Post/Author/DateTime	Post
cymbolik 10-12-05, 01:06 PM	i think i may have misposted...anyway, this is possibly a corrective location. just a heads up, the link is quite lengthy... Original post on the Psionics boards The link above is my character history that i have, to date, along with my character stats, etc. i'm playing a psion, psychokinesis as primary discipline. i've asked a few questions, but i suspect that, due to the length of the post, no one is getting to the point of actually reading them. high-powered campaign, starting at 3rd level. i want to run the character the full 20 levels in psion before picking up the crystal master prestige class. Crystal Master with the psicrystal affinity feat, can you pick up the feat multiple times or can you create as many psicrystals as you want with the single feat? (clearly the latter would be a major flaw) also, can't remember the name of the feat off-hand, but does the feat that allows you to store your psionic focus in your psicrystal apply to all your psicrystals, or do you have to take it for each individual one? if anybody is interested in suggesting possible powers and feats (my dm allows ANY official wizards material) i'd appreciate it, since i would like to squeeze as much as i could out of the character. i'll be dropping my level adjustment for playing a drow at 6th and 9th levels (thanks to unearthed arcana) since our campaign starts out in Sigil and i don't actually own a planar handbook yet i 've read some source material from the original planescape box set (since my character is the only one born in sigil) just to get an idea of how things operate. i was wondering if factions have been translated across into 3.5 (as a prestige class or whatever) or if it really is just for flavouring up a character?
Gingerbread Guy 10-12-05, 06:12 PM	Since you didn't actually post your character history, there isn't much for us to say here. To answer your questions about game mechanics: Unless a feat says in it's description that you can take it multiple times, you can't take it multiple times. So, no, you can't get multiple psicrystals by taking the feat over and over. And, obviously, you can't store psionic focus in more than one crystal because you only have one crystal. ^_^ If you want advice on what powers and feats to take, try posting at the Optimization board. I'm afraid I don't know anything about the setting, so you're on your own there. If you post your character history and pertaining questions, I'll try to get to them for ya. ~Ginger
cymbolik 10-17-05, 07:38 AM	hey ginger sorry about this all - pre birthday jitters always get me a little messier than usual. i originally posted in the psionics thread, but no answer - then i browsed around a bit and saw this thread and the optimization thread. the links just didn't copy/paste, is all. so, i finished the character back story - feel free to crit/correct bad grammar/spelling errors. ;) Tome of the Last Tier’s’Fallen I was born in the City of Sigil, the City of Doors, beneath a twilight sky. Perhaps this is not an unusual occurrence for many of the denizens of this planar metropolis. But I have heard the tales of the Underdark from my parents, where our kind lived miles beneath the surface and could only faintly recall the wonder of open sky from trance dreams. To my parents my birth beneath the open air was the culmination of their life’s work. My father was Avar Tier’s’Illesid of House Karthan, born to the Underdark and to the mysteries of the arcane. When he was 269 years of age he was finally released from the apprenticeship of his Drow masters in the arcane academy and encouraged to join the army as a spellbinder. It was while he was on a scouting mission with a small band of other mercenaries on the hunt for rebels that they were ambushed by a couple of Illithid slavers. Two days later my mother, Lady Talera Tier’s’Fallen, First Daughter of House Rauven and Priestess of Ellistraee, accompanied by her band of rebel companions from the surface regions, inadvertently stumbled across and managed to release my father and his companions from the thrall of the Illithid. Together their two bands fought an arduous battle, filled with powerful spells, magic weapons, grasping tentacles and the alien powers of the Illithid. The mindflayers were slain, at the expense of my father’s entire troupe, save my father, as well as one of my mother’s companions. Perhaps it was the steel in her own Drow eyes as she defiantly approached him, unarmed and bleeding, or perhaps it was her gentle touch as she whispered healing magic over his aching body that made him look at her as anything other than a rebel. For the first time, and certainly not the last, my mother forced my father to challenge the old traditions that Drow society is born with. He realised then what my mother and the rebellion meant. In that moment he grasped her arm in thanks and begged her to never leave his side. My father fell from the grace of House Karthan and became outcast as he chose a new destiny with the rebel Drow and their return to the surface worlds to incorporate themselves in the realms of Humans and their ancient cousins, the Elves. Avar and Talera married 10 years later, under the grace of Ellistraee and with the blessing of House Rauven’s Matriarch, my grandmother. Together my parents adventured into the Underdark for many years, self-stylised freedom fighters, helping Drow escape to the surface and freeing them from the darkness that had become the domain of Lolth, the Spider Demoness. So great was their success that they soon became revered as heroes amongst the surface dwelling Drow. But their fame above was their infamy below. The legions of the Underdark soon heard of this