Author Topic: Information Request (Read 857 times)

Pnopoes · « **on:** March 14, 2007, 05:43:31 AM »

Hi,

I am planning on submitting my first character very soon.
I have the concept of the character already, but would like to discuss with a GM first.

I would have normally dig out information on the site but the LORE server is not available and I am eager to start, so here I am.

Could someone let me know who I should contact, or if I should just post on the Character submission, bearing in mind that the concept is not fully developped yet.

Cheers !

PS: This PW looks great !!

Carillon · « **Reply #1 on:** March 14, 2007, 03:56:51 PM »

Hi there Pnopoes,

First, let me say welcome to Layonara! I hope you enjoy your time here as much as I have.

Okay, back to your question about character submissions. Normally I'd let one of the long-time players answer, but since no one's replied yet I'll give you my best shot.

I'm glad to hear you already have a character concept in mind. That's an excellent start. Depending on how much you have yet to flesh out, you can either post your concept here or under character submissions. If you just need someone to check it over and give it the all-clear, go ahead and post in the character submission thread. The character approvers are very helpful, and will let you know if anything is amiss.

If you stil need to do a fair bit of work on the character, you could contact a DM by PM to ask a specific question, but they're awfully busy a lot of the time!

I'm sure if you posted your character concept to this thread, though, that several experienced players would be happy to give you some honest feedback and help you with a few of the LORE-related details. I know I would.

Whatever you decide, welcome to Layo!

~Carillon

p.s. I'd be happy to answer questions by PM as well, as would many of our players here. It's really a great community, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Stephen_Zuckerman · « **Reply #2 on:** March 14, 2007, 05:04:36 PM »

Carillon's got it - I would have posted earlier, but expected someone else to. *Chuckles.* As, apparently, did everyone else.

Anyhow, with LORE gone, the information will be a bit harder to get at, but the players around here (myself most assuredly included) will be glad to help.

Drop a concept, or questions, or anything, and we'll give you feedback and input.

Pnopoes · « **Reply #3 on:** March 14, 2007, 10:07:01 PM »

Hi,

First of all thank you for your answer. Actually a senior member did reply to me in a PM

So I'd like to publically thank LynnJuniper as well

I guess I will take on Carillon's proposal to flesh out my character in this thread, then post in Character submission later on when I'll have enough details.

---
The first thing is that I intend to play an orphan. He has been dropped unconscious when he was 4 or 5 in front a Church/Monastery. He was raised by the religious community and has developed very strong ties to one of the minor religious figure of the church. What's more he has been bathing in the deities principle since he was 4 and could be seen now as a devout.
However he still has some dreams of a feminine figure a red haired women, of pale skin, crying... His mother perhaps...
There is also something peculiar about him. A mysterious tatoo on his left breast, that burns from time to time and gives him headaches. The priest have not been able to identify the pattern... He is also unusually tall and slim, with white hairs and pale skin. Perhaps he is not entirely human ?

Details I would like to work out:
His Class:
I am planning on playing a Paladin (yes a Paladin and a Pacificist), but I am enclined on making him a sorcerer as well (there is something in his blood...).

His religion:
I would like to be a core pacifist. I had some discussion with LynnJuniper, and Aeridin could be a very good choice. She also mentioned Lucinda (since I am interested in making him sorcerer). I'd like to know more about both gods, and the structure of their church. A paladin code of honor would alos be great.

Details about his daily life
Which town, which Church ? Any name convention depending on the region? I would like his name to mean something like "Found" or "Recovered". His name has been given by the church. His true name would remain a mystery.
Since I (player) don't have much time available to play online, I want to make him a loner

Regarding the mystery around him:
LynnJuniper was suggesting that I (the player) know about my character's past (to avoid claims to nobility for example). But I would like to have fun discovering it through Games session, plus... he could be the son of a noble or else !

if the GM decides so - I don't want to close the door to that. However this is my first online RPG - I used to play Table RPG a lot back when I was a student, and the GM availability was complete and the stories resolved around a few players only. I understand that here the rules have to be little bit different and that GMs are busy, but is it really unrealistic to plan on a strong involvment from GMs ?

