Out of Character

@MaJunior welcome to the game!

Copying your pitch here for reference:
Some questions to kickstart character formation:
- What level do you want to start at? (this should be low enough to give you room for growth, but high enough to accommodate your backstory, and any capabilities you want to begin with)
- Backstory questions: who do you know? where have you been? what have you done?
- Seed of evil questions: were there any particular elves you knew that didn't succumb to disease or famine? Perhaps one that started as a friend that you have now come to resent?

This is exciting. Lol

I am pretty open to where we start, in terms of level. It sort of depends on how detailed we want to get versus how long you want this to take. We can start at 1 and go level by level... but it will take a while. I'm open to whatever you have in mind. I know it's a bit of a cliché answer, but I mean it. We're effectively worldbuilding for another game, so you're the one with the big picture, y'know?

I will say that I think creating my character should be the same process as your PCs will use. That way it's sort of a level playing field in that regard.

As for backstory...

I sort of had generic answers in mind, so the character would slot into whatever world you had in mind. Also, by utilizing rather common backstory elements, it creates a contrast between the villain and the PCs if any of the PCs also have similar events. The idea that, hopefully, at least some of the PCs realize they could have possibly ended up no different than the villain. That "one bad day" is all that seperates the paths they chose.

So with that in mind, things like... mother died in child birth. Father died during a raid on their small village (orcs, goblins, whatever works). Oldest brother (all first born sons in the village maybe?) got conscripted to fight in a war where he (or most of them) died on the battlefield. Crops failed one fall and the area was scarce on game due to other monsters in the region (whatever raided the village is overhunting), so many villagers have died from starvation. A disease -- even just a virulent strain of flu -- killed off the villains only sister (and many in the village) due to no healer. We could even have the town elder die from old age... weak and infirm, bedridden, wasting away due to time. All these ways to die, and our villain can control absolutely none of them.

The village sort of assumes everyone in it was NPC level, which I think would be common for most small villages out in the wilds. The town watch aren't characters with levels in fighter, they're just NPCs with the guard statblock. The town healer is just a commoner who has proficiency with the herbalism kit. Players often take magic for granted, so having small, outlying villages with no magic at all should offer perspective.

I'm thinking... by this point our villain was already pretty broken, having seen so many fellow villagers die. They set out to find help. That's when they run into elves. Maybe the Elves save the villain from those same orcs or goblins? Maybe an owlbear? But they take them in, start to teach them magic. (First level in Wizard.) But the villain still has to help tbe village, so after a while he heads off towards a big town.

Villain finds a cleric. But the cleric won't work for free, and the village is poor. Maybe the villain tries to get a druid to help with crops, but runs into the same problem. Keep in mind, PCs often expect a reward or paymemt for helping people with their problems. Let's use that. Spin it. Make a very common PC behavior part of the reason our villain went bad. PCs think they're out saving the world and doing good things to help people... but are they? The fact no one would help the village convinced our villain you have to take care of yourself. There's no help unless you have money.

I do think, as our villain grows in power, he would actually want to help his village. They went through all the same tragedies. Maybe the village starts to be a little better off.

I'd be down to build a village in addition to the villain, letting them sort of grow together. It would also be a good place for PCs to investigate the villain, learn backstory, pick up plothooks and clues, things like that. With the caveat that the villagers view our villain as a hero. The villain is the reason they're better now than they were five, ten, twenty years ago.

Ok... that was a lot longer than I planned. Lol

Well, drink it in and let me know what you're thinking.

Ok, I've been doing a little thinking and planning (and having great fun with some random generators). If you're happy with the below intro, we'll run it from there, and fill in some backstory (e.g. mother's death in childbirth) as we go.

You grew up in the town of Berlingley in he heart of the Barisland Peninsula, part of the Kingdom of Newbore. Having shown some gifts with magic, you were invited to attend the Academy of Newbore, in the capital, where you had been studying for the last year and a half. Unfortunately, two months ago your studies were cut short. The Dominion of Felinland, Newbore's southern neighbour, made a surprise attack two fronts, attempting to quickly extend its lands and quickly sue for peace. Your entire class was conscripted and marched to the outskirts of Southam.

You awake in darkness. Your head is throbbing. Around you is a chorus of moans.

I think we can run with that.

How mechanical do we want to get with creation?

I think it's worth building a 5E character as normal. Let's start at level 4. That'll reflect a year and a half of study at the Academy.

Are we doing rolls, point buy, or standard array?

My preference is point buy (although I normally encourage random point buy as I don't particularly like players planning their characters too much). But you're welcome to do 4d6 drop 1.

