Café de Nuit

Hell_Born wrote:*Body Squeezing (Down the Tubes): 5th level Necromancy, target's the Caster, duration of 6 rounds +(1 round per two caster levels), witnessing the caster squeezing through a gap causes a Horror/Madness check.

Why would a character take this spell when they could cast Shrink a few times or cast Dimension Door or polymorph himself or herself into a fly to effectively achieve the same purpose without risking the Powers Check and they are lower level spells. This is not a critiscism, I am just wondering what makes that spell appealing to a player or worth the high spell level and risk of a Powers Check?

I've absolutely no idea. I've never done anything like this before. That's why I'm posting; to get some ideas on exactly what these things of mine would do in a game.

Llana asked me to check these for her.

The Feats seem fine to be honest, nothing overpowered there that I can see!

Back-Door seems a little overpowered when you consider that Pass-wall and Phase-door do similar things and are both higher level. Mystic Doorway is similar sadly, there needs to be something more distinct about it when compared to the spells that are already present. Maybe a including a chance of failure or similar?

I’m guessing that Body Squeezing was X-Files inspired? Sadly I have to agree with the question about why you’d use it, I like the idea of the spell but it just needs a little more bang for its buck.

Hell Born I have to agree with Stygian on this one, as is the spell itself is likely to simply be by-passed by dimension door.

I'd make its requirements lower. I reccomend that you make it either a 1st or 2nd level Transmutation spell requiring no powers check.

Gaseous Form is a 3rd level spell. Perhaps this spell is the step just below becoming a Gas, instead becoming a liquid. This way the spell could be applied not only for cracks, by anything else that would require an escape artist check to get through. For game rules, the minimum opening a character can get through would have to be slightly larger than that of Gaseous form.

You might also want to put that the liquid the character becomes is NOT flammable, in the event of those pesky pyromaniac players.

Another thing I will reccomend. Working on 2 spells, 3 feats, and several prestige classes at one time is a pain in the rectum. Try concentrating on one game mechanic, then move to another.

I would also add in the spell that you gain 5/- for all blugoning damage but suffer an extra die of damage on piercing. Its hard to beat a sack of water to death but easy to pop it.

Okay, so the Feats are fine and Back Door & Mystic Doorway are pretty much obsolete? Okay, I can accept that.

As to Body Squeezing: the actual inspiration is the Marikith of Timor, and basically the spell temporarily grants you the internal physiology of a Marikith, enabling you to squeeze through small spaces like they do and then "solidify" yourself to fight. That's why I thought seeing the caster use it should cause a Horror/Madness save; there's nothing normal about a human being pushing their (otherwise normal) body through a space a rat couldn't access.

With that cleared up, can anyone suggest how to make that spell work? If not, can you suggest possible class features for my Juicer and/or Clockworker prestige classes? I'm not going to do the Urbanomancer, because there's already something similar in the Nouvelle Nuit netbook.

For the record,

All of Part I is now complete.

This Gazeteer will include a section (currently working on it now) on Dopplegangers, ala a Guide to. The section will be dictated by a new NPC, whose stats will be included in the back of the Gazetteer. Who is this mysterious NPC who somehow has an insight on Doppleganger society? Well, you'll just have to wait to find out. One thing I will reveal: he is a canon NPC from 2e.

Duh duh duuuuuuhhhh!

In the mean time, another area we're also taking submissions for is art. Doodles, drawings, sketches, paintings, pictures: anything you wish to send we'll take. Unless it's a picture of Batman kicking Spidermans butt, because that just wouldn't happen!

Hi, folks! I hoped I could bounce an idea from the Art section off you all, that I don't have the time or brainpower to spare, playtesting myself. It's a sidebar about using the Craft skill to create forged or fraudulent items for sale -- something I figured Paridon sees a lot of -- but I'm not sure if the number-crunching is balanced or otherwise makes sense (especially the modifiers). Take a look, and tell me if it's too screwy as-is:

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Art Forgery: A New Application of the Craft Skill

The PHB Forgery skill is concerned exclusively with written documents, from duplicate signatures to the scribing of fake text into full-length books. To create forged versions of items that are normally fabricated via the Craft skill (including artificially-aged books or pages to which false writings can be added with the Forgery skill), the forger must have at least 3 ranks in the appropriate type of Craft.

