GM Kiora's Iron Gods (Inactive)

Game Master Kiora Atua

Here be a discussion thread so that character creation can be a little more collaborative :)

Character creation rules:

No 3pp. All Paizo is fine. Occult playtest is fine (though you will need to update your character when the book is out)

...

Crunch

20 pt buy.
Unchained rogue & summoner is mandatory
Unchained monk & barbarian is optional
No CE. No PvP.
All Paizo races. Androids are ok. Aliens are not. (I want meeting an alien to be a creepy experience, which is kind of cheapened if the group just starts out by meeting one :p)
Average starting wealth.
Max HP level 1, average HP from then on out.
1 campaign trait, 1 trait of your choice, then you can use a drawback for a third trait.

Fluff
Golarion setting.
Download the player's guide, pick a trait, make it an important part of your PC's backstory. Cover the following bases in your backstory. Yeah, this puts some restraints on your character but it really helps make the campaign relevant to your PC.
Your characters shouldn't start out with any technological items.
As always I want everything in your crunch tied into your fluff. All of you excelled at that, though. :)
House Rules

Automatic bonus progression
Food/water/encumbrance
Crit/fumble tables
VMC allowed, fractional advancement for normal multiclassing
2 background skills per level
Fighters may use unchained stamina subsystem for free, everyone else for a feat.
I want some really thematic characters that feel tailored to the AP, so try to make the campaign trait you pick something important to your character.... it really helps me in turn adjust the campaign around whatever you guys come up with :p

I dig thematic archetypes. Read the player's guide, it gives good ideas for character options, archetypes, etc.

But my thoughts were:

1. I'd love a gunslinger, because, obvious reasons. But also with the assumption you don't min-max that too much :P
2. I'm also hoping for at least one Kellid character, ideally someone who is pretty threatened by all the high-tech insanity for some contrast with characters that want to research it/harness it
3. A religious character who follows Brigh would be cool.
4. Also, androids! Just for the roleplay, haha.

At least that's the kind of stuff I'd look for in a recruitment (I'm rolling with 6 PCs). You guys are free to do whatever you want, beyond picking a campaign trait :) I trust you to come up with something cool.

Anyway, you have several months but some details:

1. The adventure will begin with the assumption that you are already an assembled group - so feel free to try and intertwine some of your backgrounds. I think that would make for some interesting roleplay.
2. You begin in a town named Torch, which is unique in that it has a working piece of recovered technology - a fierce, violet flame that burns a few times per year, that is hot enough to work skymetal, a generic term for all alien metals found in Numeria. The town's economy is therefore centered around the "Torch", as one of the few places where skymetal can be worked. So when the Torch suddenly goes dark, the town begins hiring adventurers to investigate the caverns under the town... but no one so far has succeeded in solving the problem. You're the sixth team to attempt.

What I'd like from you sooner rather than later is which campaign trait you are going with. I'd prefer it if everyone picked different traits, but people taking the same one is fine (especially if you want to coordinate backgrounds together)

My partner wants to play, he's thinking a brainy android wizard (spellslinger) going into technomancer - Numerian Archaeologist campaign trait - obsessed with improving his gun and hopes to harness new technology to that end.

Feth mentioned that she was thinking Stargazer - dwarven Warpriest of Desna.

Orannis, going with tiefling alchemist (trap breaker) VMC gunslinger.

I really liked Kubular's android barbarian concept from the Andoran recruitment, but I'd be happy with whatever you want to play :)

I'll probably open a small recruitment before we start for 1-2 more players, restricting to whatever party roles/campaign traits we're missing.

Yeah I'd really like to go with Stargazer. I think it fits her well since she's a servant of Desna and Desna's so tied to the night sky.

AS it stands this group is pretty well rounded. We've got a frontliner, an arcane caster, a flexible trap spotter and a healer that smashes things with a hammer. I'd be more inclined towards characters that are not androids/don't use guns since we have two of each but that's just me.

I think we could use a party face and a skill monkey. If both roles are filled by the same character that's great.

Yeah in recruitment I would not be asking for gun-users or androids :)

A kellid would be nice for contrast - especially something like a skald. Bard, Investigator or Slayer would be nice, also.

Also if Kubular does not go with barbarian, I would be looking for a frontliner.

Would you mind if I invited a buddy of mine who is interested? He's never done PbP (at least I don't think so) but he's pretty well versed in Pathfinder having started with Neverwinter Nights.

He usually plays wizardly types and would probably be interested in something along those lines. But he's a pretty flexible role-player and it looks to me like we've got a wizard proper and an alchemist.

