Rivaling Adventuring Parties: Help Needed

[Lazaryus]

I am designing a campaign designed for two separate parties,where the actions of one party could affect events for the other. I am currently drawing up the characters for players to pick from. The first party will choose from the following:

1.)A runaway pyrokineticist from a family of high society. He does most things just to fight boredom, and often leaves chaos in his wake. Despite his wild child attitude, he still listens to his adventuring partners.

2.)A female warrior who has become discontent with women's traditional roles as damsels in distress, housekeepers, and trophies for men. She travels the world, seeking to empower women to think and act for themselves. I was considering the cavalier for her.

3.)A priestess of a church that teaches the value of peace. She focuses on healing and deescalating fights. I'm torn between the cleric and oracle.

4.)A tinker that pushes the future. She disdains the traditional arms and magic of the age, but still tolerates her partners. I'm thinking artificer(Adamant Entertainment) who makes extensive use of the Technology Guide.

[Lazaryus]

The second party will choose from the following:

5.) Used to be a nosy investigator until he discovered dirt against the king, who reacted by wiping his memory and casting him off to the Farlands. Now he is a Savant(New Paths Compendium) who somehow manages to channel aspects of his lost personality.

6.)A nomad sentry specializing in solo ambushes. He is fiercely protective of his charge, and joined the party to fight the dragon that wiped out his tribe.

7.)A wild man who harnesses aspects of the night to defeat his enemies. I'm looking for backstory for him, too.

8.)A Shaman(New Paths Compendium) who seeks to model herself after the unassuming chameleon. I also need to make a backstory for her.

[Lazaryus]

As for how the rivalry started,(1) torched the house of (5).

[Lazaryus]

Update: (6) will be a Dragoon.

[Lazaryus]

Is no one willing to help?

[Eltacolibre]

Not even sure what are you asking? We only see description and you are saying that you are running two parties.

[Lazaryus]

Well, I could use some advice for classes and background.

[Eltacolibre]

Just classes suggestions:

1) Kineticist , fire element

2) Cavalier order of the shield or order of the sword, depending how she handles situation.

3)Cleric, usually oracles aren't accepted into churches.

4) Gnome with master tinker alternate racial trait could be another option + any other class.

5) -

6) Ranger with favored enemy dragons.

7) Oracle with Dark Tapestry or Shadow or Lunar mystery, depend on the flavor.

8) -

You will probably be better off to ask in the advice section of the forum instead of homebrew.

[Lazaryus]

I'm getting this thread moved now.

[Ciaran Barnes]

I would recommend that you let the players choose their own characters.

[Lazaryus]

I will let them pick their own characters in following generations of the campaign.

[Mykull]

I can remember pre-generated characters at the back of modules going all the way back to 1E, so having a list of characters from which the players choose is not an issue at all.

For 6, 7, and 8, I see them as all members of the same nomadic tribe. 6 might be a straight fighter. Oracle is good for 7, but a barbarian who "harnesses aspects of the night" might manifest as his/her rage. 8 would be a shaman. They're all from the same tribe, whose village was destroyed by the dragon. The king sent 5 to 'investigate' rumors of a dragon in the Farlands as a way to get him out of the capital (and secretly hopeful that there is an actual dragon who will devour the pesky investigator for him).

5 arrives at the scene and meets 6, 7, & 8. 5 is the only one who believes the only three survivors and thus a beautiful friendship is born.

1, 2, 3, & 4 are a bit more disparate in nature. Maybe the traditional meeting at the bar. 1 is just there for a drink, 2 is trying to convince the wenches that there is more to life, 3 is at the famously rowdy bar to end the inevitable nightly bar fight before it starts, and 4 is meeting a contact for a piece of advanced (and, perhaps, slightly regulated) tech.

[Lazaryus]

My original idea was for 1, 2, 3, and 4 to be childhood friends who decided to tail a famous grizzled hero for their own reasons. Meanwhile, 6 found his desert tribe wiped out by a dragon, but has very little knowledge of such creatures. When 5 got sent to the Farlands (either in exile or on an investigation, I haven't decided), he stumbled around aimlessly until he finds 6 and the remains of the camp and identified the carnage as being caused by a black dragon. They found 7 in a hut by a lake and 8 deep in a rainforest, who they convinced to join thanks to eloquent, fact-filled speeches on 5's part. 1, 2, 3, & 4 will also have some interesting childhood memories, too.

[Lazaryus]

Bump...

P.S.: it sure is taking them a while to move this thread...

[Chromantic Durgon <3]

I would say make a list of acceptable classes for each character and let the play choose from those

1) could be a sorc or an oracle too focused on fire also an ice dude who wishes he were a fire dude and has to learn to work with water might be fun

2) could be a fighter too or a Paladin or war priest of a female warrior god like Iomadea

3) cleric oracle or war priest could work, just so happens to be an oracle who found faith after gaining their powers.