To Craft a forgery, determine the finished item’s genuine sale price (how much it’s truly worth) and the DC necessary to create it. Pay one-third of the item’s actual price for raw materials. Note that you can deliberately Craft a worthless item, then increase its apparent value until it looks salable; raw materials for such items cost a nominal 1 cp per pound of the finished item's weight.

To increase the apparent value of the item beyond its actual worth, you then add a “forgery bonus” to the DC of your Craft check, which can be anything from +1 to the number of ranks you have in the Craft skill. For example, if you have 10 ranks in Craft (jewelry), you may add a +1 to +10 “forgery bonus” to your check’s DC, to make a piece of jewelry that looks more expensive than it really is. Roll your Craft check against this adjusted DC, after applying other modifiers relevant to Craft checks.

If your check succeeds, multiply your result by the DC minus its forgery bonus. This represents real value added to the item under construction, and counts toward the item’s completion. Next, multiply your successful check result by the forgery bonus. This is the number of coins’ apparent value which has been added to the item, in addition to its real worth. The type of coin is the forger’s choice:

-- A simple forgery increases the item’s apparent value in silver pieces (or copper, if progress at crafting the item is being tracked by the day).
-- A risky forgery increases the item’s apparent value in gold pieces (or silver by the day)
-- A daring forgery increases the item’s apparent value in platinum pieces (or gold by the day)

If a forger desires, an entire work-period may be devoted solely to making the item appear more valuable. To do this, use the same DC for the Craft check, but success increases only the item's apparent value (check result X forgery bonus in coins), not its actual value. Such work does not count toward an item's completion.

To determine if the finished forgery passes inspection at its time of sale, the potential buyer makes an Appraise check against the forger’s Craft check. Like a Forgery check to create a document, this Craft check is rolled secretly by the DM. The following modifiers apply to the buyer’s Appraise check:

Simple forgery +0
Risky forgery +5
Daring forgery +10
Alleged style or maker unknown to buyer -2
Alleged style or maker somewhat known to buyer +0
Alleged style or maker well-known to buyer +2
Item accompanied by convincingly-forged documentation -2
Forged documentation suspected by buyer +4
Forged documentation conclusively identified as false +8
Seller believes item is genuine or succeeds on a Bluff check -2
Seller's Bluff check against buyer fails +6

If the Appraise check beats the forger’s Craft check and the usual DC to Appraise an item of its sort (e.g. DC 12 for common items), the buyer is not deceived and realizes the item's actual worth. If the Craft check beats the Appraise check, the buyer instead believes its value to be its apparent worth, as the forger intended. If the Appraise check beats the Craft check, but not the standard DC to appraise an item, the buyer either estimates its value (common items) or cannot make a guess (see PHB description of the Appraise skill).

Convincing a potential buyer that an item has value for purely historical and/or cultural reasons, rather than its composition or design ("This chaise-lounge once graced the study of Count Strahd I, himself!"), is adjudicated using Bluff and Sense Motive checks.

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I'm pleased with the basic concept: hopefully, it'll make it feasible to fake items or pass off cheap junk as salable, but not so easy to pull off that everybody would do it. But I'm not sure about the modifiers involved: Too high? Too low? Should the apparent value increase faster or slower than what I've set it at?

For that matter, has some other game-product already worked all this garbage out, and I've been wasting my time? Please, opinions and advice are welcome.

Undead Cabbage, I got the link to the Class Construction Kit you sent me, and I'm very grateful. I just have one request: could you suggest class features for the Juicer and/or the Clockworker? Other than their basic premise, I'm afraid I can't think of anything for them.

I can work out most of the basics: D4 HD, No new Armour or Weapon Proficiencies, Any Alignment, Attack Bonuses and Save Bonuses as per a Wizard/Sorcerer.

Other than the special abilities, like I just said, the only thing I need to figure out is how many Skill Points per level it grants and the list of Class skills. So far, the only skills I can think of for this class are Knowledge (Constructs), Knowledge (Clockworks) and Craft (Clockworks), and I'm not even sure those are real skills.

Five class abilities for the juicer off the top of my head. The names need major tweeking but its a good start for you to run with-

Feel no pain (Ex): For 10gp and a Craft (alchemy) DC of 10 the juicer can create a single dose of pain relieving serum. When used the serum gives the user 2d6 temporary hit points for one turn. After the turn expires the user takes 1d4 points of damage from the sudden pain.

