Reign of Winter

Game Master TwelvePointFivePercent

Sixteenbiticon, that's a beautiful set of stats for a character that only depends on one stat. Also slightly better than the point buy.

GM, how do you feel about dropping strength below 10 on on a point buy? A healer eclessitheurge just has too many important stats. Wis is the casting stat, dex is critical for a decent AC, and cha is also needed to be decent because it's used for channel energy.

Also, there seems to be disagreement as to how strict the eclesitheurge's vow is. The relevant rule text is:
At 1st level, an ecclesitheurge
makes a vow to his deity to protect himself solely with his
faith, not with armor or shields.

In the 'fluff' description, The common cleric shields his soul in faith and his body in armor, but there are those clerics who choose to rely on
the power of faith alone as their defense.

There seems to be disagreement about whether he or she can use bracers of armor and stuff. Possibilities:
1. Absolutely no AC boosting equipment
2. Only the bonded holy symbol can be AC boosting equipment
3. Only AC boosting equipment the eclesitheurge helps craft, because then his or her goddess's power is in a sense still the source of the AC bonus
4. Only AC items crafted by, or at least with spell provided by, a cleric of the same goddess
5. All items other than actual armor or shields are OK.

I really doubt 1 is correct, because the second printing of the ACG has the example of an ecclesitheurge adding amulet of natural armor to his bonded holy symbol. I find any of the others believable. I love the flavor of 3 or 4.

Can I get your view on this? It will influence whether I am content with 16 dex after racials or need 18.

Option 5, as I read the rules.

You cannot wear Armor or Shields, regardless of whether you had a hand in their creation or not. If they are not armor or shields, you can use them, even though they give AC bonuses. Bracers of armor would be fine, as would a set of archmage's robes.

That archetype really would have made a lot more sense if their faith actually gave them some defensive abilities, but I digress.

I'm fine with stat-dropping, but I pay more attention to carrying capacity for low-strength characters. You won't be wearing armor, so I don't really think it will be an issue.

Unless you end up small size, or something like that.

Small size characters can carry proprotionately more. Their carrying capacity is 3/4th of a Medium, but all their equipment weighs half as much as medium equipment.

This is my Spirit Summoner and his Eidolon. I just need to change his trait Chance Savior for something else and tweak the background a little.

Small size characters can carry proprotionately more. Their carrying capacity is 3/4th of a Medium, but all their equipment weighs half as much as medium equipment.

This is my Spirit Summoner and his Eidolon. I just need to change his trait Chance Savior for something else and tweak the background a little.

Cool. Your eidolon reminds me of the binder vestiges in 3.5e. I like it.

Hexes, channel energy, spells, and an eidolon? Wow, I wasn't aware that covering all those bases was possible. You're like a one person party, hah.

If the party wishes to do so, please feel free to weigh in on which option you'd rather I play. If I do the half-giant, I might write his story so that his giant half was of the northern frosty variety. That'd certainly be interesting. But the rogue provides the party with DD, so I'm still kinda torn between the two concepts.

If it impacts anyone's decisions, you should know that an ecclesitheurge is a little squishier than a wizard, because they can't buff themselves with mage armor. Thus, I can't be a frontline fighter at all, or help the rogue by flanking.

If it impacts anyone's decisions, you should know that an ecclesitheurge is a little squishier than a wizard, because they can't buff themselves with mage armor. Thus, I can't be a frontline fighter at all, or help the rogue by flanking.

That sounds like maybe a nudge towards the mesmerist? That way we have the eidolon and the mesmerist on the frontlines, and the ecclesitheurge and the summoner on the backlines.

Bard, bloodrager or alchemist would all fit in pretty well, I think.

If it impacts anyone's decisions, you should know that an ecclesitheurge is a little squishier than a wizard, because they can't buff themselves with mage armor. Thus, I can't be a frontline fighter at all, or help the rogue by flanking.

Dex, Divine Shield, and Protection from X?

Dex, Divine Shield, and Protection from X?

Dex applies just as much to a wizard, Divine Shield is third party, and protection from X is much more limited than mage armor, because it only is good against some alignment enemies. I'm not saying a bit of wind will knock a well-built ecclesitheurge over, only that they should be in the same very squishy category as a wizard or sorcerer.

My bad, Shield of Faith. Good point though.

I am definitely going with the vexing daredevil mesmerist. I'm trying to combine two ideas into one solid concept, but either way this character is shaping up to be a force!

Edit: Also, with the bonus feats, can we use them if we don't qualify for them? In other words, can I power attack at first level even though I have a +0 BAB?

Power Attack and Deadly Aim can only be used if you have at least +1 base attack. Combat Expertise can be used regardless of base attack.

Alright, I guess I'll just have to settle for 3d6 + 6 damage until I hit second level. :P

^ That's gonzo! Not to mention I think Almos' eidolon gets those feats too, which will certainly help. Even if you (general you) still have to wait to meet the requirements of some of them before you can actually use them, it's a big help to not have to spend the feat slots for them.

You want gonzo I should play my goblin. He'd bash kneecaps with his crossbow and use Power Attack/Deadly Aim/Point Blank Shot all at once. :3

Haha nice!

