I have no gaming group, and I must RP! - Or Game Brainstorming

Ehhhn. Sorc Bloodlines might be a pain in the junk to translate over. I'll poke at it or pull my assassin or necromancer in. They're fun.

(There is no Evil like Lawful Evil, because the petty beaurocrat legislation behind horrific demon sacrifices is hilarious to me.)

 

@Carcosa: On is awesome, though we'd have to think about the tactics of a party with two primary healers. (Go Team Cleric!) Your hypothesis is correct - Santa Cora is now Cora Lorn and is the Lich King's main base on the mainland. The Priestess is dead and the Cathedral defiled. After all, if the merciful and ecumenical pontiff of all the gods of light is still around, it's not much of an apocalypse.

Reskinning breath weapon spells is easy. I'm sticking with the flavor that the Red does not share, but I could nonetheless provide a full set of fire breath weapon spells pretty easily. Not sure I want to write a "turn into a dragon" spell, for reasons that include

• Obvious balance issues
• It steps on the tactical roles of other classes
• I can't guarantee that 12th Age characters will ever get 9th level spells, my rough plan says they cap out at level 8 on the third cycle. (I'm expecting most of my plans to get horribly broken by clever PC ideas, but even so.)

That's "Heroes" in the sense that Achilles was a "hero." The hook for the age is elves vs. dwarves in the style of the Trojan war. So she might fit right in.

That said, while unhinged is fine, and evil may be workable, I'd suggest you stay away from traitors to the PC cause or other major liabilities. Please keep in mind that if your character is on the wrong side, the other players will figure that out and the message back in time on the second cycle will likely begin with something like "first, murder the sorceress standing next to you." If there's a villainous character you really like, you can pitch them to me as an antagonist and I'll let you roleplay them when they show up.

 

The assassin, Nix, is the type of evil that's tolerated because it's useful. Nix is a hitman, and a very good one. Eir main source of income is as an impeccably disciplined attack dog for the mercenaries' guild. There are Rules and breaking those rules is Unacceptable. It's bad for business. The Guild has no use for someone who can't abide by policy, and also cannot afford to fire fighters only to have them become enemies of the Guild. So they send Nix.

Salai is a necromancer/priestess of an Evil God but there's no hard feelings, really. She's the secretary behind the desk informing you with detached calm that NecroCorp is very sympathetic for your loss but it is Tuesday, K'thun The Fear Eater will be fed, and unfortunately your name was drawn from the Hallowed List of Chosen. No, we can't make substitutions. Yes I'm sure. You're really going to insist I call the manager? *small, polite sigh* *taps speakerphone* Yes, terribly sorry to bother you, sir, but I have a doomed acolyte inquiring about a substitution? *explosion of banshee wails from phone* *phone reduced to melted smear on desk* There, you see? No substitutions. Tissue?

 

Nix probably fits better - the Age of Heroes isn't very guild-y but it has an icon that would serve the same purpose. Also, the evil gods of death are doing fine in the "bad ending" so Salai wouldn't have much motivation. That said, you don't have to finalize anything about the earlier ages before we actually play out the 14th. I'm definitely not, since I have no idea what message you're going to send back.

 

Hey, is there a step-by-step chargen thing anywhere?

 

The top half of this page is okay, though after "determine your icon relationships" it veers into gameplay rules without notice. That is the end of chargen though so you can just stop there and be done.

Or I'd be happy to walk you through chargen if you'd prefer that. This forum has a PM system, doesn't it? That would probably be best if we wanted to go back and forth a lot without spamming everyone else.

 

So what do we have confirmed so far?
14th: Taiga (Heals/DPS), Twp (Tank), Incandescence V2 (DPS), On (Heals), ____
13th: Incandescence V1 (DPS), Saetha (Tank), ____, ____, ____?
12th: ?????

 

No junglers whatsoever, at this rate I'm gonna have fuuuuuuuun writing encounters.

Actually, a cleric should put out more damage than a witch. (Don't be fooled by the at-will attack spell and the nuke. Every 13th Age caster gets those. Bards get those, though admittedly Battle Chant is a spell made entirely of pants.) If I wrote the witch class the way I intended it should play more like (Heals/Buffs/Debuffs).

 

OK, here's Incandescence! I'm not sure which powers I'm allowed to get or what the limits are on equipment, so.

