Well, I started writing a concept... Got carried away. Sorry.
Lo and behold, several walls of text -and an early concept for the Too Long ; Didn't Read lovers-
Arthur, NG, half-elf steelblood bloodrager
Half errant knight, half angry freedom fighter, full traveller. Bastard son of a varisian half-elf slave and her Chelaxian noble master.
Deeply interested on ancient lore and legends when not bleeding out for noble reasons; also likes wine, music and sleeping like there's no tomorrow.
Good hearted as a general rule of thumb, gets magically angry when poked.
Bastard son of a Chelaxian noble and one of his half-elven slaves, Arthur didn't have what you call an easy childhood.
Only two reasons stopped him from growing into a cruel, bitter adult: force of will and his mother's tales.
As it happens to be, Marlah -as that was her name- was a varisian Desna worshipper who worked as a scribe to a travelling arcanist before falling into the hands of slavers. She told Arthur of distant lands, great heroes and marvelous creatures... She taught him to dream and yearn for the roads.
Arthur demonstrated arcane potential, possibly inherited from her mother, yet the lack of training or higher learning meant he couldn't conjure even the most basic of spells.
As she was the only light in his life, the only reason Arthur hadn't tried to escape their master, when a terrible fever took her from this world Arthur travelled as a stowaway from Kintargo to Nisroch.
Free from his master but not their influence in the shadowy kingdom, Arthur followed his dream to travel and see world, learning to fend for himself during his early steps but in the end becoming something of a knight errant.
During these travels he learned to gather his arcane magic to overcharge his body, becoming stronger and tougher than most while disrupting magic around him, and with hard work he finally managed to use his power to produce useful effects.
From Nidal to Mendev he helped those in need, forging alliances with others that shared common interests and becoming enemied with those that would abuse the meek, until he finally arrived at her mother's birthplace: Nybor.
But Nybor wasn't his home, even if he felt Varisia was as close one as he has known, and he kept travelling the land doing what he thought right and opposing those who were wrong.
The news of giant sighting around Sandpoint caught him on his way to the Mierani Forest and by the time Arthur arrived at Sandpoint everything have ended.
Known Secret: When Arthur escaped Cheliax, he had the opportunity to free others slaves... But he feared that could make him easier to track or catch and ran away alone. He still regrets this selfish choice and has since tried to never leave anyone else behind.
Unknown Secret: Arthur's magic actually comes from his father, who was a wizard and diabolist. While he now uses it to help others, he would probably never have used it if he knew it from the start.
Shame: Arthur is practically illiterate, having never received formal education and only having learned to read the Common tongue a few years ago, albeit at a slow pace. He couldn't read elven even if his life depended on it.
Goals: Other than being a damn hero whenever he can, Arthur truly wants to see Celwynvian at least once before dying due to her mother's tales of the great elven city.
Known People #1: Duke Arvaniel Illeoric. Father and master, diabolist and wizard, a complete jerk and chelaxian noble.
Known People #2: Atheros Blackwall. Former Cavalier of the Dragon Order, now retired in Magnimar. Atheros took Arthur under his wing, trained him and forced some common sense into his young mind. Athero's sword is the one Arthur uses now.
Known People #3: Euria the Brave. Half-orc paladin with almost as big an arm as a heart. Arthur and her travelled together for a long time and developed a romantic relationship half-way there. In the end her sense of duty and divine quest made them part ways, but Arthur hopes to one day reunite and settle in a small home at a small village by a small lake with small half-orcs and smaller half-elves running around the small yard.
Is the replacement option a first come/first served or more of a recruitment thing? If I'm not too late, I've had a Rnager concept I've tried playing a few times (mostly from multiple failed Jade Regent campaigns I've joined).
