#cannith

Merrix d’Cannith: You pass butter.”

Psiforged:

Psiforged:

Psiforged: “Oh my Sovereigns.”

Despite what the people of the Five Nations may believe in the wake of the Last War, combat can be a creative process. War forges nation by creating new technologies and innovations. House Cannith may not have the standing armies of House Deneith, but they have always been at the forefront of Galifer's wars, and it is the Cannith Battlesmith who leads that charge. Battlesmiths lack the arcane talents of wizards, but they make up for it by channelling their dragonmarks into the weapons they create and ensuring the armoury remains in good repair. With the rise of the warforged, they became healers as well, and the sight of a battlesmith training a battalion of the living constructs was all too familiar.

Dragonmarked (Ex): At 1st level, the Cannith battlesmith gains Least Dragonmark (Mark of Making) as a bonus feat. At 6th level, the Cannith battlesmith gains Lesser Dragonmark (Mark of Making) as a bonus feat. At 10th level, the Cannith battlesmith gains Greater Dragonmark (Mark of Making) as a bonus feat. The caster level for the dragonmark's spell-like abilities is equal to the battlesmith's fighter level + her level in the dragonmarked heir prestige class (if any).

This ability replaces the fighter bonus combat feats at 1st, 6th, and 10th level.

Warrior's Craft (Ex): At 2nd level, a Cannith battlesmith gains a +1 bonus on all Craft (Armour), Craft (Traps), and Craft (Weapons) checks. Whenever a Cannith battlesmith repairs an object (including warforged) using one of these skills, she does so in half the normal time. This bonus increases by +1 every four levels beyond 2nd.

This ability replaces bravery.

Forge of the Mark (Su): At 5th level, the Cannith battlesmith gains Craft Magical Arms and Armour as a bonus feat even if she does not meet the prerequisites. The battlesmith uses her fighter level in place of her caster level when using this feat. She may expend uses of her dragonmark spell-like abilities in place of casting spells during the crafting process. The act of creating the magic item triggers the use of the spell-like ability, making it unavailable on each day of the casting process. A least spell-like ability may be expended in place of a 0-2nd level spell, a lesser spell-like ability may be expended in place of a 3rd or 4th level spell, and a greater spell-like ability may be expended in place of a 5th or 6th level spell.

This ability replaces weapon training at 5th level.

Hey, I made something new! I’ve been writing up my reaction to the third episode of Manifest Zone and was thinking that archetypes would be an excellent way to extend the powers of the mark in unique ways, so I wrote one. And since I love fighters, I made it a fighter archetype. 

I think the balance on this archetype should be good, but if you have any thoughts in that department, let me know. Hell, if anyone ever uses it in one of their campaigns, let me know! I’d love to hear the stories! 

The last three sessions have been going well. To introduce a new player and his character, I gave the party a short mission to accompany a merchant captain on a trip to pick up some promised cargo. The whole mission went badly: the folks they talked to on the docks laughed at the captain's name; the first mate made some money from the rest of the small crew because she was the only one who thought the party would show up; the cargo they were supposed to pick up wasn't stashed on the island the captain had been directed to; on a supposedly easy job, there were unexpectedly ogres, Cannith-forged defenses, and a kraken to deal with.

What I hope made it more interesting was that, from the moment the players met the captain hiring them, he was very aware of his shortcomings. In fact, this was his last trip as a merchant, and he was very clear that he wasn't great at being a merchant; he was too honest for his own good, and was hanging up his hat after one too many disappointments. He just wanted to finish this one job, collect what was owed him, and be done with it. Instead, the people he had cut a deal with had shorted him entirely, with the intention of distracting him while they got out of town.

At this point, my game took a turn for the weird. I originally planned for the first encounter on the island to be ogres who had wandered onto it when the island had wandered closer to the shore (and I'll get to that). But around that time, I had run into seapunk, became highly amused by it, and suddenly I wanted to make these three ogre pals seapunk ogres with light green hair, their minis done up with cotton balls dyed with food coloring and stretched out to look like seaweed-esque wigs. I didn't get around to it, but one of the ogres was dubbed Plur.

Then it was discovered that the island was really a giant mecha-crab thing that was an experiment House Cannith was in the process of decommissioning, except the seapunk ogres showed up and ate the few remaining workers they found. Whoops. When the party was able to investigate a cargo hold through a hatchway the ogres couldn't descend, they triggered some defense systems, and the island/mecha-crab went haywire, getting up and walking itself into the ocean, tossing the party back into the ocean in the process.

At that point, the retiring merchant captain had had enough and was already losing his cool. But once they made it back to the ship, a young kraken showed up and attacked, having been attracted to the large motions of the mechanical behemoth falling into the ocean.

Halfway through the kraken fight, I spotted that for some reason, D&D krakens are telepathic, and so our teenaged kraken started spouting off "PAAAAARRRRRRRTYYYYYYYY" to its would-be victims. Apparently, he had been looking forward to partying with the seapunk ogres.

Yeah, I don't know either. The party's monk managed to make a flying leap off of the rowboat, kicked the kraken in the head, knocking it prone, and succeeded in an Athletics roll to run along the side of the kraken as it fell over, so as to not fall into the sea. I figure if they're going to pull that sort of thing, I can have raver sea creatures.