Sure, I don't see why not... I'm going to consider the cost of tabbacco or whatever negligible unless you plan on buying magic herbs for the pipe, status effects and the what not.
So your
Hp is now 14,
You now get +6 fortitude save/ +2 Reflex save/ +1 Will save
For your axe I'm assuming you mean Battle axe (corrct me if I'm wrong), you get a +5 to attack rolls and you do 1d8+3 damage
Your AC is 18 = 10 + 4 (scale mail) + 2 (heavy wooden shield) + dexterity bonus.
Alright, I think that about settles up everything. Each one of you reside in different locations for the beginning of this game, none of you have any knowledge of each other, or know about other people having the same dream as you. I'm going to set up a rough introduction for your characters, if you have a different sort of backstory feel free to discuss it, although I might alter it to fit with the campaign setting.
Dash the Ranger "Your story begins in the forest of Blackoak, you have been living a life of relative freedom in this small domain. You have become one with this forest and have spent most of your life here, even going as far as to develop a crude hut in some of the old trees in the area. But lately your simple lifestyle is being threatened. The animals which once only knew the dying laws of nature have slowly been transforming into a more malicious versions of themselves, the trees are becoming sick with a blight of raw evil and some gnollish slavemasters are now starting to harvest part of the forest in order to make raw lumber to be shipped off to their growing cities. Worst of all, you find yourself becoming increasingly bored with your small and now ever shrinking forest, and you find less and less to like about it as every day passes..."
What will you do? In your case you might, try and discover what is killing the trees of Blackoak and mutating the animals, you could try stopping the gnollish slavemasters, you could search for a new forest home... Then again there is that reoccurring dream with the man beckoning you to go to Mootschmidt...
Khannon Radiat "You don't remember much of your childhood, you have only known rigorous yet calm life in the Dorwick monastery. You were grateful for having the privilege of growing up in a safe environment where a sturdy stone wall separated the monastery from the cruel outside world. You were only trained in unarmed combat for the purpose of self defence and to discipline the mind. You rarely left, only going to sell the fine crafts made by the fellow initiates in the temple and to purchase the odd supplies of grain at the small hamlet of Shadowvale. It was on returning from one such occasion you came back to the monastery only to find the gate smashed in and to find everyone you could visibly see slaughtered. Why? Who? What? A million thoughts come rushing to your mind..."
The real question however is, what do you do now? Do you search the monastery for clues of what has occurred? Do you go do to warn the authorities at Shadowvale of a possible attack? or do you take it as a sign to move on... perhaps there was something to that dream you had?
kasnig "Your childhood is a scant memory, any time you try to remember what happened you either stare at a wall only drawing blanks, or worse off you remember terrible fragments of your past. These pieces to the puzzle are never the same they're always the dreadful embellishments created from the trauma you suffered a long time ago. The only parts that seem to be re-occuring and consistent are that you were very young, your mother hid you, something or someone came, they killed her and your father, possibly ate them, and you had to stay quiet until they left... You made a vow to find the truth about your past, to get vengeance and to never let that tragedy repeat itself. For 20 years you raised yourself by working for local workers in the town of Shadowvale, and in your spare time honed your battle skills and tried to discover yourself... But you grow impatient, you want answers, you want justice... and worst of all you are no longer recalling your past, now your head is filled with the visages of disembodied wizards pleading for you to undertake their quests...
The world is yours to discover... You can try investigating the incident from 20 years ago, you can try and seek a magical answer to your solutions, but finding a mage or magic item is costly and even more so to be able to get it's services... maybe you need to do some mercenary work? Maybe Mootschmidt holds the answers to your questions...
These are just suggested beginnings, I realize I've taken a lot of liberty and control of your character's backstories for this one. So feel free to rewrite it however you see fit. Also, just so there is a fair amount of events, I might not respond right away to every thing you want to do all at once. For example if you go to a tavern, we can play out the entire tavern scenario... but I can't let a player explore a city, visit a tavern, sleep an entire day and discover an ancient ruin, while a less frequent posting player has only gotten to talk to one guy named Joe.
I would probably have taken the time to search for clues, and after anything significant was found (something to give me a lead somewhere else, maybe that could have been the basic map case I have in my inventory or something, an easy tie in no less), I would have gathered the bodies and performed a basic but respectful funeral (last prayers, last rites, and mass cremation including sentimental possessions they had like a signature weapon or family/monastery heirloom, etc).
I will say that in part of your background, at the end you mention "That dream I had" but nowhere else is there mention of a dream. So not sure what that is, just thought I'd let you know.
Listen up maggots, Mr. Popo's 'bout to teach you the pecking order.
It goes you, the dirt, the worms inside of the dirt, Popo's stool, Kami, then Popo.
~Mr. Popo, Dragonball Z Abridged
I would probably have taken the time to search for clues, and after anything significant was found (something to give me a lead somewhere else, maybe that could have been the basic map case I have in my inventory or something, an easy tie in no less), I would have gathered the bodies and performed a basic but respectful funeral (last prayers, last rites, and mass cremation including sentimental possessions they had like a signature weapon or family/monastery heirloom, etc).
