Character Creation
--25 Point Buy
--All Paizo races, but the more alien will find it harder to gain popularity, and likewise those with Charisma penalties will always be slightly worse than their comrades.
--Any Paizo Class. I'm not familiar with the Occult materials, but for what we're doing I think it's okay.
--I'd also prefer to limit 3PP material. I don't know them, would have to use the SRD, and generally just prefer to keep it to the company on whose site we're posting.
--Background Skills are a thing, however, your Primary Perform (see below) can not be ranked through these points. Artistry is also finally viable!
--Somewhere in the levels of 3-5; we can vote, or just go with 4.
--No Lawful Good. Paladins rock, but the philosophical principles and rigid morality wouldn't be a good fit.
--Full Wealth By Level. If you feel inclined to do up a sheet at this point, just make it 3, with 3000GP.
Party Roles
A number of musicians, plus at least one Arcane caster with access to many of the Illusion, Evocation, and Conjuration spells.
Each musician must have two Perform skills. These are divided into Primary and Secondary.
Primary Performs must be kept maxed. I'll be filling the role of the drummer of the group, but all else is up for grabs.
Secondary Performs should never drop below 1 rank/3 levels, and should in some way compliment your Primary. As the Perform(Percussion) character, it wouldn't make much sense for me to also have Perform(Dance), though Sing or Oratory would both work.
Combat is not going to be the focus of this campaign, and I'd like our feat selection to reflect this in some manner, whether through Skill Focus, various Bardic Performance enhancers, or Item Crafting.
This is set on Golarion, likely in Absalom for the start.
If any interested parties would rather be a role not defined (like tour manager, or agent), feel free to make your suggestion.
We can work out anything else between us.
Alright, so my basic idea is for a roadie/back-up singer who maybe also plays either keyboard or wind instruments. I'm thinking it could be fun to be the metal-head who keeps trying to get the band to be more hardcore in their music but isn't an authority within the group.
Thinking of Rage Prophet, via Oracle + Barbarian. Either Lore or Metal mystery (but metal isn't actually very good). Haunted or Lame mystery. He'd be a former church organist/choralist, probably for a hidden church of Desna or Sarenrae, that was burned down by Cheliax or Taldor or Nidal or somebody, leaving him the only survivor, haunted by the ghosts of a bunch of dead musicians potentially out for eventual revenge.
Possibly too silly, but it seems like a fun premise.
EDIT: Also, the one upside to starting at level 5 is that people could take Signature Skills, which are always fun.
This is MacMata. Introducing ... RANDALL TEMPLE! a.k.a. Rancid Randy.
I'm going for sort of a guy that plays a really minor background instrument but plays his solos loud and crazy so people will know the glory of it!
I like both of those ideas, and was hoping for a bit of inter-party conflict; it wouldn't be a good band if they didn't fight over their music from time to time!
It sounds like both of you would prefer harder "metal" music than lutes and harps. I'm absolutely down for that, but from the GM seat, that will also make it harder for the group to get started; we'll be like Marty playing in the past, and the people just aren't ready for it yet. That's quite fun.
It also opens the doors for more combat encounters. Our small town opening gig might fail, but if we then save said town from bad guys, they'll obviously like us more!
I'm considering implementing some kind of meta celebrity system, especially if no one takes the Bard archetype of the same. Each "thing" we do will increase our popularity in concrete and definitive amounts.
So for you two, and anyone who comes later (or has ninjaed in while I type this), how much combat would you like to see? Do we want dungeon crawls, or would you prefer the combat to be random attacks/travel encounters? It's still not likely I'll make a map in any event, unless we plan well in advance for a dungeon. Otherwise I'll throw up the standard "forest trail" map on Google, and we can just reuse that for combat distances.
I mean, I'm down for playing lutes and harps, but with characters who try to play serious music. (And Golarion may not have rock music, but they've certainly got a modern pop-music type culture in places like Kintargo)
I'm never a huge fan of dungeon crawls, but there's something comical about attempting to save the day with the power of song and then fails and has to resort to weapons.
