Agents of the Darklands: A Campaign for Monsters and Madmen

Game Master thunderbeard

Bump?

FYI Shimsil's telepathy is wielder only.

other than that he has standard audible speech

So we're waiting until night then attacking, yes?

I believe so

Seems that way to me as well. So if anyone needs any last minute preparations, there are a few hours available,... otherwise, fast-forward?

A potion of see invisibility would be nice. Can I purchase one?

Yeah, shouldn't be hard to buy any low-level scrolls/potions over the course of a day, but any spells over level 3 might be hard to find in a city this small.

As soon as I've got a bit of time free to write it up, I'll fast-forward things.

I'm out for the evening, as I'm off to Friday Night Magic at my local comic shop. Will try to post later tonight, but no promises as I have no idea what will be going on after.

Have fun at the comic shop.

Consecrate has to be centered on an object, usually an altar. Where on the map is the main altar for the temple?

Desecrate or Dispel Magic will cancel out the Consecrate which will let us more around more easily (and let Mal and I bring our undead up from below if we want).

Anyone else having troubles with that map or is it just me/my phone/my internet?

The main altar is near the top wall, but I'm going with a bunch of priests just sort of cast it all over the church every day—since it's pretty much the biggest temple of Sarenrae in Golarion, they just generally try to keep it holy. Dispel Magic or Desecrate should probably work fine too, just assume it cancels the consecration in an area equal to its AoE.

Remember I'm a walking desecrate spell.

Exactly. I think Anaxian was just worried about people who move away from you, or undead that might barge in.

Exactly. I think Anaxian was just worried about people who move away from you, or undead that might barge in.

Taking out the altar is a great idea, but it's not our primary objective and doesn't directly help us in that primary objective.

There's a difference between your aura, with is a "Desecrate effect", and the actual casting of the spell, which dispels Consecrate.

I think you going near the altar would neutralize whichever was the stronger effect (based on the effective caster level of ash effect), or both, but probably wouldn't permanantly dispel the Consecrate. I'm really not sure though. That's a GM call.

My character would probably know though. GM, can I make a check to figure out if Mal's presence would actually break the altar, or just suppress it?

Hey Shimsil, want to be a bone devil?

Hey Shimsil, want to be a bone devil?

that would be one way to do it that i hadn't thought of.

You don't need to make a check. Since Mal's armor is also technically an altar, we've got both a consecrated altar and a desecrated altar, of roughly equal caster levels.

I'm going to go with "where the two auras overlap, neither takes effect, unless someone casts dispel/desecrate to remove the consecration in an area." Not sure if that's the exact RAW answer, but it's easy to work with.

i would assume my aura suppresses a consecrate effect, not dispels it.

Guys,

we've been talking about this fight since May 24. That's Half a month of real time. At this point I don't care what the plan is. I just want to do something. Anything. This is our first mission and we've done nothing but gathered some scattered intel. Intel is valuable, but we had that early on.

We're horrible evil monsters of the night that appear to be afraid to actually do anything. I like role-play, but at some point we have to do more than talk.

Well, in our defense, there was almost a week where we were just posting filler until the GM updated us.

Seriously though. In my next post I'm going in on the bone devil, I'm going to say I bought a potion of see invisibility, so that I can have that affect compensated for, but I need someone to dispel that aura of fear if they can. I can't pass that check consistently enough to be comfortable going into Melee with it.

Also, GM. You can post the map above the thread somehow. Don't ask me, I've never done it myself, but I know its possible.

Well, in our defense, there was almost a week where we were just posting filler until the GM updated us.

Seriously though. In my next post I'm going in on the bone devil, I'm going to say I bought a potion of see invisibility, so that I can have that affect compensated for, but I need someone to dispel that aura of fear if they can. I can't pass that check consistently enough to be comfortable going into Melee with it.

Also, GM. You can post the map above the thread somehow. Don't ask me, I've never done it myself, but I know its possible.

