I'm still ruminating on the license.
Yes. You may purchase Imperial Firearms Licenses.
Jamey: another question. Is Exotic Weapons Proficiency (firearms) an actual gnome race trait? I remember agreeing to it for a Grailwarden Dwarf, but I'm not sure where it comes from in regards to gnomes.I assumed it was also for Gnomes (replacing Gnome Weapon Proficiency and Hatred) since it was in the same doc.
But if you don't want to go with the that, the other option for me is Gnome Tinker which allows me to be proficient with any weapon I have crafted (plus gives me some bonuses to craft and knowledge skills). I can switch to that racial alternate trait if you prefer and still be able to use my gun with no penalties (I couldn't use any other gun that way, but honestly it would have to be a *spectacular* replacement gun to take Velika away from Alakabam ... yup, her gun has a name.)
Yeah, let's do that. I'm not seeing any support in either the Player's Guide or the Ptolus book for a gnomish cultural affinity for firearms similar to that of the Grailwarden dwarves and Prustan humans. So if Gnome Tinker gets you where you want to be, I'd prefer that route.
Also... Alakabam! Hee hee hee!
Okay, let's begin creating a background for your characters individually and as a group.
Question #1: Are you a native of Ptolus? If not, where do you come from?
Question #2 (Majority prevails): How did you meet your fellow party members? In line at the city gate? Were you old friends?
Question #3 (Majority prevails): In your first adventure, you rescued a little girl's corpse from a glass coffin at the bottom of the sea. Turns out the little girl (Linele Cran, six-year old daughter of a minor crime boss) had been infected with vampirism and risen as one of the undead. Did you A) destroy her? B) let her go? C) Turn her over to the Covenant of Blood, a circle of powerful vampires?
Do you want the answers here or under the alias?
Here. It's a discussion.
1- I was planning on being a native. I am part of one of the noble houses.
2- Front gates. Random location meetings allows for greater diversity in backgrounds.
3- Destroy.
Yeah, let's do that. I'm not seeing any support in either the Player's Guide or the Ptolus book for a gnomish cultural affinity for firearms similar to that of the Grailwarden dwarves and Prustan humans. So if Gnome Tinker gets you where you want to be, I'd prefer that route.
Sure thing. Done and updated. Honestly I went the other route just because it was easier to track and I can be lazy like that. :)
Question #1: Native, as much as a gnome is native anywhere. Born in Ptolus, traveled a lot and came back.
Question #2: Old friends. Velika is old and would like to have friends.
Question #3: (So I guess putting her back at the bottom of the sea wasn't an option? ) Destroy.
Question #1: Native. Tilver and his brother, Gareth, once tried to make their name as gladiators in the arena
Question #2: Old friends (though not as old as Velika!)
Question #3: No Brotherhood of Redemption? Destroy.
Now hold on. I need some perspective before answering #3. What role do vampires play in Ptolus? Are they all classic blood sucking villians? I mean, its a big cosmopolitan city, maybe there are some reasonable vampires that make an effort to be part of the community? And what's up with this Covenant of Blood? Uber vampires bent on rounding mortals up for livestock? Or a collection of influential vampires trying to smooth over relations between the living and the undead?
Hmmm...Jamey has just pointed out that it doesn't matter what I think anyway, as a majority of the group has already voted "destroy".
No Brotherhood of Redemption?
The Brotherhood accepts only living monsters.
Now hold on. I need some perspective before answering #3. What role do vampires play in Ptolus? Are they all classic blood sucking villians? I mean, its a big cosmopolitan city, maybe there are some reasonable vampires that make an effort to be part of the community? And what's up with this Covenant of Blood? Uber vampires bent on rounding mortals up for livestock? Or a collection of influential vampires trying to smooth over relations between the living and the undead?
Well, how would you know that whatever answer you had was the truth and not somebody's propaganda? Certainly, the average person (to say nothing of all the good churches) regard the undead as unremittingly evil.
The Covenant of Blood is a shadowy group of whom you would just have heard without knowing many details. Most of the rumors are fairly scary.
