Alrighty nosy gnomes! I am playing my first high magic, chaos rampant campaign as an Artificer and have found myself stranded on a small island adrift in the Astral Sea... Im a 14th lvl Reborn Arty with some exceptional feats and a 20 int to boot.
DM has allowed me to sidebar adventure my way home instead of taking an "easy out", via seeking a conduit to my plane, while we bring in some new players, background rolls and such to give them some good RP time.
I know what I read and grasp the overall concept of life and travel in the astral. But if you had a chance to PHYSICALLY be in the astral plane, what would you do if you could potentially do anything.
What can you do? What would you do if you could use fabricate the mass youre floating on, over the course of months, a year? Because when I return it will only be hours to the party... I plan to shape the mass into an astral turtle vessel, not a spell jammer, just a... vessel instead of an island. Gives me a chance to hone in on some skill proficiencies and "show off" a little... lol
Lets see what you got! Show me your boundless imaginations!
(C) Fabricate can only manipulate "Raw Material" size larger or smaller. However, with enough relative time, and basic tool proficiency, that shouldn't be a hinderance.
The main trick with having a few hundred years to twiddle your thumbs is that you can't actually do anything that would make you better off than the rest of the party canonically. This rules out developing new skills, learning new magic, or creating anything of actual value that survives the narrative. However, you absolutely could stir up some drama.
So, that thing I said about avoiding the Gith at all costs... ignore it. Transform your island into a vessel and poke a few bears. Make some allies and some enemies, and let your party help you deal with the fallout.
Thanks! Wasnt looking for what I can't do, thats pretty established and ill defined if we are citing RAW.
He runs a reasonable, expanded HB variant of Xanathar's Downtimes. As long as it doesnt require specifics for a trade or language and we have the essential know-how, time and money, its on the table. As long as we present a reasonable/rational scenario, I mean, he thrives on those details.
So yes, I scripted out the years he will spend burning Fabricates to make himself comfy, as well as his attempts to mentally propel himself through the astral. "Canonically", as Im exceptionally familiar with where I came from, it should take me 20hours to find my conduit home with successful rolls. But Im gona milk it as far as he will let me, especially since the party left me hangin...
Spoiler: I was simply going to craft the land mass into a giant turtle with a giant Arch Lich statue version of myself riding its head, attempt to crash said turtle back into the material (hopefully close to party) while hiding and casting thaumaturgy, yelling "BEHOLD, FOR IHAVE RETURNED TO SEEK MY VENGENCE!" Turtle crashes, we laugh, story moves on.
Speed, acrobatics and athletics training require no special equipment per say, just time and training. Looooong bouts of meditation with enough consecutive successful insight/religion checks could possibly lead to unlocking a boon from the god I worship, or an increase in proficiency. Theres much more that can be done thats not written, especially since they seem to write everything into existence nowadays anyway just to make people happy...
Even the DM of DM's, Gygax himself stated at a Gamescon i saw him at in Dallas: (not verbatim, but 90%) The RAW are no more pertinent than the King James Bible... its a guide book, plain and simple. Full of adventure, drama, tales of woes and wonders, only restricted by the limits of one's imagination. It is the spirit of the game, not the letter of the rules which is important. Never hold to the letter written, nor allow some barracks room lawyer to force quotations from the rule books upon you, if it goes against the obvious intent of the game.
So, you're saying that your DM is ok with you suddenly gaining proficiency in every skill, and other magical boons, leaving the rest of your party vastly underqualified? And you're also ok with that?
It should be noted that under the Great Wheel cosmology, the Astral Sea doesn't have any actual Time Dilation compared to the Prime Material plane. If you spend years in the Astral Sea trying to return home, your party will have spent years on the Prime Material plane doing whatever they do. (It's only the effects of time that are affected, such as aging.) However, if your DM has homebrewed such a dilation, and is fine with you exploiting it, then more power to you.
One thing you could do is create a chamber to stack dozens/hundreds of Glyph of Warding and trigger them all on yourself and your party to temporarily make everyone superheroes. (High material component cost.)
Literally first line of post was High Level Magic, Rampant Chaos Rules...