Thats fair. Also I think trying to get the bone devil to grab Shimsil is a great idea. Though that may be as simple as using him as a thrown weapon and seeing if the devil grabs him. If no then we proceed otherwise.

Stranger danger!

Anywho, there are also paladins to grab Shimsil, and I suspect he'll make for a nice mook killer.

Stranger danger!

Yea. I fixed it. Had the wrong personality posting.

The reason we're so hung up doing nothing is that when the people trying to plan things out post a "hey, maybe we should do this?" NONE of you guys post any sort of response.

We've been waiting on you guys to give one of the plans a go ahead because we don't want to butcher your characters by aggroing everything when you can't teleport out.

Seriously, Illia has thrown out like, 4 "attack next round" plans, and the group usually only has one, maybe two people respond.

Not to hate on the Summoner's Ghost, but his constant repetition of the same plan would make a lot more sense if he made an execution for that plan, such as "Everyone but Illia/Maior/Drisquar (pick one, Maior has best killing potential, Illia has best survivability, Drisquar has best fool paladins) charge into the room, kill the priest and take his body, burn the rest. That person I picked earlier, distract/kill bone devil. Undead, attack, pretend to be on bone devil's side."

Otherwise, any plan we're going to execute is going to be a Leeroy, possibly with similar results.

All we have to do is have a consensus for one of the plans, because there are a ton of them. That's all the planners are waiting on.

Here's a list! Feel free to add, these are just mine and some of the ones I've noticed.

Throw Illia/Maior/Drisquar/Shimsil at the bone devil, possibly with one or more support spells, then rush into the room.

Rush into the room.

Attack the bone devil en mass disguised as adventuring party, then use Delyliath to con the paladins into blaming the target priest (it can be a con to convince people of the truth), and attack with paladins.

Cast your votes.

Illia is built for tanking, not DPS, so I'm with the Illia at bone devil plan especially if she gets an Eagle's Splendor first, or, I have complete confidence in Delyliath's ability to con them.

See below!

Throw Illia/Maior/Drisquar/Shimsil at the bone devil, possibly with one or more support spells, then rush into the room. .5 for Illia

Rush into the room.

Attack the bone devil en mass disguised as adventuring party, then use Delyliath to con the paladins into blaming the target priest (it can be a con to convince people of the truth), and attack with paladins. .5 for this.

The reason we're so hung up doing nothing is that when the people trying to plan things out post a "hey, maybe we should do this?" NONE of you guys post any sort of response.

We've been waiting on you guys to give one of the plans a go ahead because we don't want to butcher your characters by aggroing everything when you can't teleport out.

Seriously, Illia has thrown out like, 4 "attack next round" plans, and the group usually only has one, maybe two people respond.

Not to hate on the Summoner's Ghost, but his constant repetition of the same plan would make a lot more sense if he made an execution for that plan, such as "Everyone but Illia/Maior/Drisquar (pick one, Maior has best killing potential, Illia has best survivability, Drisquar has best fool paladins) charge into the room, kill the priest and take his body, burn the rest. That person I picked earlier, distract/kill bone devil. Undead, attack, pretend to be on bone devil's side."

Otherwise, any plan we're going to execute is going to be a Leeroy, possibly with similar results.

All we have to do is have a consensus for one of the plans, because there are a ton of them. That's all the planners are waiting on.

Yea, except every time we say "yes lets do that" we get 5 more "well what if we did this..." plans. Then we end up with decision paralysis as we have too many options. There are 5 of us and to of them. If we stealth it's not a leery jenkins plan. The only Leeroy plan is going through the front door, which I don't think anyone suggested.

There is only the front door, we can't get through the walls, I believe. Warded.

Mostly because you and Delyliath are the only ones who post in agreement/only slight modifications.

Throw Illia/Maior/Drisquar/Shimsil at the bone devil, possibly with one or more support spells, then rush into the room. .5 for Illia

Rush into the room.

Attack the bone devil en mass disguised as adventuring party, then use...

