NPC Statistics

[Dracos]

Gourash respect battle partners, they get him much profits!

You had the good reason of "Hey, shit, these people will put up with me.  Awesome!"

Gourash came in on a whim trying to ride off Varul's profits and sticking around after he left since the money was good and the risk wasn't any worse than being a normal merc.

Amonet is the odd one, I suppose.  But I'm certain corwin has an excellent reason for her tolerating us.  Probably the wild excitement factor for the adventurersome princess.

Dracos

[Ebiris]

Finally, feedback!

Replying vaguely in order of points presented...

Aside from her 18 dex, Linda's stats were pretty average. I guess everyone has their special talents.


Hahn probably won't get much more screentime since you guys are moving away from Silverymoon if I understand your intentions correctly, but at least you have a powerful (politically, anyway) friend there if you ever need help. Not to mention free/cheap temple services.


I'm glad Xaos was well received. I'll probably post up Shayeera soon, since a fair bit of thought went into her generation. Nasfreiyin will probably show up again, however, so I'd rather keep her secrets secret.


The calamari was a somewhat forced battle - I'd been looking forward to it too much to not use it, really. I tried to play it as aggressive and stupid, but not suicidal, hence why it didn't just float over the party and full attack till you or it died. Probably could have used the terrain more, such as by flying into one of the vast fields of floating water while it had Gourash, rather than taking the time to regenerate its own water shell. Ah, well, it was an enjoyable battle for me - I'll miss the novel intricacies of Limbo combat, for all that it's nice to bring things back to normal.


I rather liked Marjorie and Alveria's interactions. She started off fairly respectful to Alveria, since she was able to divine the secrets of her mother's spellbook, but her respect evaporated pretty fast as they spent more time together. Still, I think she liked Alvie in her own tsundere way, and got a kick out of their verbal sparring. She's really not sure at all what to make of the new Alveria, though. And yes, she's totally gay for Amonet.


I'd rather not get too in detail as to why Marjorie's family are tagging along with you guys, when you haven't even really met them IC yet, but they didn't really have much of a life to rebuild - her parents were both dedicated to protecting the maguffin even before she was born, so in a sense Marjorie was a victim in that she was deprived of a normal childhood by their choices. If she now insists on sticking with Amonet, they can't really refuse her, and working with you guys could help their own goals as well. Besides which, with the boat and potential Alvietower, it's possible to at least have a home rather than just being wandering vagrants/adventurers.

[Ebiris]

Puk'lor
Lawful Neutral Githzerai Monk 11
Space/Reach: 5/5
Speed: 60
STR 15, DEX 24, CON 8, INT 11, WIS 21, CHA 6
Gear: Karach Blade (+2, default)
Feats: Stunning Fist, Deflect Arrows, Improved Disarm, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (Kama), Axiomatic Strike (+2d6 vs Chaotic), Pain Touch (Stunning Fist makes foe nauseated for 1 round after being stunned)
HP: 35
AC: 28 (24 touch, 21 flat footed)
Init: +7
Skills: Balance +21, Hide +21, Move Silently +21, Tumble +21
Attack: Karach, +17 (1d6+4) or Unarmed, +15 (1d10+2)
Full Attack: Karach, +17/+17/+17/+12 (1d6+4)
Special Attacks: Ki Strike (Lawful & Magic), 3/day Daze (DC 9), 3/day Feather Fall, 3/day Shatter (DC 11), 11/day Stunning Fist (DC 20)
Special: Improved Evasion, Slow Fall 50ft, Wholeness of Body (22hp), Diamond Body, Purity of Body, Spell Resistance 16, Plane Shift
Saves: Fort: +6, Ref: +14, Will: +12


I had visions of Githzerai getting involved in your battles with the Githyanki, but didn't plan on introducing them for a while. Then when Alvie purchased Cassandra's services, I had to bring things forward. A big problem with Puk'lor was that by necessity, he would have to be higher level than you guys to have access to plane shift. I considered making him a Dak'kon style Fighter/Mage for a while, but decided to go for something different to differentiate him from the Githyanki, who were favouring that particular combination.

