Topics

[Mongrelfolk]

Mongrelfolk
Favored Alignment : Neutral.
Considered a Shapechanger subrace.
ECL : +1.

Mongreldog
Tag = "Mongrel dog" or "Mongreldog" (Base = Human)
Ability Bonus : Wisdom +2; Charisma -2;
Skill Bonus: Spot+ 2, Listen+2, Hide+2, Move Silently+2
Saving Throw bonus : +1 Will.
Capable of shifting into a Mongrel dog, with bonus Spot/listen/hide/move silent/ search/10% speed.

Mongrelcat
Tag = "Mongrel cat" or "Mongrelcat" (Base = Human)
Grimalkin (Cat) (Base = Human)
Ability Bonus : Dexterity +2; Charisma -2;
Skill Bonus: Hide+ 2, Move Silently+2, Tumble+2.
Saving Throw bonus : +1 Reflex.
Capable of shifting into a Gutter Cat., with a Bonus Spot/Tumble/FEAT Spring Attack/10% Speed.

Mongrelrat
Tag = "Mongrel rat" or "Mongrelrat" (Base = Human)
Rodent (Base = Human)
Ability bonus : Constitution + 2; Charisma -2;
Skill Bonus: Hide+ 4, Move Silently+4.
Saving Throw bonus : +1 Fortitude.
Capable of shifting into a Sewer Rat with bonus hide/move silent/10% speed.

Basic knowledge:
- Mongrelmen share traits of beasts. Horrific and deformed, they are shunned and hunted by most civilized people. The mongrelmen are believed to be the result of a changeling curse, or the degenerate progeny of shapechangers frozen in a morphing stage. The few Mongrelmen who manage to survive to adulthood grew into a small community, hidden, in the alleys of the Mongrelwoods. Most of them pay homage to "the Hidden One", believing in the ritual of feasting which involves the consumption of the flesh of dead humanoids. By consuming the flesh, they believe they will slowly take the charateristics of those species and that by consuming enough different species, the Hidden One will restore their <pure> form -- some more feral Mongrelmen believe this will grant them the power to shapechange as a true Lycanthrope.

Build your character as you would think an Aasimar/Tiefling/Genasi -- but rather than having features linked to the planar -- the Mongrels have disgusting features of animals hard to conceal. These features should be OBVIOUS to those who read your description if you do not hide them. They are loners, paranoid and fearful of most civilized men. Certain tribes of Mongrelmen have grown so akin to beasts that they have gone more feral and evil . The rare members of their kind  that are sharing the traits of many animals are referred to Mongrelfolk Pariah.

Mongrelfolk possess minor shapechanging powers capable of changing into their cursed animal form -- without the power commonly seen with lycanthropy.

Relationship toward other factions:
- Mongrelfolks are despised by people of the Ticker Square and the Peerage - they are disgusting, crippled, deformed shape between animal and man believed to be cursed by the King. Most of their interaction with the common folks end up in them being chased away, stoned or killed. For this reason, most Mongrelfolks are loners and VERY reluctant to trust others and venture into most civilized hubs. They tolerate the people of the Pond, and can trade with others - but for the most part they act as a feral animal would in most interaction with civilized folk (with fear or aggression).
- Mongrelfolks are more trusting of other shapechangers, changelings, and druids -- while this does not mean they trust them immediately, the shared shapechanging ability leads them to identify more with these beings.

The commands to shapeshift is similar to the ones of Lycanthropes -- but not having access to the hybrid form.

I only caught the tail end of the initial event, but I’ll resume it here. A group of PCs with devouts attacked a group of PCs harboring a demonspawn. Both groups had very few interactions together. They had certainly heard OF each other, but not roleplay a great deal together before. You could say they had little history, but reasons for the initiation of a battle were certainly there... What occurred afterward, however, was in my mind, a bit premature in a story development.


