Community Worldbuilding Project [Ishka: Urban and Urbane]

[Silverscale]

Look in the MM. Half Celestial is actually more celestial than Celestial. Confusing, right?

{cracks open MM....flip flip flip flip flip.....blink blink}Wow....I stand corrected

RE giving the template to companions too.....i don't see why not.

[Silverscale]

here is my best guess at the construct (and suited fire elemental) population of Ishka categories preceded by an * are nonsentient or in some way inexorably tied to there creators like a homunculus.
work forged 10,000 ~40% are currently indentured
task forged (Spontaneously awakened constructs) 1500
intentionally awakened constructs. 300
*homunculus 1000
pipe serpents 2000
suited fire elemental s 3000
*the Golden army.5000(~1/3 the size of the us military)
* golums~7000
* clock roaches (phb3) and other domestic and simple utilitarian.100,000
* Favrgay show pieces ~200 major ~1500 minor
* "cheep" animated displays and toys 10,000

Here's my version of your list with a few updates...

Workforged ~20,000 ~40% are currently indentured
Taskforged (Spontaneously awakened constructs) ~2,500
Intentionally awakened constructs ~500
*Homunculus ~10,000
Pipe Serpents ~2,500
Suited Fire Elementals ~3,000
*The Golden Army 5,000 (~1/3 the size of the us military) Where are you getting this number?
*Golems~15,000
*Clock Roaches (phb3) and other domestic and simple utilitarian ~100,000
*Fabrege show pieces ~250 major ~2,000 minor
*"Cheap" animated displays and toys ~1,000,000 Including "action figures"

Remember some of these are counted as part of the total population others are not. Also remember we're talking about a Massive City/State with a population approaching 1 Billion.

[BLiZme.2]

Look in the MM. Half Celestial is actually more celestial than Celestial. Confusing, right?

Also, perhaps a Celestial or Fiendish Form Druid could apply the templates to their animal companion instead of getting higher HD ones (as in the sidebar tables on p36 PH)

Also, talking about animal companions, was it balanced giving Death Druids Rebuke Undead instead of Animal Companion?

Technically Celestial 100% is more celestial than Half Celestial 50% BUT Half Celestial's are more powerful its like Celestial is +100% of 10 and Half Celestial +50% of 40. But this is just a technicality

@ outsider companions if full costs on step and half costs to go for it

@ Rebuke Undead: it should be command (more in tune) and yes it is balanced for that cost due to all the spend turn/roebuck feats.

@ Silverscale I intentionally amid low for all of those except the army I think that’s almost certainly right

on your changes in order

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Workforged ~20,000 ~40% are currently indentured (I will assume this is correct and go from their i see nothing wrong but wrapping my head around the demographics is hard)
Taskforged (Spontaneously awakened constructs) ~2,500(ok)
Intentionally awakened constructs ~500(I would inflate this more in line with the above especially if urban druids get awaken construct (BTW the two awaken construct spells (one is awaken the other is animate(makes the construct a humanoid or giant based on size) are both in savage species and need a humanoid brain and XP awaken construct is also in the Spell Compendium as a level 9 wis/sorc,cleric)
*Homunculus ~10,000 (this as way to high because they are very hard to make and unlike all the others dies with its creator and can not be truly made for another person so only the ones made by a living master for themself are still around.
Pipe Serpents ~2,500 (maybe it should be 3,000)
Suited Fire Elementals ~3,000 (this implied there are only 9000 genetic fire elementals in the city at most assuming each of the three types is equally common (this is unreasonable as possessors are rare but the solids can make up the difference) unless the suited are a distinct minority.
*The Golden Army 5,000 (~1/3 the size of the us military) Where are you getting this number? Wikipedia specifically Active personnel 1,473,900 I left out the 1,458,500 Reserve personnel thess numbers jived with my recolections of more solid sorsis (quotes of unclassified DOD reports)
*Golems~15,000 (ok the city is old and golems are always awesome
*Clock Roaches (phb3) and other domestic and simple utilitarian ~100,000
*Fabrege show pieces ~250 major ~2,000 minor
*"Cheap" animated displays and toys ~1,000,000 Including "action figures"(ok if action figures are like GI-JOEs with a kung-fu grip)
is 10,000 things more along the lines of the solders from the movie small soldiers just non sentient. and larger toys like a self propelled horse on wheels a good number is if so we should note it

Generally very good

[TheLonelyScribe]

Rebuke undead is the same thing as command undead. Also, in Silverscale's list o' district leaders, the Academy is presumably run by the 5 immortal professors. Smallville: pixie queen? Ungul: celestial charger unicorn? perhaps collaborating/competing with a nightmare? Ether: ghost council?

