Character Creation

Welcome and happy holidays! What better time than Christmas to do a super spooky adventure full of death and misery?

Like I said in the game description, the Player's Handbook, Sword Coast Adventure Guide, Volo's Guide to Monsters, Elemental Evil Player's Companion, and Xanathar's Guide to Everything are all allowed. Homebrewed classes, subclasses, races, rules, and backgrounds, along with those provided by Unearthed Arcana, must be run by me before being put into place.

We are starting at 1st level. I would like you all to use the standard array for stats (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) or use the point buy system for stat making (provided on page 13 of the PHB under "Variant: Customizing Ability Scores) for which I have a handy calculator. I would also like, in the time between everyone submitting their characters and me starting the game, if you guys crafted introductory paragraphs, characterizing dialogue, or even entire backstories to involve the characters with each other and offer an explanation to why they are all in a particular roadside inn, drinking together. (It's not a requirement but it would be nice.)

And yes we are starting in a tavern. No evil characters and, if you are chaotic neutral, try not to be a stereotype. Alignments are subject to change based upon your in-character behavior because they are descriptive, not restrictive.

I forgot to say on the game description that I prefer that you haven't read the Curse of Strahd book or, to a lesser extent, played or listened to the adventure, though I would hope this was a given.

I also would like to say, to those that this applies to, try not to only pick class-character combinations because they make for mechanical benefit. The first priority is making interesting characters.

What character ideas are you guys thinking of?

I’m playing a halfling rogue.

Would a dwarf alchemist artificer be allowed?

Would be using the artificer class found here.
The pdf is free (class is UA).

Also;

Yes, you are allowed.

Titan, are you sure you're reading the alchemical formulas section correctly? I read it as you get Alchemical Fire and Acid along with one other formula that you choose. You seen to have taken Alchemical Fire and two of your choice.

Yes, I misread it. I'll change it. Thanks for letting me know.

You're very welcome.

The name is Ryn Al'Thurin. I'm just your typical celestial touched warlock. I died, or almost died at birth and some celestial creature decided to come down and interfere. So being born near death, or dead, and having a Ki-Rin show up and "bless" you means that I owe him one, and it means that any chance at a normal life is down the tubes. Fate touched is what they said. I mean could I have been a fate touched baker or carpenter? Even a fate touched tavern owner? No, of course not, and I had a great name picked out too, the "Golden Eye" you know on account of my one golden eye.

All of those would have led to a great life, friends, family, a simple life where I probably won't die from a demonic curse, or dragon fire. A noble life where I could have died like a normal person, at 50 from cholera or the plague. But no, some celestial creature "cures" me and now I have to do his bidding. Has anyone else ever noticed that the words cures and curse are just one letter off?

Anyway, so here's my agenda; get enough good deeds and gold together to wipe off my marker with that celestial creature, and start my own simple life owning a tavern. Nothing else.

I've got some healing capabilities also. I did end up taking the healing tonic as my third alchemical formulae.

...A rogue, a warlock, and an alchemist walk into a tavern...

The name is Baroth Stormwind. He is a silver dragonborn paladin and a follower of Bahamut, the great platinum dragon. He is a soldier and vanquisher of evil. He seeks vengeance and righting wrongs that have been done by others. He wields a sword and shield into battle. His silver scales match his silver chain mail.

Now begins the character connection segment where I want you all to come up with the following.
-How you all met each other and became friends.
-Why you all are inside The Spinning Wheel Inn, an old tavern near Daggerfel, sitting at a table.

*I'm not expecting anything grand, as it likely won't come up, but I find it helps the quality of the role playing if the characters are in a party for more reason than being hired for the same job or stuck in the same situation.

I would like to improve a bit and make it seem a bit less ambitious as I do have my own adventure to run and you all are still first level. Perhaps afterwords we could pursue something as mysterious as The Eyes of the Dark.

Perhaps you all helped destroy a small band of bandits connected with The Eyes of the Dark that have been cleverly covering a system of roguish banditry and you are in the tavern to celebrate a job well done.

Everything else is fine with me.

As long as you haven't just met them, that is also fine.