Yes, he takes into account the latest rulings on the 1,000/1 time dilation ratio and if Im willing to DragonBallZ it up on a lil island floating through the Astral, only to pop in after a shit-ton of successful rolls like nothing happened, then as stated, if I write a helluva a story and explain the living begeezus out of it, he will eat it up and it may even make it into cannon for his home brew, which btw is a 3 year running, multi storied world that I stepped into being informed we havent hit half way yet. And we surpass one another all the time, but he evens it out one way or another.
Kinda funny, his HB World is so big, it literally crashed the host servers for Foundry 2-3 weeks ago, twice, to the point that when THEY did their mandatory reboot, roughly 1,300 people trying to log into their games could only access OUR GAME. So if you hear rumors of a Half-Pint Dragonborn King of Baldur's Gate... well, hello. lol.
So here's perspective of what I stepped into with this Homebrew:
Regular Games that dont deviate from RAW too much = Relaxing day at park, chillin with friends.
The Homebrew I got sucked into, yet refuse to run from = Me, a 14th Lvl Tony Stark hanging out with the literal Avengers, dealing with Endgame... every damn session.
We gain, we loose, we laugh and cry... it is CHAOS at its finest.
I know what I want to do in so far as the progression of my character, I was just curious as to how broad a picture others could paint.
To be honest, as a DM I would do nasty things to your social skills in this scenario if you wanted to gain proficiency in all those physical skills, since you haven't had anyone else to talk to in aeons...
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
If I was trapped in the Astral Plane? There's a lot of very nasty things there. I'd start hunting for Color Pools. If I was a level 14 Artificer with a 20 intelligence I'd expect that I have proficiency in Arcana to know what color to look for, or maybe I could be proficient in Religion to know about the gods, which could tell me what color portal to use to find one of them, or if I didn't have either of them I'd still have a fairly good chance just with a base Ability Check to figure something out.
I anticipate Wis saves and sanity checks, lol. Even scripted in a lil RP where my Homunculus immediately runs to his fav party member because he's been listening to my persuasions for who knows how long... so happy to see someone else!
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Alrighty nosy gnomes! I am playing my first high magic, chaos rampant campaign as an Artificer and have found myself stranded on a small island adrift in the Astral Sea...
Im a 14th lvl Reborn Arty with some exceptional feats and a 20 int to boot.
DM has allowed me to sidebar adventure my way home instead of taking an "easy out", via seeking a conduit to my plane, while we bring in some new players, background rolls and such to give them some good RP time.
I know what I read and grasp the overall concept of life and travel in the astral. But if you had a chance to PHYSICALLY be in the astral plane, what would you do if you could potentially do anything.
What can you do? What would you do if you could use fabricate the mass youre floating on, over the course of months, a year? Because when I return it will only be hours to the party... I plan to shape the mass into an astral turtle vessel, not a spell jammer, just a... vessel instead of an island. Gives me a chance to hone in on some skill proficiencies and "show off" a little... lol
Lets see what you got! Show me your boundless imaginations!
(A) Avoid the Astral Dreadnaught at all costs.
(B) Avoid the Gith at all cost.
(C) Fabricate can only manipulate "Raw Material" size larger or smaller. However, with enough relative time, and basic tool proficiency, that shouldn't be a hinderance.
The main trick with having a few hundred years to twiddle your thumbs is that you can't actually do anything that would make you better off than the rest of the party canonically. This rules out developing new skills, learning new magic, or creating anything of actual value that survives the narrative. However, you absolutely could stir up some drama.
So, that thing I said about avoiding the Gith at all costs... ignore it. Transform your island into a vessel and poke a few bears. Make some allies and some enemies, and let your party help you deal with the fallout.
Thanks! Wasnt looking for what I can't do, thats pretty established and ill defined if we are citing RAW.
He runs a reasonable, expanded HB variant of Xanathar's Downtimes. As long as it doesnt require specifics for a trade or language and we have the essential know-how, time and money, its on the table. As long as we present a reasonable/rational scenario, I mean, he thrives on those details.
