White Cloud City OOC

[manwithaplan]

Perception (1d20+6)[15].

[Zelphas]

Perception (DC 25): (1d20+8)[14]

[Hyperbolic sine]

Perception DC 25 (1d20+10)[23] Spending ki point, boosted to 27.

[Hyperbolic sine]

And double post because I'm dumb.

Knowledge (Martial) DC 15 (1d20+3)[6] Sigh.

[Dorni]

Spoiler: Zelphas

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First, I need to make a correction. Its Yumi that makes Shiori feel that uneasy feeling, not Saori. I've already corrected it IC.

As for possible causes of uneasiness, you're not really sure, but you think it might have to do with the nature of how Yumi uses her spark. There are a lot of different ways that power manifests. Your best guess is that her power source has some kind of resonance with your sensitivity to the dream realm.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Perception DC 25 (1d20+10)[26] Spending a ki point, boosted to 30.

[Zelphas]

Somewhat pointless, but just to see what Shiori can see as well, Perception (DC 25): (1d20+8)[28]

[manwithaplan]

Stealth (DC 22) (1d20+9)[23].

Da Big Sense Motive (DC 20) (1d20)[8].

[Hyperbolic sine]

Sense Motive DC 20 (1d20+6)[16]

Stealth (1d20+15)[35]

[Zelphas]

Bluff: (1d20+4)[14]

Sense Motive (DC 20): (1d20+2)[19]

[Stevesciguy]

Character details!:

Wulfric Ragnar, AKA 'Lash'

He'll speak in a dark green, if that's alright.

Spoiler: Character and Clan Details

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Spoiler: Backstory

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Born to two adept parents, Wulfric dived head first into the exhilarating world of battle. Having begun his training from a young age, he actively sought out worthy opponents to duel in both his own clan and the others in the city.
He spent much time exploring the streets, even participating in both legal and illegal fighting rings where he tests his skills against adepts trained in every way imaginable. In these circles, he's well known for being both a formidable opponent and a sore loser.

Wulfric strives to improve himself, always researching new techniques or training so that he may become one of the greatest warriors in his clan's - and the City's - history. He aspires to one day become the leader of his clan, although that day is far off.

One of his dreams is to make the perilous journey to the far north, where his clan originated. He is convinced that the people who chose to remain have not died out, and must be warriors of unparalleled skill in order to have survived. He salivates at the idea of learning from them, although many of the adults in the clan reasonably dismiss this as wishful thinking.

Spoiler: Complications

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Hot-Headed[Temper]:
Wulfric is quick to anger, and slow to cool. He is particularly set off by insults(real or perceived) to his skill or competence. When angered, he is quick to lash out, often with words, but on occasion, with his fists.
His given name is often the subject of jokes, that it represents his lashes of anger as much as his style of fighting. This also irks him.

Competitive Clan[Rivalry]:
The Chained Serpent clan is strictly meritocratic, and as such, competition for high positions among those eligible is fierce. While this never ending battle of one-upping each other is a primary driving force in the clan's rise through the ranks of White Cloud City, it has resulted in a culture where every man and woman is a potential rival, who must be beaten in their quest for status. As a result, Wulfric is unusually competitive, seeing most parts of life as a competition to be won.

Wulfric has a particularly intense rivalry with an individual known as Avaldir Galli. Wulfric and Avaldir represent opposite ends of the spectrum in many ways; where Wulfric prefers being lightly armored, Avaldir prefers wearing thick plate. Where Wulfric is quick on his feet and fights with finesse, Avaldir is slower, and uses raw strength to do his fighting. The few things they have in common is their lust for battle and hot-headed tendencies. While the rivalry is not outright hostile, they see each other as an opponent to be defeated, and interact accordingly.

Thrillseeker[Motivation]:
Wulfric's primary motivation is the near-addictive thrill of battle. He actively seeks out tests of his skill, and competent adepts to duel with. He longs to leave the city walls so that he might face the savage skill possessed by the demon beasts.

