Disjunction

Game Master Diamondust

Hello Pathfinders and welcome to another recruitment thread. It is I, the most precious form of carbon known to mankind, reduced to microscopic particles. And I have been working on a little homebrew. Part random dungeon crawling, part world history changing events.

The Setting
Slightly-post-modern-day Earth. Greater efforts than ever before have gone into saving the planet, and ourselves, from man-made catastrophe. And it worked. Science! Deserts are shrinking everywhere, resources are increasing and the third world is smaller than ever. Australia, Arabia, China, everywhere. The biggest effect was had in Africa. Extreme poverty is almost gone and regular poverty is at the levels of every other first-world country. There are still problems, wars and dictators, but the future is looking more hopeful than ever.

The Location
An ancient city has been found buried beneath the Saharan sands. Experts from around the world are studying it. Conspiracy theorists are churning out dozens of new stories for every official information release. Aliens, El Dorado, Atlantis, the Garden of Eden, you name it.

The Players
You are one of the few experts cleared through every security level. You are the ones that are helping to discover the secrets of this place. Archaeologists, Language Experts, Scientists and so on.

Top Secret
Mr. Diamond, foremost expert in world lore, legends and history, thinks he has figured it out and those in charge are heeding him. The world was once a very different place, filled with everything from almost any legend you think you have read or heard of. But something happened and that's what he thinks this city holds the key to uncovering. Where did it all go? Was it aliens? A world-wide flood? Did humans win the war and wipe everything else out? That's what you're here to help figure out whether you're a believer, skeptic, government plant or free thinker.

The Game
There will be many social interactions, be it on earth inside or outside the city, or in the 'dungeon'(for current lack of a better word). In the dungeon there will also be plenty of hostile encounters to deal with, as well as puzzles and traps to be figured out. There will also be incentive to figure out what the dungeon is, why it is, and steer humanity's decisions concerning the dungeon.

Character builds and Submissions
Class Let me know the PC class you intend to level into (3rd party allowed as long as I can look at it on my computer). You will start as 7th level Experts(NPC class) and may go into another class as the game progresses in a semi-gestalt sort of fashion where your Expert class levels won't ever increase. You could gain a few levels and become a Fighter 3/Expert 7 and eventually a Fighter 15/Expert 7 for example. You will start leveling up as fast as a normal 1st level character but with 7 extra levels of HP and feats to help you survive.
Race Only Human for now. Choose 1 free alternate racial(heart of the..., Awareness, Eye for Talent) as long as it makes sense to your character.
Background Skills Yes but only for your Expert levels. No background skills will be given when leveling up other classes.
Feats 5 feats for being 7th level human experts. Feats should make sense for your character to know now, not to be 'placeholders' that come online for your main class later (power attack? spell focus? You're a scientist, explain yourself! Weapon Finesse because your hobby is fencing? Great! etc...).
Stats 20 Point Buy(max 18 after racials). You don't have to have a high intelligence score to be a scientist. You might not be a genius but an average intelligence can still work hard and gain just about any profession. Professions are based on will scores anyhow. So plan your stats for the class you eventually want to become but please no stat dumps at least.
ABP You will gain Automatic Bonus Progression which will be based on your PC class levels.
Money Though you are some of the foremost professionals, these aren't the most glamorous or well paying jobs in the world. Consider yourself as having an above average government or private salary in your chosen profession based on your background. This currency will have little effect in the dungeon where you will only start with clothes, Hazmat suits and a basic scientific and medical kit that one of you happened to be holding onto before stepping on the circles.
Backstory Probably the most important thing right now. Tell me how you got your job and where you come from in as many or as few words as you want. Your character can be from basically anywhere on earth, did it tough, had it easy, whatever you like. As well as your backstory, consider and answer these questions.

