Scar of sins

[Caledonian Achilles]

The old man, tired and worn, shuffled on his bench at the newcomer. The woman had the dust of a long journey caking her clothing and gear which heralded her adventuring prowess.

"Hail grandfather! I have been on this road since Kingsrest but would like to rest beneath a man-made roof for a change. Can you show me such a place kindly?"

She reached in to her pack to bring out some journeybread which she broke and offered carefully.

Venerable fingers snatched the gift and consumed it eagerly.
"You dont want to stay here," between mouthfuls, was the reply

"Oh? Really?"
Sitting on the ground crosslegged, she produced a silver flask engraved with a majestic symbol. Taking a swig she then offered the canteen to the man.

"There is a darkness here, you'd best be on your way before it catches you! Nothing good will come of it."

The woman played with her hair, loosening it from it's tight bindings as a medallion eased its way from beneath her shirt

"Well, I think you just gave me a reason to extend my sabbatical"

The old man looked at the holy symbol and hope lit the shadows of his heart for first time in decades

[Caledonian Achilles]

System;
FOURTH edition D&D - all sourcebooks except dragon/dungeon magazine
set in Forgotten realms (Gray Vale) but characters can have travelled there from anywhere on Toril

Levels;
Heroic Tier (1-10)
characters start at minimum xp for LEVEL 2 with appropriate gold and gear
ability scores use the standard rules from the PHB pages 17-18 (22 point buy)

Style;
action based story driven campaign

Frequency of posting;
A few times per week, most weeks per month

Alignments;
Lawful Good, Good, (or Unaligned if you can give me an excuse)

Objective;
A source of evil needs to be defeated

Setting;
The world is in its evening. Glorious past empires have been. Everything is in ruins. Now there is only the pockets of civilisation in a dark and dangerous world where monsters run amok.

Summary;
There is a valley which has always been the source of monsters and generally 'bad things'
In the past attempts to defeat or even curtail the dangers have failed.
The heroes (and every player must have a character that falls in to this category - think Star Wars) discover the source of this threat and decide to put an end to it once and for all.

There is a FREE character generator available online from Wizard of the Coast website that has info from PHB, PHB2 and lots of other resources inc Martial Power (extra builds for fighters, warlords, rogues)

IMPORTANT - YOU MUST HAVE .NET FRAMEWORK 3.5 SP1 INSTALLED ON YOUR COMPUTER TO RUN THIS APP. IT TAKES ABOUT 45mins TO DOWNLOAD. I ADVISE DOWNLOADING IT FROM MICRTOSOFT'S WEBSITE FIRST INSTEAD OF ASKING THE CHARACTER BUILDER TO INSTALL IT AS IT WILL JUST CRASH YOUR SYSTEM!

Click HERE to download MS .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (do this first if needed)

Click HERE to Download D&D Character Builder Demo (do this second)
you can email me the character saved file to update and modify your character

It is semi-important that the party has a mixture of combat roles covered. Different classes are suited to different roles;

STRIKER - you deal lots of damage to the enemy
DEFENDER - you can take lots of damage the enemy gives out
LEADER - you augment other party member abilities, inc healing
CONTROLLER - you hinder the enemies abilities

Being the competent DM that I am, you don't need every role filled to have fun. The first 2 are the most important, then Leader then Controller.

The Next Step;
make up a character and send it to me!
feel free to send me emails, PM me for my home email address

[Caledonian Achilles]

Once people have their characters ready the next step would be to have a brainstorming session to explain how the characters know each other (despite what some people might think, actual 4th edition is HEAVY of characterisation and the rules are stacked to allow instead of deny player input)

basically you need
(1) a core motivation for adventuring*
(2) one other PC you have a positive bond or link with**
(3) one other PC you have a negative (!) bond or association with**

you can be from anywhere exotic in forgotten realms

i can give people links to where they can buy *cough* the FR players guide if need be

* for example, you hate all bandits because your village was attacked and killed your brother so you adventure to make the world safer
** you promised the father of another character that you would look out for them
*** another character's flighty ways chaff against your sense of obeying laws (works best if the negative link is related to someone else's positive link)

[Ilya]

Let's give this a shot.
I like the concept of a reincarnating Deva from the Forgotten Realms handbook, so if someone can point me towards the stats for the race, I'd appreciate it. If not, I'll just play a human.

If nobody else wants to play a Leader, I'll take a Warlord. Else, I'll take a Defender Knight.

[Caledonian Achilles]

forgot to say
campaign set in forgotten realms
everyone starts at Level 2
will have 3 magic items (one each from L1, L2 and L3 magic item) at start of play. Pick anything not from dragon/dungeon magazine or related to another campaign setting
and 360 gp which must be used to buy ALL other equipment, even adventuring kits food and toilet paper
(if my daughter has to buy her own babyfood and nappies with her child benefit then so should you)

so glad to have you onboard ilya

[She-Elf]

For anyone lurking and wondering who else is in. Wildfox and I are both in.
Not sure what we're playing yet though. Watch this space!

[She-Elf]

For those not yet in the know, I'm playing a half-elven bard (Leader/Controller) and wildfox is playing a human fighter (Defender).

[Caledonian Achilles]

yay!

[Ilya]

I have a question. We're using Point-buy, right? Is there any mechanical reason I would put any points in Dex or Wis, since none of my class' powers appear to use it, and they won't even contribute to my defenses?

[Caledonian Achilles]

a very good point ilya

defences are based on the higher of paired ability scores

so your
FORT defence uses the higher of either CON or STR
RFLX defence uses the higher of either DEX or INT
WILL defence uses the higher of either WIS or CHA

you should make your primary ability (that your attacks are based on) your highest stat and then usually you might find that your class has a secondary stat that maybe augments your damage. the character class description can be handy here.

i quite happily leave unimportant stats at 8 even with a -1 penalty because the only thing to be affected will be skill checks and you always get 1/2 level added to skills so it doesnt really matter later on in the game

SOME FEATS MAY REQUIRE A CERTAIN STAT OF 13 THOUGH!
max hp = CON score (not modifier!) plus fixed hp from class

so to answer your Q, save your points.

the modern ability score array is;
18, 14, 11, 10, 10, 8

your basic stats are
10,10,10,10,10,8
and 22 points to improve these
current ability score/points to raise by one point=
8-12/1
13-15/2
16/3
17/4

then you get to add your racial modifiers to final ability scores
so most 1st level chars have a score of 20 in their main ability

[Ilya]

Doesn't that imply anyone with neither Int or Wis as their important abilities plays an idiot of Kerzeme's proportions?

[Caledonian Achilles]

yes sir

but if their WIS is awful then they usually have a higher CHA so at least they are charming with it


[edit] plus you can only have one stat ever that has a penalty i.e. score of 8 (every other stat begins with at least 10 and that is 'average')

[Ilya]

Okay!

And that's a little creepy, considering what I think such people would behave like in RL. I'll probably make a primarily int and secondarily str-based Warlord Leader/Striker.

[Caledonian Achilles]

okay, but be prepared to miss a lot when attacking as i believe that most if not all warlord attack powers are STR based and that wont be your primary ability score from what you're saying?

[Ilya]

Let me return to the drawing board for a moment.

How does 18 str, 16 int, 11 cha and 10 in the rest sound?