Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Tempest Stormwind 04-17-05, 01:36 PM	I know this may sound weird coming from me, but I need a hand working with a 3.0 cleric I'm playing. It's for a Greyhawk campaign (not LG), and he's a CG cleric of Tritherion (according to the DM, I've got the War and Protection domains. Doesn't jive with CD, but I'll go with what I've got.). And I'm not trying to optimize him for stealth. I'm trying to optimize him in such a way that the DM won't notice some of his sick tricks -- hence, stealth optimization. Books allowed are pretty much any setting-independant 3.0 books (PHB, DMG, MM, the splat classbooks like Tome and Blood (although the DM doesn't have Defenders of the Faith, so that one might be hard to draw from)), later monster manuals (2 and 3), and the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer. NO FORGOTTEN REALMS or other setting-specific material (except Greyhawk), although he might allow some material from other 3.0 sources. Since it's 3.0, he definitely won't consider psionics (which is a wise choice, given the horrid nature of the Psionics Handbook). He may or may not like prestige classes, but I think he'll let us take them if we can RP our way into their organizations (I'm thinking something like Unearthed Arcana's test-based prereqs here). The catch? The purpose of this game is partly to have fun, and partly to playtest the DM's replacement to the vancian casting system. He's replaced it with a homebrew MP system that works a bit like MMORPG mana -- you get a fair load of MP (twice your relevant casting stat, plus whatever you'd get from converting your "spells per day", including bonus spells, into MP [each spell costs their spell level +1 in MP] -- so my cleric, with a 16 wisdom, at level 1, had (16x2)+2+(3+2+2(domain)) = 41 MP). They recover at 1 MP per hour in the game world, and an extra 5 MP are recovered for sleeping. He'll adjust that number as our levels go up -- hence why we're playtesting it and gaining levels pretty quickly. Now, while this may sound like a bonus, since you can cast pretty much constantly, there's a drawback. You only know a limited number of spells, and must read them off of some source to cast them. In my case, it's a prayer book (natch). You do NOT gain knowledge of extra spells as you level up -- instead, you have to find them, in libraries, bookstores, churches, ancient hieroglyphs, runes, or whatever. In short, if my cleric did not hunt out new spells, he'd be stuck with knowledge of first-level spells (plus Freedom of Movement, which was a quest reward). I don't think it's a perfect system by any stretch, but it works, it's fun, it encourages spellcasters (which, as a spellcaster, I'm not complaining)... and it needs testing. That's what we're doing here, so it may change. (He didn't tell me how metamagic would work with it, but I'd assume it'd work like sorcerors do (full-round), with a cost of the new spell level +1.) Here's the current status of this character: Human Cleric 2 of Tritherion (Protection and War: Heavy Mace) 14,11,15,11,16,15 (18 HP) Skill ranks: Concentration 5, Diplomacy 3, gather info 2, heal 2, Knowledge Religion 4, Sense Motive 5, Spellcraft 2 (Remember in 3.0 there was no synergy between Knowledge: Religion and turn checks, but the DM does let me use it liberally for its normal purpose.) Feats: Extend Spell, Improved Initiative. Basic gear at the moment: Scale mail, heavy shield, heavy mace, light crossbow MP: 44. Spells known: 0- All cleric, 1- Sanctuary (Domain), Magic Weapon (Domain), CLW, Comp. Languages, Detect Alignment, Divine Favor, Obscuring Mist, Shield of Faith, Endure Elements. 4 (can't cast) - Freedom of Movement. Teammates: Gnome druid/viper companion (likes Entangle, wants fire spells now, plus a large number of other animal companions -- 3.0, remember. Only has a 14 wisdom, due to bad rolls.) Human ranger (uses stealth tactics and likes getting the drop on foes) Human fighter/sorceror (greatsword tactics, has spells mostly to power himself up) Human (we think, not sure) wizard -- who is without a doubt a necromancer Halfling rogue (player wasn't there last session; no idea his makeup) So far, I've got a reputation for tactical combat using whatever I've got available to me -- bull rushes on sloped roofs, oil-flask impromptu molotov coctails into flammable substances, Obscuring Mist (obvious spellcasting) + throwing rocks (makes it sound like invisible footsteps), etc. And, for those familiar with Greyhawk, if it helps, we're in northern Iuz (which the DM has expanded a bit), trying to incite a rebellion with the wolf nomads. I have no idea where we'll be going after that, although I suspect we'll be going all over the place on the world, and possibly to one or two planes. The DM only uses worlds he's familiar with, which at the moment include Greyhawk, Ravenloft, the Abyss, and possibly one of the other infernal planes... and he's said, when asked what sort of monsters we can expect, "You'll be fighting everything." Without access to 3.5 material (and thus Divine Metamagic), Tome and Blood's version of Persistent is less valuable than before, but given the MP system, it might be more useful on lower spells. I avoided the high dexterity score since I know the DM knows about the cleric archer and will probably stomp me if I use it, although with the right spells I can pull it off reasonably well if need be (here's hoping for Divine Favor). I'm also playing a grassroots diplomat cleric -- remember, Tritherion is a deity of individuality and liberty, so I figured a cleric who could understand multiple viewpoints and be able to incite a rebellion (while still pulling off decent casting ability) would be a good call. Given these restrictions, can anyone give me suggestions? I'm so used to 3.5 that I've forgotten how to work with some of the ideal 3.0 stuff, and clerics are hardly my specialty. Furthermore, I'd like to do it in some way that wouldn't scream "I'm twinking!" -- so the dozen-prestige-dips method isn't likely.
Tempest Stormwind 04-24-05, 01:27 PM	Shameless attention-grabbing technique: :bump:! I'm about to hit level 3 now, and he's gained knowledge of Remove Fear, Animal Messenger, Create Food and Water and Dismissal. The DM has also just OK'ed every single one of the class splatbooks -- including Tome and Blood and Defenders of the Faith, so Persistent Spell is a definite YES. [Clarification: DM's rule on metamagic makes it easier. Add the added spell levels directly to the cost. So, T&B's persistent (at +4 level) on a 1st level spell (2 MP) costs 6. Of my 40-something. This is going to break the system.] The DM also introduced an alternate rule to encourage RPing among some of the new players -- Custom RP traits, awarded based on how you play your character (i.e. the ranger, who ran around between houses in a city overrun by orcs, setting the roofs on fire so we could steal our wagon, got a Daring trait that kicks in with a few special abilities when he risks his life or tries something really heroic. I got Tight-Fisted, which granted a bonus on Appraise, a penalty on Diplomacy when dealing with merchants, and merchants always seem to to overcharge with me (whether it's true or not), so I have to haggle). More of these may show up depending on what happens in the story, and I have no control over these beyond my own acting. I have a few ideas on feats, but more are always welcome. Equipment eludes me, though (I've got a pretty big amount of gold from a lord I'm working for (on the order of 10,000), and I don't intend to return it all or pass too much of it out to others. I need to set aside a few thousand of that to pay everyone (go merc campaign), but the rest is up for grabs). The only change of the "standard equipment" listed above is a set of masterwork plate mail instead of the scale mail. Also, we have a new player (halfling rogue 1/ranger 1), who's even more obvious about his twinkery than I am -- "I took one level of ranger just for the TWF -- I mean, because I'm a bandit and the skill set matched a bandit's." That sort of thing. He's a decent roleplayer, though.