One of the ways I'm looking forward to using this here blog is to record the sessions of my Godlands D&D game. We've had three so far, my five players and I, and hope to continue every Sunday or so. The game is Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 with some significant modifications, and we started at level 5. It's a very high-powered game, so we went with 36 point buy, two flaws, and a feat every other level instead of every third. Considering that they'll start gaining (modified) Divine Ranks pretty soon, a few ability points one way or the other seems pretty tame.
Dramatis Personae
Hunts The Skies is a half-orc sky pirate from an orc tribe exiled to a desert island. He hijacked a ship and used it to start a pirate crew, with which he intends to someday kill Revenge And Hatred.
(half-Orc Barbarian [using Desert Orc from Unearthed Arcana], moving toward Dread Pirate with a heavy focus on Intimidate)
Pursues Justice is a human warrior born on an island enslaved by Hateful War. Smuggled out of the country as a child, he has trained himself to someday free the island and overthrow the dark god.
(Warblade; dual-wields kukris, emphasizes Tiger Claw; goes for crits.)
Burning One was a musician who died in a fire. Resurrected as a ghost, he wants to destroy the current power structure and give freedom to all people.
(Beguiler moving to Mindbender, race is a modification of the Ghostwalk ghosts; took the Ghost Ride possession feat chain)
"It" is the only name given by the shifter. Blessed with an incredibly strong connection to nature and the elements and given greater power by All Things Green And Growing, he seeks to remake the world as he believes it should be and kill the god who granted him his powers.
(Shifter Spirit Shaman, possibly heading to Moonspeaker, with a very heavy emphasis on summoning; rides a bear)
Millard Aetherborn is short for a gnome. Extremely sensitive about his height and extremely gifted with fire magic, everybody who makes fun of him ends up dying in a (not at all) mysterious explosion. Caught in one of his own blasts, he was resurrected by Death And Magic to continue his revenge in exchange for eternal servitude. Now he seeks to escape his oath (and he wouldn't be unhappy if the goddess died along the way).
(Gnome Wizard, likes blasting things with fire) (Note: Millard does not show up until the third session.)
Session Summary!
Before the beginning of the game, the backstories of Hunts the Skies, Pursues Justice, and It intertwine when the latter two join the former's crew. Justice convinces them to travel to his homeland, a small island covered with grey clouds. Since his absence, a man calling himself The King Of All Creation has risen to power and renamed the island Where The King Rules. He is a petty tyrant without any great power, so he isn't worth Hateful War's attention when he breaks away. Still, Pursues Justice needs him dead to free his land, so they set off to overthrow him.
When their ship breaks the cloud cover, they're shot down by a lightning cannon and crash-land near a small village. The players survive, but the rest of the crew goes up in flames, and the survivors are attacked by a column of twenty soldiers. The pirates start tearing their enemies apart several at a time, but the four soldiers in the back row are acting very strangely (casting spells, singing songs, and eventually attacking their own allies). Thanks to brutal swordplay from Hunts and Pursues, a well-placed Thoqqua from It, and the help of the four soldiers who are killing their allies for some reason, the pirates are successful. Hunts The Skies ritualistically removes the eyes from all of his kills, and knocks out the last soldier instead of killing him.
As the people of the village, hearing the noise of battle die down, peek tentatively from their homes, the four soldiers explain (in garbled unison) that they are, in fact, a ghost named Burning One, who possessed the soldiers to hitch a ride. Hearing that they are on the island to overthrow its tyrant king, he decides to join them.
The party (pirate party) meets the leader of the village, a priest named Speaks With Gods. When Speaks realizes their purpose on the island, he reveals that he is a member of the resistance against The King Of All Creation and that he can help them to reach their goal. He tells all the people of the village to stop worshiping the king and instead worship their saviors. There is much rejoicing.
Speaks With Gods says that the king is too powerful to kill with all the worship of the island behind him and that they should travel to each village to cut off his powerbase and take the worship for themselves. The party agrees, but has some things to take care of before they head off in his carriage.
Burning's four soldiers are tied up and he leaves their bodies (he "dispossesses" them maybe?). Hunts intimidates their five captives into friendliness and begins interrogating them. He renames the man he knocked out "Cries Deeply" and presses him into servitude. Two of the soldiers they tied up are originally from the next village on their stop, so the party unties them and takes them along for the ride.
They get on Speaks' carriage and the session ends.
