You enter the tent of Commander Arthur Goldsword. The commander is dressed in fine half plate and a gold-trimmed greatsword leans against his makeshift desk. His quarters is a large pavillion. The canvas structure serves as his mobile office of operations on the battle lines.
For a little less than a year, your homeland of Andoran has been under a full force invasion by the forces of Cheliax, seeking to reclaim fragments of their lost empire. You joined up with the Andoran military, or what little military Andoran seems to have in response to the attack, and quickly caught the attention of your superiors. After a while, you were sent to the front under Goldsword's command. Now, you stand before your CO alongside several other soldiers who all arrived at about the same time you did. Enough chairs for all six of you are arranged before him.
"Sit down," he says, and you do so, wondering why he asked for your presence personally. "Augustana has fallen. I just got word that the city's mayor was executed after the walls were breached and the devil-worshipping scum ran through the streets." Shock runs through everyone present. Obviously, this hasn't reached the main troops, yet.
"That's not the most troubling aspect of the city's fall, though. Augustana was a major port even at the height of the Cheliax's power and according to this information, the country has sent priests to scour the city for some kind of hidden vault. I don't know what's in it. So, I'm sending a small, infiltration team," he nods to the six of you. "I need you to figure out what they're after. I want a pidgeon as soon as you find out. Supply wagons will get you equipped. You leave at dusk. Dismissed."
Obviously, this is going to be a homebrew game of my own creation. I'm going to say that challenges will not be always level appropriate and wealth by level will probably not be followed. The game itself will be military based at first with lots of combat and lots of skill based challenges.
Character Creation
-Character ability scores will be rolled, 4d6 drop the lowest, but if your scores do not add up to a 20 point buy or greater, you get a 20 point buy for your character.
-Characters will be 4th level. You have experience and are noteworthy in the Andoran army.
-Characters get two traits for creation.
-Standard Starting gear for a 4th level character
-I'm allowing 3rd edition and 3rd party material.
-I'm implementing a houserule of mine: At no point can a character be draw their choices from more than three books. This means that race, class, archetypes, feats, spells, etc. cannot be from more than three books combined. Possibly going to allow an extra feat into the game that will allow you to add an extra book to your character sheet each time you take it. I want you to tell me what books you're taking your options from when you post your character.
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I will see what I can make with this.
Hmmm, a chance to use Deep Magic, eh?
EDIT: Also, using traits mean that we probably have to use Ultimate Campaign as one of our three?
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Not bad for a mage.
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Okay, so I'm thinking a Cleric of the Dark Tapestry with an emphasis on summoning.
Someone who has always heard the whispering, and when the war came he gave into those whispers. One day there will be a price. Every day his sanity suffers... but terrible as the Outer Gods are they do not take his freedom. If he is careful, surely he can harness their power against the Diabolists of Cheliax.
This would be a CN character of a CN god, but still falling into the "lesser evil" camp I think. Anything to save Andoran. ANYTHING.
I really want to use Deep Magic, so I will make either a sorcerer or wizard.
EDIT: Assuming there are no freebies, then I will likely be using Core, APG, and Deep Magic.
It's 3 books total. It's probably a good bet that Core will take up one, but you don't actually have to take it.
You don't have to pick Ultimate Campaign, APG has traits enough for most characters. And some splatbooks have traits in them if you want to take one, as it seems you found.
I'm going to keep this recruitment thread open until October 24th, just over 2 weeks. It should be plenty of time for everyone to get their characters made.
A cleric who worships eldritch abominations and a Mage of Deep Magic. Interesting.
Note: I found a preview of Deep Magic online. It is now on my list of books to buy.
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I am thinking a Human Sacred Huntmaster Inquisitor of Erastil with the Animal domain for a second animal companion - a pair of wolves which share my teamwork feats will make an excellent pair of flankers. Of course... with an infiltration mission, bringing animals along might not be the best course of action for maintaining stealth within a city.
GM - what are your thoughts on this? If you feel that a character reliant on having two wolves with him/her wouldn't be viable, I'll come up with a different concept.
