Just wanted to say, with what the Players Guide offers, I find it a bit hard to create a background for Phai.
Problem of playing in a completely unknown setting. Could we omit that part for now and fill it in once we have a more complete understanding of how things work in this universe?
(alternatively, would come back to your offer for working on a background together...)
E.g., with Xenobiologist, should I assume I already travelled and have seen several worlds? Could I have picked up another campaign language with linguist? Or would it even make sense to pick a golarian language as bonus languages for high int?(as in, are there many space elves, space halflings etc.? I know they are listed as bonus languages but does it make SENSE?(otherwise i'm fine with omitting the bonus languages from int completely)
and finally, I know you will write some summary of what happened before...but any chance you would be willing to share the prolog? Or write up a short overview of it's planned plot and events for when we continue? It's a pet peeve of mine but it would annoy me to no end not knowing what we missed out on because of some unlucky rolls...
"Xenobiologist", for example, works perfectly on a homeworld - you just have to have an interest in learning about new creatures. XD Generally, I think it's assumed your characters HAVEN'T been to other worlds. Still, the offer to help you with your backgrounds remains open.
As for the bonus languages, it's probably best to stick with the ones in the guide (explained as "learning them by deciphering ruins" and such), as those are the most likely to come up in the campaign. ^^ Basically, each world's "Common" and the list of twelve other choices they made will probably be the most relevant. Tongues like Elven, Dwarven, etc. are probably going to see little (if any) use.
And yes, I do plan to write up an explanation of what would have happened. ^^ I plan to tie that into what your characters learn in-universe.
I'm going try to finish up my character today, or at least get something a little more official. Hopefully will have a new character up tonight sometime.
Do we know what skills people are covering? My paladin/sorcerer idea currently doesn't have a lot of skill ranks, but I can change the build around if I need to cover more skills to support the party.
I currently am looking at having ranks in: Appraise, Craft (Armor), Craft (Weapons), Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Kn. Nobility, Kn. Arcana, Profession (Teacher), Spellcraft and Use Magic Device.
I only have 10 INT and both classes are 2+INT skills, so currently a bit tough to spread too much. I'm totally good to allocate skills differently if people have stuff they're set on.
How does an arcane bond ring work with the inherent item bonuses?
Basic arcane bond rings have essentially no value to anyone except their user - accordingly, by the table, they have no bonuses. They would, however, acquire bonuses if you crafted powers into them to make them more valuable.
(I'm a pretty big fan of crafting multiple abilities into items - I'm actually working on a guide for that right now. XD)
Please take a look at this guy, and let me know if you have any suggestions or problems. I don't have a solid background for him, but leaning towards what I mentioned earlier about trying to find a around his people's construct weakness that prevents them from being raised.
All right, we SHOULD be hearing something this week. XD
Anyway, hmm... Vincent! Very solid character overall, and I see you've got plenty of choices for smashing things with. That's good! You never know what you'll be seeing next.
Ah, but it's possible - I'm not 100% sure on this - that you'll start the campaign without equipment and need to pick it up along the way. This shouldn't take too long, but it's something to keep in mind.
Also, until I can afford my mithral shield, I'll have my cold iron dagger stashed in my arm compartment. Now if we're stripped of gear and they do a thorough search, then that probably won't matter, but a dagger is better than nothing if they don't find it.
I will let you know about that once I have the book in my hands. XD
(This should be the only time we actually need to wait on a book - I suspect the rest of the books will come out, in order, before we're done with the one preceding them.)
But while I enjoy challenging players, I'm not going to make things tougher until I have a good sense for how your characters play and what you're actually capable of overcoming. XD I WANT you guys to win, after all!
So it looks like we've got roughly the following set up:
Vincent Riker: Melee damage, good defenses (I hope), limited healing (channel) and status removal (mercies), utility arcane (haste, dispel magic, teleport, fly, tongues) and area damage (fireball, etc.), diplomacy/spellcraft/UMD.
Phai Kareen: Ranged damage, lots of healing, full divine including restorations and fixing death, grab bag of utility spells, trap finding and disarming, knowledges
Bjorn: Melee damage, nature skills, ranger/druid buff spells (I'm guessing life bubble, faerie fire, barkskin?), not too familiar with hunter so not sure what else goes here
Did I miss anything? I might knock my CHA down a point or so to get enough INT to squeeze out another skill point. Looks like we're fairly light on skills. Anything else you guys think we're light on?
yep, learned my lesson. I think that alone COULD help tons, having the healer try and stay away from people trying to kill him.
Around halfway through the campaign, I'll have reach metamagic, and Scar Hex(with a Healing Hex that works like Cure Moderate Wounds, probably affected by Enhanced Cures(maybe not, didn't feel like checking right now)).
So some ways to dispense emergency healing, too, in case someone goes down. Just need to survive into the teens ;)
Thing is, I would say keep your cha...we need a face, and progression will eventually get us some extra skill points when int is raised. but your class abilities and us having a person to represent us depends on someone having above-average cha. I avoided dumping it, but with a racial -2 for my race 11 is already best I can do.(but would, with a +2 bonus, open up selective channeling. Which would have been more important with Eliphas, who wanted to go with Twinned Channeling(channel positive and negative at the same time, and choose separately for each with Selective Channeling). - so will see if I need to squeeze it in, or if we can do without, but the option, at least, will be there.
Going from 17 to 16 CHA would allow me to get up to 12 INT for more skill points without dropping my HP any.
