Ask Arkanis

[fury165]

How strict are you on paladins and other divine classes (though mostly paladins) concerning upholding their edicts, and sins against their church/the divines? Do you think players should have the possibility of falling out of favor with their deity, or lose their power completely until they make a penance - and if you do, what do you think is a worthy reason for enforcing such... and if you don't, why not?

[NegInfinity]

I am not sure exactly what you are asking about RPing a summon 9 spell. Are you casting Gate and bringing in an angel? There are two things to consider - one is RP around the summons, and one is the semantics of the game vis a vis what the gate looks like/how it works. If you have the ability to summon and angel I'm not sure how you would get in crap for calling on one in a time of need? Again, you might want to RP the angle that the angel is your friend/you have a bond, and that it comes on its own volition when called.

There are two types of "summoning" spell. "Summon" and "call". "summon" is "summon monster". "call" is "planar binding". When creature is summoned, you get a copy, and real creature is unharmed even if copy is defeated. However, when creature is "called", it is really here, and can actually be killed for good.

Documented in hordes of the abyss, page 11:

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Calling versus Summoning: Note the difference between calling and summoining a fiend. A summon monster spell can temporarily draw a fiend out of the Abyss and force it into servece, but it takes a calling effect, such as the gate spell, to give a demon a permanent presence on another plane. When a summon monster or similar espell elapses, the creature returns to the Abyss unharmed, despite any efforts or actions taken by it or the spellcaster. A dispel magic spell, or a similar effect, can also send the creature back prematurely. A spell or ritual calling a demon forth transplants the creature onto the plane indefinitely. Only a more powerful spell, such as banishment can send a fiend back to the Abyss.

Summon monster spells can be "perverted" by particularly vile mage to "summon" devils. That corrupts the caster. Excerpt from fiendish codex.

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Some devils can be summoned with summon monster spells. Such a spell gains the
evil descriptor when used to conjure an evil creature, so anyone who uses it in this way
gains 1 corruption point (see Corrupt Acts, below). While such spells provide quick and
useful services from the summoned beings, the duration is quite limited.

I believe ohboy wants to rp that while casting "Gate" or "Epic gate" his char is using "summon" spell to summon a copy of angel, so the real angel is not in any danger. That way the character would not get flak from overly zealous paladins for endangering creatures of good.

[Valkyrie]

How do Elves earn and receive their nicknames? In the books they used to be called by surnames in the wider population, rather than birth names. "Windwhisper, Moonblade, Serpent, etc." And could we bring that into setting here?

[DM Arkanis]

What conditions make for "lawful" dueling in the Duke's lands?

http://www.bgtscc.net/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=21492

The offenses on LeslieMS' page says 'unlawful' dueling is not allowed. Are there formalities such as challenge issuance, authorized dueling fields, etc. to be observed, and if so what are they?

With multiple knightly orders around, it makes sense there is an honorable way to duel here.

I think there are two short answers to this:
1) No duelling inside the city of BG. It is just bad form no matter who you are and could cause a riot/subsidiary fights to break out.
2) PvP prevails. If you are a goodly aligned and lawful character that is challenged to a duel or wants to challenge someone to a duel, follow PvP and do it somewhere out of eyesight of the Fist...

[DM Arkanis]

How strict are you on paladins and other divine classes (though mostly paladins) concerning upholding their edicts, and sins against their church/the divines? Do you think players should have the possibility of falling out of favor with their deity, or lose their power completely until they make a penance - and if you do, what do you think is a worthy reason for enforcing such... and if you don't, why not?

Great question fury.

I'll start by saying that this is my personal opinion and by no way a DM ruling on how things run/should be run on the server.

Paladins by their nature are the law/upholders of their god's beliefs in a martial way. Unlike the priesthood, pally's ride forth and smith enemies as their real primary mission in insuring the church's vision/mission/ethos spreads. They guard, they uphold the tenets of their god, and they protect the values of their church. Is it possible for one to fail? Of course. There are examples in the WotC books of them falling from grace. Sometimes they are redeemed, and sometimes they are not. I have RPed in PnP DnD such a scenario with one of my players who was a real fanatic about following rules - I caught him in one little mistake, his god hit him with a 1hp dmg flamestrike and he chilled out... lol!

Seriously, in terms of our game semantics "falling out" really means that they are not playing their character sheet properly. If a LG pally starts acting in a CE way/has a major personality change then there are only really two options: 1) take an xp/alignment shift hit and atone, or 2) RCR the toon to reflect the conversion/falling out of grace. We rely on players to play their character sheet and deal with those who abuse (metagame) in a constructive manner. If it is clear that the player can't play the character as written, then a re-write happens and the new toon should be Rped appropriately.

