Welcome and talk here.

Feel free to talk here and strategize over what you will play. Thank you.

I am planning a Gnome Psion.

Ok sounds good. Since this is more of a Historical Setting, there are no racial languages initially, but rather real world ones. You speak French, unless for some rare reason, you are not a Frenchman. I could allow English, Dutch, Spanish or Portuguese as well. However if you go that route, then you need a very good reason why you are working with French Privateers. Monster languages like Primordial, Goblin or Abyssal, you would have to learn later on, after contact with said monsters.

Thanks for joining too!

I haven't gotten as far as languages yet, but that makes sense. My thoughts are they are French, but you pick up enemy languages, or perhaps their are well learned. I wouldn't think monster languages make sense at this point, so maybe just some of the ones you mentioned first.

Yes if one takes the Linguist feat, then you can know Spanish, Dutch, English or Portuguese for example. Thanks.

I'm going for a Human Warlord. He'll be the ship's cook, a jolly good man famous around the ports of Europe for his large heart, large muscles, and large selection of different dishes he can prepare on a whim.

Ok cool, that sounds fine.

I'm thinking either rogue, ranger or battle mind, will have a better look when I get home this afternoon

Thanks for the invite! I'm looking forward to playing. I'll be a relatively new player, but I'll pick it up quick.

As far as characters go... I'll play a Human Fighter. Possibly as a former soldier turned privateer or as a duelist looking for his next great fight.

Since Vagrant mentioned being the cook, should we all come up with an idea of where we serve on the ship? Any guidance there DM? Because if not...I'll claim captain! Just kidding...unless...?

Are we the entire crew or are we just gonna be like the shore party? We could all be boatswain's in charge of an area of the ship? under a captain of course...

I'm up for either way.

Ok guys, the idea is that you own the ship and can assign to yourselves any roles that are needed. You also have a crew of around 50 sailors. So there should be a Captain, Quartermaster, Cook, Navigator, Boatswain and Gunner. Of course you can also have an NPC fill one of the roles too. You can name your ship as well. You operate with a Letter of Marque which is from the French King, Henry II.

The game will start with you in France, so you will have to make the voyage across the Atlantic to get to the New World. You guys can plan ahead and decide what your goals will be. So far good job everyone, I await your characters thanks.

I like how the cook is mentioned alongside the the captain and navigator. Glad to see that the morale boost, healthy diet and food poisoning prevention coming from good meal prep is being duly appreciated xD

Don't think for a second the cook will shy away from a good scrap either. Can't fight on an empty stomach, so I gotta be there to make sure no one goes hungry, even in battle.

Dreamblade

You're still working on your character right? I see you did not add bonuses for DEX and Proficiency for your Hand Crossbow. Also don't forget your DEX bonus to AC as well. Keep working on it and I'll check it again thanks.

You're welcome The Vargrant lol. Every adventurer gets hungry too.

Good catch. Thank you. Probably would have noticed the first time I shot someone.

Oh Dreamblade, I forgot as well, but if you wear light armor in 4e, you can use either your DEX or INT modifier to AC. So you should use your INT, and that would give you AC 14, thanks.

If no one objects...I would love to be captain. I'm playing Sophie Fe Uille. My idea is her father retired and left the business to her brother, but three of the ships he left to her to guarantee her an income. She told her brother she was selling him all three but the lawyer helped her obscure the fact she was only selling two to fund the trip west to the New World. She got her letter of mark by charming the king and she set about finding the crew. The promise is three shares for her (which a portion of will go back to the king as tribute and maintenance of the boat) and even shares for the rest of you. While she will make the day to day decisions, all attacks on other ships will get a straight vote. If the majority objects we sail on. But the plan is to get to the new world and find our true fortune. Sophie is a thrill seeker and wants to see all the amazing new sites.

I'm currently working on a halfling ranger, leaning towards two weapon style (unless anyone with more experience says it's terrible) called Larne.

Larne's mother was from Ireland and was chased out of town by her religious family after getting pregnant by a French sailor visiting their town. As such Larne was born aboard a ship between Ireland and France.