Hmmm...Jamey has just pointed out that it doesn't matter what I think anyway, as a majority of the group has already voted "destroy".
It matters for the background, certainly, if not the outcome.
Question #1: Dain is a native of Ptolus. His father was a Shoal Elf sailor and his mother a human prostitute. He has spent most of his life in the Warrens.
Question #2: I imagine some task/quest/mission brought one or more of the others into the Warrens (perhaps something to do with the criminal element that resides there). Dain lent them aid in some way (healing?, as a guide?, a source of information about criminal hideouts?), and they later convinced him to join them outside of the Warrens to complete some other mission to help someone in need.
Question #3: Can't see an upside to turning her over to a scary, shadowy group, and letting her go would be irresponsible and bound to lead to tragedy. So Destroy it is. Hopefully with the blessings of her family (but destroy even if not).
Question #4: To which deity or church do you feel most closely associated?
Question #5: Do you A) Support the Empress Addares XXXIV, a distant cousin of the last ruling Emperor and current possessor of the Lion-Guarded Throne? B)Support the Emperor Segaci Fellisti, advisor to the last three Emperors and brilliant diplomat, now claiming the throne? C) Support the claim of the Holy Emperor of the Church, Rehoboth Ylestos, who desires to reunite religious and temporal power of the empire, whose seat is currently in Ptolus? D) Support Igor Urnst, Commissar of Ptolus and current neutral in the imperial struggle? E) Support Helmut Itelstein, leader of the Republican movement who wishes for a free and independent Ptolus? or F) Have no interest in politics?
Question #6: In your latest adventure you had a difficult choice. You were used by the notorious criminal and murderer Shilukar, a dark elf. Notably, dark elves are so reviled in Ptolus that killing one is considered a positive good, not murder. However, at one point you had to choose between thwarting (not killing or harming) Shilukar or allowing him to escape into the sanctuary of the famous Castle Shard. The upside of allowing him to make it to Castle Shard is that you also would gain the notice and friendship of the powerful (and not evil so far as you know) residents of that mysterious and magical castle. So...thwart or join?
Question #4 Velika's religious feelings have fluctuated but currently she is rather fond of the Twenty-Four Gods of the Hours. Plus it gives her a lot of excuses to consult her pocketwatch.
Question #5 No particular interest in politics and her choice between them would be situational if it came up.
Question #6 Velika would have voted to let Shilukar go. She has friends who might be labeled criminal or murderer by the government and they're still good people ... although none of her friends is a dark elf and dark elves are very creepy. But if he can find Sanctuary in Castle Shard and they actually want him, let him go.
4- Navashtrom, God of Strength and Harmony
5- I will say Empress Addares as the royal blood flows through her veins and all.
6- If he was a notorious murderer I would not want to let him get away and I am not so sure we should be friends with a group that would aid him. So I say thwart.
4- Navashtrom, God of Strength and Harmony
5- I will say Empress Addares as the royal blood flows through her veins and all.
6- If he was a notorious murderer I would not want to let him get away and I am not so sure we should be friends with a group that would aid him. So I say thwart.
A bit more on Shilukar. He used you to gain leverage with Castle Shard, manipulating you into recovering an ensorceled friend of theirs, then, assuming you introduce him, leveraging his knowledge of how to rescue the friend to gain sanctuary from the law within the castle. They don't want to aid a criminal, but will be willing to make a deal with the devil to help their friend, if they know about it. If you aid Shilukar, you aid a dangerous criminal but gain the friendship of some very powerful people. Thwart Shilukar and you risk him one day revealing to the lords of Castle Shard that you didn't help them recover their friend.
Ok, with the added info that we were saving someone in need I would probably go along with it in the hopes we could deal with him later. So I will shift over to Join.
4: Uh, Church of Lothian. Duh.
5: Helmut Itelstein. Freedom and independence for Ptolus!
6: Dark Elves are disgusting creatures who have no place in Ptolus. Thwart!
