GM Aest's Carrion Crown: Once Upon A Midnight Dreary (Inactive)

Game Master Aest

Welcome to Ustalav, Strangers!

Classes: Any except alternate classes (ninja, antipaladin, samurai). This could be a good fit for an occult class, if someone so desired.

Races: Core plus Aasimar, Tiefling, Dhampir, and Changeling. If you insist on something else, we'll talk about it, but strangeness is not loved in Ustalav.

Traits: 1 campaign, 1 other.

Point Buy: 20

Gold: 150

Please dot and delete in Gameplay, which will lock this game in, and then feel free to chat about characters here. We'll aim for either the 3rd or 4th, OR for the 7th, which would be significant because it was the first real post of my Kingmaker game 1 year ago.

Resources: What resources are you allowing with regards to feats, spells etc. All Paizo?

Aasimar is tempting but ehhh...too much on the power scale I think. I'll live with being a half orc. Might still go aasimar. I haven't quite finalized the build yet, but here's how its gonna look.

Feel free to use anything by Paizo. If it's something super-weird, like a crazy interaction you're basing a whole character off of, let me know, but other than that, you should be good to go with any Paizo.

Rawr.

This is turning into a busy week. The 4th or later would be best for me. I've got the player's guide but haven't read it yet.

Given the gold, I assume we are starting at 1st level?

Are we going to use background skills?

Sure, why not?

I'm working on bringing the colonel down to first level. That means giving up training in a number of skills.

I don't think anyone else has Trapfinding available, so I will make sure I have disable device.

What skills are other people planning to cover? Diplomacy, Knowledge skills, etc?

I'll be keeping perception, knowledge religion and spellcraft (currently I'm the only one who has derect magic on spell list) maxed at all times. Background skills will be knowledge history and linguistics.

I will later put some ranks into knowledge planes and alternate between putting ranks in knowledge planes and nature. I will alternate between putting ranks in intimidate and survival as well.

I'm considering putting ranks into UMD to get my spirit animal to be a wand monkey, but that will need me to use a feat for improved familiar at 7. Also, I lose my +4 init bonus.

My familiar will take valet archtype - don't care if I intend to craft or not at the end of the day, I'm eyeing the ability to psudeo flyby touch spells on allies.

I can use help with cantrips. At the maximum I only get 4 per day, one of which will be create water (its always a staple for me), the other detect magic (to identify items). That leaves 2 cantrips to play with. The last one is currently set as light. As such, I'm not even prepping stabilize.

Message would be useful in communication(its not on my spell list), sift for searching, as well as anything to take the burden off my cantrip list.

With regards to my way of healing: I cannot spontaneously cast CLW spells. However I do have some channels (I'll take selective channeling at 3). Each level, I will use one slot to memorise the biggest Cure spell I can fit in there. I've done that with my PFS evangelist cleric, it generally works fine at the table. I feel it is a waste to spend all your spell slots on heals, but that's me.

Okay, I see The Colonel, Jyoti, and Mirode. Missing Gosk still.

I forgot to dot. BAD GOSK!

I can take care of some of my own healing, but unfortunately will not be able to provide it to others. I plan to take the Infusion Investigator's talent at 3rd, but that is a long ways off.

I will take UMD since that is the only way for me to trigger any wands. I doubt that I will ever be excellent at it.

Okay, since we're all accounted for here, I'm going to shut down the other thread.

I did decide to continue with Gosk, since I quite like the character. However, his backstory would be a bit different.

I'm seeing how he could be sent to Ustalav in an operation to gather more information about necromancy in general. Nex is quite interested in necromancy, trying to understand how their millennia old enemy works, and are always looking for new research.

I am playing with the idea of re-making him into an Aasimar, since they really have great anti-undead goodies, and are generally an interesting race.

I'm still sticking to the loyalty to Nex thing, but I'm not sure if that's going to be of any relevance. Probably not. It would also alleviate some of the effects of paladin versus *insert random beastie here*, since understanding of the enemy is something he'd strive for, and not go for extermination of everything that looks somewhat shifty.

Quick question, what's the GM's thoughts on the Armored Kilt? I'm thinking of starting off with one, combined with scale mail, somewhat for looks as well, since I really like the way Dragon Age templars look and that's a look that'd sit quite well for a Nexian Paladin. If not, I can just have a normal sk... kilt.

I'll wait for a reply on the Aasimar subject, and start building the character afterwards. Not going to be changed much from the previous Gosk, just maybe a bit less cynical and suspicious. And, surprisingly, probably better at Sense Motive.