O.K, let's stat out the urban Druid and Ranger builds:

Urban Druid

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Name: Urban Druid
Class/Classes: Druid
Requirements: Must live in an urban area
Replaces: Nature Sense, Wild Empathy, Woodland Stride, Trackless Step, Resist Nature's Lure
Level: 1
Benefit: At 1st level an Urban Druid gains Urban Savvy (Ex), which grants her a +2 bonus to Knowledge (local) and Gather Information checks. At the same level they get Filth Empathy (Ex), which functions like Wild Empathy, except that it can affect vermin if the Druid takes a -4 penalty on the check.

At 2nd level an Urban Druid gains the ability Urban Stride (Ex). They no longer take penalties for movement for moving through crowds, and they never get hit by moving vehicles. This does not apply to magical crowds (such as those created by the soon-to-come shadow crowd spell) or crowds and vehicles purposefully trying to disrupt movement.

At 3rd level an Urban Druid gains the ability Blend In (Ex). They can no longer be tracked by the Urban Tracking feat, unless they purposefully choose to allow it.

At 4th level an Urban Druid gains the ability No Mind Tricks (Ex). They get a +4 bonus on saving throws against mind-affecting effects.

Urban Ranger

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Name: Urban Ranger
Class/Classes: Ranger
Requirements: Must live in an urban area
Replaces: Track, Woodland Stride, Swift Tracker, Camouflage, Hide in Plain Sight
Level: 1
Benefit: At 1st level an Urban Ranger gains the Urban Tracking feat as a bonus feat.

At 2nd level they may choose a third combat style, Hidden Weapon. They can draw hidden weapons as a free action if they choose this combat style.

At 6th level an Urban Ranger who has chosen the Hidden Weapon combat style gains the following ability. When attacking with a weapon hidden on their person but no weapons in their hands a Hidden Weapon Ranger may make an unarmed attack at their normal attack bonus, then attack with their hidden weapon at at their secondary attack bonus, and behave as if they had the Improved Critical feat with that weapon. For every five points of base attack bonus they have over +6 they gain an additional attack with their hidden weapon, but these additional attacks do not have a better chance of dealing critical hits.

At 7th level an Urban Ranger gains the ability Urban Stride (Ex). They no longer take penalties for movement for moving through crowds, and they never get hit by moving vehicles. This does not apply to magical crowds (such as created the soon-to-come shadow crowd spell) or crowds and vehicles purposefully trying to disrupt movement.

At 8th level an Urban Ranger gains the ability Inquisitive (Ex). When using the Urban Tracker feat they are able to make a Gather Information check every half an hour to track without the usual -5 penalty, and to ask every 15 mins at a -10 penalty.

At 11th level an Urban Ranger that has chosen the Hidden Weapon combat style gains the following ability. When attacking with a hidden weapon that they have drawn in the same round as attacking, an Urban Ranger may ignore armour on their attack.

At 13th level an Urban Ranger gains the ability Urban Camouflage. It works exactly like the Camouflage ability, but it only works in urban areas.

At 17the level an Urban Ranger gains the ability Hide in Plain Sight. It works exactly like the Ranger ability of the same name, except that it only works in urban areas.

[Silverscale]

@The Lonely Scribe: What happened to the variations on Wildshape? Are we still using them cuz I think they're cool. Also I like your suggestions for the rest of the "Nobility".