Spoiler: Clan Lore

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Before the demon beasts arrived, the people who would become the Chained Serpent clan lived as a scattering of villages far to the north. Composed of both humans and elves, they mixed freely, resulting in a large population of half elves.

It is not entirely known what created the clan's reverence for the chain. Some say that an imprisoned hero broke the chains that bound him, then used them to fight his way to freedom, before teaching his people the techniques he had learned. Others say the origin is not so heroic, that heavy chains were used as decent and widely available weapons that commoners of the land could use when defense was necessary. In any case, reverence for the chain began to heavily pervade the culture of the future clanspeople.

When the demon beasts came, the people fought valiantly. Their chains bound and tripped the terrible creatures, but without walled settlements, defense was a never ending battle. In an effort to preserve themselves, the people of all the different villages fled south, united in their desperation for survival. The journey took them across perilous icy wastes, hounded by the beasts along the way. When they arrived at White Cloud City, their numbers were half of those who left. Contact with those who chose to stay was lost, and has not been reestablished due to the danger of such a task.

Through time, the people of the Chained Serpent integrated into White Cloud City. The physical traits of their heritage were largely lost. Most members now only have hints of their elvish blood: slender builds, slightly pointed ears, brightly colored eyes, and so forth. Their culture, however, ran strong, keeping their traditions and knowledge alive. Today, while not one of the 5 Great Clans, they are one of the more influential clans in the city, hoping to soon make their move to rise to Great Clan status.

They've achieved their influence so far through a combination of their performances and their contributions to the City's defences. While their performers are seen in many concerts of various types, they often save their public chain dancing performances for significant events or festivals, gladly showing off their most skilled dancers.

The clan is still very thankful to the city for giving them refuge during their time of need. As such, the clan happily supplies many of its warriors to the defense of the city, so the city's forces have a significant number of Chained Serpent adepts. Many of these warriors have ascended to leadership positions within the city's military, and the officers from other clans often think fondly of those clan members who have willingly risked their lives for the city that saved them in their darkest hour.

Spoiler: Chain Dancing

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The odd reverence the people of the clan have for chains has spread throughout their entire world. One of the less battle oriented applications of this is the performance known as 'chain dancing'.

The term is fairly self explanatory. During chain dancing, the performers wield chains in each hand, sometimes dyed vivid colors. While dancing the performers weave their chains into graceful shapes, appearing as though they are controlling metallic snakes. More impressive is the performances put on by groups of dancers.

When multiple dancers perform together, they weaves their chains together and apart, and clash them together in a rhythmic beat. Combined with colorful flowing robes or dresses, the performers can appear as a single massive beast, howling with a thunderous metallic roar. In some cases, chimes are built into the chains, each chain having a different note, and the performers can create a curious style of music in this fashion.

These performances are not always entertainment, however. Before battle, warriors of the clan will use a simplified version of chain dancing, matching the rhythmic clashing to their war chants as they advance upon the enemy, creating an intimidating display of unparalleled coordination. The metallic roar combined with the ruthless advancement of the warriors leaves even hardened enemies quaking in their boots.

Spoiler: Spiritual Details

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Some of the more spiritual(or big headed) members of the clan believe that their knowledge, traditions, and the sparks of their adepts are the metaphysical chains restraining the world-eating serpent. They believe the clan must keep their culture alive, for if they were to ever run out of practitioners of their way of life, the serpent's bonds would weaken, break, and doom the world.

The clan worships a pantheon very similar to the real world Norse pantheon. The major change is, as above, that Jormungandr is not swimming in the sea, but bound in chains, and will break free of the chains during Ragnarök, rather than emerge from the sea. Jormungandr's chains were forged by the dwarves of Niðavellir, and reinforced by the will of the Chained Serpent clan as described above.

Spoiler: Fighting Techniques

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Their traditional fighting style is a hodgepodge of techniques, blended together into a format that blurs the lines between battle and performance. Practitioners of the clan use spiked chains which they weave in graceful patterns, the clattering of the metal creating an intoxicating rhythm. However, in battle this art is as brutal as it is beautiful, with opponents spending much of the battle on the ground, disarmed of their weapons. Dislocated limbs are not uncommon.

