Character Concepts & Campaign Info

Seconded! 5E doesn't place much requirement for a party to be "balanced", but I appreciate people like to have variation.

Welcome deathmtn!

I would say have a look at all the possibilities and go with what you feel you want to play; even within the same class there can be a lot of variation in builds. So pick what you think you will have the most fun with.

Yay, welcome deathmtn! One sort of general piece of advice is that as a group, we tend to be more storytelling/roleplaying focused and less min/max rulemasters, so don't worry about being the most useful or effective character, just be someone that you want to have fun playing. I know there is an imposing amount of backstory at this point, but if you are interested in digging in, you might find some little hook to build a character around.

This message brought to you by a Rogue with a crappy Perception skill.

This is a polite way of saying we do things like set fire to a basement (while we're in it) because the character thinks it's a good idea.
Hello from the cleric whose god mostly ignores him.

Good to know! The in-person game that I DM is mostly filled with characters that aren't good at their jobs. Thieves with a dexterity of 9, and fighters with hp penalties for low constitutions. It's good times!

I read some PHB last night, and I'm thinking of going for an old-school gnome illusionist, with one level of some other class to help them keep up the…illusion that they're not a gnome illusionist. Does this sound like it's going to be too much (distracting, non-fun) hassle with the villagers and what not?

If so, that one kind of wizard that gets his power from Great Old Ones sounds fun, too.

Or: a guy that literally has four different classes and has a lot of trouble making decisions in general. A very ketchup/catsup kind of guy.

Oh, hey, I can roll right here! Is there a way to tell the roller "roll four dice and take the top three"? That's a thing I never bothered to implement in my own dice-rolling program, either.

Yis, noodle arms!

Rest of stats:

So:

STR: 7
DEX: 13
CON: 17
INT: 11
WIS: 14
CHA: 14

I'm leaning toward mediocre illusionist! With maybe one level of rogue or cleric.

No "drop lowest" rules for the roller here, just straight dice rolls I think. I like the "roll stats and decide your archetype based on that" method but I've never done it - I usually get too invested in a specific idea. Maybe next time I play in a new game...

FWIW, sorcerer and warlock might work better with those stats - sorcerer uses Wis and Con, Warlock Cha and Wis.

Hey, it was to cover our escape. I didn't realize it would burn the escape route quite so quickly. Besides, it's not D&D if some fool doesn't torch his own party with a Fireball at some point, right? Anywaysm we're kind of a bunch of bumblers - we're on the side of right, but we manage to muck things up pretty good every time.

I'm trying to remember if we rolled or just used a standard array? Anyways, don't forget your racial modifiers as well - I think gnomes get a flat +2 to Int, and then depending on subrace, a bonus to either Dex or Con? I'm sure pbo will be along shortly to talk you through character creation.

Pretty sure PBO said use whatever method you want to generate attributes. It's been a minute since I did it your way, deathmtn. Reminds me of when I started playing back in the 1st edition days. Let me know if you need help with character creation as an old skool player in a 5E world.

You can do some fun and silly things with the dice roller

I kid because I love :)
Personally I used point-buy but that comes from playing video game RPGs for years and liking being able to fine-tune stats.

I'm rather amused by how it all went down myself, but one thing with playing by post is that you don't know if your character's stupid move has pissed off the rest of the table. Anyways, I'm hoping we all escape by the skin of our teeth, which seems to be our usual mode of operation.

Welcome aboard, deathmtn! Good to have you back in the Bloadverse!

Feel free to dig through the previous chapters, and please check out The Sourcebook when you have a moment, but for now here's everything you need to know about the plot: The party is pursuing a cult known as the Six-Pronged Crown that is trying to pull off some sort of large-scale eschatological tomfoolery with the help of a magical artifact, the Iron Sphere of Sthombo. After many strange adventures, they confronted an apparition of the cult's leader (Gavrel Gorham), who taunted them saying that he had found the Sphere, and that all the murders and skullduggery thus far had been the result of misunderstandings and that he would be happy to explain his cult's true intentions and purposes if they would meet with him in person, and that the priest of the village of Alband would be able to take the party to visit him. The party went to Alband, and met the village priest, who turned into an undead monster and attacked them in the church basement. The church is now on fire, the party members are trying to escape the basement, and it's unclear what has happened to the priest.

In the background of all this, the party is trying to get assistance from half of the divided government of the city of Hazard (the most powerful city on Bload), who are at odds with each other and involved in their own weird intrigues that may or may not be intersecting with the Six-Pronged Crown's activities.

Gnome Illusionist will work just fine, if that's what you're leaning towards! There are very few gnomes in Bload, but there is a small population of them living in the Badgerways, a massive dungeon/cavern network that lies under the hills near Hazard. Most of them are in the employ of Wormfellow, an old gnome well-known as a guide/fixer/merchant/hustler in the Ways.

Any questions, hit me up. Bload is gonna be lit in 2019, guys.

So THAT'S who Wormfellow is.
I mean the basement is already

Yes, that's Wormfellow. You stumbled upon his street team's marketing campaign.

Still waiting for somebody to spot the same Easter egg Ezeriah caught...

Hey, we got the whole church. But getting the whole island lit is going to take significantly more effort on everyone's part.

Thanks! I just did it the way described in the 5E PHB, which is really generous compared to the 1E and 2E ways. I think I'm cool with this (I just enjoy wonky random results), except maybe I'll indulge in a swap between INT and something else.

I read through the sourcebook/encyclopedia last night! Very rich stuff.

So, I generated a name: Annganne Anne!

I'm thinking she will be a conspiracy theorist that came to Bload from Engol to research the Six-Pronged Crown to fit it into her current unified theory about the Werld being controlled by sentient extraplanar hexagons. She did not expect there to be no gnomes in Hazard, and quickly got into conflicts before ever getting to knock on the door of the College of Scribes. Then, Annganne Anne fled to the Badgerways, where she allied with Wormfellow for a time before deciding to head above ground again in search of knowledge.

Does that fit in? Feel free to modify, reject, or suggest!

Also, if I go the warlock route, does Anneganne Anne have to be evil in order to get her powers from Dagon? Or just merely interested in the sea and its mysteries?

Also, re: sourcebook: I hope to meet Bagu someday!

I like this. How old would Annganne be?

I'm thinking maybe she met someone from Banwod who had been there when Gorham was in the process of reviving the 6PC, made the numerological connection, and got on a boat to Orsen. Her lack of familiarity with Bloader culture would have complicated her attempts to make the overland trip to Banwod, and eventually, the need for money and protection would have led her to seek out her fellow gnomes, and the best the demihuman whisper networks of Bload would have to offer is the suggestion that she look for them in the Badgerways.

So there she went, and it didn't take long for her to cross paths with Wormfellow, who kept about twenty gnomes in his employ, keeping his various enterprises afloat. He had plenty of jobs for a magic-user, so she was kept busy and was getting paid, but her research was put on the back burner.

Eventually, rumors started circulating that a metal monster was stalking the Badgerways, and that the Badger-King Everil (an eccentric character that occasionally butted heads with Wormfellow) had been killed. And the next wave of rumors spread the idea that the strange events in the Badgerways were linked to the ascendance of a new cult in Hazard: the Six-Pronged Crown.

Returning to the surface Werld, Annganne sought out more information, soon learning of stolen artifacts, dragon attacks, and a mercenary company that had been hired by some unknown patron to stamp out the 6PC. Some said they were led by a Jermal war-priest, others claimed that a cunning half-devil was their commander...

You don't have to be evil to be down with Dagon, but you wouldn't be lawful good or directly adjacent.