holy skull and shakles (Inactive)

Game Master david barker

character creation 20 point buy.
max hit points at first level and average plus one each additional level.
classes allowed: cleric only.
races allowed: paizo only. i am pretty open minded post your character and i will look it over.
skills: i will allow background skills.
traits: two
starting gold max.

Finally the cleric-only S&S huh? Great news! Let's see what I can come out with :)

I shall begin working on Gip, Gentlegoblin Adventurer™, Cleric of Cayden Cailean, quickly. :)

Just for clarity David, when you say Average plus one each additional level, do you mean....

Rotating low-high average plus one [so d8 results in 5 at level 2, 6 at level 3, 5 at level 4 and so on]

Rotating high-low average plus one [so d8 results in 6 at level 2, 5 at level 3, 6 at level 4 and so on]

Average round down plus one [so d8 results in 5 at all levels]

Average round up plus one [so d8 results in 6 at all levels]

I already gave my word to play in Sam's game so I won't be participating here, but since I sort of initiated this movement I figured I'd watch it and go ahead and ask for this clarification early.

alignments any restrictions?

As for Traits: can we get a drawback for a third trait?

I'm creating a Crusader of Ragathiel, very tanky-like for the party :)

a d8 would get 5 hp per level.

as for alignments i will be open minded unless it results in too much conflict.

yes you may take a drawback for a third trait

Archlich here! My temporary alias with the Crusader of Ragathiel. Still working on background and other details ;) Any feedback is welcome.

Since this recruitment is the result of the other thread (that went for a long time and started as a request of other player) how many open slots are there available?

Here is my cleric using variant channelling, evangelist buffer summoner looking for other lawful pirates, also ragathiel btw

I would like to play in this so that I can figure out what my all cleric Iron gods will be like. As for a character, I think I want to be a cleric of Gozreh, but I don't know about race yet.

Well this is an interesting idea. Color me interested.

Hmm... a LG god will be pretty tricky in S&S (the player's guide is basically "don't be a paladin, don't be a paladin," but worshipping a deity of law and nobility—or a whole party focused on it—isn't going to sit well with the plot)

I'm surprised nobody's proposed a cleric of Besmara yet. I strongly suggest this (with a flyby parrot familiar, you can have fun with inflict spells).

Also, getting True Strike, if your domain allows, is a major boon with catapults. If I go for this, I might try proposing a Hangover Cleric, though I'm not sure if I'd want to go with Cayden or one of the evil deities. (Would Warpriests be allowed, or just Clerics?)

@Sam: also consider Shimye-Magalla, the weirdo CN/NG Mwangi tribal god hybrid that can grant both Desna and Gozreh's domains. I've got a Shim-worshipping Oracle in an S&S game, and it's pretty fun.

This does look intriguing. When do we have to submit characters by?

I'm surprised nobody's proposed a cleric of Besmara yet. I strongly suggest this (with a flyby parrot familiar, you can have fun with inflict spells).

I actually was looking into Besmara or one of the Horseman, i think Pestilence has the Water domain. its too bad this isn't Druids or you could have a party of people that call out Krakens.

Err, pretty sure you can get summon spells on a Cleric, too... (I think there's even a feat somewhere that lets them do it as a standard action)

Duergar Cleric. No one will defeat him, and better yet, he'll diplomatize everyone with his good looks he gets from his -4 Charisma modifier. Yea baby, mini-Fabio is coming to town.

I mean, the challenge will be getting martial, divine, skills, and arcane characters in the same party.

Martial: Clerics have few enough feats to make melee/ranged combat difficult, though power attack/combat reflexes/polearm/buff builds work okay.

Divine: Yeah, okay.

Skills: 2 points/level is terrible. But splitting these well, using traits to get extra class skills, and having at least one high-int human cleric will help, and IIRC there aren't a lot of traps in S&S.

Arcane: Gnome/Wayang Cleric of Shelyn, Veiled Illusionist PrC. By level 10 you're memorizing nothing but Shadow Spells, and their DC is INSANE, letting you fireball/web at will.

I think our worst issues will be with trapfinding and skills... Not sure if any archetypes cover this.

This does sound fun.

A question though: Would you be willing to work on an expanded summon list for a Herald Caller devoted to Brigh? It would probably mean summoning (extraplanar) clockwork constructs.

The idea for the character is that it's a shipwright out to build the most innovative, best geared and simply superior ship.

Another question: Would you allow Prestige Classes? I'd be looking at the Evangelist

EDIT: As for skills, Cloistered Cleric, Herald Caller and Roaming Exorcist (not really fitting I think) all up the skills to 4+int

EDIT2: As far as martial goes, both the Crusader and the Mendevian Priest (probably strange in the Shackles) can do quite a bit there.