So is it alright if I invite him, or do you want to hold off on that for now?

Sounds good to me. :)

James (my partner) is going for a tinkerer/crafting kind of wizard, so there's plenty of room for different flavors of arcane casters if that's what he enjoys.

I'm more concerned that the group cover different kinds of themes of character concepts than I am about party class composition. Which should be solved if everyone claims a different campaign trait. (But tied backstories are nice also.)

Also, I'm not totally 3pp averse: if you find something 3pp that is really thematic I'll be alright with it.

So some cool technology-based archetype would be okay. Wanting to play a white necromancer would not.

Except races - for worldbuilding reasons, I want everything to stay on Golarion.

Opened the gameplay tab if you want to dot it to have this show up on your campaign summary.

Okay, I just let him know.

I was personally thinking about Local Ties for my campaign trait if I stay with the Barbarian Android concept.

Sounds good :)

So would Khonnir be the wizard in your PC's backstory who discovered him? That could be interesting.

The only issue with your original backstory is that it would be a little odd for him to not realize he is an android. In the region, they are well-known, though not exactly common. Unless you mean that he is delusional.

The adventure begins with Khonnir having disappeared into the caverns underneath Torch (which are suspected to connect to the Torch) 2 days ago.

Hello, Kubular's friend here. Nice to meet ya.
His guess about me never having done a play by post before were correct xD

Also, how do you feel about a Traveller Gnome Bard that hates the technic league??

Yea, the original backstory doesn't work too well without some adjustments. I was thinking that for some reason he is pretty convinced that he isn't actually an android. He thinks his memories were erased/partially erased in an experiment a wizard performed on him which turned him from human to android. He doesn't know too much about androids in general, tech is just a different form of magic to him. Even to the people trying to convince him otherwise, he falls back on the fragmented memories of his past to refute the evidence of his non-humanity. So yes, he's delusional.

I was thinking he found Khonnir to ask him to revert the changes. Khonnir knows the Android is delusional, but he has agreed to help him discover more about his past, mostly to quench his personal curiosity about how an android becomes delusional. No, of course he hasn't told the machine, it would get angry at him!

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Also, I can't really decide between the Unchained Barbarian and the Classic Barbarian. Changing the bonuses from a strength bonus to a flat bonus to attack and damage rolls is a little weaker, but the Rage Powers are stronger in general.

EDIT: Yay, he's on!

Hello, Kubular's friend here. Nice to meet ya.

His guess about me never having done a play by post before were correct xD

Also, how do you feel about a Traveller Gnome Bard that hates the technic league??

Sounds awesome! :)

PbP is fun! Just keep in mind that it's slow. Really, really slow. :p

But you're in character the entire time, so the roleplay is more immersive, so there's pros and cons.

Yea, the original backstory doesn't work too well without some adjustments. I was thinking that for some reason he is pretty convinced that he isn't actually an android. He thinks his memories were erased/partially erased in an experiment a wizard performed on him which turned him from human to android. He doesn't know too much about androids in general, tech is just a different form of magic to him. Even to the people trying to convince him otherwise, he falls back on the fragmented memories of his past to refute the evidence of his non-humanity. So yes, he's delusional.

I was thinking he found Khonnir to ask him to revert the changes. Khonnir knows the Android is delusional, but he has agreed to help him discover more about his past, mostly to quench his personal curiosity about how an android becomes delusional. No, of course he hasn't told the machine, it would get angry at him!

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Also, I can't really decide between the Unchained Barbarian and the Classic Barbarian. Changing the bonuses from a strength bonus to a flat bonus to attack and damage rolls is a little weaker, but the Rage Powers are stronger in general.

EDIT: Yay, he's on!

That sounds great. I think that idea would fit in well with the fact that he experiences emotions (per the empathy feat) - which would make him innately different from all of the other androids he encounters.

Also the idea that your android experiences emotions, while James' is not only emotionless, but super brainiac/egghead style emotionless, is interesting. So it'd be cool to see how that plays out.

Unchained/classic is fine, kind of a personal decision there. I still think rage cycling at low lvls is cheesy, but I'm willing to give it the "watchful waiting" treatment and see if it actually is something that would overpower the encounters or just a kneejerk reaction from myself.

Party seems well-rounded so far so I don't think I'll be opening to this to recruitment unless someone drops.

I'm still open to running a sixth though, so if anyone here wants to make a final referral we can take a last person :P

If we took a sixth I'd probably be looking for melee damage,something more like slayer/ranger/swashbuckler/bloodrager/ etc.