After a lot of hemming and hawing, I think I'll try a gnome bloodrager (though I was very tempted to do a Silver Balladeer bard). Still a little fuzzy on the details but probably a vanilla bloodrager with either the fey or destined bloodline. Not sure if I'll take a bloodline familiar or not either; depends on how I see the character behaving :3

But that's the gist of it so hopefully that'll help the DM if we do decide to add a 5th :)

So we've got ourselves a gnome bloodrager, half-giant mesmerist, samsaran summoner, and an aasimar cleric. My, what an interesting spread. We've got damage in spades, buffs, debuffs, heals, face, and a decent spread of knowledges, I'm sure. A skill monkey might be nice. Or we can just keep it at 4. I'm fine with either decision.

This is my placeholder until I come up with a name for my character. I quite like the avatar, though. I'm still trying to figure out my build (long term, at least), but I think my 1st level feat will be medium armor proficiency since it looks like I can't regain panache while using a greatsword based on the swashbuckler panache mechanic rules. Bummer.

A scizore makes for a fairly interesting martial 1-handed piercing melee weapon. The morningstar is a simple alternative, and has no -1 to hit attached.

There's also the rapier or the Estoc, but why be boring? Crit range, that's why.

That's all well and good but a vital strike with a large greatsword does 6d6 damage, so it's an open and shut case on weapon choice. ;)

Ahem. If that's what you're after, get EWP: Bastard Sword, and run around two-handing a Huge bastard sword for 3d8 damage.

Vexing Daredevil gets one free martial weapon proficiency, so that's for greatsword. I'm going to dedicate my feats mostly to defensive stuff and utility. The exception being Moonlight Stalker. But the jury's still out on that.

I've got two unspent skill points that I can use to shore up any knowledges we don't have covered. I've got arcana, dungeon, history, local, nobles, and religion. How about dungeon and local? Those seem fitting.

Short dirty version of the story is my father was taken in by a Kellid tribe in the Realm of the Mammoth Lords and raised to revere the tribe. He courted the priestess/shaman/mystic and had me lead by a witch that hexed me as an abomination. The tribe was eventually attacked and wiped out by the same frost giants which my father was taken from. I escaped and have been wandering ever since. I'm either passing through Heldren when things go down, or I could've been living there a while. Both options work.

Sounds good to me! I'm still working on Josie; I hope to be finished with her by the end of the weekend at latest but would prefer and will shoot for a little sooner than that, maybe by tomorrow evening or Saturday.

I'm mostly done with the mechanics of my cleric, but I'm waiting to write the background (even the name) to try for some common backstory with someone. I'm thinking that I have a parent who is a cleric of Sarenrae, but I don't know of what ethnicity yet (this is flexible for the common backstory).

If in building your characters, you guys have some money you want to chip in to help buy a partial wand of cure light wounds, let me know.

Once I get done with equipment I'll be happy to chip in leftover cash towards a wand!

Regarding backstory, hum...I'm a lot more fuzzy on details regarding Josie than I was with Soliana. It may seem a little silly, but I'm almost envisioning a wannabe paladin sort. Heart's in the right place, but she's way too chaotic for it to actually work. Don't worry though, she'll be more than just comic relief.

After some thinking...if Josie is a wannabe paladin (or perhaps even thinks she IS a paladin), maybe she could be a fellow follower of Sarenrae like Redelia's cleric and they know each other through the same temple or church contacts? I'm not sure what sort of personality you're envisioning for your cleric but the connection could be anything from friends to 'they stuck me with this crazy gnome'.

Just some ideas :)

GM, how are you planning on doing initiative moving forward? In your initial recruitment for the game, you said:

"Initiative is handled on a group basis, 1d20+(total pc initiative bonus/4) vs 1d20+(total enemy initiative/number of enemies)."

But then during our combat with the zombies you rolled initiative as normal. If you could give us a definitive ruling on that, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

I forgot, to be honest.

I think we'll go with the method originally described. It seems cleaner in PbP.

Okay, I think I've got Josie's mechanics & equipment all good to go. I still need to do some formatting work on the profile to make it prettier and easier to read, but all the relevant information should be there. She's got a whopping 17gp left but she'll be happy to donate that towards the wand purchase.

Regarding character connections, after thinking a bit more and monkeying with her how about she be the bodyguard/escort for Redelia's cleric? She won't be quite as silly/goofball as I might've made her out to be at first, but she does honestly believe that her rages are a result of her channeling Sarenrae's wrath and righteous might rather than being due to her own bloodline(s).

@Rolg - I hope you don't mind Josie also jumping on the 2h bandwagon but it seems appropriate for a bloodrager and amusing considering she's a small-size race.

This just hit me so take it or leave it. Rolg met Josie shortly after he left the north. He was mocking her small size and in the ensuing battle she handily beat him. That gained his respect. Having no other pressing matters he traveled with her. She taught him the common tongue (Taldane?) and they took on work as bodyguards. I like the idea of a half-giant and a gnome working together. What do you think?

