Far away from Dominaria was a fertile and peaceful world that went by the name of Alara. Rich in mana and natural resources, many considered the land to be a utopia. Vast plains, forests, and oceans covered the plane; there was no sign of anything resembling wasteland. That world died out centuries ago, as a massive magical explosion shattered the plane into five distinct sub-planes, cut off from each other. In the process of being cut off from each other, they were also cut off from two types of mana, and thus, cut off from any magic requiring the missing types of mana. Alara had become five separate worlds: Bant, Naya, Jund, Grixis, and Esper.
Bant, being cut off from black and red magic, was a political and natural utopia. Though there was warfare, it was mainly civil, and battles were often settled by throwing their best men at each other in one-on-one arena combat. Angels flew overhead, glorified in the light reflected off of the many sigils the knights carried, as well as their flashy armor that only protected them from frontal and side attacks. After all, who would employ such a dirty tactic like striking from behind?
With its lush plains, deep jungles, and rolling hills, Naya was a land of paradise at first glance. But first impressions can be deceiving: colossal beasts known as Gargantuans roam the land, crushing trees and buildings in their wake. Most beings would fear them. Instead, the elves revered them as gods, even worshipping them. The leonin, the cat warriors of Naya, pretty much ignored them. The humans revered the beasts to a lesser extent, but they have also harnessed the power of some of the lesser Gargantuans. As such, there is dissent between elvish tribes and human settlements due to humans using these beasts for their own benefit.
Jund was a land of survival, cut off from white and blue magic. If Naya was the gentle side of nature, Jund was the savage side. There was no such thing as the long-term here; humans rarely lived longer than thirty-five years. Alliances were short-lived, and were kept between parties only when necessary for survival. After that, the parties were likely never to see each other again. Jund was tectonically unstable; the land was flooded with volcanic activity, and thus, its populations were very nomadic. Additionally, dragon attacks forced settlements to move to a safer location. Jund was a land where survival of the fittest was the law of the land, and humans weren't the fittest; in fact, they were two steps below the top of the food chain. The viashino, the lizard-people, were above humans, and dragons were above them.
As hard as it is to believe, Grixis was far worse off than Jund for life. Being cut off from both green and white magic, the magic of vim and vigor, the place was a dark wasteland covered in thunderclouds. A playground for necromancers and undead, life force, called either vitals or vis, was a precious resource, dwindling every day. About 98% of the population either utilized necromancy or other forms of black magic as a substitute for life, or was undead to begin with. They hunted the other 2% down. The remaining forms of life not only had to avoid this undead army, but also had to cope with the unhealthy environment. Because of the constant cycle of death, the smell of rotting flesh filled the air almost everywhere on the plane. The atmosphere was anything but healthy to breathe. Even after adapting to the environmental conditions, the reality of mortifying creatures hunting one day in and day out would drive any sane person to suicide.
Without red or green magic, the magic of nature, Esper was a technologically advanced world. Nature had been 99% tamed, and many of its remaining forces were controllable. As such, almost of nature's unruly elements were confined to places away from cities. The sky was always starlit and grey, with white grid lines dividing even the clouds. Without nature to interfere, Esper was a world of aesthetic perfection. Back when Alara was one plane instead of five, Palandius, the largest city on Esper, was said to be the most beautiful sight in the world. Every being native to Esper was infused with a magical alloy called Etherium. The degree of infusion was connected to how good of a mage one was. If one was deeply rooted in the arcane, such as a sphinx, large portions of the being's body were infused with the silver-colored metal. If just a beginning mage, the infusion covered just one limb, or even a part of a limb.
Even cut off from two of the five types of magic, each of the five worlds had reached a point of stability. For over a thousand years, the split worlds existed separate from one another, no idea what the others were up to. Shortly after the Sundering of Alara, the five worlds slowly began to drift back toward each other. It took over a thousand years, but the five worlds became one again; this was the event known as the Mending of Alara. Contrary to most what Esperites expected, the reestablishment of Alara's mana bonds was a quiet affair--so quiet that only those deeply rooted in magic or those who lived close to the borders between worlds would know.
Unfortunately, one of those people was Sedris. Shortly after the Sundering, he sold his kingdom and people to archdemons in exchange for becoming a lich. He quickly rose to even greater power, leading Grixis in a spiral of death and destruction. He terrorized the remaining living beings under his dominion, then sucked the vis right out of them when he had his fun. With the supply of vis dwindling, though, he became content to let the forces of chaos lead the people instead. At least he'd get a laugh out of that from time to time.
