Recettear LETS GO

So apparently my saves weren't updated to Steam Cloud and of course I want to get Arma someday maybe. So this run will be the same as last run but better logged. So my goals are:

1: never live in a cardboard box

2: get Tielle's true card

3: avoid dungeon fatigue (no 30+ floor runs)

4: beat obsidian tower (unless it ends up conflicting with the other goals, it shouldn't)

D1

• tutorial stuff, boring.
• holy shit the story is a parody of DQ3 I forgot
• either way i shop for gear for Louie for tutorial dungeon rather than getting stock
• just pinned the walnut bread sale /gg
• ended 162 pix, ML1

D2

• adventure time
• i bought a longsword and wooden armband ahead of time, unsure if it's ideal buy
• it's not, armband takes his shield slot, screw that, either way longsword is nice
• longsword buy is definitely ideal, he has good enough defense and enemy HP is too high
• let's just say Louie paid for the longsword. a lot of "free" loot for D2.
• I screwed up and wasted P3 being dumb
• sold P4 holy crap I made money
• ended 2354 pix, ML2.

D3

• I want to go to Jade Way, but I should wait for ML increases to get new stock upgrades. Also honestly I have a lot of inventory to flip. Some of it is T3 and thus probably unsellable until the NPCs increase their wallet sizes
• sold p1-2, sold enough that I decided to try Jade Way 1-10
• don't have a longsword (or any gear for Louie at all) so this is probably a mistake
• boss slime hit pretty hard and I got hit way too many times because I'm bad
• 6f got a silk clothes, huge def increase, let's go - oh btw I have 8hp and I'm too cheap to use my healing items
• whew leveled on 6f, full HP/SP after going to 7HP
• HOLY CRAP A KNIGHT'S BLADE LETS FUCKIN GO
• Mouse boss time. Quite easy due to a simple gimmick. Took almost no damage.
• Due to my currently incredible drops, I'm continuing on; I have plenty of heal items and decent gear.
• Got a shell chestpiece on 13f. Most of my items are better than the best buyable gear at this point. Definitely worth staying, though my items might be hard to sell since most customers won't be able to buy them (I have multiple items over 5k)
• More money and stuff, level 17 right before 15F
• Louie vs Charme - ROUND 1: Charme is pretty dangerous and aggressive. Louie's sword is longer than her knife, though, and if your timing is good you can just swat her away as she approaches. Once she gets damaged a bit she goes for Flame Charge but it is unsafe and Louie can easily hit her back. I took some damage and used one egg toast to heal, but nothing serious. I needed an item slot for the Very Large Vase anyway. Jade Way clear!
• Ended 5785 pix, ML3. Louie is level 17.

D4

• Got so much stuff I need to sell really bad. Also my ML needs increasing, big time.
• Unfortunately Guild Master wanted "armor" and my shell chestpiece was too expensive even at a discount (2400 pix). It's gonna be a while before I can sell all this high quality loot.
• Louie comes in asking for a weapon. I know he's poor, but I've got this Knight Blade... ended up selling it to him for 1800 pix (less than 25%). It's an investment right? RIGHT?
• Sold a lot.
• Ended 23k pix, ML6 (well past first shop item breakpoint)

D5

• Still selling. Tons of inventory.
• Ended 26.9k pix, ML8.

D6

• I head out to the market in the morning, do some events and grab some reserve stock to hit orders that people placed on D5 plus some other stuff to fill out the store inventory. Fused a survival knife from the Fin Fan I got in Jade Way too, which will be nice for later.
• Sold sold sold.
• Got Charme's adventurer card. We don't have armor for her (it sold) but we do have the survival knife. We'll pick up some armor on D7 but we won't adventure until at least D8.
• Ended 33.9k pix, ML9.

D7

• Checking our pending orders first, we have orders for 2 hats and 2 bracelets. The 2 hats order is an Old Man order and he has a wallet of at least 6k/item, so we'll go shop in the morning to pick up some more spare inventory and make as much bank as we can off that order.
• Also we see an event in town square for the next dungeon.
• Cailou also comes asking about his order, but he can go fuck himself
• We sell a bunch. I can't fill the hat or bracelet orders with high value stuff (the Guild is sold out) so we have to settle for lower quality items.
• Amber Garden gets unlocked.
• Ended 21.3k pix, ML12 (!)

D8

• It's rent day but store expansion AND new items are available thanks to my rapid increase in ML. We'll have to wait until D9 to adventure with Charme I think.
• We go shopping to pick up some new stock and the store expansion.
• In the end we just pick up some new gear for Charme and the expansion. I'm really poor so I have to make almost 9k in sales today or I die.
• Also wow, Old Venders are available in the market. I didn't realize vending machines were available this early?
• Selling. Charme asked for a weapon! I sell her the survival knife but even at 60% (3k) it's too expensive for her. Sad. I should have just bit the bullet and sold for 2k.
• On the other hand, the little girl got a wallet upgrade and now has over 6k in spending money. She bought a parade armor right off the shelf. Wow.
• Ended 21.9k pix after rent, ML13.

D9

• Alouette event. This game sure loves lolis.
• Jade Way with Charme. I have a steel breastplate and the survival knife (and a hat) so it should be pretty smooth sailing.
• I start on 6F because fuck Cailou, I'll get his stuff later
• Charme is fast, but her attack is short. Flame Charge makes her pretty solid; before she gets it she's pretty much inferior to Louie. Flame Charge makes Louie's spin slash look tame and she gets more uses of it than he does. She also has her illusion, which is really good for some fights.
• Reginald Drisby was easy as usual. Charme's illusions do tons of damage. He also dropped a charred lizard, which is either worth money or can be given to Cailou, whichever.
• Met Nagi on 12F. Kind of lucky honestly; she's very random and her true card is hard to get.
• Charme doesn't have to fight herself (you actually don't have to fight her at all after you beat her once) so we don't have a boss on 15F.
• I basically lost money on this run, but not a whole lot; I have a lot of inventory so I only lost 1 selling period and possibly some interesting stuff at market, but not super likely. 
• Will have to restock stuff tomorrow though, running out of expensive goods after selling.
• Ended 63.7k, ML14. Charme is level 16.

D10

• News tutorial. We now can have price up/down events and booms. This is where the game becomes a bit random, but if you have 63.7k liquid on day 10 (and some inventory, just not really well-priced, high-selling stuff) it really doesn't matter that much how and when you get events.
• I spent practically all of my money. Probably a mistake if a customer wants to sell something.
• Charme bought a tough clothes. There's a silk clothes on display so she's definitely poor as fuck.
• We hit ML15 so we get the vender tutorial. I need a Supervend. NEED. (not really but it'd be nice)
• I fused an Azure Necklace and Charme bought it... after being too poor to buy the survival knife. She can't use the necklace, but it did bank me like 9k in profit (plus the cost of the charred lizard).
• Ended 51.3k pix, ML 15.

D11

• Precious metals boom. We can bank a lot of sales here so I'm headed to shop for stuff. As it happens I have a lot of thankful statues, but why not turn our cash into more cash?
• As it turns out, not enough items exist in the Guild for me to take advantage of the boom. I'll need to ramp my ML a bit today. Hopefully the boom lasts to tomorrow.
• Price up on longswords. I don't have many and none are good. Oh well.
• Triggered precious metal boom on P4. Sold out of precious metal items and had 3 customers leave empty-handed.
• Ended 73.4k pix, ML16.

D12

• Heavy armor price up. Ouch.
• Today might be Amber Garden day. I have an easy fill order and a lot of stock, and prices are high. I'm gonna try doing 1-15F in the evening; ML17 is more carrying capacity so I want to hit that first.
• Charme bought a cloth cape, which fills her empty item slot. Nice-ish.
• Amber Garden, have a Pure Edge, Steel Breastplate, Strongarm Band and the Cloth Cape that Charme bought (plus her default sandals).
• 1F, found Nagi again. Hmm.
• Pure Edge is really strong here. It does a ton of damage and makes the early floors pretty easy.
• Eyebat King's laser does like 18 damage and is really painful. Flame Charge's invulnerability really helps. He doesn't last long but I still used a walnut bread to keep myself from dying because I started the fight with low HP. I end up pretty low (and no SP) going into 6F.
• We meet Alouette a bit later (after we avert the almost dying issue). She gets 4 adventurers but we only get one! That's kind of lame. It'd be nice if we could bring a party (though it'd be a quite different game). 
• Insect King battle! Charme absolutely destroys this battle with her kage bunshins and a quality dagger.
• Either way, I get tired (irl) so we only get to 10F. We banked two charred lizards (that's two azure necklaces) and some moderate other loot, but nothing great. We definitely lost some money here but at least we're getting progress in Amber Garden.
• Ended 90.8k pix, ML17. Charme is level 20.

D13

• Metal items price drop. This sucks since I got a bunch of swords I was hoping to sell on price hike. Longswords and heavy armor are still up. Precious metal boom ended.
• Bought a bunch of blue price metal items.
• Sold a lot, news changed, summary on next day.
• Ended 67.3k pix. ML18.