Hi again all: sorry for the continued delay. I realise I'm dragging things. It's been a tough week and it always takes me a while to make characters.
I'm looking over the party contents so far, and in terms of arcane spellcasters we have a Bard (so that's buffing, debuffing, and knowledge) and Bloodrager (so that's mostly close-quarters buffs/debuffs) and I know the Investigator can do a bit of magic-adjacent stuff too. So it looks like blasting is the hole here - I'm tending towards a blaster Sorceror, and looking through bloodlines at the moment.
A blaster also appeals as my past Sorcerors for in-person games were a debuffer and a transporter/save-or-lose type of spellcaster, so this will be something a bit different. :)
I'm looking at the Arcane or Elemental bloodlines in particular. Is it too much a spoiler to ask if any one Elemental type will be hamstrung in particular? (e.g. if we end up battling fire creatures for much of the game then being a fire Sorceror might not end up being particularly fun/helpful.) Or is basically any reasonable build viable? I'm not trying to super-optimise, just to be able to contribute.
4: Dain deals with spirits that owe allegiance to many different deities, and he has a healthy respect for them all. That said, he does have feel a particular connection to two: Asche and The Lady. He has been heard both to mutter prayers and swear by them separately and together.
5: For most of Dain's life his world view pretty much extended to the edge of the Warrens, with very little understanding of what went on even in the rest of Ptolus, much less the rest of the world. His horizons have broadened in the past few years, but his political views are still rather stunted and parochial, and his support would be thrown to either Commissar Urnst or Helmut Itelstein if he was called to do so.
6: From what he knows of the Lords of Castle Shard, Dain approves of them and their actions. He would be willing to trust their judgement if they chose to offer sanctuary to this Shilukar, so he would vote for join.
5: For most of Dain's life his world view pretty much extended to the edge of the Warrens, with very little understanding of what went on even in the rest of Ptolus, much less the rest of the world. His horizons have broadened in the past few years, but his political views are still rather stunted and parochial, and his support would be thrown to either Commissar Urnst or Helmut Itelstein if he was called to do so.
So which is it? The practical war hero Urnst or the firebrand separatist Itelstein?
Is it too much a spoiler to ask if any one Elemental type will be hamstrung in particular? (e.g. if we end up battling fire creatures for much of the game then being a fire Sorceror might not end up being particularly fun/helpful.) Or is basically any reasonable build viable? I'm not trying to super-optimise, just to be able to contribute.
No, this ain't Legacy of Fire. No one element will predominate or be wholly absent.
I gotta tell you, I'd think about a wizard if I were you. They just cover so many more possibilities. Maybe a Blaster Wizard?
For what its worth. The Elemental bloodlines ability to change spells to be the element they have is very good. When I play Sorcerers I think its good to aim for a single damage spell per spell level, especially when you have so few choices at that level. With this ability you can take Fireball and then have it as Fire or Electricity, or Cold, or Acid (depending on what you pick). This allows you to take fun utility spells or non-explosive attacks to help diversify what you can do.
With that being said there are a lot of things Sorcerers can do beyond blowing stuff up that will not overlap with the bard. I get so little magic for such a long time considering the bloodrager to be an Arcane Caster is stretching it by a lot.
Wizards can cover more possibilities, but the reality is most wizards take the same spells every day. You can leave open slots to memorize spells later, but often that means you still don't have exactly what you need when you need it.
If you want to do Wizard I would look hard at divination. Casting a few spells at the end of a day might give you some great insight into what you might want to do the next day. If you don't want to take the time to invest in knowing the future so you can plan out your spells a Sorcerer is easier. And if you opt to only aim for one offensive spell per level until you have 5+ spells known in that level you can still get a lot of important utility and control spells.
Although, I think in Pathfinder it costs no experience to scribe spells. In which case that changes a lot. A wizard given a few weeks and a pile of treasure can make enough scrolls or wands of utility spells and extra fly spells, etc. that you can afford to go blaster heavy and depend on scrolls for everything else.
