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Why are the Dragonlance metallic dragons so paralyzed by the threat of something happening to their eggs? Having your kids held hostage definitely is terrible, but is there something else like “no more eggs ever”?
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Dec 28, 2019 02:53
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No, just these ones. So, you know, just the emotional trauma of your kids being held hostage. Just because you can make more doesn't render that a bad threat (for normal people), and it's hard not to sympathize with them for backing off, even if the stakes are 'the whole world'.
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Dec 28, 2019 03:04
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grassy gnoll posted:
One of the more vital things for any sci-fi/fantasy setting is to know when to do weird world-building stuff and when to put things in Earth terms. The old 70s Battlestar Galactica used measures of time like Centons and Cycles? How long were those? gently caress only knows. And mostly it wasn't an issue. The first episode of the new BSG was titled "33 Minutes." Because every time the human refugee fleet came out of an FTL jump, exactly 33 minutes later the enemies bent on its destruction would arrive from their jump and move to attack, at which point the fleet had to jump again. We're told that this has been going on for the last 200 jumps or so. And nobody can get any proper sleep because of that. So everyone in the fleet - including the folks keeping everyone else alive - has gone without sleep for the last four days. So we get that this is a situation that has to get fixed fast or everyone is going to die. Imagine trying to convey that in the old BSG. "We've made over 200 FLT jumps. Every four centons the Cylons find us again. Nobody's been able to sleep for almost 25 Cycles. If we can't figure a way out of this within the next couple of Grakenfarts, we're screwed." Now, one thing the new BSG did was cut the corners off of paper and books. Every piece of paper and every books resembled a slight octagon. And it was never explained. Not even once. This was just a thing the human did that was utterly commonplace. I mean, when was the last time you talked to another human being about why books are rectangular or pie pans are round? That was a neat bit of "these people are like us, but they aren't actually us" world-building.
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Dec 28, 2019 03:10
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Midjack posted:Why are the Dragonlance metallic dragons so paralyzed by the threat of something happening to their eggs? Having your kids held hostage definitely is terrible, but is there something else like “no more eggs ever”? dragon sex is traumatic for everything in a 10-mile radius, including the dragons
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Dec 28, 2019 03:43
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:dragon sex is traumatic for everything in a 10-mile radius, including the dragons This, except with big-rear end lizards with WMD breath weapons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-GbIRWfhz8
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Dec 28, 2019 04:23
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StratGoatCom posted:I can see the thought process - it's easier to get away with that if you can respawn. I like the gatecrashing/colonization system, and enjoy it not happening in a regular Traveller/age of sail in space/etc setting. I realize I'm saying the best way to interact with the setting is to limit your contact with it, but still.
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Dec 28, 2019 06:12
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Midjack posted:Why are the Dragonlance metallic dragons so paralyzed by the threat of something happening to their eggs? Having your kids held hostage definitely is terrible, but is there something else like “no more eggs ever”? Also it was like all of the Eggs. However because the Dragon Army were not capable of shying away from being dog kicking evil once they made the deal they hosed with the eggs, and the metallic dragons eventually learned that the eggs were being sacrificed to make Draconians. EimiYoshikawa posted:No, just these ones. Well the whole world for the non dragon races. The Metallics would have probably been largely unaffected for a good while.
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Dec 28, 2019 09:07
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 Chapter Three: Gods & the Orders This chapter’s a bit poorly titled; it implies that it covers the relationship between the deities of Dragonlance and the Orders. While this part is true, it’s more like The Gods, and also the Orders in terms of subject matter in that we cover subjects of a secular nature as well: the history of arcane magic in Ansalon and Conclave politics. The Gods of Magic & Role of the Other Gods in Magic I’m combining these two sections into one due to related material. We first cover the three gods of magic. Solinari, Lunitari, and Nuitari are also the same names for the three moons in the sky and have an intrinsic connection, although more in a sense of “Apollo is the god of the sun” rather than “Apollo is the sun.” They have less of a hostile status between each other than the traditional good/neutral/evil divide of their divine peers; more of a rivalry than a blood feud. Individual members of the Orders do come into conflict, but the Orders and their patrons’ uniting cause is the promotion and regulation of magic. When primal sorcery ran wild in the Age of Dreams, the Orders figured that pooling their resources for these overarching goals but otherwise remaining autonomous was an ideal compromise. But the return of primal sorcery in the Age of Mortals is straining the Orders’ once-strong bonds on how to handle the increasing number of spontaneous magic users.  Solinari’s Ideology promotes the use of magic for the public good along with caring for those unable to help themselves. During the rise of the Kingpriest it appears that anti-arcane sentiment was not limited to just Istar’s government, for Solinari was trying to convince the other Gods of Good that they should not fear those who practiced it and was one of the few among their number to view the rise of the Kingpriest as a bad thing. Wait, hold on a second here. The Kingpriest’s anti-magic purges were something the good-aligned deities agreed with, and not one of the reasons for why they brought about the Cataclysm?! Was their breaking point the anti-kender laws or the mind-reading secret police or something? In spite of his “magic for all” ideology, Solinari’s limits are reached when it comes to primal sorcery, viewing magic which cannot be regulated by the Orders as a force that can destroy the world. But he views Nuitari’s advocation of Sorcerer genocide as going too far. As a result, the White Robes heavily encourage sorcerers to join the Orders as equals. Supposedly that is; Solinari is getting along with his evil brother due to a shared distrust of sorcerers.  Lunitari’s Ideology is more -freespirited than her two brothers and views all forms of rules and regulations with suspicion, which makes me wonder why she agreed to the creation of the Orders in the first place. She and the Red Robes view magic as a means of self-empowerment, and that its study should be encouraged in all its forms as a means of furthering this. She and the Red Robes are also the most tolerant of sorcerers, and Lunitari has been known on a few rare occasions to manifest in front of a primal magic user just to ask them questions and develop research rather than for the purposes of conversion. She takes a hands-off approach and even encourages sorcerers and wizards to cooperate, but if primal magic users ever made their own equivalent Orders then she is in agreement with Nuitari that they should be crushed. So much for the Tolerant Middle.  Nuitari’s Ideology encourages magic as self-empowerment like Lunitari, but also to use that power to dominate others. They obey the bureaucracy of the Orders and Conclave in a “strength in numbers” way given the many centuries of anti-magic sentiment which threatens them all. Nuitari is on particularly poor terms with the divine evil gods on account that Takhisis has a track record of stealing magical power for herself; both in the creation of her own order of the Gray Robes and with the theft of the world during the Chaos War. But he’s encouraged the spread of arcane magic among the minotaur race in spite of their cultural distrust, viewing them as the next rising superpower on Krynn. Nuitari has found new reasons to bond with his good-aligned sibling due to sharing a distrust of primal sorcery; like Solinari he believes that they may destroy the world if left unchecked, but he encourages his Black Robes to murder sorcerers where they can rather than attempt to recruit them. Lunitari just looks at her brothers and goes “you both are crazy.” So how do the Other Gods view and approach arcane magic? Well they mostly take a hands-off approach, using their own divine magic to control and regulate their followers. This was different during the rise of Istar during the Age of Might, where the good-aligned gods minus Solinari gave the Kingpriest their blessings to limit the power and influence of the Orders due to a belief in the “absolute power corrupts absolutely” when it came to arcane magic. Even up to and including state-sanctioned violence. The gods of magic were quite rightfully pissed off at the Gods of Light for being hypocritical bastards, but their protests fell on deaf ears. The Black Robes and a sizeable amount of Red Robes suggested an eye for an eye to show the Kingpriest that they’re not to be trifled with, although the White Robes realized that they will not win against Istar long-term and sought a possible compromise/ceasefire. A ceasefire which in the next chapter we find out was sabotaged by a Black Robe assassination attempt (see Istar: the Bloody-Fingered Hand entry). Eventually the rest of the pantheon realized that granting legitimacy to the Kingpriest’s government was a terrible idea, and eventually set in the biblical signs which led to the Cataclysm. The gods withdrew from the world afterwards, save the three Gods of Magic who really had nothing to atone for when it came to Istar’s rise. After the rest of the pantheon returned to the world during the War of the Lance they adopted a more respectful yet arm’s-length attitude towards the Orders, not eager to repeat the mistakes of the past. There’s no mention of how the Neutral pantheon felt about Istar’s policies. The evil gods were no doubt opposed, although in the sense that they were the ones whose worshipers were suffering the most at the Kingpriest’s hands. Takhisis is the major exception to the arcane-divine divide. Nuitari being her son, she initially thought he’d be loyal to her upon his birth and resented the fact that he kept the powers of the Black Robes under his exclusive thumb all these millennia. She decided that she would create her own order of wizards shortly before the Fifth Age. Takhisis’ Gray Robes were a new subsection of her new knightly order, using a cosmic magical loophole to grant them arcane magic directly while also subtly recruiting from the Black Robes. The Gods of Magic, Nuitari in particular, were angry at the usurpation of their power, but their demands for punishing Takhisis were put on hold when Chaos broke out of the Graygem and all hell broke loose. She took the world and hid it from the other gods in the confusion, and for a time was Krynn’s only true deity. But a lot of stuff happened in the War of Souls novels: she died, Paladine became mortal, and now the Gray Robes and the Knights of Takhisis (now the Knights of Neraka) are a godless, secular order yet still potent in the magical arts. So long story short, the Gods of Good and the Gods of Magic are power-hungry hypocrites who talk a big game about ideals but throw that all out when a possible threat to their status quo arises. History of High Sorcery  Age of Starbirth: The mortal races did not exist yet, and the gods were fashioning the very fabric of the void into reality. The sparks from Reorx’s forge created the stars which contained spirits. The gods warred over these potential new spirits and what to do with them, and as a compromise the spirits were fashioned into mortal bodies (good gods) with free will (neutral) but would sicken, age, and die (evil so that they can be tempted). The three moons were placed into the heavens so that the Gods of Magic would look down upon the world. The Graygem held a bit of Chaos, the primordial entity which existed before time and space had meaning, and was secreted away within Lunitari’s moon in an attempt to calm the raging entity. Age of Dreams: the only known magic was divine magic, and the elves and ogres received many blessings. The humans, children of the neutral gods, were exploited by the others because the neutral gods withheld their magic for unknown reasons. The gnomes built a spaceship to Lunitari and ended up taking the Graygem down to Krynn to harness as a power source but ended up breaking it. The primordial energy spawned and twisted life all over Krynn, giving birth to new races as well as primal sorcery which until now only dragons could manipulate. The gnomes tried to hunt down the now-mobile Graygem which wreaked havoc all over the place, but the few hunters were warped into the first non-dragon primal magic users and became the Scions. Spontaneous displays of sorcery began to spring up among the other races. The elves got tired of humans and ogres and colonized a forest filled with dragons. Neither side was eager to live alongside each other and they ended up in a war. The three Gods of Magic shown dreams to the elves of how to create five magic runestones* to end the First Dragon War, absorbing the dragons’ spirits into the stones and burying them deep within the mountains. *If you think these sound like the Dragon Orbs, they’re not. These won’t be invented until the Third Dragon War. The dwarves dug too deep and rediscovered the runes, letting out the spirits which returned to the dragons’ bodies. The dragons declared war against the elves again with the aid of ogres and lizardfolk, with both sides making use of sorcery in the Second Dragon War. The all-out arcane warfare rent such massive devastation to the land that the Gods of Magic gathered up the three greatest sorcerers in a citadel and cast them into the Beyond. Vowing to never let such a catastrophe happen again, the Gods of Magic worked with the sorcerers in the citadel in finding ways of reshaping Primal Sorcery into safer conduits. And here the seeds of the Orders of High Sorcery were planted, philosophical ideals and scholarly workings penned down for future generations known as the Foundations of Magic. They spread their findings among trusted members of the mortal races and constructed the Towers of High Sorcery, working together to learn and control arcane magic. The Third Dragon War came when Takhisis decided to lead the chromatic dragon clans in conquering Ansalon. This was an age of myths and legends, when a brash upstart Red Robe named Magius and a promising young knight named Huma went on an epic fantasy RPG journey to defeat Takhisis with the aid of the newly-forged Dragonlances. The Orders were not