13-14th Age:

Name: The Incandescence of Justice's Empyrean Glory
Race: Forgeborn
Class: Sorceror

Spoiler: Stat Stuff

HP: 27
AC: 15
PD: 14
MD: 12
Initiative: +3
Recoveries: 8
Recovery Die: Xd6 + 3
Strength: 0
Constitution: 2+1
Dexterity: 2
Intelligence: 1
Wisdom: -1
Charisma:3 +1

Spoiler: Powers & Equipment

Never Say Die (Racial Power)

• Whenever you drop to 0 hp or below, roll a normal save if you have a recovery available. On an 11+, instead of falling unconscious, you stay on your feet and can heal using a recovery. Add the recovery hit points to 0 hp to determine your hp total.
• Champion Feat: If you roll a 16+ on your never-say-die save, you gain an additional standard action during your next turn.

Access to Wizardry

• Starting at 3rd level, you can take a wizard spell in place of a sorcerer spell. The wizard spell must be two levels lower than the sorcerer spell.

Breath Weapon
Dancing Lights
Metallic Protector Heritage

• Your rolls to re-use breath weapon spells during a fight gain a +2 bonus.
• Adventurer Feat As a quick action at the start of each battle, you can gain resist energy 12+ to one of the following types of energy of your choice: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison.
• Champion Feat When you gather power and your chaotic benefit increases your defenses, you can choose one nearby ally to gain the same defense bonus.
• Epic Feat One battle per day, you can choose to gain resist demon attack 16+ instead of resist energy 12+ from your Metallic Protector Heritage talent.

Sorcerer's Familiar: A small drone (roughly the size of a cat, I think.) Incandescence made it themselves, placing a fragment of their consciousness in a secondary, much smaller chassis made from their own mechanical parts (in fact, it is still capable of docking with Incandescence's body.) It has the Scout permanent trait.
Spell Fist
Ritual Magic

Spells:

• Breath of the Iron: Breath weapon spell. Heavy cold damage to one or two targets.
• Burning Hands: At-will spell. (Cast it as often as you want, as long as it's on your list for the day.) Deals fire damage, and can catch two enemies at once if they're close together.
• Chaos Bolt: At-will spell. Single target but better range and damage. The damage type is random.
• Lightning Fork: Daily spell. (Cast it once then it's gone until you rest.) Heavy lightning damage, with a chance to chain to additional targets.
• Resist Energy: Recharge 16+ (Like daily, but you have a 1/4 chance to get it back after the battle.) You or an ally is harder to damage with a certain energy type.
• Scorching Ray: At-will spell. Deal fire damage to a single target, and possibly set it on fire for continuing damage.

Backgrounds:
Paladin's Aide: +2
Wise Wanderer: +3
Guard Against The Darkness: +3

Unique Thing: is a magical death-robot
Icons: Great Gold Wyrm

Appearance: Incandescence's lower body looks like a very shiny version of the BigDog robot, with delicately-molded details venerating the Great Gold Wyrm. Their upper body looks vaguely feminine in the face, but the torso bears more resemblance to some kind of serpent's, as it's quite flexible and maneuverable. In deference to the Wyrm, Incandescence has vaguely scaley micro-engravings and a line of spines down the back of the neck to the base of the spine, and Incandescence has a 'mane' of vaguely hair-looking spines that can raise up for Looking Cool. Incandescence also possesses a pair of extremely strong and flexible tendrils stored in the 'waist' area that can perform repairs to any part of Incandescence's body. During the 13th Age, Incandescence is very shiny and well-kept, but in the 14th Age decades of wear have left many of the details scratched off and much of Incandescence's metal tarnished, though they are still quite functional.

 

So is Incandescence built along the lines of a robot snake centaur?

 

Kind of, yeah! Except a BigDog instead of a horse, and snake only in that Incandescence has no organs or bones to keep them from being ridiculously flexible.

 

I am so here for this.

 

Oh hey, what's the fluff on half-orcs? They're the result of some kind of infection in... living beings? sentient beings?

 

Okay, first of all, as a sorcerer, your magic is based on your willpower and creativity, not study and memory like a witch or wizard. That means Charisma is your spellcasting stat. Don't put it at -1. :-) Try to get it to at least +3. Maybe you don't need so much Strength?

Second, powers. All sorcerers get:

• Breath weapon spells - each can be used in only one battle per day, but once you use it you have a chance to use it again each round of that battle.
• Dancing Lights - an extra spell that doesn't take up a spell slot, it makes little balls of colored light.
• Gather Power - spend a round building up magic energy, and the round after that cast a spell for double damage.
• Access to Wizardry - starting at 3rd level, so probably not relevant in their first appearance.