As he grew up his father started taking him on short haul journeys and Larne fell in love with the sea, even taking on nautical nicknames and slang, often referred to a little bosun.

Once into his adult years Larne started striking out on his own on various longer journeys on ships, mostly around the Mediterranean, after a few close calls with pirates and enemy vessels Larne began to learn to fight, quick and small he found people often overlooked him and used this to his advantage.

After his most recent return his father told him of a journey to the new world setting off shortly, and how if he were a younger man he would jump at the opportunity to sail to new lands.

Sounds pretty good. Halfling Ranger is nice and you can fight with two weapons sure. Good story too thanks.

I think the best option for captain would probably be the warlord, both from a flavor and a mechanics POV. But he's the cook, so....

I'll just say that you need a lot of feats to stay relevant. Not sure how high we're planning to go here, so that may or may not matter.

Looks like we've got all four roles filled, so I'm going to play around with a few ideas. I know I'm going to be dragonborn, but aside from that, I'm not sure yet.

My sheets all done, I think anyway. Just one question, where does the running attack feature in place of the prime shot come from I can't seem to find it in the PHB's but I've seen it whilst googling.

the name of it is Running Attack?

Ah, running attack is in Martial Power 2.

Ah that's why I can't find it in the phb then.

Are we allowed to use powers and feats from the supplements?

Hey guys, if no one else has claimed it, I'd like to put my character forward for the Gunner position. I'm thinking of having my character come from a well-to-do family. He obtained a commission after graduating from an artillery school.

He was well on his way to a promising career, but a fateful encounter with a beautiful woman, and a duel afterwards saw an end to that idea. Cast out by his family, my character now uses his skills on the sailing ships looking for a new life.

What roles haven't been filled yet? I can see my Fighter being a Striker..

Roles are more tied to your class than your build in this system. It's different from 3e/5e where you can make them tankier or healier or whatever by changing stats and numbers around, in 4e it's more hard coded into your class' identity.

In the Fighter's case, he's a defender. You can always build your character around a secondary role, so you could make our Gunner be a Defender/Striker, but if you wanna go all in on damage, perhaps another class is more appropriate?

Hybrids are allowed, as well as supplements. Just cite where you're getting stuff from. Characters can be from any European country theoretically but you need to speak French and work under the French Flag. Remember also that the Protestant Reformation just happened about 30 years ago, so there is big emphasis on Lutheran, Calvanist, Catholic, Jewish, Greek Orthodox and/or even Muslim. Those are things to consider as well, though Pirates were much more welcoming of everyone than other typical organizations.

Dragonborn can be from Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, etc...Have fun and work it into the game. Captains were always democratically elected on Pirate ships and you also have 50 sailors on the ship too. But you can elect Captain among yourselves and it is not necessarily dependent on a Warrior type. For example: The most successful pirate of all time, was Black Bart, who rose up from being a deckhand to Captain.

Anyways, have fun with this guys. This game is very different and should be fun. Remember Linguist Feat could be very handy as well. Thanks.

Balgan, I approved your character, but fixed one thing. Rangers start with 12 plus CON score for HP, so your HP should be 26, not 19. You had done 5 plus CON score, but that is only for levels past 1st. Thanks.

Oh...We can use other books? Like the Powers? I might change up my build a little. The Shaper Psion was my favorite but I didn't think it was an option.

Yes that is fine, as long as you can cite it to me and I can read it. The only books not allowed are the Setting Specific books. You can change up your character, no worries. I want you to have fun and options. Just always check with me first if in doubt thanks.

Yeah. I happen to own all the "X Powers" books, it would only be from there if not the 3 PHBs.

Ok cool, no problem. I own a few of them, thus I want it cited, so I can look it up online if needed. I guess I wasn't clear on that, my bad. Just no Essentials or Setting Specific books.

Ah thanks, never say no to more HP.
I might have another look at the martial power 2 then.

Also in regards to languages halfling says common plus one other, so that would be French plus one other?

