Corsairs of Varisia

Game Master dain120475

Loup Blanc wrote:

Woops! Sorry, you must've ninja'ed me and I didn't notice.

The playtest can be downloaded here; it's got all the classes in it, the slayer being one of them.

It's a mash-up of the ranger and rogue, heavy on combat--they get a favored target mechanic that lets them lock in on a single enemy and take them down, and they get a weaker sneak attack progression later on along with some rogue-talent-like abilities. It would fit well for a pirate-hunter type, I think, allowing the character to focus on their enemy and move in for the kill (or capture).

If you'd prefer I don't do that, though, I may end up going with a gunslinger or some such. They're fun.

Very interested indeed!

But for now I need to download it and review it - sadly I don't have a software package that lets me view PDF's at this time; but I will see what I can do to get one soon.

Give me some time to look it over; it sounds pretty good so far, though, and I don't think I'd have issues with it, though I'd need to see the formal progression to be sure.

Awesome! I await your final decision with bated breath, and may well begin statting out a character...

*Does happy, skippy, fun dance at DM's response* (^_^)

Okeys, then.

As ye can right understand, things be a might hec'a'tic given tha' season that do descend upon us.

Am hopin' tha' DM an' ever one else be havin' tha' best of times. (^_^)

Much cheers ta' all an' ta' all a great time!

I'm quite interested and this sounds like a lot of fun, but I'm not incredibly keen on the current class choices... Specifically, I'd like to play a slayer from the ACG playtest, as I think it'd fit nicely into this game. If that'd be allowed, I'd be totally up for this. In the meanwhile, I'll roll around other ideas.

Slayer is acceptable, if you'd like to play it, it's all good; I don't mind.

After thinking some more about it, and since being a Wizard, and an Arcane Trickster further down the road is not a certainty, I am reconsidering a change of character concept, though the overall attitude I have in mind [I haven't posted yet since I am still on it "Christmas hectic" mode ;)] will most likely stay the same.

I am considering a rogue, built around the thug/scout archetypes, lugging an Earthbreaker around, and Intimidating the living daylights out of the opposition. Mechanically, the character would be based on mostly strong, single hits at lower levels, aiming to stack debuffs on the targets, and taking advantage of stuff like Sap Adept, Enforcer, etc. Being thought out with the rogue as a base class offers a good, solid amount of skills to chose from, allowing him to be versatile enough for the kind of game you have described. I expect to have him at ease both swinging on a rope, haggling the price of equipment, bullying a gang into submission, or crushing a man's skull ;)

As far as the character mentality, I picture him as a "no one gives you anything, so grab what you can, if you're strong enough to hold on to it" kind of guy, his own morals and right/wrong concepts taking precedence in most cases, while still being nice enough to be considered one of the "Good guys"... In most situations, at least...

As far as the character mentality, I picture him as a "no one gives you anything, so grab what you can, if you're strong enough to hold on to it" kind of guy, his own morals and right/wrong concepts taking precedence in most cases, while still being nice enough to be considered one of the "Good guys"... In most situations, at least...

That sounds pretty good to me.

I played a Conan d20 game once; I was a playing a Rouge with a Strength of 20 and a Dexterity of 12. I didn't waste any skill points on things like Sleight of Hand - just pimped out stealth and things like that. His version of theft was to kill you first - then rob the body. It was a lot of fun; and it definitely works well.

Another option is to play a Barbarian with a huge Dexterity/Dervish Dance/ and the "Urban Barbarian" rage feature to boost Dexterity in combat; but you'd only get away that if you were playing with a really good group to back you up ;)

In all seriousness, I'd take a good look at the Bounty Hunter class. I know most of the recruits have poo-poo'd those classes; but it seems more up your alley; especially the Fighter BAB coupled with the Rogue Sneak Attack progression, as well as the feature on level 2 Worth More Alive which seems to be perfect for the concept you're thinking of.

Cool - I'm interested in seeing more!

