Necroes

Pending Reboot...

Einkel Torunn wandered through the busy streets of the bustling town. Given his rose-red cheeks and cheerful demeanor, most folks new what he was about. Some approached of their own accord, others called him over. A very few-mostly tourists-he approached of his own accord. What he proffered was his latest batch of spirits, a thick liquid of a dark blue tent, made from a harvest of wild blue berries. Seemed popular around the town, though that could very well be because it was free booze during a festival.

It wasn't long before Einkel caught wind of the dwarf setting up shop in the middle of town. With a big smile on his face, he made his way over. Holding out his hands, he approached the newest dwarf to town, speaking loudly in his native Dwarven to be heard. "What happy days these are!" He said, grasping the hand of the new dwarf. "I have laid neither hide nor beard on a fellow of my kinsfolk in near on ten years. So good it is to see a kinsmen. Come, cousin, let us share a drink!

After giving a firm handshake, Einkel reached into his backpack and produced a bottle containing a glistening, amber liquid. A fine whiskey, aged no less than twenty years in an apple wood keg, he had planned to offer it as a prize in a drinking contest at the Adamant Tankard. As he pulled away the cork, breaking the wax seal on one of only two glass bottles he owned, his plan had completely gone from his head.

An aroma of stewed apples and fresh grain would drift from the bottle, the strong scent of hard alcohol cutting through the local air. Chuckling to himself, Einkel would draw forth a set of ceramic cups. Filling both to the brim, he would offer one to his kinsman, as he took in the scent of his own fine work. "Oh cousin, he began, once more in Dwarven. "I have not had call to drink a bottle this fine in many years. Truly, this day do the Gods smile on me!"

Pending Reboot...

@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.

Pending Reboot...

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

Pending Reboot...

Works for me! I'm actually really looking forward to this. Forum-style posting gives so much more freedom to interact with a world, and to interpret the outcomes of dice rolls. Can't wait to see what those wands have in store for me.

Pending Reboot...

@Mae Einkel seems to me to be very much the kind of person without any real goals in life. He's happy with the way things are. His work is interesting and he enjoys it. Some dwarves might be obsessed with things like becoming better at their trade, or completing their life's work. For Einkel, he's content being pleasantly surprised when he makes something wonderful.

That said, I would like to see one of two things occur. Either the quest twists his body, rousing his dwarven instincts and that ancient pride, and he feels compelled to master the command of his form. (I.E. he becomes a powerful moon circle druid)

Or, the influence of the magic changes his spirit. It opens his mind to the greater world around him, and that contentment to be what he is grows and blossoms. Instead of being a simple moonshiner, he becomes a part of the marsh. He joins the circle of the land, and will eventually become the arch-druid of Dreadmorasse. (Basically, he turns into Radagast the Brown).

Pending Reboot...

What kind of moonshine does Einkel make exactly? Is it of a good quality? Is it safe to drink? How exactly does its production and sales make him a criminal in a land where prohibition isn't a thing?

@rush99999

Strictly speaking, he doesn't make moonshine. Moonshine is produced using corn mash, and Einkel's recipes all use wild grains. In terms of quality; It varies. Since what he's able to produce depends on what he finds in the marsh, his recipes are constantly changing. However, he does know what he's doing, so he can consistently produce specific things of a certain type.

As for why he's a criminal; Prohibition isn't a thing, but guilds are. Some of them are more strongly tied to the government than others. Since alcohol is one of those things that can kill people if it's made wrong, the guilds that oversee its production would have a lot of power to enforce their monopoly. Einkel is not an active member of the guild, and the ingredients he uses are not approved by laws governing such things. Not because you can't/shouldn't make alcohol from them, but because there's no way to regulate production using them; Basically, his primary crime is that he doesn't pay the Very steep taxes imposed on non-guild craftsmen, and he isn't in the guild either.

What he makes

To clarify what he makes: This is a dice game, so the product of his crafting is subject to variables. As such, I'll provide a list based on dice-roll outcome;

• Fumble: When he fumbles, he burns the batch. This is the result that wastes ingredients in a way he can't fix. Nothing is actually produced.
• 4-6: Everclear; Anything he makes that's below a ten will be added to a large vat, which in turn will be used as raw materials later on. Alcohol happens to have the advantage that you can always burn out impurities to get a high ABV. He uses these to take a 10, and creates stuff that's 90%+ alcohol by volume. Doesn't taste very good, but you can add it to mixed drinks. This is also the stuff he caries in his XXXX ceramic jug.
• 7-9: Free samples; These result in new tastes or flavors that he's not really sure about. While they still end up in the everclear vat, he'll have taken them around town to let people try first. Some people might like it, but for the most part it's not worth writing down the recipe.
• 10-15: Fire Water; Gin, vodka, whiskey, and pretty well any other clear spirit. These come about from him using existing recipes to make stuff he knows people like, and that will sell. It's not great quality, but it tastes good to people who like it and they make a good base for mixed drinks.
• 16-20: Good stuff; This is where barrel aging comes in. Being a dwarf, Einkel has the advantage of time. These are batches he can only make at certain times of the year, but he knows what he's doing when the right conditions allow. He has to find specific plants, and enough of them, but the results are always good. After that, he stores them in barrels in his hidden tunnel until they're just right. The high end stuff sells for a lot of coin so no one needs to buy in bulk, but this is the stuff he sells to wealthy citizens and bribes government officials with.
• 21-22: Absinthe; These are the surprises. The interesting flavors that only Einkel can make, and only on his best days. He tries something new, mixing berries and herbs in with the grain, distilling it just enough, and making something amazing. They come in all colors of the rainbow, a cavalcade of smells, and they all have their own unique flavor. Very rarely can Einkel make these more than once, but when he can, it's a lot of effort that pays off. Einkel's stuff might not have a guild seal on it, but merchants are willing to take the risk for the chance at kegs of this stuff. Bottles of it can be found squirreled away with the highest quality stuff in the best collections, public and private use, all throughout the kingdom.

Pending Reboot...

@Mae Been meaning to ask; I've played 5e. before, but I've never done a 300 wands thing. So, how is that going to work, exactly? 'Cause, as far as I'm aware, most wands don't really have lasting effects. So, should we be expecting these wands to just cause lots of collateral damage, or are these not those kinds of wands?

Pending Reboot...

@rush99999 My questions are; What kind of booze do you sell? Is Einkel your provider, or your competition?

Pending Reboot...

@Mae No, you're right. Checked my book. I was thinking humans are Way better than they are. I'm just a poptart XD

Though, for the life of me, I can't figure out where that +2 initiative is coming from

Pending Reboot...

@rush99999Looks to me like you're missing a +2 in your stats.

Assuming you're using the alt. human traits to get the feat, you'd have a +2 in two different stats of your choice. If you've got an 8 in int., one of your base stats should be a 12. Which means you should have three stats that are base 12, or one stat that's base twelve and one stat that is base 14. (base being before your feat)