slacking off during this time, and the entire Conclave participated in a ritual to create the Dragon Orbs based off of elven magic blueprints. Each Tower thus had its own orb to safeguard after the war ended. Age of Might: Takhisis was slain by Huma and Krynn was at peace. The empires of the elves, Solamnia, and Ergoth were fading in comparison to the rise of Istar, which would soon grow to be the American Evangelical Christian version of Lawful Good: preaching a lot about holiness but acting like hypocritical Lawful Evil jerks. The Kingpriests were so obsessed with wiping evil from the world that they enforced more and more oppressive laws: making even neutral-aligned faiths illegal, enslaving and genociding entire races which had “fallen from the Light,” declaring kender inherently evil and offering bounties for their deaths and capture, and the belief that the Orders’ vaunted self-regulation wasn’t enough when arcane magic could be potentially learned by anybody without the aid of a god. With the blessings of the Gods of Light and the unknown sabotaging of the Towers’ various groves, Istar’s armies besieged the Towers. During this time wizards were hunted down and murdered all over the Empire. The Orders’ headquarters were forced back to the Tower of Wayreth at the southwest end of the continent, the only Tower which remained standing. It turned out that a crafty Black Robe archwizard named Fistandantilus revealed to the Kingpriest that he helped sabotage the Tower groves so that he’d be the greatest remaining mage on Krynn, and that he should be appointed as a governmental advisor due to the great boon he granted to the unwitting Kingpriest. Despite being very, very obviously Evil, the Kingpriest agreed…but only because he wanted to keep and eye on him and not because this is an obvious political power grab! The Kingpriest is still Lawful Good, guys, Paladine still granted him spellcasting ability up to the time when- gently caress it, there’s really no justification for this. The Gods of Light are hypocritical bastards. The Age of Despair: Eventually the Gods of Light came to see reason when the Kingpriest started appointing secret police with mind-reading magic items to arrest people who were so much as thinking naughty thoughts. But even after rapturing up the few genuine Clerics left, Istar’s populace was still loyal to the Kingpriest. So arrogant was he that he eventually tried to command and enslave the gods themselves because he thought that he could do a better job at fighting evil than they can. The gods sent their answer with a giant meteor smack-dab in Istar’s capital, which would affect the rest of Krynn irreversibly. Everything sucked during this age. The majority of the populace (quite rightly) were angered at the untold suffering and genocide that the gods brought about during Istar’s reign, and also the giant frickin’ meteor which plunged most of the eastern continent underwater and the ensuing geo-political struggles which followed. The loss of divine magic hurt even more when injuries and plagues grew out of control. The wizards saw things differently. Many were also resentful, but the three moons still hung above, still channeling arcane magic to Order members with the movement of celestial bodies. The gods they served never left them unlike the rest of the pantheon. Things still weren’t easy; many people still hated and feared wizards due to Istaran cultural holdovers, and being the sole spellcasters left on Krynn made people even more fearful of their power. The loss of four Towers severely impacted their ability to find prospective mages, set up academies, hunt renegades, and conduct research. The rise of the Dragon Empire in eastern Ansalon spooked the Red and White Orders, and the Black Robes entered into a secret alliance with the Dragonarmies and much of their number departed from the Tower of Wayreth. The leader of the White Robes sought to create a living magical superweapon by finding a candidate whose power would be refined via a magical forging of the soul. That superweapon’s name? Raistlin Majere. Age of Mortals: This is the Age at which most Dragonlance fans declared the setting RUINED FOREVER. The Graygem broke open, unleashing Chaos into the world. All of the gods banded together to unite their mortal forces against this threat to all reality, and the Knights of Takhisis were formed as the evil counterpart to the Solamnic Knights. Takhisis formed the Order of Gray Robes as part of this knighthood, who quickly took over much of the continent during and after the Chaos War. While the rest of the gods were recuperating, Takhisis stole the world. By cutting off Krynn from the moons and the rest of the gods, this made her the sole deity who can grant both arcane and divine spells...of a prepared nature. Sorcerers were the only group that remained unbound to her dominion. During this time countless wizards resorted to draining magic items of their power to “recharge” their daily spells without the conduit of the moons, and some tried to become primal sorcerers to varying degrees of success. Palin Majere would go on to found a formal order for primal sorcerers. The Wizards of High Sorcery fell into such desperate measures that the Conclave “permanently” disbanded as an organizational body. Things would get back to relative normalcy after Weis and Hickman released the War of Souls book series and the surviving members of the Heroes of the Lance went on an adventure which brought the gods back through time travel and other shenanigans. Takhisis ended up getting killed by Paladine for causing this whole mess in the first place; but Paladine made himself mortal to “preserve the balance.” The three Gods of Magic reformed the Orders and Conclave, but have a lot of work to do in regaining what they lost. Mistress Jenna of Palanthas, the head of the Red Robes, also became Master of the reformed Conclave and Master of the Tower of Wayreth in a clear violation of the checks and balances vital to reasonable limits on governmental power. But everyone seems fine with that for now. Given Solinari and Nuitari’s fledgling anti-sorcerer bromance and how mean and petty the non-neutral alignments are in Dragonlance, this may be the least of all evils. Oh, if you’re wondering whether or not the Wizards destroyed the primal sorcery academy, it was already destroyed earlier by Beryllinthranox, one of the five alien mega-dragons whose plane of existence ended up adjacent to Krynn when Takhisis stole the world. The Fifth Age was weird, man. Structure & Rules of the Conclave  The Towers were regional affairs, and the Orders were divided by philosophy, but some universal body had to unite them all. The Conclave, a council of 21 divided by 7 mages of each Order, make decisions by majority vote on issues which can affect all member wizards across Ansalon. Their votes determine the selection of the Masters of the Towers, and the Master of each of the three Orders is drawn from someone serving on the Conclave. Unlike the Masters of the Tower, the Masters of the Orders can still sit on the Conclave and the three can cast tie-breaking votes and make decisions on behalf of their fellow Order Conclave members voting-wise when others cannot attend. And of those three Order Masters, one can become the Head of the Conclave who acts as a final arbiter and whose position is held for life barring gross incompetence, defying the result of a Conclave vote, or other reasons that demand the Head’s immediate removal. It’s not mentioned if there are term limits or how long a Conclave seat is held for non-Heads in this case. Each Order has its own means of determining from among the Conclave seats who should be their Master. The White Robes are naive in the ways of politics and trust that their number will make the right decision when all options and points of view are presented in an open and honest manner. The Red Robes, much like their patron, aren’t exactly fond of bureaucratic red tape and determine their Master by drawing lots from among the seven Conclave members. The Black Robes hold secret competitions among their own which are usually dangerous wizard duels. Not gonna lie, I kind of like how none of the Orders’ methods guard against magical or political corruption, and only the White Robes’ system has any means of selecting someone with a skill set based on good governing skills. Reminds me of the engineers and woo phenomenon. Conclave meetings are commonly held at dates when at least one of three moons is in High Sanction, although emergency meetings can be convened in times of crisis. And meetings range on all manner of topics that can conceivably affect the Wizards of High Sorcery or arcane magic in general: assignment of funds to research projects, how to best combat threats to the Orders, and so on. The Conclave also has a Council of Three which are tasked with running the day-to-day activities of individual towers. Wouldn’t this be the job of a Master of a Tower? Beyond this, we have a section on what happens to people who break the laws of High Sorcery and common punishments. Every wizard who passes their Test is instructed on the details of said laws, but mentors of apprentices are expected to integrate these rules into their lessons over time. The Conclave has created many regulations and is responsible for voting on the severity of punishment, but a few most pertinent to PC wizards are listed along with general levels of severity: 1. Using magic for common entertainment purposes is frowned upon because it gives the impression that magic is a silly, frivolous thing among the general public rather than something to fear and respect. 2. Using magic to to duplicate, create, or destroy fiat currency is banned, for it can exacerbate economic problems and gives governments a good excuse to punish, oppress, and regulate wizards. 3. Leaking confidential plans of the Orders to organizations outside High Sorcery is treated as treason/spying and punished just as harshly. 4. Wizards must abide by the rulings of the Conclave and senior Order members, even if they voted against a Conclave measure. 5. Activities of renegade mages must be reported to an appropriate authority figure within the Orders. 6. The Towers are neutral ground for all Order members. Acts of theft, violence, and similar acts on Tower grounds is punishable by varying degrees of severity. 7. Altering the foundational blocks of magic and creation is expressly forbidden unless permission is granted by the Conclave to do so. Misdemeanors and first-time offenders with a good track record are given a warning. More serious offenses or repeat ones will be met with a higher-ranking member of the Order, who threatens that their organization will punish them if they do not stop or make amends. Said mage is then secretly monitored by Order members to the best of their ability. More serious incidents and/or rule-breaking caught by said surveillance have more serious punishments which tend to differ by Order: White Robes either imprison offenders in a building designed to hold dangerous spellcasters or exiles them from the Order. In the latter case the wizard must either join the Red or Black robes or end up a renegade. Red Robes do the same thing, but in some rare cases before exile ask the prisoner if they wish to consent to enchantment magic. This will alter their mental state so as to make them incapable of repeating the criminal activities. This violation of free will is so abhorrent to so many Red Robes that this is rarely used. But I’d like to mention that they’re the only Order which does this “mental behavioral therapy,” so this free will ideal kind of falls flat on its face. Black Robes rarely police their own unless a Conclave vote forces their hand. In such a case they apprehend said member and subject them to torture as a deterrence method against causing the Order such an inconvenience. Serious repeat offenders are apprehended and brought before the Conclave itself, while mages whose crimes involve some harm directed to a Conclave member or to magical development on a large scale never even get a trial: they end up mysteriously disappearing and are never heard from again. Stat Blocks and Templates Scattered throughout this chapter are stat blocks for notable mages throughout Ansalon’s history. We have Fistandantilus, who is an epic-level Black Robe wizard who specializes in necromancy magic; Magius is a 14th-level Red Robe wizard at the height of his power and heavily focuses on evocation and transmutation spells; Mistress Jenna of Palanthas is a 17th-level Red Robe wizard with levels in Spell Broker and has just about every item creation feat of note. Finally we have the Master of the Tower template, which grants several powerful abilities as long as they remain within the Tower grounds: the ability to prepare spells from 3 cleric domains thematic to the Tower as arcane spells, automatically learning Time Reaver and the spell which grants safe passage through the Tower’s outer defenses, bonuses on Spellcraft checks and research time for putting new spells into their spellbook, and Spell Resistance of 10 + half their total levels in arcane magic classes (rounded down). Thoughts So Far: I admit that I’m not entirely fond of this chapter. The explanation on Conclave politics is very in-depth but I cannot see it mattering in most epic high fantasy stories that Dragonlance encourages. I can see it as an offbeat adventure where the PCs have to grease the dysfunctional wheels of mage politics to unite the wizards against some greater threat, or get a sentence cleared for their wizard ally on trial. The Gods of Goods’ sanctioning of the Kingpriest’s purges was not something other sourcebooks talked about, so I do not know how canon is this part. But it really makes Paladine and company look bad, which even with the Cataclysm is saying something. The Gods of Magic’s anti-sorcerer bias is understandable given the devastation of the First Dragon War, but treating all of them as walking time bombs who need to be exterminated or kept under heel is likely to exacerbate a potential war. Solinari and Nuitari finding common ground while their neutral sister shakes their heads shows how self-serving the gods can be. On the one hand, I don’t think that having hypocritical deities and organizations falling short of their ideals is a bad thing in fictional worlds. There’s a bit of dramatic irony in the wizards oppressing sorcerers using the very same talking points the Kingpriests used against the Orders, which sadly has historical precedent in our own world. However, Dragonlance’s black and white cosmic morality (and by extension the rest of D&D) with clear lines drawn in the battle between good and evil runs up hard against this and leaves me shaking my head. I felt that the history of magic veered too hard at times into unrelated material which sought to set up the backdrop of various Ages, but the core and setting books for the respective eras already cover these parts. I do like how the Conclave and the Orders have differing and sometimes arbitrary methods of resolution for various things; flaws in the system make for good role-play and believable conflict, and shows that just because people are smart in a nerdy area doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be rational, reasonable, or skilled at governance. Join us next time in Chapter Four as we get detailed write-ups on the five Towers of High Sorcery and other notable magical fortresses and academies of Ansalon!