Observations
First session in a new game is always a little rocky. This is my normal playgroup, but everybody's trying something new and different. Notably, this is an extremely high-powered game, and allowing faster feat progression and flaws means that everybody has a solid chuck of feats at level 5 (potentially 6 feats). The biggest challenge for me this game, consequently, is finding a big enough challenge for them (more on this at the end of the third session, when I have some occasion to consider boss fights).
The party has really powerful single-target damage in Hunts and Pursues, really powerful crowd control (especially single-target) in It, Hunts, and Burning, and an overall excellent ability to hew through their targets quickly and efficiently, taking very little in return. Once they get truly powerful and the prestige class abilities and high-level spells start rolling in, I'm going to need to make sure enemies don't play by their rules, because the players are very good at what they do.
As for individual characters:
Hunts is a powerhouse. His intimidate check is +25 at this level and will only increase, so he can very easily shift a single enemy from neutral to running in fear. He also hits like a truck. He's got the most dominant personality in the group (in character; he's only slightly more boisterous than the rest of them in real life) and will definitely always be in the front lines. Need to watch for him dominating the group and the spotlight.
Pursues has a lot of depth he hasn't yet explored, and he's also fairly level- and item-reliant (once he gets Keen kukris, his effectiveness will shoot up). At the moment, he's very good at running into the fray and mincing his enemies, but if he misses a hit (likely while dual-wielding and power-attacking, both of which are necessary for his damage), he loses a lot of his power. Fairly quiet in-character. Need to give him more places to shine, but he'll be a little on the weak side (relatively) until he gets some upgrades.
Burning is weird. He's a beguiler, which is always odd because it works at cross-purposes to a standard adventuring party (excellent at avoiding fights, which isn't good for the, say, fighter), and his feats have made him even less combat-able. Very very effective out-of-combat, possession is incredibly useful and versatile. Character motivations are a little vague, need to help him define them, and need to give him combat opportunities.
It is the epitome of what I said about about enemies playing by his rules. If he's allowed to sit in the back pumping out summons, he can get very scary and dominate the battlefield. Choosing from the druid spell list, he also has really high utility (second only to the wizard). Once he discovers packs of trip-happy wolves in the third session, he becomes combat-defining (though his damage is fairly low, especially against high AC enemies). Need to have enemies that don't let him sit still summoning, or who can take care of summons en masse to keep him from clogging the battlefield. Still finding his feet out-of-combat, playing a fairly inward-pointing character. Need to find ways to bring It out of his shell.
The game looks good overall. The goal of the game is to kill the gods and become the new rulers of the world, and these personalities are certainly strong enough for it.
More to come.
Dramatis Personae
Hunts The Skies is a half-orc sky pirate from an orc tribe exiled to a desert island. He hijacked a ship and used it to start a pirate crew, with which he intends to someday kill Revenge And Hatred.
(half-Orc Barbarian [using Desert Orc from Unearthed Arcana], moving toward Dread Pirate with a heavy focus on Intimidate)
Pursues Justice is a human warrior born on an island enslaved by Hateful War. Smuggled out of the country as a child, he has trained himself to someday free the island and overthrow the dark god.
(Warblade; dual-wields kukris, emphasizes Tiger Claw; goes for crits.)
Burning One was a musician who died in a fire. Resurrected as a ghost, he wants to destroy the current power structure and give freedom to all people.
(Beguiler moving to Mindbender, race is a modification of the Ghostwalk ghosts; took the Ghost Ride possession feat chain)
"It" is the only name given by the shifter. Blessed with an incredibly strong connection to nature and the elements and given greater power by All Things Green And Growing, he seeks to remake the world as he believes it should be and kill the god who granted him his powers.
(Shifter Spirit Shaman, possibly heading to Moonspeaker, with a very heavy emphasis on summoning; rides a bear)
Millard Aetherborn is short for a gnome. Extremely sensitive about his height and extremely gifted with fire magic, everybody who makes fun of him ends up dying in a (not at all) mysterious explosion. Caught in one of his own blasts, he was resurrected by Death And Magic to continue his revenge in exchange for eternal servitude. Now he seeks to escape his oath (and he wouldn't be unhappy if the goddess died along the way).
(Gnome Wizard, likes blasting things with fire) (Note: Millard does not show up until the third session.)
Session Summary!
Before the beginning of the game, the backstories of Hunts the Skies, Pursues Justice, and It intertwine when the latter two join the former's crew. Justice convinces them to travel to his homeland, a small island covered with grey clouds. Since his absence, a man calling himself The King Of All Creation has risen to power and renamed the island Where The King Rules. He is a petty tyrant without any great power, so he isn't worth Hateful War's attention when he breaks away. Still, Pursues Justice needs him dead to free his land, so they set off to overthrow him.