Guys; after having a few thoughts I'm sincerely considering the following (no promises, it's just a thought)

People using a Katana or a Wakazishi - if they have have Weapon Focus in that weapon and Weapon Finesse - they will be allowed to treat both weapons as Finesseable; as well as allow the weapon to function for the Feat Dervish Dance - if they elect to take that feat.

But that's only because in real life Katana's don't take very much pressure to slice skin; it's all where you place them when you do the slice. But you'd need Weapon Focus AND Weapon Finesse for Katana's before that comes into play AND Dervish Dance if you want to do the Dexterity thing. So - yeah - but again; that's all just a thought for now; no promises.

Special Note:

I'm also going to rule now that the Dervish Dance Feat will work for the Rapier. I'm also going to rule it will work for any light, finesse weapon that you use only for Piercing.

Finally, I'm considering (though not sure yet) that it will also allow you to apply Dexterity to damage for thrown weapons up to 30 feet (unless you have Deadly Range - then it would increase to 40 feet, and so on).

I'm not positive about adding your Dexterity modifier to damage for light, thrown, piercing weapons - but stylistically it makes sense if you could throw a knife into my jugular with precision as opposed to my bicep - it would/should do more damage. I'm not positive, though.

Any thoughts or feedback from you guys on that matter would be helpful.

But now I'm REALLY late for work - got to go... hope to see more later tonight!

Dotting for interest, i'll have some kind of concrete introduction soon, although it may just be PM.

I personally think that all that with Dervish Dance is a really good idea, and it's a houserule I use in my home gaming. It just makes sense and fits thematically. And I'm not just saying all that because it's helpful for my character build...

Thanks for allowing the slayer, I'll get into work on the stats!

Looking forward to seeing things come together.

Cool beans about Dervish Dance in general, then.

Once slight caveat - you don't have to spend two ranks in Perform: Dance - two ranks in Acrobatics will do just as well.

Meantime, things are coming together pretty good. I'm hoping to formally get things kicked off by January 2nd (so we can formally finish off with New Years partying and all that).

Does that sound good to everyone?

I hope so, and I'll start narrowing down choices soon.

Good times!

Ready when you are?

Pm sent. Cheers everyone!

Ok, so... This character is sort of a heavy-hitter, mostly useful as a #2 front line fighter than a primary guy, intended to support rather than tank.

If he's the only melee guy we got, he's going to struggle. In practice, he would wear either leather or plate depending on what kind of encounter we are expecting - I've always liked the idea of that, someone who could wear leather armor and sneak into an enemy stronghold to spring a prisoner but later could strap on full plate in the face of a coming seige... Gives the character some dimension to me - not sure how well he would fit into the group though :D

Below an excerpt trying to give a perspective of who Pollux (my character) would be.

@Dain GM: I updated Hack's background a bit to tie him to Beacon.

@Dain GM: I updated Hack's background a bit to tie him to Beacon.

Good times! I enjoyed it and I'm curious to see how he does in the town.

Cool - that said, I'm eager to get started.

Damn, but January feels like a long time away...

:)

Ok, so... This character is sort of a heavy-hitter, mostly useful as a #2 front line fighter than a primary guy, intended to support rather than tank.

If he's the only melee guy we got, he's going to struggle. In practice, he would wear either leather or plate depending on what kind of encounter we are expecting - I've always liked the idea of that, someone who could wear leather armor and sneak into an enemy stronghold to spring a prisoner but later could strap on full plate in the face of a coming seige... Gives the character some dimension to me - not sure how well he would fit into the group though :D

Below an excerpt trying to give a perspective of who Pollux (my character) would be.

** spoiler omitted **...

Good writing on the story - I liked it.

He seemed fairly brutal; but we shall see how things turn out when the game starts.

I was intrigued by the "crunch" but I wasn't sure where you got the racial modifier "Frightening"; though I may have missed the source material.

Was that a trait, or was that a human race variation? Just curious is all.

Okay; looked good and I'm eager to see more soon.

DM, I believe Pollux's 'Frightening' extraordinary ability comes from the level 1 Thug archetype and replaces Trapfinding.

