DM Beckett's PbP Hell's Rebels (Inactive)

Game Master Beckett

This is for an existing group. Not accepting any new players, sorry.

First off. Please stop here, go download and read the free Hell's Rebel's Players Guide, then come back here. You can find it HERE. Please skip everything after page 21, for now.

I'd like for everyone to work together to create their party. It is not required that you be from the area, but you do need to have a good reason to be here as well as to be willing to stay and fight. I'll leave it up to you all as to if you know each other or not, but it is not required.

General Note: Unless otherwise called out, all rules will utilize the most current edition/errata/FAQ version available. Everything that is not called out is allowed, but subject to change. I'm not trying to rob you of cool stuff, but I do want to avoid some broken or problematic options. Please keep in mind the entire idea of the AP is that you will be at the forefront of a major rebellion against the evil forces of House Thrune and the Church of Asmodeus, likely using a combination of underhanded tactics and playing political parties against each other, and secretly leading the rebellion.

Races: Core Rule Book + base Aasimar, base Tiefling, base Dhampir, Ifrit, Oread, Sylph, Tengu, and Undine. No Alternate Racial Traits are allowed. Additionally, no Traits that allow you to count as another race are allowed, such as "Adopted". I also highly suggest that you "look" pretty human if you want to play a Aasimar, Tiefling, etc. . . So, having green hair is okay (it's not to terribly uncommon with magic and hair dye), but devil horns might make things pretty difficult.

Alignment: as per the normal PFS rules, No Evil. However, it is highly encouraged close to Chaotic Good. Additionally, no Evil Deities/philosophies.

Classes: All but Anit-Paladin and Witch. All classes will use the most current version. You may use either the Normal or the Unchained version with the exception of the Summoner, which must use the Unchained version. I'm not sure about the Vigilante. I want to say it will be ok, (again, using the most current version), but I want to wait until I actually have the book and a bit of time to read through it before saying yes for sure. I'd say a week or two at most.

Abilities: 20 point Buy, but minimum and maximum Stat after racial modifiers is 9 and 18. It is also highly encouraged that you broaden your skills, especially Social Skills a bit. Now, that being said, I do not like the Guide's suggestion on maxing Cha, so I will go out of my way to try to minimize that, (I suspect that Int, and especially Wis will also work very well), and I will try to make all stats pretty equally relevant. I don't like how Paizo seems to think that Cha = Leadership talent or experience.

Skills: As per the guide, it is highly encouraged to have Bluff, Diplomacy, Disguise, various Knowledge Skills, Sense Motive, Stealth, etc. . . I also highly suggest that someone invests in a little bit of Linguistics (or knows) Infernal, and Chelaxian. Everyone begins with Taldan (Common), and whatever other languages they normally get. Now, that being said, I'll try to be open in allowing different skills and checks to help even things out a bit (I'm not a fan of trying to force one true way), and that doesn't mean everyone needs to max each of these out.

Feats: All except: Bouncing Spell, Cluster Shot, Crane Style chain, Dazing Spell, Divine Interference, Dragon Style chain, Extra Bombs, Furious Focus, Improved Initiative, Improved Precise Shot, Leadership, Persistent Spell, Point-Blank Mastery, Point-Blank Mastery, Sacred Geometry, & Vicious Stomp.
This is not an exhaustive list. If for some reason you would receive one of these as a Bonus or Free Feat, let me know and we will work something out.

Traits: All except Other Campaign Traits and those you can not qualify for otherwise (No Evil, for example). Adopted and similar Traits are banned. I am not too concerned with the specific flavor or locations matching up, so a bit of "reflavoring" is okay. For now, you can have 2 Traits and an additional Free one from the Hell's Rebels Players Guide.

Starting Wealth: 4d6 x10 GP.

Now, for all of the above, if there is something you just really, really want to do, we can talk about it. A lot of the things mentioned as not allowed are either things that I do not think will work very well here, or due to the fact that it's primarily a urban, single location play, are just much, much more powerful here than they would normally be. I also want to avoid things that make challenges trivial, (or at least often). Once in a while one-shoting the BBEG in the Surprise Round is freaking amazing. Doing it every fight before half the party even gets to act is not.