But it sounds like between your fighter and my rage prophet we'll have two large, intimidating, muscly guys, which might make people mistake us for adventurers regardless.
EDIT: Apparently you can put an organ on a riverboat. That could be fun, if we wind up buying a boat at high levels.
(And Golarion may not have rock music, but they've certainly got a modern pop-music type culture in places like Kintargo)
I was not aware of that; I'm going to have to check it a bit more.
Do you recall offhand where it's mentioned?
And yes, I'm sure we will look like much the standard adventuring party when all is said and done. Especially as a Fighter (or maybe Skald, though I'm not liking the Belkzen War Drummer that was suggested), I'm going to have a slew of feats that I can't apply to non-combat stuffs. Without us all rolling Experts, however, that's bound to happen, and I'm okay with it.
I am looking forward to using Power Attack on my drums though! xD
Oh, the culture more than the sound. But the Hell's Rebels player guide has a lot of talk about the eccentric musical celebrities of Kintargo.
I'm... hmm. At level 4, we have so few feats that I'm not sure how many out-of-combat ones are an option, but can probably pick up more later.
I'm looking forward to using Perfect Clarity+Mad Magic to rage while playing music... though I won't be able to do that every round until L6.
Maybe this ...
Sounds good! But where are the rest of our players?
Randall, did you want Glockenspiel? I assumed nobody else would go for keyboard, which is why I was going to take it. I can stick to strings instead, if that's what you wanted, though I was definitely picturing a huge lumbering barbarian who carries around a 200-lb xylophone on his back.
Also, this is what I think of as "classical heavy metal music"
You can still play the keyboard. So now I can fulfill my dream; world's smallest bagpiper!!! (seriously :) )
Sounds good! You've got winds in your avatar anyway. I guess I'll just dump tons of skills into performance (who needs climb, right?) and be versatile.
Also: if either of you are looking for archetypes, Eldritch Guardian and Duettist both give you a familiar that can be trained to play an instrument.
We can have multiples of the same instruments, but if the others from recruitment come back, here's what we're looking at right now:
grimdog73 - String
Belladonna Nightshade - Sing
thunderbeard - Keyboard/wind/maybesingingtoowhoknowsyet
Randall - Wind
I who can't even remember the code for his special character - Percussion, secondary of Oratory;
"In days of old, when knights were bold and journeyed from their castles;
Trusty men were left behind; knights needed not the hassles.
They helped themselves to pig, and peach, and drank from King's own chalice;
Oh, it was a stirring sight, these gypsies in the palace."
For, you know, when we go on tour with Jimmy Buffett.
Also: if either of you are looking for archetypes, Eldritch Guardian and Duettist both give you a familiar that can be trained to play an instrument.
On that note, I'm all good with familiar archetypes, too. All hail the mighty Valet.
I was thinking more Figments, with Improved Familiar into Lyrakien Azatas.
I'm about halfway done with my character.
Just throwing it out there for any interested parties.
Alright, here's thunderbeard's character! He's a trained opera singer/church organist, just with a literal axe to grind.
Currently at Keyboard +15, Sing +11, String +11, but Magnum Opus feat should kick in a bunch eventually for big bonuses.
Still here, and Belladonna's secondary perform is dance, since that does kinda go with operas (and even modern day music too... Taylor Swift it pretty much the only pop star I can think of that can't dance lol)
So... we've got a decent party (some amount of melee, skills, arcane, and divine) as well as a decent band (percussion, voice, and dan/randall can together go keyboard/wind or strings/keyboard etc., depending on the song)
As I just mentioned in Recruitment, I would still like us to have a primary arcane caster. Hopefully grimdog is still around, or someone else wants to pop in with a Primary Perform: String.
4 looks like a good level for me; Belladonna and Randall, if you'd like to go ahead and build up, have at it.
