Tyranny of Dragons Campaign OOC Thread

@Helen of Boy fwiw my faves are Pax, Salt, and Vaunea

 

uh. well. that is a lot of character sheets! wow! I mean. you're only gonna end up using one of these characters in this campaign, so it's fine that you rolled new ability scores, I guess, since they're pinned to the individual characters. if you're gonna use any of these guys in other campaigns. make sure you ask the DM if you can use these ability scores, though—they might want you to reroll.

uh, well. "very young for an elf" is fine, but 27 is extremely young, like prepubescent young. elves come of age around their hundredth birthday, and by then they are (almost) physically mature—call them eighteen or so in human terms. just as you might have a smol human adventurer venturing out at fifteen or sixteen, you might have an elven adventurer in their eighties or nineties, so. you wanna move Auralee more into that age range? :P

I'mma be an insufferable pedant here for a bit, but 1) eye tattoos are an excellent way to make yourself instantly recognizable to anyone who's seen you ever, and idk if you want that, and 2) drow skin is too dark to tattoo well, I think. we're talkin' about this dark, and anyway colored inks get dodgy on much lighter brown skin, so. ritual scarring, sure! also, while glasses are feasible in this setting, especially since the very first (shitty) glasses were invented in the 1200s, lipstick is gonna be 1) shit at being lipstick and 2) a very, very expensive luxury. especially blue lipstick, since the pigment would have to be produced by mining and grinding up nicely colored rocks... and to my knowledge there's no naturally occurring teal pigment either.
sorry if that is too much insufferable pedantry I don't mean to rain on your parade bUT HISTORICAL ACCURACY TO THIS WILDLY AHISTORICAL SETTING MUST BE MAINTAINED!!!1

okay, more pedantry!! priests of the Family (i.e., the Quinity; i.e., the Mother, the Daughter, the Son, the Father, and the Bastard; i.e., the Ladies of Summer and Spring, the Lords of Fall and Winter, and the Lord of Things Out of Season) are called divines (high priests are archdivines and acolytes are, well, acolytes). or, if you meant cleric in the sense of Person Who Wields Holy Magic, they'd be a saint (or "god-touched") and probably not in the business of raising children. also, the Family have temples (and associated hospitals, orphanages, etc.), not cloisters. sorry for lecturing you on this arbitrarily-imposed religion I promise your backstory is good and I'm not trying to poke holes in it

okay, so, could you help me read these a little? I'm nnnnnot sure what your base rolls are? like, for Dexterity, was your original roll 14, with a +2 racial bonus making the final stat 16, or was the original roll 12, with the bonus making the final stat 14? if the first is the case, please indulge my caprice by just putting "16" as the stat, and if the second is the case, your bonus should be +2, not +3. I've got similar questions about Auralee's CHA stat, Rawl's STR and CON stats, and, well, all of Yew's stats.

I understand if you just didn't get around to totting up AC yet, but if you're at all confused by the calculation, it's base armor AC (which is 11 for leather armor) plus your dex mod (+3), so it'd be 14.

Draconic is fine!

you should also have the Bardic Inspiration feat, which is, uh. kinda important! pls don't 4get!

so about all this: 1) the weights on my sheet were me being incredibly extra and also making sure poor 8-STR Lyriae wasn't carrying too much, please do not feel obligated to list them; 2) yes, the book can be on draconic history; 3) if you have the funds, I suggest you invest in studded leather armor, not plain leather. it is more expensive, but if you can re-budget you'll end up with 15 AC instead of 14!

aaaaand I'll have more feedback for you later, but this post is long enough as it is. <_<;

 

It is not completely obvious how the polytheistic-but-universalist system from the Chalion books maps onto the more pagan Realms. Would a paladin also be god-touched?

Also, the default Realms have far more clerics-as-wielders-of-holy-magic per capita than Ibra does. Are you making clerics rarer, or Quinitarian saints more common? Or are the Five Gods just peculiarly reluctant to grant divine powers as compared to Mystra or Talos?