@BLiZme.2: Let's take a look here
Workforged ~20,000 ~40% are currently indentured (I will assume this is correct and go from their i see nothing wrong but wrapping my head around the demographics is hard) I'll leave this the same then.
Taskforged (Spontaneously awakened constructs) ~2,500(ok)I'll leave this the same then.
Intentionally awakened constructs ~500(I would inflate this more in line with the above especially if urban druids get awaken construct (BTW the two awaken construct spells (one is awaken the other is animate(makes the construct a humanoid or giant based on size) are both in savage species and need a humanoid brain and XP awaken construct is also in the Spell Compendium as a level 9 wis/sorc,cleric) Ok how about 1,000
*Homunculus ~10,000 (this as way to high because they are very hard to make and unlike all the others dies with its creator and can not be truly made for another person so only the ones made by a living master for themself are still around. Ok let's split the difference and call it 5,000
Pipe Serpents ~2,500 (maybe it should be 3,000) Ok 3,000 it is then.
Suited Fire Elementals ~3,000 (this implied there are only 9000 genetic fire elementals in the city at most assuming each of the three types is equally common (this is unreasonable as possessors are rare but the solids can make up the difference) unless the suited are a distinct minority. Given the extremely hostile environment Ishka presents to a Fire Elemental (Much too cold) most Fire Elementals stay on the Plane of Fire.
*The Golden Army 5,000 (~1/3 the size of the us military) Where are you getting this number? Wikipedia specifically Active personnel 1,473,900 I left out the 1,458,500 Reserve personnel thess numbers jived with my recolections of more solid sorsis (quotes of unclassified DOD reports) Ok I'm not mathmatician.....oh wait yes I am, I teach Math at the high school level. 5,000 is not ~1/3 of 1.47 million, 5,000 is ~1/300 of 1.47 million. (Sorry pet peeve of mine)
*Golems~15,000 (ok the city is old and golems are always awesome) I'll leave this the same then.
*Clock Roaches (phb3) and other domestic and simple utilitarian ~100,000
*Fabrege show pieces ~250 major ~2,000 minor
*"Cheap" animated displays and toys ~1,000,000 Including "action figures"(ok if action figures are like GI-JOEs with a kung-fu grip)
is 10,000 things more along the lines of the solders from the movie small soldiers just non sentient. and larger toys like a self propelled horse on wheels a good number is if so we should note it. Yes ~1,000,000 includes GI-Joe's with kung-fu grip, and ~10,000 "smart" toys (I'd give them INT 3, smart enough to obey simple commands and have one language) and other bigger/cooler toys like your self-propelled horse.

On a side note I'm about to flip through MM1-5 to make a list of all the constructs/golems, mostly for my own edification and also to see if there are any gaps in what's already out there that wee need to Homebrew for Ishka.

[TheLonelyScribe]

@The Lonely Scribe: What happened to the variations on Wildshape? Are we still using them cuz I think they're cool.

Of course we're using them, but they're a separate variant. Not every Urban Druid has to be a Death Druid/Construct Druid/Celestial Druid/Fiendish Druid, and visa versa. Nothing 'happened' to them, they're still there, thy just aren't automatically included in the Urban Druid package.

[Renrik]

Ungul is rules by the Centaurs. Ether is, I would assume, ruled by a ghost council.

[BLiZme.2]

@Silverscale 1/300 oh my I have NOOOOO idea how I miss those zeros I must have just grabbed the first , and ran with it
lets go with 50,000 and split the difference or 500,000 and make the fraction right.

as to the toys i was thinking that they ALL had INT - like a golem and its just some could walk around on command kind of like those robot toys you se now I just used small solders as an example because of the sheer detail in there articulation (Full Function HANDS!) Sory for the lack of clarity I think that if we have interactive toys they should cap at INT 2 because by the book you are not sapient till INT 3
(with these tweaks I fully support your changes)
as to the fire elementals I am ok with your interpretation but that means we need stats for a suited fire elemental out of their suit for use on the plane of fire also if we write one of those we should write a generic earth elemental too to finish the set.

As to the construct list cool don’t forget the fiend folio if you have it. (And in a little beating you to the punch, should there be an Ishkan goat clockwork stead?)

[Silverscale]

@BLiZme.2 I'm actually looking through all the source books I have for 3.0/3.5 to make a list of constructs.....so far I've been trough 10 books and damn there are a lot of constructs. So far I have about 5 Inevitables, over 30 Golems, a variety of Homunculi, enough Clock-work things to start a nation, 3 different Warforged, and an assortment of other constructs.

As to the toys, yeah that's in line with what I have in mind....I only said INT 3 so they could have the ability to use one language to speak, otherwise you're right it should be capped at INT 2.

@Renrik You're right Ungul is ruled by a tribe of Centaurs but we're talking all nobility not just the one person/set of people in charge. Take The Groves for instance, not only are they ruled by the Elder Druids but also The Fey Court. Therefore I don't see any reason we can't have both the centaurs and a Celestial Charger Unicorn.

[TheLonelyScribe]

Doctor Worthinton

Vestige Level: 8th
Binding DC: 32
Special Requirement: Yes

Dr. Worthinton is set apart from other vestiges in that a) he is not as mysterious as them, in fact any Ishkan can know of his history with a DC 20 History check, and b) he is nowhere near as mad and aggressive as them. He gives his summoners knowledge of the planes, the ability to teleport across huge distances in the blink of an eye, and the ability to temporarily banish a foe from existence.

Legend: Hopefully you still remember

Special Requirement: The summoner must have suffered a mishap in teleportation or have had a bumpy ride on the Stations.