That could work also! Would also explain how she knows the Giant language too (which I'd actually meant to swap for something else at first) :3

And now we have our own secret code, nice. Now to decide which irl language to use for it...

So when does this redux kick off?

I hope to get my character finished off later today. This weekend was really crazy with family stuff.

No worries Red, Easter weekend must've been busy for lots of folks since the forums were even quieter than usual!

@Rolg - Maybe Icelandic for Giant? Or another one of those Scandinavian languages :)

New alias is chosen, but details are not yet uploaded. I still have to finish buying stuff and also choose a campaign trait.

A shared background with Josie makes a lot of sense. It makes sense that a temple of Sarenrae would make sure an ecclesitheurge would be accompanied by someone with melee skills.

I can't finish buying stuff until I know how much gold you guys can contribute toward healing.

edit: basic details are uploaded, but campaign trait and a partial wand are not yet done. Also, the software is missing a domain power that I need to add. I will finish up the details tomorrow.

Okay, so tentatively we've got Josie & Rolg pairing up to be bodyguards + Josie pairing up to accompany Hariette. Perhaps Josie met Rolg first but then the church of Sarenrae contacted Josie to have her accompany Hariette to investigate the strange happenings near Heldren. Not having anything better to do and with Josie vouching for his character, Rolg comes along as well.

Hopefully we can work Almos in somehow also :)

Regarding healing supplies, I've got the 17gp to kick towards a partial wand. At the risk of being a bit metagamey, it sounded like we probably would've found some stuff in the carriage if we'd survived the first time around so there might be that as well!

Considering I could've just been told by Chakacoatl to go to Heldren after saving Lorrimor instead of sticking around in the Carrion Crown area, I might have gone the caravan guard route and met up with them that way.

I certainly like the idea of Rolg being a brutish tag-along who speaks broken common. He's not quite as dumb as he looks and he'll use that to his advantage (reflecting his abilities to manipulate people via the mesmerist class features). I won't be writing a big long detailed character background for him as I've written several in the recent past and would prefer to keep his short and to the point.

Well then, it sounds like we're soon pretty set for starting up.

Long and detailed is not neccesarily a prerequisite, but I do need
*something*.

As soon as I've got that for Rolg, Hariette and Josie, we can get started again :)

Will do! I'll try and get that done today (and her profile prettied up).

Where does Josie's background put her? I've got Rolg fleeing the Realm of the Mammoth Lords south into Belkzen, and I was thinking he makes his way into Vigil in Lastwall. I haven't researched that area yet because I wanted to see where you envision the two characters crossing paths.

Here is a pretty great map I found that I've been using to plot his course. It's so hard to find a quality map of decent resolution that isn't cut up into smaller chunks. It has been very helpful.

Hariette's father was a cleric of Sarenrae. He had a vision of Sarenrae soon before Hariette was conceived, which is probably why she is an aasimar. Her father was a wise man who raised Hariette just like a human girl, so she doesn't have all the baggage many aasimars do. She grew up loving Sarenrae, so when she was old enough to choose her own path, it was natural for her to be a cleric. She feels safety from the sun's warmth, which is why she took the ecclesitheurge oath. She is journeying north to bring Sarenrae's warmth to the cold lands.

(the city or geographic area is left blank to help fit together with other characters)

Hmm...I think Josie's path will also be a bit meandering; she was originally born on the floating island of Gogpodda and after a time decided that she was ready to leave and see more of the world than just largely-endless ocean. This happened when the island floated close enough to Magnimar that she was able to pack her belongings and travel with traders to the mainland.

From there (Varisia) I can see her traveling a bit of a meandering path that could take her through the northern part of Nirmathas and into Lastwall. Although Sarenrae's worship is more concentrated in southern nations like Osirion, Qadira, etc. perhaps Josie met someone on her travels that spoke to her about Sarenrae and ignited her curiosity. Maybe Hariette's father on some sort of missionary excursion?

*edit* Also I really like Maps of Golarion when I need to reference geography :)

Yeah, unfortunately the pathfinder wiki and maps of golarion are blocked for me at work. Ah, the pains of working on a military base!

I'll try to keep plugging away today. It's very hectic at work as we've having some serious network issues. This weekend is also looking to be quite busy, but maybe I can write a bit after we put the little one to bed.

Here is what I have written so far:

No worries Rolg. I'm sorry it's been taking so long on my end of things too; I start my new job Monday and I've been trying to get some other things done and in order before then as well as readjust my sleeping schedule so it's left me a bit mentally drained in regards to writing much of a backstory.

Just a heads-up; I just found out that I'll be gone from the 11th to the 15th. I might have a little internet access, maybe. We'll see.

Most likely, I'll be entirely unable to post here.

Rolg's profile has been updated with his character background. It is short and sweet and to the point. Feel free to take the reigns on where the duo travels to next Josie.

Okay, will do! Started my new job today so that (and preparing for that) has kept me a little busy the past few days but I'll see what I can whip up :)

Is everyone still with us? Are we just waiting on Josie to finish her background and then to have a brief discussion on tying us all together? I just want ensure we're still moving forward.