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Dec 28, 2019 10:03
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Kind of a double post, but... I remember back near the beginning of PurpleXVI's Dragonlance review, either he or someone else compared the White Robes and Black Robes being on amicable terms as equivalent to Ellen DeGeneres sitting next to George W Bush at a baseball game. Well with this latest chapter, this is all but confirmed in regards to the Sorcerer Question. Edit: Found it. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 10:23 on Dec 28, 2019 |
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Dec 28, 2019 10:16
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Libertad! posted:coughdisastrousclimatechangecough I didn't say it was wrong. I think it was eyeroll-wrothy, but that mostly has to do with being really tired of yet another anarchist polemic interrupting my roleplaying game about shooting robots in space.
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Dec 28, 2019 12:44
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Libertad! posted:Takhisis ended up getting killed by Paladine for causing this whole mess in the first place; but Paladine made himself mortal to “preserve the balance.”
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Dec 28, 2019 14:27
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LatwPIAT posted:I didn't say it was wrong. Eclipse Phase is nothing if not edgy progressive cyberpunk IN SPAAAAAAAAACE U.T. Raptor posted:iirc, what happened was that Paladine did some kind of ritual or something to strip Takhisis of her godhood, at the cost of losing his own as well (because something something balance). Then she got killed by a different character, who was then immediately killed by Mina because Mina is the loving worst. So who's the bigger Mary Sue? Mina or Raistlin? Also, nearly done with my Towers of High Sorcery review, at least in terms of rough drafts. I already decided that I'm going to review War of the Lance next. HOWEVER... Unless I or the forums burn out hard on Dragonlance, I'm thinking of reading one more book after that for a post-WotL review. Given how relatively quick Towers is going, I figure that I can read up on some of the lesser-known sourcebooks of a similar length and be all ready when WotL is finished. My options are: Races of Ansalon: gives new fluff and crunch on pretty much all the major races (including goblins and ogres) save Draconians, who are detailed in Dragons of Krynn instead. Knightly Orders of Ansalon: what it says on the tin, with emphasis on the Knights of Solamnia, Neraka, and Legion of Steel. Also has web enhancements covering more minor orders like Ergothian Cavaliers and Elven Windriders which I'll make part of the review. Holy Orders of the Stars: focuses on the gods and their churches, along with a boatload of new Prestige Classes. Dragons of Krynn: talks about the societies of the major dragon clans of Krynn, along with cousins such as the Amphi and Shadow Dragons, and also Draconians and their new nation of Teyr. I have plans to re-review the Key of Destiny adventure path, but the old threads that host it give me a malware warning (from minmaxboards.com apparently, a now-defunct site) so out of respect to peoples' computers I'd start it anew rather than continue from where I left off. It's a major undertaking of 3 sourcebooks nearing 800 pages total, so it'd likely be a later review if at all. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 01:36 on Dec 29, 2019 |
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Dec 29, 2019 01:30
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Libertad! posted:Holy Orders of the Stars: focuses on the gods and their churches, along with a boatload of new Prestige Classes. For a game about the ultimate showdown between Good God and Bad God, base Dragonlance is remarkably vague on the religions and activities of all but two or three of said gods and their relevance to the setting. I'd vote for this one just because I want to know if they completely forget the neutral deities exist again.
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Dec 29, 2019 01:40
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Libertad! posted:I have plans to re-review the Key of Destiny adventure path, but the old threads that host it give me a malware warning (from minmaxboards.com apparently, a now-defunct site) so out of respect to peoples' computers I'd start it anew rather than continue from where I left off. It's a major undertaking of 3 sourcebooks nearing 800 pages total, so it'd likely be a later review if at all.
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Dec 29, 2019 01:49
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Libertad! posted:Eclipse Phase is nothing if not edgy progressive cyberpunk IN SPAAAAAAAAACE I prefer edgy, regressive cyberpunk on land. Which is why I'm really looking forward to the Cyberpapacy sourcebook from Torg: Eternity. So take your basic "Neuromancer" tech level and shotgun marry it to a 14th century corrupt theocracy. That can use actual (fairly nasty) miracles. That's the Cyberpapacy. Libertad! posted:So who's the bigger Mary Sue? Mina or Raistlin? Mina, obviously. Raistlin is clearly a Marty Stu. Libertad! posted:Dragons of Krynn: talks about the societies of the major dragon clans of Krynn, along with cousins such as the Amphi and Shadow Dragons, and also Draconians and their new nation of Teyr. I admit that I don't give much of a crap about the Dragons of Kyrnn. But I Floved The Doom Brigade and Draconian Measures, so I vote for Dragons of Kyrnn because I'd really like to see what's going on with Teyr.
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Dec 29, 2019 02:45
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Interested in Dragons as well.
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Dec 29, 2019 06:01
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NGDBSS posted:minmax went under? What happened? Did they get hacked again, or just disappear due to waning interest in 3E? They eventually migrated to a new place, Min-Max Forum when it came under new ownership. Then that place became mostly abandoned save for some PbPs and got up a Discord server instead. It's been a while since I've been part of that community, but my Key of Destiny review was made way back in 2013, so chances are that links back to the original URL may be triggering malware or something.
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Dec 29, 2019 06:53
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Throwing in a vote for Holy Orders of the Stars.
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Dec 29, 2019 22:26
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Chapter Four: the Towers This chapter’s a bit of a peculiar one. It has detailed write-ups on the five major Towers of High Sorcery, and some minor write-ups of other notable locations of great import to wizards. Why this is peculiar is that three of the Towers have been long since destroyed, and their descriptions focus on the time periods when they still would’ve been at their peak before the Kingpriest’s purges. The two “surviving” towers, Wayreth and Palanthas, have write-ups for them during the current Age of Mortals although Palanthas is more of a dungeon now than a proper magic school. As such, DMs who are sticklers for lore will find this chapter of limited use barring time travel or games set during the Age of Might or Dreams (both which have the least material written for them in Dragonlance sourcebooks). The minor write-ups, however, have their details described for the current Age.  The oldest surviving Tower, Wayreth, is nestled deep within the forests of Qualinesti on autonomous territory, its teleporting properties and magical defenses making it impossible to locate unless its Master gives permission to those looking for it. The Tower has a near-religious level of respect among wizards of all Orders, and after the Kingpriest’s purges has been their closest thing to a safe community where they can live in peace. It is also where the Conclave holds assembly and where all prospective Order initiates must take the Test. History: Its history is almost as old as that of wizardry itself. It was built first as a fortress-village by the three founders of High Sorcery, although its location proved a poor choice when neighboring goblinoid and human tribes attacked it repeatedly, which caused the wizards to devise Wayreth’s defenses. Their latest plan worked when the next barbarian army fell as their very weapons turned into snakes which attacked them. Secure in their power, Wayreth served as a “wizard capital” for High Sorcery’s expansion, and maintained a primacy even as the other Towers were built after the influx of prospective mages began to test Wayreth’s limits. During the Age of Might and the Kingpriest’s purges, Wayreth managed to survive due to its remote proximity from Istar as well as the fact that the Kingpriest chose to spare it for unknown reasons.* *In the Kingpriest Ascendant alternate timeline in Legends of the Twins sourcebook, one possibility was that the Kingpriests’ advisors told him that the destruction of all five Towers would unleash a magical cataclysm upon Krynn the likes of which have never been seen before. During the Age of Despair, the death rate of mages was so high due to continent-wide violence and instability that they numbered 1/10th of their population in pre-Cataclysm times at the dawn of the 5th Age. It was the lowest point for Wayreth until the War of Souls, and the Tower became less of a school and more of a refuge and safe haven which housed almost all arcane spellcasters on the continent. Resources for developing new schools/towers/spells/etc were instead dedicated to preserving what they had left. Things were so bad that the Orders sent out a few trusted teachers to start schooling people regardless of their funds or education level in magic in remote and rural regions unconnected to major nations. The intent was to provide for a survival plan for High Sorcery in case even Wayreth fell. Ironically the Fourth Age was when the greatest number of poor, rural people became wizards due to this program. A White Robe became Head of the Conclave and helped teach Raistlin so that he may eventually fight the Dragonarmies. In fact, it was Raistlin’s role in the War of the Lance that improved public view of wizards after the war ended. During the Fifth Age, the Orders’ numbers dropped to barely a handful when Takhisis stole the world for herself. Palin Majere and a mysterious figure known as the Shadow Sorcerer offered to teach the now-powerless wizards primal sorcery, which was a huge political issue among the wizards. Still, Wayreth’s latent magic remained, and Wayreth’s walls still stand strong. But even though the rest of the gods returned eventually, the Orders have never been less numerous or weaker. Description: Wayreth is actually a cluster of gleaming black glass towers with walls impervious to all forms of damage. Three towers along the walls are temples to the moon gods who reflect their patrons’ moonlight when they’re full in the night sky. Most wizards travel here by magic so its front gates do not see much use. The towers have all the requirements for both a school and a community: apartments for living space, libraries, laboratories, gardens for crops and herbal supplies, and dungeons for holding dangerous monsters and people. The Conclave has its own tower, the Hall of Mages, which functions as part Wizard Congress/part courthouse, as well as the Testing Levels whose foundations appear different to every initiate who enters them. The surrounding Forest of Wayreth is such that it casts a magical veil over a wide area, making it impossible for people to find it unless the Master of the Tower casts the Touch of Guiding Light spell upon the recipient. The forest looks spooky and weird, full of dead trees and a noxious freezing mist, but appears beautiful and alive for those whose presence is permitted. We have some descriptions of places like the libraries, the Testing Grounds, and the Hall of Mages but there’s nothing really noteworthy or special unless you like reading about what persistent 20th Caster Level spells are permeating the area. The current Master of the Tower of Wayreth is a mysterious figure who has taken many forms, and nobody knows his or her true identity. But we do have a stat block, and the person is a bonafide 20th-level Eldritch Emissary, a new monster in Chapter 6. It’s rather funny, most of the high-ranking figures of High Sorcery in 3rd Edition Dragonlance sourcebooks are stupidly, campaign-endingly powerful. They can take all of the Dragon Highlords* out to lunch, and the few statted characters I’ve seen who may be able to challenge them are Emperor Ariakas (the final boss of the original Dragonlance campaign), god-tier Raistlin from Legends of the Twins (28th level), and the alien Dragon Overlords from the Age of Mortals (who are even more stupidly powerful with 30+ CRs and their own Colossal+ size category). *the five military leaders of the Dragonarmies from the original Dragonlance campaign  Palanthas is, rather it was, the only Tower that could give Wayreth some serious competition in arcane power. Its libraries dwarfed even that first Tower’s grandness, and it was the place where some of the most powerful artifacts were created and stored. But the Kingpriest’s purges forced the Tower’s defenders into placing a curse of desperation on the area. History: The Tower was built in what was originally an Ergothian fishing village in Ansalon’s far north. When the other Towers were planned on being built, three of them were intended to be strongholds for the respective orders: Daltigoth the Reds, Istar the Whites, and Losarcum the Blacks. What would become known as the Tower of Palanthas was dubbed Tsandol Sirran, the Lore-Spire, to be the wizard’s greatest storehouse of knowledge. Just like Wayreth’s foundations the non-magical neighbors were not happy to have wizards living in their vicinity, and some local merchants performed a Red Wedding with poison to kill the Tower’s chief builder. But he didn’t die, and through sheer willpower pulled himself from his deathbed and channeled Lunitari’s power inside him to raise the entire Tower by magic in one night before finally dying. The rest of the wizards hunted down and killed those who slain their brethren in vengeance, and planted oak trees around the tower to generate an aura of magical fear to intruders. Over time the surrounding environs would grow into the great City of Palanthas. The local wizards proved instrumental in fighting Takhisis’ forces during the Third Dragon War, notably using the Dragon Orbs and the construction of the High Clerist’s Tower to trap and kill the invading dragons. The nation of Solamnia respected the wizards for this, and all was well until the Kingpriest’s purges caused even Solamnia to acquiesce to letting their forces through their territory. The wizards did not go down without a fight, and in desperation the Master of the Tower enacted a curse and committed suicide by leaping from its highest window. A foul magic spread around the Tower and the land, raw evil exuding the ground and air. During the Age of Despair Raistlin would find a means of claiming the Tower for himself, using it as a base of operations for researching a way to kill Takhisis and claim godhood for himself. It was the only place on Krynn the mage could pursue his studies in secret away from the prying eyes of the Conclave. After the events of Dragons of Summer Flame and Raistlin sacrificing himself to save the world from Takhisis once again, his apprentice Dalamar became Master of the Tower as well as the Master of the Black Robes. He found a way to lift the curse and made it a haven for his Order. During the Age of Mortals Dalamar teleported the Tower accidentally to Nightlund, Lord Soth’s domain, and ended up getting kicked out. Womp womp. Description: This is the tallest of the Towers at 600 feet, and even in Nightlund the place is still a cursed bastion of evil. The foundations and the surrounding forest have a warped, decrepit appearance. Innumerable archives, museums, and libraries still contain much knowledge as well as strange magical items unrecognizable by modern eyes. Its only inhabitants are aberrant beings known as the Live Ones who are the cast-off remnants of Raistlin’s attempts at magically creating life, and the Tower’s Great Laboratory holds one of the five Portals to the Abyss. During the Age of Mortals the relocation to Nightlund placed it within the Forest of Cypress, which is home to wandering souls whose mere touch drains the Strength from those unable to evade their pursuit. The Shoikan Grove’s aura of fear is still in effect, and there are countless undead patrolling the woods. The curse which presides over the Tower is back and in full effect, and there is no current known means of lifting it. The Master of the Tower during the Kingpriest’s purges currently exists as a spectre and guardian of the gates. He is a more reasonable 12th-level Black Robe wizard than the uber-powerful Masters of today.  