Manifestation: Doctor Worthinton first pops into the seal appearing as he was in life. Accompanying him is a small, high-pitched drone. He behaves civilly, and will answer any questions he is asked to the best of his ability, however, he is horribly aware of his condition and limited time in this world. As the summoning goes on, small parts of Worthinton start to disappear. If he looks at them, they instantly reappear, but another part of him vanishes. All this while the sound in the background gets louder and louder. Once the minute of summoning is almost up, Worthinton finds himself as simply a head, floating in mid-air, accompanied by loud, unpleasant noise. When his time is up, he vanishes, and his scream finishes in a horrible gurgle.

Sign: Parts of your body habitually disappear or fade. In addition, anything you say hangs in the air for a moment, like an echo.

Influence: When you are under the Doctor's influence he demands that, if teleportation is a viable means of travel to any location, you use it. This can take the form of any teleportation effect, including the Stations. In addition, you become over-polite and a loud-mouth, talking about anything you know (making a knowledge check every 20 turns and taking a swift action to deliver a mini-lecture on it).

Granted Powers:

Concealment: If you are manifesting the Doctor's sign you always have concealment.

Worthinton's Knowledge: You can use the Knowledge (Arcana) and Knowledge (the Plains) untrained and with a + 13 competence bonus. In addition, when you or a nearby ally are using a teleportation effect, you or he may treat their destination as one step more familiar. If they have only a general description they can teleport as if they had seen that place once.

Reality Phase: As a standard action you can make a melee touch attack to make your target temporarily vanish from existence. If you hit the target gets a Will saving throw to resist the effect. If it fails it and all its equipment vanish from existence for a number of rounds equal to your effective binder level. No-one but you even remembers them. However, the universe is generally not very happy with this state of affairs, and the target pops back into existence as if it had delayed its action to the beginning of the round. For each creature you have wiped from existence at once with this ability it lasts for half as many rounds until all of them are safely returned.

Scream: As a standard action you unleash a louder, more horrible version of the Doctor's last scream. This ability functions as the Shout spell. Once you have used this ability you cannot again for 5 rounds.

Teleport: As a standard action you may use teleport as the spell. Your bonus on accuracy applies, and being able to see the target area means you treat it as very familiar. Once you have used this ability you cannot again for 5 rounds.

[TheLonelyScribe]

Shadow Crowd
Illusion (Shadow)
Level: Sor/Wiz 2, Bard 3, Urban Druid/Ranger 3
Components: V,S,M/DF
Range: Medium (100ft + 10ft/level)
Effect: A crowd of menacing shadows in a 20-ft.-radius spread
Duration: 10 min./level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes

Shadow Crowd Summons a crowd of wandering souls from the shadow plane to mill around in an area and do your will before returning to their endless, meaningless journey on the plane of shadow. Any enemy moving through the area must spend 4 squares of movement for each square. An ally need only spend two.
eeeIn addition, when the Shadow Crowd is summoned it rolls initiative using your bonus. On its turn it may make a grapple attack against any creature in its area. Its attack bonus to make contact equals your base attack bonus plus your intelligence/charisma/wisdom modifier. Its grapple bonus is the same figure.

[Silverscale]

Life is proving too busy to get anything done on the map of Ishka but I think we have a good idea of the general shape/layout from our earlier discussions of it. If I ever get a chance to work on it some more, I will post it up when I've completed it.

On a different note, I've made it through most of my extensive collection of 3.0/3.5 books and have a list of constructs/golems, that I was trying to post earlier before one of my students decided it was a good idea to close all my tabs.

Suffice it to say there are a lot and I will get the list up later when I get home. There is also a wealth of Home-brew Constructs right here on the forums, and city-themed monsters, I will try and get links up for some of these later to get peoples reactions as to how they might fit into Ishka

One construct I can think of that we need to stat out are the Colossal Harvesters from Galdren.

Also to clean up the breakdown list of constructs
Workforged ~20,000 ~40% are currently indentured
Taskforged (Spontaneously awakened constructs) ~2,500
Intentionally awakened constructs ~1,000
*Homunculus ~5,000
Pipe Serpents ~3,000
Suited Fire Elementals ~3,000
*The Golden Army 50,000
*Golems~15,000
*Clock Roaches and other domestic and simple utilitarian ~100,000
*Fabrege show pieces ~250 major ~2,000 minor
*"Cheap" animated displays and toys ~1,000,000 Including "action figures" (Think GI-JOEs with a kung-fu grip) or ~10,000 "smart" toys (I'd give them INT 3, smart enough to obey simple commands and have one language) and other bigger/cooler toys like a self-propelled horse.

[Silverscale]

Here's a "final" list of Nobility.

