I was thinking of making:
Shyr Kael, Chaotic neutral Elf Ranger(normal ranger not the variant). Worshiper of Corellon (Enemy of Lolth)
stats are
STR 13 DEX 18 CON 10 INT 12 WIS 12 CHA 12

Edit: I changed his story a little to add more depth
He was orphaned at an early age when a band of drow followers of Lolth killed his family while traveling near Dreadwood, holding them off long enough for him to escape into the woods. He remembers the face of the leader of the drow, who personally killed his parents, with vivid detal, long bone white hair, blood red eyes and a scar over his left eye. He has a hatred of Lolth and will kill any of her followers, that makes him extremely hostile around them and enjoys nothing more than killing them. unless he is vastly outnumbered and knows he will not win(or persuaded by his companions), he is compelled to attack them on sight. He also hates spiders for they fall within Lolths domain.

While running through the woods he was discovered by an elven patrol and was taken in by them. Although they were very nice to him he never felt like he belonged. After a time he began to join the patrols that protect the villages from the evil creatures that reside within the forest. Although he greatly appreciated the Dreadwood elves for taking him in he felt the urge to explore the world. After saying goodbye to all his friends and adoptive family he left the forest and began his own adventure.

Personality: He appears to be very friendly to people he meets but secretly is very suspicious of others. He has a soft spot in his heart for other orphans for he too knows what its like to lose a family. Usually he tends to avoid getting too involved in other peoples affairs but he rarely turns down a direct request for his help. He often thinks things through and plans far ahead before he acts but every once in a while he is spurred with passion to act without thinking and usually ends up regretting it.

i made a sheet on dndsheets heres the link if u wanna look it over http://www.dndsheets.net/view.php?id=7451

Hopefully this works for you, if u think i need to change anything let me know. Or if a different class would be better to bring along, im willing to make just about any character but im more of a strategy guy than a run in a slash type of person.

I made a list of what we have so far and ill change it as people decide on what they wanna do:
an Aasimar Sorcerer (Zerli)
Elf ranger (me RaynMidori)
Psion (Rellen)*
dwarven barbarian (The_Shaman)
Druid (Lokey)
Warblade or cleric (Rayneth)*
Fighter(NapalmMoose)
unknown (Mercenery)*
Monk or ranger (Funky Goose)*

*not yet confirmed/created

Hey Ark,

No Willworker, check, no problem. I figure I will try to qualify for an Archmage (Dungeon Master's Guide prestige class) then by the time I hit 15th level or so. The rest will be straight sorcerer, right out of the book. And you are right, I almost missed the Improvise Spell bit - that makes a huge difference. The extra skill points and hit points are nice, but casting any spell from the list once a day at one level lower is huge - thanks!

I almost forgot to ask - I used 50gp of my starting gold to buy a potion of cure light wounds, is that okay?

Zerli/Viktor

P.S. At a risk of sounding like an idiot, how do you respond to PMs on this board? I don't see any Reply or Submit or similar buttons anywhere...

There's a PM button under each post .

Anyway, here is my first draft for a character, Arral Azbek, NG dwarven barbarian, devotee of Muamman Duathal, the dwarf deity of expatriates and wanderers:

Str: 16 Dex: 14 Con 16 (after racial adjustments) Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 10 (after adjustments again)

I am not too familiar with Oerth and where we will be starting from, can you recommend me a nearby region with dwarf settlements or a large dwarven minority or even a majority? As for the below, it is all subject to change as per the fluff of the game or my personal whims:

Arral, as I see him now, is a city-born dwarf, but he never stayed anywhere much. His father was a professional soldier, a minor officer in one of the local armies, and his family often traveled around with him on his duty. He would have liked nothing more than for his second son to have travelled in his footsteps (after the first one eagerly obliged), but Arral was less than a perfect candidate. He took to fighting readily enough, and he could hold his own against near any trooper in his father's command before he was 30 years of age. Blessed with strength, endurance and not a small amount of agility, he could take on a man or beast half again his size and, often enough, triumph. However, the discipline and routine activities of the military life, which most dwarves take on with almost cheerful acceptance, were not so much to his liking. He was used to travel and change, and quickly grew restless in the barracks - and a restless young dwarf, trained for war and with a right hook that could knock a crocodile's teeth out, is a spectable best beheld from a (very large) distance. While Arral has fond feelings for his family (some more than others), eventually, he and his father agreed that the youth's impulses would be better harnessed as a mercenary - meaning someone either without a permanent position, or one quite far away. He has spent a while as a caravan guard, adventurer, and even somewhat of an explorer, and is now as familiar with the wild as few other dwarves are.