  PCs from one group attempted to summon a demon to sacrifice all the PCs from the other group. One of my colleagues decided, for the sake of encouraging players, to have a demon take attention to their call, and come forth. A few players were given to the demon. Thankfully, these players were seemingly fine with this as they sent me PMs stating they enjoyed the ending and were planning to sacrifice themselves in the Targan arena anyway. The rest were sent back to the village with their remaining possessionsâ€"the few that remained from the loot banquet of the victorious party.


  Let me be perfectly clear. Subduing someone does not entitle you to his life/belongings, only the story entitles you to that. What I saw developing from this event was an Arena of Team Red vs. Team blue. Escalation of PvP with 3-4 hours of battle/run and back FOR about 15 minutes of roleplay in-between. The ratio is telling...


  “They killed 2 of ours? We’ll kill FOUR of theirs! That will teach them.”


  “They killed four of ours? We’ll kill ALL of them!”


  “OH, and BURN the bodies. Mash their head in little pieces. That way resurrection is harder!” (The first time I heard this being spoken in IC terms. I cringed...)


  And so on. The bystanders and people having absolutely no tie to the initial event being absorbed in this vortex of pointless pvp making for a somewhat mediocre scene where everyone is fighting, but no one is actually sure what for except for the sake to fight. That’s what an arena server is. EFU is not an arena server. EFU is a roleplay server. Chaotic events can certainly happen, and I’m fine if they do, but good PvP Karma shouldn’t be thrown out the window as it often happens in MOB situations. Generally, most people tend to be adequate toward pvp etiquette when few people are involved, but when it gets above a number and it becomes especially more ugly.


  THAT said, I appreciated the moments of respite and the hostage negotiations.


  This phenomenon is nothing new (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deindividuation). It  propose that crowds bring a psychological state of decreased self-evaluation and decreased evaluation apprehension causing antinormative and disinhibited behavior. Deindividuation theory seeks to provide an explanation for a variety of antinormative collective behavior, such as violent crowds, lynch mobs, etc. Deindividuation theory has also been applied to genocide and been posited as an explanation for antinormative behavior online and in computer-mediated communications.


  This is very real, and you should ALWAYS try to stay true to your character despite being part of a mob.


  Some character decisions were taken, and they were questionable.  Not a lot of thought was given behind them, and I think it’s important to stay in-character and not let the OOC bloodlust of winning blind your character’s background/motives and turn you into a simplistic level 8 toon who’se part of team X.


 

• Should my character really help a demon?
• Should my character, who’se probably tired from the day, really rest to get spells and go back into fight?
• Should my character who shown no clear devotion to anything really devote to a CE ideal on a dime?

 This is a recurrent topic; and I encourage those who are confused by my post to read further. Otherwise, just take a step back and think.


 

• http://www.escapefromundeath.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31349&highlight=blue

This one was a reminder.


 

• http://www.escapefromundeath.com/old_forums/viewtopic.php?t=32293&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

This one was not the first time the topic was approached, but a landmark debate nevertheless.


 

• http://www.escapefromundeath.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37271&highlight=death

This one by Iron Oligarch is particularly enjoyable to read. I encourage everyone to read at least the initial post.

Hello,

There is a big update coming up for divine classes. On creation, or level-up, they will receive a Holy Symbol as well as a prayerbook holding the dogma of their faith. The Holy Symbol is a representation of your faith, an undroppable but equippable necklace. While worn, they have the possibility to provide many bonuses to the class such as enhancing the DC / caster level of your spells, extra spellslots, and other bonuses appropriate to your deity.

Paladins will receive a similar holy symbol that improves with their level as well as through an unknown algorithm.

Your holy symbol also comes with a "Unique Power" that you can use on other PCs to request "Prayers" or "Convert" them to your faith without the aid of a DM. Prayers still need to be roleplayed, but they will be counted toward an internal algorithm. Conversions need to be willing and NOT forced (the target may "resist") -- they are relatively more serious and to reflect this importance a character can only be converted twice through his entire career, so do not convert willy nilly to every priest you encounter. Clerics and paladins cannot be converted without DM assistance.

