Post/Author/DateTime	Post
The Necromancer King 01-30-06, 03:07 AM	Well, our first Eberron game wrapped up this week, and we made new characters. I was planning on an interim session of Ninja Burger (for those that don't know, it's an incredibly funny ninja parody game), but no one wanted to play Ninja Burger at all, and so we ended up playing Eberron, and me with no time to plan and no understanding of our group's dynamics at all. To put it short, the session blew. And blew hard. I gave everyone five levels to play with, and a hint of backstory. They're all passangers and/or crew on the Cyre's Revenge, a scout-class airship that was orphaned on the Day of Mourning. The characters are: A warforged, designed to be the ship's captain A drow ex-slave with an aberrant dragonmark, who has been recently hired on as the ship's pilot An elven artificer who has taken the traditional role of "Scotty." An elven fighter, with a focus on archery, working the front gun (we're using cannons and gunblades because I happen to like cannons and gunblades) An Ibixian barbarian who has been recently hired to reload the cannon (so our second gunner) A human psion who works as the ship's cook and can destroy enemy ships with his brain A raptoran druid who is best friends with a giant floating whale. He hopes to start a community on the whale's back. So, the session. Cap'n Ron, the warforged captain, is taking a bit of leave and looking for a job at Glitterdust, a regular haunt of his. Hart Brantby invites him in and buys a round for the crew; some of them are new, but that's not too terribly strange for Cyrean airships these days. "How're you doin', Ron?" Hart asks. "For true." "Heh," Ron laughs. "For true? I could use a job." Hart seems to think a moment, then leans over the table intently. "I might happen to know a feller lookin' to navigate Shargon's Teeth, if'n yer willin' to take the risk," he says. "How much?" says Ron. "5000 in gold, give or take," says Hart. "Offer's there if'n yer interested." And with that Hart disappears into the crowd to take up his shardhorn and blast a few notes. The crew look at one another and talk it over, but the talking's short. "I'm in," the crew says in unison, and they move on to more important things, like intoxication. So Hart introduces Ron to the druid, and they pound out a deal. Except the druid doesn't actually have any money (no one really knows that yet...). They get up some supplies, and head out first thing the next morning. As they enter Shargon's Teeth, they see that they're being followed by the Brelish Airforce, with whom none of the crew are particularly friendly. A great chase scene with some airship-to-airship combat ensues; in the end, the psychic blasts the whole ship with some sonic power (I haven't had a chance to look it up yet) that did a metric buttload of damage and killed most everyone on board then Airforce ship. Not before they had a chance to alert someone in Sharn, mind, but they certainly did a number on the ship. Then they looted it, found a crazy mutant monster the Brelish were transporting back to Sharn, and continued on their merry little way. So. The following questions came up over the course of that session. 1) Can a psion manifest a power with a time-delay? Like were he to manifest the sonic blast thing on a cannon ball on a thirty second delay, would the effect take place after that thirty seconds? 2) Can an airship have two rings working together? Two seperate rings, one larger than the other (or one in front of the other), to create a faster airship? Would this increase or decrease the ability of the pilot to control the elementals? 3) Will a burst of wind pushing behind (or, more like an airplane, in front of) the airship help it's speed? Would we need to get sails for this? Can you put sails on an Eberroni airship? Would it help or hinder? 3) Could you augment a cannon with an elemental in a khyber shard? After some trial, error, and massive amounts of physical damage(from traps), the artificer finally stole the khyber shard from the Airforce ship, and he wants to make the cannon an elemental weapon. It's an air elemental in the shard, so what would the effects from this be? No need for gunpowder? Longer range? 4) Are there crazy air-sahaugin running around Eberron somewhere? Is there even an air variant of the sahaugin? Anyway... Not happy with how the session turned out. Made some choices that maybe I shouldn't have. Let me know what you think....
igotsmeakabob!! 01-30-06, 05:04 AM	Quick question... cannons? are they at least spell-variant cannons? sticking gunpowder in eberron kinda throws it off, but its your campaign. I think I can answer your second question, yes. Airships can have more than one ring, and the combinations can make for better speed, maneuverability, some other stuff... I think.
The Necromancer King 01-30-06, 07:25 PM	They're the gunpowder sort. The way I figure it, gunpowder weapons are not as versatile or as accessable as magic, so their popularity and availability is pretty limited. Some cannons, some gun-blades. The gunblades are by popular demand (normal guns don't carry the same panache as bladed weapons; heroes need to look good if they want to make it into the Chronicles ^_^). I included gunpowder in my campaign because there was a niche for it to fill. *shrug* It hasn't really disrupted anything, except that we now have projectiles that people want to enchant with time-delay effects so they explode after impact... Which has been annoying.
Deekin 01-30-06, 08:43 PM	A quick question about your Psion. 3.0 or 3.5 version, and what level is he? Blowing up an Airship takes a hell of a lot of PP.