I have no problem with Aasimar. The "weird races" comment was more about anything I didn't have listed above. As for the armored kilt, it should be fine too, I think.

Note: I can't do anything about invisible creatures until 6/7ish. We might want to carry some flour around.

I will probably never actually be able to see invisible creatures.

My plans for level one are:

Regular Skills
Acrobatics
Bluff
Diplomacy
Knowledge: Local
Perception

Background Skills
Knowledge: History
Profession: Barmaid

The Barmaid rank is a one time thing that has more to do with her background than with my expectations for the game. Still, my goal is to find some situation where I can roll for it :D

Barmaid, ha! Cyrielle says hi, by the way.

For a moment I thought molotov cocktails were bombs you could make out of alcohol, lol.

I still need to update the backstory.

Chose Subject of Study (Aberrations) as the campaign trait.

Any suggestions on a good aberration to have survived attack by? I'm currently thinking Mimic, in which case he was obviously saved by someone he was traveling with.

I must admit to disliking how incompetent 1st level always feels.

Choker?
Fungal Crawler?
Cloaker?
Ettercap?

You're suffering from low level fatigue. Hmm personally don't mind it that much.

Heeeyo!

Here's the reworked Gosk. I've tried to go for a balance between awesome stuff and unusual options, and I've gathered it here.

Gosk, your stat line does not reflect your stats properly. Int is 13, which should give a +1 modifier, wis should be 8, giving a -1 modifier.

Also, teamwork feats generally benefit melee classes, of which its only you and Davi. I won't melee. Exceptions being escape route, lookout(which works best when everyone in party has it all the time-not really the stuff you give out), shake it off. Would standard pally abilities be better?

FYI - blade of mercy is a religion trait, which means you're a paladin of Sarenrae? (P.S her favored weapon is a scimitar)

Equipment wise - Scythes are fine, but consider something blunt if we run into dem bones? Not too much of a biggie since you can have my quarterstaff as soon as the game starts. But again, clubs and quarterstaves are free. Slings too.

Bah! That's what I get for re-using the old sheet.

I didn't actually know that about the Blade of Mercy (That's what I get for using the SRD!), and I'll change it. Regarding the Scythe, it's a pretty cool and underused weapon.

I was toying with the idea of actually studying necromancy, and the main reason I went with 13 Int is for Unsanctioned Knowledge, and I was planning on getting some of the helpful and reasonable necromancy spells, as a result of having studied the art for such a long time. Again, that's not going to come up for a long time, but warning the GM is reasonable.

I see the point about Holy Tactician. May change back to normal, for a tad bit more immunities.

Concern was the immense lack of feats Paladins get, and that alleviates that problem a bit, but, oh well.

Would Celestial Bloodrager work in place of Paladin? What sort of bonus feats were you looking for?

Sarenrae is one of the most redemptive gods in Golarion, except for Shelyn. Generally there's lots of showing mercy to evil stuff asking them to repent their sins and turn towards the light. My duty lies only in that people know what they're signing up for, before they do it.

And I don't really care what weapon you use to brain people, as long as you have feats(if required) for the weapon in question, i.e Catch-off guard if you decided to use a frying pan.

Regards to necromancy spells - keep an eye on whether they have the [evil] descriptor. There are some of them that do, I don't know what happens when you mix them with the pally code, but I try to avoid volatile situations like those like plague.

Well, I honestly can't give a THEORETICAL example of how a paladin should behave. I do have a bit of a PRACTICAL idea of how he would behave, without going too 'BURN EVERYONE! FOR *INSERT GOD HERE*!' or 'I'm just casually leaving the building with my fingers in my ears while someone's being tortured'.

I was thinking for a bit more of a studied approach to gods. Sarenrae shows forgiveness, Abadar protects the pillars of society that we have today, Irori guides the strive for mortals to achieve greater things and protect history and Torag is conveniently ignored.

Simply understanding the values and goals of all the good gods, while not devoting himself to any of the ways to act, and using personal judgement is what I see as a reasonable thing.

Well, if/since everyone's picked out a character concept, would you like to maybe forge connections between you all? If not, the funeral at the beginning of the AP can serve that purpose.

I wouldn't mind a bodyguard as I wander around the world, but as Vara is pretty reclusive due to local prejudice, I think any bodyguard would have to come from the Church of Desna. There is a possibility that I may have met one of you as passing acquaintances during one of the Professor's digs, but we'd probably not know each other very well.

I think the funeral at the beginning at the AP will serve.

I'm sticking with a military background. Less likely that I would be retired, but there should be some way to get unpaid leave.

I could easily see having met Gosk. There are certainly ways I could have met others.