Academy The Five Immortal Professors
The Art Community Master Artisans
Aquarane Elder Water Elementals
Aerodyne Elder Air Elementals, Skyship Captains
The Collected Colleges The Dean
The Commons Street Nobles
Customs and Immigrations The Secretary of Immigration (appointed by the council)
The Dark City Drow Nobles
The Draconic Heritage Collective Elder Dragon esp. The Two
Ether Council of Ghosts
Everdark Vampire Lords??????
Gobin Hobgoblin Shoguns
The Groves Elder Druids, The Fey Court
Gulliver's Heights The Biggest/Strongest Giant????????
Hedon The Master an d The Mistress
The Mage's District Archmages
The Market District The Economancers
Mere Self-Made Nobles
Mithral Heights Self-Made Nobles
The Necropolis Graveborl The Uncaring
The Port District Guild Masters
Primordium Senishal of The Prime
Ravenshome The Ravens
Redmere Elder Fire Elementals
The Republic of Ishka President, Vice President, Senators, etc
Smallville ?????????
Stadel The King
Steamworks Forge Barons
Sunset Island Executives of the Company that owns the Island
Terradome Elder Earth Elementals
Temple District High Priests
Ungul Centaur Tribe, Celestial Charger Unicorn
The Vault The Warden

[Owrtho]

I'll point out that these are the nobles, not those in charge. As such, despite being the highest authority in Ravenshome (sorta) the Ravens are not actually nobility. Rather, Ravenshome has no way of becoming a noble there, but recognizes the nobility of other districts and countries (though there are few of the latter).

In a similar way, many of those look like they could use some expanding. For example, in Stadel, I expect it as more nobility than just the king. In fact, a number of these seem to be 'who is in charge', rather than 'who is considered to be nobility'. For example, I could see the Academy having it be something like 'any teacher with tenure'. For Everdark, something not undead might fit better, as Vampires would fit more into Necropolis.

Also, I could see a number of districts just having a more standard form of nobility, despite the fact that something could be applied (this could also work well for those that are more difficult to come up with).

Owrtho

[ForzaFiori]

For Gulliver's Heights, The giants in the Thranething, in addition to ruling the district, would probably be the closest thing to nobility they have. Possibly a few other giants from each race in addition.

[Silverscale]

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I'll point out that these are the nobles, not those in charge. As such, despite being the highest authority in Ravenshome (sorta) the Ravens are not actually nobility. Rather, Ravenshome has no way of becoming a noble there, but recognizes the nobility of other districts and countries (though there are few of the latter).

In a similar way, many of those look like they could use some expanding. For example, in Stadel, I expect it as more nobility than just the king. In fact, a number of these seem to be 'who is in charge', rather than 'who is considered to be nobility'. For example, I could see the Academy having it be something like 'any teacher with tenure'. For Everdark, something not undead might fit better, as Vampires would fit more into Necropolis.

Also, I could see a number of districts just having a more standard form of nobility, despite the fact that something could be applied (this could also work well for those that are more difficult to come up with).

Owrtho

Ok let's take a look here Changes in blue.
Academy The Five Immortal Professors, Tenured Teachers/Professors
The Art Community Master Artisans, Self-Made Nobles
Aquarane Primal Water Elementals
Aerodyne Primal Air Elementals, Skyship Captains
The Collected Colleges The Dean, Tenured Faculty
The Commons Street Nobles
Customs and Immigrations The Secretary of Immigration (appointed by the council)
The Dark City Drow Nobles
The Draconic Heritage Collective Elder Dragon esp. The Two
Ether Council of Ghosts
Everdark ?????????
Gobin Hobgoblin Shoguns
The Groves Elder Druids, The Fey Court
Gulliver's Heights Members of The Thranething, Elder Giants
Hedon The Master an d The Mistress, Self-Made Nobles
The Mage's District Archmages
The Market District The Economancers, Guild Masters, Self-Made Nobles
Mere Self-Made Nobles
Mithral Heights Self-Made Nobles
The Necropolis Graveborl The Uncaring, Graveborl's Court, Vampire Lords, Self-Made Nobles
The Port District Guild Masters
Primordium Senishal of The Prime
Ravenshome The Ravens (Technically not "Nobles), Other Nobility is recognised but none is earned in Ravenshome
Redmere Primal Fire Elementals
The Republic of Ishka President, Vice President, Senators, etc
Smallville ?????????
Stadel The King and his Court
Steamworks Forge Barons
Sunset Island Executives of the Company that owns the Island
Terradome Primal Earth Elementals
Temple District High Priests
Ungul Centaur Tribe, Celestial Charger Unicorn
The Vault The Warden

[Silverscale]

Take a look at this thread http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89675 with particular attention to Lowfolk, Weirded Way, Sialla Danda, and Urban Oasis

Also Take a look at E.M.I.T. Constructs from http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...50#post7987650

[TheLonelyScribe]

The Package: Part 2

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Glimmerthorn sat alone at a table in the coffee house. He absent-mindedly stirred sugar into his mug, looking into the distance. Every so often he sent a spark between two of his fingers, refining the arcane power he had been blessed with ever since a fateful day as an adolescent.