This was the original concept:
Lirrathan is Shalelu's younger brother. He came to Sandpoint because she seemed to be having fun here. He is fairly quick with his ideas, but he never thinks things through as much as he should. This makes him impetuous, and often gets him into trouble with the authorities. If it weren't for his older sister vouching for him, he probably would spend more time under Sheriff Hemlock's dutiful watch. He is always handy with a knife, and his sister has taught him plenty about getting along in the woods. He prefers to be around people as much as she spends her time alone. He's easy with a laugh, but verges on bipolar when it comes to flip-flopping, and because of this he doesn't tend to hold grudges since it doesn't take him long to find something else to focus his attentions on.
Primarily he's a gambling, drinking, two-weapon fighting Ranger (Skirmisher, Wild Stalker so he gives up spellcasting for Rage). He loves a good fight just for the pure excitement of it. He may have some levels of fighter, I'll have to see on the build up.
What are the other Char gen rules beyond level 11?
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On thinking, I think the best thing for three new characters to show up is if you were another party showing up to investigate what has been going on at Sandpoint. That implies the following:
- you have some reason to care about what's been going on at Sandpoint (maybe Aadvark's character provides a reason, but maybe not the only reason)
- you guys know each other before - you might want to think (maybe not in massive detail, but in some sort of way) about how you got together
- you would need to have a reason to be willing to team up with the existing party. Hopefully saving the world, or Varisia anyway, would be a good enough reason, but it's all down to the motivation.
In terms of char gen rules, they are on the first page of this discussion, albeit that they were 3.5 (remember that?) and you might need to have a look at those old rules for ability scores. Otherwise I would assume standard treasure values for 11th level characters.
I'm planning on having the new PCs show up in the middle of this fight. That's not to hurry you to create characters, just a comment as Alwyn might well be dead in a few rounds otherwise.
Being based on 3.5 character gen, does that mean we are not using traits?
As for us knowing each other, Lirrathan was sent by Shalelu to get help from my clan because he could handle himself on the road. On the way back we encountered Arthur and convinced him to join us. Much fun was had traveling back to Sandpoint between the ex-slave, the drunk, and the savage druid... Upon getting back we were told of the intentions of the rest of the group and hurried to help them.
It could use a little (a lot) refinement. Feel free to scrap the whole thing if that doesn't work with your intentions for your characters.
Also, for wild shape choices, are dino's off the menu? I am going to have to make stat blocks for each shape I want to take so I'd like to get working on those as soon as I can too.
Ooops, didn't mean to call you out Nevynxxx... my bad
I was planning on grabbing some traits to make sense motive and/or diplomacy class skills but I'd rather not waste my time digging up the correct ones if I don't have to.
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Being based on 3.5 character gen, does that mean we are not using traits?
As for us knowing each other, Lirrathan was sent by Shalelu to get help from my clan because he could handle himself on the road. On the way back we encountered Arthur and convinced him to join us. Much fun was had traveling back to Sandpoint between the ex-slave, the drunk, and the savage druid... Upon getting back we were told of the intentions of the rest of the group and hurried to help them.
It could use a little (a lot) refinement. Feel free to scrap the whole thing if that doesn't work with your intentions for your characters.
Also, for wild shape choices, are dino's off the menu? I am going to have to make stat blocks for each shape I want to take so I'd like to get working on those as soon as I can too.
That works OK as a basic outline.
The main issue going forward is that this will be going aquatic. So you might want to think about what wildshape would be useful there. Also, while dinos exist in Golarion, I believe that a druid has to be familiar with a particular animal (i.e. to have at least seen one) in order to take its shape. Up north in Varisia you don't get dinos, as far as I know. You do, however, get megafauna.
Here is Tikrok. I'm still fleshing him out but the skeleton is there. I'm picking a domain vs animal companion because I feel like it would be more clutter to worry about. I'm still missing one feat. I'm trying to choose between Great Cleave or improved unarmed strike to set up for improved grapple.
I was hoping that knowledge nature would help with knowing about the rarer animals but it's not like there is a druid university or something that he would get exposed to these things.