Istar housed the greatest collection of White Robes upon Krynn, their home away from home when their leaders weren’t meeting at the Conclave in Wayreth. During the Empire’s early years they had a great relationship with the Kingpriests, acting as government advisors. But in later years the final Kingpriests began to fear and resent their power. History: With Daltigoth in the west, Palanthas in the north, and Wayreth in the south, a Tower was needed to occupy Ansalon’s east. There were many great cities with which the wizards could use as a nearby hub, but instead the White Robes chose a poor fishing village named Istar. Although their peers were angry at the choice, a seer named Asanta saw visions that this meager village would grow into the mightiest bastion of good in the world. And in later years she’d be proven right...for a time. The White Robes helped the city-state of Istar grow into a proper nation and then an empire, helping them conquer their rivals and erect their mighty spires. Amusingly the Legends of the Twins sourcebook illuminated that Istar’s earliest years were less about being holy and Lawful Good and more about waging economic warfare to become a thriving merchant hub. Which doesn’t seem very White-Robey in my view. The people’s positive attitudes for the wizards waned when they devoted time and resources in fighting Takhisis’ forces elsewhere on Krynn. The nomads of Dravinaar, Black Robe allies and long-time rivals of Istar, waited for the wizards’ numbers to move before they struck, and the clerics of good-aligned churches filled in to protect them with holy powers. When a later civil war engulfed Istar, the White Robes backed the wrong contender to the throne and managed to avoid charges of treason through their own groves’ defenses and an uneasy truce. When the final Kingpriest Beldinas took the throne, things worsened when the Wizards appointed a Red Robe and not a White as an advisor. And a decree to ban the Black Robes from all of the Towers (even the ones in Palanthas and Daltigoth, outside the Empire’s boundaries) was ignored. The Kingpriest did not like this, and after a failed assassination attempt by a Black Robe he settled on enacting a KILL ALL THE WIZARDS law. The White Robes realized that the Kingpriest’s forces would claim the tower when their grove defenses were sabotaged, so they chose to evacuate the place and took as many artifacts and resources as they could via teleportation. The Kingpriest converted its use as a storehouse for blasphemous relics, both as a sort of museum to intimidate his religious enemies and a safehouse for magic items and propaganda deemed too dangerous to slip into the public’s hands. Description: The Tower of Istar is a thing of beauty, its crystalline windows casting sunlight into rainbows and its five crimson turrets looking like they hold the moon of Solinari in its grasp at night. The wizards’ apartments all had balconies from which they could look out over the city, and windows were enchanted in the pre-antimage days to make it seem like the tower was made of stars. When the Tower was surrendered to the Kingpriest it became a darker, more drab affair, a shrine to heresy and supposed heresy of even good-aligned faiths. Many modern clerics theorize that this was the reason the gods took offense and sent the Cataclysm down upon Krynn. The Balakan Grove is beautiful, unlike the last two towers’ creepy woods. Its primary defense was altering intruders’ memories to the point that they forgot the reason why they were there and emerge outside with no desire to visit again. Before its occupation, the Tower had a Chamber of Eyes which enhanced the power of scrying magic cast within its vicinity. We also have a stat block of the last Conclave leader before the Cataclysm: Vincil Da Jevra, a 21st-level Red Robe Wizard. Yes you’re reading that right: 21st, although he has no ability or feat required to cast Epic level spells.  Daltigoth’s history overall fared better than its counterparts in Palanthas and Istar. The Empire of Ergoth was more tolerant of arcane magic, and the Red Robes helped defend the Empire from foreign threats but otherwise did not have much desire to meddle in politics. Sadly Ergoth would join the other countries in anti-mage sentiment over time. History: Initially the Master of the Red Robes sought to build a Tower in Tarsis, the most beautiful city in Ansalon at the time. The local merchant princes agreed to let the wizards build there, but their greed sought to bleed the Order dry in new taxes and fees made up on the spot. In a fit of anger the Master destroyed his design plans and resigned as head of the Red Robes. An Ergothian mage by the name of Greytooth decided to build the tower in his homeland near a tense border region. As to why, the Empire could use the wizards as a safe buffer, and as part of gaining funds for Tower construction the Red Robes and more than a few Whites would serve in Ergoth’s armies. Their arcane talents proved invaluable in more than a few battles. The only low point was when the Emperor took offense at a Tower colored red rather than white, figuring the latter would better reflect his civilizations’ nobility. So the wizards played a prank by pretending to build a white Tower using illusion magic but upon its grand opening dispelled the illusions which revealed its red color: quote:This could have caused a great deal of trouble, but Greytooth knew Pakin for a pragmatic ruler, and also one possessed of a sense of humor. When summoned to the imperial palace to explain what had happened, Greytooth shrugged. “The stones beneath your city have spoken their will, Majesty,” he declared. “They did not wish to dim your bright and shining realm with their own glory.” The wizards of the west enjoyed a relative golden age in comparison to their peers, but this would not last. When a rebel movement lead by who would become the founder of Solamnia threatened to split the Empire, the Red Robes’ loyalties were torn as Vinas Solamnus countedmages among his allies. The Red Robes chose to remain neutral, Solamnia split off from Ergoth, and the Order barely averted an internal catastrophe by helping rebuild damages from the rebellion. When Ergoth began to be eclipsed by the rise of Solamnia and Istar, it seemed that the crimson-robed mages’ time in the sun was coming to an end. During the Age of Might Ergoth saw a repeating series of foolish and selfish rulers which caused the relationship with the wizards to falter. There was a point when even the Conclave debated relocating the Tower. The Ergothian-wizard alliance broke when two of the Emperor’s sons died in a botched assassination attempt of the Kingpriest by a Black Robe wizard. Once the purges began the Ergothian Empire was all too willing to aid Istar in a joint assault on the Tower of Daltigoth which was also their capital city. When the Red Robes realized that they could not win the battle they decided to take their enemies down with them by magically exploding the Tower. This spell destroyed over a quarter of the city and killed off much of Ergoth’s leadership. Even before the Cataclysm the tottering old empire of the west had well and truly died: first they split ties with the mages, and after the Cataclysm so did the North split from the South. Description: Befitting its origin as a military fort, Daltigoth is more stout and practical in design than the soaring spires of the other Towers, and the foundations of its stones are more or less unknown as they are a most unnatural color of blood which requires no paint. Its Kadothan Grove was also encircled by an outer wall with an open passage allowing entry. Its natural defenses warped space so that intruders were caught in an ever-lengthening journey; during this time the surrounding pine needles and crickets emitted sleep-inducing sounds and scents which could put even elves to dreaming. The Tower within has straight halls and passages allowing for ease of movement, and parapets for the Red Robes to rain down spells and arrow-fire on invaders. The very hallways enhance the potency of illusion spells cast within, which were used to great effect during the Istar-Ergothian invasion.  Our final tower was once called Qim Sudri, built in Ansalon’s southeast nation of Dravinaar. A no-man’s land of warlords and despots, only the Black Robes were ruthless enough to gain the fear and respect of the locales. When said nation was invaded by Istar, the tower was renamed the more proper Istaran name of Losarcum. History: The high turnover rate and embrace of selfishness and evil made the Black Robes the least organized of the Orders, so it seemed strange that they’d dedicate a Tower all to themselves. The Master of the Order at the time only gained near-universal respect and fear by killing not one, but three of his rivals that challenged him. Finding a place to build their Tower wasn’t easy, as most cities and nations did not want them as neighbors. They claimed the Dravinaar city of Qim Sudri whose people grew up under generations of violence and blood feuds: it was theorized that a group of evil wizards would not have trouble blending in with such a place. And when said warlords tried and failed to attack the Tower-in-process, they learned to respect their new neighbors’ power. The Black Robes were all too eager to get involved in local politics and appoint tyrants friendly to their goals. There was even one point when the Master of the Tower challenged the city’s ruler to a duel of beasts, summoning a dragon to fight for him when the best the opposition had were dogs and hawks. Needless to say the dragon ate the human losers as well as the animal ones. Dravinaar was shaping up to be a veritable eastern power in Ansalon with the Black Robes ruling openly or as advisors, although during the Third Dragon War their luck ran out when they thought to attack Istar when the White Robes were busy fighting Takhisis. Istar had a veritable force of clerics to protect their capital and repelled them with such force that their nation went into a period of rapid decline. Istar’s theocracy decided to conquer Dravinaar to enlighten them, and the long-suffering population found it a dramatic improvement over the former tyrants. The Black Robes’ Tower was the only standing monument to the bad old days, a black knife jutting out of the holy land. The Black Robes decided to avoid Istar’s ire by pretending to go along with a demand to leave, using magic to make it seem that their Tower was evacuated. But even this charade wouldn’t last, and the Black Robes were causing trouble elsewhere in Ansalon, so they became the first targets during the Kingpriest’s purges. The discovery of the illusion and an assassination attempt by a Black Robe was all the pretext the Kingpriest needed to declare war on all of High Sorcery, and like Daltigoth the Tower’s own Master blew up the building than let it fall into the hands of the enemy. Description: The Tower’s structure was made of black obsidian shaped like a dagger rising into the sky, earning it the name the “Black Knife” among the people of Dravinaar. Its position on the promontory east of the city made it cast a long shadow down upon Losarcum, and it never reflected the moonlight of Solinari or Lunitari but it did give an outline of Nuitari to those who looked through the tower windows. The apartments’ inhabitants were organized by their hierarchy in the Black Robes, with the greatest living at the peak, and nearly half of the towers’ rooms were in caverns beneath the first floor. The Tsorthan Grove’s defense was to magnify an intruders’ emotions to the point that they were driven insane. Beyond the Towers  Now that we covered all five Towers, this last section of the chapter details four other notable locations important to High Sorcery. Zhaman, the Forbidden Fortress: Zhaman was built by a Black Robe archmage and mercenary who specialized in killing kings and overthrowing governments so that his clients could enact regime change. He used his ill-gotten wealth to built his own private fortress near Thorbadin, and it got a foul reputation among the local dwarves. The place was a veritable death-trap, full of captured monsters and magical guardians along with an ever-changing crystalline maze to confound any invaders. Zhaman’s reign of terror came to an end when he accepted a contract to overthrow the Orders and planned an assault on the Tower of Wayreth. Suffice to say that he and his mercenary army died horribly, and the Orders repossessed his fortress to convert to their own use before sealing it when they could no longer maintain it. The fortress was later reinhabited by the archmage Fistandantilus, who used it as a base during the Dwarfgate Wars. Its entrance was reshaped to look like a giant imposing stone skull. Castle Uth Krevan, the Citadel of Gadar: The Solamnic border keep of Uth Krevan had its entire noble family slaughtered by a peasant revolution; abandoned by the people, the place became inhabited by hobgoblin raiders. A Red Robe Wizard by the name of Gadar had a falling out with the Conclave and decided to reclaim the castle for himself where he could practice magic in peace. But of course, a mage who has the power to single-handedly kill off troublesome hobgoblins and repair a castle is almost doomed to end up involved in interesting times: his family fell under a wasting disease which no arcane magic could cure. Gadar began to experiment in necromancy in finding ways of saving them. The Castle became a terrible, ghost-haunted place as the mage kidnapped countless people for experiments. His reign of terror came to an end when two Heroes of the Lance, Tanis and Flint, invaded his castle and killed the mage. This was before the Dragonlance Chronicles proper, while they were on a five-year journey to find signs of the true gods before reuniting with friends at the Inn of the Last Home. The Castle was once claimed by the Knights of Takhisis as a fortress, but it stands empty once again. Ulgaard, the Dark One’s Hall: This is one of Fistandantilus’ hidden lairs, an underground maze of tunnels that could only be entered by teleportation. He used it as one of his many safehouses, a training area for his apprentices, a place to summon demonic minions, and a supernatural prison housing the undying bodies of his most hated enemies. It remained untouched until Raistlin and Dalamar learned of its secret location. The School of Mysteries, Towerstone’s Hope: During the War of Souls the loss of the three moons reduced the Wizards of High Sorcery to but a few dozen desperate holdouts. A young White Robe by the name of Adriana Towerstone came into the Order shortly before Takhisis stole the world. Unwilling to admit defeat, she did all she could to study magic in hopes of finding a way to reverse this unfortunate event. Adriana studied for years, isolated in far-off libraries. When the gods reclaimed the world she was an old woman, but learned so much that she was now one of the most powerful White Robe wizards. The refounded Order of White Robes even desired her as Master, but instead Ariana wanted to build a school of her own which the Conclave more than happily gave her. She built three towers outside her old Solamnic family home, and her school is new but steadily growing. The low number allows for a more intimate, hands-on feel where she can better oversee her apprentices’ development. The School of Mysteries even built a Grove of its own, which instead of warding off intruders makes them kind-hearted and eager to learn magic. Thoughts So Far: The Towers seem to cover a middle ground in terms of Dungeon Master aids. We have overviews on the five Towers and their histories, but not enough detail to run games in them barring a barebones structure. The fact that only one of them is friendly to visitors in the modern campaign setting, or even the War of the Lance, limits their gaming potential. Palanthas can make for a potentially fun dungeon crawl, and Istar is currently beneath the waves, but the outline for the latter Tower is pre-Cataclysm. The stat blocks for the various Tower Masters and former Conclave leader are so high-level that you’re not going to use them in most campaigns. Ironically the more minor locations at the end are the friendliest era-wise, but they have even less space dedicated to them. Join us next time as we cover in the next chapter how to create Tests of High Sorcery for your own wizardly PCs!