After the Mending, Sedris had legions of new victims to prey upon. The only others that even knew about it were the sphinxes of Esper, and their people had not seen combat since before the Sundering. The remainder of the world was completely unprepared for the raid. Even if they knew he was coming, Bant had not experienced true war since pre-Sundering times. Nayan elves and humans were preoccupied with Gargantuan affairs, and the denizens of Jund only cared about their immediate survival. If nothing was done, all of Alara would become like Grixis: a desolate, lifeless landscape.
Starting level will be determined by what shard everyone plans to have their character be from (I'll try to get everyone in the game as quickly as possible, but due to the nature of Conflux-era Alara, it may not be possible.) The default is level 3. As far as source books, just don't do anything terribly broken. Flavor over functionality, after all. Either way, everything has to be approved by me. As I don't have too many books on this computer, I'll have to see a lot of detail if you use anything in most expansions. Again, don't use anything too broken, as this is not intended to be a high power campaign. Not until the late game anyway.
Character backstories should be fairly detailed--childhood, how the character was raised, notable accomplishments, etc. If you are an outlander (for instance, an Esper mage in Bant), you'll need to go into detail on how this happened.
As far as races, you're restricted by shard. If there's a race you want to play that's not in this list, it needs to be specially approved.
Bant:
Human (1 bonus feat)
Rhox (Str +2, Con +2, Dex -2, Cha -2)
Aven (+2 Con, +2 Int, Fly 50' average, +2 Search and Sense Motive, +4 Spot/Search, +8 Jump) (LA +1)
Jund:
Human (1 bonus feat)
Goblin (Small size, +2 Dex, -2 Con)
Viashino (See Lizardfolk
Grixis:
Human (living or undead, 1 bonus feat)
Vampire (+2 Str, +2 Cha, added Bite attack - see Monster Manual, undead type - no CON score, +2 natural armor, slam attack, spider climb, turn resistance, blood drain (grapple) - 1d4 con damage, gains 5 temp hit points and fast healing 1 (stacking) for 24 hours on successful attack.) (LA +2)
Esper:
Human (1 bonus feat)
Vedalken (-2 Str, -2 Con, +2 Int, +2 Wis, 1 bonus spell at each spell level character can cast) (LA +1)
Warforged (See me if you want to run one of these.)
---
Psionics = no. Leadership = no.
Emphasis placed on interacting with the world of Alara, not on making crazy powerful characters. Power gamers stay away.
As far as classes, just use what makes sense. For instance, you're not going to find a cleric in Jund or a barbarian in Bant. Pretty much, if you stay within the capabilities of what's in the world, you'll be fine. Again, common sense check.
Wealth will be DMG standard for this game (2700 for level 3), no more than 25% of wealth spent on one item. Experience/levels will be done completely ad lib. If you have an ability that requires you to spend XP to use, please let me look at it.
Equipment, again, use your common sense.
---
Stats:
Roll 7#4d6 drop a d6, drop anything < 10, drop the lowest set. For instance, if your rolls were 16, 14, 14, 17, 12, 11, and 14, your stat block would be [17 16 14 14 14 12].
For hit dice, take a full first hit die, and reroll any 1's for subsequent, non-d4 hit dice.
Top 16 - 2012 Indiana State Championships Currently Playing: GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
I would only re-roll the 9 if I wasn't already dropping it.
my character will likely be a bantian cleric, just so everyone knows.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Top 16 - 2012 Indiana State Championships Currently Playing: GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
I'd like to join in if I could, though I'm a little inexperienced with D&D, so I could use some tips regarding the more technical aspects of the game.
I'm thinking Vedalken Cleric from Esper. Could you create some brief deity profiles for the named sphinxes? If not I could submit a couple for your approval. For domains I'm looking at Metal and Pride, seems like good Esper domains.
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled
2
2
1
1
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled
2
4
4
6
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled
6
5
6
3
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled
2
5
1
1
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled
6
6
5
2
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled
2
4
6
4
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled
2
1
3
3
-
Extra two for the 9 and 6
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled
3
2
3
2
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled
2
5
5
1
-
Oh wait, I forgot to drop a d6, that makes my scores decidedly less awesome.
[12 12 13 14 11 14]
Now, let me see. If we are supposed to be level 3 and Vedalkens have an LA of +1, that means I suppose I'll have 8+1d8 hp off to bat.
As far as classes, just use what makes sense. For instance, you're not going to find a cleric in Jund or a barbarian in Bant. Pretty much, if you stay within the capabilities of what's in the world, you'll be fine. Again, common sense check.
Depends on the cleric, to be honest. Not a traditional healing-magic-one. A fanatical chaotic evil rabble-rouser/bloodlust inducer, why not?
