A Land Far Away

Alright a while back I made a thread advertising for a dungeon crawl here. It took a lot longer to put together than I expected due to some unforeseen complications, but it's about ready now so I'm making a new thread in anticipation of being able to run this "soonish".

As I said before, the intent behind this is a fairly lethal but rewarding dungeon crawl for characters somewhere around the range of 8-12, though I'll entertain exceptions, particularly if they bring something to the party that it doesn't have. If there's player interest but possibly not character interest I'm entirely willing to engineer reasons for the character to want to get involved, plausibility permitting. I haven't paid the closest attention to ALFA for a while so a short blurb on characters wanting to get involved would be helpful from the perspective of being able to understand them.

Some other things I want to note:

1) While I understand the point of capping damage at -6 and making people bleed out from there, it doesn't fit the style I am going for here. The game turning into whack-a-mole is something I want to avoid. Because it's an ALFA feature, and because I can't disable it for this, I'm giving a compromise feature. If, and only if, a PC is knocked straight down to -6 then I'll ask them for a d3. 2-3 they're bleeding out from -6 as normal, 1 and they're dead. It's still a large safety net, while encouraging people to stay the hell away from being knocked into negatives. I probably won't apply the floor to out of engine effects at all, either, so watch out for RP traps and so on.

2) We're playing 3.5e, cumbersome and bloated system that it is, and I'll make a good faith effort to honour it, but I'm not spending half an hour digging up some obscure and unwieldy rule (no grappling). At some points I may just make a ruling that I feel makes sense. If you want to do something particularly obscure and weird do try to let me know as far in advance as possible.

3) NWN2's engine is limiting and I intend to run at least some of the stuff outside of what's strictly available in game. That means things like traps that aren't represented with mechanical effects in game and terrain that requires description beyond what's visually represented in engine (especially since I didn't build this myself). I may also move to pauses and emoted actions from time to time if the situation requires.

4) If there isn't a trapmaster PC interested then I will provide an NPC who can perform that function. If the party is on the small side I may also make a comparably powerful NPC available to beef it up. Beyond that, you're on your own. I am not balancing this to the party that turns up. A diverse set of skills and quick thinking are useful, as is having a big stick.

Edit: 5) I don't like how random stat checks are in 3.5 so if there's any cause for them then I'll do d20 + stat SCORE not d20 + stat MOD.

I'd be interested in playing a PC in this. I don't have a PC of high level though. I would be willing to play a support character though, similar to your NPC idea. The first things that popped into my head are a lore focused bard/wizard or a healer of some type.

[edit]
I have a level 4, 5, or 6 dwarf cleric on TSM that I retired last spring when I took up DMing there. I don't recollect our PC unretirement policy, but should could conceivably fit in here.

I gots me a level 7 sneaky type. Not sure she can survive something built for 8-12, but I am interested. I also have Vellya, who is a level 7 tank, but despite her greater HP and AC, may be even less likely to survive since she is a front line fighter not a sneaky back stabber.

Got a 7th level trap/lock specialised dwarf, Boz. He's a solid defense tank as well. Good arcane knowledge and a secondary healer.
He can fill a lot of rolls in a party.

Still have my level 14 weakling that i'm willing to sacrifice on the alter of good times.

I don't think he'll impede balance as he's a multi-class cleric (CL 12) that's not very good at damage or healing.
Can handle tracking and social stuff very well if that would be needed.

If this happens you can have a closer look at him and see if he's reasonable for the game.

It just might be that Horatio is up for this thing, if we can engineer an ic reason.

If it's 8-12 and a lot of folks are around 7, 8, I'm concerned bringing Aglaril into this will skew things to make it more of a headache than might be worth.

Ag's a bit of an odd dude balance/power wise; as of the last couple of levels he's definitely become a powerhouse for ALFA's usual standards, but he also has a couple of really obvious and huge Achilles's heels that if exploited can make him effectively much weaker for his lvl (which might mean things will be fine). I do like to keep a lot of abilities in reserve and not use them until he absolutely has to (which fits him ICly as well as my preferred playstyle for ftr/mages), so for the majority of the session he probably will play like a slippery lvl 10 or so until he has to go nova for a boss..

Unless Xan throws goblins at the crew. Then Aglaril gets beat up like a lvl 4

Keren and Aglaril are both fine, like I said I'm not balancing it to the party and a group of level 7s without any heavy hitters around wouldn't be very effective. A trap expert dwarf and an archer would also be awesome.

As for the others, I guess it really all depends on what other higher levels are available for this? The recruiter can certainly "make do" ICly if other people aren't available.

I would consider dying in this endeavour if that works. Got myself a malnurished level 8 njublette

Ingeborg has arrived from out of the north, with odes and songs in bountiful supply.

btw, this means it will be on MS?

It will be on MS

If there is room for an Argos Klax I would like in on this.

Absolutely.

so far we have:

Keren level 14
Aglaril level 14
Horatio level 11
Argos level 10
Rhaggot level 10 ( or Bamshogbo level 8 )
Jax'eth level 8
Bozwell level 7
Aliyah level 7 ( or Vellya level 7 )
Rhone level 5