Exploratory Thread: Mercenaries (3.5e)

[Ben Zwycky]

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When the battle with the pit fiend was over, he discovered his village had long since been burned to ashes and the land turned to desert. Vengeance was his, but he now had no home and no long-term goal.

He and his friends decided to establish their own adventuring guild, using his network of informants to discover what needs fixing across the land and beyond, to help them decide who to send on what mission.

Eric is still adjusting to the new attitude people have towards him, now that his appearance is so unconventional, so he prefers to keep a low profile whenever possible.

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What do you say? I think this could work as a decent origin for our guild.

[Pinoy]

This is what i sent Carrik before (my wife wrote this, i am no writer)

Name: Faris Age: 32 Gender: Male Race: Human
Class: Barbarian/Fighter Neutral Good

Childhood:
Faris is a son of a once powerful Lord.
He had to flee his family’s land because corrupt Lords, whom his father refused to help, burned it.
He wandered in the forest until he met a group of barbarians.
The barbarians took him in as a slave, but after proving himself to be helpful in teaching the young, Orhan, the leader of the barbarians took him in and treated him as one of his sons.
Faris and Baako, the eldest son of the barbarian’s leader, became best friends.

Adult:
While Baako was drinking and womanizing, Faris was training himself in hopes to overthrow the corrupt Lords who destroyed his family’s land.
With the help of Faris, Orhan’s band of barbarians were able to defeat other barbarians.
Faris was trying to win over Orhan, to use Orhan’s barbarians to avenge his family. But Orhan, who loved Faris as a son, would not let him become totally corrupted and evil. So, he asked Faris to leave the band and find his own fortune.
Baako had just become a father to Amal. He joined Faris in his quest, to escape his responsibilities as a father and husband.
They became selswords, ultimately becoming bodyguards to the supreme leader’s family. There, he and Baako learned of what really happened to his family, and agreed to help each other kill the corrupt lords.
However, upon hearing word that Orhan was badly hurt battle, Baako had to return home. He tried to convince Faris to go back with him saying that Orhan loved him too. But Faris, would not be moved. Faris believed that Orhan abandoned him when the asked him to leave the band.
They parted, no longer as friends.

Middle Age:
Faris realized that avenging his family would not solve the corruption in their kingdom.
He left his post as bodyguard to the supreme leader’s family with a few others who have witnessed corruption. Together, they wanted to establish a guild that will expose the corruption and all the players of the game of greed.
He traced the band of Baako’s barbarians, and made amends. He wanted to recruit Baako to be in his guild.
Baako refused having no one else to replace him as leader of the barbarians. Instead of joining Faris, he sent his son Amal.

[Spartacus]

Theruviel, the high-level ranger/Horizon Walker, was probably part of the attack on the pit fiend (being able to teleport over 1000 feet every few seconds makes for a relatively elusive sniper, and the Wounding longbow I'm planning to use is pretty annoying, too). They would have met either through wanderings or through someone with connections, like CV or Chrs' characters. Being TN means that she was probably motivated either by self-interest or a strong personal loyalty.

The backstory is more or less what you'd expect of an elf stricken with wanderlust: she traveled around, learning the ways of the wilderness and sharpening her archery skills. Her experiences with various magical beings and strange locales infused her with a few strange abilities, including the ability to instantly transport herself considerable distances. There are some who suggest that these abilities are the result of a favorable encounter with Laus, a theory that Theruviel herself will neither confirm nor deny. It is nonetheless known that she occasionally makes contributions to the Wayfarers.

Where Theruviel is at home in the solitude of the wilds, Siriekahn, her niece and a talented bard, finds her natural habitat in large towns and cities in which she can be the center of attention for as long as she pleases. Theruviel found a place for her niece, who shares her wanderlust if not her particular interests, in the newly formed guild. Both see the guild as a way of advancing their own interests and those whom they consider to be family.