Roll 7#4d6 drop a d6, drop anything < 10, drop the lowest set. For instance, if your rolls were 16, 14, 14, 17, 12, 11, and 14, your stat block would be [17 16 14 14 14 12].
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled
2
3
6
6
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled
1
1
3
6
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled
3
2
6
4
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled
6
6
6
4
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled
4
2
6
5
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled
5
4
4
1
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled
4
4
6
6
9, 16, 6, 10, 15, 15, 11
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled
4
3
6
3
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled
6
5
2
2
16, 15, 15, 13, 11, 10, 10
----------
My character concept is a LN Warforged Incarnate from Esper. Incarnates normally use power of their souls to shape items out of it to give them benefits. This could be reworked to work with etherium in a body of a warforged without changing any mechanics and seems like a really flavourful for Esper. Etherium-Magic, if you will. I am not yet sure if I will multiclass, but probably not. If I do, it's probably to wizard or rogue.
The Sage is occupied with the unspoken
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
@Amadi: Sorry, but I wanted a maximum of 5 players. Hold on to your sheet though, if someone drops I'll let you in.
Oh, okay. I just counted three people had posted and noticed there were 4 guys listed as signed up in the OP. I didn't think that one of the posters wasn't there yet.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Sage is occupied with the unspoken
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
I'm still stuck on my character's gear, everything else is taken care of (the backstory is something I'd have to post here but we know it's not a problem)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Top 16 - 2012 Indiana State Championships Currently Playing: GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
I'm finishing up the BG and the items but I'll be at the 5K tomorrow.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Top 16 - 2012 Indiana State Championships Currently Playing: GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
Sorry for hold you guys back. I'll have my character in by Monday night at the latest. For the record, I'll be playing a Human Esper Rogue. I'll at least roll my stats now...actually I lied. Apparently what I thought you'd put in a dice tag isn't what you do. What goes in a tag for the quantity of dice and the number of sides?
Auron, type in ["Dice=4"]6["/Dice"] seven times, without the quotation marks.
I'm going to get mine done tonight. I feel a little odd next to people who seem to be far more experienced than I. I'm used to not starting out with anything but mundane equipment. Not even anything masterwork, let alone a masterwork shadow-damage scimitar!
As this is the first campaign I've run online, this will be a learning experience for both myself and my players. I'm looking for 5 players total.
Current players:
silence_dais (Esper sword-mage)
Halinn (Bant druid)
SirAuron25 (Esper rogue)
Charm_Master3125 (Bant cleric)
Alabran (Esper cleric)
---
Backstory:
Bant, being cut off from black and red magic, was a political and natural utopia. Though there was warfare, it was mainly civil, and battles were often settled by throwing their best men at each other in one-on-one arena combat. Angels flew overhead, glorified in the light reflected off of the many sigils the knights carried, as well as their flashy armor that only protected them from frontal and side attacks. After all, who would employ such a dirty tactic like striking from behind?
With its lush plains, deep jungles, and rolling hills, Naya was a land of paradise at first glance. But first impressions can be deceiving: colossal beasts known as Gargantuans roam the land, crushing trees and buildings in their wake. Most beings would fear them. Instead, the elves revered them as gods, even worshipping them. The leonin, the cat warriors of Naya, pretty much ignored them. The humans revered the beasts to a lesser extent, but they have also harnessed the power of some of the lesser Gargantuans. As such, there is dissent between elvish tribes and human settlements due to humans using these beasts for their own benefit.
Jund was a land of survival, cut off from white and blue magic. If Naya was the gentle side of nature, Jund was the savage side. There was no such thing as the long-term here; humans rarely lived longer than thirty-five years. Alliances were short-lived, and were kept between parties only when necessary for survival. After that, the parties were likely never to see each other again. Jund was tectonically unstable; the land was flooded with volcanic activity, and thus, its populations were very nomadic. Additionally, dragon attacks forced settlements to move to a safer location. Jund was a land where survival of the fittest was the law of the land, and humans weren't the fittest; in fact, they were two steps below the top of the food chain. The viashino, the lizard-people, were above humans, and dragons were above them.
As hard as it is to believe, Grixis was far worse off than Jund for life. Being cut off from both green and white magic, the magic of vim and vigor, the place was a dark wasteland covered in thunderclouds. A playground for necromancers and undead, life force, called either vitals or vis, was a precious resource, dwindling every day. About 98% of the population either utilized necromancy or other forms of black magic as a substitute for life, or was undead to begin with. They hunted the other 2% down. The remaining forms of life not only had to avoid this undead army, but also had to cope with the unhealthy environment. Because of the constant cycle of death, the smell of rotting flesh filled the air almost everywhere on the plane. The atmosphere was anything but healthy to breathe. Even after adapting to the environmental conditions, the reality of mortifying creatures hunting one day in and day out would drive any sane person to suicide.