It was just a playful game of hide-and-threaten-small-helpless-animals-to-seek, and Glimmerthorn was being pursued by his prodigal friend Flitterstone and his familiar. Trying to buy some time, Glimmerthorn invested his power in flinging a small illusory orb back at his friend to distract him, but something happened. A dark, chaotic fury overtook him, the magic that was to distract became warped, twisted and powerful. As the spell left his hand the gnomish boy heard a yell from behind him. He turned round, and Flitterstone was grasping at a large, steaming, evil hole in his stomach. The unfortunate arcanist gasped his last breath. His cat familiar curled up and died on top of him.

Glimmerthorn was dragged out of his character-introducing dreaming by the approach of his friend and co-adventurer Thrine. The worshipper of the True Kings of the Undead was moving through the crowd of the coffee house like a fish through water. It was partially to do with his natural agility and comfort in the crowded environment, but still, nobody really got in the way of a halfing with a white-painted face and two black stripes across his forehead.

'Hello, companion. How's the coffee?'

'Good enough. How's T'Rask?'

'In the park, waiting for the Watchman to go away. He was practising with the Doomaxe, but the Guard came along and told him it was a fire hazard.'

'Ha! Typical T'Rask. I swear, once a half-orc, always a half-orc.'

There was a silence. The two shifted uncomfortably in their seats. A waiter came by, and Thrine ordered a shot of extra strong, unsweetened chocolate. The silence returned.

'You really mustn't blame yourself you know, Glimmerthorn. It's that damned priest, if it weren't for him Acer would be sitting here with us right now.'

'I know. It's just, you know, it keeps replaying over and over in my head, I keep trying to think if I could have possibly saved him. Who knows, if I had saved his life, he may have treated me with a modicum of respect for once.'

'He respected you a lot more than you know Glimmerthorn. He respected that you can keep on living a good, lawful life, even with the dark power inside you. He respected you for being the master of yourself, and the demon within you. It's that damn priest, like I say. I don't think he even deserves to be part of the company any more.'

'Thrine, you know we can't do that. Saints above - before he joined our group our spending on healing potions was almost ten times as much as it is now. He's annoying, I know, but he's too useful. Anyway, it's useful having a minor noble on our side, it gets us places.'

'Hmm. I suppose you're right. But when are we next going on a mission? I'm sure there are many more healers that would be willing to join for a share of treasure if we search long enough.'

'I don't think that we'll have enough time. Something always turns up.'

As soon as he had finished his sentence a poster boy ran past. A sheet from a bundle of identical flyers under his arm came loose, and was carried along by a draft of air from a vent. It floated through the open door of the coffee house and came to rest on the very table the two adventurers were sitting at. Glitterthorn picked it up and looked at the heading.

'Mercenaries and Adventurers Wanted! Pay in Pillars Available!'

'Now I know the gods have it in for me.'

[BLiZme.2]

How about the nobility in Everdark are mostly mindflayers they hate light and are generally viewed as scheming and powerful both personally and politically.
on the topic of Illithids are we going with the fluff that mindflayers need to eat psychic energy to survive or are we just going witeh brains for the cerebrospinal fluid they need as a dietary supplement or are they just normal carnivores if we assume they are psychovores then peace loving flayers can eat oblivax aka memory moss for there psychic dietary needs. (You could go to a memory moss farm and sell your days memory if you had a bad day and if you are a spell caster well then your spells would command a pretty penny [note fluff conflicts as to the plants sentience some says it is not some says it is some says it is not but caries an echo of its last meal.])in any event the plant dose not have to be killed to provide Illithid nourishment so it is a preferable option IIRC an Illithid needs a sentient mind (or dose of oblivax) every month a brain(not necessarily sentient) a week and meat every few days to thrive and about half that to live in full health and can survive nearly indefinitely on about half that.. Awhile a go TheLonelyScribe mentioned an Illithid pacifist organization I like the entire idea except the tentacle removal thing that seems ... intense it would be like pulling your teat and cutting of a hand because others are afraid of them but I get the sentiment.

@TheLonelyScribe another good story I await your next installment.
@Silverscale would you consider it as stepping on your toes if I tried my hand at a map? I’m not the best artist but I love drawing maps (if yes any refinances not already posted would be of help)
As to the feats I promised I have not forgotten my schedule has just been more hectic than expected. I expect them to be done some time this week.

