Hi all, Kittenmancer here, happy to have been invited to join.
Busara is a frontliner druid who spent all her money on ironwood full plate and also misplaced her animal companion. I have a very vague background in my head for her, which I will hash out as we get more details about the setting, but the general lines are that she comes from a nomadic tribe and was educated by priests (missionaries, maybe?). She found that their faith didn't suit her, so she took up the animistic faith of her people and is searching for her roots.
Welcome Kittenmancer! Great to be in another game with you.
YoricksRequiem, I don't think there's anything quite so obvious we can do for your character. Is there a PC class that your character would do well taking two levels in? I'd be willing to adjust a casting stat or things like that so you can build something fun.
Brennus as a casting familiar and another player as a martial animal fits pretty closely to what I had in mind - my ideal was to be more knowledge and support. The two things that immediately came to mind for classes are the Bard or Investigator.
They both give high amounts of Skills (plus Bardic Knowledge / Inspiration respectively), and some support spells. Alchemy doesn't super fit but there's an Investigator archetype that gives Bard Casting, which might be more appropriate. I'm a bit unsure on whether Bardic Performance would be weird for a pseudodragon, so I'm leaning a bit more towards Investigator.
As far as attributes go, I'm a bit uncertain if we're supposed to share our Master's or use the animal's. It makes a pretty staggering difference with what my familiar would actually be able to do, since by default Pseudodragons don't have positive modifiers for either Intelligence or Charisma.
Welcome Busara. :)
Brennus, you are built as a reflavored faerie dragon, correct? Then you 'cast spells as a level 3 sorcerer.' How about you basically add 2 more levels of sorcerer? That will give you more HP, you will have a second set of class skills, and you have the sorcerer skill points to distribute as you want, while leaving the animal companion ones by the rules.
Yep, I'm using a faerie dragon's stats! I could add a couple levels of sorcerer. I'm guessing I can change the feats I have from the default ones for a faerie dragon? EDIT: Oh, and any tweaks to stats? Since I'd be going from 3 HD to 5 HD, would I get a 4th-level +1 to a stat?
Also, welcome Busara!
And Yorick, I personally think a telepathic bardic performance by a pseudodragon would be awesome, but that's me. :D
VoodooMonkey checking in here. I've never made an animal companion before...The basic ability scores for a digmaul are: Str 18, Dex 20, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 7...is this what I am adding the ability score increases to? I'm on a few short breaks til 3 central, after that I will be able to devote my undivided attention to this...
The best basic info on building an animal companion is in the CRB in the description of a druid.
Weekend was busy, but I hope to finish the updates to Brennus tonight.
Okay, I *think* Brennus is all updated. Let me know if anything looks off.
VoodooMonkey checking in here. I've never made an animal companion before...The basic ability scores for a digmaul are: Str 18, Dex 20, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 7...is this what I am adding the ability score increases to? I'm on a few short breaks til 3 central, after that I will be able to devote my undivided attention to this...
The stats for animal companions are slightly different from the stats for normal creatures of their type. Look through the druid's animal companion rules for the base stats to use. d20pfsrd's list is pretty comprehensive.
Ok figured most of it out-went for the Cat, big template since the Digmaul matched.
Beginning stats for a big cat:Str 13, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 15, Cha 10,
7th level advancement:Str +8, Dex –2, Con +4,
1 stat advancement at 4th(added to Con)
+2 str/dex bonus at level 7 will bring my stats to:
STR:23 DEX:17 CON:18 INT:6 or 7(awakened) WIS:15 CHA:10 if I calculated everything right.
Going with standard big cat bite/claw attacks (7th level advancement) with Digmaul tail attack
Are we taking max Hp at first level 2HD and rolling for the rest how are you doing that
You said 2 levels of Monk...will that be added HP or just the skills associated with the class
What are you allowing as far as companion archetypes/monk class archetypes?
The two levels of monk are hp, saves, BAB increase, everything. Treat it as multiclassing, with your first class being 'animal companion.'
In terms of archetypes or anything like that, let me know what you were thinking about and we can discuss it.