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I think animals can be used to good effect in an infiltration mission. Wolves or "stray dogs" don't look out of place in a war torn environment, like a fallen city, and they could make for rather good scouts if you have a way to speak with animals. Also, some of the best hiding places will be with the subjugated locals who mostly won't care that the war heroes have strange allies.
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I can indeed speak with animals for several rounds per day. Sacred Huntsmaster it is! Inquisitor will be an excellent class for this type of mission - even ignoring my spells, sharing teamwork feats such as Stealth Synergy will help make sure I and my wolves don't trip over a rock or otherwise give the group away while hiding.
I have a question on a ruling for you - since I will have two animal companions, can I have both of them benefit from the Hunter Tactics ability of the Sacred Huntsmaster archetype?
At 3rd level, a sacred huntsmaster automatically grants her teamwork feats to her animal companion. The companion doesn't need to meet the prerequisites of these teamwork feats.
Looks like that locks in my three books - Core, Advanced Player's Guide, and Advanced Class Guide. There is one extremely important feat outside those three that I really want, though: Boon Companion, which I believe has appeared both in Animal Archive and Seekers of Secrets. As a result, I'm very interested in the feat to add an additional book to my repertoire. Would that be a feat available at character creation? Until I manage to pick up Boon Companion, one of my wolves will be significantly weaker than the other.
The Iounmancer replaces the wizards bonus feats with the ability to give himself increasingly potent ioun stones. How would this interact with your three book rule?
going to try for a magus, not sure of what books to use.
New Feat: Expand Horizon
You have learned about and become fascinated by a style of techniques that was once alien to you. You have adapted the style to your own repertoire of abilities.
Benefits: The contents of one additional book from the Pathfinder RPG, Dungeons and Dragons 3rd or 3.5 editions, or approved 3rd party publishers, are available for you to select character options from.
Since you're using the Core Rulebook, APG, and Deep Magic, all of the Ioun Stones in those books are available to use for your class features. That gives you at least 30 stones for your options.
Would Tome of Battle be considered 3rd party for this? Oh how I miss thee Swordsage and Warblade.
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That is a lot less than 20. I hate rolling. Always ends up with someone ridiculously overpowered.
I am still working on him, but I thought I would go ahead and post my char.
How are you handling hp after lvl 1? Should we roll, use PFS system, either?
Hmmm - I'm looking at Core, ACG and Inner Sea Gods. I'm pretty sure that means I only have access to Religion Traits, and hence can take only one.
Does the extra trait just vanish?
I wanted to get Evolved Summoned Monster, but pretty much all the evolutions are in the APG.
I think this will need to be a Summoner.
Core+APG+ACG
After some consideration, I've decided to expand the starting allotment to four books. When I made this rule for my home games the average was one book for race, one book for class, and the third book to shore up advancement and theme with a prestige class or particular feats or spells. However, traits are getting in the way of the original goal because they are rather consolidated into only a few areas. So you get four books.
Morphling-I'm not sure Huntsmaster is supposed to give you two animal companions. I seem to remember some line about animal companion abilities stacking if the animal companions you can take are compatible, but I can't seem to remember where I saw it. I will allow you to take both animals, though. Things like the animal focus will have to be tweeked though.
HP will be done by rolling with a minimum of half rounded up.
rolling for hit points
Alright, 12 plus modifiers it is then.
After some consideration, I've decided to expand the starting allotment to four books. When I made this rule for my home games the average was one book for race, one book for class, and the third book to shore up advancement and theme with a prestige class or particular feats or spells. However, traits are getting in the way of the original goal because they are rather consolidated into only a few areas. So you get four books.
Yay! Thanks. Cleric is back on the table, then :)
CRB+ACG+APG+ISGodsCRB: Cleric, School Specialization (Conjuration), Augment Summoning
ACG: Evolved Summoned Monster
APG: Traits & Evolutions for Evovled Summone Monster
ISGods: The Outer God, Dark Tapestry Domain, Trait, Magic Items and perhaps eventually Feat
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Posting interest and rolling for stats. Thinking about something a few concepts, but we'll see where the dice land.
