CO Diary: The Druid!

[Dictum Mortuum]

So, recently we started a new campaign after ages with my original group. It's d&d 3.5 with all books available, although some things got banhammered by the DM. The group consists of:

• hengeyokai (OA) warlock/wizard that goes for the prestige that combines the two classes.
• obscure_race (which i haven't heard before, and is probably custom made - the dm let it fly) rogue 3
• human warblade 3
• dragonborn lesser aasimar druid 3 (me)

The campaign setting is custom.

The DM gives bonus xp according to a formula (based on character level). There are five categories: highest total damage, highest damage received, best RP, best idea and highest heal amount. Needless to say, i constantly receive the heal bonus and i am closely second on the highest total damage. I've received the highest damage received one out of two times. I won't comment on the best idea/best RP categories, as they are totaly subjective.

We started playing at level 1, fighting kobolds and the like. So far the story makes little sense. We spent the most of our lives in a village, with a veteran half-elf tutor. After a kobold attack our tutor sent us to the nearby town, to get information and guidance from his friend, another veteran of some old great war. While in the town we had to infiltrate a rogue guild, whose members all wore a brown-ish cape. We found out that the guild's members were actually kenku, a bird-like race.

The kobolds used weird immobile magic spheres that when activated emitted a yellow-ish light. If you touch the sphere you are transported to an extradimensional space which is actually a spacy room. You can also UMD the sphere to make it portable and small (pebble small), but living creatures inside the room begin to suffocate. We have managed to get one of these spheres and used it to store stuff we find, probably create a lab for crafting later and of course, resting.

I started as a druid with a riding dog as my companion. I also bought another riding dog. Stats were rolled, at level 1 they looked like this: 13 str, 5 dex (dragonborn and amphibious template ), 18 con, 16 int, 20 wis, 14 cha. My flaws were poor reflexes (-3 reflex saves) and metal intolerance (metal weapons +1 damage). My feats were companion spellbond, nymph's kiss and the blooded regional feat.

1^st Session

The first session was a long killing spree. We must have ended around twenty-ish kobolds, most of them with melee attacks. The warblade used punishing stance and a greatsword, i used a staff, melee attacks and my dogs, the warlock spammed touch attacks and summoned swarms and finally the rogue did absolutely nothing (i mean zero damage and drained my single cure light wounds spell ).
I had memorized shillelagh and cure light wounds. I didn't use my shillelagh - most kobolds were down with one hit so it seemed like a waste of actions. In the end i've (meaning me + my dogs) dealt 92 total damage.

2^nd Session

This session was about our characters leaving the settlement we used to live in and travel to the nearby town. We faced weird creatures (like kobolds, blink dogs, some abberations) on our way there. I didn't have to use any spells, the fights were trivial. The bad point was that the DM, who thought that having two dogs is overpowered (after the first session's demonstration), killed the one who wasn't my animal companion without a fight.

3^rd Session

Most of this session was spent trying to find a way into the rogues' guild and interrogating a guild member. Omen of peril was used a few times to seek guidance, worked like a charm every time. We have finally leveled up to 3rd level and i got second level spells. I immediately memorized mass snake's swiftness and kelpstrand. I bought an amber amulet of vermin (Huge Monstrous Scorpion) which i haven't used yet, because 2nd level kenku ninjas die without much trouble Our warlock swapped his summon swarm for the baleful utterance invocation, following my advice, which rendered immune a lot of nonmagical katanas the kenku used. My dog received power attack for his feat and ability bonuses. The campaign so far has been a breeze, killing high amounts of weak opponents instead of facing single monsters. The rogue (at last) proved himself useful, as he disabled some traps, although he fell once again to negative hit points, but that's what you get when you have d6 die, 12 constitution and the frail (? the one that makes you lose one hp/level) flaw.

[Fluffles]

Is there a question/advice anywhere in there?

[ShriekingDrake]

Thanks for doing this.

Those are some nice stats.    I'd welcome seeing more details about the character at each level, but understand where you might not have the time.

There's been a lot of killing.  (And you meted out some nice damage at the first session.) Has there been much role-playing?