Although, if you think we can manage, I could always get the combined CHA/INT headband to pick up some skills later in the campaign. Though that gets prohibitively expensive in a hurry with the inherent bonus rules. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it pans out.
My current plan is to keep Diplomacy mostly up, and scatter my other skill point around between spellcraft, UMD and occasional other skills.
it's totally your call. I could understand if you want the extra skill. but your primary casting attribute, your smite damage, and divine grace use Cha, so I think that is quite important.
Matter of fact, if we are weak on skills, we should consider only covering the basics with certain ones, and possible "cover" something via a cohort or hired specialists later. E.g. you could get yourself a "Jukebox", a bard Auttaine who could basically cover all the knowledge skills,
More alternatively, of course, if you are not insistent on the Ring, I think a Clockwork Familiar would be really fancy. Why I'm mentioning a familiar? Why, the Sage Archetype, of course.
You could have your own little mechanical buddy. If Rednal considers them fitting for the theme, maybe without "improved familiar"-feat needed and without "item-installation"...they are hardly overpowered.
Again, just throwing that out there as an option to consider :)
(as basically we could cover all int-based skills with the familiar, and maybe the little dude is actually a part of you...like, a detachable hand ;) )
I've completely forgotten about the Sage archetype. I think I will go with a familiar (coupled with the tattooed sorcerer archetype after all).
Now the real question is what familiar would be best/coolest to hop in and out of a tattoo and help as an adviser?
EDIT: Can I get an ioun wyrd? It can't normally speak, but I could give it a tiny notebook to tell me important notes, and at later levels I could still talk to it via the arcane bond. Plus it's just crazy awesome looking.
...Climb, Perception, Survival, and Swim, will provide ample opportunities for a PC to shine.
8 Climb, 8 Swim, 9 Survival, 9 Perception
High Wisdom and racial bonus to climb/swim, so I think I can cover those just fine.
Quote:
Similarly, social skills will prove an absolute “must”
in interacting with other cultures—either by placating
them, winning them over to the PCs’ cause, or perhaps just
aggravating and stymieng them on the battlefield in order to
impress or inspire potential allies.
No chance here...9 Sense Motive(with the wisdom bonus)...nothing with the other socials yet. Will eventually drop a point in each to make "Aid another" a valid option considering they are class skills, but will never shine in those.
Quote:
Lastly, one additional note should be made regarding
Knowledge skills. Given the wide range of locations characters
will visit and explore, they may endure circumstantial
penalties to know the intricate details of other technologies,
creatures, and regions beyond those they call home.
Even so, Knowledge skills involving arcana, dungeoneering,
engineering, and even geography...
As such, you gain a +1 trait bonus on all Knowledge skill checks to identify creatures and their abilities. In addition, the base DC to identify creatures from a planet other than your own is treated as if you were from the location or planet spawned it. For example, if an auroch is normally a very rare creature on your home planet, but
common on the planet Argosa, the Knowledge skill’s DC to
identify the auroch would be 10 + its CR.
So, lacking engineering(not a class skill), and arcana(neither). I would assume the (sage)Ioun Wyrd will eventually do much better at knowledge skills than we do(as his int bonus will go up and stack with his 1/2 level bonus), but during the early levels, I may be able to keep us covered on those I have, with the trait lowering some DC's and giving a +1 bonus(not included) on identifying creatures.
Ioun Wyrd... that's from... *Checks real quick* Ah, the Familiar Folio? For an Auttaine? You're right, that WOULD be cool. *Stamp of approval* It's a legal source, so I have no problem with it. XD
*Checks the comments* Indeed. Fortunately, once To Worlds Unknown is delivered, we should never have another delay long enough to impact the game.
Well, while we're waiting, would you three like to play a short scenario or something instead? I could probably be talked into increasing your starting gold or something as a carryover. ^^
(You could re-use an older character idea if you'd like, so you wouldn't have to make a new alias. This would not be a scenario using the new characters for this AP, but someone else instead.)
Generally, I would like that idea. But mid-october(or even later) is about 2 weeks from now.
Honestly, I doubt we would be done by then, and would hate for it to be cut short...but if it's properly finished in parallel, and not just a 2-week-filler, I would definitely be up for it.
on that report...I would assume interference by a small blue fey :P naturally we don't get to continue on what we did, but after the investment in Eliphas, she will not let him die that easily... -_-
Timeline Update: Legendary Games expects to release To Worlds Unknown, the first real part of the adventure, on October 15th. They expect the other adventures to come rather faster, and are working especially hard to make this intro an outstanding experience for you. ^^
Since we've still got about two weeks to kill, do you have any questions or things you'd like to discuss? ^^ It doesn't have to be specific to this game - it can be anything you want, really.
Artwork... depends on the character, really. XD Different sites are good for different kinds of art. On occasion, I even put in a special order for some original art.
I think i did most of the work on Phai, but have not finalized some parts.
You two "locking in" your characters as they are? In that case, I'll try and get Phai finished tomorrow, when I'll have a hour or two to take a look at you two and put finishing touches on her.
Indeed - and we all hope it'll be released on-time. XD
(I've also gotten the story of what happened in Holver's Ferry written up, by the way - so that'll be available once there's a good spot in the campaign to insert it.)
Much like doctors, it's important to have patience. ^^ The full release really should be soon, though - all sections of the book were in layout a few days ago, and that's one of the last things to do before release.
