OOC: Ask Questions and Discuss things here. Roll dice if you want!

Ask Questions and Discuss things here

A few questions:

- What is the premise of our party? Are we a group of House adventurers/special force type of group? Have we been a group for long?

- Subject to suitability to the premise, but would it be possible to create an organization to rival Bregan D'aerthe? Just an idea I’m toying with, since I’ll be playing a rogue.

- I noticed that Corellon Larethian isn’t listed in the Information thread that had info on deities. Are we limited to those 4 listed deities, or is Corellon available?

- Given the slower nature of pbp, will you follow the general guide of having a lot of encounters in a day, or will it be a lot fewer so we can focus on the story as well?

- What does it mean that we can use PHB + DMG + 1 official book? Do we as a group get to decide which extra book we use? Or does each player decide which extra book they want to use for their character?

- Can you elaborate on what you mean that we’re using both 5e and 5.5e? Does it mean that we can use 5e if it hasn’t been updated to 5.5e? Or does it mean that if something is in both versions then we can use whichever one we want?

Well, I asked roughly that and she said mixing and matching the editions was fine. (She was expecting the issues to stem from a 10th level game and not the fact that someone took the Eldritch Adept feat from 2014 to get the Pact of the Blade Invocation from 2024 for example.) My take, based on that, was to use whatever works best.

Ah, yeah I did see that, but I wasn’t clear on it until you gave an example. Makes sense, ok.

You’re members of the family who are powerful enough that the Matron Mother is requesting a meeting with you all. She is forming you into a special group to deal with a powerful threat.
Rogues would be under Lady Emerald and her organization within the family. Emerald’s agents are placed in many of the other Drow houses and spy on them. They also perform any assassinations and other such work. If anyone in the family was even thinking of turning traitor the last thing they would see would be Emerald of one of her agents.
Corellon is available I just didn’t include him because he’s not very powerful in the Underdark.
Focus is on story. Encounters will be quick unless they are against a major npc.
You decide which extra book you want to use for your character.

I'm not that familiar with Yuan-Ti. You intend to have your character be hated on sight, it seems? From all that I've read of drow, I think that could be achieved by any non-drow species :)

Yuan-ti are humanoid so basically just assumed to be a slave or servant of the house. You have enough females in the party that other Drow will assume that the non-Drow in the party are servants to them. Just as long as they keep eyes down and act properly…

That should work. I can still make her Drow if we need it for party role playing reasons but as I'm going with straight 2024 warlock rather than combining it with Sorcerer, Paladin, or whatever, I figure the Yuan-Ti part will make her more survivable as well as less loved. And as a Charisma based character who isn't loved, figured it might make this work to balance the Charisma bonuses.

Seems to be shaping up to be a big party. Out of curiosity, what races/classes have everyone settled on? I went with the Aasimar Bard/Sorcerer.

Hi friends - I’ll be playing Borwald (Bor), a duergar fighter. Was going to multiclass fighter/rogue, but decided for something simpler.

Simple is good.

Yuan-ti Celestial Warlock.

I am assuming even with an arcane focus, for spells with extra expense like Revivify, Scry, Summon Aberration, Greater Restoration, or Summon Celestial, we need to pay the extra expense? That's well over 2000 GP so it matters when I choose spells!

As I recall, yes, the spell focus only covers material components that do not specify a price.

I'm playing a male drow wizard (abjurer).
Edit: named Kalafein Platin

Drow Female Cleric chiming in! Going full Twilight Cleric with this, so she'll be closely attached to the family. I'm thinking of either making her a 5th daughter of the High Matron or the 1st Daughter of the High Priestess. Any suggestions?

My character is gandson to one of the Matron Mother's wives. Not sure how close that makes me to Lady Platin. I suppose that would make your cleric my character's aunt, in a way?

Go ahead and call her Auntie whenever you speak to her. Should spice up the dynamic either with family ties or otherwise.

That is normal but some referees don't require the big ticket costs. Matters a lot because spell choices for Warlocks are a bit limited (the ones for Clerics are a lot more expansive though so I should still be fine no matter what).

Just to clarify something. Quenthel is Matron Mother of House Baenre and not her sister Triel? It's year 1372 or later than that? I understand this isn't strictly canon timeline, but my mid was stuck on how things are at the time of the books, so I just had to correct that line of thinking. I'll not assume anything from now on.

Quenthal was killed by Drizzt in 1358 and resurrected in 1361 her sister Triel ran the house for those years and pretended that Quenthal was still alive. This is 1372 and Lolth has gone silent.

You can purchase any spell components under $1,000. I’ll give the priestesses enough diamonds worth 10k to raise everyone once just in case…

By purchase, I assume get for free as we have only starting money and equipment unless I missed something. If so, no Scrying (1000 GP) but the following spells just came on line for a Celestial Warlock:

Revivify, Greater Restoration, Summon Celestial
Summon Undead, Summon Aberration, Shadow of Moil (if haven't used anything other than race from another book yet)

That is huge, thank you.

