D&D - Desert of Desolation - Cael of Aglarond

[illumination]

Cael Eadoin
Human Male Ranger 6th
Chaotic Neutral

Human male, 5'9, althetic sinewy build, wearing well made but dusty tan and yellow leather armour, reinforced in places with shards of animal chitin and bone. He has a streetwise demeanour and seems fairly alert, his face is being well weathered for a man of thirty-five winters or so. A half chelsea smile on the left side of his mouth ruins means he couldnt be described as handsome. Along with more standard travelling equipment he wears a weapon belt in which there is both an odd looking black longsword and a nasty looking axe. Overall, he gives the impression of a journeyman warrior or scout who has been about a bit. A camouflaged longbow on his back wrapped in yellow hessian rags and a tattered desert coloured cloak adds further weight to these impressions.



Abilities

STR 14
CON 15
DEX 13
INT 12
WIS 12
CHA 10

In years past Cael was one of the Simbul's rangers in Aglarond battling the Red Wizards but left that cause to become a notorious bandit in Durpar. Having tangled with a mage's guild during a recent raid he has fled into exile, his fellow outlaws now hunted, scattered and annihilated.

Hit Points : 46 [7,2,8,4,5]
Armour Class: 15 - Studded Leather, Dex, Dodge vs 1st Opponent.
Base Attack Bonus: +6/+1 (-2/-2 two wpns, +2/+2 Str bonus)
+7/+2 Sword. Dmg. [1d8+2] Crit 19-20 x2
+7/+2 Axe. Dmg. [1d6+1] Crit 19-20 x3
+6/+1 Bow. Dmg. [1d8+2] Crit 20 x3 Range 110ft

Fortitude Save: +7
Reflex Save: +6
Will Save: +3

Feats

Combat Style, Imp Combat Style, Track (+2 Search Syn), Dodge, Blind-Fight.

Abilities

1st favored enemy, Track, Wild Empathy, Combat style, Endurance, Animal companion, 2nd favored enemy.

Favoured Enemies

Mages +4
Animals +2

Skills (72)

Appraise 2 3
Climb 2 4
Balance 2 5 (+2 Tumble)
Bluff 2 2
Diplomacy 2 4 (+2 Sense Motive)
Gather Information 1 2
Handle Animal 5 5
Heal 2 2
Hide 6 7
Jump 1 4 (+2 Tumble)
Tumble 6 7
Knowledge Nature 4 5
Knowledge Dungeoneering 1 2
Move Silently 6 7
Ride 1 4 (+2 Handle Animal)
Spot 5 6
Listen 5 6
Search 5 6
Survival 5 6 (+2 Tracking for Search)
Sense Motive 5 6
Spellcraft 3 4
Swim 1 3

Languages

Common (Damaran), Elven

Age: 34
Height: 5'9
Weight: 82 Kg

Spells

Hide from animals
Pass without trace

Equipment

MW Studded Leather Armour
MW Cold Iron Longsword
Keen Handaxe
Composite Longbow (STR +2)
Quiver w/20 Normal Arrows
3x Sleep Arrows. Non-Lethal Dmg, Will DC11 or Sleep.
Dagger
Torches (3)
Leather Bag w / travelling supplies : Limited cold weather kit, Waterskins, Flint&Steel, Chalk, String, Etc Etc....
Tatty Clothing

Animal Companion
Modifiers: +2AC +2HD +1STR+1DEX +2Tricks, Link, Evasion

[^^Truth]

So. A mage killer from Aglarond. Interesting

[Tromador]

I presume you are taking the 'two weapon' combat style and not the 'ranged' combat style (You must pick one and specify).

This gives you the effective Two Weapon Fighting feat for free if when wearing light, or no armour only.

Your normal single hand attack is +8/+3 (adjusted for strength)

When dual wielding you gain 1 extra attack, with a severe penalty, mitigated by two-weapon fighting to a base -4 on all attacks so:

+4/-1 main hand & +4 off hand.

Improved 2-weapon fighting gives a second off hand attack at -5 so:

+4/-1 main & +4/-1 off hand

You may finally mitigate the penalties further by using a LIGHT weapon in the offhand, reducing the penalty by 2 points so

+6/+1 main & +6/+1 off hand.

Basically your calculation is correct, but you must wear no more than light armour and use a light weapon in the off hand for those bonuses to apply.

[Tromador]

Can you define what you mean by mages? I can imagine many definitions, some of which I am fine with, some of which would be right out.

[^^Truth]

STR bonus is half for the offhand weapon. Just saying.

[Tromador]

Yes - for DAMAGE rolls only.

Damage rolls when using a melee weapon or a thrown weapon (including a sling). (Exceptions: Off-hand attacks receive only one-half the character’s Strength bonus, while two-handed attacks receive one and a half times the Strength bonus. A Strength penalty, but not a bonus, applies to attacks made with a bow that is not a composite bow.)

[illumination]

holy moly boys i think you must have missed the bit where i said incomplete at the end. when its finished ill get back to you on these points, if they even still apply.

