Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Fwib 09-29-05, 10:42 AM	I may well be starting a game at ECL5 set in the Pirate Isles in the Forgotten Realms. Does anyone have any cool character ideas, or can post links to such? Thanks.
1BadazzBaatezu 09-29-05, 12:57 PM	Just happen to be a pirate player myself. I'll tell you the story of Ad'mrl Raven Smythe (NE Human Swashbuckler4/Ftr4/Rog2/Rgr2). Raven was raised by his mother on a small island west of Jhe'hemmadar, one of the major trade ports for the country of Archanon. He had been a sickly youth, but the care of his loving mother helped him to become a healthy, if scrawny, young man. Elsewhere, in his hometown of St. Lorris Bay, the other youths were quite a bit stockier than he, and having much easier times building rapports with the local womenfolk, and in his quest for acceptance from one of the local merchants daughters, he discovered his sense of humor had a way of endearing himself with others. During all this, he had been working as an apprentice at a local shipwrights drydock. The old proprietor was a gruff, but fair man, and was one of the few people to actually remember Raven's father. Raven's mother had always told him his father was a fisherman, lost during a gale one winter night, but as he grew older, the townsfolk often remarked on his physical and charismatic similarities to his father. (During this time, the character is in development. This is the backstory that brought Raven in as a Swashbuckler1. Here's the first session.) St. Lorris Bay had long been a smugglers port of no small reknown. Smugglers would carry contraband into the Bay, and the locals would take it to smaller mainland ports, sell it off, and return with a small percentage of the take for themselves. As such, it was also known to many of the Wolves of the Sea. The pirate bands of Archanon's waters were known to be excessively violent, and without mercy. One fateful night, while drinking at a local establishment, Raven and a few other talented individuals were caught up by a sudden attack, from Orcs from land, and the Sea-Wolves from sea. Raven persuaded the others to help him rescue his mother. When they arrived at his mother's home, he bolted in to find a man, somehow strangely familiar, standing over his mother, her face bloody. The man muttered "I teld'ye I'd b'back fer m'boy, Ye She-W***e." As he spoke, her eyes widened, Raven looked closer, and saw that a metal spike on the man's shoe had pierced the side of his mother's neck. Even as she bled out, Raven charged the man, and was promptly disarmed and knocked unconcious (I rolled 1, DM rolled 20...). The man threw him over his shoulder, and took him back to one of the Longboats, to make his way back to one of the larger galleons of the pirate fleet. His recent compatriots, after dealing with a few remaining pirates on the beach, also grabbed a longboat, and on the way out of the city, just happened to come across A man, looking like an older version of their friend slumped next to him, heading back toward a galleon. The fight was furious, but fast. A fireball from a still-extremely-drunk wizard was enough to finish off the boat, and a passing Druid that had been helping the group shifted into a dolphin and pulled Raven, still bound and gagged, back to the party. As a psionicist transported them to a safe distance away, back on dry land, a small band of orcs attacked the party. As he escaped from his bonds, Raven tumbled by one Orc, stealing his shortsword, and ducked under another, stealing a dagger. The party as a whole regrouped, and Raven happened to be in the best shape after the initial assault from the orcs, so with the help of a nudist gnome monk, an intoxicated wizard, an **** retentive druid, and a Femdom female elf Paladin of Pelor, Raven covered the retreat, and the party survived the session. (Other characters had their own things too, but this is probably too long as it is, and none of them were really pirates. The DM couldn't decide between pirates or orcs, and when I showed him Raven, he said "both", so that's what we had to deal with. The party always made it through though. He was CN up until about level 9, when he caught up with his father, and killed him outright, without even saying a word to him. Hope this helped, and that it wasn't too long.)
Ectoplasmoid 09-29-05, 07:48 PM	Here's one: "Believe or not, I am of noble birth. But, like many a spoiled brat, I wanted more than my luxurious existience, and the comfortable career as a wizard my parents were grooming me for wasn't it. So one night I stowed away a merchant freighter in Waterdeep, spellbook in tow. Just my luck, we were attacked by pirates. Rather than kill be outright, the captain gave me a choice: walk the plank like the rest of the crew, or devote my spellcasting to them. Naturally, I chose the latter option. and here I am today."
Arco Versipellis 10-01-05, 12:17 PM	I played an unusual pirate once, a human sorcerer who speacilized in illusions (and "minored" in sonic attacks, but anyway). He used his high charisma to generate his crew and first mate (a chick with a whip who was awesome) via Leadership, while he used his spells to emulate a sort of "ghost ship." I even got the DM to grant me a crab familiar (used hedgehog/porcupine familair from Tome and Blood; it granted me a +1 natural armor bonus). As far as his story is concerned, Travers Highcrest lived in Faerun (forgot where exactly). He ran into some trouble once he started developing his spells because the local authorities demanded that magic use must authorized. His cohort to be helped him escape, and they committed a few crimes on the way, starting their path to piracy. Due to a couple run in with slavers, he was strongly anti-slavery, which caused him to run his ship more like a traditional pirate ship (where things were run mostly by democracy instead of only by the captain's word). As far as his build, he was a sorcerer (who used a feat to gain perform as a class skill). I added a level of mindbender for the telepathy, and then virtuoso for the unique music abilities at no spellcaster levels. I wanted to music to tie in with the shanties (or work songs), but I never used the bardic music stuff because I was to busy casting improved invisibilty and phantasmal killer again and again.
epiplectic 10-01-05, 11:43 PM	It's not a build of any sort, but an interesting idea of why someone would be a pirate is that historically, skilled people on ships were seen by pirates as more valuable than cargo, so if a ship with a carpenter was siezed by pirates, he could be forced to join the pirates. Many fled as soon as they could, but some preferred the life to what they had before...