I think our worst issues will be with trapfinding and skills... Not sure if any archetypes cover this.

Assuming David permits it, there's a trait for Trapfinding and disabling magical traps.

Your trapmonkey should at least have Perception and Disable Device at least, anything else is gravy.

On the skills note, a cleric party won't have anybody with a huge number of them so specializing on skills is really important for the low levels. You've got a survivalist tracker type, either a dedicated face [A human spending his favored class bonus on skills has 4+int or even 3 if Int was dumped to 7 because stat penalties don't impact Race and Favored Class granted skill points] or good cop bad cop [one takes Diplomacy, one takes Intimidate and one of the two takes bluff] and a trap monkey [If he squeezes 3 skill points per level trap monkey could BE the survivalist as well, opening up an extra slot]

One thing that helps stretch skill points is remembering not everyone needs perception at level one. It helps that this is a cleric party so everyone is going to have a positive wisdom modifier and at least half [perhaps more] are likely to have a very good one.

Arcane: Gnome/Wayang Cleric of Shelyn, Veiled Illusionist PrC. By level 10 you're memorizing nothing but Shadow Spells, and their DC is INSANE, letting you fireball/web at will.

If one of you guys wants to do this go for it. I'm just posting on this to highlight the lack of need for it so nobody feels required to pursue it.

I just want to point out that an Arcane caster isn't exactly necessary. Sure there are things arcane magic does better/easier than Divine magic, but a party where everybody has divine magic isn't one that MUST have arcane magic.

i want around 6 characters. i will choosing characters next Friday.

The Archlich wrote:

I think our worst issues will be with trapfinding and skills... Not sure if any archetypes cover this.

Assuming David permits it, there's a trait for Trapfinding and disabling magical traps.

Your trapmonkey should at least have Perception and Disable Device at least, anything else is gravy.

On the skills note, a cleric party won't have anybody with a huge number of them so specializing on skills is really important for the low levels. You've got a survivalist tracker type, either a dedicated face [A human spending his favored class bonus on skills has 4+int or even 3 if Int was dumped to 7 because stat penalties don't impact Race and Favored Class granted skill points] or good cop bad cop [one takes Diplomacy, one takes Intimidate and one of the two takes bluff] and a trap monkey [If he squeezes 3 skill points per level trap monkey could BE the survivalist as well, opening up an extra slot]

One thing that helps stretch skill points is remembering not everyone needs perception at level one. It helps that this is a cleric party so everyone is going to have a positive wisdom modifier and at least half [perhaps more] are likely to have a very good one.

i am ind with that trait but you should probably be a cleric of a thieving god but not mandatory.

as for skills that is part of why i am allowing background skills

Er... Crusader isn't a martial archetype; it's a regular cleric with better defenses and the damage output of a damp bard.

And you need an arcane character to do things like set boats on fire, which is pretty important.

@Cuán: clockwork constructs are pretty dang non-extraplanar. Inevitables can be summoned, but tend to frown on piracy. Craft Construct/Animate Objects might be your best bet there, and a cleric can do that just as well as any other class.

@Cuán: clockwork constructs are pretty dang non-extraplanar. Inevitables can be summoned, but tend to frown on piracy. Craft Construct/Animate Objects might be your best bet there, and a cleric can do that just as well as any other class.

Actually found what I thought I'd seen before on this, it's in the Iron Gods 2 article on Brigh. It adds a Clockwork Spy to SM 1, Clockwork Servant to SM 4 and Clockwork Soldier to SM 6, all with just the added extraplanar subtype.

As for setting ships on fire, clerics with the fire domain or it's subdomains are quite ok at that as well.

as for arcane casting the magic domain will help. plus elemental domains should help also

also i might consider some 3pp archetypes

also Sam and kyrt-ryder won't count against the character slots

I'm going to throw my hat into the ring with Laro Farfeet Going for the thievish abilities. I'm reusing an old alias and I am not done yet. I may trade out the S&S trait for the trapfinding trait if it's ok with you David.

Hmm. Would the campaign be starting at level 1, or would it be a bit higher and fast-forward through some of the early stuff to let the clerics differentiate a bit more?

I'm also trying to decide between Gnome Illusionist Cleric of Shelyn (arcane party role, if PrCs are allowed) or Aasimar Drunken Force Channeler (face skills + the ability to telekinetically hurl people off ships). But the first option doesn't get fun until level 6, and the second one gets a lot more interesting at level 3.

Also: any thoughts on warpriests? Y/N?

