Random DM nagging.

[Anastasia]

Afina's situation notably turned out for the best, yes.

It is a shame that didn't last longer, but it's just the way the cards fell. I was okay with it since I felt it did enough.

[Corwin]

While that's technically true, Jaela actually died since she chose to tank a Nessian's full attack instead of her mother. So she did die saving someone, just Hanna. She also was in a bad headspace for a large part of the Crusade, so sacrificing herself went pretty easily.

[Anastasia]

Fair point, I'd forgotten about that.

[Anastasia]

More replies are good.

Also, for the next one of these, preferences between:

1. Planar politics.
2. NPC thoughts.
3. Epic gameplay observations.

Let me know which you prefer and I'll tackle it first.

[Iron Dragoon]

2

[Ebiris]

NPC thoughts sounds good to me.

[Nephrite]

2>1>3

[Yuthirin]

Yuth, did you ever look at that PM I sent you last week?

Not yet.

Anyone interested in a missed opportunity post?

Sure, so long as they're truly missed and not something we could achieve in a future coda or another game.

[Yuthirin]

More replies are good.

Also, for the next one of these, preferences between:

1. Planar politics.
2. NPC thoughts.
3. Epic gameplay observations.

Let me know which you prefer and I'll tackle it first.

2!

[Yuthirin]

Also, Muirfinn resisting Asmodeus' power was very surprising.

[Anastasia]

Doing these in clumps, and Adrian out of order since I had him in mind. Generally I'm going from the top down in sheets and then will cover anyone not in that topic or who doesn't have a sheet.

Vivantha

Muirfinn's love interest. Okay, that's not fair, but that's where most of her focus was. So it made sense for her to fade to a support role after that entire fiasco. I liked her and her mode of talking, but ultimately, she was Muirfinn centric and hamstrung by his capture. At least she gets a happy ending.

By the way, I'd redo her build if I had to do it again. It was a little too dippy and a little too unfocused, plus I feel her prestige classes didn't really provide enough for her. Hindsight's 20/20 there, but a bard type is hard to screw up too badly.

Not much more to say for her, since she's been backburnered for a long time. A shame but B3 had a small glut of good bards even before Moore showed up. I'll talk about that more in Ebony's segment, as she was the ur-bard in my mind for B3.

Adrian

I've talked about Adrian before - he was one of the few I did an analysis of at B3's first long pause - so I'll keep him short. In essence, he's an every man, a normal person thrust into the planes and left to pick up the pieces of a shattered life. A warrior of passable intelligence and with few social graces, Adrian transformed himself into a passable leader and hero.

I enjoyed putting his extra stat points in Charisma, I felt that was a nice and concrete way to show him growing as a leader. As a note, as a hagspawn, he should be hideously ugly. The only exception to this is when the hag and the father of the child genuinely love each other. Perhaps that and his supernatural bloodline was enough to push him where most other mortals would have failed?

I feel Adrian was a success mechanically for what he was. Planar Champion is a great PrC for B3 and it showed, giving him options and letting him deal with things normally beyond a mundane fighter's grasp. To be honest, even in a non planes focused game, I'd consider it a strong option for a fighter PrC. A 3 level dip for see invisibility and attack ethereal makes life easier for higher level fighter types, plus the 4th level's competitive even in a game that sees little planar travel. When you need planar survival, you really need planar survival. You can even justify 6th level if you really want ethereal jaunt, but no more than that in a non planes focused game. It's probably the best fighter PrC in 3.5, but fighters curiously got the shaft on PrCs, so that's a low bar to clear.

[Iron Dragoon]

In regards to your mention of builds, I'd have done Surraruthru a bit differently also. I still think the Nightmare Spinner build I originally came up with would have been a really solid battlefield controller, but at the time I just didn't know enough about planning out builds and how feats/spells worked together to be at all successful at it. I figure I could do it passably well now, but at the time the number of feat slots required to punch through the almost universal spread of mind-affecting immunity combined with only a vague understanding of how feats at that level worked really set me up for failure.

On his rebuild, I'm honestly torn. While I really do like the idea of Surraruthru being a True Dragon, in the end, the mechanical returns on it were pretty small. Story-wise, it seemed to fit with his aspirations, which I admit were mostly background on my side. With the pace of things when he showed up, there wasn't a really good time for a background/development arc for him to go into his goals, and he wouldn't have gone into it with a non-dragon unless they seriously garnered respect/trust from him, and the group he interacted with was fairly small. The choice of Arcane Dragon was the only really fitting option for his personality and Abjuration mastery as well. In the end, I think his current combination of Arcane Dragon and War Weaver/Epic Weaving will probably cause him to focus on the exploration of the Tapestry and the Weave with the goal of maximizing it to levels of Slaad insanity. The goal is still Planar Tapestry. I do have vague notions of basing his entire demi-plane on the Eldritch Tapestry also...

That said, mechanically for his build and with War Weaver, I genuinely think going War Weaver/Archivist would have been the best choice for him. The number of additional buffs he would have had access to via Cleric and Druid spell lists would have been phenomenal, and the casting efficiency that would have come with putting heals and buffs into the tapestry would have been mind-boggling. Adding to that, him having access to Druid/nature magic would have felt really good considering he was a faerie dragon.

