Black Sails on the Horizon - A Skull and Shackles Campaign by Faol Mhor (Inactive)

Game Master Faol Mhor

Rogue might be able to work too, but the feat tax would be pretty high. Ninja would work perfectly, but its on the no fly zone for this campaign.

Ninja wouldn't be any better than rogue, especially since that isn't the flavor I'm looking for.

Here's my alias for the character I'm working on for your new campaign. She's not complete yet, but though I'd check to see how well she'd fit so far. :)

I'll have an alias up soon for my character. I may go with the oracle of life instead of nature since we don't yet have a healer. Easily enough reflavored to an act of violence that caused the curse (perhaps violence with a tool on a holy man and thus cursed to break them). Probably take the church trait then.

Though I usually play a healer class, I have too many of those right now and wanted to try something else. I can take cure spells thought to help out. :)

May write up a fighter type, not sure on the archetype, might want to go for a Hellknight in training as it is a Cheliax central campaign, and I've always wanted to play a Hellknight

If you can get your hands on the Path of Prestige book there also is a Hellknight caster. Don't have the book yet myself, stores here don't seem to have it yet.

Maybe try a Cavalier?

I do have it, my local store got it last week. So far I love the book, which is a surprise as I normally don't like many PrC's. Love the Winter Witch, the Hellknight Caster, the aldori swordlord... and a few more.

But that is a good idea Marn, will look into that, think the base class would be a magus, which is a class I haven't played yet

I just hope it falls under the OGL and I can eventually find it on PFSRD

Pretty sure it will be

Almathea, I really like the character.

Aldon, a Hellknight could be great, I don't know why id didn't think of that.

I've been giving this campaign some thought and thinking about how it would work best, being an RP campaign and all. In the Skull and Shackles game you are almost force fed the story in the beginning, freedom is earned later, and I like this AP. But with this other campaign I think a lot of the adventure would have to be player driven.

To start with they are stuck in a military camp, which for the most part is a safe place to be. They have their work, they have their friends. The adventure they need to have and the trouble they need to get into would have to be, to a certain extent driven by the players.

I have ideas planned for events and situations as well as the over all story that goes on all around the characters but it's these nobodies stuck in the middle that need to find purpose and almost have a drive to make themselves something more.

This would give you the players the opportunity to dialogue and say hey lets do this or I need help with this can you help me out etc. I think it would work best if the players are willing to build on the character relationships, which is actually kind of cool because you guys aren't starting from scratch, you've already been playing with each other.

Anyway, just some thoughts on it :)

I'm still thinking away. I might be even ready to start it this weekend but I think I'd like to get characters fleshed out pretty well with some good back stories in place so I have something to work with.

I also like the idea of it being a Cheliax/Varisia campagin. There is so much contrast between the two nations and it being set in Varisia, about 60 years after rise of the rune lords means I can take some license with what's happened in varisia since then.

How would you feel about my Chakram guy being from Isger? He'd have grown up hunting goblins and getting paid per head, and what better way to behead a goblin than throwing a chakram at the bugger?

As for the Cheliax/Varisia thing, how do you want to do that, since there still is Nidal in between (also an interesting place and possibly even darker than Cheliax)

EDIT: Btw, the description says one can safely wield chakrams in melee while wearing heavy armor, would you say just gauntlets is enough? (would obviously still take the -1)

Of course since I'm playing a teen girl, I'll have to pick another character to have a crush on. :)

Going to go with a regular martial Hellknight, the Signifier is more divine then I had thought, so the Magus won't work so well. Will draw something up shortly

The idea is that Cheliax has made an invasion to "pacify" the wild lands of Varisia and take under its wings the fractured city states. The invasion is coming from the sea through Korvosa because Korvosa is still a loyal city to Cheliax. Essentially they are bypassing Nidal and sending an army larger than any one city state in Varisia can muster into the country.

Marn, It depends on the gauntlets I think. The chakram seem more like Vudrani weapon than an isger weapon. I could see however a young boy getting a hold of a throwing weapon and growing up knowing how to use it or something. It's just not a common weapon you would find in a western style kingdom.

So as of now we have Almathea wanting to play the maid/bard/cinderella :)

As for Almathea finding a crush you may be in luck because wherever the mighty war machine of Cheliax goes an army of halflings are sure to follow, caring cooking, gathering and cleaning...so there may be plenty of halflings around, of course she doesn't have to be limited to halflings.

I think it would also be interesting if we had a hellknight aspirant and a squire to a normal knight, both would be very different experiences and careers.

I do have an idea how to make that work and the answer is Druma. It's right next to Isger and trades with Isger and you can get anything there for the right price. I could easily see my character stealing a chakram from a travelling merchant when he was younger and eventually teaching himself how it works.

The character could easily work as a squire as I envisioned him as a blacksmith's apprentice before joining the army. That way he'd end up making his own weapons to solve the supply issue. The hunting goblins would be a pastime and a way to make some extra money.

Don't worry, I never limit my choices based on race. I've had some fun with someone a foot and half taller than me before, so I figure my characters shouldn't have too much problem either.

