[D&D 3.5] Trouble with Trox - Setup Thread

[Turing_testable]

Broadest Overview:
Traditional fantasy campaign with a few tweaks, including warforged, changelings, no psionics.
Some overlap with several traditional settings in D&D such that weird things show up (see warforged entry above).  Parts of setting borrowed from FR, Greyhawk, even Eberron. Books allowed so far: Core and Core additions (MM2-5, PHB II, etc)  as well as Races of Books, and Complete Books.  Other books are allowed dependent upon review by me, your friendly neighborhood GM
Specifics:
Technology and Magic:
Mid level magic < Forgotten Realms. A good indicator of magic level is ease of procuring magic items, there is not a MagicMart^TM in every little town, but big cities allow for purchase of magic items.  However, it will never be the case that you can purchase any magic item that you might want with no trouble.  Some are available some are not.  Crafting of magic items is possible, but to attain the Craft feats you need to train with someone who crafts magic items.  Technologically speaking it depends a lot on area.  Some areas especially those involving high concentrations of Gnomes are beginning to harness the power of Steam, in others it is more Renaissance in technological level.  Gunpowder exists, but no handguns have been created.
Basic Geographic/Metropolitan Features:
Southern hemisphere.  This would best be classified as Temperate zone bordering on Taiga. There is one major city in the Southern Region: Flamerock, though it is the only major city in this part of the world it is a Great one.  Being the seat of the Council of Eight (joint Lordly Rulers of the Southern Regions) this city has everything one might expect from a metropolitan hub.  Throughout the region are many other settlements ranging from wayward farms and solitary keeps to large towns.  
To the North is the Red Ridge Mountains from which the walls of Flamerock got their sandstone.  
To the South lies the southern Ocean and at the far reaches  the icy tundra.  The small island that contains the southern pole has view inhabitants, but does have a port town and semi-regular merchant boats which cross the thinnest stretches of ocean to bring goods only able to be gathered there.  
To the West and East there is mostly alternating plain and rolling evergreen forest, though there are some rumors that the once rich lands to the west are not yielding as they once did.  Far to the northwest lies a rainforest said to be inhabited if at all by wild natives, though rumors vary as to their nature.
This land is a good land.  The goblinoid invaders from the North have been quiet for many years and the neighboring cities on the other side of the Red Ridges have been faithful allies for many years.  There are inklings, that something is not right.  Gossip has been spreading of people being turned away from cities as they travel South, their faces pocked and their forms emaciated by some disease.  The churches mostly has left the slightly wilder lands outside of Flamerock to themselves barring the small monastery here or there, and as such no official position has been addressed concerning the rumors about this disease.  All that is clear is that something seems to be catching, and the rumors call it Trox.

Game Starting Info
This is a game for which I am hoping to have 5 players, I have a couple leads on people who haven't posted here yet, but I am giving them first dibs. That being said there are a few slots open. The game will start out at 4th level, but you can plan on being around until levels in low teens at least.   So if you are interested and have a character concept at the ready, please post a brief description of the character you might like to play.  If you have any questions about settings or rules please send me a message and I will try to answer as fast as possible.  I am hoping to have the party filled out by Midnight EST on the 26th, so ~1 week from today. EDIT: I am extending the time for character creation for another week and a half so people have until May 5.  The pace for this campaign will hopefully be at least one post per day (unless you are going to be away or something), but since this is a new thing for me I assume it will start a bit slower than that, and we may find that a slower pace, 1 post per week minimum is better so if you don't think you can deal with that, sorry but this may not be the game for you. Thanks for checking this out and hope you enjoy the game.

[Awkward Map]

Definitely interested in posting up a character.  What method for choosing stats are there?  Flaws or traits allowed?

[Turing_testable]

I don't generally allow flaws, but if you think it was necessary to your character it could probably be worked out.

We are working off a 28 pt buy in this campaign.

[Awkward Map]

I'd like to play a Dread Necromancer from the book Heroes of Horror.  Outside of your listed sources I would like to know if I could also use Libris Mortis for feats related to creating undead and the feat Tomb-Tainted Soul.

Do you view skeletons and zombies as inherently evil or evil based upon the orders they are given?  I  plan to use disguise to bundle them up in bulky clothes to make them appear alive (or at least like a mysterious, shadowy figure?), so it shouldn't be a problem when in town.  Just some silent body guards.  That's several levels off anyways.

All pending approval of those books of course.

Edit: The sketch of the character is a gravedigger who is fascinated with the dead.  By picking apart bodies he was paid to bury he has awakened some unearthly powers.  The fascination with death began in his childhood when his dog died.  He sort of goes overboard by pulling his dog apart to check out why it's not working anymore.  Thoughts?

