Ephemeral Skies (3.5; Recruiting)

[Disciple of Sakura]

Islands of land floating amidst the clouds. A thick layer of fog and storms covering the surface of the world. It's only natural that the inhabitants would live in the skies, traveling throughout the world via airships and flying beasts. Amidst the swirling clouds and islands, a power has formed - the Valdimar Consortium. A group of merchants, nominal rulers, and would-be tyrants, the Consortium controls the single most massive and powerful airship fleet in the world, amassing more wealth and influence every day. Already, they have brought several nations under their yoke, with the entire world in their sights.

Yet, there are those who would stand against them. Those who would seek to overthrow the reign of the Consortium and win back the freedom of the skies. Branded "pirates" by those in power, they are warriors of freedom, whether out of altruistic desires or simply a preference for chaos and their own slice of the skies.

This is the story of one such crew...  

[Disciple of Sakura]

So, I've decided to actually run a campaign in this here forum, in the hopes that maybe it'll last longer than most of the ones I've been playing in.

The World
Anyone who's played Skies of Arcadia will have a general idea of what the world is like. The airships and flying beasts are pretty much the only ways to travel throughout the world of Thahn. Islands float in the skies, and the earth and seas on the surface are deadly and perilous to the extreme. The citizens of the world live on the floating islands and continents, building nations and cities, living their lives, and dealing with the iron fist of the Consortium. Not an empire, the Consortium is an alliance of rulers, trade guilds, and less reputable individuals who have already turned several countries into their pawns or proxy states. They rule the skies of their territories with powerful airships and winged beasts, including enslaved dragons. There are small bands of opposition, but few armies have stood against the Consortium and prevailed, much less a rag-tag group of iconoclasts on a single, broken down airship. But there's always a first time.

Theme
Ephemeral Skies is a game of high adventure and swashbucklery action, with a focus on narrative as well as the occasional, hopefully awesome combat. Dedicated players are a must.

Players
I'm looking for about 6 players. This is not first-come-first-served. I will be reviewing submitted characters, looking for accuracy in mechanical build as well as personality and suitability. If your character is not built correctly, it may very well impact your chances of participating. This is for people who know the rules, not those who sort of fudge them along.

Characters
Here's the stuff you'll want to know about when building your character.
1 ) System: This is a D&D 3.5 game with a few minor rules variations.
2 ) House Rule #1: This is a Gestalt game. You are required to have one half of your gestalt character be exclusively taken from the following classes: the Monk or any Initiator class taken from Tome of Battle: Book of 9 Swords. You may take prestige classes in this half of the Gestalt, but the class must advance Monk abilities or come from Tome of Battle.
3 ) House Rule #2: The game will be using Action Points. You may expend an Action point to heal 1d6 HP + your Con bonus as an Immediate Action.
4 ) House Rule #3: Rather than the standard feat at first level and again every third level, all characters get a feat for every level or hit die they have (so, 6 plus any bonus feats from class or race, in this case).
5 ) Source Books Allowed: You may use the Player's Handbook, Player's Handbook 2, Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual, any of the Complete books, Expanded Psionics Handbook, Spell Compendium, Magic Item Compendium, or the Eberron Campaign Setting to build your character. Beyond those books, you must ask before using any mechanics. Pay attention to the following restrictions.
6 ) Races: You may play any core race from the PHB or XPH, as well as the races from the Eberron CS. Beyond those restrictions, anything with no more than a +1 Level Adjustment from the other sources are allowed. Your level adjustment will be applied against your non-initiator/monk half of the Gestalt (for example, an aasimar would be a 6th level warblade/5th level sorcerer).
7 ) Level: You are building 6th level characters. This grants you 13,000 gp to purchase your equipment with. No more than 30% of that gold, or 3900 gp, may be spent on any one item.
8 ) Stats: You get 32 point stat buy. No stat rolling. You also get max HP at first level, and may take the low-average (for example, 5 on a d10) if you roll less than that for any other hit dice.
9 ) Oddball Requirement: Character illustrations are required. Most character sheets have a location for an illustration to be entered. If you need a picture cropped/edited to fit, or you need hosting from Photobucket, I can probably do that for you. But I want you to know what your character really looks like, and I'm a visual person. It doesn't have to be something you drew, and it doesn't have to be stupendous. It just has to be there and not be a stick figure (though an Order of the Stick figure would be fine...).
10) Suggestion #1: It is highly recommended that you take ranks in Profession: Sailor. Even if it's just one.
11) Suggestion #2: Background is important. It doesn't have to be an essay, but some sort of character personality and background information will help you really generate a character. Try to be concise, but informative.
12) Deadline: Character submissions will be going on until Friday, September 24th. I'll decide who's in by then.  

[jennibert]

Ooh! I have a half-built character laying around who would be perfect for this sort of thing. I'll have to get her re-statted and posted....  

[Raganui Minamoto]

Interesting idea... hmm... not sure what I'd do though.  

[joe-dude667]

I'd be interested in this. Been a while since I've played a 3.5 game (that's actually taken off...), though don't worry I'm not a newb.

With the character portraits, would tektek suffice? Such as my characters Tae, The ArchFey or Dencal Denve? Because I tend to do that for my characters anyways. And I always put in a pretty detailed background. =)  

[Disciple of Sakura]

Tektek avatar builds are fine. I don't see one in either of those sheets, but there's a spot for a portrait.  

[joe-dude667]

Really? It's showing up for me. confused

How about these:
Tae
Dencal  

[Disciple of Sakura]

Yeah, they show up there.  

[jennibert]

Rolling hit dice for 5 levels of warblade beyond first.

eek

Wow, that's a lot of hit points...especially since the 4 becomes a 6....  

[Disciple of Sakura]

Just edited the character creation section - realized I'd forgotten one of my favorite house rules - a feat for every level, because you can never have enough feats.  

[jennibert]

All right! Kristenna is ready for DM approval!  

[Slave Xaccheus]

Not trying to nitpick, but... Why are we required to go Monk/Martial Artist of some type? I'm fine with whatever, but I've had this crazy-awesome Druid/Ranger in the works for days, and I was really wanting to take her for a test drive, you know? It's your call as DM, but... Please?  

[Raganui Minamoto]

Too bad Favored Soul requires you have Wis and Cha for spells, or I'd know what I'd do.  

[Disciple of Sakura]

Eternality_Cannon

Not trying to nitpick, but... Why are we required to go Monk/Martial Artist of some type? I'm fine with whatever, but I've had this crazy-awesome Druid/Ranger in the works for days, and I was really wanting to take her for a test drive, you know? It's your call as DM, but... Please?

Mostly, I want the game to be one of high adventure and swashbucklery action, and Tome of Battle is perfect for that. The reason I threw Monk into the mix is for those who don't have Book of 9 Swords.

What kind of high flying swashbucklery action does your ranger/druid actually have? If you can sell me on it, I might allow it.  

[Raganui Minamoto]

Hmm... what's the general thoughts on Swashbuckler//Swordsage? He'd be dodgy.