Thanks in advance

!

Stephen_Zuckerman · « **Reply #4 on:** March 14, 2007, 10:22:10 PM »

Well, just to start with, I'm afraid that no, your character cannot be the offspring of a noble. Period. Sorry, but we have to keep things even across the board. As for planning strong involvement from GMs, there's not TOO terribly much that can't be done with other players, but even with that said, we do have a thoroughly impressive GM presence at Layo.

Unfortunately, the approvers need to know about your character's history, to prevent any claims to such and such, etc., yadda yadda. You get the idea. However, keep in mind that that history won't be known to any characters that your character doesn't tell.

As to not being totally human... Perhaps an Aasimar? That would work well with a Sorcerer, who you could simply play like a Paladin (after all, how many people who really act like paladins have levels in the class?), perhaps of Lucinda. Your description of the character also sounds rather like an aasimar.

Aasimar are planetouched with a tiny bit of celestial blood in their veins. They get a bonus to Charisma, as well, and a few other interesting things.

I advise Sorcerer over Paladin because I think that the Paladin class might have some limitations on multiclassing, though without LORE I can't be certain. I know that Clerics of Lucinda can freely multiclass with Sorcerers and Wizards, but I don't know about Paladins.

Plus sorcerers are fun.

Carillon · « **Reply #5 on:** March 15, 2007, 12:39:56 AM »

Hello again,

Stephen is indeed right -- paladins are restricted in their multiclassing. The restriction is that you can start as a paladin, but once you stop being a paladin (level up as another class) you can't go back to being a paladin. There are, of course, some other restrictions to being a paladin, like being Lawful Good, etc. More info on the paladin class can be found here:
http://www.layonara.com/character-submissions/91949-sumbitting-paladin.html

Now, you asked about Aeridin and Lucinda. Usually I'd say you should read about the deities on LORE, but as we're moving between systems right now and we don't know when LORE will be up again, I'll post some information on both deities. Please excuse the length of this post in advance.

Aeridin
Race: Elf
Alignment: Neutral Good
Domains: Air, Earth, Healing, Sun, Water, and Good
Aeridin is in charge of: The weather, dawn, rebirth, vitality, youth, sun, and moons (Layonara has two!)

The church and clergy: Aeridin's clergy are devoted to preserving life and healing. They rarely wear armor except when necessary, and if so usually silver coated full plate or mithril full plate. Aeridin's clerics fight most commonly with quarterstaffs if they must, and pretty much never with "maiming weapons" (swords, axes, etc). The church has no central hierarchy. It's based on local seniority, with churches keeping in touch with one another.

Aeridin's philosophy:"Preserve and protect life, but bear in mind that in the Great Cycle of life, death also has its place, so life should not be artificially prolonged. Seek out the undead and put them to rest, so they can rejoin the Great Cycle. Do not harm or kill others except in the most dire of circumstances. Do not refuse to aid those who need it."

Paladins of Aeridin: Must follow the laws of Aeridin, or lose Paladin powers and status. The laws in brief: Devote yourself to life and preserving it, don't judge others, live with honor, help others, help those in misfortune, heal the sick, abandon greed, hatred, and evil feelings, respect those who would teach you and ask nothing of those you teach, respect the local laws but remember your loyalty is to the laws of Aeridin, take only what you need, pledge your life to Aeridin, and basically be an upstanding guy/gal

Lucinda
Race: Human
Alignment: Neutral Good
Domains: Good, Healing, Knowledge, Magic, and Trickery (but trickery is restricted to guardians)
Lucinda is in charge of: Magic, Sorcery, Spellcraft and Health

Lucinda's Church: "The hierarchy of the Lucindite church is varied, separating into eight Orders that each concentrate on one school of magic: abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, necromancy, or transmutation. Each Order consists of numerous groups that include both arcane and divine spellcasters. These orders have their own places of study and their own hierarchy. Each group with more than thirty members is led by a master of the spell school who is usually the most powerful and experienced caster in the group. All of the orders are led by a grandmaster; for instance, the Order of Evocation is led by the Grandmaster of Evocation. All the Orders are good aligned and led by the Council of Magic, which consists of the eight Grandmasters of the Orders.

