Looking for replacement players for City of the Spider Queen campaign

[Kaelik]

If I'm allowed to, mostly because this was originally just a plain 3.0 campaign, I'll probably change a couple of things up, but I'm not looking to optimize my character too much. Originally I was just going to go Scorpion Samurai/Wizard/Eldritch Knight, but it turns out the knight wasn't available in 3.0. I'll wait until I get accepted in. If the party's willing to take in a fifth, I'll revise my character a bit.

Whether I'm willing to accept a 5th is dependent on the fifth.

I don't see any reason to bring in someone who is going to noticeably outclassed, and create inter party conflict because of that fact. If your PC can't bring something serious to the table that no one else does, my character will straight up have no respect for them and treat them like dirt. I can hold that back for party unity, but I don't want to have to.

[kevin_video]

Whether I'm willing to accept a 5th is dependent on the fifth.

I don't see any reason to bring in someone who is going to noticeably outclassed, and create inter party conflict because of that fact. If your PC can't bring something serious to the table that no one else does, my character will straight up have no respect for them and treat them like dirt. I can hold that back for party unity, but I don't want to have to.

If I come in, I'm willing to accept the help that's apparently needed to make my character a worthwhile one for the party.

[VennDygrem]

Throw out everything you know about City of the Spider Queen as a campaign, because as Oslecamo's mentioned, he's re-tooling it for high-power 3.5. I'm more than willing to help you boost your character, but first I would like to know what concept you're operating on. It seems like you're mostly working with making a gish; is that accurate?

Just so you have an idea of what the current party make-up is, we've got Kaelik as Elemental Siphon (a Tome-level elements-based pseudo-caster he created, by my understanding, heavy on battlefield control with some decent damage and utility options), myself as a Force Potentate (force-effect based pseudo-caster created by Kaelik as well, also heavy on BFC though slightly more geared toward touchless combat maneuvers such as tripping, grappling, etc.; also has trapfinding and other utility abilities), Risada as a homebrew Marshal (melee combat and party buffing), and Thistledown as a homebrew Ogre Mage racial class (Gish bruiser).

Right now, we lack a full caster (with the ogre mage gish coming closest), and any buffing that stacks, enhances, or complements Risada's would be appreciated; Furthermore, we don't have anyone devoted to high damage output (by 4E parlance, a 'striker'), though that's really the least of our concerns I imagine. I'm sure others can find other holes in our capabilities.

I certainly wouldn't want to shoehorn you into filling the gaps as much as Kaelik might, though he's the one who organized the game in the first place so besides Oslecamo being DM and having final say, Kaelik's word is what goes. I'd like to help you make the character that best fits what you want to play while still contributing something to the group that we lack, and I believe that's entirely possible.

[kevin_video]

I was mostly just looking to contribute. Figured on a melee fighter with basic healing, and a ranged weapon just in case my character needed it. Thought there'd already be a full caster, either arcane or divine. So I'm pretty much open to any suggestions.

[Kaelik]

I certainly wouldn't want to shoehorn you into filling the gaps as much as Kaelik might,

I don't care about filling gaps. I care about terrible characters. If someone says "I don't really think I need to optimize my character much" and they have Fighter and Ranger on their character sheet, then what I know is that I'd rather have a level 1 Dragon Shaman follower than that character, not the least of which because the follower doesn't steal XP. I don't believe in roles and gaps to fill. I believe in powerful murdering hobos.

[VennDygrem]

@Kaelik: 'powerful murdering hobos' is now my phrase of the day. @kevin I'll look something up for you once I get out of work in a couple hours, and we'll see what we can put together.

[kevin_video]

@kevin I'll look something up for you once I get out of work in a couple hours, and we'll see what we can put together.

Sounds good to me.

[kevin_video]

After discussing things, and looking at options, I'm stepping down. Sorry. I'm not one to optimize myself to the point of a being able to create a powerful murdering hobo. That's beyond my capability.

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

Sorry to hear that Kevin.  On the other hand, this IS a CharOp board....

[VennDygrem]

Actually, this is the Play-by-Post board. The Char-Op board is appropriately titled "Min/Max It!" but is separate from this one. This one's just populated by most of the same people on the Min/Max board.
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Definitely a shame to see you step down, Kevin, but you've got to do what you've got to do. On the plus side, after helping you with build ideas, I think I know what I'd want to play if my current character bites the dust.

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

Er...well yeah that's what I meant.  I guess to me I consider this all just one forum. :

[WarlockLord]

Seeing as your fifth bowed out, would it be ok if a drow wizard/anima mage stepped in, using the Savage Progressions base race?

[oslecamo]

If you're still interested, your character idea sounds good enough.

[WarlockLord]

Very well then.  As it is 1:26 AM where I am, he shall be posted later.

EDIT: Here he is.  He uses one piece of Dragon material (the Aligned Spellcaster variant from Dragon 357, which allows you to trade your familiar to give an alignment descriptor to all your spells and you get a +1 CL bonus against those of the opposite alignment.  Us being what we are, Manzazu is aligned with EVIL.

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=311967

So is he OK?  Anyone have objections to his build/whatever?  Fellow party members, do you believe he can render sufficient assistance?

He's probably just a member of Bre'gan De'arthe or whatever Jarlaxle's merc group is called who got sent down to do the dirty work. 

[oslecamo]

I'll allow that dragon option, but I'm not allowing you to retrain feats that are pre-requisite for other stuff. I'm already allowing flaws for you to get extra feats.

[VennDygrem]

Yeah, having a wizard on board is useful, though I'm not sure what your specialty is. Many of your spells appear to be buffing you, and some of the rest seem situational, but otherwise you bring a decent selection of spells. As Osle mentioned, you'll have to do something about those retrained feats, and besides losing out on a caster level, taking a level of Binder nets you the full suite of abilities from the vestiges you're able to bind, which while I'm sure you're focusing much more on the wizard side, can still offer some rather nice bonus abilities. However, you'll be losing out on that persisted greater blink spell until you hit Anima Mage 5 again. Actually, you can enter Anima Mage sooner, so you shouldn't need Wizard 5. There must be some other way to fit Extend Spell in other than that bonus feat slot, and then you'd more-or-less have the same basic build you've got, including Vestige Metamagic.

[WarlockLord]

Not sure how that'd work, getting in sooner (as I need 4 intimidate ranks) w/o caster level loss.

How are we interpreting the Anima Mage +1 to Binder Level clause?  The way I interpret it is that you get Soul Binding (anima mage expressly says you gain soul binding as though you'd gained a level of binder), knocking those feats offline, which is why I take Improved Binding level 6 (when I first enter anima mage) so the soul binding provided by the class gives the prereqs and the feats themselves are useless (unless we argue that since I didn't actually take a binder level, the feats arn'y KO'd.).  As such, they aren't so much prerequisites as waste of space former prerequisites which aren't required anymore.

I will, of course, change the build, but I don't have the time to do it right this second so I'll do it later.

[oslecamo]

Anima mage handbook here explains that altough those feats allow you to enter the Prc, they won't advance your binding.  I'll side with the CO community on this matter. You can still grab Improved Binding to classify right away with a single binder level.

[WarlockLord]

I've read the handbook.  It doesn't explain anything, it looks like that guy is Making Shit Up.

But I don't mean to be a pain in the ass, so I think I'll just have my guy go for the Shadow Adept from Players Guide to Faerun instead.  That ok with you?

Edit: Here is another link to him, with anima mage levels changed to shadow adept & feats redone.

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=311967

[oslecamo]

Crunch looks good, now just needs a backstory.