5: For most of Dain's life his world view pretty much extended to the edge of the Warrens, with very little understanding of what went on even in the rest of Ptolus, much less the rest of the world. His horizons have broadened in the past few years, but his political views are still rather stunted and parochial, and his support would be thrown to either Commissar Urnst or Helmut Itelstein if he was called to do so.So which is it? The practical war hero Urnst or the firebrand separatist Itelstein?
If I am correct in assuming that Itelstein is an actual Ptolan (Ptolusite?), while Urnst is not, then Dain would choose to support Itelstein over Urnst.
Is it too much a spoiler to ask if any one Elemental type will be hamstrung in particular? (e.g. if we end up battling fire creatures for much of the game then being a fire Sorceror might not end up being particularly fun/helpful.) Or is basically any reasonable build viable? I'm not trying to super-optimise, just to be able to contribute.No, this ain't Legacy of Fire. No one element will predominate or be wholly absent.
I gotta tell you, I'd think about a wizard if I were you. They just cover so many more possibilities. Maybe a Blaster Wizard?
Thanks! Good to know.
And wizard, I still think too much bookkeeping for me in an online game. ;) I will look over the link though.
I'll theorycraft with you on sorcerers versus wizards some time when I'm not GMing. I don't want to dictate options. Whatever you enjoy playing will be the right option.
If I am correct in assuming that Itelstein is an actual Ptolan (Ptolusite?), while Urnst is not, then Dain would choose to support Itelstein over Urnst.
Both men are from Ptolus, or at least have lived here a long time.
Some quick formatting notes for those of you not used to Paizo's boards.
Formatting instructions can be found at the bottom of the text entry window.
Speech should be bolded. "Like this!", he said.
There are a lot of people on these boards who think that because they have bolded their speech they no longer need to use quotation marks. Please don't join the race to the bottom. Quotation marks are necessary to outline speech.
When you have a group buff going (a prayer spell or bardic inspiration, you should note that in "ooc", "bold" and "bigger" tags at the bottom of your post so everyone can see it. Like this:
Everyone should list all active spells on them at the bottom of each post, so the GM isn't forced to remember that you cast a particular spell eleven real time days ago.
Finally, when you are attacking, list all modifiers separately. This is correct:
This is not:
Question #7: Where in Ptolus do you live? Do you live with your friends? Do you all have rooms in the Ghostly Minstrel on Delver's Square? Do you rent a small flat in Midtown? A hovel in the Warrens? A townhouse in Rivergate?
Question #8: Are you married? Do you have a betrothed? A sweetheart? A friend with benefits? Are you above such considerations? Do you have the hots for that cute baker's son on Citation Street? Are you determined to marry one of the Commissar's daughters? Does it matter which one?
Question #9: Something in Ptolus gives you the willies. What is it? The Necropolis? The gun-toting Shuul? The Covenant of Blood? The Brotherhood of Redemption? The Sisterhood of Silence? Gnomes?
Question #7 Velika lives in a small, overpriced apartment in Oldtown, in a dilapidated but still beautiful old building whose original purpose is unknown. She also occasionally rents rooms in Midtown when a gig has her spending a lot of time in that area.
Question #8 Velika has no particular romances and no intentions in that regard, although she's not averse to a casual fling with one of the men or women she works with on stage. She has brought many people to tears, though, with her tales of Imeleth, the one true love of her youth. They were forced apart. Or he died. Or possibly both. Upon careful scrutiny it may be that these tales are purely apocryphal.
Question #9 Velika is not at all comfortable with Mahdoth's Asylum. You might think Darkbirth Madhouse would be more worthy, but no. The very idea of insane spellcasters and how exactly an Imperial representative decides one to be insane ... those antimagic cells ... it should give every spellcaster the willies. (Gnomes?!? Well, to be fair, Velika would be pleased to hear she gives someone the willies.)
Scott, as a side note, I changed one of the languages I got from Linguistics to Old Prustan (previously Celestial). Just wanted to make sure that's okay. Thought it made sense since Velika loves machines. And Linguistics implied you could take uncommon languages with ranks. Let me know if you want me to change it back.