Through these features, and DM witnessed actions, your holy symbol will grow in power, enhancing the role of the cleric as a leader and a preacher and the need for these activities to be fulfilled to be a successful cleric. The prayerbook is just to give more information on your chosen faith IG and make it seem more real; it serves no function and can be safely discarded.

Finally, it is possible to change the name of your Holy Symbol, and Deity (for collecting prayers or conversion) for flavour purpose or trickery (cyricist, sharran, etc.).

You can do so with a DM if an application is approved for it, or if you have Skill Focus: Bluff using the following commands:

"/c SetDeity x"

"/c SetSymbol y"

To change your Deity Descriptor to x, and symbol description (when you turn undead) to y. For example, this allows Robert Baratheon the Maskarran to appear as a Cleric of Waukeen if he goes "/c SetDeity Waukeen" & "/c SetSymbol A Gold Coin". This will not actually change your deity, only the way your faith is presented to other players in the prayer/convert dialogue.

On Perks,
Traditional, non-class, perks have not transitioned well to EFU:M, and have now been removed from the gameworld until something more appropriate comes along. That said, perks that were interesting, such as those that replace Turn Undead, will probably transition to some further specialization for divine classes such as Paladin and Clerics.

On future development,
The Holy Symbol will also gain more options in the future; but first, a more concrete use for Consecration to make Blessed Water, Incense, etc. And to Consecrate/Desecrate grounds, both in exchange for an XP/Gold/Ingredient cost.

[[Updates]]

[Updates]
- Animal AI has been, hopefully, improved to a point where it looks cool.
- Shovels and Capacity to Dig certain zones/areas has been added to the Gameworld. This is for example; burying the dead, Searching for treasures, etc.
- Climbing tools and Rope have been added to the Gameworld. This allows you to access unnaccessible areas otherwise. These tools grant a lot of freedom over which path to take if you are an able climber granting you an easy get-away.
- Bounties. Fully Fledged NPC bounties have finally been scripted. They are in the process of being tested and might not function all the way, but they are like 99% completed.
- As said before, a bunch of new quests have been added to the gameworld, and more content is underway.
- 540 Dyes have been added to the tailors.

Hey guys, there are a few concerns from current DMs about player behavior in these times that should be touched on.

While for the greater majority of the time, we see people enjoying themselves with little need to intervene on the rule-side of things. There is sometimes time to remind people who become lax in certain situations or might not be aware that their behavior is frowned upon.

1. While dividing loot on a quest is a IC matter, keeping an unfairly large portion of a quest's spoils in OOC greed is heavily frowned upon, by both players and DMs. A warrior with no skill in sleight of hand (pickpocket) will not be able to freshly acquire a giant cache of supplies and equipment, then conceal this with complete ease.

While it can be acceptable, even very cool to play a thief persona on quests, it's strongly recommended to emote something relevant to your pack suddenly enlarging. Even considering this, how it impacts the fun of your peers should be a far greater concern than how you are going to "skim" more than your share of loot. Skimming is not enjoyable and greedy, while playing a REAL thief is. Someone who gives hint of his crimes. Of course you have to trust the players around you to react fairly when you do give these hints so if you show that you are NOT there to just hoard items through a Diablo 2'esque behavior, but more to play and roleplay interesting situations and characters
 (Diablo 3 is almost out to fill that need and I heard its going to be awesome).

