DM Barcas - The Carrion Crown

Game Master Isaac Duplechain

In the mists of the haunted nation of Ustalav, a dark conspiracy stirs. The death of a trusted mentor is the first clue that will lead to the gates of death, and beyond.


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Well, my friends, it's high time we started planning out what we want from Carrion Crown. The PDF likely will be out in about a week, along with the Player's Guide. With that in mind, don't get 100% attached to something, as the specifics might have to change to fit to the setting. We'll probably start in the second week of March, after I've fully digested the PDF.

CHARACTER CREATION

We are going to follow similar rules as we use in Kingmaker. IE 20 point buy as the base, +2 points for being Chaotic/Lawful or Good/Evil, +1 if both. This way LN/NE/CN/NG are 22 points, while LG/CG/CE/LE are 23 points. This way gives a bit more flexibility, I think. (The story will come first, so we'll have to figure out how to make a CN/CE/NE/LE/NN character work, both individually and in the party.)

STORYLINE

Since no one (presumably) has played Carrion Crown, we'll probably play a pretty similar story to the printed AP rather than the modified version of Kingmaker that we are currently playing. What kind of campaign do you guys want? Gritty, morally gray expedition with horrible no-win choices? Heroic, kick-in-the-door-and-stake-everyone type adventures?

PARTY CREATION

If anyone wants to play a magus, samurai, or ninja, that's fine. (We may have to adjust the fluff. We may not. We'll see.) The gunslinger, in my opinion, is too far from finished, as is Words of Power. Carrion Crown probably has a lot of crypt-delving, so you'll probably want a trap-spotter. You almost certainly want an undead/demon/devil/werewolf/etc expert. Let's see if we can make a party as good as our Kingmaker party!

TENTATIVE IDEAS

LoreKeeper: You've talked to me about a LG male dwarf monk, probably of one or more archetypes.
smashthedean: You've developed a really great NG Elf Wizard. I think he's great.
Rellen: You've poked the idea of a wizard, possibly with a tie to Duron. You also looked at an emo druid.
Sigz: You suggested a bard or inquisitor, the detective-type with a longcoat.
vagrant-poet: You put in a phalanx-type fighter, possibly a former mercenary. He may be an alcoholic.
downrightamazed: You floated an academic who is heading out into the real world for the first time.

Okay, let's brainstorm and get our creativity on!


Do want!

I'm currently moving on from the original concept - currently my heart is on a human monk of the empty hand & lotus.

Storyline: my vote is for a campaign with rollercoasting. The kind of thing where we are occasionally tossed into the very deep end of things. The tone varies.


The archetype for Monk of the Lotus emphasizes pacifism. Would your monk have the same mindset?

What draws you to the monk, and how might he fit in with Ustalav?


Yes, pacifist tendencies, with non-intrusive "teacher" overtones. The kind of guy that sees the good and the useful in things; and who seeks balance across it all.

Honestly, I don't know how he fits into Ustalav yet. I'm hopeful that the player's guide will paint enough of a scene for me to find a good reason.


Male (he/him) Irish Physicist (Programmer Dedication) 5

Okay. I had a flash of an idea yesterday. I want to play a character concept I had a while ago.

The basic idea is that many of the barbarian's classs features, excepting rage aren't savage specific and quite a few are mildly roguey/dungeon focused. (traps sense and uncanny dodge)

So I want to make a fairly high Int Barbarian, a Pathfinder explorer, with a few new class skills from cosmopolitan and traits. I think it would be really fun, I've always liked being 'Not a dumb fighter', now it will be not a dumb barbarian!

Would you be okay with that concept? No archetypes, as they embrace the savage side of the class!

Stats would be something like
Str 16
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 14
Wis 13
Cha 10

Which as a human gives me 7 skill ranks per level. Which aint too bad! His strength should be up to the minimum at which it will need to be, but he should still be deadly. Its hard not to do damage with two handed fighting.

