Post/Author/DateTime	Post
pukunui 10-31-07, 08:21 PM	Hi everyone, This is my first Char Dev thread. I'd like some help fleshing out an NPC cleric I'm about to introduce to the party at tomorrow night's session. I'm running the Red Hand of Doom module, and the PCs are currently visiting the dwarves in the Hammerfist Holds (they've just saved them from a slimy doom plague, in fact) on their way to pay the Ghostlord a visit (they've got his phylactery). However, since the party consists of a fighter, a warlock, a rogue/barbarian, a ranger/horizon walker, and a dragon shaman, they really really want a cleric to come with them. This is what I've come up with: Belak Hammerfist LN old male dwarf cleric 5 of Valkauna STR 11 DEX 7 CON 12 INT 12 WIS 18 CHA 10 Domains: Fate, Repose (I added them to Valkauna's portfolio as they seemed to fit well with the whole "oaths, births, and deaths" thing) Spells are: bestow curse, speak with dead, augury, consecrate, cure moderate wounds, gentle repose, bless, cure light wounds, detect undead, hide from undead, shield of faith, true strike, create water, cure minor wounds, detect magic, mending, read magic, resistance The highest-level cleric in the Holds is only 7th-lvl, so this guy is undoubtedly a pretty important fellow himself. He's probably the one who oversees the births and deaths of all the other important people in the community (while his underlings see to all the rest). And, although the clanlord is the community's chief justice, this guy is probably the one people go to when they want to swear oaths or want to conduct some sort of oath-related business (apart from disputes arising because of oaths). While he's a high-up, well-respected guy in the dwarven community, I'd kind of like him to be somewhat weird (read "memorable"). Maybe he always talks in parables or something. Or maybe he likes to make lots of references to the cyclical nature of life and death. I kind of like this phrase I came up with last night: "Behold, I looked upon the battlefield and saw Valkauna walking amongst the dead and dying and the heaviness that had lain upon my heart was lifted for I knew then that the souls of my brethren were in good hands." So really the thing I need to figure out is: why would this important guy agree to travel with a group of mostly chaotic outsiders (although two of them are dwarves, both of them are considered outsiders because one's a known criminal while the other thinks she's really a dragon trapped in a dwarf's body) who want to go talk to and possibly fight a lich? Some ideas: the clanlord has chosen him to go and he is duty-bound (being LN) to obey his leader's wishes. I could just leave it at that or I could explore it a little further. Maybe the clanlord wants him to go because he's the community's leading expert on undead and he really wants to show the PCs that he is grateful to them for saving his people from the slimy doom by lending them the services of one of the community's VIPs. Thoughts? What I want help with the most is coming up with his personality and his motivations but any help at all would be most appreciated. If you need more info, all you gotta do is ask. Thanks in advance. Cheers, Jonathan p.s. sorry if the above post comes across as a bit disorganized. I'm feeling a bit scatter-brained at the moment.
Uberwoot 10-31-07, 11:13 PM	Perhaps he was assigned by the clanlord to assess whether or not the outcast dwarves in the party could be successfully restored to dwarven society. He has seen their success and cannot help but acknowledge their power, and is both attracted to the idea of rehabilitating them for the benefit of the clan, and apprehensive of their potential danger to the clan. He certainly can't tell the characters in question of his idea, due to the difficulty of explaining his motives, and can only really trust a close friend and respected emissary from the church- particularly one who will serve the characters well in the near future and is less likely to be suspect. He uses the clanlord's wish to aid the party in their endeavor against the lich as his cover. As for personality, I am currently lacking in inspiration. /woot
Terjon of the Blue Rose 11-01-07, 01:31 AM	Lucky I'm not Uber. I have a concept for this character as a retired former adventurer. He lost his former companions when they heroically sacrificied themselves and saved hundreds of lives. He only barely escaped death himself and only that by a combination of luck and the others efforts. Now he has a special place in his heart for adventurers. Yet he fears for them constantly. A "they stand in defense of many but who watches over them" type. He either over-uses his spells trying to protect them from minimal threats or jealously hoards them fearing the encounter where they will surely die without his aid. To make him truly memorable make him old for a dwarf... perhaps too old to travel with this younger group. He constantly points this out to them as "more experienced" and does everything in his power to push them away from dangerous or reckless encounters and plans. Have him convince the clan-lord it's appropriate to send him with the PCs rather than being a reward directly from said lord. He is certain they will fall to their doom without his aid. Oh by the way, I don't know that god but the renewal domain generally works better for a death and rebirth one than repose. Repose generally is more of an undead hunter's domain. Edit: Just realized that first sentence may be read wrong due to bad punctuation. Should be "Luckily, Uber, I am not."
