Dawnflower dervish is an excellent bard archetype and would give you the dervish dancer feat right away.
Magnus will take the Foehammer archetype (ARG). Is that okay with you, Doctor?
There's also the option of multiclassing a little for the ultimate goal of taking Dwarven Defender. If I'm not going to get the mileage out of favored class, I might as well.
Deth, HustonJ, and Dr Flamel: Thanks for the good wishes. I'd love to have taken all of you, but a party of 10-12 is just not feasible in most games. Your characters were good, just had to cull someone.
Magnus, ARG is okay with me this time around. I am liberalizing my stance...Any of the hard bound books are "in" (except Campaign and now Mythic, {curses softly}).
To the rest: Between now and when I can get back on to make final cuts, tell me why the benefits/flaws of the other PC in your category grouping, then tell me the same about yourself. I am in the cost/benefit analysis business, so don't try to buffalo me...
I will be on for final choices late tonight. I really like how the group is shaping up...
The other martial folks seem to be built for melee, while Zilena is more of an agile, lightly-armored combatant focused on dealing damage from a distance. She's faster, more agile and mobile, but she isn't able to hold her own in melee, where she's likely to become a liability. At fourth level, she'd be letting her animal companion cover her while she stands back shooting.
The fighters may not have the same range and mobility, but they're better built to take hits. Better armour, better melee ability. Able to hit harder and be bit harder. Also, as fighters, they'll be able to cover more bases, as opposed to putting all ther eggs in the archery basket.
Okay, now back. I'll skip options and design Reva as I have her in mind right now and then make a case for her. Also, I am saddened to go up against Vris; there'll be no shame if she's chosen over Reva. I'm in another game with her player and can't say enough nice things.
Concept: I hate being useless in rpgs, and Reva is meant to be useful in practically every situation. She can fight, cast, use skills, and socialize. Her biggest weakness will aside from only being second-best at everything is that she's just going to be with fewer hp than a typical melee goon, and in lighter armour. But some humiliating lessons in caution are the sort of thing I hope she'll learn. I do not intend on multiclassing Reva, but as a half-elf I picked rogue as the closest other class she may take.
Stat points: Strength, Charisma (as I start to use dazzling display/shatter defenses), and then more strength.
Feats until 11th level:
WF Longsword, Power Attack, Cleave, Dazzling Display, Shatter Defenses, Improved Critical (I may play around with taking dodge/mobility in order to maximize the flank-related teamwork feats)
Teamwork feats until 11th level:
Precise Strike, Lookout, Outflank
Spells: Spells will be heavily weighted towards heals, buffs, and utility in that order of preference. Reva has a very military mindset, and so will want a group working as a single, focused whole. Also, since she'd be the primary healer if chosen - lotsa heals.
I'm going to focus on me first here. I'm a veteran player, well-written, and unlikely to go anywhere. I'm new to PBP but have taken well to it and have received a lot of enthusiasm to my play here. Because I GM nearly all the time I have a focus on creating characters that will be fun for the GM and fun for the rest of the party. My RP concepts usually start out as caricatures (subtle is boring unless done VERY well) and become nuanced as time goes on. I post frequently and always try to participate. Basically, I promise to be useful and fun.
I believe I'll be a better pick than Vris because Reva is a more compelling character to me. Reva is designed as somebody who has lived two lives (as a travelling Varisian, and trainee of Iomedae) and is now forced to bring the two together and must mature. I intend for her to be this naive, deeply flawed and difficult person who will be forced to grow or die as a result of the intense situations she is thrown in to. Level 11 Reva will likely be a very scary person flush with the power of her God, still jaded but also kind and patient. Vris has a great deal of trauma in her background, but I don't know what kind of person that has made her and where she will grow.
And in a purely crunchy way I think that although Vris will have the deeper spell pool, Reva will be of more use due to her versatility.
Well, that's a bit of twist there, Doc...