[DM Arkanis]

How do Elves earn and receive their nicknames? In the books they used to be called by surnames in the wider population, rather than birth names. "Windwhisper, Moonblade, Serpent, etc." And could we bring that into setting here?

In my experience, Elven characters earn nicknames just like everyone else: heroic deeds, having something that they favour (like pickles for example... eat a lot of pickles and yer gonna get called Pickles.)) or just something that is a term of endearment - "sweetheart" for example.

There is nothing in our cannon preventing players from using nicknames for each other and it should be generated by RP amongst the players - no official name changes. Watch out though because if you call a guy Pickles who has a bad case of acne he may PvP you...

[DM Arkanis]

How do Elves earn and receive their nicknames? In the books they used to be called by surnames in the wider population, rather than birth names. "Windwhisper, Moonblade, Serpent, etc." And could we bring that into setting here?

In my experience, Elven characters earn nicknames just like everyone else: heroic deeds, having something that they favour (like pickles for example... eat a lot of pickles and yer gonna get called Pickles.)) or just something that is a term of endearment - "sweetheart" for example.

There is nothing in our cannon preventing players from using nicknames for each other and it should be generated by RP amongst the players - no official name changes. Watch out though because if you call a guy Pickles who has a bad case of acne he may PvP you...

qv a nichkname is given to you by others - if you give one to yourself and others find out about it, you usually get panned and it might get changed to something else...

[Hoihe]

I also think that some of those nicknames are their surnames translated to common. I mean, elven names are made out of syllables most of the time and those syllables each have their own meaning.

[NegInfinity]

I would like to know if this information from srd wiki is correct:

Crafting skill
Wealth and money

So, basically, according to this information... iron spear is worth 2 gp. For character with craftweapon of 15, it'll take less than a day to make such spear.

Masterwork iron spear (+1 AB, not +1 EB, can be enchanted) would be worth 302 g, and for the same char it would take from 5 to 13 weeks to forge one (worst case scenario - 302*10/(15*15) = 13.4 ).

At the same time a goat is worth 1 gp, sheep is worth 2 gp, and a cow is 3 gp.

That would basically mean two things:
1. Even level 1 adventurer is carrying ridiculous amount of wealth.
2. Everyone is ripping adventurers off, very hard.

[Valkyrie]

Just remembered Sehlanna's name comes from swords.cc/elf_names.htm; Her 'nickname' can be translated from there!

Thanks!

[AlwaysSummer Day]

Can you suggest any good canon lore material for Dwarves besides Dwarves Deep? I can't seem to find any unless you count the handbooks.

[DM Arkanis]

OK I owe some of you some answers and I will try to get to them after work tonight...

I just had a message from Bob (R.A.) Salvatore who writes the Drizzt DoUrden books. I had asked him if he had any advice for Elistrean Drow players in terms of how surface elves would interract with them. Here's what he said:

"No, I really know nothing about her, and never have. It's almost like she didn't exist in the Drizzt books, as I felt it would have altered the character in ways I didn't waqnt. Give my best to all the players!!"

How cool is that? I'm gonna ask him to fill out a DM application for BGTSCC

Ark

[Darksider_war]

That is just marvelous! *All of darksider's elves start to sharpen their longswords*

[DM Arkanis]

Can you suggest any good canon lore material for Dwarves besides Dwarves Deep? I can't seem to find any unless you count the handbooks.

OK are you looking for, "how to play a Dwarven character" or are you asking for Drawven-specific FR lore?

"How to play a Dwarf" is an easy one because it seems no matter if you're LOTR, WoW, or just about any other sci-fi/RP Dwarves are all very protective of their own, love treasure, love beer/ale/eating, love a good fight, hate Orcs and Goblins (for the most part), and for some reason, Dwarves all speak common with a Scottish accent... They value loyalty, trust, honour, but are a little racist with respect to other good-aligned races but can be won over if they feel someone is worthy of their friendship (i.e. they find something to respect about them... like an Elf out-drinking them, a human fighting as hard as them/beating them in one on one combat, etc)

FR specific Dwarven lore is harder to come by. Here is a link to the wiki pages:

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Dwarf

If you have the time, the Candlekeep Forums can be a good read as well:

http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6140

[DM Arkanis]

That is just marvelous! *All of darksider's elves start to sharpen their longswords*

This is common as real life intelligence/knowledge sometimes gets the better of us, and that sometimes the monsters are labelled with the monster manual name rather than (in this case) Large White Ape or something like that. The average character who may know the Abominable Snowman by sight because they have fought one before, still might need to go back and do some research if they want to be able to call them by their proper name. Personally, I find RP around a Great White Ape more appealing anyhow... ((ya that is an inside joke))