[ForzaFiori]

I have to agree with the tentacle cutting thing. Yes, they cause some people a bit of fright, but if illithids need to eat brains, the tentacles are about as important as hands are for us when we eat. They hold the skull while their mouth removes the brains. Without them, they would have difficulty getting their required nutrients (which I assume they get by buying bodies that actually stay dead, or even eating the brain right out of an undead [they don't really need it anymore, and if they paid...])

[Silverscale]

@BLiZme.2 Go for it if you want to make a map of Ishka. Also good idea for Everdark Nobility, what do people think of the rest of the list?

[TheLonelyScribe]

Completely out of the blue, I had a sudden urge to talk about the Arcane Engine. Here are some rules for players wanting to access it and a prestige class for the best users.

Feat: Arcane Engine User
Prerequisites: Member of the Academy's arcane department, arcane spell-preparing caster level 3
Benefit: If you have access to the Arcane Engine when you are preparing your spells you may choose up to 10 spells of different levels. You cast those spells at +1 caster level until the end of the day.


Engine Arcanist

Prerequisites:
Feats: Arcane Engine User, one metamagic feat, one item creation feat
Skills: Spellcraft 8, Knowledge (arcana) 8
Special: Arcane Spell-Preparing Caster Level 5, member of the Academy's arcane department

The Engine Arcanist
{table=head]Level|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spells

1st|

+0

|

+0

|

+0

|

+2

|Engine Use|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

2nd|

+1

|

+0

|

+0

|

+3

|Engine Use|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|

+1

|

+1

|

+1

|

+3

|Engine Use|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

4th|

+2

|

+1

|

+1

|

+4

|Engine Use|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|

+2

|

+1

|

+1

|

+4

|Engine Use|+1 level of existing spellcasting class[/table]

Engine Use: Choose one of the benefits below every time you gain a level in Engine Arcanist. You may gain that benefit instead of that bestowed by the Arcane Engine User feat when you have access to the arcane engine.

Affect spells with up to 3 + 1/2 your Engine Arcanist level levels of metamagic feats without affecting the spell slot required to cast them with.

Prepare 1 extra level 1 spell

Decrease the amount of XP required to make a magic item by one quarter (usable once per week)

Choose a 0-level spell. You lose the ability to cast 1st and 0-level spells for the rest of the day, but you gain the ability to use that spell at will instead.

Gain concealment for the rest of the day.

Gain a +2 bonus to will saves to the rest of the day.

Gain a +2 bonus to BAB when attacking with arcane spells for the rest of the day.


Any other ideas?

[BLiZme.2]

@Silverscale Cool and the rest of the list looks good
@ TheLonelyScribe I’m a little confused by what you are talking about with the diplomacy check it seems to imply the engine affects things we haven’t said it dose and that accessing it is now more difficult even for those with the feat.
Also your PRC should give +1 spell casting on all or maybe not the first or second level (not both) and should spread the other bonuses out to other levels like Access Engine +5at level one and a Metamagic Feat at level 2. As wrote this class is hugely sub par.

[Silverscale]

@The Lonely Scribe: How about dropping the DC down to 35 so you don't have to be level 20 with max ranks in Diplomacy to make the check reliably.

[TheLonelyScribe]

DC 35 makes sense, but remember that if you're saving lives or finding spells you get significant bonuses, and these are things that PCs do rather often.

@ Blizme2, the Arcane Engine is a lot more powerful than you are gathering. It can apply a +1 metamagic feat to all of your spells, or it can give an extra spell slot per spell level. Guaranteed access to the Arcane Engine (presuming you have 9 levels available including 0 through 8) is equal to about 5 levels of spell progression for a wizard. If anything, this PrC is overpowered, as they can get the things that increase their power significantly, whilst still getting spell progression.

Really, I think you are both underestimating the power of the arcane engine as I imagined it. Suggest any changes and I will be happy to introduce them, but only if they're balanced. A prestige class with full spell progression and a good chance of 5 levels more every other day is not balanced.