There are also some academies of magic and many smaller temples where spells of all schools of magic are taught to any willing students. This is the part of the clergy that is most visible to the public. These academies and temples have members of each Order of magic working in them, and they also provide healing, supplies, and shelter for traveling Lucindites. The church also sponsors a small society of paladins, often called the Chosen of Lucinda or the Protectors of the Weave. They defend Lucinda's temples, protect the Weave from any possible harm, and keep magical artifacts out of evil's reach. Lucinda's temples (and related buildings, such as the academies) can be of any size and any style, but they all have one thing in common: all temples to Lucinda are great works of the Art, enwrapped in countless spells, containing numerous magical items, and surrounded by an aura born of the very strong Weave about the place."

Lucinda's Teachings to her Clergy: (The brief form, because this post is getting ridiculously long!)

1) "The Weave is life, for it is my body and soul". Any attack on the weave is treated as an attack on the body of Lucinda herself
2)"Promote The Weave in all its forms and guises, for those who touch The Weave touch upon me" I.e. Promote the faith, magic, and the arts
3)"Channel The Weave for it is my gift to you, use it for your purposes but do not attempt to control the whole, for I am the whole and endless change is my nature. Use me as guide and the path will remain clear."
4. "Use all of my gifts to benefit The Weave, and through it others. The Weave is life and without that we are lost. Share your gifts with others freely, aiding where you can."
5. "Tolerate no harm to come to me or mine, my gifts freely given to those who follow used in defense of my body in The Weave and my Soul in the Coran arta i' Tha vair maen. For as surely as that which takes from life takes from me, that which takes from me takes from life."

Lucinda's Paladins take the following vow:
"Lady of the Weave, I have heard your call and I will answer.
I vow to be your servant and protect those who serve you.
I shall defend Your Faith, Your Faithful, and the Weave to the best of my abilities.
I shall seek out those who corrupt the Weave and bring them to justice.
I shall accompany and protect those who work in Your name.
By my word, I am Yours."

Well, that should about cover it for now. Hope this helps you make your decision!

~Carillon

Deacon · « **Reply #6 on:** March 15, 2007, 12:53:57 AM »

Quote from: Pnopoes

Details about his daily life
Which town, which Church ? Any name convention depending on the region? I would like his name to mean something like "Found" or "Recovered". His name has been given by the church. His true name would remain a mystery.
Since I (player) don't have much time available to play online, I want to make him a loner

For the town part of the biography, there are a lot of places out there that you can use. However, it mostly depends on which deity you finally decide on since there are temples to certain deities in different cities. So decide on a deity, then find someone who plays a character who follows that deity and ask them where a temple is and go from there.

Second, picking a name that means something can be pretty easy. Just by doing a real quick google for a Latin translator, I found this: Found - Instituo, Constituo; Recovered - Revoco, Respiro, Recupero, Executio. Now don't take those as law because you can never really trust online translators, but it is a start. Also, doing a search for an Elven translator, I found these: Found - Thyl; Recovered - Vaelylaesaer. Now, since the second one sounds too Elven, and the first one might be too plain, we can add a suffix to it to make a proper name, ex: Thyldaan, Thylantyr, Thylstra.

Hope this helps! Good luck with your character, hope to see you online soon.

Leanthar · « **Reply #7 on:** March 15, 2007, 07:28:23 AM »

For those helping him out, thank you. Good replies and good feedback with good information that has detail. Good job to all of you, including Lynn for helping him via PM's!!

Pnopoes · « **Reply #8 on:** March 15, 2007, 08:19:46 AM »

Thank you all for your help.

