

@Mae

Would an insight roll of 12 tell Bartholomew anything about the cut of this dwarf's jib?

[Lugia]

Sorry for holding things up if I do, but I will be posting tomorrow.

[rush99999]

Added something to Bartholomew's CS. Feel free to check it out if you want.

[Cao the Exiled]

@Mae Dreeda's Passive Perception check is 10 and initiative is +0

[Mae]

@rush99999 He seems tired but genuinely happy at being offered a drink. You're not picking up on anything particularly malicious.

Also liking the family update :D Gives me some more ideas for around Swampmuck.

[Cao the Exiled]

Hope that's okay, hard to type a ton on a phone...

[Necroes]

So, I'm not 100% familiar with 5e rules. The group I play 5e with is pretty casual, and for the most part the DM asks us to make roles whenever he feels like it's appropriate. That being the case, I've gotten pretty used to just roleplaying, and not worrying about dice until the DM says something.

Just getting that out there. It's not an excuse, just an explanation for a failing I am aware I possess.

boop

@Mae

[Mae]

@Necroes To be honest I'm still trying to find a balance on forum-style d&d roleplay.

As a general rule, if there is something that requires a skill roll to move forward I'll request one (e.g, a boulder is rolling towards you, give me an athletics roll to jump away) but in any situation, you can present an alternative skillcheck if it makes sense in context. (e.g. I use acrobatics to dive out the way) Things that don't make sense will be denied (I intimidate the boulder into stopping) but I'm happy to discuss things if you have good reasons as for why you think the check would work and why you think it applies to the situation.

Now, there are plenty of optional skillchecks that you don't need that make your life easier - sometimes, alot easier. I'm still working out how to do things effectively on rpguild, but I in these situations I'll provide a list of the most obvious optional rolls you might want to do. It's not exhaustive, and I think alot of fun comes from players trying to apply what they have available to them to different situations.

[rush99999]

^{"By Gear's beard, it's beautiful. I haven't had a drink in days and you offer this sweet ambrosia? You're a good man."}

@Mae

Who is Gear?