Sir William Orison

Seems like a good start to me.

*edit* actually after reconsidering alot of things, your AC seems to be a bit high in the context of our group plus a few of your feats, i've never heard of ever.
I'll wait for other input from the rest of the guys.

ok interesting story it has a bit of old skool cuteness. again, lots of stuff about the person which is good, has the same problem as the other 'knight' as in there are two of you wanting knights but this PC looks more fleshed out and good to go. not sure about the animie style portrait but hey ho whatever floats your boat as it were.

there are a lot of rules in there i am not familiar with, obviously you want to get some things approved by the gang that arent in PHB or FRCS. i reckon i might leave it to iain/stef to look into those as its more their area of expertise. on the face of it though, it does look (not massively) a bit too powerful to fit with the current characters. which we would have to correct IMO.

additionally as we said on friday all mundane equipment is fine but the starting DM will tell you what you have with regard to magic items.

but overall i think with a few changes here and there there shouldnt be any reason why you couldnt run with this PC.

i will probably do a 'new guys' session when we are all free to iron things out prior to anyone getting pitched right in to the thick of the campaign.

speaking of which, if you or any of the other new guys are about this eve ill pop into the openRPG server around 1900-1930 UK time. not sure if we'll do anything other than chat but the offers out there.

Well, I'm not an artist and that's the best pic I was able to find online to represent him when I first created him.

Sir Orison has been in several different campaigns and I just keep progressing him into others cause he's one of my chars that I'm rather attached to. The last campaign he was in was indeed just as described in the last paragraph except we had not yet reached the battle with Malgoth when the campaign got discontinued. It's so hard to find a lasting game online... Anyway, I pretty much made up the last part where he got struck with a prismatic ray while fighting Malgoth to explain how he got stranded on another plane with only what he was wearing at the time. All the rest of his gear is kept in the saddlebags of his mount, Valor.

All of his feats, abilities, and equipment are in one of four books: PHB, PHB2, DMG, and ROS (races of stone). He has styled himself as a protector. hence why he has focused the majority of his training on defense. His high defense, together with his test of mettle ability lets him keep all the enemies focused on himself rather than his allies and actually survive the experience to do it again in the next hostile situation. lol

I've another campaign today for noon til 5, but I should be able to pop in and talk a bit whilst waiting for my char's turn since the group is so big. Open a 2nd window perhaps...

Robert

Please change the text colour to not red, I struggle to read it

I'm pretty wary I have to say of a character which looks like an MMO tank, with forced taunts and huge armour class with shield specialisations.

I've at least heard of the books you're quoting, though I've not actually read RoS!

The current PC's all tend to have some weakness. Korr has no armour, Tza has low HP etc. I can't see any flaws in this character and I rather worry that it might turn out unbalanced with the rest of the group.

Also, I wonder how a strongly LG PC is going to cope in a group which is essentially neutral with vague leaning towards good, but is wholly chaotic most of the time.

text change done, I'd used one of the other char posts as a template.

I'm not exactly sure what you're referring to as I don't play MMOs, Orison has trained in defense because he always protects others without regard to his own safety, as Illumination can tell ya from today's session.

Mostly, I've found that Orison's weakness is in his own character. As I'm sure Illum has already figured out, the self-sacrificing, trustful, honest, polite type can get into many difficulties. Also, since honorable combat is his code, it's always a head-on confrontation with no surprise, no tricks, and little tactics. And never ask him to make a ref save, lol.

As to his alignment coping, hehe that's what produces interesting role-play!

Robert

I whole have to also state my slight concerns about the alignment as, well i don't know if you've read any of the past logs of our storyline, but my pc (Velenur) has strayed somewhat from the chaotic/good side a little towards chaotic/evil, which is already casuing him some grief with Korr. Having another pc,, with even moe extreme views of being on the "Good" side may well be the end of Velenur, depending of course on how Velenur does things and reacts in his future progression as a PC. I'm not saying that it "WILL" be Velenurs downfall with this character but it makes things more uneasy. Could be interesting RP of course.

Well. I can see this is an old, much used and much loved character.

He is, however, MUCH more powerful than the other PCs in the group.

We can all put together top end PCs going through all the books and finding classes, abilities and feats which make our characters the best that they can be, but it's wholly not the style of our group. By making our characters a bit weaker, it gives the DMs a lot more flexibility.

