Post/Author/DateTime	Post
psionicbattousai 12-29-05, 11:57 PM	ok, im not actually sure that this goes here, but thats what moderators are for, right? :) anyways, heres my character: Krolun soul knife warforged story-became a very powerful fighter during the war, ended up getting used as an assassin for high-up enemies. fighting was his every waking thought or action. when the treaty was signed, he took it harder than most. eventually, with a group of comrades, and others he could somewhat trust, he decided to continue doing what he had been doing all his existence-kill his enemies. he started by tracking down all of his previous enemies from the war, and slaughtering all of them. when he ran out, he went after anyone who helped them, etc. He lived a very sad life. he came to hate what he was doing, but had no knowledge of how to stop. He knew nothing but war. he was created and trained too well. So he continued his bloodbath, all the while wishing there was a way out. eventually, his old masters decided he needed to be stopped. they sent a large task force of highly skilled warriors after him, including a group of psions with a special purpose-if he could not be destroyed, remove his mind. the battle was long, but eventually, it came down to Krolun and a few of his allies killing everthing else. In the end, the group of psions started chanting their ritual. Krolun advanced towards them, with one of his allies just ahead of him. As he realized they were chanting, him and his ally hurried. but when he got real close, he heard what was going on. and as his comrade was about to start his attack, Krolun realized what they were doing. At the very last moment before his friend struck, he drove his sword through his friend's stomach, ppreventing him from stopping the ritual. with a last, whispered, "sorry", everything went blank. He "awoke" inside a tavern, with no knowledge of who or where he was. and when a drunken idiot started a fight with him, in the process of defending himself, he accidentally drew his mind blade, killing the man. He was run out of town, and now searches to find his past. When my character levels, he is not 'gaining' experience, he is 'remembering' it, as it slowly comes back to him. Due to this, every four levels, he gains a -1 to his cha, for as he remembers his past, and all the things he did, he becomes a bitter person, and his hate for himself and his past deeds show themselves outwardly through his actions. Also, he had the ironwood body and improved damage reduction feats, and those were not lost with his mind, so he is able to get those at level 1 for free. my dm agreed to this. here is my question now: would I be able to get some sort of special ability such as: once per day, make a jog memory check (percentile dice, maybe?) If within 5%, I can temporarily "remember" my past self, and 'revert' to level 20 for like 1d3 rounds. afterwards, I cant remember what happened, but am shaken for twice as many rounds. If anybody could think of a good way to do this that I could propose to my dm, that would be great. also, tell me what you think of my character, thanks.
Sir Todd 12-30-05, 12:16 PM	I would (If I were GMing) never allow someone to spontaneously become 20th level reguardless of the cost. That is a situation that would ruin any game. Clearly you are playing in an all evil game. This is a good background for a psychopath with remorse. If this isn't an all evil game I would ban the character. As a GM I would also balance the free feats you have with two Flaws of my own choice or making to balance those feats. And you would be required to use a feat at the earliest opportunity to legally buy the bonus feats (removing flaws as you do so).
Shaggy_Shaggs 12-30-05, 12:31 PM	It is interesting, and somewhat reminiscent of what happened to an evil amnesiac character I had years ago when I basically said to the DM "Here's what I want to be now, feel free to make my past whatever you want it to be." However, I agree with Sir Todd that this character does not belong in any non-evil game, and that spontaneous 'reversion' to 20th level is absolutely out of the question. Even this is in the realm of overpowered, but what you might be able to talk your DM into is getting a small chance of spontaneously pulling off a Heroism or Greater Heroism effect, but even then, I wouldn't count on it if I were you, and if he DOES give it to you, expect the chance of it happening to be very small or very situation-specific, and the compensating penalty to be very heavy.
Milburn 12-30-05, 12:55 PM	I am going to have to say that there is NO way that I or most DMs would allow you to hop to level 20 at random moments. It is overpowered and makes little sense. This combat orientated character gains two useful combat feats at the start of its career in exchange for a -1 charisma a few times, later. It is overpowered, and you either do not see this or are taking advantage of a weak dm. The story is quite interesting for an evil campaign, as Sir Todd said, perhaps rather than remembering all his old abilities, he remembers his past life in little snippets. Alot of people play characters like that, as it is quite an interesting way to do things and allows some fun situations. It also makes alot more sense, as far as animated statues losing their memory goes.
Moon-Lancer 12-30-05, 01:10 PM	rather then giving yourself free feats that fit your charicter, if your not starting at level 1, chose your feats to reflect, your story or make your story reflect your feats.
