Playing 2 PCs on the Shaar: Human Barbarian and Dwarf Cleric [Archive] - Wizards Community

Playing 2 PCs on the Shaar: Human Barbarian and Dwarf Cleric [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
SmiloDan
08-01-04, 04:02 PM OK, we're starting a new campaign next week, and since we only have 2 players around right now, we're each playing 2 PCs. I'm playing a CG human barbarian 2/fighter 2 Spring Attacker/Cleaver and a CG dwarf cleric of Tempus (War and Strength domains) with Augment Healing and Improved Counterspell.

Here's my idea of a backstory: 50 years ago, my barbarian's granddad was an evangelical cleric of Tempus that visited the dwarven trading town of Hammer-and-Anvil. He convinced a young dwarf to become a cleric of Tempus. Yada-yada-yada, this dwarf is now adventuring with his friend's grandson.

So, does anyone know anything about the dozen or so tribes on the Shaar? Right now, my DM is going to let me develop the basics of the tribes. Less work for him.
MetalGemini
08-01-04, 05:59 PM I'm not so sure about the tribes of the Shaar, but the story sounds great! Might check the FR boards too.
Peter the Hegemon
08-01-04, 10:45 PM They talk about the Shaar a bit in the Geography chapter of FRCS, and Player's Guide to Faerun talks a bit more about it, but I'd say your best bet would be to either to wait for Shining South to come out or to just gather up all of the little pieces of information, since it just seems to blurbs (like p. 108 of Races of Faerun). If you want help developing the tribes on your own, I'd just pick any of the various horse-loving grasslands nomadic tribes, such as the American Indians of the Great Plains of North America or the Mongols/Central Asians.
SmiloDan
08-02-04, 11:13 AM What is the ecology of the Shaar like? Is it like African plains, Mongolian steppes, the Great Plains of North America?
Peter the Hegemon
08-02-04, 03:22 PM The Shaar is described as a savanna in a brief mention in Player's Guide to Faerun, which is indicative of Africa, but the FRCS just mentions it as rolling grasslands, which could work for many things. One thing that FRCS mentions is that the humans tend to be herders of rothe and horses. I don't know what rothe are, but horse herders covers quite a few societies. You could go for something like the Masai of Africa (but they're focused on cows) or any of the American Indians. If it was up to me, though, I think I'd go with a Mongolian-based society, what with the horses and the riding and stuff. The Shaaryan Hunter prestige class in Player's Guide to Faerun looks (to me) like a great mounted archer/tracker class, and I'd probably pick that if I ever did a mounted ranger. But the Indians of America could be appropriate, too, I just have a fascination for Central Asia.
SmiloDan
08-02-04, 04:38 PM OK, thanks for all the great info. Until October occurs, I have to design my own tribe and the ones from my character history. I'll probably name them after the indigenous beasties, like the Tribe of the Horse, the Tribe of the Lion, Tribe of the Rothe (which I think is a subterranean cattle that drow, etc., raise), Tribe of the Vulture, Tribe of the Antelope, etc.

My Barbarian 2/Fighter 2 doesn't have Handle Animal or Ride, but he's not too bright either (18 Str, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 8 Int, 13 Wis, 10 Cha in a 36 point buy, +1 for being 4th level...added to Str, of course!)
His feats are Power Attack, Cleave, Dodge, Mobility, and Spring Attack. His skills are Climb, Jump, Survival, and Tumble. Jump and Tumble are maxed. Tumble is cross-classed.

My dwarf cleric 4 of Tempus (Strength and War Domains) took Augment Healing and Improved Counterspell. His skills are 5 ranks in Concentration, 4 in Heal, 5 in Knowledge arcana, and 7 in Spellcraft. He'll work on maxing out Concentration and Spellcraft from now on. Maybe take some Knowledge religion and Diplomacy later. I think his stats are 14 10 14 13 18 12.
Peter the Hegemon
08-02-04, 08:01 PM Unfortunately, giving the statistics for your characters on the Character Development boards may be a little self-defeating, since I don't think you asked a character-related question with them.

I'm glad the information helped, since we don't have much information on the Shaar, anyway (unless the Forgotten Realms novels feature it at all). Another source of inspiration you could use for making your tribes would be to use the Uthgardt tribes from the North. There's tons of information about them scattered around the Forgotten Realms sourcebooks, and if you've ever played Neverwinter Nights, you can get additional information there. Basically, you could do transplant them to the plains, and make them herders instead of hunters.