What I like about 6 players is that if someone drops I don't have to go through recruitment. *lazy*

I might have to nix the VMC idea and just go with taking Exotic(Firearms) and Exotic(Heavy Weapons). The feat loss from VMC is just too heavy for the build I'm doing.

I am somewhat concerned that my character and your partner's character might be overlapping quite a bit on our out-of-combat stuff, as we both seem to be building tinkerers/tech builders. I could roll with a different character (I've got plenty of concepts lying around, though the Alchemist is my favorite), or we could do some meta-gamey conversing before the game and split up the tech building feats (i.e. He takes weapons, I take pharmaceuticals, etc.).

Also, I was really interested in doing cybernetics with my Alchemist, but a good third or so of them are of the "power six" variety and thus rendered null by Automatic Bonus Progression. I don't want to *not* do ABP, but perhaps we could work together to assign different functions to things like Dermal Plating and Wirejack Tendons? Something like skill bonuses or DR or other perks not covered by ABP?

Sounds awesome! :)

I thought so too! xD

I might have to nix the VMC idea and just go with taking Exotic(Firearms) and Exotic(Heavy Weapons). The feat loss from VMC is just too heavy for the build I'm doing.

I am somewhat concerned that my character and your partner's character might be overlapping quite a bit on our out-of-combat stuff, as we both seem to be building tinkerers/tech builders. I could roll with a different character (I've got plenty of concepts lying around, though the Alchemist is my favorite), or we could do some meta-gamey conversing before the game and split up the tech building feats (i.e. He takes weapons, I take pharmaceuticals, etc.).

Also, I was really interested in doing cybernetics with my Alchemist, but a good third or so of them are of the "power six" variety and thus rendered null by Automatic Bonus Progression. I don't want to *not* do ABP, but perhaps we could work together to assign different functions to things like Dermal Plating and Wirejack Tendons? Something like skill bonuses or DR or other perks not covered by ABP?

His character is obsessed with using technology to improve his gun, not really just technology in general - so I think there is room for two tinkerer characters of different theming/motivation.

Using up the same resources/loot is a concern though, I'll try to get him on here and share his thoughts.

I'm down for tweaking the power 6 cybernetics so that the bonus progression doesn't render them redundant. I'm happy you're interested in them, I was secretly hoping someone would go full-out robocop ;)

GM Kiora wrote:

Sounds awesome! :)

I thought so too! xD

Also, being a travelling gnome, one of my Bard's shticks is going to be that he speaks languages. Lots of languages. Actually... even more than that :D
...and I was wondering which languages would be most reasonable for a travelling merchant type to speak in Golarion.
** spoiler omitted **

I think Hallit would be pretty much expected for a multilingual character in Numeria - it is the language of their indigenous people. The Player's Guide also recommends Orc. You can learn Androffan, an alien language (spoken on Golarion mostly by the Technic League) but only through Linguistics, not as a starting language.

I think a traveler type would eventually learn elven and dwarven also.

Some of the languages on there are really exotic, which would be good to reflect a well-travelled character at the start of the game, but kind of odd choices learned mid-game. Unless your character just takes pride in being multilingual, which is cool, too!

I'm not actually this nit-picky about whether you have in-game reasons to know the languages you know, lol. I just think it's something worth considering :)

Make sure you download the player's guide (you can get it free through Paizo) - it gives you most of the basic setting info you need to know for the region.

I might have to nix the VMC idea and just go with taking Exotic(Firearms) and Exotic(Heavy Weapons). The feat loss from VMC is just too heavy for the build I'm doing.

I am somewhat concerned that my character and your partner's character might be overlapping quite a bit on our out-of-combat stuff, as we both seem to be building tinkerers/tech builders. I could roll with a different character (I've got plenty of concepts lying around, though the Alchemist is my favorite), or we could do some meta-gamey conversing before the game and split up the tech building feats (i.e. He takes weapons, I take pharmaceuticals, etc.).

Also, I was really interested in doing cybernetics with my Alchemist, but a good third or so of them are of the "power six" variety and thus rendered null by Automatic Bonus Progression. I don't want to *not* do ABP, but perhaps we could work together to assign different functions to things like Dermal Plating and Wirejack Tendons? Something like skill bonuses or DR or other perks not covered by ABP?

I texted him and he said he'd likely only be taking arms/armor because he's short on feats anyway (he wants to focus on the gun)

Cool! That leaves me with Cybernetics, Pharmaceuticals, and Miscellaneous Tech. Having someone else handle weapons and armor gives my feats a little more room to breathe. Also, this character is my favorite of all the one's I've made for Iron Gods so I'm happy she fits in with the party composition.