 

wellll, I was thinking of them as coexisting pantheons? as it is, the Sword Coast has... eleven or so (human, elf, dwarf, gnome, halfling, drow, orc... and giant, and I think all three goblinoid races have one each), so I don't think another one will rock the boat too much. :P Faerûnians seem like religiously tolerant people, and I don't see why Quinitarians would be any different; people'd probably be like, "okay, whatever, you do your Quintity thing and I'll do my Tyr thing, at least you're not worshipping Bhaal" and life would go on. I bet some Quinitarians see non-Family gods as aspects of various Family members and figure that, for instance, the Father wouldn't mind their invoking Tyr as a shortcut instead of specifically petitioning Him to act in His judicial capacity. it's just that devotion to the Family tends to be more of a package deal—if you pray to one, you pray to all five (though not without preference for one or the other), and you'll celebrate each Familial turn-of-the-season festival.

as far as paladins go, yeah, Quinitarian paladins might call themselves god-touched or saints, but in so doing they're singling themselves out as Quinitarians; paladins or clerics of other gods aren't saints, they're just paladins or clerics. it's shorthand for "Quinitarian paladin," basically—specialized terminology.

I thiiiiiink you mean "Ibra + Chalion + the Roknari Archipelago/princedoms + that one that starts with a 'D' that I'm forgetting + probably some other ones" and/or "whatever the fuck they call their general section of the continent," but yeah. :P both, I think? I mean, personally I'm of the opinion that clerics and paladins (and wizards, and sorcerers, and warlocks) should be rarer than they seem to be—adventurers are outliers adn should not have been counted. on the other hand, yes, if the Family is going to keep up with the other gods, They're probably gonna make more saints, although Their interaction with Their saints is definitely different from the "here's some power, go do shit in my name maybe" model some clerics seem to follow. a little more... direct, maybe?

fake edit:

IS THERE MORE THAN ONE IN THE SETTING

 

hmm so yeah none of those patrons seem great to me... how does the 'least respected sentient weapon of all' as patron work?

 

okay, so! more armor/weapon advice: druids are proficient with medium armor, not just light, and hide armor will boost your AC more than leather will, and it's still not made out of metal. also, you're proficient in shields, and wooden shields add to your AC just as much as metal ones do (+2). so I'd suggest you purchase those if you can make them work with your budget. admittedly, you can't use your greatclub while wielding a shield, nor can you use your quarterstaff with two hands, but the option is still nice. re: weaponry, may I ask why you have a greatclub? it costs the same as a quarterstaff, and if you use the quarterstaff two-handed, it deals just as much damage, so it's a liiiiiittle redundant and I suggest you ditch it if your budget's tight. ALSO with my DMly powers I rule that your quarterstaff, your druidic focus staff, and the staff from your background (if you're going to keep background equipment) can all be the same staff, because tbh carrying around three different wooden staffs is silly.

MORE ARMS AND ARMOR ADVICE I'm giving a lot of this and I'm sorry if I sound condescending; I don't mean to be, I just REALLY WANT TO SHARE MY D&D EQUIPMENT KNOWLEDGE okay! again, you're proficient in medium armor; go nuts! scale mail is standard ranger equipment, and if you use that, you'll end up with an AC of 16, buuuuut you'll have disadvantage on Stealth checks. protip, though: since your DEX mod is +4, you also get an AC of 16 in studded leather armor, which does not confer disadvantage on Stealth checks. :D also, while I hate to be That Guy, why doesn't your ranger have a longbow. she's proficient in them and tbh rangers without bows are rangers unfulfilled.

anyway, that's it for my commentary! everything else looks good, and I like your backstories and personalities. :)

also @Helen of Boy does Salt just. not have pronouns. does Salt refer to Salt exclusively as Salt. is it a lizardfolk thing.

edit: Past Me, no shit hide armor is "made out of armor," it is armor, that is really not what you meant.

 

That makes sense. I particularly like the aspects thing -- reminds me of the followers of the Sovereign Host in Eberron. (Or certain Jesuit missionaries IRL)

I'm good with fewer clerics/paladins than the setting books imply. Setting books are usually ridiculous anyway.

oh boy did you not hear about Paladin of Souls? It won a Hugo...

 

Good to know, thank you! I hope you don't mind that I'm having a hard time doing the same for you, all three of them seem pretty neat, and I'm out of stimulant temporarily which makes decisioning hard. Also, don't know if you want people to chime in or not.

It might be a lizardfolk thing, it might not be. Salt was confused by pronouns when learning common, certainly, and so just uses Salt. Others use pronouns for Salt, probably, like "you", but it's very similar to a Longshoreman of the Apocalypse situation and took Salt some time to understand who others were talking to. Now it's an amusing quirk and done out of ease/habit more than anything else.

Also, I imagine Salt goes topless a fair bit due to having scales and none of the things in the chest area that mammals sometimes get all upset about having out in the open, and only using Salt makes that whole process easier.