Chthonic Serpent is the primary discipline used by members of the Chained Serpent. While the techniques are guarded, they are not closely guarded, being taught to new members of the clan, as well as those judged worthy of learning its techniques. As a result, clans allied closely to the Chained Serpent may have practitioners of the Chthonic Serpent, although due to the unusual weapon required, and the exceptionally high standards set by the teachers, it is not seen terribly often outside of the clan.

Spoiler: Language

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The Chained Serpent clan, in addition to Common, speaks a bastardized version of Elvish. This language has mixed with common in various ways, becoming a language all on its own. While speakers of this language can read and understand Elvish, complex concepts or details between the two are lost, and so is only somewhat useful for translation purposes.

Spoiler: Misc Cultural Stuff

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The Chained Serpent clan is intended to be based off of ancient Scandinavian culture to a fair degree. There are a few differences; for one, there are no social classes of the same kind that existed then. Before the people who would become the Chained Serpent clan joined the city, there was not as much raiding as is portrayed, although there was still some.

An idea that Dorni suggested in a private message that I liked: the clan uses tattoos to describe achievements made by an individual. A specific example: all clan members who go to the Phoenix Academy are given a tattoo of a Phoenix on their right upper arm before they leave.

While their elvish blood is greatly diminished, it has had one significant lasting effect on the clan: their lifespans are 10-15 years longer on average, but they mature at the same rate as regular humans. This means that the clan has many very highly trained warriors, as a 35 year old warrior of the clan will be in similar physical condition as a 25 year old from another clan, but with another 10 years of experience.

[Dorni]

Stealth or Bluff vs Opposed 22

Nari: (1d20+9)[13] Nope
Yumi: (1d20+8)[27] Totally Cool
Saori: (1d20+11)[16] Nope

[Dorni]

Alright, finally did a full dive through Wulfric.

• I see that you added the +2 Enhancement bonus at lv 2 to Dex, but please note it on your sheet. It matters since you can't select the same stat consecutive times.
• Broken Blade requires being unarmed or using a Discipline weapon, which the Spiked Chain is not. So Flurry Strike could be used by Wulfric unarmed, but not with his chain.
• Not an issue, but the choice to use Fateful Blow with a 20/x2 weapon has piqued my interest. Are you planning on building into crits down the line?
• Also not a rules issue, but would you mind listing your Grapple mod as one of your attacks on the sheet just to track the bonus? I have a feeling you're going to be making a lot of them ;)

[Hyperbolic sine]

Knowledge (Martial) (1d20+3)[22] Nice.

[Stevesciguy]

Alright, finally did a full dive through Wulfric.

• I see that you added the +2 Enhancement bonus at lv 2 to Dex, but please note it on your sheet. It matters since you can't select the same stat consecutive times. oops, can do. I'll put it in the additional notes section
• Broken Blade requires being unarmed or using a Discipline weapon, which the Spiked Chain is not. So Flurry Strike could be used by Wulfric unarmed, but not with his chain.oh, I missed that. Alright might need to swap it out
• Not an issue, but the choice to use Fateful Blow with a 20/x2 weapon has piqued my interest. Are you planning on building into crits down the line?No, it's just that I have a feature that triggers on a crit, so being able to guaranteed confirm it when I get one is nice. Although, with some of my other build components, I'm not sure I need it anymore
• Also not a rules issue, but would you mind listing your Grapple mod as one of your attacks on the sheet just to track the bonus? I have a feeling you're going to be making a lot of them ;)can do! That's the plan

Excited to get going and fight some demon bats!