Imagine a monster with a 50/50 chance to hit Sir Orison - such a monster would hit Korr, Tza or Velenur on a 2 (1 always misses). What's a challenge for Orison is deadly to the rest of the party and what's a challenge for them is easy work for Orison.

What we really need is characters of similar power levels as the rest of the group.

i ran a introduction suck it and see session last night for a couple of hours, ill post the log shortly as it is quite illustrative.

but i stole all his magic items before session so rob wasnt playing exactly with the version we have above.

furthermore. i havent exactly made up my mind yet on where id place these two characters in the overall power stakes following that session, its hard to say for me id be interested to hear iain's view on it.

if i was stating the case for the defence anyway it would be to say that in some campaigns out there you might need AC28 to stay alive for more than 5mins. but indeed and absolutely, not in our one by any means.

Ok - I've read the log of the mini-session now. General comments will go in the general thread .

The one thing specific to this character that I really REALLY hate is the test of mettle ability.

Consider the recent githyanki fight. Drosst Tharn was a clear setup for Korr, old enemies who are meant to have a massive fight with the dramatic ending as happened. But here comes good old Orison, who uses his test of mettle with DC 17 or something. Drosst is on will save +6, so chances are he is forced to attack Orison, instead of his arch enemy and nemesis Korr.

Not sure how to work around that one.

forced aggro skills (as i like to call them) can be good but in the example above, also a bad thing if it fucks with a storyline or pc.Intimidate checks, with good wording as to taunting the opponent are probably the way forward in situations like that

I have to agree, that particular power would seriously fuck with the RP and climb on my DMing breasts.

Whats the craic with the rest of the class and powers/feats etc, I havent read it yet, asides that one we all dislike is it a ok from you Trom?

Okay.

Stats are nice and clean. HP solid. Offensive is fine considering it's defensive minded and should provide innate balance with the more offense orientated PCs.

However the AC is too high and there are several powers that I van see becoming an issue, as already has been mentioned. I'm trying to think what a good base AC is. Unfortunately the low end of the scale is indeed extremely low, so we're going to have to put up with that a bit.

I'm thinking AC around 25/26 is operable. Especially considering shield bonus can easily be lost. Some of the powers are going to need twinking or nerfing however and I apologise in advance for that, but they'll just cause too many headaches from a DMing perspective. Now I don't want to fuck about with your build and character idea too much, so let us come to some agreements if we can.

Firstly your starting gear (or at least cash worth) will be decided by the starting DM. So that potentially helps the AC issue a little. Secondly are there any feats you'd be happy to change done of the AC buffing ones for? That may go some way.

Abilities wise. The Test of Mettle is going to have to be nerfed/changed slightly. Perhaps lower usage and 1/day. Perhaps single target. We can compromise on how this is going to work. There's a few other bits as well, but I'll address all the abilities properly later on.

Test of mettle, as well as bulwark of defense and shield ally, are the defining class abilities to allow the knight to protect those weaker than himself. That being said, I have absolutely no problem with you, as dm, saying that it fails to work on certain enemies due to rivalries etc. RP always trumps game mechanics in my view.

Robert

Oh wow, you posted while I was typing, lol.

Like I said before, his gear listed is what he was actually equipped with at the time he transported, I suppose it wouldn't make too big a difference to change it a tad bit... His shield was enchanted by a prior party member which he paid for, but the armor and ring were battle loot. So if you say that the armor found was just MW and he never found the ring, that would reduce his AC to 26. If you did that, it would make his net worth around 6,300- far under the standard for 8th of 27,000 (not that he was anywhere near standard in the first place, lol he's always been the most undervalued member of every party he's been in- mostly because he refuses to upgrade his sword and usually only accepts a partial share of loot since he believes that the valor and glory are reward enough for doing the right thing.

As to feats, no not really. shield specialization is prerequisite to shield ward which, with the amount of casters he's faced in the past, is rather essential (HUGE difference between touch ac of 10 and one of 17!) the armor optimization is standard knight training- it combines with the mastery knights get at 9th lvl to reduce plate's check penalty to only -1 since they are skilled mounted combatants as well.

I've already addressed what you said about test of mettle in my prior post.

Robert

oh, and my email is greystar81@aim.com

Standard is a word we don't do. Korr has like a +1 sword, a +1 bracers and a magic bag and he's level 9.