This is the plan.

Those are six separate plans.

I'm pretty sure Summoner's Ghost will vote for Rush into the room, given past utterances, but we shall see.

Ooh, I believe two more plans were "talk to the bone devil" and "assassinate all the guards/paladins using our uberstealth"

I'm pretty down with the assassinate plan too. I think we could easily kill them all before they raised the alarm, and we'd probably like double our reward by doing so. Then, when we attack the priest, any help will have a much longer time coming. Illia can put a minor image at will up, while the party gangbangs each guard one by one, Illia can put the illusion of them still being business as usual over them, then have them "walk" somewhere just out of LoS.

There is only the front door, we can't get through the walls, I believe. Warded.

Mostly because you and Delyliath are the only ones who post in agreement/only slight modifications.

My only objections revolved around wasting time. If you want to gather gnolls then go gather gnolls. Just do something.

Well, can you vote for a plan/propose one?

The Gnoll plan was thrown out Mal (I think people took my dismissal of it to heart *shrugs*). So what I'd say is throw me at the Bone Devil with support of someone with dimensional anchor and/or glitterdust. So that means a party of at least 2-3 against the bone devil. Honestly if we throw Illia and Iranaset at the bone devil, she can tank while I do flyby attacks. All we need is a spellcaster for support.

In essence, I like the plans that involve what I just said above taking place. I think Illia suggested that course of action in one-two of the plans she mentioned.

Now. That being said, I also like having Delyliath disguising herself as the priest and convincing the paladins that he's evil and watching them flay him alive, but then we have to think about getting the body later and that's a headache. I say Drisquar/Shimsil and whoever else can help (probably Mal) go take on the priest while Illia and Iranaset take down the bone devil and hold off the paladins (with the help of a spellcaster). I think that about lines up with one of Illia's plans so I vote for that one.

I think she can easily slip "I sense a dark omen over this body. We should burn the body so it cannot be revived."

Seriously, convincing paladins to prevent the Resurrection of a bad guy should not be hard. They HATE the undead. The only thing they'd raise a ruckus over is the soul bind spell or equivalent. And if his body is ash and the paladins are protecting said ash for us, resurrecting him should be very hard.

Illia- wrote:

Throw Illia/Maior/Drisquar/Shimsil at the bone devil, possibly with one or more support spells, then rush into the room. .5 for Illia

Rush into the room.

Attack the bone devil en mass disguised as adventuring party, then use...

This is the plan.

1)rush the room

4) If needed Illiana goes angel to get paladins to help beat down the bone devil.

5) profit

4) If needed Illiana goes angel to get paladins to help beat down the bone devil.

Illia: "S&++ HE'S ON TO ME!"

I'm a wizard. Planning is pretty important and I've never worked with any of you before so I don't know what you're likely to do. Now that we have some sort of plan, I need a bit to fill the spell slots I left empty today so I can memorize the right spells to boost the plan.

Out of game it has been a couple weeks of recon and discussion. In game it has been a night and a morning.

You guys want to just rush in, fine. Just do it. I'll do what I can to help you. If you really want proper wizard support I need all the variables first.

I honestly don't care what is decided. Worst case scenario to me is that i bring the people that die back tomorrow and we try again.

I'm a wizard. Planning is pretty important and I've never worked with any of you before so I don't know what you're likely to do. Now that we have some sort of plan, I need a bit to fill the spell slots I left empty today so I can memorize the right spells to boost the plan.

Out of game it has been a couple weeks of recon and discussion. In game it has been a night and a morning.

You guys want to just rush in, fine. Just do it. I'll do what I can to help you. If you really want proper wizard support I need all the variables first.

I honestly don't care what is decided. Worst case scenario to me is that i bring the people that die back tomorrow and we try again.

anti-invisibility, dimensional anchor, haste

Anything else is icing. Perhaps something to bar the door.

We're up against a cleric, so some save or sucks that target reflex.

I think she can easily slip "I sense a dark omen over this body. We should burn the body so it cannot be revived."