• Why do you want to be working in the lost city?
• Who hired you and why do they want you working there?
• What do you think of Mr. Diamond's theory? (before anything weird happened at the wall)
• What do you think of Mr. Diamond as a person? (personal, professional, may have met him before)

You don't need a character sheet or character alias here on the boards for me to consider or pick you. A 7th level Expert character sheet can be done in a jiffy even after I make selections so please focus on the backstory and creating an interesting character motivated by real world stuff and things rather than fantasy issues. As always, if there's anything you think I've missed or if you're unsure about anything just ask. There are only some stupid questions.

This is a neat idea, but I'm a little confused by the openness of Class options above. As this is at least somewhat modern with all humans, is it expected that there is no magic, and if so does, does that disqualify classes that have spells or blatantly otherworldly abilities?

Currently on earth there is no magic. There will be arcane and divine magic as well as magic items in the dungeon and there will be different options or paths for bringing it back to Earth.

dotting. definitely interested.

Oooh, interesting. hmm... Would it be possible for somebody with a military or security background to trade a couple level of expert for warrior? (of course it would be a penalty later on)

Would you be adverse to the Scholar, from the Spheres of Might playtest? The documents are no longer available to my knowledge, but I have them saved at home if you're interested. I'd be more focused, going forward, around healing and alchemical support.

Would it be possible to go into the Marksman psionic class from dreamscarred press, specificaly the Kaigun Archetype? I want to go with an Ex-Military Sniper who was injured in a war, and since became a scientist or archeologist or something like that. Though now that I think about it, I dont know if you would allow me to bring a Gun into the dungeon, or if i would find one in there otherwise.

@Philo I guess 1 or 2 warrior levels could make sense for military backgrounds. No more though or you stop being an 'expert in your field'.

@Joseph Is there a way I can look at the scholar?

@BeastMaster Marksman is fine. You won't have a gun to start with. If you keep a personal one in your quarters or somewhere safe you will be able to retrieve it later.

When I get home, I'll upload the whole playtest and send you a link!

Very cool and mysterious. I will come up with something for this.

Would it be possible to use one of the modern firearms detailed here, based on the time period, or would you like me to use advanced or early firearms when I get my weapon at some point? Specifically I would be using the modern rifle.

Oh! I tried the old link, and it appears that they've made the documents public again! Here you go! The Scholar is on document C1 near the end.

Dotting for interest

Interesting. I'm thinking about a character that is an expert in reverse engineering. Originally started in DARPA being assigned to reverse engineer foreign military hardware, and eventually recruited by the Air Force to work on more exotic hardware (think area 51). He personally doesn't know Mr Diamond, but after a briefing on him and his theories. He believes Mr Diamond theories may have merit, but without hard evidence the character would not form any opinions.

How are we doing languages? Is there a "Common" or any race language, or just English / other Earth languages ancient and modern?

Also, on the free alternate racial trait. Do we have to pick "heart of the..., Awareness, Eye for Talent" only, or are there other options?

I'm assuming Dual Talent is out (?), but how about Silver Tongued, Focused Study, or Comprehensive Education? Those would all fit well with an Expert.

I was also going to ask about Focused Study. I might take it anyway, to be honest,even if I have to pay for it.

As a scientist myself I should be able to come up with an interesting character for this. Hmmm...

Right now, I'm thinking a Biochemist of some sort, with a hobby-specialization in archaic medical practices, "pseudo" sciences like alchemy, that sort of general thing, an expert in the history of these sorts of things, with a chance at his wildest dreams; partaking in the very practices he'd fantasized as a child, and studied in his free time.

Rolling for hit points (but let me know if you want to do hit points a different way... I couldn't find a post about it, but I could have missed it).

Hit Points: 7d8 ⇒ (8, 4, 7, 4, 5, 6, 8) = 42

+8 for Con, 50. Good roll. :)

Without any armor, I'll probably need it. Wish I had a +5 Haz Maz suit of deflection. ;)

How +8 for con, over 7 levels? Something seems a little fishy...

Once I've heard back regarding the Spheres of Might playtest, I'll commit more to my concept, fine tune it a bit, and get an Expert 7 up.