Okay so that was very mechanical. I'm thinking he's a bit a of a black sheep within the Society. There is a lodge in Caliphas, but its considered out of the way, and he was sent there after his rage in battle got him into trouble down south. I like the idea of him receiving care packages from home. That said I think he should have a few Ustalav natives for this campaign, so he'll be a local Varisian if not more than two others are.

Storyline! I'm up for it getting a little dark! But then Kingmaker is gritty as hell, so if you want to change it up I admit to having always loved old schooley s&~+ like high heroics, dungeon crawlin, naming bands of adventurers, etc.

Sovereign Court

I am definitely going druid, but I am not so sure about the emo part, lol. I am going to build a front liner, so probably...

Str 18, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 11, Wis 14, Cha 7

If I can get an exception since I literally cannot take any of the 23 point alignments and be a druid I would bump the Int up to 12.

Feats: Improved Initiative, Spell Focus Conjuration

I am moving towards a snarky Varisian with a Roc companion, but I am going to wait for the players guide before delving too deeply into background. I am thinking something along the lines of him having had a father in Harrowstone, a murderer, or rapist, and this having caused him a great deal of distress both from his father's treatment of him before his imprisonment and from the reputation as a murders son since. No formal druid training - if such a thing exists - but rather an animals are my only friends kind of vibe.


Male (he/him) Irish Physicist (Programmer Dedication) 5
Verik Jarrow wrote:

I am definitely going druid, but I am not so sure about the emo part, lol. I am going to build a front liner, so probably...

Str 18, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 11, Wis 14, Cha 7

If I can get an exception since I literally cannot take any of the 23 point alignments and be a druid I would bump the Int up to 12.

Feats: Improved Initiative, Spell Focus Conjuration

I am moving towards a snarky Varisian with a Roc companion, but I am going to wait for the players guide before delving too deeply into background. I am thinking something along the lines of him having had a father in Harrowstone, a murderer, or rapist, and this having caused him a great deal of distress both from his father's treatment of him before his imprisonment and from the reputation as a murders son since. No formal druid training - if such a thing exists - but rather an animals are my only friends kind of vibe.

Woo! More Ustalavites! Ustalavics? Ustalavi?

Sovereign Court

downrightamazed: Have you considered an alchemist? It fits the academic archetype you are going for pretty well. I've just been running one as a NPC and damn those bombs are nasty!


Male (he/him) Irish Physicist (Programmer Dedication) 5

Okay:

Aydan, family much the same. Two sisters, innkeeper father and ex-adventurer mother.

He grew up always wanting to be a pathfinder, and travelled to Absalom when he was eighteen. He never showed a flair for magic, and turned his academic interests to history and dungeoneering instead. He spent a few years learning to be a Pathfinder, before being attached to an expedition as an initiate. He did alright, but during his tour with the expedition in the Mwangi Expanse they were attacked by charu-ka and Aydan lost himself in his battle fury, he fought off quite a few charu-ka, but also accidentally wounded one of his fellow initiates.

After they returned to the Grand Lodge he got a black mark on his folio and was reassigned home to Ustalav. There he was mostly passed over for missions so decided to go earn his full membership on his own steam and set off for the west of the country with a fine pack and desire for adventure.

Aydan is a chaotic good chap, he's not naturally handsome or forceful, but he talks to people and always makes an effort (ranks in diplomacy). He has some gear from his mothers adventuring days (rich parents trait) and a quick mind (int 14, wis 13). Despite that he's a big chap at just over six foot tall and muscular, he wields a greatsword with proficiency in combat.

Aydan will never kill a woman, as he is a benevolent chauvanist, he will try to stop his party members from killing women too. Even in a rage he won't attack women with lethal force.

The druid is going to be more of a beast than I am!


Male Human Barbarian 1

And statted up!