I got a little bit crazy with his stats for some reason, pumping his dex and wis through the roof (doesn't hurt that Githzerai get good stat mods for that) before realising that he badly needed toning down. Dumping con seemed logical, since it's such an important stat, and it lended itself well to making him a glass cannon - someone who could wreck shit and make you guys pay attention, but at the same time someone with a pretty glaring weakness to prevent him from dominating.

Dumping charisma also gave him a unique (in his own way) personality, as I took pains to always have him act and talk in a very dour fashion - I always heard his voice as sounding like Eeyore or Droopy. But, on his first adventure with Eagan, after wtfpwning a Wight, I simply could not resist having him utter a Fist of the North Star line. From there, the legend of his +10 to cha after killing something was born.

I didn't plan on having him leave you guys on such bad terms - I'd wanted to just have him show some disapproval, since keeping the Kharach really defeated the point of the whole exercise - but as the scene went on it just fell into place more that he'd be genuinely affronted at having his time wasted like that (he spent a lot of time loitering around Cassandra's house just waiting on you guys to finish adventuring) and risking his life for no actual payoff. The rest of the Githzerai take the view that you guys will keep killing Githyanki so long as you're hunted, so it's all good, but Puk'lor has trouble seeing the big picture after being personally involved for so long in trying to bring the Kharach back to his people.

edit: His Kharach is a Kama, although I always described it as being somewhat like a short sword/kukri. I don't think it matters too much.

[Ebiris]

Erinyes - Shayeera
Space/Reach: 5/5
Speed: 30, Fly 50 (Good)
STR 21, DEX 21, CON 21, INT 14, WIS 18, CHA 20
Gear: Mace of Disruption +1, Flaming Composite Longbow +1 (+5), Rope, Mithral Light Fortification Breastplate +2
Feats: Dodge, Mobility, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Shot on the Run
HP: 85
AC: 30 (15 touch, 25 flat footed)
Init: +5
Skills: Concentration +17, Diplomacy +7, Escape Artist +17, Hide +17, Knowledge (Planes) +14, Knowledge (Religion) +14, Listen +16, Move Silently +17, Search +14, Sense Motive +16, Spot +16
Attack: Morningstar, +14 (1d8+5) or Longbow, +15 (1d8+6 +1d6 fire)
Full Attack: Morningstar, +14/+9 (1d8+5) or Longbow, +15/+10 (1d8+6 +1d6 fire)
Special Attacks: Entangle, Greater Teleport, Charm Monster (DC 19), Minor Image (DC 17), Unholy Blight (DC 19), Summon 2d10 Lemures/1d4 Bearded Devils (50%)
Special: Damage Reduction 5/Good, Darkvision 60ft, Immunity to Fire & Poison, Acid/Cold Resistance 10, SR 20, Telepathy 100ft, True Seeing
Saves: Fort: +11, Ref: +11, Will: +10


As far as stats go, Shayeera was a regular Erinyes with nonstandard equipment. Although I just noticed, but why the hell do Devils get Darkvision when they already have the superior See in Darkness ability?

Anyway, she went through several iterations as I plotted out the whole Xaos adventure. At first I considered having her be a genuinely non-evil Devil - perhaps even outright Good. I felt this would muddy the waters of her confrontation with Nasfreiyin further, but in the end I was too amused by a lot of the sadistically evil bureaucracy I could put you guys through, so I kept her Lawful Evil. Then I considered making her a more recently fallen angel who would still appear as a Deva, rather than being several generations removed from the original fall as most Erinyes are - I eventually chose not to go down that route, although her possession of a Mace of Disruption does stem from that thinking.

She's also one of the more blatant characters inspired by something else (no guesses on others?), since I'd been on a bit of a Justice League cartoon kick around that time, which was another reason for giving her a great big honking mace with which she could fly around and smack the shit out of people with.

I had various thoughts on her backstory, though none ever saw the light since she got so little screen time and all of it was devoted to getting killed. For one, I had the idea of giving her a more personal hatred for Nasfreiyin, something like the succubus taking a soul that she herself was nurturing towards evil to serve her own ends. If it had come up, I'd have namedropped something and then given you guys the chance to make a knowledge check to identify this as being the catalyst for a huge and bloody civil war on the Prime a few centuries ago, just to show some of the scale that fiends work on.

