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12 months ago ::
Jun 28, 2012 - 4:50AM
#11
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Date Joined:
Oct 24, 2001
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The warforged had now been refluffed as sort of a plant/zombie hybrid.
I liked this. A lot!
Here are the PHB essentia, in my opinion: - Three Basic Rules (p 11)
- Power Types and Usage (p 54)
- Skills (p178-179)
- Feats (p 192)
- Rest and Recovery (p 263)
- All of Chapter 9 [Combat] (p 264-295)
A player needs to read the sections for building his or her character -- race, class, powers, feats, equipment, etc. But those are PC-specific. The above list is for everyone, regardless of the race or class or build or concept they are playing.
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12 months ago ::
Jun 28, 2012 - 12:30PM
#12
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Date Joined:
Aug 17, 2010
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This seems such a good way of reflavouring a warforged I want to play one!
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12 months ago ::
Jun 30, 2012 - 3:36PM
#13
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Date Joined:
Aug 19, 2007
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Ever since it was introduced, the warforged have been my default solution to any player wanting to play a "created" or artificial being of some sort rather than a member of an actual race.
I think I've refluffed/reflavored the 'forged in about six different ways now, and at least four of them were directly in relation to how I and the player decided we wanted to introduce them to the rest of the party.
I simply adjust the flavor to better reflect the class, power source (for lack of a better pre-4E term), and specific backstory circumstances.
In addition to the standard lab-built magic-mech, I've done...
- the Swamp Thing plant zombie
- a statue possessed and animated by the soul of a character
- a previously-human adventurer suffering the effects of a botched and only partially successful attempt at reversing a medusa's gaze
- a sentient, free-willed golem, as a solution for a returning old-edition player who wanted to ressurect an old 1st Ed. character that had been polymorphed into a homebrewed golem through the machinations of his previous DM
All of those were situations where the current adventure offered perfect circumstances for introducing a new npc/character of that type - and aside from the first, all were either purposely or accidentally the result of the current party's actions. The party was pretty close to getting TPK'd by the golem before they realized the bad guy was mind-controlling it and broke the spell.
I've also had one warforged that was quite literally a genre-appropriate Pinnochio and another warforged sorceror whose player was a big Transformers fan and thus ended up playing the end result of what might charitably be called "some critically failed dice rolls" by a wizard trying some... unwise things with portals through the space-time continuum and a highly modified Apparatus of Kwalish.
More on topic, if I can't come up with a good way to slip a new character into the current story that makes sense under the current circumstances, I don't even bother - I just come up with something interesting/strange/inexplicable and then build out the exact details into a sub-plot/storyline of a future adventure. Especially if it's something unusual like trying to find a spot for a single thri-kreen in Greyhawk or something like that.
Spoiler:
Show
I am the Magic Man.
(Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.)
I am the Lawnmower Man.
(I AM GOD HERE!)
I am the Skull God.
(Koo Koo Ka Choo)
There are reasons they call me Mad...
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12 months ago ::
Jul 01, 2012 - 10:49AM
#14
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Date Joined:
Nov 27, 2006
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In one of our games the PCs fought & killed some sort of polar wurm thing that had a freezing breath weapon & exploded violently when slain.
Well, the wizard was frozen to death. Literly turned into an ice statue when he took way too much damage from the breath weapon.....
Several rounds later? The beast meets it's end & explodes. Ends up killing all the NPCs, and another PC.
Que the usual scene of healing/looting - where one of the survivors states that he's picking up the wizards fingers. ?? "So we can raise the Wizard!" Um, ok. Neverminding that there's he's got no way to discern the wizards frozen digits from any other he might find.... (I bet you know where this is headed)
NPCs = no loss.
The other PC? His player has something else easily worked into the story.
The Wizard? Well, he comes back as a ghost! (yes, there was a backstory reason why this happened, but it's not very important to this tale)
Now the remaining party members decide that they're going to "fix" the wizard ghost. As in turn him back alive.
And so begins a several month long (real time!) series of adventures with this as the goal.
During the final chapter of this quest the wizard ghost is "destroyed".
The party goes "Oh well, we still have his finger!"
And now the cleric is high enough to cast raise dead or whatever!
So they cast the spell on the months old finger, and....
Ressurect a completely different dude.
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12 months ago ::
Jul 02, 2012 - 4:22AM
#15
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Date Joined:
Dec 15, 2005
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In my long running 4th edition Eberron campaign I've only needed to introduce one new player. I did made sure he had a dramatic entrance though.
The party was delving under Six Kings, following the trail of the Ashen Crown (premade adventure). After delving in the grotto's for over two sessions they came upon the final encounter, a load of abberants surrounding a so called moon pool in the middle of raising a huge beholder from the depths of Khyber. Fighthing valliantly the party managed to stop the ritual and slay all the cultists. In the last mop up of the combat something did come through the moonpool. But instead of a beholder or other abberant monstrosity they were faced by a soaking wet, shivering, battered and bruised half-orc. The party was smart enough not to kill him on site and since then he has been a loyal follower of the group, and till this day (about 12 levels further and 1,5 years playing) still don't know exactly what happened to him.