Or cousins. I think I'm going to shift towards being the first daughter of the High Priestess, just to add a touch of distance but still keep things close enough to be in the direct family line.

Question for Ysolde: I know that you said any +1 weapon or armor so long as the base item is in the Player's Handbook, but what about other things like a Weapon of Warning or Mithral or Adamantine armor?

Question: A hand crossbow has the Loading property. Let’s say I attack with it once. Then later on in the same round, on some else’s turn, I manage to use my Reaction to attack. In that scenario, am I able to attack, or does the Loading property stop me from being able to attack with it? Just want to make sure before I lock myself in with the weapon selection.

The loading description on p147 specifically says you can use your reaction for it.

The sentence in the 5.5e is just slightly confusing so I just wanted to make sure. Is the purpose of the Loading property just to stop someone with Extra Attack from being able to use it more than once without a feat I guess? Just a bit weird. Might just switch to shortbow anyway.
She answered the armor question in another thread (yes).

That’s exactly it, the Loading property limits you to one attack unless you have Crossbow Expert or some-such that says otherwise. Shortbow’s a good choice.

Yes, the Matron Mother spoils you too much...and besides Scrying has its own issues due to the Underdark Faerzess as does Teleportation...
Unless you're an expert or something then no you can't use the reaction.
Yes to special materials. If you choose something like weapon of warning or the like that would count as a use of a +1

Ruh roh, had missed that. Does Faerzess also affect Arcane Eye in the same way?

(Looks like I will be revising spell list again . . . )

Lovely Platintudes. ;-)

Divination and Conjuration are affected. Arcane eye, as an example, works as stated but, it is not fully invisible and is easier to detect.

You can easily detect areas of high Faerzress by the fact that it is dim lighting Spot DC 5 or a simple DC 5 Arcana check. Though most places within any Drow city will be an area of high concentration.

@grifter: Lady Emerald is there and you may speak with her after the meeting or quietly during if you wish.

Note: The story from the Sigil is not quite Cannon Compliant and it mixes the Sundering with the war of the elven gods and yet who can say what is and is not true of what really happened between the gods...

@Ysolde any response from Emerald to Ryo’fein?

Hadn’t gotten there yet. Allow me to add that.

@brightwill you can post as your character instead of as yourself. Click that dropdown button to select your character.

Combat Rules
For certain combat events, such as this one, instead of the usual round by round dynamic I will present the combat as a challenge with potential penalties and rewards based on your rolls and expenditure of spell slots and the like. This ensures that combat with certain Challenge Rating foes goes quicker, and it represents the fact that such combat, while dangerous for your characters, is not necessarily deadly.

Please let me know if the rules for this combat are unclear.

Thank you!

Technically, since I used Tides of Chaos on the Initiative roll and then cast a leveled sorcerer spell, I should roll on the Wild Magic table.

But since this isn't really a normal combat, and we don't seem to be using Initiative, I'm going to quietly pretend like that Initiative roll never happened, is that cool?

Are we supposed to hit those target numbers through a single round's actions?

It does remind me to add the number of rounds required next time. However, I was also pretty sure your party could, potentially, do at least 200 damage in a round if so inclined and, in this case, a single 1st level spell slot can substitute for the damage

This one is more of an example than one that has true and abiding consequences.

Warlocks have ways of doing damage and I will modify as needed. I’m trying to make sure that combat with forces that generally won’t kill you doesn’t get bogged down.

No worries, it was humor based on someone saying you got spells easily but damage was difficult. More curious about whether Summonings fall under the teleport rule for Faerzress.

No, they do not as long as you are summoning them within eyesight. Summoning to a place via scrying or where you can't see suffers similar difficulties as teleportation and can, potentially, put your summon in a wall...

Good. Does that include using my familiar's sight to see or is that one ok? And, for that matter, is this an area showing signs of Faerzress?

It definitely is. But you can see through your familiar’s eyes.

Any loot from the bodies worth mentioning? If not no worries. :)

Loot: beyond some gold +2 Shortsword, +2 Dagger, +2 Shield

Woohoo!
Bor will snag the +2 shield. Anyone else wanna grab? Bor will carry excess.

I'm good with my starting rapier, so I'll let others have their pick.

I'm pretty well set, for my part

Yeah since they are just weapons and a shield, my character won't go for them.

You get the Shortsword. We still have a +2 Dagger. Bor will carry it until/unless someone else desires it, thx.

Cool, you have the dagger. :)

FYI: The forges are where the weapons and armor sold in the Bazaar and to lower houses are made. Your house has its own smith but most below 12th do not. You can, if you want split into 2s it will be harder but not impossible.

I know my character is not there but I'm curious if I'm reading this correctly.
Is this to say that BOTH Zhindia and Kyrnill have been slain? If so, that's big news.

That's what I read. And I agree.

Mind blown

Ok, enough of that ooc knowledge. It means nothing now!

My apologies for not posting in a week. It would seem time for away from me. I will note that my family and I are beginning the process of moving, but I see no reason why I cannot keep up with this game

No worries.