rebel partnership between my mother and one of their own trained mages, my father. For years there were plots and schemes to capture these two freelance emancipators, these criminals accused of treason. Year after year my mother and father managed to escape as the trap was about to close. However, they were not to remain so lucky. On their last mission together in the Underdark they sought to free a family living in one of the royal houses. Perhaps they were too ambitious. Caught by the Priestesses of Lolth, they were tried and sentenced. Part of a massive procession before the host of the Underdark, my mother and father were led to the Maw of Lolth. Their execution was to be a public display, to demoralise those hidden rebel factions as they saw their heroes led to their dooms, and to break the hope of those Drow that believed that there was a better world for them elsewhere. Amongst various incantations and rituals, the Maw of Lolth, a massive pit in the Underdark, was opened, the covering stone moved mystically to one side. Embracing each other, my parents were flung into the pit, screaming. Neither of them is sure how it happened. Maybe their love for one another and their service to the Drow people softened Ellistraee’s heart, or perhaps it had always been like this, but my parents never hit the bottom of the pit. Instead they found themselves wrenched from their home world and lying in the street of a strange city. Poor, destitute, my parents struggled for years to rebuild their lives. My mother performed minor healings while my father crafted magic items and performed certain spells as required by the many alien people of this strange place. Ten years later I was conceived, after my parents had built up enough of a life for themselves to support a child. My father was extremely excited at my birth, for he could sense a great power inside me. He thought I was destined to walk in his footsteps as a mage and began preparations to teach me his art himself. My mother encouraged me to pursue my dreams, and I often escaped my father’s teachings with my mother’s assistance, to join in the games of the other children of my neighbourhood, for by the age of 100 I had not been able to grasp even the most basic forms of cantrips. It was on one of these excursions, when I was an adolescent, that my friends and I became involved in an act of petty larceny. We broke into a gem cutter’s house one night and rifled around in the dark. I came upon a strange gem that seemed reassuringly familiar to the touch. One of my friends had managed to step on a creaking floor board, and my nerve failed me. I snatched up the gem, tucked it into one of my pockets, and dove out the window we had used to gain access. I ran home, taking the most indirect route, never looking back, filled with the sense of exhilaration. I came home and snuck back into my room, striking up a candle so that I could admire my prize. The purple gem seemed to burn, its shape carved to resemble the body of a tiny spider, without any legs. The gem seemed to respond to my touch, flaring and sparkling in the candle light. I was mesmerised, staring into its depths, lost in thought. When my mother came to collect me from trance the next day she found me sitting up in bed, the gem still clutched in my hand. She shook me, and I came to with a start, realising that there was a third presence in the room, whispering words of encouragement to me, assuring me that all would be well. I looked at my mother, obviously bewildered, as she asked me where I had come upon the gem. Having been victim to my mother’s interrogations in the past and not wanting to repeat an ordeal of truth revealing magic, I immediately told her the truth. She marched me straight back to the gem cutter’s house, forcing me to tell him the whole story of how I had come to possess the gem. The gem cutter thanked my mother and asked to see the gem, his eyes stern. When he saw the gem his eyes widened for just an instant before he told my mother that I could keep the gem, that it was really nothing less than a piece of valueless crystal and that it would serve to remind me of my actions. Astounded, my mother walked me back to our house, a suspicious glint in her eyes. All the while the voice had never left my mind, constantly reassuring me all along. Once home my mother spoke briefly to my father, who had been looking for me to start my daily lessons. He came to find me immediately and cast a spell. I could feel his magical gaze crawl over my skin. Consumed by a sudden adolescent surge of rebellion I faced my father, defiantly, the encouraging words still ringing in my mind, fuelling my act of will. A blinding surge leapt from my mind to my father’s probing consciousness. Wild energies lashed at him and he clutched his head in agony. My mother came running to his aid, whispering the healing blessings of Elisstraee over him. When his agony abated they both turned their eyes to me, my mother’s face filled with surprise, my father’s stricken with absolute revulsion. In that instant of strange backlash a change had come over me. My eyes glowed with an incandescent light, my hair shining like spun mithral. The air around me was filled with wisps of steam, as if my body were ice cold. A strange, otherworldly hum filled the room. Not long after that my father left us, the arguments between him and my mother the only sounds I had heard for many nights. My mother later told me that my father believed it was his exposure to the thrall of the Illithid that had tainted his blood and had cursed his only son with their alien power. Too ridden with guilt, he left while my mother and I were deep in trance. Not long after that my mother fell ill. Her heart, broken, lost