You had a sentence in 3rd session description that starts talking about Omen of Peril, but gets cut off.  I've never used this spell much, but always considered it.  How has it been working for you?  I always wonder if I'm going to end up relying on it mistakenly.

--ShriekingDrake

[ShriekingDrake]

Is there a question/advice anywhere in there?

I think it's just a CO Diary, as the title suggests.   

[KellKheraptis]

DM fiat to rob you of WBL for no reason other than his ignorance of 1st level fighters sucking compared to trip machines...he's gonna love you at 5th level when you do the dinosaur shuffle

[Dictum Mortuum]

Is there a question/advice anywhere in there?

No, it's just a diary. People usually come up with several realizations during play that are not obvious when you are planning a build theoritically.

Thanks for doing this.

Those are some nice stats.    I'd welcome seeing more details about the character at each level, but understand where you might not have the time.

There's been a lot of killing.  (And you meted out some nice damage at the first session.) Has there been much role-playing?

You had a sentence in 3rd session description that starts talking about Omen of Peril, but gets cut off.  I've never used this spell much, but always considered it.  How has it been working for you?  I always wonder if I'm going to end up relying on it mistakenly.

--ShriekingDrake

No problem. My only regret is that there are just not enough challenges so far - any even slightly optimized build could get through.
Indeed my stats are very good, but the race helps, too (-4 dex, +2 con, +2 wis, +2 cha). Sorry for the amount of information - i did most of it by memory. I promise to provide more stuff next session.
There has been a good amount of killing and RPing, i'd say 50-50.
About omen of peril: the great thing about it, that we a lot of times overlook, is that it's a first level awesome divination. I've used it two or three times. At one particular instance, we were stuck trying to find leads, so the DM used the vision to "sneak in" some information without metagaming. I was satisfied for preparing it.

DM fiat to rob you of WBL for no reason other than his ignorance of 1st level fighters sucking compared to trip machines...he's gonna love you at 5th level when you do the dinosaur shuffle

I was aggravated in the beginning. Basically, there were two dogs, i had given them an order to 'stay' and we were resting. The DM didn't even gave the poor thing a chance to defend itself - he just rolled a d20 and said that if he rolled between 16-20 the dog would end up dead. Moreover, i specifically ask permission before i take anything and the fact that he killed something that wouldn't even make a difference after three or four levels felt really bad.

I've already been denied access to:

• Cross-class skill ranks into autohypnosis, because the DM has read 'errata' that not all classes are able to gain ranks in any skill they choose. The same for UMD. I mean, i prefer people telling me "no, i don't want you to get that" than making up excuses we can't or won't check at that particular moment due to a lack of an internet connection. Especially for stuff that are not game-breaking like 1 rank of autohypnosis.
• Rebuilding, because the DM doesn't want us to change stuff on our sheet.
• (Probably) alternative animal companions. Because last session the DM told me that i have to find the animal i want first to make it an animal companion. At least this is a reasonable argument.

[Agita]

Out of sheer curiosity, do you have any info on the Rogue's obscure_race, or even the name?

[Dictum Mortuum]

Out of sheer curiosity, do you have any info on the Rogue's obscure_race, or even the name?

He acted like "it's from that book, i_don't_remember_the_name_now_but_it's_super_known". Small sized, +2 dex -2 str i think, disguise self 1/day or so (has never used it) and +1 natural armor.

[TT30]

I bought an amber amulet of vermin (Huge Monstrous Scorpion)

They changed than in errata, now it should be large monstrous scorpion

[KellKheraptis]

I bought an amber amulet of vermin (Huge Monstrous Scorpion)

They changed than in errata, now it should be large monstrous scorpion

With the way this DM has acted so far, I say fuck him and let him deal with the Huge vermin.  It'll only be funny once anyhow

[Dictum Mortuum]

I bought an amber amulet of vermin (Huge Monstrous Scorpion)

They changed than in errata, now it should be large monstrous scorpion

Well, since he read that obscure skills errata i can't find, he already knows the scorpion one, too
/sarcasm

[KellKheraptis]