D14

• Sweets dropped mid-day 13 (which sucked), food dropped (sweets are crashed), WEAPONS UP LET'S GO
• A lot of my blue price purchases were armors but I did get some super discount weapons.
• Louie bought a Knight Shield upgrade (at normal price too!) but sadly I'm gonna be using Charme for Amber Garden. Speaking of which, I need to keep trucking at it. Unfortunately I am not gaining money as fast as I'd like (I should probably have about 150-200k by now).
• Going to do 11-20, unless I have really bad loot at 20 (I shouldn't). Same gear as last time (my ML is high enough to buy better though).
• I keep getting things that increase enemy damage, which sucks. I also play Charme very recklessly compared to other adventurers so I end up taking a lot of damage.
• 15F Gauntlet is easy with Flame Charge.
• Loot finally starts dropping after 15F; 16F has some good items.
• That said, I don't get any gear upgrades.
• Volcanicrab battle! Like Insect King this battle is much harder in Chantelise. A lot harder! He's still dangerous in Recettear though and he backs me into a corner and forces me to heal. Charme destroys him though with kage bunshins. She's really not fair against him.
• Ended 97.3k pix, ML19. Charme is level 27.

D15

• I need to shop to fill an order (I'm out of hats) but I blow it here because SUPERVENDS ARE ON SALE. Armor is up and I have stock so we should be good. Sweets are normal which means they're still down (food is still down) so I also stock up on low price food. I'll get a Supervend tomorrow.
• Louie upgraded his helmet. I sold a ton of price up stuff. Remember how yesterday I said I should be at 150-200k? Well I guess I'm a day behind.
• Metal items go up, screwing me out of supervends tomorrow (weapons normal but most are metal). Walnut bread also price crashes, but that doesn't affect me at all.
• Ended 177k after rent, ML19.

D16

• Week 3 starts and I should have enough money by the end of W3 to pay off the remaining debt. Metal items are up so I will have to take a huge cash hit to buy a Supervend. I'll sell twice and go to dungeon today.
• I made a mistake; I have no gear for Charme so I'll buy in P4. It will be price hiked probably, and therefore expensive. I also hit ML20 so I may want to expand.
• Food returns to normal and there is a warm item boom. Food returning is a big relief as it's about half my current stock of items.
• Armor hits neutral at P4 so I really need to pick up some gear for Charme.
• I grab some stock and some armor for Charme (and a new weapon too). This is almost certainly coming at a loss (all her gear is metal) but honestly. I'm pretty rich and can afford to have luxuries. Also got the store expansion.
• Ended 22k pix, ML20.

D17

• Heavy armor drops and metal becomes normal. Frustrating. Sticking with my 2-sell finish Amber Garden plan. Supervend tomorrow or die trying.
• Louie bought a Crystal Sword, giving him the 2nd best buyable weapon. I really wish I'd stuck with him instead of using Charme, but he's a bit underleveled now (and I don't have a chobham armor to give him).
• Charme buys Pure Edge but I have a Fullblade now. Sigh.
• Amber Garden run to the end. I decide to stick with Pure Edge and run three defensive items (Sandwich Plate, Fairy Bracelet, and Shell Charm).
• Charme is really tanky now. 1 damage from almost everything. Sadly Louie has nearly her DEF (not MDEF) with the gear he owns himself.
• Met Nagi again on 24F.
• Two Crowned Slimes this time! This is an easy battle to get careless on; just focus the small slimes and chip away at the big ones safely. They dropped a slime liver, so I guess I need to pick up a charred lizard for Cailou or something I GUESS.
• Adventurer's Cape dropped on 26F. Not normally a big deal but it's a gear upgrade.
• Tielle did very little damage. I took none until phase 3, then goofed around in phase 4. I did use an orange because one dropped during phase 3. Amber Garden clear!
• Ended 82k pix, ML20. Charme is level 34.

D18

• I don't have enough money for a Supervend I think. I'm gonna have to liquidate some stuff. Also Tielle cutscenes. They're cute or whatever.
• I sold a Very Odd Vase to pay for my Supervend. I have a bit left over. I also got the Elan events while shopping, unlocking him as a customer.
• Food is up and we can't adventure (it's Sunday) so we sell after getting our Supervend. It works really nicely.
• I might need a second Supervend to ensure everyone who comes in buys two things. I'm unsure on whether having 4 tables + 2 vendors or 5 tables + 1 vendor is ideal.
• Ended 173k pix, ML21.

D19

• Euria event in square. I avoid it. There are no more Supervends for sale.
• Selling. Tielle gave me her adventurer card. It's game time bby.
• Ended 259k pix, ML22.

D20

• Tielle is already level 20, so we might be able to get away with running Amber Garden right away. Unfortunately we have no gear so we'd have to run lower floors (bad loot). I'll just shop/sell, and try to get her some gear soon.
• Ended 231k pix, ML23.

D21

• Weapons are normal so I need to get a bow. Adventure tomorrow?
• I got my second Supervend too.
• More selling. Charme upgraded to a battle sweater (I sold my better stuff sadly).
• Ended 274k pix, ML24.

D22

• I want to adventure today but I'm a bit low on stock. I have gear for Tielle (Harp Bow, Sandwich Plate, and Shell Charm) so I'll have to make do somehow selling for 2 periods. I could also adventure first and sell in the evening?
• Made do. Tielle is godly (doing Amber 16-30).
• Volcanicrab takes longer with Tielle, but is much easier.
• Met Nagi for the last time on 21F. I might get her True Card instead of Tielle, as it is harder to get her to join than Tielle.
• Also the dungeon was easy. Not much else to say.
• Ended 256k pix after rent. ML24. Tielle is level 32.

D23

• Going to sell three periods then buy at night to try to unlock Obsidian Tower.
• Louie bought Battle Boots. His gear is pretty damn good now.
• Sold Nagi a +3 Grapes. Not a big deal except that +bonus items give their bonus towards wallet expansions, which also unlocks adventurer cards faster. I also nearpinned so she should give me her card tomorrow.
• First Griff cutscene. This game is so cute.
• Bought a huge amount of stock. This is basically the last time I'll be required to buy inventory, though I can always use more pix, right?
• Ended 40k pix, ML25.

D24

• Same strategy as yesterday; sell during the day, shop at night for the second Griff event.
• Weapons up. Also I bought a bunch of armor on price down and it's now neutral. Game's basically over.
• Sold a Whalekiller and a Tuna Shanker for over 200k pix. Also just pinned it, to rub it in.
• Nagi gave me her guild card. Nice. Immediately sold her a bracelet upgrade (at a loss), although she can use shields so she won't be using it for too long.
• Hit ML26 too, so I can buy the final store expansion.
• Second Griff event. Still super cute.
• I bought stuff and got my store expansion. Honestly I don't even need to buy anymore so I just filled out some random stuff. I had well over 600k before buying and plenty of inventory.
• Ended 406k pix, ML26. 

D25

• This is probably a sell all four periods day. Might adventure tomorrow with Nagi but I want to get Obsidian Tower unlocked.
• Elan gave me his card. Like I care.
• Once again Louie upgrades, this time his shield.
• Nagi asks for a weapon and I have a Grand Naginata in stock. I basically give it to her.
• I can't actually make my shop Dark enough, lol. If Griff doesn't show up I'll have to shop for deco in the morning.
• Also I have so much space and I'm running out of junk items to just throw out. I should have bought more cheap stock just to fill requests.
• Ended 748k pix, ML27. That's enough to beat the game.

D26

• Bought deco. Went crazy and bought a bunch of stock I don't need.
• Charme asked for a weapon. I sold her a Tuna Shanker, though I had to sell low because it's downpriced.
• Went for slightly Dark-themed store and Griff showed up.
• Tielle asked for a weapon. I have a Harp Bow. I tried to sell it to her at 15% but she doesn't have enough money T.T
• Charme asked for an accessory and I sold her a Wing Charm. Her gear is now pretty good too.
• Obsidian Tower opened on P4.
• Ended 353k pix, ML27. I'm kicking myself over that harp bow sale.

D27

• We're doing OT today, probably with Tielle. I don't really have enough time left to do 4 adventures with Nagi and feel good about profits.
• Armor is up and metal items are normal so I can bank some on the low-priced stock I picked up earlier.
• Tielle actually has an order for 2 weapons today. WE WILL SELL THAT HARP BOW.
• WE SOLD THE HARP BOW GUYS.
• Nagi replaced her fairy bracelet with a strongarm band. I could have just overcharged it but whatever, she uses shields.
• Obsidian Tower time. Tielle is going in with a rainbow bp and a shell charm. For once I don't need to bring a weapon!
• Tielle's gear is amazing. Best weapon (aside from grinding random chest drops from this dungeon + fusion to make a better bow) and best armor makes this pretty cake. The charm isn't the best but it's still good enough to make most magic attacks do 1 damage.
• Samhain would be a hard fight without Tielle. Most characters would have a rough time dealing with all the stuff on the screen and hitting the boss, but Tielle can attack from long range and her stray arrows often hit annoying enemies. Obviously, Cailou would also make him quite easy.
• Electrojelly wasn't even a fight.
• I died to dual Eyebat King boss fight and had to restart the dungeon (always save beforehand). It's not hard but I got complacent. Watch for the lasers and use Cuterage! to dodge them if they're going to hit.
• Either way, I eventually win. My first run had really good loot (including a Spirit-Beast Robe and a Breaker Sword) but that's what I get for dying, I guess.
• Ended 662k pix, ML28.