Seriously, convincing paladins to prevent the Resurrection of a bad guy should not be hard. They HATE the undead. The only thing they'd raise a ruckus over is the soul bind spell or equivalent. And if his body is ash and the paladins are protecting said ash for us, resurrecting him should be very hard.

If Delyliath is the party Liar and she has to come up with something to end up being entrusted with the corpse. For the sake of "let's do something" just assume that she will come up with something (I already know what to do) and roll with it.

The only thing ... I need a minute to get a disguise.

A surprise round Glitterdust and dimensional anchor would absolutely wreck that bone devil, presuming we penetrate SR.

Before combat, Illia would benefit greatly from Haste/Eagles Splendor/Deflection Bonus to AC/anti-fear. Dimensional Anchor and Fear Aura are currently the only things a bone devil has that won't need to nat 20 to hit Illia.

Alright, after this, we definitely need to nominate a party leader, based on whoever can herd this crew of cats (no offense, Anaxian), but yeah, I imagine Delyliath could pick and start disguising during the buff phase of our plan.

A surprise round Glitterdust and dimensional anchor would absolutely wreck that bone devil, presuming we penetrate SR.

Before combat, Illia would benefit greatly from Haste/Eagles Splendor/Deflection Bonus to AC/anti-fear. Dimensional Anchor and Fear Aura are currently the only things a bone devil has that won't need to nat 20 to hit Illia.

Alright, after this, we definitely need to nominate a party leader, based on whoever can herd this crew of cats (no offense, Anaxian), but yeah, I imagine Delyliath could pick and start disguising during the buff phase of our plan.

I fully support nominating a party leader in character. I also recommend it not be me. Doesn't really fit the character concept.

I'd nominate someone who can telepathically communicate with the entire team, needing no relays. Sorry Shimsil!

How is the actual angelic being trying to convince the pallys that they should attack the bone devil a bad idea?

You seek to lie and con. I could flat out tell the truth, and would likely be believed.

I think regardless of what the best plan is, people will not pick it save by random luck. We're all frustrated for lack of action.

Also, Delyliath's bonuses for telling a lie are more than twice your bonuses for telling the truth. Just saying. :P

Also, no one called your idea bad. People just voted for other ideas. Well, two people voted. Everyone else was entirely non-committal.

Just say you are sent by their deity to smite the fiend and get your bluff bonus.

I'd nominate someone who can telepathically communicate with the entire team, needing no relays. Sorry Shimsil!

eh, no hard feelings. People would think I was controlling on person to get two votes anyhow

as far as plan goes, I vote for whichever we do first. theyre all good plans for the most part.

Seeing so many people said "eh, I'll do whatever if we just go", I threw out an in character attempt to move things.

Hi, everyone. I think I've learned a thing or two about how open-ended to make a campaign (this is a set-up I'd use in a physical tabletop, but it's a bit too open for an online game maybe?)

Anyway, further quests will be slightly more linear but still with roleplaying stuff and choices.

I'd also support the concept of "yes, and" which is very common in improv/LARPing; if someone suggests something that nobody else's character has a problem with, characters can say "that might work, here's what else I'd like to add/modify in that plan."

Anyway, it sounds like things are figured out? I'm seeing the consensus plan as

1. Glitterdust the devil (the spell isn't affected by SR) so that the paladins can see what's going on, while a few of the party attack it, pretending to be angelic.

2. Use that fight as a distraction for other members of the party to sneak into the room, and kill the priest

3. After the dust settles, the party, generally disguised in the original "good, angelic party" disguises that were discussed a few weeks ago, keeps the paladins calm while they either get the paladins to burn the body or just have someone teleport it out of the Citadel.

Yes, and with corollary of, if the Paladins don't buy it, bum rush target then leave with body.

Sounds like a winner

Hi, Pathfinder PbP forums. I'm running a campaign for people to play characters of unacceptable alignment or strange and monstrous race, with a rather open-ended scope in which players can play around with whatever weird build or personality they've always wanted to try.