Found here: Thug

DM, I believe Pollux's 'Frightening' extraordinary ability comes from the level 1 Thug archetype and replaces Trapfinding.

Found here: Thug

Ah, thank you! I thought it was a racial modifier - so I got a bit confused. But it's all good now! :)

Testing

Right, so I got a lot of great applicants and I'd love to have all of you, but there are so many, so I need to make some decisions. Unfortunately, I can't decide on who, yet.

So here's what I'm going to do -

Since the game involves a lot of social RP and good interaction with other players is key, I'm formally opening the "campaign thread".

You're all welcome to post on it for now.

I'm going to continue getting the main notes for the campaign set up - that will take me time and I suspect all of you will be fairly busy for a bit with holidays still going on.

That said, the game won't be starting formally until the second of January. But I'm going to keep an eye on the "Campaign Thread" and see how everyone interacts via social RP and with each other.

Based on that RP and interaction, I'll make my formal choices on who will be joining the campaign.

Most of the "Set-Up" invites the chance to make an introduction, but generally is meant for social RP with each other (though the innkeeper will answer questions about the town if he's asked). But for right now I'd like to see how everyone interacts with each other and how you social RP in general.

Even though you're all welcome to post on the campaign thread, with so many applicants I don't think I can choose all of you. But I'd like to see what you've got as players.

Okay, that said; I'm eager to see what happens.

What time zones are people in? This question is mainly for rp purposes.

I'm Australian Eastern Daylight Time Zone (UTC+11 hours).

I am in Europe - So I think that is... Standard Time +0000 UTC

13:30 at the moment.

Pulling out I don't think I can write that much at a time.

Eastern Standard Time - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Okeys. Character done an' put up behind this avatar fer perusalin'. (^_^)

Ack! My laptop died on Friday, the cord died as well, and the new one arrived today, and things have moved ahead quite a bit! I'll try and get the character wrapped up and RP a little bit, but I dunno...

EDIT: Y'know, I was excited for this campaign, but I think I've fallen a bit far behind and I don't want to jump in on what you folks have already done. I'll back out of this one. Good luck everybody!

Everyone's welcome is appreciated. I'm just going to conduct a quick test here so that I don't screw up in the gameplay thread, and try out the formatting. I'm a little bit inexperienced, not with gaming, but with play-by-post.

So...

Here is an attempt. :)

Here is an attempt. :)

The formatting looks good, Jhim. It's not too much of an issue, it comes pretty easy in time, trust me :)

Right now I'm more curious to see your character so you can get into the mix.

I have an idea of how I want to put you into things; but the plan is to start the action later this evening or sometime tomorrow at the latest.

Hoping to see him soon.

Looking for a Cleric

Hello! So, we're looking for a Cleric.

The world that this campaign is set in is more “realistic” in terms of lowered magic, lowered playable races (only core) and higher technology (muskets and flintlocks). Think of a world like Black Death, Vikings, Solomon Kane and finally – Black Sails.

That’s the type of game we’re playing. If you’re interested in joining the crew, please let us know.

The thing is, we’re playing a low-magic world where casters can’t formally start being a “Caster” until level 3. Before that they can play other classes, but are forced to multi-class.

Also, Cleric’s can only play the “Cloistered Cleric” Archtype to limit their casting power further, but if you multi-class with other warrior types, there’s a good chance that you’ll be better balanced.
We’re looking for a Cleric who’s handy in combat, especially ranged combat (dexterity fighters useful here) and someone who has taken Selective Channel on 3rd.

It’s a 20 Point Buy and you start on level 4.

Frequent posting a must; we do lots of RP; generally twice a day average, if possible.

Please let us know if you’re interested. Thanks!

I'd be interested in playing a ranged Oradin rather than a cleric. Paladin (Hospitaler) for levels 1-3 and then Oracle of Life for level 4.

User of a musket. He'll take the life-link revelation to act as an HP battery along with lay on hands. Is that acceptable?