[EsoT]

I'd like to play a Spellscale Thief/Sorcerer.

Initially outcasted, living on the streets and forced to steal to live, (insert future character name here) is taken in by (insert another name to be picked in the future) and told what he really is...Taught the basic skills he needs to be a Sorcerer, he is cast into the world to live with his head held high, and the necessity to find his parents.

More details pending, but that is the basic outline I was thinking of anyways.

[Awkward Map]

I'd like to play a Spellscale Thief/Sorcerer.

Two charisma spontaneous casters, woo.  Are you thinking of going Rogue/Sorcerer/Unseen Seer maybe?  Ah, Spell Thief/Sorcerer/Unseen Seer with the Master Spellthief feat from Complete Scoundrel so you can run around in light armor with no arcane spell chance failure would be choice.

With no source of healing at the moment I think I'm going to throw two ranks cross-class into UMD and pick up a wand of lesser vigor.  If you do the same we'll just pass the stick once someone rolls a natural one on the UMD check.  Gives us some out of battle top-off healing at least.

Turing_testable, will we start with the wealth by level for level 4 from the DMG?

[Turing_testable]

@Awkward Map:Standard WBL is fine, however, in this world undead creation is an inherently evil act meaning a dread necromancer is, at best, a neutral character.  It has to be evil as you are desecrating dead bodies.  It seems like you want to play your character as either somewhat ignorant of wrong doing (low wis) or somewhat unintelligent which would get around the problem of constantly having to do good to balance out the evil (to an extent), but to not be considered a neutral character by other PCs and anyone catching you creating undead will be a challenge. (note:Even, "bundled up" zombies are noticeably non-living, they don't move like people, they are composed of rotting flesh, they occasionally moan,etc.  Skeletons might be disguise-able in this way, I'd have to think a bit about that, though they are certainly harder to dress.)  I;m fine with you using the Dread Necromancer/Heroes of Horror in general it is a good book.  I don't really know Libris Mortis well enough to allow it, atm.  Once I have reviewed it maybe, but until then assume it can't be used.  I like the character concept though, this line

He sort of goes overboard by pulling his dog apart to check out why it's not working anymore

is pretty awesome.

@EsoT I am happy with a Spellscale (though they are not common at all in the setting, so you may stick out a bit). The character sounds interesting though you may suffer from needing stats all over the place for your Char to work (high Dex-Int for thief, High Cha for sorcery, high Con for not dying with two low hp classes).  A class you might want to look at that cuts down a bit on this is Beguiler (found in PHB II).  It could replace the Sorceror bit and leave you with an int based spontaneous caster, with more overlapping skills with a thief.  It does have more restrictive Spell lists (significantly) but the the trade off is substantial, especially if you want to be a skill monkey.  It also would allow one of the two of you to focus on being the party face and not have their toes stepped on, and it would be kinda funny to have the guy who is digging up graves at night, being the go to diplomat of the party.

[Awkward Map]

Libris Mortis can be handy for a Dread Necromancer.  It gives Tomb Tainted Soul which allows the Dread Necro to heal themselves with their Charnel Touch (2 points this level) and they get damaged by positive energy healing.  I'd call it a trade off, since in combat healing becomes harder later when Heal comes online.  It also introduces the undead creation feats.  I'd be looking at Corpsecrafter and Nimble Bones.  Corpsecrafter gives a +4 enhancement bonus to Str and +2 HP per hit die.  Nimble bones give skeletons created a +4 bonus on Initiative checks a +10 base land speed.  Essentially when I can craft undead (level 8 and up) the feats are to create a contingent of pimp shock troop skeletons who can go first, get into position and start beating things to death.

I was going to play him as Neutral since, as you say, he doesn't know what he's doing is evil.  He does hide his habits since as a kid when he was found doing this stuff he was made fun of for being a creep.  But really, he internalized it as them being the ones who don't quite get why what he's doing is important.  He's a nice guy, but his hobbies are private.

[EsoT]

Beguiler (after reading up on it real quickly) sounds good. I was considering dropping the thief ideal (taking that as more a background element than a class) and proceeding as a sorcerer with the Dragonblood Sorcerer substitution class for level 1.

I need a bit more time to read through both the beguiler/spellscale/sorcerer before coming to a conclusion, but either way I am pretty excited about it.

[Krika]

Would an undead character be OK? Yes, I saw the dread necromancer above. I still want to play an undead person.

And is stuff from K's TOme of Necromancy allowed?