How will feat progressions work, if we're not going to be picking feats for our class-to-be, but have five feats to pick? Depending on fighting style or what have you, having all of your progression feats locked in until level 9 kinda really hurts. I don't think it will matter much to me, specifically, since I intend to go with a more skill/support based character, but I could definitely see it being a huge hindrance.

I'm pretty sure the OP meant that the seven levels of expert and 5 feats are going to be our base starting point. then we add levels of character class, feats, etc normally afterwards

OP mentioned it would be like a weird semi-gestalt, which would imply that for the first seven levels (since we'll never gain more), we'll get the better of HD, saves, etc between primary class and expert, but our feats would remain locked in.

Oh, whoops. +7. Sorry.

@BeastMaster Any modern day gun that you want to slap onto the most appropriate stats that you can find would be acceptable.

@Joseph Cool. Thanks for that, seems interesting. As for feats, you will get a new one the first time you level up and every 2 levels after that plus any bonuses your class might give.

@Zanbabe Earth's Common is English. Any known Earth languages are available. Ancient languages would be very useful for a language expert. They would be using that knowledge already to help translate things found in the city. Also it's meant to be ANY racial trait though I'm going to rule out dual-talented after thinking about it. I forgot to state HP rules. Everyone will get max hp.

Starting Languages
Everyone gets their mother-tongue + English as free languages. Int-bonus can add languages from there. If English is your character's mother-tongue, oh well, you have one less possible language known compared to others.

Free Racial Trait
Choose 1 free alternate racial(heart of the..., Awareness, Eye for Talent, etc...) as long as it makes sense to your character. Dual Talent is not allowed to be taken for free. All alternate traits can be substituted with base traits in the normal fashion.

Hit Points
Everyone gets maximum Hit Points each level. Also because of the 7 levels of expert, Hit Points won't increase much until your PC class overtakes the Expert class.

Glad to hear it. For now, I'll assume it's kosher until otherwise stated. Like I said, I plan on almost pure support, though as things progress I'll pick up some debuff-y options, likely mostly from Alchemy and through flashbangs.

I'm interested. For my character, I'm thinking of an archaeologist studying the craftsmenship of the buildings themselves (Knowledge: Engineering?). Fiery and energetic yet kind and gentlemanly. The man's a skilled boxer, and built like a football player. He would be working for the British Parliament, and though he won't say it out loud, he secretly agrees with Mr Diamond's hypothesis. He likely knows nothing about the man himself though, so he'll reserve judgement.

The one thing that I'm worried about is how you intend to run combat (I have a Discord and Roll20 account, but no Skype account).

Okay, here's my submission:

Doctor Janice Zeroux, Human Expert 7

This is an interesting idea.

When we build our character, should we assume that we will "become" a specific class and build our character under the assumption that we will get that class later on?

Also, could we start off as human but then "mutate" when our characters are introduced to a world of magic? Possibly to a race that is part human?

@MightyAtom Everything in the game will be done through the message boards here. I will set up combat maps in Roll20, then screenshot them, upload the screenshot and link a new image url each combat round. I won't be doing anything live via skype, discord, etc.

@Zanbabe Your reasoning for having your knowledge skills is well thought out and pretty much my thinking too. I would also allow fly ranks for someone who was a pilot of some fashion. Spellcraft maybe if someone was a practicing(or wannabe) shaman or witch at some point in their life. Ancient books, orally passed down rituals of "spells", corrupted through millennia but close enough that one might see a spell cast and think, "hey that reminds me a little of this thing about making rain when there are no clouds...". Use Magic Device is probably a lot harder to make an explanation for.

@Peet You should go with that assumption yes. Have a plan for what class(es) you will want to level into as the game progresses. As to changing race, you should be prepared to play as a human at least for a time. I'm not sure about mutating. Magical energy activating dormant magical abilities can make sense but completely changing your dna not so much. Feel free to theorise a way for it to make sense if you like. One way that I would allow changing race is in creating a new character if something happened to the first, where your character would be one of the races you have found in the dungeon.