When their ship breaks the cloud cover, they're shot down by a lightning cannon and crash-land near a small village. The players survive, but the rest of the crew goes up in flames, and the survivors are attacked by a column of twenty soldiers. The pirates start tearing their enemies apart several at a time, but the four soldiers in the back row are acting very strangely (casting spells, singing songs, and eventually attacking their own allies). Thanks to brutal swordplay from Hunts and Pursues, a well-placed Thoqqua from It, and the help of the four soldiers who are killing their allies for some reason, the pirates are successful. Hunts The Skies ritualistically removes the eyes from all of his kills, and knocks out the last soldier instead of killing him.
As the people of the village, hearing the noise of battle die down, peek tentatively from their homes, the four soldiers explain (in garbled unison) that they are, in fact, a ghost named Burning One, who possessed the soldiers to hitch a ride. Hearing that they are on the island to overthrow its tyrant king, he decides to join them.
The party (pirate party) meets the leader of the village, a priest named Speaks With Gods. When Speaks realizes their purpose on the island, he reveals that he is a member of the resistance against The King Of All Creation and that he can help them to reach their goal. He tells all the people of the village to stop worshiping the king and instead worship their saviors. There is much rejoicing.
Speaks With Gods says that the king is too powerful to kill with all the worship of the island behind him and that they should travel to each village to cut off his powerbase and take the worship for themselves. The party agrees, but has some things to take care of before they head off in his carriage.
Burning's four soldiers are tied up and he leaves their bodies (he "dispossesses" them maybe?). Hunts intimidates their five captives into friendliness and begins interrogating them. He renames the man he knocked out "Cries Deeply" and presses him into servitude. Two of the soldiers they tied up are originally from the next village on their stop, so the party unties them and takes them along for the ride.
They get on Speaks' carriage and the session ends.
Observations
First session in a new game is always a little rocky. This is my normal playgroup, but everybody's trying something new and different. Notably, this is an extremely high-powered game, and allowing faster feat progression and flaws means that everybody has a solid chuck of feats at level 5 (potentially 6 feats). The biggest challenge for me this game, consequently, is finding a big enough challenge for them (more on this at the end of the third session, when I have some occasion to consider boss fights).
The party has really powerful single-target damage in Hunts and Pursues, really powerful crowd control (especially single-target) in It, Hunts, and Burning, and an overall excellent ability to hew through their targets quickly and efficiently, taking very little in return. Once they get truly powerful and the prestige class abilities and high-level spells start rolling in, I'm going to need to make sure enemies don't play by their rules, because the players are very good at what they do.
As for individual characters:
Hunts is a powerhouse. His intimidate check is +25 at this level and will only increase, so he can very easily shift a single enemy from neutral to running in fear. He also hits like a truck. He's got the most dominant personality in the group (in character; he's only slightly more boisterous than the rest of them in real life) and will definitely always be in the front lines. Need to watch for him dominating the group and the spotlight.
Pursues has a lot of depth he hasn't yet explored, and he's also fairly level- and item-reliant (once he gets Keen kukris, his effectiveness will shoot up). At the moment, he's very good at running into the fray and mincing his enemies, but if he misses a hit (likely while dual-wielding and power-attacking, both of which are necessary for his damage), he loses a lot of his power. Fairly quiet in-character. Need to give him more places to shine, but he'll be a little on the weak side (relatively) until he gets some upgrades.
Burning is weird. He's a beguiler, which is always odd because it works at cross-purposes to a standard adventuring party (excellent at avoiding fights, which isn't good for the, say, fighter), and his feats have made him even less combat-able. Very very effective out-of-combat, possession is incredibly useful and versatile. Character motivations are a little vague, need to help him define them, and need to give him combat opportunities.
It is the epitome of what I said about about enemies playing by his rules. If he's allowed to sit in the back pumping out summons, he can get very scary and dominate the battlefield. Choosing from the druid spell list, he also has really high utility (second only to the wizard). Once he discovers packs of trip-happy wolves in the third session, he becomes combat-defining (though his damage is fairly low, especially against high AC enemies). Need to have enemies that don't let him sit still summoning, or who can take care of summons en masse to keep him from clogging the battlefield. Still finding his feet out-of-combat, playing a fairly inward-pointing character. Need to find ways to bring It out of his shell.
The game looks good overall. The goal of the game is to kill the gods and become the new rulers of the world, and these personalities are certainly strong enough for it.
More to come.
-Charlie
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