The fact that armor check penalties apply to Disable device now, really hurts! If we do get a rogue, I reckon Aydan will cop that he's doing a better job and fork over the masterwork tools, changing his skill ranks in future! But he's going to start with those ranks because its who he is!


Verik Jarrow wrote:
downrightamazed: Have you considered an alchemist? It fits the academic archetype you are going for pretty well. I've just been running one as a NPC and damn those bombs are nasty!

I haven't, TBH, but now you mention it that's not a bad idea. I have an anti-alchemist prejudice for no particularly good reason, though steampunk fatigue is probably part of it, combined with the couple alchemists I've seen players run weren't, I think, run very well. They always kept trying to mutagen into a tank and then getting their 455es kicked, which didn't strike me as the class' optimal function in a party.

I'm definitely still liking the academic idea, though, and maybe this could be a chance to finally come to grips with how to make an alchemist work.

Archetype brainstorming, just to write these down and see what I (and anyone else interested in commenting) like best;
He's a wannabe-ghostbuster type, eager to help solve hauntings.
OR
He's a nega-psychic, a Dana Scully-esque empiricist.
OR
He's a slacker perpetual-grad-student type, talented but unmotivated
OR
He's an older academic whose life of comfort was recently turned upside-down by tragedy

Hmmm...


As for story I, too, am a big fan of a balanced distribution of action and whodunit/exposition. Part of why the Kingmaker campaign is so much fun.

Sovereign Court

Game wise I like tough encounters, a grim tone sits well with me, but hopefully not unremittingly grim. My major concern would be encounters being too easy, but I can confidently say I trust both the DM and Paizo so I am extremely jazzed whatever comes our way.

My alchemist NPC was a gnome pesh dealer, he drinks a dex mutagen to put his dex up to 20 - with NPC point buy. He also had a phenomenal armor class with a really high dex, and the natural armor bonus for the mutagen, as well as being able to wear armor.

I think alchemist are far better as ranged attacks there bombs are just nasty, 1d6 per two levels damage + Int mod as a ranged touch attack, that also deals minimum damage to those within 5ft. of the target (reflex half for those getting splashed only) eligible for Rapid Shot no less! With haste at 5th level you are looking at 9d6+15 as a ranged touch to one target (no save) and 24 damage (with 3 saves for half) to anything within 5 feet, that can potentially at the same time create a stinking cloud around an area 5 feet beyond the splash zone (if you take smoke bomb and stink bomb as you discoveries.).

The only downside I can see is that they only get class level plus Int mod bombs per day, but even at first level you are looking at 5 or 6 and at those levels where bombs will be scarce - especially if using rapid shot - viles of acid or alchemist fire are almost as good as bombs because you get your int bonus to their damage to with throw anything.


Out of the academic-type concepts, I like #1 and #2 best, then #4, and finally #3 last. #2 might be difficult to pull off, since he'd actually be the Mulder. (In the sense that he believes in something that the rest of the world doesn't, since pretty much everybody believes in magic/ghosts/undead/etc.)

A bomb-focused alchemist is very different than a mutagen-focused alchemist.


Between Duron and Verik's druid concept, we are going to have about a million companions/summoned creatures on the field.

Sovereign Court

I have to say my biggest mechanical question is whether to go Shaman or not. I think Lion Shaman is the best of the three for a melee druid, but I am not sure lions would be appropriate to the area, maybe a mountain lion shaman sort of thing...

The real big sell of the shaman is that you get a minor shift thingy early, and get to summon animals of your shaman types, felines for a lion shaman, as a standard action rather than as a fullround - which is huge. But you do not get wildshape until 6th level. However when you get it it counts as 8th level for felines (4th level for anything else)meaning you can instantly change into large felines - which is awesome as the Dire Tiger is a combat beast (literally I guess, lol).


How about a wolf shaman? Can tie it into the werewolves common to the area. Alternately, we can make it work with werelions.