[BLiZme.2]

you forget that if you are taking this PRC you are not going to be able to cast level 9 spells until level 22 and that means if you want epic level spells i.e. level 10+ (not epic spell casting) you have to wait even longer on top of that you might delay level 8 spells a level

plus if I read you right then I think the arcane engine is inherently over powered and should be toned down at least for the uses players can put it to normally. it could say allow for the creation of magic items with low or no XP cost (incidentally this helps explain all the incredibly week and frivolous magic items, they are made by hiring out juice from the arcane engine, otherwise who would spend 10-1000 XP on a toy that wasn’t even for your own kid) and id be ok wit that as a suggested change to keep it absurdly powerful but not inherently game braking I would even let it boost spell casting (to an outrageous level) as a plot effect but normally your never allowed to do that as it automatically stops the engine doing anything else, maybe it powers on or more other great works? and you could use it to do things like decimate whole armies lift whole districts destroy a major artifact you know any plot effect needed. As a continues addition double spell slots or effectively making all your spells 1 level higher is just to much this is the kind of thing that had to be nerfed in the arch mage between version 3.0 and 3.5 (moor spastically huge pluses to caster level).

On an unrelated note we need names for the lake the canyon and the river they probably wont come up much in the setting but not having teal names for them would be just unrealistic even if most people just called them the lake the river and the canyon (some people may not even know the official names) they would have official names that im, sure would be used on official documents.
I suggest The Rowalaz River, Fissure Canyon, and Lake Leayoratus(sounds mermish to me and the original inhabitants were merpeople so).

[TheLonelyScribe]

Actually, that's given me an (almost completely unrelated) idea. Look at the edited PrC for more info.

[BLiZme.2]

This is much clearer and more balance generally I only have a couple of comments. My comments in blue. Also the feat is now much clearer and balanced.

Spoiler

Show

Engine Use: Choose one of the benefits below every time you gain a level in Engine Arcanist. You may gain that benefit instead of that bestowed by the Arcane Engine User feat when you have access to the arcane engine.

Affect spells with up to 3 + 1/2 your Engine Arcanist level levels of metamagic feats without affecting the spell slot required to cast them with.this is ok (I had to read it 3 times though not sure how to fix that) but I would cap the addition to any one spell to your Arcane engine user level so no quickened LV9 spells unless you are at least a level 4 arcane engine user.

Prepare 1 extra level 1 spell this seems underpowered maybe make it +1 spell slot of your Arcane Engine User level (that to may be under powered).

Decrease the amount of XP required to make a magic item by one quarter (usable once per week)this should specifically say it stacks with the similar feet in Eberon and the other one from Forgotten Realms (note both of those IIRC are 1/2 XP cost but the Sage once said they do not stack.

Choose a 0-level spell. You lose the ability to cast 1st and 0-level spells for the rest of the day, but you gain the ability to use that spell at will instead.this seems balanced may even be underpowered but very cool prestidigitation at will anyone.

Gain concealment for the rest of the day. Can I get a fluff explanation? otherwise this seems to random and I’m not sure on the balance seems ok though.

Gain a +2 bonus to will saves to the rest of the day.seems ok.

Gain a +2 bonus to BAB when attacking with arcane spells for the rest of the day.seems ok.

In general this is much better and appears balanced to me (with out play testing).


Moved from earlier post due to ninjaing

also what general teck level are we going for i picture something very early enlightenment or late renaissance ether of those would have guns IRL. For that we could use the stats on page 145 of the DMG and include the blunderbuss found here if the general coconscious is that the DMG cost of ~1 GP a shot is to much then we could lower that to 1-5 sp or if it is to cheep we could call it smoke powder make it a high dc alchemical substance and give it a cost of 10 GP per shot (comparable to Level 1 CL1 wand charge).

[ForzaFiori]

I would think that single shot guns are fairly readily available, and possibly revolvers (both pistol and rifle revolvers, AKA turret guns) could be just coming out. VERY expensive, obviously.

[Silverscale]

I've got two ideas for places of interest, one has been ratelling around in my head for quite some time now and the other just occured to me today.

Place of Interest: The Great Library
Location: The Collected Colleges
Description: With connections all over the multiverse and a wealth of knowledge from all the learned mages and scholars within Ishka, it was inevitable that the Library that started so many years ago in what has now become The Collected Colleges, would eventually become the greatest single collection of knowlegde in the known multiverse.



Place of Interest: Cathedral of The Four Winds
Location: Atop the highest mountain in the range that borders Ishka
Description: Constructed of masterfully worked stone, wood, glass, and precious metals, the Cathedral of The Four Winds is carved to carefully catch every gust of wind around it and turn it into a beautiful symphony of sound as it passes through massive pipe and horn like structures. The music created by the Cathedral can be heard for miles around. Anyone who has listened to the C.o.T.F.W. long enough can tell many things about the wind including it's direction and strenght. If one knowes how, they can actually control the winds flowing in and out of the Cathedral to create their own music. However, this requires several people working together to block and unblock various pipes. The knowledge of how to manipulate the Cathedral is kept by The Keepers of The Winds, who will share their music on particularly special occasions.