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Dec 30, 2019 00:04
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 Chapter Five: the Test Forgive the lack of relevant pictures, this chapter is short but otherwise all text… ...but what a chapter it is! Unlike the previous which are more overall backstory, this one is all about the Test and more importantly how the Dungeon Master can craft one for his own gaming group. The Test was invented around the Age of Dreams to cut the wheat from the chaff; and when Wayreth was being built people were hearing all about this new ‘moon magic.’ In no time at all the Orders were dismayed at well...how many people showing up were quite clearly unsuited for being a wizard: quote:Some of those wanting to belong were serious students of magic and would be welcome members. Others obviously had no interest in the Art of magic at all. Among these were kender, who came in droves. Young nobles arrived with the expressed belief that learning magic would be “jolly fun.” Some announced they had developed schemes for using magic to turn a profit. Still others came with more sinister purposes, convinced that they could use magic in obtaining revenge against those who had wronged them. The kender conspiracy theorists were right! A screening process was necessary, and so the Test was born: not only to measure a prospective mage’s competency, but also to ensure that they were “motivated by dedication to the magic and not purely selfish or sinister reasons.” So umm, what are the Black Robes then? But most importantly, the declaration that any who took the Test and failed would be executed caused many people to rethink whether or not they wanted to take up the path of High Sorcery. This in theory would ensure that only the best people would succeed. In practice this initially caused a dramatic upsurge in renegades when the Test’s requirement were applied to all current Order members including the Conclave and other high-ranking people. But the Gods of Magic lent their support behind the universality of the Test, and attempts at renegades breaking off and forming their own factions turned to failure. The Conclave monitors known minor wizards throughout Ansalon and gives out magical messengers bearing invitations to wizards when they reach 3rd or 4th level in an arcane casting class. The message is a cordial invitation to a Tower (Wayreth post-Cataclysm) explaining the details of the Test as well as the boons for formally joining an order. 3rd-level and above spells are regarded as too dangerous to keep in the hands of renegades, so characters who ignore the Test and keep gaining arcane casting levels (those who choose to remain dabblers are safely ignored) risk being branded a renegade and hunted down. Should the prospective mage choose to accept, they must travel to a Tower of their own volition and skill, which is a pseudo-test of its own to measure their dedication. quote:The three Orders come together to create a Test for a new candidate. Using many magical tools at their disposal, the wizards giving the Test learn intimate details about the wizard to be tested. Looking into the past, the archmages view some of the incidents that shaped the candidate during childhood. They peer into dreams, and learn the secrets that the potential mage will not admit to anyone. Though some might view this as an invasion of privacy, such scrutiny is an important step in crafting a Test that is personal, challenging, and unforgettable. Wizards who agree to take the Test are given to know that such an investigation into their private lives is going to be undertaken and may choose not to proceed with the Test. Ermm, I wouldn’t want most people, much less a Black Robe guy, knowing my innermost fears and secrets. This whole thing sounds like it has potential for blackmail material. Granted I could see the Orders doing this as a safety precaution against turncoats and traitors, but the book doesn’t really acknowledge these weaknesses. Beyond this the wizard has every opportunity to back out of a Test before it begins, even up to the very last moment. But once it begins they must either succeed or die trying. Crafting a Test of High Sorcery Enough about the backgrounds for the Tests, how do we build one to run for wizard PCs? First off we get the basic structure: every Test takes place in a Mindscape spell, with real rooms connected within the Tower and the surrounding land known as the Testing Grounds to further enhance the illusion. Each challenge or trial takes place within a “room” which can be as small as a closet or as large as an entire building or city within the Mindscape. The connections between the rooms are typically literal doors which vanish once they’re passed and can defy the mage’s perception of time and space: one room may be a deserted island at night, and a door standing on its own on the beach may lead into a room which is an undersea palace. Wizards cannot use magic to circumvent these rooms, and barring summoning spells they cannot make contact with people not part of the Test without failing due to cheating. The Test has at least 3 challenges that examine a mage’s knowledge and use of magic, tailored to the strengths (and weaknesses) of said mage to ensure a reasonable level of challenge. There must also be at least three tasks during the Tests that cannot be solved through their current spells alone, and one challenge must involve a confrontation of some sort with a known ally. And all Tests involve pitting the mage in solo combat against a dangerous opponent. In addition to skill, several rooms of a Test need to have some sort of moral challenge which can give an insight into the mage’s outlook on life and thus determine which Order they will join upon completion. Wizard PCs who act differently than their alignment during the Test have said alignment changed to match their Order, which is...something, although that does bring up the question of mages who decide to act differently knowing that the Test is ‘not real’ unless the Mindscape is meant to illuminate how you really are on the inside. The Encounter Levels, or total measurement of a challenge juxtaposed against the Average Party Level, differs depending on whether the mage is taking the Test on their own or chooses to bring along allies to help them: solo mages face challenges typically 2 below their level, while standard party sizes of 3-4 people follow the typical 3rd Edition Encounter Building rules. 1/3rd of the Test’s Challenges are 1 higher than the average, while the solo duels place the mage against an enemy 1 Challenge Rating higher than their level; in rare cases where the Test-takers permit allies to help, they can be 2-4 CR higher than the Average Party Level. Finally, the Test-taker(s) has the option before every room to alter the Risk Level: each room gives out 2 Risks Points upon completion by default, but can be altered to as low as 1 or as high as 4. Each Risk Point below or above 2 alters the relevant d20 rolls of the challenges and opponents by 1: enemies get bonuses or penalties on attacks, saves, skill checks, etc, while the DC for obstacles the PC(s) rolls against shifts by the reverse factor. I’d like to mention that unlike other Editions, +1 and +2 modifiers individually are nothing special. A big portion of the D20 system is combining individual modifiers together to get powerful buffs, and the swinginess of a twenty-sided die along with some spells which can really shift things around. For example, Jump gives +30 on Jump checks and is a 1st level spell, while Displacement causes attacks against you to miss 50% of the time regardless of modifiers. This means that going whole-hog at 4 Risk Points may be more a moderate inconvenience rather than a dire upsurge in challenge for players who know what they’re doing. At the conclusion of a Test, the Risk Points are added up and divided by the total number of areas* to create an average. All mages receive a permanent magical item as a reward ranging from 750 to 16,000 gold/steel pieces ideally themed around their casting style. An average of 2 Risk Points also gives a mage the opportunity to permanently increase their Intelligence score by 1 on a DC 20 Intelligence check. 3 Risk Points also gives the wizard a free bonus feat which must be replated to magic (item creation, metamagic, Spell Focus, etc). And for those brave souls who averaged 4 Risk Points, they have their soul changed in a process known as the Soulforge which bestows upon them an irreversible physical change. This is what gave Raistlin his hourglass eyes which cause him to see all things decay. *it doesn’t say if by total they mean all conceivable rooms (22) or the number of rooms the mage passed through to complete the Test. I presume the latter given that depending on their route the mage can go through as few as 3 rooms or as many as 9. So what does a Soulforge give, mechanics-wise, given it is the hardest reward to achieve? Nothing. Barring DM Fiat it is entirely cosmetic or a minor handicap, related to the Test in some way or a perceived personality flaw of the wizard’s: eyes that change colors to match their mood for a wizard who loses control of their emotions too easily, a forked tongue for a wizard who is a pathological liar, a magical tattoo which changes based on the surrounding environment for an absent-minded wizard, etc. That’s a real kick in the pants. You’d only ever put Risk Points that high from a mechanics perspective to get the most potentially expensive magic item reward you can.  Rest Areas are places of comfort and safety, intentionally created so that a mage may sleep, tend to their wounds, and refresh their spell selection. They usually take the forms of bedrooms, inns, scenic areas of nature, and friendly villages with helpful inhabitants. Battle Areas are straightforward opponents who wish to do the mage harm, or potential harm depending on the mage’s actions. Unlike the duel areas they are not one-on-one and can include multiple (usually weaker) opponents. They rarely take place on a “Final Destination” featureless plane and oftentimes have bystanders, potential allies, and environments which can be helpful or harmful. Hazard Areas are places which can be harmful to a mage but are not an enemy to overcome with violence; such enemies that may exist are tangential to the main challenge. The room’s obstacles can range from typical dungeon traps to deadly weather and earthquakes. Task Areas are not usually lethal but present a puzzle or conundrum which requires wit and skill to overcome. The samples given include an easily-offended spirit running a crooked shell game which must be won to pass, a medusa asking the PC to fetch her a cup of water from a well with no rope or bucket, and the like. There is only one Duel Area in an entire Test, and its opponent is always another spellcaster whose skills are tailored to exploit the PCs’ weaknesses. Samples given are a wizard with a sense type the PC doesn’t have (such as darkvision) who exploits the environment to blind them, a clone of opposite alignment, and a rogue/wizard who knows all of the hidden traps in an area and will bait the PC into triggering them. Magic Areas are a bit of a catch-all category in that they are specifically designed to be solved by the mage’s spell selection. Rest areas often give clues on what spells may be ideal for future Magic Areas based on this. Examples provided include the proper use of divination spells in a maze to pick the safe rooms rather than the monster or trap-filled ones, using illusion spells to throw off enemies hunting the mage, or being trapped in a burning building where water or movement/teleportation-based spells can help the mage escape. Failure Means Death In spite of all the talk about the weighty responsibility of taking the Test, the writers felt that killing off a PC for failure may be too mean and come up with ways for a PC to succeed in spite of failure. Rather than being a penalty for a bad die roll and poor luck, those in charge of the Test may feel that a wizard has proven their worth and let them pass but give them a physical mark or debilitation as a reminder. quote:Death should be the punishment for: I cannot help but feel that this takes out a lot of the dramatic tension in a Test. PCs are competent in their field of choice by default and #1 and #2 won’t really happen unless the player role-plays their character as such. #3 would be the kind of thing that would be detected during a pre-Test screening as I’m sure it’d count as a “deepest secret.” But I can see the Thorn Knights and skilled mages finding ways around this, although in the latter case they’d likely be a lot higher than 4th level. Thoughts So Far: Although it has some warts, this a pretty good outline for Dungeon Masters to build Tests. For games which start at higher level (like the 3rd Edition Dragonlance Chronicles update) I can see some wizard PCs preemptively stating that they took their Test at 4 Risk Points to get the most boons, but a free feat, magic item, and potential +1 Intelligence aren’t exactly what I’d call gamebreaking. I will admit that I had a lot of fun with this chapter in high school, and used it to create my own Tests for my Dragonlance campaigns. If I were to do it now I’d suggest altering the DCs for larger factors for well-built PCs and dispense with the Encounter Level in favor of eyeballing enemy stats. This is because Wizards of the Coast’s own designers admitted that the 3e Challenge Rating system was broke and they just winged it in their own games. Join us next time as we look at new monsters and magical minions in Chapter Six: Creatures!