This would take place in Golarion (or something close to it), and feature frequent travel between the surface world and the grimdark kingdoms of the Darklands.

There’s a lot of stuff below here in spoilers, but I figure that’s because there’s a lot of unusual things that might need to be addressed for some people in a campaign like this. If you just have a character concept and a bit of personality and story, that’s fine for now, but some of us like to see all the details before a game starts.

Recruiting will (potentially) close this upcoming sunday, but might go a bit later if I'm too busy over the weekend.

Dot dot dot.

I'll have to take some time to think about what I would like to create, although a lich could be fun.

Dotting on this thread too whilst I decide on my character! Can I PM you an idea that I don't want advertised to other players?

You had me at Lich!

I'll throw something together. I'm a big fan of the Agent of the Grave, so this is a great opportunity.

I'm thinking a classic Human wizard who was apprenticed to a powerful necromancer, but killed his master once the master's liching ritual was set up.

The apprentice tried to use the ritual himself, but messed it up. Now he's trying to rectify his mistake. Because of the money it costs, he's taking mercenary work.

PM away!

I'm throwing out a kobold cleric (because who doesn't love a challenge?), in service of a majestic and mighty gopher. Yes, a gopher... sort of.

When his tribe was beset by duergar, Athraz was trapped in a collapsed tunnel and almost buried alive. However, by the luck the gods, he was rescued by a tunneling gopher that looked like it had an eye imprinted into it's head (it was dark, and there wasn't much oxygen). Following the gopher, Athraz tunneled his way to safety and hiding. Believing he was saved by an emissary of the gods and recognizing the eye at a symbol of Aroden. Yes, Aroden is dead, but Athraz is certain of what he might have possibly seen etched into the head of a gopher in a pitch-black tunnel, and concluded that Aroden must somehow still be alive, perhaps by favor of Apsu himself. After all, the dragon is supposed to be responsible for the creation of the world and all the realms, at least partially, so who's to say he can't bring back Aroden like he did with all those dragons? And Aroden was known for his many disguises, so he MUST have disguised himself as a gopher to lead Athraz to safety and a higher calling! Surely!

So yeah, a kobold cleric of a dead god disguised as a gopher. Should be fun.

Any objections to the Shadow Lord template? I'm looking to make a boogeyman-esque assassin.

Dotting for interest.

Seeing as we have another interested in picking up the mantle of lich and I'm not quite sure what I would like to do for such, I will head down the path of vamparism instead. I do have an idea of what I would like to create for that so expect a PM from me regarding such before the end of the day.

@WaR: No objections to Shadow Lord, but since it requires the CR 1 Shadow Creature template, you'd have to start 1 level lower. Meanwhile, I'd probably rule that Incorporeal Step ends as soon as you stop moving, and thus only applies against AoOs or when taking a full move/running/on a horse.

Sounds good to me. That was my reading of Incorporeal Step, anyway. :-) I'll get cracking on a character.

@Joshua: Nothing wrong with vampires, and they've got decent stats for spell casting, although there are certain roleplaying challenges to protecting yourself from the sun and needing to be invited into buildings. Meanwhile, Death Knight and Graveknight are also interesting +2 CR undead templates.

Messaged (:

I absolutely love this concept by the way, that would be a really cool book.

Mine will be an alchemist or a rogue, depending on what is decided o.e Might even blend the two for a Trapmaster like in Sewer Dragons '^'

I am thinking of a dark stalker character. Either a rogue or perhaps a ranger, or some sub-class there of. If a ranger, instead of an animal companion, I was thinking of perhaps a loyal dark creeper who has followed his "master" into exile. Just thought I would throw it out there...will work on crunch tonight.

dotting.

My concept:

RNE- The Prophet of War
"BROTHERS! We are the fire that shall renew these Darklands!"