4) could also be an alchemist

5) errrm...

6) ranger or slayer

7) Druid, shaman, Verdant bloodline sorc

8) errrm ....

Also @mykull I challenge the notion that because it has been done before a long time ago people won't mind their characters being chosen for them. Plenty of people would and a lot of people have never played those versions of the game and would not be accustomed to it.

[Derrick Winters]

I suggest the following:

1) Have 20 pre-generated characters; keep them simple & straightforward; give them a quirk, a flaw, a goal, and three "bond options"
(one positive, one negative, one neutral relationship to another character: "positive" = A saved B's life in the past; "negative" = A owes C a large amount of money, "neutral" A and D are from the same hometown)

2) Do not force the players to pick the pregens, but have them as template, tell your players: Pick one of these, or make one like them - with a quirk (=personality trait that "colors" the character), with a flaw (a weakness, not necessarily mechanical), with a goal (something that character wants to achieve) and three generic "bond options" as outlined above.

3) Once the PCs have picked their characters, have them apply the three bonds to other PCs - irrelevant if the "bonded" PCs are party members or "rival party members".

4) Offer quests, take the goals of the PCs into account, and watch what happens. Stay on your toes; if a PC reaches/fulfils/changes his goal, prompt the player to find/create a new goal.

Have the relationships change/evolve throughout the game to avoid them becoming stale and static; offer boons (free traits/feats/ability score increase/spells known) for changing relationships/reaching IC goals.

[Zetheroth]

Wait...hey! The op is actually my gm, and I'm playing this campaign. I can't speak for the other party, but I know why he's going pregen for our party:

1.)I keep doing shenanigans with characters that I never clear with him, and he's tired of it,
2.)one of the players likes playing, but never does anything on her character sheets, so he has to fill it out for her, and
3.)the other two players are first timers, and aren't sure what they'd like to build.

[Lazaryus]

Welcome to paizo.com, Zetheroth. Now, you do realize that you just outed yourself, don't you?

[Eltacolibre]

well then if that's the case, would recommend also to have all of the pregens possessed the well-provisioned adventurer equipment trait, so they can all start with equipment packages (from adventure armory 2).

[Lazaryus]

I don't have access to Adventurer's Armory.

[Eltacolibre]

Alright the other option:

Just give each party member their class kit, as starting equipment, you can find those on the pfsrd, it's one less thing to worry about and they will all start with essential gear.

[Lazaryus]

Alight, I'll do that.

[Lazaryus]

I came across Spheres of Power, and I believe that it would be easier to teach than the normal magic system. Am I right, and if so, what changes should I make? I would prefer a team comp of one healing/defence caster, one damage/sabotage caster, one spell-less warrior, and one red mage (pulls a little from the other three roles).

[Eltacolibre]

Not necessarily easier, there are a lot of customization in the system but once they get it, it's fairly easy. It's honestly easier to just let them play the normal system and introduces the sphere of power classes slowly into the game, with npcs and the likes, to see if the players are even interested in the first place.

Some stuffs you might think are cool or interesting, might just not even be your players cup of tea and it just become a waste of time.

[Lazaryus]

I don't know...It seems cleaner, you don't have to worry about any spell components unless you want to, you can use any talent as any class (e.g. use cure as a wizard), and they put the universal magic rules before introducing the classes as opposed to after (which explains my initial disgust with prepared spellcasters). The form also looks cleaner. In my book, all that constitutes good introductory material, which is bad considering it's 3rd party.

[GM Rednal]

Spheres of Power is DEFINITELY easier to learn than the classic Vancian stuff, although it helps if people are familiar with making characters and know the system well enough to understand what Spheres does differently. It's also less powerful, since growth is mainly linear, and that's good if you're worried about PCs breaking a campaign. (Most of the seriously overpowered stuff is locked behind Advanced Talents, after all - though, on general principles, I recommend allowing Life's Advanced Talents).

There's a mini walkthrough for making Spherecasters here.

[Lazaryus]

Since I'm using SoP instead of Vatican magic, what should I make 4 so she remains a New Age technology pusher as well as a "Red Mage"?

[GM Rednal]

The main thing that sets Spherecasters apart from each other is their Casting Tradition - this, rather than class, is the main source of flavor. Focus Casting may be a good place to start, as well as perhaps Emotional Casting if you want them to be all Zen-like and focused.

[Lazaryus]

Bump.

[Lazaryus]

I've designed some spherecasting traditions for 1 (in case he becomes a normal spellcaster), 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8.