D28

• I don't really need to buy, I have a lot of inventory. Probably should sell 2 and go back to dungeon.
• Tielle bought a Shell Necklace. This is actually a downgrade since it fills her empty slot, which takes away an item slot that I was filling with a stronger item (shell charm).
• More dungeon, this time 16-30 hopefully. Because Tielle has a semi-decentish accessory I switch to replacing her armband (with a Fairy Bracelet).
• I found a Sand Charm somewhere along the way to replace her Shell Necklace.
• Terran Golem fight! This fight really should be just Cuterage! to kill but it took a bit for me to figure out that it didn't have any weak spot. This fight was rough in Chantelise but it's the first boss iirc and it's not that bad.
• Gauntlet is again pretty easy. We have both Starshot and Cuterage! so they can't really gang up on us.
• 29F, a Cupid Bow dropped in a chest. This is needed to make Tellbow (Tielle's best bow before the postgame) which is pretty damn exciting. Hopefully I don't die.
• Tielle vs Griff, ROUND 1. Running away and chipping away at his HP is the best strategy. Cuterage! gives invul to dodge his explosions, but I still took some damage. Nothing that needed healing though. He has a lot of HP though and Tielle's arrows can only hit him twice per shot, unlike most bosses.
• Ended 769k pix, ML28. Oh yeah, Tielle is level 48.

D29

• It's rent day but we're still hitting OT. We have two runs left if we do 10 floors at a time, or we could do 20 in one shot. I really don't feel like doing that. As usual we're going to sell twice and then run OT again. We have the Cupid Bow which is awesome, but it'll be a while before we can make it into a Tellbow.
• 35F has another gauntlet. Meh. It's all slimes and very easy.
• 40F on the other hand is a double Insect King fight. Should be easier than a double Eyebat King fight? It definitely would not be for characters not named Tielle. They basically force damage (you can't get far enough away to avoid getting hit by both of them) but Tielle's Cuterage! arrows do so much damage that the battle is over quickly. For other characters you basically need to abuse Flame Charge to dash through the bosses as they attack.
• Ended 820k pix after rent, ML28. Tielle is level 53.

D30

• I'm a broken record here. Sell two and then 10 floors of Obsidian Tower. Fortunately they are the last ten floors before we're done. There's no pressure to make money; as I said before, I had the money to beat the game on D25 and I have even more now. This kind of makes pix valueless except for buying deco. As it is I don't have quite enough to go crazy on buying deco (we'll work on it after finishing OT).
• Same items. Fairy Bracelet. Rainbow Mail. Obsidian Tower. Tielle. Let's go!
• The real Gauntlet "boss" is quite difficult. Tielle has an easier time of it due to the lengthy invulnerability on Cuterage! but he hits very hard. A missed Cuterage! hits for 20% of my HP.
• I ended up skipping most of 49F. I am honestly getting kind of sick of dungeoning, it was an enemy defense up floor and I was really far away from a level.
• Tielle vs Griff, ROUND 2! I died (the arm chained me into a corner). I won't be making that mistake again, I suppose. I actually tried to use an item before I died, but I was slow in realizing the beam was going to kill me.
• Return to the tower and I rush through the floors. I still find a Salamander Shield (rare, nice?) while speeding through.
• Tielle vs Griff, ROUND 3! I played much safer this time, and used healing items liberally anytime I was hit. I needed at least one (those lasers do close to 1/3 of my HP) but it was still pretty easy. Either way, that's the end of Obsidian Tower!
• Ended 950k pix, ML29. Tielle is level 55.

D31

• Just boring old buying and selling now.
• Fused the Salamander Shield into a Runic Defender (best non-postgame shield).
• Ended 494k pix, ML29.

D32

• I should probably not buy so much stuff. 
• I sold stuff.
• Ended 691k pix, ML30.

D33

• GAME'S OVER GUYS. NOTHING TO SEE HERE.
• I sold stuff.
• Ended 1m pix, ML31.

D34

• Buying stuff, then selling stuff. I want to buy some expensive deco today but otherwise it's the same as every day.
• Deco is really expensive, I spent more than I should have.
• Elan asked for armor and got a Spirit-beast robe. As expected he paid about 25% of base price. How is Recettear going to make any money if I keep giving items away to adventurers?
• Nagi comes in and buys a Hood's Outfit when a Sailor Suit (and a rainbow bp) are on display?!??!?! Maybe it's for a guy she likes ARGHHHHH
• Griff gave me his adventurer card.
• Ended 647k pix, ML32.

D35

• Just sold all day.
• Tielle bought armor. She now has her rainbow bp (at just pin price).
• Louie bought a jade shield (at price up!) I guess he paid for Elan's robe.
• Ended 1.2m pix, ML33.

D36

• This is the final day of the main game, with the most expensive rent payment... so we should go SPEND A BUNCH OF MONEY (seriously I have no stock)
• Tielle attempted to replace her rainbow bp with a sailor suit. NO. NO SALE.
• And then Guild Master comes in and buys it for 105%.
• Woman comes in with a Thankful Statue, and complains that she bought it, but no one ever uses it. WELL THAT IS MY LIFE I HAVE LIKE 10 OF THEM
• Nagi asked for a Battle Sweater. Not the best item but a straight upgrade for her.
• Ended 153k pix after rent, ML33.

Ending thoughts:

• A lot of this is repeated from my last thread on the subject. First, you should buy a longsword on day 1 and run the tutorial dungeon ASAP on day 2. Even if you only had an inventory full of walnut bread at the end, you'd be multiplying your net worth by 2.5. In most cases you'll multiply your net worth by 4 or 5 times at least.
• A day 3 Jade Way run is pretty reckless. It's probably better to sell from P3 on day 2 to P3 on day 3, buy better gear for Louie in P4 and dungeon run on day 4. If you're confident in your dungeoning skills though you can do Jade Way with just a longsword. I got lucky in my run.
• Aside from the item drop luck on day 3 my luck was extremely bad this run. Day 18 had the only real spike from selling up-price items and the rest was mostly just normal sales. Even my adventure loot was mostly bad minus the Cupid Bow and Salamander Shield.
• Because my luck was so bad, it's pretty safe to say that this method (early first two dungeons) is pretty fool-proof. I probably spent 800k on deco, so it's safe to say that I could have ended over 1m after rent if I hadn't wasted so much money giving items to adventurers and buying deco.
• The later dungeons are still pretty profitable. You have to grind through the first 15 floors of Amber Garden or the first 40 floors of Obsidian Tower before you get to the floors with really sick loot, and I took too long doing it on OT so the payoff wasn't worth it. Obsidian Tower is basically a postgame dungeon that you can attempt during the main game if you're already ahead of the curve. I wouldn't recommend doing OT at all if you're going for a max profit game unless you are doing NG+ or Survival where your adventurers are already leveled/geared. It's easier to go in with healing items and do it 5 floors at a time, completely ignoring profits.
• One of the ways I "balanced" my dungeon runs is by doing them when I already had a fair bit of stock to sell without buying in the morning (or at night on the previous day). Technically I could have done a little better by doing the dungeon in the morning and then selling in the evening periods. It's also pretty important to have gear ahead of time. I saved a lot of grief (despite my two deaths) by having good gear ready when I wanted to adventure and/or holding the aforementioned good gear to sell to my adventurer during requests.
• Some items just don't sell. Shelf space isn't really a premium; you can probably run 3 vending machines rather than 2 in the full size store without really sacrificing "useful" shelf space. Trying to get expensive accessories to sell is kind of like pulling teeth. It's generally better to sell expensive armor. Even then, people tend to gravitate towards the mid-priced items and only buy big ticket 20k pix items via requests and orders. You should still fill your store with expensive shit later on so you can force people to buy pricey goods. Either that or you can sell higher volume stuff worth 10k-ish. As long as you eventually offload those Sailor Suits and Chobham Armors you'll make rent.
• For everyone except Prime, sell at 105% for best nearpin range. Prime will sometimes reject offers at 105% so you have to sell to her at 103%. I advise buying lowish, around 60%, but the nearpin range is around 70%. Euria's nearpin purchase range is around 205%. Ew.
• For price up, sell to everyone except Prime at 236%. Prime's price up range is 207%. If you have to buy, it's a painful 157% for everyone.
• For price down, buy at 35% and sell at (ugh) 52%. Prime's price down range is 46% for sales. Try to avoid selling price down goods obviously.
• In general, early bumps in net worth are the highest value. If you get those day 2-4 dungeons down, you are pretty much set to just buy-sell your way to the endgame.

