Clebsch GM Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path

Game Master Clebsch73

The place for discussions about the adventure, the rules, real life, out of character table talk, etc. First order of business for the selected characters is to firm up your character's stats and background, connect your background to other players, if desired, and generally prepare for the start of the adventure.

Starting wealth for characters will be the average for the character's class. Residents of Kenabres are encouraged--in some groups like the guards and soldiers, required--to keep fully armed and armored at all times, including having enough provisions to set off on immediate march into the Worldwound, with rations, water, torches (if needed), and anything else needed for survival away from the city.

Congratulations to everyone that was selected!

I look forward to many delightful adventures with you :)

Woot! Thanks for the selection, DM! Congrats to everyone.

Ellena checking in. If anyone wants to check her sheet, please feel free. I had advanced a few levels in the last game before it died, and I tried to gear her back. I'm sure I might have forgotten something here or there, so any corrections would be appreciated.

Basically she's a resident. She's in one of he guard divisions. She's definitely a paladin, but isn't lawful stupid. She's judgmental and has a bit of a racist streak with tieflings, in particular. However as she gets to know them and they prove her preconceived notions are not correct, she's totally willing to come around.

I'm happy to connect my background to any of you, if anyone has an idea.

Friends! We have quite an adventure ahead of us! Finalizing skills and gear now, I'll have to post them as they become ready. As the Rogue, I am more than happy picking up what skills are not taken if needed. I won't be able to carry much with a strength of 9, but I'll see what goodies I can get away with.

Looking Like the following as Trained skills thus far. 11 = 8 + Int(1) + FCB(1) + Skilled(1)

• Acrobatics +8
  
• Bluff + 6
  
• Disable Device + 9
  
• Disguise + 6
  
• Escape Artist +8
  
• Linguistics + 5
  
• Perception + 4
  
• Perform(Comedy) +8
  
• Sleight of Hand + 8
  
• Stealth +8
  
• Use Magical Device + 6

Languages currently looking like Taldane, Varisian, Skald.

The only thing I need to do is finish making purchases on Avelina.

As for skills, despite being an arcane caster, Avelina will not be putting any points in Spellcraft or Knowledge (arcana) for the time being for roleplaying reasons. The lack of those skills are the reason she does not realize she is an arcane spellcaster instead of a divine one. Her bloodline gives her access to some extra class skills (diplomacy, knowledge local, knowledge history, and linguistics), so she will be able to do more skill support than a typical sorc.

She will be a bit low on skill points until she starts taking levels in the Evangelist prestige class, at which point she will be able to fill out a lot of skill needs.

I have posted some information on the campaign tab, including some SOP regarding certain situations and house rules. Take a look when you get a chance and let me know any feedback.

Also, I'd like to ask that you put your crunch information in your profile using the standard Paizo Pathfinder format. Please do not hide it under a spoiler. Do hide any other information, such as background, text details of feats, class features, etc. under spoilers. For an example, see Shasta.

This makes it easier for me to find information when I need it.

If you want start think about your first gameplay post, you should describe your arrival to the celebration of Armasse. Each character finds himself or herself led in subtle ways, perhaps too subtle to notice, to stand in Clydwell Plaza in time for the blessing of the festival by Lord Hulrun himself, ruler of Kenabres, at noon, the traditional opening event of Armasse.

So in the original game Karas was built for he had ridiculous stats as did the others. It will be interesting to see the toned down and more realistic stat spread at work.

Ellena, you likely have seen Karas about the city before and I welcome the racial prejudice because well... Its kinda warranted in the wordlwound but I'm interested to see how time changes that. It's fairly well known in the city that he is a ward of Terendelev which has kept most of the lack off of him.

DM, I have unspoilered Karas' stat block in his profile if that looks up to your standard. I will also add the standard stat line to the quick ref.

Also to get it out of the way, I grant permission to make any applicable AOO for me.

Unspoilered Avelina's stat block as well.

Avelina spent the first four years of her life in Kenabres (leaving about 14 years ago), so she could possibly know someone from back then.