2. Roleplaying attributes seems to evade quite a few players recently as well. Having a score of an 8 or 9 in an attribute demands some sort of poor portrayal of the relevant stat. The link here (http://www.escapefromundeath.com/welcome/building-character) is an excellent tool to familiarize yourself appropriately. Playing a strong build is perfectly fine, though embracing what weaknesses come with it is required. Those who ignore this may find that they will encounter penalties accordingly. This is important! Some people are under the impression that you can only succeed with an optimized build, but really, do the math. 20str to 16str is only +2 ab, +2 dmg...  Just drink a bullstrength potion or find another way to fill in that measly +2 and you'll be just as fine with a 16 str character than you were with your 20str optimized character... 20int is an extra spellsplot and DC... Not that important in the grand scheme of things. It's only 1-2 high level spells more and +1-2 to the DC of your spells. Sure, you want the DC of your spells to be as high as possible, but ... 1-2 extra points aren't that big of a deal. A Luxury... You can succeed in the gameworld with any type of build, and you're encouraged to be creative. That being said, it's absolutely FINE to have 8 in a stat, but its extremely easy fo rus to discern between those who do it in order to roleplay that weakness and those who do it because they just maxed out all their other stats. The former is good, the latter is ... bad.

3. Regarding AI behavior and metagaming... Our current system which spawns monsters/animals in wilderness is easily understood by the majority of the players from an OOC perspective, HOWEVER, do NOT translate the behavior of these monsters as a direct reflection of the gameworld. What I mean by that is that even if you dont see it, animals hunt, animals run about, animals fight, everything you see 'lives' offscreen. Seeing an animal that you spotted in a path be dead or gone the next time you pass by is NOT an IC hint that somebody went through there even if you the player takes it as such... That animal could have easily moved, been attacked by another animal and so on. If you take the time, WITH A DM, to confirm the cause of death of the animal, then it can be work, but do not simply assume. Similarly just because an animal acts more lively than the AI animals doesn't mean its a druid or a lycanthrope... You know as a player it is, but your character doesn't, please give the benefit of the doubt.

To end on a positive note, overall, EFU:M has been a pleasure to watch unfold so far, and we encourage you all to keep it up and have fun. I've been working on several new quests and retouched a few old ones to widen your chances at adventure, I'd encourage you to try them out;

 - The Poisoned Well;
 - Tangledroots of the Muskroot;
 - Withered Battlefield;
 - The Mist Hollows;

Retouched:
 - Goblin Cult Quest;
 - Orc Invasion part I / part II

A long time ago. Some people went on a rather hard Fey quest that turned rather sourly. It was a very long event and I remember promising these players some hard-earned treasures when I had time to make them.

Well, I got fairly busy during that time and couldn`t deliver on this promise. So if you want your loot for one of your newer character, I'd be happy to provide it. If you were on the Fey Quest and survived, send me a PM, here, on the Forum and the character you`d wish the loot to be made for.



On a related note, the winners for the Design a Monster Contest were:

Divine_Inspiration;
BoomKing;

If you would send me a PM and the name of your character, I will make you something unique for each of your selected character.

Thank you!

[Format:]

Design a monster! If I like your idea, not only will it be stolen to be put in the gameworld, I'll run you a little quest to reward you! Submissions should be made in the following format (see below) in this post.

Format:

Monster Name:
Monster Description:
Monster Abilities:
Monster Appearance:
Region: The Desert / The Mountain / Underground / Forest / Bog / etc.
Extra Comments:

[-Stargazers.]

-Stargazers.
Stargazers are the dwellers of the wild, native to Ymph, they live both  in harmony with the natural world and respect it. They follow the Old  ways for the most part. They suffer, however, of a great deal of prejudices! Think  of the Withering, that curse that eats the flesh of your PC and will eventually  kill all your characters. Think of the Hbala, the foe, the true enemy of  the people of Mistlocke and Ymph. Most, 90% of the population of Mistlocke, blames the stargazers/druids for the return of the Hbala.  Understand that, please, this prejudice that the WITHERING, the fact  that everything bad almost happening is very vivid in the mind of NPCs  and that, helping to stop a tribe of local kobolds, wont curb that  belief away... It isn't even proportional. NPCs wont be tolerant. NPCs  will roleplay their prejudices.