NEXT equipment

Simple ranged weapons

• Light rifle (25 gp)
• 1d8 piercing / range 80-320 / Loading / Ammunition (8 shots, .45 Lhomme) / Two-handed
• Light shotgun (35 gp)
• 1d6 piercing / range 50-200 / Loading / Ammunition (7 shots, .60 caliber) / Shotgun / Two-handed
• Light double shotgun (25 gp)
• 1d6 piercing / range 50-200 / Ammunition (2 shots, .60 caliber) / Shotgun / Two-handed

Martial ranged weapons

• Heavy rifle (50 gp)
• 1d10 piercing / range 100-400 / Loading / Ammunition (8 shots, .30 HCF) / Heavy / Two-handed
• Black powder rifle (~100gp)
• 2d6 piercing / range 50-300 / Ammunition (1 shot, .55 caliber) / Heavy / Two-handed / Long Reload
• Heavy shotgun (50 gp)
• 1d8 piercing / range 50-200 / Loading / Ammunition (6 shots, .80 caliber) / Shotgun / Heavy / Two-handed
• Heavy double shotgun (50 gp)
• 1d8 piercing / range 50-200 / Ammunition (2 shots, .80 caliber) / Shotgun / Heavy / Two-handed
• Heavy sawn-off double shotgun (75 gp)
• 1d8 piercing / range 15-50 / Ammunition (2 shots, .80 caliber) / Shotgun / Heavy / Two-handed
• Standard revolver (75 gp)
• 1d6 piercing / range 30-120 / Loading / Ammunition (6 shots, .45 Lhomme) / Double Action
• Black powder revolver (~100 gp)
• 1d8 piercing / range 30-100 / Loading / Ammunition (6 shots, .50 caliber) / Heavy / Long Reload

NEXT rule changes

changelog
11/24 -- original post
11/30 -- double action, loading property, reloading is now a bonus action for everyone


Actions

Throwing an alchemical item, grenade (technically redundant), or similar object as an attack is a Use an Item action (not an untyped action as original). This means that Thief spec rogues can use their Fast Hands ability to throw a grenade as a bonus action.

The same is true of most use of magic items; Thief rogues can use them as a bonus action if they have Fast Hands, though they need UMD to activate most magic items due to class restrictions.

Most light armor can be doffed in one action, and can be donned in one action as well assuming the armor is at hand. This is a Use an Item action (Fast Hands, et cetera).

Ranged attacks are at disadvantage at any time they are within reach of a hostile melee attack (not just within 5ft).


Classes

Multiclassing is not a rule. If you're really unhappy with your class choices, come talk to me and we'll see what we can do. This is primarily due to sorclock and sorcadin, but it's also because you can royally fuck your character with multiclassing and we might not realize how screwed you are until much later on. In general, only sorclock would want to multiclass anyway so I don't see the point in keeping it as an option.

Many classes -- Fighting Style: All fighting styles are available to all classes with the feature. You can now TWF with a paladin (it's pretty decent!) or use a shield as a ranger. Enjoy!

Many classes -- Fighting Style (Protection): In addition to the listed ability, Protection can also be used if the (fighter, paladin, ranger) is within 5 feet of the attacker, even if the target is not (you attempt to intercept the attack at its origin). This ability can be used against any attack that requires an attack roll, including spells and magic items.

Barbarian (Wolf Totem) -- Totem Spirit: If you're wielding a reach weapon that your character is proficient with (and barbarians have all weapon proficiencies), this ability grants its benefits against all enemies within your weapon's reach.

Cleric (Light) -- Corona of Light: Enemies affected by this ability who have light sensitivity suffer the penalties for light sensitivity, even if they are wearing eye protection. The goggles indeed do nothing.

Cleric (Tempest) -- Divine Strike: What the fuck is thunder damage? This does lightning damage. Alternatively, Thunderbolt Strike works with thunder damage. I don't know. What the fuck is thunder damage?

Cleric (War): Does anyone else feel like this class should get Extra Attacks? If you guys think it should, pick whether it should have Extra Attacks, Divine Strike, War God's Blessing, or Guided Strike (pick three).

Druid: Unlike other classes, Druids cannot use firearms at all unless they gain proficiency somehow (to clarify, non-druids simply don't add their proficiency bonus if they attack with a non-proficient weapon). If a druid gains proficiency with firearms (via feat, race, or background), he can use them normally. Druids cannot gain proficiency with any metalworking artisan tools (blacksmithing or engineering), even via feats or backgrounds.

Fighter: The fighter gains two saving throw proficiencies of choice from the following three: Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. This replaces the fighter's normal saving throw proficiencies.

Fighter (Champion): I'm absolutely open to suggestions for this spec. If you'd like to play a Champion and there's something you'd like to see improved, please let me know. Right now, Champion is just weak compared to Battle Master and serves no practical value in a party over other martial combatants.

Fighter (Battle Master) -- Know Your Enemy: The Battle Master may use this ability in combat without studying an opponent (does not use an action) once per short rest. He may only use it on his turn.

Fighter (Battle Master) -- Feinting Attack: You may instead create an opening for an ally, giving the ally advantage on his next attack and adding your superiority die to his damage. If you're armed with a melee reach weapon, the reach of this feint is the reach of your weapon instead of 5ft.

Fighter (Battle Master) -- Rally: You may rally yourself.

Fighter (Eldritch Knight) -- Eldritch Strike: You may instead use this ability to gain advantage on your next attack roll with a spell. You may not use both functions of this ability on the same spell and you must choose which one you want before you roll to hit.

Monk: The monk's starting weapon proficiencies do not include the light rifle/light long gun/light crossbow proficiency. Sorry, monks are already pretty strong dude

Monk -- Unarmored Defense: The monk may wield a melee weapon to get the AC bonus, as outlined in the Weapons section or Dual Wielding feat (although why the hell would you get Dual Wielding as a monk?) without losing his Unarmored Defense bonus. The monk may not attack with any weapon he's using to parry, or he loses the bonus for that round. Because monks are awesome, the AC bonus from this applies to ranged attacks if the monk is wielding a monk weapon. Yes, monks can parry bullets with numchucks.

Monk -- Deflect Missiles: The monk cannot retaliate with a bullet fired at him by spending a ki point. However, you can still catch a fucking bullet in your fingers. Or your teeth. Or with chopsticks.

Monk -- Timeless Body: A monk who obtains this ability also multiplies his natural lifespan by 1d4+2 times. The monk still visibly ages as well, though much slower.

Monk (Open Hand) -- Open Hand Technique: The monk can use this on any unarmed strike he makes if he expends his bonus action and ki point to use Flurry of Blows ahead of time. The monk needs to be in range to make an unarmed attack, declare his attack and that he is going to use Flurry of Blows this turn, spend his ki point and bonus action, and then roll to hit with his first attack.

Monk (Shadow) -- Opportunist: If you are wielding a melee weapon with reach, your range with this ability is equal to your weapon's reach.

Paladin -- Divine Sense: This can detect ongoing profane/evil magic as well, such as Protection From Good. The paladin's uses of Divine Sense recharge after a short rest.

Paladin -- Divine Smite: If you are interested in playing a paladin, please give me a good argument for why you should be able to use this with ranged weapons (you can't normally). I will be receptive. You won't be able to use this with ranged spells even if it works with ranged weapons (due to one particularly abusive interaction).

Paladin -- Improved Divine Smite: If you hit a fiend or undead and you do not spend a spell slot, you deal an extra d8 (2d8 total). If you do spend a spell slot, you deal Xd8 + 2d8 (where X is the spell slot's level) in addition to weapon damage.

Paladin (Devotion) -- Holy Nimbus: Enemies that take damage from this affect who have light sensitivity are subjected to the penalties for light sensitivity, even if they are wearing eye protection.

Paladin (Ancients) -- Undying Sentinel: At level 20, the paladin is functionally immortal and doesn't age as long as he continues to follow his oath. If he retires, he will age, but it will be extremely slow and he still won't suffer age penalties. Unlike the monk, the paladin will not visibly age after level 20 unless he retires or otherwise abandons his oath.

Ranger -- Natural Explorer: You may choose urban terrain and parkour it the fuck up. If you choose urban terrain, it allows you to forage for food in an urban environment as long as you don't mind dumpster diving. You get the normal amount of food from foraging rather than double (other characters cannot do this at all) and the DC is appropriate for the size of the town.

Ranger -- Primeval Awareness: This also allows the ranger to detect his favored enemies, and it tells you the types of creatures you detect (but nothing else).

Ranger -- Land's Stride: This works in urban difficult terrain.

Ranger -- Hide in Plain Sight: Lots of changes. Holy shit this ability is bad.
- You lose the bonus if you move, and get it back if you're stationary for 1 minute or if you roll above 20 on your stealth check.
- In an urban environment, you only need to be wearing appropriate clothes to gain the bonus.
- You lose the bonus if you leave the terrain for which your disguise is appropriate, but not if you move.

Ranger -- Foe Slayer: This applies to all attacks the ranger makes against favored enemies, and applies to both attack and damage rolls (you don't have to choose).

Ranger (Hunter) -- Horde Breaker: If you use a shotgun (loaded with shot), the second attack does not expend ammunition.

Ranger (Hunter) -- Volley: If you use a shotgun (loaded with shot), you only expend one shell while using this attack.

Ranger (Beast Master) -- Ranger's Companion: Lots of buffs.
- If you're mounted on your companion, it follows either the mount rules or the companion rules, whichever is more beneficial to you (or it).
- Your companion's hit points equal your hit points (including feats), but with its CON modifier instead of yours OR its normal maximum hit points, whichever is better.

Ranger (Beast Master) -- Exceptional Training: You can use your bonus action to command your pet to attack. Hoo boy.