My runner up is pretty good: A halfling summoner who worships Brigh and has an Inevitable Eidolon that he sees as a messenger from Brigh. He's a little eccentric, and is obsessed with turning himself into a machine through magic and technology. The reason he got booted to my second choice is he requires playing my least favorite alignment of all time: Lawful Neutral. If my Tiefling meets an unfortunate fate, however, I'll break him out.

This character was built mostly as an exercise, so I'm building a background around her and tweaking some crunch here and there to make that background sing with her mechanics.

She's an engineering prodigy from Alkenstar who, after completing an advanced engineering degree, moved to Ustalav to pursue a second doctorate in alchemy (which she couldn't exactly research in the Mana Wastes). While there, due to her engineering talents, she was scouted and recruited by some faculty members who had recently gotten some minor technological devices smuggled out of Numeria. While her work on these devices starts out as a curious distraction, she soon became obsessed with the alien technology and ultimately suspends her studies to mount a one-woman expedition into Numeria.

I hate to overlap with you partner's character again, but Numerian Archaelogist is looking like the best fit for a background trait. :-/ Although, two tech nerds with opposite personalities could be pretty fun to play off of each other! Especially since my character is going to be more than a little obsessed with the two Androids in the party. >_>

I also hope we get a big, beefy Kellid warrior-type in the group somewhere. Because I'm going to need someone to test all those cybernetics on.

"I know you don't trust technology, but think about how much better you can kill things if you have robot arms! And if those robot arms have guns in them!"

Haha, my android believes he is/was Kellid Barbarian. Despite being made of machine parts he doesn't trust technology or magic very much. (Khonnir has proven himself to be an exception to the rule, I think)

Still need to come up with a name for him.

You could always turn Kubular's android-who-thinks-he's-human into a cybernetics robot ;)

But yeah I really wanted a technophobic character in there. Oh well D:

EDIT: nvm, kubular sweeps in and makes all my dreams come true~

Plot Twist: The Android is the technophobe!

Citrine is wary of said technology. I mean it sounds useful and she definitely wants to use it to study outerspace. But as an ex-cop she'll look at this stuff, imagine all the things it could do in the wrong hands, and feel like smashing it with a hammer.

Here she is! Well, the early bones of her anyways. First bits of crunch and an Avatar I'm not 100% happy with but it's the closest I could manage. Her skin should be a shade or two darker, as her human heritage is Osiriani Garundi, and I wanted much shorter horns. But oh well, can't always land the perfect avatar on here.

Oh, and that surname is an eyeroll of a cliche, right? Except I've actually done something terribly clever(TM) with Garundi naming conventions, her homeland's geography, and racial prejudice.

I... I really should have considered my wording a lot more carefully before saying "I did something terribly clever with racial prejudice."

( ._.)

Invited gyrfalcon because he sent me a PM and I wanted a sixth anyway :)

Here she is! Well, the early bones of her anyways. First bits of crunch and an Avatar I'm not 100% happy with but it's the closest I could manage. Her skin should be a shade or two darker, as her human heritage is Osiriani Garundi, and I wanted much shorter horns. But oh well, can't always land the perfect avatar on here.

Oh, and that surname is an eyeroll of a cliche, right? Except I've actually done something terribly clever(TM) with Garundi naming conventions, her homeland's geography, and racial prejudice.

Hurray!

I see she has 8 charisma, lol. Reminds me of Anthony :p

Is gyrfalcon from the Andoran recruitment? Either way, welcome!

Is gyrfalcon from the Andoran recruitment? Either way, welcome!

No, WotR.

Submitted an incredible kellid dino shaman from the realm of the Mammoth Lords :P

Hurray!

I see she has 8 charisma, lol. Reminds me of Anthony :p

Yeah. It's less of an "I'm super awkward" 8 charisma and more of an "I'm too buried in my work to worry about what other people think of me" 8 charisma. Also, zero concept of social boundaries where her academics are involved. "Of course I'm invading your personal space! How else am I going to sketch a diagram of your circuitry!?"

Seriously, I'm apologizing to the Android players ahead of time. She has good intentions, I swear.

She also really, really, really likes blowing things up.

Like. A. Lot.

Is gyrfalcon from the Andoran recruitment? Either way, welcome!

That is a most boss name for a dwarf, Feth.

Thanks for the invite...or rather letting me invite myself in. ;-)

Kiora suggested a Kellid with the Robot Slayer trait which sounds like a great place to start brainstorming from. I see you started out saying no 3pp and then softened it a bit afterward. I've been itching to try out PoW. What do you think about it here?