-Death of an NPC.
Subdual is an easy way to make a mundane event out of a not-so mundane event. When you subdue someone, you are still beating them to an inch of their life. It's impossible to subdue NPCs, but it's possible to do so if the DM acknowledges prior to their death. There is still a chance that the NPC might die and that you'll have to do with the consequences of murder, which will be the same as if you murder a PC, depending if the PC was an exiled, a bandit or a citizen.

-Proportionality.
Hitting someone with a fist as hostile is NOT the same as hitting them with a greataxe. Hitting someone with a fist while fully buffed with magic is NOT the same as hitting them without all this magical support. There are nuances that your character should be aware of and that makes the gameworld seem more real if they are taken into account.

I dislike when players portray other players who roleplay these nuances and prejudices as the bad guys. They're not! You dont have to be CE to have prejudices. You can be LG, NG or CG. I dont want to seem like the bad guy by enforcing these either, but I'll play that role and enforce it if need be.

[Exploration Areas are back in Force!]

Major update for next reset.

Exploration Areas are back in Force!

Over 70+ Exploration areas, updated for EFU:M, some that are very short. Some that are multi-area long adventures... going from encountering a band of Wyrmwatcher celebrating around a Campfire to exploring the Wyvern nests of the Wyvern Totem stargazers in the Prophet's Peaks!

Over 100+ Scripted Ambient events that will be randomized across the gameworld from finding ancient shrines, dead adventurers to being ambushed by a pack of Ogre bandits.

Scripted Invasions will also happen oncemore in Mistlocke.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Currently working on:
  -- Bounty Hunter with Randomized Bounties to be hunted.
  -- Prized rare animals that can be skinned for much $$$ or protected   /brought to safety by stewards/druids of the wild.
  -- More Ambient scripted events.
  -- Scripted Caravan trips from the Sis Liman to Mistlocke.
  -- Places that you can consecrate (or desecrate!) with your cleric/paladin/blackguard.
  -- Secret projectsss


P.S. With big updates come potential for big bugs! Please keep me informed if something looks odd.

Currently, there are several dungeons that have been placed upon the gameworld which are accessible to anyone who would find them. They are related to a Plot and are unique in the sense that once they have been completed, it will update persistently at the next server reset. They hold both danger and treasures to whoever would find them, so I highly suggest you get your adventuring on and investigate!

http://www.escapefromundeath.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56734

Again, you do not need a DM to find and explore these areas. Have fun and good luck!

Is far too common. It's an easy way to turn off many players and DMs from having interest in your character. It looks crude. Please vary your curse words. Be more creative.

Be Especially more creative with your insults. You call someone an 'idiot' or a 'fucker', and it's easy to take it personal. You call someone an 'orc inbred' or 'withered old brain', 'worms in your skull', and it's much easier to stay immersive and into the roleplay.

Hello, I'm looking for a group of character-less players that would be interested in playing a set of Drow bounty hunters from House Jultar. The prelude would likely happen in a week or two. Depending on events IG.

 Requirement:

 - No females.
 - No clerics.

The group would be 3-5, EST or close to EST playtime. The group needs to be of the same Timezone and you must be commited to playing!

Write your applications as if you were applying for the subrace.

DM client is hectic. If a group gets split on an event, its even more hectic as you basically have to be at two, three, four... places at once. We receive all messages in the same box, so if you miss messages from time to time when there are 10+ characters talking, imagine that + receiving system shouts such as sending, quest start, tells from every players who want to do solo actions, and every other system that sends a warning to DMs.

It can lead to quite a headache, especially if you are in the middle of possessing NPCs in battle, and getting spammed with battle shouts, subdual messages, etc. It's very easy to miss message especially if they come from PCs that you are not following. You sometimes assume they are doing another quest or with another DM.

