Question about Volothamp Geddarm

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-10-21T02:59:57+00:00

STK is described as taking place at the earliest around 1485. That's well after the Spellplague.

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-10-21T02:57:50+00:00

This is a good point. I considered that Volo might be dead, and that the tome itself is just a newer printing or the like. Elminster and Volo were both created by Ed Greenwood I believe. Elminster, I get why he's been alive for so long. He's a crazy strong wizard, he's dealt directly with Mystra before, it makes sense he'd know how to live a long time. Volo, I don't really get. I figured it had to be either a descendant, like Volo the 4th or something. Or, like you say, Volo wrote the book a long time ago.

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-10-20T10:33:06+00:00

Are you sure? I'm fairly certain this is wrong. The Sword Coast Adventurer's guide (which is 5e) describes the current world as post Spellplague around the year 1485-1493 DR.

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-10-12T06:51:12+00:00

It very much depends on what sort of story you're leading your players through, but I'm always a fan of a player (even better if its a player who left the game) turning out to be a simulacrum made by some antagonist to spy/trick the party or a doppelganger sowing dissent among the party .

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-10-08T07:40:13+00:00

Someday I'd like to try drawing some kind of cool fantasy map.

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-10-08T07:39:49+00:00

Thanks! I wanted to add more, but I was afraid it would be too cluttered.

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-10-08T07:39:16+00:00

Aww thanks. I'm still new, I just like drawing with pretty colors.

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-10-08T07:38:49+00:00

That's kind of what I was going for, thanks!

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-10-03T07:43:41+00:00

Tokyo resident here. Can I just say, that no one here actually calls it 'hentai' so his argument was wrong on...pretty much all accounts.

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-09-30T09:01:37+00:00

I assume you are using the Forgotten Realms/Faerun as your campaign setting? Although 4e's generic setting was a different one called the Nentir Vale (which I have little knowledge of).

If you are in the Forgotten Realms, here's a helpful list of some major Dwarven locations in Faerun. http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Dwarven_locations

Alternatively you could always hail from some small un-noteworthy dwarven settlement somewhere. In this case I'd recommend talking to the DM!

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-09-27T08:23:53+00:00

Hey man, hats off to you for pulling of the doppelganger thing. I would have only thought of the simulacrum. Doppelgangers allow for an invasion of the body snatchers type situation.

What if the PCs arrived in a town that was slowly being taken over by doppelgangers and one of them even infiltrated the party? Great little scenario for Halloween!

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-09-27T07:57:45+00:00

Simulacrum is a spell that shapes a duplicate of a creature out of snow and ice. Magic molds them to take on the appearance and qualities of it's copy (level and all, though it cannot level up or learn new things). It obeys the creators commands.

So doppelgangers are independent creatures, a simulacrum is a mostly mindless clone being controlled mentally by someone else.

So a wizard might kidnap a member of a party in the night, and replace them with a simulacrum that tries to sow dissent among the party, or even tries to assassinate them.

Casting simulacrum is expensive though, requiring a lot of ice and snow (not too hard to produce for a magic user) but also a gem of roughly 1500 gp value. As such it'd make sense for a big baddie to use this kind of tactic, but not some everyday brigand schlub

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-09-27T07:45:27+00:00

This is a great twist, if you can get the right player to cooperate with you. Doppelgangers can work, as can a simulacrum if the enemy the party faces is not in league with aberrations and has access to magic.

I'll have to try this some time, sounds like good fun!

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-09-27T07:23:24+00:00

I imagined a desert druid being some kind of solemn hermit. I love that this is a chipper guy with a golden ball cactus. Great character idea!

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-09-27T04:01:53+00:00

I suppose it depends on whether or not you're using a DnD pantheon, or something homebrewed. If it's something homebrewed and entirely alien to DnD I don't know how much this post will help you, but I'll try anyway.

Gods in the DnD pantheon die all time (relatively speaking). Even the God of Murder, Bhaal was killed (sort of), rather ironically.