Also, I just want to point out that I did preorder the AP, but I have not actually received it yet, (including the PDF). So, some of this might change when I do, and I'll let you know.

For a bit of further reading, feel free to take a look at Cheliax as well as the Kintargo articles on the Golarion Wiki.

Thanks for the invite :-)

Hmmm... Well, I think Vigilante might be interesting to try for this AP ;-)

Aside from that, Ranger looks tempting...

Another player is asking about Vigilante as well. My only concern so far is I honestly have no idea just how practical it will be to swap between personas. On one hand, so far it does seems like it would be a perfect fit, at least thematically if not mechanically. On the other, you'd think that if it was in fact intentional, we'd have the actual full class for it, or that the Vigilante would even get a mention in the Player's Guide.

Being that the book is not even out on a product page, either Hell's ______ jumped the gun by a year or two or it is intentionally avoiding the Vigilante.

So, I'm not saying yes or no (for now), lets wait and see.

They mentioned it during the AP seminar at GenCon. They were already well into writing the AP by the time the core rulebook team came up with the Vigilante.

I'm thinking of playing a Mesmerist as my first choice, Investigator as my second, and Cleric or Oracle as third choice.

Maybe Summoner as fourth choice.

That's a shame, because the class really seems tailor-made for this AP. That said, I appreciate where you are coming from.

Alright, then - I am currently leaning towards a bow-wielding Inquisitor of Milani (with the Infiltrator Archetype, and the Heresy Inquisition), a bow-wielding Ranger (with the Hooded Champion Archetype), or a bow-wielding Medium (with the Relic Hunter Archetype).

In a different vein, other options include an agathion-bound Summoner, a Psychic, or an Arcanist (focused on Conjuration).

Thoughts?

4d6 ⇒ (2, 5, 6, 4) = 17

I was going to do the vigilante if possible... i am down for the melee class for the party just havent descided on which one i want yet

i was looking at the advengure vigilante, urban barbarian, merciful healer cleric, or holy gun paladin... i am up for some options

So far I plan on playing a Wizard as my first choice, Investigator as my second choice, and Bard as my third choice. Leaning heavily towards the Wizard, but am willing to change for party needs.

Just to clarify, you can choose whatever you want (within the above guidelines). What I mean by collaborative character creation is simply to bounce suggestions, ideas, motivations, and backstory off of each other.

And also to avoid a undead rising necromancer with a Cleric of Pharasma and a Paladin, or if something like this does happen, to discuss it up front.

I agree and we know we can choose anything i think we are trying to make sure we have a well rounded party with not 5 melee or 5magic or 5 ranged characters

So my initial thoughts on characters were a Bard (probably detective or maybe just vanilla), or Infiltrator Investigator and being the skill/knowledge monkey. But if we need more melee I would happily roll a Warpriest or if we need some more casting I would be interested in a Lore Oracle or a Sorcerer. So basically I'm flexible.

Joe, I'm going to be pretty busy with this exercise we are doing for the next two weeks and will be pretty limited on time. But it looks like this may not even be released yet anyways.

Okay, so, just to list everyone's first preferences...

Kryssa - Mesmerist
Luke_Parry - Inquisitor (Archer)
DM Snider - Urban Barbarian
xXCrusdaerXx - Wizard
cKelley - Bard (Skill/knowledge monkey)

That looks fairly solid.

No dedicated healers, but we have several PCs that can do a little light healing, so that should work :-)

(Of course, if Vigilante gets approved, the above may be subject to change ;-))

Looks good to me.

I might suggest the Bard taking a look at the Archeologist Archetype for traps.

An Inquisitor with Conversion Inquisition can reduce the MAD a bit.

The base Mesmerist looks like a very strong option on it's own for this.

Wizard should likewise be little trouble, though something to keep in mind unlike in the normal PFS games, there isn't an indeterminate amount of downtime. Just keep that in mind as for gaining spells. Likewise, Item Crafting is an option, and might be one of the better ways to get some specific magical gear you (the party) want.