That's perfectly fine.
Some quick formatting notes for those of you not used to Paizo's boards.I assume these rules will start to apply when we move to the Gameplay tab? (We are going to move there, correct? I'm sort of assuming as some point we'll show up in the players and characters tabs and then we'll move to the Gameplay tab for the actual game. But maybe I'm wrong? ... )
Yeah, that's correct. You will automatically appear in the Players and Characters tabs when you post in the Gameplay thread.
You may go there and "Dot In", if you wish. "Dotting" is a paizo.com tradition wherein the player types in a single period (the dot) or sometimes writes "dot" as the character because that will allow the game to show up in your campaign tabs.
Something I've recently found out about is that you can "dot in" and then immediately delete the post. The game will still show up in your campaign tab.
7- I will say a room at the Ghostly Minstrel for now.
8- I am between romances due to lack of Litorians around.
9- Covenant of Blood due to the charm abilities. Losing control of my actions would be freaky.
Question #7: Tilver rents a small flat in North Market. It's across the street from Harding's butcher shop.
Question #8: Tilver has become recently engaged to Evelyn "Evie" Littleton, a clerk for the City Guard. Her daily work is filled with paperwork from the Guard.
Question #9: Chaos Cults. Tilver understands the desire for power, money, blood and even madness, but he cannot comprehend people who's whole goal is to unmake existence.
Hi all, my character is:
Art Vandelay, human Sorceror (gold draconic bloodline).
He's from a minor branch of House Dallimothan (also known as 'House Dragon'), although sufficiently removed from the line of succession that he has to work for a living. He is a barrister and merchant in the city, and part-time adventurer. He realises that ancestral power flows in his veins and wishes to use his gifts to increase his standing within his family, or else bring himself more temporal power (either politically or through association with a more powerful noble house). His powers only began to develop a few years ago, once an old text about the old religion of Ni-Gorth fell into his hands and awakened the latent power within him. He is calm and self-assured but not so arrogant as to believe he can achieve his aims without friends, and truly seeks to work for the betterment of the city.
I'll post answers to the questions, and formally add him in the Paizo software, later on today.
You are -not- naming your sorcerer after a Seinfeld character.
The drawing board. Go back to it.
FWIW, Thomas's character of Silas is also from House Dallimothan. You may want to talk to him.
Ah, I wondered if that would have been obscure enough; I'll pick another name (free from pop cultural references). Thomas and I are conferring about character ties.
My character’s new name is Friholys Aurelian (‘Aurelian’ being the name of his sub-branch of House Dallimothan; a nod to the Roman emperor Aurelian and also the latin word ‘aurum’ which means gold, referencing his golden dragon ancestry.) As answers to the 9 questions (pending approval from the other PCs):
Question #1: Are you a native of Ptolus? If not, where do you come from?
Yes, Friholys is from Ptolus, a minor branch of House Dallimothan.
Question #2 (Majority prevails): How did you meet your fellow party members? In line at the city gate? Were you old friends?
Friholys and Silas have known each other since the latter was adopted into House Dallimothan. They have become close since Friholys’ powers developed, finding kindred spirits in each other, and have been on several adventures together. Friholys probably met other party members in line at the city gate with Silas, although some residents or frequent visitors may have heard of or visit him in his professions as a merchant and barrister. If Velika has been in the city a while, presumably they have either met or heard of each other (through their professions).
Question #3 (Majority prevails): In your first adventure, you rescued a little girl's corpse from a glass coffin at the bottom of the sea. Turns out the little girl (Linele Cran, six-year old daughter of a minor crime boss) had been infected with vampirism and risen as one of the undead. Did you A) destroy her? B) let her go? C) Turn her over to the Covenant of Blood, a circle of powerful vampires?
Friholys would have chosen to destroy her.
Question #4: To which deity or church do you feel most closely associated?
Friholys pays lip service to all the civilised gods but used to venerate Locharit (Goddess of the Written Word) and Ynchabolos (God of Numbers) most strongly, due to his upbringing in a noble house and professions. In recent years, after coming across old texts about the dragon deity Ni-Gorth and the resultant awakening of his sorcerous powers, he has begun learning more about this (now largely forgotten) fairth.