A divine caster who focuses on tactics and fire, leading and buffing his comrades while rendering his opponents to ash. RNE has all the signs of an unstable madman cultist, constantly speaking in metaphors and symbolism, speaking of fire as "cleansing" and of newly met associates as "brothers". Yet he is very reliable. He frequently puts the desires and needs of others first. He is capable of logical thought and intelligible though symbolic conversation. Which, to some, makes him all the more frightening.

Background/Appearance basics: Ex-Slave of Drow, human with mechanical augmentations.

-Why is RNE an atypical human? His mind has been forged through a combination of failed fleshwarping experiments and divine inspiration, and his body been reforged in steel.

-What motivates RNE? His "divine mandate" to cleanse and rebuild the darklands drives his actions, though his path is not always direct. When the Crimson Stranger contacted RNE, RNE accepted instantly.

Grave Knight is interesting. I'll have to take a moment to look at them more closely when I get a moment though. I'm definitely looking at going towards some kind of big bad bruiser type though.

The mind flayer was my favorite monster ever.

I'm a little fuzzy on the levels.
For example, If I play a troll (6HD) do I get 1 (total 7 HD) level of a class, or 3, or some other number?

Dotting. Thinking of a worm that walks.

Okay, I'm building a Ratfolk Ninja with the Shadow Lord template. With his insanely-high Stealth, he'll be the perfect infiltrator/scout/assassin.

I'll make a succubus possessed character...
I'm not sure to understand some of the rules so I ask.

A succubus-possessed creature would be a template that gives +1 Cr or +4 level adjustment. I have 2 "free levels" of template. but then again templates cost a extra level per cr.

so ... how many levels do I have as a succubus possessed creature?
Also ... since you said I would be permitted to "break free" as a succubus once the party reach an appropriate level... what would be that level?

Ah, right. First of all,

@Sai (and anyone else thinking of playing a high-CR monster) I was planning on using the standard Monsters as PC Rules with the caveat that the extra levels gained every three would be an optional replacement of a racial HD with a class level (so that monster characters don't end up ahead by too many levels).

By this mechanic, a Troll would get 2 character levels.

And @Scarletrose, by the same mechanic (since I increased the starting level from the interest thread), you could now start as a regular succubus with no class levels, or break free once you gain a single level so you can have a class. Alternately, as a succubus-possessed creature, you'd get 7 levels, with the template being entirely covered by the "free levels."

Meanwhile, there's some decent unofficial conversions for monsters like Mindflayers over at the Monster Mash podcast:

http://www.pathfinder-podcast.com/?wpfb_dl=6

Dotting with extreme interest. I'm thinking of maybe rolling with Spring-Heeled Jack, and playing him as a very trickstery, hard-to-catch Rogue and underplaying all of the insane sociopath aspects of the creature.

Thunderbeard, would you mind if I used the ARG and created a 20 point race, to be bought with one of my bonus levels, to represent subject RNE's mechanical augmentations?

This looks like fun! Definitely interested - let me think on a concept.

I like the mind flayer, but there's not much customization possible (though a 25 point buy takes off a lot of the sting) and now pondering a ghoul antipaladin.

Either way, I'm still eating brains.

I was looking at possibly an Oni (Ogre Mage), but it is CR 8, so would that be possible? Or could I apply the two "bonus" levels to the race then 6 of my 7 character levels to the rest of the CR (as per monster as PC rules) having an Oni with 1 class level?

Well said, Sai Ling. :)

Considering what the party looks like it'll be so far, I'll be needing Channel Negative Energy for the majority of the party to be the healer. :P

Here's my crunch minus gear. Still working on backstory, but I'm thinking that "Nameless" is a Zon-Kuthon worshipping assassin.

Last question I swear... then I'm ready to make my character.

Do you allow bards to retrain the skill points used in skills covered by versatile performance?

Dot.

Here is Athraz's stat crunch, at the moment. I'll hammer out his personality and backstory when I have more time later. (This is probably not the best way to jump into my first time using a Cleric, but... gotta jump sometime!)