I have finally decided against a Paladin, mainly because I want to be able to Multiclass with Sorcerer. I'll just play a plain non violent Fighter whose devoted to Aeridin

I have considered Aasimar, but the ECL is too high. Although in term of RP my character may end up discovering that he has some Aasimar ancestors.

I'll follow Deacon advice and stalk some Aeridin followers to get more info. I guess the thread Aeridin forum is the best place. Since Aeridin is an Elf God, I'll take an Elf name as well.

Cheers and see you in play soon (Timezone & busy schedule permitting:)

minerva · « **Reply #9 on:** March 15, 2007, 08:31:06 AM »

Paladins of Lucinda can freely multiclass with wizard depending on the the subclass of paladin they take up. Not too sure about sorc as I think you have to have a specialized school of magic. I went looking to see if I had a copy of the information on Lucinda's paladins and sorry I do not.

Best ones to chime in here would be Storm, Pankoki or Stororld

LynnJuniper · « **Reply #10 on:** March 15, 2007, 08:57:14 AM »

I also don't think paladins are allowed to multiclass with sorcerers as a Lucindite (Something that somewhat confuses me but I won't get into it here.). Playing a Pacifist fighter will be difficult because your main profession will be the ability to well...cleave things (fighters don't get that many class skills or points unless you put lots of points into INT.). What I'd recommend is a pacifist sorcerer or wizard (perhaps with Aasimar blood) that focuses on Abjuration and protecting the other party members more than fighting.

Pnopoes · « **Reply #11 on:** March 15, 2007, 10:15:15 AM »

The thing is I already have played in the past a Pacifist Paladin in a Table RPG, and it was so much fun...

Well I guess it all depends on the nature of NWN and how much RP is Layonara. I haven't been playing much, and I just recently bough NWN (yes 5 years after) because I wanted to join PW (one my friend at work always tell me about how great those are).

OK I'll pop up the killer question: How far is Layonara experience from a session of DnD Table RPG ? If it's "close enough" I'll go with the pacifist fighter. If not, well, I might reconsider.

Anyway, thanks again.

Pnopoes · « **Reply #12 on:** March 15, 2007, 10:20:14 AM »

As a separate subject, this is kind of strange, coz Sorcerer are 'borne magic user' they should be considered as blessed by Lucinda, right ?

Quote from: minerva

Paladins of Lucinda can freely multiclass with wizard depending on the the subclass of paladin they take up. Not too sure about sorc as I think you have to have a specialized school of magic.

minerva · « **Reply #13 on:** March 15, 2007, 10:36:43 AM »

Again, I'd have to go to the specifics in the handbook on the orders of Lucinda's paladins to find that for you. Unforunately the problems we've been having with LORE have made the handbook unavailable and the version I have saved on my hard drive is pre the updated Lucinda lore.

Lucinda does recognize sorcerors in almost the same vein as wizards as far as magic is concerned, I think the sticky thing in the paladin side is the need to have a spell school speciality which NWN mechanics wise does not happen for Sorc. I could be mistaken as well, as it's been months since I read over that material.

Deacon · « **Reply #14 on:** March 15, 2007, 12:03:34 PM »

Quote from: Pnopoes

The thing is I already have played in the past a Pacifist Paladin in a Table RPG, and it was so much fun...

Well I guess it all depends on the nature of NWN and how much RP is Layonara. I haven't been playing much, and I just recently bough NWN (yes 5 years after) because I wanted to join PW (one my friend at work always tell me about how great those are).

OK I'll pop up the killer question: How far is Layonara experience from a session of DnD Table RPG ? If it's "close enough" I'll go with the pacifist fighter. If not, well, I might reconsider.

Anyway, thanks again.

Once you begin playing on Layonara you will find that it is VERY much about hardcore RP. Rarely do people drop character and there are a ton of story lines going on between characters. The interactions you find here, and the eventual friends you will make are some of the best that gaming has to offer.

As far as emulating PnP goes, I feel that the Layonara team is doing all they can do within the limitations of the game they are working within. By limitations I mean this: there are some skills and feats that exist in the tabletop world that are just impossible to translate to the virtual world. However, with a few added skills and feats the play experience created here propel Layonara above any other PW out there.