Everyone has probably heard of the Queen's willful niece that has been withdrawn from public life for the last five years. Some of the PCs might have heard gossipy rumors ranging from "she's possessed by a demon and tied up in the basement of Starrise Spire" to "the Queen has locked her away to train her as a secret weapon against demons." Or maybe you've never even heard of her at all.

I will get Anarya's stats cleaned up shortly - I have company over this weekend and will be busy for the next day or so, but then I'll be completely ready. I'm very excited to be playing with you all!

I think I'll be making Anarya dual-cursed, as she was in her last attempt, but otherwise I probably won't be changing much beyond making sure her gear fits the gold amount.

She is a resident of Kenabres, and while she isn't officially part of any military unit or crusader contingent, she's a common sight in healers' tents in and around the city, using her powers to save lives wherever she can.

So in the original game Karas was built for he had ridiculous stats as did the others. It will be interesting to see the toned down and more realistic stat spread at work.

Ellena, you likely have seen Karas about the city before and I welcome the racial prejudice because well... Its kinda warranted in the wordlwound but I'm interested to see how time changes that. It's fairly well known in the city that he is a ward of Terendelev which has kept most of the lack off of him.

DM, I have unspoilered Karas' stat block in his profile if that looks up to your standard. I will also add the standard stat line to the quick ref.

Also to get it out of the way, I grant permission to make any applicable AOO for me.

Interesting, Karas. I would suspect that Ellena would have mixed feelings toward you, in particular. Her obvious contempt might be tempered by knowing that Terendelev trusts you. Or at least sees something in you. That might make her want to drive you harder to see if the dragon was right or not. Or to make you quit, and show her prejudicial stereotypes were right.

DM, I'll clean up Ellena's profile this weekend.

As mentioned in the recruitment posts, if players are concerned about the diversity in the cost of the attribute point build, we can discuss having you make adjustments to your characters to make them all the same or closer to the same. Currently, the ones with a 15 point build are Karas, Avelina, and Ellena, while Franti is 22; Tauni and Anarya are 25.

As I said, I don't think the attribute levels will make or break a character. As it has happened, the ones with the highest builds are the least martial of the group: Rogue, Wizard, and Oracle. So let me know if you want to make adjustments. For what it's worth, I think the AP is written on the assumption of a 15 point build, but I'll be adjusting the level of the encounters up a little to compensate for there being 6 PCs instead of the nominal 4.

No rush on getting characters ready to go. It will take me a little while to get a few things ready on my end. Stat blocks so far look pretty good. One request is that you only list skills that you have ranks in, so I can tell what skills are trained and what are untrained. If you want to have a complete list for reference including default values for skills that can be used untrained, just place it under a spoiler.

You can put what you like in the header (the line that appears under your character name with each post). I'll be keeping my own list of saving throws, perception and knowledge skills for each character, since I'll be making those rolls for the characters on a regular basis. The most helpful things for me and the other players will be the things that are changable, such as hit point, remaining points of various pools, and other abilities that are limited to a certain number per day.

I'm fine on however you want stats done, DM. 'As is' is fine with me, same is true for adjusting them a touch. It's your game and I'm groovy either way, just let me know.

I will update my stat block's skills later today when I get home.

As for adjusting attributes, what were you thinking GM?

GM is totally right about APs. they are generally written for party of 4 at 15pts. I'm ok with not adjusting seeing as He is including Hero points up until we go mythic. At which point we get mythic points and shenanigans ensue.

No complaints being on the upper side of the stat block, but would be willing to lower down to meet others as necessary. Unchained Rogue is less MAD than before, I mostly rely on DEX now. I'd most likely drop my CHA/CON down to meet ends meet.

@Cleb: While perhaps not practical, I want Franti to know as many "common" languages as he can. It doesn't make sense for him to know abyssal, celestial or other useful languages here. If you will only be using Taldane and will be disregarding Varisian, Skald, Kelish et cetera, I may change this.

@Karas: Franti is all for Tieflings, freaks and fools. I'd play Devil's Advocate (pun intended) for Karas, liking the fact that he isn't one for rules and formalities. Franti will likely intentionally avoid jokes on the Tiefling until a relation of some kind forms. Being CG, I may ask for your help with friendly pranks and jokes at times.