I think I'd like to go the lich route. I understand the phalactry is expensive. How would you like to handle that? Will the cost simply be hand waved based on the +2 cr levels or did you want to go the lesser phalactry route? If the latter how would you stat that out exactly?

Looking at some other templates:

Graveknight would be cool, but I'd have to be higher level and wear heavy armor. At least one of those is a deal breaker.

Skeletal champion could be an interesting idea. Perhaps this is his mid-way transformation as he attempts to further transfer to full lich hood. Then I could pick a base race and just ad the template. How does that sound?

Still researching, but this is what I have so far.

Edit: I've played a sorceress ghost before. That was interesting.

Is a ghost possible/practical? I'm thinking the ghost of a long-dead humanoid summoner, offered a chance to do something other than sit and haunt the death scene.

I'm also thinking there could be some interesting role-playing aspects. I'm reminded faintly of Rimmer, the hologram from Red Dwarf, who could interact with the various characters but couldn't actually touch anything. Being a summoner takes some of the sting out of that since the eidolon would presumably be real and could do mundane tasks if needful.

I'm thinking that the ghost (+2 level template) of a 7th level summoner would do nicely.

(Eek! Edited for typo fixes.)

Is a ghost possible/practical? I'm thinking the ghost of a long-dead humanoid summoner, offered a chance to do something other than sit and haunt the death scene.

I'm also thinking there could be some interesting role-playing aspects. I'm reminding faintly of RImmer, the hologram from Red Dwarf, who could interact with the various characters but couldn't actuallyi touch anything. Being a summoner takes some of the sting out of that since the eidolon would presumably real and could do mundane tasks if needful.

I'm thinking that the ghost (+2 level template) of a 7th level summoner would do nicely.

Theres a lot of downside, but it's still very very cool.

Ok so a few of the ideas I saw were already kinda taken, but I have one in reserve. Psionic of course. Looking at soulbolt perhaps. Some kind of... construct, or amoeba?

OR, could I play as an intelligent weapon?

My post got eaten. Here's the cliff notes version:

Tiefling cleric of Asmodeus who goes into the diabolical prc. Two IMp minions!

For the monster levels I'm thinking half fiend as it fits pretty well with the theme.

Oh how I'm dotting for this one.. dot dot dot

Btw: What about natural were-creatures I have a couple of old characters that i might want to look at revisiting.

If the party wants everyone to have a good stealth score so we can run together in stealth mode, I'll take Additional Traits, get a +1 and class skill trait, and Wisdom in the Flesh, and redirect either my Diplomacy or Bluff skill points. I can reach +24.

Here is the crunch for my submission. I think I got it right....

By the way, if party needs me to not be a cleric (it seems to be popular, judging that that and ninja/rogue are the only statblocks presented yet), my second choice is running an Erinyes, who, not being excited about the whole "buried, drowed, and picked over by the swarms of fetid Stygia for 200 year" thing in order to become an Osyluth, or being "cast into the loneliest, darkest vaults of Erebus for 333 years" to become a hamatula or any of the other torments she would have to descend to in order to advance in the devil hierarchy, is seeking ways to differentiate herself from other Erinyes and maybe gain some distance from her literally hellish masters.

Okay, wow, lots of questions to respond to—and plenty of complicated concepts. This text is in bold so it’ll be easer to see my GM response.

@Hallowsinsider: there are a ton of wacky construct races out there, but if you can’t find one you like, go for it, as long as your custom race traits make sense with your special background (which they seem to).

@Sai: Yes, unfortunately, there’s not much starting customization with mind flayers, although once they start gaining class levels things eventually get interesting, which is why I don’t want too many to start. This also brings me to

@Sersi: There’s a couple of ways you could do this. One would be to ignore the 25-point-buy, use the Ogre Mage base stats, and then get one class level (see the above spoiler). I’d also let you do something like apply the Young Creature Template to help balance things if you really wanted to be an Ogre Mage, which could then go away as you “age.”