Cool, glad we were thinking along the same lines on the skill stuff.

You mentioned that there will be options for bringing magic to earth... how about taking technology the other way? (Unless that is too much of a spoiler).

* Any possibilities of switching which save is our good save?

* Guessing you aren't using Traits and drawbacks?

* What kind of technology is available?

* Do we have to be scientists, or is there room for other "experts", like 'thieves', survivalists, people with more mundane skills (crafting, cooking, etc)?

* Edit: Are fictional languages like LotR Elvan/Elven, Star Trek's Klingon, etc available?

Here is a quick write-up (see profile) for a character I would enjoy playing in your campaign. It sounds intriguing and my background fits well as I am a scientist and have a PhD in Religion, as well (obviously) an interest in fantasy worlds and role playing. I'll do a character with levels, feats, and everything if you pick the character. Sounds like a fun campaign. I hope I can participate.

@MightyAtom ...

@Peet You should go with that assumption yes. Have a plan for what class(es) you will want to level into as the game progresses. As to changing race, you should be prepared to play as a human at least for a time. I'm not sure about mutating. Magical energy activating dormant magical abilities can make sense but completely changing your dna not so much. Feel free to theorise a way for it to make sense if you like. One way that I would allow changing race is in creating a new character if something happened to the first, where your character would be one of the races you have found in the dungeon.

I'm not that interested in changing race, but if others want to do it, you might consider something along the lines of how Shadowrun introduced Tolkien races into the modern world: a ritual performed some kind of global magic transformation and after that, people started mutating into orcs, dwarves, elves, etc. I think they explain it as some kind of latent genetic material that is in many people and something has been suppressing it for a long time but now it is not. Perhaps your wall unlocks such genetic connection to elves, and so on, such that after spending some time there, people might begin to shift.

This is my entry for my character, Jasper Rolla. I have changed a few things from my original pitch.

Name: Jasper Rolla

Class/Race
I intend to take paladin levels. Jasper’s free racial trait is Heart of the Field (though he was born in the slums, this trait represents his dogged tenacity and training by his father).

Stats
Str: 17 (+2 Racial)
Dex: 12
Con: 14
Int: 10
Wis: 11
Cha: 14

Skills
Background (14 Ranks)

• Lore (Giant stone Structures) 7 Ranks
  
• Profession (Carpenter) 7 Ranks

• Intimidate 7 Ranks
  
• Acrobatics 7 Ranks
  
• Knowledge (Engineering) 7 Ranks
  
• Climb 7 Ranks
  
• Sense Motive 7 Ranks
  
• Perception 7 Ranks
  
• Knowledge (History) 7 Ranks

Feats

• Catch Off Guard
  
• Toughness
  
• Iron Will
  
• Great Fortitude
  
• Skill Focus (Lore)

Backstory
Jasper's story is wrought with hardships but pushed through with perseverance. Born to a lower class construction worker, Jasper lived in the slums of London. Jasper grew up surrounded by thugs and thieves, and he grew dangerous to fit his environment. He knew how to spot ambushes, notice a pickpocket, and could find shortcuts anywhere. Jasper avoided fights when he could, making a quick threat to show he meant business. When words weren't enough, he backed his talk up with a quick blow from a stick, a wrench, or anything else he could get his hands around. He grew an indomitable will, and an unbreakable body.

Yet, for all the trappings of a brute he wore, Jasper was much more than some street punk. He was a devoted assistant to his father. He has a deep love of history (the pyramids of Giza in particular fascinate him). Despite his gruff appearance and enormous size, Jasper is nothing less than gentleman, and even on his worst day, he'd never raise his hands against someone unless they'd raised their hands first. This unbeatable work ethic is how he ended up with a scholarship to Cambridge, and despite only recent graduating, his name is already known by no small number of archaeological circles.