I love Vikings (just rewatched the entire first season before watching ep1 of season 2), have seen all of Black Sails (my favorite show right now) and am a huge fan of Solomon Kane and other Robert E. Howard stuff. I haven't seen the Black Death movie, but I'm going to watch it now that you've grouped it with the rest of the stuff I like.

I can post multiple times every day. Let me know if this concept would work for you and I'll develop it more.

You might also want to check out the BBC's The Musketeers. It's less gritty and more lighthearted than the other media you mentioned, but it's the same general kind of thing and it's enjoyable.

I'm not sure what a Oradin is - was that a typo for Oracle? If not, I'd like to know what it is, but as for the Oracle, I'm not sure... I'd have to check it out.

What race are you interested in playing in the meantime? Also, I'll have to re-examine the oracles a bit before I make the call, but I have considered allowing Oracles for a while as they seem to fit well into the game.

However, if you are considering the paladin class at all, have you considered the Holy Gun as a possibility?

More to come on this soon, but I'd like to see more.

Oradin is a combination of paladin and oracle. It's a build name. It uses the Oracle of life's Life Link revelation in combination with a paladin's lay on hands to create a healer who can also fight without being a pure healbot all the time.

Life link lets you set up links with one person/level where if they take damage you take 5 HP of it each round and they heal 5 HP. Then the Oradin uses swift action lay on hands on themselves to heal the damage they are taking from everyone else. It would only be one level of Oracle, the rest would be paladin. I am leaning towards Hospitaler because it increases healing ability.

Holy gun removes smite evil, while Hospitaler pushes additional uses back from 4th level to 7th level. If you'd be okay with it, I'd combine the two archetypes (losing smite altogether like in Holy Gun). They don't overlap in any other spot.

Edit:I am thinking of human for race. Probably a Kelishite follower of Sarenrae. I need to read the thread before I can write a good backstory to fit this game though.

Well, the thing is – I’m actually trying to cut back on the magic-aspect of it, which is kind of ironic sense we’re trying to recruit a cleric.

I don’t think I’ll end up allowing Oracles for now (though I may do that in time); and paladins may be allowed, but not until maybe forth level of something, just to keep them more mellow compared to the others.

Playing such a class as restricted as a Cleric that is forced to multi-class is already a bit of a challenge to some people. I hope that it comes off as that – a fun challenge. But I’m doing what I can to restrict the magic for a sense of awe and flavor, and the current build I’ve seen so far seems to have magic as more common-place.

You do good work with writing – is there any other type of class that can heal that you might consider? Have you taken a look at the Scholar for example? The Scholar Secrets make them far less potent with magic, but far more customizable and very interesting, and they don’t need to be multi-classed.

Okay, let me know what you think, but I do like your style and I’d like to have you on board, if you’re cool with the world, that is.

Can you give me some specific character creation rules, then I can come up with a concept that fits them?

I don't want to be shoehorned into playing one exact thing, but I do like the world. Just give me a list of classes that are available and what levels I can take them at if applicable as well as any changes you've made to them.

Can you give me some specific character creation rules, then I can come up with a concept that fits them?

I don't want to be shoehorned into playing one exact thing, but I do like the world. Just give me a list of classes that are available and what levels I can take them at if applicable as well as any changes you've made to them.

Sure!

The best thing to do is tap back to the first post on this recruitment thread. I have all the rules for making a character and available classes laid out there.

Let me know what you think; but the crew really needs someone who can heal.

But - like I said - I'd like to have you on board.

Also, there are some modest tweaks to the rules via "House Rules" but they can all be found on the Campaign Page.

Cool! Let me know what you think :)

Alright, I have the day off today so I'll give them a look, then read the gameplay thread and post back here with my concept. :)

All the very best DM Jelani.

Okay, so with your available classes, there are exactly two sources of healing that I can find...

1) The medical doctor route of playing a high wisdom character with maxed ranks in the heal skill and and First Aid, and Medical Expert feats.