Feats

Crossbow Expert is removed, and replaced with Firearm Expert:
- You ignore the Loading quality of firearms (you must still reload if your weapon is empty).
- You aren't at disadvantage when within melee range of an enemy while using firearms.
- While using a shotgun (loaded with shot) at 10ft or closer, increase the damage dice by one step (from d4 to d6, d6 to d8, or d8 to d10). You still use the shotgun's bonus dice feature.
- You are proficient when using a firearm as a melee weapon, as long as you are proficient with that firearm. If you are granted an opportunity attack, you can fire your weapon instead of striking with it.

You get the AC bonus from Dual Wielder while wielding two weapons as long as one is a melee weapon. The AC bonus from this feat only applies to melee attacks. You can use Dual Wielder to dual wield any firearm (or a firearm and a one-handed weapon) that can be used one-handed.

The advantage on checks from Dungeon Delver applies to other related investigation and perception checks, such as finding hidden switches, drawers, secret compartments, and other similarly hidden objects. It doesn't apply to questioning type investigations or perception to notice creatures.

Healer increases your Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.

Inspiring Leader doesn't take 10 minutes, but it can't be done quickly. Estimate an average of 5 minutes, but can take longer or shorter depending on the morale of the characters you're inspiring.

Keen Mind's memory is better than listed; the memory recall is only limited to one month if the player himself forgets. If the player remembers what he intends to recall, anything can be recalled.

Mage Slayer allows you to use the benefits of the feat as long as the spellcaster is within the reach of your weapon. If you are wielding a firearm and have the Firearm Expert feat, you may use the effects of Mage Slayer (including the reaction) on spellcasters within 10 feet as long as at least one of the guns you are wielding is loaded (and always applies within 5ft, since you're armed with a melee weapon).

If you have the Firearm Expert feat and the Mobile feat and fire on an enemy within 10 feet of you, you do not provoke opportunity attacks for the rest of the turn from that enemy, whether you hit or not.

If you have the Mounted Combatant feat, you gain advantage on melee weapon attacks while in a vehicle, as long as the target is an unmounted creature smaller than the vehicle. You may also take attacks intended for the vehicle, even if you're not the one driving.

The Polearm Combatant feat applies to any polearm, including lance, pike, and any other polearm I happen to add to the game. The bonus haft attack must strike a target within 5ft; it does not benefit from the Reach feature of the polearm, and can't be made with a lance.

Sentinel and Mobile feat interactions: Mobile beats Sentinel.

You cannot use an off-hand weapon as a shield for the Shield Master feat.

You must have a free hand to start a grapple with the Tavern Brawler feat.

Firearms

Most crossbows in NEXT are replaced by firearms. There is a larger variety of firearms compared to the crossbow options available. Proficencies are changed in the following manner:

*Light crossbow becomes light rifle (technically, light long gun). This includes pistol caliber rifles (usually .45 Lhomme) and light shotguns (usually .64 caliber).

*Heavy crossbow becomes (all) long guns (including light rifles if the class originally lacked proficiency with light crossbow, although I don't think there are any instances where this is the case). This includes any gun where the forend is supported by the off hand. If both hands are on the grip, or if one hand is free, it is a pistol, even if the gun is fired from the shoulder. This proficiency also applies to all two-handed crossbows (light crossbow does not, it now only applies to light long guns).

*Hand crossbow becomes pistol. This includes some very short shotguns, most revolvers, and some shoulder-fired guns that are intended to be fired with both hands on the grip.

Single action revolvers, bolt action rifles, lever action guns, and pump action shotguns all have the Loading property and take the user's once per turn "use an item" free action to ready a new cartridge to be fired. This generally means only one or two shots per round can be fired, regardless of the user's number of attacks. Self-loading guns do not have this problem and can be fired until the weapon's magazine is expended.

Reloading a gun is an action or a bonus action (character's choice). This applies whether the gun has a swing-out cylinder and is loaded by moon clips, or uses a loading gate and must be loaded (and shells ejected!) one round at a time, or whether it has a feed tube that must be unscrewed and loaded at the muzzle end. It doesn't matter; all reload in one action. Reloading a crossbow is also an action or bonus action (it's pretty time consuming).

For more information on what types of gun are available, see the new equipment post.


Proficiencies

Vehicle (NEW): This is three new proficiencies; Land (for motor vehicles), Water (for all watercraft), and Air (for airships). Animal Handling is the skill used for riding live mounts, whether land, air, or water.

Arcana: This includes knowledge about most "paranormal" type monsters, including undead, elementals, fey, celestials, fiends, et cetera.

Military (NEW): INT-based knowledge proficiency. Details in weapons, military strategies and modern military history. May include some ancient military history, but only relevant to weapons and strategies.


Resting

A short rest is now 8 hours. You don't need to sleep during this time, but you can't take any strenuous activity.

A long rest is 72 hours. At least 24 hours of this time must be continuous. The remainder must be used in periods that must exceed at least 8 hours. These 8 hour rest periods may not be used as short rests. In practice what this actually means is that you must take at least one day off to rest and recuperate, and may work normally and do normal stuff but not stress yourselves to get the benefit of a long rest. The "one day off" can be taken at any time. For resting purposes, any recreation that doesn't require too much strenuous activity can be counted for a long rest. If you want to take the day off and go to an amusement park, you can do that. If you want to pick up a hooker (or spend time with gf or something), you can do that. If you want to go the bar, get wasted, and then sleep it off, all the time counts (unless you make Investigation checks or something while you're at the bar). You can still make Knowledge type checks or even artisan checks as long as you don't make money or stress yourself. For instance, just hanging out with your band and jamming, or making some kind of art that is not a commission (it's something you want to make, not something you're doing for work), or cooking for your friends, team, significant other, or whatever. You can even make "improvements" on your weapons if they have no mechanical value, like improving the trigger or sights or whatever (there's no masterwork quality), if that's what you find relaxing.


Weapons

An off-hand melee weapon that is carried but not used to attack provides a +1 bonus to Armor Class against melee weapons only. This bonus is mutually exclusive with carrying a shield of any kind. If the character is using two melee weapons, either weapon may be used to attack, as long as one is held for parrying. Using TWF of any kind for bonus attacks forfeits the bonus to AC, even if the character holds two weapons, but uses one weapon and an unarmed strike such as a kick or headbutt. A character with multiple attacks via the Extra Attacks feature may interchange any attacks he wishes (including unarmed strikes), as long as he doesn't use his bonus action to make an extra TWF attack. This AC bonus is replaced by the bonus from the Dual Wielder feat.

Simple weapon proficiency includes light rifles. Martial weapon proficiency includes all firearms.

Loading property: This feature is a bit different. A gun with the Loading property has a manual action that must be cycled every time the gun is fired. This includes single action only revolvers, bolt action rifles, pump action shotguns, and lever action rifles or shotguns. The exact mechanic isn't important. Working the action on a firearm uses the user's free object interaction. This means that the user can fire a Loading firearm twice in a round (if he has the Extra Attacks ability) but will only be able to fire it once on the next round, and only after cycling the action with his free object interaction. A character doesn't necessarily need one hand free to work the action on a gun; if it's a two-handed gun, then both hands are needed but a one-handed gun does not.

A character can cycle the action on up to two firearms by using the Use an Object action (or bonus action if a Thief rogue, if desired), and these firearms don't have to be wielded, but the action must be available (for instance, cocking the hammer on a holstered revolver).

Most semiautomatic firearms must also be "cocked" prior to use.

DA property: The firearm can be operated without being cocked, but imposes disadvantage on the attack roll. If the firearm does not also have the Loading property, the firearm becomes cocked after the first shot and does not need to be readied again.

NEXT fantasy races

Dwarf
Fantasy traditionalists. Not much different than typical D&D dwarves. Very slow to adapt to new ideas, including technology. Stubborn, direct, and extremely loyal, especially to family. Dwarves love money and are hardworking and motivated in whatever they end up doing.

Dwarves live a little bit less long, around 200-250 years.

Elf-dwarf racism isn't as strong as typical high fantasy, though romantic pairings are still pretty rare (probably mostly due to the respective natural attraction/revulsion to facial hair). It's pretty common to see elf-dwarf friendships in modern cities. More rural dwarves are more likely to be racist against everyone, elves included.

Dwarves are roughly as prolific as humans but tend to be concentrated around some specific geographical area. The equivalent in a city would be a Chinatown or something similar (call it dwarftown or something). The overall real-world racial equivalent to dwarves would probably be Asians, especially Japanese (though much more prolific).

Dwarves don't have a real racial language. Their native language mirrors that of whatever region they happen to live in (many regional languages have roots in the local dwarven languages from ancient times though). Dwarves get their regional language for free instead of Dwarven.

The dominant religion for dwarves is the Trinity. Virtually all dwarves follow Trinity traditions even if they are not devout.

Hill dwarf subrace are usually rural dwarves
Mountain dwarf subrace are usually city dwarves
eg. ignore fluff on subraces

Half dwarf-humans are called "hobbits" (but we'll probably call them halflings)
Half dwarf-elves are called "gnomes"


Elf

Elves are long-lived, and like the dwarves are pretty set in whatever was cool 100 years ago. They're much more like Tolkien elves culturally than like D&D elves, meaning that they tend to not understand what the fuck those silly short-lived races are doing. A large number of elves are old enough to have seen real spellcasting in their lifetime. Elves are extremely slow to adapt to technology and tend to dislike things like aircraft, cars, or trains.

