The Painted Cage OOC

Hm, if it's my paintbrush that makes me anything more than a normal painter then we've got to go into how I aquired it and how it hasn't been taken from me yet.

Mortimer (Ghost of Human Aristocrat 2)

Posthumous yet not Posthumorous Gentleman, Sculptor and Shaper of Spirit and Substance

Possibly more alive than ever now that he is dead, Morty is a passionate if somewhat eccentric phantom. Once he was Mortimer the Molder, a sensate known for specializing sculpting techniques with exotic and often unwieldy matter.

His broadly recognized works include the evocative “Make Giggles not War” – a feminine slaad figurine made of inflexible cube-iron of Acheron that seems to belly-dance when viewers only can see it out of the corner of their eye, and the controversial “Indistinguishability” – a statue derived from the layer crossing point of Bytopian mountain peaks depicting conjoined twins, one of which is celestial and the other fiendish.

However, critics often dispute whether those of Mortimer’s pieces based on more ludicrous materials can be recognized as having been sculpted, for surely there is no way you can use chisel and hammer to work the wispy mists trailing off genies or the tears of a deva.

As an apparition Morty seems to more frequently go back to simple means of expression, leaving park benches with wooden statues of lovers asleep in each others’ arms, and defective golems with both masculine and feminine traits simultaneously. He has shown particular interest in working with ethereal matter, however, and rumors say he is starting to experiment with protomatter formed in the wake of his own ghostly presence.

Little is known of the true nature behind his tools, Spirit & Substance (chisel and hammer, respectively), but predominant theories speculate that the bond after death has become so strong that the tools effectively are an extension of Mortimer’s essence.

Morty is occasionally found drifting in unexpectedly to feasts and banquets, sometimes possessing one of the guests if it brings him closer to experiencing the delights of the living. His merry nature and thrill-seeking demeanor serves him well in such celebrations, and his incorporeal state has never stopped him from enthusiastic toasts or unrestrained seductions.

@ Dunamin: thats so cool , i wish my concept was a bit more substancial, lol. (and seriously)

yes, but i see the concepts being thrown around here and i feel like a pale comparison

(and thats supposedly funny as the character is supposed to have jet black marble like skin and flames on herself...hmmz)

Direct copy-paste from messages to Azure:

i want to come frm athas. i have loved that setting since i played when it was new, and that was a 5 year campaign... sigh .

Miss those days..

Not sure about alignment, i could go apposites, but also i want to become templar, a C.N templar of a L.E. Dragon Queen? lol. would be interesting...

my mother is a Annis hag from the Ruins of Yaramuke who serves Sielba (who is thought dead), but when i escaped, and came to the new cities near Yaramuke, i was treated as a creation of the Pristine Tower, which i was not, but ppl did not see any difference..

because of my half elemental status i was difficult to capture and keep, so ppl generally left me alone, and i grew up in the harsh environs of Urik under the rule of Hamanu.

I left that city after i grew adolescent and went to Tyr, hearing about the Iron mines and other marvels of freedom and magic.. meanwhile i was singing fire... i entered Tyr and found my ability to melt fire with hands and hammer to be very useful, and was apprenticed by a weaponsmith, but my aptitude lay in creating, not destruction, and i learned more about armor and black smithing then weapon making, which was of no particular concern to my tutor, as long as i produced, and that i did.

After a while he began to bore me, as he had nothing more to teach me, and during that time i had made some friends in the artists district, they introduced me to a Gith who was also a Templarate "member", and they were able to get me to a portal that went to Sigil.

I was introduced to a Blacksmith in Sigil and there my life was opened wide to the world so to speak. I practiced more singing, and perfected my control over my own fire with the songs i sang, and with that my mastery over my smithing abilities.

any time after this i can be set into the story

Sielba, Lifegiver and Empress of Yaramuke (deceased) Female dragon (stage 1); LE Aristocrat 4/Psion (shaper) 11/Wizard (defiler) 8/Arch Defiler 5/Metamind 5/Cerebmancer 10/Dragon 1 Templates - Champion of Rajaat (pterrans), Sorcerer-Monarch Character Level: 43 Note - These stats are mainly derived from what little information I could glean from Black Flames.

(one of my personal belongings is a necklace with a medallion on it..(templars symbol) i know it has to do with "Her", and i have knowledge of how to use it...)

at some point i want to take lvls of Templar. probably after my 2nd lvl of Annis, i will take a lvl of templar, and then see how it goes.. btw, she knows that the necklace thingie is a symbol of templars, and she has rudimentary training as a templar, except maybe the casting atm. the smith she works for is a templar himself, he is retired, as his dragon-king is dead, so he has no spells, but he is trying to get me motivated into casting spells as a templar, which he will succeed in eventually, and his motive is to make him and his allies serve the same Dragon-Queen, so they have their powers back, albeit covertly in first instance...

i am thinking of the option of dropping the +2 lvl adj- spring child, and getting the speak with plants ab as an item..

that way i keep the fun, but lose some mechanics..