In the water I'm sure the party wouldn't mind traveling with a giant sea turtle right? They are very calming to watch swim around. ;)
For those that are lazy as I am, here you can find an easy point buy calculator for 3.5 (which happens to be the edition I play in my F2F games).
- you have some reason to care about what's been going on at Sandpoint (maybe Aadvark's character provides a reason, but maybe not the only reason)
First reason would be helping Sandpoint, but an additional motivation can be that Arthur is interested in ancient legends and lore (Thassilonian lore fits the bill)
- you guys know each other before - you might want to think (maybe not in massive detail, but in some sort of way) about how you got together
Arthur is a classical hero, which means he would probably jump into a dragon's maw if a damsel is in distress... That's why I think him having been captured by Ogres and their pet hobgoblins on his way from the Mierani Forest to Sandpoint, only to be rescued by Tikrok and Lirrathan at the last moment, seems like a good story to share over a warm spiced wine.
We can round the trip up with bandits, cultists and a magical beast and we have enough of a pedigree to join the rest.
- you would need to have a reason to be willing to team up with the existing party. Hopefully saving the world, or Varisia anyway, would be a good enough reason, but it's all down to the motivation.
Saving his mother's homeland, getting rich and learning about old empires? Sign me the f&%# in.
And there's also the fact that whatever the hell is going on, it will surely end with a powerful artifact or magic falling in the wrong hands, and that is usually followed by common folk suffering and forced to do things against their will... Which he can't let happen.As for the 3.5 and underwater bits, the former only makes me ask 'Can we use 3.5 material?'. Not that I have anything in particular in mind, but there is always interesting stuff there. And the latter, well, I will rock a full-plate so I better invest spells or resources on that.
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OK, comments re Tikrok. The build looks fine - I notice that he has a number of spells I haven't heard of, I assume these are in Paizo publications? I also notice he has next to no healing spells selected, or any equipment to provide it. That might be a problem if the party begins to suffer attritional damage.
On the background... First off, he doesn't look quite right, although we can overlook that (a standard Shoanti would have his head shaven - if he hasn't, that's noteworthy and might need to be explained, but it might be easier to change avatar, depending on what you decide background-wise). (If you have it, one of the Curse of the Crimson Throne volumes has an article about the Shoanti.) Second, the Shoanti have virtually no fondness at all for the Chelaxian colonists of coastal Varisia, since the colonists largely chased them out of that area and exiled them to the marginal regions (like the Storval plateau, although not all Shoanti live there). So it doesn't really make terrific sense for the Shoanti to come to the rescue of Sandpoint - they might even be a bit pleased if it was wiped off the map (although before the arrival of the colonists Sandpoint was primarily a Varisian village and the Shoanti don't have that much specific interest in the place as such). I would suggest two possible reasons why Tikrok might be interested:
- he has been sent to find Alwyn, whose father is a chief in a Shoanti village on the coast to the north, and pass on a message. Possible he has to come to sort out an external threat (I had the idea of a rampaging dragon before events took a different turn). Possibly Alwyn's father is ailing and there are questions about who will take over (which might also involve Hudak). Either way, this provides a reason why Alwyn might leave the party. Tikrok might not be an actual member of that clan (there is a clan made up of wandering priests - I can't remember the name as my books are at home - but he could be one of these) - hence he would have no skin in the actual game regarding Alwyn's tribe and could happily adventure with the rest of the party.
- as mentioned above, he could be in an adventuring group with the others. He might be more of an outcast or outsider in Shoanti society (which might explain the hair) in that case, since the Shoanti clans are quite, well, clannish and insular.
These two options are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The group may have been adventuring in the north near Riddleport and were asked to pass on the message. Being round Riddleport might be OK for Aadvark's character too (since he is an elf from the Mierani Forest, which is near there). And Riddleport is a port (and another Chelaxian colony, of a sort) so Arthur could easily show up there to get away from Cheliax.