Is everyone cool with us starting off in Absalom? I'll go ahead and start putting together our first meeting, and we can get this thing running in about a week.
What about traits and drawbacks, hp rules, etc?
(Also, going with level 4 as it says above)
What about traits and drawbacks, hp rules, etc?
(Also, going with level 4 as it says above)
Oops, I did forget about those.
Max HP at 1, Half+1 thereafter. Two traits, take a drawback if you want. No campaign traits though, they usually don't fit outside of that particular campaign.
Is that all I forgot?
I think that's all that we missed...
Okay, so she should be done... Belladonna Nightshade
I will be busy for a majority of the day for both tomorrow and Sunday.
I'll do as much work on Randall as I can, but if you have a deadline set for character completion, may I please have an extension?
@Randall - Not at all; most of these run several weeks, when Interest and Recruitment is counted together. When I feel like we have a nice group, we can start to worry about getting everyone sorted out.
@Belladonna - I'm a major fan of equipment, and I intent to completely overwealth the party with situationally-dependent items anyway (in case you're saving up for your next big item). Would you mind spending some more money? Contrary to the rock star aspect, I am going to give this a moderate level of realism. Unless, of course, you live out of hotel rooms and party at night, in which case 940 gold is probably a reasonable lifestyle budget.
Similar note @Howling Dan; I don't see where you've got your remaining gold, though I admire the organ. I do, however, see where you've classified it as "brief," and again am not really worried about us being in mechanical sync yet.
I in no way expect something as obsessive as I went with this character, but something maybe 25% of it. Not only will it help me tell a better story, but I'm better able to judge the level of challenges for our mechanical bits, because I do, very much, intend on giving the party shocking amounts of raw wealth and magic items. That makes balance hard, and only moreso if everyone has a floating pool of mundanities and gold that I don't know what it's being used for.
But again, we have time. That's why I made this discussion thread, so we can work together to get on similar levels while we fill up the spots.
Hmm yeah I am not sure what else to buy with that money for now, but I'll see what I can do. At level 5 I was thinking of taking the feat Inscribe Magical Tattoos just cause I love tattoos (and that's the main reason why she is a tattoo artist, mechanically... in anticipation of that feat :)
Hmm. Am I 50 gp over? I just guessed for the "price" of a bellows organ (I'm also estimating it as 300 lb, hence buying a cart)
Hmm yeah I am not sure what else to buy with that money for now, but I'll see what I can do. At level 5 I was thinking of taking the feat Inscribe Magical Tattoos just cause I love tattoos (and that's the main reason why she is a tattoo artist, mechanically... in anticipation of that feat :)
Soap maybe? xD I meant more mundane items in general. 940 gold extra just makes me a little nervous. But, like I said, if you're playing her as a bard Bard, she probably wouldn't have much extra, since she would essentially living out of taverns and partying all night.
Hmm. Am I 50 gp over? I just guessed for the "price" of a bellows organ (I'm also estimating it as 300 lb, hence buying a cart)
I didn't go through the breakdown, but I was just wondering if you did have any left over? Most of the time there's at least the pocket change remaining. Kinda like with Belladonna, not knowing makes me uncomfortable. If I pay the band 6k for something, I expect each of the PCs to have a certain amount of discretionary spending. I made a breakdown over the weekend of how much over standard I'll be wealthing the party, to adjust encounter difficulties and give me an idea of what we'll be able to afford.
Edit: Also, the 300/300 is fine for the organ. There is a lot of "stuff" that would exist that isn't defined anywhere. I bought tea leaves in a different campaign, and had to ad-hoc the price based on coffee. I think that'd odd; coffee is far more exotic for a European-themed setting like PF than tea.