I would probably take a lvl of Anniss and a lvl of Templar instead, that way you might not have to tweak skillpoints for me..agreed?

http://www.athas.org/products/ds3

Ok, that sounds good.  I guess he'll be a human.

I actually wouldn't mind if you created my character sheet for me if you're in a rush.  That kind of stuff always takes me a while, and I don't have as much free time as I used to now that I have a job. 

... But how... and why? Ouch, she may not have used contraceptive protection, but I hope she used fire protection! The permanent kind, in order to survive pregnancy. Even if it somehow was possible that a being of pure fire technically could impregnate a human-like being, why would it do so and choose a hag? Conversely, why would she choose to mate with... animated fire?

I figured half-elementals usually were either derived from genies or other humanoid-like elemental beings, powerful magic rituals, or strong planar influence.

Anyway, I guess its not terribly important for the game, it just caught me off-guard. There's rarely explanations how single-gender races like hags reproduce anyway.

Thanks for the answers, though, helped me understand the sense of it more.

How about breeding experiments by third parties? Mad wizards abound.

Hey Azure,

What, if any, property is it reasonable to assume our characters own? From the theme of the campaign I assume that we should be struggling a little but as a lifecrafter I'll need somewhere to keep my animals. Should I rent or can I have a kip?

Also how much material (Living in my case) can we be assumed to start with. I'd like to have a few pens of flying kittens, living cloaks, etc to sell at the start of the campaign but I'd like to know what our boundaries are.

i am trying to get my concept fitting, but cant seem to get the puzzle right aarg, hammer and hack as the puzzle again to see what i can make of it...

As said in PM i will break the concept open and change it whole around.

play a more normal character instead of a "freak of nature"

Did i stun everyone into silence with my concept?

Ability score rolls

EDIT: This dice roller is annoying and dumb. I'm going to use Invisible castle.

EDIT AGAIN: Crap! I've gotten a total ability modifier of zero twice in a row! How much you want to bet the third set will total to +1

Edit Again Again! Oh well, nevermind. These were actually quite decent. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1783947/

16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 10.

Last EDIT! Really! Hey! I just thought of something cool! What if whenever he draws someone from a reflection their double is always the opposite alignment?

I roilled a little better then the previous poster, sorry :P 

Manahu of Yaramuke 

Human Athasian, Templar 7 of Sielba the Life giver, (ex templar of Kalak of Tyr) (full spells to be chosen still to come)

Str    16 +3 (incl. the +1 from lvl 4)

Dex  11 -

Con  11 -

Int    18 +4

Wis  15 +2

Cha  17 +3

8+2,7,8,8,4,7 = 44 HP

H-Bribery

1-Cosmopolitan-Perform (forgotten realms HB)

3-Fast talker

6-Craft Wondrous Item

Craft Blacksmithing  8 +4

Craft Armoursmithing 10 +4 

Diplomacy 10 +3/ +3/ +4 syn. (bluff and sense mot.)

Bluff 10 +3/ +3/ +2

Intimidate 5 +3/ +2/ +2 syn.

Sense Motive 8 +2 

Perform Sing 6 +4/ +2

Spell craft 6 +4 

Literacy, (aka read/ write) Common, Tyrian, Yaramukite, Elven, Ignan, Draconic

Languages, (aka speak) Common, Tyrian, Elven, Ignan, Giant, Gith, Infernal, Celestial

Knowledge, 

Planes 6 +4

Ancient history 2 +4 (current and dead Sorcerer Kings and Queens) 

Literature 4 +4 (Stories, plays, ballads, epic poetry, legends) 

Politics 6 +4 (government bureaucracies, petitions, bribes, subterfuge, art of compromise). 

FAST TALKER [GENERAL]

You have a gift for talking your way out of trouble.

Prerequisites: Wis 13+, Cha 13+.Benefit: You gain a +3 bonus on Bluff checks and Diplomacy checks.

BRIBERY [GENERAL]

You have developed the ability to talk people into taking or participating in actions that normally run counter to their sense of personal or professional morality. You know

the ins and outs of the local government, and have a keen sense of who's open to bribes and who's not.

Benefit: When using the Diplomacy skill to convince someone to participate in an illegal action, you gain a +3

competence bonus. If you offer your target a bribe or payment of some kind that is valuable enough to have

worth to him, increase this bonus to +5. The bribe should be enough to equal roughly a week's wage for the target. For each multiple of a week's wage the bribe is worth, add a +1 bonus to the bribe check. The DM may require an opposed roll of your Diplomacy against the target's will save when making a bribe.

It's because for some reason this forum changes the format of all posts to double space lines.

and how in heavens name do i do that?

ok, thnx, not really better, but i fixed it a bit, with your description of where to go, Zim.

Euhm, i do wonder how u can put my sigil, which is basically a slightly beefed holy symbol and put it in the same cathegory as the *special items of the others, is that "fair"? : thinking out loud atm

Well he was supposed to be Clueless.  What do you suggest?  I kinda like having those extra skill points and feat.