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Dec 30, 2019 00:36
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Just wanted to throw out the big ups to all of y'all making the reviews and of course inkel for hosting them all on a site my work's network didn't block. Got me through a lot of a real poo poo job and showed me a lot of cool games! (Hoodoo Blues, Oubliette, and Spire. and the one I can't remember about being like...a Mormon psychopomp. They all had their own fancy coats? Something about dogs in a vineyard). fake edit: yes it was literally called Dogs in the Vineyard.
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Dec 30, 2019 08:04
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I just recalled one minor detail way back in Dragons of Despair's 3rd Edition update, but it's quite surprising given that it literally adds 3 more DMPCs to the tale! They have no illustrations, but the intent is that if the current party is somehow too small they could be hired on as mercenaries: they're a Barbarian, Ranger, and Rogue who in the original AD&D were just tavern patrons in Haven who could tell the PCs the latest goings-on in Abanasinia. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 08:28 on Dec 30, 2019 |
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Dec 30, 2019 08:23
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Sorry for the long delay in posting. I'm working on the next part of the Song of Ice and Fire Roleplay writeup now - Character Creation. It's a doozy.
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Dec 30, 2019 14:08
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Modern AGE Post 5: Non-Combat One of the interesting things about AGE (coming off Spire) is how differently non-combat rolling is treated. For one, the book is thankfully clear that you should never have a roll just to determine if the plot continues. If the roll you're making is the classic 'Perception to Continue Plot', don't do it. 'Perception to see which direction the plot continues' is the norm; did you spot something amiss on your way to meet with an informant that told you to rearrange your meet, or is this going to turn into a gunfight after a few minutes of dialogue because you didn't realize you were followed? That kind of thing. Similarly, because every roll has a chance to Stunt, rolls are primarily about 'did a good thing happen' rather than 'did you prevent a bad thing'. Not only does success usually move the story forward in a more favorable way for the PCs, but the chance of rolling a double on 3d6 is pretty high (though you still have to succeed to generate any SP, it's in the 40%s or so). So if you're rolling a lot for every little thing, the chances of getting Stunts (which can dramatically shape a scene) go way up in ways that kind of aren't intended. Dice being used relatively sparingly because of their chance for significant positive impact is an interesting change from how things usually go. Exploration Stunts are fairly simple, because Exploration is the least detailed sort of conflict; this is for scenes where players aren't engaged in some active investigation. Say our good Elder Christine is exploring an old house outside town looking for a local cop who went missing; she'd be rolling Exploration tests because she's just generally sweeping the area. For the most part, the listed Exploring Stunts are just stuff like 'You find unexpected resources' or 'You make it through this scene much quicker' or 'You take the time to set yourself up to be at an advantage if things turn violent or if you start an investigation'. They're a little underdeveloped mostly because the developers don't really want you rolling tons of Perception tests to look for hidden doors or Dexterity tests to be a master of unlocking or find the rooster key for the chicken door or whatever, since exploring a scene is where lots of those old 'Per to Continue Plot' tests lived in older systems like WHFRP. Investigations are more complex. In many cases, Investigations actually proceed without needing to roll dice; having an appropriate Focus can automatically get you the next lead or clue, as can showing up to the right scene. Investigations are a series of scenes where you unlock clues by having the right Focus, going to the right place, or making an ability test (as suggested by the players, often). If a Focus is tangential to a test but you have a good idea for how it can be used, you still get +1 to your test for having it (they say to increase the TN by +1 but let you use your Focus, but since a Focus is usually +2, this effectively translates to a +1 for the player). Sometimes, not having a Focus will prevent you from rolling your ability at all with a test, unless you have Improvisation in which case you can always make something up. For the most part, the investigation rules are fairly loose and designed to let players keep proceeding from one clue and payoff to the next scene until they solve the mystery or uncover the plot or get to the denouement. Stunts during an Investigation will let you skip steps entirely. A 5 point Investigation stunt during a simpler Investigation will just immediately lead to a huge breakthrough, for instance. Investigation Stunts also let you branch the mystery, reveal major connections between characters or prior leads, unlock new avenues of investigation, etc. One thing you'll notice is this is still a 'traditional' GM driven system. Player suggestions should be part of building to the reveal of a mystery, but the GM is still the one revealing information and deciding the overall plot, even though the players' Stunts can alter its direction. It has compromises for more narrative elements, but it's still GM driven rather than being a more narrative system where the players do a lot of the narrating as well. I'm personally fine with this, but it might not be something you're into. Social Encounters are the most detailed non-combat rules in the game, which tells you a lot about how much the game expects you'll be doing social encounters. NPCs can do Social Stunts as well, as well as using Social Skills, but the only thing these do is suggest things to PCs. An NPC can never force a PC to act in a specific way outside of stuff like 'They used the Taunt Stunt in a fight, you failed your roll, you have you target them with your next move'. An NPC cannot force you to back down, or dictate that you like them or hate someone else. The game suggests rewarding players with Relationships, XP (if you're using XP), etc for allowing Social checks to be used on their characters and going along with the results, and I don't especially like that. I'm not a big fan of 'roleplaying rewards' to begin with because I think they introduce an element that favors more social or extroverted players as it is. I really don't like the idea of dangling character upgrades out there for this kind of thing; I prefer it to be left to a player's decisions about their character and I'd rather just trust them to play their character honestly. I could see something closer to 'you let yourself be influenced here, you get a bonus there' working better; something about the permanent character upgrade nature of the suggested rewards for letting yourself be messed with makes it feel more off to me. Still, you get a detailed list of social moves you could make on a double and they can be a little awkward to insert into dialogue-heavy games, since many of them are very much about scene-setting rather than working if they happen mid-scene. It's generally better to say what test you were going to be using going into a scene, then roll, see if you hit a Stunt, and set the scene accordingly and alter the dialogue accordingly rather than trying to roll mid-conversation too often. At the same time, the Social rules assume you're making back and forth tests with your opponent, since many of the Stunts can cause their next action to fail or let you keep trying to influence them before they can respond. You also track someone's actual attitude towards you, because many Stunts rely on them already being warmer towards you. It mostly works okay, though it can take a little effort not to make the system feel too gamey. In general, the out of combat stuff works about as well as you'd hope from a generic modern adventure game. Social scenes get especial attention, while exploration, investigation, and infiltration mostly string the plot along from scene to scene. The main rules focus is on talking and fighting, with the other scene types developed enough to work but less detailed, as social and combat scenes are where the game sees the highest stakes. Next Time: Wizbiz, cybernetics, genetic augmentation and the failure of the companion book
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Dec 30, 2019 16:52
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Also, I think this merits a little explanation: The whole reason I enjoy playing in standard GM Driven games myself is I GM. A lot. When I get to play, much of the pleasure for me is getting to just play one character. Focusing entirely on my PC and their reactions to what happens around them and what they'll do about it. I like not having to directly write for or control the NPCs or too much of the environment, for once. It's fun to just be my PC. This is also why I like to stay in control of how my character reacts to things, because that's the whole reason I'm playing in this format instead of something more narrative. Similarly, I like letting my players do the same.
