Welcome to the discussion thread.
Here is my Battle Dancer! I'm still tinkering. I wanted to build to eventually go into duelist, would that be ok?
Could you change the name of your alias to something else temporarily? I love surprises and don't want Valik to know that you are Haleen.
Question, would Battle Dance Inspire Courage allow me to use Saving Finale' on myself? Just wondering because I might take it.
Are you also going to make a mercenary, Pezmerga?
Yes I will. I am gonna finish up my dervish dancer, then I will make the Merc.
Yes, you can use saving finale on yourself while battle dancing.
I'll make a list of feats for the flavor feats. Just let me know which are ok and Ill choose from there.
Blind Fight
Desperate Battler (Kinda would be cool considering my characters backstory and current situation)
Skill Focus (Dance) Obvious one.
Strong Comeback
Nimble Moves
Mobility
Lost in the Crowd
Lightning Reflexes
Fleet
Eschew materials (If I don't take this would a spell component pouch be ok to start with?)
I am also open to suggestions.
Blind Fight
Desperate Battler
Strong Comeback
Nimble Moves (but not Acrobatic Steps)
Eschew Materials (but you can start with a spell component pouch)
What book is Lost in the Crowd from? I don't see it on d20pfsrd.com.
Oh Pathfinder Companion : Osirion Land of the Pharoahs lol.
It gives a +2 hide bonus in urban areas, +4 in crowds.
and gives a +1 dodge bonus when threatened by 2 or more enemies.
For my traits I was thinking
Carefully Hidden (Racial, Human-Keleshite)
Reactionary (Combat)
Magical Knack Bard (Magic)
I wouldn't consider Keleshite to be unpopular in Katapesh; it's one of the two predominant races there. However, the mechanical bonus is appropriate for your story, so go ahead and take it.
I am thinking of this for her reason of being in hiding...
She went in debt gambling with the wrong people, who set her up by getting her drunk/drugged, and by cheating. To work off this debt she was given three options. Coin, Sell Pesh, or Prostitution (with those she owed being able to sample her when they please). She obviously chose to sell Pesh thinking it'd be quick and easy, and since she didn't have the coin to pay them off. However, she underestimated the dangers of selling drugs to addicts, and ended up getting robbed of her stash (Which was set up by the very people she was in debt with! Not to her knowledge.). Not wanting to become a prostitute/sex slave for the men she owed money to (which now was even more since she lost the Pesh stash), she decided to skip town untill she could raise enough coin to pay her them back.
@Pezmerga: Perfect.
This is Pezmerga's Merc!
Kip84's Merc Submission.
Here is dathom's merc again for ease. I will start work on Andrus. Anything the AP says about the character that you would like me to keep outside of his class?
And here are a few roles:
Edit: That would be 12, 15, 8, 15, 13, 12. A pretty fair balance of high for survivability and low for character quirk, cool. By he way Kip, awesome merc pic.
Also, I want to give you two more items about Haleen, so that you won't get an inaccurate picture of her in your head: She isn't really middle-aged, though she might have appeared so to a 14-year old; she would have been in her late 20s then, and she's very pretty. Also, she is of chaotic alignment, so although she was happy for you do your own thing, she's no paladin herself, and your morals aren't hers.
On a more mechanical note, is scimitar-and-shield your plan for the future? No problem if it is, just planning weapon drops on my end. :-)
I don't have a plan on weapon usage honestly. Scimitar fits the setting most appropriately however, so it makes sense that he uses the weapons that are available. He is going to continue to carry an axe though...so he can go scimitar and axe like a crazy viking every once and a while.
Well, I am playing an archery focused ranger already in another AP I am playing in, so I will go switch hitter with this one. Will probably go the two handed combat path with a few feats thrown in for ranged competency.
By he way Kip, awesome merc pic.
Thanks :) He sort of has a nothing to live for but the next pay check kind of look.
Okay, we have our hero, and four mercenaries to back him up. I think we're pretty much ready to start. I put a brief introduction and house rules in the "Campaign Info" tab at the top of the page. I'd like to briefly talk about what you guys would like to see happen with this campaign. The point is for everyone to have fun, right?