Plus pick three of the following:

• Metallic Protector Heritage - you have power from the Great Gold Wyrm, so your breath spells have a better chance of repeating
• Spell Fist - Close-range spellcasting. +2 AC, your enemies don't get free shots on you when you cast in melee range, and you add Con instead of Cha to spell damage.
• Sorcerer's Familiar - A companion animal. Unlike the wizard, witch, and ranger, whose familiars have fixed abilities, sorcerer familiars give different benefits from day to day. Since Incandescence is inorganic themselves, their familiar could also be a drone or smaller robot.
• Blood Link - Free icon relationship point with the Wyrm (still max 3 points per icon, so you'd need a second icon.)
• (The rest of the options are Heritages from other icons besides the Wyrm. According to the rules you could take these, but I'd need a backstory reason.)

Spell list: (Each time you get fully rested, pick four.)

• Breath of the Iron: Breath weapon spell. Heavy cold damage to one or two targets.
• Burning Hands: At-will spell. (Cast it as often as you want, as long as it's on your list for the day.) Deals fire damage, and can catch two enemies at once if they're close together.
• Chaos Bolt: At-will spell. Single target but better range and damage. The damage type is random.
• Lightning Fork: Daily spell. (Cast it once then it's gone until you rest.) Heavy lightning damage, with a chance to chain to additional targets.
• Resist Energy: Recharge 16+ (Like daily, but you have a 1/4 chance to get it back after the battle.) You or an ally is harder to damage with a certain energy type.
• Scorching Ray: At-will spell. Deal fire damage to a single target, and possibly set it on fire for continuing damage.

As for equipment: wearing armor doesn't help sorcerers. If you don't take Spell Fist you might need a light weapon like a short sword or simple spear for zombie-in-your-face emergencies. Beyond that, you automatically start with ordinary equipment for doing whatever non-combat tasks your backgrounds (see below) make you good at, and you don't have to list what you have unless you'd like to for flavor.

Backgrounds: I think the SRD failed to mention this part. Decide on at least two "backgrounds", which are qualities, former occupations, or anything else that means you've picked up skills, training, and/or knowledge. Twp and Taiga's writeups include some good examples. Distribute eight points among your backgrounds, no more than five points to a single one. These basically serve as your skills - when you roll to do something besides attack or cast a spell, you get a bonus equal to your highest relevant background.

 

Basically, the "races" in this game are distinct species who can't actually interbreed. Instead, humans who live near a lot of orcs or vice versa sometimes give birth to half-orcs. (Half-elves work the same way, which is probably because of the ancient connection between elves and orcs.) In the 13th Age, the Empire used half-orcs as a necessary source of strength on the frontier, and despite some racism they were usually much, much more accepted and trusted than full orcs, who were enemies of the Empire. In the 14th Age, half-orcs are more common because the orcs are everywhere, and many of them fight for the Bullroarer, Exile, or Orc Lord, but the Pretender doesn't trust them and has banned them from entering Axis or fighting for the Last Legion.

 

@KarrinBlue: Whoa, just noticed the edit. Thanks!

So, what's Incandescence like personally? What do they want? What have they been doing recently? (Then after this, there's a couple minor stat things to pin down.)

@Carcosa: Last I checked in, you had a bunch of cool ideas and were still fleshing them out. Can I get an update? Have you made a final pick on who you're going to play in the Age of Ruin? (That's the only character that needs to be finished before we start play.)

 

I think I'm going to have to back out. It's starting to look a lot like I just don't have the focus to work on this right now. I've been working on a character sheet for over a week because I can't get my mind to focus for more than five min on this stuff right now, and... That feels kinda unacceptable coming from me.

Sorry for taking up everybody's time, especially if it's been keeping the game from starting.

 

Aww. I didn't mean to pressure you into quitting, but if you don't feel up to it I understand. Lemme know if you change your mind.

Barring that, or some miracle of scheduling that lets @Socratease join in, it looks like we're wrapping up this round of chargen? (Though there's certainly room for more players, if anyone knows someone who would make a good addition please tag them in.) But if it's just the three, it looks like once we fill in the corners on Incandescence we'll be good to go.

 

I'll ping my moirail and auspie, see if they want in

 

I already tried my diamond, turns out he doesn't like online RP.