[dice=4d6]4d6 = 13
[dice=4d6]4d6 = 9
[dice=4d6]4d6 = 16
[dice=4d6]4d6 = 16
[dice=4d6]4d6 = 13
[dice=4d6]4d6 = 11Comes out to a 21 point build, so I'm going to stick with it!
That's actually a 26 pt build
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That's actually a 26 pt buildPosting interest and rolling for stats. Thinking about something a few concepts, but we'll see where the dice land.
[dice=4d6]4d6 = 13
[dice=4d6]4d6 = 9
[dice=4d6]4d6 = 16
[dice=4d6]4d6 = 16
[dice=4d6]4d6 = 13
[dice=4d6]4d6 = 11Comes out to a 21 point build, so I'm going to stick with it!
Ah, so it is. I tried putting it into hero lab really quick and must not have added it up right. Even better!
Horrid thought: Summon spells don't require the bestiary, do they? I figure that's an effect in the same way the "cold damage" of a Snowball spell wouldn't require the CRB.
It's an interesting rule. I think I like it. Certainly I've seen optimised characters cherry-picking rules from a hundred books pretty often. This lets you build a character around a particular book without allowing that.
Going for ridiculously over-powered.
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Didn't happen, have fun all!
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Morphling-I'm not sure Huntsmaster is supposed to give you two animal companions. I seem to remember some line about animal companion abilities stacking if the animal companions you can take are compatible, but I can't seem to remember where I saw it. I will allow you to take both animals, though. Things like the animal focus will have to be tweeked though.
Awesome, thanks. Huntsmaster only grants the one companion - my domain gives the second one at level minus three. I'm taking Boon Companion to bring his hit dice up to a more respectable level.
For animal aspect, how about letting me have the animal aspect on only one companion at a time?
The ability I'm really concerned about is the teamwork feats. Can I share my teamwork feats with both wolves?
Taking the average rounded up of 20.
I assume you meant the average of all of the dice, not each individual roll.
Any suggestions for my last 1250gp? I have a cloak of elvenkind, a ring of protection, and a light source ioun stone.
sounds interesting. perhaps i should uncover my idea of massive damage dealer fighter...
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4th level...could make a decent fighter...with access to 3rd edition material. two handed power attack, two handed power strike, using a greathammer. yes, make to make things go Splat.
i would say my books would be core, 3rd edition Feats book by AEG, and i am not sure yet. ill get back to you...
So yes or no on Tome of Battle?
So yes or no on Tome of Battle?
I get the impression that your best bet would be to assume yes and go ahead and make your char. If you are really concerned, you can make a back up just in case.
EDIT: If allowed, I am willing to give someone 1000 of my starting gold, but we need to come up with a shared background.
ill take that. mod the 1 to a 5, and i get a total of 30 hps without mods
I get the impression that your best bet would be to assume yes and go ahead and make your char. If you are really concerned, you can make a back up just in case.
Your right. I'll keep this version saved somewhere else and build him over again. He'll be quite a bit different with Warblade. Books will be UC, Core, Tome of Battle, and something else. Haven't decided yet.
Are we worrying about encumbrance? If not then I will just set some gold aside for mundane stuff and basically be done. I would then just need to work on my fluff.
Horrid thought: Summon spells don't require the bestiary, do they? I figure that's an effect in the same way the "cold damage" of a Snowball spell wouldn't require the CRB.
It's an interesting rule. I think I like it. Certainly I've seen optimised characters cherry-picking rules from a hundred books pretty often. This lets you build a character around a particular book without allowing that.
Summon spells do not require the bestiary.
I made the rule mostly to avoid cherry picking, but I found out later that it's also nice for new players if the rest of the group doesn't want to stick to core.
Tome of Battle is allowed.
Each individual hp dice is rounded not the average. If you get high hp great, if not you won't be too far behind anyway.
I'm not going to strictly track encumbrance, but I would like an idea of how much you can carry.
Yes. Both your ACs have
You can only have one permanent animal focus, though. If you want to give a second animal focus to the other animal companion, you have to use the duration you would use for yourself.
Interesting how do you feel about using the 3.5 version of a feet that exists in Pathfinder? (Specifically Arcane strike)
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