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Dec 30, 2019 17:53
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Chapter Six: Creatures  We’re in the home stretch, baby! This post is a 2-for-1 special due to the fact that the final chapter is really short. The meat of this section covers the new monsters, creatures which are either artificial creations of wizards or have some ability which makes them vital or dangerous to the work of High Sorcery. Some things to clear up first. Quite a few of these monsters are related to the Ethereal Plane, which works slightly different in Dragonlance. For one, it is also the realm of dreams where spectral realms are conjured up by unconscious mortal minds. The Ethereal Plane as it’s commonly known in D&D parlance is the shores of the Material Plane, part of a much larger Ethereal Sea (aka the Deep Ethereal) which stretches to worlds beyond and is full of strange monsters never before seen on Krynn. When Takhisis stole the world during the Chaos War, her relocation of Krynn picked up quite a few strange monsters along the way. We don’t have any new Familiars, but the book explains how the mundane animals are by far the most common. While some extraplanar familiars are not unknown, they are not exactly a welcome presence in magical academies. Pseudodragons are rare to the point of extinction in the Fifth Age, and during the Fourth Age they’d be in hiding pre-War of the Lance. Dread Beasts are undead animals meant to serve as spies for necromancers. Unlike typical zombies they are intelligent and have a telepathic link with their creator which can work out to 50 miles, and they emit disease and foul smells which can debilitate opponents in battle. We also have a Create Dread Beast spell and rules for having them as cohorts, although the monster and spell are evil-aligned so it’s not exactly suitable for heroic parties. In Dragonlance the Ethereal Plane is closely linked to the dreams of mortals, although the unconscious musings of powerful entities and lucid dreamers can form more ‘real’ substances. Spells such as Mindscape can further solidify these phantasmal realities. Dreamshadows are quite simply illusory entities representing existing creatures: they are a simple template which has all the base qualities of the character/creature in question, save that their attacks count as illusions for rules purposes and they deal 1 Wisdom damage on all of their attacks. Dreamwraiths on the other hand are a specific species of malevolent entity spawned from nightmares and wicked thoughts. They function more as “hit and run” enemies who have high Wisdom and Charisma based skills, and in addition to the Dreamshadow traits they have a gaze attack which causes depression. Eldritch Avatars are manifestations of raw magic, either from a powerful magical item or a nexus of arcane power. They can take just about any form, from monsters to humanoids, but their unifying factor is that they cannot ever make use of or learn divine magic. Eldritch Emissary is a template for magical locations whose main abilities include being able to cast spells from 1-3 cleric domains as arcane spells, the ability to reform upon death, and can temporarily discorporate from anti-magic spells. Eldritch Haunts are keyed to specific magic items. They are capable of shapechanging into said item (they are one and the same) and back to its creature form, can use the abilities of said item as though wielding it (such as gaining armor bonus if armor, cast spells from a wand’s charge as spell-like abilities, etc), and have the power to drain other magic items of charges to replenish its own charges. Fogdrakes are an ancient species of dragon which are nearly extinct. They are wicked souls who glide instead of fly and can detect when an arcane spell or magical item has been “cast” within 300 feet. They can also charge on a full attack, rage as a barbarian, and are constantly surrounded by a curtain of mist which they can see through thanks to Blindsight. Huldrefolk are basically “grey aliens” in Dragonlance. They existed since the Age of Starbirth, making them older than all life forms on Krynn, and began to depart to the Ethereal Sea through standing stone portals once the gods put the souls of stars into mortal bodies. Huldrefolk are believed to be the ancestors of all fey, and while some visit Krynn they are so rare as to be mythical. They can cast spells as 8th-level sorcerers and gain a variety of powers related to a natural domain (Animal, Plant, or one of the four elements): they learn said domain spells as sorcerer spells, can merge their bodies into things made of said domain, teleport between them akin to the Tree Stride spell, and speak with the objects of said domain even if they’re not normally capable of speech. Remnants are incorporeal undead which look like glowing cloaked skeletons. They are what happens when a powerful arcane caster dies from a surge of raw magical energy, which in turn spontaneously animates them. Remnants are mostly (but not always) chaotic evil beings resentful of the power they lost. Much like the shadow undead they can create more of themselves via an ability drain touch (Intelligence) and are powerless when exposed to natural daylight. The Thaumavore is our final monster, extraplanar incorporeal eel-like things from the Ethereal Sea. They are completely alien to Krynn and said plane’s very environment harms them, so they only ever appear in the mortal world due to a botched summoning spell, unstable planar rifts such as Takhisis stealing the world during the Chaos War, and so on and so forth. They are instinctual beings, capable of detecting, seeking out, and draining magical energy for sustenance as a touch attack. The more spell levels worth of energy they drain the more innate magical spell-like abilities they can cast. Said spell-like abilities include a healthy mixture of defense (blink, protection from good/evil, anti-magic field, etc), mobility (dimension door, plane shift), and debuffs (ray of enfeeblement, touch of idiocy, confusion, etc). The Plane Shift spell is the most costly in terms of charges, so needless to say it will cast that as soon as possible to return to the Ethereal Plane. Chapter Seven: Rivals  Numbering a mere five pages, this is the shortest chapter in the book and covers the Wizards of High Sorcery’s relationships with other spellcasters and magical organizations of Ansalon. It’s rather general and broad-sweeping, for example covering divine spellcasters in general as opposed to specific priesthoods. Renegades are perhaps the most well-known adversary to the Orders, although not the greatest currently (that’d be the Knights of the Thorn). They come from all walks of life but their unifying factor is their unwillingness to work within the strictures of the Conclave and Orders. Although those who refuse the Test are perhaps the most well-known, there are more than a few Robed wizards who end up exiled from their parent organization. As the Red and Black Robes are more hands-off in regards how individual members conduct themselves, said exiles tend to be very dangerous individuals pursuing some universal taboo or committed great crimes against the Orders as a whole. A few renegades are technically such, but live in such isolated or far-flung corners of Krynn that the Wizards of High Sorcery simply haven’t discovered them yet. We have stats for one renegade, a wicked transmuter by the name of Rieve who has a bit of a folkloric reputation among story-tellers. He’s a 10th level (ex) Black Robe who specializes in evocation and transmutation magic, particularly polymorph and self-enhancement buffs. Sorcerers doesn’t really detail much that hasn’t been covered in previous chapters, save for the fact that most of them describe spellcasting as “drawing power from within and within the world.” Most of them are technically renegades but can get away with it due to the fact that they aren’t limited by typical factors such as literacy which need to produce wizards. Compounding this is the fact that during the Fifth Age they were the major arcane spellcasters for half a century while the Orders remained powerless and thus have a head start on numbers and power in the Fifth Age. Knights of the Thorn are the largest organized opposition to the Wizards of High Sorcery on Ansalon. All three Orders attempted to destroy them in their infancy during the siege of Storm’s Keep. Said battle ended in a draw, where the Orders were unable to complete their mission and had to retreat when Takhisis stole away the world. Although said goddess is now dead, the Knights of Neraka control a huge portion of central and eastern Ansalon. Unlike the Orders they are just as willing to recruit sorcerers into their ranks, meaning that in the current Age of Mortals they are pretty much the largest group of arcane spellcasters in Ansalon. The Orders have yet to resume their war, but it is only a matter of time. Clerics have been treated hands-off by the Wizards of High Sorcery* due to the fact that unlike sorcery there’s no real means of said magic growing beyond the caster’s control due to the strong hold their patron deity has over the acquisition of divine magic. While Wizards of High Sorcery can only have their respective moons as their patron deity, they can respect the ethos of various gods: Gilean’s emphasis on knowledge makes his priesthood a popular choice to work with for wizards, while Sirrion’s connection to alchemy and creativity is also a boon. The White Robes have a close working relationship with the priesthoods of Paladine and Mishakal due to said deities’ roles in the War of the Lance and in restoring and recovering lore from ancient ruins. The Black Robes are an exception, for Takhisis’ attempts at making her own wizarding Order has made him paranoid of losing any more potential Black Robes. Combine this with the fact that most non-Takhisis evil gods are a rather reclusive lot (and Sargonnas’ strong link to the anti-arcane minotaurs) makes this feeling from the priesthoods mutual. *Historically the opposite has been true, what with the Kingpriest and all. Mystics are the other primal spellcaster which emerged during the Age of Mortals. Its power source stems from a universal energy present in all living things, and is the “divine” equivalent to sorcery even though it does not stem from any of the gods. Wizards are as distrusting of mystics as they are of sorcerers partly due to its similar seeming Chaos-spawned origins. However they are a bit more tolerant of the Citadel of Light as an institution which trains said mystics, although in a more “pick your battles” way in that the Knights of the Thorn are much larger, more powerful, and more present a threat. Although it’s nestled in the back of the book, it is technically impossible to be a Mystic Theurge of any kind in Ansalon barring the Knights of Takhisis during the Chaos War. But with Takhisis dead, that avenue is now lost. As a moon counts as a “patron deity” wizards/clerics have to choose one or the other. The Mystic entry also explained that attempts for arcane spellcasters of both kinds in learning mysticism have failed as it appears that wild magic and focused magic simply cannot mix. You'd think that this is something that would be included in the core Dragonlance Campaign Setting considering how explicit the rules have been regarding class restrictions of other kinds: no post-Cataclysm non-evil divine magic before the War of the Lance, no spontaneous casting classes before the Chaos War, play a multi-class Knight of Solamnia instead of a Paladin, etc. Thoughts So Far: The monsters are quite interesting and I can see them being used for some nifty encounters. An Eldritch Haunt magical item can make for an offbeat sort of treasure, while Dread Beasts are perfect for necromancer minions beyond the stock skeleton/zombie tropes. If there’s one weakness in the bestiary it would be that the chapter’s rather template-heavy and so there’s not as much pre-created stat blocks ready to go. Remnants are too similar to shadows, while the huldrefolk feel a bit too sci-fi for Dragonlance. I do like the thaumavore even though they’re unlikely to be a “long-term” opponent or the kind that will hang out in a room during a dungeon crawl. I don’t have much to say on Rivals one way or the other than the fact it gives out some rather vital information too late in the book. The Thorn Knights’ prominence puts the anti-sorcerer bias into some perspective, although they’re never mentioned in prior chapters, whether pro-recruitment (“we need to get the sorcerers to trust and join our Orders because they’ll otherwise be ripe pickings for the Knights”) or anti-sorcerer (“most sorcerers are likely sympathetic to the Thorn Knights so we may as well persecute/kill them”). Concluding Thoughts: Towers of High Sorcery is a mixed bag. It has a lot of good material to use in one’s gaming groups, Dragonlance or otherwise. But there’s a lot of material which is either mechanically suspect, like the “divine emulation” spells, or fluff text which is inconsistent with the world presented and ends up leaving more questions and plot holes than answers. There are times when it feels like chapters were written separate from each other rather than being part of a larger whole. Examples of this include key information being relegated to the very last pages, or how the Text is meant to weed out unethical minds despite the fact that the Black Robes are all about self-empowerment at the expense of others. This is probably one of the few 3rd Edition sourcebooks where I can say that I liked the mechanical crunch more than the fluff; in the realm of third party products it’s usually the other way around. As to whether the book itself merits a purchase, I cannot say yes given that its chapters cover some very different ground and even by themselves do not often have enough material to use holistically beyond piecemeal insertions. But that hasn’t quelled my passion for Dragonlance. For my next Let’s Read I’m going to cover the War of the Lance sourcebook, a setting companion which details the continent of Ansalon during the iconic original Dragonlance Adventures but for 3rd Edition! 