Sovereign Court

I think that summoning is a great deal easier to manage in PBP, where you have all the stats to hand, I've found it does not really slow things up like it potentially can in a RL game. Plus my character is not likely to do alot of it because he will need his actions to kick ass and take names. :)

The wolf shaman is a bit pants mechanically, and werewolves while quite cool to encounter have never appealed to me enough to want to play one - after having just listened to the Mercy Thompson novels on audiobook I am a little sick of them to be honest. Used to play a lot of druids in 3.5 and never took a wolf companion, just seems a bit too obvious perhaps. I had been toying with the idea of his father being a werewolf the alignment change giving a good reason for him to have done some terrible things to his son and others, but I prefer the he was just a horrible person angle, its bleaker.

I am sort of envisioning a trapper - Orlivanch is my daddy! - who lived far away from it all after his wife died - in childbirth is possibly a bit cliche - and took his frustrations out on his son. Never having anyone else to turn to my character - still mulling names - slowly tamed a local mountain lion after finding it injured and nursing it back to health. I figure a young male who had lost a fight for territory.

Then his dad, always a violent man, kills someone and a few more trying to hide his crime. Somekind of big argument between father and son father threatens to kill the still injured lion, my character clocks him from behind and turns him in.

I think that gives him a strong connection to the little blurb of the 1st adventure and that's the main thing I would be concerned about giving a very antisocial type a reason to team up as part of a group in the first place. After a while it will not be a problem as he would crave company having had a very lonely childhood, etc. Probably want him at 16 or 17 having been alone up in the cabin - save for his animal companion - for a couple of years.


@downrightamazed:

In case it got lost in the ooc thread - Breadth of Experience is a great feat for non-standard academics. Comes with a age/racial prerequisite though.


Verik Jarrow wrote:
I think alchemist are far better as ranged attacks there bombs are just nasty, 1d6 per two levels damage + Int mod as a ranged touch attack, that also deals minimum damage to those within 5ft. of the target (reflex half for those getting splashed only) eligible for Rapid Shot no less! With haste at 5th level you are looking at 9d6+15 as a ranged touch to one target (no save) and 24 damage (with 3 saves for half) to anything within 5 feet, that can potentially at the same time create a stinking cloud around an area 5 feet beyond the splash zone (if you take smoke bomb and stink bomb as you discoveries.).

Yeah, see, this already makes more sense to me than what I've seen my players do, and since I'm looking at a high-INT character anyway to back up my fluff, that works nicely.

Hm. I may even get to some mechanics on this today.


LoreKeeper wrote:

@downrightamazed:

In case it got lost in the ooc thread - Breadth of Experience is a great feat for non-standard academics. Comes with a age/racial prerequisite though.

Nope! I saw it. I just didn't get a chance to reply until an hour or so ago. I really appreciate that suggestion 'cos I probably wouldn't have remembered it while doing the build. It's a great idea!


I just remembered, there is a nice feat in Seekers of Secrets called Dilettante that might also make sense for your character (especially in conjunction with Breadth of Experience).

At DM Barcas: what level 1 money scheme will we be following?


Average money, since you don't have Brevoy handing out starting funds to you.


Phew lots of activity in here while I've been sleepin!

Well my character is pretty much done unless the player's guide throws anything wild out there so I'll stick to tossing out my input on everyone else's characters.

LoreKeeper: Monk

Monk of the Lotus has some cool abilities. I too am not sure how he fits into Ustalav as monks are kind of hard to place in a lot of settings it seems, but I'm thinking more light will definitely be shed with the PG.

Rellen: Druid

Definitely go Lion Shaman. That archetype is also my favorite and I don't see why it couldn't be a mountain lion. The companion entry is really just Big Cat which could include Lions, Tigers, Panthers, or whatever. I think with the story you gave the mountain lion makes sense to me.