I will say that in part of your background, at the end you mention "That dream I had" but nowhere else is there mention of a dream. So not sure what that is, just thought I'd let you know.
Sorry the dream I mentioned was part of the background I posted on the last page...
"But for the past 3 weeks your attempts to sleep have been in vain. Every time you close your eyes to rest a blurred cascade of images and foul landscapes clouds your vision. A sense of deja vu comes over you as a shrouded face of a withered old man comes into your mind. 'Heed my call mortal, I am Melkior of the third circle, you are the chosen one. Embrace your destiny, go to the town of Mootschmidt..."
You've been having this dream for awhile even before the monastery ransacking.
While searching the ruins of the monastary and gathering the bodies for the funeral pyre you make your way to the library. Of all the rooms this one was pillaged the worst, the bookshelves have been toppled over and you and a secret passage that had been hidden behind one of the bookshelves is now visible. You make a note to definitely investigate this further after the funeral.
You reach your master's quarters... and your heart sinks, in the monastery's inner sanctum you find it defiled... The body of your master was disembodied, is torso lay in the centre of a crude magic circle made of blood , his head and limbs are severed away and placed in areas around the circle. At the moment the purpose of such a magic ritual eludes you. Also in the room are two other monks, Michael and Donovock, who died in a brutal but less ritualistic manner. Finally you notice the holy relic of the temple, the "bell of plenty" (the true name is in halfling, and this is a crude translation) has gone missing.
You continue to gather the bodies of your fallen brethren, when you notice that one of them M'Kael the Dworg... Dworgs are half-orc half-dwarves who are shunned by both parents in society... is missing from the body count. He may have escaped.
You light the funeral pyre and plan your next course of action.
To Kasnig
"Out in the horizon, you can see the huge pillar of smoke arising from the monastery in the northern cliff-face. You have never been there but you do know a little about the monks solitary lifestyle and their occasional visits to Shadowvale in which they sell their crafts and wares."
After the funeral, I'll head to mootschmidt, keeping clear of roads and pathways, but not delving too deeply into uncharted territories. It's about all I can do right now.
Listen up maggots, Mr. Popo's 'bout to teach you the pecking order.
It goes you, the dirt, the worms inside of the dirt, Popo's stool, Kami, then Popo.
~Mr. Popo, Dragonball Z Abridged
I've been here too long,seeing the smoke makes me leave,I have to see what
is happening there.
I gather my things,don my armor,full pack on and my axe at my side.
almost forgot my pipe.
Off i set to the smoke, the funny thing people see me but no one asks....
"You walk out of town in your finest wargear, carrying your scant belongings with you. You march out of Shadowvale without the orcish guard making a fuss or stopping you and you proceed towards the Greylock lock mountain pass that leads to the monastary. After walking down the path for roughly an hour you spot an group approaching..."
You can either make a spot check to see who it is and plan your next course of action, you can try and hide off the beaten path or various other things...
Which brings us...
A note about this campaign, Since the age of chaos most of the world is now ruled by the darker more fiendish races. While crossing into eachother's territories is often begrudgingly allowed, they are rarely protected and are occasionally harassed by the dominating group of the territory. Even beings of the same alliance within the territory may be unwelcome or harassed in their own territory.
However their are rules that are ironclad throughout the dark world...
Shadowvale, Blackoak and the monastery are located deep within the "Greenskins" territory.
1.Civilians are required to have a permit to have weapons or armour.
This is a rule that was set up so that civilians remain defenceless against their dark oppressors. As a general rule, pcs with exposed weapons and armour are going to be arrested or killed on sight if they do not produce a permit, and sometimes if the rulers of the territory feel that the person is not important or high ranking and they don't like the race of the person in question they might kill them "by accident".
2.Magic use is punishable by death unless, given permission by the authorities.
Only a few spell casters are given permission to use magic. These people specifically work for the authorities and dark powers. There are actually a group of powerful mages who work for The Forgotten specifically who are allowed to use magic and call themselves the "Inquisition" they hunt down mages, druids and any other spell casters and kill them. The "Inquisition" do not have a set domain and freely roam the territories, they are feared by everyone and their rule and decree can over ride any law they wish.
3.Magic items are to be confiscated.
Magic items in this day and age are rare, (however in this campaign setting they are extremely powerful and most items unlock new abilities and powers as their owner gains levels.), the forgotten and a few of the most powerful beings of a given territory have access to them. Civilians who have them are either killed, or more likely arrested and interrogated for information on where they are made. A few odd magicians are spared, but must spend the rest of their lives creating magic items to be used be the elites of the dark forces. Many warlords see mages as a powerful slave or tool maker, but some more cautious warlord kill them rather than risk having a mage fight back when they regain their strength.
Rules from this point on depend from realm to realm.
i look for cover off to the side of the road.
Axe is in my left hand,shield in my right as i kneel there i hope my cover
is good enough to see but not be seen while i wait for them to get to me
Hide Check (I'll roll for you this time if that's okay by you...),
When using a skill you basically declare what skill you are going to try and use and what you are using it for. In this case you are hiding. You roll a d20, and add whatever bonus you get to hiding, you don't have any skill point in hide since you are a fighter, but you do get a dexterity bonus so...