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12 months ago ::
Jul 03, 2012 - 5:25PM
#16
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Date Joined:
May 12, 2009
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Nirafelos's character in my Tales of Greyhawk campaign, Oregarr, was introduced to the party in a Cultist compound underground, as a prisoner, attached by feet to the ceiling and during the entire combat, i had his token slide 3 squares on each creature's square, moving about in a large circle. With his reach he could always attack someone in the room depending where he was. Players thought it was an epic entry! Here's a summary of the encounter: '' Encounter: Meet A Moving Man (225 XP) As you continued to explore the Cultist compound, you heard noises of fighting in one of the room beyond. Arriving in the door way, you all saw a spectacular scene deploying. A red haired mountain of a man, chained up by the ankles to the ceiling, was fighting away Cultist and spinning around in the room and fighting with broken manacle chains. He was bleeding a lot and his body bored signs of recent mistreatement. Several tables with torturing implements, as well as tools for branding subject with the symbol of Incaboulos were scattered around. You quickly jumped to help the man and fought alongside. A wicked fight went on as the man moved around the room perpetually, trading blows freely with Cultist. One Taskmaster Yir was brought down, as well as other Cultist Adept and the last surviving Cultist, a Warlock, fled in the adjacent room pursued by Tolman by one side and Moth on the other. Cornered, the man ushered a single word "Yaklath" while placing a crystal wand below his chin, and a blast of Force energy blown his brains all over the ceiling as his lifeless body fell on the ground. You quickly regrouped and met Oregarr, a captive that was probably intended to be slayed, and raised as a Zombie bearring the mark of Incaboulos and indiced with the Plague before being sent on the street of Grabford above. Also on the Death mage was carrying a Ironwood Staff, and Yir the Cult Taskmaster was wearring a Dlarun Chainmail, made with a rare type of metal.''
Yan
Montréal, Canada
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11 months ago ::
Jul 06, 2012 - 1:22AM
#17
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Date Joined:
Aug 17, 2010
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Thanks for all the input! In the end this is what myself and the player have come up with:
As the party are in search if four artifacts, and currently have found 3, the new character will be the defender of the last item. As the last item is a mask he will be wearing it. This has caused him to be cursed by the item and is being controlled by it. The fight then breaks out. Once killed, or knocked out in this instance, the party will be able to remove the mask. He will then have his original personality restored. He wants to help the party banish the items so that no one else suffers the same fate he did.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 06, 2012 - 10:58AM
#18
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Date Joined:
Jul 21, 2004
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Warforged seem to lend themselves to being dropped into a party.
The most creative additions I ever came up with was when the party had infiltrated an old Cannith lab. Behind one wall of one of the rooms was a chamber with two sealed sarcophagi and a warforged. These were the failsafe, in case Cannith ever needed a team on the inside of their own lab. The warforged was just a servant, but he'd been in the chamber for years and had spent it meditating and practicing enough martial arts to become a monk. In the sarcophagi were two clone bodies and sets of equipment for them. As luck would have it, around the time the PCs were stumbling upon this chamber and meeting the warforged, one of the bodies was activated and came to life. However, the person (one of the new PCs) had no idea he'd been cloned, and couldn't recall how his original body had just died.
I was joining another group, and picked a warforged shaman. He was from an ancient, lost civilization whose wars had finally destroyed it. He'd walked off the battlefield and spent centuries communing with nature. He'd lay on lake and river beds for years at a time, let trees grow under him, sink through glaciers, et cetera, just to see what it was like. His features had been warn smooth and he spoke oddly. A pity that game didn't really go anywhere.
[N]o difference is less easily overcome than the difference of opinion about semi-abstract questions. - L. Tolstoy
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11 months ago ::
Jul 07, 2012 - 2:25PM
#19
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I was pretty happy with how this one turned out though it wasnt quite a "new" PC per say. A little context, my group was pretty much 90% new to D&D and everyone was new to 4e so the characters they created werent their preferred playstyle but they didn't figure that out until they were already attatched to them emotionally and didnt want to just reroll. Specifically the warlord, Wynston P. Hurtztevomit and ranger, Denton McMutilate (lighthearted kind of tone to the campaign) were unhappy with their characters mechanically but loved them all the same. So I had them rebuild their characters as what they would want now, an ardent and a monk, and told them not to tell the rest of the party they had done so.
The group was in the Underdark anyway so I whipped out the Illithid. They kidnapped the warlord and made him their thrall. After some skill checks the group tracked them to their nest and found their comrade, who promptly attacked them. I actually had the player fight against his teammates and it was a blast as they tried not to kill Wynston while ironically Wynston was the most effective he'd ever been. After the fight he went catatonic and lost his memories (briefly, I hate those storylines) and as the enemies surrounded the group and it looked like it was all over his memories came rushing back and he exploded with psionic power due to exposure to the Illithid and became an Ardent. The resulting shockwave buffed the party and changed the ranger to a monk.
They now love every part of their characters and have never looked back =D
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11 months ago ::
Jul 08, 2012 - 6:50PM
#20
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Date Joined:
Apr 12, 2012
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To me it all depends on what the charector's class and race is.
-if he/she is an dwarf and it's an underground dungeon maybe he/she could have been a missing miner
- if he/she is a paladin he/shecould have been trying to do the same as the party but got lost.
- if he/she is a theif/roguee the he/she could have been thrown in their for their crimes
that way it would blend into the story and maybe even cause different quest or goals. like
" you round the bend in the tunnel and see a elf in chainmail sitting on one of the tunnels collapsed pillers. he looks up and smiles. he shares his fire with you as he tells you of the reason he is in the dungeon also. It turns out his monestary's in on one the mountains you saw on the cart ride to this dungeons entrence relics stolen from a rogue cleric who took refuge in these tunnels. He was sent to recover th relic as well as to bring the evil cleric to justice."
That's just my opinion thought
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