That would allow my character to heal 5 HP per person, per day, with an hour's work and a successful DC 20 skill check and 10 GP worth of resources (2 uses of a healer's kit). In the more immediate, if someone is bleeding out, my character might be able to first aid them back to 0 HP with a DC 15 skill check that provokes AOOs.

So compared to normal Pathfinder expectations when in a 4th level party facing CR 4 challenges, a totally crappy healer. Basically the same as having no healing because no actual HP will ever be restored during combat.

2) Some class to level 3, and then one level of Cloistered Cleric. Again, assuming we have a high wisdom character here I'll be looking at 1 first level spell per day. If I also have a high charisma (basically crippling any combat effectiveness by needing to spend all my point buy points on Wis/Cha), I might be able to channel 4-6 times per day.

So essentially 1d8+1+5d6 healing per day (assuming all spells are healing spells), with significant point buy resources dedicated to making the character a healer. The average of those dice all rolled together is 26.5 HP of healing a day. The average CR 4 monster/NPCs should be doing around 14 damage a hit according to the monster creation chart. Meaning I'll be able to heal less than two attack's worth of damage against the party over the whole day, and be stuck playing a weaksauce healbot in the meantime.

--------------------------------

I appreciate the wanting a low-magic feel from the story side of things. In fact, I'm running a game right now on these very boards with no magic whatsoever using the Tripod machine classes. However, it doesn't seem like you've thought the mechanical side of the equation all the way through. The Pathfinder rules system is designed with plentiful magical healing in mind. If you take that out and don't replace it, it causes problems across the board.

Unfortunately, I don't really want to play a High wis/cha cloistered cleric OR a crappy doctor who has to spend 2/3 of their feats on healing feat taxes. Your current rules make playing a healer highly unattractive (which is probably why you need one). I'm not just complaining though, I have two suggestions for no magic ways to fix the problem.

This is how I've fixed the healing problem in my no magic game. Give each PC the following ability:

A number of times per day equal to 1/2 a character's level plus their Constitution modifier a character can take a moment to rest, refocus and regain some vigor. With one use of this ability, a character can heal 1d6 hit points of damage for every two levels they possess. Using this ability is a swift action that requires no free hands. A character may only target themselves with this ability.

If you don't like that, you could also try these rules.

Strain and Injury

I haven't played with them yet, but it seems like they would work well.

Let me know if you're interested in changing the way healing works in your world. If so I'll gladly make a character. I just don't want to be pidgeonholed into playing a character that's spent a large amount of character resources on being a healer, but still sucks at it. Hopefully this makes sense and doesn't come off as insulting, it's not meant to. I just want to help :)

As a player in the game, I find your analysis refreshing and quite on point.

It's all good, and I understand your concerns.

That said, I'd like to toss out a few variables here that I think you may have overlooked, hopefully they will explain things a bit better.

The first is that if you did multi-class, a Cleric formally "starts" on level 3, not level 4. It's not much, but it is a modest difference because on level 4 you'd be a second level caster. It also means that on level 3 you could be taking your first meta-magic feat (such as Selective Channel) as you'd be a level 1 caster on level 3.

The characters get a lot more gold/treasure than they do in most Pathfinder games. This is to encourage them to take that treasure and purchase "crafting" gear so that they can fashion things to heal themselves.

There are are significant portions of downtime while sailing and the rules for crafting have been made much easier/faster via some House Rule tweaks. Even now there are some "mundane" healing potions/elixirs that have been created for their use (those have been mentioned on the campaign page, too). So using "Craft: Alchemy" to create healing potions, and "Use Magic Device" to read magical scrolls after the threat is neutralized is pretty handy.

Meanwhile, things like magical scrolls and potions already exist and I had forgotten to mention that in my version, "Cloistered Cleric" automatically gains the feat for free "Scribe Scroll" on level 2, not 4. This means if you played with the multi-class variation on level 4 you'd be a Second Level "something" (gunslinger, perhaps) and a Second Level Cleric, which means you'd start with Scribe Scroll when they met you on 4th level.