@Rabbit: If he catches wind of Rabbit's Varisian heritage, he will likely try to tell jokes in Varisian to her, or explain the nuances of the Varisian language when it comes to humor if she cannot speak it.

Franti is a fool. There may be some issues with his future actions with LG individuals, particularly with his lack of formality, order, rules. That said, he does have his passions and tendencies for good. If the Crusades are targeting Witches in his presence, Franti will jump in their defense. He doesn't believe in inherent evilness or wickedness, and will actively seek to redeem or forgive evil figures, especially those that aren't demons. While afraid of demons from his encounters in the Worldwound, he will take no glory of pride in fighting or slaying them. At least how he is now.

I've updated Anarya's stats - added dual-cursed, switched her domain for Touched by Divinity to the Defense subdomain, and went with Idyllkin for her Aasimar heritage (the only thing it changes, given her racial substitutions, is she gets +2 con instead of +2 wis now). Only her gear is left to change.

On that note, GM - how do you handle encumbrance, rations, and minutiae like that? Should we try to ensure we stay under our light encumbrance, or can we handwave it within reason? Should we track rations, or not worry about them?

Every GM does it different, so I'd like to know how you handle things before I make the last few changes to my equipment for level one.

Can't wait to get started with you all!

Edit: I came up with one last change. Since Anarya's power comes from the god of humanity, it makes sense that humans would find her power harder to resist. With that in mind, I think I'm going to swap out sacred conduit for overwhelming beauty.

GM - how do you handle encumbrance, rations, and minutiae like that? Should we try to ensure we stay under our light encumbrance, or can we handwave it within reason? Should we track rations, or not worry about them?

Actually, I was going to ask about encumbrance too. Currently I am shoving all non essentials into a backpack and dropping that at the start of battle. Could go incredibly wrong or mess me up later, but then again, I dropped Wisdom to 9 so I guess that fits.

Oh yeah, one other question. I'd like to use variant channeling (rulership) on Anarya, but only on the Sacred Scourge alignment channel she picks up at level five as a Purifier (don't want to mess up her early-game healing with her Channel revelation). Is that okay?

I am fine with the attributes as they are, so I have no change in mind. I just want to be sure no one is feeling the creation rules were unfair to him or her for having lower stat cost than others in the party. So if no one complains, I'm happy to leave things as they are. Eventually, everyone will be getting extra attribute increases from mythic levels, so attributes shouldn't be a problem for anyone.

Regarding languages: I'm not familiar with particular languages that will be useful to have, other than the obvious utility of knowing languages likely to be spoken by outsiders such as celestial and abyssal. So a character's language fluency is more a personal role playing thing. If individual PCs speak a language others don't, it opens up the possibility of speaking privately, but other than that, go with what is consistent with your background and which fits the concept of your character. The crusade is a polycultural affair, so speaking various human languages might be helpful any time.

Regarding encumbrance, rations, water, etc.: there are times when characters may be out in the wilderness and unable to forage effectively for food and/or water, so in those cases, I will want characters to have a record of rations and keep track of encumbrance. Start off the campaign with a record of what you have on you. I'd say if you follow the official crusader rule of having at least 2 days rations and water at all times, you'll be okay.

Regarding encumbrance, start with your armor, weapons, and essential gear for fighting. If extra gear, such as backpack, rations, water, etc. pushes you into a higher encumbrance level, you can drop your pack to eliminate the encumbrance. This means the total encumbrance level typically affects your movement, but the penalty to skills that depend on Dex and Str can usually be ignored, since you can drop the pack before attempting most skills. This may not always be an option, such as climbing a cliff or swimming across a river, but that's part of the challenge of such situations.

As per rules, the survival skill may help in living off the land, finding water, and avoiding getting lost. Those with an animal companion or familiar need not fuss with having special food for the animal.

Ellena is a brute with a 19 strength, so once we get going, she will be able to assist with carrying gear as needed.

@ Anarya: the variant channeling idea you presented is okay.