While she isn't intended to be a front line melee fighter, as a Cleric she has the ability to gear up for a decent armor class, some good weapon choices, and access to good spells - such as Bless, Aid, etc - that will substantially contribute to success beyond the ability to wield divine healing. Vris also has the Adoration and Bit of Luck domain powers, the first of which will sometimes help shield her from attack, and the latter assist others in achieving success both on and off the battlefield.
Taking a few levels of bard will help expand her spellcasting choices and round out her skill set without severely impacting on her intended main role as a healer. Bardic performance will likewise assist the rest of the party during fights without stopping Vris fulfilling the main healer role. It also fits in well with her being a priestess of Shelyn - a patron of love, beauty and art - and with the secondary role of being a face.
Personality wise Vris starts the game having just been confronted with some disturbing realities about her family and faced with the fact that they want to do her harm. This has challenged her previously somewhat naive and sheltered view of life - where everyone has wanted to be her friend - and she will have to start accepting that reality is a harsh and often unforgiving mistress. More so now she's in Riddleport of course.
The roleplaying challenge is to have her wise-up about real life without losing her faith in the intrinsic beauty of the world, and still be tough and confident enough to face down the ugly truth about the malevolent forces at work during the AP (I don't know anything except that it involves drow, but they are pretty malevolent...)
I'm not going to comment on the competition in the Divine category - mostly because I don't know enough about the Inquisitor class to make a competent assessment, but partly because Vris just wouldn't talk down anyone else's potential. Now if I had made her a Calistiran priestess - instead of a cleric of Shelyn - then all bets would be off and the radioactive-killer-mutant-wasps would start flying... ("Fly my pretties. Fly! Bwahahahaha...")
Nope, just kidding. See you shortly back in the Border Woods. :)
So I was trained not so much to think in terms of cost/benefit profiles, but to put the other guy six feet under before he could do the same to me or any of my mates, by learning to think up the nastiest things he could do to me and turning it around. I think that makes me a Calistrian in Golarion terms... But these days the most dangerous things I do are hitting rocks with a hammer after forgetting to put on my safety glasses, eating too much sugar, and asking the departmental secretary for an extension on my report submission deadlines (but she is seriously scary!).
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Portia Zayed has an advantage over Teliel in ability to contribute healing and some buffs to the party via her Bardic abilities. Her damage output on normal hits will probably be higher than Teliel's, but she hasn't trained many abilities to have influence over NPCs. She has more available knowledge skills at present, but her ability to fill the skill monkey role is limited.
Teliel has more available skill points, and will be more capable of influencing NPCs along the way, as well as being stealthy. His damage output won't be fantastic early on, but his potential is greater with Sneak Attacks. He isn't combat oriented, though, and so will not be nearly as much of an asset in combat as Portia Zayed. Teliel is built as a Skill Monkey character, and as an NPC interaction/infiltration character
There may also be benefits/drawbacks based on race, since Teliel is an Elf and Portia is a Half-Elf. Elves in one of the native Elven regions tend to look more favorably on full-blooded Elves, especially those who are native to one of the current Elven regions as Teliel is (Kyonin).
Okay, here are my selections.
Sorry, but I think I am going off type, and my own plan, a bit in order to keep what I thought were the best submissions. (it's subjective, you may not agree, and probably don't...)
I'd like to take:
Reva Meirani, half-elf inquisitor
Magnus Ironfoot, dwarf fighter
Bu' the Unpronounceable - Elven Witch (hope she has a nickname..)
Trig - gnome sorceror
I realize I'm light in healing, heavy in arcane, and have no trap/lock character, but I really like both the arcane submissions...and I get to make the rules. Perhaps an NPC will show up to pick the tricky lock or throw a cure spell out.
As an additional twist, I will ask the 4 chosen above to send me a PM detailing their favorite choices for a 5th member from those not taken. Whoever gets the votes, may get invited...Please list your top 3 in order, it'll help break ties...