Using more potions and scrolls, for me, serves two purposes:

1. It generally makes combat faster and more effective. It's faster because if players are suddenly healing themselves in the middle of a long combat than the combat goes on longer and longer; and if the enemies could heal themselves quickly as well, than the combat would go on even longer.

Healing in the middle of a combat is not such a big deal in a table-top game. However, I find that in PbP combat rounds can go on for days, and the actual combat can go on for weeks to the point that it becomes monotonous. I'm trying to do what I can to make healing in the middle of combat less appealing, so that players/enemies run from unbeatable threats, rather than stay there and have the combat go on for weeks.

As an aside, this tends to make things feel more "real" because when players are low on hit points and faced with overwhelming odds, they should probably be running from the enemies (and the enemies running from them if the situation is reversed) instead of standing and fighting "to the death" for every single combat.

Of course, when/if they run from enemies that are overwhelming them (you know, using Acrobatics to leap from rooftops, or using Stealth to dodge into cover in some back alley, or even rushing in a mad dash "back to the ship"), then when they do that they can take a breather and use some magical scrolls or mundane healing potions to heal themselves. Then they can re-think their strategy and turn around and head back to deal with the enemies if they still want to do that.

You'd be the guy that's creating and healing them with magical items - reading from moldy scrolls to refresh their health once the combat is finished; giving them healing elixirs that you've fashioned to magically heal their wounds. All it takes is loot to buy crafting supplies, and loot is something that players have in abundance.

2. The second thing is that it generally feels more "realistic" to see magic users with yellowed scrolls and parchments and potions and tonics using them on players. Story-wise it feels more "authentic" somehow.

So basically your character wouldn't be using much healing "magic" per se in the middle of a combat which would inevitably make the combat go for a really long time on the boards. Rather, you'd be using the scrolls you've created to heal everyone right after the fight (though of course you could be healing them during the fight as well, if it got ugly). And you'll be able to afford the material to scribe those scrolls in your downtime while sailing because the players do get a good amount of loot that they could be using for crafting their supplies.

By now every one of my players could tell you that healing in the middle of a combat prolongs it for days - that they have plenty of loot to buy magical crafting supplies - that maxing out things like Craft Alchemy and Use Magic Device is really helpful - that even now they have lots of healing scrolls that they found after only a single combat - that there have been many skirmishes in which the threat seems overwhelming, and that (especially as there is no real XP for combat) that retreating, re-grouping and healing up, and throwing back a successful counter-attack after they've healed up is a pretty good strategy.

Regarding Strain and Injury

It looks pretty interesting; reminds me a lot of the Star Wars d20 Vitality/Wound point system. It was a pretty good system, there, but I didn't want things to get too far off the Core Rules unless I knew other players were comfortable with it. I'll have to double check it, but if it looks good, and the other players like it, I may end up putting it in, but I have to read it over to be sure.

As it stands I'm running a bit late for work now, but I'll definitely check it out when I get home!

Finally

This is a bit of a spoiler for the other players who may/may not read this thread - but casters can actually augment their casting power with sacrifices/offerings. They would have found out more about it in game soon, but it's likely something that a cleric would know.

More about that last part later, if this still seems interesting to you.

Meanwhile, I'm off to work now, so I don't really have time to post any more until I get home from work.

I hope that changes your opinion on Clerics a bit, but we can talk more later when I get home, if you'd like.

Hope to see you then :)

I will consider some things and let you know.

Is alchemist an option?

Is it correct that under your rules a 5th level gunslinger who has the deadly shot feat will be adding their dexterity modifier twice to damage with a firearm? So if you have 20 dex, you would add +10 damage?

Right now I'm thinking a female human gunslinger (musket master) 3/cleric of Nethys (cloistered cleric) 1 from Alkenstar. How much money do I have to buy gear?

Also, I think the DC 25 craft alchemy to make the healing remedies is way too high. If I have craft alchemy as a class skill, 4 ranks in it and a 16 intelligence (genius level), I will have a +10. Meaning I would still only have a 30% of success at making one. 25 is the highest DC listed for anything under the craft skill (sunrods and thunderstones etc). If you're intending these consumables to replace magical healing, then they should be much more easily made.