Pnopoes · « **Reply #15 on:** March 15, 2007, 12:09:01 PM »

Good news ! That's the feeling I had about Layonara...

I'll stick to my Pacifist fighter then

See you soon

Carillon · « **Reply #16 on:** March 15, 2007, 01:22:09 PM »

Quote from: minerva

Paladins of Lucinda can freely multiclass with wizard depending on the the subclass of paladin they take up. Not too sure about sorc as I think you have to have a specialized school of magic. I went looking to see if I had a copy of the information on Lucinda's paladins and sorry I do not.

Best ones to chime in here would be Storm, Pankoki or Stororld

Just for the record and for clarity's sake, paladins of Lucinda can freely multiclass with wizard through three special chapters: Lucinda's Chapter of Protection (Abjuration specialization required), Lucinda's Chapter of Change (Transmutation specialization required), and Lucinda's Chapter of Destruction, her War Wizards (Evocation specialization required).

Paladins of Lucinda are, as far as I can tell, never able to freely multiclass with any other base class.

@Pnopoes,

Looks like you've settled on a character concept you're happy with! Post if you need any help with specific town names, etc. before going to Character Submission. Otherwise, hope see you in game soon.

Pnopoes · « **Reply #17 on:** March 16, 2007, 06:22:16 AM »

Hi, me again.

I've been browsing on the Forums (and specifically http://www.layonara.com/organizations/) , and just realized that Monk follow religious order.

Anywhere I could find more informations ?

Is there several orders related to the same deity ? For example do all the Monks of Aeridin spend their time in the woods as indicated ? Are they only female characters (it's a sisterhood).

The monks of Aragen seem pretty cool and fit in my concept of a pacifist fighter...

PS: There is so much cool stuff on these forum, I guess it will take me weeks before I settle down on a character

Faldred · « **Reply #18 on:** March 16, 2007, 08:21:16 AM »

I'm pretty sure that Monks can follow religious orders, but are not required to do so, as a Cleric or Paladin would.

As for what orders are out there... the Organizations forum is the best place to look, until the new handbook comes out.

Carillon · « **Reply #19 on:** March 16, 2007, 11:31:36 AM »

Hey again,

Here's some information for you on the monk class:

"Monks are versatile warriors skilled at fighting without weapons or armor. Good-aligned monks serve as protectors of the people, while evil monks make ideal spies and assassins. Though they don’t cast spells, monks channel a subtle energy, called ki. This energy allows them to perform amazing feats, such as healing themselves, catching arrows in flight, and dodging blows with lightning speed. Their mundane and ki-based abilities grow with experience, granting them more power over themselves and their environment. Monks suffer unique penalties to their abilities if they wear armor, as doing so violates their rigid oath. A monk wearing armor loses their Wisdom and level based armor class bonuses, their movement speed, and their additional unarmed attacks per round."

Monk is definitely a very cool class, but be aware that you will be restricted in your multiclassing, just like if you were a paladin.

"Monks may not freely multiclass with any base or prestige class. If a character leaves the path of discipline and meditation they may not return without a CDQ. A character may not enter this class later in life without a CDQ."

Also, when choosing an alignment, you'll be restricted to lawful alignments.

Although I know little about the specific monk organizations, as far as I know only the female monks are part of Sisterhood organizations and only male monks are part of the Brotherhood organizations. This is not to say that you couldn't have a male monk who worshiped Aeridin or something .. I just don't know if it'd be appropriate to RP him as belonging to the same Sisterhood!

While we're on the topic of monk organizations, be sure to check out the various orders within the Path of Elemental Balance. You can find the thread under the organization section you linked to.

Finally, Darkstorme has been kind enough to temporarily put up some information on classes and deities while we transition to the new Lore, so you can check out LORE Mirror: Monk for more information on the basic class itself. Keep in mind most of the links will be non-functional, though, as this site is being compiled one page at a time from recovered content.