I am off to bed, will work on detailed analysis of your PC's tomorrow and perhaps we start Monday or Tuesday.
Guess I should finish Portia then. I've decided to stay with flavor and make her a Dervish Dancer. She'll also be Human instead of Half-elf.
Portia Zayed
Female Human (Varisian) Bard (Dervish Dancer) 1
CG Medium Humanoid (human)
Init +3; Senses Perception +4
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Defense
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AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 13 (+3 armor, +3 Dex)
hp 10 (1d8+2)
Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +2
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee Scimitar +1 (1d6+1/18-20/x2+2 fire) and
. . Shortsword +3 (1d6+1/19-20/x2)
Special Attacks bardic performance: countersong, bardic performance: distraction, bardic performance: fascinate (1 targets) (dc 12), battle dance: inspire courage +1
Bard (Dervish Dancer) Spells Known (CL 1):
1 (2/day) Cure Light Wounds, Saving Finale (DC 13)
0 (at will) Read Magic, Detect Magic, Dancing Lights, Prestidigitation (DC 12)
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Statistics
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Str 13, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 14
Base Atk +0; CMB +1; CMD 14
Feats Arcane Strike, Weapon Finesse
Traits Fencer, Flame of the Dawnflower
Skills Acrobatics +2, Bluff +6, Climb +0, Escape Artist +2, Fly +2, Knowledge (arcana) +4, Knowledge (local) +4, Knowledge (religion) +4, Perception +4, Perform (dance) +6, Ride +2, Spellcraft +4, Stealth +2, Swim +0, Use Magic Device +6
Languages Common, Varisian
SQ battle dance (move action) (6 rounds/day), fleet
Other Gear Studded leather armor, Scimitar, Shortsword, Backpack (6 @ 10.5 lbs), Bedroll, Belt pouch (1 @ 0 lbs), Flint and steel, Perfume/cologne, Scroll case (empty), Trail rations (3), Traveler's outfit, Waterskin, Whetstone, 86 GP, 3 SP, 8 CP
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Special Abilities
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Arcane Strike As a swift action, add +1 damage, +1 per 5 caster levels and your weapons are treated as magic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Bardic Performance: Countersong (Su) Counter magical effects that depend on sound.
Bardic Performance: Distraction (Su) Counter magical effects that depend on sight.
Bardic Performance: Fascinate (1 targets) (DC 12) (Su) One or more creatures becomes fascinated with you.
Battle Dance (move action) (6 rounds/day) Battle dances can create bardic performance effects only on self.
Battle Dance: Inspire Courage +1 (Su) Morale bonus on some saving throws, attack and damage rolls.
Fencer +1 to hit with dagger or sword AoOs.
Flame of the Dawnflower +2 damage with a scimitar on a critical hit.
Fleet (Su) Gain an enhancement bonus to speed when battle dancing.
She certainly adds to the group's melee capability. She's a mobile skirmisher with backup spell support. Being a Bard gives her access to healing, though not like a cleric. She's going to charm the pants off most people, and look sexy doing it. Her skills won't be the greatest, but she still has tons of class skills. With her Fleet ability during Battle Dance, she's faster than anyone else and only getting faster.
Probably the biggest is that she's more of what you have and not what you need. She's not a traps/locks skill monkey, though she might be stealthy later. She's not a divine healer. Also, in that group, her Human-ness may be a drawback. She's going to be fumbling in the dark while the rest of the party is seeing well in darker situations.
I was afraid I wouldn't get to post my thoughts in time. Well hell, I put the effort into it, so I'll post them anyway.
That said, the gain in skills means that she traded away some of the feats that fighters get, which means fewer options. If the group needed someone to stand in front of the blows, she would not be the best choice for the job, with her low ac. Also, she is hedging a lot on that bow, if something were to happen to make it unavailable, she would be at a much greater disadvantage than a more generalized melee combatant.