I would never risk making a healing remedy for 100 GP when next level I will be able to write a scroll of cure light wounds for 25 GP in two hours with no chance of failure, and it won't require a skill check to activate later.

I am going to work, but I will make the stat block for the character tonight when I get home. Just need to know how much money I have basically.

@DM Jelani: When we started the game (at level 3), Dain GM allowed us to go by character wealth by level (so, 3000 gp). I think he'd be doing the same with your character (@level 4: 6000 gp). I may be wrong, but that's how we started off in game.

Characters have standard starting third level gold, but are not able to purchase any magical gear at this time.

Thanks! I'll go with that until I hear otherwise.

Actually, I'm going to go Monk (Zen Archer) 1/Gunslinger (Musket Master) 2/Cleric (Cloistered Cleric) 1.

Level 5 will be another cleric level, and then back to gunslinger for the duration.

Jelani –

A few quick things.

I’d recommend first taking Cloistered Cleric to level 4. This grants you more spells, and spells from level 2, which can be valuable later. It also grants you a bonus to your Channel Energy. The way things are, the group seems fairly hungry for that ability and asked for it specifically by request.

Regarding Gunslingers, there are some modifications, but all of them should be on the Campaign Thread. They include a new combat feat which is available to anyone and it allows you to apply your Dexterity Bonus to damage if the enemy is within 30 feet. This ability can stack with the Gunslinger Deed “Deadeye” – but only if the gunslinger has the feat and is within 30 feet of their target.

It also halves all the cost of Black Powder weapons and gear.

It also allows Gunslingers a bonus of +1 to Damage on level 2, which goes up every other four levels to a total of +5 on level 18.

All firearms resolve in the first 2 range increments (but the penalty for distance still applies). Grit allows a gunslinger to resolve touch attack in all 5 range increments, with penalties for range still in place.

I hope that helps you with your decisions. Again, taking cleric to level 4 would probably help the group more. Also, you’re not restricted by the gods. As a cleric, you are allowed to invent a deity, so long as it only has 2 domains (standard rules for deity apply, however).

Finally, the DC for the Healing Poultice is high, but I presumed that the company would be buying those things from shopkeepers. If you read how the potion works, you can see that with a high enough Heal Check they can be more handy than a simple Cure Light Wounds spell, easily equaling a Cure Moderate and possibly higher, but costing the party only 100 GP, making it potentially very potent as players raise level and improve their Heal Check.

Let me know what you think of that so far.

EDIT

It seems that a lot of the gang likes your character as is - that said, I'm fine with their decision (so long as they're happy on it, so far I haven't heard from most of them yet), but if you glance over the stuff above it may encourage you to change your progression down the line.

If you do decide to make any tweeks - based on what I just tossed up, or what the others suggest - it's all good with me :)

Ahoy!

Looking for a player who’s interested in playing a multi-class cleric in a low-level magic game.

The game has themes/styles synonymous with Solomon Kane, Vikings, Black Sails, Sinbad, Centurion, Assasin’s Creed 4 and of course, Conan.

The game is low magic, but guns are more prevalent, making them easier to use and cheaper to buy.

The Cleric class is under the “Cloistered Cleric” Archtype. You’d start on level 4; 20 point-buy; 2 traits of your choice and Core Races.

Magic using classes are not available to start with, and even the Cleric can’t start until you reach level 3. The minor trade-off is that you get the “Scribe Scroll” feat on level 2 cleric for free.

There’s a lot of stuff on this recruitment page about the basics; but the group is really looking for a cleric/healer at this point.

If you’re interested, let us know – we’d love to hear from you!

Pinging here too because why not. ;) As I said in the other recruitment thread you put up, I'd be happy to play a healer, leaning towards Oracle of Waves, but if the hard-line call is the cleric, I could play a cleric.