Elves love art and individual expression.

Elves form the majority of natives from Paolo, but the continent has become such a huge melting pot that people descended from immigrants vastly outnumber the elves there. Likewise, elves are everywhere in the western hemisphere. They're a bit less common elsewhere in the world. The real-world equivalent to elves would probably be some weird cross between Latin Americans and Native Americans.

The elf native language is Vegan (that's vay-gun, not vee-gun). There are a number of old elven tribal languages (collective equivalents of D&D Elven, Sylvan, and/or Druidic) but they are not used except in elven tribal communities. The likelihood of elves speaking "Elven" is probably about 1 in 5 or so, but it gets a lot more likely if an elf is older. Elves can pick either Elven or Vegan as their free language (Vegan is the campaign language, so keep that in mind).

-High elf subrace is fairly common (most elves), but unless they are PCs they do not get the wizard cantrip (but get some NPC "magically gifted" trait instead). PCs get all normal racial features.
-Wood elf subrace is uncommon outside of Paolo, and tend to live in tribal communities called "refuges." Some modern elves descended from wood elves exist but NPCs tend to not have the special racial traits unless trained. PCs obviously have all racial traits.
-Drow elf subrace is just subterranean elves and have nothing to do with Lolth, they're pretty rare, though more "surface drow" are becoming common since science can solve some of their problems there. Most are from mixed elf-dwarf communities and tend to be less conservative than typical elves or dwarves. Most of dwarven acceptance of things like trains and guns probably comes from drow. Sunglasses exist; you can buy off the light sensitivity with cash as long as you have them on. Note that the hand crossbow proficiency is replaced with pistols (hand crossbows are archaic technology).

The dominant elf religion is druidism/shamanism (basically a Shinto-type belief, with some D&D druid splash).

Half elf-humans are called "velves" (singular velf)
Half elf-dwarves are called "gnomes"


Hobbit / Halfling

Not much to say about halflings other than they are much less nomadic than typical D&D halflings. Again, much more like Tolkien hobbits. Also fuck that lawful good fluff. Seriously?

Not much to say about subraces either.

The native language of hobbits is regional, again. They're half dwarf-vumans.

Hobbit children with most races tend to be the race of the mother, with some traits of the father.
Half hobbit-elves are always hobbits (sometimes with more pointy ears, but not super distinct like an elf's).

"Half-dwarf" is a racial slur towards hobbits (and gnomes).


(V) Human

"Human" is the general term for any non-monster humanoid. The "human" race are called "vumans" (that's "voo-mans" or "vew-mans"). They're boring. Humans tend to be much more adaptive and forward-thinking due to their short lifespans, but this is a trait of hobbits and gnomes just as much, so whatever. They get a feat, so they're the best race. Just pick them.

As you might have guessed, the variant human subrace is the norm, and by that I mean NPCs don't get an actual feat (but probably get some other NPC trait). PCs can still pick normal or variant, but they're still considered vuman in the setting and there's no physical differences other than the obvious from having different physical stats.

Vuman native language is whatever their regional language is, so vumans technically get 2 languages of choice. hax

Half vuman-elves are called velves (singular velf) or more commonly by vumans, "velfs"
Half vuman-dwarves are called hobbits
Half vuman-orcs are usually called orcs (they are still half-orcs genetically and statwise)


Dragonborn

They're the blessed of the meddling Dragonwright gods or descendants of actual dragons (typically 1/8 dragon or so). Most are assumed to be dragon-descended. Dragonborn are highly encouraged by their families to find partners of their own species, as dragonborn are very rare and always considered exotic. Most dragonborn families travel a lot; partially due to racism, partly due to the fact that most dragonborn are professional soldiers, and partly due to find other groups of dragonborn. Companies of mercenary dragonborn are a thing, and hella dangerous. A dragonborn that doesn't follow a combat arms profession is pretty rare.

Dragonborn have much longer lifespans (typically in the 200 year range).

Dragonborn racial languages include Draconic, plus whatever its family spoke. This doesn't have to be the same as their regional language.

Half-dragonborn children tend to depend on how diluted the original dragon blood is.
Some children of two dragonborn parents are non-dragonborn, particularly if both parents' dragon blood is thin.

NPC dragonborn don't always have a breath weapon (again, thin blood etc). PCs always do, of course.


Gnome

The innovators of the world. The longevity of elves and the productivity of dwarves come together to form the ur-race, at least from a cultural perspective. Most gnomes don't get along with their parents or family communities, and tend to move to places where they can more freely express themselves (not that stodgy elven "artistic expression" where only certain things are "real art.") Gnomes are super rare and usually misaken for hobbits. Most gnomes lie about their age after they're past about 70 or so unless they work in the scientific or engineering community.

-Forest gnome NPCs don't have the illusion racial (replaced with NPC magical aptitude).
-Rock gnomes... if you want to play one, let me know and we'll talk about Artificer's Lore. It will probably get you more than just a benefit on History checks. Likewise, you can produce more than the devices listed with Tinker, but anything produced must be similarly useless.

Gnome children tend to be the race of the mother.
Half gnome-elves are almost always gnomes.

Like hobbits, "half-dwarf" is a racial slur against gnomes. Again, most people can't tell the difference between gnomes and hobbits unless the gnome is shooting magic sparks out of his fingers or something.


Velf / Half-Elf

For most people, a velf is indistinguishable from an elf (most elves can tell the difference). The main way to tell a velf and an elf apart is usually attire and demeanor. Velves tend to be much more human-like and progressive, though this is not a hard rule and many embrace elven traditions and culture. Velves are not naturally charismatic, unlike core D&D, because that shit makes no damn sense. They tend to mirror the culture they grew up with.

RACIAL STAT CHANGE: Velf Dexterity is increased by 2 (instead of Charisma) and they can choose two other stats to increase by 1 (as normal).

Velves can pick one of Elven or Vegan plus their regional language (fuck common) and another one of choice (as usual). All other racial traits are the same.

Half-elf is a racial slur, and a much more vulgar one than half-dwarf is for hobbits.


Orc and Half-Orc

Half-orcs are a problem. Orcs are not considered human by most people; Orcish slavery is legal in a lot of countries and orcs are generally not considered citizens. Only vumans, ogres, and orcs can breed with orcs, and the result of orc-human copulation is a half-orc. Half-orcs are a tricky subject, because their skin color is still green or grey even if they were raised in a good Vuman home with good Vuman "parents" (they tend to be bastards of Vuman men and Orc slave women, though the inverse is sometimes true). Unlike the other half-breed races, "half-orc" is more of a compliment to someone of perceived orcish blood, and frequently claimed by half-orcs ("I'm only a half-orc, jerk"). Most people just call half-orcs orcs, because they're all the same thing to them.

Even in countries where slavery isn't legal (most countries in Paolo), people of orcish blood are discriminated against harshly.

Worship of Gruumsh is not really common among half-orcs; most civilized ones worship the Trinity. It's still possible for a half-orc to be raised by orcs (in an orc tribe), in which case Gruumsh worship would be very likely, but that's pretty uncommon since tribal orcs don't tend to breed with vumans.

A huge number of half-orcs are illegitimate slum kids that either die on the streets or grow up to be thugs. In case it wasn't obvious, the real-world parallel for orcs are Africans.

Half-orcs get their regional language plus one of choice (instead of Orcish). You can still pick Orcish if you want but it won't really be useful.

Children of half-orcs and vumans are usually vumans, often with a bit darker skin color than the vuman parent.

"Green" and "Greenskin" are racial slurs.

If a player wants to play an orc (and Savage Attacks is a really good martial racial), it is probably a good idea to be visibly armed most of the time as the extra attention from the cops is probably worth deterring harassment from normal folks. Additionally, if the orc PC is then disarmed for whatever reason, it might be a red herring for the half-orc's actual capabilities.


Tiefling and Aasimar

Just a quick aside. Tieflings and Aasimar tend to be the children of "saints," that is, people touched with the gift of divine power (clerics and paladins). Although warlocks use an arcane power source, they are also capable of producing tiefling offspring, typically via some unholy ritual -- assuming they use a non-fey pact. Most clerics and paladins don't produce aasimar kids, so one is usually something special. Non-spellcasters can still produce tiefling offspring through similar methods as the warlock; draw a circle, have a bunch of participants, spoil a virgin, chant the name of Jesus a bunch, et cetera.

Tieflings tend to be viewed in the traditional D&D manner -- meaning, as freaking demon children, because they are. Aasimar tend to be viewed as blessed, though they can still be alienated due to being different-looking.

Alignment leanings for both are non-existent, although parental influence can play a large part.

Aasimar are pretty nonexistent; tieflings are still rare, but more common since they are a bit easier to induce through prayers to dark gods. Praying to the gods to bless a child and having the gods actually answer will usually result in a cleric or paladin (a "saint") rather than an aasimar. On top of that, the gods don't usually answer or will simply give a healthy child.

NPC tieflings may have NPC magical aptitude rather than their racial spell-like abilities but NPC tieflings may actually have spell-like powers.

As always, there's no common language, so tieflings speak their regional language plus Infernal.