Magnus is a solid wall! I don't think I've ever seen a first level character with so many hit points before. His lower AC means that he will be hit more, but his high hp more than counters that. If you are getting into a fight with limited room to manuever, Magnus is exactly the guy I want on my team.
The downside of that, is that Magnus sacrifices a lot to do what he can. He has very few skill points, and an intelligence and charisma score that implies that he isn't much fun to be around if there aren't skulls to smash. From what his character sheet looks like at the moment, he will contribute a lot in combat, but not so much outside of it.
Averin is decidedly the middle ground between the other two. His initiative isn't as high as Zilenna's, but it's better than Magnus's. He will get hit less often than either of them, but his hp is closer to Zilenna's so it will mean more when he does. As is implied by that, his goal is to be as useful as possible without being overspecialized. In battle he will not focus on maximum damage or holding the line, but will focus more on control. If the fight demands that he hit hard and fast, he can. If instead there is a major baddie that needs to be disabled until the rest of the party can focus on him, Averin can combat manuevers to do so. Outside of combat, he has respectable scores in several useful skills, with the intention that he will always have something to contribute.
The downside to all of this is that, as someone who walks the middle ground between offense and defense, Averin may find himself underspecialized. He has neither the hp of Magnus, or the manueverability of Zilenna, and that may leave him unsuitable for either role. That might combine with his somewhat abrasive personality to make him the worst of the lot.
Thanks for your consideration.
Done and dusted. Grats to the final selectees - with Magnus and Trig in the party, I suspect the innuendo will be flying thick and fast. While I would've feared for Vris' sanity had she also been chosen, it would've been funny to play the straight man (or half-elf) caught between the pair. :)
Woohoo! I got picked! I was starting to work on a comparison between the witch and my character, but the two were so different, it's hard to make a direct comparison.
As far as a traps/lock character, I could take the Seeker archetype for my sorceror. It's not from a hardback book; rather from the PFSFG, but it's useful -- gets disable device and trapfinding (by a different name, but works the same). I could also swap out the alt racial ability warden of nature for tinkering, to get a bonus on disable device.
Hiya boys and -- well, mostly girls!
*winks at Magnus*
Lucky you, Ironman, you get to be the man surrounded by lovely ladies.
"..." the Dwarf grumbles, tucking his thumbs into his belt and attempting to hide in the corner.
Congratulations to those who were chosen! Second Darkness is a pretty wicked campaign; I'm sure you'll all have a blast!
Hey GM, could I get your thoughts as to why Zilena wasn't picked? Just so I know what I have to work on character-wise next time. =)
El Ronza, not saying you're not going to get picked by popular demand.
At the end of the day, I wanted the frontline fighter for melee purposes more than a ranged killer. I really liked the 2 arcane submissions and I needed someone with a healer skill set.
I think it was a numbers game when I choose to take both arcanes. You might still get voted in so don't despair.
Thank you so much and best of luck to the rest who apped. There were lots of great applications. :) I'm going over Reva's crunch and there are a few issues. I'll clean 'em up.
Cervin's Diary, Day 14: Dear Diary, today I woke up inside of a wolf. Have learned lesson not to annoy sorcerers.
Congratulations to the chosen! You will have a great time, Doc Evil is a fantastic PbP GM. Have fun :)
Sorry, I didn't get in on the conversations earlier. I wound up being out of town all day yesterday unexpectedly.
"Blossom" is what she will likely go by as time goes on, or possibly Bu.
To her Progression; I will be taking her Witch all the way, her Archetype really isn't very forgiving of multiclassing. Initial feats will likely focus on making her hair more effective, later probably will go towards meta magic.
Finally, thank you very much for choosing her & I will have an avatar up later today.
To all selected players: Discussion thread is open. I will be doing deep dives on alias/character sheets today with the goal of opening the game tomorrow.
Post your questions, meet your new mates etc here.