Still waiting for clarity on Attributes and whether either of the classes I proposed made sense.
Being the familiar of a druid, I was thinking of Monk of the Four Winds which would pretty much just give me Elemental Fist in lieu of stunning fist.
Possibly Totem guid for the animal companion part
Assuming monk WIS bonus applies to AC regardless of whether I take an archetype...
Either way is cool with me-whatever is best for the adventure
So that's Animal Companion 7/ Monk 2 for a technical total of 8 levels?(6HD +2 Levels)
And how am I determining starting Hp?
Am I bipedal?
Welcome Kittenmancer! Great to be in another game with you.
YoricksRequiem, I don't think there's anything quite so obvious we can do for your character. Is there a PC class that your character would do well taking two levels in? I'd be willing to adjust a casting stat or things like that so you can build something fun.Brennus as a casting familiar and another player as a martial animal fits pretty closely to what I had in mind - my ideal was to be more knowledge and support. The two things that immediately came to mind for classes are the Bard or Investigator.
They both give high amounts of Skills (plus Bardic Knowledge / Inspiration respectively), and some support spells. Alchemy doesn't super fit but there's an Investigator archetype that gives Bard Casting, which might be more appropriate. I'm a bit unsure on whether Bardic Performance would be weird for a pseudodragon, so I'm leaning a bit more towards Investigator.
As far as attributes go, I'm a bit uncertain if we're supposed to share our Master's or use the animal's. It makes a pretty staggering difference with what my familiar would actually be able to do, since by default Pseudodragons don't have positive modifiers for either Intelligence or Charisma.
We can certainly make the bard work, if that's what you want to play. If you look in the wizard section of the CRB, a familiar gets its stats based on the base creature's bestiary entry. I will allow you to take either a +2 to a stat or +1 to 2 stats to match the stat increases the human-like characters get. Also, I will allow you to use any mental stat of your choice as a casting stat, or alternatively, to swap any two mental stats in your bestiary entry, whichever you prefer the flavor of.
Your HP, just to remind you, are half of your master's (for the familiar levels) plus two levels worth of bard, including your con modifier. You may take max HP at your first class level.I would suggest that your bard casting be a mix of humming a tune pleasantly and telepathic communication of the related words. It keeps the flavor, while working cleanly with the written class abilities.
If you prefer investigator, we can make similar changes to make it work.
Being the familiar of a druid, I was thinking of Monk of the Four Winds which would pretty much just give me Elemental Fist in lieu of stunning fist.
Possibly Totem guid for the animal companion partAssuming monk WIS bonus applies to AC regardless of whether I take an archetype...
Either way is cool with me-whatever is best for the adventure
So that's Animal Companion 7/ Monk 2 for a technical total of 8 levels?(6HD +2 Levels)
And how am I determining starting Hp?
Am I bipedal?
Your HP will be defined the standard way for both parts and added.
The masters were told to use max HP first level, 1/2 of hit die +1 +con+(FCB, toughness, etc.) on later level, so you get:
For animal companion: (1/2 of hit die +1+CON)X number of hit dice
For monk: same as masters, including max HP first level
Unless we get feats, I think I'm all updated. If that looks good I'll start getting an alias together.
Unless we get feats, I think I'm all updated. If that looks good I'll start getting an alias together.
You do get a feat with your first level of investigator.
Are the familiars happy with how your characters have turned out? I'm trying to boost you a little while keeping the flavor of a familiar. I also want that boost to add to your flavor, not take away from it. If it's not working out quite right, we can adjust things.
Yep! The funny thing is that this is close to how Brennus turned out in his original build, when he became a cohort rather than a familiar. :D
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I'm going to be driving out to GenCon tomorrow morning. I'm a Tier 1 PFS GM there, so I'm going to be GMing 8 tables between Thursday and Sunday.. (Then, after collapsing on Sunday, I'm going to drive about 14 or 15 hours on Monday... 5 hours farther away from home to where I can see the total eclipse, and then another 9 hours back home so that, after arriving after midnight, I can make the faculty workshop I need to be at on Tuesday morning.) As such, I won't be able to post until next Tuesday or Wednesday.