Using the above, it would have been simple to just portray Shayeera as fucking over Xaos as a vindictive way of getting at Nasfreiyin, if she ever found out she lived there. But, as I got more into how badly fucked up that town was, with a lot of the occupants throwing themselves into the diabolic machine with all the crazed chaoticness they could muster (I should post the Arcane Magister soon, on that note), it became more and more apparent that any self respecting devil would hate being responsible for such a town. I had her deliver a few lines about despising her situation, but no real chance to get into it, but I eventually had the idea that she'd probably been given the task of 'fixing' Xaos as punishment by a higher ranking devil - I somewhat viewed her as being far more drawn to law than evil (not enough to be neutral, still), which other devils would view as aberrant and unbalanced.

Of course, being a decently high CR Outsider, it wouldn't be too hard for her to co-opt some lawful lunatic mortals to her cause, so even deprived of any support from Baator, she was able to take over a regiment of Mercykillers before heading to Xaos without too much trouble, and then the fun began.

I wish she'd got some chance to be fleshed out a bit more, but so it goes.

[Ebiris]

Magister of the Arcane
Chaotic Evil Human Wizard 5
Size/Reach: 5
Speed: 30
STR 18, DEX 9, CON 12, INT 16, WIS 8, CHA 13
Gear:
Feats: Improved Initiative, Improved Counterspell, Skill Focus (Spellcraft)
HP: 17
AC: 9
Init: +4
Skills: Concentration +9, Craft (Alchemy) +11, Knowledge (Arcana) +11, Knowledge (Planes) +11, Spellcraft +13
Attack: +2
Saves: Fort: +2, Ref: +0, Will: +3
Wizard Spells (DC 13, 14, 15, 16)
0: Detect Magic x2, Ray of Frost, Daze
1: Chill Touch, Burning Hands, Magic Missile, Grease
2: Darkness, Acid Arrow, Minor Image
3: Fireball, Slow


Man, I fucking loved this guy. He truly was a joy for me to play, forcing Amonet to answer retarded riddles I found on google and generally browbeating her and being a tremendous self aggrandizing dick. If only all my NPCs could be half as awesome as this guy. The fact that he's an utter failure as any sort of challenge made his posturing all the more fun - and why he deflated so rapidly at the first sign of a threat from the paladin.

In battle his main purpose was to counterspell and little else - something he failed at thanks to Alveria casting spells of greater than fourth level, meaning he basically did nothing when you guys fought his boss. Until Gourash knocked him out and a building fell on him.

Honestly, he doesn't really have any sort of backstory or deeper meaning. I described him as a weird looking tattooed and overly muscled mystic just to make him as visually memorable as his personality would hopefully be. And for what he was intended, I think he served wonderfully as a symbol of all that's wrong with Xaos.

[Dracos]

Awesome =)

I also think we should end more npcs with 'Until Gourash knocked him out and a building fell on him.'

We could possibly vary it up a bit. "Until Gourash knocked him out with a building."

If I recall, this was our first serious encounter after boosting Gourash' strength and gourash was really flinging people around in it and fighting way too overconfidently against the Eryines.  As a player, I honestly underestimated her AC and the lead in of just squishing her mercykiller captain dude didn't really help.

You that's definitely something you could follow up if you wanted.  Battles of law and chaos are often orchestrated from higher powers and it is entirely possible by obliterating that poor bitch we ruined someone elses's plans.

Dracos

[Corwin]

Ah, at last, I get to respond!

Linda was an okay char to work with. I agree with her being the normal non-commoner person in D&D, and how it's nice. On that note, however, I hope we won't meet her again because I think that'll run counter to her non-adventurer nature and background, and I seriously doubt we'll have a reason to visit her place IC again. Ah, charging into the fort... memories of being dropped below zero....