EDIT: Actually... damn, nevermind. Natural Armor doesn't stack with Unarmored Defense. I really like Salt, but might need to put Salt on the back burner for a bit and figure out something else to use Salt for, since Salt won't really get one of the big benefits I was hoping to utilize Salt for. Hrmmm. Silly oversight on my part.

 

Look mostly I have just spent the last couple days very sick and very depressed and this helped me take my mind off things

Ah ok! In the book it said that they come of physical age at the same time as humans but I think I misinterpreted that? So yeah, 80s sounds fine

Would it be especially dangerous for her to be recognized? She's not a stealth girl and w/o further setting knowledge my thoughts are "she wants to be recognized, both for business reasons and also so that people know that despite being a drow she is relatively harmless"

fair! ritual scarring might be a bit too "scary" looking- is that kind of thing common in the setting?

very fair point!

nah its cool! I tend to handwave things away with "magic" but there's no shame in being more accurate!

hmmm, alright. Then I might switch to a faerun god or something else, bc her being raised in a religious monastery/cloister is important (since in a monastery you would be taught to read/have access to books, while in a hospital/orphanage you wouldn't)

The initial numbers are the initial roll, so, for example, Auralee's initial rolls were 12, 14, 13, 16, 12, and 17.

Thank you! I was planning on doing stuff like that and spells when I actually pinned down a character

I was doing the same thing with Auralee, don't worry!

Studded leather is 45 gp as opposed to normal leathers 10, but I'll see if I can manage it?

I went with the starting equipment for both Rawl and Yew, and druids only get the choice of leather armor

yeaaah, I think I'll switch out the greatclub for the wooden shield option in the starting equipment

That sounds good, yeah :p

Hmmm...scale mail is an option for rangers, but hide mail isn't, and I want Yew to be a bit more of a stealth girl....

She does, I just forgot to note it down! sorry

np! I would be happy with folks chiming in but you don't have to

 

@Arxon, looking more at Yew, wondering if you might be better off with the variant human rather than the base one. There's not a lot of benefit from odd-number stats, after all.

The variant is, for the record, that instead of +1 to all stats, you get: +1 to two stats, an extra skill proficiency (your choice), and a feat.

If you don't have the list of feats, Lucky, Resilient, Sharpshooter, Defensive Duelist, Alert, and Magic Initiate are all great. Happy to go into more detail on any of 'em, or find others, or whatnot.

 

I feel I should apologize for taking forever I wanna make sure I'm doing things Right because brainbugs, but they're also in full force going "you're holding everyone uuuuup"

re: wings cosmetic is fine, if they're a pain for us both I don't want to deal with that my first game ^^

Spoiler: staaaaats

5, 4, 4, 6: 15

5, 2, 2, 3: 10

3, 5, 2, 3: 11

3, 6, 6, 2: 15

2, 5, 6, 6: 17

6, 4, 2, 5: 15

I think I did that right? Also the dice loved faking me out. There were a LOT of rerolled ones that turned into 4s/5s/6s.

 

Well, I'm down to three ideas, at least! Cora, the halfling monk who is just super fascinated by death; Pax, the tiefling monk who balances being a good person, poor socialization, and the ability to shoot beams; and Vaunea, the goliath barbarian who is really into killing dragons and definitely not at all insecure about not being able to solo them. (Alas, poor Salt... someday...)

You're really not. I know brainbugs will insist that you are, but you're not. If you do have any questions or want to confirm things, though, feel free to ask or check in. It's not hard for those of us with more experience to help out.

As far as I can tell, you did the rolls for the stats right. Looks like a pretty sweet array, too.

 

Confirmation: background skill proficiencies are added onto class proficiencies, so I don't have to take them there? My brain keeps going "that's CHEATING" which is ver silly.

 

Correct. If, say, your Noble background gives you Persuasion, you don't have to spend a rogue skill proficiency on Persuasion. You already have it.

 

and racial proficiencies stack too! which is why my half-elf Urchin background rogue has eight. :D

 

Yep. It's not 3/3.5/PF's "class skills" anymore: it's proficiencies, whether you get them from class or background or race (or feat.) And the flat proficiency bonus + ability modifier + misc for easy math.

(Ninja'd response: envious bard fist shaking in the distance)

 

I'm not parsing the equipment list well. Do I get all of the bullet points, just choosing between (a) and (b) where listed? Because that gives me a good handful of weapons on hand. Which fits a rogue (always have a backup!) but is hitting my "doesn't look right" 'dar.

 

Despite the pinging, you do indeed get all the bullet points! It's a way to make it easier for folks than having them buy all the things a la carte if they don't know what all they might need. Pretty much everyone ends up with at least two weapons, and three or more isn't too unusual as a choice either.