OK, thanks for letting us know.
Are the familiars happy with how your characters have turned out? I'm trying to boost you a little while keeping the flavor of a familiar. I also want that boost to add to your flavor, not take away from it. If it's not working out quite right, we can adjust things.
Yup! Feels pretty much like exactly what I was looking for.
I think the only thing that I'd change if I could would be to use the Attributes for the Faerie Dragon instead of the Pseudodragon, just because it's a 40 point buy vs an 11 point buy, and it makes a difference of +1 to +3 on literally all of my skills.
Gonna get my Alias set up today, torn between a couple of different names.
Faerie dragons *do* have rather good stats.
I added a bit of background/personality description to this alias, though it's pretty much just what I've posted before.
Y.R., go ahead and add +2 to 2 stats for balance. It would be good if the two familiars are a little closer.
Azeban lets out a soft growl and pushes his forehead against the unicorn, nuzzling it.
Guys, please dot and delete in the gameplay thread with your actual alias. We will be starting up in the next few days.
Oh, one question we should probably nail down before we start--how do our three pairs know each other? Have we been working together for a while, or are we going to meet at the beginning of this adventure?
You will be starting out in a small town near the woods, and it would be good if many of you are residents of that small town. I'll try to give more background later today.
Is that yea or nay on the monk of the four winds...I figure if Smaxx is Busara's "lost" animal companion...those who represent the forces of nature could have actually stole Smaxx away, and awakened and trained him for when she needed him most...or after she herself awakened him, he felt their calling, and decided to heed their call to find himself in his new found consciousness and make himself a more capable ally, only to return to the one he feels he belongs to/with.
Is that yea or nay on the monk of the four winds...I figure if Smaxx is Busara's "lost" animal companion...those who represent the forces of nature could have actually stole Smaxx away, and awakened and trained him for when she needed him most...or after she herself awakened him, he felt their calling, and decided to heed their call to find himself in his new found consciousness and make himself a more capable ally, only to return to the one he feels he belongs to/with.
I'm sorry, I thought I had answered this before and you were done with character building.
Sure, the archetype is fine.
Is everyone done making their character?
I am.
Yup.
Yes!
Yup!
I believe I are!
I think we're waiting for recovery from Gencon/the eclipse for the last player.
It's the start of the semester soon, too, so he may be a bit busy with RL for a couple weeks if I guess right.
Since this is a slow, leisurely game, I'll give rknop a poke by PM early next week if necessary.
I've heard from him, so he's around, but sounds like he's kind of in recovery mode.
I'll be traveling for two weeks starting tomorrow. I don't anticipate being without Internet for more than a day at a time, but it's possible, so if I'm silent for a bit that's why.
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OK! Sorry about being quiet for so damn long. I've been slowly picking things up since getting back.
The eclipse was freaking awesome. If you haven't seen a total eclipse -- corona and all -- before, take advantage of the next chance you get. There's another one crossing the USA (mostly south to north) in 2024.
Also, don't plan on driving anywhere that day or the next day. That was my mistake... I thought I was going to drive home after the eclipse, but the roads were packed solid. I ended up finding a motel to stay in and driving home the next day. This meant missing a meeting and some key prep time for the beginning of the semester.
Anyway, I'm back, catching up, and ready to go.
I'll try to get us started this weekend, then. As I said, I expect this to be a slow, leisurely game, maybe 2 posts per week per character.
Wheeeee, we're off!
Do we know each other already? What time of the year is it?
It's up to you whether you know each other or not (except for the obvious pairs). It's late spring. I would suggest that you all either live in town or live in the forest nearby, whichever fits your character better, but if you don't like that, we can make something else work.
I figured out Busara's motivation!
Will adventure for candy.
Nice one. :)
I'm thinking that Bethella and Brennus are travelers rather than staying in one place, but have been in town for a few weeks. What do you think, rknop?
If it fits with your characters, it would be helpful if this is at least a town you come back to often.
I think that would work, but I'm not 100% sure what rknop was thinking for Bethella. Brennus wouldn't like staying in one place for long periods of time, but Bethella wouldn't necessarily go along with that.