[Dorni]

Spoiler: Hyperbolic, Knowledge (Martial) DC 15

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Anima, or Animus, is a form of energy possessed by some adepts. They describe it as a roiling, turbulent arcane energy that wells up from deep within. Animus users harness their anima to power and enhance martial maneuvers. Unlike Ki, which requires an active effort of a practitioner's will to invoke or maintain, Anima is connected to the body's fight-or-flight response, causing it to well up on its own in response to danger (real or imagined). While this does mean that Anima isn't 100% at the beck and call of its user, it more than makes up for it because it will continue to swell as long as the user remains threatened, giving animus-using adepts great longevity in combat. Further, the arcane nature of this energy lends itself very well to powering flashy, spectacular disciplines.

As an arcane energy, it has some similarities to the arcane energies harvested from the soul gems of demon beasts. This doesn't result in animus users being stigmatized though - quite the contrary, as the daily experience of controlling anima can help an animus user to quickly grasp the intricacies of manipulating energy from soul gems to craft enchanted items. This talent doesn't necessarily make them better craftsmen than others and won't substitute for a lack of hard work to master a craft, but animus-users who do work hard can become very versatile craftsmen.

[Dorni]

Tsugiharu bonus damage for Crit: (1d8+7)[12] Base +(1d6)[2] Deadly Strikes + 13 = Total 27

Also, is there a reason you listed the Chakram as 1d6 base damage in your post while chakram is a 1d8 weapon on your sheet?

[Zelphas]

Lucid Dreaming: (1d20+7)[27]

[Hyperbolic sine]

Total damage including crit, Deadly Strike and Body of the Night: (2d8+6)[18] + (2d6)[7] = 25.

[Dorni]

Hanyangi 1 vs Bull Rush (17): (1d20+4)[6] Moved 10 ft

[Dorni]

Nari AoO on Hanyangi 1: (1d20+8)[27], on hit (1d8+3)[4] damage Hit, Crit Threat
Saori AoO on Hanyangi 1: (1d20+10)[29], on hit (1d8+3)[4] damage Hit, Crit Threat

[Dorni]

Nari crit confirmation: (1d20+8)[13], on hit (1d8+3)[11] bonus damage Nope
Saori crit confirmation: (1d20+10)[27], on hit (1d8+3)[7] bonus damage Confirmed, 11 total damage

[Dorni]

Hanyangi 2 Will DC 15 vs Harmony Shattering Strike: (1d20+2)[17] Success

[Hyperbolic sine]

...copied from last round and forgot the actual damage roll. (2d6+7)[12]. +1. 13.

[Dorni]

Hanyangi 2 Fort DC 20 vs Sting of the Asp: (1d20+8)[28]. On failure, (1d6)[5] damage and 2 str damage. Repeats next round. Success halves the str damage this round and eliminates the lingering damage. Success. 1 str damage

[Hyperbolic sine]

Noticed I only applied +1 damage from Saori rather than +2, so H2 should be at 49 damage. And H1 at 122, if we want to be nitpicky.

[Dorni]

So, in discord the other day a few people expressed some interest in Legacy Items. I love the concept of legacy items, but I'll also be the first to pile on the creators for poorly executing the idea and over-designing them. Especially when the idea is so, so simple: They're an item that grows in power with the wielder. That's it. Equipment in D&D gets discarded and replaced by necessity as a character levels up. So when a character first sets out they might inherit their family's ancestral weapon, which has great personal meaning to them... only for the character to go on to gain a few levels and no longer use the weapon because its outdated and they need a better weapon to keep up. By making it a Legacy Item, the item can grow in power with you and you'll never need to discard your character's "signature" item.

To that end, I'm providing some rules and clarifications for Legacy Items. Legacy Items are completely optional - you don't have to have one.

Legacy Item Rules

1. Eligible Items: Despite the book being called "Weapons of Legacy", almost any item can be a legacy item. A character may only possess one Legacy Item at a time. A newly founded legacy item cannot have a value of more than 4,000gp, and if it is a weapon, shield, or armor, its current effective enchantment bonus cannot be higher than +1. In addition, the item should be an item of significance to the character. This doesn't necessarily mean that the item needs to already have a long and storied history (although it could), but the item is going to be something the character carries with them for their entire career and will be building a bond with. It should be something that could plausibly be identified as a character's signature item.