Specific Information
Q: Why do you want to be working in the lost city?
A: Jasper loves old structures. He heard of the project through some of his friends in the field, and when he was offered a spot on the exploration team, he jumped at the opportunity.

Q: Who hired you and why do they want you working there?
A: The British government has given Jasper a private invitation to explore the ruined city. Though the official reason given was “an opportunity to uncover world history”, he theorizes that his government is looking for bragging rights more than anything else.

Q: What do you think of Mr. Diamond's theory? (before anything weird happened at the wall)
A: Jasper finds his theory interesting, and while he has seen no evidence to support the theory, he won't completely rule it out. With that in mind, he internally denies the possibility more than he realizes, out of a subconscious fear of his whole field being turned topsy turvy.

Q: What do you think of Mr. Diamond as a person? (personal, professional, may have met him before)
A: Having never met him before, Jasper reserves any judgement he holds for Mr. Diamond until he meets the man. He believes that the rumors of Diamond being a madman are nothing but slander, though eve he admits that he's likely a bit eccentric.

@Zanbabe There will be ways.

@Guy No switching saves. You will get traits(one of which is a custom campaign trait) and the option of a drawback when you first level up so don't worry about that for now. Technology available is anything on earth now, and anything that could be possible in 20-30 years in a more sustainable earth. Not 'futuristic', but 'slightly better now'. "Scientist" is not the only thing that you are, it's just the main thing that got you hired to work in the city. You could have survivalist hobbies or plenty of other mundane skills. Even experts in their field get free time (I hope) and weren't born one. Fictional languages are fine, maybe a character enjoyed TTRPG's when they were a kid, fantasy or sci-fi geek, they could totally know a fictional language.

@Cooil Thanks for your submission. I'll keep that shadowrun idea in mind. I may end up using it for something else.

@TheMightyAtom Thanks for your submission.

I'm fleshing out the skill point allocation for my character idea and the following question has come to mind:

I'm envisioning Cooil as being something of an expert in ritual magic traditions of earth, somewhat along the lines of people like Isaac Bonewits or Carlos Castaneda. Would such knowledge qualify as ranks in knowledge (arcana) and if so would those ranks apply to eventual application of that skill to such things as identifying magical beasts, dragons, or constructs in the high fantasy realm? I guess the same question applies to spellcraft. Would knowledge of traditional methods of magic (whether actually effective or not) transfer over to the high fantasy side of things?

I would also be interested to know if anything from the Pathfinder Campaign Setting Technology Guide might apply. Just a quick glance brought to mind the Technologist feat, which opens up various knowledge and craft skills relating to technology as can be found in Golarian regions like Numeria. There is also a chapter on technology items, some of which might be available in a near-future earth, like a stun baton or perhaps certain armors like the HEV suit, Panic Suit, or space suit, as well as devices like a radiation detector. The book also has rules for hazards like radiation.

I'm assuming knowledge of physics would be covered by knowledge (engineering) as would programming skills. If you would prefer there be a separate knowledge (science) skill or knowledge (technology) skill, let us know. I expect knowledge of Chemistry would fall under Craft Alchemy at least regarding non-magical chemistry such as creating acids and bases and such. I am also assuming that knowledge (nature) to some extent includes modern knowledge of biology.

If you have any different suggestions for how to spend skill ranks to cover such things as science and technology knowledge, let us know.

I'm thinking of creating Cooil as an eventual shaman class.

@Guy No switching saves.

I was asking because I'm not sure why everyone should have good Will save, and some could have good reasons to have good Fort or Ref save instead.

Will there be any non scientists acompanying the team, in case different skill sets might be needed?

^ asuming these non scientists can work with scientists, archeologists, etc, and might be used to do so.

That's a question I was interested in, myself. I'm more interested in being a medical professional with a hobbyist interest in archeology and arthropology.

I've been waffling back and forth on submitting to this one, but I think I'll join in and do so. Not 100% sure what my Expert is going to look like, but we'll see what I can figure out.