Now I will say all 3 of the rotating DMs have pointed to a problem with Test of Mettle and apart from the basic astonishment of us all 3 agreeing on something, you need to work with us to come up with some kind of compromise on it.

Aside from that one ability, I am fine with this character as far as it goes.

Isn't it fine to just give you the power to say that it simply does not work on certain enemies for RP reasons?

Sort of, but it could also result in your PCs hasty death to be honest. I mean. In my last stint, there some some HUGE battles... where you to direct all attention to yourself, you would die in two rounds if you did okay, otherwise one.

I'm presuming you're used to smaller games, we run things rough around here (or I do anyway )) combat wise. So long as you bear that in mind, I have no issue with it not always effecting literally *everything* around you, as long as you are.

Also, the working out is complicated and most of the time we don't use CR, so adjusting that to hit dice would be easier (also the other power that effects CR, just move it to pure HD).

Now.

If I'm getting this correct. It makes everything that has a CR higher than your level-3. So basically all the shitty weak mobs carry in raping stuff and all the biggest, toughest things about come over and rape you a new arsehole, yes?

Cos that sounds like a power that needs a lot of raise dead spells

Just bear that in mind.


Also. As Trom states. You have much more than everyone else in the group, there is no standard. I would have probably said about 10K for starting gear to keep with everyone else, so you're well over already. But I'll let someone else deal with gear because I'm not the current DM.

As I said. I like the concept and have no problem with it, we just need to work out these little kinks.

LOL! That's precisely why he has such good defense, with on average 4-8 things all focused on only him he takes enough damage from the lucky crit threat rolls. to have non-threat rolls hit him all the time would swiftly put him out of action. I think his current record is 13v1 which he managed to stand 5 rounds against.

Most times, you can equate HD and CR, but not always. some creatures are much stronger than their HD indicates. Especially those who have lots of abilities and immunities. I rather doubt the question should pop up much, if at all since if you say encounters are 'rough' there's rather unlikely to be much that are less than CR5.

LOL, you're pretty much right in that assessment. I'm thinking the reason is that only the strongest things are considered threat enough for the knight to have to occupy their attention where others can deal with the weaker enemies. Also, there's little honor and glory in defeating weak things. The knight gets another challenge at a later level that sends those weak things fleeing in terror.

Well over 10k??? Not hardly! As I said, were we to remove the ring and make the armor MW leaving the shield as-is, he'd be worth 6,300. So the ring being 2k and +1 armor being 1k, that would put his net worth as I have him posted at 9,300. Pretty much right on the 10k you said.

Robert

Bad timing. I've JUST been going through the magic item list

Ring of Protection +2 = 8,000 GP
+1 Full Plate = 2,650 GP.
+2 Heavy Shield = 4,170 GP
Total = 14,820 GP

Now idea what "called" armour is, but that likely adds +3,000 GP. If it's a modification, then it at least does add +3,000 GP.

Anyway

We'll use HD if that's okay. You say some creatures have a higher CR then HD, we'll then you'll attract them too and that's what you want, right? Besides some creatures are in reverse with a lower set of HD than CR, so it works both ways and should average out, in theory.

I would prefer the Test of Mettle ability to be within a 30' radius, but I want to see it in action properly before I make a call, so bare in mind I may, okay?

Anyway. I'm happy, but I really think you should be careful when you use your Test of Mettle ability, because I can see your losing your PC quickly and that would be a shame, because personally, I like it.

As a sidenote, because I try to run my combats as quickly as possible to keep a sense of time, I won't be rolling for your Test of Mettle ability, instead what I shall be doing is determining the average success rate and applying that.

For example, I think someone said the DC would be 17 (which makes sense for that kind of power).

Thus if your enemy has a +5 will save, I will just determine that 40% resist.

Btw. It's obvious a spell-like ability, but otherwise makes no practical sense, is there a spell resistance check?

Debbonair wrote:LOL! That's precisely why he has such good defense, with on average 4-8 things all focused on only him he takes enough damage from the lucky crit threat rolls. to have non-threat rolls hit him all the time would swiftly put him out of action. I think his current record is 13v1 which he managed to stand 5 rounds against.

And that right there is the best explanation of why this build isn't going to work in our campaign.

I dunno Trom. I can see this as the character most in danger of dying.

Then again. No one knows the next adventure apart from me

What is 'called' full plate, anyway?