Since it sounds like we think we are just going to a celebration, I didnt buy any wilderness adventuring gear for Avelina. If it's an official rule that crusaders should have 2 days of water and rations on them at all time, I will revisit that idea, as she would follow that rule absolutely.

Not having a weapon is generally what keeps me under encumbered lol.

Thanks for picking me for this one! I'm really excited for it! I'll finish getting her ready to go.

Starting Gear, take a look and tell me if anything is missing. I could use a blow gun for a ranged weapon and might due to cost reasons for now. Stats seem to be in order now, placed them on Franti's page.

Was thinking of possibly changing from shortsword focus to a nonlethal Sap build. Would give the team the ability to take things alive easier, in case that is something we might do in the future. Also makes me less of a Murder Clown.

Anyone who has spent a significant amount of time in Kenabres may know Tauni. She often wandered the city with Abadaran patrols, and her foster parents had a dry goods business and a scribing business. Over the last few years, she has been seen around town with an artcic hareCobblepaw, either carrying it, with its head poking out of her pack, or with her chasing it down the street scolding it.

Franti, Tauni doesn't know her own heritage yet, but her foster parents were Varisian and she's always eager to learn more about where they came from. She takes any teasing well; she loves clever jokes, even if they are at her expense.

Gerald, great to have another game with you!

Karas has probably seen her or her parents at the scribing shop on errands for Terendelev.

Avelina has a huge ego, but she isn't denigrating towards all but the most obviously evil people. I personally have found that playing an egotistical character works best when it's played more like "I'm amazing" and less like "I'm better than you." She will also hopefully be forced to grow out of her inflated self-image before too long, also :D

She's a huge romantic, so she would happily see a tiefling rising above his heritage as a wonderful story right out of a book, and she would never cast herself as the doubting villain.

Hard not to spot a fool. I figure some of my starting wealth came from Performance Checks over the last bit of time anyway. Maybe even a joke at the expense of Iomedae (Witch-Killer! I'll be quick to mention that little act) left a few with less than favorable impressions.

That said, if you've been staying in Taverns, walking the streets, you've likely met with Franti. If proving as great as you claim Avelina, Franti may need to turn tales rather than jokes at you. Then again, if you slip in your greatness it makes a wonderful punchline...

@DM CLeb: I've been looking at the Mythic Legendary equipment line of Paths. Wow. While a short-sword or Sap/Jester's Scepter may be more beneficial, a ring-laden hat, Jester's boots, Book of Jokes, robes of a lost Worldwound prankster may also be fun flavorful Mythic gear. If I planned to take these, I suppose they shouldn't magically appear on me. If you are allowing such gear to be used, would you like notice to make lore/stories/rumors/backstory missions for their eventual acquisition?

Having played this same character to almost 11 in PFS, I can guarantee there will be punchlines :)

MOB, great to see you on the squad! I haven't had time to look at see if I knew any of the other selections. That's awesome.

I'm also definitely going to look into Legendary Item, so Franti's question is a good one. It would be interesting to start seeing hints and rumors of items we're destined to come into contact with later. For Anarya, pretty much any relic of Aroden's life would be a perfect thematic fit for her legendary item.

I haven't quite figured out how to pull it off yet, but I would love to give Anarya some powers related to the Twelve Guises of Aroden. The books don't tell us much about them but it's one of my favorite tidbits of Arodenite lore.

The wealthier patrons of the crusades subsidize the cost of some supplies needed by the troops. Your PCs can purchase a Crusader's Kit. It costs 47 gp and contains:
bedroll
Flint and Steel
5 candles
2 torches
1 sunrod
50' silk rope
Cold Iron weapon blanch 1 dose
Holy water flask
Wandermeal Rations (5 days)
Waterskins (2)

When the waterskins are full, it weighs 25 lb. It comes in a bag that can be quick released so it drops to the ground as a free action. Most crusader will drop the kit just before battle. Any of the items can be transferred to a place on the weapon belt or other places where they can be drawn quickly and so they are still available after the kit has been dropped.