Nidair 12-30-05, 02:48 PM	I'm 100% against the latter.
psionicbattousai 12-30-05, 05:30 PM	ok, so leveling myself up would be way over-powered. as far as the character being evil, Im thinking that as he grows, gaining power in a not evil setting, he would learn how to overcome his past. remember, he didn't so much commit evil because he wanted to, but because he didn't know what else to do. as he learns of other ways of living his life, I would think he now has the ability to re-deem himself. as far as the feats go, what kind of flaws do you think would fit well? I dont wanna just get rid of the feats, as they are completely explained by the story (actually, I created the story, and then realized that there would be lingering effects, such as his body enhancements), and I dont wanna just have to take the feats again. Im thinking something along the lines of maybe sometimes he would forget his freedom, and if someone told him to do something, he would have a small chance of doing it, because he is so used to taking orders. hows that sound?
Shaggy_Shaggs 12-30-05, 07:14 PM	You really need to ask your DM. Hell, this looks way overpowered to total strangers, and we don't have to run a game with the character in it - imagine how your DM's going to feel about it. Your best bet to make it happen at all, I think, is to go to your DM and say something along the lines of "Here's my idea, here's what I want, please assign what you think is a fair penalty for this."
psionicbattousai 12-30-05, 10:11 PM	the 2 feats looks way overpowered?
Shaggy_Shaggs 12-30-05, 10:26 PM	The entire setup, the feats are just the icing on the cake. It's a good idea story-wise, but mechanically it just looks like some very unsubtle munchkining.
psionicbattousai 12-30-05, 10:32 PM	well, without the whole 'reverting to level 20' thing, and the feats, what else is there? the cha penalties harm me, the rest is all story stuff
Shaggy_Shaggs 12-30-05, 10:46 PM	The Cha doesn't really hurt you - you're a race whose Cha is already in the toilet, playing a class that doesn't need Cha. It's a dump stat and dropping it lower isn't actually impairing your ability to function. Even if it did, it wouldn't make up for a couple free feats. Besides, the people here aren't the ones you need to convince, it's your DM you've got to talk to. Good luck with that, but I highly doubt you're going to get a bunch of approval here to show him and pressure him into it.
psionicbattousai 12-30-05, 10:48 PM	ok, its mainly just meant to be a story thing, like the feats. what else is so broken/overpowered/munchkin about it?
Sir Todd 12-31-05, 10:00 AM	ironwood body and improved damage reduction feats are the feats you think should be kept. Ironwood Body is the only real modification. Improved Damage Reduction just improves your DR. Remove the Improved DR feat. Keep Ironwood Body. The balancing flaw I would make is this: Rejection: Your body has improvements it isn't ready for. This causes a massive system wide power drain. You opperate at -6 strength and -6 Dex till you legally buy the improvement and have all prerequisites needed. Really, the -3 damage/hit chance you will suffer should make up for the improved body. This will hamper your combat scores as well. It will make you far less effective in combat till you can legally take the improvement. Remember flaws are supposed to be harsher than the bonus feat they earn. If you wish to take him into a non evil game then make him true neutral (lost alignment along with memories). Get rid of the random act of murder you commited when you woke up. Role play the memories that surface as fairly traumatic. Make a point during play to seek out those with a good (or neutral) alignment and learn from them how you should react to various situations. Until you get such input, try to act as true neutral (undecided) and take a fairly passive response to difficulties. PS: Remove the Cha penalties if you wish. Unless you wish to leave them in place for purely roleplay purposes (but I wouldn't recomend it, as it will make you unliked when you do finally adjust to your new good alignment.)
psionicbattousai 12-31-05, 04:50 PM	ok, thank you for giving me some really good, balanced ideas. this really helps
wonlee76 12-31-05, 09:38 PM	Generally speaking, DM's tend not to give things for free to PCs due to backgrounds. I've seen enough backgrounds where Players try to milk extra starting gold (I am of noble birth...), free feats (Trained with the greatest [insert class] in the world), or some bizarre power that kicks in once in a blue moon (Spell like ability or the like). Not sure why your DM agreed to giving you 2 free feats for basically a -5 to charisma spread out over 20 levels. Personally, I would've opted for Wisdom myself. The mental strain of memorizing your pass slowly making you lose your grasp over reality type of thing. But he's your DM so he's free to agree or disagree with whatever you want for your PC. As for the spontaneous random kick up to level 20, I would say no way. That's a huge power boost for no penalty even if it has a low percentage chance of occuring. Your DM might think its a cool ability though. As for the general story, I do like the story but don't see why you should get any mechanical benefits (free feats and the like) for a decent background story. If I give a freebie to one PC, other PCs will be demanding the same treatment and that will just give rise to jealousy/strife in the group (How come Bob got so many cool feats/spells/skills/etc. and I didn't?).
psionicbattousai 01-01-06, 11:36 PM	the main reason being that it just makes sense. his body had been permanently modified. even with his memory (and all of his fighting skills) removed, his body would still be adjusted. Im going to go with sir todd's flaw, remove the dr feat, and the cha penalties, and buy the feat asap