I bought an amber amulet of vermin (Huge Monstrous Scorpion)

They changed than in errata, now it should be large monstrous scorpion

Well, since he read that obscure skills errata i can't find, he already knows the scorpion one, too
/sarcasm

I would consider that a serious issue, since he's arguing something is RAW and then won't back it up.  Call his lamer ass out on it and see if the other players understand the implication of him thinking he can flagrantly change that which is or is not written at will while claiming it's still RAW.  If he can't back his shit up, he needs to at least admit it's homebrew material, and if he won't do that, he's a tool.  Harsh, but it needs to be said, and nipped in the ass before it becomes a REAL issue, like some stupid reading of a class that completely rapes it to uselessness.

[Dictum Mortuum]

I would consider that a serious issue, since he's arguing something is RAW and then won't back it up.  Call his lamer ass out on it and see if the other players understand the implication of him thinking he can flagrantly change that which is or is not written at will while claiming it's still RAW.  If he can't back his shit up, he needs to at least admit it's homebrew material, and if he won't do that, he's a tool.  Harsh, but it needs to be said, and nipped in the ass before it becomes a REAL issue, like some stupid reading of a class that completely rapes it to uselessness.

Actually, he's not that bad. He's just ignorant. You know, one of those guys who think that think that psions are overpowered because they do xd6 damage at level y or that ninjas (the class ) are awesome.

He still argues that shapeshift druid dishes out more damage than regular ones, despite having proved him otherwise numerous times.

However, he's still a friend, and i really don't want problems with people, as they usually tend to take matters personally.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

he's probably just confused something with the 3.0 skill rules.


Race sounds like a lesser wispling(ff).  Small size, alter self 1/day... Can't remember rest of details.

[Dictum Mortuum]

he's probably just confused something with the 3.0 skill rules.


Race sounds like a lesser wispling(ff).  Small size, alter self 1/day... Can't remember rest of details.

I hope so. Although we have never actually played 3.0
I don't think that the other guy could dig into a book like fiend folio. The further he is able to go is the complete series The rest of us didn't argue about it because it wasn't outrageous.

At least roleplaying is fun

[mans0011]

Watch out for Shivering Touch, lol...

[cru]

I just want to say that at lvl 1, three attacks instead of one (you and 2 dogs) is really strong. Then there's flanking, tripping, multiple attacks of opportunity, larger pool of hp that heals faster overnight. Also, by simply standing, you're doing battlefield control, blocking 3 squares.

I mean, of course, druids rock. And the DM could have discussed that with you instead of killing the poor dog. But think of the poor rogue!

[johnboy069]

Good stuff as usual Dictuum.

[Dictum Mortuum]

Watch out for Shivering Touch, lol...

Until now, i've never made a reflex roll People have failed to hit my 11 AC more than once ^^

I just want to say that at lvl 1, three attacks instead of one (you and 2 dogs) is really strong. Then there's flanking, tripping, multiple attacks of opportunity, larger pool of hp that heals faster overnight. Also, by simply standing, you're doing battlefield control, blocking 3 squares.

I mean, of course, druids rock. And the DM could have discussed that with you instead of killing the poor dog. But think of the poor rogue!

Yes, it is, especially when killing kobolds. But those 150 gp could well be a barding armor, or something else. Anyway, enough mourning about the damn dog, i'm over it

[Hijax]

Watch out for Shivering Touch, lol...

Until now, i've never made a reflex roll People have failed to hit my 11 AC more than once ^^

I just want to say that at lvl 1, three attacks instead of one (you and 2 dogs) is really strong. Then there's flanking, tripping, multiple attacks of opportunity, larger pool of hp that heals faster overnight. Also, by simply standing, you're doing battlefield control, blocking 3 squares.

I mean, of course, druids rock. And the DM could have discussed that with you instead of killing the poor dog. But think of the poor rogue!

Yes, it is, especially when killing kobolds. But those 150 gp could well be a barding armor, or something else. Anyway, enough mourning about the damn dog, i'm over it

well, if he gets angry at two dogs, it should get funny when you get a fleshraker.