I also want to make sure everyone knows, from this point on, no looking in spoiler boxes addressed to other people, and if I say something to you in a spoiler box, you reply to me in another spoiler box.
Keep in mind that drug dealing isn't such a big deal in Katapesh; the main drug, pesh, is totally legal and represents a sizable fraction of the agricutural economy. I'm not sure that part of the story is really necessary, anyway: gambling debts, compounded with further gambling debts to try to make the money, is probably good enough. That said, there are ways to get in trouble with drugs even when they are legal; smuggling to avoid taxation, collections from destitute addicts, etc. Your call.
Also, Valik's backstory has you living is a quiet little seaside village, which is an unlikely place to get into the sort of trouble Haleen is in. How about this: Whatever her debts are, she tried to escape them by leaving the city, in order to turn over a new, cleaner leaf. She thought she had succeeded. But now, after years of quiet, her creditors have tracked her down, and she runs away again to avoid getting Valik involved.
There are no houserules I can think of, that I'd like to try.
I think the sandbox option would be best for a PBP game.
I don't mind random encounters personally. They can be fun to play out.
I can post at least once a day.
Tuesday Night would work for me most weeks. I am eastern time (GMT -5)
I agree on the character interaction points you made.
I would use whatever you want to use to run the campaign.
I guess that I like when things keep moving along. PbP is very easy to bog down. I think that if you try to view it as somewhat of an HBO program, where the big events are captured vs. a novel which covers every little detail, it seems to work a bit better. This isn't to say that you shouldn't have us deal with environmental encounters as we travel.
I try to post once a day. That will typically be a bit off cycle from everyone as I am in Hawaii. That also limits my ability to have a day where we all post like crazy, unless you guys are able to be up at 2am on a workday.
I honestly believe that sandbox is the only real way to play. Its the DM's job to provide the background. Although...you have a very interesting situation where you can essentially lead the paladin around by the nose with a bit of divine guidance...so if we start getting too far away from your plot...you can always drop a hint.
Random encounters should only be used to set the stage or advance the story that you want to tell. Especially if you are going to level us based on making it to specific points in the story. If there is no xp to be gained, why bother? It will just slow everything down.
If I had a choice I would go for 50/50. But lets leave that for when the other PC enter into the game. For the start we should push for 20/80 (talk/combat) so the guys have stuff to do and its not the all paladin all the time show.
I don't think that I will be able to access the off-site page at work, so I will be very limited in how much I use it.
I agree with Valik on most points. With me being on US Pacific time, it is quite a diverse set of time zones that we all share. As for the balance, I think it is possible to have a good amount of social interaction. Dullen might not be the mos talkative, but he takes orders from he one who hired him. That and the best way to portray his Pesh addiction is through social interactions. A paladin traveling with a bunch of low life mercenaries, how can there NOT be interesting interactions that spawn from that. Oh, and I will apologize now if future poss happen to be missing the letter t, my keyboard is acting up and I haven't had a chance to look into fixing it. The key still works, but it isn;t as sensitive as it use to be.
I'm flexible with no big preferences. Eastern time zone.
6 hours of time difference (right?) is awkward, but not as bad as it might be. I actually can be up until 2 that night. I don't know about the east-coasters. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
I'm looking over everyone's character sheets one last time. Travis has an extra feat. Asad has Furious Focus in his melee attacks, but doesn't have that feat. Also, I recommend that you get him some kind of ranged weapon, even if it's just a sling. The same is true for Valik.
Valik, if you can't access google sites at work, then I won't bother with the campaign site.
If everyone is ready, I'll get the game thread started.
Here's a little more to fill in after Haleen disappeared:
The town where you have lived with Haleen is called al-Mazreh, and it is on the east coast of Katapesh. Primary economic activities are fishing and pesh cultivation. Don't look for it on a map, because I just made it up; it's south of the city of Katapesh, close to the border with Nex. Haleen disappeared just as a caravan was leaving for Solku, and asking around town, you found people that had seen her speaking to the caravan master as it was leaving. Unfortunately, they already had a few days' head start by the time you learned that, and you could not venture to cross the desert alone. Furthermore, that would be the last caravan before the scorching heat of summer in the desert prohibited travel. Not willing to wait, you caught a boat ride north to Katapesh, where the way is less dry, and caravans leave regularly even in summer. You joined up with one within the fortnight, and were on your way to Solku.
