Mage-statements

There was a war.

You Lost

You where driven from your paradise.

Your knowledge and your art destroyed, shattered all over the world

You are hunted, the agents of your enemy hunts you down, try to make give up, or die

They steal your knowledge, make sure that no one ever sees it again.

They destroy it, they hunt you.

You want to build, you want to get back you the promised land.

Some of you want to fight back. They are warriors, longing for the day they can take back what’s theirs.

Others believe in power through knowledge. Only by finding the secrets lost can you be victorious

Some of you moves in the shadows. They know that you are hunted, that brute force cannot win the war. They hide in the shadows, defending what’s yours through stealth and cunning

In recent days, there has been a growing movement stating that this all happened in the past. Yes, we should find the secrets, but only to make a better place here and now. The old stories are gone, we are creating new stories today. Let’s face them with open minds.

Feint in Dungeons and Dragons

In my quest for a nice, thematic swashbuckler, I stumbled upon the feint-rules, which I havn't given much thought before. It turned out that a succesfull feint takes away the dex-bonus from your opponents AC for your next attack.

Now, combine this with the fact that a Rogues sneak attack is applicable whenever the opponent has lost his Dex-bonus to AC in any way.

So, for my Swashbuckler character that I have posted below, I'll add improved initiative and a couple of levels of bluff. Improved initiative lets you do a feint maneuver as a move action. Consider for instance this best-case scenario for him when he has reached 2nd level, taking a level of Rogue. He is in a fight, and it is his turn to go. In his move action, he feints. Let's assume that he succeeds and his opponent is now only using his flat-footed AC. For his attack, he uses combat expertise to incerase his AC and lower his attack bonus. Since his opponent is flat footed, that should be OK. If this attack would hit, the damage would be 3D6 (1 from the weapon, 1 from sneak attack and 1 from the feat Deadly Defence). Not bad for a 2nd level character.

A fencer in DnD

After some searching and tweaking, I found something that I do believe will make a fair swordsman, Pirates-style. So far he is only a lvl 1 character, but I'll show him as is, and then write a little about my thoughts on how to progress him. The idea is an agile, tricky fencer that wins through cunning and speed over power. He may be a bit on the dark side as well, more pirate than musketeer.

Nagea Hamden
Human Swashbuckler 1
Str: 10/+0
Dex: 16/+3
Con: 10/+0
Int: 14/+2
Wis: 14/+2
Cha: 10/+0

For: +2; Ref: +3; Will: +2
HP: 10
AC: 15 (Touch: 13, Flat-Foot: 12)
BAB: +1 Melee: +1 Range: +4

Feats:
Proficient Light Armor, Proficient with simple and martial weapons,
Weapon Finesse (From swashbuckler), Combat Expertise, Deadly Defense

The last one is from Complete Scoundrel, and gives an additional +1D6 damage when fighting defensivly OR when using Combat Expertise to give yourself at least a +2 to AC (and hence, -2 to attack)

His skills are fairly standard. He put maximum skillpoints into tumble, jump, bluff, climb, sense motive, use rope, balance, climb. His bluff will come in handy when trying to feint, and tumble is always nice for moving around the scene of combat.

He is using a rapier as a weapon (+4 ,1D6, 18-20/x2).

The plan is to multiclass him swashbuckler/ rogue. The main thing with the rogue is the sneak attack. In a couple of levels there are a couple of nice feats to get (and, not having the books here, I cannot remember their names). One lets you add your sneak attack damage in case of a critical hit, which is nice. Especially if you are using a rapier (threat range 18-20) and then make it keen (making the threat range 15-20).

Other nice feats to choose from is one that lets you stack you levels in Swashbuckler and Rogue when you are calculating things like sneak attack damage or the Grace feat.

So, while not a fighter (in my view still the most effective character to start with. Str 18, Greatsword, power attack and weapon focus. All of a sudden you are dealing damage in the 10-20 range as a level 1 character, which is quite good), he is still a competent character. Hard to hit, and capable of dealing some damage on his own. There are a couple of ways for him to go higher up. Want him to be a defensive fighter that is dangerous to approach: Give him combat reflexes and the feat that gives +4 to all AoO. (also from Complete Scoundrel). Or go a slighly darker way, where you are using your sneak attack to give bleeding wounds, for instance.

As said, there are some variations on this character, but all in all, it is possible to make a decent fencer that can hold his own and deal some damage.

The McWolfe Statement (ver 0.1)

I want my RPG to be smooth. It doesn't have to be rules light, but it should be smooth.

The rules of my RPG should reflect the setting.

There should be an official way to play that game.

The rules should follow that way

Characters should be built to fit into that way

There should be a framework in the game that follows that way.

It should be possible to break out of that framework

This framework should help me prepare modules in a rather short time if I wanted

It should be possible to create a simple character that has room to grow as the storied unfold.

The game should be based on situational stories.

Those situations should have a connection to the rules and how characters are designed.

Character design should be by guidelines or via random rolls. Not point based.

The garden of the mind

They say I enjoy watching other people suffer!

They are wrong!

They say that I enjoy watching my students agony on their faces when they are doing their exames.

And still, they are wrong.

It is true that I often try to be present during exams. Especially on exams on interesting and challenging subjects. What no one suspects, is the reason for this preference.

Many years ago, I became something more than a man. Something within me woke up. Lacking a better word, I could say I suddenly discovered my soul. I always believed in science, always believed that we our minds where minds of reason, but I was wrong. Now I know better.

Through a strange series of events, many of which I can't explain even today, my mind was opened wide to the world. Or rather.. the world was opened wide to my soul.

To me, everyone is an open book. I can see other peoples minds, and if I want to, let my mind invade theirs. I usually try to avoid the latter, since I am a firm believer in our free will. The first one, on the other hand.

Walking around a room full of students writing their exams. Their minds form vast gardens that fill the room. When they are writing essays, I can see their creativity flow around in the room, creating fireworks, deep jungles and rich imagery. When they are doing mathemathics, the room fills with structures, angles and equations that take the shape of brilliant gems and complex puzzles.

This is why I enjoy being there. Not to see my students torment, but their brilliance