EDIT: Do we get the +1 to 1 ability score at level 4?

@Cooil Something as specific as programming could go under profession easily enough if someone really wanted it, it seems a different type of 'engineering' than the normal knowledge(engineering) which physics questions definitely fit into, biology fits into nature, chemistry with alchemy, knowledge of magical/mystical traditions and rituals and methods fits into knowledge(arcana) and spellcraft. I don't know of other skills except for psionic ones but if I can see it online and it fits with the setting then it saves making stuff up from scratch. If all else fails an extra knowledge division will work just fine. Taking things from the technology guide is allowed, as long as it's not unrealistically futuristic (gravity gun/lightsaber/what have you) though if there is something that you want that would fit a near future earth but isn't in the guide then we could figure something out too.

@Guy What sort of non-scientist are you thinking of? If you can give me a good reason that someone like that would be inside the safety zone where protective suits are required (though maybe a little over the top considering the tiny amount of radiation that was detected) then I will listen to that idea.

@Joseph If you have a good sounding reason (getting hired is easy, there is a hospital set up for emergencies and the general looking after all of the scientists, security personnel and staff) for being inside the safety dome, as I said to Guy, I will listen to your idea.

@Phntm888 As standard leveling procedure.

@Guy What sort of non-scientist are you thinking of? If you can give me a good reason that someone like that would be inside the safety zone where protective suits are required (though maybe a little over the top considering the tiny amount of radiation that was detected) then I will listen to that idea.

@Joseph If you have a good sounding reason (getting hired is easy, there is a hospital set up for emergencies and the general looking after all of the scientists, security personnel and staff) for being inside the safety dome, as I said to Guy, I will listen to your idea.

Some of the staff would, realistically, accompany the scientists on site in case of emergencies (medical or otherwise), like the "every second count" type, a person or two paying attention to "outside" dangers (cave in, landslides, animal attack, dangerous weather), some researchers could have assistant(s) that aren't entirely related/focused on research, someone who does the heavy lifting and other physical stuff, etc...

Diamondust wrote:

@Guy What sort of non-scientist are you thinking of? If you can give me a good reason that someone like that would be inside the safety zone where protective suits are required (though maybe a little over the top considering the tiny amount of radiation that was detected) then I will listen to that idea.

@Joseph If you have a good sounding reason (getting hired is easy, there is a hospital set up for emergencies and the general looking after all of the scientists, security personnel and staff) for being inside the safety dome, as I said to Guy, I will listen to your idea.

Some of the staff would, realistically, accompany the scientists on site in case of emergencies (medical or otherwise), like the "every second count" type, a person or two paying attention to "outside" dangers (cave in, landslides, animal attack, dangerous weather), some researchers could have assistant(s) that aren't entirely related/focused on research, someone who does the heavy lifting and other physical stuff, etc...

My thoughts exactly, regarding the medical personnel. Perhaps a more dedicated medkit of sorts, but otherwise observing with interest and staying roughly central to the assigned group.

In terms of medical training, why not just add it on? I made my character with an M.D. and a PhD, so she could study genetics and nanotech.

This is a rather unique idea, so I figure it is suitable for a rather unique submission:

I'm looking to create a mathematics professor-turned-minor politician that attended uni with Dr. Diamond and often debated with him. The two had similar hearts in many ways, but their clash of mechanisms to a goal or how to quantify a problem led to stubborn - albeit friendly - disagreements and debates. Daimond likes (I always take time to think of names, but let's call him:) Fritz for his intimate familiarity with the doctor's way of thinking - and brutally-honest counterpoints to keep him on his toes. In this particular instance, Fritz would have two particularly-desirable qualities for Diamond:

1. Being specialized in the purest field of logical theory, Fritz would offer Diamond feedback to his exploration that wouldn't be biased towards/against any particular subset of application.

2. Fritz's persuasive nature as a politician could aid Dr. Diamond in winning minds to believe in the seemingly-outlandish discoveries that could be made ... or covering-up catastrophic errors if need be.