I do like the idea of a Drow flesh-crafter (basically a pseudo-magical plastic surgeon).  Mongoose Publishing had an entire chapter on flesh-crafting in The Quintessential Drow.

Also, for what it's worth, I did a PC Expert class, which has all sorts of application, some of which I've listed below.

The Expert PC class (Exp) has a d6 Hit Dice, medium base attack bonus, proficiency in simple weapons and light armour (but not shields) and may choose which of their base saves has a good progression (the other two are poor).  Expert is a 12-level class only. They may choose any ten skills to be class skills and have 8 skill points + Int modifier per level (32 + [4x Int modifier] at 1st-level).  They must also maintain maximum ranks in their professional skills – Craft, Perform, Profession etc.  They gain a bonus feat at 1st-level and at every 3rd-level (3rd, 6th etc.) which must be taken from their individual bonus feat list.  If they select the Skill Focus feat in one of their professional skills, the bonus rises to +4 at 4th, +5 at 8th and +6 at 12th. At 1st-level, they are considered Apprentices in their trade and generate 5% more income with their professional skills than their income die-roll would suggest.  At 4th-level, they are considered Journeymen and gain a 25% bonus to their professional income.  At 8th-level, they are Masters of their trade and gain a 50% bonus to their professional income.  Finally, at 12th-level, they become Grand Masters and double their professional income. They may multi-class with other Expert sub-classes but they must always maintain a higher level in their first Expert sub-class than in their subsequent sub-classes.  They must also still maintain maximum ranks (for their individual levels) in their professional skills.  For instance, an Expert (Acrobat) 3/Expert (Barman) 2 would need six ranks each in Balance and Tumble and five ranks each in Knowledge (Local) and Profession (Barman). They begin with 3d4 x10 gold pieces.

Expert (Acrobat): good Reflex save; class-skills are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Jump (Str), Perform (act & dance – Cha), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Tumble (Dex) and Use Rope (Dex).
Professional skills: Balance & Tumble.
Bonus feat list:  Acrobatic, Agile, Deft Hands, Dodge, Lightning Reflexes,  Skill Focuses – Balance & Perform (Act and/or Dance) & Tumble.

Expert (Barman): good Fortitude save; class-skills are Bluff (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Local – Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (barman – Wis), Sense Motive (Wis) and Speak Language (none).
Professional skills: Knowledge (Local) & Profession (Barman).
Special:  Improved Unarmed Strike at 2nd-level.
Bonus feat list:  Great Fortitude, Improved Grapple, Persuasive, Skill Focuses – Knowledge (Local) & Profession (Barman), Weapon Focus (Unarmed Strike).

Expert (Blacksmith): good Fortitude save; class-skills are Appraise (Int), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Armourer, Blacksmith & Weapon-smith – Int), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str) and Swim (Str).
Professional skills: Craft (Blacksmith) & Craft (Armourer) or Craft (Weapon-smith).
Special: Martial Weapon Proficiency (Warhammer) as their 1st-level bonus feat and an additional bonus feat at 2nd-level.
Bonus feat list:  Athletic, Great Fortitude, Skill Focuses – Craft (Armourer, Blacksmith & Weapon-smith), Weapon Focus (Warhammer).

Expert (Gadgeteer): good Reflex save; class-skills are Bluff (Cha), Craft (all skills, taken individually – Int), Disable Device (Int), Knowledge (local – Int), Open Lock (Dex), Search (Int), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis) and Use Magic Device (Cha).
Professional skills: Craft (any one), Disable Device & Open Lock (pick two).
Special: Trap-finding (as the rogue ability) at 1st-level, instead of their first bonus feat.
Bonus feat list:  Lightning Reflexes,  Nimble Fingers, Observant, Skill Focuses – Craft (Locksmith & Trap-making) & Disable Device & Open Lock.

Expert (Hotelier): good Will save; class-skills are Bluff (Cha), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Knowledge (Architecture/Engineering & Local – Int), Profession (Brewer, Chef & Hotelier – Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language (none).
Professional skills: Diplomacy and Profession (Hotelier).
Bonus feat list: Guildmaster (business only), Iron Will, Leadership, Negotiator, Skill Focuses – Diplomacy & Profession (Hotelier).

Expert (Scribe): good Will save; class-skills are Craft (artist & calligraphy – Int), Decipher Script (Int), Forgery (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Knowledge (choose two – Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (scribe – Wis) and Speak Language (none).
Professional skills: Forgery & Profession (Scribe).
Special: Poor BAB, no armour skills, wizard weapons only.  They gain +2 to Decipher Script and Forgery at 2nd-level and +2 to both Craft skills at 5th-level.
Bonus feat list:  Iron Will, Scribe Scroll (if also a spell-caster), Skill Focuses – Decipher Script & Forgery & Profession (scribe).

Hey Arakhor, If you wanted to try the Drow Flesh-crafter idea go for it. The inventory required for a crafter of living things is doing my head in a little and I've already statted up two other concepts - my Doomguard sand-shaper and my LG artificer 'soul polisher'.