[Anastasia]

Kascha

Ah, Kascha. She was a favorite in B1 based on her introduction and resurrection into an eladrin at Seira's hands. A fun character but a background character, not truly meant for greater things as much as a useful piece to help establish faces in the Cauldron. B3 gave her a chance to rise again when she was recruited (more on that below) and became a loyal face for Aurora. She's kind, sweet but strong enough to stand up on her own and fight. A natural bookworm and scholarly student, she nonetheless throws herself into what she does earnestly. It makes for a fun character, especially when you mix in a mortal mind with an immortal lifespan and all she has seen as part of Arborea. After all, she knew about Titania and Morwel from that as well as other, deeper secrets of Arborea that few others know.

Yet she's a klutz who trips despite her superhuman Dexterity score. By the way, that's purely psychological. It's turned into a small way for her to retain a link to her more fallible human lifetime, something she can't bring herself to do anything about because she treasures what it reminds her of. Compare and contrast this with the previously mentioned themes of epic level characters overcoming mortality and becoming something more. It's worth noting Kascha never really was supposed to be that sort of hero - Seira gave her a second chance and circumstances propelled her on. When you think about it like that, are you surprised she has such a human flaw?

Mechanically she worked fine. Outsider hit dice on one side provide a good baseline while Wyrm Wizard is a great PrC if you have something making up for the loss of caster levels. It's one of those PrCs that can shine in gestalt if you shore up the caster level loss. It's not one I'd use in normal play since you give up a bit much for my tastes, but hey, it excels here. She was held back just a bit by using Seira's spell set, which isn't really a great fit for her, but she made up for it anyway.

Also, she's one part mother, one part sister and one party nanny to Surraruthru. I'm not sure how that happened, but it sort of did. Something about Surraruthru gets her mothering and nurturing instincts going. One of the mysteries, man.

She had a little something going on with Finnegan at the end of B3's first run as I recall, but I ultimately decided to quietly let that one fall by the wayside. No reason other than it didn't feel right for the characters then. Shit happens. Finnegan felt better without attachments while Kascha just wasn't quite there for me, not sure why.

Hanna

Hanna's a character that I always felt was a bit on the back foot as B3 went on. Her problems with Jaela was messy at times and the whole Annalise thing didn't do her any favors. Her story felt like a deep one and one B3 wasn't the right game to explore it in. All of her issues, her life and choices are deep but B3 ultimately isn't the vehicle to explore them. She has a life beyond Aurora, one usually only touched on in passing. Even the best parents - and no commentary on Hanna's parenting Jaela, please - can have a child they don't connect with well for whatever reason. Jaela felt like that for Hanna at times. In the end they did patch things up well and move on, so things look good for the future.

Hanna's growing annoyance, anger, resignation and ultimately acceptance of 27 was a nice background arc for her. It's hard to hate a dog who wants you to love them, and that's what ultimately got Hanna. That sort of pure love, even if expressed in an annoying way, tends to soften even a hardened heart. Especially when Ithea wasn't around, it gave Hanan more reasons to feel bad for him and let 27 worm his way into her heart. After all, angels are beings of divine love (as well as vengeance and rage against evil in Hanna's particular case), so it's only natural for Hanna. I hope you don't mind 27 coming along on your family trips, Jaela.

Hanna's body of work feels like it was mostly done pre-Coda and early in the Coda. She was a bit lost in the shuffle as well as purposely toned down later on except when around Jaela and friends. But then again, her arc was ultimately finished, wasn't it?

Anyway, Hanna's build worked fine. Champion of Gwyn is a straight upgrade to Barbarian levels, even if Hanna's cleric casting via planetar hit dice lessened the usefulness of it. It's a top tier PrC for a good reason, especially if you have the stats to take advantage of it.

[Anastasia]

Snip

Pretty much, though I do note your counter and boosting game were top notch to begin with. You more than pulled your weight there, so I think to a degree it falls into wistfully hoping for more. You bailed the party more than once with timely counters or giving them the extra numbers they needed to win, so I think your build was a success, regardless of improving it.

[Iron Dragoon]

Pretty much, though I do note your counter and boosting game were top notch to begin with. You more than pulled your weight there, so I think to a degree it falls into wistfully hoping for more. You bailed the party more than once with timely counters or giving them the extra numbers they needed to win, so I think your build was a success, regardless of improving it.

Oh I totally agree. I'm just mentioning it more as a learning experience. I went into Surraruthru with my highest level character, ever, being a level 12 fighter. I think he was also my first real caster character. It was more just reflection on how things worked out and what I see now that I didn't then.

But yeah, he's S rank buffer/counter for sure. I'm sure there's spells I could have chosen better, but at a point after having poured over spell lists level by level, I just kinda burnt out on picking spells and established a standard of things. For example, I know for a fact having Celestial Valor ready would have been a super good choice, but having to mess with it and having a bunch of castings and its short duration was just a pain, and so were similar spells.

On the offensive side, I could have done more and I know it. But I never would have gotten anywhere near what Jaela, Afina, and Tryll could pull off so I just kinda rigged up some 'okay-ish' options and cruised with buffing/countering.