Off the top of my head, I could see any of the following for a Kellish Robotslayer:
- Warlord who specializes in charging and smashing...maybe with a spear?
- Ranger with Dreamscarred's (beta) Ambush Hunter archetype, which is buried in this long doc, but which basically makes both the ranger and their companion into initiators (with 3/4 progression, capped at 6th level maneuvers).
- Mystic (beta class, described as "a melee support class that uses unstable arcane energies to unleash beneficial magic on his allies and scourge his enemies with the power of the elements. Mystics are founts of energy that they vent through martial discipline and intuition rather than through spells.")

If you'd rather no Path of War in this game, no worries, just let me know.

Nah, gonna pass on the PoW.

I'm fine with 3pp for something really themed, like the mechanist gunslinger from Rite. But not really just for a way to expand options mechanically.

That is a most boss name for a dwarf, Feth.

Why thank you. I quite like it. :)

Can we go back and discuss this 'dino shaman' idea? What is this, it sounds amazing. T-rex versus aliens and robots who doesn't love that idea??

Kaziya Hellfallen wrote:

That is a most boss name for a dwarf, Feth.

Why thank you. I quite like it. :)

Can we go back and discuss this 'dino shaman' idea? What is this, it sounds amazing. T-rex versus aliens and robots who doesn't love that idea??

Yesssss.

Here she is. Really cool, haha.

Citrine Hammerheart wrote:

Kaziya Hellfallen wrote:

That is a most boss name for a dwarf, Feth.

Why thank you. I quite like it. :)

Can we go back and discuss this 'dino shaman' idea? What is this, it sounds amazing. T-rex versus aliens and robots who doesn't love that idea??

Yesssss.

Here she is. Really cool, haha.

AGREED. It's basically an old-school Jack Kirby comic at that point and there is literally no better thing you could possibly be.

Can we go back and discuss this 'dino shaman' idea? What is this, it sounds amazing. T-rex versus aliens and robots who doesn't love that idea??

Hehehe, thanks! I wouldn't say no to playing a dino-duo (maybe Hunter or melee-Druid or that Barbarian)...but where I (and/or the dino) are from is kind of tricky. I mean maybe there totally oughta be dinosaurs in Numeria--and I sure wouldn't stop Kiora from house ruling them in--but I think normally you can (tragically) only find them in the Realm of the Mammoth Lords, the Mwangi Expanse, or Mediogalti Island.

If anyone wants to suggest a reasonable story reason for a dinosaur loving (or riding?) Kellid here in Numeria, I'm down!

EDIT Or Mad Dog Barbarian. Totally forgot about them!

The realm of the mammoth lords isn't super far from Numeria - and the "nomadic traveller" type actually works well for this campaign. But it's up to you what you want to do :p

The hardest part would figuring out why they're motivated to slay robots, I think.

The realm of the mammoth lords isn't super far from Numeria - and the "nomadic traveller" type actually works well for this campaign. But it's up to you what you want to do :p

That's precisely what I was thinking. Kellid tribes, both nomadic and settled, range across much of northern Avistan. It wouldn't be unreasonable that your Druid or Hunter or Shaman was wandering the north, guided by nature spirits to Numeria where the presence of alien technology is disrupting the natural balance.

Could somebody buy a dinosaur? Like a trained Compsognathus maybe? Asking for a friend.

OK, cool, dino-someone it is! RAWR!

Being a nomadic Kellid sounds workable, fluff-wise. I'll mull over whether to be Mad Dog, Druid, or Hunter (and don't mind input suggestions).

More later!

Kubular is already going android barbarian, so probably druid or hunter :0

Could somebody buy a dinosaur? Like a trained Compsognathus maybe? Asking for a friend.

You can buy dinosaurs but they are pretty expensive, and also at GM discretion as to whether or not you can even find a vendor :p

OK, cool, dino-someone it is! RAWR!

Being a nomadic Kellid sounds workable, fluff-wise. I'll mull over whether to be Mad Dog, Druid, or Hunter (and don't mind input suggestions).

More later!

Melee Hunters have always seemed pretty neat to me. Plus it gets you a lot closer to a Devil Dinosaur + Moon Boy dynamic (although in execution it would probably be closer to a Devil Dinosaur crossover with Anthro... Still all Kirby, though!)

Also, it'd keep you on theme with our party's diverse spread of limited spellcasters.

For what my opinion is worth, anways!

Surely the world is full of traveling dinosaur salesmen. How else would people make money? ;)

Hey, when do you want characters built by? When is this planned to start?

BTW, I'm toying with building Moon Boy as a (small) Aasimar-Halfling. We'll see. ;0)

Avatar and name likely to change