Question #5: Do you A) Support the Empress Addares XXXIV, a distant cousin of the last ruling Emperor and current possessor of the Lion-Guarded Throne? B)Support the Emperor Segaci Fellisti, advisor to the last three Emperors and brilliant diplomat, now claiming the throne? C) Support the claim of the Holy Emperor of the Church, Rehoboth Ylestos, who desires to reunite religious and temporal power of the empire, whose seat is currently in Ptolus? D) Support Igor Urnst, Commissar of Ptolus and current neutral in the imperial struggle? E) Support Helmut Itelstein, leader of the Republican movement who wishes for a free and independent Ptolus? or F) Have no interest in politics?
Friholys makes no public statements in favour of any claimant. In private, he tends towards the views of Igor Urnst or Helmut Itelstein, as both would lead to more autonomy for Ptolus – in which case he would like to place himself to increase his own power within the city.
Question #6: In your latest adventure you had a difficult choice. You were used by the notorious criminal and murderer Shilukar, a dark elf. Notably, dark elves are so reviled in Ptolus that killing one is considered a positive good, not murder. However, at one point you had to choose between thwarting (not killing or harming) Shilukar or allowing him to escape into the sanctuary of the famous Castle Shard. The upside of allowing him to make it to Castle Shard is that you also would gain the notice and friendship of the powerful (and not evil so far as you know) residents of that mysterious and magical castle. So...thwart or join?
Friholys would have allowed Shilukar to escape, if he thought that the friendship of the residents of Castle Shard could be of use to him. He sees the potential for gaining increased power and influence as being a greater good than the escape of a murderer, especially since had he thwarted Shilukar, the elf would have escaped anyway.
Question #7: Where in Ptolus do you live? Do you live with your friends? Do you all have rooms in the Ghostly Minstrel on Delver's Square? Do you rent a small flat in Midtown? A hovel in the Warrens? A townhouse in Rivergate?
He owns a small townhouse in Rivergate, with a spare room for guests. The ground floor of the house also serves as his place of business. He aspires to eventually move to the Nobles’ Quarter.
Question #8: Are you married? Do you have a betrothed? A sweetheart? A friend with benefits? Are you above such considerations? Do you have the hots for that cute baker's son on Citation Street? Are you determined to marry one of the Commissar's daughters? Does it matter which one?
Friholys seeks to marry both for love and political advantage. He has not yet found the ideal combination in any woman, although figures that he has a few more years to develop his powers and standing before it becomes urgent that he find a wife and sire a child.
Question #9: Something in Ptolus gives you the willies. What is it? The Necropolis? The gun-toting Shuul? The Covenant of Blood? The Brotherhood of Redemption? The Sisterhood of Silence? Gnomes?
The Covenant of Blood, Fallen, and Forsaken – they represent aspects of otherworldly power which he finds somewhat terrifying. So, he stays clear of the Necropolis where possible.
Besides, a barrister? I dunno. He seems like he could be an architect.
I figured a minor noble house would probably push people towards law and trade. Nothing against architects, mind you. ;)
EDIT: I did get the reference as well there!
Ok, I've put up the profile page here: http://paizo.com/people/FriholysAurelian
Not sure how to link him on the characters/players parts of the board, though? Or is that something the GM has to do? And do I have to upload the full character sheet somewhere?
(Slight name change after being informed of an unfortunate foreign-language near-homonym.)
Under the Alias there is a Profile to put in your character sheet. There is a line of basic info that Scott pointed out to me above that needs to be under your name for ease of use.
He also mentioned to Velika that you can go to the Game Play tab with this alias and type in "dot" and submit the post and it will attach you to the campaign. When I did it I had to type it out rather then just putting a . for it to register the post.
(Slight name change after being informed of an unfortunate foreign-language near-homonym.)
Too late. From now on, I'm callin' ya "Chimichanga."