Without red or green magic, the magic of nature, Esper was a technologically advanced world. Nature had been 99% tamed, and many of its remaining forces were controllable. As such, almost of nature's unruly elements were confined to places away from cities. The sky was always starlit and grey, with white grid lines dividing even the clouds. Without nature to interfere, Esper was a world of aesthetic perfection. Back when Alara was one plane instead of five, Palandius, the largest city on Esper, was said to be the most beautiful sight in the world. Every being native to Esper was infused with a magical alloy called Etherium. The degree of infusion was connected to how good of a mage one was. If one was deeply rooted in the arcane, such as a sphinx, large portions of the being's body were infused with the silver-colored metal. If just a beginning mage, the infusion covered just one limb, or even a part of a limb.
Even cut off from two of the five types of magic, each of the five worlds had reached a point of stability. For over a thousand years, the split worlds existed separate from one another, no idea what the others were up to. Shortly after the Sundering of Alara, the five worlds slowly began to drift back toward each other. It took over a thousand years, but the five worlds became one again; this was the event known as the Mending of Alara. Contrary to most what Esperites expected, the reestablishment of Alara's mana bonds was a quiet affair--so quiet that only those deeply rooted in magic or those who lived close to the borders between worlds would know.
Unfortunately, one of those people was Sedris. Shortly after the Sundering, he sold his kingdom and people to archdemons in exchange for becoming a lich. He quickly rose to even greater power, leading Grixis in a spiral of death and destruction. He terrorized the remaining living beings under his dominion, then sucked the vis right out of them when he had his fun. With the supply of vis dwindling, though, he became content to let the forces of chaos lead the people instead. At least he'd get a laugh out of that from time to time.
After the Mending, Sedris had legions of new victims to prey upon. The only others that even knew about it were the sphinxes of Esper, and their people had not seen combat since before the Sundering. The remainder of the world was completely unprepared for the raid. Even if they knew he was coming, Bant had not experienced true war since pre-Sundering times. Nayan elves and humans were preoccupied with Gargantuan affairs, and the denizens of Jund only cared about their immediate survival. If nothing was done, all of Alara would become like Grixis: a desolate, lifeless landscape.
Starting level will be determined by what shard everyone plans to have their character be from (I'll try to get everyone in the game as quickly as possible, but due to the nature of Conflux-era Alara, it may not be possible.) The default is level 3. As far as source books, just don't do anything terribly broken. Flavor over functionality, after all. Either way, everything has to be approved by me. As I don't have too many books on this computer, I'll have to see a lot of detail if you use anything in most expansions. Again, don't use anything too broken, as this is not intended to be a high power campaign. Not until the late game anyway.
Character backstories should be fairly detailed--childhood, how the character was raised, notable accomplishments, etc. If you are an outlander (for instance, an Esper mage in Bant), you'll need to go into detail on how this happened.
As far as races, you're restricted by shard. If there's a race you want to play that's not in this list, it needs to be specially approved.
Bant:
Human (1 bonus feat)
Rhox (Str +2, Con +2, Dex -2, Cha -2)
Aven (+2 Con, +2 Int, Fly 50' average, +2 Search and Sense Motive, +4 Spot/Search, +8 Jump) (LA +1)
Naya:
Human (1 bonus feat)
Elf (see PHB)
Leonin (Catfolk (3.5e Race)
Jund:
Human (1 bonus feat)
Goblin (Small size, +2 Dex, -2 Con)
Viashino (See Lizardfolk
Grixis:
Human (living or undead, 1 bonus feat)
Vampire (+2 Str, +2 Cha, added Bite attack - see Monster Manual, undead type - no CON score, +2 natural armor, slam attack, spider climb, turn resistance, blood drain (grapple) - 1d4 con damage, gains 5 temp hit points and fast healing 1 (stacking) for 24 hours on successful attack.) (LA +2)
Esper:
Human (1 bonus feat)
Vedalken (-2 Str, -2 Con, +2 Int, +2 Wis, 1 bonus spell at each spell level character can cast) (LA +1)
Warforged (See me if you want to run one of these.)
---
Psionics = no.
Leadership = no.
Emphasis placed on interacting with the world of Alara, not on making crazy powerful characters. Power gamers stay away.
As far as classes, just use what makes sense. For instance, you're not going to find a cleric in Jund or a barbarian in Bant. Pretty much, if you stay within the capabilities of what's in the world, you'll be fine. Again, common sense check.