The only thing you don't necessarily get that it looks like you might is whatever artisan's tools or musical instruments you get proficiency in (unless something in the equipment list gives them, or you buy them with your leftover starting gold). Everything else is fair game. 5e really likes to make sure players start out well-equipped, because A) it's easy to run into trouble at first level that's hard to get out of, and B) gear is useful for much longer than in some past editions, so it's better to have a solid bunch of options since you won't just be replacing most everything in the first few sessions anyway.

EDIT: Nevermind, Rogues only get Thieves' Tools proficiency and they do start with those. I guess Nobles get a gaming set proficiency that you'd need to buy, but that seems more intuitive than some of the other options out there.

 

Okay! I'm going with Pax, I think. Played a barbarian last game, and the coin I flipped came up her way over Cora.

Spoiler: Rieta 'Pax' Allorea

Tiefling Outlander, Monk 1

Alignment: Chaotic Good
HP: 10/10
AC: 18
Speed: 30 ft
Size: Medium
Darkvision 60 ft.
Resistance to Fire
Languages: Common, Infernal, one other (learning toward Draconic, Undercommon, Orc, or Celestial... want something less-than-super-common to have been taught by her mentor)
+7 unarmed strike (1d4+5 bludgeoning)
+7 handaxe (1d6+5 slashing)
+7 darts (1d4+5 piercing, finesse, thrown (20/60))
+7 spear (1d6+5 piercing, versatile (1d8), thrown (range 20/60))
Money: 5 gp

Str 13 (+1)
Dex 20 (+5)
Con 15 (+2)
Int 12 (+1)
Wis 16 (+3)
Cha 14 (+2)

Personality Trait: I was, in fact, raised by wolves.
Ideal: It is each person's responsibility to create happiness for others wherever they can.
Bond: I owe my life to the monk who took me in, and will do anything to honor his memory.
Flaw: There's no room for caution in a life lived to the fullest.

Proficiency Bonus: +2
Weapons: Simple Weapons, Shortswords
Armor: None
Saving Throws: Strength +3, Dexterity +7
Skills: Stealth +7, Insight +5, Athletics +3, Survival +5
Tools: Musical Instrument (Shawm), Artisan's Tools (woodcarver's tools, probably, maaaybe cook's utensils depending on what others go for)

Equipment

Spoiler: Equipment, long

• staff,
• hunting trap,
• big boar tusk on a string around her neck,
• set of traveler's clothes,
• 5 gp in a pouch,
• handaxe,
• 10 darts,
• spear,
• explorer's pack (with backpack, bedroll, mess kit, tinderbox, 10 torches, 10 days of rations, waterskin, and 50 ft hempen rope),
• whichever artisan's tools I go for (both cost 1gp),
• shawm

Carrying Capacity: 195 lbs.

Abilities

Infernal Legacy: Grants access to the Thaumaturgy cantrip. (Improves at 3rd and 5th level.)
Wanderer: Excellent memory for maps and geography, can always recall the general layout of terrain, settlements, and other features around me. Can also find food and fresh water for 6 people (self and five others) each day, so long as the land has berries, small game, water, and the like available somewhere.
Unarmored Defence: When not wearing armor or using a shield, add Wisdom modifier to AC.
Martial Arts:

• Use Dex instead of Str for attack/damage of unarmed strikes and monk weapons (all simple weapons, plus shortswords);
• Can roll d4 instead of regular damage for unarmed strikes and monk weapons, increases with level
• When using Attack action with unarmed strike or monk weapon, can use bonus action to make one unarmed strike.

Thaumaturgy: Transmutation, 30 ft range, 1 action, verbal, lasts up to 1 minute, can cast multiple times to stack up to three of the following effects (get one effect per cast):

• Your voice booms up to three times as loud as normal for 1 minute.
• You cause flames to flicker, brighten, dim, or change color for 1 minute.
• You cause harmless tremors in the ground for 1 minute.
• You create an instantaneous sound that originates from a point of your choice within range, such as a rumble of thunder, the cry of a raven, or ominous whispers.
• You instantaneously cause an unlocked door or window to fly open or slam shut.
• You alter the appearance of your eyes for 1 minute.