Please no other classes... The goal of the "experiment" is exactly to try to do with all clerics...

I am of the same mind Archlich, though since I'm not actually participating and basically spectating, I don't really have a say anymore.

I do hope David keeps it pure cleric, but that's up to him and you guys.

Edit: thus this post is also serving as a headsup to David that I won't be playing. Having one additional player beyond the normal slots [Sam] is throwing enough of a monkey wrench into it, having two extra would pretty significantly alter the experiment.

i don't like skipping levels. it is only clerics with archetypes, feats and domains clerics can be diverse

And Traits! Traits can notably alter things.

Heck in my wizard experiment one of my characters took Extra Traits ontop of the default traits for that very reason.

i am still debating prcs

also if you have any 3pp stuff please post the link to the database please

"Gip readily agrees with that! Make ale, not warpriests."

Partial done, this will be my submission for the game.

I'm going to throw my hat into the ring with Laro Farfeet Going for the thievish abilities. I'm reusing an old alias and I am not done yet. I may trade out the S&S trait for the trapfinding trait if it's ok with you David.

that's fine

What you guys think about a sweet cleric of Calistria?

Mind if I sneak in? Is this cleric only or is their room for cleric-flavored classes? Warpriest, paladin, Warlord from Path of War?

If no then I was thinking a somewhat insane sepratist cleric of Groetus using madness and luck domains.

it is only clerics with archetypes, feats and domains clerics can be diverse

And in reference to a discussion earlier...

As for setting ships on fire, clerics with the fire domain or it's subdomains are quite ok at that as well.

There's also burning arrows/crossbows/catapults with pitch. Not 100% sure where the gamerules for it are, but people in the real world did plenty of burning enemy ships without magic.

Also Greek Fire [Alchemist Fire?] is kind of a big thing in the mythology of ship battles.

Fire domain gives you, at best, 2-3 sources of fire/day (and that's only at high levels). Not nearly as useful against an armada as something with real versatility.

Since we have such a ruckus over being lawful I will teeak this build

Not a ruckus, necessarily... just saying you'll want an alignment/personality that doesn't have a problem with piracy.

also remember the main thing about lawful doesn't mean following the law persay. its being honorable ordered and such.

a lawful good pirate for example would only target evil ships and follow the pirate code to the letter. lawful neutral would enforce the code and a lawful evil would follow the code but find ways to use it for his selfish goals

What you guys think about we define what roles wound be desired? This is na experiment, but if we start to overlap our resources (read our limited skills), this will fail...

IMO, we could work with something like this:

1 - The Face/Support - focused in interaction/support casting - middle line
2 - The Guide - focused in survival/hazards detection - middle line
3 - The Heavy Hitter - focused on heavy melee damage - front line
4 - The Ranged Support - focused in ranged damage - back line
5 - The Sage - focused in knowledge - back line
6 - The Tank - focused in taking the blows - front line

Any ideas?

I made Elannaris more for a Face role and support casting...

a lawful good pirate for example would only target evil ships and follow the pirate code to the letter. lawful neutral would enforce the code and a lawful evil would follow the code but find ways to use it for his selfish goals

It's pretty hard to "target evil ships," though; often by the time you can tell who's sailing the thing, you're already when you're in a fight.

What's the point buy/roll, etc., for this campaign? Could I play an aasimar? (If not I can go Variant Heritage human, but Force Channel is niiiiice when you're on a boat, and the +2 cha is really nice)

In any case, my plan would be a charisma-over-wis-focused hangover cleric of Besmara (so good face skills, etc). If we have a higher starting level or an expected accelerated start, I'll go with the Evangelist archetype, otherwise waiting until level 3 to channel is brutal.

At the moment my Gadoongo is designed to be a more "tanky" type, and he is Neutral Good. He could also be Lawful Neutral - maybe it'd be even more appropriate - but I agree, Lawful Good would be a little "too much". I chose Ragathiel because of the whole Rage idea, it goes very well with the backstory I'm imagining :)

What you guys think about we define what roles wound be desired?

This is strongly advised IMO

IMO, we could work with something like this:

1 - The Face/Support - focused in interaction/support casting - middle line
2 - The Guide - focused in survival/hazards detection - middle line
3 - The Heavy Hitter - focused on heavy melee damage - front line
4 - The Ranged Support - focused in ranged damage - back line
5 - The Sage - focused in knowledge - back line
6 - The Tank - focused in taking the blows - front line

Looks like a good starting point, I imagine others may have ideas for tweaking it.

One idea might be trading the tank for a support/healer type, one who specializes in magic that allows him to mitigate incoming damage, take some of it on himself, all that sort of stuff.