Myst_the_Moonscout 10-02-05, 04:08 AM	I'm a pirate nut. Here's a couple I've made so far (NPC's) all FR based and fairly high level but I hope you get some ideas. Captain Luth "Madisk" Stormcliff (CN, human wiz 1/swashbuckler 13) Ship: The Seaborne Stag (custom tashalan frigate sort of thing) The retributive type, insanely long backstory. His family were fishers off Rauthyn so the sea is a natural place for him to execute his many vendettas and make a nice profit. He's your typical suave, smart-allecky swashbuckler with a fondess for Tashalan wine. He keeps his minor arcane ability a secret, (which he aquired from his adoptive rashemi mother) inventing cantrips to help him out of sticky situations. He targets slavers, merchants from particular countries and other pirates and is very proud of his infamous reputation, being seen as a bane in some areas and a hero in others. Typical northerner, red coat, blonde ponytail, black hat, blue eyes. Captain Raul (LN, human not statted) Ship: Cobralily (sloop) The business type, Luth's chief rival. No real backstory yet, a privateer (pirate with a license) out of Waterdeep who considers it his "duty" to beat up on rival nation's ships. Business before pleasure type, serious and humourless man. Unlike luth he tries to keep his profile low. Distant netherese lineage, light skin, black hair, ponytail with a ribbon, blue coat, no hat. Captain not-named-yet (CN, gnoll exp 7) Ship: The Wiley Rose (converted slave ship) An ally of Luth's, was a prisoner on a slave ship when Luth, pretending to get "caught" organized a mutiny from the inside. The gnoll took over the ship and became a pirate, there being little else in the way of professions that a gnoll could do. Beats up on merchants and torches slave ships. Considers himself the scourge of slavers. Looks more wolfish than hyena-like, long cloak and pistol, eye patch (somebody has to have one!) with a scar running across the eye. I think for a pirate you just need to think about the following things: how/why did the character became a pirate? how did they acquire their ship? what do they intend to do with their ship? (who are they targeting, why, fame, glory, wealth, greater good, etc.) what sort of reputation do they have? what other pirates do they know? (as you can see above, I like to link my characters together. Chances are, if one pirate is famous, others have heard of him/her. Pirate rivalry might be fun to role play) Along with what epiplectic said, reasons a character might become a pirate include the standard adventure starved stowaway, the convict/wanted person escaping aboard a ship, hero/anti-hero worship, following a parent's footsteps, perhaps a sailor in wartime now finds he has nothing to do when the war is over. Maybe one turns into a pirate hunter instead. You could also use the Dread Pirate Roberts scenario and have a successive line of pirates under one name, or multiple pirates using the same name.
Airsucker 10-04-05, 01:05 PM	Any class can be made into a pirate. Pick the class and race you want to play and we can pirate it up.
kuhTHOOloo 10-04-05, 02:24 PM	Keep in mind you don't always have to be the captain..I designed a tiefling pirate (haven't gotten a chance to play yet. waiting for a pirate campaign to show itself) who is quite sadistic. CE Tiefling Swashbuckler/Fighter who will eventually take on rogue levels. I'm not going to go into his backstory (very very very long) but he's quite content to be a lower member of the crew, not interested at all in leadership. He just wants to kill and pillage others. The rest of the crew knows he could easily dispatch them, so they give him a bit of space and don't order him around. As long as he's given his food and opportunity to ravage other ships, he's happy...he has an agenda of course, but I'm still developing that part.
Morka 10-05-05, 09:13 AM	A variant on the Spoiled Child turned adventurer: the one who is bethroted to a wealthy, but ugly noble, and jump on the first ship leaving the port, which happen to be a pirate ship (or attacked by a pirate ship and so on...) Another fleeing one could be a poor bard who happen to have seduced the wife of another wealthy noble. This one stays in the lookout and sing to inspire everyone... A pirate without ship: a necromancer with a few Merrow (aquatic ogres) zombies, and many skeletons and lacedons. They don't have a large range of action, but they are nearly undetectable during the night, silently climbing on the ship and killing everyone. The necromancer spare those infected with ghoul fever to let them become lacedons. A ship with a were-rat crew: they can swim and climb well, they have rat empathy (there is always a few rats on a ship). They can inflict lycanthropy on anyone they judge useful (a carpenter, a cook, etc.).