Age: Uncertain, probably 17ish, give or take a couple years
Height: 6' 1" (I rolled randomly, got double 8s!)
Weight: 170 lb.
Gender: Cis Woman
Sexuality: Uncertain

Appearance
Pax is a young woman of indeterminate age. While her size indicates that she's probably reached adulthood, her childish wonder and youthful features make it hard to place her age definitively. She looks abnormal for even other tieflings, with a dark blue skin rather than a more normal, reddish tone. While she has the sharp fangs, large, curling ram horns and thick, four-and-a-half-feet-long tail that are typical of tieflings, there are a few other ways in which she differs. Rather than a solid colour, her red eyes have pupils that are slitted like a cat's. She also sports an extra finger on each hand. Most unsettlingly for most, however, is that she seems to cast no shadow, and has no reflection. This has given her something of a disinterest in fashion, exacerbated by her childhood. She tends to let her wild purple hair hang loose, cutting it or tying it back only if it becomes truly unbearable. Similarly, she wears fairly loose and simple clothing of the style favored by the monk who took her in, though they're slightly too small now. Although she'd find things easier if she hid her heritage some, she tends to keep her hood down. She also wears a pendant made of a large boar's tusk around her neck, from one of the last hunts she and her teacher went on together before he died.

Personality
Pax is a lighthearted, curious, rambunctious, wild sort... who is actively trying to emulate a staid, serious, quiet, but kind monk. This leads to a bit of a disconnect at times, between the way she tries to be and the way she naturally is. While she means well, she can be stubborn, selfish, and petty in the moment, only to later realize that she fell short of who she aspires to be. To some extent her cheery nature is, itself, a way of covering up the insecurities she has about having been abandoned as a child and not fitting in even in the monastery, but it's long since become habit.

Background
Abandoned as an infant for unknown reasons, Pax was raised by a variety of wild animals for some time. Unfortunately, wild animals aren't the best of parents, and have a tendency to be hunted. Shortly after being so orphaned she was found by a wandering monk (name pending) , who gave her both her formal name and her nickname (a derivative of how he asked her to settle down, saying "peace, peace" when she got overly excited). The monk took her back to his monastery, where she failed utterly to fit in despite her best efforts. After a few years, aware of the damage that would be done both to Pax and the other disciples by remaining, the monk took her back out on the road with him, teaching her more directly and raising her himself. They were happy like this for a long time, and he left a definite impression on her, but it was, unfortunately, not to last. Responding to requests for help, the monk came across a dragon, and was unable to prevail against it beyond keeping Pax alive long enough to escape with some townsfolk. With her mentor dead, unwilling to return to the stifling monastery, Pax set out on her own, to continue the training she'd begun with her mentor on her own, and to try and live up to the obviously big hopes he'd had for her.

Undecided things:

Went back and forth between Acrobatics and Stealth for ages, but when I rolled on the appearance variations table for tieflings in the SCAG and got "casts no shadow or reflection" I figured I had to go with Stealth. Still tempted by Acrobatics, make it so that she's not extra talented at hiding despite no shadow/reflection... but for a wild child it seems like that'd be useful for surviving. Would take both but I really want Insight for the fun "wild girl can tell if you're lying" trope.

Not totally sure on the last language. Might go for Draconic if it's an option for the relative benefits, or else the least common language spoken in the party. Or maybe something no one else speaks, cover some bases? I dunno.

Tempted to go for woodworker's tools, but might take cooking if no one else does. Both seem to fit pretty well.

Also really need to work out a name and race for her mentor. Might depend a bit on what language I want to go for, really.


Hmm... do we start out knowing/travelling with each other, or does the adventure give us a reason to become a party in the beginning?

 

Character creation and the endless urge to go "ooh but what if instead" and veer off onto completely disconnected concepts. I've already re-noticed that sorcerers via metamagic have access to the spell shaping thing, so Mx Boomy here isn't playing with a super unique thing. But I really don't want to do anything Charisma-focused. But I also also don't want to play a full utility wizard. Conundrums.

Even so, I've gotten moderately far into my decision-making for Mx. Boomy. Not super optimized, but I consulted a couple of the guides out there to factcheck myself over whether I was remembering the probable usefulness of certain abilities and spells correctly. Had it confirmed that Chill Touch is less cool than I remember wanting it to be, alas.

And that's the mechanic side. Characterization-side, I really want to play somebody who's an ex-cultist, raised by a branch of the cult but got out somehow before full initiation into the mysteries of dracoliches and whatever beliefs they've got going on there. Which implies several very different concepts! I think I wanna chat with @esotericPrognosticator about the non-spoiler sorts of things a kid raised there would "know."

(for now I'm gonna go watch YOI w/roomie, I'll be back later.)

Eta wait I meant to put the character sheet draft in here.... whoops.