Since I started this topic of conversation at the end of our session, let me first say that I'm not trying to encourage Leigh to kill our characters.  I'd rather have Luke stay alive and find his redemption, instead of getting eaten by a big lizard.  But the ever-present possibility of character death is part of what makes this game fun, and the odds do seem to be strongly against our surviving at this point.  Therefore, I've been giving some thought to a new character to have ready in case Luke dies.

Based on what people were saying as we were all leaving, I've been thinking about ways to fulfill the striker role.  Here's the concept I have in mind at the moment.  Leigh, I'd appreciate if you'd let me know whether this idea is OK with you before I go to the work of actually making the character in detail.

The guy I have in mind is a member of the Path -- the monastic order in the service of Heironeous that we encountered a while back around Brix.  He is a human who comes from an aristocratic background in Shattered Bridge.  Class-wise, he's an Avenger (not a Monk), but flavor-wise he's a monk.  Personality-wise, he's more unscrupulous and cynical than Luke.  Probably moderately charismatic, and trained in Diplomacy (but his highest stats will need to be Dex and Wis).  He fights with a longspear.  (I partly have in mind the character played by Donnie Yen in the movie Hero, who gets killed by Jet Li's character in the first fight scene.)

Story-wise, this guy is on a mission to find Luke, who is, after all, a fugitive and a murderer.  He suspects Luke of having some connection to the Dracolich -- and that's his main motivation in looking for Luke, considering what the Dracolich has done to Shattered Bridge.  He would rather capture Luke alive and find out what he might know, but killing him would be an acceptable option.  He knew Luke a little bit, back in Shattered Bridge, but the two of them  weren't close.  He's prejudiced against half-orcs, which is a pretty common sentiment.

So this guy heard that Luke had appeared in Brix, and started getting on his trail.  Where he is now is wherever Leigh finds it convenient for him to be.  Maybe he's tracking the PCs through the jungle, or maybe he's still way back in Holderness or somewhere else along the road.

Leigh, if Luke survives, then feel free to use this concept as a NPC, of course!

Interesting point, Dave.  But consider also that we are a somewhat unbalanced party now -- two leaders, no controller.  So, hypothetically, if Ladron dies and everyone else lives, should you make a striker or a controller to replace him?  Or if Luke's the only one to die, do I make a defender or a controller?  (Maybe the latter, since the two dwarves do pretty well with defender-ish stuff.)

But let's take this further -- why limit the hypothetical possibilities to (1) all die or (2) only my character dies?  What if, say, Luke and Thir die but Brenna and Ladron live?  There are too many possible combinations to anticipate, and I'd have trouble finding the time and mental energy to create a sufficient number of characters to anticipate all contingencies and put real thought into each of them.

It seems to me that the most likely scenarios, by far, are that either (1) we all die or (2) some unexpected thing comes along and saves us and we all live.  I'm not sure I'm enough of a Boy Scout to create characters for all other possibilities as well.

I very much agree that today's turn of events is not Leigh's fault.  It seemed like an interesting and balanced encounter, but there was some catastrophic dice rolling going on.

I know I'm not part of your group, but I do have a comment about the whole Avenger thing.  I was playing in a group where one of the players had a female Tiefling Avenger, and let me say, this Avenger tanked harder than the Battlerage Vigor Fighter in the group.  She had the highest AC in the group, second in HP, and was overall a bad ass.  And she wielded a spear.  You wouldn't have to go to that extreme, but you could make a build similar to that, where the character could fill a secondary role pretty closely.  It takes a little more time and thought into making it, but having done it myself, it can be very fun and rewarding at the end of the day.

Well, for me it was mostly being stunned for seven turns that prevented any kind of useful coordination of the group's assets.  It's hard to overstate how differently that combat would have gone if I'd been able to start hitting people sooner.

I definitely blame the dice rather than the encounter builder tool.  This seemed like a fine encounter to me.  There's no point trying to design encounters in which the PCs won't get killed no matter how badly their dice roll.

Leigh said: "What path any surviving characters take may or may not lead to a confrontation in Shattered Bridge." In response, I'll say this about my concept for my next character: He is not under orders from anyone.  He's just chosen to take on a personal mission of tracking down Luke because he thinks it's the best way for him to tackle the Dracolich situation.  Thus, there's some flexibility about him -- he can pick up right where Luke leaves off and continue the same quest, or he can be persuaded to go and do some other thing instead if he is given an in-character reason for doing so.

I haven't yet figured out if he's an Avenger or a Monk.  Almost certainly he is one or the other.

I'd say that the odds are medium in favor of any character death.  Thir's strategy might favor retreating towards the cliff and using bull rush tactics.  He isn't afraid of any (literally) stinking lizards.

OK, so I've pretty much got my if-necessary-replacement for Luke figured out.  All of what follows is, of course, subject to Leigh's approval.

His name is Sir Marhault Greenleaf.  He's an Avenger. 

He comes from a monastery, about a day's travel southeast of Shattered Bridge, on a cliff overlooking the South Kelix River.  The monks of that place call themselves the Order of Ancient Eagles.  They're a small subgroup of the Path.  The Order has produced some of the greatest warriors and generals ever to serve Heironeous, but that's mostly ancient history.  In more recent times, the Order of Ancient Eagles has welcomed quite a few wealthy members into its ranks and renovated the monastery to a high level of taste and elegance.  Several of the Order's members have lately found their way into influential political positions in Shattered Bridge, Holderness, Hildebrand, and other places.  Some would say the Order has become decadent and worldly and has lost its old piety and valor.

Sir Marhault seems fairly typical of this newer generation of monks: a young nobleman who appreciates the finer things in life.  He looks small and delicate, with long hair and a mustache (picture a younger Inigo Montoya) and expensive but not gaudy clothes.

The oddest thing about Sir Marhault is that he carries a heavy flail that looks like it might weigh more than he does.  When he fights with it, he's constantly in motion, whirling the flail around him in a way that looks almost absurdly flashy and out-of-control -- yet somehow it works.  His opponents find him terribly hard to hit.  He is  uncannily good at moving through the battlefield; knows a trick or two about using the flail to dictate his adversaries' movements; and has also learned a few attacks that channel light and fire from Heironeous.

He is generally pleasant and well-spoken (12 Charisma, trained in Diplomacy).  He is usually confident and optimistic; he seems to take almost everything somewhat lightly.  He is light on his feet (17 Dex, trained in Stealth and Acrobatics) and has keen senses (19 Wis, trained in Perception).  His first instinct is to try to talk (or possibly sneak) his way out of a predicament; to him, it's uncivilized to resort to violence unless you're quite sure it's necessary.

His main goal in life is to advance the power of Heironeous in the Near Realms, especially within human civilization.  To that end, he wants to (1) perform impressive feats of valor and heroism in Heironeous's name, and (2) build alliances with the followers of other deities (and worshippers of spirits).  Although Sir Marhault is loyal to Heironeous, his own alignment is Unaligned.  When he does good things for others, he sees himself as doing them for the greater glory of Heironeous, for which he fully expects to be rewarded in this life and the afterlife.  Thus, he is willing to lie, cheat,  steal, and break his word, as necessity and prudence may dictate.

Sorry didnt see this last post.

Yes new characters will start with an even level item an item 1 level lower than the level and an item one level higher. Certain "Fantastic" items which clash with the setting may be disallowed.

That said if the party is scattered to the winds it may be better to consider taking up a new overall arc rather than try to piece togther something that fits in to the current "quest." Given the information on the setting thus far folks may be more comfortable developing other threads or rumors.

moyphotos wrote on Oct 29^th, 2010 at 10:34pm:



If thats not a jinx...