Tieflings can come from any racial heritage. Partial dwarven tieflings tend to be shorter, but much taller than dwarves (in the 4-5 foot range). Partial elven tieflings have elven ears. Obviously, gnome tieflings have both traits. This does not affect their statistics (eg. land speed).

White dragon fight (like nick will actually read this)

Suggestions are welcome ofc

THE TEAM

Alain, CLR6/PAL3
Immune to fear
+4 Ref
AC 22
ring of protection +1, scroll RE(mass) CL7
Amulet of teamwork (+2 flanking damage, +3 aid another, single use +5 insight to AC)
Healing belt (4d6 hp, 1 charge)
+1 bastard sword (+8 attack, d10+3, crit 19-20)
Spell DC 10 + 3 + SL

Jarn, SOR5
Immune to frightful presence
+1 Ref
AC 18
1 scroll SM2, 1 scroll SM3, cloak of comfort +1
Arcanist's gloves (2/day +2CL on level 1 spell)
Spell DC probably irrelevant (10 + 4 + SL)

JC, BRD6/WIZ1
+6 Will, +5 Ref
AC 11 or 14 (with mage armor)
1 scroll SM2, 1 scroll SM3, cloak of charisma +2
Metamagic rod of piercing spell (+6 spell penetration, 3x/day)
Spell DC probably irrelevant (10 + 5 + SL bard, 10 + 3 + SL wiz)
UMD +16/+20 with scrolls/+2 aid another

Kaeli, FTR6/ROG3
Immune to frightful presence
+7 Ref
AC 20 (with dodge)
Sneak Attack 2d6
potion of barkskin CL3, potion of blur CL3
+2 longsword (+11 attack, d8+4, crit 19-20)
+1 small longsword (+10 attack, d6+2, crit 19-20)
mwk composite longbow +2 (+11 attack, d8+2)
dragonbane arrow (+2 hit, +3+2d6 damage vs. dragon)
Amulet of tears (12 temphp, 3 charges)
Tumble +14

Lucas, SOR4
Immune to frightful presence
approximately +3 Ref
Has Precise Shot
many scrolls Ray of Enfeeblement CL2
Metamagic rod empower spell (1.5 spell dice, 3x/day)

Roderick, ROG5
Approximately +2 Will, +7 Ref (maybe give him cloak of comfort)
AC unknown
Has Precise Shot, Sneak Attack 3d6
+2 composite shortbow (+8 attack, d6)
dragonbane arrow (+2 hit, +2+2d6 damage vs. dragon)

Prince Wilhelm Reichelt II FAM6
Will +7, Ref +7
AC no getting hit bad bird

THE ENEMY

White Dragon (young adult)
15 HD (142 HP)
AC 23 (-1 size, +14 natural)
STR 19, CON 17, all other stats 10ish
Fort +12, Ref +9, Will +9
+15 BAB
bite 10ft reach, 2d6+4
claw d8 +2
wing d6 +2
tail d8 +6
full attack: bite +18, claw +13 claw +13 wing +13 wing +13 tail +13
increase secondary attacks to +15 if he has multiattack REALLY LIKELY
+23 on grapple (don't try)
Frightful presence: Will DC17; is a fear save so morale bonus applies. Failure means shaken for 4d6 rounds for the 5HD people. For the 4HD people, failure means fleeing.
Breath weapon: DC20 for 5d6 cold. 40 foot cone.
60 ft land speed, 200 ft fly speed. Poor maneuverability.

THE STRATEGY

Start of day
Alain: Shield Other >> Kaeli
Jarn: Mage Armor >> Jarn
Kaeli: oil GMW >> Kaeli's longsword
Roderick: oil GMW >> Roderick's shortbow
Not really necessary for Jarn to use mage armor on JC or familiar

Before combat
As many as possible, in order:

R1

• Alain: scroll of RE(mass) CL7 >> all party members (7 total)
• Kaeli: potion of Barkskin >> Kaeli (AC becomes 22)
• Jarn: Invisibility >> Lucas
• JC: potion of Owl's Wisdom >> JC

R2: If there is a second pre-fight round and the dragon is very far away, it should be delayed until the dragon is approximately 1000 feet away

• Alain: Antidragon Aura >> Alain, Kaeli, Roderick (3 total)
• Kaeli: potion of Blur >> Kaeli
• Jarn: Invisibility >> Roderick
• JC: Inspirational Boost >> JC
• JC: Inspire Courage >> allies, continuous

R3

• Alain: Interfaith Blessing >> party
• Jarn or JC: Invisibility >> JC
• Everyone invisible should leave a small marker item off of their person, and then pick it up so that they can be targeted during this part and their general position can be known while scattered.
• Everyone >> scatter ~55ft from Kaeli

After R3

• Kaeli can fire normal arrows if desired, starting the combat
• JC should refocus ASAP if possible to get to the top of the initiative order
• JC can use Ghost Sound to taunt the dragon in loud Kaeli/Dragon hybrid voice, speaking taunts in Draconic
• Roderick does not attack at this point

Dragon closes to 100ft, actual combat begins
Party members should continue buffing if they aren't done yet.
If anyone is not invisible, they scatter anyway and we do without
If Antidragon Aura is not up yet, Roderick scatters, he will have to do without
Interfaith Blessing and singing are big AoE global "allies" spells so they will hit people regardless

Round 1

• Conviction is spent to make dragon roll twice on initiative
• JC, Roderick, Prince Wilhelm Reichelt II make will saves against frightful presence
• JC makes a rally check to clear Shaken from Roderick if he fails, otherwise uses scroll of SM2 to summon medium fiendish monstrous spider
• If Kaeli is fully buffed, shoot one antidragon arrow, drop bow, ready melee weapons. If not, do the next buff in line and draw melee weapons. She uses one amulet of tears charge here, and refreshes it if it is breached
• Dragon uses Flyby Attack and strafes Kaeli with breath weapon
• Lucas and Roderick get cover (60ft of Kaeli or closer) and hang out
• Jarn reads scroll of SM3 to summon bison (55ft from Kaeli, awayish from himself)
• Alain begins casting SM3 to summon a bison
• turns need to be in this order, people should delay at this point to get them in this position: JC >> Dragon >> Jarn >> Roderick >> Alain (Kaeli and Lucas' turn orders don't matter)

Round 2

• JC readies Downdraft
• Kaeli waits until last initiative
• Dragon power dives Kaeli, JC Downdrafts him out of the dive using rod (UMD needs a 2, penetration can't fail)
• If present, Spider closes as much as possible (to within 15ft but this is unlikely) and webs the dragon (+6 to hit before range increments, likely +4, needing 5 to hit)
• Familiar takes rod to Jarn (which is why he's not invisible) and takes cover behind Jarn
• Roderick moves to within 30ft or closer of dragon, begins firing with antidragon arrows
• Lucas moves to within 30ft or closer of dragon, begins using Ray of Enfeeblement scrolls without rod (needs a 14 to penetrate, 5 to hit or less depending on Weapon Focus and Interfaith Blessing)
• Jarn moves to within 35ft or closer, begins firing Ray of Enfeeblement using all possible buffs (needs a 5, a 3 or less to penetrate, accuracy +2 if entangled, as much as +2 from interfaith blessing)
• Jarn's bison charges and attacks dragon, provoking AOO unless dragon is prone
• Alain finishes SM3, moves towards dragon, casts Elation (or other buffs if they're not up)
• If all of Alain's buffs aren't up, Alain moves up and continues the buffs he missed
• Alain may use conviction here to get another spell out (Invest Light Protection on himself, or get up to speed on any buffs he's missed)
• Alain's bison charges and attacks dragon, provoking AOO if not already used unless dragon is prone
• Kaeli full attacks with all melee weapons, benefiting from flanking if at all possible

Round 3

• Ranged characters should spread out so that they cannot be simultaneously hit by a breath weapon (getting closer to the dragon, approx 25ft is better in this case)
• Melee characters should use 5ft steps to better box in the dragon and provide cover for allies
• If spider is not present, JC summons it unless the dragon is already enfeebled below 13 STR (6 or more damage)
• Otherwise, JC hastes everyone near the melee in the following order: Kaeli, Alain, Bisons, Roderick, Spider(s)
• Spider moves closer and webs, if present and dragon not entangled. If already entangled, moves closer and does nothing
• Familiar returns to JC (without rod)
• Dragon full attacks or attempts to break entangle; if he's prone, he will stand up (yay AOOs)
• Roderick uses any method to maintain sneak attack and maximum DPS
• Bisons (all) begin full attacking
• Lucas continues to enfeeble unless dragon is enfeebled, then he begins empowered Scorching Ray blasting (needs at least a 12 to land)
• Jarn continues Ray of Enfeeblement until he is out of rod/glove charges, even if ray has stuck, unless max damage was rolled or he scores a crit; he should cast Suds on Kaeli in this case to give her +10 on escape artist checks
• Alain moves to within 10ft, draws weapon and casts a spell, depending on his positioning: Baneblade on Kaeli's longsword (if adjacent to Kaeli), Invest Light Protection on self (if not already cast), Local Tremor (if unable to Baneblade Kaeli)
• Alain may burn conviction here to do more with his actions
• Alain cannot move closer than 10ft due to the threat of AOO
• Kaeli continues full attacking

Round 4

• JC is done at this point unless he has some kind of an attack wand; if he has one, he uses it here (probably Blinding Spittle)
• If JC has an attack wand, Familiar aids his UMD check (to +18, succeed on 2)
• Spider shoots web if broken, move close and aid in flanking
• This is the 1st round where Dragon could have breath weapon available; his actions will largely depend on the situation, he could be prone or blinded, so adaptation may be necessary
• Jarn and his bison delay to take his turn after Alain (due to amulet of teamwork)
• Lucas and Roderick continue gameplans
• Alain 5ft steps into melee and either spams tremor, full attacks, casts more buffs, or heals himself, as appropriate for the situation
• Alain should spend conviction here if he hasn't already exhausted his supply
• Jarn and Bisons continue gameplan
• Kaeli continues full attacking

Round 5+

• Everyone continues gameplan

Conviction and YOU!