[illumination]

ok. go mental, im more of less sorted still possible ill fiddle with it but unlikely.

on the BG clash with a thayan, well not a major issue IMO, its all past history really. but nothin wrong with a bit of spice in the mix anyway eh.

[Tromador]

Happy enough to go with the rule of >25% wizard/sorceror levels, including any wiz/sor based prestige class (unlikely to come up for NPCs but anyway).

Additionally, Cael has to know the target is a mage in order to gain the bonus. Random strangers are just normal people until he has reason to think otherwise.

I don't think there's an irreconcileable BG clash here. In fact, both characters may well have the hump with red wizards and have somewhat common ground.

[illumination]

sound, fair enough.

[^^Truth]

Nice ninja edit, Trom

PC looks like shit, needs more badgers.

I know it doesn't really matter, cos this is more a mini-campaign than anything, but having a favoured enemy that takes up roughly 25% of the entire population of the multiverse is a bit broken, no?

I mean, Mike complained when I took undead, which is legit ffs.

Anyhow.

Needs more badgers.

[^^Truth]

It was a pretty lazy edit to be honest, but the before copy is on the FTP anyway.

[illumination]

25% of the multiverse are mages? lol.

the pic's sound though so whatever drugs your on havent effected your artistic abilities. =D

cheers anyway.

[^^Truth]

Well.

Warriors.
Thieves.
Clerics.
Mages.

So yeah, basically 25% if you look in simple terms.

[Tromador]

I think you're mad.

I remember campaign where I couldn't even get new spells cos mage opponents were so incredibly rare.

Average population of a city - what percentage mages? 25%? Madness. Even in Thay, even in Halruaa! You could take "humans" as favoured enemy and use it more frequently. No. I'm quite satisfied that this will come up infrequently enough.

Probably right about the badgers though.

[^^Truth]

I didn't really count 0 level humans/anything in the running, since they're not combatants or well, anything that matters.

Okay, couple of points then

Does "Mages" include wizards and sorcerers?

If only wizards. What happens if he thinks a sorcerer is a wizard OR what happens if a wizard states that he's a sorcerer?

Why is the PC better at bluffing wizards than anyone else? (makes sense with racists).

What if a wizard (sorcerer?) continously denies that he's a mage, does he get the bonus then?

What if he says "Well, I think he's a wizard, so I should get +2 spot checks"?

What happens when someone takes a favoured enemy fighters, clerics, thieves and wizards all on the same PC?

Just picking points. Happy New Year!

[Tromador]

ok well, how many of the average orc tribe are wizards and/or sorcerers?

and yes, I include sorcerers.

And actually, I can't be arsed arguing the toss over this. For the purpose of this campaign in the DoD, it will be fine. If in doubt, DM will rule if Cael does or does not 'know' the target is a mage.

[^^Truth]

Baah. Take more bait

Like I said. I don't really care, lol. But in seriousness, there are some points to consider, just bringing them up, I'm sure it'll be easier to rule on the spur.

[illumination]

oh dear we're still going.

I might have to state the obvious a bit here so apologies in advance of that,

Firstly, not all ranger enemy choices are of equal value. Seeing as you raised the point about Ty in an earlier campaign, the issue we had was when you wanted humans as your favoured enemy, not undead at all. Ty got undead as favoured enemy, its perfectly fine. I wonder is this why its a big deal for you. Dunno, but 'humans' is broken to hell without any doubt and you were up for it for your own character. Just throwing that out there.

Secondly, what we're not doing is opening up all the classes to this kind of choice, 'Warriors' for example would not work. There are too many of them. And besides, whats the justification. In this case, its a ranger who has had a lot of experience fighting mages, therefore I asked if could it be done. If the answer was no, it wouldnt have been a problem.

So, to try and offer a bit of guidance on how you can judge things like this sensibly... Ask two questions when there are unusual requests. One, is there a good reason for the choice considering the characters history? and two, is this new enemy so numerous that it covers too many encounters.

As to how a class enemy works out in practice, the DM decides on a case by case basis. Just like if your favoured enemy was a monsterous humanoid and you were talking to a doppleganger. For the purposes of extending an argument needlessly you can pick holes in loads of the favoured enemies and come up with situations where it could be debated. The answer, DM's call. In this instance the DM has made a call and we're into two pages of complaining about it. I think your struggling if your saying I dont care about it but ive made 5 posts on the matter.

On a side note, and what actually might be a conversation that goes somewhere im struggling to work out what the 2nd favoured enemy for this fella might be, given the background. Gone for Animals as he's been a ranger in the wilderness type choice but wonder if there is anything more appropriate. Outsider (Fire)???

Also, do we need to tidy up any house rules before kick off, I guess thats for another thread mind.

[^^Truth]

Thayians use a lot of goblinoid slaves in their armies. Goblins, Gnolls, Orcs.

[illumination]

Edited. CHA and WIS swapped due to popular demand.

I think ive worked out how to cope with these spells now...

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