I'm all for including as many people into my events as possible, but sometimes the event is balanced for a certain group in mind, and if you want to drop in because you stumbled on it by luck or hazard, it is extremely nice to get CONFIRMATION that it's ok with me, so I can adjust and prepare beforehand for your group. Sometimes, you're not meant to find an area, perhaps it required an NPC scout to get there and the transition is a representation of that. So if you stumble upon an @area, just make sure it's meant for you, wait for a DM go ahead. You're meant to have a confirmation before initiating PvP in front of NPCs, it isn't any different here.

If you dont get confirmation, either the DM is busy settling something, first and he will do his best to get to you when he has time, the least you can do is wait for him.

[Deity]

We're introducing a new Deity to the EFU:A realm, Wastri. And also introducing a sub-race, the Bullywugs, available to be apped. This was motivated by both the popularity of the God, and the race. They truly fit on EFU:A and we believe having them around will enrich the gameworld.

Wastri



The Hopping Prophet, The Hammer of the Demi-Human
Symbol:  Gray Toad
Home Plane: Gehenna
Alignment:  Lawful Evil
Portfolio:  Bigotry, Self-Deception, Amphibians
Worshipers:  Bigots, cultists, marshmen, bullywugs
Favored Weapon: Glaive or Bardiche

Cleric Alignments:  LE, NE, LN
NwN Domains:  Animal, Destruction, Law, War

History/Relationships: Followers of Wastri (WAH-stree) refer to the Power as the god of Human racial superiority; more enlightened minds of Faerun refer to him as the god of bigotry. While at one time Wastri was represented as wholly human, he has somehow mutated to become both less and more than human, now.


 
  What is known for certain is that the earliest recorded mention of the worship of Wastri goes back to before the fall of the Netherese. At that time the Power’s main concern was the racial superiority of humankind, but as time went on and the conflict between the different enclave of men, Wastri’s portfolio expanded to include inter-racial prejudices as well. During this time Wastri’s power waxed great indeed. When sufficient offerings were made the Power would send down plagues of locust and poisonous toads down upon the enemies of those who would invoke him. Over the millenium Wastri’s power has grown less as humans have grown to accept the presence of other races on Faerun, in addition Wastri’s himself has grown less and less anthropomorphic and more frog-like.


  Today he is the "Hopping Prophet, Hammer of the Demi-Humans", dwelling on Faerun in swamps, moving from one vast swamp to another at whim. He was last known to be staying in a large toad-like structure called the Sacred Polystery, in the middle of the Gehenna Marshes outside the Iron Throne, but it has been decades since he has actually been sighted. Ceremonies honoring him involve alien musical instruments, croaking chants, and ritual sacrifice. Places of worship exist almost exclusively in swamp or marshland. In those rare instances where they do not, such as the Temple of the Toad in the City of Mezro in Chult, they are still made to feel swamp like (in other words, dark, damp and cold). Sermons always center around the idea of human superiority over all other races, most especially demi-humankind.


Dogma: Humans are superior to all other races. Orcs, goblins, bullywugs, and such are sufficient to serve humans, but creatures such as elves, dwarves and halflings deserve only death. Those who disagree with you are wrong and must be convinced of their error, with a weapon if need be. Those who live in the water and on land deserve respect, for having a refugee when one of your realms becomes too dangerous is clever and resourceful.

[/I][/SIZE][/I]

Bullywugs are described as humanoids with the head of frogs. They are usually shorter than a human, with leathery skin and webbed digits. They are very good jumpers, and can jump roughly 30 feet forward and 15 feet vertically.


Bullywugs live in primitive groups, hunting and fishing together. The hierarchy is based on strength, with the strongest being the leaders. Women and children are considered to be the lowest, no matter what. Bullywugs are very territorial, and mostly will attack anyone who trespasses. Oddly enough, they tend not to fight within the tribe, but rival bullywug tribes will fight with each other.
Bullywugs are known to revere a god named Wastri, but this deity seems to be more concerned with sleeping than with the welfare of his race. Ancient, crumbling statues of Wastri can be found in the deepest jungles, great monuments near ruined temples that hint at what was once a mighty deity in some long forgotten time. The great old temples also indicate a time when Bullywugs were less primitive and more organized, capable of building huge monuments of stone.