[Pinoy]

this is the lower version - story

Name: Amal Age: 17 Gender: Male Race: Human
Class: Barbarian/Ranger Chaotic Good

Childhood:
Amal is the eldest son of Baako, who is the son of Orhan, the leader of the barbarians.
His father runaway when he was born. His mother, a bar maid raised him.
Fearful of Orhan, his mother kept him.
To help earn their keep in the tabard, his mother taught to find edible plants and herbs, the owner of the tabard taught him how to hunt with bow and arrow.
His grandfather chanced upon their tabard and saw Amal. A spitting image of Baako, Orhan knew at once that Amal is his grandson. He paid the owner of the tabard for Amal and his mother, and took them home.
Because Orhan missed Baako, his tendency was to favor Amal.
Amal did not show interest in his trainings, and preferred to be alone in the woods. Being a favorite of the barbarian’s leader, he was tolerated. However, most barbarians thought that he was not a real barbarian. They could not bear the thought that he will be their future leader.
One day, his grandfather took him hunting. They chanced upon a giant. His grandfather protected him, but the giant lifted Orhan. The giant gripped Orhan’s body crushing a few of his bones. In panic, Amal lifted his bow and arrow and shot at the giant’s fingers attempting to free his grandfather. But the arrow hit Orhan’s left eye. Orhan cried in pain. Terrified, Amal shot again an arrow. This time, it went to the giant’s eye. The giant released Orhan, and Amal rushed and took his grandfather to safety.
Orhan’s life was in danger. Knowing that the band wouldn’t want a 10-year-old boy as leader, he sent for his son.
He dies just in time after passing the leadership to Baako. The band of barbarians respected Baako, and were loyal to him.
When Amal first met Baako, he resented father who was absent for 10 years.

Youth:
Out of love and respect to his grandfather and mother, he obeyed his father and tried to please him.
He became better in his training, excelling in archery and stealth.
Baako started to see Amal as his younger self. For fear that Amal fall into the same vices, he discouraged Amal from going into the tabards.
He met again with the giant who gave his grandfather a fatal wound. He failed to kill the giant, but he managed to blind it completely. From then on, he would blind the giants he would meet.
Then Faris came into their band and offered his father a place in his guild. Baako could not go because he did not have anyone to replace him as leader. Amal was sent to Faris, to be his apprentice. Baako hoped that by sending Amal, he would be away from the vices that his father had as a youth.

[Pinoy]

Now I can just connect with anyone.. I hope.

[Ben Zwycky]

OK, Pinoy, I see a nice possibility for integrating Faris' backstory into Eric's and Theruviel's in a straightforward way, by using your Middle Age phase with a slight modification. How is this:

Faris becomes tired of the corruption and leaves his post as a bodyguard when he hears about a noble mission to avenge the destruction of a village by a pit fiend, that aim resonates with him because of what happened to his own homeland. He joins in the attack, then agrees with his new friends to form the guild.

Additional possibilities:

a. Faris could also have heard of Eric and his exploits as a wandering problem-fixer and built up a respect for him because of their similar goals and outlook on life.

b. they could have even crossed paths during Faris's time as a sellsword in his adult phase, going their separate ways because of Faris' commitment to his employer at the time.

What do you think?

[Pinoy]

Sounds great. How about if we add a few more details:

Faris wanted to join Eric because he learned that aside from being corrupt, the lords are also secret members of the Order of the Shadow. He witnessed the corrupt lords perform a summoning ritual, that produced a dark figure covered in green flame- the very same strange flame that burned his village. He is convinced that the corrupt lords were summoning great evil in his village, years ago, and that is the reason behind the burning of his village. Faris suspects that the fire that burned Eric's village may have produced other dark creatures that currently roams their land.

I know I never mentioned anything about a strange green flame before, but I think it adds a nice touch and makes our stories more coherent. :) Let me know what you think. :)

[Ben Zwycky]

What you're suggesting is fine, but bear in mind our high-level characters are supposed to be a little jaded, with no great aims left in their lives:

Mercenaries. That's what you are. Oh, sure, you can call yourself an adventuring guild if you want. Whatever makes you feel better...

You've been around the world. More than once. Killed pretty much everything. And then some. And now...you're bored. Everywhere you go, it's 'been there, done that'. Bleh.

So now...now you had the bright idea to form a company. You, and whoever else you've convinced to join you.

Having major loose ends in our high-level characters' backstories (like these corrupt lords still operating) would run counter to that. Also, I've tried to make my character's backstory self-contained, to minimise the chance of it clashing with whatever Carrik has planned. If you really want to tie those lords into the appearance of the pit fiend, then maybe have the end of the pit fiend bring about the end of the lords, so there's closure there, but in a way that leaves a foul taste in Faris' mouth, so he'll want to leave it all behind and start again by forming the guild.