Turn the blade (Ex): For 20gp and a Craft (alchemy) DC of 12 the juicer can create a single dose of skin hardening serum. When used this serum gives the user 5/- vs all slashing and piercing attacks for one turn but causes the user to suffer a –2 to Intitive and Reflex saves

Tune in (Ex): For 50gp and a Craft (alchemy) DC of 15 the juicer can create a single does of sensory enhancement serum. When used this serum enhances the users natural senses to extraordinary highs. Spot, Search and Listen skills gain a +5 bonus for one turn but due to the serums effects the user suffers a –5 to all saves vs mental attacks and spells.

Speedball (Ex): for 100gp and a Craft (alchemy) DC of 20 the juicer can create a single does of speed enhancing serum. When used this serum enhances the users natural speed allowing one additional action every three rounds for one turn but the user must make a fort save at DC 10 or suffer 1d4 points of damage due to the exterion of his or her heart.

Fists of rage (Ex) For 200gp and a Craft (alchemy) DC of 25 the juicer can create a single dose of steroidal serum. When used the serum gives the user a +5 bonus to Str and Con for one turn but causes the user to enter into a berserker rage for the remaining duration if damaged for more then ½ of his current HP

I'm very grateful to you Jasper, but those abilities look a little too intellectual for the Juicer. The Juicer is basically a combat-related prestige class; a sort of urban Barbarian capable of performing great physical feats due to the cocktail of chemicals within him, which is also slowly killing him.

The very basic ability I figure he'd have would be Rage, and a resistance to Drug Side-Effects, but I don't know what else. Essentially, this guy's a bruiser too out of his mind on go-juice and steroids and other poisons to notice what's happening to him.

I'm thinking maybe I should skip the Juicer, and just stick with the Clockworker. What do you think? And what sort of special abilities do you think the Clockworker would get?

So, what is the format for the submissions? I'm assuming it's like ScS had asked for for the QtR submissions:

ScS of the Fraternity wrote:For Quoth the Raven submissions you can save me some time by writing your article in new times roman font, 12 point size. Titles are in 36 size Nosferatu font, and subtitles inside the article are 18 point Nosferatu font.
As well, when you submit don't forget to include you name and email just below the title.

But I'm unclear on how to create the two-column format... I'm using Word from Office XP, but I see two potential ways to create the desired columns. I can either 1) Go to "Table" -> "Insert" -> "Table" and create a 2-column table (but it never seems to have sufficient space inbetween the two columns for readability), or do the above with a 3-column table and set the middle column to X size, or 2) Go to "Insert" -> "Text-box" and create two such text-boxes of left and right alignment and set their sizes to work out. Which is better?

Don't worry about that at all; the Frat'll fix up the layout once they have the whole work in front of them. Just stick with a normal layout.

If you do want to see it in two columns, however, just select all, press the Columns button on the toolbar, and select two that way.

I thought it would come up regarding Trade (spoken about earlier in this thread), but it didn't, so...

When was The Shrouded Way discovered? As that affects the flow of goods and ideas (no good way to get to Paridon beforehand), it'd be nice to know when that showed up.

It seems like there should be two constraints: Has to be between HotK (742) and SotK (755) as no reference to trade in first, but references exist in second.

Also, I figure "The Shrouded Way" is like "the Shrouded Years" (Darkon minus Azalin, when Death reigned) and like "the Shroud" (the negative energy field around Necropolis), so that puts discovery of The Shrouded Way between 750-756, during Death's reign of Darkon.

So, real range of discovery: Between 750-755 (between Requiem and SotK).

My vote: 751 BC for discovery, so 4 years to develop trade deals before SotK starts (might require extra time due to no strong central Darkonese government, so have to start deals with individual Darkonese territories). Anyone else?

Lord Cyclohexane wrote: My vote: 751 BC for discovery, so 4 years to develop trade deals before SotK starts (might require extra time due to no strong central Darkonese government, so have to start deals with individual Darkonese territories). Anyone else?

...no strong central government?...Azalin will be interested to hear that, I'm sure...

I'm not sure that the failure to mention trade in Paridon in 742 should be considered a hard limit; why not assume that trade was going on before that time, but that it wasn't an important plot element of HotK?

The "Shroud" connection is very interesting and suggestive, though--nice catch, btw--so maybe 751-ish is the best choice.