Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Destindbomb 07-19-07, 01:18 PM	I'm working on a gestalt crusader/warlock. eventually, he stops warlock and takes 2 enlightened spirit then 1 hellfire warlock then 2 enlightened then 1 hellfire then 2 enlightened then 1 hellfire then finishes the rest of enlightened spirit. now the way i want to rationalize these prestige classes being chosen is this: My character's parents sold themselves to unseelie before I was born. The unseelie infused them with magic abilities for use in their own gain. The unseelie said that when the time came, it would come back for them. Well, I was born with some innate abilites (thus the warlock). When I turned 40 (I'm a whisper gnome) my parents began to act very weirdly. Randomly destroying their own work (they might be alchemists, I'm not sure yet), rampaging at night, acting very helter skelter. Well, I left them, fearing for my own life, and fearing that I may become exactly like them. I went to a nearby large city to see if I could find some cure for what my parents had. I didn't know exactly what I was looking for or what caused it, but finding the symptoms in some books I discovered that my innate abilities came from the same place that drove my parents crazy. I needed help defending myself from those forces, so I went to a school that would help me gain mental discipline to fight it off. This is where the crusader comes in. I fight to free others from evil contracts that oppress. As I study, the warlock in me gains strength, but my crusader helps me to fight it. Now the enlightened spirit part comes in as I'm just starting to completely fight off the evil side of my warlock. I attune myself more towards good beings. The hellfire warlock is my slipping back into the evil. Every time I take 1 level of hellfire warlock, I try double hard to become focused on good again, thus the 2 levels of enlightened spirit afterword. After I have gotten all levels of hellfire, my character 'ascends' past his evil past and becomes a full-fledged enlightened spirit. Now that he has overcome his evil, he will strive to become the ultimate cure for those evil contracts and avenge the sanity of his parents and maybe even free them of their contracts. This is my idea for a character I'm starting in a week. I was wondering if anybody had other suggestions or if somebody could spot a few holes in my story and the explaination behind his abilities and his prestige classes thanks a lot, and I hope that this was entertaining to read, at least a little bit.
Coventry 07-20-07, 09:05 AM	It looks to me like the character background could work. Growing up under the influence of the unseelie should give your gnome an somewhat fey outlook on life, even if he or she is mostly normal. Setting the tone ... When tall folk bother to admit that fey exist, they seem to think of the fey as existing in the depths of pristine wilderness, isolated and withdrawn from cilivized life. They are wrong. The fey represent the underlying forces of nature. These forces do exist in the isolated wilderness, but they exist right here, in this city, in the alley out back, or even in this room. The very cobblestones and grime can rise up to defend the city, although what the fey perceive as a threat is not necessarily what you would consider to be a threat. That fire burning in the hearth, over there. It seems so contained, and it is happily sharing its warmth to all of us packed in the room. But even when it is happy, it is still dangerous. One spark gets loose, and a hand is burned or an eye is dazzled, or the city burns down. In some ways, the wild forest fire is safer than the "tamed" fire, because everyone recognizes the threat. On the character's fascination with fire ... My first memory, as a child? Mmm. I remember being at a bonfire in the summer evening, a gathering or celebration of some sort in the unseelie court. My parents were performing an intricate dance about the bonfire, and it was flashing and shimmering with all of the colors of the rainbow as if it were dancing with them. I'm fairly sure that they were adding alchemical powders to achieve the effects, but I was small enough that I did not understand such things, then. The beauty of the fire called to me, and I sat in rapt wonder as I watched the whirls and leaps of the dancers. That night, I reached for the beauty, and discovered pain. The two often go hand-in-hand. I do not remember the physical pain, but I still remember the emotional pain. The unseelie court laughed. On insanity running in the family ... Fire destroys. Fire renews. Fire is a villain. Fire is an ally. Fire is a tool. Fire is so much more. Civilization would not exist without fire. Fire would exist less often without civilization, but would still exist. I think that my parents understood this, before their madness. I often wonder if they were trying to bring civilization to the unseelie court, and that they went mad once they realized that the Unseelie court sprang forth from nature with an existing civilization. At least I hope so. If not that, then I hope they were poisoned by their alchemy, and that this is what drove them mad. With those hopes, there is a chance that I am not mad. About Hellfire, and the reason to play with something that is was designed as a tool of law and evil ... When Mephisto created Hellfire, he assumed that it was his, and his alone. He was wrong. He assumed that he could bind it and contain it to serve only the desires of law and evil. He was wrong. Even in his ultimate creations, the Hellfire Dreadnoughts, the power leaks and escapes to freedom. And the fey of hellfire joined the unseelie court. Hellfire has escaped its creator, and is now as much a force of nature as any other. It is out of balance, though - too much of it is still chained to its original creator, and to the twisted destiny that he proposes. I work towards changing that balance. I shall not succeed, but those that come after me shall. On the struggle between good/evil ... After I fled the madness of my parents, I wandered for a time. I was not long before I found myself in the Seelie court. It is just as wild and dangerous as the Unseelie court, but lacks the taint of malice. I felt comfortable there, as if I was back where I grew up. I slipped back into being the gnome that I was when I lived in the Unseelie, and was nearly expelled from the Seelie court as a result. I was tainted. I still am. But I have seen both courts, and I know which one I want to belong to. Let's see what I ended with: Conflicted character on the border of good/evil - check Reason for the character to actively "crusade" for something (freeing hellfire from law/evil) - check Reason for character to be drawn to fire - check Fear of going crazy like the folk, with option that it might not have been their fault - check I seem to have drifted away from the "hellfire is a sign my character is slipping toward evil" and the "contracts with the unseelie court" themes that you gave, alas.
Destindbomb 07-21-07, 12:09 AM	thank you, i think this will help me a great deal
Coventry 07-21-07, 01:30 AM	You are welcome. I wrote that from (my interpretation of) the character's perspective. What he or she believes to be true is not necessarily what is true. You and your DM get to decide that.