• Racial Type: Reptilian.
  
• Ability Adjustments: +2 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Cha.
  
• Skills: Hide +4, Listen +2
  
• Bonus AC: +2 (natural).
  
• Other: Bonus Feat : Use Poison.
  
• Favored Class: Barbarian.
  
• Favored Alignment: Lawful evil.
  
• Application: Yes.
  
• Level Adjustment: 1.
  
• Keywords: bullywug.

Enjoy!

[is also an engineer.]

This was written a long time ago, but I thought it was simple and a good advice, so I'd share with you. This is in regard as to the pathway your character should aspire.

 

-Establish a network of allies, companions, contacts, followers, and a patron. An ally is someone who is an approximate peer (such as former and current P.C.s) who can aid you in specific tasks. A companion can be a significant other, an animal, or family members who are financially or emotionally dependent on your character(s).
 
 Contacts are N.P.C.s who are specific to a certain location and who can provide information and help with the purchase and sale of goods. Followers are N.P.C.s who follow your character's commands. A patron is someone of higher social station who serves as a mentor to your P.C., giving training, favors and material support, and orders.
 
 -Lead a team (such as an away mission from your privateer carrack) and demonstrate improvement in teamwork. This is often the most challenging criterion.
 
 -Join an organization. This is to prove that your P.C. is developing and becoming more integrated into my fantasy setting. Although Lawful characters such as Paladins will have an easier time finding something to join or start, even Chaotic ones such as Rogues and Bards can find a loosely affiliated thieves' guild or a Bardic college.
 
 -Gain renown in your chosen field. As your P.C.s reach mid- to high levels, they should become known to others in their occupational classes as well as to the general public. Fame (or infamy) is a mixed blessing, but one that most experienced adventurers acquire.
 
 -Use signature items. The figures of fiction, legend, and myth are remembered for certain weapons, wondrous items, and tools, not everything they were carrying. Certain skills, feats, and spells may also qualify.

My second advice would be regarding character creation:

Now, let's do a bit of character analysis. My first bit of advice would be to start with a general theme when coming up with a PC. Pick a thematic and go along with it, don't try to mix everything. Some themes mix well, others not so much.

For example,

The monstrous gnoll cook / fighter with his handy butcher's cleavers in hand. It's simple, you can build a colorful personae around it. You can design a few recipes to add flavor. In-game, you can speak about how this creature taste that way, that creature taste like this. Etc. It is an appealing concept that looks simple and that you can very creative with.

A common mistake would be to add another facet to The gnoll cook such as: is also an engineer. It loses all its charisma as it becomes 'gimmicky', while the other seemed amusing and interesting.

The next step would be, how do we make this character into a realistic concept. Characters need to look real. They should care about their life, what to do with, and it doesn't look like they are playing a video-game. So let's return to our life,

Our gnoll cook. Why did he focus on cooking? He's weak physically, in comparison to other gnolls, and the only way he could survive in a tribe that embraces the survival of the fittest mentality was to work on his other qualities ... he is witty, and dextrous enough to cook excellent meals for the chief out of human flesh. So he did so until he won the respect and trust of his peers, he then offered his service to poison enemies of the chief in order to get rid of them, so his influence through the tribe slowly grew ... Then, a conflict over a potential mate led him to poison the chief, he fled the tribe with this potential mate but she was slaughtered by a group of adventurers :-( . Enter EFU:A .

Alright, not bad. So how do we build this character. What class fits the most for him?

 - Bard? His cooking could be a form of Art.
 - Ranger? All gnolls are hunters, he simply specialize more in cooking.
 - Barbarian? Well, he is a barbaric tribal.
 - A Combination of the above.