I see the two as friends that would fiercely-argue about fine details, knowing in the end they are keeping themselves in tip-top mental shape and honest in their conjectures.

Regarding the Pathfinder mechanics of the character, he would be more cerebral than martial, though I would need to know more about how your gestalt system works to know what could be functional.

This seems interesting.

So, would we essentially gain 3 extra feats at character creation from the 'Gestalt,' and in the long run not much else from it? Or how does that work?

@Guy/Joseph Alright then, I'm interested to see your fleshed out submissions.

@Kahurangi Interesting character idea, remember you need a reason to be in the field. The way that the gestalt is working is made to give you a bit extra to start with and make a really good background with. Any class will be functional, I'm not sure what you're worried about here. Basically you are an Expert 7/Future Class 0. Your future class will advance and gain feats and abilities from level 1 advancing and leveling as fast as a normal level 1 character. The original feats from your expert levels and human bonus are essentially bonus feats, relevant to your backstory so that you can have some extra useful feats outside of the normal 'must haves' of your build. They should be relevant to your character story up until now and not anticipating your future class choice (essentially min-maxing for all your worth).

@Daedalus Essentially you get a few extra bonuses.

I'm not that interested in changing race, but if others want to do it, you might consider something along the lines of how Shadowrun introduced Tolkien races into the modern world: a ritual performed some kind of global magic transformation and after that, people started mutating into orcs, dwarves, elves, etc. I think they explain it as some kind of latent genetic material that is in many people and something has been suppressing it for a long time but now it is not. Perhaps your wall unlocks such genetic connection to elves, and so on, such that after spending some time there, people might begin to shift.

I have played quite a bit of Shadowrun over the years and that is definitely one way to do it.

In Shadowrun, throughout time elves, dwarves, orcs, and trolls existed. But the world went through cycles, and in one age magic would be present and in the next age it would be absent, only to become present again in the following age.

The "metahuman" races (i.e. non-human) existed during times of no magic, but in those periods looked just like humans. But they had a special gene that reacted to magic, and once magic was present they began to express their "real" racial traits.

In Shadowrun the latest age of magic begins in 2012 (the game was originally created in the late 1980s) and so the game is set in the future but there are magic and monsters in addition to high tech and modern weapons.

So....

A human from earth might have some kind of magical lineage that only ever is apparent in an environment full of magic.

@Kahurangi Interesting character idea, remember you need a reason to be in the field. The way that the gestalt is working is made to give you a bit extra to start with and make a really good background with. Any class will be functional, I'm not sure what you're worried about here. Basically you are an Expert 7/Future Class 0. Your future class will advance and gain feats and abilities from level 1 advancing and leveling as fast as a normal level 1 character. The original feats from your expert levels and human bonus are essentially bonus feats, relevant to your backstory so that you can have some extra useful feats outside of the normal 'must haves' of your build. They should be relevant to your character story up until now and not anticipating your future class choice (essentially min-maxing for all your worth).

* What about Favored class bonus?

* High Int might run out of class skills.

*

@Guy No switching saves.

I was asking because I'm not sure why everyone should have good Will save, and some could have good reasons to have good Fort or Ref save instead.

Have you considered using the d20 Modern skills? Of course, lots of these skills will be useless in a fantasy world, but it might be easier to parse out how to create, for example, a scientist or someone who is skilled in computers or other technology.

Pathfinder doesn't do it that way though... or at least in Iron Gods it says this:

"No new skills are introduced to the Pathfinder RPG to model how characters interact with technology—rather, existing skills are expanded to allow for such interaction. Additional rules for how skills interact with technology are listed below. Without the Technologist feat, a character is treated as untrained in the skill in question when using it on technology."

So, that's the point of the technologist feat... to adjust the skills you already have to be able to use them with modern technology, which seems pretty appropriate to this adventure where it seems we will be going back and forth. Much nicer to invest in skills you can use on both sides of the technological divide.