Wealth will be DMG standard for this game (2700 for level 3), no more than 25% of wealth spent on one item. Experience/levels will be done completely ad lib. If you have an ability that requires you to spend XP to use, please let me look at it.
Equipment, again, use your common sense.
---
Stats:
Roll 7#4d6 drop a d6, drop anything < 10, drop the lowest set. For instance, if your rolls were 16, 14, 14, 17, 12, 11, and 14, your stat block would be [17 16 14 14 14 12].
For hit dice, take a full first hit die, and reroll any 1's for subsequent, non-d4 hit dice.
If I missed anything, let me know.
Emille, Seven-Sting Dancer Shalin Nariya
Looks like 13, 10, 17, 14, 12, and 16. I'll work on my character when I have time.
also HP dice (d8's)
re-rolling the one
and again...
so 6, 6 and 8, plus con bonuses. makes for 26 HP.
Currently Playing:
GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG
RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR
RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
Clan Contest 3 Mafia - Mafia Co-MVP
my character will likely be a bantian cleric, just so everyone knows.
Currently Playing:
GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG
RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR
RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
Clan Contest 3 Mafia - Mafia Co-MVP
I'm thinking Vedalken Cleric from Esper. Could you create some brief deity profiles for the named sphinxes? If not I could submit a couple for your approval. For domains I'm looking at Metal and Pride, seems like good Esper domains.
-
Extra two for the 9 and 6
-
Oh wait, I forgot to drop a d6, that makes my scores decidedly less awesome.
[12 12 13 14 11 14]
Now, let me see. If we are supposed to be level 3 and Vedalkens have an LA of +1, that means I suppose I'll have 8+1d8 hp off to bat.
Which makes my HP 12
Depends on the cleric, to be honest. Not a traditional healing-magic-one. A fanatical chaotic evil rabble-rouser/bloodlust inducer, why not?
9, 16,6, 10, 15, 15, 1116, 15, 15, 13, 11, 10,
10----------
My character concept is a LN Warforged Incarnate from Esper. Incarnates normally use power of their souls to shape items out of it to give them benefits. This could be reworked to work with etherium in a body of a warforged without changing any mechanics and seems like a really flavourful for Esper. Etherium-Magic, if you will. I am not yet sure if I will multiclass, but probably not. If I do, it's probably to wizard or rogue.
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
Emille, Seven-Sting Dancer Shalin Nariya
Oh, okay. I just counted three people had posted and noticed there were 4 guys listed as signed up in the OP. I didn't think that one of the posters wasn't there yet.
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
hit die:
There was once [The Pack], but no more.
Currently Playing:
GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG
RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR
RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
Clan Contest 3 Mafia - Mafia Co-MVP
Ready to start when it is and when everyone else is ready as well.
There was once [The Pack], but no more.
Emille, Seven-Sting Dancer Shalin Nariya
I'm finishing up the BG and the items but I'll be at the 5K tomorrow.
Currently Playing:
GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG
RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR
RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
Clan Contest 3 Mafia - Mafia Co-MVP
I'm going to get mine done tonight. I feel a little odd next to people who seem to be far more experienced than I. I'm used to not starting out with anything but mundane equipment. Not even anything masterwork, let alone a masterwork shadow-damage scimitar!
I believe I'm about set besides my BG: http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=190506
Let me know if I missed anything, or if you need a clarification on anything.
10
13
10
14
11
11
16
Stats: 16/14/13/11/11/10/
10I'll start my sheet tonight, finish it tomorrow, and post it tomorrow night. Again, sorry for the delay.
Rerolling 10s
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled - 3
- 1
- 4
- 2
Total: 10
Dice Roller4 D6s rolled - 5
- 6
- 4
- 4
Total: 19
So my stats are:
17
16
14
13
11
11
EDIT: Wait question: Are we rerolling 10s and less or just less than 10?
Stats fixed.
Looks like you got:
15
12
10
12
10
9
13
Reroll that nine.
EDIT: Alabran approved. Once Auron's character is approved, I'll request this be moved and we can start the actual game.
Emille, Seven-Sting Dancer Shalin Nariya
Rogue: d6
Lv 1: 6
EDIT: My Sheet:
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=192123
RR, can you please pay special attention to my Skills. I'm a bit rusty
Emille, Seven-Sting Dancer Shalin Nariya
Please read what people tell you.
Your stats are wrong.
You do not keep the value 4d6 for your stats.
You drop the lowest d6 of the 4, for each 4d6.
For example, you got 4, 3, 3, and 6 for one of your 4d6s.
The resulting score is NOT 16.
It's 13. (4+6+3)
Both Hallin and I reminded you, and I took the time to total your scores for you.