I’m fine with however we met. My backstory has my celestial Patron guiding me to do good, so I could have been led to meetup and aide Baroth in some past quest, or led to any of the others as long as they’d aren’t evil alligned. I see him as more of a wanderer staying and helping for a short while until moving on when I’m being led away.

I like that. I can role with that.

That works, maybe you guys hired me shortly after he left his home to assist in dealing with the bandits connected to this cult. He'll be sticking it out with you guys because he likes the company nevermind the payment, he informs you all that if you just buy him a round each, the debts settled.

Keep in mind though, he is a little... odd.

Seems like we are all in agreement.

Yup!

I'm good with everything

Welcome Silver.hawk! Once the players get out of their current sticky situation, your character will join the game at 3rd level. Feel free to go back through the threads to get a read on what type of campaign this is.

As far as explaining why you're here, we have limited options. My idea is that you are either lost and ended up traveling through the Svalich woods or investigating the recent disappearances of those traveling this direction.. It would be quite useful if your character recognized one of the PC's already.

Ok. How much time (realtime) do I have before I should be ready? I just looked at the party comp and am thinking of maybe a cleric or bard for support purposes. I'm fine with being a healer and I saw that Coach and Titan have some healing capabilities but not a main. Also, how much RPing are you expecting?

Anywhere between 3 days and a week. That's sounds like a good idea. A fair amount would be nice but you can do however much you like.

Cool. I'll start building my char then. Btw, I work overnights Sun night-Thurs night. Hopefully that doesn't cause any issues. I will be checking on posts whenever I able to.

Cool. Depending on how much time we have, we might even do a pre-adventure of sorts of you traveling Svalich road and reaching the township of Barovia while the rest finish up what they're doing.

Character check please? I used point buy for skills and for the Hit Points after 1st lvl I used the "5+CON modifier" method.

I didn't come up with a backstory because I still need to read what's happened already with the group and I don't know the locale or lore that I'm appearing in. Also, haven't picked a deity for same reasons.

We're using the forgotten realm pantheon and I transcribed the events in the "timeline" thread of the World Guide. We are in the Forgotten Realms setting and are near the Daggerfel area.

Also, you must submit the character to my game so i can view it.

Submitted

It looks fine to me except that you put the gold value you use if you buy all your equipment. 10gp is the correct amount granted by your background.

Now that all the technical stuff is over with, lets work out why your character would be where the others are right now. Try to make a backstory with the limited amount of information and then you can decide whether or not you would like to play out your journey to the town while we wait or begin when you all join together.

I wrote a bit of a backstory to explain my divine magic but I'm not sure how I will meet up with the group. I set out on a journey from my village to aid those in need and spread my deitys influence so it might make sense that I would stumble across them at their current location.

Perhaps. I think it would fit better thematically if you, in your journey, became hopelessly lost in a fog and ended up traveling down the road toward Barovia. It could also be that you've had dealings with a party member in the past. This would make joining the party very easy. Volunteers?

I swapped my Thaumaturgy Cantrip for the Guidance Cantrip.

In accordance to my diety's command to help those in need, heal the injured, and spread his influence, I traveled the land, helping and healing and in the course of my wanderings I met Ryn Al'Thurin. Seeing that he Was also touched by a "diety" (of sorts) we got along together pretty well, despite our views on the nature of the relationship with our respective diety's. He sought to do enough good to wipe his "debt" clean and return to a normal life, whereas I felt thankful for the divine act that saved my sister, my town, and myself. We became decent acquaintances, not necessarily friends, and separated at some point in the recent past for some reason. (Not for a bad reason. Maybe I went to a village that needed help and he decided to go aid someone elsewhere at the time.) after leaving the village I went to aid, I was returning to the local town for the area when I became lost in a thick fog. After wandering around for what seemed ages I stumbled onto a small decrepit, seemingly abandoned village where I find Ryn and his party.

Good, as long as Coachthor knows about it and is fine with it.

Wil is leveled up. Don't know if you wanted to take a look or not, Endermun.

Inquisitive. Nice.

Yeah, I thought it would suit Wil, considering the supernatural crap that he is around here in Barovia.

Certainly but would the horror of Barovia so far deprive him of his ninja aspirations?