Urban Barbarian is interesting. Depending on what you are looking at, I might suggest looking into Dervish Dance. Once things start to kick in, they can be nasty.

Something else to consider is Teamwork Feats, as this isn't a traditional PFS game, they may be viable options.

*Nods* Conversion is good, but I thought Heresy might be better (for this AP, at least); it gives you Wisdom to Bluff and Intimidate, and at 4th level, allows you to roll twice for a Bluff, Diplomacy, or Stealth check (Wisdom modifier times per day) ;-)

Luke_Parry here.

Just a quick mock-up of the build that I was considering; I still need to select traits, but everything else should be good to go.

Another really cool option, since you picked Milani, is the Defense Domain. You get the best of Protection, (free constant +1-+5 Resistance to all Saves), a decent 1/Day ish group Buff, (and for Clerics Shield and Barkskin, which means Wands).

I'm also considering a few house rules. It's rare these days I get to play with or tinker with rules due to PFS OP, but here are a few things I'm considering. Anyone have any favorite house rules or suggestions to consider?

Keen, Improved Crit, and similar permanent bonuses to Crit Range do stack, however, no weapon can every go below 15-20 on the Crit Range.

"Greetings! I am the one and only Nihm the Spendiferous. You may have seen one of my shows or perhaps only the posters advertising such around the upper west end. No? Oh, well. I also do private events in case you are interested."

I haven't picked my campaign trait yet. Worshiper of Calistria focusing on her Charm, Knowledge, and Luck facets. His stage assistant, also a follower of Calistria, wanted to go to the protest and Nihm followed along to make sure she didn't get into trouble.

I can go with mercifull healer or holy gun if that would be better so we can get some healing...

"Greetings! I am the one and only Nihm the Spendiferous. You may have seen one of my shows or perhaps only the posters advertising such around the upper west end. No? Oh, well. I also do private events in case you are interested."

I haven't picked my campaign trait yet. Worshiper of Calistria focusing on her Charm, Knowledge, and Luck facets. His stage assistant, also a follower of Calistria, wanted to go to the protest and Nihm followed along to make sure she didn't get into trouble.

Keep in mind that worship of Calistria was one of the first faiths to be outride banned in Cheliax. Not saying no, just something to be mindful of. Now, I'm not sure off the top of my head just how Psychic Magic casting appears when used, so it might not even be an issue.

The player's guide said there are a lot of Calistrians in Kintargo worshiping in secret. They're upset with the Church of Abadar for taking over their temple (Temple of the Satin Veils now Temple of the Golden Veils) and working with the House Thrune to take over the site. There's no organized church at the moment, but the guide suggests that maybe that's something the players can change.

Psychic magic is considered both silent and still. However, I have to be in control of my emotions and thoughts to cast them. It's much easier to distract me when the spell uses thought components.

This is just a rough look at what I'm building, never done a wizard build before and not sure how the party feels about necromancy so as of now I'm school of transmutation. Also I was once a follower of Asmodeus but am now rebelling against them as they were responsible for the death of my wife.

@DM Snider: We actually don't have a front-liner, at present, so the Urban Barbarian concept you had is actually quite useful ;-)

@John Harker: Whilst I *really* like Dhampirs, their negative energy affinity can be a real pain :-/ You may end-up being responsible for your own healing (via Infernal Healing or Repair Undead), as ILW is not on the bard spell list, and if my inquisitor takes healing spells, it will probably be cure spells (although I suppose we could ultimately buy a Wand of ILW)...

I will build it tonight then and have it up sometime tues

If the party is ok i would rather do a wild rager but dont know how that will run with this ap

Ummm... Isn't that the one that risks becoming Confused every time you KO an opponent whilst rage is active...?

Sort of ya... Easy fix wand of color spray at least for first 4 lvls

The only problem with that is that if you *pass* the DC 11 Will save on that wand, you will spend the rest of the Confusion attempting to kill the wand wielder (since it definitely counts as a hostile act!).