I thought about playing a human instead, but decided I could have more fun as a halfing who'd be more likely to be over looked and sneak around where she shouldn't. I also get the chance to be a bit angsty about being treated poorly by some of the humans.

I give you Lucanus, aspiring Hellknight. I went with two weapon fighter as I will be dual wielding a sword and board and using both as weapons.

I took one trait and will put in the second once it is decided my role, and equipment is up to you Faol. If you let me take a bastard sword, I will swap out Shield Focus with EWP: Bastard Sword so I can wield it in one hand

I think I'll be a dwarf cleric probably of Sarenrae rather than the oracle. Cleric is far superior to oracle of life at healing and combat, and dwarves are perfect as clerics. I'm thinking he was caught by a slaver and passed through various masters before they discovered his healing powers and "volunteered" him to be a combat medic possibly so the master could avoid being press ganged himself. So long as he heals their soldiers, they probably don't care too much who he prays to, I reckon. I'd be taking the church trait.

Well we have three people interested in playing fighters, which could work , one person for an asmodian church slave and one for a maid of lady Thrune. Is anyone interested in the porter or the apprentice?

Lex I think that could work but he would be a pretty young dwarf forced into the service of the church but Sarenrae is at odds with asmodeous so it would make life very very tough for your character, being a slave directly opposed to everything cheliax stands for might be a huge challenge.

Aldon I think if you want to go the Hellknight route, which I think could be cool, the order that is in the invasion force is the order of the scourge, in varisia there is the order of the nail. They are at present the two orders that will have anything to do with the story. Your character would be an aspirant of the scourge order, most likely squire to the blademaster of the order who is in charge of the expedition of hellknights.

On the other hand, avakor your character would be the squire of Ser Magnus Cortain the leader of the newly formed Cuirassiers Cavalry regiment. Magnus and the bladmaster of the hellknights would be of equal rank and so it makes sense that they would be on the command ship and you and aldon's character would be there as well. The Magnus NPC is the young charismatic officer with new ideas about warfare while the bladmaster is stuck in the old ways and believes in traditional combat. So both those NPC's would be visibly at odds with each other but that doesn't mean your characters need to be.

Marn your character might work better as the porter character, especially if he has the blacksmith background. Cheliax is pretty traditional so they would not likely take you as a squire unless you had noble blood of some kind. It might also work with your desire to use an odd weapon. But on the other hand he could be a squire to one of the knights under Magnus cortain in the Regiment of Cuirassiers who somewhat laugh in the face of tradition.

Just some thoughts about the characters thus far. What do you guys think about that so far?

I could easily worship Pharasma instead, and say he has joined the church delegation to do his job as a doctor, healing the wounded and performing last rites to the dead, helping them make their way to the Boneyard and preventing their rise as undead.

BTW how young is young? Are we going by the age of adulthood by race (40 years for dwarves) or like 16 years or so regardless of race?

I'm flexible, both squire and porter would work.

The silly thing though, is I'm actually after the exact same archetype as Aldon simply so I can use two chakrams at the same time without getting ridiculous penalties as both are one handed weapons.

Marn, have you considered the Magus with just one chakram? Or a swashbuckler rogue with two weapon fighting? You could get sneak attack!

Oh, and before I forget my character would not be a noble of any kind, but he would be the grandson of a decorated warhero from the Goblinblood Wars. The downside is that his grandfather is a Half Orc as well as a War Hero, so my character is a 1/8th Orc which makes him look just slightly off, especially since the rest of his heritage is a mix of half a dozen human ethnicities.

EDIT: I won't be playing a rogue simply because I have several running around already. As for the Magus, I have been thinking about the myrmidarch archetype but I'd still be feat starved as well as suffer from MAD (dex and strength and int would be required). Not to mention a single chakram takes away from the imagery.

Ok, here's what we could do to avoid toe stepping. I can lower my alignment from LN to LE, and if Faol allows the house rule that Antipaladin's can be LE instead of CE, then I would switch to that. That way we won't have two fighters of the exact same archetype, so I leave that up to the GM.

But that also means instead of a LN aspiring Hellknight who can be convinced of Chelix's evil, you have to deal with an honorable but evil aspiring Hellknight of Asmodeus who will be a bit of a zealot :)

Even if we'd grab the same archetype our combat styles would still differ vastly, especially since chances are I'll be multi-classing (just want to eventually get the level 11 ability of the fighter archetype)

I might add though, that if something Arcane Archer like had been there for thrown weapons I would have been all over it.

EDIT: Basically the problem is thrown weapons are kind of screwed for anything more than low level back up so I need to compensate. Feats are the best and easiest way to do so and Fighter gets me those.

Well then if Faol is okay with us both being the same class and archetype, then I'm okay with it. As you said, we are going two different styles, you ranged and me front line

Yeah I'm okay with that. That means we will have one divine caster, one support character and three melee capable which I am fine with.

Lex I like Pharasma more, fits better with the whole war thing, and that way you don't have to be a slave either. As for age I think your character would be maybe 18 to 25, somewhere in there. Even the human characters can start at 14 or 15 if they like.