(To clarify: my current build as statted is Gunslinger (Buccaneer) 2/Oracle of Waves 2.)

Pinging here too because why not. ;) As I said in the other recruitment thread you put up, I'd be happy to play a healer, leaning towards Oracle of Waves, but if the hard-line call is the cleric, I could play a cleric.

(To clarify: my current build as statted is Gunslinger (Buccaneer) 2/Oracle of Waves 2.)

Cool!

Well, our last cleric had to bow out due to other commitments, but the main reason I've been pushing for Cloistered Cleric is because it limits the spellcasting abilities compared to other casters (something important to me in a low magic world) and also, because it it allows clerics to be able to do things like crafting scrolls, and have some relative reasonable knowledge skills. All three of those features seem to capture the "feel" of the game to me much better than most casting classes when casters minimize specific stats simply to offset them with wondrous items (which, like potions - will also be relatively rare in the game).

The buccaneer's pretty good as it uses Charisma for grit, and having a cleric with a decent channel ability for combat is something that the party's really needed.

Another very nice advantage to your build is that Buccaneers also get a familiar. While that's not normally a big deal for fighters, if you're a healing cleric with spells, being able to deliver a Touch Cure spell to an ally 100 feet away while you're taking shots with a musket is something that's very handy in general, I've found.

That said, I'd really rather have the cleric, as I'm not sure what I can do to minimize the casting power of an oracle to gel it better with the game.

Right - so I think I'm going to allow Oracles. But with some "tweaks".

I'll have them up later tonight - right now I need to go to work, but I'm eager to see both your Cleric concept and Oracle - by the way, what is your "Curse" via the Oracle?

More to come later tonight.

Prefacing this with: I'm not arguing to try and be a dick here, honestly, I'm just interested by your opinion because I think that the oracle actually suits a low-magic campaign better?

1) Clerics get level 2 spells at Level 3, for instance; oracles not until level 4. Overall slower spell progression.

2) More spells per day, but less spells known: the strength of a cleric comes largely in their versatility. Rest one day, and you can completely swap out your spells. Someone gets hit by ability drain? You rest, memorize Lesser Resto, fix them the next day. Whereas the oracle is locked into the spells they learn, so they're a less versatile caster that can respond to less situations.

In regular Pathfinder, oracles can get over this problem to an extent by buying scrolls to make up for a limited spell list, but as you've mentioned, the unavailability of many magic items means that that won't be such a useful tactic. You're stuck with your handful of spells, which means if you want lesser restoration, you have to dedicate one of your few spells known to that.

So I actually think Oracle is a more self-limiting choice in a low-magic campaign?

On your concerns about oracles/casters min-maxing, I'll stay that I personally hate doing that-- I never put a stat below a 10 unless I have a strong RP reason for it. I much prefer playing balanced characters with a good stat spread, strong characterization concepts, and I'm terribly fond of utility spells.

Anyway, like I said, I'm not arguing to be a pain in the ass, just sort of intrigued by the idea that oracles may be too high-powered for the campaign.

I'm just starting play at my local PFS, so I'll get the builds to you in 6-7 hours or so.

Prefacing this with: I'm not arguing to try and be a dick here, honestly, I'm just interested by your opinion because I think that the oracle actually suits a low-magic campaign better?

To be honest, I agree with you in many ways.

The Cloistered Cleric is the magic user who sits with musty tomes and who lusts for more and more power of the gods.

I see an Oracle as more "Traditional" caster in many ways; however - there's things I don't feel that are quite right.

I don't like the Oracle's Skill set - it's too narrow. I think they should be getting some more "real world" skills that are more practical. Disguise, for example, to hide their true nature to the world - among others.

I see the Oracle more of the priest in the wilderness who never got their power from study or old tomes; instead - they got their power granted from the gods - the blessing/curse thing. But if magic is given directly to them it would be see as a threat to those who study - such as priests.

Because of that I've been tinkering with things. I can provide you with a more detailed example of what I'm considering alter tonight when I have a chance to get things done formally.