all desire to sustain life, and a year after my father had left she passed away. I renounced everything my father had taught me and took my mother’s family name the year I came of age. To survive I apprenticed myself to a weapon smith and made a humble life for myself, my anger toward my father for rejecting me and killing my mother fuelling my arms that struck metal into sharp edges. During the sunlight hours of Sigil I busied myself with studying these newly awakened powers within me and soon found that the gem I had acquired was the source of the voice of encouragement I had heard all along. She identified herself as Talliarthe, the hero. Through her telepathic guidance and instruction I soon came to grips with my new abilities. With her instruction I came to learn about psionics, the power of the mind, and my own inherent strengths. I have never discovered if my father’s suppositions regarding the source of my psionic talents were founded in any truth, but I have made it my personal mission of vengeance to find him and exact the truth from him. It was this quest that drove me to the taverns one evening, the desire to numb my feelings of personal betrayal with spirits, trying to devise a way to change my fortune. With a completely different fire burning inside of me, I felt that I must be hallucinating when I saw a human woman appear in the tavern through one of the many portals that fill the City of Doors, accompanied by a faint shimmer remotely resembling a wolf. Not certain if it was the spirits affecting my vision or the residual power of the portal, I shut my eyes and opened them again. This time I saw only the woman, her body clothed in animal skins and her hair woven around the feathers of some bird, two daggers clutched in her hands. She had managed to startle another customer, a cambion, who rattled obscenities at her for spilling his drink. Realising that she was a Primer and was unfamiliar with the languages of the Planes, I stepped forward to assist her, calming the half-fiend as much as I could and offering to replace the lost drink. *Note to DM: I thought that perhaps us roleplaying this scenario out would be better? I’m not sure what to do with all of this, from here, really. I figured we could start off in the middle of the fracas, battling a half-fiendish character, with the half-orc making his entry in some manner (really confused on how to introduce him since I don’t have a copy of his character history. Anyway, give me some thoughts regarding this and I’ll work it out for you.*
Fithero 10-17-05, 09:21 AM	Thats a pretty good story, and very unique for a drow. I think the drow cop alot of flak, since the second anybody even mentions them, people think "ahh crud... another drizzt!" But i think they have alot of potential. Very cool story, hope the character plays well for you. Later
cymbolik 10-19-05, 06:04 AM	thanks, hero so, my dm was pretty happy with it as well, since i had read one of our other players' history and had tied her into my story perfectly. the way the scenario is going to play out is with my character trying to make nice with the dude that the human woman (a spirit shaman from complete divine - my buddy's character) has managed to **** off. the way the other player, whose character history i don't have (he hasn't written one yet) is going to be introduced (the dm is taking some creative liberty here, which i feel is reasonably fair) is by making the half-orc ranger stand up, unsheathe his two bastard swords (monkey grip and two weapon fighting) and approach the creature he's been tracking for a few months, incidentally the cambion i make mention of. i realise we all end up meeting in a bar, but what a great scene, don't you think?
Fithero 10-19-05, 07:22 AM	Why is the orc ranger taking monkey grip? Just take exotic weapon prof: bastard sword and you can use them one handed anyway :P Meeting in a bar is fine... as long as its not- "hey, buy me a beer" "ok, hey, were mates right? lets go adventure!" "yeah" Thats always so old, just give them a decent reason. Later
cymbolik 10-19-05, 11:35 AM	the reason he's taken monkey grip is so that he can fight with two of them at once ;) unless of course i have the wrong feat in mind that allows you to treat the secondary weapon as one size category smaller than it actually as far as the penalties for two weapon fighting is concerned. that's exactly how i felt about it too. i mean, yes, it's the cliché of meeting in a bar, but my goodness, we'll start out fighting and not knowing who's on whose side... *sighs contentedly* it's going to be grand...
Fithero 10-19-05, 11:40 AM	Yeah, but if you take the exotic weapon prof: bastard sword, you can use a bastard sword one handed... which means you can wield one each hand. Which means you wouldnt be taking the neg's you'd get from taking monkey grip. You can use a bastard sword two handed with the martial weapon prof, but if spend a feat and take the exotic weapon prof you can use it one handed. Later
cymbolik 10-19-05, 12:07 PM	i think the misunderstanding comes in here: he fights with two bastard swords, at once, as with two weapon fighting. it may not be monkey grip - i.e. i'm using the wrong name for the feat. i do know he's taken a feat that allows him to ignore the penalty for fighting with two weapons of the same size in each hand. (-2, if i'm right) he's already taken this feat i'm referring to, along with exotic weapon proficiency: bastard sword - he's a 3rd level half orc ranger, so he get's two weapon fighting style for free. the idea is for him to later take improved and then perfect two weapon fighting. 1d10 in each of his hands is about as much as i could help him squeeze out of his character, damage-wise...