I guess if you do your best to max-out you will save, I will be tentatively accepting of the wild rager, but otherwise, I will admit to being a bit leery of it, as it has the potential for inadvertent PVP (and PC death).

Checked out the Archaeologist Bard and it really doesn't appeal to me. Bardic performance really seemed to fit in well with the theme of this campaign. If trap finding is really that big of a deal here I'm open to trying the Investigator, seems intriguing but I'd need to brush up on the alchemy side of it. Either way, it's going to be a bit til I have time to build something.

I thought yoy could chose to auto fail saves... It is fine though i think the urban will be the way to go

Honestly, I'm not seeing the Wild Rager being a great choice here. Far, far to much risk of too many really bad things happening, and the Wand of Color Spray is probably not going to be a reliable option. I also don't think it will be very fun to basically require another player to spend an action to restrain you constantly.

I'm going to go ahead and nix that one. In another, less social/political game, it could work, but here, it's very counter to the theme and concept.

Thats the challenge lol

So i have been looking at things while trying to figure out how i want to build this urban barbarian and i have found 2 more i wouldnt mind your opinions on.

Sword of Valor Paladin- heavy hitter with nice abilitys with out losing anything super major like spells and channel. can give party temp hp and can usually always go first for int and act in suprise round

Exemplar Brawler- good atk, decent hp, can use bardic performance, and has the calvalier tactiction ability to give the party the team work feats.

just wanting more feed back. i have been talking to someone off line and they said nix the brawler and go with one of other 2 but would like some overall party input

The only problem I see with the Paladin is Im a Dhampir and I use necromancy, now if the group just all in all doesn't want me to play this guy, which would suck, then I guess the paladin would be fine. The Brawler sounds pretty cool and I think the Urban Barbarian is cool too. But I personally don't like telling people what they should or shouldn't play. Play what you think fits how you want to play best, and we should be able to plan accordingly. I think you have three good choices there.

Without having seen it, the Exemplar might be a really good fit.

The exemplar is an amazing fit exept it would take 3 rounds to get all buffs up so may not suited for the main combat person

here is a build i found online and if everyone is ok with me not starting off so heavy at low lvls then i think this build will be nice

ncestral Arms Half-Elf Scout Unchained Rogue 3 / Invulnerable Rager Urban Barbarian X, focusing in Elven Curve Blade.

Race EWP - Elven Curve Blade
CL1 Rog1 ???, Finesse Training - Weapon Finesse
CL2 Rog2 Weapon Training - Weapon Focus (Elven Curve Blade)
CL3 Rog3 ???* Finesse Training (Elven Curve Blade)
CL4 Brb1
CL5 Brb2 Power Attack, Reckless Abandon

* Retrain to Raging Vitality at lv4

i think i would have to change the ancestral arms trait but i will leave that one up to DM

unless i can just use the elvin curve blade for being half elf lol

@John Harker: Are you going to be casting necromancy spells with the evil descriptor? If not, then you should be fine. There are a lot of useful necromancy spells that don't have the evil descriptor.

I guess I'll have to review the spells to see what are "Evil"

So after looking more into it, I think I'm torn between 2, a vanilla Bard or Empiricist Investigator. I think the bard would be a natural fit for this game and I've always wanted to play one. On the other hand, the Investigator seems really intersting too, never really looked into it before. With the Investigator I would strongly consider a 1 level dip into Inspired Blade Swashbuckler.

Both have the ability to be fill the skill and/or knowledge monkey role I'm shooting for. The Investigator also gives us a trap finder and a little more offense while the Bard give us performances.

Any preferences or suggestions?

i built the build i posted above which out side of combat gives some skills and can help find and disable traps

Here is the Character complete please feel free to let me know if your not ok with me doing this build for the melee guy

Just a heads up. APs tend to be low powered. I would not worry too much about feeling like you need a strong martial character.

Looks good, don't forget you have the feat Skill Focus as well, didn't see it on your feat list.

I am waiting for aproval to use the alt trait i took... It was part of build... I can work around it of need be will just take longer

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I'm debating.

Urban Barbarian got updated in the latest printing of Ultimate Combat.

I will read re download it tonight when i get off

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