Sigz: Detective

I'm still thinking Rogue or maybe Rogue/Inquisitor (teamwork feats work great for Rogues) might be the best bet here. I know you were originally thinking bard, but your character concept just doesn't seem very bardy by me and Rogues are so useful to have around especially if this campaign is going to be trap-heavy. You mentioned going for either a CG paranoid type or a LG copper; if you went with the CG character, I'd probably recommend Calistria as your deity as she is all about revenge which could be a motivator for being a paranoid detective maybe?

vagrant-poet: Smart Barbarian

Aydan looks good. Can't think of many more recommendations for him.

downrightamazed: Alchemist

Seeing a functional Alchemist would be pretty rad as I've never really seen one played before or messed around with one. I say go for it! I kind of like the older academic idea, but like #1 and #2 as well.

So basically what we're looking at so far is:

Elf Conjurer: primary caster, knowledge skills, spellcraft
Human Barbarian: primary melee, support skills, support trapfinding
Human Monk: primary melee, physical skills
Human Druid: primary melee, support caster, nature skills, support healing
Bard?/Rogue?/Inqusitor?: support melee, support caster?, skill-heavy, support healing?
Alchemist: ranged support, support casting and healing, whatever else alchemists do?

Seems like we're going to be pretty front-line heavy, which is good. We're light on healing, but if we have a Druid, Alchemist, and either a Bard or Inquisitor running around we'll have lots of people who can kind of heal so we'll probably be fine and we can always rely on potions and wands and the like. We're also going to be really heavy on knowledge skills as we seem to have a lot of high int characters who are academics in one way or another.


Also, Duron's gear fixed to account for his non-max gold (had to turn in my longbow for a shortbow).

Also as to the tone of the campaign, I'm pretty much up for whatever. I really like the way Kingmaker is being run so sticking to that works for me :)


We could really use an undead-focused ranger. Considering Rangers get 6+INT skills, you could still make him the detective type focused on driving out the undead. A ranger/rogue might be a good option as well.


If you went Ranger I'd reccomend the Urban Ranger archetype to be more detectivey and also to get Disable Device as a class skill :)


Say hi to Veren :)

Veren, say hi to everybody.

"Hi"

I think I've got a pretty good explanation for how Veren comes about and how he fits into the story. I took some liberties with time-lines, since we don't have exact information available yet.


Looks good to me :)


Male Human Barbarian 1

'Howdy Veren! Names Mishnok, Aydan Mishnok, Pathfinder extraordinaire. Strong handshake you got there chap. I appreciate a firm hand. Hope we can learn to work together nicely! I'm sure we will. I'm a lovely man after all! Very easy to work with!'

^ Not Tandlara! :p


Duron looks up from his book as the only other patrons of the tavern greet each other. 'These look like nice folk.' he thinks to himself as he studies their features. 'They certainly look strong. I could use companions like this.'

He stands from his table, walks over to the two men, and speaks in a soft voice, "Good evening fellows. My name is Dúron. As company seems a bit scarce in here this evening and you two seem so jovial, I decided to come over and introduce myself. Have you been in Ravengro long? I just arrived from Caliphas myself."

From reading the info about the first book on its product page, it appears that this path starts out in a town called Ravengro in western Ustalov.


Note how our avatars are looking at each other - this party is clearly fated... ;)

Veren grins. Apparently it's a fixture on his face. "I've mostly always been around. Though not in the tavern much."


Smiling as well, Duron replies, "I don't spend much time in taverns myself, at least not in the evenings, but it seemed a good place to grab a quiet bite to eat this afternoon. Would you care to join me at my table?" He motions to a table in the far corner of the room with a heavy tome sitting atop it and a half finished bowl of soup placed off to the side.


Male

Alright, I'll play the urban ranger then. But I'd like to take the skirmisher archetype as well and ask about the infiltrator archtype. Becouse the urban ranger gets favored comunity and the infiltrator gets adaptation wich both replace favored terrain so raw they don't stack but I'd like to ask for an exeption to that and take the infiltrator archtype as well.