While Arral may appear gruff or distrustful, he accepts friends easily enough. He is generally optimistic and does not care much for calculating chances. When he is about to wade in combat, however, he sometimes takes the time to set a low chant, which eventually passes into a maddened warcry. Sometimes he skips the chant, or just swings with an eager guffaw.

BTW, can anyone recommend a slightly exotic (as in, still martial) two-handed bludgeoning weapon? I thought about the greatclub (especially if Three Mountain Style can be allowed if we ever get that far), but somehow a large block of wood doesn't quite sound like his thing, and I don't like it too much mechanically. Would the maul from the A&E book work, or if there is another beatstick you could recommend?

Finished my PC
Einar Karggrim LG Fighter
STR16 CON15 DEX13 INT12 WIS11 CHA10

Einar will tell you that hes the son of a giant and a goddess, or maybe he'll tell you that he's descended from a long line of hero's, oh and there is the one about how he's actually a legendary hero reborn to right wrongs and save the world. While there are many, many more stories he could tell and probably will, its unlikely that you will hear the real story.


I have a character node built with all my stats if you want it or if you prefer i could fill out a char sheet on a website

So he's LG and a compulsive liar? Nice, now you only need a few paladin levels

One level lower? No, Improvise Spell simply gives them the equivalent of an extra spell slot of the highest spell level already available to them at any given caster level (so equivalent to a 1st-level slot at 1st-level, improving to equal a 2nd-level slot at 4th-level, then a 3rd-level slot at 6th, etc.), which they use to cast any spell of the appropriate level or lower on the Sorcerer Spell List. They can apply metamagic to it like any other Sorcerer spell, so long as it doesn't exceed the highest level of spell slot they already possess. I'll edit the houserule post to clarify this point a little bit.

But yes, I posted earlier that it's okay to spend your starting gold on cheap magical, alchemical, or otherwise special items.

As for PMs, there's a space under them where you can type up a post, then hit Submit, like any other post on the forums. Also, there's a tiny text-button near each person's post on the forums which lets you send a private message to that person.

I'll start going over backgrounds and stats and such over the weekend, for now I'm just on for a few minutes to check and answer questions.

So, anyway...... I believe the dwarven deity you refer to is actually Marthammor Duin, neutral good lesser dwarven god of guides, explorers, expatriates, travelers, and lightning, who favors the heavy mace, at least according to the FRCS. I need to find the list of Greyhawk deities I downloaded from the WotC website years ago, to see if he's in there, but so far I've tended to assume that the nonhuman deities listed in the FRCS are also present in the pantheons of the nonhuman races of Oerth (since before 3E, Abeir-Toril and Oerth shared the Great Wheel cosmology, though I also seem to recall it being called something else back in 2E). So it should be fine.

I'm not familiar with Three Mountain Style, or at least I don't remember it off the top of my head, but you can fill me in later if we get to the point where it would come up. Mauls are fine, I have the Arms & Equipment Guide of course.

As mentioned in the first post, we're starting in the Archbarony of Ratik, which is situated along the eastern coast of the Flanaess (the main landmass in the detailed portion of Oerth, basically the northeastern corner of the continent Oerik). Ratik is a bit northerly in position and climate, situated along the mountain range known as the Rakers and in the thin stretch of coastal plains and woodlands just east of the Rakers. The Timberway Forest covers the northeastern strip of Ratik, while a small plain covers the southeastern corner of Ratik. The Loftwood forest lies at the far southeastern edge, but is not part of Ratik, instead claimed by independant woodsmen (though loosely allied with Ratik).

The southern Rakers and the Loftwood separate Ratik from its southern neighbor, the country known as the Bone March, while the western Rakers separate Ratik from the country known as The Pale, on Ratik's western flank, as well as the Troll Fens just west of the northern Rakers. The Timberway Forest's northern reaches are part of the Frost Barbarians' territory, so Ratik only holds the southern reaches of that woodland. The Rakers merge with the Griff Mountains further north, outside of Ratik. Ratik's eastern flank is Grendep Bay, a rather large bay that is largely used by the Ice, Frost, and Snow Barbarian raiders in the north (those barbarian groups control nearly the entire Thillonrian Peninsula at the northeastern edge of the Flanaess; the barbarians call that land Rhizia in their own tongue).