[Turing_testable]

@Krika Undead character might be ok given type of undead.  LA rules are in place so that might rule out a bit.  Again, more so then a spellscale you would be viewed as evil by the rest of the world, so that is something you will have to deal with.  I am not putting in that additional book but their are rules for playing lots of different undead in the various MMs so that would be the place to look.

@awkward map I understand that Libris Mortis is helpful for your character, but If I allow that for you then i have to keep expanding books allowed for everybody, so for now we are sticking with the books outlined in the original post.  Sorry.

[Awkward Map]

Okay, I'll assume it's out then.  Here's my sheet: *Click*.

Depends on how you'd like to introduce characters, but I was thinking that an upstart necromancer or evil cleric might have come to his village ready to rustle up some animate dead fodder.  He tried to wage a guerrilla campaign by capturing undead with Rebuking and his trusty bow.  After failing and the town becoming overrun he fled.  Now he has been pushed out of a society that accepted him and into another: the world of adventuring.

[Edit] Updated character sheet with feats from Libris Mortis.

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

Color me curious!

Have an idea for a warforged Dragonfire Adept with Breath weapons and Invocations totaly reflavored to be built in weapons and systems a la Calibretto from Battlechasers: http://www.comicvine.com/calibretto/29-12300/

[Turing_testable]

Sadly, I do not own the Dragon Magic book, and therefore, I cannot allow the Dragonfire Adept. If you want to find a different magic user that would work that may be ok, though you should probably note that we already have 2 magic using types in the thread.  So perhaps a better fit would be some sort of martial class, as it would still fit the war golem idea.

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

If that is the only obstacle, I have it in pdf form and could send it to you.  Most of the invocations are the same as the warlock, but there is a unique one to the dfa that no other class in the game duplicates. Furthermore the eldritch blast doesn't work quite right with the breath effects.

Let me know if that would work for you.  If not, this idea will find it's home sooner or later...

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

Also, the class is fully detailed here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060912a&page=2

[Turing_testable]

@Thistledown, After reading the class I have this to say:  One, it would take a pretty interesting character background to explain why a Warforged ended up as a Dragonfire Adept, they seem very different in type, and the armor that a warforged is made of does cause potential spell failure for your invocations.  Secondly, I am not sure that another caster, even of the Warlock-esq brand, is a good thing given the 2 other players who have already expressed interest, have put forth casters.  That being said, post a character background and show me why your character is a caster and a warforged and we can maybe figure it out, assuming there are some non-wizardy types lurking around the boards who are interested in playing in this game.

[Krika]

I would make a non-caster (monk, don't tell me they suck, I know that), but I kind of need to have Libris Mortis for the concept to work. Maybe. I'll check, but I might not be able to have this without it. I do have a link for a pdf, if it becomes necessary. Still, about the Tome of Necromancy I mentioned. I just want this one feat from it. Could just that feat be OK'ed? It is all I really need for the concept. Linky. Move down to the first [undead] feat. Enervating Touch.

Also, is Crystalkeep Ok? Can I get stuff from there?

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

@Thistledown, After reading the class I have this to say:  One, it would take a pretty interesting character background to explain why a Warforged ended up as a Dragonfire Adept, they seem very different in type, and the armor that a warforged is made of does cause potential spell failure for your invocations.  Secondly, I am not sure that another caster, even of the Warlock-esq brand, is a good thing given the 2 other players who have already expressed interest, have put forth casters.  That being said, post a character background and show me why your character is a caster and a warforged and we can maybe figure it out, assuming there are some non-wizardy types lurking around the boards who are interested in playing in this game.

You misunderstand.  The DFA is *totally* reflavore to have nothing to do with dragons.  Instead the invocations and breath effects are built in weapons and systems like flamethrowers, tear gas, jet packs etc.

In any case, I am taking the idea off the table here since Brainpiercing is letting me bring the idea into his FR game with a bunch of cool custom modifications to be even more shiny.

I do have another more standard DFA concept I would want to play, but it would need LA buyoff to be really allowed.  And also, it's a build I would want to see through to level 20, so if this game ends before that, it may not be the best place to bring that one in either.

[Turing_testable]

@Krika, I am not going to allow 2 new books for your character to work, however, since both you and awkward map want Libris Mortis in I suppose I can allow that in, provided I can get my hands on the book in the next couple days or so.  I can probably do that, so for those that care:
LIBRIS MORTIS is now allowed in the campaign.

I am so far only allowing at most one book per new player, so for now I want to leave out Tome of Necromancy.  Hopefully Libris Mortis works well enough.