Ok... digital click-clacks is still too much for me to pass up. If I roll too terribly I might beg to use point buy, but... I gotta roll them bones man. That's half the fun! Lol

Side note: The GP dice roller consistantly proves it hates me, but I'm going for it anyway. Wish me luck. Lol

Edit: Umm... ok, I think I can make this work. 17 in INT, 8 in STR, just have to figure out where I want the 15.

I've seen worse rolls. Should look pretty tidy once you've added on some race modifiers. You're playing human, right?

That's my plan. Variant, bump the 17 to 18 and the 15 to 16. Need to settle on my background too.

How are you getting on with the character creation?

Pretty good. The weekend ended up being a mess, but now that everything is back to normal again I should have it all finished up either tonight or (worst case) first thing tomorrow morning.

One odd side question -- can dragons be raised as undead?

Because if killing a white dragon and raising it as undead is viable (with all the same stats and abilities, just "undead" in addition) I might swap my wizard school... but that's an easy change.

No rush.
I think Dracolichs retain their powers from their pre-undead lives. I will do some reading.

Of course we can always homebrew. I'm thinking that as your character develops towards wanting immortality, he/she will conduct research as to possible avenues, so I'm anticipating making more than one possibility available.

I was considering trying to find an ancient white dragon to raise as an undead. Assuming it has normal stats, the level 14 ability from the Necromancy school is certainly appealing...

One of the biggest issues D&D has is action economy, a group taking on a single foe is very rarely fair... martials with multiple attacks, save or suck spells... single bad guys can easily just become punching bags, overwhelmed by getting bonked 8-12 times a round.

I figure I'll need something to level the playing field, and an undead Ancient White Dragon would go a long way towards making the fight fair.

Only an ancient or adult true dragon can be transformed into a dracolich. Younger dragons that attempt to undergo the transformation die, as do other creatures that aren't true dragons but possess the dragon type, such as pseudodragons and wyverns. A shadow dragon can't be transformed into a dracolich, for it has already lost too much of its physical form.

When a dragon becomes a dracolich, it retains its statistics except as described below. The dragon loses any trait, such as Amphibious, that assumes a living physiology. The dracolich might retain or lose any or all of its lair actions or inherit new ones, as the DM sees fit.

Type.
The dracolich's type changes from dragon to undead, and it no longer requires air, food, drink, or sleep.
Damage Resistance.
The dracolich has resistance to necrotic damage.
Damage Immunities.
The dracolich has immunity to poison. It also retains any immunities it had prior to becoming a dracolich.
Condition Immunities.
The dracolich can't be
charmed, frightened, paralyzed, or poisoned. It also doesn't suffer from exhaustion.
Magic Resistance.
The dracolich has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Sounds perfect.

I'm also anticipating other opportunities for you to get some minions. Taming an ancient white dragon by yourself might not be easy

So, the plan is to use hirelings to help kill it initially, and then raise it as undead. The level 14 Necromancy ability (with Silvery Barbs as needed) should give me a good chance to bring it under my control.

Obviously, the dice roller can always swing things, but he plan is sound.

Command Undead
Starting at 14th level, you can use magic to bring undead under your control, even those created by other wizards. As an action, you can choose one undead that you can see within 60 feet of you. That creature must make a Charisma saving throw against your wizard spell save DC. If it succeeds, you can't use this feature on it again. If it fails, it becomes friendly to you and obeys your commands until you use this feature again.

Intelligent undead are harder to control in this way. If the target has an Intelligence of 8 or higher, it has advantage on the saving throw. If it fails the saving throw and has an Intelligence of 12 or higher, it can repeat the saving throw at the end of every hour until it succeeds and breaks free.

Ancient White Dragons only have an INT of 10.

Per the published rules you'd be better to go after a white dragon dracolich, rather than create it yourself. The creation procedure is described as follows:

Creating a dracolich requires the cooperation of the dragon and a group of mages or cultists that can perform the proper ritual. During the ritual, the dragon consumes a toxic brew that slays it instantly. The attendant spellcasters then ensnare its spirit and transfer it to a special gemstone that functions like a lich's phylactery. As the dragon's flesh rots away, the spirit inside the gem returns to animate the dragon's bones.

But if you're keen to kill it first, I'm happy to homebrew the ritual.

The dracolich works. Same end result, really.

Some other low int undead:

zombie beholder
nightwalker
mummy lord

Also, you might like this.

Incidentally, when you first mentioned undead dragons, I thought you were exploring true polymorph to a dragon followed by ritual to dracolich as a path to immortality. It's not a terrible idea, but not as powerful as lichdom because there's less access to magic.

That's really not a terrible plan! But I was thinking about Lichdom for the villain, and an undead Ancient White under the villain's control. Two monsters working together with lair actions and Legendaries should be a real threat to a party.

Couple quick questions...