So yes, I scripted out the years he will spend burning Fabricates to make himself comfy, as well as his attempts to mentally propel himself through the astral. "Canonically", as Im exceptionally familiar with where I came from, it should take me 20hours to find my conduit home with successful rolls. But Im gona milk it as far as he will let me, especially since the party left me hangin...
Spoiler: I was simply going to craft the land mass into a giant turtle with a giant Arch Lich statue version of myself riding its head, attempt to crash said turtle back into the material (hopefully close to party) while hiding and casting thaumaturgy, yelling "BEHOLD, FOR IHAVE RETURNED TO SEEK MY VENGENCE!" Turtle crashes, we laugh, story moves on.
Speed, acrobatics and athletics training require no special equipment per say, just time and training. Looooong bouts of meditation with enough consecutive successful insight/religion checks could possibly lead to unlocking a boon from the god I worship, or an increase in proficiency. Theres much more that can be done thats not written, especially since they seem to write everything into existence nowadays anyway just to make people happy...
Even the DM of DM's, Gygax himself stated at a Gamescon i saw him at in Dallas: (not verbatim, but 90%) The RAW are no more pertinent than the King James Bible... its a guide book, plain and simple. Full of adventure, drama, tales of woes and wonders, only restricted by the limits of one's imagination. It is the spirit of the game, not the letter of the rules which is important. Never hold to the letter written, nor allow some barracks room lawyer to force quotations from the rule books upon you, if it goes against the obvious intent of the game.
So, you're saying that your DM is ok with you suddenly gaining proficiency in every skill, and other magical boons, leaving the rest of your party vastly underqualified? And you're also ok with that?
It should be noted that under the Great Wheel cosmology, the Astral Sea doesn't have any actual Time Dilation compared to the Prime Material plane. If you spend years in the Astral Sea trying to return home, your party will have spent years on the Prime Material plane doing whatever they do. (It's only the effects of time that are affected, such as aging.) However, if your DM has homebrewed such a dilation, and is fine with you exploiting it, then more power to you.
One thing you could do is create a chamber to stack dozens/hundreds of Glyph of Warding and trigger them all on yourself and your party to temporarily make everyone superheroes. (High material component cost.)
Literally first line of post was High Level Magic, Rampant Chaos Rules...
Yes, he takes into account the latest rulings on the 1,000/1 time dilation ratio and if Im willing to DragonBallZ it up on a lil island floating through the Astral, only to pop in after a shit-ton of successful rolls like nothing happened, then as stated, if I write a helluva a story and explain the living begeezus out of it, he will eat it up and it may even make it into cannon for his home brew, which btw is a 3 year running, multi storied world that I stepped into being informed we havent hit half way yet. And we surpass one another all the time, but he evens it out one way or another.
Kinda funny, his HB World is so big, it literally crashed the host servers for Foundry 2-3 weeks ago, twice, to the point that when THEY did their mandatory reboot, roughly 1,300 people trying to log into their games could only access OUR GAME. So if you hear rumors of a Half-Pint Dragonborn King of Baldur's Gate... well, hello. lol.
So here's perspective of what I stepped into with this Homebrew:
We gain, we loose, we laugh and cry... it is CHAOS at its finest.
I know what I want to do in so far as the progression of my character, I was just curious as to how broad a picture others could paint.
To be honest, as a DM I would do nasty things to your social skills in this scenario if you wanted to gain proficiency in all those physical skills, since you haven't had anyone else to talk to in aeons...
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
If I was trapped in the Astral Plane? There's a lot of very nasty things there. I'd start hunting for Color Pools. If I was a level 14 Artificer with a 20 intelligence I'd expect that I have proficiency in Arcana to know what color to look for, or maybe I could be proficient in Religion to know about the gods, which could tell me what color portal to use to find one of them, or if I didn't have either of them I'd still have a fairly good chance just with a base Ability Check to figure something out.
<Insert clever signature here>
Youre on point. He can be merciless.
I anticipate Wis saves and sanity checks, lol. Even scripted in a lil RP where my Homunculus immediately runs to his fav party member because he's been listening to my persuasions for who knows how long... so happy to see someone else!