Hahn was awesome. The most awesome thing he did was die as Quest NPC. If the scroll didn't work or we hadn't found it, that would be such a "..." moment. Until we took the staff and Amonet claimed the temple for herself, anyway. Horus-Re would surely appreciate this hostile takeover. I'm pretty sure Amonet would've followed up on all the intrigue and stuff, but she kinda died so that kinda didn't work out. Oh well. May we travel with a fun cleric again (his dude with the fiery hair may be a strong contender. Due to the hair of fire.

It was, err, hard to care for Ese'ban, given that he was mostly silent and died quickly and needlessly. We did offer to raise him! And we looted him not!

Vigo's peg leg was hilarious, especially when we sold it for cash. Also, the only two times I tried to use the greater turning I rolled like max, so those fights are memorable. The grinning skeletons of hate evasion also made this memorable, but for an entirely different reason.

Kristina was so creepy, Amonet just wanted to smile and leave. And she would have gotten away with it, too, if not for the pair of bloodthirsty melee dudes! It's kinda a shame we didn't get a chance to rescue a poor tiefling (and probably recruit him, yeah). Might've helped with the m/f ratio and taught Amonet an important lesson it otherwise took a few months of maturing and a succubus to do~

Oswald, oh, the hate. Even for the name. I doubt it's news to any of us why alignments fail as a system in D&D, especially with their definition. If someone was innocent, may this have shown them better! Anyway, he's dead, and while the chain of events leading to his death is better left forgotten, none of us is seriously mourning his passing, so it's all good. Let's just nod somberly and move on.

Gogoth was after Michael, and the session immortalized in my present forum sig was still fresh on my mind, so I wasn't following that thread seriously. Maybe I'll go back for the logs some day.

I think we've worked harder than ever in the game to avoid the anarchy calamary. I'm kinda disappointed our efforts were foiled, but it did give Amonet a chance to (a) be useful, (b) use full attack + full attack bracers, (c) not die while in melee. Thus, it was a nice fight.

Skeletal abomination. Erm. Not particularly memorable, despite vague recollections of rape and necromancing whip action.

At last, Marjorie! M-chan was fun to be around ever since she was convinced that it's wrong to mindrape innocent if irritating creatures. I didn't really mind giving up the lance features she killed while inhabiting it, since I prefered an npc I liked to mechanical bonuses that let one be more awesome artificially. Which is important! But we all have different priorities~

I thought the rift/eye thing was trying to mind-control her, so hitting it seemed like the way to make it stop, rather than futilely hitting a swarm. Gourash also just hit it and nothing happened, so I didn't think it overly dangerous, and worth the try. Maybe if you did go for your original thought of forcing a strength check to pull the weapon towards it I would've gotten the hint, I dunno. While it makes me sad that the weapon lost its shine, it's an acceptable price to pay if she's happy and stuff. And it sure seems like, and she even got her family resurrected. I think if I repeat enough that I don't really need money I'll believe it! It's not that hard, the only reason I want money is because tempting stuff like a cooler lance and a neat armor are being dangled in front of my face.  :p

May M-chan now actually learn spells that she used to rely on pixies before. And may the past unpleasantness have taught her that a mage with no teleporting abilities not only fails as a mage, but dies messily and quickly with their loved ones. She should rectify these oversights!

I don't think I have a Puk'lor comment. He was Alvie's npc and seemed kinda surly outside battle, so yeah. The final outburst came as a surprise due to its intensity, but again, since I was taking sides, I took my friend's side, not my friend's npc guide's side. Sucks to be Puk'lor, I suppose, but Alvie > him, if Amonet had to choose. And she had to choose.

It's a shame we didn't get to do more with Shayeera, but it was hard to achieve, I suppose. Our best chance was a surprise attack, and going up to her to banter would kind of defeat this. Maybe our friendly succubus would fill us in some day.

The magister... I think I have hate for him rivaled only by Alvie's hate for Vigo. That man tested my patience and managed to break it, I think he's the only one so far. He came so close to becoming a head on a pike....

That's it for my belated comments. Work got busy, and then it extended for weeks, lame. I'll probably respond to other posts tomorrow.

[Dracos]

Gnomeowned.

