A little under two years later, in Winter 2020/2021, and after a couple of months of playing on Ravenloft, I decided to try going back to my roots with another half-brass. Since Ravenloft's take on dragon disciples is closer to the SRD, I decided a 10/10 bard/BDD split would probably be more fun to play than a 10/10 sorc/BDD... and unlike most people, I didn't like the idea of only taking an arcane dip and going fighter/DD with my remaining levels. So I made a wannabe brass bard, who knew a thing or two about brass dragons, and wanted to be more like her draconic progenitors. Her name, Thraxia Liryk, was a combination of a draconic theme ("Thraxia" sounds sort of draconic) and a musical pun, and probably an alias rather than her real name. (Sometime during her first week, I realized that I could tie her to Shali and more actively benefit from my experiences playing a DD here. As a result, Shali's niece, Rala Menner, is due to be born sometime in the following decade.
)
That did not go well.
On BG, I telegraphed Shali's transformation with minor, statistically insignificant changes in her final pre-DD levels. A few faint scales here, accidentally breathing a wisp of fire as a consequence of one of her recurring dragon dreams (and promptly needing to gulp down a bucketload of water each time!
)... I continued that pattern as she leveled, with the aim of providing a smoother, more organic transformation than "I finally hit level X and it's changed me overnight". In order to do the same on Ravenloft, I first had to confirm that Rala would be taking DD levels... so I submitted an application in advance, allowing some padding for CC deliberation and Rala's level progression.
To say that they were unconvinced of my fitness to play the PRC would be an understatement. My logging habits were substandard, so they could only take me on my word that I had RPed towards acquiring the class. My first encounters with other DDs were with assorted chromatics, and the behavior of said chromatics made Rala overly questioning of the assertion that chromatic heritage was automatically evil. And to their mind, I was too new and too ignorant of DD behavior, and needed to keep at it.
So I did. Reluctantly, at first - I suspected I would exceed level 10 by the time I was allowed to apply again, but Rala's misery over her initial failure proved surprisingly useful in curtailing her level progression. I finally got into the habit of renaming my logfile every time I closed NWN, and I tried to pay attention to the red flags raised both in the CC's official response, and in unofficial interactions with individual CC members. Rala started hoarding art, she managed to rebuild her failing confidence to the point of pride, and she reluctantly broke all contact with her red-blooded adoptive aunt, the one dragonblood who truly seemed to care about her.
And when I compiled all that added RP into a multiple-page essay detailing the reasoning behind every DD-related decision she had made, and how her life up to that point was going to drive her future actions, backed by dozens of logfiles' worth of citations, I got shot down again. This time, it was a mixture of not bothering to
read my application (let alone cross-reference the summarized backstory with my logs), and concerns about my handling of a PvP plot involving one of my other characters. Concerns which
only got brought to my attention because I was applying for a PRC, as if the rules only matter then.
The best part? Actual dragon disciples, people who had gone through the application process and passed... blatantly ignore the things I was told about metallic-chromatic relations, and one of the key reasons Rala began to trust the chromatics was that one of her fellow metallics seemed to get along with them. Yet there's no talk of pulling the PRCs from them, despite their very public assertion that they will, in fact, do that if people are being irresponsible with their subraces/PRCs. Yet somehow, the CC judged that I was either unable or unwilling to maintain
the very rigorous even the lax standards set by my peers.
Fun stuff. Looking back, I'm amazed it took me as long as it did to fully return to BG... and maintain that this retention was only accomplished because they mostly managed to make the gameplay more interesting in its own right, and because it was easier for my characters to either start or get involved in long-term plots without DM intervention. Not coincidentally, my most active characters since my return have been:
- Shali - returning to my roots, before getting involved in Shamble's plot, where her optimism was surgically removed and she ran back home rather than watch helplessly from the sidelines
- Red/Dae/<SPOILER> - a dangerous and exciting crossplay adventure, mixed in with amnesia and an unlikely friendship with someone more troubled than herself
- Rinn - perhaps my first villain that doesn't self-isolate, and hopefully also a fun departure from my usual gameplay
- Vilmar - looking for friends and familiars in all the wrong places, and being as bad at it as always
)