pukunui 11-01-07, 04:40 AM	Perhaps he was assigned by the clanlord to assess whether or not the outcast dwarves in the party could be successfully restored to dwarven society. He has seen their success and cannot help but acknowledge their power, and is both attracted to the idea of rehabilitating them for the benefit of the clan, and apprehensive of their potential danger to the clan. He certainly can't tell the characters in question of his idea, due to the difficulty of explaining his motives, and can only really trust a close friend and respected emissary from the church- particularly one who will serve the characters well in the near future and is less likely to be suspect. He uses the clanlord's wish to aid the party in their endeavor against the lich as his cover. As for personality, I am currently lacking in inspiration. /wootThis is an interesting idea. Thanks. The dwarf rogue/barbarian is clearly in need of rehabilitation. He is chaotic and therefore needs to be brought back to the ways of the dwarven lawful good collectiveness or whatever. The other dwarf, however, just needs to be cured of her delusions of grandeur (honestly, who in their right mind goes around thinking they're actually a dragon trapped in a dwarf's body?! :looloo:). Dammit - multiquote still isn't working! :rant: Lucky I'm not Uber. I have a concept for this character as a retired former adventurer. He lost his former companions when they heroically sacrificied themselves and saved hundreds of lives. He only barely escaped death himself and only that by a combination of luck and the others efforts. Now he has a special place in his heart for adventurers. Yet he fears for them constantly. A "they stand in defense of many but who watches over them" type. He either over-uses his spells trying to protect them from minimal threats or jealously hoards them fearing the encounter where they will surely die without his aid. To make him truly memorable make him old for a dwarf... perhaps too old to travel with this younger group. He constantly points this out to them as "more experienced" and does everything in his power to push them away from dangerous or reckless encounters and plans. Have him convince the clan-lord it's appropriate to send him with the PCs rather than being a reward directly from said lord. He is certain they will fall to their doom without his aid.I like the "protective" thing. It could work very well for a lawful character traveling with a party of mostly chaotic characters (plus one neutral good character). Oh by the way, I don't know that god but the renewal domain generally works better for a death and rebirth one than repose. Repose generally is more of an undead hunter's domain.Valkauna's not the goddess of rebirth though. She's the goddess of oaths, births (not rebirths) and death. Her regular options are Death, Law and Water (I have no idea why). Her priests would obviously fill the roles of midwife, undertaker, and judge in their communities. Kind of a disparate portfolio but I suppose it kind of makes sense -- you bring people into the world, keep them on the straight and narrow while they're alive, and then see them safely into the next life. What I can't decide, though, is whether a priest of Valkauna would hate undead as much as a priest of Pelor would. Would they see undead as an abomination - a disruption of the cycle of life and death? Or would they have a more pragmatic view? I need this guy to have the latter. The whole reason I developed him was as a replacement for my other NPC cleric (a female aasimar cleric/radiant servant of Pelor. She's an uber-optimized healing machine, and by extension, undead-killing machine). I didn't want her coming along because the group wants to try to talk to the lich, whereas I felt she'd want to just go straight for his throat (metaphorically speaking). Plus, her very presence as a cleric of Pelor would probably jeopardize the group's diplomacy ("How dare you bring one of them into my domain!! You will all die! Now!")
Terjon of the Blue Rose 11-01-07, 05:52 AM	Well if that's the case on the god then you don't want repose you want death. Renewal isn't about re-birth its about the life cycle. Birth to life, life to new birth, life to death, new birth to life. At least that's always been my take on it. Without a copy of the god's dogma I'd say fate is an acceptable addition but I'd stick with renewal as a replacement for death. I would also avoid adding more than one domain as doing so tends to up the power of the god. Of course these are my perceptions and you may decide to work things out differently. Not sure how water fits into her domains so if it was me and I decided to change around the god to have her make more sense I'd either go Fate, Law, Renewal or Fate, Law, Repose. It's not a bad choice but to me repose means protection of the dead. Maybe I'm just used to it being attached to Kelemvor who hates undead with a passion (and started the domain). You don't have to hate undead but people with the repose domain almost universally seek to lay them to rest at the very least. With renewal that's not neccessarily the case. You may even go so far as to see your body (undead) as the last tool you leave to your children when you die.