Having taken the longer way around, you arrive in Solku about a month and a half after Haleen would have. After asking around, you find someone that came to town in the same caravan she did. They said she joined a caravan heading north to Osirion, but that she was planning to stop at a ghost town nestled in the Brazen Peaks, called Kelmarane. Unfortunately, no caravans are expected to go that way again for some time. You are beginning to get desperate when you see Garavel's advertisement posted in the marketplace:
Wanted:
Able-bodied warriors and adventurers
to assist in an expedition to the
village of Kelmarane, to depart at dawn
on 1 Sarenith. Pay 200gp upon success
of mission. Transportation and board
provided. Enquire with Garavel, lodging
at Breakstride Inn.
Today is the 30th of Desnus. The expedition leaves tomorrow!
I should also mention that Solku is the location of the Lambent Citadel, the largest order of clerics and paladins of Saranrae in the world, though you are not formally affiliated with it in any way.
We will start the adventure in the common room at the Breakstride, a few minutes before you enter.
p.s., You said you will still carry an axe, but your equipment just lists a scimitar and a light mace. Is that a mistake?
Ok I should be good to go now.
Updated and ready.
Here is the gameplay thread.
Valik, do you know where I can host map images that you will be able to access them?
For whatever reason, Photobucket is not blocked at work. A DM from another game has been using it to post his battle maps to without any difficulty.
If that doesn't work, then I will just delay posting until I get home, no biggie.
I'm from Australia Eastern standard time. 3am in the morning as I write this. Sorry I haven't posted all day. Had a busy work day and then gaming with a local group. It only happens once a fortnight.
Okay, 9 hours difference is too much to try for a weekly "session." I give up. :-)
First, are there any other house rules that you have played with and liked, or would like to try?
One house rule a friend uses is this: Flanking: Once two allies are flanking an opponent if a third ally attacks they also gain the flanking bonuses. He implemented it because he felt it was more realistic.
This campaign has a lot of flexibility; you can run straight through it relatively quickly, or you can fill it in with lots of little side-quests. There's an optional set-piece in each chapter, fans have fleshed out some of the hooks that were present in the published AP, and one of the authors has made his uncut, unedited, way-over-wordcount version of one of the chapters available. Plus, there are opportunities to use some extended rules that came out in subsequent Adventure Paths. All that stuff is fun, but PbP games are notoriously slow. So there are three options, with room to blend as necessary: (1) The whole thing, in all its glory. (2) Play it like a sandbox, where all the hooks are there, but you only have to follow the ones you are interested in. (3) Keep it trim and (comparatively) fast.
I've never played the AP before... I think I'd like to explore some of the side quests. I like option 2. As long as its not to much work for you.
On a similar subject, how do you guys feel about "random encounters?" They can give a good feeling for travelling through dangerous territory, but they take time without advancing the plot. We aren't using XP, so they aren't necessary to keep you at the right level. We could (1) play them out (2) have me describe what you had to fight through, but not play it out (3) skip them.
I like all these options... I find the odd encounter that isn't story driven can add a little realism. However I understand that play by post can take long enough as it is.
How often do you want to post? I can keep up with one post per day for you guys (requiring more than that from me, especially in combat), but if you'd like to go slower, that's okay. We can play this by ear, but I'd like for everyone to know what to expect.
Daily is great.
Would you be interested in choosing one time when we all try to be online, to get more posts in rapid succession, like a...
I'm sorry about the time difference thing. I think I'm actually 16 hours ahead of you? Generally my lunch time is Americas evening the night before, if that makes sense. I'd love to do the sessions but I don't think my boss would appreciate it :D
If Raulzig doesn't claim the archaeologist I'd actually prefer to play the bard over the diviner. I like wizards but divination is not my favourite school.
As to playing other low level npcs that's fine, as is reading along while waiting. I'm am also a fan of the 'single hero starts out on a quest gathering others along the way story arc'
Do I get to play the archaeologist? If so, I'm wondering if I could have a little info about the character as presented in the AP.
The flanking rule is good; it won't be a huge game changer for your party, because you don't have any sneak-attackers. Remember the enemies will use it too.