Davi's done a fair bit of traveling so it's possible that one of you ran into her

I'm 50/50 on taking either undead or evil outsider for the Subject of Study campaign trait. Thoughts?

I'd do undead I think. First paragraph of adventure guide says people spend lots of time ensuring Pharasmin rites are being properly carried out at gravesites. Why? Because they want things that die to stay dead...

Ustalav was formerly held by undead armies. And undead don't ever die of old age...

I'd say, of the two, that undead is going to be much stronger mechanically. This is Gothic-Horror-Land, not Cheliax.

Gosk could've probably travelled with the same caravan/boat that got Col. Tipper to Ustalav, and that's a very long journey. A lot of time for military exploits to be discussed.

Vari is another Aasimar dealing with matters of life and death. As such, it is also possible that Gosk fills the gap for a bodyguard, despite his lack of affiliation to any churches. There could be many discussions on necromancy in general, and having (probably) different points of view would also be interesting later on.

I'd wait for Davi to be finished before I come up with ideas.

I finally got Davi updated, go me :D

I have an idea. Davi and I could meet on the way to the Professor's funeral. I noticed you don't have any ranks in survival. Lets just say I stop you from walking off into a peat bog or something.

I think Ustalavians are going to be prejudiced to both witches and changelings, and call us monsters. Us monsters should stick together!

Sounds good to me! In Davi's last game I failed a bunch of survival checks so she was always getting stuck in brambles or tripping over tree roots.

I may not post so frequently on the 6-9 of feb as its Chinese New Year here. Have parties to organize.

Okay. Well, what I'm going to do is throw down a post on the 7th, since the 1-year anniversary of my KM is just so tempting, then we'll take it from there. I'll make sure everyone can respond to it, even if it means waiting a few days for you, Mort. After that, we'll try to get to 3-4 posts/week unless the pace wants to go faster and I can sustain it.

I think I'm ready for the 7th.

I've updated the background, keeping some of the information from the old interview questions that seemed to fit. I'll probably update it a bit more later.

Gosk, was there anything more than two soldiers meeting on the boat involved with our encounter?

Davi, although our specializations are different we chose the same trait -- subject of study. Do you want there to be any connections between our two characters?

Anyone, feedback welcome. If there is something about either the background or the mechanics that you think I should consider, please tell me.

Technically as an investigator 16 int(maybe even 14) is enough, you don't really need 17. Usually those that pump a single mental stat to 18 are pure casters like wizards, sorcerers, witches. Spare stats could possibly go to str so you can use a composite shortbow.

I'm actually running a cleric with 14 wis, so far I don't feel I regret the stat allocation.

But that's more on mechanics. Not really important, current stat array is fine too.

@Mort Yes, you are correct. I had to think about it a while, but admit that he would be better off with more well rounded attributes. The added strength also takes care of concerns with weight carried.

Updated.

Alright. Gameplay is moving. Welcome, friends, to the Haunting of Harrowstone! Mwahahahahahahaha.

Hmm I thought I'd be sharing a wagon with Davi, and since Kendra walked into the house after greeting us, we might all have arrived on different wagons, almost at the same time. I wouldn't be sharing a wagon with you.

Besides the wagon seemed to be big enough to hold a single person, or maybe 2.

Uh Aest, maybe you could shed some light on this?

*peeks in*

I lurk some of Aest/BretI/Hmm/Mort's other games and so I might have to lurk in this one too. Because I like horror >:)

*scuttles away*

Sorry about the lack of a post today, feeling really sick.

Feel free to lurk! *mumbles about not being lurked on*

*blink*

Holy crap, it's Ladim! How did I not notice this sooner!? Good to see you again :D

(This is Palomia/Relas, hehe.)

Hmm I thought I'd be sharing a wagon with Davi, and since Kendra walked into the house after greeting us, we might all have arrived on different wagons, almost at the same time. I wouldn't be sharing a wagon with you.

Besides the wagon seemed to be big enough to hold a single person, or maybe 2.

Uh Aest, maybe you could shed some light on this?

I agree, it would be nice to know if we are coming via multiple wagons or only one. The post had us coming from the same place -- Ardis -- which is why I thought it may have been the whole group on the garlic wagon.

I can rewrite my last post, making it so I arrive after Vara and have to deal with an unknown dinosaur. Just let us know what the assumption was.

Yeah, I was thinking you all arrived in the same wagon, just in terms of the scene I was writing. If you'd prefer to have arrived separately, I can correct for that tomorrow-ish. Celebrating my team's Superb Owl victory.

Continue celebrating!

I don't see it as making much of a difference to my character which way we do it.