So an Infiltrator /Skirmisher /Urban ranger? And seeing as were covered in the melee department I'll make him an archer. Or maybee a Switch Hitter?


I'd rather see a bard still, personally.

If you're going to play into the anti-undead archetypes; you might as well play an undead scourge paladin. :)


If you go for skirmish/infiltrator (and urban ranger) which of the class powers would you want to keep? The favored community or the infiltration?


Male

infiltration.

Paladins don't get disable device I believe and frankly if I play a paladin he'd be skirting the need for a redemption spell on a regular basis. Hmm.. maybee that's not such a bad idea.


Traits were made to fill in gaps in class skills. Vagabond Child, Gold Finger or Wisdom in the Flesh could all cover that need for you :)

Sovereign Court

Male Human Lion Shaman 1

Argh, just spent an hour writing up a background, hit enter and got, "you backtracked too far." This site leaves a lot to be desired, grrrr.


Wesh Theron wrote:
Argh, just spent an hour writing up a background, hit enter and got, "you backtracked too far." This site leaves a lot to be desired, grrrr.

That sucks. I never hit Post without hitting CTRL+A, CTRL+C first :)


I don't know if Barcas will allow cherry-picking abilities from different archetypes... personally as a DM, I probably wouldn't allow it.

As for the build, I'd recommend the switch hitter probably, though I do love me some Archery.


Dúron wrote:

I don't know if Barcas will allow cherry-picking abilities from different archetypes... personally as a DM, I probably wouldn't allow it.

As for the build, I'd recommend the switch hitter probably, though I do love me some Archery.

Or rather trust your original instincts... listen to the soothing sound of my font. Be a bard. bard


Male

Urban Ranger it is to start, I'll stat out Andrezi tomorow. Bed time.


Male
LoreKeeper wrote:
Dúron wrote:

I don't know if Barcas will allow cherry-picking abilities from different archetypes... personally as a DM, I probably wouldn't allow it.

As for the build, I'd recommend the switch hitter probably, though I do love me some Archery.

Or rather trust your original instincts... listen to the soothing sound of my font. Be a bard. bard

I'm actually still interested in making the detective... aww heck. I'm off to bed.


I vote more for Urban Ranger than Bard. We need that Disable Device + Trapfinding!

Sovereign Court

Male Human Lion Shaman 1

I vote you play what you most want to play!

And yes its always prudent to save large blocks of text, but we all forget occasionally - at least I do - and its nice to have a system that covers our butts - on EnWorld I can always scroll back and all the text remains for example. Ah well spilt milk and all.

I am trying to determine how long ago Harrowstone Prison burnt down, because obviously if it was decades ago I cannot have a teenager who had a father imprisoned there.

Sovereign Court

Ah, found out the prison burned down 50 years before the start of play so my backstory would not really have worked as a tie in at any rate.


Yikes. Looks like Veren will have to ammend his story as well.


Male Human Barbarian 1

I agree with not cherry picking, favored community is a little bit a liet down becuase trapfinding is soo good. Getting infiltration instead would be decidely unbalanced, not neccesarily badly, hardly break the game or anything, but certainly just plain better in almost every way.

This is shaping up nicely! I like that the monk and drudi are both stronger than I am. Kind of funy, and gets across the non-stndard barbarian look I'm going for with him!

Melee = Aydan, Wesh and Veren?
Magic = Duron
If DRA goes alchemist thats another mostly ranged character. We'll need to get a wand of CLW early, everyone chip in, etc. That should cover healing.

So an archer ranger would almost be best, as combat will get crowded!


Male Human Barbarian 1

Good guy party!

sigz is probably going to be the dodgiest, unless DRA makes someone as dilema riddled as Taispar!

Though I have to say you guys play alignments fantastically! We all seem to be very cheerful chaps! At least the muscle squad!

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