What I am generally hearing regarding how much stuff to put in is sandbox; That's my preference too, so that's how we'll do it. It is up to you to decide what is relevant to your characters, and to know when you are getting in over your heads.
I think that, for random encounters, we will play the more interesting and difficult ones out, but I will just describe ones that are easy, boring, and repetitive.
We will shoot for daily posting. It's okay to post a little more often, but let's not leave anyone behind. During combat, if you don't post for more than a day, I will use my best judgement to decide what your character does. You can post your action before your turn, and it will resolve when your turn comes up.
I won't bother with the Google site, since Valik wouldn't always be able to access it.
The 9 hours difference I was talking about ignored the fact that it would be a different day; so if it's 10pm in US eastern, it's 1pm in Australia eastern, which is basically 9 hours different; yes, it's also a different day, but that's not important for gaming. In any case, it's too big a difference to do effective rapid-fire posting, so we won't bother.
Ranger, Cleric, and Archaeologist:
Your names from the published AP are
Ranger: Andrus
Cleric: Oxvard
Archaeologist: Felliped
You may change them if you like, but I will use them here for convenience. All three characters are humans in the AP, but I would allow changes to other base races.
Oxvard and Felliped are beginning Pathfinders from Avistan (originally Cheliax, but change that if you like). Backstory before they join the Pathfinder society is up to you. Their first mission was to travel to the far off land of Katapesh, find an abandoned town called Kelmarane, and investigate the ruins around it, cataloguing all the artifacts and inscriptions they discovered; several abandoned holy sites were said to be in the area. Initial reports suggested that there was no significant hostile presence in the town, but the general area is known to be home to gnolls. The original party was somewhat larger; assume there was also a melee type and an arcane caster.
They sailed to Osirion and took the land route south to Kelmarane, hiring a local guide named Andrus in Ipeq who was familiar with the habits of gnolls. Everything started out swimmingly: they crossed the Brazen Peaks into Katapesh without incident, found the town, and were attempting to enter the crypts beneath a ruined temple of Saranrae, which were magically sealed with a strange red field, when they were surrounded by an organized group of dozens of gnolls. The gnolls quickly overwhelmed the hapless Pathfinders and took them prisoner.
Apparently, the "initial reports" were inaccurate.
They have been locked up for weeks in individual, cramped, filthy cells, without any of their gear, not even a holy symbol. The food they are given is raw meat, which they hope is not from their fellow prisoners. The gnolls leer at them hungrily through the bars. Things are looking desperate.
Two days before he enters the campaign, Felliped manages to break out of his prison cell. (Exactly how is up to your build; amazing diplomacy, mind-effecting spells, grabbing the keys, picking the lock; whatever he can reasonably do.) He is either too afraid or unable to rescue his friends. He finds a rusty spear, and hides in an abandoned building in Kelmarane, with no idea where to go or what to do next. He has not eaten since his escape.
Felliped and Oxvard get the campaign trait "Seeking Adventure" from the Legacy of Fire Player's Guide.
Anybody have any more conversation they want to get out of the way on the trip?
I should specifically address the question about having any more to say to Valik; the mercenaries are doing a great job of being bit characters. But if Valik wants any more info from Garavel before rendezvous with the main part of the expedition, then let me know, or I will skip a few days here.
Valik is certainly curious about the neck thingy, but he isn't going to ask about it unless it starts hurting Garavel or something sinister happens. You can go ahead and move us forward if you want.
Oh just realized I forgot to do a knowledge local! LOL I might not know what a gnoll is..
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Holy crab nuggets!
You can keep those scores; that's part of the fun of rolling randomly, after all. Please use them to make a character that is interesting and contributes to everyone's fun, instead of a one-man-adventuring-party.
I'll be away from my computer and unable to post for the next day or so. Expect more from me Sunday afternoon-ish. (US Central)
I've been busy getting ready for a work trip. Fortunately, I'll have plenty of time to post while I'm there. Expect the end of the fire incident tomorrow.
I hope Asad being kind of a jerk doesn't make anyone think I plan on playing my real character as such! lol I am just having fun playing a gruff, unkempt NPC. I can tone it down if it is too distracting though.