Aldon, I think if you went LE it might cause trouble with the group, It depends on how you play evil I guess. Most people I know who play evil play supper villain evil out to destroy the world and murder everyone and not normal evil...if that makes sense. But I'd rather steer clear of the anti-paladin anyway so I think the two fighters with the same archetype are fine with me.

Avakor, are you still interested in playing that halberd/cavalier type character?

I would play the ruthless zealot, not so much the "want to take over the world" guy, but I would rather stick with my LN Fighter

Hmmm... with 2 other primary melee and a bard as our support, I might go for a sneaky-sneak type character to cover skills that Thea isn't covering or a full-arcane caster to cover more spells and knowledge skills. Not really sure at the moment.

Wait. Marn, are you planning on having a more skirmishing style, working in and out of melee, or trying to stay out of melee and be throwing constantly?

Goal is ranged with enough melee capability to cover my ass while making some distance.

Ahhh... okay. So, then I'm kinda wondering. What would people prefer? I like skill-users, melee tanks, and casters all, so I don't mind playing something else, I'm just curious as to what the party composition would be good with.

Maybe a rogue-type for flanking with the other melee and open all the locked doors to the rooms we aren't supposed to go into? :)

edit: Though now that I think about, I could dip a level or two into rogue myself and let you go straight level arcane caster. Bard/Rogue does tend to work well together for me. :)

Like I said, chances are I'll be multi-classing (or picking up a PrC if I find a useful and fitting one) as I basically just want the lvl 11 feature of my Fighter archetype as well as the bonus feats and don't really need anything after level 11 (maybe the lvl 12 bonus feat)

As for skills, my character will be very skillful for a Fighter as he's a human and I'll most likely get Fast Learner which also means 13 Intelligence.

Just as a note, this campaign won't give you gear in the same way as other campaigns... (insert evil grin here)

You can each purchase one item (not master crafted), but all the rest of your gear will be provided for you depending on the role your character has and the whim of your knight, employer, etc.

So for instance Marn could have a Chakram while Aldon gets a bastard sword or something and Almathea could buy...I don't know what, but something that her character would have brought with her other than clothes. Essentially you do not have armour unless it is provided by your masters. You can have a set of clothes worth up to 10 gp and the one item.

I know Aldon has Lucanus stated out and Almathea has Kayla practically done. How are the rest of you doing?

I might start the campaign thread tonight or tomorrow but not the game just yet, and then you can post your character in the discussion thread so I can take a look at them.

Link to Discussion Thread

So I kept the traits as is from Lex's originals but I added in a Hellknight aspirant trait.

Squire of Ser Magnus Cortain: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Handle Animal and Ride checks, and one is always a class skill for you.

Porter for the 3rd Arquebusier Regiment of Cheliax: You gain a +2 trait bonus on Fortitude saves to avoid fatigue or exhaustion.

Cook's Assistant and Scullery Maid to Lady Thrune: You gain a +1 trait bonus to Profession (cook) or Profession (scullery maid) and Knowledge (nobility) checks, and one of them is always a class skill for you.

Wizard's Apprentice to Arastus, Wizard of the House of Thrune: You gain a +2 trait bonus on Handle Animal checks involving birds, and a +1 trait bonus to either Knowledge (arcana) or Spellcraft checks, and one of them is a class skill for you.

Servant in the Church of Asmodeus: You gain a +1 trait bonus to Heal checks. If your patron is Asmodeus, you gain a +1 trait bonus to Knowledge (religion) checks, and it is always a class skill for you. If you patron is not Asmodeus, you gain a +1 trait bonus to Bluff checks, and it is always a class skill for you.

Hellknight Aspirant to the Order of the Scourge: You gain a +1 trait bonus to intimidate and Sense Motive and one is always a class skill.

Alright, I'll post stats tomorrow, probably at night. Right now, I'm still conflicted between the cavalier I mentioned before and a wizard. I'll think on it more during the day tomorrow.

Sorry for being so slow here, will post with Marn in the morning.

Drinking a mutagen does not provoke an attack of opportunity since it's a Supernatural ability, an extract would though.

There's a couple of charts on the SRD that someone made for how to handle grapples that are fantastic.

Grapple Manuever

They're in the sidebar to the right. Excellent game aids.

Grapple's confuse me as well, so this is so handy, thanks Avakor!

Absolutely. I had a player that ran a Tetori once and he found them. They helped so much, since he grappled everything.

I've gotten all of my gear back from Grok.

I'm starting up a Shattered Star game her on the forums. The recruitment page is up. I thought I'd let everyone in the games I'm playing with know. :)

Damn, really want to play that, but I'm maxed for my current games :(

I'm interested, Cuan with the Elven Spell Dancer/Hexcrafter magus

Ohhh, I'll submit a character!! hmm, when is the submission deadline?

Have fun! I just got accepted to a RotRL campaign, so with that and our two groups here, I think I'm about maxed out on groups as well. :)

The deadline is going to be around next Thursday/Friday.

Here's the url for the recruitment thread: Shattered Star: Broken Dreams Recruitment Thread