I’m thinking that I would like to be a navigator. Playing as a deva, I would like my memories of a thousand lifetimes to be adventurous times at sea. In real life I am learning Portuguese, so that will be my second of three languages. I’m thinking German would be my third, as Tavar spent some time studying with Martin Luther. I’m not sure how long it will take me to fill out the character sheet, but I like the structure.
I’m thinking about multi classing into Rune Priest because I like adding some divine on top of my divine.

Is there rumors of monsters or actual in person reports that we have access to?

Balgan, were are not using Racial Languages other than what the Monsters will speak and there is no Common. However, you'd need to meet them first in order to eventually take a language from them. There is no Halfling, Dwarven, Gnomish, Orcish, etc...So everyone can start with 2 Real Life languages.

In 1550, Latin was very prevalent. Also there is French, Spanish, Dutch, English, Portuguese, Welsh, Scottish, German, Italian, Greek, Russian, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Flemish, Arabic and Turkish.

Matthew, the Spanish have seen the Monsters firsthand. Not all of them probably, but a good number. The Spanish are convinced that they are of the Devil and that the Native Americans had something to do with them, because of them being Heathen.

Congrats on Portuguese, I study Spanish. In fact I speak it quite a lot down here. I hope you enjoy it.

So just for fun and as a way to honor the 4e Gods, here is my collection. Feel free to share yours as well, I just am proud of what I got.

What a beautiful stash! Sadly, since most of the delivery fees to my country are absurd I have to content myself with PDFs, so I don't have many physical books for show ;-;

Thanks, not sure what country you live in, but shipping all of these to Costa Rica has been a lot of money too. My wife was not happy when I got the first batch of 21 books lol. It was a collection I scored on Ebay and I have just been adding to it, here and there. Still need more.

Nice. I don't have quite that many. PHB, DMG, MM, PHB2 &3, Ebberon setting and Dark Sun Settings.

When it was current, I just used the Character Creator WotC provided. Fortunately, I managed to not let my subscription lapse until they'd put out the final books, so I just use that. I do miss some of the flavor text, but it fits in my house a whole lot better than the books would! XD

Ok...I've updated my character some. Took changed Memory Hole to Static Mote. Changed my feat to Skill Training Stealth. Changed my focus to Shaper and switched out the encounter powers.

So now my character will hide and attack through Shaped Consciousness as much as possible, do big area damage.

Okay, I've got a second idea, but I need GM approval. I want to make a Wilden native American equivalent. probably picked up on a previous expedition west, who's going back as a sort of guide. NOT a navigator, as the tools used would be foreign anyway, but as more of a 'this is dangerous, don't eat it' sort of guide.

That's quite the collection, I have a few 5e books but only ever played the starter set of 4e before this.

I've swapped running attack for prime shot, and added the HP from the toughness feat that I missed too.

Balgan, might want to check how far we're going here. Toughness is a throwaway feat past level 3, since most monsters will hit hard enough that the 5/10/15 HP doesn't actually make you tougher.

It comes with the two blade fighting option for the ranger so no choice in it tbh

Oh, it's a free one. I forgot about that. Still crap but at least you get another one besides.

Falconloft, you'd also have some first-hand knowledge of some of the Monsters that have come out of hiding now too. I can provide that privately or in the open, just let me know.

Cool, yeah, probably the easiest way would be to just stick it on the sheet. I'll just have to remember to check there whenever we see something.

I figure job wise on the ship Larne will be a boatswain or looking after rigging and sails, spending lots of time in the rigging and crows nest keeping watch.

Guys very sorry about this dammit, but I have to cancel the game for now. My wife wants a separation and its devastating me. I am just not in the right frame of mind to game at this moment. I did not see this coming and my apologies. Thanks.

That sucks. I have been there.

I’m sorry that you’re going through this experience. Appreciate that you have put the effort into organizing this and that you are choosing to prioritize your life. Hope the best for you.

Hey real life takes precedence. All the best.

I'll see everyone around then. Belus, I hope everything goes as well as possible. I've been there, and it's not fun, but you can get through it. Keep your chin up.