Role play feats question

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Zaknafriend
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Role play feats question

Post by Zaknafriend »

Hello, first post. Sorry if I've missed something, but I believe I read all the board rules and relevant sticky notes.

So, I'm playing a Male 1/2 drow from Dambrath in D&D 3.5. Currently 7th level warblade, 2nd level swordsage. On my way to master of the nine. All of this is from the book of nine swords Tome of battle. I'm looking for feats that help describe a newish follower of the dark dark dancer in a role play format.

The party is built up of me and four other full blood drow who follow eilistraee, and church missions make up a driving element of adventures. I am a combat god, and my build path will deliver all four attack ranks. I feel a little out of step with my group when we aren't smashing the spider queen's minions. During down time or the investigation phase, I'm often not contributing to the game play because everything about the character is focused on smash face elements. My down time is spent either carving toys for children, drinking lethal amounts of alcohol (because Iron heart surge) and plotting against Hillsfar for executing a friend.

I want to open rp paths but not move into the areas that other players have staked out is ideal. Those rp specific feats, or the ones that have no combat uses are fine.

Please and thank you for any advice or suggestions.
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Shir'le E. Illios
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Re: Role play feats question

Post by Shir'le E. Illios »

I think that the first question I would ask there is: what areas have the other players staked out? :)

To me roleplaying is less about specific feats and more about what you do with them (and the opportunities that your DM gives). For example, as a self-described "combat god" I'd imagine that your character has most to say when discussing combat situation, be that specific fighting techniques, battle tactics or wider war strategies. I imagine that your character could have an interest in how his gear is made as well.

Of course it's always good to diversify a little as well and have more than a singular interest. You say that your character carves toys for children so perhaps that's something that you can expand on. Perhaps your character is particularly good at communicating with children?

From an Eilistraeen perspective the most natural way in is to look at which of your character's abilities already fit Eilistraee's dogma and either expand them or grow to encompass more. Perhaps your character might be interested in adopting her style of sword dancing and thus take up dancing and maybe music. Perhaps he has an interest in taking up cooking so as to always have food to give to strangers.

In the end though roleplaying is more about what you make out of what you've got than any feat you possess. That and the opportunities that your DM presents to you. If you feel that you're not contributing much during certain parts of your games, perhaps the best idea is to have a chat to your DM about that and see whether together you can find an area for your character to fill in the future.

And apologies for not giving any specific feat suggestions. It's been years since I've looked at 3.5 so don't recall any feats off-hand to suggest.

Hope that this was at least a little useful regardless. :)


Love -x-x-x-

Shir'le
F'sarn natha tithaur wun l'su'aco.

-= Shir'le E. Illios =-
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Bhaern Quel
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Re: Role play feats question

Post by Bhaern Quel »

Feats to more follow Eilistraee when not smashing evil.

Clearly one idea would be taking feats that could aid in hunting, making musical instruments or otherwise try to aid the party to be accepted as good.

Looking at list on the SRD there are not many that appear to be useful, skills provide more possibilities.

However feats like
Track to aid in hunting food, also of course rescue lost children or chase after foes.

Animal Affinity might be useful in gathering and using surface animals, calm a barking dog, tame a horse enough to ride.

Negotiator might be useful when meeting strangers to spread the message of peace.

It is also hard to know what roles the other parties are that you are concerned about. Clearly the role of protector appears one is easy for you, for you it appears to be down time when not fighting. Being a hunter for food and giving it to Surface elves humans as a token of peace clearly a role any follower can follow, however others might already be doing this.
Zaknafriend
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Re: Role play feats question

Post by Zaknafriend »

Fair point. And thank you.

So, except myself everyone else has at least 2 fighter levels, with a substitution level of dark song fighter at second level. That's from the champions of valor book (I think) and they all have a daylight tolerance feat as well. They all have to be around level 8 or so. I usually level up a session or so before they do because of the ECL. We're based in a small drow community near or under a town called Elven tree on the south shore of the moonsea. The humans in the area are terrified of us and the near by surface elves have just recently stopped communicating with us by way of arrow expression.

We have a cleric to the lady, and she has the initiate of Eilistraee feat, and a focus of skills and feats based around helping those who can't help themselves. She's often using healing spells on villagers who were throwing rocks and wet garbage at her an hour ago. Her feats are built to enable that style of play and she has a vast reservoir of healing magic. We have a fighter mage. He uses his magic for all kinds little help events. Prestidigitation for everyone in the area. He's a hell of a dancer. We have a ranger who provides animal husbandry and hunting to the town when food is low. She's the only one the surface elves tolerate. And we have a bard/rogue/fighter. He's the face of the party, and skilled social stealth.

As far as the lady's dogma and I go, I'm all about venerating her warrior/sword maiden side. And I'm great at it. Find demon, send it back to the Abyss with a horror story to share with the other demons. Repeat. But we seem to have 1 Rp intense session to every 3 regular combat sessions. I want to contribute a bit more when we aren't face smashing. Trouble is, master of the nine requires 40 skill ranks and at least 5 feats. So I've had few resources to spend on not combat focus. But that changes soon. Since I rarely play characters who follow gods beyond lip service for resurrection purposes, I'm looking for tips. And this board seems like it's comprised of experts on the very topic I'm looking at.

I'm good at concentration, sense motive, jump, intimidate and balance. I also have a single skill rank in craft/carving which I use to make small wood toys for children. However more often than not they are thrown away by concerned parents.
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Re: Role play feats question

Post by Bhaern Quel »

Not sure if I can add any ideas.

Craving weapons does not strike me as permitted. Though it does not seem right that the toys are thrown away. Out of mistrust. Your Bard or Priestess should be able to present them in ways that they should be trusted. I think the DM is being unfair to have them trashed.

Consider this part of the faith "Learn how to play, make, and repair musical instruments."

With craving skill, your character can make wood pipes,
making parts of if not all of horn, flute, or harp would be useful. Some parts clearly need to be metal . One skill rank can be enough however take more time for more difficult types of things.

You also might speak with the other players to see what ideas they have. They might want backup for one or more of their roles.
Of course discussion with DM might be useful as well, if only to find out why toys get thrown away by parents that have been befriended by the party.
Zaknafriend
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Re: Role play feats question

Post by Zaknafriend »

Considering how bad the drow have behaved in the Dalelands/cormanthor area, I get why people behave like that. Plus it makes for good roleplay. But thanks for your ideas in the two posts. :)
Zaknafriend
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Re: Role play feats question

Post by Zaknafriend »

So, beat a Yochlol with my bare hands last night while I was working at a Lathandern soup kitchen. Hell of a fight. Caught me without my combat gear. Turned into a fight scene from Mr. Nice guy (the Jackie Chan one). I might have gotten the attention of a handmaiden of the spider queen (I mean one who has monster stats +class levels). So I think I might continue to focus feats on making stuff hurt and die.

Still, I leveled up and tripled my ranks in craft/woodworking (I now have 3). And the Dawn speaker said he would be happy to distribute the toys I make with no one the wiser. Many, many Christmas half-off jokes ensued last night. Thanks for the suggestions all around.
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