I'm using the PRD spell index so that I can access it anywhere. I'm assuming everything on there is from paizo publications but I couldn't tell you which book without looking it up. I can swap out some of the odd spells for more healing. I wanted to start with a "traveling day" spell selection as I doubt our characters are going to know we are rushing to the rescue.
I'd like to make a note of one the animals that seems like it doesn't agree with itself. The 'Megafauna: Arsinoitherium' says it has a 4d8 gore attack as a standard attack but the monster entry has a 'powerful charge' ability that is supposed to double the damage dice. In this case it is listed as 4d8. Then it has the companion version of the beast has the damage dice listed as 2d8 and powerful charge as also 2d8. Naturally I picked this as one of my forms because the 4d8 is amazing with strong jaw and vital strike (4d8 goes up to 8d8 with strong jaw, 8d8 becomes 16d8 with vital strike. But then if I crit... 32d8). It just seems a bit strong for a large sized creature.
Everything I know about the Shoanti comes from the player guide for this AP and things I've learned from Hudak and Alwyn. I saw that the Shoanti mystics sometimes don't shave so I thought he would fall among them. Then again, as he became a more powerful shifter he ignored the tradition as he prefers animal form so it wouldn't come up often. Then again I can just change the avatar and skip it.
I like the idea of being part of the wandering priests. It would open up the idea of belonging more the the land and nature vs belonging to a clan. His group could have been entrusted with passing along a message to Alwyn because they are seen as trustworthy neutral parties. On his way to sandpoint he came across the others and decided travel with them. This could include the rescuing of Artur from the ogres and all that as well.
For anyone looking at traits still, the anniversary edition of the player's guide has some interesting campaign traits. I was immediately drawn to the 'Hagfish Hopeful' trait thanks to Hudak.
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If you got the spells from the Paizo PRD they should all be from the Paizo PFRPG line; if you are looking at another SRD (say the d20PFSRD) they may be from other sources.
Powerful charge doesn't necessarily double the damage dice, it adds the additional listed damage to the normal damage dice (in most cases it is double, but I suppose their may be some exceptions); so 4d8 + 4d8 is probably right. Combining that with strong jaw and vital strike ... looks like it is getting somewhat into the ridiculous territory, which does tend to happen sometimes when using things from multiple books beyond core.
Is Strong Jaw the spell? The wording of the spell implies that a druid wouldn't be able to cast this on themselves; "Laying a hand upon an allied creature's jaw, claws, tentacles, or other natural weapons, you enhance the power of that creature's natural attacks. " (emphasis mine).
Alwyn's already set a precedence for a long-haired Shoanti, so I wouldn't see an issue there.
Yep, that's the spell. I was hoping to get around that creature part by being able to wildshape then cast it on myself using natural spell. I suppose that's up to Aubrey because that does get to be a bit much. It's really noticeable with those big single hits but even with the dire tiger claw-claw-bite becomes 3d6, 3d6, 4d6 each with grab. Add on pounce and then if grapple sticks it potentially adds up to a lot of damage dice. And all that is before the static bonuses. And never mind the crit dice above. Vital strike dice don't get doubled on a crit.
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I believe you count as your own ally for spells, though I can't necessarily tell you the source in the books (though I read it recently in Starfinder, not that that helps).
Natloz, happy with all the suggestions re Tikrok's background. I'll check out the mechanics of the spell/feat combo later - assume it's OK until a definitive ruling.
I get the impression this was intended to be cast on an animal companion rather the druid in wildshape, but there is nothing to prevent it. We'll have to see what the impact is balance-wise.
Sorry for any delay, I won't have time to really sit down and throw together the character until some time this weekend. If you want to go ahead without me, that's fine, as my work schedule got a little screwy lately and it affects my posting frequency.
I doubt it'll be as good as Hudak in straight combat. I definitely don't have the same 'to hit' bonus as he did. I might be throwing a lot of dice but they could all roll low on one hit and high the next. The biggest advantage is the flexibility that comes along with it. I get 9th lvl casting on top of being pretty good at combat.