Here's a possibility:

Pit fiends are lawful evil (i.e. tyrannical rulers), and people aren't going to summon something that powerful without thinking they're going to get something out of the deal.

So, the corrupt lords summoned the pit fiend together, hoping he would bolster their strength and help them take over the neighbouring territories, and he did that. However, in return they all swore undying loyalty to the pit fiend and he was now in charge of the three of them. Over their years of servitude, they grew to despise each other more and more, but none of them would dare act on their hatred, for fear of what the pit fiend would do.

With the pit fiend gone, they immediately began fighting among themselves, weakening each other's power bases so much that they were eventually all killed by their own people. The region descended into chaos, with each new heir to each throne lasting a week or two before being assassinated until the entire political structure of the region collapsed into nothing but warring tribes.

Disgusted with this turn of events and wanting nothing to do with the remaining petty power struggles, Faris decides to leave it all behind and form the guild with the others.


How's that for a bittersweet conclusion?

[Pinoy]

ok.

[Pinoy]

Hello

[Ben Zwycky]

How's everyone doing with their characters? Anyone need any help?

[Pinoy]

Here are my character sheets.. can anyone review it and give me some suggestions

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r59t3t5skl...ris_upload.xls

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wxyvd5ja2j...mal_upload.xls


edit link updated

[Ben Zwycky]

OK, let's deal with Amal first, a number of problems:

1: having bracers of armor doesn't help you at all when you're wearing actual armor (other than work against incorporeal creatures), it's for characters that can't wear normal armor (wizards, sorcerors, monks, duellists), so drop that, saving you 1,000 gp

2: Since you saved 1000 gp from point 1 above, you can make your mithral shirt a mithral chain shirt +1 and increase your AC by 1.

3: Unfortunately, the cost of a ring of protection +2 is 8000 gp, not 4000 gp (it's AC bonus squared * 2,000), so you'll have to go for a ring of protection +1 instead, saving you 2,000 gp, but reducing your deflection bonus to AC by 1, so overall your AC stays the same due to the better chain shirt from point 2. In your sheet, you haven't included the deflection bonus from the ring in your AC.

4: Your bow cannot have the seeking ability without also having magical enhancement of +1 or more, meaning it would cost 8,530 gp instead of 2,530 gp. Give it just the +1 enhancement to be the same price, so it will still have the same chance of hitting, but will do damage of d8+2 instead of d8+1.

5: There's no need for all of those potions, you can cast those spells as a ranger, so you could buy scrolls or wands instead, either saving you a lot of money or givign you a much bigger capacity. You could get a scroll of endure elements for half the price of a potion, and get a wand of cure light wounds instead of the eight potions of cure light wounds and potion of cure moderate wounds, meaning you can cast cure light wounds 50 times instead of cure light wounds ten times and cure moderate once. You could keep one potion of cure light wounds for an emergency (e.g. when your character is unconscious or dying) and the overall cost will 75 gp less.

6: You should have 30 rather than 24 arrows in your efficient quiver (same price, you buy them in bundles of 10). Arrows are cheap and you have room for up to 60 in your efficient quiver, so you may as well fill it up, 20 arrows with cold iron tips will only cost 4 gp, and a set of 10 with silver silver tips only 20, so you can deal better with monsters that are vulnerable to those materials.

7: Since he's a ranger and will be the main tracker of our weaker characters, the survival skill is more important for him than the search skill, (we already have a low-level rogue who'll be much better at searching), suggest taking 4 ranks off his search skill so you still have the 5 you need to get the synergy bonus on tracking, and putting those on survival to boost it to 9.

8: You now have an extra 2051 gp to spend on something, so we could make your longsword magical instead of just masterwork, and we're back to only 51 gp difference.