Ratik is closely allied with the Frost Barbarians now (who call themselves the Fruztii, in the Cold Tongue used by the northern Suloise barbarians), and the Frost Barbarians' current King is married to a Ratikkan noblewoman. The two countries formed the Northern Alliance, and Archbaron Lexnol attempted to bring the Snow Barbarians (the Schnai) into the alliance some years later, but has been unable to negotiate the deal since his son Alain's death in Bone March, when Lexnol suffered a stroke from the news and wound up bedridden, crippled by palsy ever since. The Schnai refuse to deal with Lexnol's stepdaughter, the current Archbaroness, Evaleigh, Alain's widow. Evaleigh came from Bone March's county of Knurl, her father's county, a political marriage that failed to unite Ratik with Bone March, since the invasion from the west.

Bone March was overrun by evil humanoids almost 30 years ago, ranging from orcs to gnolls, goblinoids, and more, who invaded and slaughtered most of the human leaders there, and it was they who slew Alain when he lead a force of Ratikkans and displaced Bone Marchers to try and drive out the evil humanoids and restore human rule over the March. Ratik and Bone March were once northern parts of the Great Kingdom of Aerdy, before that kingdom's collapse into disparate lesser nations; during the collapse, Ratik severed its ties to Aerdy. Bone March's current humanoid conquerers are still enemies of Ratik, and Archbaroness Evaleigh's father continues trying to influence Ratik's leaders towards further attempts to secure Knurl. Ratik has taken in many human refugees from Bone March in the last few decades.

The Archbaroness is unpopular since she had to take command after Alain's death and Lexnol's crippling stroke, since Evaleigh isn't a native of Ratik and doesn't seem to be very decisive nor understand the dangerous position Ratik is in now, what with Bone March's humanoid problem, the continued threat of raids from the Ice or Snow Barbarians, and the threat of North Kingdom's schemes. The Theocracy of the Pale is also perceived as a possible threat, simply due to the intolerance that its rulers have towards other cultures and religions besides the worship of Pholtus, their patron deity. The Ice Barbarians (Cruskii in the Cold Tongue) remain a threat, while the Snow Barbarians are also occasionally a threat to Ratik in their annual raids of the eastern coasts, since Lexnol didn't get the chance to finish negotiating with them.

As for dwarves in the area, Ratik is composed of 14 freeholds, some of them dwarven and others human, so at least a few dwarves are in the Council of Great Lords who advise the Baron or Baroness of Ratik (a majority of Ratik's population is human, and the ruling family is human, but several dwarven freeholds are a significant part of Ratik). The Rakers are sharply-pointed mountain peaks, which descend into a long stretch of foothills near the south, home to many dwarves and some gnomes. Orcs, goblins, giants, and other monsters dwell in the Rakers, but the dwarves fend them off and manage to keep those humanoids from threatening the rest of Ratik too often. Dwarves and a few gnomes inhabit the hills and mountains of Ratik, while humans live mostly near the coasts for fishing, foresting, and sea trade. Some halflings, elves, half-elves, and half-orcs live scattered across Ratik.

Dwarves mine gold and gems from the Rakers and their foothills, while humans harvest lumber and animal furs as well as fishing and building ships, so Ratik is fairly prosperous considering its small size and population. The only sizeable towns in Ratik are Marner, the capitol by the eastern coast, and Ratikhill, near the southern edge. Ratik's government tends toward neutral good alignment in its officials and policies, while the populace ranges from neutral to chaotic good for the most part, though some of the dwarven lords are likely lawfully-aligned. Most humans in Ratik are of Suloise descent with a minor or moderate mix of Oeridian blood, with a few Flan around as well (but typically of mixed blood as well).

I'll answer more stuff in the morning, sleepy now, it's 5 am in Arizona. Dangit. *facepalm*

Though I don't think we'll be ready to start this weekend, I will be on the OpenRPG Dev II server this Sunday to see if anyone has a character node to submit, or has questions etc. to discuss. I might not be there at 6 pm GMT, maybe 7 or 8 instead this time, not sure, but I will be there for a few hours at least. Then back again later in the evening for my usual Sunday game.

Edit: Just so folks know, I always use the OpenRPG Dev II server. No room password, as I don't mind lurkers. I open my game-rooms when I'm ready to start the session, until then I wait in the lobby. Game-room name will be Ark's Oerth Adventures.

I'm on the OpenRPG Dev II server right now, have been since about 11 am Pacific, and will linger there for another hour or two in case anyone wants to drop by and discuss character creation or ask questions or submit their character sheet for approval.

so i just realized i wont be able to make it to the game on sunday because ill driving down to college. but ill be able to check my email and get txts on the road so if u guys wanna contact me through that u can.