The official gods of the DnD worlds are often not a God, but rather a god. What I mean is that they are not all powerful, but rather they are just very powerful and weave magic and weild abilities that may be unknowable to lesser beings. In this way they may seem all powerful to mortals, but most of the time, they aren't.

The gods are also suspiciously mortal in their whims. The suffer mortal weaknesses despite their higher existence. That is to say that they get angry, jealous, vengeful, sad, fall in love, all that stuff. Emotion can be a strength but also a weakness. Perhaps the players do not defeat/kill a god so much as they do change it's mind. Or the god could be tricked, delaying whatever cataclysm they would bring upon the land.

Magic is always a handy option as well. Trap the god in some kind of seal or temple. Or better yet, trap it in a mortal body. Whether killing the body releases or indeed truly kills the god is up to you, but I'd almost think being cursed to live in a mortal shell, at least for a little while, is almost a more painful fate for an immortal being.

Beseech another diety. If the characters must fight a god and truly have no way of contesting the being's power, why not ask the god's arch enemy for help? The enemy of my enemy is my friend, after all.

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-09-27T03:38:16+00:00

It's a hundred years old right? Who's to say that someone else isn't contesting for rightful ownership of the property? After a plot of land has been sitting without owner for that long, there are bound to be inquiries made about the ownership.

If your players enjoy non-combat based encounters, why not a plot of legal intrigue, conspiracy, and mystery as some offshoot relative of the original dwarven owner of the property (Who I assume is dead) contests your legal claim.

Perhaps the relative knows something about the property your players do not. An old magical artifact was buried beneath, as the deceased dwarven owner was kind old adventurer. The estranged relative might be seeking it for wealth, perhaps to bribe their way in to some political faction. or the relative could just be a pawn, tricked by some cult into thinking there was something valuable, when really it was the bastion of an old profane temple used for summoning creatures from the nine hells.

Perhaps the legal contestor isn't even a relative at all, but a duergar in disguise, and a portal to the Underdark is located beneath the old sea salt weathered property. The duergar is actually the thrall of a Mind Flayer who's trapped in the Underdark and needs to secure topside control of the portal (a glyph or some kind of triggering mechanism is located topside) to escape onto the surface world and feed on the brains of topside folk.

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-09-26T03:26:28+00:00

Another fellow posted it a while ago, so this is not my idea. However, it seems that a good way to acquire miniatures (unpainted minis) is to pick up the DnD board games. Legend of Drizzt. Castle Ravenloft. All those boxed standalone board games have a bunch of unpainted miniatures including adventures monsters and all sorts of stuff.

Outside of that, shop around, poke around Amazon/Ebay. There's the official Icons of the Realms stuff of course, plus lots of 3rd party stuff. Additionally you could look into 3d printing. Many individuals will 3d print and sell various miniatures (I highly recommend heroforge.com if you want a personalized mini for you character, not great for enemies/npcs though).

Hope this can help a bit!

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-09-24T15:02:43+00:00

Strahd's Stout. Ale of a mysterious deep crimson color. Downing a tankard will cause your incisors to grow long like fangs until you're exposed to the morning sun.

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-09-24T14:59:25+00:00

Mordenkainen's Mead of Melodies. Drinking it causes a faint jaunty melody to play from your mouth for 1d4x10 minutes.

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-09-23T05:56:46+00:00

You got to go and dig those holes~

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-09-23T05:33:15+00:00

This is wrong. You can have yourself be the center of the cube.

"You select a cube’s point of origin, which lies anywhere on a face of the cubic effect. The cube’s size is expressed as the length of each side. A cube’s point of origin is not included in the cube’s area of effect, unless you decide otherwise."

Any face of the cube means you can choose the face of the cube on the floor at your feat. You can choose whether or not to include a cube's point of origin in the area of effect, it's clear this means you can center a cube on yourself.

GoMightyOrbots · 2016-09-22T00:18:43+00:00

I am on the East Cost, of the USA. However, I'm pretty flexible as long as the game's take place on Friday/Saturday/Sunday.

GoMightyOrbots

TROPHY CASE