Terjon of the Blue Rose 11-01-07, 05:54 AM	BTW from what you've said I'd make the character a spell waster. Have them use healing spells to get people up to full even if only a few points short and saving it would make more sense.
pukunui 11-01-07, 04:38 PM	The Death Domain just says "evil necromancer" to me. I didn't want this guy to be able to cast animate dead and stuff like that. I like the Repose Domain better because while it grants the Death Touch it doesn't turn the caster into an undead controller. I don't have a problem with this guy being someone who seeks to lay undead to rest. But he may approach it pragmatically rather than as a zealot. I mean, he's LN for a start, so it's probably safe to say he's not a zealot about anything. That was the main thing. I don't mind if he's got some undead fighting skills -- the key was to develop a character that wouldn't feel compelled to try to attack any undead that he encountered. That's what the other NPC cleric would do and I told my players that. They're fine with me developing a new NPC cleric for them (to be honest, the old one was very much a DMPC and she was way better optimized than any of the PCs -- I'm a powergamer but none of my players are. I guess I'm lucky in that regard.). Plus this guy hasn't got the best CHA, so he's not all that great at fighting undead although I did give him Extra Turning as a feat. I also gave him Zen Archery so he wouldn't be totally useless in combat. I use a modified version of the alternate undead turning rules in Complete Divine (the DC is 10 + 1/2 cleric level + CHA mod instead of full cleric level - so this guy's DC for half damage is only 12. I've also been considering making it so that if an undead creature beats the DC by a certain amount, they take no damage instead of half. I haven't had much opportunity to playtest the undead turning rules because I haven't used many undead in the campaign and no one wants to play a cleric PC ...) RE: the Renewal Domain. I don't really get it. It just doesn't say "life cycle" to me. What does charm person have to do with the life cycle? I dunno. It doesn't seem fitting for Valkauna, whereas I think Fate and Repose work well. To be honest, I'm not sure her doctrine would actually encourage the idea of the "life cycle" per se but would rather encourage the idea of a "life line" that goes from point A (birth) to point B (death). And then the idea is that you'd remain at point B (that is, hopefully you'll stay dead ...). As for adding Domains -- I doubt anyone in my game will ever choose to play a cleric of Valkauna (she undoubtedly won't even exist in 4th edition, since they're moving away from racial pantheons), so I don't think it really matters. Lastly - spell waster it is. The players may not like it but that's how I'll play it.
Uberwoot 11-01-07, 07:05 PM	I had to do a little bit of hunting to find anything about Valkauna, but I finally found her, and I must say that Death seems much less appropriate than Repose, and Renewal doesn't necessarily seem appropriate at all. Her listed domains are Death, Law, and Water; I would probably replace Water with Pact (Complete Divine), and Death with Repose (Player's Guide to Faerūn). /woot
pukunui 11-01-07, 07:24 PM	I had to do a little bit of hunting to find anything about Valkauna, but I finally found her, and I must say that Death seems much less appropriate than Repose, and Renewal doesn't necessarily seem appropriate at all. Her listed domains are Death, Law, and Water; I would probably replace Water with Pact (Complete Divine), and Death with Repose (Player's Guide to Faerūn). Cool. Glad you agree. Sorry for making you hunt. I should've mentioned in my original post that Valkauna is in Races of Stone.
Terjon of the Blue Rose 11-01-07, 11:42 PM	Well like I said its more a matter of perspective on how the domains work and what they mean. I didn't bother looking up the god either so it may well be that repose fits better. Glad the character idea at least works for you.
pukunui 11-02-07, 02:37 AM	Well like I said its more a matter of perspective on how the domains work and what they mean. I didn't bother looking up the god either so it may well be that repose fits better. Glad the character idea at least works for you. Yes. Thanks for your help.