12 (the roll) + 2 (your dexterity bonus) = 14
The caravan comes closer and you see that it's a group of 3 gnolls and walking by a cart filled with what appears to be 12 or so dwarvish and dwarf-kin slaves shackled up inside a metal cage. The cart is being pulled by a very large Hyena-like beast that moves on all fours and has a metal collar that chains it to the cart. It appears to be quite vicious and vile. 2 of the gnolls are walking beside the cart, 1 of them is scrawny little one that seems to be bored out of wits end and is constantly bothering the much larger gnoll with an eyepatch whenever he's not sharpening his wicked blade. The larger one eyed gnoll is clearly the muscle of the group standing much taller and broader than most gnolls you've seen in your life, this gnoll is clad in half-plate armor fitted with spikes and in one hand he has a large double headed great axe resting around his shoulder, he seems bored an unamused by the ramblings of his smaller companion. Then finally there is the gnoll caravan driver who is hooded with tattered human flesh robes, he has a small a whip in his hand which he uses to periodically whip the hyena-beast into keeping a stead pace.
Spot check
9 + 0 = 9
The gnolls are completely oblivious to your position. You are wondering what you should do, fighting the gnolls head on seems like utter suicide, but then again you feel compelled to help these dwarves and now that the gnolls are treading outside of their homelands for whatever reason, you feel like you might just be able to get away with murder...
This is a really tough choice. If you are not familiar with 3.5 D&D gnolls, they are a CR 1
sorry about not rolling..will do from now thanks for that
also i started basic D&D when it came in 3 little books(humm thats quite long time ago) then AD&D 1st, then 2nd but that is where it stops.still play with my son. so for 3.5 rules i've only used them in the video game..so i have some rules..i have download the player manual..still i will need help from time to time
question
what is the rule for surprise thanks
sorry about this I'll try and draw up crude maps and attach them to the posts in the future... but for now,
X= Big Gnoll
x= small gnoll
+= Caravan gnoll
D= Giant Hyena
K= You
For surprise attacks, basically the ambushers get to go first regardless of initiative, if you have a group with more than 1 person doing the surprise attack you can choose what order you want to fight in, since it's assumed that you planned a strategy, But then again you can always roll your initiatives first. The surprised who go second then roll the order they will to go in.
The top half of the cage is just bars, but the cage is filled with dwarves so their visibility of you depends on whether or not the dwarves block their line of sight which is likely. The bottom half of the wagon is the standard wooden build with a metal frame that supports the 4 wheels, they can not see you through this. So if you stayed nice and low, you can avoid being seen.
For a sneak roll,
You get
+2 for dexterity
+2 Because they are distracted an unaware
+1 since the caravan is rickety and old and makes a fair about of noise
-4 armour check penalty since your armour will jingle and crunch as you move.
You wait for the caravan to pass, once it goes by you bolt in to action. You hunch down and bolt it behind the caravan. You then begin to slowly trail behind the caravan keeping your head low. Some of the dwarves in the back of the caravan raise their head as they notice you, then quickly look down only shooting you quick disbelieving glances. You look pas the right corner of the caravan at the larger gnoll at the front and can see that you by flanking by the right will allow you to attack from his blind-side. Some of the dwarves have started nudging some other dwarves and silently notion towards your direction. You can only hope that they don't give your position away.
Luckily for you the door to the cage is at the back of the caravan very close to where you are. Unluckily, there happens to be a giant metal lock on the cage with a firm thick clasp. This is not the sort of lock that can be smashed of easily or in a single strike. This sort of mechanism requires the key, or lockpicking tools, if you were to try and force it open you would need a sizeable, powerful blunt object and a lot of time. From your count you see 12 dwarven like people. Some are unmistakably dwarven while others are are half breeds of some sort.
the lock is not for me and i can not leave these to their fate
there is only one thing left for me,so with my axe and shield ready i run for
the largest gnoll hoping to take him down with one blow..i hope the gods are looking down on me.
... and miss your heart sinks, as you wonder whether the battle can still be won, and whether or not you still can still get away to fight another day if need be.
The massive Hyena moving the caravan goes to spring into a bloody frenzy, it's feral nature taking over it's poorly instilled domestication by the gnolls. However it is held back by the collar that keeps it tied to the rickety wagon. It try biting at you from it location baring it's feirce fangs.
Wagon moves forward 10 feet.
The Giant gnoll, springs into a counter attack only possible by years on built in response to ambushes. He goes and tries to swing at you...
2 + 4 = 6
...And misses, clearly he needed to meet you in order to get his target practice in. The ever eager skinnier gnoll who had been eagerly awaiting such an event charges at you with his spear...
14 + 3 = 17
vs
18
His spear scrapes against your scale mail, but slides off rather than letting the sharp tip get snagged, or rend your flesh. It'll take more than mere Gnoll spears to pierce the scale mail your father forged.
The crippled gnoll driver can't get close enough to attack you with his whip and he's not getting off his wagon any time soon.
Dash the Ranger
You are rudely awakened by the clash of metal coming from the road that rest just south of your forest homeland.