The Necromancer King 01-31-06, 07:22 AM	We started off at fifth level, and by the time he was done, he'd lost almost all of his Power Points. He's a 3.5 (Expanded Psionics) human psion. Something like 17 hit points and a metric buttload of PP.
Deekin 01-31-06, 12:55 PM	How does a 5th level psion have a Metric butload of PP? 25pp+10(18 Int)=35 Plus any feats. Thats Five Manifesting of an Augmented Energy Missile. You have to destroy 250 10-ft by 10 ft Sections to take out an airship. 5d6-5= 12.5 avrage Damage x 5 =62 damage total, just barely enought to take 5 Sections. just 245 to go. What power is he using? I direct you to The New Players and DM guide to Psionics (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=486266), since you seem a bit confused about psionics.
igotsmeakabob!! 01-31-06, 02:40 PM	Just adding in, by strict eberron canon there is NO gunpowder. it was never needed since magic is mastered and better. But its up to the DM if he wants to make an alternate eberron. On the note of the airship, couldnt he just nail the ring(s)? How much damage can that take? If its destroyed the elemental could wreck the ship itself. which it would do.
The Necromancer King 02-01-06, 01:29 AM	He didn't destroy it entirely. I am confused as to psionics; it was one of those things I expected to be able to research before the game started. He dealt enough damage to the bow of the ship that the wood began to peel back, crippling but not stopping it directly. Then there was a power he used to enhance one of our cannon balls that did something like 7d6 sonic damage on top of the standard 6d6 cannon-ball damage. Which was a whole lot of damage. I'm not even sure psionics can be used to augment items... Can they have a delayed effect? I believe that was one of my original questions. Everyone in the group has gathered against that guy, though. Since the session, I've had four different players tell me they planned on "keeping him under control," because the power levels seem so completely out of whack with the rest of the game. I know there's no gunpowder in the official Eberron. Color me a rebel. ^__^ Seriously, I've always thought that the idea that magic makes technology obsolete is strange. A lot of people have access to magic, but sometimes magic just makes less sense than good old fashioned iron balls of flaming death.
igotsmeakabob!! 02-01-06, 01:33 AM	Wish I could find the 'are there guns in eberron?' thread... man that had like 20 pages of people talking about why there arent guns cuz theres no need, and since theres no need theres no invention of it. but i think the guy cheated a whole lot, cuz there arent any psionic abilities that can do what your describing. not only that, but the psion should never be able to deal more dice than his caster level. i recommend reading psionics rules before you let a player who knows about them use it.. cuz that guy just took advantage of you.
Kalanth 02-01-06, 02:25 AM	Ok, from what I remember both from playing a few 3.5 Psions and without the books present, the Psion cannot augment a power into something. If your player is looking to do something like that you may want to point them in the direction of the Magic of Eberron in which they will find the Psionic Artificer. The Psionic Infusions may prove usefull in the style of play that he is achieving. Also, a Psion cannot increase the number of power points spent past the characters present Psion level. At fifth level, giving him 3rd lvl powers, he should not be able to increase those until (roughly) seventh level. The reason is the manifestation charge (usually somewhere between 3 - 5) and the boost would cost to much (normally around 3 - 4 per increase). The player could create a Psionic Crystal, for example, which is a first level power. Now, remember, I don't have the books on me (and my works internet blocker prevents me from looking at the SRD). This is a first level power costing 1 point to manifest, creating a 1d6 shard of crystal. For an additional 2 or 3, can't remember exactly, this increases to 2 shards at 1d6, and so on down the line. Let's say this costs 2 pp to increase, that means he is spending 1 to generate the power and wants to maximize this power, therefore spending an additional 4 pp. This gives him 3 shards at 1d6 and assuming he is a maxed out psion with no intel bonus (INT 19 at lvl 5) he would only have a max of 35 points to do this with. Thats manifesting this one example 7 times before running dry and loosing all benefits of feats that revolve around Psionic Focus and any Crysteel weapons and armor he may have. There are ways to overextend yourself, but I believe those are restricted to the Wilder class only. So, in other words, for the 5th lvl Psion in your group to have generated a 7d6 power he would have had to been roughly 7th level (unless there is one that I don't know about that seems a bit overpowered), and he would not have been able to augment it into the cannon ball unless he went Psionic Artificer.
igotsmeakabob!! 02-01-06, 02:44 AM	actually kalanth psionic artificers are exactly the same as regular artificers (infusions and all) except they get craft psionic items instead of magic. once again, that player played you like a foo.
Kalanth 02-01-06, 03:03 AM	actually kalanth psionic artificers are exactly the same as regular artificers (infusions and all) except they get craft psionic items instead of magic. Yeah, thats kinda what I meant with the infusions and all. Gives him a character based around psionics, sorta. Still, the artificer(s) is a class I need to reread, it confused me so much so (and would never play one, seems dull to me).