All of Alain's conviction should be spent on extra standards; he has not enough actions and lots to do

At least 3 points of Kaeli's conviction should be spent on double rolling bite attack rolls as a critical puts the team at a very huge life disadvantage

2 points of JC's conviction should be spent double rolling his and dragon's initiative totals, as he must spend a full round refocusing on round 1 if he doesn't go before the dragon

1 point of conviction can be spent to double roll the dragon's Reflex save on Downdraft as a failure makes him prone, preventing AOOs on charging bisons

1 point of conviction can be spent to double roll Jarn's first and/or second ray attack roll, as these are the most likely to penetrate and will deal the most strength damage

Extra conviction should be:
donated to Alain for more standards
Roderick extra moves (to stealth before full attack)
roll twice Kaeli's first and haste mainhand attacks if not enough is available
OR
roll twice Lucas spell penetration checks (not as desirable due to high waste chance)

Feudal nobility and royalty

This is at least partially for Nick's purpose, but also just to inform.

The noble system of the Silver Empire is essentially a modern feudal society. You might ask wtf modern, but the truth is that only China had any sort of fedual-ish government past the 1600s (even then, it was on its way), and the SE world is, in terms of technological and social advancement, roughly in the early-mid 1600s (possibly 1700s) in our reckoning. The difference is that we are outside the area of familiarity for that time; Coprova is the closest thing to a United States of America, and it is functionally similar to the early US; less centralization, individual states govern their land, widely different social norms in each state. Jahari is just an anomaly, as it is a capitalist state that has never existed on Earth and probably won't for another 50-100 years. So they are kinda beyond the social development curve. We don't know much about the elves or dwarves governance. The elves are essentially little Greek city-states while the dwarves are ruled by a singular king, but we have no mention of representation, class systems, or economics.

So let's take some things we know and extrapolate.

The SE is run by a singular ruler (Empress Sophia) and her family. The royal family is supported by noble houses that operate as nearly separate feudal kingdoms, subject to the SE's laws. Due to the sovereign family's dependency on the noble houses for order and governance, they have strong political sway. However, in a situation where there is a single sovereign (and family), it is likely she has the final say in any political proceedings (though this may estrange her from support of those opposed to her decision).

The church is a separate body, and likely has no official political power -- this is not the Roman Empire. However, the church serves as an operational arm of the government, and due to the need of church services to military units, the church has enormous power, even more so than it might have with official political sway. This is one situation where the mechanics of D&D (clerics, favored souls and divine adepts can heal) impact politics. With the extreme dependency on cleric magic, the church can leverage a lot of power. As a result, there are organizations like the Inquisition which are operational elements of the government, but are part of the church. By limiting the practice of non-Dragonwright clerics, the government ensures that the church body is the only body able to support the military, further entrenching their dominance of the valuable cleric resource. It is also possible that the church itself is a political entity. However, with characters like Rowenthal who are non-nobility but present strong influence in politics, this does not seem to be the case. If the church was a true political entity, it would likely be impossible for non-nobles to become clerics (adepts unknown, favored souls are effectively sorceror-clerics so they could come from any bloodline).

So some noble rank stuff:

The Empress is the sovereign, the highest ranked official in the government.
Below her are kings or queens. These are likely the ruling members of the founding families. It is possible that there is no "king" rank in SE, in which case they would be dukes instead.
The term prince and princess are likely used for the non-ruling royal family members.
There are several "duke" ranks, and they are basically the noble family heads. It is possible that some are not dukes and are earls instead (likely), and it is also possible, especially if there are no kings, that some are archdukes.
The head of the Halvor family (not the Baron) is likely a marquis, as is any non-duke noble bordering dwarflands, Jahari, or the lizard territories. It's possible that this rank is not used, though the title "marquis" is pretty fucking cool.
Counts or earls probably encompass most of the noble heads that are not dukes. Other families that are not as close to the rulership are likely counts, as are junior members (non-heads) of the big daddy families. Counts (or earls) typically rule over counties; they are the regional governors for their noble families.
Barons rule a barony -- a small area inside a county. The Halvor county (likely not called that) has the Nedrech barony as its center region. Barons are essentially mayors, though their land governance is a bit larger.

Those are the big governor ranks; holding one means you mean something!

Below that are the normal noble ranks. Lord (or Lady) is an administrator type or leader of nobles. It may be, in the SE world, used for any noble without a governing rank (that's up to Nick). Non-nobles are not lords.
Knight is the default noble rank; because I assume a knight in the SE world is a military thing, lords may be the non-military version of knights.

Revised Bulletproof vests in d20 Modern

Armor is rated in 6 categories: I, IIA, II, IIIA, III, and IV. I stops only very small caliber bullets, while IV stops even armor-piercing incendiary .30 caliber magnum bullets. It may also have an additional rating of "M" (such as IIIA-M) which gives protection against melee weapons and bows. The exception is Level III and Level IV which always protect against melee weapons. Thrown weapons, except exceptionally large or fast ones, are stopped by armor regardless of rating.

A vest may stop a threat higher than its threat rating, but such a hit destroys the protection of the vest if it uses a soft or ceramic ballistic panel. If it uses a metal panel, you got lucky. This only works for shots of 1 category better (ex. Level II threat versus Level IIA vest). Even if it does not stop the attack, the vest may reduce the damage. In any case, the armor is destroyed and must be replaced.

Even if a vest does stop an attack, the armor panel must be replaced if it is struck. Continuous use of damaged armor panels may result in complete failure of the vest even by inferior threats. In game terms, this won't happen unless it's used in successive combats, and any vest will be able to stop at least 2 hits that it is rated for, even if they happen in successive battles. After two battles in which the vest is hit by a rated threat (Level IIIA vest getting hit by Level IIIA bullets), the vest must be repaired and the ballistic panels must be replaced. Vests can still be damaged even by inferior threats, but it takes many more hits and a lot more time. Vests can also be damaged by maltreatment, but this is rare as they are expected to be used in combat areas where they get caught or torn slightly by underbrush.

Slashing melee weapons usually destroy a vest if the vest is not rated for melee attacks. However, the vest will partially resist (typically -5 or -10 damage, depending on the vest) the first attack. If the slashing attack is stopped by this partial resistance, it does not destroy the vest, but a second hit will even if it does not deal damage.

Example 1: A character is wearing a soft concealable vest (+3 armor bonus) of Level II rating. His armor gives its +3 armor bonus against Level II and lower threats. It may stop a Level IIIA threat, but the vest will be destroyed. A Level III threat will penetrate the vest and do full damage, but won't destroy the vest (punches a clean hole). Against a sword, the vest is basically worthless, but will subtract 5 damage from the first hit it takes.

Damage to a vest only applies if the attack hits the defender's Touch AC (or shield AC, if using a shield); in other cases, the attack misses, hits cover, or is deflected by a shield.

Magic armor (including armor given temporary enhancement bonuses by magic) is rated for all threats (even those that bypass Level IV armor) and will not be damaged unless a sunder attempt is made. Even then, the armor has hardness 5 higher than normal.

Concealable vest: +3 armor bonus, Max Dex +8. ACP -0. Counts as light armor.
Concealable vests can come in any category. Any vest with a rigid ballistic panel (metal, ceramic, etc.) has an ACP of +6 and has a +2 bonus on Spot checks to detect it. Vests without a panel are rated Level I. Vests with soft panels can be rated anywhere from IIA (inferior quality) to IIIA (best quality). Vests with rigid panels can be rated anywhere from IIIA-M (cheap or improvised) to IV-M.

Tactical armor: +5 armor bonus, Max Dex +3, ACP -4. Counts as medium armor for proficiency, but does not reduce speed unless the user is unproficient.
Tactical armor is always at least Level IIIA. If it has rigid panels, it can be rated up to IV-M.

Heavy tactical armor: +7 armor bonus, Max Dex +1, ACP -6. This counts as heavy armor. Always at least rated Level III-M.

Light shields are usually improvised and give a +1 shield bonus against melee weapons, thrown weapons, arrows, and some magical projectiles. They do not generally provide protection against bullets unless enchanted.

Commercial heavy shields are typically riot shields and give a +2 armor bonus. They are made out of laminated polycarbonate or carbon fiber and are generally stronger than a Level IV threat, making them effective against all reasonable threats. Due to their shape, they can be used as total cover if crouched behind. Medieval large shields don't enjoy this tactic (including any conjured by spells), and may not be effective against Level IV threats (though they are generally made of hardened steel and can stop Level III threats).