And as I'm sure everyone is aware, the wealth system is actually a fairly tricky balance. DR, in particular, is a mechanic largely based on wealth; parties have a relatively standard level at which they'll be able to overcome, say, DR-Adamantine. Without a concrete and visible understanding of how much fluid wealth a PC has, it becomes more difficult for me to design encounters. While we're all seemingly on the same page for what we'd like as far as combat, I don't think any of us would enjoy the encounters if they don't provide any challenge.
Hey all, posting in here to say hey and take a look at things. Also to officially(?) make my presence and interest known. I'm still undecided on just what I want to build but I'm hoping to have it up soonish. Right now I'm edging toward a skald, possibly with the dragon skald archetype (Glorious Epic seems like a great way to get our band started). But I'm still up in the air and may even change to the point of being our technician (wizard). Who knows? I'll let you know as things develop.
How's everything going y'all? Haven't heard from anyone in a few days.
I'm still debating what to build and how to build it. A lot of me wants to go skald, but I also kind of want to do a bloodrager. But a swashbuckler seems perfect for a string master... so I'm torn. Mainly right now I'm working out what sort of theme and character I want to go for.
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No worries! All of the guides say I'm supposed to poke the thread every other day or so, even though this essentially can't start until we have all the party together.
Mysterious Stranger Gunslinger is something I've not seen suggested, if you're looking for one. No pressure or anything, but the Bob's Burgers episode with the spaghetti western in it made me think of it.
Ha I am actually playing a goblin mysterious stranger in a "We Be Goblins!" game right now haha.
So I will need to dig up my original build for this guy, but the Campaign I first made him for, he had maxed Performance:vocal. It was a kind of experimental rom/com kind of campaign, suboptimal as all hell, but it was fun.
Didn't get around to it yesterday, but here it is today!
Randall "Rancid" Temple- P: Wind, S: Percussion
Howling Dan, the One-Man Band- P: Keyboard, S: Strings, Sing, Percussion
Belladonna Nightshade- P: Sing, S: Dance
Vinccenso Pruffi- Technician mage. Note that, as your primary role during party concerts will be special effects, you don't have to follow the Perform requirements.
Loup Blanc- Haven't presented yet, but hopefully our Strings main.
Me- Admittedly slacking on the alias. Haven't decided between Fighter and Brawler yet, but either way, the high-strength Melee of the bunch. P: Percussion, S: Oratory.
If everyone can pop back in and make sure you're finalized, we can get this going in the next week. I'll make a cursory Gameplay post so y'all can dot/delete (and please delete) and have this actually show in your Campaigns.
and , y'all still with us?
So we are starting at 4th level w 4th level wbl? I will finalize tonight.
I believe it was 3rd level wealth—3k gp. Double check the thread, though.
Speaking of wealth, what is one to do with 1000 gp.?
Woops, yeah, still here. Been busy, but I've been working on concepts and I think I have something solid. Can't promise tonight, but hopefully by tomorrow evening?
Sorry everyone, I've had some spousal difficulties last week.
I still want this to get off the ground, if everyone is still around!
Still here
Yarp.
Not gonna lie, I've been very busy and still don't have the character quite finished. That said I've got more free time this week, so maybe later tonight or tomorrow I'll be good to go!
Still here too :)
It's all good. I'm not in any particular rush; we'll set reasonable post expectations and all that once we all get settled.
This is unlikely to be a day-by-day campaign; what I mean is, expect "Two Weeks Later" posts and similar, barring special events. Our concerts are the encounters, and while it may take a week to drum up a crowd, we certainly don't need to play it out.
Going to Hell by The Pretty Reckless (Taylor Momsen)
She's a Dramatic Mezzosoprano, which is what I see Belladonna as.
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Cool, we're all still around! Love it.
Sorry, I was a bit unclear on the wealth. To answer your questions:
We're 4th level, with 4th level wealth. Initially, I wasn't sure what level we wanted to start at (and it didn't really make that much difference to me), so I left it open to 3-5. We ended up settling on 4, and I want everyone to have the proper 4th level wealth, so 6,000 GP.
Gotcha, I will update tonight.
When shall we start?