Basically, though, what you may want to do is to give your horse nomads a good "honor" system--not necessarily the standard one that everyone else believes in, but an honor system they all believe in. An example of this could be that the Shaaryans love their horses better than their women (i.e. if you kill a horse, you're sentenced to death, but if you kill a woman, you pay a fine).

Additionally, with your tribes, naming them after animals is good (the Uthgardt are all named "the [Color] [Predator/Animal]," for example). Keep in mind the flavor of herding nomads as opposed to hunting nomads.

One thing that always struck me as interesting was that the original herders in ancient times (and some "primitive" cultures today) who herded cattle, for example, did not use them for meat--but for milk. I believe the same goes with the horse herders, with mare's milk instead, and they had a nice cultural drink from the blood of horses (just nicking a vein in a horse and gathering some blood from there).

It's a bit unfortunate that your barbarian/fighter doesn't have the Ride skill--you may want to try to work up an in-character reason why a scion of horse nomads isn't particularly good at riding horses. If you plan to take him off the Shaar, you could make him a reject of sorts, such as "You can barely ride a horse standing on its back, backwards, and blindfolded!" (i.e. he can ride a horse using the Ride skill untrained, but he can't do anything in combat with them).

Anyway, good luck with your characters. I don't really have any advice for your cleric, other than you'll want to pick up at least 5 ranks in Knowledge (religion) for the +2 to turning checks (unless you don't care about turning undead, than never mind).
SmiloDan
08-03-04, 08:46 AM Yeah, I do plan on getting 5 ranks in Knowledge Religion as soon as possible.

The DM is pretty much a dungeoneering DM, so Ride will be pretty useless....unless I ride a mule or burro....which would get me kicked out of the tribe too! Haha!

I plan on the dwarf to take Improved Initiative next, then Reactive Counterspelling, then maybe Improved Turning (the DM likes undead too...especially incorporeal ones. :( ).

When I start taking Barbarian levels again I can take Ride, or maybe switch out Climb for Ride.