Then again, there are a lot of other cool Oni and similar monsters, and Ogre Mages are just the most famous (and powerful, but at the cost of a lot of class levels).

@Scarletrose: The optional retraining rules specifically call out Versatile Performance as a good thing to retrain, so sure. There’s a specific gold cost associated with this, though.

@TCG: I’m ruling that nobody can start out as a lich with a full and proper phylactery, because of the 120k gold hurdle (and the significant power it imparts). The “lesser phylactery” idea I came up with was for anybody who wants to start out lich’d… they’d start out with the normal lich template, just missing the awesome DR and having a less-safe phylactery, and once they acquire enough wealth, they could “buy” the rest of the lich template with gold.

Graveknight is pretty much an end in itself rather than a stop on the way to lichdom, yeah. Skeletal champion is a neat hold-over template for someone who wants to be an intermediate-strength undead, if you’re into that.

Also, I actually don’t know what happens when a Tiefling becomes half-fiend (3/4 fiend?)

@Orfamay: Being a ghost is super awkward, because you can’t carry anything, but a humanoid eidolon would help you with that greatly.

@Tenro: You can’t play as just an intelligent weapon. You can, however, spend a bunch of starting gold on an intelligent weapon. And if the intelligent weapon happens to have a strong ego, personality and conflicting alignment, while your “real character” has a terrible will save… then the item takes control, and you can effectively play as it, as long as you also have a weak-willed character for it to act through.

@Kayne: Lycanthropes are totally fine. Be aware that if you choose a large animal, you might have trouble fitting through some doors and hallways in animal/hybrid form. While the afflicted and natural template are both officially CR 1, I’d rule that taking the natural lycanthrope template with a powerful animal would count as CR 2.

@Daniel Stewart: Looking good, although if you want a combination rogue-ranger there’s also the Slayer class from the current play test.

@hallowsinsider: Erinyes is a cool monster as well, but, like Ogre Mage (or Succubus) is also high enough level that you lose out on quite a lot of customization, which is something to keep in mind. Half-Fiends and Possessed creatures are an alternative which gets you a fair bit of devil as well as a lot of character choice in terms of both class levels and fluff.

And I’ve never actually seen a party with too many clerics, since they’re pretty adaptable as far as roles go.

Clerics are awesome and everyone should be a cleric. Except that as a ghost-cleric I couldn't carry anything.

Hmm, no way to, say, make a character and then have my body turned INTO a weapon, or have my spirit and mind put INTO a weapon?

Wondering about a Wish spell (purchased with character wealth) or using the ARG to create a race where the body is actually an item. Or perhaps a spirit that can POSSESS items.

Well, in that case, yays! Mainly I was considering Erinyes because there would be low customization. It's a backup character if the party needs it, not something I have to pour heart and soul into. ;)

Poor Ghost-Cleric can't hold his divine focus and forgot to take the birthmark trait. :(

Never thought of slayer....so here he is redone as a slayer....

Meanwhile, here is a list of the character proposals I've seen so far (in thread or by message), to give people an idea of the general distribution of things (I didn't include the people who are contemplating multiple ideas, and if you change your mind, no worries, I'll update this in a day or several):

Melee:
Orc rogue/ranger/barbarian | psionichamster

Backstabber/Infiltrator:
Dark Stalker Rogue | Daniel Stewart
Ratfolk Ninja Shadowlord | Whack-a-Rogue

Party face/Mind-control:
Succubus | Scarletrose

Divine caster/Healer:
Half-Construct Cleric, "RNE" | hallowsinder
Tiefling Cleric of Asmodius | Tiny Coffee Golem
Kobold Cleric, "Athraz the Conduit"

Arcane caster:
Quasidragon Lich Wizard | Doomed Hero

Hard to define/multiple roles:
Mind-Flayer | jimibones83

What level are we starting at? Going to rebuild this girl as a magus but she's a half dragon whose other half spent some time in the shadow realm. Is this Golarion specific?