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I can have Arthur finished before Monday, I might have it by tonight.
I only need to format and add a couple things, but the choices (Feats, Skills, Spells, Traits) are done. I've used the profile to mote stuff down, like his Gear, so if Aubrey could check it and give it the go or no that'd be great.
Modified by House Rule Ends in:
I think I'm mostly done. I need to stat up the elemental shapes but there is some ambiguity across the boards. The crux of the question is they way the spell Elemental Body is worded. Would I get the stat boosts depending on the size of the elemental shape that I take or based on the spell that I use.
For example, elemental body I for the air elemental says I turn into a small elemental and I get +2 size bonus to dex and +2 natural armor and some other stuff. Elemental body II says "as elemental body I except +4 size bonus to dex and +3 natural armor" and I can turn into a medium elemental. I'm assuming the bonuses depend on the size that I take as it does with beast shape but it would be nice if I get the greater bonuses no matter what.
I was looking at the ring of foe focus as well. I didn't realize when I picked it out that I can't activate anything while I am wild shaped so it doesn't do much good for me. That gives me 10,000 gp extra to play with. I was thinking of upping my ring of protection to +2 and get some pearls of power but I'm not sure what to do with the other 2000gp. I guess I'll pick up some scrolls and potions but I'm not sure of what.
@Emissary, are you sure you want to devote that much of your spell list towards water stuff? Most of my spells are buff and control spells because I'll have a low DC for anything offensive. I can prep some extra spells so you can have more broadly useful spells known.
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Re Tikrok, a wand of healing of some type might be a useful purchase.
Re Emissary, while you know that this is going to be an undersea adventure, Arthur doesn't necessarily. Also, this is the only section which will be underwater so make sure you don't end up with spells you can't generally use given your limited selection.
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Then I think I'll keep Touch of the Sea and change Water Breathing into something more useful in the long run.
To be honest I didn't think two spells as too much given that Arthur's main buffs are already there and his actually "buffing routine" equals entering Bloodrage and getting Bloodrage Arcana and Greater Arcana to give him free buffs.
Hell, I picked mostly flavourful spells for my first and second levels.
In any case I wanted to ask you a question. I wanted to pick a trait that represented Arthur's love of legends and lore, one that also gave me Kn. History as a class skill... But the ones that I've found have text referencing being relic hunters, fanatics and the like. Would you allow me to pick one of those, call it "Grown with the Tales" or something like that and call it a day?
Alright, finally done. I've added a couple wands of cure light wounds and changed up my spell list for a little more healing. I had to put a link to a google doc for my elemental shapes because it wouldn't display correctly directly into the profile. I also added in a couple sets of spell components to be able to cast stone skin just in case. And with that, Tikrok is ready to come to the rescue.
@Emissary That is a really good spell. It's almost a must have for half-elf casters.
I'm not going to be able to put something together for this. My schedule has been crazy lately, and putting together not only a new character but an 11th level one would take too much of what little time I've had lately.
This is going to be an interesting introduction. Two strangers that can't see 5 ft in front of them coming upon a group that is fighting against some abomination made of body parts (that we can't see yet and now can't hear). I'm sure I can just tap Elisile (who has no clue who we are) on the shoulder and ask to be pointed in the direction of Alwyn so I can give him a message... It's gonna be great, especially considering my skin looks like it's made of bark. ;)
Seeing Arthur's introduction and your rage stats prompted me to finally take a look at the bloodrager class... I think Arthur is going to be a beast on the battlefield. As we have been traveling together for a while, I can throw a barkskin on you as well though I don't think you'll need it between mirror image and blur and shield
I have two that are currently kind of meh. If they can survive to cast spells, I think they will much more fun.
I just looked at the news today. Hopefully our UK friends weren't effected by the latest terrorist incident on the metro. Everyone OK over there?