I gave the stats so you-all wouldn't say "play a cunning, verbose barbarian that likes to quote Elminster." As you can see, he's not too bright.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
SmiloDan 08-01-04, 04:02 PM	OK, we're starting a new campaign next week, and since we only have 2 players around right now, we're each playing 2 PCs. I'm playing a CG human barbarian 2/fighter 2 Spring Attacker/Cleaver and a CG dwarf cleric of Tempus (War and Strength domains) with Augment Healing and Improved Counterspell. Here's my idea of a backstory: 50 years ago, my barbarian's granddad was an evangelical cleric of Tempus that visited the dwarven trading town of Hammer-and-Anvil. He convinced a young dwarf to become a cleric of Tempus. Yada-yada-yada, this dwarf is now adventuring with his friend's grandson. So, does anyone know anything about the dozen or so tribes on the Shaar? Right now, my DM is going to let me develop the basics of the tribes. Less work for him.
MetalGemini 08-01-04, 05:59 PM	I'm not so sure about the tribes of the Shaar, but the story sounds great! Might check the FR boards too.
Peter the Hegemon 08-01-04, 10:45 PM	They talk about the Shaar a bit in the Geography chapter of FRCS, and Player's Guide to Faerun talks a bit more about it, but I'd say your best bet would be to either to wait for Shining South to come out or to just gather up all of the little pieces of information, since it just seems to blurbs (like p. 108 of Races of Faerun). If you want help developing the tribes on your own, I'd just pick any of the various horse-loving grasslands nomadic tribes, such as the American Indians of the Great Plains of North America or the Mongols/Central Asians.
SmiloDan 08-02-04, 11:13 AM	What is the ecology of the Shaar like? Is it like African plains, Mongolian steppes, the Great Plains of North America?
Peter the Hegemon 08-02-04, 03:22 PM	The Shaar is described as a savanna in a brief mention in Player's Guide to Faerun, which is indicative of Africa, but the FRCS just mentions it as rolling grasslands, which could work for many things. One thing that FRCS mentions is that the humans tend to be herders of rothe and horses. I don't know what rothe are, but horse herders covers quite a few societies. You could go for something like the Masai of Africa (but they're focused on cows) or any of the American Indians. If it was up to me, though, I think I'd go with a Mongolian-based society, what with the horses and the riding and stuff. The Shaaryan Hunter prestige class in Player's Guide to Faerun looks (to me) like a great mounted archer/tracker class, and I'd probably pick that if I ever did a mounted ranger. But the Indians of America could be appropriate, too, I just have a fascination for Central Asia.
SmiloDan 08-02-04, 04:38 PM	OK, thanks for all the great info. Until October occurs, I have to design my own tribe and the ones from my character history. I'll probably name them after the indigenous beasties, like the Tribe of the Horse, the Tribe of the Lion, Tribe of the Rothe (which I think is a subterranean cattle that drow, etc., raise), Tribe of the Vulture, Tribe of the Antelope, etc. My Barbarian 2/Fighter 2 doesn't have Handle Animal or Ride, but he's not too bright either (18 Str, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 8 Int, 13 Wis, 10 Cha in a 36 point buy, +1 for being 4th level...added to Str, of course!) His feats are Power Attack, Cleave, Dodge, Mobility, and Spring Attack. His skills are Climb, Jump, Survival, and Tumble. Jump and Tumble are maxed. Tumble is cross-classed. My dwarf cleric 4 of Tempus (Strength and War Domains) took Augment Healing and Improved Counterspell. His skills are 5 ranks in Concentration, 4 in Heal, 5 in Knowledge arcana, and 7 in Spellcraft. He'll work on maxing out Concentration and Spellcraft from now on. Maybe take some Knowledge religion and Diplomacy later. I think his stats are 14 10 14 13 18 12.
Peter the Hegemon 08-02-04, 08:01 PM	Unfortunately, giving the statistics for your characters on the Character Development boards may be a little self-defeating, since I don't think you asked a character-related question with them. I'm glad the information helped, since we don't have much information on the Shaar, anyway (unless the Forgotten Realms novels feature it at all). Another source of inspiration you could use for making your tribes would be to use the Uthgardt tribes from the North. There's tons of information about them scattered around the Forgotten Realms sourcebooks, and if you've ever played Neverwinter Nights, you can get additional information there. Basically, you could do transplant them to the plains, and make them herders instead of hunters. Basically, though, what you may want to do is to give your horse nomads a good "honor" system--not necessarily the standard one that everyone else believes in, but an honor system they all believe in. An example of this could be that the Shaaryans love their horses better than their women (i.e. if you kill a horse, you're sentenced to death, but if you kill a woman, you pay a fine). Additionally, with your tribes, naming them after animals is good (the Uthgardt are all named "the [Color] [Predator/Animal]," for example). Keep in mind the flavor of herding nomads as opposed to hunting nomads. One thing that always struck me as interesting was that the original herders in ancient times (and some "primitive" cultures today) who herded cattle, for example, did not use them for meat--but for milk. I believe the same goes with the horse herders, with mare's milk instead, and they had a nice cultural drink from the blood of horses (just nicking a vein in a horse and gathering some blood from there). It's a bit unfortunate that your barbarian/fighter doesn't have the Ride skill--you may want to try to work up an in-character reason why a scion of horse nomads isn't particularly good at riding horses. If you plan to take him off the Shaar, you could make him a reject of sorts, such as "You can barely ride a horse standing on its back, backwards, and blindfolded!" (i.e. he can ride a horse using the Ride skill untrained, but he can't do anything in combat with them). Anyway, good luck with your characters. I don't really have any advice for your cleric, other than you'll want to pick up at least 5 ranks in Knowledge (religion) for the +2 to turning checks (unless you don't care about turning undead, than never mind).
SmiloDan 08-03-04, 08:46 AM	Yeah, I do plan on getting 5 ranks in Knowledge Religion as soon as possible. The DM is pretty much a dungeoneering DM, so Ride will be pretty useless....unless I ride a mule or burro....which would get me kicked out of the tribe too! Haha! I plan on the dwarf to take Improved Initiative next, then Reactive Counterspelling, then maybe Improved Turning (the DM likes undead too...especially incorporeal ones. :( ). When I start taking Barbarian levels again I can take Ride, or maybe switch out Climb for Ride. I gave the stats so you-all wouldn't say "play a cunning, verbose barbarian that likes to quote Elminster." As you can see, he's not too bright.