Dracos

[Ebiris]

Werewolf Abomination
Chaotic Evil Human (Shapechanger) Barbarian 3/Warshaper 3
Size/Reach: 5/10
Speed: 40 (60 as wolf)
STR 28, DEX 16, CON 24, INT 9, WIS 12, CHA 8
Feats: Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Stealthy, Track, Weapon Focus (Bite), Improved Natural Attack (Claw), Multiattack
HP: 100
AC: 19 (13 touch, 16 flat footed)
Init: +6
Attack: Claw, +17, (1d8+10) - as wolf: Bite, +17 (1d8+13)
Full Attack: 2 Claws, +17 (1d8+10), and Bite, +16 (1d6+4)
Special Attacks: Curse of Lycanthropy (DC 15 fort on bite), Trip (only as Wolf) +8, Morphic Weapons, Morphic Reach
Special: Damage Reduction 10/Silver, Low-light vision, Scent, Rage, Uncanny Dodge, Morphic Immunity
Saves: Fort: +16, Ref: +7, Will: +5


This was the solitary huge werewolf for that encounter. My original plan called for two of these guys, but at the last moment I decided one was sufficient if I had the werewolves fight intelligently. With the werewolf cleric providing some decent buffs and then using a Summon Nature's Ally spell to draw you guys out from your defensible location, I figured they didn't need excessive manpower to win.

As an aside, spells like faith healing and recitation are pretty pro when everyone on your team worships the same deity.

Anyway, his stats assume that he's raging, but come before buffs provided by the cleric. On the whole I'm rather pleased with how I played the wolves for that encounter. They pretty much did everything right, from luring you out/distracting you with expendable summons, then flanking and mass raping the one PC that reached them first while the cleric hung back in case of something unexpected.

Alas, glitterdust has proved the undoing of many a villian. He had a decent chance of saving, too, since his will was +8 while buffed. Had it been this guy instead of one of the generic werewolves that had saved, I think this battle could have turned out even worse for you guys than it actually did.

[Ebiris]

Werewolf Cleric of Malar
Chaotic Evil Human (Shapechanger) Cleric 7
Size/Reach: 5/5
Speed: 40 (50 as wolf)
STR 17, DEX 14, CON 16, INT 11, WIS 20, CHA 12
Gear: Holy Symbol of Malar (bloody claw with fur and curving talons)
Feats: Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Stealthy, Track, Weapon Focus (Bite), Improved Natural Attack (Claw), Divine Vigour (+10 speed, +14hp)
HP: 77
AC: 18 (12 touch, 16 flat footed)
Init: +6
Attack: Claw, +9, (1d6+3) - as wolf: Bite, +10 (1d6+4)
Full Attack: 2 Claws, +9 (1d6+3), and Bite, +5 (1d6+1)
Special Attacks: Curse of Lycanthropy (DC 15 fort on bite), Trip (only as Wolf) +4, +7 STR for 1 round
Special: Damage Reduction 10/Silver, Low-light vision, Scent
Saves: Fort: +11, Ref: +7, Will: +12
Cleric Spells DC 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 (Domains Animal and Strength)
0: 6 Create Water, Detect Magic, Guidance, Purify Food and Drink, Resistance, Inflict Minor Wounds
1: 6+1 Enlarge Person, Blood Wind, Faith Healing, Lesser Vigour, Shield of Faith x2, Bless
2: 4+1 Bull's Strength, Hold Person, Shatter, Calm Emotions, Death Knell
3: 3+1 Dominate Animal, Dispel Magic, Protection from Energy, Cure Serious Wounds
4: 2+1 Summon Nature's Ally 4, Recitation (+3 AC, attack, saves, 60ft burst), Revenance (brings back to life with half hp for 1 min/level)


Not much to add here that wasn't detailed in the last post. I suppose I will complain that I forgot to use his strength domain when he got caught in the tentacles of rape. Oh, well. He was a pretty solid buffer, and had one debuff that would've been hilariously nasty to use on Gourash - Calm Emotions. Turned out it was unnecessary, but would've been fun to use if G had started tearing a swathe through the pack.

Revenance was a definite ace in the hole to use if you guys managed to down the abomination while the cleric was still running around.