For simplicity, anything that a character wants to have handy for quick access during melee please list in the section called "Gear". Anything that would be in the backpack or Crusader's kit please list in the section called "Other Gear". This mainly affects the type of action required to get at an item. See Campaign Tab for notes on how I will be handling the drawing of items like wands, potions, etc.

Ellena can't afford a crusader's kit...stupid weapons and armor are expensive!

Is the gear in my Barbarian's kit sufficient?

Barbarian's Kit 9gp 26 lbs
-Backpack
-Belt Pouch
-Blanket
-Flint and Steel
-Iron Pot
-50ft Hemp Rope
-Soap
-Torch x10
-Trail Rations (5 days)
-Waterskin

Regarding Legendary Items: I have never run a mythic campaign, so I have no immediate answer. But the Mythic Adventures book says, "Paralleling the trajectory of a mythic character, a legendary item begins as a normal magic item that ascends to something greater. Typically this ascension occurs when a character f irst takes the legendary item universal path ability (see page 50), but this isn’t always the case. Deities, the servants of deities, peculiar chance, magical experimentation, and destiny can serve as catalysts for legendary item ascension. Such items can be bestowed upon the worthy or found by the lucky."

So I'd say let me know as far in advance of when you think you will be taking the path ability what you have in mind. I'll let you know how the item you want will emerge once I know that. Something suitably mythic will be determined.

I'm new to Mythic too, so I'm still learning the mechanics. I'll start putting some thought into what sort of items/path abilities she might get.

Just to confirm, my Pitborn tiefling lineage comes at cost of the feat fiendish heritage still correct?

While it's up to the GM of course, Blood of Fiends removed the feat requirement for those heritages. Bastards of Erebus, the much older book, is the one that had originally required a feat.

Ah, I did not know that. I'll wait for GMs permission but if I dont need the feat for it I'd like to take Weapon Focus (Claws).

I traded out the two scrolls I bought for a crusader's kit.

Well, I cannot afford a crusader's kit and a light crossbow. I'll make sure I have rations and light sources comparable to the kit and call it good.

Edit: And if we reach the point in a battle where Tauni is applying cold iron weapon blanch, we have big, big problems. :)

Might need to trade some of my goodies for the kit, especially with that discounted price. I guess I can sacrifice a hand mirror, a candle lamp and six whistles for some of those items, but Gods will strike me down if I sell my dyed wig.

Formally switching to a TWF sap build, Sap Master's double sneak attack die damage should make it worth it. At 8th level I should be able to deal an average of around 140 nonlethal on a Fullround attack if all hit, not including any Mythic dipping. Should be good to knocking out things we aren't comfortable killing too. Only bad side is that a "Sword of Subtlety" is a sword, and not a Sap, and is a killer item for rogues.

@Cleb, Question regarding Rogue Talents: As I understand it (Unchained is not one of my books), some the old Rogue Talents didn't make the "cut" of the Unchained Rogue talents. I am unsure if older talents can be used with Unchained rogues. One such talent is "Underhanded" which could be of some use to me. Are these fair game to take for you, stick only to Unchained, or a case by case basis?

EDIT: Research into Olde Rogue Talents reveals the following:

"Some feats, rage powers, rogue talents, and other rules might not work with the unchained classes, and such rules should be reviewed before being used with the new versions."

Good old "Up to DM" rules. Playing Devil's Advocate to myself, PFS does not allow such talents I believe.

The SRD does still have a good list if you need an unchained reference, Franti.

I've been using the SRD for both Mythic and Unchained thus far, this is just a small ruling that could change how I play Franti slightly in regard to his Rogue Talents. It has been a fairly reliable source thus far, and when I GM, I usually say what is there (and first party) is fair game.

I think Franti is about ready to go. While it does have metal in it, I am assuming that Franti cannot have a Cold Iron Sap?

That's fair. I do the same when GMing lol.

Personally, I'm more of a fan of Archives of Nethys. Prettier to look at, and it has setting-specific stuff that d20pfsrd doesn't.

I think I am ready to go as well.

Ellena is ready to rock. Tomorrow is especially busy, so I might not be around much. I'll definitely check in tomorrow evening, if not before.

Has Archives been updated recently?