"Session 0" thread

To Dream, I meant finding the spells in-game. Additionally, you could also drop both your Strength and Con to 10 to increase your Intelligence to 18 to get another repertoire slot and another roll for a random spell, and another proficiency.

Land Surveying is best done by hireling, from what I've gleaned. Collegiate Wizardry and/or Loremastery would not go amiss.

WonderWaffle, looks good. The background stuff tends to work itself out as the characters take on a life of their own during play. There are a few classes that need to pick a country/race/culture of origin for mechanical reasons, but Nightblade isn't one of them.

I would recommend you all know each other somewhat, even if its just "we all rode into town in the same caravan." It speeds up the awkward time-sink of in-character introductions. But if y'all love that part of the game, I won't stop you.

#1-Elven Ranger
#2-Cleric (a really poor one...)

So it looks like the Party will be:

I'm almost scared to drop my Constitution, but if people think it is a good idea, I will go for it.

My character can be your good friend ToDream if you like and be willing to make sure you stay as safe as possible. Like we have been together doing things for a while, probably your stuff mostly ;) and he just keeps your character as safe as possible while we are doing your stuff

Dropping from 12 to 10 won't have much appreciable difference unless you somehow loose two more during gameplay. Which could happen, tbh. But not likely at early level encounters.

Alright I'll do it, but what should I pick up as my new general proficiency?

Edit: Alright, that's the shield spell.

I was like, 80% sure you gonna roll another Read Languages. You're mage REALLY wanted to pas those linguistics exams...

I would recommend Alchemy, Knowledge(history) or Naturalism.

Yeah, I had through about those, particularly the first and the last. The first gives us a way to identify alchemical items while the last kind of gives my Mage as someone who really wants to go exploring (though that lack of Survival might say he's not especially good at it.)

He's a day-trip naturalist. Or like an 18th century Naturalist in the British Royal Navy. Survivalism is for the press-ganged sailors, you're too busy studying beetle poo to look for food and water!

ToDream that is perhaps why you have an Elven friend who knows Survival ;) -- yes / no ?? You never answered.

Speaking of Elven friends, we've got three Elves and a Dwarf. Quite a sight, if demihumans are fairly rare! Perhaps us Elfy sorts just sort of gravitate to each other, but perhaps we've got a history stetching back farther? Maybe they were all in service to what's left of the Argollë Empire before cutting ties? Dunno. Just spit-balling here.

On the subject of our Dwarven Machinist, I can see Harper being absolutely fascinated by all the mechanical marvels they can produce, and the two would make a neat juxtaposition of nature vs. technology. Maybe have some "spirited debates" on the subject or something.

Still pondering that second character. We've got a bunch of mages, so looking to contribute something different. Might see if I can finagle some sort of Cleric or Fighter-y type somehow.

I am game for that if the GM could give us some perhaps collective thing that a small group of Elves might have been doing or perhaps we are what remains of a slightly larger group or whatever fits into the world and the upcoming story arches

Well, some common knowledge of the general area would be:

The campaign region is part of a larger province known as Southern Argolle, which was once part of a vast Elven Empire but is now the southeastern edge of the human-dominated Auran Empire. Most elves have fled north to Northern Argolle, which remains an elven kingdom. Nevertheless, there are numerous elven ruins and abandoned elven holy sites, and several imperial cities in the region were either built by elven hands centuries ago or built atop the ruins of elven fortresses. Plenty of ancient elven artifacts and history to be recovered.

There is also a dwarven vault (underground city) in the general region somewhere, and used to be more in the past.

Additionally, there are various calls for mercenaries and adventurers in the region owing to the Imperial legions having been called West for a war against the Skysos nomads, leaving the area under-garrisoned, so if your elves are merely adventurous mercs, the promise of low-level wetwork might be enough for them. Or perhaps they are crusaders looking to open cracks in the empire and reclaim the region for elven-kind?

As for the Mage, there may be the lure of knowledge and artifacts buried in old elven strongholds, or in yet more ancient ruins rumored to lie untouched in the deadly wastes beyond the (relative) safety of the imperial borders.

So in general what is the Elven disposition to the current regime that usurped their lands? It cannot be all that friendly considering that perhaps they killed quite a few Elves in the process and it was most likely (as is usually the case for Elves) a war of attrition where the humans who breed like rats out manned the elves over time.

@Dejoker I'm fine with us being friends, I like the idea of my character being a lot like a 18th century Naturalist in the British Royal Navy.

He's not REALLY supposed to be in the field, but whatever group got him out the first time wanted him to do it in person instead of compiling the information. Maybe something along the lines of, 'We don't trust the Elves not to keep secrets, so you are going in person to verify the report.'

It should be noted that there isn't a strong current of racial animus between humans, elves and dwarves, but there is some level of cultural friction between them and between the various human cultures, even within the empire's borders. There is definitely enough history between the various groups that there could be reason for bad blood, but most of it is distant enough (for humans at least) that it wouldn't be on most people's minds.

There are two general religions, the Empyrean and the Cthonic. Different cultures have different names for the specific gods of their pantheons, and may disagree over points of theology but they all agree the Empyrean gods are gods of Law and generally good, and the Cthonic gods are gods of Chaos and generally considered evil by society at large. I'll list the gods in a post in Setting Info later on, but it's not exhaustive and is based on the Auran Imperial religious beliefs, so you can certainly make up your own minor deity or a cultural variation on one of the Auran deities as well.

More than that you'll need a proficiency check or a conversation with a cleric to know something specific.

Great ToDream, so melding the concepts of an Elven Ranger and your character what do you think might have been their common ground of mutual friendship. I mean obviously his ability to survive in the wild but aspect of your character do you think would be the pull for the Elf in a relationship of mutual benefit. Heck it could even be something that has nothing to do with the character's profession just something they have a connection to that would prove of interest.

Note I am just brainstorming with you on this to come up with a mutual agreement on what we build this friendship upon and how it shaped over time.

It's gonna depend on the person. It wasn't the humans themselves that kicked the elves out, but Thrassians, the evil lizard men enslaved by the elves, who then oppressed and enslaved (and ate) both elves and humans. Evil/chaotic humans then overthrew the Thrassians, and then a coalition of lawful/good humans and some elves that overthrew the evil human empire and the humans established the Auran empire. So it went Lawful & Chaotic Elves > Chaotic Lizards > Chaotic Humans > Lawful Humans

So there is a LOT of history in between, but undoubtedly there are going to be elves who still see southern Argolle as their land. There's a lot more to it, of course, but only historians and scholars would know the details.

P.s. in this setting Lawful and Chaotic are a bit different from the D&D assumptions. More on that later when I can find the explanation for it.

What! Who wrote those history books? We Elves would never enslave another race even one so obviously inferior as the lizardfolk. Perhaps they misunderstood are guidance and just viewed it as enslavement when all we were trying to do was enrich their lives.

But seriously they have the good Elves enslaving the Lizardfolk or were those the Drow those who have chosen the path of darkness versus the path of Light?