Libertad! fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Dec 30, 2019 |
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Dec 30, 2019 21:30
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Chapter 6: Character Creation, pt. 5 Degenesis Rebirth Katharsys Chapter 6: Character Creation Potentials They come in generic and Cult forms. The write-ups are dogshit, like the worst of FFG's 40K book stuff, mixing fluff and mechanics willy-nilly. Anyway, here are the Potentials available to Spitalians: Splaying: mastery of the spear. For two Triggers (rolls of 6), a Spitalian gets +1D to defense and +1 to handling (?). If you get two Twiggers next turn, the bonuses increase, and so on, up to the level of the Potential. If you don't continue the Trigger chain, you lose the bonuses. Does not combine with Splayer's “Cutting” ability. Phalanx: if you have at least one other “flank man” with a Splayer or a polearm, your get +1D to defense per buddy, up to the level of Potential. If you defend with 2 Triggers, it counts as an attack that does T in damage – the enemy charged the pike wall and lost. Combos with “Cutting.” However, Phalanx is only free on the first turn of combat – later on, you need a combat-free turn to reorganize. So you can't really aggressive-turtle a Clanner mob dead. Preservalis: Preservists-only. Do a difficult attack with a sword. If you succeed, you “fire a contact shot, ignoring the enemy armor.” The fluff says that it's the Preservist stabbing the enemy and then shooting them at point blank with their pistol. However, it's terribly described in game terms, to the point where you can argue whether you really need a gun or whether the “contact shot” needs a to-hit roll. Last Bastion: you read enough books about killing Psychonauts that you get Triggers equal to the level of Last Bastion when fighting them. Kranzler's Teaching: you need to have Focus (instead of Primal). Kranzler hates Psychonauts so much, their bullshit doesn't effect him. You know his teaching and you're immune to “Psychonautic influences” for turns equal to the Potential level. The Last Farewell: Needs Primal. Spital was the only one to stand against humanity's enemies. And now that you're entire team is KO'd, so are you. quote:For 6 combat rounds, he gets +1D per level on attack and defense rolls. His passive defense rises by +1 per level, as well as the damage he does. See, that's the kind of vague descriptions we have to deal with. The fact that you need your entire team to be KO'd is only mentioned in the fluff bit and the last paragraph that states that this Potential ends once a companion regains consciousness and rejoins the fight (what happens if they run away instead?).  After chancing upon a nest of wild barrels, he killed the mother-barrel and made it into his house. Her progeny, now enslaved, guard his loot. About 50 pages later, we get to generic Potentials. They're a crapshoot, but you could probably guess that after reading through the Spitalian ones. Asceticism allows you to “skip one meal per Potential level (at least once per day) without penalties.” Elephant Skin represents your skin being hosed up and healed so many times that acts like ugly armor: you get +1 armor/-1D to CHA+Seduction per level. Sleek gives +1D per level to escape grapples. Yeah. Final Touches Here's where you name the character and do derived stats. The character building examples already showed the player actually not being able to build up Mediator-rank Chronicler, which makes his chosen Nova Potential “obsolete” (pretty sure they mean that he can't use it yet). He could ask the GM to change it (and GM should allow it, at least by the book), but he soldiers on and hopes to get to Monitor as soon as he can. He's sort of an idiot. Ego Your brain/mind/soul HP. It's INT+Focus or INS+Primal x 2. You regain it by getting high on Burn, using certain Potentials or acting like your concept. Since I went dumb with Johann (INS 2, Primal 2), he has 8. If I had sunk those points into Focus, he'd be rocking 12 Ego (INT 4, Focus 2). Physical condition This is your wounds and poo poo. Spore Infestation Spores infest your body, sure, but your spore max (before you become Leperos, a carrier) actually depends on PSY+Willpower/Faith. Not very physical – you can Sororitas that alien shroom bullshit away. Johann, not being a Sister of Battle, only has 4. PSY isn't a focus skill for Doktor Wehrman, which is interesting. Flesh Wounds BOD+Toughness x 2. That's 10 for Johann (BOD 2, Toughness 3). The chargen example for Trauma states that it's enough to withstand getting shot by musket – once. Not great! Trauma Trauma is when wounds get serious. It's BOD+PSY. We have no idea what it does yet. Johann is traumatized at 4. I dunno if it's some limit for when Flesh Wounds run out or how many Flesh Wounds you need to lose to start hurtin'. Defense If you're not in active Conflict (say, you were surprised), your Passive Defense is 1, unless you raise it with Potentials or whatver. Dinars and Chronicler Drafts The amount of dough you start with depends on your *rank *Resources Backgrounds *Clan You add up the first two and multiply it by the rank modifier. Of Europeans, Apocalyptics are richest, getting x 200 CD. Many are poorer. Spitalians are x 100 CD. Chroniclers are x 128 CD – the only ones to get an irregular number like that – because something something kilobytes. Africans get dinars instead. Neolybians start with x 1000, the rest – x 100. Neolibyans, being the enemy of the working classes and parasites upon the society, are filthy rich, as dinar is converted to CD at a ratio of 1:1. Johann would have 1000 CD if I invested 2 Background points into resources. Equipment You already have some gear from rising in Ranks. Now you can flip a few chapters ahead to “Bazaar” and buy poo poo. This is the only time when market/location modifiers don't matter. The example character spends 155 of his 384 CD on a water filter, blanket and matches. They describe him as not being rich enough to buy a weapon yet. Yeah... Imagine how the lads that get x 50 CD will fare!  Incidentally, they did include the finished charsheet for the dumbest Chronicler. Weapons and Armor Weapons and armor might have stats! See Chapter 7 “Battle” to see what they mean. Experience and Progression Experience Characters gain XP! This is very instructive to the three people that chose Degenesis as their first elfgame. quote:At the end of every gaming session, the GM awards experience points (XP) for mastered challenges and great feats, but also for instructive defeats. For suggestions concerning this see “Adventure Development” on page 314. Since the Degenesis doesn't seem to have levels, you will be constantly adjusting your XP score as you get points and spend them to upgrade your character. Raising Attributes and Skills This is a gently caress you to you everyone who built their character without reading the chapter in full. You see, the price to raise a skill or attribute depends on whether you went with Focus or Primal. Primal favors/makes BOD, CHA and INS stuff cheaper, Focus – INT, AGI and PSY. So if Johann wants to be Punch Doctor more than Heal Doctor, he's on the right path. Otherwise... To raise an attribute, you pay New Rank x 12 XP (x 10 if favored), while skills cost New Rank x 5 XP (x 4 if favored). At least the discount isn't large enough to make raising stuff outside your wheelhouse be prohibitively expensive. You can't raise the level of Skill and Attribute over 6. Johann is 122 XP away from maxing out IN (would be 110 if he had gone into Focus). The example talks about the XP that the example character needs to spend to gain the level of Artifact Lore to rank up to Monitor. Like a dumbshit, he's a Chronicler with Primal, so it's not too cheap. Rising in Rank But wait! Raising in Rank in your organisation isn't just receiving a notification on some Post-Eschaton Twitter. You get your level at your Cult's HQ – or in some appropriate place, since it's hard to say what Apocalyptic HQ would be. quote:However, the GM should incorporate the process of leveling up into the game: one last little trial; an obstacle to overcome; an unpopular opponent; a ceremony to remember: a Character gains this level only once and has earned the hubbub. The team roots on the sidelines as a Chronicler has to defeat his life-long rival, the Redditor, in a match of De-Bate! Potentials Potentials are somewhat-powerful, so raising them isn't cheap. To raise the level of Potential, you add up all the levels of Potentials you have and multiply it by 10. So if you're some dummy who took Ascetic I and Sleek I because you walk into every trap option you see, getting Elephant Skin I (because your team is begging you to get something useful) would cost you 2 x 10 = 20 XP. Next time: the cutest Paler in all bunkerdom
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Dec 31, 2019 09:18
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Love how Dragonlance wizards put class interest (magic) over anything else (such as white wizards allowing black robes to exist). And somehow the setting takes the enlightened red centrist as the main character... and he trains up a Black Robe! In Dragonlance, Good is not Good.
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Dec 31, 2019 10:50
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JcDent posted:Love how Dragonlance wizards put class interest (magic) over anything else (such as white wizards allowing black robes to exist). And somehow the setting takes the enlightened red centrist as the main character... and he trains up a Black Robe! Good is in fact Bad, and there's no ethical You can almost forgive Raistlin for going on a deicide binge and killing the world, given how fundamentally awful they all are. Fizban, the Cataclysm, psycopathic 'good' Solinari (Kill All Spontaneous Spellcasters), and so on.
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Dec 31, 2019 11:45
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Just finished going through all the DLance posts and drat that setting is way worse than I remembered from 25 years ago. I honestly couldn't play this poo poo without scrapping everything and only keeping the dragonians, maybe. So thanks for delving into the lord for our amusement.
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Dec 31, 2019 12:00
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And metalics letting the world burn to save their unborn babies doesn't seem to be that Good either.
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Dec 31, 2019 12:25
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JcDent posted:And metalics letting the world burn to save their unborn babies doesn't seem to be that Good either. "maybe if we appease the evil forces now, they'll be nice to us later!  "But yeah, just you guys wait, WE AIN'T DONE WITH THIS IDIOCY YET, DL10 IS ANOTHER DOUGLAS NILES. Also loving Degenesis, every post ALMOST makes sense, but it's so dense in proper nouns that you get loving buried in it and it all turns into an alien mess of words that you can almost understand. I've said it before, but I still wonder how much of it is bad translation and how much of it is authorial brain worms.
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Dec 31, 2019 12:36
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They had real artists, why put this in
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Dec 31, 2019 13:11
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I find it hard to judge "on the one hand, the world in several years if this is not stopped, on the other, a literal knife to the throats of our children." Like, this is not a moment for rational actors.
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Dec 31, 2019 14:03
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Having Cults split into bespoke Ranks doesn't help keep the onslaught of proper nouns at bay, no. It would be uncomfortable for us, but it would help if the book wrote it stuff out like (INS) Focus, Background: Secrets and so on, instead of dropping the words willy nilly. Also, maybe it's just me, but eggs =/= children , and even then, that's the kind of sacrifice you'd expect Inhuman Greater Being of Good to make.
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Dec 31, 2019 14:43
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See, I would assume that a being of pure goodness would be most vulnerable to this kind of trap, because no matter what they can't make a right choice. Accept for the moment that the eggs count as children; they are definitely being treated as such in the story and in D&D dragons-in-egg are already, IIRC, sentient beings who are learning from their surroundings which is why hatchlings pop out with full baby dragon capabilities (including speech). Either they allow the world to inch closer to destruction by inaction, or by action they risk the deaths of their children, whom they love dearly. While those deaths are not their fault but the fault of the eggnappers, they still have to choose between an evil of action or an evil of inaction. Philosophically, it has been shown repeatedly that people intuitively find the evil of inaction to be less bad than the evil of action, but sure, let's assume dragons are beings of ultimate good. How could a being of ultimate good not be paralyzed by indecision here? Compassion and caring are traits of goodness, or at least I cannot recognize a goodness that does not fundamentally center compassion, kindness and justice. As beings of pure goodness not intimately feel the intense pain of both risking the world and risking the lives of literal children - not least their own? Why would you expect them to be able to calmly and rationally decide to sacrifice the lives of children for the world, rather than be utterly unable to act due to psychological pain and empathy? e: of course, once the kids are dead, then the dragons are almost certainly going to be possessed of a terrible and burning righteous fury, but also the kids are dead. Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 15:18 on Dec 31, 2019 |
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Dec 31, 2019 15:15
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Mors Rattus posted:How could a being of ultimate good not be paralyzed by indecision here? Compassion and caring are traits of goodness, or at least I cannot recognize a goodness that does not fundamentally center compassion, kindness and justice. As beings of pure goodness not intimately feel the intense pain of both risking the world and risking the lives of literal children - not least their own? Why would you expect them to be able to calmly and rationally decide to sacrifice the lives of children for the world, rather than be utterly unable to act due to psychological pain and empathy?] As a counterpoint, loving Evenstar, the metallic dragons are obviously not inherently beings of good. Also you'd have thought that some dragon other than Dargent would eventually draw the conclusion between "hmmmm... metallic eggs gone..." and "suddenly... metallic dragonmen everywhere..." and started investigating.
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Dec 31, 2019 15:26
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Mors Rattus posted:See, I would assume that a being of pure goodness would be most vulnerable to this kind of trap, because no matter what they can't make a right choice. Accept for the moment that the eggs count as children; they are definitely being treated as such in the story and in D&D dragons-in-egg are already, IIRC, sentient beings who are learning from their surroundings which is why hatchlings pop out with full baby dragon capabilities (including speech). Dragons aren't ultimate good in this era of Dragonlance, nor do they have supernatural levels of insight. They're very powerful on the human scale and the best of them are very good, but not all of them are the best of them, and some metallic dragons are selfish and don't much care for philosophy. It's not a surprise that this plot works on many dragons, but you'd expect some of them to snap and attack out of spite, vengeance, or retribution (depending on your point of view), or understand that their eggs are going to die now no matter what because evil people have them and they're definitely not going to give them back. At least they could help the people fighting the eggnappers behind the scenes more. Lots of dragons can shapeshift! They can just... go places as a human and drop information even if they can't fight! Turn into animals and guide heroes! The Dragonarmies clearly don't notice whenever they do this or they would have spotted that silver dragon in the party. Edit: Dargent, right, that was the name. It escaped me.
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Dec 31, 2019 15:27
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I grant you, they can and should be trying to help get their eggs back as best they can. Just, 'why aren't they fighting people they think have their children hostage and under the knife' seems a weird complaint rather than 'why aren't they trying to help the people who are fighting at all'.
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Dec 31, 2019 15:30
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The thing is, they're equating the lives of their children to the lives of countless others (even if Takhisis isn't Thanosing it up). Like, literally the world is at stake. This was one of the things that pissed me off in Infinity War: the life of one Avenger is worth risking the life of literally half the universe.
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Dec 31, 2019 15:58
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