So, overall my fixes/recommendations are:

1: No bracers of armour

2: mithral chain shirt +1 (armor bonus 5) instead of plain mithral chain shirt (armor bonus 4)

3: ring of protection +1 instead of plus 2, put a value of 1 in your deflection bonus to AC

your normal AC is now 20 instead of 18, touch AC is 14 instead of 13, flat-footed AC 17 instead of 15

4: darkwood composite bow (SR 1) +1 instead of seeking darkwood composite bow (SR 1)

5: one potion and one wand of cure light wounds (50 charges) instead of ten potions of cure light wounds

two scrolls of endure elements instead of one potion of endure elements

one scroll of cure moderate wounds instead of one potion of cure moderate wounds

6: 30 normal arrows in your quiver instead of 24, plus 20 cold iron-tipped arrows and 10 silver ones

7: change to 5 ranks in Search instead of 9, change to 9 ranks in survival instead of 5

8: longsword +1 instead of masterwork longsword,

an extra 51 gp in your money pouch

I will deal with Farris in another post, there are a lot more problems there.

[Pinoy]

OK, let's deal with Amal first, a number of problems:

1: having bracers of armor doesn't help you at all when you're wearing actual armor (other than work against incorporeal creatures), it's for characters that can't wear normal armor (wizards, sorcerors, monks, duellists), so drop that, saving you 1,000 gp

2: Since you saved 1000 gp from point 1 above, you can make your mithral shirt a mithral chain shirt +1 and increase your AC by 1.

3: Unfortunately, the cost of a ring of protection +2 is 8000 gp, not 4000 gp (it's AC bonus squared * 2,000), so you'll have to go for a ring of protection +1 instead, saving you 2,000 gp, but reducing your deflection bonus to AC by 1, so overall your AC stays the same due to the better chain shirt from point 2. In your sheet, you haven't included the deflection bonus from the ring in your AC.

4: Your bow cannot have the seeking ability without also having magical enhancement of +1 or more, meaning it would cost 8,530 gp instead of 2,530 gp. Give it just the +1 enhancement to be the same price, so it will still have the same chance of hitting, but will do damage of d8+2 instead of d8+1.

5: There's no need for all of those potions, you can cast those spells as a ranger, so you could buy scrolls or wands instead, either saving you a lot of money or givign you a much bigger capacity. You could get a scroll of endure elements for half the price of a potion, and get a wand of cure light wounds instead of the eight potions of cure light wounds and potion of cure moderate wounds, meaning you can cast cure light wounds 50 times instead of cure light wounds ten times and cure moderate once. You could keep one potion of cure light wounds for an emergency (e.g. when your character is unconscious or dying) and the overall cost will 75 gp less.

6: You should have 30 rather than 24 arrows in your efficient quiver (same price, you buy them in bundles of 10). Arrows are cheap and you have room for up to 60 in your efficient quiver, so you may as well fill it up, 20 arrows with cold iron tips will only cost 4 gp, and a set of 10 with silver silver tips only 20, so you can deal better with monsters that are vulnerable to those materials.

7: Since he's a ranger and will be the main tracker of our weaker characters, the survival skill is more important for him than the search skill, (we already have a low-level rogue who'll be much better at searching), suggest taking 4 ranks off his search skill so you still have the 5 you need to get the synergy bonus on tracking, and putting those on survival to boost it to 9.

8: You now have an extra 2051 gp to spend on something, so we could make your longsword magical instead of just masterwork, and we're back to only 51 gp difference.

So, overall my fixes/recommendations are:

1: No bracers of armour

2: mithral chain shirt +1 (armor bonus 5) instead of plain mithral chain shirt (armor bonus 4)

3: ring of protection +1 instead of plus 2, put a value of 1 in your deflection bonus to AC

your normal AC is now 20 instead of 18, touch AC is 14 instead of 13, flat-footed AC 17 instead of 15

4: darkwood composite bow (SR 1) +1 instead of seeking darkwood composite bow (SR 1)

5: one potion and one wand of cure light wounds (50 charges) instead of ten potions of cure light wounds

two scrolls of endure elements instead of one potion of endure elements

one scroll of cure moderate wounds instead of one potion of cure moderate wounds

6: 30 normal arrows in your quiver instead of 24, plus 20 cold iron-tipped arrows and 10 silver ones

7: change to 5 ranks in Search instead of 9, change to 9 ranks in survival instead of 5

8: longsword +1 instead of masterwork longsword,

an extra 51 gp in your money pouch

I will deal with Farris in another post, there are a lot more problems there.

Thanks. Creating of character really need a lot of thinking. (i need to become geek in D&D after this)

[Pinoy]

I will apply every changes.

the ring was 2 rings that is why i put 2AC (one for each ring). anyway, i put "keen" on my longsword.