1. How am I looking for gear/money? At level 4, I feel like I'd have a little more than the starting equipment... but that's entirely your call.

2. How should we handle HP after level 1?

You're a student, so obviously you're broke! I'd say fairly little in the way of coin, let's say 50gp. But you've been conscripted by the army, so any non-magical gear you need. And I think you would have picked up a couple of magical trinkets, so pick two common magic items from this list.

For HP, either average per level or roll. If you re-roll, you may re-roll 1s.

Enduring Spellbook and Imbued Wood Focus as a staff (Mabaran Ebony, for a boost to necrotic damage) seem like the best picks.

Ok, so... it won't let me submit my sheet?

I'd closed it for applications, because you were already joined, but perhaps that's what's stopping you submitting the sheet.

I'll re-open now.

I read somewhere you might need to allow custom character sheets?

Double checked, the game is open for apps but I still can't submit the sheet. 🤔

Ah right. Try it now

There we go!

Awesome. I've got a busy couple of days, but will look to start on Saturday.

I'm excited to see how Tannis evolves on his descent into darkness!

No rush man, we all have jobs and lives. Lol

I'm excited to see this play out though. Nothing makes a story like a compelling villain, so if I can help make the story for your other games better, I see it as an absolute win!

Thanks for bearing with me. Chapter 1 has commenced!

(You should be able to see the thread, but let me know if not - I struggle some times with the permissions settings in GamersPlane)

No worries! I'll get to dig into it once I'm off.

Looks like a good start.

It seems to not want to let me post in character? Also, there is no listing at the footer for the character... I don't know if it's a setting, or an approval thing? I haven't GMed a game here, I'm sorry I don't have a better handle on your side of things regarding the website.

I think I've fixed that

Indeed, it appears you have. Excellent.

Sorry for the delay - life took a turn to the busy

No worries, it happens to all of us eventually. Hope all is well.

Chapter 1 is drawing to a close, so I'd be grateful for a couple of things out of character. Firstly, any feedback on Chapter 1 would be appreciated. Secondly, any out-of-character thoughts on where Tannis would like to go next. It's been fairly linear so far, but the world is now at Tannis' feet (subject to being unwelcome in Newbore City and the Academy).

Also, Tannis will level-up at the end of Chapter 1. I would prefer not to grant spells that wizards normally get at levelling up, but Tannis has a couple of spellbooks worth to get through.

Chapter one has been great. No complaints on my end. The story is immersive, the world feels full, and the pacing is good.

Tannis is going to study... as mentioned, he has plenty of spellbooks to go through, and he's sort of clinging to his magic (and the study of it) as all he has left. I expect he will become almost hyper-focused on his studies (and, with time, unreasonably protective of the spellbooks and foci of his fallen classmates and teacher). I also think that his dislike for the King's dishonesty will only fester and worsen with time.

Before he goes complete recluse... staying in Southam is probably easiest for now. If he has to get some sort of job, he will do what he needs to in order to survive, but his downtime will be spent focused on his studies.

Thank you for the feedback.

I have begun Chapter 2. Please level-up.

Just to clarify, was I adding the two spells during level up, or are we handling those acquisitions in-game?

We'll handle in-game, learning from the spellbooks.

In that case, rolling HP was all I had to do. Lol

I can prepare a list of the title (and short description) of the spells in Zanros' spellbook if that would be helpful for Tannis in deciding where to direct his learning. There are some homebrews I hope you will find interesting.

To clarify my point on learning from the spellbooks, you get 2 free spells per level, i.e. no ink cost. But you must pick from the spells available in the spellbooks.

I would like to require Tannis to buy the inks rather than just convert 50gp into spells. But I will also say that Tannis has on his person 150gp worth of inks currently.

So two ink-free spells and 150gp worth of ink for his learning.

That sounds perfectly reasonable. Obviously at some point Tannis will need coin to buy ink, but that isn't his first concern.

A quick (and possibly odd) question...

The background I used for Tannis has a few spells that are added to his list of spells he can choose to learn. However... some of them (Revivify, Death Ward, Greater Restoration, etc.) aren't normally Wizard spells. Which means, they won't commonly be found written down in spell books.

How do we want to handle those oddball cases?

Let's assume Tannis has on him materials to learn from in respect of those spells, something like a textbook from the Academy. Does that work?

Sounds good to me.

I just realized a few spells made for a bit of an odd situation, and figured I'd bring it up sooner rather than later.

Sorry, been busy with work. Should be able to post over the weekend.

No worries! We all have that from time to time.

I'm back. Sorry for the delay.

No worries. Last week was rather chaotic at work, so it worked out.

Well, if you come back let me know, this was a great game. For now though, I'm tidying up my page. Thank you for everything, and I hope we get to pick this back up.