Once that's decided, you can easily justified taking FE: Whatever, as in it is the specialty that he cooks. And build him with a few flavor feats and a few mechanical feats. We will take handaxes as weapon, since they ressemble butcher's cleavers.

Then, you can add extra meat to the character.

Hope that helps. Some people asks for what I consider to be "No no" of character builds:

 - Having a specialization in one school, but only taking Spell focuses of another school.
 - Barb / Fighter / Ranger ... Too many themes into a single character.
 - Barb / Fighter / Rogue ... see above.
 - 1 Monk / Other class X ... unappealing, try to keep the multiclasses level close to each others if possible.
 - Druid/Monk & Barbarian/Fighter.
 - High Int Wizards who spend their skillpoints on Lockpick / Disable Trap to be more proficient questers. Again, if your wizard is a slick thief guild illusionist and it makes sense, great. But, dont try to mix too many talents into a single character!

These are the ones that stand out in my mind at the moment.

Due to the server crash, and time it took to setup the quest, I will need to finish the quest another time. I intend to finish it on Sunday EST 8PM.

We'll continue where we were. Hopefully both groups can make it as they were.

Sorry about that!

http://www.escapefromunderdark.com/downloads/efua_portraits.7z


Greetings! This download contains the following portraits, some of which that may be used by NPCs, and others that are quite excellent so I suggest you download these!

First,

We'll be introducing a new mode of subdual combat: The Black Out mode, that you can set yourself on to knock someone unconscious.

/c subdual BO
/c subdual Black Out
/c subdual Blackout

You can then pickup the body and carry it around, a "UNIQUE POWER:SELF" will be on the corpse if you want to wake him/her up Or you can wait the delay that it takes for people to wake up (generally 5 minutes).

Secondly, corpses will now be persistent for the duration of a reset, which means if you died and crashed, your corpse will remain where you died during that time even if you are logged off. When you log back in, people will be able to raise you, or you will be able to respawn just fine. This will allow people to have funerals, or sacrifices, or (possibly necromancy, in the future!) with more dramatic representation IG.

Finally, Backpacks. Every instance that someone drops his entire inventory on the ground (Death, subdued, blacked out, drop_pack command), an item called "XXX's belongings" will be dropped along with it. If you pick this item up, it will pick up XXX's entire inventory (and add weight exactly as if you had picked everything). This allows several thing:

 - Moving the inventory of your dead allies without having them cluttering your inventory, passing an hour figuring out which are your potions and which are his, etc...
 - Moving the inventory of a blackout individual along with his body more easily.
 - Confiscating the inventory of one of your prisoners.
 - Helping us DM with events where you are captured, etc., or clearing bodies when there is a TPK; now it will be much easier to clean up battlefields from a bunch of locked pc packs littering it...


On a sidenote, the dreaded double-death bug as well as all inventory/death weirdness should be FINALLY fixed. This will be possible next Update.

For the past week or so,

The XP gain curve has been distorted and was way too rewarding. We appreciate the help from the players who put this to our attention, and please, if you notice something that looks 'off', too good to be true, please tell us...

We'll be removing a level from everyone to balance for it. This will be done automatically the next time you login for all non-new characters.

Thank you.

[REQUIRES]

One of the easier application that seems to be boycotted is the one surrounding Special Backgrounds. If you want to be part:

- A canon organization (Thayan, Zhentarim, Cowled Wizards, Purple Dragon Knights, etc.)
- Roots with nobility somewhere in Faerun
- An Order of Knights
- A Church
- Good Friend of Elminster
- Lord of some Non-Canon Land.

This is all possible, but it REQUIRES an application before creation. The only time when it doesnt is when you're character is lying about it. Please, please, do not invent these titles for your PCs if they are not lying about them. There's been a lot of farfetched stuff that has been popping about lately, enough that this rule needs to be reminded. Unless it is earned In-Character, your character shouldn't say he was a Lord, High Priest, member of a group of Knights from a distant non-canon/canon land (unless you are lying of course!).

Thank you.