The Founding Event requirements are nonsense.

2. Select a Ritual.
You will need to complete a ritual to unlock the item's Least powers and another ritual when you are ready to unlock the item's Lesser powers. Many of these example rituals involve a trial, test, dedication, or similar commitment. The ritual chosen should be thematically appropriate for the item. Within one week of completing the listed activity (whether before or after), you must expend the gold cost associated with the ritual (least or lesser). If you are founding a Legacy Item, I will permit you to choose the details of the Lesser ritual when we approach the minimum level to unlock it.

Here are the example rituals that the book suggests, but you may feel free to design your own rituals as appropriate for your item.

• Trial By Enemy: Choose one creature type (such as an elemental, dragon, aberration, and so on), or a specific foe (such as an evil half-dragon). You must defeat a chosen foe with a Challenge Rating equal to or greater than your character level.
• Requiem: Enact a memorial service in the location where the founding event occurred or in a similar location. The memorial rite recounts, reveals, or recreates the founding event.
• Ordeal: Undergo a challenge that is physically demanding or involves physical or mental danger, and that somehow recounts, reveals, or recreates the founding event.
• Test: Prove your prowess in some skill, test, or feat. Alternatively, you must run a gantlet of successive challenges or labors.
• Purification: The item must be purified in some way. This might involve bathing it in special waters, anointing it with blessed oils, or some other action and materials relating to the founding event.
• Meditation: Meditate on the item for one day per character level. You must spend at least 8 continuous hours in meditation each day; during this period, you cannot engage in mentally or physically demanding activities, such as combat or spellcasting. If your meditation is interrupted, the ritual fails and must be restarted; however, you do not need to pay its gp cost again.
• Pledge: Dedicate yourself to some principle or philosophy related to the founding event. Each time you fail to act in accordance with this pledge, you are unable to use the two highest-level available abilities of your legacy item for one day. If you repeatedly fail to honor the pledge, you lose access to those abilities for additional days.
• Reverence: Enact a service that reveres a deity, spirit, or other aspect of the divine through invocations, prayers, songs, or rituals. You must enact the service in the location where the founding event occurred or a similar location.
• Quest: Pledge yourself to a specific activity related to the founding event, such as slaying some great foe, recovering a magnificent relic, surviving a mythically dangerous passage, and so on. Unless you specify otherwise, you are presumed to be following the quest; however, each day after the initial pledge that you have not completed the quest, you have a 10% chance of being unable to use the two highest-level available abilities of your legacy item.

3. Ritual Costs:
Least: 4,500gp, 1 Downtime Action, Min character level 5th.
Lesser: 16,000gp, 2 Downtime Actions, Min character level 10th.

These costs supersede the cost tables listed in the book. There will be no permanent penalties to saves or such nonsense just because you took up your father's sword.

4. You may select an Omen, but it is not required

5. Select the Legacy Item's abilities. This post has a very useful compilation of abilities for Legacy Items. As usual, the GM will need give final approval once you've finished designing the item.

[Hyperbolic sine]

AoO of doom: (1d20+9)[29] for (1d6+8)[13] damage.

[Hyperbolic sine]

...well then. Critical confirmation of doom: (1d20+9)[16], Deadly Strike activates for a total extra (2d6+8)[12] damage. Aw.

EDIT: Forgot Shiori's +1. Though I think a 17 is still barely a miss.

[Dorni]

Rolling to confirm Nezu's crit: (1d20+17)[33]. On confirm (2d8+6)[20] + 6 = 26 damage Confirmed

Tsugiharu gains an AoO against the hanyangi
Izuka gains an immediate Move Action on Saori's turn. This movement doesn't count against his movement for the round.
Izuka, Tsugiharu, and Kotetsu gain Elemental Glyph. All movement speeds possessed by each ally under the effect of the glyph gain a +10-foot enhancement bonus to speed. In addition affected allies may choose to make one turn of up to 90 degrees while making charge attacks.